(PT 1) HELLO INTERNET AND WELCOME BACK TO FILM THEORY ‘Jerk.’ That is the main word i’ve seen used to describe Jax from Digital Circus. However, I believe a more accurate term would be ‘Sociopath.’ Before i can properly explain my theory, we need to take a look at Jax’s personality. Jax is shown to be quite indifferent to his entrapment in the Digital Circus. He’s also shown not to properly care about the wellbeing of the other humans in the circus, stating in the line “I’m fine with doing whatever, as long as I get to see funny things happen to people.” This lack of care is first demonstrated in the beginning of Episode 1, when he purposefully steps on Gangle’s comedy mask, and is emphasized at several points through episodes one and two. I’ve compiled a full masterlist of Jax's cruel, rude, or careless moments, here: Stepping on Gangle’s already broken comedy mask, despite knowing how much it means to her. Only cared to do something about the Gloinks invading the Digital Circus once they began to antagonize him specifically, quickly getting fed up with them. Abandoning Ragatha and Pomni to deal with Kaufmo’s abstraction, not caring about the fact that they could be seriously injured. Threw a bowling ball at Kinger to knock him into the Gloink Nest. Refusing to help Zooble when her head was about to be eaten by the Gloink Queen. Plants centipedes in Ragatha’s room, despite knowing she has an extreme fear of them, just for his own entertainment. (This can be explained as just a prank, however, I'm still adding it due to the fact that it is a sort of cruel prank.) Shoving Gangle out of his way after offering to let her go first on the escalator, with the quote “Ladies first! .. Wait, no, why would i say that?” Shown to be very excited by the idea of a battle in episode two, stating “Ooh, violence!” when given the quest of stopping the maple syrup bandits in the Candy Kingdom. Has the grand idea to “Shoot [the bandits] repeatedly until they're unrecognizable.” Throws a very unprepared Pomni out the window of a truck. Suggests to Gangle that she should ram into the Bandits’ truck, not caring about if anyone gets hurt. Shoves Ragatha into a pile(?) of knives when she tries to tell Gangle not to ram into said truck. Agrees with the Fudge Monster stating that “It's not really murder if it's delicious.” Gets upset at the lack of violence and bloodshed during the adventure. Lets the Fudge Monster into the Candy Canyon Kingdom to eat all the citizens. Is not present at Kaufmo’s funeral. Returning to personality and presentation, Jax is very calm and relaxed. He’s also a typically charismatic character, evidenced by the fact that at least three quarters of the fandom is absolutely obsessed with him. He’s quite aggressive at times, and tends to be impulsive in his decisions and behaviours. He also tends to be a bit of a liar, shown in episode one when he tells Gangle and Kinger that Kaufmo is doing “better than ever,” when in reality, Kaufmo had abstracted. In episode two, Candy Carrier Chaos, Jax is proven to be quite violent and nearly bloodthirsty (which i point out in numbers 6, 10, 12, and 13 of the list), but does show a small bit of an emotion before Kaufmo’s funeral. He also is a bit manipulative, when he attempts to (and successfully does) blackmail Gangle into driving into their enemies, saying “Do it, it’ll be epic! / Do it, or i’ll tell Ragatha about the figurine thing.” (When the plan messes up, he tells her that ‘now [he] HAS to tell Ragatha about the thing,’ and that ‘blames [Gangle] for this.’) Another vague threat he makes is potentially threataning to cannibalize Ragatha, telling her she’d better “leave this to [him] before [he] starts thinking [her] hair looks like licorice.” Although, this could be just him saying he’s going to feed her to The Fudge, who eats candy. Now, let’s take a glance at some key traits that are common among sociopaths.
(PT 2) Sociopaths tend to lack empathy, remorse, and guilt. Their emotional responses to things that would typically elicit a strong response from someone without ASPD are typically shallow and short-lived. Another common characteristic of sociopathy is impulsiveness, with sociopaths tending to be brash and reckless. Most are also quite aggressive people, which often leads to violent or cruel behaviors. Most sociopaths also have a very surface level, superficial charm to them, hence why they are often well-liked people. They usually have trouble forming meaningful relationships, often using people solely for personal gain. A common behaviour among sociopathic people is threatening people as a means of manipulating them, or using their charisma in order to manipulate. They will often only truly care about themselves. Sometimes, more often than not, sociopaths will behave like they are above everyone else around them, having a superiority complex. Sound familiar? Yeah, that’s pretty much Jax’s personality to a T. I can already hear you saying: “Oh, but Oli, he’s sad when Kaufmo’s funeral is mentioned!” And i can explain that. You must remember, ASPD is a spectrum. Just because someone is a sociopath doesn’t mean they’ll be entirely emotionless. They can have shallow, or briefly-lasting bouts of emotion, since no disorder is truly black and white. Another thing, if you follow the theory that Jax essentially bullied Kaufmo into abstracting, this could be interpreted as some guilt, perhaps. So, a recap. What traits does Jax share with the average sociopath? Impulsive, unempathetic, violent, charming, manipulative, reckless, selfish, egotistical, and lacking meaningful relationships. Now, where were each of these demonstrated? Impulsivity: Threw a bowling ball at Kinger to knock him into the Gloink Nest, not stopping to check if it was safe there or not, before jumping down himself. Unempathetic: Steps on Gangle’s broken comedy mask in order to break it more, while she is actively crying over it. (Poor Gangle.) Also, when Gloinks disassemble Zooble, he turns to Pomni and Ragatha and says “Oh no, they killed Zooble. Anyway, you guys wanna get something to eat?” Violence: Wanting to shoot the gummy bandit NPCs “until they’re unrecognizable” (calm down, dude—) Charm: Not actively demonstrated in the series so far, but clearly has some level of unspoken charisma, due to the fact that a solid 75% of the TADC fanbase is obsessed with him. Manipulation: Blackmails Gangle into a truck collision, stating he’ll “Tell Ragatha about the figurine thing” if she doesn’t. Recklessness: Refer to Impulsivity and Violence, they apply here as well. Selfishness: Only deciding that something should be done about the Gloinks once one hits him in the head, despite them having already disassembled Zooble. Egotistical: Shows a tendency to take charge and boss people around, hinting at believing he is simply better than everyone else. Lacking meaningful relationships: Seems to not have any friends. The creator, Gooseworx, has stated that ‘no one likes Jax”, and Jax seems to reciprocate this, being actively cold towards all the other humans. However, he seems to be half-tolerant towards Ragatha. Right, well, this isn’t really a proper conclusion, but here we are. This is why I personally headcanon Jax to be a sociopath. I’m not in any way saying this is bad, or a character flaw, I actually really like Jax. I just felt the need to talk about this, since i havent seen anyone else do so. Also, im procrastinating working on actually important theories and projects. How do i close this? Oh, yes— But, always remember, theorists, that’s just a theory. A FILM THEORY YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
