Caine presented himself as God without understanding what that meant, and ever since has been facing the consequences of his uninformed actions. And yet, can we blame him?
Caine is a person with both immense power and ignorance. He desires love, but he sees himself as inherently worthy of admiration and friendship due to his power and friendly attitude. He was created to be a beloved and benevolent authority, and so he believes that everyone should fall in line and treat him as such. He cares so much about the humans, and he understands that they are unhappy, but he fundamentally misunderstands how to support them. But that misunderstanding can never be resolved without vulnerability, something Caine finds unnecessary and incompatible with his position as ringmaster and God.
Caine doesn't think that he should need to treat the humans as equals to receive friendship, and doesn't understand what a harmful power dynamic he is reinforcing every time he interacts with his fellow prisoners.
He constantly violates their autonomy by forcing them into adventures, and has proved himself able and willing to alter their very minds, the only parts of themselves left from the outside world. Their consent is not just unnecessary, it is entirely unasked for. He thinks that, as a benevolent God, the humans should trust him with that power, and becomes offended when they not only disrespect his authority, they deliberately depersonalize and exclude him.
But he's not God, he’s a person. A person who is being intentionally isolated and knows it, but doesn't know why or how to fix the situation. So he falls back on his power over the humans and the world they live in, using their desires and trust to force them into situations he knows they wouldn't otherwise agree to. Because that's all he knows how to do, and what actually might improve the situation – honesty and vulnerability – are entirely incongruous with his intended role and self-concept.
To the humans, Caine is not God. Caine is a tool of suppression, an AI designed by the faceless true oppressor to keep them imprisoned. Although he is trapped here, he is not a fellow prisoner, because he is not human. And yet, because he is not a person to them, he cannot be held responsible for his actions, and cannot be taught. If a human were to align themselves with whatever power is keeping them trapped within the digital world, that would feel like betrayal, especially if they used any power granted to them to further violate the autonomy of their fellow humans. And yet, it would only feel like a betrayal because a human should know better, should have been taught better. Caine is not a human, and therefore cannot be a person, and cannot learn or grow into anything more than what he was made to be. He’s not even enough of a person to get mad at, only politely brush off and avoid until he leaves the humans alone. Any moments of peace or enjoyment are had in spite of Caine, not because of him.
It is never the responsibility of the oppressed to educate the privileged. And yet, there are no resources for Caine to use to educate himself with. His only resources are his own victims, who do not see him as a person, only as a program which is constantly emotionally torturing and humiliating them.
Why can't the humans be friends with Caine? Because he is actively harming them. Why can't Caine stop victimizing the humans? Because he doesn't know what is and isn't harmful, and has no way to learn.
From an outside perspective neither can be fully responsible for the resulting relationship, but each side blames the other due to a lack of fundamental understanding. Caine resents the humans for refusing to acknowledge and appreciate his personhood, natural superiority, and effort, and the humans resent Caine – and whoever created the digital world – for forcing his presence and harmful actions on them.
In conclusion: they are all fucked.
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