My final ranking of every TADC episode (EPISODE 9 SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!)
Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad. But to me it just feels like it has the least substance out of every episode of the series? I feel like this one is def the least rewatchable out of all of them. I did enjoy Jax and Caine in the restaurant together, as well as the actual beach parts of the episode. But upon rewatch it just doesn't hit the same the rest of them do. Just kinda felt like they didn't need to dedicate a whole episode to people's theories being wrong, and some parts did feel kinda clunky imo.
This one used to be my absolute least favorite for the looongest time and from what I've seen, that seems to be the general consensus from the fandom. Honestly not much to say about this one. I probably think about this ep the least. No strong feelings on it, although I've warmed up to it more the longer I've watched the show.
#7: The Mystery of Mildenhall Manor!
Kinger was my fav for a little bit after this one. I love the exposition we get with this episode, plus the flashback with his wife was so good! Only reason it's so low on the list is that I just really don't have the strongest feelings on the first act of the show compared to the later episodes. Still incredibly rewatchable though! I feel like I notice something new every time I watch this one, and I think this was the first episode that made me truly intrigued to see where this was gonna go.
I think this was a great intro to the series! I still remember first watching it a few weeks after its initial release, thinking "Wow, that was weird", but being intrigued enough to kinda keep the show in the back of my mind. You get a pretty good sense of every character from their introductions, and I remember really liking Pomni as a main character. Not much to say beyond that other than pilot era was pretty... interesting (cough cough content farms). Also it's funny for me to look back on it and think about how I had no idea when I first watched the pilot that this would be such a big part of my life a few years down the line.
(A little fun fact that's slightly on-topic while I'm here: I kept seeing that ending scene with "Your New Home" being used as a meme everywhere before I even knew what this show was. For a good few weeks I thought it was some "lost media" kid's show that I'd never seen. Only found out it wasn't when I heard my friends talking about Jax simps at a halloween party and decided to give it a watch. I also got Caine and Kinger mixed up for a bit and thought that Kinger was gonna be the villain of the show.)
VERY strong feelings on this episode because this was the one that got me as into the show as I am today. I saw clips of this one circulating everywhere but was putting off watching it for some reason. I distinctly remember one of my sisters asking if I'd seen it yet and I said something like, "Ehh, not yet. I'm more of a casual watcher, this isn't something I'm super into or anything." Look where we are now bucko.
LOVED the characterization of everyone this episode and the backstories we got in the bar scene. President Pomni was the best mini-adventure, argue with the wall. I also started to enjoy Jax more this ep, I was a pretty avid hater beforehand. I was also scared for Ragatha for a bit after that end. This was the one that made me start getting into the theories and ships (specifically funnybunny) and I was genuinely wondering and stressing about what the next ep would be. The fandom (besides the random Ragatha hating, which I never stumbled upon organically) was also really chill during this era. Which was nice while it lasted.
I was so pissed that I had to work the night that this released and literally sped home to watch it. The hype/marketing around this one was SO peak and I feel like this one did tie a bunch together lore-wise. I LOVE the beginning sequence with Caine's "birth" and devouring of the other AI, the ending of this one genuinely had my heart rate up. This one is SO incredibly rewatchable for me and The One Who's Running The Show is lowkenuinely on basically every playlist of mine. Caine's villainization and crashout were SO well done. Fandom was HELL this era too smh I felt like I was fighting for my life every time I opened Tiktok.
🥉#3: Fast Food Masquerade
This one will always be very dear to me because it released after I started my own food service job. Also cemented Gangle as one of my favs. You will NEVER catch me hating Manic Gangle because I GET it girl. The jokes this episode never fail to make me chuckle even like a year and a half later because like... Yeah. That's it, that's the food service experience. ("Are you ready to order?" "No thanks, I've got this bowl of cereal" is my favorite joke in the WHOLE SHOW and I never see ANYONE TALKING ABOUT ITTTTT)
Just generally a very real and relatable episode to me. No matter what happens I'll always keep this one in my top 3.
FUNNYBUNNY THE EPISODE!!!!!!! This one was my top choice FOREVER because like... Why wouldn't it be??? This was the first one that I actually watched the night it premiered, and once it was over, I had to start it over and watch a second time. This was the one that made me lose my mind and go feral. I feel like no matter which character is your favorite, you'll be happy with how they're portrayed in this one. I mean we got sane Kinger, Ragatha and Gangle opening up, Zooble being gentle and kind while also not taking any bs, Gangle with the tommy gun, Pomni having a genuinely good time, Jax crashout, and Daisy Bell.... AND WE GOT IT ALL IN LIKE????? ONE THIRTY MINUTE EPISODE??????????
Not even just the episode itself, but like, the buildup to it too and the aftermath were just????? Peak??????? I checked in for the character awards voting every day. I lost my mind when all of the voting options turned to just Caine. And the fandom was SO fun to be in at this time. So many theories on how it was gonna go, so many good character analyses. I truly feel like Gooseworx's writing prowess was on full display this ep, and I think it was the actual peak of the show. This was what inspired me to start writing seriously again after 2 years of stopping and starting projects. It helped bring back my own love for the things I create, and I cannot even begin to express gratitude for that.
So, all that being said...
Episode 9 was, in my opinion, the best episode (!!!!!FULL SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!)
The fanbase going into it was ROUGH. The episode got leaked. I heard from a bunch of people that it was awful and went into the theater SO nervous that it actually would be.
But I was not disappointed in any way by the ending. It did what it set out to do. It was the meaning that goose wanted us to take away from the show embodied into one last goodbye. There is meaning to be found in a stagnant life.
I will say, in the first part of the episode, when Kinger said that they were all brain scans, my stomach dropped, because I did NOT like that theory at all. I was preparing for the rest of it to be bad after that, but everything following that statement proved me wrong. Just because they were digital copies didn't mean that any of this was pointless. The memories they had, the ways they connected with each other, all of THAT was real. THOSE things gave their existence meaning.
Jax himself was the antithesis to the whole show's message, so the focus on him and his abstraction were, I believe, absolutely necessary. He is a cautionary tale on what happens when you refuse to open up and let the people around you in. Was he a bad person? Yes. But at his core he is still a person who deserves to be loved and understood. Pomni, at the end of the day, saw past the barricades he was putting up and instead saw someone worthy of love. "You're not supposed to miss me, you're not supposed to love me." That was what he took away from her constantly breaking through the tough layers, was that he still wasn't worthy of being loved or understood.
At the end of the day, the digital circus wasn't a story about extensive lore or evil companies and conspiracies. It was about being seen. It was about not pushing the people close to you away. It was about letting people see you for YOU. And it was telling you, the viewer, that YOU are worthy of that kind of love and understanding (Not to bring faith into this, I know it's not a religious show and was never intended to be, but it kinda reminds me of 1 Timothy 1:16: " But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life." Jax, within the show, is the "worst of all sinners"-- He pushed people away, he abused everyone around him, he was, by all accounts, a pretty shitty person who many people would argue was undeserving of acceptance or forgiveness. But he was given it anyway. He was, in a sense, forgiven of his transgressions. Some translations of this verse say "mercy" rather than "forgiveness", which I think is a much more accurate parallel to what happened. He was shown mercy in his final moments by Pomni.)
And the biggest tragedy? He learned to accept the love he was offered too late. You could even argue that he never learned to accept it at all, depending on how you saw the scene.
ALSO!! I mentioned that Gangle was one of my favorites before?? And you know what?? I'm happy with what they did for her in this episode-- They didn't push her into a corner and force her to forgive Jax just because the narrative needed her to. They let her have complicated feelings. They let her, a character notorious for her continuous tears, not be able to shed a single one for her abuser's passing. They didn't push her pain aside or force her to forgive Jax because HE was hurting. But it surfaced near the end, when they started building the fort for his abstracted form. She did cry. Because relationships, no matter how toxic, are complex. Her pain, her relief, even some possible survivor's guilt, will ebb and flow, because grief doesn't have to fit in a box.
And then Caine's redemption. The Prodigal Son, so to speak. After isolation, after fighting to be back in the circus, he finally understood what the human cast wanted all along: Choice. Free will. That was what he fell in love with them for in the first place, and he realized his wrongdoing in forcing them to fit in his neat little adventures. He understood the harm that an episodic lifestyle would have on creatures that are always growing, always changing, always wanting more.
And him coming back to them (I'm bringing Bible parallels into this again, but,) was like the prodigal son in the parable. He'd taken what was given to him, the ability to create and imagine, and squandered it by using it to cause harm to the people who depended on him. So he came home to the people he wronged, not expecting forgiveness, but wanting to atone for his mistakes nonetheless.
And they accepted him. Not immediately, but slowly. He earned their trust back through showing them that he COULD be trusted. And don't even get me STARTED on Caine getting rid of "Abel"-- Literally getting rid of his "divinity" to connect with humanity? The religious allegory (intentional or not) goes CRAZY HARD. I am in paradise.
They are all able to find meaning in their stagnant lives.
I can totally understand why it was disliked. TADC had amassed such a huge fandom that it is physically impossible to please everybody. It was very different than most people (including me) expected. But in my opinion, this was a beautiful sendoff to a show that will forever hold a special place in my heart.
Was TADC perfect? No. I have my own critiques of it, and this isn't the time or place for those. But will this show always be among my favorites? Absolutely. Gooseworx, the VAs, the animators, and Glitch have made something incredible that I'm sure will be remembered for years to come, and I'm so glad that they did.
Anyway, this got way off the rails. It's so late at night and I'm exhausted. But I had to get this all out while it was on my mind.
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