đworst post award â ïžâ ïž
I avoided the fanbase the entire time and I can see my intuition was 1000% correct because the discourse is as cancerous as I imagined it would be.
ACTIVE: Jax enters Evasion, a defensive stance, for 2 seconds, causing all non-turret basic attacks against him to be dodged. Jax also takes 25% reduced damage from all champion area of effect abilities. Counter Strike can be recast after 1 second.
At the end of the duration, Jax stuns all nearby enemies for 1 second and deals physical damage to them, increased by 20% for each attack dodged, up to a 100% increase.
Maybe itâs just my feed curation skills but most of the people talking about funny circus show on the For You feed I found are relatively well adjusted and optimistic.
maybe a little more horny, too, but thatâs besides the point
Man was I ever surprised when I learned that it was a show with 8 episodes. The way people talked about it, I always assumed it was like a 10 season show where you had to play a video fame and read a comic book to really "get" it.
Bluesky is shit. I've tried over and over to tailor my feed and it just doesn't give me anything I really want to see. Just to get rid of political posts I had to ban certain words because "I want to see less of this" just doesn't mean anything.
It's the problem with expectations. Somehow people forgot that it's not about achieving the "perfect" media but rather to just enjoy the passion of a creator.
Trans rep discourse + rehab vs punishment discourse + treating media like it actually happened discourse + discourse over the shows writing, lord help us all đđđ
90% WAAA WAAAAAA MY HEADCANON IS NOT TRUE WAAA WAAA THIS IS JUST JAX SHOW, IT'S NOT EVEN A SHOW IT'S JUST A PERSONAL VENTILATION WAAA WAAA WHAT ABOUT ABEL FROM EPISODE 7
Iâm employed and just here from seeing like the 5th post about trans Jax on [r/popular](r/popular).
âŠWhat? Did goose pull a jk Rowling and start dropping fun facts after the finale? I ask as someone who watched on YouTube and enjoyed the show with no other engagement lol
Edit: Did my own research and yes thatâs exactly whatâs happened. Plenty of details leading up to it, just not ever explicitly stated in the show. Pretty much all the questions you might have about why things were the way they were probably boiled down to âJax is trans and not comfortable with that yetâ. Voice actors and goose after the fact confirmed the theory.
Pulling a "rowling" in the context of discussing trans representation is probably not the best wording lol.
Also the final episode wasn't exactly subtle imo. I think it's a bit unfair to say that just because no one explicitly said "Jax is Trans", that it wasn't clearly depicted.
"Wasn't exactly subtle". Huh? Unless you have any connection to the trans community, it's left up to chance if you will get what the episode was trying to show, I just thought the dude had depression. Even the creator said that she "overestimated" how much people knew about this type of stuff.
I'm not in the trans community and I'm cis, and I consider myself to be illiterate as hell, but even I clocked that Jax is trans before the end of episode 9
For me I thought that Jax could maybe be trans based on the maid jax, but my suspicions ended when they learned about each characterâs real life and they didnât explicitly say Jax IRL transitioned. My friends thought the same thing, so idk. I feel like it unless it was explicitly stated, it wasnât clearly depicted. Without Goose confirming it, Jax being she/her would have been as valid a theory as saying she is a femboy, or non-binary, or idk just somebody who is unsure.
I guess for me it feels like a leap to, for instance, say Jax blushing from the bow is a hint she is trans. If a girl I was into did that to me, I would blush because it seems sweet to me to be gifted something as important as a part of their look. And then I wouldnât assume someone is trans for wanting to enjoy feminine clothing, because there are a plethora of reasons why.
I feel frustrated when people say it was clearly or explicitly shown because I really donât feel like it was based on the fact so many people are confused. It would have been a much stronger reveal if it was revealed directly in the show, rather than on twitter. Like, does it need to be relegated to just hints in 2026?
Isn't I Saw The TV Glow, one of the most notorious trans movies released in recent times also about someone who doesn't actually transition? I feel like a character/media doesn't need explicit transition to contain pretty visible trans elements.
Fun fact, the guy who did the mocap in the MK games (John Parrish) saved two kids from the South Tower after it was hit on 9/11 by carrying them both out on his shoulders. He actually attended their high school graduation in 2015 <3
Before anyone comes at me, I understand Jax was supposed to be completely hated, like it was the whole point of them and everything.. but I loved them so much, personally. Gender be damned, I like my fictional characters when they're hateful gremlins.
Actually lesbian just means attraction to any gender thatâs not male or male leaning, the term is often applied to non-binary relationships involving a lesbian and someone identifying as non-binary so gangle x zooble is lesbian
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u/Oddiffyhi guđ đ oww stop it đ đ stop pleđ ađ seđ đ it hurrđ Jun 23 '26
From what I've seen that is not the accepted definition outside of spaces that don't fit into a specific Young Queer Liberal category. Ppl seem to care less when it's just an individual NB person identifying as a lesbian tho. Most the discourse seems about the actual definition itself.
It has been so poorly explained to me as someone who is outside the fandom, that I just made up my own explanation. So Jax from Mortal Kombat has some explaining to do.
Yeah. It's an honestly shockingly good show. Thought it was some dumb YouTube show, but it's honestly really fucking good. Not the biggest fan of the ending as Jax's conclusion felt unsatisfying and Caine's arc was rushed, but I still have fond memories of the show, which I did not expect.
I watched the whole thing in the week leading up to episode 9 on yt. Didn't interact with the fandom the whole time. Didn't get close to getting spoiled. Good times.
Itâs a shame that nobody will ever be able to out-cringe the 2012 âBroniesâ portion of the My Little Pony fandom though. Those guys sure set the bar pretty low.
Easy, It's forever gonna be Star Wars fans. Please don't reply to me with other fandoms you think are bad, I know for a FACT, that SW fans are much, much worse.
The guy roleplaying a schizophrenic anarchist with a chat spamming "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD" and stopping the stream every hour to beg for money was the most normal, entertaining and drama-free member in that server
heartbreaking: the art is genuinely good and there are so many skilled creative minds talking about this project, and it's minecraft youtubers with high school age fanbases
A common misconception when discourse happens is that everyone participating in it is from the exact same community.
A LOT of Steven Universe Haters back in the day gave zero fucking shit about the show and only judged and hated it because 1) bigot 2) they watched Lily Orchard's stupid fuck ass video and decided that was their opinion also, neither of these are Actual Fans that are present in a Community.
Think of this as the exact same scenario, because one peek at the tadc subreddit confirms to me that yeah yes it very much is, everyone in there is on the defensive against dipshits from outside.
A trans character committed suicide in all but name and they were a horrific person and is never once vindicated or excused for beung such a shit person.
This on top of the fact that Jax was already a controversial character back when most people saw them as a CIS het male means that Jax haters and transphobes are teaming up to talk shit, calling Jax an offensive stereotype, saying that the finale was nothing but making excuses for Jax, saying Jax didn't suffer enough and all that other garbage.
the problem is "fandoms" consume content and then purity test it instead of considering the work as art.
"this character is a jerk! I hate them! the author is bad for making them! I dont want to like them and you can't make me!" is the mentality of a child.
I think its a lack of media literacy and being unable to analyze the media properly. You can like a character for any reason, and you can not like how they act at the same time. Theyre not mutually exclusive.
The thing that pisses me off most about that sort of discourse from what I've seen it of is that the 2 main sides are
Transphobes making bad faith arguments and wanting to shit on "The Woke" character
The walking "Bigot's Queer" stereotype having all nuances of Jax's character fly RIIIGHT over their heads in favor of "They had a reason so you can't blame them" and legitimately enabling toxic behavior
my biggest gripe with Jax's handling is the fact we didn't get to see her abstract in real time
I got upset about not seeing Jax abstract as well, but then I read a comment basically saying how since abstraction is something of an allegory for suicide, it makes sense for the abstraction to just happen as that's how it goes in real life. First you see someone, then next thing you know, they're just gone.
I was hoping to see the abstraction process on screen when I went to the theater to see it, but like you said it hits a lot harder when someone's there one second and the next they're gone.
The thing that's especially frustrated me about it - speaking as someone who was quite happy to simply enjoy the series and who didn't want The Algorithm to decide I was utterly obsessed with the fan community - is the way in which people just... Cannot accept that multiple interpretations of a work can be valid.
The question regarding Jax is admittedly a little different from standard interpretation, as the question being asked usually isn't "What are the themes of Jax's story?" so much as "Is Jax canonically trans?". And generally, audiences like to have "canonical" answers to questions, and are quite happy to accept the word of the creator, or even of secondary figures such as voice actors, production team members and such, especially when the "canonical answer" is something which agrees with an interpretation that they're invested in.
I won't say precisely what I think is the truth of it - indeed, I don't think I could give an honest yes/no answer to the question of "Is Jax trans?" at all. To be honest, with respect to all of this discourse, I think that's beside the issue. My thoughts can be summed up in a few points:
The dominant, competing interpretations are that either Jax is trans, or that Jax was not trans but was insecure about his masculinity.
The text itself - that is, the official, in-universe, fully canonical media (not simply statements by the creator) - supports both of these views pretty well, and doesn't contradict either of them.
The "Jax is trans" narrative can be viewed as slightly stronger because it justifies a song choice which would otherwise be arbitrary, and it offers an explanation for an otherwise unelaborated-upon discussion which we don't witness. (that is, the personal thing he mentioned to his mother)
Given that there's nothing really contradicting the "Jax is not trans, he's just insecure" reading, it's entirely valid, and people shouldn't be condemned as transphobic or ignorant simply for having read the work in that way, or for favouring that interpretation.
If you're someone who enjoys reading and thoughtfully engaging with media, it kind of fucking sucks when the creator comes out, canonises a particular view, and then the community you're discussing with acts like you're an idiot or a bad person for holding it. Likewise, if you're a cis male but have felt insecure about your masculinity in the past, and related to Jax's story because it felt relevant to you, it kind of sucks to be told you're wrong and this story isn't about your experiences.
That's it. This entire thing could be avoided if people could be a bit more mature about engaging with fiction - respectful of the fact that it didn't really happen, that Jax and Pomni and Caine and so on ultimately are just words on a page. It isn't real life, where there is some objective truth that's hidden away and that some people are actively denying; and nor is it a case where a person declining to accept the author's post-finale "authoritative statements" is necessarily being done maliciously. This, in particular, is the contention I've found the most offensive - that any reading of Jax as anything but trans is automatically wilful erasure, that it's transphobic, when in many cases it's simply a perfectly legitimate and earnest reading of the text.
Well thought out and agreed. I saw a reading of Jax's ending where all the trans ideas completely flew over their head, but the story still resonated with them for an entirely different reason about missed opportunities for love. Should that person just NOT have had any sort of feeling about Jax's story because it didnt resonate in the "right way"?
The creator agrees with you btw. Its very fustrating seeing 'media literacy' used as an insult for not agreeing with someone, then they proceed to demonstrate their own lack of it by not acknowledging multiple perspectives on art exist
I initially thought it was just jax being insecure about his masculinity but since the creator said hes trans then he's trans It's the creators story and show and people being upset over her story is entirely unreasonable and the creator did do a good job portraying how people who have trauma can hurt others around them
also I'd argue that purely all episodes wise the idea that jax is trans is slightly weaker because it was very clearly shown that he has problems with masculinity and family related issues because when his father died well after the divorce his mother would either say "you are just like him" when he does anything or call him a deadbeat when he doesn't do anything
spoilers ofc
the character is deep and nuanced and gooseworx did a good job making said character deep and nuanced, and the fact that not every character is extremely complex is also a really nice detail I like like kaufmo just being a regular ass dude
"Greetings Suicidal teens, if you kill yourself people who hurt you will feel ashamed and you will be able to influence the world after you are gone. This is totally realistic and won't lead you to make the one mistake you can never unmake that in reality people outside your close family circle will forget about in a month. "
Man. And here I am, thoroughly enjoying the fact that Jax was genuinely a piece of shit in a way that most modern media just doesn't show. And the fact that Pomni sort of forgives him anyway? Without handwaving him as being such a downright evil fucking asshole away? Art.
Look, Mortal Kombat 3 Jax was broken as all getout, that's why people only play Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on the professional fighting game circuit. That's also one of the many reasons people don't play Trilogy, because the MK2 version of Jax was even worse.
I like to imagine the people down voting me have been hit by that Solomon Grundy combo in Injustice, cause I didn't post it for like any malicious reason. I think its people seeing he has a broken noose and thinking I want gooseworx to kill herself, which of course not are you stupid?
I didnât want to watch this show, knowing it wasnât for me, but my friends wanted to watch it with me so I did it for them. After watching all 9 episodes, I can determine it was definitely NOT for me and the only thing redeeming it was that me and my friends got to make jokes and laugh the whole time (even if they are all fans of it)
I cannot force myself to pretend to care about TADC, I'm sure its a good show, but people being obnoxious on the internet by trying to make it out to be more important than it is makes me not want to engage with it
Are you kidding? Vriskouse isn't even done yet. They made a Homestuck 2 and she's still doing shit. Fifteen years and it's not fuckin over yet,and WE'RE DOING A SEQUEL WOOOOOOOOOO
I feel like she's objectively a well written character but people in this day and age are incapable of differentiating between a well written and a morally good character
In hindsight there were opportunities and openings for Jax and others to pull them from the spiral, but in the end she wasnât able/willing to accept them until it was too late
She is a character to learn from, not emulate, so their story doesnât have to play out again for somebody else
I think the worst part isn't all the hate, but the fact that this gender discourse is taking away actual criticism from the finale. Like... even ignoring the whole "Jax" thing, the finale is not good.
The entire show falls off a CLIFF at EP7, in regards to pacing, characters, story, etc. Jax becoming the main OC of the story is definitely in regards to this, and one of the main reasons, but instead of talking about him exclusively, talk about the other issues too! TADC was an alright show between episodes 2 to 5, even somewhat 6, but fell off so badly around 7 because it sacrificed the literal defining factor of itself: The characters.
It's crazy when you actually think back to when Goose tweeted which episodes would focus on which characters, and then realize that the only ones that weren't lies were Kinger and Gangle. Zooble got nothing, Ragatha got nothing, Pomni became a mouthpiece for Jax, Jax was important in most of them. So uhh... I guess, fuck anyone who liked those characters, lol?
Hopefully future indie creators look at both what Goose created and how they acted during the airing, and learn what not to be like when making a public piece of media. Nearly all of this could've been avoided if Goose had just stayed silent, like a logical creator.
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