Garlic Noodle | TADC SPOILERS

Though I was theorizing it would get confirmed by the end, Ragatha and Jax being ex-friends always made perfect sense for why their dynamic is the way it is. But even then, I find it crazy how the series has Ragatha not only confirm this and refer to Ribbit as “losing ANOTHER friend” (implying she was also friends with Kaufmo and Ribbit) but they don’t even bother showing her interacting with him or them in a flashback?

I’ve been seeing the term “media literacy” being thrown around against responses (mostly neutral-negative ones) of the TADC finale and I have to say…do some people know what media literacy actually is?

One thing that always intrigued me about Jax was why he was the way he was. I was always fond of the idea that Jax’s antagonistic behavior was not just a result of a troublesome human life but an example of how the Digital Circus could ruin a person’s humanity and mental health. How being a young adult trapped in a digital purgatory for several years of your life constantly subjected to dehumanization and grief over loved ones can lead you to lose yourself. How Jax, instead of finding ways to heal over time with people who cared about him, decided to embrace treating everything like it’s a game out of fear of being hurt again. He would dehumanize himself and others as a way to cope, despite harming real life people, including the ones who witnessed him as an entirely different and kinder person (such as his ex-friend Ragatha and Kinger). How would this parallel Kinger’s ability to cope maturely and manage to try to humanize the world around him? How would this parallel Ragatha’s behavior of being kind to others and putting their health over hers to prevent their abstractions? How will our main protagonist, Pomni, find her footing and would she fall prey to his dangerous philosophy? Will Jax remain the person he is now and what led him down this path?

While I can definitely see Jax as a cautionary tale about not opening up to change and bettering themselves, I felt like this idea could have been represented in a better manner. To have a confirmed suicidal character abstract rather than to grow as a person, especially in a show with themes of mental health and finding meaning in life, feels tragic and not in a meaningful sense. It feels tragic for the sake of tragedy, rather than intertwining with what the early show was praised for.