Marauder Shields

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WARNING: This page assumes you have played Mass Effect 3, and is intrinsically tied to the game's endings. As such, spoilers for the ending of Mass Effect 3 may be unmarked.

"He was the final boss. But you just don't understand how serious this was. This isn't some random Marauder that popped out of nowhere. All this time, he waited for you [...] His name was Marauder Shields" —His name was Marauder Shields

Marauder Shields is a Mass Effect brief webcomic hosted on Deviant ART by user koobismo starring and centered on the eponymous "Marauder Shields" a Memetic and Fanonical Ensemble Darkhorse from Mass Effect 3 that literally originated as "a random marauder that appears apparently from thin air during the climax of Mass Effect 3.

The comics follow Shields and preexisting Mass Effect characters during the final hours of the Mass Effect trilogy, as the final battle against the Reapers rages across Earth and the Solar System. While the comics themselves are rather episodic, and focus on different characters every so often, there is a loose story arc present throughout the series, with every character contributing, knowingly or otherwise, to Shields's quest to save Commander Shepard from the Controversial Endings of Mass Effect 3.

The series can be found on koobismo's deviant art gallery, and updated semiregularly until 2014.

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Tropes used in Marauder Shields include:

• Affectionate Parody: The comic as a whole alternates between this and a more venomous critique of Mass Effect 3's endings. Slogans supporting the controversial "Retake Mass Effect (3) movement" appear at the bottom of every episode of the webcomic, For Better or Worse.
• Hero Antagonist: Either Shepard (Marauder has the utmost respect for Shepard and wants to save him, but Shepard doesn't know this) or Marauder (he's trying to save Shepard from the endings the only way he can), depending on which angle you want to view the series from.
• The Reveal: In the 6th episode it is revealed that Marauder Shields is in fact Nihlus, the turian spectre from Mass Effect who endorsed Shepard as a Spectre candidate before being killed by Saren on Eden Prime.
• Colonel Badass: definitely the now mutilated Commander Bailey.
• Scars Are Forever: Bailey's eye.
• Took a Level in Badass: half the cast, especially when compared with Mass Effect 3.
• Watching Troy Burn: couple of panels show the burning London with giant Reapers circling above it.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: averted to an epic scale. The main characters are unavailable, so their crew members have to step up to the plate and save Earth.
• Interrupted Suicide: Aria T'Loak in Episode 13 ("The Queen") takes a gun to her head to avoid being reaperized and end her life on her own terms. She is interrupted by Commander Bailey
• Killed Off for Real: Jack's students, incinerated just in front of her, with their white bones barely visible in the fire.
• True Companions: all of Normandy's crew and the Normandy (EDI) herself. No one abandons Shepard, they all fight for him/her and for each other.
• Shout-Out:
  • In Episodes #10 ("Spectres") & #13 ("The Queen"), Commander Bailey can be seen sporting a sexy eye-patch, resembling the one worn by one Saul Tigh, who was played by the same actor as Bailey (Michael Hogan).
  • In #13 ("The Queen"), one Christopher Blair can be seen discussing the Reaper attack taking place in Episode #12 ("Breaking Point").
  • In #16 ("Brothers Till The End"), James tells Javik the reason he became The Nicknamer was because he once called his girlfriend Sarah when her real name was Yvonne.
  • In #17 ("Believe"), while Joker is dogfighting with a Reaper: "I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
  • In #17 ("Believe"), Joker makes a reference to not wanting to become a vet, which coincidentally was the dream of one Scott Evil, also played by Seth Green.
  • In #20 ("Seeing Is Believing"), Liara mentions several companies that are interconnected and part of an elaborate Cerberus front on Earth, among them Belltower Associates, ApostleCorp, and Veidt Enterprises.
  • In #23 ("Dominoes Will Fall"), the Virmire survivor is part of a special unit numbered 343. The Codex entry at the end of the comic also references a special shock trooper program known as the Helljumper project.