Talk:David Anderson

Regarding race / skin tone
In Mass Effect, a common theme is that humans are becoming less ethnically diverse (likely to explain why Shepard can have any facial structure and skin tone you want). See also discussion of Hendel Mitra's appearance in Mass Effect: Ascension. Given that, I'm not sure it's possible to successfully identify individual characters' race based on their appearance, and with "pigment pills, hair tinting and contact lenses", as Kahlee Sanders says, there's no way to tell. :) --Tullis 03:11, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Also bear in mind that in the ME milieu, if you're wealthy enough, you can extensively customize the appearance of your children through genetic engineering. I was always surprised that no one noticed how much Ash looks like Salma Hayek - same coloration, same cheek/jaw structure. To me, that says that often people simply see what they expect to see (a caucasian), not what's actually there (a latina). Stormwaltz 16:36, 22 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I didn't see either one. I just saw Ashley. : ) --Tullis 21:09, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Accent
I hate the way it says that he holds no regional accent (him being British and the voice actor being American) as if British people all had accents but Americans didn't have accents. Everyone has an accent, so really the page should say that for some reason he ended up with a foreign one (perhaps he was born in London but raised on another planet that had such accents).

Besides, if you do want to live with the rule that some people don't have regional accents with the English language, then surely the English should be the ones to hold the privilage of not having accents seeing as it is the English language.

The English do actually have a lot of regional accents, though. Anderson really doesn't have a regional accent, it's as simple as that. He kinda reminds me of Ben Sisko from ST:DS9, he was the same. It's kind of an upper-class African American accent, but it's not regionally associated as such. --LeathamGrant 10:52, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Yeah but I mean he has an American accent, but saying that he as no regional accent implies that all British people have regional accents but American people speak accent-less. That's all I was saying really. If he has an American accent then surely that should be noted as odd rather than remarking on his lack of one of the many London accents. It just seems wierd that a Londoner would be brought up with a yank accent.


 * The fact that the article says that he holds no regional accent may simply imply that he has no American regional accent, not that he has no accent at all. I know what you're saying - that saying that he has no accent implies that the American accent is the proper way of speaking.  Maybe the fact that he is English but speaks with an American accent should be added to trivia. EliTe X HeRo 21:04, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Doesn't ME: Revelation include some detail on why he has an Amreican accent. I think it has something to do with e-education. I'll have to dig out my copy and check, if I find anything I'll post. --Hades214 17:35, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

What I always thought was that simply, in this future the world is so blended that a person's place of birth and where they were raised have absolutely to affect on what kind of person they are. I mean, he could have a scottish accent and be raised in Japan bacuase race and country now are two seperate things that in no way effect one another. I think it's supposed to be kind of going against the classic sci-fi thing that ,for example, if someone looks japanese they are immidietly born in Tokyo, like in Star Trek. (Should I not be posting things on discussions that ended months ago like this?)--209.208.106.242 21:30, October 16, 2009 (UTC)

First Contact Wars
I can't work out what Unic of the borg was trying to say in this sentence, but it needs to be revised:
 * Removing link to remove from Wanted Pages. --silverstrike 09:43, September 20, 2009 (UTC)

"After the subjugation of Shanxi, Anderson's personally hero, Jon Grissom, whose very mission beyond the Charon Relay compelled him to join the Alliance. Anderson's squad was assigned to make a recon mission to Shanxi to assess the unknown aliens' fighting strength."

Any ideas? --LeathamGrant 10:54, 24 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I've removed the sentence because it simply doesn't make sense. Anderson was a member of the N7 program so he was already a member of the Alliance, Grissom had gone through the Charon Relay years before, and I don't remember any mention of a recon mission to Shanxi. Grissom just tells Anderson to prepare for war in the Revelation prologue. --Tullis 11:18, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Article name
Is it convention to name character articles by their full name, rather than by their in-game designation? In other words, aren't users more likely to search "Captain Anderson" than "David Anderson"? I know it's not really important, but I just like everything to be kept to convention. If there is one. EliTe X HeRo 20:22, 5 January 2009 (UTC)
 * If you run it through the search bar, 'Captain Anderson' redirects here automatically. --Tullis 20:41, 5 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I know. I was just wondering what the convention for naming this kind of article was.  Sorry, I should make my questions clearer. EliTe X HeRo 20:49, 5 January 2009 (UTC)
 * There's not really 'a convention', but we generally go by first name / last name. Compare with Donnel Udina: we never hear his first name but that's the name of the article. Similarly we don't call Liara's article 'Dr. Liara T'Soni', just Liara T'Soni. --Tullis 20:54, 5 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the guidance, I'll make sure I keep to that from now on. EliTe X HeRo 20:59, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Rank Insignia?
I've noticed through a couple playthroughs of ME that the Alliance military uniforms 1) look really cool and 2) apparently have rank confusion. David Anderson is a Captain, and his uniform has three gold/bronze stripes on the epaulet area. At first, I thought that was ok, just the System Alliance rank for Captain.

Then I noticed after Shepard becomes a Spectre that when you talk to the military soldier (the one who gives you the Cerberus quest chain) in the Citadel Tower, he's ranked at Rear Admiral but only has one gold/bronze stripe on his epaulets. Am I missing something concerning the rank insignia or...? --Spectre 9 02:33, 16 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I think there can be some confusion with rank in games if, for no other reason, the designers didn't put enough effort into it. However, there is a possibility that the more stripes you have, the lower rank you are. For example, in Star Wars, the imperial rank badge has a captain with 1 cylinder on his left, a commander with a cylinder on both sides, and lieutenant commander with 2 cylinders on both sides of his badge.

--Effectofthemassvariety 07:53, December 3, 2009 (UTC)


 * Maybe this will help: US Navy rank insignia. Note how a Captain has 4 thin stripes and a star on the sleeves, while a Rear Admiral (depending on whether it's an 0-7 or O-8) has either one thick stripe and a star, or one thin and one thick stripe and a star. So there is more than likely some RL basis behind this. :) SpartHawg948 12:06, December 3, 2009 (UTC)

Wanted Images
What sort of images are we looking for in this article? I uploaded about eight shots of Anderson some time ago, and I assume we are looking for some other variations of the character shots. Is there something specific? --silverstrike 09:04, September 18, 2009 (UTC)
 * A lot of those shots were heavily cropped (presumably to remove Shepard) but it would be nice to get standard images of him in the Embassies, maybe outside or on the Normandy, etc.
 * While I remember: while some of the shots you got with a bird's eye view were spectacular (Noveria, I'm looking at you : ) ) can I ask that you not use the bird's eye camera unless it gives a really good pic, and focus on ground level angles? Mass Effect's designed to be viewed from ground level after all, and as our Ilos pics show, using that to our advantage can give some amazing images; to my annoyance I've had to delete a few of your images because they were just zoomed out too far when a ground level angle would have been amazing. Would that be okay? --Tullis 12:20, September 18, 2009 (UTC)
 * RE: Anderson shots: I'll stop cropping images and let you do that if there is a need. Also, I'll try to take better shots of him in someplace new - I plan to take a shot of him getting shot.
 * RE: Bird's eye views: I went a little overboard with those shots, but I still don't understand how to take the shots from ground level. I'll try taking a few shots from various angles, and let you comment on them.
 * Also, I tend not to know what shots are best and upload allot of near duplicate images. In this case, either you decide what to approve and delete the rest, or I decide myself (which is extremely difficult for me - I like them all) and let you comment if there something wrong or if you want something a little different. The problem is, that I used to be a photographer, and I tend to search for an interesting shot, rather then something suitable to show on a wiki. --silverstrike 12:40, September 18, 2009 (UTC)
 * Think both about a) how to showcase the area best for someone who wants to see it as a player, and b) how the devs intended it to be seen (because that's how spaces are designed). For example, overhead shots of Flux mean you lose all the drinks behind the bar, the people dancing, and the sense of the place; same with the Consort's Chambers because the sense of intimacy is lost. But those Noveria pics worked really well.
 * The problem I have with uploading a lot of duplicate images is that it takes me a long time to sort through them, delete the unused ones, and categorise what remains. Handling all the wiki's images takes a lot of work and a large chunk of my editing time. I just did a mass-deletion yesterday and ended up deleting over seventy images, one after another. From my point of view, it's much easier to see the images somewhere else, then pick and upload the ones that are best for the wiki, because then I can categorise and caption as I go. --Tullis 13:16, September 18, 2009 (UTC)
 * I kinda like the points of view you generally can't see in the game, it gives something new (like the shot of the wards from outside). But regarding the multitude of redundant images, I see your point, most of the images I upload finishes at the recycle bin (so to speak), I'll first upload the images somewhere, and let you decide on what makes the cut.
 * BTW, have anything to comment on the image adjastments? I tend to fix the image level before uploading and also make some fixes to colors (like those from Chora's Den) --silverstrike 13:25, September 18, 2009 (UTC)
 * Occasionally I find them to be a little desaturated, but I think that's usually a feature of their location rather than image colour or resolution. I know ME is meant to use a lot of saturated colour. Most images on here have their original gamma set too high (like the recent weapon pictures) so I usually fix that. --Tullis 14:09, September 18, 2009 (UTC)

Pictures
As I've put in edit summaries, I think we should leave out the images of Anderson at C-Sec / dealing with Udina. There's no canon path, so we can't just have one, and putting both images on feels a bit awkward. --Tullis 20:17, October 24, 2009 (UTC)

Annoying? Or is it just me?
I don't know about the rest of you, but I found Captain Anderson to be the most annoying character in the game. First of all, he is the least realistic looking of any of the characters, his dialog is s***, and... idk, he's just annoying. When he asked me whether he should risk his life against armed guards, or break into Udina's office, I recomended he risk his life, just hoping he'd die. Sure, he's a nice character. He's the obvious paragon choice of Council candidate, and he supports Shepard the whole way through the game, but he's still my least favorite character, especially after multiple playthroughs.--Effectofthemassvariety 08:01, December 3, 2009 (UTC)

I didn't find him annoying at all, but thats just me. What, may I ask, was so annoying about him anyway?--209.208.106.233 23:45, December 3, 2009 (UTC)

Admiral?
Just curious as to the source of Anderson's promotion to Admiral, as I haven't really seen anything. Also, was he actually promoted to Admiral, or just to another flag rank? What I'm driving at here is: Is he a Rear Admiral, or did he somehow skip that and get promoted straight to full Admiral. Regardless, the main point is, what's the source? SpartHawg948 18:49, December 10, 2009 (UTC)


 * Never mind, found it. Although in the future it'd be nice if sourcing for recently disclosed info for an upcoming game would be included with the edit, so as to not appear speculative. :) SpartHawg948 18:55, December 10, 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm curious as to him being promoted to Admiral. Do you think that is only if you put him on the council?--Xaero Dumort 19:18, December 10, 2009 (UTC)


 * No idea, but if I had to wager, it'd be no. If it was conditional to him being placed on the Council, they probably wouldn't have announced it yet. Again, that's just my opinion, as there really isn't any hard fact about it yet. SpartHawg948 19:50, December 10, 2009 (UTC)
 * It's funny how he got promoted for sitting around and punching Udina in the face, as opposed to Shepard who almost died saving the Citadel, then died saving his crew, and got nothing. Even Ash/Kaidan got promoted. He can't get any love from the Alliance. Prismvg 09:49, February 18, 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, for starters, depending on what choices you made, he didn't necessarily punch Ambassador Udina, and who is to say the promotion wasn't in the works even then? He seemed a bit long in the tooth to be a Captain in the first game, and everyone acknowledged it, even him. And he hardly just "sat around", he was basically the military attache to the most prominent human ambassador in the galaxy. As for Ashley and Kaidan, again, their promotions may have been in the works, and regardless, they had two years in between to earn their promotions. Shepard, on the other hand, was dead. As in dead. Kind of hard for a dead person to rack up the accolades and earn those promotions, isn't it? :) SpartHawg948 10:15, February 18, 2010 (UTC)
 * Ok, maybe I exaggerated a bit on Anderson's activity, but that's not the point. I don't know the specifics of military ranks and promotions and stuff like that, but when somebody is KIA, he usually gets promoted posthumously (in my country at least). Keeping that in mind, I think Shepard has done quite enough to get himself a freakin' promotion, even before dying. Prismvg 10:30, February 18, 2010 (UTC)
 * No, as has been extensively discussed (on the Talk:Commander Shepard page) posthumous promotions are not that common, at least not in the US military, and as rare as they are, they are even rarer for officers (such as Commander Shepard). And Shepard was killed one month after the events of the first game. Even when someone is selected for promotion, it still takes time for it to actually take effect. When I was promoted to Staff Sergeant, I didn't actually get the promotion till 7 months after finding out I'd made it. Promotions don't happen over night. SpartHawg948 10:33, February 18, 2010 (UTC)

Does he likes Shepard
In the cast video he sounds like he doesnt like Shepard anymore?91.78.132.74 13:57, December 15, 2009 (UTC)


 * Funny thing about being promoted is that new jobs generally come with greater (and usually more numerous) responsibility, leading to stress. We know Anderson gets promoted, either to Admiral or Councilor, so it's logical to assume he'd be at least a little bit busy with stuff from either of those positions, and probably stressed out. There wasn't nearly enough dialogue of him talking to Shepard to make any sort of call on how he feels personally about Shepard, especially in light of the fact that he could just be stressed out, in a hurry to get somewhere, or simply having a bad day. Don't read too much into such tiny snippets of dialogue. SpartHawg948 20:59, December 15, 2009 (UTC)

Proposed Trivia VA standard
So, here's the deal. The David Anderson trivia section was getting too long and too irrelevant, with people just adding more games and roles he's appeared in/as. This was the only character article where this was being done, and it's not something we can reasonably implement across the wiki, as there are some people here with quite a few roles under their belts (Fred Tatasciore, Lance Henriksen, etc), and the trivia sections for the relevant characters would become quite long. So, my idea is: Only keep acknowledgments in the trivia section for games that have some sort of connection to Mass Effect. For example, while Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2 and Saint's Row have, to the best of my knowledge, nothing to do with ME, Halo 2 and 3 were published by the same studio, Microsoft Game Studios. So, those games seem good to stay. Of course, as this is just an idea at the moment, input from other editors would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, SpartHawg948 21:09, January 12, 2010 (UTC)
 * An additional thought: if we're just going to ladle on every role people have had, what's the point in having an IMDB link at the top? And doesn't that mean all VA "trivia" should be removed, because their roles are already given there in much greater detail than we can do? --Tullis 21:14, January 12, 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, it does call into question the IMDB link, but I wouldn't say their roles are given in greater detail there. More of their roles are listed, but we honestly provide as much, if not more, info about the roles we highlight here. Good point, though. SpartHawg948 21:16, January 12, 2010 (UTC)
 * Just on Modern Warfare 2, while I'm not necessarily arguing it should be put back in, I think people are adding it because the game also features Lance Henriksen, also in Mass Effect, who plays a character called 'Shepherd'. So there are a couple of tiny links to Mass Effect that are probably what's motivating the addition of MW2.
 * Remember the part where General Septimus in ME1 says that Shepard would make a fine general himself? Maybe IW play Mass Effect too, probably as Renegades CsAtlantis 07:33, February 11, 2010 (UTC) 0733 11 February 2010 (GMT)
 * Also, if we are going to have this policy perhaps the connection to Mass Effect should me mentioned in the Triva. Just having 'Keith David was also the Arbiter in Halo 2 and 3' lacks the context required for it to be added. It should be something like 'Keith David was also the Arbiter in Halo 2 and 3, games also published my Microsoft Game Studios'. JakePT 05:51, January 14, 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, the CoD stuff is coincidence. I do see your point though about the Halo/Microsoft Game Studios thing. It's a good point. The only reason it isn't there now is because it was removed when someone added it in there but stated that it was "ironic" that Keith David had provided voices for two different Microsoft Game Studios games. It is, of course, not ironic in any sense of the word. SpartHawg948 05:55, January 14, 2010 (UTC)
 * I put the note about the common publisher in, as I saw that the CoD connection came up again. Boter 17:27, January 21, 2010 (UTC)
 * Good call! SpartHawg948 21:43, January 21, 2010 (UTC)