[[quoteright:284:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/paragon_lost_9480.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:284:“Do you think I made the wrong decision?” ]]

''Mass Effect: Paragon Lost'' is an animated movie set during the events of ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''. Produced by Creator/{{Funimation}} and animated by Creator/ProductionIG, it was released on November 28, 2012. A nine-minute sneak peek of the movie was uploaded Funimation's Website/{{YouTube}} channel on October 25, 2012, and can be accessed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7v616__Ays here]].

The movie stars [[Characters/MassEffect3PartyMembers James Vega]], a lieutenant in the Alliance Marines. After his squad rescues a small colony from krogan pirates, Vega and his team spend the next two years protecting it from harm. However, when a strange piece of unknown technology summons the Collectors, Vega and his allies must fight for their lives and try their best to escape their invasion.

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!!''Mass Effect: Paragon Lost'' provides examples of:

* AintTooProudToBeg: Messner desperately begs Vega for his life [[spoiler:in exchange for the data on the Collectors. When Treeya reveals he no longer has it, Vega leaves a sobbing Messner to be torn apart by Collector reinforcements]].
-->'''Messner:''' Just take me with you! I don't wanna die, not like this!
* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: This is SadisticChoice Vega's forced to make.
* AndIMustScream: The victims of the Collector swarms.
* AnyoneCanDie: Only Vega is guaranteed to survive due to his presence in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''.
* AscendedFanboy: At the end of the movie, Vega receives his new orders: [[spoiler:He is being promoted to Lieutenant Commander and has been selected for N7 training. By this point, he doesn't seem to have any taste for it.]]
* BackFromTheDead: In the movie's denouement, Vega learns that Shepard is not dead after all.
* BareMidriffsAreFeminine: Camille's outfit when not in her armor.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Vega is outright warned about this by Admiral Hackett. He does finally get his wish to become an N7 operative like Shepard was, [[spoiler:after sacrificing the lives of the colonists in order to save Treeya and the [[MacGuffin intel.]]]]
* BigDamnHeroes: Several characters get these moments, although for a few of them it also [[HeroicSacrifice costs them their lives]].
* BigNo: Vega lets one out when he is finished running and processing the fact that he [[spoiler:left a whole colony to die for important data that turned out to be useless]].
* BittersweetEnding: Veering closely to a DownerEnding. [[spoiler: Everyone in the film except Vega and Treeya die, including all the colonists and the little girl that Vega promised he'd save. The intel that Vega chose to save over the colonists is promised to be useful for the Alliance to track down and stop the Collectors, but it's proven moot when Shepard and Cerberus wipe out the Collectors on their own anyway which makes Vega's choice AllForNothing. The only real positive outcome from the film is that Vega lives to fight another day so that he'll help Shepard take down the Reapers when they invade the galaxy.]]
* BodyHorror:
** We get to see some of the humans getting turned into "genetic slurry" on the Collector ship.
** [[spoiler:Kamille ends up getting integrated into a Praetorian after she is captured by the Collectors.]]
* BoomHeadshot: Several {{mooks}} and Archuk are victims of this.
* TheCameo: Treeya contacts Liara and speaks with her briefly before the signal is jammed.
* ContinuitySnarl:
** The Citadel, orbiting a planet which looks similar to Earth. This was before the final battle in ''Mass Effect 3'' [[spoiler:where the Reapers moved the Citadel to the Earth's orbit]]. In addition to this, Sovereign's corpse looks pretty much in one piece, despite being blown to bits at the end of the original ''VideoGame/MassEffect1''.
** Vega's training as a N7 operative at the end of the movie. Anyone who played ''Mass Effect 3'' know that he's still a candidate for the program and hasn't started training yet before the Reapers invaded Earth and Shepard has the option to encourage him to join the program during the game.
** The fact that Anderson, who is potentially the human councilor at this point of the story, is seen wearing an Alliance uniform.
* DefrostingIceQueen: Treeya, who initially dismisses Vega as being DumbMuscle.
* DiesWideOpen: This happens to Nicky when he dies.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Clearly Messner was dumb enough to believe [[spoiler:that the evil aliens melting down humans to grow a new Reaper were just going to let him walk away once [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness his use to them]] was at an end]].
* DirtyCoward. Messner falls into this sometimes especially when it's revealed he's [[spoiler:working with the Collectors in order to not only gain intel for Ceberus but to save his own skin.]]
* DoomedByCanon: Quite a few named characters don't make it to the end. Only Vega is guaranteed to survive, although he's [[SurvivorGuilt not happy about it]].
* DudeWheresMyRespect:
** Vega is a certified badass, but he still gets all sorts of flak from some of his subordinates, not to mention Treeya, who gives him the cold shoulder despite his having literally saved the entire colony two years previous. Of course, it's also implied that Vega was [[GibberishOfLove unable to string two sentences together in Treeya's presence]], so she might have just assumed he was really really stupid.
** There is the mission when the platoon destroys the Collector artifact. Treeya thinks their action was an act of senseless destruction and states she thinks Vega and the other soldiers are TriggerHappy {{Blood Knight}}s, assuming they just "shoot first, ask questions later". In addition, the heightened security, with the Alliance not explaining the reason for it, disrupted the flow of colony life which soured Treeya's opinion of him further.
* DwindlingParty: By the end of the movie, all but one of Vega's team has died.
* EmpathyDollShot: [[spoiler:Vega finds April's rabbit doll at the end of the film after they return to the colony.]]
* EnemyMine: In the beginning of the film, Brood is one of the antagonists. However, once the Collectors show up two years later, the protagonists suddenly don't mind his help.
* {{Expy}}: Treeya, the asari archeologist and Brood, the red-armored krogan mercenary. Interestingly enough, Treeya being an expy of Liara doesn't keep the latter from briefly showing up anyway.
* EyepatchOfPower: Brood wears one.
* ForegoneConclusion: If you've played ''Mass Effect 3'' and talked to Vega, you know how this ends. [[spoiler:[[AllForNothing Vega's decision and the sacrifices from it were rendered moot and needless.]]]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Hackett and Anderson are aware that Vega wants to live up to the example that Shepard set, and warn him that such greatness can come at too great a cost.
* GenderConcealingWriting: Shepard is mentioned several times, but their gender is intentionally left vague.
* AGoodWayToDie: Brood invokes this, thanking Vega for freeing him so he could at least die a warrior's death as a krogan should.
* GroinAttack: Kamille gives Essex one after they survived the Blood Pack's attack. This was due to the fact that he almost got everybody killed when he tried to toss his weapon to her and it got stuck in a rock. It made enough noise to alert the Blood Pack of their presence.
* GunShipRescue: The Alliance Marines attempt to do this in the beginning of the film. Unfortunately for them, the Blood Pack is carrying heavy weaponry designed to take down vehicles and spacecraft.
* HandicappedBadass: Brood is missing an eye, as indicated by his eyepatch.
* HeroWorshipper: Vega might be an even bigger Shepard fanboy than Conrad Verner. Unlike Conrad, Vega is enough of a badass to actually try and follow in Shepard's footsteps. He still gets teased for it.
* HeroicBSOD: Vega gets several of them in rapid succession at the movie's climax.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Nicky shoves Vega out of the way of a Praetorian's claw stabbing for him and ends up taking the blow instead]].
* HopelessSuitor: Essex for Kamille.
* IGaveMyWord: Brood, after the humans release him during the Collector attack.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Messner, who is too busy [[KickTheDog kicking Vega while he's down]] and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech taunting him as a dumb grunt]] that he doesn't think it's a bad idea to get too close. Inevitably, he does, and Vega buries a combat knife in his stomach.
** [[spoiler:Nicky gets stabbed in the gut by the Praetorian and Essex [[InTheBack from behind]] by a Collector General.]]
* ItHasBeenAnHonor: [[spoiler:A mortally wounded Brood thanks Vega for giving him the chance to die a warrior's death.]]
* MacGuffin: The intel on the Collectors. Incidentally, it doesn't actually appear until the climax of the film, but heavily informs everything that happens afterwards.
* MadeOfIron:
** Archuk survives several gunshots from an assault rifle, shrugged of a grenade exploding at his feet and it took a headshot from a sniper to kill him.
** Brood survives [[spoiler:being shot in the head twice at point blank range, at least for a short while]]. Of course, krogan ''are'' notoriously hard to kill.
* MagicAntidote: Subverted. After Essex is paralyzed by the Seeker Swarm, the team tests the experimental antidote on him and it doesn't work. [[spoiler:At least, it doesn't work ''right away''. He shows up two scenes later to save his friends.]]
* MeaningfulName: Why ''Paragon Lost''? Because [[spoiler:even if the data had been lost, saving the colonists would have been the Paragon option in the games.]]
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Messner is not only a Cerberus mole spying on the Alliance, but is ''also'' a double agent working for and spying on the Collectors.]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Vega, after [[spoiler:sacrificing the colonists to save the intel]].
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Essex ruins Vega's plans in the beginning of the film because he tossed his weapon towards Kamille a little too hard and high up in an attempt to look cool. His weapon ends up sticking into the rock behind her, and the noise it makes alerts the Blood Pack to their presence. While they still manage to pull off Vega's plan, it becomes much more difficult to achieve thanks to them losing their element of surprise, and almost every character is wounded during the fight.
* NoSell: [[spoiler:The colony's massive defensive turret. The team intentionally fired a low-powered shot at the Collector ship in the interest of protecting the captured colonists inside; unfortunately, the Collectors' shields were far stronger than they anticipated.]]
* OffscreenInertia: Given that this anime was released after ''Mass Effect 3'', the fates of Treeya and Milque, [[spoiler:who are the only survivors of Vega's squad at the end]], remained unknown by the time Vega joins the ''Normandy'' crew in the game and the Reapers began their invasion across the galaxy.
* PosthumousCharacter: Commander Shepard, until it is revealed at the end that they came BackFromTheDead.
* POVSequel: This movie takes place during the events of ''Mass Effect 2'' (with the exception of the beginning, which occurs around the time of the [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 first game]]).
* QuickNip: Vega takes a swig from a flask and passes it around before attacking the Collector cruiser. [[spoiler:After they are captured, they realize that Vega spiked the booze with the MagicAntidote, which also explained [[ATankardOfMooseUrine why it tasted so lousy.]]]]
* ReassignedToAntarctica: After they take severe casualties saving Fehl Prime from the Blood Pack, Vega's team is ordered to stay there and provide security. Vega is not too thrilled with this prospect.
* RedShirtArmy: The other squad Vega's team drops in with don't even get any lines, nor much screentime. They get killed off rather unceremoniously, along with the other shuttles dropping in with them.
* ReforgedIntoAMinion: Messner forces Treeya to use a Prothean beacon aboard the Collector ship; through it, she sees the Reapers annihilate Fehl Prime's Prothean defenders and then use their corpses to create the Collectors:
-->'''Harbinger:''' You will submit. You will ascend. And you will serve.
* SadisticChoice: In classic ''Franchise/MassEffect'' fashion, Vega has to choose between saving Treeya (who is carrying vital intelligence about the Collectors) or the colonists (which includes April, the little girl that he promised he would rescue). [[spoiler:He chooses the former, and is promoted and rewarded for his choice, but he can [[SurvivorGuilt barely live with himself]]. Not only that, but it turns out ''he made the wrong choice'': chronologically, Shepard and their crew destroy the Collectors independently of the Alliance shortly after the events of this movie, rendering the intel Vega gathered useless.]]
* SenselessSacrifice: [[spoiler:Vega sacrificing the colonists to save Treeya.]] As aforementioned, [[spoiler:Vega ultimately made the wrong choice due to the intel he gathered being useless.]]
* ShipperOnDeck: Vega's entire team, who shamelessly watch his awkward attempts to chat up Treeya. Worse, they're teasing him about it over the radio.
* SpacePirates: While they are ostensibly PrivateMilitaryContractors in the games, the Blood Pack act more like this in the movie, although it's implied in ''Mass Effect 2'' that this is par for the course for Terminus Systems merc bands.
* SurvivorGuilt: Vega is deeply troubled by this at the end of the film.
* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:Having been mortally injured by a Collector General, Essex uses his last strength to biotically push himself and his attacker over the edge of a pit inside the Collector ship.]]
* TalkingYourWayOut: [[spoiler:Messner tries to get out of the Collectors threatening to turn him into HumanResources by threatening to transmit the data he's gathered on their weaknesses to the Alliance unless they let him go. The Collectors dismiss his words as empty threats.]] He also [[spoiler:offers to [[BuyThemOff pay Vega in exchange for his life. Vega throws the offer back in his face]].]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Messner:''']] Listen, I can pay you, as much as you want! Just name your price! Please Vega, help me! You can't just leave me here!
-->'''Vega:''' [[TranquilFury You made your choice]].
* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: Essex's last words [[spoiler:after he's been impaled by a Collector General]]. It also doubles as a PreMortemOneLiner:
-->'''Essex:''' Collect ''this'', you bitch!
* TooDumbToLive:
** [[spoiler:Mason loses it when he sees Kamille has been subsumed into the Praetorian. He runs straight towards it intending to save her, and gets vaporized by a particle beam.]]
** [[spoiler:Messner]], perhaps you shouldn't talk about how you are going to betray the Collectors and steal information from their database ''while standing in a room with several of them''.
* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:Messner cries and begs for his life and for Vega to rescue him after he betrays the group on the Collector ship. Vega is understandably unwilling to help him and leaves him as the group makes their escape, and Messner gets killed by the Collectors for his trouble.]]
* WeirdnessCensor: Heavily in effect due to Shepard's discoveries being covered up by the Council. Most characters are incredulous about the existence of the Reapers, the Collectors and the true reason for the Prothean's disappearance, with Treeya lamenting that her mentor, Liara, has ruined her career by becoming a "conspiracy theorist" ever since she ran off with Shepard. At the time, [[TheWorldIsNotReady the official story published by the Citadel Council]] was that Sovereign was a unique geth dreadnought, and not an ancient mechanical EldritchAbomination come to usher in an apocalypse for organic life.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Subverted. While Vega's choice is a matter of record, only he can know for sure what the real reason was for said choice.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Messner. In this case, he was causing the Collectors more problems than he was worth, what with him bringing the Alliance special forces squad onto the ship, risking contaminating the human "genetic slurry" with an asari, and of course, the simple fact that they caught him spying on them.]]
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