Recycled characters you see in every BioWare game

A detailed guide to help you recognize BioWare's favorite character archetypes

Words: Jordan_Baughman on May 3, 2011

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Spybreak8 - May 4, 2011 6:52 a.m.

Entertaining...
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RicePuddingUK - May 4, 2011 7:18 a.m.

I was scrolling the home page and saw a quick glimpse of Mission Vao, nostalgia rushed me! I remember the good old days of KOTOR, as an 11 year old, playing that game was an experience.
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philipshaw - May 4, 2011 11:22 a.m.

Great article, never noticed this before
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HitmanSB07 - May 4, 2011 1:20 p.m.

But the priiize...
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BurntToShreds - May 4, 2011 2:45 p.m.

I liked Kaidan. He was more of a bro than Ashley. She was all bigoted against aliens, while it seemed that Kaidan and Shepard at least had some kind of friendship before the whole Reaper thing. I hope Kaidan gets more personality in ME3.
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FauxFurry - May 4, 2011 3:03 p.m.

Remove the 'Ey" from Grey and the 'Sl' from Sludge for that category listing to more accurately describe Carver Hawke. Not only is he not a romantic option (outside of some incest enabling mod that one can almost rest assure exists somewhere on the deepest reaches of the Internet), he certainly isn't kind-heated unless you count his sharing his boundless spite and feelings of inadequacy as displays of his generosity. He fits firmly into The (occasionally hot-headed) Rival category.
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FauxFurry - May 4, 2011 3:16 p.m.

Comparing Legion to HK-47 or Shale just because they happen to all be humanoid constructs just isn't remotely fair. Curiosity does not equal Contempt. That's stretching things quite a bit, something that none of them can do, not having skin or muscles and all of that dross. Part of the Recalcitrant Shrew entry doesn't quite cover all of the examples evenly, either, with Jade Fox wearing some of the most clothing of any party member (much more than Sagacious Zhu whose place on the list is also a little questionable).
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JizzStr8InUrHeart - May 4, 2011 5:09 p.m.

U guys forgot those damn spiders... Baldur's gate 1: Many spider infested forest and clock-wood has a spider-lady boss caracter Baldur's gate 2: there is a spider den and some kind of spider lady again, for no apparent reason, under the cemetery. Dragon age: spiders are everywhere and consist on one of the most common enemies in the game. Dragon age 2: spiders are back and now the most common ennemy, including way too many giant "mother-spiders" mini-bosses... Mass effect: these is a race of spider-like insectoids, who, without any subtelity are called "Rachni".. I mean come on....what's with the fucking spiders Bioware ? what's with the spider lady
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bonerachieved - May 4, 2011 6:04 p.m.

haha this is a great article. After playing many of these games it just didn't occur to me to till now how similar everything is.
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vic88 - May 4, 2011 6:07 p.m.

holy crap how didn't I notice this before in every bioware game, perhaps i was enjoying them to much to see it
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Chewrocka - May 4, 2011 6:35 p.m.

A someone who loves bioware these are all true, I think you could have probably found more if anything...
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DryvBy - May 4, 2011 9:25 p.m.

After Dragon Bore, I decided to not waste any more money on their games. The game was not fun until the very end.
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KrazyGamer - May 4, 2011 9:58 p.m.

:D
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2cute2Bcruel - May 4, 2011 10:10 p.m.

This list is so true it's painful. Well, let's see: Kaidan is really, really boring. I even prefer Jacob over him, despite your saying that he's in the same category as Kaidan. I wish Garrus were a romance option in the first game instead. I disapprove of Morrigan's disapproving goth ass; I'd take Jack's sadistic badassery over her any day. I guess it says something about me and these games that two of my favorite Dragon Age: Origins characters aren't actually on this list... although Alistair is kind of like Garrus and Tali is a bit like Leliana.
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mhendon - May 5, 2011 4:56 a.m.

This article was mostly dead on...which is sad, but there were two things that came to mind. 1st, Legion has nothing against humans. He just doesn't quite understand them, but that doesn't translate into disdain at all. Second, Sten and Thane are not psychotic. They're completely in control. Also, Sten is hilarious, just in a fantastically deadpan way. I mean, he was DA:O's obligatory Portal reference. Anyhow, good article. I can't fault Bioware for sticking to what works...wish they would do that more often, actually.
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Time4Tiddy - May 6, 2011 1:29 a.m.

I would love to have seen this go even further back, for example, Aerie in Baldur's Gate is practically Liara, Jaheira is essentially Morrigan, Neeshka in NWN is Mission Vaio, Anomen or Casavir could easily be Kaiden. Bishop was the psychotic. Basically in every category I was remembering who would have filled that role from NWN or Baldur's Gate.
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tai0316 - May 6, 2011 2:18 a.m.

First off, Bioware owns me for the rest of my life. I agree, killing Kaiden was awesome, he was so dull and just plain filler. Thane Krios had me from the moment I saw him snap somone's neck. I was actually thinking that his counterpart is Fenris in Dragon Age 2. I felt the same way about Fenris when I saw him crush a guys heart inside his chest. Just me?
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FamousAnonymous - May 6, 2011 2:42 a.m.

Aren't they making TWO space MMO's?! I'm all for going green, but it really cheapens the experience.
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Dicrostonyx - May 10, 2011 5:46 p.m.

I'll put aside the fact that BioWare's characters are all basically standard science fiction and fantasy stereotypes which are standard for a reason, to whit that these tropes resonate with readers, because honestly this article doesn't make me think that you want a reasoned discussion about literature so much as page hits. I think the more pressing question is whether you actually played Knights of the Old Republic at all, and if so, were you aware that Mission Vao was a fourteen year old orphan (with no in game romance options) when you referred to her as an awkward hottie who would "totally bang you" ?
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sonyajeb - May 11, 2011 3:56 p.m.

Did you even play some of these games? You have Mission Vao (KotOR) listed as a "hottie" that'll "totally bang you" but she's FOURTEEN. Just a kid. And there is definitely no banging. You have Carver Hawke (DA2) listed as male support, who's "usually a romantic option for female players," but he was the main character's BROTHER. Hence the same last name: Hawke. And you have Jolee Bindo (KotOR) listed as the useless mentor who gets killed off early, but he in fact is a party member throughout most of the game who will use his lightsaber to kick your enemies' butts! Does Bioware use a lot of common character archetypes? Sure. But then again, so do almost every story/movie/game in existence. So I don't really get the issue. As long as they're done well (which I believe is true in most cases with Bioware, though there are exceptions, nobody's perfect), I don't really see the problem.
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