This page is for listing the tropes related to non player characters in council space who first appeared in the second Mass Effect game.
For the pages listing tropes related to Party Members, NPCs and Antagonists who first appeared in other games in the trilogy, see the Mass Effect Character Index.
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The Illusive Man
The Illusive Man, AKA Jack Harper
The patterns are there, buried in the data.
"Salvation comes with a cost. Judge us not by our methods, but what we seek to accomplish."
The enigmatic leader of Cerberus. He seeks to protect humanity, regardless of the cost. He gets Shepard to investigate the disappearance of human colonies. He is the protagonist of the tie-in comic Mass Effect: Evolutionwhere it's revealed that his real name is Jack Harper, and he got his start by fighting the turians on Shanxi, and his eyes were damaged when he encountered a Reaper artifact on the planet during the struggle.
In Mass Effect 3, he makes his most ambitious move yet - attempting to gain control of the Reapers and their technology rather than defeating them conventionally.
The Adjectival Man: Obviously. And his real name is never revealed in the actual games.
Affably Evil: To Paragon players. According to Retribution, this is a facade he uses to make it difficult to tell when he's lying.
If Shepard dies he seems genuinely remorseful in private, regardless of what s\he did to the Collector base.
Anti-Villain: Type III. When he first shows up, at least.
Appropriated Appellation: His anti-alien manifesto was derided by Alliance command after first contact as "survivalist rhetoric written by an illusive man". He kinda rolled with it.
Badass: If this prequel comic is any indication, old Mr. Illusive was quite the soldier. He's a Non-Action Big Bad in the series however.
Batman Gambit: He pulls of quite an impressive one in order to eliminate his rivals in between the second and third games. He plays Liara and the Shadow Broker against each other, resulting in the latter's death. After that, his Cerberus forces sweep in and force Liara to destroy the resources she gained as the Shadow Broker (the original plan was to obtain them but Liara made sure this didn't happen, its still a win in their favor, just not as much), and are only unable to kill Liara herself because of Shepard's intervention. In addition to that, he pulls a ploy to divide Omega by luring Aria and her best forces away by unleashing an army of Adjutants on the station and feigning friendship, knowing that she was the only thing keeping the various mercenary groups on Omega from tearing the station apart. After that, Cerberus once again swept in and eliminated any remaining resistance.
His plan to revive Shepard as-is through the Lazarus project is one of these, and it is even lampshaded at the beginning of the game by Miranda. His gambit pays off big in the Renegade ending, but he winds up hoisted by his own petard in the Paragon ending and undergoes a Villainous Breakdown.
Attempts an enormous one against the Reapers in 3, in order to take control of them to subdue other species and put humanity on top. However, his plan fails because he doesn't fully anticipate just how out of his league his own (very strong, but only human) mind is in the face of an Eldritch Abomination and ends up being indoctrinated.
Benevolent Boss: He will do everything in his power to help out his subordinates...so long as they remain loyal and useful.
Bad Boss: Just don't betray him. Just ask Paul Grayson, who gets Reaper technology implanted into him. In the third game, he uses Reaper technology to create an army of slaves, among other atrocities.
Big Bad Ensemble: He's the second most recurring antagonist throughout the Mass Effect series, including the comics.
Big Bad Duumvirate: Subverted, despite what the characters believe. While Harbinger and Cerberus largely ignore a direct confrontation throughout most of Mass Effect 3, the Illusive Man took great steps to control the Reapers in the meantime - he ordered Henry Lawson to study indoctrination, buffed Cerberus to N.G.O. Superpower status and modified himself with Reaper tech so he could use the Crucible. Once Harbinger finds out, the Reapers storm Sanctuary in a brief moment of Evil Versus Evil. However, that research ultimately led to the Illusive Man himself becoming indoctrinated (or strengthening it, since his eyes are Reaper tech). By the final confrontation, it's made clear that TIM was little more than The Starscream.
The Casanova: His dossier in the Shadow Broker DLC reveals this.
Sexual liaisons (past week): Sani Shelani, Illium Entertainment's Sexiest Human Alive Brooke Karrigar, Skyball Champion Vela Vicious, Fornax Dream Girl 2185 Staci and Stephi Strong, the "Terra Firma Twins" Matriarch Trellani (twice)
The Chessmaster: He pretty much is Cerberus, ensuring to be personally involved in all of their operations. Considering how intricate and far reaching their influence is, that's a lot of pawns.
He also successfully manipulates the galaxy's most skilled soldier into working with him by making it so s/he really had absolutely no choice in the matter, completely boxing him/her in. Add on the fact that for all of Mass Effect 2, he was responsible for pretty much everything that happened and even outthought the Collectors a few times.
Consummate Liar: It's nearly impossible to tell when he's being truthful or lying. Aria T'Loak notes that his very body language is cultivated to be just as inscrutable as his words. One of the few people capable of successfully lying to Aria's face.
Contemplative Boss: He spends an awful lot of time staring at that star.
Creepy Blue Eyes: And they glow. What's especially noteworthy is that they look similar to Saren's eyes from the first game, possibly to hint that both have been touched by Reapers.
Cunning Linguist: Apparently can speak the asari and turian dialects unaided by universal translator, although this is apparently because of the Reaper tech he was implanted with.
Devil in Plain Sight: Doesn't matter whether Shepard is Paragon or Renegade; you always get dialogue options about whether or not the Illusive Man is trustworthy, and whether he knows more than he lets on at the end of several missions (in both cases, often to his face). Granted, a lot of this is to do with Cerberus's reputation and the player's experience of them in the previous game, but even so, its clear that Shepard and other characters are wary of him and his organization, especially as the game goes on and it becomes more and more obvious that they are still up to no good.
Empathic Environment: His office. If Shepard is a Paragon, the star will turn blue. Otherwise (i.e., Renegade) it will turn red.
Enemy Mine: Mass Effect 2 revolves around an uneasy alliance between him and Shepard. Previously, he had one with Liara to secure Shepard's body from the Shadow Broker.
He seems to consider cooperating with non-humans as this kind of arrangement. Which is ironic considering that he helped save the entire turian race from indoctrination back when he was still a mercenary.
Even Evil Has Standards: The Cerberus facility that created Jack was actually a rogue facility outside his approval, and he ordered all of the surviving scientists from the project executed once he learned precisely what they were doing. Furthermore, his e-mail responses to both the Paragon and Renegade endings of the Project Overlord incident give further credence to the idea that he still tries to maintain some ethical standards in his research projects.
However, his response to "Overlord"'s Renegade ending claims while he thought the experiments went too far, he's happy that Shepard decided to keep the research subject within Cerberus. For the Paragon ending, he complains that "Though your decision is understandable, it has set our efforts to understand the geth back several years." It's possible that while the Illusive Man would happily reap the fruits of even the most unethical projects, he might as well keep Shepard's loyalty by going along with what s/he chooses to do.
Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Whatever his research ethics were like before, it becomes clear in the third game that he's thrown off any remaining restraints, to the point of attempting to institute a second Project Overlord, which disgusts even the head of the original project. And this is before the big reveal of the atrocity factory known as Sanctuary.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He believes that Shepard will always understand what he hopes to accomplish, even when it means using a base where hundreds of thousands of humans were liquified as fuel for a human Reaper prototype. He also fails to see Miranda ever betraying him because he thought she was completely loyal to him. Turns out Shepard was better and smarter than he imagined.
Evil Is Not a Toy: As magnificent as he was, he was still way out of his league attempting to take control of the Reapers.
Evil Mentor: Tries to be one to Shepard in Mass Effect 2, though it's entirely up to the player whether or not Shepard actually follows him.
Evil Smoking: We never see him without a cigarette. Made fun of in the Shadow Broker DLC: He smokes at least four a day and has seven drinks a day.
Expy: The Illusive Man's development in 3 is rather parallel to Saren's from the first game: they both are Well Intentioned Extremists who crosses the Moral Event Horizon to deal with the reaper threat. While Saren feels that he can work with the reapers to save all organic, TIM decides to try to find a way to control them. They both even justify their actions with the exact same argument; "the reapers never truly wiped out all of organics". Both of their paths leads to them getting reaper implants, making them easier to be indoctrinated. In the end, they both can also die in the same exact way, committing suicide if Shepard manages to convince them that the reapers are controlling them.
Fantastic Racism: Sort of; at the same time he does express respect for the achievements of others, and he did save the turians from being enslaved by Desolas back before he founded Cerberus.
Fatal Flaw: His Pride. He's so convinced that the ends justify the means, it leads to himself and the entirety of Cerberus getting indoctrinated by the Reapers.
Felony Misdemeanor: In the third game, his reaction to seeing Shepard after s/he storms his base
Shepard, you're in my chair.
Fiction 500: He was able to get a multi-billion credit project to bring a person back from the dead together on fairly short notice. And build an improved version of the most advanced, experimental starship in the galaxy while he was at it. And this didn't really impede any of his other operations.
Although it is mentioned that the huge price of bringing Shepard back was offset by the valuable medical data obtained through the process.
Un-shackled EDI explains that Cerberus owns the companies that built the first Normandy. They likely still have the resources and technology involved.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Even if you've finished the game depriving him of Reaper tech, he'll still go out of his way to get Kasumi in your team even though they've already finished their mission. The same goes for the Overlord mission, begging the question of why he'd request your aid in stopping his project after you blew up the Collector Base. In addition, you still get Cerberus funding when completing missions.
Heel Realization: Like Saren before him, can be talked into having one, both into realizing that he's indoctrinated and how much his actions have hurt humanity.
He Who Fights Monsters: How did he raise such a huge army in Mass Effect 3? Indoctrination. Unfortunately, indoctrination based on Reaper tech. He wasn't just playing with fire, he was playing with randomly spontaneously combusting thermite. And naturally, he succumbed himself.
Hidden Agenda Villain: He's trying to make humanity dominant in the galaxy. Beyond that, not even Miranda, his most loyal agent, has any idea what he wants. The third game reveals that he's looking for a way to control the Reapers.
Hypocrite: Despite being the leader of a pro-human organisation, according to his Shadow Broker dossier, he has numerous sexual liasons with aliens.
Knight Templar: He believes that everything he does will be justified later on.
The Man: Shades of this: always shown in dim light, smoking a cigarette, a very rich and powerful fellow manipulating events from the shadows.
Manipulative Bastard: Although he is not as manipulative as he wants to think, what with trying (and failing) to persuade Paragon Shepard to save the Collector base.
Meaningful Name: Everything, everything related to this man is covered in layers upon layers of meticulously planned deception.
If every Paragon response is chosen, you can see him visibly struggling against Indoctrination during the Thessia mission, where he falters for a moment when Shepard asks him how he can possibly justify betraying Humanity by fighting them, instead of the Reapers?!
My God, What Have I Done?: If you convince him that he's been indoctrinated and that his actions have brought humanity to the brink of destruction, he shows great regret for his actions before committing suicide.
Mysterious Employer: None of his subordinates know anything about him and the smart ones know better than to attempt to rectify that. In fact, many who work under his agents have no idea they're following his orders.
Necessarily Evil: His stance on some of his actions in 2 and just about everything he does in 3.
"You think because I'm willing to use the enemy's tactics, that they're no longer my enemy?"
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He vetoed Miranda when she suggested implanting Shepard with a control chip, when it would've undoubtedly made his job much easier in the long run. Shepard even comments on this when told by Miranda in 3, saying that s/he figured it would've saved the Illusive Man a lot of trouble.
Not So Different: 3 starts to show that he and Saren are frighteningly similar.
Not So Stoic: For most of the two games he's in he maintains a calm demeanor. However during the final confrontation, if you use the persuasion options he starts to sound increasingly angry and desperate, cuminating in him trying to shoot Shepard or taking his own life.
Pragmatic Villainy: He complies with his employees' requests and is willing to work with aliens so long as it suits his goals.
Psychotic Smirk: Give him the Collector base at the end of the game, and he'll have a rather creepy one of these.
Shadow Archetype: Arguably serves as the dark reflection of Admiral Hackett.
Particularly noticable in 3, where they both are described as leaders of Humanity (Cerberus and Alliance respectively), both are gathering resources and intel to defeat the Reapers and both have sent Shepard on Black-Ops missions in previous games.
Shut Up, Hannibal!: What Paragon Shepard does to him after destroying the Collector base. Bonus points for Miranda doing it too, when asked to convince him/her not to do it. Extra bonus points for "Shut up" being the actual dialogue option that shows up on screen.
Slouch of Villainy: He sits rather casually in his lounge chair most of the time.
Smug Snake: Not as bad as Leng, but prevalent in 3. Constantly giving arrogant lectures to Shepard whenever they meet, never truly explaining his motives beyond human supreamacy, and never willing to admit there could be a better option. As with most smug snakes, many of his arguments are full of holes. A number of his remarks are also often accompanied by an annoyingly smug grin. Of course, indoctrination has the effect of making even the best Magnificent Bastard into a Smug Snake. A telltale sign he's indoctrinated is when he politely tells Shepard not to interfere anymore, as if that's supposed to deter them. Both Saren and Kenson before him had done the same, and all three ultimately devolved into child-like whining when the indoctrination became most severe and when their plans started to fall apart.
The Social Darwinist: Develops shades of this in 3 (an attitude Kai Leng embraces wholeheartedly). In this case, "evolution" = becoming Reaper-tech transhumans.
Spanner in the Works: Part of how Cerberus operates in 3. Attacking Sur'Kesh to kill the fertile females, and attempting to set off a Turian bomb on Tuchanka in order to prevent races from uniting. And if Shepard is Diligent, Shepard spanners them right back every time.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Saren in Mass Effect 3. Both seek to use the Reapers as a means to secure the dominance of their race, and end up indoctrinated and implanted with Reaper tech for their efforts. Shepard can even talk the Illusive Man into suicide in an almost exact replication of Saren. According to a Prothean VI, every cycle has groups like these that emerge.
Talking the Monster to Death: You can convince him to kill himself at the end of Mass Effect 3. However, unlike with the encounter with Saren in the first game, which just requires a bunch of points in the Charm or Intimidate skills, the dialogue option to do this with the Illusive Man is verydifficult to unlock; you have to have near-max EMS, a completely full Reputation bar, and have to have taken all of the Persuade options in every conversation you have with him during the game.
The Unfought: In Mass Effect 3. This is slightly justified since he is a Non-Action Big Bad. A battle with him was originally intended, but they decided that going One-Winged Angel and turning into an unrecognizable monster didn't fit someone whose weapon had always been his mind / ideals. Or because it was "too videogamey".
Totalitarian Utilitarian: It's quite telling how he tends to refer to his employees as "resources".
Tragic Hero / Tragic Villain: He needs quite a bit of whitewashing to be considered a 'hero', but the fact remains that he had the power, intelligence, knowledge (his information network nearly rivals the Shadow Broker's), and charisma to stand a significant chance of defeating the Reapers. Too bad his pride led to him getting too close to Reaper tech and becoming one of their biggest assets against Shepard. It's hard to argue that, had the Illusive Man sided with Shepard when they encountered one another on Mars, the fight could have been won much sooner and more easily.
The Unfettered: Is willing to allow any manner of horrible experiments happen to people in order to secure human dominance, even if those experiments are on other humans.
Ungrateful Bastard: Cerberus will oppose Shepard in Mass Effect 3 regardless of whether s/he decided to destroy the Collector base or not, though it later becomes clear that this is largely due to indoctrination.
Villainous Breakdown: If you destroy the Collector base. He doesn't rant and rave, but he's clearly not pleased that Shepard basically gave him the middle finger and told him they're doing things Shepard's way from now on, or he can sod off.
In Mass Effect 3, he has a pretty epic one when confronting Shepard and Anderson at the endgame, especially if Shepard keeps pointing out that his plan to control the Reapers is failing because he himself is indoctrinated and playing into their hands. It ends with him either ranting violently at Shepard and trying to shoot him/her and Anderson, or fighting off his indoctrination and committing suicide.
Visionary Villain: Designed to be the best and worst of humanity all at once.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Though the "well-intentioned" part of it is entirely down to whether you agree with his notion - as some players inevitably do - that humanity has every right to crush the rest of the civilized galaxy under its collective foot and take charge.
Worthy Opponent: In 3, he views Shepard as one, respecting them as an adversary despite their ideological differences.
Illusive Man: Your idealism is...admirable Shepard.
Also shown when he chastises Kai Leng for clearly underestimating Shepard.
Captain Armando-Owen Bailey
Captain (later Commander) Armando-Owen Bailey
Not too old for this shit just yet.
"I'm with them [formalities] up until they keep people from doing their jobs."
Voiced by: Michael Hogan
A human Captain of C-Sec, he unofficially acts as a liaison during Shepard's time on the Citadel. He's not big on formalities, but nevertheless gets promoted to Commander by the start of Mass Effect 3.
Anti-Hero: He is mostly a good guy, but he is more than willing to bend the law and work with criminals if it helps keep the peace.
A Day in the Limelight: Mass Effect: Inquisition, where it's revealed that Bailey ended up killing Pallin while investigating him under Udina's orders. Of course, he believes that Pallin's innocent of whatever he was accused of despite evidence to the contrary.
Canada, Eh?: Michael Hogan's northern Ontario accent comes through pretty strongly.
Commanding Coolness: Gets promoted to this by the time you meet him in 3. He hates it.
Da Chief: For Zakera Ward in 2, then moves up into even higher echelons in 3.
Desk Jockey: He complains about being one of these after being Kicked Upstairs in the third game, the irony being that most of the time you see him, he's behind a desk.
Dirty Cop: A Zig-Zagging Trope. Bailey is obviously crooked, as he's willing to torture suspects and makes under-the-table deals with thugs, but at the same time he's actually a good person and acts as a Reasonable Authority Figure towards Shepard.
Grey and Gray Morality: Will bargain with crooks if it ultimately means it'll keep peace on the Citadel.
Foil: Towards Executive Pallin. Unlike Pallin, who was a by-the-book cop and deeply distrusted Spectres because of their disregard for rules, Bailey is willing and able to bend the rules if he feels it gets the job done, and is perfectly willing to request and use a Spectre's authority granted to him to move things along.
Made of Iron: During the Citadel coup in 3, he takes a shot to the gut and just shrugs it off.
Old Fashioned Copper: On your first trip to the Citadel, you overhear him encouraging a younger officer to "make [the suspect] scream a little" to extract a confession, and then offers to do it himself if she can't handle it.
Odd Friendship: With Paragon Shepard. Shepard might disapprove of his style and methods of policing, but nonetheless it's clear the two have nothing but an honest respect for each other.
Noble Bigot: Subverted. Although this trope often goes hand in hand with Old Fashioned Copper, Bailey is one of the few NPCs in the series to avoid this. During Thane's quest he shows empathy towards the alien population's fear of humans, observing that many of them have lived on the station since before humanity discovered space travel. All the more impressive given that many of the C-Sec officers throughout the game are very openly speciesist, including (at first) Garrus.
Parental Abandonment: He considers this the root of many of the Citadel's social problems, which is why he jumps at the chance to help Thane and Kolyat. He'll eventually admit that he's been in Thane's shoes himself - "You think he's the only man who ever screwed up raising a son?"
Retcon: An accidental one regarding his name. A background news report in the second game refers to him as Owen Bailey, but the Lair of the Shadow Broker archives refer to him as Armando Bailey. A later Cerberus Daily News report patched up the mistake by giving him the rather unwieldy first name "Armando-Owen."
Retirony: Defied. He tells you he wants to retire to a nice place in the foothills on Earth, but then quickly adds that he won't be doing so any time soon.
Anaya is a cop on Illium that Shepard meets when looking for Samara. She is quite helpful, as Shepard's cause might draw Samara away from Illium — and therefore keep Anaya from having to arrest and be subsequently killed by the Justicar.
Bullying a Dragon: Though not by choice, only by proxy: her superiors ordered her to detain Samara, even though Samara's code would force her to kill Anaya to avoid it. Fortunately, both of them are willing to be reasonable about it.
By-the-Book Cop: She only accepts your evidence against Pitne For because Samara vouches for you.
Shepard: You're not going to lock her up? Samara: Any attempt to put me in a passive restraint system will be regarded as a hostile action, and I will be forced to attack. Anaya: Yeah, that.
Friend on the Force: Will follow up on some of Shepard's leads if you go to her.
My Orders, Right Or Wrong: She makes it very clear that she will follow her orders to detain Samara if Samara does not leave Illium, even knowing that her odds of survival are close to zero.
Anaya: I'm a cop and I know my duty.
Noble Bigot with a Badge: At the end of Samara's recruitment mission, Anaya admits that she didn't expect so much from a human.
"I am a biotic god! I think things...and they happen!"
Voiced by: Mark Meer
Yeah. This guy. A member of Pitne For's trade group, he ran afoul of the Eclipse sisters after Pitne neglected to tell them the red sand he sold them was potentially lethal. Niftu wound up pumped full of his own product and left to wander Nos Astra, stoned out of his gourd, while Pitne scrambled to get off-world.
Has a higher "meme-per-character" count than anyone short of Harbinger.
Ascended Meme: So popular that he spawned a number of in-jokes in the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer. The biotic challenge group rewards you with the banner "Biotic God" with a picture of a biotic volus. There's also a volus adept character called, you guessed it, a biotic god.
Battle Aura: Unfortunately, it's the most impressive trick he has.
Wizard Duel: He fires a tiny Warp field that 'pops' an inch from Wasea's nose, then turns and walks away. She unceremoniously one-shots him, knocking him into the air and behind a few barrels just as Shepard and co. walk in.
Matriarch Aethyta
Matriarch Aethyta
Sorry. My father was a krogan.
"What can I get ya, babe? Sorry, no sex. I just cleaned the bar."
An Asari Matriarch working in the Eternity bar on Illium because she had the blue laughed off her ass when suggesting her people get their maiden stages doing more productive things, and make the effort to study and build more mass relays. Bothered, but not too worried, about being confronted by Conrad Verner, and implies she would have dealt with him a lot more violently than Shepard. She is actually Liara's father. She took the bartending job in Eternity and later the Apollo cafe both to keep an eye on Liara for the other matriarchs and to keep the less sympathetic ones from trying something.
Cassandra Truth: Whether or not she believes in the Reapers before 3, the events of the first game led her to advise her people on Thessia that "art and philosophy and political prowess wasn't gonna cut it", but they didn't want to hear it.
"We can't go one asari lifetime without some big war breaking out! We need to get our daughters working earlier, not spending their wild maiden years stripping or in merc bands."
Brain Bleach: Talks about her mother putting on her old commando leathers for 'special nights with Dad' with embarrassment, and later evokes a similar response from one of her kids while reminiscing about the other parent's breasts.
Insistent Terminology: She insists that she's Liara's father, not her other mother, because she "didn't pop her out".
Ironic Echo: If you're romancing Liara, a Renegade interrupt lets you throw "Nobody messes with my girl" back in her face by saying you won't allow any assassination attempts on Liara. She is impressed.
The Lad-ette: To be expected. Her dad was a Krogan, after all.
Lamarck Was Right: "Scientists say that stuff about us getting genetic material from our fathers is crap. Seems like I got a bit of his mouth, though."
Nature Versus Nurture: She was raised by a krogan father, so it would have rubbed off, genetics or no.
Made of Iron: In one of the Shadow Broker archive videos, Matriarch Aethyta headbutts a krogan... and the krogan falls to the ground.
Mrs. Robinson: She flirts with Shepard quite a bit. The fact that she's Liara's dad plays it even closer.
My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Her view towards asari's hat. She believes that they should be doing more constructive things with their Maiden Years, and warns that there's a big war every asari lifetime, so they ought to focus less on culture, more on preparing.
Never Mess with Granny: As Aethyta herself puts it, she's no commando but she's had a thousand years to learn how to fight dirty and is implied to be a powerful biotic even for an asari. When she worked at Eternity it was implied that she doubled as the bouncer and a video in Lair of the Shadow Broker shows her taking down a krogan with a headbutt.
The Nicknamer: Well, she only gives one example rather than tendency, but it's memorable enough to stick to mind: she calls Matriarch Benezia "Nezzy". And refers to Shepard as 'babe' in 2.
Also prompted Benezia's petname for Liara, "Little-wing".
Only Sane Man: Was laughed off Thessia for suggesting that they make a serious effort to study and duplicate the Mass Relays. After the third game becomes even more so after the relays blow or are damaged in any ending in which the asari species survives. In 3 it does seem like she has a lot more authority; keeping watch on the Shadow Broker aside, two random sidequests have her namedropped. A commando has her approval to get writings on being a warrior made into required reading, and another asari looking into improved biotic amp interfaces mentions her.
Papa Wolf: Technically falls under this rather than Mama Bear since she's the father in the situation. Either way, she has been making sure nobody messes with Liara.
Mama Bear: Presumably played straight in regards to Liara's unseen half-hanar sister.
Really Gets Around: "You find peace in whatever arms will hold you." Apart from Benezia, the lovers she sees fit to mention are a turian, an elcor, and a hanar, the latter one whom she even had a child with.
The Reveal: She has been confirmed to be Liara's father. Not that Liara didn't already figure it out. (seen here.)
Sophisticated as Hell: Uses the terms "anthropocentric" and "bag of dicks" in the same breath.
Too Much Information: Liara's reaction to what she says about Benezia's magnificent rack.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: Shep can ask her about what it's like to live for a thousand years. Rather than talk about comparative lifespans, Aethyta says it's violent, good news is the exception, and you take comfort where you can.
"Then one day you wake up, your figure's gotten matriarchal, and everyone else is too young to remember how the quarians looked inside those suits."
Wolf Whistle: When fondly recalling Benezia's rack.
A Volus merchant in the Nos Astra spaceport on Ilium. After his business partner is killed by Eclipse mercenaries, he finds himself involved in Samara's investigation. It's later revealed that Eclipse is after him for selling them a biotic-enhancing drug and mysteriously neglecting to mention its potentially lethal side-effects.
Blatant Lies: It's immediately obvious that he's not being straight with Shepard when the latter asks him about his involvement.
Kick the Son of a Bitch: It's hard to feel sorry that the mercs are hunting him when he conveniently withheld information about the drugs he sold them. His partner is also likely one of these.
With Friends Like These: Shepard and co. encounter Niftu Cal, a fellow volus who was part of Pitne's trade group, while hunting the mercs. In retaliation for Pitne selling them biotic-enhancing chemicals without telling them how dangerous they were to the user, they pumped Cal so full of drugs that by the time Shepard finds him, he's as high as a kite. Also applies to Pitne's murdered partner, for whom Pitne sheds no tears, insisting that he knew the risks when he took to spacing. Referenced when your squadmates make comments about how Pitne cares more about money than friends.
Lantar Sidonis
Lantar Sidonis
"I wake up every night, sick and sweating. Each of their faces staring at me, accusing me. I'm already a dead man. I don't sleep. Food has no taste. Some days...I just want it to be over."
Voiced by: Jason Singer
A Turian former member of Garrus's vigilante crew who betrayed the team, resulting in the deaths of the entire crew except for Garrus. This makes him the focus of Garrus's rage when the latter finally tracks down Sidonis.
Bond One-Liner: Garrus delivers one of these if he succeeds in killing Sidonis.
Garrus: Betrayal repayed, Sidonis.
Boom, Headshot: What Garrus does to him if you don't stop him.
Cruel Mercy: When Shepard points out that Sidonis is badly suffering.
Garrus: He still has his life!
Shepard: Look at him, Garrus. He's not alive. There's nothing left to kill.
If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him: It's more, "If Kill Him, You Will Completely Lose Yourself", but Paragon Shepard spends the mission trying to convince Garrus that it's not like him to be so intent on killing his former friend. What truly separates the Paragon approaches for Garrus's loyalty mission and Zaeed's mission are a difference of 20 years. Wheras Zaeed had only recently met Shepard and before that had spent 20 years hunting down the man whom he thought was his friend, Garrus was friends with Shepard before, and had only recently turned to vigilantism. As a result, it's unnecessary to charm Garrus into realizing that he was only out for revenge like it takes with Zaeed, as Garrus knows and trusts Shepard enough that he can let it go on his own.
That Man Is Dead: When Shepard calls him by his real name, Sidonis angrily retorts with "Don't ever say that name aloud!"
Tragic Villain: Talking to him shows just how guilty he feels over betraying Garrus, and he can't even eat or sleep because of what he's done.
Joram Talid
Joram Talid
"Taking back our ward is only the first step! We must remove the cowards and appeasers on the Council!"
Voiced by: William Salyers
A Turian politician on the Citadel campaigning for office. In reality, is extremely anti-human and is affiliated with Blood Pack mercenaries. He becomes the target of Thane's son, Kolyat, when the latter is hired by a pro-human criminal to kill Talid, forcing Shepard and Thane to intervene to prevent Kolyat from becoming like Thane.
Asshole Victim: It's hard to feel sorry for this guy if Shepard puts a slug in his head. Shepard even states how badly Talid deserved it, and Bailey doesn't even bother to arrest anyone over it, though this likely also has to do with Shepard being a Spectre.
Arc Villain: While he's technically the target whom Shepard and Thane are trying to prevent Kolyat from killing, it's immediately clear that Talid is not a morally clean individual.
Catch Phrase: "It's been wonderful talking to you all! I hope you'll come out on election day!"
Hypocrite: Naturally. His entire campaign is based around cleaning up organized crime on Zakera Ward, which he preaches to voters before going to extort human businesses. But his hypocrisy is especially noteworthy in that while he complains about the human presence in C-Sec, his first reaction upon being sighted by Kolyat is to call for C-Sec.
Karma Houdini: The Paragon ending, though what happens with his campaign once it comes to light that he's working with the Blood Pack to extort human businesses is unclear.
No True Scotsman: Like Saren and Warden Kuril, Talid lacks the clan markings that most Turians have on their face. This serves a dual meaning, as Talid is both untrustworthy and a politician, with the term "barefaced" being Turian slang for politicians.
Shepard: Hostages only work when your enemy cares that they live.
Shout Out: When asking what the humans have done for any of the other races, a Salarian replies that he likes their food in a reference to Monty Python's Life of Brian.
Kolyat Krios
Kolyat Krios
"What, so you came to get my forgiveness? So you can die in peace or something?"
Thane's son. After Irikah's death and Thane's disappearance, Kolyat sets out in his father's footsteps, on his way to becoming a professional assassin. He ends up accepting a contract to kill Joram Talid, a turian anti-human politician on the Citadel. Kolyat becomes the subject of Thane's loyalty mission, where Shepard helps them reconnect and tries to stop the assassination before it happens.
Later, in Mass Effect 3, if Thane's loyalty mission was successfully completed and he survived the suicide mission, Kolyat reads a prayer for his dying father, who is mortally wounded after stopping Kai Leng from assassinating the salarian councilor. He also helps give Thane a memorial service in the Citadel DLC.
Antagonistic Offspring: Subverted. Kolyat isn't evil, just misguided, nor is he directly after Thane. Shepard can even suggest he's trying to follow in Thane's footsteps on some level. Thane doesn't care for the idea.
Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: It turns out that Thane had set out to avenge Irikah by hunting down her killers. He left Kolyat for too long, however, causing the rift between them to develop.
Generation Xerox: Bears a strong resemblance to his father, albeit with a more bluish skin tone and a recolored set of clothes.
A Cerberus researcher that was in charge of Project Overlord, a Cerberus project designed to find a way to communicate with and fully control the Geth in an attempt to prevent a possible second war with them by linking a human mind to the Geth Hive Mind via a VI. His younger brother, David, volunteered for the project, but the VI went rogue, leading to disaster.
At the end, its revealed that his brother didn't volunteer at all for the last phases of the experiment; he forced his own brother, against his will, to take part in the experiment, despite knowing full well how horrific and traumatizing it would be on him.
The Atoner: He quit Cerberus after the events of Overlord and is more than willing to help Shepard to defeat the Reapers in Mass Effect 3.
Crocodile Tears: A variation. He makes a seemingly heartfelt plea for Shepard to let him become The Atoner and take care of David. If Shepard says no, it slips very quickly and he shouts "No! He's too valuable!" and tries to shoot Shepard.
Driven to Suicide: If you fail to save David, just keep quiet about it to make him squirm, or resolve the geth issue without ever doing the DLC meaning what he did was completely pointless, he pulls out a pistol and walks away to "escape from this nightmare." You hear a shot a second later.
Heel Realization: That said, he eventually realizes the awfulness of what he did; when the Illusive Man asks him to do a second Project Overlord, Archer tells him that "if he wanted to find the devil, he need only look in the mirror." Subsequently, he quits Cerberus, trashes his research notes and hardware, and is among the ex-Cerberus scientists that Jacob is protecting. If you go so far as to screw with him or let David die or resolve the Geth issue without saving David, he commits suicide.
Kick the Son of a Bitch: Everyone agrees that him being pistol whipped by Paragon Shepard was well deserved.
My God, What Have I Done?: A delayed one but he eventually has this reaction to what he did with Project Overlord.
Shoot the Shaggy Dog: His project turns into this. Almost everyone associated with the project killed. Legion reveals the majority of the Geth have no interest in another war, and Legion himself is perfecly happy to communicate voluntarily with humans. So in the end all the shit Archer put his brother through was pointless. This is especially evident if you play the mission after recruiting Legion.
Sympathy for the Devil: Averted. He fully understands why Paragon Shepard views him as a monster and admits that even he knows that nothing he ever will do can make up for what he did to his brother.
Reformed, But Rejected: If he shows up in the third game, Shepard's voice is just dripping hatred during the entire conversation with him.
Walking Spoiler: Aside from the fact that he's a scientist working for Cerberus, nearly everything else about him would constitute a spoiler for Overlord.
The fictional star of ''Blasto the Jellyfish Stings'", a popular hanar Exploitation Film. By the third game, his series has expanded to six movies, and in the Citadel DLC, in production of a seventh and pre-production of an eighth.
The Council thought that Blasto, the first hanar SPECTRE would play by the rules. They were wrong.
The Hanar are well known for being ceaselessly polite, but Blasto's actor is smugly dismissive to Commander Shepard, the Hero of the Citadel, and Javik, an individual whom the hanar revere as gods. The only other hanar that's a jackass is the one who's Indoctrinated, and he's not even as big a jackass (though he is evil and needs to be stopped).
No Celebrities Were Harmed: In-universe, he takes a lot of Shepard's traits. He's a badass spectre who doesn't play by the rules, tried to warn the Council about the Reapers and killed Sovereign in the Battle for the Citadel. His next movie involves him curing the genophage.
The Prima Donna: His actor appears to be one in the Citadel DLC, immediately insulting Shepard and Javik by refusing to share top billing for Blasto 7 with them. Even Paragon Shepard, who seemed willing to go along with it at first, eventually finds it too hard to put with him. To emphasize this, it's the paragon interrupts that cause you to intercede and tell him to stuff it.
The size of his ego is also shown when he's downright dismissive of Javik, a member of the race the Hanar revere as Gods.
