Jackson Jekyll

"I fit in my locker, trash cans... you'd be surprised what those guys fit me into."

- Jackson Jekyll in "Miss Infearmation"

Jackson Jekyll is the 16-year-old son of Dr. and Mrs. Jekyll, the latter presumably a descendant of the Dr. Jekyll from the 19th century. Jackson's father is a fire elemental.

Jackson is the alter-ego of Holt Hyde.

Portrayers
Jackson, like his alter-ego Holt, is voiced by Cindy Robinson in the English version of the cartoon.

In the Hebrew version, he's voiced by Dan Kizler, who also voices his alter-ego Holt Hyde.

Personality
Jackson's alter ego is Holt Hyde, known as DJ Hyde in the Monster High books; his transformation is triggered by music.

Jackson is friendly and likes to play casketball, though he has a geeky fashion style and is sometimes picked on by other students. He appears to be the only human student at Monster High, and he is confused by his normalcy and feels a bit outcast in a school full of monsters.

In the diaries he once asked Draculaura to bite him, as he was afraid they couldn't really be friends when school started. Draculaura was able to talk him out of it, but she could tell he was still depressed.

In the Monster High book series he is not afraid or uncomfortable about being around monsters and is able to interact with them quite easily. Draculaura noted in her diary that he was unfazed when he met her father, who normally creeps out both human and monsters.

In the cartoon, he seems much more wary around monsters, most likely due to being bullied at school for being a "normie". He even went as far as to say that he "didn't belong", and that no one would want him at Cleo's party in the webisode "Hyde and Shriek".

While the Monster High students are unaware of Jackson's/Holt's dual nature, older monsters can apparently sense his duality. This is evident in Draculaura's Basic diary when she overhears a conversation between her father and Jackson, where Jackson makes a light joke about stakes. Her father later cryptically tells her that Jackson is more than he appears.

Appearance
Jackson has black hair with blonde ends, blue eyes and a pierced left eyebrow. He has a yin yang symbol between his shoulders. Because he is shy, his body language is nervous and he tends to hunch his shoulders.

Jackson, and therefore Holt, has a Yin-Yang tattoo on his back at the base of his neck.

Transformation
Throughout each storyline, Holt and Jackson have no control over their transformations and change from one into the other under specific circumstances. In the cartoon series, it seems to be music that causes Holt/Jackson's transformation. This is first seen in "Hyde and Shriek." In the books it is heat.

In Holt Hyde's Basic diary, Holt's transformation into Jackson Jekyll normally occurs at sunrise and lasts until sunset. Holt noted that when he was trying to see what the town was like during the day, he blacked out at the moment of sunrise. However, in Jackson Jekyll's Basic diary, it's revealed that the trigger for Jackson's transformation has since changed, so that it is now music as in the cartoon. Specifically, "music with a 4/4 time signature played in excess of 90 decibels" triggers the transformation into Holt. However according to the dairy, because of Jackson's "elemental heritage + hyde transformation + teenage boy" status, it is likely to change again at least once more before he hits adulthood.

In the Monster High book series, the change is caused by temperature shifts, be it from him getting hot from embarrassment or from outside forces like a hot day.

There are times when Jackson's and Holt's memories and abilities leak over to the other. For example, in the diaries Jackson is able to keep up with Deuce Gorgon in a basketball game (to the Gorgon's surprise), while Holt recognizes Draculaura at a club despite the fact it's the "first" time he meets her.

Classic Monster
Jackson Jekyll/Holt Hyde is the son of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Maintaining the trend of classic movies, there is a 1931 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, released by Paramount, directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Fredric March.

The story of Jekyll and Hyde is based on a horror tale by Robert Louis Stephenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

In this story, a scientist devises a potion that will separate his evil, base nature from his normal self. The result is that while his regular self, Dr. Jekyll, remains human (both good and evil), his evil nature forms a new personality, Mr. Hyde; both occupy the same body.

Eventually, Hyde becomes more and more out of control, and Jekyll knows that some day he will take over the body completely.

While many movies portray Hyde as being monstrous in appearance, in the book he merely looks sinister, and is short.

The influence of these characters on the appearance of Jackson Jekyll is clear in that he has many elements of duality or being patched together: his hair is two colors, he has a yin-yang tattoo, his clothes tend to be halved or made of patchwork.

The original Henry Jekyll portrayed as a scientist; Jackson follows suit on a visual level as he is dressed as a studious "nerd".

See also: Holt Hyde

Family
In the Monster High books, his mother is named Sydney. The exact way Jackson's family tree looks is fuzzy at the moment. In Jackson Jekyll's diary, it is revealed that it's Jackson's mother from whom the dual nature comes, while his father is revealed to be a fire elemental and implied to be the parent through which Jackson is the cousin to Heath Burns, a fact first mentioned in "Fear Pressure". However, Ghoul Spirit states that Jackson's mother is the sister of Heath's father, making the exact familial relations unclear.

Until he was 16 years of age, Jackson did not know he had a monster half in the form of Holt. He did know both his parents were monsters, but he thought he'd only been given his mother's human side. Neither his parents apparently thought their son's dual nature was something they needed to inform him about.

Especially Jackson's mother is very protective of her little boy, and seeing him get hurt is something that can trigger her transformation into the mode most suited for helping him out. Also according to Holt Hyde's Basic diary, Jackson's mother doesn't keep the same job for long and the family regularly moves to a place closer to her new job.

In the Monster High books, Jackson is regarded by Holt as his brother, as the latter reveals to Melody Carver: "Because DJ likes her. I can't do that to him...or me, or whoever....He's kind of like my brother, I guess." Heath Burns is not related to Jackson in the books, and Jackson's father is absent, leaving it unclear how much of conventional canon is canon for the books.

Friends

 * Deuce Gorgon - In the diaries Jackson met Deuce at their neighborhood casketball court. After Jackson surprised Deuce by playing well, he cemented the friendship by lending Deuce his sunglasses. In the cartoon, Deuce was the one to convince Heath not to "stonewall" his cousin and more or less has Jackson join his circle.
 * Draculaura - In the diaries Jackson and Draculaura live on the same street, and Draculaura brought a pie to his family. He returned the empty pie plate to her house, and impressed Draculaura by not being afraid of her father, and even cracking jokes. He later asked Draculaura to turn him into a vampire, but she refused (then she explained to him why she became a vegetarian). She later brought Jackson to Clawdeen's and her family's annual "Boo-B-Que."
 * Frankie Stein - In the webisode "Miss Infearmation", Jackson meets Frankie. Jackson was being bullied by Manny Taur and Frankie jumped in and stopped the bullying. This began a possible attraction storyline arc for Frankie and Jackson. When Jackson and Frankie first shake hands, a cloud formed by an electrical shock from Frankie momentarily forms the shape of a heart. Outside of an impromptu party at Cleo's house, Jackson agonized over going in because he felt he didn't fit in. But the thought of Frankie being there seemed to be the one compelling factor for him, so it seems Frankie has started to have some impact on him. Later, at the party, she also hits it off instantly with Holt Hyde, who seemed quite taken with her as well, going so far as to compliment and flatter her, illustrating that certain things can carry over from one personae to another.
 * Clair - In "Ghouls Rule", Jackson meets this gothic girl in the hallways of the normie school, and the two become friends overnight. She helps keep trouble away from Jackson, and even helps the Ghouls of Monster High reunite in friendship with the normies. By the end of the film, it seems as if she wants to be more than friends with him, going as far as to kiss him at the Halloween Party.

Pet
Like Holt Hyde, Jackson's pet is Crossfade the chameleon, only in green form.

Romance
Draculaura writes in her Basic diary about her crush on Jackson, and her interest seems to be reciprocated. However, in her School Out diary she writes that the two of them "split up" because Jackson never showed up for any of their dates in the evenings (as by that time he would have changed into Holt Hyde), and could never remember why the next day.

Starting in the webisode "Miss Infearmation", he and Frankie Stein have displayed big feelings for each other. Since then his feelings for her have grown and he seemed disappointed when Frankie tells him they can't go out yet until he works things out with Holt Hyde. However, they are still close friends and he doesn't seem to mind waiting for her.

In the novels he is dating Melody Carver, but in the first novel Cleo kissed him to get back at Melody for bumping into her, causing her to spill her grapes, which (along with the fact of Melody not knowing about DJ Hyde) caused some tension between the two of them.

In "Ghouls Rule", Jackson begins scouting out the normie school, and there meets Clair. The two become fast friends, and by the end of the film, maybe even some thing more, with Clair kissing him at the Halloween Party.

Volume 3
In "Scare-born Infection" after Romulus passes the cooties to Jackson he complains that now not only he is a normie, but he also has cooties he tries to walk away but slips on a couple of books until he hits Cleo who now has the cooties.

Books
In the Monster High book series, Jackson is the grandson of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, making him a third generation monster. The chemicals used by Dr. Jekyll were apparently very toxic and clung to the DNA, passing the condition down to his progeny. The condition afflicted Jackson's father and drove him mad and was possibly sent to a insane asylum (Jackson first thought that his dad just left he and his mother), despite his mother's attempts to help. The only ray of hope Mrs. Jekyll could see for her son was that the change had stabilized through the generations, becoming less violent and unpredictable than its previous forms. As a biochemist she surmised that the chemical had mutated into a more stable state.

Jackson's condition manifested around the age of 13 or 14. Due to the prejudice faced by monsters from humans, his mother protected him by keeping the truth about the family hidden. In the first book, Jackson's physical change is more mental than physical (although in the second book Hyde gains a physical appearance of his own, having blonde hair and blue eyes) and is governed by temperature. When Jackson gets too hot, DJ Hyde emerges, and disappears when he gets too cold.

In the book he wears glasses, likes to paint, and sometimes has pastel stains on his fingers. His mother is the science teacher at Merston High. He falls in love with his next door neighbor, Melody. Jackson eventually learns the truth behind his blackouts when Melody records his transformation on her iPhone.

Jackson and Melody officially go out in The Ghoul Next Door. He has a M on his shoe for Melody and Melody has a J on her shoe for Jackson.

He used to be quite shy, but when he found out about being a RAD he got more confident, often defending Melody from the doubtful RADs, and even dissing Cleo at one point.

In the Where There Wolf There Way his mother is fired from Merston High for harboring him. He and his mother move out of Salem and is forced to be DJ to protect himself. He doesn't appear until the last chapter of the third book where he's back in Salem.

In Back and Deader Than Ever, he suggested Melody to join Leadfeather, while at the same time sign up for a preformance arts camp over the summer. This lead to a love triangle between Melody, him, and Gargoyle Granite. In the end they made up, and on his own volition became a roadie as DJ.

Timeline

 * January 15, 2009: Mattel requests the trademark for Jackson Jekyll.
 * Early July, 2010: Jackson Jekyll makes his diary debut in Deuce Gorgon's Basic diary and Draculaura's Basic diary.
 * September 1, 2010: Jackson Jekyll makes his Monster High book debut in Monster High.
 * December, 2010: Jackson Jekyll's first doll is released as part of the Gloom Beach series.
 * May 26, 2011: Jackson Jekyll makes his 2D cartoon debut in "Fear Pressure".
 * July 15, 2011: Jackson Jekyll's profile is published on the Monster High website.
 * July 15, 2011: Jackson Jekyll's profile art is revealed.
 * December 30, 2011: The Walmart website sets up pages in preparation of the releases of Jackson Jekyll, Rochelle Goyle, Robecca Steam and Venus McFlytrap.
 * February 12, 2012: Jackson Jekyll's core line doll is on display at American International Toy Fair.
 * February 12, 2012: Jackson Jekyll makes his 3D cartoon debut in "Why Do Ghouls Fall In Love?".
 * Late March, 2012: Jackson Jekyll's core line doll is released as part of the Main V4 series.