(Spoilers below, if it matters anymore)
I'm actually okay with Jax abstracting but only in a way that feels like a satisfying narrative conclusion to what was set up. From the leaks it... doesn't really feel like that? Maybe it's just me, but I don't think it works.
Jax abstracts, Pomni travels through his psyche to try to intervene, but he rejects it but regrets rejecting it at the very last second or something? So is the core point that he made a rash decision and it destroyed him? It doesn't really make a whole lot of sense and doesn't really feel climatic, in either a cathartic or a even in a tragic way.
Like, Hamlet ends with everyone straight up dying, but it makes sense and feels earned because the entire story is about the destructiveness and ultimate futility of being vengeful, the corrupting nature of power and how opulence can ultimately harm people's minds and hearts and make them miserable. The core thesis statement is "Greed and Wrath will destroy you if you let them."
What's the core thesis statement of TADC? Because in every other way it seems to be "even in a bad situation you can find fulfillment and happiness from other people." So, is Jax's arc his tragic failure to realize that in time? Because the fact that his IRL self is living a pretty good life kind of undercuts that point. Jax didn't seem to have much if any agency in his own downfall, he just got irrationally sad and went poof. By the time Pomni was there to intervene it seemed like the process was already just about finished?
If the message is "don't let your emotions overwhelm you and you can actually live a good life" then it's muddled by the fact that Jax could have just as easily avoided abstraction and learned that lesson. It would probably have been even more poignant since this is the version of Jax we've been following and care about.
Is it just "too deep for me" or am I on to something?