History Fridge / MassEffectFridgeBrilliance

** [[{{Stargate}} Stellar drift.]] The systems/clusters containing the relays that are right next to each other now probably ''weren't'' next to each other 3+ million years ago when the relays were first forged. And unlike the Stargate network, the relays probably don't auto-correct beyond finding the relay that they used to connect to again, since it would make them harder to shut down whenever the Reapers come back to harvest. A more advanced (and Reaper-proof) program could get around this issue with some basic pathfinding algorithms.

* This one's probably unintentional, but it's kismet enough that it warrants an entry. Liara's nickname as a child was "little bird," and she eventually becomes an information broker, [[spoiler: namely, the Shadow Broker,]] a job that often requires her to keep her identity secret. What's a common human saying for when you want to tell someone something, but not disclose ''who'' told you? "A little bird told me."

* It seems odd that Jacob is unfaithful to a Shepard who romanced him, when any other love interest is utterly loyal even if Shep was dead for a couple years. But think about it. To every other romanced squad member, Shepard means a ''lot''. [[hottip:*:The Virmire Survivor went through all of the events of the first game with him/her, all the triumph and trauma and the personal issues. Garrus and Tali were there too, though sharing fewer personal issues then; and Shepard pulled Garrus off the Citadel to go out and make a direct difference, then when he was cornered on Omega she sprung him from that trap, helped him to grasp a more gray universe, and opened his eyes to the formerly-unknown world of cross-species intercourse. Shepard saved Tali and let her travel on a state-of-the-art ship, travels which seriously changed the course of her Pilgrimage; he helped her to salvage the Freedom's Progress and Haestrom missions which she led and were nearly disasters, he represented her at her treason trial and got the whole thing called off, he was the first person she ever wanted to link suits with. Liara was saved by Shepard, saw the painful conclusion to her relationship with her mother, went to a lost Prothean city she'd always dreamed of, and after Shep died s/he went through immense difficulty and pain getting him/her into the hands of terrorists who claimed to be able to resurrect him/her. Miranda? Shepard saw her as a person and was immensely more real and personable than dating service messages, he helped her save her sister, he became a trustworthy point in a galaxy she sees as untrustworthy, she may have even been inspired to rethink her attachment to Cerberus and ''quit'' on his account. Jack found Shepard to be trustworthy too, to ''not'' just want to use her, to help her get some resolution on her past and gradually open enough to start feeling some concern for others instead of just hate and violence, to actually care about her. Shepard is the first friend Thane has made in ten years, the one to wake him from his "battle-sleep" and to purpose, she helped him reunite with his son and was the focus of the last truly active period of his life.]] Jacob... He's the most psychologically healthy of the crew, so Shepard can't be integral to resolving his issues. His loyalty mission deals with his father, yes, but he's not massively impacted by that, it had been ten years and he'd already mourned. She doesn't get him to rethink anything big. He's impressed and he likes her, but her deciding to pursue and sleep with him doesn't have the same degree of impact as it does with the others. It was basically FriendsWithBenefits to him, so when he met Brynn and hit it off in a way that affected him personally...

* This one's probably unintentional, but it's kismet enough that it warrants an entry. Liara's nickname as a child was "little bird," and she eventually becomes an information broker, [[spoiler: namely, the Shadow Broker,]] a job that often requires her to keep her identity secret. What's a common human saying for when you want to tell someone something, but not disclose ''who'' told you? "A little bird told me."

* This one's probably unintentional, but it's kismet enough that it warrants an entry. Liara's nickname as a child was "little bird," and she eventually becomes an information broker, [[spoiler: namely, the Shadow Broker,]] a job that requires her to keep her identity secret. What's a common human saying for when you want to tell someone something, but not disclose ''who'' told you? "A little bird told me."

* Fans might be disappointed that SethGreen didn't reprise his role as Joker for the Arrival DLC. He's completely silent whenever he appears, and even when the ''Normandy'' arrives at the end the voice on the comm isn't him. Thinking about it though, it makes sense. At the very least Joker knew he was saving Shepard from [[spoiler:an asteroid about to smash into a mass relay, something that is depicted as a rather grave event. Depending on how much s/he tells him he might also know about the Reapers and how they were minutes away.]] Whenever things get serious Joker goes all quiet, so they could get away with the DeadpanSnarker becoming TheVoiceless.

* I originally thought the loading screens in ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' that depict the ''Normandy'' traveling between systems - the ones that show it using its built-in FTL drive with the red light heading "toward" the Normandy and the blue light heading "away" from it - were just a pretty cool effect. It wasn't until a few months later and I was rereading the Codex's entry on FTL drives and their appearance that I realized the light "approaching" the Normandy was being red-shifted by the mass effect field (as to an observer inside the mass effect field, everything outside is red-shifted), and the light moving away from it was being blue shifted (as an observer outside the field would see everything within the field as blue-shifted), ''exactly as it was described in the Codex.'' The sheer level of detail and dedication to internal consistency in the game's ''very loading screens'' blew my mind.

** Beyond that, Moridn states he's in the last decade of his life, a fact that's reinforced by his decision to retire from the STG. He's old, and therefore less likely to survive severe injury.

* Turians as a whole are highly civic-minded, and a generally selfless species that focuses on the good of the whole society, service to others, self-sacrifice, etc. With this in mind, look at Saren's choice and justifications for joining Sovereign: he wanted to protect the rest of the galaxy and save organic life, even if that meant his own vilification and destruction due to indoctrination...and he gets angry at Shepard for refusing to work with the Reapers. In effect, Saren is doing ''exactly what the mores of turian society said was the right thing to do.'' Working with the Reapers to save the galaxy is, in a twisted way, exactly what a turian ''would'' do.