#oooohhh Jack my beloathed indeed

[bababerries]

I actually have so many thoughts about this in relation to Jack's behavior

The CSA narrative with Jack Jack/Lacie is subtle but it's definitely there. And I do think his prostitution as a teenager left him heavily traumatized and feeling unhuman and played a big part in shaping him

(I was also going to get the panel of him taking that women’s hand against his cheek as he proclaims about he wants to see Lacie but the manga website I used went offline while I was getting these so RIP) (but I wanted to show that bc of his face there he’s smiling and seemingly in control )

And adding onto the bracket this is clearly not the case as we see an imagery of hands later reach out to him and he’s horrified. Jack had to put up a facade to survive his prostitution. He heavily associates his prostitutions with Lacie (considering she was the one who suggested he become one in the first place and him becoming a prostitute so he can make money to one day find her again)

As well as this scene of Jack being in bed covering himself in the covers presumably naked with a bruise on his cheek. Presumably taking place after he just had to have sex and starts having a breakdown later. And here he declares he loathes Lacie here

And back to the first panel where Lacie’s hand is reaching out to him and he just imagines a bunch of hands implied to be his clients and the people who SA’D him. He feels like Lacie’s prisoner. He finds her presents predatory and suffocating. He feels like *she* defiled *him* and it’s torture.

I think Jack’s loss in autonomy over his body also contributed to a lot of his issues. His insecurity of being “clear like water” as Oswald describes (a more appropriate term for my analysis would be ‘doll’ Jack felt like he was empty like a doll as well as becoming a ‘plaything’ to others around him) and he had a lot of internal anger and emotion that he projected later onto the others when he was trying to desperately to fufill “Lacie’s wish” in order to live. He was intensely bitter and wanted other people to feel broken like he did. Or perhaps he just wanted to escape the feelings of being someone’s victim for once

Talking about the Alice twins and Oz in reference to this. How he groomed Alyss and took advantage of a little girl who was isolated and presenting herself as her hope and diamond in the rough (it’s reminiscent of how 15y Jack saw Lacie as the light in his life after nothing but darkness. ) Jack did not have any sexual feelings but it was about the power and control and abusing someone he saw himself in. Both as a way to forward his own plan of course but I do think his own feelings were in the mix of this. He’s repeating the cycle of abuse that was given to him. As his own clients were definitely older then him and taking advantage of Jack when he was a child

Then back to the topic of this post how touchy he is with Oz. It’s incredbily disturbing. And I think it’s once again Jack abusing Oz to project his insecurity on him. He belittles and abused Oz to feel better about himself because he’s so afraid of being empty but hey there’s no way he can be more empty than a literal doll? He bullied him. He belittles him. He disempowers him. And frankly touches him in very creepy ways to establish power and establish that Oz is “his object” once again dishing back abuse that’s been placed on him and it really hits different considering this is also his own body

TLDR; Jack’s CSA victim narrative is so subtle but brilliantly implemented because he never got justice for it and he never got to untangle the emotions and trauma it left him in so a lot of it is hidden in subtext and subtly in the narrative to represent the trauma feeling hidden and looked over and Jack tries to play out this power fantasy where he abuses others out anger and not wanting to be the victim for once and also man there’s just something about JACK being horrified and hating how everything about him was about Lacie being angry about HIS feelings and trauma being looked over

Jack Vessalius is so. He's a character alright

It's interesting how possesive he is of Oz, though. He's always grabbing him in some way. Pulling his hair, grabbing his jaw, his shoulders etc

"...I...don't...care" has such an impact on me alright