UPDATE: Sorry about the dissapointing news on 4/13 today. I imagine many fans won’t be in the mood to read this right now, but I thought it’d be a better way to spend the day than being dissapointed. So maybe you will. Either way, I put a lot of love into this. I hope it helps.
I want to begin this post with a mea culpa.
In the wake of the last post covering Jake’s awareness of events unfolding around him, I was lucky enough to receive feedback from a number of really great people. Among that feedback was the idea that I was kind of overstating things with regards to Jake’s intelligence to the opposite extreme.
I feel that this is true! Not because I don’t think Jake is aware or that he was an actively getting Jane to lean one way in her answer–I still think that’s correct, and in fact I have more evidence to present in favor of it under the cut.
But I worry in my zeal, I presented a skewed image of how I think about Jake–essentially, I was trying to correct what I perceive as the fandom problem of invalidating Jake’s intelligence completely and painting him as a moron. I think it is a fair criticism to say I overcorrected in that endeavor.
I’m hoping that admitting that my choosing to tone down certain claims is a direct result of valid and insightful criticism will allow you to give me the benefit of the doubt, and make it easier for you believe I am being genuine in approaching this subject and interested in and willing to incorporate feedback where I find it logically consistent. This is important to me for reasons that will soon become obvious.
That disclaimer out of the way, please click on the cut to see what I have to say.
If you do, by the way: Thank you. It means a lot to me.