thedigital-dumbcircus

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

Pomni reads Jax so well it hurts

So, in this scene we see that Pomni is trying to tell Jax that closing oneself off from others causes people to abstract.

Jax gets really angry here. Pomni can tell she struck a nerve.

She seemed to be trying to de-escalate the situation—apologizing instead of explaining what she meant.

It seems that, to Jax, the consideration of his own feelings is so foreign to him that it literally doesn’t appear in his mind as a possibility at all that Pomni could be worried about HIM.

I think Pomni saw this. She realized that Jax was volatile, and his true emotions being seen would set him off even worse. He’d be even more scared, so she let him believe she was blaming him.

Because she knows that the alternative—feeling vulnerable—would be much worse for him.

She knew that. That’s why she didn’t correct him.

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

hey guys happy digital circus pride month

[notyourfuckingalatea]

everyone say congratulations gooseworx

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

Was the character age list accurate?

Ragatha “is” 30

Tadc takes place in 2017

Ragatha joined the circus in 2008

Does that mean she’s thirty in the sense that in 2017, she was born in 1987? Or is she thirty in the sense that she died in 2008 (born 1978) when she “joined the circus” (holy euphemism), and she’s been thirty ever since?

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

I was confused on Jax’s reaction at first.

When Pomni put the bucket on Kinger’s head, I just figured that Jax didn’t like Caine talking about C&A because a business causing this would make the situation too realistic.

But on rewatch, I saw that he actually started squirming a bit earlier.

“What’s happening?”

“What is going on right now?”

I thought his reaction here was pretty weird. Like yeah, Kinger can talk normally in the dark. Everyone in the group immediately understood and started listening. Except for Jax.

“Wait! Uhh…”

Because Kinger just broke the script.

“Like it or not, all we are now is a bunch of cartoon characters.”

That script.

“We’re still people though, right?”

“I thought we were at first, but… as time goes on we just end up falling into our archetypes.”

“Kinger’s the crazy one…”

“Wait, the bucket makes him sane?”

He wasn’t just reacting to the C&A “adventure” being based on real life. He’s reacting to his script, his read of the situation, being broken actively.

Jax’s theory has been supported regularly, Ragatha constantly pushing a positive attitude, Zooble being grumpy, and even Gangle’s sad mask (he literally breaks her happy mask to reinforce his coping mechanism). Kinger was probably the most consistently archetypical “character” in the circus. And now his role is being undeniably shattered. Not only that, but it’s being shattered with more proof that the circus is full of real people.

“Just fill me in afterwards.”

Jax’s coping mechanism is essentially metaphysical solipsism. No one else here is real except for him, thus, he can do whatever he wants. Doing whatever he wants is one coping mechanism; controlling the world. Believing that the entire circus is meant to be predictable, cartoonish, and entirely fictional is the other coping mechanism: justifying that control.

He doesn’t seem to fully believe it (hence his grief over Ribbit and Kaufmo), but rather he forces himself to believe it. Because otherwise, he’d have to

- recognize that everything is real, so his situation isn’t a “funny cartoon thing,” it’s an active issue

- come to terms with the fact that he’s stuck like this forever and it really isn’t funny

- reckon with the consequences of his actions

- stop controlling the people around him for peace of mind

- or continue to do so with the awareness that he’s fully being a horrible person

“Oh my God. This is real.”

Kinger showing his sanity diminishes the entire basis for Jax’s denial.

And now he has to face his situation head-on.

[biceratops7]

This is so nail on the head accurate, but I’m gonna disagree with just one thing. I DO think Jax dehumanizes himself just as much as he does the others. He includes himself as “the funny one” when explaining everyone’s archetypes, and reacts badly when Pomni pushes hard against this.

“You’re not the funny one!” has an interesting double meaning because it’s not just telling him his bullying is cruel, she’s also saying there IS no “funny one”, or sad one, or grumpy one, or crazy one. He’s lost people, and we don’t know what the hell was going on in those photos, but whatever it was, it deeply scares him. If all of this is real and he isn’t nothing, then his cruelty mattered, his friends really are gone, and that bad thing really did happen.

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

I agree that he also dehumanizes himself with his own archetype, but what I c by that was that he is still the one experiencing the circus, whether or not it’s real or fake. He is trying to believe they’re all (including himself) a “part of the game,” but he’s still “the one” who has to make choices that impact the world from his point of view, and it’s inconsequential because the people around him aren’t people at all. He tries to fit into his role, so yeah he doesn’t truly see himself as real, but his own existence (the fact that he was conscious an making decisions) was something that may contest that if he broke character. He obviously still cares about his feelings and wants, even if it made him break character at times. But he still tries to see the others as their archetypes because they’re easier to control (eg breaking Gangle’s mask, pissing off Zooble). So he still clearly views himself as an active participator in the world compared to the others.

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

what am I genuinely gonna post about when this is over

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

I was confused on Jax’s reaction at first.

When Pomni put the bucket on Kinger’s head, I just figured that Jax didn’t like Caine talking about C&A because a business causing this would make the situation too realistic.

But on rewatch, I saw that he actually started squirming a bit earlier.

“What’s happening?”

“What is going on right now?”

I thought his reaction here was pretty weird. Like yeah, Kinger can talk normally in the dark. Everyone in the group immediately understood and started listening. Except for Jax.

“Wait! Uhh…”

Because Kinger just broke the script.

“Like it or not, all we are now is a bunch of cartoon characters.”

That script.

“We’re still people though, right?”

“I thought we were at first, but… as time goes on we just end up falling into our archetypes.”

“Kinger’s the crazy one…”

“Wait, the bucket makes him sane?”

He wasn’t just reacting to the C&A “adventure” being based on real life. He’s reacting to his script, his read of the situation, being broken actively.

Jax’s theory has been supported regularly, Ragatha constantly pushing a positive attitude, Zooble being grumpy, and even Gangle’s sad mask (he literally breaks her happy mask to reinforce his coping mechanism). Kinger was probably the most consistently archetypical “character” in the circus. And now his role is being undeniably shattered. Not only that, but it’s being shattered with more proof that the circus is full of real people.

“Just fill me in afterwards.”

Jax’s coping mechanism is essentially metaphysical solipsism. No one else here is real except for him, thus, he can do whatever he wants. Doing whatever he wants is one coping mechanism; controlling the world. Believing that the entire circus is meant to be predictable, cartoonish, and entirely fictional is the other coping mechanism: justifying that control.

He doesn’t seem to fully believe it (hence his grief over Ribbit and Kaufmo), but rather he forces himself to believe it. Because otherwise, he’d have to

- recognize that everything is real, so his situation isn’t a “funny cartoon thing,” it’s an active issue

- come to terms with the fact that he’s stuck like this forever and it really isn’t funny

- reckon with the consequences of his actions

- stop controlling the people around him for peace of mind

- or continue to do so with the awareness that he’s fully being a horrible person

“Oh my God. This is real.”

Kinger showing his sanity diminishes the entire basis for Jax’s denial.

And now he has to face his situation head-on.

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

Okay guys I dunno about you but I’m ready to see some gorey human Jax getting skinned art more funnybunny art! You know, to distract from how messed up episode 8 was.

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

haha okay jokes over guys where is it

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

Bubble deleted Caine, and it wasn’t an accident.

So, there are two AI characters in the circus, Caine and ???. The only two continuous AI (so not including Caine’s creations) are Caine himself, and Bubble. Thus, this thing is Bubble.

(Im going to currently assume it isn’t the “blue ai” that Caine consumes in this episodes intro, because it most likely wouldn’t be replaced by a disk defragment (cleanup) “character”)

@infinite-city-skies pointed out that the icon represents Defrag, which essentially acts as disc drive cleanup.

Bubble is Defrag.

Defrag overwrites things on drives.

When Caine was acting crazy and destructive, Defrag may have been trying to clean things up. It didn’t delete Caine itself, but overwrote Kinger’s instructions to force him into that result.

Kinger was unable to directly change things because the system (probably Caine’s) sensed that he was in there, and initiated a lockout. This was likely intended to protect Caine, as it hindered Kinger’s progress.

However Defrag (Bubble) wanted to delete Caine.

In the bottom few lines, the system asks if Kinger wants to retry. He selects Y, but the system doesn’t allow him to retry. It simply proceeds with the lockout. Overriding Kinger’s choice.

(More proof: Kinger selects “C” and the system reads it as “NONE”)

Kinger wants to stop this from happening, because he doesn’t want to delete Caine, only stop his rampage.

It says “Actually you are CONFUSED let me HELP ██nt module to EXIST? [Y/N]”

Whatever this is believes that Kinger wants to delete Caine (which would make sense, because Caine is acting crazy towards them) or intentionally ignores Kinger’s will. Either way, it seems to have taken it as a sign that Caine needed to go.

Thats why it encouraged Kinger to let it happen.

Defrag (Bubble) killed Caine.

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

Okay guys I dunno about you but I’m ready to see some gorey human Jax getting skinned art more funnybunny art! You know, to distract from how messed up episode 8 was.

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

October 15th seems to be an important date.

Ragatha 2008, Scratch 1999.

57 mention again

“ai/module/consciousnessresearch” stated at the top. What.

“Torment must be 100% accidental…”

Okay so we already knew Caine was an AI (character) in the circus. And that Bubble is an additional AI. Why isn’t it named? Unless that isn’t Bubble? Wasn’t it created by Caine? Why doesn’t the system label or name it?

Bubble was completely checked out here right after Caine disappeared. Perhaps it was a sort of parasite (foreshadowed) that relied on Caine?

Kinger was talking to “Caine” here.

Caine refers to Kinger as “G_an_” before saying he has a resourceful mind.

Kinger’s name in the real world was probably Grant.

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

“You know, things were just fine here until you and Zooble came along.”

He wasn’t talking about Kinger, he was there first

Wasn’t talking about Ragatha, because she was there before Jax

Zooble was already mentioned

Must have been talking about Gangle or Pomni

He said this right after Pomni returned, but I’m going to assume he was talking about Gangle because she’s more often paired with Zooble, and the “you” he refers to was listed before Zooble.

“We’ve been together for every team adventure in the past.”

He probably used Gangle as a replacement teammate after Ribbit’s abstraction.

Ribbit and Jax are a duo

—> Gangle arrives

—> Ribbit abstracts

—> Gangle and Jax are a duo

—> Zooble arrives

—> Jax no longer has a teammate

The fact that it’s implied he was last there with Ribbit (and Kaufmo), means it’s likely that his comment (that was bait, but either way) is rooted in him losing them after Gangle’s arrival.

And maybe jealousy (?) after Zooble became friends with her.

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

New image just dropped. Last one coming Friday @ 3

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

It’s going to be a picture of Caine, posted a few hours before the official release of episode 8. Also, it looks like Abel’s story isn’t finished? 👀

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

New image just dropped. Last one coming Friday @ 3

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

Queenie making an appearance in TADC episode 8?!

Maybe?

- same hands as kinger (shared design)

- red outfit (similar black spots on the white part)

- off screen to preserve mystique

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

Friendly reminder that this is the only time Jax swears in the entire show.

[beezkneez12]

my ongoing theory is that its part of his "playing into our roles" hardcore dissociation thing. by his logic, hes a cartoon character in a (according to caine) family friendly world so why would he cuss??

he was pulled out of his dissociation during his fight with pomni which made his "in character" mask slip. you even see him kind of flinch and try to regain his composure after he curses in the scene before snapping and doing it again. its similar to how he reacts violently everytime he realizes he's behaving "out of character" because it makes him feel like hes not in control of himself which he very clearly does NOT like.

thats just how i view it

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

Yes exactly 100% I completely agree. I also feel like in part, it’s because the bleeping of cuss words pisses him off. Because his words would quite literally be controlled by Caine, and he wants to avoid any reminder that he doesn’t have control.

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

Dewdle