I don’t think Ticket Taker truly smiles anymore
…or at least as much as the others do.
I have the impression that Ticket Taker has gone through intensive suffering in his life. I have talked about this in many other theories of mine, as I believe he is the embodiment of tragedy.
There are many little tidbits in AMAs and in-game details that strengthen this impression in my eyes, but for the sake of length, I will talk about the recent AMA with Columbina.
Before Ticket Taker met Columbina, he was likely a “lone wolf” (metaphorically speaking). With that in mind, to him, there was no need for meaningless words. Speaking was unnecessary when it came to survival on his own (I believe this may somehow connect to how he treats others’ words now. The whole “talk is cheap, actions are more valuable.”) He likely just had himself for the most part or perhaps he wanted it that way as a result of bad past experiences, trauma, or simply preference.
From the above response of hers, it seems clear to me that she helped him open up. He had a hardened heart from values likely shaped by not only betrayal but values in his subspecies’ culture.
He began to talk the more he was around her and he seemed calmer. I don’t necessarily trust that word when it comes to TT because he’s a master of illusions because He seems like a lot of things. That’s what makes him so threatening and dangerous. He’s a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” so to speak. (His disguise literally looks exactly like a human).
In this response, Nana says that he was always frowning but, just like with the talking, he began to smile more the longer he was with her. She was likely the reason he began smiling again.
And now she’s dead and I’m sure many things changed for him. An entire whirlwind of change. She was a part of his routine. A part of his structure. And she died. She was likely the light of his life and now that light has either been extinguished or is at least incredibly fragmented now.
So what reason does he have to smile anymore?
Ticket Taker’s mask is different from Pierrot, Harlequin, and Jester’s.
He wears a full head mask that not only covers and ‘protects’ his face, but encases his entire head. This is beyond the simple ‘you can’t see my face’ type of deal that the others’ masks might have.
No, his is more like: ‘I’m going to make sure you don’t see me at all.’
If we want to see this figuratively, we could interpret it like this:
We don’t see the back of his head, likely because doing so would put him in a vulnerable position with no control, so this can be seen as an additional way of him exerting control or keeping it.
I honestly also think there may be another reason he wears a full-head mask and it relates to the broken mirror in his tent (which is across from his own mirror, mind you). I believe he may have been significantly burned from that fire, which is likely why it’s so vivid when we see it.
I think the images he shows in his mirrors are reflections of his own memories. The reason I say this is because the details of Pierrot and Harlequin’s reflections that he shows are not completely accurate in design and he even attaches his own symbolism to them (like the heart we see on Pierrot’s sleeve in the reflection).
Full-head masks are more static in comparison to masks that are a bit more ‘superficial.’ For example, with Pierrot, Harlequin, and Jester we see the expressions of their masks change in relation the emotions they have (that may be displayed on their actual faces).
But with Ticket Taker it’s different. He only has that smile. Which looks much like the Pan Am or ‘customer service smile.’ This makes sense, as he is the one that greets all guests and is about image, even stating that character is never broken.
Piecing together these details, we know that Ticket Taker had the habit of frowning or looking ‘grumpy’ before Columbina. But, of course, he wouldn’t have stopped frowning all together because of her (his frown might have l turned into a habit before that point).
With the fact that we always see his mask smiling and that his mask is different from the others, I believe that it’s meant to cover any frowns that he may make or to keep that image of a smile in case a frown slips out of habit (who knows maybe he has RBF).
Another possibility could be that he simply has forced himself to smile and ‘corrected’ that habit of frowning. We do see his smile getting bigger here as he bares his teeth.
So in order to protect that inevitable tragic reality that is Ticket Taker he likely does not smile and has kept his habit of frowning (and the mask simply ‘covers it up’ completely) or he has forced himself to smile at all times altogether as to not “break character” (at least when he’s around guests. This could also make sense because we also just see him smiling in his human disguise).
Ticket Taker (as we see him now) is not authentic with us. I would even argue that he is the least authentic in the troupe (as Harlequin is the most authentic, who I think is one of the members who are Ticket Taker’s opposites).
I feel like a part of him died when she died. So a smile may be difficult to recover or express authentically for him at this point.
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