“Can it wait for a bit? I’m in the middle of some calibrations.” We’ve all heard that line before. Continuously harassing Garrus Vakarian on the SSV Normandy never got old. As we played through the Mass Effect trilogy, Garrus quickly saddled up bꦅeside us and became our most trusted friend.

He is a remarkable character who follows Commander Shepard through thick and thin across the galaxy, always there to make witty, sarcastic remarks. Even during Shepard’s time working with Cerberus, his loyalty is never doubted. He is arguably th🎃e𒊎 best character throughout the Mass Effect series so far.

He has had quite the ride. His life was never easy, his family pushed him towa🌄rds a future he did not choose and his mother dealt with major health issues, but Garrus was never one to just sit around and complain. He is a headstrong fighter who chooses to be the change he wants to see in the world. During his work at C-Sec he refused to let petty laws get in his way and instead went after offenders at full force. He is stubborn but efficient and completely capable of getting things done. 

15 ဣ He Never Takes Off His Visor 🧸

Garrus has a pretty strong🃏 attachment to his visor. He wears it across the entire trilo🐓gy and doesn’t even take it off during romantic cutscenes. It is a customized Kuwashii Visor, which provides better accuracy and increased headshot damage by 10%. Garrus’ visor, however, was customarily created to provide him with with sonar and thermal vision, a biotic field measurer, heart detection monitor, magnification, and a music player. I.e., it’s a sniper’s pride and joy. It also includes the engraved names of his ten former Omega team members along the frame, excluding Sidonis, whose name was burned off after his betrayal.

BioWare Concept Artist Matt Rhodes ☂was given the job of creating ideas and drawings of Garrus’ armour. After pitching a few sketches to the BioWare team, it was quickly decided that a visor would be a good add-on and thus G🐈arrus’ infamous visor was born.

14 He Could Have Been the Next Turian Spectre 𓆏

Garrus, like many Turians before him, was required to enter the military at a young age. At 15, he enrolled and started his mandatory military service. Unlike the military elsewhere, it is a central part of Turian society. Their entire culture is based on military hierarchy. It acts as an all-encompassing public works organization and conta𝓡ins the civic police as well as other public facti🐼ons.

Garrus was among the top cadets in his unit during training and was eventually placed into a special program which🐼 selected future Spectre candidates. However, this did not bode well with within the Vakarian household. Garrus' father, Castis, being the C-Sec officer that he was, had a strong dislike for Spectres and their ability to operate above the law. He did not want his son to become one of them and thus had Garrus’ candidacy blocked.

13 He Gave Up A Foreign Sc🃏holarship to Look After His Mother

Garrus is a sensitive soul. He is chivalrous and kind and cares deeply for his mother, alﷺways willing to do whatever is best for her. She was a stay-at-home mom who raised him and his sister, Solana, on Palaven while his father worked off-planet at C-Sec on the Citadel.

While Garrus was in the Palaven-equivalent of high school, he earned a summer scholarship to study abroad. However, the day his shuttle was set to leave he discovered that his mother had been injured by a hit-and-run. He immediately went to ꧒the hospital to see her and found out that she was not seriously wound෴ed, but he decided to stay and care for her until she was fully recovered, since his father was away. Though his mother wa♉s worriedജ that he wouldn't forgive himself for giving up a once-in-a-life-time opportunity to follow his dreams and study abroad, Garrus insisted on staying with her and ensuring that she would recover properly.

12 🗹 🎶He is Younger Than Shepard

BioWare Writer, Patrick Weekes, has stated that . Why the wide range, you may ask? Well, he of course must acknowledge the two years that Shepard was officially dead. While Shepard’s body was floating around the galaxy, waiting for the start of the Lazarus Pro꧒ject, and not really getting up to much other than slowly decaying, Garrus was still living and thus still aging.

Shepard was born in 2154 CE and the events of Mass Effect 1 take place in 2183 CE. In accordance with this timeline, Shepard would be 29 years old in the first game, making Garrus 25 years old. Turian aging is very similar to human aging, unlike with most other species. In the Mass Effect uni⛦verse, both typically live until ~140 y🌊ears old.

11 He Didn’t Li𒀰ke to Play By C-Sec Rules 🦋

Garrus formerly worked for C-Sec. They dea💛lt with law enforcement and was a voluntary police force headed by an Executor, who reported to the Citadel Council. It had several divisions, including: Enforcement, Investigation, Customs, Networking, Patrol, and Special Response. Garrus was part of the Investigation division. Those who were part of this division acted as detectives, gathering evidence and witness statements from crime scenes and bringing perpetrators to justice.

However, due to C-Secs strict rules, he was often left feeling unfulfilled since many criminals went unpunished. This infuriated him since he knew he could be shutting down supply channﷺels for drug and gun smugglers on his own, and he eventually quit after the Battle of the Citadel.

10 🌞 His Father Taught Him Everything He Knows... But They Didn’t Always Get Along 🧸

Castis Vakarian was a C-Sec officer. He personally taught Garrus how ꦅto use a gun at a young age, forcing him to use large sniper rifles that were too heavy for young Garrus and insisting that this was how his son would learn the value of effort and persistence. 

Castis was a solid detective, who was fully dedicated to C-Sec and was respected for his uncompromising ethics. Garrus eventually followed in his foo꧟tsteps and joined C-Sec, but he didn’t fit in to the typical detective profile. Garrus had a strong “get things done, no matter the cost” attitude, while Castis strongly believed in doing things by the book. He trusted C-Sec’s methods and its ability to hold the Citadel together. This caused Garrus to accuse his father of being out of touch with the criminal activity on the Citadel. He was tired of the lack of action by C-Sec and preferred to make his own rules. This put a strain on their relationship and they eventually fell out of to🐬uch for a long time.

9 He is a Turian Agent ꦓ

Garrus’ class is Turian Agent, a non-playable class available exclusively to Garrus. It is very similar to Infiltrator, which is a tech warrior who focuses on combat and tech talents, specializing in assassination and intrusion. The only differences between Turian Agent and Infiltrator are the focus on assault rifles instead of pistols and several different powers. Turian Agent is viewed as a more fragile version of Infiltrator.

A few fans were initially upset about this. Mass Effect 2 opened up several new powers under the Infiltrator class, including tactical cloak and incinerate. However, under Turian Agent, incinerate was replaced by overload and the tactical cloak was not available. Since Garrus mainly uses assault and sniper rifles, tactical cloak seemed like a no-brainer. One can only imagine how deadly h🅰e would have been if he were able to c💖onceal himself during combat.

8 𝕴 He is an Ace Sniper

As a Turian Agent, Garrus is an advanced sniper and sharpshooter. One of his first encounters with Commander Shepard is at the Med Clinic on the Citadel. During this scene, a doctor of the clinic is being threatening by a group of thugs. Shepard intrudes and manages to distract these thugs while Garrus, who is lying low nearby unbeknownst to Shepard, takes one of the thugs out with a sing🐟le, perfect headshot. This scene is what Garrus is all about. He is a cool, calm, and collected man of action, able to swoop in at the perfect moment for the kill, much like an eagle gracefully zooming in on its prey.

He is also highly knowledgable on military vehicles and weapons systems, often “calibrating” them for personal use. It remains a poss༒ibility that during his military service, while he was enrolled in the special Spectre candidate program, he received extensive technical training and adept sabotaging skills. His skill set is similar to that of a Special Forces agent and thus it is no surprise that his years of military service played a strong role in shaping his abilities.

7 He Can Kill Ashley 🌺

Though not necessarily part of the main plot, if you have Garrus on your team during your confrontation with Ashley during the Cerberus invasion of the Citadel in Mass Effect 3, . You can also try to talk her down, but really, why would you want to? Ashley is the worst. She is possibly the most hated character in the trilogy. She’s not only racist t🧸owards all aliens, but still somehow has a deep dislike for Cerberus, who seem like they’d oth𒊎erwise be her favourite organization. This is taking it for granted that you even picked her to survive Mass Effect (because Carth Onasi is so much better).

Garrus is your homeboy and he knows when a situation is getting sour. He’s got your back and isn’t afraid to take one for the team, especially when that means tarꦡgeting bigots in spandex. Thank you Garrus.

6 He is Archangel ꦺ

Everyone knows that Garrus was Archangel, but what you may not know is that this path was inevitable for Garrus. He didn’t one day decide to put on a vigilante cape and rise to💯 the occasion after a crucial and devastating incident. Archangel was always a part of him. Everything he had done, all of his work at C-Sec, had created Archangel. Since his youth, he had been told to never give up during tough times and to always keep fighting. Archangel was his response to this.

Under the alias of Archangel, Garrus was able to regain complete co✱ntrol over his life. He was no longer scorned for crossing lines by C-Sec higher-ups and his father. He could finally unleash his inner self and lead a group of like-mined individuals. He was the Batman of Omega, targeting the bad and exacting true justice.