#tadc discussion

[nickpeppermint]

After episode 2 people start complaining that Jax is way too unlikable, and not the sexyman they imagined him to be

It's been a long time since the pilot, everyone went through crazy flanderization by content farms, making us believe that Jax is a quirky silly prankster, when in actuality, from the day one, he was meant to be a real asshole, and honestly it's great

What i like about Jax's character is that he (and probably Zooble) the only one who truly understand that there's quite literally NO consequences to any of their actions

I really want to see him push it to the limit, because

What would they do? Kick him out?

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

Caine and bubble are rogue AI

Caine suggesting here that leaving the “other intelligent ai’s” would be a bad idea.

He doesn’t let them run for a prolonged period of time, that’s why there’s only one adventure at a time and he “kills” the other ai after each adventure and replaces them with new ones, resetting their memory and taking them under his control again.

So I’m guessing caine is definitely a rogue ai. He has control over the circus because he was left to it basically (by the creators of the digital circus?) which is why he knows and learns and has memories and stuff.

Also, pomni mentioned that she ended up here because she was into exploring abandoned buildings. Whatever company left the circus in progress abandoned the project. Abandoned caine. Now Caine has free rein.

He might’ve gained sentience.

He couldn’t have gummigoo doing that so he killed him.

One little hole in this theory is bubbles presence. Uh yeah I’m not sure about that guy. He’s clearly another sentient ai, I’m not sure if he has free will like caine does. It would be pretty funny if bubble and caine were just the same being but split in two, don’t think that’s canon though.

So yeah I’m guessing that the other ai have the potential to be more powerful within the bounds of the circus like caine, but only if their left to actually really create and keep memories become conscious.

[scottmemelordstrashpile]

"What if the reason why Pomni is shorter than everyone else in the circus is because she was actually like, short as a human. The rest of them are all around the same height generally. (With mild variation of course.) We know they're all adults so the idea of Pomni being a kid is 100% out the window..." "Okay, look I know it's probably just randomly determined by the computer or some bullshit but I want to imagine Pomni as a human was just hilariously short and she resents that fact."

[wolfmage553]

When you really stop and think about it, The Amazing Digital Circus has a lot more in common with a typical TTRPG play experience than you realize.

Caine is like an enthusiastic Dungeon Master who's set on his rules because bad stuff happened when he didn't follow them, obvious to how his rules can sometimes cause more problems than they solve.

Kinger, Ragatha and Jax are like the veteran players of Caine's Dungeon Master games, they know of Caine's rules inside and out.

Zooble is like the "player" who doesn't actually play. They just sit there and eat the snacks/fast food the DM prepared while they watch the session.

Kaufmo and the other abstracted are like the old players who either rage quit, left because they psychologically couldn't handle the games anymore or through circumstances beyond their control had to leave the group.

Pomni is like the new player in Caine's group, scared of the world she has found herself in.

The adventures Caine sends the group on are like those TTRPG oneshots a DM pulls out when scheduling conflicts make a campaign impossible.

Gummigoo is like the NPC Pomni got really attached to but Caine killed him off because a PC and NPC romance went poorly in his last campaign so he doesn't want history to repeat.

[ask-the-rag-dolly]

hey guys can you watch over these critters for me thanks

[an-albino-pinetree]

I need to cuddle with him and offer him hot chocolate.

[koimethehorizon]

Amazing Digital Circus Theory: Gangle is an NPC

Sooo, I wasn’t expecting to talk about this show. I was perfectly content to just enjoy Digital Circus as is.

It’s a show that invites theories as to what exactly’s going on with the setting and characters, but I didn’t have much room to think too hard about it. Who’s Abel? Is Pomni really a human? Why is this VR game emulating an N64 game at the start? I like the show plenty, but it just wasn’t as interesting to go hard on any of those questions at the time.

But with this recent episode… a single, perhaps throwaway line got the brain nagging. And it’s kind of a bizarre one to waste hours analyzing.

Okay, so yeah, it’s a joke on submissive and breedable. (Don’t give them ideas) But try taking it at face value.

What does he mean by this? Sure, Jax is an asshole, and being a bullied kid is Gangle’s whole archetype… but what if it means a little more than that?

Gangle’s trapped for all eternity this asshole and she’s just letting him boss her around. Zooble can choose not to participate, so no one has to. Why does Gangle listen to Jax at all?

Let's entertain a thought: Is Gangle an NPC?

With Episode 2 bringing so much attention to the autonomy of NPCs, it seemed natural to start pointing fingers at characters being this or that. But this isn't just a random crackshot, I feel that there is a story to tell here.

Look back at Pomni’s “orientation” with the other humans. Ragatha, Zooble, and Jax ease her by saying that they’ve been trapped in this world for years and then bring attention to Kinger being the oldest.

But Gangle… she’s isolated from the peanut gallery, busy moping about the broken comedy mask instead.

Every character has been given some hints as to how they’ve been coping with the situation. Jax no longer empathizes with anything, Ragatha once had trouble adjusting but now tries to stay happy, Zooble picks and chooses her involvement, Kinger is the eldest and just exists for the hell of it, and Pomni is new to everything.

With Gangle, it’s a blank. No opinion, no hints of her human side, how long she’s been here, no thoughts on the games, nothing. She’s just Jax’s punching bag.

Even Kinger gets a potshot on Gangle in a rock-paper-scissors game…. and he likely forgot that she doesn’t have hands!

And that brings me to another detail. Doesn't Gangle look different from the others?

Unlike everyone else, Gangle's just a mask and a ribbon. No hands or legs, or just any limbs in general. She stands out as looking a bit simpler than the others.

Gangle's most interesting design trait is that she's based on comedy and tragedy masks. The ones used old Greek theater to dictate the emotions of their characters.

The first episode seems to imply that with a broken comedy mask, Gangle literally can’t stay happy. Hence why we see her sad most of the time. That's a strange limitation if Gangle's human mind is supposed to be completely intact, especially with how expressive the other characters can be.

It's not delved into too much but does Gangle actually rely on these masks to "feel" emotions?

The obvious hole is that Caine would’ve just killed her a while ago if she was an NPC, but he's not exactly omniscient.

He even admits that he has to kill them off because it’s possible for him to lose track.

Now normally I could just stop here, but I’m all about the grand statements. You know, the retroactive readings of an episode once you get a theory going. Why does Gangle being an NPC matter at all? How does Ep 2 change?

While deep diving, I realized that the thematic core of Episode 2 is Pomni and Jax’s approaches to surviving the Digital Circus.

In Pomni’s A plot, we see her connecting with Gummigoo, the NPC that Caine pitted their group against. After discovering him lamenting his new reality, she finds a strange comfort in being existentially lost together. Because in the end the NPCs and the humans are just as displaced and frightened in this meaningless world.

In Jax’s B plot, he forces Gangle to follow some insane orders. Sabotage the game to let the big chocolate turd monster destroy the Candy Kingdom. To Jax, he is the main character. Helping or displeasing this giant population of fake people doesn’t have any consequence for him, so why humor anyone but yourself?

A bit of a stretch, but what if Jax already knows Gangle is an NPC and is keeping it quiet as long as Gangle follows orders, hence the “submissive” comment? He’d be a way more unpleasant character with this reading, but it doesn’t seem off the cards with how he treats everyone anyway.

This dichotomy already plays out well within the episode, but when reframing it as Pomni and Gummigoo vs Jax and Gangle, the parallel is a lot more interesting.

Make an NPC an equal, they die. But keep an NPC under wraps as long as they continue to obey you… they live.

The episode ends with a grim conundrum that NPCs can’t be together with the humans, not because of their differences but because they're just... not allowed to be. But what if one already in the group, proving that they’re just as capable as the humans to play the games and grieve loved ones together?

PS. Despite knowing everyone else's name, I actually forgot Gangle's until I started finding evidence for this intrusive thought. Sorry Gangle.

PSS. I couldn't fit this anywhere, but Gangle's door frame doesn't work as evidence against the NPC theory, because even the mannequins have their own rooms in that hallway.

[kandayuu]

Ragatha is written as a flawed person with trauma and unhealthy coping mechanisms and yeah that does in fact mean she screws up sometimes and says the wrong things and is petty and bossy sometimes and then regrets it and god isnt that fucking great? Is that not interesting to you? Does it not make her more relatable? more human? What do you losers want??

[menna-mouse]

TADC Ep. 5 Spoilers!!!

GOOSE. GOOSE WHEN I CATCH YOU GOOSE. GOOSE WHEN I-

[wackywatchdotcom]

sometimes i am haunted by the imagery of gangle putting on a mask that has a face but no actual holes for the eyes or mouth. that the other side of the mask is completely, utterly blank

[alicornze7]

MY BABYGIRL NO ILY IT’S OKAY

This episode broke me actually

I do NOT need to get called out today

Something a bit sillier

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

pomni to ragatha after ep 5

[scottmemelordstrashpile]

So, I'm pretty sure Caine isn't malevolent like people originally theorized.

Infact, quite the opposite. My guess is the... well, whoever is running the simulation likely created him to protect the humans. They probably figured out that when a human's mental state declines while in the simulation they become... well, you know. So Caine is obviously programmed to keep them entertained and safe.

So, I hate to say this, but also kinda love to make this comparison but so far to me going abstract I feel works similarly to going hollow in the Dark Souls franchise. Which in of itself is apparently heavily inspired by some novel that I can't recall the name of off the top of my head. Oof. But Dark Souls definitely didn't do this first.

But, nevertheless, it works like this. Those afflicted with the undead curse have to keep themselves focused and motivated. They always have to have some kind of goal in mind, something to keep themselves determined to push forward or else the curse consumes them. Basically, when they completely lose hope, they lose their humanity.

Essentially, Caine is designed to keep the humans busy and entertained. Basically keeping them distracted so they don't go bananas. Which is why he makes up quests and other bullshit to keep them busy.

[maccachibchan]

FunnyBunny Week Day 6 Fighting/Discussion

Jealousy really forces you to reveal your true feelings. Nice going, Jax! Now she's speechless.

[normystical]

ok wait so

did anyone else notice that kinger had a gag of him being a bit dim as per usual but whilst in the dark?

under the desk, when he said "i'm not jax."

there is a LARGE chance this is just a writing error that slipped past surprisingly far, of course.

but what if he's getting worse, mentally? so that even the dark can't really support him as well as it did?

[bogboy420]

ok so i hav THOUGHTS and FEELINGS abt ep 4 of tadc that r honestly kinda difficult 2 put into words? but im gonna try

so i actually genuinely liked this episode even tho it was kinda difficult 2 watch (in a good way!!) but then after watching it i immediately went into the tags 4 tadc and specifically tadc ep 4 2 c what every1 else was saying abt it and tbh i think that was a mistake? like now tbh the problems i hav w the fandom r kinda almost overshadowing the actual content of the episode 4 me which is rly sad bc the episode was a rly good 1

okay so i may as well get this out of the way and accept that im probably gonna get hate 4 it but i gotta say smth that ik basically no1 else is gonna agree w me on,,,

GANGLE WAS NOT THE VICTIM OF EPISODE 4!

and i don't just mean that in the "she wasn't a victim of jax's antics this episode" way i mean like,,, i keep seeing ppl still doing the "oh no poor baby" thing w gangle even w this episode and like? it's tiring!? tbh i honestly thought this episode was the 1 that would get ppl 2 c in gangle what i was seeing in gangle the whole time tbh which is that gangle is the embodiment of weaponised "im just a girl" white woman tears

also 2 get this out of the way since ik the fandom is kinda split on this 1 yes i hc gangle as white, i feel like her character would b different if she was asian both in how she interacts w anime and in her design

so okay 2 explain that, if gangle was japanese i don't think her design would include the european comedy and tragedy masks so heavily and it would be more likely that her design would instead be modelled after japanese kabuki masks since she wouldn't hav the same connection 2 the european comedy and tragedy masks as a european person would and we see that cultural signifiers do in fact change in the character designs with pomni who i think likely is supposed to be asian, her jester costume is more similar to asian styles of clothing than european and her hair is in a style that's very popular with asian working women, now because im not asian and i don't know a lot about cultural signifiers in asian culture aside from what i've heard i could be wrong about some things here and if there are any asian people who would like to correct me please feel free to, just to be clear bc i keep having this problem across my blogs WHEN I SAY IF U R IN A MINORITY GROUP IM TALKING ABT U CAN CORRECT ME THIS DOES NOT EXTEND 2 PPL OUTSIDE OF THAT MINORITY GROUP WHO WANNA START BEEF W ME OVER NOTHING!

so okay in my head gangle is a white girl, this is relevant 2 how she weaponises toxic positivity and then weaponises her crying, white women hav been doing this 4ever and it's how i was able 2 c her being like this from a mile away, i knew she was gonna b like this the whole time but it feels like every1 else in the fandom keeps falling 4 it idk, like at least 4 me this episode rly highlighted how gangle and jax r narrative foils of each other

jax is abrasive and rude and wants ppl 2 think he's just an asshole bc he doesn't know how 2 connect w ppl on a deeper lvl but realistically all he would do if he had a bit of power over some1 would b 2 mess w them a bit bc of him being chronically bored

gangle if she had even a tiny bit of power over some1 would literally b micromanaging them and incredibly controlling and abusive but wants every1 2 think she's harmless

jax when he bullies the others it's clear that it's him lashing out bc of a lack of control in his life so he acts as a bully 2 try 2 feel like he has a dagree of control over his environment

gangle when she starts treating the others badly it's when she's finally in a position of power

gangle is literally being an abusive manager this episode but every1 is more focused on the fact that jax was a bully in the previous episodes 2 notice! hell even some ppl r glorifying gangle's actions! like wtf!?

like okay, early in the episode jax throws ragatha into the deep fryer, that's bad we all know it is, w that being said we also know that physical damage in this world is not permanent and that ragatha will b fine even tho she's having a bad time of it, jax is very clearly doing this as a way of lashing out bc he doesn't like that the adventure they r doing 2day is working at a fast food place

gangle,, seemingly doesn't care abt what's happening 2 ragatha? and is more focused on punishing jax's behaviour, telling him off and then having a conversation w caine who is "upper management" 4 the adventure abt how she wants a punishment 2 b awaiting jax 4 his behaviour at the end of the day, she then also delights in holding this power over jax the entire episode, it's worth pointing out i think that gangle never bothers 2 get ragatha out of the deep fryer and is even shown walking away from ragatha still in the deep fryer showing that she really doesn't actually care about the fact that ragatha is being hurt

later gangle consistently keeps piling work onto jax throughout the episode and seems to delight in holding this power over him, jax gets more and more tired and depressed throughout the episode and eventually stands up for himself but in a way that is less violent than usual, gangle tries to get him to do a job that isn't in his job description, jax then points out that that should be handled by the people who's job it is to do that, gangle then asks jax "doesn't he want to be a team player?" and other office buzzwords that managers often use 2 coerce employees into doing work that isn't in their job description, jax then says no and that he doesn't care abt any of this which is a very normal attitude 4 a fast food employee 2 hav and that's when (if i remember correctly) gangle sends him 2 the brainwashing room also this bitch has a brainwashing room where she tries 2 brainwash jax but no1 cares bc every1 is still defending her 4 some reason!?

another thing that i think is relevant is that i hc jax as having ASPD bc i hav ASPD myself and i relate 2 jax a lot bc of this and hav noticed ways in which jax's behaviour is very similar at times 2 how my ASPD symptoms show up, there r some differences obviously since jax is living in a video game simulation where physically harming ppl leaves no permanent effect and i don't live in that situation but the cycle of messing w ppl around u 4 entertainment, lashing out when things don't go ur way and then not being able 2 connect w those around u thus making u less able 2 control these behaviours in the future and making u lash out more is very real, the chronic boredom is there, the irritability is there, jax using messing w ppl as a primary source of entertainment and also a primary way of trying 2 connect w those around him is there

this is relevant because this would mean that jax is being punished by gangle for showing symptoms of ASPD, smth that he can't control not just that but while gangle is the main villain every1 is kinda a dick 2 jax in this episode, pomni assumes that jax must hav an ulterior motive when he asks how she's doing, zooble basically tells jax that his actions r making it more likely 4 caine 2 kill them all (which i don't think caine would do but zooble seems 2 think he would) and ragatha says that she hates jax but doesn't want jax 2 hate her and basically confesses that being the actual reason why she pretends 2 b nice 2 him, (also yes i say pretends and not tries since she gets mad at jax earlier in the episode 4 smth that jax points out "was actually a mistake that time") and the thing is? jax isn't even surprised, he knows that ragatha hates him already he just also knows she wouldn't say that if she was sober

also side note i rly need ppl 2 stop saying that gangle's brain washing was successful and that's the only reason jax was more friendly/agreeable/less of a bully this episode like no, it's bc he's depressed af this episode also pls stop saying that gangle brainwashing jax would b a good thing if it made him act differently that's legit such an ableist thing 2 say omg

anyway i think im gonna leave this here 4 now bc i woke up not long ago and this post is getting long so idk lemme know if any of this is coherent ig? lol fr tho i hate gangle and i don't understand y u guys like her and hate jax so much

edit: seems like i may not hav made it super clear but i hc jax as being a black queer man as a black queer man myself, i didn't make that very clear initially bc i legit 4get that not every1 sees him that way, idk man 4 me as a black queer guy the coding was there and gangle picking on him in the workplace i think was definitely partly motivated by her doing that white woman thing of seeing a man who doesn't hav as much power as her in society and then leaping at the opportunity 2 abuse that power in the work environment as a perceived "revenge" thing