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I really love Jo and this look in S2   💜 💖

Kid Cosmic S3 Theory

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but in the trailer when Jo finds that secret room there’s a wall with newspaper clippings, photos, and awards.

Two things stand out there: A photo of someone, most likely Papa G, holding a child’s hand and a newspaper with the heading “Kid Cosmic”.

It’s easy to think that the child in the picture is Kid and the newspaper is about the Kid Cosmic we know and love...

But what if it’s actually Kid’s mom?

I think that when she was around Kid’s age, she was a hero just like him alongside Papa G and perhaps a team full of other heroes that had cosmic stones like the present day heroes do. When she grew up, she quit, got married, and then had Kid.

According to @davids-cartoon-corkboard​’s theory, the 14th stone is probably Kid’s mom’s necklace, and this could have been her cosmic stone.

Rewatching Kid Cosmic for the season premiere/series finale and this moment in Pyramid Puzzle of Pain really stood out to me, because I really think it’s what sums up the character conflict of the entire season.

At first this works, but even after being reassured by the team…

Jo’s still eating herself up about it. Watching the show from the beginning, Jo’s been reluctant and hesitant to this entire space adventure thing from the moment it became clear real danger and real consequences were involved. She can’t see into the future with a power stone, but that doesn’t mean she can’t still see all the ways things could have gone wrong. All the ways things can STILL go wrong. Jo lacks confidence and wants easy usable answers, and while her mom does her best to reassure her and give advice, Flo is still her mom. 

It’s hard to separate when your mom is giving you advice because she honestly believes in you and when she’s just trying to make your feel better. At the same time, Jo’s in a stage of life where she naturally pushes away from motherly advice, and is hypersensitive to criticism, especially from her mom. She can’t hear the good advice coming from love when she’s so busy putting herself down. 

So naturally, it comes up again when she sits down with Queen Xhan.

And Xhan gives the same response Flo did. Like, almost word for word the EXACT same response.

Now, two interesting things about the way this goes down.

1) Jo argues back and forth with Xhan with this three full times. Every time Xhan answers with serene confidence and doesn’t budge.

2) Flo answers with “But we didn’t, did we?” where Xhan responds with “They didn’t.” Full stop. One answer leaves room for Jo to come to the answer by herself; it’s a guideline. The other is just a plain fact. They didn’t. That’s it. The end. 

Both responses tell Jo to stop worrying about what could have happened and focus on what did. Focus on the positives and what you did right, not what you did wrong. However, Flo also emphasizes learning and growing from your mistakes, thinking things through. That’s why she phrases it as a question. It lets Jo find the answer instead of giving her one. Her reassurance is gentle where Xhan is firm. 

Additionally, at this point, Jo takes Xhan’s advice to heart easier than Flo’s for several reasons (including but not limited to: not being her mom, having big space authority, she’s the one who asked for help, has experience of doing leader stuff) but the biggest one might be that Queen Xhan has been 100% on her side since they met in the desert last season. Xhan’s shown pretty much nothing but confidence in Jo and barely even entertains the idea that Jo might not be able to do it.

That’s a lot of faith to put in a teenager from the middle of nowhere. It’s a lot to live up to, and a big promise to keep.

A common(ish) interpretation of Xhan is that she’s hypercritical and judgmental, but I argue that it’s the exact opposite.

Queen Xhan’s got total confidence in Jo. And that’s the problem.

This line of logic implies that Jo came out victorious because not only was her last decision correct, but that EVERY decision she made was correct. Not because she thought it out, not because she learned from her mistakes–indeed, Xhan would rather ignore those mistakes entirely–but because Jo is leader. She succeeded because she’s the leader and the leader is always right. Therefore everything Jo does will turn out right in the end, no matter what. It all falls apart from there.

go go go

They’re simply having a wonderful Christmas time!