I kind of get the feeling he never really had any friends. I think he just had people that were kind of nice to him because they knew he was "special". I also get the impression he's generally fine with having no friends. Jay wants praise, not a conversation. I think the only form of companionship he's interested in is a girlfriend and even then he just wants to bang her then have her wait in the corner of the room until he's finished playing video games.
I disagree.
Not with your general statement about his need for adoration - that's perfectly accurate - but on the part with him being fine with having no friends.
On some level, Jay
does want friends. You can see it in his interactions, and honest-to-god joy you hear in him when he's farting about with people he considers allies. From the short time we had him on TF2, he was genuinely happy hanging out and participating. I get a very real sense that a great many of Jay's problems are less due to his own issues (of which there are
quite many), and more due to grossly inept parenting - Jay was
never encouraged directly to socialize or interact deeply by his family, and, indeed, many of his family members have treated him like something inflicted upon them. Since Jay spent a great deal of his life without such things, he doesn't really know
how. I know from experience and personal conversations with Jay that whilst Jay can be
extremely awkward and unpleasant, a lot of it isn't necessarily intentional. Jackie Chin and Obamatron have both echoed this sentiment, though both have also noted as well that Jay can also be
impossibly fucked-up when he desires to be.
Mind, this doesn't excuse his behavior - not in the slightest. It does, however, contextualize a lot of it, and make one wonder if Jay does yet have that ability to get his shit together if the circumstances allow it to happen. He's going to have to interact at some point, and there's some evidence to suggest that if he got proper socialization and life experience, he'd be able to unfuck himself to a considerable degree.
Of course, there's also shit like his recent deleted journals, reaction to animals, possible pedophilia, recent revelations of absolutely ridiculous political opinions...
Either way, there'll be entertainment to be gotten out of it.
