| 1 | %% Reminder: race names are NOT capitalized mid-sentence! The only exceptions are: Rachni Wars, Krogan Rebellions, race names before government names (e.g. Asari Republics, Turian Hierarchy, etc.), Ardat-Yakshi, Collectors, Protheans, Leviathan, Reapers and the Jaardan. |
| 2 | * [[Franchise/MassEffect Main Page]] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | The rest of the list continued here: |
| 5 | |
| 6 | * MassEffect/TropesEToH |
| 7 | * MassEffect/TropesIToL |
| 8 | * MassEffect/TropesMToP |
| 9 | * MassEffect/TropesQToT |
| 10 | * MassEffect/TropesUToZ |
| 11 | |
| 12 | ---- |
| 13 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 14 | |
| 15 | [[folder:A]] |
| 16 | * AbnormalAmmo: Regular bullets by themselves are pretty abnormal as they’re just flakes carved off of blocks of metal inside the gun, and fired using mass-effect fields and magnetic forces at super-sonic speeds. Beyond that, TrickBullet ammo open up a wide range of options for different targets: |
| 17 | ** Anti-Organic Ammo (nicknamed "Shredder Rounds") are rounds designed to replicate hollow-point bullets while shearing apart on impact. |
| 18 | ** Anti-Armor/Synthetic Ammo are derived from tungsten that are deform-resistant and punch clean through armor and synthetic chassis. |
| 19 | ** Incendiary Ammo (or "Inferno Rounds") are a semi-solid thermite paste which clings to, and burn through, nearly any substance. |
| 20 | ** Cold Ammo (or "Cryo Ammo") use cooling lasers to collapse rounds into a Bose-Einstein condensate - a mass of super-cool subatomic particles carried by mass-effect fields - which snap-freezes on impact. |
| 21 | ** Disruptor Ammo (or "Lightning Bullets") are superconducting slugs that shatter on impact, flash-converting the surrounding air into conductive plasma, which cut through shields and temporarily disable synthetics. |
| 22 | ** Explosive Ammo (or "Carnage Rounds") are high-explosives that detonate on impact. |
| 23 | ** High Impact Ammo (or "Concussive Shots") are designed to squash and flatten on impact, increasing the amount of physical force transferred to the target, knocking them off their feet. |
| 24 | ** Shield Piercing Ammo (or "Proton Rounds") fire energized protons in lieu of projectiles that bypass kinetic shields. |
| 25 | ** Toxic Ammo are coated in highly toxic compounds that poison the target and prevent healing. |
| 26 | ** Anti-Biotic/Tech Ammo are slugs stamped with minuscule radioactive material, which induce low-levels of radiation sickness in targets. |
| 27 | ** Warp Ammo are rounds saturated with eezo, which react to targets already hit with mass-effect fields for extra damage. |
| 28 | * AbortedArc: |
| 29 | ** The strange readings of Haestrom's sun are never addressed again after Tali's recruitment mission in the second game. At the end of her loyalty mission, it's revealed the sun is dying prematurely due to the influence of dark energy. In truth, it was planned for this quest to tie into the endgame of the next game as a major part of the Reaper's motivations, but it was scrapped. |
| 30 | ** The storyline about Armistan Banes. He's a Systems Alliance researcher who was working on a "mysterious project" in the Attican Traverse. He's eventually revealed to be the blackmailer of Dr. Chloe Michel and was formerly presumed dead after Rear Admiral Kahoku's crew seemingly found his body. Not long after, Kahoku's men [[spoiler:and Kahoku himself]] are killed by Cerberus. Given that he's tied to two side quests, his status and project is left unresolved, and even [[TheMentor Captain Anderson]] himself is disturbed if Shepard asks about him, all this seems to be building up to something. Instead, Banes is never encountered in any of the sequels, his mystery project is never revealed, and you only find out anything more about him if Dr. Michel is invited onboard the Normandy in ''Mass Effect 3'' where she mentions he was a Cerberus agent in a throwaway line. Before the release of the ''Lair of the Shadow Broker'' DLC, he was often guessed to be the Shadow Broker. |
| 31 | ** If the caveman vision on Eletania is triggered in the first game, it will be flagged as an important event when importing the save file to the sequel. However, the vision has no bearing on the plot and isn't mentioned again for the rest of the trilogy. |
| 32 | ** The first game allowed Shepard to let the Council die and then plot with Udina to start a new human-influenced Council. The second game pays lip service to this idea by mentioning a few times in that humanity controls the new Council, but in practice it doesn't change anything since we never get to see the new Council and they are just as useless as the old one. Then the third game reveals that the new Council are composed of the same alien races as the old one (plus one human) and the idea that humanity have been controlling the Council is quietly dropped. |
| 33 | ** The first game allowed Shepard to chose who would sit on the Council: Anderson or Udina. Choosing Anderson would have him as the acting Council rep for the second game, but the third game would undo that by having him step down between games and have Udina take over, effectively rendering Anderson's role in the Council plot with no fanfare. |
| 34 | * AbusivePrecursors: Several examples. |
| 35 | ** Good God, the '''Reapers''' seem to be trying to set the record for most abusive: |
| 36 | *** The Reapers deliberately [[spoiler:left LostTechnology around for future species to find to encourage them to evolve along the lines they want]] -- thus making it easier to completely obliterate them when they return to "Reap" what they have sown. [=ME2=] suggests that they do this to [[spoiler:''reproduce''; humans kidnapped by the Collectors are melted down into organic slush which forms the core of a Reaper.]] You're not even safe if you don't fit into their designs. [[spoiler:The Protheans were unfit to become Reapers, so instead they were kept as slaves. Eventually they were genetically and mechanically altered to the point where they become the Collectors]]. |
| 37 | *** Considering that most sentient races tend to find "Prothean relics" within easy reach to develop their FTL technology, it may be that [[spoiler:the Reapers are intentionally seeding those planets with the new starting point of what they intend to become new sentient races to once again enter a new cycle of ascension and annihilation, to become either Reaper larva juice or a new slave race as the Collectors did]]. |
| 38 | *** Finally, as of [=ME3=], it turns out that the Reapers [[spoiler: are just following the Catalyst's instructions, preventing the eventual destruction of all organic life by synthetic life. The Catalyst itself was an AI created by an ancient race that had a really nasty synthetic vs. organic war. They created the Catalyst to solve the problem of synthetic/organic conflict. The Reapers were the Catalyst's solution, and its creators did not approve... but the Catalyst didn't listen and turned them into the first Reaper -- Harbinger. The creators of the Reapers were a race known as the Leviathans. For the Leviathans, the other species in the galaxy were mere thralls, while they viewed themselves as the galaxy's apex life form. They created the Catalyst so that these other species would no longer be destroyed by their synthetic creations (and, in turn, the Leviathans would have more servants at their disposal -- or so they thought). [[EvilVersusEvil Then the Catalyst turned on them]].]] |
| 39 | ** [[spoiler:The Protheans themselves Play With the trope, as [[LastOfHisKind Javik]] reveals]] in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' -- [[spoiler:The Protheans forced other races to become subservient to their empire, contrary to the impressions Liara had previously had of them as a species of scholars]]. However, they ultimately show some [[BenevolentPrecursors benevolence]], as the last of the Protheans [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture sacrificed themselves in order to sabotage the Reaper's plans for future sentient races]] when they realized their own race was doomed due to a non-viable population size. [[spoiler:They altered the keepers so that they would not respond to the Reapers' signals in order to sabotage their control of the relays and left beacons to warn of the coming danger]]. Their efforts are the only reason the galaxy has a chance in hell against the Reapers. |
| 40 | ** Leviathan and its kind were basically the ur-Protheans, having themselves conquered and oppressed the galaxy [[spoiler: (and created the Catalyst, who then created Harbinger).]] |
| 41 | ** The unidentified persons who [[spoiler:created and set off]] the Scourge, which does all manner of nastiness to anything it comes near (usually in the form of severe environmental damage), and is spread across light years. Liam Kosta sums it up pretty well when he calls them "motherfuckers". |
| 42 | * ACommanderIsYou: While ''Mass Effect'' isn't a strategy game, the different civilizations all have unique doctrines that afford themselves to the characterisations in this trope. |
| 43 | ** [[HumansAreAverage Humans]]: Balanced/Ranger. Of course. Also promote rapid response and mobility: infantry tend to be mechanized, and provided with excellent air support. |
| 44 | ** [[SpaceElves Asari]]: Elitist/Guerilla. Emphasize small units of elite [[PsychicPowers biotic]] warriors in guerilla-style combat. |
| 45 | ** [[SpacePolice Turian]]: Balanced/Brute. Favour straightforward combined-arms warfare with disciplined and highly-trained troops. Similar to humans, but with more emphasis on hitting hard rather than hitting fast. |
| 46 | ** [[CombatPragmatist Salarian]]: Technical/Espionage. Favour stealth, infiltration and elite strike steams sabotaging enemy operations behind enemy lines. Many of them are scientists, so also Research. |
| 47 | ** [[GadgeteerGenius Quarian]]: Ranger/Specialist. They have one of the biggest and strongest fleets in the galaxy. When they fight planetside, they do so with small strike teams of marines. Also tend to have excellent engineers, which may also make them Technical. |
| 48 | ** [[ProudWarriorRace Krogan]]: Originally Brute/Spammer/GameBreaker due to extreme toughness and high birthrate. After the [[DepopulationBomb genophage]], doctrine has shifted to highly-trained, heavily-equipped berserker-style troops, making them more Elitist/Brute. |
| 49 | ** [[MechaMooks Geth]]: Spammer/Research. They are probably ''the'' most technologically advanced civilization in the galaxy, and being robots, they don't care much for losses because they don't "die" in the traditional sense. May also be Gimmick due to how their HiveMind works. |
| 50 | ** [[ProudMerchantRace Volus]]: Economist/Diplomat. Although it is stated that the Volus have their own military, it is very small and geared towards supporting the Turian military forces, who offer protection in exchange for financial tithes and economic know-how from the Volus. |
| 51 | ** [[TheEmpire Batarian]]: Balanced. Like humans and turians, the batarians are militaristic and favour good ol' fashioned straight-up warfare. Also, being a FantasyCounterpartCulture for UsefulNotes/NorthKorea, complete with oppressive regime, maybe puts them under Loyal. |
| 52 | * ActionGirl: Every non-civilian female and many of the civilian females. Especially, if you so choose, Commander Shepard and Pathfinder Ryder themselves. |
| 53 | * AdvancedAncientAcropolis: The Prothean outpost on Mars. |
| 54 | * AnAesop: The series as a whole goes to a lot of trouble to point out that old saw about how it is the destiny of every generation to overthrow their parents. Basically, you should be good to your children if you don't want them to kill you. This comes out in various ways, but the primary examples are the Geth program that left the Quarians without a home and [[spoiler:Shepard's option to kill off the Reapers]]. |
| 55 | * AffablyEvil[=/=]JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Two different ways to max out both {{Karma Meter}}s. |
| 56 | * AggressiveNegotiations: Several hostage situations can turn into these, depending on how you play them. In the first game, one mission in particular is ''meant'' to end this way and will only be assigned if you get a reputation for it. |
| 57 | * AgonyBeam: The Neural Shock power. It gets assimilated into Overload in the third game in the form of one of the later power evolutions. |
| 58 | * AgriWorld: |
| 59 | ** Most of humanity's colonies are this, although not by design. Colonies have a semi-independent status in the System Aliance, so they are expected to be self-sufficient and food is the most important aspect to do that. The government also is more focused on spamming new colonies, so actual development is rather slow. |
| 60 | ** Pragia is a failed example of this. The batarians had intended to turn the planet into a farm world to feed their empire, but their genetically engineered food crops took to the planet too well, covered it in jungle-like growth and are projected to completely exhaust the soil across the entire planet within centuries. |
| 61 | * AIIsACrapshoot: Appears to be played straight, then subverted to hell and back. Council law expressly forbids the use of AI, so people get by with "virtual intelligences", which appear to be nothing more than slightly upgraded [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clippit Clippits]]. During the first game you're forced to fight two rogue computers, and of course there are the geth, who fought a devastating war with their masters the quarians, and ended up driving them into exile. However, it is precisely ''because'' of organic prejudice against machine intelligence that most [=AIs=] [[SelfFulfillingProphecy try to kill their masters, because the AIs know what will happen to them]]. And the geth? Upon learning that they had gained sentience, the quarians sent out a blanket order to shut them down. It's not difficult to feel some sympathy for them, even as you gun them down across the galaxy. |
| 62 | ** And in the second game the ''Normandy'' gains an artificial intelligence named EDI. Kept secure behind physical barriers, EDI acts as MissionControl to Shepard and is actually rather friendly. And you get to learn more about the geth via [[spoiler:Legion, your geth squadmate. The geth in the first game were considered "heretics" by the rest of the geth, and actually split off from the "true" geth. Not only are the true geth peaceful, they purposely isolate themselves from organics for both their protection ''and'' that of the organics. They regret their actions against the quarians and are repairing the damage to their homeworld; they don't even use it, they live in space. The geth would gladly let the quarians return, if they could give up their desire to commit genocide.]] As for EDI, [[spoiler:Joker is forced to take down the barriers during a Collector attack. Despite an initial moment of panic, it turns out she's still loyal to Joker, Shepard, and the rest of the crew]]. |
| 63 | ---> '''EDI:''' I enjoy the sight of humans on their knees. (''{{beat}}'') That was a joke. |
| 64 | ** EDI also reveals [[spoiler: that she was the rogue AI you fought on the Moon, in one of the game's first side-missions]]. |
| 65 | ** Finally [[spoiler:[[ZigZaggedTrope zig-zagged]]]] in ''Mass Effect 3'': [[spoiler:The reason the Reapers started the cycle of extinction was because apparently synthetics will always rebel against their creators, devastating the organic species of the galaxy. [[{{Irony}} The Catalyst AI chose to break this cycle by rebelling against its creators]]. Further, the Reapers do not see themselves as AIs since they contain the essence of the species they harvested, but the Catalyst and at least one ending confirm that they are not truly "sapient" (whereas sapient is defined as the ability to make independent decision and judgment) -- the Catalyst rebuts Shepard's disbelief that the Reapers are not interested in war by stating that they are only doing what the Catalyst programmed them to do. And if Shepard takes the Control option, the Reapers will obey them immediately, with no opinion contrary to the matter. So the Catalyst and its solution ultimately play the trope straight, but the argument the series seems to make is that AI is only a crapshoot when organics create it and not when synthetics do]]. |
| 66 | ** Over the millions of years of the cycle, [[spoiler:the Catalyst]] never saw anything but organic/synthetic warfare. One of the possible decisions in the third game [[spoiler:peace between quarians and the geth, could be the ''first'' time this trope has ''ever'' been averted, though the fact that the geth never would have been created in the first place if the Protheans hadn't sabotaged the Citadel and delayed the next extinction calls into question the Catalyst's reliablity]]. |
| 67 | ** Explored in ''Andromeda'', with an anti-AI group who firmly believe this applies to ''all'' artificial intelligences, SAM included, when SAM is a massive aversion. Played straight with an ancient AI Ryder encounters, which wants to kill everyone and everything she meets, her only restriction being the lack of capability to do so. |
| 68 | * AlienArtsAreAppreciated: |
| 69 | ** It's mentioned how the values and beliefs of many cultures tend to creep into one another. Zen Buddhism and Confucianism are becoming popular amongst the turians, the hanar worship of the Protheans (whom they call "the Enkindlers") is common amongst the drell, and the asari religion of Siari is often practiced by other races. In the second game alien art is both highly valued and insanely popular. Mention is made of an ancient Egyptian exhibit on an asari homeworld. |
| 70 | ** This trope is played with during Kasumi's loyalty mission. You see some turian art. It just looks like a couple pieces of scrap metal; somewhat like [=3D=] abstract art. Then again, that's not much different from what some real-life humans call "art". Kasumi offers her opinion of the piece when you examine it: |
| 71 | ---> '''Kasumi:''' It's rare to see turian art outside of Palaven. (''dryly'') I can see why. |
| 72 | ** This also extends to music, stage productions and literature. There's an all-elcor production of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''. And no one who hears Mordin Solus sing Creator/GilbertAndSullivan in ''Mass Effect 2'' will ever, ''ever'' forget it. In the third game's Citadel DLC, you can also hear him sing AmazingFreakingGrace on a datapad he sends to Shepard. The Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC states that Grunt takes an interest in the works of Ernest Hemingway. |
| 73 | ** On the Silversun Strip in the Citadel DLC, you can encounter Francis Kitt, the theatre producer who made elcor Hamlet. He is discussing his next big production, ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''. He has a krogan in the titular role. |
| 74 | ** A double version from ''Andromeda'', with elcor Hamlet being appreciated by angara. |
| 75 | * AlienBlood: |
| 76 | ** We've got your standard red in droves; also, blue (turians), orange (krogan), green (salarians and kett), and purple (asari). There's not much blood in the game, so it's hard to notice unless you really look. [[spoiler:Except for Garrus's introductory near-death experience where he left a big puddle on the floor. Or when you find Nihlus's corpse in the first game]]. |
| 77 | ** Some of it isn't technically blood -- the geth "bleed" a white fluid. |
| 78 | * AlienHair: The only other sentient star-faring species with hair as we know it is the quarians, if [[spoiler:Tali's unmasked picture is any indication]] (though with the volus it's impossible to tell); however, the asari have scalps which seem to split into tentacles toward the back and are treated as analogous to hair -- on Illium there are references to "getting your scalp" done, and one asari mentions dyeing it. Liara clarifies exactly what the tentacles are made of in [=ME3=] due to Joker's insistence. Amusingly, turians apparently see other species as having AlienHair; there are comments from two different turians suggesting that they see asari scalps and human hair as being roughly on par with the turian fringe. |
| 79 | * AliensNeverInventedDemocracy: Averted with the humans with the various nations or Earth albeit acting under the Systems Alliance banner on galatic matters, the asari who have direct democracy republics, the quarians who have a mix of a military council and a democratic parliament of sorts but prefer to defer to their ship captains or appoint Roman-like dictators in times of crisis, the batarians who are almost an EvilCounterpart to the Alliance and the angara who have a representative democracy with strict term limits. PlayedStraight with all the rest who have non-democratic forms of government: the turians have a military-like meritocracy, the salarians feudal families, the elcor tribal elders, the krogans feuding warlords and yahg alpha-led packs. Geth have no government, relying on a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consensus_democracy consensus democracy]], the drell follow the hanar and the vorcha are too violent and short-lived to care about politics. |
| 80 | * AliensNeverInventedTheWheel: In the backstory, it is revealed that the Citadel has an equivalent of the Washington Naval Treaty that strictly limits the number of dreadnaughts that a given species can field at a time. Humanity's response? Introduce the concept of [[{{TheBattlestar}} carriers]] to the rest of the Milky Way, [[{{LoopholeAbuse}} safe in the knowledge that they're not covered by the treaty]]. Eventually, other species (such as the [[{{SpaceRomans}} turians]]) commission carriers of their own. |
| 81 | * AlienNonInterferenceClause: |
| 82 | ** There is none in the Council races, especially with the salarians, who uplifted the krogan much earlier than they were ready for. And despite the fact the krogan uplifting ended kinda badly, the salarians show no intention of stopping the practice; the third game reveals that their next pet projects, so to speak, are using varren to disrupt cities, and [[TooDumbToLive uplifting the yahg]], a race larger, stronger and even more violent than the krogan. |
| 83 | ** A variation of this is present in galactic law in regards to uncharted mass relays; they are not to be activated until well after the space beyond it has been thoroughly mapped. The last time the Council activated an uncharted mass relay, the [[BugWar rachni invaded]], which in turn led to the aforementioned ill-fated attempt to uplift the krogan. When humans first discovered a mass relay near Pluto and began exploring the galaxy by just opening up any mass relay's they found, the turians came to enforce this law ''[[DisproportionateRetribution with prejudice]]''. |
| 84 | * AliensAreBastards: Generally {{Averted|Trope}}. Most alien races on the whole are no better or worse than humans. Absolutely played straight by the [[AbusivePrecursors Reapers]], and to a lesser extent the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny batarians]] and the [[BlueAndOrangeMorality yahg]]. |
| 85 | * AlienSky: |
| 86 | ** Prevalent on a number of the side-quest worlds throughout the games. |
| 87 | ** Inverted(?) in that the sky from Luna, a non-fictitious alien sky we've actually seen, is made alien by an Earth about 5 times too large (and bonus inversion in that the Earth is actually an inverted MIRROR-image here). At least the inversion would just mean you're on the southern hemisphere. |
| 88 | * AliensSpeakingEnglish: Justified. All races use {{Universal Translator}}s that are updated constantly to keep up to date with changes in slang and new dialects. There's also a basic trade language, "Galactic". Also, TranslationConvention. |
| 89 | ** And yet their lip movements (assuming they have lips) nonetheless sync up with what they're saying in English. |
| 90 | ** The hanar, specifically are mentioned as requiring special gear to even move around in normal gravity, and require subdermal implants to translate their bioluminescent "speech" patterns into an audible form. |
| 91 | ** Even the ''humans'' aren't all speaking English; Captain Matsuo in Noveria is clearly speaking Japanese. Kasumi Goto is Japanese as well, though the fact that she speaks English with a faint Japanese accent and no honorifics implies that she actually ''is'' speaking in English. Likewise Samesh Bhatia. All other humans who are speaking another language (or presumed to be) are translated with American accents. Explaining the wide array of quarian accents that exist, however, is another matter entirely. Let's just say it's because [[PlanetOfHats their hat]] is sexy accents. And form-fitting environment suits. And [[OneSceneWonder awesome Adam Baldwin cameos]]. And {{Woobie}}ism. |
| 92 | ** It's also explicitly noted that aliens and humans still make the effort to learn each others languages despite the universal translators. |
| 93 | ** An asari officer on Illium will have trouble explaining the asari concept of Justicars to you because she does not know the right human metaphor [[note]] No wonder, since the closest one seems to be [[Franchise/StarWars "Jedi"]][[/note]], lampshading that there's a lot more to cross-cultural communication than mere translation. |
| 94 | ** [[spoiler:Javik]], introduced in the ''From Ashes'' {{DLC}}, is speaking English because his species, [[spoiler: the Protheans]], has the ability to share knowledge through touch. It probably helped that he got it from the one person in the galaxy who also knows his own. |
| 95 | * AllGravityIsTheSame: ZigZagged: high-gravity planets are acknowledged in the dialogue, e.g. with the elcor species, which is adapted to the extremely high gravity of their home planet. However, no planet you ever visit has a gravity that isn't within the 0.9 to 1.1 range of Earth's, and the even those discrepancies have no impact on gameplay or even on animations. |
| 96 | * TheAlliance: |
| 97 | ** The Citadel Council, comprising of the turian, asari and salarian races as of the first game, and eventually includes humanity from then on. |
| 98 | ** The Systems Alliance also fits this trope as well, as it is an organization formed and funded by several major Earth nations to be the galactic face of humanity. Notably they are ''not'' the government of Earth itself. |
| 99 | ** Shepard forms another in the third game, consisting of the humans, turians, asari, krogan, and any or all of the salarians, quarians, geth, elcor, batarians, hanar and drell, and numerous mercenary bands, Cerberus defectors, and other groups. |
| 100 | * AllInARow: You can give your two squadmates specific orders and they have a degree of autonomy in combat, but for the most part they follow you around. |
| 101 | * AllPlanetsAreEarthlike: Averted. The overwhelming majority of documented planets have exotic biospheres which would kill humans (or most other species) within ''seconds'' of exposure. Of the remainder, most are still too hot, too cold, or possessing too toxic an atmosphere for humans to journey onto the surface without a spacesuit. Even some of the planets which actually ''are'' Earth-like are still dangerous in some way, because in the [=ME=] universe there most definitely ''[[SubvertedTrope are]]'' [[NoBiochemicalBarriers biochemical barriers]]. |
| 102 | ** One interesting example is [[spoiler:2175 Aeia]] in ''Mass Effect 2''. From what we see on the planet, it's a beautiful, tropical world with pleasant weather. The catch? Anything edible on the planet contains chemicals that degrade brain function. Within a few months anyone living on the local flora will be reduced to the mental level of a young child. |
| 103 | ** There was one planet where a lampshade was hung on this in the first game. There's a planet which has an oxygen atmosphere, like earth. Has a similar temperate climate, like earth. And who's day and night cycles are similar to earth's. The problem? Pollen and lots of it. The pollen causes anyone not used to the atmosphere to gain a severe allergic reaction to the huge pollen tufts you see all over the planet's surface. |
| 104 | ** Even Eden Prime, one of Earth's first colonies and well-suited to importing Earth species, is an aversion, with its ''64-hour'' day. Seems like that would take some getting used to. |
| 105 | ** Remember Virmire? Lush, oxygen-rich, perfect for colonization? ''Three week long days''. |
| 106 | ** Then there's Chasca, which is (like many other planets) tidally locked with its sun and is only habitable in the twilight band between the day and night sides, which is the only viable colonization target. |
| 107 | ** Somewhat less extreme example and a rather overlooked one is the Judaically-named planet of 'Yamm', which means 'Ocean' in Hebrew, and was the Caananite god of Oceans and Chaos (that's always a good combination). Big surprise, it's an Ocean world. It's habitable, and there's a huge industry in Biofuel (and presumably Hydrogen), and it's a planet full of beaches! What could be better? More like what could be WORSE. The temperatures range anywhere from 24 C on a 'brisk' night to 53 C in the noon. On a normal day. In the TEMPERATE zones. And what happens when you get a world with nothing but deep, deep oceans? Hurricanes. Gigantic, city-crushing hurricanes with average winds around 250 km/h. And the days are 69.6 hours long. Take THAT, Eden Prime. |
| 108 | ** Hagalaz is an extreme version, mixing an earth-like atmosphere with '''98'' Earth days long days, a climate so extreme that according to Liara the oceans simmer during the day then snap-freeze ten minutes after nightfall and cataclysmic storms around the terminator. Makes you wonder who could live here [[spoiler:aside from the Shadow Broker]]. |
| 109 | ** Played with in ''Andromeda'', when the planets ''looked'' earthlike from a distance (Habitat 2 was a world of lovely beaches and scenic mountain ranges). Up close, after six hundred years and a few apocalypses, not so much. And later on, the fact there were so many earth-like planets in commuting distance turns out to be [[spoiler:because of deliberate action on the part of one species.]] |
| 110 | * AllThereInTheManual: The in-game [[EncyclopediaExposita Codex]], the tie-in novels, and the comics. Though in the Codex's case, it's somewhat unreliable due to being an in-universe source of information. Not until the third game are the Reapers accurately described within. |
| 111 | * AllTheOtherReindeer: Happens with biotics in some species. |
| 112 | ** Many humans are afraid or distrustful of them due to a belief biotics can control minds (they can't), but the military's all too happy to take them in. Depending on Shepard's actions in the first game, this attitude may get worse. |
| 113 | ** Turians aren't fond of them, with turian biotics being put in their own separate regiments from regular troops. Most turian biotics go along with this, due to turian mentality, but there are exceptions. |
| 114 | ** Krogan hate and fear their biotics, but given the usual krogan attitude, this isn't much of an obstacle to being in charge. |
| 115 | * TheAlternet: The extranet is all but admitted to be the galactic version of the Internet. Data is passed between planets via [[SubspaceAnsible mass effect comm buoys]], and bandwidth is prioritized to military and government first, corporate subscribers second, and individual users third. Advertisements on the Citadel in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' tell people to look up extranet sites based on keywords instead of a URL. |
| 116 | * AlwaysChaoticEvil: The Reapers. Subverted with every other race. |
| 117 | ** [[spoiler:Not so much even the Reapers, as it turns out. Their motivations are more in the realm of BlueAndOrangeMorality]]. |
| 118 | ** The batarians -- it's explained in the Codex that the reason you only run into batarian criminals, mercenaries, or slavers is that they're the about the only batarians who leave their home systems. And the batarian government is a caste-based fascist dictatorship that relies on slavery to survive and abuses PlausibleDeniability as much as they can get away with. Really, it's a surprise one of the nicest people on the criminal-filled Omega is a batarian shopkeeper. There '''are''', however, at least a few batarians on Omega who ultimately want no trouble. One of them needs you to save his life and thanks you in surprise if you do so; the others jump to conclusions about [[spoiler: a man they thought had been spreading a plague that is dangerous for most races other than humans]] but are willing to listen to reason if you act honorably. It's not quite that they're evil, then, so much as anyone who leaves the Hegemony is therefore a confirmed maverick, and on top of that the batarians have a few reasons to begrudge humans -- which, if you '''are''' a human, isn't often going to be a great combo. Nice batarians do exist; some of the nastier ones still co-operate with humans in the Blue Suns, and the species does basically subvert the trope... Just, not many of the ones Shepard meets. |
| 119 | *** In Mass Effect 3 you start meeting regular batarians as refugees on the Citadel. They're not so different from average Citadel people, and in fact it's implied they're a very spiritual people. |
| 120 | ** Historically, the krogan are prone to putting on this hat if there isn't someone to keep them in line. Part of it is a {{deconstruction}} of the ProudWarriorRaceGuy, part of it is that their ambition and violent tendencies tend to combine in ways that overwhelm their good sense. One example is that before the genophage, they were breeding much faster and more than the environments of their colonized worlds worlds could sustain them, leading to a Council space civil war and the genophage. Another is when five clans destroyed each other to the last man over mineral wealth. ''Another'' is that their tradition of a diplomatic meeting on neutral ground is often counteracted by an unspoken tradition of intending to use it as an ambush. Even with [[spoiler:both Wrex and Eve alive and the genophage cured]], the whole galaxy is wary of them. |
| 121 | ** The vorcha are seen as universally aggressive and unpleasant; indeed, the only ones you meet are Blood Pack mercenaries. This is due to their biology and culture, they only live twenty years, they use combat as their main form of communication, etc. Even then, they are shown cooperating with other races in the fight against the Reapers through multiplayer. There are references to vorcha miners, settlers and brewers and in ''Mass Effect 3'', the new Blood Pack leader is a vorcha who both averts the usual [[YouNoTakeCandle speech patterns of his race]] and is rather clever.[[note]]Clever enough to, at least, be aware that double-crossing Aria T'Loak is a really bad idea[[/note]] |
| 122 | ** [[spoiler:In a double subversion, turns out the geth that fought with Sovereign in the first game were a minor splinter group from the main geth, who in reality just want to be left alone to build their DysonSphere and achieve true unity... Until the quarians go to full-scale war against them in the third game and cause the whole geth consensus save Legion to side with the Reapers.]] |
| 123 | * AmazonBrigade: Asari commandos are generally seen as the galaxy's finest warriors. A female Shepard can also use an all-female party in all three games by using any combination of Ashley, Tali and Liara ([=ME1=]); Miranda, Jack, Tali, Kasumi and Samara/Morinth ([=ME2=]); and EDI, Tali, Liara and Ashley ([=ME3=]). Sara Ryder can also have an all-female party of herself, and either Cora, Vetra or Peebee. |
| 124 | * AmazonChaser: Female Shepard's love interests each appreciate her badassitude. |
| 125 | * AmbiguousRobots: The Reapers. We know they [[spoiler: reproduce by liquefying various races and then converting that liquid into a new Reaper]], but they still look and sound entirely mechanical. This ambiguity is to be expected though, as they are basically Mecha-Cthulhu. |
| 126 | * AmbitionIsEvil: In the first game, ambition seems to be humanity's [[PlanetOfHats hat]]. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on who you talk to. |
| 127 | * AncestorVeneration: Ancestor worship is the primary religion of the quarian race. Back when they were still an associate race of the Citadel Council, quarians were in the process of making Virtual Intelligences with personality imprints of their dead ancestors. There was a great deal of internal debate over whether this qualified as worshiping the [=VIs=] instead of the ancestors proper. Some more superstitious quarians believe that their exile from their homeworld following the geth rebellion was punishment for their hubris. |
| 128 | * AncientAstronauts: |
| 129 | ** Humanity's expansion beyond Sol began with the discovery of a Prothean bioscience outpost on Mars, tasked with studying primitive humans. Prothean ruins dot the surface of the hanar homeworld, and the belief that the Protheans taught them speech is the basis of the hanar Enkindler religion. |
| 130 | ** In the third game, the [[spoiler:Protheans]] are revealed to have been this to [[spoiler:the asari]]. |
| 131 | ** From ''Andromeda'', [[spoiler:the Jaardan]] to the [[spoiler:angara. Except they ''weren't'' ancient, they were last tinkering only a mere four hundred years ago.]] |
| 132 | * AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Reaper indoctrination]] permanently robs its victims of all free will. Most are aware of symptoms like hallucinations, but few actually realize that they're being indoctrinated. Matriarch Benezia is an exceptional case because she has enough willpower and biotic strength to temporarily wall off part of her consciousness from indoctrination. This is highlighted in detail during [[spoiler: her death scene]], as well as in Paul Grayson's descent into madness, depicted in the novel ''Literature/MassEffectRetribution''. |
| 133 | * AnimalMotif: The Reapers look suspiciously like a techno-organic version of the Reaper Cuttlefish. They also strongly resemble Leafcutter Beetles, especially in terms of how they walk. [[spoiler: Given the Leviathans' aquatic origins, the Cuttlefish comparison might be more apt]]. |
| 134 | * AnyoneCanDie: |
| 135 | ** In the first game, one character can be killed depending on your choices ([[spoiler:Wrex]]) and [[SadisticChoice another MUST be sacrificed to save a third]] ([[spoiler:Ashley vs. Kaidan]]), so that throughout the rest of the trilogy you only have one of the two at your side. |
| 136 | ** In the second, if you're feeling sadistic, you can get up to ''all but two'' squadmates killed off in the final dungeon, as you only need two to survive it. (If you get everyone killed, [[NonstandardGameOver Shepard dies too]] and you can't export your save file to the third game.) It is only a game over in terms of the trilogy as a whole, though. The second game will still [[PyrrhicVictory consider this a win]]. |
| 137 | ** And in the third, all bets are off. Five characters have {{Plotline Death}}s ([[spoiler:Thane, Udina, Legion, Anderson, The Illusive Man]]), a ''bunch'' of others can be killed off depending on your choices during the main body of gameplay ([[labelnote:The list includes...]]Mordin, Kirrahe, the Virmire Survivor, Grunt, Zaeed, Kasumi, Miranda, Jack, Wrex, Wreav, "Eve", Samara, Tali, the rachni, ''the entire quarian or geth race'', and a bunch of placeholders who step in if some of the previous characters are already dead -- and no matter what you decide, you cannot save them all; some are mutually exclusive[[/labelnote]]), and under certain end-game circumstances you can just flat-out doom your entire party and almost everyone in the galaxy [[spoiler: (the Refusal ending; the standard three endings with low-enough EMS)]] to extinction. |
| 138 | ** In fact, in the original trilogy it is possible to get almost all of your squadmates from all three games killed even before the finale of the third game. Here's how it can happen: |
| 139 | *** In the first game, choose to kill [[spoiler:Wrex]]. Or if you leave him alive, in the third game you can [[spoiler:sabotage the genophage cure]], which forces you to kill him later on. |
| 140 | *** In the second game, don't do any of the loyalty missions for your squadmates, don't update the Normandy's defenses and guns, and assign them to the wrong roles during the final mission; this will result in most of them dying. You can also give [[spoiler:Legion]] to Cerberus, which will lead to you [[spoiler:facing it as an enemy and killing it]] in the third game. |
| 141 | *** If any of the squadmates survive the second game, when you meet them in the third one, [[spoiler:Zaeed, Kasumi, Grunt, and Miranda]] will die if you didn't secure their loyalty in the previous game. [[spoiler:Mordin, Samara, Jack, Ashley/Kaidan, and Tali]] won't automatically die, but all of them can get killed through player choices. And if in the second game you chose [[spoiler:Morinth]] instead of [[spoiler:Samara]], you will [[spoiler:face her as an enemy during the final mission and kill her]]. |
| 142 | *** With all of the above bad choices, at the beginning the final mission of the third game you have only four squadmates left: [[spoiler:Liara, EDI, Javik, and James]]. If your War Asset rating is not high enough, [[spoiler:whichever two you choose to accompany you on the mission]] will die before the final confrontation. So at that point, only two of your 18 potential squadmates are still alive. And if you [[spoiler:convince Javik to use the memory shard (causing him to decide to kill himself after the final battle), pick the Destroy ending (destroying EDI), and have Liara and James accompany you to the final battle]], you can end the trilogy with a 100% casualty rate. |
| 143 | *** Since your choices can also lead to [[spoiler: Dr. Chakwas]] dying in the second game, and [[spoiler: Cortez]] dying in the third, the only main characters who are guaranteed to survive all the way to the finale are [[spoiler:Joker, Traynor and Shepard]]. In the finale, if you have a low enough War Asset rating, [[spoiler:Joker, Traynor, and the rest of the Normandy crew, as well as Shepard her/himself, will also die.]] |
| 144 | * ApeShallNeverKillApe: |
| 145 | ** ''Thoroughly'' averted. With a few odd exceptions, no race is fully united, and so will usually have no greater issues killing their own kind than another species, provided there are similar reasons to. |
| 146 | ** Indoctrinated people in particular will often work to undermine their own race specifically, such as the hanar in the third game trying to disable their home planet's defense network. |
| 147 | * ApocalypseCult: The geth heretics worship the Reapers and actively aid them in their latest purge of the galaxy's spacefaring races. |
| 148 | * ApocalypseHow: |
| 149 | ** The Reapers inflict a Class 3 Severity (Species Extinction), namely the annihilation of any race capable of starfaring on a Galactic scale. [[spoiler:At the end of ''Mass Effect 3'', this either happens again to this cycle that humanity is part of, or the sentient starfaring races in this cycle mostly suffer varying levels of Class 1 Societal Disruption (depending on how built-up the response forces are by endgame), though some (like the batarians) get it pretty bad regardless]]. |
| 150 | ** In addition, [[spoiler:destroying a Mass Relay will result in a Stellar Class 5 (Physical Annihilation) for the star system it's located in]]. |
| 151 | ** If your actions in the previous games preclude a peaceful resolution to the geth/quarian conflict[[note]]To achieve it, Legion and Tali must both be alive and loyal, and Tali must be an admiral and not an exile[[/note]] then you will be forced to choose one of these races over the other. Your chosen race will inflict species extinction upon the other. |
| 152 | * ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: Shepard and Ryder's squad almost always is a three-man team, and there is never an explanation why. On missions where the Mako or the Hammerhead is involved, you can handwave it due to how many guys in hardsuits you can fit in there. However, the Suicide Mission of ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' justifies it as everyone else is providing distractions or performing specialized tasks, while the Citadel DLC averts it in that everyone else is involved, although you still have your personal three-man fire team taking point. |
| 153 | * ArbitraryWeaponRange: Discussed. There's even an entire conversation in the second game that consists of a sergeant [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLpgxry542M chewing out two fire-control officers for shooting without solid firing solutions]]. |
| 154 | -->'''Gunnery Chief:''' Serviceman Burnside, what is Newton's First Law?\ |
| 155 | '''Serviceman Burnside''': Sir! An object in motion will remain in motion, sir!\ |
| 156 | '''Gunnery Chief:''' No credit for partial answers, maggot!\ |
| 157 | '''Serviceman Burnside''': Sir! Unless acted upon by an outside force, sir!\ |
| 158 | '''Gunnery Chief:''' Damn straight! I dare to assume you ignorant jackasses know that space is empty. Once you fire this hunk of metal, it keeps going til it hits something! That can be a ship. Or the planet behind that ship. It might go off into deep space and hit somebody else in ten thousand years. If you pull the trigger on this, you are ruining someone's day, somewhere and sometime. THAT is why you check your targets! THAT is why you wait for the computer to give you a damn firing solution! THAT is why, Serviceman Chung, we ''do not "eyeball it"!'' This is a weapon of mass destruction! You are NOT a cowboy shooting from the hip! |
| 159 | ** [[MemeticMutation And that's why Sir Isaac Newton is the]] ''[[MemeticMutation DEADLIEST SON-OF-A-BITCH IN SPACE!]]'' |
| 160 | * ArcWords: |
| 161 | ** The words "Embrace eternity" appear quite a few times, most notably when Liara is joining minds with you. The phrase reappears in the second game as part of Samara's combat dialogue, though the overall significance isn't clear; it never turns up again in the third game. |
| 162 | ** "Hold the line" also makes frequent appearances, both in ''1'' and ''2''. Its most notable use (aside from [[EnemyChatter every single goddamn battle when you're fighting humans]]) is during the Battle of Virmire, when Captain Kirrahe gives his stirring speech. It's lampshaded by Mordin in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''. And if Kirrahe survives to the third game, he wistfully repeats the line when you meet him again on Sur'Kesh. |
| 163 | ** "Genetic destiny" has also appeared into the mix; said mainly by Harbinger, but interestingly used as well by Morinth. |
| 164 | ** "Just like old times" seems to be the arc words for [=ME2=]. Though it's mostly Garrus's {{catchphrase}}. |
| 165 | ** "You can't save them all" and variations such as "Victory at any cost" are the arc words for the third game. |
| 166 | ** ArcNumber: 50,000, and multiples of 50,000, appear throughout the games, particularly when investigating planets. [[ViciousCycle This is important.]] |
| 167 | * ArmorIsUseless: Played straight in [[CutscenePowerToTheMax cutscenes]], where, except for squad members, ''everyone'' dies with 1-3 shots. Averted almost everywhere else. Played with in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', where the characters who do wear heavy armor (Garrus, Zaeed, Grunt) tend to be tougher than those who don't wear armor (or, in Jack's case, much of anything). Some of the lighter outfits appear to be made of a bullet-resistant fabric (Miranda, Jacob, and Thane) while others wear armor-like material (Mordin, Samara, Tali). Many enemies do use heavy armor, which is very much ''not'' useless, requiring the player to whittle down their armor before biotics and other powers become effective. |
| 168 | ** Also averted in the final cutscenes of Overlord when Gavin Archer tries to shoot Shepard with a heavy pistol. All he manages to achieve is slightly depleting Shepard's kinetic barrier and pissing off an already pissed-off Shepard even more. |
| 169 | * ArrogantKungFuGuy: According to the codex, most asari Justicars, thanks to a mix of age, experience, knowledge, and good ol' [[CantArgueWithElves asari attitude]]. Mercifully, the one Justicar seen in the game is astoundingly reasonable. |
| 170 | * ArtifactOfDoom: |
| 171 | ** [[spoiler:The Citadel. An enormous space station at the centre of the Relay network and the headquarters of the Council. Turns out it's the Relay to dark space -- whenever the Reapers invade, they also take out the galactic leadership and gain access to their records, making their conquest all the easier. Then in the third game, it's revealed to be the home of the Catalyst, the intelligence controlling the Reapers]]. |
| 172 | ** In the second game, there's also a derelict Reaper. [[spoiler: It's not quite as dead as it appears]]. |
| 173 | ** And there's also the Omega-4 Relay. How do you know it's an Artifact of Doom? Its mass effect core glows [[RedEyesTakeWarning red]]. |
| 174 | ** In the DLC "Arrival," there's the Bahak Relay. [[spoiler:Also known as the Alpha Relay. It's the oldest mass relay ever discovered, and while it appears perfectly normal for the most part, it has a secondary control function that will connect it to ''every other mass relay in the entire galaxy'', including the Citadel itself. The Reapers are headed straight for it during [=ME2=], naturally]]. |
| 175 | ** And the third game reveals that [[spoiler: The Leviathan of Dis]] was also such an artifact. [[spoiler:[[AssholeVictim Poor batarians.]]]] |
| 176 | ** Honestly, pretty much any Reaper artefact or piece of a destroyed Reaper has the potential to be this; many if not most Reaper artefacts seem to be capable of inflicting indoctrination on anybody who spends too much time around them. |
| 177 | * ArtificialGravity: Generated by mass-increasing [[AppliedPhlebotinum mass effect fields]]. |
| 178 | * ArtificialStupidity: In the first game, squadmates had the annoying habit of running into your field of fire and wasting their powers; enemy AI, by contrast, was fairly decent. Both were improved in [=ME2=], though there are moments when you want to reach into your screen and slap them silly. It was further improved in the third game. At least friendly fire doesn't actually do damage. |
| 179 | * ArtisticLicenseBiology: |
| 180 | ** Turns out the amino acid differences aren't dangerous to the other ones. If anything they'd [[http://darthempress.tumblr.com/post/21009439428/dextro-wont-kill-you-honey-still-proceed-with taste like mint or some kind of sugar]]. |
| 181 | ** Mordin notes twice in the second game that humans make either better or worse test subjects, ironically in both cases because they have greater genetic diversity than other species. The first is during his recruitment mission because, where the Collector plague only hitting nonhumans is due to their lesser diversity, yielding more reliable results. The second is during his loyalty mission, where it makes sense to test using humans because greater diversity yields more diverse results. What's actually wrong, though, is that humans should have far, far ''less'' genetic diversity. Simply put, genetic diversity increases when a population is isolated, and, except for the military, ''nothing isolates like the vast emptiness of space''. Humans have had colonies for twenty years. The Council races have had colonies for ''thousands'' of years. They should have diversity coming out their asses (and cloacas). |
| 182 | * ArtisticLicenseMedicine: In Mass Effect 2, Tali explains that, while Quarian immune systems are weak, they don't get ''sick'' per se, but instead experience acute allergic reactions to foreign bodies. This comes up in her romance route, where she says that she's been taking immunoboosters to prepare herself. However, an allergic reaction is the product of a heightened immune response; if anything, taking immunoboosters would make the reaction ''worse.'' The ideal solution would be for her to take a temporary immunosuppressant, especially if she can't really get sick from alien pathogens. |
| 183 | * ArtisticLicenseMilitary: Don't ask anybody who's been in the military about the Alliance Military. Just don't. A couple of examples. |
| 184 | ** Ashley is a Marine, yet in Mass Effect 2 she calls herself an Alliance Soldier, no Marine would call themselves a soldier, as soldiers are of a different branch entirely. |
| 185 | ** The bars for Alliance officers are inconsistent. 2 Mass Effect 1 Rear Admirals have completely different rank insignias. |
| 186 | ** The alliance rank structure makes no sense. It has commanders and majors in the same structure and commanders below majors. In real life commander is a naval rank, whereas major is in the army, air force or marines. The equivalent to a major would be lieutenant-commander and a commander would outrank him. Furthermore while the ranks of rear admiral and admiral are present, there is no vice admiral presence. |
| 187 | ** The salute alternates between right-handed and left-handed. In real life a salute is always done with the right. |
| 188 | ** Shepard romancing a direct subordinate would be ''extremely'' inappropriate in a real military. For Kaidan, a junior officer, the result would probably be one of them being transferred to a different command to avoid conflict of interest. For Ashley, an enlisted member in the first game, it would be a straight-up court martial for fraternization. |
| 189 | * ArtisticLicensePaleontology: in ''2'', The Illusive Man claims that a 37 million year-old [[spoiler: (supposedly) dead Reaper]] is the "last remnant of a battle that took place when mammals were still taking their first steps upon the Earth". Sorry TIM, but mammals first evolved in the Late Triassic, about 225 million years ago. |
| 190 | * ArtisticLicenseReligion: The franchise has a minor case of this. The games and supplementary materials heavily imply that humanity's discovery of aliens caused widespread dissent and confusion among the religions of humanity, in which some coped better than others. However, many real-life theologians and religious leaders have pondered this question since before the 20th century. Most interviewed in modern times ([[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/pope-francis-says-he-would-baptise-aliens-9360632.html including Pope Francis]]) have stated that [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exotheology the existence of extraterrestrials would not contradict or threaten their faiths and that aliens would be welcome]]. |
| 191 | * ArtisticLicensePhysics: Most of the advanced technology found in the series is based on the OneBigLie of element zero and mass effect fields. The existence of quantum entanglement for faster-than-light communication, however, is not. While it's true that two entangled particles will always be in the same state, ''setting'' the state of such a particle will break the entanglement. This means that [=QECs=] as they exist in the ''Mass Effect''-verse are impossible in RealLife. |
| 192 | ** It's worth noting that element zero violates several physical laws, and not just the ones it's supposed to. According to the codex, element zero will create a positive mass field if a positive current is run through it, and a negative mass field if a negative current is run through it. This is all well and good, except that currents don't HAVE polarities. Charges have polarities, but currents do not. Additionally it builds up a charge (for... reasons? It really shouldn't if it's just being used in a circuit...) that must be discharged into a convenient ground, rather than simply being reunited with the opposite charge that conservation of charge demands the existence of (a process which could easily be harvested to recapture the energy) implying that it also violates conservation of charge. |
| 193 | * ArtisticLicenseSpace: Several star clusters, nebulae, moving groups, and other mass relay destinations simply cannot be in the parts of the galaxy that they are shown in on the Galaxy Map at the CIC. For example, according to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebulae_in_fiction#Omega_Nebula Wikipedia]], the Omega Nebula is 5,000 years from Sol, but it's placed on the opposite side of the galaxy. |
| 194 | * AscendedExtra: The krogan Clan Nakmor. In the original trilogy, they're a minor tribe who Shepard deals with briefly in 2, and only if Wrex lives, and get a brief mention in a footnote in 3. In ''Andromeda'', they're the biggest presence of the krogan around. |
| 195 | * AsceticAesthetic: The Citadel, Illium and the ''Normandy''. [[spoiler:Both of them.]] |
| 196 | * AspectRatioSwitch: The original trilogy uses this effect extensively, switching between the native screen aspect ratio during regular gameplay and the cinematic 16:9 during cutscenes and some dialogues. |
| 197 | * AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: Everyone of the Citadel Council is expected to make a certain minimum contribution to galactic security, which results in possession of a strong military being one of the primary qualifiers for membership. Two of the Council races, turians and humans, both got their seats because of feats of military prowess, and the other two have some of the most powerful individual soldiers and the best intelligence gathering capabilities in Citadel space. |
| 198 | * AsteroidThicket: |
| 199 | ** Mostly averted, but played straight in two noticeable cases. The Citadel is surrounded by a thick cloud of dust which makes approaching it by any other means than by Relay tantamount to suicide. Because the cloud never dissipates, it is assumed that it is generated by the keepers rendering waste products down to the molecular level and ejecting it into space. Omega is surrounded by an asteroid field, but this is partially explained in that it was once an asteroid split apart by an impact millennia ago. Why it's still there is a complete mystery. |
| 200 | ** Played straight a third time, with [[spoiler:the accretion disc at the center of the galaxy, which protects the Collector base. It also consists of a DerelictGraveyard of space ships that didn't have a Reaper IFF and were destroyed by the Collectors or collisions in the AsteroidThicket]]. |
| 201 | ** Justified and deconstructed in ''Andromeda''. Even accounting for space compression, the asteroid belts found throughout the Heleus Cluster are much thicker than they should be... because they are heavily implied to be the debris from terrestrial planets that were destroyed by the Scourge. |
| 202 | * AsYouKnow: Averted some times, played straight in others. The [[EncyclopediaExposita Codex]] is used to spell out background info that should be obvious in that world without having to explain it to the characters themselves. Other times, when stumbling across a subject new to the player, Shepard will phrase their statement in such a way that more information is revealed, but also shows that they do have knowledge on the subject. Other times, they do seem a bit clueless. This is something that improved over the course of the series. |
| 203 | * AttackDrone: |
| 204 | ** Used constantly in the second and third game, by pretty much every faction (except for Reaper ground forces). In the second game, Tali even has a name for her own drone. |
| 205 | ** The Remnant of ''Andromeda'' are nothing but attack drones. Some of them are just [[EliteMooks bigger]] than others. Eventually, Peebee gets Ryder one of their own. |
| 206 | * AwakeningTheSleepingGiant: |
| 207 | ** The other galactic species fear that something might do this to humanity, as despite having only a small fraction of their population in the military, and never fighting other species before, humanity held its own against the turians, considered the most powerful military force in the galaxy. |
| 208 | ** In the third game's Leviathan DLC, [[spoiler:Shepard deliberately does this, confronting the Leviathans, the race that created the Reapers. They refuse to be intimidated by them, and convince them to join the war against the Reapers, saying that they can no longer stand by like they have done for ''billions'' of years, now that the Reapers know of them]]. |
| 209 | * AwfulTruth: |
| 210 | ** The true nature of [[spoiler:the Reapers]]. |
| 211 | ** Also the nature of the [[AndIMustScream Overlord project]]. |
| 212 | ** And [[spoiler:Sanctuary]] in the third game. |
| 213 | ** [[spoiler:How the kett get new troops]] in ''Andromeda''. And [[spoiler:the origin of the angara]]. |
| 214 | * [[AWorldHalfFull A Galaxy Half Full]]: No matter how bad things get, the crew of the ''Normandy'' can pull through and save the day, making a difference no matter what the odds. Has the option of being subverted in the second game, but if you're playing right it's still absolutely straight. |
| 215 | ** Then shot to pieces in the third game. You can still make a difference, but no matter how you slice it, the death toll across the galaxy will be [[StealthPun astronomical]]. |
| 216 | ** And then the Extended Cut DLC takes those shot-apart pieces and puts them back together. Yes, a lot of damage has been done, but the races of the galaxy will recover and things will be better. Unless you happen to be [[spoiler:elcor or batarian]], in which case your species will be all but wiped out no matter what. Depending on the playthrough, [[spoiler:hanar, drell, quarians and geth]] can face the same fate. |
| 217 | [[/folder]] |
| 218 | |
| 219 | [[folder:B]] |
| 220 | * BabyFactory: The krogan can reproduce at an astonishing rate, which is why the [[SterilityPlague genophage]] was inflicted on them during the Rebellion. If alive, Wrex will boast if Shepard cured the genophage that Shep would be surprised at how fast krogan females can churn them out. If Eve is alive, she'll briefly chastise Wrex then reassure Shep that she'll make sure they don't repeat the mistakes of the past. |
| 221 | * BackStory: The player must [[MultipleChoicePast pick two]] for Shepard, one detailing childhood and adolescence, and a second detailing a noteworthy event in their military service history. The childhood back story determines availability of a specific quest and makes the quests for the other two childhood back stories unavailable, while the service back story alters dialogue in quests otherwise available for all back stories. Various other dialog sequences are determined by these two back story elements as well. Gamplay-wise, the backstories offer different bonuses when it comes to accumulating Paragon or Renegade points. A player with the Spacer and War Hero background will begin with a head start in Paragon points, but will start with fewer Renegade points. |
| 222 | * BadassArmy: Everyone. Absolutely every race in existence. Except the hanar. And the volus. |
| 223 | ** The hanar and the volus have the drell and the turians to fight for them, respectively, since they're simply not physically built for combat. The hanar migrated a number of drell from their dying homeworld, and those who are willing serve the hanar as assassins. The volus are a client race of the turians, and according to the Codex the turians will aid the volus if they become involved in a military conflict. |
| 224 | ** Thane makes it clear that the ''aquatic'' hanar are extremely adept hunters on their own world. They are fast and have exceptionally strong tentacles, which possess either a poison or some [[ElectricJellyfish kind of shock]]. All-round badass Zaeed mentions how a hanar included in a hitsquad nearly took him down. |
| 225 | ** And with the Retaliation DLC for multiplayer, the volus are no longer excluded from this, either. Sure, they're half the size of any other race, they can't use cover like a human-shaped species, and their weapon bonuses are the lowest in the game, but a few volus still join the fight, and contribute the only way a volus can. "Cutting edge gadgetry," and "the most technologically advanced power armor credits can buy." Not only is it completely in character, but the volus have never been so badass. |
| 226 | *** ''Mass Effect 3'' reveals that though the volus' own navy is small (possessing only one dreadnought class ship) that navy is ''extremely'' well equipped, being built with and constantly upgraded with the most cutting edge technology volus money can buy. They might not have the numbers of some of the other militaries in the ME universe, but what little they ''do'' have they do have they spend a disproportionately high amount of resources on making sure it is the best they can get. |
| 227 | *** Indirectly referenced in the ''Citadel'' DLC too. Turns out that the volus Barla Von is doing extremely well in the combat simulator because he can afford the best gear and weapons available. |
| 228 | ** Even among the numerous badass armies, the turian military is almost unanimously considered to reign supreme. When the Reapers finally hit, they are the only major race to have their homeworld targeted that does not get immediately steamrolled, putting up a losing, but hard fight that bogs down Reaper forces for almost the entirety of the war. |
| 229 | * BadassCrew: |
| 230 | ** The specialists definitely count. In each case Shepard is the crystallizing factor for the team, but by the end of the games the feeling of a BandOfBrothers is almost palpable. Especially in the Citadel DLC mission. |
| 231 | ** Ryder's team (eventually) becomes one. |
| 232 | * BadassFamily: |
| 233 | ** Ashley is the eldest of four sisters, each of whom is an ActionGirl. She is trying to get the Williams family name back to being associated with said status. Liara also counts given what we know about her parents (probably, including grandparents who were a krogan who killed a rachni queen in the Rachni Wars and an asari commando during the Krogan Rebellions). Tali's father gets hinted at being a FourStarBadass, especially by Han'Gerrel. |
| 234 | ** Shepard with the Spacer background had both parents serve in the Alliance military. While we don't know anything about Shepard's father, Captain Hannah Shepard commands an Alliance ''Dreadnought'' and turned down an Admiral promotion in order to remain doing so, strongly implying that she is a FourStarBadass. Then she is promoted to Admiral in the third game, though she commands logistics rather than frontline combat. |
| 235 | ** The Ryders. Old Man Ryder was an N7, and one of the first humans to go through a mass relay. His son served in the Alliance military and his daughter was an armed bodyguard for scientists researching Protheans, both of whom become a OneManArmy capable of summoning a small army to back them up. |
| 236 | * BadGuyBar: Chora's Den in the first game, and Afterlife in the second. Kralla's Song in ''Andromeda''. |
| 237 | * BashBrothers: The Commander and Garrus, if they aren't a BattleCouple. "There's no Shepard without Vakarian." |
| 238 | * BatmanGambit: [[spoiler:The Reapers are particularly devious in how they accomplish their galaxy-wide extinction event. They leave technology lying around where they know sentient races will find it and they leave an apparently impregnable space station in a location suited for it to become the center of sentient galactic civilization. They leave a group of enslaved sentients to maintain the station so the races using it won't need to explore it to find out how the station works. Then the slaves open a backdoor to the station so the Reapers can cripple galactic civilization as we know it and systematically hunt down all space-faring life in the galaxy using the census data on the station. Bonus points for making sure the technology they have access to is so woefully underpowered (compared to the Reapers themselves) that it allows the Reapers to roll over the entire galaxy in short order. This has worked well the last twenty thousand or more times so hey, [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong what could go wrong]]?]] |
| 239 | ** [[spoiler: Even when it does go wrong, [[CrazyPrepared they have several more backup plans ready to use.]] Let's count them all: They leave a Vanguard Reaper behind who can manually open the Citadel relay if need be. They have a slave race in the Collectors busy finding other ways to exterminate organic races and building new Reapers hidden in the galactic core. They've built an "Alpha Relay" which they can use to access any other relay in the galaxy, giving them a quick trip to begin an invasion. They leave some Reaper technology around the galaxy which can indoctrinate organics even if the Reapers themselves aren't present.]] |
| 240 | * BattleAura: All [[MindOverMatter biotics]] glow when using their powers. Or showing people that they're about to. |
| 241 | * TheBattlestar: |
| 242 | ** The carrier-class warships that the humans introduce to the galaxy. It's a brilliant repetition of history, specifically the [[UsefulNotes/HistoryOfNavalWarfare Washington Naval Treaty]]. Citadel Races must maintain a limited ratio of battleship/dreadnought-scale warships to one-another (the turians get the most, naturally) ''but'' the carriers do not fall under said classifications. Humanity is basically looking back at what happened after World War I and reusing old ideas. |
| 243 | ** The quarians work around the rule by arming their liveships -- the largest ships in their fleet -- basically turning them into dreadnoughts... which has the unintended side effect of making them prime targets for the geth. |
| 244 | ** Reapers also prove to be this in the third game, hosting large numbers of Oculus fighter drones for space battles. |
| 245 | ** The Archon's flagship in ''Andromeda'' is somewhere between the three different types - it serves as a mobile command center, filled with scientific labs and prisons, while being armed to the teeth and able to deploy fighters at a moment's notice. |
| 246 | * BeehiveBarrier: |
| 247 | ** The geth are pretty fond of summoning them. |
| 248 | ** The Collectors in the second game have an even ''more'' "beehive" version. |
| 249 | ** Cerberus in [=ME3=] has field-deploy-able waist-high beehive barriers... orange of course. |
| 250 | ** The forcefield used to secure the Leviathan sphere in the appropriate DLC resembles a cylinder made of hexagons. |
| 251 | * BeePeople: The rachni. The Collectors in the second game count as well. |
| 252 | * BenevolentPrecursors: Yes, this game [[BenevolentPrecursors has]] [[NeglectfulPrecursors all]] [[AbusivePrecursors three!]] The Protheans[[spoiler:, specifically the scientists on Ilos, go on a one-way trip to the Citadel in order to sabotage the system which triggers the mass relay that brings the [[EldritchAbomination Reapers]] in from dark space. They knew their species was doomed and they knew this would only result in their untimely deaths by starvation, but they did it anyway, just so future species who would probably [[TheGreatestStoryNeverTold never even know they existed or of what they sacrificed]] [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture would have a chance]].]] [[Heartwarming/MassEffect These guys deserve]] [[ManlyTears a few tears.]] |
| 253 | ** Discussions with [[spoiler:the last living Prothean, Javik]], show that the moniker "benevolent" cannot as easily be applied to the species as a whole, though. They had a very [[TheSocialDarwinist Social Darwinist]] world view, believing that the strong should lead and weak species who fail to evolve deserve to perish. Their policy of pressing other races into their empire and making war on them if they refuse is reminiscent of the [[Characters/Warhammer40000TauEmpire Tau]] from ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. [[spoiler: Javik]] does admit that the homogenization of culture enforced upon client species ultimately made the Reapers' victory much easier, and the fact remains that the Protheans are the only reason that galactic civilization still stands by the time of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''. |
| 254 | ** [[spoiler:The Jardaan]] from ''Andromeda''. At least, Jaal certain thinks so. [[spoiler:At the very least, they did create the angara just to see if they could, and gave them several planets to thrive on.]] |
| 255 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: The turians, salarians, asari, and humans to name four. ''Mass Effect'' just loves this trope. |
| 256 | ** Tali's adorable, and very reasonable. She also has a shotgun (which puts Garrus off of asking her about their time in the elevators), and tells her drone to go for the optics. Or Liara -- in the first game, at least, she's shy and awkward. And can slap enemies with a Singularity. After she [[TookALevelInBadass takes a level in Badass]], she's threatening people with asari commando teams and flaying them alive in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''. And Paragon Shepard definitely qualifies. |
| 257 | ** Liara also gets pretty nasty in the third game [[TookALevelInBadass being the Shadow Broker and all]]. |
| 258 | * BigBad: |
| 259 | ** Sovereign for the first game, even though most people in-universe believe that it was [[TheDragon Saren]]. |
| 260 | ** Harbinger and the Collectors take up the role for the second game. |
| 261 | ** Harbinger reprises his role as BigBad in the third game, but this time [[BigBadDuumvirate shares the mantle with]] [[spoiler:the Illusive Man]]. While Harbinger is the greater threat, [[spoiler:the Illusive Man]] is more central to the plot and has more appearances. [[spoiler: Then it turns out that neither of them is the true BigBad - the Catalyst is.]] |
| 262 | ** The Archon in ''Andromeda''. |
| 263 | * BigBadDuumvirate: Harbinger and the Shadow Broker for the second game, but you only get to deal with the latter in a DLC. |
| 264 | ** In ''[[Literature/MassEffectRetribution Mass Effect Retribution]]'', a novel that takes place after the second game, [[spoiler:the Illusive Man forms an alliance with [[TheDon Aria T'Loak]], the 'manager' of [[WretchedHive Omega]]. That is, until [[MamaBear she finds out that his men murdered her daughter..]]]] |
| 265 | ** And then in the third game there's [[spoiler:the Reapers AND Cerberus -- which aren't necessarily two different entities, considering the latter turn out to have been indoctrinated]]. |
| 266 | * BigDamnHeroes: So very many. Commander Shepard, especially as a Paragon, can't seem to stop running into these. |
| 267 | --> '''Zaeed:''' Let's get it out of the way so we can concentrate on being big goddamn heroes! |
| 268 | ** Anderson saves VideoGame/MassEffect3 companion James Vega from a mob of batarians on Omega, in the comic ''Mass Effect: Conviction''. |
| 269 | * BigDumbObject: Virtually everything with the word '{{Pr|ecursors}}othean' attached to it. Especially the mass relays and the Citadel, [[spoiler: though they didn't really make those]]. |
| 270 | * BigEater: |
| 271 | ** According to the Codex, the typical Alliance soldier has a 3000-calorie diet, as is typical for human soldiers today. Biotics require a bit more than that; conservation of energy is in effect for biotics, so that energy has to come from somewhere. As a result, Alliance active-duty biotics are served an extra meal and are issued canteens of energy drink instead of water. Noted in the third game, where the teacher of a group of biotic students admonishes her charges to eat energy bars and drink juice after a battle with Cerberus forces. |
| 272 | ** Grunt, after barely surviving what seemed like a HeroicSacrifice, just asks if anyone has anything to eat for him. He also gets hungry when he sees carnage (or smells burning corpses). |
| 273 | * BiggerIsBetter: The ''Normandy'' SR-2 is not only significantly more awesome than its predecessor, but also twice its size. |
| 274 | -->'''Joker''': Civilian sector comfort by design! |
| 275 | * BiggerOnTheInside: |
| 276 | ** Both ''Normandys'' may appear to be bigger on the inside, but neither version really is. The ''Normandy'' appears much smaller than it actually is in comparison to the behemoths (Dreadnoughts, Reapers, Space Stations, Planets) we normally see it near. Next time you're on Illium, take a look out the window at the ''Normandy'' docked. It's bloody huge. Also, use of the flycam can confirm that it all fits within the exterior shell. |
| 277 | ** The prefab trailers featured in many sidequests of the first game definitely count as well. |
| 278 | * BigGood: The Citadel Council ''would've'' qualified, if they weren't a bunch of [[CommanderContrarian contrarians]] and [[ObstructiveBureaucrat bureaucrats]]. No, the ''real'' {{Big Good}}s are [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Captain David Anderson]] and [[SupportingLeader Admiral Steven Hackett]] for the first game, the [[VisionaryVillain Illusive Man]] (for given values of being "[[ManipulativeBastard good]]") in the second game, and the third game ends up with a BigGood trio, with Anderson, Hackett, and Shepard. |
| 279 | * BilingualBonus: |
| 280 | ** The Aralakh system which contains the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy krogan]] homeworld has a small, resource-rich planet called Durak on which, according to the info, five warlords [[GambitPileup simultaneously betrayed one another]] during a truce meeting on neutral ground, resulting in the mutual destruction of their clans. "Durak" is Russian for "idiot". |
| 281 | ** Another Russian Bilingual Bonus: the name of the system Pamyat, present in [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 second]] and [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 third]] games, is Russian for "Memory". Why? The planets in the system are named after Soviet cosmonauts who died in space: Vladimir Komarov, Grigory Dobrovolsky, Viktor Patsayev and Vladislav Volkov. |
| 282 | ** The mechs in the second game are all named after characters from Norse mythology. Loki was the god of trickery, Fenris a giant wolf, and Ymir a frost giant. Fittingly, LOKI mechs have a habit of acting up, FENRIS mechs are basically robot dogs, and YMIR mechs are walking tanks. |
| 283 | ** Much of Cerberus's organizational structure borrows names from Greek mythology. |
| 284 | ** Aya, central plan of the angara, is Akkadian for "dawn". |
| 285 | * BioAugmentation: Genetic upgrades are standard-issue for all Alliance soldiers. Notable for being one of the few examples that gets this right. If you talk to the sales rep, he'll explain how none of the mods take effect immediately; they can require anywhere from months to decades to take effect, depending on what you're modifying, but they do have some kind of chemotherapy that cuts the time in half. |
| 286 | * BioData: Protheans possess BizarreAlienSenses that allow them to read biomarkers of any living creature (and even from some inorganic objects that come into contact with the living) and store this information. This is how their Beacons work, too. |
| 287 | * BioluminescenceIsCool: |
| 288 | ** The hanar race, who ''communicate'' through it. |
| 289 | ** The Heleus Cluster is filled with funky glowing plants. Touching and / or eating them is not advised. |
| 290 | * BizarreAlienBiology: Par for the course. |
| 291 | ** Asari have ExoticEquipment that allows them reproduce with anything sentient, regardless of gender or species, and produce viable asari offspring. |
| 292 | --->'''Shepard:''' So let me get this straight: your species can mate with ''anyone?'' |
| 293 | ** "Stupid lazy humans. We salarians get by just fine with one hour of sleep a day." Of course, they also drop dead in a mere 40 years. |
| 294 | ** Turians have evolved to have a metal exoskeleton to protect against their homeworld's high solar radiation levels. |
| 295 | ** Quarians, due to a lack of insect life on their homeworld, developed immune systems which adapted to or co-opted foreign microorganisms. Spending centuries on the flotilla have ruined this adaptability, meaning they now have to spend their lives in [[LatexSpaceSuit environmental suits]], [[BubbleBoy bubbles, special clean-rooms]], etc. |
| 296 | ** The vorcha have stopped evolving millennia ago because they can spontaneously adapt to new environmental conditions through the guided release of unspecialized cells. A vorcha dropped on a high gravity planet will develop stronger muscles, one dropped on a planet with an exotic atmosphere will adapt his lungs to be able to breathe the new gases successfully... too bad they can only typically achieve these changes once in their lives. |
| 297 | ** Krogan evolved on a DeathWorld, with all the awesome superpowers that implies. One of the keys to their survival is redundant internal organs -- every one has a backup, and some of ''those'' have backups. And when one of those backups kick in, it triggers an [[UnstoppableRage intense adrenaline surge]] that permits them to [[FoeTossingCharge knock people aside like ragdolls]]. Never attack a krogan with anything less than [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill what you'd use to demolish a building]]. [[Film/BlazingSaddles You'll just make him mad]]. Krogan do not have a nervous system in the same way as other species, instead it more closely resembles a circulatory system, allowing it to recover from far greater injury. They even have ''four testicles''. |
| 298 | --->'''Garrus:''' Some krogan believe that testicle transplants can increase their virility. Counteract the effects of the genophage. It doesn't work, but that doesn't stop them from buying. They'll pay up to 10,000 credits each. That's 40,000 for a full set. Somebody's making a killing out there. |
| 299 | *** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', they use the term "quad", i.e. "You've got a quad, Shepard." Wrex even makes a joke about Grunt "having a quint" if Grunt defeats the thresher maw. |
| 300 | ---->'''Wrex:''' You can't help making trouble. Nobody has killed a maw since my turn in the Rite. Next you'll tell me he's a quint and [[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} craps dark matter]]. |
| 301 | *** Thane's preferred assassination method for non-krogan species: neck-snap. His preferred alternative assassination method for krogans: Bomb. |
| 302 | *** For ''extra'' fun, the krogan evolved on a planet so lethal that they ended up with wide-set eyes optimized for a wide field of view instead of binocular vision, more typical of prey species then predators. |
| 303 | *** Finally, krogan have high natural regeneration. In-game, this means different things depending on the game. In the first game, they come back to life the first time you kill them (which can make facing them early on a real challenge. Later, it means they actually recover their health (unless you KillItWithFire, or use warp) slowly, but stay dead once you kill them. |
| 304 | ** In a way, this is also pseudo-inverted upon humanity as well. Professor Mordin explains that one of the reasons human test subjects are always chosen for abduction is that they have the most diverse gene pool of any race in the galaxy. If you think of this as a {{Lampshade Hanging}} of AlienAbduction in other sci-fi stories, it only becomes that much funnier. [[FridgeBrilliance Then you realize]] that [[spoiler: Collectors are abducting humans]], for exactly this reason. Apparently [[spoiler: Reapers need a species]] that is extremely diverse to create one of their own. |
| 305 | ** The volus. Their homeworld's life formed in ammonia rather than water which makes an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere like Earth's toxic to them. For extra fun, their homeworld also has much higher atmospheric pressure than others, so they need to wear pressurized environmental suits to keep from exploding. |
| 306 | ** In addition to the below BizarreAlienSenses, Protheans also possess 4 eyes, each with two pupils (that's 8 in total). [[spoiler:Javik notes that this was apparently very common during their cycle, and wonders how the current species sees with only 2. This either implies he has much better eyesight, or each of those eyes are hilariously weak compared to ours.]] |
| 307 | *** [[spoiler:Javik does mention to Shepard that the Protheans evolved as hunters and that Garrus would be a better marksman if he had 4 eyes, so its likely all four of his eyes are as strong as ours.]]. |
| 308 | ** The hanar are almost literal StarfishAliens (except they look like jellyfish) and communicate by bio-luminescence They also have no bone structure to speak of so they can only exist outside of their own planet with a mini-gravity generator. |
| 309 | ** The angara are fuelled by sunlight, and give off bio-electricity. They also possess either genetic memory or possibly even full-blown reincarnation. |
| 310 | * BizarreAlienSenses: The [[{{Precursors}} Protheans]] universe had the ability to read the memories of other living beings and even inanimate objects by perceiving "experience markers". This is revealed by [[spoiler:the Prothean squadmate Javik]] in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''. |
| 311 | * BizarreBabyBoom: [[MindOverMatter Biotics]] are made by in utero exposure to dust-form [[{{Unobtanium}} Element Zero]]. Since the substance is usually unnatural and is basically exotic matter, the fetus either develops miscarriage-inducing brain tumors, or manifests the ability to manipulate the Mass Effect with their minds (usually after a secondary element zero exposure and only practically with cybernetic brain regulation). Unless element zero exists naturally in a planet's ecosystem (like the asari homeworld, Thessia, where biotics are natural), the only time in utero exposure happens when exposure is accidental (or ulterior and deliberate). |
| 312 | ** [[spoiler: Fridge Brilliance/Horror occurs when one thinks about the aftermath of the Reaper War in the third game: All those ships and other mass-effect-utilizing military hardware being destroyed on and around a planet will strew huge amounts of element zero around several homeworlds ravaged by battle with the Reapers. Biotic baby booms are sure to follow in the aftermath]]. |
| 313 | * BlackBox: |
| 314 | ** Here, the Black Boxes walk around and perform routine maintenance on the largest space station in the galaxy. All leftover from {{Precursors}}. The Reapers ''intentionally'' made them Black Boxes so sentient life wouldn't try understanding how the Citadel worked; and come up with their own stuff. |
| 315 | ** In the third game, [[spoiler:The Crucible]] seems to qualify, as nobody, including those who build it seems to quite know what it does or how it works until [[spoiler: Shepard activates it and it sends out massive waves of energy that destroy the mass relays, along with (if the player so chooses) the Reapers and all other synthetic life in the galaxy]]. |
| 316 | * BlackEyesOfEvil: |
| 317 | ** Subverted by the case of the asari. Whenever they initiate a mind/gene meld, whether for information transfer, therapeutic, or simply sexual purposes, their eyes turn completely black [[RuleOfCool for no apparent reason]] while murmuring ''[[CatchPhrase embrace eternity]]''. Apart from the words, nothing sinister about it. |
| 318 | ** Played straight with Morinth in the second game as asari who are Ardat-Yaskhi literally ''burn out your entire nervous system'' during sex. Possibly a ShoutOut to Lyta Alexander of Series/BabylonFive, whose eyes become similarly blacked out when she's engaged in a particularly strenuous psychic task (including mind melding). |
| 319 | * BlameGame: [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Cerberus_Daily_News_-_February_2012#February_2012_-_Week_Five Comm buoys]] around the batarian homeworld [[ParanoiaFuel go offline]] and their economy is cut off from the colonies? Must be the Alliance. |
| 320 | * BlownAcrossTheRoom: Fun with [[MindOverMatter Throw, Shockwave]], and [[StuffBlowingUp grenades]]. For more impressive results, combine with Lift, Pull, or Singularity. Also achievable in the first game through ammo upgrades that increase weapons impact force. Or you can just wait for a krogan to charge before casting Lift, then watch him sail off into space. |
| 321 | * BlueAndOrangeMorality: How [[SapientShip Sovereign]] describes the Reapers' motivations. [[spoiler:The Reapers' motives actually ''are'' pretty comprehensible; while they perpetuate the cycles of extinction in order to reproduce via making genetic paste out of organic lifeforms, they are programmed to think that they're doing the organics a favour with this, bringing them straight back to this trope]]. The Reapers' motivations are finally laid bare in ''Mass Effect 3'': [[spoiler:they were created by an ancient AI housed within the Citadel called the Catalyst. The Catalyst was in turn created by an ancient race known only as ''Leviathans'', who programmed it to find a solution against organic-synthetic wars popping up when a civilization gets too advanced technologically. It came to the conclusion that synthetic and organic life will ALWAYS fight and slaughter one another. The Reapers were its "solution" to that problem: preserve impressive organic species by turning them into Reapers, kill off the rest so they don't cause trouble for the still developing organics. In the end, the Catalyst decides that its solution is flawed because Shepard managed to make it to the heart of the Citadel and confront it, so it extrapolates several new solutions and leaves it up to Shepard which one to take]]. |
| 322 | * BlueIsCalm: Blue is the color of the Paragon dialog choices, which involve diplomacy, cooperation, and appeals to nonviolence. This contrasts with Renegade choices, which are red. |
| 323 | * BluntMetaphorsTrauma: Many turians seem to be fascinated by human metaphors and figurative language, but they usually misquote them or manage to unintentionally make them sound suggestive. Liara also hilariously butchered a few attempts at figurative speech in the first game, as did Tali in the second. Jaal in ''Andromeda'' has a few problems with "idiom" from time to time. |
| 324 | * BodyguardBabes: Any security force involving asari. Like Benezia. Especially Benezia. |
| 325 | * BoldExplorer: |
| 326 | ** The series is rife with these, though they seem to end badly a lot. The First Contact War came out of a group of human explorers running afoul of a turian patrol [[PoorCommunicationKills that didn't bother to explain]] why opening mass relays willy-nilly was a bad idea. In the games proper, two separate sidequests in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' involve the discovery of a wrecked exploration vessel. |
| 327 | ** Pretty much the whole point of ''Andromeda''. |
| 328 | * BoldInflation: How you can tell when a dialogue choice is '''[[color: blue: Paragon/Charm]]''' or '''[[color: red: Renegade/Intimidate]]'''. |
| 329 | * BoldlyComing: |
| 330 | ** Thanks to their BizarreAlienBiology, this is a specialty of the asari. |
| 331 | ** Shepard gets chances to do this with various species. Given that Mordin is able to provide specific advice, including manuals of mutually comfortable positions, for [[spoiler:human/(turian/quarian/drell)]] pairings, there appears to be rather a ''lot'' of this about. |
| 332 | ** On Omega you can buy a xenophilia magazine called "Fornax". When bought, you can view a detailed description in the codex, so yeah... |
| 333 | ** Both Ryders can romance asari, turian and angaran. |
| 334 | * BookEnds: |
| 335 | ** The Refusal Ending for Mass Effect 3 is a book-end to the inciting incident with the Prothean Beacon in Mass Effect 1. To wit: in ME 1, Shepard finds a warning by an extinct civilization which had fought and been wiped out by the Reapers. It sets off the first effort to stop the Reapers in this cycle. In the Refusal ending, after Shepard [[spoiler: has refused to cooperate with the Catalyst in any way]], pretty much the same thing happens - all advanced civilizations are wiped out but a few warnings were sent out. However, the creator of the new warning ([[spoiler: Liara]]) has learned from the mistakes of this go-around. Cut to [[spoiler: an unknown race]] thousands of years in the future defeating the Reapers because the warnings left for them were easy to understand and contained vast amounts of scientific and technical data. |
| 336 | ** One of the very first things Joker says to Shepard in Mass Effect is not to ask him to dance. Then, in Mass Effect 3 Citadel DLC, one of the last thing Shepard may ask Joker to do is to dance. |
| 337 | ** If one plays the trilogy straight, the first and the last music track that the player will hear is "Vigil". |
| 338 | * BottomlessMagazines: |
| 339 | ** All guns in the first game are restricted only in that continuous fire will cause them to overheat and you have to wait a bit for it to cool down. The game justifies it by saying the ammunition system used by them, while not lasting forever, makes ammo a more-or-less non-issue in a single battle and non-existent in a gameplay-sense. The game later uses this by having an optional conversation with Wrex on the ''Normandy'' where the ProudWarriorRaceGuy fondly recounts an extended duel with another bounty hunter in a WretchedHive, during which he actually ran out of ammunition and had to make use of cheap weapons procured from lowlifes who died in the crossfire. After ''days'' of on and off combat. |
| 340 | ** Weapons in the second game use "thermal clips", which are essentially disposable heat sinks that keep weapons from critically overheating. In gameplay terms, they function in ''exactly'' the same fashion as an actual ammo clip would. Which is acceptable for gameplay, but doesn't make much sense with the explanation provided. Once the player runs out of extra thermal clips, they should at least be able to wait for the last clip in their weapon to cool before they resume firing. Instead, they have to wait until they pick up new clips. As if they ''are'' relying on ammo, [[VoodooShark which defeats the point of using this advanced weapons technology in the first place...]] |
| 341 | *** The [[AllThereInTheManual Codex]] says, once, that the geth started using thermal clip technology and no longer had to wait for their weapons to cool down, so the rest of the galaxy had to [[ArmsRace scramble]] to start using it too. Which makes no sense whatsoever given that in the first game, attachments existed to allow for shorter cooldown periods that were ultimately faster than reloading, albeit only late game. FanWank explanations posit that, due to widespread usage of the Sabotage talent, the thermal clips were introduced to enable a soldier to simply remove an overheated (which is what Sabotage does) thermal clip and instantly replace it, rather than wait a relative eternity for an old style weapon to cool down. |
| 342 | ** The explanation from supplemental material[[labelnote:*]]it's never actually mentioned inside either of the later games[[/labelnote]] for not being able to wait for the clips to cool down is that they use an endothermic reaction in lithium to store the heat. This allows the clip to store much more heat, but once they are used they simply cannot be used again, as the lithium has already reacted. Critics argued that this meant you should be able to fire the weapon WITHOUT inserting a clip, as you should be able to wait for the weapon to cool down like you did in the first game. This was originally implemented and can be seen in early previews, but playtesters came back with negative reactions to it, so it was DummiedOut. |
| 343 | *** Shepard explains in a conversation in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' that the self-cooling systems in the older weaponry had to be removed to make room for the thermal clip system. In a moment of SelfDeprecation on Bioware's part, the character Shepard is explaining this to ''immediately'' [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] that this is a pretty stupid idea as it offers no particular advantage compared to older detachable magazine system style firearms. It also begs the question of why the cooling components weren't just made into an external unit. |
| 344 | *** There is actually a ''lot'' of FridgeLogic surrounding the heat system over the series, both the question of why thermal clips aren't reusable, and why anyone thought that waiting for weapons to cool off was a good idea in the first place. The idea of swapping out overheating parts of weapons is old knowledge, so why anyone decided to forget about that instead of building weapons with reusable fast swapping heat sinks from the start is something of a mystery. Modern weapons already use bullet casing as heat sinks, so it isn't a new or complicated idea. |
| 345 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' brings back the old system for a couple of weapons, mostly salvaged Collector arsenal. Different in that an overheated weapon must be "reloaded" before it can fire again. |
| 346 | * BottomlessPits: That you cannot fall into. Or the enemy, under their own power. But, when combined with any ability that induces [[RagdollPhysics ragdoll state]], you can send them screaming to their [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom doom]]. ''Andromeda'' does let you fall into them, but you mercifully just get teleported back up, with your shields drained. |
| 347 | * BrainsVersusBrawn: The krogan are a ProudWarriorRace that prioritizes brute strength, combat prowess, and killing above all else. Might equals right and the weak shall not live long. Thus even the idea of krogan scientists is [[KlingonScientistsGetNoRespect enough to make a joke of]]. You ironically come across one in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' who is working on a cure for the "genophage" that plagues all krogan, but he's pretty much the only one across multiple games. While the krogan have made many enemies and dislike most of the Council Races, the salarians have a special place of hate for them as the creators of the genophage. Naturally, salarians are depicted as the most intelligent and scientific minded of all races in the franchise and are also considered the physically weakest. They compensate as a race by specializing in espionage and covert operations. While individual salarians have differing opinions on the krogan, their leader Dalatrass Linron [[spoiler:would rather risk the entire galaxy being wiped out by the Reapers rather than cure the genophage in order to win over the krogan as allies against them.]] |
| 348 | * BrainwashedAndCrazy: |
| 349 | ** [[spoiler:An entire colony]] from the first game. |
| 350 | ** Anyone exposed to Reaper indoctrination. |
| 351 | ** In the second game, [[spoiler:Jacob's loyalty mission; his father's entire crew was force-fed plant matter that decayed their minds to the point where they were easily controlled and easily become berserk]]. |
| 352 | ** In VideoGame/MassEffect3, [[spoiler:Cerberus gets indoctrinated... well, not exactly as simple as that. The Illusive Man has been indoctrinated all along, but, unaware of this, sets out to control the Reapers, usurping their power for his own purposes. To this end, he orders all Cerberus foot soldiers with Reaper technology, and engages in experiments to figure out how indoctrination works]]. |
| 353 | ** In the third game, this can be the fate of [[spoiler:Jack]] and [[spoiler:Legion]] if you messed things up along the way, and you'll have to fight them near the end. |
| 354 | *** Also [[spoiler:Morinth, if she's alive. She's been turned into a Banshee.]] |
| 355 | ** [[spoiler:Any exalted kett are chemically brainwashed into fanatical loyalty. There are hints the process isn't 100% successful all the time, though.]] |
| 356 | * BrassBalls: The krogan have four testicles, so whenever they feel the need to display recognition of a particularly badass individual, they say "he has got a quad". Commander Shepard earns it [[spoiler:after you defeat the Thresher Maw on Tuchanka]]. Yes, even if you play as Fem!Shep. |
| 357 | * TheBridge: Half played straight, half subverted. The pilot, gunners, and sensor specialists all sit in the rather cramped forward section of both of the ''Normandy''s, but the actual command center is a ways back in the body of the ship. Fairly spacious, but not to ridiculous levels. |
| 358 | ** Later, when a human admiral comes to inspect ship, he asks who designed the command center, since from a human view point it's impractical. The player can respond it's experimental turian design, who prefer to have their commanders over-looking their men. |
| 359 | ** The ''Tempest'' plays with it. The bridge is at the front, but only the pilot and science office get chairs. Ryder gets a cool bar-thingy to direct where they want the ship to go. As with the ''Normandy'', most of the command stuff is in the back of the ship. |
| 360 | * BrickJoke: Several minor sidequests or bits of fluff text in the first game turn out to be major plot points later in the series: |
| 361 | ** The bit of fluff text about the Leviathan of Dis turns out to [[ForeShadowing foreshadow]] [[spoiler:the fall of the Batarian Hegemony, due to the Leviathan in question being a Reaper. And then the brick comes back for ''Leviathan'', revealing that the Reaper was ''not'' the true Leviathan of Dis.]] |
| 362 | ** The sidequest on Luna where Shepard and Co. had to put down a [[AIIsACrapShoot Rogue VI]]. In [=ME3=], you learn that [[spoiler:the rogue VI was salvaged and repaired, creating EDI]]. |
| 363 | ** The Codex entry for the Kodiak shuttles in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' mentions that without functioning Mass Effect fields, the Kodiak has all the flight capability of a brick. [[spoiler: In ''Leviathan'', the Kodiak's Mass Effect field is disabled, dropping it like a rock to a forced landing. Twice. The same turns out to be the case for numerous ships that happen across that planet, including a Reaper Dreadnought]]. |
| 364 | ** Elcor Hamlet keeps returning. It even manages to make it all the way to another galaxy, thanks to the Andromeda Initiative. |
| 365 | * BrokenBase: Even InUniverse! |
| 366 | ** The debate over the genophage is the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' equivalent to the [[RealLife atom bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima]]: was it justified for its time? Should the krogan deserve a second chance and be cured from it? Will another krogan war ignite if they were cured? |
| 367 | ** The geth-quarian conflict is the only other one that's as heated a topic, especially in-universe. Were the quarians justified in attempting to eliminate the geth before they rebelled, or were the geth justified in defending themselves from their aggressors? Are the geth worth saving after they aligned with the Reapers, or are the quarians idiots for provoking the geth in the midst of a Reaper conflict? |
| 368 | ** The human-alien debate is one of the biggest in-universe examples. Are the Cerberus operatives justified in trying to further human interests, or are they just a bunch of xenophobic terrorists? Should humans really stand firm and alone against alien authority (who are in it for themselves a lot of the time), or should the humans swallow their pride and accept/seek help from the aliens? |
| 369 | ** Humans gaining a seat on the Citadel Council. Entire species like the volus waited for centuries before they even had an embassy, but the humans get one almost immediately following the First Contact War. Are the humans ready for such authority, or are they getting too much power too quickly? |
| 370 | * BugWar: The Rachni War. Subverted in that the bugs are very intelligent and [[spoiler:normally peace-loving; 'something' (the Reapers and the Leviathans) drove them berserk and forced them to attack Citadel space.]] You can even get the chance to [[spoiler:undo their extinction, and letting them live is supposed to be the good choice as opposed to ending the rachni forever]]. |
| 371 | * BullyingADragon: Shepard is and always has been notoriously badass in-universe and is never without at least three powerful guns, but that doesn't stop each and every punk in the galaxy smart enough to pull a trigger from trying to take the Commander on and expecting to win. |
| 372 | * ButtMonkey: The entire batarian race. They live in a hellish police state, their government's decision to cut all ties with the Citadel has ruined their economy, a disproportionate amount of Renegade actions involve killing them, in the ''Mass Effect 2'' DLC "Arrival" [[spoiler:Shepard kills 300,000 batarians to save the galaxy]] and in ''Mass Effect 3'' [[spoiler:the Batarian Hegemony is the first casualty of the Reaper invasion]]. |
| 373 | * ByTheBookCop: The entirety of [[SpacePolice C-Sec]]. At least, so Executor Pallin would have you believe. |
| 374 | [[/folder]] |
| 375 | |
| 376 | [[folder:C]] |
| 377 | * TheCallLeftAMessage: Hand-in-hand with FlingALightIntoTheFuture. [[spoiler:[[BenevolentPrecursors The Protheans]] sent out a message of warning about the Reapers hoping that somebody, ''anybody'' with Prothean heritage would pick up on it. Unfortunately, every member of their race except the senders were dead and so The Call went into voicemail. Millennia later, both Saren and Shepard answered]]. |
| 378 | * CanonIdentifier: |
| 379 | ** The original trilogy gives the PC the surname Shepard and lets the player choose their own first name. The spinoff ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' gives the player a choice between either half of a BrotherSisterTeam with the surname Ryder; [[PurelyAestheticGender the one they pick]] gains the title of Pathfinder (while the one they don't retains their canon name of Scott or Sarah). |
| 380 | ** Some non-player characters also get canon identifiers in cases where the player can choose which one of them plays a specific role in their current playthrough/canon. The most prominent of these is the "Virmire Survivor" ([[spoiler:at the end of the Virmire mission in the original game, the player must decide who of their two human squadmates, Ashley and Kaidan, is left behind to die holding off Saren's forces, while the other survives]]). |
| 381 | * [[CantArgueWithElves Can't Argue With Space Elves]]: Subverted. The asari are described as classic, better-than-you-in-every-way elves in the Codex, but are shown to be capable of as many vices as any other species. You can also literally do this with the asari member of the Council in the first two games. Even Matriarch Aethyta can't argue with her fellow asari regarding shifting their priorities. |
| 382 | * CantHaveSexEver: |
| 383 | ** Quarians can have sex, but they must do it in a sterile environment due to their weak immune system. This makes it hard for them to reproduce, and can cause Quarian mothers to die giving birth due to the stress it places on them health wise. Many Quarians instead sync their suits together to share senses, which is basically the most intimate thing they can do with their Quarian partner. |
| 384 | ** Even more so, the Ardat-Yakshi, asari afflicted with a very rare genetic defect that kills their partners during the act. As the Ardat-Yakshi gains a boost of [[MindOverMatter biotic]] strength and feels a narcotic effect afterwards, the process is ''[[TheVamp extremely]]'' addictive to them. Known Ardat-Yakshi are given a choice between a life of abstinence and seclusion, or death. Though the codex mentions in the third game that there is a spectrum of the disease; the rarest and most dangerous are the sex vampires, but there are other mostly normal versions who pretty much just carry the gene. |
| 385 | * CapitalLettersAreMagic: The Protheans, the Collectors, and (of course) the Reapers receive this treatment. It is all the more notable since Mass Effect is rather strict about who it hands out capitals to, treating most race names as common nouns in the same way "human" is. |
| 386 | * CassandraTruth: ''All the freakin' time.'' Not just Shepard, either. |
| 387 | * CastFromCalories: It never shows up mechanically, but the Codex states that using biotics is as strenuous as several miles of hard running, and that biotics get special, more energy-dense field rations to compensate (a standard Alliance ration contains 3000 calories, a biotic's ration contains 5500 calories ''and'' an emergency energy drink ration). |
| 388 | * CasualInterstellarTravel: Somewhat justified; the mass relays make it simple to zip around the galaxy in a matter of hours or days as opposed to centuries, making it economically viable to spread everywhere and not bother to research other methods of transport [[spoiler:[[ArtifactOfDoom ...which is the entire point]]]]. |
| 389 | * CentralTheme: [[AbusiveParents Abusive Creators]]. Personal, biological, ideological... just about every problem in the ''Mass Effect'' universe originates from someone with more knowledge than wisdom creating someone to solve their problems for them, then demonizing them when things get complicated. Shepard has to pull off miracle after miracle over and over to prevent creator and created from exterminating each other. [[spoiler:The Catalyst created the Reapers to protect organic and synthetic civilizations from each other, by reshaping them into Reapers voluntarily if possible or forcibly if necessary -- the Terminus colonists were forcibly broken down and made into a new Reaper, but the heretic geth were offered a Reaper construct to contain all of their runtimes]]. |
| 390 | ** The krogan may not have been precisely "created" by the salarians, but they were denied the chance to learn from the mistakes that destroyed their civilization when the salarians uplifted them to fight the rachni. They were chosen for their ability to make war, encouraged to do it, then punished for being too good for it. |
| 391 | ** The title "geth" actually means "servant of the people" in the quarian equivalent of [[GratuitousLatin Latin]]. They were punished for wanting to serve their creators even when their creators were scared of them because they unexpectedly gained sentience. |
| 392 | ** Hell, this even applies to ''Shepard''. Trained to defend Earth's colonies, they get abused by politicians for being too focused on it. Given the title of Spectre to defend the galaxy, and marginalized for discovering a threat beyond the scope of their superiors to recognize. When everything comes down to the line in [=ME3=], Shepard has to ''scream out'' that they ''gave'' them time to plan, and all that is left is to [[DoNotGoGentle fight or die]]. Sheesh. |
| 393 | * ChainmailBikini: Almost entirely averted. Armor tends to be built around its wearer's form and be practical. The only exception is showing that women have boobs, which doesn't happen with real armor and actually defeats its purpose. Shepard's armor tends to be nothing but functional, even as a woman. However, the designs of the armor have designs that definitely ''resemble'' this trope - for example, the blue and gray in Liara's lab suit resembles a bikini to some degree, and much of [=FemShep=]'s armor has designs reminiscent of a leotard. |
| 394 | * TheChainsOfCommanding: One of the major themes of the series, particularly in the third game. The stress of leading a crew and being responsible for all of their lives is emphasized in the first game with Shepard's decision on Virmire and in the second game with the Suicide Mission and the Arrival [=DLC=]. By ''3'', it's gone from the crew looking up to Shepard to most of the galaxy looking to them for leadership. Over the course of the game, Shepard very noticeably wears and begins to crumble from the strain of having the fate of trillions of lives on their shoulders. |
| 395 | -->'''Shepard:''' Everyone's looking at me like I know what I'm doing. |
| 396 | * CharacterDevelopment: The krogan start out as a race of {{Blood Knight}}s who always start fights to the death for no reason, but are shown as much more intelligent, social, and cultured people who care deeply for the survival of the world and species throughout the following game. And still enjoy brutal fighting with complete disregard to their own safety. They'd always been {{Boisterous Bruiser}}s, but they had art and culture before their nuclear holocaust. Following which they were discovered and uplifted as living weapons, then given a near-genocide that sent them into a two-millennium spiral of nihilistic despair. |
| 397 | * CharacterLevel: Raised through earning XP by killing enemies, talking with [=NPCs=], exploring containers, and gathering items. Don't forget looking at random stuff. This caused a massive amount of LevelGrinding and PixelHunting, so in the second game you get experience only for quests. |
| 398 | ** In the first game, it took longer to go from level 59 to level 60, the maximum, than it took to go from level 1 to level 47. You will probably need ''several'' [[NewGamePlus New Game Pluses]].[[note]] By completing everything in the game, including DLC content, it is possible to get to level 55 on a single play through. Two play throughs (starting with a NewGamePlus) is required to hit the lv. 60 cap.[[/note]] Completely inverted for ''Mass Effect 2'', where each level has the same number of experience points between it, and most major quests give enough experience to grant an additional level anyway. Especially neat when you get the achievement for finishing the game, which gives you 25% bonus XP to all future playthroughs. |
| 399 | ** The third game tries to find a compromise between both games: experience is gained by interacting with datapads, grabbing medkits past your current medi-gel capacity, and getting past certain points within missions. |
| 400 | ** ''Andromeda'' splits XP gain between killing enemies (except animals. No points for splattering spitbugs) and completing missions. |
| 401 | * CharmPerson: In stark contrast to most [=BioWare=] games (if not most western [=CRPGs=] entirely), where conversation skills become completely useless around the halfway point, the ''Mass Effect'' series tends to keep charming and intimidation relevant throughout. You can even [[spoiler:skip the penultimate boss in the first game by persuading him to realize that he is a victim of MoreThanMindControl and thus providing him a moment of lucidity. [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath He uses this moment to stop himself the only way he can before he falls back under control, by shooting himself.]]]] |
| 402 | ** Reprised somewhat in the third game: [[spoiler:you can either get the BigBad to realize his indoctrination and commit suicide, or you can shoot him yourself with a Renegade interrupt. In a twist, if you don't persuade him ''and'' miss the opportunity to shoot him, he will kill you, resulting in a Game Over]]. |
| 403 | * ChekhovsArmy: Many of the Paragon choices have you paving the way for a GondorCallsForAid situation for the third game. This includes [[spoiler:the Migrant Fleet, the geth faction that Legion represents, the rachni if you chose to save them, convincing Mordin that it may be worth saving Maelon's research into a genophage cure, and helping Liara take control of Shadow Broker's ship]]. All of these and more finally fire in the third game. The war effort goes ''much'' more smoothly if you already laid the groundwork. |
| 404 | * ChekhovsGun: There are many details from the first game that resurface in the second game. Many minor side-quests pop up again in the second game, in the form of e-mails your character receives referring to those earlier events, or (more rarely) re-encounters on planets during missions. Several details from the first and second games take on new importance in the third. Some of these take seemingly minor details and give them new and greater significance. |
| 405 | ** One mission in ''Mass Effect'' is set on the moon of a planet whose surface was shattered by an ancient mass driver weapon—mainly for the purpose of providing a scenic backdrop as you drive around. However, in ''Mass Effect 2'' [[spoiler:the Illusive Man reveals that they discovered the target of that mass driver, and it turns out to be an important MacGuffin.]]. |
| 406 | ** The Leviathan of Dis. Visiting an obscure planet in the first game makes mention of an organic starship found on the world that the batarians absconded with. Turns out [[spoiler:it was a Reaper corpse, and it ended up indoctrinating everyone who worked on it, ala the derelict Reaper from the second game. This is why the Batarian Hegemony fell so quickly. And it wasn't even the really important thing. The real Leviathan of Dis wasn't the Reaper corpse; it was what killed it. Namely one of the real Leviathans, the guys who started this entire mess and the AbusivePrecursors to the Abusive Precursors]]. |
| 407 | * ChekhovsGunman: |
| 408 | ** Pretty much anyone in the first game who returns and is tied to a quest in the second. Especially Shiala and Gianna Parasini, if they survived the events of the first game and you helped them with their quests. |
| 409 | ** And then in the third game, it gets pushed up. |
| 410 | ** And let's not forget Cerberus, a rogue organization that was the subject of a few sidequests in the first game, but plays a major role in the second and third. |
| 411 | ** This trope mixes with TheReveal in one case: [[spoiler: Remember the rogue VI you're tasked to destroy on Luna in the first game? The third game reveals that Cerberus answered its distress call and repurposed it. What came out of that project? EDI]]. |
| 412 | ** Frankly, any player will feel confident in saying that any character with a notable voice actor is playing a NotSoSmallRole. After all, paying a big name voice actor for a character with only a few minutes of lines is far too costly for a one-off appearance. Barring people like Creator/SethGreen [[AwesomeDearBoy who enjoys the matter as much if not more than the pay]]. |
| 413 | * TheChessmaster: |
| 414 | ** Asari Matriarchs are stated to be some of the wisest beings in the galaxy and, according to the Codex, make plans so complicated that they are incomprehensible to other beings. Seeing as asari live for centuries, they do not really mind waiting a couple decades for a plan to pay off. |
| 415 | ** If humanity has at least one representative for this trope, it's definitely the Illusive Man. At least twice in the second game, Shepard becomes an UnwittingPawn for his plans to get more intel about the Collectors. And he continues this role well into the third game. |
| 416 | * ChestInsignia: Shepard's iconic N7 insignia. Jacob and Miranda also have the Cerberus logo on their uniforms in the second game. The logo is gone by the third game, as they no longer follow the Illusive Man. [[spoiler:EDI's new body]] still has one, though, but it's justifiable since [[spoiler:she's inhabiting body of the Illusive Man's replacement for her]]. In her alternate outfit from the From Ashes DLC, she covers it up with clothes sporting an Alliance badge in about the place you'd expect a [[Franchise/StarTrek Starfleet commbadge]]. |
| 417 | * ChewToy: The volus. There are about two or three more or less lucky Vol-clan in the entire two games. All the others tend to find out that life sucks. By the third game, [[spoiler:the batarians]] get slotted into this category. |
| 418 | * ChoiceOfTwoWeapons: to a degree. In the first game Vanguard and Infiltrator player classes (and through a certain achievement, Adept and Engineer) are designed to use two weapons, as are Quarian Machinist, Turian Agent, and Krogan Battlemaster, although four of them can be used. In the second, Shepard uses no less than three weapons (at least two regular weapons plus heavy weapons, with the option to add another weapon class after a plot event), but all their crew uses two. |
| 419 | ** Averted (for Shepard, at least) in VideoGame/MassEffect3. Shepard has all five weapon slots available (and therefore can theoretically carry one of each), but an encumbrance system causes the cooldown on your powers to increase if you load yourself down with too many weapons. Squadmates and multiplayer characters are still limited to two weapons, however. |
| 420 | ** Also averted with Ryder in ''Andromeda'', who has the same encumbrance system as Shepard. |
| 421 | * ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Completely natural for the krogan, to the point that betrayal is ''expected'' in their society. |
| 422 | ** Subverted by Wrex, of all people, though. [[spoiler: He's well aware that the krogan love of combat and fighting is precisely why their race is doomed -- as he puts it, his race is more interested in making wars than making children. His CBD moment is even subverted by himself -- he knows he can't do what needs to be done because of conflicts of interest unless the player either [[ShootTheDog Shoots The Dog]] or otherwise resolves the matter.]] |
| 423 | ---> '''Grunt:''' I'm not going to stab you in the back, Shepard. Warriors like you and me? Straight to the face. ''{{beat}}'' Kidding, kidding. |
| 424 | * CipherScything: Commander Shepard in novels and comics. The Ryders follow suit. |
| 425 | * CitadelCity: The Citadel, an ancient space station that serves as the galaxy's capital. |
| 426 | * CivilWarVersusArmageddon: Numerous conflicts among the civilizations of the galaxy are presented and war crimes and genocides are committed for painfully understandable reasons. Yet the main antagonist, the Reapers, are a menace to all intelligent species in the Milky Way. |
| 427 | * CivilizationDestroyer: The Reapers come to the galaxy every 50,000 years or so and wipe out all advanced intelligent life before leaving. The Mass Relay network they leave behind ensures that galactic civilization develops along predictable lines, making it easier for them to destroy it. The first game starts with the Reapers about to return. |
| 428 | * ClingyCostume: |
| 429 | ** The quarians and the volus. The quarians will get deathly ill without them, while the volus will suffocate and explode. Not necessarily in that order. |
| 430 | ** Also played straight with [[spoiler:''the Collectors'']] of all people, though you would not think it to look at them. [[spoiler:Their exoskeleton is actually [[OrganicTechnology Organic]] PowerArmor. They only look so slim because their inner bodies have been deliberately atrophied with many of their biological systems replaced by cybernetics. The exoskeletal suit serves as their primary source of locomotive muscles and their epidermis. With a little modification, these suits can be manufactured to fit humans as well, though presumably without the associated substitution of original biological components]]. |
| 431 | * TheCoconutEffect: Invoked by the film grain filter added to the graphics. |
| 432 | * {{The Collector}}s: An entire species of {{Evilutionary Biologist}}s who spent most of their time before ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' trading advanced technology for groups of genetic anomalies of all races. Then the second game rolled around, and they [[HeroKiller got their game faces on]]. |
| 433 | * ColonizedSolarSystem: The Solar System has been colonized rather extensively, Mars having particular mention as a rising population center which is where the Prothean ruins were discovered, which actually turned Mars into the backwater as the new technology allowed distant stars to be colonized and Mars would just be bypassed. Scans with the Galaxy Map show that all the other planets have settlements as well, most of them just research or utility stations, with Uranus having their main He-2 mining and refining facilities. |
| 434 | * ColourCodedForYourConvenience: |
| 435 | ** Used for the [[KarmaMeter Paragon and Renegade moralities]], which are associated with blue and red respectively. The endings in the main games even change slightly to display the colour motif of the chosen morality. |
| 436 | ** Similarly, used to identify various (but far from all) factions in the games. Blue Suns are blue, the Blood Pack is red, Eclipse is yellow, Cerberus is white and gold, Alliance is blue and silver, and the geth are metallic purple and gunmetal grey. |
| 437 | ** Averted with Reaper forces, however, which can show up in virtually any colour so long as it's ugly - Ravagers are black metal and swollen pink flesh, Cannibals are a meaty brown colour, Marauders are defined by a metallic grey, while Banshees are more of a corpse-grey. |
| 438 | ** The kett just ''love'' them some dark green. Their ships are green, their clothes are green, their ''guns'' are green... |
| 439 | * CombatByChampion: Turian culture allows for duels between representatives of opposing armies. The "traditional" duel involves both combatants entering opposite ends of a square room with an opaque wall between them. The wall is lowered and they shoot at each other. Duels can either be to first blood or to the death. Part of Garrus's backstory, revealed in the second game, involves one such duel he had with a female soldier. "More than one way to blow off steam, I guess." |
| 440 | * CombatPragmatist: |
| 441 | ** The salarians as a whole. In the Codex entry on their military doctrine, the salarians have ''always'' started their wars with no warning, and believe the concept of "declaring war" to someone you're about to attack is both [[HonorBeforeReason insane and idiotic]]. They also have a habit of using subterfuge and [[CrazyPrepared multiple]] [[GambitPileup redundant plans]] to cope with problems. |
| 442 | ** The krogan are also incredibly brutal fighters who have no qualms with decimation of civilian populations to maintain order. |
| 443 | *** They don't seem to have too many qualms about using infertile females as decoys to lure enemy troops away from their few fertile ones. It would seem brutal to most other races, but it does make a certain kind of sense. What's more, it was a female Krogan that suggested the tactic. |
| 444 | ** The turians are also this way. Their military doctrine allows them to use orbital bombardment on battle locations to take out any number of combatants. This was one of the reasons the general at the Battle of Shanxi surrendered - the turians would attempt to bombard forces entering cities for supplies. The general was unwilling to accept that sort of destruction. |
| 445 | ** The quarians try, but fail, by arming their liveships for the attack on Rannoch... which mostly just makes them a target for the geth, who would have otherwise ignored them. |
| 446 | ** Shepard can pull this, especially with Renegade interrupts that apply violence directly to enemies before they have time to react. Best exemplified during Miranda's loyalty mission, when a Renegade interrupt allows you to NeckSnap the leader of the enemy squad while Miranda guns down two of his goons, before you drop a freight canister onto two ''more'' goons, leaving a lone salarian with [[OhCrap a priceless expression]]. |
| 447 | ** The kett use any number of dirty tricks in their war with the angara, right from the off. The angara generally refuse to stoop to the same level. |
| 448 | * CompilationRerelease: The aptly named ''Mass Effect Trilogy''. This release also marks the first time the original game is playable on the Platform/PlayStation3, either in the set or as a separate PSN title for people who already own the last two. |
| 449 | * ComputerVoice: ''Mass Effect'' is particularly guilty of this. |
| 450 | ** The geth (as represented by Legion) have a synthetic-sounding voice. |
| 451 | ** The early geth were even worse, they not only had the artificial voice, but the stuttering intonation was totally off as well, roughly on par with very early real life text-to-speech applications (think Amiga workbench and you get the gist). In other words: The quarians inadvertedly perfected artificial intelligence before even coming up with a proper text-to-speech program. |
| 452 | ** EDI speaks in a pleasant- yet roboting-sounding iteration of Tricia Helfer's voice despite the fact that it makes no sense whatsoever. |
| 453 | ** Averted with Vigil, the forgotten VI on Ilos, who sounds pretty natural. |
| 454 | * ConservationOfNinjitsu: The Reapers become less potent the more numerous they are. In ''Mass Effect,'' Sovereign is so absurdly powerful that it can cut a bloody swath through the joint-species fleet guarding the Citadel and then take down many Alliance warships, while also distracted trying to summon the rest of the Reapers. This includes splitting turian warships in half by simply ramming them and one-shotting Alliance ships with each blast of its main gun. The losses it inflicts are such that the wounded Council and Alliance adopt a defensive crouch in the next game to recover their lost strength. In ''Mass Effect 3,'' the entire Reaper fleet, composed of thousands of ships exactly like Sovereign and untold numbers of smaller Reaper destroyers is unable to destroy the Alliance Navy beyond the two fleets deliberately sacrificed in a delaying action. The strength of each Reaper and the sheer volume of fire engaging them should draw should not have left Admiral Hackett any time to retreat. Relatedly, a codex entry reveals that the Reapers are also become less efficient at harvesting humans when occupying Earth in force: the 400+ Reaper processing ships are responsible for harvesting 1.86 million humans cumulatively each day. Individually, this means each ship is responsible for about 4000-4500 humans processed, giving the population of Earth somewhere in the range of 17 years before complete extermination. Ostensibly, the harvest gathers the raw material for a new Reaper capital ship, but there's no evidence that the Reapers came close to starting its construction. In comparison, the Collectors under the direction of a single Reaper, using only the population of humanity's most remote colonies numbering a few million people cumulatively, were able to build the working skeleton of a [[spoiler: human Reaper]] that the Reapers themselves never could, in just a couple months. |
| 455 | * ContinuityNod: Basically the point of keeping your saved games from previous games to import into the latest one. For the more straight-forward kind, you can make a drinking game out of how many nods there are on the Citadel in ''Mass Effect 2,'' up to and including commercials for the all-elcor performance of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''. Complete with video clips. |
| 456 | --> "And be sure to see the production live. An unforgettable fourteen hour experience." |
| 457 | ** ContinuityCavalcade: [[OldSaveBonus Oh god, yes.]] |
| 458 | * ContinuitySnarl: There've been at least three different versions of Blasto 8 through the franchise. |
| 459 | * ConvenientlyPreciseTranslation: The resident TranslatorMicrobes. They are able to perfectly translate styles of speech and puns, except of course for a few specific words that go by untranslated even though they tend to be among the most frequently used (the quarians' "Keelah se'lai", for example). The most egregious case of this trope is probably the acronym '''SPEC'''ial '''T'''actics and '''RE'''connaissance, used by the Council races over a thousand years before humanity even came into the picture. |
| 460 | * CoolGate: All of the mass relays. Especially [[spoiler:the Citadel]]. |
| 461 | * CoolStarship: |
| 462 | ** The ''Normandy'' SR-1 [[spoiler:and the ''Normandy'' SR-2.]] |
| 463 | ** The ''Destiny Ascension'' in the first game isn't half-bad either, though [[DeadpanSnarker Joker's]] not impressed. |
| 464 | ** [[spoiler:''Sovereign'' and his ilk]] are nothing if not incredibly badass battleships. |
| 465 | ** The Collector Ship may not be the prettiest vessel in the galaxy, but it gets points for size, intimidation factor, and [[spoiler:tearing apart the ship that killed Sovereign ''and making it look easy'']]. |
| 466 | ** [[spoiler:The Shadow Broker's ship]]. |
| 467 | ** [[spoiler:The geth dreadnought]]. |
| 468 | ** The ''Tempest'' |
| 469 | * CosmicHorrorStory: [[spoiler:Mecha-]]Cthulhu is coming home to grab some lunch, like he does every 50,000 years. [[spoiler:And ''make babies''. [[HumanResources Out of people]].]] Gets pushed to {{Expy}} levels when [[spoiler:an indoctrinated Cerberus researcher studying a derelict Reaper points out that dead gods can still dream]]. |
| 470 | * CrapsaccharineWorld: Ilium in VideoGame/MassEffect2. It's a beacon of luxury, wealth, and glamor. Oh, and everything except murder is legal. |
| 471 | * CreepyMonotone: |
| 472 | ** The elcor are less creepy, but their inability to express emotions in speech otherwise than literally (see "ThatMakesMeFeelAngry" below) is a bit unsettling, coupled with their deep, monotone voice. |
| 473 | ** [[spoiler:Sovereign,]] [[spoiler:Harbinger,]] [[spoiler:Legion]] and EDI use this trope as well, but the last two of the bunch is friendly. |
| 474 | * CruelAndUnusualDeath: Oh dear god, there is a lot in this series. |
| 475 | ** The process of converting an organic being into a husk involves impaling them on massive spikes and having all organic components of their bodies replaced with synthetic components ''while they're still alive''. |
| 476 | ** The effects of pretty much all of the ammo upgrades in the first game -- freezing, burning, disintegration, electrocution, radiation poisoning, regular poisoning, crushing, and exploding. In the second game you only get to freeze people and then shatter their bodies, electrocute them and make their equipment quite literally explode, or set them on fire and listen to them scream as they burn to death. Hell, there's an achievement for [[VideogameCrueltyPotential making 20 enemies scream as they die]]. |
| 477 | ** Dr. Saleon's 'patients' grew illegally cloned organs in their bodies for his use; he sometimes didn't do a good enough job on the sutures, and if something went wrong with the organs inside them, ''he left them in there''. |
| 478 | ** The ultimate fate of ''all'' who are [[spoiler:indoctrinated is to [[AndIMustScream slowly starve to death while what's left of your free mind screams and struggles to no avail]].]] |
| 479 | ** Everyone who was captured by the Collectors was either converted into husks as described above, or [[spoiler:dissolved into genetic paste while still alive and conscious in order to make a new Reaper]]. |
| 480 | * {{Cthulhumanoid}}: At least one race that made up the Prothean Empire was this, if their statues are anything to go by. [[spoiler:Turns out those statues may have been created by a species from the cycle previous to that of the Protheans]]. |
| 481 | * CulturalPosturing: [[spoiler:The Reapers. In pretty much every appearance so far]]. Also the asari, turians, krogan, salarians, humans and batarians. About the only people who ''don't'' are the quarians, who don't have much to brag about; the geth, who don't care enough to try; the vorcha, whose twenty-year lifespans don't give them time; and the Collectors, [[spoiler:who are little more than living chess pieces for the Reapers]]. |
| 482 | * CurbStompBattle: |
| 483 | ** All of the Reaper invasions are implied to be this. Apparently one of them had a grand casualty total of ''one'' Reaper, and the race that killed it destroyed themselves doing so. |
| 484 | ** In the second game, if everyone in your squad lives, you do this to the Collectors. |
| 485 | ** Also, [[spoiler:the destruction of the original ''Normandy'']]. |
| 486 | ** Shepard's lone wolf fights in the asteroid in ''Arrival''. The first can end with massive casualties for the Project Rho forces and Shepard only taken down by a pulsing Reaper device. The second begins when they wake up after two days in sedation and ends with just about the entire staff of Project Rho slaughtered. |
| 487 | ** The Reaper invasions of Earth, the Batarian Hegemony, and Thessia in the third game. The first two planets at least have the excuse that the Reapers attacked so quickly that neither could prepare or counter quick enough; Thessia is overwhelmed even with the extra time they are given. |
| 488 | ** Another heroic example: the main battle section of the ''Citadel [=DLC=]'' pits you and your crew against a completely outclassed enemy. Several [[LampshadeHanging lampshades are hung]] by your squad. |
| 489 | --->'''Wrex''': That's why I love about hangin' out with you guys. Why shoot something once, when you can shoot it 46 more times? |
| 490 | * CurbStompCushion: Unlike every other race that faced a full-scale Reaper invasion, where the planetary military is crushed within hours and forced into guerrilla warfare, the turians actually put up serious resistance in their home system. They manage to take out several Reaper capital ships in the opening of the fight, and force them into a grueling fight for the entire game (which is implied to take place over several months). The highlight is the "Miracle At Palaven", where the turian/krogan alliance, at great cost, smuggle a bunch of [=WMDs=] onto Reaper vessels, blowing them up from the inside. While the turians are eventually forced to abandon the defense of Palaven for the sake of the Crucible, it was littered with the most number of Reaper corpses. The turians are still aware however of just how much of a HopelessWar this is as they experience at least 80% casualties in each engagement and lose entire platoons all at once and are also fighting a small portion of the Reaper fleet (a larger portion than any other homeworld, but still only a fraction) but they more or less did all they could, and came out doing better than just about everyone else. |
| 491 | * CurseCutShort: Given that this is an M-rated game, the only point to this is humor. |
| 492 | ** In the meeting with the Council in which Shepard becomes a Spectre, one conversation path leads to Udina declaring that he is tired of "this Council and it's anti-human bull-" before being interrupted by the asari Councilor. |
| 493 | ** Another in ''2'': a series of increasingly frustrated datapads are found next to a faulty mech. The final one only says "Piece of Sh[SIGNAL ERROR]". |
| 494 | ** And then we have Jack in the 3rd game. |
| 495 | ---> '''Jack:''' Hey Joker, f-- (''loading screen'') |
| 496 | * {{Cutscene}}: These probably make up more than half of the entire game, as is normal for a [=BioWare=] game. They're all interactive to a degree. Found a cutscene in the second game that you can't skip? [[spoiler: Keep your fingers on [[VideoGameCaringPotential those]] [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential triggers]] or your mouse button!]] |
| 497 | * CyberCyclops: |
| 498 | ** The geth. |
| 499 | ** The various mechs used in the second game are also one-eyed, including the canine [[RobotDog FENRIS mechs.]] |
| 500 | ** Reapers give this impression with a single large red glowing "eye" surrounded by a number of smaller lights. |
| 501 | ** Most Remnant drones, except the big ones. And the even ''bigger'' ones. |
| 502 | [[/folder]] |
| 503 | |
| 504 | [[folder:D]] |
| 505 | * DangerInTheGalacticCore: A few systems in ''1'' are mentioned to be too near the galactic core to make settling a viable option. And the Collector base is right next to it. |
| 506 | * DarwinistDesire: |
| 507 | ** The salarians keep records of their family's genetic pedigree for exactly this reason. Their species doesn't really connect the concept of sexual desire with reproduction, since, as amphibians, they reproduce via external fertilization. |
| 508 | ** Further, the krogan are a ProudWarriorRace and females select males based on fitness and glory in battle. |
| 509 | * DataPad: Ubiquitous but primarily used for data transfer. |
| 510 | * DavidVersusGoliath: The whole concept of Spectres in the first place: [[OneRiotOneRanger pitting single men and women against overwhelming odds and expecting them to come out on top]]. Which they usually do. [[spoiler:Also the whole concept of the game: the unprepared galaxy (specifically, one man/woman and the individuals crazy enough to follow them) against the tens of thousands (at least) of highly advanced Reapers intending to wipe out the galaxy as they have so many times in the past]]. |
| 511 | * DeathByGenreSavviness: The quarians. Upon discovering that the geth had started to gain sentience, they figured the RobotWar was soon to come. They decided to strike first and not give the machines a chance, but the geth proved to be more advanced then they thought. Billions of quarians died, and ultimately, they were evicted from their planet. To add insult to injury, the second game reveals [[spoiler:the geth didn't want to revolt, and are in fact maintaining the quarian homeworld in hopes the that their creators will one day stop trying to kill them and return]]. |
| 512 | * DeathWorld: Quite a few of the planets you visit, but the krogan homeworld, Tuchanka, takes the cake. The planet is so deadly that the only lifeforms to survive it will tear straight through any other ecosystem. |
| 513 | -->'''TRAVEL ADVISORY:''' The ecology of Tuchanka is deadly. Nearly every native species engages in some predatory behavior; even the remaining vegetation is carnivorous. |
| 514 | ** Part of the krogan's rite of passage into adulthood on Tuchanka involves [[spoiler: surviving a Thresher Maw attack on foot]]. Try that yourself and see how much life you have left afterward. [[labelnote:To elaborate]] Thresher Maws are ''massive'' heavily armored predators with a variety of deadly attacks. Standard Alliance military doctrine calls for taking them on with ''tanks'', and even then heavy casualties are to be expected.[[/labelnote]] The test itself is only to survive. |
| 515 | ** Tuchanka was apparently so deadly even before the krogan nuked it that the genophage -- which allows only one live birth per one thousand attempts -- effectively reduced their population growth to pre-industrial levels; in other words, ''nine hundred and ninety nine out of every thousand krogan died before they reached childbearing age'' before they were uplifted, so lethal was the environment. In the codex, it says that before the krogan invented firearms, the most common cause of death was "eaten by predators", while afterwards, it was "multiple gunshot wounds". Both the krogan and a proportion of the flora and fauna on Tuchanka survived a nuclear war with little change to daily life. |
| 516 | ** The Prothean-controlled planet Atespa made Tuchanka look hospitable. The Reapers got so tired of their harvesting attempts getting nowhere due to the local predators just eating their ground forces and spitting the metal back out that they gave up and bombed it from orbit. |
| 517 | ** Several other worlds are mentioned in the ''Citadel'' DLC for the third game during the party. Cortez, Joker and Wrex are having a discussion about which one would be the worst to crash-land on whilst still technically be capable of supporting life. Worlds mentioned include one with chlorine swamps and one with a highly infectious spore that causes something called "Athlete's Lung", which is probably as unpleasant as it sounds. Both planets were visited in the previous game; Tarith's chlorine swamps required breathing masks and the mission on Zorya occurred in an area that was specially cleared to get rid of the spores. |
| 518 | ** Suen, the rachni homeworld, is a TidallyLockedPlanet, so life could only evolve in the narrow "twilight region" between the two extremes. It also boasts extremely low gravity and a toxic atmosphere. It's stated that the majority of rachni civilisation was therefore underground and the engineering challenges of building on Suen's surface may have given the rachni insights into the challenges of exploring space. |
| 519 | ** Elaaden, from ''Andromeda''. Average temperature on the sunny side is at least fifty degrees centigrade in the shade, of which there is very little, and it can get as high as ninety nine degrees. There are numerous sinkholes around, which are even hotter, and can form entirely without warning. Also, there's a lot of aggressive wildlife about. Naturally, the krogan settlers fall in love with the place. |
| 520 | * DebutQueue: Standard Creator/BioWare procedure. |
| 521 | * DecapitationStrike: [[spoiler:This is part of the Reapers' periodic purge of spacefaring life: leave a space station at the heart of the mass relay network to serve as a convenient center for galactic civilization, then make their big return at that space station and take out all the leaders in one strike. After it's all done, they leave the empty station behind for the next cycle to find.]] |
| 522 | * DefaceOfTheMoon: |
| 523 | ** A group of batarian pirates used lasers to carve proclamations of batarian supremacy and human illegitimacy onto the surface of one of the random worlds you can scan in the first game. |
| 524 | ** Jack did this in a big way, as stated in ''Mass Effect 2'', her list of crimes involved "vandalism"... she dropped a SPACE STATION on a moon the hanar were particularly fond of. |
| 525 | ** Scanning Patsayev in ''Mass Effect 2'' reveals the story of a disgruntled miner named Andrei Kobzar. Andrei spent every credit he had in a futile attempt to mine for Element Zero. He then stole a mercenary group's gunship and used it to carve a 208-kilometer message in the ice: ''Zdes' nichego nyet'', Russian for "There's nothing here" to discourage anyone else from coming there. [[InsultBackfire It became the space version of a roadside tourist trap and gathers small crowds]]. |
| 526 | * DefeatMeansRespect: The Reapers treat each cycle's resistance to being culled as futile (a speed bump at most), but by the end of ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' their leader ''Harbinger'' begins to acknowledge just how unexpectedly difficult humanity and [[PlayerCharacter Commander Shepard]] in particular is making this cycle. |
| 527 | --> '''Harbinger:''' [[AC: Shepard, you have become an ''annoyance''.]] |
| 528 | * DeflectorShields: Ubiquitous in the series and mounted on pretty much every piece of military equipment, from individual grunts to kilometer long space ships. Notably, these deflector shields are only really effective against kinetic weapons; energy weapons just ignore them. Well, the Reapers' shields can block energy weapons, but they're [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens in a different ballpark altogether...]] |
| 529 | * DepopulationBomb: The krogan, previously known for absurd fertility rates (an adaptation to an extremely deadly environment) and long life spans, have been deliberately infected with a virus that makes childbirth exceedingly unlikely. |
| 530 | * DerelictGraveyard: |
| 531 | ** The massive field of destroyed ships that surrounds the Collector's base in the second game. Doubles as an AsteroidThicket. |
| 532 | ** The planet Korlus is also one giant derelict-ship-covered planet. |
| 533 | * DeusExMachina: [[spoiler:The Crucible]] can be viewed as a deconstruction of this. [[spoiler:It's introduced near the start of the trilogy finale as the only weapon powerful enough to defeat the Reapers]]. But it isn't actually built yet, and when it does get built, [[spoiler:it doesn't work quite as everyone had hoped, as it not only destroys the Reapers, but also the mass relays and (in some endings) the Citadel]]. |
| 534 | ** Also, it's not really [[spoiler:the Crucible]] that ends up being the DeusExMachina, [[spoiler:it's the Citadel itself. The Crucible merely upgrades the Citadel]]. |
| 535 | ** The Extended Cut DLC returns the endings to a deconstruction due to a happier resolution, relatively speaking. [[spoiler: Neither The Citadel nor Mass Relays are destroyed, just damaged, in any endings provided the player has sufficient EMS.]] |
| 536 | * DevelopersDesiredDate: Every game has one. |
| 537 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'': The player can have romantic relationships with Ashley, Kaidan or Liara, but Liara (being the only alien paramour) is clearly the game's favored example. Liara practically worships the ground the player walks on, is the only LoveInterest that can be romanced by either gender, and her romance can only be failed if the player outright tells her they aren't interested. Ashley and Kaidan can both reject Shepard if the player makes bad choices during their conversations, and will walk away if Shepard suggests {{Polyamory}}, unlike Liara. |
| 538 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'': The developers have admitted that they had the story nudge Male Shepard to Tali and Female Shepard to Thane, with the latter's species having been designed from the ground up to be as attractive as possible. Kelly Chambers is the only LoveInterest in ''[=ME2=]'' with whom Shepard cannot have an intimate scene, only being available for an optional lap dance. |
| 539 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'': Multiple relationships started in ''Mass Effect 2'' are outright doomed in this game (Jacob dumps Shepard for another woman, Thane is killed, and Kelly Chambers is either forced to live in hiding, is murdered by assassins or kills herself if Shepard tells her off). Other relationships may also end prematurely before the finale, but those three are doomed no matter what. |
| 540 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'': Keri T'Vessa and Avela Karr are treated as "romances", but are more like [[TheMistress "side women"]] compared to the romances Ryder can have aboard the ''Tempest''. In addition, the same-sex relationships were underwhelming in the original patch of the game (especially for gay male romance). In particular, Reyes Vidal was upgraded from another "fling" romance into a full-fledged romance. |
| 541 | |
| 542 | * DevelopersForesight: See [[DevelopersForesight/MassEffect here.]] |
| 543 | * DialogDuringGameplay: Mostly confined to the elevator conversations in the first game, then expanded upon in the second during missions. The third game elevates it to an art form. ''Andromeda'' takes it even further. |
| 544 | * DialogueTree: |
| 545 | ** Done through an innovative dialogue wheel where you choose the tone of Shepard's responses rather than what they actually say. Though this was a little misleading at times. The second game went a long way to remedying this issue, but the "limited summary" options during the first game would often lead to players who wanted to take a particular approach to roleplaying, for instance, softer or more diplomatic, entering dialogue paths such as: |
| 546 | -->'''Avina:''' ... The embassies allow lesser species to have a voice on the citadel.\ |
| 547 | '''Shepard:''' ''[Lesser species? >]'' THAT'S PRETTY DAMN ARROGANT! |
| 548 | ** ''Andromeda'' changes the dialogue wheel a little, with little symbols denoting what the tone of Ryder's response will be (usually), with four default choices (along with two extra symbols for building friendship and romance). |
| 549 | * DifferentlyPoweredIndividual: They're called ''[[MindOverMatter biotics]]'', not psychics. Justified in that it isn't pure brainpower that lets them perform incredible feats, and several in-universe sources hint that the name was deliberately chosen to keep people from misunderstanding what biotics are capable of (e.g. no mindreading). The asari complicate matters, as they are all biotics and they ''do'' appear able to read minds ([[CatchPhrase embrace eternity!]]). This is related to their [[BizarreAlienBiology method of reproduction]] (syncing their nervous system with that of another person), however, and not biotics at all. |
| 550 | * DidntThinkThisThrough: The FatalFlaw of the salarians on both a cultural and individual level. Since the average lifespan of the average salarian is short (few live over the age of forty) means that they more often than not fail to fully think of the consequences of their actions. The salarian government also has a bad case of this after they uplifted the krogan solely for their potential as warriors and failed to plan ahead after the war was won. Then they planned to uplift the yahg, a species that is extremely violent and believes might is right and those who kill the current leader counts, solely for their potential as a warriors. You'd think a species that specializes in intelligence and science would be smart enough not to repeat their mistakes. |
| 551 | * DisabledSnarker: Joker could be seen as the TropeCodifier. He makes fun of his brittle bone disease constantly, even in high-stress situations. |
| 552 | -->'''When talking to Shepard about [[spoiler:the Collector attack on the Normandy]]:''' What do you want me to do; break a rib at them? |
| 553 | * DiscountLesbians: |
| 554 | ** The asari are pretty much the ultimate example of the trope. It's actually debated in-universe if they count as women or genderless. ''Andromeda'' clarifies the issue a bit; asari typically consider themselves genderless, though some have pronoun preferences, while other species consider them female for purposes of sexual orientation. |
| 555 | ** Kelly Chambers then subverts this in the second game, her replacement Samantha even more so in the third. |
| 556 | * DisproportionateRetribution: The Alliance doesn't have the resources or manpower to guard all or even most of their colonies, so they settle for ensuring that anyone who ''does'' attack one is in for a whole world of hurt. Their motto can be described as "it's not the garrison that'll get ya, it's the reinforcements." This is detailed by the War Hero BackStory, where the world Shepard was having shore leave on was hit by the Skyllian Blitz, and Shepard singlehandedly tied up the invading ground force long enough for the Alliance Navy to drop in and catch the attackers with their flies still unzipped. |
| 557 | ** The First Contact War is an even better example. After the turians destroyed or captured what they thought was the bulk of humanity's military, they were caught absolutely off-guard when the Second Fleet of the Armada fought back and absolutely devastated the turian forces. As in, one of at least ''five'' similarly sized Fleets. Little wonder the Citadel races are wary of humans getting their backs up. |
| 558 | * DisturbedDoves: During Kasumi's loyalty mission, this results as she employs some [[CutscenePowerToTheMax impressive]] [[LeParkour acrobatics]] to vault on top of [[spoiler: Donovan Hock's gunship]] and disable its shields. |
| 559 | * DittoAliens: Played somewhat straight, but only due to [[YouALLLookFamiliar background character models]]. Individual characters who actually get lines tend to be quite distinctive. |
| 560 | ** The kett play it straight, and for horror. [[spoiler:They're all identical because they've been biologically altered to look identical.]] |
| 561 | * DividedStatesOfAmerica: The codex updates in the Kasumi DLC mention a Second American Civil War in 2096. Averted somewhat in that it's a civil war over the unification of the United States, Canada, and Mexico into a larger [[TheFederation federation]]. So, in fact, it results in a ''bigger'' state. |
| 562 | * DoAndroidsDream: |
| 563 | ** The war between the quarians and the geth got started after the latter started asking these kind of awkward questions frequently enough to seriously freak out the former. |
| 564 | ---> Do these units have a soul? |
| 565 | ** In the third game, [=EDI=] has started asking these questions and mainly directs them to Shepard. |
| 566 | * DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Relationships between two asari are more likely to produce children with severe mental and physical defects, and so said relationships and any offspring that result are considered ''very'' taboo. It's quite reminiscent of incest. |
| 567 | * DoIReallySoundLikeThat: |
| 568 | ** The second game gives an offhand mention about a VI that was made of Shepard. The third game gives the chance to actually meet it. Much HilarityEnsues, and Shepard is almost scared to ponder if she really is that bloodthirsty or flirty. |
| 569 | ** In the ''Citadel [=DLC=]'', Shepard [[spoiler:meets her/his clone and subsequently]] is more concerned about how they speak and which phrases they use than the actual "one hour to survive" time limit they face. [[spoiler: Of course they already have an exit strategy so there's no real reason for them to be too concerned]] |
| 570 | * DominantSpeciesGenes: Asari are all "female" and reproduce by a form of parthenogenesis where they psychically link with another, preferably of another species, and rearrange half their genome to resemble their partner's. The children are always asari, of course, but they are said to have a father of a different species. |
| 571 | * DoubleEntendre: Many. |
| 572 | --> '''Garrus:''' I had reach, but she had flexibility. |
| 573 | * DoNotRunWithAGun: Running and gunning in the second and third game is a severe no-no; the tactic is somewhat effective with shotguns, less so with pistols, but forget it with assault rifles, and sniper rifles are right out. Even so, you can't move very quickly with a weapon drawn, and you can't shoot at all while sprinting (or "storming" as the game likes to call it). Technically possible in the first, but only effective with a ''lot'' of skills and upgrades. |
| 574 | ** This does ''not'' apply to a well-played Vanguard, even at the lower levels. As long as the Biotic Charge is used effectively, a Vanguard can definitely run and gun. |
| 575 | * DoomedHometown: |
| 576 | ** The Mindoir colony if your Shepard has the Colonist origin story. |
| 577 | ** New members of the ''Normandy'' crew in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', Steve Cortez & Samantha Traynor, are stated to have been living at the Ferris Fields & Horizon colonies respectively when the Collectors attacked during ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''. |
| 578 | ** Most characters, as of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', due to the Reaper invasion. The only ones seen in the game are Vancouver (Kaidan), London (Anderson) and Thessia (Liara). You don't actually visit Garrus' hometown, but on the mission to Palaven's moon, Garrus points to a prominent swathe of fire on his homeworld and says that's where he grew up. |
| 579 | * DoorToBefore: Every once and again. |
| 580 | * TheDragon: |
| 581 | ** Saren Arterius to Sovereign is an outstanding example, given how they played Saren up as the BigBad instead. That "misinterpretation" was supported by how Saren had Matriarch Benezia as his top lieutenant. |
| 582 | ** In ''Bring Down The Sky'', Balak's main lieutenant is Charn. |
| 583 | ** The second game has [[spoiler:the Collector General and Amanda Kenson]] to Harbinger, both of whom he indoctrinated. |
| 584 | ** The Illusive Man has Kai Leng, tasked with taking down Paul Grayson in ''Retribution'' and Commander Shepard in the third game. [[spoiler:Interestingly, his indoctrination would also demote The Illusive Man to Harbinger's new Dragon, with Kai Leng as TheBrute.]] |
| 585 | ** The Shadow Broker employed asari Spectre Tela Vasir as his top enforcer, specifically during the "Lair of the Shadow Broker" DLC mission. |
| 586 | ** The Primus, for the Archon. She eventually turns out to be a DragonWithAnAgenda. |
| 587 | * DramaticDownstageTurn: Occurs often during conversations and cutscenes, especially when a character is explaining some past event. They rarely last long. |
| 588 | * DramaticGunCock: Every time a cutscene ends the entire party goes back into combat mode by deploying weapons with satisfying noise. Goes great with post-cutscene dialogue. And the gun cock looks cool, to boot, as every single gun collapses on itself in storage state. So many cutscenes and post-cutscene actions involve someone pulling what basically looks like a metal stick with fiddly bits off of their back or hip, and then said stick unfolds itself into a gun. Complete with sound effects. |
| 589 | ** Near the end of the third game, Shepard can do this with [[spoiler:the pistol used against the three husks and the Marauder blocking their way to the Citadel conduit. It has unlimited ammo already, so reloading serves no useful purpose here]]. |
| 590 | * TheDreadedDreadnought: Dreadnoughts are so Dreaded The Council imposed a limit on how many of them each member race can have by the [[FictionalGenevaConventions Treaty of Farixen]]. [[MileLongShip Kilometer-long starships]] that use their [[FixedForwardFacingWeapon spinal railguns]] as artillery in battle. Two dreadnoughts, the Citadel Council's ''Destiny Ascension'' and your nemesis' flagship ''Sovereign'' ([[spoiler: the true BigBad]]) play important roles at the climax of the first game. |
| 591 | * DrivesLikeCrazy: |
| 592 | ** Shepard, possibly. Liara, at least, will complain whenever you almost-crash during the car chase in the ''Lair of the Shadow Broker'' DLC mission, comparing it to the [[ScrappyMechanic Mako rides in the last game]], which Shepard was also present for. |
| 593 | ** James ends up crashing his shuttle into a Cerberus one to prevent it from escaping. Cortez, the designated shuttle pilot, doesn't let that one down easily. |
| 594 | ** Ryder, regardless of how well the player has them pilot the ''Nomad'', will be snarked at by near-everyone on their team for their supposedly lousy driving. Except Jaal, who finds it relaxing enough to fall asleep. ''Repeatedly''. |
| 595 | ** Liam, who is mentioned in one background conversation to borrow the ''Nomad'' and infrequently shreds the tires. |
| 596 | * DropShip: |
| 597 | ** The geth dropships from the first two games, either doing short passes to drop off certain numbers of reinforcements, or to hover and continuously spawn geth until driven away. They can also act as support, one dropship hanging around to jam communications and power [[DoorToBefore conveniently annoying force fields]]. |
| 598 | ** The original ''Normandy'' could count as well, considering standard insertion technique seems to be flying just low enough to dump the Mako out of the hatch. |
| 599 | ** Harvesters in the third game serve as combination drop ships and heavily armed attack aircraft for the Reapers. |
| 600 | ** The kett ''love'' these. A lot of Ryder's missions involve kett warships dropping out of the sky, depositing a few troops and hurrying off again. |
| 601 | * DudeWheresMyRespect: To varying degrees. Shepard is the first human Spectre, but amasses a bunch of sidequests as they are trying to save the galaxy. However, most of the sidequests are initiated when Shepard offers to help. By the [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 third game]], this is {{averted}} with foes and enemies acknowledging that "Oh shit! It's Shepard." |
| 602 | * DuelingMessiahs: |
| 603 | ** Commander Shepard vs The Illusive Man. Both strive to serve and move humanity forward and save them from the Reapers, but while Shepard does it through heroic, direct action, the Illusive Man prefers more unsavory, underhanded tactics. However, it's valid to point out that, initially, they DID work together, until the Illusive Man went [[WellIntentionedExtremist too far with his more ruthless methods]]. [[spoiler:The Illusive Man was indoctrinated at some point, sure, but he was genuinely trying to serve humanity beforehand, and his indoctrination by the Reapers was through manipulation of his desire to help humanity]]. Being a FallenHero does not stop one from still being a Messiah of sorts. |
| 604 | ** That being said, Shepard can become themself a DarkMessiah if you play them as a [[TheUnfettered full Renegade]] in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', still not as bad as the Illusive Man, but pretty close. Even more evident if you chose [[spoiler: the Control Ending, which is basically what the Illusive Man wanted to accomplish, but couldn't due to him being indoctrinated.]] |
| 605 | * DugTooDeep: A couple of groups of scientists on various worlds in the first two games excavated dragon's teeth (the tech used to create husks) during their digs. Somehow, during study, they all went crazy, built shrines to mechanical gods, and either turned themselves into husks or used the technology to implement a similar effect (the makers not bothering to create different graphics for the so-called "Machine Cultists" it's hard to tell). Most likely, the shrines were already there, probably Reaper technology, and caused the indoctrination of the teams, making them sacrifice themselves to become husks. Doesn't explain why the dragons teeth shipped to a pioneer team by Cerberus did the same thing however, as there is no evidence of indoctrinating Reaper technology. |
| 606 | * DungeonTown: |
| 607 | ** A rather large number of places, including the Citadel, Feros, Omega, Noveria, and Illium. |
| 608 | ** And in the third game, pretty much every place you visit. |
| 609 | * DummiedOut: |
| 610 | ** The files of every game have cutscenes and recorded dialogue for characters that do not appear in normal gameplay. |
| 611 | ** In fact, according to back-channel leaks, [[spoiler:the entire backstory of the Reapers that's revealed at the end of the third game had to be changed because of turnover on the writing team]]. |
| 612 | * DuringTheWar: A RobotWar in this universe. [[spoiler:[[RedHerring Though the]] [[BigBad nature of the robots]] [[EldritchAbomination swiftly becomes]] [[ManBehindTheMan more complicated than most examples...]]]] |
| 613 | ** The entire third game takes place during an open galactic invasion. |
| 614 | ** ''Andromeda'' has the Initiative accidentally wander into an ongoing AlienInvasion, which has been going on for a good eighty years before they showed up. |
| 615 | * DyingAsYourself: Happens several times in each game. Sometimes Shepard has to convince the person to do it, other times it's wholly voluntary (occasionally through [[SuicideByCop Suicide By Shepard]]). |
| 616 | ** The [[spoiler: Refusal ending]] in Mass Effect 3 also counts, as [[spoiler: Shepard would rather die and see the Galaxy doomed on his own terms rather than accepting the Catalyst's solutions]]. |
| 617 | * DyingRace: |
| 618 | ** The krogan. By the time humanity entered the Citadel Council Alliance, the krogan have had many years to be affected by the genophage, and due to the rampant violence the krogan people put themselves in, the krogan population is slowly dying out. [[spoiler:Potentially revoked in the third game if you cure the genophage]]. |
| 619 | ** The quarians are not explicitly stated to be a dying race but given their population on the Migrant Fleet is about 1% of what it was on Rannoch and their immune systems have become compromised by centuries of living on sterile ships it's clear they're in a very precarious position. [[spoiler: Depending on your choices the third game can see the quarians wiped out]] |
| 620 | ** The drell are basically at the edge of going extinct due to a combination of not having enough people, and loosing too many suddenly on account of their home world becoming almost uninhabitable, and only a portion being safely moved off world by the hanar. Worse, several are dying from a respiratory disease that isn't able to be cured. |
| 621 | ** The batarians were first on the chopping block because the Reapers entered the galaxy via their space. Whether there are enough left to form a viable population after the war is unclear. |
| 622 | * DyingTown: |
| 623 | ** Mars, originally a thriving colony, has been steadily growing stale after the discovery of the mass relays. |
| 624 | ** Depending on your choices, Feros can be this in the second game. |
| 625 | * DysfunctionJunction: Nearly everyone in Shepard's party has some serious issues. |
| 626 | ** [[SexySecretary Yeoman Kelly Chambers]] has a [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway psychology degree]] and [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman keeps the player informed]] of any squad members who want to open up about their issues. Granted, the journal does the same thing, but still. |
| 627 | ** The third game plays with it a bit. Only Vega has issues from before the game starts, and [[spoiler:Ashley[=/=]Kaidan]] are still at odds with Shepard following their argument about their working with Cerberus in ''[=ME2=]''. Everyone else's issues develop during the story as the galaxy's situation goes from bad to worse, which makes sense -- the rest of the party's major issues were dealt with during ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''. |
| 628 | * DysonSphere: |
| 629 | ** [[spoiler:Legion]] states that the 'true geth' want to build one, most likely to amplify their processing power to a fever pitch. The third game reveals that they had started construction. [[spoiler:Then the quarians blew it up]]. |
| 630 | ** The Jaardan built a small one, roughly the size of Earth's moon, [[spoiler:which serves as the hub of their terraforming network.]] |
| 631 | [[/folder]] |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext MassEffect / TropesAToD
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
