User blog comment:SilencedSkies/The Illusive Man: Good, Evil or just bad writing?/@comment-260563-20120730041142

Bad writing. All the way. I understand the need for enemies that aren't zombies, but couldn't they just have a part of Cerberus fall to Reaper dominance along with Kai Leng?

The Illusive Man had a hand in saving humanity from the Collectors. Without him, Shepard would still be dead and humanity would have been lost, and despite his bad deeds in the past TIM, or should I say Jack Harper, should be lauded for what he did in 2.

Yes, he was a jackass in ME1, conducting illegal genetic experiments to make some kind of super soldier, but that's the same shit the UNSC pulled in Halo, decades before the Covenant arrived. And given how a lot of Turians in ME1 were bordering on having the same attitude the Covenant had for humanity, it doesn't seem entirely unreasonable, seeing as how when humans got attacked the council responded by telling them to fuck off then throwing them a bone and giving Shepard Spectre status........but not financial or tactical aid until the end. It was a galaxy where humanity was at stake, so having a bunch of super soldiers to turn the tide would've been ideal. Yes, they killed Kahoku, but that's nowhere half as bad as the UNSC willing to perform on kids and letting 2/3rds of them die due to the "enhancements."

In ME3, Cerberus' actions are one part arrogant jackass, one part idiotically stupid, and one part unnecessary cruelty. They assume they could control the reapers, but wouldn't helping the Alliance and putting pressure on the Reapers make it easier to find a way to capture one and control it? They also assume they can implant their troops with Reaper technology and keep them under control, but shouldn't Saren's and Grayson's fates have shown them otherwise? In Benning, Cerberus soldiers are gunning down civilians against the company's orders. Probably due to the reaper tech getting to their heads? Last but not least, they know they need the crucible and the Catalyst to control the Reapers. WHY NOTNJUST HELP THE ALLIANCE MAKE THE CRUCIBLE AND GET THE CATALYST!? Cerberus wasn't making their own crucible. And yet they kept sabotaging Shepard's attempts to assemble the Crucible, THE VERY SAME THING CERBERUS NEEDED FOR CONTROLLING THE REAPERS. Instead of spending a colossal waste of money, materials, and lives trying to off Shepard, it would have been easier to help him construct the crucible, and assassinate Dalatrass Linon and other malcontents to ensure the aliens cooperate in making said crucible, then use the Cerberus forces as the tip of the spear to link the crucible with the Citadel, THEN unleash their full might to take singular control of the crucible and the catalyst against both the allies and the reapers, who by this time would be too exhausted and busy fighting each other to fight back. THEN TIM could take control of the reapers without going through some stupid-ass surgery or experimenting on colonists on Horizon. Then TIM can boss everyone around he wants all day.