How long did it take you to figure it out?

In the last one or two memories, I was starting to suspect something. I actually loved how it highlighted Alec's obsession, focusing on this losing battle to save his wife instead of heeding her wishes and spending her last years with her. And in the end, he has lost her and their marriage and never got to spend that time with her - not because she died, but because he did.

I'm just surprised how many people were all like 'aw, mom, that's so great, thanks dad ' as a result of this quest. Like, I'm not sure she's gonna be all that happy post-derefrigeration. Did he tell her what he was going to do and did she agree? If she did, then would she really put her children through her 'death'? Or did Alec make that decision on his own? Either way, you'd think she call them back to her death bed once more to say 'see you in Andromeda'. Her being involved does seem to conflict with her stance on her own death in the game, though. Or did he decide to do this completely on his own? Then that's gonna be a rough awakening. "Hey mom, so dad is dead, and we're both maybe older than you by the time anyone has figured out to heal your illness at such a late stage as it is in your case, but, you're still alive, right?"

If that's how it went, then the future human funeral customs are probably the most actually alien thing in the series. It doesn't mean Alec doing a ruthless thing isn't plausible, you're right that it is, but that the characters react weirdly to something (death in the family) that the audience is familiar with. If in the future the dead are just shunted off to cremation centres without ceremony, it should be woven into the story naturally. Alec's extreme and questionable decision should elicit more of a reaction.

To me, ignoring extremely obvious questions makes it look like the writer(s) neglected to create sensible details around Ellen and Alec's deaths.

Having Ryder recognize their father's corpse wouldn't need to be macabre. It could be a solemn moment to show the impact of what just happened, not to mention something that I think should happen in any case instead of everyone deflecting his/her questions with the "like a hero" stuff. What I think is that the devs wanted us to keep guessing, either that or they just didn't think about it.

Element Zero For sure. I thought all of the Alec stuff was really well done. Clancy Brown's amazing voice acting was also a big factor.

To be fair, at least there are dialogue options where you can express anger about this, along with a sort of "typical Dad."

As far as seeing dad's body. What's wrong with that? Nothing. The player did see eve's body on tuchanka if she dies.

Or just have a casket with an Initiative flag draped over it

What it comes down to is the plot did not demand a dead body to be seen. The plot did not demand that the kid knows the official cause of death. The plot demanded that he died of "like a hero".

The plot demanded the kids not be beside their mother for her final moments.

Cremation is normal even now, members of a nuclear family unit not attending funeral ceremonies less so. Ryder siblings are shown to care for their mom, too. BioWare usually cares about characters and character moments, so ignoring something that's universally human feels weird and a missed opportunity. I know it's for the mystery plot's sake, but it just makes the plot feel shoddy.

Well, that's not a question written by me. Obvious questions for my Ryder are such as: "Should I need to go and affirm it's his body now?", "They did bring his body up, didn't they? I am the one to choose how we bury him", "I passed out, what exactly did happen?", "Should I wait for Sara to wake up or would it be wise to arrange a memorial asap to give closure to Nexus citizens and the Pathfinder team?", "Mom's alive??!! But we had a memorial service and dad was telling us to be strong and what the christ??". Or some variations thereof.

Player's questions would boil down to "Why no funeral for Alec" and "If Ellen is alive, but presumed dead with certainty, how was that fake death handled?". Those came to my mind instantly, but I can accept that they or my player character RP questions are not obvious or important to anybody else.

I understand not anybody cares about these things, maybe even most don't. Maybe such details were cut out, but I suspect they never existed to begin with.

To be honest I had hoped it would be something more juicy, like the identity of the benfactor or a revelation that Hyperiond SAM has some reapertech like EDI. Finding out this whole thing was a nod to Shep continuity was disappointing. Its also pretty clear there will be no contact with Milky way because of widely disparate ending choices offered in ME3 (the gift that just keeps on giving - cycle continues should have never been an option).

That was kind of annoying. And was there any follow up on Jien Garsen's murder? Was Ryder able to share their evidence with Kandros? I don't remember being given the option, but it's possible I missed something.

Ugh! That's a big thing for Ryder to keep to themself. I know Tann warns about creating a panic/more confusion, but surely discretely sharing this big revelation with Kandros (and/or Tann) would have been the right course of action? It needed to be investigated, but I guess in a sequel or DLC

I am curious what Bioware will do with mother Ryder in a dlc or a sequel. If I was one of the twins, I would be very upset that dad did what he did. Yes, its nice to hear that mom might one day be cured of her disease, but you don't know when. Wouldn't it be interesting if the twins die many years later before mom is cured. Then one day she is. She learns she's in Andromeda. Hears about the death of her husband and learns her kids died after having a full life. What does she do?

Of course if Bioware brings her back in a sequel, I wouldn't be surprised if she's very upset her piece of crap of a husband did what he did. If I was her, I would ask the kids if there was a funeral? Were they involved with their fathers idea to have her come to Andromeda?

I would just have her died shortly before her husband joined the Initiative. Whatever.

I fully expected it to be revealed that SAM was Ellen. Figured Alec found a way to copy everything she was into SAM. Especially considering what was used to make SAM. It's hinted at by the message from the Shadow Broker.