Kaime13

Now the light commands

This is my home

Confession time: I’ve actually been shipping showtime since the pilot, it just faded into the background for me due to their lack of screen time together

But there was a time I actually thought they would call back on the “He just wants me to suffer” line from episode 3 and have a moment where Pomni sees just a bit of humanity(?) from Caine. I think even if they had a scene or episode dedicated to them, Caine’s episode 8 crash out could still happen. 

Like seriously a hypothetical moment in between episode 4 and 5 would’ve been all I needed. I say after episode 4 so it can be after Pomni’s growth talking with Kinger and also after her letting Gummigoo go. They don’t even need to be friends outright, just a quiet acknowledgment that Pomni at the very least sees he’s trying. <- I think this would’ve been best because they would still not be close enough for Pomni to reach out, but at the very least she might be able to notice that something was up with him. 

In episode 5, Caine gets the same drink as Pomni out of everyone.

In episode 6, she was the one to point out him uncharacteristically swearing. 

In episode 7, Pomni was one of the people Caine mentioned when he was asking Jax for feedback (besides Zooble)

I already rambled about Caine seemingly having beef with Pomni specifically in episode 8.

There’s like sprinkles of potential interactions, but I do wish they DID interact more. Not even cause of showtime, but because Pomni is a protagonist and Caine is an antagonist. 

I listed my reasonings on a fic I just published about how it should've been Pomni on the date scene rather than Jax, and the reasonings I stated are:

Caine has seen Pomni interact with others time and time again and it’s very evident with the way he programmed Abel, as well as the rewind scene on Intermission time showing the casts’ adventures, including the OOB map on episode 2– and somehow, her talk-no-jutsu towards the cast and Gummigoo consistently worked. So why wouldn’t Caine TRY to get Pomni to talk to him, to try and get on her good side so he can FINALLY get some good empathy points?

Caine is implied to be envious of Gummigoo, and that’s why he snaps him out of existence. No, not jealous; ENVIOUS. He’s envious of Gummigoo’s effortless friendship with Pomni, as it only took him being sad to get the jester to sympathize and befriend the gator. He, who’s spent almost two whole ass decades trying to make THE perfect adventure, hasn’t been able to befriend ONE singular human. So, what’s one way to try and spark a friendship than to take a page outta the gator’s playbook? (but unfortunately for him, he doesn’t understand that what he’s doing is emotional manipulation and this BACKFIRES BADLY.)

A LOT of Caine’s dialogue during the date scene would feel a whole lot more personal, especially the “macroverse” scene as Pomni shares the love of urban exploration. I’m going to be honest, there’s a LOT of parallels when it comes to these two; from their palette, to the salmon-based pun utilized in the date because if you don’t know: Pomni’s favorite food is salmon and Jax’s fav is spaghetti, to the “DO YOU THINK I’M COOL??” feeling more like it’s a desperate attempt to get the newest guy on your side who hasn't really formed a solid opinion of you yet – there’s just soooo much of it that sometimes, I even start to feel like this was initially planned out for Pomni, until it was switched to Jax halfway through the script to give him a lot more screentime, and a way to interact with Caine. Like, leftovers from something that was scrapped, but reused.

There’s now a GENUINE misunderstanding between the two that actually feels like it’s a fresh take on the trope! Pomni feels betrayed, feeling like she just got manipulated purely for the sake of the adventure when she was initially the manipulator, while Caine, who is oblivious to the manipulation he had inflicted, doesn’t understand why Pomni’s angry, because as far as he knows; he did everything right! They’ve literally just had a talk, and Pomni seemed like she actually began to understand him!

The unintentional emotional manipulation could instill a REAL divide between the show’s main protagonist, and main antagonist. I’ve always had this issue, that for someone who’s supposed to be the protagonist and the antagonist… they don’t interact a lot. Like. They BARELY interact. They BARELY bash heads. It’s like the show doesn’t ALLOW them to, even though there is a way to make it work. Sure, my version’s… pretty late into the story, but adding onto the last moments before the date ended feels like it’s a direct foreshadowing of Caine’s raging glitch transformation, signaling that it doesn’t just happen out of nowhere.

It’s another parallel to episode 1 and 2, which I feel like the show has been doing lately; the cafe is brought back, Pomni calling out for Caine and lowkey being frustrated why he chose to arrive NOW and not during the abstracted Kaufmo incident, Pomni conversing with another AI during his troubles, the others going on the “adventure” while Pomni is looking for the exit (and Caine) but this time, it’s everyone trying to follow a plan… sigh.

Like, seriously. The show has a conveniently placed™ invisible narrative barrier in between these two, it makes me wanna tear my hair out. So afraid to make them interact out of fear that episode 8 wouldn't make sense, and the set up for the finale wouldn't work, when there were ways to handle this without compromising the main set up of making the biggest mistake you can do, and NOT make Pomni a hypocrite.

Pomni interacting with Caine in the date scene in Episode 7, then having him deleted by episode 8 would've FELT like a massive karma for what he did to Gummigoo. But nope, we don't get to have that. None of the potential these two have are ever resolved, because all we get are passing glances, and one sentence exchanges.

I think if Pomni were the one in the dinner date scene instead of Jax, she might've genuinely indulged Caine a little. She would just be talking for the sake of talking at first but when he starts going on about the macroverse and how he got cut off, I can honestly imagine Pomni giving a sincere response. "What do you mean?" or "Cut you off?", something like that. Because she's consistently exhibited the want to understand and empathize with people, regardless of them being human or AI. All she really needed was to see that there WAS someone to reach out to.

I genuinely think that Jax really wasted the date scene because he achieves NOTHING on it. He isn't even able to LIE CONVINCINGLY, which is supposed to be his whole thing??

The date scene barely makes any sense. The strongest argument to justify it is the speculation that Caine lured him in order to distract him from abstracting. But that's the thing, IT'S JUST. SPECULATION.

And it's one reason. I just provided like, what? 6 other reasons? That are stronger and actually have grounds to stand on based on previous episodes?

I just... really can't wrap my head around the writing choice. It just feels so, so weird to deprive the narrative an interaction between these two, especially since they're the ones who advance the plot threads consistently the most and they have so much going on, that is tossed aside.

The writing is either negligent, or so afraid of the idea that having Pomni and Caine interact would IMMEDIATELY resolve the main theme of Caine feeling unwanted and unloved till the very end when again; THERE IS A WAY TO MAKE THIS WORK. To make it that Caine still feels unloved by the end. To make it so that Pomni STILL has to be morbidly reminded that she had just committed the worst thing one can do in this world.

I would've understand if Pomni was someone like Gangle, or Ragatha in the circus. But that's the thing. SHE'S POMNI. SHE'S SUPPOSED TO BE THE MAIN CHARACTER.

SO WHY IS OUR MAIN CHARACTER NOT INTERACTING WITH THE MAIN ANTAGONIST????? 😭😭😭😭😭😭

Plus this would have made Pomni dissing him to hell and back more fun; she’s bitter about the events of episode 7 but it’s still mixed with being conflicted. She does it at first to bait but then she gets carried away because she’s still harboring some issues with him!!!! I would have really liked this hypothetically in canon, because if would leave both protagonists in a state of shock and specific issues. Pomni with feeling betrayed but it still being infused with a bit of sympathy (somewhat) for Caine, Jax feeling like his worldview is shattering because of Caine “getting in his head” which would segue also into the stuff they do in episode 8.

I think Jax’s opinion on Kinger is more on the surface level kinda way, “the crazy one” as he puts it. I’ve seen people speculate (and I also believe this) that Kinger and Jax will be at odds with each other in the finale. I hope nobody jumps me for this lol but my reading on Jax is he always finds a way to blame others or shirk the blame to something else for his own actions. His cartoon archetype worldview absolves him of any consequences to his bullying (human or AI). So, with Kinger being the one to delete Caine, I can just FEEL a scene of him being so overwhelmed with the current situation he starts blaming Kinger for, well, everything.

"...The way I see it, relationships are two sided"

"and sometimes, it doesn't make sense to do all the heavy lifting when the other isn't in the mood."

"We all go through and deal with things differently, and sometimes, you just need to let people do things their own way."

"As long as you're still there when they need you. Giving someone space should never be the same as giving up on them."

"...There are always ways to show you care without ruining yourself over it. You need to look out for yourself in all this, too."

"Relationships are two-sided": to be able to make the circus work, both Caine and the circus members should've communicated with each other properly "-and sometimes it doesn't make sense to do all the heavy lifting when the other isn't in the mood": Caine forcing his adventures onto everyone, thinking it would appeal to them when in reality it's the very thing that drives the humans away (in Pomni's case, she literally views Caine as someone who wants to see her suffer in episode 3) "And sometimes you just need to let people do things their own way": referring to the suggestion box adventures, but because Caine feels like it should be HIS ideas that the humans like, he keeps shutting them down "As long as you're still there when they need you, giving someone space should never be the same as giving up on them": He never listened, he never TRIED to understand, he just basically bombarded and suffocated the humans with his adventures because that's what HE thought would benefit them "There are always ways to show you care without ruining yourself over it. You need to look out for yourself in all this too": Caine saying he literally slaves away for the adventures, that he does everything for the humans but they still don't like him

the implication is that the circus IS her most traumatic experience, that losing her autonomy, her NAME, her humanity, is the most traumatic experience she's ever had. it's the fact that she lost the first person that understood her existential crisis at the time, because gummigoo just had learned that he wasn't real, and pomni found comfort in someone who wasn't afraid to talk about it.

because the others were too absorbed on their own matters due to it, and pomni really had no one to talk to. (ragatha was there, yes, but we already know what her problems at the start of the series were, as pomni NEEDS someone who's not afraid of talking about things, while ragatha was coping with toxic positivity).

my point is that pomni's trauma isn't some ai love interest thing (which i am aware is a joke but it's annoying to see such a meaningful friendship be described as such), but that the loss of the first person that understood her in such a vulnerable time was what marked her the most. it is also the dehumanization that caine portrayed with turning gummigoo into a real animal, and making him (and his brothers) attack pomni.

because she still feels guilty about it.

So I've watched this video and had to draw my interpretation of most of it º ω º )

Am I getting through to you?

Hello buddies, here’s a piece I’ve been working on ever since episode 8 dropped. The entire story of Caine is just so sad and it’s frustrating that it took him crashing out for his feelings to be heard.

Anyways I got a bunch of other Caine art brewing and maybe a little bit of showtime. 🥴

Ah and some funny bunny as well~

What do you think Caine would do if a new circus member was super skittish and anxious and decided to hug him?

It'd be like when a stray cat lets you pet it for the first time! Probably make him feel really special, too.

If you like my work, please consider commissioning me or leaving a tip on Ko-fi (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)

Getting a hug from his newest friend

★ For a second he goes completely still. Ceasing all motion. Then you hear a soft *click* like something inside of him snapped into place. You barely have time to register it before getting lifted into the air. Caine has scooped you up as if you weighed nothing at all.

★ "You're hugging me! Actually hugging me!" He’s practically vibrating, he's so excited. Congratulations. You successfully made Caine fawn over you. Don't resist. That'll only make it worse.

★ Until that point, you weren’t even sure Caine had an indoor voice. Then you heard it. A quiet "mmm, I got you. Heh!" Ending in a high-pitched laugh. Short and sweet. So unlike his usual self, you were actually caught off guard.

when kinger and pomni are in "hell" and kinger says

"Not your typical idea of hell"

cold, dark, lonely, a jail.

You know what's also cold, dark, lonely, and locked in?

I have some issues with the way people are seeing this scene here. At face value, it does look like Jax just wants to start fighting for no reason and Zooble and Pomni are ignoring him for that.

That isn't what's happening here.