#jax rambles

[femlich2233]

*this is a re-upload, previous one got flagged for no reason.*

Okay I'm bored so I'm making yet another comprehensive transfem jax analysis because I am mentally ill. Okay, so. Let's start with Jax's character design, a purple rabbit. Purple is associated with femininity.

rabbits are associated with fertility.

Jax being transfem makes him being a purple rabbit make a lot of symbolic sense. Not to mention he's a play on bugs bunny, a cartoon character that is well known for crossdressing. Also, each of the characters avatars represent insecurities. Pomni wants to be taken seriously and she's a jester. Zooble has gender dysmorphia and they have body parts they can change and swap out. Ragatha is literally a punching bag, and gangle is constantly wearing a mask and has no backbone. Jax's avatar is a prey animal. I think this symbolizes Jax's hidden fragility and fear.

Okay, now that we have his base character design out of the way, let's go over the evidence contained within the show chronologically.

Let's start with his mannerisms in episode one. He walks with his hand on his hip, swaying slightly. He's basically strutting like he's walking down a catwalk or something.

Later on in the episode, despite not having any nails, he still makes the gesture of looking at his nails.

Shortly after that, we have a very interesting moment with him where he says "ladies first", and then gets on the escalator himself.

Episode 2 and three don't have very much evidence for transfem jax aside from his effeminate mannerisms. If anyone has anything on these episodes, that information would be very useful in really making this theory indisputable. Anyway, onto episode 4, where there's two things I want to focus on. First, jax's name tag says "I don't care" which, for any trans person, is mood af

There's also just how apathetic and depressed he is during the entire adventure. I think the fact that it was reminiscent of real life was part of why he hated it so much. Jax definitly has serious issues with reality. We'll circle back to this later.

Now, onto episode 5, where the evidence really starts taking off. Let's start with the stargazing part. Jax says his ears and tail are the pinnacle of masculinity. Sarcastically insisting that you are masculine is very transfem coded. But the real interesting part is what happens next. Right after he insists that his tail is representative of masculinity, he finds his tail is missing. This could be symbolic of him missing something inherent in terms of masculinity. "This tail proves that I am a man," and them the tail is gone. We'll circle back to this in a bit.

Now, onto the bar scene. Jax makes several comments about zooble's previous jobs. These comments are obvious references to lesbian and nonbinary stereotypes. The question is, why does *Jax* know about the "lesbian bartender" stereotype? It's a fairly niche thing that most straight people aren't privy to. With how drunk Jax is, I feel like this is him slipping up and accidentally exposing a deeper knowledge of queer things than he lets on.

Also, the fact he has beef with the only other trans person in the circus that we know of is interesting. (Yes zooble is trans. If you try to pull that "well they only use any pronouns because they don't remember their original gender" shit I will stab you with a rusty knife.)

[zebracorn-chan]

I guess we have an answer now. 😭

[stilldreamingstillstuck]

My biggest issue with Jax is that we were lore baited until the finale (episodes 5-8) on his backstory, and so the scenes of him panicking and being sad/stressed become repetitive and useless after a certain point. If the other characters had a more detailed backstory/motivations then I would not be as resentful of jax

[erraticrabid]

Zooble is trans and non-binary. Him making fun of Jax in the maid dress with “I thought you’d like this” would be cruel if he knew Jax was dysphoric about it, and we sure as hell know Zooble understands how painful dysphoria is.

No, no…triggering that wasn’t their agenda. The point was to mock and humiliate Jax, to show him how he makes Gangle and Ragatha feel daily. It was to give him a taste of his own medicine. Jax’s worst fear is the complete loss of control: control over his presentation, his body, his emotions, himself. He wears his “goofy asshole” persona as armor because it reminds him that he has some degree of agency, at least until Caine brutally shatters that illusion. Bullying and humiliating women who won’t stand up to him makes him feel in control. It makes him feel more masculine and he relishes that. So he disassociates from reality, puts on a mask and pretends he’s not emotionally affected by the horrors of digital seclusion. He directs all his dissatisfaction and anger outward at people who won’t fight back. And he knows it’s fucked up, that it’s not sustainable, that it’s tiring to constantly put on a show. That’s why abstraction is so alluring. It offers him a chance to be free of this miserable existence, because he’s spent too much time cultivating this persona to just let it go and live.

“I’m just a misunderstood little chicken fetus in an egg that needs to be cracked open”

I think he was once a fragile little thing…I think he was an egg, but after coming out as male, he completely distanced himself from feminine interests and presentation. He views the pain he’s experienced as a result of vulnerability and addresses it by overcompensating. Traces of his past linger in his childhood bedroom. It comforts him and it angers him that it comforts him, because he fights so hard to be seen as a man and conform to his narrow idea of masculinity. He’s so insecure that being true to himself threatens his manliness. Tragically, Jax broke out of his shell only to gnaw at the bars of a self-imposed cage.

[jaxx-talks]

OOC: cuz I'm bored and have nothing better to do

The day after their talk zooble walks up to Just wanting to chat but also not really knowing what to say.

Hey jax..

@mixnmatch-zoobs

Hey, Zoobs.

Jax says simply, looking at Zooble as they walk in.

You need something? Or you just wanna chill?

[xlaira]

A ramble on why Jax won't abstract in the next episode

I'm compleately ignoring all his death flags and foreshadowing about "people close to abstracting are not pleasant to be around" just so I can cope with the new official teaser:

It'd be too predictable

The previous episode focusing on him and his relationship with our beloved mc Pomni, inevitably caused everyone who has ever seen any show with side character death, anxious.

It seems like every interaction in the last 10 minutes of the episode, made sure we knew how unstable and unhappy Jax was, and although we can't really blame him since he's basicaly in captivity like all the other unhappy characters we have in the cast. It felt intentional.

As if it was deliberatly put right in front of our faces, with the closing of episode 6 being the damn panic attack Jax had.

While it could be so his death hits us harder, I don't think this is the path we are gonna go simply because it would be way too predictable, and TADC has been anything but predictable all this time.

His character arc is far from over

This one is pretty self explanatory.

He hasn't realised they are still human. Even with all this pixelated bullshit Caine is forcing them through, the absolute body horror they must be having, and the toons logic of the circus. He is human. The things he says and does are effecting other peoples lives! He is making a difference wheter it's good or bad, it's important that he knows he matters. More than just an archtype of the comic relief character. And he simply hasn't yet.

He has apologies he owes, shit he must own up to. Killing him off just halfway into his developement would be unsatisfactory for the story, and at least to me. And it doesn't seem like we are speedrunning his arc in anyway so all of that and his abstraction isn't happening all together in the next episode. It better not I will cry.

We aleady know Goose is good at misdirection

Remember the start of the physical fight between Jax and Pomni?

"We were never friends," dramatically points her gun towards his face. "Do it."

With Pomni turning her back to Jax and looking at her gun trying to decide something, her face grim. When the camera cut to Jax so we could see his reaction to whatever Pomni decided to do, it felt like a moment just before something drastic happens, which it did sure.

However it wasn't the first think most of us thought was gonna happen. Can you tell me you didn't think she was gonna shoot herself just to prove to Jax that he cares about her.

(And i absoulutely love that Pomni attacked him instead of killing herself trying to prove a point. We need to see more of "violent desicion made by women that wasn't towards herself" It was a great suprise.)

Anyways the point is, this teaser wants us to think Jax is a goner this episode so bad. Why are they trying this hard? It makes me hope think there is gonna be a twist!

Gooseworkx said herself that she sometimes lies

Why would you post not one but TWO photos of Jax alone in the dark huh? And he looks dead inside in one of them. I know the shots are official but they can be misleading, for example it might just be a flashback perhaps from ribbits abstraction. Do you see where im going with this?

I get that this is gonna be a Jax centric episode but there are other things we are looking forward in ep 7. Ragatha and Pomni's promised talk, or whatever the next adventures gonna be about. What about teasing those parts of the episode?

Since I dont even want to see him slightly upset, seeing him like this again and again and again feels like it's being forced down my throath. And that makes me hope Goose might just be stirring the pot for some fandon drama and good Jax angst.

Overall I'm probably just a dramatic fan trying to cope with the death flags of one of my favs. BUT WHAT IF!

What if im right?

Let me know what you think?

[idontbrain]

I thought about the buttons scene a lot since the episode, especially because I don't quite believe in the Caine theory. I mean, I do think it's possible he pushed Jax over the edge, but even in that case I believe a lot of it was still just... Jax. Ignoring that theory tho: I have seen people that think Jax acted purely selfish, because he was scared to go back, and others that think he acted on impulse. I think two things can be true at once.

While it does seems like Jax doesn't want to leave, he still made the final decision in a state of blind panick.

He was already on the edge from the start of the episode, we know that very well. When Pomni explained what Abel said to them, he just handed them the keys and tried to go back in his room, he didn't even thought to go with them before Pomni asked him to.

He did helped them, sure, and he was quite invested in doing his part (going even beyond that by doing Zooble's part), but he didn't seemed very interested in the idea of getting out, per se. Probably, at that point, it didn't even sinked in for him that they were close to leaving, that it was actually happening. He treated more like an adventure up to that point.

When Zooble asked if he didn't have someone out there too, his brain took a moment to pause and be like "Holly shit, this is not an adventure, this actually might be real. Do you remember reality, Jax?". And we all know Jax loves nothing more than to run from reality.

Despite this fact, I want to point out that he wasn't trying to stop or sabotage them. He was growing increasingly more uneasy as they approached the room with the buttons, but he did nothing. Something out there scared him enough to prefer to stay trapped in the circus until his inevitable abstraction (that at this point even he knows it's pretty close), but he did nothing.

He then entered in a very time pressing, atmosphere heavy room.

Nonetheless, I believe that even if he had more time to think before he got in the room, he would have made the same decision, simply because Jax doesn't know how to deal with his own panick. His only chance of actually considering both decisions would have been if he confronted head on his own fears, but that required both time and a strength that at this point Jax simply lacks. At this point in his life, the only way he wasn't gonna press the red button would have been if there was less time to consider pressing the red button. And I believe he was quite aware of that too, at some level.

I think he tried his best to not think about it. I think he hold himself together as best as he knew how in that moment. I think Jax wanted to want to go back, so he tried to not think about all the reasons not to go back, but the moment he got a second alone with his own thoughts (in a very stressful environment, I might point out), that strategy went down the drain in a matter of seconds.

The argument between Pomni and the others simply allowed him just enough time to go from "building the panick in interior" to "breaking into panick on the outside".

And then, they found out it was, in fact, just an adventure.

And some people said he was laughing after because he revealed to the others that he would rather have them all suffering than confronting reality, all for nothing. But I wanna debate a bit on this take simply because he never had a problem with the others viewing him as the villain, to the point I would argue he actively seeks out to make them think the worst about him. Jax might said he's the funny one, but he goes out of his way to make the rest believe he's the villain.

I believe that in that moment, more than everything, he revealed to himself that he would rather die in that circus than confront reality. I think Jax just started to realise how pathetic he was and how he would have taken everyone down with him because of it. And all. for. nothing.

Or, yk, because Caine decided to play with them the "who you love more, mommy or daddy?" game, except mommy is a fucking kidnapper and daddy the abstract concept of freedom.

This was, all-around, just a very fucked up situation, happening to very fucked up people.

[jax-ofalltrades]

I want all of my followers to be aware that I have booked tickets for Iron Lung on release and I will Not Be Normal about it. I'll tag any spoilers if I do post them (not likely) but also I'm very open to having chats about it when it comes out o7