you'll pay for this, Gooseworx!! I cried so much yesterday watching The Amazing Digital Circus - The Last Act in theaters. I'm sad it's over, but I liked the ending. I'm happy that Digital Circus is getting the recognition it deserves by going to theaters. @gooseworx
oh and my parents said it looks scary and that the characters are gonna crawl out of it when i’m asleep and kidnap me, and my sister thought tadc was a roblox game
link to my initial observations. they were just made using my memory and the leaked, low quality translated dub. most of this post will just be me saying "oh that's cool," "i ddin't notice that," etc.
kinger says "it's times like these they'll need someone like you to reach out to," and it's notable that jax was the only one who didn't reach out, or wasn't reached out to. also gangle seems more like she's apologizing to jax, which is interesting. an interesting theme i didn't notice the first time was how there's almost the theme of "you need to force people to get better." ragatha's monologue where she accepts to not bring up ribbit is shown to distance her from jax, same with ax trying to reach out but not being able to earlier in the episode.
gOD I LOVE THE LIGHTING AND ANIMATION. the first scene's animation is a bit weird, i think jax just generally looks weird with the lighting, but everything else is completely peak. i like how pomni has noir lighting when she's holding the gun, it sets a very different tone. i think that the "pomni entering jax's abstraction" segment is similar to the initial abstraction segment from episode 7, where it almost looks like parts of the brain. couldn't really confirm in the theatre though.
OOKAY TIME FOR MY FAVOURITE PARTS!!!
at the end of gangle's segment, she's standing in the same way that she does when she enters the circus, showing how little jax's interpretation of gangle has changed since she entered.
jax cutting his own head off at the end of the zooble segment is interesting.
in the jax quartet segment, it's interesting how jax censors himself, as if he can't see a life beyond this.
jax traumadump segment. rewatching this, it feels a lot more trans coded. like, "i was less of a man than him," "something deep and personal," "personal, degrading insults," "at the end of it all she hugged me." yknow, feminine solidarity and allat. and then. yknow. the bow. "YOUR SECRET'S SAFE WITH ME"??? and then as soon as kaufmo, a male, comes by, he rips off the bow. two memories before the snow place, ribbit approaches jax in the same way that jax approaches pomni before he abstracts. more in regards to the possible theme of "reaching out to someone," jax hesitating to knock on ribbit's door. also, rewatching it, yeah the "isn't she lovely" is entirely focused on jax, not pomni. so yea. also also, jax says "i hate you" to pomni, but earlier in the gangle segment, he almost interprets gangle saying "i hate you" as "i love you."
gangle crying with her happy mask on is so powerful. it really shows how much she's grown, that crying doesn't completely ruin her. she can cry without spiralling into a depressive episode (sad mask.) which is just such a great visual.
it's interesting that, when caine says "they tried to delete me," he hits the same pose and the camera is at the same angle as when he says "don't they know who i am?" as if showing that his vengeful side is still there.
looking at this again, i still stand by my theory that this is caine effectively re-training himself, but now i kinda see an additional metaphor in how caine doesn't get anywhere by using the same blue squares anymore. he has to use different shapes, try something new, to get anywhere.
there's an interesting parallel between how caine is shown as a human in the console, but the humans brain scans are a mess. he acts like a human, looks like a human, but still is not a human. humans are messy and erratic. "i can't create them." also, caine is the only character who is given a "second chance." ribbit, kaufmo and jax all have one shot, but caine is resurrected. he is afforded that luxury by virtue of not being human. it kinda feels parallel to how we put so much expectations on ourselves? i dunno.
in the pilot, caine's first action is damaging, vaguely traumatizing pomni. now, his first action is to fix pomni, to help pomni and the group. it's a nice parallel to end his character development.
the ending showing how the circus has changed is probably my favourite part. narratively, it doesn't do much, but it just makes me so happy. gangle excitedly showing caine her drawings while she has her sad mask... auuuughh its so peak... also gangle is eating a burger and fries, like spudsy's... so peak.
what a beautiful show. i don't think it's possible to put into words how much this show means to me and how much it's impacted me. it's really made me think a lot about myself, about how i treat people, and about how i can be a better person. im so glad that a show with such a passionate community, such a passionate team, and such a great message could exist in this day and age.
Even if we concede that, somehow, Jax being a trans woman wasn't fully canonized by the movie the way people talk about her on this fucking website should settle it
EP.9 of TADC, heavy stuff. Well, a lot of the previous 8 eps. was also heavy stuff. Though if you watched all that you knew that.
So I gotta wonder, why were parents taking their <10 year olds to come see this in theater?
Not discrediting comprehension of the younger fans, the gods know some of the messed up animated movies I watched growing up in the late 90's.
But with how the Internet works today, I'm shocked how many parents took their kids out, only to rush out half way through when stuff started to get real.
Maybe it should have received a PG-13 rating vs just PG, Maybe parents should have looked into the series more. Maybe it's an issue of the rating system itself considering it mainly rates based on sex/language/substance usage.
I guess it's just interesting to me, since I've also seen YouTube shorts from the younger fans where they talk about having to turn the EP off during some scenes.
Maybe it's an issue of how controlled the rest of the media they view up till now has been. How light hearted, sanitized, and not thought provoking it is.
Which ya, considering schools ban so many books, even goosebumps, I can't say I'm surprised.
We'll call it a wrap here I suppose.
P.s. no criticism on gooseworx here. I loved every min of it. This is about the broader world.
