The Last Act: Amazing Digital Bogus

The Cast of TADC

The Amazing Digital Circus is a drama about characters stuck in a digital prison – their minds uploaded to “The Amazing Digital Circus” controlled by the god-like artificial intelligence Cain, who puts them through torments big and small. The final episode of the show was released in theaters as “The Last Act,” and this essay is my attempt to explain why its conclusion felt like a bitter, painful betrayal. (Spoilers ahead)

I liked the show a lot. My girlfriend introduced it to me, and I fell in love with the characters. They are well written, dynamic, and despite their cartoonish appearance, very real and relatable. The setting is clearly inspired by “I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream,” but the tone is much more lively, and the story is about learning to live with those around you and work through your personal issues through forming friends and community. It is funny, endearing, and gripping when it really put its characters through the wringer. So I was looking forward to the final episode and its theatrical release.

The Last Act promo poster

I don't think I expected anything in particular from The Last Act. I know I expected to be surprised, I know I expected the cast to go through hardships as they dealt with the fallout of Cain's sudden death, and I know I expected to get some insight into Jax in particular as a character—why that bunny was so angry, mean, and impossibly resistant to all the sympathy and outreach expressed by other characters. Why, even as Gangle, Zooble, Kinger, Ragatha, and Pomni all work to coexist and find a community in their purgatory-like existence, did Jax seem to dead-set on remaining apart and isolated? I mean, look at the poster (right). Jax's narrative was even being advertised as central to the finale.

And it was. And it was insightful, and beautiful. And yet, it was also possibly one of the most personally hurtful narratives I have experienced from a piece of media like this.

So, let's cut to the chase: Jax is transfemenine. This was a fan theory for a while, but many little hits and foreshadowings to this end were present in the earlier episodes. Without understanding the releave in The Last Act as confirming Jax to be transfem, her character arc and the narrative in TADC lose coherence. But, the same narrative that centers and explores her as a trans woman/trans fem concludes by putting her back in the closet, deadnaming her, and refusing to engage with any potential growth or consequence of that personal revelation.

Let me walk through Jax's narrative in The Last Act chronologically, and I will try to convey why I feel so hurt by the choices made for her character.