WARNING: TADC FINALE SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT
So - about transfem Jax in canon, because I feel like a statement from me is in order.
Right off the bat I want to say that I readily accept the L on originally interpreting it differently; I was wrong, you were right. Simple as that.
Ultimately I'm glad that topic was handled in the way it was and I think it's an amazing narrative example of what can happen when a person struggling with their gender identity (on top of other issues) cannot accept and embrace that side of themselves. Unbelievably tragic, yes, but incredibly well executed. I'm happy for and proud of Goose for managing to bring such a personal story to the big screen.
I want to also point out that going forward I'm generally going to continue referring to Jax with he/him pronouns, as I don't exactly feel right about assigning she/her to this character when Jax in canon never actually ended up getting to explore and embrace that locked away version of himself.
The exception for this is obviously art and writing where that is not the case and she actually gets to figure that out with herself... It would otherwise to me just feel too much like pushing Jax into that direction before he's, like, canonically even ready for it - a kind of external push that canon literally makes a whole big ass point of intensely backfiring for him and everyone he loved.
Jax pretty much "died" in the closet and I think that that kind of tragedy is a story that's just as worth telling sometimes as the joy of successful self-acceptance and -actualization - especially in a context like TADC's story where the external factors weren't really what was keeping the egg from cracking.
Because there would've been love for her, and empathy and support, help has been offered more than once - but ultimately the desire for change has to come from within, and Jax preferred the safety of an eternal, scripted, tightly controlled performance over actual self-reflection in a manner that ultimately just served to repeatedly burn and reaffirm why trying to change anything is a bad idea.
It's a nuanced look at mental health issues beyond just gender dysphoria and how difficult it is to navigate the whole of it - it feels so painfully real.
And like... I feel like it really hammers home the message that a happy ending is something you must actively choose and accept for yourself, even when it feels impossible, or goes against what you think is your nature. Jax couldn't do that, and it's tragically ironic for someone who's a self-proclaimed boundary pusher. And like.. you can't love the mental illness out of a person, you can only keep trying to be there for them when they need you.
Just like how neither Ribbit, nor Ragatha nor Pomni, nor anyone else could've loved Jax into self-acceptance - that had to come naturally from within and sadly never did. At least some version of Jax out there gets to live a better life and maybe finds the strength to turn they key and unlock the closet one day.
I hope that makes sense? At least this was my takeaway from it all
(BTW, to clarify one more time: the aftershow AU still remains untouched by canon, Felix is still very solidly cis - but we already made clear on mine and Munchie's blog repeatedly and since pretty much the beginning that the AU is written with only EP1-6 in mind and that anything revealed in canon after that point gets disregarded.)
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