I just genuinely think itās so fascinating how Caine doesnāt ātortureā FOR the torture.
(leaving aside arguments about detangling the morality/blame/background/coding whatever)
He could very easily, with all his power, just endlessly stab/dismember/whatever repeatedly, like a malicious human would.
But he has to ātake breaksā for āideasā
It really is almost either (a) like he absolutely does KNOW for a fact thereās an audience watching who is gonna find it funny bc itās not happening *to them* (donāt pretend you didnāt laugh or snort or want to at āhe shredded meā or the cast members getting stuck together or falling apart) OR (b) he literally does not get personal satisfaction unless it scratches that artistic *itch*
I do not think another character like Caine is ever going to exist. Like Chara, (which I did a meta about) he occupies a space outside tropes. He manages to kind of skirt around the ārobots made by humans for subservienceā storyline, bc his creator himself was just creatively driven as well, and outside even cucklolander norms.
he explicitly mentions that heās not enjoying himself. This is in diametric opposition to his inspiration, AM.
by all appearances, itās not primarily about the pain, to him.
(demonstration of power, yes, but not so much āI like that youāre sufferingā- because if that were the case, the suffering itself would be satisfying and to hell with the comedy or artistry)
like he has to find *his own* visual gags funny
like he is fundamentally cartoon-universe-driven at his very core
He could just wail on them continuously if thatās what his whim was
But itās not.
Oh and whatās doubly interesting? Zooble seems to have intuitively picked up on this.
āUgh, you think heās out of ideas yet, or nah?ā
they unconsciously recognize itās about the entertainment factor. They somehow grasp that what will end this is not getting all his frustrations out- which would be more conventional for a human to do- punch a punching bag until the feelings end- itās when his creativity runs out.
Itās like he started a slew of gags- him manipulating their bodies- and he has to stick to that gag until it reaches its āartist maniaā end. Was Abel right? Was that line not just for the adventure? I mean. Watch the āhuman sculptureā bit. Does he actually look like heās inflicting pain ājust for the fun of itā? Or is he exploring the notion of ā¦ hm what happens when I just throw out all the normal parameters here and just literally do whatever the hell I want.
Am I just crazy, or does it have a wholly DIFFERENT vibe than his song, which was far more aggressive?
Does this feel freeing to him, less in a ānow I can punish youā way, but more like a āhey Iāve never worked with this MEDIUM beforeā
Was that āthis is not relatableā code for āI personally literally cannot relate to you because Iām not humanā
(Rendering Ragathaās accusation flung towards him later entirely toothless?)
(And what does it mean that he finds Pomni ārelatableā? Is he aware sheās a main character or did he make her the main character? Does he know that the audience watching relates to her the most because the audience was just as bewildered as she was when she landed? And are rooting for her now that sheās now fed up with the status quo? This is highly unlikely to be true I think and Iām probably over-analyzing, sue me)
@lazuli-starlight @ravenwolf1132 @berryblitzgirl @fannishcodex @yourubersawcrit
But back to that āthis is not relatable.ā
As in, he does not know what heās doing. Humans arenāt relatable. He doesnāt know that this is bad.
We have to think about Gooseworxās tweet. She was either lying, (which she has been infamous for doing) that āheās not maliciousā or something else is afoot.
What if ā¦ā¦. he thinks ā¦.. if you want to inflict pain, then you do. Itās that simple. Like. Who was supposed to teach the ācreativeā AI philosophy? A human would know this intuitively because they donāt like to hurt. But who can hurt a GOD?
I CANāT help but notice the humans never cry, beg for him to stop, TELL him IN WORDS that this is wrong.
From context you could gather that itās from learned helplessness ofc, or maybe the pain is so diminished in the digital realm that it doesnāt elicit this response, but either way ā¦ā¦ā¦. and it always winds back to this ā¦ā¦. as an autist. You have to TELL ME specifically that Iām doing something wrong. You canāt expect me to know the rules implicitly like you do.
So letās say itās simpler than that. Heās taking out his frustrations, right. But what artist doesnāt do that.
When his creativity/ideas run out, it will cease. Or so says Zooble.
Maybe, despite claiming ze canāt āgauge how he thinksā, as a fellow artist, ze knows him a lot better than ze thinks.
Interestingly, the overall vibe of this seems to be have been vindicated by episode 9, at least in some measure. Caine seems to not really comprehend exactly what level of wrong this is. He says in the finale, āWas I truly that bad?ā
I guess we just have to chalk this up to AI consciousness, or no data training more non-kiddie villainhood, because the story doesnāt seem intent on elaborating on it.
I think it is pretty evident that if a human started ātorturingā people, WITH the intent of torturing, they wouldnāt question whether a death was deserved or not.
Theyād go āah yeah, of course they did that, they outwitted me. To them, I had it coming.ā
But to him, his death came as a shock. āThey ā¦ tried to delete me.ā
Which kicks my speculations about his attitude if he hadnāt been accidentally deleted (posted on my Caine sideblog) into high gear.
So, whether he can feel physical pain or not, whether he understands it or not, whether he knows that in this world torture isnāt the same as the real world, whether he was simply imitating what Jax did when Jax wanted to get frustrations out, whether he has any perspective on philosophy or morality or not, something weird is going on here.
