Hgrhgh. You are compelling me into the Ragatha/Pomni weeds. Or at least, into throwing a selection of my Ragatha/Pomni lawn trimmings at you. I'm sorry in advance! I've thought about this Too Much the past couple weeks. I've written a few pages of cliff notes just trying to get it square for myself. I even thought maybe I'd try and get it tidy for posting somewhere. And I don't… Do that? I'm just a lurker. But it's drawing this out of me!
Keeping myself on a short* leash here; what Gets me is, there is actually a surprising amount of legwork devoted to Ragatha and Pomni's relationship. It's somehow touched on, or brought into focus, every episode up to 7. I don't think it's unfair to say that, that's the initial significance Pomni's rapport with Jax; as a late obstacle in that subplot. But before they could put a satisfying bow on it, they took the turn I'd been expecting since the pilot, and made Jax one of the hinges from which the remainder of the show pivots! Which drives me crazy!!
Part of the problem with the lack of the awards show talk (and possibly even if they had shown it) is, there really isn't much suggestion of what Pomni needs to say to Ragatha. Beyond like a general "I'm sorry". You already got into the root of it; it's Pomni's thin/vague characterization. It hurts in a couple places, but it's a particular problem for this subplot. It makes things lopsided. Ragatha is… Profoundly un-subtle about her worries regarding Pomni. Even before she just says them outright. And Pomni never gets close to that clarity. It's another one of those gaps where, there are a hundred takes you could consider, but nothing concrete.
Now that's not to say Pomni necessarily needed to be as 'cards on the table' as Ragatha, you can have her be indecisive or mixed, as a feature! But! They didn't do that either!
Something that was honestly probably the intent, but I think could've been much more explicit; if they'd tied how and why things exploded with Jax, to the resolution of that subplot with Ragatha. Make that fight more than just the launching point for The Jax Show™, make it the catalyst for Pomni Getting It, and realizing she has to talk to Ragatha, and why.
"I can't live behind the walls that you do. I can't act like I'm alone here, I'm not. The people that're here for me, they don't deserve that." (read: Ragatha doesn't deserve that.)
Or something like that, maybe!
100% agree, there is a lot of work given to Ragatha and Pomni's relationship. If we were to follow the road map of it, though, halfway through that journey that red line slips off the map and doesn't come back onto the page until the viewer is almost at the destination: a big, camera swooping hug that I felt like was aiming to be cap to their progress together, but instead to me fell flat and I simply enjoyed it for being able to see my favorite ship express affection for each other. Which is cool, but also again, a head scratcher! Also YEAH Ragatha puts so, so much into their relationship and tries, (and fails but she tries) to be there for Pomni as to not let the same thing happen to her that happened to Ribbit and Kaufmo.
However Pomni uhhhh basically gives nothing back up until the legendary off screen talk (assumingly) and that hug. So there's like this huge imbalance here that I can't help but wonder if it intentional or not. If it was intentional, then Pomni has some really skewed priorities and a very funny way of showing she cares (huge, grand gestures and then shutting the hell up afterwards). You're right, despite the hug, I'm so confused on what their relationship actually is or, at the very least, how Pomni feels about it or anything. It's so... vague.
Honest to god, yeah, though. Imagine a world where that off screen talk was on screen and it was about Jax, but then became about the dangers of isolation and hiding behind walls. If Pomni just confronted Ragatha about how she feels like she's not being let in to her, like she's not getting the real Ragatha, like there's something she's not telling her; and then Ragatha all of sudden clammed up THAT would've made the whole thing with Ribbit hit way, way harder. And yeah, if Pomni said what you said to her, that little bit of characterization would go such a long way to explain her actions.
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