Oooh!! For the ask game! I gotta go with Jason because he’s my favourites, please! 💙
Also thank you for following me 😭🙏 That means a lot! You are such a talented member of this fandom 🥹 ❤️
Jason time!!! (And tyyyyy so much!)
Jason is so. Ough. He's tied for second favourite with Salim, hope he has a lot of fun sharing the podium 🙂↕️
Jason really the embodiment of the main themes of the game - the criticism of the military, the possibility for change, the folly of blind patriotism. He is truly a man running from himself. He serves as a wonderful narrative foil to Salim - the way the game contrasts them early on only highlights the similarities they find in each other as the game goes on. And ough,,, the checkpoint scene. The tears in his eyes when he finally lets his guard down, when that facade breaks apart. That's what I'm talking about baybeyyyy.
And his character design! His character designnnnnnn. They really manage to do so much with so little. Because he needs that military uniform, all they have to work with are relatively minor details. His short sleeves are boxy, making him appear a bit smaller by comparison. It gives him this more angular, more boxy shape language around his arms, establishing him as a reliable but aggressive character. Contrast this to Nick or even Eric - Nick's lack of sleeves and Eric's rolled up sleeves give them more rounded shape language, presenting them as somewhat softer.
As pointed out by Gabe and Holden of Say Nothing fame - Jason's shoelaces are uh. Not tied correctly. The looping around the back is normal but whatever weird and wonderful knot he does after is Not. This shows that slight break in the perfect military man facade he tries to present.
And his tattoos also link to this - Jason's tell for lying is repeating the words twice. Once to see how it sounds, twice to make sure it sticks. While every other tattooed member of the cast only has one tattoo, Jason has two. Both signifying his patriotism. This is perhaps a more subtle signifier of the facade, and how he again may not be as patriotic as he initially presents himself.
Finally - you know it, you love it - his hat. The most significant symbol of his patriotism and therefore the most significant symbol of his facade. The hat is old, dusty, battered. Tufts of material come out of it. This is clearly something he clings to, something that means something to him. And that seems to be the case until the checkpoint scene, which completely recontextualises it. It's important to him because he can hide behind it. As long as he has that hat, he can point to it and say 'this is why I fight'. He can keep lying, keep that constant reminder of the man he's meant to be, now that he's made something of himself. Now that his life is actually going somewhere. The hand drawn elements really link to that idea of it being a facade too - here's this model military man, but the words on his hat are uneven and hand written. First assumed to be an act of devotion to his country, it becomes more of a promise to himself - just keep going. Just keep up the facade.
Anyway. I clearly have A Few thoughts on him. Personally I do hc him as gay and I am a fan of Jalim (shout out say nothing again). I really think parts of the queer experience - the hiding of self because it doesn't fit into the mould that others make for you - really resonate with parts of Jason's narrative. Jason hides his emotions when it comes to the checkpoint because reacting to it, crying, is not what a Proper Man should do. It's only miles under the ground, stuck in an alien city with someone who should be an enemy soldier that Jason can find it within himself to actually start looking at it. To express his regrets. To cry. He's so. Ough
Hope you enjoy this answer :)
