It’s safe to say that every crewmate featured in the Mass Effect trilogy goes through a significant change thanks to Commander Shepard’s involvement, and Tali is no exception, given how much her life would change if she’d never met Shepard. Throughout the course of BioWare’s roleplaying epic, Shepard is at the center of the series’ events, having a significant influence on their companions and other characters as the story progresses. As one of the more popular characters in Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Tali’s development across all three games is a fan-favorite story for many, but much of it wouldn’t have ever happened were it nor for Shepard’s involvement. Where exactly would Tali have ended up if she never met Shepard and joined the Normandy’s crew?
Tali is one of only two crewmates who tag along through all three games, the other being the Mass Effect’s equally popular turian crewmate Garrus. She starts out as a young mechanical genius, just starting out on her pilgrimage from the Migrant Fleet and searching for a way to help her people. By the time of Mass Effect 3, she’s grown into an admiral – assuming, of course, players successfully completed her loyalty mission in Mass Effect 2 – and even helps save her people from complete annihilation by the Reapers. There are also multiple different romances that Tali can pursue throughout the series, giving her more depth than many other more minor characters.
Of course, very little about Tali’s story is set in stone, given that much of the narrative in Mass Effect revolves around player choices. There are many points throughout the series in which Tali may not survive at all if players don’t manage to successfully assist her, and her title and status among the quarian people can change severely based on the results of Tali’s loyalty mission in Mass Effect 2. To that end, there are many different points of possible convergence when imagining a universe in which Tali never met Commander Shepard.
Where Mass Effect 1’s Tali Could Have Ended Up
When players first meet Tali in Mass Effect 1, they’re informed that she has crucial information that could prove Saren as a traitor to the council. She sets up a meeting through Fist, an agent of the Shadow Broker, who sells her out to Saren’s men. Shepard helps save her from the assassins trying to recover the information.
It’s unlikely Tali would have died here without Shepard’s involvement. She has a variety of tech abilities up her sleeves and is perfectly capable of holding her own in battle. She says so herself, and the rest of the Mass Effect series just goes on to prove it if players bring Tali as a companion in Mass Effect’s combat. That said, it’s uncertain whether Tali would have managed to present her evidence to the council if she hadn’t crossed paths with Shepard. Instead, she probably would have found another way to sell the information to the Shadow Broker.
Tali Could Still Be On Her Pilgrimage
When Tali is first introduced to the crew of the Normandy, she’s also still on her pilgrimage, a quarian rite of passage that marks their transition into adulthood. The pilgrimage requires that they bring back something that can be of use to the Migrant Fleet and the greater good of the quarian species. In Mass Effect 1, Shepard has the option to present Tali with a copy of geth-related Alliance data recovered from a geth base. If they do, Tali will present this to the fleet presumably in-between the events of Mass Effect 1 and ME2 to successfully complete her pilgrimage.
If Shepard doesn’t give Tali the data, perhaps because players believe it too confidential to offer her, Tali opts to leave the Normandy crew as soon as the mission against Saren is complete, continuing her travels alone in search of something of equal value to offer her people. In a universe in which Tali never meets Shepard, this is likely where she would still be throughout much of Mass Effect 1 and even into the events of Mass Effect 2.
Tali Likely Would Have Been Exiled Without Shepard
In Mass Effect 2, Tali’s efforts aboard the Normandy and the results of her completed pilgrimage earn her quite a bit of respect back aboard the Migrant Fleet, and she can be encountered a couple of times throughout the game leading missions and venturing into geth-controlled space to gather valuable data. It’s uncertain whether Tali would have earned any of these positions had she never met Shepard. Even if she did, her crew on the planet Haestrom may very well have died under her command without Shepard there to intervene and assist.
But there are plenty of further potential nuances to how Tali’s story could change. Later on in Mass Effect 2, Tali’s loyalty is called into question and she’s charged with treason by the Admiralty Board. Her title is changed to reflect her status as part of the Normandy’s crew, and Shepard is asked to represent her during her trial. If Tali had never met Shepard, it’s unclear what her title would have been changed to and who, if anyone, would have aided her during her trial. She may have been left to fend for herself, and upon uncovering the truth that her father was reactivating Tali’s geth parts, may have had to reveal his guilt to the board in order to stay aboard the Migrant Fleet. Otherwise, Tali could very well have been exiled entirely.
However, Mass Effect 3 proves that this isn’t necessarily the end of Tali’s story. The admiralty board brings her on in secret to help in the fight against the geth to retake Rannoch. Whether Tali’s expertise in this field would have been acknowledged without Shepard’s involvement is uncertain, though. One thing is certain: without Shepard, peace between the geth and the quarians could more than likely never have been achieved, and Tali very well could have died either in the fight to retake her planet or the subsequent Reaper invasion of Rannoch in Mass Effect 3.
Tali’s Romances Only Happen Because Of Shepard
Tali is a romance option for a male Shepard in both Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, and she’s arguably one of the more popular choices in the series. Additionally, if both Tali and Garrus aren’t romanced, the two of them seemingly end up together during the events of Mass Effect 3. However, a Tali who never meets Shepard would also presumably never meet Garrus, meaning that either way Tali likely wouldn’t have found romance at all while out on her pilgrimage if she had never joined the Normandy’s crew. Perhaps she could have one day settled down on the Migrant Fleet, but she never would have experienced the unique brand of Mass Effect 3 interspecies dynamics and romance that she was able to develop as part of Shepard’s team.
Overall, much of Tali’s status among her people is derived from her role as part of Shepard’s crew and the fact that she’s responsible for helping save the galaxy from the Reaper invasion multiple times over. While a Tali who never met Shepard could still have become quite an expert on the geth, she likely never would have achieved the high ranks she does in the Mass Effect trilogy proper. It goes to show just how drastically the events of her life were altered by her chance meeting with Commander Shepard, as well as how many branching timelines can emerge in a game that focuses on decisions as much as Mass Effect does.
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