#it's got way more of a Jak from Jak and Daxter vibe to me... even the way they jump is the same. Much more bouncy and leaning forward etc | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pinkopalina · 7 years

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Since you said people were invited to talk with you about Jak and Daxter, I was wondering if you could explain to me why Keira is a bad/problematic character/person? (only if you want to, that is!) I mainly ask because I was watching a grainy youtube vid of her out of curiosity recently bc you mentioned her quite a few times and i got curious, haha. I remember when Jak and Daxter first came out, but otherwise, I don't know a whole lot about the series or people in it save for some obvious stuff!

(warning: this hate essay is very nearly 4k words. continue at your own risk!)

first and foremost let me start off by saying i personally only consider the precursor legacy, jak II, and jak 3 canon games. jak x, the lost frontier, and even daxter (despite varying levels of quality) are not canon to me. this means that i don’t think jak’s relationship with keira in jak x/tlf is a legitimate thing, but i still want to go over it because it’s a problematic area to me as someone who’s been in a relationship similar to theirs.

secondly, as far as the first three games (which are the games i play the most), i’ll definitely go over problems that affect the real world problem of continuously writing girls like this and not calling them out just because “they’re strong women characters”, and i’ll also talk about what in the game she did as a person that just really pissed me off. so here goes!

first game thoughts

real-world writing problems - the first game has a few kinks in it because when naughty dog made the first game, they 1) weren’t sure if it would kick off with enough gusto to give them an opportunity to make a second game 2) had no idea what the second game would even be about should they make it. so some of the relationships are retconned by the time the second game rolled around, and some of them were just swept under the rug.

for example, in the first game, keira is just samos’ daughter. nothing wrong with that. but when the second game comes out, we find out that samos and jak are both actually from the future and have travelled back in time in order to prepare jak for the real world. so then where did keira come from? samos didn’t have her in the second game, and jak x reveals with what i consider at least canon information that keira is a year younger than jak. in the second game, we’re never given an age for the younger jak that travels back in time, but he’s clearly not one. so the only other options are that keira is an orphan that samos adopts in sandover, or keira is a person that samos has with another person in sandover. considering the fact that the only other female characters are an eco sage falling deeper into the madness the eco causes her, a likely barren old woman who’s obsessed with birds and can’t have kids, and a much younger geologist…i’d say that one’s not quite as likely. so we don’t really know where keira ends up originating from in the first place, and they never clarify that.

i think keira in the first game is a much better character than she is in the other games, but i really don’t like how she doesn’t have ANY other females to interact with. the only other girls in the entire game are an old bird lady, the geologist who she doesn’t have anything to do with, and the antagonist, maia. keira’s a smart, independent person, doing her own thing and building her own stuff, but she still relies on conversation only from her father, a mute love interest who doesn’t really spend any time with her, and an orphan-turned-animal that she shows no interest in, even as a “childhood” friend, which brings me to:

in-game problems – a lot of people headcanon keira and jak and daxter all as really good childhood friends who grew up together but i just don’t see it that way. whenever keira is introduced to the player in the first game, jak looks at her like he’s never seen her before, and their flirty attitudes toward each other indicate more of a “attraction/love at first sight” vibe rather than a “we grew up together so i don’t give a shit how ‘hot’ you look” kind of thing. obviously i don’t think that jak and daxter don’t know who keira is at all—but i severely doubt that they know much about her beyond the fact that she’s samos’ daughter, she lives in a room presumably underneath his hut where she can also build things, and that she even exists period. considering that none of the things she’s built yet are actually prepared for use, and that jak and daxter have to collect stuff for her in order for her inventions to work, it can be said that she hasn’t completed anything for them to use either. not now, and not as friends from childhood. so it’s not like jak knows keira in any other way except “person that samos lives with and cares for.” so considering all that, the writing’s not so bad, as far as “we don’t know how successful our game is going to be and how much story we’re gonna be able to tell” goes, but it’s still kind of shitty on her part, just as the first (and token) important female character in a game series. in addition to her retconning, jak presumably lived with his “uncle” up until the point in the second game that we learn jak is from the actual future. but aside from that, in the first game it’s implied that he has an uncle who at least took part in raising him, and a room to live in in that house—not at samos’. even though most of the fandom agrees samos raised him, there’s no room for him anywhere at samos’ house, yet there’s space for jak at his uncle’s. (and there’s literally nowhere for daxter, who is just an ostracized outcast with little backstory, but at least what little information we have about him isn’t ruined by the literal next game, like keira’s is.) so considering that jak probably didn’t know keira, probably didn’t live with keira, and probably didn’t have anything to do with keira’s inventions up until the moment the player meets her in the game, my opinion is that that’s the moment jak and daxter both meet her as well. they weren’t childhood friends as far as i’m concerned.

plus the way she treats daxter and talks to him in all the games shows me that she really doesn’t care about him at all, only jak. there are multiple instances in the game where keira tells jak to be safe or careful, or that he did a good job, and daxter literally has to chime in to mention that “WE” will be, that he exists, too. when daxter first sees keira, he tries to impress her with his tiny little unimpressive ottsel muscles, which she deflects immediately by saying “i don’t date animals.” nothing wrong with that—sometimes guys who just wanna get in your tutu can be annoying. but if keira and daxter had known each other before, why is he only just now hitting on her? and why doesn’t she question the fact that he’s become an animal, or why doesn’t she say something along the lines of “maybe if you’re human again”? probably because the game never intends for daxter to be turned back in the first place, but there’s still no way that we—nor keira—should know that, especially if she had befriended him in the first place. plus, we learn later on that once daxter is turned down from a person, be it romantically or platonically, he pretty much stops hitting on them or bothering them. he’s a really extroverted guy, and as womanizing as he is, he knows when to step down. so if he hadn’t had the chance to hit on her in the first place, why is he suddenly going for it again? because this is the first chance he’s had.

SO WHAT DOES THAT ALL BRING ME TO, ANYWAYS?

the point is, many people think that keira has this caring, deeply-rooted rainbow of friendship and happiness in store for daxter when that’s simply not the case, and i can pull actual script examples of things she says to prove otherwise.

from the first game, we have

Daxter: Hey, baby! Whadd’ya say you and I go cruisin’ on this A-Grav Zoomer?

Keira: Rule number one: I don’t date animals.

Daxter: Awww, you don’t know what you’re missin’!

(keira’s in no way obligated to say yes to a date with daxter. that’s fine. but if she knew him before, why’s he JUST an animal to her, and not a childhood friend whose shapeshifting situation is more important to the both of them than a romantic interest? i personally think that maybe she only knew dax as some ugly kid samos told her not to play with and even better—that she just doesn’t care about what happened to him, and only vaguely realizes that the reason an ottsel is here in place of daxter is because he’s the same person, which makes her treatment of him that i’m about to go over even better.)

Keira: Great! You have the 20 cells needed to power my Heat Shield! Now be careful! The shield will only protect your Zoomer until it reaches 500 degrees, so try to keep her cool. Flying over open lava will definitely heat you up fast! Hit 500 degrees and it’s all over!

Daxter: OVER?! Like burning molten metal over?!

Keira: The Fire Canyon gets pretty hot, so keep a look out for jumps to keep you off the hot ground. I’ve also released several blue cooling balloons you can use to drop the shield’s temperature quickly. Oh! And when you get across, don’t forget to activate the teleport gate in the Blue Sage’s Lab! Then we’ll be able to teleport over and meet you! Good luck!

(okay, so this isn’t really a reason to completely dislike keira but on a sidenote: i think it’s funny how even though keira is the one who builds these things and can race them, she has a bad habit of making people who know next to nothing about them do all the dangerous stuff involving them, an instance that happens in the second game with the class 2 race as well, but we’ll get to that in a minute.)

people also like to call keira the “inventor of zoomers” like the lurkers don’t already have all that technology way before keira’s even gotten the power cells needed to power hers, or like the other sages with their literal years of experience and tech around them don’t somehow come before keira on the “technology existing” scale. she didn’t invent anything. she built it. there’s a difference.

Keira: Apparently, the Precursor structure just off the coast leads to an underwater lost city! The Blue Sage has been trying to figure out how we can bring one of the chambers to the surface, but he was never successful. You should check it out!

Daxter: Uh, aren’t there a lot of um, Lurker Sharks in that water?

Keira: Why? Are you scaaared?

Daxter: Me?! Of course not! Just… lookin’ out for Jak here. You uh, know what a chicken he can be.

Keira: Well, if you swim out over the coral reef I doubt the Lurker Sharks will bother you. They don’t like shallow water.

(she’s just being playful here, and like i said, i like her better in the first game, but once again—hey boys! go out on a dangerous mission without much concern from my end of your fear of swimming and DYING! good luck!)

(i also think it’s funny how most of her interaction happens with daxter, yet jak is still her best friend too, or something.)

Keira: Ha ha! Alright! With these additional Power Cells I should be able to supply the heat shield with enough power to stand up to this lava! But the shield still has a limit. It will now withstand temperatures up to 800 degrees, but no more, so keep an eye on your gauge. I don’t want to think about what those temperatures would do to your Zoomer if the shield gives out.

Daxter: Yeah, the heat… WHAT?! The Zoomer?! Hey! What about us?! Couldn’t we look for a safer route to Gol’s Citadel?

Keira: Look, I’ve released more cooling balloons into the tube. So you can use them to keep the temperature down. And don’t forget to activate the teleport gate in the Yellow Sage’s lab. We’re counting on you!

(i remember when i was playing this game, keira actually stops when daxter asks her if there isn’t a safer way. she’s really unconcerned with the danger she’s putting BOTH of the boys through, and completely dismissed daxter’s concerns altogether.)

and here we are to the start of my favorite trend in the games completely—jak’s existence, despite literally not having spoken a word to keira when i’ve already explained today in earlier text posts that he had every means to, is still more important to keira than daxter, who has despite all of his fears and problems with what keira’s said, done everything she’s asked.

Daxter: Hey! Where’s old short green and wrinkly?

Keira: This is terrible! Father is missing! I think Gol and Maia may have kidnapped him as well!

Daxter:��Relax, sweetheart. I got everything under control.

Keira: Under control?! Lurker armies continue to grow across the land, the sages have been kidnapped, Gol and Maia have enough eco to complete their terrible plan, and to stop them you’re going to have to fight your way through their Citadel!!

Daxter: Uh… yeah. That about uh, sums it up.

(so even though keira has put the boys through so much and continuously asked them to do everything for her without her doing even half of the work collecting stuff she needs or doing little tasks to get orbs, and telling them they’ve been doing great and that she’s counting on them and that everything will be fine if they just listen to her, now all of a sudden daxter’s word of confidence is invalid to her. okay. plus this next little gem:)

Keira: You’ve got to rescue my father before it’s too late! And Jak?…Be careful.

Daxter: Yeah, WE will be!

(this is the point where daxter has learned his lesson and no longer tries to positively associate with keira, and well beyond the point of keira pretending like she ever had an ounce of concern for daxter. when they first meet in the second game, there is no hitting on keira from daxter, who’s the biggest womanizer in the entire game. and why? because they’re not friends, and they do not like each other.)

(and so we come to the ending, where jak has used his light/white/whatever i don’t feel like having that argument today eco on saving the world after daxter says he’ll be fine being unable to turn into a human again, which was……..literally the whole point of the first game.)

Jak, who is back to his normal self, and Daxter return to the roof atop a precursor platform, dancing. The four sages and Keira are waiting to congratulate them.

Samos: Well, it looks as if I may have been too hard on you, boys! You DO have what it takes to be heroes!

Keira: But, Daxter… now we can’t change you back.

Daxter: Don’t worry about me, baby! You know what they say: Big things come in small packages!

(so now conveniently keira remembers that daxter is in fact human at heart, despite having treated him pretty much like garbage and not caring about his safety the entire game. at the end of the game after knowing everything i know, i assume that keira knew about daxter the whole time, and only decided he was only worth her time as a person, much less a friend, once he proved himself worthy of hero status and useful to keira. despite whatever may be canon and whatever my observations of this “friendship” is, i know that this is not a good basis for a relationship regardless of if it’s supposedly a childhood one or an entirely fresh one.)

second game thoughts

(phew, alright! here’s where i’ve focused most of my old text posts, because the second game is my favorite, so now instead of writing out my feelings, i can just link you to some old ones!)

real-world writing problems: she’s unnecessarily catty toward the other women just for being women, or plain doesn’t talk to them at all yet their friendships are supposedly fully established to the player, she victim blames jak and her “apology” (which was absolutely aimed at jak’s racing and comparing him to erol instead of the ACTUAL ISSUE, which was BLAMING JAK FOR “CHANGING” DESPITE THE FACT THAT THE PERSON SHE COMPARED HIM TO IS THE ONE THAT CAUSED IT IN THE FIRST PLACE) is accepted as good enough for the fandom and her redemption

in-game problems: she still doesn’t give a flip about daxter’s existence, she doesn’t listen to daxter the first time he tells her that yes, jak HAS changed and presumably only listens to erol concerning jak’s changeAFTER daxter has already tried to tell her what was going on, she berates jak for working for krew despite she herself being one of krew’s clients, she forces daxter to win the class 2 race despite the fact that she’s a racer/mechanic and has lots of trophies in her garage presumably from her own races that she’s won and daxter doesn’t even know what the /parts/ of the zoomer are called, much less how to win a race when she could just as easily have done it, keira is allowed to get angry with both jak and ashelin for forming a friendship at all despite the fact that she apparently trusts erol’s information about jak more than daxter’s or jak’s actual experiences and jak isn’t allowed to be upset with her at all over any of this.

on top of all that, people believe that keira is going through so much worse than jak, because she’s been separated from her father for two years and she was all alone in a big city for the first time, where she was comfortably living in the richer parts of the city, near a stadium (and did i mention clean, running water?), in a garage which is an environment she’s used to and adores being in, being able to build things and race like she loves to do and has always done, and she gets to watch erol race and flirt with him as frequently as she wants, but jak’s been living the peachy life, you know, literally all alone without ever having anybody in his life there for him except for daxter, and, oh yeah, being TORTURED FOR TWO YEARS under experimentation that has KILLED OTHER PEOPLE IMMEDIATELY, and took TWO FULL YEARS TO EVEN CHANGE JAK IN THE FIRST PLACE. but, you know, jak’s an asshole for hating his torturer and for still giving keira a chance even after she talks about how great erol is (and ignoring the fact that he’s literally the first in command in the KG which is a VERY obvious thing she’s CLEARLY overlooking because she likes him) and she’s just a scared precious baby. but, you know. she has it way worse.

and all that development would be okay for her except she is NEVER CALLED OUT ON IT. not in the game and certainly not in the fandom unless it’s by people like me and people who follow me who are just as tired of her shit and her exaltation as i am.

third game thoughts

SO AFTER ALL OF THIS BULLSHIT

real-world problems: you have the third game, where keira has literally three lines. guess she’s not as important to jak and daxter’s development as we thought she was, now, is she?

Keira: Daxter! Jak! You did it!

Keira: Also, the large number of Eco Crystals being moved about can mean only one thing… someone is trying to awaken vast Precursor technology.

Keira: Jak’s always gotten us through thick and thin, I’m with him.

something that i actually didn’t mind at all because it showed that HEY, MAYBE their relationship actually WASN’T ALL THAT GOOD, and they BROKE UP AFTER THE SECOND GAME because it was unhealthy as fuck. which, at the time when i played it, was a HUGE relief and refreshing to me—to see that “canon” couples can and do in fact break up, despite being romantic interests at one point because even after all the shoddy writing keira was handed, we could still understand that sometimes people are just NOT GOOD FOR OTHER PEOPLE and that they don’t need to be together 5ever in order to make a game work.

real-world problems: i actually don’t have a problem with keira in the third game because for once she’s actually where she needs to be in order for me to enjoy the game: far the fuck away from me.

jak x thoughts

this game is a huge headache to me for lots of reasons. apparently it’s the fandom favorite because of ambiguously homosexual razer and independent strong woman keira who for some reason once again needed to be forced back into jak’s life because “canon” and “romance” and jak isn’t allowed to just go on adventures and do his own thing, he has to have a girlfriend with whom he already had a presumably failed relationship, which just REALLY bothered me on a personal level because at that point in my life i had been in an unhealthy sickening emotionally draining obsessive relationship and what jak 3 had taught me about moving on from unhealthy relationships and not needing people in your life despite how much you may want them back, jak x completely ripped away in an apologetic attempt to make up to the fans for jak having a fling with ashelin in the third game.

not buyin’ it.

plus jak is just weird in this game? and it’s a really awkward clunky addition to the series? which is why oh yeah it’s a SPIN OFF and NOT CANON

the lost frontier thoughts

i don’t have like. real problems with this game considering literally no one considers it canon and we only talk about it to rip it apart, so i won’t try to rip apart keira for the sake of being canon keira, but i so remember at one point in the game when phoenix, the main sexy antogonist-turned-anti-hero-or-some-bullshit, flirts with keira, she’s all flattered and is happy about it, but then in a defeated kind of attitude she tells phoenix something along the lines of how “she’s with jak” so he’s flattering “but she can’t”

so it just frustrates me to no end that even after ALLLLLLLLLL this bullshit that i just pointed out of why keira just HAS TO BE with jak for GOD KNOWS WHY, it’s still a fricking THORN IN HER SIDE TO ACTUALLY HAVE TO DO IT

conclusion

keira is just a really poorly written tossed around character and i understand that people don’t have my experiences with relationships, so they don’t necessarily project what i feel onto keira and jak’s relationship, but despite all that, i still refuse to believe that a conflicting mindset of how keira was treated by other characters in the second game, where she is obviously living a very happy and comfortable life and is only upset with jak for not being there because she couldn’t have her hero anymore, is supposed to be the best i can get in order to consider one of the only “fleshed out” female characters a “strong” character (because protip, she’s not. it’s weak writing and even worse victim-blamey false-apology silent-and-therefore-on-the-side-of-the-oppressor bullshit and i don’t care for any of it.)

#bitchy jakbloggin #this is the post to end all posts i gotta keep this one because it's my life's work

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