Some of my Mass Effect Headcanon
Shepard learns the ‘dominate’ move in Mass Effect 2-3 because of their interactions with the prothean beacon. The protheans had technology that directly interacted with their minds. javik can also gain knowledge of his surroundings simply through touching objects. So my head cannon is basically that shepards brain was altered to be more like that of a protheans who also had connections to the Asari. Which explains why Shepard can do this asari mind-meld domination move on enemies. if it's unlocked.
I like to think that Shepards clone survived. if Shepard survived everything from ME1-3 then I don’t think it’s implausible for their clone to have survived falling off the ship. It’s hard not to feel empathy for their clone. They’re literally a 2+ y/o adult created to have their organs harvested and not treated like a person. They decided they’d rather be Shepard than ‘shepard’s clone’. The clone surviving would also create a lot of fun narrative opportunities.