ribbit was not the one who started the "jax pushing people away" chain
This theory is mostly speculating.
Many of us (as far as I know atleast) believe that jax started pushing people away after ribbit abstracted to make sure he doesnt have to go through the pain.
I think the chain began way before ribbit abstraced, way before jax met ribbit and way before jax entered the circus.
1: Ribbit
The first image is the reason I believe it isnt ribbit who started the chain. In this exact scene in episode 7 we can see jax staring at a blue and white orb (likely a snow adventure from the past) and we can hear both jax AND ribbit from it, we know it's ribbit since the credits featured her.
The lines we can hear from them from what i can make out is:
Ribbit: "We're both your bestfriends!"
Jax: "Do you think i actually CARE about you?!"
Ribbit: "YOU'RE LYING!"
Jax: "I'M NOT!!"
If this is what's actually said then this proves that ribbit didnt start the chain. Jax clearly already tries to push her away and seems to fail just like pomni(or succeed?)
2: Ragatha
The second image is because I think ragatha helps us try to speculate where it began.
Jax and ragatha are two sides of the same coin, the opposite, two ends of the same stick, yin and yang.
Now one tries too hard to push away people losing himself in the process by faking being an asshole(to a point he fakes it).
And one tries too hard to be nice to people losing herself in the process by not showing all her emotions and only the nice ones.
They both are so different yet soooo similar. Both of them fake their emotions and both of them have lost people they cared about and both want to have friends but in the end stay alone (jax most likely wants friends but hides that while ragatha wants friends but her fake kindness makes people just not like her.) the only difference is that jax just hides it so so so much better than ragatha.
3: Mommy issues
I bring ragatha into this theory because I think ragatha's mother is what we need to know how jax started pushing people away.
I think that if jax and ragatha are the opposite then their mothers would be the opposite(it's reaching but hear me out).
We know ragatha's mother is abusive and basically the worst person to exist, o I think that jax's mother babied him and cared for him too much OR he didnt have a mother. It's one of those two that would make sense in this "both of them are the opposite" thing that goose is doing.
i personally think it's a mix of both. lets look at this scenario:
Jax had a mother who "cared too much" and "babied" him and he didnt like it but still went with it. I think the car flashbacks we saw in ep 7 was of him either running away from his house or after something bad happened (whether it be jax did something bad or an abusive stepfather or WHATEVER) he was driving away and he hit a light pole crashing into it.
He was still concious so he entered the nearest building he saw which was C&A and from there he put on a headset, entered it and the story goes on like that.
Basically i think that he had a caring mother who babied him and then i think something bad happened to her/died because i think that's how his whole "pushing people away" would start.
He lost his mom, entered the circus, pushed ragatha, ribbit, kaufmo and everyone away and became what we know him as now.
4: Pomni
I'm just gonna say it I think ribbit didnt fully see through jax's lies fully and that's why she abstracted and I also think jax and kaufmo werent friends after ribbit because kaufmo believed jax's lies about not caring too which is why pomni is sooooooo different.
Unlike the others, pomni saw right through this motherfucker's lies and made sure to make sure he knew that she did. She never once even let him go and has him fully on abstraction watch and is basically the reason everyone else sees through him in ep 8
I mean COME ON DID YOU SEE HOW DOWNBAD THAT BUNNY WAS? it took ONE stare from pomni and ONE "it'll be fine" in ep 7 for him to fold like marshmellows he's so head over hells it's not even funny! she convinced him to come with them in ep 7, she convinced him to be the first to go in the slide AND she basically has him on a cat leash(or bunny leash?).
Unlike ribbit who believed it and abstracted pomni was different and made sure to change this little dumbass's brain and showed his stupid ass that NO she is NOT leaving his ass at fucking all.
TLDR: Pomni, Jax and Ragatha threesome in ep 9.