| “ | I settle for nothing but the best. | „ |
| ~ Miranda Lawson. |
| “ | I'm an excellent judge of character. I think you'll find my assessments to be right on the money. | „ |
| ~ Miranda Lawson. |
Miranda Lawson is one of the major characters in the Mass Effect video game series, as well as its remastered version Legendary Edition.
Miranda serves as one of the main protagonists of the Mass Effect: Foundation and Mass Effect 2, the deuteragonist in Mass Effect Galaxy, the tritagonist in Mass Effect: Redemption, and a supporting character (if she survives the suicide mission) in Mass Effect 3. In ME2, she serves as one of the game's party members.
She is a genetically engineered human specimen created by the wealthy business tyrant Henry Lawson, until she ran away from him and began working for Cerberus. While with them, she was the team leader of Project Lazarus, the program responsible for bringing Commander Shepard back to life.
She is voiced by and facially modeled after Yvonne Strahovski, who also portrayed Sarah Walker in Chuck, Kate Morgan in 24, and Batwoman in Batman: Bad Blood.
Biography[]
Background[]
Miranda Lawson was "created" in 2150 by her arrogant father Henry Lawson, who in Miranda's own words did not want a daughter but rather a dynasty. Constantly abused and pressured by her father, Miranda was left with deep self-loathing and feelings of inadequacy, worsened by the knowledge that her father had murdered her older siblings who had failed to meet his expectations.
When Henry made another creation named Oriana, Miranda refused to allow him to torture her as he had her, and so she ran away from home with Oriana in tow. Needing protection for both her and her sister, Miranda was drawn into Cerberus, and under the Illusive Man's influence came to believe that Cerberus was a benevolent if not also somewhat ethically sketchy organization, unaware (at least initially), of the atrocities Cerberus has committed. Under the false impression that they are helping humanity, Miranda rapidly ascended the ranks and soon became one of the Illusive Man's top agents.
In her career, Miranda made contact with Jacob Taylor, an Alliance soldier, who was investigating on a batarian plot to attack the Citadel. Miranda gave him clues and leads, which successfully lead to Jacob stopping the batarian ambassador, Jath'Amon, from unleashing a biological weapon on the Citadel.
A month later, after Sovereign's attack on the Citadel, Miranda located Jacob for a job, who resigned from the Alliance after being frustrated by the political whitewash of the attack. Miranda offered Jacob to join Cerberus, as well as the job they were going to do; find Commander Shepard. During their investigation, they learnt that Shepard had died from the attack and destruction of the SSV Normandy SR-1, but Miranda was determined to continue the investigation and make certain of Shepard's fate. Further on in the investigation, and with the help of Liara, Miranda learns that the Blue Suns mercenaries, through the Shadow Broker, plan to sell Shepard's body to a mysterious alien race known as Collectors. Thanks to Liara's intervention, Shepard's body is retrieved and is taken to Cerberus' Lazarus Research Station. The Illusive Man initiates the Lazarus Project, a large project with the aim of reconstructing and resurrecting Commander Shepard and puts Miranda in charge of the Lazarus Project. Liara at first advised Miranda to let Shepard rest instead of trying to resurrect Shepard, but Miranda tells her that the Illusive Man has a more hopeful outlook on Shepard, and that the Lazarus Project will be successful.
Defeating the Collectors[]
After a period of two years' operating the Lazarus Project, Miranda begins finalizing with the project, with the reconstruction of Shepard being a success. At some point, the research base comes under attack by its own hacked security mechs. Miranda wakes Shepard over an intercom and guides the Commander to the base's last shuttle. Miranda eventually finds out that her project assistant, Wilson, was the saboteur, and executes him, before taking Shepard to another station to meet with the Illusive Man virtually. After the investigation on the colony named Freedom's Progress of mysterious human abductions, and confirming the Collectors behind the abductions, Miranda becomes a permanent squad member. Aboard the new Normandy SR-2, she functions as Shepard's second-in-command, but she also serves as a proxy for the Illusive Man, to whom she reports regularly.
Miranda is at first skeptical of the Commander's goals, due to the vast large number of resources used in the Lazarus Project, and the Illusive Man's level of importance towards Shepard. However, in time she gets along with Shepard, sharing her past of her genetic creation by her father. For her loyalty mission, Shepard must help her save her sister Oriana from Eclipse mercenaries seeking to return her sister to her father. After it is concluded, Shepard can convince Miranda to better connect with her sister, which she decides to do. After earning her loyalty and Jack's loyalty mission is completed, Jack argues with Miranda about the torturous experiments they inflicted on Jack. Shepard can either resolve the situation without picking sides or side with one of them.
During the suicide mission, specifically the attack on the Collector Base beyond the Omega-4 relay, Miranda plays a pivotal role in the mission. If Miranda is with Shepard during the final battle in the Collector Base, and Shepard chooses to destroy the base, she will defy the Illusive Man's orders to stop Shepard, telling the former that he should consider Miranda's defiance as her resignation from Cerberus. Miranda can also die in the suicide mission depending on Shepard's outcomes.
Reaper War[]
If she survives the suicide mission, Miranda makes an appearance. Having resigned from Cerberus and being hunted by the Illusive Man, Miranda meets Shepard. She informs that she hasn't heard from her sister Oriana for a while, and she suspects that her father could be involved. Shepard offers to help, but Miranda states that she needs to do this alone since Shepard is already occupied with the Reaper War. After several contacts with Shepard, including about the attempted Cerberus coup and the Cerberus assassin Kai Leng, Miranda confesses her guilt about wanting to implant a control chip in Shepard's brain during the Lazarus Project, as that time she felt Shepard was an unknown. Shepard can comfort her, saying that the important thing is she brought Shepard back alive and that she shouldn't dwell on the past.
Miranda eventually finds out that her father, Henry, is working with Cerberus, and has lured humans into Sanctuary, a popular war refugee base on the planet Horizon, in order to torture them and turn them into husks with the aim of studying Reaper indoctrination for the Illusive Man. Appalled by her father's actions, Miranda goes out of her way to warn and save as many people as she can, risking her life in the process when she comes under attack from Kai Leng.
Depending on choices and outcomes, Shepard may or may not save her at this point, and if she survives, she will help the fight to take back Earth, and can be contacted before the final assault. If she is in a romance with Shepard, she expresses doubt that Shepard will come back alive, but he assures her that he will. Miranda begs Shepard to finish the fight and then find her. At the end, if Shepard uses the Crucible to destroy or synthesize the Reapers, in the aftermath, she will be seen in a boardroom helping lead reconstruction efforts following the defeat of the Reapers. If Shepard chose to control the Reapers, she is seen with her sister Oriana studying Reaper schematics. If Miranda was romanced, she will be seen gazing upon the stars.
Personality[]
| “ | Miranda: I may not have believed it before, but I don't have what you do. That fire that makes someone willing to follow you into hell itself. My father got me the best genes money could buy. Guess that wasn't enough. Shepard: You always bring up your genetic tailoring. It really bothers you. Miranda: This is what I am, Shepard. I can't hide it. The intelligence, the looks, even the biotics. He paid for all of that. Every one of your accomplishments is due to your skill. The only things I can take credit for are my mistakes. |
„ |
| ~ Miranda to Shepard, lamenting over the nature of her existence |
When first introduced, Miranda is shown to be very cold and standoffish, as shown by her ruthless execution of Wilson for his betrayal, and insisting that they leave the Lazarus station as soon as possible, calmly countering any arguments Shepard makes to waiting for other (unlikely) survivors, as she prioritizes getting Shepard off the station rather than risk waiting for anyone else. She is so committed to the mission of getting Shepard out alive that she declares everyone else (possibly including herself), to be expendable, though it should be noted that Jacob seconds this, saying that, without Shepard, the past two years of labor would have been for nothing. She also initially appears to be quite arrogant; when Jacob questions her, Miranda claims that she is never wrong and that he should have learned that by now. However, this is shown to not be a complete boast as the Illusive Man himself states that she isn't usually wrong. She is also shown to be very cautious regarding Shepard at first, worrying that he/she may become a liability to Cerberus's cause. Because of this distrust, she initially refuses to open up to Shepard, saying that she's not looking for a friend, but changes her mind after the crew has settled into the Normandy, and opens up to him/her about her father after a couple of conversations.
As Shepard gets to know Miranda, her true personality is revealed; far from arrogant, Miranda is instead a deeply self-loathing woman whose years of abuse by her father as well as the nature of her existence as someone who was "grown" rather than born have left her feeling that she does not deserve credit for any of her accomplishments; her frosty personality and outward self-confidence are simply a façade to hide her insecurities. In her own words, she allows other people to use her talents as a way of finding her place in the universe. Her self-esteem only gets worse when she compares herself to Shepard, whose accomplished far more than she has with no genetic modification of any kind. As she points out to Shepard, while both of them were "engineered for greatness", Shepard was great before he/she was rebuilt, while Miranda's great because of it.
Miranda often presents herself as apathetic or aloof, sometimes to the point of callousness. She is less than sympathetic regarding the Cerberus infiltration of the Migrant Fleet ship Idenna and subsequent killing of the quarians, claiming it was "nothing personal," and attempts to take a traumatized Veetor'Nara over to interrogation, even after Tali suggests simply taking his omni-tool data instead, though she does not protest if Shepard demands that Tali takes him for medical care. Additionally, her reaction to Shepard letting a plague victim choke to death when he/she has the necessary equipment to help him is a simple "I doubt he could have helped us anyway."
On a lesser note, despite referring to Omega as a "pisshole", Miranda is pragmatic about not being able to do anything about it, telling Jacob that Omega has been the way it is for a long time, and nobody's changing it any time soon. Still, Miranda can show empathy, compassion, and moral standards as the situation warrants, not the least of which is her objection to the Illusive Man's plan of keeping the Collector Base intact (a base that had liquefied millions of humans alive). Should Shepard destroy the Collector Base, Miranda applauds the commander's decision, and also outright resigns from Cerberus in response to the Illusive Man's ordering her to stop Shepard. Prior to this she also acknowledges that Cerberus' experiments do cross the line often, showing she is not blind to the fact that Cerberus is capable of wrongdoing even when loyal to them. In particular she admits without hesitation that Cerberus' cruel torture and murder of biotic children at the Teltin facility was without question a mistake (though she also considers it to be more the crimes of a rogue cell rather than all of Cerberus). Miranda also abhors random and sadistic cruelty in general, vocally disapproving of the brutalizing of an inmate by a prison guard on Purgatory and having sufficient empathy to warn a young man on Omega that he needs more than knowing how to use a gun if he wants to survive a battle. She also reminds Shepard early in their working relationship that all of the other members of the Lazarus Project besides her and Jacob lost their lives bringing Shepard back, showing that she does in fact care about the people under her command. This is shown again when she criticizes Joker for failing to stop the Collectors from taking the ship's entire crew. Should any of Shepard's crew perish during the Suicide Mission, Miranda expresses sympathy, and even sounds choked up when she tells Shepard that they have to keep moving.
In addition to all the above, despite being highly loyal to Cerberus for most of Mass Effect 2, Miranda is atypical of the average Cerberus member, being pro-human as opposed to anti-alien, and in fact laments how so many joins Cerberus for no other reason than simple xenophobia. She greatly respects Mordin and the time he spent working with other salarians in the Special Tasks Group, as well as having empathy for the quarian Lia'Vael by agreeing with Tali's anger towards the prejudiced volus Kor Tun, who falsely accuses her of theft. She also has great respect for the asari, describing Illium as a "cultural marvel" and says that humanity can learn a lot from them and their ingenuity. Further contradicting the idea that she is a human supremacist is her acknowledgement that her biotics are "very advanced for a human", indicating that she recognizes that human biotics in general are not superior to those of the asari and other alien races.
Nevertheless, Miranda's loyalty to Cerberus causes friction between her and some other members of Shepard's squad, mostly Jack, who snipes at and baits her regularly and even threatens to kill her during an argument over Cerberus' culpability in Jack's childhood torture. Even Garrus, who is otherwise friendly and accepting of most people, is wary of her, and will argue against making her the fire team leader if Jack isn't present, pointing out that half the squad don't even trust her. Miranda, however, makes a point that whether or not someone is well-liked doesn't matter when people's lives are at stake. Ultimately, most of the squadmates appear to ignore Miranda and vice-versa.
Though she professes to be an excellent judge of character, Miranda is not infallible this respect, initially considering the Illusive Man humanity's best advocate before realizing his malevolence and power-lust, and being blindsided by her childhood friend Niket's betrayal despite evidence beforehand suggesting it (though it should be noted that both of these men had gained her trust by then, showing Miranda is susceptible to being manipulated). Either way, Miranda's loyalty to Cerberus gives her (at least initially), a somewhat rose-tinted view of the organization; though acknowledging that Cerberus does often cross the line with their experiments, she nevertheless believes that the good work of the organization outweighs the bad, and that their ultimate goal is advancing humanity rather than hating aliens or amassing power for its own sake. And though she admits that the torture of Jack and other biotic children at Pragia was a mistake, she also concludes (somewhat dubiously), that the cell's members had exceeded their parameters and were then shut down by the Illusive Man when he "found out", even though there is evidence to suggest that the Illusive Man had known all along about the extreme experiments, and had shut them down due to their failure rather than out of morality. Regardless, Miranda's naive appraisal changes when ordered to keep the Collector Base intact, showing to her that the Illusive Man cares more about personal power than helping humanity as a whole, prompting her to abandon Cerberus in disgust.
Miranda is deeply fond of her genetically identical little sister, Oriana, and has gone to great lengths to keep her safe. However, Miranda's protectiveness is initially done entirely from a distance, with her going so far as to avoid revealing to her sister that she exists. If convinced to form a connection with her, Miranda is so emotionally overwhelmed that she cries at the end of her loyalty mission. Either way, Miranda is fiercely protective of Oriana, and is utterly merciless in dealing with those who threaten her, including their father, who she kills for using Oriana as a human shield.
From the Shadow Broker's files on her, Miranda evidently wishes to become a mother, but tragically is unable to conceive.
Miranda can be a hypocrite at times; she frequently expresses disgust about how her father attempted to control every aspect of her life, and how she therefore couldn't bear to let him do the same thing to Oriana, yet during the Lazarus Project, she was perfectly willing to put a control chip in Shepard's brain as a safeguard (which she justified by the belief that giving Shepard free will was too great of a risk), and would have done so if the Illusive Man hadn't stopped her. At the same time, however, she's smart enough to realize this, and by the time the Reapers arrive in 2186, she deeply regrets having ever wanted the chip, to the point that she practically begs Shepard for forgiveness and says that she always regretted it. When assured by Paragon Shepard that she can't keep beating herself up over the past, she replies 'I usually don't, but this was important', showing truly how sorry she is.
By the time the Reapers arrive, Miranda has become significantly warmer, having lost a lot (if not all) of her former ruthlessness and coldness. No longer under illusions about Cerberus' lack of scruples, she actively works against them, and also warns innocent civilians about Sanctuary being her father's facility.
Quotes[]
| “ | It was hard to be away from you. Surprised myself how... attached I got. I'm not good at attached. | „ |
| ~ Miranda to Commander Shepherd. |
Appearances[]
Games[]
- Mass Effect: Galaxy (2009)
- Mass Effect 2 (2010)
- Mass Effect 3 (2012)
- Mass Effect Legendary Edition (2021)
Comics[]
- Mass Effect: Redemption (2010, 3 appearances)
- Mass Effect: Redemption (2010, 1 appearance)
- The Art of the Mass Effect Universe (2012, 1 appearances)
- Mass Effect: Foundation (2013, 5 appearances)
- Mass Effect: Foundation (2014, 1 appearance)
Trivia[]
- Yvonne Strahovski was nominated for "Best Performance by a Human Female" in the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards.
- The character's original surname was "Solheim", which was Norwegian for "Sunhome". However, the developers decided to change the name to "Lawson" to match to Strahovski's Australian accent.
- Early concept art of Miranda portrayed her as blonde, likely to better resemble her voice actress whose face was used for her likeness, but dark hair was later chosen instead due to feeling that it better fit her "Femme Fatale" archetype.
- Miranda was originally intended to be a romance option for both male and female versions of Shepard.
- Throughout her appearances in the second and third games, shots of Miranda's buttocks were employed to emphasize her sexuality. The frequency of these moments, and in particular how they would sometimes be used in scenes that did not call for them, drew heavy criticism from some critics and players, though they also inspired memes.
- The Shadow Broker's dossiers on Miranda reveal that she has been attempting to get pregnant but, tragically, is unable to. Though the cause of her infertility is never explicitly stated, it is implied that she was made this way on purpose by her father as part of his attempts to control her life.
- Miranda's claim in Mass Effect 3 that she is the "former Cerberus second-in-command" is somewhat inconsistent with her portrayal in other works, which depict her as high-ranked but never suggest she is literally second-in-command. In particular, her line to Shepard in the second game: "Cerberus doesn't tell me something is impossible, they give me my resources and say 'do it'." would suggest that Miranda takes orders from more than one person in the organization, which would not be the case if she were 2nd-in-command.
- Likewise, what she says afterwards "And they've given you even more: a new life, a new ship, The Illusive Man's personal attention", would also seem to contradict the idea that she is 2nd-in-command (as such a person would presumably have gotten their leader's personal attention as a consequence of being made 2nd-in-command or else already had it).
- Finally, the Shadow Broker's dossier on Miranda merely describes her as a Cerberus Officer, not literally second-in-command. Even her Codex entry within Mass Effect 3 itself, she is not described as second-command, rather as "high-ranking".
Gallery[]
Images[]
External Links[]
- Miranda Lawson - Mass Effect Wiki