How the FUCK does a prothean beacon explain Asari superiority on Thessia, HUH!?

"Your people kept it hidden, and had thousands of years to study it. That must be why they are so advanced."
Advanced how? The only headstart they had was discovering the Citadel first which I always attributed to their lengthy lifespan and possible longest existence among all species in the galaxy.

"Even a small amount of data gives your species an edge".
How, if they don't understand it. How would the asari ever learn prothean. Okay, I'll go with this here, since there's possiblilities. The Throain offered Shiala the cipher after having studied the protheans when they came to Feros. It's not completely unreasonable to suggest that long before Saren's existence, some asari might've also either discovered the "collective unconscious" science of the prothean themselves or found the thorian too.

However, I still don't get the fuss. They found the Citadel... that's it. They managed to evolve faster by discovering the relay network as the first species, there's no conflict of power at all, at least nothing obvious besides the fact that Asari maybe seem a bit more knowledgeble. Of all races in the series they had the least of conflicts with the other citadel races like turians and salarians vs krogan or quarians and their geth.

Well, if humans could learn from the beacon on Mars, it stands to reason that the asari could learn from the beacon on Thessia. Difference being that the Mars beacon was SHARED across all species, keeping things even. The Thessia beacon was horded, giving the asari an advantage. If, say, the Eden Prime beacon had not been brought to the attention of the Council, I imagine a) it might not have exploded (if didn't explode on Saren) and humanity would have leaped forward and perhaps been even MORE "equal" to the other Council races.

FYI, I assume the volus, elcor, vorcha and other races never encountered Prothean beacons on their own. That may well be why they lagged behind while humans ended up a Council race in just three decades.

Well, the situation on Mars was a bit different though. According to the Revelation novel, the Mars base contained both, prothean data discs with actual data on it, that could eventually be read and translated by scientists on earth and prothean space ships. So the humans had a lot to work with.
Also, it is mentioned a couple of times in the games and books that most space faring species in the MW encountered prothean ruins in their solar systems, which helped them develp FTL travel. One that comes to mind is the planetary description of Varush (or rather it's moon Bina) in the batarian home system:

So the humans are by no means special in that regard. I guess the asari had an advantage though because the beacon was on their home planet, so they would have had it even before developing space flight on their own.




But if that were the case, shouldn't the asari also have gotten (and understood) the message from Illos? According to Vigil, they sent it out all across the beacon network, so the Thessia beacon should have received it as well. Also, If the asari would have figured out how to activate the beacon, they should have also activated Vendetta and we'd have had the crucible long before the reapers ever showed up.

Considering how disappointed Javik is with the Asari it is most likely they left it there with no special way to utilize it. Hoping the Asari thanks to their interference would be able to work it out for themselves.  Which they failed to do.

And or how to access it was lost in some ancient conflict or problem. Roman empire learned how to create a really strong cement that was lost when it collapsed and took us a while to rediscover how to make it and even longer to figure out how the Roman's made such a more effective version of it.

According to Avina, who reviews council history with you in ME1, Only the asari, salarians and turians were ever on the council before the humans came along. If you listen to some dudes talking in the council chambers in ME1, they speculate that if the humans get a council seat, the elcor, hanar and/or volus would probably also lobby to get one in the near future. AFAIK, the batarians were never close to getting a council seat.

... That would have been awesome though. A batarian would have fit right in with that bunch.

Didn't the VI say something about how some prothean acted as a goddess and taught her followers some shit? or something? lol

I really need to replay the games...

That barely makes sense to me since the Protheans were wiped out by Reapers and the reason the Asari weren't is because they were too primitive. I think the prothean goddess is the folklore the Asari supposedly spread from the discovery of the beacon which gave them visions and... knowledge, but the part where it gave them knowledge seems pretty contrived to me and frankly unbelievable considering the key to understanding the beacon for Shepard required the Cipher and that was in a peak maturity of our cycle right when Reapers were banging on the door, so we had enough discoveries to be lucky enough to have found the Thorian which had the cipher. I also think the Thorian is kinda old like the Leviathan in concept, a reclusive species that the Reapers never bothered to interefere with and as such it contains old, old knowledge or maybe it's just a physiological match out of luck with Prothean communion.

Also, from Linkedin, John Dombrow wrote this part, just another part in my list of reasons why he's the most overrated writer -- HA!
(but lowkey he's still the most talented outside of Pat. Weekes)

IIRC, there are a lot hints in the game that the protheans did in fact mentor the very early asari, when they were just about to become a civilization. It's mostly Javik, who throws out a lot of points on Thessia and in his rather heated discussion with Liara.

The way I interpreted it is this: The protheans studied the asari on Thessia undetected, just like they did with the humans and lot's of other species. When the reaper invasion happened, the protheans at Thessia (isolated from the rest of the galaxy) decided to interfere and mentor the asari for a while, showing them some early stuff, like early farming techniques and apparently also saving them from a potential catastrophe (maybe an asteroid, headed for Thessia, Javik mentions something like this in the temple, IIRC). Remember that the reaper invasion of the galaxy back in the prothean cycle took centuries according to vigil. The protheans at Thessia might have had a long time to teach the asari some stuff and get induced in very early asari religion that way.
However, the protheans realized that they couldn't teach the asari too much or the reapers would wipe them out as well, once they came around, so after a while, they pulled out, leaving the asari to develop on their own from now on. In my headcanon, at this point the asari might be somewhere on the level just before building their first "higher civilization" form (like humans, just before the rise of ancient Egypt).
The protheans burried the beacon (to be found again later by asari archeologists) and left.

The asari would now develop on their own. They clearly don't have the cypher (if they had it as a species, Liara should have had it in ME1, and so would Benezia and Shiala, neither Saren nor Shepard would have needed the Thorian). They also clearly couldn't activate the beacon or were taught by the protheans how to use it (see my post above). They also didn't know of the reaper invasion.
Yet, they clearly encountered the protheans and incorporated them into their culture and religion as mythic entities and gods.

Therefore, I can only assume that the protheans only taught them very early stuff (like farming, the use of fire, etc.) in order to give them an edge for the next cycle because the protheans saw the potential of the asari to lead and keep unified the other developing races when their time came. They did as much as they deemed safe, not to set the reapers loose on the asari in their cycle already and then got the hell out.

IMO, it was a fairly smart move.

Welp, this hits the nail on the head. This is an overtly unnecessary contrivance for the sake of... Err... Drama? This is the issue i think i felt: why is this even highlighted in the story? It's like some kind of fake, invented mystery that gets introduced and subverted in one scene.

What edge? Where is the 'edge' that the Asari have that can't be explained by the fact that a> they live and work and study and learn and teach for an incredibly long time? Where is the 'edge' that the Asari have that can't be explained by the fact they're living on a gold mine?

Instead, all we see is that the Asari have slightly better gear than the rest of the galaxy.

Aren't the Asari the only species born Biotic? Other species require exposure to element zero.