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Toxic characters in fiction?

Jamesmac

Just finished The Amazing Digital Circus, and I felt the need to write this essay to process certain things about the ending, specifically about Jax. (SPOILER WARNING)

So, Jax is often portrayed as being mean and sarcastic to the other characters, but we learn later on that it's because he's afraid of them getting close to him and knowing the real him, but the lengths he goes to push them away often seem... excessive, in my opinion. Even after Pomni learns who he really is, he's still mean and hostile towards her despite the affection she shows towards him.

Let's compare him to Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty, for example; Both are afraid of people getting close to them incase they get hurt, so both of them act mean or cruel to push them away. Both of them also have a nihilistic world view. However, one big difference between the two; Rick has two moods; 1. I hate you, you're stupid and nothing matters, and 2. Nothing matters, but you still matter to me regardless. Meanwhile, Jax's two moods are; 1. I hate you, you're stupid and nothing matters, and 2. I hate you, don't touch me.

And there in lies the problem with Jax, in my opinion. Usually the whole "person who acts mean to push people away" trope has said mean person actually be a nice person on the inside, but with Jax, he's not a nice person on the inside, he's just a mean person who happens to also be sensitive, which is arguably worse and makes him far less endearing than Rick.

Anyway, I've gotten all that out of my system, anyone else got any other examples?

Parents

  • Speaking of Rick and Morty, the entire show is pretty much a study on the dynamics of toxic relationships.

    I already mentioned Rick, but Morty isn't that much better, either. Most adventures they go on, he often tries to claim the moral highground whenever he sees Rick doing something he's uncomfortable with, but unfortunately, whenever he tries to do the "right thing", it often results in everything going far worse than if he decided to take a neutral stance instead, which is more often than not what the entire show is all about. Basically, he kinda needs to learn that if your crazy drunk Grandpa has hijacked the brain of an alien creature from another planet against their will, maybe it's best to leave him to it, because said alien creature might actually be the alien equivalent of Hitler and your Grandpa's deplorable, unethical experiments to it might actually be doing the galaxy a world of good lol

    Then there's Beth and Jerry, Morty's parents. Beth very much inherited her father's intelligence and lack of patience for those less intelligent, and sadly Jerry is... well, he's not dumb, but compared to the rest of the Smiths, his somewhat average intelligence makes him look pretty dumb in comparison. And unfortunately, whenever people point out he's doing something foolish, his first instinct is to double down and try to prove everyone wrong, which results in everything going horribly wrong until Rick or someone else fixes it for him. He learns to fix his own problems in later episodes, though, even if it still gets a little messy

    And it's also nice seeing the Smith family slowly growing to resolve their problems and issues as the series goes on. Morty is learning that sometimes his Grandpa is right, Rick is learning that it's ok to let people in, Beth is learning that maybe Jerry needs to feel like he knows what he's doing even if he doesn't etc.

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  • Speaking of Rick and Morty, the entire show is pretty much a study on the dynamics of toxic relationships.

    I already mentioned Rick, but Morty isn't that much better, either. Most adventures they go on, he often tries to claim the moral highground whenever he sees Rick doing something he's uncomfortable with, but unfortunately, whenever he tries to do the "right thing", it often results in everything going far worse than if he decided to take a neutral stance instead, which is more often than not what the entire show is all about. Basically, he kinda needs to learn that if your crazy drunk Grandpa has hijacked the brain of an alien creature from another planet against their will, maybe it's best to leave him to it, because said alien creature might actually be the alien equivalent of Hitler and your Grandpa's deplorable, unethical experiments to it might actually be doing the galaxy a world of good lol

    Then there's Beth and Jerry, Morty's parents. Beth very much inherited her father's intelligence and lack of patience for those less intelligent, and sadly Jerry is... well, he's not dumb, but compared to the rest of the Smiths, his somewhat average intelligence makes him look pretty dumb in comparison. And unfortunately, whenever people point out he's doing something foolish, his first instinct is to double down and try to prove everyone wrong, which results in everything going horribly wrong until Rick or someone else fixes it for him. He learns to fix his own problems in later episodes, though, even if it still gets a little messy

    And it's also nice seeing the Smith family slowly growing to resolve their problems and issues as the series goes on. Morty is learning that sometimes his Grandpa is right, Rick is learning that it's ok to let people in, Beth is learning that maybe Jerry needs to feel like he knows what he's doing even if he doesn't etc.

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