Discussion Characters / MassEffect3AntagonistsAndNpcs

Can I add Marauder Shields to the villains?

I conversationed-out the following entries.

• Destroy the Reapers, with the side effect of destroying the geth and EDI along with them. It completely eliminates the Reapers as a threat forever- the only ending to do so for sure- but it requires that sacrifice. In this ending and only this ending, Shepard lives on as a human - but will have to live with the knowledge that s/he sacrificed an entire race to finally stop the Reapers.
  • Notably, the Catalyst really tries to downplay this option and portray it as the worst, extolling the virtues of Synthesis and Control while stating that Destroy will not solve the problem (well, at least not by his 'unique' breed of logic) and not saying anything positive about it. He possibly even outright lied to make it seem worse than it is (it depends on if he truly knew that Shepard would live or not). Perhaps non-coincidentally, the Destroy ending is the only one where the Reapers actually die.
• Control the Reapers, destroying Shepard's organic body but letting Shepard ascend to effective godhood, with his/her personality controlling the Reapers. The new Catalyst based on Shepard's mind can now control the Reapers and use them for whatever purpose s/he sees fit, but there's always a chance that s/he may come to same conclusion as the previous Catalyst. On the other hand, the Catalyst started to see the Cycle of genocide as a failure after the Crucible's completion, which makes it likely Shepard would not resort to the same method. In Extended Cut, the Catalyst informs Shepard that s/he'd remain aware of organics after the uploading, which suggests that at least some of Shepard's humanity would remain intact. The new Shepard!Catalyst is not a slave to the Leviathans' directive, unlike the previous Catalyst. In this ending, Shepard dies; her or his name is placed on the Normandy's memorial wall, and the new Catalyst's narration includes the lines "Through [Shepard's] death I was created," and "The [man/woman] who gave up [his/her] life to become the one who could save the many." If you romanced anybody in this game, and if they had hope that the two of you could make a life for yourselves together after it was all over, that hope is gone with Shepard.
• Synthesis, wherein Shepard's body and essence are disseminated through the galaxy. Early in the second game Shepard was resurrected with experimental "bio-synthetic fusion" technology; in this ending his/her nanotech turns organics into organic synthetic hybrids and his/her organic nature gives synthetics a full understanding of organic life, thereby greatly reducing (but not eliminating) the chance of conflict between synthetics and organics. The Reapers and all their forces turn away from combat, help to rebuild, share past knowledge, and EDI believes that together life is moving in directions she can't yet even imagine. But to make it happen, Shepard has to die, and becoming organic/synthetic hybrids doesn't mean those who were close to him/her aren't grieving. You can tell they're in pain when they put Shepard's name on the memorial wall. More importantly, this ending forcefully rewrites everyone against their will, surely traumatizing many, spares the Reapers and only relies on their goodwill to not start any trouble again, and brings back the husks- meaning we'll now have hundreds of billions of Body Horror abominations that need to be mercy killed

The reason I have done so is because much of this is speculatory information. While speculation can be (and often turns out to be) true, for a story like this, we need to stick to what we know when troping. Even if something seems like a logical conclusion, we need to only state what happens in-game. For example:

1. The assumption that the Catalyst was lying about Shepard dying in the Destroy ending. Mistaken is pretty much canon, but any further than that and it's getting into assumption territory.
2. The speculation that because we don't see geth corpses that they didn't die. Saying that the Catalyst was wrong about Shepard's death is enough to get the point across that the Catalyst is an Unreliable Expositor.
3. The speculation that geth have backups. As we have no idea how the Crucible works in the first place, we can't make assumptions about HOW it destroys synthetic life.
4. The speculation that AI!Shepard is not beholden to the Catalyst's programmed directive. Not saying it's not true, but again, we can't make assumptions. We have to stick to what we know. We can say that the AI says "[Shepard] guides me now", and leave it at that.
5. The speculation about love interests in the Control ending. Again, most likely true, but still speculation.
6. The speculation about the traumatization and necessary mercy-killings of various people in the Synthesis ending. Nowhere is this stated. We can leave in the fact that it was done without letting the galaxy know first, but that's about it.

I would like to challenge Petrovsky's Anti Villain-status based on the fact that he willingly and knowingly experimented with the citizens of Omega, intending to turn them into an army of Adjutants under Cerberus control. That is no better than what Henry Lawson was doing in Sanctuary. The fact that he knows when to fold it right when he knows that any other action would lead to his demise makes him a (Wrong?) Genre Savvy coward, not an honourable soldier. His only unquestionably honourable acts happen in the comic book, not the game itself, perhaps implying Motive Decay or Indoctrination. But whatever is the case, by the time of Omega DLC he is no Anti Villain.

Should Kai Leng's fight be considered a Climax Boss? Even in insanity he is quite the pushover and only his blatant invulnerability stops the player from killing him in seconds.

"Westmoreland" is a Punny Name? I don't get it.

Alright, lets get down to it. Should the Catalyst in the Citadel's core be considered a regular NPC or an antagonist? I'm leaning toward labeling it an antagonist considering it said that it controls the Reapers, but it didn't seem to oppose Shepard directly.

Why is female Krogan still referred as "princess"? That was just IGN being stupid.