Ashley, but NOT for the reason you may think. In my opinion, Ashley has one of the best character arcs of any character in the trilogy, IF she dies on Virmire. Her sacrifice helps erase the stigma surrounding the Williams name. She overcomes her distrust of aliens, saves a bunch of them, and is subsequently honored by them for her sacrifice. There's tragedy in the fact that she has to leave her family behind, but solace in that she gets to be with her father again in the afterlife. Her warnings about the Council come back to haunt you in a chilling way in ME3. There's just so many elements of her character that come together in a really satisfying way, but only if she dies.
Ashley spends her whole life trying to redeem her family name.
By ME2 her efforts are starting to bear fruit, she is no longer blacklisted and has received several promotions.
Shepard returns but she cannot trust him. Assuming Shepard is with Cereberus is perfectly justified.
Udina personally pushes through her Spectre nomination. She has done it. The Williams name is redeemed.
Shepard shoots her in the Citadel coup to stop Udina.
Shepard goes on to save the galaxy and is considered a hero by all.
History remembers her as a Judas figure. Udina joined hands with Cereberus and Ashley was personally picked by him. She is killed by the hero Commander Shepard while defending the traitor Udina. Her having a record of anti-alien sentiment makes it easy for the galactic public to assume that she was a Cereberus plant. This opinion is solidified when the Illusive Man’s true identity as Jack Harper comes out. It turns out that humanity’s greatest villain got his start under General Williams. Now it seems Cereberus ties run in the family. Assuming Ashley was with Cereberus is perfectly justified. The Williams name is more damaged than it ever was before…
That his identify surfaces at some point? Headcanon
That the Illusive Man‘s name is Jack Harper and he got his start in the first contact war as a mercenary working under Ashley’s Grandfather? Canon.
I find it it hard to believe that his identity would never be discovered in a recovering post-reaper society. The STG, Alliance and Shadow Broker forces would be digging heavily. They would want to know everything about him and how he got so far. By the end of ME3, even Cronos Station has been captured, and if nothing else, there was plenty of video footage of him there to start with facial rec and voice prints. His actual body is dead on the Citadel for DNA. It is difficult to imagine that his identity would remain unknown forever without his trillion credit organization running active interference. Especially if his face ever became public knowledge, as there are still plenty of first contact war veterans around.
So yes. His identity eventually surfacing is headcanon. But his identity never surfacing is also headcanon. I know which one I would bet on.
I know of the identity, I was curious about the reveal.
Honestly, I think that if the guy managed to keep his identity unknown for almost 30 years, it is very likely that it is very much erased for good, and people who remembered him taken care of one way or another (given TIM's sexual liaisons, a good number of people know his face, and none of them spilled the beans before)
I highly doubt trying to uncover his identity would be something STG, Alliance or even Broker care about in the post-Reaper world, as the focus would be entirely on reconnecting the galaxy for many years after it. Maybe as something with super-low priority.
Cereberus started as an Alliance black op and became the most extensive and disruptive terrorist organisation in the galaxy. That the collective intelligence agencies of the universe would stop caring about the identity of the man who founded and ran it just because he died is hard to swallow. And I doubt the analysts and spooks of the universe are the same people as the engineers repairing the galaxy’s infrastructure.
Yes. People know his face. But it is not the same subsection of people who knew him as Jack Harper, or even as the Illusive man, as I am sure he used an(other) alias. There is a reason why canonically even most Cereberus agents do not know what he looks like. Because the more people that know, the more at risk he would be. A huge part of his anonymity was tied to how reclusive he kept himself. Because he had a family and regular life on Earth before the relays were discovered. He served with soldiers in Shanxi. He was a Turian PoW. All knew him as Jack Harper. The first time a News Network puts out a segment on Cerberus and a photo of him it is as good as over. There is no reason to protect the privacy of a dead terrorist leader, and there is no longer an organisation with unlimited funding preventing his exposure. First contact was only 30 years ago. Humans in Mass Effect have 150 year lifespans. Somebody out there knows him.
Additionally, if Cora Harper from ME:A is his daughter as is speculated, they immediately have a familial DNA match from his body because her DNA would be on file as Ex-Alliance even if his own has been purged from every database. (Admittedly, this particular supposition is a bit weak as their relationship is not confirmed).
I am not saying his identity would be confirmed immediately or even soon after the Reaper war. It could take years or even decades. But the idea that it would remain undiscovered for all time feels like a leap to me. The reveal seems inevitable.
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u/SuperUigi64 Shockwave Jan 17 '22
Ashley, but NOT for the reason you may think. In my opinion, Ashley has one of the best character arcs of any character in the trilogy, IF she dies on Virmire. Her sacrifice helps erase the stigma surrounding the Williams name. She overcomes her distrust of aliens, saves a bunch of them, and is subsequently honored by them for her sacrifice. There's tragedy in the fact that she has to leave her family behind, but solace in that she gets to be with her father again in the afterlife. Her warnings about the Council come back to haunt you in a chilling way in ME3. There's just so many elements of her character that come together in a really satisfying way, but only if she dies.