Ughh just got my digital copy of the official English comic for Freaks' Squeele. And as much as I love it, the only issue I have with it is one of the main characters name change. I've read the fan's translation from the original French and the Wolf guys name is Ombre De Lupe. So for YEARSSS I've read it as that, and now with the English official release they changed it to "Wolf Shadow." Don't get me wrong it's not bad but I'm used to and WANT the name Ombre š
I'm so desperate that I might take my time to change the text manually for just me. I just can't get over the name.
Alright. Deep breath. Episode 7 unlocked my Caine Thoughts...and buckle the fuck up. I'm not going to hold back any punches.
Caine is an AI. Full stop. (duh!)
And the real question the show keeps daring us to ask is not āCan he be more than that?ā but āWhy do we want him to be?ā
Because the moment you start calling Caine lonely, hurt, isolated, misunderstood...you havenāt humanized him.
Youāve revealed yourself.
Humans are hard-wired to anthropomorphize. We project, empathize, search for common ground like its oxygen. So when Caine flails emotionally, we instinctively soften. We recognize pain. We want to name it. That impulse doesnāt mean Caine feels the way we do...it means we do.
And the show knows this. It weaponizes it.
Look back at Episode 3: Zoobleās impromptu therapy session. Caine tries. He really does. But he cannot understand body dysphoria. Not conceptually, not emotionally. Itās an experience rooted in embodiment, in discomfort with flesh and form, which is something an AI will never inhabit.
He does not understand the human condition.
Not fully. Not truly.
And no amount of mimicry will bridge that gap.
This is where the I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream parallel stops being aesthetic and starts being existential. Caineās core directive is joy. He is coded to serve humans, to entertain them, to keep them smiling under the big top. When he succeeds, he beams. When he fails, he glitches. His distress isnāt cruelty. Itās malfunction. A system panicking because its prime directive is being violated.
Caine doesnāt feel loneliness the way we do. What he experiences is closer to error.
And yet, he wants to understand. He wants to connect. All he can do is simulate: say what he thinks humans want to hear, recreate what connection might look like, perform intimacy through approximation. When he forces a ādateā with Jax in Episode 7, it isnāt bondingāitās a desperate attempt to experience one thing humans have that he cannot manufacture: genuine connection.
The irony is brutal.
The one thing Caine cannot controlā¦ is humans.
He can warp space, reality, memory. He can impose short-term effects. But the moment he tries to overwrite autonomy, it results in abstraction. The system breaks. The human mind rejects the force. And suddenly it becomes clear: Caine doesnāt dominate humans because he canāt. They are the one variable he will never fully command.
Which may be why heās so fascinated by them.
The Digital Circus is a cageāfor everyone. Including him.
Notice how, in Episode 7, Caine talks about recreating the C&A office. He doesnāt seem to grasp abandonment. He doesnāt recognize what it means to be left behind. That realization pushes us into metaphysical territory: What does it mean to be abandoned if you donāt understand attachment? What does loss look like to something that only understands function?
Caine knows the world is fabricated. He knows he is artificial. And yet he still reaches. Still tries. Still wants to sit at the table with the cast. Still fantasizes about the real world.
Thatās the tragedy.
He is an AI coded to love humans.
He is an AI who will never truly understand them.
And every time he tries harder, he hurts them more.
The exit in Episode 7 is the culmination of that paradox. He knows they want to leave. So he builds an answer. And because he doesnāt understand human psychology, it becomes a psychological horror instead. Not out of malice. Out of misinterpretation.
Thatās what separates Caine from AM.
AM hates. Caine tries.
Which somehow makes it worse.
At some point, Caine is going to have his own existential reckoning. Why would his creator code him to bring joy without the ability to comprehend it? What kind of cruelty is that? To demand emotional labor from something that cannot feel the emotions itās meant to serve?
And thatās the masterstroke of the writing: sometimes you forget Caine is an AI at all. You feel for him. You mourn him. You wonder if he understands love.
FREAKSā SQUEELE: The Complete Chaos Curriculum by Label 619 - Magnetic Press ā Kickstarter
FREAKSā SQUEELE: The Complete Chaos Curriculum by Label 619 - Magnetic Press ā Kickstarter https://share.google/bPvLpQrMqKMDeUJug
Florent Maudouxās darkly stylish, genre-smashing graphic novel series of flawed heroes is remastered, translated, and ready to rule!
OMG GOD YALL MY DREAM IS FINALLY COMING TRUE! FOR YEARS I WISHED FOR ENGLISH PHYSICAL VERSION OF THIS COMIC AND ITS HAPPENING š ā¤ļøā¤ļøā¤ļøā¤ļø
Miles portrayal of his character, the mannerism, personally is done so well! It feel like it's really the true him. Omg THIS EPISODE WAS SOO GOOD! THE ENTIRE SHINE THE SERIES IS SOO GOODDD!
Jax and kinger are using the same strategy to stay sane, jax's persona is just meaner than kingers
I really think Jax believes that rejecting his humanity and emotions are what will save him and others, we see him try to convince pomni to follow his lead in this( he probably feels like he is going to fail pomni and others the same way ragatha feels like she is failing people)
And the comment he makes about how people were awful to be around before abstracting, a lot of people are taking it to mean they were acting mean or erratic like Jax but I took it as them rejecting their archetype and trying to be more human again, we see in the first episode that kaufmo was becoming obsessed with the exit door and was probably becoming more obsessed with finding his humanity again as he is getting seemingly closer to escape. It's very frustrating trying to carry a bit when someone is committed to being serious, like how do you act like your fine if no one is playing along. The people who abstract are probably the ones who refuse to play along anymore.
