Jarod Harding

**Jarod Harding** is the former military doctor turned emergency intern and the attending physician is the second love interest appearing in Blue Swan. He is later became the main love interest in his own story route.

## Appearance

Jarod is a 33-year-old man who has ash brown hair and stubble. He has light blue eyes. He has a muscular build and fair skin.

Jarod has four outfits on his portrait and has another outfit where it was seen on his main story route.

He is usually seen wearing his uniform, Jarod wears a deep blue, long-sleeved shirt under his blue scrubs along with a black necklace with a pirate skull pendant. Like William, he wears his stethoscope draped over his neck and two pens in his breast pocket. His ID is also on his breast pocket.

In his first casual outfit, Jarod wears a bluish-gray v-neck short sleeved shirt with three buttons up at the top along with the same silver necklace. He wears khaki cargo jeans accompanied by a brown belt and brown loafers with matching laces. His pirate skull pendant from his necklace is now exposed.

His third outfit was his second casual outfit which was seen on one of the promotional ads. A black rider jacket with gray zippers on each side, a white short-sleeved undershirt, pale blue jeans with a black belt around the waist and black biker boots. The player also mistook his rider jacket for being a leather jacket. Along with this outfit, he wears a large silver ring on his left ring finger. This outfit became his main outfit in his main story route.

When he takes the player, Mai Lan and Andrea to the base camp within Tabora City, the capital of Tanzania's Tabora region. Jarod wears an outfit identical to Jake Stewart's casual outfit and the color scheme resembles the color scheme of Gabriel Simons' casual outfit; a khaki long sleeved denim blazer with four pockets and the sleeves are folded into his mid forearm, underneath is a white tank top, dark brownish gray jeans with a matching belt around his waist and black combat boots which is tucked through his jeans. He sometimes wearing his safari hat starting on Chapter 3.

* When Jarod practices Karate at the dojo, he was shirtless and wears only karate pants with a black belt. Jarod was muscular in appearance as well as he gained six-packed abs which surprises the player from his revealed appearance.
* His shirtless portrait has him wearing only a pair of khaki jeans with matching two buttons on the waistline. The jeans he wore is the khaki cargo jeans he wore at his first outfit. This shirtless appearance is later seen on Chapter 2 within his main story route where he takes the player to the savannah.

## Personality

Jarod appears to be serious yet very charismatic. He is shown to be very concentrated until he meets the character face to face in the hallways in which he loses track of his schedule whilst talking to her. When at the bar, he is shown talking to other surgeons. When the player approaches him, he seems calm and only speaks to the player through his eyes. He can also be strict at times when he treats Tatiana's serious injuries and also tells the player to follow her supervisor despite the latter's horrible management and threatens the player if he was her supervisor he would give warning letters if she does not follow his orders. In Chapter 2, despite his occupation being an emergency intern, Jarod is also a karate practitioner who practices karate under his Japanese sensei Master Onizuka which surprises the player from his revealed appearance and she even calls him a karate guy.

In Chapter 3, it was revealed that he has conflicts on his schedules when he had no time to spend with the player because of his work and has no free time. He also dislikes her to know about his former occupation as a military doctor which he deemed as complicated.

From Chapter 6 onward, Jarod seems to have interest on the player because of her potential to practice karate and during operations at the hospital. During the events of Chapter 7, Jarod also shown to be a little bit jealous when he saw both William and the player together which leads him to spar with her at the dojo, resulting him getting defeated and continues his interest to the player and her actions.

In the eleventh chapter shows the player finally thinks about Jarod instead of William even after they were officially dating at the end of Chapter 7 and during their encounter with him at the Border between the United States and Mexico where he is on his way to Tanzania in Chapter 10, Jarod became strange to the player upon their meeting. But on Chapter 16, despite his personality, Jarod truly hides his feelings towards the player and became jealous upon seeing her talking to William, which indicates he's being affected due to his feelings for her which caused him and the player to have a complicated situation between them. This soon changes in Chapter 18 where both are now officially dating only to be disrupted by his ex-girlfriend Neema Walker at the end of the same chapter. In Chapter 20, Jarod's relationship with the player became more complicated than the last previous chapters which also allows Neema to berate the player from being rejected. But on William's ending at the final chapter of the story reveals that Jarod has a lack of commitment due to his conflict situation between him and the player and the reason she apologizes to William because of him. At his ending, he remains cold towards the player until she reveals to him about Neema's lies and manipulations which leads him to break his long standing friendship with Neema for making him blind over her words and her lie for being sleeping together with her. He soon reconciles with the player and to continued their romantic relationship.

In one of the extra love scenes, Jarod can be very cold and serious in times of crisis when he was forced to help the player in dealing against an aggressive pregnant woman who is about to give birth while being left in an ambulance despite her aggression towards them into looking on her boyfriend Ricky. After Bubble and his group immediately takes the woman after getting birth a healthy baby boy and was revived by Jarod, he displays his stern side while scolding the player for her clumsiness during the crisis.

In his main story shows Jarod his enjoyment of berating the player who currently works as a pediatrician and is reckless and stubborn not to let him treat her patients while she angrily mistakes him as a civilian and do things her own way while not listening to his instructions. That incident with the dislocated patient leads to his illegal firing by Richard due to bad publicity at the hospital as stated by Mai Lan. He seems so close to his foster brother Bakary Harding, who is asked by him to convince Mai Lan to volunteer with his organization group, Doctors for All to serve as medical frontliners in the city of Tabora. During this trip, this is where Jarod gets interested on the player when he takes her elsewhere around in Tanzania. However at the end of Chapter 2, Jarod was very concerned over his brother Bakary following his disappearance.

In Chapter 3, similar to Daryl Ortega from his route, he is knowledgable about Roger Bronson who is the owner of his villa as well as his own illegal labor camp. He eventually defends the player from Roger when he arrives in time to rescue her. Jarod also knew he has been targeting reporters such his foster brother Bakary and player's friend Mindy Clayton when they have planned on exposing his illegal business. Starting from Chapter 5 onward and like Jake Stewart, Jarod is a risk taker as he saves the player twice from any forms of danger by either defending her from getting exploded or shielding her to safety not to get shot which resulted him to have a gunshot wound on his left shoulder.

## Season 1 (Blue Swan)

Jarod is a former military doctor who now works as an emergency intern at the Blue Swan Hospital and he is always successful when it comes to make a surgery over the patients with heavy injuries. He is also a karate practitioner at Master Onizuka's dojo. As soon as the player officially dates with William in Chapter 7, this makes her thinking about Jarod, leading them both into the a complicated relationship. He was met again by the player in Chapter 10 where he is bound to travel at the border between the United States and Mexico where he goes to Tanzania. Throughout the chapters, Jarod hides his feelings to the player and became jealous when she interacts with William until in Chapter 18 where he officially dates with her but was disrupted by his ex-girlfriend and Adrian Walker's younger sister, Neema Walker. At the player's nightmare, Jarod is also friends with Max Foster and Chuck Stanford. In Chapter 20, Jarod's relationship with the player became even more complicated than before and Neema berates the player from getting rejected.

At the final chapter of the story, Jarod manages to rescue the player from Max Foster who attempted to kill her when she chases after Chuck, leading both into a brawl. Jarod manages to subdue Max, allowing the player to chase Chuck and takes Max into the police custody. Afterwards, Jarod leaves to the airport which is bound in Tanzania. In one of the endings. Adrian hears his sister Neema while talking to her friend that she lied about sleeping with Jarod to break him and the player up which results in him, Sofia and the player to rush to the airport to tell him. After the player outsmarts Neema for her terrible manners and being arrested by airport security for questioning because of the scissor she had put on the pocket of her jacket, she finally confronts Jarod and he remained cold to her because of his trip with Neema in Tanzania. The player informs Jarod about Neema's lies and her manipulations that both had slept together as both Adrian and Sofia had already knew. She also states that she had been planned on breaking their relationship in the beginning. Finally learns about Neema's terrible actions, Jarod angrily breaks his long standing friendship with Neema and all this time he was blinded by her words to make him feel stupid. He soon apologizes to her and everyone about the trouble that Neema had caused them and their current relationship. Despite his decision to board, the player stops him because of her love to him, Jarod kisses her passionately and they make out. In spite of the flight attendant who informs him about the last call of boarding, He tells her that he and the player will catch the next flight after she decides to go with him to Tanzania. After they get home, they make love and await to leave to Tanzania together.

Due to his main story route being teased and has a new player as his love interest, Jarod's ending with the player from Blue Swan was non-canon.

## Season 1

The story begins where the player who works at the pediatrician at the same Blue Swan Hospital, treating the injured hand of the kid named Tony as both Sofia and his mother are with him for support. Joking at him was helpful enough to forget the pain he feels on his injury and the player tells him never to climb up the old fences at their backyard or his injured hand will be worsen. When Sofia signals her to go due to their attendance in Jarod's presentation, she soon tells Tony's mother to let his son come back in a week if his injured hand had recovered and removed the stitches and gives her some prescription medicine and anti-inflammatory ointment. As both mother and son leave, Sofia was amused to her actions since they are in a hurry due to Jarod's presentation at the cafeteria until Camilla shows up and talking about Jarod Harding not just being a professional surgeon but being a heartbreaker (referencing as how Gabriel Simons act as a serial romanticist). Just then, a boy scout leader who took all of the boy scouts who suffers food poisoning due to eating poison berries. The player knew if the boy scout leader would call 911 for help, the paramedics are gonna help them. She soon asks him about what happened which he confirms that they eat poison berries and two minutes later they begin to vomit. The player leads both Sofia, Camilla and the rest of the pediatrics team to deal with them until a man showed up revealing to be Jarod who watches the entire scene and the player is more focus on helping the children rather than his casual presence. However, one of the boy scouts also named Gabriel who is revealed to suffer a dislocated shoulder after the boy scout leader forcibly took off his coat after he had lied that he had also suffered a food poisoning. The player allows Sofia to get painkillers and a radiology where Olivia was currently handled. The player is more focus on treating Gabriel in her own way as Jarod enjoys berating her professionalism as a doctor, leading to their arguments and angrily mistakes him as a civilian. Jarod instructs her to retract Gabriel's shoulder like a socket but she didn't listen as Sofia arrives for his treatment in food poisoning and recognizes Jarod and to the player's unawareness, Her actions went backfire when Gabriel had vomited that pills being given to her because of his dislocated shoulder that caused him excruciating pain. Jarod gives her an impatient sigh and does his best to help the little Gabriel by fixing his dislocated shoulder by retracting it. Because of the player's refusal, Jarod manages to retract his shoulder back to normal, much to her disgust. Despite her firm behavior and for her reckless stupidity, Jarod finally introduced himself and as a professional trauma surgeon until the arrival of Richard R. Reynolds who compliments him for helping the little Gabriel to fix his dislocated shoulder and Sofia arrives and gives the little Gabriel some painkillers to relieve the pain. Richard tells Jarod to meet him in his office and eventually gives the player some advice that she has to be flexible and also knows Jarod's faults due to his many experiences on his current field and telling her to get back to work, much to the her dismay. The only thing Richard cares nothing but his business and money and the player asking him why he blames her for her actions. Jarod continues to berate the player before casually walking away. Richard also tells her that it has plenty of cameras all over the hospital to film out the entire scene only for Jarod to save their butts. As Richard leaves, the player doesn't like his remarks however and Camilla informs her about Jarod being the heartbreaker when it comes to women like they do. With Sofia at her side on the way to the cafeteria to see Jarod, they encounter the boy scout leader who drinks coffee due to his stress. He also admits his faults that Gabriel got fling in the van and pulling his arm to get out of the van causes him to dislocate his shoulder. The player tells him that he should call 911 for help as he replied that he already done it but failed due to lost signals in the forest. Sofia tells him to wait the children's parents at the waiting room which he accepts. At the cafeteria where most hospital staffs are present including her, Richard introduces Jarod to the employees and he would show his presentation. Despite his presence, the player remains hostile to him due to his recent actions earlier. Jarod reveals that he is the founder of a non-government organization named "Doctors in All" and he needs most of the staff of the Blue Swan Hospital to volunteer to help him treat the patients within the city of Tabora, the capital of the Tabora region in Tanzania and Jarod also informed them that it was 36% of the population were living in poverty and lack of medical facilities. Jarod also shows both Adrian Walker and Mai Lan Dinh to volunteer to help him on his mission and leaving the rest of the employees to decide to sign up into joining with him in Tanzania in a week. Camilla then convinces with the player into joining to his mission. Due to Jarod's recent actions earlier and her dislike of men, she refused to join him and his mission. Her refusal causes Richard to angrily reprimands her for her conduct before leaving the cafeteria as both Sofia and Camilla were laughing over the player. After the presentation, they meet up with Bubble who wanted to know what's happening in the cafeteria. This reveals both Camilla and Bubble are growing distant which she horribly remarks him for being a pufferfish while walking away. Bubble decided to have a coffee, leading the player to let him join with her at the break room to have coffee and Sofia decided to continue help the patients. Bubble gladly agrees to join with the player and both went to the break room to have a coffee. This is where she tells Bubble about Jarod's presentation at the cafeteria as Mai Lan arrives. Both are also talking about Jarod which the player knew and she was glad that Mai Lan had decided to volunteer in his mission. Mai Lan also reveals that she had decided to join Jarod in his mission when he was spoken to Richard on his office. Since Bubble couldn't come they convinces the player instead who still refuses after what Jarod did to the little Gabriel earlier and decided to remain at the hospital rather than going to his mission. At the dormitory, Camilla also knows that the player keeps denying when Jarod is the topic while she reads in how to take a stomach surgery. When Camilla leaves, the player continues to read until she falls asleep and at the same time, she's having a nightmare with Jarod who attempts to take a surgery on her shoulder against her will. Because of this, the player remains unwilling not to go to Jarod in his mission in Tanzania. Once she gets out, she encounters Andrea who noticed her groggy side. Both laughed upon they converse about Jarod which the player is always mentioning him and her nightmare about him. At this point, Andrea knew the reasons of the player's refusal to go to Tanzania because of Jarod and upon mentioning him when she decided to have a night drink with Mai Lan to celebrate, the player was dismay. Before she can tell Andrea about Jarod, she immediately leaves. While reading the book about the surgery that she can do to her kid patients, she had bumped into Adrian and he knew that the player has potential in her field work. Adrian is also revealed to be promoted as the chief of heart surgeon due to him being a cardiologist and seeing Camilla would love to get more patients involving heart surgeries. Arriving at the O.R. Adrian tells her that she has to follow his lead. The player noticed that Adrian had tried to recruit her because she has potential and it was a matter of time that it was the first time he volunteered to help with the NGOs in Tanzania. Adrian also tells the player about his history with Jarod in Tanzania and it was his home country and knowing of his experiences as the former military doctor and surgeon. Despite the player's joke and protest however when Adrian knew about the incident earlier, Richard and Jarod are present who comes out of the O.R. which he nods at both and leaves to the elevator and Jarod meet up with Adrian and the player. it is revealed that Jarod had been talking to Adrian about the player who bashes over his dislocated patient and the reason of her refusal to go in Tanzania because of this. Adrian eventually leaves to see his patient for emergency, leaving Jarod and the player behind.

Here, this is where Jarod ultimately lectures the player for her action by following the medical protocol of her own and both argue for a moment they glare each other and Jarod knew she would never sign up due to her dislike of him, the player still stares all over Jarod to think he tries to do romantically to her. It was soon interrupted by Sofia and Jarod angrily glares at her one last time before exited to the elevator where Sofia came out. Sofia asks if she interrupted by something which the player lies that she and Jarod are talking about medicine, leaving Sofia to keep it to herself. After the stomach surgery was a success, she takes a warm shower, daydreaming about Jarod's physicality although she showed her dislike of him. After that, she goes to the Great Pretender to meet with Andrea and Mai Lan in her casual outfit while passing to John-Lee's food stand. Arriving at the Great Pretender, she reunites with Andrea and Mai Lan and ordering their likeable cocktails. Mai Lan convinces the player to sign up at Jarod's trip but she politely refuses because she enjoys working at the Blue Swan Hospital and hates to get attacked by wild animals. Andrea also tells the player about her commotions with Jarod to the patient while Mai Lan also reveals that Jarod was fired by Richard after the Gabriel incident knowing he hates to have a bad publicity at his hospital and others who videoed the incident was now streamed in the internet. The player remains her dislike to him despite he lectures her for her personal actions and realizing that he was recently fired from Richard for that incident. They later toasts Mai Lan for her trip until they heard Jarod, Adrian and his foster brother, Bakary Harding are also having a toast, leading the player to make an act on both of them while showing her dislike of men. Andrea also noted her personal actions for being rude to Jarod which she does. But they wanted to know about Bakary when he was with Jarod and Adrian. The player attempts to humiliate Jarod when both Bakary and Adrian are with him, it was backfired since Jarod had told Bakary about her, leading her to speak with him. Bakary is revealed to be a reporter from the Phoenix Daily Tribune as the player thinks he's a doctor like Jarod but he does not know her friend Mindy Clayton. Jarod also tells her that it was Bakary who convinces Mai Lan to volunteer to his NGO organization, Doctors for All and for being his adopted brother. The player remains speaking about the Gabriel incident only for both Adrian and Jarod to laugh it out from her mistakes, leading Jarod to back away. Despite her dislike towards him, she kept gazing his looks and appearance before Mai Lan and Andrea call her for eating snacks to ease up their tipsy state and they talk about Bakary who reveals that he's gonna go on vacation in Tanzania which she decided to remain in Los Angeles. The next day, she was at Venice Beach to ease up her drunken state as Bubble pass her by who practices rollerblading (despite he got accident from skateboarding in his youth). She tries to follow Bubble and also talking about pets and Jarod's Tanzania trip. Bubble also reveals to have a tomcat named Spooky who's gone missing and they encounter a tomcat. The player tries to get it, but fails when it jumps and hissed her. Her curled up posture causing Bubble to laugh at her loudly as the tomcat leaves without a trace. Bubble then tells her they need to keep walking before they struck late at their respective work at the hospital. At the hospital, the player tries to get coffee at the dormitory since it was damaged, she went to the cafeteria to order muffins and coffee from Angelina. Here, she overhears Jarod's discussion about how he treated the seriously injured patients including children who got attacked by wild animals using an improvised first aid. The player initially thinks of Jarod is lying who eventually sees her. Taking the last rounds at the pediatric ward, the player was jealous when Jarod is talking to Olivia regarding about the Tanzania trip and Jarod tries to ask her about his discussions earlier. The player refuses to answer due to unwilling to join with him especially when Olivia glares at her. Sofia then informs her about the patient Milo. At the ward, the player never understands between Milo and his father who was a drunkard due to both of them being deaf and mute and Milo's father tried to explain the player in getting the pliers to get the marble from his stomach, leading her to get panicked and unexpectedly attacked him. Jarod manages to clear up the situation because Milo's father is harmless. Due to the player's actions, Richard arrives at the ward and learning of the commotion between the player and Milo's father for injuring him, he immediately fires her on the spot. The player was distraught for a moment her job was ruined only for Sofia to lift up her spirits because this is her job and she needs to fight it. When she goes to Mai Lan's office, Richard and Jarod were present and the player wanted to keep her job but if he fires her, he does not have an excellent pediatric surgeon which also loses his credibility in his hospital business and Mai Lan defends her from Richard's insults. Because of this, Richard instead putting the player under probation where she has to be retrain with Jarod on his trip in Tanzania for a week or being fired. The player accepts to join on Jarod's mission, much to the latter's protest. Richard also tells Jarod to look after her during her week of training in Tanzania which Jarod begrudgingly agrees and coldly faces the player knowing the danger will ahead of them in his mission.

## Walkthrough

*Jarod Harding/Choices*

*Blue Swan/Choices*

## Trivia

* Jarod is the chosen love interest to be promoted in Blue Swan. The other one is Gabriel Simons during the promotion of Carter Corp prior to the other love interests main routes.
* Jarod is also a parody version of Jin Kazama from the *Tekken* series which also references his live-action counterpart in the flop *Tekken (2010 film)* being portrayed by Japanese-American actor and martial artist Jon Foo.
	+ Interestingly, both men wear karate pants during fights as Jarod only wears this during his practice in karate.
* Jarod's main appearance is based on Casey Bowman the main protagonist of the *Ninja* film series which he is portrayed by actor Scott Adkins.
* He's the second love interest to have a military background, the first one being Jake Stewart.
* He is the oldest human love interest at 33 years old.
* The Is it Love? team had released a survey asking players which character they wanted to see get their own story route one day, which Jarod won.
	+ He should be receiving his own story route in the year 2021.
	+ It's possible that his story route will be a mini-series similar to Mark Leviels and Viktor Bartholy's.
* Jarod's astrology sign is Sagittarius.
	+ Which means his birthday is between November 22 and December 21.
* Jarod is possibly right handed due to his watching being on his left wrist.
* Jarod is the only Blue Swan love interest to get his own full length story route.
* Due to him having his own story route, Jarod has appeared in more secret images than any other Blue Swan character.
* Following the release of his route, Jarod has many references to Gabriel Simons.
	+ Both men are the very first love interest to be introduced in their respective universes.
	+ One of the boy scouts who had a dislocated shoulder shares his forename with Gabriel.
	+ Camilla and Sofia mentioned that Jarod is a heartbreaker which contradicts Gabriel's role from his main story route as a serial romanticist.
	+ The color scheme of Jarod's tank top and jeans from his fourth outfit is the color scheme of Gabriel's fourth outfit which is his casual outfit in the second season of his route.
* In Jarod's second secret image in Chapter 8, where he gunpoints at Roger for his death threats, the scene is taken from the first secret image in the final chapter of Jake Stewart's main story route but at the left opposite direction.
* Jarod's first secret image within the final chapter of his route is shown to be sexually explicit and was controversial due to nudity which is the main reason the FANDOM staffs had sent these bots to removed the picture immediately when it was currently posted which is also followed by its Chapter 7 and mistaking the color of the player's lingerie being in the same skin tone is completely bare. Furthermore, These secret images will be cropped into a cleaner version where their naked body parts has been cut due to censorship as the full version of the secret images would be found on both Facebook or Instagram. The first one getting removed immediately due to censorship is Cameron Cooper.