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Okay okay I know I've already made two separate posts about Jax and Ragatha during Episode 7 but there's one more thing I thought was worth mentioning that I haven't touched on yet!

Ragatha doesn't talk to Jax all that much in this episode and I can't help but wonder if that played a part in his breakdown later on.

What Jax says about Ragatha here provides a glimpse into their relationship: he's used to her doing the heavy lifting without reciprocation and has come to take her attention and affection for granted. From his perspective, she treats him with the same attitude no matter how horribly he acts, which both feeds into his nihilism and also causes him to see her as insincere in her kindness.

Flash forward to Episode 7 and suddenly she's not doing that anymore. She's not really talking to him all that much and when she does, it's just to pass on information. And we as the audience know why she's doing this- Kinger advised her to give Jax space in the last episode and she's acting on that advice. It's not that she doesn't care- we see her looking at him with concern when she and Pomni visit him in his room- but rather, she's trying to give him space rather than forcing her help onto him.

But Jax doesn't know that.

He is in BAD shape in Episode 7, having his entire sense of self destroyed by the events of Episode 6 and now having to face the guilt and grief he's been repressing for so long. And now Ragatha, the one person who was there for him no matter how hard he pushed her away, isn't talking to him. It's not like she's giving him the cold shoulder or anything she just...isn't trying as hard as she used to. And right now he could REALLY use some of those reassuring words.

You can see his demeanor shift over the course of Zooble and Gangle's final talk, going from sullenly glancing away from the group to looking around frantically. I wonder if he's waiting for Ragatha to say something, to look back at him and assure him that the same goes for them too and that he won't be alone when they get out. But those words never come. For the first time in years she's not there to tell him that he's loved and appreciated and he's not brave enough to reach out to her. And while that's not the only thing driving his actions here, it may have been the thing that locked him into the path he ended up taking.

OKAY WAIT WAIT WAIT I JUST REALIZED

In the last few minutes of Episode 5 we see Jax and Pomni walk off to a predominantly red environment while Kinger, Zooble, and Gangle walk off into a blue one. Knowing what we know about how blue in TADC represents a person's humanity and red represents the loss of it, eventually leading to abstraction, that makes this last moment take on a new meaning!

Ragatha isn't simply jealous of Jax and Pomni, in this moment she believes she is going to lose them both and is powerless to stop it.

(Also she's in front of a yellow background and I'm not sure what that could mean so leave your theories in the comments I guess)

Now you're making me want to draw them as Muriel and Eustace! XD

Going back to watch this scene after Episode 7 and realizing that it's not just two, but four fish that gather in the foreground before all but one swim off.

Then when we cut back to them, we see that the three fish that swam off aren't really together anymore either, which each one swimming at a wide distance from the others. And seeing this, I couldn't help but think back to Jax's near-abstraction in Episode 7.

There's been a lot of debate as to whether or not Ragatha was part of Jax's friend group back when Kaufmo and Ribbit were still around, with her absence from the picture in Jax's room and his dream leading some to believe that she wasn't. To me though, I think what's being communicated in these instances is that Ragatha was part of that group but that Jax has become so consumed by grief over the friends he's lost that he's forgotten about her- the one friend he has left.

I don't think it's any coincidence that in the office scene, we cut away from Jax looking sadly at a snowglobe depicting one of their prior adventures to a shot of Ragatha standing all on her lonesome. They're the last two members of the once tight-knit friend group, now miles apart from each other with one clinging to the past and the other looking to the the future. Maybe Jax would've taken her hand if she'd offered and maybe it could've been the thing to ground him as the panic took hold...but at this point he's rejected every prior attempt she made to reach out to him and really, she has no reason to think this time would be any different.

Now he's been locked out. Not from the group as a whole as we see Pomni offer him a hand, but rather from his place at Ragatha's side, the place he thought would always be there. And as Zooble affirms that they'll still be friends with Gangle in the real world, that everything they've done here was real and it mattered, it occurs to him that without the circus, there'll be nothing holding them together anymore. After everything he's done, every horrible thing that wasn't real until now, why would she ever reach out to him again? Everything he did to her, all of the pain he caused without a second thought...it was all real and it's why (he thinks) she'll abandon him as soon as she has the option. So he's not going to let her have the option.

This way they'll be together whether they like it or not. Even if she hates him, even if she never forgives him, they'll still be together. Forever.

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Of course, this is all just my interpretation! I could be totally wrong (it would not be the first time) and maybe it's not that deep. But I just had to get these brainworms written down before they consumed me!

I love my toxic hets. 💕

Okay listen

This is a conversation between Zooble and Gangle demonstrating their strong friendship yet for some reason, both Ragatha and Jax are in the shot despite not saying anything. They are on opposite ends of the shot, their distance contrasting Zooble and Gangle's closeness, the duo filling the void that's come between the rabbit and the rag doll. Ragatha reacts with joy to Gangle's words, happy that she was able to form a close friendship even if she herself didn't get to be part of it, while Jax begins to panic as he becomes more and more aware of everything he's about to lose.

AND THEN

When Jax has fully surrendered to his panic and slams the red button, his fist obscures Ragatha from view- and ONLY Ragatha. As if he's trying to block her from the audience's field-of-view as well as his own. Of course, Ragatha never stays quiet for long...

...and as soon as she speaks, his entire demeanor shifts- going from panicked desperation to shocked regret. There is no anger or hatred in her voice, just quiet confusion that disarms him in a way he cannot simply shrug off and nothing to obscure the reality of what he's just done to her.

Holy fuck, these two make me ill./pos

I think we can officially add Caine to the list of Jax simps now.

Beach episode? No thanks!

So I was going through the Glitch store, looking for merch of my favorite girl when I came across something that gave me pause...

I didn't think much of this at first, assuming that it was referring to her habit of just generally repressing her negative emotions...

...and then I remembered that scene in Episode 6 where she starts to say something and then stops herself. Or how when she reunites with Pomni at the end, she starts off by saying, "I have something I-" before getting cut off. Or how she struggles to tell Kinger why she's upset even when directly asked about it. Or how Jax gives her a harsh glare when she makes an offhand comment about the past, which immediately causes her to panic, almost as if she brought up something they agreed not to talk about. Combine that with how emotionally guarded she is despite craving connection and how the others often comment on her feeling insincere, I've started wondering...did Ragatha see something she wasn't supposed to in the past? Does she know something that the others don't and is trying to keep it that way? And if she is, why? What is so afraid of? What does she think will happen if she tells anyone else the truth? And does it have anything to do with this guy-

Is it possible that there's more to Ribbit's abstraction than meets the eye? We know it's a sore spot for Jax as he typically freezes up whenever he's reminded of Ribbit and is shown to feel a great deal of guilt about whatever happened to him. Did he do something to Ribbit that ended in his abstraction, something that only Ragatha knows about? And did she agree to keep it a secret for his sake, something which has become harder and harder as he's become more unrecognizable to her?

Idk, food for thought!

I have so many goddamn projects I gotta do and stuff to finish but I just had this idea and I need to put it out into the world...

Jax mpreg only it's like Athena where one day he has a headache, they bop him with a silly hammer, and a baby pops out of his skull.