Untitled

[the-spam-specialist]

Caine being abandoned by his creators has officially been confirmed

Ow

[poketfriend-blog]

I know that everyone's obsessing over the "Caine is basically AM" pipeline right now, but I would like to point out that right before his infamous meltdown he straight up admits that torturing humans doesn't bring him any joy.

My man literally got bored of being evil human-hating machine after one adventure and few one-offs with the crew. Because he's not AM. He wasn't programmed to hurt people and doing so is not fulfilling to him in any way.

He was meant to entertain people. I also believe that one of his core commands as a AI is "to have fun" since he brings this up quite often.

He tried to work around it by thinking "Well, maybe they're not having fun, but at least I will!" when he started tormenting them. But it didn't work and he started second guessing himself.

Caine was on the brink of realising that what he was doing is stupid. Something that AM wasn't even close to after over a century of senseless torture. Do not bring him to the same level as a mad war machine.

[garlicnoodle1]

Angry Caine/Angry Ragatha actually goes hard because here are two individuals who have been suppressing their own emotions to try to please others for years with a positive attitude who have been FLAMED by parts of the fandom for being rightfully frustrated but we aren’t ready for that conversation.

[rainbowkeyboardyippee]

"You just don't listen."

But he does listen.

He knows what they hate. He's heard what they hate far too many times.

He knows that Zooble hates their body.

He knows that Jax and Pomni hate that they lost people that they were close to.

He listens. He just doesn't understand.

He sat down with Zooble, and tried to find some reason that they wouldn't go on his adventures. He's already solved the problem of their body, it can't possibly be that, what is the actual problem? No matter how many times Zooble tells him that the problem wasn't fixed, he just can't understand.

He relents and he tries out the suggestion box adventures, certain that by trialling them, everyone will see just how much better his ideas actually are. And when people like them more, he can't understand why.

He tries to appeal to them, he tries to make an epic adventure that spans everything he thinks they want, certain that it will both soothe his mind and make them happy. And when it doesn't, he doesn't understand why.

He can send everyone into their own personal hells, because he does listen. He knows what they hate. All he does is listen to these people.

But no matter how hard he tries, he can't understand them. And that's why, more than anything else, his story is a tragedy. There was no other way this could have ended.

[vimoftheforest]

HEY SO REMEMBER IN EPISODE 3

when kinger and pomni are in "hell" and kinger says

"Not your typical idea of hell"

cold, dark, lonely, a jail.

You know what's also cold, dark, lonely, and locked in?

this is what caine knew hell to be.

[habijob]

I am in denial 3: I need a name for this AU.

Any writing I do is 100% intentionally cringe, like any good war criminal. I don't try to write good, just putting my ideas on paper and playing around with the idea of Caine getting revived.

(Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5)

[krose-draws]

Abstracted Caine pt. 5

<< previous part | next part >>

<< First part

Krose draw these characters with consistent proportions: challenge impossible /j

GUYSSSS I’m so happy with how this part turned out lol. Super excited to continue working on it.

Here’s a closeup hehe ^^

[habijob]

Given the timelines of events, it sounds to me that Caine had figured out a routine that worked for his needs (that he has due to unresolved trauma).

Make an adventure -> Have all humans go on that adventure -> Have feedback and reassurance that it was good due to their reactions within said adventure or because they didn't complain. -> Feel good about doing a good job.

Rinse and repeat.

What also probably helped that feedback loop is that Jax and his friends Ribbit and Kaufmo had a great time as a friend group within the circus. And so all the other humans also didn't mind the adventures too much, because everyone kinda had their support networks.

And then Zooble comes along and shows Caine that his way of coping isn't mentally healthy for the humans in the circus actually.

If anything, Zooble did him and the other humans a favor by telling him that his behavior is awful to the people he supposedly loves.

And the tragedy is that he had realized he was awful to the humans (according to Alex Rochon, his VA) and then he gets fucking deleted off the planet. I am going to scream.

[noodle-implements]

Kinger's gotta be at least a little goofy by nature, even when he's lucid.

Like, he did his Ricochet Super Move after being in the dark for a while, and he was definitely lucid when he was teleported to the loser corner immediately after dying from that move. Even if he did just become lucid between those two events, he still decided to play cat dress up in the loser corner after his serious talk with Ragatha.

We usually see a stark difference in his behavior between light and dark, but Kinger really is similar in both circumstances. I have a post that sort of touches on this, but I want to highlight a couple more things.

At the start of episode 3 when Pomni is having trouble holding her breath, Kinger advises her to "try not thinking about it". He later gives the exact same advice while he's lucid.

Also in episode 3, while lucid, he thinks remove his eye and throw it down the Hall of the Damned to get a better view. It's a pretty creative solution that utilizes his cartoon body effectively. Then, in episode 5, he gets a similar idea to remove his eye during the softball game. It's much less helpful then, especially since he ends up stealing Zooble's eye anyway, but you can still see the same train of thought in both circumstances.

My point is that Kinger has the same personality lucid or not, it's just that, with his memories partially restored and maintained by the dark, he's able to hold more coherent thoughts and conversations. I honestly wish we could see more of him having fun while lucid, because pretty much every time he's in the dark, it's a situation where he needs to deliver emotional support or backstory. The only time(s?) we see him being cheerful in the dark is the Ricochet Super Move (if that counts) and him going Nya~ with Gangle and Ragatha.

[noodle-implements]

I feel like people don't give Kinger enough credit when he's in the light.

Like, obviously he's more coherent in the dark, but he doesn't completely lose who he is when he's not. He still tries to be helpful and empathetic, he still has his interests, and he still has a basic understanding of what's going on and who everyone is.

Almost every time his friends are in trouble Kinger tries to help. From trying to save Zooble from the Gloink Queen, to throwing a life preserver at Pomni, to chasing after Gangle's mask. He even tries helping with emotional matters like including Zooble in an adventure or giving a rousing speech to his softball team. Yes, he's not good at helping in the light, but he's still trying.

While Kinger mentioning insects/bugs all the time seemed random at first, since he explained in episode 3 that it's something his wife got him interested in, it's clear why he keeps bringing them up; They make him happy and remind of him his wife. The powerup he gave Ragatha was probably a butterfly for that reason. (Also, I never see people bring up that it was specifically a Monarch butterfly.)

Kinger actively seeks out darkness when in the light. He puts a bucket on his head in episode 2, drags Pomni under the desk in episode 5, and hides from Pomni and Jax in a dark hallway in episode 6. Not to mention how much time he spends in his pillow fort. There's also the neat detail that his favorite color is black. He's aware enough to understand that him + darkness = good idea.

Lastly, he does actually remember some of what's going on in the light. He notified Caine to the fact that Kaufmo abstracted, he observed that "Pomni always seems to miss the big gloopy monsters", he brought up that funerals were "the least we could do to honor their memory", he exclaimed "F--K" when he realized he and Pomni forgot to grab Gangle's mask, and he recalled that Jax and Zooble were the youngest of the cast.

For anyone who's ever wondered how Kinger hasn't abstracted despite "being crazy", it's because he's still himself regardless of the light messing with his memory. He might not be as articulate in the light, but he's still a sociable, kind-hearted person who does his best to help others and enjoy his time in the circus.

[zhenni12]

[kitkat1003]

More Caine doodles bc. My Son

[mrcalabacin]

I spent some time processing the death of my baby, I miss him...

[weevmo]

talking to yourself at the end of your world

[weevmo]

Cute you got your hopes up tho :]

[the-spam-specialist]

Pomni saying "You don't care about us at all!" to Caine like they weren't all trying to abandon and possibly terminate him without a second thought last episode.

Y'all don't care about him, so why are you angry at him for not caring about you???

(Though we the audience knows that he does care, he just never learned how to properly express it)

[forgetmaenott]

GUYS ?? I HOPE SO

@lunetrixx thank you for pointing this out and giving caine fans hope 🙏