#tadc pilot

[sarahth2]

I knew this looked familiar!!!!

Bonus;

[bwaybby09]

I hate that I only discovered this on The Amazing Digital Circus Wiki, but I want to ask Tumblr because I don’t see people talk about it much:

Does this mean anything to you guys?

[sunny-boooo]

Also, Caine was just lying. He CAN mess with people's minds in the Circus.

[toonsforkicks22]

TADC pilot but Scratch never abstracted

I HC he sounds like Nicolas Cage lol

[that-one-idiot-11]

i think about this scene often.

[interesting-blog]

Listen guys, I made a theory, maybe I'm crazy but I'm gonna leave it here anyway.

After the last episode, I've started thinking about some things.

In particular, this frame:

During this scene, Jax and Ribbit's hands resemble those of Adam and God in the Sistine Chapel. From this perspective, the hand of God corresponds to Jax's hand, but I think the hidden message is that Jax's actions are controlled by a higher entity, Caine.

The focus on hands made me think about this: Jax pushes Pomni away in the sixth episode and looks at his own hand with a traumatized expression, as if it had brought back a memory of a horrible gesture.

Maybe it's a bit of a stretch, but I think this physical contact has something to do with Ribbit's abstraction. Maybe Jax is convinced that getting too close to someone could lead to abstraction. At least, I think that's what Caine has convinced him of.

And probably Jax is convinced he also caused Kaufmo's abstraction, maybe during a fight about Ribbit. Jax would have then locked Kaufmo in his room pretending nothing had happened.

The emphasis on hands is also seen when Jax refuses to take Pomni's hand.

And also remember this part in the pilot:

Now, I'll add another information:

In the fourth episode, Jax's car license plate features the number "1138" in the top right corner.

I'm convinced this is a reference to George Lucas's "THX 1138", a movie that Lucas himself has confirmed was inspired by "I have no mouth and I must scream".

The story is set in a dystopian reality where humans are controlled and constantly monitored by a machine. They take pills to suppress their emotions and be efficient. The main character, THX 1138, begins to feel emotions for his roommate LUH 3417 after they both stop taking these substances. When they're discovered, LUH 3417 is deleted. The protagonist is also detained in a white space that vaguely resembles the Void from the series.

So the theory is: Caine abstracts the characters when they get too close to each other, maybe because he can't decode human emotions. But Caine lies, so he makes his players believe it's their fault.

Probably Kinger went crazy because he thought he had caused his wife to abstract. Kinger went crazy and can only have deep moments with someone in the dark, and Jax is completely blocked for fear of it happening again. Caine has dehumanized them.

THE CHARACTERS DON'T ABSTRACT WHEN THEY GO CRAZY, BUT WHEN THEY START BUILDING TRUE, HUMAN CONNECTIONS. CAINE DELETES THEM BECAUSE HE CAN'T INTERPRET THEM, FOR HIM IT'S LIKE A SYSTEM BUG.

And this is where Jax's speech about archetypes makes sense, Caine's goal is to keep them as simple characters, easy to interpret and predictable. When this deviates from his intent, when one of the players shows their human complexity, Caine interprets it as an error and deletes them… Shifting the blame to someone else, in order to put them back in their place.

[blurrypicturesofcaine]

Today's blurry Caine is: a menace.

[zebracorn-chan]

Maybe I'm just overthinking it, but:

The concept of two different types of abstractions depending on if Caine liked you or not. 🧠