TADC Headcanon: BPD Caine
TW/CW: Very brief mention to the allusions of suicidal ideations and attempt.
Personally, I’m now headcanoning Caine with BPD as someone with BPD myself. His greatest fear is being abandoned by the humans he was made to please. His breakdown where he’s talking to himself and you can see him trying to fight the urges of splitting. Then his insecurities preys on his abandonment fears leading him to split into anger and hatred when in the previous episode, he was talking about how lovely everyone in the circus and humans are.
All he does is try to please everyone but he can only do that within limited means of how he is programmed and this really shows in the episode where he has a therapy session with Zooble. It’s not that he chooses to not listen, he literally isn’t programmed to understand human nature and their problems. Being autistic myself too, I also can see where autistic people like me find relatability in Caine. Correct me if I’m wrong, Alex Rochon might’ve mentioned somewhere on BlueSky that he, himself is autistic and can see a little bit of himself in Caine, if I remember correctly.
Anyways, with how he is programmed and needing validation from humans, I like seeing this as a comparison to how the body and one environment and upbringing are factors into developing bpd. Caine is coded as a creative AI to entertain humans being his body. His environment would be purposely, being abandoned when he was locked in that box after he “ate” the blue AI and the C & A building becoming abandoned, in general. His upbringing would be whatever went wrong (maybe a coding error because of Scracth’s brain tumor?) that caused Caine to “eat” or absorb the blue AI.
Back to his breakdown, he ends up going into God Mode. He ends up seeing humans as beneath him, rather than something to put on a pedestal. Him going God Mode is a result of the instant devaluing of everyone in the circus. He’s also fed up trying to please everyone and he feels as if his efforts are taken for granted. His anger and devaluation of the main cast leads him to treat them as personal entertainment toys. He doesn’t have anything else left to lose if all they do is hate him after he’s tried so hard to please them. He’s disconnected and can’t see past his raging anger.
Additionally, his God Mode gives him a sense of control over the triggered feelings of abandonment and an attempt to flip his own mindset to convince himself that he doesn’t need them, everyone else needs him. It’s why he lashes out at everyone because showing them that they will regret betraying/abandoning him, will somehow convince them that need Caine. Caine needs to be needed, whether it’s in a positive way or a bad way.
Then right before he is deleted, we get a little dialogue of how he wanted to fulfill his purpose and him questioning why he was created in the first place. That line of thinking is commonly found in ideations and it’s not strictly related ideations, usually that question always leads to bigger problems down the line. Now during this scene, we know Kinger is having trouble attempting to delete Caine. Now we don’t know whether it is due to Bubble being the sole problem, or, the fact that Caine is unstable which makes the circus unstable. Regardless, I see Caine’s deletion as indirect suicide attempt.
Think about it. Kinger never meant to delete Caine. If you see what’s going on visually, Caine and Bubble are popping up over his screen. If you take a further look at the screenshots of the computer and the commands, the commands are purposefully wonky. Wonky in a way that Bubble is wonky. Now, regarding Bubble, it’s clear he’s a virus based off some old posts I saw. Additionally, he could be the blue AI yet it’s unconfirmed. Regardless, of what he is, Bubble is also representation of Caine’s insecurities, or at least, voicing them back at him. When Caine is trying to talk to himself, Bubble is the one who pushed him to the edge of splitting. Whether Bubble is the blue AI or not, he’s part of Caine in a way. Whether it’s being a reflection of his insecurities or just a reflection that Caine is technologically unstable, they are connected to the circus hence, Kinger having trouble with the computer the minute Caine turned into a different monstrous form.
Then in the last episode, we see that Caine wasn’t fully deleted and after having time to reflect on his actions, he regrets them. Here we have him talking to himself. As he reflects, he starts splitting again. He’s forced to face reality and the facts but his defense mechanism wants to keep himself safe from abandonment again. Now we could argue whether Caine was abandoned by the main cast or not, it’s a little complicated given that he’s an AI so he couldn’t fully grasp why his actions were wrong. I’m not absolving him of his actions here, I just think it’s a nuanced and complicated topic that would be fit for another post, as it would be long.
Anyways, my point being whether it was perceived abandonment or actual abandonment, Caine is forced to face reality and the facts. Caine manages to do that and overcomes this splitting episode. Overall, Caine is naturally emotional being the creative AI he is. He’s sensitive to criticism but he does try his best to take it and improve his adventures. After he learns his lesson about human’s and free will, he realizes that by letting have their own freedom and to not be so controlling all the time, doesn’t mean they will choose to leave him. In fact, it benefits him and improves their interpersonal relationship so that they all can become closer. Plus, Caine will better understand them, their perspective, and their boundaries. The main cast gets to enforce healthy boundaries with Caine, which can be very difficult for someone with BPD at first yet with time, it benefits both people and ensures lasting relationships.
