The saga of my struggles with FunnyBunny continues on...
And with Episode 7 looming over us, I feel the need to gather my thoughts about it before we're all destroyed next week.
To start with...
The sheer popularity of the Pomni x Jax is incredibly baffling to me.
Like, I can sort of get the idea that the previous two episodes really kicked it into high gear thanks to how surprisingly well Pomni and Jax got along.
And, of course, the sadness when Jax harshly rejected Pomni's genuine offer of friendship.
By itself, the pairing is beautifully angsty and tragic, pretty up your alley if that's your thing.
Unfortunately, FunnyBunny is pretty tainted by a few overwhelming factors.
The pairing is so popular that even some of the marketing for Glitch has gotten in on it.
Even keeping in mind that there will be no canon romances in the show (aside from Kinger x Queenie), I've seen some fans get upset with Glitch pandering to the FunnyBunny crowd, thus betraying showrunner Gooseworx's original intents.
Meanwhile, within the fandom, it seems as though everyone is looking for an excuse to get in on FunnyBunny. Most notably Kittensneeze--she's created two FunnyBunny fan songs:
A cover of Loser Baby from Hazbin Hotel (review later)
A Little Bit Bad, featuring swapped Pomni (Pox) and Jax (Jammi), whom we can call Kittensneeze's own OCs.
This leads into the next section:
Point 2: OOC portrayals of the characters
As everyone rushes to make a bunch of their own FunnyBunny scenarios, they tend to discard the dynamics and characterizations present within the canon of the show.
I am not one of them. In fact, I think some of these shippers are just outright disrespectful towards the canon writing in their FunnyBunny fever.
It's especially a problem for Jax, as he's probably the most popular character in the show as of right now.
Canon Jax is a mentally-unstable man who dehumanizes both himself and everyone else around him to cope with his captivity, and he'd rather enforce his shallow beliefs than form a sincere, positive connection with someone. Not boyfriend material.
The Jax portrayed in fanon tends to dumb him down into a generic "male tsundere" who just needs a little love from Pomni to let his walls down.
I'm a Jax fan myself, and I hate these portrayals because that's not Jax at all. Real Jax fans take him as he's portrayed in canon!
Pomni, the second half of the ship, also suffers from this problem.
People portray her as obsessed with getting Jax to let down his walls, but the truth of the matter is that it's very regressive for her character development, thus turning her rather unlikeable as well.
Why would Pomni ditch her true companions just to try and fix a guy who cruelly turned her down?
The blatant mischaracterization is partially rooted in an especially insufferable reason;
Point 3: Unjust hatred for Ragatha and RagaPom
This one is the sorest point for me, because I love Ragatha a lot. And occuring in tandem with the rise in FunnyBunny shippers, there came an onslaught of people who started unfairly bashing Ragatha just for being in opposition with Jax.
As part of that OOC trend, those haters tend to portray Ragatha as a lot more evil and bitchy than in canon.
The mischaracterization and hatred Ragatha gets also tends to seep into certain interpretations of RagaPom, wherein the canon bond between the two is frivolously accused of having "unfortunate implications", based off of small stuff like Ragatha accidentally treating Pomni like a child. As a matter of fact, I heard about an incident wherein someone was ratioed with a short video claiming that "Pomni doesn't like Ragatha".
It also taints Pomni by association--she cares for both Jax and Ragatha, despite her occassional frustrations with them both. It would be very out-of-character for her to ditch one in favor of the other.
And Ragatha isn't an "obstacle" for FunnyBunny--for all her frustrations with Jax, she feels partially responsible for his bad behavior and she was sympathetic when Pomni visibly expressed concern over him. If nothing else, Ragatha would try to support Pomni and Jax's bond, if not outright get involved in it herself.
This mainly concerns how some FunnyBunny shippers view the other ships involving Pomni and Jax, respectively.
Calling RagaPom and FunnyGummy "boring"? Well, the stuff FunnyBunny turns into in fanon tends to be more whitebread and basic by comparison. And when it comes to RagaPom, it automatically gains a point of interest by virtue of being a wlw pairing that breaks away from heteronormativity, compared to FunnyBunny being a boy/girl pairing.
Calling pretty much every other Jax ship "toxic"? True, but it's not like FunnyBunny is clean and pure itself. It's still a ship involving Jax--as already mentioned above, he's not good boyfriend material in canon. And even if his interactions with Pomni were a lot more pleasant than with Ragatha, Gangle, and Zooble, he still self-sabotages and turns down Pomni without justification.
FunnyBunny hits a weird gray area on the "sliding scale of wholesome vs. toxic"--Gooseworx herself called the bond between the two "messy". And I think a lot of FunnyBunny fanworks fail to hit the mark when it comes to respecting the canon facts of this dynamic--this mostly goes for more canon-adjacent scenarios, since AUs tend to tweak characterizations and dynamics to fit the setting.
This ties into points 2 and 4.
Listen, I know the argument in Episode 6 was tense and sad, but it's not like we can do anything to change that canon detail!
And also, Jax is not a good person, he's so not ready for a "serious" relationship with anyone, least of all Pomni! (Not that it will stop him from being shipped, but still)
Much more alarmingly, with these previews in the lead-up to the new episode coming out next week, there is a possibility that the bond between Pomni and Jax will be further sunk in the future. Kind of cynical, I know, but anything can happen in a show filled with uncertainty.
One last thing, that argument and the ending of Episode 6, where Jax and Pomni had a falling out while Pomni and Ragatha got to reconcile?
It's a pretty perfect parallel of how Episode 5 ended with Pomni and Jax getting along while the bond between Pomni and Ragatha seemed to be in jeopardy, right?
Considering how high-and-mighty some FunnyBunny shippers got after "Untitled", the ending of "They All Get Guns" can be taken as perfect karma for how arrogantly optimistic they got.
To the FunnyBunny shippers who may be reading this, I apologize.
I know not all of you are dismissive and hateful towards Ragatha and the non-FunnyBunny ships.
At the end of the day, FunnyBunny isn't a bad pairing, and neither are the likes of RagaPom, BunnyDoll, and others. We all gravitate towards different things, and I'm sure that FunnyBunny tickled certain spots for it to gain favor among the fanbase.
However, the implications over the exact circumstances behind FunnyBunny's popularity, plus the toxic behavior certain fans partake in, is a big turn-off for me.
I especially know quite a few fellow RagaPom and BunnyDoll shippers and Ragatha lovers who were turned away from FunnyBunny just because of how in-your-face it's gotten lately.
But again, this isn't an attack on the sane FunnyBunny fans. I also know at least one supporter who's expressed shame and insecurity over how toxic the shipping side of things have gotten.
As for my own thoughts on FunnyBunny, I can understand the appeal, but I am a little rigid in how I support it.
Platonic only. Well, all the relationships in Digital Circus are gonna remain strictly platonic anyway, but platonic FunnyBunny tickles my fancy more than romantic FunnyBunny. There's something about a guy and a girl just being a pair of cool best friends, with no romantic feelings whatsoever between either of them, that makes their bond a lot more interesting, don't you think?
FunnyBunnyDoll. I've already made an entire spiel about how I'm a strong Pomni x Ragatha x Jax truther, but even as it stands, I can't imagine a canon-adjacent FunnyBunny scenario where Ragatha doesn't factor into the equation somehow.
This one's a secret... Stay tuned!~
I just felt the need to get all of this off my chest. Agree with me or don't, just don't start an argument in the notes.
