The first teaser for Mass Effect 2 tells us that Spectre Shepard is killed in action. A couple months later, the game’s executive producer says Shepard “better not be [dead].” Then last week, a Pre-E3 vid was released, showing what to me looks like Shepard walking through a Normandy with hull issues, as in “What the hull happened to the bow of the ship?”
I hope Shepard dies. And stays dead.
Shepard dying between Mass Effect 1 and 2 or Shepard dying in the sequel’s opening can be seen as a bold choice, but can also be a logical one. Despite Bioware’s reputation for writing, the Shepard character is no case study. Nothing stands out, nothing is an eye-roller. She is all strengths no weaknesses, and any ink spots in her past (if you chose Earthborn or Ruthless) still work in her favor since they still feel more like a tattoo than a scar. The sequel could present obstacles for Shepard that define her arc, but I think killing her is a much more interesting path mainly because if the time between her death and the introduction of the new protagonist is small, the story goes from an intergalactic war to a revenge tale. If the new protagonist is connected to Shepard on a personal level, the momentum you had when the first Mass Effect ended continues. I can’t imagine myself caring much about Shepard’s death if the new hero is human Spectre number 311.
Besides, I feel there is nothing left to tell of Shepard’s story if there are no deaths. This is a sequel to a story-driven game, not another installment in, say, the Devil May Cry series. If the story wants to raise itself to an epic, characters from both sides need to fall. You can either kill the hero or kill members of her crew.
And killing off most of Shepard’s crew would be just as compelling as killing off Shepard. It can elevate the surviving crew to veterans of a war that killed their team leader.
But if a third Mass Effect is made, would it be interesting if the new protagonist from the second dies in the third? Again, it would depend on who the hero of the third is and what the relationship is with the hero from the second. The further you distance the relationships between the protagonists the less people are going to care about the story. And instead of getting a story that always intended to plot a course that journeys across multiple games, we’ll end up with a ferry ride whose only purpose is an endless back and forth across a river.
