History Fanfic / AvatarOfVictory

* OppositesAttract: Shepard and Liara when they start dating. Liara is a genius who earned her doctorate (or equivalent) early, Shepard barely passed high school. Liara at first runs away from any fight she gets into, Shepard is an N7 graduate who set a new record for getting through the program. Liara is a CloudCuckoolander, whereas Shepard is very down-to-earth (which leads to her serving as the CloudCuckoolandersMinder for Liara).

* [[spoier:OfficialCouple: Despite some ShipTease with Kaiden early on and EatingTheEyeCandy with Vega, Shepard ultimately settles down with Liara, and their relationship survives, endures, and develops all the way to their wedding in chapter 81.]]

** As of chapter 34, we also have references to the [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion The Sea of Dirac]] and a Turian (who in the Avatar of Victory universe are Romanesque, and use latin, which of course never existed in the Avatar's world) organization whose motto is [[Wiki/SCPFoundation Tuti Teneti Protego]].

* FusionFic: The Avatar world replaced Mass Effect's Earth. Thus, we get various mash-ups, like "Chora's Den," a BadGuyBar and strip club, getting turned into "Korra's Den," a theme bar based on the Roaring Twenties that WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra took place in. It's not a strip club, either. Also, it turns out that bending is not unique to humans- pretty much every race has benders of one kind or another.

* OfficialCouple: despite some ShipTease with Kaiden early on and EatingTheEyeCandy with Vega, Shepard ultimately settles down with Liara, and their relationship survives, endures, and develops all the way to their wedding in chapter 81.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Captain Bei-Li.

** [[spoiler: Zig-zagged with Tela Vasir. Whereas in canon, she worked for the Shadow Broker and tried to kill Liara and Shepard, in this version, she survives... because ''Jondam Bau'', a Spectre that you meet in the third game, takes her place. And he's supposed to survive (if you do it right).]]

** Although post-season two, some of Varrick's traits have been incorporated into Weaver, most notably having an assistant named "Su Li," and occasionally asking her to 'Do the thing.'

It has a Spacebattles thread dedicated to its updates, available [[http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/avatar-of-victory-me-crossover.223851/ Here.]]

* DoingInTheWizard: Wan was the first Avatar[[spoiler:, but not the first ''human'' Avatar. Also, Vaatu was actually a Reaper super weapon and did not return every ten thousand years (Korra just simplified it because ten thousand years was a bit more believable to her than the cycle of extinction and Reapers).]]

* [[spoiler: EarthAllAlong]]: [[spoiler: It turns out that the Earth that has been the center of the Alliance in this universe wasn't the first Earth... or the first humans. ''Omega'' is actually the remnants of the original Sol system, from millions of years ago, and that it was ''our'' earth, or something like it, that was the precursor race that kicked off the whole cycle. Unfortunately, they fell to shadowy spirits who formed the First Reaper, and scattered life across the galaxy.]]

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Weyrloc dies when Tali stakes him from the head down with an compressed ice spear.

* RuleOfFunny: Combined with GameplayAndStorySegregation, is why despite Shepard going straight to Therum to recover Doctor T'Soni (Liara), Liara believes that Shepard and her party are hallucinations. In the game, this only happens if you recruit Liara after doing many, ''many'' other missions before recruiting her (such as Feros and Noveria).

* TemptingFate: Vega says as much, saying that naming the VI on the moon after the guy who created an orwellian society in Ba Sing Se was pretty much ''asking'' for it to go crazy and start killing people.

* TimeAbyss [[spoiler: The Avatar Cycle has been passing between different species for more than '''2.5 Billion years.''']]

** AdaptationalBadass: While Grunt was already pretty strong, he was still a vanilla krogan in the source material- he was just a really strong krogan who hit things, "Perfect Krogan" genetics and upgrades nonwithstanding, especially given that the other krogan squadmate you had had previously (Wrex) was capable of doing biotics. This fic fixes this by making Grunt everything he was in the original, but also makes him a Shaman. In a world where spirits exist and have great influence on the real world, this means that he can go around obstacles that would normally be closed, tame thresher maws, and even convince other people's weapons to backfire on them by communing with them, via a BadassFingerSnap. Oh, and he actually managed to do better than ''Wrex'' in the Rite- Wrex was the last to ''kill'' a Thresher Maw. Grunt... managed to ''tame'' a Maw, and can now summon it like it's a Pokemon. Many of Shepard's other teammates also qualify: Wrex is an earthbender with centuries of experience, Tali learns how to waterbend in addition to her engineering skills, and bending overall is becoming more and more widespread throughout the galaxy after humanity made contact.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Played around with in the background. They're viewed as something along the lines of Spirits, and how each culture views those spirits shapes how they view AI's. For example, on Thessia, their spiritual experience was mostly negative, so the thought of a machine with a mind of its own makes them have strongly negative views on AI. The Salarians had no knowledge of any type of spirit at all until contact with the Asari, and had their worldview shaped by said contact. ''Turians,'' on the other hand, believe that AI could be a ''good'' thing, mostly because they have had an extremely ''positive'' relationship with spirits, and they believe that (properly controlled and supplicated, like a spirit), could help increase society greatly.

* ExtremeDoormat: [[spoiler:Tali'Zorah]] has a 'very' hard time telling people 'no'. Thanks to Garrus and Shepard, she's getting a lot better.

** [[spoiler: Thane and Adahn didn't survive the Suicide Mission, and though she later woke up, Samara was in a coma for some time, and needs to get back her motor skills before she could do anything.]]

* DyingAsYourself: [[spoiler: This is effectively how Abentus came into being. The race it was crafted from, at the behest of their Avatar, willingly threw themselves at the Reapers to be harvested. With the entire species having been processed in a matter of months, there was no time for [[MoreThanMindControl Indoctrination]] to set in, leading to the birth of a Reaper with free will.]]

** As of chapter 47, [[spoiler: Adahn]] outshines all the other AI due to one simple fact: [[spoiler: ''he's an airbender'', and apparently has been ''since the Morning War.'']]

* NamesTheSame: [[spoiler: There have been many different intelligent races throughout the galaxy's lifespan to go by the name 'human'.]] It's admitted both in-story and by WordOfGod that there are only so many unique sounds that a set of vocal chords can produce; this was bound to happen at least once.

* BringMeMyBrownPants: Liara has this happen to her twice; once after the geth tried to kill her at the dig site where she met Shepard, and again after Wrex shoots her in the forehead to test if her newly purchased armor is worth the two million credits she spent. It is.

* GenreSavvy: Aria knows that Morinth is incredibly skilled (skilled enough to take down ''four'' Justicars sent after her), so she goes for a better option: Point Shepard in Morinth's direction and let her handle the mess.

* XanatosGambit: Weaver's plan for the Phoenix invasion of the Citadel. [[spoiler: If it had worked and the councilors were killed, humanity could have stepped in. He didn't put much faith in that and arranged for Udina to take the blame for hiring pro-human mercenaries, leaving the evidence just flimsy enough that Shepard or others could find the true one responsible, Councelor Valern... who was indoctrinated by Rho. Since they do kill Valern, the Salarian Military will throw their weight behind humanity in order to distance themselves from Valern's insanity, giving the war effort a massive boost. The worst part is that ''this works.'' The codex at the end of the chapter says that that exact thing is happening.]]

* BigDamnHeroes: Shepard and Kasumi are cornered by Vido and Hoq in a gunship, when Zaeed comes out of nowhere in a Tu Wei Lu [[/note]]Atlas[[note]] and annihilates said gunship in order to take out his revenge on Vido.
* BizarreAlienBiology: inverted- Shepard mentions that the Elcor have red blood, like humans.

** [[spoiler: Adahn.]]

* CurbStompCushion: The fourth time Shepard battles Leviathan, on the Collector Ship. [[spoiler: Shepard manages to land a few blows, but the fight is overwhelmingly in Leviathan's favor, since it decided to [[IAmNotLeftHanded stop trying to capture the Avatar, and instead just kill her.]] Shepard only survives because of her team's intervention.]]

** Remember how in all the Mass Effect games, the bad guys had a seemingly endless supply of human husks to throw at you? Ever wondered where they got those when humans were relatively new on the galactic scene, and the number of human colonies weren't that large? Apparently the Author did as well, because the primary basic Reaper husk used on Palaven are Salarians, which have poorly defended colonies and nearly a trillion-strong population.

* DoingInTheWizard: Wan was the first Avatar, but not the first ''human'' Avatar. Also, Vaatu was actually a Reaper super weapon and did not return every ten thousand years (Korra just simplified it because ten thousand years was a bit more believable).
** Inverted in that it turns out that the reason that humans can't be both Biotics and Benders at the same time is that Biotics is a ''form'' of Bending, just not one that anyone knew about. And since Humans can't bend multiple elements (except the Avatar), you can either be a biotic or a bender but not both. In fact, Shepard's "Natural" bending state is that of biotics, and the reason that she was capable of using airbending is because she was the avatar.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Rael'Zorah, after learning that the geth marked him, and anybody protecting him, with death. Overlaps a little with HeroicSacrifice.]]
* EldritchAbomination: Nataraja, a Reaper super weapon/ Dark Spirit that is unleashed on Palaven.
** Meretsegger, Tuchankan death incarnate. There are only two courses of action you can take when confronted by it: Run, or Die... and there's no guarantee that running will save you. To give you a hint of how powerful this thing is, it made ''Shepard'', the '''AVATAR''', run away ''screaming''. If that doesn't tell you the threat, than consider that it is the spirit of death... for [[DeathWorld Tuchanka.]] A galactic codex entry has it on the same level of dangerous as ''Koh''. When someone suggests that they try to kill it, the response is that since it's a death spirit, all it would do is make it stronger and annoyed that someone tried. [[spoiler: Grunt walks right up to it and convinces it to fight the Reapers, since they twisted the bargain Meretsegger made with them]].

** One of Toph's descendants was the one to make First Contact with the Krogan.
* HeroicRROD: Tapping into the full power of the Avatar State will tear the user's body apart from the stress. This happened twice to Shepard; during her NoHoldsBarredBeatdown of Morinth, and again when Phoenix [[spoiler: kidnaps her sister.]]

** As it turns out, biotics are actually another type of bending, and the Avatar is able to harness this form.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Weyrloc dies when Tali stakes him (from the head down) with an ice spear.
* InsistentTerminology: Avatar Vajrapata insists that Unaloq was not a Dark Avatar. The real thing, a ''true'' Dark Avatar, is ever so much worse because a ''true'' Dark Avatar comes not from some spirit just handing you power, it takes true suffering for an Avatar to decide to turn dark.

* LampshadeHanging: On the copy/paste nature of a lot of the "bases" you fought through in the first game. Garrus claims that the turians practice on mockups of Alliance bases frequently, which leads everyone to wonder how badly the Alliance is compromised... until Garrus mentions that most Alliance bases are just prefabs that use the same layout for simplicity's sake, and "The only variation is the positioning of the cover."

** [[spoiler: Not so benevolent now that Weaver has been revealed to be the Illusive Man. Though the benevolent part still seems to apply to most of the remaining members who weren't in the know.]]

* MotorMouth: People (usually Shepard) have to constantly remind Liara to take a breath before she talks herself into unconsciousness. Also Mordin, but that was how his canon form was as well.

** When Jack is taken prisoner and has to escape from Phoenix in Book 3, she does so wearing an outfit identical to the one she pioneered in [[Franchise/MassEffect Mass Effect 2]].

*** However, even though they are now extinct, by far the most badass were the Nazara. How badass are they, you ask? ''They fought the Reapers to a standstill, and came closer than anyone else,'' '''''ever''''' ''to defeating them outright.''

** Do not go back on a bargain with [[EldritchAbomination Meretsegger]]. The last thing you want to do is make the [[DeathWorld Tuchankan]] spirit of death angry, especially at you.

* BetaCouple: Garrus and Tali are becoming this.

** PlayedWith: Shepard struggles with her sexuality fairly vocally.
** In addition, Asari are an excellent way of muddying the water in this issue even outside of this story; they are mono-gendered and can reproduce with ''any'' species or gender.
* BigDamnHeroes: Shepard and Kasumi are cornered by Vido and Hoq in a gunship, when Zaeed comes out of nowhere and annihilates said gunship in order to take out his revenge on Vido.

** [[PacificRim "First; do not touch me again. Second, do not ''ever'' touch me again."]]