Things that don't make sense (v2)

The trilogy has always been an inconsistent mess. Plotlines that didn't get proper resolution (Dark Energy, Parassini, Shiala) and character arcs that didn't get addressed (Garrus hatred against Krogan, why Liara never try to redeem her mother who was a victim of reaper indoctrination, how Hackett or Anderson always have this utter blind faith against Shepard etc).

But that's the limitation of video games. The best way for us is to explore this with our own interpretations and rationalize what was given.

As I've said before, people came into ME1 hating Kaidan because they hated Carth Onasi.  They had the same voice actor.  It was a ridiculous, knee jerk reaction, a lot of it to justify why they wanted to save the kick ass girl over the allegedly whiny guy who actually never whined.

The scene during the coup was crap. I get that A/K are pointing their weapon at Shepard and Shepard and squad pointing their weapons at A/K. But when Udina says Shepard is working with Cerberus, the first thing that should come to A/K's mind is if that's true, why would the squadmates be working with Shepard? The other thing is A/K is outgunned. He/she doesn't have a chance. Sure he/she may be able to shoot Shepard, but the squadmates would gun him/her down. The other thing, on Mars, Cerberus didn't wait, they shot at A/K, Vega and Shepard without having any type of standoff.

Overall, I would guess the reason why the scene is the way it is, I would guess people wanted an opportunity to shoot A/K for what happened on Horizon and to shoot Udina for locking down the SR1 in ME1.

Overall the scene is problematic.  A/K are treated the same, meaning Kaidan doesn't use biotics when he could.  It doesn't have to be about killing Shepard and the other squadmates, just as with Udina it didn't need to be a kill shot.  (Of course, the asari councilor should have used her own damn biotics, but that's a separate issue.)

Maybe Thane's omni-tool is better quality... able to get an outbound signal when A/K's can't?  Honestly, I think it has to due to A/K's lingering prejudice against suspicions of Shepard.  Probably when Cerberus attacked, they instantly went into their Shepard must be involved mode... so they wouldn't even try to contact him/her and just went dark instead.  Thane, on the other hand, worked with Shepard throughout ME2 and knew that he/she really did break off with TIM before taking the ship back to Earth.  He'd have no problem trying to contact Shepard for help.

Prejudice is a "preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience."

Ashley and Kaidan are Spectres with their own right to be cautious and suspicious. They're protecting the Citadel Council as Spectre, not as your friend or subordinate that you can lord yourself against. ME2 and ME3 gloss over Shepard's Cerberus involvement, doesn't mean they also have to. Cerberus tried to kill them several times and they just freshly recovered from being attacked by a Cerberus robot. Udina clearly intent to use them against Shepard but they can be easily turn. Their loyalty have to be earned by your choices regarding to them and Cerberus.

Frankly, I rather blame ME2 for this. Training players with the whole "choices as an illusion" and "no meaningful consequences" but pad it with a lot of cheap victories to make players feel good. Communication means listening to everyone unloading their problem to you but nobody listen to yours. Friendship and Loyalty being turned into quest award. Ashley/Kaidan get like less than 5 minutes screentime in the entire game and the wrath of the fandom forever.

Wow... triggered aren't we.  Sorry, I'll find a different term... "lingering suspicions" OK with you?  I really don't want to argue over it.  I was just suggesting some possible theories... nothing more.

She didn't go from an archeologist to essentially an Asari Commando in the space of two years. She is no were near that level of skill the Commandos are suppose to have. And nothing she ever did was on her own she always had help. Be it Shepard or Feron or the entire existing structure of the Shadow Broker. 


You must also not confuse game play with story telling as they are two very different things.  Garrus is an amazing marksman able to hold off the combined might of 3 of the largest mercenary groups in the galaxy for a while alone with only a sniper. Yet you take him with you on your squad and he isn't getting those head shots all the time.  Wrex is a Krogan and thus extremely powerful compared to humanity yet he doesn't instant kill the Cat 6 guys with a single melee punch.  Vanguard Shepard is capable of using a botic charged punch capable of throwing fully armored Cerberus troops a dozen or so feet in the air.  The amount of force that punch would require to deliver to lift an armored man and throw him several feet threw air is massive and would be more then enough to not only dent the armor but cause internal organ failure just from the impact.  It should be an instant kill to anything not covered in a barrier be it energy or biotic. But those heavy melee punches are not always instant kills depending on game play settings. Like wise the Proto Reaper in ME 2 do you really think Shepard fought it? Besides the idiocy of the eye being a weak point the fact it fires a beam that dissolves any Collectors caught in the way but some how the platform and the knee high thin wall survives. The same applies to all the "boss" fights in the game or other aspects. Like 3 people able to fight their way threw literally any situation in the trilogy that has repelled larger forces. The entire Exogen Security force is pushed back by the Geth invasion and it takes literally an entire settlement to keep the Geth barely held back but Shepard and 2 others are able to waltz threw the Geth invasion and push them back and kill a sentient plant that has the ability to literally spawn clones of anyone it devowers.

Do tell how information broker and archeologist are not the same. Remembering that information broker isn't the same as information gathering. Barla Von for example is an information broker that occasionally sells information to the Shadow Broker. And he is hardly on par with an Asari Commando or indeed any spy.


Also when you default to the worse possible outcome without any information to support it. That is racism. Hence how you get a head line about a cop arresting 2 black guys in a starbucks for no reason. And they default to the worse possible outcome regardless of how much or how little information supports their stance that they must have deserved it for being black.

Uhh.. people judge Liara for her character inconsistencies... not because she's an Asari.

Every single Liara writers have their own version of what Liara should be... and it showed. Drew Karpyshynn wanted her to be this naive innocent smart girl. Mac Walters wanted her to be this naive sexy action girl devoted purely to you. Sylvia Feketekuty wanted her to be more matured but cool efficient Shadow Broker. She's always contradictory across the entire franchise. Her entire development only span on how much she could do for Shepard.

Not liking her, doesn't mean one is being anti-alien. There are dozens and more other interesting and complex Asari characters than her.

Shiala is amazing.... I never see the sense of people getting hung up about the Council not being open about the Reapers.. when Shiala is the ONLY Asari who was indoctrinated and can survive throughout the trilogy. She also have the entire memories and history of actual Protheans, she should matter to the main plot, she should meet Javik... heck, she should have entire tragic path where we can saw the degradation of her character as she struggled against the reapers.

These are actual good things that remained unexplored. Instead she turned green and Feros people somehow became hive mind commandos. Smh

I don't find her that interesting a character.  I do agree that she could have been developed into an interesting character, but the same could be said for Rana Thanoptis, who is the other Asari who had obviously been indoctrinated that survived into ME3.  The two together show us two sides of average Asari responses to indoctrination.  The story line they ran with though was about how Ardat-Yakshi responded to indoctrination (giving rise to a new enemy in ME3 in the banshee), so it was Samaran's other two daughters who got the side quest and Morinth who got a cameo if she survived.  I think it's really a shame that, for the most part, Morinth was killed off in ME2.  Had that story line been done in such a way that Samara did not wind up killing her daughter, Morinth herself could have been the most interesting Asari character in the game.  IMO, what would have been really cool is if Shiala and Rana had both been non-Ardat-Yakshi daughters of Samara's and that side quest on Lessus was much larger and involved than it was (with Morinth, Shiala and Rana all taking a part).  Taking Javik and Liara there would have resulted in a real exploration of the Asari culture and beliefs along the lines of the conversations they had at Thessia.  The Thessia quest could have then been focused much differently and perhaps we would have wound up with a much better encounter between Shepard and Kai Leng.

It didn't mean she was a forced romance but the player was forced to have her around, interact with her in some way...that sort of thing. Also, she was the one and only squadmate who could not be killed until Priority: Earth, and even then you had to have a low EMS. (Also true of those whose only appearance was ME3 - Javik, James and EDI.) Wrex, Ashley and Kaidan were all killable in ME1. The entire normal squad were all killable in ME2. A/K could be killed in ME3 prior to returning to Earth. Liara was untouchable throughout it all.