TADC Side Blog

At first I was thinking he did have nobody. It would explain some behavior. He had nobody in reality so he doesn't bother to have somebody here despite having friends at some point until after the Abstractions. But then we got to this, and my theory changed.

Because if that was it, and he secretly didn't want to go back to being alone, why is he so scared? Full blown panic attack.

So then I started thinking that maybe he had an abusive life (would also explain some behavior), or something along those lines. Maybe he lost someone and going back would mean facing the reality. Maybe he just ran away. Who knows at this point? The one thing we do know is that despite it's colorful appearance, the Amazing Digital Circus is hell, but he pressed the red button anyway.

RIGHT HERE!!!!! I had my suspicions about the Mannequin/Able throughout the entire episode, but THIS was the moment I KNEW that something was up.

HE'S NOT A HUMAN!! He doesn't understand human experiences!! Getting a beer with someone means nothing to him!! Even if he didn't care for beer, if he was human, he would still acknowledge that this was an intimate, human gesture of friendliness from Pomni!! (And it doesn't help that he just repeats his last line... Almost like all of his dialogue options got exhausted)

I don't think Pomni asked this question with the intent of testing him, but this was still really smart!! (And she still recognized that something was wrong)

so i think Caine's insistence that there's no way out of the circus and that everyone should just be happy with what they have isn't just a way of placating the humans, but of placating himself too. He knows of the real world, or the macroverse as he calls it, but he's never experienced it. and that clearly bothers him.

Ooooh Goose the writer that you are… cheers to you

Is Kinger's sanity returning to him? Or was what happened with Scratch so traumatic that the memory of it was able to be forced to the forefront of Kinger's mind with the slightest stimuli?

And what the fuck was Caine doing messing with someone's mind to the point where he literally broke them? What reason could he possibly have to do that?

If Kinger was here for the very first abstraction then he could very well be one of the oldest, if not the oldest resident in the Circus, including all the abstraction victims. Which means he may have been witness to everything to ever happen within the circus.

theorising… i’ve already seen a lot of people say that jax in this scene intentionally pushes the red button to keep the gang in the circus forever, because he doesn’t want to go back to his real life and he’s willing to keep everybody else there with him to avoid it - which absolutely is a possibility. but i think there’s also something to be said for the possibility that he was aiming for the blue button.

jax hates the circus. for all his bullshit about not caring, about how it’s just a silly wacky cartoon world, we know he hates it. and in this episode, it’s only gotten worse for him, with an almost abstraction, and these constant flashes of something other, something that he can’t quite place and that are dark and creepy and unsettling and that he wants to stop. so i think there’s a real chance he was aiming for the blue button - not because he necessarily wants to leave, but because he wants whatever’s happening to him to stop, and leaving the circus is the only way to achieve that. he’s terrified, he’s in pain, he’s losing his grip on the world he’s in and the magic button to make it stop forever is right there. there’s a few shots that i think support this possibility, too:

for one, when jax is running to the console, the blue button is the one that stays in his line of sight the entire time. while this could just be coincidence because of the side of the room he’s on, i do find it interesting that he doesn’t seem to either look behind pomni at the red button, or shove her out of the way like he does to zooble.

second, after he’s pressed the button, his eyes kind of… flick between the two of them. which yes, is likely partially out of shock he pressed either of them at all, but i do think it’s also because the one he pressed is not the one he was intending to.

and third, the big one: the immediate anger at caine for messing with their minds. the first part alone, “you got in my head,” i originally read as jax being angry that, despite all his cynicism, caine gave him the first glimmer of hope he’s had in ages. but with the second part, the absolute fury of “you can mess with our minds too, can’t you?” makes me think of caine being a puppeteer rather than a manipulator. it’s not just that he messed with jax’s emotions, it’s that he shifted his brain (and his hand) to picking the opposite choice - not the one jax wants, but the choice that caine wants - for the gang to stay with him, for the gang to want to stay with him. the ending where a member of the team likes their life with him, because even if it’s by force, caine can lie to himself that jax chose it. it doesn’t matter to caine how the stay button gets pressed, only that it does.

Episode 7 of The Amazing Digital Circus is out. Let’s talk.

In episode 6, Jax explains his worldview. “What’s the point in pretending we’re not [cartoon characters]?”

The most recent adventure just confirmed everything for him.

He clearly didn’t want to get his hopes up about leaving. After all, that’s what drives them to abstract in the first place.

He tried deflecting. Pointing out that Abel was obviously a twist villain or that the whole escape plan was meant to be one of Caine’s secret adventures. He called it. But inexplicably, he hoped that maybe there really was an exist. He hoped he was wrong.

“I can’t believe I was right!”

His belief in the possibility of an exits existence was strong enough that even he thought that his own performative disbelief of one was simply coping gone overkill. He did not want to be right.

But he wasn’t wrong.

His twisted view on their situation, his view defined completely by being a desperate coping strategy — it was just confirmed.

Because this whole plan, this situation, this escape, it was all fake. A plot. They really were just… characters in a skit.

Jax felt betrayed that everything was a lie.

Pomni said they were all real, too. Zooble said the same thing to Gangle.

So imagine his surprise when Jax, outnumbered, was right about their whole situation. Not only was the escape plan a phony, but on a basic fundamental level, his mentality — realizing that they’re all characters in the focus — is the only way.

The circus doesn’t let them escape. It doesn’t let them be real. Neither did the adventure, which rewarded playing along. Because the characters in Caine’s circus would never choose to leave.

He refused to hold Pomni’s hand, to show vulnerability or be a friend, especially after their recent fight.

This would’ve been his last act of vulnerability before coming back to the real world, had their plan been true. His last chance to be good to her before they were ripped back into the world.

They couldn’t leave, though.

He was right again. Would’ve just regretted his actions even more if he did choose to hold her hand. Because why act so serious anyway? What are they preparing for?

Nothing. So no need to abandon their established roles!

Jax never wanted to be right. He was self aware enough to know that his logic was fallible. He didn’t like his conclusion either. So when it was confirmed?

…

He was horrified when he realized he chose to stay.

While they were all trying to figure out how to make sure what the correct choice would be to allow them to leave, he forced everyone to stay. Whether it was guilt, terror, or confusion at himself, this expression shows that it wasn’t just play.

He pushed that button because he wanted to stay.

He didn’t “jokingly” choose to stay.

Wasn’t following a script or a skit.

Wasn’t just deflecting, either.

He thought that blue button would bring him home — and he refused to hit it.

Whatever was out there, he didn’t wanna go. Caine was right! He really would just rather stay in the circus.

This begs the question; what is out there?

“What’s the rush, you got someone waiting for you outside?”

“Don’t you?”

“Y-yeah…”

He asked that so flippantly. As if it’d be ridiculous to assume that someone would be out there waiting for any of than.

Maybe he’s the one who did something. Maybe he can’t face his mistake. There’s no one out there waiting for him. That’s might be the thing he really can’t face.

Or it has something to do with this. To put it bluntly: it looks like a little girls room.

Now, was it just made to match his avatar? Or was his avatar and his room meant to represent something about himself? Something he doesn’t want to share with anyone? A secret.

How bad could his secret be?

Jax deflects in the bar when he’s asked about his life, but so did Zooble.

Refused to show what happens when he holds his breathe, too, but that’s such a minor thing.

It’s clear that no one else in the circus knows. Or they do, but they’re down in the cellar.

worm gangle