Wait(s) Tom!

On one end I experience Panty and Stocking where the majority of posts is hornyposting 24/7 or people being weirdly obsessed with 2D women and can’t think about anything else

Or on the other hand there’s TADC fans who are willing to end up on a list in the name of their favourite character and then the Reddit fans complain about it

I don't care for shipping.

I'm not sure exactly why I'm like this it could be the Demisexuality or even the fact that I'm not 16 anymore, or most likely that I was THERE in the Klance trenches and I'm still recovering, but nowadays I don't care much for shipping fictional characters in fandoms, same way that I never had a celebrity crush that shit's Weird to me, however I had some thoughts which I'd like to share as an outsider perspective of sorts so bring the popcorn.

So like many people I really like Glitch, I'm pumped for their new show with the Owl House creator and I've followed The Amazing Digital Circus basically since day Uno.

I have a lot of reasons to like this show, and shipping any of the incredibly deep and well-written cast members is not one of them, not least of which the fact that the fandom got "creative" with the ship names (Jamni or Pomnax is too cliche eh? nah you had to go for FunnyBunny)

However something weird happened recently: I discovered a headcanon/theory where Jax is a trans woman, and it's surprisingly well-informed for a headcanon, even if it doesn't turn out to be canonical it's a pretty interesting theory.

A lot of art based on this theory seems to be based by a fanfic called "Her Name is Daisy" by @baguettenjoyer where Jax is trans and goes by Daisy now in reference to Daisy-Bell the song Jax and Pomni sing in the last episode, since here she's in a lesbian relationship with Pomni.

A lot of the art has TransJax and Pomni as lovers and I love this art, I highly recommend you check it out because it's beyond adorable and well-made, I legit can't get enough of it I may even make some myself mayhaps.

Here's the thing that makes this whole thing weird though: watching the show I lowkey hate Jax.

Now the internet has no idea what "nuance" and "media literacy" means but I'll make an attempt before randos start snooping for my postcode: while I despise Jax's actions in the show as grossly nihilistic, insincere and selfish, as a Character I think he's one of the best, as we're seeing the "jerkass bully" character get deconstructed and are shown the insecurity that lies behind such people, this is especially the case in the last episode.

He's a complex character, we can all agree on that, he's a great character but a shitty person, it's actually not that uncommon to have morally reprehensible but Fun characters like for example Darth Vader or Char.

Even beyond all the complexities it's also fun for me to see Jax as a "love to hate" kind of character, it's entertaining to see how far he can go and is willing to go.

But in simpler terms yeah, I was and am a Ragatha defender.

So where am I going with this? Basically I don't ship in general, but if I did I would for sure not ship Jax with anyone in the cast, that includes Pomni, it's not impossible but it would not be healthy for sure.

With this in mind what's so different about "Daisy Bell" basically the trans alternative to FunnyBunny? I think it's because it's a fundamentally different dynamic at this point: in this headcanon Jax (now Daisy) has mellowed out a lot after transitioning, she's a lot less toxic and closed-off, being able to even interact with Ragatha without a hint of irony or cruelty.

Character-wise, Daisy has changed here, she's no-longer the scared survivor suppressing all her emotions on the back of a high horse, and her relationship with Pomni hints that they've successfully healed from That predicament in the last episode, broken people like that hardly learn their lessons but when they do it's beyond inspiring.

Lore-wise, and this is a big IF in the outcome where this theory becomes canon, it would be a great conclusion to Jax's character arc, leaving his cynical past behind after Pomni's big wakeup call, his past self that caused two other members to abstract, she's no-longer someone who's terrified to be herself and can now open up to people.

Anyways all this was a roundabout way of saying Abstragedy is the objectively best ship fight me.

I’m kinda jealous of kids these days whose online fandom autism comes from amazing stuff like The Gaslight District, Amazing Digital Circus, Lackadaisy, Hades and Vampire Survivors, and many other things I didn’t mention rn

Meanwhile what did I have? Growing up in High School 2013-2019 the only beyond decent thing that has stood the test of time is Undertale, and I suppose Night in the Woods on a smaller scale, but the rest? I was in the Voltron Legendary Defender fandom (that name will have triggered at least one traumatic flashback to some) Minecraft was still uncool and cringe, the Brony fandom was lurking around every corner, and I discovered my sexuality through fucking FNaF yaoi no wonder I’m so developmentally ill

At this point I’d be willing to put up with whatever tf skibidi toilet is if it meant I got this kind of stuff in my teen years, and even then, from Zoomer to Zoomer, let’s stop acting like We were any better, we laughed our ass off at shitty videos of the TF2 man saying naughty words, and this was when people thought saying the R word was no big deal

Even on the YouTuber front it’s not like we had any better, on a negative note not much has changed, but supporting my argument is that not much as changed.

We had screaming fellas overacting to Happy Wheels who have a weird interest in kids, now there’s screaming fellas overacting to Fortnite who have a weird interest in kids.

There’s also music but that’s a whole other story to dig into.

Idk I am pretty Nostalgia-Averse/Cynical unlike what seems most of my generation (shut the fuck about Frutiger Aero please, because 1) Webcore is superior in every way and 2) Windows Vista sucked ass as much as I liked some of its aesthetic, I do love 2000s games beach levels tho) so instead of being “the old stuff was better” I do the mirrored whining of “the new stuff is better”

I’m just glad the 2010s are over and hey, maybe I’ll also be glad the 2020s will be over one day all I know is I prefer to look forward towards the future and I don’t really like lingering in the past for the sake of moaning.

I know it’s a cycle but I won’t be a part of it lol

“YWNBAW? Is that all? Surely by now I would have assumed you’d have expanded your vocabulary, just by varying the tone, take for example…

Aggressive: if I had such feelings I’d just amputate that body part!

Practical: The bright side is you can now save money by sharing a wardrobe with your sister!

Naive: isn’t it a tad early for Mardi Gras?

Lyrical: I'm his December bride, He's father, he knows best

Ok you get the idea

Tbh even besides the jokes I just feel that this is a very powerful monologue and character moment that my family would often remind me of whenever I had trouble at school, it taught me how to respond to mockery especially lazy one, yes this was basically the 19th century version of “you have one joke” so I like to think a Trans themed parody of it isn’t so far fetched

The great Jose Ferrer (first Latino actor to win an Oscar btw) performing the most-well known English version.

If you speak Italian there’s also an excellent S-Tier version by Gigi Proietti

Anyways I’m 6 episodes through and I quite like what I’m seeing, I’m planning to finish at least the first season since that’s the most realistic goal. One of the reasons I like it so much is how remarkably in-depth and mature it is for a shonen anime from the 90s, and that’s mainly with the characters.

Starting with the main character, Yusuke is quickly established as a cynical thug who doesn’t care about anyone or anything, but him showing genuine concern for a boy at the cost of his life shows that he’s got a heart and stops being a punk when around children.

Same goes for Kazuma, he’s a meathead bully on the surface but by episode 6 it’s clear that he’s so much more, he may be a rival to Yusuke but it’s not a hate-filled rivalry and he seems to respect him dearly, in fact this extends to his gang too as seen in Episode 3, they swoop in for Keiko when bothered by another gang telling them to pick it with someone their own size, they’re shown to have concerns beyond fighting, and it’s clear that they abide by a strict honour code.

Everyone in the cast defies their stereotypes, even Principal Takenaka being a fair but strict figure contrasting the other teachers who are just the worst, and Yusuke’s mother, she’s a selfish and depressed alcoholic but it also becomes very clear that she cares about her son and (kinda) hates how she behaves.

But you know what? Not every character must be this deconstructive masterwork to be great, I love the whole afterlife cast, Botan is awesome and yes, Koenma being a tiny boss isn’t original but it’s still funny how they handle these characters.

In a way er, thank you Netflix for urging me to check this out? Nah it still sucks that it’s going away soon, still if the quality keeps up I’ll think about getting a DVD set of season 1 even if they’re hard to come by, I may even check the rest of the series apparently Season 2 is just a big tournament anime lmao