Jake Dillinger
I just started thinking about Jake Dillinger. He lost everything and he wasn’t even close to being the main character, or represented as anything more than a douchey jock. At least Jeremy and Michael had a happy ending. (Not together.)
Jake lost his house in a fire that his best friend started, and we can headcanon that he forgives him and that everything worked out all we want, but that’s unlikely. He probably lost Rich too. Not even mentioning that Rich wasn’t the same person that Jake thought he was their entire friendship. Not just that, but Rich’s S.Q.U.I.P used Jake as a way to get Rich his objective, meaning that he was taken advantage of by his best friend.
So, he lost his house, his girlfriend, his best friend, the mobility of his legs (And from using them before they were healed, probably lost that for longer than he would have originally), his parents left him, and he’s remained mostly calm and collected. Not only that, but he has the pressure of popularity, and not to mention all of his clubs.
I really love him a lot, and I really respect him. I saw the fan wiki for him, and I’m gonna try my best to quote it.
“Lacks empathy”
I’m pretty sure it said something along those lines. But cut the dude some slack, I mean yeah, he called Jeremy a freak, but he was trying to impress a girl and usually, for him, that kind of thing works.
I see a lot of people try to say that Michael had it the worst, and I see where they’re coming from, but Jake didn’t get a sad song. Jake didn’t get to tell his story. Jake had to sit back and let his emotions swirl inside his head, while he waited for his legs to heal. He was such a “minor” character, in the sense that he doesn’t often get noticed, and it takes a while to add all the things up about him for most people. And not everyone who’s seen Be More Chill is a huge fan who watches it over and over. Which means that a lot of people can gloss over him entirely.
Even I’m guilty of that. I didn’t realize how big of a character he was until the third time of watching Be More Chill.
Not only that, but he also got his free will yanked from him. Yes, everyone else did too, but that on top of everything else is just heartbreaking.
Long story short, I love my boy, and he deserves more appreciation.
This also makes me appreciate Joe and Joe’s writing more, since every character is deep and relatable in some way, and Jake is absolutely no exception.
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