Cursed Silicon@CursedSilicon@social.treehouse.systems

@pmc @bri7 I think my biggest criticism (and I feel very unfair with it) is that it's the most brilliantly animated...

....poorly written show I've seen.

I call it a sci-fi show both because that's its initial "premise" and the show plays with sci-fi tropes *a lot* in its early episodes (thank god we all forgot about Gummigoo right Pomni?)

Looking at it through the lens of *the characters* though...

When Jax said the characters were "archetypes" I think that spoke volumes, and not in the way the show *intended*

Each of the characters feels very...one-dimensional. They're tent-poles of C-PTSD coping mechanisms (because that's what they were all going through)

Jax is the asshole because pushing people away is his "coping mechanism"

Pomni is the "normal person" trying to come to terms with everything

Ragatha is positive to a toxic degree

Gangle is broken and sad (literally)

Kinger is "forgetful" and comes off as just completely off his rocker because he's had the most trauma of the cast over time and has had to bury it

Zooble I'm probably stretching (and talking way outside my own lane as someone who isn't trans) but feels...very trans coded? At least that's how I read her struggling to "feel right" with her own "parts"

Caine despite being an AI goes through a bizarrely short (and IMO extremely ham-fisted) "redemption arc" where the characters just kind of shrug and say they'll tolerate him and learn to like him again within...days? despite how long they've ostensibly been tormented by him for.

*Deep breath*

I refuse to touch "the fandom" around this show (for my own sake) but I suspect that if folks are critiquing the whole "abstracted" premise, at least. It's kind of warranted.

The show ends very much on a "everyone is happy now and everything is good forever (Don't ask about Jax/Ribbit/Kaufmo though!)

Luci “Milky Princess” Tea@bri7@social.treehouse.systems

Replying to @CursedSilicon@social.treehouse.systems

@CursedSilicon @pmc you aren’t trans? ah that explains it.

This might sound weird but i predicted a lot of the most important cues in the show would be entirely missed by non-trans people. Like i mentioned before not to make it sound like in-group out group.

As a trans woman i recognised the show and its characters as taking place, allegorically, inside the brain of one closeted trans woman, and the characters are jungian archetypes of the one person coming to terms with her transness.

if you’re expecting it to be something else, and you don’t have those experiences, i think it’s going to just be confusing.

what i take issue with is you keep saying “poorly written” but never going into detail about what you mean.

but maybe it’s not poorly written. just not written with you in mind as a target audience

Jul 2, 2026, 06:52 UTCen
Cursed Silicon@CursedSilicon@social.treehouse.systems

Replying to @bri7@social.treehouse.systems

@bri7 @pmc I'm not cis, or trans. But a secret worse third thing as they say (some terrible flavour of non-binary and or raccoon)

Admittedly I didn't go into it with any expectations (or prior knowledge). It's just what I "picked up" from watching it.

I think the reason I found the writing so lacking was largely *because* it played with so many characters and ideas about them. Then just (literally) buried those characters in the void (except for Jax who I guess gets to sleep over until he becomes "a problem" given what Caine said???)

"Yeah we gave an NPC sentience, twice. But fuck that, (literally) delete them from the story"

"All those other people who were here? Yeah they're monsters now and forever. Don't think about it. Just be happy for who's left!"

Luci “Milky Princess” Tea@bri7@social.treehouse.systems

Replying to @CursedSilicon@social.treehouse.systems

@CursedSilicon @pmc “all those potential lives you could have lived, if you were allowed to transition younger? they’re gone now.
don’t worry about it, just be happy with the handful of years you have left”

“rememeber those times you realised you were trans, (gained sentience) and you got so excited. and then scared, and then buried it deeper and deeper? don’t worry about it. forget it”

some stories don’t get to have neat and satisfying resolutions

i think the feeling of dissatisfaction about it is what you were supposed to be feeling, on purpose

Cursed Silicon@CursedSilicon@social.treehouse.systems

Replying to @bri7@social.treehouse.systems

@bri7 @pmc I guess? The way the show handled it, showing them (literally) dumped into the abyss and then *forgotten about* like garbage felt very...at odds with "these are people who formed deep, emotional bonds and now only carry memories of them"

Again, even Jax, after their own inability to form emotional bonds with anyone until they transformed is just sort of "allowed to stay, for now" according to what the characters say.

It's not that the characters aren't given satisfying resolutions so much as they're treated as literal monster allegories that need to be buried under the floorboards (despite Pomni finding out that no actually they're still very much 'alive' inside, still)

Steffie 🏳️‍⚧️ :rubber_pride-heart-600: :triple-moon-transfem: @steff@soc.femme.cat

Replying to @CursedSilicon@social.treehouse.systems

@CursedSilicon @bri7 @pmc
I found this fairly true to life. Old friends and community members who fall into depression, anxiety, or other types of debilitating mental health issues frequently become isolated and ostracized, as a feeling or fear of contagion prevails. Meanwhile, we're dragged away from them by the ultimately pointless adventures of life.

In the end, Jax, and the others, remain "abstracted" but are supported and integrated into the community instead of ignored. It's a somewhat beautiful and hopeful notion of what could be.
Steffie 🏳️‍⚧️ :rubber_pride-heart-600: :triple-moon-transfem: @steff@soc.femme.cat

Replying to @CursedSilicon@social.treehouse.systems

@CursedSilicon @pmc @bri7
My personal takeaway is the system is used to and ready to dispose of the 'inconvenient' and it is the community who must reject that urge. I didn't feel the "for now" clause to be a conditional threat, as much as I saw it as a way to correct the system which is used to disposal. However, I certainly don't completely reject your reading, as some tension and ambiguity only adds to the texture.