BioWare can't afford to let any squadmates die.

I figure they revealed the news because they didn't think anyone would care, or that people would be relieved to hear it. Hopefully they are relying on other manners of creating tension in the plot because damn, that sucks....

Probably better to have them all live, yeah. I get the problem from a writing perspective. Why write big roles for the ME2 cast if they are dead in ME3 and not everyone experiences them? Interesting problem.

***WARNING: This spoiler contains information with regard to the fate of companions in MEA.***


Why, you ask? The moment any squadmate has the option to die is the moment that character is no longer integral to the plot going forward.

Lets take every single companion of ME2 as a perfect example. If you chose, you could let the entire squad of the Normandy die. This required quite a bit of effort, from not doing loyalty missions, not upgrading the Normandy, and making sure to pair squadmates on the worst jobs that would get them killed during the Suicide Mission.

Now, at first glance, you might think this level of player agency and choice is great. However, from a storytelling standpoint, it's actually incredibly terrible. Here's why: Every single squadmate in ME2 largely became irrelevant to the plot in ME3. Miranda, as my personal LI, was relegated to a largely minor role with barely any dialogue and screen time. Because BioWare made all of these squadmates optional, it did not make sense to invest money in characters who might be dead for 50% of the player base.

We can also use Ashley as an example. Due to her being a potential casualty in ME1, if you agree to bring her aboard the Normandy in ME3, her amount of dialogue and interaction immediately ends (largely becoming one-liners and drunken stupors). It's really only during the first half of the game that Ash gets any kind of quality character development. But, it's clear that her potential death made her less of a priority than someone like Liara, who couldn't die. This is why Liara had the most character development and even the best romance scenes!

Sure, it's interesting and can provide new dynamics as well as moral dilemmas if a companion has to die. Unfortunately, the level of worth to that companion immediately dissipates as BioWare cannot write a character into the main plot who could potentially be dead. Thus, any potentially dead companion is creatively dead from a storytelling standpoint and no longer can really offer anything to the experience.

There's obviously no risk if none of our companions can die, but at least our favorite companion doesn't disappear into obscurity as a result!

The wordcount wouldn't be too much of a problem.

Remove some unwanted dialogue and scenes from other characters. After talking to holo-Hackett, just have the scene go to a fade-to-black instead of the scene between t'soni and Shepard that amounted to nothing. Remove the dialogue and scenes from t'soni after the first 2 dreams since they amounted to nothing. After the first dream to tells Shepard something that Shepard and the player already knew. The second dream t'soni wasn't needed. Why couldn't she use the intercom to tell Shepard the councilor wanted to talk instead of wasting time going up to the cabin.

Remove one of the scenes Vega has on the Citadel. Maybe the first one right after talking with Udina when the turian councilor gives Shepard access to spectre resources.

Or better yet, have Garrus not be a squadmate. He added nothing to ME3.

There you go. Miranda has enough to be a squadmate without worrying about the wordcount.

It wouldn't be simply adding Miranda to the word count. She would have been retrofitted into the story from the beginning and filled the role various characters did along the way with regard to Cerberus. For example, we probably should have ran into Miranda on Mars rather than Liara, as just a quick example. This wouldn't necessarily cost BioWare any money, provided they pass around lines to the characters who are most appropriate for the situation. Concerning if she was dead, Liara more or less was filling that void, anyway, since she had become the Shadow Broker and was keeping tabs on everyone.

You're still adding a bunch of lines. Someone has to take over on Mars when Miranda's dead, for instance, and this would be true at any other point where you'd make Miranda important. Can't come up with a real analysis without a more detailed proposal, of course, so I'm not arguing that the proposal would have been unworkable, necessarily. But it's easy to see why Bio didn't go this route.

So don't give them to Miranda. Give them to Harbinger. I know my Shepard would like hearing him talk smack throughout ME3 like in ME2