SPOILERS AHEAD FOR TADC: THE LAST ACT
I was skeptical going into watching the finale because with the leaks, there were spoilers online as well as plenty of complaints saying it wasn’t very good. Some of the “spoilers” I read online before seeing the movie is
There was a literal sex scene
It was Jax focused (and therefore sexist)
Jax committed suicide
It left a lot of questions unanswered
There’s so much that I want to talk about that I’m going to be addressing these supposed spoilers in sections, then continue with what I want to say because there’s a lot.
There was no sex scene in the movie
It was Jax focused, but I don’t believe this made the movie sexist. This is for several reasons: although I know people are tired of seeing male dominated roles in the industry due to sexism, I don't believe that putting Jax as the center of this episode was in any way sexist or taking attention away from the female or non-binary characters. The others had episodes focused on them, and although I believe there is more than one Jax-centric episode, it makes sense because he's Goose's favorite character. The story made sense having him as the focus and it didn't seem forced or out of place. Feminism does not mean that there can't be male-centric roles in movies; feminism is equal rights for both men and women, not for women to eventually dominate over men or that there can't be male focused writing. We want equity, not for the focus to shift to one sex to the other. Jax wasn't even the main character, Pomi was, so you can't even say the show was about him. Not to mention some stuff I’ll get into later in this post.
Jax did not commit suicide, however he did abstract. I personally don't see abstraction as suicide, or even death for that matter. I don't believe that abstraction is comparable to anything we see outside of the digital world. They're still there, they didn't die. I also believe that abstraction is not a choice, I don't think that Jax chose to do it. I don't think any of the other characters chose to do it. I don't know if whoever said this was lying or they thought he did, but that's my take on it.
There may have been some unanswered questions however I think that a lot of stuff was up for interpretation or are not outright said, but I don’t believe that's because there was lazy/bad writing. Goose wanted to make a cartoon and make one she did. Even though things didn’t go as planned.
I hate that this was Goose's passion project that just became a burden to her because of the toxic people in the fandom. You can tell that she really did care about it and she made leaps and bounds in indie animation. Even though things took a turn for the worst in the end with death threats and the finale being leaked, I hope a part of herself is still proud of all that she's accomplished because I know it wasn't easy. It's sad that people canceled their tickets to see it because it was leaked online. That was just a big fuck you to Goose, everyone who worked hard on making TADC a reality and to indie animation in itself. She had no control over that.
That being said, I honestly don't think there are "bad fandoms". A fandom is just a large group of people who like the same media and there are plenty of fans that love and support the show. That doesn't mean that bad people doing bad things don't matter, it does. That's awful that things got out of hand. I'm not too familiar with everything that happened, but I know it wasn't good. Unfortunately, things like death threats are common in the world, although they shouldn't be and also shouldn't be ignored/normalized as much as they are, especially over something as silly as a show. Calling a whole fandom "bad" though, is a bit much in my opinion. Not everyone in it is doing bad things and a lot of people are against what bad people are doing. A couple of bad eggs doesn't mean the whole batch is bad. This goes for every fandom, not just the TADC one.
I'm really glad that Jax and Caine got their redemption arc in the end as well. I don't condone their actions, but in the end, we can see why Jax acted like he did and we can see Caine learning from his mistakes, which is a biggie. I loved seeing everyone that's left happy in the end.
Another thing I really liked is how in the first episode when they all sat down at the table to eat that Pomni didn't touch her food because of the motif that if you eat food in a foreign land (Such as the underworld or fae lands), you'll never be able to return home, then in the final episode it ends with them all sitting around the table eating. It's acceptance.
I really liked the dynamics in the movie. There weren't any forced or weird romantic relationships thrown in there just because. Even Gangle and Zooble's relationship was very subtle, yet there. I feel like too many romantic relationships are kind of shoved in your face in media and this wasn't like that. Ribbit and Jax, Jax and Pomni, and Ragatha and Pomni all had close friendships without it being romantic.
The detail of Ragatha's horse being named Daisy Bell was a really cool easter egg.
From what I could tell, just their minds were put into the digital circus from the mind scanning machine that Scratch tried to create, so their bodies are still alive and continuing on with their lives in the real world. Something that helped me understand this was actually a fan theory I read, but I can't remember who it was by. If you know please comment down below and link their post so I can credit it them for that. I liked that in the end instead of using her name, Abby, from the real world, that she decided to stick with Pomni in there because that's who she became in the circus.
I think the reason why Jax was mean to everyone was because he was trying to convince himself it was all fake and that these "people" around him didn't exsist, therefore he couldn't actually hurt them or hurt their feelings. We saw him first start to grasp onto this concept when he first arrived at the circus, but I believed it slipped a little when he started to get closer to Ribbit and Kaufmo. I don't know if that idea came back to him after he and Ribbit had the fight or after she abstracted, but we do see it return and he starts to become a huge asshole to people. I believe that this is a coping mechanism from losing his friend and being trapped in the digital circus. You can see him realize in episode 8 where he says he's going to distract Caine and has a breakdown outside that this is all really happening as he begins to reflect on all of the bad things he said in did.
It's obvious that Gangle shows signs of depression, but I think on a smaller scale Jax also shows signs of also having depression. A common sign of depression that is often ignored is increased aggravation. It's also stated that people start acting weird before they abstract. However, I just want to mention that I do not condone the actions of these characters, nor am I defending them. I just wanted to do a deep dive into my thoughts on the finale, and as an extension, the series overall.
When Pomni goes into his mind, I believe a lot of what we are intrusive thoughts. We see him choke Pomni as well as flirt with Gangle, even embracing the fact that he's wearing a maid dress "ironically". Then we start to dive into some deeper stuff when Pomni unlocks a door in his mind, bringing back all kinds of memories. One of my favorite parts of the whole movie was the interaction with Ribbit in her bedroom.
Now, if you follow my account, you'll know that I am a trans-fem Jax truther but watching the last episode I really feel like there was something there. As much as I love my little headcanon, I wasn't really expecting it to be canon. It would be awesome if it was, but in the end it doesn't really matter. However, there were a lot of scenes that felt like it was implied that Jax was trans. We had seen subtle bits of this in the past 8 episodes leading up the finale, but this one was a doozie.
(I’m using she/her pronouns for Jax from this point on)
We see Rabbit and Jax in Ribbit's bedroom having a serious conversation from Jax's point of view. Ribbit talks about how she cut off her Mormon parents before she got teleported into the digital world and how she regrets it, even though she did what she thought was the best for her at the time. She told Jax that she told her this because she trusted her, then pried for Jax to tell her a little more about her own life. At first Jax was hesitant but eventually opened up. She talked about their parents’ divorce, her neglectful father and her narcissistic mother. She spoke about having anger issues but also being afraid to express emotion because in her mother's eyes that represented weakness. I think that Jax's mother both loved and hated her father and she saw a lot of Jax’s farther in Jax herself, therefore creating an environment where it felt like she hated her personally.
Jax had been hiding a secret that she didn't disclose in the movie. She talked about how she felt like if she told her mother about this secret; things might be better. I interpreted this as Jax thought that if she told their mother she was a girl, that she wouldn't think she was weak for showing emotion. Instead, her mother berets and insults her, but ends the interaction with a hug, which makes Jax mad. Anyone in this situation would feel hurt, or even mad, given the circumstances of telling their parent something important and being made fun of for it, then expecting love in return.
Jax pushed her mom down in a fit of anger, just like she did to Pomni. I believe that she just knocked her mom out because she talked about her not getting up, but like Ribbit said: if she had died the police would have come looking for Jax. At the end of the movie, we see non-digital Jax working as a postal worker, so I think her mom was probably fine.
Ribbit puts her bow on Jax's ear, which is symbolic. She could have put it on Jax’s neck, just like she was wearing it, but placed it on her head instead so it looks like a hair bow, something that’s commonly associated with femininity. This is very important because when Kaufmo knocks on the door Jax freaks out and throws the bow on the ground because she was afraid to be seen as feminine due to her own mixed emotions and past experiences. Things were getting too real, too serious between Ribbit and her. She were afraid of Ribbit using what she told her against her, a sign of trauma that Jax probably from their parents. She start acting weird around Ribbit after that until eventually Ribbit abstracts.
I think the biggest thing that sold me on trans fem Jax being canon was the collage of Jax when Pomni gave her a hug with the song playing was “Isn’t She Lovely” by Stevie Wonder. They could have put any song in there and they decided to put that one. A coincidence? I think not. Honestly, there's so many songs out there to choose from that I can't even think of another explanation for including it except that Jax is transfem.
Not only that but Gooseworx has mentioned before that she sees herself in Jax and that she’s her favorite character. I think this was Goose showing her emotions through Jax, without outright saying it.
This isn't about episode 9, but episode 8 when Jax's skin was peeled off of them when Caine was torturing everyone was very symbolic. I think that it represented what she really was inside and everyone who she considered a friend (Kaufmo, Pomni, and Ribbit) were laughing at her, just like their mom did. She was afraid of being rejected again, of being made fun of. That was their greatest fear: That their friends would learn her secret and laugh at her for it.
It broke my heart when Pomni went into the room with all the Jaxs and they say "No girls allowed" because she was afraid to express herself as a girl, especially one who likes feminine things, like bows and dresses.
At the end of the movie, we get to see the people that the digital clones (?) were made from and how they succeed in life, which was just an amazing and emotional scene within itself. They accepted that they were going to stay in the circus while the other versions of them lived their lives out in the real world, forgiving Caine and giving the abstractions a place of their own.
Obviously, we see Jax who is still presenting as male in this too, but I don't think this necessarily "proves" that she’s not transfem. She got out of being homeless and cut off contact with both of her parents. That's rough to say the least. Maybe she hasn’t come out yet or maybe she doesn’t feel safe telling other people, which would explain the outwardly male apprence. For whatever reason, it's not the end of her life and I don't think this disproves the trans fem Jax theory.
Some of the things that were implied but not said were Ragatha being abused by her mom. you had to use context clues to figure this out. She never outright said "My mom used to abuse me." or at least not that I can remember. This is a great example of answers not being handled to you but are still included. I believe that this can also be applied to the trans Jax theory where it's not said she’s trans, but they still could be if you look at the context clues. This is only one example out of many that I could have used for this as this is not a show that hands everything to you in a neatly wrapped bow like some popular media try to do, especially in modern media.
END OF SPOILERS
I think the reason why a lot of the people who didn’t are mad that their headcanon wasn’t true/their ship wasn’t canon or they’re the kind of person who likes being told what’s happening and wants to have all the answers given to them clearly, and that’s why they did like. Of course, there's nothing wrong with just not liking something, but I feel like the finale got a lot of unwarranted criticism. I actually went into the movies afraid that it would be bad because of it.
There will always be complaints or people who don't like something just because they don't like it, but my advice is see it for yourself. Form your own opinion. Even better, if you're in a financial place where you're able to go support everyone who made it possible and go and see it in theaters. If not, there's nothing wrong with watching it online for free. When I say that I mean on YouTube when it releases- PLEASE do not pirate it. People worked very hard to make this indie animation happen and the least you can do is support them by watching it from the source. I know it can be frustrating when people don't censor their spoilers online but just try to avoid it. I know that can be easier said than done. There are lots of helpful posts out there that show you what you can do to avoid spoilers. You can't control other people's actions, but you can control your own and how you react. Don't let it ruin your experience. I got spoiled before I got to see it in theater and I went to go see it on the first day it was out. It can feel like the end of the world, but it's not, I promise.
TL;DR I liked it, it’s worth a watch in theaters to support Goose, GLITCH, everyone who worked on it and indie animation if you’re able to.
