#ask: jacob

[justshepardthings]

Friggin' Jacob... I would've been LIVID with BioWare if I had romanced him...

I never forget and I never forgive

[wvckedschemes-a-blog]

“Is that a bong? I didn’t take you for a stoner…”

@ofbrokenwisdom

he should act surprised that he’s been caught in the act but he couldcare less. eventually marijuana was going to be legalized so why hideit now? ❝i’m just full of surprises.❞ jacob shrugged his shoulders lightly   as he glanced over at her. ❝did you want to take a hit?❞ 

[justshepardthings]

I don't remember the context exactly because I go out of my way to avoid it on subsequent playthroughs but the first time I played ME2 I was just doing my normal try to empathize with people and help them through post-mission emotional problems and Jacob straight-up yelled at me that he was an adult and he wasn't broken and had his shit together. And I guess it was good someone didn't need Shepard as therapist but he just went through something heavy so excuse me for giving a damn.

Was it this scene at 10:12 in the video below?

let’s add “afraid of talking about his feelings” to jacob’s list of stereotypical traits

[justshepardthings]

To be fair, pretty much every squadmate in ME2 either has daddy issues or is a daddy issue (or in Samara's case, mommy issue). But I hate how Femshep's "I'm more interested in just talking for a bit" sounds so flirty and trying to talk to Jacob on the ship is always hard because he never wants to talk to you. Also re: his romance, he's one of the few LIs in ME2 who says they love Shepard, which makes his plot in ME3 that much weirder if you romanced him.

I think that’s the most frustrating thing. It would be shitty if he were just a romance option but he’s pushed SO HEAVILY in ME2. He’s one of those characters where I save right before talking to them because if I pick an option that just sounds friendly it’ll kick it into a romance. So then in ME3 they just throw him under the bus. Ok.

[justshepardthings]

RE: Jacob in ME3 I honestly don't think it had anything to do with him being unpopular. I believe they were going through the squadmates, figuring out what everyone would be doing and realised they had nothing for Jacob. Personally I think they'd been originally planning to have him return as a squadmate in ME3 so they did write closeure in for him after his loyalty mission. Then things changed and they were all 'quick, come up with a happy ending for him! New girlfriend and a baby!' -timemonkey

RE: Jacob in ME3 (cont) Unfortunately this happy ending only works if he's single, and the writers made the assumption that the players would want Jacob to have his happy ending. After all, they knew going in Shepard was almost certainly going to die in the end, which would give Jacob the biggest difference of any LI (either he gets a wife and child or he ends up alone). So they decided that Jacob would break up with Shepard and to save time they had the whole new relationship going already -TM

This is the optimistic view, but I’m a cynic lol

But the truth is I don’t know, I wasn’t in the writer’s room. It’s definitely possible that they didn’t write his story with any kind of malicious/careless intent and were just trying to give him the best possible ending (albeit in a misguided way).

[justshepardthings]

tbh i HATE how jacob was written. he's an interesting character, really likeable, but then bioware: pushes him as a romance character (like kaidan/liara in me1 ugh), gives him father issues (he's the only black guy in ur crew soooooooooo @bioware why) AND he has good reasons for moving on after me2 but again? the black guy is the only one that does?? jfc @bioware i love you but you have some issues to work on 😓

Jacob’s entire storyline is so over the place I don’t know what to take away from it.

[justshepardthings]

also like they legit pushed every terrible stereotype for black men onto jacob, so many that didn't go with his personality (which barely existed besides being a platter for them to throw bs sterotypes at) and was why he was so inconsistent like. absentee father figure, emotionally reclusive, and cheats on u and knocks up someone else like how fucking transparent

I think it just goes to show how underlying factors can seep into writing. I’m sure (or would hope so anyway) that none of the writers sat down and actively thought “let’s make Jacob a stereotype!” Instead, they developed his story and kept adding things to it, but didn’t realize that all these little things filter in to create a bigger picture. It’s cringey that he had the absentee father storyline but not too bad, considering most of the other characters also had a daddy issues storyline in ME2. But then they also went and made him the cheating S/O which is like...come on guys. How did NO ONE on the writing staff catch this?

[justshepardthings]

I can't even with romanced Jacob in ME3. Calling him on it in the Citadel DLC is nice but not enough to make up for him telling his ex Brynne wants to name the baby after her. Or telling the people he's talking to at the party he's planning on having his ex sneak him into the council chambers for a proposal. THAT'S ONLY OKAY IF SHEPARD DIDN'T DATE HIM. I can't believe they didn't remove those lines for a romanced Shepard.

I’m honestly convinced that they just wrote in that subplot and either:

Straight up forgot he was a romance option

Thought people wouldn’t care/notice since he’s an unpopular character

Weeeelll jokes on you Bioware! I comb through every inch of your games. Tremble in your boots while I complain about you on the internet.