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Best Mass Effect squadmates and characters?

Mordin by a mile.

He is able to seamlessly transition from being the funny sidekick singing the Modern Major General song and making sex jokes to being a tragic hero with the most moving story in the game.

His 'max renegade' futile death ending is amazing, though I don't know how anyone could bring themselves to select those options.
 
Wrex obviously. Don't really need to say why. Love me some krogan force in the team.

Garrus 2nd for being my bro forever.

Javik is 3rd. "Throw it out of the airlock". "Salarians used to eat fly." and other hilarious, yet delivered seriously, quotes like this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IehPgttjzpk

It's hard to rank them all, but the bottom would be either Kaidan, Ashley or Vega....probably Kaidan.
 
Garrus is the GOAT. I pretty much had him in my squad at all times.

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For me Liara and Miranda/Wrex/Garrus. Liara was pretty much 100% squad mate in first and third game. Have never used any other character as part of squad except when there is no other option or I am doing their sidemission.
 
No Liara in that OP is downright criminal.

Overall great partner to have. Insightful, inquisitive, compassionate, and impactful when it comes to story.

When it comes to footwork, those biotic spams man.

Mordor is that close second. The way he gets rid of those yellow bars to let you go in for the finishers is fantastic. Them on the same team? Wooh boi.
 
HK-47 said:
We needed more xenophobes. I know humans. We'd be way worst than Ashley is depicted. Ruined my immersion.
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I don't know. Xenoblade Chronicles X is willing to go there quite often, and it bums me out if I'm honest.
Seeing humanity discriminate, being unwilling to talk or understand others, spread awful gossip and lies, irrationally scapegoat, and straight up murder aliens is probably more accurate, but it messes with my naive idea of fun science fiction fantasy worlds.
I just want to chill with the fantastical and new. I don't want to see it get stepped on by my supposed in-game peers. Limiting it to just Ashley was probably for the best. You got a taste, and were able to part ways, never to put up with her again.
 
Garrus is the Best Bro EVER

The list of his achievements across all 3 games is huge . THE BEST

Wrex & liara are close Second felt like people whom i could trust getting things done

Honorable mentions to : Joker, EDI , Legion
 
1) Garrus
2) Wrex
3) Mordin
4) Legion
5) Javik

Best human squadmates: Zaeed & James

Liara can fuck right off. You ain't my friend, stop bothering me.
Alo0oy said:
Miranda and Garrus, got so sick and tired of BioWare pushing Liara down my throat because some people have an Alien waifu fetish, she was a borderline stalker in Mass Effect 3.
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This x100.
 
My squad in ME2 always consisted of Garrus(GOAT), Kasumi (superficial maybe, but she had so much style) and Tali (solely because I wanted the sex related trophy and banging Garrus was unfortunately not an option for male shep)
 
For me, Wrex and Liara were the best.

Curing the Genophage was my absolute favourite sub-plot of the whole trilogy. Wrex was my buddy from the word go but he had to go take care of his business and leave me to deal with mine. I liked that. I liked that he wasn't stuck on Shepard like some others (Garrus). But he knew when the time came I'd have his back. Plus he was an absolute tank in combat and funny as hell.

Liara was my li in part 1 and I stayed true to her when we were apart. Then we came back together and she wrote my name in the stars. She grew as a person across the trilogy. We wrecked bad guys in parts 1 and 3 with her Biotics and my Tech skills.

Honourable mentions go to Thane, who had a cool story, Miranda and Grunt, who were my "Any situation" squad in part 2, and of course Mordin, who faced up to and then atoned for his past mistakes and was a bit eccentric, which I always like.
 
Garrus is the GOAT, obviously, but I also really dug Kasumi, Wrex, Legion, and Liara. There are tons of awesome crewmates in Mass Effect, in one way or another. Damn... I should replay Mass Effect.
 
Garrus >> Mordin > Wrex > Legion > Everyone else
Honorable mentions for Kasumi and Tali.

Miranda worst of all. I still wonder how the hell did that face come out.

I still consider the thing where Shep outshoots Garrus at the citadel the moment in which the writing falls apart.
 
I'm generally more favourable to the non-human squadmates, and the early ones, as well. I try to gauge how much I like their personalities, how memorable they are to me, and how likely I am to actually use them throughout the game.

I think I'd roughly rank them in several groups. Outside of companion missions, I usually fill my squad with characters from group 1 whenever available.

1. Garrus // Liara // Tali // Wrex

2. Kasumi // Legion // Miranda // Mordin // Thane

3. Ashley // EDI // Grunt // James // Morinth

4. Jacob // Javik // Kaidan // Samara

5. Jack // Zaeed
 
Just about every character in the series is awesome, it is hard to a pick favourite.

1) Thane- Loved him, very enigmatic and interesting

2) Brother Garrus- The truest of bros

3) Wrex- Like a drunken uncle who you love regardless

The few characters I just wasn't into were:

1) Ashley- Hateful and disloyal

2) Tali- Vapid and seemingly more interested in her own endeavours at the beginning

3) Jacob- I wouldn't have noticed if he left
 
Team Dextro, FTW.

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The only two squadmate characters that are with you through all three games.

Storywise? Garrus was such a bro. Apart from being the coolest character in the game (he's basically Space Batman), he was just down-to-earth (down-to-Citadel?) enough to feel like the guy you could just hang out with, have a few beers, and just have the best time.

Tali, however, went from an admittedly boring info dump of Quarian culture in ME1 to a REALLY amazing character in ME2 and ME3. She had an amazing arc and, in the way I played it, was really torn as a character caught in the middle of a war she slowly came to understand was not as one-sided as she was raised to believe. I also romanced her, which really complicated things and had me asking serious questions about whether it was selfish to put her health and life at risk just to be with my character...

Gameplay-wise? She never left my party in ME1 (unlock ALL the safes and lockers!) while I swapped between Garrus, Liara, and Wrex often.

But when it came time for the finale of ME1, it was Tali and Garrus by my side. When it was the finale of ME2, it was Tali and Garrus by my side. When it was the final run in ME3, it was Tali and Garrus by my side.

... And I picked Destroy with 100% readiness, so I consider this canon.
chillin-out2.jpg
 
Liara (waifu) & Garrus (lockpick) in ME1, various members, mostly Miranda, Mordin, Kasumi and Legion in ME2, and Liara & Javik (lore) in ME3. Never went with Kaidan, Ashley, Jacob, Zaeed, or James, unless the games mandated so.
 
Ashley williams-best romance choice, plus a bad ass...if not a bit racist

Garrus- an absolute boss

Wrex- i just have a soft spot for him

Liara- uh....reasons....

Legion- HES A GETH COLLECTIVE HIVE MIND PUT INTO A SINGLE BODY!
 
Garrus: Because he's the best bro you'll ever have in a sci-fi rpg.

Wrex: Because he's badass.

Zaeed: Because he's even more badass. Also always liked the old, jaded merc type.
 
Garlador said:
The only two squadmate characters that are with you through all three games.
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And this is why I think ME 3 is such a piece of shit. Remember all those interesting character from ME 2, and some of the ones from 1 that weren't really in 2? Yeah, no, fuck you, they're too busy to join you.

I love Mordin, Thane, and Legion for all the reasons already stated, and would love to have had more time with Legion especially since we got so little time with him period. Garrus is great too but most of these characters should have had as much time devoted to them as he did.
 
I wrote page after copious page on this subject a few years ago. I don't have immediate access to those essays, unfortunately. (Fortunately?)

I'll just get straight to the point, then: my top five are EDI, Mordin, Javik, Wrex, and Legion, in that order.

Ironically, despite pinning Garrus at around 7th (versus the typical fandom statement that he's at or nearer to the top) I did name my cat after the character.
 
ME1: Wrex, Tali, and Garrus
ME2: Moridin, Garrus, Tali, Javik, Zaeed, Legion
ME3: Garrus, Tali

Wrex, Moridin and Javik were pretty solid characters for the series.

Tali, Legion and Moridin have pretty amazing character designs. Especially Tali.
 
The only squadmate who never gets a lookin on a mission with me is EDI..... not sure why, just never take her.

Standouts though for me, Liara/Wrex/Mordin/Garrus
 
Dennis said:
Always cracks me up when people talk about Kaidan. That fucker was the first to die.
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It was a choice between a hot girl or Carth, I mean, the dude never had a chance.

HK-47 said:
Given how Shepard got promoted despite sounding like an idiot in the council meetings in 1, I totally buy Ashley as a Spectre.
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That whole council meeting with Shepard and Anderson was dumb, you can't show up to a meeting with the Council and accuse their number one Spectre of crimes with your only evidence of his guilt being visions. I'm surprised they even got a second chance at proving Saren guilty, I would have thrown them out after the first clusterfuck of a meeting.

Camp Freddie said:
His 'max renegade' futile death ending is amazing, though I don't know how anyone could bring themselves to select those options.
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I had no choice man, Mordin forced my hand.
 
I actually think Mass Effect 3 has the best cast. ME2 has a lot of good characters but some stinkers as well. The only change I'd make to ME3 is keep EDI as the ship AI and have Miranda take her place (due to Cerberus' role in ME3, Miranda deserves a bigger role).

Liara: Biotic
Garrus: Soldier/Tech
Tali: Tech
Vega: Soldier
Javik: Soldier/biotic
Miranda: tech/biotic

It works out. Of course this also supposes Javik isn't DLC, which he shouldn't have been.

Anyway my list:

Best: Mordin, Tali, Garrus

These are characters that represent real growth and evolution of priorities and beliefs over the course of the trilogy. They are self-aware, contemplative and reflective, humorous, likable, basically anything you could ask for in a BioWare character.

Great: Javik, Wrex, Legion

These are characters who bring interesting perspectives to the narrative and in some way greatly enhance the larger subplots of the series. EatChildren explained above my view on why Javik is so essential to ME3, but I don't agree with the notion that Legion is lame in ME3 for several reasons. For one, Legion in ME3 is presented as a flawed character. He lies, manipulates, and is evasive. It's a natural evolution of how a machine might come to exhibit certain individualistic tendencies, which was the main question of his character in ME2 (see: loyalty mission). It's clear that, like Mordin, his view on how the geth might evolve has altered. Before, he took a hardline stance that any sort of help from another race was undesirable, and that the geth would find their own path. While some found this praiseworthy, I thought it was kind of dumb and analogous to those who believe the mass relays needed to be destroyed because they are evil. Technology, all else being equal, is a neutral force, and in recognizing that his race would be wiped out without using it, Legion decided to go for what he considered to be something beautiful anyway.

Good: Liara, Vega, Grunt, Thane, Samara

Alright: Kaidan, Ashley, Jacob, Jack, EDI, Kasumi, Zaeed, Miranda
 
Mr. Nice_Guy said:
I love Mordin, Thane, and Legion for all the reasons already stated, and would love to have had more time with Legion especially since we got so little time with him period. Garrus is great too but most of these characters should have had as much time devoted to them as he did.
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If EA ever grows a brain and re-releases the series, one thing they could EASILY do (that PC hackers already have) is remove the squadmate order restrictions from ME2. Originally, you could recruit practically anybody in any order, but they had to remove that feature to work with the Xbox 360's DVD size limits, so stuff got sequestered in each disc instead.

But on PC, if you disable that, you can get Legion near the very beginning of the game and take him with you on all your other quests... and it's all there, programmed and voice acted and animated. It's amusing taking Legion with you to Tali's flotilla, or trying to recruit Mordin through "the plague" since Legion is immune to breathing... all while he offers up commentary and conversation pieces.

It's a shame in the retail version, you can't get him until the end. It wasn't always like that. If you get it on PC, though, you can play the game more the way the developers intended... and that includes spending more time with Legion from start to finish.
 
Garlador said:
If EA ever grows a brain and re-releases the series, one thing they could EASILY do (that PC hackers already have) is remove the squadmate order restrictions from ME2. Originally, you could recruit practically anybody in any order, but they had to remove that feature to work with the Xbox 360's DVD size limits, so stuff got sequestered in each disc instead.

But on PC, if you disable that, you can get Legion near the very beginning of the game and take him with you on all your other quests... and it's all there, programmed and voice acted and animated. It's amusing taking Legion with you to Tali's flotilla, or trying to recruit Mordin through "the plague" since Legion is immune to breathing... all while he offers up commentary and conversation pieces.

It's a shame in the retail version, you can't get him until the end. It wasn't always like that. If you get it on PC, though, you can play the game more the way the developers intended... and that includes spending more time with Legion from start to finish.
Click to expand...

Getting Legion to the Quarians flotilla can be done without any mods though. You just have to wait until he joins your crew before doing Tali's loyalty mission.
 
My favorites were legion and Mordin.

I'm surprised so many like Javik. He is the biggest meathead of the entire series. Everyone hates James Vega because he looks like the typical dudebro, but he is far less of a humorless brain dead grunt than Javik, who never has anything interesting to say.
 
Bisnic said:
Getting Legion to the Quarians flotilla can be done without any mods though. You just have to wait until he joins your crew before doing Tali's loyalty mission.
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Yeah, instead I'd suggest that bringing Legion to Tali's recruitment would have been great to have.

J-Rod said:
My favorites were legion and Mordin.

I'm surprised so many like Javik. He is the biggest meathead of the entire series. Everyone hates James Vega because he looks like the typical dudebro, but he is far less of a humorless brain dead grunt than Javik, who never has anything interesting to say.
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Javik is one of the only real consequentialists in the series. I find almost everything he says interesting.

DyJOCa0.jpg
 
J-Rod said:
My favorites were legion and Mordin.

I'm surprised so many like Javik. He is the biggest meathead of the entire series. Everyone hates James Vega because he looks like the typical dudebro, but he is far less of a humorless brain dead grunt than Javik, who never has anything interesting to say.
Click to expand...

Damn near everything Javik ever says is amazing. :/
 
Bisnic said:
Getting Legion to the Quarians flotilla can be done without any mods though. You just have to wait until he joins your crew before doing Tali's loyalty mission.
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Sorry. Meant to say Tali's recruitment mission. For some reason, I got confused and thought that was the flotilla.
Ralemont said:
Yeah, instead I'd suggest that bringing Legion to Tali's recruitment would have been great to have.
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... Still funny if you do that though.

Anyway, even as a long-shot, EA re-releasing ME2 with the ability to recruit in any order as originally intended would be a godsend. It would easily warrant a purchase from so many console players that never got to experience that chunk of the game.

And I imagine a lot of people would see characters like Legion or other late-game characters rise up in popularity too.
 
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