It's obvious that the players have had enough of these despised characters' disingenuous assertions.
- Mass Effect 2: Morinth isn't too well liked due to being a very vicious villain with little plot relevance whose only real purpose is for Samara's loyalty mission, and the odd bit of interesting game lore. Her Freudian Excuse for being a merciless killer was seen as rather weak as her sisters are also Ardat-Yakshi yet none of them chose to become mass-murderers (though to be fair that might have been the point). Even moreso, her rationale of "being the genetic destiny of the asari" is complete hogwash, as an Ardat-Yakshi is sterile. It didn't help that Morinth never experienced any positive character arcs that would've made her more likable (unlike other Token Evil Teammates Zaeed, Jack, and Javik). Not to mention, in order to have her on the team, you have to help her kill and impersonate her mother Samara, who is far more popular and is disproportionately picked by players to stay on the squad. Her status as a Scrappy is one of the few things fans on /v/ agrees on. Those who take her usually only do it to unlock Dominate as a class power and reload the mission to keep Samara on the squad. While some players like her, it usually is in context as a good Arc Villain for Samara's Loyalty Mission, simply because of how creepy she is. Outside of that, most don't like her.
- Mass Effect 3:
- Jacob Taylor originally was seen as a pretty forgettable character in the second game, with most people not having any strong feelings towards him (which is perhaps the reason why many fans disliked him in 2 since he was so bland). Unfortunately, the third game made him the most hated party member from the second game after it was discovered that, if romanced, he cheats on Shepard, knocking up another woman, and not even trying to get in contact with Shepard in the six months she was incarcerated. This did not impress the fans, to say the least. Jacob is so disliked, that several fans have admitted that in their repeated playthroughs they go out of their way to make him the only companion to die during the suicide mission at the end of Mass Effect 2. note Considering the lack of impact he has on Mass Effect 3 in any meaningful way, it's a pretty easy decision for them.
- Ashley Williams was a Base-Breaking Character in the first game, but often chosen over Kaidan for being a deeper character and better for gameplay reasons. 3 had Kaidan Rescued from the Scrappy Heap, seemingly at Ashley's expense. Reasons for this ranged from her Unnecessary Makeover (her loose hair was deemed as both impractical for a woman soldier, and a bad attempt to copy Miranda); unsympathetic characterization (her Fantastic Racism underwent Flanderization, while her Hidden Depths with a love of poetry was ignored, and her theological discussion about the Lazarus Project was cut from the game). In addition, she had almost no interaction with any other non-Shepard squadmates. Many felt Kaidan did a better job of articulating why he was having a hard time trusting Shepard. In the climax of the Citadel coup, Ashley again calls Shepard a Cerberus lapdog, while Kaidan instead is questioning why Shepard is pointing a gun at a councilor. Dialogue from the hospital scenes also made Kaidan feel a lot more contrite about what happened on Horizon, whereas Ashley seemed to brush it off (only for her rant about Cerberus during the coup). Finding Ashley drunk in the lounge, while funny, doesn't build her character, whereas Kaidan had a much deeper conversation about ex-Cerberus scientists, and wondering if the Illusive Man was ever a decent person before the indoctrination. Gameplay balance was also hammered out after the first game (and a bug making Ashley's unique ability not work properly) made many decide Kaidan was a better party member to pick. Even the Citadel DLC scenes with Ashley was criticized for being a ripoff of the Mos Eisley cantina scene rather than adding to her character.
- Diana Allers of Mass Effect 3 gets quite a bit of hate for a variety of reasons. Her inclusion being considered blatant pandering to IGN (she's modeled after and voiced by one of their writers, Jessica Chobot), her Romance Sidequest considered by many to be the most shallow in the series (basically just an Incredibly Lame Pun about reporters getting "exclusives") and does not even award the achievement), her bland voice acting, and what many fans perceived to be an exorbitant amount of effort put into her minor role. In addition, Mass Effect already had a beloved reporter character, Emily Wong, who was killed in the PR campaign leading up to Mass Effect 3's release. Saying that there should be an option to throw her out of the Normandy's airlock even became a minor meme on Mass Effect related message boards.
- Kai Leng is a pretty generic antagonist with a design that doesn't fit with the series, but what really earns him Scrappy status is that until the last time the player fights him, every encounter with him is a Heads I Win, Tails You Lose situation in which no matter how handily the player beats him, Shepard is struck with Cutscene Incompetence and loses to him anyway. The fact that Leng then sends Shepard taunting emails adds insult to injury, coming across more like the act of an Internet troll than a serious villain. The character was obviously intended to be a Hate Sink since the game does want you to hate him as the characters cannot shut up about how much they hate Kai Leng, but players ended up hating him not because he's a skilled villainous asshole, but because he's an obnoxious character whose role in the story feels forced. "Shut Up Leng"
demonstrates how poor his appearance and characterization was as it removing it, making him faceless and voiceless, made him better come off as the intimidating Love to Hate badass intended. His role in the novels doesn't help either, where the writers tried to make him seem cool but ended up making him more unlikable, with Mass Effect: Deception being the worst offender. DM of the Rings creator Shamus Young has a longer essay about the problems with him. - The kid seen at the beginning of Mass Effect 3. Partially because of his poor voice acting, partially because he is seen as a cheap Expy of Newt and his death is a blatant attempt to arouse sympathy, and partially because his model is purposefully used for the Catalyst.
- The Catalyst is supposed to be sympathetic for wanting to stop organic life from being taken over by synthetics, but its chosen method (periodically wiping out organic life so they won't develop evil synthetics) is utterly nonsensical at worst, extremely fatalistic at best, and makes little sense within the context of the series, not to mention making the much-vaunted Reapers look like idiots. On top of that, it's also responsible for the series's Gainax Ending, presenting Shepard with three arbitrary choices, none of which seem to actually solve anything and all of which end in the apparent destruction of civilization in the original version (originally, the mass relays all EXPLODE which aside from permanently ending interstellar travel would logically destroy any solar system they explode in as seen in the Arrival DLC in Mass Effect 2. The extended ending patch made it less apocalyptic by simply having the mass relays deactivate and fall apart, with the epilogues showing them being rebuilt), when most players just wanted to kill the thing and be done with it. Leviathan somewhat acknowledges this and the criticisms of the Catalyst's Insane Troll Logic. Its existence is foreshadowed by the Leviathan, a member of the species whom the Reapers were modelled after, who explains that the Reapers are being controlled by a fundamentally broken AI, trying its best to work on faulty programming. Which makes it even more infuriating then that, despite knowing all of this, the player is still forced to go along with its plans, as Shepard never voices any actual protest or questioning against the premise the Catalyst presents them with and the "logic" behind it (not even in the option where Shepard rejects the Catalyst's choices — Shepard merely says that they cannot be fairly expected to be able make a choice on that scale, since the consequences of said choice will simply too big for just one person to comprehend). The game ultimately still portrays the Catalyst as a Well-Intentioned Extremist Anti-Villain and the three options it gives as the only sensible choices, even and outwardly chastises the player for rejecting them in the Extended Cut. And the game even rubs it in your face that the Catalyst's choices are the only option, because if you reject the choice, the Reapers wipe out humanity and everyone else, with only a recording from Liara surviving to the next generation of intelligent life who apparently DO accept one of the Catalyst's options to finally stop the Reapers, making Shepard's refusal look extremely petty.
- Mass Effect: Andromeda:
- The Archon is widely disliked for being a one-dimensional villain. He desires to murder and/or assimilate any and all species he comes across, but has no real motives to do so other than to increase his own power and because he views all non-kett Species as barely sapient. His design is seen as very bland, with a villanous cape and short stature that really does not make him look intimidating. The players also don't even get the satisfaction of fighting him in a final battle. In the end, the Archon lacks any depth, intrigue, or menace; which hurts even more since the previous games were notable for making some of the most memorable villains in the industry with deep characterization, strong motives, or just straight-up nightmare-inducing intimidation. As a side effect of this, many players end of viewing the kett negatively due to the Archon.
- Foster Addison, the head of Colonial Affairs. She's a generally unpleasant person to talk to and makes embarrassingly terrible decisions, like not investigating the numerous (and substantiated) claims against her assistant Spender, or hiring exile mercenaries to protect Initiative ships and covering it up when they attacked the ships instead. She never gets any comeuppance for her bad decisions and the player can do nothing about her but clean up after her numerous stupid mistakes.
