Mass Effect 3 - Reviewing All Characters Who Replace Dead Squadmates: th-cam.com/video/ghXIgVRbokE/w-d-xo.html Full Story of Emily Wong - th-cam.com/video/LhYa0ZcGJl4/w-d-xo.html What Happens If You Spare Fist? th-cam.com/video/pHJ-k5ynMec/w-d-xo.html
Video essay idea Why the hell didn't the Asari Counselor "embrace eternity" with Shepard or Liara to realize that the Reaper threat was real? I know because of the plot but it still would be a fun video
Kal’Reegar is -I think- the most underrated NPC. Passionate but level-headed, always does the right thing without making a big deal of it, loyal to Tali, respectful of Shepherd without gawking, and willing to sacrifice himself to protect others. Great guy who a lot of people seem to forget about.
I never forget him. He was probably one of my top non squad NPCs. Really wish they had him show up in ME3 as a bodyguard for the admirals. That way we get to have one last conversation before (if quarians survive) his death trying to help the turians and Krogans.
I've always thought of him as being essentially Sarge from RvB if Sarge was actually competent and intelligent instead of... Sarge Fits that he ended up with a "shotgun" named after him too
Hackett is the real GOAT. If I look at from outside perspective, not from the Normandy, then he is more important than Shepard himself. He saves the Earth’s fleet, leads it to victory, supervises the Crucible, doesn’t reject the Reaper threat, and commands Shepard sending him to the important missions. He is the mastermind, and Shepard is his tool:)
yup, hackett is like the illusive man of the systems alliance, like the general of the good guy army in contrast to illusive man being the supervillain ^^ lol
well you don't have to look too far from the normandy. hackett literally rides on top of the normandy above your cabin room peeking in at you. no im not making this up.
Thanks for listing Udina. People nowadays seem to conflate hateable characters with bad characters, and the ME fandom is guilty of that too. Udina, with all his complexities and faults, is a fantastic character, despite (or rather, because of) his unlikable nature.
YES! This a huge pet peeve of mine! Fir example, Joffrey Baratheon is exceptionally hateable, yet also fantastic character. The fact that so many people can not understand this distinction is maddening. For a video game related example, lots of Halo fans hate a character called commander Sarah Palmer. Nothing wrong with that, you were supposed to hate her, since she is written as a massive b!tch, and as a foil to the protagonist. Problem is that stupid people couldn't understand the difference between "bad" and hateable, and complained endlessly. This resulted in the character being written much flater and boring in the sequel, and given much less space.
@@hamstsorkxxor the Halo fandom in general is obnoxious about everything lol. They all got salty for that one line Palmer said in Halo 4 when all it was, was just a friendly jab.
@@FireLordJohn3191 If you hate him because he's an unlikeable character, that's fine. If you hate him because you don't think he's well written, that's where we disagree. Booing the bad guys and rooting for the good guys is at the heart of all standard action & adventure storytelling, but my point is to not confuse that with the actual quality of writing of those characters. Darth Vader was a dislikable villain in the original trilogy (at least until the end of RotJ), but he's a well written character with dimensions beyond "evil guy kill". Same with Udina, imho.
Having Kirrahe as a Squad mate would have been an interesting choice for example: If you cured the Genophage you could get a Krogan Squad mate like Wrex or Grunt. If you sabotage the Genophage and the Salarians are all in then you get Kirrihe as a Squad Mate. Would have added more weight to the choice :)
yeah I wish we got to have Kirrahe as a squad mate even for just sur'kesh. and Kal'Reegar as an option during all the Rannoch missions. We got at least two squad mates from the other major species (Garrus/Nyreen, Liara/Samara/Aria, Wrex/Grunt). Having Kirrahe and Reegar would of been interesting.
I don’t know. I mean, Kirrahe doesn’t particularly agree with the Genophage. And he seems to have a few doubts about the Salarian leadership. If you sabotaged it…I don’t think he would be very willing to join you. He might have been forced to and then he develops a friendship with you…but Kirrahe is a very kind hearted and honorable Salarian with a strong moral compass. Which is extremely rare for a Salarian. So if you tend to be evil, I doubt he will warm up to you at all. Edit: I still absolutely love Kirrahe and I think he is the best character on this list and one of the best secondary/major recurring characters in the entire series.
Kirrahe should've just been a Squadmate period. Like maybe he joins up to help the STG feel better about giving up Eve. Play it like Iron Bull in Dragon Age inquisition. He tells you he'll be making reports back home, but he'll share reports with you too.
I agree with the latter two people because Kirrahe will actually join the war effort regardless of whether you cure the genophage or not. He would be willing to join your side regardless, and I do agree he should have been a squad member in 3. Wish it were possible for someone to mod that in but I imagine that there's just not enough for modders to really go off for that, at least for the time being. We're not quite at that level of ME modding at the moment.
@@msutter117 A conversation with samara from ME2. It's one of the later ones iirc, you have to really exhaust her dialogue if you wanna hear about it. It was badass, Nihlus basically turned Samara's code against her to make her break off her pursuit.
@@fitzviandraduivenab2790 Yeah IIRC Samara found him doing the grey stuff, that spectres are known for, but which is against the Justicar code, meaning she had to target him In the end he put her in a situation of either letting him go, or sacrificing innocents, so the code forced her to make him go As i recall it, she actually respected him for tricking her like that.
I have to disagree on this one. He often uses shepard as a tool to do the alliances dirty work. And after the bahak-system was destroyed, who was blamed? Not Hackett even tho he probably should have been. Seemed to me like used Shepard to cover his own ass.
Udina's betrayal did seem to come out of nowhere though. It's easy to understand it in hindsight, but at the moment it's really odd, given how he's written sympathetically in the beggining of ME3. They should have included some conversation before the betrayal where his frustration was clearly becoming too desperate. Maybe a conversation where it was subtly clear he didn't believe Shepard would be successful in his quest, and his desperation was settling in. Then, the betrayal would seem right on.
I like to think that he reached out to TIM around the time he heard that Shepard had to try to unite The Krogan, Turian and Salarian (also at this point the Asari didn’t go to the submit so there’s goes that support). In his mind, he didn’t see it possible and in realizing that Shepard won’t save them (his Point of view) he decided to make a choice: Call TIM.
True, EAware didn't explain sh-t about Udina motives in game. There is the post coup Shep conversation with Bailey, where both concluded that they will never know the true whys of Udina's betray cos he was dead, except because he was just power hunger...even if he himself stated at the start of the game, that he was the most powerful human being ever, after the Earth gov fell🤷♂️😒
@@Hellion73 tbf, he said that in order to then say how little that power really was. Clearly he wanted more power. We can sort of see why and what that power was going to be for (humanity's survival at all costs, etc), but we have to guess, rather than have it be written.
How could you not see Udina’s thirst for power throughout the series? He basically shut out Shepard when he got what he wanted in the first game. He constantly pushes Anderson if you pick Anderson as the first human council member. In three, after I saw his ending I went back and there is a crap load of clues to his betrayal. The dialogue, alone in his office was a quiet, subtle but dead give away that he had other plans to achieve his goal. I hate it when movies, books, and games spell it all out in a narrative exposition dump. BioWare has faith that their audience is smart enough to see the truth.
This is a good list, but I would have included the asari Shiala from Feros. When you spare her after destroying the Thorian, she becomes the advocate for the entire Zhu's Hope colony and they turn into a unique war asset in ME3. Another underrated character is the quarian Admiral Xen. She could have been more fleshed out and it would have been very satisfying to be able to convince her that the geth were worthy of independence from and peaceful coexistence with the quarians, rather than only being used as the advocate for returning the geth to enslavement.
the most underrated character is definitely Niftu Cal - THE BIOTIC GOD!! He could have taken out the Reapers single handed if Shepard didn't stand in his way.
I agree so much on James Vega. He gets dismissed as some muscle head but he has so much depth if you continuously interact with him. He's also a genuinely good friend who doesn't really ask anything of Shepard.
He’s not a good friend he try’s to get with your girlfriend at the citadel party Ashley and she turns him down so he left a horrible impression on me he’s really is just jersey shore who doesn’t know how to save life’s
When everyone is flopping around with a hangover the morning after the Citadel apartment party he is in the kitchen cooking them all eggs. That's a good guy right there
Conrad Verner is absolutely hilarious, especially in the 2nd and 3rd games. Some favorite quotes of mine include "my wife even paid for my ticket off world!" "Where did these thermal clips come from? I thought weapons cooled down..." "Oh sorry, I like to ask all the questions I can think of and sometimes I forget which ones I asked"
@@themoonlitquill he’s on the citadel in the refugee bay after Cerberus coup, you have to talk to the refugee doctor first to start the medigel dispenser sabotage side quest
A character I feel was missing here was Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib, when I first met him in Tali's loyalty mission in ME2, I thought he was just an entitled jerk with too much power and not enough spine to go after the Geth. (I went here before knowing Legion even existed in my first playthrough). But after meeting Legion and seeing the interactions Koris has with Legion if he's brought on the mission, made me realize he might've been onto something all along. And in ME3 he's the most noble member of the Admirals aside from Tali, focusing his efforts on keeping the civilian ships safe and potentially sacrificing his life for his squad after his shuttle is shot down. If I remember correctly as well, with him dead you're locked out of the peace option to the Geth and Quarian conflict. He's such a fascinating character and easily the most underrated Quarian.
My vote goes to Matriarch Aethyta (Liara's father) she's simply hilarious, if we can get her as a temp crew going out on missions with liara think there will be some good lines lol. FYI in case you haven;t watched Mass Effect: Paragon Lost, it's an anime movie released in 2012, James Vega is the protagonist and he does have quite a bit of airtime there. Also there is a bunch of ME comics that fills some gaps, including how they found shepards body after he died and how it was passed to Miranda.
Kirrihe is just a cool guy and it would have been great to be able to have him as a squad mate. Hackett is one of my favorite characters. Always in Shepard's corner, even after he or she steals the Normandy in ME1. I agree that Emily Wong should have been the on board reporter. (Although, I would like to hear Allers story about making an Elcor cry.)
I believe that Udina, Hackett and Kirrahe are not undervalued, they have their fair and necessary participation. On the contrary, Tela Vasir and Fisto could have had some more participation. But above all Legion, Grunt and Wrex should have had more participation as squadmates. Especially Legion.
One more thing about Kenny: He says Rupert can't make good Haggis. Gabby says "all Haggis taste like ass" which Kenny replies: "But if made right it can be a wee fine ass."
Great video. Hackett is a legend and a true leader. He will let you play to your strengths, but won't put up with BS. James is just a damned good bloke and a solid addition to the team, I don't understand the dislike. But you missed off Aria - The minx of Omega. If I was going to dip bad, it'd be Aria. *stares dreamily into middle distance*
Agree about Nihilus. Would have been interesting if he was able to stick around for at least ME2 considering his past with Samara. Could have made for some interesting missions or dialogue. And, thanks for including James. I started to like him much more in later playthroughs.
Totally agree with Vega. I didn't like him at first until a few plays and discovered he's one of the most real personalities in the team. So as an underrated character, I can see why he's on this list. I thought Kal Reegar would be on here though, to be honest. Kinda surprised he wasn't!
Nihilus really did have a charm about him for the brief time we knew him. For all the talk people have in ME2 about how Shepard has this ability to motivate people to follow them into hell and back, Nihilus radiated that confidence and certainty to me. I like to think that, in supporting Shepard’s candidacy for Spectre Status, he passed the torch to Shepard, and helped ignite that fire that made Shepard such an iconic figure. Wish we had more time with him.
I always hated how people disliked James so much. I'm Hispanic and actually have the same last name as him, and it was really refreshing to see my culture represented in the game. I thought it was cool you couldn't really romance him, and how he treated male and female Shepard the same. Hell I love the nickname he gives Shep. His story is also super tragic considering part of why he feels a failure is cause he feels what he chose was pointless after Shepherd basically took care of everyones problem in entirety soon after. I just think he's neat.
I also like how you can't romance him. I never really liked how you, in some games, can just romance everyone... I like the balance that some people are just not receptive to advances and romances, but they still support your cause :)
James is just annoying he’s the jersey shore character of the crew and he even try’s to hit on Ashley if your romancing her and Ashley shuts him down then he awkwardly asks everyone if they need more drinks shity friend and the nickname Loco is cool but when he wanted to call my femshep another bitches name I shut that down and he let that little girl who trusted him die and her whole colony James sucks
I got your point, but really, besides a few Spanish words, how Lt. Vega represents Hispanic/Latin American culture? I don't hate him or anything, in fact, I feel the same as you about him. He's a great guy and the comic about his background is awesome. But facts are facts.
surely kaidan is the most underrated squadmate across the fandom as a whole. certain corners of it appreciate him as he deserves but the rest need to be converted
YES! His outburst agains the Board in ME2 is one of top-5 scenes in all three games! If you treat him with respect, he stands by you. I really missed having lots of scenes with him in ME3...
Surprised Conrad wasn't on the list, the ultimate fanboy, but if you follow his arch through the entire series you learn he's actually a brilliant doctor who's thesis on dark energy can be applied as a war asset.
Lorik Qui'in his comment on how humans find conversation as some kind of imprisonment when shepherd says, "I'll let you go" is one of the funniest pieces of dialogue in the whole game.
Admiral Hackett was always one of my favorites, the fact he was voiced by Palpatine's voice actor in the french version was always a plus to me, love him so much. RIP Georges Claisse.
Shiala. Words can’t describe the disappointment in my first play through when I learned you couldn’t romance her after seeing her again on Ilium. BioWare makes her flirt with you, just dangling the carrot out in front of us with no intent of ever giving us the opportunity, lol.
I wish we got more of Tela vasir she’s only in the comic’s and part of ME2 but I wished we got to see more of her she was badass and one of the most powerful asari’s I’ve ever seen
What about my boy Kal Reeger? Dude is a solider through and through and doesn't care for politics. Guy just bursts in during a Tali's court to defend and stand with for you both threatening to leave if they banish Tali. Straight up G, it's just a shame like Kirrahe you can't keep him alive. He even has a gun named after him. Seriously he's just a really good guy and feels the least Quarrian of all the Quarrians you meet throughout the trilogy.
1 - Yep, mostly gave Garrus that gun so to kinda make him happy. Odd that killing Kirrahe in ME1 and saving the salarian Councillor gives you more EMS, though. 2 - Being voiced by the same person who voiced Phoebe Heyerdahl from Hey Arnold! also helps. 3 - I always do headcanon him as "Marauder Shields" from ME3's endgame. Silly, but it does make sense. 4 - Though she's a villainous Spectre, at least we saw another Spectre besides Shepard and Jondam Bau. 5 - Recently finished Insanity or Nothing's main "cursed" ME run and I must say, the absence of the likes of Garrus sure made him stand out there. 6 - Sure is an ensemble dark horse, Padok. 7 - Should have included Gabby too though. 8 - I never liked abandoning the anti-bomb efforts because of his guts and reasons. 9 - Never got interested with this guy much. 10 - ...You know, though I really like the character, I still want to shoot him for some reason... maybe it's because he sounds like Gen. Shepherd from CoD: MW2 2009. 11 - His death sure is probably the reason why we have Paragon/Renegade prompts in the sequels, heh. 12 - Good points here, hope he gets the spotlight sidestory treatment one day. Hmm, was expecting Gianna Parasini, the Biotic God, and/or that asari vendor who lost her daughters. Otherwise, good list.
Honestly, Udina isn't as bad as people make him out to be. His outbursts in Mass Effect 1 are because unlike us, he has to deal with the consequences of our choices, and being humanity's rep, that's a very stressful position to be in. And in Mass Effect 3. He's genuinely one your side and trying to help humanity as best he can. He just exhausted any resources he had and was forced to look elsewhere. I think he thought Cerberus to be more trustworthy than they actually were as he was taking a leap of faith and trusted Shepard's account on them. Only to find out when it was too late that he made a mistake. One that forced him to comply with the Cope attempt. I see Udina as a person who thought they were ready for the role, but in reality wasn't and it ultimately was his downfall. Tragic really.
Having started a new MELE run I was reminded about Matsuo on Noveria. I actually think she had a lot of potential and could have made a great added squad member in ME2. Like a corpo soldier looking for new work.
I just want to say first off another great video and I was going to recommend doing something similar but as tier video but it seems you already had something cooked up. Lol Also it brings me joy hearing about Hackett, he really is an OG. I just love his character. I would like to see some kind of spin off (maybe, in a movie, book, or comic) about his younger days as a soldier. We all need a Hackett in out lives. I also always liked Vasir and thought she had valid points. It's ashamed she is willing to throw innocent lives away for her goals, because it would have been a good team up with her and Shepard. Also she has , I think, one of the coolest fights (and boss music) in the whole trilogy.
Great list! I’m personally a big fan of Lt. Victus and his redemption arc. On my most recent playthrough, my cutscenes didn’t play out perfectly and that really upset me haha
5:17 James was a much more interesting than Jacob. I welcomed him on my ship in ME3 way more than Jacob in ME2. I also loved in Citadel DLC where James says it's an honor to be a part of the crew along side the fan favs. Jacob needed more depth.
well, i obviously agree on James. players who think he's one-dimensional obviously never take him anyplace and/or didn't see the prequel/know his backstory (Bioware's penchant for letting character development happen in other movies/stories). his banter is hysterical, and his romance got done dirty. but that's why i had to fic it and fix it. a TON of his dialogue hints to him being 'the next Shepard.' i think players diss him because he comes in late and Shepard has so much history with the others, and i get it - but it's sad.
People talk *ungodly amounts* of shit about Kaidan and Ashley. More than any other squadmate, Kaidan comes across as a real person. We all know a Kaidan. And while he's not the most exciting character in ME1, he's one of the best in ME3. He's also the only squadmate Shepard knew before the series began. Kaidan is a bro on par with Garrus, there I said it. Ashley is one of the only squad members to tell you straight up when she thinks you're wrong. You have to respect that. Almost everyone else worships Shepard to an extent or another and rarely (if ever) gets out of line. And while she gets a lot of flak for being a "space racist", characters like Wrex or Mordin (not to mention Javik) are more xenophobic than her, and she actually grows out of her prejudices by ME3. Human squadmates are much better than people say they are. Except Jacob. That guy's trash.
Kirrahe is a fantastic character and not being able to use him as a squad mate in ME3 was definitely a missed opportunity. He seems like he would have been a good Paragon compliment to Shepard's team, kind of like how Samara was in ME2. Maybe there is hope in ME4 that he will be able to recruit him. Vega and Donnolly were always decent characters. Vega had a lot a growth which is always great. Donnolly was always funny. Udina was a well-written character. He fit his role perfectly. I kind of hoped that he wouldn't betray Shepard or at least have the option to not, like if you built up enough military force or relationship with him he wouldn't do what he did. It would really change up the story and give him some growth. To be honest it seemed like he was forced into that position to fit the narrative rather than something he naturally would do. Like he is a politician trying to seek power but joining up with Cerberus actually wouldn't have served him well. If he would have wiped out the other counsel members they would have been replaced and he would be even worse off. There is actually no situation where joining Cerberus would have been a benefit. Udina would not have been able to get any support from the aliens and probably would have made a bigger rift weakening what he wanted.
And to think that Emily Wong was probably supposed to be the journalist on the Normandy as her voice actress said she was contacted by Bioware for ME3 and then telling her it's no longer necessary I still can't believe that EA/Bioware needed some game journalism on their side at the point of adding Jessica Chobot (working for IGN at that moment) as a character 🥲
Having just played that mission, Fai Dan's sacrifice came across as useless to me - you could take out everyone else with the anti-Thorian grenades, you could have done the same thing with him.
Kal’Reegar and Kirrahe should’ve been squadmates. Because we’ve only ever had one Quarian Squadmate and one Salarian Squadmate and the number of squadmates in 3 is pretty damn small. Emily Wong should’ve been a reporter on the Normandy, instead of the good reviews stunt with Diana Allers and her show (Find out more between…the Battle Tits”. And Padok Wilks should’ve been on the Normandy in ME3 too. Such great characters. A shame they didn’t get more screen time.
As a Scotsman myself, I found Donnelly a hilariously accurate character. Nice one BioWare, you just summed up an entire country in one guy, and I couldn’t be more proud
Tali's auntie Raan, Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay is one other underrated character. In tge case of Tali's demise, she steps up to the plate to fight for the cause. While unable to broker peace with the Geth, i think she's great character. Also another Quarian favorite would be Morrigan..err i mean Admiral Daro'Xen vas Moreh. She's definitely one of tge most interresting Quarian, having what I think would be an older minset of Quarian when they were not yet exiled from their world, always pushing technology progress forward. Really like how dislikable she is.
Don't know if anyone's seen it, but there's a animated movie called Paragon Lost that shows us what Vega went through to flesh him out further. It adds to the tragedy, especially seeing what it's like when Shepard isn't around.
Wait a minute. Isn't the scorpion handgun found just lying around on the ground during the Sur Kesh level? 8:18 the irony with the Bourbon/Scotch debate Ken does its ironic because many distillers of Scotch use Oak barrels that were used prior as barrels to age American Bourbon.
Udina won me over over time and by the time I played ME3 he really got on my good side with how passionate he was with saving earth. I do think they should've set up his betrayal more since it's so out of nowhere it almost feels forced but there's enough douchy moments that you can absolutely almost believe he'd do it out of selfishness but that wasn't the way his character was going.
Pretty much the whole of the list I agreed on you with 😊 Hell, I don't really have much - if anything - against James, and I wished that Padok and Emily Wong could have joined the team regardless.
Wish we could have Bray as a squadmate if you finished the Omega DLC, I think he was the one who had a throw away line regarding him the only batarian that doesn't want Commander Shep killed. Also he would have been a great addition since we could interact with him and share much of the batarians point of view of how they become the galaxies biggest pariah.
I agree that Bray would have been an interesting squadmate to have, but I don't think we would have wanted to hear the Batarian viewpoint on why they became "pariahs'. In their view, they didn't. They purposely pulled away from all other civilizations and isolated themselves because they believe that they are superior. The Hegemony forbids them to go outside of Batarian airspace, but cares little for those below a certain caste. That's where the pirates come from - they are forced to earn a living by preying off of what they believe are lesser beings. That is why the rest of the galaxy sees them as outcasts. His words, unless he is one of the few who don't feel as the majority do, would make him a less than sympathetic character. Great for an NPC, not so much for a team member on your ship. Especially in the 3rd game where there isn't a lot of time to bring him around to the idea that humanity is ok after all. Not wanting us dead isn't the same as actually liking us, although we did earn his respect in the end. It would have been great if they would have added a DLC mission with Bray as a team member. Now that the game has been remastered, they could still do it, and make a ton of money.
I actually disliked James until I watched Production I.G’s Paragon Lost, then I felt really sympathetic to James and his story (moreso than the short-ish version that James describes to Shepard in ME3)
I'd love to see a couple of things which I'm gonna suggest even if I haven't watched all the videos yet and thus may look stupid. Longbrow gaming ranks EVERYTHING in Skyrim and while I wouldn't recommend that for ME necessarily, I would love a ranking of teammates, best weapons, things like that in terms of content. Second idea is I would love to learn about all of the renegade options and interrupts you can do that DON'T hurt you in the long run somehow. That one's probably a little more difficult maybe. But you seem to know most everything about the game which make the channel great.
Admiral Hackett is a badass. I'm hoping he'll be President of the Systems Alliance or something like that in the next game. Anderson is gone, Shepard is(probably) gone. Hackett is still there, and he lead the successful counteroffensive against the Reapers. He's humanities greatest surviving hero. I don't know that he'd work as human councillor, but leading humanity in its own space I think would work. Udina I think was a great character too. I think he had potential to be a great human leader, but in the end he fell to fear and desperation.
Did you know there was an animated Mass Effect movie that takes place in between Mass Effect 1 and 2 while Shepherd was still dead and Vega was the main character in the movie
I think it was considered a mistake because he didn't do the correct call according to turian military doctrine, which Was just to directly attack the enemy, and he got a bad result.
@@juzoli Well the expectation was that while casualties would be high the squad would make it through. I can't know like alternate timelines to a video game but the way that was presented at least shows that the casualties they received from his plans was worse than what they were expecting from just a frontal assault
@@juzoli Here I totally agree with you. His options were: 1) fly back and fail the mission => Krogan and Turian go to war or extremely heavy Krogan civilian casualties making their fight against Reapers way harder 2) fly directly and suffer heavy or total losses 3) try to fly low fly through ruins and try not to get spotted a) you dont get spotted and do smash and grab strike against Cerberus with none to low losses b) you get spotted but enemy is out of position and it takes some time to punish resulting in som low to medium losses c) you get spotted but pretty late so you manage to land and do your thing and have high casualities leaving the planet D) (actually happened) you get spotted early on and suffer massive casualties e) you get spotted immediately and your entire group is killed by Harvesters (total losses) Lt. Victus chose the only option with a chance of no to low casualties BUT the game portrays it as a mistake when the best option proved not good enough because the Reapers had scouting Harvesters everywhere. I hated that bit.
@@Noschool100 The Turian Hierarchy is a meritocracy. So people get into positions based on individual qualities. It is not mandatory to follow doctrines, they are qualified to make their own choices. That’s the whole point of a meritocracy. Victus had 2 options at the point, and both were valid reasonable options. And to be honest, the safer option indeed seemed to be the better option at that time. It was bad luck. But even if that was a bad call, choosing the safer route is absolutely no reason to talk to your commander like that… It is not like he was corrupt, or he just wanted to save himself. This is a war, and you can’t expect every decision will have a perfect outcome…
I have a theory about Vasir and why she knuckled under the old Shadow Broker - it is because her "parent organization" the Asari Commandos are a loose confederation of small local militias. Turian Sppectres are usually still part of the Turian military which may also serve as a source of funding and intelligence. Same goes for Salarian Spectres who still have access to STG funding and intel. And the same is true for humans, with their Sppectre being an Alliance N7 and thereby having access to Alliance (or Cerberus) funding and intel. Asari commandos don't even have a centralized command structure on whom to rely on for money and intel. So, Vasir worked for the Shadow Broker!
"I don't need to see your report to know you did the right thing. You've done a hell of a thing commander. Batarians had it coming for sure. Hackett out" - A. Hackett
In my headcanon, Hackett is either the father of my spaceborn Shep or becomes her stepfather when he and Hannah Shepard bond after working on the Crusible.
As far as squadmates go, Kaidan and Vega are dangerously underrated. Vega has some hilarious and insightful dialogue that most people miss out on because they're too enamored with Garrus or Liara. Kaidan was probably my 2nd favorite squadmate in ME1. Second only to Wrex, I just loved how interactive his character was. People know you can give Garrus the C-Sec officer or Spectre attitude based on your dialogue choices, but most people don't know that you can literally pass a speech check to make Kaidan prejudiced against aliens and the council lmao. He'll go from a bleeding heart paragon to actually having Wrex default to the paragon options between the two of them when deciding the councils fate. With the rachni, if you don't do/pass the speech check before Noveria, he advocates for their survival, but otherwise, he points you to the acid hooked up to the tank. In most conversations after the speech check, instead of suggesting that the council are flawed but good people, he will actively point out how the council mistreats humanity and how he's sick of them ignoring evidence from Shepard.
I think one underrated character is Manuel. While it’s only a brief interaction and Shepard may knock his lights out, there is something intriguing about Manuel. Manuel comes across as a raving lunatic, but he had information that should have been impossible for him to know. How did he know the repercussions of the reaper’s plan? And how did he know how the Geth viewed Saren?
DAN! Wheres kal' reegar? Hes one of the only quarians thats willing to stand up publicly to the admiralty board for their grandstanding. They did him dirty in me 3. He ends up scarificing himself and like wong we only find this in an email
I was just thinking of something in mass effect 2 the council claims that there wasn’t enough of sovereign left to rule out being a Geth creation however in the ending of mass effect 1 several massive chunks of the reaper fall right into the council chambers nearly killing Shepard which means that either BioWare forget about that detail or that somehow the first area that would be secured wasn’t secured for long enough for either keepers somehow get rid of the wreckage or for someone to steal it.
The cannon that Garrus puts on the ship in ME2 was designed with technology found in the remains of the Sovereign. Which were privatized by companies clearing rubble. Even the dock researching the Leviathans got his share. So it's not so strange that the Council didn't get much to study.
Kirrahe is a legend, no question, but pretty sure he doesn't give you the handgun - you find it on the ground. Emily - Love her, but also gotta wonder....for Kalisa - an arabic named person that you can punch - political statement Bioware? For me, underrated character - Gianna Parasini - intelligent conversation, ond oh....that voice.
Mass Effect 3 - Reviewing All Characters Who Replace Dead Squadmates: th-cam.com/video/ghXIgVRbokE/w-d-xo.html
Full Story of Emily Wong - th-cam.com/video/LhYa0ZcGJl4/w-d-xo.html
What Happens If You Spare Fist? th-cam.com/video/pHJ-k5ynMec/w-d-xo.html
Video essay idea
Why the hell didn't the Asari Counselor "embrace eternity" with Shepard or Liara to realize that the Reaper threat was real?
I know because of the plot but it still would be a fun video
where is Maya Brooks.
Kal’Reegar is -I think- the most underrated NPC. Passionate but level-headed, always does the right thing without making a big deal of it, loyal to Tali, respectful of Shepherd without gawking, and willing to sacrifice himself to protect others. Great guy who a lot of people seem to forget about.
I never forget him. He was probably one of my top non squad NPCs. Really wish they had him show up in ME3 as a bodyguard for the admirals. That way we get to have one last conversation before (if quarians survive) his death trying to help the turians and Krogans.
And don't forget the Reegar arc-shotgun.
If I'm facing Reapers, it is a must. I call 'er Vera.
I've always thought of him as being essentially Sarge from RvB if Sarge was actually competent and intelligent instead of... Sarge
Fits that he ended up with a "shotgun" named after him too
Underused but not underrated!
Kal'reegar is Tali's version of Garrus. I always hoped those two were meant for each other. She really seemed to like him and vice versa....A LOT.
Hackett is the real GOAT.
If I look at from outside perspective, not from the Normandy, then he is more
important than Shepard himself.
He saves the Earth’s fleet, leads it to victory, supervises the Crucible, doesn’t reject the Reaper threat, and commands Shepard sending him to the important missions.
He is the mastermind, and Shepard is his tool:)
yup, hackett is like the illusive man of the systems alliance, like the general of the good guy army in contrast to illusive man being the supervillain ^^ lol
@@shiby1860 exactly what I was thinking, the illusive man equivalent of the alliance
So ... Hackett is the real Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test? From Fallout 3 lol
@@manofwarb that's literally what i always think when people say someone is a goat
well you don't have to look too far from the normandy. hackett literally rides on top of the normandy above your cabin room peeking in at you. no im not making this up.
Thanks for listing Udina. People nowadays seem to conflate hateable characters with bad characters, and the ME fandom is guilty of that too. Udina, with all his complexities and faults, is a fantastic character, despite (or rather, because of) his unlikable nature.
YES! This a huge pet peeve of mine! Fir example, Joffrey Baratheon is exceptionally hateable, yet also fantastic character. The fact that so many people can not understand this distinction is maddening.
For a video game related example, lots of Halo fans hate a character called commander Sarah Palmer. Nothing wrong with that, you were supposed to hate her, since she is written as a massive b!tch, and as a foil to the protagonist. Problem is that stupid people couldn't understand the difference between "bad" and hateable, and complained endlessly. This resulted in the character being written much flater and boring in the sequel, and given much less space.
@@hamstsorkxxor the Halo fandom in general is obnoxious about everything lol. They all got salty for that one line Palmer said in Halo 4 when all it was, was just a friendly jab.
I disagree. He’s a despicable politician. Hate him.
@@FireLordJohn3191 If you hate him because he's an unlikeable character, that's fine. If you hate him because you don't think he's well written, that's where we disagree. Booing the bad guys and rooting for the good guys is at the heart of all standard action & adventure storytelling, but my point is to not confuse that with the actual quality of writing of those characters.
Darth Vader was a dislikable villain in the original trilogy (at least until the end of RotJ), but he's a well written character with dimensions beyond "evil guy kill". Same with Udina, imho.
I like good villains but his betrayal make no sense.
Having Kirrahe as a Squad mate would have been an interesting choice for example:
If you cured the Genophage you could get a Krogan Squad mate like Wrex or Grunt.
If you sabotage the Genophage and the Salarians are all in then you get Kirrihe as a Squad Mate.
Would have added more weight to the choice :)
yeah I wish we got to have Kirrahe as a squad mate even for just sur'kesh. and Kal'Reegar as an option during all the Rannoch missions. We got at least two squad mates from the other major species (Garrus/Nyreen, Liara/Samara/Aria, Wrex/Grunt). Having Kirrahe and Reegar would of been interesting.
I don’t know. I mean, Kirrahe doesn’t particularly agree with the Genophage. And he seems to have a few doubts about the Salarian leadership. If you sabotaged it…I don’t think he would be very willing to join you. He might have been forced to and then he develops a friendship with you…but Kirrahe is a very kind hearted and honorable Salarian with a strong moral compass. Which is extremely rare for a Salarian. So if you tend to be evil, I doubt he will warm up to you at all.
Edit: I still absolutely love Kirrahe and I think he is the best character on this list and one of the best secondary/major recurring characters in the entire series.
Kirrahe should've just been a Squadmate period. Like maybe he joins up to help the STG feel better about giving up Eve. Play it like Iron Bull in Dragon Age inquisition. He tells you he'll be making reports back home, but he'll share reports with you too.
I agree with the latter two people because Kirrahe will actually join the war effort regardless of whether you cure the genophage or not. He would be willing to join your side regardless, and I do agree he should have been a squad member in 3. Wish it were possible for someone to mod that in but I imagine that there's just not enough for modders to really go off for that, at least for the time being. We're not quite at that level of ME modding at the moment.
Kirrahe sides with you regardless of how Priority: Tuchanka ends
Another think to note about Nihlus is the fact that he survived an encounter with Samara.
Nihilus? Don't you mean...
*Marauder Shields?* 😏
Really? That’s cool. What’s the source for Nihlus surviving an encounter with samara?
@@msutter117 A conversation with samara from ME2. It's one of the later ones iirc, you have to really exhaust her dialogue if you wanna hear about it. It was badass, Nihlus basically turned Samara's code against her to make her break off her pursuit.
@@fitzviandraduivenab2790 Yeah IIRC Samara found him doing the grey stuff, that spectres are known for, but which is against the Justicar code, meaning she had to target him
In the end he put her in a situation of either letting him go, or sacrificing innocents, so the code forced her to make him go
As i recall it, she actually respected him for tricking her like that.
Shep: *Kills 300k batarians*
Chadmiral Hackett: If it were up to me, I'd give you a damn medal.
Hackett is indeed the true homie! And I love how HIM AND SHEPARD talk a lot more in ME3.
I have to disagree on this one. He often uses shepard as a tool to do the alliances dirty work. And after the bahak-system was destroyed, who was blamed? Not Hackett even tho he probably should have been. Seemed to me like used Shepard to cover his own ass.
@@leonnici5178 Shepard was blamed to avoid war between humans and batarians
Udina's betrayal did seem to come out of nowhere though. It's easy to understand it in hindsight, but at the moment it's really odd, given how he's written sympathetically in the beggining of ME3. They should have included some conversation before the betrayal where his frustration was clearly becoming too desperate. Maybe a conversation where it was subtly clear he didn't believe Shepard would be successful in his quest, and his desperation was settling in. Then, the betrayal would seem right on.
I like to think that he reached out to TIM around the time he heard that Shepard had to try to unite The Krogan, Turian and Salarian (also at this point the Asari didn’t go to the submit so there’s goes that support). In his mind, he didn’t see it possible and in realizing that Shepard won’t save them (his Point of view) he decided to make a choice: Call TIM.
That's because Udina is a daddy. Our daddy
True, EAware didn't explain sh-t about Udina motives in game. There is the post coup Shep conversation with Bailey, where both concluded that they will never know the true whys of Udina's betray cos he was dead, except because he was just power hunger...even if he himself stated at the start of the game, that he was the most powerful human being ever, after the Earth gov fell🤷♂️😒
@@Hellion73 tbf, he said that in order to then say how little that power really was. Clearly he wanted more power. We can sort of see why and what that power was going to be for (humanity's survival at all costs, etc), but we have to guess, rather than have it be written.
How could you not see Udina’s thirst for power throughout the series? He basically shut out Shepard when he got what he wanted in the first game. He constantly pushes Anderson if you pick Anderson as the first human council member. In three, after I saw his ending I went back and there is a crap load of clues to his betrayal. The dialogue, alone in his office was a quiet, subtle but dead give away that he had other plans to achieve his goal. I hate it when movies, books, and games spell it all out in a narrative exposition dump. BioWare has faith that their audience is smart enough to see the truth.
This is a good list, but I would have included the asari Shiala from Feros. When you spare her after destroying the Thorian, she becomes the advocate for the entire Zhu's Hope colony and they turn into a unique war asset in ME3.
Another underrated character is the quarian Admiral Xen. She could have been more fleshed out and it would have been very satisfying to be able to convince her that the geth were worthy of independence from and peaceful coexistence with the quarians, rather than only being used as the advocate for returning the geth to enslavement.
Oh yes agree about Shiala
Was very interested with the whole green Asari thing and the telepathy that the feels survivors share!!
She also hit on Shepard when they met in Ilium 😂.
There are actually fans who wanted Shiala to be a secret asari squadmate for ME1.
Swap Fist for Shiala.
I love shiala omg I'm going to be her for Halloween this year!
the most underrated character is definitely Niftu Cal - THE BIOTIC GOD!! He could have taken out the Reapers single handed if Shepard didn't stand in his way.
Or tripped him over 😁
But Wasea defeated Cal... does that make her a Biotic Goddess???
I agree so much on James Vega. He gets dismissed as some muscle head but he has so much depth if you continuously interact with him. He's also a genuinely good friend who doesn't really ask anything of Shepard.
He’s not a good friend he try’s to get with your girlfriend at the citadel party Ashley and she turns him down so he left a horrible impression on me he’s really is just jersey shore who doesn’t know how to save life’s
@@killmonger5097 I have never attempted to romance Ashley so I don't care.
When everyone is flopping around with a hangover the morning after the Citadel apartment party he is in the kitchen cooking them all eggs. That's a good guy right there
@@killmonger5097 I've only played femshep so far and have never romanced Ashley lol
Who the hell has a romance with Ashley in ME3? I did in ME1, but in the third she looked like some annoying kardashian wannabe
Conrad Verner is absolutely hilarious, especially in the 2nd and 3rd games. Some favorite quotes of mine include "my wife even paid for my ticket off world!" "Where did these thermal clips come from? I thought weapons cooled down..." "Oh sorry, I like to ask all the questions I can think of and sometimes I forget which ones I asked"
Conrad's "I should go," right afterwards is the cherry on top
I never found him in ME3 😢 where is he?
@@themoonlitquill he’s on the citadel in the refugee bay after Cerberus coup, you have to talk to the refugee doctor first to start the medigel dispenser sabotage side quest
Kirrahe doesnt give Shepard a Scorpion. He simply introduces that gun to us but we actually find it later independently
How about Admiral Kahoku? We don't see much from this character, but it's just a awesome how he goes solo on a mission to revenge his fallen unit.
Fun fact: Udina’s voice actor is also the narrator of a show called “I almost got away with it” ironic if you think about it
I thought that was him. Like that show.
Yeah, Admiral Hackett's speech is total epic. Lance Henriksen did an awesome job voice-acting him.
A character I feel was missing here was Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib, when I first met him in Tali's loyalty mission in ME2, I thought he was just an entitled jerk with too much power and not enough spine to go after the Geth. (I went here before knowing Legion even existed in my first playthrough). But after meeting Legion and seeing the interactions Koris has with Legion if he's brought on the mission, made me realize he might've been onto something all along. And in ME3 he's the most noble member of the Admirals aside from Tali, focusing his efforts on keeping the civilian ships safe and potentially sacrificing his life for his squad after his shuttle is shot down. If I remember correctly as well, with him dead you're locked out of the peace option to the Geth and Quarian conflict. He's such a fascinating character and easily the most underrated Quarian.
My vote goes to Matriarch Aethyta (Liara's father) she's simply hilarious, if we can get her as a temp crew going out on missions with liara think there will be some good lines lol. FYI in case you haven;t watched Mass Effect: Paragon Lost, it's an anime movie released in 2012, James Vega is the protagonist and he does have quite a bit of airtime there. Also there is a bunch of ME comics that fills some gaps, including how they found shepards body after he died and how it was passed to Miranda.
Kirrihe is just a cool guy and it would have been great to be able to have him as a squad mate.
Hackett is one of my favorite characters. Always in Shepard's corner, even after he or she steals the Normandy in ME1.
I agree that Emily Wong should have been the on board reporter. (Although, I would like to hear Allers story about making an Elcor cry.)
I believe that Udina, Hackett and Kirrahe are not undervalued, they have their fair and necessary participation.
On the contrary, Tela Vasir and Fisto could have had some more participation.
But above all Legion, Grunt and Wrex should have had more participation as squadmates. Especially Legion.
One more thing about Kenny: He says Rupert can't make good Haggis. Gabby says "all Haggis taste like ass" which Kenny replies: "But if made right it can be a wee fine ass."
Great video.
Hackett is a legend and a true leader. He will let you play to your strengths, but won't put up with BS.
James is just a damned good bloke and a solid addition to the team, I don't understand the dislike.
But you missed off Aria - The minx of Omega. If I was going to dip bad, it'd be Aria.
*stares dreamily into middle distance*
Agree about Nihilus. Would have been interesting if he was able to stick around for at least ME2 considering his past with Samara. Could have made for some interesting missions or dialogue. And, thanks for including James. I started to like him much more in later playthroughs.
How can people not love James Vega? He is a big mouth, yes. But he has also a big heart, and is an absolute beast in combat.
I'll say this about Udina... I have never seen that other cutscene where Anderson does NOT punch Udina...
Totally agree with Vega. I didn't like him at first until a few plays and discovered he's one of the most real personalities in the team. So as an underrated character, I can see why he's on this list. I thought Kal Reegar would be on here though, to be honest. Kinda surprised he wasn't!
Nihilus really did have a charm about him for the brief time we knew him. For all the talk people have in ME2 about how Shepard has this ability to motivate people to follow them into hell and back, Nihilus radiated that confidence and certainty to me.
I like to think that, in supporting Shepard’s candidacy for Spectre Status, he passed the torch to Shepard, and helped ignite that fire that made Shepard such an iconic figure.
Wish we had more time with him.
I always hated how people disliked James so much. I'm Hispanic and actually have the same last name as him, and it was really refreshing to see my culture represented in the game. I thought it was cool you couldn't really romance him, and how he treated male and female Shepard the same. Hell I love the nickname he gives Shep. His story is also super tragic considering part of why he feels a failure is cause he feels what he chose was pointless after Shepherd basically took care of everyones problem in entirety soon after. I just think he's neat.
I also like how you can't romance him. I never really liked how you, in some games, can just romance everyone... I like the balance that some people are just not receptive to advances and romances, but they still support your cause :)
James is just annoying he’s the jersey shore character of the crew and he even try’s to hit on Ashley if your romancing her and Ashley shuts him down then he awkwardly asks everyone if they need more drinks shity friend and the nickname Loco is cool but when he wanted to call my femshep another bitches name I shut that down and he let that little girl who trusted him die and her whole colony James sucks
I got your point, but really, besides a few Spanish words, how Lt. Vega represents Hispanic/Latin American culture?
I don't hate him or anything, in fact, I feel the same as you about him. He's a great guy and the comic about his background is awesome. But facts are facts.
its cause he joined near the end, so there's no time to know him
What culture? he literally talks 2 words spanish and says he grew up on the beach
surely kaidan is the most underrated squadmate across the fandom as a whole. certain corners of it appreciate him as he deserves but the rest need to be converted
Yep
I hate kaidan with a Passion.
@@Ken_Benobi My first reaction once the dialog started in my first ME playthrough was: What the hell is Carth Onasi doing here?
Where is Jenkins from the list?
Corporal Leeroy Jenkins isn't underrated at all, he's well known to be overpowered and romantically potent.
@@timothyoswald8618 so much so that the Geth go to the trouble of ascending him to another dimension 😇
Bro how is he underrated he died within 20 minutes of gameplay lol. There wasn't that much that was interesting about him
Gotta give a shout out to my boy Kal'Reegar
yeah he was a badass
YES! His outburst agains the Board in ME2 is one of top-5 scenes in all three games!
If you treat him with respect, he stands by you. I really missed having lots of scenes with him in ME3...
He's my favourite Quarian. Killing him off-screen was such a disappointing end.
Surprised Conrad wasn't on the list, the ultimate fanboy, but if you follow his arch through the entire series you learn he's actually a brilliant doctor who's thesis on dark energy can be applied as a war asset.
Lorik Qui'in his comment on how humans find conversation as some kind of imprisonment when shepherd says, "I'll let you go" is one of the funniest pieces of dialogue in the whole game.
Emily Wong needed to be in Mass Effect 3!!!
Admiral Hackett was always one of my favorites, the fact he was voiced by Palpatine's voice actor in the french version was always a plus to me, love him so much. RIP Georges Claisse.
Shiala. Words can’t describe the disappointment in my first play through when I learned you couldn’t romance her after seeing her again on Ilium. BioWare makes her flirt with you, just dangling the carrot out in front of us with no intent of ever giving us the opportunity, lol.
BioWare makes many bad decisions.
I wish we got more of Tela vasir she’s only in the comic’s and part of ME2 but I wished we got to see more of her she was badass and one of the most powerful asari’s I’ve ever seen
Forgot Kal Rheager, the Quarian Marine Sergeant. Protects Tali with everything, and then gives his life supporting everyone in ME3
What about my boy Kal Reeger? Dude is a solider through and through and doesn't care for politics. Guy just bursts in during a Tali's court to defend and stand with for you both threatening to leave if they banish Tali. Straight up G, it's just a shame like Kirrahe you can't keep him alive. He even has a gun named after him.
Seriously he's just a really good guy and feels the least Quarrian of all the Quarrians you meet throughout the trilogy.
Nah... forget James. Hate that guy. LOL. Especially when playing as FemShep.
Conrad Verner is an underrated character
ME3 sidelined a lot of characters, and it is interesting that there isn't comsequences for killing Vasir in ME2.
No mention of my homies the alliance requisition officer or Niftu Cal the biotic god?
1 - Yep, mostly gave Garrus that gun so to kinda make him happy. Odd that killing Kirrahe in ME1 and saving the salarian Councillor gives you more EMS, though.
2 - Being voiced by the same person who voiced Phoebe Heyerdahl from Hey Arnold! also helps.
3 - I always do headcanon him as "Marauder Shields" from ME3's endgame. Silly, but it does make sense.
4 - Though she's a villainous Spectre, at least we saw another Spectre besides Shepard and Jondam Bau.
5 - Recently finished Insanity or Nothing's main "cursed" ME run and I must say, the absence of the likes of Garrus sure made him stand out there.
6 - Sure is an ensemble dark horse, Padok.
7 - Should have included Gabby too though.
8 - I never liked abandoning the anti-bomb efforts because of his guts and reasons.
9 - Never got interested with this guy much.
10 - ...You know, though I really like the character, I still want to shoot him for some reason... maybe it's because he sounds like Gen. Shepherd from CoD: MW2 2009.
11 - His death sure is probably the reason why we have Paragon/Renegade prompts in the sequels, heh.
12 - Good points here, hope he gets the spotlight sidestory treatment one day.
Hmm, was expecting Gianna Parasini, the Biotic God, and/or that asari vendor who lost her daughters. Otherwise, good list.
I wasn't even aware some of these guys were underrated. Especially Hackett
Honestly, Udina isn't as bad as people make him out to be. His outbursts in Mass Effect 1 are because unlike us, he has to deal with the consequences of our choices, and being humanity's rep, that's a very stressful position to be in. And in Mass Effect 3. He's genuinely one your side and trying to help humanity as best he can. He just exhausted any resources he had and was forced to look elsewhere. I think he thought Cerberus to be more trustworthy than they actually were as he was taking a leap of faith and trusted Shepard's account on them. Only to find out when it was too late that he made a mistake. One that forced him to comply with the Cope attempt.
I see Udina as a person who thought they were ready for the role, but in reality wasn't and it ultimately was his downfall. Tragic really.
Having started a new MELE run I was reminded about Matsuo on Noveria. I actually think she had a lot of potential and could have made a great added squad member in ME2. Like a corpo soldier looking for new work.
I wud have had Matriarch Aethyta on the list. She was hilarious. Wud have loved it if we cud have had more interactions with her.
Would, could. Lol
she/he was cringe tbh
I do agree with you, those characters were really good as for me back to work I do usually watch your videos between rounds.
Konrad Verner is one of the few truly heroic characters in the ME franchise. I’m serious.
I just want to say first off another great video and I was going to recommend doing something similar but as tier video but it seems you already had something cooked up. Lol
Also it brings me joy hearing about Hackett, he really is an OG. I just love his character. I would like to see some kind of spin off (maybe, in a movie, book, or comic) about his younger days as a soldier. We all need a Hackett in out lives.
I also always liked Vasir and thought she had valid points. It's ashamed she is willing to throw innocent lives away for her goals, because it would have been a good team up with her and Shepard. Also she has , I think, one of the coolest fights (and boss music) in the whole trilogy.
"Hackett out" is more memorable for me than "I should go"
Admiral Hackett, one of the most beloved characters in Mass Effect, as an underrated character?! o_O
Great list! I’m personally a big fan of Lt. Victus and his redemption arc. On my most recent playthrough, my cutscenes didn’t play out perfectly and that really upset me haha
5:17 James was a much more interesting than Jacob. I welcomed him on my ship in ME3 way more than Jacob in ME2. I also loved in Citadel DLC where James says it's an honor to be a part of the crew along side the fan favs. Jacob needed more depth.
well, i obviously agree on James. players who think he's one-dimensional obviously never take him anyplace and/or didn't see the prequel/know his backstory (Bioware's penchant for letting character development happen in other movies/stories). his banter is hysterical, and his romance got done dirty. but that's why i had to fic it and fix it. a TON of his dialogue hints to him being 'the next Shepard.' i think players diss him because he comes in late and Shepard has so much history with the others, and i get it - but it's sad.
This is one of my fav videos of yours. Well done. Great points and entertaining!
People talk *ungodly amounts* of shit about Kaidan and Ashley.
More than any other squadmate, Kaidan comes across as a real person. We all know a Kaidan. And while he's not the most exciting character in ME1, he's one of the best in ME3. He's also the only squadmate Shepard knew before the series began. Kaidan is a bro on par with Garrus, there I said it.
Ashley is one of the only squad members to tell you straight up when she thinks you're wrong. You have to respect that. Almost everyone else worships Shepard to an extent or another and rarely (if ever) gets out of line. And while she gets a lot of flak for being a "space racist", characters like Wrex or Mordin (not to mention Javik) are more xenophobic than her, and she actually grows out of her prejudices by ME3.
Human squadmates are much better than people say they are. Except Jacob. That guy's trash.
Kirrahe is a fantastic character and not being able to use him as a squad mate in ME3 was definitely a missed opportunity. He seems like he would have been a good Paragon compliment to Shepard's team, kind of like how Samara was in ME2. Maybe there is hope in ME4 that he will be able to recruit him. Vega and Donnolly were always decent characters. Vega had a lot a growth which is always great. Donnolly was always funny. Udina was a well-written character. He fit his role perfectly. I kind of hoped that he wouldn't betray Shepard or at least have the option to not, like if you built up enough military force or relationship with him he wouldn't do what he did. It would really change up the story and give him some growth. To be honest it seemed like he was forced into that position to fit the narrative rather than something he naturally would do. Like he is a politician trying to seek power but joining up with Cerberus actually wouldn't have served him well. If he would have wiped out the other counsel members they would have been replaced and he would be even worse off. There is actually no situation where joining Cerberus would have been a benefit. Udina would not have been able to get any support from the aliens and probably would have made a bigger rift weakening what he wanted.
I imaged that all Fai Den wanted was to set up a bar and sell Root Beer all day long.
And to think that Emily Wong was probably supposed to be the journalist on the Normandy as her voice actress said she was contacted by Bioware for ME3 and then telling her it's no longer necessary
I still can't believe that EA/Bioware needed some game journalism on their side at the point of adding Jessica Chobot (working for IGN at that moment) as a character 🥲
Having just played that mission, Fai Dan's sacrifice came across as useless to me - you could take out everyone else with the anti-Thorian grenades, you could have done the same thing with him.
Kal’Reegar and Kirrahe should’ve been squadmates. Because we’ve only ever had one Quarian Squadmate and one Salarian Squadmate and the number of squadmates in 3 is pretty damn small. Emily Wong should’ve been a reporter on the Normandy, instead of the good reviews stunt with Diana Allers and her show (Find out more between…the Battle Tits”. And Padok Wilks should’ve been on the Normandy in ME3 too. Such great characters. A shame they didn’t get more screen time.
Hackett and Kirrahe are absolute treasures
As a Scotsman myself, I found Donnelly a hilariously accurate character. Nice one BioWare, you just summed up an entire country in one guy, and I couldn’t be more proud
Tali's auntie Raan, Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay is one other underrated character. In tge case of Tali's demise, she steps up to the plate to fight for the cause. While unable to broker peace with the Geth, i think she's great character.
Also another Quarian favorite would be Morrigan..err i mean Admiral Daro'Xen vas Moreh. She's definitely one of tge most interresting Quarian, having what I think would be an older minset of Quarian when they were not yet exiled from their world, always pushing technology progress forward. Really like how dislikable she is.
"Well, well... what have we here?"
Mass Effect fleshes out characters really well, no matter the amount of time we know them.
I skipped the James Vega part, thanks for putting the timestamps. Good video other than that.
Don't know if anyone's seen it, but there's a animated movie called Paragon Lost that shows us what Vega went through to flesh him out further. It adds to the tragedy, especially seeing what it's like when Shepard isn't around.
Wait a minute. Isn't the scorpion handgun found just lying around on the ground during the Sur Kesh level? 8:18 the irony with the Bourbon/Scotch debate Ken does its ironic because many distillers of Scotch use Oak barrels that were used prior as barrels to age American Bourbon.
Udina won me over over time and by the time I played ME3 he really got on my good side with how passionate he was with saving earth. I do think they should've set up his betrayal more since it's so out of nowhere it almost feels forced but there's enough douchy moments that you can absolutely almost believe he'd do it out of selfishness but that wasn't the way his character was going.
Pretty much the whole of the list I agreed on you with 😊 Hell, I don't really have much - if anything - against James, and I wished that Padok and Emily Wong could have joined the team regardless.
Wish we could have Bray as a squadmate if you finished the Omega DLC, I think he was the one who had a throw away line regarding him the only batarian that doesn't want Commander Shep killed. Also he would have been a great addition since we could interact with him and share much of the batarians point of view of how they become the galaxies biggest pariah.
I agree that Bray would have been an interesting squadmate to have, but I don't think we would have wanted to hear the Batarian viewpoint on why they became "pariahs'. In their view, they didn't. They purposely pulled away from all other civilizations and isolated themselves because they believe that they are superior. The Hegemony forbids them to go outside of Batarian airspace, but cares little for those below a certain caste. That's where the pirates come from - they are forced to earn a living by preying off of what they believe are lesser beings. That is why the rest of the galaxy sees them as outcasts. His words, unless he is one of the few who don't feel as the majority do, would make him a less than sympathetic character. Great for an NPC, not so much for a team member on your ship. Especially in the 3rd game where there isn't a lot of time to bring him around to the idea that humanity is ok after all. Not wanting us dead isn't the same as actually liking us, although we did earn his respect in the end. It would have been great if they would have added a DLC mission with Bray as a team member. Now that the game has been remastered, they could still do it, and make a ton of money.
I actually disliked James until I watched Production I.G’s Paragon Lost, then I felt really sympathetic to James and his story (moreso than the short-ish version that James describes to Shepard in ME3)
"You've done a hell of a thing" is the greatest line ever.
I'd love to see a couple of things which I'm gonna suggest even if I haven't watched all the videos yet and thus may look stupid. Longbrow gaming ranks EVERYTHING in Skyrim and while I wouldn't recommend that for ME necessarily, I would love a ranking of teammates, best weapons, things like that in terms of content. Second idea is I would love to learn about all of the renegade options and interrupts you can do that DON'T hurt you in the long run somehow. That one's probably a little more difficult maybe. But you seem to know most everything about the game which make the channel great.
Admiral Hackett is a badass.
I'm hoping he'll be President of the Systems Alliance or something like that in the next game. Anderson is gone, Shepard is(probably) gone. Hackett is still there, and he lead the successful counteroffensive against the Reapers. He's humanities greatest surviving hero. I don't know that he'd work as human councillor, but leading humanity in its own space I think would work.
Udina I think was a great character too. I think he had potential to be a great human leader, but in the end he fell to fear and desperation.
You didn't include green wifu Shiala!
Love it Dan! These vids are kinda the highlight of my youtube watching 😂
I thought you would mention that Samara encountered and fought with Nihilis sometime prior to the events of Eden Prime
Shiala. Very compelling character and there's something about her voice and tone. Romance material for me.
I have pictured FitzSimmons from Agents of SHIELD for some reason with Ken and Gabby.
Still, among my favourites through 2 and 3 for the banter.
Did you know there was an animated Mass Effect movie that takes place in between Mass Effect 1 and 2 while Shepherd was still dead and Vega was the main character in the movie
That's new to me. Was it any good?
@@Andreas_42 yeah, it's about that tough decision that James had to make, if you can find a Blu-ray copy of it, I'd totally recommend it
Mass Effect Paragon Lost right?
@@aldodafino2586 yep thats it
@@riftshredder5438 Thank you. I'll look for a copy :-)
I still don’t understand why Victus was the bad guy there. He took the safer route, but still got ambushed. Bad luck yeah, but how is it a mistake?
I think it was considered a mistake because he didn't do the correct call according to turian military doctrine, which Was just to directly attack the enemy, and he got a bad result.
@@Noschool100 If he attacks the enemy directly, all the squad would be dead…
@@juzoli Well the expectation was that while casualties would be high the squad would make it through. I can't know like alternate timelines to a video game but the way that was presented at least shows that the casualties they received from his plans was worse than what they were expecting from just a frontal assault
@@juzoli Here I totally agree with you. His options were:
1) fly back and fail the mission => Krogan and Turian go to war or extremely heavy Krogan civilian casualties making their fight against Reapers way harder
2) fly directly and suffer heavy or total losses
3) try to fly low fly through ruins and try not to get spotted
a) you dont get spotted and do smash and grab strike against Cerberus with none to low losses
b) you get spotted but enemy is out of position and it takes some time to punish resulting in som low to medium losses
c) you get spotted but pretty late so you manage to land and do your thing and have high casualities leaving the planet
D) (actually happened) you get spotted early on and suffer massive casualties
e) you get spotted immediately and your entire group is killed by Harvesters (total losses)
Lt. Victus chose the only option with a chance of no to low casualties BUT the game portrays it as a mistake when the best option proved not good enough because the Reapers had scouting Harvesters everywhere. I hated that bit.
@@Noschool100 The Turian Hierarchy is a meritocracy. So people get into positions based on individual qualities. It is not mandatory to follow doctrines, they are qualified to make their own choices. That’s the whole point of a meritocracy.
Victus had 2 options at the point, and both were valid reasonable options. And to be honest, the safer option indeed seemed to be the better option at that time. It was bad luck.
But even if that was a bad call, choosing the safer route is absolutely no reason to talk to your commander like that… It is not like he was corrupt, or he just wanted to save himself. This is a war, and you can’t expect every decision will have a perfect outcome…
I would have liked having a way to save Fai Dan, his death is one of the few ones that deeply moved me in the trilogy
I have a theory about Vasir and why she knuckled under the old Shadow Broker - it is because her "parent organization" the Asari Commandos are a loose confederation of small local militias. Turian Sppectres are usually still part of the Turian military which may also serve as a source of funding and intelligence. Same goes for Salarian Spectres who still have access to STG funding and intel. And the same is true for humans, with their Sppectre being an Alliance N7 and thereby having access to Alliance (or Cerberus) funding and intel. Asari commandos don't even have a centralized command structure on whom to rely on for money and intel. So, Vasir worked for the Shadow Broker!
"I don't need to see your report to know you did the right thing. You've done a hell of a thing commander. Batarians had it coming for sure. Hackett out" - A. Hackett
In my headcanon, Hackett is either the father of my spaceborn Shep or becomes her stepfather when he and Hannah Shepard bond after working on the Crusible.
Nihilus has such a good design I wish we could spend more time with him
As far as squadmates go, Kaidan and Vega are dangerously underrated. Vega has some hilarious and insightful dialogue that most people miss out on because they're too enamored with Garrus or Liara. Kaidan was probably my 2nd favorite squadmate in ME1. Second only to Wrex, I just loved how interactive his character was. People know you can give Garrus the C-Sec officer or Spectre attitude based on your dialogue choices, but most people don't know that you can literally pass a speech check to make Kaidan prejudiced against aliens and the council lmao. He'll go from a bleeding heart paragon to actually having Wrex default to the paragon options between the two of them when deciding the councils fate. With the rachni, if you don't do/pass the speech check before Noveria, he advocates for their survival, but otherwise, he points you to the acid hooked up to the tank. In most conversations after the speech check, instead of suggesting that the council are flawed but good people, he will actively point out how the council mistreats humanity and how he's sick of them ignoring evidence from Shepard.
I think one underrated character is Manuel. While it’s only a brief interaction and Shepard may knock his lights out, there is something intriguing about Manuel. Manuel comes across as a raving lunatic, but he had information that should have been impossible for him to know. How did he know the repercussions of the reaper’s plan? And how did he know how the Geth viewed Saren?
Before i watch this, i better see my favorite quarian warrior Reegar in here
DAN! Wheres kal' reegar? Hes one of the only quarians thats willing to stand up publicly to the admiralty board for their grandstanding. They did him dirty in me 3. He ends up scarificing himself and like wong we only find this in an email
Manlyest quarian ever.
My Shepard in ME1: Nobody stabs me in the back Udina! Nobody!
My Shepard in ME3: (Shoots Udina) I told you.
I’d say Ashley. So many hate her, but I love her. 🤷♂️
I had no idea Fist could survive, I love this game so much lol
I was just thinking of something in mass effect 2 the council claims that there wasn’t enough of sovereign left to rule out being a Geth creation however in the ending of mass effect 1 several massive chunks of the reaper fall right into the council chambers nearly killing Shepard which means that either BioWare forget about that detail or that somehow the first area that would be secured wasn’t secured for long enough for either keepers somehow get rid of the wreckage or for someone to steal it.
The cannon that Garrus puts on the ship in ME2 was designed with technology found in the remains of the Sovereign. Which were privatized by companies clearing rubble. Even the dock researching the Leviathans got his share. So it's not so strange that the Council didn't get much to study.
hackett is essentially the narrator of the series
Kirrahe is a legend, no question, but pretty sure he doesn't give you the handgun - you find it on the ground.
Emily - Love her, but also gotta wonder....for Kalisa - an arabic named person that you can punch - political statement Bioware?
For me, underrated character - Gianna Parasini - intelligent conversation, ond oh....that voice.
No love for the Volus Pizza Delivery guy? Man curing the munchies.