Original Character Lover

Okay I fear some of us are missing the point.

Yes there was a lot of misogyny and transphobia in jax's inner thoughts. It's because he has a lot of internalized misogyny and transphobia that he needs to work through. It wasn't character assassination.

Jax grew up in an environment where masculinity was violent and hated, and if he was anything less then a man then he was shamed and punished. He was forced into the shadow of his father and any choice he made (embrace it or fight it) was punished. His inner selves reflected that.

You had the trans femme side that couldn't let people know the truth, that she enjoyed being in the dress, in fear of ridicule. Because she never had a safe place to come out, because if she was less then a man she would be punished.

You had the sexist side that objectified women because that's what a man is supposed to do. That's what Jax is supposed to be. If he wasn't then he was punished by his mother. That was the part he was expected to play in the society that he grew up in.

Then there's the soft part that plays the piano. The closest to the real Jax, the one who gives Pomni the key, the one who is still chained. They're softer, kinder, and they're abused by the other sides of Jax. They aren't allowed a voice, just there to provide entertainment to the others.

With the finale out now I think a central theme that I've recognized and really adore is "all of these characters are more complex than an audience would appreciate." They are all being squished into a child-friendly set of archetypes, be that by Caine, Jax, or metatextually, the fandom. Caine doesn't want them complaining, swearing or having sex, they just have to go on endless, mindless, youtube-monetizable adventures. He's the ringmaster, he puts them in a bright poppy's playtime ass stage and demands for funny to happen. Meanwhile, Jax doesn't want to address the dire reality of their situation and copes by playing along, treating himself and all the characters as flat archetypes with no internality, so that the elephants in the room can safely be ignored. The fandom, meanwhile, is quietly guilty of all the same things. "Why isn't my favorite character acting in accordance with my headcanon? Which characters are flatly evil so we can hate them? Will they achieve my perfect happy ending? Because if not I'll be mad about it."

It doesn't work. Because they're more complex than that. They're people, they need more, they have emotions and traumas and wants and needs. Ragatha isn't always cheerful, she's not just the mom friend, and she's not some manipulator either. She's a person, trying her best, and very often failing. Pomni isn't always anxious, she's a natural leader and she wants the best for everyone, but she's not perfect either. She's a person, trying her best, and very often failing. And Jax isn't just a villain, he's a very complicated ball of traumas whose consistent first instinct is to push everyone away, hurting others so that he won't get hurt himself. He's a person, trying his best, and very often failing. She might even be a girl. Zooble isn't just a grump, Gangle isn't just a wimp, Kinger isn't just crazy. They're humans. And humans aren't always good. They're messy, screwed up, complicated things. They're things that can't be flattened down to archetypes, no matter how much Caine, Jax, or the fandom wants it.

The fandom wanted a bunch of cookie cutter adventures with good guys and bad guys, but what we got is just a bunch of people, stuck together, their traumas rubbing up against eachother until something catches fire and explodes. And I think that's way more interesting. I'm glad the show is that. I understand not everyone feels that way, though. A lot of people wanted something less nuanced. But I don't think the show not matching your expectations is the show's fault. I think people just need to come at it with the right mindset. Meet the story where it's at.

"oh so the trans character kills herself??? this show is transphobic" JESUS CHRIST YOU PEOPLE ARE INSANE. Jax repressed himself to the point of abstraction, then Pomni finds a way to reach him even through his broken mental state, and the gang puts him in a safe and comfortable blanket fort where s/he can relax and get his senses back in order without hurting himself or others. The other abstractions get to be seen being happy and at peace. No it's not IDEAL but it's basically like having a mental break that just needs some care and attention instead of Cellar. We do not see any Abstractions get fixed but the episode does leave it open-ended as to how much they will one day be able to be reached, and the characters have eternity to figure it out. Jax finally opens up to Pomni in that headspace and it's far from impossible she can still talk to him in this state.

it's also not like Jax is the only trans/queer character. Zooble is nonbinary/genderqueer and makes it through the entire show, is given emotional depth and weight to their own dysphoria and character struggles, and then gets to end the show with their human self opening a successful (implied) queer bar and their digital self having epic gay sex!! (entire theater cheered and clapped at that btw)

like. look me in the eyes. do you think that a trans woman show creator would write a trans woman character just to kill her out of malice?? like do you think she was maybe trying to say something with the abstractions and Jax's repression and the fact there is still hope and time for him and his human self?? are we operating on this level of media literacy or are we just looking for things to get mad at

Obviously the appeal of a kind, wounded veteran falling back in love with humanity and the universe opening up for a brilliant, but stifled woman has been obvious to me on previous watches, but I'm really enjoying what I feel their relationship has to say about humanity's relationship to the wider universe overall.

While they both feel like grounded characters with a very real, human dynamic, they also undeniably represent something more metaphorical to each other:

The Doctor is infinite and unknowable, cold and righteously violent, but also full of wonder and excitement, compassionate and self-sacrificing. He's Rose's gateway to the universe, both in a literal sense by taking her through time and space, but also by stretching her ideas of what's possible - expanding her perception of her own limitations and the effect her actions can have on people and events.

Rose, on the other hand, represents everything beautiful about humanity, even in her imperfections. She's empathetic and passionate and stubborn and curious, and cares so deeply about the rights and well-being of the individual, even at the expense of the whole. She can be infuriatingly partial and rash, but there's real beauty in how, to her, everyone seemingly small and insignificant has such desperate importance. It's a reality - that every person is a universe in and of themselves - that the Doctor has had to callous over in order to survive the Time War, and one she wakes him up to.

They both start the show similarly jaded - unaware of or apathetic to humanity's importance to any kind of greater schema - just from opposite ends. Zooming out a bit, the Doctor represents the perspective of a cold, indifferent universe, where individual humans are nothing but small, demanding blips in a much larger whole, and Rose is just an ordinary human, with seemingly nothing of real value to offer anyone outside her small circle of influence.

To me, it's a real metaphor for the depressive crisis of modern life: the oppressive, omnipresent perspective that the universe is big, vast, and uncaring. That there is no love or purpose there, just space dust and decay, and humanity will fade and die with nothing of real value being added. So you "get up, get dressed, go to work, eat chips, and go to bed" over and over and over again, all because there's nothing else. Right?

Except there isn't "nothing else." The universe is full of wonder, mystery, adventure, and joy. And it has wounds - wounds even a small human can help heal.

And every human is full to the brim with complexity, history, and meaning - each one of them containing a world of memory, thoughts, and sensations. Their lives can shape the course of reality, and each of their deaths is the death of a tiny universe.

And as both of them discover the other and realize this, they start to switch places. The Doctor struggles more and more with the decision to end even one life to save countless others, because he starts to see just what it is he's terminating, and Rose increasingly refuses to accept a bystander's role, even when faced with problems of a depth she hasn't been remotely equipped to handle.

By the end, the Doctor can't do it. He can't end a civilization to save the universe, even knowing the end won't be permanent, and that the civilization will likely die without him. He's become small, emotional - a "coward." He's a man rendered ineffectual to the universe by the depth of his empathy.

And Rose refuses to accept the life of safety and normality that he's gifted her, because, in this moment, it would require her to accept impotence in the face of a world-ending threat as well as the death of someone she loves. By now, both her and the audience see that she has so much more to offer than that - that the power and depth of her care can change time and space, as love, stubbornness, creativity and a giant truck transform her into a golden, god-like apparition of herself.

In the first season's finale, he isn't cosmically significant. He only matters because of one woman's love for him. And for just a moment, that woman is the entire universe.

It's a long and beautiful journey toward a simple thesis: humans do matter. Desperately.