My friend said something about Jax in the new episode, which reminds me of something Mae Borowski said in Night In The Woods.

King of the Circus 🦋👑🎪

. ugh.

I wonder where his mind trailed off to, looking at that globe

Making the text post wasn’t enough I had to draw it

AAAAUUUGHHHHH

elaborating on my “jax isn’t an asshole he just acts like one” post, i want to talk about a particular scene in the pilot. i’ve seen a lot of people call him a jerk for lying to kinger and gangle about kaufmo being okay, and then throwing the bowling ball at them to push them into the hole. i didn’t understand why he did these things at first, but after a few rewatches i think that jax was trying to protect them.

look at jax’s reaction when he finds out that kaufmo has abstracted. he’s clearly scared and concerned.

but he quickly covers up his worry and goes back to acting like he doesn’t care. it’s like he’s trying to keep up the appearance of being a jerk so that people don’t expect anything different. it’s a persona.

the next time we see him is when he finds kinger and gangle looking at the hole in the floor. they ask how kaufmo is doing, and jax says “oh, he’s doing great. in fact, i don’t think i’ve ever seen him this happy before.” this seems like a weird thing to lie about, especially since he knows kinger and gangle will find out what happened to kaufmo eventually, but i think that jax saw how worried they (especially gangle) were about kaufmo and didn’t want to stress them out more.

while kinger is expressing relief that kaufmo “hasn’t completely lost his mind,” there is a sound off in the distance that makes jax turn around. he looks worried because he know’s it’s abstracted kaufmo.

jax knows that they need to get out of there before kaufmo arrives, but the others don’t know what happened to kaufmo, so he has no way to explain to them why they need to leave. so, instead, he throws the bowling ball and knocks them into the hole before jumping in after them.

i’m not entirely sure yet why he keeps up this persona of being a jerk, but it is clear to me that it is a persona. that paired with the fact that he breaks the fourth wall earlier in this episode makes me think that he may be more aware of what’s going on than the other characters are. maybe he acts like he doesn’t care what’s going on so that nobody suspects he actually knows more than he’s telling.

oh i was COOKING here. the only thing that i would add now that we have more context is this:

yes, i do believe jax avoided telling them what happened to kaufmo because he didn’t want them to panic. but he also avoided it because he was trying to prevent himself from panicking.

jax was in denial that yet another one of his friends had abstracted. he didn’t want to confront that reality, so he used his main coping mechanism—acting nonchalant, as if everything is fine and he doesn’t care about anything.

“jax is such an asshole he doesn’t care about any of the other characters” ok well you clearly didn’t see how scared he was when he found out kaufmo had abstracted. you obviously didn’t notice the part where he tried to protect kinger and gangle from abstracted kaufmo. you for sure didn’t see the way he uses humor to try to keep the mood light so everyone doesn’t panic.

i posted this a week after the pilot aired…hits different after ep. 6

Twist. The. Knife. >:)

Pomni did not blame Jax for the others abstracting.

When she asked if “this might be what causes people to abstract in the first place?”

She wasn’t saying that the bullying and hurting others made them abstract.

She was trying to tell Jax that closing himself off from others makes them abstract.

She was worried about him.

He totally misunderstood.

He feels personal guilt about the abstracting.

And probably had the idea that it was his fault in his mind after Ragatha accusing him of corrupting Pomni.

Which is why he got all defensive after she said that.

Jax assumed she was implying the worst.

This was a devastating misunderstanding.

Jax and Pomni are doing the same ploy here, but with opposite goals.

Jax wanted to prove to himself that there was no connection between him and Pomni. Throughout his ensuing crashout, he wasn't trying to convince Pomni they were never friends; he was trying to convince himself. In his mind, if she pulled the trigger, that meant she never cared about him, and he had successfully kept the whole circus at emotional arm's length.

But Pomni saw through his charade, and she turned it back around on him. Unlike Jax, her motive wasn't to convince herself they were friends; she already knew that to be true. Instead, she was trying to force Jax to realize and admit that he cared about her.

In the end, Pomni's ploy was the one that worked. Sure, Jax went on his whole rant about how he sees everyone as his playthings and he doesn't care about any of them. But he still couldn't bring himself to physically hurt Pomni, even though he had done so in previous episodes (2 and 3). He's come to care about her.

Jax and Pomni played a game of emotional chicken, and Jax swerved first.

Look at his reaction

He genuinely cares about her (which is obvious) but like, he really needed that hug before realizing that "wait I'm getting too close to her abort the mission"

He can't stop looking at his left hand, the one he pushed her away with :(

The way Jax's face shifts when he realizes that he was showing too much emotion and that his mask slipped. *chef's kiss*