#shadow broker

Personally, I really like the idea that the Yahg Broker only took the position a little over two years ago. Specifically, towards the end of Mass Effect 1.

Basically, I really like the idea that the Shadow Broker that Shepard (indirectly) deals with in the first game was actually the PREVIOUS Shadow Broker XD

Lord Maul Opress and Lady Liara T’soni

Both rule over their underground empire with grace and style. Who could ask for a better pair than red and Blue ?

That’s what Liara gets for spying on her dad.

Romanced or not Liara has a deep connection with Shepard and humanity as a whole (see: going to the Mars archives instead of Thessia, telling Hackett that she's the Shadow Broker)

Imagine in six hundred years Liara is this mythical figure in human culture that has served as a chief advisor and science officer to generations of human leadership. She sees the good in our species in a way so few do and inspires us to live up to her expectations and to reach the dreams she has for us.

Asari scorn her as a pureblood and a traitor who has abandoned her people but humanity loves and respects her so fiercely that they wouldn't dare say or do anything publicly.

And for her, she just sees the face of the person she loved in each and every one of us and will fight until her dying breath to protect the people who her beloved held so dear.

...even in world states where Shepard never romanced Liara, it's clear the asari had feelings for the Commander.

The maelstrom of feelings Liara has to feel knowing that she gave Miranda Lawson Shepard's body...and Shepard gave Miranda Lawson the last piece, her heart.

I'm trying to keep track of what every major or semi-major political player is trying to do about the Reapers in 2185 before, during or after Shepard waltzes in, pirouettes into them then fucks off, and it's kinda mind-boggling.

Major players with their own agendas include but are not limited to :

the Reapers, who may or may not have been already traveling to the galaxy at this point, and are using their pawns - the Collectors - to siphon many humans to their base to get going on the baby-making. Beside assassinating Shepard in 2183 to one-shot an anti-Reaper coalition in its infancy, the Collectors are presumably prepping Omega for collecting (see also : Mordin's recruitment mission) and have contacts with at least one non-Reaper operative (the Shadow Broker) to facilitate their plans.

Cerberus, which has set up one operator cell to deal with the Collectors, and is completely reshuffling its structure to gear up for the incoming Reaperocalypse.

the Shadow Broker is aware of the incoming Reaperocalypse and is actively collaborating with the Collectors, though to what extent is unknown ; one thing we do know is that he uses an agent embedded in Cerberus (Wilson) to try to kill Shepard before they can be up and about. We also do not know how his manipulating of events behind the scenes is meant to benefit the Collectors/Reapers. Then the Shadow Broker gets replaced by Liara who leverages the exact same network and resources to do the exact opposite, preppin' the galaxy against the Reapers. EDIT : I should note that the yahg Shadow Broker planned to attack Cerberus in retaliation one year after Shepard's resurrection, and those plans included the assassination of the Illusive Man, the destruction of Cerberus as a whole, and, if possible, the recruitment of Miranda.

the Alliance itself is doing shit all to prepare against the Reapers because they don't believe it's a problem, but within the Alliance, Hackett is running an undisclosed number of operations to prepare them against the Reaperocalypse.

officially, the Citadel Council dismisses this "Reaperocalypse", but in reality they're very aware of that, presumably doing something about it off-screen, and not keeping some very important people in the loop, such as : Shepard, and seemingly Anderson and the Alliance as a whole.

Also not kept in the loop : the Turian Hierarchy, since they learn about the Reapers from Garrus' dad. Oops.

Actually in the loop : the STG, and presumably the Salarian Union as a whole, since Mordin has been authoring studies on indoctrination and the military has been developing stealth dreadnoughts.

The geth have quit their self-isolation and sent a unique platform past the Perseus Veil to ascertain what the hell is going on.

The geth heretics, meanwhile, have been losing the war against the Systems Alliance and reduced to sporadic offensives in three clusters, but they're preparing an indoctrination-like virus to take over the orthodox geth and add their numbers to their own to service the Reapers.

And these are just the players we know about. We have no idea what, if anything, the asari or the batarians are doing (or know) about the Reaperocalypse.