I have rooted for him since 2012, and I will continue to root for him going forward. I was admittedly frequently disappointed with how his character was handled in late Homestuck (this guy is traumatized and considering retreating into solitude oh let’s not deal with that kind of trouble) but I was glad to see that Credits seemed to show him settling into some semblance of peace.

Then the epilogues happened, and I was extremely enraged by the direction his character was taken in both routes. (To this day I do not dare finish one page of either route.) It didn’t help that in HS^2 meat Jake was soon shunted into a bonus side story and left abandoned for years while candy Jake seemed to not be able to catch a break either. [S] 8r8k had me outright cheering as I saw one version of Jake finally make great strides in taking action and being presented as capable and competent for a change.

Some will say that he was always meant to be written as a joke character, or a deconstruction. Perhaps that is so. But I cannot help but root for him — here is a guy whose life dealt him a bad hand, who also stumbles and makes flawed choices, but has the capacity in him to accomplish great and awe-inspiring things. How could one not be drawn to that character concept?