Garrus, Tali, and Mordin.

Besides Shepard himself I'd say Garrus. I love everyone in the game but Garrus is your bro!!!

Garrus or Thane.

Thane and Mordin +1

@I_smell said:

I have NO idea why everyone likes Garrus, he's just some boring soldier dude.

Joker is the best character. EDIT- I'M THE FIRST PERSON TO SAY JOKER??

Joker is cocky, bitter and obnoxious. His humor, though plentiful, doesn't hide that.

EDI could do better. (*Cough* Like Shepard.)

For me it is a close tie between Aria T'Loak, that Salarian on Illium who had a bachelor party, and Marauder Shields.

Mordin. Garrus as a close second.

Thane. Whoever wrote that character should be given a medal. As some of the other posts have noted, I could listen to his stories of his past days for hours on end.

Garrus, maybe Mordin.

Garrus because he is super likeable, great support in combat, witty, a bro, looks badass, and calibrates obsessively.

@boj4ngles said:

For me it is a close tie between Aria T'Loak, that Salarian on Illium who had a bachelor party, and Marauder Shields.

Damn! I forgot about her. I don't know why, but I like Aria a lot. I always hope I'm going to see more of her.

@onan said:

@I_smell said:

I have NO idea why everyone likes Garrus, he's just some boring soldier dude.

Joker is the best character. EDIT- I'M THE FIRST PERSON TO SAY JOKER??

Joker is cocky, bitter and obnoxious. His humor, though plentiful, doesn't hide that.

EDI could do better. (*Cough* Like Shepard.)

I think his humour is cocky, bitter and obnoxious, which hides how he really thinks.

Which is weak, bitter and desperate. He thinks every mission Shepard does is terrifying, is suspicious of everyone, and gets on most with the only other person on the ship who can't walk away. He became the best pilot in the Alliance to prove to himself that he's not some disabled waste.

He needs to be a wisenheimer, needs to be a great pilot, and needs to go out with a robot, otherwise he'd be depressed as fuck. Also he's a fun guy!

Garrus just talks about how great he is a sniping. Snore!

@Strife777: You may get to see her again. There are many rumors that Bioware was developing a "Take Back Omega" DLC before the whole shitstorm over the ending. Who knows, maybe she will be back.

Garrus with Liara coming in second.

Blasto and Bubin are the greatest. They have made the rest of the cast irrelevant.

The entire Elcor race and Legion

@I_smell said:

@onan said:

@I_smell said:

I have NO idea why everyone likes Garrus, he's just some boring soldier dude.

Joker is the best character. EDIT- I'M THE FIRST PERSON TO SAY JOKER??

Joker is cocky, bitter and obnoxious. His humor, though plentiful, doesn't hide that.

EDI could do better. (*Cough* Like Shepard.)

I think his humour is cocky, bitter and obnoxious, which hides how he really thinks.

Which is weak, bitter and desperate. He thinks every mission Shepard does is terrifying, is suspicious of everyone, and gets on most with the only other person on the ship who can't walk away. He became the best pilot in the Alliance to prove to himself that he's not some disabled waste.

He needs to be a wisenheimer, needs to be a great pilot, and needs to go out with a robot, otherwise he'd be depressed as fuck. Also he's a fun guy!

Garrus just talks about how great he is a sniping. Snore!

I got that. Doesn't mean I think he's a great character. He's just kind of sad.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong here, but wouldn't a sentient ship's logic dictate that it would make the most sense, in a self-preservation sense, to offer to take care of the commanding officer's... frustrations, so he can focus..?

Hm. Maybe I'm just upset they didn't give my Shepard the opportunity to bone down on EDI. Or anyone, really. I got locked into Liara in the first 20 minutes and nothing else happened for my guy in the game. From space pimp to space wimp. What's a guy got to do, save the galaxy? OH WAIT, THAT'S WHAT I'M DOING.

Anyway, still wouldn't put Joker anywhere near my top ten list.

I'd say Legion because he was the first character with a truly unique view. I looked forward to every new conversation with him. Especially after having fought the geth almost exclusively in ME1, to hear their side of it was fascinating, and wonderfully voice acted.

Thane and Garrus.

Props to the female Krogan who sounds like Bea Arthur.

Mordin, Wrex, Garrus, and post-Shadow Broker Liara. Also Samara....damn those games have some good characters.

Garrus. I also noticed Aria T'Loak mentioned, and that's a really good one. I was surprised she went anywhere after Mass Effect 2, but then I heard she was in the latest book and I'm quite sure she'll be involved with the next bit of DLC. She turned out to be an awesome character.

@AndrewB said:

Garrus. I also noticed Aria T'Loak mentioned, and that's a really good one. I was surprised she went anywhere after Mass Effect 2, but then I heard she was in the latest book and I'm quite sure she'll be involved with the next bit of DLC. She turned out to be an awesome character.

Best thing about Aria was the look she gave me after I passed out drunk and woke up on her couch.

Garrus. Best space bro in the universe.

I gots to go with Mordin

Have a friend who loves Nihlus. He spent a week trying to unlock the Turian soldier so he could make him. I asked him why he liked him so much when he was basically a redshirt at best. He says it's because he believed in Shepard. Also he has a whole side story in his head where Nihlus isn't really dead and is actually doing stuff behind the scenes to make Shepards journey easier and he has a pet Pyjak that lives in the cargo hold of his ship.

Oh right favourite Mass Effect character... Mordin. Then I shot him in the back.

@SockemJetpack said:

Have a friend who loves Nihlus. He spent a week trying to unlock the Turian soldier so he could make him. I asked him why he liked him so much when he was basically a redshirt at best. He says it's because he believed in Shepard. Also he has a whole side story in his head where Nihlus isn't really dead and is actually doing stuff behind the scenes to make Shepards journey easier and he has a pet Pyjak that lives in the cargo hold of his ship.

Oh right favourite Mass Effect character... Mordin. Then I shot him in the back.

They should get Gearbox to make an expansion pack where Nihlus spends the entire game trying to catch up with Shepard but only ever catches little glimpses of him.

@AndrewB: And every time he misses Shepard by mere seconds he flops into his pilot seat and forlornly says his catchphrase: "I need this stress like I need another bullet hole in my head"

@SockemJetpack: Yes.

It's funny you should mention Nihlus though, because my last run through the original game before Mass Effect 3, I actually felt a little sad that he couldn't be kept alive and made a squadmate. One Turian squadmate isn't enough. I also liked suggestions that Saren could be made to live and be recruited as well. Bioware has a history of allowing their past villains to become party members. Maybe their next project will be alternate-reality Mass Effect.

Mordin.

Legion, though this is a difficult decision.

Saren. Why is no one saying Saren? He was pretty much the only character in the series with any substance and with consistently good acting.

Well... just pretend this didn't happen:

Catalyst Kid

@FunExplosions said:

Saren. Why is no one saying Saren? He was pretty much the only character in the series with any substance and with consistently good acting.

Well... just pretend this didn't happen:

You're right! Saren is how to do space villain. That's why the first game had the best story, because Saren was such a good character that you wanted to catch up with him, interact with him and confront him and so you chased him around the galaxy and it was awesome!

It's Garrus. I don't even think it's close.

Marauder Shields

I'd have to say Mordin. More depth than any other character. I think that his talk about sea shells is the thing that'll stay with me the longest from ME3. Also, that "Mistake"-rant was heart wrenching.

I also really liked the Miranda character, but she's not nearly developed enough. There's a really interesting character there, but it seems Bioware is satisfied with a half-developed character (which, to add insult to injury is co-dependent on 2 other characters (father/sister)) to do anything but flash gratuitous fan-service camera angles (which, while "funny" cheapened the character and franchise.)

Was a bit disappointed I couldn't keep my Miranda/Mordin party from ME2 in the third game :)

Liara is quite potentially the character that has grown the most through the series - from a somewhat awkward archaeologist in the first game, to an omnipresent information broker... while still being the same character.

Garrus... kind off fell out of favor with me in ME2, while his recruitment mission was cool, he became too much of a spirit of vengeance to be interesting to me (also annoyed me hugely how though ME2 wasn't a race he never took the time to fix the bloody massive hold in his armor. Even his alternative suits had that damage, come on!). Using him as my secondary squadmate (with Liara being primary) in ME3 gave him a lot more room to grow and work as more than he was in ME3. And the man-date was a great moment.

... not that Thane, Jack, Tali are anything but marvelously written. Legion was very interesting, and his ascendancy and sacrifice was powerful, but felt more like a storytelling device to me, for the most part. I thought there was something almost magical about Kasumi Goto - the great voice acting made the childish joy at doing what she did best really pop.

EDI is another character that grew a lot during the games, as far as I can remember, you can even hear it in her voice. Mostly monotone voice'd in the first half of ME2 to being pretty much full-spectrum at the end of ME3. I'd like to see what happens if you are a jerk to her and don't encourage her to be more human - but not gotten around to that (I assume the difference isn't as big as you may want).

Wrex I didn't like much before Tuchanka. Jacob... sympathetic character, but very flat compared to pretty much every other character.

So... uh, I liked most of them (even the ones I didn't mention), I guess!?

@Mnemoidian said:

I also really liked the Miranda character, but she's not nearly developed enough.

I hate Miranda but I think it's mostly because of the pandering to the teenage gamer demographic. Panning around her ass gets really fucking old, BioWare.

Doesn't help that her character model also just looks...bad. Mass Effect shouldn't try and do sexy, it just doesn't turn out too well.

The model of Chobot is also super icky, droopy face is droopy.

Garrus with Mordin a distant second.

@Sooty: I thought the philosophical moments with Miranda really showed a lot of potential for character - the genetically engineered "perfect human" coming face-to-face with a character who through sheer genetic randomness, environmental variables and sheer willpower is so much more than she is. I thought that was really interesting.

Then they squander the character on fan-service and OHGODSISISINTROUBLEAGAIN. Say what you will about Cerberus, but you don't become second in-command of an organisation like that without being extremely capable - and that's where the most of my beef with the character comes in. She's never truly given the opportunity to show that capability. She's always in a position of weakness through her sister.

And yeah, the Diana Allers model looked a bit weird. Though I didn't mind the character much (or at least, think that the vitriol people direct towards it is really stupid).

Garrus.

Wrex, cannot stand Garrus.

@Mnemoidian said:

@Sooty: I thought the philosophical moments with Miranda really showed a lot of potential for character - the genetically engineered "perfect human" coming face-to-face with a character who through sheer genetic randomness, environmental variables and sheer willpower is so much more than she is. I thought that was really interesting.

Then they squander the character on fan-service and OHGODSISISINTROUBLEAGAIN. Say what you will about Cerberus, but you don't become second in-command of an organisation like that without being extremely capable - and that's where the most of my beef with the character comes in. She's never truly given the opportunity to show that capability. She's always in a position of weakness through her sister.

And yeah, the Diana Allers model looked a bit weird. Though I didn't mind the character much (or at least, think that the vitriol people direct towards it is really stupid).

I think a lot of the allure of the Miranda character is overshadowed by them forcing her ass in my face, I just feel that's bad taste and really stupid, totally undermines her as a character to me in favour of trying to turn her into a sex object. Not really just a BioWare problem either, I think the industry on the whole needs to lay off paying attention to tits and ass in games, it makes sense for some (wouldn't have Lollipop Chainsaw any other way) but seeing scantily dressed women on your save the galaxy mission is just baffling to me.

Wrex

Mordin and Legion were the most interesting characters to me.

Garrus and Ashley. They were the ones I took with me to Earth.

Can't speak for any others, but the romance with Ashley was very maturely done, though the sex is still awkward.

Thane.

Female: Tali Male: Garrus Overall: FUCKING LEGION BABY!

i feel that a paragon Female Shepard is the strongest Female protagonist in all of gaming, so well written and acted,

Liara has the most interesting character arc to me, even if she sucks as the Shadow Broker, it made me laugh that the shadow broker had remained anonymous for centuries, within 6 months of Liara taking over, the secret star base is discovered by Cerberus, Destroyed then it seems that EVERYONE in the known universe including a warlord dinosaur seems to know who she is, but i cant help but like someone as awkward as she is

Garrus and Tali are tied in my mind. Can't decide between either of them.

Garrus