9. The Illusive Man (Mass Effect 2 & 3)
I feel that The Illusive Man is truly under-appreciated and is always viewed as a villain when in truth, he isn't. If we ignore his Reaper indoctrination at the end, his actions are quite similar to Commander Shepard's throughout the game, yet one is hailed as the hero and the other a villain. The IM wanted one thing and one thing only: for humanity to be above other races in the galaxy. Though this could probably be construed as being a tad evil, when you delve deeper into his idea some of it starts to make sense. He was right in saying that as humanity was, it had no place in the universe and would need to become stronger. When you compare humanity to the other races, it is vastly inferior so his push for the use of biotics could be understandable. Sabotaging ships to ensure biotic children were born may be seen unsavoury, but sacrifices need to be made, no? Shepard crashed an asteroid into a relay and killed thousands of Batarians to save the universe so why can't we forgive The IM? Even when we look at him being controlled by the Reapers in the end, you can only fault him for not being strong enough to fight the indoctrination not for wanting to control the Reapers. Sure, he'd probably use the Reapers to ensure humanity was above the rest, but he never did say he'd eliminate the other races. Not to mention, if we're going to blame him for wanting to control the Reapers, shouldn't we also blame everyone who chose the control option at the end of the game? In fact, if we're going to call anyone the bad guy shouldn't we be pointing fingers at the most of the Alliance? Throughout the first games, nobody listens to Shepard's warnings and when he dies at the beginning of the second game who comes to his rescue? That's right, The Illusive man. Not only does he bring Shepard back from the dead, he gives him a new ship, a new crew and unlimited resources to stop the Collectors. What does Shepard give him in return? Nothing but crass one-liners and distrust; I love Shepard, but he does seem a tad ungrateful for a guy who saved his life. The Illusive Man does start to get a tad unhinged in the third game, but even then he does warn Shepard to stay out of his way. I probably wouldn't call The IM a good guy, but he didn't deserve to fail and die in the end even if he did have Anderson killed.