History Headscratchers / MassEffect3

* The entire ScrewTheWarWerePartying feel of the Citadel DLC really bugs me. In the VanillaEdition of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', when visiting the Citadel you can actually see [[WarIsHell how fighting a losing war against the Reaper affect the everyday life of ordinary civilians]]. You can hear new on the background reporting that more planets are being overwhelmed and the military in full retreat, see drunk soldiers mourning their fallen comrades, overhear the conversation of a human women selling her car so that she can buy better armor for her Salarians friend serving in the military, trying to prevent worried investor pulling all their savings from the bank, etc. You can even read a financial report by Elkoss Combine stating that due to the war effort's massive cost and all the major industrial centers being destroyed, civilian discretionary spending has dramatically fallen and [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome the entire economy of Citadel Space will inevitable collapse within a year]]. With the Citadel DLC, however, it was as if every location added exist within a separate reality. All the entrainment centers on the Silversun Strip is packed full of people that doesn't seem to be short on money, and there is still a massive line outside a gourmet sushi restaurant (everyone seemingly forgetting that the actual country of Japan has most likely been reduced to nothing but ashes and radioactive glass by now, same goes for entire planets like Illium, Thessia, Palaven, Irune, and Dekuuna). And not to mention Anderson's luxurious apartment, Shepard and co seems to have no problem about their party's staggering costs while there is an overcrowded refugee camp just three level below them. A refugee camp that is desperately short on basic supplies like food and medicine (The situation there is so bad that you can actually order the port authority to open fire on unarmed civilian transports just to prevent more from coming... [[IDidWhatIHadToDo and not get any renegade points for it]]). How is any of this justified in-universe?

* Why does Jack call Shepard out on trusting Cerberus and the Paragon response is she's not telling them anything they haven't told themselves? A Paragon Shepard made it clear throughout ''Mass Effect 2'' that they didn't trust Cerberus or the Illusive Man and were just working with them because they had a common enemy and once said enemy was taken care of they immediately cut ties with them. That's not even geting into sending [[https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/N7:_Lost_Operative years of encrypted data about their illicit activities to the Alliance]].

*** It was also pretty "offensive" of the turians to attack humanity in the first place. Being diplomatically sensitive isn't something the media always cares about. Look at how modern media treats foreign nations with a history of conflict, the US isn't at war with Russia, but American media uses them as villains all the time. The Turian Hierarchy and the System's Alliance are allies now, but there's a ton of bad blood between them (the First contact war is within living memory for the older generations) and it's perfectly plausible for there to be negative portrayals of the turians in human media. As for why it's in a Citidel arcade, I imagine not enough turian customers have complained for them to remove it.

[[folder: Why didn't the Reapers just nuke Sanctuary?]]
* They perceived it as a threat, and not entirely without reason. So why did they bother to send a few Ground Troops for a slow ground battle with Cerberus? Why not just send a single Capital Ship and blow the entire facility to smithereens?
** Because then they won't know what they learned. It's not the facility that's dangerous, it's the information they learned from it. They needed to get their troops in, get access to the equipment and hopefully grab Henry Lawson as well.
[[/folder]]

* I've seen a lot of people ask questions about the tutorial kid like "how'd he disappear from the vent" and... that's it actually. But the point is, I've never seen anyone wonder about what he said. Why did he say "You can't save me"? Why would anyone say that. If Commander freaking Shepard (and if you think he wouldn't recognize Shep then I'd like to point you to the Normandy toy we see at the beginning of the game. Clearly someone's been merchandising (and let's be honest, it was probably Joker) and Shepard us consistently all over the news. Everyone knows who Shepard is) was offering to help me I'd take that offer. And even if he didn't recognize Shep or didn't want their help, why would he say "You can't help me" as opposed to the more likely "I'm scared" or just nothing at all. "You can't save me" doesn't seem like something a real child would say, even one under the stress of being surrounded by evil eldritch alien ships. Granted, he's probably right if Shep tried to save him he'd probably end up caught in cross fire and gunned down (which, if you ask me, would be much more impactful and would make me accept the idea of him being a manifestation of Shepard's guilt complex) and the last thing we need is an escort mission in the middle of a tutorial but still, not very child like behavior. Almost [[TroublinglyUnchildlikeBehavior troubling]], you could say.

*** Not true. In ME2, the same game where Samara claims that there's only three Ardat-Yakshi, the codex states:

* The entire ScrewTheWarWerePartying feel of the Citadel DLC really bugs me. In the VanillaEdition of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', when visiting the Citadel you can actually see [[WarIsHell how fighting a losing war against the Reaper affect the everyday life of ordinary civilians]]. You can hear new on the background reporting that more planets are being overwhelmed and the military in full retreat, see drunk soldiers mourning their fallen comrades, overhear the conversation of a human women selling her car so that she can buy better armor for her Salarians friend serving in the military, trying to prevent worried investor pulling all their savings from the bank, etc. You can even read a financial report by Elkoss Combine stating that due to the war effort's massive cost and all the major industrial centers being destroyed, civilian discretionary spending has dramatically fallen and [[RealityEnsues the entire economy of Citadel Space will inevitable collapse within a year]]. With the Citadel DLC, however, it was as if every location added exist within a separate reality. All the entrainment centers on the Silversun Strip is packed full of people that doesn't seem to be short on money, and there is still a massive line outside a gourmet sushi restaurant (everyone seemingly forgetting that the actual country of Japan has most likely been reduced to nothing but ashes and radioactive glass by now, same goes for entire planets like Illium, Thessia, Palaven, Irune, and Dekuuna). And not to mention Anderson's luxurious apartment, Shepard and co seems to have no problem about their party's staggering costs while there is an overcrowded refugee camp just three level below them. A refugee camp that is desperately short on basic supplies like food and medicine (The situation there is so bad that you can actually order the port authority to open fire on unarmed civilian transports just to prevent more from coming... [[IDidWhatIHadToDo and not get any renegade points for it]]). How is any of this justified in-universe?

** Another possibility is that Cerberus was already building up forces, but had been running in stealth mode prior to ME3. They just deployed their forces after things hit the fan.

* Why does Jack call Shepard out on trusting Ceberus and the Paragon respsonse is she's not telling them anything they haven't told themselves? A Paragon Shepard made it clear throughout ''Mass Effect 2'' that they didn't trust Ceberus or the Illusive Man and were just working with them because they had a common enemy and once said enemy was taken care of they immeditaly cut ties with them. That's not even going into destroying the Collector's base against the Illusive Man's orders or sending [[https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/N7:_Lost_Operative years of encrypted data about their illict activites to the Alliance]].

** Even if Benezia told Saren about that beacon, Sovereign, who's the real Mastermind, is no idiot. Sovereign know that if Saren goes to Thessia is probably that he's going to be stopped, and Sovereign doesn't want to lost his main agent, delaying his plan to open the Citadel to the rest of the Reapers by seeking another agent.