localw3irdo

[localw3irdo]

I KNOWWW

I was fighting the urge to add all the things about Bubble saying increasingly concerning things and Caine's AI degrading and the implications of that because I felt like it'd become waaaay too cluttered

I knew this post would summon you

This whole awards show thing is really highlighting the worst sides of Caine's character and I'm so here for it.

I mean, we can all tell it's clearly just him desperately looking for validation.

I mean just look at this.

His icon being front and center. His description. The extra touches on his icon and his name. His icon even does a little bounce. He so desperately wants us to look at him, to pay attention to him, to have SOMEONE tell him that he is still important.

And his video is no better.

"Oh, how they love my adventures. And they also love me for their loving my adventures. They're always jumping around, chirping, saying, 'Oh, feed us more adventures, Caine! Our crops are so empty! We need your half-digested, regurgitated goodness. Or so help me, I'll jump out of this nest AND KILL MYSELF!'"

Wow. Okay.

And it's hardly an exaggeration either. He needs them to think that. He needs them to like his adventures, and in extension, him, because his entire existence relies on it. Literally.

It's a core part of his code. It's all he was made for. It's his one job. It's his single purpose. He doesn't have a choice. It's either be good at what you're meant to do or be functionally useless.

It's his job to please people and keep them happy, but he is failing, and he knows it. He has been troubleshooting since the pilot. He has been trying all sorts of things to fix his adventures and only managed to go in one big circle each and every time, with each attempt leading him straight back to square one.

So if he can't fix the problem through the adventures, he must tackle it at the source, right? That's him. He's the source. He's the problem.

And he so desperately needs someone to tell him that he isn't. Because if he is, then what's left for him? As an AI failing at the task it was made for, what will happen to him?

It's terrifying, so he denies this reality. I mean he's literally throwing these people in a room with a gun in some twisted attempt to make them get their shit together because they're the problem! They have to be! It's not him! It can't be him! They just have to get their shit together and it'll all be okay!

How he treated Ragatha, Pomni and Gangle in this whole event also tells us a lot.

I actually did a little analysis on Ragatha's already which you can find here if you wanna.

Ragatha is the kindest. Pomni is the most genuine. Gangle is the most emotionally vulnerable. Their contributions are all very honest in different ways. It's all the things Caine can never authentically be.

Authenticity. What even is that to an AI?

He envies these things so much he hates them. He can't stand them. It's everything he shouldn't be. Everything he can't have. Everything he's bad at.

And he isn't dealing with this surge of feelings well at all because, in all honesty, I don't think he's ever felt this before. He was never supposed to care. It's his very first time dealing with big complicated emotions and he doesn't know what to do with it. It's seeping out in all the worst ways.

Caine is jealous, petty and incredibly insecure and this event has been putting all of that on full display and I absolutely adore it. There's so SO much more to say but I don't want to go too off track here. I love the tooth man. I'm so excited for episode 6 you don't understand.

[localw3irdo]

This whole awards show thing is really highlighting the worst sides of Caine's character and I'm so here for it.

I mean, we can all tell it's clearly just him desperately looking for validation.

I mean just look at this.

His icon being front and center. His description. The extra touches on his icon and his name. His icon even does a little bounce. He so desperately wants us to look at him, to pay attention to him, to have SOMEONE tell him that he is still important.

And his video is no better.

"Oh, how they love my adventures. And they also love me for their loving my adventures. They're always jumping around, chirping, saying, 'Oh, feed us more adventures, Caine! Our crops are so empty! We need your half-digested, regurgitated goodness. Or so help me, I'll jump out of this nest AND KILL MYSELF!'"

Wow. Okay.

And it's hardly an exaggeration either. He needs them to think that. He needs them to like his adventures, and in extension, him, because his entire existence relies on it. Literally.

It's a core part of his code. It's all he was made for. It's his one job. It's his single purpose. He doesn't have a choice. It's either be good at what you're meant to do or be functionally useless.

It's his job to please people and keep them happy, but he is failing, and he knows it. He has been troubleshooting since the pilot. He has been trying all sorts of things to fix his adventures and only managed to go in one big circle each and every time, with each attempt leading him straight back to square one.

So if he can't fix the problem through the adventures, he must tackle it at the source, right? That's him. He's the source. He's the problem.

And he so desperately needs someone to tell him that he isn't. Because if he is, then what's left for him? As an AI failing at the task it was made for, what will happen to him?

It's terrifying, so he denies this reality. I mean he's literally throwing these people in a room with a gun in some twisted attempt to make them get their shit together because they're the problem! They have to be! It's not him! It can't be him! They just have to get their shit together and it'll all be okay!

How he treated Ragatha, Pomni and Gangle in this whole event also tells us a lot.

I actually did a little analysis on his treatment of Ragatha in her portfolio vid already which you can find here if you wanna.

Ragatha is the kindest. Pomni is the most genuine. Gangle is the most emotionally vulnerable. Their contributions are all very honest in different ways. It's all the things Caine can never authentically be.

Authenticity. What even is that to an AI?

He envies these things so much he hates them. He can't stand them. It's everything he shouldn't be. Everything he can't have. Everything he's bad at.

And he isn't dealing with this surge of feelings well at all because, in all honesty, I don't think he's ever felt this before. He was never supposed to care. It's his very first time dealing with big complicated emotions and he doesn't know what to do with it. It's seeping out in all the worst ways.

Caine is jealous, petty and incredibly insecure and this event has been putting all of that on full display and I absolutely adore it. There's so SO much more to say but I don't want to go too off track here. I love the tooth man. I'm so excited for episode 6 you don't understand.

[localw3irdo]

A little commentary on Jax's portfolio video because he's a dumbass and I couldn't resist

He's doing the thing again. He's breaking the fourth wall. Why does he keep doing this? HOW does he keep doing this?? How does he know about the audience? Does he have access to the internet? Are they being recorded in-universe?

Does it actually mean something in-canon? Or is it just a bit that means nothing?

Too many questions and not enough answers as per usual with this son of a bitch.

JAX GETS SICK WHEN SCARED. Y'ALL.

And literally all Zooble did to prompt this reaction was speak. Damn his fear tolerance is low.

He's trying so hard to play it off too. Of course he is, because people knowing things about him is the scariest thing ever.

Lmao LOSER I always knew he was a whimp I am never letting him live this down

[localw3irdo]

Hey don't cry, okay? We just found Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna, a species thought to be extinct for the past 60 years.

[localw3irdo]

A little analysis on Kinger's portfolio video.

Kinger can (could) cook, and considering how it was the first thing he mentioned, it seems like something he used to enjoy.

I couldn't leave this out. I love this so much. I hope he gets to cook again.

Kinger used to play Wolfenstein 3D and Doom!

Doom came out in 1993, with Wolfenstein 3D coming out just a year earlier. This gives us a little bit of a timeline; Kinger got trapped in the circus sometime after 1993.

And what I find especially interesting is how they portrayed the nature of how he thinks.

Right after bringing up Doom, he starts to spiral down a very existential path.

Everyone and their mother knows this is a very dangerous path to go down in the circus for clearly established reasons.

But, just like any other thought, he can't hold on to it for long.

His focus shifts. He forgets the dread.

This further solidifies how his "insanity" is what's been keeping him "sane" for all these years, and is probably the only reason he's still hanging on at all. It's beautifully, tragically ironic.

I'm planning on doing this to as many of them as I can so stay tuned if you're interested ig

[localw3irdo]

THEY FOUND THE WHITE WITCH CATERPILLAR! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!

For context: the white witch is one of the contenders for the largest moth in the world (biggest *wingspan*--loses to the atlas in terms of wing surface area, and loses to the regal for weight). It has a huge range, and the adult is fairly common.

But no one had ever seen a caterpillar. At all. There were only guesses as to what it might look like and what it ate. until this year. These are some of the first images ever taken of it!!

[localw3irdo]

So Caine is hosting a game show and hoohhh boy. There's a lot to unpack. In this post, I specifically want to talk about how Caine treated Ragatha in her portfolio video.

He cut hers short. Why is that?

Look at what she says.

Notice how all of it applies to Caine, too. Like, it applies perfectly.

And then, he cuts her off, and says this in response:

"I'm sorry. I can't hear you over the sound of you explaining what you did wrong."

He sees himself in Ragatha. He is projecting. He is basically saying that him caring about the people in the circus is him doing it wrong.

Is he jealous? Was it painful to hear from someone who's so much better at it than him?

Yeah. So. Episode 6 is going to kill me isn't it. (I mean I already knew that but Glitch is just rubbing it in at this point.)

[localw3irdo]

YES!! You plucked the thoughts right out of my brain.

I never thought about his reaction to Pomni's video that way. Thanks for giving me something more to chew on

So Caine is hosting a game show and hoohhh boy. There's a lot to unpack. In this post, I specifically want to talk about how Caine treated Ragatha in her portfolio video.

He cut hers short. Why is that?

Look at what she says.

Notice how all of it applies to Caine, too. Like, it applies perfectly.

And then, he cuts her off, and says this in response:

"I'm sorry. I can't hear you over the sound of you explaining what you did wrong."

He sees himself in Ragatha. He is projecting. He is basically saying that him caring about the people in the circus is him doing it wrong.

Is he jealous? Was it painful to hear from someone who's so much better at it than him?

Yeah. So. Episode 6 is going to kill me isn't it. (I mean I already knew that but Glitch is just rubbing it in at this point.)

[localw3irdo]

EPISODE 6 TADC WOAH- WHY DOES BUBBLE HAVE A CAMERA????

CAINE SWORE??? CAINE HAS ASS????

As perusal, Caine deeply worries me more and more. He just looks so deranged compared to before (pre ep 5) when he was just wacky- aside from a few sparse moments. This is obvious by now though, its no secret he’s losing it…its just…worth noting (cocaine fans are so cooked.)

Im curious how this “trust exercise” is actually going to work, but the assumption i’m working off of is that people will be split up into pairs with 1 gun for a set amount of time, and you just have to trust that the other wont shoot you. This is because of the whole “2 way trust exercise” line, and the fact that we have an even number of cast members, so it works.

Then the rest of my theories are based on nothing but “this makes sense and would be really funny”. One of my favorites is that they’re SUPPOSED to be in there for only like 30 minutes, but Caine is breaking and the entire episode takes place in this one room because he forgets to take them out.

The line “You are in a MOOD today, arent you?” also leads me to believe this is setting up to some sort of BIG conflict between Zooble and Jax, that will of course leak into what was set up in ep 5 with Jax’ relationship with Ragatha and Pomni. Though I wonder how the pairs would be chosen, like pick em out of a hat? or would Caine just decide himself who needs to get along the most? In that case then that also makes Jax being with Zooble even more plausible, because of the aforementioned set up to a conflict.

I do think its important that Pomni is the only one that questioned Caines swearing, all that stuff

AS A WHOLE! I AM SCARED! I AM EXCITED! AND I AM REALLY HOPING THIS IS A BOTTLE EPISODE PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE

onto the visuals :3

Hypothetically Kinger getting paired with Pomni, or Ragatha. Then Jax getting paired with Gangle (this would go great.)

I want this to happen so bad omg

I headcanon/theorize that Caine considers info on abstracted people as irrelevant and just taking up space, so he wouldn’t remember anyone who’s “left” but they’re still in the code somewhere, so still in “his” subconscious, since Caine is technically the circus.

i hate him

he’s fine

[localw3irdo]

So Caine is hosting an awards show and hoohhh boy. There's a lot to unpack. In this post, I specifically want to talk about how Caine treated Ragatha in her portfolio video.

He cut hers short. Why is that?

Look at what she says.

Notice how all of it applies to Caine, too. Like, it applies perfectly.

And then, he cuts her off, and says this in response:

"I'm sorry. I can't hear you over the sound of you explaining what you did wrong."

He sees himself in Ragatha. He is projecting. He is basically saying that him caring about the people in the circus is him doing it wrong.

Is he jealous? Was it painful to hear from someone who's so much better at it than him?

Yeah. So. Episode 6 is going to kill me isn't it. (I mean I already knew that but Glitch is just rubbing it in at this point.)

[localw3irdo]

i forgor how to draw Ragatha but that does not stop me from sketching her in the Portrait de Madame X pose [under da cut]

Maybe ill redraw that sketch into more detailed piece but for a warmup it`ll suffice

[localw3irdo]

Ok. Let’s talk about the breaking bad joke.

This joke has so many in universe implications and I haven’t seen literally anyone talking about it. Like yea there’s definitely the chance that it was just a throwaway gag but like. There’s so much to talk about.

1) Zooble acknowledges the joke and tells him to “be creative” if he’s going to make up a fake backstory

This implies that breaking bad was already a pop culture staple when Zooble (and probably Jax and gangle) got trapped in the digital circus. The show premiered on January 20th, 2008 but didn’t really gain mainstream popularity until 2011 when it was added to Netflix, and subsequently joined the cultural sphere of generally understood pop culture references. This in turn means that Jax, Gangle and Zooble were probably trapped in the circus sometime post 2011.

2) Ragatha doesn’t understand the reference

This means that Ragatha (and by extension Kinger) have been in the circus since BEFORE 2011! Probably before 2008 if I’m being realistic! This means that Ragatha and Kinger have been here for at the very least 14 years. That’s a long time to be trapped in an unending digital hell.

Anyways this is just my observation (and possible over analyzation) of the BB joke. I just think being able to put these characters on a timeline is crazy.