Jake Harley


 * For the post-Scratch version of this character, see Jake English.

Grandpa is Jade Harley's genetic father and adoptive grandfather, known to many on the MSPA forums as Hass "The Flame" Harley as a result of HS 2815 (this page). In his first appearance, he is shown to be dead and preserved by taxidermy.

Paradoxical Origins and Childhood
While initially introduced as Jade's grandfather, he is actually a Paradox Clone of himself sent back in time as an infant from the present. He also provided half of the DNA of both Jade and John which was combined with John's Nanna through Ectobiology. This action created an interesting paradox, with John creating both Jade's Grandfather and himself from the present and sending the clones as infants to their proper times.



Due to the events of The Reckoning Grandpa was sent from The Veil to Earth, where he accidentally shot, and killed, Colonel Sassacre, who was looking after the child version of Nanna. He then grew up as Nanna's adopted brother and Betty Crocker's adoptive son. Eventually he decided to leave to seek adventure with the Colonel's dog, Halley.

As A Guardian
When Betty Crocker mysteriously disappeared, Grandpa Harley inherited her baking empire. By this point Grandpa Harley was a renowned billionaire explorer and inventor. After a Skaian meteor carrying a baby Jade destroyed a Betty Crocker plant in John's town, he set off with his newfound shipmate to go plunder the secrets of a certain Pacific Island with interesting historical monuments. Despite currently being dead, stuffed, and on display in the house, Jade still avoids him, leery of any "confrontation", as though his being dead has not stopped him from lecturing her whenever she approaches his stuffed remains. She apparently finds these confrontations to be 'intense' as her grandpa is very strict and charismatic. He's prone to giving stern lectures to Jade whenever they meet and insists Jade carry a hunting rifle when she leaves the house, or else "there would be hell to pay." According to Jade, he was much easier to deal with when he was alive. Even the battle engine seemed confused, deeming their combat 'STRIFE?'. Grandpa Harley seems to suggest that Jade take a bigger and more effective gun before she goes outside to defend herself.

He decorated his house with multiple motifs, including suits of armor (including some more modern armors such those of Iron Man and the Judge), decrepit mummies, big game trophies, sunbleached photos of women (his 'beauties'), and globes. Though Jade doesn't mind the suits of armor, she hates the mummies and hunting trophies.

Some of the big game trophies in Grandpa's tower appear to be chimeras, or combinations of different animals. Whether these are genetic experiments, mythical creatures, or terrible abuses of taxidermy is unknown. Interestingly, one of his trophies is the mounted head of a Crude Ogre, as well as a number of other powerful underlings, which is later reflected by his HS 003371 (appearance) in Land of Wind and Shade, suggesting a connection between him and the Medium. Why exactly he is alive at this point is currently a mystery; it probably involves Weird Time Shit in some way or another.

While at first it seemed that Grandpa was Jade's guardian, he, like many things associated with Jade, is a bit of a pattern breaker and it has been revealed that Jade's true guardian is Becquerel. Unlike other guardians, he isn't missing any facial features and, while other guardians seem to have a personal 'vice' such as smoking, drinking, and puppet pornography, he doesn't seem to have one, other than his strict lectures, his interest in firearms and hunting, pictures of blue women, and his obsessive 'pack rat' hoarding. However, Karkat Vantas states that John had created paradox clones of "you and your guardians", and since Becquerel was obviously not present, this might mean that Grandpa is still considered a guardian of sorts.

According to Jade, Grandpa is an extreme polymath; he's a world-renowned explorer, naturalist, treasure hunter, archeologist, scientist, adventurer, big game hunter, and billionaire. This would explain the close proximity of ancient ruins to his house and having a laboratory. His renaissance man aspect may be the main contributor to the fact that both Jade and Dave Strider consider him to be a badass.

However, as badass as he may be, that won't/wouldn't prevent the fact that, in a attempt to save Jade, Tavros Nitram communed with Bec when the pistols she was playing with went off, and teleported the bullets next to Grandpa, thus killing him.

Connections to the Medium
In the Medium, a character with the same build and mannerisms saved John from a Tar Basilisk using an extremely powerful blunderbuss. This seems to correspond to the game trophies above the fireplace which included a crude ogre, two basilisks and another creature that Dad is later seen fighting. This suggests he may already be involved with the Weird plot shit still unfolding. His purple and gold HS 2811 (fireplace) could also tie into the weird plot shit, representing the kingdoms of Derse and Prospit, as well as the image of Jade in her Dream Self outfit crowning the fireplace.

Grandpa operates what appears to be a massive battleship, which he uses to traverse The Medium. After Jack Noir's rampage, he brings Dad and Rose's Mom to the ruins of the Skaian Battlefield and retrieves the body of Jade's dead dream self, which he stuffs, following a proud, if somewhat unsettling, family tradition. The stuffed dream Jade is displayed in one of the unvisited rooms in Jade's home, beside the fourth wall pilfered from Jack Noir's cubicle and a stuffed Halley.

A younger, post-scratch version of him has been shown to be Jade's penpal.

His relationship with Becquerel has never been stated, but Bec was presumably loyal to him and still sleeps at the feet of his stuffed corpse.

Grandpa was originally a prime candidate for Jade's Kernelsprite, but John advised Jade against it before entering, as prototyping him would lead to a lot of the enemies having Grandpa's face. They were planning to prototype him after entering, but Bec warped Grandpa's body (along with the rest of the room's contents) into outer space so that he could prototype the Kernelsprite with himself. Grandpa's body remained in outer space until the universe was destroyed by Jack Noir.

In the post-Scratch version of the kids' universe, it is later revealed that the Frog Temple had two hidden transportalizers. These lead to Prospit and Derse, based on their colorations. This would explain Grandpa's accessibility to the Medium, a secret long kept throughout the story, should these transportalizers exist in all instances of the temple itself.

Trivia

 * Grandpa's Proximity to Australia might explain the thick accent he is characterized with (and the one that Jake seems to type with).