bluepandadraws-log

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Last thing I'll say about the current Tadc disc horse: I've had three different friend groups say I was overthinking/over worrying about how the fandom would treat Ragatha's behavior... needless to say, I'm smugly(but also sadly) drinking the "I told you so" juice(It taste like apple)

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And with that last reblog, I retreat back into my "only post art and seldom talk or participate in fandom" hole, goodbyeeee

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OHHHH THESE DIVAS

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As you can all tell from my extremely rare reblogs, I'm just a lil' bit pissed with some of the fandoms' reaction to both Ragatha and Jax's flaws.

Ragatha's clear fawning behavior, people pleasing tendency to downplay the bad and eggxasurate the good and trying too hard... Nah, she's obviously just trying to make herself look good, the mommy issues are just a poor excuse. She doesn't actually care about the rest of the circus crew, she just wants to feed her fragile ego. No wonder the others are sick of her, It's her fault for being toxically positive and clingy and annoying.

We have Jax, who is antagonistic and violent towards the people around him, puts up a front of apathy, pushes those who try to get too close away, and constantly tries people down to his level. But that's okay! He lost his last friend recently, and that's why he's lashing out. He's just playfully ribbing. He's just teasing. He's annoying, bit in a funny "lovable bastard" way! At least he's honest about how he feels, right?

BOTH of their attitudes stem from (likely shared) parental and social trauma, but from opposite sides. And thus, they act opposite of each other. And I LOVE that! Their both so, SO very flawed and nuanced! But some of the fandom... yeah, I'm just a teensy bit miffed. A eensy weency bit peeved, even.

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so how do you think the way Ragatha's mother treated her has affected the way she behaves now

noelle deltarune coded tbh

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I’ve been seeing so much mixed reviews with Ragathas emotions and regarding why she doesn’t like Jax and pomnis bubbling friendship. Like believe me, I’m an avid PomnixRagatha supporter but I feel like Ragtha just hates the feeling of trying so hard to appeal to others (people pleaser) and yet not being chosen…What do you think? Because during that scene where they’re basically competing in the bar and ragatha tries to back up their “funny relationship” I felt it was jealousy oh MAN PLEASE DONT ABSTRACT GIRL 😞. But what do you think this is? I felt she was bitter 😞

i do think that ragatha was jealous ... because the thing is that ragatha the entire time has been trying So HARD to be friends with pomni but continually sees her getting along with somebody else instead . like she expressed her frustration with this in episode 4 about gummigoo .

and seeing jax , who she probably thought is the Last person that would have a connection with pomni , really riled her up ! the guy that's been causing nothing but trouble and making ragatha's life so much harder ... gets to bond with the person she's been TRYING to get along with .

of course she hates that she wasn't chosen . of course she hated that pomni smiled at jax mauling his clone , but it falls the moment ragatha looked at her .

that is a face of Repressed Anger if i ever see one . she is getting frustrated with the both of them .

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ragatha is NOT abstracting* and i will bury myself six foot under that hill

* well , i don't think she'll FULLY abstract . _____

i know this may be shocking coming from Me , the ragatha angst enjoyer , who made an entire au where she's having a bad day 24/7 . i truly , do not believe that ragatha's going to get killed off . just . hear me out . sit down on this chair .

it's not even that she's my favorite character and i don't want her to die . the opposite , actually , i eat ragatha abstraction fanfics up . my problems are more ... well , it lies more on the writing .

first of all , let's remember what tadc is for a second ; it's a tonally hopeful show with messages about community and not being truly alone . even in episode 5 , where ragatha Goes Through It , it has a glimmer of hope through jax — where he finds a friend in pomni .

it's why i truly believe she'll have some form of positive development , because if Jax , the character that gooseworx said who's Most deserved to be stuck in the circus , can be happy ... then why couldn't ragatha ?

also . i Love assholes with repressed trauma as much as the next guy , but it'll be weird to make the guy who's been antagonistic to most of the cast thus far find more happiness than ..... the clearly-traumatized woman ...........

when you write a story with mentally ill characters and a hopeful message ... what does it say when you kill off one of them ? what does it say to the audience that relates to that character ? here's a hint — stuff that i would find IFFY to put in your show .

obviously , you can do literally anything as a writer , but picture this ; imagine setting up a character like ragatha . someone who has gone through abuse and a lot of trauma . desperate for a community to the point she grasps for any scraps of validation she gets . you put her in a show where every character find some form of hope in the situation they're in . she has shown herself to harbor some form of self-loathing .

by that point , you should see my problem with killing her off . once more : if she dies , what does it say to the audience who relates to that character ?

and now for my next question — what would it add to the show ? what message does it send and how does it add to the theme ? because ... any of the answers to those questions i can think of are NOT good answers considering the last paragraphs .

" it'll show that people truly cares even when you're gone " we'll have episode 2 again , but this time at the cost of a character we've gotten to know for the last five episodes . it'll make ragatha's time in the show a Total Waste . like cool , all she's been set up for the last five episodes is to Die ...

i sure do hope we don't have another dead character who tells the same message of people caring about you when you're gone and also had an entire funeral scene which will make all of this build-up so redundant — oh wait his name is kaufmo .

at that point you could just remove her and put kaufmo in her place , because it's just the Same Message being told . it'll be impactful to see a main character dying ... if that character isn't going to essentially make all of their scenes redundant in hindsight .

" it'll give the cast character development " but not ragatha ?? i will be real with you i will be so Mad if ragatha gets killed off as a catalyst for jax to have an epiphany or character development . like genuinely that would make me instantly drop the show , do Not get me started .

even then , the thing that's going on with ragatha thus far is her thinking nobody cares for her despite that it's the Opposite . by giving the other characters development instead of her in Her Own Arc is Terrible Writing and i'm not going to budge on that .

" it'll mark a tonal shift " an answer i'm slightly okay with , but let's take the above paragraphs again — it'll be iffy nonetheless . do i Love the idea of an unsatisfying character arc where it suddenly ends , therefore breaking the formula that's been set since the beginning ? yes ! would i love it in this specific case considering the context of the show and its themes ? very much Not !

i know these arguments are more of an opinionated , ' think of how that'll work into the story ' rather than actual proof , but when it comes to making predictions , the tadc fandom doesn't really stop and think about how it adds to a character or story beyond It'll Be Shocking . for this theory specifically , i can't see a Good narrative reason to kill off ragatha without stepping on at least one land mine . as someone familiar with writing stories with mentally ill characters — it'll get Weird quick !

do i accept that there could be a Tiny possibility that ragatha Does abstract ? absolutely . i do trust gooseworx's ability as a writer enough to Maybe make this sting less when it actually does happen , but i'll very much criticize it .

so ! i don't think she Wouldn't abstract 100% though . because by this point it's inevitable that she'll sink into the darkness in some way . keep in mind that Barely Anything goes right for this girl . i don't think she'll die , but a very public mental breakdown is inevitable . at most , i see a fake-out abstraction . you know . one where she gets pulled out of it at the last second . just to scare the fans .

personally , do you know what would be more impactful than a death ? a character that fully believes she'll die alone and unloved being proven Wrong . episode 5 has shown how the other characters Care for her . imagine her spiraling and thinking that nobody cares if she abstracts , only to realize that there are people by her side . shit that would actually make me cry , i'm not gonna lie .

she will get a BIG group hug and she'll cry and i would also cry and we crew and we crode and i don't know maybe i'll be wrong Shrugs let's see this post age like milk LOL

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Can you just imagine how awful Ragatha feel herself? She's trying to make basic friendship with Jax for YEARS. And instead of her, who was here literally from the very beginning, he chooses Pomni. AND POMNI ACCEPTS HIM AND IN THE END RAGATHA JUST STAYS ALONE

And no i didnt say Pomni just told to Ragatha to fuck off and now shes a besties with Jax. But just the fact shes able to built normal relations with this person that she herself just cant reach.. ugh

And I don't even know which one is worse for me

That shes the third wheel in their original pilot trio

That Pomni's relations with Jax is progressing better than hers

Or that she's just trying to fit in but failing miserably and being left alone by EVERYONE

I wanna kill myself

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this HAS to mean something. it's just a coincidence that right after Ragatha talks about her mom being abusive, the VERY NEXT shot is Jax looking away ????

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God Ragatha always being belittled and made to feel guilty for not being perfectly demure and well-behaved and facing backlash for just being herself. And then people hate her for doing what she was told to her entire life. And then she finally does what they tell her to do and then just give her mortified looks for it. Making Ragatha feel guilty for expressing negativity like her mother all over again. Girl could start hallucinating her mother’s face over everyone else’s and it’d make perfect sense for her state of mind. She’s been haunted by her mother and shaped by her mother and is now trying to be a mother to her own adult peers because being a woman is fucking insane.

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kinda messed up that people are more forgiving of Jax for his own coping strategy and not Ragatha for hers... like they're all trapped here together, they all have problems, and sometimes people clash over opposite coping methods.

Its not about taking sides, Pomni wants to be on good terms with everyone. She even brought up Kinger's wife, hoping it would be an opportunity for everyone to know more about him.

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I don't know about anyone else, but as someone who has experienced emotional abuse, I really don't think a lot about how I'm potentially acting like my abuser.

Instead, I'm worrying about how my behavior might make the person I'm talking to upset (while subconsciously worried that they'll hurt me for it.) I'm thinking about all the things I can't do, that I'm afraid to do, without really thinking deeply about why I'm afraid to do those things. I'm thinking about what I need to do to survive, how I can prevent people from being mad at me, cuz there's nothing worse than making someone mad at me. Being mad means yelling, it means being torn to shreds with words. I can't let it happen, I can't be bad, I have to be good.

I think Ragatha is the same. She's not afraid of becoming her mother, she was trained from a young age to keep herself in a neat, tiny box. To mold herself into the perfect daughter, whatever perfect is that day. She's not allowed to act a certain way, and if she does then there might be unpleasant consequences. The fear of those consequences keeps you from acting in the bad way, even if those consequences don't actually exist.

You were a kid when you learned that shit! It's dug deep into the fiber of your being! Even if you're a grown adult, it can still feel wrong to act in the way they would punish you for even if you can't pinpoint why. It's a mental wall that tells you "no, you can't, you shouldn't, that's bad" but that's as far as the thought goes because you listen to it. If you dug deeper, you could maybe find the reason why you feel like that, but that means feeling the bad feelings and you can't do that, you won't survive it.

I just...have a lot of feelings about it. I genuinely don't think Ragatha sees any parallels between her behavior and her mom's, much less is actively trying to avoid it. I think she is trained to respond in certain ways, and even the thought of responding differently is so uncomfortable and wrong that she won't let herself do it if she can help it. And the one time she does, she seems scared later when Pomni goes to talk to her, like she's scared Pomni will do something to her as punishment.

I don't know man, I just see her responses as someone afraid that they're behaving in the wrong way, not someone worried about becoming their abuser.

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Btw I'm telling you now but Ragatha isnt doing "Toxic Positivity" she's

FAWNING

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I don't think that Ragatha is secretly a bad person deep down or that Jax is secretly a good person deep down. I think these characters are just two sides of the same coin; they're both trying to cope with this shitty reality. Ragatha tries to embody and encourage kindness to soothe the others' suffering. Jax tries to instigate violence and cruelty, perhaps as a way to rebel against Caine (or whoever is really behind this Digital Circus).

Ragatha's basically like "We're all stuck here being tortured together, so we don't need to add to our collective misery" and Jax is basically like "Nothing we do matters so fuck everything and everybody." It's like optimistic nihilism vs absurdism, or something like that.

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Them, half the episode

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Okay, I'm a lot calmer, just hafta block the funnybunny tag for the foreseeable future... Also, can we talk about how much Jax and Zooble "I know what you are"'d each other holy fuck-

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Killing myself bros{NOT SERIOUS ITS A JOKE)

Also, don't come into my inbox and be like "LOL THIS SHIP ISMORE CANON THAN THE OTHERS" Goose said there's no romance you delusional fucks /hj