Are the asari just not trustworthy as a species?

And then there is Peebee, who I wouldn't trust, if my life depended on it.

The same can probably be said about the Salarians, or the Turians or anyone really.

The only good species are the Elcor.
Badassfully: Suck it

Agreed on elcor but not so much with the salarians or turians.  As I said in my initial post, they're up front about who they are and what they're about.  Asari, in contrast, make it seem like they're these benevolent goddesses who are here to help us all...but, really, they aren't.  I don't find nearly as many examples of bad members of the other races as I do of the asari.

(FTR, I lower case all race names because the games do - they make it equal to "human" which is pretty much never capitalized except when used at the beginning of a sentence.)

...needs downvote button, Biov.. err... Mods, pls!

Well, no. Just because the asari are nearly-100% untrustworthy it doesn't mean I have to become a terrorist. Humanity's 30 years on the galactic scene shows that we will take control before long - our biotics are capable of defeating asari matriarchs and our technology can out-compete even the turians. Hell, we created medi-gel and (I think) omni-gel, things they ought to have been able to come up with themselves. And that's while barely scratching the surface of Prothean technology (which, post-Reaper War, may no longer even be feasible). Why bother going to war with them when we'll actually dominate them in other ways before long?

The Elcor, the Rachni and the Hanar, when you get down to it, are the most honest and upfront species in the entire galaxy. They also happen to be the most non-human out of all the other alien races too.

Sure the Hanar can be a bit pretentious with their Enkindler preaching, but they don't try and sugar coat their beliefs.

And yeah, the Rachni do have the whole "Rachni Wars" baggage to deal with, but when the galaxy needed them they stepped up immediately, no questions asked or restitutions demanded; unlike a particular race of murderous battle toads...

The fact that Thane is upfront about being an assassin for the hanar, and that the hanar themselves openly employ bodyguards should point to them being intrinsically pragmatic if not "honest" (i.e. Paragon-esque) about that particular situation. 

If the hanar were as dubious as, say the asari or slarians have been shown to be, in their use of the drell then why would they let Thane walk away, or even let his son leave their care? Sure the relationship they have with the drell is convenient, but I feel its more an employment of skills and willing labor force than some grand scheme to indenture the whole drell species to the hanar.

It's not like the the hanar planned to covertly uplift the drell for use as a meat shield when and if conflict arose that could threaten their power like the salarians were with the yagh. They were very open and public with their rescuing of the drell from their doomed home world. Funny how the resident diplomats of the galaxy, the asari, didn't join in on the relief/rescue efforts though. 

One thing to add is the asari councilor didn't want their time wasted by sending anyone to the summit. They never cared. They only cared when the reapers came knocking on their backdoor.

HEY, did you forget about this devious bastard?



(I love that guy.)


Anyway, on topic: I'm not judging a species by the deeds of individuals (least of all their top politicians). You shouldn't either OP. After all, what would that make the humans? Haven't been around for more than 10 years and start illegal AI research (the Sidon project and later Eliza and the Luna AI that became EDI, also SAM). Black Ops squads. A massive terrorist organization hell bent on human supremacy, steals warship plans, conducts assassinations, espionage and banned research. Oh yea, therefore, it was also humans who didn't inform the council of a derelict reaper, held back any research gained from a captured collector base and who freaking conquered Omega! But let's see, what else? Ah yes, a rather inhumane and dubious biotics program, which actively recruited mercenaries, rather than official help from the council for consultation. Basically starting a cold war with the batarians right out of the gate in order to be able to advance colonization of the Attican Traverse (including things like deliberately setting up crime lords like this guy Darius). One of our first guys in C-Sec (and thus a representative figure) was a drunk and corrupt asshole who ended up with his own crime organizsation on the Citadel. How about sending probes with nuclear booby traps into the relay network and never telling anyone about it even after the war was over?

If we are judging species here, I wouldn't trust humanity as far as I could through the whole bunch of them.

I totally agree with this. I've always thought that Miranda would have been a more believable choice to be the Shadow Broker. She has the pragmatism necessary to succeed in such a role.

To defend Tevos a little, she is the one that convinced the other councilors to make Shepard a Spectre. I also have to wonder how long it was that she knew about the beacon on Thessia before she told Shepard. Did the Matriarchs keep it hidden from her and then just tell her about it because they were losing Thessia?

That said I don't think the asari are any less trustworthy that any other species. I may not agree with Erinya that the asari are super special snowflakes, but she's not far off in her assessment of the other races. The salarians don't really learn from their mistakes. I mean first the rachni and then krogan, and then they try the uplift the Yahg? I mean what the hell?! That's just dumb. The turians do want to bomb every problem away. First Contact War with the humans, Ashley's description of what happened at Shanxi that caused General Williams to surrender the garrison. Jack mentions she spent time with people on an outlaw colony. She probably would have stayed there, too. If the turians hadn't burned it to ash. Humans aren't much better.

I think it might seem asari are untrustworthy just because we meet so many of them in the games. A lot more than any other species, I think.

Off-topic.  First, I generally agree with your post, but wanted to comment on this specific area.  Knowing that the Systems Alliance did work on AI back just prior to the events of ME: Revelation, I can't help but think Alec Ryder was receiving some sort of unofficial approval for his research.  Fact is, this guy is a solider so having him do this work on AI just doesn't quite make sense to me.  Maybe Ellen Ryder, but not Alec.  And that I think about the rogue VI.  In ME1, we're told Cerberus was a black ops Alliance program that VERY recently split off to form its own organization.  This is at odds with, well, everything else ever shown about Cerberus, where the claim is that they split long ago (if they were ever part of it - it's sort of unclear).  So...could the rogue VI actually be Alec's work that Cerberus stole to help create EDI?  Alec had to have been removed from the Alliance pretty recently (MET timeline) because Scott and Sara are way too young to have suffered repercussions from their father's work otherwise.

Back on-topic, my whole thought wasn't so much that asari were worse, just that they try to pretend that they're somehow superior but are just as bad as everyone else.  Tbh, based on trends we see in the game, humans are almost certainly going to dominate before too long.  The asari have to be facing serious repercussions post-Reaper War for holding back vital information that might have been a game changer if brought to light sooner.

On the AI: Who knows. It seems to me that the Alliance had a bunch of those projects going on (as I worte, there is also Eliza, which is mentioned in the codex somewhere). If SAM and and EDI were connected in any way, I don't think it's ever even hinted at in any of the games or books. I do agree on Alec Ryder. It's strange that a sloldier would conduct such delicate AI research. I mean, the guy is one of the best special ops soldiers ever 9an N7), has a family, works for the Alliance and for the Initiative on the side AND creates the most sophisticated AI ever made, what? As a hobby? I mean, Andromeda sure is fond of its Marry Sues anyway but Alec is a bit over the top. Him getting some underhanded help on SAM would make sense to me as well.

As for the asari. well, as I said, I don't see them holding back the beacon as much more of an issue an human organization holding back information on the derelict reaper or the Klendagon weapon. It's been a while since ME3 but doesn't Tevos even say that she herself didn't even know about the beacon? If the asari back on Thessia didn't really believe the whole reaper story and Shepard getting visions and whatnot and if they themselves could activate the beacon and get much information out of it, than the blunder might look much bigger in retrospect then at the time the decision was made. With some clever negotiating, the asari might be able to spin something there. In any case, I still say that was the mistake of some key individuals. THey should be punished, not the entire species.
Besides, after the reaper war (assuming a destroy ending, which would be the only one where this matters), my guess is that everyone of the major powers (and some of the minor ones as well) are on somewhat equal footing after taking losses, probably fairly proportional to their original military strength. Therefore, I think there will be other factors much more relevant to determining the future of the races. Who is going to rebuild quicker? Who will figure out remaining reaper tech or relay tech first? Who is in the best position to (re)claim worlds that were abandoned during the war?
I think the asari have a fair shot of coming out ok. My money is on the salarians trying (and possibly succeeding) to get a step ahead of everyone else one this. Their entire biological makeup alone favors them to be the ones to adapt most quickly to the new situation, I think. In fact, if I had to outline a Mass Effect 4, it would focus on an underhanded conflict between the rebuilding council races, mainly the salarians and the alliance, competing for the scarce resources available and having a research race to figure out left over and derelict reaper technology.