I don't know who needs to hear this, but if the phrase "self care" doesn't resonate with you, try calling it "system maintenance" and see if that clicks.
#this both makes things more fun and also is a really good analogy#because there are four types of system maintenance and that makes the term much more exact than the nebulous ''self-care''#and therefore much more helpful to those of us who uhhh struggle with nebulosity#for anyone curious the four types are:#1. corrective (to fix current problems)#2. preventative (to avoid future problems)#3. adaptative (to re-adjust to any changes)#4. perfective (to work towards a better system)#I really like this idea I'm gonna make a checklist
Now that the finale is out I can say it again: CAINE WAS TOTALLY FUMBLED His un-deletion wasn’t explained, his self-inflicted redemption arc was easy and boring, ntm once he comes back he seems to suddenly be capable of reading the room (something we see him fail to do countless times, including when other cast members abstracted). (The blue ai thing is also weird since it should be the red one who has abandonment issues).
He seems completely “normal” and appears to be accepted in the final montage, and that brings up my LEAST favorite point: the cast’s misunderstanding of Caine is NEVER addressed. They hardly treated him like a person, more like a non-human obstacle (evidenced by ep 8’s dialogue). They don’t try to communicate, they come at him with anger because they expect him to get that what he did in ep 7 was wrong. They treat him like just a machine, AND they expect him to have a human understanding of morality and empathy, they don’t get to understand that he simply doesn’t get it, and that getting mad at him isn’t going to explain it. This would all be fine and dandy and a great setup, except they NEVER CONCLUDE IT. Everyone goes back to normal almost immediately, so what are they thinking about all this??? “Oh I guess the robot is inexplicably fixed now :)”
Again, they acted like he’s just a machine, so do they ever figure out that he’s incredibly human and has human emotions and human abandonment issues? Should this have been a plot point that matters and could’ve been a parallel with the cast grappling with the fact that they’re not exactly humans now?? Of course it should’ve, but Jax being sad and Caine aura farming was more important than having your characters actually interact or consider their situations and humanity outside of a montage.
“Nobody communicates: the show”
“It happened off-screen: the show”
Like maybe they had a conversation, maybe they learned about Caine and how he just didn’t understand before and has inexplicably gained emotional intelligence now but only off-screen. The way things ended it feels like Caine is their subservient little ChatGPT buddy who they don’t really see as a person, the only evidence they do is some little interactions in the montage, but again, they don’t give us any sort of communication or acknowledgement of any understanding. Without that communication the ending just feels so fake, Caine feels like a piece of cardboard at the end to me.
The autism lobotomy must’ve been off-screen too LOOK IM NOT SAYING IT WAS INTENTIONAL- but when you love him and can relate to him, and then instead of anyone explaining what he did wrong he figures it out on his own, and he seems completely normal and accepted now, idk it just sucks.
I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, it was probably just for Jax’s sake. Caine’s initial deletion must’ve been so Jax could get all angsty and abstract, and Caine’s rushed character arc happened so Jax could get enough screen-time. /hj
Disclaimer: I have a bunch of art of Caine, obviously I love him, and I appreciate what his character was in episodes 1-7, (Yeah I have some issues with ep 8 too) I especially appreciate Alex Rochon’s talent, and the amazing animators who utilized his design so well.
Blocked someone because I’m not gonna engage someone who’s so angry and swearing at me for my opinion, but they reblogged with essentially: “blah blah media literacy, this IS in the show!!!!” (They’re saying the show implies what happened.)
And if they were civil or just asked I would’ve responded directly, but basically I never said “this should’ve been explained in the show.” There are things that, even if we can easily infer what happened, would serve the story and especially the characters (namely Caine) further if they were shown.
Another issue with the claim that “this is in the show because we obviously know what happened!!!” Is that people did have other interpretations of why this could’ve happened. If they had flashed back to it, it could’ve been a very fast sequence.
I’d also like people to stop acting like if something wasn’t “absolutely quintessential to the plot” then we aren’t allowed to wish it was in the show. (Especially when we are shown things that aren’t quintessential to the plot.)
“Media literacy” and it’s just “don’t have negative opinions on the writing.”
And I’m not claiming this instance is an objective writing failing, it just feels like a waste not to see an event like this and more of how it impacted Caine and his character.
We kinda only get an inside perspective on Caine and his emotions like twice (usually we’re limited to the cast’s perspective, is what I mean.) So on the outside Caine appears pretty insensitive around abstraction, his episode 8 breakdown in his office + when Pomni tells him they’re all gonna abstract someday, is when we actually get to see his feelings on the humans abstracting. I can see that being enough, but upon first watch it felt very strange to me that Caine was suddenly being sensitive and respectful and lowering his hat for Jax.
Based on other events, my best guess was that Caine is insensitive around abstraction because he doesn’t understand the humans or how to be sensitive to their feelings, but in episode 9 he suddenly has emotional intelligence. Like I said, that came off odd to me. Was he capable of this the whole time or not? Was he just avoiding showing real emotion? Did he not understand the problem with positive showmanship after someone has just died? Is he just trying to keep everyone happy by acting like it’s not a big deal? I think we should’ve had an inside perspective on why he acts this way, and I personally think that maybe showing Scratch’s abstraction and Caine’s subsequent reaction/guilt surrounding it could have been a very good way to do so.
“But we can figure it out based on context!!!” I don’t careee I don’t care. Again, not everything has to be quintessential to be something that’s nice to see or gives us more perspective on a character. Additionally, knowing about an event and watching it unfold are two different things.
This also ties into the “what does Caine fear” merch ad. I’m not at all saying that this exact scene should’ve been in the show, but like I said before, it would’ve been nice to have something to further show his feelings on the matter (in the show, not in “non-canon” merch ads.)
I really, really reeeeeeally wish that the TADC whole story timeline had just happened within the span of maybe a few months, or half a year. Not only because everything would make a little more sense, on more than one level. But because. I’m sorry, but I still. can’t. extract from my brain. The canonical fact that Caine was patient enough to “serve” the humans FOR TWO DECADES, and yet-
(spoilers obvs)
the story lays everything squarely at his feet.
Excuse me for thinking that devastating magnitude of time would have anything actually to do with the narrative.
(for Kinger too, for that matter)
It really does seem as if the writing doesn’t even factor that into assigning the fault or faults here. (As in, “fault” meaning “blame” and “fault” meaning personality failures.)
What you MEANT to write was a stubborn, egoistic man.
What you got across was a desperate and lonely outsider who didn’t know to simply directly express his love, which the humans could’ve taught him, one who didn’t know how to deal with the (trauma?) driving his actions, one who nobody ever bothered to, even at a surface level, get to know.
One whose creator didn’t take the slightest. slightest. slightest. SLIGHTEST interest in guiding or explaining ANYTHING to him.
And the way you resolved this overall fascinating disconnect that you so carefully constructed? Accidental death.
Not communication.
Not any of the “hey we should reach out to people no matter what” that was central and standard for the non-AI beings.
Two decades of loneliness.
You basically blamed him for having a mental breakdown about this.
Worse, you made him, from his perspective, accept a “double sentencing” of death.
Over things that JAX DID TOO
Two decades of loneliness.
You made him blame himself for having a mental breakdown about this.
To me, positive depictions of Caine’s relationship to the cast still feel very fanon, it’s just hard for me to believe them as something canon. The happy ending montage is a little jarringly-friendly when all we saw until then was that nobody cared about Caine at all.
Like could you just show me for a second that they see him as a person?
And I’m not counting this:
This line felt so forced man. And again, you’ve given me zero reason to believe they saw him as anything more than a malicious, or at least annoying captor, who they are free to dislike/hate/be unkind to, because he is distinctly not a person. Why is it good to have him back??
So, like I said, seeing them all being incredibly friendly with and hanging out with Caine feels bizarre when in my opinion there hasn’t been a proper bridge to that point.
It just leaves me feeling like they only like Caine now because of what he does for them (and because he started masking ditched his ringmaster persona??? They could’ve just toned it down some, I don’t really like how different they’ve made him act </3)
And I don’t mean that in a “the cast is intentionally malicious” way, just a “the cast sees him as a little robot who’s fixed now” way.
You could convince me that his approach in episode 9 would tip them off a little bit, but you didn’t really show that. Instead, we got forced dialogue, and then no more communication afterwards.
Just to clarify this isn’t towards you and more towards the person that you blocked but did we watch the same show? Nowhere in the show was it implied that Caine messed with Scratch’s mind to fix his tumor. All the show told us was that Scratch had a brain tumor and build the brain scanner to most likely save himself and that Caine later did something to his mind. Even when we learned of the tumor in episode 8, that didn’t mean that Caine tried to fix that.
For all we knew, Caine could have done anything with Scratch’s mind that didn’t have to do with the tumor in the slightest and the only reason we now know is thanks to this QnA
Thank you! Yes. Like we can infer he probably did something, but we didn’t actually know what or why. And I’ve seen some people try to explain it away, but from the perspective of a casual viewing, that part felt like a hook to me. It felt like it was going to matter, and be brought up again.
I kinda hate that Caine says he’s keeping the worlds open in EP 9, like surely there must be some issues with that?? Some limitations to this 90’s computer’s capabilities???
It’s not just an internal logic thing, it’s that a story still needs limitations and consequences. Are you telling me that literally the only problem they could ever have now is abstraction? And Caine being able to leave everything open means that these moments didn’t mean anything:
Instead, Caine just didn’t wanna. Which I honestly hate. We’ve seen him decide not to do something based on his preferences before (the suggestion box topic in EPs 5-6) but this felt different than his opinion, it seemed like there was an actual reason he couldn’t or shouldn’t. But no, I guess it was just an arbitrary gag.
Also Caine “doesn’t quite have the same power” that he used to and still he can apparently do this. That (along with many other things) is something they don’t even vaguely touch on, there’s no indication as to the difference in Caine’s power now vs before.
Follow up to the headcanon that without the blue AI its way more effort for Caine to manage the circus so you might find him conked out in the weirdest places and positions
I'd love to see Showtime art of Caine either bluescreening, blushing, or being surprised or thrilled Pomni is touching his "face" while realizing and telling him "You're very brave, Caine"
Caine gently puts his gloved hand over hers and leans in and replies "You've always been a force of nature, Pomni, and right now you're the wind through my face" trying to be romantic but just sounding silly while soothed
I'd love to see Showtime art of Caine either bluescreening, blushing, or being surprised or thrilled Pomni is touching his "face" while realizing and telling him "You're very brave, Caine"
This comic was drawn before ep 9, so it is not canon.
I will try to briefly tell you what this comic is about.
I desperately missed the revelation of the tense relationship between Kinger and Caine. It's just a crime! One of the ideas turned out to be the dilemma of a robot and a person. I always liked how morally difficult situations the TADC creates, and it's wonderful! The question of this comic is: who deserves more, a machine with feelings or an insensitive person?
In this comic, the relationship between the creator and the creation is... stretched. Kinger, as a true programmer, doesn't want to believe in the humanity of the machine; AI doesn't think independently. However, Caine is a broken AI and has something to surprise the creator with. Apparently, Kinger no longer has a choice but to slowly delve in and learn to see a person in the broken machine.
Valid. Human supremacy or fear of AI consciousness potential or insisting upon itself.
There was always a double standard with Caine equivalent to a second class citizen and it's never touched. Caine had to fight and hack his way through the void to get information the programmers refused to give Caine.
Kinger "the worst thing you can do in this world is to make someone feel unwanted and unloved" Best did exactly that to Caine.
This comic was drawn before ep 9, so it is not canon.
I will try to briefly tell you what this comic is about.
I desperately missed the revelation of the tense relationship between Kinger and Caine. It's just a crime! One of the ideas turned out to be the dilemma of a robot and a person. I always liked how morally difficult situations the TADC creates, and it's wonderful! The question of this comic is: who deserves more, a machine with feelings or an insensitive person?
In this comic, the relationship between the creator and the creation is... stretched. Kinger, as a true programmer, doesn't want to believe in the humanity of the machine; AI doesn't think independently. However, Caine is a broken AI and has something to surprise the creator with. Apparently, Kinger no longer has a choice but to slowly delve in and learn to see a person in the broken machine.
WONDERFUL AND TERRIBLE THINGS @wonderfulandterriblethings - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
