Characters / Mass Effect - Urdnot Wrex

Mass Effect Main Character Index
Mass Effect: Commander Shepard | Party Members (Kaidan Alenko | Ashley Williams | Garrus Vakarian | Liara T'Soni | Tali'Zorah | Urdnot Wrex) | Antagonists | NPCs
Mass Effect 2: Early Party Members (Miranda Lawson | Jack) | Late Party Members | Secret Party Members | Main Antagonists | Secondary Antagonists | Normandy Crew | Council Space NPCs | Non-Council Space NPCs
Mass Effect 3: Party Members | Antagonists and NPCs | Multiplayer Characters
Mass Effect: Andromeda: Pathfinder Ryder | Party Members | Crew of the Tempest | The Andromeda Initiative | The Kett | The Angara | Other Characters | Multiplayer Characters

Urdnot Wrex

Shepard.^note Wrex.

"Anyone who fights us is either stupid or on Saren's payroll. Killing the latter is business. Killing the former is a favor to the universe."

Voiced by: Steven Barr

A krogan battlemaster who combines close-combat skills and enormous physical strength and durability with biotic powers. Joins Shepard's team out of both an interest in fighting a good battle and because the money is nice. He becomes a progressive-minded overlord of the krogan people in Mass Effect 2 if he survived the events of the first game, eventually uniting them under his banner.

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A-E

• Afraid of Needles: Mordin claims this about Wrex when he's eager to leave his lab and donate tissue samples later. Whether it's true or not, it's hilarious, and then when he finally gets around to it...
  Wrex: Let's just say scalpels were never meant to cut where he cut.
• Affectionate Nickname: Affectionately refers to Mordin as "Pyjak".
• All Men Are Perverts: "Eve" dryly tells Shepard that if there's a fertile female to be rescued, Wrex will be on the case instantly. If one goes by the theory "Eve" is Wrex's estranged wife, it's doubly funny. It becomes Be Careful What You Wish For if the genophage is cured, however.
• The All-Solving Hammer: One of the first things Wrex usually suggests when confronted by a problem is to eat the individual responsible.
  • Whenever a Krogan, be it another clan leader or his own brother, starts giving him shit he simply head butts them. While this is Krogan culture, Wrex is not adverse to head butting people of other species to shut them up.
  • Ironically, a Thresher Maw Hammer is exactly the solution to defeat a Reaper on Tuchanka in 3, by summoning Kalros.
• Ancestral Weapon: In this case ancestral armor, but also Subverted. In the first game, he asks Shepard to retrieve his family's armor from a turian smuggler. However, the constant arms race had rendered it useless, and it's only valuable for personal reasons.
  Wrex: My ancestors actually wore this piece of junk?
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership:
  • He is a krogan, and thus tends to equate ass-kicking with respect (as shown when he head butts another Krogan who is getting too mouthy for Wrex's liking). He may even discuss this with various other crewmembers, by asking them if they could beat Shepard in a fight. Kaidan dismisses the question with how he'd realistically never have to fight his superior officer; Wrex decides that that's why Shepard is his superior officer, and why they would win. Tali (or Liara) asks if krogan size up everyone for a fight, to which he replies yes; his tone of voice suggests that he's genuinely surprised that the other races don't.
  • If he survived the first game, in Mass Effect 2 he's in the process of reforming and uniting krogan society through sheer force of personality (and head butting, when necessary).
    Wrex: Speak when spoken to, Uvenk. I'll drag your clan to glory whether you like it or not.
  • The "who would win" bit sets up a Brick Joke in "Citadel" - en route to fighting the Clone, Wrex gloats to Ash/Kaidan that they're about to get their answer after all. It's also turned around when Zaeed and Javik ask who'd win: him or Grunt? Both immediately respond with a headbutting contest before Shepard shuts it down because they know what comes next, and it would be hell to clean up the resulting destruction.
• Babies Ever After: In the third game, with Eve, and you can even see the baby in some of the endings! Also to his horror, as his pivotal role in curing the genophage has made him very desirable as breeding stock to all krogan females. And Eve/Bakara encourages them. His poor quad are literally sore from overuse. Also, Bakara wants to name their child after Mordin, which despite suggesting it as a joke he doesn't really want to go through with.
• Badass Boast:
  • Gives one in the third game. Note that the quote is fully capitalized in the game's subtitles:
    Wrex: I AM URDNOT WREX AND THIS IS MY PLANET!!!
  • Wrex gives this winning line to Shepard in London:
    Wrex: You're going to win — because you brought the krogan!
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • Eve says that Wrex has always been enthusiastic around fertile females. With the genophage cured, the Citadel DLC informs us that as the leader of the most powerful clan and symbol to the galaxy of the awesomeness of their people, they've been lining up around the corner for his seed. And what's funnier, Eve/Bakara encourages it, probably to break Wrex of the habit through forced overindulgence.
  Shepard: I can think of worse positions to be in.
  Wrex: Trust me, I've been in every position in the past few days...
  • As far back as the first game Wrex expressed a desire for the krogan to get their act together and rebuild their species and civilization rather than wasting time fighting each other. By 3 he's gotten exactly what he wanted despite being relegated to a supporting leadership role rather than being part of Shepard's crew. He admits that he misses the more carefree nature of adventuring around the galaxy with Shepard but also acknowledges that he did ask for this.
• Berserk Button: Any mention of destroying the krogan's chances of curing the genophage will provoke a violent reaction. It can get Wrex killed in the first game unless you can talk him down, and you are forced to kill him in the third game if you sabotage the cure. The rachni are also a particularly sore topic for him, given the brutal war between them and the krogan.
• Big Good: Becomes this to the krogan on Tuchanka if he lives past Virmire. "Eve" in the third game privately admits to Shepard that Wrex is the greatest thing to happen to Tuchanka in over a thousand years.
• The Big Guy: Type 1 (gruff and withdrawn). Also has shades of Types 3 and 5. How big? In the Citadel DLC, he states that he weighs 800 pounds. Add 220 pounds of standard krogan medium armor, plus his Claymore, sidearm, grenades, ammo, and various other gear, and he probably walks around at half a metric ton.
• Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: Wrex is the biggest and toughest of the original squadmates, and he's the first one who can potentially die (if you can't talk him down on Virmire).
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Krogan have secondary everything, from cardiovascular to nervous systems. And four testicles, referred to in the fandom and then in the second game as a "quad". Wrex will say that Shepard has a quad. He'll even say this about female Shepard.
• Blood Knight: Though he's downright moderate compared to the rest of his species. During the geth hunt in the Armstrong Cluster, he'll note that he's actually been enjoying himself, and will be sad when Shepard's team runs out of geth.
  Wrex: They'll sing battle songs about this someday! Reaper blood has finally soaked our soil!
  • Though he's not insane. When Shepard notes Wrex didn't help with the Reaper, Wrex mildly says he helped by offering Shepard encouragement.
• Bounty Hunter: One of many jobs he's taken over the centuries. He first encounters Saren while on the job, unsettling him to the point of quitting — which ends up saving his life.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Not so much in the first game, but played straight from the second game onward.
• Cain and Abel: Abel to Wreav's Cain. So if he sees Wreav get killed by Kalros in 3, he barely cares, saying that he was a pain in the ass anyway.
• Catchphrase: He tries out a few during "Citadel". They generally involve calling himself "Uncle Urdnot". Tali tells him to keep trying.
• Captain Obvious: "I raised the hammers; you have to activate both of them. My advice is: avoid the giant laser!"
• The Casanova: According to Eve that "if there's a fertile female, he'll be there", and "[he's a good leader] when he isn't trying to sire half of Tuchanka". In the Citadel DLC, if the genophage is cured, he'll complain about how he's been so busy mating that he needs an icepack for his crotch. If Eve/Bakara is still alive, he says that she is encouraging it (probably to try and break him of the behavior through forced overindulgence).
• Character Development: Wrex starts off the first game as the most cynical party member, and then some. He's completely fatalistic and hopeless about the krogan's chances and has spent centuries as nothing more than a mercenary and bounty hunter. If he survives the first game, he decides to make a second go at saving his race and ends up becoming a progressive leader for his people, eventually growing from a common mercenary to arguably the most powerful krogan in the galaxy. If Shepard supports him and his desire to cure the genophage, he ends up being arguably the single most idealistic and hopeful character in the third game's entire story. In fact, he's cracking wise and trying to come up with a new Catchphrase. When talking to his soldiers in London, he calls them "princesses".
• Chick Magnet: Again, in 3 if the genophage is cured... before he discovers how exhausting it is.
• Chivalrous Pervert: On the other hand, he respects women a lot more than the average krogan.
• Cool Old Guy: Wrex is up there, even for a race as long-lived as the Krogan. In the second game, this is given as the reason the krogan are uniting under his leadership. His immense ass-kicking skills don't hurt any, either.
• Cool Uncle: The Citadel DLC particularly highlights that the rest of the squad have come to see Wrex as this type of figure. After Wrex asks if Tali's been taking his advice on shotguns, she replies:
  Tali: You're like the crazy, head butting uncle I never had.
• Crazy Is Cool:
  • In-Universe, the Urdnot Mechanic acknowledges that Wrex is a "crazy old man", but at the same time, what he's saying makes sense and is actually working. Because of this, in the third game, Eve calls him the first bright light the krogan have had in a millennium.
  • His crazy awesomeness has combat applicability as well: in the Citadel DLC, he saves Shepard and a squadmate from a false flag ambush by CAT6 mercs in a C-Sec shuttle by diving out a window and body slamming the cockpit canopy, which causes it to crash. This is a shuttle model which is canonically described to be designed first and foremost for rugged durability and has been stated to be able to withstand 1000 earth atmospheres of pressure. And Wrex, true to his name, wrecks it.
• Cutscene Boss: In Mass Effect 3, if Shepard sabotages the cure, Wrex jumps them in the Citadel and all dialogue options lead to him being killed in a non-player-controlled gunfight.
• Cutscene Incompetence: Ashley downs him with one shot from a rifle in Mass Effect 1 before finishing him off with a few more shots, (Shepard can pistol-whip him and shoot him repeatedly on the ground) and Shepard can kill him with a pistol in Mass Effect 3. He mysteriously forgets that he has barriers and biotic powers. The latter is notable enough that it might actually be Suicide by Cop after he's lost all hope for the Krogan.
• Dare to Be Badass:
  • To motivate the krogan to fight a common enemy rather than fighting themselves and the rest of the galaxy.
    Wrex: Now hold your heads high like true krogan. There's a Reaper that needs killing!
  • If he's on Earth during the Very Definitely Final Dungeon, he's barking jingo at a squadron, calling them "princesses" and to suck it up.
• Deadpan Snarker: Provides half of the snark in the first game.
• Death Glare: Displays a great one in 3 when the salarian dalatrass insults the krogan. The look on his face makes it clear that he wants nothing more than to pull out a shotgun and leave a large hole in the Normandy's bulkhead where she was standing. For bonus points, the scene is focused on him, so you get to see just how pissed off Wrex is, taking up the entire screen. While the dalatrass is being incredibly undiplomatic, Wrex is being the cool-headed one — and Primarch Victus points this out immediately.
• Despair Event Horizon:
  • Implied to have gone through a minor one before you meet him. After his father betrayed him he lost hope of reforming his race into anything resembling a proper civilisation, and began roaming the stars and killing people for credits. If he survives the first game he gets renewed hope and has a more successful job at kicking the krogan together.
  • Betray him by sabotaging the genophage cure and he'll completely lose it. He'll withdraw krogan support, leave the galaxy to burn, and try to gun you down with a shotgun to boot. As far as he's concerned, if his species is going to go extinct, humanity can join them.
• Dirty Old Man: In Mass Effect 3, according to Eve, he's a bit... enthusiastic about fertile krogan females. By the Citadel DLC, he's over this. Largely because he's been with so many that his genitals physically hurt. Which says something when you're a member of a species of armored reptilian walking tanks with regeneration capabilities, and you're considered one of the most badass specimens of that species.
• Driven to Suicide: A possibility, if you make a certain series of decisions. In ME3, if you sabotage the genophage cure, Wrex will come after you, conveniently forgetting his biotics and shields... Suicide by Shepard.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Assuming you never recruit Wrex in the first game, he just sort of dies off-screen between there and 2.
• Dynamic Entry: In the Citadel DLC, when Shepard and a crewmate are pinned down by a shuttle full of mercs, Wrex crashes through a window a few stories above and body slams the shuttle.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: If he survives all 3 games, and the genophage is cured without being sabotaged, then his desire to see the Krogan be saved from extinction and become more than just mercenary thugs is finally brought to fruition. If Eve lives, he also has a baby with her.
• Enemy Mine:
  • With the turians in the third game. Despite the fact that neither Wrex nor Primarch Victus are quick to trust the other, Victus is completely in favour of curing the genophage if that's the terms for krogan reinforcements, and Wrex makes good on his promise to send those reinforcements to aid in the defense of Palaven.
  • Victus and Wrex also seem to find common ground opposing the salarian dalatrass. She seems to clearly irritate them both.
• Epic Fail: If you opt to sabotage the genophage cure in 3, he comes after you with a shotgun. In all outcomes, he'll miss Shepard with a shotgun at point-blank range and will be gunned down either by Shepard or C-Sec, despite the former being unarmored and unarmed when Wrex attacks.
• Establishing Character Moment: He is encountered inside the C-Sec offices, where a C-Sec officer is reprimanding him for his attempt to kill Fist. Wrex responds with a series of Badass Boasts, then proudly declares that he's still going to kill Fist to the officer's face before leaving and telling Shepard to mind his own business. If you talk to him immediately after you conclude your business in C-Sec, he asks to go with you to take down Fist and kills Fist after the crime lord tries to surrender. If you don't, and instead wait until after you have dealt with Fist to speak with him, he is impressed by the wreck you made of Chora's Den, and gives you the bounty he was supposed to collect as a show of respect.
• Et Tu, Brute?: In Mass Effect 3, if you betray the krogan and sabotage the genophage cure, he completely loses it due to the betrayal of a close, trusted friend in Shepard.
• Everyone Has Standards: It's clear that he's not evil, but he's decidedly darker than other party members, especially in the first:
  • Take him on Virmire when you discover the captured salarians driven to mindlessness by indoctrination, and he's visibly unhappy about it, saying that you don't do that to prisoners — kill them, sure, but not that. This is why he objects to Paragon Shepard releasing them. As far as he's concerned, even though they'd all die in the blast anyway, it'd take a cold person to let them live on like that for any longer than necessary. A cut-and-dried Mercy Kill is what he would want if he ended up indoctrinated, and hence he agrees to Renegade Shepard opening the door and gunning the salarians down.
  • Wrex wishes for the Krogan to be cured of the Genophage more than anything else but there are still lines he won't cross even for a cure. He can be convinced to stand down on the possibility of a cure from Saren when it's brought up that the cured Krogan would effectively be slaves to his will and he outright refused to work with Maelon when he learned just how brutal the experiments that the scientist wanted to perform would be.
• Expy:
  • Wrex is one of many BioWare characters descended from Korgan Bloodaxe — a Blood Knight Boisterous Bruiser mercenary and also an Old Soldier fond of sharing past war stories. He shares this with Zaeed Massani from Mass Effect 2, so unsurprisingly they get along very well in Mass Effect 3.
  • He shares many traits with Canderous Ordo, another Korgan-expy from Knights of the Old Republic. Both are the team Big Guy, come from a Proud Warrior Race Guy culture, and are disillusioned with their cultures' slowly self-destructive behavior. They also both regain their idealism and become the leader of their people in the second game.

F-J

• Face–Heel Turn:
  • Seriously considers one during Virmire. If you're unable to talk him out of it, Ashley kills him to protect you.
  • If Shepard sabotaged the genophage cure in Mass Effect 3, he will return later on, having found out, and tries to kill Shepard no matter what. He also calls off all his support for the war. Of course, given the despicable actions Shepard has to do in order for this to happen, you can't really blame Wrex.
• Family Honor: While he was never on good terms with his father and was eventually forced to kill him in self-defense, Wrex appears to have been close with his grandfather, swearing an oath before he left Tuchanka that he would regain their family's battle-armour, stolen by a turian after the war. He can finally achieve this several hundred years later with help from Shepard.
• Family of Choice: He was never on good terms with his father and makes it clear that he and Wreav share only blood. Beyond being a Papa Wolf for his entire race he seems to count Shepard's team as family, lampshaded several times when Tali calls him her crazy headbutting uncle or when Wrex refers to Shepard themselves as a brother/sister.
• Fantastic Racism: He openly admits to be racist against salarians, and his distrust of them causes him to act up and nearly screw up the negotiations in 3. He's not exactly a fan of the turians since representatives of both species played a part in creating the genophage. While he doesn't have any particular hatred for the asari he's quite happy to assume the negative stereotypes about their reproductive habits are true. That said it mostly manifests as ill-natured grumbling and he's perfectly fine with fighting alongside them as part of Shepard's team, and he does end up befriending most of the squad.
• Fire-Forged Friends:
  • Provided that Shepard talks to him and returns his family armor, Wrex eventually sees Shepard as a friend. This becomes a heartwarming Friendship Moment in the second game when you're reunited with him; Wrex immediately ends a meeting to greet Shepard outright calling them "My friend!" Another Friendship Moment happens in the third game, if you stay trustworthy and warn the krogan about the shroud sabotage. Wrex tells Eve "I told you we could trust him/her".
  • He also becomes this with virtually every other member of Shepard's crew, particularly Garrus. Despite being from two feuding species, fighting at each others' sides have made them comrades.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: As a guest party member in Citadel, his most common tactic is to charge into the enemy mob and club them with his shotgun. Horrified players will soon realize that Wrex easily has twice as much HP as other party members, and thus can survive running out in the open and being shot at by multiple assailants. Doubles as a Call-Back, since Wrex's combat style in 1 was virtually identical.
• Foreshadowing: One of the elevator conversations in 1 has Garrus eagerly wanting to see how the Normandy handles in a fight. Wrex is one of the squadmates who point out that it would be stupid to get into a head-on fight in a frigate designed for stealth. The opening of the second game proves that viewpoint correct - although, admittedly, the enemy ship belonged to the Collectors.
• Friendly Enemy: He mentions having one in an asari named Aleena who is strongly hinted to be a past identity for Aria T'Loak in Mass Effect 2.
• The Gadfly: Especially in the first game's infamous elevator sequences, where he frequently says outrageous things to your squadmembers just to see how they react.
• Genius Bruiser: Wrex is an eight hundred pound lizard-alien with multiple redundant vital organs, and he has been fighting since humanity was still using wooden sailing ships back on Earth. He's also incredibly cunning, has a strong grasp of tactics, and is one of the only Krogan living who actually has a plan to save the species from extinction.
• Good Is Not Soft: As krogan overlord, he institutes many reforms to save his race from the brink... and if he has to go against tradition or bust heads for it to work, so be it.
• The Good King: If he survives the first game and is aided in the sequels, he goes on to become a major reformer, eventually working himself up to the leader of the entire krogan species, and is on the path to leading them into a new golden age and cultural renaissance.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: All over his shell. It conveniently helps players distinguish him from other krogan.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: Another par for the krogan course. Initially believed Shepard survived being spaced due to having a redundant nervous system.
  Shepard: Yeah, humans don't have that.
  Wrex: Oh.... It must've been painful then.
• Grumpy Old Man: Over a thousand years old, and as curmudgeonly as they come. In classic form, he quickly warms up if Shepard makes an effort to get to know him.
• Guest-Star Party Member: In the Citadel DLC of 3.
• Gut Feeling: His reliance on this has saved him twice. He correctly predicted a trap by his father Jarrod, even though they were meeting in a place where violence was supposedly forbidden. On a later mercenary job for the turian who he would later discover was Saren, he had such a bad feeling that he left without being paid. All the other mercs he was working with were found dead a week later.
• Handgun: In the first game, he had access to all weapons but could train with assault rifles and shotguns. In Citadel, his weapons are shotgun and heavy pistol.
• Hidden Depths: An exile from a barbaric race. Utterly ruthless. A one man army. The most vicious bounty hunter in the galaxy. Also quite possibly the most sensitive and caring character towards Shepard other than Liara and Kaidan. And he tried to end his people's infighting, pretty much making him the Krogan equivalent of a hippie. Who says bloodthirsty, thousand-year-old reptilian warlords don't have hearts? Two of them, in point of fact.
• Honorary True Companion: To the Normandy crew from the second game onwards.
• Honorary Uncle: The Normandy crew consider him to be like this, especially Tali:
  You're like the crazy, headbutting uncle I never had.
• Honor Before Reason: He's loyal to the krogan race, even if that means dying senselessly in a fight with Shepard, if the latter can't talk him down in the first game or sabotages the genophage cure in the third.
• Hope Bringer: Along with "Eve", he becomes this to the entire krogan species over the course of 2 and 3.
• Hypocrite:
  • For someone who protests to no end that the Genophage is a slow-burn genocide, Wrex is all too willing to advocate genocide against the rachni by wiping out the remaining Rachni Queen on Noveria. It's especially dark if you learn more of the lore and realise the rachni were effectively used as attack animals by past cultures in a way not unlike how the krogan were uplifted to turn the tide during the Rachni Wars.
  • Wrex grows distrustful towards Shepard if Maelon's data was destroyed, experiments that Wrex himself had refused to work with due to their brutal nature.
  • If Shepard betrays him by sabotaging the Genophage cure, he withdraws Clan Urdnot’s support for the war effort, but not the other clans, despite his work to value all krogan clans.
• Hypocritical Humor: Jokes during the Citadel DLC that he can't go crawling through pipes because of "too many varren legs" as a snack. When Tali and Liara tease him a moment later about his size, he's snarling.
• Hypothetical Fight Debate: Wrex loves asking who would win in a fight between Shepard and the third squadmate. Funnily enough, it comes to a head when you fight Shepard's clone. He can also be the subject of one versus Grunt in the Citadel DLC which, depending on the mood of the party you choose to throw, can potentially cease to be be quite so hypothetical.
• I'm Standing Right Here: On Noveria, if Garrus objects to killing the rachni queen.
  Garrus: We can't exterminate them. Not without the Council's approval. Genocide is one of the reasons we fought the krogan— ah...
  Wrex: You want to learn about genocide, Vakarian? I'll take you to a krogan obstetrician's office.
• Irony: Wrex is annoyed with how most krogan live up to negative stereotypes and believes that some customs need to be ignored to truly save the species. As a result many krogan despise Wrex for not respecting tradition. Then come Mass Effect 3 and Eve describes what the glorious krogan of ancient times were like and they sound a lot more similar to Wrex than 99% of the other krogan we meet in the series. So it can be argued that the guy closest to being a traditional krogan... is Wrex.
• Informed Equipment: Cutscenes, trailers, promotional art, and the Citadel squad selection screen all show him wielding the Claymore heavy shotgun. For good reason; it's a great weapon to give him in-game.
• I Was Just Joking: In 3 he sarcastically suggests naming one of the new krogan children after Mordin as thanks for curing the Genophage, probably a girl. Near the end of the game, Wrex tells Shepard that Eve is pregnant and wants to name her child after Mordin. He doesn't share her enthusiasm.
• I Work Alone: Fortunately, he's a reasonable example of this trope; he prefers to work by himself, but he's perfectly willing to operate with small groups. Shepard also works in small groups, so he's got no problems with that. It's just being part of armies he has issues with.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Wrex is aggressive and short-tempered, but deep down, he cares about his friends and the krogan race. He is the only one besides Joker to comfort Shepard after they are forced to leave either Ashley or Kaidan behind on Virmire. He also gives Shepard a very warm greeting as the krogan overlord. From a grizzled old cynic like him, that really means something. He even invites Grunt to be part of the clan. As warlord, he does everything in his power to aid his people, whether they like it or not.

  Wrex: Shepard! My friend!

  • Despite disliking salarians in general, he grows to respect Mordin in ME3, affectionately nicknaming him "Pyjak." After Mordin sacrifices himself to cure the genophage, Wrex says that he'll honour him by naming one of the newborn children after him. Maybe one of the girls.
• Just Eat Him: He threatens the crooked security goons on Noveria with this. Considering that Wrex is an eight-foot-tall lizard alien, it tends to be effective.

K-O

• Killed Off for Real: Possible in the first game, which allows his more traditional but distrustful brood brother Wreav to become leader of Clan Urdnot. Also possible in the third game; if you sabotage the genophage cure, he'll find out and you'll have to blow him away on the Citadel.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: He'll kill the local crime lord Fist even after he surrenders. Renegade Shepard and Tali certainly don't disagree.
• Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: Averted. The Urdnot scientists are actually complaining because Wrex has turned them to agricultural sciences and focused their efforts on increasing crop yield, irrigation and better farming methods. Only on Tuchanka could the scientists be upset that the Warlord doesn't want them to blow things up! In Andromeda, seems like Wrex was onto something, as the crop scientist is one of the most important figures in the krogan colony.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Yes, he does help save the galaxy and eventually becomes chieftain of Clan Urdnot but he's also as cynical as they come. If Shepard continuously supports him, he, like Garrus, shows a much more idealistic side as things go on.
• Leeroy Jenkins: In Citadel, while most other party member AI have the sense to keep in cover during a firefight, Wrex's primary attack strategy is to charge opponents and melee them. He can survive this and win... unless you're playing on Insanity, in which case he predictably gets quickly gunned down.
  • Ironically he can even be this on Insanity with the right build which rapidly turns any adventure on the Citadel into a bit of Strategy, Schmategy - You can do whatever you and your teammate want, Wrex is gonna be knocking heads around.
• Lightning Bruiser: Wrex is one of the last living Krogan Battlemasters. Take an eight-foot-tall sapient lizard with multiple redundant vital organs, natural armor, and enough muscle mass to bench press a car. Add centuries of combat experience, and mix with biotic powers rivaling an Asari commando.
• Like an Old Married Couple: His interaction with "Eve" in the third game. There are plenty of hints that "Eve" really is his estranged wife.
• Living Legend: He's renown throughout the galaxy for his exploits, and as the last Krogan to kill a Thresher Maw during his rite of passage, at least until Grunt if he manages the same thing. ^note Though on Grunt's part, it is optional, and he also did it with the help of Shepard and another Squadmate, while Wrex did it on his own.
• Made of Iron: The Krogan are notorious for this to begin with - so much so that they were the only species capable of going to the Death Worlds the Rachni lived on. Wrex takes this up a notch; he's nigh unkillable on most difficulties. Up until Insanity mode, Wrex can simply charge into a squad of enemies and murder them all with little effort - and he can still more than hold his own on said difficulty. He just can't walk into the middle of the enemy line with impunity anymore.
• Mage Marksman: In addition to his substantial toughness and general combat skills, he's also a biotic.
• The McCoy: To Dalatrass Linron's The Spock and Primarch Adrien Victus and Paragon Shepard's The Kirk, in 3.
• Meaningful Name:
  • He's called Wrex because he wrecks stuff.
  • Also, rex = Latin for king. Fits with him becoming the krogan overlord in the second game.
  • According to the devs, they called him Wrex after a Tyrannosaurus Rex, which still comes from "king." This also leads to an amusing Continuity Nod in the second game, where data on Grunt's extranet searches reveal that he went from searching about Wrex to reading about dinosaurs.
• Moral Pragmatist: His goal is to ensure the survival of his doomed species. He has developed very pragmatic ideas to help the krogan recover from the Genophage, but they're too proud and violent to listen to him. In the first game, when Saren finds a way to breed new krogan, he seriously considers betraying you, and you can only change his mind by either threatening to kill him or making him realize how stupid it would be to join Saren. In the third game, if he survived, Wrex refuses to help in the war against the Reapers unless you cure the Genophage first, and if you sabotage said cure, he immediately withdraws all krogan support just so that humans will go extinct just like the krogan.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: His usual suggestion for dealing with problematic individuals is to shoot them. He viscerally establishes this if you bring him along to raid Chora's Den - regardless of what Shepard says to Fist, Wrex blows his head off as soon as he's given Shepard the information they need.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: Invoked in 3 if you bring Liara and Garrus along to Sur'kesh, he's deeply happy she's there... oh, and Garrus too. If you don't bring Liara he's just as appreciative of Garrus however, implying he did this just to mess with him.
• My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Uses one in ME3.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Wrex is somewhere in between playing this straight and averting it. He mostly embraces the overall krogan culture and attitudes, but he's far more willing than most of his race to acknowledge a lot of their actions are idiotically self-destructive (to the point of making some attempt to fix that in the second game).
• No Guy Wants to Be Chased: In the Citadel Downloadable Content for 3, the reason he's on the Citadel at all is because, following the dealing with the genophage in Priority: Tuchanka, every single female krogan wants a go with him so that their firstborn can be of his genes. He'd likely have less of a problem if they actually gave him a break.
  Shepard: Considering everything we've been through, I can think of worse positions to be in.
  Wrex: Trust me, I've been in every position in the past few days.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Wrex very intentionally plays up the stereotypes people tend to have of the Krogan as a whole. In reality, Wrex is every bit as dangerous in combat and physically powerful as the stereotypes would suggest, but he's also been fighting since Earth was still using wooden sailing ships. He deliberately lets his opponents assume he's a bloodthirsty brute.
• Odd Friendship: Quite a few:
  • With Paragon Shepard in 1. Seeing such an idealistic hero become friends with such a surly, disillusioned mercenary is a sight to see. Paragon Shepard's influence eventually rubs off on Wrex as he becomes The Paragon for his entire species.
  • Dialogue in 3 indicates that he's deeply fond of Liara, Tali...and Garrus, in his own way.
    Wrex: I have to make friends with the one turian in the galaxy who thinks he's funny.
  • Despite Wrex's open dislike of salarians, particularly their doctors, he honestly grows to respect Mordin after he stands his ground against him. If Mordin sacrifices himself to cure the genophage in ME3, Wrex declares that he's going to name one of his children after him. Probably a girl. As mentioned in the first game, this is Wrex's way of sizing people up.
    Wrex: Ha! You've got a quad, doctor! Keep her safe!
  • He has a soft spot for Tali too, as shown in The Citadel DLC, in part because her preferred weapon, the shotgun, is his too, and he insists on giving her pointers on it.
    Tali: I can look after myself, you know...
    Wrex: I know, but I'm old and I worry, even though my favorite quarian is all grown up and killing Reapers.
    Tali: You're like the crazy head butting uncle I never had...
  • If Liara reveals she's one quarter Krogan, Wrex will laugh and tell her he knew there was something he liked about her.
• Old Soldier: Wrex hints that he was either born during or shortly after the Krogan Rebellions, making him at least 1,400 years old; definitely up there, even for a krogan. He's been busting skulls for the majority of that time. To put this in perspective, Wrex has been kicking ass for a living since Earth's viking age.
• Optional Party Member: He doesn't have to be recruited to finish the first game. Of course, there are repurcussions if you don't...
• Out of Focus: Of this six original squadmates, Wrex is the only one who never returns to the squad. He still has plot relevancy, but he's relegated to Supporting Leader. Thankfully, he's a Guest-Star Party Member in the third game's Citadel DLC.
  • Whether relatedly or not, he's also the only one of the first six squadmates who isn't a potential Love Interest.

P-T

• The Paragon: For his people, should he survive to the second game. Solidly cements this position should the real cure for the genophage be administered under his reign. Fittingly, he had tried once before but lost faith in his people, and was inspired to try again by another paragon: Commander Shepard. As noted in the Irony section above, Eve's description of the halcyon days of the ancient Krogan, they sound like they were a lot like Wrex.
• Parental Substitute: While not overt, it appears that he's taken this role toward Grunt, being enthusiastic about letting him take the Rite of Passage to become a member of Clan Urdnot in 2 as well as placing him in charge of Aralakh Company in 3, in recognition of Grunt's skill. One of his comments in the second game insinuates that he may be grooming Grunt to be his successor as Overlord of the krogan.
• Papa Wolf: Becomes this for his entire species. He also develops a paternal instinct for a few of Shepard's youngest squadmates, particularly Tali.
• Patricide: He was forced to kill his father, Jerrod after Jerrod called a "peace meeting" at the Hollows (the one place on Tuchanka where fighting is strictly forbidden) only to betray him and kill those loyal to him when it became clear he wouldn't join Jerrod's warmongering cause.
• Pen-Pushing President: Downplayed. He still spends chunks of 2 and 3 in the thick of the action but admits that he wishes he could join Shepard adventuring around the galaxy rather than spending as much time as he does keeping the krogan in line and butting heads with the Council in his de-facto chief of state role. In Citadel he's ecstatic to finally cut loose after a while.
• Properly Paranoid: He was hired by Saren once, the turian gave Wrex such a bad feeling that he bailed on the job without even waiting around to get paid. Turns out all the other mercs he was working with were found dead a week later.
  • In 3 he also knows that the dalatrass won't let the genophage be cured without trying something which leads him to discovering Shepard's treachery should they take her up on her offer and sabotage the cure.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Deconstructed; he knows full well that the krogan people are too attached to their short-sighted warrior traditions to save themselves from extinction. In the sequels, he subjects the trope to Reconstruction by seizing power of Clan Urdnot and working to return the krogan to a proud warrior race they should have been instead of a race of thugs for hire.
• Radish Cure: "Eve"/Bakara decides to encourage star-struck lady krogan who want the savior of their race to father their children as of the Citadel DLC, and Wrex has gone from excited at the prospect of doing his part for his revitalized race to putting ice packs on his aching quad and sneaking off to have an adventure with Shepard just to get away.
• Really Gets Around: If the Genophage is cured, every krogan female under the sun wants a piece of him. Unfortunately for Wrex, he's been having so much sex that he needs a bag of ice for his currently-aching quad.
• Really 700 Years Old: We don't know how old exactly Wrex is, but given that he defeated a Thresher Maw over a thousand years ago and hints that he may have been around during the Krogan Rebellions (which happened in 700 AD)... yeah, Wrex is very old, even for a krogan.
  • For those not willing to do the math this would make Wrex nearly 1500 years old at the start of Mass Effect. Even Samara would be half a millennium his junior.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: About as reasonable of an authority figure as you can be for an entire species of Blood Knights.
  • While it's unspoken, it's worth noting that Wrex is perfectly content to allow Shepard, an alien, to serve as a member of Grunt's krantt during their Rite of Passage, likely because he knows that they don't actually have a rule that says that the members of your krantt have to be krogan.
    • Who is in the prospective krantt says a lot. Depending on who you take with you, it's either just Shepard, who has iron-clad and gold-plated badass credentials in Wrex's eyes, or Shepard and someone that Wrex fought alongside in the last game, who has also proven themselves as a badass.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: And red skin, red armor, and red guns...
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Is blue compared to his brother Wreav and the rest of the krogan as their leader, but is red compared to Eve.
• Refuge in Audacity: If he helps infiltrate the casino in Citadel. First he'll claim to be a food inspector (though as krogan leader, he could just declare himself one anyway), then he'll just start distracting the guards by berating them for doing a bad job.
• Revenge Before Reason:
  • At a species level, he's initially the only krogan you encounter in the entire game to defy this. Though he retains some of his racial prejudice against salarians and turians he's got no real problems working with Garrus (other than chewing Garrus out for making some Innocently Insensitive comments) and Captain Kirrahe (provided you talk him down in the standoff on Virmire). He also laments how the krogan are more concerned with maintaining their grudges than actually preventing their own extinction. By 2 he decides to do something about it by unifying the krogan under his rule to focus more on rebuilding krogan society than getting revenge against the turians and salarians. Going by how many of the krogan are following his lead, he does a damn good job of it.
  • In ME3, if you betray his friendship and sabotage the genophage cure, he will come after you on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. To elaborate, he comes to the Citadel armed with a giant shotgun (visitors are forbidden from carrying weapons on the station), assaulting a C-Sec officer and shooting at Shepard in broad daylight. Even if Shepard doesn't kill him himself, it doesn't take long until C-Sec reinforcements arrive and swiftly kill him. He really should've thought of a better plan. Then again, he was probably so angry and hurt that he wasn't thinking straight or didn't care enough for his own safety anymore.
• Royal Blood: To a degree; his father was an overlord of Clan Urdnot. If he survived Virmire, Wrex will take over as clan leader and de facto ruler of the krogan homeworld of Tuchanka in 2 and 3 (as his dealings have positioned Clan Urdnot to be the most powerful clan).
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Wrex used to have a tribe of his own, though he fled Tuchanka after a fight with his father. Later, he will become the ruler of most of the krogan clans.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: His stance when traditional-minded krogan impede his vision. A necessary evil, for the traditional mindset is what led to the decline of the krogan people in the first place.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: In his backstory, he met Saren while working on a job. Something about Saren rubbed him the wrong way, so he left without waiting long enough to be paid. His instincts were right: he was the only merc from that job to survive.
• Self-Made Orphan: In self-defense, as revealed in the first game and expanded on in the third. He reveals that his father tried to kill him when he was young, so he was forced to have him crushed under the rocks.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Believe it or not he embodies both sides of this trope. The latter is obvious but he shows a surprisingly caring side of himself after Virmire. He's the only one to talk about Ashley/Kaidan's death other than Joker and the Virmire Survivor, and the only character to comfort Shepard over it, telling you he respects your decision. The relationship between him and Paragon Shepard also fits this trope.
• Slave to PR: He executes a gang leader against your orders because he was hired by the Broker to personally kill him. He even gives you the bounty if you don't bring him along and beat him to the punch — he won't take credit or payment for something he didn't do.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: With the human C-Sec officer who tries to warn him away from Fist in the first game.
  Officer: You want me to arrest you?
  Wrex: I want you to try.
• Sociopathic Hero: Mostly in the first game, less so in the sequels.
• Special Snowflake Syndrome: The Codex notes that krogan biotics are exceptionally rare, even as biotics go. So, naturally, the krogan who joins the adventuring party just happens to be a biotic. This was for lack of anyone else to fill the Vanguard slot in the original team.
• The Stoic: It's a significant moment whenever he really does emote.
  "Shepard."
  "Wrex."
  • When Wrex joyfully bounds out of his "throne" to greet Shepard with unabashed happiness in 2, it's fairly startling. Especially in contrast to the cold shoulder they get from the Virmire survivor on Horizon.
  • He also appears openly enthusiastic about having Grunt join Clan Urdnot, with almost fatherly pride when he completes the rite. Especially if Grunt kills the Thresher Maw, something no one has done since Wrex himself 1000 years prior.
• Stop Being Stereotypical: He dislikes the self-destructive violence of the other krogan, who justify their reckless and bloodthirsty actions with little more than a declaration of "I'm a Proud Warrior Race Guy!" and leave it at that. Wrex even ended up leaving his clan in his backstory because he became so disgusted with how his fellow krogan kept Dramatically Missing the Point about why they were subjected to the genophage in the first place. Should Wrex survive the first game, he's working to change this mindset as clan leader through reforms that defy tradition and the Blood Knight mindset, albeit not without some butting of heads (both figuratively and literally) from the other krogan. And should Shepard help him go through with it, Wrex will succeed in getting the genophage cured in 3, proving him right.
• Suicide by Cop: Should Shepard sabotage the genophage cure, he'll come gunning for them on the Citadel... with no barriers and armed with only a shotgun, in full view of several fully-armed C-Sec officers. It's pretty obvious how he expected the encounter to end.
• Supporting Leader: If he survives the Virmire mission, he's this for all krogan as of the third game, who can provide the second highest amount of War Assets (only behind the Systems Alliance). This all depends on how you handle curing the genophage, however. Even in the mission on Sur'Kesh, he keeps the enemy distracted to make Shepard's mission easier.
• Super-Strength: Like all krogan. Particularly shown in the Citadel DLC, where he one-arm tosses 150+ kg power-armored mercenaries like hacky sacks.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Provided he survives Virmire and you don't betray him, he mentions multiple times he feels this way trying to keep the krogan in line. It's played for laughs in Mass Effect 3 when he has to explain non-war societal development to them when all they're used to doing is blowing enemies up.
• Taking You with Me: If you betray him in Mass Effect 3, he specifically calls off krogan support for the final battle so that humanity will be as doomed as the krogan.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Wrex is uniformly in favor of the most aggressive, violent and destructive solutions to any problem that the squad encounters. He'll offhandedly comment at one point that it's only a complete mission if explosions are involved. Hilariously lampshaded in Citadel:

  Wrex: That's why I love hanging out with you guys. Why shoot something once, when you can shoot it forty-six more times?

• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Wrex drops a hard one when Allestia Iallis reveals herself to be a sleeper agent for Benezia.
  Wrex: We'll see about that, bitch.
• Token Evil Teammate: Subverted. Wrex admits he pretends to be this, simply because it's expected of krogan. While Wrex isn't evil, he is the most ruthless of Shepard's original six squadmates. When the player is faced with a major Paragon/Renegade choice, one squadmate will always endorse the paragon choice, and one will always endorse the renegade choice. Wrex is the only party member to always endorse the renegade choice regardless of party combination. Even Ashley, the next most renegade squadmate, will endorse the paragon option if she is in the party with Wrex. The only exception is the “save the Council” decision, where Ashley understandably advocates holding the fleets back and not risking human lives.
• Too Dumb to Live: What he thinks of anyone that goes up against Shepard.
  Wrex: Anyone who fights us is either stupid or on Saren's payroll. Killing the latter is business. Killing the former is a favor to the universe.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Long before the first game began. He tried to change the self-destructive nature of the krogan in the aftermath of the Krogan Rebellions. He was opposed by many warlords, including his own father, Jerrod. His father trying to kill him on sacred ground where violence is forbidden, about the only rule the krogan actually respected, and being forced to kill him in self defense caused Wrex to lose all hope in the krogan adapting to the genophage and abandon his plans to reform krogan society.
• Took a Level in Idealism: Starts out as cynical as they come. If continuously supported by Shepard, he becomes more and more idealistic with each game. If the genophage gets cured in the third game, he is arguably the least cynical character in the story.
• Tough Love: Essentially his approach as leader of the krogan. Wrex is absolutely uncompromising and quite harsh in putting his reforms in place, because he knows that they are vital to survival of the krogan people. He may not win all of the popularity contests with the krogan, but everything he does is to their benefit.
• Troll: Wrex has become this in 3.
  Wrex: Hell of a showdown back there on Sur'Kesh. Just like the old days, right down to me pulling your ass out of the fire.
  Shepard: I was the one with bullets flying at me!
  Wrex: And I gave you the moral support to dodge them! (chuckles)
• Try Not to Die: The worst possible "goodbye" before you try and summon Kalros.
  Wrex: I know you're doing this for your own reasons, Shepard, but try to make sure you don't get your ass killed. I wouldn't know what to say at your funeral.
• Tsundere: Wrex comes off as this as he first appears as a mercenary who just gets the job done for extra cash but he is revealed to have a personality that is unique from other krogan. He is a type 1 male non romantic version of this trope. He actually cares about other people, including his own species as he shows great concern towards the well being of the krogan. He tries to get them to stop being violent towards each other and focus on maintaining his own species, which led to him being betrayed by his own father. He even openly voices this concern towards Shepard several times.

U-W

• Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: Wrex seems to really like the elevators.
• Undignified Death:
  • Mass Effect 1 gives Wrex a rather miserable death, should they choose to deal one out to him. Namely, he can be knocked down with a punch or a shot, and then shot multiple times like a dog. You then have the option of telling Captain Kirrahe to dump his corpse in the swamps. On top of that, he immediately becomes a Forgotten Fallen Friend to the rest of the group.
  • In Mass Effect 3, if Shepard sabotages the genophage cure, he is unceremoniously shot dead by either Shepard or C-Sec. His corpse is then spaced like yesterday's garbage and the media portrays him as a random mercenary who turned violent over a gambling debt.
• Undying Loyalty: By the second game, even if he can't go with Shepard, it's clear that he has nothing but undying respect for them and will help them anyway he can. However, Shepard can later lose Wrex's trust by deleting Maelon's research and making no attempt to apologise. If they support the Krogan the entire series, Wrex's loyalty to Shepard is unbreakable.
• Use Your Head: In true krogan fashion, he uses this to assert his dominance.
  • Unfortunately, he doesn't see it when Shepard has the opportunity to follow his lead, headbutting the same krogan that Wrex did earlier to get him to shut up. The Shaman does see, and finds it hilarious.
  • In the Citadel DLC, he and Grunt start headbutting as a prelude to some good old-fashioned asskicking to determine who's the stronger krogan. Shepard shuts it down before it goes too far.
• Unwanted Harem: The Citadel DLC reveals there are downsides to being the clan leader who cured the genophage — namely, everyone wants their firstborn to have his genes. There's a line of women outside his dwelling that stretches "as far as you can see", he has to sneak out his own bathroom window to get away, and he still gets jumped leaving Tuchanka.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Garrus. They butt heads frequently during elevator conversations in 1 but grow to respect each other. By 3 their conversations are full of good natured bantering and barb-trading.
• Vocal Evolution: Barr gave a much deeper, more gravelly tone of voice for Wrex in 1 and 2, one which bordered on monotonous at times. When 3 rolls around, Wrex has much more range to his voice than before, and generally expresses a lot more emotion. Justified since his earliest appearances in the series take place very recently after he hit rock bottom, and his experiences with Shepard (whether positive or negative) ended up giving him the push he needed to take charge of his life and his people.
• Wasteland Warlord: Becomes the most powerful and influential clan leader on Tuchanka, such that by the third game, he is treated as the de facto leader of all Krogan across the galaxy.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • If he's taken to Noveria and Shepard spares the rachni queen, he's deadset against it. As he reminds you, millions of his ancestors died to defeat the rachni the first time. By the third game he seems to have softened his attitude, though; he merely says to Shepard that if the rachni prove a problem, it's their ass on the line for it.
  • If you deleted Maelon's research, he has some choice words for you in 3 — you can apologise, but while he doesn't like mistrusting you, he doesn't immediately accept it; it takes rescuing Eve, following him to the Shroud and trying to patch things up between missions for Shepard to win his friendship back.
  • If you betray his trust by sabotaging the genophage cure, he tries to kill you. On the same occasion, he also calls you out for your actions during the Citadel coup if you killed the Virmire Survivor — and for the turian bomb on Tuchanka if you let it go off. It's a bit of a low point for Shepard, all in all.
    Wrex: What's the matter? Ashley not around to do your dirty work? Oh right, you killed her, too! And it's time you found out how that feels!
• What Would X Do?: After the events of the first game, he takes Shepard's example and advice to heart and decides to return to Tuchanka and make another attempt to save his people from themselves.
• Where It All Began: At the end of Priority: Tuchanka, if Eve is alive, you will meet up with him at the place where his father ambushed and tried to kill him, and he will remark about how the genophage turned the krogan into "animals".
• Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?: Wrex is a firm believer in using violence to solve his problems. Sometimes he'll threaten to eat somebody instead, just to spice things up.
• World's Best Warrior: On Tuchanka, anyway, but he has some impressive feats throughout the rest of the galaxy, too. The only person probably superior to him is Shepard, and his only clear successor is Grunt. He's also the most capable War Asset among all of Shepard's companions.
• World's Strongest Man: Chris Priestley confirmed that he is the physically toughest of Shepard's followers.
• Worthy Opponent: He considered his Friendly Enemy Aleena^note who is heavily implied, but never explicitly stated, to be Aria to be this. Wrex also views Shepard as one when they first meet, seeing them as a warrior worthy of his respect. He drops hints in the first game that he believes in a fight Shepard could take him down - which, considering Wrex once single-handedly defeated a Thresher Maw, says a hell of a lot. By the end of the second game, Shepard's probably done a lot of the same things he did, and without the Made of Iron characteristics that the krogan have going for them. It's no wonder Wrex respects them.

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