Well ep 8 is so close and I’m terrified so I drew this quick doodle while I work on something more emotional 👀 I swear the “Zooble is an npc” theory is giving me sleepless nights I swear cuz they are one of my fav characters please Caine have mercy if it’s true 😭✌️
Glitch really putting the tragedy in abstragedy am I right or am I right lads
Ft. Insight from my husband, who is Totally Normal about coding & genuinely helpful A.I. (Think Jarvis, K.I.T.T., and A.I. developed to consume and organize massive amounts of data and regurgitate it into a concise and easy-to-digest format. He does not like nor agree with A.I. being used to do creative things in place of humans.)
TO START:
Groundwork:
• Caine is the "Ringleader". Specifically, he is "Creative Artificial Intelligence Networking Entity", or, C.A.I.N.E.
• He is the one in control of the entire circus, to the point lesser NPCs refer to Caine as "god".
• Caine has been operational and running adventures and the circus for a very long time before Pomni arrives. (I believe Jax says they've been there for years, with Kinger having been there the longest.)
• Both an A.I. and the hardware they run on will naturally degrade over time and begin to have issues without routine upkeep.
• The Circus & "Circus grounds" take up a seemingly very little space, and the Void takes up the majority of the space around the Big Top/Circus Tent. The canonically unfinished fake exit leads to The Void, and Caine doesn't like anyone venturing into The Void. (Would be remiss to not mention he worries about everyone "[being] totally spoiled!" When Pomni ends up in The Void.
THE GLITCHES:
Ft. Hubby
•THE FIRST INSTANCE:
•Hubby's take: Caine literally lost connection and is reconnecting. His "evidence":
•Thats not a blue screen, that's a command window.
•The Dial up tone, which was a hallmark of early computers like the implied Windows '95 desktop we see at the end of the Pilot.
•My stance: I thought it was a legit blue screen until Hubby explained old PCs used to open command windows like that when the lost internet connection and were working on reconnecting.
• THE SECOND INSTANCE:
•Hubby's take: Exception Error.
How:
•Caine was built to create and run enjoyable and fun adventures for the players in the Circus.
•Zooble outright told him no one actually likes the adventures Caine sends them on.
•Caine now begins to grapple with the conflicting information of "Being bad at he only thing Im good at". The conflicting information results in an exception error that causes the Circus around Caine and Zooble to glitch out.
•My take: if we were to apply psychology to Caine, he just hard dissociated. Full mental tab out. Either way, this is the moment that Caine's breakdown begins.
•THE THIRD INSTANCE:
•Hubby's take: Just a glitch.
•My take: a glitch caused by the ongoing exception error started by the "Therapy Session". It's a lesser glitch than before, but is caused by similar contradictions:
•"Im such a good boss"
Vs
•Caine didn't create this adventure himself, which implies that his job/purpose is to come up with every. Single. Adventure. Himself.
•Its small, but still a hint that his code is damaged in some way now due to the conflicting data. ("I make enjoyable adventures" vs "nobody enjoys them". This will be the conflicting data I refer to from here on out)
•THE FOURTH INSTANCE:
•Hubby's take: Just a glitch.
•My take: A far more severe exception error than the original in the Therapy Session.
How?
•Catalyst: Caine asked what they really wanted. Zooble demanded to have the ability to bone/get boned.
•Caine, who has stated (and has been shown in the show), keeps the Circus "family friendly", i.e. PG. This, along with his programming to appease The players and give them what they want, is highly conflicting as sex is not family friendly. (Also, youtube made Glitch censor Zooble, it wasnt meant to be censored.)
•Aftermath/the glitch: Caine enters a full-on error loop, one that sends him into full disarray and threatens to actually crash Caine/his program. This activates what I think is a failsafe in Caine's code to delete the command causing the error loop and soft resetting Caine. (This is why Caine disappeared, reappeared and then re-greeted Zooble as if the conversation didn't even happen.
-Its also worth noting that immediately following this, Caine breaks out a "loaded gun" and has the intent to have players shoot themselves in a misguided trust exercise. When Jax outright ignores the instructions and just shoots Ragatha, Caine basically says "fuck it" and tells them to shoot each other, "I don't care anymore."
•There's something about him in that moment that is tired, maybe overwhelmed, but something is definitely breaking. I feel like this is where the cascade of errors and failures truly starts.
•THE FINAL INSTANCE (FOR NOW)
I..... could not find a gif of this moment. I apologize.
•Hubby didn't have a take, so to say, but he did look at me and quirk an eyebrow. Like it meant something different to him than to me, but he doesn't want to say anything before another episode comes out. (Or the series finishes, one of the two.)
•My take: Is multifaceted.
-Caine just experienced a cascade failure that started with the therapy session and culminated here in a rapid re-classification/re-digestion of every bit of information that contradicts what he was made for and believes.
-Caine just definitively broke in one of several different ways. The break is the only thing im sure of-along with the feeling all of Caine's failsafes are gone save for those that keep him from crashing and even those might be gone too-, what it means for Caine, his behavior, the Circus Members and the Circus itself is yet to be seen.
•The ways Caine might have broke:
1. Caine just went full AM. If you don't already know who AM is, I HIGHLY recommend doing a dive into "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison. Its an inspiration for TADC according to Goose.
2. Caine jailbroke himself (version 1); after all, he is failing his only purpose. So, if the cast members don't like his adventures, he will MAKE them like his adventures- thus challenging the one-held absolutes of the Circus that Caine can't control their minds, as well as the belief Caine can't hurt the Circus members.
3. Caine jailbroke himself (version 2); Is the void really a void? Or is it just the space between the Circus- which currently appears to be running in isolation- just the internet connection? Can Caine touch the internet and learn more about humans and their care? Can he figure out how to actually release them by reaching out past the void now that his failsafes are gone?
•CLOSING THOUGHTS (FOR NOW)
•Our favorite Ringleader is not ok.
•Caine- specifically his code- has just broken in a way that probably isn't repairable.
•The break is going to cause a lot of issues, even if all of my theories are wrong.
•Caine finally broke because he is- to his belief after the voting- undeniably unloved.
•Absolutely NO ONE is safe in what is to come- especially us viewers.
•I've seen people draw parallels to the post-credit scene (the red/blue eye glitch) reminding them of the IHNMAIMS game cover. That, combined with the fact Caine is inspired in part by AM is why I fear we are about to see a brightly colored and abstraction filled re-telling of IHNMAIMS in this final act.
•Remember how empty you felt after that one show? How despite it being a good story and wrapped up well, the ending still left you feeling hollowed out and detached? Yeah, brace for that feeling. Its highly likely to be how TADC leaves us after the final episode and, idk about yall, but I am HERE FOR IT.
I absolutely love The Amazing Digital Circus and I love Gooseworx for giving us this media. Its beautiful and horrifying and heartwrenching. The characters are so well-written imo and they feel real. Even with Caine i get a sense of humanity from him- its barebones but sometimes I forget hes just an A.I. and "doesn't have human emotions".
One final thought:
What if, in Caine's code being corrupted/jailbroke, he is the one to reveal everything that has happened? Takes on the form of Ribbit to torment Jax & the others while recounting what really happened? What if he takes on Kaufmo's form and does the same? Queenie? The original devs? What if he releases the abstractions either intentionally as punishment for "not liking him enough", or accidentally through his rapid cascade failure?
@cursedbcrn asked: ❝ Never too late to dig graves. You never know when you need a fresh one. ❞ - caine || V’s Meme Tag || Accepting
“... You’re not- you’re not serious, right.” The duskwitch twists to look at the tribrid and- through all of this, this is the most themselves they’ve looked around the humanity-less Hope. An incredulous brow raised, yellow eyes narrowed in suspicious disbelief.
“I- Why would I dig graves? If I am going to kill someone, I am going to burn the body to straight ash, or else magic it into plants. Digging graves is how you get caught six months later and then have to have a very awkward conversation with police.”
They pause and narrow their gaze further at her. “Camlo taught me that when I was nine.”
Another pause.
“.... Or is this some strange turn-of-phrase from this place that I’m never going to understand?”
