My Theory on the Patience Attack in the Chapter 5 trailer
Okay, so in the trailer we know that Kris is in a solo fight with an unseen enemy that attacks with the same attack as the Patience soul in the Photoshop flowey fight.
Going off the assumption that Chapter Five's dark world takes place in Asgore's flower shop, a la the bazillion flowers every where in the trailer on and the website, then we can reasonably assume that our opponent is the dark world version of the cyan flower in Asgore's room.
If we do end up fighting all seven flowers, then we can presume that these flowers are meant to be stand-ins or reflections of the fallen humans, in some way shape or form. Unfortunately for me, I'm not a Deltarune theorist and therefore I can't think of any specific reason Kris specifically would be solo fighting the fallen humans outside of the fact that Toriel's their mother. My only other theory is that we learn about other humans in the light world which miiiight have something to do with Asgore being fired as police chief, though I really doubt it.
Now, if the flowers are meant to represent the seven human souls, then that leaves the buttercup of the hour (and my personal favorite) Flowey!
Now, do I think that Flowey will actually make a full, unfiltered appearance in Deltarune? Probably not. However, I do have two running theories.
A. Ralsei gets a secret boss fight against a pseudo flowey. Given Flowey's role in Undertale he might be more aware of everything going on and feed actual theorists until chapter 6, but I'm not trying to sound delusional.
B. Tobias baits us and the golden flower darkner is the anti-flowey and has an extremely small role in the story. (I believe this one more given the fact that Asriel seems to be alive and well)
Either way, this is really just me huffing hopium that my goat will come back to me.
There are like, ten different references to flowers with or without smiley faces in the chapter five trailer
Edit: Somebody just pointed out that one of Photoshop flowey's attacks is in the trailer. And Asriel is supposed to be coming back for the festival. Both of those goats are dying. Plus Rudy maybe.
It's so weird to me when people try to argue that there's no widespread hatred for trans men because like. Broshake. "The left thinks that men can get pregnant" has been a conservative talking point for years now.
To be fair, even people within the queer community find mpreg funny so whatever man.
Deltarune's biggest problem is that it was written to be a niche game aimed at weird analytical queers with actual media literacy and it accidentally blew tf up and hit the mainstream and a bunch of people who have never had a second thought about anything got into it.
Deltarune's biggest problem is that it was written to be a niche game aimed at weird analytical queers with actual media literacy and it accidentally blew tf up and hit the mainstream and a bunch of people who have never had a second thought about anything got into it.
Stardust Crusaders' biggest problem is that it was written to be a niche part aimed at weird analytical queers with actual media literacy and it accidentally blew tf up and hit the mainstream and a bunch of people who have never had a second thought about anything got into it
Jurassic fight club’s biggest problem is that it was written to be a niche documentary series aimed at weird action-loving dudebros with actual media literacy and it accidentally blew tf up and hit the mainstream and a bunch of people who know even the most basic facts about dinosaurs and want accuracy in their dinosaur shows found it.
You guys are flaming that "analytical queers" post, but lowkey it's a genius way to avoid every having to think critically about a piece of media ever. I think I'm gonna start doing that with my favorite slop.
"The MCU can't write women beyond them being sassy tools for the white male protagonists!"
Have you just considered that you're not gay enough?
I decided to look at the main Amazing Digital Circus tag for fun and I've genuinely never felt more conservative in my life.
This is a joke this is a joke this is a joke. Also this post is really just hating to hate so if you don't want that feel free to scroll past.
White queer people never fail to baffle me with how hard they can meatride anything with a droplet of gay people in it. This kinda reminds me of Arcane when people would call you every sort of bigot in the book for thinking that a fascist cop who gasses poor people shouldn't get a happy ending.
Beyond all the "analytical queers" posts there, the amount of people there who while call you either A. Transphobic B. Ableist or C. [Insert slur of your choosing here] for not liking Jax (an emotional, physical, and sexual abuser mind you) is baffling. And heavens forbid you like Ragatha, you may as well tape a kick me sign to your back. For some reason thinking that characters that aren't purple abusive rabbits should be fleshed out and developed means you think 67 nukes should be sent to Gooseworx's house immediately .
"Support the art not the artist!" they say as they willingly give however many dollars to an anti-black company to watch something that's been free on tiktok for the past two weeks. I don't like to assume people's races, but dude, I feel like it's pretty obvious that half of these people have no business giving their opinion on Goose's tweets or the Nega situation.
Usually I'd just say it's tumblr being tumblr, but it's literally everywhere. "You just wanted your headcanons to come true!" Well yes, Suzan, most criticism stems from thinking that certain thing in a story should or should not have happened, or could've been done better, that's kinda how that works. D-do you think that people who dislike any piece of media are wrong because they wanted something else to happen?
A pretty common defense of "Isn't She Lovely" is that it's in reference to Jax's transness and that really misses the point of why it's use feels icky to a lot of people.
Firstly, this is a company and show stewed in anti-blackness specifically, using a black man's song about his newborn daughter (whom he namedrops in the song) to make a capcut edit for a non-black and abusive woman. (Note: not every song made by black people has to only be used for black people, but regarding glitch and Gooseworx's history it feels weirder). While it's definitely better than if it was a funnybunny song, it's still not good.
Secondly, it's also just bad usage even without the racist elements. We learn that Jax is responsible for the deaths of at least two people, along with fantasizing about exploiting Gangle, choking out Pomni, and maybe killing their mom. And the song used during their death is a song about... a father's love for his newborn daughter??? Like, I feel like there could've been a better song choice overall y'know?
Who or What Killed The Amazing Digital Circus Pt.2: The Fandom
Spoilers Ahead!
Vivziepop
Obviously I don't mean this in the literal sense because I'm pretty sure she had no hand in the creation of TADC.
In a previous post which goes into more detail here, I found it interesting how one of the first "controversies" of the show centered around how much "better" the show was than Hazbin/Helluva. Something, something, twitter, I don't really remember. And because Vivziepop has been getting dragged on the internet since before the Hazbin pilot came out, obviously the internet favored the "quirky" new kid on the block that had a brand new tumblr sexyman.
It's not insane to say that this especially exploded the view of TADC beyond what it actually was for internet points. I believe that you could make a pretty good argument that this "drama" was the cause of this fandom's inability to accept critique. Similarly, I also think that is what caused the fandom to view TADC as some "dark edgy mature" show (insert Spongebob and Patrick going down a roller coaster here).
Overall, I think that while multiple factors participated in the TADC fandom becoming what it is today, this early drama is what set everything into position. (I don't know why this sounds weirdly dramatic, I don't think that TADC fans are an alien race)
Gooseworx and Criticism
The thing that got me to turn to the dark side on TADC was seeing how the fandom reacted to criticism. A couple months ago (this might've happened another time I don't know) a reddit user made a post that, to my knowledge, didn't tag Goose at all, and was mainly focused on critiquing the lack of Ragatha writing. Perfectly normal complaint to have. Then Gooseworx replied implying that the user was just impatient and that Ragatha would get development in the next two episodes. (Which never happened but that's besides the point).
This led to Goose posting on twitter and guess how the fandom reacted?
While the fandom liked to meatride before, the sheer idiocy of the takes that were born from that situation baffle the mind of someone with like, level one media literacy. Most of these defenses were just that it's her show and ignoring that this is a highly-polished and professional indie show that brings in millions of views per episode. This should've been the sign to anybody who doesn't just think indie=good that this fandom was about to get real sucky.
In general the TADC fandom has a pretty bad habit of not being able to properly evaluate the show beyond praise. (Note: I'm not saying you have to write dissertations about every piece of media you consume, just that if an entire fandom is hostile to barebones criticism then something is wrong)
To get Lizzie out of the way, she and most of the cast collabed with a known predator, Black Gryph0n, and Gangle's VA made a shoddy defense.
The real issue that turned the fandom from mildly annoying to genuinely unbearable was in April when a video surfaced of Micheal Kovach and Ashley Nichols making N-word jokes. Unfortunately for anybody with more than two braincells, the "joke" was that the word "Nega" sounded like the N-word and so they used "nega" as a filler for the n-word. Because they "technically" (imo they basically did say it) didn't say the n-word an army full of white queers rushed in to defend their poor 31teen year old.
After that point the fandom devolved into racism and really gross defenses of Goose's tweets about misogyny, pedophilia, and incest.
Leaks
I'll keep this one short, the Final Act movie (which was a horrible idea on it's own mind you) got leaked a couple weeks before it's theatrical release and somehow that was the fandom's fault(?)
This one isn't nearly as serious as what I just mentioned but if you want a good laugh, go to youtube and search "gooseworx vent". (this is a grown woman mind you).
Gameoverse
This is the last one and a short one as well, but the Gameoverse pilot just kinda increased even more hostility towards criticism. (Most TADC fans are also glitch fans).
The amount of MEN calling people sexist or puritan for thinking it's weird that women have to have the same copy paste hourglass body shape, while the male characters all get to be shapey and unique was astounding. Also Arin Hanson, one of the voice actors, is a white guy who has a three minute long video that's a compilation of him saying the n-word. Guess which people are defending him?
I promise I'm working on that second part to my post, but I genuinely think that 75% of TADC fans are incapable of doing anything but lifting their hands after an episode and saying "peak". We might have to check up on them that might be a condition.
This is the first part of three. This post will cover the show itself and the second will cover the fandom. The third will basically be a final thoughts post encapsulating all my feelings about the show.
Spoilers Ahead!
Jax
If you've glanced at this tag more than once you already know why everybody hates this purple rabbit, they're an misogynistic and transphobic abuser who is never actually held accountable for their actions in the narrative and reduces the female cast to characters flatter than a paper board.
Beyond that, the show seems to have an extremely hard time actually accepting that people are gonna view Jax as a bad person. They'll have them do objectively horrendous things but then play it off in the same vein as a cartoon. For example, sexually blackmailing Gangle, putting Ragatha in a deep fryer, and their many transphobic comments towards Zooble are all treated as funny gags for the audience to laugh at, while undermining one of the major philosophies the show is trying to push. The show says that Jax's view on nothing being real is wrong, but then actively supports it by softening the blow of all their actions with a cartoon tone.
Speaking of conflicting perspectives, Jax is given side character writing with main character attention. What I mean by that is that while their backstory is interesting, in a finale that is supposed to be centered around the circus and the show as a whole, the amount of screentime that their backstory is given feels... really weird? Like, this should've been episode six info not, finale info. This actively damages the ending because since we spent so much time on Jax, who doesn't contribute to the actually major lore (C&A) in any meaningful way, the world itself feels hollow and annoyingly unexplored.
Finally, Jax is kinda the best example of the show turning into, and I do hate to use this word, "fandomslop". Like, if you watch episodes four and five, and imagine that in between canon Jax was kidnapped and replaced with fanon Jax, their characterization actually feels like it makes sense. This happens to the show overall after episode five, but Jax was patient zero for sure.
I could go into more but I don't want to repeat what many people for smarter than I have already said about Jax, but they're just kinda the Stolas of TADC.
Ragatha & Pomni
Oh my sweet babies. This section orignally was going to be just Ragatha, but her and Pomni's issues really overlap so I decided to put them together.
Ragatha is really the best example of how this show randomly lost it's ability to like women. As said in a tweet by the Goose herself, episode five was supposed to be the Ragatha focused episode, and yet even the adventure itself isn't really related to her outside of the baseball segment. And that gets overshadowed with Jax in a maid dress!
In the first episode, Ragatha and Pomni really feel like they're going to be some sort of duo. Ragatha explains the circus and abstraction to Pomni, and they both participate in the whole Kaufmo debacle after Jax runs away. In the second episode it feels like we're going to get an interesting conflict between Pomni and Ragatha, with Ragatha's people pleasing being an obstacle she has to grow from in order to befriend Pomni.
Speaking of Pomni, you remember when it was set up that she hated being viewed as a child? You remember when Pomni had an actually interesting and fun personality. You remember when it felt like this show actually cared about fleshing out their female characters and not just having them be tools to exposit Jax's backstory? Good times, man. Good times. Not only would that struggle make Pomni feel more like a person, but it could allow more people than just Zooble to talk about the body dysmorphia that comes with being in the circus. I would love to learn about how Pomni feels about being trapped in such a childlike body, or why she hates being treated like a child. I know not every single detail needs to be completely analyzed by a story, but this is the main character we're talking about here, and I can name barely five things about her!
Female characters in the show in general seem to (once again) feel like fanon versions of themselves. Except, when I'm reading a fanfic written on Wattpad with stolen Jax fanart as the cover, that's not indicative to their canon selves. When a show refuses to flesh out characters that it's not interested in, then the entire world begins to feel flat and boring to anyone unfortunate enough to dislike what the writers are interested in.
Gangle
This is gonna be a shorter one since all the previous stuff said about female characters also applies to her.
After episode four Gangle is not allowed to exist beyond Abstragedy and Jax. I don't want to keep beating it into your head that Jax is a major problem of the show, but oh my gosh with Gangle it's 10x worse.
Starting with Abstragedy, while I do really like the ship, it's so boring to watch Gangle only be allowed to have conversations with Zooble and absolutely nobody else on the cast unless she's being bullied. How does Gangle feel about Kinger or Ragatha? Does she like them, dislike them, all we know is that she doesn't really talk to Ragatha and that's it. If you want Zooble to be a mentor (this is the best word I can think of right now sorry) figure to Gangle, why can't they also encourage her to talk to the other circus members? Even a cute interaction of Zooble trying to get Gangle and Kinger to chat would be nice.
Gangle is consistently bullied and sexually harassed by Jax and never is allowed to be anything but be scared or sad about it. Once again, I don't want to re-heat other people's nacho's but I don't think it would be that hard to let her be a little mean or happy about Jax's abstraction in the finale. Is that crazy to say???
Kaufmo
This is the last character I'm going to mention.
"What about Caine?" you say. "What about Gummigoo" you, yes, YOU yell. (Because we all love Gummigoo)
He encapsulates all of their issues to an extent never seen before.
What is even the point of him being friends with Jax? What was the point of him trying to find an exit? What's the point of both of the people who can see the "Exit" (Him and Pomni) being clowns? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He's there to shake up the pilot and then any further information is for Jax angst.
This show has an insane problem of not understanding how to make leaving things unanswered work. Do we need to know absolutely everything about C&A? Of course not. But should we know the bare bones on why the company even exists and it's purpose? Probably so!
While Gummigoo becoming self-aware does foreshadow the SOMA theory thing in the finale, his entire impact on Pomni is only relevant when the story needs to pretend like she's been fleshed out. I'm not even gonna pretend like I understand the whole thing with Caine so I'll just shut up here.
Tumblr
Okay, it's not just Tumblr, but I wanted a cool meta plot twist so shhhhhh.
You cannot convince me otherwise that TADC was re-written after episode 4. Jax, Kaufmo, and C&A all seem like proof that somebody at glitch saw fandom stuff, thought that was cool, and then threw out all the interesting plot stuff for something that would be really great... for canon-divergent fanfic.
I can't really think of a cool conclusion line, props to the people who are able to write this much regularly I don't know how you do it.
