YMMV / When There Was a Tomorrow

• Growing the Beard: The first few chapters are of... questionable quality, including showing the Normandy crew curb-stomping Covenant soldiers and even taking out Covenant Starships with little trouble, something the author admits to. Thankfully, the story gets better around the time that the first mission of Halo: Reach occurs.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Shepard at one point claims that he's going to make sure that they carry helmet cams when they go back to their universe so that they can prove the Reapers exist. The problem is, that this story is implied to have happened after all major events of Mass Effect 2 (including DLC) have happened, which means that the next time Shepard is supposed to take the field is in six months... when the Reapers launch their full-scale invasion of the galaxy. Or more specifically, after Shepard turns himself in for the destruction of the Bahak relay, the next time Shepard puts his hand on a gun is when Reapers are literally attacking Earth.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: After being spat out into an alternate reality, Shepard finds himself butting heads with a bunch of religious fanatics who have dubbed him The False Shepherd. Even better, Mass Effect 3's Citadel DLC would introduce a literal False Shepard.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Tali is at Sword Base when it comes under Covenant bombing shortly before Operation: Uppercut takes place, with the cast (especially Shepard) subsequently mourning her loss. Then spoiler: She greets Shepard at the conclusion of Chapter 19.
  Author's Note Excerpt: "Oh my God! Tali is alive! No one could've saw this coming!"

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