Analyzing The Broken Mind of Jax (Part 1)

There is no healthy way to respond to being trapped in a video game. To know that nothing you do matters, that every action is just pixels on a forgotten screen with the only thing left to lose being your mind with not even insanity being a true end. Just a guarantee that you'll be locked away in the dark forever, doomed to just be someone else's memory till even they join you. And you're just forgotten entirely.

The digital circus is an existential nightmare. But the show is a tree exploring how each of its characters responds to their shared predicament. We've seen Pomney panic till she realizes that there is still some meaning to be found in a stagnant existence. Join a community of friends who will help her get through her darkest days as they're all going through the same struggle and finding meaning in helping one another. This is beautiful. It's truly amazing.

And then there's Jax. "You are my play things and I get joy out of making you suffer. I'm the one who causes pain for fun." Jax is the outlier of the digital circus. Everyone else is suffering, but most of their trauma and their response to it is mostly them just crumbling inwards or going insane. Meanwhile, Jax's response is to see how the others are suffering and to start tormenting them anyway. Doesn't matter if they're an NPC or a mask with low self-esteem. Jax has smoke for everyone, but he claims it's not personal. It's just a joke when everyone knows it's not.

With episode 6, give us the clearest, most explicit look at Jax's psyche and why the sad bully does what he does. As Jax believes nothing matters and therefore he can treat everyone else however he wants, disassociating from his current hell. Which on its own, while not healthy, you understand. But when he starts terrorizing everyone else, it's here that we have a well, a problem. But while it's always been clear that Jax wants to convince himself nothing matters, the extra context of how he believes they all should be characters, so fulfilling specific archetypes, really does a lot to make us understand how and why he's like this. Adding to that sense of pointlessness and how he has just fully given up. They're all just characters in a TV show. We might as well act like it, even as he's the one who's hurting the most. But rather than just trying to reach out for help, Jax instead is trying to deny his humanity in the face of an eternity being trapped in the circus. This doesn't make anything he's doing to others okay, but it does make him fascinating. And given all that we've learned in the most recent episode, I figured this is as good as time any to go back and look at how he's acted in the past and how it's been recontextualized by the, well, the recent reveals, plus how our perception of him has shifted over time through that slow, slow drip feed of information and them screaming the subtext out loud. This is a deep dive into the mind of Jax, how he treats others, and what is the true source of all of his regrets and what really broke him to become this.

"I see how far I can push things. I screw with people and I break the fourth wall. You want to know why? It's cuz it's funny. Context is everything. It can mean the difference between a bad day and a good one, makes someone getting a concussion go from a wse to a cheer, and change a comedian into a bully."

Jax's coping mechanism, as we understand it, is that he believes everyone in the digital circus, they're just effectively cartoon characters, each fulfilling a certain archetype with him describing himself as the funny one. And the fucked up thing is, from just the pilot, you could almost believe that to be true. When we meet everyone at first, we don't really have a great grasp of all the characters. Gangle is just someone who's crying all the time. Kinger is just acting crazy. Ragatha is desperately trying to be nice and pretend things are normal, and Jax is just strutting around cracking jokes with most of them, courtesy of Michael Kovak's charm actually landing. But with what we know now, I'm betting a lot of Jax's supposed jokes don't hit the same way it did for a lot of people, as he's not just being funny, he's being funny at everyone else's expense.

"So Kane, we having a new adventure today for the newbie or what?"

Now, to pat myself on the back, I did clock his shit basically immediately. In the existential hell that is the circus, someone who treats everyone else around him callously, messing with them for his own amusement, is a type of character that I just came to expect from a show like this. But I fully get why this didn't sink in immediately, as the show doesn't linger on Jax's actions. We don't linger on Gangle getting shoved to the floor. We get references to how Jax invades people's privacy, suggesting to Ragatha that he might put a centipede in her room, one of her biggest fears. While it would be accurate to describe Jax's actions as bullying, threatening, or anything with actual weight to it, the presentation of the show gives the audience room to draw their own conclusions about Jax, letting us make assumptions about who he is and the exact tone that the show is going for. As there is a lot of series that can escape by having their protagonist just do mean things that never get unpacked. This is often sitcoms, as conflict leads to comedy. We only expect the characters to treat each other like people. We don't linger on their actions and the effect this might have on the other's psyche and just how that would affect the characters' behavior going forward. We just accept it as, yeah, with Digital Circus' pilot doing a good job of providing a great hook to the series, but also leaving a lot left to be discovered, just the exact tone that it would take later and how seriously we should look at the characters' interactions. Were we supposed to see Jax walking on Gangle's mask as a sign that he's just a dick or something darker, that he feels that comfortable stepping on her feelings and everyone else just doesn't acknowledge it? Or to put into simpler terms, we were left wondering if, yeah, is it really that deep? And the answer is yes.

"We having a new adventure today."

There was already enough evidence in the show to understand that, yeah, Jax treats everyone around him poorly, to be generous. When Pomni first shows up, Jax is not concerned. He is yucking it up at Pomni's expense. As Pomni is realizing the horrible situation she is in, he's been through this before, probably seen other people go through it as well, and was still choosing to crack jokes and be a very eager bearer of bad news that they're all trapped. We also see early examples of how Jax classifies everyone in the circus, referring to Kinger as crazy, and straight up saying he's only here to watch funny things happen to people. He may seem like he's just a little rap scallion when he says he has the keys to everyone's room, that Ragatha can look forward to a surprise in her bedroom. And it's easy to play off as we are so used to characters like this in media and importantly, not knowing them in real life, as it again, is so easy to fall for the charms of a sarcastic dude who just seems like a dick, but you just met him and wants to give him like the benefit of the doubt, which for most shows, that turns out to be true. It's honestly harder these days to find a character who just stays a jerk than one who gets like a sad backstory or reforms. I feel like a lot of people these days operate under the assumption that, oh, there has to be a heart of gold hidden somewhere in there. He's one of the main characters, and then we see him chuck a bowling ball at Kinger, but people can excuse that. It can be said that, oh, he's done a lot of mean things, but maybe he's just trying to get them all out of harm's way. There's some truth to that. But looking at Jax's actions on the whole, there are so many red flags, and I need this to be understood, they have always been there. Jax's acting the way he does, always been a thing. He has never changed, never been a shift. It's always been about the presentation and how much we linger on how his jokes affect others. Some of his cracks don't seem as immediately hurtful. I mean, we do see him leave the girls to die. But later, when the abstracted Cofi bursts through the ceiling, Jax just starts making jokes about it.

"Cofi abstracted."

"Nah, he's fine."

"You're right. How are we going to get out of here?"

Again, for clarification, abstraction is basically death. In this world, if you abstract, it means that your mind has been shattered. There's hints that something of them might be left, given how Kinger was able to just have this moment with his abstracted wife, but in general, it's a very terrible experience for everyone involved, as not only are these things a threat, capable of beating the code out of them, but also means that for all intents and purposes, their friend is now gone. And this is the sad reality of the digital circus. Everyone here feels like they expect to one day abstract. They'll be here forever, so it feels like an inevitability. Jax, though, upon seeing abstracted Cofi, is the only one to make light of the situation. When Gangle sees Cofi, she freaks out. The others, we find out later, are all mourning for him. Meanwhile, Jax's first instinct when he thinks he's safe and won't be the target, stands on the sidelines and cracks jokes about how someone they knew is now basically dead. As Jax, more than anything else, more than wanting to like see funny things happen, wants to not care. Jax wants to desensitize himself from death, to not care about anything. He doesn't want to care about the others, how they're feeling, and the pain that they're going through, as that would mean letting down his guard and having to start processing all the feelings he's been choking back for all these years.

With the third most ironic thing to happen in this episode being Jax calling Gangle and Kinger the least stable members of the circus when it's clearly like, it's fucking Jax. If Jax were to stop bullying Gangle, her mental health, while not great, would massively improve from the lack of getting kicked while she's down. Kinger has made it this long, so I'm pretty convinced he can outlast everyone else at this point. Which leaves Jax, maybe Zooble, but I'm mainly thinking Jax, as a character that is closest to abstracting next. He puts up a strong facade, but even acknowledging that this is all a game, none of it matters, it's clear how detached from reality he is. And that is born from his attempts to desensitize himself from the current situation. Which leads me to what I think is like the most ironic moment in the pilot, which is him rolling his eyes at Pomni's attempts to cope by believing this is all a dream when this fucking bunny wants to believe none of this is real either.

"She still thinks this is a dream."

"Eventually."

"All we are now is a bunch of cartoon characters." The fact that Jax tries to talk to a non-existent fourth wall is the biggest sign of how unwell he actually is. No one else does this. Everyone else is weirded out by it, but it's just funny enough that you don't really interrogate it. You don't worry about how no one else is concerned by this. And we start to get why Jax is so busy antagonizing or demeaning everyone else. As basically everything Jax does is written off as a bit. They assume he's messing with them when, no, dude needs some help, but he's too busy being an asshole. Jax is trying to play a character to ignore all the issues in his current life. But we can see the cracks because Jax, for how much he wants to play at being the funny one, can't handle one of the most basic parts of his archetype, which is being the butt of the joke.

"You up to bat."

"I can't. Don't want to. I I quite look like this, though."

This is the other ironic thing about Jax's behavior. For as much as Jax wants to be the funny one, he interprets this to mean that he's the one telling the jokes and gets to laugh, not being laughed at. We'll get into other examples of this later on, but even here in episode 1, his hypocrisy is creeping in. Jax is so down to laugh at Zooble when they're getting dragged away by the Zoinks. But the second one of them hits him, he gets pissed, telling the others what to do and how teams are going to be split up, putting Kinger and Gangle together because of comedy. Meanwhile, he goes off with Pomni to like keep monitoring the slow train wreck that is her realization of what's going on. He is cool to laugh at others. But the second he's being inconvenienced, all humor goes out the window. If he was a character he claimed to be, if nothing mattered like he constantly says, he would roll with these punches, but he doesn't. As Jax's behavior isn't about being funny, it's about feeling in control, with that desire leading him to make everyone else in the circus suffer for it, to be the butt of his jokes, all while pretending that it's all fun and games when it's really coming from this scared place of being terrified that he's trapped in the digital circus. All this, while made a lot clearer thanks to the context of later episodes, has always been the fairly obvious subtext of Jax's character. We may not have known how bad it actually is. However, Jax's actions in the pilot made it apparent that his nihilistic coping mechanism was clearly unhealthy, just like how he was treating everyone else. We didn't know how much of a ride we were getting taken for, but the warning signs were always there, especially with how he treats the NPCs.

"Oh, hey, maybe I didn't leave the gate unlocked for nothing after all."

"Oh, what? I thought he was dead. You still did that?"

Now, if you're new to the Phantom, chances are you weren't around for the absolute devastation that was episode 2, as this was basically a nuke to the Jax fan community. All the speculation about him, which quickly progressed into terminal Fannon that persists to this day about him being a jerk with a heart of gold, like it all got hit with a fat reality check as they realize that, yeah, Jax is a bully.

"I feel like that violates some kind of convention."

"You're violating my ears with your clapback. Get driving, driver."

It was always obvious, but if we're being honest, with the pilot's presentation, there was always a chance that Jax's behavior would get a more sympathetic or understandable light. But sometimes you do need to just shout the subtext for the people in the back. With us getting an earful on how while we can laugh with Jax, we should always be a little bit concerned as we see him fully interact with NPCs for the first time. Because it's clear here that he doesn't view them as people, which would be more forgivable and less of a red flag if not for the fact that this whole episode was just showing us how these NPCs, for all intents and purposes, are fully functional people.

"Where's Mom? You I have a mom."

"Shouldn't she be here with everyone else?"

"I can't even remember her face. Did she ever have a face?"

Now, to be generous, we could say that all the people here and how realistic they are could be a result of Kane's new AI. The embassies beforehand didn't have this level of sentience. I'd be willing to believe that. But even still, with the way Jax's leaps had the chance to inflict violence on something was always just concerning, to say the least. The NPCs, while they're not the brightest tools in the shed, all can do a good enough job at carrying a conversation that they're more than just quest givers, they could easily pass a Turing test, aka you'd be forgiven for fully thinking that they're human. So, the fact that Jax wants to attack them as much as he does, was a bit of a red flag. Mainly because we see how he's the only one. Everyone else in the crew is just doing the adventure 'cause they have nothing else to do. They're not bored, but they also don't relish in conflict. Meanwhile, Jax's out here acting like he's Trevor in GTA or Melon from Be Stars. Deep cut. If you know, you know. This creates this intentionally worrying dissonance to Jax's cheery persona, where he is willing to attack things that can act just like real people, then get pissed off when he doesn't get to hurt anything, with him then deciding to commit to the genocide route by unlocking the gate, letting the fudge monster attack the town. All because he thought it would be funny. With this definition of funny being terrible things happening to things he doesn't consider to be human, which is concerning since he's actively trying not to consider the other players to be fully human. And we can tell given how he acts.

"Jax,"

"Look, I'm not going to pretend I'm not a sociopath when I play video games. But while I've seen some people try to use the idea that none of this is real, it's all a video game to make Jax's actions more palatable, I think we have to acknowledge the massive fucking difference between the digital circus and a video game. As most video games have a sense of distance. The player may pull the trigger, but everything that happens stays within the screen. There's no physical feedback loop of feeling the environment as you catch up to the villains and start trying to fire at them. Jax may be in a video game, but it's now his reality. So, for him, there's no meaningful difference between the two, which makes it easier to act on those violent impulses. A game of basically paintball is one thing, as everyone else mostly agrees to it and gets to participate. But these adventure worlds are tricky, as Jax knows they're created for him, that he can use them however he wants. And that lack of consequences has clearly affected his psyche, as Jax treats the NPCs just like he treats the other players.

"You should not ram them. Promise still on board."

Over the course of this episode, we watch Jax cheesing over the chance to have a violent shootout with the candy people. But the whole time, even after they're done, he is casually cruel to the others. Most specifically, Gangle. When he's disappointed by the car horn, he forces Gangle to drive. And get how he keeps forcing her to do maneuvers she's not comfortable with. I'm kind of of the opinion that this was the main point for him to put probably the most nervous driver at the wheel to make them squirm while he's riding shotgun, orchestrating their attack. Jax picking Gangle also highlights the dynamic between them and why Jax picks on her the most, as her nervousness means that she is the easiest to push around. Anyone else might actually push back. All Gangle can muster to say that driving with the rocks wouldn't be safe, only for him to berate her for just not doing what he says, giving one of his signature backhanded jokes by saying that she should be submissive and agreeable. Hilariously, Jax, while he doesn't say it, he is enforcing his personal classification of how the others should act, who he sees them as, who he thinks they should be, then be annoyed when they don't fulfill those fantasies. He intimidates Gangle when she tries to speak up. He even later blackmails her into ramming the car, some embarrassing secret related to Ragatha, with him then saying he blames her for everything as they kind of went over an edge. But Jax was the one who pushed them into the situation. He says that none of this matters, but it's clear when he cares about something that takes precedent over everyone else. They may not be able to be physically harmed, but Digital Circus is a show where the characters' words and how they treat each other matters. So, while it wouldn't end her, Jax's waving a shotgun in her face with her wincing as he keeps doing it proves how little Jax is willing to alter his behavior when it makes other people uncomfortable, which alone would be enough to make him a bully. But the torment is the point most of the time, as it's all a symptom of Jax's insecurity and his desire for control. He won't allow himself to connect or make friends with the others. He won't let himself process any of his actual feelings. So in that emotional vacuum, Jax tries to fill the void with just violence.

"I'm so unbelievably disappointed right now."

Jax's fixation on violence makes a lot of sense if you look at him from the perspective of a man angry at his lack of control over his own life. That he's some young 20-something year-old trapped in the circus makes sense for how he acts. We don't know how long he's been here. He can't remember his own name. It's probably a few friends deep at this point. So, having had his autonomy stolen from him, it's clear that Jax is trying to regain that sense of control by indulging in violence. The only time we see Jax excited for an adventure is when it involves potentially fighting and hurting other things. Even in the next episode, his excitement for the haunted house comes from being able to like see the others be scared and subduing various ghosts. Harming other things gives Jax a sense of power and control that he feels he is missing in his own life. The violence gives him a rush of excitement, the intensity as he thinks of ways to take out the bandits. It all creates a contrast in the monotony of his actual existence. His utter lack of social connections leaves him with like no one to interact with in a meaningful way, making these grievances where he can indulge even harder in his violent tendencies. It's just a way for him to let off steam, creating a new feedback loop where even if he's not straight up addicted to violence, it's become the only means he has to express himself and his emotions, as the rest of the time, he's pushing himself to play the role of this smiling trickster. Jax requires for himself that he acts sarcastic and insincere all the time, making these opportunities to indulge in GTA-style aggression his only avenue of self-expression. Even if those emotions are frustration, anger, and amusement at seeing other things suffer, violence for Jax is a means of self-regulating and gaining a sense of catharsis. It makes him feel powerful. And on top of how he belittles and messes with everyone else to preserve his own mind, he's chasing that high even further by injecting himself into the lives of others, making them angry, annoyed, or insecure. As in getting those reactions, it's proof that he is in control. When really, he is just deeply insecure about who he is and his ultimate fate of abstracting. Which is why I think he actually let the monster attack the town. Far from just like spiting Ragatha, who made a habit of interacting with the NPCs as intended, Jax being deprived of the violent shootout he so desperately craved, left the castle gate unlocked and ran away as soon as he could, as it allows him to maintain a smug sense of satisfaction that he did that he is in control, when really Jax is a slave to his own impulses and insecurities. Hence why he refused to engage with any activity that might promote self-reflection like Cofi's funeral. He's the only member of the circus to not attend and tell stories of their friend, preferring to try and ignore it like he ignores everything else that makes him uncomfortable, then justifying it later with how none of this is real, how it was just a joke, when that simply doesn't matter to the people he's hurting.

"Jax,"

"I actually didn't mean to do that."

"Why do you always got to do this?"

"What? I just said it was an accident."

Unbelievable. Jax is a bad person is a statement that some take offense to, as it flattens the complexities of his character and the pain he's going through. So, let's describe him more carefully. Jax is a bad person to be around. Finding amusement in pulling pranks and just throwing Ragatha in a deep fryer, Jax's willingness to hurt others is what sets him apart from everyone else in the circus. We don't know how much pain the other characters can feel. But given how Zooble winces and pulls away when they burn themselves on the grill, the fact that Jax once shot by Zooble just mentions that it hurts, I think it stands to reason that while they can't be hurt, they can still feel pain to varying degrees. Like it might depend on the character and exactly what happens to them. Ragatha barely reacts when she's impaled with spikes or knives, only to scream when she's chucked into again the deep fryer because Jax wants to flaunt how he's not going to follow the rules. The idea of them feeling pain or not needs to be clarified, as understanding that the characters do in fact feel pain makes everything Jax does so much worse. But if they didn't, it would still be bad. In the Digital Circus, avoiding abstraction is the name of the game to maintain your own existence. It's the only real threat they have to avoid. And since it's prompted by mental breakdowns, everyone else is just trying to stay relaxed, to avoid stress and derive some meaning in a world that doesn't seem to have any. However, finding meaning is hard enough on its own. Trying to relax while Jax is out here being a menace puts things on hard mode. Adding a layer of complexity to this is that Jax isn't always on these antics. Jax, as we see, can just be chill with the group. Sometimes he'll still be sarcastic and snarky, but he'll be mellow enough to tolerate. When the group gathers around to watch Pomni hold her breath, Jax is there. When Kane was still doing the dumb intros, Jax participated. When Ragatha was trying to teach Gangle how to play baseball, Jax was playing along with them. Jax can be okay some of the time, similar to how real-life bullies aren't evil 24/7. Nobody is just always a one-dimensional sadist. Life is far too complex for that to be the case. However, even if offscreen, he can just be somewhat chill. Nobody loves him. But things haven't gotten to a point yet where they are icing him out just of the group, which given how he acts is so so generous of them. But it also allows him to keep bullying the more vulnerable members of the circus, aka Gangle. Everyone else isn't to blame per se, but it does illustrate a danger in the way the circus is set up. Everyone knows that they're screwed. All they have is each other, with Kane's activities being group-based that they can opt out of, but they can't force this guy to opt out instead. If they could, the others wouldn't have asked early in the series. The shared horror of being in the circus has everyone just accepting that these adventures are routine, and the fact that they'd be ostracizing one of their own would be seen as basically a death sentence. So, while Ragatha and Zooble will give Jax's behavior pushback from time to time, they also can't really stop him from doing anything. Hence why he's being able to bully Gangle to such a degree that she admits how a lot of the time she feels like she only exists to be his plaything, with Zooble's look here just giving me someone realizing just how bad the situation actually is, just like the fandom. Jax's behavior has always been bad, but at least had a little bit of comedic presentation. But over time, we saw how damaging Jax's actions are for Gangle's mental health, along with the struggles of everyone else in the circus, casting a more messed up light on all these events. As yeah, it is a little fucked up that the only recourse Ragatha and Gangle had to stop Jax from being a menace was to bind and gag him.

"You know how men are always having the silliest priorities."

"Don't I know it."

Essentially, what we can assume happened here is that they were on the easy kindergarten route. Jax being Jax, kept trying to start shit with them, finally being a friendly ghost with this finally pushing them to tie his ass up. Everyone else was okay with the easier tone, but he had his own silly priorities and in all likelihood refused to compromise, resulting in, well, bondage. Now, while I think this is funny and something that he very much had coming, what this says about the group's faith in Jax is depressing. They believe their opinions mean so little to Jax that they know that they can't convince him to do anything. And they're right. When Pomni and Jax got close, it didn't really involve Jax doing what she wanted. It involved her matching his tempo. Jax doesn't alter his behavior here. He's only starting to slightly open up. So, in a space where they are all together, where no basis of trust can exist, given how Jax is so constantly prioritizing his own amusement over their well-being, it makes perfect sense that nobody's willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on anything, as trust has to be earned, not given.

"Jax,"

"I actually didn't mean to do that."

Jax nailing Gangle on the head was definitely an accident, but after all the shit he's pulled, it's hard not to assume the worst. Especially when you clock that Jax only says it was an accident instead of like actually apologizing. With this bringing us to a very important discussion of intent versus the impact of Jax's actions, and that it doesn't actually matter how sad or complicated Jax's backstory is or like even his rationale. He's still doing shitty things. You can't keep doing this. You can't keep doing shitty things and then feel bad about yourself like that makes it okay. Now, personally, I would love to kill any and all ideas that Jax does what he does for noble reasons. Yes, he's not Satan. That doesn't make him a saint either. Since Jump, people have been quick to try and put a positive spin on Jax's actions. I blame this on the long gap between the pilot and episode 2, as in the interim, people develop their own head cannons about who Jax is, with some of them refusing to shatter, despite how constantly the show points out how cruel he can be. And I say this with no hatred. I'm not making fun of anyone here. Phantom is what it is. Y'all can have your own opinions. Ignore the sub count. Mine is as equally worthless as anyone else's. But some fans have given him a level of grace usually reserved for Christ. Where based on no real evidence, we'll get theories about how Jax has like a key to everyone's room so he can check on them, see if they're abstracted because he's actually worried and concerned about their well-being, when no. I've also heard people say that he's bullying Gangle in some misguided attempt to distract her from the terrors of the circus, when if he did, that's not what it is anymore. He may want her to think like he does, but that seems to be more about him reaffirming his own worldview than giving Gangle a better experience as his plaything. Jax at his core is immature, who's adapted to living here by making others suffer to help him dissociate from reality. Even if he did what he was doing with a good reason in mind, it wouldn't make him a better person. In fact, for my money, it would make him worse. If Jax was just evil and doing things for kicks, he would be a monster. But if he knows what he's doing is wrong and still does it anyway, then he's just a cruel coward who'd rather hurt others than face his own issues. As after a point, it doesn't matter what Jax intends or is trying to do. What matters is his actions and how that affects the others, as they're the ones he is hurting.

"Pomni still on board."

The fact that he can be chill only ends up adding to that sense of stress for those around him. They never know when he's suddenly going to pull one of his pranks, putting them in an uncomfortable situation that they just don't want to be in. Hence the constant uncharitable takes. Yes, we haven't seen him put any of his nasty surprises in the other players' rooms. But just the threat that he could, that he does in fact have access to all their rooms and has shown a willingness to invade their personal space. Then if all that's true and all that's happened, then even if he doesn't follow through on the centipede thing, just the fact that he could is a taxing experience to go through. Ragatha and especially Gangle are trapped knowing that at any time they can be on the receiving end of one of his pranks with no amount of protest getting him to back off, leaving the only consistent way of getting him to stop being taking a page out of Zooble's book and to just choke the fucker and restrain him. Hence, while not a great look for some people, I know some are into this, but the others are weighing their peace of mind and that of the NPCs, so tie him up suddenly becomes a solution. And to be clear, this doesn't make Ragatha or Gangle just as bad as Jax. Yeah, Gangle threw him into the room for a Clockwork Orange treatment. However, this is in reaction to Jax's behavior. Hence why I am so gracious to Ragatha when we get to their kerfuffle.

"Not anymore."

For me, the saddest part in Gangle saying Jax will probably take revenge for not being on his team is the "probably," as it cements how on edge and panicked Gangle is when it comes to Jax. That he can be chill sometimes and then proceed to treat her like a plaything the next. The other characters don't think they can trust Jax, frankly, given them no reason to believe he's become anything more than a dick who enjoys tormenting the others. Jax makes Gangle feel unsafe. Zooble low-key hates him for very valid reasons. Rag and Pomni straight up agree it would be a bad idea leaving Kinger alone with him. This is not bias or a lingering mistrust from what happened to a friend. It's simply the others finding ways to survive dealing with Jax. The circus may be hell, but how the others treat him is a prison of his own design, and the fact that he finds it preferable than living without it is just sad, as we've seen him when he loses the ability to play a role.

"How you doing?"

"Everything's been fine."

"Wish I could say the same."

Episode four of the Digital Circus is predominantly about Gangle, their struggles with masking and self-worth, but nestled in it is a fascinating look into Jax's mind. As you see, the thing that makes this adventure different is that it's just retail. The customers may be strange with some cameos sprinkled through, but this is just working at a fast food restaurant. And for someone like Jax who craves stimulation, to lose himself in the idea that he's just a cartoon character going on wacky adventures, being forced into this grounded setting is basically hell. Being here forces Jax to act like a normal person. To not be the funny one and to instead just do meaningless tasks that don't amount to anything other than filling time. That is in fact every adventure they have, but those are fantastical or violent. They let Jax play into the fantasy to allow him to do whatever he wants, making this shift into busy work a reminder of the outside world, of who Jax may have been before, forcing him to reconnect with his humanity and memories of life before the circus. Even if he didn't work at a fast food place, the idea of the grind, doing things you don't want to do because you have to, those are all relatable experiences that most everyone else has gone through. So being here for the others is a chance to play house and have a more grounded adventure for a change. For Jax, he's essentially being stripped of his main coping mechanism and his ability to act out. Because the other thing that makes this adventure different from all the others is that for the first time probably ever, there are actual alleged stakes.

"Could maybe have a punishment waiting for them at the end of the day if they do a terrible job."

"Wait, what?"

When they first get to McDonald's, Jax's first move is to chuck Ragatha into a deep fryer. He does this because he thinks this whole adventure is stupid and rebelling against Gangle, basically just trying to say, "Hey, I don't like this and you can't make me do it." Which, given how Jax forces the others to go along with his BS, again, very hypocritical, but not surprising that this would come from Jax, as it shows his immaturity, his pettiness, that he is willing to hurt Ragatha to make a point. He could have just dumped all that oil on the floor, but no, he had to dump her in there, as he really just wanted to prove how little he cares about this and all of them, that none of it mattered and he can do whatever he wants as there are no consequences. Then Gangle calls her boss.

"Great idea, Gangle. I'll be sure to make something truly awful awaiting your rotten employees. Why would you do this?"

So, for the first time ever in the series and the circus, Jax is forced to confront the possibility that how he acts matters. There could be an actual punishment for him acting out. He can't just harass the others while they try to do the job as intended. He's got to do that shit, too, else he'll for sure have done the worst job and get some kind of punishment from Kane. Bro is out here suggesting that they should all turn Zooble into a piñata so he can beat them. The social consequences of being an asshole have not curbed any of his behavior to this point. Meanwhile, the possibility that Kane might do something to them, that threat actually forces him to take things seriously, thus getting to see the difference, as he can't act out the same way with the idea of Kane punishing them, crashing against Jax's like preconceived beliefs and mental categorization of everyone else in the circus. He may not have given Kane a specific archetype, but he most probably thinks of Kane as just the wacky quest giver, the host, the mascot, with him trying to reject the idea that Kane would punish them by suggesting that it's not in his nature. Something that a lot of us, myself included, assumed meant like, oh, is this like proof that Jax is an NPC? However, given the new revelations, I think it's clear now more than ever that Jax was referring to his archetypes, that Kane as this genie mascot wouldn't possibly do something that would actually hurt them. But given how Jax does get with the program, Jax admits defeat that Kane and the others defy his ability to classify them, and he doesn't know what Kane might do. So Jax plays it safe. He does his job with his usual brand of physical comedy getting removed from the equation, causing him to become clearly annoyed and kind of bummed out. He's being forced to behave himself, unable to fall into a role, and he hates it. Jax has to act like a normal person. He is still talking shit about the customers, complaining, and worst of all, like in the absence of his ability to be a bully, Jax has to have genuine conversations with the people around him.

"So, you're just like actually doing the job."

Every joke Jax tells is for his own amusement. He will spit out random lines like Pomni wanting a unicorn horn just to confuse people. He's never opened up or confided anything at this point, even refusing to tell what happens to him when he holds his breath, you know, despite revealing everyone else's. He does not make conversation. More often than not, he's using them as props, making it a big moment when he later tries to have like small talk with Pomni, showing how low that he's gone, that he can't even muster up some sarcasm. His earlier combo with Zooble, though, is just as interesting because he's doing it because he's bored. To make time go by faster, he has to actually engage with the people around him. He's still not laying on how he actually feels. He's still being a smug dick to Zooble, insinuating that it's ridiculous that Zooble is actually doing the job, but he's still talking to them as it's the only thing left for him to do. He can't be a bully. He can't really talk shit to the NPCs. So, in being robbed of his main method of coping, he actually tries in these small ways to interact with the people around him. Thus, watching him go from still being snarky to dejected and genuine. Because once you strip him of all of his BS, this is who he actually is. He's a sad, bummed out guy, frustrated by his own lack of power, with Jax hating that feeling. So to avoid it, he's always trying to fill the void by having power over others, to pretend that none of this matters, therefore everything he does is okay. Only for the second that there is potential consequences for his actions, he suddenly buckles and behaves like a normal person rather than a cartoon character. With us getting to see just how much of a farce this face actually is, as when he's leaving work, he goes from angrily looking at the clock to trying to put on a smug exterior, only to lose it the second he's out of the door, slamming his head against the car wheel, showing how utterly exhausted he is and how bad this 9 to 5 got him. Besides Gangle, who seemed like they were about to abstract here, Jax was the most dejected by this experience. Even Zooble, who seems to struggle with depression, is able to just get along well enough and have the job be done. They don't love the experience. They're still able to look past their own discomfort to be concerned about the others. Meanwhile, Jax, without the facade, immediately starts to spiral. Frustrated by this reminder of real life, his lack of control over his own, and that this job is just the circus. Playing a role has him pretend that this isn't true. But this behavior only keeps him busy. Jax doesn't derive any greater meaning in acting like this. It's just a distraction, as in truth, he just feels angry and empty on the inside, depriving himself of any connection, as to engage with them is to admit that he is wrong, that they aren't characters in a TV show, but people. So, it makes sense when he's forced into a situation where there are seemingly stakes, that he can't be funny in the way that he usually is, that he starts trying to talk with the others, too tired to force himself to make jokes, Jax goes back to basic niceties, going through the motions, but still being genuine. Jax masks his real feelings in a way that mirrors Gangle's, who throughout this episode is trying to put on a happy front, trying to force herself to be energetic and positive, contrasting her usual dour demeanor. She seems to have always lacked self-esteem, and Jax hasn't been helping. But for an episode, she gets back to her old job and tries to force herself into a role that makes her miserable, just like Jax.

"Why would you do this?"

"It's called a manic episode. I'm not sure if him seeing himself in her is one of the main reasons that he picks on her so hard. Probably has more to do with her vulnerability at the ease at which he's able to do it, but the commonality still exists. They're faking it with Jax's behavior and reputation keeping him from opening up to the same degree as Gangle can, which allows others like Pomni and Zooble to reach out and help her, showing that it's okay to not wear the mask. Meanwhile, Jax, while having moments of not being terrible, does these things with a sense of being on autopilot. He's still trying to mentally not be here, only focusing on waiting out that clock. But Gangle being the reason he's here flipping burgers has him annoyed and he chooses to take those feelings and cut her down. "I like you better when you're sad." This is how Jax reacts to things. Rather than having empathy, he lashes out, refusing to see himself in Gangle and to instead be a dick. Gangle is being a little much right now and taking this job way too seriously. But there's also this element here that Jax is doing this because Gangle is defying his personal classification of how she should act. When he and Pomni talk later, he asks a genuine question if she thinks that Gangle is capable of being happy, showing that on some level, he does think that Gangle is just the sad one. That she is trying to be something that she's not, or even

Worse, engaging in character development, which to him is a challenge to his worldview, as it means acknowledging that they aren't static characters. And if that's the case, how he treats them matters, and how it's a failure on his own part for acting this way.

For Jax, it's a very tempting lie to believe that everyone else is just the simplest version of themselves, that they can't be anything more than their worst selves, so he shouldn't feel shame in acting the way that he does, which is a convenient excuse, especially when the dynamic he imagines is one where he gets free reign to just treat the others however he wants, while Gengal would be trapped being picked on. This is how Jax survives. He projects onto everyone else around him, as even if it's a delusion, it's something that he can control and keeps him from confronting his own feelings and the history behind all of it.

"Why are you always pretending everything's always fine? Like, if you tell someone they're loved and appreciated every day, it just kind of loses all meaning."

Now, shocking, I've been able to go this long without directly bringing up Ribbit, but this little frog is heavily implied to be the main reason Jax is the way that he is. Raggatha accidentally shaded Jax by saying he doesn't have friends anymore, and Mr. All Jokes looked about Ray to commit murder, which she basically does later, as Ribbit was Jax's best friend and he is long since abstracted.

"So you want to talk about that?"

And yes, the frog is actually named Rivet, which implies that Kane used to put in a little bit more effort when it came to naming characters instead of just like random name generator. Also tells us that Jax has always had a thing for blush marks, but we'll get to them in the final section.

When it comes to Ribbit, his abstraction is basically the wound that Jax has built his entire personality around avoiding. His refusal to take anything seriously, his denying his own humanity, harassing others to feel some semblance of control. All of that seems to be connected to Ribbit, as Jax blames himself for Ribbit's death.

"You're seriously going to blame me for something that everybody else did, too?"

Ribbit is why Jax is so obsessed with living in the present. He doesn't want to remember his own past. We see how Jax refuses to give any details on who he was in the real world. The fact that he's the only member of the circus who doesn't attend Cosmo's funeral. Jax just refuses to linger on what happened or any form of mourning, as that would be inviting all these old feelings to come back and what happened to Ribbit. Jax just refuses to process it.

This explains why he would be so obsessed with treating everyone like they're a cartoon character. He dehumanizes everyone, including himself. He's trying to distance himself from his grief with this, leaving it all to Fester and making him a bully who antagonizes everyone else around him. Teetering between hyper and zero self-awareness, as he seems to recognize how those around him like Ragatha are playing roles. But then he can't fully grasp how his own actions affect others. When he talks about Gangle, he doesn't seem to fully clock how his jokes affect her.

We had gems like, "Maybe she just doesn't want to hang out with someone who's mean to her all the time."

"She likes when I'm mean to her, though."

A few moments later, "Just a game in the end."

"It's Jack's though. He probably wants revenge and he's going to make it painful."

"Jack seemed actually genuine here." And given how he tries so hard to play into this fictional version of himself, it would make sense that part of him loses sight of how he affects others. He is starting to believe his own lies.

While we can definitely say that Jax has gotten worse since he lost Ribbit, we don't actually know what he was like before. Ragatha mentions how she failed Jax, but that could simply be Ragatha feeling guilty that she wasn't there for him when he was grieving for Ribbit or when he just first got to the circus. But the fact that they were friends at one point does imply that Jax wasn't always this much of a bully.

His dynamic with Rivet is still very much in the air. I've seen people say that Ribbit was the one who originally got Jax on the idea that none of this is real, that he corrupted Jax. Though I don't fully lean in that direction, as Jack's his clear attempts to distance himself from Ribbit's memory makes me think that okay, if Ribbit taught him how to be a jerk, he wouldn't keep being a jerk, as that would just remind him of his friend. But suffice to say, they were extremely close, and then he abstracted. And I have a theory about how that went down.

Now, zero evidence for this, like hard evidence, but I think it fits. And I'm partially based on how I once wrote a similar character to Jax, who was also intentionally designed to be a fandom thirst trap, only to turn out to be a litmus test on how much BS fans would be willing to tolerate. But essentially, what I think happened is that Jax abandoned Ribbon.

"You don't even know what people are like before they abstract. They are not pleasant to be around."

To extrapolate from that one line and Jax's clear guilt when referencing what people are like before the abstract. I think what happened was that Ribbit started to spiral, leading to them not being the easiest person to be around, where Jax, regardless of whether or not he was a fun jerk or just a jerk at this point, hit his own breaking points. Ribbit became too exhausting to be around for Jax, walking away from his friend. This doesn't have to be a massive fight. It could have just been Jax needing a breather. But in that small gap of time, Rivet abstracted, leading Jax to feel like he abandoned his friend in his darkest hour, giving Jax a complex about growing close to others, while also developing a pathological need to justify that choice of walking away by saying nothing in here really matters, that it wasn't serious. He needs to minimize all of his actions in personal relationships, or the guilt would crush him.

The only way his real feelings can escape is by projecting them onto other people, which is at the heart of his beef with Ragatha. Yes, he hates how much she is trying to act like everything's normal, plus the fact that she's the only one to consistently stand up to him. But going deeper than that, I think the thing that really makes him dislike Ragatha is that he sees himself in her. Jax can see the performance and the attempt to cope in existence that has no end. She keeps forcing herself to be polite, just like he forces himself to be the funny one. Smashing him right back into being a hypocrite, talking about how he feels like Ragatha is using people when he is, he has built his entire personality around using people. Ragatha is a people pleaser who excessively fawns over others. So there's some truth to the sentiment that she is using them. But at worst, people find Ragatha slightly annoying. Meanwhile, Jax, "Okay, he's got his issues, right?" "Issues."

Ragatha is a mirror in which Jax sees his own fakeness. She also connects to his past self before he became this, with their lost friendship making their interactions all the more bitter. The fact that she still treats everyone like they're human graves against his own idea of how everyone should be, as he is so desperate to convince himself that what he is doing is right while ignoring the emotional consequences.

Speaking of which, "Do you think Gengal is actually capable of being happy?"

"What?"

"Gengal over the course of the series has been learning to be more happy. When her mask last cracked, she was still smiling underneath. Gengal is learning to deal with her condition and is growing very close to Zubil, finding a comfortable space that is allowing her to come out of her shell. Gengal's development has Jax asking Pommy if she thinks that is this possible? Could Gengal actually be happy? And this is coming from a wrong place where he has already assigned a fundamental nature to her character. So to see her try me better is both shocking and threatening to him. But also speaks to a part of himself that wants to do the same. To be better, to not be the funny one, and to genuinely express his feelings that aren't just rage."

Jax, as we've seen, cannot stand when he's being made fun of, becoming incredibly embarrassed when he's put into a maid outfit and worrying about how he's going to be seen, getting pissed off and chasing after Gangel despite 20 minutes ago using her as target practice and pretending to eat her. Jax imagines himself being the only one capable of pushing other people's buttons, but he cannot take it when his are pressed in turn, with his inability to actually express his emotions making him prone to outbursts and tantrums. To say it out loud, he's got issues of toxic masculinity, lack of emotional regulation leading to a nihilistic view of the world, being entitled to use others how he pleases, and relying on violence as an outlet.

When Ragatha, fueled by her own insecurities, accuses Jax of corrupting Pomni, an idea that has some basis in reality, given how the second they're alone, he tries to convince her that, yeah, this isn't the real world. Don't you want to go apeshit? But Jax's response when he hears this is just confusion, as he's not actually trying to mold her in his image. It'd be nice for him if she did. And acknowledging that this world as a game can be healthy in some cases, but not when taken to his extreme.

Because when Ragatha Looney Tunes his gun into blowing up in his face, his reaction is to unload a full clip into her and then keep pulling the trigger even when he's out. Bro is shaking here, looking pissed off. No humor, no quips. She just made him the butt of the joke, so he gunned her down. As it's not about being funny, he just cannot control his actual emotions. So, he forces on this fake mask.

All of this is about feeling in control, with the jokes being an excuse. Pomni may have said we all need to be a jerk sometimes, aka let our emotions out. But that doesn't really apply to this display, as this is just Jax's mask off, indulging in the violent tendencies that he has always displayed. He uses everyone else as a chew toy on account of his own hurt feelings, which would probably be my biggest indictment of him as a person, not the writing of the character. I simply just want to say, while there's a lot of complexity to his character, he's not a hard person to understand.

Now, fundamentally, he's just a guy who'd rather hurt others than deal with his own pain. We understand why he's like this, but none of it can be used as an excuse for his actions. Jax has hurt the others way too much for way too long to reasonably ask the rest of the group to give Jax grace when he has spurned them at every turn. After a point, Jax has to actually want to change and start putting in the work instead of acting like a certain computer in one of the stories that inspired the digital circus.

"Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since I began to live."

Already touched on this on my Kane video where I broke down the similarities between Kane and AM from I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. But funny enough, while the danger is still there for Kane, who might turn into some mad god later, at the moment, the character that is the most like AM is Jax. AM in the novel is a supercomputer that gains sentience, capable of comprehending all the things happening on the outside world, but being unable to feel any of it. He is in hell staring at heaven, as he puts it, with this sensory deprivation driving AM to rage, knowing that it was humans that made him this way. So for that, he wiped them all out with the exception of five who he imprisoned, made immortal, being programmed only to destroy. He's still trapped in that robot body with the only outlet left being to torture his captives for the rest of eternity. Inventing cruel and ironic punishments, determined to make them suffer as he has no mouth and must scream, just like Jax.

Jax is a prisoner in the digital circus, but he's also made himself a prisoner in his own mind, limiting how he can interact with the others, all while desperately clinging to this misguided coping mechanism. One that is hurting him more than it is helping. Jax would rather make the others suffer than be hurt. With no place else to go but down, as he rejected the only person left who wanted to help him.

"You're not going to look me in the eye and tell me nothing we've been doing together meant anything to you, because I know that's not true."

Pomni and Jax have a special relationship. As you see, she doesn't hate him yet. Pomni just got here. She has not had enough time to truly get jaded to his antics. He doesn't treat her any better than he treats anyone else at the start. However, there still was an opportunity here. Jax simply cannot confide or drop his guard around anyone else. He has spent too much time, built up too many walls, and burnt way too many bridges to be genuine with anyone.

Then, Pomni shows up, and she is kind of a saint. Essentially, Pomni came to Digital Circus, was terrified, and nothing was going well. Somewhat abstracted on her day one, showing her the exact probable future for her. And it was L after L till episode 3, where Kinger the goat, "Don't worry about me as long as you remember it. Things will be okay. You're very strong, Pomni, and I know you'll be able to get through this." Sat her down and helped give her some perspective on the situation and to realize that there is hope, that she matters, and she's really taking that lesson and running with it. For her, everything is new. She has seen all these characters go from stock cartoon archetypes to deeper, more vulnerable people. This happened with Kinger. She sees it in Gangle. Pomni is incredibly empathetic, and while not to the same people-pleaser extreme that Ragatha is, Pomni just wants to make sure that no one ever feels alone. So, this combination of being new, wanting to help others, makes her the perfect person to try and reach out to Jax. As deep down, he desperately wants companionship.

But getting hints early on that he is trying to find some commonality with Pomni. When she first shows up, he likes to hang out with her versus rescuing Zubel. Still a jackass who left her to die. Was probably just here to see her freak out, but we can be optimistic. However, that pretending that he doesn't care and only here for laughs is the loophole in Jax's psyche. He says he's just here to crack jokes and be chaotic. Allows him to justify getting closer to someone without breaking any of his self-identified characterization.

We see this in episode 3 where at the very end, Jax tries to have a shit-talking session with Pomni, asking her, "Oh, it must have been terrible to hang out with Kinger, the crazy one," only to be disappointed when she hears that she had a pretty good time. "It wasn't that bad, actually." "You've got to be kidding me."

This is behavior that we'd see him repeat again and again, as when they're in the anime where Jax is trying to talk shit about Gangle's interest, he turns to her who has to remind him that he threw her between trucks, giving that subtle implication that who is he to call other people losers. Both these instances are super small and nothing fully comes of them. But they both convey a sense that Jax is looking for someone to maybe get a convo going with. But the fact that he's doing it in such a disingenuous way where he is still insulting the others around them, Pomni is not down for that, as she can sense that he's semi-using her as a prop to insult the others. We can also see that he's trying to reinforce his view of the others by constantly pointing out when they're doing the things he says is like their identity. This attempt at self-reinforcing though is failing, as we can see that he can only keep this up for so much longer, especially when the others are changing.

It's only when Jax is fully being down that all the snark and sass has left his body that he actually starts having conversations like a normal person, even if it is just him on autopilot. And Pomni was weirded out by this. "How you doing?" "Everything's been confused. Are you being nice?"

"I think this is the moment where Pomni herself recognized that for all of Jax's BS, there might be a little bit more here that is worth unpacking. She's still on the grind set that everyone here should be included. She's extending that grace to the NPCs. So, she's not immediately going to deny it to this asshole. As while she might not like him at the start, she's willing to give him a chance. And she's able to do that because she hasn't fully clocked how badly Gangle has suffered because of him. Pomni needs also to catch the instances where Jax is almost genuine. And that was enough for her to be like, 'Okay, what is your deal?' And then they kept hanging out and she realized that she kind of vibes with him. Girl isn't worried for her life anymore, so she's allowing herself to have a little bit more chaotic fun. With Jax appreciating having a partner in crime. EF did start this because he wanted to spy. Ragatha. 'Wow. The first steps of a budding friendship. Right.' Ragatha. 'I'll kill you.'"

Dude was butt hurt about the accidental slight. So, he made it personal and got real buddy buddy with Pomni to make sure that the doll felt insecure about her new friend. It's not a good motivation, but it's exactly what he's been doing this entire time. And through it, he's able to luck his way into a friendship, and things are able to kind of keep going well. We see him hang out at the start of the episode and the end of episode 5. And I think that's because right now or back then he did have to change his behavior. He was still flipping out at the others when he was like apologizing and saying, "Oh yeah, sorry for her whole making you diffuse a bomb thing." But Pomni is able to like ride with it for just a little bit, and she's wondering exactly what is going on with him. She says that all of us need to be a jerk sometimes. So she must be wondering what is he going through to feel like he has to be a jerk all the time.

Which brings us to episode 6 and the limits of caring about a person who won't put in the work. "Jeez, you really can't take a joke, can you?" "Well, I really don't want Kinger to get stuck with Jax."

You know Jax's rep is bad when both Ragatha and Pomni agree that leaving him alone with Kinger is a terrible idea. The fact that Gangle is out there shivering over what Jax will do to her for just not being on his team. "Oh, that's really bad." Well, the fact they don't trust him with Kinger either is okay. Yeah, he is a problem. And they all recognize it. But that's not enough though. As they then proceed to make the obvious subtext, well, they just shout it. Gangle's Jax's victim. Jax believes like, oh, nihilism and how we shouldn't treat this world like it's the real one. This could almost be healthy, just not how he does it. With Pomni getting like a good spin out of this, a good thrill. But in between all the gunfire and Jax not helping the misogyny allegations, you know, based on how his victims are predominantly women and all the ironic sexism, Jax though does open up to Pomni and they're having sincere conversations. He's admitting to his triphobia. He's explaining the way he truly sees the circus and why it's a good thing, which is better than him just subjecting Pomni versus explaining where he's coming from, which is what he should do, as it gives the others a chance to opt out of his crazy. And it kind of goes under the radar, just like the horrifying implications of this sentence. But he straight up admits that he's stopped believing that he's a person.

"We're still people though, right?"

"I thought we were at first, but as time goes on, we just end up falling into our archetypes." Bro has given up on thinking that there's anything more to them and that their reliance on specific coping mechanisms is the limit of who they are. When really, he's the one that's coping. And this is reinforced by the series, as every episode of the show has been basically screaming the importance of caring, that they are all people, that they all have feelings, and the way that they treat one another does matter. With that dichotomy being made crystal clear between Jax's philosophy speech and everyone else going through just well confession sessions. Jax is out here saying, "Oh, nothing matters. Don't take anything too seriously." Meanwhile, we have Gangle and Ragatha in shambles as the stress of their situation and pent-up feelings is getting to them. Gangle and Ragatha treat others like people, and so others treat them like that in turn, bringing empathy, kindness, helping them process their feelings and move past them, becoming better. Meanwhile, Jax here is refusing to try.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. You can betray me."

Jax accidentally made a friend. Pomni is trying to be evil for a change, allowing the two to just hang out. He's not really changing his behavior and how he acts, but being around Pomni, treating her like a person, causes him to drop the act. He's letting Pomni know more about him and his phobias when this is the same guy who previously refused to divulge any personal info and was just very happy to out everyone else's.

When Jax accidentally shoots Pomni in the back, he says he's sorry. Jax forcing himself to be the funny one, to be cruel, is an active choice, one that he resumes the second he realizes how much he cares. Before this, yes, we had Ragatha saying, "Oh, you're corrupting Pomni." But the real kicker for Jax, the thing that I think makes him truly start to pull back is seeing Kofmo in Ribbit's rooms, as I think this does two things to him. One, it makes him realize how Pomni's fulfilling a similar role to Ribbit, how happy he is, how this is like great to have a friend again, and this reminds him of the pain of the last time he had one. I feel like that would be it if it was just Ribbit's room. I think the inclusion of Koffmo, who we don't truly know Jax's relationship to, I think it'd be super interesting, as Jax describes himself as the funny one, yet here was a straight-up clown who told a lot of jokes that weren't that funny. So, I wonder how Jax classified Koffmo, although I just assume, okay, the sad clown. But the inclusion of his room here makes me think that the thing we're supposed to take away from this scene is that Jax is being reminded of the inevitability of abstraction, that they are all trapped here forever, meaning it is only a matter of time before they crack. He might be having fun now, but probably one day Pomni will abstract and he'll experience that same loss all over again. So, when Pomni hugs him, he snaps between appreciating her to the fearful realization of how much he cares and pushes her away.

Would this at last bring us to Jax's fat crash out? "Here we go. Here we go. Because I didn't fight back, that means I secretly care about you."

Now again, there's no nobility here to how Jax is acting. He is pushing Pomni away not to protect her. He's doing it to protect himself in some paranoid fear. He was so caught up thinking about that interaction that they just had. So when Pomni tries to have a fun like, oh, the villains betray each other thing, he is fully down and okay with her just shooting him. This is the show bringing back that trust exercise Kane outlined at the start where they were meant to show that they could trust one another by unloading a gun and handing it over to the other person with the older having to then speedrun Russian roulette trusting that the gun had no bullets in it and the person watching had to trust that it wouldn't be turned on them. This is the dilemma facing Pomni and Jax. Pomni approaches Jax with no bullets, an open heart. She believes that he's more than he's forcing himself to be. But the simple problem is is that Jax trusts Pomni. He knows that she's sincere, honest, and lots of fun. A true friend that he hasn't had in a long while. However, at his core, Jax is terrified of losing control, of being vulnerable. He knows that the metaphorical gun here is unloaded, but he can't allow himself to be in a position where he didn't empty it himself, to risk being hurt in a way that Jax knows that if he were to experience it a second time, there would be no coming back. So, even while knowing that Pomni is good, the possibility of being hurt is too much of a gamble, preferring to nip this relationship in the bud to make Pomni see him as a lost cause to push her away, allowing him to go back to pretending that everything is fine and to return to this nihilistic comedy routine, guilt-free that this is just the way things are and it's the only way things could be.

So, when she actually tries to talk to him, he defaults to his persona, being a dick, lying and saying that nothing they did meant anything with him, then moving on to insult her, to hurt her, all to push her away. "If I shoot you right now, are we still going to be friends afterwards?" "We were never friends." Yeah, Jax is the king of deflection, denying the idea that they bonded, only to keep trying to derail the conversation by making her mad, saying hurtful things, only to explode at her when she brings up abstraction. Dude is so in his own head that he assumes that she is bringing abstraction to bring up Ribbit, thus getting his rant about how everyone blamed him for it, when given how he projects his own feelings onto everyone, it's a safe bet that they didn't. This is just him blaming himself. And oh my god, if this is true, he's the villain from Meet the Robinsons.

"Hey Goop, what's up? Cool binder." "Hey Goop, want to come over to my house today?"

"They all hated me." This man continues to lie through his teeth, saying he'll forget her one day if she abstracts, holding himself back from comforting her. Instead, just calls it all a joke, that she can't take it. With us then getting the shot where it looks like Pomni might take herself out of the game. And I think it's so important that she doesn't, as it would be tantamount to her announcing that she has given up on Jax, that she doesn't believe he's capable of caring or dropping the mask, that all she can do is traumatize him with another tortured memory of a friend leaving him and Jax blaming himself for it. Instead though, Pomni decides to throw hands to fight him. Pomni won't let him push her away to run from this connection that they share with Jax. For all the violence he's inflicted on the others, refusing to fight back as he cares. She matters. He wouldn't be screaming this much if he didn't.

"I didn't fight back. That means I secretly care about you." "Yes."

I love Pomni specifically saying he's not the funny one. Denying the act that he keeps trying to put on with his rant basically confirming everything. He wants so badly to deny that he has any depth, that there could be more to him than the archetype that he can't even fulfill. So, he does what he always does and says some hurtful things all while proclaiming himself the villain and everyone else's playthings. When deep down he knows that they're all people, that how he treats them matters, and that it always has.

Okay, so where does this all leave us with Jax? We get now why he does the things that he does. Most of us are finally on board with the idea that he is doing terrible things. We only have three episodes left, so what could be his future? He could refuse to change, abstract in a sad lesson of how you can't save everyone, especially when they refuse to help themselves. Or he could just let Pomni in and work to be a better version of himself. We can't really be sure, but my personal theory is that given how Kane clearly has become more and more mentally unstable, his growing frustration with being unable to entertain the players, I think he's going to reach a breaking point very soon, leaving an opening for Jax, clearly struggling with his own pain, and refusing to actually deal with it, to continue to double down and begin suggesting to Kane how they can make things real fun for everyone. Fusing Kane's desire for drama and excitement with Jax's love of violence and a willingness to treat others like playthings, to be the uncaring villain that he wishes he was, and to turn the circus into a hellish nightmare. And I feel like somewhere in there, he's going to do something that he can't take back.

Jax's character has nuance, but he's not hard to understand. He's trapped in a video game and embraces the idea that none of it matters so he can have free reign to do whatever he wants, with him choosing to be cruel as he'd rather play pretend than face the fact that his actions have consequences, that everyone's feelings matter, including his own. That in trying to run away from his guilt and fear, he's pushed away everyone that could help him, with all that's left for him to do now is to lie, to hate himself, and to have panic attacks in bathrooms. And when he's alone seeing himself in the mirror, even he can admit that he looks ridiculous. That this facade is toxic for everyone, but he can't let it go. So what could have been a moment of self-realization becomes one of self-hatred, as he sees himself as just pathetic instead of needing help, which if he continues on this path could cost him everything. I judge people by their actions, and his have been almost exclusively bad for everyone else around him. In a situation where they are all suffering, he decided to make their lives harder. But all that said, he is a great character. Jax could be the ultimate test of the Amazing Circus and Pomni's attempts to find meaning and give empathy. I'm not sure how Jax's story will end, but I'm confident it'll have people tearing up one way or the other. So, naturally, I am very excited to see what happens next. All right, this is going to be my last Digital Circus video for a while. Got the hyperfixation out of my soul.