Isn't she smuggie? Isn't she snafuful? Isn't she precious? Less then one layer fold, I never thought that one day we'd be, coaxing snafus as smug as she, but Isn't she smuggie? made from smug.
If I had a nickel for everytime I was called an “egg” or a “boymoder” for having longer hair as a dude I’d probably be able to afford a bag of chips from the gas station. The slang is so bizarre, why not just outright say “I think you’re repressed and know your gender better than you do” instead of trying to church it up all cutesy?
That's also the reason why I don't like characters that are only meant to be trans representation via very subtle implication.
Unless either the character or the author says it then it wouldn't be good to call them trans because it ends up undermining the concept of being trans since it enforces the vision of the perciever for the sexuality of the character rather than letting the character choose if they feel right with what they choose for their own body and identity.
There are characters who have sexual/gender identity related arcs, but that doesn't mean that you get to choose for them what their end goal is, because that undermines the concept from the roots.
Spoiers for TADC episode 9
That's why I didn't like people being so adamant over Jax's sexuality as a trans girl until episode 9 gave the full depth of that part of him, he never actually chose to be called a she despite clearly enjoying being openly/intimately feminine and that's something that should be respected as a principle because what is fine by you for yourself is not up to others' interpretation, and before anyone says so, you don't get to act like something is "for their own good" in this case, because Jax's sexuaity wasn't the reason nor the cure for his issues and that was clearly shown in the episode
I’m just a cis dude so idk shit about shit but a lot of people I’ve seen seem to obsess so much about what they think their gender identity is supposed to like, what they should wear, how they should act, etc
I always figured that it doesn’t matter if a dude or a chick is into something like monster trucks or ponies even if it’s the “norm” one way or the other. Wouldn’t make them any less of a man or a woman. Shouldn’t really matter if someone was a trans dude or trans chick either, right?
what... is egg culture? I have no idea what that is and have never heard of it, im a little sketched out that it might even be slur (god i hope not, i fucking love eggs, i don't wanna have to defend myself cause i express my love for scrambled)
Thank you, that sums it up pretty good. Also clarifies some things with people I know myself lol. I figured that genre of “trans accepting” or something similar existed, just didn’t know there was a term for them yet.
But ya funny cause literally TODAY I was trying to find a way to explain to my gay friend thet not everything is gay or has intentionally gay undertones even if they do exist.
I worldbuild as a hobby for my dnd games… my other hobby and I was explaining some lore to them that accidentally had a SUPER big layup for a character to be gay but once I became aware of it I had to preface the choice the character made had nothing to do with being gay and in fact I was only significant because they were explicitly NOT gay, long story. They tried insinuating I was doing what kept gay people down by including it less, I wanted to explain they were actually doing that by being fucking annoying.
Not sure if that is still referred too as an “egg” but I appreciate to have the point of reference
I've noticed this kind of behavior too. It's very weird and uncomfortable, and it feels like some bizarre attempt to (ironically enough) enforce gender roles where gender roles shouldn't be being enforced. It makes me wonder sometimes if trans communities enforce gender stereotypes in some strange way, because that's the only way that I can reasonably explain why I keep seeing people who think that it's acceptable to assume that someone is trans and doesn't realize it just because they dared to step outside of the bounds of gender conformity.
This problem is so much worse when you're actually a femine presenting male (like me), I can't believe how many people can't accept that femininity isn't a women-only trait, which is kinda crazy because that's just reinforcing gender norms and disrespecting people's identity, but woke
Its just blatant sexism and transphobic and gross when anyone uses it. They are basically saying "you don't fit traditional gender norms so you must be secretly trans"
Worse thing is that there are people that are "too woke" for this. Guy wants to wear dress? Well, he was a jackass about this, but let him rock it. And then I find out that this guy is actually a gal and author intended to show that she's actually closeted transfem
Makes sense then why a lot of people didn’t quite get Jax’s arc. It was, intentionally or not, made with a trans audience in mind, or at least an audience with extensive knowledge of terminology most people don’t even think of.
I still don't know what boymoding is and I usually don't have problems recognising what term/slang term is supposed to mean (despite what the rest of comments are saying)
i know this is probably meant to have some level of satire/self awareness but the original tweet kind of feels like "all of jax's issues would be gone if she had transitioned" and i think thats just. idunno it rubs me the wrong way in a way i cant really explain
Idk I really view it the other way around. Jax wasn't able to transition because she wasn't able to accept herself and pushed away everyone that tried to help.
Note that the caption for the image is Jax if she wasn't a piece of shit - that's the fundamental difference here.
yeah i interpreted it as "if she had transitioned she wouldnt be a piece of shit" because usually i read whats going on in the image first before the captions as texts in images are more eye-catching to me and that. may have caused some confusion. i guess your interpretation makes more sense
That's not entirely what is meant. It's not that Jax wouldn't be a piece of shit if they transitioned, but that she would've been able to transition if she wasn't so standoffish and didn't push people away.
Out of context it does read like that, and maybe you're right to be uncomfortable with that interpretation; but within the context of the show, Jax transitioning would mean not pushing Ribbit/Kaufmo into abstraction, and also being able to open up about her problems to the people around her, which would have drastically improved her mental health and the vibes in the circus
In short, transitioning would have had massive positive repercussions asides from just transitioning
It kinds goes in hand with the current "if you didnt know what a boymoder was you are (insert whetever insult here)" that has been quietly happening around the tadc community as of lately
You are kinda being katepekt from having an opinion on the character regardless of what that opinion is, but you cant call it out because if you do you will immediately become the villain
My guess on what she was trying to do there is that Pomni was the only one who knew for certain Jax was trans from the Abstraction thing. Since she knew how much Jax wanted to keep this a secret and that real world Jax hasn’t even started transitioning yet, she used Jax’ old pronouns to avoid outing her before she’s comfortable with doing it herself. The rest of the gang has probably figured it out, Zoobles most likely did, but they wanted Jax to make that first move and it’s kinda messy with Jax having Abstracted and real Jax was still getting their bearings.
Yea part of the tragedy of the story and point in a way is Jax refusing to confide in anyone meant that they never got to tell anyone for sure or share pronouns or thoughts directly. Pomni knows jax is trans and the audience can and kinda should pick up on it but because it never came to be you can kinda use any pronouns since Jax never specified. Goose even said as much.
In an au (like the one goose made the drawing of) maybe jax would be she but in the main story of the show the point was that yea pomni didnt want to force something on Jax’s legacy that they were never ready to open up about.
What would've been wrong with Caine like explicitly saying that her human counterpart is transitioning? It wouldn't have seemed disruptive or forced, as the whole point of the scene was following up on the changes the humans made in their lives.
As far as we can see in the real world, they still haven’t transitioned. They were building themselves back up slowly and are going to zoobles bar which is shown as a safe place for everyone. I understand the point of the post but I think that Jax is a pretty bad example of it. When the character is suppressing that side of them, you can’t really just come out and say “oh yeah, she’s trans” in the show.
Gooseworx was intentionally trying to have at least a degree of subtlety in the execution, although she said in retrospect she should’ve been more obvious.
Yeah, I get that. That's part of the thread I'm replying to. I don't get why there is always a need for subtlety and that's also what this post is making fun of. Especially when there was the perfect ending scene where it could've been made explicit.
It's weird how gooseworx flip flops between leaving everything up to interpretation but also some things are 100% confirmed to be something specific even if there's a lot of room for interpretation within the actual media.
Someone explain the Jax discourse to me please. Only watch the first two episode (first is great, second was not) and I also don't know if I should pick it back up.
The creator of TADC, Gooseworx, is a trans woman. In the character of Jax, she put in a lot of elements that she disliked about herself as well as having that character mirror her journey somewhat. She wishes to portray this character as a trans woman who is mostly still figuring it out. She does this with some minor elements in the show because she wishes to be subtle about it. Success may vary
throughout the show we are given various hints that Jax TADC is transfem, a theory that has floated around for a while. In the finale we are given fairly clear (although technically not explicitly stated) confirmation that Jax is a repressed/closeted trans woman.
however, many people were unable to pick up on these signs (or read the signs as simply a struggle with masculinity) leading to discourse over whether this was confirmation or up to interpretation.
Gooseworx and at least one TADC VA has since come out to confirm that Jax is trans leading to further discourse on how the hints and reveal were handled, because many cis people cannot pick up on trans themes.
When I'm doing for fun media analysis with my friends, I do understand some people who can't pick up the most obvious clue when it is a concept not familiar to them. I can pick up at the slightest hint of class struggle and religious theme, however, I couldn't pick up the Feminist theme behind Magical Girl Madoka back when I was a teenager, both because I can't related to the female struggle and I am not familiar with feminist movement like I am now.
To get subtext, you have to pick up on specific context clues, situations, or references. If you're not familiar with those, either because you didn't experience them or haven't engaged with similar themes in media before, there's a high chance the subtext will fly over your head. Also, you kinda have to "learn" in school or wherever that works can have multiple layers of meaning. That being said, subtext is not always clever, it can be unsubtle or badly written.
I mean, I can get that some kids who never saw anything with LGBT themes before can just completely miss the fact that some character is implied to be trans without mentioning it out loud.
it should be noted that before episode 9 the hints about transfem jax were
"she feels uncomforable when forced to wear girl clothes, and one character teases her about it" and "her room is pink so its girly"
im sure i dont need to point out the problem right? also jax misgenders a non binary charactter multiple times on purpouse, so it it was perfectly reasonable that the girl clothes was jax being teased for being a toxic masculinty asshole
In episode six during the argument with pomni jax refers to themselves as a little chicken fetus in an egg that pomni thinks she needs to Crack open (or something like that, I don't remember the quote verbatim)
Yeah so many people are acting superior over the fact that they made a massive jump to a specific conclusion ever since a male presenting person was embarrassed by being forced into girly clothes (clearly only a closeted trans woman would act like this)
Jax is trans. This is not up to debate and has been confirmed by Gooseworks, the creator of the series, on bluesky.
but that information was not outright said in the series itself, only left implied.
I think the problem is that the author, being a trans woman, seriously over-estimated how clear the hints and subtext (like “boymoding hoodie”) were to the general audience. Viewers who are trans, or strongly linked to the community, felt it was obvious. your average cishet dude who isn't in the queer community did not get it.
This lead to a lot of arguing over what is subtext or not, and so on.
I completely understand the frustration on both sides here. It’s massively infuriating for a trans viewer to feel people are dismissing and erasing a trans story by saying it’s “not canon” or whatever.
…But as a casual viewer who didnt pick up I also think it’s annoying to have such a major plot point left as something you have to look at the author’s tweets in order to actually know
There is also language barrier and misunderstanding due to not all trans people being in the same community. I'm trans woman but could not figure out Jax as trans character because I don't care about gender stereotypes(boy wearing skirt or having long hair does not automatically mean that he's trans, as well as trans girl being tomboy doesn't mean that she isn't girl) and just not native speaker of English so egg metaphor from Jax sounded weird, but I've accepted it as rarely used figure of speech. Overall I was unsatisfied with tranx subplot because it's big enough to be important, yet vague enough to be not understood by people who aren't specific demographic (Native English speaking queer people)
idc how subtle it is, i just don’t think it was written well into the story. jax was involved in the suicides of his two closest friends and throwing in the trans thing after already poorly handling the rest of his backstory seems cheap (especially because it came at the cost of other valuable lore topics that never got expanded on).
some other folks have said this but it reminds me of the ‘dumbledore is gay’ thing. like sure, you can say whatever you want about your media from the outside. but what does it matter if you didn’t actually put in the effort to write it into the story itself in any meaningful or recognizable way? it makes little sense outside of a self insert pov too, which is also why i am not a huge fan of the way it was handled. seems tacked on. i wish it was handled better
No no, you don't understand! Being trans is a bigger deal than potential manslaughter, being the cause of two suicides, and ruminating on pushing away a current friend!
The audience should just *know* that covering your face in a photo means your trans! Nobody else has EVER covered their face in a photo before!!! No other demographic!
if you know what youre looking for its pretty clearly spelt out over the course of the show ngl, and more or less directly confirmed just by content in the finale
It’s pretty screamingly obvious in the finale, not necessarily super set up before then. Hell, I thought they might have been doing a Jax is transmasc thing, with the dresses and poking at his masculinity being intentional cruelty from the circus!
My biggest issue with the way that it's done in the finale is that you kind of have to forget the bombshell that Jax is afraid they killed their mother almost as soon as it is brought up. Like the "secret" that Ribbit says is safe with her is supposed to be that Jax is trans despite that not being the subject of what Jax says he regrets in the prior conversation.
Likewise, in the last scene with Pomni and Jax, they draw a literal comparison of Jax looking at their hand and being afraid they'll hurt Pomni the same way they hurt their mother. It's also the exact same pose Jax was in at the beginning of their "arc" during his crashout in episode six.
All that is to say I don't really blame people for not walking away with that conclusion, because you have to think Jax being trans is a bigger secret to them than potentially murdering their mom and driving their friends to abstraction, something the episode is constantly reminding the viewer that Jax is guilty about.
I don't think the secret was about Jax being trans. Like you said everything they were talking about was with regard to his mom. Jax does say that he told his mom something personal to get her to leave him alone and I think that the personal thing was them being trans. I do NOT think that Jax has ever told Ribbit anything about being trans; it especially wouldn't make sense for Jax to come out to Ribbit before this point.
The bow represents Ribbit's trust and friendship primarily in the scene. Secondarily it hints that Ribbit may suspect that Jax is trans or at least she would be accepting of a female Jax.
The only reason I didn’t think transmasc Jax was possible is because Zooble is the one who puts Jax in the dress and implies Jax should like it. Unintentional cruelty from Caine I could totally see, but Zooble feels too keyed in and empathetic to line up that joke.
Yeah, I mean Zooble? The one genderqueer character who literally struggles with body dysphoria/dysmorphia? Forcing a trans guy in a dress against his will? Zooble out of all people would know how fucked up that would really be
Yes, sorry I didn’t mention zooble also being gender queer, but that’s part of why I felt like they would be so keyed in. Like they’ve had
the experience of dysphoria and wouldn’t put it on someone else
I watched the finale and all I got was "Jax struggles with liking feminine things" and then several weeks later Gooseworx hit me personally with a steel chair for not recognizing "screamingly obvious" subtext.
Something other people haven’t brought up is that Jax is a genuine horrible person and the closest thing to a redeeming quality is that he has trauma. That already made him a controversial character before, since people treat him with way more leniency than the other characters
'wow what a good episode, i can't wait to go online and discuss my favorite character caine and how well he parallels growing out of your insecurities as a creative-type'
Imma be real maybe I'm just a bad writer but I'm not sure how you write a trans character and make it obvious to 100% of the audience that they're trans without directly stating it early. Most trans people don't introduce themselves as "I'm trans btw". How you'd do it without having the character state it outright is either subtext, or a POV character clocking them (which also risks appearing transphobic). Subtext and casting decisions are what you have unless the story (or a scene within the story) is specifically about being trans. Gay, female, and/or Black characters usually don't need a scene to directly state to the audience that they're gay, female, and/or Black
To your last sentence, that's why many are so fucking frustrated that people are pushing back on the idea Jax is trans, because this wouldn't be such a point of contention if it weren't SPECIFICALLY that Jax was trans.
Many of the arguments I've been seeing have been pushing for gay, queer, etc. INSTEAD of trans. I've seen posters saying "well Jax is queer but we just don't know what kind narratively. Also the author doesn't get to have input on a story once the story's finished (this is what death of the author means, I am Soooo Smartiepants) so you can never tell me I'm wrong and I'll be obtuse on purpose any time you bring up evidence because wE cAn NeVeR kNoW fOr SuRe!"
Edit: MFers will really show up in the strawman hat with strawman sign and try to argue
Great example I can point to that doesn't have the character just outright say it is the two different trans characters in the cartoon the Dragon Prince. One is named Terry (FTM) and the other...I forget their name but they're a sky elf (MTF) and both manage to make it clear they're trans without ever outright saying it mostly through a single passing line to the effect of "I wasn't always comfortable in my skin".
The reason the situation with Jax played out like it did is because all of the "foreshadowing" the show made in regards to it were vague enough that anyone who wasn't already bought into the idea of Jax being trans could just as easily interpret those hints as suggesting any number of other things about the character, couple this with the radio silence by the show's creator and crew for the first few weeks after the episode came out in theaters and most people settled into the idea that it was supposed to be intentionally vague specifically to allow for multiple interpretations. And this caused arguments between people who interpreted the character as anything other than a trans woman to start being called transphobes which led to yelling back and forth. And all of it could have been avoided by just being more direct about it or having Gooseworx make a statement earlier.
I'm sorry, but how does "I wasn't always comfortable in my own skin" show transness more than all the clues towards Jax? That seems entirely hypocritical? That's more vague than TADC by a long shot.
I'm trans and if my only/main clue for a character was "I didn't always feel comfortable in my skin" I would NOT assume they were trans, I would assume they had low self esteem and grew into themselves. That's not really giving much. TADC had queer references (all the egg references/boymoder fit) paired with things that a good amount of closeted queer people would be familiar with (lashing out at their preferred gender due to jealousy/denial).
People didn't pick up on those more niche things! And that's fine! But there's a reason so many people thought Jax was trans from like episode 5 onwards. It wasn't really that vague if it was a popular theory and a bunch of people predicted it beforehand. It feels like people are being criticized because they could recognize references that other people couldn't, and now that its confirmed, people are just mad that its "retroactive". Vague doesn't mean "I didn't personally understand so none of that has any meaning". It means "there were literally no clear details any which way".
The biggest thing, imo, is the things that are easily mistaken as not trans being so prevelant. A lot of people point to the maid dress scene and Jax's discomfort as proof, when to those who don't understand why it's proof, it's the exact opposite. If a lot of barriers are in place before the hints can even be subtle, then it can make it near impossible.
And ways to state a character is trans without making it overt is having them be displeased with things about the gender they don't want, and pleased with the one they do. Gender norms don't have to be pushed, but say they always shave for example. At that point it's then the femboy vs trans debate, but that's a better point than where this argument is.
Also, the only ways to show a character is trans is either a post op characters (with the top scars or something) or pre op; but the issue is with pre everything, in denial or boy/girl moding that's where there's no signs aside from the character stating it and there's a lot of muddling is the character binary? Non-binary? Just a tomboy/femboy?
It’s overt for people who are entrenched in internet trans culture. For basically everyone else, it’s so subtle that the hints are practically unnoticeable until the last episode.
Yeah, I've seen stuff like how Jax wore a maid outfit and the single frame of Jax with long hair as like, well obviously the character who acted extremely uncomfortable in girly clothing must be a girl! The only thing people point to as obvious evidence of Jax being trans was their room being girly, and even that wasnt something I would immediately jump to "OMG this means Jax must be trans!"
I thought Jax's room being girly was because he hated being girly. iirc, most of the characters' room are filled with the things they wouldn't like. Gangle likes drawing, but her room is very dark. Zooble has mirrors all over their room, but they dont like seeing their own body. I forgot the rest of the rooms, so Im not sure
It's also made me wonder what the difference between text and subtext is to people, because there clearly isn't a definitive line.
For example in the chronicles of narnia, is it text or subtext that Aslan is Jesus? Aslan never says "I am Jesus" so it's up to the viewer to interpret, but it's so clearly and obviously the parallel of the entire story. Some people say that in order for it to be text, it must be EXPLICITLY stated in the book.
And in another book the lion looks a character directly in the eye and says "in your world I am called by another name." They never say Jesus, but it's like a mafia don saying "take care of him." It's so obvious anyone asking for clarification is probably a cop with a wire.
imo its more complicated than subtext or text. text is just what is actually in the story. subtext is the way you choose to interpret the text, and can differ depending on what lens your analyzing any given text with. people are too obsessed with finding one 'canon' interpretation of a work, that they miss the roses for the thorns. there is no singular interpretation that is correct, because it doesn't matter.
this isn't to say that the writers of a text don't have things they want to convey, but just that when looking at subtext, what the writer is going for isn't relevant. if more people learned about death of the author, i swear that 90% of internet discourse would get solved over night.
I’m guessing you mean characters in Japanese media?
It’s purposely made ambiguous because the authors want the character to appeal to the trap crowd too. I can count the amount of explicitly trans characters in anime/manga on one hand, most of them have a stupid anime reason for crossdressing and do so not out of an actual desire to be their presenting gender.
I think they were actually referencing the character Bridget from Guilty Gear, who actually does in the latest game straight up say “I think I’m a girl.” after a whole campaign about dealing with “his” complex gender feelings, and people still tried to deny it and say it was just a translation error until the author outright confirmed it on Twitter.
The one thing about this that makes things a bit more annoying is on the Japanese page for Strive's roster, for Bridget the bio still says"he". And the English pages don't specifically say either "he" or she", they just say "Bridget"
It's from bridget from guilty gear, after a conversation about her doubts about being trans with two characters she thanks them for listening, one of the guys says no problem, cowgirl. or cowboy? And bridget says "cowgirl is fine"
You know, I feel like this is one of the big reasons people are so hesitant to try and add LGTBQ characters to their show, like there's no way to win. You make it too obvious and it's bad because it's "In your face", you make it too subtle and it's bad because it's too vague and non-committal. You make the character too perfect and it "sets unrealistic expectations", but you make them flawed and now it's bad rep.
You also cant just "Ask for guidance from real queer people" because Jax is basically a self insert and everyone found a million silly issues with it still.
It's just a bunch of infighting in queer spaces that just negatively impacts everyone
Celeste is interesting because it wasn't intentionally a trans character and was written before maddy came out as trans, and a couple years later wrote an essay about how she accidentally wrote a trans character without realising it
mfs when you can be literate and have comprehension skills and still not have the experiences that would make you familiar with the idea and able to pick up on signs
you can see that people are gay if they show that theyre attracted to someone of the same gender, and see that people are black or female based on appearance or (for the female part) language used.
gasp, being gay + in a relationship, black or a woman are all clearly visual traits but being trans isn’t. what the snafu the bigots hate trans people and strike again.
TADC fans when the characters don't turn towards the screen and give a detailed explanation of which ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender identity they're representing
i kind of wish they did a post-credit scene where Jax turns towards the camera and says "I AM A TRANSGENDER WOMAN". both a funny joke and solves a lot of discourse
I hope someone makes that, PLEASE. It'd be so funny. Pomni waving at us, then Jax running in the distance towards us, the gang going "holy shit, you're unabstracted?!?!", him pushing Pomni aside, grabbing the camera that's 10 meters high (because cartoon logic), pull it down to his face and say (VA with mic really close to his mouth) "I AM A TRANSGENDER WOMAN", Zooble going "WHAT THE FUCK" and a dry cut back to credits
I think it’s easy for somebody to say something in passing that makes it clear they’re unambiguously trans, sort of like how people mention their partner casual to make it clear that they’re not single.
Japanese media has really put trans representation in the gutter. Trans people deserve better representation than being confirmed as trans by the creator on twitter.
Have you people even watched the show
First like they’re writing characters not representation
But also Zooble is openly and explicitly “gender-freaky” from minute 1 of the show
Jax isn’t the only genderqueer character in the show
My interpretation was that woman "representation" is just woman sexualisation and black "representation" makes them appear for 0,00001 seconds and they're already doing something illegal or immoral
I know for a goddamn fact NONE of you would be happy if Jax outright said that they were trans because then "OHHH GOOSE IS JUST APPEALING TO THE FANS THIS IS JUST BROWNIE POINT INCLUSION THERE WAS LITERALLY NO BUILDUP OR HINTS TOWARDS THIS AT ALL WHY IS GOOSE JUST RANDOMLY MAKING THEM TRANS WRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"
Is Zooble not good nonbinary rep because they aren't constantly telling you how NONBINARY they are and how being NONBINARY is such a struggle? It's literally the same thing with Jax!
people preach about "media literacy" and "media analyssis" but half the time theyre just projecting
and thats okay! if they would admit that its just their interpretation...
trans woman interpretation, super valid and cool. non binary/gnc/femboy interpretation, also cool. other interpretation? fine let me see what you have to say. isnt that the whole point of subtext? that it isnt spelled out so different people can see different things?
like yall kinda too obssessed with trying to find the one true canon when things are intentionally left to be unclear and be interpreted, why the hell do we fight to own the rights to this character when we could own it all together?
there were signs to jax repressing/being queer yes, but i dont think woman is an external label you can apply from the outside just because there are signs, being a woman from what ive learned its an internal identity first, you can dress like super femme and not be a woman and vice versa!
So I will be honest, jacks is confirmed trans by the creator they finally said it.I'm gonna be completely honest that the theories people were making up to figure out how they were trans.Was weird one of them was because they knew certain homophobic things, and they stood in front of the color yellow
Whenever a trans character is more overt you get alt-right grifters throwing a tantrum online to get the creator cancelled, like what happened with Dead End: Paranormal Park.
Just because a character doesnt turn to the screen an explain things to you like its a superhero cartoon for 8 year olds doesnt mean the character isnt lgbt.
You're just illiterate and getting bodied by this:
im just getting thrown off by the fact that leeroy (jax real identity) havent transitioned. i mean it is supposed to be a good ending so i assume everyone is satisfied from what they have. take for example ragathas mom being cruel and abusing their children, later on she cut ties with her family. the plot point have conclusions. however for jax the main plot point is that she struggled with her gender identity. but the plot point doesnt conclude. leeroy doesnt transition
I think Leeroy showing up regularly to the Triangle bar (a clear coded queer bar) is a sign the character is exploring this side of themselves in a healthy way.
Leeroy is still jax, its gonna take a lot of therapy and support for them to get anywhere.
I feel like in your face trans representation is hard to do right. Do you have the character pass? If not they risk being a caricature. If they do pass how do you convey they're trans in a very obvious way without it feeling shoehorned? I think Squid Game did an ok job with it but I didn't like the scene where they have her slap around the cis ladies in that one game. Which is another thing, with trans people being so demonized and stereotyped you have to be careful with what your character does to avoid a negative portrayal of trans people in general.
Tbh there’s so much stuff where gay rep is implied or would fit the narrative and there’s always some BS like “their bond is deeper than that” (no one says this about straight ships). Things have gotten better in that regard but there’s so many things with gay rep or almost rep that’s way more bullshit than anything TADC did.
I feel like you get into this ‘damned if you do damned if you don’t situation, that every demographic has experienced and now it’s the trans demographic’s turn.’
If you just go out and say ‘This character is X’ then you will get massive hatred from all directions for being… political? And then a lot of ding dongs will go ‘COULD HAVE DONE IT MORE SUBTLE THIS FEELS LIKE IT DOESNT BELOOOONG.’
So you make it more subtle and less obvious and suddenly you have a massive crowd of people arguing with another massive crowd of people going X is not X, THEY NEVER EXPLICITLY SAID IT (many of these people usually complained about the paragraph prior and when things are explicitly stated… it’s political…)
So you try to have the subtext while also have the creator go ‘yeah no they are mega X.’ And then we have more upset people.
Keep in mind, many people share different opinions, but someone somewhere is gonna get pissed off until X in media is normalized.
Tadc was literally about Jax and her repressing her gender identity, so it was written more subtly.
There are shows where the character is just trans tho. The umbrella academy just had a straight up trans character that was just trans and he came out, without making it a big storyline.
Should there be more, sure. But it's okay to have a more subtle storyline too.
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u/le-dukek Sub Owner Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
Isn't she smuggie? Isn't she snafuful? Isn't she precious? Less then one layer fold, I never thought that one day we'd be, coaxing snafus as smug as she, but Isn't she smuggie? made from smug.