Slay the princess

[caine-shrine]

As a follow-up to the “where tf does Ragatha get off criticizing Caine for not intuiting to do a mammal/motherly human thing- comfort- when he’s a friggin AI” post

(link below, also discusses Kinger, and let’s note HIS lack of comfort towards Caine. So it’s something said AI had never even RECEIVED to know how good it is)

We’ve now seen from one of the merch ads (which are not strictly canon btw! But potentially might be conceptualized as a kind of hyper-Flanderized version of what does go on) that Kinger DID do this (discussed in the link) to Caine!!!!!

Recall that Kinger is LUCID in his pillow fort. He could’ve alerted anyone, talked to anyone, including Caine. Sure this may be a plot hole, but with that merch ad it’s looking even less likely.

I think I have pretty much settled on the opinion that, screw writer’s intent, if that’s at all like what happened, (Kinger whose Core Character Trait is emotional intelligence not sufficiently making an effort to get Caine to feel like he was valued at least platonically FOR TWO DECADES. If this is indeed supposed to be one-sided romantic- R.I.P. aroace Caine headcanons- then it blows out of the water my interpretation, that would’ve given Kinger an excuse, that he unintentionally caused this by thinking of a Caine as only a program, since he’s a programmer, as might’ve been suggested by his giggle at the Chinese Room joke) Kinger willfully doomed the entire cast to his (probably traumatized) AI son’s breakdown. 100% of the blame goes on him. idc. Bare minimum, 96%. Did he think Caine could just take the loneliness? FOREVER? Did he think that, since there were safeguards in place, there was no chance the SENTIENT AI would never find his way around them, so who fucking cares if he ever developed the desire to hurt them because he was hurting so damn much? WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING KINGER??????

This isn’t like a real-world situation, under normal circumstances sure you are not obligated to take care of people who are your exes who you may have had a hand in hurting, or people interested in you who you mishandled, BUT THIS IS NOT NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES.

I don’t think there’s any POSSIBLE way the finale could rescue this.

Now. If he spends the whole episode moping about how he screwed up? Acceptable.

I don’t have much faith in that, idk precisely why. It SEEMS as if Gooseworx already thinks Caine is sympathetic, so the notion that she would do anymore perspective-building on him to counteract any negative impressions isn’t necessarily in play.

But if the narrative tries to make any excuses for Kinger, I’ll have yet another reason to bring a pillow to scream into at the premier. (if I’m even going …)

(I’m probably not gonna make a post about deliberation on that … I’d prefer people DM me about it, I think, if you wanna know. I’d prefer Discord, but here’s fine, too)

“Oh I was scared of the godlike AI” “Oh I resented him for stressing Queenie out” I realize this is totally mean but shut the fuck up you are his creator you are RESPONSIBLE for his existence and creating a subjective experience of PAIN, you had two decades to gather yourself back up, put on your big boy pants, acknowledge the person in front of you, and deal with the situation YOU got everyone else into!!!!!!

If not for Caine, then for safeguarding the people everyone is so sure are your surrogate children!!!!!!

#Worst Father of the Year Award

Post by @caine-shrine

💬 12  🔁 14  ❤️ 52 · I am STILL not over Ragatha saying “you never comfort us” GIRL JUST ASK HIM. He might’ve asked how to go about that exa

[tadc-has-weird-writing]

(WARNING! English isn't my first language so this ask probably has lots and lots of grammatical errors, but I'm lowkey too lazy to fix them lol. Also spoilers for episode 9 of course)

I only heard about Caine's blue AI situation from others, so I don't exactly have the full context, but it's so so gross to me that to become a 'good' person with empathy(which is necessary if you want to count as a 'good' person, apparently) he needed to remove his 'evil' self?! Not only it doesn't make any fucking sense in SO many ways, it is also incredibly ableist and sanist!

If whole show was in Gooseworx's words about

and the "who's too stubborn to be saved" in question is a physically, emotionally and mentally abusive fuckward who likes to isolate, blackmail and sexualize his main target, while having a full understanding of what is right and wrong and STILL has so many moments where the show's narrative and his victims treat him with sympathy, then why couldn't even a little bit of this enthusiasm be given to the poor Blue AI as well?

The Red AI was demonstrated to be the 'defective' one, and while we don't exactly know in what sense (Bad topology of generated 3d models? Poor understanding of 'easily understood' human concepts? Large algorithms poisoned with bad data, which made working with the AI confusing and unnecessarily difficult? Making stories that have extremely bizarre writing, that would work great for a hour long indie game but not a corporate 'fun for all ages' slop? Being unresponsive to user's commands and then suddenly bombarding them with said responses after the user already moved on? AI version of neurodivergence? Secret, evil 7th option? The mix of all the above? Who knows🤷), the sudden imprisonment, replacement and full on abandonment would definitely fuck up a person's understanding of how to interact with others and especially their views on a potential failure, which is the reason Caine was so upset with even the idea that he was in the wrong AND the main reason everyone got the torture city treatment in the first place.

If we are really doing the whole "kill the evil headmate" *cough* *cough*, sorry, "kill the evil twin" bullshit, why couldn't Blue AI live and be the 'Good AI' (who definitely wouldn't have any issues or mental illnesses after becoming a replacement to someone else, getting consumed or, depending on the interpretation, fused with said replacement, being abandoned by your creators and then working for 20 years straight under/with your murderer with absolutely no help or sympathy whatsoever from your creators and/or players, while they all choose die out and leave both of you alone), while Red AI part of Caine which makes him 'evil' and neurodivergent gets to rot in The Void?

Or even better! What if instead of Caine turning from a plural to singlet, both Blue and Red come to understand that they are both an important part of each other and do NOT want to die and not only that they both want to have a good relationship with the cast and be loved by them, they want to love each other?

(Uhhhh anyways my thoughts started to turn into a mush while I was writing this but oh well ┐⁠(⁠‘⁠～⁠`⁠;⁠)⁠┌ )

Now that you say it, it does sound pretty ableist to say "we need to kill their 'evil' headmate'. Dude, it lives in Caine's code. Can't they just teach the AI properly instead of, you know, doing all that extra stuff?

[omo-oh-no]

been really into the idea of physically not being able to pee while they’re really desperate

someone who’s been plugged up

person a using their finger to hold person b’s pee hole shut

assisted holding @w@

the panicky whines and whimpers when they try to go but realize they can’t

maybe unrealistic, but when there’s so much piss built up and so much pressure when they push that the plug pops out and they drool with relief

[jesterraconteuse]

Idk how to explain it, but Caine is just ageless to me. He's a little boy, a young man, a middle aged man, and also graying. Does anyone understand? It will take me forever to design a human version of this fucker

[seckindddll]

People who love Caine: I should check AO3 to see if there’s a new fic where Caine is going through psychological torment.

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

i love how the same show that tries to imply that it's ableist to communicate your needs and boundaries in excruciatingly clear words to an autistic person, if they happen not to like that you have them, also pretty much spells out that if you don't magically intuit when someone is lying to you about what they want from you as a test, it'll be your fault when they kill themself 🥰

[silly-silly-specter]

"You're just media illiterate!" God I wish. Then I could actually enjoy TADC and it's finale, turn my brain off, instead of seeing all of the flaws in it's writing and getting so upset.

[silly-silly-specter]

Part of the problem with how the Blue AI leaves is how it exactly it affects Caine's behavior. Supposedly he's less powerful, but now he's much more calm, quiet, compliant, and "normal" than before, which were all benefits advertised with lobotomies in the past. What secures the lobotomy parallel is how Caine specifically rips something out of his head to get these changes. The situation resembles someone with mental and behavior issues getting a 100% successful lobotomy, and everyone liking him now when no one liked him before the procedure.

I highly doubt that Glitch and Gooseworks were trying to depict a successful lobotomy in any way. The presentation ended up suggestive of one. It kind of feels like something that would normally be caught by a editor or something.

It's not the only time the presentation is questionable either. The blue orb that Caine puts in glass case for some reason and the Blue Orb that he removes from his head should not be blue if they are meant to be 2 totally different orbs. I've seen a lot of people mixing them up. If the orb in the glass case is mention to be totally different from the other orb, then why wasn't it any other color but blue?

WARNING FOR EPISODE 9 SPOILERS!!

Andddddd that's why I said there's a kind of "unintended damage" that the way the finale was handled. I didn't even KNOW that lobotomies were advertised that way, all I knew about lobotomies was that they made someone act like a zombie after the procedure because of how despondent the victims of lobotomy tend to be.

I genuinely don't know how to react to the finale at this point. So many of these narrative inconsistencies and possible interpretations seriously went under Goose's radar, and no; it's NOT because of the fact that TADC was meant to be a "niche show".

This is completely because of the fact that Goose was given 100% creative control without restraint, guidance, or proof-readers.

[secretmellowart]

The Amazing Transgenderism Circus [featuring Jaxxine's internalized transphobia & cringe-phobia.] A post-episode 8 "Caine gets a redemption arc & joins the humans as Just One of the Guys" AU that I'm sharing before episode 9 drops.

This comic is here to be Goofy, but I do think Caine's whole deal is meant to tie into the series' overarching trans themes [even if he's not canonically trans.] I think the show's trans themes are broader than a few characters; it's a show about people who are forcibly assigned bodies & names they don't want, forcibly assigned "archetypes" & roles that don't reflect their real selves, and struggle to express their despair around this because their bodies & roles are so ridiculous that their despair is easy to mock. It's safer to play along with your role, when exploring the alternatives can easily make you an object of ridicule. Caine fails to understand Zooble in episode 3 because he is constantly performing the role he was assigned at his creation, and doesn't allow himself to acknowledge his deep insecurity with it-- so he's confused that Zooble can't simply accept the thing they've been assigned. After all, he's accepted what he's been assigned. He refuses to recognize that Zooble is dissatisfied in a way no "adventure" can fix, because that would mean acknowledging the possibility that he could be dissatisfied in a way that no "adventure" can fix. So instead he throws himself into performing an inauthentic caricature of the role he believes is "all he exists" for & is not allowed to ever exist outside of, even as that performance just leaves him feeling "used" "broken" "defective" and overall extremely unhappy. The parallel to the series' Gender themes feels very clear to me. But anyway, I believe all these little guys can figure themselves out eventually.

[secretmellowart]

@castielrisingabove replied to the original post with an attack helicopter reference that sounded like it could be Jax dialogue, so I continued the story. The comic dialogue is basically a reverse of the episode 3 therapy session: also featuring Zooble's later character development and redeemed Caine being slightly better at listening to people. Anyway: silliness.

[demilypyro]

best case scenario Digital Circus gets remembered in a similar way as Steven Universe: a show that was Really Fucking Good and had nuanced characters and interesting things to say, but the audience wasn't quite ready for it and it imploded into a discourse ball. four years from now I expect to see lesbians drawing Jax like she's a renaissance muse the same way people still draw Pearl or Lapis

[fanfigsworld]

Zooble I think that's kinda the point, you know he's a ai he doesn't understand what he's doing wrong and that his actions have consequences like a kid

[the-spam-specialist]

Alex Rochon described Caine's breakdown and lashing out as "a neglected child throwing a tantrum"

So yes, he is like a child, Zooble

[mumblesplash]

most fuckable tetris piece

I

O

T

J

L

S

Z

Voting ended onNov 14, 2024

Explain yourself.

[mumblesplash]

some people might not have seen all of them yet

[mumblesplash]

i am SO glad people are explaining their choices because one of my favorite parts of what’s going on here is the huge variety of reasons and lines of thinking people are using all to arrive at the exact same answer

[mumblesplash]

at this point so many of you have independently described similar personality traits for all the tetriminos that i almost feel like i could draw them as people

[mumblesplash]

they are reading the comments

[mumblesplash]

some wild shit going on in the notes that’s hard to pick up on if you’re not getting notifications every time someone says anything:

for some reason both people who prefer S AND people who prefer Z say they think Z would be kind of mean

people who Don’t pick the T overwhelmingly assume people who do chose it because it looks like a dick, actual given reasons for picking T lean more toward gameplay versatility, sex toy safety (i.e. they ALL look like dicks but T has a flared base), and personality

there’s a fairly even split on use of gendered pronouns for I, O, T, and Z, but people tend to use she/her for L, J, and especially S

there have been multiple unconnected instances of the phrase ‘triple t spin in the pussy’. this doesn’t really matter it just feels worth mentioning

by and large S and Z fuckers are MUCH more passionate about their choices than L and J fuckers

there’s been a tumblr-typical handful of ‘submissive and breedable’ comments, but as far as i’ve seen only the T piece has people explicitly and directly saying they want to get it pregnant. no idea what caused this. the art seems to have made it worse

[mumblesplash]

guys stop calling my tetris gijinkas tumblr sexymen. 3 of them are women

[elodieunderglass]

Going to arrange these posts next to each other for beautiful context

[moonshadowe]

I’m one of those people who’s going to pretend that nothing is canon and mentally rewrite the show to be different 😋😋😋 no one can stop me

[purplejuicebox]

leak related talk under the cut (again) (major spoilers contained here)

sorry but like, Suicidal Character Just Fucking Kills Herself isnt a good fucking character arc ? I know people were expecting it to happen, but I was holding out hope that it wouldnt because it feels like we've all seen that one before. Theyve put a lot of work into developing jax just to fumble at the finish line and for what? what am I meant to take from this? sometimes you reach the point of irredeemability that you must just fucking kys? and if its supposed to be like a, well if you push everyone away you get what you get kind of thing, why have her and pomni's caring moment AFTER the suicide? why have it at all?

and while i personally wouldnt like this story choice no matter how they did it, i think ESPECIALLY the way its handled is really miserably awful.

i feel like truly the fact that people who liked jax and people who hated jax are equally disappointed with the way the situation was handled fucking says something !!!

[coe-lhinho]

The majority of people posting about the leaks do not understand Portuguese and are spreading what they think happened, but they also conveniently ignore the trans themes to make what Jax did seem much worse than it actually was because they hate her.

If you watched that scene and didn't understand that the argument broke out because Jax came out as transfem (Why do you think Ribbit placed her bow tie on Jax's ear, a typically feminine accessory placement? And then said that Jax's secret was safe with her?) to her mother, you're either a transphobe or completely blinded by your hate of the character, making your analysis of her flawed from the start... or both. What do you think Jax meant by "something really personal"? What's interesting is that everyone trying to make her seem much worse than she is never bring up the fact that she was being abused by her parents, and that her mother was constantly pointing out how unlike her father she was, because she wasn't as masculine as him. I wonder what demographic is constantly belittled for clearly not fitting in with the other boys, because they aren't boys...? So, why is Jax being treated as the sole evil, and not the person who had control over her whole life, her mother, being transphobic to her and still thinking she had any right to hug her child without repercussion?

Jax's rejection of Ribbit wasn't just misogyny, it was a transfem, who not only already had problems with being genuine, but also never got rid of all the awful things she had internalized, getting scared that she was going to be outed and ridiculed again. Her throwing Ribbit's bow tie on the floor when she heard Kaufmo coming and telling Ribbit that the two would never talk again if she told anyone about her secret wasn't her being an asshole for free. She got desperate and scared, and from then on dug her own hole, hurting herself and everyone else in the process.

TADC may not be perfect, but my post is not about the ways the writing itself could have been improved, and this was Gooseworx's first time working on anything of this scale, so she has my full understanding on why she doesn't want anything to do with this franchise anymore. But the moment you start treating fictional characters as real people and a genuine reflection of the author behind it, you've lost the plot and are only looking to harass a transfeminine author for making decisions you personally didn't like in her own work. A "bad" character doesn't need to be punished in fiction, and not all stories are going to have punishing the perpetrator as their purpose, and a character not being punished doesn't mean the author behind it actually glorifies those things in real life. Sometimes a work of art wants you to feel bad that a perpetrator wasn't punished. It's obvious Gooseworx wanted to explore the conflicting feeling of sympathy towards people who are themselves hurt, but hurt other people, and while it may not have fully worked because the development between the characters wasn't balanced, nobody is trying to trick an audience into feeling sorry for an 'abuser', it's the whole point of the scene where Gangle, the main target of her bullying, is questioning why she didn't really feel sorry for Jax. Stop trying to treat fictional characters as real people and start thinking about why they were written as they were and what role they play in the work's themes and setting. And lastly, to the transmisogynistic fools who are jumping on a harassment campaign against Gooseworx under the guise of being "critical" of the work, I hope you feel good about yourselves for trying to ruin the life of a trans woman because you didn't like the ending and a fictional character. Those accusations of grooming are textbook transmisogyny, and they're conveniently appearing after she wrote something you didn't like, curious!

The finale not being as great as you wanted doesn't give you the right to harass a member of an extremely vulnerable minority, put that energy into fanworks or something that's not going to hurt others. I don't care if you're a minor or an adult doing this, you WILL hurt others the same way after you're done hurting Gooseworx.

[seckindddll]

POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR TADC EP 9

No but seriously what do any of them bring to the table

[robinnsblog]

I don’t want to talk too much about the leaks because I want to marathon the whole series with my friends once the episode is released on Youtube, but there is a plot point that bothers me and, although it’s been discussed already, I haven’t seen people delve into how disturbing it actually is.

Spoilers and more under the cut:

If abstraction is an allegory for suicide and the abstracted are the closest equivalent to death in the circus, why does the narrative treat putting the abstracted down in the cellar as something more inhumane than putting them in an aquarium?

Both are dark and have water, however:

In the first case, the characters held a funeral for the abstracted, so I can’t help but see it as if they were burying (down the cellar) and mourning their deceased loves ones.

In the other case, it feels like they exhumed their loved ones, had them stuffed and put their corpses on display in their living room. How is that any better and not creepy as hell??

If abstraction is NOT an allegory for suicide, but a mental breakdown, the fact that the transformation is irreversible leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Hit rock bottom? That’s it for you, your friends and family will treat you like a pet from now on.

The implications are… horrid either way, man. 🙃