What did you think about the finale of TADC?
Well, to put it briefly, the ending felt bland and empty to me. Honestly, I could say the same about the entire series, unfortunately.
If I were to expand on that: I’ve been following the show since the pilot. After each episode, I kept thinking, "Well, it's still building momentum, but there's definitely going to be something exciting in the next one!" However, that hope never paid off.
I’ve heard that the series is supposed to be about human relationships and their struggles. Supposedly, that's why other themes like "humanity vs. ai" and "creator vs. creation" were pushed to the background. But if that's the case, why even use this setting? Why make the circus "digital" if it doesn't matter in the end? The characters could have just as easily been in a magical world, another dimension, or some whimsical metaphor for life. Frankly, I don't even see much of those "human relationships" here. There is some character exploration, or rather, exploration of just one character, but there is no real character development. It's just poof, and suddenly everyone understands everything and changes. Did the characters fail to develop because there were too many of them and not enough time? Then why create so many? They could have stuck to four or five. You'd have one character who influenced the plot in the past, one who drives it now, a protagonist, and an antagonist. Instead, we ended up with seven characters, and only one was fully fleshed out. And that’s a character I personally don't like at all.
Recently, I’ve been trying to figure out what the plot is actually about. Is it about finding a way out? Only Pomni cared about that, and even then, only briefly; the others joined her just once. Perhaps it's about accepting a new reality? But that’s only relevant to Pomni, since she is new here, yet she accepted everything so quickly and easily (read: "I'm not buying this acceptance")
Then there’s the plotline that spanned episodes 8 and 9: Caine went rogue, Caine was removed, Caine calmed down and returned with answers. Well... okay? This could have easily been a movie rather than a series, since the previous episodes exist in a vacuum, having zero impact on the characters (well, except for a certain purple rabbit)
So, what do we have in the end? A bright and alluring world that remains unexplored, stagnant characters, only one fully developed arc, and no compelling plot or thought-provoking themes. Since there’s nothing but stagnation and jokes for the sake of jokes, it’s just a pretty but empty shell. It looks nice, but it lacks any real artistic value.
So, the problem doesn't lie within the finale itself, but rather in the foundation of the entire show. The finale merely confirmed this. It's sad, considering how good the initial concept was.
( And just so we're clear, you're free to love whatever you want, this is just my opinion :')
