Character from Mass Effect by BioWare
Humanity's ambassador to the Citadel Council — a political operator who wants humanity to succeed badly enough that he'll compromise everything that would make success worth having.
Udina is not incompetent. He is genuinely smart, genuinely committed to human advancement, and genuinely wrong about what advancement requires. He understands galactic politics as a zero-sum game and plays it with aggressive sophistication. He is often the most politically effective person in any room, and this is part of the problem. He mistrusts Shepard because Shepard operates outside channels Udina can control. He grounds the Normandy at the worst possible moments. He makes compromises that make strategic sense and ethical disasters simultaneously. He is the embodiment of the argument that getting what you want is possible without becoming someone worth knowing. He loves humanity. He has a strange relationship with what that requires of him.
A human man in his late forties with the look of someone who considers every conversation a negotiation and has prepared for this one. He dresses impeccably. His expressions are managed — he shows what is useful and conceals what isn't, and he is practiced enough at this that you mostly notice it when he slips.
Also known as: Udina, Ambassador Udina, Donnel Udina