History Fridge / MassEffect2

** While the "daddy issues" of some squadmates are right out in the open, as with Jacob and Miranda, parental dynamics are also manifest in Samara's and Thane's arcs, Tali's father's crimes done allegedly for her sake and her filial guarding of his posthumous reputation, and Legion's attempt to understand not just Shepard-Commander, but also the Quarian Creators; the three-game Quarian-Geth arc is a tale of parenthood gone wrong (Admiral Koris even says "they are our children"). Then there is Grunt's status both as Dr. Okeer's "legacy" (shades of Henry Lawson), and also his finding a surrogate parent in Shepard. Jack is an abused foster child, stolen from her mother and raised, horrifically, by Cerberus; her "daddy" issues are worse than anyone's. What of Garrus and Mordin? Garrus' conflict with his father was covered directly in ''Mass Effect 1''; in the sequel, we see the outcome of that struggle within Garrus. Mordin on a personal level stands alone in this regard as a childless bachelor without evident parental problems, but then, his entire arc across two games is taken up with the Krogan genophage, the ability of a whole species to reproduce. [[note]]It's worth noting that this pattern does not apply to the DLC squadmates Kasumi and Zaeed, whose personal issues have to do with peers. They of course were written after the main game and after the departure of ''Creator/Drew Karpyshyn''[[/note]]

** The most shocking part is that, if pushed enough, Mordin gives his main reason for perfecting the genophage: The simulations did not show krogan immune to the genophage taking over the Galaxy. They showed Turians and [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humans]] committing genocide against the krogan. Mordin didn't fear the krogan; he didn't trust his very own civilization. Had the genophage 2.0 not been designed, chances are that the Alliance and/or Cerberus would have tasked ''Shepard'' with slaughtering the Krogan.

* Next time you're playing through the prologue on the ''Normandy'' SR-1, stop a moment when you get to the breached section of the ship and look around. Take note of where the damage to the ship appears concentrated: It cuts right through the rear of the command deck just above the Galaxy Map. Now proceed to the cockpit and save Joker, but watch where the Collectors hit when they fire again: Their beam cut through the ship right behind the cockpit where Shepard had been standing just seconds before. Later in the game, you start finding indicators of the Collectors having a vested interest in the Commander on behalf of the Reapers. The Collectors were targeting Shepard, not the ''Normandy''.

* [[SuperSoldier Grunt]] says "Grunt, I like that name. It has no meaning." Grunt does mean something - to humans, but not to Krogan. So why was Okeer using that term? Because he was working for a human mercenary commander who wanted "Grunts" for her private army.
* Why is Shepard surprised at the Quarians in the flotilla calling them "Captain" despite them having not ranked up to Captain yet? After all, human naval tradition also states that the commanding officer of a ship should be addressed as Captain. Reading the codex on the Alliance gives answers this - the Alliance was formed by combining all nations' space programs, not their navies. While navy men including an earlier Captain Shepard have gone to space, that seems to be only an American phenomenon. Most space programs select from the Air Force. And most space programs including NASA designate the commanding officer of shuttles, modules and stations as some variation of "Commander". Most likely this stems from the Air Force's use of terms such as Command Pilot or Aircraft Commander. Also astronauts tend to use actual rank, just like the Air Force. If a mission commander is a Lieutenant Colonel, they might address him as such, just like the Air Force. Only navies have a tradition of ignoring rank and calling someone Captain. Furthermore, Shepard is not a pilot. They are infantry and special ops, who use actual rank and address unit leaders as commanders.

* Rael'Zorah was manufacturing Geth platforms and allowing the Geth to download run times on to them in order to test new weapons and AI hacks. But simultaneously Legion was attempting to stop the heretics from reprogramming all Geth to boost their numbers nineteen fold. What would have happened if the [[SpaceJews Quarians]] hadn't decided to try Tali and thus let her and Shepard go on their merry way? And what if Shepard had sold Legion to Cerberus after acquiring the IFF, thus never learning of the heretic virus? The Alerai would have communicated the position of the migrant fleet to the now completely hostile Geth in the Veil nebula. And the fleet was in the Valhalla Threshold refueling. The Geth would have been able to completely annihilate them, before the Quarians even had a chance to escape.

** When talking to Legion, Shepard mentions off-hand that the Geth are immune to hacking. However, in what would normally look like a case of GameplayAndStorySegregation, the AI Hacking ability works on them just like any other MechaMooks. It isn't until you think about ''why'' the Geth are hack-proof that it makes sense. Their programming acts [[TruthInTelevision like a giant wiki, or a subversion repository like GitHub]] ([[IncrediblyLamePun GethHub?]]). If a couple of Geth programs start acting weird, they can just replace them with older, unhacked versions. The reload, however, takes time, which is why the AI Hacking ability works, if only for a few seconds. Non-Geth synthetics have anti-virus software or internal backups which accomplish pretty much the same purpose.

* Miranda says that she wasn't her father's first daughter, just the first one that he ''kept''. Did he cull the others before or after birth? ''How long'' before or after birth? When you consider what Miranda's father was willing to do [[spoiler: to countless sentient beings]] ForScience in MassEffect3, this is not a pretty picture.

* The Overlord mission gives us a terrifying preview of a possible outcome of [[spoiler: the Synthesis ending of VideoGame/MassEffect3.]] The experiment was going right when David Archer could communicate with a single Geth platform. However, it was when David was plugged in to the entire ship's neural network that the experiment [[GoneHorriblyWrong went off the rails]]. His brain couldn't handle all off the crosstalk between millions of programs sharing everything. And this was without all those programs sharing sensory data. [[spoiler: Now in Synthesis, everyone is connected to everyone else including their sensory perception from all the cybernetic implants. The sensory overload and crosstalk is going to be a billion times worse. Can a single mind handle it or will everyone be driven insane screaming "QUIET PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!", except this time, it is permanent, without a way to make it stop? I mean, I know this is space magic compared to Cerberus' crap, but the potential's ''still there...'']]

* The Terminus Systems and probably even Citadel Space had a lot of trouble looming even without the Collector threat. Archangel had forced all three major mercenary groups to unite and go after him, and once he was dealt with, they were going to target Aria. What would most likely have followed after taking her down is a tripartite struggle for control of Omega that would have spilled over into the entire Terminus, including Illium. A three-way gang war by itself might not have been that bad, but both the Blue Suns and Blood Pack had plans in the works; the Blue Suns were breeding genetically engineered super Krogan on Korlus while the Blood Pack was having Maelon develop a genophage cure on Tuchanka. Had both these plans come to fruition, the war would have escalated between the Blood Pack Krogan hordes and the Blue Suns Krogan lances. How many worlds would they have cratered before one side won? And it gets worse: The Overlord VI would have raised the dish and transmitted itself offworld - most probably into the heretic station just a system away. And now, this VI has a virus that it can repurpose to corrupt and infect all Geth. There are no more isolationist Geth who just study organics from afar or heretic Geth who want to harvest organics for preservation in Reaper form, the Geth are now all [[OmnicidalManiac Omnicidal]] driven by this scared and deranged VI. That and the Blue Suns-Blood Pack Krogan war is ''enough to doom most life''.

* [[http://youtu.be/PDylgzybWAw Payday loans]] still exist and are being targeted towards low income people. And alternatively, ExoGeni, the same company that subjected the Feros colonists to horrible mind control experimentation is also targeting low-income people to colonize a world where they had previously sent husks for experimentation by Cerberus.

** The most shocking part is that, if pushed enough, Mordin gives his main reason for perfecting the genophage: The simulations did not show krogan immune to the genophage taking over the Galaxy. They showed Turians and [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humans]] committing genocide against the krogan. Mordin didn't fear the krogan; he didn't trust his very own civilization. Had the genophage 2.0 not been designed, chances are that the Alliance, Cerberus, or both, would have tasked ''Shepard'' with slaughtering the Krogan.

** Meanwhile, his powers are all geared toward taking out individuals or small groups; he moves fast and he's not very durable. This makes him a perfect choice for moving rapidly through enemy territory (like escort duty for the crew), but not particularly useful in an extended battle due to his lack of heavy weapons or armor.

* The reprogramming vs. destroying of the Geth Heretics; the renegade option has Shepard destroy them, while the paragon option has Shepard brainwash them. While paragon vs. renegade seems to boil down to nice guy vs. jerk, it's actually more complicated. Paragon actions tends to benefit allies over humanity, and vice versa for Renegade options. Therefore, reprogramming the Heretics is clearly the paragon option, because it turns a great enemy into a potential ally, while the renegade option simply removes a threat. Also, if you listen carefully to Legion, it becomes clear that releasing the virus won't force the Heretics to come around to the rest of the Geth's way of thinking. It instead just creates a compulsion for them to return to the Geth homeworld and integrate their experiences with the rest of their race. So all you're really doing by reprogramming is forcing the Heretics and the Geth to come together, confront their differences, and build a consensus.

** It's safe to say that Shepard is Garrus' {{Foil}}- especially if Shep is a paragon. Note that the Shadow Broker's dossier on Garrus essentially says that being under Shepard's command is actually stunting his own development as a leader.

* A renegade Shepard essentially becomes quite like Saren: cybernetic implants, glowing eyes, the option to let a refinery full of civilians burn in the name of completing the mission (see above). What Shepard is forced to do in the Arrival DLC is essentially a scaled-up version of what Balak tried to do in Bring Down The Sky. The reasons are different, but it shows a parallel between them.

** Why doesn't Vido go public about being the Blue Suns CEO, instead making some Batarian the public face of the company? Because he has no combat abilities and is quite the DirtyCoward, as revealed in Zaeed's loyalty mission's renegade ending. Zaeed also mentions that while Vido was a sadistic bastard, he only ran the books and never even once participated in an op. Most mercenaries would never take this kind of person seriously and would never agree to work for him. By putting a notorious slaver in charge, he can be TheManBehindTheMan. The rank and file mercy have a notorious operational veteran they can rally behind, while Vido grows the business. This makes the Blue Suns on the surface similar to the Asari commando fronted Eclipse and the Krogan Battlemaster fronted Blood Pack.

* There's actually a fair bit of logic in the abilities of the squadmates; Garrus remains an Infiltrator swap, so he has a combat ability and a tech ability; [[spoiler:Legion is a Geth who not only has a sniper but whose powers consist of hacking other robots or providing fire support]]; Miranda was bred to be perfect, so she's the only squadmate who can take down all four forms of defense; Mordin is a scientist specializing in organics, so he has the two tech powers useful against organics; Tali grew up with a father who wanted war with the Geth, and thus has abilities that take down shields and hack synthetics; Thane is an assassin, so he has the biotic abilities dedicated to killing people instead of crowd control; and Zaeed has spent most of his life trying to take down the Blue Suns, who all use Shields, with disruptor ammo. However, Jack is the absolute best; some in-universe consider biotics to be an evolution of humanity, some kind of higher form of existence. To use Harbinger's words, biotics are humanity's ''genetic destiny''. Harbinger constantly taunts Shepard with these words, and it is eventually revealed that ''his'' idea for humanity's genetic destiny involves either [[spoiler:being turned into a Reaper or becoming a slave race like the Protheans]]. Jack is the most powerful human biotic in the galaxy. In other words, she has already reached humanity's genetic destiny, with Shockwave (best move for taking down husks) and Warp Ammo (specifically designed to take down barriers, armor and health). These are the only form of defense that the Collectors use.
* In Grunt's recruitment mission, a tank-bred krogan helps Shepard defeat the Blue Sun mercenaries. Notice that when the krogan confronts Shepard face-to-face, his head is right about the height of their chest, making it look like he's looking at Shepard's tits (if she's female). He is only a week old; of course he'd be shorter than any of the krogan Shepard has met!

** Of course, this toGether with the "organic batteries" quip are also allusions to ''Film/TheMatrix'' franchise, where humans are reduced to just that by their machine overlords.

* In Lair of the Shadow Broker, Liara starts with all four powers unlocked. This isn't just because she is only a party member for just this set of missions; Liara has ''always'' been loyal to Shepard.

* When you first encounter the Collectors on Horizon, they seem to be little more than generic identical {{Mooks}} blindly rushing into battle. Then it is revealed later by Mordin and EDI that the Reapers engineered them to be exactly that: Expendable servants with no sense of individuality and self-preservation. Just like any husk.

* The reprogramming vs. destroying of the Geth Heretics; the renegade option has Shepard destroy them, while the paragon option has Shepard brainwash them. While paragon vs. renegade seems to boil down to nice guy vs. jerk, it's actually more complicated. Paragon actions tends to benefit allies over humanity, and vice versa for Renegade options. Therefore, reprogramming the Heretics is clearly the paragon option, because it turns a great enemy into a potential ally, while the renegade option simply removes a threat. Also, if you listen carefully to Legion, it becomes clear that releasing the virus won't force the Heretics to come around to the rest of the Geth's way of thinking. It instead just creates a compulsion for them to return to the Geth homeworld and integrate their experiences with the rest of their race. So all you're really doing by reprogramming is forcing the Heretics and the Geth to come toGether, confront their differences, and build a consensus.

** The Reapers and their Collector minions are engaged in creating an embryonic human Reaper. As EDI says, it’s their form of reproduction. In a way the Reapers can be thought of as Lovecraftian Ardat-Yakshi (if Ardat-Yakshi were fertile),[[note]]Compare Morinth's "We are the genetic destiny of the Asari" with Sovereign's "We are eternal, the pinnacle of evolution and existence" and Harbinger's "We are the harbingers of your perfection"[[/note]] using their victims to "randomize the DNA" of their offspring and destroying them in the process - but in their unfathomable scale not murdering individuals, but entire species. The whole driver of the story, Collectors abducting and processing uncounted thousands of humans, is the Reapers' quest to make the next generation, [[note]]As well, of course, as building a replacement for the destroyed Sovereign as their Inside Man,[[/note]] and the Reaper-embryo's discovery and destruction are quite rightly the climax of the story.

** [[spoiler:In the third game, his suspicions are confirmed somewhat, when it is discovered that the Turians planted a hyper yield bomb under a heavily populated area as a backup if the Krogan became troublesome again.]] Would the Alliance have gone through with genocide? Probably not. But [[WellIntentionedExtremist Cerberus]] would have.

** If you confront Sidonis, [[spoiler:he seems genuinely ashamed and guilty of his actions in betraying Garrus' squad.]] It initially seems like he is trying to save his skin, but the Codex entries on Turians reveals that [[spoiler:betrayal of the team and refusing to own up to your mistakes and actions (like Sidonis did) by fleeing and hiding is a ''deep'' taboo among the race.]] No wonder the guy is so torn up about it.

* Jack's design seems too over the top at first. However, it is common for abuse survivors to get tattoos and piercings as a way to reassert control over their own body. They also hide the scars all over her body -- which are ''brutal''.

* The mechanic from Horizon [[spoiler:blames Shepard and the Alliance for bringing the Reapers down on the colony, despite the fact that Shepard saved most of the colony and other neutral colonies are being targeted.]] While he's a coward for not helping out, [[spoiler:Shepard and the Illusive Man both agree that it is too big a coincidence that the Collectors target a colony where one of Shepard's former crew is stationed]], so he technically had a point.

** And what of Shepard? S/he may or not be an orphan, but biological parents aside, the story of ''[=ME2=]'' is much occupied with their problematic and ultimately rebellious relationship with a very bad paternal figure, the Illusive Man. In ''3'', we instead see a return to the "good father" Anderson. In the ''Citadel'' DLC, Anderson even provides Shepard with a home!

* You bust Jack out of Purgatory, a prison ship held by the Blue Suns. The gang may not seem important on first glance, but they are holding a female trained killer who [[Series/{{Firefly}} can kill you with her brain]]. Yes, it is a Firefly ShoutOut, with the Blue Suns being the jackasses who are a large part of the Academy's funding/control. In another [[Film/PitchBlack shoutout]], Jack is a badass bald chick who is rescued from a [[TheAlcatraz maximum security prison]].

* Aethyta threatens to use a singularity on unruly customers. [[spoiler:In ''3'', we find out that she is Liara's father. Liara is the only squad member besides a biotic Shepard who uses singularity.]]