Jake Long
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Jacob "Jake" Long[3] (voiced by Dante Basco) is the protagonist and titular character from Disney's animated television series American Dragon: Jake Long.
Contents |
Biography
Background Info/History
Jake officially turned fourteen years old in the episode[4]. Jake is an Asian-American teen who lives in New York City with his parents (Jonathan and Susan) and his eight-year-old sister, Haley Long. His two best friends are feisty Trixie Carter and dimwitted Spud. He is a descendant of a family of dragons. On his thirteenth birthday, his magical abilities emerge fully and he was set to protect an underground magical community existing within his city and throughout the world. The emergence of his dragon powers also made him first official magical guardian of America, dubbed "The American Dragon". Under the training of his grandfather Luong Lao Shi, and his animal guardian, Fu Dog, Jake would be taught in the methods of his dragon abilities, and his duties as a magical guardian. His "territory" would be restricted to the area of New York (though would extend to other places if he happened to be there, such as the forests of New Jersey in "The Long Weekend"), and he is destined to become the representative dragon of the whole country.
Although Jake Long is still in the early training stages to be the American Dragon, it's his destiny to act as guardian, protector and champion to magical creatures secretly living alongside humans in New York City. Among them are the herd of unicorns in Central Park, the leprechauns on Wall Street, the gargoyle nest atop the Empire State Building, the Triborough Troll Bridge, the mystical city between NOHO and SOHO and the East River mermaids. Greater New York is the American Dragon's territory and if he can make it here, he can make it anywhere. But that means Jake must figure out how to control his fire breathing, flying and shape-shifting so he can perform his duties and Grandpa must figure out how to decipher his hip-hop grandson's colloquial language style.
When Jake comes home to his Westside brownstone, it's to an extended family. Businessman Dad is as American as apple pie and completely unaware that he has married into a family of dragons. Jake's Mom is a professional caterer who also is a dragon but without transforming capacity (dragon powers skip a generation). Jake tries to ignore his brilliant yet pesky younger sister Haley, a nascent dragon, to no avail. Jake's Dragon Master is his wise Grandpa who, upon arrival to the United States, established an electronics shop on Canal Street and took Jake under his wing. Despite the generation gap, Grandpa is patiently training Jake to master the fundamentals of being a dragon, unlock his potential and to be on time for his lessons. Grandpa's sidekick, the not-so-patient Fu-Dog, acts as Jake's animal guardian.
Personality
Jake initially comes off as the average, laid-back teenager who presents himself as the king of cool (and to a certain degree, he is pretty cool). This is frequently proven by his tendency to keep up with the newest developments and styles, such as video games, popular music and extreme sports. Jake is shown to have a particular passion for skateboarding and is very proficient at it as well. Unfortunately, more often than not, Jake has a tendency to be stubborn and, at times, careless, both of which tend to come back and bite him in the end. He frequently looks for shortcuts in his day-to-day life and usually pays the price for this when he fails to think things through. Though, in Jake’s defense, the responsibilities that he has do prove to be rather overwhelming. Another flaw in Jake’s character is that he occasionally loses his focus of the task at hand, but he does usually regain it when he has to.
Also, there are times when Jake is far too cocky and a bit too quick to leap into action (this also backfires on him at times, especially when he’s dealing with opponents who are smarter than he gives them credit for). Fortunately though, when all is said and done, Jake proves to be a very responsible teenager, he is always quick to acknowledge when he’s the one at fault and always takes it upon himself to set things right no matter what. He is also shown to be very resourceful when he has to be, frequently coming up with very plans and strategies on the fly and knowing when to use his Grandfather’s lessons when they’re needed.
Jake is shown to care deeply for those around him, but he’s not always sensitive towards other people’s feelings. For example, he once spoke out against his father, Jonathan, which led to Jonathan feeling a bit hurt. He is shown to have a longstanding rivalry with his little sister, Haley, and he absolutely hates it when Haley lords her accomplishments over him and makes him look inferior by comparison. However, despite Jake’s issues with Haley, it is shown that he would not hesitate for a moment to help her when she needed him. Jake is, at times, put at odds with his grandfather, but even so, it is shown that he has nothing but respect for Lao Shi. He also has a very close bond with his Animal Guardian, Fu Dog.
Jake has nothing but loyalty towards his friends, Trixie and Spud, and they reciprocate this by being unquestionably loyal to him as well. At times, Trixie and Spud are often quick to inform Jake that his courses of action aren’t always right, but there are times when they go along with it and allow Jake’s actions to play out. Jake is also shown to be very trusting of his friends with almost everything, including his secret.
Finally, the person who Jake cares the most about is Rose. In one occasion, it was implied that he cares for her more than his own life. While many of his associates felt that Jake was making a mistake by having a crush on Rose (due to her identity as Huntsgirl), Jake still trusted his love interest fully, mainly because she once had the perfect opportunity to slay him yet passed it up. Jake had trouble letting Rose go at first, but it did seem clear that he genuinely wanted to move on. Though when all is said and done, Jake loves Rose more than anything and would never allow anything to happen to her.
It is implied that Jake is a bit superficial, but in truth he does put some stock in a person general personality more than he does their appearance.
Physical Appearances
Teenager, semi long black spiky hair with green highlights, red jacket, blue cargo shorts, blur and gray slip. As an adult he has hair with green top of it along gray line than his dad. In Season One episode "Dragon Breath" Jake wears a dark navy dress suits, with red dress shirt, yellow necktie, and black and white dress shoes. In Season Two Jake wears a purple and black tuxedo.
Age By Season
- Season One: 13
- Season Two: 14[5]
Episode Appearances
Season One
- Old School Training (first appearance)
- Dragon Breath
- The Talented Mr. Long
- The Legend of the Dragon Tooth
- Act 4, Scene 15
- Adventure of Troll-Sitting
- Fu Dog Takes a Walk
- Professor Rotwood's Thesis
- The Egg
- The Heist
- Dragon Summit
- Body Guard Duty
- Shapeshifter
- The Ski Trip
- The Long Weekend
- Morpholomew (Lilo & Stitch cameo)
- Eye of the Beholder
- Jake Take the Cake
- Hong Kong Knights
- The Halloween Bash
- Fu and Tell
- Flight of the Unicorn
- Keeping Shop
- Ring Around The Dragon
- The Hunted
Season Two
- Bring It On
- Half Baked
- The Academy
- The Doppleganger Gang
- Something Fishy This Way Comes
- Breakout
- Family Business
- Hero of the Hourglass
- Dreamscape
- A Befuddled Mind
- Fool's Gold
- Feeding Frenzy
- Haley Gone Wild
- Supernatural Tuesday
- The Rotwood Files
- Hairy Christmas
- Switcheroo
- The Love Cruise
- Year of the Jake
- Homecoming
- Young at Heart
- Siren Says
- Shaggy Frog
- Nobody's Fu
- Magic Enemy #1
- A Ghost Story
- Bite Father, Bite Son
- Game On
- Furious Jealousy
- Being Human
- The Hong Kong Longs
Dragon Abilities
As a dragon, Jake possesses many different supernatural powers and abilities. Some episodes of the series revolve around Jake either gaining new powers or developing current ones. Here is a list of his currently known Dragon Powers:
- Shapeshifting/Transformation: Jake has the ability to transform between his normal human body, and his unique dragon form. The nature of the transformation shifted between Seasons 1 and 2. In Season 1, Jake's transformation was accompanied by flames that quickly ran across parts of his body (this was also usually accompanied by a small "transformation scene"). In Season 2, his dragon transformation is accompanied by an engulfing, thick, blue aura that usually would stem from his hands and cover his body as he transformed. Jake also is able to independently transform an individual part of his body (arms, legs, ears, eyes, etc.) into its dragon counterpart. It's revealed in "Shapeshifter" that he (as well as all dragons) possesses latent "all-purpose" transformation powers, which allows him to transform into any person he chooses. That ability, however, can only be accessed through use of a special potion, which also robs him of the use of his other dragon powers. In his dragon form, Jake resembles a red Western dragon. He has red scales that cover the majority of his body, tail, arms, legs and wings. He has an orange underbelly and a green mane that runs from the tip of his hair to the tip of his tail.
- Flight: In his dragon form, Jake is armed with a pair of large, red wings that resembles those of bats. The membrane of his wings appear to be a slightly darker red than those of his scales. In Season 1, his wings appeared to have grew out of his shoulders like arms would, but in Season 2, they grew out of his back as both his wings and arms were moved down during the redesign. By flapping these limbs exclusive to his dragon form, Jake has the ability to elevate his body into the air or lift and pull heavy objects in the air. In earlier episodes, Jake's ability to fly is more limited, and he might lose his wings, along with his other dragon powers, in the middle of flight. Just because Jake has wings doesn't mean he flies with wings alone. He gets a little help from his magic. With his wings and his magic working together, he can fly quite fast. With careful and precise movements of his body and wings, Jake is able to be quite maneuverable and can fly through narrow passageways. Flight is also an ability used frequently in combat - for dodging and attacking, alike. It also allows him to travel across the city in a quicker fashion, though his wings may be bended in a set of drying clothes if he's not careful. In "Body Guard Duty", Jake's highest (and only recorded) flight speed is clocked at 179 mph.
- Super-strength/Dragon Claws: As a dragon, Jake possesses superhuman strength (or rather dragon strength). This ability is complemented by his dragon claws, which have been shown to be able to rip through solid concrete and other durable forms of matter. His feats of strength have been exhibited numerous times throughout the series, such as being able to hold or overpower large magical creatures (see "Family Business", "Breakout"), or be able to uphold large inanimate objects (see "The Legend of Dragon Tooth", "Hero of the Hourglass"). At times, his strength is further amplified through a rapid flapping of his wings, using the momentum to help him pull objects. His claws can also pick locks, as seen in "Supernatural Tuesday".
- Eye/Ear of the Dragon: As a dragon (and when he individually transforms his eyes or ears when in human form), Jake's vision and hearing are increased exponentially. He's able to utilize a natural form of infrared vision, allowing him to see through the darkness, and see at longer distances than normal. His hearing is able to pick out individual sources of sound, that may be either far away from him, or obscured by noise-blocking obstacles. These powers were used more often in Season 1 than Season 2, but they occasionally made appearances.
- Fire-Breathing: A stable associated with any dragon mythology, Jake possesses the ability to breath fire at will. He's able to either produce a steady stream of flame, or concentrated balls of fire. Relating to this, there's also instances shown where Jake has the ability to somewhat manipulate the fire that he produces (see "Old School Training", "The Hunted", "Nobody's Fu"), where he's able to handle a fireball he produces without any harm to his hand.
- The Doppelgänger Technique: A dragon power revealed and used in "The Doppelganger Gang". This power is revealed as an inherent skill all dragons possess: the ability to project one's personal chi into a temporary copy of one self - a doppelgänger. It's claimed as a helpful defensive technique, used to distract or fool enemies during battles. The ability to create multiple doppelgängers is possible, but at the cost of losing one's own life energy and causing themselves to become weaker overall. The turnout of a created doppelgänger depends on which of the chi amplifiers it is formed from; a doppelgänger formed from the positive purple chi amplifier will be good and always have its creator's back, while one formed from the negative green chi amplifier will be evil and turn its back on its creator (as evidenced by Jake's accidental creation of "Evil Jake" though Jake successfully reabsorbed him). Hence you get the saying 'You are your own worst enemy.'
- Dragon Armor: When in dragon form, Jake's skin is extremely tough and highly resistant to damage. Though, according to Rose, dragons have a soft underbelly. It has also been shown they have a weakness with the skin behind the left ear; a lethal strike in that area will result in instant death.
- Dragon Tail: Like many dragons, Jake has a tail. Like his arms, it has impressive strength as well as excellent length and maneuverability. Jake occasionally uses it for a sneak attack upon an enemy (see "A Befuddled Mind") or to access objects out of his normal reach.
- Dragon Feet: It gives Jake a little extra height. He only used it once while trying to kiss Rose in "The Ski Trip" and getting taller on a photo in "Supernatural Tuesday".
Trivia
- Jake, as a dragon, looks similar to Mushu from Mulan, and is often confused with him.
- In fact, not only are the two similar in physical appearance, but personality as well.
- Jake's address is 182 Shorn Eagle Dr[6].
- Jake appeared as a large, Western dragon in Season One, but then appeared as a slender, Asian dragon in Season Two.
- Jake's hair has green streaks in it because he uses an excessive amount of hair gel. Though at one point in his youth, that green streak was blue.
- Jake's voice actor Dante Basco, also did the voice of Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender and many other characters on animted TV shows.
- In Season One, Jake's skateboard was yellow with a red dragon design on it. In Season two, it was black with the same design and flames on both ends.
- Jake and Rose's Voice Actors, Dante Basco and Mae Whitman, who also voice Prince Zuko and Katara in Avatar: the Last Airbender.
- One or two viewers have noted that even though he is called the American Dragon, Jake is a European Dragon rather than an Amphithere, which is primary dragon in the myths and folklore of the Americas. The reason for this is probably that Amphitheres are virtually unknown in popular culture, so presumably animators opted for a more iconic species. Jake is also a Western Dragon.
- Jake is a dictionary example of an "anthrozil" from the book series Dragons In Our Midst, albeit more powerful than any anthrozil in the books. An anthrozil is someone who has one dragon parent in human form, and one pure-blood human parent.
- The Chinese word for dragon is 'Long.'
- Jakes catchphrases are "Aww man!" and "Dragon Up!", which he says almost every time he turns into a dragon.
- Although Jake says he developed his dragon powers at 13, he displays a little bit of power at the age of 7, when he accidentally breathes fire during a race at Camp Mugwomp.
- Jake and crew had also appeared in "Morpholomew", a crossover episode of "Lilo and Stitch: The Series".
- In Dreamscape his cell phone is white. But in all of the other episodes of season 2, his phone is red.
- His ringtone on his phone is the theme song, only without the words.
- Through which places them in a shared universe with:
- Ingrid Third from "Fillmore!" and two Middleton Cheerleaders (specifically called cheerleaders and not just in costume) from "Kim Possible" appear in the season 1 episode "Halloween Bash".
- Jake was born on September 11th. In an unfortunate relation to real life, this is the same day when terrorists attacked the Twin Towers, otherwise known as 9/11, a few years after the year of his birth.
Gallery
- For more pictures and screenshots of Jake Long, click here.
References
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