rattlingthestars | Jim: Character Growth / App Retrospective

App Retrospective

Jim values freedom and independence, but also yearns for approval and understanding. The first time we see him at his present age, he is alone, riding his solar surfer into a dangerous area, and finding joy and peace in the adrenaline. Throughout the movie, he consistently makes his own decisions - good or bad - without consulting anyone or even speaking. While others are debating in an urgent situation, Jim is acting without pausing for thought. His instincts are good - there are multiple instances where he saves peoples’ lives this way - but it has gotten him into trouble just as often as out of it.

His taciturn nature plays out in other ways, too. He is often seen daydreaming in the background when he should probably be listening, and tends to take a passive stance in conversations that don’t interest him. Jim never uses five words when four will do, and he’s incredibly reserved when talking about himself and his emotions. Around more talkative people, he rolls his eyes and sighs but lets them carry on with occasional encouraging noises rather than interrupting them. When people in authority are angry with him, he holds his tongue rather than argue (though he will rant sarcastically the second they’re out of earshot). In general, his interactions with most people seem to boil down to taking the path of least social resistance and effort. Jim acts to draw as little attention to himself as possible in front of others, down to the way he dresses (all his clothes are oversized) and his body language.

That said, it’s not always the case. Jim is polite to most people and reluctantly respectful of authority figures, but he doesn’t know how to pick his fights when someone else starts them. At all. At one point, Jim decides it’s a good idea to talk back to an anthropomorphic spider three times his size and keep right on insulting him even while the spider is actively dangling him from his claws. He keeps right on going until he’s rescued. That’s with a stranger; with a betrayal from someone close to him turns Jim vicious. This is because it takes a lot to get Jim to truly connect on a personal level, and it’s difficult for him to show true emotional vulnerability. His father abandoned the family a seven years before canon, and as his mother says, “he’s just never recovered.” Jim is angry and resentful both at himself and those around him because he blames himself for his father’s departure and is miserable about it. When something reminds him of that rejection, Jim loses his tempter and pushes back as hard as he can.

It is the trauma of losing his father that drove him for a long time. He thought that he had no future and had no worth because he failed to win his father’s love. The lack of belief in his own future and worth caused him to self-sabotage in his relationships and interactions with others. A lot of Jim’s issues rest on the fact that he absolutely craves approval and affection. We only see him start to unwind when John Silver - Jim’s surrogate father figure - takes Jim under his wing and talks up his potential. Within a few months of coaxing, Jim opens up about his dreams of changing the way people see him and builds a friendship where he can joke and tease. More than anything, Jim wants understanding and for someone to believe in him. He fears being abandoned and never living up to his own potential.

Jim does have a lot of potential. He began building his own solar surfers at the age of eight, and by fifteen can construct a working one out of a broken thruster and a piece of wood from the ship’s deck in a few seconds. He works hard when set to a task, often out of stubbornness, and does whatever he’s doing to the best of his ability. He solves an extremely difficult puzzle box in seconds, just by poking at it, and often intuits the best course of action in a very short period of time. Though he dislikes being taught, he loves to learn; when he wanders off in the middle of a conversation, it’s usually because he’s observing the world around him. New things - languages, species, places, technology - delight him. By his canonpoint, he has gone a long way toward overcoming some of his insecurities and putting himself on a better path, but I don’t think he’s 100% there and all of this is likely to come back given the circumstances of the game.

Ultimately, Jim is a good kid who’s been hurt and is struggling to overcome that. He understands and cares that his flaws cause other people trouble, and genuinely wants to make up for it. By his canon point, he’s well on his way there, but he still has room to grow.