Greetings and salutations, everyone! I hope this finds you at a comfortable and reasonable (go to sleep if it's past 12am!) time.
PRONOUNS: She/her/chair (But a human in disguise!)
Name to be decided.
I draw stuff :D
PROMOTION: Join the Cult of Pythagoras! Everything is math!
Interests: Piano, math, art, history, BBC Ghosts, emperors, Good Omens, Hazbin Hotel, Assassins musical, Puzzlevision, The Property of Hate, TV-headed slightly crazed characters, TADC, old books (The Trial and Zero are AMAZING books), Kafka
Ships I like: Radiostatic, Capvers, Light Entertainment, Aziracrow, Gunshow, Spamtenna
I'll add some stuff later... also pls ask me art requests im lonely :(
Also art posts are tagged with #my art or #lolzers
This is less of a complete analysis and moreso my initial reaction to how Caine's character was treated in episode 9.
It isn't required reading but this goes into much more detail into how I've previously broken down the topic of Caine and the interplay between his personhood and neurodivergence -> Caine and Neurodivergence
So! Episode 9 sure was a time, wasn't it? While I do want to enjoy it, I can't help but feel incredibly... underwhelmed by it. There's a host of things I might've done differently or think would've worked better thematically, and there's many things I could say about it (which all boils down to my opinion that TADC would've benefited greatly from having more episodes). But here, for now, I want to focus specifically on the conclusion to Caine's character arc.
Specifically, I want to discuss his neurodivergence coding and how episode 9 greatly continues to dehumanize him and treat him as a tool to serve the plot rather than the person he's built to be throughout the previous episode (even including episode 8).
Caine, Neurodivergence, and Dehumanization:
Caine is popularly headcanoned as being neurodivergent, and rightfully so as he's a very neurodivergent coded character (and though I do not think it's wise to put too much weight on the words of the creators and voice actors versus what's shown in the source material itself, I do think it's worth mentioning that the voice actor for Caine, Alex Rochon, has said that he views Caine as very neurodivergent).
That being said, there's no confirmation on what he theoretically could be diagnosed with, nor do I think this particular detail matters as much. Autism, BPD, and ADHD are the most common headcanons I've seen, though that can easily be expanded to include any cluster B personality disorder, and in my opinion CPTSD.
Regardless of the diagnosis, there's an experience that majority of neurodivergent folks have experienced that often goes understated or accepted as a part of life: dehumanization. I'll also define infrahumanization which I'll discuss later.
Dehumanization, defined as "the process, practice, or act of denying full humanity in others,[1] along with the cruelty and suffering that accompany it.[2][3][4] It involves perceiving individuals or groups as lacking essential human qualities, such as secondary emotions and mental capacities, thereby placing them outside the bounds of moral concern.[1] In this definition, any act or thought that regards a person as either "other than" and "less than" human constitutes dehumanization.[5][6]" (Dehumanization, Wikipedia)
Infrahumanization, defined as "the tacitly held belief that one's ingroup is more human than an outgroup, which is less human.[1][2] It can also be subjectively defined as a result of group comparison that links with positive in-group bias when the ingroup is seen as fully human in comparison to an out-group that is viewed as lacking humanness" (Infrahumanization, Wikipedia)
The dehumanization of neurodivergent traits is a common phenomenon in our (western, as I can't say for sure about other parts of the world) culture. Being compared to robots, ai, called an animal, a creature, inhuman, alien, monster, thing, etc. All sorts of insults and terms are used to communicate the simple idea that, in some strange and incomprehensible way, that this person is somehow not as human, or not worthy to be considered human.
While this isn't necessarily outright said by the human cast of TADC, there are many moments where a dehumanizational perspective is held towards Caine. Most notably in episode 7, where through Abel Caine shares about also feeling trapped and caged like the human cast, that he too feels like he's a prisoner who is suffering. There are other moments throughout that further back this up, whether it be in episode 8 where Zooble says "he's an AI, we can't exactly know how he thinks" (paraphrased) to the cast wanting to "fix" him, to Kinger calling him a programmatic achievement over acknowledging Caine as a person.
<- I discuss this a lot more in some of my other essays if you're interested, all linked in my pinned post!
This is where I want to mention the difference between dehumanization versus infrahumanization. The human cast seem to use both dehumanization (during pointed moments) and infrahumanization (in a more general, "at least we're the real humans/people here" sense. This gets more complex when you consider the NPCs that the cast run into, yet Gumigoo, the NPC given the most realistic personality (57x more immersive, though still not as real as Caine's personhood) is heavily humanized and his personhood and "free will" given far more respect and time. This is a moment where the infrahumanization argument wouldn't work, as though Gummigoo is a confirmed NPC they do not put him down to elevate their own personhood nor target him as lesser for him being a person through being an NPC vs a person being so through being human.
An obligatory mention that while yes, Caine is an AI within the TADC universe, however he is an AI in the sci-fi sense. We also explore his character emotionally within the show, so saying that "he's an AI and that's that" is counterproductive to what the show is actually communicating and showing us, and against the themes of finding humanity in a bleak existence that the show aims to have (the success of that is up to the interpreter).
All of this is to say that Caine, as a character, heavily has themes of a neurodivergent character who lives in an inherently stressful, existentially threatened and unsupportive environment where the only other people that exist either don't like him or outright don't view him as a person. He is shown to struggle emotionally and have a character arc that, even if in a... partial way, is still incredibly driven by his emotional state (not entirely dislike Jax).
All of this, his character arc and narrative presented throughout the show inherently hinges on the concept that Caine is, in fact, a person even if the environment he's in and the people around him do not treat him fully as a person or do not view him as one (proven in episode 7 and 8).
Episode 9, to my dismay, entirely depends on Caine still being treated as if he's not a person.
What do I mean by this:
Caine's arc in episode 9 is about him learning to let go of his anger and understand humans on their level... right?
Except, how much of this is actually the case? Yes, Caine talks about it to some degree, but how much are we shown this arc? How much are we shown the complexities of his internal state? How many of his emotions do we really get to explore and understand him, who Caine is? How much do we learn about what drives him, about what the struggle really was for him?
We see him fight against being in a deleted state. We see him figure out how to escape, how to break out of the void he's currently trapped in. And we see him... explore the social media accounts of the people currently in the circus? We see him completely switch his tone and quite literally rip out the part of him that's disagreeable to the human cast? We see him take all the blame and have it be only him that needs to grow, only him that needs to repent and only him that ever did anything wrong.
The humans, somehow, are seen as inherently more worthy of understanding, of redemption, and entirely more deserving of having their wants and needs fulfilled and Caine, once returning to the circus, be in a "lesser position".
There is no acknowledgement of the fact that much of what happened could have been resolved if everyone communicated better, and not just Caine. There's nothing suggesting that Caine had any reasonable reason to act out the way he did, and while not directly communicated to the human cast, we, the audience, see the part of him that wasn't all good get ripped out and abandoned.
While I think it's worth it to acknowledge that the scene I'm referencing (where Caine pulls out the blue AI from his head and releases it into the void after arguing with himself over his emotions over what happened with the humans) is symbolic of letting go of the past and anger, I don't think that's how it comes across as.
Caine, as a character, is fairly complex and fairly unknown to us in how he understands and views himself in the world that he's in. But as a neurodivergent coded character, one who is the most treated as an outsider for how he thinks and acts and who he is in his supposed lack of personhood, is it not weird that to gain "redemption" and acceptance from others he must change everything about himself? That he must split himself apart to outright remove what others don't want to acknowledge?
The conclusion of Caine's arc removes the impact and complexities of exploring a character in a rather unique circumstance that Caine is in and reduces it to "he is not human, therefore he is not worthy of being treated as a person, therefore the humans must inherently be more correct".
Caine does not further explore his growing anger and frustration towards humanity because that, apparently, was never really him in the first place! Caine doesn't explore the self-loathing and suicidal ideation parallels he carries in previous episodes, because, actually, that wasn't him! He doesn't truly confront the totality of who he is because, hey, all that gross yucky difficult and complex and who needs emotions like those when hey, he can just remove them entirely from himself?
The dehumanization that neurodivergent people often face end up with a similar sentiment; why can't you be normal? Why can't you fix yourself? Why can't you mask better? Why can't you be like us? Why are you so difficult? Why do you make my life more difficult because I have to think about more than myself?
And Caine, as he directly mentions in episode 8 (and is something that pops up as an undercurrent throughout previous episodes) that "he steps outside of his comfort zone," among other things to appeal to the human cast. He works tirelessly to both please them (an impossible task) and to appeal to them as both a creator of their adventures and as a person. And he constantly fails.
<- If you want to read more about something along this lines, I wrote more about the topic here and here
It is only once he removes the "complex" and "difficult" part of him from himself that he can begin to "redeem" himself in their eyes. He is shown to be entirely in the wrong, further backed up by neither Pomni nor Kinger facing any true blame from the rest of the human cast nor any of them carrying any weight to their actions past "we will look past that because we must stick together" yet Caine does not get this treatment.
Through this the narrative communicates 2 things about Caine:
Caine must be stripped of a part of himself to begin to appeal to the other people around him, and only once removing this aspect of himself and what makes him uniquely him may be begin to be seen as a person and worthy of personhood
Caine, on the basis of being "different" than the rest, is inherently wrong and worth less consideration than others because of this "difference"
Which is a long way of saying that the narrative itself and the end of Caine's character arc inherently depends on the continuation of his dehumanization for it to make sense with how it's presented. If Caine were to have his emotions and internal struggles acknowledged in the same way as others in the show have their acknowledged, then how everything in episode 9 played out wouldn't have worked.
This is both a great parallel and horrible comparison due to the favouritism and storytelling bias, but I want to also bring up the difference between how Jax and how Caine's characters were explored within episode 9.
Jax's character, his emotional state, internal worldview, view of himself (or herself...? In the show Jax was continued to be referred to with he/him pronouns, so I'll use those here), and many details about the why of his character. Which is interesting, don't get me wrong, and yet for so much of what set up episode 9 from past episode hinged on Caine's character. And we don't get the why. We don't get to truly explore Caine, not as a person.
It's the difference between "show versus tell". Jax, while there's still telling, his character is explored through showing. We see his struggles, we learn about his past, we quite literally spend a chunk of the episode seeing his life through his eyes! Caine, on the otherhand, we see a lot of symbolism tying back to his nature as a AI (in the sci-fi sense, not in the way in which we have AI today) person, but again in a way that lessens his emotional and personal state. He's portrayed as the system, as a thing rather than a person.
The emotions that we do cover are small (or quite literally teared out of him) and the big, very very very important and interesting question of "how does he feel about the humans deleting him, and can he forgive them?" gets sidelined as "you'll learn to deal with it, they're more important".
Not even covering the ever so convenient aspect of Caine being "cured" of this insurmountable "wrongness/differentness" through conformity and removing what seemingly symbolizes both his anger and the aspects of him that make him neurodivergent. By removing the blue AI, or the remnants of such, he essentially is removing the difficult neurodivergent traits from his person and "fixing" himself to appeal to the neurotypicals around him. He learns how to interact with them on their level, he must fully distance himself from who he was to both gain their approval and be accepted by them.
Necessary Acknowledgements:
There's a few things I'm obligated to acknowledge when discussing this topic, specifically when including discussions around episode 8 and 9. I'll put them in a list so this doesn't get too long
Caine isn't entirely blameless and it's completely understandable for the humans to be upset with him post episode 8, however I also stand by the fact that the humans aren't blameless either and share the burden of the blame and consequence (especially Pomni, but I digress)
Caine is, by definition, different than the human cast and comes from a very different background. It isn't entirely strange that the humans do not view him as a person, however this also requires on to equate personhood to humanhood, which, by technicalities, no one in the circus is a human. While the human cast were once humans and/or based off of them, none of them are still humans nor have some inexplicable thing that makes them more of a person than Caine. <- Caine, notably, mentions them being different because of their free will, something he also has
Episode 9 makes the decision to say that the blue AI was both still active as something separate in Caine, and that Caine is less of a single person and more of a person that has the remnants of another person trapped within him that carries some level of influence over his behaviour (seen in episode 8 mostly, but also episode 9)
Tying to the last one, if Caine's less savoury emotions/actions are driven/influenced by a second presence, then by proxy those aren't truly "his actions" so to speak. This, while fascinating, I believe should've been handled better/differently and either have established a second presence better or had Caine absorb the blue AI in the first place and have to deal with the consequences of that
This also implies that at any point the simple fix would've been to simply remove the blue ai from Caine's system. It also implies that the human cast in episode 8 were entirely in the right. Caine was broken. He was faulty. He did need to be stopped and he needed to be fixed. Again, pointing to him being a neurodivergent coded character and the dehumanization that comes with that.
This is off topic, but tying to the above, Caine is entirely shown to be in the wrong until he shuts up and listens to the human cast. He must lose some level of his power and control because being forcefully stripped of this aspect of him is the only way to make him "equal," rather than giving him the opportunity or space to grow as a person
... I'll end that there, because there's a lot more I could say on this topic! This isn't a full analysis like some of my other ones because this is largely my initial reaction to the conclusion of Caine's arc right after watching TADC: The Last Act in theater, so I'm likely possibly going to expand on this topic in the future (post the episode's youtube release, most likely) and dive into it in a more polished way.
But, to be fully honest, I do not like how Caine's character was wrapped up. I am glad he returned and I really enjoyed the scene where he was figuring out how to break out of where he was trapped in the void, it was very interesting! However I very, very, very must do not like how much potential has gone to waste with his character and how it felt more as if they wanted to just wrap up what they were setting up with him rather than actually dig into the fascinating character they'd built.
I believe that Caine should not have lost his powers and should not have found the social media accounts, quite frankly I find the "well, he read their social media accounts and saw them as real humans on the outside, guess he likes them fully now and he's entirely in the wrong and the only person in the wrong!" style approach to his character arc in the episode to be unsatisfactory and... carries weird implications for the circus and Caine's powers.
Does he have access to the internet? Did he only get it when deleted? Has he always had that? If the circus started/was running in the early 90s, would he ever have needed access to the internet in the first place, let alone how important would it be? How and why did he gain access to their social media accounts, and if it was as straight forwards as "he searched up their names," realistically how likely was he to find any of their accounts? How likely is it that all of them had such public social media accounts that shared so much personal information about themselves?
<- Also. Side note. Why was human Kinger so young...?
Anyways, this is the summary/conclusion (I did not re-read this, I apologize if there's any mistakes. My brain tumor makes screen time very difficult </3):
Caine, as a character and how his character is treated within the show heavily relies on him being dehumanized by both the plot, the TADC world, and people around him. Caine also being a neurodivergent coded character whose arc concludes with him both tearing out the unsavoury aspects of him that make him noticeably different in ways that make the people around him uncomfortable (and/or make him unrelatable) with the premise that this "fixes" him is... unsatisfying.
Caine, as a person whose actions were driven not by his true emotions but by what is presented as something similar to a parasite, loses his emotional depths and inherently loses part of what made his character him by simplifying him down to "he's actually a normal relatable guy Cursed with Powers that make him Evil (and Autistic <- I can make this joke I think, I'm autistic)
Caine's character should've been given more grace and understanding, and his arc being based entirely on his emotions while both saying those weren't his emotions actually and not exploring the weight or impact of those emotions within the episode itself was a... unsatisfying conclusion to his character. I believed and still believe that Caine has so much potential to explore and navigate, and that episode 9 squandered it, and in general TADC would've benefited greatly from having more episodes to explore what it seems to want to explore without truly doing so.
Obligatory note that this isn't intended as hate, I just have a particular huge love of characters that struggle with their personhood and I feel iffy/grossed out by the idea that "yeah, the humans were right all along they're perfect :)" when it comes to the "human cast versus Caine" aspect of episode 9. If you're a fan of the rest of the cast, or don't mind how Caine's arc wrapped up, then I imagine episode 9 was a wonderful end to the show! I just think it's too sweet and happy and positive. No one even had any real existential crisis </3 Really happy none of them escaped though! The whole "they're brainscans" was pretty obvious so I'm glad they didn't change that. My hottest take is that I think Pomni should've abstracted <- I won't explain unless someone really wants me to :p
I love how they make him pose so much he's so dynamic and fun ššš I hope I get to the point where I can draw him as expressive as I want him to look because GAAAH
Abel in my AU is a frontman of C&A Entertainment group, who arrived to Caineās circus and saw a potential of cooperation with him. For some time he was trying to actually make a deal with Grant(Kinger) and Caine but it ended up not so good for him - his company went bankrupt and abandoned.
When Abel and Caine first time met - Caine was lowkey terrified of him. Not only he didnāt like how he talks, but also his appearance stuck in his head - uncanny, almost like artificial. Like his expressions was forced and not natural. Thatās why Caine called his inner intrusive thoughts process āAbelā, after the name of this weird guy.
The only thing that Abel is left behind is Bubble - his signature bird, which Caine stumbled upon in the local animal shelter. After bankruptcy Abel just left parrot there without thinking. At some point, Caine saw himself in parrot: Bubble has no purpose now and no one needs him. Ringmaster wasnāt thinking too much before taking him with himself
important note: my AU is in process and things can change whenever iāll find better options. do not consider it as final version
