Honestly, I'm pretty surprised this video didn't mention the "Friday the 13th: How I Spent My Summer Vacation" comic where Jason briefly takes care of a child suffering the same physical and mental issues as him, Davie Falkner (whose disorder will kill him before he turns 18, meaning that it's thanks to Jason Voorhees of all creatures that gets a little bit of peace, compassion and respect before his unfortunate end). It's one of the bigger entries in the franchise when it comes to depicting Jason's more humane side, and one of the bigger sources of inspiration for the Worthikids animation and the Counselor Jason fan comic I imagine. Still, very nice video!
Camp Counselor is how one of the films should end. One of the film's victims can time travel, only short jumps. Overall it plays like normal, until the end when she super jumps, figuring it out, and brings them back to the start. This is the start of the comic. She sees him fall into the water, and runs out to try and help, but cant. Then Her Jason rises out, carrying young Jason. After this, she's overlooking the camp. He comes up and stands next to her. She tried to help him when younger. Maybe she found out about him before in the movie, doesn't matter. He notices he's fading away. Sparkles, dust, or just a fade, pick one. She takes his hand and smiles at him, comforting him, as he leaves. Flash back to the present, and it's CCJ. Bonus if you can get one of the original Tommy actors to return as his buddy. He speaks in sign. Even more bonus if Micheal comes out, complete with scratched out Thorn tattoo (we're going that route) to free him of that curse. In that timeline he's just as much of a victim. If you can get Carrie's original actor to return as well? Damn. It's a perfect, and poignant, ending. Perfect way to just stop the franchise. Jason always was a victim in all this. And before someone whines about the girl with powers, the fourth or fifth film has a telekinetic.
Dude... WHERE ARE ALL YOUR FOLLOWERS!?!? Gamma's theme, Death Battle fan, Mortal Kombat fan, AND a lover of Camp Counselor Jason!? YOU HAVE THE BEST TASTE IN MEDIA
I can't be the only one that while watching Freddy Vs Jason, started to cheer whenever Jason landed a hit, that made me realise that I cannot see him as evil, compared to the others he would be the only one that could have a Redemption arc (plus notice how contrary to Michael Myers he has never hurt a child or an animal despite being able to do so if he wanted)
I kinda want to see a carrie remake where its portrayed as more of a natural disaster, like carrie has a normalish life and the prank is instead a bucket of glitter. But the rope snaps and hits her on the head, effectivley causing her powers to "detonate" uncontrolled from her corpse. Itd be this slow sad film about how bad things sometimes jusy...happen..
Hopefully moving forward they'll take cues from Godzilla and move Jason from villain to still really dangerous when provoked but will fight bigger threats.
I like to think of the big three of slashers as types of villains Jason: sympathetic villain Freddy Kruger: unredeamable monster Michael Myers: force of nature
Jason is the most sympathetic slasher. He didn't deserve what happened to him, his Mother only went crazy when her boy was "Dead". Jason isn't a monster, he's a scared child that saw the evil of his Mother and took that evil upon himself. Leatherface got that treatment in the second to last Texas Chainsaw remake. Hell we all were cheering for Jason when he fought Freddy.
I think the fans of Jason see him as usually in the right. He isn't like Micheal or Freddy who will hunt you down for being in a town where people would live. Jason is a guy who says in his little area away from people. He gets messed with so people see it as more justified he's more of a child in a monster's body.
He’s sort of the Frankenstein’s Monster (the Universal version) of horror. He’s not inherently evil and if you don’t bother him (generally) he won’t bother you. Even if you do want to call him evil he’s more of a territorial animal then a malicious actor.
Well, except for in part 3, the victims there didn’t encroach on his territory or do anything to provoke him. Jason just decided he wanted to kill those guys.
I view Jason as an angry and vengeful man who just wants to protect his territory, Crystal Lake, from trespassers and be left alone. He kills people not because he's evil but because that's what he saw his mother doing after she had gone mad with grief and is simply mimicking her, like most children do with their parents, believing that killing is the only way to dissuade people. He is, in a sense, upholding Pamela's final wish to keep Camp Crystal Lake from ever re-opening so there isn't another child victim, although I believe it's more about not wanting others to enter his and his mother's resting place from Jason's point of view. When you enter Crystal Lake you forfeit your life because Jason will immediately view you as an intruder who is no better than his mother's killer. This is why he never goes out of his way to randomly kill people in Jason Takes Manhattan unless they explicitly get in his way. The New Yorkers haven't been to Crystal Lake so Jason has no beef with them, whereas the people he's hunting had crossed into his territory and needed to be punished for it. TL;DR: Jason is just a big boi doing what his mother has inadvertently taught him to.
@@hunterhudson4577 Yeah, he only killed the people on the boat. The only non-trespassers he killed were two junkies and a cop because they were in his way.
@@substandardeagle4738 I see you forgot to mention that one sewer worker in the film Jason killed. He wasn't even in his way, he just got tackled & dragged by Jason, then got wacked in the head by a wrench. Simply put: He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Poor bastard...
When Jason got added to Multiversus, I think it’s sweet that after people got over the shock of seeing him try to hack up Shaggy and Velma, the fandom collectively decided “Yeah, he’d definitely be friends with Gizmo and Iron Giant”.
The part with Carrie always makes me tear up. Camp Counselor Jason is by far my favorite version of Jason. Your video sound of how I feel about him. He's always been my favorite horror icon. Seeing him get so much love brings me a so much joy.
Same, that part always warms my heart and Carrie even becomes a councillor herself so she can be there for the campers the same Jason was there for her (and so she can remain close to Jason 😉)
What interests me about the Death Battle is that his hallucinations imply that Jason sees it as a battle of principle. Jason kills people, but not without his own reasons. He has moments where he simply stops going after people, or never even takes offense to begin with. He knows when enough is enough. With that lens, he knows Myers just wouldn't stop. He can practically SENSE he has the blood of truly innocent people on his hands. People who never wronged him or anyone else at all because Myers just obsessively chases people, kills them and anyone who was in his way, then moves on to do it all over again. Jason kills for what he feels is a good reason. For Myers, killing IS the reason.
Like a territorial animal compared to a robot, one using violence to survive or to "punish", the other being almost "programmed" to kill without ceasing. Michael's violence is more instinctual despite how cunning he's portrayed, his actions are efficient and mechanical with barely a hint of emotion or expression behind the occasional head tilt where he regards his "art", analyzing his work before moving on, while Jason is taciturn but often is shown to be explicitly emotional, his killings being motivated by an emotional need to defend his "territory", to protect himself or to punish intruders.
@callmev3531 I agree with this statement, not to mention that Jason has a stronger and better moral compass overall since he draws the line at not killing kids, as shown in part 6 if I remember correctly, while Michael, if given the chance would commit a war crime and just take a leak at the Geneva Convention. They are like 2 sides of the same coin IMO
@@silverkuroma The kindest thing we can say about Michael is that he wouldn't kill a baby (as seen in Halloween 2018), but that doesn't really mean much when he strangles a child to death in that same film, and straight-up decapitates another in Halloween Kills.
@@kamikazelemming1552I think its implied that the only reason he wouldn't kill a baby is it wouldn't feel as much meaningful fear, too. He spared it, but not for any sort of moral reason, it just wouldn't be as rewarding for him
we like to imagine Jason being happy, because he embodies the trauma and nonsensical hatred of each generation, and deep down we all desperately want a reality where none of that happened. So we picture him in it, because if we think we deserve it, then certainly he does too? Idk but that's how it rings true for me, my childhood was an empty mockery of an actual childhood, and to see someone whose life was similarly awful, grow up and become better, fuels me.
Hey, you should totally check out the comic “Friday the 13th: How I Spent My Summer Vacation” it focuses on Jason coming across a boy with similar deformities who is attending the camp and it’s probably the most nobley the character has been portrayed in official media. I think the whole thing is online.
Oh yeah I saw that. He actually ends up saving the kid from some corrupt sheriff high on crack who’s trying to kill the kid after he witnessed him accidentally gun down two councilors, the sheriff scared that the kid will testify against him for murder.
I think what clinched Jason as a more sympathetic slasher compared to his peers was Ginny paychoanalyzing him in _Part II_ Based on what she heard about him, she's able to build a profile that most modern of these modern pastiches and official takes on him build off of: the scared little boy carrying on where his mother left off for reasons he doesn't quite understand.
New Word: Pastiches; imitate the style of (an artist or work). or, an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period. Thank you for this new word.
I really liked the Jason Vs. Leatherface comic. Really shined a light on the sympathetic side of Jason and Leatherface, even if it didn't really follow the source material 100%.
The fact i haven't scene anything from camp councillor jason in matbe a year and a half and tbis shows up in my recommended section makes ne very happy
I love Camp Counselor Jason. Especially when he has adventures with other killers. I sucks the creator hasn’t made more but it even spawned some fan made interpretations.
Jason is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction, and my favorite in the realm of horror. I think the reason why is exactly as you stated: he feels far more sympathetic and sad than many of his slasher counterparts. Characters like Freddy and Chucky are manipulative monsters, and Micheal is a silent instrument of violence and evil. They are fantastic characters in their own right, but I feel Jason in particular has become a staple of horror because there’s more to him than just his monstrous deeds. In the films, he’s the embodiment of the consequences of negligence and treating others as lesser, and we tend to feel a connection to him in spite of the awful things he does across the franchise. Also, as a big dude who’s struggled to properly express himself for much of his life, the depictions of Jason seen in things like CCJ helped me a lot. It shows you can grow to care and try to connect with people no matter who they are. Not bad for someone who has one of the highest individual body counts in fiction. Excellent video. Literally just discovered your channel, and I’ll be sure to tune in for more. (Shoutout for using the ost for Bioshock 2 btw.)
I understand what you say, bruh... Really a deep view of the character. Jason is not evil because he cannot even understand the concept of evil like the other slasher monsters: Freddy is a sadistic criminal, Micheal is an instrument of pure darkness and destruction, Predator (my favourite) kills for fun and he even laugh in the face of Swarzeneger when he hestitate in striking the final blow because he see pity as pure weakness from a lesser being, Pinhead throw away his own humanity to become a demon and taste more pain from other people, Pennywise is an evil eldritch entity who feast on children and fear, While Art the clown... Better to not even speak about that disgusting freak. 😅
I really like sympathetic villains. Imo, the most interesting part of the NOES reboot was when the movie proposed the idea that Freddy was actually innocent of the crimes the townsfolk thought he committed. Of course, that idea was abandoned pretty quickly in the movie, but I still think it could've been interesting to have Freddy be a vengeful spirit similar to Candyman.
It's an interesting premise how easily we sympathize with Jason, I usually find myself calling him an "antihero" which isn't really accurate, but I like the guy too darn much. Thank you for your thoughts.
@@jesusramirezromo2037 no, anti villain are like Mr Freeze and Magneto, having genuinely good and understandable goals and ideals but are willing to break the law to archive them, Jason follows no laws nor has no real goal.
What I liked about camp counselor Jason is that this version was created by him. The first chapter shows the original Jason saving his younger self from drowning. That was the catalyst for him to go that different path. Yeah it got a bit silly with Michael Myers not being pure evil and instead being a mechanic, and a joke of fixing a generator by literally taking a stab at it….
Yhprum's law is an optimistic reversal of Murphy's law, stating that "anything that can go right will go right". Its name directly references this, being "Murphy" in reverse. Camp counselor Jason is literally the definition of this😂
I don't think you mentioned it, but one of the earliest instances of a "good Jason" interpretation is probably the Splatterhouse series, which depicts a masked, brutally violent character very similar to Jason who is ostensibly a hero fighting off grotesque monsters to save his girlfriend/her soul/his family. Though, similarities mainly extend to the aesthetics of the character and the setting, I do think it played an early role in presenting this idea of a "slasher" looking character being sympathetic. Although, Splatterhouse isn't really something widely known, and largely gone irrelevant. On a similar note, I think Casey Jones is loosely following that, if only in the sense of being a violent individual who happens to wear a hockey mask, but uses it to fight evil.
One thing you forgot to mention about Camp Counselor Jason was the beginning. It shows Jason as a child nearly drowning but being saved by the older, undead Jason. While I personally don't know how it is possible in the timeline of that comic series, I think it represents why we see sparks of goodness within him; Jason doesn't anyone to experience what happened to him. Does he go overkill in trying to prevent that? You betcha! However, Jason still has that sliver of goodness that ensures that we can never fully be against him.
Glad you enjoyed the Death Battle. If you want to see Papa Jason in an officially released comic, check out "Friday the 13th: How I Spent My Summer Vacation" by Wildstorm Comics.
It's pretty easy to root for the slasher thats is just a bullied, traumatized child when your competition is: A child predator A serial killer that stalks a child in the body of a toy A sociopath obsessed with killing just because A soldier that sold his soul to satiate his morbid hedonism A bunch of teens that kill just to be famous And a animal that embodies rape The only killers more sympathetic than Jason are Candyman and The Fisherman
I love this big brother like depiction of Jason. It’s wholesome but could easily also be written into Jason’s characterization without issue. I wouldn’t be against this caring side of him being made canon
There’s a reason why Jason is a broken, lost and corrupted soul. Where Michael, Freddy and Chucky kill wherever they go. Jason stays to Crystal Lake. He is ha vengeful spirit filled with rage and hatred. This is a person who never found rest. Michael: Dark Force of Evil within Human Nature Freddy: A horrific unstoppable monster Chucky: A mischievous and manipulative person Jason: A restless spirit
One of my favorite wholesome Jason fan arts are the pairings of him and Sadako. I know there’s an artist that would frequently release short manga style web comics.
Jason being called the modern day Frankenstein is... honestly the best way to describe it, a giant, lumbering, tragic creature that the people still love despite that.
I’m glad to finally see a video talking about Jason’s amazing fan representation, he’s always been a comfort character for me and the web comics and cartoons take it even further
Check out Hack/Slash, a horror comic focused on a duo that hunt down slashers, one of which is Victor who is pretty much what if Jason was raised by a kinder sole.
The thing is, Jason only starts killing after his mom dies. He's not driven to murder by people hurting him, that trauma drives him to seclusion. But when his mother dies he's driven to avenge her by targeting the people who hurt the only person who cared for him. Its been a while since I watched all of them, and they may have diverged from it after Jason goes to hell, but I tend to recall the writers generally tried to make his murders to be influenced by the actions of others, like he's perfectly fine letting things be until someone comes to crystal lake and does something. The only one I feel for sure really didn't get that part of him was Jason X, who starts killing just to kill when none of his victims really met his usual criteria, and then after setting off on his murder spree allows himself to be sidetracked by half naked co-eds
I do wish cam counselor Jason had kept him looking ugly like the movies, Like, I know he’s wearing a mask, but in the movies he’s a literal zombie and clearly has a malformed head even as a kid But in camp counselor Jason he’s got perfect skin and aside from the mask he’s got a normal shaped head by the looks of it, Like, why does Jason have to be pretty to be good? Why does he need to be less ugly to be more sympathetic? This shit happens with all sympathetic monster characters, they always end up looking conventionally attractive,
Worthy AND camp councilor mention? Subbed I kid, this was a fun video and i love your insights into this Personally i see CC!Pamela as less wanting her son to be a murderer, and more wanting her son to be safe _At Any Cost_ (She just happens to be *very* proactive)
You are right. Movies trying to write sympathetic villains are so common. It is more surprising and refreshing if a villain is just pro-evil. That’s one of the appeals of Art of clown. There are zero attempts to make the viewers sympathize with him. He is evil just because he enjoys being evil.
I don't really get the recent push for less nuanced and interesting antagonists. I actually find Art the Clown incredibly dull because of his lack of any motivation or exploration whatsoever.
Eh agree and disagree. Like yea, a pure evil villain is good now and again but personaly its way more boring than something you can actually analyse. This isn't a perfect example since its super heroes but take thanos for example. From what I know, in the comics (most of them that is) he is a very stereotypical big bad villain and even sometimes just being a asshole. MCU Thanos on the other hand, while still being a villain, is "relatable" and can even get you to properly think and even agree on some of his points. I like both version but if I had to make one the definitive version of the character, I would take MCU over standard any day because its just a lot more interesting to me and to a lot of other people.
I like how many people show softer sides of Jason or what if scenarios where he would live a normal life, and it's both wholesome and heartbreaking because it makes you realize what was taken from him by fate.
Jason has always been sympathetic, he was a poor kid who had an unfortunately birth defect that made him a target for bullying, and then theres rhe idea he seen his mom DIE
As a person who has a hate to love relationship with horror, even though I never cared about Friday the 13th or other slasher media Jason was one of the few slashers I enjoyed besides Chucky (for sheer comedy), Leatherface (Only The First Movie the rest are horrible), Ghostface (Meta Horror) or Candyman (He is underrated as a slasher villain and Tony Todd is the GOAT) etcetera. Jason is one of the few villains I could sympathize with like Mr. Freeze or Carrie or Roy Batty or Magneto or other villains. In contrast I do pity even the vile villains sometimes like Homelander. But unlike Jason, Homelander is like Freddy Kreuger a man who is vile and his tragedy is ouweighed by the most despicable crimes. I pity Homelander somewhat but I do feel he's too far gone. Maybe a better example to contrast Jason is Bastion from X Men or 97's iteration. Like Jason, Bastion had to deal with being different and was sheltered by his mom. Both were dealing with prejudice and were scared of who they were and are dear mama's boys at heart. With Jason creating a tribute to his mother while Bastion mourn the loss of his mom by placing her safely. The difference is that Bastion is the more viler of the two. The former was a man who drowned, survived with no protection, saw his mother who was literally perished in front of his own eyes at the worst possible time, and now is cursed to defend an abandoned camping site for all eternity. While the latter almost commited mass extinction, used his mom as one of his soldiers (though he still loved her), wanted to exterminate Earth, and the messed up implications on what he did to Magneto. And to be honest Pamela at least was trying her best to be responsible to Jason before she went on a rampage unlike say Bastion's mom who unintentionally kickstart Bastion's sentinel hatred tendencies. As a result I do want to point out I understand people are tired of the trend of villain sympathizes and their 'I can fix them' notion. No way would I want to redeem Patrick Bateman who is a deplorable person (especially in the books) or Freddy one of the most pure evil in horror. Like I will never sympathize or feel bad to villains like say Judge Holden....he scares me. Jason is the exception and I understand why people love him. He is tragic and had he continued his time normally perhaps he could've had a better life. He still is evil but I just feel bad he is destined to be a boogeyman in the past. Hiding inside the rundown and abandoned Camp Crystal Lake that is rotting away. As a person with neurodivergence I headcanon Jason with disabilities as well. Yes he is not a good guy but hey as a person who is sick and tired of autistic people as pseudo intellectuals in fictional mrdia I relate to Jason. I never knew Jason became the biggest standins for dealing with generational trauma and while Friday the 13th is a typical slasher flick, I can understand Jason now and it makes me happy people are making wholesome fan content of him. I must admit I was about to dislike a comci series Camp Crystal Jason but when it had Jason and Pamela in character and respected the source material I enjoyed it. I also enjoyed Carrie being used and I love how it respects the Carrie story as well. The whole 'I can fix the villain' trend may be annoying but this is one od the few exceptions. Thanks Jason Voorhees and may you have a better life.
This phenomenon also happens a lot with Carrie, like Lee depicts, and with the Eraserhead baby! a lot of horror fans (me included) know they're just kids who deserved better than what they got
Mentioning of Carrie always just makes me sad, like even the bucket, if it hadn't hit Tommy, I hope he would have tried to console her, since he went with her FOR HER, under no romantic pretense, just so she could have a good night, and I wondered how that would have played out, I imagine quite the same as with Jason, and it's an ending I wish they had for her
Since we’re close to Halloween, you should cover the arc where Jason and the kids throw a “Summer-ween” party and meet Laurie & Michael Myers, who’s a mechanic in this universe (that hilariously fixes things by literally “taking a stab at it”) and extremely protective of his younger sister. The amount of hilarious moments between Jason and Michael in that arc is amazing, and definitely worth checking out. ❤
The anime series Irresponsible Captain Tylor, features one of the space marines being a hockey mask clad silent figure named Jason with his personal information card just having question marks for most of his information, so the idea of this being the canon Jason Vorhees who's chilled out who knows how many centuries was completely plausible.
a movie on counselor jason would be awesome cause we are getting like horror movie of certain disney characters so why not do the opposite cause that would be cool and interesting
This video made me think of Jason's depiction in the music video for The Menzinger's song "I don't want to be an A***ole Anymore". In it, Jason decides to make a change and starts working on himself and its both funny and kind of wholesome.
One doesn’t necessarily have to have experienced trauma to want to make this kind of fan fiction. My wife does the same thing with most of the dark characters she loves just because she wants to see them happy and in a better situation. She’s precious like that and it’s one of the reasons I love her.
There is the old game series called "Splatter House". The main character is a jason like figure who saves his girlfriend and later wife + child from demons. Maybe the developers of the game saw the protector in jason as well.
Pinhead and Jason are the 2 horror/slasher villans that honestly seem you could possibly bargin with. Jason just stays in his own little bubble at crystal lake and Pinhead only goes after you if you solve the puzzle but even then yoy could possibly escape by giving him someone else like Frank
So my little sister really got into horror movies and such, but she was watching all the modern ones like sinister, etc. But she wanted to know all the ones I grew up with, so as I'm telling her about Jason, Freddy, Michael, Leatherface, Chucky, Ghostface, and even Pinhead. We ended up talking about how out of all of them, Jason and even Leatherface were the most sympathetic of horror movie icons, and even Pinhead to a degree from the first and second hellraiser movies. That while Michael, Freddy, Chucky, and Ghostface kill for fun and are just evil just for the sake of being evil, Jason as you said did not choose to become what he became and was a product of powers that were beyond his control. So was Leatherface in a way, and to a small degree even Elliot Spencer aka Pinhead.
Every villain has become sympathetic now because everyone loves villains but what villains do isn’t exactly socially acceptable so we don’t want our children imitating them so now we’ve retconned almost every villain in Hollywood and literature to be sympathetic, they only do evil things because they’ve been wronged or because the people against them just don’t understand. It’s happening right now to one of the most revered villains of all time Sauron. In the rings of power Sauron is depicted as a handsome sympathetic tall dark loner who just wants love, but the reason Sauron became popular was because he was a completely uncompromising cruel mass murdering dictator but we don’t want our little kids thinking characters like that are “cool” so we have to invent all of these desirable traits to attribute to him even though they never existed. Another example is Disney taking the galaxies most prolific child murder of all time and just making him kind of a meanie now on rare occasions, might choke you a little but won’t kill you cause that’s naughty.
As a kid getting into horror Michael and Freddy vied for the top spot for my favorite slasher icons. But over the years Jason took the crown from a distant 3rd place. It's funny how tastes and preferences change. While F13 naysayers say all of the films are interchangeable (an accusation I can't quite fault tbh) I really don't think its an accusation that is only true for F13. You're gonna tell me most of the Halloween films aren't interchangeable? Halloween is a franchise I fell out of love with. I have some very hot takes about the series as a whole I won't get into here. Suffice it to say the original and Season of the Witch are my favorites. From there my preferences get...chaotic to the say the least. When Michael is done well, he's great. When he's done poorly (as he is in most of the original slate of sequels) he's boring as shit...because the "unknowable unstoppable quasi-supernatural killer" thing gets boring. Hearing Loomis scream and holler endlessly about EEEVIIILLLL...MIIICCHHAAEELLLLLL!!! get boring. The protagonists and victims in waiting in the Halloween sequels are mostly boring or unlikeable. The "we don't know what the fuck we're doing" energy as the sequels gets more and more weary as times goes on. But with F13, they always knew how to play the game their way. The continuity was always loose, therefore any "contradictions to the canon" really don't matter. The F13 films have great hangout vibes and largely likeable characters that feel natural and real. And the sleazier, exploitation bent of the franchise is just more my bag in general, lol. Jason's inherent sympathetic origins are a big reason why the big guy has become my favorite slasher icon over the years. The campfire tale/urban legend aspect of the films and character appeals to me greatly. Every actor, stunt performer, and design of Jason from film to film helps create a more interesting character than what may be found on the page. I know the soft canon of events is that Jason survived his drowning, lived in the woods for 30 years and saw his mom get decapitated, thus springing him into murderous revenge mode. But I never really interpreted it that way. The details are loose enough where that interpretation is just that - interpretation. Fans graft onto it because for some reason everything in movies to them has to "make sense" in an external logic way. Think about it: The films never show us Jason surviving the drowning, surviving in the woods...or hear any tales from the locals of a deformed boy out in the woods living off of the land, etc. We see jason literally just step into frame out of the darkness in Part 2. Granted, at the time the film was just doing the "who will be the killer this time" gimmick, but as the series progressed, Jason being a kind of undead being from the jump is just as valid, or maybe even more valid as him surviving the drowning. To me Jason, even before he "officially" died in Part 4 and came to life in Part 6 - Jason was ALWAYS some kind of revenant, a supernatural force of vengeance occupying his corporeal form - forever trapped in his pain and anguish. I love a blank slate of evil like Michael, but the underlying humanity of Jason makes him more appealing in the long run imo.
This is like one of my favorite videos of all time. You did such a wonderful job in talking about the softer side of such a notorious monster like Jason, and that's something I really appreciated about him growing up and watching those movies. Even when I read the comics, especially Friday the 13th: How I Spent my Summer Vacation (which is such a fantastic comic, highly highly recommend), my favorite side of Jason was always the one that didn't lose enough of his humanity to see kids like Davie in that comic like himself. Having that distinctive paternal instinct to try and protect and care for a child he sees parts of himself in, while being so ruthless and horrible, shows two really interesting sides of the same character. And, in cases like Jason Takes Manhattan, seeing him ignore Rennie in the alleyway to kill two men that he perceives as bullies (rightfully so) to protect the girl he has been chasing after the entire film by that point, even if it's just for a few brief moments, is kinda morbidly beautiful. I love this video so much, and it means a lot to see people perceiving Jason like I did when I was a child.
what separates leather and jason from michael and freddy is exactly that, how much sympathetic those two are when compared to the other two. freddy is an alleged pdf and michael is the evil incarnated into a supernatural body uncapable of dying. jason and leather are mentally disabled childs who were raised by pretty mentally disturbed people, and suffered from a lot of tragedies.
Out of all the slashers he sure is the more sympathetic. Hes a monster created by other monsters. He wasn't looking for trouble as a kid and still paid the price for just existing and you can get him coming back being filled with hate to any stranger and killing them. Also Jason is one of the few slashers where if you just stay away from his territory you will never run into him. The only reason he went out exploring in FVJ was cause Freddy as his mom told him too do so and Jason is a mamas boy.
THIS. THIS IS WHAT JASON NEEDS. The problem with Jason in official media is that rarely is his backstory ever truly impactful of his character. It's established and people exploit it to overcome him, but for 90% of all of his movies, he's just Michael Myers. A silent masked stalking killer who can't be killed. By design. It never changes anything about him narratively or provides any real growth. The 2009 remake actually showed a side of Jason we had never seen before in official movies. (Comics, I can't be certain, I've never read them) That not only him being much more aggressive, territorial, imposing, and resourceful, but also a not completely hostile version of him. He kidnaps a girl rather than killing her outright because she looks like his mom. This plays further into his humanity as he's now dealing with emotions he doesn't understand. Furthermore, when Jason is officially undead, he's not just a normal zombie. His behavior shows he still retains his intelligence, sentience, and emotional baggage. This shows that even when he's supposed to be a lost cause, he's not really a lost cause. What future installments need to do is focus more on what separates Michael and Jason rather than how they're alike. Jason is a traumatized survivor who's territorial and protective. A character. Michael is an emotionless husk of a being whose only motivation is death in whatever form he can dish it out. A force. I want to see future installments lean more into the character of Jason. Not just referencing his trauma or using it to manipulate him, but having them truly explore it and try reaching out to him. There is so much potential for him as a character that official writers just don't seem to grasp yet. I have so many ideas for how a rebooted world could work with these characters and it heavily leans into a Jason Voorhees redemption. It would obviously stray a bit from horror and become more akin to thriller drama, but if people are interested in seeing Jason do more than simply kill and die, I really think it's worth exploring.
He’s sort of the Frankenstein’s Monster (the Universal version) of horror. He’s not inherently evil and if you don’t bother him (generally) he won’t bother you. Even if you do want to call him evil he’s more of a territorial animal than a malicious actor.
Jason Vorhees is the modern day Frankenstein, he's brutal and horrific, but he's sad and sympathetic
Frankenstein’s monster. Frankenstein was the creator, and the original portrayal is far from horrific.
@@elijahhayter3026
You mean the version where the monster kills a child just to spite his creator?
@@tahjkuemmerle I’m referring to appearance. The monster was a looker.
@@elijahhayter3026
Oh yeah. I forgot Mary Shelley basically invented "hear me out."
@@tahjkuemmerle “hear me out” was always a thing.
Honestly, I'm pretty surprised this video didn't mention the "Friday the 13th: How I Spent My Summer Vacation" comic where Jason briefly takes care of a child suffering the same physical and mental issues as him, Davie Falkner (whose disorder will kill him before he turns 18, meaning that it's thanks to Jason Voorhees of all creatures that gets a little bit of peace, compassion and respect before his unfortunate end).
It's one of the bigger entries in the franchise when it comes to depicting Jason's more humane side, and one of the bigger sources of inspiration for the Worthikids animation and the Counselor Jason fan comic I imagine.
Still, very nice video!
Camp Counselor is how one of the films should end. One of the film's victims can time travel, only short jumps. Overall it plays like normal, until the end when she super jumps, figuring it out, and brings them back to the start. This is the start of the comic. She sees him fall into the water, and runs out to try and help, but cant. Then Her Jason rises out, carrying young Jason.
After this, she's overlooking the camp. He comes up and stands next to her. She tried to help him when younger. Maybe she found out about him before in the movie, doesn't matter. He notices he's fading away. Sparkles, dust, or just a fade, pick one. She takes his hand and smiles at him, comforting him, as he leaves.
Flash back to the present, and it's CCJ. Bonus if you can get one of the original Tommy actors to return as his buddy. He speaks in sign. Even more bonus if Micheal comes out, complete with scratched out Thorn tattoo (we're going that route) to free him of that curse. In that timeline he's just as much of a victim. If you can get Carrie's original actor to return as well? Damn.
It's a perfect, and poignant, ending. Perfect way to just stop the franchise. Jason always was a victim in all this.
And before someone whines about the girl with powers, the fourth or fifth film has a telekinetic.
What i find it funny is Jason talking in Family guy cutaway gag
While Freddy just silent
If any of you were placed in a room with Jason not a single one of you is making it out.
Obv, and also he doesn't even need a weapon to kill you, he can use these hands!
He doesn't kill kids
I still think that the bottom panel 13:20 is the best reason not to get on Mrs. Voorhees bad side. She is Jacked!
Jacked women are the best.
@@averyfields8183 That depends on their personality.
@@AndrewSheldon-wx2xc true.
Dude... WHERE ARE ALL YOUR FOLLOWERS!?!?
Gamma's theme, Death Battle fan, Mortal Kombat fan, AND a lover of Camp Counselor Jason!? YOU HAVE THE BEST TASTE IN MEDIA
I can't be the only one that while watching Freddy Vs Jason, started to cheer whenever Jason landed a hit, that made me realise that I cannot see him as evil, compared to the others he would be the only one that could have a Redemption arc (plus notice how contrary to Michael Myers he has never hurt a child or an animal despite being able to do so if he wanted)
Jason really needed people who could guide him through life ,maybe we all have a little bit of Jason in us.
I kinda want to see a carrie remake where its portrayed as more of a natural disaster, like carrie has a normalish life and the prank is instead a bucket of glitter.
But the rope snaps and hits her on the head, effectivley causing her powers to "detonate" uncontrolled from her corpse.
Itd be this slow sad film about how bad things sometimes jusy...happen..
Jason is a goosebumps he became legend now when he was noob Jason with a machete and his standing pose is 💀🔥 i am a big fan of him
Hopefully moving forward they'll take cues from Godzilla and move Jason from villain to still really dangerous when provoked but will fight bigger threats.
Grizzly, not “grisly”.
This why Jason is my least favorite slasher villain
i’m a simple gal
i hear the e-102 gamma theme
i subscribe
Jason wasn't the slasher in the original film.
I like to think of the big three of slashers as types of villains
Jason: sympathetic villain
Freddy Kruger: unredeamable monster
Michael Myers: force of nature
Or mabye Pinhead is the force of nature
@@HappyAxolotl24nah he the secret fourth freaky one
Pinhead is “What in the hell were you expecting to happen???”
@@pteroid11 pinhead: well if isn't the consequences of my actions
@@HappyAxolotl24pinhead is: "what if Hellraiser was called freakyraiser?"
Jason is the most sympathetic slasher. He didn't deserve what happened to him, his Mother only went crazy when her boy was "Dead". Jason isn't a monster, he's a scared child that saw the evil of his Mother and took that evil upon himself. Leatherface got that treatment in the second to last Texas Chainsaw remake. Hell we all were cheering for Jason when he fought Freddy.
Both Jason and Leatherface are the most sympathetic slashers imo.
@@SleepyMook Victor Crowley from Hatchet is also one I put up in that list
Is a zombie
Technically not that poor child with a cruel fate. Just a body that leaves death in its wake.
@@angelquirozreales4339 Meh he's closer to a Deadite and we know those are mentally capable beings
@@TheMonkePrinceI’d also add the Candyman/Daniel Robitaille to that list
1980’s: Jason is a monster!
2020’s: Jason is Dad.
I think the fans of Jason see him as usually in the right. He isn't like Micheal or Freddy who will hunt you down for being in a town where people would live. Jason is a guy who says in his little area away from people. He gets messed with so people see it as more justified he's more of a child in a monster's body.
Except that one time he went to New York to hunt people down 😂 ... But I do agree Jason is the most "sympathetic" of the big slashers
@@LunaMoth1128 to be faaaaair in that movie he did stop some rapists
@@lightdarksoul2097 Fair, fair
He’s sort of the Frankenstein’s Monster (the Universal version) of horror. He’s not inherently evil and if you don’t bother him (generally) he won’t bother you. Even if you do want to call him evil he’s more of a territorial animal then a malicious actor.
Well, except for in part 3, the victims there didn’t encroach on his territory or do anything to provoke him. Jason just decided he wanted to kill those guys.
I view Jason as an angry and vengeful man who just wants to protect his territory, Crystal Lake, from trespassers and be left alone. He kills people not because he's evil but because that's what he saw his mother doing after she had gone mad with grief and is simply mimicking her, like most children do with their parents, believing that killing is the only way to dissuade people. He is, in a sense, upholding Pamela's final wish to keep Camp Crystal Lake from ever re-opening so there isn't another child victim, although I believe it's more about not wanting others to enter his and his mother's resting place from Jason's point of view.
When you enter Crystal Lake you forfeit your life because Jason will immediately view you as an intruder who is no better than his mother's killer. This is why he never goes out of his way to randomly kill people in Jason Takes Manhattan unless they explicitly get in his way. The New Yorkers haven't been to Crystal Lake so Jason has no beef with them, whereas the people he's hunting had crossed into his territory and needed to be punished for it.
TL;DR: Jason is just a big boi doing what his mother has inadvertently taught him to.
I haven't seen the Manhattan movie for years, but didn't he just mostly hunt down the trespassers that pulled him from the lake?
@@hunterhudson4577 Yeah, he only killed the people on the boat. The only non-trespassers he killed were two junkies and a cop because they were in his way.
@@substandardeagle4738 I see you forgot to mention that one sewer worker in the film Jason killed. He wasn't even in his way, he just got tackled & dragged by Jason, then got wacked in the head by a wrench.
Simply put: He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Poor bastard...
@@substandardeagle4738didn’t the boat free Jason inadvertently? I thought he was chained down there from one of the previous movies
@@substandardeagle4738 didn't he kill the guy in the sewers
When Jason got added to Multiversus, I think it’s sweet that after people got over the shock of seeing him try to hack up Shaggy and Velma, the fandom collectively decided “Yeah, he’d definitely be friends with Gizmo and Iron Giant”.
The part with Carrie always makes me tear up. Camp Counselor Jason is by far my favorite version of Jason. Your video sound of how I feel about him. He's always been my favorite horror icon. Seeing him get so much love brings me a so much joy.
Cringe and gay
Same, that part always warms my heart and Carrie even becomes a councillor herself so she can be there for the campers the same Jason was there for her (and so she can remain close to Jason 😉)
What interests me about the Death Battle is that his hallucinations imply that Jason sees it as a battle of principle.
Jason kills people, but not without his own reasons. He has moments where he simply stops going after people, or never even takes offense to begin with. He knows when enough is enough.
With that lens, he knows Myers just wouldn't stop. He can practically SENSE he has the blood of truly innocent people on his hands. People who never wronged him or anyone else at all because Myers just obsessively chases people, kills them and anyone who was in his way, then moves on to do it all over again.
Jason kills for what he feels is a good reason. For Myers, killing IS the reason.
Like a territorial animal compared to a robot, one using violence to survive or to "punish", the other being almost "programmed" to kill without ceasing.
Michael's violence is more instinctual despite how cunning he's portrayed, his actions are efficient and mechanical with barely a hint of emotion or expression behind the occasional head tilt where he regards his "art", analyzing his work before moving on, while Jason is taciturn but often is shown to be explicitly emotional, his killings being motivated by an emotional need to defend his "territory", to protect himself or to punish intruders.
@callmev3531 I agree with this statement, not to mention that Jason has a stronger and better moral compass overall since he draws the line at not killing kids, as shown in part 6 if I remember correctly, while Michael, if given the chance would commit a war crime and just take a leak at the Geneva Convention. They are like 2 sides of the same coin IMO
@@silverkuroma
The kindest thing we can say about Michael is that he wouldn't kill a baby (as seen in Halloween 2018), but that doesn't really mean much when he strangles a child to death in that same film, and straight-up decapitates another in Halloween Kills.
Jason the kind of guy to kill some campers for fucking on his mom's grave
Myers the kind of guy to kill a summer camp because lol lmao
@@kamikazelemming1552I think its implied that the only reason he wouldn't kill a baby is it wouldn't feel as much meaningful fear, too.
He spared it, but not for any sort of moral reason, it just wouldn't be as rewarding for him
we like to imagine Jason being happy, because he embodies the trauma and nonsensical hatred of each generation, and deep down we all desperately want a reality where none of that happened. So we picture him in it, because if we think we deserve it, then certainly he does too?
Idk but that's how it rings true for me, my childhood was an empty mockery of an actual childhood, and to see someone whose life was similarly awful, grow up and become better, fuels me.
One must imagine jason happy
Hey, you should totally check out the comic “Friday the 13th: How I Spent My Summer Vacation” it focuses on Jason coming across a boy with similar deformities who is attending the camp and it’s probably the most nobley the character has been portrayed in official media. I think the whole thing is online.
Oh yeah I saw that. He actually ends up saving the kid from some corrupt sheriff high on crack who’s trying to kill the kid after he witnessed him accidentally gun down two councilors, the sheriff scared that the kid will testify against him for murder.
I just checked this out and it’s very fun.
100% recommend. How I Spent My Summer Vacation is one of the best jason comics out there
I think what clinched Jason as a more sympathetic slasher compared to his peers was Ginny paychoanalyzing him in _Part II_ Based on what she heard about him, she's able to build a profile that most modern of these modern pastiches and official takes on him build off of: the scared little boy carrying on where his mother left off for reasons he doesn't quite understand.
New Word: Pastiches; imitate the style of (an artist or work). or, an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period.
Thank you for this new word.
I really liked the Jason Vs. Leatherface comic. Really shined a light on the sympathetic side of Jason and Leatherface, even if it didn't really follow the source material 100%.
Who won??
@@Becca-l5s The Sawyers. It was a group effort.
@@GunnarVance :(
@@GunnarVanceso Leatherface mean by technically since He is on his family side
@toyohimeyeswatatsuki6917 Yeah. The comic's a lot less "Jason Vs. Leatherface" and a lot more "Jason Meets The Sawyers." Still a great book though.
The fact i haven't scene anything from camp councillor jason in matbe a year and a half and tbis shows up in my recommended section makes ne very happy
I love Camp Counselor Jason. Especially when he has adventures with other killers. I sucks the creator hasn’t made more but it even spawned some fan made interpretations.
The creator is making their own seriel killer comic which is cool as hell
@@lorejor5229What’s it called?
@@robbieking4070 I think it’s Slasher U, it’s actually a really cool concept
Aww, I never knew how much I needed camp counselor Jason in my life, until now ❤
Jason is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction, and my favorite in the realm of horror. I think the reason why is exactly as you stated: he feels far more sympathetic and sad than many of his slasher counterparts. Characters like Freddy and Chucky are manipulative monsters, and Micheal is a silent instrument of violence and evil. They are fantastic characters in their own right, but I feel Jason in particular has become a staple of horror because there’s more to him than just his monstrous deeds. In the films, he’s the embodiment of the consequences of negligence and treating others as lesser, and we tend to feel a connection to him in spite of the awful things he does across the franchise.
Also, as a big dude who’s struggled to properly express himself for much of his life, the depictions of Jason seen in things like CCJ helped me a lot. It shows you can grow to care and try to connect with people no matter who they are. Not bad for someone who has one of the highest individual body counts in fiction.
Excellent video. Literally just discovered your channel, and I’ll be sure to tune in for more.
(Shoutout for using the ost for Bioshock 2 btw.)
I understand what you say, bruh... Really a deep view of the character.
Jason is not evil because he cannot even understand the concept of evil like the other slasher monsters:
Freddy is a sadistic criminal, Micheal is an instrument of pure darkness and destruction, Predator (my favourite) kills for fun and he even laugh in the face of Swarzeneger when he hestitate in striking the final blow because he see pity as pure weakness from a lesser being, Pinhead throw away his own humanity to become a demon and taste more pain from other people, Pennywise is an evil eldritch entity who feast on children and fear, While Art the clown...
Better to not even speak about that disgusting freak. 😅
I really like sympathetic villains. Imo, the most interesting part of the NOES reboot was when the movie proposed the idea that Freddy was actually innocent of the crimes the townsfolk thought he committed. Of course, that idea was abandoned pretty quickly in the movie, but I still think it could've been interesting to have Freddy be a vengeful spirit similar to Candyman.
It's an interesting premise how easily we sympathize with Jason, I usually find myself calling him an "antihero" which isn't really accurate, but I like the guy too darn much. Thank you for your thoughts.
I think a better term for him is a "wild card"
Maybe anti villain fits
@@jesusramirezromo2037 no, anti villain are like Mr Freeze and Magneto, having genuinely good and understandable goals and ideals but are willing to break the law to archive them, Jason follows no laws nor has no real goal.
What I liked about camp counselor Jason is that this version was created by him. The first chapter shows the original Jason saving his younger self from drowning. That was the catalyst for him to go that different path. Yeah it got a bit silly with Michael Myers not being pure evil and instead being a mechanic, and a joke of fixing a generator by literally taking a stab at it….
Yhprum's law is an optimistic reversal of Murphy's law, stating that "anything that can go right will go right". Its name directly references this, being "Murphy" in reverse.
Camp counselor Jason is literally the definition of this😂
I don't think you mentioned it, but one of the earliest instances of a "good Jason" interpretation is probably the Splatterhouse series, which depicts a masked, brutally violent character very similar to Jason who is ostensibly a hero fighting off grotesque monsters to save his girlfriend/her soul/his family. Though, similarities mainly extend to the aesthetics of the character and the setting, I do think it played an early role in presenting this idea of a "slasher" looking character being sympathetic. Although, Splatterhouse isn't really something widely known, and largely gone irrelevant.
On a similar note, I think Casey Jones is loosely following that, if only in the sense of being a violent individual who happens to wear a hockey mask, but uses it to fight evil.
I was also going to mention splatterhouse, the OG trilogy is amazing. The remakes are a bit of fun but i definitely enjoy the tone of the original.
clicked for camp counselor jason😳
stayed for the nuanced analysis of a broken man and generational trauma
One thing you forgot to mention about Camp Counselor Jason was the beginning. It shows Jason as a child nearly drowning but being saved by the older, undead Jason. While I personally don't know how it is possible in the timeline of that comic series, I think it represents why we see sparks of goodness within him; Jason doesn't anyone to experience what happened to him.
Does he go overkill in trying to prevent that? You betcha! However, Jason still has that sliver of goodness that ensures that we can never fully be against him.
Glad you enjoyed the Death Battle.
If you want to see Papa Jason in an officially released comic, check out "Friday the 13th: How I Spent My Summer Vacation" by Wildstorm Comics.
It's pretty easy to root for the slasher thats is just a bullied, traumatized child when your competition is:
A child predator
A serial killer that stalks a child in the body of a toy
A sociopath obsessed with killing just because
A soldier that sold his soul to satiate his morbid hedonism
A bunch of teens that kill just to be famous
And a animal that embodies rape
The only killers more sympathetic than Jason are Candyman and The Fisherman
I love this big brother like depiction of Jason. It’s wholesome but could easily also be written into Jason’s characterization without issue. I wouldn’t be against this caring side of him being made canon
There’s a reason why Jason is a broken, lost and corrupted soul. Where Michael, Freddy and Chucky kill wherever they go. Jason stays to Crystal Lake. He is ha vengeful spirit filled with rage and hatred. This is a person who never found rest.
Michael: Dark Force of Evil within Human Nature
Freddy: A horrific unstoppable monster
Chucky: A mischievous and manipulative person
Jason: A restless spirit
One of my favorite wholesome Jason fan arts are the pairings of him and Sadako. I know there’s an artist that would frequently release short manga style web comics.
Or him being like a big brother to Carrie.
Do you happen to remember the name of the artist?
@@mauricioalvarezpino1818 Owzhi or owski? Something like that.
I always thought 💭 of Jason Voorhees as a sympathetic character. I hope that one of his new movies/TV series 🎥 /📺 will show that side of him.
I can agree I always wonder if they'll if they ever show more sides of his personality
The way you use emojis is hilarious to me idk why
Jason being called the modern day Frankenstein is... honestly the best way to describe it, a giant, lumbering, tragic creature that the people still love despite that.
Wasn't expecting to hear E-102 Gamma's theme here.😯
Its a great tune.
The fact that you played Jean Grey's Marvel vs Capcom theme during the Carrie analysis is my kind of humour.
I’m glad to finally see a video talking about Jason’s amazing fan representation, he’s always been a comfort character for me and the web comics and cartoons take it even further
Check out Hack/Slash, a horror comic focused on a duo that hunt down slashers, one of which is Victor who is pretty much what if Jason was raised by a kinder sole.
The thing is, Jason only starts killing after his mom dies. He's not driven to murder by people hurting him, that trauma drives him to seclusion. But when his mother dies he's driven to avenge her by targeting the people who hurt the only person who cared for him. Its been a while since I watched all of them, and they may have diverged from it after Jason goes to hell, but I tend to recall the writers generally tried to make his murders to be influenced by the actions of others, like he's perfectly fine letting things be until someone comes to crystal lake and does something. The only one I feel for sure really didn't get that part of him was Jason X, who starts killing just to kill when none of his victims really met his usual criteria, and then after setting off on his murder spree allows himself to be sidetracked by half naked co-eds
I do wish cam counselor Jason had kept him looking ugly like the movies,
Like, I know he’s wearing a mask, but in the movies he’s a literal zombie and clearly has a malformed head even as a kid
But in camp counselor Jason he’s got perfect skin and aside from the mask he’s got a normal shaped head by the looks of it,
Like, why does Jason have to be pretty to be good? Why does he need to be less ugly to be more sympathetic?
This shit happens with all sympathetic monster characters, they always end up looking conventionally attractive,
That's what i don't like about Takes Manhattan ending
They show Jason reversed back regular child (not even deformed)
Worthy AND camp councilor mention? Subbed
I kid, this was a fun video and i love your insights into this
Personally i see CC!Pamela as less wanting her son to be a murderer, and more wanting her son to be safe _At Any Cost_
(She just happens to be *very* proactive)
You are right. Movies trying to write sympathetic villains are so common. It is more surprising and refreshing if a villain is just pro-evil. That’s one of the appeals of Art of clown. There are zero attempts to make the viewers sympathize with him. He is evil just because he enjoys being evil.
I don't really get the recent push for less nuanced and interesting antagonists. I actually find Art the Clown incredibly dull because of his lack of any motivation or exploration whatsoever.
Both types of villains are good
Eh agree and disagree.
Like yea, a pure evil villain is good now and again but personaly its way more boring than something you can actually analyse.
This isn't a perfect example since its super heroes but take thanos for example.
From what I know, in the comics (most of them that is) he is a very stereotypical big bad villain and even sometimes just being a asshole.
MCU Thanos on the other hand, while still being a villain, is "relatable" and can even get you to properly think and even agree on some of his points.
I like both version but if I had to make one the definitive version of the character, I would take MCU over standard any day because its just a lot more interesting to me and to a lot of other people.
I like how many people show softer sides of Jason or what if scenarios where he would live a normal life, and it's both wholesome and heartbreaking because it makes you realize what was taken from him by fate.
Jason has always been sympathetic, he was a poor kid who had an unfortunately birth defect that made him a target for bullying, and then theres rhe idea he seen his mom DIE
As a person who has a hate to love relationship with horror, even though I never cared about Friday the 13th or other slasher media Jason was one of the few slashers I enjoyed besides Chucky (for sheer comedy), Leatherface (Only The First Movie the rest are horrible), Ghostface (Meta Horror) or Candyman (He is underrated as a slasher villain and Tony Todd is the GOAT) etcetera. Jason is one of the few villains I could sympathize with like Mr. Freeze or Carrie or Roy Batty or Magneto or other villains. In contrast I do pity even the vile villains sometimes like Homelander. But unlike Jason, Homelander is like Freddy Kreuger a man who is vile and his tragedy is ouweighed by the most despicable crimes. I pity Homelander somewhat but I do feel he's too far gone. Maybe a better example to contrast Jason is Bastion from X Men or 97's iteration.
Like Jason, Bastion had to deal with being different and was sheltered by his mom. Both were dealing with prejudice and were scared of who they were and are dear mama's boys at heart. With Jason creating a tribute to his mother while Bastion mourn the loss of his mom by placing her safely. The difference is that Bastion is the more viler of the two. The former was a man who drowned, survived with no protection, saw his mother who was literally perished in front of his own eyes at the worst possible time, and now is cursed to defend an abandoned camping site for all eternity. While the latter almost commited mass extinction, used his mom as one of his soldiers (though he still loved her), wanted to exterminate Earth, and the messed up implications on what he did to Magneto. And to be honest Pamela at least was trying her best to be responsible to Jason before she went on a rampage unlike say Bastion's mom who unintentionally kickstart Bastion's sentinel hatred tendencies.
As a result I do want to point out I understand people are tired of the trend of villain sympathizes and their 'I can fix them' notion. No way would I want to redeem Patrick Bateman who is a deplorable person (especially in the books) or Freddy one of the most pure evil in horror. Like I will never sympathize or feel bad to villains like say Judge Holden....he scares me. Jason is the exception and I understand why people love him. He is tragic and had he continued his time normally perhaps he could've had a better life. He still is evil but I just feel bad he is destined to be a boogeyman in the past. Hiding inside the rundown and abandoned Camp Crystal Lake that is rotting away. As a person with neurodivergence I headcanon Jason with disabilities as well. Yes he is not a good guy but hey as a person who is sick and tired of autistic people as pseudo intellectuals in fictional mrdia I relate to Jason. I never knew Jason became the biggest standins for dealing with generational trauma and while Friday the 13th is a typical slasher flick, I can understand Jason now and it makes me happy people are making wholesome fan content of him. I must admit I was about to dislike a comci series Camp Crystal Jason but when it had Jason and Pamela in character and respected the source material I enjoyed it. I also enjoyed Carrie being used and I love how it respects the Carrie story as well. The whole 'I can fix the villain' trend may be annoying but this is one od the few exceptions. Thanks Jason Voorhees and may you have a better life.
This phenomenon also happens a lot with Carrie, like Lee depicts, and with the Eraserhead baby! a lot of horror fans (me included) know they're just kids who deserved better than what they got
CC Jason in that Carrie arc was so great, and the crappy mother still gets what's coming to her!
Mentioning of Carrie always just makes me sad, like even the bucket, if it hadn't hit Tommy, I hope he would have tried to console her, since he went with her FOR HER, under no romantic pretense, just so she could have a good night, and I wondered how that would have played out, I imagine quite the same as with Jason, and it's an ending I wish they had for her
I freaking love Camp Counselor Jason. It sucks that there hasn't been much content from its creator lately.
Since we’re close to Halloween, you should cover the arc where Jason and the kids throw a “Summer-ween” party and meet Laurie & Michael Myers, who’s a mechanic in this universe (that hilariously fixes things by literally “taking a stab at it”) and extremely protective of his younger sister. The amount of hilarious moments between Jason and Michael in that arc is amazing, and definitely worth checking out. ❤
The anime series Irresponsible Captain Tylor, features one of the space marines being a hockey mask clad silent figure named Jason with his personal information card just having question marks for most of his information, so the idea of this being the canon Jason Vorhees who's chilled out who knows how many centuries was completely plausible.
This video feels like was made in 2009 or early 2010s. Reminds me of old cinemassacre's godzilla-thon. I love it!
See what I want to see in the Camp Counselor Jason universe is The Thing who's alien mind was overtaken by The Dog's.
He and Carrie are my favorites. They'd be friends...
a movie on counselor jason would be awesome cause we are getting like horror movie of certain disney characters so why not do the opposite cause that would be cool and interesting
I sympathised for Jason a lot in Freddy vs Jason.
The way the fandom made him good is so dam cute
This video made me think of Jason's depiction in the music video for The Menzinger's song "I don't want to be an A***ole Anymore". In it, Jason decides to make a change and starts working on himself and its both funny and kind of wholesome.
One doesn’t necessarily have to have experienced trauma to want to make this kind of fan fiction. My wife does the same thing with most of the dark characters she loves just because she wants to see them happy and in a better situation. She’s precious like that and it’s one of the reasons I love her.
Brilliant breakdown of the layers and potential of the character. You've given me a deeper appreciation of Jason and for that I will subscribe!
I’m a slasher fanatic I wish we could’ve got him in call of duty mw3 this year along side Michael myers and art the clown but maybe next year
I think Jason being a good Actually kinda works in the comic
I really love camp counselor Jason and I hope the artist behind it continues making it
There is the old game series called "Splatter House". The main character is a jason like figure who saves his girlfriend and later wife + child from demons. Maybe the developers of the game saw the protector in jason as well.
Hold up are playing MvC3's X-23 theme over the Carries section? That's masterful music choice.
Pinhead and Jason are the 2 horror/slasher villans that honestly seem you could possibly bargin with. Jason just stays in his own little bubble at crystal lake and Pinhead only goes after you if you solve the puzzle but even then yoy could possibly escape by giving him someone else like Frank
Shout out to H20 Delirious for introducing me to Jason and the Friday of the 13th era 🗣️🔥🔥🔥
So my little sister really got into horror movies and such, but she was watching all the modern ones like sinister, etc. But she wanted to know all the ones I grew up with, so as I'm telling her about Jason, Freddy, Michael, Leatherface, Chucky, Ghostface, and even Pinhead. We ended up talking about how out of all of them, Jason and even Leatherface were the most sympathetic of horror movie icons, and even Pinhead to a degree from the first and second hellraiser movies. That while Michael, Freddy, Chucky, and Ghostface kill for fun and are just evil just for the sake of being evil, Jason as you said did not choose to become what he became and was a product of powers that were beyond his control. So was Leatherface in a way, and to a small degree even Elliot Spencer aka Pinhead.
Every villain has become sympathetic now because everyone loves villains but what villains do isn’t exactly socially acceptable so we don’t want our children imitating them so now we’ve retconned almost every villain in Hollywood and literature to be sympathetic, they only do evil things because they’ve been wronged or because the people against them just don’t understand. It’s happening right now to one of the most revered villains of all time Sauron. In the rings of power Sauron is depicted as a handsome sympathetic tall dark loner who just wants love, but the reason Sauron became popular was because he was a completely uncompromising cruel mass murdering dictator but we don’t want our little kids thinking characters like that are “cool” so we have to invent all of these desirable traits to attribute to him even though they never existed. Another example is Disney taking the galaxies most prolific child murder of all time and just making him kind of a meanie now on rare occasions, might choke you a little but won’t kill you cause that’s naughty.
As a kid getting into horror Michael and Freddy vied for the top spot for my favorite slasher icons. But over the years Jason took the crown from a distant 3rd place.
It's funny how tastes and preferences change. While F13 naysayers say all of the films are interchangeable (an accusation I can't quite fault tbh) I really don't think its an accusation that is only true for F13. You're gonna tell me most of the Halloween films aren't interchangeable?
Halloween is a franchise I fell out of love with. I have some very hot takes about the series as a whole I won't get into here. Suffice it to say the original and Season of the Witch are my favorites. From there my preferences get...chaotic to the say the least.
When Michael is done well, he's great. When he's done poorly (as he is in most of the original slate of sequels) he's boring as shit...because the "unknowable unstoppable quasi-supernatural killer" thing gets boring. Hearing Loomis scream and holler endlessly about EEEVIIILLLL...MIIICCHHAAEELLLLLL!!! get boring. The protagonists and victims in waiting in the Halloween sequels are mostly boring or unlikeable. The "we don't know what the fuck we're doing" energy as the sequels gets more and more weary as times goes on.
But with F13, they always knew how to play the game their way. The continuity was always loose, therefore any "contradictions to the canon" really don't matter.
The F13 films have great hangout vibes and largely likeable characters that feel natural and real. And the sleazier, exploitation bent of the franchise is just more my bag in general, lol.
Jason's inherent sympathetic origins are a big reason why the big guy has become my favorite slasher icon over the years. The campfire tale/urban legend aspect of the films and character appeals to me greatly. Every actor, stunt performer, and design of Jason from film to film helps create a more interesting character than what may be found on the page.
I know the soft canon of events is that Jason survived his drowning, lived in the woods for 30 years and saw his mom get decapitated, thus springing him into murderous revenge mode.
But I never really interpreted it that way. The details are loose enough where that interpretation is just that - interpretation. Fans graft onto it because for some reason everything in movies to them has to "make sense" in an external logic way.
Think about it: The films never show us Jason surviving the drowning, surviving in the woods...or hear any tales from the locals of a deformed boy out in the woods living off of the land, etc.
We see jason literally just step into frame out of the darkness in Part 2. Granted, at the time the film was just doing the "who will be the killer this time" gimmick, but as the series progressed, Jason being a kind of undead being from the jump is just as valid, or maybe even more valid as him surviving the drowning.
To me Jason, even before he "officially" died in Part 4 and came to life in Part 6 - Jason was ALWAYS some kind of revenant, a supernatural force of vengeance occupying his corporeal form - forever trapped in his pain and anguish.
I love a blank slate of evil like Michael, but the underlying humanity of Jason makes him more appealing in the long run imo.
This is like one of my favorite videos of all time. You did such a wonderful job in talking about the softer side of such a notorious monster like Jason, and that's something I really appreciated about him growing up and watching those movies. Even when I read the comics, especially Friday the 13th: How I Spent my Summer Vacation (which is such a fantastic comic, highly highly recommend), my favorite side of Jason was always the one that didn't lose enough of his humanity to see kids like Davie in that comic like himself. Having that distinctive paternal instinct to try and protect and care for a child he sees parts of himself in, while being so ruthless and horrible, shows two really interesting sides of the same character. And, in cases like Jason Takes Manhattan, seeing him ignore Rennie in the alleyway to kill two men that he perceives as bullies (rightfully so) to protect the girl he has been chasing after the entire film by that point, even if it's just for a few brief moments, is kinda morbidly beautiful. I love this video so much, and it means a lot to see people perceiving Jason like I did when I was a child.
Jason Voorhees vs the Predator
Jason Voorhees vs the Alien
Jason Voorhees vs the Terminator
What’s the video at 8:14 it looks so familiar
Great great, i had forgotten about camp counciler jason but now i gotta read / watch it JUST GREAT, NOT LIKE I HAD OTHER STUFF TO READ, THANK YOU
Camp counselor Jason is on webtoons, but it hasn't been updated for like 2 years I think.
Idk what's up with the author.
what separates leather and jason from michael and freddy is exactly that, how much sympathetic those two are when compared to the other two.
freddy is an alleged pdf and michael is the evil incarnated into a supernatural body uncapable of dying.
jason and leather are mentally disabled childs who were raised by pretty mentally disturbed people, and suffered from a lot of tragedies.
He was bullied! Hes my blameless precious meow meow.
Jason does have one of the sad back story
This was an awesome video about an awesome occurrence. Berry cool.
This is a great analysis of Jason's character!!
You definitely should do more with the other horror icons!
I wish the camp counselor Jason would upload to they're webtoons 😢
Jason did nothing wrong.
I love campcounsler jason so much
Camp counselor Jason is totally not totally not hot totally not yup...
Came here for Jason, stayed here for Tekken 3 Ogre theme music
Ai broken asf
Out of all the slashers he sure is the more sympathetic. Hes a monster created by other monsters. He wasn't looking for trouble as a kid and still paid the price for just existing and you can get him coming back being filled with hate to any stranger and killing them. Also Jason is one of the few slashers where if you just stay away from his territory you will never run into him. The only reason he went out exploring in FVJ was cause Freddy as his mom told him too do so and Jason is a mamas boy.
THIS. THIS IS WHAT JASON NEEDS.
The problem with Jason in official media is that rarely is his backstory ever truly impactful of his character. It's established and people exploit it to overcome him, but for 90% of all of his movies, he's just Michael Myers. A silent masked stalking killer who can't be killed. By design. It never changes anything about him narratively or provides any real growth. The 2009 remake actually showed a side of Jason we had never seen before in official movies. (Comics, I can't be certain, I've never read them) That not only him being much more aggressive, territorial, imposing, and resourceful, but also a not completely hostile version of him. He kidnaps a girl rather than killing her outright because she looks like his mom. This plays further into his humanity as he's now dealing with emotions he doesn't understand.
Furthermore, when Jason is officially undead, he's not just a normal zombie. His behavior shows he still retains his intelligence, sentience, and emotional baggage. This shows that even when he's supposed to be a lost cause, he's not really a lost cause.
What future installments need to do is focus more on what separates Michael and Jason rather than how they're alike. Jason is a traumatized survivor who's territorial and protective. A character. Michael is an emotionless husk of a being whose only motivation is death in whatever form he can dish it out. A force. I want to see future installments lean more into the character of Jason. Not just referencing his trauma or using it to manipulate him, but having them truly explore it and try reaching out to him. There is so much potential for him as a character that official writers just don't seem to grasp yet.
I have so many ideas for how a rebooted world could work with these characters and it heavily leans into a Jason Voorhees redemption. It would obviously stray a bit from horror and become more akin to thriller drama, but if people are interested in seeing Jason do more than simply kill and die, I really think it's worth exploring.
He’s sort of the Frankenstein’s Monster (the Universal version) of horror. He’s not inherently evil and if you don’t bother him (generally) he won’t bother you. Even if you do want to call him evil he’s more of a territorial animal than a malicious actor.
Oooh, that Bioshock 2 Theme Though..nice touch.