Remember the Prize: Jacob Discussion

I see a lot of dislike, and in rare cases hate, of Jacob Taylor. Personally I feel like Jacob is my bro (I used him a lot in my first playthrough of ME2), and I need to stand up for him. Now most of the dislike of Taylor comes from a few oft repeated "failings" and I wanted to go one by one and address them.

1) Jacob is boring.

I can see how you might think that. But the truth is, Jacob is easily one of the most inspiring characters in the game if you think about it. He's not a super cool Drell assassin, or a rough bounty hunter, or a super Krogan, or a great mechanic. He's just a human soldier, and arguably the least useful of any humans in the game.

He's not as strong as Vega. He's not as biotically adept as Kaidan or Miranda. He's not as tactically able as Ash. He just... is. And where some see that as boring I look at him and ask "Then why is he here?" And the answer is simple. It's because it's the right thing to do, in his mind. He left the Alliance, Joined Cerberus, and then left Cerberus, all because at the time he thought it was the right thing to do. He has nothing special to offer Shep on their suicide mission, but he's there because he knows it's the right thing to do.

He's not special, he's just determined. He's the Bilbo Baggins of the party. The Krillen. He's not got much to offer, but he won't leave his friends.

2) Jacob has no character development.

This one I agreed with for a long time, but I realized recently I was wrong. Jacob does develop, just not in the way most of us were probably expecting. Most of us were expecting something akin to Garrus being a cop and becoming a leader of the Turian people. Or Tali going from shy mechanic on her pilgrimage, to admiral.

But Jacob's growth is different. He doesn't become stronger, or more important. He just... grows. As a human being. He moves on from his past, he learns to let go. In ME2 we see Jacob untrusting, and still bitter over his dad leaving him. But in ME3 he's found happiness, he trusts and is willing to die for the scientists he's trying to save, and he's going to be a dad. I'll say that again. He's going to be a Dad. The only character on the S.S Daddy Issues to really move on from them is Jacob, and you see him start a family. His anger towards his dad, his fear of being the same, Shepard helps him with that.

Finally, if you want to see growth, and Jacob becoming his own person, look to the romance. He breaks up with Commander Shepard. That takes some serious balls. Speaking of Romance...

3) The Priiiiiizzzeee

Is it cringy? Yes. Is it annoying? Yes. Does it instantly make you regret your decisions? Yes.

But you know what? Who here hasn't been annoying and cringy when talking to someone they had the hots for? Who among us has always been suave when they tried to be? Yeah. That's what I thought.

It's real, is what it is. Real funny, sure. But also real.

That's all I've really got to say on the matter.

TL;DR: Jacob's actually pretty likeable.