Jake the Dog

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Jake the Dog
Adventure Time character
First appearance	Adventure Time (2008)
Last appearance	Together Again (2021)
Created by	Pendleton Ward
Voiced by	John DiMaggio
In-universe information
Species	Dog/shapeshifter hybrid
Gender	Male
Family	Joshua (biological father) Warren Ampersand (biological/mechanical parent) Margaret (biological mother) Jermaine (brother) Finn (adoptive brother) Lady Rainicorn (wife) Charlie (daughter) Viola (daughter) Jake Jr. (daughter) Kim Kil Whan (son) T.V. (son) Bronwyn (granddaughter) Gibbon (future grandson) Pat (daughter-in-law) Farmworld Jake (alternate self) Weirdo Jake (alternate self) Beth (future descendant)

Jake the Dog is a fictional character in the American animated television series Adventure Time created by Pendleton Ward. He can stretch, shrink, or mold any part of his body to any shape and almost any size, ranging from becoming gigantic to becoming incredibly small.^[1] He acts as a confident mentor to his energetic adopted brother Finn, though he tends to give somewhat questionable advice. Jake has a laid-back attitude in most situations but loves adventure and will eagerly fight when he needs to. His powers help Finn considerably in combat and transportation but are sometimes used as nothing more than pleasant forms of expression. He has a wife named "Lady Rainicorn" (voiced by Niki Yang); they have five children together, as seen in "Jake the Dad." He is quite skilled at playing the viola, which houses a worm named "Shelby Butterson the Worm Who Lives in Jake's Viola."

Background[]

According to the series, Jake was conceived when his father, Joshua, was bitten by the shapeshifting extra-dimensional creature Warren Ampersand during a detective investigation with his wife Margaret, and was later born from a pustule on his father's head originating from the creature's bite.^[2] It is inferred that Jake's magical powers are a result of his biological relationship with Ampersand,^[1] though he is apparently unaware of the circumstances of his birth and instead believes his powers to be the result of having rolled around in a "magical mud puddle" as a pup. In one of the episodes that shows him as a pup, it shows that he had a best friend named Anna Spurrier that was a leaf bunny, but disappeared unexpectedly and was never seen again.^[3] After his birth, Jake was raised normally by Joshua and Margaret as their son, alongside their own biological son Jermaine and their adoptive human son Finn.

Little has been shown in the series about Jake's subsequent childhood life with his family, though in his youth, he was known to be a successful criminal and the leader of his own gang, a position he later retired from to take part in a more respectable life as an adventurer with Finn.^[4] Around this time, he also began a romantic relationship with Lady Rainicorn, with whom he has five children—daughters Charlie, Viola, and Jake Jr., and sons T.V. and Kim Kil Whan.^[5] The finale episode, "Come Along With Me", reveals that Jake's hybrid descendants will become the continent's dominant species in a thousand years.

Abilities[]

In the show, Jake's stretchy powers enable him to modify every part of his body's size, shape, and dimensions. Not only can he stretch and contort himself into particular forms, but he can also rearrange his internal organs and teeth. In "Evicted!", he can shrink and move his internal organs and blood into his left thumb. Also, in "Jake vs. Me-Mow" he enlarges his liver fifty-one times a dog his size, preventing him from succumbing to Me-Mow's poison. One frequent use of his powers is Key Hand, which he uses to pick locks. He also uses his arm as a bow, able to shoot arrows at a short distance accurately.

Although the character lacks the zeal for fighting that his brother Finn the Human possesses, Jake is a capable fighter. In the cartoon, he has toughness and magical brawn. He is a skilled hand-to-hand fighter and can transform his limbs into weapons. He can also stretch to entangle enemies or grow to gain a height and weight advantage. His shapeshifting can grant him supernatural strength, allowing him to overpower his enemies. However, Pendleton Ward has said in an interview that Jake uses his powers lazily and does not know their full extent, often hindering Jake's effectiveness in combat. Despite stating outright that he's multiple times stronger than Finn, Jake usually leaves the brawling to his adoptive brother.

As shown in "Mystery Train"' Jake is also able to stretch himself to "create" an entirely new person, as long as they remain connected to him. In "You Made Me," he is shown to be able to move objects through his body freely when he lets Princess Bubblegum jump into his mouth and then pushes her up through his back. Jake can be stretched by force as seen in "Ocean of Fear" when Finn stretched Jake's ears to avoid making contact with the ocean and in "Beautopia" when forced into a paddle. Jake's powers are sometimes used against his will, as in "Power Animal" where Jake's stomach took the shape of a fist and punched him so that he would wake up and eat.

Jake's stretching ability is subject to the principle of conservation of mass as seen in "The Limit." However, the ratio at which he retains mass differs from what applies to other masses in Ooo. It is revealed in the episode mentioned above that while Jake can stretch his body to incredible lengths, his body could be pulled so long that it becomes dangerously thin.

Without his magical powers, Jake is relatively weak and can barely even run, as seen in the episode "The Witch's Garden." In the same episode, Jake claims to have obtained his powers by rolling around in a magical mud puddle as a puppy, but in an interview, Pendleton Ward stated that this is not how Jake got his powers; he could not remember. It is revealed in the episode "Jake the Starchild" that Jake's amorphous powers come from the same creature that bit his father's head in "Joshua and Margaret Investigations."

Being a magical dog, Jake displays an acute sense of smell in the series, as he can smell the precise location of an object miles away. In "The Chamber of Frozen Blades" he states that his sense of smell is "1,000 times better" than Finn's, although compared to normal dogs, this is a low estimate. He also claims in "The Enchiridion" that he could smell the book and that it was in a room inside a castle.

The character also owns a sword, a shield, and an ax but seldom uses them in combat. In "Mystery Train," disguised as the Conductor, he briefly uses a sword to fight Finn, who defeats him effortlessly. During the same time, he also displays a prowess for skateboarding, as he performs jumps, ollies, and grinds, several atop a moving train.

Jake also has a supernaturally powerful imagination (on the verge of having psychic powers) as seen in "Rainy Day Daydream." Anything he imagines becomes a reality; however, only he can see his creations.

Personality and character traits[]

Jake is generally laid-back and tends not to worry about things. He's funny, loyal, supportive, friendly, good-hearted, easygoing, selfless, and plays like a loving big brother type for Finn. He relies heavily on his powers (or Finn) to get him out of any dangerous predicament. While he often cracks jokes at serious times, Jake always has a lecture or a song to cheers Finn up if he feels disheartened. Acting as Finn's world-wise mentor, Jake is always willing to give input and advice about a situation. Still, his suggestions are usually inconsistent, ranging from encouraging and helpful tips to ridiculous nonsense. He can be somewhat irresponsible, frequently leaving Finn to fight most of a battle on his own, but he always pulls through when he is needed most.

Pendleton Ward said that the personality of Jake was partly inspired by "Bill Murray's sardonic camp counselor in the 1979 movie Meatballs, a cooler-than-cool older-brother figure who can laugh at his charges without being mean and whose teachable moments are anything but cloying."^[6]

Jake loves to eat. He likes junk food, especially pie, burgers, and ice cream, but he states in "Slumber Party Panic" that eating chocolate or fudge would probably kill him, much like a normal dog. This has been contradicted in several episodes after "Slumber Party Panic," as Jake is sometimes shown eating chocolate. He is not afraid to try new foods (as seen in "Her Parents") and invents many of his foods. There is evidence of his ability to cook; he makes Korean food for Finn at the beginning of Apple Thief, and he cooks all the food that he uses to make the Everything Burrito. He makes coffee in Beautopia, bacon pancakes in "Burning Low" and also scrambled eggs in "Frost & Fire." He uses his cooking skills to create an incredible sandwich in "Time Sandwich" that contains several unusual and original ingredients such as lobster soul and a bird from the kitchen window.

Jake also suffers from an apparent lack of focus and attention. He can forget about a conversation in a moment and start doing something completely unrelated, such as putting an ice cream cone in a toaster. This is shown in Power Animal when he gets continually distracted by his surroundings while looking for Finn. Cinnamon Bun summarizes it quite nicely, saying, "Jake, you don't really focus at all." This is also shown in "Burning Low" when he falls asleep twice: once when Princess Bubblegum is trying to explain why Finn cannot be with Flame Princess, and again when Finn tries to get poetry ideas from him.

Jake can be rather fickle at times. A prime example of this is in "The Duke" when he convinces Finn to blame the Duke of Nuts for turning Princess Bubblegum green and bald, but later spends the rest of the episode trying to convince Finn to confess that he did it. In "Freak City" he spends most of the episode trying to convince Finn to remain a "good-smelling" foot and uncharacteristically tells Finn to give up hope. This behavior is somewhat explained later by his confession that he always wanted to be a foot.

At times, Jake is shown to have somewhat of a dark side. Throughout the series, Jake tends to make questionable comments and actions that come off as evil or selfish, such as in the episode "My Two Favorite People" when he laughs evilly. Furthermore, in "Susan Strong," he says, "We can rule them like gods. Angry gods." Another example of Jake's darker side is seen in the episode "Apple Thief" when he mentions that he used to "steal old ladies' purses" and "hawk stolen bikes." Jake also acts questionably in "Conquest of Cuteness" when he suggests squishing all the cute people instead of helping them feel better like Finn wanted to do. In "" Jake shouts at the cute animals to go away after saving them. Jake tends to steal items without realizing what he is doing, as seen in the episodes "The Witch's Garden" and "City of Thieves." He also steals valuables from the graveyard in "Ghost Princess," but his excuse is that he "didn't know it was wrong." This could be related to his sometimes mentioned criminal past. In the episode "Hot to the Touch," when Finn and Jake are flying in the robot suits Neptr makes, Jake says, "I feel like I could touch the heavens and sock angels."

Jake is generally easy-going, but certain things have been known to set him off. In "Goliad," Jake yells and barks at the children when they do not calm down. He is also shown to take some games very seriously, such as Card Wars and Kompy's Kastle. In "Card Wars" Jake becomes visibly upset when Finn starts to beat him, and BMO reveals that when BMO won against Jake before, he would not talk to BMO for a month. In "Who Would Win," Finn breaks Jake's portable Kompy's Kastle game (which Jake claims he has to play every day to maintain his rank), and Jake responds by physically attacking Finn. Jake is not afraid of death, as shown in "The New Frontier."

Jake cosplay at the 2014 New York Comic Con.

He is a believer in fate and destiny. Jake also believes in Grob Gob Glob Grod and Glob World. He is also not very willing to do things that require effort sometimes, as shown in "The Witch's Garden" when he is unwilling to run and save Finn from Gary. His lack of effort is also shown in "Who Would Win" when he states that he would rather play Kompy's Kastle than train. Jake's belief in determinism is underpinned, or at least is indicative, of a possible commitment to the philosophical creed of stoicism. In the episode "Puhoy," Jake consoles Finn's love-induced melancholy by suggesting he "focus on what's real" as opposed to "getting all hung up on imaginary problems." To explain this, he throws his favorite cup out the window to make it "not real," so he does not care about it anymore. This is a direct reference to the third aphorism of stoic philosopher Epictetus' Enchiridion (135AD), which may influence the fictional book 'The Enchiridion' that appears particularly important in the early seasons. However, later that episode, Jake fishes the cup out, so his belief in determinism is somewhat inconsistent.

Age[]

In the debut of the series, Jake is said to be 28 years old in "magical dog years," although, at the time, it wasn't specified how old that is in human years. In "Dad's Dungeon" and "Jake the Dad" he and Finn are seen as babies at the same time, meaning that he ages at a faster rate than humans, but at a slower pace than dogs usually do.

In "Memory of a Memory," inside Finn's memories, Finn is seen as a baby, and pictures on the wall show Jake and Jermaine as older kids hinting that Jake may be older than Finn in human years.

In "Joshua and Margaret Investigations", in the flashback of the day Jake was born, it is also mentioned that the events occurring after Flame Princess's birth in "Earth & Water" happened on the same day. This means that Jake would be 16 years old in human years. Before the premiere of the seventh season, he was stated to be 34 by writer and storyboard artist Steve Wolfhard.^[7] In "Daddy Daughter Card Wars" it is revealed that Jake has lost track of his age. Still, he assumes he's almost in his 40s.

Cameo appearances[]

Jake, along with Finn, appears in a brief cameo in the Futurama episode "Leela and the Genestalk". The two characters are seen suspended in manacles in a dungeon as Bender approaches them. Jake speaks their only line - "What time is it?" Bender replies, "Time for you to shut up!" The humor in the cameo is that both Jake and Bender are voiced by the same voice actor, John DiMaggio.

Jake, along with Finn, Princess Bubblegum, and Gunther also appears in the Uncle Grandpa short Uncle Grandpa's Grampie Awards, which features in the episode Pizza Eve. Jake says, "This is bunk!" after they don't win the fictional award for Best Adventure Series with a Furry Yellow Companion.^[8]

In The Simpsons Season 28 premiere, "Monty Burns' Fleeing Circus", Homer Simpson appears as Jake in an extended couch gag parodying the opening sequence of Adventure Time.

Jake, along with Finn, made cameo appearances in the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode, "Crossover Nexus". He appeared as a stone and one of Ben Tennyson's transformations.

Other appearances[]

Jake is a playable character in the crossover video game Lego Dimensions, appearing alongside Lumpy Space Princess. Jake's character includes BMO. John DiMaggio reprises his role.^{[citation needed]}

See also[]

• Homer Simpson

References[]

Bibliography[]

• McDonnell, Chris (2014). Adventure Time: The Art of Ooo. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-1-4197-0450-5.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jake the Dog.