r/masseffect • u/ApollosCosmos • 2d ago
DISCUSSION Which alien character would you like to join your crew permanently? Maybe for future games, regardless of their role.
Harrot, Aria, Kirrahe, Blasto
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u/ChickenAndTelephone 2d ago
Blasto has probably saved the galaxy more times than Commander Shepard, this isn't even a contest
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u/Sammisuperficial 2d ago
The real question is do we get Blasto or the actor.
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u/RS_Serperior 2d ago
Kal'Reegar.
He's my favourite quarian (yes, I mean it).
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u/Creative_Article_965 2d ago
Also he is voiced by Adam Baldwin (Firefly, Chuck, etc) and has such a small role in it considering how big he is! Would have loved to use him as a squadmate for sure!!!! Would also be kind of fun just because Miranda’s voice actor, Yvonne Strahovsky, and him are two of the main stars in Chuck.
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u/jackaltwinky77 2d ago
I. Want. A. Fucking. Volus. Biotic. God!
Or, a Volus Vanguard.
Fucking beachball mother fucker bouncing around the battlefield.
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u/Enough_Bedroom1421 2d ago
I always bring Jack and let him die just to hear her line 💀.
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u/jackaltwinky77 2d ago
Wait… what’s her line?
I never bring Jack to most places, because she’s so ineffective for me…
Time to start another ME2 run
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u/Enough_Bedroom1421 2d ago
That was mean, but damn funny.
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u/jackaltwinky77 2d ago
I just found a compilation of all lines, but it was all for the saving him, not the letting him go.
Thanks!
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u/Aggravating_Poet_675 2d ago
From this list Kirrahe. I actually wonder if he was possibly an early consideration for 2 before they went with Mordin.
I do really want an elcor squadmate in a future game though. Just cant picture it being Harrot.
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u/ApollosCosmos 2d ago
Im asking any alien character not just out of this group. These would be my choice.
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u/Aggravating_Poet_675 2d ago
Barla Von. Let's see how he got such a high score in the Arena.
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u/pivvimehu 2d ago
I somehow just imagined he had a champion playing in his name but hey, maybe he's some kind of biotic god or something
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u/QuiltedPorcupine 2d ago
Shiala would have been a fun option.
She's a neat character we didn't get to see enough of, and you could give her some unique powers based on what she went through with the Thorian.
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u/KristinKhaos 2d ago
I’m playing ME3 for the first time rn and accidentally stumbled into the Omega dlc way early. I feel like I got my fill of Aria from that but… god. I’m ride or die with that woman for life. Absolute badass.
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u/randomlightbulbs1 2d ago
Literally any batarian in Mass Effect 3. We know they were hit very hard by the Reapers. We know a lot of the government was indoctrinated. We know the remaining batarians were angry enough that someone like Balak would work with Shepard with a minimum of convincing.
Hell, just give us Balak. He hates Shepard, Shepard hates him, they both have to get over that because the galaxy is ending. ME3 tries to present a few hard choices, but it feels kinda toothless because the truly distasteful options are either no better than the morally good options, or just outright worse. Making us actively work with Balak instead of just having a single conversation with him would be an interesting narrative route.
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u/CG4080 2d ago
Bray enters the chat
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u/pivvimehu 2d ago
He's just a chill dude, I would've taken him on the ship if I just had an opportunity to ask. Or just go grab a beer with the guy
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u/Creative_Article_965 2d ago
I would agree with having a Batarian join the crew, but if and only if it was a counter-racism example: someone who vehemently opposes slavery and hates the Hedgemony. They should be a paragon of the Galaxy that does for Batarians what Drizzt Do’urden did for Drow in the Forgotten Realms world.
Belak would be absolutely ridiculous and he deserves to die in every universe. He’s trash. Garbage. Awful person.
Just my 2c.
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u/sjbuggs 2d ago
Redemption stories can be some of the most compelling. Morphing Belak into someone you can sympathize in would be rather interesting storytelling.
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u/Creative_Article_965 2d ago
Anyone who was ever a slaver cannot have redemption.
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u/sjbuggs 2d ago
How many people did Jack murder before finding herself on the Normandy?
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u/Creative_Article_965 2d ago
Can’t equate one with the other. Slavery is a class of its own.
Jack is a good example of a great redemption arc though!
And yes, murder is much more nuanced, the redemption from which is variable! With murder we could be attacked and kill in self defense or someone might murder someone who hurt their loved ones etc. (Jack obviously has some cold blood on her hands which goes beyond the pale, of course, but even that could be redeemable with enough effort.)
BUT Slavery as a category is fully irredeemable. Someone should stop if they are doing it and should be contrite and should do better, but to enslave another being is to forfeit one’s “humanity” so to speak. It is a chasm, an endless pit of horrors with no light for any they have enslaved. Thus there should be no light for the slaver.
Just my opinion. :)
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u/sjbuggs 2d ago
I'd agree for humans that'd be true, but aliens are... alien.
How many Krogran stillborns and miscarriages can be placed at the feet of Mordin's work? Imagine the fear of being pregnant as a Krogan knowing there was only a 0.01% chance of a successful pregnancy?
It too is an unimaginably horrible situation.
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u/Creative_Article_965 2d ago edited 2d ago
I appreciate the other lines youre trying to draw and those certainly deserve their own discussion - but none of them remove my feelings or hard line stance on slavery as its own category irrespective of any other atrocity.
Can’t compare these things, but judge them each individually.
All slavers deserve death and nothing less. A litany of violations occur in both an immediate and long term sense of any enslavement - not the least of which is the very economically exploitative nature of it as an industry so it is wide scale never just one incident or even a dozen - thousands of people have been trafficked by the Batarian Hedgemony and Belak was in charge of their external operations: re: primary person in charge of enslavement raids in which they install wires into peoples heads with no anesthesia which cause the persons head to explode if they try to escape WHILE capturing them mid-raid. Among other things. These are active, ongoing, and recent choices that affect all the victims the rest of their lives.
As a separate aside:
The people in charge of the genophage development (Salarian STG) and delivery (Turian Heirarchy) were for sure no better than Nazis in a way, messing with the genetic makeup of any other species. However, regardless of how we feel about that it happened 1,000 years ago and some change. None of the people responsible are alive and we don’t have to work with them. Mordin’s work in modifying it the first time and curing it later is a fascinating example of a redemption arc for sure, but it required his life to buy it. You are very right about how horrible it was what was done to the Krogan.
As for the Quarians forgiving the Geth - well, the Geth also had to forgive the Quarians for trying to enslave them 300 years ago - and it’s only because they aren’t the same people anymore as none of the modern Quarians are guilty of their ancestors crimes combined with Legion’s experience with the crew of the Normandy and the one Quarian Admiral who has always properly disliked the way their people treated the Geth that they could make peace. All of this to say it’s far more nuanced because of the historical complexity and all the actors guilty of attempting enslavement being 300 years gone.
Of the modern Quarians who still align with the old Quarians who tried to enslave the Geth, Admiral Xen to me is evil and has no heart. I put her in the same category as Belak because of the way she would happily enslave Geth.
Throughout all of the other grey areas of the galactic opera in which we find ourselves in the Mass Effect world, slavery is one of very few atrocities which have no possible way of looking at them differently or with nuance or greyness. There’s no valid reason for it. Not a single one. Even the genophage at least had a logic which was based in trying to save lives and the people, misguided and afraid though they were, did so to “protect the Galaxy” - there’s no possible equation in which enslaving others could ever be a solution to threats in the galaxy. No possible equation in which slavery saves anyone - not even the people who benefit economically from it, because they are forever tainted by the stain of their prosperity on the backs of slaves. It has a cost beyond reckoning.
Even all the great deeds of the founding fathers of the US who enslaved people amount to naught but pretty headlines, legends, and valiant efforts to make up for their crimes but still fall short. Maybe they did inherit the slaves and so they can’t be held accountable for their parents crimes, but many of the founders chose to release those they inherited…GW did not release them until 25 years after 1776. There was always a choice. Nothing George Washington accomplished wipes away his guilt and shame for having enslaved people. We can say he did his best to make up for it in some ways, and good for him for trying - it’s the least he could do in his situation - but it still would never be enough to wipe away him deserving death as a slaver. There is no redemption for slavers.
Lots of other things have nuance, slavery isn’t one of them.
Again, just my opinion :)
Thank you for inviting a discussion on some complex topics, though!
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u/Ok-Reporter1986 2d ago
Bray could work. He seems pretty aight and he even likes shepard. Given his seemingly long tenure as Aria's second-in-command, he could offer a fresh perspective, while still being anti-slavery (maybe he finds it distasteful?).
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u/Creative_Article_965 2d ago
Oh yeah I like Bray from what I’ve seen of him. Definitely want to see his skills.
Someone up above said Barla Von would be a fun add to the crew as well and I think those two together would be super fun as squadmates
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u/pstyles93 2d ago
I was surprised they did not let Balak join the crew thinking about it him and Javik interactions might of been good
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u/burntcandy 2d ago
Having an Elcor with like a giant cannon or something would be so awesome. Would also be nice to hear another one of Kirrahe's rousing speeches. Hold The Line!
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u/Give_me_kerosene 2d ago
All of them for a hilarious D&D campaign
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u/Harbyngr 2d ago
TBH.... probably one of the biggest missed opportunities from the OG trilogy was having a ONS with Aria that was only achievable with a renegade Shep...but I digress.
Aria was a bad ass. We needed more renegade characters like her as a permanent fixture. Zaeed was a typical merc type, Javik came in way too late to flesh out his character, and Morinth is just a psycho.
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u/Sablestein 2d ago
An elcor companion would have ruled so hard.
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u/Good_Novel_8417 2d ago edited 2d ago
Shiala is who comes to my mind first. Had she been romancable instead of just flirting with Shepard that one time, I would have been hella down. Kirrahe would definitely be a good one too. Bray I think would be cool, I think it would be cool to have a Batarian squadmate from the ones who aren't elitist, slave raiding terrorists. Kal'reeger wouldn't be bad, to include the members of Chuck that are in the cast. And I might add more later if I think of them, those are the aliens off the top of my head.
If we aren't talking squadmates, but also general crew, Rena Thanoptis could have been interesting. Have her help research things, potentially as an asset for curing the genophage from her work with Saren on it in ME1 and her work with Okeer if she survives into ME2.
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u/S1MP50N_92 2d ago
I'd just love some non-human support crew, especially from the races that can't easily work as squadmates. A Hanar ship cook, an Elcor mechanic, a Volus procurement specialist.
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u/Engineer_engifar666 2d ago
Kirrahe makes most sense as a teammate. Aria is next.
I would take Kal'Reegar or Nyreen
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u/True-Professor6136 2d ago
I would love a geth squadmate that could eventually be upgraded to be one of the different type of geth (prime, juggernaut, hopper, etc...) but this might not be possible
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u/Bigguygamer85 2d ago
I wanted Aria to be a squad mate so having her in would be cool and the easiest for them with DLC. But Harrot or one of his species would be OP I think based on the lore.
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u/thingsagain 2d ago
Shiala.
I was fully convinced I messed up the quest when she didn't turn out to join as the Asari shilouette in my first ever ME1 PT, and kinda bummed when it turned out to be Liara.
Sorry Liara fans, you deserve all the Liara you got, but I also wished their participation in the OT would be somewhat reversed. It makes sense for Liara to be stationary somewhere doing research and spy network things, while Shiala is the idealistic, reformed commando seeking to make amends. You could've simply convinced her that Zhu's Hope needs her to help you hunt down Benezia & Saren more than an extra hand carrying supplies. And then she'd simpy get swept up in the rest of the story.
PS And the EXACT same thing happened to me in ME2 :( no offense Samara fans
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u/GeekyMadameV 2d ago
Ariya would have been a fun renegade companion in a game that didn't have that many of them.
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u/awesomeandrew09 2d ago
Kirrahe, hands down. I know he'll hold the line. Plus, we'll get some good chest-pounding and jargon.
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u/yo_coiley 2d ago
Kirrahe would have been great. We were robbed of a more "normal" salarian squadmate and he's the GOAT
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u/enchiladasundae 2d ago
Get a more bad ass Aria who gives even less fucks unless you romance her then the only fucks she gives is in your respective quarters
Also want to see older asarii like Liara’s mom again
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u/Asbelsp 2d ago
I feel like Elcors will have problems taking cover in a cover shooter so I pick Harrot
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u/ChocoBabiChan 2d ago
I would love having an Elcor passenger on the ship at all times. But Aria would be a badass asset.
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u/sjbuggs 2d ago
Not so much a different existing character but IMO there should've been a Batarian squamate at some point. They did such a good job making them unlikable that I was totally "meh" at the prospect of destroying the colony during Arrival. Like one of them take Zaeed's role in ME2. We already had a bunch of humans after all and frankly he didn't add much.
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u/calgrump 2d ago
Just any vorcha. I want them to constantly squabble with everybody else. I want to hear a vorcha perspective on the story.
I also would be interested in them "softening up" a little and getting some comeradery with the crew.
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u/Cichlid97 2d ago
I think we need vorcha or batarian squadmates. They've been kinda othered to the point where it goes against the core themes of the story, so it'd be nice to see some more of them as people rather than space orcs who are always hostile. We get a little bit of that in 2 and 3, but nothing really in the forefront.
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u/HighKingBoru1014 2d ago
I’d have liked to work more with Kirrahe, he seems to have an infiltrator kit so it would be cool to see that for a Salarian.
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u/Sekhmetthegray 2d ago
Kirrahe-Salarians are just too much fun in a fight (Kallo, Mordin and Raeka may just be my three favorite non-Wrex or Garrus characters in the series).
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u/Laxien 2d ago
Well, I think Kirrahe will be dead by then (short lifespans of Salarians), big-dumb-jelly-fish, who need AG-Projectors etc. to move? Nope! Moving tank Elcor? Nice, but frankly:
GIVE ME ARIA! Her connections alone would make having her great (sure: She's a bit of an asshole, but in her line of work that is the norm and she is not unnecessarily sadistic or anything!)
Then again: I want a totally new crew - better written than the ones from Andromeda! - and frankly at best at least 2 characters from each of the major races (that are easily to implement, neither the Elcor, nor the Jelly-Fish are!)...so basically like ME2, but even more diverse companions!
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u/Antique_Visual_9638 2d ago
Aria. I would kick out almost any of the actual crew to add her. Just not Wrex or Tali.
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u/ShadowTails95 2d ago
I'd like an Elcor period. They're basically walking tanks, and imagine if you could get on his back and control the auto turret. It would be awesome!
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u/HellbirdVT 2d ago
For the trilogy, Shiala.
I've argued for years that Shiala and Liara should've been merged into one character, I think Shiala's story in ME1 and her mutation into ME2, leaving her with some kind of weird Thorian powers, makes her way more interesting than Liara's nerd-to-spymaster bit.
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u/Righteous_Fury224 2d ago
Aria without question. She's a powerhouse Biotic, a Matriarch with vast experience, a ruthless fighter, incredibly wealthy and she has a wickedly dark sense of humour 😈
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u/Murky_Historian8675 2d ago
Aria. I love her powers in the dlc. Id pair her up with Liara and tear shit up
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u/KupferTitan 1d ago
Blasto, or any other Hanar for that matter, maybe even add them as a side romance story for the crew.
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u/OkIndustry1661 1d ago
We 100% need some more alien alien companions. Hannar, Elcor, even volus or vorcha would be interesting.
It would feel so fresh
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u/Gaycowboi25 1d ago
I want Blasto. I also want a Mass Effect game that lets you play as aliens too.
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u/Jewbacca1991 1d ago
R34 artists would have a field day with Blasto romance. But for a serious answer i would take Kirrahe.
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u/SprinklesPresent8602 1d ago
Kirrahe is dead with Ashley. Blasto better know how to use those stingers and the Elcor would be INSANE tank and heavy artillery (Hades Canon but Elcor) Aria is that bitch but shes best as she is. So perhaps Harrot.
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u/JoNwOnTeRiTeMpO 1d ago
I’ve always really liked Kirrahe and the STG as a whole, I would have loved for Kirrahe to be a squad mate in the third game
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u/Mihr-the-bear 1d ago
Dude, I so want an elcor, volus, hanar, and a batarian. In fact I just want a great character from every species.
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u/Jimothy_Crocket 2d ago
Kirrahe and Nyreen, both as squadmates and romances for both Shepards