How do you feel about the premise not happening due to the Reaper invasion?

It's probably one of the reason behind the official exploration propaganda for the Initiative.

They're trying to have it both ways.  They want to reboot the series without actually changing anything (because that would be tacitly admitting the endings were a mistake)  The problem is the tech to travel to other galaxies simply doesn't exist in the ME universe.  And having that tech would have dramatically changed the balance of Council space power and influence.  

Except that until their either canonize an ending or reject the Shepard trilogy (or at leas the endings), a return to the MW simply cannot happen.  

(Well, I suppose they could introduce time travel or a Crisis on the Infinite Earths-like crossover with other Bioware IPs to reset the the events, but that might be a little extreme) 

And I can't be the only one to find the desire to keep the universe and its lore at the expense of its universe and lore to be rather...something..."we had to destroy the setting in order to save it"  

This is true.  And imo, I think it would have been the best way to go.  But in the end, that is still essentially rejecting the trilogy, turning it into a "story within a story"

Because people have different opinions on the Andromeda trip, and if it makes sense or not lorewise. There were discussions about it since the name was revealed (actually before with the leak and the ARKCON theory), and there was and is a side that think that it makes sense and it might not be against the lore. 

 I disagree with that notion, even if I think it won't make sense once they explained everything. But I'm not going to judge beforehand, and some of the people that suggested the Ark theory or supported it doesn't believe the ME universe is cartoonish and irrealistic. This is just your (and shared with many others, of course) opinion.

On one hand, I can understand that rationality. It's how I explain Anders in Dragon Age 2. No that isn't the same Anders that was in Awakening, it's a different apostate mage who happens to be named "Anders" and was recruited into the Grey Wardens, likes cats, and befriended a Spirit of Justice.

OTOH, I'm not so sure about a story which I have to do that with the very foundation of the setting...

It absolutely would.

Right now there's a pretty hard limit on how far you can stray from a relay without discharging, severely limiting exploration (it's even in the codex).  Without that limit, you can travel as far as you like, with the only limits being food and fuel.

And the Council limits exploration of the relay networks,.  No unlocking dormant relays.  Humans can settle here, batarians can't.  No, quarians you can't settle anywhere.  If you weren't reliant on the relays, you can just go "second star on the right, and straight on til morning".  You can go to any system you like.  And not even be tracked (since ftl travel is untraceable)  The Council would have no say in who can settle where.  They can't even properly patrol their own colonies, let alone people who just pile into a freighter and go somewhere.  The quarians could expand their search for a new homeworld a hundredfold, rather than drifing from one relay to the next.  batarians and humans could stop fighting over worlds (or fight over different worlds, maybe)  More worlds for the krogan, etc.  

That whole feeling of exploring new worlds Andromeda is supposed to bring us?  yeah, it could be done in the Milky Way, no problem. If it wasn't for that darned "Art" getting in the way

Heh, fair enough. They did give an explanation though.
I meant there was foreshadowing of Justice leading Anders to fight for the mages, not for the host. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

I feel that w/ Control and Synthesis endings, Milky Way residents (And Even Reaper Shepard) could use Reaper technology to advance in all manner of ways, then advance from that in the coming decades and centuries and theoretically beat Ryder to Andromeda.

And you need a planet (with a magnetosphere, this is important) within range.  Which is not a guarantee.


Even mass-effect-FTL drive is slow relative to the volume of the galaxy.  Empty space and systems without suitable drive discharge sites are barriers to exploration.  Only the mass relays allow ships to jump hundreds of light years in an instant, the key to expanding across an otherwise impassable galaxy.

Kind of glad Columbus or Magellan didn't share these views on logic.