There are SO many things to talk about the latest short that it's hard to know where to even start, but arguably the most shocking reveal (at least to me) is that J is an absolute party ANIMAL. Just look at her!
She drinks herself silly, sings bad karaoke, runs around like an idiot and just... goofs oof! In hindsight, assuming J's corporate persona was all there was to her feels almost mean, cause of course she has a silly side! It just comes as a shock cause up until now assuming that J was all-bussiness all the time, and that she had a hard time relaxing/goofing off because of it, felt like a natural assumption to make, when in reality it couldn't be farther from the truth!
It does beg the question, though. As far as Jdemption scenarios go, myself and I think mostly everyone in the fandom assumed that J's ideal state of being would be, well, employed: having a healthy work enviroment for once, without evil and intimidating rich folk or eldritch monstrosities posing the constant threat of torture or execution, surrounded by people who genuinely appreciate her for who she is.
But as it turns out maybe that's not what she needs at all. Maybe what she actually wants, nay, needs, deep down, is to be an unemployed CHUD. Maybe her actual ideal state of being is not slaving away at an officed desk, but rather getting blackout drunk and throwing parties 24/7.
What she needs isn't a healthy working enviroment, but a goddamn vacation
Trust me I’m preparing to do a BIG analysis on her newly-revealed behavior, but I do think her ideal state is still an employed professional. She made herself a corner office with a (fake) gorgeous view, and I don’t think she would’ve spent that much time building it up if she didn’t want it to some degree. Nor would she have lied to the others very specifically about working for a large company.
However, she’d absolutely enjoy a relaxed work schedule with some time off to do whatever she pleased! I was a bit wrong about her being a complete workaholic I’ll admit, but it would probably take her a couple months to adjust and realize she doesn’t have to be so anxious having to work and keep up a facade nearly 24/7.
Agreed! I imagine that at the start she might flip flop between "stressfully overworking" and "manic partying for days on end" as she struggless to strike a proper work/life balance now that she actually CAN, for once, have a reasonable work schedule that allows her to dedicate herself to something while also leaving free time for her to enjoy herself (and the company of others) without fear of missing quotas or being smited by Robo-Satan. So in a way the end goal remains the same, it's just that we're now aware that J *does* know how to have a good time, and there's a very real possibility she might go a bit bonkers for a while after earning her freedom before realizing that a lifetime of partying and lounging around isn't super fulfilling either.
That said, something a bit separate that I've started wondering now too... does J actually, genuinely like JcJenson that much? Or is she just playing up the "corporate bootlicker" thing as a facade to try and sell the illusion of the company's existence to the others (and herself)? When V gifts her a JcJ pen in the short, she seems confused for a second, like she doesn't *actually* care that much about the pens; she just PRETENDS to. Arguably the most memorable part of her character, her illogical love for this company we later learn is long dead and not even all that relevant to the plot, might not just be some funny quirk of hers but an aspect she actively plays up to others both as a coping mechanism and as a way to protect them from the truth! It could all be just another mask!!
I don’t necessarily disagree and I think it’s an interesting angle to consider!
Personally I think if it is at all a ruse, it might might be a Khan Doorman situation, where she was already autistic about corporate bullshit but the trauma kicked it into overdrive as a coping mechanism.
She does still actively decide to wear JCJenson merch instead of simply taking off her suit jacket and tie to relax (If Khan found a prom dress outside for Uzi, I’m sure she could have found some different clothes to chill in if she really wanted) AND she still talks in corporate lingo in the manor before all the bullshit- Tessa mentions the chains holding her are “unionizing” to rile her up and J yells that “this is an unrelated layoff!” Contrast this with V who, for the very little glimpse we saw of her active in the manor, behaved very differently than she did now, being kinder at the least, and maybe more shy and soft spoken. (The latter is admittedly fanon lol)
I think she’s always been Like That™️ but it got worse because the corporate and cold stuff served her current situation better than anything else. Like, she really doesn’t have much time to relax. The one time (the time we see anyway) that she tries Cyn ruins it for her.
It’s also fully believable to me that what we saw in the video may have been the first time she actually allowed herself that relaxation in a while, and she maybe only even allowed it because she was working on making that “video” for… someone(maybe she’s making a presentation just as enrichment lol)? I’d say the video part is noncanon but she is actively vlogging with a WD head LOL so I’m not sure. But anyway it might be that since she hasn’t done it in a while she went overboard.
Plus we don’t know how much robo-alcohol she’d downed if any at the point we cut to her partying- the belch makes me assume she’d already been drinking. Maybe she just turns into a party animal when she’s drunk 😂
