#jarod

Nodding emphatically, that's in the regulations, yeah.

Jarod NoLastName! Let's run through it.

Why I like them: I like his weird streak of vindictiveness. The character could easily have been a classic hero type, above it all, but when it comes to carrying out cruel and unusual punishments with impressive glee, he's it.

Why I don’t: For someone whose privacy was deprived from him for his entire life, he sure isn't good at letting anyone else have theirs. Very nosy! This alone is a dealbreaker in terms of the two of us having a chill hang.

Favourite episode (scene if movie): I don't know if it's my very favourite, but in terms of Jarod highlights, I really like Junk? Love seeing his empathy turning on a group of people that most don't empathize with, and the backstory about the Centre getting him addicted to a narcotic is horrific.

Favourite season/movie: 2, I think. It has a great run of episodes near the end. Stolen, Red Rock Jarod, and Bank all in a row? You spoil me.

Favourite line: The delivery of "Well, that's the beauty of it, Luther. You see... I can." when he's about to steal the guy's kidney or whatever is wonderful. He doesn't get much more terrifying than that.

Favourite outfit: Weird pick given I don't like his Elvis pompadour look, but parolee!Jarod really does it for me.

OTP: Jarod/Miss Parker, obviously.

Brotp: I love every rare interaction he has with Broots. I don't know that I want them to be friends, but I want them to come to some mutual understanding. Mostly I want Broots to understand his complicity in Jarod's whole miserable deal.

Head Canon: His Pretender ability doesn't apply to languages. That's why he (read: the actor) is bad at them.

Unpopular opinion: I don't think this fandom is big enough to have popular and unpopular opinions. Uhh I once had a commenter push back on him toying with a random Centre employee just to fuck with them, and they said he wouldn't do that. Yes, he would.

A wish: For him to burn the Centre to the ground.

An oh-god-please-don't-ever-happen: Let bygones by bygones with the Centre. Yes, even with Miss P. Hold some grudges. Make them remember what they did.

5 words to best describe them: versatile, vindictive, curious, sweet, smug.

My nickname for them: ... Jarod. I mean I type J when I'm lazy. That's not a nickname.

Thanks! 🥰

Me: Let's watch The Pretender 3x18 Wake Up and think about the Tommy.

OH NOES.

I still can't get over how traumatic it is for Parker.

But way to go show for fridging a dude!

But also like oh Parker's self denial about how awful her world is.

Paired with Jarod's really not able to get out from his shtick of mind games. How he wants to help her and her grief and also has to couch everything in that distance and questions while doing it.

Which is like how they reveal his connection to Tommy was.

Like my boy, getting her a boyfriend was screwed up in so many ways! I kinda love it. They are so wildly damaged. He can't emotionally connect so finds someone else who can! Lol wtf Jarodl?!

Even as like I'm not sure he gets that's fucked, or well either do, as she ends up accepting it like it's a good thing too.

He sent an innocent into that quagmire???

He thought oh this great guy for you Parker and then is shocked it worked and didn't. Kinda read he was one part looking to get her to escape with this guy and also living vicarious and jelly and yet didn't see this coming when he infers and reminds ALL THE TIME her "family" is lethal.

What did you think was endpoint Jarod? I don't think he knows.

Because his greater objective is always to bring down this place that hurt him too and his blind spot is thinking he can do it right or for some reason if he can reason Parker out it will magic fix.

So she gets a bundle more grief and he gets guilts.

Oops.

Road 96 fans, are you alive or smth💔💔💔💔

Ooooh, good question! And a rather difficult one to answer.

Tellius has such a wide array of fun, colorful, and sometimes terrifying villains to choose from. I like a lot of them, but for vastly different reasons, so it’s difficult to compare them.

So I’m just gonna pick my top 3, in no particular order.

The first villain that comes to mind is Jerod. Part 1 of Radiant Dawn has always been my least fav part of the Tellius series, but I do appreciate Jerod. He’s just… so unapologetic about all the evil stuff he’s doing. And not in a cartoonishly evil villain way. You can see how Jarod came to his position. He loves control and inflicting pain on others.

And yet, he comes across as so calm and sensible. When his crimes come to light, he’s so nonchalant about it? Like, “damn, look’s like it’s over for me”, but then decides that instead of surrendering and submitting to the consequences of his actions, he’d rather die, if it means he can kill more Daein soldiers.

Next is Sephiran. Not sure to what extent he qualifies as a villain. He’s such a tragic character. He was given an impossible task, and suffered so much pain and loss.

I just… there’s part of me that really, really sympathizes with him. He’s seen the worse of all of history, and because he feels so deeply, of course he wanted to do everything in his power to help others, to steer the world away from war, to rid Tellius of slavery, prejudice, and corruption. All of his efforts fail, and yet he keeps trying. And he continued to try, again and again, for 6 hundred years.

That’s a long time. That’s like, an unfathomably long amount of time.

I feel like most people would have given up before the hundredth year. With all he’s seen, all the cruel atrocities committed by both laguz and beorc, how can we blame him for saying “hey, actually, Ashera might be right, this place sucks, let’s let her burn it all down and start over?”

Aaaand last but not least, there’s Izuka. It’s always so satisfying to kill that man. Unlike Jarod, he IS cartoonishly evil, almost to the point where it’s difficult to take him seriously. And yet, when you think about all the stuff he’s done, it’s terrifying! That Gritnea Tower chapter is something straight out of a horror movie!!

(I’m also a little sad they removed his character of quirk of saying “Wheeeeeee!” at inappropriate times in RD. But maybe living in the tower was making him extra loopy?)

Other honorable mentions: Petrine for being a hot mess, Valtome for being a flamboyantly problematic queen, Zelgius for his devotion to his absolutely whack and somewhat contradictory morals, and Havetti for having the best pirate name I’ve ever heard.