TADC Theories

Basically just a compilation of my own and other people's TADC theories to help soothe the hyperfixation.

[marscaldera]

Saw this on a T-Shirt on Hot Topic and wanted to create my own version!! Loved TADC! Jax is my favorite. #tadc

[crymsn]

looking back jax saying "ladies first" before pushing gangle out of the way to go first was pretty funny foreshadowing

[tadctheories]

If The Amazing Digital Circus had a better, happier ending, Jax will be reformed and saved from abstraction. He will also apologize and reconcile with his friends who support him, and he would finally come to his senses. His personality will also be different from before, but more empathetic and honest.

I wish! There were so many better ways to handle Jax's abstraction. I severely dislike how Jax's mental health and subsequent death were handled.

I know not everyone can be saved, but he was clearly behaving much better post episode 6, including integrating with the cast and helping them out against Caine. Redemption wasn't that far of a stretch. Even if his abstraction was inevitable, the lack of lead-up to it was underwhelming.

And frankly, I don't care if his ending was realistic. If a plotline isn't satisfying from a narrative perspective, the author failed.

[tadctheories]

Do you think Pomni and Ragatha's scene after Jax's abstraction felt forced?

I wasn't too troubled by the finale but that was one thing that stuck out to me. I never thought of Ragatha and Pomni as especially close and then it just felt like *bOoM* the Jesterdoll shippers were getting fed Lol!

Any thoughts?

Yes I do. Pomni and Ragatha are friends, but "One of the best things that ever happened to me?" We never got any indication that they were anything but casual friends.

I'm fine with the ship/friendship/whatever, but it really needed more buildup. It seems like after episode 6, their friendship was built up offscreen.

In general, Ragatha needed way more screentime past episode 6.

[tadctheories]

Do you consider Kinger old? He's 48, but he's somehow agile. I guess because It's a cartoon character and It can't be realistic. And maybe because It's a copy of his real life mine.

I'm so confused about the timeline.

Are these the ages currently or the ages they entered the circus? I'm guessing it's the former. Kinger entered the circus in 1999, so he'd be in his late 20's/early 30's if we assume his human self aged but his circus self didn't.

But with that logic, we would also have to assume that Jax was a teen when he entered the circus, which doesn't feel right...

Also Anon, 48 isn't old lol. It's totally feasible that a 48 year old could run a marathon.

[tadctheories]

Soooo...

It's implied that the blue AI is the more talented between itself and Caine, but also the more aggressive one, yes? And this hyper-aggressive and more talented AI was just let out into the void without any thoughts? The same AI that was part of Caine and helped create the entire circus?

I feel like that's a disaster waiting to happen.

[tadctheories]

I think you kinda missed the point

Uhhh what are you talking about?

[tadctheories]

Sorry if it bothers you that I'm venting here, but... Ugh. I hate all the hate and controversy that's coming up in the fandom. I understand that TADC is not perfect, there are many mistakes and things that could have been done differently. But some people simply don't understand that it's just a cartoon and create controversy and drama on social media. I'm fed up. Now they hate Gooseworx, the VAs (due to the controversies that existed for a while) , etc. I don't know bro, I miss those times when everything was calm and we could enjoy the series in a better way. Not everything is bad, I know that, but sometimes I miss that time. And some people make too much of a drama out of these things, and it just exhausts me..

I think it's perfectly fine to be upset with Glitch and the VAs but it doesn't feel genuine with a lot of people. It feels like young people are on social media parroting real, valid criticisms of everyone orbiting TADC.

You don't have to support or defend Glitch, but at least stay consistent with your morals. I see people calling out Glitch/Goose/the VAs and still choosing to associate with other VERY problematic media.

People are allowed to denounce media when people surrounding that media do messed up things, but dang, stop pretending that you care.

People like that drown out the real and valid criticism coming from marginalized communities that are hurt by the TADC casts' actions.

[tadctheories]

It's been confirmed that Jax is trans. What do you think about that?

Not a fan. Jax isn't just "a bad person," she conveys A LOT of extremely harmful transfem stereotypes, especially misogyny and targeting women with her abuse.

I respect that she's canonically trans and will still acknowledge that, but upon rewatch, oof.

[tadctheories]

So, I'm not the one who sent in the panic attack ask, but after rewatching the finale I wanted to add my two cents.

I can understand why it feels off/weird for some, but as someone who relates a lot to Jax (i.e. in putting up fronts, never letting anyone in, and refusing to believe someone can love me) when someone somehow breaks through all of that, you open up to them, and they love you anyway, it is one of the most terrifying things in the world. I've had panic attacks over that. I've had more suicidal thoughts after instances like that because of how vulnerable it makes you feel.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you guys were saying about that, but I don't think it's unrealistic that it happened. And I don't think it really caused Jax's abstraction since he was already abstracted and it's vague if there's even a possibility that they can come back from it.

I don't have much to add here, but thanks for putting forward your experience. I know a lot of people can relate to Jax more than they'd like.

[tadctheories]

Do you think the fact that Jax's hand doesn't reach out to Pomni at the end of ep 2 is foreshadowing that he won't reach out for help or am I reading too much into things?

Most definitely. I think Goose was planning to call back to that moment the whole series.

The series kept aggressively asserting that Jax refused to change and open up to people, and that part was just one of many instances that foreshadowed Jax's downfall.

I do think it was a strange choice since Jax initiated his whole friendship with Pomni from her very first day in the circus. He clearly wanted help but his fears outweighed his desire for human connection.

I do think the Daisy Bell scene especially called back to the falling scene because Jax and Pomni were mutually uplifting one another in that moment.

[tadctheories]

Would the mind files have become sentient if Caine didn't create bodies for them?

That's a good question. In the TADC universe, a vintage VR headset in an abandoned building can quickly scan your entire brain. Code can perfectly replicate human thoughts and feelings in this world. AI can develop autonomous thoughts, feelings, and actions apart from the people that coded them.

That's obviously not possible in our world and a part of TADC's lore. Our world's logic would be "No, obviously not, it's just code." but we're not working with our world's logic.

I'm also not sure if the body creation process is automatic or Caine has to manually do it. He did seem surprised when all of the humans popped it, so I lean towards the former.

Anon, I don't think that's something Goose thought about and it's really up to you.

[tadctheories]

I don't know if I can say this because we don't know that much about Ribbit, but it's kind of strange she abstracts solely because Jax pushed her away/gaslit her. We see that she's close with Kaufmo and Ragatha and seems to have a more outgoing personality; and there are no hints that she has underlying problems that would be exacerbated by what Jax does. I get that they say the're really close, and maybe Ribbit felt like she couldn't talk to anyone because she didn't want to upset Jax anymore, but like...I don't know. It seems kind of strange that was the breaking point when she should theoretically have a fairly good support system. And I'm guessing that's the unforgivable thing Jax does? Which...yeah, he was a jerk, but I don't know if pushing someone away is unforgivable. Unless Goose just meant that's what causes his abstraction because he doesn't learn how to stop doing that.

That was my biggest problem with how Ribbit was portrayed. She clearly was mentally struggling too, and that's why she confided in Jax about her parental trauma and subsequent abandonment. I just hate that they waited until the last episode to use her only as a plot device to further Jax's story. She clearly had a much more complex mental struggle beyond Jax, yet her whole abstraction was framed to be Jax's fault.

She and Ragatha especially seemed to be close-ish since they typically teamed up together during adventures. With how overly positive and sometimes clingy Ragatha could be in the show, it's kind of shocking that she didn't do anything about Ribbit that we know of. If she didn't and Ragatha only started being overbearing because of Ribbit's abstraction, they should have elaborated on that. If she did reach out to Ribbit, THEY SHOULD HAVE ELABORATED ON THAT. It's not like abstraction was new to Ragatha. She likely saw abstractions before that.

I understand that we saw things from Jax's perspective and he deeply regrets how he treated Ribbit, but that was a choice to only show things that way. Are we supposed to blame Jax or not? Where were Ribbit's friends during all of this?

Ribbit pretty much looks like a Pomni/Ragatha clone because we have barely any context on her other than her loving and kind nature.

[tadctheories]

Oh Goose...

This tweet is in the context of Jax's pronouns.

I take this to mean that Goose wanted us to interpret Jax's gender and transness however we wanted.

On twitter/bluesky, she pretty much confirmed that Jax was a trans woman.

I really wish she committed to either keeping Jax's gender identity vague or explicitly stating that she was a trans woman in the canon.

Now we have the writer canonizing something that happened outside of the show on social media.

And yes, I acknowledge there were a ton of hints that Jax was transfem, but if Goose was going to confirm that Jax should be seen as transfem on bluesky, they should have made that clear in the show as well.

And before you say "Oh, it was obvious." Goose literally said her goal was to make it NOT obvious but she wasn't good at it.

Now the show has plausible deniability about Jax's gender but the creator herself is on social media confirming Jax as trans.

I wish she either made it undeniable in the canon of the show OR stuck to it being vague and encouraged us to think what we want. Instead we're in a weird middle ground between canon and fanon.

This bothers me so much because of the harassment of creators on social media that don't exclusively refer to Jax as she/her or acknowledge her as a trans woman. I specifically see a lot of this hate leveraged at anyone that wants to view Jax as a trans man rather than a woman.

Frankly, I don't care about the opinions of transphobic people. It's the infighting in the greater trans and LGBT community that really bothers me.

[tadctheories]

I thought it was a bit strange that Pomni was so calm after Jax abstracted, but I have a theory on why that is.

The first thing that Pomni mentioned after Jax's abstraction was regarding containing Jax.

While Gangle, Zooble, and Ragatha focused on the emotional fallout of Jax's abstraction, Pomni focused on the practical aspect of his abstraction.

Pomni listened to Ragatha talk about Jax and Ribbit and consoled Ragatha when she blamed herself.

She then told Ragatha, told her what she meant to her, then left.

It doesn't seem like anyone checked in on Pomni and her feelings. I'm not blaming anyone for that since the timing of Jax's abstraction was traumatic for everyone, but her unchecked behavior is likely what led her to pursue Jax.

Put simply, I think Pomni hatched the idea to pursue Jax during her conversation with Ragatha. The reason she hugged Ragatha and told her how much she meant to her was because she anticipated that she might abstract while chasing Jax.

Look at these two hug scenes. They parallel one another. Pomni initiated the hug and then the other person reciprocated. Both happened after they gave their backstory regarding Ribbit. We're supposed to link these scenes and compare/contrast them.

Most importantly, Jax knew it was a goodbye. The hug was the last interaction between Jax and Pomni in the series.

Pomni never planned on leaving Jax's side. I truly think that if Zooble didn't grab her, she would have abstracted with Jax. I don't think Pomni has a death wish, but I do think that she loves Jax so deeply that she never wanted to let him go. Her feelings were reinforced by the fact that he FINALLY opened up to her about EVERYTHING.

Even when Jax and Pomni are pulled apart, Pomni keeps looking back to Jax for the rest of the series.

She stayed with him in the tent.

She cried when his background was mentioned.

She even started learning the piano for him.

Truthfully, I don't think Pomni will ever give up on Jax, no matter what form he takes.

[tadctheories]

How do you interpret the whole Caine segment in the void? I'm having trouble understanding that part, even after a rewatch.

When he's making geometrical figures to go up to the door, is it to show that he tries to be a "good AI" like the blue bubble at the beginning of ep8? So it shows that he's trying to be better — maybe by himself and without the help of "Abel?

I also don't really understand when a voice, that we've never heard or seen before, is taking control of him. What is it? Is it his initial code, which means he's maybe going against his code by being more empathic and so more "human" and less "AI"? Or is it Abel/the other AI? I also don't really know how to interpret the part when he takes the blue AI out of his head... I don't think it's bubble, I always thought that Bubble was a sort of representation Caine made of the AI he made, or maybe it can be a remnant of that AI that Caine can't totally control. But idk, I'm pretty lost on that part.

I saw the voice as the blue AI. Although the blue AI was much more talented than Caine, it evidently was also more aggressive? Frankly, Caine seemed like the aggressive one, but I'll move past that.

Caine feels like he's less than everyone. He's specifically feels humiliated by the blue AI and the humans. Once he consumed the blue AI, it became his intrusive thoughts, and seemed to physically manifest as Bubble. That's why Bubble taunted him at the beginning of episode 8. The blue AI was physically part of him at that point, so it could exploit his feelings.

The big thing to remember is that Bubble was part of Caine. Once he removed the blue AI from his body, Bubble ceased to exist, since bubble only existed when the blue AI and Caine were combined into one being.

With your first two paragraphs, yeah, I'm pretty sure that's exactly what happened. The blue AI was superior at creating compared to Caine. Caine was so insecure that he thought that he HAD to use the blue AI to keep the circus going. The step scene was showing that Caine did have the capacity to make useful things and he could adapt and learn like any good AI could, but it took him a little longer and a little more effort. Still, the end result was the same. He was able to complete his goal without Bubble.

When he got back to the circus, he demoted himself and promoted the humans so everyone was on the same level of being able to create things. Caine and the humans can both manifest now, and Caine is no longer despawning whole worlds when they leave.

[tadctheories]

Do you think Jax would've come back from abstraction if the flash bang didn't go off? Because I feel like Pomni's "stay with me" feels out of place if that's not the implication.

Pomni was never going to leave without Jax. I am certain that her only two options were to abstract with him or unabstract Jax and bring him back to the circus.

TBH, there was absolutely no indication whether or not abstraction is permanent. That's up to us to decide :')

I want to believe that abstraction is not forever. Pomni herself wasn't sure, but she was sure willing to die trying.