Untitled

Angel Caine wasn't ever able to go down to Earth to learn how things works and being a guardian angel. Every angels do this at some point until you are promoted. (Like Kinger)

It make him mad he was denied something like that he studied for a long time but the higher ups just don't see him being capable.

Deep inside they just don't like him and make excuses + because he is Kinger's lover, they're spiteful.

They just also don't trust him they feel something is wrong with him. And his intentions don't feel legit Bubble told the higher ups.

Maybe they were right after all, he wanted to go to Earth, being a guardian angel? Not really, doesn't really care honestly about looking after humans.

What he desired was just explore the world. Look at all the wonders and how better it is down there compared to Heaven will ever be.

Don't worry though he DID go on Earth with Kinger in SECRET.

Kinger didn't want to at all since he was breaking rules but he gave in since Caine just begged and begged.

They sneakily went to Earth from time to time, sometimes Kinger show him how to be a guardian angel or just.. to travel around.

Look at everything, look at the wonders. The ocean, the sunset view. Everything was beautiful.

They had actual peace for once too if no angels were nearby doing their jobs.

Just them alone with humans that can't see them. Or truly alone in beautiful places all around the world. Everything was new, not the same boring clouds you saw every corners in Heaven.

Caine began to understand humans better since Kinger taught him on how to be a guardian angel and give miracles to people that are struggling.

Well he honestly feel like a human sometimes by how unfair he is being treated for being better.

Either way, Earth was the place he wanted to be.

That was truly paradise and Caine took the lead too since Kinger never went farther than look after humans. There was way more than that.

Look at these animals around. Look at these butterflies and bees!

Sometimes they reach Heaven but it's not that common so seeing them everywhere was just fascinating.

Kinger took notes of these bugs as it will play an important part later to represent themselves. A bee and a butterfly.

They would stay on Earth a bit too long sometimes, I'm talking days. Having no worries about anything. Just the two of them, finally.

They keep this going until at some point, the higher ups noticed Kinger was missing from his tutoring.

He was never forced to tutor 24/7 but missing more than a few days was a reach.

His favorite students (tadc cast) was hiding about this to the higher ups too and making lies he was teaching them everyday.

They caught them at some point coming back to Heaven and well, of course Caine got all the blame and got punished for it.

He was making Kinger be a rebel which is a horrible sin to do.

The tadc cast also got punished for it but nothing severe like Caine's treatment.

Kinger hates how unfair his lover is being treated but he wasn't able yet to say his thoughts and deny the higher ups rules.

He would just.. stay on the side, begging first to not hurt him but his wish wasn't ever granted. He would just pray and hope Caine isn't suffering too much as they tell him to leave.

Caine comes back later to Kinger, crying and visibly hurt by who knows what physical punishments he got.

He hates this. He hates everyone. He doesn't want to have these negative feelings but he can't help it. Why does he get punished for something so harmless?

Kinger feel at fault, he never get the blame it's always Caine's fault.

His lover was just too troublesome for the higher ups, he keep breaking rules and having different thoughts. Doesn't matter if he's talented in what he does, he's not pure, he's not an angel to them. Just a failure that is only getting some mercy because he is the lover of the great wise angel.

(For those who care, I use he/him for Jax because while his transness is very much implied, he never transitioned in the story or got to pick other pronouns for himself, so I'm sticking to the text only.)

Unsympathetic asshole characters aren't anything new, and tragic characters that crash and burn for their own actions and refuse to change aren't either. But Jax feels like such a failure of what makes those characters interesting or engaging, even if we hate them, and I think I know why.

A lot of people complain we didn't get enough time with the other characters or lore answers, and I think that's missing the point.

TADC is a very functional story. I've seen people say that they enjoy the series because the characters aren't just archetypes but they are, because they all have a function to service the overall themes and the ultimate message of community, companionship and healing.

What Bubble was, why C&A existed and for what, why and how all the characters got into the Circus, all these things don't matter. The story is only concerned with the bare minimum context to justify the story and its setting. By the way, this is fine and normal and not a failure, just a type of narrative structure folks aren't used to these days anymore. Ep6 is a clear indication that these lore bits are irrelevant and overly focusing on them is missing the point.

Not to say people can't want these lore bits, but again, this is just not the kind of narrative that is interested in worldbuilding or going beyond the main themes and messages. It's a feature, not a bug.

So why do we get such a long exposition of Jax's sad wet cat backstory, beating the audience over the head about how sad and tragic he is, over and over, when we already know that his character is tragic?

The audience isn't stupid. Anyone would see where his character was headed ever since Ep5, and know for certain by Ep6 and Ep7. This is a person who will refuse to change to the bitter end, and that makes him tragic. He had every opportunity to change, to embrace people who show they care about him (at least enough to not see him abstract, it's one thing to want nothing to do with your abuser, it's another to watch them down and let it happen. The cast won't sink that low and that's their merit), and reach back to them.

And he doubles down against that kindness.

We all know someone like that. A toxic family member nobody wants to juggle in gatherings, a rancid schoolmate that nobody wants to partner with, a once group friend who has been pushed out by everyone and now the group smiles through gritted teeth at every mention of them. So with that experience, no one wants to afford much kindness to characters like that. If they do, then it's on the blind hope they might, oh God please let them, change for the better.

It's a fool's hope, but one that traps you into these people's orbit, and almost never pays off. Maybe Jax does a heel-turn redemption at the end, but that's not the kind of story this is. It's why everyone knows that no matter how much he may deserve what he got, that he did it to himself and it's no one else's fault, it's still a tragedy.

We had a much better and effective arc with Caine, who was also shown as tragic in his trauma, mistakes and misunderstandings, and then he did get a redemption. No one needed to whack us over the head on how sad and tragic he is, he didn't need to get a sad dead wife montage, and you absolutely didn't need to force the audience into his literal POV for several minutes of his most despicable actions and self-destructive thoughts, to incite some pity and sympathy for him.

The audience KNOWS this. Whether they sympathize or not is not up to the narrative to impose. All you need and should do as a writer, is to show that the tragedy of a missed opportunity for redemption was there, and let the audience decide how much grace they are willing to give them.

The audience was trusted to see his emotions and conflict, to see the threads of relatability in these character beats, and let us decide if we sympathized or not, liked him or not. Then it delivered his arc, the other characters reacted to it, and again left the audience to decide if it was sufficient or not.

Clean, purposeful, simple, and effective.

But Jax? Jax gets given several scenes and so much screen time to showcase all his failings, all his refusals for change, and over and over attempts to force us into sympathy for a character that likely mirrors someone who could very well have been someone's abuser. Someone who ruined their lives, someone who they haven't healed from, and we are forced to see through his eyes for some twisted pity party??

It's not just irresponsible storytelling, which is bad enough, it's a break from the very core and ethos of functionality of the series. You can't just establish that the narrative style is functional, where everything is there to serve a purpose for the themes, and then break that very principle to pander to a single specific character.

Because god forbid you trust the audience to understand that the tragic character is tragic.

Characters can be strictly plot devices if that's how you wish to write them as, but you have to do it for them all equally. When the cast are plot devices to service a single other character, especially when said character which is a prepertator of abuse to all said characters, then you're perpretating the narrative of abuse on a meta level.

You have to trust the audience to see the tragedy in it anyway, regardless of how they feel. It's when you don't trust the audience with their own feelings and reactions to a story and themes that you fail not only your story but your characters and your message.

You've fucked up, return to start, do not pass go, get back to the drawing board and maybe get some more therapy before trying again.