The Amazing Digital Circus is a Trans Narrative (ep. 9 spoilers)
If you didn't get it, you should probably watch I Saw the TV Glow. Either that or you're probably cis.
Jokes aside, the film was perfect. The finale, show, everything. I say that with confidence. The thing to keep in mind is that from the get go it was obviously going to break established rules as far the expectations of the loudest parts of the fandom are. If you're hoping that the finale answers all your questions, you're going to be disappointed. And I wish all of y'all would quit confusing objective criticism with "...but why isn't it telling the story I want it to tell?" And I say objectively criticism cause y'alls focus is so much on plot holes to an obnoxious degree. But here's the thing: a perfect show can have plot holes. They can have unanswered questions. They're allowed to break established rules. That's what makes works like The Amazing Digital Circus peak.
I dunno...I just resonated with the finale in a big. There is a reason why I brought up I Saw the TV Glow. The finale blatantly confirms the "Jax is trans" theory. You see him opening up to Ribbit about his personal life about being made homeless after he cause an accident to happen to his mom. And then Ribbit puts her tie on Jax's ear in am effeminate way, which you can clearly tell he blushes. A moment of gender euphoria that ultimately results in what is the very start of his masking throughout the entire show, making him cut off Ribbit completely without saying a word, eventually leading to her abstraction.
And Jax's arc is told in a way that I can only compare it the main character Owen/Isabel. Jax from the get go of the show was obviously going to be a huge focal point, and it was a focal point that was going to simmer since episode 6. And then the show we got wound up being an Owen-esque cautionary tale of what can happen when you don't accept who you are. Jax was Isabel the whole time, yet we only got to see the masked up Owen side of him throughout the entirety of the show. Guys, The Amazing Digtal Circus is a trans narrative. It's a trans tragedy in a similar way that I Saw the TV Glow is; Jax and Owen rejected the Isabel parts of their true identites. I'm not at all shocked this is the route it took. I haven't even brought up Ribbits personal life she tells Jax, but hers also mirrors a common queer/trans trope in our lives.
Caine got a redemption that feels unearned until you remember what Zooble said in the prior episode (the same one that played right before the finale in the theater). He's not human. You can't pin down the way he thinks. A redemption without any real consequences for him that you'd expect of humans can't be applied to a redemption for an AI.
Outside of the Jax arc, the film focuses on rebuilding the circus after the cast learns that they brain scanned copies of their real world counterparts (in an albeit "blink and you missed it" moment at the very start). And it results in a story beat that I could tell it was telling throughout the entire show. They live in a stagnant, supposedly meaningless world. They could easily succumb to a nihilist mindset, despair, and then abstract. But the gang doesn't do that. They rebuild, and they are all there for each other through human empathy. We saw that with Pomni and Ragatha emotionally reconciling in the finale.
I think stories like The Amazing Digital Circus is trying tell about the importance of having human empathy and rebuilding, and even being there for complete assholes who have more going on in the background are essential. I'm gonna keep harping on about how it is a trans narrative. For many trans, places like the U.S. and U.K. feel stagnant, much like the digital circus. We feel increasingly alone and there's no way out of it. The best thing we can do is be there for each other.
So maybe stop treating it like it's a Disney film if you were a diehard fan of the show the entire time. It's an indie animated powerhouse that also happens to be queer driven. And it ended in the best possible way. That is a huge win.
"We are all in this together"
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