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actually if my own experiences tell me anything they most likely had an 8am call time. so let's say that after breakfast & makeup they were shooting bunker scenes until lunch-ish. they were probably put in that forest around noon & stayed an unknown amount of time past nightfall before getting to leave.

no wonder they needed to be boxing rudy's head, he would've taken them off set immediately after they climbed the ladder lmao.

isn't it crazy that kickin' it has an episode where two fifteen year olds are tricked into filming a movie where they fight grown ass adult warriors, run from wild dogs, "dodge spears & escape traps" [according to kim because this is an off-screen event], presumably spend several hours in this fake? forest with no food or water & are told that one of them has to kill the other to survive? and this still isn't the most intense episode of the series?

[homeofthemany]

isn't it crazy that kickin' it has an episode where two fifteen year olds are tricked into filming a movie where they fight grown ass adult warriors, run from wild dogs, "dodge spears & escape traps" [according to kim because this is an off-screen event], presumably spend several hours in this fake? forest with no food or water & are told that one of them has to kill the other to survive? and this still isn't the most intense episode of the series?

[homeofthemany]

OMG KITTY HI

HELLOOOOOOOOOO

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII :3

[homeofthemany]

HELLOOOOOOOOOO

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII :3

[homeofthemany]

jack versus kai

part 1, part 2, part 3

third & final part of the "kickin' it in china" analysis! our boy fights for his life on the great wall of china.

TW for light discussion of ptsd & trauma; once again, it's all nonspecific.

jack fighting for his future

very tiny thing but jack going to congratulate kai is STUPID because he didn't earn it & jack of all people wouldn't be able to let go of that but i don't have much to say about it. i understand that they needed a reason for him to approach to see the tattoo lol. would've been awkward if dude was just. watching kai hug his buddies. lmfao.

anyway jack's strong sense of justice is what starts this fight. not only does he know that what's happened to him is unfair, he now also knows that kai was behind it. i genuinely think he'd have a much easier time letting go of the fact that he had to forfeit if he didn't find out kai put those guys up to it, because that fact just adds another level of wrongness to it. jack would approach him with the most threatening, silent fury, & that anger would override his trauma-rooted anxiety about confronting him.

to jack's credit though, he doesn't throw the first punch. he most likely just wanted to show kai that he knew he was afraid of him, & being aware of that that was probably enough for him to find that closure he'd been seeking ever since kai beat him. he already won the fight because his opponent didn't want to have to fight him.

on top of the fight itself being super cool, jack is fighting for more than just his own safety here! he's not just facing kai, he's facing his past while also chasing the future in karate he's wanted since childhood. martial arts is really important to him & he's finally been able to practice it in a way that doesn't make him feel miserable, surrounded by friends who actually enjoy his company & support him—not to mention the growing father-son bond he's been developing with rudy! this new jack has something to fight for now, people he cares about, & a future to look forward to. he knows he can't back down to kai here, & for the first time, he doesn't want to.

i like that this is one of the longer fights in the show, too. jack & kai are roughly on the same level, so it makes sense for jack to struggle to get the upper hand, while also literally fighting with a broken hand. i have stuff to say about jack's alarmingly impressive adaptability in combat, but that's for another time.

jack sparing him is obviously an "intense disney channel moment" type thing, but i do think there's something to be said about how he still does what he thinks is right. he knew he won the fight when kai had to beg for his life lmao. i like it. he still whoops kai after he punches his broken hand too, so good for him!

conclusion

because of his ptsd, jack would have a chronic & irrational fear of losing because of kai. not necessarily failure, just losing. he's afraid that every match he loses is going the end the same way his loss to kai did: he'll end up extremely injured, & the people that he cares about will turn him away. that's why he has to do better. he has to win all of his matches, & he has to keep training.

defeating kai leaves jack feeling the most fulfilled he's probably ever felt in his life LOL. it would take a long time to set in, but it also wouldn't cure that ptsd he has. it would, however, leave him feeling satisfied & proud of himself, especially after kim & rudy would definitely express how proud they are of him, too. he'd feel a lot more confident in his abilities because he took down the first & only guy to have ever beaten him so badly.

this win gives jack what he needs to keep moving forward, now more confident than ever. it doesn't matter that kai gets to keep the trophy because jack's the one who won this time, and he knows that. that's all he needs.

[homeofthemany]

jack versus kai

part 1, part 2, part 3

second part of my "kickin' it in china" analysis! the post got long so i split it up lmao. robin keep your analysis posts to a relatively short length challenge, level: impossible.

TW for general discussion of trauma & ptsd, & a light allusion to abuse ["punished"]??? nothing really specific, it's all light.

seeing kai again; jack's resolve crumbling

i truly think that seeing kai again would emotionally destroy jack for a bit. not because jack actually believed he left that part of his life behind, but because he's always running from it. he dropped karate, became a skater & moved to seaford with no intention of coming back to it. then he does, albeit reluctantly, but this time he actually enjoys it. he doesn't get punished for making mistakes and has people he likes to train with, rather than the one person who's always trying to prove that he's better than him. and then right when he thinks he's let go, when he's at the one tournament where he can show himself that he's actually good at this thing he loves, kai himself shows up. and jack is forced to realize that all he's actually been doing is running away.

hell, he almost drops out of the fight right after, too! jack & kai's brief interaction when they see each other again doesn't give us much [other than the fact that he refused to let kai see him freaking out, showing that he doesn't want to look like a scared little kid in front of him], but jack's immediate resignation to everything does. he's already in the finals, but he'd still rather give up on the championship than have to face kai again; he just accepts that he can't win against him and seems pretty ready to go home before kim & rudy stop him.

about here is where i think things would seriously take a turn if this wasn't on disney! i think jack would've had a complete breakdown after seeing kai because of the ptsd from that match, and his relationship with rudy here would definitely shift into a much more personal one here because he'd see how troubled jack actually is. BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT OF THIS POST & IS A DEEP DIVE FOR ANOTHER TIME. i also think that jerry, milton, & eddie would've been notified of all this considering jerry's his best friend [or is on the way to becoming his best friend] & all of them in general became close very fast. rudy's dojo is a sanctuary for those troubled kids, so they'd all have a tight bond even if jack keeps them at arms length regarding his personal life & history.

after they get him settled down jack's like okay cool maybe things will be all right! and then proceeds to get JUMPED LMFAO. kai saves him but jack's intuition is very strong. i think he would've known something was up because he's able to sense something off about ricky [1x08], brody [1x20], carson [2x20], & probably a few others i'm forgetting. but he not only sniffs out liars & bad people fast, he's just a smart kid who knows when something's up. my point is that jack has a very strong sense of danger, & it's a pretty consistent trait of his; he trusts his gut, & he's right often enough to be confident in his judgment. i can see him being very weirded out by kai suddenly being there to help, but can understand him looking past it because now he's just worried about whether or not he can compete. and he can't.

i would imagine that being told you can't compete in the tournament you finally felt you could prove yourself in, would suck. in jack's mind, this tournament was going to determine his future—but not his future in karate. winning the tournament would finally let him believe he was actually good at martial arts & that he was finally past all of the stuff with kai and his grandfather. but then his wrist gets broken, he can't compete, and kai, the guy who beat the shit out of him when they were twelve[?] years old, the rival he'd been trying to outperform throughout his childhood, saved him. how conflicting.

final part (:

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jack versus kai

& versus his past!

part 1, part 2, part 3

first part of my breakdown of 1x19, "kickin' it in china", that was supposed to be in my last post. i'd recommend reading it for context because i drift out of canon territory in some heavier ways that might not make sense here if you haven't already looked at it. (:

up until this point in the series, jack has been a pretty cool, confident, & unshakable kid, but we also haven't learned anything about him. we know he was trained by his grandfather [who's a karate master], but that's about it. he's incredibly skilled in martial arts & clearly very talented, but he's a very normal & down to earth guy. then we meet kai, and things sort of start to fall apart.

TW for light discussion of ptsd & trauma. super light, super nonspecific.

where is jack, mentally? who is kai?

jack gets to go to china to fight in a tournament that he's, in his words, been dreaming of ever since he started training. woohoo! this is good! i'm sure he feels very accomplished & reassured of his skill level after being accepted to compete in the championship! maybe he can actually get over what happened with that random kid named kai he mentioned! jack is seeing a future for himself in martial arts again and is training in a new, healthy environment with people he likes. what's more important to him is that they seem to like him back!

the first thing we learn about kai is that he's the only opponent jack has lost to, and it was so devastating to him [likely physically and emotionally] that he gives up on karate until he moves to seaford. he seems uncomfortable talking about the subject and clearly doesn't want to elaborate, which i think can show "can show", since this is a kids show & they can't go too into detail that he's still somewhat insecure about his skill even though he rationally knows that he's the best in their dojo.

while we're making assumptions based off of writing choices, i think it's interesting that he confides in rudy & kim, intentionally keeping this from the other three; jack goes out of his way to talk to them outside. i like to think that he knows that they look up to him so he didn't want to talk about it in front of them, but logically this is just the writers keeping the a-plot separate from the b-plot lol. everybody, especially jerry, should've been involved, but i get that it's a kids show & they need to balance out the heavy stuff with the silly stuff.

the next thing we learn about this mysterious kai opponent comes from the man himself! this match jack is talking about apparently happened two years ago ["i thought i beat the karate out of you two years ago."], so not at all close to the start of the series. this is something that deeply affected jack, enough to have made him give up on something that really matters to him. if we assume that kickin' it follows the standard full season = full year formula, then kai would've beaten jack probably about a year before the start of the show, maybe a little over that, since 1x19 would be happening by the end of that season year.

i could make a whole separate post about jack's [c-]ptsd via his grandfather [long-term] & the fight with kai [one main standalone traumatic event], but the gist is that i cannot see a reality where that fight doesn't absolutely wreck him in more ways than one. jack was beaten so badly that he dropped karate, something he was probably training in since he could walk, for an entire year. that poor kid absolutely develops ptsd.

he also had no intentions of returning to it until he met jerry, milton, eddie, & rudy. even still, he almost chooses to walk out on them until he realizes that they're just as passionate about karate as he probably was as a younger kid. jack insists that he's not a karate guy and is a self-proclaimed skater boy, but it's clear that he still loves it and loves the culture [& action movies teehee] surrounding it.

next part (:

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jack's family & his relationship with kai

the parents in kickin' it as a series are generally not mentioned at all, or they're mentioned for concerning jokes. you can take it as them being somewhat absent depending on which main kid we're talking about, but it likely comes down to kickin' it being a show for young teens that wants to follow other young teens around—not their parents, but other weird wacky adults.

most of what we can gather about each character's family is either said in passing, as a joke, or implied through other things. i think it's fair to say that jerry has some of the more remarkable examples like being raised by wolves [1x03], having too many siblings / cousins to the point where he's being neglected & sleeping in a locker [1x17], you get the idea. but we actually know very little about jack's family & he's arguably the main character of the show.

very long analysis incoming! also i don't remember season 4 very well, so if i'm missing something, whoops. i'm going to drift into some darker territory [abuse, specifically] so if you're triggered by that or are of the "it's a kid show it ain't that deep" opinion, this probably isn't the post for you lol.

again, TW for general discussion of abuse—physical abuse & neglect in particular. it's very light & i don't go too far into detail, but just in case.

jack's parents

going strictly off of canon, jack's parents themselves are only mentioned once or twice. if i remember correctly, "a slip down memory lane" [2x15] is our most direct mention of them [i forgot if they're mentioned in 2x14 when he's about to leave for otai academy lol] because rudy says that they're out of town, having called them after jack gets a concussion and develops amnesia; they don't think it's necessary to head back and take care of him?

it's worth mentioning that depending on their circumstances and where exactly they traveled, they might not be able to make it back in time to help him with his recovery. in real time though, jack probably wouldn't recover in just... 30min-1hr? since memory recovery can take several days depending on mechanism of injury? not even talking about the actual concussion, by the way, which could take longer on its own. but i'm not a doctor lol. so to be fair, last-minute traveling isn't exactly necessary if they truly trust rudy enough to watch him until they get back.

on the other hand, it's odd that they didn't want to stick around to watch him break the world record in the first place, so it makes me wonder if he'd even told them he was training to accomplish that—and if he did, whether or not they chose to leave seaford anyway. at best, jack's parents are vaguely absent, and at worst, they're negligent.

we're also not given any clear evidence on whether or not they're supportive of his martial arts. we can assume that they're at least aware of it since it seems to be a family tradition of some kind ["my family were really embarrassed of kai," - jack 1x19], but they're never really shown to be openly supportive like jerry's family, or initially disapproving like milton's dad until he comes around in the pilot.

we see jerry's family, milton's dad, kim's dad, eddie's mom, & rudy's uncle, but don't see jack's parents once throughout the entire series. the only relative of jack's we get to actually meet is one he has a very negative experience with.

also he literally goes to china for a tournament he'd been "dreaming about since he got into martial arts" without them there to watch his fights. actually all of the kids go to china without their parents!! AND THEY LET THEM GO WITH RUDY LMFAO. but speaking of china!

jack, kai, & their grandfather

...assuming that jack & kai are first cousins. lol.

we know that jack has a cousin who beat the shit out of him two years prior to the episode we meet him in [kai, seen in 1x19 & 3x09], and he also has a grandfather who trained one of the biggest martial arts action stars in the kickin' it universe [mentioned in 1x01 & 1x06; oh, bobby wasabi the character that you could've been].

other than that, we don't have much else to go off of other than his line about his family in general being embarrassed of kai. because of that, i'm going to assume that the fight they had was part of some kind of family event / tournament. with how skilled jack & kai both are, as well as how skilled & respected his grandfather is [assuming he was at least somewhat famous for training bobby], it's not a stretch to assume that training in martial arts is very much a family thing, or at least is highly important to the majority of them too.

to look at jack's relationship with kai, we're going to drift out of canon while looking more towards his grandfather & how they were both trained. this is where the abuse part comes in!

although there is no real canon evidence of this because it's a kids show, i think the idea of jack & kai having a very strict and unforgiving grandfather is a very interesting one to consider. i don't think i have to go into detail here, but i can imagine jack & kai being overworked & overtrained, experiencing a lot of negative reinforcement, & potentially being physically punished for not getting things right or mastering things at the pace he wanted them to. i think he would push them past their body's limits & be either satisfied or disappointed depending on how well they'd perform afterwards.

back to kai, it's interesting to me that jack doesn't talk about his family's reaction to his supposedly devastating loss to kai ["a kid named kai beat me so badly, i gave up karate till i came here," - jack, 1x19].

it seems like kai isn't necessarily considered better than jack despite winning the fight. it would be easy for a kids show on disney to make it a "he won & got all the praise, but he cheated & my family never believed me so i want to prove myself to them / find my own closure" plot, but the conflict between jack & kai is completely personal. their family probably tried to forget the match ever happened, or more likely, regard it as an event that should just never be brought up again because it was so disturbing and / or tragic—or worse, they thought it was disappointing.

kai didn't gain any respect, he just won the fight. in fact, his presumably violent win is what got them cast out in the first place.

jack & kai are childhood rivals who would likely be competing for their grandfather's praise, so as a result, kai takes things too far to prove himself and seriously injures jack during the match that he lost. rather than gain his family's approval, though, kai's display of aggression gets them both exiled; they look down on jack for losing to "someone like kai", while also disapproving of kai's brutal & undisciplined display of power. jack shamefully gives up karate [i have other thoughts about how something like this would traumatize him] while kai continues to train, but now has even less of a regard for maintaining his "honor". if it wasn't about hurting people before, it certainly would be now.

small thing about their match

i'm more interested in how exactly kai won against jack LOL. i feel like there's a certain point where their sensei has to decide "okay, this is going too far", but then again, if we assume that their grandfather was the one to set up the match? ouh. he already wasn't training them in healthy ways, so he might not have bothered to stop them. did somebody step in or was it already somewhat of a dirty match to begin with, just so he could see how far they could push themselves? because neither of those stubborn students would tap out themselves.

after a certain point, i think their grandfather would probably step in but less because of jack's injuries & more because of kai losing his form. we've already established that he trains these poor kids to hell and back so i think that if anything would get him to call the match, it'd be something like that.

in conclusion

hooray, traumatized disneyxd characters! i was going to do a breakdown of "kickin' it in china" here too & what it must've been like for jack to face his past while fighting for his future, but then i realized the post was getting too long lol.

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damn i'm in so deep bruh

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