Analysis Megathread

[Ivan Komarov]

I rather wonder how many of his symptoms would go away if we found a way to detox him for a week.

Honestly I see a lot of burned out users with symptoms very similar. I'd venture to guess his heroic intake of drugs significantly impacts his ability to think rationally and impairs his judgement to extreme levels.

Zero. It's been tried.

 

[The Dude]

Why on earth does he honestly believe his toy guns are real weapons? Is it a symptom of whatever mental dysfunction he has or is it just hardcore wishful thinking?

 

[DeagleDad420]

Well said Stalin. You laid it out there and I've also been thinking along the same lines, though I didn't know of any actual incidents of auditory hallucinations. I have been thinking along the schizophrenia lines since I first started learning about Jace. However, one thing now makes me second guess this. The other day I asked in the general thread what, if anything, is known of of Jace's behavior prior to his rise to internet infamy. DeagleDad420 responded basically saying that someone claiming to have gone to high school with Jace posted on Jace's tumblr (I think) a few years ago basically saying that Jace has behaved this way for a while now. Later Tyce seemed to corroborate this. Now, as I recall (I'm not a psychiatric professional either) everything I've ever read and experienced about schizophrenia has indicated that symptoms begin to manifest in late teens (18, 19) at the earliest, generally more towards the early twenties. If Jace was already delusional since his early to mid teens, well it casts some doubt in my mind regarding schizophrenia. Now I'm sure there are exceptions and more to it all, I don't know, but that is my most recent line of thinking about it.

This is a common view to hold if you've only been following him for two or three months. But Jace was way, way less delusional and crazy when Fuck Yeah Deagles first started out. He even admitted he was wrong a few times and, God forbid, actually took advice from experts. Most of his delusions were about gun trivia; he didn't ever call himself Stryker, and referred to himself as only a "Future marine", never an actual Marine; nowadays, he's much, much more lenient to indulge in fantasy and nonsense comparatively speaking. During the Fuck Yeah Deagles era, he was basically just a stupid dudebro, not a schizophrenic.

For an example, watch this video (his first ever made, posted on Nov 7 2012) and compare it to his more recent adventures. The dudebro attitude definitely still shines through today, but there's a much greater level of delusion and mental illness.

Another thing of note: We're not quite sure yet if he is 20 or 22. On Tumblr he repeatedly said he was 19 (http://parkourdude91.tumblr.com/post/34265704093/more-about-parkourdude) and during the "Final Vlog" video he said he was "going to be 20 soon", referencing his upcoming October birthday. Assuming he's currently 20 his birthdate would be '93... I can't recall him ever referencing his birthdate aside from his username "91" which would put him at 22. He's yet to come up with a convincing reason as to why he would have chosen those numbers aside from birthdate so it's kind of a toss-up as to whether he's 20 or 22. In the very first video WachtAmWeb made about him, he made a point saying how odd it was that someone older than him (Wacht was born in '92) could be so dumb, to which Jace's response was "it's just a fuckin' number dude". He said the same in the "trial" later on. It's also possible he just made up the number at the end of his username to posture online and sound older (and therefore somehow cooler) than he actually was.

This is all a very long way of saying we don't quite know his age exactly.

Why on earth does he honestly believe his toy guns are real weapons? Is it a symptom of whatever mental dysfunction he has or is it just hardcore wishful thinking?

For a while I didn't think he actually believed airsoft can literally kill people (I could be wrong) I thought he was just posturing in an attempt to intimidate others while inflating his own ego, the same kind of voluntary suspension of disbelief that allows one to get immersed in a game or a movie (after all, airsoft is basically just one big manly game of play pretend cops and robbers) But from the recent Civil War videos, the way he talks about "putting Brandon on ice" and shit... I really don't know anymore.

Zero. It's been tried.

Do you know something I don't?

 

[Ivan Komarov]

Do you know something I don't?

When he went to bible camp

 

[DeagleDad420]

When he went to bible camp

Yeah, my bad. I guess it would be pretty difficult for him to get weed there. I wish we could get him to talk more about it though - we don't really quite know even if it was a bible camp or the details of it.

 

[Horde Prime]

Well, I guess Schizophrenia IS still a possibility then. That is unfortunate. I honestly wouldn't wish that on anyone.

I watched some of that first video of his DeagleDad420 shared. The contrast between it and his more recent videos is striking (pun!). But seriously, if he is in fact schizophrenic one thing I've observed is the family is (or should be) the first ones to pick up on it and know something is not right by the dramatic changes in a short period of time. So I know we don't know a whole lot about his mom, but if all she's done is send him to Jesus camp and not try to get him real psychiatric help... well that's... odd... to say the least.

 

[Sweet and Savoury]

Well do keep in mind we see Jace at his very worst. Drunken, stoned and agitated. So I'm reluctant to slap him with the schizophrenic label so easily because thats a damn serious condition.

Are we sure we can't attribute most of his actions to limited intelligence, over-weening ego and a desire to live in his dream-world and the drugs? He does seem to consume a large amount of dope.

 

[Junior Ocelot]

So I know we don't know a whole lot about his mom, but if all she's done is send him to Jesus camp and not try to get him real psychiatric help... well that's... odd... to say the least.

In stream #5 and in the Life Update video (I think), he states he is currently seeing a therapist. He does mention this alongside AA, so he may just be referring to group therapy. If it is one-on-one, we can only hope he/she puts things together and gets him some proper help.

 

[Ariel]

He looks & sounds like a completely different person in the Fan Mail Questions video. I'm shocked as to how much somebody can change in less than 2 years.

 

[Night Terror]

Why on earth does he honestly believe his toy guns are real weapons? Is it a symptom of whatever mental dysfunction he has or is it just hardcore wishful thinking?

I dunno, he often says that he aims for the head and that'll "put you in the hospital", not kill you.

 

[Gorogoroth]

When he went to bible camp

As far as I'm concerned, a week or a couple months off alcohol/drugs just isn't enough to get your head in the right place. I reckon he'd need to be completely sober for at least 6 months before his head would start to clear, and maybe then he could start working on his personality issues.
Unless of course it's not just drug crazy, but schizophrenia etc; If that's the case then I've got no idea how that's treated.
Personally, I think he's stupid mixed with way too much booze/ drugs, with maybe some kind of depressive/anxiety disorder exacerbated by the drugs, plus a refusal to grow up and take responsibility for his life.
I think Jace just needs to realise he's the perpetrator, not the victim. While he's got this victim mentality, he's powerless. A sudden realisation of "Hang on a sec, maybe it's me whose causing all my problems" can work wonders. And unless he's sober, he'll never figure this out.
TLDR; Sober up for fuck sake.

 

[24isthehighestnumber]

I think it's also entirely possible that on top of everything else that he may suffering from, he is just a total melt.
Between his speech patterns and fixation on odd phrases and his utter obsession with weed (to the point that he needs to somehow shoehorn it into the plot of every fucking video game he plays), he's practically a walking cartoon parody of every 90's movie stoner. I think he may have permanently damaged his brain with years of heavy substance abuse.

 

[RP 520]

I think it's also entirely possible that on top of everything else that he may suffering from, he is just a total melt.
Between his speech patterns and fixation on odd phrases and his utter obsession with weed (to the point that he needs to somehow shoehorn it into the plot of every fucking video game he plays), he's practically a walking cartoon parody of every 90's movie stoner. I think he may have permanently damaged his brain with years of heavy substance abuse.

This, especially since he did all of this stuff as he was growing up, the brain keeps developing until you're 20 or 21 I think? The heavy pot use, alcoholism and whatever else he nearly OD'd on along the way probably has left a permanent mark.

 

[Andrew Noel Schaefer]

This, especially since he did all of this stuff as he was growing up, the brain keeps developing until you're 20 or 21 I think? The heavy pot use, alcoholism and whatever else he nearly OD'd on along the way probably has left a permanent mark.

Untrue! Your brain is always developing! Synaptogenesis just happens more when you are younger.

But reportibly, this isnt the first time Jace has been in a 12 step program. It also never worked. Jace seems to me like he would rather kick it then give up weed.

 

[The Mass Debater]

I still wouldn't rule out the 'tism. Everything he does could be explained by high functioning autism, copious amounts of drugs and extreme paranoia. One thing I noticed from seeing his first video is just look at the length of those fingers:

If I'm getting my mental health issues right unusually long fingers are an extremely common trait among those on the autism spectrum.

 

[Zim]

This, especially since he did all of this stuff as he was growing up, the brain keeps developing until you're 20 or 21 I think? The heavy pot use, alcoholism and whatever else he nearly OD'd on along the way probably has left a permanent mark.

I think there's a lot of truth to this. To me a lot of his major problems look like something that happens when you do hard drugs and hit the bottle a bit too much. I'm not going on a professional diagnosis since I'm not a doctor or anything of course but it looks like brain damage to me especially with people saying he only got "bad" in the last year or so. When it comes to substances it really looks like he has problems with control and doesn't believe in moderation.

His total commitment to the lie is also something I find interesting. It's common with lolcows but with Jace it's like he's got the reasoning of a 10 year old. He absolutely believes he's expert level at things he's obviously not even a beginner at and if anyone say's anything or asks him to prove his credentials he just yells "I'm a marine!". When he posts videos "demonstrating" his skills I can't help but wonder how he can watch them and thing "Yeah. That's exactly like the guys flipping off buildings." His parkour video where he just does a footplant and half ass roll is a perfect example of this.

Another example is his tough guy marine attitude. You can see it right here on the forums where he just spouts off 6th grade level crap about how he's awesome and would totally kick your ass if this was real life. (If he reads this he'll say even more BS about how I don't know the facts or something.) In reality he was too chicken to try and enlist in the military and when he challenged Tyce to a fight he made up a bunch of rules.

 

[Trickie]

I still wouldn't rule out the 'tism. Everything he does could be explained by high functioning autism, copious amounts of drugs and extreme paranoia. One thing I noticed from seeing his first video is just look at the length of those fingers:

If I'm getting my mental health issues right unusually long fingers are an extremely common trait among those on the autism spectrum.

Actually, those long fingers are an optical illusion. The video is stretched vertically for some reason. You can see it in the beginning of the video when he waves his hand, his fingers are vertical for a short while, and they appear much shorter.

Do you think he stretched the video on purpose to make himself look thinner?

 

[The Mass Debater]

Do you think he stretched the video on purpose to make himself look thinner?

It wouldn't suprise me. The difference between Jace two years ago and Jace now really is striking though.

 

[DeagleDad420]

Actually, those long fingers are an optical illusion. The video is stretched vertically for some reason. You can see it in the beginning of the video when he waves his hand, his fingers are vertical for a short while, and they appear much shorter.

Do you think he stretched the video on purpose to make himself look thinner?

My work requires me to know shit about cameras and that sounds like an issue with his camera, but I could be wrong. An easy test for this theory would be to look for similar examples in Tyces videos after he stole Jaces camera; Tyce would never be smart enough to edit like that. He most likely uses Windows Movie Maker looking at the fonts and text animation in his videos.

 

[Trickie]

My work requires me to know shit about cameras and that sounds like an issue with his camera, but I could be wrong. An easy test for this theory would be to look for similar examples in Tyces videos after he stole Jaces camera; Tyce would never be smart enough to edit like that. He most likely uses Windows Movie Maker looking at the fonts and text animation in his videos.

If it turns out to be true, that'd be an interesting insight into his self image.