User blog comment:The Milkman/Mass Effect in Retrospect/@comment-4950455-20130417203249/@comment-1440333-20130418105825

I would argue against Shep being Tabula rasa. Shepard actually has a personality, even the dialogue options cannot truly create a new personality for Shep, and several conversation options will lead to similar responses from Shep. In fact, especially in ME3 when there is a lot more auto-dialogue it becomes clear that Shep does have a very definite personality.