I admit I'm gay because I'm attracted to male fiction characters *(although I think that I could be pansexual, but I know that happens MORE often with men).
I'm also aroace and demisexual *(last, from the only time I've ever been in love with someone).
Although I haven't come out the closet in real life... I'm non-binary and use they/it/he *(I'm also comfortable with masculine terms! :)
Happy Pride Month to everyone!!! Don't be afraid to show who you are!!! :D
@belovedwareh @milo-blues @ojwolfy @bichocanibal @t3t0p0w3r @sneolover @starberry64 @mageofcolors @littlelaurendraws @sillyclovess + everyone who wants to join!
iām asexual and a lesbian!! sex gross ew men gross ew (both are less of an āewā and more of a āthe thought of sex and/or being in a relationship with a man makes me deeply deeply uncomfortableā)
iām girlflux and currently prefer they/them. right now iād say like,,, 65% nonbinary 35% girl. itās probably a lot more complicated than that but percentage is the easiest way for me to understand it
Iām Pansexual. I donāt really care who I date. If I like thou, I like thou for thou.
Iām transgender as well, female to male. I go by he/him pronouns though also sometimes it. So almost around he/him/it. Though Iād want people to just call me he/him.
Lately, I've found myself reflecting on the way Ragatha is treated by the show with a fair bit of concern. TADC is no stranger to physical comedy and will often have characters be physically harmed for the sake of a joke but what makes Ragatha stand out is how little the other characters seem to notice or care when she's been hurt. I'm not kidding when I say there is not a single instance of a character standing up for Ragatha against Jax's bullying the way Zooble does for Gangle or Ragatha herself does for Pomni. Hell, Pomni herself has no problem palling around with the guy who shot her supposed friend right in the face and joining on the abuse herself. And all of these instances combined with the fact that we only have one episode left to resolve everything left me wondering if the show really considered these multiple instances of physical abuse as abuse or as one big joke. The characters never seemed to care, so maybe we weren't either, at least that's what I was afraid of...
...and then I remembered something. Something which has given me hope that yes, the show does know what it's doing with regards to Ragatha.
So Ragatha has long been associated with knives-
Her character introduction video depicts her getting a meat cleaver thrown at her head, she gets stabbed multiple times in the show, and official merch frequently depicts her with a knife in some fashion. And in pretty much all these instances, her reaction is pretty nonchalant, implying that being stabbed doesn't cause her all that much pain. Her official pin even shows her happily waving while having a knife sticking out of her! From that, we can glean that it probably doesn't cause her much pain at all. I mean, she's a doll, how much is she realistically going to feel? Besides, she doesn't look bothered. She wouldn't be smiling if it really hurt, right?
Well, about that...
In Episode 8, we get a glimpse of what Ragatha's home life was like following her description of it in Episode 5. We see here her own mother being depicted as a looming shadow and watch as the knives begin moving all on their own, lodging themselves into Ragatha who is not smiling this time. With no one around to be strong for, we see just how much this is actually hurting her. She starts shaking when the first knife cuts through her hand and grimaces in pain with each accompanying one. By the end, she's so utterly paralyzed with fear that she doesn't even register that she's being stabbed anymore.
Now, Ragatha has never stated outright that her home life involved physical abuse and it's pretty unlikely that her mother was launching knives at her every night, so what we're seeing here is almost certainly metaphorical on some level. We're meant to understand that the knives are a visual metaphor for the abuse she experienced at the hands of her mother- regardless of whether or not her mother physically attacked her, Ragatha perceived every cruel word, every harsh criticism, and every insult as yet another stab in the heart. To put it simply, the knives are symbolic of abuse. With that in mind, the previous depictions of Ragatha being stabbed feel quite different now.
Though she's acting like it doesn't hurt, we know now that she does. She feels it.
She felt all of it.
But she's very good at acting like she didn't. Based on what we know of her background, she likely has a lot of practice hiding pain beneath smiles. Because of that, she established herself as someone strong, someone who can handle just about anything thrown her way, and thus someone that the others don't need to worry about. While we know that Kinger, Zooble, and Pomni all care for her, they're all so used to thinking of her as "the strong one" that much of the time they don't even register when she's been hurt, with Pomni and Zooble typically choosing to devote their attention to those they believe to be more in need of it (Jax and Gangle, respectively.)
Whether they realize it or not, this group is extremely dependent on Ragatha's quiet emotional labor. I mean hell, we all saw how awkward everybody got when she opened up in Episode 5! They're all so used to thinking of Ragatha as someone they don't need to worry about that they don't know how to respond when shown evidence to the contrary. And in Episode 8, we see her at her absolute breaking point, no longer able to keep a smile on her face and pretend she's alright for the sake of the group. And from what we've seen of Episode 9...
...she's not looking any better.
I think we've reached the point where Ragatha's strength has finally failed her and she can no longer pretend that what's happening doesn't hurt. Where is this gonna go from here? I guess we'll have to wait and see! For now though, I'm putting my chips in black and saying yes, I think the show knows that what the others (mainly Jax) have put her through is abuse and we are meant to understand it as such.
