User blog:Ethans3000/PE Proposal: Jacob Moon (Tennis Shoes Adventure Series)

Hello everyone. This is the first PE Proposal blog post that I have written, and it concerns Jacob Moon (Tennis Shoes Adventure Series).

Who Is He/What Has He Done?
For those of you who don't know, the Tennis Shoes Adventure Series is a series of novels written by the Latter-Day Saint (Mormon to most of you) author Chris Heimerdinger. They revolve around the protagonists Jim Hawkins and Garth Plimpton (and, later, their extended families) time-travelling to the historical events of the Book of Mormon and the Bible. They meet many heroes from those times, but also many villains.

Now, Jacob Moon, formerly known as Boaz, first appeared as a minor antagonist in the second book, Gadiantons and the Silver Sword. But in the third and fourth books, The Feathered Sserpent, Parts One and Two, he comes back as the main antagonist. As Boaz, he served as a Gadianton robber who worked alongside Mehrukenah, Shurr, and Mr. Clarke in travelling to modern times to obtain a mystical sword that was stolen from them. Boaz was lured into a trap by Jim Hawkins and subsequently arrested by the police. He was then incarcerated in an insane asylum.

No big deal, right? Well, it gets much worse in the third and fourth books. Boaz, while in the asylum, adopts the alias Jacob Moon and plots his revenge on Jim for landing him in that situation and preventing him from returning to his home century for many years. When he is finally set free from jail, Jacob Moon goes back to Book of Mormon times and establishes an empire of his own. He, along with his followers, practice the ways of the Gadianton organization-meaning they murder people, hold hostages, and try to steal the world's treasure for themselves.

This is where Jacob Moon really shows his Pure Evil colors. He kidnaps Garth Plimpton (who has travelled back to Book of Mormon times with his wife) because he thinks Garth knows where the treasure of Haberekiah is. When Garth denies knowledge, Jacob decides to go back to modern times to kidnap someone Garth loves while also enacting revenge on Jim Hawkins. Jacob does two things: one, he murders Jim's boss and frames Jim for it, causing Jim to end up in jail like Jacob once did; two, he kidnaps Jim's daughter and Garth's niece Melody so he can torture her in front of Garth to make him break down.

Heinous Standard
Jim Hawkins (the first-person narrator of most of the books) states that Jacob Moon is one of the three people he's met that epitomizes evil, with Mehrukenah and Amalickiah being the other two. I cannot remember the exact description Jim gives (and, sadly, I do not have the book with me right now to read from), but Jacob Moon's personality throughout the rest of the books still shines. He seems to take pleasure in torturing Melody to make Garth break down, and he has no qualms about murdering any men that fail him or oppose him.

One example: in the fourth book, there are four porters that accidentally drop Melody off a cliff and into a river. Although Melody survives, Jacob opts to kill the porters who dropped her. Even when Melody threatens to kill herself if he does, Jacob shrugs it off as an empty threat.

Jacob did have a wife, Anna, but Jacob himself refers to her as a concubine. When Anna goes to Jim and warns him of Jacob's intentions, Jacob has no qualms whatsoever about killing her. As for his son, Marcos Alberto Sanchez...well, he doesn't seem to care about him much, either. Even before Marcos turns good, Jacob doesn't use Marcos as much more than a tool to execute his plans. In addition, when he sees him falling in love with Melody, he tries to drive a wedge between them.

Freudian Excuse
There's certainly no hint of this in the books.

Individual Capabilities
Jacob's plan to frame Jim Hawkins for murdering his boss is much more clever than I'm making it sound. Jacob sends his son Marcos to Jim's work to determine who Jim would have the most beef with, and would be most likely to kill. After shooting and killing Jim's boss at his house, Jacob alters the crime scene to make it look more like Jim was the culprit; he plants strands of blonde hair in Jim's boss' hand to show evidence of a struggle, and he throws the pistol into Jim's car while Jim is investigating his boss' house.

Capturing Melody is another scheme in itself. Jacob and his men accost Melody's boyfriend Quinn and pressure him into luring Melody into their trap. Though this is more Quinn's fault for complying with such evil schemes to save his own life, it still shows Jacob's cleverness and cunning.

Redeeming Qualities
As mentioned above, the fact that he had a son does not hold water because of how he treats his concubine and son.

No Sympathy
There aren't any scenes that make the reader feel sorry for Jacob Moon.

Worst
In the end, Jacob Moon is on a selfish quest for power. He believes his kingdom of Jacobugath to be superior to any other kingdom, and does not believe the claims that it will one day be destroyed (spoiler alert: his city is destroyed by the hand of God). And when he is witnessing his own revenge on Jim Hawkins, he takes great pleasure in it and relishes the sight of Jim in pain.

Verdict
Maybe I'm biased, because Jacob Moon is probably my favorite villain from the Tennis Shoes Adventure Series, but this guy truly is crazy. Sure, he was only a minor villain in his introductory book, but he certainly wasn't a good guy. And when he emerged in the third and fourth books, he displayed qualities that, I think, make him a worthy candidate for the Pure Evil category.