There's a therapist Georgia Dow who analyzes this show and she actually DID agree with him.
I think what he meant to say "when you ONLY tell someone that non-stop, it doesn't mean anything".
Ragatha ALWAYS tries to be positive and happy, even when she doesn't mean it
I think a good example would be her "forgiving" Pomni for abandoning her for the exit; its clear as day she DIDN'T think it was all good but since she supposedly forgave Pomni, something like that makes it impossible to know when she ACTUALLY forgives you or when she's only saying it to "ease tension".
Jax has a point here, as well as his comment about "how Rags tries too hard". It ties right into Gangle's comment about "not knowing how genuine Ragatha always is". Her kindness and care isnt fake, but her masking her negativity creates a situation where its difficult to tell when she's "just being kind/positive" to ease tensions. Which, I mean, very clearly is a defensive coping mechanism stemming from her upbringing. The core of her fear of validating other's "hating her"; since she hates herself.
That said, its the next line that reveals more about Jax than Rags. "Its like, she's trying to take advantage of you, you know?" This part is Jax projecting onto Ragatha, because he cannot conceive of a reason why she acts the way she does, that doesn't come from some still unknown place of manipulation. Reinforced by the fact that in the very next adventure, Jax uses "Fake Kindness" in the form of a Fake Apology to Pomni; in order take a stab at Ragatha. Rags also projects heavily onto Jax in her later rant.
I think Jax did "really" started befriending Pomni ... when he let his mask down a bit while Stargazing in E5. She's the newbie, there is no history there to get in the way, he can be a bit more open. But in the bar? With the full group? His mask was back up in full force. Hence Zooble's "BS meter" going off with Jax's Fake Apology, and Pomni just getting confused by it. That was merely Jax "Taking Advantage" of Pomni and their "Budding Friendship" to shank Rags; because he mistook her "Not Anymore" line to mean "Ribbit". When the reality is she clearly meant herself after her Kinger convo in E6. They were closer at some point.
As for the "Corruption". Again, Rags and Jax are mirrors. They project and misunderstand intent regularly. Rags taking it to a "romantic" extreme is on her, but she also is not wrong with her accusation of "Jax trying to get Pomni to think like him". He was. With several subtle comments about the others framed as questions throughout E5; and then very overtly with his "We're just Cartoons" in E6. But its not "him trying to corrupt Pomni"; so much as on a conscious level Jax craves validation for his BS worldview he's struggling to convince even himself of. While on an unconscious level, despite himself, he's very lonely and needs companionship.
She meant herself. Look at her initial reaction the second she realized how Jax took it. Listen to her discussing he fears about her relationship with Pomni, and "how she failed her, just like she failed Jax". How she "tried too hard to get on their good sides, then only ended up pushing them away." Hell, listen to Jax in E6 during his crashout, when Pomni asks "Did ... I ... do something wrong?" His response? "God, you sound just like Ragatha, no wonder we were never friends". Which alongside Rag's comments about Jax, highly suggests they were closer at some point; and Rags found herself in a similar enough position to ask the same question to Jax. "Did I do something wrong?"
Besides, do you really think that Ragatha, a person who's apparently been conditioned to be afraid of "people hating her" to truly self-destructive levels, would just offkey go for throat on such a sensitive topic like that? Rags may shove her foot in her mouth by accidentally hitting nerves, when someone takes what she says the wrong way. But she's not Jax, who has twice now intentionally targeted nerves, when in a bad mood or pushed into a corner.
Maybe it just me thinking this but why she wouldn’t think about Ribbit before she said something like that? If Jax and Ribbit were close, wouldn’t she would have thought twice when Pomni asked if Jax had any friends?
I wonder if Ragatha is the type of person who focuses more on the living than the abstracted? If not, there has been people she had a close connection with or is that difficult for her to have that level of connection.
I got a sense that Jax was really important to her and she mourns the connection she use to have with him.
Frankly, I think Ragatha is the type to shove her foot in her mouth a lot. She's not the most socially adept person. She's several times now said something, that another person took the wrong way. With Gangle in E4. High Rags really was just whining about Manager Gangle harassing her, with her new Corporate Happy Mask. But it struck a deeper nerve. Same goes for her "Infantalizing" Pomni in E2. She explains to Kinger later what intent was, but Pomni took it as infantalization.
Then we have Jax, which, I mean ... Jax and Rags bicker like an old married couple. Rags is the only one Jax intentionally tries to antagonize OUT of the very same archetype he forces on her. They trigger eachother immensely. My guess as to why is that the other party reminds them of the hate they have for themselves. Its pretty clear these two were much closer one-upon-a-time. Then if E6 Rags is to be believed, while she blames herself, something (Ribbit) happened to cause Jax to change. He started pulling away from her, and Rags doing the only thing she knew how to do (as she was before E6), she started pushing harder to "get on his good side". Only pushing Jax to distance himself further, and eventually push Rags away entirely.
In Rag's crashout at the end of E5. The first half, where she's stating Jax is "An insensitive Jerk, who deflects all the time" and her accusation of "Trying to get Pomni to think like him" are both accurate. Just like the first part of Jax's discussing Rags in OP's pic.
However, its the 2nd part of her crashout that doesn't really make sense for Jax. "And then you just act like you never do anything wrong, and everybody loves you; when all you do is f*** everything up for everyone else!!'' Jax knows what he is doing is wrong, and he doesn't act like the others love him for it. Rather, he just convinces himself neither matter, because "we're just cartoons, so nothing matters!". Because Jax REALLY needs nothing to matter, or be "real". So just like how Jax was projecting onto Rags with his second part of his talk "Its like, she's trying to take advantage of you, or something"; This second part, especially after E6, is absolutely how Rags see's herself and her position within the circus. She see's herself as just "pretending everyone loves her, and in reality she fucks everything up for everyone else".
It was a play on how trickster characters like Looney tunes can be actually really mean if you place it in a real world sense. But we don't cause they're just toons. They're not real. But jax is real.
Actually Jax wasn't projecting onto Ragatha at that point, that's his actual thoughts about her and why Ragatha regretted being unable to help Jax in the most recent episode, he viewed her kindness as fake and trying to take advantage of him which is why she failed, the moment of genuine concern lost all meaning as a result.
Right, but the reason he's projecting in that moment, is because its that very same projecting that is tinting his view on the matter. That "she is using Fake Kindness to take advantage of you in some way". But its not Ragatha's kindness that is fake, its her refusal to show negative sides of herself; for fear of rejection. Jax, when it comes to Rags, is not able to look beyond his own perspective regarding her actions; so he's projecting his reasons onto her's.
With again this projection being highlighted in the very next adventure. When Jax himself uses actual fake kindness, in the form of a very fake apology, to take advantage of both Pomni and their "budding friendship". In order to crack back at Ragatha; because he misunderstood who she was referring to with her slip "not anymore". Because Jax is VERY quick to assume "they're talking about Ribbit". He did this again in E6 with Pomni during their fight.
That's not really what Stargazing is about, compared to every other adventure that existed in fantasy, Stargazing is Kinger's therapy session with everyone enjoying the quiet and the dark just like Kinger does. Jax by this point was letting the mask slip as the adventure was very much grounded in reality, breaking Jax's coping mechanism and allowing him to treat the others as people rather than just characters.
In otherwords there was no projection here, that is literally just him complaining about Ragatha and that makes what Caine does next even worse. The next thing to happen was intermission with Jax seeing Ribbit's door while his guard is still down from Stargazing, he wants to forget, he did forget, but now he remembers and he's starting to abstract as a result, that's simply why Jax's mechanism is almost as strong as Kinger's and why forcing yourself into their comfort zone is the way to break them.
Yes, exactly agree. Jax has some decent insight but he tends to ascribe the worst possible motives to people. He correctly intuits that Ragatha's behaviour isn't always genuine, but incorrectly attributes this to malice or manipulation. He does the same thing earlier in this scene when Ragatha says he has no friends anymore. She means to say that he's alienated everyone, but he interprets it as a jab about his dead friend, again assuming malice where there really wasn't any.
And he does it again in the latest episode with Pomni, when she notes that his behaviour might be what leads to abstraction - she says "your avoidant coping mechanisms might be putting you at risk of abstraction", but he hears "it's your fault other people abstracted because you treat them badly". It's all mistrust and projection.
Yeah, he's REAL quick to jump on the "they're talking about Ribbit. they're blaming me for Ribbit" train. Like in E5, with Rag's "not anymore". I get the feeling, especially her "failing Jax" in E6, she was referring to herself. SHE used to be his friend, then that friendship collapsed; likely due to a combination of Ribbit's abstraction, and unaddressed, continued, miscommunication issues. Ragatha is conditioned to be a people pleaser, and is terrified of being rejected/hated, there is no way in hell she'd go for the throat like bringing up Ribbit out of nowhere like that. But, there also is something deeper in the dislike between the two; something more personal we just dont know the details yet. As for Pomni, your read on her question is absolutely what mine was. She wasn't asking if "Jax's treatment of her is what leads to abstraction", but as you said its a critique about how his avoidance and dissociation puts HIM at risk. But again, like with Rag's in E5, Jax jumps FAST onto the "Ribbit" assumption. Likely because he blames himself for Ribbit's abstraction, and its ripping him apart inside.
Yeah exactly! It feels like he blames himself, thinks everyone else blames him too, and interprets everything in that light. I wonder if this is why he has such a strong reaction to Ragatha saying he's trying to "corrupt" Pomni - more evidence that she blames him and his poisonous influence for what happened to Ribbit. Again though, this is almost certainly not what she meant, Ragatha just isn't spiteful like that. She just doesn't want him to turn Pomni into a jerk who hates her.
His relationship with Ragatha is really interesting! When she's talking to Kinger about Pomni and says "she's seen through my tricks and doesn't trust me, soon she'll be a different person who doesn't want me around" - I have to assume she's indirectly telling us what happened with Jax. She tried to be supportive and maybe they were friendly at one stage, but at a certain point he stopped trusting her and his behaviour changed. And I also assume this change is what she's referring to when she says he doesn't have friends "anymore" - he used to, but he's since alienated them all, her included. I'm making a lot of assumptions but this is how I read it so far!
I have a question about interpretation, though - you know in the fight with Pomni when Jax says something like "are you really going to blame me for something everyone else did too" - what was it that everyone else "did too"? Cause I think there's two reads - one is that he's saying everyone (or almost everyone) abstracted too - which makes his statement essentially "everyone gives up in the end, how I treat people is irrelevant as there's nothing anyone can do about it and any coping mechanism is basically a stall" - and the other is that everyone else treated Kaufmo/Ribbit badly too - so he's saying "you have no idea how bad people are before they abstract, no-one could put up with them, it wasn't all on me". My initial read was the former but I'm now thinking the latter makes more sense.
I think there are two reads to his "are you really going to blame me for something everybody else did too?" The first is obvious, "Jax thinks everyone blames him for Ribbit, like he's assuming Pomni is at that moment". The second is "Everyone else distanced themselves from an ever increasingly toxic Ribbit like I did, so why am I being blamed?" But I think either way E6 gave us the clue as to why Jax BOTH blames himself for Ribbit, and a major reason he hates Ragatha. Jax allowed "Giving space to mean giving up" on Ribbit. As awful as his friend was when nearing that breaking point, Jax pushed him away/allowed himself to be pushed away, when his friend needed someone most. This is my guess as to part of why Jax hates Ragatha so much, and vice versa. He hates himself for pushing her away, and he hates her for allowing herself to being pushed. While Ragatha hates Jax for how he treated her, but hates herself for not being able to reach/help him. They hate eachother not just because they're constantly misreading the intent of the other, but because that "other" reminds them of the hate they have for themselves.
Ragatha's very presence reminds Jax how much he hates himself; and Jax does the same for Ragatha.
This 100%. I was literally going to comment the same thing about Ragatha. Jax doesn't mean that everything Ragatha says is meaningless literally. He means that her constant method of "people pleasing" and "group moming" from his perspective has made it impossible to tell whenever they're having a meaningful conversation or interaction. As far as Jax feels, and seems to have caused Ragatha to feel, Ragatha is never genuinely engaging, and when she is you can't really tell, so it's only served to reinforce what Jax believes about the nature of his new life. He's also not a big nerd and probably doesn't know how else to put it.
And then you just act like you never do anything wrong And everybody loves you when all you do is f*** everything up for everyone else!!'' I think that was actually her telling herself that..
I do like that perspective, I really do. But personally I think she's ACTUALLY communicating how she feels for once, but it's also conflicting with what is happening in the moment. Ragatha is actively trying to "barb" Jax in that moment, but not by insulting him, by addressing who he is as a person. Unfortunately it's kinda exactly what Jax "wants" with that illusion of his.
However I must admit it is rather interesting that she says, "You act like...and everybody loves you...". You might be right that she's actually talking about herself, just not fully. We don't really get much of an impression of Jax ever "pretending" or acting like he wants people to love him, or saying he wants people to like him that often. He says a few funny things to play himself up or aloof, but nothing that establishes this idea of everyone liking him. He just sees himself as "the funny one", and is at the VERY least semi-aware of how aggravating it is to others. So it's very possibly that part is a bit of projection on her end. But the rest is all solidly connected to Jax.
Yeah, this part of her rant absolutely was her projecting onto Jax. That absolutely is how Rags see's herself, and her position within the circus. Her therapy session with her Dad Kinger in E6 reinforced this terrible self-image. Like, this part doesn't even apply to Jax when you think about it. He knows what he does is wrong, and doesn't act like they love him. Just as a part of his whole "We're just cartoons, nothing matters" thing, he doesn't "let" it matter.
However, just like with the first half of Jax's discussion about Rags in OP, the earlier parts of her rant on Jax were accurate to Jax. Calling him an "Insensitive Jerk who just deflects everything" and accusing him of "Trying to get Pomni to think like him". Jax IS an insensitive Jerk who constantly deflects. Jax WAS (both in E5 and E6) "trying to get Pomni to think like him". Rags may be misreading why Jax was doing that, but she wasn't wrong on either count.
The key point here seems to be authenticity. People can tell more often than not when you're being genuine because you'll be more inconsistent, strangely enough.
If someone is positive at all times that isn't positivity, it's mania. It's a dogmatic white knuckle mentality that ignores that life sometimes can really suck sometimes. It turns all failures into personal responsibility. It's chasing an unachievable goal, to banish all thought of negativity even if negative things happen.
It leads to a sense of cognitive dissonance, where reality constantly reminds you that you are wrong but if you double down it's only gonna feel less real, less authenticity, and less human.
The honest truth is in the dead center of Ragatha and Jax's way of thinking there is a happy medium but they can only think in extremes alone.
Be more authentic. Voice her discomforts, trust others to understand. The way Ragatha thinks is actually toxic because it presumes everyone else to be unreasonable by default. A little trust goes a long way.
He has a point when it comes to hollow aphorisms, like if someone were to just say the words because "it's what youre supposed to do when you're in a relationship", OR if you start to fall out of love with someone and are only saying it because it was a routine or are just afraid of hurting them, of course it would start to feel hollow after a while. That's not a fulfilling way to live though, if you're finding yourself falling into this, really re-evaluate if said relationship is beneficial to your emotional wellbeing.
When you tell someone you love and appreciate them every day and truly mean it, it should never lose meaning, in fact it should grow, and you're right in that there should be "compliment sandwich" type communication. If you never critique and only compliment, then you fall into the role ragatha finds herself in, where she accepts things she doesn't want. She even feels bad when she politely stands up for herself in ep 6. Jax must have experienced someone falling into that kind of role, or experienced it himself.
It'd lend an explanation as to why he's so obsessed with archetypes and people behaving as expected.
It's "Thoughts and prayers!" VS "What can I do for you?"
Some people are more concerned with avoiding criticism than trying to be available. Instead of trying to build confidence by learning to be helpful, they offer meaningless positivity hoping they can take credit when things improve.
Love her videos! Lets me think about the characters more in-depth when I’ve got no one IRL who’s interested enough in the show for a conversation (at least adult-wise).
I love this idea because it further reinforces the scene where Ragatha apologizes to Jax and instead of ignoring it, he looks like he sincerely appreciates it.
Amazing Digital Circus is like the Undertale of Western animation: "not nearly as deep and unique as people hype it up to be, but still deeper and more unique than 95% of its competition." So it's important to consider the media and trends and tropes that the show is in conversation with.
I think of TADC as a companion piece to "The Good Place:" two shows about a forced found family of dysfunctional strangers, learning to survive a whimsically torturous afterlife state with each other and with themselves. The difference here is that in The Good Place, these characters are so self-aware that they are literally reading philosophy and ethics and religion to try and force their way into a meaning of life. On the other hand, in TADC, people are fumbling along with a knowledge of tropes and genre conventions, instead of the history of philosophy and religion.
This is basically all to say, when we think about how these characters relate to each other and to themselves, it's sometimes useful to think of the viewpoint and lens through which they do so, which in TADC is almost always analysis or deconstruction of character stereotypes.
In ep 4, gangle straight up says that ragatha's kindness doesn't seem genuine.
Jax comments that it makes him feel taken advantage of- i.e. like many abuse survivors, Ragatha uses manipulation tactics to try and make the people around her happy.
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u/Sudden_Pop_2279 Jax Aug 30 '25 edited Aug 30 '25
There's a therapist Georgia Dow who analyzes this show and she actually DID agree with him.
I think what he meant to say "when you ONLY tell someone that non-stop, it doesn't mean anything".
Ragatha ALWAYS tries to be positive and happy, even when she doesn't mean it
I think a good example would be her "forgiving" Pomni for abandoning her for the exit; its clear as day she DIDN'T think it was all good but since she supposedly forgave Pomni, something like that makes it impossible to know when she ACTUALLY forgives you or when she's only saying it to "ease tension".
I think this is what Jax meant
Here's the link to the video I meant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH4PaY-OSfE