The Mass Effect games created a defining sci-fi opera in the late 2000s to early 2010s, when Commander Shepard faced the terrifying alien threats of the hive-minded Geth, the rogue Spectre known as Saren, the insidious Collectors, the almighty Reapers fleets and more. Shepard became the first human Spectre and a galactic hero, achieving one remarkable feat after another. But Shepard's methods and personality are sometimes a little strange at times.
As a whole, Commander Shepard is an exemplary hero, but anyone who gets to know him or her will realize that the legendary Shepard has a few undeniable quirks or oddities, and there are times when the Commander is downright bizarre, doesn't make sense or does things in the least expected way.
10 Surviving Drinking Ryncol
Commander Shepard can do anything, or so it seems. And more than once, Shepard survived something that definitely should have been lethal, including... a drink at the bar. Shepard isn't afraid to hit up the galaxy's best bars during the quest to save the universe.
At one point, Shepard can down a glass of ryncol, the infamous ultra-alcoholic drink of the Krogan people. Shepard should have been "hit like ground glass," as Grunt put it, but a brief fainting spell in the bathroom was the worst thing Shepard got. Then, the Commander can jog back to the bar and order another one.
9 Surviving Poison
Maybe Commander Shepard should visit a dry solar system once of these days, because the Commander nearly died twice at a drinking establishment. On the outlaw station of Omega, Shepard may meet a Batarian bartender and get a drink, only to be poisoned. That Batarian bartender has been poisoning (and killing) all of his human patrons.
Shepard survived it, and even a human passerby was shocked that the Commander recovered with few ill effects. Maybe it's the grace of those Cerberus-tech implants, but no clear explanation is given, aside from how silly it would be to kill Shepard this way. The galaxy's hero can't die just yet.
8 Fussing At Ashley
Early into the first game, Commander Shepard meets the soldier Ashely Williams and allows her to join the squad. But later aboard the Normandy, Shepard gets a very strange dialogue option: to berate Ashley for her role in the Eden Prime attack and all the civilian deaths.
In these games, Shepard gets many chances to say cruel, irrational or bizarre things, and one of them is to shout unfair accusations at Ashely for her role in how Eden Prime turned out. She was an ordinary soldier who did her best; no one can possibly blame her for Saren's victory.
7 Recognizing Thermal Clips
This is a minor oversight overall, but it is still a bit odd. As of when the Commander died at the hands of the Collectors in 2183, firearms made use of internal heat sinks to regulate ammo usage. Thermal clip tech never appeared during Shepard's quest, and they may not have even been invented yet.
But when the Commander awoke in a Cerberus station and picked up a pistol, he/she commented how the weapon was missing a thermal clip, despite having never seen or used one. If there's an explanation for this, it certainly wasn't in Mass Effect 2 itself.
6 Lovable Mug
Commander Shepard has a default face for male and female, and many players will agree that these defaults are fairly attractive, all things considered. It's also possible for the player to customize Shepard's looks, from the jawline to hairstyle and eye shape, and it's possible to get carried away.
But squadmates like Miranda Lawson and Kaidan Alenko will still find Shepard intensely attractive and fall for them, even if the player intentionally makes Shepard look downright weird or grotesque. It's amusing that the poor squadmates have no way to realize that they're falling for one strange mug.
5 Betraying Wrex?
During the third game, the stakes are higher than ever, and Commander Shepard is forced to make some difficult decisions and live with the consequences. But it's also possible for Shepard to completely betray everything he/she has done and the principles he/she stood for, and good friends like Urdnot Wrex will pay for it.
Shepard may be the paragon of justice and truth, and be Wrex's trusted friend, but it's still possible for the Commander to sabotage the genophage cure mission, cut a secret deal with a scheming Salarian dalatrass, and betray Wrex and the future of the Krogan people. Sheperd is being downright erratic and cruel, if the player forced him/her to, and it makes for a strange narrative.
4 No Training Necessary
For the sake of gameplay, players can choose to completely change the Commander's class when he/she is reborn by project Lazarus at the beginning of Mass Effect 2. If the Commander was once a dedicated soldier, Shepard may awaken as a biotic, for the first time ever. But forget training.
It takes a great deal of practice to become a proper biotic, and even the Asari people need training. So, it's a wacky sight to see a former human soldier awaken with newfound biotic powers and use them like an expert just minutes after hopping off a table. Shepard is just that good, it would seem.
3 Not So Smooth Moves
Even a legend like Commander Shepard has to be bad at something, and Shepard's big Achilles heel is something totally unexpected. When it's time to hit the club, Shepard falls short, because he/she simply can't bust a move. Instead, everyone is treated to the groan-worthy "Shepard shuffle."
It's funny that the agile, in-shape Commander would be bad at dancing, and somehow, the Commander never admits his/her shortcoming or feels bad about it at all. Instead, the Commander is content to be in denial the entire time.
2 Paying For That Apartment
This is an oddity that Commander Shepard shares with Captain David Anderson. At some point in 2186, Shepard is given the keys to Anderson's sprawling apartment on the Citadel's wards, and the place is like a small mansion. And it must cost a fortune for rent, utilities and so on.
The Citadel is like New York City in space, where everyone is fighting over every square inch and they have to make do with cramped quarters. But one person is occupying a space that could house a few families, and no way could Shepard make room in the budget for this. And it's an apartment; it's not like Anderson fully paid off a house and gave it to Shepard. And who's going to look after it?
1 Suspecting Garrus
Another of Shepard's strange renegade dialogue options leads the Commander to suspecting both Garrus Vakarian and Wrex of being a liability while aboard the original Normandy. And it all started with Ashely, who has a skeptical and cynical view of aliens. She irrationally thinks that Garrus and Wrex, being non-humans, are likely to be a problem or even spy on the Normandy to get the edge on the Systems Alliance as a whole.
Shepard has no reason to see Garrus or Wrex as a problem, and the Commander wouldn't have brought them aboard if there was reason to suspect those aliens of something sinister. All the same, a dialogue option allows Shepard to agree with Ashley, and keep a close eye on the two aliens. If Shepard really felt that way, Garrus and Wrex never would have been welcomed aboard at all. Shepard personally invited them aboard; they weren't assigned to the ship by a superior officer.