Gangle is crying actual tears here.
Like, the mask isn’t just being used to represent her sadness, she’s crying for real. She’s feeling such a wide spectrum of emotions that they literally cannot be contained and are spilling out of her.
Compare this to how they usually look when her ComedyMask is broken.
Even at the beginning of the episode, we see that the teardrops are still just clinging to the corner of her eyes. Which made them feel more ornamental than anything.
But when we see her shed tears after Jax get’s put into the makeshift tent, they fall more organically.
They’re flowing, they’re heavy, there’s actual physics at work here to show how liquid should move down someone’s face.
“How are you supposed to like the part of yourself that just makes you worse than everyone else?”
Gangle seemed to have struggled a lot with having to mask her depression back in the real world (to the point where it’s implied she may have unsuccessfully attempted suicide). It’s a lot of pressure to maintain a positive attitude when most of the time you’re not feeling great on the inside, especially when you’re forced to work in a thankless customer service job like fast food. Which is what makes Gangle’s ComedyMask being so fragile such a personal insecurity for her, because it’s almost mocking how bad she is at hiding that part of herself. The part of herself that just wants to breakdown and cry.
And the thing about crying is that it’s not inherently a bad thing. In fact, it can be extremely beneficial for a person’s health. But when you are treated badly for doing it, when you are made to feel lesser for when it happens, you treat such a natural and human response as you being at your worst.
Which is what makes Zooble approaching Gangle after her breakdown to remind her that, despite only being scanned copies of real people
Not just to affirm Gangle that it’s ok for her to feel so much (potentially not very positive emotions) about what they’re doing for Jax, but also for her to take it as proof that they are human.
“It’s the part of you that’s real.”
Gangle needed someone to assure her that her messy heavy tears are not a mark of someone weak. That she’s not worse for letting them fall. And until she can learn to love herself wholly (and she has plenty of time to learn), she can rest assured that she has someone who does.
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