New Mass Effect Teaser Trailer

Plus Shep's at Earth, not some ice planet.

Alrighty, lets do this.

First off.
This is almost exactly what I was looking for. No, not the broad stroke, the first glance. No, I don't want a simply post-Destroy, Liara finds Shepard, we go on some kickass adventure as Shepard. But the broad stroke and first glance plus the suggestions sprinkled throughout, plus the lack of opposing details yet to what else I'm hoping for.

Why the almost? Because Liara really. I'm sick of her. I was sick of her since ME3. Not deathly sick, as in wanting to quit the series because of her, but she's always so much, she's always so central in ways that ruins the roleplaying part of the RPG for me, all to I dunno... make a pairing for a future film canon? Or something? Is she just writers' pet? Or a way to centralize choice branching? I don't know, and at this point I don't care. Make her the focus more than ever, and I'll probably hate the game no matter the other qualities. But at most, have her as an adviser role like Leliana DAI, or perhaps Dorian DA4, and I could be into it. Avoid a romance track as well? Nice. I don't hate her, I hate what they do with her at the detrement of others. I know there's the development budget discussions, why give x character content, or why animate stuff for y character, when you could do another Liara scene, but I can dislike it.

Phew, there's my off-topic. Back to topic, the trailer OTHERWISE gives me a lot to work on. Full disclosure: I'm crazypants. I don't think what we experience in ME3 is entirely 'real', and I recall niche developer comments that support this for me. I am however, not, or only partially an Indoctrination Theorist. I think weird shit is happening, but not all of it is bad, or not all of it is just shoot the genocidal robots or die (though that is part of things). Where I don't go so far is the lengths of the Choose Wisely theory (look it up), which is nearly or essentially the Extreme Indoctrination Theory meme with a few neat poetic twists I suppose. But I do think, for example, there's a way for Liara to appear here without flatly decanonizing Liara potentially dying in ME3. And it won't be just 'I got better'. DAI spoils.

With this in mind, here's my reaction, reading a lot into things. I have not read most posts here, but a few I've seen indicate that I'm repeating some ideas:

-Shot of both galaxies, the ones set to collide. Suggestive of Andromeda not being forgotten, even as we pan downward onto the Milky Way.
-Passing through time. At the least, this is just to communicate how the passage of time will be as much a thing in this game as the large jump through space was in MEA. Save your critique, it was at least *supposed* to be a big thing. At the most, its time travel. Yeah, I said it! If DAI can partially suggest time travel in a quest, I can suggest it being suggested in a ME teaser!
-First contact. Maybe means, again, the passage of time. Or maybe means First Contact/War story could apply. Revelations from then, up to the aforementioned time travel. Whatever, point is, series wants to remind us of it again. Perhaps new first contacts will occur, a chance for Bioware to tell that story better.
-Ark 6 is away. Maybe means, again, the passage of time, recognizing that the arks left for Andromeda and nodding towards that game still being canon. Or maybe means that the results of Ark 6 will matter a lot, like alerting the Ai to the Reapers and getting them prompted to find a way to reach the Milky Way. We don't know the extent. Bioware might not know the extent, for this and other things.
-Reaper War wreckage. Mass relay wreckage. Reaper horn. Maybe means, again, the passage of time, recognizing that the War happened and the next game will recognize that as well. And maybe that's all it'll do. Or maybe the Reaper War will haunt this game, even intentionally. Its effects will cast a long shadow, so instead of running away this time, embrace it. It happened. The wreckage fills the screen. The relay pushes on us. The horn blares. All a little echoy, but still clear. It happened. Perhaps the next game won't move on as much from it as some wish, but this sequence still suggests that it was very much in the past - a meaningful past.
-Not sure what is said after, but losing contact? Are the relays destroyed, did they lost all contact? If this is isolated, or very temporary, whatever. And they could be. If this is galaxy-wide, that sure sounds more Refuse, or whatever indoc theories, than even all but the worst post-Destroy.
-Some whispers. Won't get into this one. If anyone can parse it, cool. I just thought it was notable enough. Whispers in Mass Effect have not been nice.

Here's the biggun
-There's a hooded figure, appeared Quarian to me at first. Okay, it wasn't, it was Liara, but this detail plus the mention of Ark 6 sure suggests to me the return of at least Quarians. Not anything close to confirmation, but tidbits to us as a treat. Big IMO.
-Liara's walking on a Reaper, which appears inactive or dead. She finds broken N7 armor pieces. More broken than post-ME1, you'd think? But she smiles. 


Break time. Gotta stop some people in their tracks. What if this isn't exactly 'post-Destroy'? Forget the endings. Just go with 'a war happened, and ended'. Liara is walking on a deadened Reaper, seemingly unconcerned about danger, or at least not too bothered. She finds bits of scrap, though that one of them is N7 might be symbolically meaningful. She smiles, like she followed the tracks.

This does not spell out to me that Shepard is dead and getting recovered for the long shot of resurrection. This spells out to me that, assuming Shepard here, is alive, on their own mission, is still killing Reapers, recently, Reapers that are still active, and is shedding their armor, weapons, and perhaps parts of themselves along the way. But there's enough characteristic in their actions that Liara takes assurance and smiles, certain they'll meet again. Could very well standin other LIs, or close friends, with Liara. This is not dour. The tone isn't dour. Its modest, but hopeful. Its not triumphant, but graceful. The N7 still has meaning, but its been laid down for the greater task. Others will pick it up, but they don't need to bring you back you life, they just want to reconnect.

But its not post-Destroy? How? Again, forget the how, it gets into weird stuff or allegations of dev laziness. Just imagine a setting where Reapers got wrecked, but not all of them. The relays were terribly damaged, but not entirely beyond repair. Everyone is scattered, but successfully managing some networks. And some Reapers are active, making moves, but not a unified force. And Shepard is alive, or 'alive', or something, but refuses to let others in on it. Maybe so much time has passed that only Liara would even qualify as putting it back together. Maybe there actually is time shit happening and Shepard has hope that it'll be used to get back to those they might care about. Whatever. Point is, I think there's more a pursuit of Shepard, then a retrieval. Killing Reapers is what they do, so Liara and us can take solace in that no matter what is happening.

The other game teasers (just put ME1 out of the way) all had misleading elements for whatever reasons. ME2 was a large piece of N7 armor, but then it was a geth. Reality, the armor was a pickup by 'friendly Legion' and Shepard was only 'kinda dead'. ME3 I have speculations about so I'll leave that alone. MEA had an N7 armor dude most assumed could be Shepard. It was Ryderdad. This pursuit of Shepard might not be the thrust of the next game. But when we're made to believe Shepard is around, they're either not or get written later to not be, and when we're made to believe Shepard is dead or not present, perhaps for a second time he's actually very alive and very present. Maybe not in the way we expect, but something lives on.

Like the results or not:
-Revan lived on, tried struggles against the Emperor, mixed results, go check out the latest SWTOR patch.
-The Warden can die, indeed, but when not dead, 

Both are being transformed, they're not who they were. Really, only Hawke is probably closest to who they first were (well, Act 1 DA2). I just wouldn't assume this is Liara picking up a body again. There's something far more intentful in the tone and content of this trailer. It isn't 'triumphant' like MEA's lead-in, but it is quietly confident. Why would a Shepard say, go hunting for Reapers? Sport? Perhaps. But maybe just as another protag is going on their own hunt, Shepard's doing their version.

After over 150+ of playthoughs (that's including NG+), that character drove me up the wall repeatedly. Having Liara return in this new game is making me think "oh shit! Here we go again!"

Hell, she's the reason (besides other problems) why I won't touch the MET again.

So far its appearing to me what ... I've been talking about for years.

A mixup, both galaxies. Or rather, a degree of exploration in both. The populated locations certainly more populous than MEA's shacks, and not all the empty UNC worlds, but overall its kept kind of sparse to reflect ruin of Milky Way, and spaced out populations in Andromeda. Speculating here. This is not frontiers of MEA, but they may try to better recapture a better spirit of space travel than last time.

I THINK it will have Shepard. I THINK they will not be playable. I THINK they won't be the omnipresent priority, but at most a strong thread in the critical path. In my opinion, Bioware DA/ME like to parallel each other to an extent. If DA4 is hunt for Solas, even though that could quickly expand to all sorts of bigger things, ME4/5 could be hunt for Shepard, that also spirals into lots of other things and a bigger and better expansion of the franchise than, again MEA.

DAi trailer had Varric's voice. He's probably indeed in the game. But he could just visit Tevinter. Or we visit Kirkwall. Doesn't have to be a companion, nor crucial to everything.
ME4 trailer has Liara present. More suggestive of her being important, really. But it doesn't mean everything about her is so central this time, just certainly crucial to starting us off, or at least developing us at some important point.


I've always said that we can have both galaxies. Perfectly doable. Its more about level scope than actual galaxies, after all. If there's a multi-galactic threat, all the better, I just hope things aren't as uniform in lack of variety as the last Bioware games have been.

Its easy for me to imagine the Ai growing, off-screen though maybe with some comic/novel adventures before this game's release, finding a way to Milky Way, arriving and networking but having troubles, and Liara learns something to start her on the trail again, with that one figure being indeed an angaran. But maybe that's completely off. But my point is that its EASY for me to do this, because the concept is TOTALLY possible, like it or not.

And the 'fucking' doesn't even need to be the Reaper War though. It could be something else, that relates more to the next dilemma. It could be the 'board clearing' like series do sometimes, like Cyberpunk 2077 itself did with its city nuke between the tabletop and the video game.

Maybe Reapers were all destroyed. Who's to say but Liara and some other tweaked dialogue. If they're back, there could be a reason they're back, even if in fewer numbers with less power.

Maybe Reapers were all controlled. Who's to say but blah blah. If they were controlled, that control has ended and something is going around that might be Shepardlike. Yes this could happen. Its why over the years I keep bringing up the supposed leak/rumor/fake of 'Advent' the post-Shepard entity that flies around a sorta Reaper called Murmur (joke, but Murmur is a Duke of Hell that rebelled against God, not just a silly name).

Maybe Reapers were synthetized with organics. Who's to say but blah blah. If they were synthesized, something else could have very well messed with this union and broken everyone up, though perhaps with remnants of that time remaining.

Maybe some mystery about the Reaper War happened instead, and while we start with assuming some post-Something happened, it was all something else somehow, and as we follow the trail of N7, we pick up the pieces of the truth.

In any of these, there's room for a 'board clearing'. It doesn't mean everything's forgotten, it just makes it easier to tell the story. We get the story of the past of Cyberpunk through the virtual Johnny Silverhand. We don't live it, it got nuked, but we still get its story.

If I see that Liara is a LI in this game I'm going to do what I should have done back in 2008, not buy it.

HOLY SHIT!!!!!

I signed off and moved on with my life after the DA4 trailer thinking that was all we were getting, and honestly I found that underwhelming.

This though.

T H I S.

I am going ballisitc!

I always wanted to drop Andromeda and go back to the Milky Way.

I always wanted my Sheploo back!!!

🤩😍🤩😍🤩🥲

This came out of nowhere! And I found it 5 mins ago. I've already forgotten about DA4 😭

The first one is from The War of the Worlds.

If I remember right, Shep ended up on the Citadel when you shot the tube. Or was it London?