Line #35 YMMV/MassEffect


1	%% Only add examples that apply to the trilogy as a whole; examples that are better off in one game belong there.
2
3	The following works have their own YMMV pages.
4	* ''[[YMMV/MassEffect1 Mass Effect 1]]''
5	* ''[[YMMV/MassEffect2 Mass Effect 2]]''
6	* ''[[YMMV/MassEffect3 Mass Effect 3]]''
7	* ''[[YMMV/MassEffectAscension Ascension]]''
8	* ''[[YMMV/MassEffectParagonLost Paragon Lost]]''
9	* ''[[YMMV/MassEffectInfiltrator Infiltrator]]''
10	* ''[[YMMV/MassEffectAndromeda Andromeda]]''
11	* ''[[YMMV/MassEffectNexusUprising Nexus Uprising]]''
12	* ''[[YMMV/MassEffectInitiation Initiation]]''
13	* ''[[YMMV/MassEffectAnnihilation Annihilation]]''
14
15	----
16
17	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
18	** Is the Citadel Council incompetent and stubborn with a vested interest in the status quo at the expense of other races, or a ReasonableAuthorityFigure trying to maintain stability and willing to change if shown enough evidence?
19	** Are the quarians justified in their war against the geth, with the Geth siding with the Reapers in ''Mass Effect 3'' proving them right all along? On the other hand, the game pretty consistently portrays the geth as merely trying to survive, taking up arms against their creators only when they had no choice, while the quarians insist on war and consistently throw every chance of peace back in their face.
20	** Cerberus in ''Mass Effect 2''. Is it good to have a ruthless organization exclusively looking out for humanity's interests in the galaxy? Or do their methods and goals go too far? Rendered moot in ''Mass Effect 3'', when they jump off the slippery slope and join the Reapers.
21	** The krogan and the genophage is a big one. Did the salarians and turians go too far in resorting to biological warfare to stop the krogan? Mordin insists the genophage is not a sterility plague, but merely drastically reduces viable krogan births to within an acceptable population growth to prevent krogan expansionism. However, the social effects of the genophage were so devastating that krogan population growth fell well below that, and by the time of the game they seem on their way to extinction. On the other hand, does the fault lie with the krogan themselves, who not only started the war in the first place, but afterwards remained belligerent and unapologetic, and still prefer violence rather than piecing their society back together? Eve for instance agrees the geophage was awful, but makes a point that the krogan aren't innocent, and they need to change if they want to avoid history repeating itself.
22	* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Some doubted that there was enough goodwill for the series remaining to give the ''Legendary Edition'' UpdatedRerelease of the original trilogy much hope of being successful, considering that the ending of ''3'' was still incredibly controversial, ''Andromeda'' had been a critical and commercial failure, and Xbox One and Series X\|S users could just run the 360 versions in back-compatibility mode. As it turned out, the ''Legendary Edition'' proved the best-selling game in the whole series and one of the most successful games of 2021, doing a lot to restore interest in the series.
23	* AngstWhatAngst: Shepard seems to take the whole being brought back from the dead thing in stride, completely ignoring the philosophical implications of [[DeathIsCheap being dead]], [[WeCanRebuildHim being brought back to life as a cyborg]], or the [[CessationOfExistence possible absence of any form of an afterlife]]. Tends to be justified as it's [[MemeticBadass Shepard]]. It should also be taken into account how immediately after being brought back they're thrown right into the fight and don't especially have time to think about things. It's also possible that Shepard is suffering from DeathAmnesia. Since it's never brought up, its impossible to know one way or the other. Finally subverted during the [[spoiler:assault on the Illusive Man's base]] if you play the videos where [[spoiler:the Illusive Man discusses Shepard's reconstruction]]. It turns out that Shepard has been having a pretty serious existential crisis, and it gets worse when they find out [[spoiler:they were ''literally dead.'' They wonder if they're [[TomatoInTheMirror just a VI that thinks they're Shepard]]. Shepard's love interest, if present, will be reassuring.]]
24	* AudienceAlienatingEnding: The third game does that for the entire trilogy, if the official forums are of any significant indication. Many fans still apply FanonDiscontinuity against the ending, final act, or even entire game.
25	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[AwesomeMusic/MassEffect Has its own page.]]
26	* BaseBreakingCharacter:
27	** Liara is a commonly used squadmate and adored by a lot of fans, many of whom ship her and Shepard. However, she also gets plenty of vitriol poured over her by other fans due in part to the CharacterFocus since the second game: She's mandatory in multiple missions in ''3'' (three in the base game, four if you have ''From Ashes''), has a DLC in ''2'' focused on her, is the most plot-relevant party member, and is treated as Shepard's best friend in the second and third game (assuming she's not romanced) regardless of how you actually treated her in the first, and in the original release of ''3'', she was the only squadmate from the first game who the player never had a chance to kill (in the ''Extended Cut'' DLC, if you bring Liara along for the final mission and have sufficiently low war assets, then she and your other squadmate will be vaporized by Harbinger near the end of the mission). She is also the only character from the original trilogy to "appear" in ''Andromeda'', and apparently was one of the catalysts for the Andromeda Project.
28	** In addition, Jack, Miranda, Kelly Chambers, Zaeed Massani, and (especially after the second game) Kaidan and Ashley are all extremely polarizing characters. Ashley moved out of this status in the third game, but not in a positive way (see her entry on The Scrappy). Reception to Jack, Miranda, Kaidan, and Zaeed improved in the third game, with the Citadel DLC in particular helping Zaeed.
29	* BrokenBase:
30	** '''The First Contact War:''' Some believe that the turians were well within their rights to uphold galactic law and stop an unknown race (humans) from opening more Mass Relays, while others think they were simply trigger-happy and LawfulStupid for opening fire ''without'' explaining any of this first. Likewise, were the turians justified in using deorbited [[ColonyDrop satellites, spacejunk and small meteors]] to take out ground forces and civilians, or is this simply a case of ValuesDissonance at work, since they don't ''have'' civilians and consider ''all'' individuals in an active war zone to be valid targets?
31	** '''The Morning War:''' Some feel that the quarians were completely well within their rights to preemptively eliminate the geth, and that the geth went overboard almost sending them into extinction. The other side felt that the geth were justified since they were fighting in self-defense, and that the quarians got hit by LaserGuidedKarma. It all tends to come down to what side of the WhatMeasureIsANonHuman scale are you on?
32	** Similarly, TheReveal in ''3'' that the asari [[spoiler:deliberately withheld a working Prothean beacon to keep themselves ahead of other races. Some argue that they were right to hold the information because few people had the Cipher. Others argue that they were massive hypocrites for holding the beacon ''after'' a Council law was passed that said you should reveal beacons when found. There's no way to know what result disclosing the beacon would have had, but in a best case scenario, the galaxy could have known about the Reapers sooner and prepared appropriately.]]
33	** While Aria was a popular character in the second game, some players didn't like how Shepard was forced to help her to get the mercenary faction on your side, and how she got a separate DLC (''Omega'' being seen by some as SoOKItsAverage doesn't help).
34	** The fact that [[AssInAmbassador Udina]] becomes humanity's representative on the Council in the third game [[ButThouMust even if the player chooses Anderson]] doesn't sit well with some people. Others were perfectly fine with it and don't see the problem.
35	** In a case of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness vs. FirstInstallmentWins, there's a big debate over whether the gameplay shift (such as the change to thermal clips) in Mass Effect 2 and 3 was better than the original.
36	** The move to the Andromeda galaxy and abandoning the Milky Way for the setting of ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda''. '''Big time'''. The only way Creator/BioWare could respect player choice from the end of ''Mass Effect 3''? Or should they have picked an ending as canon and told more stories in the Milky Way? Given the backlash against certain aspects [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic of a similar BioWare series]] getting a canonical version, though...
37	** On a technical level, we have the ''Legendary Edition'' of the trilogy. Some fans believe that the remastered versions of all three games are lessened by a number of technical shortcuts that were taken, including some bugs that weren't fixed between the original releases to the remasters. Others are willing to overlook said shortcuts because the things that ''have'' been improved, such as load times (the infamous elevators are skippable once the next area loads, and the load screen animations in 2, which previously had to play all the way through, regardless of load time, now have their playing speed tied to the level load, so they finish when the load finishes) make up for it.
38	* CargoShip: Joker was the last crewman aboard the original ''Normandy'' and Shepard has to literally drag him to the escape pod. Even more prevalent in [[spoiler:the second ''Normandy'']] where Joker [[BelligerentSexualTension displays this with]] [[AIIsACrapshoot EDI]] who after being unshackled and allowed full control over the ship, effectively ''becomes'' the second ''Normandy''.
39	* CharacterPerceptionEvolution: Originally, a majority of players sided with the geth over the quarians (37% geth, 27% quarians, 36% both) due to the latter race spending the trilogy [[NeverMyFault refusal to consider their hostility to the geth caused them to fight back]], their [[NiceJobBreakingItHero continually endangering themselves over it]], and ''3'' proving the quarians omitted they started and other wrongs in the conflict from their history. By the time of the ''[[UpdatedReRelease Legendary Edition]]'' a decade later, players siding with the geth were far fewer (11% geth%, 9% quarians, 80% both) due to the reveal in ''3'' no longer being fresh and feeling in hindsight the games were whitewashing the geth's actions which FridgeHorror since suggested were far worse than could be deemed pure self defense[[note]]similar space-faring races have populations of tens of billions but the quarians were reduced to around 17 million meaning the geth killed around 99% of them, far more than can be realistically assumed all were willing or able to threaten the geth (the cultural conformity causing nearly all modern quarians to do so only emerging afterward)[[/note]].
40	* CompleteMonster: [[YMMV/MassEffect1 Dr. Saleon]]; [[YMMV/MassEffect2 Ronald Taylor]]; [[YMMV/MassEffect3 Kai Leng & Henry Lawson]]; and [[YMMV/MassEffectAndromeda The Archon]] from the games. [[YMMV/MassEffectAscension Golo]] from the books. See those pages for details.
41	** ''[[ComicBook/MassEffectInvasion Invasion]]'' comic: [[InsaneAdmiral Colonel Raymond Ashe]] is a Cerberus agent who proves to be far worse than his superior General Petrovsky. Tasked by the Illusive Man to take over Omega, Ashe lets himself be captured just so he can more easily kill Aria's loyalists and stage an invasion, slaughtering swathes of Omega's people while [[FantasticRacism deriding them as "filthy aliens"]]. Preferring to solve any of his problems by killing people and sending his soldiers to die in droves, Ashe reveals his ultimate plan to conquer Omega is by unleashing a Reaper Adjutant outbreak. When [[EvenEvilHasStandards a horrified Petrovsky]] points out this endangers the millions of people aboard Omega, including Cerberus's own soldiers, Ashe brushes it off as "acceptable losses" before trying to kill Petrovksy for his "weakness".
42	* ContestedSequel: The first three games all had good scores (with [=ME2=] receiving the most accolades), but many fans criticized ''2'' for its controversial gameplay and storytelling changes, and several aspects of ''3'' (most infamously, but not exclusively [[AudienceAlienatingEnding the ending]]) were panned by the fanbase.
43	* CrazyIsCool: You're free to play Shepard as this. Your Shepard can be the sort of person who deals with rude mercs by shoving them out windows, fights Thresher Maws with a pistol, punches annoying reporters, drinks ''radioactive liqour'', and always has a snarky quip for whatever horrific event is occurring. Shepard can show signs of severe mental instability, but often in ridiculously cool ways.
44	-->'''Shepard:''' ''[after hearing how Conrad Verner has been basically acting like a weird hobo]'' Conrad why are you acting like me?
45	* DieForOurShip: Can be done in-game, no less. Once [=ME2=] was out, some people who preferred the new love interests went back to the first game and let their former love interest die on Virmire. In [=ME3=], some people who ''didn't'' like what happened to characters like Thane and Jacob let them die in the Suicide Mission.
46	* DracoInLeatherPants:
47	** Renegade Shepard. A KnightTemplar and PsychoForHire who indulges in many acts of [[KickTheDog pointless cruelty and brutality]], is a {{Jerkass}} to everyone around them, murders innocent civilians, is a [[KnightTemplar Cerberus]] {{Fanboy}} in 2, and can wipe out up to ''four'' sentient species during the course of the trilogy (and will wipe out at least two in [[spoiler: the rachni and the krogan]]). And yet in spite of all of that, people praise Renegade Shepard as a badass and a "real" hero who does what is "necessary" to get the job done even though Paragon Shepard continually proves that there is a better way that Renegade Shepard chooses not to take.
48	** Cerberus. Human-centric terrorists who engage in many [[ScaleOfScientificSins Scientific Sins]] without a second thought. In the first game and the ExpandedUniverse, they are responsible for loads of victims of [[PlayingWithSyringes brutal experiments]] - not to mention the cold-blooded murder of Admiral Kahoku, a kindly career soldier Shepard could easily call a friend, for discovering one of their hideouts. And, in the second, ''they rescue you, replace your CoolStarship, and provide loads of information and money as they believe in your mission of stopping the Reapers''. Inevitably, some people focus far more on the latter than the former, to the point that [[MisaimedFandom they wonder why people view Cerberus as the villains]] even though there are still things in the second game (like say, [[NightmareFuel Project Overlord]] and Jack's ColdBloodedTorture) that remind you that Cerberus aren't good guys. Miranda does give some counterarguments and excuses for some of Cerberus' actions (some more valid than others), but you never do get to ask about any of the other things Cerberus has done, including what was done to Gillian and the various assassinations Cerberus has been behind, or anything about what was done to Kahoku, or what Cerberus was doing with that rogue VI on a military base on Luna - who was, as established in an easy-to-miss conversation, actually a real AI named Hannibal.
49	** In particular, The Illusive Man is clearly meant to be a morally ambiguous (if not outright villainous) figure, but some fans consider him to be a BigGood because he's the only authority figure willing to and capable of helping Shepard fight the Reapers. ''Mass Effect 3'' reveals this to be an invoked trope; [[spoiler: In a dossier, it's revealed the The Illusive Man purposely put people like Jacob, Kelly, Gabby, and Kenneth on your crew in order to invoke your sympathies and make Shepard question whether they were truly evil.]]
50	* EscapistCharacter: This trope is Commander Shepard to a tee. You can choose to be the ultimate hero or the ultimate badass, you can customize Shepard to be most like yourself, most of the characters have a crush on you, and you go around saving the world and kicking ass, as well as becoming an intergalactic celebrity on a regular basis.
51	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
52	** The ''Mass Effect'' series seems to be one of those unique works that has several {{Ensemble Darkhorse}}s. Captain Kirrahe, Kal'Reegar from ''Mass Effect 2'', and Matriarch Aethyta are specific examples.
53	** Perhaps the strongest example is Aria T'Loak. She became so popular, developers had a ''Mass Effect 3'' DLC made where she's the star and promoted from NPC to playable character. However, said DLC made her into a BaseBreakingCharacter due to her characterization.
54	** Eve in ''3'', who gives players a glance at what a stable krogan society might look like.
55	** Unchecked enthusiasm. As races go, the Elcor have gained an adoring fanbase.
56	** The rachni have a similarly large fanbase, as an overwhelming number of fans choose to spare the Rachni Queen on Noveria, and actually looked forward to having them become regulars in the series. Many fans were livid over how little they help in the war effort, and they frequently get the AscendedExtra treatment in fanfics.
57	** Nihlus Kryik, the first Spectre and the first Turian you meet in the game has garnered a surprising number of fans, despite having relatively little screen-time and only being in the game for an hour at most. Many fans were genuinely upset over his death at Saren's hands, some claiming that it was a [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter missed opportunity]] to axe him off so early as he was a fairly interesting character and even could have been something of a mentor to Shephard, had he lived to see them become a Spectre.
58	* EpilepticTrees: Exactly who is Liara's father has been up for debate for a while. [[spoiler:Lair of the Shadow Broker heavily implies that her father is the Aethyta, the Asari Bartender on Illium]], which is [[spoiler: confirmed in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''.]]
59	* EvenBetterSequel: Metacritic rates ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' (96) higher than [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 its predecessor]] (91). The fans occasionally disagree. The third game received a lot of perfect scores from a lot of review sites and magazines. Popular opinion is that none of them played the game through to the end before publishing those reviews.
60	* FanNickname:
61	** Liara is occasionally referred to as "Blueberry," especially those who often romance her.
62	** Pressly's known as "Hugs and Kisses Pressly" on the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' forums.
63	* FanonDiscontinuity:
64	** The maintainers of the primary ''Mass Effect'' wiki do not consider the events of ''Mass Effect: Deception'' to be canon, which is why Gillian Grayson's entry [[spoiler: does not mention her death at the hands of Kai Leng]].
65	** Easily the biggest example of this, however, is ''Mass Effect 3'''s ending (or, for some fans, the entire game). After the release of a free DLC to "clarify" the ending and the passing of many years, a very large portion of fans still recommend ignoring it. Some fans go even further, working on projects that change the ending or make it irrelevant:
66	*** The [[EpilepticTrees Indoctrination Theory]] rejects most of the ending of ''Mass Effect 3'' as a Reaper-induced hallucination.
67	*** There's a fan mod that simply ends the game with [[spoiler: Anderson's death]], with the assumption that [[spoiler: Shepard dies there too]].
68	*** Likewise, another mod goes so far as to completely re-write everything after [[spoiler:the Illusive Man's death]] by having Shepard's crewmates storm the Citadel to rescue them and [[spoiler:having the Reapers be destroyed without losing the geth and EDI]].
69	** Thane fans have released a mod that overhauls his storyline so that [[spoiler: he no longer takes part in the attempted Citadel coup and no longer dies to Kai Leng. Depending on which version of the mod is installed, he can even be cured of Kepral's and gained as a War Asset]]. Unlike the above mods this one relies on player actions to trigger the altered content--fail to talk to him or do a certain quest, and canon proceeds as normal.
70	* FriendlyFandoms: With both the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' and ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' fandoms. ''Mass Effect'' shows a lot of influence from both ''Star Trek'' and ''Farscape'', and even shares some cast members, with Marina Sirtis, ''Creator/MichaelDorn'' and ''Creator/ClaudiaBlack'' voicing characters in the games.
71	* GeniusBonus: The portrayal of the Reapers is based on one proposed explanation for the UsefulNotes/FermiParadox (the current lack of evidence for intelligent extraterrestrial life, despite the existence of such life being highly mathematically probable). One of several hypothetical explanations for the Paradox is that intelligent life is actively prevented from progressing past a certain stage of technological development by a species that's already become [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens far more advanced than any other]], and [[AbsoluteXenophobe views all other intelligent species as a threat]].
72	* GoddamnedBats: Husks, unless you're playing a biotic class or something with shotguns. They come at you in packs of five to ten, surround you and pummel you with stunning punches until you die. And another class of Husks (called "Abominations") explode.
73	* HarsherInHindsight:
74	** During one of the conversations with in the first game, when Shepard walks in on her talking with one of her sisters and the sister comments on Male Shepard/Kaidan (depending on Shepard's gender) being "cute," Ash winds up saying "Oh, shoot me now," out of embarrassment. [[spoiler:If she is the Virmire survivor, guess what happens if you aren't able to talk her down in ''Mass Effect 3''?]]
75	** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', on Virmire, Saren talks about [[spoiler:how giving in to the Reapers might be the best choice, and if the Protheans became servants to the Reapers, they might still be around]]. In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', [[spoiler:the Collectors are Protheans, servants under the Reapers]]. [[AwfulTruth Ouch.]] And in the third game's ending, [[spoiler: one of the options is to make Saren's dream of uniting synthetic and organic life true]]. It [[BrokenBase is seen by some as]] the best ending, because it's the one with the highest prerequisites [[spoiler:apart from Shepard living in the Destroy ending]].
76	** For those that played the "Bring Down the Sky" DLC for ''VideoGame/MassEffect1''... well, tables get turned in ''Arrival'', and you're now in the spot Balak was, though for different reasons.
77	** Inverted in the third game. When you talk to Engineer Adams, he tells you about a design flaw with the Normandy's drive core that could lead to someone getting vaporized if the shields take too much fire. It's harsh because if you didn't get Tali's shield upgrade in the second game, that was exactly what killed her (or one of your other squadmates).
78	** Wrex's elevator chatter with Kaidan takes on a dark twist in the third game. [[spoiler: Specifically, he asks Kaidan who would win in a fight between him and Shepard, and figures that Shepard would win because Kaidan says he could never imagine fighting his superior officer. Come the third game, if Kaidan survived Virmire, the two of them end up in a standoff that could result in either Shepard or a squadmate taking Kaidan down in one shot. Seems Wrex was right.]] This wraps around to HilariousInHindsight in the ''Citadel'' DLC: Wrex recalls the elevator convo just before [[spoiler: fighting Shepard's clone, chiding Kaidan that now he has a chance to find out.]]
79	** In the first game, if you look at the krogan monument with Tali and Wrex as your squadmates, Tali will complain about the krogan having a monument on the Presidium for their war against the rachni in spite of their later rebellion, while the quarians have nothing. Wrex then replies that in one or two centuries, that monument may be the only proof the krogan existed. [[spoiler:If you don't cure the genophage, the ending image implies that the krogan go extinct, proving Wrex correct. If you side with the geth, the quarians are annihilated, perhaps showing to Wrex that the krogan are fortunate by comparison, or at least survive for longer]].
80	** Considering some of the possible endings of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', [[spoiler: the line from the credits song ("M4 Part II" by Faunts) "I...have wondered about you...where will you be...when this is through?" is rather painful. Only one ending (Destroy, in which Shepard can survive if your war assets are high enough) allows the possibility of Shepard seeing their love interest again.]]
81	** At the end of the first game, Shepard's companions start to mourn them when they appear to have been killed, only for Shepard to climb out of the wreckage, [[DisneyDeath alive and triumphant]]. However, less than a month later and at the start of the second game, Shepard really is killed when the ''Normandy'' is destroyed and they stay dead for the next two years (and twelve days). [[spoiler:And at the end of the third game, unless Shepard chooses Destroy with high EMS, Shepard dies once and for all]].
82	* HeartwarmingInHindsight:
83	** In the third game, if you do the Tuchanka Bomb mission arc after the Citadel attack, recruit Ashley/Kaidan, and [[spoiler:Primarch Victus' son]] sacrifices himself to [[spoiler:disable the bomb]], Tali will talk with Ashley or Kaidan, saying it reminded her of Virmire and asking her how she can accept someone dying for her. Ashley/Kaidan says they would have done the same, and that one day, it will be Tali's turn. This is both an example of Ashley/Kaidan [[CharacterDevelopment overcoming]] their SurvivorGuilt, and quite comforting to Tali in light of her mission on Haestrom.
84	** Tali also implies that she's worried she won't live up to her father, who is a quarian Admiral. In the third game, she's [[spoiler: not only made Admiral entirely on her own merits, but she's also likely to be one of the Admirals that wins back the quarian homeworld, quite possibly in a way that her father would never have considered.]] Hard to beat that! Also HarsherInHindsight, however, because [[spoiler: we find out in [=ME2=] that her father was conducting very dangerous experiments with live geth - not really something Tali would want to live up to; while drunk, she laments that her goal in life went from wanting to live up to her father to wanting to make up for his mistakes, and for all she dislikes Miranda, she respects her refusal to let her father control her life.]]
85	** This is a large contributor to the popularity of the Male Shepard/Tali, Female Shepard/Garrus, and Male Shepard/Kaidan relationships. Because all three were added later in the series, earlier interactions give a strong sense of a friendship developing into more over shared experiences and tribulations. The end result is that all three give the feeling of a trilogy-spanning relationship that is every bit as strong as the Male Shepard/Ashley, Female Shepard/Kaidan, and Shepard/Liara relationships that began in the first game.
86	* HilariousInHindsight:
87	** Wow, [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Deanna Troi certainly had a strange retirement.]]
88	** When speaking with Jacob a little while after his loyalty mission, you can say that the next ''Normandy'' needs a lounge. With the Kasumi DLC, her room has a bar. Better yet, the bar is one of the few things that did not get removed when the ''Normandy'' ended up in Alliance hands!
89	** After Kimberly Brooks played Ashley, who's very suspicious of aliens and thinks humanity should keep an eye on them, she went on to play Jasper in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', the most visible face of an alien race that wants to destroy the Earth, and one of the show's few characters to thus far lack any sympathetic traits. She then went on to play Princess Allura in ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'', whose first interaction with a human was to decry our ears as hideous.
90	** An example in the BlackComedy variety, but one of Miranda's sources of angst is the fact she is unable to have children. Skip to a few years later, and Miranda's voice actress Yvonne Strahovski is playing Serena Joy Waterford in ''Series/TheHandmaidsTale'', who angsts about her inability to have children.
91	* HoYay: Unsurprisingly for a Bioware game. [[HoYay/{{Bioware}} Check the company's entry on the page for more detail]]. One notable example would be Male Shepard/Kaidan whose interaction was so popular that they were made canon in the third game.
92	* JerkassWoobie:
93	** Renegade Shepard can potentially be this, if given a FreudianExcuse in the Colonist and[=/=]or SoleSurvivor background and also have them lose most of their crew. Renegade Shepard also suffers from stress and nightmares in 3 just as badly as any Paragon.
94	** Miranda Lawson. "Created" by a raging {{Narcissist}} of a father in his attempt to have the "perfect" heir. This results in her being tortured over the manner of her conception (which could make a person pretty existential), had to live up to her father's [[AbusiveParents ridiculously high standards]], couldn't get anything without a catch, and worst of all [[spoiler: is unable to conceive a child when she wants desperately to be a mother.]] All of this combines to make it easy to see why she can be an IceQueen sometimes. It gets taken even further in 3, where she's now on the run from the group she used to passionately serve, is trying to find her sister, [[spoiler: and can potentially die in Shepard and her sister's arms]]. Even ''worse'' if you romance her [[KickTheDog and then dump her]] [[spoiler: [[DeathOfTheHypotenuse cursing her to die no matter what]]]].
95	** Both the geth and the original quarians during the Morning War and in modern times. Both sides were effectively responsible for attempted genocide of the other - though the quarians believed they were only destroying mostly non-sapient machines - and both sides are carrying the war on into the present day. Modern quarians are steeply divided on whether or not to destroy the geth or attempt peace with them (with some verging into full-on GeneralRipper aggression against the geth), while the geth, while expressing a desire for peace with the quarians, are still aggressively self-defensive and will attack any organic intruding into their territory, including quarians. And ultimately, [[spoiler: one side or the other ''will'' finish the genocide]] in ''Videogame/MassEffect3'' unless Shepard intervenes. Yet none of this changes the fact that both sides are viewed as highly sympathetic, and the [[spoiler: destruction of either, or potentially ''both'']] is a very tragic scene.
96	** The entire Krogan species could be considered this. From the moment they are born they have to face an extremely harsh environment all kinds of predators and nuclear radiation. Then they find out that they were the lucky one in one thousand eggs that actually hatched, and there is a 99.9% probability that their genetic line won't be propagated to future generations. But then hang out at any Krogan settlement and witness for yourself how many [[TookALevelInJerkass levels of jerk they have taken for a very long time.]]
97	* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Shepard of both genders has been shipped with ''everyone''. It probably helps that they can indeed be shipped with quite a few different characters in the games proper.
98	* LoveToHate:
99	** Sparatus, the turian councilor. He is notoriously frustrating to deal with and comes off as a dick even when compared to the rest of the council and Udina, but he is also responsible for several memes, his constant opposition to Shepard even when logic stares him down ''and'' his CharacterDevelopment in 3 make him a memorable character.
100	** The Illusive Man is the leader of a fascist organization, but his sheer suave style, intelligence, and ruthless nature has made him quite beloved. It helps that he's played by frigging Creator/MartinSheen who delivers an expectedly fantastic performance.
101	** Harbinger. His intense personal conflict with Shepard in the second installment combined with his [[LargeHam ''very'' grandiose nature]] has earned this menacing force of nature a good deal of fans.
102	* MagnificentBastard: See [[MagnificentBastard/MassEffect here]].
103	* MemeticBadass:
104	** Corporal Jenkins, the RedShirt who dies at the beginning of the Eden Prime mission to prove the geth's strength, is often jokingly referred to as having [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence]] rather than died, as he's so insanely overpowered that were he to have remained in the party he would have been able to defeat the Reapers with his eyes closed.
105	** Shepard. Bonus points for also being so ''in their own universe.''
106	--->"You can fight like a krogan, run like a leopard, but [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeY-2ovpF9c&feature=feedf you'll never be better than Commander Shepard!"]]
107	** Garrus, too, after the second game explored his CharacterDevelopment further and established just how skilled he was with the sniper rifle. And in-universe, there's nary a soul that can deny his skill at calibrations.
108	** Blasto, the fictional Hanar Spectre with "a dark past, a heart of platinum, and the tendency to shout, "Enkindle THIS!" in combat." He also [[{{SavingChristmas}} saved Christmas.]]
109	** [[MotherOfAThousandYoung Kalros]], [[SandWorm Queen of Tuchanka.]] [[spoiler:She ''EATS'' a [[EldritchAbomination Reaper.]]]] No wonder the Krogans are in such awe of her.
110	* MemeticLoser: Commander Shepard, but '''only''' in one specific instance: while Shepard is both a MemeticBadass and a LauncherOfAThousandShips, it's also a long-running fandom in-joke that [[SucksAtDancing Shepard is just the]] ''[[SucksAtDancing worst]]'' [[SucksAtDancing at dancing]]. This extends all the way back to the first game, and by the third it became a thing in-universe as well.
111	* MemeticMutation: Yes, quite a few. [[Memes/BioWare They're on the Bioware memes page.]] "Tell me more about ''Mass Effect'' memes." Well, Shepard, memes are-- "I should go."
112	** The dev team probably meant for Shepard's N7 armor to be iconic, but they probably didn't expect it to be ''this'' popular.
113	* MemeticMolester: Canonically, Harbinger wants to dominate Shepard utterly, body and soul, so this was bound to happen. It doesn't help that many of his combat taunts sound vaguely sexual (that voice notwithstanding, this goes firmly in the NoYay category, especially when he talks about wanting to preserve Shepard's body).
114	--> "[[AC:I KNOW YOU FEEL THIS.]]"
115	* MisaimedFandom: "Renegade for life." The mantra that [[DracoInLeatherPants each and every renegade decision was the "rational" one.]]
116	* {{Moe}}:
117	** Liara all the way in the first game. In the second game, [[CharacterDevelopment not so much]].
118	** Tali's not a hundred-percent example, but her reactions along the romance path certainly count. There's more in the third game, especially with the ''Citadel'' DLC, where [[spoiler:you can hear her sing!]]
119	* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound:
120	** During missions, when a cutscene finishes, your whole party cocks their weapons with a so-satisfying click. When you hear it, you know asskicking is about to commence.
121	** The jingle from the Illusive Man theme that plays in ''2'' whenever you complete a mission.
122	* NoYay: While not officially in the game itself, a lot of fans have picked up [[BrainBleach 'subtext']] in some of Harbinger's more personal taunts and [[http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/masseffect2workingtitle/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-53615595&pid=944906 have]] [[http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/105/index/1378381/1 run]] [[http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/masseffect2workingtitle/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-53406502&pid=944907&page=0 away]] [[http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/105/index/1085020/1 with]] [[http://social.bioware.com/forums/forum/1/topic/105/index/1236531/4 it.]] Yep, even Reapers want Shepard!
123	* ParanoiaFuel:
124	** [[AbusivePrecursors The Reapers]]. Mysterious {{Eldritch Abomination}}s that wipe out all organic life every 50,000 years with some of the most insidious methods imaginable to do so, with [[FateWorseThanDeath indoctrination]] probably being the [[AndIMustScream absolute worst.]]
125	** One of the messages you get in the ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'''s iOS companion app [[spoiler:if you sabotage the genophage cure and Wrex survived [=ME1=].]]
126	--->[[spoiler:'''Wrex''']]: I know what you did.
127	* PopCultureHoliday: Fans celebrate "N7 Day" on November 7th, a date chosen as a reference to the elite N7 special forces Commander Shepard is a part of.
128	* RonTheDeathEater:
129	** On the flipside of Renegade Shepard's MisaimedFandom (who romanticize them as the ultimate badass), the same fans will vilify the Paragon for being overly idealistic and putting too much blind trust in others. There was even something of a meme with them saying "You should've saved the Collector's base." [[spoiler: The irony in all of this being that a Renegade who constantly chooses to ShootTheDog finds themselves with less resources and The Illusive Man stabbing them in the back.]]
130	** The Citadel Council, and sometimes the races as a whole get hit with this too. A sizable chunk of ME fan fiction portrays the Council as [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Obstructive Bureaucrats]] that arbitrarily persecute the quarians and the krogan, generally leaving out the fact that what happened to both races was their own fault, and have to be taught a lesson by humanity.
131	* SacredCow:
132	** While fans are willing to accept criticisms about certain elements, particularly the first game's gameplay, the third's ending, and virtually anything regarding ''Andromeda'' or the novel ''Deception'', as a whole Mass Effect has an extremely devoted fanbase, and saying you dislike the series as a whole ''will'' incur their wraith.
133	** Excluding [[TheScrappy Jacob and Morinth]], every squadmate has a following or passionate fans, even more divisive ones. In particular, criticizing Garrus, Tali, Wrex, Mordin, Legion, or Thane is pretty much unacceptable in the eyes of fans.
134	* TheScrappy: [[TheScrappy/MassEffect See here.]]
135	* SelfFanservice: Jack's bust size tends to get exaggerated in fanart and rule 34. While this is normally to be expected for a given female character in that medium, it's pretty jarring in her case given that [[{{Stripperiffic}} the inexplicable way she dresses]] makes her actual bust size plain as day.
136	* SelfImposedChallenge: Especially with the ''Legendary Edition'' now available, players have begun formulating the idea of doing "Failure Runs" where the goal is to ''deliberately'' see how bad they can make things go while still completing each game. The capstone to this is making the party at the ''Citadel'' DLC as barren as possible to showcase how many squadmates have either died or never been recruited.
137	* ShipToShipCombat:
138	** Not that common in the [=ME=] community, mostly because the portrayal through acting and writing makes each love interest as canon as the next, but there are some [[{{Troll}} foolhardy souls]] who deliberately try to incite flame wars over these things. In particular is the Talimancer group, with especially rabid supporters (or haters) trying to stir things up for no apparent reason.
139	** Played a bit straighter since [=ME3=]. Fans of the [=ME2=] romances are not pleased with how those romantic subplots ended in the trilogy, and a grass-is-always-greener effect has each ship arguing that ''their'' ship is the '''most''' mistreated. One contentious issue is that if you did not romance Kaidan or Ashley, the pre-Extended Cut ending always seems to assume you romanced Liara.
140	* TaintedByThePreview: Although the promised gameplay improvements of the [[UpdatedRerelease Legendary Edition]] have been accepted, the previews got some flak for A) the visual rehauls certain planets have received (such as ''1'''s Eden Prime losing its nightmarish red hue in favor of the Earth-like skies seen in ''3''), due to completely changing the atmosphere to what some feel are more generic and dull [[RealIsBrown brown]] and B) [=BioWare=] claiming they would be altering some camera angles to tone down MaleGaze, leading to accusations that [[SkewedPriorities they seemed more concerned with removing butt shots than restoring cut content or otherwise refining the game]]. The latter would turn out to be [[LyingCreator an exaggeration]] (only ''two'' shots in the entire series were altered; Femshep's [[GoodBadBugs accidental flashing]][[note]]She sits with her legs open just like male Shepard, even if she's wearing a cocktail dress[[/note]] and a brief moment where the camera lands on Miranda's rear [[{{Narm}} as she's expressing concern for her sister's well-being]] thanks to the way the scene is shot), and any controversy was swiftly forgotten.
141	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The RPG aspects of the first ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' consisted of an extensive list of talents and a wide range of weapons and armors, which were largely differentiated by [[PaletteSwap different stats and textures]]. ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' cut back on this, reducing the number of weapons and armor talents, while focusing on making them much more distinct individually, adding gameplay depth at the cost of statistical complexity. ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' struck a middle ground between the two in terms of weapons and armor variety and variety of talents.
142	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
143	** The first ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' has a dialogue option that plays around with the idea of Shepard trying to potentially end up in a threesome with Ashley/Kaidan and Liara if you ended up romancing them both. Ashley/Kaidan wind up refusing to go along with it, which isn't a bad thing due to how crazy the idea sounds. The real reason it's a waste is because the threesome option never pops up again at any time in the franchise.
144	** The rachni are an interesting, truly alien race with build-up as one of the main fighters in the war against the Reapers. In 3, you only get one conversation with the Rachni queen, and then they are never seen again even if you secure their aid.
145	** The series has a number of side stories and events that could have been developed into entire plots of their own, such as the Miracle at Palaven, Shepard's existential crisis, or [[spoiler: Shepard's Cerberus-manufactured clone]].
146	** One complaint about how the aftermath of the third game was handled concerns this. While most fans support having very different endings, by refusing to pick one as canon, Bioware has effectively blocked itself from telling more epic stories in the Milky Way, despite the massive potential. The relatively fleshed out history of the Galaxy, and the brief period of time humanity is present, doesn't leave much room for creating prequels or midquel games with new, large-scale stories.
147	** From the first game, Feros has very limited long-term impact on the story of the rest of the trilogy. This is particularly jarring because it is the longest arc of the game, confers Shepard with the Cipher, without which the Prothean visions so central to the Reapers' impending arrival are incomprehensible, and introduces a unique creature in the Thorian, whose ''indoctrination-curative'' mind controlling ability has massive implications for the rest of the story. Besides a brief cameo by Shiala in ''2'' and a minor war asset in ''3'', the arc is more or less forgotten, and the choices made in that arc are completely excised from the save state-creating intro comic for ''2''.
148	* UnderusedGameMechanic:
149	** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', vehicle gameplay was limited to piloting the Hammerhead, which was used during a series of DLC-only missions, compared with the extensive use of the Mako in ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' on virtually all planets. However, considering the Mako gameplay was [[ScrappyMechanic highly unpopular]], there's a reason for the change.
150	** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' had the War Asset Map. Apart from a few cinematic differences, none of the war assets gathered up have any effect on the gameplay.
151	* UnintentionallySympathetic: Khalisah al-Jilani is intended to come off as a [[IfItBleedsItLeads tabloid journalist]] who you either make look stupid or just [[TalkToTheFist punch in the face]]. However, a significant number of players don't find her questioning as being that out-of-sorts, as it is true that Saren is corrupt and the Council is hiding the truth to save face. This continues into the next two games where her obviously human-centric worldview doesn't look that bad compared to people like Terra Firma or Cerberus, though in the third one you do at least have the option of making amends with her.
152	* UnnecessaryMakeover: A rather large portion of Ashley Williams's fans hold this opinion about her [[FanservicePack appearance]] in the third game. Replacing her convenient soldier-bun in favor of letting her hair down is often viewed as making her look more generic in a misguided attempt to make her look more conventionally pretty, which also comes with the side-effect of making her look too similar to Miranda.
153
154	* VocalMinority:
155	** The fans of female Shepard dominate the internet and forum space, but [[http://www.cinemablend.com/games/18-Percent-Gamers-Play-Female-Shepard-Mass-Effect-33611.html it turns out that only 18% of ME3 players actually play as her.]]
156	** There is a loud contingent of ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' fans who constantly belittle ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' in every single discussion of the series. Bioware forums obviously, but also on Reddit, Kotaku, Destructoid, 4Chan, Facebook, anywhere with a gaming forum for their voices to be heard, you name it. Again and again and again. This is, in spite of the near-equal love for both games, if [[http://www.amazon.com/Mass-Effect-Xbox-360/product-reviews/B000OLXX86/ref=sr_1_1_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1 Amazon's]] any [[http://www.amazon.com/Mass-Effect-2-Xbox-360/product-reviews/B001TORSII/ref=sr_1_5_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1 indication]]. This has progressed into a complicated web work of mutual disrespect and hate now that the third game is out.
157	* WarShip: Tali/Legion is oddly common, despite the... [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide tumultuous history]] between the Quarians and the Geth. ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' gives them some ShipTease.
158	* TheWoobie: [[Woobie/MassEffect Has its own page]].
159	* {{Woolseyism}}: Less of a "clever" translation and more of a tactful one, the French dub calls the Salarians "''Galariens''" (Galarians, not, not [[VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield that kind]]) as the expected translation ("''Salariens''") would be very close phonetically to "sales Aryens" (literally "dirty [[ThoseWackyNazis Aryans]]").
160

Context YMMV / MassEffect