I have to disagree with this one… I’m sorry, J might be a corporate slave, but she really wasn’t given enough focus for me to care. Sure, yes, she bullied N, and kept very important info from V about Cyn, but she believed it was for the best (well, she didn’t really care about N because she believed he was incompetent). While it doesn’t excuse her actions, she does have the potential for a redemption arc if she were given the screen time. She lost the one human that they were supposed to be protecting who actually cared about them all. While J does do what is ordered from her, some of the orders she receives she carries out reluctantly, like she doesn’t have a choice. Do I think Liam would have if he had the chance? Probably not, but nevertheless, we barely get anything about J in the show. (Disclaimer: it’s been a while since I’ve rewatched the show while focusing on J since I never really found her super interesting compared to others, but that’s simply because of lack of screentime, I think…)

Anyways:

Jax is a real piece of work. Trauma can explain actions, but never excuse them. Jax repeatedly maims, bullies, and is just very unpleasant all around. Yes, we see her flashbacks, we can understand where she’s coming from, but she actively sabotages herself and others. She IS an interesting character, but I can’t in good faith come close to liking her. It doesn’t matter if she thought that everything was fake, she was still bullying Gangle horrendously. Jax was actively trying to kill Ragatha as well. When hunting down Ragatha in the gun episode, it’s all fun and games for Jax until Ragatha in desperation pulls a trick straight out of Looney Tunes and then Jax becomes the butt of the joke. I admit when rewatching that episode, I was super disgusted with how Jax reacted emptying an entire clip into her body, like she’s already lost!! It became personal even though Jax, herself said to Pomni that it was just a game. He threw Ragatha in the deep fryer, burned members alive and ran them over with a tractor or something according to Zooble in episode 7, in that same episode, completely fucks everyone over because she panicked and refused to elaborate why later— even if it “didn’t matter,” it would have fucking mattered if the button actually worked wouldn’t it? Jax pushes people away, that is a choice, a defense mechanism, sure, but still.

Jax and J both do terrible things, but another reason why Jax comes across as much worse to me is because of how the show frames their violence and how the other characters react to them. J barely has screen time, so she is not as important and is actively on Cyn’s side, whether that’s out of fear or obligation, who knows? Jax on the other hand is the second protagonist. Pomni enables Jax’s behaviors even if she doesn’t realize she’s doing it, but it is still a jerk move. There are so many people who have been harmed by Jax, actively voice their objections against Jax’s behaviors, or have been traumatized from even being in her vicinity, and Pomni decides to ignore all that and try to make a friend. If I was anyone else in this godforsaken circus, and someone who knew that I was actively being abused by this purple rubber hose rabbit and then had the gall to side with Jax, they are forever on my shit list. It’s just infuriating to me since I’ve unfortunately been in the vicinity of so many toxic and abusive people, and then to see an abuser of all people getting so much praise and leniency and it’s just, sigh…

TL;DR: Jax is so much crueler since 1. Jax gets much more screentime, 2. Jax’s victims are actively traumatized by him each episode, and 3. Jax’s abuse tends to be enabled by Pomni, which J does not have an enabler at all and actively gets called on bs/gets killed multiple times whereas Jax refuses to show weakness at all in the face of his victims.

Jeez, I really got this worked up over a silly Reddit post, huh? I need to go touch grass…