Who/What Should Be the Epic Villain of Mass Effect 3?

[Ian Caronia]

Just as the title suggests. True, the Reapers are the main baddies, but you can't just have Shepard running around shooting swarms of colossal warships with his machine gun/submachine gun. He'd be fucking squashed in a second! Unless it became a Joker/Normandy flight sim... So, just like ME1 had Seran and ME2 Had Harbinger taking over the Collectors for mono-a-mono fights, ME3 will most likely have a single antagonist we can throw down with.

Who or what would you want to be the final villain of Mass Effect 3?

It doesn't have to be something that already exists. You can totally make it up from your imagination. If you want, you can even give a brief scene with your antagonist in action.


--For me, I thought that a throw back to Saren would be pretty cool, only instead of a modded Turian it can be a modded Human.
He'd be known only as "Prophet", a mysterious villain clothed in white silk robes and dawning biotic abilities drenched in "Dark Energy" (whatever the fuck that is. I think it's like the polar opposite of Mass Effect energy). His deal would be that he wants to build a vast multi-species cult (and is) to worship the coming Reapers, making people give themselves wholly unto the dark mechanical gods and securing his masters' victory over the galaxy.

Oh, and I imagine Liam O'Brian voicing him, because that dude rocks.

 

[Legion]

The Reapers are going to have to be the main enemy, or someone working for them. Everything so far has been leading up to one of two routes from what I can see:

- A huge battle with the Reapers in which other armies/races will be recruited such as the Quarians, Geth, Krogan, Rachni. They seem to be hinting at this strongly in Mass Effect 2.

- Or you will instead be fighting to stop the Reapers from leaving Dark Space at all in which case you will be fighting to destroy their gateway, or their allies that can help them do so, effectively trapping them there forever.

 

[DaOysterboy]

Barla Von. Yup.

 

[Free Thinker]

Seeing as the Reapers are "all-powerful' sentient machines, my money is on that you actually only fight 1 big one, most likely Harbinger, and you'll probably enter him and destroy from the inside, where, as cliche as it is, has an avatar protecting his heart/core.

I'll be accepting money if this actually happens.

 

[Velvo]

"Dark Energy" (whatever the fuck that is. I think it's like the polar opposite of Mass Effect energy).

Okay, so "Dark Energy" is the mysterious force that scientists cannot yet explain that makes the space of the Universe continue to expand despite gravitational influence (for instance the period of expansion after the big bang that has people generally stumped, don't worry about it, it's cosmological science). It actually exists, unlike element zero and the "mass effect." They is not opposites.

But I like the idea of cults worshiping the Reapers, it reminds me of Oblivion how there was that guy who worshiped Mehrunes Dagon and wanted him to invade Tamriel and all that good stuff. I might prefer that as a side issue though, cause the Reapers do have to end up being the main threat at heart. I like a combination of

- A huge battle with the Reapers in which other armies/races will be recruited such as the Quarians, Geth, Krogan, Rachni. They seem to be hinting at this strongly in Mass Effect 2.

- Or you will instead be fighting to stop the Reapers from leaving Dark Space at all in which case you will be fighting to destroy their gateway, or their allies that can help them do so, effectively trapping them there forever.

these two though, where you are fighting a few Reapers to stop the main Reaper invasion or something. Obviously Sovereign wasn't the only Reaper left awake *cough* Harbinger *cough* if not left behind in the Galaxy. Why not have to fight a small fleet of Reapers trying to awaken the rest?

DOODE, I just thought of something! You know how astronomical calculations based on the angular velocity of the Milky Way tends to give evidence for the existence of a whole buncha mass just outside the galaxy, hence the theory of "Dark Matter"? Are they trying to say that all that dark matter is actually Reapers? Cause that would be a kickass explaination. Also that would be a SHITTON of Reapers, considering that the mass of dark matter outside our (and most other) galaxies exceeds the mass of the visible galaxy...

 

[HT_Black]

Let's think about this: what are Bioware famous for? Answer: The Bioware twist. Near the end of a game, they'll throw out a major plot twist that has been subtly hinted at throughout the rest of the story (E.I. The revalation that the citadel was...well, you know.) which completely blows the roof off of the story being told. What if, true to form, Bioware is simply setting up ME3 to house the biggest twist they've ever done? Like Shepard being a reaper test tube baby, or The Illusive man being a rogue sentient VI (he totally is) looking to join the reapers?

The question is, who is Bioware setting up to be the big bad who emerges from the shadows-- or maybe even Shepard's own crew?

Also, as a side note, I've got a fiver that says Shepard uses the citadel's ME relay as a giant gun. Just saying.

 

[Blindswordmaster]

The current governor of California. Shepard already fought a giant terminator, now he must fight a giant Schwarzenegger.

 

[T-Bone24]

My bet is that the Reapers have some kind of hive mind waiting out in dark space, with one tiny little scientist in it.

Spoiler: SPECULATION AND SPOILERS WITHIN:

I think that countless of millions of years ago one race discovered a way to transfer their entire race into a machine. This was the origin of the Reapers. They had exceedingly advanced technology, and created the relays. They continued a cycle of turning all future races into Reapers, growing stronger and stronger, perhaps in an effort to gather a fleet to invade a new galaxy? Anyway, they left one scientist of the original Reaper race behind in a station out in dark space, controlling the Reaper fleet. Perhaps he survived by advanced medical tech, or maybe he has become the station. That'll be the final villian in ME3, I reckon, or something like it.

That probably doesn't make any sense, but whatever, I'm tired.

 

[Les Awesome]

Shepard from the future or if your paragon shepards father =]

 

[Hugh Mann]

Possibly the various merc groups and other human(relatively) enemies that you've acquired in the other two games who have no connection to the reapers but still want you dead, then at some point the reapers invade and wipe out the navies of the united species, but due to their preparedness thanks to Shepard, in the process lose many of their own, so space is littered with the hulks of destroyed reapers and ships which become like explorable planets that people hide on to escape the reapers in their clean up operations, and Shepard fights a gorilla war against the reapers, darting in between these hulks, which are filled with dangerous people, the remnants of merc groups, racial bigots (from many different species being on single hulks), and patrols of reaper loyal fanatics (cool idea op), who bring Husks, Centurions, and are heavily cybernetically enhanced with multiple arms with guns on them.

you treat active reapers like mission planets that you board, and attempt to destroy or take over for use by the few navies who remain, with each one having a different layout with themes to reflect each reapers individual personality, and at the end, each has a high ranking cult member that they can posses (like saren) thats not called an Avatar (though I can't think of a better name atm)

 

[Therumancer]

It's also possible there won't be a "big bad" fight at the end. It's rare, but there are games that do not have them. Sort of like "Ultima VI". The game ends when you complete a specific objective, which in the case of "Ultima VI" was being able to look at "The Codex Of Infinite Wisdom" which ended a war.

Maybe at the end of the game Shepard will simply press an "off" switch and half the point will be that after all of the stuff that went on, the final act was kind of minor.

 

[Velvo]

Possibly the various merc groups and other human(relatively) enemies that you've acquired in the other two games who have no connection to the reapers but still want you dead, then at some point the reapers invade and wipe out the navies of the united species, but due to their preparedness thanks to Shepard, in the process lose many of their own, so space is littered with the hulks of destroyed reapers and ships which become like explorable planets that people hide on to escape the reapers in their clean up operations, and Shepard fights a gorilla war against the reapers, darting in between these hulks, which are filled with dangerous people, the remnants of merc groups, racial bigots (from many different species being on single hulks), and patrols of reaper loyal fanatics (cool idea op), who bring Husks, Centurions, and are heavily cybernetically enhanced with multiple arms with guns on them.

you treat active reapers like mission planets that you board, and attempt to destroy or take over for use by the few navies who remain, with each one having a different layout with themes to reflect each reapers individual personality, and at the end, each has a high ranking cult member that they can posses (like saren) thats not called an Avatar (though I can't think of a better name atm)

Aw man! Totally epic as hell, too! But recall that even in inactive reapers (the one in ME2) the indoctrination takes effect.

 

[SextusMaximus]

I think Shepherd should find out at the end, that he's the real bad guy - and he's been mislead by his own team.

...Actually, I think that was obvious.

 

[Hugh Mann]

Possibly the various merc groups and other human(relatively) enemies that you've acquired in the other two games who have no connection to the reapers but still want you dead, then at some point the reapers invade and wipe out the navies of the united species, but due to their preparedness thanks to Shepard, in the process lose many of their own, so space is littered with the hulks of destroyed reapers and ships which become like explorable planets that people hide on to escape the reapers in their clean up operations, and Shepard fights a gorilla war against the reapers, darting in between these hulks, which are filled with dangerous people, the remnants of merc groups, racial bigots (from many different species being on single hulks), and patrols of reaper loyal fanatics (cool idea op), who bring Husks, Centurions, and are heavily cybernetically enhanced with multiple arms with guns on them.

you treat active reapers like mission planets that you board, and attempt to destroy or take over for use by the few navies who remain, with each one having a different layout with themes to reflect each reapers individual personality, and at the end, each has a high ranking cult member that they can posses (like saren) thats not called an Avatar (though I can't think of a better name atm)

Aw man! Totally epic as hell, too! But recall that even in inactive reapers (the one in ME2) the indoctrination takes effect.

Aww that's right, so there could be an issue of people just randomly going crazy to, and side missions involved with turning them off (somehow) and something like that

 

[AlphaOmega]

Jacob.

On a more serious note, I expect some kind of super weapon guarded by some sort of "Super Husk" out of all the races they have slaughtered.

 

[Dumbfish1]

Wrex


Noone would see that coming.

 

[Kilaknux]

Sovereign. There's some debate as to whether he actually died at the end of ME1, so him coming back is plausable. And it would be a MAGNIFICANT "Oh Crap" moment when you hear him say, after having caught up with the cyborg causing problems, "I AM THE VANGUARD OF YOUR DESTRUCTION".
Shepard:
Paragon - Well, fuck
Neutral - We're screwed
Rengade - So, not only do you look like a cockroach, you live as long as one?

 

[AlphaOmega]

Wrex

Hell no, My Shep Wrex and Grunt are taking names and punching reporters.

 

[Ian Caronia]

I see a lot of kickass posts here! The reason why I thought up Prophet is because the whole idea of a god (aside from mythology) is that they rarely, if at all do any work on their own. Gods have others do the work for them. Saren was a victim and a villain, and the same goes for the Collectors. So far both ME1 and ME2 has kept true to how gods only ever fight through others, which is why a Shepard VS Reaper(s) battle didn't seem logical to me.
Also, I did imagine the religious cult as a major subplot to the coming invasion, not the focus of the game.

But yeah, we all know that, true to Bioware tradition, we'll be recruiting help for an epic final fight (Dragon Age style, probably). It's sort of a cheap shot to go for what will most likely happen due to Bioware's slight predictability, though.

 

[WorldCritic]

Maybe a geth who has learned to act as individual and has chosen to serve the reapers above all other geth. He can have black armor and weild better guns than regular geth.