LOL, I shot myself in the foot yesterday. Not literally, obviously, because I don’t own a gun and don’t plan on owning one ever, but figuratively, because I accidentally spoiled today’s post.

I’m not going to let that get in the way, though, because I feel like I might be able to expand a bit on what I had to say about Harbinger, the most useless Reaper in Mass Effect.

In ME2, Harbinger was like the Emperor in Empire Strikes Back: you saw images of him, he was obviously the mastermind behind the Collectors, he literally took over Collector bodies … like, dude was scary. Then, in Arrival, DLC that was released about a year before ME3, he was ominous (see: above image) and giant.

Then, like I said yesterday, he appeared and then just went away. I wasn’t necessarily expecting a ME1-style fight like the one with Saren as the avatar for Sovereign because that would have been boring, but it’s not nearly as satisfying with any of the three endings. Other than controlling the Collectors, who only show up again in multiplayer on ME3, what did Harbinger really do or add to the story? He didn’t really provide unique gameplay and served more as an image of the threat the Reapers posed. The freaking Banshees were scarier than he ended up being.

Bioware just really dropped the ball here. I don’t necessarily need to fight Harbinger in the Normandy, but I kinda do? Or even just a cut scene like they did with Kalros destroying the Reaper on Tuchanka. Something. But nope, we got three colors, an annoying child, and lots of talking. Gross.

Art Credit: eTeknix, What Culture