So, I've been wondering this for  a while. Why the heck are the illusive man's eyes so messed up?  
I've been wondering that ever since I saw them. I thought that I would be able to get the same type of eyes if I had maxed out my paragon or something, but it turns out he is unique. 
If I can recall, Saren from ME1 had the same eyes when he was indoctrinated. 
Any ideas?

It's because he's possessed by Martin Sheen.

Hes a prothean in disguise or something i dunno theyll put something out of their asses for me3, cant wait though.

Nobody knows. That's why he's so illusive.

it the future  cigarettes

The Illusive Man is very much like the G-Man from the Half Life series, really bright blue eyes, a suit of sorts and a complete enigma/mystery to the player!
 
In other words, we'll likely never know :P

I remember a fake spoiler that said he was a reaper in disguise, and they said that his eyes gave him away. 
 
The real reason? He is Martin Sheen. He has robot eyes. Obviously.

" The Illusive Man is very much like the G-Man from the Half Life series, really bright blue eyes, a suit of sorts and a complete enigma/mystery to the player!  In other words, we'll likely never know :P "

They might be robotic eyes. You know, maybe he lost his ones somehow. Guy does look old enough to need new eyes. 
 
Or maybe they're genetically enhanced eyes. The guy's all for the advancement of humans, so it wouldn't be OOC for him to improve his eyes.

Applying Occam's Razor. Standby...
 
They're corneal implants.

Maybe they are implants, making his vision better.

They just filmed Martin Sheen sitting in a room talking, that is actually a live action scene there.  Also he wasn't reading lines he was just sitting in a room talking and Casey Hudson thought it sounded good so they went with it.

He has some involvement with the protheans and geth. That's my only guess other than something stupid about losing his real eyes.

I just assumed he was heavily biotically-enhanced.

Has anyone noticed that the Illusive Man looks more like Joe Estevez than his brother Martin Sheen?
 

"

They just filmed Martin Sheen sitting in a room talking, that is actually a live action scene there.  Also he wasn't reading lines he was just sitting in a room talking and Casey Hudson thought it sounded good so they went with it.

"

His eyes look almost exactly like Shepards do if you go renegade, other than them being blue instead of red. They have this very distinct almost cyborg design in the center of them. Regardless, I really like him as a character.

Contact lenses duh!

He's most likely heavily genetically modified, maybe even biotically.

Or it could just be bad lighting... :| 
Not a very exciting possibility.

" Or it could just be bad lighting... :|  Not a very exciting possibility. "

" He's most likely heavily genetically modified, maybe even biotically. "

" @Semition said:

" Or it could just be bad lighting... :|  Not a very exciting possibility. "

Not likely.  It zooms in up on his face and there's clearly a "tech"-looking lit-pattern on his eyes.  I would guess he has had some sort of technical implants. "

Biotic eyes.

he was pry rebuilt like you, so his eyes aren't really his.

They're just lenses for when he goes clubbin', looking all pimp and such.

Illusive Man is a badass and that's all we need to know

If he is that illusive that body probably isn't the Illusive Man's true body.
 
Mr Sheen is probably in some tube of liquid in stasis somewhere and that guy you're seeing is probably his cybernetic avatar (sorry, lacking of proper terms here).

Cybernetic eye implants. Explained in mass effect: ascension novel i believe.

" If he is that illusive that body probably isn't the Illusive Man's true body.  Mr Sheen is probably in some tube of liquid in stasis somewhere and that guy you're seeing is probably his cybernetic avatar (sorry, lacking of proper terms here). "

I think they're some form of implant/cybernetic replacement. Probably have higher acuity and some other benefit for  him.
 
Either way, if I could have eyes like that, I totally would.

" @HatKing said:

"

They just filmed Martin Sheen sitting in a room talking, that is actually a live action scene there.  Also he wasn't reading lines he was just sitting in a room talking and Casey Hudson thought it sounded good so they went with it.

"

This is the best fanfic ever. "

It's necessary when your eyes can fire laser beams.

You know... looking really closely at those, he totally looks like a blue-eye version of those fucky eye-powers from naruto. He should totally be able to... do whatever those did. God, it's been a while since grade 8.

For the whole game I was waiting for him to reveal himself to be a Reaper or something...

He went blind i imagine, and he got replacement eyes.   Hell if he can spend 4 billion credits on rebuilding shepard from the dead, he can buy some new eyeballs.

There's already contact lenses out there with electronics in them, I imagine he uses some kind of implant or such to improve eye-sight.

i think he is a prothean in disguise

It's obviously because he wants to see through women's clothing...

I go with the simple explanation that they are simply cybernetic eye implants. They probably both increase his vision and allow him to pull up data on whatever topic he is discussing within his own eyeballs. That's why you never see him reading off any type of data device and he always seems to know everything about every topic.

I always assumed they were implants. All I know is that I wish I had a decent rig to run ME2 on my PC so I could mod those eyes onto my shep!

"
The first person that came to mind when i saw him was that of The Smoking Man of The X-Files. 
 

"

His eyes are so freaky because the illusive man's son does so much coke, it changed his father's DNA.

After he went into the jungle and killed Colonel Kurts, his eyes glazed over, and he's never been the same since.

They're some kind of bio-mechanical enhancement. You can see them rotating like a camera aperture in some of the cutscenes, so that's my best guess.

" They're some kind of bio-mechanical enhancement. You can see them rotating like a camera aperture in some of the cutscenes, so that's my best guess. "