Kai Leng

Well, my Shepards are goody two-shoes, yet they still take the renegade interrupt to stab him the second it appears.

In all fairness, it looked like he had the potential to be a good character in a love to hate him way. However, unintentionally or not, it feels like they accommodated the story to the character rather than the other way around, which is... not the best way to write a character in an existing universe. It can work, but it doesn't seem to work here. The fact that they have him appear just to obnoxiously get the upper hand because the plot demands it (in scenes where it's painfully clear that, given free reign, Shepard would have floored him) really makes you just hate him.

Kai Leng was OK. I didn't love or hate him. Maybe because his role in ME3 was relatively small. He was just Illusive Man's lackey. His death scene (renegade interrupt) is pretty good.

That and Troy Baker's voice

He doesn't deserve that voice..
That's another reason to kill him with renegade interrupt.

huummm......I thought if we did not use the renegade interrupt, it was game over.

I guess I'm repeating myself, but I think he's just a product of cut content. He was originally better. Kind of what Maya Brooks story became. He was following the VS around, posing as an Alliance rep, egging them on to think you were still with Cerberus. Ash or Kaidan became Spectres in this version of the story and were actively looking for Javik/Prothean relics the same time you were. Shit was supposed to hit the fan because Kai Leng set them against you.

As it is though, he sucks. Instead of sneaky bastard, he just became an arrogant bastard.



This goes without saying, but pretty much every flaw in ME3 is due to a rewrite or cut content.

I really liked him in Karpyshyn's book. He could've been so much better in the game, but at least he made me rage, and it was super satisfying to kill him at last

It's called Retribution and was my favourite out of the first 3, but they are all really worth a read
I think people generally pretend the 4th book didn't happen because it's full of wrong things, so I haven't read it. Don't know if I ever will, haha.

One of Kai Leng's many problems, in my opinion, is that the game treats him as this ultimate badass that's supposed to be a serious threat on his own, but during the gameplay he's laughable at best and he's always either protected by a massive layer of plot armour or a bunch of minions who do most of the fighting for him and sometimes even both. He spends most fights crying for help to be able to recharge, which he promptly does while his lackeys protect his ass as the game makes him artificially invulnerable during that moment. It's not a completely bad boss fight mechanic, in my opinion, but it's inappropriate for a character that's supposed to kick ass on their own. I remember that during my first playthrough, I threw like three grenades in quick progression when he stopped recharging (on Normal difficulty) which immediately took him out and I thought, "THAT was IT?" Shepard wasn't even done sassing him. During my first playthrough, I died to him exactly 0 times. That's how much trouble Leng causes and how much fighting he actually does in comparison with what he's like in his cutscenes.

Not to even mention that whenever Kai Leng appears, you'd better put your brain into the standby mode because idiocy is bound to happen: Leng not doing his job as an assassin properly. Shepard and co. standing around doing nothing as if the player should forget that they're there. Shepard trying to shoot Leng through the car's front window instead of stepping on the break (to see whether Leng can also fly) or smashing him into the Citadel parts just above. Shepard not shooting at sight despite Leng being notorious troublemaker and an enemy and engaging him in conversation instead. Whenever Leng appears, nonsense happens and the player is punished for it.

Last but not least is that he has a character of a paper cutout. I don't and won't read the books. I've read a bit of the Mass Effect Foundation comics and it does nothing with Kai Leng's character besides giving you the impression he's the biggest drama queen in the ME universe. In the game, there's no reason given for him being the way he is. Compare with Miranda in ME2 who was a fully fleshed out character who had her own personality and her own motivation to work with Cerberus. Kai Leng has no personality besides what I assume his writer, who is unfortunately and obviously so in love with his own creation, perceived as "cool" and "badass". His motivation is, shockingly, "lol, indoctrinated" because writing in something interesting would be too much work. ME2 Miranda had more personality in one of her (surely nicely polished) fingernails. Leng never actually says anything of value and he never produces anything more than one sentence a time consisting of a minimal number of words, mostly supposedly badass one-liners. His embarrassing trollolol email from Thessia, where he accidentally admits he did a lame job trying to deal with Shepard, shows his poor judgement and handling of the situation, and expresses how skilled he thinks Shepard actually is, is the longest piece of thought we've ever got from him. His fighting style doesn't make much sense in the setting he finds himself in. I'd understand a sword or a dagger as a backup weapon in a world of kinetic barriers that serve as protection against projectiles flying at high speeds. (See Tali.) But using a weapon that at all times forces him to close in with an enemy that's gonna be shooting at him, given he doesn't even have the biotic charge or barriers, is pure idiocy, just for the sake of being cool, and the cutscenes have always had to accommodate this for him. Oh, and if you're gonna have a character proficient at martial arts and swordplay, don't forget to make them Asian! Because we've never seen that one before.

All in all, an extremely poorly written, silly character and not as worthy an enemy the game tries to force us to believe he is.

Man, this felt therapeutic.

Beating? All he did was knock the ponytail to the ground and then showed the player what not to do when playing chicken. It never should of gotten that far if Thane shot Leng right away when he had the pistol at Leng's head.

The other thing is when Thane says,"That assassin should be embarassed that a terminally ill Drell stopped him', I wanted a renegade interrupt for Shepard to say, "Had you shot the guy when you had the chance, you might not be here on your deathbed." Shepard turns around and leaves

.

Yet another victim of Kai Leng's plot armour. I'd say it was pretty out of character for Thane.