Ryder: hero or legend?

ditto.

Sam was the scurge of Andromeda, constantly running his trap at the most inopportune moments when you had liked to listen to companion banter instead of him droning it out with som generic message crap.

As for Ryder, I couldn't quite warm up to "being" them. As opposed to previous games. The Warden, the Hero of Kirkwall, Shepard or the Inquisitor. I didn't get the feeling of the character really growing or developing. So maybe hero but certainly not legend.

Watching Ryder get slowly subjugated by SAM would be terrifying but would have been a far more interesting story allbeit a bit against the grain of the tone they were going for in ME:A.

Sam-Ryder could be an interesting antagonist because their appearance could vary depending on your save-game. Perfect tag-line or opening monologue for the next game/trailer: 'You either die a hero (shepard, alec) or live long enough to see yourself become the villain' - narrated by Clancy Brown.

Orders from who?

Yeah, I get the distinct impression that whatever Javik was on about will remain irrelevant here.

I'm trying to recall all of the "orders" Ryder is given here, and I'm not sure what you're talking about specifically. In the prologue, Alec's first order is taking the Pathfinder team planetside, which you have the option of agreeing or disagreeing with. Of course, beyond that there's nothing that can be done about it. But beyond that,  Ryder and Alec are out of contact through most of the mission, and is only told to meet him at a certain location because he has a way off the planet that they would otherwise be trapped on. 

The Initiative? What is it that they ever really tell Ryder to do anyway? The one direct order I can remember them ever giving is outright defied, which is what the whole Meridian mission was about. 

NPC's? You mean the random questgivers? I didn't know that counted. 

The same Javik who would have gladly unplugged EDI if he had the chance? 

Dammit I fell for it again!

I don't know what game you guys played who think SAM did everything but SAM was mainly an interface and analytical tool from my perspective who liked to talk to my Ryder like he didn't know anything (IE: mining, mail) and got wrong even those simplistic actions that microsoft got right decades ago. Ryder fought the battles. Ryder worked with people and made decisions on his/her own. My Ryder was professional and logical all the way through. Sure he had an unprofessional crew aside from Cora so he had to work within those constraints and yeah he was could be a smartass at times. By the end, Drack is calling him sir because he gets it. He can't help that his team was poorly picked by his father and half of them quit or get injured/killed by the end of habitat 7. That's his father's failure. Frankly, the only useful thing his father did was create SAM which opened the vaults, gave some profile options and analyzed data.

Ryder he cannot be faulted for using the AI his father left him which was forced upon him without being given a decision. But SAM was nothing more than a tool. If it took a crowbar to open all the vaults would that crowbar have been considered the protag? If he just used an omnitool to examine evidence then would that omnitool be considered the protag? Sure SAM talked, but SAM didn't do 90% of the work. SAM was an analytical tool and interface that was given personality by BW writers because they thought it was a great way to go. It wasn't but SAM didn't do as much as it is made out to have done. SAM wasn't really even a well written AI character given that the only time you get interaction with him was for things like vaults or solving a crime. Really if they made SAM a highly sophisticated VI I don't really see how that would have been any different except for the space magic that allowed Ryder to think like Jaardan to use the remnant and  that's no different than a faster working prothean beacon and cypher that shepard got, just that it was used more for the purpose of using the vaults.

I'm not certain what would count as a sufficient amount of complaining on Ryder's part besides being powerless to do anything about the implant. I guess if one wanted to be able to have Ryder commit suicide and end the torment right then and there, but that's what playing pattycake with a fiend is for. 

I guess the question is whether or not Javik would be prone to making rash decisions because of a viewpoint that may be skewed by his experiences. Legion and EDI would have been destroyed if he had his way. As for AI being banned, sure there's a reason, but the galactic government's also inept and shortsighted. Would EDI inevitably be an enemy in the future? 

100% viability on all planets, and you get a scene of being virtually feted like a galactic Roman emperor, topping the epicness of becoming the first human Spectre in ME 1.

But, if Ryder is one and done, he/she goes down as 007's George Lazenby to Shepard's Sean Connery.

Almost a legend.

more like Cameron Mitchell to Shepards Jack O'Neill. Jack may've been better but Mitchell was more interesting.

Ryder is a hero. Shepard is a legend.

Shepard saves the Citadel and council and they barely give you back Spectre status but you do get a discount for making ads for vendors.

Ryder already gets more accolades from everyone, even after just setting up the first outpost.Even gets pics of it in Tann's office.

So it's funny...You have to be totally ignored and crapped on before saving the galaxy..then you are not just a hero..but a legend.