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Indeed. Like Vader hunting a jedi and finding one VARY lucky person instead. Fooling people into believing he was, at the vary least, force sensitive. Jack was protecting the honor of the craft.
I like the little detail that Rattlesnake Jake is scared of the Hawk. It makes sense that the guy who claims to have come from hell is afraid of something that descends from the heavens.
@@Baraka_MaracasHawks are the natural predators of Rattlesnakes so highly unlikely. There’s a reason the Hawk is the only unarmed character in the movie
Jake reminds me of Death from Puss in Boots. They both have a personal grudge against the protagonist, and at the end, they both are satisfied with the outcome of their respective conflicts with protagonists, Puss learning to respect his own life, and Rango becoming a real sheriff/cowboy/hero of the village//////
I've read this theory once that the "hell" Jake says he came from was a rattlesnake roundup that he escaped from. While that would rob him of his supernatural mythos, it'd add to the idea that he and Rango are opposites. All of the other characters either don't know that humans exist, or can only see them briefly (the armadillo) or from afar (the mayor). Rango talks to a human directly in what is essentially a paralell to the afterlife, while Jake's direct human interaction would've been his hell. Of course I ain't saying it like it's the truth, there's little evidence for or against that theory and the movie doesn't really change much if it's applied. Just sharing a little nugget of internet trivia around.
For those who dont know "Rattlesnake round-ups, also known as rattlesnake rodeos, are annual events common in the rural Midwest and Southern United States, where the primary attractions are captured wild rattlesnakes which are sold, displayed, killed for food or animal products or released back into the wild." Wikipedia
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this! It never seemed like Rango would contain only one character with some unexplained magical/supernatural backstory but more like he's got a dark (but realistic) one that he plays up so he won't have to revisit it. Also, I thought it would make sense if "hell" could also just mean him living on his own in the desert without the town to offer steady but meager rations of water, physical protection, etc. Either way, it definitely didn't feel like he went to the fiery pits written in that fanfiction thousands of years ago and came back, haha
One thing a lotta people fail to notice in Jake's Introduction is when Rango says "Believe in that there sign, for as long as it hangs there, we got hope." And jake shreds it; ITS STILL HANGING! This not only implies Rango and the Townsfolk still have hope, but it also sets up Rango's Redemption. So many people miss this detail because its SO nuanced to not only Rango, but to the storywriting as well.
I love the “hired killer” trope as it allows you to have the plotting scheming politician type villain AND have the shit your pants charasmatic killer or monster. It’s like getting two villain types for the price of one.
Rattlesnake Jake's approach to Rango reminds me of the Wolf in The Last Wish. Hes more like an angry force of nature than an individual. The Spirit of the Wild West I suppose.
I love how the movie foreshadows Jake. When Rango killed the Hawk, we were told by the town-folk to not celebrate too hard cause now there's nothing to stop Rattlesnake Jake from coming. Us in audience nor Rango knew who Jake was or why should we care. It was a little seed dropped early into the narrative, easy to forget, but it came back with vengeance. It's nice when there's consequences to actions in a story, makes the world feel more real.
Saw this the first time it uploaded,glad to see it not only back but just as good as it was then. Could've sworn the IRL scene with Nighy and Depp was longer in the other one but hey it don't make much difference There's a lot to be learned about writing and character work for villans in both film and book from this channel and videos such as the one about Steppenwolf and this one here
I whole heartedly believe Rango could become the next Kung Fu Panda. Here me out. A trilogy (or more) of villains that test Rango. Rattlesnake Jake I think tested Rango's courage, authenticity, and sense of self. And Jake could make a future comeback. Rango has a colorful crew/towns people, unique setting/world, being sheriff is akin to being the "Dragon Warrior". A romance with Ms Beans. Rango has all the pieces and could be so much more. Keep the style, humor, writing, rough around the edges, beautiful uglyness the world and characters have if there were to be more movies.
I would love a plot where Rango pulls a “I know a guy” and it cuts to him brazenly approaching the home of Jake with a job offer. Jake nearly fired before recognizing him and going, like, “Guessing one bullet ain’t enough if you need me.”
I think the idea of an antagonist like a Coyote would be pretty viable and dope. They would tower over most the cast, blend in well... But if we were bringing back Jake? (I'm on board with the other commenter and getting his help) A pair of roadrunners. They EAT rattlesnakes and (iirc) hunt in mating pairs. They would be a perfect counter and escalation in a sequel.
@@motorcitymangababe Small issue. We have roadrunners in the movie and they don't seem to be sapient. They're the "horses" in this cowboy story. A Coyote I could definitely see, however.
5:12, 13:45, Jake’s value of being worth of one’s reputation and subsequent distain for fraudulence is perhaps his primary defining characteristic beyond his ruthlessness. It’s only when Rango earns his own legend does he respect him, ending their conflict. It also distinguishes him as a villain due to his strong sense of honor contrasting with his ruthlessness.
Jake is 100% my favorite character in Rango. He has the best design, an amazing voice, and an arc that is small but rewarding to see. I appreciate the anatomical accuracies that a lot of animations just don't get right (and I can forgive the stylization and eyelids because it's an animated show, not a documentary).
I enjoy the fact that Rango couldn't even be a hero without Jake as a foil. The mayor would never have pushed him hard enough or addressed him directly enough to force him into choosing a solid stance in the world. Jake's sincerity in who he is and what he does is the lynchpin of the entire moral arc of the film. He's the only character who inherently has agency, power, clarity of purpose, and sincerity in how he portrays it. Without him the narrative would only work as a tragedy.
Savage Books: creates amazing video about “give an ugly guy a chance” movie that is Rango DMCA claim: how dare you revive interest and help create enduring value from our property, you scoundrel Babbel: the vampire that gets to feast from this battlefield again and again
Watched this the first time it was uploaded. Glad to see you're still reuploading and I can add this to my writing advice playlist again. This video was the first time I ever learned of the "force of nature" character and I still think about that concept from time to time. Rewatching it, there's some other things I'm glad I got a refresher on.
Savage Books, if you’re still taking requests for Character Crash Course, I’d love to hear your thoughts on Balto (the animated movie). Where lot of (action) movies build their climax around a big final battle, I think Balto’s use of external and internal conflict resolutions work to craft an effective nonviolent climax. Any thoughts?
I didn't care for Rango when it first came out, but it's grown on me thanks to my husband absolutely adoring it. Plenty of the old time Western tropes, homages, and references still go over my head, but it does so much with its seemingly simple material. When it comes to realistic animal epics tho, I'm more of a Happy Feet person, but this movie is excellent.
Rango played a huge part in my childhood as one of my favorite movies, and Rattle Snake Jake was absolutely my favorite character. Glad to see the film (and Snakey Jakey) get the attention it rightfully deserves.
"I tip my hat to ya, one legend to another." Is genuinely one of my favorite movie quotes of all time. I'm a sucker for "Antagonist/enemy treats protagonist with courtesy after being bested." Another example would be Godfrey from Elden Ring. After being defeated his last words are "Thy strength befits a crown." he respects that you beat him because he knows how great of a warrior you'd have to be to pull that off, and that in doing so you are strong enough to become the next Elden Lord.
Rattlesnake Jake is my favorite character from Rango. Such a brilliant concept for a villain. AND a complex one, to boot. His eyes are truly mesmerizing and horrifying at the same time.
@savagebooks7482 Congrats on getting this back up! Love your channel so much. My only complaint is that I want ten times more videos from you than could be reasonably expected. 😂 ♥ Looking forward to the next one!
extremely satisfying to finally hear someone mention Jake's "Sauron eyes", I've always thought the same but somehow I never heard anyone else mention it before
Its CRAZY how accurate they made rattlesnake Jake too Seriously, the differentiated belly scales, folding fangs, in several shots you see his regular teeth too! His long tubular slow tongue and wide head and slitted eyes, his body condition and shape, the scalation on his head it's SO ACCURATE, at the end of that first scene you even see him tongue flick as Rango walks away! The only thing, and I mean ONLY thing, they missed were a pair of pit viper heat pits, but in way too impressed to mark them down for that
I think Jake keeps his force of nature character despite Rango earning his respect, it was a combination of that and Rango handing him revenge on the Mayor that he was appeased. Force of nature characters by their skillset can't be defeated head-on, but also by their skillset are above and beyond everyone, and as such can only be slighted or appealed to through other means like bribery or proper conduct in accordance to their personal standards. We know he has standards because it's stated by the Mayor's goon that he's the Grim Reaper and never considers a job done unless he kills someone. He starts out as just doing the job the Mayor hired him for, not caring either way about the townsfolk, while Rango is talking out his ass like he's worth being mentioned in the same paragraph as Jake. As a pathetic fraud, Rango is easily bullied into setting the record straight, and as such earns him exile instead of execution since there's no longer any personal beef. Everyone's back to being equally insignificant. Fast-forward to the scene where the Mayor is trying to strong-arm Beans before Rango shows up and this is still the status quo, with him even back-talking the Mayor when he shows the slightest hesitation with fully utilizing the power at his disposal. He called Jake here, it speaks to his dishonesty to be getting cold feet about death when he hired a killer, which we know from both his interaction with Rango and the scene that he doesn't take kindly to people that are just talk. So he does his job his way, and it's only through Rango coming back in spite of Jake's threat that Beans isn't strangled to death. Now for the duel, Rango has slighted him by daring to show his face again, and even seems either newly courageous or even more stupid than previously thought. Rango tells him to let her go or he'll kill him, which piques Jake's interest. He didn't care about Beans anyway, so he tosses her to the Mayor's boys and squares up to see what this fool is up to. He even catches on that Rango had some sort of trick planned with the boards covering the tunnel under the town, but is briefly distracted by an assassination attempt. The trick doesn't even work, and while briefly cowed by the Hawk (its own force of nature), he sees through the ruse. It took him needing to reload for Rango to get the opening and prove his character development. Their conclusion however is called off by the Mayor threatening Beans. Jake gets a win on technicality, notices Rango do something with his pistol, and goes in with the Mayor to lock Rango and Beans in the water bank. Mayor pulls Rango's gun on Jake, which unbeknownst to the Mayor is unloaded, and the water bank bursts open and flushes everyone into the street. Jake catches the glint of the bullet's casing that gets him to figure out that Rango saved himself. We then have Jake staring down two people. Rango, who managed to prove his worth as a legend by pulling *two* over on him (as the saying goes, "fool me twice, shame on me"), rectified his own loss on technicality, and regardless of that could still be beat after returning to the mano-a-mano situation, and the Mayor that called Jake in only to be humiliated, bailed out, and betrayed. Between the two, there's exactly one person worth his wrath, and the rest of the town never mean anything to him. So he chooses a soul to drag down to Hell like the devil he is, and with his business concluded leaves as quickly as he entered. Rango proved a mind that's a match for his skill, but no one ever controls or reasons with Jake; he did what he wanted.
I _promise_ I will come back and watch this. Just at 4:07 you got me thinking about a character I adore from a different franchise (and I hope it stays the same way in the official release and not just proof of concept) and now I’m off to apply my degree to something actually useful outside of my own fiction writing. It might seem silly that not even 1/3 of the way through (plus spon ad) you’ve inspired me to write up a my first actual script outside of Uni analyzing a character within a hyper-specific lens, but you have. And I’m really appreciative of that. See you in… possibly a day or two!
I love this channel. I would love to see a villain breakdown of the Wick villains. Specially Vigo as I think he is more complex than the others. I would also love to see a video on historical dramas like Braveheart or Outlaw King. (I’m Scottish by blood sue me lol) but even if I do not see any of these I look forward to the next. Great work.
You see, this video is fantastic, but when you said that the Mayor was defeated through luck I just frowned. Cause like... That's Rango. That's the sheriff. He escaped the hawk, killed it, bested the rodent clan, bested Rattlesnake Jake, and escaped the Mayor's deathtrap. He did all that. Calling every single one of those events just luck is just missing the legend facet of Rango, it feels like you're erasing the identity he embraces, the star he earned, and the name he made for himself. Calling it luck is downplaying his character. Cause he did all that
Yup, for some reason the company with copyright over Rango doesn't honor fair use and issued one aggressive takedown after another. I'm curious if something's changed that has Savage Books confident he can stand up to them now.
I like this idea of digging into the makings of these villains, and I'd be interested in seeing how you would go about assessing Aku from Samurai Jack.
I thought about that point at 14:50 a lot when I watched this movie back when. Can't have the hero kill the villain, so let the betrayed underling do it. In that way Rango and the mayor actually are similar - they both make Jake do their dirty work for them.
Someone actually made a D&D stat block for Rattlesnake Jake. He's a Huge Monstrosity and considered "Chaotic Evil" in the stat block...personally as a fan of westerns I'd be more inclined to say that he's "Neutral Evil" or agree with you that he's "Lawful Evil" one of the two, sure he's evil but he's not going to go out of his way to kill someone he's not being paid to kill or the like and he's also not above turning on his employer the moment he's been turned on himself. It's a shame Rango really sailed under the radar, mine too to be honest and it's only through watching clips and seeing things about Jake that I've taken an interest in it now and might actually have to get my hands on a copy and watch it. It'd be interesting to see a follow up movie or one focused on Jake and how his legend came to be and how he got his start and became the person he is...though that would take away some of the mystique of the character but it's a right shame he only has about 15 minutes of screen time.
So glad I watched this, both to reminisce about an animated movie I forgot how much I liked and for the great writing/media analysis. Thank you for posting ☺️❤️👍
You don't have to make up a new category of "sub-antagonist". We already have terms for that: antagonist vs villain. The first stands opposite to the main character thematically, the later is the bad guy. Also Maul and Griveous and Dokuu are not sub-antagonsits, they are mini-bosses, henchmen, roadblocks. Also I would not pull from something so badly constructed as the Prequels for examples. Pull for example from Fury Road. Immortan is the antagonist and villain in one, the rock riders, people eater, bullet farmer, those are the henchmen.
I find The Hulk to be the archetype of Force of Nature characters. He’s neither good nor evil. He’s just extremely destructive. He smashes whatever is in front of him. He can’t be reasoned with. You can’t stop him. All you can do is get out of the way.
I'm new to the channel so Idk if you've set rules as to when an antagonist becomes a villain. I'd argue that Jake is an antagonist, while the Mayor is a villain; as you said, Jake is a couterpart to Rango, while the Mayor isn't; the Mayor brings Jake as a means to get rid of Rango so he can keep on his own tyranny, which has nothing to do with Rango, not directly. Anyway, I liked this analysis! Now, off to check Heroes that Kill :D
I remember not being fond of this movie when I saw it way back as a kid. However, I will always remember Jake because when he appeared, that's when middle school me started paying attention. And for a snake he isn't bad looking either.
Is anyone going to bring up how good the animation of 2011 looks? A snake is a giant muscle endlessly moving to create movement. Rattlesnake Jake is constantly in movement constantly moving, thinking, surrounding, He rarely stays still and when he does it usually shows how he's been caught of gard. The animation in this film is amazing just to begin with. Just look at the scales are lifting up and down to grip anything they come in contact with.
Wow I had no idea that Johnny depp, being both Rango and Captain Jack Sparrow, was opposed in both his stellar movies by bill nighy, as rattlesnake jake and davy jones. Makes so much more sense now
Years after its release? This shit was huge when it came out. It just didn't go the Disney route and mass market it. It was a great movie, and I didn't know anyone who didn't like it. I always felt it was Nickelodeons last big hurrah before condemning themselves to tween wave mediocrity.
WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR VOICE?! I JUST WATCHED A VIDEO FROM 4 YEARS AGO AND DECIDED TO CHECK OUT YOUR OTHER VIDEOS AND HOLY SMOKE YOUR VOICE DROPPED LIKE DISNEY'S STOCKS AND PRODUCTIONS' QUALITY
I was definitely too young when I watched this movie for the first time. Not bc it’s too violent or too scary, but because I just couldn’t appreciate the nuance and plot. It’s such a cool, mature story and I only wish I appreciated it when I was a kid
