moonbow

I have been thinking these past few days about why the discourse around Jax infuriates me so much when I don’t even like her. Some points that I’ve seen repeated over and over again to justify that Jax isn’t a complex character is stuff like:

“He doesn’t have any redeeming qualities”

“The show is trying to make me feel sympathy for him when he doesn’t deserve it”

“His backstory isn’t even sad enough for him to be doing all that when other characters had it worse” (NOT justifying his behavior, but this one especially angers me A LOT bc they usually water down Jax’s trauma to “a divorce and a fight with his mom”, underestimating how much emotional incest can fuck you up in so many aspects).

And it got me thinking: why are people so obsessed with having ALL characters be redeemed and have a happy ending when that is clearly not the story that the creator wants to tell with this character in particular?

And then I realized that this entire discourse is just Jasper-from-Steven-Universe discourse repackaged a decade later.

Their characters are meant to contrast with the rest of the cast. They hate themselves so much to a point where they refuse to get help from those around them, even from that one person that does not want to give up on them. While the rest of the characters have their own hardships and traumas but end up learning to deal with them and to grow through the help of others, Jax and Jasper tell the story of broken people who refuse to get help and turn to hurting/abusing those around them in response, continuing the cycle of abuse.