11. Javik

While Zaeed and Kasumi felt underserved as DLC, Mass Effect 3 pulled out all the stops for Javik, the Prothean soldier awoken from cryo sleep. To be honest, it’s still baffling that he was a DLC character considering how instrumental Javik is to the world of Mass Effect. The Protheans are one of the last-known living species to have fought the invading Reapers that Shepard is fighting in the trilogy, and what happened to them is one of the biggest mysteries that unravels through each game.

Having Javik be an optional character you had to pay extra money for is baffling, but he’s noetheless one of the most compelling, meaningfully disappointing squadmates the series has to offer. Asari squadmate Liara has spent her life studying the Protheans her entire life, and to find the last living member of an entire race just to learn he’s kind of an asshole who views everyone around him as primitive cavemen hurts

But Javik also has some of the most interesting writing in the trilogy. He’s an echo of a civilization long gone, but even if he dares to hope he can help stop a galaxy-wide invasion, what would his life even look like after? He has no contemporaries, the galaxy is looking to him as a source of wisdom, and all he has to give them are war stories and fearmongering. Even as the Milky Way falls around him, Javik is somehow, even if he doesn’t intend to be, a symbol of hope for the war effort. If one person still survives, the war is not lost.