And They Were Siblings

Kinger and Caine’s relationship is misunderstood by the vast majority of fans who don’t see the forest for the trees when it comes to evidence. It hinges on the trope of Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s monster or Gorrister and AM, which falls flat when considering the characters, motives, and situations.

Before we can explore their dynamic, however, we have to agree on key details.

C&A is not a villain in this story.

Caine is the one trapping them here.

Kinger was the lead developer for Caine.

Caine is manipulating Kinger’s mind.

C&A cannot realistically be a villain. Not only would that be odd for Abel to be a fakeout and have that fakeout be mostly true, but when you look back at the series, Abel’s claims don’t make sense. The computer is in an abandoned building, mostly untouched for years. C&A must have been small, as no one recognizes the brand, and its name implies Caine was the startup project. The circus is also clearly not meant to be lived in, and Caine is not fit to be a caretaker, no matter how hard he tries. If humans were watching the circus, they would be able to fix bugs. The digital circus is clearly a game that hasn’t been touched since the 90s development wise, and Caine isn’t able to properly fix the problems in it. 

The last three are already agreed upon for the most part, but a quick rundown is Caine’s character and role as the antagonist logically follows that he’s the one trapping them. If C&A isn’t the villain, then someone is holding them against their will, and the desperate and needy AI has a strong motive. Kinger is clearly a developer, and likely a big deal not only because of it being most interesting in storytelling, but also because of how Kinger discusses regret and hatred for what he’s done, which doesn’t sound like a lackie’s thought process. Caine has the ability to rewire their minds, though he only puts on modifiers due to Scratch, and through episode 7 we’ve already seen him manipulate with his lucidity. Caine is below Kinger in administration access, because I doubt he’d let Kinger keep his administration powers if he could rip them away.

Having that established, I am all but convinced that Caine not only doesn't hate Kinger, but that Kinger is like a father to him, and the reason for the lack of interaction is not out of bitterness, but out of shame and awkwardness.

Caine’s characterization is obsession. Obsession with humanity, specifically. His obsession manifests in numerous ways, with being obsessed with the macroverse, being obsessed with being like a human, and being obsessed with being liked by humans. It’s almost reverence.

For an AI who wants to be human, wants to be liked by humans, wants more information on the human world, the logical conclusion is that Caine would also be fixated on his creator, the first human he ever met, and the human he’s spent the most time with. It isn’t just a possible outcome, it’s one that without, it would feel jarring and against his character.

Caine shows favoritism towards Kinger subtly but constantly. He lets him sleep in his pillow fort which is in the middle of everything and never moves it, not to mention the pillows would’ve had to come from somewhere. This is a privilege that Caine would likely refuse in any other case, as it’s unnecessary, is rejecting the room he made for them, and would get in the way as once again, it is smack dab in the middle of the main room.

Kinger gets his own adventure when skipping out on the fast food one, and is the only one given an A+. In the majority of adventures (that aren’t created for someone else) there are bugs. Caine interrupts almost everyone’s nomination video. Everyone else’s video is disrupted (the two exceptions for Caine is Gangle, who Jax interrupts, and Jax, who Zooble interrupts) except Kinger’s. Caine, in the videos he interrupts, is incredibly fussy about them being good, yet doesn’t fuss over Kinger going on fully unrelated tangents. In the same vein, Kinger’s goes on for 1 minute and 3 seconds, the only video over 1 minute. In Ragatha’s video, he cuts her off because her minute is up (despite the fact it wasn’t.) Kinger, however, doesn’t get cut off. He doesn’t get interrupted. He’s allowed to talk as long as he wants.

Livestreams with the cast are not canon, I won’t pretend they are. However, the voice actors know the characters well, and the characterization, unless it’s a joke, is pretty spot on. They would not consistently do something that is against a character’s personality when playing them.

There’s three main livestreams I want to talk about, all coming after they finished reading the scripts of the show. The first is the Left4Dead stream. Alex Rochon is weirdly quiet whenever the rest of the cast calls Sean/Kinger dad for the most part. This strikes me as odd, he could say thanks Kinger, or even thanks Sean. Another thing is how in character Sean asks if “you kids okay?” to Caine and Ragatha. Ragatha is someone he is a parental figure to, as well as being older, but Caine? Caine wouldn’t be a kid to Kinger. Unless, of course, Kinger acted like a mentor or parental figure to him before. Calling him kid also implies fondness for him.

One moment in the Left4Dead stream, much later, is when Sean talks as Kinger and Alex, as Caine, replies “whatever you say, dad.” Despite the fact that usually everyone chirps a thank you, after Alex replies, they shut up and move to the next topic, even though only a few expressed gratitude.

Knowing the voice actors’ dynamics, I find it hard to believe they wouldn’t tear Alex to shreds for a stumble like that. But to not only it being ignored, but that cutting off the conversation altogether, makes me think he slipped up and revealed something the audience doesn’t know.

The second Peak livestream has a moment where Sean/Kinger asks if they’re friends again (not to Alex/Caine) and he jumps in saying “we were never not friends, Kinger.” Finally, the D&D stream has Caine give everyone a class. Kinger is the only one with divine gifts by his “many-toothed god.” 

Caine chose Kinger to have him as a god and no one else.

Yes, this is all circumstantial, but when you add everything up, circumstantial evidence is still evidence.

The evidence that Caine hates Kinger boils down to three main points: A spirit mocked Queenie’s abstraction, Abel shows disdain for Kinger, and Caine venomously yells “too bad they CUT ME OFF right?!” but these all fall apart under scrutiny.

The spirit possessing Pomni doesn’t follow a script line for line. None of the NPCs do. The spirit was made to be dangerous and scary and cruel for Zooble’s excitement, Kinger was never expected to be near that NPC. There’s no reason to think Caine knew the NPC even said that. Secondly, Abel doesn’t show hatred for Kinger. He shows remorse, awkwardness, a disconnect that he wants to close but he’s not ready to face Kinger yet. He says he’d love to work alongside him again and they both made decisions they’re not proud of. If Abel was mimicking Caine’s thoughts, it wouldn’t mean hatred. 

Abel’s line about wisdom and also the bitter line Caine spouts both have the same explanation: Caine has a bit of a grudge. But grudges don’t mean hatred. Caine can have some anger towards something Kinger did without hating Kinger himself. Turning some deep down bitter feelings into his main emotion towards Kinger is flattening their dynamic. Treating emotions as simple takes away from a story’s complexity.

For the reason why Caine doesn’t actively interact with him, it’s very simple. Caine likely feels ashamed for what he’s done. He lobotomized his own father, likely out of a mix of making sure he wouldn’t abstract and to keep him from escaping.