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Author: MissMokushiroku

Feb 4th 2013 at 4:38:35 PM

(apologies for the length of this entry, Creator/BioWare seems to ''love'' this...it can be condensed down if it's too much)

* Several examples from the DysfunctionJunction that is the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' cast:
** Downplayed with Wrex in ''VideoGame/MassEffect1''. He's a mercenary who prefers [[IWorkAlone working alone]] to being in a large army, but Shepard's squad is small enough that he doesn't mind working with him/her. Thanks in large part to Shepard's influence, Wrex goes from a burned-out mercenary in ''Mass Effect 1'' to [[spoiler:chief of the Urdnot clan and ''de facto'' leader of the krogan]] in ''Mass Effect 2'' and ''3''. In the second game, Wrex's reaction to meeting Shepard again is to immediately stop what he's doing, exclaim "Shepard! My friend!" and ''hug'' him/her. The third game also reveals that he's friends with Liara and VitriolicBestBuds with Garrus.
** Liara in the first game is a shy, awkward [[BadassBookworm bookworm]] who prefers working alone in archaeological digs to being with people. She [[CharacterDevelopment matures]] throughout the trilogy, befriending most of the squad and being a potential LoveInterest for Shepard, but ultimately still prefers working with data to socializing.
** Miranda in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' is extremely goal-focused and doesn't like to waste time with frivolous socialization, but Shepard can [[DefrostingIceQueen defrost her icy demeanor]], and she's a LoveInterest for male Shepard.
** TokenEvilTeammate Jack from the second game is a loner as a result of being tortured and a child and being betrayed by every person she ever trusted as an adult. Once again, as well as being a potential LoveInterest for male Shepard, being on Shepard's team changes her so much that, if she survives the second game's SuicideMission, she's become a [[spoiler:''teacher'']] by ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''.
** Thane Krios of ''Mass Effect 2'' is an assassin who joins Shepard's squad in order to [[TheAtoner make the galaxy a better place]] [[DeadManWalking before he dies]]. He's extremely introverted and meditative, but Shepard can still strike up a friendship with him, and he's a potential LoveInterest for female Shepard.
** Justicar Samara from the second game is [[MarriedToTheJob married to her job]], having given up all of her worldly possessions and personal relationships in her quest for justice. She still becomes close to Paragon Shepard, and, while she's a NotLoveInterest, she tells him/her that in another world, where she weren't a justicar, she would definitely want a relationship with Shepard. (Renegade Shepard...not so much.)
** ''Mass Effect 2'''s Legion is a strange example. [[spoiler:Being a MindHive robot comprised of 1,138 separate programs, and with the capability to connect to the larger geth collective, it's never truly ''alone''. But, [[FantasticRacism because it's a geth platform]], it's distrusted by nearly all organic life (the hole in its chest? A colonist on Eden Prime shot at it with a rifle). As the third game confirms, Shepard is literally the ''first'' organic in over 300 years to actually interact with a geth for a purpose other than killing it. Even Tali, a quarian (who were driven off of their homeworld by the geth during the Morning War), considers Legion to be a friend by the third game.]]
** Javik from ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' is an extreme example. He's [[LastOfHisKind the last living Prothean]] (having been in stasis for the past 50,000 years), and, as the Protheans' avatar of Vengeance, is focused on nothing except stopping the Reapers. Still, he obviously respects Shepard and becomes much more amicable throughout the game. If you [[spoiler:discourage him from reliving the memories in the Echo Shard]], before the final battle, he tells Shepard that, after the war is over, he's going to help Liara write her book on Prothean culture.

(Side note--''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' should go under Video Games, not Comic Books.)