Just a schmuck who writes and draws

Back in the early episodes of the show, for whatever reason, I didn’t trust Ragatha. I’m not sure why, but I do know from watching a lot of cartoons like Digital Circus, I’ve gotten used to the notion that a character isn’t nice for no reason. I didn’t expect her to be a twist villain, that’d be insane, but I felt like there was something she was hiding. Especially since she wasn’t really acting that well at being a good person. The things that come to my mind are the ways she infantilizes Pomni, trying to hype up adventures and how fun they are to an adult woman who’s currently having the worst time out of everyone there. And there was just something about the condescending way she tried to cheer up Pomni after accidentally causing Gummigoo’s death that just rubbed me the wrong way. To me, that moment will always be worse than anything she said while on the stupid sauce. Yes, that was mostly a mask-off moment for Ragatha as she talked and insulted some of the others, but that’s only because she was high as fuck and became unfiltered. You see in her immediate questioning of whether or not what she said to Gangle was mean. I can shrug that off, but my brain always went to that scene with Pomni. The poor jester watched someone she grew incredibly close to die right before her eyes and all Ragatha could say was, “Aw chucks, sorry sweetie. At least you tried!”

It felt wrong and made me keep a closer eye on Ragatha, thinking there’s something about her that’s worth questioning. I even made a post about how and why I didn’t trust her and felt like there was some kind of twist planned with her and her intentions. And wouldn’t you know it, there was a twist! Ah-HA!

You see, as it turns out…Ragatha is a victim of abuse, spending most of her life with a mother who yelled at and implicitly attacked Ragatha for every mistake that she made. This led to her internalizing that lifetime of pain, making Ragatha afraid of the very idea of someone not liking her and trying desperately to be loved by everyone. But when she fails or makes mistakes, this causes Ragatha to feel like she was still the failure her mother always loudly said she was, and it makes her try even harder which only makes people push her away further, which only makes her feel more like a failure. And the reason why she can’t seem to effectively cheer Pomni up is because Ragatha has no experience with what it means to be a good, nurturing person, with the closest she has being Kinger in the rarest of moments when he’s actually sane. Meaning that the job she gave herself is something she can’t properly do because she’s naturally bad at it for no fault of her own.

…Yeah, after learning all that, I proceeded to delete that old post of mine and continuously side-eye anyone who called Ragatha the worst and most toxic person on the show.

Ragatha, in actuality, is another case of men not being able to handle a complex female character, myself unfortunately being included in that equation (Again, I am sorry). No, Ragatha isn’t a horrible person just because she’s bad at being a nurturing friend. Does she slip up and says the wrong thing or something she shouldn’t? Yes, but there’s always a clear sense of regret whenever she does it. She wants so badly for someone to at least appreciate her existence, and the thought of anyone hating her breaks Ragatha apart. She says so to Jax when high off the sauce. She hates him, she has the capacity to hate, but she doesn’t want to be hated either. In a way, it kind of makes her like Caine.

A friend of mine likes to point out how similar Ragatha is to Jax, which is fair to point out. Both wear masks to hide their true pain and so no one can see how badly they’re really hurting on the inside, they just do it for different reasons. For Jax, it’s to hide that he’s a real person with real emotions, and for Ragatha, it’s to hide that she’s weaker than she appears to be so people can look at her as a shoulder to cry on. That similarity is interesting to look at, but I still feel like the comparison between Ragatha and Caine is more fascinating. They’re both characters who gave themselves a self-proclaimed caretaker to those who didn’t ask for one, partially for a somewhat selfish desire to be loved by all. The main problem is that both are bad at their jobs some of it not being their own fault because neither had a proper baseline to work with, and most of it being unable to understand what different people need to feel loved and appreciated. That and a failure to really understand anyone. 

Ragatha knew Kinger longer than anybody else in the circus, and yet Pomni, after one week there, managed to learn that Kinger’s sane in the dark before Ragatha. Years of friendship, and she never pieced it together until Pomni made a vague comment about darkness. It shows that despite wanting to be the Mom Friend of the group, she doesn’t take the time to really understand everyone and their deals. Again, sort of like Caine.

However, what sets Ragatha apart is the self-awareness and the capability to learn. Ragatha fully knows that she’s responsible for her own failures. In fact, you can probably make the argument that she blames herself too much, as all of this is a responsibility she put onto herself. No one asked nor wanted her to be the Mom Friend. That’s a role she gave herself, and it’s mostly herself she criticizes for. The closest she comes to blaming someone else is telling Jax that he’s corrupting Pomni instead of coming to the conclusion that Pomni meshes better with Jax instead of Ragatha, but Ragatha still comes to the conclusion that it’s her that failed in the end. And after one talk with Kinger, it leads to Ragatha realizing that maybe she shouldn’t try too hard. The best part being she doesn’t. By the episodes that follow (That I’ve seen), Ragatha eases up in forcing herself to be the friend everyone needs and just help others in a way they actually want her help. She learns that she doesn’t have to be the Mom Friend, she can just be a friend.

Out of everyone else in the cast, Kinger was the easiest to like for one reason and one reason only: He was funny. Like, really funny. In fact, throughout the whole show , Kinger remains to be the funniest character.  Part of it is the randomness of his lines and actions just being too funny to resist laughing at, and another part is because of perfect deliveries from Sean “The allegations against me are disputed” Chiplock. His performance leaves so much charm in every line, making it super easy to laugh at whatever Kinger has to say. Even the dramatic stuff, he nails the delivery so well that you hear the voice of a tired, wise older man instead of some chess piece with googly eyes.

And that’s another thing. Despite being the funniest character, Kinger also manages to be the most tragic. Because…of course he is.

Kinger’s probably the third crazy old man that managed to have a tragic backstory that turned him that way. At least, in terms of popular cartoons since the 2010s. I’m not sure if this has been done a lot in live action or done way earlier, but The Amazing Digital Circus is definitely the third type of show I noticed.Next to Adventure Time’s Ice King and Gravity Falls’ McGucket, Kinger can be just as random and wacky as those two and just as tragic. However, what sets Kinger apart is that there’s this sort of realism to the source of insanity. There’s no cursed artifact or device that irradiates the brain. Instead, it was…isolation.

Kinger spent who knows how long alone in the Circus, and that type of solitary confinement can do the worst things to the mind. To the point where Kinger forgot his circus name because no one else talked to him over the years. It’s honestly kind of amazing that he hasn’t lost the ability to speak altogether. Him saying he has a resilient mind in Episode Six is meant to be ironic, but really think about it. He should be crazier after everything that happened to him and to all he lost. Kinger slowly lost his life, coworkers, friends, and his wife since day one of getting trapped in the circus. Just being forced to watch the woman he loved the most die and sink into the abyss is enough to make a man snap. Add that to the isolation, and it really is a miracle that Kinger has some semblance of sanity. And that’s not even getting into the guilt.

The isolation breaking him is the normal part of Kinger’s situation, but the part that does make it lean into the fantastical like Ice King and McGucket does is how the isolation was caused in a prison of Kinger’s own making. Well, partial making. Him and the others at C&A made Caine, fucked him up, and he created a family-friendly video game to prove that he’s good enough for what they wanted. In a roundabout way, this is Kinger’s fault and he has blamed himself for so long. It’s hard not to when you’re the sole survivor of a tragedy of your own partial making. The thoughts of it being his fault are away at him too, and it’s, again, a miracle that Kinger had some sanity left.

Another thing that sets Kinger apart from past crazy old guys is the way his sane and insane sides blend together. It’s not a split personality situation or a case that Kinger slowly gets better over time. Instead, he has rare moments, specifically in the dark, where his mind comes back to him. And I do love that it’s rare, giving you the time to appreciate each moment when he has all of his marbles gathered. It doesn’t happen every episode for long, so you learn to take what you can, not knowing when you get it again. But even then, Kinger doesn’t always need complete darkness to be sane, as there are often these tiniest bit of moments that hint at him being more put together than normal. He wasn’t all there, but he was there enough to offer some advice and help, regardless of whether or not he understood what was going on.

And that leads to what’s truly the best thing about Kinger, an aspect of him that becomes more clear with each episode: He’s so damn nurturing. Kinger’s referred to as the Dad of the group, and it’s hard not to see why. The man lived a fairly long life and, with the exception of Ragatha, is stuck with a group of twenty-somethings who don’t know anything about life and are struggling every day. And that’s before they got trapped for life in the Digital Circus. Seeing them, seeing their struggles, Kinger often gives reinforcement, advice, and a shoulder to cry on. Because when you have a direct involvement to the very thing driving everyone else insane, the very least you can offer is comfort when you’re able to give it. And it’s nice seeing that even when he’s insane, being empathetic will always be the default for Kinger. It’s just…another one of the many amazing things about him.