#(< also why i personally headcanon him as being mixed black and latino/native

[bizlybebo]

hold on. i’m rewatching s1 ep1 of pd right now and i know i’m freaking out over the smallest details but come here.

i know jimmy was more of a side character/throwaway npc in the grand scale of prime defenders but he’s actually insanely interesting and amazing simply because of the context he provides narratively, mostly for the setting they live in and for dakota’s character. in ep1, he talks about dakota not being on the soccer team this year, and dakota mentions how “something happened over the summer, and i just don’t think it’d be fair [for me to play anymore].” this is a really good use of chekhov’s gun on dakota’s behalf (referencing his whole heart procedure), but also it got me thinking more about pre-canon dakota.

it’s established in the first episode that dakota and jimmy already know each other, and that dakota was going to centurion high as just a normal student before he met will and vyncent. given this context, and also the fact that dakota and katori were also implied to have been going to the same school when they were friends, i think it just gives dakota so much more texture and backstory when you Know everything else about him.

specifically it makes me think about dakota’s relationship with katori, and how he described her as “just another kid who was trying to get away from something, too.” i think that katori was kindhearted but pretty socially awkward, and thus was likely a target for being picked on by kids like jimmy, which explains dakota’s “strategy” of sorts where he acts friendly towards bullies and tries to defuse situations if possible, but if they won’t stop nagging on his friends then he’s usually throwing the first punch.

he was probably protective of katori since she was his closest friend, and this kind of thing reflects really well in episode 1 with his defending of william from that same bullying. i think that entire defense, combined with him trying to shoulder the grief/guilt of what happened to katori mere months before canon, as well as his likely anger because jimmy probably didn’t even notice when she was there or that she was gone because to him she was just “another random dweeb” (and the fact he doesn’t really care enough about dakota to notice either) is just. it’s a lot of amazing, semi-accidental context and texture and characterization added to this story and this setting that is so amazing. dakota shone so much in season 1 because the setting was his home; he was the only one in pd familiar with the city and the people within it. and this is known, and it’s used so brilliantly to tie into his backstory and his family and his relationship with his aunt. i just think it’s really neat