Retcons or contradictions that you have noticed

My guess is that the devs prioritised having a big impact on the player, by putting the Archon right there on SAM's node, instead of making a protracted scenario where kett invade the nexus (kinda like ME1 geth) and not-saren goes to find the not-conduit.

I'm thinking it's the same way we meet the Archon the first time, we jump FTL and he's just there waiting. What are the chances of that? It's also never explained how the tempest is able to escape their traction beam.

These moments seem to be done only for the shock factor and without bothering to really incorporate them into the narrative.

We don't know for sure that every species on the Asari homeworld is mono-gendered.  Therefore, if they just owned pets that had different genders they would have different pronouns for them because it has meaning.  Sapient species always look to differentiate themselves from others.  Ethnicity (black, white), gender (male, female), etc.  Asari do it too.  Pureblood vs not.  And so if there is a difference in something, like their pets' genders or the aliens they meet, they will create a word to explain that difference.  

BTW I use "whom" when appropriate, and do so naturally.  

But basically your argument is that you feel it would be unnecessary for the Asari to come up with pronouns to describe different genders.  That's fine, you can feel that way.  But that's not the argument.  The argument was that there's no reason that they should even have words for different genders or different pronouns.  I've given plenty of legitimate, logical reasons for them to have created those additional pronouns.  You can say that people won't pick up on the use of "zir" and whatnot, and you might be right.  But some people are.  And so it could stick.  So there is precedent for the creation of new pronouns to describe new things, and so to say it's impossible for the Asari to have done that is just WRONG.  You can say you find it unlikely or odd, but I've proven that it's possible,has been done by other sentient species, and could have stemmed from something as simple as there being other multi-gendered animals on their homeworld that they developed on.  


All I had to do was prove that it is possible, not likely. 

Bolding is mine to show original context of the points addressed below.

"Therefore, if they just owned pets that had different genders they would have different pronouns for them because it has meaning."

Pronouns are a grammatical feature, not a semantic one. You are confusing grammatical gender with semantic gender. Also, most languages just use neuter pronouns for animals. See the Wikipedia entry on grammatical gender for a more detailed explanation.

"Ethnicity (black, white), gender (male, female), etc."

Exactly my point. English doesn't have different pronouns for people based on their race, and many natural languages do not even use pronouns to differentiate on the basis of gender, either. It makes even less sense for a culture that does not differentiate socially between genders to suddenly decide to do so, especially since there is plenty of established lore stating that the asari dgaf about gender. To an asari, gender is no more defining of a feature than the length of someone's hair tentacles; asari native speakers creating gender-specific pronouns would be as ridiculous as native speakers of English creating pronouns for people with specific eye colors.

"And so if there is a difference in something, like their pets' genders or the aliens they meet, they will create a word to explain that difference."

Absolutely, they would create words. They'd create content words (such as nouns and adjectives); they would not create function words (such as pronouns or tense markers). Function words develop naturally within a language, while content words can be consciously "invented."

"The argument was that there's no reason that they should even have words for different genders or different pronouns."

Those are two separate arguments, the first of which we all agree is ridiculous and thus have discarded.

"So there is precedent for the creation of new pronouns to describe new things, and so to say it's impossible for the Asari to have done that is just WRONG."

First of all, as the one with the linguistics degree, I think I might be a bit more clear on the standards for linguistic arguments than you assume.
Secondly, a word must be accepted into the lexicon before it is considered to be part of a language, and that is a process that happens unconsciously on a societal level and follows observable natural laws. Five people consciously deciding that "xe" is now a gender-neutral pronoun does not make it English from a linguistic perspective, just as the fact that I can stop small objects from falling by catching them does not invalidate the law of gravity.

I personally think it would make a lot of sense for asari not to have pronouns at all in their language, like Japanese.

But the writers clearly didn't consider any of the things we've been talking about when they wrote that dialogue, or even care. They just wanted to virtue signal, not write something believable. The conversation sounds like it came out of the brain of a 12 year old writing their first fanfic, as do a lot of conversations throughout the game, but at least said 12 year old fanfic writer would bother to explain their canon- and logic-breaking writing decisions with author's notes. The extent to which the writers gave zero fucks about believablility is apparent to everyone; it's just that much more aggravating to me personally because I know exactly why it is so overwhelmingly improbable as to be a joke.

I'm not sure why you think the writers didn't consider these things.  I for one found it perfectly believable, especially when you consider that most people willing to drop everything in their lives, be frozen for 600 years, and then wake up in an entirely alien galaxy, never to see their families or friends or familiar things in the Milky Way again with no guarantee of safety or success might possibly be, for the most part, the fringe elements of society looking to start anew in a place where maybe their "fringe" beliefs could become more normalized in a new and growing society.  So maybe 95% of Asari don't care about or perceive various gender pronouns being used on them from other species, but there could be some who care, just like the group of people in the world right now who are on the fringe and are using new pronouns.  Those are exactly the type of people to say "Fuck this galaxy, I'm out!"  and start anew somewhere else.

I found it believable because I pay attention to social issues and the changes in society.  The changes in how we say things, what language we use.  Maybe you see it is a 12-year-old fan fiction, and that's fine, many others do as well.  I don't necessarily think it was brilliant writing.  But nothing about it made me go "Whoa, WTF??  Oh man, there's no way that's possible!"  It's not lore-breaking.  It's just something we haven't seen before.  People using new pronouns now isn't "lore-breaking".  It's just a change in society.  Sure, a small part and it's not "in the lexicon" so I guess these people aren't "canon" to society, but to make the argument that the Asari can't possibly have pronouns for different genders because they themselves lack differentiated genders is just a laughable lack of imaginative thinking.  It took me all of 2 seconds to think, when it was posted that they wouldn't have pronouns for different genders, "What if they had pets and wanted to differentiate between male and female pets?"  And it's taken your whole degree to come up with the example of the Japanese that don't use gendered pronouns at all.  Who cares?  Asari are not Japanese.  They are their own unique (fictional) thing.  So I can say they had multi-gendered pets and used different pronouns for them, and you can't prove that would be impossible or even unlikely.  So I continue playing, happy in the fact that I'm imaginative enough to not let something as minor as the probability of different linguistic variations hamper my enjoyment of a video game, because I can come up with sound reasoning for what the writers have done.

Neither of which bothered me in the least. Both are minor side content, both entirely missable / skippable, but even if they were main text, I wouldn't have batted an eye. It's a fantastical sci-fi setting.

Then you are an endangered species on the internet as someone who does not have a very vocal opinion on trans issues, and must be preserved, lest your kind perish. *pulls out Mylar bag*

I just don't see the point, though.  So it's currently unique to Anglophonic society.  So?  Does that also mean that something similar cannot happen in Asari society?  Or certain parts of Asari society?  And that they might explain something specific like that to a new alien species?  Of course not.  Just because it's not happening everywhere on Earth right now doesn't mean that the writers cannot put something like that it there.  Just because there's a chance that the Angara don't use pronouns at all or have no gender-specific pronouns or whatever doesn't mean that it cannot be true.  Your entire premise seems to be that it is unlikely these things all come together to create a situation where this dialogue happens.  Sure, maybe it's unlikely.  But that doesn't make it impossible or "lore-breaking" or anything like that.  Is it likely I can go out and find 100,000 people who would leave this entire galaxy for something totally new, unproven etc at the peril of their lives?  Probably not.  But is it possible?  Sure as heck is!  So arguing that because something is improbable or only something that a certain group is going through right now on Earth does not mean it should be impossible for it to happen to other groups or other fictitious species to go through the same or a similar thing.  

I find it comforting than not only I find this preferred pronouns bs really stupid.