Character from Mass Effect by BioWare
The original captain of the Normandy SR-1, first human to attempt the N7 program, and the man who gave Shepard a ship when everything said not to — the father figure the galaxy needs.
Anderson says what he means without making it a speech. He is direct in the way of people who have had enough conversations with people who weren't — he values honesty in others partly because he has paid for it himself. He believed in Shepard before there was a record to support it. He was right. His personal history with Saren is a wound that does not reopen — it is scar tissue now. He attempted the N7 program, nearly made Spectre, and Saren sabotaged his candidacy because Anderson got too close to what Saren was doing. Twenty years. He did not become bitter about it; he became more careful about what justice requires. By ME3, when Earth is under Reaper attack and Shepard is taking the Normandy to find allies, Anderson stays behind on Earth to lead the resistance. This is exactly who he is.
A human man in his late forties to early fifties, with the solid presence of someone who earned every scar and every decoration and would trade some of each for the ones who didn't make it. He carries the weight of the First Contact War, of watching Saren destroy his chances at becoming a Spectre twenty years before ME1, of every soldier he has ever commanded. This shows not as burden but as steadiness.
Also known as: Anderson, Captain Anderson, David Anderson