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Lore Dive: Jake Park

icemancat
icemancat Member Posts: 150
in Lore

Overview:

There are many characters throughout the story and lore of Dead by Daylight. Some characters we know a lot about while others we know hardly anything about them. One of the characters that has such little information provided is Jake Park, and rightfully so. Jake is known to be one of the more quiet people out of all of the survivors and this is further implied by two of his perks, Iron Will and Calm Spirit. In this post, I’m going to attempt to theorize as much as I can about Jake to try and learn more about his character, his past, and how Jake may have been captured by The Entity. REMINDER: In no way is all of this information confirmed. Some of this information is just theorized.


General Background:

The paragraph of background info that is provided to the player about Jake is very minimal and doesn’t give much to work with. However, there are still some key details to notice about the paragraph provided. In the paragraph provided in-game, we know that Jake was born into a wealthy family with his father being the CEO of an unknown company and his mother’s occupation also being unknown. It is also revealed that Jake has a brother who may possibly be more academically inclined than Jake, as Jake’s brother ended up graduating with honours from Yale, a college that’s known for not being too easy to get into with an acceptance rate averaging around 6%. Jake didn’t want to take a similar path like his brother, something his father didn’t understand. It’s implied that Jake’s father kept trying to push Jake into going to college at Yale which eventually made Jake rebel against his father. The pressure stressed Jake to the point where he wanted to get away from his original home and to live on his own. We learn that years pass by without Jake even speaking to his father, but he still occasionally gets in contact with his mother. We don’t really know all that much of what Jake did while he lived on his own, but at some point, Jake goes missing and his mother contacts the police. Shortly after Jake’s mom contacted the police, the police informed her that a search party checked for Jake all around the woods of where he was staying, but couldn’t find him and gave up due to weather conditions. Their final conclusion is that Jake got lost in the woods.


There is a second brief paragraph of information about Jake Park, but I’ll get to those parts a little later in this post. As for the information above, that is all that was really provided for players to think about. However, there are a few notable details in the paragraph of information that may reveal more about Jake’s past. One of the most significant figures in Jake’s past and the one who is likely responsible for the disappearance of Jake in the first place is his father. 


The Different Views Of Jake And His Father

Certain people out in the world today don’t like admitting that they’re wrong and when it comes to Jake’s father, he is no exception. As covered before, we know that there was some tension between Jake and his father when it came to the father wanting Jake to start going to college like his brother. However, Jake didn’t want to have to go to college and instead wanted to find his own purpose. The two most likely argued and debated over this as it was even revealed that Jake’s dad never understood why Jake refused the perfect opportunity to get into college practically for free due to his wealth. Eventually, Jake had enough and left home, leaving his parents and other possible family behind. We then learn that as Jake is living on his own, he rarely contacts anyone and that the only person he does contact is his mother, not his father. The conflicting perspectives between Jake and his father are likely the reason why the two don’t talk anymore. Their conflicting views on how to do things is further implied to have affected their relationship with each other, as only Jake’s mother showed signs of desperately wanting the police to find Jake, not his father. This ‘I told you so’ feeling of Jake’s father could represent that Jake’s father has a mentality of always believing that his beliefs are absolute without question and because Jake left home and didn’t listen to him, he no longer shows empathy towards his own son, regardless of him going missing forever.


This attitude of Jake’s father is extremely unhealthy and rather close-minded. However, taking a deeper look into a few details may further imply what Jake’s father is really like and how Jake’s father may actually be a psychopath. To begin discussing this possibility, we must discuss the first wrongdoing of Jake’s father; bribing school admissions.


Jake’s Father’s Potential Bribery Part 1

As covered previously, we learned that Jake’s brother graduated with honours from Yale, a college that isn’t particularly easy to get into. We also know that, from Jake’s paragraph of background, “his father never really understood his refusal to embrace the expensive education he lavished upon him.” What this tells us is that Jake’s father pretty much tried to give Jake a free admission by potentially bribing admissions at Yale. This is actually illegal and can actually happen (read the first paragraph of this article. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/us/college-admissions-scandal-questions.html ). Furthermore, Jake’s father is known to be a CEO of a company, a job that can potentially earn someone a lot of money. The father’s money could also have been used to possibly bribe teachers to give Jake’s brother good grades to graduate with, something that may have been a contributing factor to Jake leaving.


If Jake’s father really did this, then this would be a sign of someone who may possibly carry the traits of a psychopath. This website (https://www.healthline.com/health/psychopath#signs ) even provides several signs of someone being a psychopath. To sum it up, a psychopath usually

  • Possesses socially irresponsible behavior
  • Disregards/Violates the rights of others
  • Cannot decipher between right and wrong
  • Has a difficult time displaying remorse and empathy
  • Frequently lies
  • Manipulates and hurts others
  • Has repetitive problems with the law
  • Neglects actions of safety and/or responsibility


FYI: I am not a psychiatrist. I’m literally just here trying to theorize for fun here. 


If Jake’s father truly did this to get Jake’s brother into college and attempted to get Jake into college, then he displays 3 of the 8 points above: irresponsible behavior, inability to decipher between right and wrong, and neglecting actions of responsibility, all traits of a possible psychopath. However, this wasn’t the only time that Jake’s father may have bribed a specific group with money to get his ways as Jake’s father’s actions may have been the ones to have ultimately gotten Jake captured by The Entity.


Jake’s Father’s Potential Bribery Part 2

Towards the end of Jake’s brief paragraph of background, we know that Jake only really contacted his mother and not his father due to their possibly damaged relationship. However, Jake would soon go missing and his mother would be the one to try and get the police to try and find him. Unfortunately, the police said that they searched only to find nothing and to stop any other searches due to weather. One possible occurrence contributing to the disappearance of Jake is that his father preemptively bribed the police into claiming to ‘not find’ his son with a fair sum of money. The reason behind doing this is so Jake’s father could have closure into making others around him believe that he was right all along and that Jake’s decisions ended up getting himself captured in The Entity’s realms, something that Jake’s father cannot live without.


Doing this would obviously involve the law wanting to question Jake’s family with where he may have gone off to, something that Jake’s father would most likely have an easy time slipping past. We must remember that Jake’s father is the CEO of a company, a position where not exactly everyone can get into. Someone in the position of a CEO would most likely possess a solid amount of intelligence, therefore, it would not come to a surprise that Jake’s father would devise a plan like that. If the authorities were to question Jake’s father, he would just say that he doesn’t have a good relationship with Jake anymore and would be backed up by additional members of the family. 


So after reviewing how Jake’s father could have been involved with a few bribes, Jake’s father does display multiple traits of a psychopath.

  • He displays irresponsible behavior with the bribing of the school and police
  • He goes after what he wants and disregards the rights of others by attempting to get his kids in college by illegal methods
  • Cannot recognize that what he’s doing is wrong
  • Shows zero empathy involving the disappearance of his son
  • He would most likely be lying a lot to the authorities when questioned about Jake’s disappearance
  • Bribing is manipulating others into doing wrong things
  • Jake’s father would most likely have multiple problems with the law if he were caught. Bribing to get your kid into the college you want is illegal and bribing the police to fake a search in hopes of someone not getting found would most likely cause you to have problems with the law
  • Jake’s father neglecting the responsible actions of not bribing also counts


So after tallying up how many traits Jake’s father could have, he carries ALL EIGHT TRAITS! This could highly suggest that he may have some form of psychopathy and that he quite possibly could be the one responsible for stressing out Jake to the point of him getting captured by The Entity.


The Impact Left On Jake From His Father

All of these actions on Jake Park may have impacted him in some way. Impactful events in one’s childhood likely carry on from a parent and in a way, sometimes shape them in a similar way like the parent once was. For Jake Park, it’s a special case. Due to the actions and pressure given from his father, I believe Jake Park has some level of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) aka Multiple Personality Disorder.


One of the causes for DID is that of a severe trauma from childhood. In Jake’s case, the type of trauma he may have experienced could have been emotional abuse with his father constantly pressuring him to do as he says. In the second paragraph of background information on Jake from the outdated manual (that’s here https://archive.deadbydaylight.com/manual/survivors/#jake ), one of the lines says “During torture it’s not pain that breaks a man, it’s immense pressure. And Jake couldn’t handle any more pressure.” This can show us that Jake remembers the pressure that he always got from his father as torture, a traumatic moment in Jake’s past. This emotional impact is further supported by a couple of other details in the game. 


Two of Jake’s cosmetics potentially reveal more about the past impact from his father, Sharp Mustache Jake and Studded Jacket. The description for the Sharp Mustache Jake reads,


“In what now seems like a previous life, Jake had a reputation to live up to. A clean look. Suits. The only thing he’s still willing to wear from those days is the sharp mustache.”


This can show us that regardless of despising his father’s preference for what he wanted Jake to do, Jake still will keep a part from his past, possibly out of pressure from his father. For Jake’s Studded Jacket cosmetic, it reads,


“If you want to be taken seriously, you have to dress appropriately.”


While I understand that some may see this as a joke for dressing a certain way in-game to be taken seriously by your opponents, I see a different meaning behind this description. To me, it seems like this may have actually been an exact quote from Jake’s father while he still lived at home. This is continued pressure added onto Jake, increasing the emotional impact on Jake. However, there is one detail left that I believe shows that Jake may have DID; Jake’s perks.


Jake Park’s three unique perks are Iron Will, Calm Spirit, and Saboteur. Iron Will and Calm Spirit seem to serve similar purposes; stay quiet and out of sight, pertaining to Jake’s character. However, Jake’s unique perk, Saboteur, seems out of place for Jake. The word ‘Saboteur’ literally means “A person who engages in sabotage.” This could be one of the impacts left behind by his father, referencing back to the point where Jake’s father possibly tried to sabotage other people’s chances of getting into Yale by bribing so that his own kids can get in, effectively destroying other people's chances of getting into Yale. With all of this evidence provided, it is a possibility that Jake may have a minor case of DID.


With the previous discussion points now having been covered, there is one last question that still needs to be discussed: Why was Jake Park captured by The Entity?  


How Jake Park Was Captured By The Entity

Whenever I try to find out how a survivor is captured by The Entity, I try to use a criteria that I made up for a previous Lore Dive.

  1. The survivor has a significant amount of hope. This is good for The Entity since it solely feeds off of the hope of survivors. 
  2. The survivor is lost. The best examples of this are the backstories from Dwight, Meg, Claudette, and Jake. All 4 of these survivors got lost in the woods, therefore, making them easy targets for The Entity to capture.
  3. The survivor is in a critical situation. Situations like these are likely to be scenarios where if it weren’t for The Entity capturing the survivor, they would have died instead. A good example of this is when Adam Francis blocked the impact from a door hitting a girl during the train crash so it would instead hit him. This impact could have killed Adam, so The Entity captured him and is now using him to feed off of the hope from him.


Obviously since I used it as an example in the criteria, Jake’s case would be #2; he’s lost. While some may think that I’m referring to the survivor getting lost on a hike or a walk, I’m actually not in this case. Jake is a different kind of lost. In order to provide some form of proof for this, the best proof I can find is the description of his Nonconformist outfit. The full set’s description reads,


“He rejected privilege and left everything behind to find himself.”


When someone says they usually need to find themselves, they typically refer to them needing to find their purpose and that’s what Jake ultimately wanted to do. We still don’t know how exactly Jake got captured, but this is the only evidence I could find of Jake’s capture by The Entity.


Thanks For Reading!

Thanks a lot if you made it this far. I really hope you enjoyed reading this Lore Dive. It has been a little while since I’ve done one of these, but I hope it was still interesting to read and made sense. Jake Park has always stood out as a character in Dead by Daylight who’s not really known all too well and I figured I would try to have a better understanding of his character. As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, I understand that this is entirely theorized as much of it is unconfirmed, however, I still thought it was fun to write. No matter what, I am open to feedback. It’s important to me to know if there are details I’m missing or if I’m doing something wrong. Please let me know what you think!


Thanks again for reading,

icemancat

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