While the theory that he accidentally hurt someone while driving under the influence doesn’t completely lack merit, I think this would at the very least be a more interesting take.
We can gather based on his reaction to Ragatha’s own talk of her abusive mom that he himself has likely also experienced some form of trauma within the home. This coupled with the images of him running in the neighborhood (as we see no headlights, I’m going to assume he’s on foot), we have a decent amount of evidence that he probably ran away from an abusive household and found the headset.
I’ve always theorized that pre-circus Jax was likely more similar to Gangle than he’d ever admit. Gangle is very feminine with nerdy, artsy interests and very emotional. We know Jax has a thing with toxic masculinity. It’s prevalent in the show and Goodworx’s own doodles of him. But one thing that stuck out to me was in episode 5 when Jax was making fun of Gangle’s anime adventure by saying that slice of life anime’s were “the worst ones”, implying he’s watched several different genres. This made me think about how Jax tends to be very theatrical in his presentation and specifically how he navigates adventures. He tends to fully lean into the role of whatever they’re doing. He makes fun of Pomni in episode 6 for not wanting to do gunman role playing with him. Gooseworx said that the entire cast’s favorite movie, including his, is Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure. He’s a nerd guys, a big ole’ nerd.
Now, there’s his presentation in the digital world. His room which is a frilly pink princess style room. His pink and purple bunny avatar. These are reflective of his insecurities but why girly things in particular? The trans headcanon is really fun, but in terms of actually being canon I don’t think Gooseworx would shove a trans character in a dress to induce dysphoria and then have people point and laugh. I think it’s more so that he used to like “girly” stuff and was ostracized because of it, leading to his toxic ideas about masculinity (that he’s even somewhat aware of). It’s a weakness to him and it’s reflected in his “evil” version as well. Someone who is kind, meek, and said he looked nice in a dress.
Jax is a pink and purple, girly rabbit who likes anime and roleplaying. But rabbits aren’t just known for being cute. They’re territorial, anxious, and often aggressive when not properly domesticated. Speaking of not properly domesticated, let’s go back to the family thing.
Awhile back I made a post talking about how I believed that IHNMAIMS wasn’t the only source of character inspiration and that the characters also had strong parallels to the characters of Neon Evangelion, one of Goose’s favorite media (specifically the movie End of Evangelion: Rebuild). Well, she recently confirmed it to be true in an ask. With that confirmation in mind, I stand with my assertion that Jax is based on Asuka.
Asuka has a lot of issues. She has a big ego. She’s loud and obnoxious. She hates everyone. She is a hypocrite. She is fourteen years old. She’s just like him fr.
However, Asuka’s issues stem from an absent father and, more importantly, a neglectful mother who later went mad. Afterwards, her mother creates a tiny doll that looks just like Asuka and treats it as if it’s her daughter. The doll was a version of Asuka that her mother wanted that she herself could not be. The doll was obedient and would never leave her in the way Asuka would have to do eventually. But her defining moment, one that haunts Asuka in the future, is that her mother asks Asuka, the real Asuka. to die with her. Asuka refuses, of course, but she feels incredibly guilty about this because she feels as though in a way this means she did not truly love her mother. She views it as a failure on her end and it’s why she can’t stand Rei and calls her Gendo’s doll. Rei will die to prove her love for Gendo, something Asuka could not do for her own mother, and she hates her for it.
I believe that this is possibly an inspiration for Jax’s backstory. While on the surface it looks more like Ragatha’s, her character is more reminiscent of Rei. I won’t get too deep into it because this is a Jax post, but it’s somewhere on my blog.
If a young, abused Jax was the one trapped it would explain why he’s got nobody to go back to. Abusive parents aside, if he’s been in the circus for who knows how long, he’s probably also afraid of the world itself and how much has changed in his absence. But even if he’d gotten out the same day he’d been trapped in, there would be no difference.
I think when Gooseworx said that Jax deserved to be there the most it was either
1) a semi-intentional throw off (because she answered ‘Jax’ in an ask asking who deserved to be in the circus the most, Gooseworx could’ve purposely answered in a mischievous fashion)
2) he actually did do something terrible but it’s something we haven’t seen yet (likely to do with Ribbit)
If we go with the first option, than who would be more deserving of an escape from the world that’s full of endless fun and promise of protection than an abused child?
