Worst BioWare companions

[laggyteabag]

I've been playing a lot of BioWare games recently, specifically Dragon Age 2, and I have played my fair share of BioWare games overall. But for everything that BioWare gets right with their companions (Garrus, Varric, Alistair, Minsk), there are some pretty dreadful ones to boot. What are some of your least favourite across all of BioWares games?

In no particular order:
<spoiler=Samara, Mass Effect 2>

Every time I play through Mass Effect and her recruitment mission or loyaly mission shows up, my attention span for the game immediately dropes. The problem that I have with Samara is just that her character is almost entirely controlled by her role, and thus becomes practically unlikable as a result of it. Even from a gameplay standpoint, for her being a Justicar and for her supposedly being one of the most powerful biotics in the Mass Effect series, her powers aren't even remotely special. I understand your rules and regulations Samara, but do you really have to be a gigantic dick about it?
<spoiler=Anders, Dragon Age 2, not Awakening>

There is a lot wrong with Dragon Age 2, and I will freely admit that, but quite possibly one the the worst things that they did was ruin Anders. In Awakening Anders had a sense of humour, but in 2 they decided to strip all of that away from him aside from one or two lines of dialogue near the start of the game. Whilst Ander's motives never changed much: Just wanted to be free from being hunted by the Templars so he can live in peace, he went from being very passive about the situation to being a mage extremist if I have ever seen one. How dare I say one even slightly positive thing about Templars in the company of Anders. Its a damn shame that he is the only mage companion with revival abilities, otherwise he would be stuck at the back of the companion backlog.

RIP fun Anders
<spoiler=Fenris, Dragon Age 2>

Ah yes, the grumpy heartthrob elf. Everything about Fenris irritates me, even the music that plays whenever you speak to him in his home. Fenris is pretty much the opposite of Anders in terms of what he likes; if you say one remotely positive thing about mages, there is some rivalry coming your way. I care very little for his story too, constantly going on and on and on, I get it, you don't like mages and your dont like your former master, shut up already. But it wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't so goddamn mopey all of the time, but here we are, Fenris the emo elf.

 

[Longing]

ANOMEN!!!!!!!!!ARGH!!!!!

ahem, sorry, I have a lot of feelings about him. Baldur's Gate II being one of my favourite game of all time and me being generally fond of Bioware romances, it pisses me off to no end that female pc were stuck with that holier than thou self-centered asshole. thank fucking god for the modding community! speaking of BG II, Nalia was also pretty unlikeable and entered my party a grand total of 1 time. Then I just learned to sprint past her.

I will second Anders, but admittedly, he did kinda fuse with Justice and it corrupted him because of his rage or something. Doesn't excuse the butchering of his character, but I can understand the motivation behind his new personality. Still, that whole blowing up the chantry thing was just piss poor writing all around. Me being extremely pro-mage somehow made him almost bearable though. almost.

Merrill was cute and all, but god, was she the ultimate numbskull. that mirror thing totes look super safe.

That's about it. On a side note, I freaking loved Samara, so different strokes and all. Also my lust for Fenris can be summed up in one word: Balthier. swoons.

 

[Elfgore]

Pretty much every male character in Dragon Age 2 is God-fucking-awful. Anders did a complete 180 in his attitude. He went from a charming, flirt to a brooding emo. Fenris is just a massive asshole. Carver is somehow an even bigger asshole than Fenris. Bitching every two seconds as to how he isn't as good as you. Maybe if he spend the amount of time he complains about Hawke training, he might be as good as Hawke.

James Vega and Kaiden I really don't care for. James is just... boring. And Kaiden is even more boring. Getting through their conversations is one of the most painful things I've done in gaming.

 

[Dalisclock]

I'm replaying Mass effect(because I'm playing the trilogy straight through, so I can finally stop avoiding the ME3 ending spoilers).

I almost never use Kaidan or Ashley when I play. Kaidan just seems really....dull and Ashely kind of annoys me. The low grade racism is only part of it, frankly. (which is why I usually let her die when given the choice). I usually use Liara, Wrex or Tali for the missons and let the humans babysit the Normandy.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

I actually just finished my most recent run through of Dragon Age: Origins, and boy do I not care for Zevran. I guess I don't really have anything against his character, but more against how the romance system works in that game. It gets super awkward when you're simply just trying to get your companions' approval, and all of a sudden your other companions are congratulating you on your relationship with him.

I'm about to start Dragon Age 2 again, but the first time I played it, I remember really not caring for Fenris or Carver, and I didn't really like Anders very much, but I used him a lot.

 

[Aesir23]

For me it would probably be Merill or Anders. Merill, mostly because I found her to really be the least interesting out of all the companions.

Fenris and Anders seemed to represent an "opposite sides of the same coin" idea which makes it odd that Fenris is my favourite companion while Anders was my most hated. I think it's because I found Fenris fascinating from a psychological standpoint and I found his personality interesting. Yet with Anders his escalating extremism (thanks in no small part to the whole Spirit thing) and some of the things he said in his banter segments just outright annoyed me to the point where I almost never took him along.

 

[Asclepion]

OP, you picked one of the less terrible ME2 squad members.

Miranda would have been spaced immediately (her intro is running up and executing someone, calling him a traitor with no evidence beyond telling her partner she's "always right". If there's any character development later on, I wasn't interested in seeing it.)

Or Jack, the uber-confrontational and ridiculous-looking biotic who thinks it's cool to tell everyone how 'hardcore' she is, and is the very definition of Cutscene Power? Spaced.

 

[Krige]

HIYA! IT'S ME, IMOEN!

 

[Candidus]

HIYA! IT'S ME, IMOEN!

YOU SHUT YOUR DIRTY MOUTH.

Unless you're talking about Baldur's Gate 1 Imoen... I wasn't a fan until her hair went anime inexplicably pink.

Edit: I suppose I'd better say something on topic.

The worst Bioware companions are all of the DA2 companions. I don't remember any of their names any more- mercifully. I just recall enough about them to say that they collectively represent a low point for Bioware in terms of writing, voice casting and design.

 

[C. Cain]

I think DAII Anders takes the cake. They managed to ruin not only one but two characters in one fell swoop. Quite the achievement. And as the OP already noted: Bonus points for forcing him into the party by virtue of being the only support character who could revive party members.

 

[Saetha]

Anders from Dragon Age 2.

And Merril from Dragon Age 2.

And Carver from Dragon Age 2.

And pretty much just Dragon Age 2. The writing quality plummeted with that game, and nothing else really took it's place to make the game better. Fingers crossed that Inquisition will be anywhere near worthwhile.

I also really dislike Leliana, not because she's poorly written, I just hate what she talks about. I don't want talk about shoes. I don't want to talk about small yappy dogs. I sure as hell don't want to get preached at about the Maker or told some long, boring story about a lady knight from Not France. Every conversation with her is like watching paint dry.

 

[norashepard]

Ya kno I never could stand Liara. She was really truly just annoying and the fact that she was the only lesbian option (i'm gayyyy) for so long just made it even worse. I WISH I could have her be killed. But alas, plot coupon.

Honorable Mentions: Garrus (ugh talk about a whiny pissbaby), Anders (in general, not even bc of his little mistake at the end of DA2, dude never seemed to actually care about other human lives, only his.), and TALLIS (they had the opportunity to do so much with an elf Qunari and they did spunky thief ugh uhg uhguhg especially when Isabela was right there already doing spunky theif 100x better ugh i hate her so much).

Though it is kind of cool to realize that those four were the only ones I could think of. I like almost everyone else a lot! (esp. Zaheed and his smoooooooooth voice i want to high five him).

 

[small]

HIYA! IT'S ME, IMOEN!

YOU SHUT YOUR DIRTY MOUTH.

Unless you're talking about Baldur's Gate 1 Imoen... I wasn't a fan until her hair went anime inexplicably pink.

Edit: I suppose I'd better say something on topic.

The worst Bioware companions are all of the DA2 companions. I don't remember any of their names any more- mercifully. I just recall enough about them to say that they collectively represent a low point for Bioware in terms of writing, voice casting and design.

you summed it up perfectly HOW DARE YOU INSULT IMOEN ! and no you are not entitled to your opinion when its that

yes on topic. the evil ranger guy in neverwinter nights who you couldnt get rid of, murder or stick his ass in a dungeon cell and was so obviously going to betray you from the second you met him it was stupid

 

[The Goat Tsar]

A lot of people don't like Jacob or Kaidan from Mass Effect. I actually really liked Kaidan. Jacob wasn't great, but I thought he was ok. They were my buddies. The only Mass Effect companion I disliked was Miranda. I guess it's just hard to take someone seriously when they're marching to battle in high heels. It also annoyed me about Samara but not enough to dislike her. I guess I can't pinpoint why exactly I didn't like Miranda, but she always just came off as annoying and whiny. Miranda was my only squadmate to not survive the suicide mission, so maybe she gets redeemed in Mass Effect 3, but I'm not interested in another playthrough.

Outside of Mass Effect...I dunno. Never played either Dragon Age to completion, so I can't comment about those. I guess I never really liked Mission from Kotor 1, but I didn't dislike, I just never used her.

 

[Roofstone]

Henpecked Hou. That henpecked bastard promised me drunken boxing. I was gonna be Jackie Chan! But sadly, it does not level along with other styles, I need Henpecked Lou to use it..

Just..

Grr..

Damn you Henpecked scam artist Lou!

Edit: I feel old, everyone else is going for Dragon Age and Mass Effect. ;_;

 

[WonkyWarmaiden]

[Spoilers for the Mass Effect games.]


Ugh, Liara, definitely. I never used her in any of the games unless it was absolutely necessary and I always hated how sometimes the games seemed like they were trying to make her the default romance for Shepard. I also didn't like how much you had to comfort her when Thessia is attacked, I get that she's distraught but Earth and Palaven had both already been attacked already and Shepard and Garrus were handling it pretty well compared to her.

Also, Miranda. I usually did her loyalty mission then forgot about her, especially as MaleShep since it was fairly easy to start her romance. And that fucking fight between her and Jack that can easily screw up a playthrough where you're trying to get everyone to survive the suicide mission.

Let's not forget Jacob. Oh my good lord, I'm not sure what the people at Bioware were thinking when they thought up that character but it must have seemed awesome on paper. He's bland, his loyalty mission is horrible and his romance makes FemShep the creepiest she's ever been, the dialogue is just so horrendously sleazy. Also he cheats on Shepard after like eight months, gets another woman pregnant, then he wants to name the kid after the woman he cheated on. Because what could be weird about that?

 

[jklinders]

So many of the companions in DA 2 were complete basketcases. Hard to choose. I will start by choosing Merril, the crazy supposedly cute elf who is trying to fix a demonically possessed mirror. She saw this thing east one of her friends in the Dalish elf origin in DA:O and is still mucking around with it. Idiot. It was only a little blood magic, the spirit (ahem demon) helped right? Idiot. This obsession of hers got her shunned from her clan and her clan matriarch sacrifices herself to save her from becoming an abomination. And that is the fucking best case scenario. Idiot. I want to hate Anders more, but he has a fucking fade spirit in him mucking with his emotions so I can understand his actions even if I still want to mount him on a pole Vlad Tepes style over them. Merril is just fucking stupid.

I'm going to go a little off base with my number 2 hate from MAss Effect 3. Jacob and Miranda are obvious choices and I get why people are annoyed by them. Javik on the other hand...they put a fucking Prothean in the game and it still manages to have almost no impact on anything. You get very little insight on the Protheans from him, he knows nothing about the MacGuff-er Catalyst, and he's pretty useless as a squaddie too. Plus you have to pay for the privilege of having him in you team. Thanks Bioware.

Zevran from DA:O was pretty annoying. It was like his VA was trying too hard to sound like Antonio Banderas or something. I found myself giggling every time he opened his mouth.

 

[IceStar100]

Jacob because I liked fem shep tell him. he took one of the galaxies most powerful women and turned her into a booty call. All of male shep women remain loyal. Now when ever i try and play her I get this sound track of fem shep sucks in bed.