By now, most of us know that the first Mass Effect lets you level up Jenkins' stats, and even kit him out in new gear. You almost definitely shouldn't though, because no matter how much you beef his shotgun ability, he's not coming back from his first mission.
Now, fans are realizing that you can do the exact same thing with Anderson in Mass Effect 3. When the Alliance veteran is briefly fighting alongside you in the opening, you're able to level him up just like any other companion. He even has a whole lot of points to distribute, so you can make your brief time with him on earth really count.
This discovery was shared over on Reddit, and has many hoping against hope that maxing out Anderson's stats will somehow change his fate at the end of the game. Sadly, it doesn't. But it does mean that he'll be kicking some Reaper ass before his time is up.
Since Anderson is only very briefly in your party, many are wondering why you can level him up at all. But some fans have their theories.
"This is due to Anderson being ascended to absolute perfection in [every way] since punching Udina", says Reddit user Fast_Initial4767. Raecino agrees, saying that Anderson is "the most badass Admiral in the Alliance".
User YakWish points out an interesting fact, however. Despite being able to level up Anderson's Frag Grenade skill, he'll never get a chance to use it - there are no grenades in the prologue. I guess you'll just have to imagine him lobbing them at Banshees while you're flying around in the Normandy.
Fingers crossed, the next time BioWare gives us a companion super early on in the game they'll actually live long enough to use any of the skills they pick up. However, given the fates of (spoiler alert for several Mass Effect and Dragon Age games) Duncan, Hawke's siblings, Jenkins, and papa Ryder, I won't hold my breath.