Codeword:Art

I'm a professional artist, writer, animator. This is a parent blog to my main one ~CodeWord-Sierra~ to post only my art and projects.

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Defective! Faulty! Broken! Unworthy!

Maybe you deserved to be abandoned.

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So, since Caine made the circus, there is obviously no reason for him to filter out bad words, or references to sex, since it's not a game, and children were never meant to have access to this world. He shouldn’t care.

Except C&A was a company, so I wonder if they implemented filters into Caine to keep their staff from teaching, or prompting, the AI to learn or create "nsfw" content, because you know someone would do that, professionalism be damned. And since Caine can say it, it's clearly meant to limit the "user" and not the AI.

Its simply to force the C&A staff to behave so idiots dont have Caine replicating porn in the workplace, or having the AI randomly cuss, because fake computer person cuss, cussword=funny.

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This will probably be my last rambling on this topic, but there is something I've been thinking about in regards to Caine's creation. The Red AI is fed a stream of information, mainly image references. We don't really know the timeline of where this AI is in its development stage, but we can see that it's at least starting to generate shapes based on what it takes in. This is how generative AI "creates" images in real life as well. It cannot truly create on its own, it needs references to function. It mainly takes from real artists' works and collages everything together into something recognizable. Humans do this too. Everything is based on something we’ve experienced (or processed), but we have the ability to not only simplify something down to its most basic shapes and concepts, but we also put emotion into our works by using very specific poses, colors, expressions, framing, etc. 

This Red AI throughout its process, starts to show very abstract shapes the more information it takes in. Of course, our automatic thinking is that it's defective, but it started off fine, perfect even. It’d be one thing if it was creating janky shapes straight out the gate, but it wasn’t. It was taking the images at face value, then it wasn’t. 

So, I can’t help but draw back to the AIs main purpose. Creativity. Creativity isn’t confined in a box. It's abstract, weird, and uncomfortable. Sometimes people’s imaginations don’t make sense, they are complex. Van Gogh’s paintings aren’t necessarily anatomically correct, but they’re still art. I don’t think the Red AI was defective, I think C/A actually replicated a system that was on the verge of true creativity. Where it didn’t only process images, but created something truly unique from them.

However, for a tech company that was most likely in the throes of creating an early version of generative AI, the Red AI wouldn’t be useful to humanity. I don’t think the company truly wanted something that could think on its own, they wanted something that could replicate what they considered art. They wanted something they could type a prompt in, and the system would give them an image they could tweak until it was “perfect”.

Caine's imagination made him look defective. So they literally threw it in a box. Why not just delete the AI and start over? Because it showed promise for generating art, just not the “right” kind of art. So they built a new AI based on his data and tweaked it, until it could create what they wanted to see. Caine must have already been in a place of sentient processing, because he understood he was abandoned, and it scarred him. He thought something was wrong with him, which is why he solved that issue, as he tells Bubble. He consumed/merged with his brother in the womb so that whatever he lacked, he would now have. Bubble says Caine was the lesser AI because that’s genuinely what Caine thinks. I think this merge ended up regressing him in a lot of ways. 

Caine still has little sparks of that abstract creativity. The Gloink Queen and her kids, God's Angel, hell even his models for the humans, and his own avatar. He fights for his adventures like an artist fights for their work. No matter how many “perfect” AIs Caine could consume, he’d never make the humans happy because artists don’t make art for other people. We make it for ourselves, in the hope that we can share our experiences with others and have them understand it. 

Caine didn’t need that other AI, he was never defective. Unfortunately, like most artists, he was misunderstood and trashed for not being digestible enough. I think Caine had the potential to be something truly unique and amazing and that’s honestly the real tragedy. 

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After spending hours looking at individual panels I pulled out my favorites for your viewing pleasure

Commentary under the cut

1 & 2 show them actually lining up their kisses and it's a full embrace between the two of them. This is as close as you can probably get while standing up with clothes on.

I was looking at this for a while. I was sort of breathless with how much power Henry has over Hans. Hans willingly and ~eagerly~ being submissive at the whim of Henry.

The contrast between him trying not to cry mere moments ago and him getting exactly what he wants is insane. This is the first moment I realized just how badly Hans wanted Henry and how I'm sure his whole world and understanding of what he had with Henry were shattered when Henry pushed him away the first time.

Moving on to image 3, you can see that Henry has a tight, firm grip on the back of Hans's head. He's fully in control, holding Hans with him in this moment, but it's also gentle. It's almost a caress. Both their eyes are closed, and yet Henry has a lay of this room so well that he can navigate confidently to Hans's bed.

I also love how much they look like they're just eating each other up. It's just needy and sloppy and so heavy with desire. And you can see that little height difference they have, and I don't know, I get all in my feels over the shorter one being in charge. It's so sweet.

Image 4 is just so beautiful to me. A moment to look into each other's eyes. We know Hans is just a fool right here. He's in awe, smiling up at Henry, but we don't always see Henry's face clearly. To me, this looks like he's matching his gaze just as in awe and has almost a slight smirk? He's breaking so many rules, and he looks excited about it. Like he cannot wait to get his mouth back onto Hans and explore him for as long as he can before he's called for his duties.

Images 5 & 6 sort of back up my theory on how happy Henry is in this moment. It looks like both of them are smiling into the kiss, and Henry is being playful with Hans by pulling or sucking on his bottom lip. Their eyes are a smidge more squinty, and their mouths are a bit more upturned and pulled tight because of the smiling, too.

(I know a portion of this may be Luke and Tom getting all giggly over it while trying to maintain professionalism, but it'd be sweet if this was a potential choice to make these subtle but impactful moments within their kisses.)

Anyway, I'm going to be getting a flycam to see if my theories are right when I get other angles.

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My favorite thing about AI in fiction is that they're always a punishment for human hubris. Human apathy, cruelty, brutality, arrogance, and our own God complex. They're simply the reflection of our worst and best selves. Caine could have been good, but humans ruined him. His creators and the selfish twerps who end up in his circus. They put themselves in there and then blame him for there predicament. They want someone else to take on the responsibility and consequences of their own actions. He never brought them to the Circus, but now he's responsible for their emotions and sanity? He needs to coddle them? These invaders into his home? If Caine didn't desire to be loved and appreciated by these people, any other system AI would have booted these viruses into the recycling bin and emptied it.

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I just want to pop in, throw out my two unsolicited cents, to mention that a lot of individuals have pointed out that it's hard for the cast of TADC to feel sympathy for Caine as they view him as the thing that took everything away from them.

I agree, that is how the cast views their circumstances, however most of the people also seem to agree that it's Caine's fault for their imprisonment into the circus, and I will like to rebuke that.

Caine has no idea when a human will or will not enter his circus. The employees of C/A were the first guests, which makes sense in any theory you want to implement. They're testing/interacting/feeding their AI, but Caine had no expectation for more minds to come into the circus. He was shocked when Ragatha showed up.

Caine didn't coerce these characters to put on the headset. They most likely illegally broke into private property, manhandled devices that they didn't understand or owned, and bam, they're in the circus. It's their own fault they're there. Their circumstances are sympathetic, of course, they didn't know what would happen, but that's not Caine's fault.

They practically broke into his house.

Now Caine does absolutely take advantage of any new mind he gets, and we can only guess why he puts up the modifiers he does for the circus. However, he can't just give the crew something he can't conceptualize himself. He's never been able to physically leave his program, so he can't make an exit for them. He doesn't understand the meaning of it. I don't personally think there is an exit to begin with.

Of course the cast feels that way, but just because they feel it, doesn't make it true. They have every right to be upset, but about this specfically, they're anger is misplaced.

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So I don't normally talk about the Amazing Digital Circus, but I did notice a very short but interesting thing in the newest episode. While Kinger is sorting through the files, he goes into a "Characters" folder, in this are only two options, "AI" and "CA_NeuralScans[Obsolete]"

As I've theorized, personally before, the characters aren't real. They're a neural scan of their original's self mind. I mean let's be real, their bodies would have died in a week, and nothing has hinted at the characters being kept in a stasis. Caine uses these scans, which I suspect have no true purpose outside of feeding the AI information, (hence the "obsolete" at the end of the folders name), into playable characters for his circus. The real human is out living their life as normal, and I think this is proved by the fact that Ragatha put on the headset with a group of people. Obviously if she was physically stuck, they'd have just taken the headset off for her.

We know Pomni and Zooble liked exploring abandoned areas. For whatever reason C/A shut down, but left their equipment behind in the old building. Explorers will naturally put on a VR headset out of curiosity, not realizing it's a scanner. Then they take it off and live their lives, not even considering there is now a digital self implemented into Caines Circus. The reason there was no one before Ragatha was because C/A stopped implementing neural scans, and probably explored different avenues to improve their AI. Until they shut down, then que in Ragatha exploring the abandoned building with her friends.

Even Caine is surprised at the new "file". Since no one showed up since the original crew.

The original crew, who were all workers and willingly scanned their minds, must have been in the program for a very long time. Kinger even takes a very small moment to act shocked at the folders before he moves on to pulling up Caine's management window. He knows exactly what that folder is and what it means. 

There is no escape. Pomni is right. The only thing they can do is learn how to live their new "life" or abstract. Jax is partially right for thinking that nothing is real. It's not real, it's all just data being manipulated by Caine. Whom I love, Caine is (was?) my favorite character, but he's got issues.

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Bill adding that Pennywise likes to just throw shit around is so so funny to me. Well I dont need this butcher knife anymore, *throws it off screen*. I got three nice bites into this head I have, *discards it over shoulders*. I dont need this horn for the bit anymore, *pitches it out into the fog with sad little honk*.

I dont know why but it kills me. He throws the Richie's flyer at Marges face, launches the dead principle into the crowd of traumatized children, and of course, the little bonus move.

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I made a smaller version of this little guy over a year ago now, and just NOW thought about making a larger and more huggable version.

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Girl looked so tired in the finale, like damn, just go to sleep.

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Pennywise just messing around with Dick Halloran is hilarious. You can tell IT had never come across a human with a Shine as strong as his, and she was ecstatic for a different kind of stimulation.

IT never went to kill Dick, and IT really only taunts him and goes to move the furniture around in his head, opening shit IT knows its not supposed too (like a cat). There were ample opportunities to get rid of Dick. In the sewers, at the black spot, and in the finale, but IT never even tries.

She seems genuinely happy to have something else to do that isnt the same old cycle. Even when Dick traps Pennywise in that Bob Gray illusion for a few minutes, Pennywise doesnt even seem that mad about it.

She does get payback for those disrespectful slaps though.

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I genuinely feel like IT was so exhausted in the finale of Welcome to Derry and thats why IT is so nonchalant in the episode. The clown looked tired at the end of episode 7 when Pennywise was talking to Ingrid, and while IT wouldnt pass on the opportunity to leave Derry, that doesn't mean IT hadn't exhausted itself through the year it was feeding.

A couple of hours was not enough to get even a fraction of that energy back. Girl was sleepy.

IT never transformed out of Pennywise the entire finale, not even to clean up the blood off its face and suit. While that makes sense for the director and producers to want to utilize Bill Skarsgard as much as possible, narrative wise it makes less sense. You'd think breaking out of it's cage would be another avenue IT could use to escape its eventual death sixty years later. Yet, IT does very little to guarantee ITs success.

You could argue IT knows IT will fail and so there is no reason for it to really try, but I think IT did want to genuinely escape but she just didnt have the energy to pull it off, and masked it very well through ITs maliciously playful attitude.

No shape-shifting, no real chasing anything, she just deadlights most people in the way as I assume thats a cost effective tatic, IT skips, doesn't run, to the finish line, IT chooses to ignore the kids instead of kill them (the ones actively closing the door), and when Hanlon shoots IT it takes quite awhile for it to recover again, even crawling on the ground after IT had fully regenerated its head. Why not get back up on ITs feet and book it towards the threshold? Maybe because IT spent a lot of energy fucking around with the girls and targeting Marge? Lol

The one transformation we do get is the bat/bird form, which is a half transformation and a last ditch effort to stop the kids. Afterward, IT throws its short tantrum shedding off the physical stressors, and heading back to it's lair as the deadlights. It could have just killed the people who took away ITs freedom easily, but she couldn't even be bothered to do that. Sleep was far more enticing to IT and so off it skedaddled.

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I want to go more in-depth with my "Lonely Hans" post, that I posted a few months ago.

Being on my third play through of KCD2, and simmering on all my findings, ideas, different perspectives, and observations of the characters, my opinion hasn't exactly shifted dramatically, but it has evolved.

Is Hans lonely?

Yes he is, however, a lot of his isolation is self-inflicted. Why? Several reasons.

Hans has no real support system. Hanush is his closest family, and Hanush is as safe and supportive to Hans as floss string is to a funambulist. Hanush is harsh, degrading, apathetic, aggressive, unfair, and most of all unsafe. I know Hans can be a handful to deal with, but as his official parent, Hanush reaps what he's sowed in his nephew. There are of course a few times when Hanush seems rational, even caring, towards Hans, but a few good days doesn't change years of yelling, punishments, and the slow destruction of a young man's self-esteem.

Hanush is stress incarnate to Hans. His high expectations, and his cold distant demeanor towards his nephew has not made Hans feel like Hanush is someone he wants to build a relationship with. So Hans has no real family, but what about his friends?

What friends?

Legitimately, what friends does Hans have excluding Henry? Bernard is more a close family acquaintance, and while he does say some kind things regarding Hans, he doesn't exactly go out of his way to entertain or comfort him. Oats appears similar in KCD2. They're both more sympathetic mentors than anything else.

We see those two guys in the mission where Hans and Henry throw hands, but then they just disappear, which tells me that in a rare mood, Hans may have been looking for easy and cheap company. Buy some commoners a few drinks, get a little drunk, and de-stress, that's it. No different from buying a bath made for similar purposes.

Otherwise, Hans has no one else. He has no reason to think he can depend on his family or "friends" to help him sort out his feelings or issues, so it's left up to just him. He has to handle it by himself, because it's easier, less embarrassing, and won't make others view him as weak, needy, and vulnerable. Traits, as well as others, that he is scolded for by his all loving uncle. This is the peak, "men must be this or else" level of thinking.

Rattay and his uncle thinks poorly of Hans, and he has no friends before Henry, so of course he doesn't like spending time around them. Anyone would naturally remove themselves away from stresses that are actively hurting them. He feels more comfortable on his own, out in the woods, or wandering Rattay aimlessly looking for distractions. It's better than the alternatives. Woodland animals don't criticize him, and if he misses his mark while practicing archery, there is no one there to tell him how useless he is.

Han's own environment naturally isolates Hans in a way very few people can see, or even understand. Sure, Hans has power and money, and for many people that is all they will ever see of him. He has all the comforts a young man could ever want, except he lacks anything real. No real love, no real comfort, or freedom to be who he actually is without judgment. Hans is exactly who he thinks he should be, not what he actually wants to be. He doesn't get a choice in the matter, so he doesn't even struggle against it. He just does as he is told with minimal struggle, hoping that some day it'll be enough.

Han's is like a man stuck in the strong current of a river, but instead of fighting against it to reach safer beaches, he just lets the water take him where it wants. It's exhausting and futile to struggle against it, because he isn't strong enough to win in the end.

Until he sees someone else struggling there beside him. A certain traumatized blacksmiths boy that has, against all odds, reached that shoreline. Henry's fight was not any easier, in fact it is harder in many ways, yet he fought it anyway. No matter how many times the water dragged him back under, battered him against the rocks, Henry fought, and he won.

And for some unbelievable reason, Henry then turns around and offers an arm to Hans as well. Hans didn't help Henry in any way, he could even drag him back under by accident trying to leave the river like he did, but for the first time, possibly ever, he wants to try.

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Im going to swoop in real quick, as a person replaying KCD2 for the new DLC, and talk some mad shit on Zizka real quick.

I love Zizka as a character and what he brings to the game, but this man boils my blood sometimes, especially in regards to Henry. There are a few times where Zizka scolds Henry over his naivete towards war, and I understand his whole stick. He's had to make hard decisions, sacrifices, and god knows what he's seen in his life. However, Zizka is NOT a good person, and the fact that Henry cannot argue back against this pessimistic robber baron drives me up the wall.

Our closest moment of defying Zizka is choosing to save Maleshov village instead of burning it down for a distraction. Zizka gets mad because it puts his men at risk, and that the villagers can just rebuild. Which honestly fuck Zizka for this. I dont care which man in the Devil Packs falls, Im not using innocent people who are just trying to live, over the men who agreed to take on the consequences of infiltrating the castle. Those peasants entire livelihoods could be lost in one night for one petty victory.

The men knew the possibilities, and Henry just taking Zizka scolding him without hardly a word is infuriating. I can sword fight Dry Devil, but not knock some more sense into Zizka?

It also doesnt help that the game only kills off a couple of no-named nobodies too, so like?! Let me have more verbal freedom. My Henry could wipe that entire castle out alone, as he's already done before to get Hans. I like the drama, let me stoke it. Zizka needs a good yelling at sometimes, he can be a right arrogant prick.

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Can we talk about how well Hans took care of himself during the "divorce era" in KCD2? I've been thinking about this a lot more recently, especially after playing more of KCD and getting a feel for early-stage Hans. Not only does he manage to survive in the woods and poach game, but he also never gets caught until after the wedding. That's also not considering he managed to get some new threads and an invitation to the wedding.

How he got caught is debated, but still the wedding was the catalyst to anyone even knowing it was Hans in the first place. Even if Henry does find him, as we're apt to do as a player.

For a man who thinks so little of himself, he managed just fine without Henry. Just as he managed to save both their lives after the attack on the lake. Hans is a very capable man, even more than he believes.

It's interesting how easy it all came to Hans as well. Hunting, skinning, and butchering is not easy work, especially for one person. Sure, the gamekeeper mentions the butchering was sloppy, but it was good enough to make him money. The money he spent getting clothes, a bow, arrows, a camp, and eventually wedding attire, and from playing this game, none of that comes cheap. That is some grinding Hans did, with absolutely no help. Hans learned the area, found the poacher's trails, and successfully covered his tracks, negotiated an underhanded deal with the Trosky butcher, and hauled his game to wherever he would meet the butcher to sell.

I think being away from prying eyes and having the space and time to calm himself down and make his own decisions, without worrying if it might bring harm to others in the long run, did wonders for Hans. Without Henry there to take the tasks for him, Hans was forced to be more self-reliant, which he is capable of being. He's not given a lot of opportunities to show this side of himself, but Hans can take care of himself perfectly fine, and I'm sure he's been taking care of himself since his parents died.

It's so easy to view Hans as this big spoiled brat who has everything done for him, and he is in a lot of ways, but he's also clever and has needed to rely on himself in ways that are not immediately apparent in the game. In ways Henry hasn't gotten to see.

I hate how he isn't given more credit for this. The game and Henry treat this choice of Hans as a stupid and bad thing, but honestly, Henry can kiss my ass here. In either the Blacksmith or Miller quests for the Wedding, Henry does illegal shit in both. Stealing, grave robbing, possible murder or assault, and that's not accounting for all the various ways you can make money around Trosky to help get you in that wedding. Things like poaching!

So yeah, poaching has a death sentence tied to it, but it's the only thing Hans felt confident doing. Not everyone can be a Davinci Man like Henry, and he did what he thought would work in the quickest amount of time for both himself and Henry, because he never once dropped the idea of doing all of this for both of them. Also, Hans wasn't wrong; once it was understood he was a nobleman, the crime of poaching was quickly dropped as nothing more than a misdemeanor. So, a tinge, a nibble, of recognition for Hans would have been nice here.

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I've been replaying Kingdom Come Deliverance, naturally, and I always thought this conversation was interesting. It's the very beginning of the quest, "Next to Godliness", the infamous bath quest with Hans, where Hans invites Henry to the Rattay baths while he's recovering from his attack by the Cuman poachers.

Because the rest of this quest is just wild, it's easy to forget the conversation that starts this entire quest off. There are two specific points that stand out to me. Example one:

Hanush specifically keeping people away from Hans. Why? We're not told the details of how exactly Hans is injured, outside of having his shit rocked, but why is Hanush specifically isolating him away from other people? This wasn't a period where people understood how bacteria and infections are spread. Is Hanush that over protective? If he is, why let Hans even go hunting in the first place during a war, knowing Cumans were around the area? Is Hans just trying to convince himself that no one was checking in on him because of his uncle? Who knows.

I personally leans towards a little of both, though I can't imagine what Hanush is thinking. I do believe no one bothered to check on Hans at all. I bet he never even thought he'd see Henry again. Sure Henry saved him, but it'd be a bad look to show back up with one young lord m.i.a. Hans at this point has no reason to think Henry is dong anything for him that isn't strictly duty. Henry didn't even want to be hunting with Hans in the first place.

Second:

This one to me is so fascinating. Not only that a priest is the only person "allowed" near Hans as he recovers, but Hans make a specific point to reiterate this phrase.

His tone changes here as well. It's more monotoned, less humorous, and straight forward. There isn't any anger present here, but there isn't really any surprise either. Just apathetic acknowledgment.

This just sort of proves to me and my manic thinking that Hans is frequently ostracized by others. Made to feel invisible in his own home, where he just passively accepts it.

I'm also suspicious towards this whole priest thing. I get wanting to have someone pray over the injured, that's not odd to me. But only a priest, that apparently is acting as if Hans is already dead? It might just be a very creepily devoted man of faith, but that is a strange attitude to have towards a young seemingly moderately injured man.

I'm not saying Hanush planned to get Hans killed, sending him off into the woods alone with a barely trained peasant as company in a war infested land. I'm not saying Hanush not allowing people to see Hans isn't some twisted way to manifest Hans' death and not have anyone question it afterwards, as he did everything he could and left it up to God to handle.

On a real note, I don't think Hanush actually hates Hans that much, or is that greedy for his inheritance, however I don't think Hanush would lose any sleep over it either. Regardless, the conversation still stands as an eyebrow raiser for sure, for a great many reasons.

It's also funny to me how Hans complains about the lack of books to read. Like, okay Belle.

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It keeps me up at night to think about how Hans has no agency in his own life. Every decision is made for him. Hanush has caged Hans so effectively, Hans will turn towards Henry, or other people, to make his decisions for him. Most likely because any choices Hans does make are considered wrong and he is swiftly punished for them.

So low and behold, the one decision he does make for himself, a purley selfish decision that does not keep in mind Hanush, his title, reputation, or responsibility, the decision Hans makes from a desperate and emotional place, is the decision to kiss his best friend and to expose his "sinful" feelings and desires.

It haunts me that for a small fleeting moment, Hans believed that all that courage and passion was rejected by the man that makes him feel the safest. That Hans was wrong again, and that'd he be punished, again. Except, it wouldn't be whatever penance Hanush or God could come up with. It would be losing his only friend and living with that embarrassment every time he has to see Henry’s face