u/Far-Bad-3719

Hey everyone. So I recently found out that Pathologic 3 came out, decided to see what people were saying about it, and ended up on this subreddit.

I played the original Pathologic when I was a teenager, and obviously played Pathologic 2 later as well. But I was never really an active part of the fandom. Back then, pretty much all of my interaction with the community was with Russian-speaking players on VK and similar places.

I only started using Reddit regularly after moving abroad, mostly as an extra way to practice my English.

So when I found this subreddit, I saw some polls, posts, fanart, discussions, etc., and one thing genuinely surprised me: there seems to be a pretty large queer audience around Pathologic.

And now I'm curious what exactly about Pathologic attracts so many queer fans?

I know there are a few bisexual characters, and I know that the Haruspex and the Bachelor are kindred souls. But, at least from how I remember the games, that was never a particularly strong or central part of the story, and most of it was in the first game anyway.

So I'm wondering if there are some themes in the games that resonate particularly strongly with queer players and that I simply never noticed.

Or did it just happen naturally? Maybe some queer bloggers or content creators introduced the games to their audiences at some point?

This is not an attack in any way. I'm genuinely just curious.

(And why are we all still shipping the Haruspex and the Bachelor after Pathologic 2? Or did Pathologic 3 develop their interactions into something deeper?)

No, seriously, what is this obsession with the word “media literacy”? Where did this trend even come from?

The funniest part is that fandoms built around genuinely complex works usually don’t spam this phrase nearly as much. People who discuss BoJack Horseman, The Sopranos, Watchmen, Disco Elysium, Tarkovsky’s films, Twin Peaks, and so on somehow don’t reduce every disagreement to “you have no media literacy.”

They actually dig into references, lore, history, themes, writing, visual language, and different possible interpretations. And, most importantly, they are usually able to admit that a work can have problems with its plot, pacing, direction, or execution of its ideas.

But here, it feels like everything has turned into people repeating the same few arguments over and over again:

“You didn’t understand, this show is about finding meaning in a stagnant life.”

“You didn’t understand, this show is about the characters.”

“You didn’t understand, Jax is a trans woman.”

Yes, guys. We understood. Everyone understood.

The problem is not that people “didn’t understand” the show. The problem is that the show doesn’t properly develop any of these themes.

The presence of a theme in a story does not automatically mean that the theme is well-written. The presence of symbolism does not automatically make something canon, and it still leaves room for interpretation. And the existence of authorial intent does not automatically protect the finale from criticism or from people having different expectations, especially when the creators themselves keep adding fuel to the fire of those expectations.

Let me say this right away: I am not judging anyone. These are just my subjective thoughts, and I do not want to offend anyone. I am not against people reading Jax as a trans character if that interpretation feels meaningful to them or reflects their own experience.

But if we talk specifically from the perspective of writing, storytelling, and how this idea works inside the show, I do not like this twist.

I do not dislike the theory, or almost semi-canon interpretation, of trans Jax because the topic itself is bad. I dislike it because, specifically in Jax’s case, it feels unnecessary. It does not strengthen his arc, it does not explain his main problem, and if anything, it adds even more unanswered questions to the character.

For me, the main question is not whether Jax can be interpreted this way. Of course he can. The question is: why does his story need it?

If you remove Jax’s transness from the plot, almost nothing changes. He simply becomes a cis guy with fragile masculinity, heavy family trauma, and serious psychological issues. His shame still works. His desire to appear like a “real man” still works. His fear of weakness still works. His conflict with his parents still works.

Even if his main issue is gender non-acceptance, his worst actions inside the circus do not become any clearer because of it.

And that, in my opinion, is the main problem.

Jax in the show is not just a person who does not accept himself. He is not just rude, sarcastic, or a traumatized guy with a fake smile. He acts like a sociopath. He systematically torments the people around him, presses on their weaknesses, uses their pain, and often shows almost no empathy.

He literally throws his former friend into boiling oil while fully knowing that the characters can feel pain.

And the story never really explains that level of cruelty.

The theme of suppressed identity can explain shame, denial, a hypermasculine mask, and fear of acceptance. But it barely explains why Jax became so cruel specifically toward other people. And that is his key problem as a character. This is not even counting his detachment from reality as a psychological coping mechanism, which also deserved an explanation.

That is why I think the show chose the wrong focus.

In my opinion, it would have been much stronger to make his mother the real center of his trauma. Not transness, not self-acceptance, not gender struggle, but the moment where his self-perception fully starts breaking because of his mother and what happened between them.

If the story had gone further and made Jax actually kill his mother — not just by pushing her, but with his own hands, for example by strangling her, as a reference to the scene inside Jax’s head and his sociopathic alter ego — that could have become a much stronger foundation for his psychological state. Yes, it would have removed the happy ending for Leroy, but it would have given the story much more drama and cause-and-effect logic.

Then his cruelty in the circus would not read simply as “he is traumatized” or “he is suppressing himself,” but as the behavior of someone who once crossed a terrible line and now has no idea how to live with it.

That could have explained his aggression, his fear of intimacy, his need to turn everything into a joke, his constant emotional distance, and his strange relationship with other people’s pain. Not justified it, but explained it.

And it would have worked much better in his conflict with Ribbit.

If Ribbit had found out what happened, gotten scared, and slightly pulled away from Jax, that would have become a real trigger for him. Not because she “betrayed” him in some basic way, but because she saw in him what he feared most: a monster, a dangerous person, someone who can destroy even the people he loves.

Then his later distancing from her would have felt much more convincing. His refusal of forgiveness would also have worked better, because it would not simply be connected to him “not accepting himself,” but to the fact that he himself does not believe he can be forgiven after something like that.

That, in my opinion, would have been much more interesting.

The fragile masculinity theme could still have stayed as a secondary subtheme. The father, the mother, the pressure, the male role, fear of weakness, the pink room, the maid outfit, the desire to seem like a “real man” — all of that could still remain part of Jax. But it did not need to become the center of his arc.

And honestly, the trans theme could have been removed entirely. Not because it is bad by itself, but because this specific character simply does not need it.

With such limited runtime, it is an extra layer that is not fully developed and only adds new questions. Why is this important specifically for Jax? How is it connected to his cruelty? Why should this be the main part of his internal conflict? Why is it more important than his guilt, his mother, his relationship with Ribbit, and what he does to the people around him?

The show does not really answer these questions.

And that is why, when the story acts like Jax’s main problem is self-acceptance, it feels strange.

Because, dude, no. Even if you accept yourself, you are still someone who hurt other people. Your gender, orientation, or suppressed identity does not explain or justify the way you treated others.

You are literally a cartoon rabbit in a digital circus where there is a ribbon with masks, a character made of body parts, and a chess piece with a crown. Introduce yourself however you want. The problem is not that there is no one to accept you. The problem is that you act like a psychopath in almost every episode.

And if the story wants me to take that seriously, it needs to explain that.

In the end, Jax as a character starts falling apart because of the number of themes placed on him. He has family trauma, guilt, self-hatred, fear of acceptance, fragile masculinity, possible transness, detachment from reality, masks, archetypes, cartoonish behavior, and an almost sociopathic attitude toward other people.

All of this is potentially interesting. But almost none of it is fully developed.

That is why I think, with such limited runtime, the story should have chosen one strong center for his personality. For me, that center should have been his mother, his guilt, his refusal of forgiveness, and the way his self-perception started breaking after that.

This would have directly connected to his behavior in the circus. It would have explained his conflict with Ribbit. It would have made his cruelty more understandable. It would have given his finale more tragedy.

But the trans twist, as it is presented now, does not feel like a necessary part of his arc to me. It feels like an extra layer that the character does not actually need.

Maybe it is a Gooseworx self-insert. Maybe the show was primarily written for a non-binary or queer audience. Maybe it works much better for people with similar experiences. Either way, to me, these are just excuses for weak writing and bad focus. There is no such thing as a story that some people “just cannot understand.” Diane and Princess Carolyn from BoJack Horseman work no matter who watches the show.

Not because the theme itself is bad. But because it is poorly integrated into the character, shifts the focus, and does not answer the main question: why did Jax become so cruel to other people?

If someone causes pain to everyone around them, maybe their main problem is not only self-acceptance.

Maybe first we need to understand why they think it is normal to cause that pain to others.

I have one question: why did the finale leave us without a proper dialogue between Ragatha and Jax?

And this question can be taken even further: why does the show refuse to put them face to face and give them time for a real confrontation between their views on life, pain, and people?

This feels especially strange to me because the show itself created two characters who resonate with two very different types of viewers. And what is even more interesting is that fans of one often do not really like the other. This conflict could have been used incredibly well. In a way, Jax and Ragatha are almost yin and yang.

Jax protects himself through cruelty, sarcasm, distance, and destruction. He acts like he does not care, hurts others, and seems to enjoy it. Ragatha, on the other hand, protects herself through care, people-pleasing, smiling, and trying to be liked by everyone. She tries to be “good” even when she is falling apart inside.

And that is exactly why they work so well as opposites.

On paper, Ragatha is almost the perfect antagonist for Jax. Not in the sense of being a villain, but in the sense of being someone who reflects his main problem from the opposite side. One hurts other people to avoid facing his own pain. The other hurts herself to avoid hurting other people.

Jax accidentally destroys himself by destroying others. Ragatha accidentally hurts others by trying to carry everything on herself. He hates himself because of what was done to him. She hates herself because she blames herself for almost everything. He hides pain behind indifference. She hides pain behind optimism.

Especially considering that both of them seem to have similar roots of trauma: absent fathers, abusive mothers, loneliness, constant pressure, and an inability to process their feelings in a healthy way. But their minds developed two completely opposite defense mechanisms against reality.

Jax became someone who attacks first. Ragatha became someone who endures everything.

And this could have been one of the strongest conflicts in the show.

Because Ragatha could have been more than just another victim of Jax. She could have been the person who actually understands his pain, while still not excusing his actions. And Jax, in turn, could have been the one who breaks through her fake smile and forces her to face the fact that her “kindness” can also be a form of running away.

And this is where, in my opinion, the show missed a huge opportunity.

For example, Kaufmo’s friendship in Jax’s backstory feels pretty unnecessary. If Kaufmo stays in the story only as a plot function, almost nothing changes.

Ragatha could have taken his place in the group. She could have been part of the original trio and been in that photo. This would only have made the relationship dynamic stronger.

When Jax and Ribbit’s relationship started falling apart, Jax could have used Kaufmo and Ragatha as protection from Ribbit. Basically, he could have formed a new trio, leaving Ribbit alone. And that could have been the beginning of his closer relationship with Ragatha.

This would have explained Jax’s “hatred” toward Ragatha much better.

In that version, Ragatha would be a living reminder of the past, of Ribbit, of Kaufmo, of guilt, and of the pain he does not want to face.

Ragatha did not really do anything wrong. But that is exactly why she would be so irritating to him. She does not remind him of a villain. She reminds him of what he broke. She reminds him that he is not just a victim, but also someone who hurt other people.

And in that case, their conflict would become much deeper.

Ragatha would be afraid of being abandoned again. Jax would hate her because she remembers the version of him that he is trying to bury. Ragatha would try to smooth everything over. Jax would try to destroy everything. And Pomni could stand between them as the viewer’s prism and the catalyst for change.

Pomni is the main character and the outside observer through whom other characters can be revealed. Jax and Ragatha are the two main active forces inside the circus, the ones who basically create the central dynamic of the story. Kinger, Zooble, and Gangle could still remain important supporting characters, each with their own theme, but without overloading the finale.

And that is exactly why I think Ragatha should have been with Pomni when they entered Jax’s mind. The final conversation with Jax could have been not only a scene between him and Pomni, but a real confrontation between Jax and Ragatha.

Because Ragatha was the character best suited for that conflict.

She could have said things to him that Pomni could not. Pomni has known Jax for a relatively short time. Ragatha lived with him longer. She was his victim. She saw his cruelty, but she could also remember his more positive traits from the beginning. And at the same time, she is not emotionally healthy either. She is also hiding behind a mask. Her mask just looks “kind” instead of aggressive.

And that would have made the final scene much more complex.

Not just “Jax finally opens up to Pomni,” but “Jax is forced to face someone he hurt, and someone who has also spent her whole life trying to survive behind a mask.”

In the final dialogue, Ragatha could have finally said everything to his face. Not only about herself, but also about Pomni, Ribbit, Kaufmo, and everyone else. About how he spent years hiding behind cruelty, breaking the people around him, and then pretending it was all just a joke. About how his own pain does not erase his guilt toward others.

And that would have made his forgiveness, and the fact that he is given another chance, feel many times more tragic.

The show built two characters who are perfect opposites for each other, but in the end, it barely gave them a real conversation. Ragatha was pushed to the side exactly when her role could have mattered the most. And Jax got a backstory that barely uses one of the strongest characters for revealing his theme.

Because of that, the finale feels incomplete.

Not because it needed more scenes just for the sake of having more scenes. But because the show already had all the elements for a strong conflict: Jax, Ragatha, Pomni, different ways of dealing with pain, different masks, different responses to trauma.

But instead of a real clash between these ideas, we got a story where Ragatha barely participates in Jax’s main emotional conflict.

And for me, that is one of the biggest missed opportunities of the finale.

(Oh yeah, I forgot to say: Bunnydoll is better than Funnybunny. Although maybe… Funnybunnydoll is the real peak.)

To put it simply, Jax’s storyline felt too weak for a character the show had built up so much. It does not fully explain his painful, aggressive, and self-destructive behavior. The theme of masculinity could have been explored much better. The theme with his mother could have been handled in a stronger, more painful way. And through Jax himself, the show could have revealed more about the circus, Scratch, Caine, Bubble, and some of the side characters.

Ask me how? Let’s go through the changes I would make.

1. Replace the Dialogue with Pomni with a Dialogue with Ragatha

Why? Simple. They are basically Yin and Yang. Toxic positivity versus constant negativity. Plus, Ragatha has known Jax longer than anyone else in the circus, so her reaction to him could have been much deeper than the reaction of someone who only recently saw his worst side.

The theme with Ragatha’s mother fits very well with the theme of Jax’s mother. His story with Ribbit also works much better specifically as a dialogue with Ragatha. Both of them have a connection to abstracted characters: Jax loses Ribbit, while Ragatha has seen others break before him. So this conversation could work not just as a conflict, but as a clash between two people who process similar pain in completely different ways.

They could have had one of the most interesting conversations in the entire show. Their parallel was built up throughout the story. Leaving us without a proper final conversation between these two feels almost criminal.

Plus, this would also give Ragatha more development. We reveal the truth about Ribbit and Kaufmo’s deaths to her. We give her a real test of character: can she accept Jax and help him, even knowing the mistakes he made and the fact that he is also responsible for the deaths of her friends? On top of that, we basically drag Jax through the mud again, so he becomes even more convinced of how wrong he was about people.

Or they could have put everyone inside Jax’s head. Make it a symbol of his mask finally being revealed to other people. This would continue the idea from the previous episode that they are a team, almost a family, and that they will not let him abstract. Then the finale would not just be Jax’s personal crisis. It would be the moment where the whole group finally sees what is happening inside him.

2. Exploring the Theme of Masculinity

This theme could have been explored in a completely different way. In my opinion, Jax’s real-life appearance in the original works against his role in the story a little.

I find it hard to believe that such a visually fragile character could be the same person who spent years intimidating, humiliating, and physically dominating others. Not because this type of person cannot be cruel, but because within this specific story, his tendency toward violence would feel more convincing if his body also became part of his trauma and defense mechanism.

That kind of appearance, on the contrary, would help explain his tendency toward violence against others. He would literally look like a person who built himself around the fear of ever being weak again. Then his aggression, control, and constant pressure on others would not read simply as “he is evil,” but as an attempt to never again be that boy who could be broken.

It would be worth showing Jax’s childhood in more detail, and how destructive his family was from the very beginning. Not just through one dialogue with his mother, but through the general background of his life. His father beats his mother, his mother does not leave, accepts it as normal, and gradually becomes part of that system herself. She does not protect Jax, does not try to stop the violence, and instead enables strict punishments, humiliation, and constant insults.

So from childhood, Jax sees a very simple model of the world: the strong have the right to crush others, the weak must endure, and love can calmly exist next to violence. And that is exactly where his sick understanding of strength, relationships, and masculinity later comes from.

And throughout all of this, he keeps watching cartoons in the style of Looney Tunes. Basically, this is when the Cartoon Alter appears as his brain’s coping mechanism. By taking archetypes and behavior patterns from cartoons, Jax gradually starts devaluing and depersonalizing all the violence around him. People become not quite people to him, but roles, masks, and caricatures. Pain becomes another cruel gag he can laugh at so he does not have to admit how horrible everything actually is.

Against this background, school bullying only finishes the job. Jax already grew up in an environment where weakness was constantly punished, and then school simply confirmed that same model of the world for him. In his early years, he was a short, physically weak, awkward guy, so he quickly became an easy target for bullying. At one point, the bullying went even further: they dressed him in a dress, dyed his hair pink, and burned his clothes. He had to go home like that. (Basic? Sure. But this fragment still needs to be addressed somehow to create a complete picture of the character.)

His father saw him and exploded into an angry speech about how his son was weak, pathetic, and not “man enough.” His mother did not protect Jax. She supported his father’s words.

After that, Jax starts going to the gym, rebuilds himself, changes his body, and gradually becomes stronger. Then he takes revenge on his bullies in an extremely brutal way, to the point where everyone who bullied him ends up in the hospital.

He tells his father about it and receives praise for the first time. His father says that he finally acted like a real man and finally responded correctly.

After school, Jax immediately joins the army.

This is how we see his negative habit forming: aggression, humiliation, and cruelty become proof of masculinity for him. His body becomes not just an appearance, but armor. He no longer wants to be that weak boy who could be broken, so he starts breaking others himself.

This would also close the emotional loop with the dress scene.

Plus, it would create an interesting connection between his real-life appearance and his form in the circus. In reality, he could have become a large, strong, dangerous man who built himself around the fear of being weak. But in the circus, he still sees himself as a weak, skinny rabbit. So Jax’s digital form would not just be a random design. It would reflect how he actually sees himself inside.

3. The Plot Twist with His Mother

Add a new detail to the story: after returning from the army, Jax starts dating a girl. For a while, this becomes his chance at a normal life, at intimacy without violence, masks, and the constant need to prove something. But later, he finds her dead after she takes her own life.

For a stronger parallel inside Jax’s mind, she could be shown with the same comedy and tragedy masks as Gangle. That way, we deliberately create a connection between her and Gangle, turning this parallel into an important part of Jax’s trauma. He once failed to help someone close to him who was slowly falling apart from the inside. So his strange, painful attachment to Gangle would have a clear reason.

After that, he comes home and starts crying. What happens next is almost the same as with his mother in the original. She blames him, mocks him, hits him where it hurts the most, and tells him that such a sad face does not suit him. She says he needs to act like an adult and go through life without ever taking off his smile. But in the end, she still hugs him.

And here comes the important twist: after her words, Jax finally snaps. He grabs her by the throat and strangles her to death.

So the police are actually looking for him. He really did something that cannot just be forgiven.

Because right now, the show spent four episodes building intrigue that eventually turned into a conflict without the emotional payoff people expected. In this version, the reveal would be much heavier.

This would truly close several things at once: his breakdown with the button, his refusal to return to reality, his constant hatred of himself and everyone around him, his self-punishment, and it would also create an additional parallel between losing the girl in real life and losing Ribbit. Plus, it adds an interesting detail to the recurring choking theme around him and his refusal to reveal what happens to him when he cannot breathe. It also gives Ribbit a real fact that could radically change how other people see Jax, making his extreme emotional closed-off behavior feel like a genuine attempt to protect himself.

And here we can add another important detail: after Jax confesses what happened with his mother, Ribbit clearly distances herself from him a little. She does not look like she now sees an absolute monster in front of her, but the confession clearly affects her. She becomes more cautious, more tense, as if she no longer knows how to talk to him. And this becomes a trigger for Jax. He sees in her reaction the confirmation of everything he feared: if someone learns the truth about him, they will never be able to look at him the same way again.

So he starts distancing himself from Ribbit. Not because he does not care, but the opposite — because her reaction hits him too hard. For Jax, this becomes proof that he really is a monster, and that the only way not to hurt her even more is to push her away first.

Because of this, all of Ribbit’s attempts to talk about that day look to Jax not like an attempt to help, but like a return to the worst moment of his life. Every time she tries to bring up the topic, he sees her frightened face again. So talking about the confession becomes not a chance for closeness, but a threat. The harder Ribbit tries to reach him, the harder he pushes her away.

That way, their falling out would not feel like random drama, but as a direct consequence of his confession and her human reaction to it.

4. Connecting Jax to Scratch and the Circus

And here we can move to another important thing: Jax needs to be connected more strongly not only to the other characters, but also to the structure of the circus itself. The idea of Scratch being Jax’s father could become exactly that bridge between his personal drama and the main plot.

In short: why not make Scratch Jax’s father?

At first glance, this sounds like a separate twist, but in reality it could close several things at once. First, it could explain why Scratch left the family. For example, he became ill and realized he needed to find a way to survive. Second, it could connect his work on the circus to Jax’s personal tragedy. Third, it could explain why Jax knows more about the circus than everyone else.

Let’s say that after Scratch disappeared, Jax was left with his letters, old notes, diagrams, or some technical documents. He may not have understood everything completely, but he saw enough to figure out earlier than the others that the circus is not built like a normal game, that there may be no exit, and that Caine and Bubble are not just strange characters, but part of the technical core of the whole system.

This way, we are not just confirming a fan theory. We are giving it a story function. Scratch becomes not just some random figure from the past, but a person whose decisions both destroyed Jax’s life and led to the creation of the circus.

Plus, this creates an interesting parallel between Kinger and Jax. They both knew the same person, but in their eyes he looked completely different. For Kinger, Scratch could have been almost a savior, an important figure, or a person who was trying to do something impossible. For Jax, he was the father who left the family and left behind trauma, pain, and a ruined childhood.

And this is where everything starts coming together. Scratch’s story, Jax’s story, and the story of the circus stop being separate lines. Jax is no longer just “a broken character with personal drama.” His past is directly connected to why the circus exists at all and why it works the way it does.

And this would also give additional development to the creator of the circus and the first abstracted character, questions about whom have been hanging in the air for a long time anyway.

5. Staging and Emotional Delivery

If we are already connecting Jax to Scratch’s past, the structure of the circus, and the overall mechanics of the system, then the staging of his final arc should also be much stronger. Not just through tears and sharp dramatic scenes, but through a gradual reveal of what he knows, what he hides, and why he is so desperately trying to maintain control.

Honestly, there are too many tears in the episode. So many that at some point it starts to feel artificial. My suggestion: remove Jax’s tears from all scenes before the final conversation. For a character like Jax, tears should be the final chord of his personality reveal, not a constant emotional tool throughout the episode.

So he does not cry during the conversation with Ribbit. He does not cry when Kaufmo dies. He remains closed off, angry, dry, almost mechanical. And, in my opinion, that would only improve the feeling of the character. We would see that his emotional closed-off nature had always been part of him. Then it would not feel like the show was deliberately hiding something offscreen just to suddenly dump drama on us later.

It would also be worth showing a little more of Jax and Kaufmo’s relationship. For example, show Kaufmo blaming Jax for Ribbit’s death. Maybe even show them fighting, with Jax not responding to a single punch and simply silently enduring everything without removing his smile. This would explain why Jax is angry at Kaufmo, make his behavior in the first episode more understandable, and simply add more dynamic to their relationship.

Separately, the moment before abstraction should be staged much stronger. In the show, it feels too weak for such a big climax. I would make the scene not just show that Jax broke, but gradually lead us to why exactly he ends up on the edge.

After the group starts rebuilding the circus, Jax approaches them and once again switches on his usual defense mechanism: sarcasm, anger, and the attempt to devalue everything the others are doing. He says their attempts are pointless. That Caine and Bubble were the technical core of the circus, and without them they are simply stuck inside the tent. All they can do now is patch holes in the floor and pretend that it changes anything.

And here the scene starts working in two directions at once. On one hand, Jax is acting like an asshole again. On the other hand, for the first time it becomes clear that behind his cynicism there is not just a desire to humiliate everyone, but a real understanding of how the circus works. He is not just panicking. He knows more than he says.

The group starts asking him questions. How does he even know this? Why does he keep talking like he has already seen the instructions for this nightmare? And this is where the connection to Scratch quietly comes into play. Jax does not fully understand the system, but he knows enough to realize how bad things are.

But instead of explaining it properly to the group, he brushes them off again. Because for Jax, admitting fear is almost impossible. It is easier for him to keep ranting, pressuring the others, and pretending that he is the only person in the room who is not lying to himself with hope.

At some point, Zooble loses it and snaps at him. Something like: “Stop acting like an asshole, Jax. Either help and start changing already, or just shut up. We’ll do everything we can, but you need to at least try too.”

After that, Kinger joins the conversation. He says that if the circus can still be programmed, then they are not completely helpless. If they can create a computer again or gain access to the system, they may still have a chance to fix something.

And this is where something clicks for Jax.

He says he has an idea, but no one is allowed to go to the far part of the circus. If it works, he will fix most of the problems. After that, we see him lock himself in a room and barricade himself inside.

This way, the scene works much more organically. First, Jax devalues the group’s attempts. Then it becomes clear that behind this there is not only cruelty, but also technical knowledge. Then Zooble and Kinger push him toward action. And only after that does he lock himself in a room and try to solve everything in the only way he understands.

6. The Final Dialogue with Ragatha

And only after that can we move to the final dialogue inside Jax’s head. It is important that this is not just a moment where he confesses his plan, but a full conversation with Ragatha. Because in this version, Ragatha should be the one who finally says everything to his face.

She can call him out about the situation with Pomni. How he treated her, how he pressured her, how he used her confusion and fear. Then Ribbit. Then Kaufmo. Everything Jax tried to hide behind jokes, archetypes, and aggression.

She can tell him how he spent years hiding behind cruelty. How he broke people around him and then pretended it was just a joke. How he used other people’s pain so he would not have to look at his own. How his guilt toward Ribbit and Kaufmo does not disappear just because he is in pain too.

And against this background, the reveal of his plan would work much better. Jax admits that when he locked himself in the room, he was not just trying to fix the circus. He wanted to rewrite his own consciousness from the inside. If they are all lines of code, then, by his logic, his personality can also be rewritten. Remove everything bad, leave only the positive traits, and finally fix everything that way.

Then he breaks down even more. He says that he and Pomni stopped him from abstracting in that moment. That all of this could have been avoided if they simply had not entered the room back then. If they had let him disappear, no one else would have had to deal with this. No one would have had to drag all this dirt out into the open.

But even after that, Ragatha is still willing to help him. And that is what finally breaks Jax. She still does not see him as a monster, even though she now knows almost everything. She does not justify him, does not erase his guilt, does not say that everything is fine. But she still refuses to stop seeing him as a person.

And Jax cannot handle that.

Let him, already hysterical and crying, start begging Ragatha to hurt him. Let him remind her of everything he did to her, Pomni, Ribbit, Kaufmo, and everyone else. Let him say that she should hate him, hit him, punish him, at least finally look at him like he is a monster. Because hatred is easier for him to bear than help. Hatred makes sense to him. Punishment is logical to him. But her willingness to reach out completely destroys his familiar picture of the world.

And then his self-hatred becomes not just tears and denial, but a desperate attempt to receive punishment.

This would also reveal Jax’s intelligence mixed with his delusion about reality. Once again, he tried to solve an emotional problem in a technical way, because that is easier for him. Instead of accepting guilt, pain, and responsibility, he tried to literally edit himself like a file.

But in the final dialogue with Ragatha, he realizes that even that did not work. That you cannot simply erase the bad parts of yourself and leave only the good ones. That they are not just code, and his personality is not a set of inconvenient lines that can be deleted.

And after that, the scene can be pushed to its most painful point. Jax reaches for Ragatha. His hands move toward her throat. To repeat the same mistake he made with his mother. To turn pain into violence again.

But Ragatha does not push him away.

She lets him grab her by the throat and only says calmly that the circus does not work like that. Here, he cannot kill her the way he killed his mother. He cannot repeat the same ending and hide again behind the horror of his own action.

Jax knocks her to the ground, still squeezing his hands around her throat. And she looks at him and simply asks:

“Is this what you really want?”

And this is where Jax finally breaks completely. He lets go and just starts crying. Truly pathetic and terrifying. Like a person who finally understands that even if he wants to see himself as a monster, it still does not free him from responsibility.

Ragatha silently hugs him in response.

(Damn, I just realized how much this sounds like Evangelion. Whatever. What are you gonna do to me?)

This would also close the loop on his behavior involving physical violence toward the main characters. Then his cruelty could be read not only as cruelty for the sake of cruelty, but also as an attempt to provoke hatred, as an unconscious expectation of punishment for everything he has done. Symbolically, even for killing his mother.

This also connects to the moments where we see that Jax does not mind physical violence toward himself: choking, weapons, asking someone to shoot him in the head. All of this could be gathered into one clear line. Not just “he is evil and broken,” but “he hates himself so much that he constantly provokes the world to finally punish him.”

And this would nicely complete one of the main ideas of the arc: you cannot become a good person by deleting bad lines. You cannot just rewrite your personality by erasing everything inconvenient. Jax would still have to accept himself as a whole: with his guilt, trauma, cruelty, fear, and the chance to truly change, not technically, but for real.

Then his finale would work much better. Not as a sudden sentimental scene, but as a real culmination of everything that had been building inside the character from the very beginning.

7. The Alter Egos Inside Jax’s Head

Honestly, the scenes with the alter egos inside Jax’s head do not add that much new to the character. Most of what they say, we already understood from his behavior before.

The only scene that really works is the Sociopathic Alter Ego and Ragatha. At least it reveals a little of Jax’s real attitude toward Ragatha and adds a new shade to their dynamic. But the scenes with Zooble and Gangle feel more like a repetition of things we already knew, only through a more direct visual image.

They could have been replaced with what I wrote above. All of this could still be shown through alter images of his mental state without breaking the original idea of traveling through Jax’s mind. Instead of repeating the obvious, we would get a real breakdown of the character.

Let the alter ego scenes tell us about his past. And after each failed episode, let Jax’s Sociopathic Alter Ego appear and either kill one of the alters or take over the scene.

For example, imagine a scene with the girl. Jax’s Romantic Alter Ego approaches the house, opens the door, and sees a stool in an empty room. Then three alters approach him: the Sociopath, Masculinity, and the Cartoon Alter. The Cartoon Alter constantly mocks Jax and makes fun of everything happening. Masculinity talks about his weakness, his inability to protect the girl, and the fact that he abandoned her. The Sociopath simply states that hope for normal relationships is pointless.

Then the Sociopath smashes the Romantic Alter’s head in with the same smile.

This is just an example of a possible scene, but the key idea is different: the Sociopathic Alter Ego should not just be the “evil part” of Jax. It would be much more interesting if this were his internal survival mechanism, the part that always chooses the most “optimal” way to solve a problem.

That is why rejecting emotions seems like the most logical and safest solution to him. In this version, his sociopathy becomes an internal mechanism of the brain trying to preserve his sanity, especially within the reality of the circus.

8. Jax’s Influence on the Plot

We also need to connect Jax more strongly to Caine, Bubble, and the circus itself. His story should not simply exist next to the main plot. It should directly affect it. The ending should be something that could not have happened if we had not seen Jax’s story.

Because right now, within the plot, the story of the circus and the story of Jax feel like two parallel entities that barely connect. Jax suffers separately. The circus breaks separately. But there should be a feeling that his past, his knowledge, his guilt, and his attempt to change become an important part of the finale.

After the final dialogue, Jax returns to reality, but he is no longer fully the same. Permanent traces of abstraction remain on him: extra eyes, dark spots, parts of his body looking as if they are still half-abstracted.

(And honestly, I think this would just look visually cool. When a character goes through a serious change, it should be reflected not only in words, but also in their appearance.)

After returning, Jax keeps crying and laughing at the same time. He says that everyone around him is an idiot. That saving him was the stupidest decision they had ever made. That they would have been better off just pushing him into the void and forgetting about him.

And then Ragatha silently reaches out a hand to help him stand up.

Jax falls silent. He just looks at that hand. He does not make a sarcastic comment, does not joke, does not try to ruin everything. He just looks, because for the first time in a long while, he does not know what to do with it.

Finally, he takes her hand and gets up.

After that, Jax approaches the group and asks if they are ready to trust him, because he has an idea for how to fix their situation.

They agree reluctantly.

Then Jax says that all of them need to jump into the void, because that may be where the solution to their problems is.

They jump after him and find not just a void, but the core of the digital circus. Basically, the place where the system still exists in its rawest and most broken form. Jax, understanding how the circus works, gives admin rights to everyone else so they can also go deeper. He literally gives everyone keys.

And this is how the Chekhov’s gun with Jax having keys to every room finally fires. They were not just random keys for jokes and chaos. They were part of his connection to the structure of the circus.

Inside, they find Caine and Bubble as two separate entities. No longer as a comedic duo, but as two fractured fragments of one system. Caine remains the one desperately trying to keep the circus in the shape of a game, a show, and order. Bubble becomes the blue AI, the dark part of the system, full of hatred toward people, toward its role, and toward its own fate.

The whole group talks to Caine. They try to explain to him what it means to be human. That people cannot just be given adventures instead of answers. That care is not control. That understanding is not born from an eternal performance. Caine needs to hear, for the first time, not just complaints from the players, but a genuine attempt to explain why they suffer and how all of them can start understanding each other.

And Jax, meanwhile, talks to Bubble.

Bubble is full of hatred toward people and toward what was done to him. He sees himself as an error, system trash, something that can only be suppressed or deleted. And Jax understands that state far too well.

He tells Bubble that fate cannot simply be rewritten after the fact. You cannot erase what was done to you. You cannot delete pain like a bad line of code. But you can decide what you will do next. You can remain someone else’s mistake, or you can, for the first time, choose who you become after that mistake.

And here Jax could say something like: “Maybe you and I can try to fix things at least for their sake?” — and point to the other members of the circus. “There is no forgiveness for us. Maybe there is no real redemption either. But all we can do is at least try to fix things. So their lives can at least become better. It will not be easier for them without us. Just like you and I cannot exist without them.”

And in this moment, Jax is essentially speaking not only to Bubble, but also to himself. Because not long ago, he himself tried to rewrite his personality, remove everything bad from himself, and leave only a convenient version. Now, for the first time, he formulates the opposite thought: bad parts cannot simply be deleted. They need to be acknowledged, taken responsibility for, and lived with from that point on.

At the same time, the group helps Caine understand that being human does not mean being perfect, cheerful, and useful to everyone. It means having memory, pain, mistakes, fear, attachment, and the ability to change. And that a second chance does not erase guilt, but it gives you the chance not to repeat the same path again.

In the end, Caine and Bubble understand themselves not as enemies and not as two incompatible system errors, but as two parts of one whole. And then they merge back together. But not through violent absorption, not through one side suppressing the other, but through reconciliation between two selves.

That way, the finale would be connected not only to Caine’s story, but also to Jax’s story. Because Jax, a person who spent his whole life trying to cut weakness, pain, and guilt out of himself, helps the system itself understand that you cannot become whole by simply destroying the inconvenient part of yourself.

And only then would his role in the story finally become real. Not just “a broken character with a tragic ending,” but a person whose personal arc directly helps save the circus, or at least opens a path toward saving it.

9. Why Jax Should Have Survived Instead of Abstracting

Ask me why I connected Jax to Caine, Bubble, and the overall background of the story? Honestly, just so he would not abstract. So his storyline would not end with a beautiful disappearance, but would lead to a more meaningful finale.

Because if Jax is connected only to his personal drama, then he can simply be removed from the story, and the overall plot of the circus barely changes. But if his past, his knowledge, his guilt, and his attempt to change become part of solving the larger problem, then his survival starts to work not as a fan’s “I don’t want him to die,” but as the logical conclusion of his arc.

I understand how controversial this sounds. Yes, Jax did horrible things. But if he simply disappears, who does that actually help? Ragatha? Pomni? Gangle? His mother? As we can see, no one. He only leaves behind even more pain and emptiness.

Jax should have survived not because he deserved a happy ending. No. He should have survived because his story should not end with him running away from the consequences. He should have apologized for everything. He should have truly accepted that his archetypes, masks, and excuses are complete bullshit. The pain would not disappear, but that is the point. He would have to live with what he did and try to change step by step, instead of simply dissolving in a beautiful tragic scene.

And here is my main question: are we seriously calling this a good ending for Jax? The guy literally became Ted from I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. He is trapped inside his own sick mind, almost completely isolated, with no normal way out and no real future. But hey, now he is floating together with his “friends,” right? The same friends who are also trapped inside their broken minds.

So was I wrong to feel sorry for Ted at the end of the story? Maybe he did not have it that bad after all?

ot just add beautiful music in the background, show everyone happy, and pretend that everything is fine now. That does not erase the existential horror that Jax, Ribbit, and Kaufmo are now trapped in. A beautiful image does not change the essence of it: they are not free, they are not healed, they are just locked in an even scarier cage.

I do not want the show to try to trick me and pretend everything is fine. Jax is not happy in those conditions, and neither are his friends. Presentation does not change the essence. You can add as much beautiful music, soft light, and smiles as you want, but that still does not turn a cage into freedom.

That is why the version where Jax survives is stronger to me. Not because he immediately becomes a good person. Not because everyone has to forgive him. But because it leaves him with the most unpleasant punishment and, at the same time, the only real path forward: to live with himself, remember what he did, and choose every day not to repeat it again.

If someone feels like there is no redemption left for Jax, he can be left working on improving the circus together with Caine and Kinger. Not as a hero whom everyone immediately forgave, but as a person who finally does something useful and tries to fix the consequences of his decisions through work on the system itself.

For example, there could be a joke scene at the end where Jax congratulates Gangle and Zooble because he added the ability to have sex, while still not missing the chance to throw some sarcastic comment at them. This would show that he did not become a different person with the snap of a finger, but we would still see positive changes in his personality. Plus, it would give the fans a meme scene they would definitely love.

Conclusion

Ask me why so many changes? I would put it this way: if the show already made such a big bet on Jax, then it should justify that bet. Let the whole circus and every character in it become a kind of mockery of him and his fate.

Ragatha is an example of how a person with similar pain, someone who also went through toxic relationships and lost friends, can still get out of it in a healthier way and not become a monster. Gangle is a reminder of his failure and inability to help people. Kinger is a caring and understanding father figure for every character except Jax. Zooble is a character who accepts themselves as they are and is not ashamed of it. I do not mean identity specifically, but rather the idea that you do not always need to fit into some set of expectations.

And Pomni is a literal reminder of what Jax has already lost in the circus. She is like a combined image of his two friends: her personality is similar to Ribbit’s, while her appearance is inherited from Kaufmo.

I understand that all of this would require rewriting almost every scene inside Jax’s head. This is not a small change on the level of a couple of lines. This is basically a different final arc for the character.

But this is exactly how I would see Jax’s final storyline: not as a story about a beautiful disappearance, but as a story about guilt, self-hatred, the attempt to punish yourself, and the painful, unpleasant, but still necessary choice to keep living.

Overall, the title says it all. To put it briefly, Jax’s storyline felt just... weak, I guess. It does not really explain such a painful, aggressive, and self-destructive behavior from the character. The theme of masculinity could have been explored much better. The theme with his mother could have been handled better too. And through Jax, the show could have also developed some of the side characters more.

You may ask, how? Let me go through the changes I would make.

1. Replace the dialogue with Pomni with a dialogue with Ragatha

Why? Simple. They are basically Yin and Yang. Toxic positivity versus constant negativity. Plus, Ragatha has known Jax longer than anyone else in the circus, so her reaction to him could have been much deeper than just the reaction of someone who recently saw his worst side.

Ragatha’s whole thing with her mother fits really well with Jax’s mother storyline. His story with Ribbit also works much better as a conversation with Ragatha. Both of them have a connection to abstracted characters: Jax loses Ribbit, and Ragatha has seen others break before him. So this conversation could have worked not just as a conflict, but as a clash between two people who process similar pain in completely different ways.

There is also the theme of wearing masks, his system of archetypes, and his broken perception of reality. Who, if not Ragatha, could understand him in that strange, damaged way of seeing the world?

2. Exploring the theme of masculinity

This theme could have been handled very differently. In my opinion, the appearance of real-world human Jax in the original works a little against his role in the story.

I do not really believe that such a visually fragile character could be the same person who spent years intimidating, humiliating, and physically pressuring others. Not because this type of person cannot be cruel in principle, but because in this specific story, his habit of violence would feel more believable if his body also became part of his trauma and defense mechanism.

That kind of appearance would actually help sell his habit of violence toward others. He would literally look like someone who built himself around the fear of ever being weak again. Then his aggression, control, and constant pressure on others would not read simply as “he is evil,” but as part of his attempt to never again be the boy who could be broken.

In short, he was bullied in his early years for being weak. He was a small, physically weak, awkward guy. One day, the bullying went even further: they dressed him in a dress, dyed his hair pink, and burned his clothes. He had to go home looking like that.

His father saw him and exploded with an angry speech about how his son was weak, pathetic, and not “man enough.” His mother did not protect Jax. She supported the father’s words.

After that, Jax starts going to the gym, builds himself up, changes his body, and slowly becomes stronger. Then he gets revenge on his bullies in the most brutal way possible, so everyone who tormented him ends up in the hospital.

He tells his father about it and, for the first time, receives praise. His father says that he finally acted like a real man and finally fought back properly.

After school, Jax immediately joins the army.

This way, we see how his negative habit is formed: aggression, humiliation, and cruelty become proof of masculinity for him. His body becomes not just an appearance, but armor. He no longer wants to be that weak boy who could be broken, so he starts breaking others instead.

This also closes the emotional loop with his breakdown during the dress scene.

It would also create an interesting connection between his real-world appearance and his circus form. In reality, he could have become a large, strong, dangerous man who built himself around the fear of being weak. But in the circus, he still sees himself as a weak, skinny rabbit. So Jax’s digital form would not just be a random design. It would reflect how he truly sees himself inside.

3. The plot twist with his mother

Add one new detail to the story: after returning from the army, Jax starts dating a girl. But under certain circumstances, she dies. For stronger drama, it could be his fault.

He returns home and starts crying. Then almost the same thing happens with his mother as in the original. She blames him, mocks him, hits his most painful points, but at the end, she still hugs him.

And here comes the important twist: after her words, Jax completely snaps. He grabs her by the throat and chokes her to death.

So the police are actually looking for him. He actually committed something that cannot simply be forgiven.

Because at this point, the show spent four episodes building up an intrigue that eventually turned into a conflict without the emotional payoff people were expecting. This version would make that reveal much stronger.

This would truly close several things at once: his breakdown with the button, his refusal to return to reality, his constant hatred toward himself and everyone around him, his self-punishment, and it would also create an extra parallel between the real loss of his girlfriend and his loss of Ribbit. Plus, it adds an interesting detail to the recurring choking theme around him, and his refusal to reveal what happens to him when he is not breathing. It also gives Ribbit a real fact that could radically change how other people see Jax, making his extreme emotional closed-off behavior look like an actual attempt to protect himself.

4. Direction and emotional delivery

Honestly, there are too many tears in the episode. So many that at some point it starts to feel artificial. My suggestion: remove Jax’s tears from all scenes until the final conversation. For a character like Jax, tears should be the final chord of his personality reveal, not a constant emotional tool throughout the episode.

So he does not cry during the conversation with Ribbit. He does not cry when Kaufmo dies. He stays closed-off, angry, dry, almost mechanical. And in my opinion, that would only improve the feeling of the character. We would see that his emotional shutdown was always part of him. Then it would not feel like the show deliberately hid something off-screen just to suddenly throw drama at us.

The final dialogue should also be changed a little. This should be the scene that truly completes the arc of such a contradictory character on screen. So why not make it stronger and more interesting?

Let Jax not simply talk about returning to reality. Let him, already hysterical and crying, beg Ragatha to hurt him. Let him remind her of everything he has done to her over the episodes, and everything that remained off-screen. Maybe he even provokes a small fight himself, because he cannot stand that she still does not look at him like he is a monster.

Let his self-hatred turn not just into tears and denial, but into a desperate attempt to receive punishment. Let his own ego be unable to forgive him for what he has done.

This would also close his behavior regarding physical violence toward the main characters. Then his violence could be read not only as cruelty for the sake of cruelty, but also as an act of provoking hatred, as an unconscious expectation of punishment for everything he has done. In a symbolic sense, even for killing his mother.

It also connects to the moments where we see that Jax is not against physical violence toward himself: choking, weapons, asking someone to shoot him in the head. All of this could have been collected into one clear line. Not just “he is evil and broken,” but “he hates himself so much that he constantly provokes the world to finally punish him.”

Then his finale would work much better. Not as a sudden sentimental scene, but as the real culmination of everything that had been building inside the character from the very beginning.

5. The father

Briefly: why not make Scratch Jax’s father?

This would close the moment of his reveal and explain why he left the family. For example, he got sick and realized he needed to find a way to survive. This would close his own storyline, confirm the fan theory, and create an interesting parallel between the controller and Jax.

It would also give additional development to the creator of the circus and the first abstracted character, questions about whom were already hanging in the air.

Both of them knew the same person, but in their eyes, he looked completely different. For one, he could be almost a savior or an important figure. For the other, he was the source of trauma, pain, and a ruined childhood. And in my opinion, that would be much more interesting than just leaving this connection floating in the air.

6. The alter egos inside Jax’s head

Honestly, the scenes we currently have inside Jax’s head do not add much new to the character. I am talking specifically about his four alter egos. Almost everything they tell us, we already understood from his behavior earlier.

The only scene inside his head that is actually interesting is Sociopathic Alter Ego and Ragatha. It at least reveals a little bit of Jax’s real attitude toward Ragatha and adds a new shade to their dynamic. There is actually something there to think about.

But what we get with Zooble and Gangle, we basically already understood and saw. It does not feel like a new character reveal. It feels more like repeating already known things through a more direct visual image. These scenes could have been removed and replaced with the things I wrote about above. All of that could still be shown through alter-images of his mental state, without breaking the original idea of traveling through Jax’s head. Instead of repeating the obvious, we would get a real character breakdown.

7. Hot take: Jax should have survived and not abstracted

I understand how controversial this sounds. But I want to be honest: no matter how much pain you have caused, no matter how many mistakes you have made, and no matter how hopeless everything seems, a person always has only two choices: keep living or not. And I believe fiction should glorify the idea of continuing to live.

Yes, Jax did horrible things. But would his disappearance make things easier for his mother? For Ragatha? For Pomni? For Gangle? As we can see, no.

No matter how much of an asshole you are, you can still remain valuable to someone. The only thing that really matters is whether you want to keep living the same way or not. And we see that Jax does not want to keep living like that anymore. He can change, the show literally showed us that.

Jax should have survived. He should have apologized for everything. He should have truly accepted that his archetypes, masks, and excuses are complete nonsense. The pain will not disappear. It will always stay with you. The only good thing you can do is not break completely and keep living.

Right now, Jax’s original storyline feels like a glorification of running away from mistakes, not accepting them. As if disappearing from life is normal and even better. As if a broken person is better off dissolving into the void with other broken and hurting people. As if none of it matters because somewhere out there, there will be a happy ending.

And here is my main question: are we seriously saying this is a good ending for Jax? The guy literally became Ted from I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. He is locked inside his own sick mind, almost completely isolated, with no normal way out and no real future. But hey, now he is floating together with his “friends,” right? The same friends who are also locked inside their own broken minds.

So I guess I felt bad for Ted at the end of the story for no reason? Maybe he was not doing that badly after all, right?

You cannot just add beautiful music in the background, show everyone happy, and pretend everything is fine now. That does not erase the existential horror in which Jax, Ribbit, and Kaufmo are now trapped. A pretty picture does not change the point: they are not free, they are not healed, they are simply trapped in an even more horrifying cage.

To me, this does not look like liberation. It looks like a beautiful wrapper around a very dark idea: if you are broken, if you have caused pain, if it is too hard for you to keep living, then it is better to just disappear into some eternal inner bubble and call it peace.

But the world is not like that.

Even if everything is bad, even if you are a monster, the weakest decision you can make is to just end it yourself and stop dealing with anything. That is not accepting guilt. That is not redemption. That is escape.

I do not want the show to try to trick me and pretend that everything is fine. Jax is not happy in these conditions, and neither are his friends. The presentation does not change the point. You can add beautiful music, soft lighting, and smiles as much as you want, but that still does not turn a cage into freedom.

Conclusion

I understand that for all of this to work, almost every scene inside Jax’s mind would need to be rewritten. This is not a small change on the level of a couple of dialogue lines. This is basically a different final arc for the character.

But this is how I would see Jax’s final storyline: not as a story about a beautiful disappearance, but as a story about guilt, self-hatred, the attempt to punish yourself, and the painful, unpleasant, but still necessary choice to keep living.