In Defense Of The Virmire Survivor

Here's what we know Cerberus has done in the ME world -

Prior To Mass Effect 1:

1. 2165 - Attempted to steal antimatter from cruiser SSV Geneva

2. 2170 - Engineer the Eldfell Ashland energy accident to Yando expose colonists to dust forms of element zero followed by two other similar accidents in two other colonies over the preceding four months.

3. 2171 - Assassination of Pope Clement XVI using rosary beads coated wit toxic materials so that he can be replaced by Pope Leo XIV whose beliefs aligned with Cerberus to militarize humanity.

4. 2173 - Assassination of Claude Menneau, a potential leadership candidate of the pro Human Terra Firma party so that Charles Saracino, who is more aligned with Cerberus to gain the position.

5. 2176 - Funded Michael Mosier Lang, who would assassinate United North American president Enrique Aguilar and Chinese People's Federation premier Ying Xiong.

6. 2182 - Sabotaged the starship MSV Anixara which resulted in the death of Turian Hierarchy war hero Raherix Ursivus.

7. Sometime prior to ME1 - Encouraged Alliance to cooperate with Turian Hierarchy to build the Normandy SR1.

8. Sometime prior to ME1 - Unnamed biotics project at Pragia's Teltin facility which aimed to increase biotic potential in humans through experimentation on child biotics kidnapped from Cerberus or bought from batarian slavers.

9. Sometime prior to ME1 - Lured Thresher Maws to the Akuze colony which massacred the team of soldiers there, which was then followed by capture of and brutal experimentation on Corporal Toombs.

Mass Effect 1 (which takes place on 2183):

1. Conducted experiments with the intention to create supersoldiers, including experiments on Rachni and Thorian Creepers.

2. Involved with a settlement on Chasca whose colonial pioneer team was converted into Husks.

3. Responsible for luring a group of marines under Rear Admiral Kohaku to a Thresher Maw nest much like Akuze.

4. Capture and assassination of Rear Admiral Kohaku.

5. After ME1's End & Between ME2's Start - Sent Miranda Lawson to assist Jacob Taylor to investigate the batarian terrorist threat on Citadel.

After Collector Attack on Normandy SR-1 & Shepard's Death

1. Coordinated efforts of Liara & Feron to recover Shepard's body for Cerberus, prevent the body from falling into Collector hands and infiltrate the Shadow Broker's organization.

2. Sometime after Collector attack & Shepard's death - Project Lazarus was started under the leadership of Miranda Lawson with the sole goal of bringing back Shepard. A clone Shepard body was made as spare parts. Alongside Lazarus, a separate cell was tasked to build Normandy SR2 equipped with EDI.

3. An unnamed project to create a device that disrupts higher mental functions to allow the victim to be controlled. Shut down sometime after Lazarus Project started and finally used in the Andromeda Galaxy by a team of ex-Cerberus scientists.

4. Infiltrated Alliance Ascension Project to take advantage of Alliance's biotic research by experimenting on Gilian Grayson. Obtained Flotilla's transmission codes and attacked the Migrant Fleet.

5. Used the rogue Hannibal class VI from Luna with additional engineering from Reaper technology to create EDI.

Mass Effect 2 (which takes place 2185)

1. Shepard was bought back to life and was tasked to recuit a team of specialists to handle the Collector threat.

2. Started the Firewalker project which resulted in the creation of the Hammerhead and discovery of Prothean artifact on Kopis which had useful information on biotics.

3. Ran Project Overlord in order to understand and manipulate Geth on Aite. This experiment ended horribly.

4. Sent an agent named Messner to the Collectors who gave then information about a colony on Fehl Prime to harvest in exchange for information.

In Between Mass Effect 2 & Mass Effect 3

1. Kidnapped Paul Grayson, Aria's worker on Omega and implanted him with Reaper technology. Prior to his kidnapping, Grayson had sent all the information he had on Cerberus to Kahlee Sanders. Sanders requested Admiral Anderson's help who then requested Turian assistance due to his uncertainty of Cerberus infiltration in Alliance hierarchy.

2. Invaded Omega, unseated Aria, used Omega as a supply hub and Cerberus' experimentation resulted in the creation of Adjutants.

3. Attempted to thwart Liara's research into Protheans on Kahje.

4. Maintained a research space station called Barn near planet LV426 to carry out experiments on humans, asari, krogan and turians involving Reaper technology to enhance their performance of weapons and biotics. These Reaper implans were intended to indoctrinate them.

Mass Effect 3 (which takes place 2186)

1. Experimented with Reaper technology to indoctrinate civilians and convert them to loyal Cerberus troops in Horizon. This was lead by Henry Lawson and discovered by Miranda Lawson and stopped by both her and Shepard.

2. Invaded Mars Prothean Research facility using an infiltration droid to gain information on the Crucible.

3. Attempted to kidnap biotics from Ascension Program to create more Phantoms.

4. Planned to attack Turian colony Aephus.

5. Raided several facilities throughout the galaxy and should Shepard attempt to drive them off, Cerberus would keep sending reinforcements.

6. Opposed Shepard's attempts to create an alliance between Turians and Krogans by raiding Sur'Kesh to kill fertile Krogan females and by attempting to detonate a massive bomb on Tuchanka.

7. Seized control of Krogan ground to space defense cannons on Tuchanka,

8. Attempted to hamper Alliance operations by assaulting Alliance communications hub on Ontarom.

9. Brutally oppressed civilians on Benning.

10. Occupied Eden Prime to recover the stasis pod containing Javik.

11. Launched coup attempt against Citadel Council with the help of Udina.

12. Pushed their science division to work on salvaged Reaper technology beyond Omega 4 Relay and made the scientists mysteriously disappear after their work was complete. When these scientists went into hiding, Cerberus sent a strike force against them.

13. Stole Prothean VI from Thessia which contained information needed to complete the Crucible.

14. Betrayed the existence of Crucible to the Reapers.

While some of the actions here are ascribed to "rogue cells", plenty of the things done here are highly unethical and downright evil and that's what Cerberus has been from the very beginning, even before the start of Mass Effect 1. With the exception of the Lazarus, Firewalker, stopping batarian terrorist attack on Citadel and creation of EDI pretty much all the other things Cerberus has done is shady at best and evil at worst.

Knowing this, why are many in the fandom surprised by the reactions of the Virmire Survivor, be it Ashley or Kaidan? Just imagine if you're, say, in the American military and you meet your romantic partner there. Your partner was declared Killed In Action and then two years later, you find out that your romantic partner is somehow back alive again and is working with organizations like Daesh / Al Qaeda / etc.

Of course you would lose your shit and that's what the Virmire Survivor did. Even if the Virmire Survivor came around to the claims that Shepard was doing this for the greater good of stopping the Reapers, what could they exactly do? Quit the Systems Alliance military just like that and join up? You don't just simply quit the military, even more so if you are from a military family background like Ashley. Additionally, prior to Shepard, no one in the universe was known to came back from the dead as fully themselves and not a clone or a droid or a VI. Dead is dead in ME universe until Shepard broke that rule.

I would argue that the reactions of Liara, Tali and Garrus are the ones that do not make much sense. Liara for blindly handing over Shepard's body to Cerberus on the promise of what is a medical miracle never before attempted or done in history despite being exposed to what Cerberus did in ME1. Tali for implicitly trusting Shepard easily (a single statement about Geth data in ME1 was enough to convince Tali somehow) despite what Cerberus did to the Quarian people. Garrus also for implicitly trusting Shepard despite knowing what Cerberus did in ME1. The actions of Liara, Tali and Garrus can be portrayed as either abundantly loyal to Shepard or highly desperate and infatuated with Shepard. Otherwise there would be some form of lingering suspicion that does not get resolved immediately, which we see with the Virmire survivor in ME3.

Finally, we do learn that there was an attempt to install a control chip into Shepard by Miranda Lawson which was thwarted by the Illusive Man. However, what if the Lazarus cell "went rogue" and did it anyway? Many Cerberus cells did "went rogue" after all. We also end up facing a clone of Shepard in ME3 who looks exactly like Shepard.

At the end of the day, taking all that we know about what Cerberus has done and what they are capable of, I think that the reaction of the Virmire survivor in ME2 and ME3 are the most natural and sensible reaction that is in character for them and it also shows that they are not blindly infatuated or obsessed with or desperate regarding Shepard.