| “ | I'd like to say working with you is a great opportunity to do something that matters. | „ |
| ~ Jacob to Shepard |
| “ | So much for peace. | „ |
| ~ Jacob |
Jacob Taylor is one of the main protagonists of the video game Mass Effect 2, and a supporting protagonist in its sequel Mass Effect 3. He is a powerful biotic and former Alliance soldier, who joined Cerberus due to them being more proactive, and an old friend of Miranda. He and Miranda are the two squad members available from the beginning of the game, due to being members of Cerberus.
He was voiced by Adam Lazarre-White.
Biography[]
Background[]
Born in 2157, Jacob joined the Alliance military and served for five years, especially serving two years as a member of the Corsairs: an initiative that hired independent starship captains to perform missions outside of Alliance jurisdictions. Later on, Jacob leaves the Corsairs and is assigned to Eden Prime, where he was present during Saren and the Geth attack on the colony. A month after Eden Prime and the Geth attack on the Citadel, Jacob gets disillusioned and frustrated by the Alliance and the Council whitewashing the Geth attack and resigns from the Alliance after a long service. Later on, after collaborating with Miranda to stop an Batarian attack on the Citadel, Jacob joins Cerberus in order to serve humanity without too much to hold him back, although he is still cautious of Cerberus' shady nature.
Mass Effect 2[]
Jacob is assigned as Miranda's top lieutenant in the Lazarus Cell, where they are conducting the Lazarus Project, a large project with the aim of resurrecting Commander Shepard. Over the next two years with the project near completion, the Lazarus Station gets attacked by hacked mechs. Jacob fights them off and is joined by an early awoken Commander Shepard. Together with Miranda, they escape the station. On the Illusive Man's orders, Jacob accompanies Shepard on a mission to Freedom's Progress, which has recently gone silent. With Miranda's help, they discover the Collectors are behind the mass abductions.
After the mission, Jacob serves as the Armory Officer aboard the newly built Normandy SR-2, charged with maintaining and stockpiling the team's weapons. Jacob beforehand asks for Shepard's help. Ten years ago, his father crash landed on an uncharted planet, and now he wants to see if he's alive. But when he sees his father, he learns he has made a corrupted tribal people where he is in charge, and ultimately makes a terrible leader.
Jacob is ashamed of his father, and Shepard can decide Ronald's own fate; either leaves him to be arrested by the Alliance, gives him a half-charged pistol to kill himself before the crazed crew can, or leave him to his fate with the crew. A female Shepard can also pursue a romance with Jacob.
Depending on Shepard's preparation and choices, Jacob can either survive or die on the suicide mission.
Mass Effect 3[]
If Jacob survived the suicide mission, he comes back in the third game, where he has left Cerberus upon seeing what the organization has become. A year ago, he met Dr. Brynn Cole, a Cerberus scientist, through a mutual friend in Cerberus' Mumbai cell. He found a lot in common between them, and a year later, Dr. Cole approaches him again, requesting his help and protection for a group of scientists who had also become disaffected with Cerberus. Jacob lends his assistance, and the two begin a relationship. They set up a refugee base on a secret location in Gellix, but Cerberus eventually finds and attacks them. Commander Shepard can assist them and help them evacuate the base before Cerberus overruns it. Jacob declines Shepard's invitation to return to the Normandy, preferring to remain with the scientists. Jacob ships out with the ex-Cerberus scientists aiding with the Crucible project, lending his support in whatever way he can. His job includes guarding the scientists' families, finding them places to bunk, and giving intel on Cerberus activities as well as participating in missions against them.
Later on Jacob can be found at Huerta Memorial Hospital in the Citadel. When Shepard comes to greet him, he reveals that Dr. Cole is pregnant with his child, a girl. He decides that he will become a better father than his was. He also mentions that Cole plans to name the child "Shepard", to which Commander Shepard is honored.
During the final battle for Earth, if Jacob is contacted, he suggests they celebrate at a little bar in Rio if they win the war. At the end, if Commander Shepard chooses to use the Crucible to destroy the Reapers, Jacob is seen speaking to Alliance personnel. If Shepard uses the Crucible to merge all synthetic and organic life, Jacob can be seen together with Brynn.
Personality[]
| “ | Doing a good job here is like peeing your pants in a dark suit — you get a warm feeling but no one else notices. | „ |
| ~ Jacob's cynicism |
Jacob is a very honest and straightforward person; unlike some members of the Normandy's Cerberus crew (Kelly, Miranda etc.), he has no illusions of how shady and checkered Cerberus is, and has never fully trusted the Illusive Man. The only reason he's with Cerberus in the first place is because he admires them for their tendency to act when faced with problems, in contrast to the Alliance and Council, who often worry over politics and bureaucracy. Cynical where intergalactic authority is concerned, Jacob joined Cerberus in large part because he wished to make a difference and felt this was the only way to do it. However, even as a member of Cerberus, he considers his routine to be rather dull, usually only using his gun for target practice. It's because of this that he sees working with Shepard as "a great opportunity to do something that matters."
Jacob is described by Joker as too nice a person to be a member of Cerberus (an ironic appraisal given Joker's own loyalty to Cerberus at the time); he is very polite and respectful and often serves as a voice of reason, particularly to Renegade-Shepard; if told by Shepard that he/she doesn't trust him, he takes it in stride and says that he'll simply have to earn that trust. Similarly, if Shepard objects to being cannon fodder for mechs while Tali, Prazza and the other Quarians grab Veetor, he points out that he, Shepard and Miranda are better equipped for a frontal assault than the Quarians are. He also stands up for Shepard when Miranda is testing his/her memories and personality. Additionally, he is highly sympathetic towards the people of Omega, saying that no-one should have to live the way they do. Like Miranda and Kelly, he lacks the xenophobia that most members of Cerberus have, attempting to be friendly to Tali when she's first recruited (though she is not appreciative of his gestures), and never disparaging or expressing any contempt for aliens.
Jacob's strong morals sometimes cause friction with others; however, he is hostile to and suspicious of Thane Krios due to his past as a drell assassin, considering assassins to be nothing more than "precise mercenaries", and being unconvinced by a Paragon Shepard's reassurances. Also, while he and Miranda have a mutual respect for one another, Jacob's higher level of idealism and preference for non-ruthless behavior leads him to sometimes criticize or object to some of Miranda's actions, such as her not telling Shepard right away that they work for Cerberus, pointing out to her that lying to Shepard is a poor way to get them to join their cause.
Jacob tends to be professional and emotionally distant; he dislikes dwelling on past tragedies, even extreme ones such as discovering the truth about what kind of a man his father was. Though enraged and disgusted with his father in the moment, Jacob quickly puts it behind him and never talks about it again. That said, Jacob has a hidden appreciation for arcade games, playing them alongside Shepard on the Citadel in Mass Effect 3.
For all his morals though, Jacob can still be selfish at times, most notably when, if romanced by Shepard he breaks up with her later due to having grown tired of waiting for Shepard despite the latter having not been absent for very long.
Quotes[]
| “ | Give him all the time in the galaxy. The man who did this doesn't know right from wrong. | „ |
| ~ Jacob to Shepard, deciding to take Ronald into custody. |
| “ | If these are our final days, I want to spend them protecting these people. | „ |
| ~ Jacob in ME3. |
Controversy[]
Jacob is a massively unhelpful burden to the player. In combat, his strengths are roughly the same as Grunt's, but watered down and weaker. Moreover, during Shepard's meetings (with a mix of Jacob, Miranda, Mordin, and EDI), Jacob never once gives Shepard any useful advice.
After bringing back a deactivated Legion, Shepard may agree with Miranda to sell Legion to Cerberus (though this will never get the best outcome in ME3), or keep it to activate later. However, Jacob tells Shepard to space it - a suggestion so ludicrous that it isn't even optional for the player.
After going onto the Collector ship, Jacob suggests Shepard go straight to the next mission (to get the Reaper IFF), which would launch the irreversible endgame. The smart thing to do is finish all loyalty missions before getting the IFF (which Miranda suggests), or Shepard will lose squadmates during the final mission.
Although Jacob suggests Shepard take two squadmates when preparing for the final mission, Shepard always takes two wherever he/she goes anyway, as the player is unable to decide otherwise, making Jacob's suggestion redundant.
Straight after that, Miranda informs the squad that one of them - preferably a tech expert - must walk through the ventilation shaft and shut down the security systems. Jacob then declares it a suicide mission, before immediately volunteering himself for the job, despite not being a tech expert like Kasumi, Tali, and Legion.
Some fans think of this as the only good thing Jacob does, as he will die if Shepard picks him for this task. However, Jacob's suggestion to send someone without the necessary tech knowledge could've potentially got numerous people killed, even costing the whole mission.
On top of being useless, Jacob is also impolite and unpleasant to talk to, often being passive-aggressive. He criticised Thane for joining the crew (who was helping for no charge) while simultaneously dismissing Zaeed (a ruthless merc only there for the money), showing his racist side.
He refuses to talk about his past (saying that that part of his life is over), nor does he discuss his relationship with Miranda (saying it's "none of your business") after hinting that they were together between the events of Galaxy and ME2, though this is highly unlikely.
If Shepard becomes Jacob's girlfriend in ME2, he will cheat on her before the beginning of ME3. Every other romance partner will wait patiently for Shepard during those six months, all while doing important work, yet Jacob sits on a beach by the Mediterranean Sea and shacks up with another woman, then has the audacity to blame Shepard. Yet, if Shepard breaks up with him in honesty during ME2, he will get annoyed.
Whilst Jacob is doing nothing of use and cheating on his girlfriend, the other romanceable characters are taking care of important things: Garrus sets up a task force, Tali returns to the Fleet, Liara is busy with her broking job, Miranda watches over her sister, Thane rekindles his relationship with his family, Jack teaches her biotic students, Mordin works on his research, Grunt fights for his clan, etc.
"The problem with Jacob isn’t that he’s boring. The problem with Jacob is that he refuses to open up in any way. When you ask about his experience with the Corsairs, he makes a blanket statement and says that life is behind him. When you ask about his relationship with Miranda, he refuses to go into details. When you ask about his father after his loyalty mission, he doesn’t want to talk about it. How are players supposed to connect with a character who doesn’t seem to want to connect with them?" - Jhaan Elker
Trivia[]
- Jacob's abilities in Mass Effect 2 are mostly different from Mass Effect Galaxy. In that game, Jacob could use an assault rifle and heavy weaponry, as well as using tech overloads.