Jax is good trans rep, just not the kind people are used to.
I think when a lot of people think of positive queer representation, they want to see the character happy or grow into their identity. Which is extremely valid, we all want to see people like us get the good ending. But a character having a "bad" ending (within the universe, not necessarily from a writing pov) can still be good representation, even if its not a happy one.
Jax is a cautionary tale, she's what happens when you don't accept yourself. The most extreme example of self hatred and dysphoria and how those internalised feelings can then affect your treatment of others. Goose (the creator and a trans woman herself) even said that Jax is heavily inspired by the worst parts of her.
Jax being trans doesn't excuse his actions, but the show never tried to say that anyway. Gangle is conflicted in feeling she should mourn him but yet is still allowed to hate him, she's not expected to forgive him just cause he's abstracted. Nor is Zooble, who is perhaps more understanding of what Jax went through as someone who is trans themselves and is shown to clock her discomfort with gender expression. They are still angry. He is not forgiven.
Pomni and Ragatha are the most forgiving because they were the closest thing Jax had to friends at one point or another, and even they do not attempt to excuse her behaviour- not even pomni with what she learns. She is more upset that she couldn't get through to her and help, but doesn't try to argue when Jax says he is a bad person.
With Leeroy still being alive and out there, we see that things do get better and that (s)he? Can improve with the right mindset and friends. Leeroy continued to live, given the chance to accept who she is.
Jax however, stayed stagnant. He trapped himself in the mindset that nothing matters and theres no point in trying. He never got to learn what happened to his mom, if things got better, if the people he knew back then would accept who she really is. Everything remained internalised. And when Ribbit tried to open those wounds, he doubled down. Shoved everything soft and weak down into the back of his mind and tried to put on a new aloof personality.
And whilst the Jax we meet is cruel, its clear that switch wasn't over night. He didn't become mean just cause, but he kept putting up more and more walls. And when Ribbit died, he did as much as possible to push everyone else away.
This sort of self-hating turned projection isn't uncommon in closeted trans people. You feel othered and different, you have to convince everyone around you that you can fit in, that everyone else is the problem.
Jax in particular is a good example of toxic masculinity and internalised misogyny. We see in the way he speaks about his parents that he was once a much more soft, open person. But the pressure to be more of a "man" than his dad, and to not be weak affected his mindset and the expections he placed on himself. Especially given his mom's reaction to him coming out, seeing being feminine as a weakness and failing.
It does not ever excuse his behaviour, but it does show Why he may act this way. And in the end he does admit it did nothing good. He was so scared of what would happen, he retreated into the idea of the digital world as a safety blanket. Nothing was real, no one he hurt was real. His feelings weren't real. It's a very "its not that deep" sort of deflection.
Jax shows what happens when you don't allow yourself to grow, when instead you retreat into yourself and the way it makes you bitter. Self hatred corrupts, it makes you cruel.
Whereas Leeroy is what happens when you do get that chance. Jax was too late and it destroyed him.
(I'm sorry if this made less sense further on, I have heat stroke and am still barely surviving the heatwave rn anyway so I'm a little frazzled)
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