Garrus Vakarian

Garrus Vakarian
'Mass Effect' character
Garrus's design in Mass Effect 3, as presented in The Art of the Mass Effect Universe

Garrus Vakarian is a fictional character in BioWare's Mass Effect franchise, who acts as a party member (or "squadmate") in each of the three games in the original trilogy. Garrus is a turian, one of the various alien species in Mass Effect, and is voiced by Brandon Keener.

The character is initially introduced in the first game as a C-Sec officer tired of all the rules and regulations his job includes. Come Mass Effect 2, Garrus forms a vigilante group on the crime-ridden Omega, before his team is wiped out due to betrayal. Mass Effect 3 features him advising the other turians on how to defeat the Reapers. In addition to the Mass Effect game trilogy, Garrus also appears in the third issue of Homeworlds; it tells the story of how Garrus ends up on Omega and elaborates on his backstory.

Garrus's design was altered throughout the series, though his blue-and-black colour scheme and visor were maintained in all his appearances. Developers were initially worried that Garrus, as well as the rest of the alien squadmates, would not prove emotionally compelling, but were surprised by positive fan feedback and added him as a romance option in the second game due to it. Since his appearance in Mass Effect, Garrus has received a positive reception. Various merchandise has been made around Garrus, including action figures, a T-shirt and a bust.

Character overview

Garrus is a turian, an alien avian race resembling "humanoid birds or raptors." Despite initially being introduced as a C-Sec officer, Garrus despises rules and regulations, which leads him to try to join Commander Shepard's crew and leave C-Sec. In the first game, Executor Pallin describes him as a "very good" officer albeit one with a lack of patience, while Harkin describes him as a "hothead" who "still thinks he can change the world". Despite his rash decision making, Garrus will listen to what Shepard has to say. Garrus can be influenced into being more receptive of rules and regulations, telling him that they help limit abuses of authority, or he can be encouraged to continue his loose cannon style of law-enforcement, telling him that regulations get in the way of dispensing justice.

Design wise, Garrus wears a visor and has a blue-and-black theme to his armor. In Mass Effect 2, while in Omega, Garrus is seriously injured by a gunships's chain gun and rockets and so gains scars and a cracked armor.

Garrus's voice actor, Brandon Keener, blamed C-Sec's "demoralizing" bureaucracy for his reticence. Keener said that Garrus had warmed up over the course of the games, due to his interactions with the Normandy crew. David Kates, a composer who worked on the Mass Effect franchise, described Garrus as having a conscience and wanting "to do good", and that he ultimately desired for both healing and justice. Kates similarly pointed to the fact that Garrus's conversations often had a warm sense to them, often displaying a wry sense of humor as Garrus was desperately trying to "be that person".

Creation and development

Mac Walters, one of the lead writers for Mass Effect 2 and 3, acted as a senior writer for the first game and mainly focused on Garrus, as well as Wrex. Walters also wrote him in the second game, but handed him to John Dombrow for 3.

The turians' original concept was done by artist Brian Sum and were originally designed to be a military bird-like race, similar to eagles, which can still be seen in some of their features (e.g. the horns on the back of the head being like feathers, and the mouth being like a beak). While the artists originally sketched Turians naked to get grips on the physiology, they were limited in bone structure as all squadmates shared one skeleton for combat purposes. Heads were also similar as a result, with the main modifications being to the texture and tattoos. Garrus's did not have any concept art for his armor, but Matt Rhodes created several different ones which they then picked from. After, it was decided to give him a blue and black theme and add a visor, as a quick decision.

For Mass Effect 2, they felt that the important things to keep were the black and blue armor, and the visor. For his scars they wanted something heroic-like and did a reference on different burns; at the same time, they didn't want a lot of red in it. In part, this was to make sure he was still recognizable as Garrus. In 3, the blue and black remained but silver was added; the silver was to reflect his new rank. They still wanted Garrus to look familiar, but gave him heavier armor "to withstand the battles" in Mass Effect 3 and increased the detail to his armour and eyepiece.

Garrus was voiced by Brandon Keener, who used his natural speaking voice but spoke slightly more formally; a reverb effect was then used on the voice. Voice direction was given by Ginny McSwain for individual lines. Although he does not remember exactly what happened when he started voicing Garrus, Keener believes he was given some background information, personality traits and character sketches before voicing the character.

When designing the music for 2's "Garrus level", David Kates had a fun time working with the character. Kates wanted to bring the sense of conflict he felt between his desire for healing and justice to the music, as well bring a "human element" and a bit of emotion to Garrus, giving the impression he was motivated by more than just the battle. Kates compared his chord vocabulary for Garrus' level to Wendy Carlos' language in Tron.

Garrus was not initially given a romance in the first game as the developers were unsure whether the alien characters would be emotionally compelling. However, a romance was added in the second game due to popular demand, though the developers were still surprised at its popularity once the game was released.

Appearances

In video games

Mass Effect

Garrus first appeared in the 2007 Mass Effect, as a squadmate. After the first mission, the player encounters his case against Saren being dropped by C-Sec officials, despite Garrus's objections. Garrus decides to continue working on the case anyway, and can be found in the Med Clinic after speaking to Harkin. If the player goes to the Med Clinic, they will encounter Dr. Chloe Michel being threatened by thugs, who Garrus will shoot after Shepard distracts them. If the player does not go to the Med Clinic but recruits Wrex, Garrus will appear later and ask to join the Normandy's crew; however, the player may refuse him, and thus go through the game without him. If the player does recruit him, Garrus can be found in the Normandy and be talked with after each main mission for new information about himself. If the player continues doing this, Garrus will eventually tell Shepard of Dr. Saleon, a salarian geneticist using his employees as test tubes to grow spare organs in who escaped from Garrus long ago; the player may then choose to hunt down Saleon and take him out.

Mass Effect 2

Garrus then returns in Mass Effect 2, regardless of whether he was recruited in the first game. After the player arrives at Omega and begins the mission to recruit Archangel, they discover he is currently under attack by all of the mercenary groups on the station and that they must rescue him. When they reach him, Archangel takes off his helmet and reveals himself to be Garrus. At the end of the mission, Garrus is shot by the gunship's mass accelerator cannons and receives scars; Garrus can then be found in the Normandy and talked to for information, as well as brought out for missions as a squad member. If the player continues to talk with Garrus, he will reveal he has new information on Sidonis – the turian who betrayed Garrus's original team fighting the mercs on Omega, leading to all of their deaths. The player can then choose to help Garrus find Sidonis and help him kill him, or, after seeing that Sidonis is now immensely regretful for his actions and depressed, convince Garrus to spare his life. Alternatively, the player can just not do the mission. After this mission is completed and if the player is playing a female Shepard, they may pursue a romance with the character. During the last mission of the game, various members of the squad can end up killed, Garrus included; Garrus's likelihood of dying increases if the Sidonis mission is not done.

Mass Effect 3

Unless a save was imported from 2 where Garrus died, he will appear again as a squadmate in Mass Effect 3. After the events of 2, Garrus is revealed to have contacted his father and told him about the Reaper threat; his father proceeded to lobby for more defences to be made to prepare for them, which resulted Garrus being put in charge of a "Reaper task force". After the player begins the mission on the turian planet Palaven's moon to find Primarch Fedorian, they encounter Garrus advising the turians on how to defeat the attacking Reapers. Garrus joins the squad, and can from then on be found in the Normandy talking to other crew members and interacted with. Like the second game, a female Shepard may pursue a romance with him, but the romance requires an imported save where Garrus was romanced in 2.

Mass Effect Andromeda

Once player unlocks Alec Ryder's encrypted memories, player can observe the conversation between Alec Ryder and Castis Vakarian. Castis mentions how his son used to be a C-Sec officer and how council is ignoring Shepard's warnings and it concerns him.

In other media

Mass Effect: Homeworlds

Garrus is the focus of Mass Effect: Homeworlds' third issue, a comic series dedicated to starring a different Mass Effect 3 squadmate in each issue.

Promotion and reception

As with many of the other squadmates, various merchandise has been made for Garrus. These include two action figures (one of which is designed as a "collectible"), a screenprint poster, a t-shirt, a character key, and a bust. In addition, several fans have made their own items such as plushies and T-shirts; but these are all unofficial. Keener agreed to record a voice mail message as part of a Mass Effect-themed silent auction for Child's Play.

Garrus has received a good reception. Out of all the Mass Effect squadmates, he has been particularly highlighted with UGO's Sal Basile naming him the third best squadmate in 3 and IGN's Steven Hopper selecting him as his top teammate in the series. Basile, in particular, noted that he made a good counterpart to Shepard. Additionally, Garrus was one of the most commonly selected characters for the squad, according to game statistics. Garrus's personality shift between the first game and the second has been both praised and criticised. GamesRadar listed him as one of several characters that sequels vastly improved, comparing his first appearance as to a comic book character's humble origin story and noting him in his second appearance as a "total unapologetic badass". Conversely, Jeremy Parish (from 1UP.com) criticised him as suffering the most from 2's over-"edginess", particularly as his darkening was detriment to the Paragon choice of nudging him towards rules in the first game.

The potential romance to Garrus has also been of some interest. Writing for IGN, Emma Boynes listed the relationship between a female Shepard and him as one of the best in video gaming; and noted that while he seemed an odd choice at first, he "grows on you". In a list of seven game characters who the staff "(seriously) fell in love with", Holland Cooper listed him as no. 1; Cooper cited his calm voice, loyalty to Shepard, and "pure charisma".

Outside of Mass Effect, Garrus has been listed by GamesRadar ranked 15 out of 100 of their best video gaming heroes; GamesRadar also saying they preferred him to Shepard themself. Cooper, again, listed him as their top badass in gaming for this generation. Lorenzo Veloria, also from GamesRadar, called him one of his favourite RPG party members. GamesRadar included him in a list of "11 video game characters that would take home Olympic gold", citing his shooting abilities. Writing for The Observer, Tom Chatfield listed Garrus as one of his favourite 10 video game characters. Game Informer's Kimberley Wallace considered him to be one of the best BioWare characters, saying "Garrus has enough charisma to top all the rest of the Mass Effect cast."