* [[VideoGame/MassEffect Main Page]]

The rest of the list found here:

* MassEffect/{{Tropes A-D}}
* MassEffect/{{Tropes I-L}}
* MassEffect/{{Tropes M-P}}
* MassEffect/{{Tropes Q-T}}
* MassEffect/{{Tropes U-Z}}

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* EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse: Initially averted. Before [=ME3=], not one single event of any plot importance has occurred on Earth in the series. The ''only'' relevance it had to the current plot is that it's one of three selectable pre-service origins for Shepard. It's suggested that [[spoiler: the Collectors will eventually hit Earth for the population density,]] but they never have the chance. [=ME3=] begins with a full-scale invasion of the planet by the Reapers, and the ultimate goal is the launch a final battle both on and around Earth. [[spoiler: Earth is actually the ''second'' victim of the Reapers after Khar'Shan, and Shepard doesn't return until the very last section of the game. However, the Reapers seem to be awfully focused on Earth, and actually move the Citadel into the Sol System, for no other reason than forcing the final battle to take place there.]]
* TheEighties: According to the WordOfGod, ''Mass Effect'' is an homage to 1980's sci-fi flicks, including the soundtrack (''Film/BladeRunner'', and so on). ''Mass Effect 1'' seems to harken to the early 80's, while ''Mass Effect 2'' seems to harken to the latter part of the decade. One example of this influence is the music in the first game, particularly the more synthesized tracks on the Citadel, which are a great ShoutOut to Vangelis' music in Film/BladeRunner.
* EldritchAbomination: The Reapers, [[spoiler: and the Leviathan, who indirectly created them.]]
* EliteMooks: With the geth, 'Elite' overlaps with 'Giant.' The bigger they are, the more effective, though it works as larger units can house more software, which translates to smarter and more effective platforms.
** In ''[=ME3=]'', each faction has their own group of Super Mooks. Aside from the aforementioned geth, the Reaper faction has Brutes and Banshees (huskified krogans/turians and asari, respectively). Cerberus has Phantoms and Atlas mechs. And the multiplayer-only Collectors, as in ''[=ME2=]'', have Scions and Praetorians.
* EncyclopediaExposita: The Codex, narrated by Neil "[[HeyItsThatVoice I know I've]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid heard you before]]" Ross.
** It's worth noting that a lot of little elements in the game are expanded on by the Codex. For example, Engineer Adams comments that "going to FTL blue-shifts our emissions." The mechanics behind ''why'' the emissions are blue-shifted are explained in detail in the Codex.
** The Codex is also a literal in-universe encyclopedia, which means that it intentionally contains incorrect and falsified information. For example, in the second game Sovereign is listed as a geth warship, when it reality it was [[spoiler: a sentient starship and the game’s true BigBad]].
* [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt The End Of The Galaxy As We Know It]]: According to legend, this rolls around every fifty thousand years with no explanation for what causes it. [[spoiler:It's the [[EldritchAbomination Reapers]], and guess what time it is!]]
** [[spoiler: Before the Extended Cut, the third game ended this way, regardless of which ending you chose.]]
* EmptyShell: [[spoiler:Victims of indoctrination.]]
* EndangeredSpecies: The rachni, who are not quite as dead as the galaxy believes. It's up to you whether or not to finish the job. [[spoiler: If you wipe them out in the first game, the Reapers make their own, but there's no way to save them - their Breeder will turn on you no matter what. The real Queen will help if given the chance.]]
* EnemyChatter: ...make it stop... [[MostAnnoyingSound *twitch* ]]
-->"I WILL DEEESTROY YOU!"\\
"GO-GO-GO"\\
"ENEMIES EVERYWHERE!"\\
"{{HOLD THE LINE}}!"
* EnemyCivilWar: [[spoiler:The original geth vs the AlwaysChaoticEvil heretic geth by the second game.]]
** Cerberus vs. Cerberus renegades in the third game.
** [[spoiler:Reaper-controlled Collectors vs Leviathan-controlled Awakened Collectors]] in the latest multiplayer DLC.
* EpiphanyTherapy: Averted on almost every occasion. Rather than getting people over their problems with a few helpful/tough words and maybe a slap to the face, Shepard instead tries to get people to acknowledge that they have a problem in the first place. And if they do, s/he then encourages them to see a shrink.
* EternalProhibition: Drugs are still illegal. Alcohol is still legal, but only in certain places. It's implied that the laws are more fluid than what we're used to; drugs that are illegal are allowed on Illium, just heavily taxed.
** There's large differences concerning attitudes towards drugs in different cultures; turians for example tolerate recreational drug use more than humans, but only as long as it doesn't impede their duties. Illium is a special case, as its location puts it outside all interstellar legislation, and the only law recognised there is corporate law -- anything you buy comes with a contract describing all the effects and side-effects of the product, and as long as it's fulfilled, there's no grounds for complaint.
*** Illium also references a point of debate from real life: if a drug is entirely illegal, it will be brought in by smugglers.
* EternalRecurrence: [[spoiler:The Reapers and their 'harvesting' of all space-faring species of the galaxy every fifty thousand years. The earliest evidence available is a mostly-dead Reaper. From thirty-seven million years ago.]]
** [[spoiler:The third game ultimately involves ending this cycle, and also reveals another: organic beings always create synthetics, always go to war with synthetics, are always destroyed by synthetics. The Reapers were created to end these cycles and preserve organic life.]]
** The Leviathan of Dis found on Jartar was estimated at nearly a billion years old, and it was confirmed in the Leviathan DLC to be [[spoiler:a Reaper. This pushes the earliest known evidence back from thirty-seven million years ago to almost a billion years ago. Sovereign once said, "We have no beginning. We have no end. We are infinite." It may not be true, but it's close enough that he could be forgiven for thinking it.]]
* EvaFins: The Geth Destroyer family of mooks sport these.
* EveryBulletIsATracer: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], in that each bullet is actually a grain-sized pellet of metal in a mass effect field. All mass effect fields give off blue light. Without ammo mods, every “tracer” is blue.
* EveryoneIsASuper: An elevator conversation between Kaidan and Liara discusses how many asari tend to be naturally gifted with biotics to the point that they can actually choose not to serve militarily. Kaidan expresses his jealousy at that last point.
* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: It's not very obvious, but turians are very similar to dinosaurs: raptors, to be exact, though they also share many similarities with birds. [[AllThereInTheManual Captain Anderson even mentions it in the novel]]. A sidequest in the third game involves finding an alien dinosaur fossil for salarians to clone dinosaurs from for krogans to ride as battle mounts.
** There's also that skull you find on one of the uncharted worlds where a geth patrol lured you into an ambush with a false distress beacon. Your armor's HUD can't identify it.
* EverythingFades
* EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture: Everywhere shiny, at least.
* EverythingIsOnline: The entire concept of hacking. Possibly an aversion, though; see the page for details.
* EverythingsSquishierWithCephalopods: The Reapers look a little like squids, with tentacle-like arms and elongated hulls. Justified, as [[spoiler:they actually are shaped after a water-dwelling organic species that created them.]]
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: The quarians; due to their immune systems, they can't go anywhere in the galaxy without being at risk, forcing them to wear environment suits. This is a source of some small {{Angst}} for Tali. In a more traditional sense, [[DeathWorld Tuchanka]]; you thought the krogan were bad? ''Everything'' on their planet is carnivorous. Even the plantlife. And one of the ''minor'' predators is capable of completely destroying the ecosystem of any planet they're placed on.
** Then again, Tuchanka is a nuclear wasteland thanks to krogan civil wars.
* EvilIsEasy: Averted. Renegade paths aren't usually any harder, per se, but they tend to yield less rewards, and often trigger fights you could otherwise avoid. Which may have been your intention, of course.
* EvilIsPetty: While Renegade is not technically evil, and is supposed to be a person who is sure IDidWhatIHadToDo, maxing out your Renegade meter will generally require you to be a bit of a dick, from being rather rude to shaking down money.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Reapers in general have ''really'' deep voices.
** The [[spoiler:rachni queen]] in ''Mass Effect 3'' also has a deep voice (though not nearly as deep as a Reaper's), but is in fact an ally [[spoiler:assuming you don't kill her.]]
*** That's because she's speaking through a bunch of [[spoiler:krogan corpses]]
* EvilTwin: Morinth of Samara.
** Even more in [=ME3=] [[spoiler: Clone Shepard of Real Shepard]]
* EvilutionaryBiologist: Dozens of them, mainly working for Cerberus or [=ExoGeni=].
** In ''Mass Effect 2'', the Collectors appear to be [[PlanetOfHats a whole species]] of this trope. [[spoiler: And it's actually the Reapers, for whom the Collectors are just muscle.]]
** The third game reveals that this was the [[spoiler:Protheans']] [[PlanetOfHats hat]].
* ExoticEquipment: The asari's unique method of mating. And of course, the krogan's legendary quads.
* ExpandedUniverse: A trio ([[FanonDiscontinuity that's right, there are only three of them]]) of books, a series of comics, and a couple of games for the iPhone. In something of a twist, though, the EU actually has ''less'' information and detail than what you can find in the games themselves.
** The daily news updates are rapidly becoming probably the biggest contributor to the setting at large, fleshing it out with lots of running plotlines and even adding a new species to the Citadel.
*** The updates have also fleshed out some of the characters which were later introduced in the DLC (Tela Vasir in Lair of the Shadow Broker), or have been used to lead up to events of the DLC (Amanda Kenson in Arrival)
* ExplodingBarrels: These take the form of hazardous substance containers and power conduits. However, the containers only sneeze-explode if someone's rigged them on tripwires (the mission on the derelict freighter with the comatose guy and his whack-job girlfriend springs to mind.) Exploding them under normal circumstances requires bullets.
* ExplosiveBreeder: Formerly the krogan, as an adaptation to [[DeathWorld Tuchanka]]. At least before they got slapped with [[DepopulationBomb the genophage]].
* ExplosiveOverclocking: Certain weapons upgrades in the first game will render your weapon incapable of firing more than one shot before overheating. But ''damn'' are those upgrades worth it.
* ExpoSpeak: Reading the Codex at 2 a.m. half-asleep tends to leave one feeling dim, confused, and unwilling to find a thesaurus/dictionary.
* ExpoSpeakGag: From the ''Lair of the Shadow broker'' dossiers: "Dr. Solus suggests Captain Kirrahe has a foreign obstruction in his cloaca." A few paragraphs later, "Dr. Solus suggests the foreign obstruction in Captain Kirrahe's cloaca is in fact his cranium."
* ExtremeOmnivore: Anything from [[DeathWorld Tuchanka]]. Especially krogan, who find just about anything, including burning corpses, appetizing.
** Except ramen.
* TheFaceless: The quarians and volus, since they have to wear an environmental suit at all times.
* FacelessEye: The geth, with their infamous 'flashlight heads.' In the second game, one of them gains some movable flaps around those eyes to portray something like emotion, but the trope is still in full effect.
* FacialMarkings: The turians, who continue the practice of declaring tribal allegiance through facepaint, even though the tribes technically no longer exist. They even use the term 'barefaced' for someone who is deceitful (hint: anytime you interact with a turian, check out the face). Also some asari, though their facial markings are not explained.
** Many asari are born with various facial markings. Sometimes these facial markings look like painted on eyebrows, such as Liara's, but they are not seen by the asari as such.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The quarians are obviously influenced by [[UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} gypsies]] and [[ANiceJewishIndex Jews]].
** It goes on and on. The turians are Space Communists/Space Romans influenced by ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'' (the book, not the movie), for instance.
** Illium is basically [[RecycledInSpace Space]] UsefulNotes/{{Dubai}}.
*** It’s also suspiciously similar to Noveria from the first game, which was also a corporate owned and run world that had an unbelievable level of corruption and crime.
** We can also see (mainly from Mordin's dialogue) that salarian culture is influenced by India since they marry (or rather breed) out of convenience and believe in reincarnation and multiple gods (One salarian NPC says "May the gods bless you" when you accomplish his mini-sidequest).
** The drell are most likely influenced by Greek culture, with their (dying) traditional belief of polytheism, belief of angel-/demigod-like beings, and separation of the body and soul. Very likely, seeing the choice in naming the one recruitable drell in your squad after the god of death (Thanatos) and the Greek word for the constellation Aries, the god of war (Krios).
** Arguably, the geth show signs of being Space Muslims. They live in a place that used to belong to the quarians (Jews). [[spoiler: Feared and hated for a terrorist act that was committed by a minute strain of heretical geth, while the vast majority are peaceful, and really aren't as unlike the organic races (who tend to assume that geth have no use for anyone who isn't a cybernetic) as people think. Also, they get hassled by airport security.]]
** In [[MassEffect3 MassEffect3]], the Krogan ruins in Tuchunka had wall paintings like those in Ancient Egyptian Tomb, the underground ruins, and the building before their war, is essentially an {{Expy}} of Pyramids.
* FantasticArousal: The Azure...[[spoiler:revealed in Lair of the Shadow Broker to be a region in an asari's lower back near the bottom. Touching it gets expected results.]]
* FantasticDrug: The red sand mentioned, though never seen, in the games, which is refined [[{{Phlebotinum}} eezo]] that gives users a high and temporary, somewhat weak [[MindOverMatter biotic abilities]]. Withdrawal is described as being very nasty. The second game features Minagen X3, a red chemical which doesn't grant biotics but does enhance them. The more you take, the stronger you get. Until you OD.
* FantasticRacism:
** Between EVERYONE and the krogan, humans and turians (and vice versa), and pretty much everyone towards the quarians. Humans in general tend to be a sore point for most aliens.
** Inverted with the asari, who value mixed-species children and instead act horribly racist toward purebloods. Samara mentions that ardat-yakshi (an asari congenital neurological disorder which results in sterility, (occasionally) sociopathy... and the ability to steal LifeEnergy from their partners by putting them OutWithABang) occurs almost exclusively among the daughters of purebloods, and wonders if that's where the stigma came from.
** Even otherwise open-minded individuals consider the vorcha to be talking vermin.
** Turians aren't that bad actually; they're getting along alright with humans since the First Contact War, which was kind of a misunderstanding anyway. It's really ''batarians'' that hate humans' guts. The conflict between the races is so strong, it shapes two of Shepard's possible backstories.
** The Terra Firma Party has a platform of resisting alien influences on human culture. Naturally, this has led to much of its membership being complete xenophobes.
* FantasticSlurs: With all the FantasticRacism flying around, it's surprising that the most memorable slur is 'pureblood' for a child who has two asari mothers, only a few of whom are encountered in the games. Granted, one is a party member, but still.
** Granted, this is because [[spoiler: the asari consider it in the same way that we as humans consider incest -- an unnecessary limiting of genetic diversity.]]
** Another notable one is "suit rat" in reference to quarians.
* FantasyContraception: Asari apparently don't get pregnant unless they want to.
* FasterThanLightTravel: The mechanics of VideoGame/MassEffect FTL is one of the few bits of exposition they actually mandate the player sit through. [[ChekhovsGun No reason for that. Really]]. They even go into detail about why FTL drives cannot be operated for long periods of time, explaining the dependence on the [[PortalNetwork mass relays]].
* FateWorseThanDeath: The [[spoiler:Reapers]] are disturbingly fond of doing this to the people they don't simply exterminate.
** And, as it turns out, so is [[spoiler:Cerberus]].
* TheFederation: Both the human Systems Alliance and the Citadel Council in general.
** Notable, though, for the Systems Alliance is that while it represents humanity, it does not actually ''govern'' humanity. The Codex mentions that while the Alliance is responsible for Earth's colonies, its navy, and what not, Earth itself is still divided amongst nations. At the very least Japan, India, and the European Union all still exist as independent entities.
** Well, the European Union seems to be a sort of TheFederation since it's members apparently have a joint colonisation programme rather than having various UK, German and French colonies.
** In the Kasumi DLC, new info about politics on Earth is given in the Codex: Apparently a North American Union of sorts - the United North American States - was formed, but the addition of Canada and Mexico angered a terrorist group into [[spoiler: destroying the Statue of Liberty, whose head can be found in Kasumi's mission.]] Also, China is apparently the Chinese People's Federation these days.
* FetchQuest: Lampshaded by Shepard when meeting Mordin Solus.
---> '''Shepard''': Just once I'd like to ask someone for help and hear them say "Sure, let's go! Right now, no strings attached."
* FeudalFuture: Salarian government is split up into fiefdoms, baronies, duchies, planets, and marches (colonization clusters), in increasing order of authority, rather than states. Granted, though, [[TranslationConvention these are all human]] translations to make sense of the incredibly confusing government system the salarians use.
* FictionalUnitedNations: The Citadel Council is one of the more politically powerful versions of the trope. It's somewhat of a benevolent dictatorship in that any decision they give ''must'' be abided by (or you can GTFO like the batarians did), and non-Council races can only make their case and hope the Council agrees with them.
* FighterMageThief: Or Combat, Biotic and Tech, for a sci-fi twist. Three player classes are purely one of these, and three others are hybrids between two of them. Done as well with the council races (fighter = turian; mage = asari; thief = salarian).
* FightingForAHomeland: The quarians have been exiled from Rannoch for about four hundred years now, and most of them are ''really'' antsy to go home. Others advise caution, alternate colonization, or even peace with the geth. During Tali's loyalty mission, shepard can influence them towards one of these goals.
* FinalDeath: [[spoiler:Every single squadmate who dies dies because of ''you''. [[SadisticChoice Including your choice between Ash and Kaidan.]] Likewise, every character who dies in the third game, and there can be quite a few.]]
* FiringOneHanded: Occasionally pops up in cutscenes. In the third game, Eve does this with a ''shotgun.''And not just any shotgun either--with the [[{{BFG}} M-300 Claymore]].
* FirstContact: The backstory and prequel novel.
* FirstTown: The Citadel in the first and third games.
* FisherKingdom: [[spoiler:Feros, though this is revealed to be the fault of the [[TheHypnotoad Thorian]]. If you tweak your definition of 'place', the Reapers could count as well; almost everyone who stumbles across them mistakes them for ships.]]
* FlingALightIntoTheFuture: [[spoiler:[[ApocalypticLog The Prothean beacons actually contain a warning of the Reapers]]... one that never made it out in time. They did succeed in disabling the Citadel's giant Mass Relay and this is the only reason Shepard and the Council races have any hope of victory.]]
** In the original ''Mass Effect'', you can find a planet with ruins so ancient that they have all turned to dust, except for a giant column at the center. At the base of the column, someone scratched the words "Monsters from the Id", a ShoutOut to ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet''.
** In the third game, Liara starts doing this, depositing archives everywhere the Normandy travels with complete records of the galaxy, the Reapers, the Crucible... and Shepard, in case the Reapers win.
* FixedForwardFacingWeapon: [[MagneticWeapons Magnetic railguns]] are the weapon du jour on Alliance ships. The Encyclopedia explains that every ship has its biggest gun mounted in the nose, because that way, the railgun can run the entire length of the ship - and the energy you can put into a railgun projectile is proportional to the length of the magnetic rail. Smaller railguns are usually mounted in turrets and sides, but if you want to punch through somebody's shields, you're gonna need the nose-gun.
** Not just the Alliance. The Geth Dreadnought in the third game has one so massive that the boarding party uses it to reach the drive core (avoiding the actual discharges, of course).
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** The Reapers' ''name'' doesn't seem significant beyond a generic, cliché word for an all-destructive force, [[spoiler: but it hints that the cycle of destruction is the species' ''reproductive cycle,'' and they ''literally'' reap what they sow.]] Along those lines, after you find this out and go back for a second playthrough, listen to all of the crazy batarian preacher's lines on Omega; one of them practically spells out what you find at the end.
** When Ashley quotes Walt Whitman's "O Captain, my Captain" in reference to Shepard, the Commander states that the [[LampshadeHanging man in question dies at the end of the poem.]] Shepard doesn't do so hot either.
** At the end of the first game, [[spoiler:Saren's OneWingedAngel form]] is a hint of [[spoiler:what really happened to the Protheans]].
** Dr. Manuel, the crazy researcher you find on Eden Prime. When you listen to him the first time, it seems like he's just [[CloudCuckoolander spouting off nonsense]]. Then you go back through a second time and you [[MadOracle realize that]] ''[[MadOracle he was right]]''.
** In one of Miranda's conversations aboard the ''Normandy'', she says that "I'm still human. I make mistakes. And when I do, the consequences are dire." In the suicide mission, [[spoiler:Miranda says she can maintain the biotic shield as well as Samara, or any other biotic. She can't, and one your squadmates is killed if you choose her.]]
** Speak to Ashley in the Citadel Council Chamber, and one of her comments is about how the layout of the stairs appears to be designed to make good defensive positions. [[spoiler:As it turns out, for Saren's geth]].
** After the mission to Feros, during your debriefing with the Citadel Council, a Paragon Shepard can get the Councilors to question his/her decision to save the colonists. The salarian will call him/her on it, saying "sometimes you have to be willing to make sacrifices to get the mission done." Ominous, and somewhat ironic.
* [[FourthDateMarriage Fourth Date Sex]]
* FriendlyFireproof: Your squadmates seem to have a disturbing habit of ignoring all the ammunition you're putting into their back to get them out of your way. But it's okay, you're immune to their fire too. The fact that they love nothing more than running in front of you while you're trying to shoot the bad guys kind of necessitates it.
** Somewhat averted in the sequel, as they ''will'' yell at you for shooting them... but you still don't actually do damage.
*** Ditto multiplayer teammates in the third game.
*** Kasumi's shout of "What am I, invisible?" is quite amusing, considering [[InvisibilityCloak what her special ability is]]. Makes this kind of a ''literal'' StealthPun.
** At least your rounds are shown to be impacting on their shields rather than them. Makes things a little more plausible than [[Left4Dead "AWWW, DAMMIT, BILL!"]]
** Somewhat averted with the Mako. The Mako takes damage from you and your teammates, but can't be destroyed if you aren't in it. If you're looking for a challenge, try finishing a driving section with a one-HP Mako.
* FunWithAcronyms: '''Spec'''ial '''T'''actics and '''Re'''connaissance. Bit of a stretch, but hey, [[RuleOfCool it sounds awesome]].
** Hell, that's just the ''English'' translation. The original galactic/asari/whatever could be completely innocuous.
** The Alliance ships' point defense systems are called '''GARDIAN''': '''G'''eneral '''Ar'''ea '''D'''efense '''I'''ntegration '''A'''nti-spacecraft '''N'''etwork.
* TheFuture: Yyyyyyyyup.
* FutureSpandex: Many uniforms and outfits throughout the series.
* FuturisticPyramid: Prothean architecture seems to vary between this and flavors of spires.
* GalacticConqueror: [[EldritchAbomination Aside from the obvious,]] [[spoiler:humanity becomes this in the full Renegade ending of the second game.]] The third game reveals that the [[spoiler:Protheans]] were this, too.
* GatelessGhetto: The Citadel may be the political, economic, and cultural center of the galaxy, but you can only visit the embassy, the Citadel Tower, a market or two and a couple of clubs.
* GenderIsNoObject: Played straight with most species, notably humans and quarians ("On the flotilla, we can't afford the luxury of sexism"). Justified subversion with krogans and salarians; fertile krogan females (or any salarian females) are rare enough that they can't risk them in combat, or even off of core planets. This is purely about practicality - several krogan in ''2'' mention Shiagur, a female warlord who continued fighting even after the genophage, from whom many still claim descent.
* GenderNeutralWriting: Wholly averted, though not often; because most conversations are with Shepard, not about them, his/her gender isn't brought up much. But when the occasion arises the writers do not shy away from it. [[BiTheWay Most]] of the romances are gender-unique, and there are several other gender-unique scenes as well. For example, in [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 the second game]], there is a scene where a merc recruiter calls female Shepard a stripper. Bad idea.
* GenderRarityValue: The krogan, having few females capable of carrying children to term due to the genophage, fit this, as do the salarians who have a nine to one gender ratio of males to females. This results in breeding becoming a very complicated process of negotiating contracts.
** Salarian females tend to be the ones who hold political power despite being greatly outnumbered, which is why you don't see them on non-salarian worlds.
* [[GenerationShips Generation Fleet]]: The Flotilla, travelling with the eventual hope of either getting their homeworld back or finding a new place to live.
* GenericanEmpire: The Systems Alliance.
* GeneticMemory: Used against the [[spoiler: Rachni Queen, to extract from her mind the coordinates of a relay she never saw herself.]]
* GenocideDilemma: With the rachni and the krogan. The Council seemed eager enough to wipe the rachni out, but tried to avoid outright genocide with the krogan, settling for the [[DepopulationBomb genophage]]. However, ignorance of krogan psychology has essentially led to delayed genocide. [[spoiler: However, you get the chance to bring the rachni back into the galaxy, and it's looking like you can at the very least partially undo the genophage's effect in the future...]] In the third game, Shepard holds the fate of the krogan, quarians, and geth in his/her hands, and must decide whether these ''species'' live or die.
** Not to mention the fate of the [[spoiler:Reapers]]
* GenreThrowback: SpaceOpera has been out of the picture for a while, but BioWare decided to throw it back into the mix.
* GhostPlanet: Ilos.
* GhostShip: Several missions, mostly in the first game. Although kind of samey, they manage to be very creepy.
** Creepiness gets turned UpToEleven in the second game when you get to [[spoiler: the derelict Reaper. Making your way through the hulk of an EldritchAbomination, surrounded by [[ApocalypticLog recordings]] of the science team that came before you as they slowly [[BrainwashedAndCrazy lose their minds]] while [[OurZombiesAreDifferent husks]] literally come out of the walls at you.]]
* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Meeting the thresher maws for the first time (in the first two games). Raise your hand if you saw that coming.
** Averted in cases where the player chooses the "Sole Survivor" background, where Shepard is the only person to come out of humanity's first encounter with thresher maws alive.
** Thresher maws actually sorta ARE Giant Space Fleas. Their spores can travel through space until crashing on a planet, at which point they burrow into the ground to feed on anything they can grab.
*** They are also either from, or get along well, with the Krogan Homeworld. Krogans fight them as part of puberty.
* GlobalCurrency: Credits, which are used on every single planet throughout the galaxy.
** The volus, a turian client species, basically manage the galactic economy because it's so complicated having to deal with the historical currencies of every alien race on top of the common galactic currency. Their talent for such things is why they became a client race for the turians.
** Explained in the Codex - all banks in Citadel worlds are required to keep exchange rates between the local currency and credits. The GlobalCurrency is really more an economic lingua franca.
* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: [[FriendlySniper Garrus's]] eyepiece in the first game. He always has it, no matter what armor you give him, and it's never explained what, if any, benefit it grants. Second game comes around and, yup, he's still got it. But now you can buy that same eyepiece for yourself, to discover that it gives a headshot bonus. [[AwesomeYetPractical Nice.]] The third game offers a few different sets of goggles for sale.
** Funnily enough, Garrus's eyepiece [[GogglesDoSomethingUnusual actually does many somethings]] and is based on the eyepiece that Shepard can buy, as explained in the Shadow Broker's dossiers. It has a zoom function, sonar, LADAR, thermal, and EM targeting capable, can detect heart-rate fluctuations or changes to breath pattern, detect biotic fields, [[BodyCountCompetition kill counter that can sync with team members]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking plays music]] and a porn movie.
* GoingThroughTheMotions: Shows up a lot. The end-of-conversation "turn and walk away" that is used by practically everyone you meet comes to mind.
** [[MassEffect2 2]] and [[MassEffect3 3]] had this a lot less than [[MassEffect1 1]], with most conversations individually choreographed. Occasionally one of the old reusable movements is thrown in anyway, and is remarkably noticeable in comparison.
*** Especially noteable with the Illusive Man, whose fist pumping "we can do it" movements could define the trope.
* GoldenSnitch: Somewhat averted. The big decisions are made at the end of the first game, yeah, but your actions throughout the whole of the game still affect the outcome somewhat. And in the second game, [[spoiler: the obvious big choice is made at the last second. But that's not what's really important. What's ''really'' important is if you helped your teammates enough and upgraded your ship throughout the entire game to have them survive. ''That's'' the ''really'' important part.]] Played straight in the third game: if you laid the groundwork for the war effort in the previous two games, you'll have a much easier time in the third, but even so, your actions in the third game are the most important.
* GondorCallsForAid. ''Mass Effect 3'', especially for Paragon Shepard, who may have made some very ''powerful'' allies, some of whom are [[TheAtoner trying to make up for past galactic transgressions]]. Shepard has to rally ''everyone'' since the Reaper's first action is to attack Earth.
* GonnaNeedMoreX: Shows up here and there.
* GoodAllAlong: Well, maybe not 'good', but definitely 'not as xenocidally insane as everyone thought all along.' [[spoiler:This applies to both the rachni and the majority of the geth.]]
** The third game implies this may be the case for the krogan - they only turned uncontrollably violent and anarchistic under the effects of the genophage, and under strong, far-sighted leadership, can and will once again be the heroes who saved the galaxy.
** In a very warped way, may even apply to [[spoiler:the reapers. They were created to protect galactic civilisation from permanent destruction, and have been doing their best to fulfill this mission since. However, their "variables" were so far off that [[GoneHorriblyRight it didn't really work out as planned]]. They can be made to fulfill their purpose in a much less destructive way through the Control and Synthesis endings, however.]]
* GoodIsNotSoft: Paragon Shepard, though s/he is definitely not the only one. Garrus, Tali, Jacob and Hackett would be prominent examples.
* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold:
** Most of the time when Shepard does something heroic, there are civilian witnesses, so the story usually gets around fast. However, due to being a Spectre and taking on very...sensitive missions on a pretty regular basis, there are a great number of fantastic things that go down and no one ever hears about. Or, alternately, they know basically what happened, but [[GasLeakCoverUp not the real truth]].
** In a much bigger sense, [[spoiler:this also applies to the Protheans' HeroicSacrifice to give the next generation hope against the Reapers.]]
** The multiplayer characters in the third game: strike teams of human, turian, asari, salarian, quarian, and krogan commandos launching daring raids deep behind enemy lines to keep the enemy tied up and busy while buying Shepard time. A glance at class skills reveals that these faceless, nameless heroes include Alliance officers, salarian STG operatives, asari justicars, and more. The multiplayer expansions even throw geth, batarians, vorcha and Cerberus defectors into the mix.
*** Taken UpToEleven in the last expansion, when you get to play [[spoiler:a Collector that was somehow freed from Harbinger's DIRECT CONTROL]].
* GreyGoo: One planet has seas made of silicon which screw with probes that are launched onto it. The extranet has spawned a conspiracy theory that labels the 'seas' as advanced alien nanobots, which every government flatly denies.
* TheGreys: The salarians. Basic physical similarity, most of them tend to be scientists (or infiltration specialists), very energetic, lacking sexual drive yet [[AliensMadeThemDoIt quite interested in its manifestations in other species]].
* GreenAesop: The drell backstory - uncontrolled industrialization altered their already-dry homeworld's climate and started to cause mass extinction. Most of the surviving drell were rescued by the hanar over the course of ten years and brought to the hanar homeworld. The drell homeworld is now called a cemetery world, with only a few thousand survivors eking out a living in the arid wastes.
** Not so green if you talk to Thane. Because the climate of the two worlds are so different, practically all drell on Kahje will eventually suffer what amounts to a slow drowning as their lungs fill up with moisture and rot. Plus, the drell are in a species wide indentured servitude (with no end in sight) to the hanar including being assassins and soldiers. Thane says the drell are happy to fulfil their obligation but if the ME universe has anything to say about it, he's merely generalizing and ignoring the many who do not see this as fair.
** The ''krogan'' backstory - they blew their homeworld to [[VideoGame/{{Fallout}} an irradiated desert]]. Then the salarians gave them spaceflight and were surprised when they did the same to other worlds.
*** And averted if you talk to Mordin, really. He suggests that it wasn't the nuclear weaponry and such that was the problem. The problem was that the krogan simply weren't mature enough as a species to handle the technology.
* GreenLanternRing: The omni-tool. Essentially, it's a portable computer which can hack locks, bank accounts, computers (including ones in enemy weapons and armor) and slaughter people by activating tech powers...
** They're also useful for playing computer games like Alliance Corsair.
** Also, in Mass Effect 3, it can ''stab'' people, despite being just 'light'. And can be electrified or set on fire.
*** ...and [[DeflectorShields kinetic barriers.]] That can shoot fire and ice.
*** The HardLight blade is justified by it not actually being the light that does the damage. The light just tells you where the transparent, nearly diamond-hard RazorFloss blade is.
* GreenRocks: Element Zero, or "eezo," which makes ''everything'' run, from guns to spaceships to artificial gravity to [[{{Dune}} Baron Harkonnen]] harnesses for the hanar. It is, however, [[MinovskyPhysics extremely well-defined]].
* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: The (blue-skinned) asari were originally designed (as stated in the art book) to be "a race of beautiful 'green alien girls'," as much of the game's universe is nostalgically built upon the familiar sci-fi tropes of yesteryear. And, thanks to a delayed reaction to exposure to the Thorian's spores, one of them turns green for the second game.
* GuestStarPartyMember: One in the beginning of each game, per BioWare tradition. They tend not to last long.
** Also appears in Lair of the Shadow Broker, where Liara joins your party temporarily.
*** And Arrival, where Amanda Kenson joins you even more temporarily.
** Admiral Anderson at the beginning of the third game, though he doesn't die at the end of Earth - he simply takes up leadership of the Earth resistance and sends Shepard off to get help.
*** In the Omega DLC, you get ''two'' of those. Aria is with you on every mission, while Nyreen joins you only sporadically. [[spoiler:Nyreen dies.]]
* GuiltBasedGaming: If you make the wrong decision in some of the more emotionally torquing sections of the games (and trust me, it will happen), the other characters will [[WhatTheHellHero rip into you for it]]. More than that, though, the way they talk is not just aimed at Shepard, but ''[[WhatTheHellPlayer you]]''. Also, certain decisions [[spoiler:(such as exposing Tali's father as a war criminal at her trial)]] will have not just in-game characters but '''EVERYONE''' online who finds out about it calling you a monster. Fans get very emotionally invested in this series.
** The final scenes of the [[spoiler:krogan]] and [[spoiler:quarian/geth]] arcs in ''Mass Effect 3'' really push the limits of this.
** There is a certain scene in the second game where during Tali's loyalty mission, when you [[spoiler:find the body of her dead father]], she starts crying and a Paragon interrupt comes up to hug her. Not taking the interrupt is considered by most (if not all) players, even the full-Renegade ones, to be the most soulless thing one can do.
** Dear ''God'' you can do some nasty things in the third game, and people ''will'' call you out on it. Sometimes violently.
* HackingMinigame: All the time. Necessary to get equipment and money in the first game; arguably more so in the second, because it's one of the ''only'' ways you can make any cash apart from end-of-mission rewards.
** Averted in the third game. Your omnitool (or EDI, in a few cases) does all the hacking, no player input required.
* HadToBeSharp: Krogans. This explains why they have secondary and even tertiary organs, and why they are [[ExplosiveBreeder Explosive Breeders]].
* {{Hallucinations}}: Apparently a side effect of [[spoiler:Reaper indoctrination; almost everyone mentions [[HearingVoices hearing strange whispering in the background]]. And on the mostly-dead Reaper, one of the unfortunate researchers mentions seeing...something come through a wall. Something other people in the room can't see.]]
* HandBehindHead: A standard character animation for some who's uncomfortable...or lying. Shepard him/herself does it a few times, when forced to come up with an explanation or cover story on the spot.
* HandCannon: the executioner pistol. Full Stop. Second Highest DPS in the game, with the heavy barrel mod, outclassing fully modded sniper rifles and shotguns. With a scope it is DE FACTO a high power sniper weapon with enough penetration to pierce a Cerberus Riot shield and OSK its Guardian wielder AND the assault trooper hiding behind him (on normal difficulty). One shot per thermal clip and insane kickback keeps the ROF slow as the trope usually demands.
* {{Handguns}}: The favorite weapon for characters to use in cutscenes. Justified somewhat, because most situations where they need a weapon in a cutscene, they need one ''now'', and all other guns need a few seconds to fully deploy before being usable.
** Also because Handguns are the only class of weapon that all characters and classes can use, therefore allowing the PlayerCharacter and all of the members of his/her party to be able to use the same, or similar, animations. There ''are'' cutscenes that are character-specific however, which allow party members to use other weapons, mainly for characters who do not carry a pistol (such as Garrus or Grunt).
* HardLight: Subverted. Every single instance where you ''think'' you're looking at classic sci-fi holograms that act like physical objects, you're actually looking at something completely different. Holographic keyboards and computer consoles are shaped and projected light, but tactile response comes from subdermal implants or gloves. Free-floating holographic barriers like the Sentinel's Tech Armor are just projected mass effect barriers, with holograms to warn comrades to keep their distance from the reactive barrier. The attack drone used by the Engineer is just a micro-manufactured flying device surrounded by mass effect barriers. The omniblade in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' is a solid monomolecular, transparent blade that is created by the omnitool on demand and broken down after use, the hologram is just to make it visible to the wielder.
* HasTwoMommies: A definite possibility for any asari, since they mate through genetic tweaking as opposed to actual sex. As long as the other mommy isn't another asari. [[FantasticRacism That's a big no-no.]]
** The third game alludes to this being very possible for humans, and Miranda's origins confirm that human technology is capable of it. Samantha Traynor, if romanced, certainly talks about raising a family with a female Shepard after the Reapers are defeated.
* HaveYouTriedNotBeingAMonster: The stigma among biotics in human society seems to lean closer to this than FantasticRacism, since virtually anyone exposed to Element Zero could possibly be born a biotic, regardless of race.
** Ardat-Yakshi among the asari. They're extremely dangerous, but the third game reveals that quite a few ardat-yakshi are perfectly happy to spend their lives in a monastery where they can't hurt anyone.
* HealingFactor: One of the natural abilities of the krogan and vorcha [[DemonicSpiders which makes them so freaking hard to kill]]. This also seems to be one of the standard genetic tweaks that Alliance soldiers are given.
* HealingPotion: Medi-Gel, the universally useful wound treatment salve. It sterilizes the wound site and then immediately staunches the bleeding by congealing over it (and is removed for full treatment by ultrasound). It appears to be a genetically engineered organic material, as it's been deemed "technically illegal by Citadel law", but is just too handy to pass up. Customized formulations are available for specific racial anatomies.
** Including Shepard as of Mass Effect 2. Mass Effect 3 scaled it down a bit however, splitting the health bar into five segments. Once fully depleted, segments can't be recovered without medigel.
* HearingVoices: [[spoiler:Victims of [[MoreThanMindControl Reaper indoctrination]] ([[AndIMustScream those who are still free to speak, at least]]) often talk about whispers in the back of their minds which slowly but steadily grow more coherent. By the time you can understand them, it's too late.]]
* HeartbeatSoundtrack: Picks up in all games when you're heavily wounded. See also CriticalAnnoyance.
* HeavyWorlder: The elcor, whose high-gravity planet has made them slow, cautious, conservative, and incredibly strong. These traits make them wonderful diplomats, negotiators, [[BewareTheNiceOnes bouncers, and mobile heavy weapons platforms]]. Also the volus, but other environmental factors take precedence in how they're described in the setting.
* TheHecateSisters: The asari, whose life cycles involve a "maiden" stage, a "matron" stage, and a "matriarch" stage.
** One of the asari religions involves worshiping a triumvarite of goddesses who fit this trope as well.
* {{Hellgate}}: The Council treats every unopened mass relay as a potential one of these after that [[BugWar little incident with the rachni]]. The [[spoiler:Citadel, being the welcome-home gate for the Reapers,]] definitely qualifies, as does the Omega-4 relay which the Collectors come out of every once in a while to kidnap some people for their experiments.
* HeliumSpeech: The salarians' (normal) voices sound like this.
* HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic: Whether this is played straight or averted in the first game is up to the player; you could customize whether the helmet stayed on or off whilst on missions (except for Tali, of course). Unless you're in a hostile environment; then they're on and ''stay'' on until you're inside.
** In the second game there are several different helmets and other types of headgear, which you can wear or leave off at your discretion. If worn, they add armor or other bonuses, depending on the type of gear, and the character is visually shown wearing them, even in cutscenes. So this trope is, in fact, averted where the main character is concerned. The other two crew members who wear armor and could conceivably be expected to don matching helmets are a turian and a krogan - both species with naturally armored heads, slightly justifying their decision. That said, turian and krogan helmets ''do'' exist and are worn by some characters. In that respect the trope is played ''somewhat'' straight with these two supporting characters.
** In the third game, you can turn helmet graphics off while retaining the bonuses.
* HenchmenRace: [[spoiler: The Keepers and Collectors, after the Reapers [[MindRape finished with them, mentally and physically]].]]
** In the third game, the [[spoiler:Reapers themselves]] are revealed to be this.
* [[HeroOfAnotherStory Heroes Of Another Story]]: The Multiplayer characters. '''[[WorldOfBadass ALL of them]]'''. Justified given how big the Reaper War is. And we '''DESPERATELY''' need everyone that we can get.
* HeroicNeutral: [[spoiler: The vast majority of the geth, as it turns out, though they appear to be willing to help the rest of the galaxy if that's the best way to beat the Reapers. Mostly, though, they just want to be left alone.]]
* HeyItsThatVoice: While the more notable ones have likely been mentioned already - the voice-actor for Wrex sounds like a dead-ringer to the [[VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft Tauren male]].
* HiddenDepths: Every single one of your squad members. Every. Single. One.
* HiddenElfVillage: No less than three: the quarians, the batarians, and [[spoiler:the geth]]. The game deconstructs some of the issues with hidden elf villages; since the only representatives of those species that the average person meets are the outcasts and criminals that get thrown out, they tend to form somewhat unflattering opinions of the race as a whole.
* HigherTechSpecies: The Protheans, all the way. [[spoiler:Even taking into consideration the fact that the mass relay system wasn't made by them, their custom technology is still pretty incredible, and they did build one prototype relay of their own before being destroyed.]] Also, the Collectors, and [[spoiler: the Reapers, who ''were'' the ones who made the mass relay system. And the Collectors get their technology from the Reapers.]]
* HighlyConspicuousUniform: Phoenix-series armor is white and pink. White and ''pink''. One of the (female) party members starts the game with it, but you can give it to anyone. Krogan in pink is hilarious. A few others, particularly the ones designed by Devlon Industries, are highly visible outfits. Then again, the Phoenix series is apparently designed for medics, and the Devlon series of armor is designed for construction and utility work in high-risk areas, so it makes sense that they wouldn't be camouflaged.
** All three of the major mercenary groups in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' wear obvious uniforms, with the Blue Suns wearing, well, bright blue and white armor, the Eclipse wearing yellow and black armor, and the Blood Pack wearing bright red. {{Justified|Trope}} in that members of these groups want to openly declare their allegiance to outsiders and rival factions.
** Shepard's armour can be customized in the second game, which can lead to some hilarious cases of this. It can be a bit silly, though, running around looking like a Collector with no one ever commenting on it.
** In the third game, no one's going to mistake Cerberus troops for anything else.
* HighlyVisibleNinja: In the second game, the Geth Hunters are this gameplay-wise. They can activate invisibility which turns them almost entirely transparent except for their brightly glowing blue eye, making it fairly obvious where they are. Fools the [=NPCs=] at least. Kai Leng and Cerberus Phantoms in the third game, too, complete with the invisibility cloak.
* HighTechHexagons: The logo of Cerberus has a hexagonal shape and uses some materials with hexagonal surface patterns.
* HiveCasteSystem: The rachni. We've got workers (small exploding suicide bugs), soldiers, (bigger [[HollywoodAcid acid-spitting]] bugs), brood warriors (even bigger acid-spitting bugs with biotic powers) and [[HiveQueen the queen]] (freaking huge bug, combat capabilities unknown, whom we very fortunately do not have to fight).
* HiveMind: Two confirmed, one creepily ambiguous, depending on how stringent your criteria are.
** 1. [[spoiler: The [[BeePeople rachni]], who "sing" to each other to communicate. It makes running their society much easier, but has the added disadvantage of making it hard to communicate with other races, and therefore ruling out diplomacy, which [[PoorCommunicationKills led to their downfall]].]]
** 2. [[spoiler: The Thorian, uses telepathy to control the people it's taken over. But the role is one way, and passive. Basically whenever a human thinks something that the Thorian doesn't want it to, they feel massive pain.]]
** [[spoiler: Not definite, but still implied: when the Cerberus researchers on board the Reaper are being slowly indoctrinated, they start to be able to recall each other's memories, to the point of not being able to tell whose is whose. Never explained. Very creepy.]]
** And, of course, the geth.
* HollywoodAtheist: Mostly averted. Ashley clearly indicates that her religiousness is unusual, and that most people consider it at least eccentric. Some aliens express religious beliefs, and apparently some turians, for example, embrace human Confucianism, since it fits so well in their species' mentality. It's never explained with most characters if they actually believe it or if it's simply a linguistic artifact (such as some asari making references to 'the goddess') though.
** [[spoiler: The "goddess" Athame was actually an ancient representation of the Protheans, who gave the asari much of their knowledge and culture.]]
* HollywoodHacking: They explain the mechanics well, but it still falls victim to this.
* HollywoodScience: Almost entirely averted, making it one of the [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness hardest sci fi universes]] to come out in some time. Most of their work is well-researched and doesn't end up at unnoticed, absurd conclusions. You could make a long list of nothing but their aversions. That said, they do make some mistakes.
** HollywoodEvolution + HollywoodGenetics: In the second game, Mordin tells Shepard that humans have more genetic diversity that any other species, making them ideal for scientific study.
*** First, you don't usually ''want'' genetic diversity. Usually, you want to control every possible condition in a scientific study, which is why the mice used in experiments tend to be clones, or very closely related.
**** Well, that depends on what kind of experiment you're running. If you want to have reliable results, you go the way of least genetic diversity. If however you want to have a first glance of what could happen under different circumstances, you want diversity - which still would not lead to an all-human test group, since now multiple species would do the job better.
*** Second, humans really, ''really'' shouldn't have more diversity than any other species. Their colonies aren't even in their second generation, yet. Humans have been confined to a single planet. Every other species has been among the stars for centuries, if not millenia. Salarians have been spacefarers for more than 1500 years, which is roughly 150 generations for them. Of all the species, humans should have the ''least'' genetic diversity, particularly in light of the BizarreAlienBiology of the Asari.
**** If you take as a given that mutation rate is equal among the species, yes. But the statement can be read that humans just have a higher mutation rate, thus increasing variance. Also, depending on mobility within your people, mutations easily equal out. More individuums equals more diversity only holds strictly enough only if said individuums were isolated in their respective habitats. So human genetic diversity is improbable but possible.
** ArtisticLicenseChemistry: Eezo. Element Zero. That means it's an element with no protons? It's pretty simply just {{unobtanium}}, but the name implies possible real-world substances, like neutrons, or plasma, which don't have the properties of eezo.
** ArtisticLicensePhysics: Eezo again, but this time its mass-adding or mass-subtracting properties are due to being subjected to a "positive" or "negative" current. Current flows in whatever direction, and calling it positive or negative is just like saying that left is somehow fundamentally different from right. The only way it makes sense is if, like a diode, eezo has a physical structure that makes it so electricity flows differently in one direction than another, but this {{handwave}} isn't given in the games.
* HolographicTerminal: Every computer interface in the galaxy seems to be made of HardLight. Justified in that regular users wear special gloves which allow for their use and provide feedback sensations; heavy users get sensory implants in their fingertips to avoid the hassle of cleaning the gloves all the time.
* HomosexualReproduction: The asari, by virtue of being a OneGenderRace.
** Implied to be possible for humans via genetic engineering in the third game.
* HordeOfAlienLocusts: The rachni and the Collectors' [[spoiler: Seeker swarms, which paralyze colonists for easy collection.]]
* HostageSituation: Shepard has to deal with more than a few throughout the games. How they go is up to you.
* HumanityIsSuperior: A common trend among Renegade options.
* HumanoidAbomination: Husks and Thorian creepers in the first game. [[spoiler: You could make an argument for the Reaper fetus in the second.]]
* HumanoidAliens: Pretty much all of the sapient ones, really, except for the hanar and the elcor. Some in the game idly wonder whether this is more than just coincidence.
* HumanOutsideAlienInside: The fairly humanoid Asari can literally mate with anything that has DNA to produce viable offspring.
* HumanPopsicle: The 'stasis' variant [[spoiler: used by the Protheans. Not that it saved them.]]
* HumanResources: [[spoiler:Mass Effect 2 implies that Reaper ''reproduction'' requires a lot of this.]]
** Also, [[OurZombiesAreDifferent many different kinds of Husks...]]
* HumansAreAverage: Neither the most short or long-lived, neither the weakest nor the strongest, et cetera. But they are very inventive, adaptive and a powerful force.
* HumansAreBastards: Usually averted in favor of HumansAreSpecial, but [[GovernmentConspiracy Cerberus]] and many Renegade path options are definite examples. Ambassador Udina demonstrates bastard traits even if you're a Paragon and choose the Renegade path at endgame.
* HumansAreFlawed: Rather hypocritically used by various non-humans as arguments for why they shouldn't be given special status.
* HumansAreLeaders: Subtler than most works, but still a present undertone throughout the series.
* HumansAreMorons: The batarian government tends to think ''every'' other alien race is beneath them because tradition dictates that having four eyes, coincidentally the number batarians have, makes one more intelligent, but they're especially resentful towards humans given the political history.
* HumansAreSpecial: Despite being a relatively new race to the galactic scene, mankind has left quite a mark on the galaxy. [[spoiler: Harbinger calls your teammates genetic failures, but when it comes to the humans... he uses them to make a new Reaper.]]
** It's noted by Mordin and EDI that humans have far greater genetic diversity than any other sapient species in the galaxy, one fact that makes them useful as a control in cross-species experiments, and also possibly explains why [[spoiler: the Reapers have chosen humanity to make the next generation of Reapers.]]
** More accurately, though, humans are just the newest special race. Before them there were... well, most of the other major races. The turians beat the krogan who beat the rachni who beat the asari...
** Samara also says this:
--> '''Samara:''' You are more individualistic than any other species I have encountered. If three humans are in a room, there will be six opinions.
** Liara also voices this opinion. She admits when she first met humans, she thought the assessment that [[HumansAreBastards humanity bullied]] its way into galactic politics was rather accurate. Since she's been on the Normandy, she come to realise that its due to Humans having a natural drive to set goals and the tenacity to actually carry them out, calling them [[Series/DoctorWho "indomitable"]]
*** Shepard humbly suggests this is because compared to races such as the asari, who routinely count their age in 4 digits, humans only get 150 years at most, so they strive to do all they can.
** Renegade Shepard can even invoke this when solving a problem for an asari in the Citadel:
--> '''Shepard''': "When you want a problem shot, ask a turian. When you want a problem talked to death, ask an asari. When you want a new problem, ask a salarian. When you want a problem solved, ask a human."
** This is savagely {{Deconstructed}} in the second game. Humanity ''is'' pretty damn awesome and everyone knows it, too. [[spoiler:Which is why our race now has the attention of the ageless machine devils lurking in extragalactic space. They're impressed, [[AndIMustScream and want to help us ascend.]]]] [[FridgeBrilliance Actually]] {{justified|Trope}} because Shepard is so BadAss, and also human. In the first game, Reapers didn't pay any special attention to humans. [[spoiler: Now that the Shepard (and by default, humans) have managed to destroy one of theirs, the entire human race now has their attention.]]
** There are subtle and not-so-subtle hints that humans are special ''because'' of meddling from, at the least, the Protheans. The random, unexplained vision at the end of a sidequest in the first game, the discussion of the vast diversity of human DNA in the second (especially when compared to other intelligent races), and the third game has researchers on Mars speculating that ''someone'' (likely the Protheans) did some''thing'' to humanity long before the beginning of recorded human history. In short, humanity might be a vastly delayed uplift to give the galaxy a chance against the Reapers.
* HumansAreWarriors: Just about every other race is quietly scared of humanity's ability to mix it up with the [[ProudWarriorRace turians]] despite having only a small fraction of our population currently serving in the military; the term "sleeping giant" is used, as in, "If all these naked apes ever got really pissed off all at once they could [[GalacticConqueror conquer the entire galaxy]]." [[spoiler:Two of the three endings prove it.]]
** A short summary of the First Contact War: Humans, ignorant that there are any other intelligent species in the galaxy, violate the Citadel Council laws by opening any and all dormant Mass Relays that they find. The turians, aware of the dangers and a ''member'' of the Citadel Council, attack and destroy a human merchant convoy they come across activating one such relay. A survivor flees to the human colony of Shanxi, which gets conquered by the turian fleet who subsequently occupy the planet. They are then surprised when a Systems Alliance fleet returns to liberate the system, following a more flexible military doctrine as compared to the turians. When the occupying forces are defeated, the turians mobilize their armed forces for large-scale actions to crush the Systems Alliance, but the Council intervenes and negotiates a peace before the offensive can be mounted.
** About the only species that aren't scared of humans are the ones that are almost universally violent themselves, like the vorcha or the krogan.
** The Mass Effect Wikia says that if the Alliance and turians had gone to full-scale war, the conflict would have wrecked a significant portion of the galaxy.
*** [[spoiler:Especially when the Alliance's kneejerk reaction to the turians was to send out a ton of space probes into turian space...armed with nuclear bombs as a form of DRM.]]
** There's an in-universe joke that the rest of the races are glad that humans and turians can't mate. Because, they reason, their children would be unstoppable.
** And then there's [[OneManArmy Co]][[{{Badass}} mm]][[RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun an]][[{{Determinator}} der]] [[MagneticHero She]][[MikeNelsonDestroyerofWorlds pa]][[WeDoTheImpossible rd]]. Shepard is ''one human''. If aliens think we might have a few more people like that hanging around who are thus far lacking only the call to kick some serious ass, no wonder they're concerned about the entire human race.
*** [[spoiler:Pointed out by Legion, who says that the geth view Shepard as very important, due to him/her being the most crucial in killing a Reaper.]]
* HumansByAnyOtherName: The volus refer to humans as "Earth-clan", but otherwise averted.
** This may just be a ShoutOut to DavidBrin's ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' series.
** It also may be an artifact of the volus language (not that this invalidates the aforementioned possible ShoutOut). At least one volus merchant refers to his species as the vol-clan, and the asshole volus on the Citadel in the second game refers to quarians as "clanless" (Tali does not take kindly to this seeing as quarians ''do'' have a clan based society and take great pride in it). This may be a ShoutOut to the general tendency in sci-fi franchises to name alien species after their planet of origin.
** Another (more polite) volus revers to a quarian as "migrant-clan", so that's pretty much confirmed.
* HumansThroughAlienEyes: One of the things your alien companions can talk about is how they, or their race as a whole, sees humanity.
* HumorlessAliens: The turians, the elcor, and the geth, in different ways. See the trope page for details.
* HundredPercentHeroismRating: You to get a substantial discount on purchases in a shop if your Paragon meter/Charm skill is high enough, while a high Renegade meter/Intimidate skill will allow you to sell your items at a better price. You also get other benefits, like hearing reports of your actions (and how they ended) on the news in the Citadel, and people on Feros and Noveria will thank you if you saved their lives and contained the alien monsters threatening to kill them. Saving Captain Kirrahae's salarian commando team on Virmire also ends with him thanking you and promising he will not forget your bravery and sacrifice for his team. At the end of the game, if you saved the Council, they will also express their gratitude for saving their lives and also praise either your ruthlessness or your compassion and honor.
** These carry over into ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', which is filled with references to your past deeds, people recognize you all over the place, and you can even parley your fame and reputation into discounts at some stores by giving them an endorsement.
*** Conversely, because of this, there will be some instances where people from the first game will chew you out for what happens in the second game.
** And all of the choices from ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' and ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' will be carried over for the finale in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''.
* HyperspaceArsenal: Justified in the first game; you have access to hundred of different weapons, armor, and various mods for both while on the run. However, you're just carrying electronic blueprints and a few specific components; when you actually use them you break down whatever you currently have into [[AppliedPhlebotinum omni-gel]] and use it to make whatever it is you want.
** Averted in the third game. Carrying extra weapons is heavy and slows you down, and most items you recover are picked up by the Normandy and stored in the cargo hold.
* HyperspaceLanes: The Mass Relays.
* HypotheticalFightDebate:
** As part of the idle banter between your squadmates, [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Wrex]] is fond of asking them who they think would win if they took on [[{{Badass}} Commander Shepard]] in a fight.
** In the ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' DLC "Citadel", your squadmates argue over who of their two [[ProudWarriorRace Krogan]] members would win in a fight: Wrex, a thousand-year-old battlemaster, or Grunt, a genetically engineered perfect warrior.

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