Garrus Vakarian

"Just like old times..."

- Garrus Vakarian Garrus Vakarian is a male Turian in the video game series Mass Effect. He is a former C-Sec officer-turned-vigilante and one of Commander Shepard's closet allies during the fight against the Reapers. He is one of the only two characters to be available as a full-time squadmate in all three games, the other being Tali'Zorah vas normandy.

He was voiced by Brandon Keener.

Mass Effect
Garrus is first encountered as a C-Sec officer that Shepard can ask in terms of hunting the renegade Spectre Saren Arterius, later joining him after saving Dr. Michel from thugs. With Garrus' help, Shepard is able to convince the Council that Saren is guilty and must be brought down. He joins Shepard in the ship Normandy and assisted him in many battles until Saren is taken down.

Mass Effect 2
After Shepard presumably dies at the hands of the Collector, Garrus returned to C-Sec and becomes more disillusioned with its regulations in taking down crimes. He quits his position and relocated to Omega, where he becomes known as the vigilante 'Archangel'. He gathers many similar-minded group of vigilante to exact justice towards many criminals, but he is later tricked by one of his men, another Turian named Sidonis, causing every of his men dying.

Garrus is cornered alone, fighting for his life in an abandoned building when all mercenary groups at Omega unite just to kill him. Thankfully, Shepard turns out to be alive and comes to Garrus' rescue. Shortly after the fight, Garrus learns that Shepard is brought back by the Illusive Man of Cerberus and Garrus happens to be in the dossier of soldiers Shepard needs to assist him in defeating the Collectors. Even if Garrus doesn't trust Shepard, he decides to trust just Shepard and once again assist him.

Eventually Garrus caught wind of where Sidonis is, and his heart is filled with vengeance, asking Shepard to assist him hunt and kill Sidonis. Depending on Shepard's actions, Garrus may go through with his vengeance, or not take it at all, finally realizing that his revenge will be empty, Sidonis already being punished with his own self-inflicted guilt due to the betrayal.

Around this time, if Shepard is female, then Garrus may start striking a romance with Shepard.

Mass Effect 3
After the Collectors are defeated, Shepard is put under house arrest, Garrus joins the Turian military, advising on the army on what the Reaper is. Shepard meets Garrus in the Turian homeworld Palaven and he joins forces with the Commander again, this time against the Reaper.

If Shepard never romanced Garrus at all, near the end of the fight against the Reaper, it is shown that he struck a romance with Quarian Tali'zorah vas Normandy (provided that Tali does not romance anyone at all too at that point).

Personality
"Garrus: What do you want from me, Shepard? What would you do if somebody betrayed you? Shepard: I'm not sure, but I wouldn't let it change me. Garrus: I would have said the same thing before it happened to me."

- Garrus on how he feels about being betrayed by Sidonis Garrus is consistently portrayed as strong-willed, sarcastic, courteous, calm and reassuring. Although Ashley was initially suspicious of him (despite the fact he was a C-Sec officer), he tends to get along well with the rest of the crew, enjoying the chance to get off the Citadel and see how things are done outside C-Sec. However, he is shown to be innocently insensitive at times, such as when he said he was surprised by Wrex not being a savage brute and ridiculing Tali about her race unleashing the geth upon the galaxy. He gets better in later games, and by the third, apologises to Tali for ever saying it to her, despite it being three years ago and her saying it didn't matter anymore.

Despite being a turian, Garrus had no problem with hunting down Saren; in fact, he stated that this was the reason he chose to hunt him, as he considered Saren to be not only a threat, but a disgrace to their species.

Although usually a nice person, Garrus is shown to be bitter at times, especially when it comes to being reminded of his failures. He blamed himself for the death of his squad by the hands of Sidonis and viewed bringing him to justice as his own personal task, saying noone else knew or cared about what he had done and the thought of him getting away with his crimes disgusted him.