What will Bioware's excuse be?

[FernandoV]

Who says they ditch the team? I'm sure Bioware is clever enough to fill the void of team missions with something more interesting. On the other hand they can just say Shepard assigned the team to different duties and just keep some less assertive members like Grunt and Mordin on his own team.

 

[Jandau]

To all the people asking "Why would they disappear?", they pretty much have to, or perhaps simply make a few cameos. Why? Simple!

Each and every team member could die. All of them. You could be the sole survivor. That means that Bioware has to plan the next game around that scenario, as well as the one where everyone lives. Now, considering that by this time people expect all party members have questlines and such and interact with each other, the sheer number of combinations that have to be taken into consideration would be a logistical nightmare. So, it's either cardboard cutout squad, or most of them go away.

Now, I'm guessing we'll get to keep a few of the gang. We got to keep Garrus and Tali, I'm expecting that a few will stick around in your squad in ME3. The rest may or may not appear as NPCs, kinda like Wrex did.

As for the question of "How you all got split up?", my money is that Shepard was visiting Earth when the Reapers hit and his squad simply can't get to him...

 

[tlozoot]

Seeing as the second game was spent almost exclusively on characterising your squad, I don't think they'll disband for the third game. There's so much that needs resolving in ME3, that they wont have time for all new recruitment missions. At the start of ME3, you will have your squad from the end of ME2, with perhaps some exclusions. I doubt we'll be seeing many new inclusions over the course of the third game. There will definitely be the Alliance soldier from the first though.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The excuse will probably be explained in the novel that'll be released just before Mass Effect 3.

[sub]I hate game novels.[/sub]

 

[Cryo84R]

TALI FOR TEAMMATE AND LOVE INTEREST IN MASS EFFECT 3!

All Talimancers, unite and fight!

Creepy and disturbing.

 

[badgersprite]

Seeing as the second game was spent almost exclusively on characterising your squad, I don't think they'll disband for the third game. There's so much that needs resolving in ME3, that they wont have time for all new recruitment missions. At the start of ME3, you will have your squad from the end of ME2, with perhaps some exclusions. I doubt we'll be seeing many new inclusions over the course of the third game. There will definitely be the Alliance soldier from the first though.

Actually, I think I've heard that we've already run into some people who will be recruitable in the third game. No word on who they are. Fingers crossed that the asari bartender is one of them, and I'm hoping for the Adam Baldwin quarian Kal'Reegar too.

 

[witness51]

Well no chance that the green assassin guy is coming back. I'm sure his "disease" will finish him off.
The reason I put disease in quotations is because I never saw any evidence of his sickness exept during the final boss fight when he gliched into the floor and abandoned me to the reaper. Yes really.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Am I missing something? We know nothing of the plot yet, so why do you think all the characters will disappear?

Why would they disappear?

Exactly.

I'd bet highly that all of the remaining Mass Effect characters return and for Mass Effect 2 all the romance options plus Legion (if you awoke him).

I can't see the the whole Legion and the Geth thing being forgotten about, nor the fact that you can have the loyalty of your entire team, plus the whole idea of Wrex (if he lived) uniting the Krogan and so on; all of these things are surely build ups to the recruitment of armies, much in the same way as Dragon Age: Origins with the Magi/Templars, Elves/Wolves, Dwarves and Men.

Your ship will be attacked by a new enemy known only as "The Gatherers". You, and your allies, will die, but you will be brought back to life by the Blue Suns. They're leader, "The Secretive Man" will then tell you he brought you back to stop the Reapers and The Gatherers. And when you mention how all the previous Blue Suns you've fought were all just hapless mooks doing bad things, he'll just say they were rouge elements.

If this happens then I think I will laugh, cry and shout at the same time.

this. there is too much riding on bringing in saves with different outcomes from the previous games that they can just have your teammmates not be there.

i'll just wait till they make the game, play it, and enjoy it hopefully.

 

[theriddlen]

TALI FOR TEAMMATE AND LOVE INTEREST IN MASS EFFECT 3!

All Talimancers, unite and fight!

Creepy and disturbing.

You know what is creepy and disturbing?
Type "Tali Zorah" into google images, without safe search on.

Removed -Mod

I just had to post it

 

[RobCoxxy]

Imported save files will take care of that - they live, they're yours.
Granted, there'll be new squaddies to track down and hire, such as British Spy Guy and all that.

It's not like you've been dead for two years again, so there's no reason for them to fuck off.
Liara is the Shadow Broker now, so she might not join you....

 

[teutonicman]

Well I'm going to assume that Mass Effect 3 takes place a couple years after ME 2(this is my hypothesis and I can assume a time jump if I want). In that time:
Thane could have died via his disease.
Samara took off because she's a Justicar.
Legion could have headed back to the Geth to help with Reaper preparations and/or act as a liaison between the Geth and Organics.
Grunt could go to Tuchanka to help with breeding/ clan growth.
Mordin could have unforunately died since Salarians don't live much past 40 and he was already in his late 30s.
Tali could leave to become more involved with the Admiralty Board and reaper preparations.
Garrus could leave to try and form another merc band and fight more injustice.
I don't know about the rest of the characters though.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

All the current cast of characters will all go on a nice Coach holiday to unwind after the events of ME2 and it will tragically fall off a cliff.

 

[Mechsoap]

Who says anyone has to go at all?

 

[Lacsapix]

Thane could have died via his disease.
Samara took off because she's a Justicar.
Legion could have headed back to the Geth to help with Reaper preparations and/or act as a liaison between the Geth and Organics.
Grunt could go to Tuchanka to help with breeding/ clan growth.
Mordin could have unforunately died since Salarians don't live much past 40 and he was already in his late 30s.
Tali could leave to become more involved with the Admiralty Board and reaper preparations.
Garrus could leave to try and form another merc band and fight more injustice.
I don't know about the rest of the characters though.

Jack is in prison again.
Jacop is in prison for being with Cerberus.
Miranda is on the run for her daddy.

 

[GeoPB]

I'm riding on these outcomes:
Thane dies
Jack will be imprisoned again
Miranda will be helping somewhere else
Grunt will work with Wrex/Wrex's Brother
Garrus will be helping somewhere else
Tali will focus on the Qaurian Wars/Peace
Legion will focus on the Geth wars/Peace
Jacob dies of being too bland
Mordin may die, seeing as he was near the end of his life, or he maybe retired.

Of course this is only my opinion, but I think none of them will make a squad appearance due to the chance of them all dying in ME2.

EDIT- the amount of ninjery that has taken place is unreal.
But I stick by this.

 

[mechanixis]

TALI FOR TEAMMATE AND LOVE INTEREST IN MASS EFFECT 3!

All Talimancers, unite and fight!

Your ship will be attacked by a new enemy known only as "The Gatherers". You, and your allies, will die, but you will be brought back to life by the Blue Suns. They're leader, "The Secretive Man" will then tell you he brought you back to stop the Reapers and The Gatherers. And when you mention how all the previous Blue Suns you've fought were all just hapless mooks doing bad things, he'll just say they were rouge elements.

Whhaaaa? You are totally wrong - Gatherers will attack him in Mass Effect 4, and in Mass Effect 3 his ship will be attacked by Harvesters and he will be returned to life by Terra Firma.

And in Mass Effect 5 he's attacked by The Retrievers and resurrected by an organization of Thresher Maws, who turn out to be the most intelligent species in the galaxy.

 

[tlozoot]

Well I'm going to assume that Mass Effect 3 takes place a couple years after ME 2(this is my hypothesis and I can assume a time jump if I want). In that time:
Thane could have died via his disease.
Samara took off because she's a Justicar.
Legion could have headed back to the Geth to help with Reaper preparations and/or act as a liaison between the Geth and Organics.
Grunt could go to Tuchanka to help with breeding/ clan growth.
Mordin could have unforunately died since Salarians don't live much past 40 and he was already in his late 30s.
Tali could leave to become more involved with the Admiralty Board and reaper preparations.
Garrus could leave to try and form another merc band and fight more injustice.
I don't know about the rest of the characters though.

I'm pretty certain Garrus and Tali will stay with you if they survive ME2. When you died Garrus tried to rejoin C-Sec / become a Spectre but got annoyed with the bureaucracy and decided to try do good on Omega with his merc band. I'm guessing he'll probably be inclined t stay with you fighting the Reapers.

Tali, in many peoples play-through, will have been exiled, and wont have anywhere to go, so may as well stick around.

In fact both of them seem to look up to Sheppard. Out of all the squad members, I've always seen Garrus and Tali as being closest to Sheppard.

 

[Souplex]

Legion will go back to Geth space.
Miranda will go back to Cerberus.
Garrus will go back to being sniper-Batman.
Thane will die of his terminal disease.
Jack will go off to blow stuff up like a contemptable jerk.
Grunt will go off to be with his newfound clan.
Mordin will retire or die of old.
Zaeed's contract expired.
Tali takes over for her dad.
Samara goes back to being a bland Justicar.
Morinth goes back to sexing people to death.
Jacob goes back to the alliance, or back to Cerberus.

 

[teutonicman]

Well I'm going to assume that Mass Effect 3 takes place a couple years after ME 2(this is my hypothesis and I can assume a time jump if I want). In that time:
Thane could have died via his disease.
Samara took off because she's a Justicar.
Legion could have headed back to the Geth to help with Reaper preparations and/or act as a liaison between the Geth and Organics.
Grunt could go to Tuchanka to help with breeding/ clan growth.
Mordin could have unforunately died since Salarians don't live much past 40 and he was already in his late 30s.
Tali could leave to become more involved with the Admiralty Board and reaper preparations.
Garrus could leave to try and form another merc band and fight more injustice.
I don't know about the rest of the characters though.

I'm pretty certain Garrus and Tali will stay with you if they survive ME2. When you died Garrus tried to rejoin C-Sec / become a Spectre but got annoyed with the bureaucracy and decided to try do good on Omega with his merc band. I'm guessing he'll probably be inclined t stay with you fighting the Reapers.

Tali, in many peoples play-through, will have been exiled, and wont have anywhere to go, so may as well stick around.

In fact both of them seem to look up to Sheppard. Out of all the squad members, I've always seen Garrus and Tali as being closest to Sheppard.

Oh yeah I forgot about tali and the exile outcome. But what about those that choose to vindicate her at the expense of her father's reputation? I could see Garrus sticking with Shepard but I have this feeling that they'll make Garrus go on his own try to prove himself again since he still blames himself for getting his merc band killed.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

Well...

Spoiler

Thane is due to die anyway, so that's how they can do that. The others...they can just be written as having left Shephard's command. ya know, like ALL the Mass Effect 1 companions did before you get some of em back.