CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS. accepting.
12. in what situation was your character the most calm they’ve ever been ?
jesse’s life is never rly……….. Calm flkdf he kinda runs on like two settings marked Intense and Slightly Less Intense. that being said it really really doesn’t take much to let him kick back and relax ! his time with jane was probably some of the most laid back time he had in the series, mostly due to her personality being pretty lax.
jesse is hugely impressionable and the company he keeps will largely dictate his mood and attitudes. walt puts him down and tranfers his stress regarding his health and his family life onto jesse and as a result jesse’s self-esteem drops and he gets anxiety through the roof. jane cracks jokes, talks about philosophical concepts and art, as a result jesse becomes a whole lot more pensive and is thankfully distracted from the burden of mr. white.
20. in what ways does your character compare themselves to others? do they do this for the sake of self-validation, or self-criticism?
the only validation jesse gets is from other people, which is 110% the reason he went back to walt in 3x07 after hank beat him up, despite his insistence on not doing so. walt is a crafty manipulator and telling jesse that his meth was up to par only served as bait to reel his partner back in again. walt knows jesse both craves and thrives from validation and doles it out in tiny portions, much like a drug dealer gives a junkie his fix.
in regards to comparing himself, jesse absolutely does this, especially in regards to walt and, as aforementioned, the standard of his meth. this is pretty damn obvious in 01x05 when jesse cooks meth with badger : while badger is more than happy to accept the first batch jesse makes, arguing that while it may not be 110% to walt’s standard it’s still purer than anything else they’ve seen, jesse won’t have it and even throws it out for another batch, and another, and another. he’s a perfectionist at heart and often holds himself to unrealistic standards which ultimately only decreases his value of himself.
he seeks validation in his comparisons to others, but is met only with criticism.
33. in the face of criticism, is your character defensive, self-deprecating, or willing to improve?
definitely depends on who’s criticising him. most often he’ll be pretty convincingly dismissive, waving off any concerns ( whether legitimate or unfounded ) with some sarcastic remark, but think back to the conversation later in retrospect and pick apart the argument, often with the notion that he was in the wrong the whole time. in regards to his parents, he may argue back somewhat maturely, but it never really gets very far before he just silences himself and lets them get it all out. with them, it’s a fifty-fifty split : he is certain they’ve got a share of the blame, but he’s also super hard on himself with the points they drill into him.
when someone he really cares for criticises him, it hurts. he’s most definitely willing to improve but it’s not something he can take in his stride so easily and will likely be downhearted and paranoid to excess about whether or not they still like him, whether they’re going to up and leave him overnight, etc. finally, walt’s criticism is a special case given the nature of their relationship. walt is in a position of authority and knows his stuff, so jesse takes his criticism ( at least in regards to the cooking process ) extremely seriously and pays close attention so he can do better.
the lines get muddied when you place that power imbalance in a situation where they are work partners and therefore equals. jesse has had partners closer to his age in the drug trade before and is pretty lax in arguing back and forth with them about the best course of action, so it’s likely that in regards to walt’s criticism on areas he’s less familiar with, jesse will clap back and get defensive. he’s willing to take blows in regards to the cooking process ( though at first he is defensive and argues that chili p is his specialty, that it’s art -- it takes walt cooking a perfect batch for him to change his mind on this ) but that’s about as far as it goes.
