Mass Effect 3/Characters/Antagonists and Npcs

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This page is for listing the tropes related to Antagonists and NPCs who first appeared in the third Mass Effect game.

For the pages listing tropes related to Party Members, NPCs and Antagonists who first appeared in other games in the trilogy, see the Mass Effect Character Index.

Main

Kai Leng

Cyborg Ninja, Circa 2186 CE

Cerberus thanks you for all your hard work.

Voiced by: Troy Baker

A Cerberus assassin who had a run in with David Anderson during the events of Retribution and Deception. He returns as part of the force that the Illusive Man sends against Shepard in the third game.

• All There in the Manual: Most of his background is covered in the books, where playing just the game you would think he's just another baddie. His backstory is alluded to if you dig, but not in much detail.
• Back Stab: Attempts this after his boss fight. It doesn't go well for him.
• Badass Normal: No biotics, no cybernetics, and still manages to kill a krogan (who, remember, have redundant organ systems and an innate Desperation Attack) in a Bar Brawl with just a knife. And then 6 turians, again with just a knife. Then, in Deception, manages to kill über-biotic Gillian Grayson with a shiv while injured.
• Badass Abnormal: Likely because of the grievous injuries he sustained at the end of Retribution, Kai Leng sports some serious cybernetic upgrades in Mass Effect 3.
• Blood From the Mouth: Happens when he's finally killed by Shepard.
• Blood Knight: He enlisted in the army at 16 using a false ID, only to be discharged for murdering a krogan the same year he was made N7. Hints of social darwinism aside, he just loves violence, and relishes the idea of going up against Shepard.

Shepard: Three-on-one, pal. It's over. Kai Leng: No. Now it's fun.

• Boss Banter: Taunts you and your party members during fights.
  • He's not very good at it; however, he gets burned bad more than once.
• Boxed Crook: The Illusive Man recruited him when he was imprisoned for the aforementioned incident with the krogan.
• Braggart Boss: With the sole exception that his actions and behavior aren't played for laughs, he fits this trope almost exactly, right down to the fancy flashy outfit.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: It's implied on Thessia that he's indoctrinated. If true, then it doesn't seem to have changed his personality much.
• Canon Immigrant: First appeared in the Retribution and Deception novels.
• Climax Boss: He's the game's final proper boss.
• Combat Pragmatist: He's more than happy to call in reinforcements to help him, or even have a gunship cover him while he "recharges".
• Contractual Boss Immunity: He is immune to Stasis, even when other enemies would be affected.
• Death by Irony: Shepard guts him with an omniblade.
• Determinator: Near the end of Retribution, Anderson shoots him in both legs to slow down his escape while he and Kahlee tend to a wounded boy. Leng still manages to get away by using his arms to climb up a ladder and swinging from bars along the ceiling to get to his shuttle before security can find him. And yes, dropping from the ceiling onto legs that are bleeding out is painful as hell. Also, after being beaten by Shepard at the Cerberus HQ, he will muster up all his remaining energy to try and stab Shepard while s/he's busy looking through the Illusive Man's files, though Shepard will simply counter him with an omniblade stab to the sides that finishes him off for good.
• Dirty Coward: For all of his gloating, he does have a tendency to retreat and hide behind superior firepower whenever the odds are against him (read: whenever he's up against Shepard), at least until the the final battle with him. Shepard calls him out on this during their final confrontation, which Kai Leng doesn't handle very gracefully.
• The Dragon: To the Illusive Man.
  • The Heavy: To the Illusive Man's Non-Action Big Bad. Kai Leng is a greater threat in combat than the Illusive Man, and is the one who shows up in person to carry out his orders.
• Establishing Character Moment: In Retribution, personally killing Liselle for being an asari.
• Evil Counterpart: Shepard's. Shepard and Kai Leng are both former N7 operatives and the best fighters of their respective organizations (the Alliance/Council for Shepard and Cerberus for Kai Leng). Also, while Kai Leng hates aliens, the fate of the galaxy hangs on Shepard's ability to rally the other races to fight together against the Reapers. His cybernetic upgrades further parallel them. Lampshaded by the Illusive Man in-game.
• Evil Is Petty: In Deception, he busts into Anderson's house to plant some bugs. Before he leaves, he sits down, takes out a bowl, and eats Anderson's cereal. Yes, really.
  • In the game proper, he sends an email taunting Shepard about the fall of Thessia under the guise of Asari Military Command, with the subject "Evacuating Thessia". The first thing it says is "Good, you opened this message. This isn't actually asari military command." You can almost hear the smug laugh that would follow that sentence.
• Fantastic Racism: He really doesn't like aliens.
• Fatal Flaw: His pride. He arrogantly refuses to take Shepard seriously as a threat and constantly taunts him/her about his/her failures and dead friends and allies. His underestimation of his/her skill gets him killed.
• Femme Fatalons: Well, yellow press-on nails.
• Final Boss: Of the Cerberus plot arc. In fact, he's arguably the last traditional boss fight in the entire game.
• Final Boss Preview: The first fight with him during Priority: Thessia, which overlaps with Hopeless Boss Fight.
• Flash Step: He can leave after-images behind him too.
• Flunky Boss: During the second fight.
• Foil: To Miranda. The scenes in which they are introduced are very similar, and they are both among the most talented Cerberus operatives the Illusive Man ever employed. Whereas Miranda ends up being fairly heroic by the time the Reapers comes, Leng is solidly monstrous.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: No matter what you hit him with during the fight on Thessia, he is unharmed and has his gunship blow up the temple while he steals the Prothean VI you're after.
• Hero-Killer: Along with killing Gillian with a sharpened toothbrush in Deception, Kai Leng can potentially end up killing any combination of Kirrahe, Thane and/or Miranda.
• Hypocrite: Calls quite a few people cowards (including Kirrahe or Thane, who died stopping him from completing his assassination), while running away from Shepard multiple times, and getting reinforcements when he gets hit.
• I Like Those Odds:

Shepard: Three against one, pal. It's over. Kai Leng: No. Now it's fun.

• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How he ends up fatally wounding Thane (but not Kirrahe, who takes a bullet instead). And then the climax comes, wherein Shepard kills him the exact same way.
• Implacable Man: Gets the drop on Shepard's team by landing on top of their Flying Car. A car that Shepard is driving. While shooting at him. He manages to disable it and escape.
• Improbable Weapon User: He killed the most powerful human biotic alive with a toothbrush.
• Invisibility: Has an Infiltrator/Kasumi-style tactical cloak.
• I Shall Taunt You: After the fall of Thessia at the hands of the Reapers, you receive an email from him telling you about how your failure has caused millions to die and that he looks forward to killing you next time you two meet.
• Katanas Are Just Better: With a Hand Wave as to why it's effective in a game where kinetic barriers are standard. Subverted in his final appearance in Mass Effect 3. You can take a Renegade interrupt in order to backhand Leng's katana and shatter it before finishing him your Omni-Blade.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Shepard is emotionally devastated after the loss of Thessia, putting the blame on him/herself entirely. Kai Leng rubs it in by sending a message to Shepard afterwards telling him/her that Thessia fell because s/he simply wasn't good enough.
  • During the fight with him on Thessia, he'll trash-talk whoever he got a chance to kill previously when they met on the Citadel. The reactions of your squaddies say it all.
• King Mook: He's basically a powered up Cerberus Phantom (complete with gymnastics) with enhanced durability and some additional abilities.
• Knife Nut: It's what he used to kill six turians and a krogan. And as of Deception, an incredibly powerful biotic... although technically, he used a shiv made from a toothbrush.
• Lame Comeback: In the final fight, Shepard mocks him for his tendency to run when things don't go his way. He gets flustered pretty quickly.

Kai: S-shut up!

• Laser-Guided Karma: After fatally wounding at least one of Thane, Miranda and Kirrahe; Shepard winds up killing Leng in the same way, running him through with an omniblade. The scene plays out the same even if Shepard is an Adept or a Vanguard, the two classes which don't use the omniblade in their heavy melee attack; thereby meaning that Adept/Vanguard!Shepard uses the omniblade once in the entire game, just to invoke this trope.
• Laughably Evil: His Deception characterization. This hardcore badass apparently enjoys stealing his victims' cereal and stabbing people with toothbrushes. Fortunately, his Retribution appearance is the one that the game draws from.
  • Ask any prison guard how laughable a shiv made from a toothbrush is.
• Meaningful Name: "Leng" means "cold" in Chinese.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Well, he's a racist cyborg ninja come Mass Effect 3.
• Oh Crap: Hard to catch, but he makes one right after Shepard shatters his sword and right before s/he fatally stabs him in the side.
• One-Man Army: Almost certainly, seeing as he killed six turians with a knife and, in a separate incident, killed a krogan singlehanded with a knife. As a boss fight, however, he has no problems with calling a gunship for cover fire while he recharges his shields or summoning mooks to his side.
• Power Palms: Most likely due to his cybernetic nature.
• Recurring Boss: Twice. First is a Hopeless Boss Fight though.
• Reverse Grip: With his sword, like the Cerberus Phantoms, with whom he shares a lot of combat animations.
• Slapped Across The Room: In the cutscene, after his and Shepard's first fight on the Thessia mission, he runs up to Liara, knocks her gun out of her hand, and slaps her, sending her flying several feet and crashing into squadmate #2. He then calls in an airstrike.
  • He was also a victim of this trope, being on the receiving end of Thane's biotic-pimp-smack-across-the-room when he showed up on the Citadel.
• Smug Snake: It is very hard to sympathize with this bastard. Yeah, he's a bloodthirsty, xenophobic hitman, but he's also, and more importantly, a complete tool. On Thessia, he trash-talks the person he killed on the Citadel, provoking an infuriated reaction from your squadmates. After escaping with the plans for the Catalyst while Thessia falls to the Reapers, he sends Shepard an email just to rub his/her nose in it.
• The Social Darwinist: He firmly believes in the Illusive Man's vision of "uplifting" humanity via Reaper tech. "We evolve or we die, those are the options!"
• Sword and Gun: His preferred weapons in the books, as befitting an assassin, are a knife and silenced handgun. In the game, he uses an actual sword and utilizes Power Palms.
• Sword Beam: The horizontal crescent-wave version.
• Tattooed Crook: Kai Leng sports an Ouroboros tattoo on the back of his neck.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch: Gets on the receiving end of this in the Cerberus battle from Shepard, who has different dialogue depending on how the Cerberus encounter goes.

Shepard: That was for Thane, you son of a bitch.

• Underestimating Badassery: He severely underestimates Shepard at several points. This proves to be his undoing.
  • To the point where if you take the Renegade interrupt, Kai Leng, known as one of the galaxy's deadliest assassins, ends up taking just a moment too long when he attempts to kill Shepard. Without even blinking, s/he promptly spins around, breaks his sword bare-handed and stabs him to death with the omni-blade Keep in mind this is literally seconds after he has been beaten to a pulp, after which Shepard casually went back to what s/he were doing before-hand.
• Whole Costume Reference: With his eye-covering HUD displays, jaw armor, synthetic muscles, bar-code markings and conventional metal sword, Kai Leng's outfit looks quite a bit like Metal Gear Solid 4's cyborg ninja design.
• With This Herring: Kills a squad of six turian commandos with a knife, and kills the most powerful human biotic in the galaxy with a toothbrush.
• Wrecked Weapon: Take the Renegade interrupt after his boss fight, and he gets to see Shepard break his sword in half before stabbing him.
• You Fight Like a Cow: Engages in this with Shepard, especially during their final showdown. As noted above, Shepard throws it right back in his face.

Kai Leng: You're slow, Shepard! Commander Shepard I'm only slow because I'm not running!

---

Secondary

Dr. Eva Coré

A Cerberus infiltration unit the Illusive Man uses to take over the Alliance facility on Mars. Shepard's team narrowly prevents it from escaping with the information on the Crucible they need, although it still manages to hospitalize Ashley/Kaidan.

• Canon Immigrant: Subverted: this Eva Coré is not the Eva Coré from Evolution (the fact that the Eva Coré from Evolution dies at the end of the comic should be a pretty big hint). She was named after her by the Illusive Man.
• Dark Action Girl
• Dark Chick: Fills this role in regards to Cerberus.
• Evil Counterpart: To EDI.
• FemBot: As seen in her Robotic Reveal.
• Femme Fatale: Built to be one.
• Get Back Here Boss: At first.
• Gundamjack: When EDI starts scanning for the Prothean info it downloaded, Eva comes back online and tries to attack. EDI spends the rest of the game "wearing" her body.
• The Mole: She arrives at the Mars Archives science team a week before the Reaper invasion, but is actually working for Cerberus.
• Out of the Inferno
• Replacement Goldfish: She's named after one of two friends the Illusive Man lost during Evolution. She was designed to be unquestioningly loyal and, apparently, to look good even without the fake skin. What the Shadow Broker archives tell us about the guy's sexual history does not help.
  • She's also a replacement for Miranda in some respects: she wears similar clothes before they're burned off, was designed and created to be attractive, powerful and intelligent, and acts, as Miranda did, with nothing but complete loyalty for Cerberus in mind.
• Robotic Reveal: When she emerges from the shuttle crash with her synthetic skin burnt away, revealing her metallic body and glowing eyes.
• Rush Boss: For the second part of the fight you only have to shoot at her for a few seconds, but she'll kill Shepard in one hit if you don't kill her before she gets to you.

Henry Lawson

Few people have the stomach to do what it takes to survive.

Voiced by: Alan Dale

We finally meet Miranda's ego-maniacal father in person. He's exactly as bad as she always claimed.

• Archnemesis Dad: To Miranda.
• Bad Samaritan: In the running for being the Most Triumphant Example.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: One of the wealthiest businessmen in the galaxy, though we don't know what he does when he's not manufacturing Designer Babies.
• Destination Defenestration: Miranda biotically throws him through a window to his death.
• Disney Villain Death: Courtesy of Miranda.
• Evil Genius: To the Reapers' Big Bad and the Illusive Man's Dragon. He manages to find a way to control husks independently of Reaper influence, to a limited extent.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: By the time you catch up with him, his base has been trashed by a Reaper attack that caused all of the husks that he thought he had under control to go berserk. He's still alive, but probably wouldn't have lasted much longer if you hadn't shown up.
• The Ghost: In Mass Effect 2.
• It's All About Me: Obsessed with his legacy.
• Karma Houdini: Only if Miranda died at the Collector base, and you decide to let him walk.
• Mad Scientist: Oh boy... He used a refugee camp called Sanctuary as a front for a husk facility.
• Necessarily Evil: "I will be regarded as the savior of the human race!" Uh-huh.
• Offing the Offspring: He's really not too concerned about Miranda's welfare. He's also "discarded" the Designer Babies that didn't live up to his expectations. If you can't talk him down or miss the Renegade interrupt, he'll shoot her in the stomach before she kills him.

Miranda: I wasn't the first [child] he made. Just the first one he kept.

• Truly Single Parent: His "daughters" were made by mixing his genes with specifically chosen female DNA from to produce "perfect" children for his dynasty.
• The Unfought
• Villains Want Mercy: The guy tricks people of multiple species into coming to "Sanctuary", a place where they will be safe from the Reapers... only to slaughter them all and/or turn them into husks, and send the ones that fall in between off to become Cerberus Mooks. And he wants Shepard to just let him walk away.

Normandy Crew

Diana Allers

I can do this, Commander. Remind me to tell you about the time I made an elcor cry.

Wars can be won or lost in the editing room, and this war needs to be won.

A reporter who can join Shepard aboard the Normandy in Mass Effect 3. Voiced by and modeled on IGN's Jessica Chobot.

• Bi the Way: A romance option for both male and female Shepard.
• Doomed Hometown: She mentions in passing that her homeworld is the colony of Bekenstein. Towards the end of the game, her colony is razed and her family killed because the Reapers target industrial areas... and her hometown had a factory that made binoculars.
• Dropped a Bridge On Her: If you refuse her, she puts herself on another ship, which is blown up, and she dies.
• Dull Surprise: There are several instances of this, but one of the first moments is when she's dismayed by a Shepard who supports a crew member regarding Allers' opinion piece on abandoning Terra Nova (she's for it; the crew member's against). She expresses her disapproval in her normal tone despite it being clear by her dialogue that she's unhappy about it, and her facial expression doesn't change.
• Gay Option: For female characters.
• Hot Scoop
• Ink Suit Actor: Her appearances are based on her voice actress.
• Ms. Fanservice: Her outfit is a form-fitting dress that accentuates her features. Invoked for her show, purely because Sex Sells.
• Tagalong Reporter

Steve Cortez

Anything for you!

I seem to remember getting shot at the whole time and everyone coming back in one piece, Mr Vega.

Voiced by: Matthew Del Negro

One of the people responsible for retrofitting the Normandy SR-2. His talent for flying led him to become the Normandy's shuttle pilot after the Reaper invasion began. He is an old friend of James. Like many members of the crew, he has a personal stake in the fight against the Reapers: his husband was killed during the Collector attack on the colony of Ferris Fields.

• Ace Pilot: A former fighter jock who spends nearly as much time tinkering with his birds as flying them. He's not so attached to them that he'll risk pissing off an 800-pound krogan with a shotgun, though. His skill at flying is further highlighted in Citadel, where he reveals that he prefers flying with the inertial dampeners off and pulling a few G's, even doing a barrel-roll.
  • Falling Into the Cockpit: He has experience flying and obviously does a fine job, but on paper he is actually your logistics officer, and ended up running the shuttles because no one else on the Normandy could.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: If you didn't befriend or romance him, he dies when his shuttle is shot down during the last level.
• Gay Option: For male Shepards.
• Invisible to Gaydar: Displays no stereotypical mannerisms.
• Romancing the Widower: His husband Robert died during the Collectors' abduction of Ferris Fields, and he can be romanced by male Shepard during the course of Mass Effect 3.
• Second Love: With male Shepard, if romanced.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The sensitive guy to James' manly man. While he firmly fits as a Invisible to Gaydar, he's not afraid to talk about his feelings, his problems letting go of his dead husband, and even cry in front of others. This is all presented in a very serious light, without a hint of camp.
• Twofer Token Minority: Gay and Latin-American.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: He and James knew each other before they both ended up on the Normandy, and spend most of their time heckling each other.

Samantha Traynor

Checkmate!

It's almost as if you wanted to spare your pawns the indignity of living under my regime.

Voiced by: Alix Wilton Regan

A civilian who aided the retrofitting of the Normandy SR-2. Her technical skills led to EDI requesting her to be made Communications Specialist after the Reaper invasion began. She takes over Kelly's role, informing Shepard of new mail and events that the Commander should know about.

• Adorkable
• All Lesbians Want Kids: The conclusion of her romance.
• Falling Into the Cockpit: She happened to be working aboard the Normandy as a civilian dockside technician when the Reaper attack hit. Ends up as the Communications Officer.
• Gay Option: For female Shepards.
• Incompatible Orientation: If you try and hit on her as male Shepard.
• Invisible to Gaydar: Displays no stereotypical mannerisms.
  • Lipstick Lesbian: Very feminine and only into women.
• Mundane Utility: Her toothbrush. It uses mass effect fields, the miracle technology that makes faster-than-light travel possible, to floss between the teeth. It costs over six thousand credits, so needless to say, Shepard isn't putting in a requisition order to replace the one she lost.
• Sexy Secretary: Unlike Kelly, it's entirely coincidental.
• Shower of Love: Her romance scene.
  • Nipple-and-Dimed: Apparently Miss Traynor likes to take her showers while wearing her lacy bra and panties. And with the door open (of course, she is trying to seduce a female Shepard)...
• Smart People Play Chess: Either she is very very good at it, or Shepard plays chess about as well as s/he dances.
• Sorry, I'm Gay/You're Not My Type: How she rejects male Shepard if he hits on her.
• Teach Her Anger: During the fight with the Reaper Destroyer on Rannoch, she states that for the first time, she felt angry. She didn't want to simply defeat that reaper, she wanted to kill it. Shepard congratulates her on finding her fight-or-flight response.

Bethany Westmoreland and Sarah Campbell

• Falling Into the Cockpit: They were Joker's guards (in the "legal custody" sense, not the "Very Important Person" sense) before the Reaper attack, keeping watch over him while he worked with EDI during the Normandy's refit. When the Reaper attack happened, they accepted Joker and EDI's offer of a ride. Now they guard the War Room, evidently for lack of anything else to do with their skills.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: Averted. They evidently check everybody before allowing them in or out of the War Room, including Shepard, the ship's commander. Every friggin' time s/he walks through.
• Punny Name: "Westmoreland?" Really?
• Those Two Guys: They pass the time by idly bantering about whatever mission Shepard has just returned from.
• With Us or Against Us: Campbell states that she's totally fine with killing one of her ex-friends, simply because he joined Cerberus.

---

The New Council

If the Destiny Ascension was destroyed in the climax of the first game, the replacement Council refused to meet with you in the second due to your Cerberus ties. This is the first time you meet the other races' new representatives: Quentius (turian), Dalatrass Esheel (salarian) and Irissa (asari).

Primarch Adrien Victus

I'm not really a "by the book" kind of guy... and I piss people off.

Decisions like these weigh heavy on me. When I was a general I could pass them up the chain of command, but now I'm all I've got.

A turian general leading the defense against the Reapers attacking Palaven. General Adrien Victus is rescued from Palaven's moon Menae by Commander Shepard after the initial attack killed Primarch Fedorian. The line of succession in the Hierarchy is very clear: Victus is to be the new Primarch and must lend the might of the turian fleet in Shepard's battle against the Reapers.

• The Chains of Commanding: He and Shepard have quite a few conversations about this.
• A Father to His Men: Cares deeply about the well-being of his people and refuses to simply leave them to their fates.
• Four-Star Badass
• The Kirk: To Linron's Spock and Wrex/Wreav's The McCoy.
• The Men First: He's hesitant to leave his men behind when his presence is needed on the Normandy to coordinate an alliance.
• Military Maverick: He has this reputation thanks to his unorthodox tactics.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: By far the most cooperative ally Shepard has in the first act of the game.
• Reluctant Ruler: Not particularly happy about being Primarch.
• Unfortunate Name: "Victus" means "conquered", "defeated" in Latin.
• You Are in Command Now: His predecessor was killed immediately after the Reapers arrived. He's actually very bitter about the promotion, stating that he hates politicians.

Dalatrass Linron

A bully has few friends when he needs them the most!

A leader of the Salarian people. Shepard has to negotiate an alliance between her, Primarch Victus and Wrex/Wreav during the first act of the game, a task made no easier by her feelings regarding the krogan.

• Fantastic Racism: She refuses to believe that the krogan can be anything but brutish thugs. If Wreav is leading them, there's at least some reason for her to be worried, but keeping Wrex alive makes her attitude come off even worse.
  • Eve makes Linron sound even more foolish.
• Hypocrite: She preaches that Shepard is repeating the salarians' mistake of using the krogan to fight a war, ignoring the inevitable fallout that will follow an unchecked krogan population boom. We then learn that the salarians are planning on secretly uplifting the yahg, who are stronger than krogan, as smart as salarians, and adaptive as humans.
• Jerkass: Hides the fact that she's holding the cured female krogan, constantly impedes the alliance peace talks, and to top it all off asks you to sabotage the genophage cure. Never shows a second of remorse for anything that she's done.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: She puts Udina and the Citadel council to shame in this category.
• Pet the Dog: If you do go through with her plan to sabotage the genophage, Linron fully lives up to her promise. She will also provide falsified data that says the genophage cure was flawed from the getgo in case the krogan start to ask questions.
• Smug Snake: And how. She clearly thinks she's a Magnificent Bitch, but by the end of Act I, if the genophage is cured and Wrex and Eve are alive, everyone is tired of her bullshit, and the entire STG goes AWOL to fight Reaper forces despite the genophage being cured.
• The Spock: Compared to Wrex/Wreav's The McCoy, and Victus and Paragon!Shepard's Kirk. Not that they necessarily take her opinion seriously.

Padok Wiks

In the interests of science, how do krogan mate?

The scientist in charge of the secret base on Sur'Kesh where you meet Eve. If Mordin died in the Suicide Mission, Wiks then joins you on the Normandy and takes over his role in the story, synthesizing a genophage cure from Eve's tissue.

• The Atoner: He helps Eve in order to make amends for a career of interfering with the natural order.
• Brain Bleach: Inflicts this upon Shepard and himself.
• Demoted to Extra: If he's not taking Mordin's place, his presence in the story is wildly reduced, even to the point of losing 80% of conversation options during your single remaining interaction with him.
• Face Death with Dignity: After fixing the sabotage and allowing the dispersal of the genophage cure, he crosses his arms behind his back, stands tall and waits for death.
• For Science!: Why he wants to know how krogan mate.
• Go Out with a Smile: Dies with pride as he cures the genophage and restores the future of the krogan.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He goes out the same way as Mordin.
• The Mole: If Mordin died in the suicide mission, he lets the krogan know about the females the STG recovered. It cost him a lot of friends on Sur'Kesh, but it was the right thing to do.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Joker takes to calling him "not-Mordin" until he sacrifices himself, but talking to him reveals that he's more spiritual (and detests Gilbert and Sullivan).

Major Coats

The Admiral's being modest. He's the reason any of us are still alive.

The soldier in London from the very first trailer appears at the end of the game, complaining about spending three days trapped in Big Ben. He helps Anderson co-ordinate the final push on a teleport beam leading up to the Citadel.

• Badass Normal: He spent three days holed up in the Westminster clock tower while Reapers were landing around him. He survived that, and managed to (possibly) survive the entire Reaper invasion of Earth.
• Deadpan Snarker: Particularly in the trailer, where inbetween scopin'-and-dropin' husks from Big Ben, he's half-complaining that Shepard hasn't shown up with The Cavalry yet.
• Majorly Awesome: A major in the Alliance.
• Mauve Shirt: Although whether or not he survives is unclear.
• Sniper Rifle: His preferred weapon. Specifically an M-29 Incisor in the trailer.

Lieutenant Tarquin Victus

Victory, at any cost...

The son of Primarch Adrien Victus, Lieutenant Tarquin Victus is leading a squad of turian troops on a mission to defuse a bomb near a major krogan population center, a bomb which was long ago planted by the turian government as a contingency in case another round of rebellions happened. With an alliance between the krogans, turians and humans in its infancy, it is imperative that Victus complete his mission.

• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He earns the respect of his troops the hard way. Posthumously.
• Dare to Be Badass: How Shepard can inspire him to gain the loyalty of his troops, reminding him that they are turian, they swore an oath of service and should be willing to give their lives to secure the mission's success. They do not just get to quit. And it works!
• Deader Than Dead: No way he survived the explosion, even if he managed to doge getting crushed by that machine.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Dies disabling the bomb on Tuchanka, redeeming himself in the eyes of his people.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Falls to his death to make sure the bomb gets disabled.
• Redemption Equals Death: At least in turian eyes, he needed redemption. And he got it.

Jondum Bau

And for the record--not everyone doubted your word about the Reapers. I just hope we're not too late.

A salarian Spectre trying to capture Kasumi Goto, until she sends him a tip that hanar diplomats are working for the Reapers. Can be killed by the diplomat's guard or saved by Commander Shepard. If saved, Bau becomes the spokesperson for a Spectre Unit willing to aid Shepard.

• Killed Off for Real: If you don't have Kasumi, you have to choose between saving him or stopping the virus from disabling the hanar homeworld's defenses.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Unlike the Council, he and his fellow Spectres have always taken Shepard's warnings of the Reaper threat seriously. He's also one of the few Spectres that Shepard meets that neither tries to betray or kill them.
• Worthy Opponent: He and Kasumi have this going. She's so good it's "almost salarian", apparently.

Kahlee Sanders

We met -- God, what's it been? -- 20 years ago. I was there when Saren betrayed him.

Voiced by: Grey DeLisle

A first lieutenant working for the Alliance. She works at the Jon Grissom Academy as part of the Ascension Project, a school for young human biotics, although she isn't a biotic herself. She is an old acquaintence of David Anderson. She appeared in the Mass Effect novels Revelation, Ascension, Retribution and Deception before appearing in Mass Effect 3, where she helps to evacuate the students from the academy when Cerberus attacks.

• Blue Eyes/Power Blonde: The novels make a big deal over her being a blue-eyed blonde; apparently both blonde hair and blue eyes are dying traits in the future, although the games themselves don't really show this.
  • Though it would explain the games' repeated failures to render blond Shepards...
• Canon Immigrant: Was a major character in the novels, before having a minor appearance in the third game.
• Token Romance: With Anderson in Revelation.

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Non-Council Space

"Eve"/Urdnot Bakara

Heh, then maybe we can show the men how it's done.

Wisdom comes from pain, and the genophage has made us very wise.

Voiced by: Lani Minella

The sole survivor of Maelon's experiment to cure the genophage, she represents the future of the krogan people. Shepard must protect her from a Cerberus onslaught and safely escort her to Tuchanka.

• Babies Ever After: If Wrex is the leader, and the genophage is cured, Wrex will let you know Eve is pregnant in an email.
• Badass Damsel: She spends most of a mission locked in a pod, being escorted and protected by Shepard and co. But once she gets free, the first thing she does is yank a shotgun out of an ally's hands and blast two Cerberus troopers to kingdom come.

"Eve": I can handle myself, Wrex. Wrex: (Beat) Women.

• Does Not Like Men: At least, krogan men. That said, she still says Wrex is the best thing to ever happen to the krogan.
• Firing One-Handed: Apparently how she handles shotguns.
• Hidden Depths: If you're expecting a flat Damsel in Distress, talk to her for like five seconds. She's contemplative, philosophical and damn near poetic, with no illusions about why krogans hold the status (or lack thereof) they do in the galaxy.
• Hooked Up Afterwards: Implied to have done so with Wrex, who mentions she's pregnant by the time you take back Earth. Wrex jokes that it's one of the perks of his being clan-chief, even if she does want to name the firstborn child after Mordin.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Depending on the choice you make.
• Killed Off for Real: If Maelon's data was not saved in Mass Effect 2, she will die.
• Like an Old Married Couple: Her above interaction with Wrex has this vibe.
• Lysistrata Gambit: Eve turned the genophage into one of these, seeing this as a unique opportunity for females to influence society.
• MacGuffin Girl: She is the only test subject of Maelon's to survive, the only krogan to ever be cured of the genophage and live. This makes her insanely valuable, as a cure can be synthesized based on her newfound immunity... which makes her a target for Cerberus, who don't want the krogan to join the battle against the Reapers.
• Meaningful Name: Invoked: because she did not share her true name, Mordin chose to call her "Eve", as he believes that human mythology would be appropriate, considering that she's currently on a human vessel.
• Men Use Violence, Women Use Communication: Played completely straight and lampshaded by Wrex.
  • Lampshades this with FemShep, noting she's glad to see that humans treat their women with the respect and honour they deserve.
• Morality Chain: If Wrex is krogan leader, he only needs a bit of prodding from her. If Wreav is leader, most of the cast agree she's the only thing keeping him from repeating history. If she dies, leaving Wreav unchecked, you can convince Mordin/Padok to sabotage the genophage cure for the sake of galactic stability.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: She believes that while the genophage was an atrocity, the fact that in its wake, the krogan turned from a once-proud race to a roaving band of mercenaries who resort to petty thuggery and barbarism to solve problems, means she can see why it was done.
• Odd Friendship: With Mordin, and Shepard if you're kind to her. She even says she wants to name her first born child after Mordin, in memory of his sacrifice.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: She's the female clan's Shaman: like the Urdnot Shaman who oversaw Grunt's rite, she explains that she gave up her name the day she took the title. The Normandy team takes to calling her Eve.
  • However, complete the Tuchanka arc perfectly (by doing all missions, keeping her alive, and releasing the cure) and Eve will deem Shepard a friend worthy of knowing her true name: Urdnot Bakara.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: By far the most reasonable Krogan in the series. Even moreso than Wrex!
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Although Wrex is very Blue compared to the typical krogan, he is still Red to Eve. Mordin considers her to be a good moderating influence on Wrex.
• Rousing Speech: Very capable of making these. It's actually quite fascinating and inspiring listening to her dialogue.
• Sole Survivor: Out of all the test subjects, she is the only one who survived the process.
• Stop Being Stereotypical: She will deliver a speech of this theme to her people on Tuchanka, before the Krogan armies hit the Shroud.
• Tsundere: Toward Wrex.

Urdnot Dagg

To be hated by ones so powerful speaks well of you. My krogan would destroy anything we face to earn such a reputation.

If Grunt wasn't accepted into Clan Urdnot, wasn't decanted, or died in the Suicide Mission, his role as leader of Aralakh company is filled by this guy.

• Blood Knight: Enough that he assumes Shepard's one as well. In fact, he's jealous that Shepard has Reapers personally looking out for his/her death.
• Foreshadowing: When you can personally overlook a fight between the krogan and rachni, you'll notice that Dagg has a harder time fighting them than Grunt would. This is the clue that he won't survive the mission.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Held off the rachni to keep them off Shepard.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Repeatedly, in the back, by rachni.
• In the Back: How he dies.
• Killed Off for Real: His death is unavoidable.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: More or less, for Grunt.

Kalros

A Colossal Thresher Maw that has roamed the wastelands of Tuchanka for more than a thousand years. When the salarians set up the atmosphere-replenishing Shroud tower during the Uplifting, they built it near an arena dedicated to Kalros to discourage any vandals or saboteurs. It worked: even after the Shroud was used to spread the genophage, no-one dared go near it... until Shepard and co. needed it to spread the cure.

• Cool Versus Awesome: She fights a freaking Reaper. And wins.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Yes she did.
• The Dreaded: Even krogan try to stay out of her way. Garrus puts it best:

Garrus: When the krogan name a thresher maw, you know you're in trouble. They don't think anyone's going to kill it.

• Tuchanka's Vengeance: Wrex invokes this.

Wrex: If Tuchanka has a temper, Kalros is it.

• Kaiju: It's simply enormous.
• Monster Progenitor/Mother of a Thousand Young: She's said to be the mother from whom all thresher maws spawn. This is probably an exaggeration. We think. It may be true for all the ones on Tuchanka though; the place is apparently crawling with them.
• Sand Worm: The biggest one we've ever seen.
• Summon Bigger Fish

Geth VI

We are not Legion.

Voiced by: D. C. Douglas

A virtual intelligence created by the geth to study the Reapers. It is constructed from a backup copy of Legion, and appears if that character was sold to Cerberus or slain at the Collector Base. It is less friendly than Legion at first.

• Heroic Sacrifice: To finish the upload of the Reaper code to the rest of the geth.
• Killed Off for Real: Its death can't be avoided.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Legion's. Depending on your playthrough, it's implied it's the same platform (returned to the Perseus Veil) but different software uploaded into it.

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*END-GAME SPOILER*

The Catalyst

The story is older than the Cycles themselves: "The created destroys the creator."

The missing component for the Crucible turns out to be the Citadel itself; the sapient AI that created and controls the Reapers. He was created countless aeons ago to avert the inevitable Robot Wars that spring up between the created and their creators. His solution was the forcible transformation of all spacefaring species in Reaper form. He left less advanced ones alone to flourish, essentially hitting the Reset Button over and over for millions of years.

• And Then John Was a Zombie: The Catalyst states very firmly that organic life directs the Cycles. Every organic civilization creates synthetic life and subsequently goes to war with it.
  • Note that this directly contradicts what Sovereign said in the first game about the mass relay system deliberately setting the course of galactic technology. Of course, Sovereign also claimed that the Reapers had no creator and no origin, and the Catalyst is its creator...
• Bigger Bad: He's not fought, and when Shepard finally encounters him, he surrenders peacefully because Shepard's interaction with him itself signifies that the Reapers have failed in their purpose, which he acknowledges to be grotesque; he thus leaves the new solution in Shepard's hands.
  • Non-Action Big Bad: It lets the Reapers do everything instead.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: In a Bittersweet Ending sort of fashion: should you go for the Synthesis ending, he will fuse organic and synthetic life, resulting in a final victory from his perspective;since organics and synthetics are now one and the same, the Reapers' purpose is meaningless.
• Creepy Child: His avatar is a dark energy simulacra of that boy who was killed in the escape from Earth. Or, he projected that avatar in a more comfortable form in a failed attempt to avert this.
• Diabolus Ex Machina: The Catalyst is introduced in the last minutes of the game, and Shepard only gets to use the Crucible at its mercy, thus ensuring that the Reapers only lose on their own terms.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Inverted. His voice sounds like a young boy's, and he's definitely the least malevolent of the Reapers.
  • Power Echoes: However, his voice does resonate due to how the game channels it: a child's voice overlayed with male Shepard's voice in one speaker and female Shepard's voice in the other.
• The Fatalist: He is of the opinion that organics and synthetics are destined to kill each other forever... even if you have the geth and the quarians make peace.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: Manifests physically as the specter of a child Shepard sees killed on Earth. Or presented himself to Shepard as that child to promote comfort should Shepard succeed in reaching him.
• Freudian Excuse: Implied. His reasoning sounds like he's learned from bitter experience.
• Graceful Loser: See Bigger Bad. No ego-maniacal speeches, no This Cannot Be!... he simply admits his system will no longer work and gives Shepard final say on what to do with the Crucible's power.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: It is subtly implied that the three options he presents you with are only the options that he wants to present you with.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Judging from how horrifying his solution is, it's hard to imagine something more monstrous once existed. Nevertheless, in his efforts to prevent wars between organics and their synthetic creations from destroying the galaxy, he, a synthetic created by organics, creates synthetic constructs that kill or harvest all remotely advanced organic and synthetic life.
• Manipulative Bastard: Even if you don't believe in the Indoctrination Theory, you cannot doubt that he is this to some degree. Just listen to how he makes the Synthesis option sound like the best option and how he addresses the issue that the geth will die as well in the Destroy ending. His sad, reflective tone when he mentions that little factoid as opposed to his cheerier, more hopeful one when discussing Synthesis sounds very much like he's trying to guilt-trip Shepard into keeping synthetics alive.
• Orcus on His Throne: Of the extremely hands-off variety. Aside from actually creating the Reapers and establishing the cycle, the Catalyst takes no active part in the conflict. Even when Shepard reaches the heart of the Citadel, the only thing the Catalyst does is effectively stand aside and offer Shepard possible solutions to the Reaper threat.
  • It's not even certain that the Reapers actually know it exists.
• Order Versus Chaos: He describes his system of "order" as being one that basically resets the galaxy every few hundred thousand years so that organics and synthetics won't wipe themselves out.
• Sadistic Choice: He makes it clear that of the three options he presents, none of them are clear-cut happy endings. Not only because Shepard has life-threatening injuries due to getting shot by Harbinger's main gun en route to the Catalyst, but because the Crucible does its job through Explosive Overclocking... using it will destroy the entire Mass Relay network... if it was constructed properly and deployed without being damaged en route to the Citadel. If it wasn't, it could destroy all advanced technology, wipe out all life in the galaxy or simply break without doing anything.
  • Destroy the Reapers, with the side effect of destroying every synthetic in the galaxy along with them.
  • Control the Reapers and send them away, ending the cycle and letting the populations of the galaxy decide their own course. The stress of the Unusual User Interface will kill Shepard.
  • Disseminate Shepard's nanotech into the Crucible, forcibly converting all organic and synthetic life in the galaxy into cellular-level cyborgs. Which would obviously be lethal even if Shepard didn't have life-threatening injuries. EDI and Joker get to be really happy in this ending, as they're now genetically compatible. The last shot of this ending is them as the Adam and Eve of an unknown planet.
• Sufficiently Advanced Alien: He is portrayed as an almost godlike being, with the capability of rewriting all life in the galaxy with the help of the Crucible and Shepard.
  • Deus Est Machina: However, given that he uses the word "us" to describe synthetics when outlining the Destroy ending (thereby implying that he's one of them himself), he qualifies for this as well.
• Time Abyss: He started the Reaper cycle, so we can assume he's tens, if not hundreds, of millions of years old.
• The Unfought: Sort of justified.
• Villains Never Lie: Everything he says is taken at face value, and the player is given no opportunity to argue or find alternate solutions. How much truth is in his words is left open to interpretation.
• Voice of the Legion: It's voiced by three separate actors: Mark Meer (BroShep), Jennifer Hale (FemShep), and an uncredited third actor. It goes Up to Eleven in the Extended Cut DLC if Shepard refuses its options, where it suddenly throws its best Harbinger impersonation at the player.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Even he admits this.

The Stargazer

A nameless grandfather that relates the legendary story of "The Shepard" to his grandson ages after the conclusion of the game during The Stinger.

• The Cameo: Voiced by Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon.
• The Storyteller: The implication is that the entire series has been the old man telling the story to his grandson: the different details of varying playthroughs are handwaved with the explanation that it happened so long ago that the specific details have been lost.

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