u/Flynn-Minter

Tweet of Gooseworx where she tells anti-black racists in the fandom to shoot themselves in the head.

From Gooseworx's social media statements it is painfully obvious that she has not unpacked most of the bigoted assumptions she was raised with during her Evangelical childhood. From the language she uses, it is clear that she has not mentally stepped away from the extremely bigoted chan-board culture either and she may even still be posting in such spaces. Arguably, Twitter is now such a space, thanks to Musk.

Here is the thing though. If you keep making problematic statements about women and people of colour as supposed jokes, you should ask yourself why that is. If you cannot condemn misogyny and racism without irony or without making an over the top joke, it is safe to say that you do not feel comfortable condemning it outright or that you do not want to. Then the question is: why is that?

I have known at lot of people online who hid their bigotry behind "just a joke" until you kept asking questions or got to know them better at which point they dropped the mask. Not a joke; they genuinely believed every bigoted thing they said. I have known people irl who got radicalised online. It starts with bigotry and slurs being normalised through humour often in gamer spaces that led to a radicalisation rabbit hole.

Deradicalising yourself needs to involve stepping away from toxic spaces & social circles, stop using their lingo, examine your thoughts and beliefs, ditch harmful convictions and actively replace them with better beliefs. This involves being more mindful about your actions and words moving forward. It means establishing a new pattern of healthier and kinder behaviours. Being better involves consistent healthy patterns of behaviour.

Humour is used in bigoted spaces as the spoon full of sugar that makes the bigotry go down. If you normalise joking about violence against others, particularly marginalised people, you desensitise yourself. You normalise thinking this to yourself and saying it to others. It blunts your empathy. This is exactly what hate movements want.

We literally see Jax do this in TADC. Everything is a joke, nothing is real and nothing matters. These are things Jax says to justify the horrific way he treats others which includes burning people alive. We see Pomni become a worse person when she goes along with Jax's attitude. Being uncritically chummy with bigots & abusers makes you complicit and contaminates your moral compass. It does not bring them around, it infects you with some of their toxicity. Jax could have been a really interesting analysis on how bigots & abusers hurt others and themselves, but Gooseworx could not because she has not done that work on herself yet. In stead she wants us to sympathise with Jax who refuses all help and self-destructs without the narrative clearly condemning the immense harm Jax inflicts on others. Goose cannot hold Jax accountable, because she has not addressed these issues in herself. Saying that it is bad and self-destructive is not enough. You need to think, say and act better.

Compare and contrast this with characters like Bojack Horseman or even a selfish opportunist like Odalia in the Owl House who are held accountable. Bojack loses his career and Odalia's husband and children turn their backs on her and it is strongly implied she loses her wealth, influence and other privileges. Not every character needs a redemption arc nor does every unrepentant character need to die or be subjected to some over top corporal punishment. A text can clearly show that a character is in the wrong in various ways except the text of TADC does not do this in regards to Jax.

https://preview.redd.it/2vswgyk6yxih1.png?width=330&format=png&auto=webp&s=c42685284ace55d450ac29a930ddc3adf52fed4a

I am wondering whether Five Characters in search of an Exit is another inspiration for TADC alongside I have no Mouth and Must Scream. This Twilight Zone short story is existential horror like the TADC pilot. Possibly the influence is an indirect one, because it likely influenced both Raggedy Ann & Andy (1978) and Toy story. Raggedy Ann & Andy and this story both take place in winter.

The design of the Clown reminds me of Kaufmo. The Hobo could have inspired Jax.

You can watch it here. It is only a few minutes long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHV8r7LsO6k

See also

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Characters_in_Search_of_an_Exit

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S3E14FiveCharactersInSearchOfAnExit

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YouWakeUpInARoom

Hunter shows compassion and consideration in small ways from the start.

The only "good things" we see Jax do for the group stem from strict self-interest. Even when Jax wants Pomni's positive attention there is always some edge of cruelty and meanness. See the President Pomni adventure in Episode 5 where they all end up being blown apart by a bomb Jax inflicted on the story. Contrast this with Hunter in the Owl House who shows glimpses of consideration and kindness from the start. He finds King endearing and does not hurt him even though he thinks that King is merely an animal. He keeps his word to Luz and Eda and flies off laughing in stead of trying to take them down when he had a chance to do so.

On the other hand, Jax "helps" the others by providing keys and distracting Caine in episode 7, because:
- there are things to be gained. Possible escape and an opportunity to exert control over others
- Pomni asks and we know Jax is attracted to her

In episode 8, Jax helps distracting Caine including provoking Caine by pushing his buttons, but Caine was already hurting them anyway. Kinger was their only chance at stopping Caine at that point.

As soon as it turns out that Kinger accidentally deleted Caine (Abel/Bubble probably did that but the characters do not know that) and the circus starts collapsing, Jax immediately turns on Kinger. When others stand up for Kinger, Jax immediately uses personal information to hurt both Zooble and Ragatha as much as possible. Jax then walks off to sulk. He sees the others rebuilding the circus and that this works, but does not join in to help. When he later walks up to Pomni, she is still open to listen and help in spite of it all, but she does not insist when he says "Nevermind" and walks off to abstract.

People who call Jax nuanced are projecting their own hopes. Jax is a petty cruel selfish person from start to finish. Jax is perfectly consistent in that way. There are no hints at redemption. Jax consistently refuses connection and chooses to be cruel or petty in stead. This is where Jax is completely different from hurt traumatised characters like Hunter and Nimona. They are casually kind and considerate where Jax is casually cruel. They make connections even though they have been profoundly hurt and betrayed before.

The only "cautionary tale" I see in regards to Jax is the one where people keep giving him chances and showing him kindness which only enables him to hurt them more profoundly.
He is the Scorpion in the fable: the Frog and the Scorpion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog

The Frog is killed because she presumes that the Scorpion would act sensibly like she would in stead of doing some stupid destructive thing that would kill them both.

Except for that cautionary tale to work Pomni should have been warned by several people not to try to save Jax at a certain point and then be told where she went wrong after she got grievously hurt in her pointless attempt to save Jax.

Yes, I consider Pomni gaining some understanding of Jax while not being able to affect the outcome pretty pointless. She would have been better off not knowing and empathising. She now carries some of that trauma, which she would have been better off without.

Contrast this with Nimona where the main character Ballister can and does affect in meaningful ways what Nimona chooses to do in the end. Regardless of whether you believe Nimona somehow survives or lives on in some way, her sacrifice brings about genuine change. This is a story with actual stakes. Unlike with Jax, you cannot point to Nimona and say: "Everyone would have been objectively better off if she had killed herself ages ago."

This just appeared on my feed. It came out before Episode 9 premiered.

Ribbit literally shown through Jax's eyes

Ribbit was only included in the narrative to forward Jax's sad backstory by abstracting. That is the Women in Refrigerators Trope. Her tragedy was only intended to make us feel sorry about Jax. This is why I feel that Ribbit should have been in the series earlier and preferably in her own voice.

Pomni or Ragatha could have found her diary after finding her door open or going into her room for another reason. They will later learn that Jax was in here or Kinger or Caine or even Caine's NPC Abel. Or something else should have happened that made Ragatha and Kinger tell things to Pomni or Pomni went into Kaufmo's room and reads his diary that is mostly about his friendship with Ribbit etc.

This would have fleshed out Ribbit, the setting and several other characters. In stead we only see Pomni discover Jax's regrets in the last episode.

Harmful misogynist tropes are still harmful tropes if a toxic male character who benefits and perpetuates them is revealed to be a repressed trans woman in the last episode. A more mature trans writer could have used such tropes to make some interesting points about the trans woman/femme experience and how male entitlement hurts and even destroys the people it was intended to benefit, but Gooseworx is not interested. No, Jax self-destructing does not substitute for actually addressing that. Of course there is still the matter whether the TADC setting was the right vehicle for that considering it is a rather short series.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WomenInRefrigerators

Tropes are not necessarily bad in and of themselves, but if you want to use a problematic one, you should make sure that you thoroughly understand the implications. Preferably you should clearly show how it is problematic or find a way to subvert it. Considering how many problematic tropes and writing faux pas Goose committed in writing TADC, particularly the second half, I do not think that she really thought this through.

Artwork by AbsoluteDream

Found a playlist called Saving Jax with comic vids from the Damien Arts Channel
It is what is says on the in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECOWCrgw1Po&list=PLWqMrDDtA-hU

Comic Artists
AbsoluteDream https://x.com/_absolutedream_
00fline_ https://x.com/00ffline_

Jax got Pomni fooled to the bitter end

If Pomni honestly did not glean from the Flashbacks that Jax is a woman / trans femme, that makes this scene both deeply tragic and unintentionally funny.

Jax: Oh no, now you know everything, all my secrets, my greatest shame.
Pomni: You should have talked to me, man
Jax: WTF?! How is this even possible. Come on! Ribbit got it. Do I need to spell out everything?! How can you not understand?!

New Meme dropped: Pomni is Media Illiterate!

It is problematic that the non-speaking Live action cast of TADC is far more ethnically diverse than the mostly lily-white voice cast. It feels disingenuous. You could consider using people of colour for characters that are voiced by white people as a form of brownface and blackface. Casting white VAs for characters of colour is considered not-done or at least a severe faux pas in current Western animation.

Gooseworx cast a man of colour from Kyrgyzstan, Izatillo Ishonov, as Leroy Mateo, the human version of Jax. This plays into the harmful stereotype of trans women actually being men. There are plenty of trans actors including boymoding trans women and amab non-binary actors that could have been cast in stead. It is a non-speaking part. This could have been tremendously helpful to a young upcoming trans woman or trans femme actress.

(Maybe the actor is actually closeted. No one is obliged to be out professionally. No, we are not entitled to the private lives of actors, but the casting remains odd strictly in light of the ethnicity of the character.)

Casting a person of colour for Jax is inherently dishonest. Gooseworx is white and has supposedly joked about being a racist. (What is the joke here exactly?) Jax is her self-insert. The VA is a white man who has made some insensitive remarks to say the very least. Goose should have had the integrity to cast a white actor. This casting feels like her using a person of colour as a shield. Trans women of colour are the most likely to be murdered. This is not true for trans women who are white, affluent and pass (somewhat) well. Moreover, everything Jax tells as her backstory and what we are shown in the flashback screams white middle class or even upper middle class considering we see her flee a house in the suburbs or a small town. There is nothing that implies that Jax belongs to an immigrant family or a small ethnic minority rather than a larger long established one.

Kyrgyzstan is 91% Muslim. Casting a man of colour from a predominantly Muslim culture for a character with a history of abusing women is certainly a choice. One that does not make a lot of sense, because the character has a Spanish last name "Mateo" and an Anglo first name "Leroy", which implies Puerto Rican, other Latin origin or perhaps Filipino. Treating brown people as completely interchangeable when casting a part is a notorious issue in American film and television.

Then there is the casting of the human versions of Abigail/Pomni and Suzie/Ragatha as the most conventionally pretty slim white femme women in their early to mid twenties. If not for some blatant visual pointers, you could easily mistake one for the other. This feels very much like catering to the male gaze. Nevermind, that Suzie/Ragatha should be at least in her late thirties or even early to late forties and does not dress at all as one would expect from a successful real-estate seller. She should have a more professional look like Regina Mills from Once Upon a Time (who also has an abusive mother) rather than dress like a college student who is going to class or a part-time job. (A real estate agent who specialises in farms houses taking the bus does not really make sense either, but we will hand-wave that for that scene to happen.)

With Zoey Ragavan/Gangle you could argue that some of the things she says imply that she was from a model minority, but that is still a stretch. That reasoning could also be applied to Pomni which some fan artists have done. Moreover, Gangle like Gooseworx used to work in fast food so she is a self-insert of sorts as well. Gangle's VA, Marissa Lenti can be considered ethnically mixed, but her promotional pictures mostly show her in as pale a light as possible. The actress of Zoey, Mantra Radhakrishnan. is Desi so she clearly does not share her ethnicity with Marissa who is Irish, Italian and of West-Asian decent. However, Raghavan is at least a South Asian family name so the life action casting is actually accurate unlike Leroy Mateo's.

Zooble's background is kept completely vague, but implies white or a long established minority like Afro-American or Latin. Casting an Afro-American, AJ Noon, for Riley Verselis makes sense.

Ashley Nichols (Zooble) and Michael Kovach (Jax) are white and have made racially insensitive remarks / impressions. Them guffawing during a stream over a username in chat "Nega" that sounds like the N-word is a bad look particularly if you then put that on a T-shirt design for laughs. (Why is the N-word funny?) Sure, it was years ago, but they were both adults at the time and that is really unprofessional. Their apologies came across as strictly performative rather than sincere. Casting people of colour for their characters feels doubly disingenuous in that light.

If Gooseworx were not a trans indie creator, people would not give her pass on this. There is no reason why they should. Independent does not mean insensitive or unprofessional. It is her choice to act like a PR disaster for her profession, employer and the trans community.

Glitch should really work on their professionalism in regards to managing the people they work with and their image. They are in desperate need of professional HR, PR and Marketing. At this point, their flagship TADC is pretty much a case study about how to bungle diversity, representation and any sensitive subject. In the current climate, it is almost miraculous what they are getting away with.

This vid explains why therapy does not fix abusers.
It made me think of Jax and certain toxic parts of the fandom. It explains why it bothers me so much when people just expect Pomni and every other character to just play therapist and help Jax heal in stead of enforcing healthy boundaries and presenting consequences.

How does Jax's long track record of torture make him any better than AIM, exactly?

https://youtu.be/ULUN_t62AVg?t=420
It has been established that the characters feel physical pain. In the Beach episode, Zooble names some of the worst things Jax has done to her/them: run over by a steamroller, set on fire, thrown into an active volcano, sent a pipebomb and have Gangle torn apart by Piranhas. So that is crushed, exploded, torn apart and two instances of being burned alive (if you land on hot lava you float on the surface and catch fire.) Those are worst pains humans can feel. Zooble says “I could go on and on.” The fact that the characters cannot die and heal everything means that he can do this to others all the time and does.

Jax’s bullying and none stop emotional abuse are enough to qualify him for villainhood. However, his physical abuse of the other circus members is monstrous. He tortures them in the most gruesome ways for funsies. His villain speech to Pomni in They all get Guns is accurate. He obviously enjoys making them suffer.

Moreover, Yapperoony’s vid Stop Defending Jax, made me realise that the family friendly filter is actually a blessing to Gangle until she falls for Zooble. Jax constantly bullies and sexually harasses Gangle. Caine’s family friendly filter at least makes sexual violence impossible. It is hereby my head cannon that the circus crew & Caine make non-consensual acts impossible after the ending in some way.

The other characters save Pomi from going down with Jax. It is likely, that Pomni only touched Jax for a few moments from their perspective. Their priority was to save her and contain him humanely. I do not think that they ever considered saving him a worthwhile possibility and they probably consider Pomni’s actions misguided. They are too kind to celebrate Jax’s abstraction, but it would be justified if they had.

I think Jax is a well-written character, specifically a well-written villain. I feel compassion for him. I do not object to how the show is written. I take issue with the very vocal part of the Jax fandom that defends or ignores every truly horrific thing he does. He never apologises or makes amends for anything. His regrets are meaningless until Pomni witnesses them, because they do not translate into any meaningful action.