I've seen some of your gorgeous art before and I'm curious who Jax is. Is he Jack's twin?
Yes! Jax is Jack’s twin—at least in my AU.
He originally started as the answer to a simple “what if?” question:
I didn’t want to write Jack himself that way because it felt too far removed from the character I love. Instead, I created Jax. What began as a curiosity gradually evolved into something much larger.
The idea was also inspired by the fact that Jack is portrayed by two different performers: Chris Sarandon and Danny Elfman. In my head, Chris represents Jack, while Danny became the foundation for Jax.
Even though they’re playing the same character, I’ve always felt a subtle difference between their performances. Chris Sarandon’s Jack often feels brighter, more theatrical, charming, and openly expressive. Danny Elfman’s singing voice carries a darker weight to it—more reserved, intense, and sometimes almost predatory. Songs like Jack’s Lament, Jack’s Obsession, and Poor Jack reveal a side of him that feels very different from the showman we see during the Town Meeting sequence.
Because of that, I ended up splitting aspects of Jack’s personality between two characters.
Jack inherited the qualities most people immediately associate with him: his curiosity, optimism, creativity, warmth, and flair for performance. In A Shadowed New World, he’s the brother who reaches out first, offers comfort, and approaches the unknown with fascination rather than suspicion.
Jax, meanwhile, inherited the traits that emerge when Jack is challenged or threatened. He’s more reserved, calculating, intimidating, and protective. Where Jack welcomes people in, Jax keeps them at arm’s length. Where Jack wears his heart openly, Jax guards his carefully.
Rather than creating Jack’s opposite, I like to think I divided one character into two halves and asked what would happen if each half became its own person.
In that sense, both Jack and Jax are Jack—just different facets of him given room to exist independently.
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