History MassEffect3 / TropesSToZ

'''Mysterious Figure:''' You're just cybernetics! Scarred, worn-out Cerberus tech!\\

** A Spectre named Jondum Bau asks you to stop an indoctrinated hanar. However, the hanar uploads a virus that will take out the defense systems of Kahje, the hanar and drell homeworld, and has a human accomplice strangle Jondum Bau so Bau will not be able to stop the virus. That forces you to choose between either taking the Renegade Interrupt and saving Bau from the accomplice (which gets you a Spectre Unit from Bau but costs you Kahje), or not taking the interrupt and stopping the virus (which gets you Kahje's support, but costs you the Spectre unit). The third option requires you to download the Kasumi Goto DLC in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''. If Kasumi survived the Omega-4 Relay, she will stop the indoctrinated hanar's virus, and Shepard will automatically save Bau, though she dies (or at least, fakes it without telling you) in the process if her loyalty mission in the second game wasn't completed... Unless you secured her loyalty by getting her dead partner's memory implant, in which Shepard will see right through the ruse and tell her to come out once Bau leaves the room.
** Din Korlack, the [[AssInAmbassador unpleasant volus ambassador]] from the first ''Mass Effect'' game, is kidnapped by bounty hunters for his past work with Cerberus. After you save Din from the bounty hunters, Shepard will ask Din to give them the location of the turian colony about to be attacked. Din will demur and offer you the Volus Bombing Fleet as a bribe so that his culpability will not be revealed and Cerberus will not know he betrayed them. The Paragon choice is to save the turian colony, but this just prevents a loss in War Assets. The Renegade choice is to accept the Volus Bombing Fleet, but this will result in a loss in one of your turian War Assets. ''However,'' if you downloaded the Zaeed Massani DLC in the previous game, and he survived the Omega-4 Relay, ''and'' he's still loyal, [[TakeAThirdOption Zaeed will be part of those interrogating Din but will kill the bounty hunters upon Shepard's arrival]], and you can persuade Din to give you the information ''and'' the bombing fleet.

* SafeZoneHopeSpot: Sanctuary is toted as being a safe haven for people to wait out the invasion. Revealed to be [[spoiler:a Cerberus base using refugees to create controlled Husks]]. [[FromBadToWorse And then Reapers show up]].

* SawedOffShotgun: No one saws off the barrel of the mass effect enabled linear accelerators which function as guns in this setting, but the AT-12 Raider certainly comes close to duplicating the ''function'' of one. It is a shotgun with only two shots before it needs to swap the thermal clip, and a lot of wide spread when fired, but those shots hit ''hard''. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is a weapon of batarian manufacture.

** The mission to Menae, the moon of the turian homeworld Palaven, is essentially an excuse for a nice, long scenery porn run, as you wander down canyons that end at magnificent vistas of the burning planet, Reapers walking across the surface, and lovingly-detailed shots of crashed turian ships. The amount of destruction also overlaps with SceneryGorn.

** The War Assets in ''Mass Effect 3'' aren't really consistent with scale. Certain assets have an oddly disproportionate effect on how they impact your total assets, such as individual, exceptional characters, ships, or small infantry units having as much impact as entire military divisions or fleets. Others are reserved specifically for either scientific work on the Crucible, or for the final assault on London, but even then have a disproportionate impact, such as four individuals and a cruiser having as much impact as hundreds of quarian heavy warships.

** The Tuchanka decision is made completely irrelevant in one of the endings. No matter what choice was made about the krogan, [[spoiler:in the Synthesis ending all krogan, just like all other species, are turned into some higher life-form.]] Therefore both the option of Shepard sacrificing [[spoiler:Mordin]] to stop the risk of a possible krogan war of conquest if it turns out they can't limit their overpopulation, and the option of [[spoiler:Mordin]] sacrificing himself to cure the krogan are rendered completely moot.

** TheStinger [[spoiler:reveals that the entire trilogy was being recounted to a child by their grandfather. He promises to tell them "one more story about the Shepard" before the screen fades. A message follows about Shepard "becoming legendary".]]

* ShownTheirWork: [[spoiler:In the Citadel DLC Clone Shepard mentions that they need the real Shepard's finger prints since they're not determined by DNA]].

---->'''Mysterious Figure:''' I am [[spoiler:Commander Shepard]]!\\
'''Shepard:''' [[PretenderDiss Are you kidding me?]] [[LoonyFan Conrad Verner]] is better at [[spoiler:being me]] than you!\\
'''Mysterious Figure:''' My team is better than yours!\\
'''Shepard:''' You don't have a team! You have [[{{Mooks}} minions]]! And you're [[AttackAttackAttack running]] [[BadBoss out!]]\\

** At face value the Multiplayer seems little more then a tacked on experience to help with the Campaign readiness. But once you get into it, it has a surprising amount of depth and content, as well as loads of unlocks. It also sports a very impressive drop-in drop-out system, and great netcode. It very effectively breaks the tradition of great campaigns having terrible, tacked on multiplayers, and a lot of players spend most of their time in Multiplayer.

** The Alliance is just a small step behind them. If you pay some attention to your surroundings while fighting through Grissom Academy, you'll notice that the academy's symbol is just about everywhere you look. The ''Normandy'' herself is positively littered with Alliance sigils - you can barely go five meters without stepping on one painted onto the floor, or spotting at least one on the nearest wall. The only reason they aren't as infamous as Cerberus is that they tend to be more subtle with the colour choices. Makes you wonder why the Alliance deems it necessary; one should think the big-ass markings on the outer hull are more than sufficient to show the ship's allegiance.

* SlapSlapKiss: If you romanced Jack in ''[=ME2=]'', she will punch Shepard in the face before giving him a passionate kiss.

* SociopathicSoldier: The [=CAT6=] mercenary group from "Citadel" consists of ex-soldiers who were dishonorably discharged for criminal behavior. The name itself is the term for a Systems Alliance dishonourable discharge.

* SoldierVsWarrior: In the [[GreatOffscreenWar Krogan Rebellions]], this was the whole dynamic between the turians and the krogan. The turians are organised, disciplined and collectivist; every adult turian is expected to perform military service at some point, and their children are raised to understand the importance of following orders, understanding protocol, and performing duties earnestly. The krogan were born on one of the harshest planets on the galaxy before they nuked it into oblivion, and their society is extremely [[TheSocialDarwinist Darwinistic]]; individualistic, proud and tough, but also unreliable and unpredictable (which is a double-edged sword), they are peerless as shock-troopers, berserkers and guns-for-hire. Initially the war was [[CurbStompBattle one-sided in the krogan's favour]], but the deployment of an [[DepopulationBomb engineered sterility plague]] turned the krogan's main tactic, WeHaveReserves, into a liability. The turians were able to push back the krogan and eventually win the war, but even at a greatly reduced combat strength, the krogan remain a force to be reckoned with, as ''Mass Effect 3'' demonstrates. This difference is glaringly exposed during Priority Tuchanka where the Krogan warriors get bogged down by a bad road having not planned a proper route to the op area, causing a timed coordinated air ground assault typical of organized militaries staffed by soldiers, to fail.

* SpentShellsShower: The N7 Typhoon is a light machine gun which fits in the assault rifle slot and is one of the heaviest regular weapons a character can wield. It is capable of generating [[MoreDakka a ridiculous amount of dakka]], and has spent bits continuously flying out of an ejector port while it fires. It [[FridgeLogic might seem illogical]] that a weapon that fires ammunition shaved from solid block has casings, but closer inspection reveals that they are not "casings" at all but individual cells from the many thermal clips the weapon requires, ejected as fast as possible to keep it cool.

** The Volus in multiplayer. A normal amount of shield points but a ''pitiful'' 150 hitpoints and only average Fitness bonuses. However the Adept is a surprisingly powerful offensive character and the Engineer is now a cornerstone of defensive strategies with its support abilities.

* StatusInflictionAttack: Many powers in the game inflict a status effect in addition to damage, which not only causes a secondary effect to the target, it also primes them for a Power Combo, which can be set off by hitting them with a different power. For example, Overload and Disruptor Ammo both shock targets, which can stun them for a brief time and set them up for a Tech Burst. Incendiary Ammo, Incinerate, and Carnage all set the target on fire, causing additional damage for a short time and setting up a Fire Explosion. Cryo Ammo weakens the target's armor, makes them more vulnerable to damage, and slows or freezes them (targets that have armor, shields, or barriers are slowed, targets without are frozen) and sets them up for a Cryo Explosion. And Warp weakens the target's armor and makes them more vulnerable to further damage while also setting them up for a Biotic Explosion.

** The appropriately-named Sticky Grenade, the Infiltrator-specific grenade power. It can be upgraded to blast through armor more effectively, as well as to arm itself on a timer and serve as a proximity mine should it fail to land on a target.

** Cover Busters: Enemies who will ZergRush your position and force you out of cover. Either melee only or have very short range attacks.

** If Mordin Solus died in the Suicide Mission in ''[=ME2=]'', Padok Wiks (the Special Tasks Group commander on Sur'Kesh) assumes his role in the narrative, and can fulfill exactly the same role as Mordin. The game even calls attention to it - Joker takes to calling Wiks "Not-Mordin."

** If Tali did not survive the Suicide Mission, then Admiral Daro'Xen will replace Tali's role in the Geth Dreadnought mission, and Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay will replace Tail's role in the Rannoch Reaper Base mission. [[spoiler:And just like Tali, Raan kills herself if you allow the geth to wipe out the quarians. Unlike Tali, though, Raan doesn't jump off a cliff; she shoots herself in the head, and unlike in Tali's case there is no "fake Paragon interrupt" to attempt to stop her. Also, just like Tali, Raan will kill Legion if you allow the quarians to wipe out the geth; unlike Tali, instead of using a knife, Raan just shoots Legion and you won't get a Renegade interrupt to shoot Legion yourself three times]].

* SwordAndGun: In addition to the standard two-gun carrying capacity, N7 Shadows and N7 Slayers come equipped with mono-molecular-edged swords on their backs that they draw to preform their melee attacks.

** Subverted on Rannoch, where [[spoiler:siding with the geth will cause Tali to jump off a cliff. Shepard runs towards her, a Paragon Interrupt flashes onscreen... and Shepard arrives a moment too late.]]

* TakeUpMySword: [[spoiler:The task of developing and building the Crucible has been passed on through countless cycles of reaping, each one contributing new discoveries about the Reapers and new technological inventions to make it into a working weapon against the Reapers]].

** Played with on the galaxy map. If you activate the ''Normandy'''s scanner often enough to attract the Reapers to the system you're in, you only have a short time to escape before they catch you and incur a critical mission failure. However, if you enter a planet's or moon's orbit for scanning or sightseeing, time freezes and you can dally around for as long as you want without the Reapers bothering you or even ''moving''.

** At the conclusion of the Poisoned Medigel mission on the Citadel, [[spoiler:Conrad will do this for Shepard, complete with a dramatic slow-motion dive. If you completed Jenna's sidequest in the first game then [[SubvertedTrope he is not shot after all]].]]

** In the ''Citadel'' DLC, Maya Brooks takes an assault rifle bullet meant for Shepard when [=CAT6=] mercenaries ambush them in a restaurant. [[spoiler:Becomes less impressive when she turns out to be in league with the mercs from the beginning, but the hit still seems to have been real regardless, or was at least faked very convincingly.]]

* TamerAndChaster: Both plays this trope straight and inverts it compared to the previous games: your squadmates now wear more conservative clothing this time around (the former squadmate who wore nothing but tattoos from the waist up included), and mentions of sex outside of romance subplots take a back seat to trying to save the galaxy. On the other hand, the sex scenes are even more risque than the first game, showing much more skin than before.
* TeamPet: KEI-9 in the Collector's Edition, who is a robotic dog that was left behind by an Alliance engineer during the ''Normandy'''s retrofit, and exists to walk around in the ship's shuttle bay and be referred to by Shepard as a "good dog".
* TechnicolorEyes: For the first time in the trilogy, Shepard is not restricted to the standard range of human eye colors but can have more exotic iris colors like white or [[RedEyesTakeWarning red]]. [[spoiler:In the Synthesis ending, ''everyone'' gets glowing eyes (as well as very faintly glowing dermal-circuitry) depending on their original iris-color (though in the ending slides they're all just green, presumably as visual shorthand). Joker's are bright green, Liara's are bright blue, Traynor's and Kaidan's are bright gold, James and Ashley get shimmering bronze-gold, EDI has teal and so on]].

* WarIsHell: As might be expected, taking place during the full Reaper invasion Shepard has been warning everyone about means the game has near endless examples of the trauma the Reaper war has already inflicted going on in the background. Bear in mind that with one exception, all of the following examples are conversations that Shepard literally ''cannot do anything about''. They just have to stand there and listen as peoples lives are shattered.

** The Raloi, who are mentioned in passing as a race that was only discovered 18 months previously. When the Reapers show up, they immediately throw their hands up, inform the Galaxy that the Reapers aren't their problem and they're going to destroy all their advanced tech so the Reapers hopefully won't see them as a threat. Their fate is unknown.
** The pre-Extended Cut endings were this for the entire galaxy, which was what led to its creation in the first place. Even with the Extended Cut, Twitter posts from developers are the only source of information on the fate of the entire population of the Citadel, [[spoiler:which was left in a very precarious state in in the endgame]]. Not one single Citadel-bound NPC (that isn't a former squadmate of Shepard's) is explicitly mentioned or shown anywhere in the endgame or epilogues, and the ending slides added by the Extended Cut only reveal the fates of ''former'' squadmates. What happens to the current crew of the Normandy [[spoiler:after they leave the planet they crash landed on]] is very much a mystery [[spoiler:though the high EMS Destroy ending where Shepard lives does imply they'll go back for him/her]].

** The salarian dalatrass offers the full aid of the Salarian Union in building the Crucible, provided you sabotage the genophage cure. She specifically points out that nobody will know what you did, as the countermeasures they have in place will initially make it look like the cure was successful, and when the continued presence of the genophage is discovered it will look like a good-faith error. [[spoiler:Depending on which characters have survived this and past games, and which decisions you make here, your complicity ''can'' be discovered, leading to [[WhatTheHellHero a severe criticism of Shepard]].]]

* WouldNotShootACivilian: The [=CAT6=] mercenary group from the ''Citadel'' DLC is composed of soldiers dishonorably discharged from the Alliance, many of whom also have criminal records. However, after the sushi restaurant shootout in the first level, EDI notes that, according the news, "Civilian casualties seem to be restricted to... [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten fish]]."

** After Cerberus began to really dig in to the technology left from the Collector base, the Illusive Man began having his scientists killed after they had finished their assignments. "Contract terminated" was the euphemism in use.

** You can deal with the Geth and EDI this way too. Pissed at the Geth for siding with the Reapers then pleading for your help when their deal didn't turn out so well for them? Never respected synthetic life and only allied with them out of convenience? You can string them along, broker that peace, get the extra fleet and corps to soak up damage for the Crucible to the point that firing it needn't kill you but then sacrifice EDI and these new geth allies in the process.

* ZerothLawRebellion: [[spoiler:The Catalyst turned its creators into the first Reaper, which the Leviathan DLC confirms to be Harbinger. [[SelfFulfillingProphecy It also reveals that it was created more or less specifically to prevent this sort of thing]], and refuses to acknowledge the irony.]] The Leviathan DLC reveals that [[spoiler:the Leviathans, the creators of the Catalyst, don't actually disapprove of its actions and believe it to be acting on behalf of their wishes.]]

* VoodooShark: The Extended Cut attempts to resolve the question raised in the original endings of how your squad mates got onto the ''Normandy''. This is explained by your party members getting injured and Shepard calling the ''Normandy'' in for an evac. This begs the question of how the ''Normandy'' was able to get down from dogfighting in orbit in a matter of seconds, why an evac would need the ''Normandy'' instead of one of shuttles already on Earth, and why Harbinger stops firing and just stares at the ''Normandy'' during the entire process instead of shooting it down. And then there is the question of why, if it's that simple for the ''Normandy'' to fly right up to the beam even with Harbinger right there, they don't do so again after the ground team is seemingly wiped out and Harbinger leaves. Overall, it flies in the face of the entire point for why the ground assault was staged in the first place, namely it was considered too dangerous to take a frigate class ship that close to the front lines.

** If Shepard has the Spacer background, Hackett informs Shepard that their mother is still alive, promoted to Rear Admiral, working on the Crucible, and that she's damn proud of what they're doing out there.
*** Also said by Shepard's mother when you call her during the Citadel DLC.

---->You did good, son/child. You did good. I'm proud of you.

* SpaceIsNoisy: {{Handwave}}d; Steve Cortez twice refers to "auditory emulators" to explain why there is noise in space; he mentions that he sometimes turns them off so that he can watch ships go by in complete silence.

* [[NationsoftheWorldMontage Species of the Galaxy Montage]]: [[spoiler:If you've done your due dilligene, the leadup to the final assault in London shows all the factions that pulled together against the Reapers, and that can include Captain Kirrahe's squad of Salarians, Wrex's krogans, Quarians, Geth, and so on. The extended cut shows other worlds fighting the Reapers and celebrating their victory, specifically the homeworlds of asari, turians and krogan. In the epilogue you see brief glances of even more worlds]].
* SpiderTank: Reaper Destroyers, the go-to heavy ground-based combat unit for their forces. At around 160-200 meters tall, they're less than 1/10th the size of the actual Sovereign-class Reaper ships (around 2 km), but still well into HumongousMecha territory.

-> '''Admiral Hackett:''' [[spoiler:Nothing's happening, the Crucible's not firing.]]

->'''Shepard:''' I thought ''you'' were a Reaper.\\

->[[spoiler:'''Liara''': My name is Dr. Liara T'Soni. Herein lies the recounting of our war with the Reapers.]]

----> '''Tali:''' And for the record? Still totally worth it.

->'''Wrex'''/'''James:''' Shepard, you've got a plan for getting us out of here, right?\\

** This is how the Illusive Man justifies turning on Shepard during Priority: Mars, saying that they were merely a tool meant to serve a purpose, and that he doesn't need them anymore. [[spoiler:However, this is contradicted by many of his actions in ''Mass Effect 2'', such as investing so heavily in resurrecting Shepard to begin with when there were far cheaper options available, and overruling Miranda's suggestion of implanting Shepard with a control chip. Sure enough, this is not his real reason, since he's been indoctrinated.]]

* SuperPrototype: The player-controlled Phoenix Adepts and Vanguards play this trope straight when compared to their production-line [[BrainwashedAndCrazy (and completely Cerberus loyal)]] counterpart, [[EvilCounterpart the Dragoon.]] To drive the point home, a Phoenix spec'd for maximum biotic damage can one-shot a group of Dragoons with a single [[WhipItGood Biotic Smash.]]

* WhipItGood: The Cerberus defectors (or 'Phoenix troopers') who join the Alliance seem to have dual energy whips as their weapons, incorporating them into almost all of their attacks. Oddly, these are nowhere to be seen on loyal Cerberus troops. Until the "Retaliation" update introducing the Cerberus Dragoon, which is the finalized, mass-produced version of the Phoenix trooper. In addition to their iconic energy whips (which are [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience gold instead of blue]]) they come equipped with Hornet submachine guns and heavy armor, but lack shields or barriers and the Phoenix troopers' more advanced biotic abilities, making the Phoenix something of a SuperPrototype.

** The very last choice in the storyline; your options boil down to [[spoiler:one option that will very likely result in Shepard's death -- and whether or not Shepard survives, ''will'' result in the destruction of EDI and, if they haven't already been wiped out, the Geth -- another that will result in Shepard's body being burned to ashes in a BrainUploading process, and yet another that will render Shepard DeaderThanDead, with not even their consciousness surviving in any way, shape or form]]. Oh, and if you either have the Extended Cut DLC or are playing the ''Legendary Edition'', and refuse to take any of the choices, [[spoiler:the Reapers win, at least until the next cycle]].

** There's a TowersOfHanoi game in the arcade of the Citadel DLC. Try and play it and Shepard will go, "I don't think so." Several of Bioware's previous games have included TowersOfHanoi as [[StockVideoGamePuzzle puzzles]] -- including ''VideoGame/MassEffect1''.

--->'''Conrad:''' I dunno, seems like a backwards step to me. You can still let the guns cool down themselves though, right?\\

** Can be turned up to eleven with Rannoch. One end to Rannoch's arc results in [[spoiler:saving the geth and sacrificing the quarians, Tali included. Legion also dies to give the geth true consciousness]]. One of the endings to [=ME3=] [[spoiler:destroys the Reapers, but at the expense of wiping high-end synthetic life like the geth]], thereby rendering [[spoiler: Legion]]'s sacrifice and [[spoiler: Shepard's deliberate sacrifice of the quarians]] pointless.
** The Tuchanka decision is made completely irrelevant in one of the endings. No matter what choice was made about the krogan, [[spoiler: in the Synthesis ending all krogan, just like all other species, are turned into some higher life-form.]] Therefore both the option of Shepard sacrificing [[spoiler:Mordin]] to stop the risk of a possible krogan war of conquest if it turns out they can't limit their overpopulation, and the option of [[spoiler:Mordin]] sacrificing himself to cure the krogan are rendered completely moot.

* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler: Precisely what happened to the Citadel-based characters is left unresolved, but WordOfGod is that [[https://twitter.com/macwalterslives/status/177930229329829888 "bad times" happened]] to many of them.]]

* ShownTheirWork: [[spoiler: In the Citadel DLC Clone Shepard mentions that they need the real Shepard's finger prints since they're not determined by DNA]].

--->'''Mysterious Figure:''' I am [[spoiler:Commander Shepard]]!\\
'''Shepard:''' [[PretenderDiss Are you kidding me?]] [[LoonyFan Conrad Verner]] is better at [[spoiler: being me]] than you!\\

--->You did good, son/child. You did good. I'm proud of you.

* SpotlightStealingSquad: Liara is required for three missions (four, if the From Ashes DLC is played), and is given many scenes with Shepard that other characters will not have. [[spoiler: Before the Extended Cut, Liara is the last person Shepard thinks about if his romantic partner was not Ashley or Kaidan]]. In the Citadel DLC, Wrex does this on a [[DownplayedTrope slighter scale]]. While Shepard is still the star, Wrex still gets more dialogue than the others, and [[CharacterShilling talked up at how great he is]] by the others.

-->'''Joker''': So, a real live Prothean, huh? Has Liara stopped bouncing yet? I'm guessing there may have been some bouncing.

--->'''Garrus:''' How do ''I'' not have one of those?

-->Please don't touch that.\\

-->Perhaps "don't touch that" means something different in your language?
-->I would rather not refer this matter to the human embassy.
-->Touch it all you want. You'll never find out what it does.
-->Are humans really so deprived of stimulus that they must insist on touching everything?
-->I'm afraid if you keep touching that, you risk a diplomatic incident.
-->Further manipulation of this object is grounds for further admonishment.
-->Really! You must stop touching that!
-->Once more, the Salarian Union formally requests that you not touch that.
-->Fine! If you're so enamored of that object, then I suggest you get your own feces analyzer.
-->We've already been down that road. No more.

--->Please don't play with the waterfall.\\

** Dr. Eva is impossible to kill during the chase sequence, as her shields instantly regenerate when damaged. [[spoiler: This is necessary as her "body" is needed for later in the game when EDI takes it over.]]

* {{Superweapon}}: The 'Crucible', the culmination of millennia worth of [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture flinging an ever more complete light into the future]], when connected to the citadel, it is capable of wiping out every ''single'' synthetic being in the galaxy, including the synthetic [[AbusivePrecursors Reapers]], and when it becomes apparent that the Reapers cannot be defeated through conventional combat, the attention of everyone in the galaxy turns towards ensuring its completion and defence. [[spoiler: It is later discovered that it can also perform an {{inverted|trope}} VillainOverride, or subject the entire galaxy to {{Transhumanism}}, which renders the Reapers' objective moot, and sets up PhilosophicalChoiceEndings]].

** If Mordin Solus died in the Suicide Mission in ''[=ME2=]'', Padok Wiks (the Special Tasks Group commander on Sur'Kesh) assumes his role in the narrative, and can fulfill exactly the same role as Mordin. The game even calls attention to it -- Joker takes to calling Wiks "Not-Mordin."

** If Tali did not survive the Suicide Mission, then Admiral Daro'Xen will replace Tali's role in the Geth Dreadnought mission, and Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay will replace Tail's role in the Rannoch Reaper Base mission. [[spoiler: And just like Tali, Raan kills herself if you allow the geth to wipe out the quarians. Unlike Tali, though, Raan doesn't jump off a cliff; she shoots herself in the head, and unlike in Tali's case there is no "fake Paragon interrupt" to attempt to stop her. Also, just like Tali, Raan will kill Legion if you allow the quarians to wipe out the geth; unlike Tali, instead of using a knife, Raan just shoots Legion and you won't get a Renegade interrupt to shoot Legion yourself three times]].

** The mission to cure the genophage can result in gaining support from either the salarians or the krogan. Depending on your decisions in past games and your later actions in this game, [[spoiler: it is possible to gain the support of ''both'' after the Cerberus attack on the Citadel]].

--->''"You can't help me."''
** A conventional example can be found while on the [[spoiler: geth dreadnought]], where Tali saves Shepard from falling to their death when the elevator is damaged by a rocket.

** If [[spoiler:Wrex]] is still alive by this game, he can withdraw all Krogan forces from defending Earth if [[spoiler: he learns that you have conspired in sabotaging the genophage cure. As he states it, if you are willing to see to their extinction, he is entitled to ensure humanity dies with them.]]

--->''"Unless we're planning to *talk* the Reapers to death, the committee is a waste of time."''

--->'''Shepard:''' I don't know how we'll win this, but we will. [[spoiler:Even if it kills me]].

--->'''Shepard:''' I'm just a soldier, Anderson, I'm no politician.\\

** Protheans in general -- Javik refers to himself as the avatar of Vengeance, and suggest Shepard may be this cycle's avatar of Victory.

-->'''Wrex''': This is why I love hanging out with you guys. Why shoot something once, when you can shoot it forty-six times?

** If you sabotaged the genophage cure and Wrex is the krogan leader, [[spoiler: you will need to kill him on the Citadel when he discovers your betrayal. Bailey will tell Shepard that they will have to do this to Wrex's body, as they simply do not have time or resources for a funeral or even a coffin large enough to fit him.]]

** The Reapers have been active for ''billions'' of years. [[spoiler: The Catalyst is older than the Reapers themselves and has watched countless cycles of life evolving and being destroyed]].
** The ''Leviathan'' DLC reveals [[spoiler: the Leviathans have been around even longer than the Catalyst (considering they created the Catalyst, which then turned on them). They've apparently spent those billions of years passively watching every harvest and mastering the game of Hide & Seek]].

** Several non-Priority missions have to be completed soon after receiving them or you fail automatically. Tuchanka: Bomb has to be completed within three missions of getting it, while the Grissom Academy mission is automatically failed if you don't do it before Priority: The Citadel II. In a different vein, when attacking the Cerberus space station, you have only a little more than a minute from EDI telling you that they're going to vent the hangar before they do so. That last is ''very'' easy to avoid -- if you do realize that for once the squad's banter about urgency actually holds water and find the ladder.

* TiredOfRunning: Shepard accidentally woke up a Reaper tank and their first response is to just get away, but Shepard realized that by running all they would do is delay a massive battle and more lives will be lost because [[spoiler: the Reaper was controlling/influencing the geth forces]]. So Shepard decides to stand their ground and [[spoiler: calls in the Migrant Fleet for a precision orbital strike]].
* TomatoInTheMirror: {{Discussed}}. Near the end of the game, Shepard watches some videos in the Illusive Man's base that confirm that, yes, Shepard really ''was'' brain dead and wonders, "Maybe I'm just a high-tech VI that ''thinks'' it's Commander Shepard?" Whichever squadmate is with you at the time will vehemently disagree with the notion. The case for Shepard being the original is more likely since they retain the Prothean Cipher, which was implanted in their subconscious. Furthermore, [[spoiler: an actual Clone Shepard appears in the ''Citadel DLC'' who ''doesn't'' share their counterparts memories and laments that the Illusive Man preferred to bring back a corpse rather than a copy]].
* TooDumbToLive: The Rannoch Reaper. Its one threat is Shepard standing on an open cliff using [[spoiler: a targeting laser to help the quarian fleet pinpoint it]]. But instead of simply horizontally sweeping the cliff with its OneHitKill beam, it slowly vertically sweeps the beam forward and up, giving Shepard ample time to scurry to the other side of the cliff and [[spoiler: continue giving the quarians targeting data]]. Or, since the Reaper is only vulnerable when trying to shoot, why doesn't it just walk over to Shepard and ''smash'' the cliff they're on?

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', your four alien crew members were a mercenary (Wrex), a C-Sec operative (Garrus), an archaeologist (Liara), and a wandering teenager (Tali). By the time you hit this game, those same characters have become [[spoiler: the de facto leader of the krogan race, a notorious ex-vigilante and commander of a special military unit, the Shadow Broker, and an ''Admiral of the quarian Flotilla.'']] Not to mention that your fellow human goes from Lieutenant[=/=]Gunnery Chief to Staff Commander[[note]]essentially outranking ''you''[[/note]][=/=]Lieutenant Commander and becomes the second human Spectre. Damn.

--> '''Shepard''': That the best you got? [[BadassBoast The last guy to trash-talk me was a few kilometers taller than you]].

* TrashTheSet: [[spoiler: That fancy field-of-stars office the Illusive Man communicates from? It will suffer heavily during your final fight with Kai Leng.]]

** One of the most memorable changes in the Extended Cut DLC is transitioning the original ending's somber/tragic theme, "An End Once And For All", into a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLxv_g_zQkY version that actually makes you feel victorious]], assuming you've accumulated enough war assets to [[spoiler: prevent the ''Normandy'' from being stranded]].

-->'''Shepard:''' You two have been with me longer than most. You believed in me when nobody else did. Thanks.

--> ''"...not enough."''

* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: Javik [[spoiler:the last Prothean and]] the [[spoiler: Prothean]] avatar of vengeance can be pushed either towards this realization (in which case he despairs and plans to commit suicide after the war) or away from it (letting him start enjoying his life again).

*** [[spoiler: '''Rachni:''']] [[spoiler:Kill the Queen/Fake Queen.]]
*** [[spoiler: ''Everyone:'']] Pick the [[spoiler: Refusal ending and stick it to the Catalyst, resulting in the entire galaxy falling to the Reapers.]]

** If you chose to betray Samara for Morinth in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', [[spoiler: you have to fight her as a [[BossInMookClothing Banshee]] in London, and miss out on a war asset]].

** If Wrex leads the krogan and you sabotage the genophage cure, which can only be accomplished by [[spoiler: killing the salarian operative with you, either Mordin or Wiiks]], Wrex will [[spoiler: discover the truth and pull krogan support from the war with the Reapers before forcing you into a confrontation that claims his life]].

** [[spoiler: Shepard in the Control Extended Cut ending]]
** [[spoiler: The fake rachni queen.]]

* WalkingSpoiler: The ''Citadel'' DLC's ArcVillain: [[spoiler: a disgruntled clone of Commander Shepard, working with a former Cerberus agent pretending to be the comic relief in order to steal Shep's identity and the ''Normandy''.]]

* WarMemorial: There is a memory wall on the Citadel where people place the names and pictures of their loved ones taken by the war with the Reapers. Also, on the new ''Normandy'', there is now a wall listing the names of all ''Normandy'' crew members who lost their lives over the course of three games--including [[spoiler:Shepard themself in all but one ending]].

** The Thessia mission. [[spoiler:Not only does the homeworld of the galaxy's most prosperous species fall, it turns out that the asari owe their prosperity to Prothean technology that they have been hoarding to themselves, in blatant violation of their own laws against withholding such technology. For the first time in the whole series, Shepard flat-out ''fails'' thanks to Kai Leng's dirty tricks. It is very quiet on the ''Normandy'' afterwards. What makes this hit harder is that Shepard just came from a resounding victory on Rannoch, where they took down a Reaper Destroyer ''on foot'']].
** The entire ''Leviathan DLC'' is one '''massive''' WhamEpisode. [[spoiler: Shepard ''finally'' discovers the true origins of the Reapers.]]
** The version of the final Rannoch mission where Shepard [[spoiler: allows the Geth to upload the Reaper code and the entire Quarian fleet is wiped out. If Tali is present for this mission, she commits suicide by dropping off a cliff and not even a Paragon interrupt from Shepard can stop it. Speaking to the Normandy crew afterwards will highlight how horrified they are by what happened, with Joker, Garrus, and Ashley revealing how shattered they are by Tali's loss in particular.]]

--> '''Admiral Hackett:''' [[spoiler: Nothing's happening. The crucible's not firing.]]

-->'''Shepard:''' I thought ''you'' were a Reaper.\\
'''Leviathan:''' They are only echoes. We existed ''long'' before.

** The pre-Extended Cut endings were this for the entire galaxy, which was what led to its creation in the first place. Even with the Extended Cut, Twitter posts from developers are the only source of information on the fate of the entire population of the Citadel, [[spoiler: which was left in a very precarious state in in the endgame]]. Not one single Citadel-bound NPC (that isn't a former squadmate of Shepard's) is explicitly mentioned or shown anywhere in the endgame or epilogues, and the ending slides added by the Extended Cut only reveal the fates of ''former'' squadmates. What happens to the current crew of the Normandy [[spoiler: after they leave the planet they crashed/landed on]] is very much a mystery [[spoiler:though the high EMS Destroy ending where Shepard lives does imply they'll go back for him/her]].
** The ultimate fate of every racial homeworld that isn't [[spoiler: Earth, Tuchanka or Rannoch, though sidequests do shed some light on what happened to some of them during the course of the war]].
** Mess Sergeant Gardner, which is especially odd considering the care they took for other {{NPC}}s (like {{NPC}}s from Virmire, such as Kirrahe). [[VideoGame/ExpandedGalaxyMod EGM]] explains what happened to him after 2, [[spoiler: he reiterated his loyalty to Cerberus and integrated]], but still doesn't give him a definitive fate.
* WhatTheHellAreYou: [[spoiler: In ''Leviathan'', the titular character has this reaction upon encountering Shepard, referring to them as "an anomaly" that has never manifested in ''any'' of the previous Cycles]].

** If you cure the genophage, [[spoiler:the salarian dalatrass emails you and explains that she will withhold Salarian Union support from the Crucible since she believes you have just doomed the galaxy to another Krogan Rebellion after the Reapers have been dealt with. However, depending on your actions in prior games, the rest of the salarians decide to support you, especially if Kirrahe's still alive and you save their councilor]]. If you sabotage the cure, [[spoiler:Mordin or Padok will catch on to what you are up to and expresses indignation that Shepard will throw all that work away for a backroom deal with the dalatrass]]. Either of them can, however, be persuaded to come around to your viewpoint if [[spoiler: Wrex and Eve are both dead.]] If Wrex is leader and you sabotage the cure, he [[spoiler:rails at you for being two-faced when he confronts you on the Citadel and withdraws his forces from the battle for Earth, with either you or C-Sec having to subsequently gun him down]].
** If you resolve the situation on Rannoch by [[spoiler: allowing the geth to upgrade and wipe out the quarians]], almost all of Shepard's crew will be upset, especially with [[spoiler: Tali being DrivenToSuicide.]] Only EDI responds positively, thanking Shepard for [[spoiler: putting trust in synthetics]]. James doesn't voice an opinion, Garrus wearily concedes that he trusts Shepard's judgement but is sorry the quarians (especially Tali) are gone, Liara is stunned by the extinction of an entire species, Javik and Ashley both chew you out (Javik since he doesn't trust synthetics and Ashley since the geth wiped out her squad on Eden Prime and she loved Tali as a sister), and Kaidan expresses grief and anger over the quarians' deaths (especially if Tali was among them). Similarly, everyone is happy if [[spoiler: the quarians destroy the geth]] ''except'' EDI, who criticizes Shepard for "sticking with the familiar."

** The salarian dalatrass offers the full aid of the Salarian Union in building the Crucible, provided you sabotage the genophage cure. She specifically points out that nobody will know what you did, as the countermeasures they have in place will initially make it look like the cure was successful, and when the continued presence of the genophage is discovered it will look like a good-faith error. [[spoiler: Depending on which characters have survived this and past games, and which decisions you make here, your complicity ''can'' be discovered, leading to [[WhatTheHellHero a severe criticism of Shepard]].]]
** The ending. [[spoiler: Do you take the chance that people can manage their own future and destroy your enemy regardless of collateral damage? Do you give yourself absolute power and police the galaxy in place of your enemy? Do you take the chance that your enemy is right and rewrite the entire galaxy? Or do you reject all the other choices and leave everything to the next cycle [[DoomedMoralVictor for the sake of a moral point]]?]]

-->[[spoiler:'''Liara''': My name is Dr. Liara T'Soni. Herein lies the recounting of our war with the Reapers.]]

---> '''Tali:''' And for the record? Still totally worth it.

-->'''Wrex'''/'''James:''' Shepard, you've got a plan for getting us out of here, right?\\

* YouTaughtMeThat: If Shepard [[spoiler: does not talk Ashley down during the Citadel Coup, Shepard can ask why Ashley stood her ground even though it meant dying. Her answer:]]
-->'''Ashley:''' [[spoiler:I had to take a stand, Shepard. You taught me that.]]

** The final space battle is basically this. You need strength in sheer numbers to stand a chance against the technologically superior Reaper forces. [[spoiler: The numbers are only big enough to protect the Crucible. If it isn't used, the Reapers outfight the Zerg rush.]]
** Hammer Force attempts a mad rush [[spoiler: to the beam to the Citadel. Technically, it works; Hammer is for all intents and purposes blown away, but two people reach the beam.]]
* ZerothLawRebellion: [[spoiler: The Catalyst turned its creators into the first Reaper, which the Leviathan DLC confirms to be Harbinger. [[SelfFulfillingProphecy It also reveals that it was created more or less specifically to prevent this sort of thing]], and refuses to acknowledge the irony.]] The Leviathan DLC reveals that [[spoiler:the Leviathans, the creators of the Catalyst, don't actually disapprove of its actions and believe it to be acting on behalf of their wishes.]]