i have so many thoughts about Jake English but i want to reread homestuck before tackling a proper character analysis :v I think he's a silly guy, he's definitely in my top ten favorites, and he is NOT stupid or DELIBERATELY mean he is just 16 and probably autistic and potentially brain damaged from like. the uranium. not to say hes this poor little meow meow whos never done anything wrong or anything like that, he has definitely made mistakes and hurt people and he should be held accountable for that, but its just... blown way out of proportion. sometimes people treat him like this terrible person that he is simply Not. i will usually agree to disagree on things but this is NOT one of them.

i really dislike the direction the writers took him in with the epilogues (and post-canon content in general), i feel like hes boiled down to sex appeal and being an idiot loser and its a complete misread of his character. and then in beyond canon hes just so so miserable. but even in homestuck proper, he really didnt get to do much and iirc the only time he got to reach the full extent of his powers (of even use them to a notable degree at all) was in a very doomed timeline that got retconned by john, hes kind of treated as a background character if anything, he gets a much less prominent role in the story + character development compared to the other human kids, even a lot of the trolls.

something else i dislike is something gloomysamurai mentioned, hes often thought of simply as a side character of sorts to others (dirk & jane most often) and hes kind of just mischaracterized a lot, honestly i think people are missing out!! jake is such an interesting, fun character if you give him a chance (example that comes to mind is tomatograter on tumblr/twt, i love their jake sm, hes a prime example of a well characterized jake), with others and on his own, he has so much potential thats either wasted or untouched both as a character in the fandom and as a person within the plot. MAYBE thats just a page of hope thing but its still disappointing.

tl;dr: jake english isnt stupid or mean hes just 16, i dislike how hes mostly treated as some loser or sidepiece to other characters by both the fandom and canon (esp post-canon), and he has so much wasted/untouched potential. JUSTICE FOR MY BOY JAKE !!!

and also sidenote he is so aroace i will die in this hill