Attention fellow Jerome Valeska writers!!! (This’ll be a long one…)
Every writer should know that when writing stories, you’ve got to make sure to never make your characters act out of character, especially if the character isn’t yours (ex: writing for a character from a t.v show). But so many writers make this mistake!
And I see this happen so much with Jerome and it just makes my frickin’ blood boil.
And I don’t mean you have to ace everything. You don’t have to nail his creepiness. You don’t have to write his jokes just oh so wonderfully. Literally no one except Cameron Monaghan can actually ace everything about Jerome Valeska.
What I’m talking about is simply basic stuff about him. Things that you can simply just watch his scenes to know.
Jerome obviously has a very serious and sad life. However, Jerome approaches it with a relentless sense of humor. So why do people make write him to be so serious? I mean, there are times when he’s really serious, but even in those times, it’s not long before he starts to at least give a cynical laugh and a witty remark. But in so many fanfics I see him being this super serious guy.
Long story short - if you’re writing a fic, and Jerome isn’t smiling, laughing, making a witty comment, making a joke, or at least cynically chuckling, you’re writing him wrong.
I think a very common thing that writers forget about Jerome is that he is a child. And by that I don’t mean simply childish, and certainly not literally (I mean, he’s an adult). He legit acts like a complete child. He has a child’s mentality. (Season 4 Jerome is kinda different. #characterdevelopment. But I’m talking about season 2 and 3 Jerome. The one most people write for.)
I have an eight year old brother and I can truly tell you that Jerome is basically an eight year old.
Now don’t get me wrong, he isn’t totally a kid. He does have lots of other, more serious, qualities(haha like murdering people, his general creepiness, his not-so-hidden pain, etc.), but a lot of the way he acts, at its roots can be connected to how a child acts. So he’s basically a young child with a lot of issues.
Now, for those of you who have forgotten how a child acts, I will generously help you.
Aggravated and pouty when they don’t get their way
Bored easily (the only things they’re willing to do for a long period of time is things that they really like)
Very possessive over their belongings
Keeps things pretty simple (to their standards. What could be extremely simple to them might be extremely complicated or illogical to others)
Lots of pent up energy all the time
Probably a little more that I forgot to write…
This one is really obvious. There are numerous times in the show when he’ll draw attention to a certain subject for a little while, and then a second later, he’s completely bored with it and changes the subject. And if anyone tries to bring it back up, he shows that he feels extremely inconvenienced by it.
2. Aggravated and pouty when they don’t get their way
This is the main reason that made me immediately notice and search for his other child-like qualities.
Okay, in the interrogation scene, right after he learns that Mr. Cicero is his father, he turns to Jim and he just pouts like frickin’ toddler. Because at that moment for him, everything is wrong. 1)He just got found out for killing his mom. 2) He just learned that his father wasn’t a sea captain but instead is a blind old geezer, 3) And he is definitely going to be locked up for life.
And before he breaks out into laughter and treats the entire thing like a joke, the only thing he does is pout, because he realizes he no longer has the upper hand. If that’s not him being a spoiled child that didn’t get his way then I don’t know what is.
Also, when Galavan stops Jerome at the banquet, it only happens for a few seconds but before Jerome turns around, the series of the emotions that flash on his face are priceless.
Because he was really having a good time and enjoying himself, and then out of nowhere someone tells him to stop.
First, we see anger. Then annoyance and confusion.
And if you just watch a spoiled child’s reaction at not being able to do what they want, you will see those and expressions, maybe sometimes not in the same order, but they’re there.
3. Bored easily (the only things they’re willing to do for a long period of time is things that they really like)
It’s no secret that Jerome likes killing, making a name for himself, performing, and joking. He could do those for days on end.
But Jerome is a very ‘up and at it’ type of guy. He never does anything for too long unless he really enjoys it, and even then it’s still pretty rare. Don’t get me wrong, he will milk a few moments when he wants to, but overall he’s pretty straight forward.
Like at the banquet when he’s trying to scare Bruce into coming out from behind the curtains, after a while he says “eh I’m bored. Shoot the butler.”
Now while it might have just been a way to make Bruce come out of hiding, he did seem genuinely bored.
4. Very possessive over their belongings
Jerome spent the first years of his life extremely deprived, so when he gets his hands on anything, he wants to keep it.
When Greenwood swiped the sword out of Jerome’s hand, he immediately showed him who was boss.
And when Greenwood took his line, Jerome killed him.
Long story short, Jerome hates when people take his stuff.
5. Keeps things pretty simple (to their standards. What could be extremely simple to them might be extremely complicated or illogical to others)
Whenever Jerome does literally ANYTHING, he does it or explains it in such a way that it’s like it seems so simple and logical in his mind.
Like, when Jim asked him why he killed his mother, he just simply explained it and even used a little nonchalant gesture with his hand like it was so simple to explain why he did what he did.
And when he was trying to 'free’ Oswald, he tells him that he is handing him a key and he just wants Ozzie to easily take it. He explains to Oswald in such a simple way, but in reality he’s making it super hard on Pengy.
6. Lots of pent up energy all the time
You can tell this in all of his mannerisms and just the way he does literally everything he does.
In conclusion (of this subject),
There are a lot that I didn’t mention, but just know that he’s pretty much a freakin’ child.
Another thing people constantly forget is that Jerome is an extrovert.
Now I’m not saying that he can never be alone, he’ll definitely be alone when he needs to be. But c'mon, the guy isn’t a loner like a lot of writers make him out to be. He seems to genuinely like to be around people, or to at least have an audience.
If anything he’s more like an obnoxiously intruding person. If he wants company, he’ll have it, wether the 'company’ wants it or not.
A lot of folks write Jerome like he’s such an endlessly sad guy. And yeah, sure his life is depressing, but overall he’s not really sad.
No one really knows what he was like in his circus days, but after he became free, he’s not really sad about his life anymore, or at least he doesn’t show it. If anything he shows that he’s fueled by anger, not sadness.
Then there are some people that write him to be happy in the outside and sad on the inside. While that can work, there are plenty of times where Jerome is legit enjoying his life. There are only a few crucial times when he’s really thinking about his pain in life, and it’s mostly while he’s getting revenge. But otherwise he’s pretty upbeat. He’s definitely not feeling sad 24/7.
Thanks for reading this really long post. Hope you guys try to use this in your imagines and stuff.
areudirty
theartofmadeline
