1. Tali’Zorah vas Normandy
Anyone who knows me isn’t gonna be shocked by this one, Tal is probably my favorite character in all of gaming. I love Tali so much that I dumped Liara for her and I ranked her over Garrus, which says quite a bit… Hell, even Joker likes her. He has snotty things to say about everyone but her. I want desperately to do this write-up justice but I fear that it will be inadequate. Plowing ahead anyways.
People like to talk about how she isn’t in the same class as other squad members in ME1 skill-wise, but think about how you meet her. She goes onto an uncharted planet that is Geth controlled, deactivates a geth and manages to get data off its memory core before it deletes itself. Incredibly impressive for someone who is just leaving the Flotilla for the first time. She tries to meet with the Shadow Broker but Shepard stops an ambush from killing her. Tali is fun in Mass Effect 1, but she was probably only tied with Liara in 3rd (behind Wrex and Garrus) because she wasn’t that great in ME1.
Mass Effect 2 is when Tali starts to really come into her own. She’s much more confident and she just gets way better characterization. I wish she was recruitable a little bit earlier (and signs are that it was designed to be earlier) but her recruitment mission is fun and you meet an awesome character in it. Than you get to her loyalty mission and woah. That mission is awesome story and combat wise, and if you bring Legion it is arguably the best mission in the game. Her interactions with Legion throughout the game are fantastic.
In Mass Effect 3 Tali has fully grown into quite the little badass of her own, she’s now an admiral. She’s grown fully from a bold teenager (not actually but you know) into this badass Admiral who is the representative of her species. I love Tali in ME3, her evolution on view of the geth mirrored mine almost exactly. If you choose the geth over the quarians and you didn’t make the right decisions prior to that you get to see one of the most emotional scenes in gaming. It is probably the only scene that I didn’t actually get in my playthrough that made me emotional. Although even the “good” ending to that situation is pretty sad. “Yes”. Great stuff.
Tali’s romance is incredible and it brings up some great stuff in ME3. Liara’s might have a little more to it but Tali’s is just a big better. She’s adorable and its fun to watch her grow from a girl to a woman as you date her. Plus her and Shepard flirting and EDI being awkward is fantastic.
Tali gets all 3 games to grow and she takes full advantage, having more character growth than anyone. Her voice actress is incredible, and I really hope to see Ash Sroka in something else because she gives so much to the character. She’s adorable yet strong and credit has to go to the writing staff and Sroka for that. Her romance is great, she has fun missions, she’s my favorite character in gaming.
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