The Mysterious Benefactor

It absolutely should NOT be TIM or Cerberus. Fresh ideas would be better at this point.

It will be Cerberus though. The writers have had a hard-on for them since they mistakenly thought they were something more than a sidequest from ME1 to ME2. Can't wait for ME:A2 to kill Rider off so he can start his new life in Hydroponics.

The thing that is strange to me is Jiens death. Ive been slow playing since I had a surgery that makes it hard for me to sit up. But I don't mind watching and reading spoilers so I've tried to keep up. Maybe Ive missed something. But Ive seen no reason, any where for Jien to be killed. Her last message is basically our benefactor might be up to something else... ok. That isn't exactly deep or meaningful. Or much of a reason to kill someone. She knows someone is trying to kill her, so if she had something useful why wouldn't she spill it?

I tend to think that perhaps there are two wealthy factions at work here. One the benefactor who ever that turns out to be. And two Cerberus as it tries to put people in places of power around AI. I mean why pay for it when you can catch a ride then take over.

Im probably over thinking it a bit. But Im just baffled as to the reason the benefactor would have to kill Jien so early over what seems to be so little.

Elcor Pathfinder please.

Obviously it was the spacehamster. Read between the lines, man!

Or has agents there 

What if TIM is the mysterious benefactor and he made the trip to andromeda under a different name.......now you're gonna say that can't happen because he was in Mass Effect 3 but what if and this is a BIG what if they cloned him and the clone went to andromeda with all of tims memory's from Mass Effect 2.

Why would Cerberus fund an explorative effort of species other than humans?

I find it increasingly hard to believe it was them- especially when there are former cerberus employees in the game who did not exactly leave on good terms (the Overlord project lady and her kid).

Tim is a racist but in the British Empire sense, not the Nazi sense. Tim would be happy to have Krogan, Salarians, and Asari working for humanity. If that was the most efficient way to guarantee humanity's survival, he'd certainly work with them as we see in Mass Effect 2.

Basically, Tim has loyalty to Earth and humanity that he wants to make it superior to other planets as well make sure humanity rules over other races.

However, he doesn't want them dead or destroyed.

He's basically a darker take on Ashley, which is interesting as she hates Cerberus the most.

I feel like it's gotta be someone that's featured in the series before.. there wasn't really any hints in Andromeda about who it is, and it'd be kind of an anticlimax if the person is revealed and it's like "...Who?" I think that Cerberus is too easy though, they were really overplayed in ME3, so to bring them back would be overkill. It could be them though, or the Shadow Broker.

That said, I don't think Tann is the mysterious benefactor, but I have a gut feeling that he's got something to do with her murder. Just seems really strange that he managed to become leader, and it was referenced enough in the game that made me stop and think about it. He just seemed so insincere, or that he was trying to sound too sincere, when he was like "Jien Garsen never got to see Andromeda...She died alone" or whatever he said.

EDIT:

In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if the murder of Jien Garsen and the Mysterious Benefactor weren't related.. My prediction is that the mysterious benefactor is the Council. They couldn't be seen to be funding an official evacuation from the galaxy, so they funded the Initiative. That could explain the inclusion of pretty high up people like Spectres, and Asari Matriarchs. I still think Tann has something to do with Garson's murder, but I doubt that the Salarians or the council had anything to do with it, unless they didn't trust the leadership of the Initiative to an eccentric human (If I remember correctly, they still didn't really trust Humanity at this point, they still saw them as the young upstarts). I'm sure that the plan was to have an Asari Matriarch take charge when they got to Andromeda, with Garsen stepping down, but maybe they had her murdered incase she had a change of heart after 600 years?

Michael Gamble: “The mysterious benefactor is intentionally left unresolved, as it has deeper ties to the metastory of the MEA saga. By the time you find the killer, they’re long gone…”

www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2017/03/25/mass-effect-andromedas-producer-talks-me-through-the-endings-loose-threads/#2b86e6916714

So the Benefactor himself is 'long gone', probably stayed in the Milky Way. Now, the killer itself... I am reading Nexus Uprising and so far there are two suspects. Chen the janitor is one and Addison is the other.

Also, who wouldn't want Tim back for some audiologs or videos?

If we assume that Jien was killed by Benefactor's group, I see at least two options
1) Classic "she knew too much". Would be kinda disappointing tbh.
2) She didn't seem fit.
Either she was too good/popular and could break Benefactor's vision of Initiative, so she was replaced with someone less charismatic and more easy to control. And if something goes wrong, Tann is an easy target to put all the blame on him and move on.
Or Benefactor never planned AI to go smooth and peaceful and saw Jien's idealism as a danger.