Mass Effect Finally Fixed One Of Its Most Confusing Plot Holes

"Mass Effect: Legendary Edition" comes with all the updates a fan would expect from a remastered version, including improved graphics and gameplay mechanics. After spoiling fans with celebratory goodies, BioWare has continued to impress fans with the care it put into improving side missions — like one involving the character Elanos Haliat. The developers finally changed the human-hating space pirate into a Turian to patch a glaring plot hole that confused fans for years.  

"Mass Effect" character designs aren't just about appearances. These designs tie into alien races and the deep lore behind them. The series has been celebrated for its thoughtful world-building, especially in terms of space-war history. So something has always seemed off about Elanos Haliat, who looked human but behaved (and sounded) like a member of the Turian race.

In the original "Mass Effect," Elanos often talked about humans as if they were another species. When speaking to Commander Shepard, Elanos derisively refers to human beings as "your kind." He also seems to relish in attacking Elysium, "the largest human colony in the cluster" — something a human might reasonably feel conflicted about. Not only did BioWare neglect to specify Elanos' race in the original game, but the character model was decidedly human.

Haliat's behavior wasn't the only clue that something was amiss. Game Informer's Liana Ruppert has pointed out that the timeline doesn't make sense, either. In the "Mass Effect" universe, the First Contact War (which occurred before the attack on Elysium) featured fighting between Turians and humans. So a human leading Turians against other humans seemed like a strange and unlikely possibility.

"Mass Effect: Legendary Edition" likely changed Elanos' character design to fix this plot hole. Instead of a dark-skinned human, he now appears as a Turian male.

Many fans were pleasantly surprised that BioWare cared to change Elanos' design, even though he was only an NPC in a side mission. "Was always confused that the leader of the Terminus systems responsible for the Skyllian Blitz was a human," one Reddit user wrote. "This is such a small but welcome change in ME:LE. Was not expecting these side missions to get this kind of love."

Elanos Haliat isn't the only character to get a redesign in the "Legendary Edition." For example, the BioWare fixed Tali's divisive design to one that wasn't a hilariously out of place stock photo.

It's worth noting that "ME1 Recalibrated," a fanmade mod of the game, added Elanos as a Turian back in 2019. However, fans likely didn't expect that the change would come to life in an official BioWare release. "Mass Effect: Legendary Edition" continues to illustrate how it improves on the original version of the classic trilogy.