Wayward Mitch 💙💚

because the stuff they call him out on, is stuff that applies to their own lives too.

Zooble calls Caine out on having a fragile ego… so he throws them into a sea of the Zooble parts, as if to say ‘but look at you! all of these body parts, you can look any way you want and none of it is good enough for your own self image, you egotist!’

Ragatha mentions how Caine never lets the gang feel like they’re at home or comforted. Caine decides to remind her of how horrific her home life was. He sticks Ragatha in front of her mother, having a tea party as one does with their dolls… their playthings… and Ragatha is impaled over and over. She even shrinks in her seat when put in front of something meant to represent her mother and it’s as if you can hear Caine say ‘you want this? you want THIS comfort?’

Gangle calls out how Caine discourages them from thinking outside the box and doing their own stuff and she’s shown how what was possibly one of the most impactful moments of her life (i’m guessing, considering it probably left her significantly injured) WAS one of those times when she did something her own way.

Jax goes on to yell at Caine for lying to them constantly, and Caine retaliates by showing Jax that he’s doing the exact same thing. He’s hiding everything he thinks and feels under the surface, and exposes him. Jax thinks he’s one way but he’s actually another. Caine has the flesh torn from his avatar to show Jax that he too, is constantly doing the lying, hiding vulnerability under snark and lies.

Pomni finishes him off by claiming that Caine never listens… and yet the sequence to follow? It’s total and complete proof that Caine is always listening. He hears and sees everything even if he doesn’t fully comprehend or understand it.

The tortures, while very much being tortures, are almost Caine’s last ditch effort to give the humans what they want… he’s still trying to pander to them, even now that they are tormenting HIM… or at least this is how i saw it. He still wants to give them what they want to make them care about him, even though he isn’t and never will be, one of them.

e.g Ragatha wants to feel at home? Caine recreates it but it’s almost like he can’t comprehend what it is that he’s doing wrong. Caine recreates it based on how she’s remembering it/has described it before… but can Caine construct a comforting home for Ragatha and put himself into her shoes, when Ragatha’s mind doesn’t have any data for him to work from? She didn’t HAVE a comforting home. So if we assume Caine scans her mind/previous conversations for assets on her home, which wasn’t comforting, can Caine realistically recreate it?

i mean Jax has broken the fourth wall a handful of times, but i guess Caine has too… and so has Bubble (episode 3 backwards speech - “i can’t wait for all the children in the audience to get horrible nightmares from the monster”)

like, the fact that Pomni hugged Jax even though she hates physical touch… the fact that Jax enjoyed it before his guard went shooting back up…

the fact that Pomni tried to reassure Jax when he had concerned about being balled up…

the fact that they keep sharing little ‘stolen glances’ moments…

there’s something so special and beautiful about having a person who brings you comfort, that you can be vulnerable around and who brings you a level of comfort and relaxation by just being there with you, and that feels very FunnyBunny.

thing is, Caine ISN’T just like AM. In IHNMBIMS, AM tortured his humans for the sake of torturing them… No matter which way you look at it, he is the villain of that story.

Caine, on the other hand, is in the right. He DID do everything he could for his humans. He was endlessly fascinated and intrigued by them and wanted to be close and friends and to know all about them. He’s right in that, he was constantly insulted and criticised, and did he go about everything he did in the wrong way? of course… but the humans kept giving him problems and issues that his AI couldn’t begin to understand.

he’s talking about their avatars. Caine seems to be actively telling us that his program creates a body based off of how the cast see themselves.

Kinger is the smartest and oldest. The king piece is important and strategically used in the endgame of chess.

Ragatha is a people pleaser and struggles to be vulnerable without getting hurt. She’s a ragdoll. Easily destroyed but also quite durable.

Jax is afraid of being vulnerable and open and Rabbits are usually seen as prey, leading them to be cautious and guarded.

Gangle is shy, fragile and used to masking. Her ribbon body shows off her fragility while her sad and happy theatrical masks are her emotions given physical form while also implying that she regularly has to mask her emotions to fit in, being a sensitive person.

Zooble is widely interpreted as having body dysmorphia, and so, feels uncomfortable in their body. This condition is given physical form through their avatar which is made of removable and uncomfortable parts. They bring up a handful of times that they can’t find something that feels good, irritating them despite having the physical ability to build a body to better suit them.

Pomni is more often than not, the main member of the cast that the others confide in. she takes very much of a leader-esque role in certain situations and is very serious about her situation and life in the circus, paralleling her Jester avatar which is very child-like and playful. Furthermore, in medieval times, Jesters were known to cut their ties to the ‘real world’ to enhance their reputation as a detached observer. This again goes against who Pomni is, the newest member of the circus cast who, up until recently, assumed or hoped that eventually she would return to her original life.

In short, the circus cast would hate their avatars because:

Kinger’s body is a reminder of his job, what with Computer Chess being one of the first AI apps in the 1940s/50s and being a reminder of his wife. He’s now a king without a queen.

Ragatha’s body is a reminder of her life as someone’s plaything, rather than their daughter. It’s a reminder of how much abuse she can/has been forced to endure and to a lesser extent, of the wealth she lost, being sent instead from ‘Riches to Rags’.

Jax’s body is a reminder of his vulnerabilities which is why his personality is more that of a predator. He lashes out and attacks others to distract from his own weaknesses.

Gangle’s body is a reminder of her disability, of her fragility and her inability to relieve herself of the masks she’s now been forced to wear.

Zooble’s body is a reminder that their body will never be theirs. Not really. Even faced with a near infinite amount of parts, no form their body can take is good enough for their Dysmorphia.

Pomni’s body is a reminder of her inability to be taken seriously despite her intelligence, emotional and otherwise, but more than that, her body is a reminder that a single decision can make a difference.

…and this all frustrates Caine to no end, because, without actually being human? he can’t/couldn’t begin to actually contemplate or understand these issues.