Typography

But in real life, in the physical world, she's at Riley's bar. She's surrounded by other queer people. He killed himself but she's alive in a place hosted by the nonbinary person he resented. She has the community of other queer people that he rejected.

Went to go see the movie bout some pretty amazing digging

this was my favourite part

as we can see in the episode, what began as Jax and Ribbit eventually warming to each other, then including Kaufmo, then the three of them becoming close as a Trio?

Jax eventually begins focusing on protecting himself and his ego by first, pushing Ribbit away and excluding her and then doing the same with Kaufmo.

I strongly believe that Jax is the primary reason that Ribbit reached her breaking point and abstracted while with Kaufmo, Jax only contributed to his abstracting, with the other reason being the lack of an exit, exhibited by his walls in his room.

with this context? the earlier episodes get so much deeper. Ragatha wanting to keep Pomni away from Jax, wanting to build a bond with her and protect her and being concerned about her… when the last person she got that kind of close with was arguably Ribbit. Ragatha watched Jax and Ribbit grow close and then fall apart until eventually, she abstracted.

Ragatha legitimately views Jax as a threat, and yet, there are moments where she won’t let herself be a jerk or pull away (even when she probably really should) because, her pathological need to people please due to her upbringing, combined with her observing abuse/neglect/pushing people away = abstraction… won’t let her. She won’t/can’t lose anyone else.

Something else that’s interesting is Episode 5, which actively pits Ragatha and Jax against each other at multiple points for Pomni’s affection… but you’ve got Jax getting close with Pomni while toying with Ragatha, and Ragatha sending Pomni words of affirmation and positivity while trying to push Jax away from her.

“you’re doing great, Pomni!” and then “i’m sorry Pomni… that wasn’t very cool of me.”

“i thought a position of power suited you!” and then an apology followed up by “wow, the first steps of a budding friendship, right, Ragatha?”

While it was obvious at the time? with the context of episode nine, it’s even clearer how bad Ragatha wants to protect Pomni and be close with her and almost save her from Jax, whereas with Jax? it’s almost like he’s trying to recreate the connection he lost with Ribbit… but he repeats the same mistakes. He’s doomed to make the same mistakes because his behaviour is self-destructive and destructive to everyone around him.

and if we take a look back at episode 6? Ragatha actively calls Jax out for trying to corrupt Pomni… and he tries to attack her, not because it’s the game, but because it’s clear that he knows that’s her belief about what happened with Ribbit. Jax corrupts people. His behaviour breaks people.

I don't see Jax abstracting as a punishment by the narrative for her behaviour. If anything, abstraction actually absolves her of real consequences that could be dealt had she faced Gangle or Ragatha and apologised.

Jax says it herself "I did this to myself". She kept pushing others away, hurting them, even as they kept reaching for her (and Pomni, unlike Ribbit, Kaufmo and Ragatha, had never seen her be anything other than a jerk and yet she cared).

I think the key difference between her and Caine (whose redemption still had to be rushed, I don't think it was great either) is that Caine finally reaches out to try to understand the humans better. Jax, on the other hand, never did despite the many many opportunities given to her. It's the cautionary tale of someone struggling and constantly refusing the help and support everyone around them gives them.