Don’t worry, it’s okay! 😊 I get he’s not the most likeable character and I always love to talk about Jason 👌👌👌
Okay, so:

As a character, I think he’s very well written. You gotta look at the intent far cry 3 is written with: to make fun of the recurrent white savior/ridiculously average guy turned hero trope. (Genius gay writer) Jeffrey Yohalem wanted to subvert and condemn stories like that, to unveil the toxic masculinity, sexism and racism inherent in them. He said the bad ending was supposed to be a sort of punishment for people who didn’t “get it”. (It may not sound as anything ground-breaking but it takes a two second google search to see how it went over the head of so many straight male players how Citra was not your usual “woman as a reward”. There is a scene where she drugs Jason and rapes him in front of an audience while he is uncoscious and allucinating and they still see it as a hot scene because her titties out.)

But I’m getting sidetracked. The point is, Jason Brody isn’t a hero, not even a antihero. He’s not only a parody of the hero trope, he’s a subversion of it.

Most protagonists experience a growth; they end up somewhat better, more than they started off. Does Jason grow? No. Actually Jason, who was a bit of an ass from the beginning, turns into a progressively worse person as the story progresses. He gets more adrenaline thirsty than he was, violent, unstable, self absorbed, arrogant, rude. I could go on.

It’s true that he do helps the locals and rescues his friends, but the more you go on, the more it all feels like collateral damage. True, he loves his friends to a degree but ultimately I feel he would sold them all (with the exception of maybe Riley) for a bag of chips. Even when actually helping the locals, you can see by the way he talks to them, condescending when not outright insulting, how little he actually cares (most notable is the side quest when he’s told a lot of people keep disappearing near a lake and his reply is “then like, don’t go there?”; he eventually helps the man but not before calling him an idiot. Also, a recurring line of his is “fuck you”).

What Jason cares about is feeling important. You see, he doesn’t even really care for Citra, he met the chick a few weeks prior, but she tells his he’s supposed to be this Legendary Rakyat Warrior and he likes that concept A LOT.
There’s a whole thing to say about this, Jason wanting to feel important, because it’s not really explicitly said but it’s implied that Jason used to feel like a LOSER. His files says he only ever worked odd jobs and got in trouble for doing reckless shit since leaving college. Meanwhile, look at his friends: Grant is a Sergeant, Daisy is a professional swimmer, Keith is an investment banker, Liza is on her way to become an actress, with an important audition coming up and Riley just got his pilot licence. True, Ollie is not doing much but the guy is so rich he won’t have to work a single day in his life.
Can you imagine how it must have felt for white middle class american boy Jason being surpassed by all of his friends while he’s still struggling to figure out what he wants to do with his life? It doesn’t matter that many don’t know at 25, society tells you should have everything figured out by then. Especially since the guy had great scores in college (also mentioned in his file) so people likely had HIGH expectations placed on him. No wonder guy felt like a loser, no wonder he was frustrated. And no wonder he’s so relieved and outright giddy when he think he’s found his talent, his vocation (“For the first time I know exactly what I want”, he tells Liza. He also tells Daisy that killing feels “like winning” which speaks volumes not only about his current state of mind but also about his personality. Jason is competitive but not that used to winning anymore).
This is good writing, in my opinion: a realistic, truly believable motivation, far better than love or revenge. If Jason had been doing all that to save his friends or to avenge Grant, he would have stopped at Vaas.

He also serves as a sort of mirror to the player. He enjoys the violence in the game as much as you do and, for the first time, he’s not rewarded or praised for it. There’s two possible outcomes to his story: he dies like he lived which is, as a dumb asshole or he tries to do the right thing and he lives but again he has not goals, he compromised his relationship with his friends and girlfriend and, by his own admission, it’s unlikely that he can ever overcome the trauma and readjust to normal life (“I’m a monster, I can’t come back from this”). Whatever happens tho, his dreams of glory are utterly shattered. The fact that he killed Hoyt and Vaas can’t even be considered an achievement because that wasn’t his goal, it was Citra’s. Jason actually walks away with LESS than he walked in with. Sad but also GOOD👌 because he honestly didn’t deserve any better.

So (to me) he is a good character. Well written, organic despite being a little over the top and despite actually having not that many lines. And good character is not necessarily a good person. But, despite Jason having many vices and being overall unpleasant, is he a bad person? Actually, he’s not, he’s just a victim. Jason is 25, insicure, not the smartest and he gets kidnapped, his brother is shot in front of his eyes and dies in his arms, he’s chased through the jungle for Vaas’ amusement and he’s forced to kill to save himself. That leaves him very traumatized. Psichologically, he’s at his weakest, most vulnerable state. And Citra exploits this weakness. She pretends to help him while actually manipulating him through lies, drugs, sex and his own insecurities to get rid of her enemies for her, all the while planning to kill him (while we know she lied about why Vaas left the Rakyat and went to Hoyt, whether she is lying about everything or she actually believes he’s a legendary warrior and even likes him in a way, we can’t be sure. Personally, I think she believes some of it but that’s a talk for another day).

Ultimately, I like him because of how very beliveable, different and refreshing he is as a character, how organic and real he feels to me. And I like that he’s so unlikeable, too 😂

I think there’s stuff I forgot to mention but this post is already super long so Imma stop here. You can talk to me anytime. I know a lot of people dislike Jason and I understand why. I’m okay with that so we can get along even if you hate his guts, ahah 😘