Can you talk more about Jake though? 'o' is there a particular reason you think Joey and Jude weren't conceived normally? Do you think they still have A. Claire's genes? What does Jake's title mean to you and what do you think entails failing as a hero in grandpa's narrative? aaaa
i can always talk more about jake *rubs my hands together*
i personally have been thinking maybe at least the paradox clone kids can’t conceive naturally, even if it’s only a SUPER loosely put together headcanon. john’s dad and jane’s dad genetically appear to be the same person, which would mean they were both adopted by nanna and poppop. that also makes sense bc nanna would have had to adopt him in her fifties at the earliest for him to be a comfortable age to date mom lalonde (i mean. he COULD be 60ish and dating a 35 year old. but.) but i feel like nanna would have had a heap of kids if she could have, and she didn’t. also, why wouldn’t grandpa have kids until he’s 70? i know the guy is a loose canon but he still looks young enough in his wedding photo. though that could be chalked up to the art style. anyway! all of this is just baseless conjecture and personal musings, and i’d be SUPER surprised if any of it turned out to have any merit.
the real reason i think joey and jude weren’t conceived normally is because i think a. claire is an alien. and not dead. i mean, jake married her and she’s only moderately blue so i’m gonna assume there’s something else a little weird about her. also, she has an alien cherub key that unlocks a portal to alternia. so there’s definitely SOMETHING fishy happening there. so i guess they POSSIBLY have her genes. joey’s hair definitely looks similar to hers. but i’m not taking it as a definite
(also think she’s not dead because where’s her taxidermied body?)
a page of hope to me, at least in relation to jake and grandpa, means that they both struggle with fantasy vs. reality and how to reconcile who they want to be, who others want them to be, and who they actually are. jake struggles with portraying himself as the macho suave adventurer when in reality he’s just a scared, introverted kid who’d rather everything was a lot easier. he’s okay with the fantasy of dating any one of his friends but when it actually becomes a reality it’s stressful. his quest is really one of discovering that a lot of what he thought he wanted and wanted to be was actually an illusion and takes that to mean that he’s useless. though his character arc kinda ends there, we can see distantly that he appears to develop a better sense of self-worth post-game and can presume that he manages to become happy being himself instead of being the fantasy adventurer he envisioned himself being
then we take grandpa, who largely would seem pretty successful and considering they both run skaianet in the end largely seem the same? except they’re totally not because grandpa isn’t even jake. he changes his name and basically throws himself into the persona jake tried to portray at the start. he’s a “WORLD RENOWNED EXPLORER-NATURALIST-TREASURE HUNTER-ARCHEOLOGIST-SCIENTIST-ADVENTURER-BIG GAME HUNTER-BILLIONAIRE EXTRAORDINAIRE” and if that doesn’t sound like the most pre-game jake thing ever then what does honestly. but it’s not what we see from jake by the end of his character arc
jake might want to be an adventurer and an explorer and a treasure hunter, but it’s all a fantasy. grandpa harley turns that fantasy into a reality, but in the process ceases to be jake. he becomes hass the flame harley! the macho man! and leaves jake crocker, a very scared boy who had to run away from home at 13 with his dog, behind and completely disassociates from it. grandpa harley isn’t scared of crowds and social interaction, he’s not bothered by killing animals for sport, he doesn’t need anyone to support him on his important missions, he isn’t going to waste time moping and grieving visibly over the “death” of his wife. grandpa harley is such an amazing, world-renowned explorer, adventurer, multi-billionaire, playboy philanthropist that all he needs to do is show up every now and again and grace his children with his brief presence to be a loving father, right?
but jake crocker, the boy who ran away from home, is not like that at all. he’s probably as introverted as jake english, apparently loves animals, and presumably loves his wife and kids. but grandpa never reconciles the man he’s shown himself to be and the man who can afford to care about things that are ultimately going to be snatched away from him.
by homestuck we can see that grandpa is literally so far into fantasy land that he’s having a tea party with a blue woman doll so we can only assume he’s halfway there by the time he thinks parenting is dumping your children with a stuffed lion every now and again. to me that’s what a failed page of hope looks like; someone who can’t differentiate between the fantasy they’ve made up to protect themselves and the reality they’re eventually going to have to face. if grandpa were to succeed, he would eventually accept his grief, come to terms with his trauma, acknowledge that his public persona isn’t who he actually is, and realise that children are not puppets to place in your fantasy life and are living, breathing people who need to be cared for and that it’s okay to care about them too
