User blog comment:Ironreaper/Did Shepard leave Ceberus./@comment-204.210.207.90-20100915194803/@comment-217683-20100916072713

Well... we can't say for sure if it's a retcon or not. Nothing in ME2 directly contradicts the info from ME about Cerberus being an Alliance group gone rogue. And, based on experience asking for confirmation on even more minor issues than this, I can't say I see any official clarification coming from BioWare, at least not in the near future. So, given that it hasn't been contradicted or (near as I can tell) retconned, Cerberus is still an Alliance group that went rogue.

I also must say, I don't see any of these supposed parallels between Oliver Cromwell and the Illusive Man. Cromwell slaughtered Catholics who opposed him whenever he was presented an opportunity to do so, going above and beyond any reasonable definition of collateral damage, to the point of selling women and children into slavery, and committing

heinous atrocities against the civilian populations of towns that resisted his armies. Can't say I've seen the Illusive Man do anything comparable to Drogheda. It's one thing to spread anti-alien propaganda, and to assassinate or embarrass the occasional alien leader. It's quite another to forcibly invade their lands, and to viciously suppress the majority for the sake of your foreign minority, and TIM hasn't crossed that line, near as I can tell.

I also can't see parallels as far as government. Cromwell wanted to completely overthrow the British government and replace it with a new system altogether. TIM seems to be fine with the existing style of government, he just wants new people heading up that system. I've seen nothing to indicate that the Illusive Man wishes to remove the parliamentary government of the Systems Alliance and replace it with another form of government. He just seems to want people in the government who share his beliefs/