Hello!! I would like to note, that my collage requests are now closed
(sorry)
If you have already recommended something from me, and I haven't done it yet - do not worry! They will be worked on, but after those few in specific are done, I wont be making anymore until my requests are open yet again, or I feel like making some for myself! ^^
(Image below is filler)
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If you are interested you can comment under this post, reblog, or ask in my in box once they do open up once again :D
Its also alright if you've already a requested a character from me, you can ask for multiple when my requests are open :)
(Please note, I do have a preference for characters in the osc, but I can expand out from it!!)
Figured I should get this thought out before Episode 9 airs and watch it age poorly, but to have a character who hasn’t really had any kind of substantial presence in the narrative as the hook to gain viewer hype for the finale is…well, it’s a choice.
My problem with Ribbit is that they aren’t really a “character” so much as they’re just a reason for why Jax acts the way he does throughout the show. That reason being that she abstracted before the events of the story which pushed Jax to adopt the nihilistic viewpoint that none of them are real people, because to acknowledge that would mean he’d have to a acknowledge he actually lost someone he cared about and that makes him feel weak and vulnerable which he hates yadda yadda yadda you the gist, Jax really isn’t complicated.
Now, on a purely superficial level, this isn’t a bad idea. The funny thing is that Kinger has something similar going on with Queenie to opposite ends, where her abstraction would’ve led to him falling into a deep despair were it not for Ragatha literally popping into his life to make him realize there is a point to living even when you think you have nothing because to have at least someone to care about makes it all worthwhile. Kinger’s approach to his suffering is the antithesis to Jax’s and vice versa.
But while Queenie was at least alluded to as Kinger’s wife as early as episode 3, Ribbit didn’t even get visually referenced until episode 5. Which is the midpoint of the series. And didn’t even get named until episode 7 by Ragatha. Hell, if Goose hadn’t mentioned it on Tumblr, we wouldn’t have actually known Ribbit’s (and Queenie’s) name before episode 7!
(Queenie doesn’t get named at all in the show but that’s a whole separate issue)
The problem is that we were pulled through too many episodes before finally being given this pathos for Jax, in the form of a friend that he lost. A friend that we know literally nothing about outside of a name, but apparently is meant to have some kind of importance for Jax’s development.
My issue is that Goose already had a perfectly good character to use if she wanted the audience to feel some sympathy for Jax (Y’know outside of him also being a prisoner of the Circus)…Kaufmo
For as callously dismissive as Jax was during the pilot about Kaufmo’s abstraction, we do actually get to see a reaction from him that was significantly different from the absolute dick weasel image that he’s been trying so hard on establishing for himself. And this was done in the very next episode. It’s like a single frame, but I’d be hard pressed to find a fan who wasn’t pointing this out when the episode first aired.
Remember, before Ribbit was ever a thought in anyone’s head, a good chunck of the fandom was so convinced that Kaufmo and Jax were the bestest buddies just because of this. So the base was already covered.
Kaufmo may not have been a character, but he did have an obvious impact from the very start. Namely he was our introduction to the concept of abstraction, the ultimate terrible threat that can happen because death in the traditional sense is no longer a consequence for those trapped in the Circus. And for being the thread that gets Pomni to see how although she is stuck living with a bunch of strangers who have their own hangups, she can at least take comfort that they will care about remembering her if the worst were to happen. Her existence has meaning to them.
What’s more, even after his funeral, Kaufmo is still being brought up.
Which only adds to how much more significant his inclusion in the story is compared to Ribbit just by having some onscreen meaning for the main character.
Be honest, if Ribbit was removed from the story completely, what would actually change?
The only thing this image added to Jax’s character was mystery. Who is this person that the biggest asshole seems to feel some type of way for? Why doesn’t anyone talk about them? What makes them so important?
And the truth is, they’re not. Because as much as the story wants us to think about them as someone who made a big impact on Jax, who’s important because he’s the narrative foil to Pomni, the only thing she really contributes is more fuel for Jax’s angst.
Which tbh, he doesn’t really need.
The whole jerk who is a jerk because he’s secretly hurting is a trope that is frankly exhausting even if done well. It’s especially not necessary to write a whole female coded character into a story if the only thing she’s there for is being dead and to make a guy not deal with it well.
Jax being someone who chooses to not view anyone as a person because the idea of consequences scare him and being trapped in a virtual reality makes that easier for him to live with until he can physically no longer ignore that consequences can and do still exist no matter how much he wants to believe in the contrary already makes him an interesting character. But if you still needed someone to act as the physical representation of that pathos, again, Kaufmo is already there.
We know more about him because he’s at least talked about by other people. He told bad jokes and he was generally well liked enough by the others that they were sincerely sad that he abstracted. Granted, it’s not a lot, but it’s something.
Going back to my earlier question, you don’t even need to do a lot to replace Ribbit as the main motivation for Jax’s behavior.
If you changed Ribbit’s door to Kaufmo’s in the intermission scene, it would take away the mystery, but it would further emphasize how that look he gave in episode 2 meant that Kaufmo was more important to Jax than he had originally led on. That he’s someone he actually misses. Him being gone is actually affecting him, which would put a wrench in his whole “nothing matters” facade.
If you changed Jax taking Ragatha’s “not anymore” fumble as her alluding to how Kaufmo was the only person he was on good terms with before he abstracted instead of both him and Ribbit, it would make his outburst at Pomni during their fight much more impactful because it’s the second time we’ve ever seen him get that heated, and we can only assume it’s because he feels some kind of guilt for what happened between him and Kaufmo.
And it would explain why Jax was acting so casual about his friend abstracting and nobody calling him out for it, because at that point, him and Kaufmo probably had some kind of falling out before the whole fake Exit Door situation.
It would also give a little more weight to the line “Are you seriously gonna blame me for something everybody else did, too!?”
Yeah, what he’s saying here isn’t true because literally no one has been seen blaming Jax for what happened to Kaufmo. But, Jax’s paranoid ass definitely would’ve taken Ragatha’s statement as a dig against that. “Not anymore” would be taken as not just “you had a friend, but he abstracted”, but also “you had a friend, but you messed that up too”.
(I want to reiterate that Ragatha was not referring to anyone but herself for that “not anymore”, she’s saying even she isn’t gonna call herself his friend, because she’s sick of his shit. Ok? Ok.)
I’m just saying, it would show that he never stopped taking that personally even after she apologized, because it was just the slightest bit of confirmation of his fears that everyone does blame him for what happened with Kaufmo. He’s all about acting like he doesn’t care about what everyone else thinks about him, when the truth is he cares entirely too much.
The fact that Jax puts so much emphasis on himself being “the funny one” despite having a literal clown in the crew not that long ago could be another form of cope because his behavior clearly escalated from being a nuisance to flat out terrible after what ever drama he had with Kaufmo.
Goose could’ve also easily had Jax get up to run out of the hallway after just seeing Kaufmo’s door. Had Kaufmo’s hands and arms come out of the crack in Jax’s bedroom wall. Had just his face all over Jax’s abstraction trip and in the Polaroid picture. And literally nothing would really change storywise.
Honestly, Ribbit feels like they’re just there for aesthetics purposes. I don’t want to make too many assumptions, but the fact that Pomni was originally supposed to be a frog that Goose eventually scrapped for a jester design makes me think that she liked the idea of having a frog character too much to get rid of it entirely so she wanted to squeeze it in the show somehow.
Again, that’s purely speculation on my part, but it is a detail that is hard to ignore.
Im sure someone is gonna make the argument that Ribbit is necessary because they look like Pomni and that’s why Jax is so inclined to be friends with her but also sacred to get close because she reminds him too much of her and what he lost, and honestly that’s a bunk excuse.
People were already making the connection that jesters and clowns are really similar and awarding Jax with the angst filled theories of how Pomni is replacing Kaufmo and that bothers him. Again, before the idea of Ribbit was ever introduced to the show.
Additionally, the main reason Jax has been inclined to be friends with Pomni is because she’s a blank slate. For as much as Jax scoffs at the idea of friendships, he’s clearly a lonely fucker who needs someone to bounce off of. It’s why he drags Gangle along and starts getting huffy when she starts hanging out with Zooble more during adventures. He can’t stand Ragatha, Kinger can’t focus, Zooble can kick his ass, and now he can’t even push Gangle around as much as he wants, so all that leaves him with is the newbie. Who also happens to let him yap without too much judgement. Of course they were gonna be friends, until he had to fuck that up for himself too. The guy is a self fulfilling prophecy.
Maybe the finale will prove me wrong and Ribbit will be a really interesting and crucial character with a personality. But even if that were the case, the show really has not been doing a good enough job to convince me that they are a character worthy of this much mystery and hype.
And if her only purpose really is to be dead just so we can feel sorry for a character that hasn’t really earned much sympathy from me because on top of burning a lot of good will the most he’s done lately is twiddle his thumbs and drag his feet and put the story in a chokehold because it thinks seeing a character wallow in self misery is interesting somehow, well that’s just not good.
I've been thinking of this line from episode six about how Zooble wonders why no one else in the Circus got Avatar Gimmicks, but..... They literally all have an avatar gimmick as Caine essentially confirmed this episode.
Caine says he makes a body perfectly encapsulating their mind files.
I have always said among my friends that Digital Circus's character design is one of the strongest parts of the show and it tells you everything you need to know about the character from the design alone. But their design is quite figuratively baked into the plot.
I will cover the characters and their designs a bit
Kinger's design is fairly straight forward. He is a Chess piece, yes, but he is only one half of a whole and folks who have played chess or know anything about Chess have clocked it immediately. And it makes sense he became this and not something relating to bugs or programing or computer science. Kinger is, well the King. He made Caine primarily. But the King in Chess is one of the weakest pieces yet most important piece on the board. The King is slow, can only move one step at a time, and has to be the one to be protected by the other pieces on the board. The Queen, obviously the more powerful piece and can move in any direction she wishes, but as a result, usually is taken out quickly in order to protect the King. The Game is over when the King can't move anymore and gets taken.
But I'm sure folks know this. What I'm trying to say, is that Kinger being the "weakest" but most important piece is a literal insecurity of his character.
We can infer a lot from his dialogue but I think it's obvious Queenie isn't a programmer or didn't work for C&A and wasn't supposed to be here. Kinger even in episode six says that he hated himself for the things he believed he was responsible for. To say he felt "useless" without his Queen I think is an understatement. Which makes sense he would take the form of a Chess Piece. He is the most important piece, but also... the most useless, and we have seen him extremely aware of that fact.
Even as early as episode 3 when we are introduced to the multitudes of Kinger, he knows that he is more or less useless in the light, even if he tries to be helpful, like warn the gang about Abel in episode 7, or just keep the bucket on his head as long as it takes for him to have a lucid thought. The surviving King piece with no chess pieces. The Strongest, but the most worthless.
Ragatha has been fairly obvious to me. She's a Rag Doll. One to be played rough with, and as Jax says "torn up every other adventure" Made to take the hits and absorb them. Her digital manifestation chose this form like so many other things in her life as a defense mechanism. Like if she just takes the abuse and makes everyone like her then everything will be fine.
Even in the digital Circus like everything in her life, her mother also is a major influence over her manifestation. Just absorbing all the hits and trying to control the energy in the room and hoping everyone will like them. Her avatar can take the brunt of so much physical abuse because she took the brunt of so much mental abuse so her mental manifestation would reflect that.
Get your Jax Toy, get a little laugh boy.
I love this torment scene. The whole torment scene of the cast is probably my favorite sequence in the entire show. Jax being revealed down to his barest essentials and people laughing at that person, not just people, but the three people who he knows can see through his thin facade. his rabbit skin is paper thin, but there's also something to be said for Jax's design avatar as it is, unpeeled. If you want to go with that this is a nightmare sequence and it doesn't count as his "true form" or whatever.
The thing about Rabbits... They're ultimately prey animals And throughout the show Jax has been painted as the Asshole, the scamp, the bully the cruel one, the violent one... But he is a Rabbit.
A very highly anxious social species, that can be timid as well as bold.
Not just that Jax is sad cus he lost his friends and also pushes those away... but that HE was the one who lashed out at Pomni, not the other way around, and HE's the one who ended up getting hurt the most by the fight. He was the one who hurt himself.
"you are my playthings" ....Sure Jax, from episode 6 onwards, you're the one who is like......Clinically depressed over pushing the one damn person who had a chance of being your friend and you know that.
Time will tell if "peeled Jax" is his true form and that was his avatar gimmick, and I kind of really hope that that is the case, but even if it isn't. This asshole being a Rabbittoid Avatar makes so much sense to me.
And it took me awhile to wonder why Pomni's physical manifestation was a Jester. Like, why could that possibly be the case, but rewatching the show it hits you all at once.
Pomni even says people feel like that ('nothing') where she's from... sounding like she speaks from personal experience. While Pomni has a high emotional intelligence, and a deep compassion for people it's pretty clear that she was in a line of work where that doesn't play to her strengths at all. She was an accountant for a supermarket chain.. a nobody, or... saw herself as a nobody. Or someone that had to keep their head down and not speak up. That her life had really little meaning outside of the circus.
So, her manifestation as a Jester is a bit ironic and cruel that she would take that form. Because it's one thing clear about Pomni throughout the entire show.
Literally gonna start sobbing don't do me like this 😭😭😭 I love an appreciate you too, friend 🥹🫶
I gotta call out my beloved mooties 💜 @chancloud8, @brbwritingfanfic, @lazyfacecowboy, @thatgirlangelb, @sh0dor1, thank you all for talking to me and letting me yap and supporting me so much all the time 🥹 You make my world a brighter place, and I'm so glad to know you 💜💜💜💜💜
@abovethemoon333 @morairtea221 @identitycroissant-tm @rosemelodyshah @oxythemoronisback-deactivated20 @apazwtsn @dragonoftheshadows @i-eat-rusty-nails @br35ch @do--not--you-dare and all the other moots of mine i forgot the names of <3
@shenanigan42 @pixelchasm @mokabom @justcallmedom31 @thesightofthestarsmakemesmile @the-holy-ghost-offical @sentientbisexualflag @slowwalkingbisexualgirl @southasiandisaster @coquette-corpsie @cranberry-branflakes @im-on-earth-dipshit @im-the-dead-girl-in-the-pool @auddieee @ash-cherryblossom @a-dam-tris-prior-fan @do--not--you-dare (i know u just tagged me but u deserve extra love coz ur amazing and ty for the spamlikes)
Literally all my moots here y'all are great but to name a few...
@immadatdisney2 @i-put-the-hyper-in-hyperfixated @thatboleyngirl77 @that-one-introvert-theater-kid @rain-rains @theshadowyalchemist @pal-the-theater-jester @theoretically-writing-fics @alliterationless-andyxox @humblefryingpan @dragon-lover444 @hugosaysfuckyou @milo-nelles @ineedmorevat7kinmylife @cabin13winion @viddles-is-a-nerd @toasty1snake andddd anyone else I missed because ik I don't interact with some of you that much but you're still cool :)
I know I've either met some of you recently or don't talk to you much, but I still really care about you guys and think about each and every one of you quite often, actually, and how I wish I could talk to you again/ more. But, uh, yeah :3
honestly gonna tag a ton of my moots I know we don’t talk but you guys are so lovely
@zombie-virus @toothintheeyesurgery @auroratheicerain @theshadowyalchemist @gaydeadkid (counting you as a moot bc you were so sweet when we talked) @ceriatelier @the-heart-anon1 @needles-pines @mrwilliamsherlockscottholmes @ribbitingconversation @1jackmerridew
@theduckwithafroghat @whimsyceo @h0bbes-is-c000l @evskiii @iliketoeatair @calliopethepoet @reeeecce @cimacally @merrychristmas-pleasedontcall @this-mutant-kid @neil-perrys-suicidal-tendencies @nicoandthepoets @clodyghost and all my other mooties<3
@sobredunia @brightstarblogs @marcylienes @jominikmysterio @bardthestoner MAN I HAVE SO MANY MUTUALS IF UR MY MUTUAL AND YOURE SEEING THIS I LOVE YOU DEARLY
tags: (LONG ASS LIST 💔💔) @witch-oftheflowers, @cryptidwrestling, @faceless-inthecrowd, @silassstingy, @terrortwinunicorn, @twist3dtinkerbell, @officermaddie23, @lampbasket, @oswaldtheluckywolf, @bat-phantom, @starsndaggers, @inky-da-dinky, @a-raccoon-perhaps, @ludwigkaiserfan, @punk-o-ween (>> I WOULD TAG MAIN BUT I FORGOT WHAT THE TAG WAS IM SO SORRY 💔💔), @orwellianwiress AND ANYBODY ELSE I LOVE YALL SO MUCHHH 😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘
((Idk a lot of y’all outside of your rp blogs sorry))
@dollshards (fork found in kitchen ik bc we talk all the fkin time but still ILYSM YOU’RE LIKE MY FAVORITE PERSON HERE!!!!) @lightningstruckdispatch @shadedinks @a-raccoon-perhaps (get tagged back bitch/silly) @patterned-kidneys (Ik they’ve been gone for a while but I don’t care hugs and kisses kidneys!!!) @your-local-therapy-angel @therealestheadarchivist ((honorable mention bc I think you’re cool))
All of you guys are are so sweet and I love hanging out with you guys!!! Hugs and kisses from Juno for all <3
[[Oh, how wonderful. Thank you for tagging me in this.
Spread the love, guys.]]
@goodluckmikewheelerrr @shinieevie @gay-horror-enthusiast @here-for-the-vibe I can remember you off the top of my head because I actually talk to you guys... tagging people is hard..
Oh @annicishana , @beau-the-one-and-lonely @myosotis-elinora @thatoneanon20 @erlkonigstochter @i-love-my-gays @randomfruit666 @i-eat-asphalt @abyssiot @alex-fish-art @naut-of-the-cosmos @sixeritwouldeatyoualive @awkwardlyexistinginacorner
[[aahh and everyone else who sees this.. love yall tooo.. I'm tired of typing tags I'm so sorry]]
@randomartist-draws-stuff, @cheesecrackers24, @mooncakes-and-cacti, @strongest-soldier-jyl, @moonrose252, and any of my other moots!! You all are amazing /gen
