Alexithymia

Please sit down for a moment, I’m gonna yap and overthink. Per usual.

Beholder 2 writing is wack and the higher floor you reach, the more half-assed the lore is. On Floor 1, everything is more or less connected. On Floor 12, some connections between the characters still exist, but they are weaker, and you can get a promotion without interacting with the boss even once. On Floor 25, you can ignore absolutely everyone, not only the boss, but the coworkers too. (I loved the Floor 25 minigame, though. It’s relaxing. Fellow B2 fans give me weird looks when I say that, idk, maybe it’s the fact that it’s 100% logical and doesn’t require you to change your thinking pattern— but I am digressing ehehhehe).

The main problem I have with Floor 1, though, is called Emma Hazer. If I remember correctly, it was @pharrell-the-formation who once said that Emma’s lore looked like the devs tried to sit on two chairs at once: they wanted to put two archetypes at once into one character. As a result, Emma is hardworking, but careless. Looking for a good father for her children, but sleeping around with any eager man. Caring and determined, but silly and vain. A contradiction.

Circling back to Floor 25: you know what other female character is known for being silly and kinda flirtatious? Amelia. Amelia, whose role in the plot is basically non-existent. You can talk to her once or twice, learn that she is a flighty girl who doesn’t care about work, and then you can give her a leaflet so that she changes her attitude and quits her job. I had to check her in-game portrait in the game wiki before drawing her because I couldn’t even remember what she looked like.

Things to note: I am not a psychiatrist. This is not an official diagnosis by any means. I simply have BPD, and I see myself in Jestro very deeply and personally. I have since the shows release, back when I was a child.

To start: What is BPD?

BPD is a Cluster-B personality disorder, commonly characterized by irrational fear/s of abandonment, impulsivity issues, and hyperactive mood swings. People with BPD have a lower self worth, and often form intense relationships with others to try and feel better, but they tend to be unstable.

Why do I think that the jester from a 10 year old Lego show has BPD? He fits a lot of these characteristics. I will go down my personal list, that I see in him;

Strong, potentially dangerous relationships with others - This one is going to be long, and I have two examples. Jestro's only friend is Clay Moorington, one of the Knights of Knighton. This is his only friend, and the only one who has ever believed in anything he does. Clay is the only one to reassure Jestro in the first episode, which makes him likely the only reassurance Jestro has gotten for most of his life. Clay and Jestro are very close. Even while Jestro has been corrupted, Clay still doesn't want to hurt him, and finds way to avoid directly harming him. There is an interesting read on potentially why Clay is so attached to Jestro in turn, but the main takeaway is that if Clay were to ever try to distance himself from Jestro (insert cheeky in tone Stone Clay pic), it could potentially end very badly. You might be thinking "Oh Kankri, they're just best buds, of course you'd want to help them feel better and not hurt them!" This is where I get into my second example. Monstrox. Say, if you had one stream of constant validation for most of your life while craving more, and someone started offering you the chance to get more, what would you do? In Jestro's case, he fell for Monstrox's manipulation quickly. Monstrox is a very good manipulator, especially in Jestro's case, since, as we see at the end of Knights of the Realmn 2, he had been scoping him out. Jestro and Monstrox's relationship is incredibly toxic, and Jestro seems somewhat self aware of this, taking moments to protest against some of his ideas, but eventually following through with them because "it will make you better at being bad," and "Don't you want to be good at something?" are just too needed for Jestro.

Impulsivity problems - One could even consider his first truely evil action a act of impulsivity. This was briefed upon earlier, but Jestro jumps at the idea of being seen in a positive light to others, even if he disagrees with what he's doing. Him and Monstrox scuffle and fight often, on plans, on what to do, even when Jestro is supposed to be the supposed "evil guy in charge", Monstrox sways him to fulfill his own plans. But, Jestro just wants to do whatever he says by the end, as it will make him be seen as better in his eyes. Jestro can also be impulsive when making his own plans, such as when he tried to make General Magmar something different than his actual job. People with BPD also tend to want to be in control, and this ties into potential impulsivity issues. Jestro is being manipulated into thinking he will be in control, which is why he wanted to be evil in the first place. He wants everyone to either pay attention to him, or to be in control.

Emotional instability/irritability - Many a time has Jestro been depicted as an anxious, sniveling mess, but the cracks fray even more once he is with Monstrox. Jestro can switch from being relatively happy, or at least pleased, to being irritated and angry, on the flip of a dime. And other times, this can switch to being sad and anxious again, specifically during the comedy club episode, and how he goes from completely panicking without his new support system, to relatively fine by the end. This is connected to another point, his low self worth. Jestro very frequently belittles himself throughout the show, describing himself as a "worthless street urchin" even when he was a child. He was constantly mocked, for all of his life, which only made these issues worse. He would constantly try and seek out validation for all of his actions, good or bad, just to make himself feel better.

I don't know how to end what im calling a character analysis but is really more of a tangent. I just think people should be nicer to him. I've seen people call him stupid for falling for Monstrox's tricks, but he isn't, he's just mentally unstable. But he isn't completely babyable either, and he has tried to take responsibility for his actions before, only to be rejected again. I really wish we got more Jestro expansion in Season 5/6, if those were ever produced, which they weren't.