History Fridge / MassEffect

* [[Fridge/MassEffectFridgeLogic Fridge Logic]]

Unsorted examples stay on this page.

* Call it [[AssPull contrived]] if you want, but the abduction of the crew proves to be quite convenient for minimizing random crew casualties during the journey to the base. If there were crew members there, there would also be a strong chance of losing random crewmates on route (from the Occulus or simply from random damage to the ship), which defeats the meaning of "No one left behind". Plus it was really convenient for Shepards who are looking to romance Miranda; no dirty comments from Donelly after you did it with her.
* A bit of Fridge Sadness from the first game. More than once, I've caught hints that Ashley and Kaidan were attracted to each other, especially if Shepard is romancing Liara instead. Obviously, this is a doomed ship. But then I remembered how on Virmire they were both telling you to save the other one. They weren't just being heroic - they were trying to save the person they loved (or, at least, had feelings for)!
* A rather personal Fridge moment/sadness: my Shepard is a [[CosmicPlaything Colonist/Sole Survivor]], always used to seeing a lot of tragedies and deaths. But this hits particularly hard on her in the events of ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' however, when she buys a fish from Illium for companionship aboard her deck. Now, I roleplay my Shep as rather workaholic, and also actively avoid going to her quarters because it reminded her too much of the old Normandy. Because of that, she rarely had time to feed her fish... and then the long-awaited SuicideMission came. I decided to change Shepard's armor to suit the rather grim occasion, and that is when I noticed the dead fishes floating on her cabin's fish tank. ''[[GuiltBasedGaming Dead]]''. Even in the mundane things of her life, [[HurtingHero failure follows her everywhere]]. I bawled so hard after that.
* Only once in the whole series do you hear an elcor talk to a non-elcor and not prefix its speech. When asked how many civilians they managed to get off their homeworld prior to the Reapers taking it out, it pauses and goes, "Not enough." It's quite obvious that no prefix was needed. However the pause is what caught my attention after the fact: the elcor's translation software could not decide what prefix to use to accurately convey how exactly it feels about that.
** Or if you listen really closely, there is no prefix required because the elcor's grief is so great it [[TearJerker actually shows!]]
* Try replaying the first Mass Effect after completing the third. Finally realize what Manuel was trying to warn you about.
* Both FridgeBrilliance and FridgeHorror, if you think about it. There are essentially no ugly humans in any of the games (unless you go crazy in the character creator.) No one is overweight, and absolutely everybody is ripped and toned. Even the actual armed forces today have a wide variation in body types, even if they're all essentially physically fit. Even Councilor Udina looks like he hits the gym on a basis that doesn't support his lifestyle. Why is this? Well, it's pretty explicit- with the exception of very rare and uncurable genetic diseases like Vrolik Syndrome, ''humanity has genetically engineered itself to the extent that everyone has the "perfect" body type.'' While it certainly makes everyone look hot and there's no overt imposition of a "perfect" human being, [[ValuesDissonance the whole idea smacks a little too much of eugenics for any contemporary person.]]
** Also, the new disturbing possibility that this raises for Lt Cmdr Williams' change in appearance is not that she went for a boob job and collagen implants- but she just decided to reconstruct her body over a period of three years with a combination of hormone therapy, eating the right things, and ''re-writing her DNA so replacement tissue would fit her desired new shape.'' BodyHorror if it wasn't cosmetic and her own choice!
** Or BioWare just likes to make their character designs attractive.
* Why does Grunt hate ''AFarewellToArms'' so much? The ending of that book consists of [[spoiler: Catherine Barkley and her child dying]], for no other reason than to rub in the fact that there are no happy endings in real life. While that ending is a bit of a TearJerker to us, to krogan [[spoiler: who value fertile females and children so highly]] it is tragic beyond comprehension.
* In Lair of the Shadow Broker, you can find files on Garrus that state serving under Shepard is stunting his growth as a leader. Now this may seem just like background fluff, but think about it for a moment:
** [=ME1-ME2=] Shepard: Is killed and spends 2 years being revived by the Lazarus Project.
** [=ME1-ME2=] Garrus: Assembles a team and becomes the most notorious and hard-to-kill individual on Omega (All three major crime groups have to team up just to have a shot at taking him down)
** [=ME2-ME3=] Shepard: Placed under arrest for 6 months
** [=ME2-ME3=] Garrus: Becomes the de facto 2nd in command of the entire Turian Military (Generals salute HIM, not the other way around)
*** It's actually somewhat heartbreaking for the Shep/Garrus supporters. It implies that Shepard is doing him more harm than good by keeping him at her side.
*** I take it a different angle. The Shadow Broker is wrong -being under Shepard's command isn't stunting his growth as a leader. Shepard's the master, and Garrus is the apprentice. When Shepard parts ways, Garrus uses what he's learned, and grows exponentially because of it. After all... Shepard (if you make the right choices) pulls together a crew of 10 people, some of whom actively hate one another, not only gains their loyalty and begins the end of a 300-year-long war, but gets them all to work together to do the impossible WITHOUT A SINGLE CASUALTY. -BobBiscuit
*** In the first case, Shepard pulls Garrus out of the fire after nearly being overwhelmed, allowing him to go on to do more. In the second case, Garrus is helping to coordinate things on the Normandy. Garrus isn't being stunted by Shepard. By and large, Shepard isn't the one commanding massive fleet movement or ground forces. Shep helps here and there, but Garrus is the one giving top-level military advice to the Primarch.
* The antagonist of the DLC gets a double whammy. There's been a bit of controversy over this but think. Through the three games the Geth, Collectors and Reapers have been crushed under Shepard's heel. Saren, Harbinger, Leviathan, The Illusive Man, Aria and the Thorian did not stand a chance. Who else could possibly take on Shepard but [[spoiler: Shepard him/herself?]] This is addressed in the combat simulator, who are the hardest enemies? [[spoiler: Shepard.]]
** This also ties into how the characters treat the idea of someone coming after Shepard. All the jokes, all the lack of seriousness, it's '''''{{Badass}} Shepard.''''' S/he makes the Reapers go OhCrap.