Mass Effect: Commander Shepard | Party Members (Kaidan Alenko | Ashley Williams | Garrus Vakarian | Liara T'Soni | Tali'Zorah | Urdnot Wrex) | Antagonists | NPCs
Mass Effect 2: Early Party Members (Miranda Lawson | Jack) | Late Party Members | Secret Party Members | Main Antagonists | Secondary Antagonists | Normandy Crew | Council Space NPCs | Non-Council Space NPCs
Mass Effect 3: Party Members | Antagonists and NPCs | Multiplayer Characters
Mass Effect: Andromeda: Pathfinder Ryder | Party Members | Crew of the Tempest | The Andromeda Initiative | The Kett | The Angara | Other Characters | Multiplayer Characters
This page is for listing the tropes related to party members who first appeared in the original Mass Effect game.
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Guest Party Members
Richard L. Jenkins
Corporal Richard L. Jenkins
- "We've got a Spectre on board! That's why I'm so wound up - I can't wait for the real mission to start."Voiced by: Josh Dean
An over-enthusiastic Alliance soldier from Eden Prime, he is assigned as part of your squad when everything goes to hell there. Continuing in the long Bioware tradition of early sacrificial party members, he dies in the opening few minutes.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: He says he's itching for some action just before the Eden Prime mission. Too bad "action" in his case meant watching his homeworld get scorched and being gunned down by a pair of geth recon drones.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite his boundless enthusiasm and naïveté, various characters imply Jenkins was a very competent soldier.
- Decoy Protagonist: He's a placeholder for Ash, who joins about a minute or two after his death.
- Doomed Hometown: Eden Prime is this for him. Pity he dies too soon for it to become a plot point. And it's not entirely doomed anyway; there's a DLC mission there in the third game.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Averted. The Normandy crew is very upset about his death, and often recall him later in the franchise.
- In 2, Dr. Chakwas reminisces about him over drinks with Shepard.
- One interpretation of when Shepard later encounters a young over-enthusiastic mercenary (who is also voiced by Josh Dean) on Omega, the reason they stopped dead in their tracks, turned slowly around and, if taking the Paragon interrupt, broke the kid's gun and ordered them home, was because he reminded them too much of Jenkins.
- His name is on the memorial wall in the Normandy in Mass Effect 3, and he will be mentioned if Kaidan, James, or EDI is brought to the Eden Prime mission.
- In private moments, Shepard is shown to give themself grief over Jenkins' death since it was their orders that caused him to run into the ambush.
- Fun Personified: According to Chakwas. One of her stories involves him pestering Kaidan for a biotic demonstration, only for Kaidan to accidentally throw him so hard across the room, she thought he was seriously injured. Jenkins then leapt up, gleefully exclaiming:Jenkins: That was awesome!
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: If you're on a New Game Plus, he'll be level 50+ and still die to a few bullets after having been ordered to take point.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Despite being with you for at most a minute or two and dying right before the first fight, he is a fully functional squad member that can be issued orders and even has some skill points for you to assign despite never having an opportunity to use any abilities.
- Hero-Worshipper: To Shepard. This is rarely a good sign for a character's mortality rate this early in the story.
- Informed Ability: He's apparently a badass soldier of the Alliance, but he is shot dead in the first half hour of the game and never gets to display it. Then again, it was a surprise attack, and even his replacement barely survived one while losing her entire squad to them.
- Innocently Insensitive: If Shepard has a Survivor or Ruthless background, Jenkins can gush about what they've done is worth him being a Spectre candidate, to which Shepard can state that it's a past that brings them bad memories.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Subverted, actually, despite the name. He's very eager to go out there and see action, but still follows Shepard's orders to the letter and takes point. In the end it still doesn't do him much good; some geth drones ambush the squad and Jenkins gets gunned down before the rest know what's happening.
- Meaningful Name: Downplayed. He's named after Leeroy Jenkins, and while he doesn't take it to the level of insubordination, he is rather reckless and eager.
- Naïve Newcomer: Definitely had an incredibly idealistic outlook on the Spectres, and the heroism of Shepard themself.
- Sacrificial Lamb: He dies just before the player's first battle.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He got one conversation and a couple of lines. For a BioWare squad member, that's waving hello in passing.
