#explaining Jak can be hard at times and I feel like people often didn't understand

[miqojak]

From the OC creation ask set: How do you want other people to view or react to your OC?

Little OC Creation Ask List

Gosh, I...really haven't thought about it in this light. I want people to enjoy reading about her, but I don't have in mind how I want them to feel about her - she's a controversial little person. Does her awful past in a concentration camp give her the right to be how she is? Does she have a mental illness that's causing her to act this way (undoubtedly) - does that excuse her behavior? A large part of her, to me, is the awful truth that... she became a lot like the Garleans she despises with every bone in her body, and every fiber of her being. The way they treated her molded her... a lot like Zenos was molded, in a way! She was barely a teen, really, when she ended up in Garlean hands, and the things they did and the ways they treated her (and the ways in which her aether was altered) permanently changed the genuinely kind, and loyal person she once was into... something else entirely.

I used to sympathize a lot with Zenos, but now that we have Zero, I'd ask people to look to how Zero acts, and think about Jak - Jak was socialized among her tribe for a time, and then ripped away and grew up in a concentration camp, as a victim to many war crimes. Her emotions simply do not function like a normal person's any longer - she was a lot like Zero, and is still on a similar journey as Zero... learning what emotions are, really! What's that feeling in her chest? It's confusing, and disturbing...and frightening. She's known fear and loathing most of her life, and she's had...maybe 5-8 years at most in the 'real world', and only one person has really had the patience to help socialize her, and be patient with her while she learns about emotions... both her own, and everyone else's... mostly against her will, lol! (Learning to trust has been a huge journey for her, and still is, so it's beautiful to see a character so like my own in the story - emotionally stunted, and focused on what she gets out of things - and has really dragged me back to the game.)

She thinks a lot like Zero, as well - in bargains. In deals that she takes very seriously. Equitable exchange, or else. (Unless, of course, you let her take advantage of you in said deal, because if you're not as clever as her, she will. xD) Her life has been one of constant mistrust and betrayal, and much like Zero... she's having to learn that there is a world beyond that, whether she likes it or not, and she has to learn how to operate in it. (Apparently, people like it when you say 'please' and 'thank you'?? Ugh, if she must.)

All this said - it's not up to me how people feel about her. Hate her! Love her! Sympathize with her! Hate to love her, love to hate her! Or all of the above, and then some! As long as people are feeling something, that's the goal! She's not perfect, and she's meant to evoke mixed feelings - no one person is any one thing. We are all a mixed bag of good and bad... some more than others. I tried to make her 'human' in that aspect; there's reasons for why she is how she is, but they're not excuses - even when she'd like to think they are.