Jake the Dog Sr. is a fictional character and one of the two protagonists of the American animated television series Adventure Time and its franchise created by Pendleton Ward. He also appeared in the spin-off series Adventure Time: Distant Lands. The character made his debut in the original pilot. During the events of the show, Jake says that he is 28 "magical dog years" old. Jake 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. He acts as a confident mentor to his energetic adopted brother Finn the Human, though he tends to give somewhat questionable advice. His powers help Finn considerably in combat and transportation but are sometimes used as nothing more than pleasant forms of expression. He has a girlfriend 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". Jake has received generally positive reviews from critics. A gender-swapped version of Jake called Cake the Cat appeared in the third-season episode "Fionna and Cake", and is a main character of the spinoff series Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake.
Design and voice acting
Series creator Pendleton Ward has stated that he wrote Finn and Jake, including Adventure Time as a whole, as though he were playing a session of Dungeons & Dragons, a tabletop role-playing game. Ward commented that Finn and Jake's motivations are noble, with a desire to "slay monsters, explore dungeons, find loot." He further said that "Jake was more into the loot". Ward spent much of his childhood at home, describing his "[indoor] adventure experience" as inspiring Finn and Jake the Dog's adventures. Early on in the development of the show, Ward had intended for Finn and Jake to be nomads who lived in tents. However, this was changed to having them live in a permanent home at Cartoon Network's request. Jake has three, four, or five fingers on each hand, as well as both hands and paws, which means, according to Ward, that he has the ability to grow and be flexible. He first appeared in the short film "Adventure Time", which centers around rescuing Princess Bubblegum (Paige Moss) from the evil Ice King (John Kassir). This short aired as part of Nickelodeon's Random! Cartoons showcase in 2008. John DiMaggio voiced the character, then called Jake, in short. In 2018, as Adventure Time was ending, DiMaggio said "Until something's signed on the line there is no speculation ... this is it. It's over. It's done. And that's OK." He further said "A lot of me is in Jake, and I'll miss that part, that connection." Adventure Time composer Tim Kiefer said that the show had gradually become an exploration of the "Hero's journey" through the characters.
Personality and character traits
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. It is inferred that Jake's magical powers are a result of his biological relationship with Ampersand, 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. 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. 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. Although Jake eventually passes away at some point after the end of the series, "Come Along With Me", "Graybles 1000+", and Fionna and Cake show glimpses of a future Ooo in which Jake's descendants have established a spacefaring civilization.
Appearances
Jake the Dog is one of the main characters of Adventure Time and often appears alongside his best friend and adopted brother Finn the Human. In the series finale "Come Along with Me", Finn and Jake help Princess Bubblegum fight her dictatorial uncle Gumbald. Realizing that violence is not the answer to the conflict, they ally with Gumbald to defeat the evil deity GOLB, who is intent on destroying Ooo. GOLB is defeated, although Fern dies in the aftermath. Jake and Finn promises to plant Fern's seedling in the ruins of the treehouse, which has been destroyed. The seedling grows into a new treehouse, with a grass sword inside. Finn and Jake are shown relaxing on a beach witnessing the humans return to Ooo for the first time in centuries. The Adventure Time: Distant Lands special "Together Again" takes place sometime after the end of the series, after Jake has died. Finn, who has recently died, journeys through the Dead Worlds to be reunited with Jake, who died many years before him. After they reunite in the afterlife, the two choose to reincarnate back into the living world. In Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, Jake is absent but it is implied that he has died, since he no longer accompanies Finn and everyone speaks of him in the past tense. Season 2, episode 9, "The Karmic Worm," alludes to the moment of Jake's death.
Others
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