Could the Benefactor Be a Shadowbroker?

Hmm, that could be one idea. Alec sort of has a small conversation with a Shadow Broker.

Liara hinted, although it was never really comproved, that the current Shadow Broker killed the other 60 years ago, and took his place. WHAT IF, the other Shadow Broker, when he got info on that advanced Geth probe regarding Andromeda, started planing the Initiative by then? He wouldn't have been killed, but he would have left the current Shadow Broker to his position, in exchange of not revealing anything of that ordinance, having the SB keep na eye on everything nonetheless.

Yap, Shadow Broker is my first guess for Benefactor, the second one being The Illusive Man (though there is an issue with anti-alien agenda which *seems* not to be the case for Initiative), and then possibly some Citadel Council members, some cooperating Specters, some cooperating military commanders (like Hackett and counterparts from other races), Aria, etc. Heck, it is even possible that Initiative was founded by Geths or Collectors.

Of all of them Shadow Broker makes the most sense, agenda seems to be similar, and arguable SB has the greatest interest in colonizing Andromeda (with communication like Quantum Entanglement it would strongly increase Shadow Brokers resources in something like... 600 years). It is a bit more complex if Liara was a Shadow Broker already by that time.

On the other hand, Illusive Man could have been interested both in making sure that some humans survive, and at the same time use Initiative to gain access to a number of secret projects being developed by other races. Initiative is using a lot of state-of-art designs, and equipment restricted to specific races or organizations (with "permission" to use them in Andromeda only), but by participating in the project TIM would have access to all the blueprints.

Geths are a nice idea: they were the originators of Andromeda scans, we do know that they had their own agenda, and they can be easily incorporated into SAMs. There would be probably some problem with getting all the funds and intelligence, but it is still a viable possibility.

Eventually, it is entirely possible that Benefactor is/are:

- someone(s) that traveled to Andromed on Nexus / on one of the Arks

- someone who appeared in the original trilogy for a few seconds, but was then one-shot by Shepard in one of the side quests.

I thought it was mentioned in the LOTSB DLC that the Yahg shadow broker killed his predecessor cause he was treated like a pet.  When Liara assumed that the Yahg got really angry so I am assuming that she was spot on.  

My thoughts about the Benefactor, it's a large galaxy and there are other groups that have enough funds and political will to fund and push the andromeda initiative.  Doesnt even have to be human.  Although so far the major storylines have been human focused.  Anything is possible but I feel that the natural progression of the story would favor having the Benefactor in Andromeda(not far far away in the milky way.  (Unless they botched the storyline and gave up half way like the whole dark energy thing on Haestrom).  If I am writing a commercially viable story, I would want to create another Illusive Man type character that will haunt and plague Andromeda for MEA2 MEA3 until the story ends. I wont be writing about someone back in the milky way that has almost no influence or presence in andromeda.  So using this as an assumption, by means of process of elimination, it wont be the shadow broker nor the illusive man, they could be involved in the foundation but they are not the benefactor(if the benefactor in fact is a person and not an organisation/entity). Also found a little note in a kett base, so if this is indeed from the same benefactor and not someone that did Hztch a favor, then this would indicate The Benefactor is indeed in Andromeda having success on EOS, pulling strings behind the scenes(maybe staying out of people's grief? LOL).  Advent seems like another org that we know little of and also living on EOS. I would see the Benefactor as someone very similar to Reyes in terms of his mode of operations but on a much larger scale.

Makes zero sense for the shadowbroker to show himself in regards to SAM and then suddenly hide himself as the benefactor. 

Also makes zero sense for the illusive man to allow 2 terminated employees into his secret "secret" program. 

Neither of those two are likely to be the benefactor. 

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@Arsenic_Touch wrote:

Makes zero sense for the shadowbroker to show himself in regards to SAM and then suddenly hide himself as the benefactor. 

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What do you mean show himself in regards to SAM?

Oh wait, do you mean to help Alec make SAM?  That would actually make quite a bit of sense.  In a way, you kind of explained why because it lead you to doubt that the Shadowbroker and the Benefactor could be one and the same.

Also, there have been multiple Shadowbrokers.  We can't even be certain if we've seen them and or if the ones we've seen were all really shadowbrokers.

A Shadowbroker just fits the build too well.  Probably not it, but still.  And I didn't mean to imply that the Shadowbroker remained in the Milky Way.  What if the "throne" became empty because the original one vacated it and wasn't killed at all?

What if the Shadowbroker who is the Benefactor came along for the ride?  I don't know.

Could also be a geth or an AI... OR... it's Conrad Verner.  He was just playing stupid to hide his true agenda.  Then he replaced himself with a clone or look alike using Cerberus resources before 3.

You hear that?  That was your mind being blown... but not really cause there's no way Conrad is the Benefactor... unless he is.

Even the Jardaan or whatever else the name is, could be the Benefactor.

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@PretzleMe wrote:

Could also be a geth or an AI... OR... it's Conrad Verner.  He was just playing stupid to hide his true agenda.  Then he replaced himself with a clone or look alike using Cerberus resources before 3.

You hear that?  That was your mind being blown... but not really cause there's no way Conrad is the Benefactor... unless he is.

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LOL nah, Conrad was in ME3 trying to impress that chick from ME1, Jenna?  Maybe its his sister cassandra hehehe...

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@PandaTar wrote:

Even the Jardaan or whatever else the name is, could be the Benefactor.

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I am intrigued.  How so?

You'll have to do pretty good to top Conrad who is looking pretty solid as the number one contender for the Benefactor as things stand.

I still hope it's TIM's clone or original TIM who left his clone with own memory behind if he was capable of realising at some point Reapers were using him and he played them. I simply like his character too much, even despite his speciesism. In case my theory is true, I hope the new graphics will do him justice.

#MAKETIMROMANCABLE

okok since we are throwing out "out of this world" speculations, this will be mine 😃

Just like Soverign's real name is Nazara, the name Leviathan is given to a species by Bryson's group of scientist in ME3...  What if...  their real name was the Jaadan?  When the reapers turn on them, they they were clearly very advanced, a group of them could have fled to dark space and ended up in andromeda, they needed a new home and started terraforming the planets.  Could certainly have created a new race of AI which forms the basis of the remnants.  They used the spherical artifacts to control the ME3 miners/reapers etc...  In andromeda they are using a larger sphere (meridian) to control planets(weather, soil PH etc)...