Hey, TADC Ep 9 spoilers under the cut.
(Disclaimer: he/him for Jax in this discussion. I’m an absolute transfemme truther, but unfortunately Daisy/Jaz/FemJax died in the egg.)
I have THOUGHTS and they’ve been brewing since I saw The Last Act on day one of theatrical release.
My thoughts on the (smaller than I expected when I saw it happen, but larger than it should be) crowd saying ‘why didn’t we get to see Jax abstract?’
We don’t see ANYONE abstract. And I think that’s a good thing. (This might be kind of rambly, fair warning. I’m running on extreme congestion, my second-ever dose of extra-strength Benadryl, and 2 hours of sleep.)
Kaufmo? Nope. Ragatha opens the door and he is already gone.
Queenie? It’s a jump-cut.
Ribbit? Only seen ep 9 once so I don’t fully remember, but once again-we don’t SEE the moment of abstraction, even directly through Jax’s memories (which implies that he didn’t either).
So why should we see Jax’s?
Abstraction is suicide. It’s basically confirmed. ‘I can’t believe Kaufmo just gave up like that.’ It’s talked about like something that is, at least in part, a choice. It’s what happens when you don’t have anything left-when you’ve burned every social bridge, you have no hope, and all you can think about is leaving. That is… about as blatant as it gets, without someone explicitly saying ‘wow, sucks that Jax killed himself.’
Realistically, in a situation like that… most people aren’t there when their loved one does it. They might be in the house or in the neighborhood-hell, I was asleep in the room down the hall when my brother did-but the vast majority of people will not see their person die. They will not even necessarily see the moment that the choice is made. They just open the door and find a body.
Emotionally, it is unsatisfying that we just get a cut and all of a sudden he’s gone. I can agree with that. But at the same time… that’s real. One day they seem mostly fine, maybe even happier than usual-and then they’re not. You don’t get to see it. Don’t get to know exactly what might have pushed them ‘over the edge.’ You can assume-Jax was clearly struggling already, and then to get hit with revelation after revelation about how truly meaningless they are was the final straw. But you won’t ever know.
You’ll just open the door, and your person won’t be there anymore.
(Also, do you actually want to see that? Do you WANT to watch Jax actively give up on everything? Alternatively, do you want another five-minute hallucinogenic sequence in what is already an incredibly packed movie/episode? I guarantee, if they had shown it, people would have been equally upset, although for different reasons.)
Small shoutouts to my favorite beats.
“I wish I had pried more.” -Because you will always regret that thing you said, or didn’t say. The thing you asked, or DIDN’T ask. Most of the time, ‘I’m fine’ doesn’t mean ‘I’m about to commit.’ The one time it does, you’ll regret it forever. Even with no way of knowing.
The fact that Gangle can’t cry for Jax. Because there is no fucking reason she should. Because he has abused her and made her into his plaything for what is apparently her entire existence in this circus, and she probably would have abstracted wayyyy before he did if Zooble hadn’t shown up and genuinely cared about her. And he would have laughed. I could get into my personal experience with this (I do not think I would mourn Trope Boy, for very similar reasons), but I think this is one of those things that just makes sense even without firsthand experience. She wants to mourn him. Even if he wasn’t a friend, someone she spent a lot of time with just died. Someone who, at the very least, Pomni seemed to like. But that almost obligatory mourning is entirely drowned out by relief that she isn’t his fucking toy anymore. And if I see one more person call her cruel for that, I’m fistfighting the entire fandom.
I also actually don’t mind the ending. It’s not a happy ending, not entirely. They’re still trapped. They make the best of it, they seem to find a hell of a lot of fun, but… I mean. You’ve got to imagine that abstraction isn’t a threat that’s disappeared, for one thing. Their lives ARE technically meaningless-the world doesn’t even lose anything if they die, because they’re still out there in the real world! So yeah, I don’t buy at all that nothing bad will ever happen again and abstraction will never be a problem. It’s only a matter of time before someone (my guess would be Zooble, but Ragatha’s also a contender in my mind for reasons I can’t fully explain) finds a new flavor of existential dread to deal with. And also ALL THEIR FRIENDS ARE STILL DEAD.
Thank you for coming to my very unhinged TED talk.
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