Mafgtfpie

Alright. Are you locked in? Good.

Now, you really don’t need to be a sociologist to see the tension between these two since.. literally the first episode. In fact, their first shown interactions with each other is literally dismissing each other.

And this is extremely common between these two. It is consistently coming from both sides, almost always unprompted. Here are just a few examples in past episodes;

And this is me SKIMMING with all the other interactions between them I found but can’t add here. Zooble has a valid distrust of Jax which he in turn feeds off of.

Zooble and Jax are extremely self aware people, but how they use that awareness is ultimately their biggest issue between them. Zooble is consistently kind to the others, especially Gangle for a huge reason—

They are completely honest. Like in this scene, after Spudy’s when Gangle is feeling very insecure and embarrassed by her behavior;

She responds with Empathy, not just Sympathy because she understands exactly the frustration and insecurity Gangle feels with her own avatar. This pops around again during Ep. 6 with their conversation about Jax leading into how Gangle feels inadequate compared to other people.

Zooble has her own issues in which she recognizes out loud to others. She spells it out to Caine in Ep. 3 in their faux therapy session, and it’s such common knowledge that Jax brings it up during the latest Episode.

She extends herself to those because of their mutual grief of being in the circus, and isn’t particularly afraid of confessing that issue.

Jax is the only person in the circus that has not have a positive conversation about his issues. Ragatha, Kinger, Pomni, Gangle and Zooble have had multiple conversations that resulted in some kind of progression in how they see themselves or how they see the circus. Everyone else has been honest enough to tell someone else their feelings, their true emotions, and they in turn get honest feedback that helps them along.

But as we are ahem— well aware by now, Jax has not made it easy by any stretch for anyone to get that far. I want to say that Jax along with Zooble, is extremely self aware about how they present their issues. He has to be aware of them, how deep it runs, or else the mask would serve no purpose to him.

Every conversation that someone has with him (he does not reach out to anyone first) ends with a deflection or worse, like in the case of Pomni when his deflection and gaslight does not work on her.

Stay with me now!

That why Zooble and Jax’s relationship in this latest episode is coming to a boiling point. Zooble, despite their obvious distain for Jax, still does this;

They reach out, unprompted and unprovoked. They are so aware of his emotional state that she decides to take it upon herself to have a conversation with him, to attempt to tell him again what Pomni told him previously; you need to talk about your issues.

They had empathy for him, only in this moment. Zooble saught him out as she did for Gangle after Spudy’s, with two different outcomes.

After every episode of their constantly bickering and back and forth, they offer a hand— for no other reason than because they see him suffering and while may not be able to help him, their subtle hint that the others may help him due to his relationship with them.

And what does he do with this? He rejects the idea, again. At this point in the episode, this may not matter so much. But the longer the episode goes on, this small olive branch quickly dies and returns back to the kind of energy we are used to.

(Zooble and Jax are completely separated here by the fact Zooble is frustrated at the idea that Jax may mess it up for everyone as they totally believe in Abel, where Jax doubts him entirely.)

Zooble’s attempt at helping Jax goes ignored so they cannot imply he wants help, or that he wants anything other than to fuck with the cast for any reason he wants. They have nothing to have empathy for, not when he rejects all assistance and doubts the validity of Abel.

Zooble and Jax, down to their core, are completely and utterly at odds. Zooble wishes for nothing other than to get out of the circus, to remove herself from their avatar, to escape.

And Jax, threatens that possibility because he is afraid.

Zooble is extremely insistent on pressing the blue button, which with the odds they are working with, would have made the most sense to do. The outside world is right there, and the desire to get out along with freeing everyone else is the most immediate concern for Zooble.

And instead of taking Zooble’s olive branch, the advice, the incentive, what did Jax’s deflection and temperament and refusal to address his emotions outloud do?

It caused him to panic. Even if the issue he feels with leaving the circus and his issues with expressing his depression while in the circus is different problems, they both go worse with the fact he has zero communication skills, and doesn’t want to have them. This makes him the ONLY character in the circus that does this.

And it makes him the only person unstable enough to be manipulated by Caine, but as to what extent is debated.

So now we are confronted with the impact this has. With such little information about is Abel was real or not, if there is a way out, what the extent of Caine lying is, if I was anyone in the cast, I would still have been angry that he deliberately denied them the possibility of getting out or worse, would have entrapped them all selfishly because of his issues if it was real.

The intention is what matters. None of them knew if it would work but they certainly believed it would, and Jax was ready to deny them of the freedom they so crave. Zooble cares about the good intentions of people, like Gangle having the good intention to use her mask to be more cheerful yet failing.

Zooble, without argument, is pissed.

Pissed at Caine, yes. But when he disappears, what will be left to address?

I can take just a guess.

(Zooble is looking right at him.)

Zooble is going to direct that anger at the person that deserves it, because they tried to assist him. Everyone at some point, off screen or in the past, has probably attempted to figure his deal out, and with Pomni and Zooble failing, what good is there to assume of him? Everyone else can open up, but because of the selfishness of Jax, he could have entrapped them all forever if it was real.

In the same way Jax felt validated by being correct by assuming it was all an adventure which only makes him spiral, Zooble’s opinion of Jax being nothing but selfish, inconsiderate and shallow is also affirmed, and that too will spiral.

And Zooble is going to confront him, as they have done for the entire show. If they don’t, it would be wildly out of character for them. Even if it was all fake, that intention did not go unnoticed at all, the complete and utter disregard for everyone else, people Zooble CARES about. Their hopes dashed, and while mostly by Caine, but Jax’s full intention too.

Pomni confronted Jax in a way that was still a harsh truth, hard love. She cares about Jax and wanted to understand him by trying to force him into answering hard questions.

Zooble is over that. Their assumptions of him are validated by this move of his, and now it will be aggressive. It will be harshness with no sympathy, and everyone will be of witness to it. It is completely in character to have this kind of aggressive argument, if not full on brawl.

And we know goose is not afraid of that.

I don’t expect for Jax to fight much, if at all. He may attempt, but Zooble won’t let him scurry away, won’t let him hide from the shame or their anger. And Zooble has nothing left to hope for in him. Zooble

This is what I will die on, even if it doesn’t happen. I feel like this could absolutely happen, to drive the characters even further apart for the final arc, maybe to a point Jax has to reveal himself, explain himself, or risk abstraction. Theoretically, this kind of fight could stem from Ragatha too, but I believe Zooble is the most likely and most in character to do this, especially with the tension between them growing and growing especially in this episode.

I mean, isn’t a little odd how much attention they have gotten between them both in just one episode? Anyone could have been the one to try and help Jax at the beach.. yet they chose Zooble. The person that has the most doubt in Jax’s humanity.

I had to put this on paper (you know what I mean) somehow, and this is the perfect place to do it. Jax will 100 percent certainly WILL be confronted by this, and I believe it will be done by the most openly honest person in the circus.