@bansheewhale
DVD commentary: One of the things that I absolutely love about Jake as a character is his ability to respond to any situation with lightning speed and a fair degree of aplomb. Ā Marco might be the better bullshit artist (according to Jake himself, #54) but Jake can think on his feet like nobodyās business. Ā And thatās the quality that leads to him taking charge so often: that somewhat arrogant, borderline-entitled assumption that, in case of emergency, heās the one in charge. Ā Because a lot of the time, he actually is the best one for the job.
Although heās a little arrogant, as I said, the contrast with Visser Three (who is Jakeās natural foil) draws attention to the fact that Jake doesnāt bluff, he doesnāt bluster, and he doesnāt fuck around. Ā He doesnāt overreach himself (because he knows and trusts himself and his team) and he sure as hell doesnāt make idle threats. Ā I obviously quoted one or two of my favorite Jake-controls-all-the-things moments for the epigraphs of Thing from Another World (Eva straight-up announcing that Visser Three is scared of Jake, Jake informing the andalites that they can play by his rules or GTFO, Jake out-bluffing Visser Three, etc.) and I wanted that to be a running motif for this story: that Jake ends up in charge when thereās an emergency, and anyone with less natural authority than him can either get out of the way or get run over.
That was why I had the military put Tom ostensibly in charge of that team, mostly so that I could show that thereās no way that was ever going to happen in practice. Ā Jake and Tom donāt even discuss whoās going to actually lead the little expedition, because they donāt have to; they both know that Tom will follow Jake to the ends of the Earth with only mild complaining (X) and so thereās really no need to discuss it. Ā I also wanted to play with the idea that frankly the military is a little intimidated by Jake even before he wanders in and starts asking questions like he owns the place, and that their attempt to control him through using Tom was just about the dumbest move they could have pulled, even if on paper it looks like a good idea. Ā And yeah, they have every reason to be intimidated. Ā Jake does what he wants, always has. Ā He respects the authority of the military, probably does so considerably more than his teammates do, but still doesnāt think thereās anything to be gained from actually obeying them. Ā Because that was another thing I wanted to do with this fic: have the Animorphs spend the entire time doing whatever the hell they think is right while the people who are allegedly in charge here (not Tom, who has no delusions whatsoever about ever having any authority in this situation, but the NSA and Air Force) trail behind them calling protests.
The other subtext I wanted to play with here is the idea that Jake has nothing left to lose. Ā I loosely based his speech here on Alloranās to the andalites: when the high command threatens to cut off his tail (and Axās, for that matter) he kind of just shrugs and ignores them, because heās survived worse. Ā Thatās a big part of the reason Jake is so dangerous: in some regards, thereās nothing anyone can do to hurt him that he canāt either shrug off or accept as his due punishment for his past actions. Ā If it came to that, Tom probably could reign him in, and in ways that the military could not, but Tom would almost never sink to that level.
