Why Jacob Taylor Really is the Worst Squadmate in the Mass Effect Trilogy 

Had to censor a naughty word that I called Brynn. Fair enough, but I'd hardly say it's undeserved. If you're gonna act super shitty to the person who's boyfriend you stole while they are ACTIVELY SAVING YOUR LIFE, you are indeed an insufferable...

I saw a poll a while ago on Mass Effect romances Jacob was voted worse than Morinth, a character that literally kills you. Death is a preferable option to Jacob.

In Mass Effect 2: - Miranda: The perfect human. - Mordin: The smartest Salarian scientist. - Garrus: The Batman of Omega. - Zaeed: The toughest human mercanary alive. - Jack: The most powerful human biotic. - Grunt: The purest Krogan. - Tali: The most talented Quarian engineer. - Thane: The deadliest assassin in the galaxy. - Samara: The ancient Asari warrior monk. - Kasumi: The best thief in the galaxy. - Legion: An actual walking talking Geth! - Jacob:... Was also there.

Every time I think about Jacob, I think about how we couldve had a Batarian engineer squad mate. And instead, they went with Jacob.

"You travel with fascinating companions, T'soni. But why is Jacob here?"

Homie, you forgot to mention that Kaidan remained single for two years if you were to rekindle that romance. Ashley as well. Dedication!

"New Year, New Me" -Says random woman about to romance Garrus again for the 50th time.

We can confirm here on the Citadel that Jacob has the personality of used Omni-gel.

In case anyone forgot, Jacob literally has his own spinoff game: Mass Effect: Galaxy. It was an IOS game released between ME1 and ME2, and covers the only part of his backstory he'll actually talk about in ME2 (him and Miranda saving the Citadel from terrorists). Because of this, he was one of the first squadmates from ME2 you could learn anything about. He got literally has a whole spinoff where we could learn more about him, and even in that game he still has literally nothing going on. What a disaster.

>Play femshep >Talk to Jacob >Instantly listen to you character flirting with him for no reason at all >Never talk to him again.

Ironically, Jacob and Thane could’ve had actual genuine conflict, since Jacob resents his absentee father and Thane IS one. But nah he’s a PRECISE MERCENARY which is much worse apparently.

A detail that you didn't mention about the ME2 romance is that if you're in a love triangle, Jacob is the only one who insults the others and is instantly possessive of Shepard. He calls Garrus a "cuttlebone" and Thane a "pair of sad eyes", and is angry if you reject him. Compare his reaction to Garrus who gives Shepard a billion opportunities to back out, and is pleasantly surprised to be picked over the others, or Thane who is very respectful and a gentleman about every decision Shepard makes, while being on a death clock. They don't insult Jacob. It's not even that Jacob hooked up with someone else that is my issue. Yeah, from a player's perspective it's annoying; you want the NPCs to be your obedient drones that don't screw with your plans. But realistically, was that quick shag to blow off steam before maybe their final mission really a marriage proposal? I don't think it was. But Jacob was instantly jealous and possessive, so it seemed like he was committed. That's what made him cheating so bad in my eyes.

I won’t call Kaidan boring. He is a wonderful character and I absolutely love him in the ME3. But even in ME1 he is a good character: kind, caring, respectful, righteous. IMHO his only problem is that he is overshadowed by very charismatic alien squadmates like Garrus, Tali, Liara, Jack, Thain, Mordin

" the only black main human character is the only one who cheats on you, gets a girl knocked up out of wedlock, has a missing father, and his loyalty mission deals with slavery" ... *B R U H*

"If you send Jacob in the vents, he dies." Seems like he gave pretty good advice to me!

Can we just appreciate the amount of soul put into Garrus? The guy is *the* bro, like a perfect example, best possible.

Kasumi: Jacob is so hot Me: Run Kasumi run for your life

Jacob digs at Thane for being an Assassin Jacob, you work for the terrorist organization that is responsible for the deaths of Shepard's entire platoon on Akuze, you don't have much room to talk

"There is no reason to use him once you awaken the krogan." Let's be honest here. Its Grunt. He was on his way to replace Jacob the moment you adopted him.

I loved the way you said "I would never romance Jacob." It was in the same tone of voice as "I would never set an orphanage on fire." But yeah, I'd defend Kai Leng as not worse than Jacob because Kai Leng is very funny, I have actually lost in combat with him because I was laughing. Jacob doesn't even have that!

Kasumi had it hard enough being a DLC character who was cut out from the original game only to be re-inserted, but then they make her a Jacob simp to make Jacob seem cooler lol

It’s telling that by ME3, I felt more loyalty from Zaeed than Jacob. Also, my condolences to FemShep players who romanced Jacob and expected to continue that in ME3.

He's especially lame when you consider he wasn't officially part of the squad Cerberus intended for Shep to pursue from the dossiers. The dude was a glorified security guy. Miranda was always meant to be XO but he just snuck his way onto the Normandy after the attack on Lazarus Station and decided not to leave.

"It's your fault I cheated on you Shepard, I got bored on the beach I sat at while you were in lock up." What an a hole

If Richard Leroy Jenkins survived Mass Effect's tutorial mission he would have singlehandedly dealt with the reapers himself.

I think Kaiden's struggle with the side effects of his biotic implant and Vega's meathead lifter mindset make them a lot less boring than Jacob, who has biotic abilities and works out, but neither of which he ever seems to talk about

Spoilers: Don’t forget when you reunite with him he’s getting his ass kicked, and gets his group of volunteers killed. Everyone else is badass. Kaiden/Ashley promoted then made spectre later. Jack is fighting off a crap ton of soldiers while protecting her students. Grunts leading a squad and has that epic showdown with the rachni. Zaeed is hunting Cerberus agents and helps you. Thane is six months past his death date and saves the Salarian counselor. Kasumi helps you save the Hanar home world. Tali is an admiral and main quest, Garrus is the Turians reaper expert and right hand of the primarch also main quest. Liara is shadow broker and discovered the crucible and main quest. Wrex and Mordin are curing the genophage and main quest. Miranda is dodging assassins and tracking her sister and father and ends up main quest. Samara goes to rescue her daughters and doesn’t really need your help that much and you really only save her from her code or a temple full of banshees. Jacob got shot by a Cerberus trooper.

Big agree. Something I read about recently kind of helped me contextualize the reason they did Jacob's dad the way they did, and I wonder if you've seen it, too. Doesn't make me enjoy Jacob by any means, but it makes it make sense. There's some reason to believe that every crew member had a direct opposite that they would eventually fight with, which would force Shepard to intervene to avoid the loss of loyalty. We still have Jack vs Miranda and Tali vs Legion in the game, however, its not hard to see what the other conflicts would have been (especially since some of the dialogue lines you get in game seem to foreshadow this). The idea would be that you would have a fight between Mordin and Grunt about the ethics of the genophage, a fight between Samara and Garrus about whether morality necessitates the violation of the law, and lastly, a fight between Thane, an absentee father who believes people aren't always accountable for their actions and Jacob, the child of an AWOL father who he very much believes is responsible for his actions. Mind you, the fights with Tali, Legion, Jack and Miranda only happen after you've done their loyalty missions, so as much as I hate how hard Jacob is on Thane immediately, it makes more sense to me in the context that they were originally meant to get into a dispute about it which would for better or worse resolve it. This, by no means fixes all the inherent problems with his characterization, but kind of contextualizes some of his weird potshots at Thane and why they felt that they needed to push the fatherhood angle so hard with Jacob. I kind of wish this angle had been pursued, because at least it would have given us a better exploration of how he thinks and feels about things.

“Kaiden is boring” You take that back 😭

In short: there's a reason why people enjoy picking Jacob for the vents.

To Jacob’s credit, he has possibly the greatest and most profound line in all of Mass Effect. “A good deed is like pissing yourself in dark pants. A warm feeling, but nobody notices.”

Jacob's devolution is weird, since he seems like a genuinely nice guy in the tutorial section and then decides that he hates you trying to talk to him when you get to the Normandy. He also has a line about you being married to your job if you try to say you get how he fees about Brynn. Which is at least mean, especially since there's a good chance the player has brought their love interest with them on this random mission and can be immersion breaking if you're trying to play a Shephard who doesn't love being the hero all the time.

"We need a tech expert" Jacob who isn't a tech expert: "Me. I'll do it" "Did someone just say something?"

And let's not forget that after his loyalty mission if you are wanting a romance, he tells you about Miranda needing a better man than him. He views Miranda needing a good man, but Shepard doesn't? He is saying he isn't good enough for Miranda, but since he thinks less of Shepard, it is ok for him to be with her. That's what I want in a man, someone who thinks other women are better than me and I am just the leftover female to screw and even then he leaves you for someone else. Yeah, I hate Jacob.

So when Jacob calls Garrus a cuttlebone he is referring to the bone of a cuttlefish that is put in bird cages as a dietary supplement for pet birds. Humans used to call Turians birds as a slur during the First Contact War. I think Jacob called Garrus a racist slur. Holy shit.

"I'm not big on forcing these talks Shepard, maybe later" but later never comes

The game acknowledges Jacob’s blandness in the lair of the shadow broker.

I still remember that one meme that was like “before and after Sheppard” and it was like “Grunt: mercenary to leader of his clan”, “Garrus: disgruntled cop to Turian military advisor and archangel” and it went this for all the squadmates and then at the end it just went “Jacob: Jacob…Jacob.”

Jacob just called arguably the most popular character in Mass Effect a cuttlebone. That's enough of a reason to dislike him.

I literally had no idea that Jacob and FemShep had flirtatious dialogue because I never felt the compulsion to speak to him outside of the tutorial and his loyalty mission.

The fact that they had you look for the only black guy's absent father is absolutely hilarious

One thing to add to the fact that it impregnates the scientist. He decides to do so in anticipation of the final war for the fate of the present species of the galaxy, and is one of the few who are aware of this fact. That is, if Shepard had failed to unite the galaxy, the child's fate would have been to become a battery for the Human-Reaper or die fighting a lost cause, such as the Protheans. A truly exceptional timing, really

Spoilers: So I've never romanced Jacob, but holy shit his "Well, how long did you expect me to wait?" line was unbelievable. Shepard was on HOUSE ARREST because she had to blow up a relay and kill around 300,000 people to stop the Reapers. Does Jacob not think how much that must weigh on Shepard while she's under arrest? Yes she had to do it, but she killed 300,000 people, and during her arrest period is probably being called a racial terrorist for it (especially if you're playing colonist Shep because people would probably say it was revenge for Mindoir). So she's under military arrest for a war crime she was forced to commit, probably dealing with some serious guilt as well as the weight of knowing the Reapers are still coming, and what does he do? Sits on his ass on a beach for a while, doesn't talk to her, cheats on her, all within 6 MONTHS, then tries to say Shepard is overreacting if she gets upset with him? I never had much of an opinion on Jacob before I saw this video, but with that plus his comment toward Garrus, I might just send him through the vents on my next playthrough.

"When asked why people don't like Jabob, most will respond that it's because he's b-" OH NO! "oring" OH THANK GOD.

Funniest part is Jack would spare us from lengthy conversations, Jacob in a nutshell according to Jack: "Miranda is a Cerberus bitch, Jacob doesn't know who he is".

This literally explains every problem I have with Jacob. I off handedly mention that Brynn better not leave Jacob's sight for more than 5 minutes, or he might run off with another woman.

I did something worse to Jacob than letting him take the vent... ...I left him out of the Citadel party.

One thing I noticed you didn't comment on was Jacob's habit of simply quitting whenever he didn't like something. Joined the Alliance, quit because he thought there was too much red tape. Joined the Corsairs, quit again because he thought there was still too much red tape. Joined a KNOWN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. Just that part of his biography alone should let Shepard know that he's not someone who should be trusted. At all.

Jacob wants you to space the geth so cerberus can pick it up for free.

Would have been 100x better if kia lang was your male Cerberus squad mate in ME2 Would also have made ME3 more interesting

the exsistance of Garrus Vakarian at all automatically ruined the chance of most characters to either, romance or bromance shepard XD

I remember being so desperate for a human romance option as a new ME player that I decided to try romancing Jacob even though I didn’t particularly care for him or any other option. However, he caught the first hint of flirting and awkwardly made me feel like I had violated him somehow. I never again invested an iota in him and moved to Thane. Even though it felt weird.

Jacob " I am here to apply for the role of shepards bro" me "We barely tolerate you as a war asset.....:

I dont think vega deserves to be called boring. The spar you have with him at the start of 3 is an interesting/unique way to get to know him and he is more of a bro than the other 2. Plus he is pretty fun to have in the squad with his dialogue

It's rather weird that Jacob's dad is one of the few villains of the side stories with a personal connection to a squaddie that doesn't get some sort of redeeming feature, or an angle that we can kind of get. Niket thinks Miranda kidnapped her sister, Maelon wants to atone for his Genoophage work, Sidonis is wracked by guilt, Admiral Zaal'koris is trying to avert war, Aresh wants to put the suffering he went through into some sort of meaningful context, Vido Santiago got rid of Zaeed because Zaeed was running the Suns into the ground, even Morinth gets something where we might kind of understand and sympathise with her a bit. But not Ronald Taylor. He's written as irredeemable, a man who went crazy with power and became a tyrant, a murderer and a rapist and that's all there is to it, and I don't know why they did that. There's not much of a decision there to give an insight into Jacob, for sure.

Listening to Jacob's advice is like trying to drive blindfolded xD

I recognized Bryn's voice immediately as female Hawke from DA2 and the female Imperial Agent from SWTOR. Good voice actors are so easy to point out and find.

Ex-Alliance soldier, but untrained with an Assault Rifle in ME2. That sounds like an awful soldier.

Kasumi's love for him feels shoehorned. A convenient excuse for why the player can't romance her.

Kaidan may be a little boring but he’s actually a really sweet and kind character. He thinks of others’ needs above his own, and shows that throughout the game (for example, if Shepard hits Dr Manuel in Eden Prime, Kaidan would reproachfully tell the Commander that he was too excessive). I’m not a Kaidan fanboi at all but I’ve recently learned to appreciate his qualities after paying more attention to the dialogue and plot. Great video about Jacob btw. I hate this guy. I can’t even talk to him as FemShep without feeling creeped out or accidentally being in a romance with him.

Bro said “How long did you expect me to wait?” like Kaidan wasn’t pissing, shitting, and throwing up over Shepard for a full year (and even after that, he was still fucked up about it.) He couldn’t even do 6 months 💀💀💀

I'm surprised that "femshep's terrible dialogue options" didn't even make the cut here. Every dialogue option seems to have this husky flirty tone when you talk with him and it is terrible. He could have gotten a forgettable pass otherwise.

The sad thing is, until I found out he cheated on Shepard I didn't _really_ have a reason to hate him. Sure, he was boring and pretty useless, but he was a good solider with good morals. He goaded Thane a bit, which got my shoulders up because he was my romance option, but I got over it because, one, Thane didn't seem to care, and two, Jacob at least had a valid point. After all, Thane _is_ a hitman for hire, and Jacob's distrust of an assassin fell in line with his character. I also enjoyed his loyalty mission because it was so dark. It's one of the few moments in the whole series that references rpe, and Jacob's genuine disgust with his father for that fact was admirable. But when I found out he not only cheats on Shepard, but also shows _no remorse_ for it, any respect I might've had for him went out the window. Every single romance option _except_ for Jacob remains faithful, and it's only been six months. Even worse, if you play the Citadel DLC and meet him at the club, you can confront him and he acts like Shepard should just "get over it". You can even slap him in the face and he acts confused. And what you said about Brynn also gets me, because when I first met her I loved her. She's so pleasant, smart, driven, and even wants to name her _baby_ after Shepard. But if you romanced Jacob she's like a whole different character, petty and insufferable. Really, three characters get screwed if you romance Jacob. I like to pretend that route just doesn't exist.

The thing I hate about Jacob is while you're in jail between mass effect two and three he goes and knocks up another lady. Like wtf dude? You couldn't even wait?

My issue with Jacob was the fact that everyone in Shepard's life became someone so much better than what they started with. Kaidan/Ashley: Became a Spectre Wrex: Became a very progressive chief of his clan Tali: Became an Admiral Garrus: Became an advisor to the whole Turian fleet Liara: Became the Shadow Broker Jack: Became a teacher to biotic kids like her Grunt: Became the commander of the Aralakh Company Mordin: Died a f**king hero to cure the Krogan people. Legion: Died a hero to give his people high level intelligence and boker a peace between Quarians and the Geth. Thane: Died a hero to save the Citadel WHILE HE WAS TERMINALLY ILL. Even if the other members who didn't have this level of drastic change in their lives has something going on. Samara: Continued the fight as a Justicar and a mohter. Miranda: Continued to take the fight to Cerberus despite that putting her and her sister in risk Zaeed: Continued the fight as a Merc against Cerberus. Kasumi: Continued the fight and tried to help a freaking Salarian Spectre. And then there is Jacob. No character development whatsoever. Nothing interesting or exciting is going on. It's just bad writing, man.

Yeaaah... In ME1, Kaidan was the boring one. _By choice._ Because he'd lost control once and he ended up killing someone. So he decides to never lose control again, keeping cool and calm nearly all the time. In ME3, Vega is pretty much forced onto us, BUT, he makes up for it with his determination, interesting-enough motivation and backstory, voice acting, and fairly likeable personality. Though, speaking of forced onto us, that's also realistic with the real military, since barring special operations and teams, officers don't often get to choose who they command. Also, given the situation, Shepard simply needed the extra gun. Jacob's most prominent moment of greatness is his anger against his dad, and even THAT is subdued and just lacking any kind of actual punch, figurative or literal.

LMAO "Liara is *Information Redacted*." oh god I haven't laughed like that in a while. Thank you.

Audio levels are atrocious in this vid. Did you have Jacob sit at the knobs?

The only thing I remember about Jacob is when he said doing good is like pissing yourself in dark pants. A warm feeling but nobody notices. Then I noticed he does wear dark pants. Maybe the whole point of Jacob is to remind the player how out of the ordinary everyone is, Shepherd, Tali, Garrus, Wrex, everyone is amazing. So much so you lose a sense of scale. Then you see Jacob being unbelievably unremarkable and suddenly you can compare everyone else to him.

That dig at Tali with telling her to familiarize herself with EDI the ship's AI solidified my decision to bench him as often as possible.

I don’t believe he’ll stick around for his child or Brynn. Jacob has never, ever, stayed loyal to anything or anyone for any lengthy period of time. He has given up on literally every relationship and organization he has ever worked for.

F to those five people who romanced Jacob in hopes that Bioware would've salvaged his character in ME3.

Jack had so many reasons to flatline that gonk. Loved her story. I never really thought much about Jason. He was like White noise, persistent and irritating. I used him as little as possible. Watching this and remembering him say we should space the second best robot ally in gaming just adds to his stupidly.

It makes sense with Vega as Shepard was under house arrest for 6 months and Vega was his/her guard. That could be used as how Vega is friendily with Shepard. And yeah Vega is like a typical jarhead but I think Vega is indicative of new players that jump into ME3. Plus he's pretty good in a fight and his fortification is handy. And the nicknames he has for the crew are cheesey but he has lo-key bro vibes. If he was there from the start I'm sure something could've been done but how are you supposed to introduce a new charater at the end of a trilogy? I tend to be a bit more forgiving with Vega because of that. And of course he reminds me of a friend that I used to know.

Even thou Zaeed only joined the mission in ME2 because he was getting paid. Later in ME 3 even Zaeed seems to have become Shepard's friend. Also Zaeed a DLC character had better development as a character then Jacob. Jacob was just poorly written thou.

"Wow, this is bad." This is a perfect line to sum up the character that is Jacob. What a good deep dive on Jacob, well done.

Liara is a [information redacted] is probably the funniest in-joke I've ever heard.

A romanceable character cheating on the main character is an interesting idea and would be pretty intriguing to explore if they did it well, you don't actually see that very often in games. Here it's just like "Oh, so he is an asshole. Anyway!"

I wonder if BioWare just gave up on Jacob in 3 after seeing his reception in 2, and figured "Hey, people already hate him. Let's just let people still hate him, and make it worse for those who romanced him."

I know one good thing about him His dad is Lee Everitt

How can anyone say Kaidan and Vega are boring? Two of your loyal friends who have a great sense of humor and support you when you screw up? Seriously, dude? You played the wrong game :))

I never talked to him aside from initiating his loyalty mission simply for the fact that you CANNOT talk to him as a femshep without laying on the super heavy flirting right out the gate. Literally everyone else was better than him.

I just want to mention that in a way, it isn't really surprising that Jacob cheats on Shepard. Jacob has quit literally everything he's ever been part of. He was Alliance. Quit. He joined the Corsairs. Quit that too. Presumably had a relationship with Miranda. My guess is, he quit that too. And as we know, he quit Cerberus, too. What has this man ever stayed loyal to? Nothing. Ever. So what is there to make you think he'd stay loyal to Shepard? The guy has major commitment issues. Huge red flag. Realising that is the moment my Shepard dumped his sorry ass for Garrus. I'm not excusing his behaviour, far from it. I AM saying that it's consistent with what we see of his character that he would do that.

Jacob is one of those characters that I honestly forget about after the tutorial stages. Every time I play ME2, once I recruit Garrus, Jacob is never brought on a mission again with his loyalty mission being the only exception. I don’t necessarily hate Jacob, but I don’t have much to say or like about him either. I adore Kaidan and James is pretty cool as well. And when I played ME2 for the first time, I literally viewed Jacob as a replacement of Kaidan, a better character that I liked more. And when James fills in that role in ME3, he also does a better job. Sure, James is a more simplistic character compared to the rest of the crew, but just because a character is simplistic doesn’t necessarily mean they are a bad character. It more about the writing and how the character fits in with the cast, which I’d argue that Jacob doesn’t fit in at all. Whatever gripes or problems Kaidan and James have, they still open up and have more going on with them than Jacob if you’re willing to put the time in.

I don’t get the hate for Vega. He’s Jacob but actually effective as a character. He’s a chill bro meathead and he’s fucking hilarious.

The bad advice aspect hadn't occurred to me but is an irritant. You just can't talk to him, all conversations are strained and weird. And there are better fighters to take with you on missions.

You forgot to mention that after you play his mission in ME3, Jacob spends the entire rest of the war standing around the lobby of Huerta Memorial doing jack shit.

I'm happy to report that in my original canon playthrough of ME2 Jacob was the one and only casualty of the suicide mission. I didn't even do it maliciously, I merely treated him the way he wanted to be treated, like a soldier. He volunteered to go into the vent so I gave him what he wanted. Human companions are boring af in ME anyway. Miranda's passable because she's got the whole eugenics thing going on, Jack's okay I guess because at least she's a biotic test subject. The rest of em? Who could possibly care? It's all about those aliens bay bay.

the only thing that bugged me about jacob is , when i was playing fem-shep, literally EVERY conversation turned into them flirting. like the game was forcing you into a relationship with him. its wierd because hes the only squadmate like that in all the games. so i just stopped talking to him any more then necessary.

There’s also the fact that after completing like 20% of ME2, Jacob only says “Already? I’m not big on these talks” when you try to talk to him. It makes it sound like you’re coming on to him even if you haven’t spoken for like 5 missions

All of these mass effect videos flooding my feed is gonna get me to start a new play through soon

Was not a fan of Vega when ME3 first came out. Just finished the second playthrough (first I've done in a decade) last night. Recently finished watching Rebels and absolutely lived Kanan Jarrus. First intro to Vega this time and I think...wait a minute...I know that voice... Vega is meant to be written off as a meathead jock until you spendbthe time to get to know him. Absolutely loved him this time around, his playful camaraderie with Cortez, one upsmanship with Garrus and utter delight at cooking his hungover friends his famous huevos rancheros!

The point about Jacob refusing to open up to you is a good one, and not one I'd heard before. I wonder if the writers weren't trying to copy what they did with Kaidan; like Jacob, he also insists that he's over his past and doesn't need your help processing it. Maybe the writers were trying to make both characters feel like stable, mature adults to contrast the hot messes who make up the rest of your squad. The key difference is that, while Kaidan might not need your help dealing with his baggage, he still opens up to you about it. He talks in detail about his past, and how it shaped who he is today, giving you ample opportunity to connect with him over it. Jacob, on the other hand, just gives you a resume. Another key difference: Kaidan doesn't have a loyalty mission. The loyalty missions, by their nature, require the characters to have unfinished business they need the players help to deal with. Trying to make Jacob the "I've already dealt with my past" character just makes him seem weirdly uninvested in his own loyalty mission.

"Shepard's bro, the guy who's got your back in the chaos" -yeah, we have that character. And his name is Garrus Vakarian.

That's not a stereotype, it's realistic.

Jacob feels like he was written by a completely different team than the rest of the characters

I still think the nano-second I turned on Jacob is, after you recruit Tali, where he makes a condescending remark to Tali about getting to know the new A.I, EDI. Sounds like Jacob being ignorant, right? Wrong. Reminder: Jacob explicitly mentions learning about the geth in school AND fighting Geth on Eden Prime. Which means he knows *exactly* what the Quarian/Geth sentiment is like, what AI mean to the Quarians and he fucking says it anyway. Fuck this clown. The only downside to killing off Jacob is that you've got to hear his voice lines in the already-awful ME3 nightmare sequences.

I once took Jacob to fight the Human Reaper to check on his dialogue with the Illusive Man (like Miranda has). But he didn't even notice him. And after the end of the game, Jacob says something like "I wish I could see the Illusive Man's face when you turned him down" even if he was there. Apparently, by the end of ME2, no one thought that someone would choose Jacob as a team member. They had already gave up on him back then. Or were sure that he would already be dead due to his own stupid decisions, idk

To his credit he does provides the Normandy with better armor, which is essential for completing the Omega 4 relay mission with 100% survivors. Not that it suddenly makes him a good character but man I think he at least deserves a win.

Screw representation make good characters