Arks as Relays...possible?
I can't remember where I saw it but somebody on one of the myriads of ME fan sites out there suggested a plot twist where the Arks doubled as Mass Effect relays. According to the ME wiki, it was buil...
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If I'm understanding correctly, I don't think ME:3's events would have an impact, considering they left before those events (between 2 & 3, I think?). I would think they may already have the knowledge to make/change them beforehand so they can (or perhaps already) put it into effect with the initiative project. Not knowing exactly how the Arks were made, I'm not quite sure but it seems possible and would be cool lorewise.
It was said back then that the endings wouldn't influence MEA in any ways, right. Still, I'm starting to think that there's still too much influence coming from the MW's events in this game. I'm ok with them generically speaking, but I'm not sure if it'll work properly later on. I don't know what they intend with their plot.
Regarding what you said about the arks, it would add a touch of mystique, yes, but it would also add a strong uncertainty for something so many lives would depend on. However, crossing the first relay demanded boldness, Alec's boldness. It would make sense in his case relying his future upon something uncertain such as something he doesn't really understand. If that's the case, then your suppositions could be based on that.
Well guess there's only 2 ways the story could progress with regards to the milky way, it's either:
1) Bioware already mentioned that they wanted to make MEA separate from the trilogy, if they hold true to their intentions, then the Quarian Ark would probably be the last thing from the milky way that we will see. Anything after that Bioware will need to commit to a canon ME ending.
2) Bioware needs to bring back Milky way elements for whatever reasons(needing to boost sales? needing to damage control and recover from poorer MEA ratings?), then they will need to sort out a canon ending for the ME trilogy(there are a total of 10 possible endings for ME3, redx3 outcomes(depending on war assets), bluex3outcomes and greenx3outcomes+ shooting the catalyst(cycle continues). Then possibly one of the ways they can do this is the ark as mass relays theory, Quantum Entanglement etc.
Hmm, I guess I'm not really seeing why the endings would matter anyway because the timeline veers off beforehand. So whatever happens after they left doesn't really matter storywise but lore wise they would probably figure that the reapers came and your ending of choice occurs. Changing the arks into relays could even be an afterthought; sort of a "since we had the technology in the MW, we could do something like that for the Andromeda galaxy to get around".
Although the risk it would pose bringing such technology along and it got stolen, or even dominated by any unfriendly civilization. It would not be safe for MW either.
