The Mysterious Benefactor

I agree formerfiend. Also you would think they would of killed her shortly before the Nexus departed or shortly after. Why wait tell they arrive if it was someone in the Milk Way pulling the strings?

For me it just makes a LOT more sense that she was killed in a power struggle by a person or group that came on the Nexus. Also most of the leaders who were killed happened because of the Scrouge, they just took advantage of the chaos.

Considering Cerberus only cared about the fate of humanity at any cost. I find it highly unlikely they would fund a mission in which Asari, Turians, Salarians, Quarians, Elcor, and Volus are all placed on Arks of their own with SAM's to escape the galaxy. Towards the end of ME2 and into ME3 they were heading for nefarious purposes, so it seems unlikely they would have the benevolence and foresight to have a plan B in case the fight against the Reapers failed

Ok, so, I'm going to preface this by saying that I'm not sold on the idea that it's Cerberus, myself, but I'm going to play a little Devil's Advocate here.

Firstly, I'd argue that if all they care about is "the fate of humanity at any cost", then "dragging a hundred thousand aliens along for the ride" falls under the umbrella of "any cost". If the Andromeda Initiative  was the best chance of getting a large number of humans out of the galaxy in the time available before the Reapers invaded, then yes, I imagine the Illusive Man would back it even if it meant swallowing the pill of paying the way for a lot of aliens. If anything I imagine he'd be able to twist the narrative in his head to cast the aliens that the Initiative was taking along as fodder that would protect the humans and that the humans would rise up and assert dominance over the other species when presented with an even playing field and not 4000 years of pre-existing infrastructure to fight against.

Secondly I'd argue that one doesn't need benevolence to possess foresight. The Illusive Man has already demonstrated foresight in the past. 

So, thinking if we'd just had one ending, but we go with it that the relays are destroyed.  That could still lead to people going out and exploring in areas they never before considered because there were no mass relays around.  New drive invented that's faster (ODSY, I guess, but working slightly differently than what we have) because without the relays they have to find new ways.  Could still be exploration-based but in the Milky Way.

Well, you were dead, so presumably you willed it all to Joker.



That's his story at least.

I was kinda drunk when I covered all this in game toward the end of the memory unlocking.

Was it not Liara? I thought it was Liara. As a sort of contingency for the reapers? I just kinda skimmed these 9 posts so enlighten me as to why its not her if you'd be so kind, I need to get caught up on this debate apparently xD

This again...

I'm very much inclined to believe that the Benefactor mentioned in the kett email and the Benefactor who helped fund the initiative are not the same person. I know that within the conventions of writing a story it's generally seen as bad form to use the same proper noun to refer to two separate people unless it carries some significance, but at best I think this is a red herring and at worst I think it's Bioware either not noticing or not caring that they used it in separate instances to refer to separate people.

So far as we know it is impossible for the benefactor to have contacted the kett before the Initiative left the Milky Way. There are several datapads and audio logs on the Archon's flag ship that point to the kett being surprised by the initiative's arrival, not being aware of their existence of the Milky Way races prior to the arrival of the Arks, and in general having not previously considered the possibility of crossing dark space. They weren't expecting us; they were just in a position to take advantage being that they knew about the Scourge and how to navigate it, weren't all in stasis, and their ships were actually armed.

If the Benefactor mentioned in the kett email is the same as the one that helped fund the initiative, that would suggest that it was the benefactor themselves who killed Garson, and that they fled the Nexus, joined with the kett, submitted to exaltation, and rose to some position of authority within the span of 14 months. Given that the kett are still perfecting the exaltation process on milky way races, I find this scenario to be doubtful.

I don't think "benefactor" in the kett datapad even qualifies as a proper noun.

I've long since given up on trying to predict fictional stories, and I have a pretty low opinion of most reveals, so the Andromeda Initiative "benefactor" could be that person in the datapad, but it'd be pretty weak and awkward if they did it that way. The reason it could be that person is that, well, "weak and awkward" doesn't stop most writers.

Jill.

What if it's Kallo?

He's the last person you'd ever expect of being a brilliant criminal mastermind.

That would take out all the intrigue from possible interaction with Benefactor. People will just shoot her at first opportunity.
Besides someone as dumb as her having enough money to fund Initiative is just immersion-breaking.