AAAAAA

I think Jax takes his complex feelings on his mother out on Gangle, but tries to justify it to himself through delusions that it's not ACTUALLY abuse, even though it is. Most abusers don't ever think of themselves as abusers, and tend to make up a reality in which their abuse is either not that big a deal or it's somehow warranted.

Thats it.

Thats the whole post.

Character development requires change. Jax never changes. We just learn theres a reason He's an asshole and the reasoning is complex

Hence a complex character.

Not developed.

Okay, but what drives me kinda nuts about Jax

What, I realize, is the reason why I dislike him so much and feel like he took over everything in the story without it being justified

Is that none of his problems are related to being trapped in a Digital Circus.

None.

All he is is a bunch of melodrama tropes not related in any way with the themes of the story. Being stuck in an avatar that doesn't suit you? Well he thinks he's a little ridiculous, but that's it, nothing groundbreaking. Having to go in adventures? He acts like he enjoys them like a FPS and make them even more miserable for everyone else! Caine? Of all the characters, Jax seem to mind Caine the less, he barely interacts with him and doesn't seem scared of him.

Some people gave Pomni shit for acting like a Y/N character, but at least she had some sort of interaction with the main story, at least she has the pilot to show her sense of anguish, at least she understood a NPC!

Jax is a self-insert in the worst sense possible, not the kind you write with a love for the story and the wish to bring an interesting perspective to an established world. A self-insert that's just here to show how the world that's been carefully built doesn't matter because he is here and his story and his little drama is so much more interesting than the rest, you guys.

I don't feel bad for him, I don't necessarily want him to abstract, but I still don't feel bad for him and I don't think I ever will.

He's corny, he's destructive, almost all of his suffering is a consequence to his shitty behavior, and most of all, he's not on the same level as a lot of super villains out there. Believe me, he'd like to THINK of himself as "the funny one" the one who always is the rage baiter and never the rage baited, but he's not, Jax has shown that he will overreact whenever the other circus members either retaliate or make him the butt of the joke (The maid costume and Ragatha unintentionally using cartoon logic against him) He's the kind of guy who would mask blatant sexism or racism as "dark humor" and call you a snowflake if you asked him to explain the punchline of his "joke" but when someone else makes an offensive joke at his expense, he gets all butt-hurt about it for the rest of the day.

Does he have reasons to be the way be is? Yes, but I personally don't think he's going to get a redemption arc, I don't think the other circus members will actually forgive him, they just have to tolerate him for the time being given their situation, and I don't think he's supposed to be this "deep character" who will grow into a better person after his victims "find it in their heart to forgive him" Jax isn't exactly a pure evil villain, but he is insufferable and it gets to a point where trying to defend him is just exhausting when you know he's probably just going to relapse again.

To me, Jax reminds me of the cesspool that is the negativity of social media. Real people will harass strangers online the same way Jax will abuse Gangle, real people will rationalize cyber bullying children on Tiktok the same way Jax will rationalize his abusive behavior.

"You know none of this is real, right?" Is on an identical level to "It's not THAT deep!" They're both excuses that try to pass off the harm that was caused as everyone else's problem for not "getting that it was a joke"

Similarly to Jax rationalizing the way he treats people for the majority of the show with the "nothing is real" excuse, people can justify telling a stranger online to KYS because they can hide behind a screen with a multitude of excuses, maybe its because its an unhealthy coping mechanism in order to have some kind of control over something or someone, maybe its because they're behind a screen so its easier to verbally abuse strangers without remorse when the victim will most likely be unable to fight back, maybe its because of their own insecurities that the idea of another person having the confidence to do what they can't enrages them to their core, because when they try too hard to be "different" or "mature" by labeling anything they don't personally like as "cringe" you'll see a rise in miserable people who are too scared to engage with what they want and who they want without fear of being ridiculed for it, worse yet , you'll see a rise in bullies now that they have a "socially acceptable reason" to ruin someone's life.

Anyway, back to Jax, that's what he ultimately is at the end of the day. He's a bully that would rather make his struggles everyone's struggles by making their lives so much harder than they already are, he doesn't contribute much other than negativity in general. At this point, the nicest thing anyone will be able to say about him is that they don't think he deserves to die, because most bullies like him aren't actually evil enough to deserve a death penalty, but they're terrible enough that people will take joy in seeing them be humiliated.

(Technically there are no spoilers, but see for yourself)

I'm not angry, I'm just incredibly disappointed, so much so that it hurts.

I know expectations are my problem, but considering I spent weeks avoiding the episode's spoilers and, despite the negative reviews, holding on to hope for the best, what I finally got is impossible to ignore the utterly bad script. And it's objectively bad. The series promised to emphasize the relationships between the characters, but most of them didn't even get proper development, let alone interaction. Those who got screen time were either uninteresting jerks (you know who I'm talking about) or characters who were completely ruined by the end. Details that had previously surfaced in the plot were simply forgotten and never developed; the characters spend most of their time doing nothing, making their development completely lacking.

Guys, I'm not a whiner at all. I really liked this series and followed it even before the pilot, and that's why I'm upset, because I can imagine what we could have gotten and what kind of utter trash they shoved at us, on par with what Vivienne does. After episode 5, I felt like the series took a completely wrong turn, and the ending, for me, was confirmation of all that. I swear, the 20s will forever remain for me a period of good projects that were ruined by their endings.

I can list all the moments from the top of my head and it's just so frustrating how he continues to sideline literally every other female character and how he has so much focus put on him, including by the other characters. Why do all the female characters who he's been harassing and been a major dick to mention him like every two seconds, can y'all talk about anything other than this man. I really dislike how the show treats Jax.

It feels like he's constantly given some reason that his bad behavior can be sidelined, and he's being given a million chances, even in the show by the other characters, who shouldn't really keep giving him a chance. And he's constantly shown to the audience how sad and how close he is to abstraction, and I don't really kinda care, it's been twice, it's like the boy who cried wolf. Plus, with how he's treated literally everyone. How do you genuinely expect me to care about this asshole.

The best you can do is "he learns that people will help you even at your worst", but not only is that kind of a weird lesson to give to an abuser of all people, it also means fucking nothing! Because he STILL insults Pomni in his last moments! He never thanks her for anything she's done!

And other than that, what else does he learn?

He learns that he can physically assault people with little to no pushback. He learns that he can harass and traumatize people and no one will get on his ass for it for more than two seconds.

He learns that no matter what he does, people will bend over backwards to keep him stable, even at their own expense.

And, again, what a terrible fucking lesson to give to someone with almost no redeeming qualities, someone who's basically done nothing but hurt people for years.

and btw i was sooooo invested in changing my mind about jax. i never liked him, but the depth they wrote was promising to a meaningful arc and change that would make me like him. but theres none. hea just a shitty person we’re supposed to feel bad for.