Mass Effect 3/Trivia

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• Actor Allusion: Allers and Chobot are both television reporters.
• Billing Displacement: An unusual instance of this applying to a composer: despite Clint Mansell's involvement with the soundtrack being hyped up pre-release, in actual fact he contributed just two pieces to the soundtrack; the duo of Sascha Dikiciyan and Cris Velasco were more the game's main composers, with Lair of the Shadow Broker composer Christopher Lennertz also making a return, along with series veteran Sam Hulick.
• Creator Killer: Backlash over the game's endings plus other problems, including Consumerist calling EA the "Worst Company in America" in 2012 and 2013 over the oil and banking companies, ultimately resulted in John Riccitello resigning from EA.
• Defictionalization: Oddly Inverted. In Mass Effect, Shepard wore the iconic N7 armor, which was merchandized as a hoodie. But now, Mass Effect 3's Collector's Edition will let Shepard, in the game itself, wear that very same hoodie.
• Development Gag: In the Codex for the Reapers, it is explained that they were thought by some civilizations to be beings that consumed suns. This is a reference to the original purpose for the Reaper harvesting before Mass Effect 3 was written, and is what the dying star plotline with the Quarians was all about.
  • If you speak to James Vega after the mission at Grissom Academy, he brings up Kahlee Sanders and mentions how his father's last name was Sanders, quickly stating there's no relation. During the game's development, James' last name was originally going to be Sanders, but was changed, probably to avoid confusion with Kahlee.
• Fan Nickname:
  • The nameless sniper from the first trailer was called "Big Ben" until he was revealed as Major Coats in the game.
  • People on Gamefaqs appear to like calling the boy seen at the beginning of the game, "Vent Boy".
  • As mentioned above, Phantoms have become "Ninja Bitches".
  • James Vega: Slab Bulkhead, Fridge Largemeat, Punt Speedchunk, Butch Deadlift, Bold Bigflank, Splint Chesthair, Flint Ironstag, Bolt Vanderhuge, Thick McRunfast, Blast Hardcheese, Buff Drinklots, Crunch Slamchest, Fist Rockbone, Stump Beefknob, Smash Lampjaw, Punch Rockgroin, Buck Plankchest, Stump Junkman, Dirk Hardpec, Rip Steakface, Slate Slabrock, Crud Bonemeal, Brick Hardmeat, Rip Slagcheek, Punch Sideiron, Gristle McThornbody, Slate Fistcrunch, Buff Hardback, Bob Johnson, Blast Thickneck, Crunch Buttsteak, Slab Squatthrust, Lump Beefbroth, Touch Rustrod, Beef Blastbody, Big McLargehuge, Smoke Manmuscle, Beat Punchmeat, Hack Blowfist, and Roll Fizzlebeef.
  • "Prothy the Prothean" for the spoilerific DLC squadmate.
  • Diana Allers is called "Space Snooki".
  • The Catalyst has earned the nickname "Task Manager" because it gives you the option of controlling the Reapers, altering them, or deleting them. In other words, CTRL+ALT+DELETE. He's also commonly referred to as Starchild.
    • Similarly, 'Space Magic' for the power of the Crucible.
  • "Marauder Shields" and "The Three Husketeers", the four enemies encountered on the way to the beam in London that wind up being the final enemies you fight in the whole series.
  • The krogan vanguard in multi-player is the Murder Train.
  • The fandom quickly dubbed Javik Prothy the Prothean when Bioware announced him as recruitable in the From Ashes DLC, largely out necessity to call him something.
    • In fact, he was known as "Prothy" even before that on the BioWare Social Network when there were crazy rumors abound that a prothean would become a squadmate.
    • Ascended Fanon: In a conversation, Javik admits that Joker insisted he call himself this. He was not amused.
    • Some have taken to calling him "Trollvik" or "The Oldest Troll in the Galaxy". See No Sense of Humor and Troll for details.
  • Players who had Legion die in the suicide mission won't actually know that the backup is called the "Geth VI" in playthroughs where Legion was never activated or was sold to Cerberus. If Shepard activated Legion, then the backup will be referred to as Legion in subtitles as well. So some players nicknamed it by its Catch Phrase, "We are not Legion", to differentiate it from the original Legion.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Whatever one may think about the endings, the fact that Buzz Aldrin of all people voices the grandfather in the epilogue is its own shade of awesome.
  • President Bartlet has been indoctrinated by the Reapers, This Is Gonna Suck.
  • Rainbow Dash is an Asari soldier!
  • Dragon Age II fans will recognize Vosque as Varric and Dr Brynn Cole as female Hawke.
  • Major Coats is Male Hawke. He also voices a scientist that talks to Brynn and, if you betray Wrex and sabotage the genophage cure, a guard Wrex backhands during your confrontation.
  • Troy Baker is Kai Leng, and he's literally going to renovate your ass!
  • Nassana Dantius may be gone, but Kahlee Sanders sounds very similar to her.
  • According to a Twitter post, Bubin's (the elcor partner of Blasto) sister is voiced by Jennifer Hale.
  • The replacement asari councilor sounds suspiciously like Wonder Woman.
  • Shepard's guard and new friend is Christopher Blair of Wing Commander fame, and later in the game you can run into Zero from Wing Commander Prophecy.
• I Knew It!: BioWare forum user screwoffreg accurately described Mass Effect 3's ending word-by-word way back in 2010. ^{[dead link]}
  • "There are two endings I wouldn't like for Mass Effect 3. One being a random GOD LIKE force that saves the Galaxy or another being that to defeat the Reapers, everyone has to become a primitivist and destroy the Relays, Citadel, etc. Both would make me pretty unhappy as those endings have been done to death."

—screwoffreg a.k.a. "the Prophet".

• Lying Creator:
  • Pre-release press statements were that playing Multi-player, and getting their War Asset multipliers, would not be a necessity for those who wished to get the Golden Ending. However, though most endings can be achieved without Multi-player, there are not enough War Assets available in the game to unlock the highest-tier endings.
  • Mac Walters, the lead writer, made a statement before release saying that the presence of the Rachni played a major role in the third game or even just in the final battle. In the actual game, the Rachni appear in one side mission, and don't appear at all during the final battle or any other time. It should be noted that this statement was made after the game went gold.
• Name's the Same: Miranda's father Henry Lawson shares the name with an early Australian Poet, which is apt considering the likely origin of the Lawson family based on their accents.
• The Other Darrin: Michael Beattie was unceremoniously replaced as Mordin between games.
• Preorder Bonus: Depending on where you pre-ordered the game. All of the gear mentioned below plus a lot of other promotional items have since been made available for indirect purchase with the Leviathan and Omega DLCs... except for the Defender Armor, which can only be unlocked by editing the save file. Fortunately, neither of the guns is particularly useful, and the armor - while cool-looking - is made redundant by the various Cerberus armor suits, so even if you don't have them in your armory, you're not missing out on anything.
  • Gamestop pre-orders include "Defender Armor" and an N7 Valkyrie Assault Rifle (the only weapon not covered by the Collector's Edition weapon pack).
  • EA's Origin network offers the AT12 Raider Shotgun.
  • Others get the Argus assault rifle, which is also a midrange weapon.
• Promoted Fanboy: Freddie Prinze Jr., who voices James Vega, has also stated that he is a fan of the first two games.
• Promoted Fangirl: Jessica Chobot of G4TV plays Diana Allers, a new love interest for Shepard.
• Relationship Voice Actor:
  • Seth Green (Joker) and Freddie Prinze Jr. (James Vega) previously worked together on Scooby Doo: Monsters Unleashed. On top of that, Green and Robin Sachs (Zaeed Massani) used to work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Prinze Jr.'s wife Sarah Michelle Gellar.
  • Tricia Helfer (EDI) and Michael Hogan (Commander Bailey) previously worked together on Battlestar Galactica.
  • As mentioned above, Dr Baynar and Dr Cole are voiced by Nicholas Boulton and Jo Wyatt, who played Male and Female Hawke in Dragon Age II.
• Teasing Creator: Here's a pretty good rundown.
• Trolling Creator: The creator tweets refusing to explain the ending and saying to wait for future announcements, therefore fueling speculation like the Indoctrination Theory or ending DLC, and keeping the fan outcry from burning out. Possibly the ending itself, which was expected to create "lots of speculation".
• Viral Marketing: Pre-release, twitter accounts called "The Cerberus Daily News" and "Alliance News Networks" posted little bits of information, such as comm buoys going out, along with the comments being filled with the various races commenting on it, such as a quarian disproving theories that the Migrant Fleet is attacking the batarian homeworld, or an Alliance soldier commenting on a sudden, massive influx of batarian refugees through the Exodus Cluster relay and how the human colony of Elysium is ready for anything that may happen.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A Reaper-ized version of the Illusive Man was considered as the Final Boss, but rejected as uncharacteristic: the Illusive Man's strength is his mind, so making him a bullet sink would diminish him. Instead, he casually strolls in and neutralizes Shepard with Reapertech indoctrination abilities; to win, you have to Talk Him To Death.. either by Driving Him To Suicide to save humanity from his mistakes, or Taunting Him into dropping his guard.
  • There were deleted scenes and ideas that would have made the end much more bearable, such as the Normandy performing an epic Gunship Rescue while Hammer makes the desperate dash for the Conduit while taking fire from Harbinger, and this conversation between Shepard and Anderson.
  • From the script leak: a few post-Rannoch mentions of Admiral Xen, including a direct confrontation and Hackett reporting a botched attempt to hack the geth after peace is declared. She wouldn't have succeeded, but it would have cost the geth a few ships.
  • Ditto: the Thessia mission might seem like a gut-punch as-is, but it could have included a choice between saving Ashley/Kaidan and Liara. It's unclear whether there would have been any way to avoid it (say, if you held you own against Kai Leng), but all that remains of that scene is the bit where the temple floor collapses beneath Shepard. There was also a bit with Leng framing Shepard for several murders on Eden Prime to turn Ash/Kaidan against them.
  • Initially, the ending would have involved the buildup of 'dark energy', which was causing Haestrom's sun to burn out in Mass Effect 2 and would have dire consequences for the galaxy. The Reapers are trying to stop the dark energy, and for whatever reason, a human-reaper was their best hope for stopping it. At the end, Shepard would have been given the choice to either cripple the resistance and let the Reapers harvest humanity, hoping the ends justify the means, or destroy the Reapers and hope that the races of the galaxy can come up with an alternate solution to stop the dark energy.
  • Unused dialogue shows that there was originally more to the final battle (or that at least Jack, Jacob, Zaeed, Grunt and Geth Primes were involved).
  • James Vega was originally named James Sanders. His surname was probably changed to Vega to avoid fan theories about a relation to tie-in novel character Kahlee Sanders. This is Lampshaded in-game; see Development Gag above.