Jax and Gangle's relationship is SO fascinating to me because like. Obviously he is awful to her. He's bullying her constantly to the point where she's afraid that saying no to him means he'll attack her physically.
But like. this scene in Episode 5. It's so fucking fascinating.
Jax doesn't make any jokes during this entire conversation. He seems to be completely 100% serious. Honestly, he seems confused by this, maybe a little concerned.
Continuing from episode 4, he seems to be opening up to Pomni almost without thinking. It seems to happen when he's in very "normal" and non-violent situations– stuck in a long work shift, stargazing on a hill (though the memories of Ribbit may be helping him open up here). So if he's being serious, he previously thought that Gangle didn't have the capacity to be happy, due to her avatar gimmick. Knowing from ep6 that his coping mechanism is "everyone is an archetype," this makes sense; if she's the sad one, then it's not cruel to be mean to her. She's supposed to be sad. Her being sad is part of who she is.
But then when Ragatha says, "Maybe she doesn't want to hang out with someone who's mean to her all the time," he responds with, "She likes when I'm mean to her." And his facial expressions? Literally show that he is not joking or making light of things when he says this. It seems like he 100% believes this.
The way he looks back at Ragatha, at first his eyes are wide and a bit confused. He lowers his brows, doesn't smile, and still ends up looking at her as if he doesn't understand what she's talking about.
Pomni says, "I didn't think you cared about what other people liked," and he starts to answer before getting closed-off and defensive like always.
It seems oddly genuine. The second image, his brows are furrowed, he looks sad. The third image, as he glances at Pomni, it really looks like he does care, but as soon as he sees her reaction, his walls jump back up and he has to go back to his archetype.
I think the archetype worldview is really what's doing this to him. He made himself the Funny One, and if it's something he likes doing, then it doesn't hurt him to be less than human in here. So he's projecting those feelings onto everyone else. Ragatha likes being happy. Zooble likes being grumpy. Gangle likes being sad. Because she's the sad one, she needs to be the sad one, to the point where he calls her "saddy" in the next episode directly. I think her deciding to partner with Zooble didn't bother him because he genuinely wanted to partner with Gangle, I think it bothered him cause it was the beginning of his worldview breaking down. Zooble made Gangle happy, which meant that she could be happy, which meant that she could be more than one thing. Which meant that he had been unnecessarily cruel to her, and that was something he couldn't process at the moment.
[I've also seen the interpretation that Ribbit liked when he was mean to her, and he's projecting her onto Gangle, which also is a big oof.]
Honestly, I feel like that's also why he's obsessed with Pomni. At first, her archetype seems to be "the scared one." She's new, she's terrified of everything, jumps at her own shadow, etc. He treats her like a fun new toy until the end of Episode 3, and I think that's when things shift. Because she's thrown into the "hardcore level" of a haunted house adventure, one she's already said she does not want to do and is terrified of, and she's stuck the entire time with the character who Jax believes is fully insane and thus will be of no help to her, if not a hindrance. But then she comes out of it completely calm, smiling, being nice to Ragatha. He even tries to prompt her at the end of the episode, but his face falls when she says it "wasn't that bad."
His reaction is to look to Kinger in utter bewilderment, then look back at Pomni. When she's still okay, he rolls his eyes, but then he looks off to the side with his eyes tilted towards each other. Like he's a little bit upset. And at first you could chalk this up to him loving carnage and pain, but I think it's because Pomni's suddenly broken her "archetype." She had a good time in the Scary Adventure, with someone who should've been a burden to her. By next episode, he's joking about giving her a unicorn horn and talking to her casually at the register. I think it's because of the end of this episode. He's trying to figure her out. Okay, she's not the scared one, he needs to figure out what she is.
When he says she's "the one who hasn't figured that out yet" in ep6, it's because he hasn't figured her out yet. He's lowkey obsessed with her from episodes 4-6 because he wants to figure her out. Then she tries to figure him out, starts treating him like he's real, and he needs to push her away as fast as possible before that can happen.
She's acting like she's still a real human, and that scares him. Because if she's still a real human, then he's still a real human, and all of his actions have consequences. Gangle actually doesn't like being sad. Ragatha actually has emotions other than "relentlessly positive." Zooble has the ability to have fun and enjoy themself.
That's why he freaks out when Kinger starts talking normally in episode 8. Because that's the last of his coping mechanism crumbling around him. They aren't archetypes, they're real people, he's causing real harm to others AND himself. And without a coping mechanism, he has to face the fact that he's trapped, can never return to his old life, is in a place he hates forever, AND that the two best friends he made in this Circus are DEAD. Possibly because of him, considering he lets it slip to Pomni that he thinks "everyone" blames him for the abstractions. (Plus, whatever happened to him or whatever he did in the outside world that made him desperate to stay.) If he can't pretend they're cartoon characters with no depth anymore, he has to accept what has happened to him, and he is not prepared to do that. That's why he's gonna break this finale. Because he's the only one who hasn't, on any level, accepted what has happened to them.
but also in retrospect it is really really funny that this 22yo is bullying the hell out of a 26yo and a 30yo. Ragatha just ground him
turnnoffyourmind
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