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picturejasper20 · 1 year

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American Dragon: Jake Long retro-review

American Dragon: Jake Long is a series that was created by Jeff Goode. The series aired on Disney Channel from January 21, 2005 to September 1, 2007. It has 52 episodes (22 minutes each, a few divided by two 11 minutes segments). The first season consists of 21 episodes. The second season has 31 episodes. The series also had a crossover episode with Lilo and Stitch The Series called "Morpholomew".

Show premise

American Dragon:Jake Long is about a 13 year old Chinese-American boy named Jake Long who plays the role of protector for all magical creatures in United States. He is able transform into a dragon when he pleases, a power he inherited from his maternal side of the family. Guided by grandfather, Luong Lao Shi, Jakes tries to balance his life between being a regular teenager and dragon magical protector, something that it isn’t always as easy as it sounds.

Plot and structure

One thing that made this series stand out from other shows of its era was that there was a bigger storyline that developed through the seasons. Every 4-5 episodes there were events that changed the status quo or continued the story. Characters developed and were explored in different ways throughout the series too.

Season 1 is more episodic with the episodes often acting as standalone stories rather than adding to the bigger narrative. Every 4 episodes or so the main arc is explored or new lore is revealed. Despite of this, the stories still remained to fun. There is still character development and things that are set up for Season 2 arcs. There are a few episodes that are divided in two 11 minutes segments for some reason. My only guess is that they were still experimenting with the format and seeing which one worked better for the show.

In Season 2 the writing and direction overall changes notably. There is a lot more emphasis in the main story arcs and there are some subplots in between as well, keeping the show more enganging. The series’ tone becomes more darker while maintaining the humor from the first season in character development episodes. In my opinion, this season has a good balance between ¨plot episodes¨ and ¨character episodes¨. For every 2-3 ¨character episodes¨ there is one ¨plot episode¨. That way it doesn’t feel it is going too slow or too rushed. Season 1 had less continuity when compared to Season 2. In addition to this, there is more emotional depth in the stories. As i was rewatching the series, i felt like the characters were given a lot more dimension to them. Their issues became more personal. Some episodes were dedicated to explore how they felt about certain important event and how they dealt with it.

If there is one complain i have of this season is that after the episode ¨Homecoming¨ the main story looses it focus and there isn’t more proper set up for the other main arc. This could be traced back to the fact that these two main stories were supposed to be in two different seasons and the team felt forced to writer them all in one long season in case the show got cancelled.

Another issue is that some important plot episodes like "Homecoming" and "The Hong Kong Longs" should have been 44 minute episodes to cover all the things that happen in them. Because they only last 22 minutes, this makes the events feel very rushed, specially in "The Hong Kong Longs" it ruins important character beats.

Characters and arcs

While i talked about how American Dragon has a big plot, the core of the series is its characters and their relationships. The main focus of the show is Jake trying to balance his teenager daily life with his guardian dragon duties. This means most episode conflicts center around him learning things or developing in some way.

The main cast consist in:

Jake Long: The main protagonist and star of the show

Luong Lao Shi: Jake’s grandfather and teacher. He used to be the Chinese Dragon when he was younger and is able to transform in a dragon just like Jake.

Fu Dog: A 600 year old magical talking dog that helps Lao and Jake in their missions.

Trixie Carter: One of Jake’s best friends. She earlier learns about his dragon identity and helps him in many missions.

Arthur P. "Spud" Spudinski: The other Jake’s best friend. He learns about Jake’s dragon identity at same time as Trixie and helps him in many missions.

Haley Kay Long: Jake’s little sister. She is a child prodigy and she is able to use her dragon powers yet not as powerful as Jake’s.

Susan Luong-Long: Jake and Haley’s mother and Lao Shi’s dauther. The dragon powers skipped her generation.

Jonathan Long: Jake and Haley’s father. He is a normal human and he doesn’t know anything about the existence of magical creatures, including Jake and Haley’s dragon powers.

Rose/Huntsgirl: A popular girl that Jake has a crush on. Very early in the series it is revealed that she works for the main antagonists, the Huntsclan. Over time she develops feelings for Jake and eventually learns about his dragon identity. This leads her to change her ways and help Jake with stopping the Huntsclan.

Main antagonists:

The Huntsclan: A fanatic cult like human group who is always hunting magical creatures and becomes a bigger treat as the plot advances. In plenty of episodes, Jake and other dragons’s role is to protect the magical creatures from the Huntsclan They are lead by the the Huntsman, who serves as master figure for Rose. The Dark Dragon: Not much is known about him except that he is a dragon that once turned evil centuries ago. He is a powerful dragon and his human identity is never revealed in the series. He appears less often than the Huntsclan but he is still a very dangerous adversary.

As you can see, the series has a big cast. This doesn’t mention all the secondary characters there are in the show, which often new get introduced every 2-3 episodes.

Most of the episodes focus in exploring or developing Jake in someway. Jake is a very flawed protagonist who usually can be selfish and act without thinking. In the first episodes he has the habit of abusing his dragon powers to ¨cheat¨ through life and this ends up getting him in trouble. His huge ego is a facade he uses to hide his insecurities, which he learns to overcome over time. Despite his attitude problems, he always tries helping magical creatures in need and really cares about his family and friends. He takes pride in being a magical protector, a role that is important to him.

He also has a very complicated relationship with Rose. At the start of the series he falls in love with her without knowing that she works for the Huntsclan. The same applies to Rose, with her not knowing that Jake is also his mortal enemy. Over time they learn each other’s secret identity and Rose decides to help Jake with stopping the Huntsclan. Their relationship is one of the things that is constanly changing in almost every episode when the plot is about them and its one of the best written parts of the show. Usually there is a problem with how animated shows potray teenage romance but with Jake and Rose’s case is executed very well. What’s more, it a good example of how to do enemies to lovers right and the complications that cause to the characters involved.

If there is one problem i have about their dynamic is that i wish Rose could have had episodes or more scenes exploring her character without Jake having to be in it. I think the series does a decent job at establishing that Rose has a life outside Jake. However, more scenes developing how she feels or her story would have helped her character overall. For example: An episode about how she was raised in the Huntsclan.

Moving on to the rest of the cast, i think the series does a good job a developing most of them. They get their own episodes and side plots showing different sides of their personality and lives. One thing i appreciate about the show is that it has episodes in which the main focus isn’t on Jake but other characters. This helps giving the show more variety and developing these characters. For instance: One of my favourite episodes from Season 1 "Keeping Shop" involves Trixie and Spud taking charge of Jake’s dragon duties while he and his grandfather are busy elsewhere. Fu takes the role of master here and teaches Trixie and Spud how to use dragon powers with a enchanted dragon disguise.

There are episodes that develop Jake’s relationship with his family too. Most of them are great and have sweet moments. Jake has a good chemistry with every member of his family and, because of this, an episode can have a different ¨feel¨ to it depending on the relationship that is being developed.

American Dragon has tons of secondary characters. Some are more memorable than others depending on their story and their evolution. Some are funny while others are more interesting. It’s quite impressive how the writers were able to introduce new every 2-3 episodes and still managed to make it work.

However, in spite of having all these positive things, there are some problems. For starters, not all characters get the same level of development. Trixie is one character i believe that it should have had more than one episode about her perspective. Maybe having to choose between a career she likes and her parents career. Or her romantic relationship with Kyle.

Jake has a few episodes of him learning lessons that he already learned more than one time. Part of this can be excused because it this is a show from the earlier 2000′s and continuity was harder to execute back in those days. The biggest offender of this is "Game On", an episode that would fit well in Season 1 or early Season 2. Not near the end of the series when Jake has grown past this lesson.

On last point, some secondary characters feel that they have potential was never given proper time to be explored. For instance, Nigel Thrall is set up to be a foil and friendly rival to Jake in his debut episode...to barely do anything with him. I think this comes from the writers trying to put to major plot threads that were supposed to be in two seasons and not in one. This likely lead to some concepts to not be given proper continuation.

These flaws can be a bit frustrating but they didn’t take my enjoyment out of the show. I think that as long as one keeps in mind that this is an old show and the problems it had during its production, it is fun to watch.

On lore and worldbuilding

I think one of the aspects that kept me enganged during my rewatch was how each episode would introduce some new element about the magical world and how it works. It’s actually intriguing. Every magical creature has its own powers, culture and society. This helped the series with not making it feel repetitive and always have something new to be interested in. I really like how the show team didn’t limit themselves to have two or three types of magical creatures and instead did a little bit of everything. It gives off the impression that the magical world is as big, if not bigger, than the human world. The series often uses dragon lore to represent certain themes such as the changes Jake goes through with his powers as a metaphor for puberty.

Gerenal animation and sound aspect.

For most part the animation looks solid. It’s nothing amazing but it works well for an action adventure show. Some action sequences are entertaining to watch. The characters have fun expressions.

(Jake and Lao’s dragon form designs in Season 2 art style) If there is one aspect American Dragon is controversial for is the the huge change in art direction in Season 2. Most of the characters got a new design, the art style changed to a angular simplified one. Some magical creatures looked like different species from the ones of Season 1. I personally prefer the art style of Season 1. It has a cartoonish vibes to it. It’s more pleasant to see and it fits better the tone of the show. I don’t dislike Season 2 style, in fact, i got used to it rather quickly. My main issue is that it feels more ¨stiff¨ and less expressive the Season 1 artstyle.

As for the voice cast, it’s pretty good. There are some well known voice actors here such as: Dante Basco ( Jake Long), John DiMaggio (Fu Dog), Mae Whitman (Rose). Although there are maybe some secondary characters that didn’t have the best choice and aren’t that good, the main cast does have solid voice actors to make up for that.

On the soundtrack, it is okay from what i heard. It improves in Season 2, probably because there is better direction in that season. They music has a bigger emotional impact to it than it had in the first season.

Representation stuff

I don’t feel like i’m the best to fully judge this aspect of the series. There are some things that haven’t aged well, being a series of 2000′s. There are some innapropiate jokes that wouldn’t be get a pass nowadays and a few writing choices in a few episodes that are rather... questionable.

Something i appreciate about the series is how Jake is mixed race ( chinese-european). His mother and grandfather are chinese and his sister is mixed race. His father is white/european. They all get their own episodes to get developed. There some episodes that explore Jake’s chinese part of the family such as when he visits them in "Feeding Frenzy" or when Lao teaches Jake about their culture.

One of my favourite episodes. "Year of the Jake", is about Jake learning to be more involved with his chinese heritage and see to the value in it when he makes the mistake of cleaning the ¨good luck¨ out of his granfather’s shop. The episode takes place during Chinese New Year inuniverse. There are some scenes of the rest of Jake’s family participating in the parade, which is pretty cool.

The female characters in this show are able to stand on their own ground and are treated as their own person. I like the writing choice of not making Trixie Jake’s girlfriend and instead Jake having a crush in other characters. (Mainly Rose). I do wish that Rose had a few episodes about her without Jake having to be in it. Maybe some interactions with Trixie or Hayley, for example. I like her character but i feel like she could have had more screen time for her own.

About the episode order

In a minor note, American Dragon had its episodes airing out of order for some reason. This lead to errors in continuity if they are not watched in the proper order. Things that should have happened took place later, episodes that were supposed to take place before an specific plot point aired later.

Luckily some fans have found the correct watching order, which was very useful for me during my rewatch. This changes quite a lot the pacing of the series too. If any of you ever considers watching this series, i highly suggest using the episode guide to avoid continuity errors and confusion.

In conclusion

American Dragon: Jake Long is a fun series that has aged quite well despite all the years that have passed since it finished airing. It has good charcater arcs, interesting worldbuilding and solid story arcs. It’s capable of having emotional and dark moments without fully loosing the tone that was previously established.

While Season 1 is more episodic, i recommend watching all the episodes for the characters dynamics and development that becomes important in Season 2. Season 2 improves a lot in writing and direction. Most of the episodes are worth of watching since they add things to the characters or the overall story.

After finishing my rewatch, i think it has become one of my favourites Disney shows from that era. It’s not perfect, but it still manages to be an entertaining show.

#american dragon jake long #jake long disney #Disney Channel #Series review #animation series

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we-are-all-of-legend-now · 6 months

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Fictober Day 31: It's Not Your Fault

Prompt number: Prompt #31

Fandom: American Dragon Jake Long

Pairings/Characters: Jake/Rose; Lao Shi; Susan; Haley

Rating: T

Warnings: character death(s); violence

Jake stared woodenly forward, watching his grandfather’s casket be lowered into the ground. It wasn’t real. This wasn’t happening. His grandfather wasn’t dead. It was real and it had happened and Jake had seen it and he hadn’t been able to stop it. On one side, his mother clenched his hand, and Jake tried not to let himself think about how much he had let her down. Gramps had been old and now that Jake was in his twenties, it had become his job to protect his grandfather from harm and not the other way around. They hadn’t even been looking for a fight. They had been doing some routine patrolling and Gramps had been putting Jake through some aerial practices that were well out of date but had also saved his life from time to time.

Jake thought that he’d been humouring the old man. It had been a long time since he had technically been Lao Shi’s pupil but Jake occasionally took the time to let Gramps put his mentoring cap on again. Jake had been in the middle of a loop when Gramps had frozen. It would have been comical, something that would have been on brand for the Looney Tunes, if Gramps hadn’t started gushing blood from his chest and then started falling.

Jake had chased him, down, down, down, onto the dark streets, reaching his hand out and trying to grab Gramps, but there was nothing left to grab onto. Gramps had been dead by the time that he had hit the pavement and all Jake had seen was the flick of the Huntsgirl’s blonde brain and the laughter of the Clan all around them. Jake had seen red and he had wanted to kill a destroy, except that he hit his knees and bent over his dead grandfather and sobbed until he couldn’t see straight.

Watching Lao Shi be put into the ground, Jake was reminded of that nighttime spiral again and again. He hadn’t been able to save Lao Shi from the darkness and he should have been. Lao Shi had done a better job than that and was owed more than that.

Jake turned with the other mourners. Susan had organized a good reception to send her father out in the style that he would have expected and Jake felt sick about it all. How was he supposed to celebrate Gramps’ life when that life shouldn’t have been over yet?

“Jake, it’s okay.” Rose’s hand was heavy on his shoulder. “It’s not your fault.”

She hadn’t stopped saying it since Jake had first sobbed into her lap that he hadn’t been able to help and it didn’t make Jake feel any better. He needed to get revenge on the Huntsgirl and then he could mourn. That was the way that things had to be.

Still, he appreciated the support that Rose was trying to give him and he lopped his arm through hers as they got into the town car for the family and were driven back to the reception hall. Normal, for a funeral, but Jake never wanted to go through any of this again. Not the receiving line of people who meant well but made him feel worse, not the loving smiles of people who didn’t have to carry around this guilt, not the look of his little sister as she sat, staring at her shoes, uncharacteristically quiet for Haley.

“Kid! Kid!” Jake turned as Fu ran into the reception. “Kid!”

“What?”

“In private,” Fu said, suddenly side-eyeing all of their closest friend and family. “Come on.”

The tucked themselves into one of the tiny bathrooms and Fu suddenly became awkward, unable to look Jake in the eye.

“Did you find her?” Jake asked.

“Yes.”

Since the second that Gramps had died, Fu had been working on finding the Huntsgirl’s identity – the one that she used outside of the Clan. It was going to be Jake’s best way to get results.

“And?”

“You don’t want to know.”

Jake wanted to grab Fu by his wrinkly shoulders and shake him. “I need to know. What’s her name?”

“Rose Hunter,” Fu confessed.

Jake saw red. His ears filled with static. He turned toward the bathroom door but Fu was in the way.

“Kid, wait, she probably doesn’t know either –“

It didn’t matter.

“It’s my Rose? My Rose Hunter?”

“Well … yeah.”

That was all that Jake needed to know. He pushed Fu aside and threw the door open, transforming as he went. He didn’t care about the humans in attendance; he didn’t care about what trauma he might be causing here. His grandfather had died during a sneak attack and Gramps deserved justice. Jake couldn’t give him anything else but justice.

Rose was shocked but, at the same time, Jake could tell that she knew who he was and why he was doing this.

“It’s noy my fault?” he roared at her. “Is that because it’s your fault?!”

“Jake! Oh, Jake, I –”

Jake swiped a dragon paw at her and she expertly evaded it, diving toward the silverware. She brandished a butter knife like it was a sword.

“You knew!” Jake accused, even though he couldn’t be completely sure of it. “You knew!”

Rose didn’t deny it. It put a fury in Jake unlike one that he had ever felt before. He was so intent on killing her, on making Gramps’ death mean something, that he hadn’t made a plan or realized what he was doing. She was the Huntsgirl. She had beaten him every time and this time was going to be no different. In front of all of his family, so many of his loved ones, the Huntsgirl killed him too.

#fictober23 #american dragon jake long #jake long #adjl #adjl rose #adjl huntsgirl #jake/rose #susan long #luong lao shi #lao shi #haley long #tw violence #tw death #brea writes things #wearealloflegendnow #the last letter

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