The Clock Up Kids

Do you know what cartoon creator also made a self-insert? John Kricfalusi, the creator of Ren and Stimpy. In the Adult Party Cartoon, he makes it very obvious that Ren Hoek is his stand-in character, and it paints an incredibly dark picture of how John operates in real life, especially when you consider that he was a sex pest who harmed underaged girls.

Gooseworx used Jax to explore a dark part of herself for the sake of a creative narrative and to send a message to people who are like her. Kricfalusi used Ren to indulge his darkest fantasies and impulses and broadcast them to audiences everywhere.

I know people like to shit on Gooseworx for her flaws, but at least she's woman enough to admit her flaws, unlike Kricfalusi, who's such a fucking pussy-ass little bitch that he'd rather die than admit he's wrong about anything.

In case you're wondering why I sound especially nasty about Kricfalusi? I used to talk to him years ago on AOL Instant Messenger, before I found out how much of a freak he was. He almost groomed me. I only got away from him because I realized early on what a fucking man child he is, and it disgusted me so much that I ghosted him. I was only 18 at the time!

Jax is a transgender character written by a transgender woman who's identity and worldviews shape their behavior. Just because that behavior is that of an asshole does not make it bad rep. I know we here in the queer community hate the idea of other queers being bad people but here's the thing- sometimes trans people are bad people. Being trans does not absolve you of being an asshole.

Don't you DARE speak ill of Bon-chan!

Reading these posts I’m tempted to do it ngl

Seriously, why are these people unable to grasp that this is said by a version of Pomni from Jax’s imagination because that’s what *he* thinks Pomni wants to do to him: "fix" him? Is it that hard to get that line in particular is played for laughs?

A bad person doesn't need to suffer in order to 'earn' empathy, someone doesn't need to be punished in order to be more than just one thing, compassion isn't a transactional process.

A story that asks you to see someone's humanity and pain isn't the same as condoning the behavior, there is no punishment quota that needs to be met before someone can be empathized with.

Jax wasn't a good person but that doesn't automatically make her experience as an abuse survivor null and void. She perpetuated that cycle and was awful to those around her, but she was still victim to that cycle, and those two concepts are not mutually exclusive.

And we see multiple times that Jax was offered a way out. She had so many opportunities to talk to Ribbit, to apologize and start over, but she rejected every single one and that is on her. She doubled down and tripled down and more and more until she was six feet under.

A bad person doesn't need to suffer in order to 'earn' empathy, someone doesn't need to be punished in order to be more than just one thing, compassion isn't a transactional process.

A story that asks you to see someone's humanity and pain isn't the same as condoning the behavior, there is no punishment quota that needs to be met before someone can be empathized with.

Jax wasn't a good person but that doesn't automatically make her experience as an abuse survivor null and void. She perpetuated that cycle and was awful to those around her, but she was still victim to that cycle, and those two concepts are not mutually exclusive.

Believe me, I have seen people using Jax's mom as an example of "the show/Gooseworx being misogynistic", to the point of calling Jax's backstory "sobslop", her a "serial woman killer/abuser" and her mother "another fridged woman for Jax's sobstory". I have seen way too many more people than I'd like to admit "theorizing"(in quotation marks, because real theorizing requires understanding and acknowledging the text and basing the theory on it, rather than outright denying it) that she left some things "purposefully vague" or even outright lied "to draw sympathy towards her/himself", or that she actually strangled her mom the same way she strangled Pomni in that Ragatha Abstraction sequence (talk about missing parallels...). I have seen at least two people say "Good for Jax's father, I'd leave if he was my child too".

That's why I made the original post.

I wish I had your luck.

And yes, excusing her own abusive behavior is shitty. She was as much of an abuser as her mother.

But I don't see that (excusing her abuse) as a point the show makes.

I see where the Pomni thing comes from, but I don't really agree with it. Pretty much every interaction between them post-Epidode 6 and pre-Jax's Abstraction is Pomni letting Jax know she can talk with her, but only if she truly lets herself. And this is in a period where Jax isn't in the mood to be his abusive self. Or to do anything, for that matter. Had Caine not pulled the Abel trick, Jax's last interaction with Pomni would have been their fight, and with anyone, Zooble telling her that she should talk with the group if she has problems of her own. Without letting her forget they (Zooble) still hold grudges against her.

(Using "he/him" pronous for Jax in the next paragraph to make it less confusing.)

Pomni's arc with Jax wasn't about forgiving him, it was about letting him know she knew about his issues and that she wanted to help him with them only if he let her help, and Jax didn't until it was too late.

Remember watching this Spanish reaction when it first came out, in the scene where Jax tells Ribbit his backstory, Nico (the reactor) comments: "That's the worst thing you can do to someone who's confessing something to you. It's a complete betrayal to that person's feelings and on top of that, you send mixed signals by hugging them like nothing happened."

Then I think: That's kind of what Jax did throughout the show.

Then it hits me like a train:

Jax's mother laughed at him for opening up to her (very probably about being trans) and mocked his feelings, then hugged him like she'd done the right thing.

Jax, throughout the show and via his "archetypes" coping mechanism, repeatedly and consistently made fun of everyone's feelings by reducing them to funny cartoon quirks, then somehow didn't expect Gangle to be happier with Zooble and not want to be in his team nor Pomni to call him a "villain" in Gun Episode.