#as w p much everything extra credit to nothingunrealistic for The Wisdom & whomst everyone who likes jared / deh should be following already

[unproduciblesmackdown]

hey, im having a presentation of the deh novel but im going to compare to the libretto + musical + playlsits & the bonus tracks/deleted songs, just wanted to say that the way u analysed jared inspired me A Lot to also create my own opinions on him, most of them of which im going to talk abt in my class. so yeah,, just wnsted to say thank u, since u insoired me to also look closely at this character who i didnt even care abt before, but that i absolutely love now

hey that is great!!! i love your Comprehensive / cross-media approach here already, there is definitely a lot of Interesting Comparisons available across the ~spectrum of canon~......the novel may have given jared’s character an Actual Ending and compared him to an ex-lover and such, but does it have “like a helpless heartbroken little kid”? does it have dirty computer applied to the character or the essential “jared can relate to [unrequited love]” commentary??? you’re already doing great work w/ a lot of wisdom by going above and beyond the novel

really i’m glad if any of my Text Posts do provide useful insight for ppl who Don’t already love jared, or also alana, since she’s p much in the same boat in terms of the fact that yeah, canon makes it really easy to overlook these characters / not pay them very much attention. which is a Shame for a lot of reasons lol including that jared’s really interesting and you don’t find a lot of examples of characters like him, b/c he’s given enough focus to have the degree of nuance that he does, even though it’s not enough focus to make it clear to anyone who might not already want to devote Extra thought to the character. i mean, The Loser Best Friend isn’t too rare, and you can easily see jared as offering the Unconditional Support, but i feel like usually this character type is like, very nice to the point of too nice for their own good, kind of charmingly hapless -> Harmless, but jared of course is a little ~unpleasant~ and difficult and his Verbal support isn’t super sunny and like, goodnaturedly hyping up his friend, he’s obviously fine criticizing evan and deliberately downplays his own offers of support as like, i talk to you for car insurance, i’ll help with emails for $20.......but then also of course jared isn’t just The Big Meanie type either lol, he’s not just like the school bully even if people wanna interpret it that way just cuz that’s a simpler interpretation, jared is The Mean Guy / the bad friend...........the Material doesn’t try to have jared be Either the unimpeachably supportive bff Or the tormenting asshole, and the fact that jared’s just as concerned w/ putting up a front & just as concerned w/ how people respond to him as any of the other teenz is another crucial part of what makes jared this fairly Rare Character........it’s just not always obvious to see him as necessarily having more going on than “this disappointing friend who gets frustrated with evan” lol......evan’s character really is perceiving / judging jared and alana p much entirely on evan’s own terms, and deh is so rooted in evan’s perspective that the show itself also like, gives other characters these roles that are v much according to the terms of how it affects evan’s character........e.g. how jared and alana really never appear when they’re not interacting w/ evan, and how they tragically vanish from the story once evan’s plotline can continue w/o their involvement.......disrespectful

speaking of how constrained things are from evan’s perspective and how jared and alana are given Complexity and Humanity and yet disposed of when evan’s narrative has enough momentum?? fun to think of how this story could go if it was all the same but alana was the main character. or if alana was the main character And kinda switches places with evan, like, maybe they both arrive to the first day of school in the same way, evan’s broken his arm still, but somehow alana is the one who ends up mistaken as connor’s secret and best and only friend? and evan is the one who earnestly believes the story and embracing tcp as a way to connect and find Meaning or whatevs, while alana is getting pseudoadopted by the murphys, and maybe jared’s helping out still b/c of evan’s involvement.......i would want to see that story. but that’s an especial digression lol

anyways i’ve gotten offtrack this whole time lmao. i Love to just exhaustively and repeatedly talk about how like, jared and alana are struggling in v similar ways to evan and connor but just aren’t too often interpreted that way, even though like, if the audience wasn’t seeing almost Everything from evan’s pov and getting allll these very direct expressions of How Evan’s Feelings via song and introductory letters-to-selves, would it be ~obvious~ how evan’s struggling, either?? but we are out here glad to make up for how the material basically fails to do alana and jared justice lmao and just throw out Analysis and Discussion ourselves, and i’m even gladder to hear whenever this manages to introduce a different perspective on things. b/c it’s some great stuff sort of hidden away in canon here lol, and if nothing else, the fact that alana n jared don’t show up a ton / have much focus on Just Them / *do* end up disappear(tm)-ing means that there’s a lot of room to speculate about the characters’ pasts, presents (in the timeline of canon lol) and futures (which, thanks to their Disappearances, also is in the timeline of canon p much lol...) like there’s so much to endlessly talk about haha

tldr; i’m rly glad to hear If and Whenever the [appreciating jared kleinman] agenda is advanced at all lol. already you’re doing noble work just telling an entire class about ways to look closer at this character.......i fully invite any followup on this lol but already just thanks for the ask cuz it’s good 2 hear!!!