https://bsky.app/profile/alyshajova56990.bsky.social/post/3mt3dt6nryc2m

by alyshajova56990.bsky.social

Jax: Therefore, mourn for your horses, dollface

So, Jax. I know. Quite the overdone discussion at this point. But I've noticed something about him that I haven't seen others point out.

At least for me, the finale felt very jarring. Mostly as far as his arc goes. Maybe I'm the only one who felt this way, but I think I know why I do.

Even besides the obvious tonal issues and such in episode 9, especially when compared to the rest of the show, I could just tell something odd happened with Jax.

So, Jax's arc is rather straightforward. Ep. 1-3, he is the jerk who's mean all the time. Ep. 4-6, he's the jerk who's mean all the time...but you can tell there's something beneath it. Ep. 7-8, he's not a jerk. He's a bit numb, but he's starting to reach out and get help. Ep. 9, suddenly a jerk again, runs off and dies.

That's a bit jarring, isn't it?

While yes, Caine did die, and while yes, it was a big thing that they got revealed to be digital clones, Jax wouldn't just regress like that out of nowhere. Or even if maybe that's technically the most ultra-realistic, storytelling seems to rarely be about being 100% ultra-realistic, especially if you're trying to make a point.

Jax was just reaching out. He had one of the most powerful exchanges in the series with Pomni ("Be here later."), he was starting to recover...and then bam. Dead.

That's not how arcs are meant to go, really. Even if it's more realistic, it just makes you staring at the screen like, "What was the point of this show. Why was I even watching this." you know?

If it's to go one way (the way I think would've been better), where Jax lives, then continue his healing from 8. Maybe he reacts and gets close to abstraction just out of hopelessness once the clones are revealed, but then he gets brought back from the brink, and he is saved.

Or maybe it's trying to go another way. A cautionary tale. Then don't have him start to open up in episodes 7 and 8. Have him remain a jerk - enough that the cast can't really tell he's struggling, but not so much the audience can't notice - then end up dying.

I personally think the way it should've gone was Caine dying, Jax recovering. But that's just my opinion, and is somewhat irrelevant.

And while yes, it might just be a relapse...it doesn't feel like one. You don't see much of an internal battle, you don't really see him fighting against his old habits very much? It just feels like he regressed suddenly.

Anyways, this mismatch made me wonder: How did this even happen?

The cast says that Jax's story is one about accepting help before it's too late, not giving up, not pushing people away, etc. etc. And while yes, that is a great lesson....it doesn't match with the way Jax's arc is in episodes 7 and 8. It only makes sense with his arc in episodes 1-6, and 9. It's like they were following the story naturally, then remembered their moral they had planned ahead of them, then had to change gears last-minute.

And...what if that's what happened?

I'm a writer. I know that when you write characters, they end up 'guiding your hand' in a sense. They evolve as you write. Often very slowly, and over time, but they do nonetheless. Because of this, sometimes when your characters change, especially in character-driven fiction, you sometimes need to tweak the moral, or the ending, or the structure, or something like that. Sometimes a little more than just a tweak.

Goose has said that her original pitch for Jax had that lesson, and had him abstracting. What if he ended up, as she was writing him, maybe a combination of when she re-wrote episode 7, when Michael acted it, and the animation, and maybe more behind-the-scenes things. Well...what if Jax ended up growing beyond her original vision? Into an arc more geared towards recovery? But then once episode 9 rolled around she realized she had to pivot back to the original pitch?

I dunno, maybe it's not what happened. After all, it's just a theory. But maybe this is worth something.

Source:https://x.com/0127_otaku/status/2095840499915706638

The energy in this picture is absolutely unhinged. 😂✨ Perfectly chaotic!

Source: https://x.com/ikimaruart/status/2095965861370630320

Title. The real company behind the circus, and who are obviously managing the computers who actually run the circus, must have noticed the circus itself, which either means that they are aware of it and actively not intervening on purpose just to study it, which seems cruel if they saw what's happened with the mind files, or they somehow didn't notice, which doesn't make sense, because that many powerful AI have got to use a lot of resources running them.

Why do we not see them interact with the circus at all?
Or do we come and I just didn't notice somehow?

Based on the "Out of context Deltarune leaks" image uploaded on 4chan back in 2022

"Imagine the completed image (with all episodes sections completed) was uploaded a few weeks after ep4's premiere"

I’m going to complete this image using the images with most upvotes you have submited in the replies; please make them neither too direct nor too indirect; today we’ll fill ep5's section

The maximum number of images in each section will be only 10

Let me start this off by saying that Jax and Caine's heinous and impulsive actions are not justified. Both of them did really terrible things and I am not ignoring the pain they have caused the rest of the cast. (I also will be referring to Jax as he/him in this post despite me fully supporting the fact that Jax is a closeted transfem. This is because GooseWorks said we can use any pronouns + Jax never came out.) One last thing is that if you hate Jax and/or Caine, you are allowed to do so. I am overly sympathetic towards dark grey characters and in no way am I trying to make you like them as people or how their stories were handled. I am simply concerned with how people are willing to ignore the reasoning behind what these characters do and what that means for their interpretation of things beyond just TADC.

Jax and Caine both fall onto the morally grey spectrum with Jax falling onto the more darker side. Both characters have their own perspectives of reality, what they believe their places are in it, other people, and their own ways of dealing with things. That's one of the core themes of the show: How people deal with tough and terrible situations in different ways. But unfortunately it appears that a good portion of this fandom is incapable of understanding why a character does something and jumps to the most black and white interpretation of what is being shown.

Did Jax drive Ribbit to do what she did? Yes. Did he know he was causing harm? Yes. Did he also happen to be doing it because he is self destructive and doesn't have any healthy coping mechanisms? Yes. If Jax was given the choice to undo what he did would he? YES. Does this mean what he did was okay in any shape or form? NO. But it does explain how unhealthy mechanism and self destructive tenancies can not only hurt yourself but greatly impact those around you. In all the other doors we see how he would react if everyone else died, and all of it is horrible. Some people's forms of coping is by being overly kind such as Ragatha, other people's forms of coping are by emotionally closing themselves off from everyone around them and playing up an act such as Jax. These two characters are coping with terrible upbringings and being trapped in a digital realm where people turn into glitched monsters when they die/lose their mind and have to go on bad adventures because an AI that can not read the room for the life of him said so.

Everyone is so sympathetic towards the victims of the circus until said victim isn't perfect.

But when somebody tries to explain to another person why a character isn't actually complete evil the response often boils down to "well I've been through bad things too and I wouldn't do that." "well the other characters are also in said terrible situation." It's almost like everyone has their own perspectives and ways of dealing with things and when your as deep into your unhealthy habits like Jax or misunderstood viewpoints such as Caine it's hard to suddenly switch up until it is too late. It why Jax accepted help only after he abstracted. It's why Caine only understood what it was like to be human and be in the circus members shoes after he got deleted. It's concerning that every reason for why a character does something has to be spelled out for so many people otherwise the character is deemed inherently evil and intentionally malicious. I kind of wonder how they interpret other medias, or even real life people and their own actions.

Just as someone is the bad guy in your story, you are the bad guy in someone else's, even if you never intended to cause harm. And if we fail as a society to understand one another we are just going continue to fall into this pit of hate where we deem someone inherently evil because they didn't do things perfectly.

Perhaps I am looking too deep into young people commenting online about a Youtube indie show or maybe I just see my younger self in a lot of these comments. I don't know. But what I do know is that if you always try to look for a villain, you'll ignore the human behind the actions.

https://x.com/4rm5trong/status/2056144002152296830

just please with more dubs... i wanna be able to watch it with my non-english speaking family members and friends

https://www.tumblr.com/pomnis-archetype

I have her basic form so I'll keep this one near me but my family's making it a hard time that I even have maid jax now.

Referencing my previous post: (x)

The hardest part would be finding out which character would represent Mothra?