Another bit of musing, this time regarding a part of a story very intriguing... but not for the good reasons.
ATTENTION! WARNING! HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD... STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THE GAME BECAUSE I DON'T INTEND TO COVER THE WHOLE POST!!!
There, customary warning given. Soooo... Jien Gierson was killed by someone shortly before or after the arrival of the Nexus in Andromeda... Reasons unknown but the clues point to an entity called the benefactor who would be the person who gave all the money to build the Initiative -- unlike the official story stating that Jien did. The identity of this benefactor and the reason why Jien was actually executed is not stated in the game (and I guess that was something they envisaged for a DLC). But well, we can always guess... And none of the guesses is an actual fit.
There are three obvious culprit who had the knowledge the motivation and the money to make the initiative happen. The first one is the very obvious culprit the one everybody think about at first... The Illusive Man. Problem is... Why would he do that? I mean, if it had just been about saving the human species, I could have pointed him out as the formal suspect, but why would he pay money to save everyone, Turians, Salarians, Asaris and even as we learn later Quarians, Drells and Hanar (although only Quarians are confirmed)? It's really not his MO. Humanity First was always his pickup line. Why save everyone he hates for an astounding amount of money while he could just save Humanity for a fraction of the cost? He was never that much of a philanthropist. And why would he not have taken the first ticket on the human Ark and let Shepard deal with the rest? Seriously, this guy has a way out and decide to sacrifice himself? Does that even seem like him? Plus according to what we learned from EDI in ME2, I don't think the amount of money The Illusive Man was able to commit was that big (not when just building the Normandy SR2 and rebuilding Shepard severely drained his resources). So I'd rule him out.
That leaves the Citadel Council (that's more in line with something they would do) because not only they could move the actual money for the whole thing only them had the actual power to conceal an effort that huge over several years. Without anyone noticing the construction of several enormous arks or one space station almost as big as the Citadel. That takes real effort to keep that endeavor implicating 100,000 people from different species such a secret in the Mass Effect universe, especially from organizations or people like Cerberus and the Shadow Broker. One can't help but notice however (and that's one of the many story loopholes in Andromeda) that Liara knew about it all, not because she inherited the files of the Shadow Broker after his death or because of her connections but simply because Ryder's father asked her to be on board. Well, she refused but then made no mention at any point of the stunning development during the course of ME2 (about the time the ark Hyperion left the Galaxy) or ME3? My female Shepard would be very sad to know that her sweetheart has been holding out on her

BUT... If it was indeed the Council behind the Initiative... Why all the cloak and dagger? Why not tell it straight on to Gierson at least? And why kill her? What purpose could be achieved there from the Council point of view? Well at least the Council involvement would explain the presence of a "retired" Spectre among the pathfinders.
So there's the last with the network, the knowledge, the money and maybe the motivation... The Shadow Broker himself. That was before he was killed by Liara and Shep, of course. Considering the amount of cutthroats and pirates inside the Initiative his involvement wouldn't be even far-fetched... But then again, what would have been the point? Starting another shadow empire elsewhere? Good for him but why would he planned to stay in our Galaxy then (he was killed around the time the four first arks left the Galaxy). And then why would Liara find no mention of that in his files? Then again we've just been shown that Liara was not the most reliable person in the world. How many secrets did she actually hide?
So most likely candidate for the benefactor... The Council but then that goes against what everyone think about this issue. For some reason, everyone want it to be the Illusive Man... I really don't see the point.
Other than that... I forgot to mention what really killed the characters interactions in Andromeda for me... They got completely rid of the Paragon/Renegade system to replace it by a choice between a "I'm a joker" or a "I'm an asshole". No wonder I'm not particularly invested in building my character...