General

The circumstances of Jane's death and Jake's birth. Jane was out in town when the yearly Extermination was unexpectedly moved forward. Though Striker went to get her and managed to get away, she was mortally injured by an angelic weapon. Knowing that she wouldn't make it, Jane asked Striker to save the then-unborn Jake despite knowing it would kill her. Striker had no choice but to cut open his wife's abdomen and take the baby out.
- Jane choosing Jake's life over her own survival shows just how much she loved her son even if she never got to meet him.
- The experience left Striker emotionally scarred. It's bad enough that your wife dies in your arms, but imagine that she died because you had to crudely slice her body and take out the baby in her womb.
  - Striker could never bring himself to tell Jake about his mother or why she's not around because of this. It's not easy to tell your child that their mother died so that they could live, especially knowing that it could emotionally crush them.

Vol. 5: Mom

Striker snaps at Blitzo and then at Jake when he sees a photo of Jane in their grasp. After kicking Blitzo out of the house, Striker yells at Jake and sends him to his room with no explanation whatsoever. Naturally, Jake bursts into tears and cries himself to sleep.
- This reaction implies that it's the first time ever that Striker has scolded Jake this harshly. And Jake doesn't even know why.
- Seeing his late wife's photo reopened old wounds, which caused Striker to lash out. He feels guilty afterward and realizes that he cannot hide it from his son anymore.

The entire story. Striker has just lost his wife, but has no time to properly mourn her, as he must look after his newborn child. He returns back to the house that he built for her alone, knowing that she'll never come back. But the worst part is that his son will never meet his mother.

It's pointed out by several people that Millie broke her engagement to Travers, but Travers himself comments that Millie broke up with him one day before the wedding, any bride or groom's worst nightmare.
Millie learns that Travers, her childhood friend, and one-time fiancée, with whom she grew up with, is not only out to kill Stolas, but has also kidnapped Jake and presumably done something to Moxxie and Striker. When did he change so much from the man she once knew?
- The confrontation is an establishing Out-of-Character Moment for Millie: instead of savagely attacking Travers, she instead holds him at the tip of a knife and sadly inquires him as to why he's doing what he's doing.
- Despite Traver's antagonistic role, he's shown to truly love Millie and is genuinely hurt when she plays on his feelings for her to distract him, allowing Jake to free himself.
- Millie still seems to somewhat care about Travers, as she threw Striker's aim off before he could shoot him with the angelic rifle, allowing him to escape. She sadly notes that she'll deal with him herself; as much as she doesn't want to, she knows that she may have to kill him the next time they meet.

Striker's backstory: first his mother was killed by Exterminators when he was 12 years old, leaving him an orphan, then he was (forcefully) taken in by an Overlord who emotionally and sexually abused him, and then, the top of the cake: he had to slice open his wife's womb to save Jake. In other words, all his life he's lost people he cared about.
- These experiences caused Striker to avoid getting too close to other people, as he doesn't want to go through such pain again. However, others usually misinterpret this as Striker not trusting them, which is only partly true.
- Striker himself lampshades that his badass attitude is a mask to hide all the pain and sadness he feels for the sake of his son. He feels that Jake needs him to be strong for the two of them, as Jake only has him. This implies that Striker has never given himself time to properly grieve and deal with his pain. He prioritizes Jake's wellbeing to the point that he neglects his own.
While under the effects of the truth serum, Striker outright tells Blitzo that he's not Loona's real father when Blitzo questions his own capabilities as a father.

Striker is forced to revisit the city of Dis and Bathory's castle, the places where he spent the saddest, most lonely years of his life.
Briefly zizgags with Nightmare Fuel when Jake wanders off in Bathory's castle. Striker is so relieved to find his son safe and sound that he sobs.

The pain caused by Jane's death and the void is explored in depth. Particularly, the fact that Striker masturbates himself with a pillow because he can't bring himself to touch another woman.
- The story ends with Striker weeping after finding the photo he and Jane took the day before she died. And since readers know by now how she died...

Most of the stories involving Jake as a baby zigzag this with Heartwarming, as we're shown Striker's still-sore wound over his wife's recent death and his struggles to raise a child on his own.
- Jake's Lullaby is especially sad, as it shows briefly shows Jane humming a lullaby to her unborn child before time-skipping to a few hours after her death, with Striker still shaken over what he had to do while holding his newborn child.
Just a Memory has Jake lamenting over the fact he never got to know his mother and will never get to.
- Striker's response as to why he never spoke about Jane and why he kept all of her photos hidden from Jake up to then.
  Striker: Just thinkin' about yer momma... it hurt. I put her photos and any mementos of her away because they reminded me of her, and then I'd realize that we'd never have any more happy moments together. For me, it was easier to... bury it all away so it wouldn't hurt. Jake, I didn't tell ya about yer mother because I didn't want you to hurt the same as I did with her absence.
  - And Jake's response:
    Jake: You know, dad... I don't think that having memories of people you love can be worse than having no memories at all...