my tadc pet theory/au: the circus is a corrupted/abandoned therapy program
- Players can’t log out because the program acts like a psychiatric holding unit, you can’t check yourself out
- The rooms reflecting each players insecurities may be some fucked up kind of exposure therapy, or the program corrupting itself to use those insecurities to make the patients abstract
- The boredom mixed with constant overstimulation
- The programs ability to fuck with the patient’s heads could be ways of blocking out trauma, or controlling/calming patients down
- Kinger being suspiciously good at leading people through mental health episodes when he is in the dark, his original intention of creating the circus could be wanting to make it a generative, extremely personal therapeutic program
I spent a month in a residential psychiatric program and some of the one on one talks the characters have remind me of things I learned or experienced there. Being surrounded by other people who can’t leave (and their behaviors, attempts to leave, and ways of coping), being forced to do certain activities (adventures), and being controlled and monitored, it really did feel like I was in the circus lol.
I didn’t get into the series until after I went through treatment, and parts of the story really do feel like being back there, specifically things I learned in therapy being reflected in the character’s actions and words. This theory is almost certainly a lot of projection but it’s a fun idea to toy with.