Joker’s bluster about his piloting skills is no braggadocio - he’s genuinely good. He can fly the Normandy with impressive proficiency despite the unusual flight characteristics caused by her very heavy, very powerful Tantalus drive core. He performed very well in space combat and can do crazy stunts like dive-bombing to deliver a Mako tank destroyer in one-fifth the normal landing space, or using Mass Effect physics to perform a bootlegger reverse in space.

He’s also a dead shot with onboard weaponry, using aggressive manoeuvring in space combat to line up a bead with the Normandy’s spinal mass driver canon. This entry assumes that he would be able to operate other heavy weapon systems with a high degree of accuracy, as long as he doesn’t have to stand to use them. Joker is a boss with evasive manoeuvres - the Normandy fought the entire battle at the Citadel without taking a single solid hit. Several scenes set before or after the events in Mass Effect also demonstrate that even fighter pilots giving chase find it exceedingly hard to hit the Normandy with Joker at her helm.

Flight Lieutenant Moreau was born with Vrolik’s Syndrome, aka “brittle bones disease”. His skeleton is practically hollow, especially in the legs, and it is trivial for him to break a bone. He was born with a dozen fractures - and would have died within months without the extensive medical technology available in the 2150s. Even current gene therapy cannot help much, and Joker spends most of his time in his customised seat, using braces and crutches when he has to move around. From context, he prefers to use those when nobody else is present.

Moreau has been medically monitored for years by Dr. Chakwas - while his poorly-documented condition cannot be cured it can be treated, and Chakwas is now an expert with Vrolik’s Syndrome.

See our main Mass Effect article for details about the SSV Normandy SR-1.

History

Jeff Moreau was born with a very rare, severe condition making his bones brittle like glass. He couldn’t walk, and he couldn’t run - but he became determined to fly. The close-faced, bitter youth applied himself to become the best pilot he could to show his worth, and enlisted with the Systems Alliance Navy.

The hard-working Moreau became the best cadet pilot of his cohort, allegedly better than the flight school instructors. His closed attitude led to an instructrix sarcastically nicknaming “Joker”, a nickname that stuck. The legend has it that the first time he smiled in flight school was when he graduated valedictorian.

Though his career is not described in the game, Moreau earned numerous commendations, and was hand-picked in 2183 by special warfare legend Captain David Anderson to be his helmsman. He thus met other hand-picked servicepersons - including the veteran Navigator Pressly ; Anderson’s second-in-command (the famous war heroine, Staff Commander Shepard) ; and Dr. Chakwas, who became Joker’s physician.

(For an account of how Joker became Anderson’s helmsman, see the “He who laughs best” section.)

Beyond the prestige of being Captain Anderson’s helmsman, Joker gained access to an incredible ship — the Normandy. Named after the 1944 Operation Overlord battle, the SSV Normandy SR-1 is a first-in-class experimental stealth frigate, with one-of-a-kind emissions sink stealth systems and a prototype high-performance Tantalus drive core with about twice the horsepower of a normal frigate’s. Her unique handling characteristics make the Normandy a demanding ship to fly, but Joker learnt her peculiarities and became a wizard with his pride and joy during tests, essentially falling in love with the ship.

Ship aweigh !

When the time came for the Normandy’s shakedown cruise, Flight Lieutenant Moreau was startled to find a full crew embarking, including the marines detail, Anderson and Shepard themselves, and a reputed Turian Spectre - a special agent for the Citadel Council. Obviously, the shakedown cruise was a cover for an urgent special operation.

Thus did Lt. Moreau end up being the main pilot for Staff Commander Shepard’s Spectre mission to derail the Saren Plot. Joker and the Normandy performed very well - criss-crossing the galaxy at record speeds as the campaign unfolded, crossing enemy turf without ever being detected, and successfully infiltrating and exfiltrating special forces shore parties from all sorts of dangerous areas. Joker saved the day by fetching the ground team in the nick of time during the combat rescue operation to secure Dr. T’Soni, and landed a shore party in seemingly impossible circumstances during the desperate final rush to the planet Ilos.

As Shepard and her commandos engaged Saren on the Citadel, Joker rejoined the Fifth Fleet of the Alliance as it was being scrambled to respond to the threat. Thanks to the Normandy’s velocity, she was the lead ship as the massive Human forces poured into the Widow system to engage geth assets. Under the command of Shepard’s XO Navigator Pressly, Joker flew the Normandy as the spearhead of the detachment that broke the attackers of the Asari super-dreadnought Destiny Ascension, rescuing the Citadel Council.

Rescuing the Destiny Ascension cost the Humans eight cruisers (Shenyang, Emden, Jakarta, Cairo, Seoul, Cape Town, Warsaw and Madrid), but the Normandy was unscathed and was the first ship in during the last phase of the battle. After massed naval fire took down enemy shields, Joker made a daring power dive to the core of the Citadel, perforating the enemy ship at close range with the Normandy’s spinal mass driver cannon - proving his ship’s worth as a warbird and not solely as a fast vessel and shore party delivery craft.

In the wake of the battle in the Widow system, the Normandy was retasked to mop up geth marauders who escaped the battle - with Flight Lieutenant Moreau still at her helm.

He who laughs best

A 2013 free comic book titled He who laughs best offers a flashback to how Lieutenant Moreau became Captain Anderson’s helmsman. We’ve kept it in a separate section to minimize S P O I L E R S. The action takes place in early 2183.

Despite his extraordinary qualifications, Moreau was stuck piloting shuttles and playing taxi driver on Arcturus Station. His visible medical condition and ever-present crutches meant that he was never selected for high-stakes assignment. When the Normandy was to start her test flights campaign he excitedly applied, but was predictably rejected.

As a shuttle pilot, Lt. Moreau flew the Turian senior officer overseeing the project, General Invectus, to Arcturus Station. He tried to schmooze with Invectus, but the Turian bluntly shot him down and told him that the Hierarchy would never, ever allow a “cripple” to touch the prototype. His heart sinking as he realised that he faced a lifetime of frustration, Jeff decided that he had nothing to lose.

As the Normandy was about to perform a test demonstration, Lt. Moreau tricked the selected pilot and locked him in a shuttle, then hijacked the ship and sealed himself at the helm. After quickly memorising the obstacle course and reading the manifest, he gunned up the engines and took the Normandy through the performance test. The furious officer in charge of the tests, Captain Dillard, sicced fighters after her — but the sarcastic Lt. Moreau handily evaded their fire while completing the entire obstacle course with time to spare, then docked back on Arcturus Station and surrendered.

While Dillard wanted Moreau locked away, Captain Anderson was much more sympathetic, and torn between the necessity of having him disciplined and his interest in having Moreau as his helmsman given his superior talent. However, the deciding factor was General Invectus. As a product of the Turian Hierarchy, Invectus strongly believed in meritocracy and pointed out that Moreau’s courage, adaptability and talent had been exceptional. Invectus strongly hinted that the Turian Hierarchy now wanted Lt. Moreau at the helm of the Normandy joint project, and Anderson deftly caught that ball and sealed the deal in front of the incredulous Joker.

Description

Joker is always wearing an Alliance cap, and grew a full short beard just before he was assigned to the Normandy. Given how much he enjoys his job, there’s usually a faint smile floating on his lips as he seats at the helm.

Joker is voiced by actor Seth Green, to whom he bears a distinct resemblance.

Personality

Joker is passionate about space and spaceships. He lives to ’fly‘, to see the majesty of celestial bodies, and to learn about new and exotic vessels. Flying a cutting-edge, high-performance ship like the Normandy is his life’s dream come true, and he’s obviously very attached to her. He also likes the image of the maverick, dashing pilot.

Joker is touchy about his medical condition, and determined to prove that he’s an asset and can do the job better than anybody else. He’s completely, blatantly overcompensating for his handicap, but after the Normandy test flight stunt having his skills and initiative recognised taught him to relax. He still acts defensive and arrogant about his skills and worth, but he’s learnt to wrap this using humour and exaggeration to sound less aggressive.

Though he was apparently a grim youth, Joker is now happy with his lot in life, and quite good-natured. The previously sarcastic nickname is now a reasonable handle for the light-hearted, satisfied Moreau. He’ll occasionally indulge in sarcastic remarks (see the quotes), but this usually occurs as he comes down from the adrenaline rush and exults in having pulled off some daring manoeuvre - and these are obviously meant in jest and as a victory dance.

Seeing himself as the daring pilot figure, Joker is generally quite informal for a military officer, and accentuates this aspect by sporting a cap and a beard.

Moreau is highly loyal toward any CO who clearly values his skills, such as Captain Anderson or Commander Shepard. He seems to need their approval - he was concerned that Anderson didn’t like him as a person, and sought Shepard’s friendship rather than simply acknowledge her as his commanding officer.

Writeup updated on the 9th of May, 2013.