Saw some people on YouTube making tier lists so I wanted to make one. But I didn't know what to do a tier list on. Finally decided on BioWare (and KOTOR 2) companions.
Found one on Tier Maker. They actually had others, one of which had BioWare games I never played so that one seemed pointless cause I was just going to be confused. So I went with this one.
Okay. Looks solid. Now I'm going to go through and explain my choices a bit. Because I can't help but ramble about fictional characters.
Also, it has been a long time since I played Knights of the Old Republic 2, so I do not 100% stand by where I put those companions on here. Maybe later after I replay the game I might redo the whole list. But I did my best from what I remembered. Actually, that might be true for more than just that game... Oh well...
And aside from double-checking my spelling, I did no research for this. So there may be mistakes in character descriptions.
There will also be spoilers for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening, Dragon Age 2, and Dragon Age: Inquisition.
I Will Stab Anyone And Everyone For You
Alistair
It was love at first bad joke for me when dealing with Alistair. Alistair is the bastard prince of Thedas. The rightful ruler after his half-brother is killed. Which means, you can make him king. Your choice there. I mean, I made him king. Made one of my Wardens queen as well. Because how could I resist? But, Alistair is a great character to me because he is the comic relief sometimes during the game. And I love comic relief characters. He also has some solid character growth throughout the games, but never loses his basic personality.
Bethany
For some reason when I started playing Dragon Age 2, I decided I would set the world on fire to keep my little sister safe. I sort of failed at that. I think I have been through every option of what could happen to her. She went to the Circle, she went to the Wardens, and she died (restarted a save real quick for that one...). Aside from the death option, she has the same outcomes. She goes away, and then comes back to help me in the end. But I love her. She's my little sister and I will set the world on fire to keep her safe. Safe-ish. Sort of.
Dog
I would set the world on fire for the dog in Dragon Age: Origins. He pees on things, and fetches me drool-covered cakes and kills anyone I ask him to. He is just simply the best.
Dorian
I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about Dorian when I first met him in Dragon Age: Inquisition. I mean, he's a 'Vint, guys. They're just a bunch of slavers and blood mages, right? At least that's all we really learned about them in the past two and a half games. But nope. Not all of them are like that. Dorian is a good example of that. He is not perfect (the only perfect entry on this entire list is the dog. That dog has done nothing wrong in his entire life.), but Dorian is a good character.
Fenris
Fenris is a runaway slave from Tevinter. He also has a sneaky sense of humor and choreographs elaborate dances while alone in that mansion we sort of stole for him that might or might not be full of corpses. Fenris is broody and cranky and has an understandable hatred for mages. But I still love him.
Grunt
My tank baby! Basically, Grunt was made in a tank by another Krogan. He is supposed to be the perfect Krogan. And maybe he is. Maybe he isn't. But he will always be my tank baby that got drunk and cried in my shower.
HK-47
HK is an assassin droid that calls everyone meatbags. Which amuses me.
Kaidan
Kaidan is the first person you recruit in Mass Effect. He can die in the first game, which guess what I've never done? And I will admit that I first romanced Kaidan out of spite. I was dating a guy when the first game was released and I liked Kaidan's voice actor and decided to romance him because of that. The guy I was dating got irrationally angry about it. Saying it was like I was cheating on him and he ended up killing Kaidan off. So now I refuse to let Kaidan die. And I tend to romance him. I prefer the male Shepard romance with Kaidan. But that just might be because of the headcanons I have for my Male Shepard. I just think they work best together. Less of a "we might die tomorrow, let's have sex" and more of a "we respect each other and a romance grew from our friendship" relationship.
Tali
I made the joke while playing as my male Shepard that Tali was the little sister that he never wanted but got anyway. And that thought stuck. Tali has a great character arc throughout the Mass Effect trilogy. I just really love her.
Mordin
Mordin has some of the best interactions on the Normandy. He is just great. And while I hate hate hate that he dies, I refuse to betray his plan of curing the genophage just so he can live. He wouldn't have wanted that.
T3-M4
T3 saved the day multiple times during the Knights of the Old Republic games and I will forever love him for this.
Varric
Varric shows up in Dragon Age 2 and returns for Inquisition. And both times he was great. He was always my Hawke's best friend. And my Inquisitors have a lot of respect for him. Also, he's a writer and as a writer, I like that in a character.
Zevran
I've read that some people don't like Zevran because he's too flirty or whatever. I never had that problem. When I romanced Alistair and Zev got flirty, I said I wasn't into it and he stopped. He became that Warden's best friend. Cause one always needs an assassin best friend. Zevran isn't a perfect character, but he is a great character with a solid backstory. I miss him in the other games.
Josephine
Joesphine is a sweetheart and I love her. I really need to do a play-through where I romance her because I love her. She is also vicious when needed. But in a hidden way. She wasn't a fighter, but she could manipulate people behind the scenes which benefited the Inquisition.
There is a limit of who I would stab for you. But it's a small limit
Aveline
Aveline is a hardass with a gooey center. And oh gods, her side quest where she is trying to romance Donnic is the best and I love every awkward minute of it.
Bao-Dur
Sadly I don't remember a lot about Bao-Dur. I remember he was pretty calm. Called me General. Could punch barriers? I do remember enjoying his character. So there's that.
Canderous
Canderous is a Mandalorian that you meet on ... Taris? Shit, can't remember the planet name. Pretty sure it was Taris. You meet him on the first planet you go to in Knights of the Old Republic. He works for a crime boss... That he sort of betrays and runs off with you. Good choice, really. I remember him being a bit cranky about things but I liked him. These games were my first real introduction to the Mandalorian culture so I had a thing for the Mandalorian characters.
Mandalore
Okay. I remember very little about this fella except that I always thought he was Canderous from the previous game. I sort of wanna look that up right now, but I already said no research for this post. So maybe I'll check that out later. Anyway. He's Mandalore. He's, like, the leader of the Mandalorians. And he's our bro. I do remember going places and finding random groups of Mandalorians and sending them off to meet up with other Mandalorians. Oh gods... I was helping restore the Mandalorian Empire. Go me!
Carth
The voice actor for Carth also did the voice acting for Kaidan in Mass Effect and I fell in love with his voice while playing Knights of the Old Republic. Carth did annoy me at times, though I'm not sure if it was really him or the gameplay. Like, there were quite a few times that it would pop up that it looked like Carth wanted to talk, and then I'd get nothing from him. So, that was probably more of a gameplay issue and I'm blaming Carth. Sorry Carth.
Cassandra
Cassandra is another hardass with a gooey center. I love her, but there were a few things that annoyed me. But they didn't annoy me enough to really dislike her. There were just a few times that I was like "no...." And then we went about our life. Also, I loooooved that she was a fangirl of Varric's books. I thought that was just a really cool little thing to put into the game.
Jaal
Jaal was a sweetheart. A confused sweetheart at times since he had no idea about any of the species from the Milky Way. But he was great.
Drack
Drack was a cranky old Krogan that I treated like he was Ryder's grandpa or something. He has some great war stories. He gives a shit about the krogan. And I just really enjoyed having him around.
Cole
Cole is a spirit of... compassion? I can't remember right now, but I am pretty sure he was a spirit of compassion. And he joins your crew. His interactions with the rest of your companions are almost always pure gold. And, if you decide to let him be a real boy, he gets a girlfriend!
Cullen
You meet Cullen in Dragon Age: Origins, where he is trapped by some asshole mages (unless you play as a mage, you meet him earlier then. But I've never played as a mage... yet). He basically calls for the death of all mages. He shows back up in Dragon Age 2, still pretty angry and Meredith feeds that anger he has towards mages. He comes back in Dragon Age: Inquisition and he's a little calmer about things. He's not out hugging mages, but he isn't demanding you kill them. I think it's some good, believable character growth. And oh I love the awkwardness when you flirt with him.
Mission
Mission is pretty young, and it shows at times. But she's also had a pretty rough life, and that shows as well. I always liked her. Felt like a kid sister-type character to me.
EDI
EDI was an AI (or was she a VI? I cannot remember and I seriously just looked it up while Ryan was replaying the games...), who you actually meet in the first game. She's on the moon. Later she is an AI on the Normandy. And by the third game she has a body and becomes part of your squad. You can encourage Joker to get into a relationship with her, which is adorable. And her sense of humor is just the best.
Iron Bull
The Iron Bull is a qunari leader of a mercenary band, The Chargers, that you can recruit for the Inquisition. He is fun, amusing and has a bit of an obsession with dragons. There is a bit on the Storm Coast, I believe, where you can come up on a dragon and a giant fighting on the beach. I always make sure I have Bull with me because he gets so happy watching the fight. I usually also include him as my tank when I fight dragons because it just makes him so happy. I need to make a dwarf Inquisitor to romance him. Because the size difference just makes me giggle. Actually, I think Bull might go up on the list if I romance him. I hear it is a fun romance.
Isabela
You first meet Isabela in Dragon Age: Origins at... Was she at the brothel in Denerim? I wanna say that was where she was. Zevran knows her. There is a conversation or two. In Dragon Age 2, she is one of your companions. And is such fun. Aside from that part where she stole a book and I had to fight a bunch of qunari that were trying to destroy Kirkwall. Aside from that, good times all around!
Jolee
Jolee was a cranky old man that you find on Kashyyyk. He's also a Jedi. He gives some great life advice and I just really liked having him around. Though, I think he was part of the reason I had to solve that fucking murder mystery on Manaan which I hated.
Kasumi
I love Kasumi. I do judge her a bit on her crush on Jacob though. But otherwise she is great.
Leliana
Leliana is great. A little overly religious. And I could do without the sing-a-longs. But I still love her.
Garrus
Garrus is my space bestie. He stuck by Shepard for all three games and just gets more badass each game. I adore him and I think the only reason I never romanced him was because if you don't romance him or Tali, you can get an interaction and find out they get together. And the two of them together is adorable and Shepard highly approves.
Liara
Liara has some great character growth throughout the Mass Effect trilogy. She goes from a slightly naive scientist to the Shadow Broker to a badass who is using all her skills to help Shepard save the galaxy.
Wrex
I love Wrex. And to show my love, I let him shoot that guy in the first game. It makes him happy.
Morrigan
Morrigan starts off as very stand-offish and rude. But when you actually spend time getting to know her, and choose responses that she likes, she is great. Not exactly sweet and kind, but still a great friend and companion. And she becomes a very good mother.
Leliana
Leliana is on here twice. But Loghain (who can be a companion in Dragon Age: Origins, but he never was for me. I beheaded that bastard) isn't on the list at all. I have decided to ignore that and just talk about Leliana some more. She is a bit more harsh in Inquisition than she was in Origins, but I didn't dislike the change that much. A few times I caught myself being like "wow... Okay..." But she has some very amusing responses during the war table missions that entertained me.
Oghren
Ah. Yes. My Emotional Support Drunk Dwarf. Oghren isn't the best, but I liked the fact that he was the only previous companion that showed up in Awakening. Everyone else was off doing their own thing and Oghren shows up and is like "let's fight some more darkspawn!"
Shale
Shale is a golem that you can get through a DLC in Origins. And I love her. And she hates birds. Violently hates birds. Which is understandable. She was stuck as a statue for years. And we all know what birds do to statues. But Shale is fun. Interactions almost always make me giggle. And a golem is a hella powerful tank to have.
Thane
Thane is a drell assassin that you can recruit in Mass Effect 2. I liked his side quest about finding his son. And I like the fact that him and his son did reconcile by the third game. I did not like that he died in the third game. That was shit. I cried. And stabbed Kai Leng for that shit. Thane deserved better.
Zaalbar
Zaalbar is a wookie and Mission's best friend. He wasn't the most talkative or outgoing of companions, but he was still likable. Though, I didn't have him kill Mission like some people I know... Yes. You can do that. Have fun with that knowledge. I got to watch the whole scene twice with my brother cackling as he showed me. Anyway! That never happened when I was in control. Zaalbar just hung out and was my friend.
Zaeed
Huh. Another cranky old man type of character. I do seem to enjoy those. Zaeed is a mercenary that you can help take down a whole bunch of merceneries. It's a bonding exercise.
Atton
Atton was a prisoner when you met him. And shit stays about the same for him, honestly. He doesn't get the girl, cause Knights of the Old Republic games refuse to let me kiss the pretty boys. You can play cards with Atton. And he is funny. And has an interesting backstory.
I will stab one person for you. Only one.
Anders
I was going to put Anders lower on the list but... I did love him in Awakening. And he had some redeeming moments during the second game. But... I'm still angry at him.
Peebee
Peebee was fun, and I romanced her on my first play through. But there were times when she sort of annoyed me.
Vetra
I like Vetra well enough, but not enough to put her higher on the list. I have no real praise or complaints for her. She was just... there.
James
James was fun and had a lot of amusing lines that I loved. But he sadly never made my list of top companions. Though... I did love the fact that he helped me "borrow" that husk head...
Javik
You would think this cranky old man would be higher on the list since I seem to enjoy that character type. But... I am pretty sure this cranky old man wanted to enslave me. Sooooo....
Legion
Honestly, I think Legion should have been higher on this list. My bad. I do not feel like redoing this thing again. But I did really like having Legion around. It really gave you a better look at how the geth are.
Miranda
Miranda would have been higher on the list if she didn't admit to wanting to put a control chip in Shepard. Yes, she apologized. But still. Made me a little leery of her for a bit.
Samara
I liked Samara well enough, but I always felt like she was giving me a Disappointed Parent look whenever I made a choice. I did like learning more about the asari through her.
Sera
Sera is immature. But... I was kind of amused by most of her shenanigans. A few times I rolled my eyes, but for the most part I was amused.
Jack
Jack was cool and all, but there was that point during the second game where she asked my male Shepard if he wanted to fuck and I was scared to say no. I thought she would kill me while I slept. She scared me for most of the second game. But by the third game she mellowed out and I became less scared.
Merrill
Merrill, I love you, but you gotta stop with the blood magic. It's not going to end well.
Sigurn
What I remember of Sigurn was that she was just always cheerful. About everything. Which was a nice change to having cranky companions. I liked her. And I really need to play Awakening again and take her out more.
I will stab someone for you. But only if I want to stab them too.
Jacob
Jacob was kind of boring in my opinion. His side quest was interesting enough. But that was about it.
Juhani
Juhani was sort of forgettable to me. Probably because I think she only ended up joining my crew once or twice in all the times I've played Knights of the Old Republic. I know I killed her the first time I played because I didn't realize there was a way to get her to join you. She attacked me. I killed her. Then got yelled at by a Jedi. I don't remember much about her, but I don't remember disliking her, so there's that.
Mical
I don't remember much of Mical, but... I feel like I remember being a little creeped out by him. Like, did he have a weird (slightly unhealthy) obsession with my character? I can't remember. But, just like with Juhani, I dont' remember disliking him. Just not overly liking him much.
Mira
What I remember about Mira is good. She was a bounty hunter. And I think she might have had wrist rockets? Maybe... If not she totally should have.
Nathaniel
Nathaniel wasn't too bad of a character. Absolutely hates your warden in the beginning because there was that whole thing where you killed his father. But he soon learns that his father deserved it. He was just a little overly serious for me to really enjoy him too much.
Blackwall
Blackwall is a liar. Which is annoying and rude, but I didn't dislike him enough to tell him to fuck off. Nah. I let him come back to Skyhold and continue making that rocking horse in the stable. Why are you doing that, dude? Did anyone ever find out?
I will say it is hilarious when you replay the game and he evades every Warden question and I'm just sitting here like "Fucking right you don't know, liar-boy."
Vivienne
I got a vibe from Vivienne that she was judging everything I did and found me wanting. I liked her character overall. Gave a nice viewpoint from a mage that didn't hate the circles. But I just felt like she didn't much like my Inquisitors. Maybe that was just me. But she was cool enough and I did enjoy some of the banter she had with other companions.
Sten
Almost positive Sten hated most of my Wardens. Cause most of them had no idea what they were doing and happily admitted so. Sten was not impressed. But I did fully agree with his love of cake.
Visas Marr
I don't remember much about Visas. She was a sith apprentice that I think was sent to spy on me. She meditated a lot. And was quiet. I liked that.
I sort of want to stab you, but I would never
Bastila
Bastila was very judgy and annoying to me. Maybe it was a Jedi thing. A lot of Jedi were very judgy of me.
Cora
Cora was okay. But it seemed like every conversation went back to her fan-girling over the asari commandos. Or how she was supposed to be Pathfinder after Alec died.
Liam
Liam had a few moments during the game that I enjoyed him. But for the most part I was kind of annoyed by him. He was supposed to be a member of some elite group of cops or something but he was overly emotional when the slightest thing went wrong.
G0-T0
I'm pretty sure I woke up to this droid watching me sleep at least once. Creepy droid. But I didn't really hate him. Them? How do droid pronouns work?
Justice
Justice was okay... Up until him and Anders melded and became all cranky and blew up that Chantry... Other than that I suppose he was a good companion...
Ashley
Ashley said a few things that annoyed me over the course of the first Mass Effect game. Well, until Virmire when I keep letting her die. I should really do a playthrough where I let her live, but... haven't yet.
Solas
You brought this on yourself, egg boy. Sadly, I went into Inquisition knowing that Solas was the Dread Wolf. So, I'm not sure how I would have reacted to the character if I wasn't side eyeing him the entire game waiting for him to reveal his true intentions. By my second playthrough I was just yelling at him every time he said something and referring to him as Liar # 1 (Blackwall was Liar # 2...).
Sebastian
Sebastian would have been higher on the list if there wasn't that bit in Inquisition where he attacks Kirkwall. Like, what the fuck? I didn't kill Anders and what? Choir boy thinks we just stuck around so people could find us? Idiot. But that was his downfall to me. Otherwise I did enjoy him for the most part. He was a little preachy but I could overlook that for the most part.
Velanna
I just remember her being angry and trying to kill me. Which... Not cool. The trying to kill me part. Not the being angry part. I think her anger was justified. Though... quite a few of these people tried to kill me at one point or another...
Wynne
I didn't mind Wynne in the beginning. I think her being this low on the list is from replaying the game. She is pretty judgy about some romance options. Which, hush. Warden wants to get laid. And while her teasing of Alistair was amusing at first, it got on my nerves by the end.
I want to stab you, and I would do it.
Kreia
I did not trust Kreia from the beginning. There was just something about her that I didn't trust or really like. I rarely took her off the Ebon Hawk. I am the type of player that constantly switches companions I take out to get to know all of them. But Kreia mostly stayed on the ship because I just didn't want to get to know her. And then she was really a sith.
No opinion since you never joined me
Brianna
Carver
Hanharr
Morinth
That's it.
By the way, I did a real quick, half-assed editing job on this so take that into account.
