Jake

Jake (full title: Jake the Dog), the deuteragonist of Adventure Time, is a magical dog and Finn's constant companion, best friend, and adoptive brother. Jake has Stretchy Powers (which he has had since he was a puppy), which allow him to stretch and manipulate his body, coming in handy on innumerable occasions throughout his and Finn's adventures. He is the son of Joshua and Margaret. Jake has a brother named Jermaine. Jake is 28 in magical dog years, though he rarely acts mature. Then again, how exactly magical dog years correlate to human years remains to be seen. Both he and his girlfriend, Lady Rainicorn, share a passion for playing the viola. In the episode "Jake the Dad," he and Lady Rainicorn have 5 rainicorn-dog hybrid puppies.

Appearance
He can morph into all sorts of fantastic shapes thanks to his Stretchy Powers. He also wears transparent pants made of spider webs spun by pixies which he said in the episode "Donny." In "What was Missing," he borrows the pair of pants that Marceline wore in "It Came from the Nightosphere." When he was a puppy, he was small enough for his father, Joshua, to loom over him.

In the animated short, he looked very similar to how he does now, but his eyes stayed the same throughout the episode, and his hands had no fingers except for when he was meditating.

Due to a curse placed upon him by a wizard some point before the series began, his innards emit a vanilla odor, as stated by him in "The Silent King."

Abilities
Jake's Stretchy Powers enable him to modify the size, shape, and dimensions of every part of his body. Not only can he stretch and contort himself into highly specific forms, but he can also rearrange his internal organs, and teeth. In "Evicted!," he was able to shrink and move his internal organs and blood into his left thumb. Also in "Jake vs. Me-Mow," he enlarged his liver 51 times a dog his size, preventing him from dying of Me-Mow's poison. One frequent use of his powers is Key Hand, which he uses to pick locks. He has also used his arm as a bow able to accurately shoot arrows at a short distance. Jake's stretching ability is subject to the principle of conservation of mass as seen in The Limit, however the ratio at which he retains mass is different than what applies to other masses in Ooo.

Although he lacks the zeal for fighting that Finn possesses, Jake is a capable fighter. What he lacks in Finn's talent for swordsmanship, he makes up for in toughness and magical brawn. He is a capable hand to hand fighter, and can transform his limbs into weapons. He can also stretch to entangle enemies, or grow to gain a height and weight advantage. His shapeshifting can grant him supernatural strength, and he can simply overpower many enemies. However, he often leaves the brawling to Finn.

As shown in "Mystery Train," he is also able to stretch himself to "create" an entirely new person, as long as they remain connected to him. In "You Made Me," he is shown to be able to move objects through his body freely when he lets Princess Bubblegum jump into his mouth and then pushes her up through his back. Jake can be stretched by force as seen in "Ocean of Fear," when Finn stretched Jake's ears to avoid making contact with the ocean. Pen Ward has said in an interview that Jake uses his powers lazily and doesn't know their full extent. In "The Witch's Garden," Jake claims to have obtained his powers by rolling around in a magical mud puddle as a puppy, but in an interview Pendleton Ward stated that this is not how Jake got his powers, he just could not remember.

Jake's powers are sometimes used against his will, as in "Power Animal" where Jake's stomach took the shape of a fist and punched him so that he would wake up and eat.

Jake is capable of walking on his two hind legs, as humans, but can also run on four legs.

In the episode "The Limit," Jake's Stretchy Powers are put to the test. It is revealed that while Jake can stretch his body to incredible lengths, he does have a limit. As he approaches this limit, his body becomes dangerously thin. Once his mass is distributed along a certain length of his body, it becomes difficult for him to support himself; at one point, Jake was forced to walk along the ground. If he were to stretch beyond his absolute limit, it is presumed that he would completely thin out and die.

Being a magical dog, Jake, perhaps unsurprisingly, also has an acute sense of smell, as he can apparently smell the precise location of an object miles away. In "The Chamber of Frozen Blades" he stated that his sense of smell is "like 1,000 times better" than Finn's, although compared to normal dogs this is a somewhat low estimate, suggesting that he was either just guessing, or his sense of smell is not magic and just that of an average dog, albeit one with human intelligence. He also owns a sword, a shield and an axe but seldom uses them in combat. In "Mystery Train," when disguised as the Conductor, he briefly uses a sword to fight Finn, who defeats him effortlessly. This demonstrates that Jake is not proficient in swordplay, at least relative to Finn. During the same time, he also displays a prowess for skateboarding, as he performs jumps, ollies, and grinds; several atop a moving train.

Jake also has a supernaturally powerful imagination (on the verge of having psychic powers) as seen in "Rainy Day Daydream." Anything he imagines becomes reality; however, only he can see his own creations.

Jake is a skilled musician as well, particularly with the viola, which can have peculiar effects when playing certain pieces such as the first movement of Beethoven's 14th piano sonata. Jake's viola is the home of Shelby the Worm and has the word "toots" scratched on the back, which is shown in the episode "What Was Missing." In the same episode, Jakes purposefully breaks his viola and, later, repairs it. Jake also plays the acoustic guitar, as seen when he plays the titular song in "Susan Strong." It is shown in "Incendium" that he can also play ukulele. Jake will beat-box on occasion, such as in "Slow Love," "Daddy's Little Monster," and "Dad's Dungeon." In "Death in Bloom," Finn describes Jake as "the musical one."

Jake sings often in the series, usually along with Finn or on his own. Some of his songs are Bacon Pancakes from "Burning Low," On a Tropical Island from "Morituri Te Salutamus," and I'm On a Boat from "Beautopia."



Jake is a proficient dancer, and at one point even showed a dancing bug "how it's done."

Jake also claims to be very proficient at the board game Card Wars. He has a very good understanding of the game, since he was able to explain all of the rules to Finn. However, Finn was able to nearly beat him easily (although he purposefully lost to spare Jake's feelings).

In "Freak City," Jake claims he can sense when Finn is about to cry, saying "it's like a mother-daughter thing." Apparently, Jake can also calm Finn down with his saliva.

Jake can also speak Korean, which he uses to communicate with Lady Rainicorn. In "Her Parents," he writes a note to Lady's mother and father using Hangul, the Korean writing system, and greets them speaking the formal Korean language.

In "Power Animal," Jake's body is filled with the energy of "a thousand partying demons," as a catch from his wish granted by the Party God. As a result, a few temporary powers were granted to him, such as the ability to fly (although, this might not have been flight, but merely a sort of homing beacon to find Finn, because Jake didn't appear to have any control over his direction). In receiving these powers, his body began to glow, and his eyes became stars flashing multiple colors.

In "The Chamber of Frozen Blades," Jake and Finn both gain powers similar to the Ice King by reading the Ice Ninja Manual, but lose their powers after the episode is over, as they did not have enough time to commit the incantations and hand positions to memory.

In "The New Frontier," Jake says that he will probably live another hundred years suggesting that his magical powers also make it so Jake will live much longer that the average dog.

In "Dad's Dungeon," Jake farts on Fruit Witches while climbing away from them (holding Finn) to make them fall down from flying after them.

Barking doesn't come naturally as seen in "Up a Tree."

As shown in The Great Bird Man, Jake knows how to read Braille, which was taught to him by his ex.

Personality and character traits
Jake is generally laid-back and tends not to worry about things. He relies heavily on his powers (or Finn) to get him out of any dangerous predicament. While he often cracks jokes at serious times, Jake always has a lecture or a song to cheer Finn up if he is feeling disheartened. Acting as Finn's world-wise mentor, Jake is always willing to give input and advice about a situation, but his suggestions are usually inconsistent, ranging from encouraging and helpful suggestions to ridiculous nonsense. He can be somewhat irresponsible at times, frequently leaving Finn to fight most of a battle on his own, but he always pulls through when he is needed most.

Jake may be dyslexic, as evidenced by the fact that he writes backwards, as shown on his note to Finn in "Storytelling." However, Finn also writes backwards in several episodes, indicating that this may be the result of Joshua and Margaret's parenting style or a common mistake in the Land of Ooo. Jake is easily persuaded into doing dangerous and irresponsible things, as in "The Limit" where he states that he'll do anything if someone says his name three times.

Jake loves to eat. He likes junk food, especially pie, burgers, and ice cream. He isn't afraid to try new foods (as seen in "Her Parents") and invents his own foods. There is evidence of his ability to cook; for example, he makes Korean food for Finn at the beginning of "Apple Thief," and he cooked all the food that he used to make the Everything Burrito. He also made coffee in "Beautopia," and bacon pancakes in "Burning Low." He has stated in "Slumber Party Panic" that eating chocolate or fudge would probably kill him, much like normal dogs. Jake is shown to have a very short attention span, as shown in "Power Animal."

Jake also possesses symptoms of ADD. He can literally forget about a conversation in a moment, and start doing something completely unrelated, such as putting an ice cream cone in a toaster. This is shown in "Power Animal" when he gets continually distracted by his surroundings while looking for Finn. Cinnamon Bun summarizes it quite nicely, saying, "Jake, you don't really focus at all." This is also shown in "Burning Low," when he falls asleep twice: once when Princess Bubblegum is trying to explain why Finn can't be with Flame Princess, and again when Finn tries to get poetry ideas from him.

Jake can also be rather fickle at times; a prime example of this is in "The Duke," when he convinces Finn to blame the Duke of Nuts for turning Princess Bubblegum green and bald, but later spends the rest of the episode trying to convince Finn to confess that he did it. In "Freak City," he spends most of the episode trying to convince Finn to remain a "good-smelling" foot, and uncharacteristically tells Finn to give up hope. This behavior is somewhat explained later by his confession that he kind of always wanted to be a foot.

At times, Jake is shown to have somewhat of a dark side. Throughout the series, Jake makes some questionable comments and actions that come off as evil or selfish, such as in the episode "My Two Favorite People," when he laughs evilly. Furthermore, in "Susan Strong," he says "We can rule them like gods. Angry gods." Another example of Jake's darker side is seen in the episode "Apple Thief," when he mentions that he used to "[steal] old ladies' purses" and "hock stolen bikes." Jake also acts questionably in "Conquest of Cuteness," when he suggests squishing all the cute people instead of helping them feel better, like Finn wanted to do. In "Morituri Te Salutamus" Jake shouts at the Cute Animals to go away after saving them. Jake has a tendency to steal items without realizing what he is doing, as seen in the episodes "The Witch's Garden" and "City of Thieves." He also steals valuables from the graveyard in "Ghost Princess," but his excuse was that he "didn't know it was wrong." In the episode "Hot to the Touch," when Finn and Jake are flying in the robot suits Neptr made, Jake says "I feel like I could touch the heavens, and sock angels." Jake is generally easy-going, but certain things have been known to set him off. In "Goliad," Jake yelled and barked at the children when they wouldn't calm down. He's also shown to take some games very seriously, such as Card Wars and Kompy's Kastle. In "Card Wars" Jake becomes visibly upset when Finn starts to beat him, and BMO reveals that when it won against Jake before, he wouldn't talk to BMO for a month. In "Who Would Win" Finn breaks Jake's portable Kompy's Kastle game (which Jake has to play every day in order to maintain his rank) and Jake responds by physically attacking Finn. Jake is not afraid of death as shown in "The New Frontier."

He is a firm believer in fate and destiny. Jake also believes in Grob Gob Glob Grod and Glob World. He is also not very willing to do things that require effort sometimes as shown in "The Witch's Garden" when he is unwilling to run and save Finn from Gary. His lack of effort is also shown in "Who Would Win" when he states that he would rather play Kompy's Kastle than train. Jake also seems to like boots, as seen in "City of Thieves" Jake steals boots from a store, and also in "Incendium" when he goes out to find Finn a new love interest, he puts on a pair of boots, meaning that Jake likes wearing boots sometimes. He has also been known to have a great love for sandwiches as seen in "Jake the Dog," "The Limit," and "Dungeon." Jake the Dog and Dungeon being more prominent seeing as how he was willing to waste his only wish for a sandwich, and choose a sandwich as a weapon, respectively.

Jake's subconscious
Jake's subconscious is the subconscious manifestation of Jake that appears in the episode "The Witch's Garden." He is first seen at the River of Junk when Jake said that crossing the river looked hard. Jake's subconscious then appears before Jake and also tells him that it is too hard to cross the river, and that Jake should simply wear a hat instead. This suggests that Jake's subconscious has a personality similar to Jake's. He later appears when Jake is making his appeal to the Witch in order to get his powers back. When Jake refuses to give in to the Witch's humiliating demands, Jake's subconscious tells Jake that he is the subconscious form of Jake's old magical self, and is therefore beginning to die. This makes Jake start to cry and apologize. The Witch is thoroughly happy with Jake's sorrow and decides to take pity on him. She returns his powers and subsequently restores the vitality of his subconscious self. Jake and his subconscious then leave the Witch's garden in laughter after Jake takes away the Witch's cane, rendering her powerless.

Although Jake's subconscious is translucent and merely Jake's subconscious, he is still solid as when Jake cried over his dying body, tears ran off to his sides. It can be assumed that only magical beings can see Jake's subconscious because while Jake was having a vibrant conversation with his subconscious, Finn tells him to "stop talking to yourself!" (however, since Jake's subconscious is himself Jake, another interpretation could be that Finn literally meant that Jake should stop talking to "himself.") The Witch who stripped Jake of his magical powers was also somehow able to see him and hear him.

Conductor
The Conductor is the main antagonist in "Mystery Train." Throughout the episode, he comes and goes during the train ride, and begins creeping Finn out. Not until all other suspects are dead is he actually suspected of murdering all the candy people, because according to Finn, "It's never the creepy guy who's the murderer." After supposedly "murdering" everybody, including Jake, Finn chases him across the entire length of the train. After a short one-on-one battle in the train's control room, he is revealed to be Jake in disguise-via pink and blue paint and his stretchy powers. The paint may be some sort of liquid candy, since Jake licked it off of himself after he revealed himself.

Magic Fist
Magic Fist is the disguise Finn and Jake wore in "Wizard Battle" in order to be eligible to compete. Jake was the 'magic second head' of Magic Fist and Magic Fist's Limbs are Jake's arms and legs. Since Jake cannot see while his head is inside the cloak, Finn tells Jake where to attack with clock position code.

Gut Grinder
Even though Jake was not the Gut Grinder, he believed himself to be the Gut Grinder so much he became one. And throughout the episode the scared townspeople thought Jake was the Gut Grinder. The Gut Grinder was actually Sharon the mayor's wife. Soft People, Cube People, and Spiky People all thought that Jake was the Gut Grinder.

Groucho
When entering the Spiky Village in the episode "Gut Grinder;" Finn gave Jake a pair of "Groucho glasses" so that the Spiky People wouldn't think Jake was the Gut Grinder. Jake donned the combination glasses/ nose/ mustache and introduced himself as "Groucho," a clear homage to Groucho Marx.

Baron of the Grasslands
In Incendium, Jake claims to be the "Baron of the Grasslands," and an envoy of "Prince" Finn. Jake pretended that he was of royal blood to court Flame Princess for Finn, but later on discovers that Flame Princess is evil.

Randy Butternubs
In the episode "The Creeps," Jake wears a tall top hat with a green mask along with a purple cape with a tuxedo and a bow tie. He also wears black shoes. Jake shows lack of appreciation for his given name when he throws the card on the ground. In the episode, Finn thinks he is behind the mystery of the haunted, old house but the whole time it is Jake. He has been planning that prank for months and days.

Lumpy Jake
In the episode "Trouble in Lumpy Space," Jake was turned lumpy during the Mallow Tea Ceremony when Lumpy Space Princess falls on him and bites him causing Jake to get The Lumps. When he turned back to normal Jake, he was at Promcoming and he fell on the antidote that Finn brought. He is pink and his face looks the same. He only has four lumps not including his tail, and talks like Lumpy Space Princess. He also developed an attitude similar to Lumpy Space Princess. Lumpy Jake is hated by Lumpy Finn.

Demon Jake
Demon Jake appears in "Daddy's Little Monster" so they can sneak into the Nightosphere. He sings "Demon Apathy" in this form. Jake looks like a quadrupedal demon with big and sharp teeth.

Zombie Jake
Zombie Jake appears in "From Bad to Worse," when he was bitten by Mr. Candy Cane as a Candy Zombie. Zombie Jake looks like Jake, but with dark yellow-grey skin and cracks throughout his skin, along with dark rimmed light green eyes. Zombie Jake is the first zombie to be cured in "From Bad to Worse," but turns back into a zombie merely seconds later after being bitten again. A different version of Zombie Jake appears in the Adventure Time game, Rhythm Heroes.

Jakesuit
Jakesuit appears in "The Silent King." This is the only way the goblins won't see their "King" being 'un-kingly.' The appearance of 'Jakesuit' is Jake as an armor with a hole for Finn's head. The hole looks like the hole on Finn's hat.

Milk Man/Mail Man Jake
In the episode "Princess Cookie," Jake dresses as a milk man in order to try to rescue the hostages. Finn dresses in an outfit similar to that of a ninja, pretending to be Jake's shadow. In the end of the episode, dressed as a mail man, he delivers a daisy crown to Baby-Snaps.

Farmworld Jake
In the episode "The Lich," after real Finn and Jake are pulled in the wormhole by the Lich disguised as Billy, the scene goes to another dimension where we see Farmworld Finn with a robotic arm and playing a flute. Jake is seen as a normal dog with small eyes and has no shapeshifting or stretching powers and is unable to speak but barks like a normal dog. This was caused by Finn's wish for the Lich's nonexistence. At the Climax of "Jake The Dog", After Finn saves Jake from the goo pit of the Mushroom Bomb, Jake acts more rabid and aggressive. Later on he gained his powers in the farmworld, but had terrible results as he attacks farmworld Finn while turning into a giant like-Lich monster.

Rainicorn Jake
In the episode, "Her Parents," Jake dresses up like a rainicorn to impress Lady's parents.

Female Cinnamon Bun
In the episode, "All Your Fault", Jake is shapeshifted to look like a female Cinnamon Bun. He also wears a pink bow and is called "girlfriend" by Cinnamon Bun.

Quotes
See Jake/Quotes

Trivia

 * Jake writes a newspaper column titled Begs the Question.
 * In "Daddy's Little Monster" Jake is able to use his Stretchy Powers to change the shape and increase the number of his teeth.
 * Jake wears invisible pants spun from spider webs by pixies, as seen in the episode "Donny."
 * Jake has an eye patch collection, as seen in the episode "The Jiggler;" however, due to the events of the episode, their condition is no longer mint.
 * Jake stars in the Double Rainbow promo where there are two Rainicorns as the double rainbow.
 * According to Jake in the Legends of Ooo game, he doesn't like touching Slime Princess.
 * In the game Legends of Ooo, he says that he bathes once a year.
 * In the episode "The Silent King," Jake reveals that his insides were cursed to smell like vanilla by a wizard.
 * Jake's gender/species-swapped character is Cake.
 * Jake has a bio suit in the game Project Exonaut.
 * Jake gets annoyed or even angered when Finn plays his viola badly, as seen in the episode "Gut Grinder."
 * Both he and Finn are afraid of spiders as seen in the episode "Marceline's Closet."
 * Jake has died once in the series, in "Sons of Mars."
 * In the episode "Return to the Nightosphere," it is revealed that Jake knows at least one Japanese phrase.
 * In "Sons of Mars," it is mentioned by Grob Gob Glob Grod that he was prophesied to meet them.
 * In "The Hard Easy," Jake has a pocket (in his skin/fur) when he kept the lollipop bag the mudscamps gave them.
 * In the alternate universe into which Finn travels at the end of "The Lich," Finn's family pet is a non-magical dog named Jake that looks nearly identical to normal Jake.
 * In the episode "Jake the Dog" the Farmworld version of himself seems to become the Lich after he falls into a pit of toxic waste.
 * "Bad Little Boy" is the very first episode where neither he nor Finn make an appearance.
 * In "The Pods" Jake reveals that his favorite food is ice cream.
 * He has been to two dead worlds: one in "Sons of Mars" and one in "Death in Bloom," although in "Sons of Mars," only his unconscious body is shown there.

Cultural references

 * Jake's character was based on Tripper, Bill Murray's character in Meatballs.
 * Jake played the following viola pieces in the episode "The Eyes": "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" (Mozart), "Moonlight Sonata" (Beethoven) and "Symphony No. 5" (Beethoven).
 * In "I Remember You," Jake speaks in a Batman voice when he says, "Your constant harassment of the female gender makes me sick."

Storyline analysis

 * The form Jake uses to play viola with is inconsistent, as Jake holds his viola in his left hand in the episode "Evicted," but holds it with his right hand in the episode "My Two Favorite People." Violas are normally held in the left hand and switching hands means that Jake would have to string his viola in reverse order.

Errors

 * In "The Jiggler," Jake whistles a song, but in "The Real You," he can't whistle.
 * Jake is color blind but in "The Jiggler," he is coloring Finn's drawing.

Appearances in other media

 * There is a licensed Halloween costume of Jake.
 * Jake appeared with Finn in three episodes of MAD. See References in other media for further details.
 * In the Cartoon Network game Splashback, Jake is seen as a background character.

Comics

 * Jake is colorblind, as Finn stated in the back story comic, "Laundromarceline."