memphisfoxhound-blog

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This is the look on the face of someone who, for the first time in a long time, hears a true apology, and hopefully sees a change of heart behind it.

It’s like, for once, he’s starting to see the people around him as real beings with feelings, not just outlets for his shenanigans.

I don’t know if we’ve already figured this out but WHAT expression is on his face. What does this mean I actually have no clue

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And this is what we call emotional whiplash, kiddos.

you know what would be fucked? If TADC ends with Pomni abstracting and that’s just…it. No status quo change, no salvation, Pomni dies and the Circus just continues on as normal.

Like, we like to think Pomni will bring some sort of change to the Circus because, y’know, she’s the main character and there has to be a reason we’re following her instead of any of the other poor bastards who ended up in the game. And whether Pomni brings about that change or not something is probably going to happen, considering Caine’s currently barreling in the direction of Completely Fucking Losing It which means God knows what for the Circus’s future.

But Pomni isn’t special, she’s just a random accountant, she’s surely going through the same motions that everyone else first did when they arrived, and while that very well could be the point - that ‘just another’ entrapped player is able to uproot the entire cycle through enough effort - it could just as easily take the more nihilistic route, that Pomni is just as doomed as the rest of them. Episodes 2-4 have had the overarching theme of finding hope in the worst possible scenario, and while the series has still been full of existential angst it’s not the total miserable despairfest Goose has hyped it up to be yet. If it was to take a more nihilistic turn starting in Episode 6 I wouldn’t be very surprised. And it keeps that way until the ending, I could see Pomni abstracting and…that’s just it. Her journey meant nothing. The whole time we were following just another crossed-out icon on a door. And the cycle’s just gonna repeat over and over again. Again, do I see this specifically happening? Probably not. If TADC was like, an indie game that released all at once I could see an ending like this, but after I multi-year long build-up I can imagine mobs would be showing up to Goose’s house if the ending was that unceremonious, no matter how interesting it would be. Whether she makes it out alive or not, I do think Pomni’s gonna have a longstanding impact on the Circus - for better or worse.

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Hey, question to the wind: how do you deal with self hate?

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Ehm yes please?

Happy yuri day! This came to me in a vision as soon as I saw what they were wearing in that bar scene.

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To my previous post this is also valid.

i just got back into tadc and this is how yall decide to act about my goat.

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So this is why this work so much.

I cannot stop thinking about Episode 5 of TADC because Ragatha is, however unintentionally, one of the best examples of how isolating and difficult it is to interact with the world as an autistic person I have ever seen. To the point it genuinely makes me sad to think about her. I need to make a post expanding on this at some point but rn just. The way everyone assumes there’s some sinister hidden meaning to everything she does and says but she’s literally just trying to be nice and she doesn’t understand why it’s not working. The way she tries so hard to make connections but it constantly falls flat, she says things that hurt without realising how or why. She follows the rules she’s been taught will make her friends — she’s kind, she’s forgiving, she’s accepting and apologetic when she messes up, but for some reason it’s just not working. She tries to mimic other people, she tries to laugh at past experiences, tries to open up about her past like everyone else is doing, but now everyone’s uncomfortable and looking at her like she’s crazy and she doesn’t get it!! She doesn’t get it!!! Jax is a jerk and he’s mean to everyone but for some reason Pomni likes him and she doesn’t get it, she doesn’t understand! Pomni tells her it’s okay to be a jerk sometimes but Ragatha doesn’t like being mean, she wants to be nice to people, but she does it anyway, she gets mean like Jax and Zooble do but now Pomni’s looking at her like she’s done something wrong but she just did what she asked her to!! She doesn’t get it!! At the end of the episode everyone goes off into their groups and Ragatha is left alone, after having tried so hard to make friends and fit in and make people like her, she’s still alone, and everyone thinks she’s weird and unapproachable and she just has to give up and accept that she is inherently unloveable. Her evil alter ego tells her she’s going to die alone and nobody loves her and the only thing she corrects her on is the fact that they can’t die here. The few that might like her when she’s around don’t miss her when she’s gone, because there’s nothing to miss. Ragatha has spent her whole life systematically stripping away everything that makes her different and unlikeable in order to make herself more palatable to others, and in the process she has made herself a personalitiless blank slate with no unique identity for others to latch onto and appreciate. She has nothing to add to any conversation because she’s too afraid of being disliked to have a memorable personality beyond being generally polite and nice. And just. God. Someone get this girl some noise cancelling headphones and a therapist on speed dial, being this good of a representation of what it’s like to be autistic, especially to be an autistic person with trauma, is not good for the soul. That final shot just destroys me right in the heart. My poor girl.

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Why are you like this? (Meta)

So, why are you like this, my hypothetical reader of this blog? Yes, I’m asking you, why are you like that?

Why do you attack other people for their ideas and feelings just because they don’t match yours?

Especially, why do you have so much animosity and vitriol toward people who like a character you don’t?

“Yes, that character is bad because XY.” “No, that character has trauma.” “Your character is bad.” And so on, again and again. An eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind.

I have my favorites, and I have my less favorite characters. But I’m (self-proclaimed) mature enough to say that thinking someone is the embodiment of evil just because they like a certain character is… well, stupid.

Like yes, I’m probably going to be cautious if someone tells me their favorite character is a bully, racist, rapist, Nazi, mass murderer, cannibal... (Add whatever you want.)

But unless you say you like that character because of those traits and not something like, “I like this character because I find their change interesting”

I’m not going to go on a witch hunt.

People. Grow. Up.

(This post was made in the aftermath of some drama in the TADC community—mostly Jax vs. Ragatha.)

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Who are you Pomni?

Let’s take a look at our “main” protagonist.

Age 25, an accountant with a knack for exploring abandoned buildings. So she’s a bit of an adrenaline junkie (if you’ve never explored an abandoned building, you don’t know the feeling).

What’s interesting is her personality,not just the constant panic attacks and anxiety from being stuck in a video game world.

But deeper than that: she’s a moderator of people’s feelings. She tries to stay open to everyone, even if they act like jerks. She’s a bit of a people pleaser, but not out of trauma, it seems to come from genuine care. She’s patient and thoughtful.

But one thing I can already see: she’s going to have trouble committing to one side if there’s ever a conflict within the friend group.

Surprisingly, she also isn’t a pushover. Even though she’s relatively soft-spoken, she’s not fragile.

To me, she also feels extremely lonely. From her somewhat solitary job to her hobby,even she admits she uploads things to YouTube but doesn’t care if anyone watches. She’s doing it for herself.

All of this speaks to a kind of comfortable loneliness.

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Lets Cook

So,who’s the best, worst, and all-around weirdest at cooking?

Pomni: A 25 year old, living alone, introverted, probably bisexual mess. No,she probably microwaves some takeaway and that’s it. I like her, but she’s a disaster in the kitchen.

Gangle: She can cook. Nothing fancy, but she knows her way around the kitchen. She just hates it,mostly due to her background in the fast food industry.

Zooble: Alright,long hours, lack of self-care. If they’re in the mood, they can make something super cool, but the lack of motivation usually means they just stick to basic sustenance.

Kinger: He loves cooking. He probably cooked with passion and soul deep, rich meals. He used to do it for his wife. But after everything that happened… now the others have to remind him to eat.

Ragatha: She can,and she will. I believe that if she’s alone, she can pick out and make amazing dishes. But if someone’s watching her, she’ll struggle due to trauma. Nothing feels good enough.

Jax:

He is a master of the kitchen,instinctively knows what the food needs. Cooking purely from the soul and mind. Who needs measurements when you have talent?

Hmm is this some sort of AU?

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Lets talk about Jax Again.

From my short writings, some of you can probably tell. I don’t like Jax.

His behavior in the first four episodes was insufferable. He was my most hated character in the show. And I mean it.

He’s a bully,hurting others just so he can feel in control of the situation. So I was delighted when he finally got a little taste of his own medicine. First in Episode 4, during his evaluation, when Gangle took him to that Clockwork Orange style session.

And then in Episode 5, when he was first forced to be vegan, and later had to wear the maid outfit.

His lash-out afterward wasn’t even aimed at whoever actually did it (my bet is Zooble), but at someone he knows is afraid,Gangle.

Yes, I do feel like there’s more to him, and I can definitely see a redemption arc forming. At least now he’s more tolerable to me than he was at the start. So that’s a good direction for his character.

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What a revolutionary idea. But how can people with no comprehension skills understand that?

I know this is a crazy idea, but what if Ragatha and Jax are both complex characters with their own flaws... and neither of them are completely in the right or wrong?

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Ragatha, love, you need a cup of tea, a rage room, a hug, and a warm blanket.

Hey soooo... Anyone else thinking that Ragatha's toxic positivity comes from her not wanting to be like her mom?

Like, the only perspective she has of a person being mean is them being controling and abusive so she tries hard to not fall into that category even if she neglects her true feelings and opinions.

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A Little Bit of Theorizing

“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

The main characters are copies of their consciousness. – Cain can make alterations to their behavior depending on the rules set by the game. – C&A is an abandoned building with relatively easy access. It's not a government facility, and not some secret C&A project. – There are (probably) no dead or unconscious bodies lying around. Pomni urbexing the building and finding the headset makes me believe she wouldn’t just put it on if there were skeletons or corpses lying nearby. – Nobody is looking for them. The characters are in positions where someone should be searching for them—friends, family, co-workers. But no one is.

This all makes for a much more interesting kind of existential horror: “You’re not trapped,you’re part of this. And if the system dies, you die too. And then… what even is ‘you’?”

Agree? Disagree? Questions? Find me in the comments.

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Conundrum of Kinger

What do we know about him? And what are the implications?

He’s been in the circus the longest. He has 7 years of computer science. He had a wife. He’s a little bit crazy.

Now, let’s theorize a bit.

Nobody in the cast knows he had a wife. That means all the people who knew his wife, and everyone who knew he had one,are gone.

He’s probably the guy who built the program. Or at least, he was part of the project.

He’s been trapped in the circus for at least 20+ years,probably more. He didn’t abstract because he’s a little bit loony. That means abstraction isn’t just about going crazy.

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Doodle the Zooble

So, my second favorite character from the whole show. They are an icon, cold to any idea Cain presents, with body dysmorphia and probably some feelings for Gangle.

They’re probably the only character who truly works as a counterforce to Jax’s behavior,and he has no way to get under their skin.

Bartender, tattoo artist, drummer,they scream punk/rock aesthetic from afar. I don’t believe they’re going to abstract, since they’re still the most sane person in the group. They act as a reality check for the others. And now, they seem to be building some sort of relationship with our mang artist, Gangle.

Also, their whole chemistry reminds me of Alphys and Undyne from Undertale.

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The Tension