The Mass Effect games are all about teamwork, and Commander Shepard knows that they cannot save the day alone. Commander Shepard is the captain of the SSV Normandy in the first game, and the Commander recruited an elite team of human and alien operatives to take down the villainous Saren Arterius. One such ally was the turian agent Garrus Vakarian.
Garrus was recruited aboard the enormous Citadel, and he did his part to help take Saren down. Two years later, during the events of Mass Effect 2, Garrus returned once again to serve aboard the Normandy SR-2, and again in 2186 when the dreaded Reaper fleet arrived. In many ways, Garrus is Shepard's #1 ally and friend.
10 Garrus Was Already Looking Into Saren's Case
Commander Shepard and Saren became enemies during the Eden Prime attack, where Sovereign itself made its first appearance. Not long after that, Garrus the C-Sec agent took it upon himself to investigate Saren, showing how insightful and brave he was. Not many other people were on Saren's case like that.
Garrus didn't defer to Saren's Spectre status, nor did he give his fellow turian the benefit of the doubt. Garrus knew that something was wrong, and he was already on the right track when he met Shepard. Then he trusted Shepard to finish what he started.
9 Garrus Is An Expert Sniper
Various crewmates aboard the Normandy have their own specialties, such as Kasumi Goto being a master thief or Samara the justicar's biotic expertise. Garrus Vakarian, meanwhile, is an elite sniper, and in his own words, he can make a sniper rifle dance in his hands.
During gameplay, Garrus provides precise, deadly fire support during a mission, and in cutscenes and the lore, he can easily take down any target once he gets them in his scope. Everyone loves a cool sniper.
8 Garrus Knows His Limits & Is Properly Modest At Times
Garrus likes to boast sometimes and talk up his own abilities to make a strong impression. But he is not arrogant or conceited. Rather, Garrus balanced his boasting with honest humility, and that is highly admirable.
For example, Garrus freely admitted that he wasn't quite skilled enough to keep a vigilante team together aboard Omega, and he felt unqualified when the turian Hierarchy appointed him as their official Reaper expert. He wasn't entirely sure how to handle these broadened responsibilities, so he deferred to Shepard.
7 Garrus Has A Great Sense Of Humor
The series' best jokes and quips come from Joker, the Normandy's helmsman, but Garrus is pretty funny too. He always has a witty remark or comeback, and his dry observations during the war helped keep things in perspective. He even launched a meme by being busy with calibrations around the clock.
There was even a scene in Mass Effect 3 when Garrus and Joker traded jokes at the expense of the Alliance and the turians, and Garrus shared a zinger about the Alliance Navy hiring pilots with brittle bone disease so the marines can feel good about having someone they can actually beat up.
6 Garrus Can Navigate Bar Culture Easily
Commander Shepard visits all kinds of places during their trek across the galaxy, and that includes more than a few bars and nightclubs. All three games feature one or more such places where characters like Garrus and Zaeed Massani feel right at home.
Garrus is comfortable but smart in bars, able to pick up women and order fancy drinks while not making a fool of himself. He can also handle bar fights and other issues, but he's not reckless enough to start those fights himself.
5 Garrus Isn't Afraid To Break The Rules
Commander Shepard can be either paragon or renegade, and Garrus is a little bit of both. His renegade side manifests as a headstrong independent streak, where he's more than willing to break rules or violate protocol to get the job done. He can't stand red tape, which is one reason he quit C-Sec.
Garrus isn't a brutal thug, though. Instead, he tries to do things the nice way, and if that fails, he'll move on to plan B and use harsher methods to punish criminals and terrorists. Most turians are by-the-book and don't like this approach, but Garrus is different.
4 Garrus Learned To Forgive His Betrayer, Sidonis
Every squadmate in Mass Effect 2 has a loyalty mission, and many of these sidequests involve difficult but intriguing dilemmas for the characters to face, such as whether to abandon some refinery workers to help Zaeed finally kill Vido Santiago or how best to clear Tali's name at a trial before the quarian Admiralty Board. Garrus, meanwhile, is looking for revenge.
Garrus beats Harkin half to death to find out where his betrayer, Sidonis, is. But when Shepard meets Sidonis, the Commander learns the truth, and a paragon Commander Shepard can convince Garrus to let this go and move on. Revenge will only poison Garrus' mind, and Sidonis already deeply regrets his actions.
3 Garrus Wears His Scars Proudly
The krogan people are known for wearing their scars proudly, and according to an asari bartender on Ilium, krogan consider them downright sexy. Evidently, Garrus thinks so too, because he wasn't terribly upset when he got some facial scars early in Mass Effect 2.
Garrus and Shepard shared a few jokes over his new scars, and he didn't mind going around in his scarred, burnt armor through the mission against the Collectors. Scarred characters are usually cool, and Garrus is the coolest of them.
2 Garrus Impressed Javik, The Prothean Survivor
Javik is not easy to impress; he was born into a brutal empire where might made right and he survived countless battles against the seemingly invincible Reaper armies. Javik sneers at many modern people, from the naive Liara T'Soni to Joker, who trusts EDI too much for Javik's liking. But he did like Garrus.
Getting a compliment from Javik is a big deal, and Javik thought that Garrus would have been a fine soldier for the Prothean Empire's army, if given the chance. Javik's only regret was that Garrus had two eyes instead of four like a Prothean.
1 Garrus Gave The Normandy Powerful Cannons
Many crewmates have an upgrade available during Mass Effect 2, such as how Jacob Taylor finds better armor for the Normandy's hull and Thane Krios adds more probes for mining resources. Garrus, meanwhile, has a more exciting ship upgrade in mind.
When asked, Garrus will install two Thanix cannons to the Normandy SR-2, which are powerful anti-ship batteries of turian design. They were modeled after Sovereign's beam attack, in fact, and these cannons allow the Normandy to destroy the Collector cruiser while taking minimal return fire.
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