History Characters / MassEffect1AntagonistsAndNpcs

* NebulousEvilOrganization: Cerberus has people ''everywhere'', [[NGOSuperpower is extremely powerful]], and damn hard to track down.

* EnemyMine: With Shepard and his/her RagTagBunchOfMisfits in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', particularly with the idea of employing alien operatives.

* BadassArmy: Aside from the two basic types of troops (Assault Troopers and Nemeses), Cerberus soldiers in the third game are all badass. For example, Centurions are PowerArmor-wearing cyborgs with rocket boots and electrified batons that wield Mattock rifles and are highly skilled in infantry tactics (and will resort to GrenadeSpam if that doesn't work). A single Cerberus cruiser is also viewed as a significant threat to a small Alliance battle group, and superior to the [[CoolShip ''Normandy'' itself.]] Cerberus's military manages to consistently outwit and overpower the most badass organizations in the galaxy including the salarian STG, the turian Blackwatch special forces, and the Citadel Defense Force. Campbell even comments that, with Cerberus's technology [[spoiler:at that point augmented with [[AbusivePrecursors Reaper]] tech]], the salarians may as well have been throwing rocks. Shepard and his/her squadmates are the only ones who manage to have any notable success against them until the end.

* AscendedExtra[=/=]ChekhovsArmy: Became far more important starting with the second game.

** Subverted in a conversation Shepard can have with him on the Normandy- he was approached by Chakwas to come back during ''Mass Effect 2'', but didn't trust Shepard due to Cerberus. Shepard can forgive him for it.

[[WMG: [[spoiler:Doctor]] Conrad Verner]]

[[WMG:[[spoiler:Doctor]] Conrad Verner]]

[[WMG:Conrad Verner]]

* ArchEnemy: The most personal adversary to Commander Shepard, by far.[[note]]Though Kai Lung is the only HeroKiller Shepard faces.[[/note]]

* FantasticRacism: A little more than Ashley, especially where turians are concerned, but Shepard can help him to see past this point of view, and his datapad found at the ''Normandy'''s [[spoiler:crash site]] indicates that he had grown to respect his otherworldly comrades.

** Also, [[spoiler: if the Council die, their replacements are evidently this. The original Council was at least nice enough to hear Shepard out and offer to reinstate him/her. The new Council won't even see him/her, with the exception of Anderson or Udina. And we all know how nice Udina is.]]

* UngratefulBastard: [[spoiler: Even if the player saves their lives in from Sovereign, they will still offer no help whatsoever in stopping the Collectors beyond the reinstatement of Shepard's Spectre status. While Tevos seems grateful and Valern seems neutral and they both deny the Reapers' existence, and Sparatus continues to be a complete {{jerkass}} to Shepard.]] The fact you're working for what is essentially a terrorist group [[JerkassHasAPoint may have something to do with it.]]

** [[DevilsAdvocate However,]] they are not necessarily ''refusing'' to help Shepard per se, and the turian councilor even gives Shepard a lead on where to go next; they can be persuaded over time to contribute more forces. When speaking to Admiral Hackett afterward, Paragon!Shepard tells him that the Council is simply caught off-guard by both the invasion and the Alliance's mostly theoretical plan for a counterattack (at that point, all Shepard has is plans for a superweapon that ''might'' destroy the Reapers, with not much else to back it up). The war room guards, Campbell and Westmoreland, also make a similar point...

* GuestStarPartyMember: Fights with Shepard directly during the intro level of ''Mass Effect 3''. Breaks the trend set by the first two games, in that he survives this role.

* BizarreAlienBiology: She contains the genetic material of her predecessors, which allows her to lay fertile eggs without mating. In addition, rachni communicate through whalesong-like sounds (which may be partially telepathic, since they can be [[SpaceIsNoisy heard in a near-vacuum]]) that they refer to as "singing".

* ArchEnemy: The most personal adversary to Commander Shepard, by far.

* UpThroughTheRanks: He spent four years as an enlisted man and volunteered for several high-risk exploration assignments beyond the Charon Relay before receiving a commission as a second lieutenant in 2156.

* {{Badass}}: Orphaned at 12, showed chops in science and leadership, enlisted, became a frontier explorer, fought with distinction in the First Contact War, climbed from lowly enlisted to the top flag office in the Alliance navy.

* MeaningfulName: In Literature/TheBible, ''"Talitha koum"'' is the phrase Jesus speaks when bringing a young girl BackFromTheDead.

* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: After EDI [[spoiler: is unshackled and saves the ship from the Collectors]], their relationship changes. EDI even stops calling him "Mr. Moreau" and starts referring to him as "Jeff." Kasumi invokes this word-for-word.

* FantasticRacism: While it's mentioned several times in the game, the novel ''[[Literature/MassEffectRevelation Revelation]]'' clearly show his hatred for humanity.

** The point of the second game. Shepard has had intense, high-level specialist military training, and possibly genetic enhancements and pseudo-psychic powers. Conrad has nothing of the sort. Leave the saving of the galaxy to Shepard. Somewhat subverted in the Paragon ending, though, because Conrad [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming finally gets that there's more than just one way to be a hero.]]

Garrus's "ThatOneCase": a corrupt salarian geneticist who used people as living organ banks. He fled the Citadel on a ship carrying hostages, and C-Sec countermanded Garrus's order to ShootTheDog. You can find and confront Saleon, now going by "Doctor Heart", in Garrus's first-game "loyalty mission".

* HollywoodCyborg: Let's Sovereign implant him with tech.

* WhatTheHellHero: If he survives, he sends Shepard a message tearing him/her apart for working with the people who tortured him. Just be glad you never have to meet him in person.

** A Spectre who went rogue and gathered an army of krogan, geth and rachni to fight for them? Sound familiar, ''Paragon'' Shepard? For what it's worth, the main difference lies in who they're fighting against.

** [[Spoiler:In hindsight, this is similar to how the Leviathans took over the people of the mining company for their experiments]].

* BadassArmy: Aside from the two basic types of troops (Assault Troopers and Nemeses), Cerberus soldiers in the third game are all badass. For example, Centurions are PowerArmor-wearing cyborgs with rocket boots and electrified batons that wield Mattock rifles and are highly skilled in infantry tactics (and will resort to GrenadeSpam if that doesn't work). A single Cerberus cruiser is also viewed as a significant threat to a small Alliance battle group, and superior to the [[CoolShip ''Normandy'' itself.]] Cerberus's military manages to consistently outwit and overpower the most badass organizations in the galaxy including the salarian STG, the turian Blackwatch special forces, and the Citadel Defense Force. Campbell even comments that, with Cerberus's technology [[spoiler:at that point augmented with [[AbusivePrecursors Reaper]] tech]], the salarians may as well have been throwing rocks. Shepard and his squadmates are the only ones who manage to have any notable success against them until the end.

* EliteMooks: According to Cambell, Cerberus troops in general are this compared to Alliance marines and other common soldiers. For the most part this holds true in gameplay as well, even for basic grunts. Compared to the basic merc troopers from ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', as well as the Alliance and Hegemony troops you fight in the ''Arrival'' DLC, the basic Cerberus grunt, the Assault Trooper, has slightly more health, melee attacks, stronger weapons, more mobility thanks to their rocket boots, can roll to dodge powers, can see through smoke, and can throw [[OneHitKill far stronger]] grenades with better accuracy. This is the result of [[spoiler:Enhancements made from Reaper husk technology]], However, Shepard and his squad get even more {{badass}} in this game, and their selection of weapons gets even stronger, so it balances out.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: He tries to paint himself as this, but it's averted in that nothing he says justifies what he attempts to do. He even tries to accuse Shepard of [[spoiler: being responsible for Kate Bowman's death]] when Balak was the one who [[spoiler: set the bomb and triggers it if Shepard refuses to let him escape.]]