After all these years being Jet's #1 fan, I've realised I've never made an in depth post talking about him as a character like this! So here it is π
His pride
Jet's strong egoism makes I'm a really fun character when being paired with characters like Sonic and his team, he's much more harsh and doesn't back down. He's a really fun ragebaiter when he's the one not being ragebaited.
His pride comes from a place of talent, and he's a strong character to be paired against because you know he's going to give his all. He's very all or nothing and I LOVE IT!!
And when Jet won that he didn't know how to react! It's so perfect π
The only reason he was present for the final fight in Sonic Riders was because Wave convinced him there was amazing treasure. Jet doesn't care for the sake of the world, he never has. It's even in his theme song:
World domination, advanced technology
Haven't got the interest in that form of glory
All Jet cares about is racing, maintaining his image, treasure, and deep down he cares about his team. His literal idea of profit is diving in money like Scrooge McDuck, and that's part of what makes him such a fun character compared to Team Sonic being "good guys".
In the games and in the comics, Sonic is great at playing into Jet's ego, they constantly bump heads and are neck-and-neck and that's what makes them so great together.
Jet only went to stop Babylon Garden from making the black hole bigger, because it's connected to his ancestors, plus Sonic was going to go there first.
His leadership skills
Jet can be a capable leader when he needs to be. His unbridled confidence helps make him a great team leader when he needs too. It's just being a calculating leader is far less important to him than racing. Which obviously makes for some great moments and makes me love his character even more.
This connects to his pride but, I really love how what he wants dictates the rest of the group. Like when anger powers his decisions it's really fun to watch.
Also Jet has a great amount of confidence in himself as the leader, and in his team, as showcased earlier and now. He has faith in Storm that hes gonna show up when he needs him to be, and he has faith in Wave to help him out when he needs her too. He basically has confidence in everything, and that extends to his team.
And I really love that in the IDW comics it really showcased that he does care about his team and he is a good leader, when push comes to shove. Even so, the comics aren't creating something new with this, the Babylon Rogues always supported each other in their own little ways. The IDW comics showcased it to a new generation of fans!
His racing skills
I LOVE LOVE LOVE his Extreme Gears and I love his skill. He's a champion racer and it shows. Even when Wave isn't cheating for him (Which Jet hates, because he prefers a fair race), he still comes out on top with skill. Jet can lose, and that's okay but he's a formidable rival and it shows.
He's literally the Legendary Wind Master/Rider like how much more could you want!!! I love the fact he's a pro, and he's so talented with riding his Extreme Gear.
The skating related words and tricks present when you're doing tricks is such a nice touch in Sonic Riders. Even in crossworlds Jet blurts some of them out when you do tricks!!
Something that Crossworlds didn't include is the fact Jet (and the rest of the rogues) ride with a Goofy stance, and his goggles being on when racing. Racing goofy-footed means having your right foot forward instead of the usual left.
Having him ride that way differentiates him from the other racers, and intern with his skill, makes him even more interesting. But I don't really mind, I still love Jet just as much, it's just a small character trait lost to time. π
His character design
The influence with skateboarding is clearly connected to his character and his design AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH!! His name is clearly a reference to Tony Hawk, and the fact he riders Goofy like Tony makes sense too.
He was made when the hype for extreme sports and especially skateboarding was at a really good high, and he streams the era he was made in AND ITS SO GOOOD!!
I love the fire motifs that connect to his ancestry and confidence, the GREEN like HELLOO ITS SO EYE CATCHING. The whites on his design really help break away from the bright colours.
I can see why they went with his final design, and really theres nothing i'd wanna change.
And.... these are only some of the many factors on why I love Jet π Also I ran into the limit of images you can have into one post.
The reason why I haven't mentioned Free Riders is just because this was a moment where the Sonic franchise started to derail. I haven't played Free Riders in a long time and from what I remember it was such a nothing game for Jet's character, so I didn't include it here. Still love the music and Michael Yurchak's voice for the character tho!
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First time drawing her yay!!!! In that case, back from few weeks ago, I have seen the new announcement for the new racers in Sonic Racing Crossworlds, which is having Arle coming in May. And then, I thought of wanted to drew her in style of Evan Stanley's Crosstalk artstyle. :))
Also there's that one mod, having the renders being redrawn in the Crosstalk artstyle by various artists. I wish I can be featured in here someday. ~
today i have learned something that has delighted and enlightened me that is very niche, but i WILL be sending this posts to my friends who it's relevant to.
as we can surmise, one of my favorite authors lately is Connie Willis, who returns frequently to themes and locations in her writing, one of which is spiritualism. namely, the debunking of spiritualism. it pops up in Inside Job, Crosstalk, Passage, Bellwether, and probably more that i'm forgetting to name.
so, when i'm searching for her website today because i've forgotten the url, i look her up. on the side of my screen pops her wikipedia profile, her picture smiling back at me. the top link, however, is not hers.
it is for another Connie Willis, this one a radio host. and also Bigfoot whisperer, master explorer of advanced entities, and "Jane Goodall, elevated to the beyond"
folks, you can't make this stuff up. i am having a BLAST. oh, the irony. it's like something from one of her stories
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The Crosstalk Renders mod for Sonic Racing CrossWorlds just got updated today!
I got to contribute AiAi's character portrait in collaboration with captan for the update, in addition to portraits of GonGon and Palette for their places on the Super Monkey Ball Festival title artwork!
DOWNLOAD HERE!
A Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds (SR:CW) Mod in the HUD/GUI category, submitted by ElanyStar
I'm trying so very hard to be chill and casual about my reading this year, rather than haunted by all of the books on my TBR. It's not working. I blame the fact that the book I carried over from December is a Lymond Chronicles book. Nothing chill about that.
Whatever. It's fine. At this rate I just need to get through to spring, where hopefully both my health and my mental energy will improve. Until then: Books. And I read a quality selection this month.
Total books: 5Β | Β New reads: 5 | Total books read this year: 5
December 2025 | February
#1 - Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett - 4.5 stars ('25 TBR)
"I see," said Jerott slowly. "You've thought it all out."
"That's what I do," said Lymond. "I sit on my brood-patch and think."
Note: I continue to stress that I cannot recommend this series without caution. This installment in particular skirted right on the edge of content I can tolerate. It's also much darker than I tend to read, and I never would have finished it were I not already deeply invested in the overall series and its characters. On the other hand, it also has so much that I adore in stories (if you couldn't tell by how totally normal I am about this series). I'm happy to share details if anyone is interested.
You know in environmental horror movies where the main character is being persistently stalked by a creepy predator? That's what I felt like all last year, knowing that this book was waiting for me. I started this one back in May, but that ended up being a really bad time to read anything emotionally difficult. So I set it aside. Tried again in August or September, but no luck. My next plan was to tear through it during my holiday vacation time and be done before the new year; I didn't quite make that, but it's done!
To start, I have to note that I did spoil the climax of this book for myself way back in September of 2024 because not knowing was stressing me out. Because of that, my reading experience in general was very fraught, but the climax itself was somehow easier to bear? I think it would have gone the opposite way had I followed my usual no-spoilers rule. The result is that I feel sane but decidedly strung-out.
It's weird reading a book that, at the outset, is wild fun when you're constantly aware of the dreadful undercurrent of trauma haunting the narrative like a kraken. (I think I'm mixing up my metaphors. I digress.) Even knowing what was coming, I was, as ever, not quite prepared for the levels of hijinkery and chaos and terror that Lymond and crew swept me off on as if they weren't all headed straight for tragedy. It's no surprise that Jerott is my favorite, even when he's being an idiot. Philippa grew on me. I still have no sympathy for Marthe, because I hate women I guess.
All that to say: Ow. I will be processing this one for a while.
Live-reading thread here.
review for The Game of Kings | review for Queens' Play | review for The Disorderly Knights (also linked above)
#2 - To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis - 4 stars (audio)
She looked appalled. "You weren't prepped? Victorian society's highly mannered. Breaches of etiquette are taken very seriously." She looked curiously at me. "How have you managed thus far?"
"For the past two days I've been on the river with an Oxford don who quotes Herodotus, a lovesick young man who quotes Tennyson, a bulldog, and a cat," I said. "I played it by ear."
It's been a month and I'm still thinking about Doomsday Book, and I needed a fun, long audiobook to listen to, so this was a natural choice.
Though it's set in the same world, with many of the same characters, this story has a completely different tone from Doomsday Book. At its core I think it best qualifies as a mystery, but it's mixed with a buddy road boat trip, a romcom, and just a dash of existential terror what with the potential for destroying the space-time continuum because of a cat. Most of the literary references/homages/satire went straight over my head, minus some Christie and a lot of Sayers, but I had fun anyway. And I will definitely read more from Connie Willis.
Also "And kissed her for a hundred and sixty-nine years" is a banger of a line.
#3 - The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett - 3 stars
"Listen," said Rincewind. "It's all over, do you see? You can't put the spells back in the book, you can't unsay what's been said, you can't--"
"You canΒ try!"
I keep dodging around Small Gods for various reasons, with the second Rincewind book being my newest Discworld distraction. So far, I think this is probably my least favorite of the sub-series. Sorry, Rincewind, but you just don't compel me like Sam Vimes and Granny Weatherwax do; and this story in particular kind of just meandered until right near the end. Not one I'd be quick to read again.
It still doesn't help that this is one of the early installments into this world and things are still kind of settling into place. I'd forgotten that The Librarian becomes Like That within the narrative, though! That was fun.
#4 - Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks - 4.5 stars
First, they took the forest. Then they took the night.
This is not something I would normally read. I don't do horror*, especially when I know the ending will be a bloody massacre. That's not my thing. I picked up Devolution because 1) I enjoyed World War Z and still think about it often, 2) I like Bigfoot (and cryptids in general), and 3) my dad's newest obsession is Bigfoot and I wanted to see if this might be something he'd enjoy.
To start, I love that Brooks's style feels something like Lemony Snicket for adults, with the invitation to play it straight and pretend this is a true story. The narrative elements were well-organized and the cast was quickly and clearly defined. At the start, I didn't like most of those characters, though I appreciated them for what they contributed to the story; in the end I was won over by nearly all of them.
Absolutely masterful work on Brooks's part.
My only complaints are that the gore was a tad gratuitous at points (I definitely skimmed the more intense scenes); and the ending was a little predictable.
I could totally see this working as a movie--granted, with some tweaks because it's epistolary. Or maybe an audio drama?
* I'm willing to make an exception when the horror story is something like "Train to Busan".
More like this: Several elements kept reminding me of The Martian for some reason.
#5 - Crosstalk by Connie Willis - 4 stars (audio)
"You lasses shouldn't be wantin' a man who's 'compatible,' but one who'll be there when you need him."
This was actually the book that tipped me off to Connie Willis in the first place, thanks to a review from Penni. I'm glad I decided to start with Doomsday Book and work my way back to this one.
I know Willis is not everyone's cup of tea, and she has a couple of signature quirks that sometimes frustrate me, but her writing scratches a very particular itch. This book is all of the little details that compel me in a good classic romcom, plus telepathy and some weird side plot about corporate espionage and medical malpractice. Briddey and Citizens Band have my whole heart.
Maeve has my liver.
Note: Overall I didn't mind the narrator, but I wasn't the biggest fan of how she chose to interpret some of the characters, especially C.B.
Further note: I have a few qualms about how Willis decided to interpret mental voices and internal dialogue, partially colored by the telepathic system I developed for a writing project in my teens. (It involved actual distinct mental voices and background noises and images. As in: the way I think.) Not really a plot hole because telepathy isn't real, but I felt like noting it because I can.
Furthest note: I will be reading more Willis this year. I just have to decide between Bellwether or Blackout for my next selection. All I know is that I really need to physically read the next book I try, rather than listen via audio.
Other Reading:
portions of my father's manuscript - I read the first part of this in October and sent over my notes at my dad's request. And then he went and immediately edited according to that feedback and sent me the revised version. Which? Ok yeah sure but now I have to start over. And by that point I was deep in the pre-holiday blues and the first of three annoying back-to-back chest colds and the last of my self-assigned reading for the year. So it took me a bit.
poetry - I'm once again trying to read a poem a day for the foreseeable future (and managed it for all of January!). As a result, I'm "in progress" with three different poetry collections right now: Mary Oliver, the Brownings, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.
DNF:
Amber and Clay by Laura Amy Schlitz (audio) - Qualms about pronunciation aside, this one was not for me ("we can never go home" didn't even keep me there). I did not enjoy the narrative style, and the story was not at all what I was expecting. It felt entirely too pretentious and not at all suited to the audience level of choice. Most reviews mention that and the length, even reviews that enjoyed the book overall. (Side note to anyone considering this book: Read a printed version. It seems there are illustrations.)
The Wartime Book Club by Kate Thompson - So.... My boss was telling me about this historical fiction book she had just read, and somehow she interpreted my polite attention as interest and proceeded to track down her printed copy and lend it to me. And I didn't know how to tell her that I didn't actually want to read it.
So I held onto it for over a month before finally sitting down to read it anddddd made it 28 pages before I gave up.
The premise is fine, if not something I would pick up on my own; it's too like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which I found charming and engaging but not something I wanted to repeat. The execution is a different matter. It's just...not well-written.
Currently Reading:
X6: A Novellanthology edited by Keith Stevenson - I've been wanting to try out the odd anthology and this one has a short story/novella by an author I read and enjoyed a couple of years ago. I've completed two of the six stories so far; one was great and the other was a slog.
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey - This one's a chonker. It's not quite the sort of sci-fi I usually go for but I so consistently hear good things about this series that I'm finally getting to it myself. Despite the heavy world-building required to establish the system-wide conflict that drives the story, the pacing is very good. I'm still so-so about the cast. Side note: My copy is secondhand and smells heavily of Axe Body Spray. Thanks for that, previous owner.
