This was a really good video!! I love that you brought up and argued agasint mulitpe counter arguments when defending Jax but never said anyone was "wrong" for not liking her. It sounds silly but I think theres a large portion of Jax hate that comes  from the way some of her  fans try to defend her rather than anything she actually did in the show. I couldn't count the amount of times ive seen people make the argument that people who dont like Jax are "media illiterate" or "just cant handle complex characters" and it really bothers me anytime I do because it dosent really help anyone 😭 I'm very glad this video wasnt that. All of your analysis's are very well thought-out and engaging, hope to see you talk about this circus ahow again sometime!

It's not that Jax got too much attention, it's that no one else got nearly enough.

The pilot was mostly focused on Pomni, but it was also implied that Ragatha and Jax would be secondary characters, that Kinger, Zooble and Gangle would be tertiary characters, and that Caine would be the main antagonist

Episode 2 is a Gummigoo episode (and also a Pomni one to a lesser degree)

Episode 3 is a Kinger episode, while Zooble doesn't get nearly enough attention

Episode 4 focuses on Gangle

Ragatha's Episode was supposed to be Episode 5, but she ended up sharing it with Jax, who still somehow managed to become the more memorable character in that ep than Ragatha

Episode 6 is Jax-focused. So is Episode 7. Episode 8 is Caine-focused, but Jax is a close second in terms of importance (Kinger just explained the lore, deleted Caine, who ended up coming back anyway so that moment didn't matter, and his relationship with Queenie, Scratch, Ragatha and his coworkers was either undercooked or nonexistent). At least Jax accepting that she was lying to herself abt nothing being real eventually contributed to her abstraction. And half of Episode 9 is just Oops, All Jax!

Caine’s redemption arc was rushed, and it felt like they showed us that PowerPoint slideshow of the real people the brain scans were created from so we would think to ourselves: "Yeah, maybe everybody in the cast is underdeveloped except Jax, but look! Look! Their human counterparts are thriving! Aren't you satisfied?" No. I don't care about those guys, we weren't following them for 9 episodes

I understand why people are upset. I am, too, and Jax is my favorite character

The point of a tragedy is to show “this person could have made a different choice, and didn’t, and now they suffer consequences. You can make a different choice”

I think even thinking of redemption in terms of “deserving” is problematic. Redemption isn’t a thing you are, it’s an action you do. Everyone deserves the opportunity to redeem themselves, and not everyone will take it, like Jax. Jax is tragic because they refuse to take the actions to redeem themself.

About time someone said it. He didnt deserve it but he had it coming

“its too late…..i did this to myself”

NGL, I feel like Jax should've done more in the first 4 episodes so it doesn't feel weird when she has a major role in 5 and beyond.

I do like your video, but I would like to offer a point of correction. The fans didn't invent the idea that each character would have their own episode. Goosewrox made a Tumblr post years ago saying as much and listing out what characters would be focused on in which episodes. She follows that order for episodes 3 and 4 (kinger and gangle), but at episode 5 (which was supposed to center Ragatha) Jax starts consuming the narrative. In this case, it's not an issue of the fans making things up and then getting mad when it doesn't happen. It's the writer who made a promise and then didn't follow through.

The jamazing jigital jircus

21:42 Llama praising her husband is so adorable and wholesome! ❤️

43:12  to be fair to those who say it became the jax show. Goose on her own tumbler/twitter said each character was going to get a major episode that was to focus on the character. I personally think this was always going to be Jaxs show, but her poor communication and presentation of that has lead to this critic of the show, and it's a critic I feel is entirely valid, even if I understand that even if most narratives are driven by 1 or 2 characters,  it's your job as a writer  communicate to your audience who the show is about, misleading them only tends to create disatifaction and  confusion.

I'd also like to add  the line count evidence we found, that jax over takes everyone in terms of lines after episode 4, having even more than pomni herself. I think it's kind of jarring how abruptly the shift happens, and I wish it had been more gradual.

Jax’s story is a Shakespearean tragedy. Clear to see where it comes from, unavoidably spiraling to a bad ending, and hurting people around it that weren’t directly involved.

You see why Jax acts the way she does, while those reactions are understandable in context, it hurts those that don’t fully understand.

It’s sad in a beautiful way.

I think there's an interesting idea presented when people say Jax deserved to abstract but none of the other abstractions deserved it. Abstraction is often conveyed as a metaphor for suicide, and episode 6 posits the idea that the other abstractions were similarly unpleasant before they went. There was a time where I believed that Ribbit was actually just as awful as Jax and lost her ability to properly empathize with others, and Jax mirrored that behavior after she went.

But in the show, none of the abstracted characters are unpleasant EXCEPT for Jax. I don't really like the narrative that creates. People who are in that state of mind are usually very hard to be around. They are not always little sad blobs that just need headpats and affirmations. They're paranoid, erratic, and often angry. But Ribbit and Kaufmo just isolated themselves, and Queenie is just Kinger's Dead Wife. So it creates this idea that Jax deserved to ki// herself because she didn't hide away in her room like a good little victim. She made her problems into everyone else's problems, unlike the other abstractions who just quietly ki//ed themselves without making a fuss.

Im not saying that Goose believes that mean suicidal people deserve to die. I think whether Jax "deserves" her fate is less relevant than the fact that Jax was her own undoing. Yes, the other circus members find peace after her abstraction, but they clearly aren't the type of people who would celebrate her death. They'd likely be happier seeing Jax improve mentally and share in their happiness.

Tbh, what I think of Jax is complicated and complex (I feel you Gangle). Like a part of me thinks Jax doesn’t deserve abstraction, my guy (or girl) is suffering in silence so, so much, her parents were so bad to her. So I empathize Jax a lot. However another part of me is saying well he had this coming. Actions have consequences regardless of what reasons you may have. Jax became an abuser, pushed Ribbit to abstraction, and Jax CHOSE to keep pushing people away especially Pomni and Ragatha. I say Ragatha too because judging by that whole backstory, it’s easy to tell Ragatha was trying too in her own way to comfort Jax as well. But because of her being a people pleaser, she succumbed to making that promise to Jax about never speaking of Ribbit again. It was Jax who chose to suffocate behind those masks and Gooseworx even said that one of the lessons of the show is to let people in, if they offer help and you know you need it, take it. Overall, I empathize Jax, but I wouldn’t excuse his actions whatever reasons she may have. She was indeed suffering in silence, but most of that suffering came from her own actions

The sequence at 15:00 of you voicing each character's subtext in sync with their ACTUAL ANIMATIONS was godsdamn sublime.

I think part of the issue with Jax's death is how the narrative paints it.

Jax is the only person who knowingly, willing and consistently does hurtful things. (Other than Caine, but I think Caine is depicted more sympathetically and then gets redeemed by the narrative.) The only time we see Ribbet, she'e mentally unraveling because of Jax's actions. The whole circus gets better after Jax dies. The other characters are shown bonding over her death. Gangle's arc in that episode is having complex feelings for an abuser.

I gotta be honest, I absolutely read it as a cautionary tale when I first saw the finale. If you're so consistently terrible, sometimes people really will be better without you. You've dug the hole. It was chillingly sobering to someone who has been suicidal in the past.

Everyone deserves to work on redeeming themselves. Sure, it's probably harder with every bridge that's been burned, but it's far better than a life being cut short or otherwise ruined.

I've loved following this series, it's so refreshing to see such grounded takes about the show and its flaws coming from a fan. I wish the show was better! But I still love the show we got, and it's really nice to take the time to appreciate all the different parts of it!! I'll definately be rewatching this whole series whenever I want to think about everyone in the amazing digital circus.

Your tadc character analysis are really well done , i am glad to have watched them. You also talk about specific things while not being hateful, and i apprecate that. Also i feel like i have learned and comprehended ( i hope this is a english word ) more about some characters. I still have to look at some of the other videos though so i'll go do that :)

This is BY FAR the best analysis of Jax's character I have seen to date. Her entire arc, her personality, and her struggles are all something that I, as a damaged, broken, and sometimes suicidal trans girl myself, relate to on a deeply personal level, and she couldn't not be one of my two favorite characters in the show. Both I and most of my friends who have seen TADC can, on some level, relate to all seven main characters in the show, and I think that's a sign of extremely good writing, but I think an even better sign is specifically how someone like Jax, someone who on the surface is just a bully who hurts everyone around her, could be written to be as relatable and sympathetic as she is. She has done some truly awful, disgusting, inexcusable things, but I still love her and she absolutely did not deserve the tragic fate she got.