Headscratchers / American Dragon: Jake Long

• At the series finale: Rose and Jake kissed and held hands under the moon. That's good and all, but how can they maintain their relationship since they're living 8000 miles apart?
  • Their only hope is a long-distance relationship.
  • Word of God mentions that had there been a third season, Rose would've moved back to New York City, allowing her to continue their relationship.
    • Even if that wasn't the immediate case, well for one they aren't exactly the average couple in an average world. Plus they got past one person losing memories of the relationship as it happened. So something like the more regular long distance is kind of mundane in comparison.
• How can dragon-powers possibly skip Susan's generation and yet she carries on in human form? In other words, how can a dragon who cannot shapeshift continue to masquerade as a human?
  • It makes zero sense. If dragon powers "skipped her generation", then she would be locked in dragon form!
  • They aren't dragons that shift into humans, they're humans that shift into dragons. That's why the magic can be taken away, and Jake can be stuck as human.
    • Actually Word of God is that they are dragons that shift into humans.
• The Huntsclan's plot to destroy all magical beings... which would have the Huntsclan having nothing left to hunt.
  • Maybe that was why they started hunting magical creatures in the first place?
  • Still, it would have made them pretty obsolete. Not to mention the fact that they never seemed to mind working for magical beings in the past, even if it consists of shady business.
  • They were willing to work with them knowing their end goal was global annihilation. So long as they manage to achieve it in the longterm, they're willing to avoid it in the short-term if it threatens their plans.
• Look, I know that New York, and basically the whole mortal world is supposed to suffer from Sunndydale Syndrome in this series, but... is everyone in New York blind? THERE ARE UNICORNS IN CENTRAL PARK AT NIGHT! CENTRAL PARK IS NOT ABANDONED AT NIGHT!
  • "Officer, Officer! I just saw a bunch of unicorns by the lake!" "Sure, Drunky. Sure."
    • This, and also the unicorns are shown to be able to turn invisible. They're elusive as always, which is usually the case in fiction.
  • Given that New Yorkers have been shown ignoring a Kaiju made of teeth fighting against a dragon in the middle of New York and then exploding when the dragon grabbed a giant screen and hit him with it, I say unicorns at Central Park are rather mundane.
• Wait, so the Huntsclan gets destroyed and Rose is wished to never have been a part of the Huntsclan, but then she remembers everything when she sees the photo of her and Jake from a dance. How?
  • The Power of Love can conquer all, even alternate timelines.
  • In addition, we don't really know all that much about how the Aztec Skulls specifically work; it may be that retroactively altering the entire course of Rose's life was a bit beyond their power, and so to achieve the desired results their magicks took some "short-cuts" (including applying Laser-Guided Amnesia that was eventually broken by said Power of Love).
    • And as not mentioned here, but in the episode the picture even existing is for the same reason Jake, Lao Shi, Haley, Sun, Trixie, Spud and Fu Dog remember things as they were. They along with said photo were in the area where the Skulls were used, thus they don't experience the memory change.
• The American Dragon is a new position? Were there simply no dragons in America for at least 200 years (assuming dragons exist only in the Old World). Surely there were other magical creatures there before hand. Why didn't anyone send a dragon earlier?
  • It seems to me they didn't "send" him, He was just the first to get there. The dragon family spreads to Korea, so we have a Korean dragon. One ends up in Canada, we have a Canadian dragon. Jake was the first to be born in America, so he's the American dragon.
    • The US has a reputation around the world as something of a young, upstart nation (both positively and negatively): the snubbing was probably an extension of that. Why there doesn't seem to have ever been a Native American dragon is another matter altogether.
    • Perhaps there were not Dragons in the New World. Maybe figures like Quetzecatual were based on another magical creature. Upstart nation I understand but I recall some mention of a Chilean Dragon. Chile had a dragon before the third largest nation in the world?
    • The United States of America tend to rub the wrong way every single nation that doesn't speak English as a first language, while Chile doesn't. And the magical side of America doesn't have the economic and military might that earned the real life US a measure of respect.
    • WMG: Jake Long may not actually be the first American Dragon, but rather the first that the Dragon Council is willing to officially recognize as such; we never learn, after all, which nation the Dark Dragon hails from.
• If the Dark Dragon is the "Number one Threat to the Magical World" why wasn't he given a bigger role in the show?
  • I agree with the above troper. The Dark Dragon isn't in that many episodes. He should be promoted to a title character, due to the fact that he is the most dangerous magical being. Instead of the Huntsman, who lies at position 2-4 on that scale.
    • Offering a different opinion here. I don't know why this is the case. However, I personally like that the #1 threat to the Magical World isn't that prominent in the series. Who's the main villain of the series instead? The #4 threat. Random position for the series' Big Bad.
    • Another different opinion. In a show where Status Quo Is God, the villain has to lose each episode. Having the Dark Dragon show up more often only to be defeated every single time would kind of dilute the "Number One Threat" image. Instead, he lies in wait and schemes, and the few times he does show up, he's legitimately threatening. There's only so many times an all-powerful evil dragon can suffer defeat at the hands of a high schooler and still maintain that image. Perhaps if the show had taken a different route - one where the villain had already pretty much taken over and the heroes were more a band of rebels rising against him rather than defenders of peace - then he could have shown up more often.
    • This. They lose constantly like say the Legion of Doom in Challenge of the Superfriends and being stated to be the Number One threat is more of an informed trait which is arguably less truthful. It's like with Apocalypse in the X-Men comics VS X-Men Evolution. The former never comes off as a threat save for alternate timelines like The Age of Apocalypse, while the latter appeared in episodes that allowed a partial victory thus keeping him as a threat until the finale.
    • Another different opinion: the dragons considered the Dark Dragon and other three villains worse than the Huntsman because they didn't know that he was actually ABLE to destroy all magical creatures. After all, the Dark Dragon proved himself able to take over the magical world (and if not for Jake, in his final appearance he would have done so and make it look easy), while the Huntsclan showed the will but didn't had the ability until the Huntsman got all the Aztec Skulls. If THAT didn't up his threath level off-screen...
  • The Huntsman may have not been the greatest threat, but he was still A threat. Perhaps the writers thought that even though he wasn't the most dangerous threat, he was still dangerous enough for good writing. Not every villain has to be the worst villain, there will always be more minor offenses that must be dealt with, "The entire premise of traffic cops," except here, it's a genocide.
  • Fun fact: according to the list here, Jake faced and defeated every single threat on the top 13, and the Huntsman, having fought Jake multiple times and nearly won, has the third best performance of these battles, with only the number 9 (Gorgons, two petrified with one still at large) and the number 7 (Hobgoblins. There are many clans still around, and Jake only defeated two and later had to apologize to the second as they were the victims) having a better performance and the Dark Dragon coming fourth (in their three encounters, Jake escaped him the first time and led him to be killed the second time, with Rose hijacking the third battle).
• The Dark Dragon's ultimate goal is to destroy humanity so that magical creatures could rule the world. How does that make him the number one threat to the Magical World?
  • Easy, because most of the magical world wants humanity alive. The Dark Dragon would either need to start ruling the magical world with an iron fist to force the magical creatures to create a genocide or kill whoever disagrees.
• Just wondering, why do they give Jake this 'gangsta' attitude? I know not all Asians are nerdy or fit a certain stereotype, but, frankly, I just think it's strange that the kid is acting like he's from a downgraded version of the ghetto. Considering— especially— that he's lived a very charmed life.
  • because that is how most teenage boys are, regradless of how they live. Jake just happens to be one of those boys.
  • Don't forget where he lives. He's in the middle of Manhattan, nearly every teenager there has that attitude.
  • Jake isn't living a very charmed life, he's constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown due the stress of being the American Dragon (less than a week of doing the job reduced Haley to a trembling nervous wreck). Also, where Trixie's similar attitude is genuine, Jake's is most probably part of how he vents his enormous stress, as shown by the times he cuts on it: he reduced it significantly the one week he got himself suspended to have a day off, and drops it completely whenever he's in an hard fight.
• Are the dragons, dragons that take on human form, or humans that can change into dragons?
  • One assumes humans that turn into dragons, considering Jake's natural form throughout is of his human version.
  • Well...not really. Many dragons stories from various parts of Asia have foxes/turtles/dragons/etc. spend most of their time in the story as a human. It's clear that in the same tradition as many of those stories, the dragons are shapeshifters, but are also explicitly stated to be dragons. That is what they self-identify themselves to be and are identified by other markers as well. Perhaps the dragons "default" to a human shape because that's the best way to blend in.
  • Their ability to breed with normal humans, and for the dragon gene to skip generations, makes it seem like humans that turn into dragons.
    • In one episode, though, a new principal creates a formula that would cause "any disguised dragon to revert to it's TRUE FORM", implying the other way. Still, it is unclear.
    • Given it's the same guy who taught Rotwood a lot of rather inaccurate facts about magical creatures, I'd doubt of anything he says that isn't shown on-screen as right.
• If the Huntsclan never existed, why do their secret bases still exist?
  • Because the wish wasn't that the Huntsclan never existed, the wish was that all Huntsclan members would die.
• In The Academy, Jake and Spud's potion to give a dragon the temporary appearance of death blows up the laboratory and blows out of the roof of the academy itself. So...when Rose whipped up a second potion, how did no one notice?
  • There is probably a way to make it without a big explosion. Like how you toss some potassium into water and it makes a small boom, but you toss a good handful and it goes KA-BLOOM!!
• Jake's wish to destroy all of the Huntsclan, except for Rose who gets to (re)live her life as if it never existed. Even though most if not all the other members were just like Rose, having been kidnapped near birth and being more or less brainwashed in to being evil. Jake just murdered hundreds of (potentially) innocent people, which is apparently okay with everyone because they weren't magical people or anyone he knew.
  • Rose is the one who made the wish, not Jake.
  • While the Huntsclan is misguided as are most of the members they sort of are being raised to be murderers, and Rose didn't exactly have time to sort out how to go about removing the threat or the maturity to plan far enough ahead to think about how she would better make her wish beforehand. Plus we don't know how people are determined as members.
    • Yep. Besides having to prove that she will resume serving him faithfully her plan was made with her willing to die as well. Rose being the one survivor was Jake's doing.
    • Nitpick, but she wasn't the sole survivor. #88 and #89 managed to survive too.
• So how exactly does the dragons' weakness to sphinx hair work? In some cases it seems that merely being in the proximity of it weakens the dragon to the point where they can't even transform, but in other cases the dragon can be close to and even hold a sphinx hair net with no difficulty, as long as they're not the one caught in it.
  • Depending on the Writer, maybe?
  • While the above explanation is the most likely, it could also be a matter of concentration; the talisman the Strigoi use, for example, would presumably be made of pure Sphinx Hair and thus agonizingly debilitating to a dragon at close range, whereas the average Huntsclan net probably has just a few strands of Sphinx Hair weaved together with various other fibers (either because Sphinx Hair is too rare and expensive to distribute in high concentrations to every Huntsclan enclave around the world, or else because by itself it lacks the tensile strength necessary to form a sufficient net).
• why do characters say "dragon up" before transforming they can clearly transform without saying it?
  • Short answer, because it sounds cool.
    • It's like Ben 10 where he always shouts out the names of his aliens because it "strikes fear into the hearts of his enemies".
  • IIRC, only Jake ever did that.
  • As noted above he's near-constantly stressed. He does that to psyche himself out, which also helps him to transform. Plus, as the troper above said, it sounds cool.
• What was going on with Susan and Haley's subplot in "The Long Weekend"?
  • Care to elaborate?
    • Basically they were going to a health spa and got on the wrong bus. Nobody at the boot camp believed they were there by mistake. They tried to tough out, but couldn't stand the military diet and made a break for it.
    • For that matter, will they come after them for desertion if they know their names and address?
• In this universe, how do dragons give birth? Does the baby switch between a humanoid and an egg depending on what form the mother is in?
  • Considering the base form of the Dragons in the universe is human, I don't think the fetus would switch to an egg. I'd imagine the female pregnant dragon-person would just remain pregnant. Reptiles aren't empty inside before they lay their eggs, you know.
  • I'd like to point out two things: one, dragons usually transform only before fighting or doing other form of stressful exercise, and it would be terribly irresponsible for them to do it and risk hurting the fetus (that's without taking in account the transformation is probably very stressful to the body); two, some reptiles give birth to live youngs (including boas, vipers, some skinks, and the viviparous lizard).
  • Since they're dragons that shift into humans according to Word of God, they would have to start out as an egg. Perhaps Jake's mum casted some kind of illusion spell on both of her kids to disguise themselves as humans before they learn to transform.
  • Is Jake's dad actually his biological father? It wouldn't quite make sense if he was born as a dragon.
• What kind of high school has a class on mythical creatures? Granted, it would be a pretty cool class to take, but still, what high school would have that?
  • A high school that has Mythology as an offered class, maybe? (A friend of This Troper took it in high school.) Considering the obsessions of the guy TEACHING said class, though, it would certainly explain why there's more focus on mythological CREATURES than the myths themselves...
  • My brother's school had a mythology class, although it was titled classics and dealt more with tales of Beowulf and Greek legends than "What does unicorn hair smell like"? Kind of questions.
• Why did the art style and character design change so drastically between seasons?
  • Change in management.
• The Huntsman is the Main Villain, but in "Ski Trip" Trixie and Spud say that Huntsgirl was Jake's archenemy, and somewhere along the way, i heard somewhere that Jake's Archenemy was the Dark Dragon. So, who is Jake's Arch-Foe?
  • I'd say Huntsman, to put it in comparison, if Jake were Batman, Huntsman would be the Joker (primary antagonist), Huntsgirl would be Catwoman/Harley Quinn, and the Dark Dragon would be Darkseid (Much more powerful than other antagonists, but doesn't show up as often).
• Why is it that Jake is viewed as not responsible enough to go out past dark but is apparently responsible enough to be charged with looking after Haley?
  • Because he's 13/14 but is the older brother.
• In "Fu Dog Takes a Walk," Fu is on his way to a baseball game that has a hidden section for magical creatures, and takes the IRT Lexington Line, which is one of the lines at Yankee Stadium, but the stadium shown by the time he gets there turns out to be Shea Stadium, which means that either Fu transferred to the IRT Flushing Line at Grand Central Terminal, or this is just another case of Big Applesauce.
  • He was trying to escape the mad dog catcher, and didn't look the train he was taking.
• Jake's dad has a good point in the last episode: What does happen to their clothes when they turn into dragons?
  • Dragon magic?
• Okay, Jake's wish worked and Rose was never taken by the Huntsclan. So how come Rose's wish is still in effect? I know the wishes made with the skulls are irreversible, but with Jake's wish, Rose wasn't there to make hers.
  • The Aztec Skulls grant irreversible wishes. That means even the skulls themselves can't undo a wish once it's been made. Once Rose's wish for the destruction of the Huntsclan was accepted, nothing could stop it, not even Jake rewriting the timeline to where she wouldn't have been able to make the wish.
• In the season 1 episode "Professor Rotwood's Thesis" Rotwood was arrested for what appeared to be a kidnapping. Even if he managed to talk his way out of jail, why wasn't he fired, or at least not allowed to become a middle school principal?
  • The pay wasn't good enough to attract anybody else, probably.
• Mermaid detective Dolores Derceto was sent up as soon as the Kelpie broke out. Given that hostile Kelpies are the #2 of the Top 13 Threats to the Magical Community, why were Jake and Lao Shi informed only one year later? It's not they're dragons living exactly where the Kelpie ran...
  • Also, the American Dragon's human form is public domain in the Magical Community, and even appeared (with boxer exposed) in the centerfold of the Magical version of TIME, so how is that Derceto didn't know it?
  • Derceto knew Jake is the American Dragon. The problem was that she suspected the Kelpie was masquerading as him.
• Sun Park is the Korean Dragon. But which Korea? Or it's both of them, thus when she's at home she regularly risks getting killed whenever she passes the most militarized border in the world?
  • Dude, militarized border or not, are you going to mess with a dragon flying over? Or tell anyone about it, for that matter?
  • I could see North Korea messing with a dragon honestly, and saying they kill dragons as a national press release.
  • Probably South Korea since she was allowed to cross the border.
• In "Bite Father, Bite Son," Brad's father is revealed to be a police officer. But in the following episode, "Game On," Brad had his father hire a pro skater to tutor him to win a skateboard contest (with the fee apparently being enough for the skater to buy a "third beach house"). How can a run-of-the-mill uniform cop possibly afford that?
  • Corrupt cop?
• How come in "Switcheroo" the mirror won't work anymore if they wait too long? That's just bad design.
  • The usual reason for those kinds of happenings is either "to save power" or "a failsafe".
• So...small countries like Korea get their own dragons...but Jake is responsible for the ENTIRE United States? Aren't these dragon families ancient? Are they appointed by the UN or something? And were Jake's ancestors also responsible for the USA (Then why is grandpa still very "Chinese"?) or have they only gotten the duty for the last 2-3 generations? The dragons' biggest foe must be bureaucracy.
  • Jake is the first American Dragon and prior to him, there was another new boy on the block; Fred Nerk, the first Australian Dragon. So presumably not all countries have dragons, maybe only the Asian ones and until now there was no Dragon in charge of the USA. Also presumably being the American Dragon just means he's in charge of all dragons there since he does have relatives who are American dragons. In the future, there'd probably be dozens of dragons in America with the one holding the title of American Dragon being the one selected to be in charge of them all.
• Why does the Huntclan seem to pick-and-choose which members they adopt/steal to raise from birth and which ones they just let join? We see that #88 and #89 were accepted after they turned in resumes that made the Huntsman think they had killed a bunch of magical creatures, but "Shaggy Frog" confirms that #88 at least does have a dragon birthmark on his left hand (even though it's never explicitly shown). So what, does the Huntsclan just explicitly target blonde-haired-blue-eyed Aryan kids to make part of their organization because Nazi-symbolism?
  • Probably going to have to be something that's chalked up to the showrunners prioritizing Rule of Cool and/or Rule of Funny over logic and sensible world-building. I mean, what use do resumes even have to an organization whose one and only requirement for being a member is having a dragon-shaped birthmark? All that said, there is no concrete confirmation that #88 and #89 absolutely weren't kidnapped. Yes, The Stinger of "Breakout" suggests otherwise...but "Homecoming" made it seem like #88 and #89 didn't have birthmarks because they weren't shown glowing like the others, but then came "Shaggy Frog" confirming that #88 does have one.
• When Gramps, Fu Dog, Trixie and Spud are trying to rescue Jake from Rotwood after Trixie and Spud sold Jake to Rotwood, Trixie questions why Fu Dog is driving and not Gramps. Gramps replies he doesn't have a license. So why is he allowed to drive in a later episode trying to retrieve the gold Eli Pandarus stole from the leprechauns?
  • Either he had gotten his license by then, he drove without one, or he did have one and just didn't feel like driving, so he made up an excuse.
• What's the big deal about the leprechauns selling an Aztec skull to the Huntsclan? They need all 13 skulls. What damage could one more skull do?
  • It's always better to ensure your enemy has fewer world-destroying skulls than more.