So, why no one ever mentioned the Andromeda Initiative in the trilogy?

That is not a realistic idea Ivory. They can just easily do the same with a few codex entries in MEA.

It will be cheaper since they are already working on the game and definitely will reach more people that making a patch for a almost 5 years old game, not many people will play again just for that.

I don't think it would be a great idea to mention publicly to an already nervous galaxy with the threat of the Geth, pirates and then the looming threat of the Reapers that there is a project in the works to send a massive team to colonize another galaxy and find 'a new homeworld'.

People would flip their shit. Literally. Tin foil hat sales would go through the roof.

I am talking more about a fan made mod here more so than an official patch my hombre

It's not required at all, that's for sure, but...it could make those delicious trilogy runs so much more memorable in the context of current/upcoming content, with perhaps officially sanctioned lore injected in key places throughout: nothing major, just the odd mention here and there to bring the balance to the force.

Well...

I am going to make up a story to make this retcon believable:


-The Andromeda Initiative founder Jien Garson received a vision of the Reapers from the Prothean ruins on Mars.

*Shepard wasn't the first person to learn of the Reapers, just the first to make a real difference instead of falling into obscurity.


-Aware that their return was a decade away at best, she realised that military victory was hopeless and decided that fleeing the Galaxy was a better option.

*It took ten years to build a small group of huge colonial warships for transporting civilians, it would have taken at least a century to build a fleet of super warships to match the reapers.


-Learning from Prothean and previous cycle technologies stored on the Mars archives, she managed not only to develop the breakthroughs required to make the Initiative possible but also attract several private investors lured by her unparalleled advancements.

*This explains why the arcs and the Nexus resemble the Crucible and the Citadel, they were build using the same kind of technology.


-When Sovereing showed up, Jien knew the clock was running out so she began covering up and erasing information about the Initiative to prevent the Reapers from tracking them down.

*Hence we don't hear anything about the Andromeda Initiative in the Trilogy, because they deliberately pulled an Ilos before leaving.


-The Illusive Man knew about the Initiative and had a hand in covering it up, including from Cerberus itself. An isolated cell assassinated every contributor left on the Milky Way who knew about the truth before being killed off themselves. Another isolated cell boarded the Crucible to continue Cerberus if the Reapers won.

*TIM flaunted that Cerberus was an idea which could outlast his death, this is easy to retcon into Cerberus having people amongst the Initiative and despite being indoctrinated TIM took that information to his grave.


-Every major character left who knew about the Initiative either dismissed it as irrelevant and/or moved up to cover and erase information of it upon receiving knews of the Reaper invasion.

*This retcons the Asari councilor's words about considering measures to ensure the survival of the species, they actively pulled an Ilos too.


-Shepard didn't know about the Initiative, the voice speaking to the colonists was the facade the Alliance made to cover her death.

*She never bothered learning about the Initiative before the games, was too busy fighting to learn of it in ME1 and was kept in the cold from ME2 onwards.


-The return from Andromeda to the Milky Way is the human equivalent to the Prothean plan of outlasting the Reaper Invasion.

*The harvest would take approximately a hundred years and by the time the Initiative reached Andromeda it would be long finished. Thus the colonists would have the next 50.000 years to build a galactic empire which would be then used to reconquer the Milky Way and defeat the Reapers by force upon returning.


I hope all those coined up explanations help reestablish your willing suspension of disbelief.

Not perfect... but it at least deviates from the same o same o... and it shows some imagination.  I'll give it a like.

It was posted last year, but I think someone reposted it in the twitter thread recently. I'll try to find it.

The rich people backing up the project will unlikely go to Andromeda, and I really doubt they'd be convinced to back it to become even richer.

You're really going too far with your headcanon. Considering we're going to have a book probably about the Initiative, I doubt they'll leave much room to work in creating the backstory ourselves.

The story, so far, doesn't have holes, but blank spaces since we know little about the Initiative. I'll judge it later when we know it fully.