YMMV / Mass Effect: Clash of Civilizations

• Fridge Logic: Saren is still the token bigot in this alternate timeline, for no other reason than the story needs one. It isn't helped by the fact that he is pretty much the only bigot around in this fic.
  • Also, the Asari were biologically engineered from ancient human DNA. How, why, and to what extent is not yet known. Was it the result of the direct intervention of the Forerunners? The Protheans? The Reapers? All three of them??? Are the Asari to be counted in the same genus as Homo sapiens? On the other hand, it would Hand Wave the whole Rubber-Forehead Aliens trope in a rather elegant way, so the verdict is still out as to whether or not its a case of Fridge Logic, or Fridge Brilliance.
  • It is mentioned in the Forerunner Saga that the Prehistoric Human Civilization after the Human- Forerunner War was split into multiple sub-species, collectively known as 'The People'. Over time, most of these subspecies would die out, leaving only Homo Sapiens Sapiens as the single remaining variant. Perhaps the Asari are/ evolved from one of these sub-species? The existence of Prothean Ruins on Mars and the fact that the Protheans meddled in Asari development are both known facts, so this could be explained quite nicely as Protheans finding a population on earth that matched their specifications, taking them away and tweaking them, and then them being left on Thessia. It would also explain why Asari and Shias (dogs) are the only life forms related to each other on Thessia, as dogs as we know them evolved well after the Forerunners went extinct.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: There's speculation in the extranet that the Protheans interfered in the development of the Asari. While not true for this fic (It was the Forerunners), that is exactly what happened in canon.