- Zee's nickname for Lauren is Doll because, in his words, she "looks like an antique porcelain doll from a pawn shop that might be possessed by a demon, but in a cute way."
- Lauren’s nickname for Zee is Bubbles. It's because of all the soda he drinks, but Zee thinks it's because Bubbles is his favorite Powerpuff Girl and Lauren doesn't have the heart to correct him.
- Both of them are physically affectionate, and their favorite thing to do as a couple is just sit down together and cuddle.
- While cuddling they enjoying watching some of Lauren’s favorite horror movies. If it's their first time seeing a movie they just watch it. On rewatches, Lauren starts listing off trivia about whatever they're watching and Zee hangs on to every word.
- Zee’s choice of cuddling activity is to listen to some music and just vibe. He prefers chilling to soft and prog rock like Steely Dan, Rush and King Crimson, but makes sure to include some of Lauren’s favorite metal bands like Blackbraid, Candlemass and King Diamond.
- Zee has a major sweet tooth, so Lauren often brings chocolate and/or candy along to their dates.
- When autumn rolls around, their dates consist almost exclusively of going to haunted houses. Lauren herself has experience volunteering at haunts, so knows the ins and outs and explains them all to Zee.
- After season two, Zee kept Olivia von TrashPanda as a pet, whom Lauren absolutely adores.
- Zee’s favorite physical feature of Lauren is her eyes, which he thinks are beautiful in that "painting in a haunted house where the eyes seem to follow you around the room" kind of way.
- Lauren loves hearing Zee’s stories about how he "lost his leg," especially the gory details.
Oh boy, this one really irks me.
Some of you might have seen posts in the main TADC subreddits recently claiming that Pomni totally didn't enable Jax's shitty behavior by pointing out the moments she did snap at him. (Ignoring the fact that almost all of those were when Jax's actions affected her rather than someone else, but that's a whole other topic.) Well when debating others in the comments of said posts, specifically those who pointed out Pomni almost never spoke up when Jax abused others like Gangle, OP actually started asking "Wait, did Pomni ever even see Jax bully Gangle?"
Like, holy shit. First off yes, Pomni did very well witness multiple instances of Jax being a dick to others, including Gangle. The whole reason she and Kinger wound up in the scary path of Mildenhal Manor was because Jax tossed Gangle's comedy mask away, he called Gangle a loser to Pomni's face in the anime adventure, and flat-out insisted to Pomni that Gangle "likes it when I'm mean to her" while stargazing, among other instances.
Second, is this really where we're at with the Jax defense? By trying to claim our main character is blind, deaf and dumb? That Pomni is apparently incapable of noticing Jax's blatant abuse? Again, how she reacts to that abuse when she's not the target is an issue unto itself, but to try to shift blame by claiming she didn't even know Jax was bullying others is downright insulting.
Oh boy, this one really irks me.
Some of you might have seen posts in the main TADC subreddits recently claiming that Pomni totally didn't enable Jax's shitty behavior by pointing out the moments she did snap at him. (Ignoring the fact that almost all of those were when Jax's actions affected her rather than someone else, but that's a whole other topic.) Well when debating others in the comments of said posts, specifically those who pointed out Pomni almost never spoke up when Jax abused others like Gangle, OP actually started asking "Wait, did Pomni ever even see Jax bully Gangle?"
Like, holy shit. First off yes, Pomni did very well witness multiple instances of Jax being a dick to others, including Gangle. The whole reason she and Kinger wound up in the scary path of Mildenhal Manor was because Jax tossed Gangle's comedy mask away, he called Gangle a loser to Pomni's face in the anime adventure, and flat-out insisted to Pomni that Gangle "likes it when I'm mean to her" while stargazing, among other instances.
Second, is this really where we're at with the Jax defense? By trying to claim our main character is blind, deaf and dumb? That Pomni is apparently incapable of noticing Jax's blatant abuse? Again, how she reacts to that abuse when she's not the target is an issue unto itself, but to try to shift blame by claiming she didn't even know Jax was bullying others is downright insulting.
Since I did this mene for All-Stars and Pahkitew, figured I'd complete the trifecta.
For context, haruspicy is the practice of divining the future by reading spilled entrails of sacrificed animals. But even an evil Dawn wouldn't dare harm one of Mother Earth's creatures. Now a person, on the other hand...
I'm genuinely asking. The adventure itself was fake, and it wasn't some big turning point for how the others view Jax since NO ONE is mad at him for seemingly choosing to keep them all trapped.
Well, Zooble was for about 5 seconds, but then the narrative was like "Nah we don't have time for that." If there were no consequences for Jax or for anyone, what the fuck was even the point of having him snap and try to keep then trapped??
Someone please explain this to me like I'm an idiot.
(Wrote this for the CharacterRant sub and realized I never shared it here)
One of my biggest gripes with TADC is also the simplest: Jax only became the secondary main character halfway through the show.
For the first four episodes, TADC was more of the ensemble show it was billed as. The first two episodes focused mainly on Pomni, the third on Kinger (with a Zooble sideplot), and the fourth on Gangle. Throughout all this, Jax was no more important than anyone else. He was just off to the side with the other characters doing their own thing while the episodes mainly centered around the aforementioned focus characters.
Jax didn't start truly getting character focus until the 5th episode. (Which according to creator Gooseworx was *supposed* to be Ragatha-focused and instead was more of Jax *and* Ragatha, but that's a whole other issue.) It's not until episode six that finally puts a spotlight on Jax. After that, the rest of the series is primarily about Jax's issues of self-loathing and Pomni trying to break down his walls and reach out to him.
This is just my opinion, but to me, it's bad writing to make one member of an ensemble cast into one of the main characters midway through your series' very limited runtime. It's like if the 2016 Suicide Squad started out with Deadshot and Harley Quinn as the main focus characters, only suddenly focused on Killer Croc's backstory and motivations halfway through the movie; even if it *is* compelling, it's a jarring shift that hurts the narrative overall because it wasn't presented early enough for veiwers to emotionally connect with Croc.
And that's not even getting into the fact that the narrative's focus on Jax in the latter half of the show meant that all of the other character subolots - Kinger's guilt over creating the Circus and losing his wife, Pomni and Ragatha's rocky relationship, Ragatha's issues in general, Gangle's anxiety, Zooble's body dysphoria and more - end up getting comparatively little screentime.
... if the TADC hadn't pivoted away from being an ensemble show to focus mainly on Jax and his issues.
Like with any form of media, my opinions surrounding Jax and how the show handled him are subjective. There are plenty of fans who love Jax, who see what the show was going for with him, and who see his final fate as a tragedy. And you know what? Good for them! I'm happy they got something from the show that I didn't. But for those of us that aren't fans of Jax, whether it's because we actively hate him or other characters just interested us more, what do we get?
Also on the topic of subjective opinions: I'm not gonna tell anyone they're wrong for liking Jax, but I will absolutely fight people who claim he was "always a main character" or that "TADC was never an ensemble show" because that's a load of crap. Up until midway through the series, the show was absolutely an ensemble, with early episodes having one or two characters as a major focus. Jax may have gotten slightly more screentime in the pilot, but no more so than Ragatha. And he did very little in the next three episodes, to the point where he literally spent most of episode 3 bound and gagged. It wasn't until episodes 5 and especially 6 that Jax really started to come into focus (even though episode 5 was supposed to be a Ragatha episode according to Goose, but that's beside the point), and after that the story shifts gears to give Jax more of the spotlight. To the point where most of the grand finale is all about diving into Jax's past and exploring his issues, while the rest of the cast gets a few minutes at most for each.
Like if the show had focused less on Jax in the latter half, or maybe gave us an extra episode to delve more into the others (or hell, just make that episode 7 instead of the whole Abel plot that only exists to make fun of people who dared to theorize about the lore), then when the show was all over I probably would've been like, "Well I didn't care much for Jax's plotline, but I really like what they did with the others." Instead Jax became the primary focus, which is great if you were invested in Jax's arc and backstory. But if you're like me and were interested in Gangle, Ragatha and Zooble's characters and struggles? Well, sucks to be us, I guess.
Was having a debate about this on a different thread and wanted to make my own to give my own thoughts. I'm not claiming to speak for everyone who claims Pomni "enables" Jax, I'm just giving my own opinion.
Having said that, do I think Pomni enables Jax? Eh... yes and no.
For me, my issues lies not in the fact that Pomni is encouraging Jax to be an abusive bully, but rather that she isn't doing much to stop him. Pomni plainly witnesses how Jax mocks, insults and physically abuses the others. Yet she doesn't once try to take any steps to curb this behavior, not even so much as a simple "Jax, knock it off."
To be clear, I completely understand why Jax is the way he is, that deep down he hates himself, doesn't know how to handle his feelings, and it's causing him to make bad choices and hurt others. I get that. But that's the thing: he is hurting others; see that whole famous speech from Gangle in episode six about how Jax's abuse makes her feel like she's "just his toy." Pomni may not have been there for that moment specifically, but she's not blind and deaf: she can still see how he treats Gangle, Ragatha and the rest, and does nothing to actively stop Jax.
Couple that with specific moments like Pomni telling Ragatha to calm down when Ragatha tries calling Jax out, plus Pomni's now-infamous "We've all done bad things" comment, I feel like that's where people get the idea that Pomni is "enabling" Jax: not in the sense that she's encouraging him to be an abusive jackass, but that she didn't do enough to actively stop him from abusing others.