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galletafresca · 2 days ago

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The truth behind the new TADC poll is how insane the characters actually are - Theory/Analysis

For context, this is the latest placement of the characters in the poll I took note of. Unexpectedly, Pomni surpassed Kinger after he (surprisingly) had held the second position for incredibly long. The gap between Zooble and Gangle has lessened, but the difference between Ragatha and the other character's votes has widened further than it previously was.

Given how weird I found the idea of Ragatha, one of the fan favorite characters, being by far almost the least voted, meanwhile Kinger started off and maintained second place to the surprise of way too many people, I believe there is reason for us to try and understand why the poll would be rigged to specifically maintain the ranking in this overall order.

I also found it suspicious how most of the characters' descriptions make no mention of them having a chance of winning at all (only Jax's does) but rather make back handed comments about multiple characters (Ragatha, Zooble and Gangle), while also reiterating in Jax's description that he should definitely win and even claiming his fans will be very glad with the results of his victory.

This estrangement I felt from the clear bias in their descriptions and videos, which aligns in good part with their actual positions in the ranking, further convinced me that the poll is being rigged to maintain a certain pattern. And I think I have a lead on what this pattern might be, or at least hint at.

Upon a lot of thought, I believe the order of the ranking indicates how sane (or insane) each cast member is. Going from the sanest (Jax) to the least sane and closest to abstraction (Ragatha), and finally including the established unstable madman AI who isn't subject to abstraction (Caine).

Here's how I arrived at this conclusion, and why I think each character's sanity and well-being fits their position in this order:

(What follows is a character analysis for each member of the cast that would explain their position in what I have dubbed the 'sanity scale'. Jax's, Zooble's and Gangle's are especially detailed here, in my opinion. My Ragatha in depth analysis will be posted right after this, for those interested).

Caine is, as stated in one of the quick facts of the poll site, literally a "madman" . As we have seen throughout the show as well, he has crashed out already a couple of times, especially at realizing he might not be good at fulfilling his purpose of creating enjoyable adventures. His cognition is also on an entirely different level than that of the humans, so it makes sense he would be in the very last position in the list and by a lot.

(Read backwards, the text underneath reads: "Caine is a madman help us save us, Caine is a madman help us save us". This isn't worrying at all, right?)

Ragatha, the lowest ranking of the actual cast, is closest to abstracting, as also conspicuously mentioned in a quick fact of the poll website that only appears on her page, which is shown below (as well as the overarching plot of her getting angstier so far, seemingly more lonely, "losing" Pomni's friendship to Jax, as shown in episode 5).

(BTW I'm posting my Ragatha in depth character analysis, like, right after this is posted. This is the reason I'm not going so in depth about her right now. Check that out if Ragatha's chacter interests you!)

Zooble is in a tense place emotionally, considering Caine is running thin on patience with them and they themselves aren't rly well with their life in the circus. Their response to being in this situation is a fairly stoic one. They know themselves well, they understand their emotions and the sutuation they are in, as well as how it affects them. That isn't to say that they aren't also being subjected to the actual suffering that comes with their situation. Although they understand well that the main source of their relative isolation, lack of motivation and of desire to "go out and do things" and be around people is due to the debilitating body dysmorphia they experience in regards of their cartoon body (which can also be understood as a suffering analogous to gender dysphoria, in my interpretation), they still struggle with that experience. They simply demonstrate an approach of acceptance/resignation in regards of their understanding that this problem and the other circus existential issues can't really be resolved.

As for Gangle, I understand her to be in a less emotionally helpless place than Zooble currentlly, due in parts to the very relationship blooming (wheter you wish to view it as platonic or romantic) between the two. It is understandable that Gangle being in a higher position than Zooble and maybe even Ragatha in this analysis may be surprising to some, as her character is one thematically associated with sadness and wmotional instability. What with the masks, which keep breaking and making her incredibly sad, and whatnot right? Except that the one time we saw Gangle closest to her actual serious breaking point was when she had an unbreakable cheery mask on back in episode 4, and even with this issue resolved (of her masks that cover her sadness breaking all the time), she had never been as close to going insane and as emotionally unwell as she was then. The reason why I put understand this character to be in this position, which matches with the list above, despite all that, is because although she indeed doesn't often seem particularly well and is frequently sad and expressing heightened negative emotions, this emotiveness of hers still strikes me as somewhat healthy, because she is emoting, she is not bottling that negativity down when her inner mask is exposed (which would in turn actually make her spiral badly. This is further evidenced by her design as someone who has a positive but fake and physically fragile mask above their real face, which in turn is frequently sadder but also equally capable of smiling and laughing and expressing a range of genuine emotion). From the glimpses we get at Gangle's life before the circus, which are reflected in how she acts in episode 4, what her cartoon body has done is strip her of the ability to truly mask her emotions, making it so that her comedy mask is very fragile and physically easy to break (it even breaks sometimes because she is very upset, throughout the show), therefore meaning that her true emotions naturally get exppressed whenever that happens. When we did see her defy this natural balance of her demeanors, it almost felt like watching a human Gangle forcibly bottle up her feelings until her literal breaking point, giving up any hopes and dreams she used to have. I could go on more about what Gangle's masks actually represent and how they affect her, especially given Jax's insightful comment on episode 5, but this has gotten long enough for now.

Kinger and Pomni almost tieing at second place makes a lot of sense to me, and Imma breakdown why I think so right now:

Kinger, although he is admittedly the token crazy guy of the cast, has managed to hold onto his sanity steadily for all this time and is still going the same as he has for such a long time now. Not only has he endured the hell that is the circus the longest out of all the characters, as confirmed by the creator, he also endured the pain of the loss of his wife, all without abstracting. He has some serious mental strength/resilience and fortitude to be able to hold out that long. And not only that, but Kinger is one of if not the most stable character out of the cast (weird thought, I know), even despite his state of having seemingly "lost his mind". Maybe, some might argue, because of it. Although he has been affected by this whole situation, of course, he's not like, actively spiraling towards getting worse at all, for all it seems. That's what I mean when I said he actually seems pretty stable, all his occasional sudden franctic yappings and cryptic lines ominously related to the nature of the circus considered.

Pomni, in the same vein, has also been clearly affected by the whole situation, but also is overall in a saner and/or healthier place than most of the others I would say. She freaked out a lot more in the beginning of the show, which is understandable and to be expected, but it seems she's finding her footing and being a bit more relaxed/getting more and more used to everything. For comparison, in the pilot, Ragatha herself spirals just by recounting their whole situation to Pomni, almost as much as Pomni herself freaks out in that episode. And Ragatha has been there for literal years at this point. Pomni had just arrived and was barely making sense of a third of everything she had to process from that day alone. Therefore, I'd say Pomni is in a pretty sane place, even if she does still sometimes let herself dwell over the existentiality of their situation or let herslef be affected by circus-typical unfortunate circumstances (such as the unfortunate little tragedy regarding Gummigoo and the nature of the npcs, and how she's stuck there doing adventures that are wayy too often dangerous and she sometimes feels like she's gonna die in them when Caine goes extreme, this kind of freaking out), much like Kinger himself sometimes gets caught up on a random passing question or another or whether they are doomed by these circumstances. Still, she and him are doing comparatively okay, for now, given the casts' circumstances.

And this is why jax comes in first place.

Jax's whole thing is attaining entertainment and fun for himself, and doing whatever the fuck he wants when he feels like it. In other words, having his fun and not dwelling in any of the circumstances of their situation, which are pointless to mull over because that's exactly how people get abstracted. Jax doesn't seemingly freak out because of this whole narrative hell they are all stuck on. In fact, jax is most often having his own fun in this mess, and avoiding the problems coming his way even when they are like, huge things that could potentially lead someone in his position to actually seriously freak out a little. Like, in a dangerous way.

Jax moves on from talking about whatever the triggering thing Ragatha said (about him losing his friend) entirely too quickly, like, not in a "bottling things down forcibly" type of way, but in a dismissive and "i don't know... yeah you're right whatever..." one, as though unwilling to dwell in anything emotional or deep like that. He also has a very interesting reaction upon seeing that Kaufmo abstracted in the pilot, which I've been thinking about for a long time. In that he seems scared and caught off guard when he notices the shit that happened, and immediately turns flippant and flighty, decides to pick up a random bowling ball on the ground, throws a quip here or there about how he was looking for that, (like that's anywhere near what actually matters right now, in the situation that Kaufmo literally just abstracted), runs off with it, and proceeds to go around the circus, again, not in a "scared and running away" way but moreso like "How do I avoid this situation?" Like he barely even thought/let himself think about it on any deeper level at all. And it makes a lot of sense that he wouldn't want to let himself dwell in thinking deeper about this kind of existentially dreadul situation of their circumstances. Because Jax runs on self preservation for this state of his of perpetually fun-seeking and "doesn't take anything too seriously at all" persona of his. I would say he's the character the least likely to abstract given all the casts' default ways of dealing with this whole setting and with their lives.

In other words, Jax is avoiding taking things as seriously and thinking about their doom more than anyone else there, because it is, indeed, pointless to dwell in it if all that can result in is making one freak out and spiral possibly badly enough to abstract. There's no good that dwelling in any of that or taking things seriously like that can bring them, at least in this perception that he seems to corroborrate. Therefore, there's no reason to not just do whatever the hell you think is fun and ignore the other more depressing, existential, meaningful stuff. Keep yourself entertained for as long as any of this lasts. And of course, never let anyone else get too close.

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