How would you Write the Kett out of the series?

Well the Kett aren't your villain in this game either, its the Archon.  And yes Saren was done better than the Archon.  I think I was 30 hours or so into MEA before I was given any reason to give a crap one way or the other about the Archon outside of hes the Kett boss. That's just crap pacing.  Saren from like the first mission you got a this dude is evil and after me story, with a reason to hate him.  And yeah I've said it before the Archon should have killed your dad in front of you, jacked up the ark or something so you had a reason to care from the get go.  Personally instead of those lame memory fragments about family life I'd of run 10-20 minutes of story in the MW where they give you a reason to give a shit about your family, then jumped to Andromeda where the Archon kills a family member, your twin, dad, mom all of them, something.  And yes in the first encounter it would be about you and the Ark escaping them and them seeming to be a big threat instead of you kicking their ass and leaving.

And while over the course of the game which can be like 100 hours long you do get a decent story for the archon, too much is hidden in data logs or recordings, its spread out over too large of gaps in time and still isn't fleshed out enough.  I mean you find him initially and all you get is hes the Kett boss and he seems interested in the remnant. You later find out that the kett are transformed people from other species and this is their form of reproduction and that its everything to them, its the Archons only purpose.  You find out that the species is heavily brainwashed into buying into their society to a seemingly impossible point. But the Archon doesn't seem as brainwashed and is interested in the Remnant and only tangentially concerned with exhalation.  He is no longer obsessed with his duties, but breaks from them due to his obsession with the remnant.  He is specifically coming for you because he is able to witness the level of control you have over the remnant and wants to know your secrets.  He too seems one step ahead of you at most points up until near the end. As deep as Saren, no.  But there is something there, unfortunately with the pacing and spread out nature of the open world game what's there does get diluted but its not bad, just not great.  But I never said they nailed it, just that the Kett were fine overall because as you learned enough again sadly like 20+ hours in if doing side quests top where you start learning it there is a decent story behind them, something that with fleshing out might be a great villain in MEA2. Honestly I think if they had one more year on writing the story and dialogue this would have been considered one of the best ME games, the core is there it just needed to be fleshed out a lot.

This is really a game-wide issue though. It tried to be bigger than any previous ME game, a fresh start, yet with a fraction of the worldbuilding of ME1, using the already built world (Milky Way lore) as a crutch and fresh start as an excuse.

We should at least have had substantially more information about the Kett, Angara, Remnant. Instead we get mostly teases that makes it sound like more will come in DLC (for better or worse) or a game in just a couple more years (not happening now). Instead of properly in the game itself.

Its kinda nice having that mystery everywhere, but that only works for up to 1/2-2/3 of the game. Then you want better and bigger answers, or at least confirmation that more content is coming sooner than later.

We certainly have information. But nothing to be happy with. Even with all we're told about the Kett, they're still reduced to 'muahaha we are bad and convert you'. Even the Reapers had the stories of Saren and Benezia and indoctrination to pad them out before the next game. The Kett here are 'dealt with' through Archon and minor other hints and that doesn't compel. Thus they needed more detail about their society and more plot involving their wider system and why they should matter (and personally, I would have liked the writers convincing me that there's something interesting in how they seem to be even ANTI/NULL mass effect tech; like so much of Andromeda is).

What about the Jaardan/Remnant?

I'd have made them the Andromeda equivalent to the Leviathans. Another ancient race that likes to play at being Gods, which we're forced to seek help from to defeat an enemy, even though it's clear our newfound "allies" could prove to be a far bigger threat down the line.

The Jaardan could provide technology and information that could help the Initiative/Angara drive the Kett Empire out of Heleus, but unbeknownst to everyone, the Jaardan only are helping because they intend to return and retake the cluster for themselves in the future. And what if part of that involved using the Angara as unwitting Manchurian agents?

Just answering the original post, and without reading any of the responses, you wouldn't write out the Kett. The Kett are central to the story arc of entering and settling the Heleus Cluster of Andromeda and there is still much left to tell of their origins and how they can be present as an antogonist.

Well, we do live in a reality where gender changes are becoming increasingly more common and gender differences are becoming increasingly more blurry.  I don't really want to open that can of worms types discussion here though.  Things in this thread are quite civil; and I'd like for them to stay that way. 

If all Angara become "chosen" first, then through subsequent exaltations rise in ranks to become ascendants (which is what the Moshae describes to Ryder)... then I would say, yes, exaltation can change gender since we never see any female chosen.  If the process is not as the Moshae thought... with female Angara becoming ascendants directly, then the answer would be no, exaltation does not change gender. 

I'm really just saying I'm seeing a common foreshadowing technique being used... two hauntingly similar cut scenes... one and the beginning (in a trailer) and one at the end of the first game (which in many ways was teasing a second game).  We don't know yet had "good" a villain Primus might become... and he/she may even also be/become an ally.  Archon has already been "thrown under the bus."

I've wondered about the Jardaan. Would they be physically weak and rely on the remnant? Are they capable of combat without the remnant but failed and they launched the scourge against this foe?

Perhaps like you said they are the bad guys, and when we bring them back after wearing ourselves down as well as the Kett, they will try to take us all out.

Hopefully we will have a few more allies by then from both galaxies...

The things you read actually made their portrayal worse to me.  You have the Archon, who came to Helius Cluster as a wolf in sheep clothing.  Came to the Angarans as a friend, talked them, and eventually turned the different factions of Angarans against each other.  Then used that opportunity to conquer the Angaran worlds, cut them off from each other so they couldn't come back against him, and has reduced them to a resistance movement and not a united people against him.

This is the same person that gets defeated and sent packing by a handful of exiles? 

When I say throw him under the bus I mean that when Kett come back they basically say that guy was not representative of what the Kett are, and then define the Kett however you want.  Honestly the first game didn't even need a villain.  Someone trying to conquer everything.  I don't know if anyone watches the 100, but the one thing I liked about the beginning of that series, and pretty much the entire series itself is that the everyone is just doing what they need to survive, but they're very few evil people.  There's still conflict, and peoples' actions and experiences still shape them, but there were no villains.

Yeah, but the thing is, Primus has a female voice. Alec Ryder's voice wouldn't change from a gravelly man's voice to a woman's voice. Primus is not Alec Ryder. There are similarities between the trailer and the cut scene, but its more likely that they liked the angle of the scene and reused it than hinting at a Ryder who has had his species changed and forcibly gender changed and a new voice. To me, it makes no sense.

You're right that we don't know what kind of person the Primus is or will be.

The Primus is canonically female in the game. Pretty certain the feminine pronoun is used when making reference.

The Archon is the leading the Kett forces in Helius, like any other general or admiral.  If his forces take a loss somewhere, he would be coming up with a strategy to be successful in that area.  Also, the Kett were run off Kadera.  You're told that they have tried to come back and establish a presence, and they're hold up in a cave, and you go defeat them before they can re-establish a real presence. 

The Archon used a device to recreate Alec Ryder's movements, he didn't capture anyone.  If you watch the scene, he pulls it out and activates it.

The Archon is obsessed with the remnant because he thinks it will make it easier to defeat their enemies and exalt the cluster.  But exaltation was still his primary goal.

To say he wasn't defeated until the end is saying that he wasn't in charge of anything up until that point, no strategy, he was just a figurehead.

Firstly, neither Archon, the kett, or even the device were in the monolith when Alec was making those movement, so how did the device record them?  It couldn't... so, the answer is Alec repeated them in captivity.  It's my theory based on what I see in those scenes... no one here is being compelled to agree with me.  If you can present actual proof of the device inside that monolith recording Alec's movements at that time, my theory will be "shot to hell" then.  Until then, I think it's still possible Alec was not killed on H7, but captured and we're just discussing differing assumptions.

Similarly, Reyes tells us that Sloane was able to catch the kett by surprise and that, in his estimation, she would not be that successful with the same approach again.  What I see throughout the game are various ways ingenuity might triumph over brute force.  IMO, it's a general theme of this game and one reason why we're flying around in an unarmed vessel and driving an unarmed tank... and why, when Bioware was confronted by the fans before the game's release they hinted that there were other things one could do in hostile situations.  Again, you don't have to agree with me... you don't have to like that sort of theme either.  I, personally, am OK with it... I'm not bothered by the Archon as a villain in this game.  I am expecting stronger villains to appear in the next game (if we get a next game).

There's no way he was captured.  The device is obviously circling the spot to recreate the holographic image of Alec Ryder from all the angles to make it complete.  It wasn't a recording it was a holo image.  Also, the recreated image is wearing a helmet.  If Alec Ryder has been captured after they left the vault and it was some type of recording of Alec repeating actions he wouldn't have a helmet on because he'd have already given it to Ryder.  It's obviously a recreated image of Alex activating the vault the first time when he was still wearing his helmet.

When the Archon arrives and walks in, one of the Kett already there is already holding the device and hands it to him, so it's probably something that was already there.