Jake is a Well Written Character and this is both his greatest boon and his greatest curse.

He's the sort of guy who *really does mean the best*, like I'm sure he has the heart in him, but can't really.. follow through on that. Caught in his own little bubble when people need to believe in him, to believe that he can see what they need of him. Always wishing he could do better, but fighting himself at every step.

As he stands, he's someone you just can't put your hopes into wholesale without some kind of contingency - he'll be a bit too self absorbed when you need him to be selfless, but he'll throw himself at a problem when you need him to let you take it alone. He'll promise to change, and you might almost believe it, right until push comes to shove, and he falls apart again, because he thinks doing the right thing is just trying hard until suddenly you don't have to try anymore and it just happens instead of something you work for every step of the way.

He has to learn to be someone you can *actually* believe in, and not just believe you can believe in. And god i hope the recent developments mean that day is actually coming soon but. well.