[disclaimer because this is the piss on the poor era of the internet i am talking about the Show Itself and not any of the surrounding cast member or creator nonsense. i do not support gooseworx and co's actions nor do i really pay attention to creators at large]
this post uses she/her for Jax by defaulkt but idrc what you use in the notes as long as you aren't being transphobic about it :\
tbh the more i think about it the more that i really loved the tadc ending. quinnamon (youtuber) did a fantastic video that goes into the themeing and stuff ! which i highly recommend watching because its peak ! but to cherrypick my favorite part + ramble a little while is that its this
that you have to accept yourself because the aftermath of pushing your feelings down and fighting it hurts not only you, but everyone around you. you have to listen even if it's the scariest thing in the world because if you can't tell yourself the truth then who can you tell?
i disagree with plenty of other things this series did, i think there are parts of the story that are a bit pushed together oddly and the series Did lack consistency and unified storylines overall (in my Personal opinion you should be able to tell who the main character/s are from episode one and the fact that it flip flopped so damn much until gooseworx had to outright Say It is a bit disastrous)
jax's story is told the way it is and ends the way it does is because it is trying to tell you something very powerful and personal to the person who wrote it. Jax is not a good person. She has pushed people away, hurt them, and continued the cycle of abuse she herself was trapped in originally. But this is not the only way that it could have been.
We as the audience are shown one side of her up until the end, and she only lets us see that side. What we see in ep9 does not absolve her actions AND ABSOLUTELY does not justify them, but it does show us why she acts the way she does throughout the series.
We also, at the very end, see Jax's real life counterpart, Lee (or Leeroy but as I remember Lee is used more often by fandom i think). Lee, while not 'out' yet, is already on a much better path towards accepting herself and healing from the abusive household she was priorly in. She can be considered a 'good ending'- but as I stated originally, there is a reason the show does not tell you about her until the end.
Jax and Lee are not particularly opposites but they are diverging paths, and it is so important that Jax's story is focused on because (in my opinion at least) it is forcing the spotlight on what so many people do not want to see.
When transgender youth are oppressed, are told they are wrong, or bad, or ruined for who they are- this is a representation of what can happen. Jax is not justified in her abuse of the other humans but her ultimate abstraction (death/suicide) was just as much a result of the abuse and transphobia she experienced and internalized.
It is meant to hurt, it is meant to make you feel, because TADC did something that you do not see in so many recent show productions and absoLUTELY not in streaming services.
They show you something real, wrapped in a package of animation and (admittedly, sometimes questionable) surrounding plot. Someone who is hurting, who has hurt others, and is not the pretty sanitized rainbow capitalism that so many stories choose to display.
And isn't that beautiful?
general rant down below. sorry im not Quite done yet
I think in general fandom culture we've forgotten the importance of putting your heart and soul into something- and I don't mean in effort, I mean putting a real, specific message into it. Something meaningful, something brave that maybe you've never seen said before.
It's something shied away from, something set as 'cringe' or 'immature' or even 'problematic'- but isn't the whole point of making art to be shocking sometimes?
What would you remember more? Something that played it safe, or a show that for better or worse, screamed to the sky about something real.
Even if it didn't make sense.
Even if (god forbid) it made you uncomfortable.
Especially if it makes you uncomfortable.
There are too many people out there that pride themselves on being 'good' that they forget that so much of the 'great' was made by artists, writers, and more that were not afraid to stand up and create something that actually meant something to them, and stick by it.
After all, you only live on this earth for such a short time.
Why would you waste it trapped in a little glass box?
blakekathryn
titsay
theartofmadeline
2087
origamiaround
romaincrisis
ellievsbear
