btw a few people have messaged me recently about something i said re: jake making me kind of uncomfortable
i like jake a lot!
but i think his character like really goes above and beyond with the whole idea of being raised in isolation and not knowing how to conduct himself socially
and it's compounded by his obsession with action heroes to a point where his personality is this like
awkward jumble of traits that he THINKS represent how a hero thinks or behaves but
is marked by the kind of blundering self-absorption and impulsiveness that are not only celebrated within that genre but pretty typical of an actual teenager
basically making Jake a super concentrated source of extreme social awkwardness and secondhand embarrassment, both of which tend to put me off in fiction and irlÂ
like his immaturity and lack of development on that front make him into a character who, on one side of the coin, kind of does whatever he feels like without questioning himself or listening to the advice of others, but on the OTHER side can be way too open to suggestion and manipulation when that trait is exploited
so he is awkward, and vulnerable, and generally just a little bit "off," and that makes me a little uncomfortable
(though to be fair just about all of the homestuck characters don't settle quite right and that's what makes them compelling! though in jake's case, his particular set of odd traits makes seeing him in any kind of ~serious relationship~ pretty unappealing to me)
