Liara T'Soni
Dr. Liara T'Soni is a fictional character in BioWare's Mass Effect franchise, who serves as a party member in Mass Effect and Mass Effect 3. She is an asari, a non-binary gendered sapient homeotherm species with a pansexual-panromantic orientation and are naturally inclined towards biotics, the ability to "manipulate dark energy and create mass effect fields through the use of electrical impulses from the brain", allowing for telekinesis and other abilities. Liara is noted for being the galactic scientific community's foremost expert in the field of Prothean archaeology and technology, specifically evidence concerning the demise of the ancient Protheans, believed by the galactic community to be the pre-eminent civilization in the Milky Way galaxy until their sudden disappearance fifty thousands years before the events of the Mass Effect trilogy.
Liara is voiced by Ali Hillis in the video games. Outside of the trilogy, Liara appears as the protagonist in the ' series, and the fourth issue of Mass Effect: Homeworlds, a comic series with individual issues on each of several Mass Effect 3 squad mates prior to the Reaper invasion. Liara also has cameo appearances in ', and in the animated feature film, , where she is voiced by Jamie Marchi.
Liara has been received positively, with placements on several "top character" critic and fan lists, and is one of the more popular characters in the series, particularly for fan art and cosplay activities. She was the subject of some controversy in 2007 following the release of the original Mass Effect, after certain media outlets reported allegations of obscenity in the sex scenes between Shepard and their squad mates, and at least one case of government scrutiny over Liara's intimate scene with a female Shepard. Various merchandise for the character, as with other of the series' squadmates, has been released.
Character overview
Liara's species, the asari were the first to discover the Citadel and proposed the creation of a Council after they made first contact with the salarians. As part of the Council, they serve as its "mediators and centrists". The asari have the largest economy of all the races. The asari are perceived to have a "feminine" appearance by non-asari standards. Most asari choose to use feminine third-person, singular personal pronouns as an efficient means of conversing with non-asari on terms they could understand. However, Liara has on at least one occasion responded to perceived gender bias and denied that she is a "woman", noting that her species has "one" gender and that the concept of gender binarism is meaningless to the asari.The asari are capable of procreating with any sentient life form, and can reproduce with any known sex, gender or species—their offspring are always asari, regardless of the species of their "father", which has led to in-universe claims of asari promiscuity. Instead of trading cellular material directly like other biological organisms, asari reproduce by "melding": linking their nervous systems with their partner's using their biotic abilities and utilizing the electrical pattern of their partners nerve's to provide a template for half the DNA of their resulting child. Liara is the offspring of Matriarch Aethyta and Matriarch Benezia, and is "one-quarter krogan" on Aethyta's side. Matriarch Aethyta is first encountered in Mass Effect 2 as a bartender in Illium, where Lara was based as an information broker. She later moves on to tend a bar at the Presidium in Mass Effect 3, where she is revealed as Liara's other biological parent and had been spying on her all along. As a "pureblood", a term often used as a cruel insult for children born of two asari, Liara grew up being socially stigmatized by asari society; this is due to Asari culture being heavily pro-diversification, pro-multiculturalism and anti-eugenics. If Shepard discusses her parentage in the original Mass Effect, Liara would speculate that her parents were possibly embarrassed by the union as the asari believe that for them to improve themselves, they should mate with other species to gain new genetic properties.
Asari can live for over a thousand years, and go through three developmental psychology stages of life: the Maiden stage, where they explore the world out of curiosity and restlessness, with many trying their hand at dancing in bars or working as mercenaries during this time; the Matron stage, where they begin to feel the desire to settle down to raise children; and finally the Matriarch stage, where they are often elevated as leaders of their communities, dispensing wisdom from centuries of life experience. Their long lifespan makes them more comfortable with observation. Liara is 106 years old during her first appearance, which is the equivalent to a pubescent human teenager and within the Maiden stage of asari life. While she is legally age of majority under Citadel law, she is not considered to have reached adulthood by asari standards. In spite of her culturally young age, she is depicted in the series as child prodigy, possessing the skills and experience of a computer scientist, xenoarchaeologist, philologist, and cryptanalyst that far exceed her developmental age.
Hillis liked Liara's selflessness in the first game, commenting in a 2014 interview, "She is so pure. There’s not a mean bone in her body. I like that about her. She’s very analytical. She doesn’t seem to be out for herself in any way." Liara is a possible romantic interest for a male and female Commander Shepard throughout the entire Mass Effect trilogy.
Creation and development
The asari are a race of "beautiful, blue aliens" designed to add a familiar science-fiction element to the series.Due to budget concerns, BioWare realized they would be unable to make both male and female versions for each of the races, which led to the creation of an all-female one. More alien-looking designs for the asari were made, but disregarded for their lack of human attractiveness. Their clothing is meant to be both "alluring and sexy" while keeping a sense of "class and style", akin to a "Hollywood red carpet feel".
The hair fins arose from the designers mainly experimenting with different shapes, and the scalp tentacles on the asari evoke the image of a woman "emerging from the water with her hair swept back". Inspiration was drawn mainly from sports-gear, such as climbing and scuba gear, particularly its "pliable, flexible" qualities. After the addition of the hair fins, the asari looked more aquatic, and thus their design was altered to fit with that; this also led to the writers altering the asari home climate to be more wet. Different silhouettes of clothing were made by the design team trying to find looks that a woman would wear, which would appear both futuristic but not "too far", while also in-keeping with the kind of clothes that would be worn in more aquatic environments.
The asari's human-like faces helped the designers in making the characters distinct, and some models were used to tweak the faces. Unlike other characters made for the game, Liara's face did not have a specific design; instead, her face was taken from the original concepts of the asari. American actress Jillian Murray's face and body scans provide the basis for Liara's final design. Many asari in the series use facepaints, which helps the design team with diversifying asari characters. Liara's facial design incorporates blue-coloured freckles instead of facepaint.
Liara T'Soni was Ali Hillis' first voice acting role for a video game. When she first began voicing Liara, she was unfamiliar with voicing video game characters nor did she expect much out of the character. To prepare for the role, particularly for a complicated character like Liara, she would try to "find an essence, a simplicity of a character". She credited voice director Ginny McSwain for guiding her through the entire process, by explaining to her Liara's background, who she was and the different layers of her personality, noting that all she had was a still drawing of Liara to refer to.
Liara's outfit from the ' DLC was chosen by BioWare as her default appearance for Mass Effect 3. The white jacket is a reminder of her background in science, while the more armor-like pieces serves a reminder to the player that the galaxy is at war, and that civilians are part of the war effort where they have to arm and defend themselves.
Liara T'Soni was written by Drew Karpyshyn during Mass Effect's development. Sylvia Feketekuty and Mac Walters wrote her character for the ' DLC. Sylvia Feketekuty wrote her for Mass Effect 3.
Appearances
In video games
''Mass Effect''
Liara is the estranged child of Matriarch Benezia, a well-respected and powerful asari biotic. Following the exposure of Benezia's involvement with the disgraced Spectre Saren Arterius and their search for an artifact known as the Conduit, Shepard is given a lead to search for Liara and discover what she knows. Liara pleads with Shepard for help when they encounter her in Therum, offering to explain her circumstances and means to be freed. If Shepard pursues other leads first and significantly delays rescuing Liara, she mistakes her rescuers for figments of her own imagination as a result of being stuck for so long. Nevertheless, she humors her "hallucinations" and answers their questions. She only realizes Shepard's squad are real when they reappear to release her.On her first debriefing aboard the Normandy, Liara shares her theory of cyclical extinction: the Protheans were just the latest in a long line of civilizations to reach a violent end after reaching their apex. Liara notes that there is remarkably little evidence of the Protheans' existence, and speculates that their final fate has been deliberately covered up. As Shepard obtains fragmented visions from various sources during the hunt for Saren and his agents, Liara offers her melding abilities to try and make sense of the data. She constantly exhausts herself after each encounter, prompting frequent suggestions to report to Dr. Chakwas, but collects herself together long enough to explain what she saw. Once Shepard obtains the Cipher, the Mu Relay's location, and the distress call from the Prothean Beacon on Virmire, Liara finally recognizes enough clues to deduce the lost planet of Ilos as the Conduit's true location.
''Mass Effect 2''
Liara's role in the original trilogy is reduced in Mass Effect 2, set two years after the first game. Liara has become an information broker on Illium in direct rivalry to the Shadow Broker. She initially depicts a radically changed personality due to her experience working as a black market information dealer in the two years since Mass Effect; having improved her biotic abilities, she also uses threats and other intimidation tactics to extort information, mimicking Benezia's demeanour and speech tactics when confronting others. If the player imported a Shepard from the original Mass Effect that romanced Liara, she greets Shepard with a kiss. Liara's anger at the Broker stems from when he recovered Shepard's body and was prepared to sell it to the Collectors during the events of . After certain dialogue choices, the player is finally able to break through her shell and reveal the real Liara, revealing that her seemingly darker personality is nothing more than a facade. Liara took pains in getting Shepard's body from the Broker and gave it to Cerberus so they could bring Shepard back to life. Liara knew that Cerberus would use Shepard for their own uses, but still gave them Shepard's body as she cares for Shepard and could not let the Commander go. She feared that Shepard would hate her for this, and apologizes. In spite of wanting to join Shepard, she declines Shepard's offer to join the suicide mission to rescue human colonists, in order to continue her quest for revenge against the Shadow Broker.Liara joins Shepard's crew temporarily in the Mass Effect 2 DLC Lair of the Shadow Broker if the player decides to help her hunt down the Shadow Broker. Shepard gradually breaks her hardened shell after lecturing her about mindlessly running into battles, but at the same time she states that she won't stop "to enjoy the scenery" until she's done. After the Shadow Broker is killed, Liara takes the opportunity to usurp his now vacant role. She says she will use her position and resources to help assist Shepard's ongoing mission to fight the Reapers. It is also possible to resume the player character's romance with Liara at the end of "Lair of the Shadow Broker".
Mass Effect 3
Liara returns in Mass Effect 3 as a mainstay of Shepard's squad. Liara becomes the Shadow Broker regardless of whether the player imports a Mass Effect 2 saved game where Lair of the Shadow Broker was completed; if not, she tells Shepard that she took on the Shadow Broker with dozens of hired mercenaries, but it resulted in Feron's death. If Shepard assisted her in taking out the Shadow Broker, she mentions that during the time that Shepard was in Alliance custody, Cerberus managed to track down the Shadow Broker's ship. Liara and Feron loaded as much equipment as they could onto a shuttle as possible, then remotely sent the aging ship crashing into a pursuing Cerberus cruiser, resulting in the destruction of both ships. Liara notes that she has retained the crucial part of the Broker's operation, the galaxy-wide spy network.After the events of Arrival, Admiral Hackett commissioned for Liara's aid, and they both realized what little time the galaxy had left before the Reapers arrived. However, this brought her into direct conflict with the Illusive Man and Cerberus. Eventually, through a process of elimination, mixed with desperation, she discovered plans for a "Prothean superweapon" on Mars. However, by then the Reaper invasion has reached Earth. Liara's familiarity with Prothean artifacts as well as asari culture and history, along with the significant resources at her disposal as the Shadow Broker, means that she plays a pivotal role in Mass Effect 3's narrative and often provides additional dialogue for plot exposition purposes if she is included in the party during certain missions. During the war, Liara recorded a collection of intel on the Reapers and her current cycle, as well as the complete history of the species of Liara's time and their accumulated knowledge of how to fight them. She stores the information within Glyph, her VI drone assistant, and stashes it away as a time capsule. The time capsule represents a contingency plan if the allied races of her time are not able to defeat the Reapers in this cycle and are wiped out, ensuring the next cycle will have a better opportunity to prepare for the Reapers' arrival, and a complete set of plans to start out from.
If the From Ashes DLC is installed and the Prothean endling Javik is recruited as a squad member, she is initially overjoyed to have one serving aboard the Normandy, but slowly becomes disillusioned; she admitted that she had previously imagined the Protheans as the "keepers of wisdom and enlightenment" of their era, only to find them to be "cold and ruthless warlords". Eventually, her relationship with Javik reaches a breaking point after the fall of Thessia; Liara confronts Javik at him quarters and vents her frustration at him for "not having the answers". If Shepard intervenes to defuse the situation instead of allowing Liara to walk away, the two will begin to respect and appreciate each other.
During the main narrative of the downloadable add-on , Liara calls in a favor to find information on the gun found by Shepard after they are attacked by an unknown mercenary group during the crew's shore leave. She will later participate in the raid on the Citadel Archives with the rest of Shepard's crew to pursue the instigators behind the group's attack. The DLC also adds a number of character moments for the character, such as Liara playing the only song she knew how to on the piano located on the lower floor of Shepard's apartment, and her friendly rivalry with James Vega through debates and card games during the big party, culminating in Liara demonstrating her levitation powers on Vega while intoxicated.
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Liara T'Soni makes a cameo appearance in Andromeda, in the form of voice messages sent to Alex Ryder in his quarters aboard the Hyperion. Pathfinder Ryder can unlock and listen to Liara's voice messages, which were originally sent in 2182, a year before her encounter with Shepard, where she discussed her research into the Protheans and their lost empire. Eventually, Ryder will unlock a message by Liara from 2186, sent to Alec while he was in stasis on the Hyperion traveling to Andromeda, informing him that the Reapers have arrived. She mentions the Crucible but warns Alec to expect the worst, and asks him and his children to not forget the people they left behind.In other media
''Mass Effect: Redemption''
The narrative in Redemption begins with Commander Shepard mysteriously disappearing in the Terminus Systems, out of contact with the SSV Normandy and its crew. Both the Shadow Broker and Liara T'Soni are to find and retrieve the dead body of Commander Shepard. Just as Tazzik, an agent of the Shadow Broker wants to turn over the corpse to the Collectors, Liara manages to capture it, with the help of the drell Feron, who is captured in the process, and turn it over to Cerberus, hoping that they may be able to revive Shepard.''Mass Effect: Paragon Lost''
Liara appears as a minor character in the animated feature film . This marks the only instance where Ali Hillis did not reprise her role as the character.''Mass Effect: Homeworlds''
Liara is the protagonist of the fourth issue of Mass Effect: Homeworlds, which takes place after the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC. As the new Shadow Broker, Liara desperately searches for a way to stop the Reapers. Journeying to Thessia to examine the Prothean archives there, she is disappointed to learn how little they contain. A former colleague recommends investigating Kahje since its Prothean ruins are much more vast. Once there, Liara persuades a hanar official to allow her to visit a submerged Prothean site that had become a hanar shrine. A drell named Quoyle takes her to the shrine, but on arrival the shrine launches torpedoes at Quoyle's craft; a Cerberus Phantom had killed the shrine's staff and activated the defenses. When the craft is hit, Liara uses her biotics to keep it from flooding while Quoyle guides it to the dock.At the shrine, Liara encounters and kills the Phantom, using her biotics to slam a piece of debris through the Phantom's skull. Quoyle is wounded, but not mortally and tells Liara to go on to the archives. There, Liara discovers a promising lead in the form of encryption keys for other Prothean archives, but is interrupted by the Illusive Man. He insists that the Phantom is not his doing, blaming the attack on a rogue faction within Cerberus and proposes that they form an alliance against the Reapers. Liara agrees that to pool her resources with Cerberus's against the Reapers might be a mutually beneficial move, but she insists that he upload his information first. When the Illusive Man remains silent, Liara opines that either he wants to keep the information he has to himself, or that he doesn't have any information in the first place.
As Liara goes to leave, the Illusive Man insinuates that she doesn't have what it takes to be the Shadow Broker, claiming that his black market contacts think the Broker has become soft, weak and vulnerable to usurpation, insisting she needs his help; Liara retorts that he is the one trying to make a deal, advises him to send an army the next time he tries to kill her and leaves. As she helps Quoyle to the shrine's shuttle bay, she informs Admiral Hackett of her possible lead and asks for access to a top-secret facility on Mars.
Reception
Liara T'Soni has been well received by video game journalists and series fans since the inception of the Mass Effect franchise, andthe potential romance with her has also been of some interest. In a 2007 article written for GameSetWatch, Chris Dahlen explained that while he found Mass Effect disappointing, particularly the lacklustre characterization of its NPC's, he noted that Liara was the "less obnoxious" of the available romance options and her explanations about the asari species well articulated. UGO.com included Liara in their list of the 50 sexiest female scientists. GamesRadar's Jordan Baughman cited Liara's characterization in the first game as an example of BioWare's "The Awkward Hottie" character archetype, specifically a "naive beauty who doesn’t truly understand how harsh the world/universe can be" and who "turns into an absolute mess when placed in social settings". IGN ranked her fourth on their list of best Mass Effect teammates published in 2012.
Following the release of Mass Effect 3, various media outlets have identified Liara as one of the trilogy's best characters in various character lists. Daniel Nye Griffiths from Forbes stated that Liara played a pivotal role throughout the original trilogy with assisting Shepard's struggle against the Reapers and their indoctrinated servants, noting that the time capsule Liara has prepared may still play a pivotal role in preparing future Milky Way races for the Reapers' threat if the organic races of their cycle are ultimately extinguished. He asserted that she is the real hero of the Mass Effect series. UGO.com ranked Liara as the second best Mass Effect 3 squad member, noting that "with a complete biotic skill set, Liara is a powerful ally against armored, shielded and barriered foes alike." Liara was included by Escapist Magazine in their 8 Most Badass Videogame Ladies list. Michael Rougeau from Complex ranked Liara as one of the fifty greatest heroines in video-game-history, noting that she is "much more than a simple love interest for Commander Shepard — she's also a way for players to connect with the game's alien races on a deeper level". Gamestm named Liara one of BioWare's 8 most memorable companion characters. In a 2016 article, PC Gamer ranked Liara the fourth best companion of the Mass Effect series. PC Gamer staff lauded the character's "killer story arc", her role in "providing counterbalancing compassion to Shepard’s necessary cynicism", and giving the Mass Effect series heart "without it having to be constantly bleeding". Green Man Gaming included Liara in their top 5 list of the best characters from the Mass Effect franchise.
Liara remained popular as a fan favorite after the conclusion of the Mass Effect trilogy. A reader's poll published by IGN in December 2014 for their top ultimate RPG party choices placed Liara at #15 under the reserves section. Another reader's poll published by PC Gamer in 2015 reveal that Liara was overall the fourth most popular Mass Effect character. Player statistics for Mass Effect 3 released by BioWare revealed that Liara T'Soni was the most popular Mass Effect 3 squad member with 24.1% of the votes. Tim Clark from PC Gamer ranked Liara as his personal favorite Bioware companion, as did Aidan Simonds from Playstation Lifestyle. Clark commented that "it's testament to the skill of BioWare's writers that she isn't reduced to just being the drippy, peace-loving, science-y one. I mean, she's all those things, but she's also more complex", and claimed that the character motivated him "to be a better Shepard". Mike Fahey from Kotaku praised Liara's freckles as a design choice, saying it gives the character "a life I wouldn't normally expect from an alien creature in a brand-spanking new science fiction universe."
Reflecting on Liara's role in the trilogy, Simmonds said Liara is a very good example of a character who benefits from a consistent narrative through the original trilogy, and that the player could witness the growth of the characters who join them on their adventure. Stacey Henley, in an article published by VG247 in March 2020, observed that the Mass Effect series have since moved away from an initially crude and fetishistic portrayal of the asari species in the first game and asari characters began to gain more agency and prominence as nuanced characters in more recent installments, noting that Liara's character arc was no different as her "doe-eyed, schoolgirl naivety hardened into something steelier" by the events of Mass Effect 3.
Liara is one of the most popular potential romance options for the Mass Effect series. The reader's poll published by PC Gamer in 2015 reveal that Liara was the most popular love interest for Shepard. Statistics quoted by The Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition in 2016 showed that Liara was the most popular romance option among respondents, with 29% of the vote. Jess McDonell from Gamespot picked Liara as her ideal real-life date. Lee Hutchinson from Ars Technica reflected on the various romance options and subplots integrated throughout the trilogy, and concluded that BioWare designed Mass Effect 3 with Liara "as the canonical romance choice—you run into her first, and she’s with you the longest, and she has tons of dialog and is one of the more complete bedroom scenes near the end".
Portrayal as a queer character
Liara T'Soni is seen by some sources as a notable example of the consistently positive portrayal of LGBT characters in the Mass Effect series, and by extension an important representation of LGBT characters in video games due to her non-binary gender identity as well as potential romance with a female player character which is coded as lesbianism. The Advocate, Gay Community News and the gay social network app Hornet considered Liara to be one of the best or greatest queer video games characters of all time. Stacey Henley from VG247 disclosed that she relates strongly to Liara's species as she experiences gender dysphoria and identifies as transgender, and that she finds comfort in BioWare's overall depiction of the asari in the Mass Effect trilogy.A cutscene from the original Mass Effect containing partial nudity and sexual activity between Liara and Shepard, particularly if the latter is female, was notable for attracting controversy and objections from neoconservative media outlets for allegedly obscene content in late 2007. The game was initially banned in Singapore, which led to an outcry amongst the local and international gaming community; censors in the country specifically blamed the lesbian encounter between a female alien and a female Shepard as the main reason why the game was subjected to the ban. The ban was quickly lifted after Mass Effect was issued with a M18 rating.