landofsomethingsomething:

ok I’m going to write like a million words about dirkjake get ready

I think firstly with DirkJake there’s just core differences in how different fans interpret the characters and relationship from the very foundation. The way fanon is so established for like 10 different versions of Dirk and Jake individually followed by at least 3 different common ways for their dynamic to be interpreted… it all leads to a shit ton of variance in what you get when any given writer decides to write a DirkJake fic. 

I guess for me, the main things to get “my” flavor of the relationship, what I try to focus on: 

1. Dirk as a complex character primarily defined by his overwhelming constant internal state of anxiety filtered through the fucking pinhole of his exterior facade. So like. Dirk is a character that wants and needs and feels so many things, but never wants to express any of it because he is terrified that expressing all the shit going on behind the mask will drive people away from him either in disgust or terror. Dirk is a person who is constantly afraid that he is becoming the worst version of himself and constantly unable to talk about that because if people understood what the worst version of himself was capable of they wouldn’t even want to be associated with the current version of him, who is trying so fucking hard not to be that. And because from Dirk’s perspective he’s “hiding” the reality of who he is from everyone he cares about (Dirk has a VERY FUCKING LOW opinion of himself) he’s in a sense manipulating them via lying by omission. Dirk thinks he is responsible for everything bad and other people are responsible for everything good and therefore other people have no sense associating with him at all. Dirk is trapped inside his own goddamn head 100% of the time when left to his own devices and WILL destroy himself if allowed to do so. 

His stuff is a mirror of Dave’s, with one huge difference: Dave hides everything because he’s afraid everyone will think less of him for being so soft – he’s afraid of the harm they might do to HIM, emotionally. His facade is protecting himself. Dirk hides everything because he’s afraid of the harm that DIRK might do to THEM. His facade is (from his perspective) protecting everyone else (from him.)

You’ll notice I didn’t mention anime, puppets, horses. Yeah. Moving on. 

2. Jake is ALSO a complex character primarily defined by his overwhelming need to avoid conflict and downplay his struggles with being hugely introverted in favor of projecting an idealized version of himself worthy of his own grand destiny. Jake is primarily concerned with JAKE’S own comfort, and this selfishness leaks in to the way he conducts all his relationships – Roxy is spot on when she says that Jake is an asshole, but he doesn’t MEAN to be an asshole, he’s just… Jake. Jake is simultaneously really easy to take advantage of (because he will always defer to the easiest route if possible – Jake calls himself a man of action but he would almost ALWAYS prefer to do nothing if he can get away with it) and also really good at manipulating people because everyone underestimates him. Jake is SMART. He just often downplays his own intelligence because he’s terrified of failure. He walks this line between being perceived as capable but not being perceived as TOO capable, because he wants to put out a specific persona without ever being called on to act in a way befitting of that persona. Like, wearing the costume is easy but walking the walk is hard, right?

Jake wants to be the hero and also wants to be the damsel but ONLY for the fun parts because the rest is hard and feels bad and is awful and sucks. He wants to skip from the Inciting Incident of a story to the Hero’s Triumph and then to the Happy Conclusion without experiencing ANY of the tumult or conflict or setbacks in between. He wants people to understand him without having to express himself because that’s hard. 

His stuff is a mirror Jane’s, one again a major difference: Jane bottles things up because she wants to appear effective and actively be relied upon to do great things – which she is confident in her ability to do and eager to inherit. Jake bottles things up and meticulously avoids difficult things because he wants to appear technically capable of effectiveness but doesn’t actually want people to call upon him or depend on him. He is NOT confident in himself or his own abilities and intelligence. Jane wants everyone to want and need her, she thrives on being the center of attention in a room. Jake thinks about being the center of attention in a room and wants to die. 

I would never ever ever use the words “cinnamon roll” to refer to Jake English. So yep. Moving on. 

3. the DirkJake relationship is a story about two boys who have been in love with each other basically their entire lives, except they grew into a pair of maladjusted unsocialized messes with zero emotional intelligence and oh, yeah, also one is a huge fucking introvert pretending to be an extrovert and the other is a desperate fucking extrovert pretending to be an introvert and WOW IS THAT A RECIPE FOR DISASTER. Especially when they immediately torch all their other relationships and have no one to ground them or pull them back or otherwise vent or express themselves to ON TOP OF all the other personal baggage each is working through throughout the alpha session. 

And I personally take an optimistic view of it, which is, these boys have loved each other their entire lives, they aren’t going to stop now, but they are going to have to learn to work through the myriad fucking issues I outlined above in healthy ways with the help of ALL their friends and family and it will be difficult but ultimately successful and rewarding and their eventual relationship with each other will be one where each feels respected and fulfilled and no longer afraid of horribly disappointing (best case) or utterly destroying (worst case) the other. 

I like to think toward and write them toward an eventuality where Jake is no longer afraid that he isn’t capable of loving Dirk as much as Dirk loves him just because he feels and expresses the emotion differently, and Dirk is no longer afraid that Jake is just humoring him or that Jake’s inability to be in full social mode 100% of the time means he’s getting or gotten over him in full, forever. Also, where Jake is no longer afraid that Dirk will judge him or feel full on disdain for the fact that Jake actually really doesn’t want to deal with the realities of a hero’s journey and just kinda wants to chill and have fun instead of being effective and heroic 100% of the time, and Dirk is no longer afraid that Jake will come apart like a wet paper towel at the merest hint of exposure to his actual innermost self and feelings. 

And that’s my big rant about the stuff I try to keep in mind when I write DirkJake even though like 70% of it is just smut like honestly what the fuck