the fascinating colour theory of the TADC cast
was realising there's actually some interesting stuff to be derived so i made a separate post, i think the colour choices of the main cast can really be well understood under the context of the Red and Blue symbolism being made clearer in the latest episode
Under the theory that Caine (red) assimilated Abel (blue) and made them a part of him, I would say there's a lot we can infer about our main cast.
First up is Caine, he is clad in red with a wacky and abstract design concept, he is entirely his own, a self-made man after eating and subsuming his fellow AI
Then Gangle, another strange design- a "gangle" of ribbons with a Comedy/Tragedy mask as its head/face, she is made up of only red and her black and white mask, perfectly fits Caine's more wacky and abstract style (also noticed while going back and adding colours and images to this post her tear drops- a very prevalent part of her design are blue, and also its generally up to Caine to fix her mask which makes the blue tears go away and that's just very interesting imo, there's also two and they're separated from her red body by her white mask which reminds me of how Bubble multiplies and also i think breaks free from Caine but now i think im reading into it too much thats all bye)
And then we get to Ragatha, a much more normal avatar- a cotton doll in a purplish-blue dress with a bow of the same colour. This is suddenly a far more grounded character design, a sort of coherence not originating from Caine, but likely from Abel. And then from there her signature red hair comes across as a bit more crazed, dozens of red ropes that seem to spring from her head almost seeming to disrespect gravity- this idea being furthered as a gag when she holds her breath (ALSO I JUST NOTICED HER RIGHT EYE IS BLUE AND IT SPECIFICALLY HAS AN X THROUGH IT AS IT'S A TACKED-ON BUTTON, AND HER EYE LITERALLY HAD ATTENTION DRAWN TO IT IN THE PRIOR EPISODE AT THE BEACH GOOSEWORX YOU MADWOMAN)
I suppose I should mention Bubble, I would say there's a lot of theory fodder for Bubble but nothing super concrete tbh, but my guess is they are the manifestation of Abel as they try to break free from Caine (likely succeeding by the end of the episode). From here, we can see that Bubble is- sort of hard to pin-down colour wise, but it appears to be a blue-ish purple, which would fit as Caine's control over Bubble flitters throughout the entire series, especially in Episode 8.
Then there's Jax- I think Jax's purple is a representation of the best of both worlds, he's sensible and grounded enough to match Abel's "style", while retaining the more cartoonish abstract ideals of Caine- hence being the colour of Red and Blue mixed. Though the fact he is draped in Red overalls is curious to me, perhaps it could be contributing to the (at this point quite obvious i think) trans allegory with Jax, or the red overalls could be Caine's style "adding itself" on top, making sure to mark Jax as his (actually just realised how hes layered, he has the red overalls and clothes he wheres, then theres his purple rabbit-skin layer, and then under that is his yellow egg-yolk layer like mentioned in Episode 6, oh my god this is going to be another post at some point)
Zooble is interesting imo. I might be reading too deep into it at this point, but the way I see it, they buck the designs ideals pushed onto them by Caine and Abel- you could say they're very abstract like Gangle, alluding to Caine's preferences, or that they're based on something real like Ragatha is hinting at Abel, but I personally read their colouring as indicating an absence of both to an extent. Their design reminds me of the multicoloured "failure" shapes produced at the beginning, something about their design seemingly messed up? But beyond that I believe Zooble being painted in their own colours represents their self-dependence. They aren't perfect, but they have a very strong sense of self- they speak their mind and refuse to conform, shown through how they constantly swear despite the filter or how they alone choose to abstain from the adventures to the point Caine genuinely comes to them one-on-one to try and figure out a way to get around this. They choose their own body parts possibly because neither Caine nor Abel's side of the avatar generator knew what to do for them, they are a self-made person. And there's also the way they symbolised "realism" in digital such as in episode 6 but this section is already getting too long (yes the fact Zooble is the sole character to break away from the red and blue theming is the entire reason i made this post, its so interesting)
and finally Pomni, I actually don't have much of a read on Pomni, this post was originally derived from a post where I was theorising on what Pomni's heavy red and blue stripes could signify, but I suppose its worth mentioning she's the only one besides Caine that really fits a "Circus" aesthetic (albeit barely, she's not quite a clown but jester's close enough). I think her design will be much more clear when Episode 9 releases in June, I briefly theorised she could be an artificial reaction of Abel using Caine and Abel as a base, and while I do think there's some merit and it'd be interesting- lets be real its a crackpot theory that I think is unlikely (though if it was true some fuckin HEAVY foreshadowing would be paid off, like Caine alluding to the fact he could struggle to tell the difference between AI and Human in episode 2, or how Pomni immediately nails down Conjuring, something Kinger outlined as being difficult for humans but easier for something like Caine) But ultimately I think we'll need to see episode 9 first
oh right, Kinger, genuinely unsure what to make of him other than I guess he's very purple like Jax is? Though he's a lot less polished imo, it feels possibly like more of a clash between the ideas of Caine and Abel but honestly it's hard to get a read- though he does have blue eyes, Kinger has a much more realistic base model similar to Ragatha but it has goofy eyes and disembodied hands and moves in ways wood cannot leaning into Caine's style, honestly I don't have much to say on him- Though the fact he's primarily yellow as his actual model could also tie into how Zooble is also resilient- a *lot* of emphasis is put on Kinger's "resilient mind" such as episode 3 when he responds he just has "A resilient mind" when Pomni asks how he's survived so long, or how the console (likely Abel?) says "You've always had a resilient mind [...]" (likely calling him "Grant" as his pre-circus name? but that's another theory). So with this lens I actually had more to say on him than I thought, definitely interesting
. aaaand that's all my analysis for the colours used for the designs of our main cast- i dont think I'll do the same for characters like Ribbit, Kaufmo and Queenie since they barely got any screentime and I don't feel like speculating about their characters which we've barely seen
OH ALSO DISAPPEARING GUY REPRESENTS CAINE'S MORE BIZARRE AND ABSTRACT SENSE OF HUMOUR AND IS THUS REPRESENTED WITH RED AND MING IS A MUCH MORE GROUNDED AND DRY JOKE WHICH KINGER SPECIFICALLY LAUGHS AT HINTING IT COULD BE MORE ABEL, AND ALSO ORBSMAN IS REPRESENTED AS A COLLECTION OF BLUE ORBS WHILE "EVIL ORBSMAN" IS A COLLECTION OF RED ORBS THATS ALL I THINK, THERE IS PROBABLY LOTS MORE SYMBOLISM I MISSED I JUST REMEMBERED THESE TWO LAST MINUTE
OKAY BYEEEEEEE
(WAIT WAIT WAIT I WAS WRITING THE TAGS BUT ALSO THE WHOLE "EVIL BIG TOPS" THING FOCUSED ON PALETTE SWAPPING THE CHARACTERS, SWAPPING RED AND BLUE TO REPRESENT "EVIL" WHICH HAS A LOT OF NARRITIVE DEPTH IMO BUT IM NOT GOING TO GO INTO IT RN CUZ THIS IS ALREADY LONGER THAN I WANTED, BUT LIKE YOU COULD READ INTO IT SAYING A SHIFT IN PERSPECTIVE OR POSITIONS CAN CREATE THE PERCEPTION OF EVIL OKAY THATS ALL NOW)
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edit: added colours, tried adding images too but hit the character limit lmao, also spotted some more things brb making a new post
