the treatment of the abstracted throughout tadc is really interesting to me because of how wildly it changes. in the pilot, the abstracted are presented as thoughtless, rageful beasts with no semblence of humanity remaining who have entirely given up, but now we know this is nowhere near the case, but i think episode 9 sheds some light on why we (and everyone in the circus) thought of the abstracted like this.
abstraction is probably one of the most blatant metaphors in the entire series, it's quite literally said by zooble that abstraction is "giving up," ragatha says it's "losing your mind," etc, etc. abstraction is a metaphor for either suicide or insanity; this is even presented visually by the abstracted being just a bunch of jagged polygons with eyes. as symbolism, eyes usually represent feeling watched, but more frequently represent anxiety.
people who have abstracted are seen as inhuman due to their inability to communicate and their tendancy for violent outbursts. as a result, caine puts them in the cellar, grouped together for the sake of containment.
this sounds a lot like the asylum system of the 20th century; people with mental illnesses were/are seen as inhuman due to their inability to communicate and their tendency for outbursts (not inherently violent). as a result, the government placed them into asylums, grouped together for the sake of containment.
we know, however, that people who have abstracted are not mindless beasts. in episode 3, we're shown that being in darkness calms them down, enough so to touch and recognize people. in episode 9, we are even shown the mind of an abstracted person, jax, and we can see that he is still as concious as he was before, but only in the dark.
the label of being "mentally ill" inherently changes how people see you as a person. when someone is deemed mentally ill, it's usually because either they reach out or they reach a breaking point to where they can no longer hide their mental illness. abstraction is a visual representation of this. even from the pilot, we knew that the abstracted were still human, but because they could not control their actions, we assumed they were just mindless beasts.
what made me think of this is the treatment of jax in episode 9. given the newfound ability to choose, and new understanding of the nature of abstraction, the group adapts to allow jax to live in his new form.
even the way that pomni tries to "save" jax somewhat reflects mental illness. before she sees into jax's memories, she is trying to reverse abstraction, but after she understands what it actually is, and that jax is still jax, she (i assume) proposes the idea to allow jax to continue living with them.
this too reflects the treatment of mental illness in reality. once we began to understand what exactly mental illness is, what caused it, etc, we realized that people with mental illnesses could still live with us, they just required more care than others.
the glitchy effect that touching an abstraction causes i believe is also meant to elude to this. it is meant to show that people can take care of this mini-form of abstraction, that anyone can abstract but that with care it is okay.
i think this is why abstraction is not reversible; it's meant to send a message. once someone is deemed "mentally ill," they usually can't go back. they can still continue to live, though. i think that's partially what "finding meaning in a stagnant life" means; it's not to say that the world around them is stagnant, because it isn't by the end of episode 9, but that they themselves can stagnate and still find meaning. that isn't to say that this is entirely what this means, i think it applies to a lot of things in the story, but still it's an interesting angle to look at.
in the past, being deemed mentally ill was basically the end of your life. in an asylum, you would either spend the rest of your days locked up, effectively in jail, or you would literally die as a result of the treatment. similarly, in the past, abstraction was the end of your life, as you were sent into the cellar.
now, however, being deemed mentally ill is almost an opportunity at another chance at life. in the case of depression, anxiety, or other disorders that may lead to suicide, being given treatment is somewhat literally being given another chance at life. similarly, now abstraction is another chance at life.
i want to specify that i believe abstraction is specifically meant to represent suicide. the reason i've been refering to it as "mental illnesses" is because suicide, according to our understanding of psychology and human instincts, suicide should not be possible unless there is a mental illness present. (i understand this might sound really bad, if you dont understand what i'm saying, then tell me and maybe i could explain and/or make a secondary post, but as of now this post is way too long) also, mental illnesses/disorders are already shown to be present in non-abstracted individuals, being rather explicitly shown for gangle and zooble.
i dont have english this semester, but thanks to tadc i can still overanalyze media!!!!!!
SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT!!!!!!!!!!
holy shit.
ok im gonna get my complaints out of the way first so i can just yap about how much i liked this. first thing; kinda weird the circus just regains color without reason. was it because caine came back? maybe, but it doesn't seem likely or implied, since we see exactly what he does between returning and meeting the cast. i think jax should've died on screen, but also i didnt make the show, and so like anything i say is just my opinion.
uhh thats all i can think of for now. lets get right into the show!!!
i really like the intro, because it feels like it was made for theatres. i remember goose said "we had to cut the intro because of retention and stuff" and it's cool that it's back, not only for contrast, bt also because it's a full circle moment. also caine is dead. transitioning with the "day after day" is cool.
it feels like the team was struggling a bit with the new lighting, but still great animation. immediately dropping the brain scans was interesting, although expected. jax's crashout is awesome, tho, he really goes for the gut, and you can haer the pain in realization.
ok english major mode. when kinger fucks up, jax says "he messed up and everyone's going to be on his side!" which is a fair point. now that i think of it, this is kinda a repeated theme; apologizing for mistakes. when jax fucks up, he gaslights gatekeeps and girlbosses, but kinger immediately tells everyone what happened, how it happened, and then tries to fix it in the next scene. later on, (at the end) this idea of forgiveness is more explicitly given, with both the moon and zooble literally saying it. also, when they start fixing the circus, jax is the last to start helping (and doesn't end up helping at all.)
then, he dies. this is where the second theme i noticed comes up; the cycle of abuse and breaking the cycle of abuse. gangle says "i feel bad that i can't bring myself to cry for him." gangle was abused by jax, and i like how the show handles this.
ragatha is the one who breaks the cycle; despite being pushed away by jax, ragatha chooses to remain optimistic (at least put up the facade of such). as a result, pomni actually becomes optimistic and ends up properly breaking the cycle of abuse by saving jax.
i remember in the theatre, when pomni pulled out the gun, people literally gasped. i dont know if it was intentional, but everyone thought she was deadass about to shoot jax. instead, though, we get another drug trip (WHICH IS AWESOMELY DONE AS PER USUAL) and then the most interesting section to me personally.
we get a direct look into jax's psyche by seeing not only his reaction to different circus members abstracting, but also his interpretation of the other circus members.
jax interprets pomni reaching out as her trying to make him depend on her, literally interpretting what she says as "you need me, i can fix you." interestingly, he also interprets her as saying "i'm the only one left who can help you," implying that he doesn't think zooble, gangle or kinger are capable of helping him. now, why does he choke out pomni? is it a defensive mechanism, or is he actually a sadist? i don't know, to be honest.
gangle's section is interesting to me because of how jax sees gangle. jax, because of episode 4, can only really see gangle with her antidepressants now. when jax wears the maid outfit, gangle says "aren't you just doing this to make fun of zooble?" and he doesn't deny that, he instead turns the question around on gangle. he thinks that gangle is so fragile, so gangly, that she would fall to the ground from just hearing this. then... uhhh.... this scene made me uncomfortable! like genuinely!! this is jax's psyche, why is he flirting with gangle?
i like how zooble's section is done visually, using different angles, expressions, FOVs and a filter to make a cartoonish effect. jax sees zooble as violent, but also stupid. also, he thinks abstragedy is canon, and honestly, given the credits scene, i think it is. anyways this section is comic relief before pomni talks to jax.
ok so here there are 4 jax's. maid jax, homophobic jax, comic relief jax, and honest jax. maid jax repeatedly talks about gender roles, which does kinda imply that jax has a weird relationship with his (her?) gender. i will say, homophobic jax throwing the beer bottle at jax playing the piano feels like a drunken dad thing. the theatre literally erupted when jax said "reality is gay."
this section feels like a metaphor for pomni ripping through jax's layers of irony. she asks for the key to the door, the door which will lead her to the truth about jax, and maid jax quickly starts talking about gender roles again, but he dies, as does comic relief jax, and homophobic jax. in the end, honest/piano jax has the key, and he willingly gives it to her as his last act before disappearing. he's also chained to the piano, almost implying that piano was jax's only outlet.
side note: the repetition of the maid outfit, as well as him blushing after being given a bow does genuinely make me think jax is transfem., but it's never going to be confirmed, and that's ok.
now we get to see the life of jax. we see him learning to live in the circus, beginning to be friends with ribbit and kaufmo, actually having a good time with them and even opening up a bit. kaufmo saying "she will corrupt you" explains why jax was so mad about ragatha saying "you're trying to corrupt pomni!" and also... the cycle of abuse. kinda. something my friend noted is that, for this entire segment, the only time jax isn't in first person is when he's literally opening up. there is a parralel between jax's mother and pomni; when jax pushes his mother, she doesn't get back up, but pomni does. this is, again, kinda eluding to the cycle of abuse. anyways then ribbit technically get naked and jax takes the estrogen pill before gaslighting and gatekeeping but no longer girlbossing until ribbit kills herself. there is a direct parralel between kaufmo and pomni here; in pomni's jax psyche segment, after ragatha abstracts she says "if you need someone to talk to, i'm here," as does kaufmo when ribbit abstracts. this, again, eludes to the cycle of abuse, jax refusing help only until he can't anymore. during the jax crashout segment of the memory thing, i noticed his head tilt looked very unnatural. if you tilt your head, you will sorta snap to the position, but jax does it slowly, intentionally trying to get into pomni's head, which is a very nice touch.
i really really really like the parallel to episode 2 visually here. jax, abstracting, is falling into a bottomless pit, reaching out, just as pomni was in her dream in episode 2, and at the end of the episode, ragatha and jax pull her out. now, pomni returns the favor.
i almost cried here. jax is so scared. his life literally flashes before his eyes. but yea he's dead.
then, we return to the cycle of abuse. the focus is on gangle as she begins crying with her happy mask on (really cool touch!) and zooble helps her. the question is; without zooble, would gangle grow to be as hateful as jax? it's an interesting thought, imo.
ok, caine time! the first half of the episode is dedicated to the cycle of abuse, but the second half is dedicated to forgiveness. but first, something interesting here is that it looks like caine is re-training himself. we see him making shapes again, as a red dot. but then, he smashes through the wall (the same wall from the start of episode 8! i think that this is meant to be the trash bin) which is an inherently illogical and therefore human action. through his, he gains something of a body.
he goes back to the circus, the moon spells out the theme, and then caine does the same. here, it's importnat to note that, other than fixing the glitches, caine doesn't force a solution onto anyone. he asks about the jax fortress, and when they say it's under control, he listens. he asks them to come to the stage "whenever you're ready." it's a nice change of character. also this feels like such an apology video lmao.
now we see the real people, yada yada, it's cool it's cool. something i learnt from the truman show is that you can leave a mystery up to the audience, we don't need to know about how these people did. now, that said, i understand why goose did this, and i'm not against it. it is, admitedly, a really REALLY satisfying ending to know that everyone is ok. even jax.
i like how there is a line put between pomni and abby, because these are two different people. abby is not aware of pomni, and pomni has not had the same life as abby, and vice versa. i was expecting this episode to dive into ai conciousness, focusing on the whole "we're just brain scans thing" but as a finale that would be less satisfying than what we got. i am still a bit disappointed we never got an episode or even a segment really digging into that debate outside of technically episode 2, but whatever, i didn't write the show. this idea of pomni and abby being seperate people is about as deep as we get, and i'm fine with that, since it at least prompts the viewer to think deeper about this.
i like how, at the end after the screen zooms out beyond the void (i.e, into the internet) pomni waves at the camera. since, y'know, we're what's beyond the void. that's cute.
i was looking at the merch and under jax pendants it says "Is Jax inherently a terrible person or is his behaviour a result of his digital environment?" and that's a really good question. because we can see that in the real world, jax does get his shit together, which begs the question of if or if not the circus made him worse or not. we see him opening up to ribbit, before quickly closing them off, and then closing everyone off, likely because talking to ribbit reminded jax of his dad, hence the line "if i lash out, i'm just as bad as him, but if i show weakness, then i'm less of a man than he was." so, maybe being isolated actually made jax worse. shocking, i know, but comparatively to the other members, jax's real life story turned out significantly different to what we would've expected based on his actions in the circus. also im really surprised he didn't actually have lung cancer or do cocaine.
i wanna preface what i'm going to say with, i don't think i'm better than gooseworx, and i'm not saying that this is what should've happened, i'm just saying this is what i was expecting/would like to have been done. i still really like this episode.
the moral of the show is "there is meaning to be found in a stagnant life." however, in the end, the life isn't really that stagnant. if anything, life is less stagnant than before caine died, because now they can go run around and do shit together. (we can even see new islands being created in the credits) a more interesting direction, in my opinion, would've been to keep the circus grey and depressing, but have them live with it regardless. that is to then directly say, "our life is entirely stagnant now, but we will live with it. we are finding meaning, we aren't abstracting." i understand why gooseworx didn't do this though, since the actual ending is really satisfying. having everything work out for them is a lot better than saying "yeah things will get better," but it would be more powerful. regardless, i'm not gooseworx, and i still really like this ending.
credits and postcredits. gangle and zooble are literally banging. one may argue "caine wouldn't allow that," but he has clearly become more lenient. the no-sex rule was implemented by him alongside the no-swearing rule, so like... yknow. they probably aren't banging, since gangle is ribbons, just making out.
uhhh i dont really have anything else to say. i really, REALLY love this episode, and i've loved this entire series. this is probably one of the most well made series maybe even ever, definitely in contention for top 5 best indie series of all time. everything is so well done, from the animation to the lighting to the character design, themes, symbolism, writing, voice acting, for an indie team this really is such an incredible project. i feel like people forget that this is still an indie show, because it's so incredibly high quality. like, in episode 8, look at kinger's cloak when he's hugigng queenie. you can see the texturing. this is not a professional studio, but that's okay. it's still great, and the team went above and beyond.
it feels weird that tadc is ending. but, it had to eventually. nothing ever lasts forever, and i think that this is a great sendoff to such an amazing show. it sucks that it was tainted by a shitty fandom and leaks, but still it honestly shined past that to be probably one of the best theatre experiences and media i've ever been to/seen.
maybe ill make a video essay or something about the
i just realized my pride month video is coming out on the exact same day as tadc 9. coincidence? i think not
edit: damn this post doin numbers. i might add more to this post in the mroning (or tonight if a vision comes to me) but for now im going to sleep
deltarune claims to have one ending which means that somehow the weird route and normal route will converge. this means that there are only two possibilities for what could happen;
a) kris and noelle are not dead in the weird route
b) kris and noelle are dead in the weird route, and they will die in the normal route as well
thinking about it this way, the "only one ending" seems a lot more sinister. it's not saying "there's not multiple endings," it's saying "there is only one outcome." previously i thought that outcome would be the roaring, but now i think that outcome is that they die.
