I genuinely love how much Jod sucks as a person and tbh, I hope they don't do a "redemption" moment for him.
He could've killed Fern but he didn't, he prompted her multiple times to yield and despite getting more agitated each time, he didn't actually physically harm her. He could've stomped on the little rat thing from SM-33's eye socket (he had just executed Brutus with a point blank shot to the head in front of the kids and cut off 33's head with the lightsaber), but he didn't squash that little creature, just pushed him aside with his boot. So he's not like, cartoonishly, puppy-kicking evil. But he is a bad person.
And I LOVE THAT about him.
We’ve become so conditioned by Star Wars in particular (Din Djarin, Hunter from TBB) and also media generally (Joel in The Last of Us) to expect the hardened, grumpy, sometimes genuinely shitty guy to ultimately have a soft spot for the kid(s) at heart, to come around and eventually side with them. And I think that’s what has made Jod so compelling for me, because despite everyone in this show is warning the kids (and therefore, the audience) “this guy sucks and he WILL betray you,” I think we (or at least I) keep expecting on some level that he will have this transformation or show his “true” colors and come around. Especially after episode 4 where he buys the eopies back and “saves” the kids, then saves them again from SM-33’s programmed kill response.
But no. He sucks. He genuinely fucking sucks as a person, and he does betray anyone and everyone the moment it becomes most advantageous to him. He is a fucking pirate, through and through (affectionate).
I think it’s pretty ballsy of Disney to have allowed the creation of a semi-main character who breaks this mold and genuinely fucking sucks as a person and is allowed to stay sucky. I hope they don’t fix him in the finale, I like him broken. It’s a change of pace, it’s fun to watch, and not everyone can or should get a redemption arc, certainly not in a season 1 of something because then there are fewer places to go re: character growth.
(And don’t even get me started on the arrested development he has going on- in so many ways, he’s just as childish as the literal children if not more so, and I find that fascinating.)
