Hi There

I really, really liked it. It wasn’t perfect by any means, heck, I still have questions, but what series finale IS perfect, but it fulfilled my expectations, and I can’t wait to watch it again on the 19th.

1- All of Jax’s crashouts, outbursts, etc in this episode were expected, and hurtful. However it wasn’t out of character for him. Heck, that scene where Pomni tries to reach out in his mindscape and he fucking CHOKES her while staring into our souls, really frightening.

Thankfully, it didn’t feel like “forgiveness” when Pomni hugged him a few minutes later. Heck, they even gave us a scene of Gangle having conflicting feelings about his funeral and then being told that it’s ok to feel that way.

2- a lot of people may have issues with the twist that the main cast is actually brain copies instead of actual humans trapped in a VR world, but honestly…I think it fits.

It reminds me of this Black Mirror episode called White Christmas, where a woman got a bit of her brain copied into an Alexa-like tech, and the version of her inside that thing had thoughts and feelings of her own, it was basically like slavery, since the company copied her entire personality and consciousness into an AI piece and were able to literally torture her into submission.

So yeah. The characters just being copies makes sense to me. And well, their reactions to that info is understandable. They still felt like real people with real memories, and just found out that they really, truly, can’t leave. I love that they all reacted differently. Pomni trying to diffuse the situation, Jax taunting the others (“guess you still stay with mommy, Ragatha”) to avoid thinking about his human self, and Ragatha + Gangle shutting down entirely.

Ngl, at first I didn’t fully understand and thought their human bodies were dead 😅

3- I’m happy for the shippers, honestly. We got Funnybunny, funnydoll, and Abstragedy all in one episode. I still remember crying my fucking eyes out this afternoon seeing Pomni (who dislikes physical touch) hug Ragatha, and the music swelling as the camera panned around them? Omg my heart 😭 like LITERALLY I squealed, especially when I noticed Pomni tightening her grip. It helps that they continued the touchy gestures throughout the episode.

Same with Pomni hugging Jax. I cried almost as much there, and I blame Michael Kovach’s voice acting and the musical score. The way he kept holding her tighter pulled my heartstrings, man 💔 and when he said “I hate you, you know that”, I said “no you don’t.”

Astragedy, oh my lord. Their tension, whether you view it as platonic, romantic, or something else entirely, you could FEEL it. Obviously my favorite part about them in this finale was Zooble wiping away Gangle’s tears. This is corny of me to say, but I like to believe that their human counterparts eventually find each other and maybe fall in love. (Same with funnydoll, cough)

4- Jax. Oh my god, Jax. Personally, I was never a huge fan of the guy. Never found him hot, never found him endearing. But I won’t deny that he is well written and layered. It quite shocked me that he abstracted so early. I’ll admit though, there could’ve been more buildup to it. Then again, all the full abstractions were offscreen. I think if it as similar to dissociation.

I actually liked seeing his backstory with Ribbit and Kaufmo (who is voiced by Arin Hanson btw). It reshapes his reaction to Kaufmo’s funeral in episode 1 so much more.

His argument (more like a screaming match) with Ribbit on the snowy summit felt painfully realistic. It especially hurt more that these scenes were shot from a first person pov instead of third. I can’t explain it, but it doesn’t feel like it’d hit as hard if it was third person.

And then it cuts to his pov of meeting Pomni, and the altercation in the gun episode? Oh my god.

I appreciate the writers for not having Pomni’s hug magically change him back to normal. That would’ve been predictable, and more fitting for a kid’s show. And as I mentioned earlier, I like that he wasn’t 100% forgiven for bullying Gangle. She’s allowed to feel conflicted.

That being said, I do wish the writing focused just as much on Ragatha, Zooble, Gangle and Kinger. Alas, I’m not expert in the cartoon or writing industry, and at the end of the day, it’s Gooseworx’s show, and they’re allowed to write it that way. Maybe she didn’t have enough room in the time span she was allowed.

5- The reactions to Caine coming back in my theater were practically explosive. I’m guilty of saying “WHAT??” I don’t fully understand it, I think he got transported to the Void like a timeout instead of actual deletion? It wasn’t clear to me. But regardless, that was such a cool sequence, seeing how he programmed people into the Circus. Like, really cool. The animation is mwah.

I’ll admit, it felt just a little bit fast paced when Caine realized his mistakes, but hey, I like seeing likable characters admit their mistakes, flaws or crimes. Also, the bit with him yanking the blue dot out of his brain (was it Abel?) was so sick.

And just like with Jax, nobody was obligated to forgive Caine. He didn’t expect any. Heck, nobody did forgive him. Even with what he showed them later. I love you Zooble, for having such a good mindset about boundaries, communication and forgiveness.

6- finally, the ending. I’ve already seen a fair share of people complaining, saying it was corny. Which is valid. Or saying “the ending was ass” and treating it like it’s a fact. …not so valid. People are allowed to dislike or like the ending of this show. It didn’t meet everyone’s standards. But to me, whether or not it’s good is subjective. Everyone has opinions. Personally, I think it’s good! Not perfect, but good.

God, seeing the main characters’ be reassured by Caine of all people that their human selves are okay? It felt cathartic. You could feel the relief in everyone’s faces and bodies (minus Jax’s for obvious reasons). Faces that said “that’s me??” and “im going to be okay”.

Thank god, the real names of everybody weren’t boring.

Pomni is Abigail

Ragatha is Susie

Zooble is Riley

Gangle is Zoey

Kinger is Grant and Queenie is Destiny

Jax is Leeroy

They’re all living their best lives in the real world. Whether or not this info is actually true, i don’t think it matters. It gives the characters peace of mind.

I don’t know why, but I didn’t actually expect the episode to use live actors to portray the Circus members’ human bodies. It’s actually super clever. Whoever the actors are (I forgot their names but they are in the credits), you did amazing. Especially Leeroy. It feels fitting that he hides his face in every photo.

ALSO! I had a feeling there was an end credits scene (the MCU trained me lol), but I did NOT expect all of the human characters to show up like that. I love that me and everyone in my theater understood the implications.

(Side note: I still love reading those old comics where the characters do get out of the Circus and meet each other in real life, those are amazing. It’s ok that they’re AUs now.)

Final thoughts: So I wouldn’t call this a “happily ever after” ending like some think it is. Jax is still abstracted, and they still have to build trust with Caine.

Remember what I compared the twist to earlier with the Black Mirror episode? It’s not just that they’re copies of brains.

Think of them as them being born again. Born into confinement, born with memories of their past life, yes, but born into what is basically a prison. Thankfully, now they can make it a home.

He returns one night to his humble apartment, which is known to have vermin, and comes across a rat, which he could easily kill or set loose on the street.

But the rat- it is special. It seems to speak to him. Promises him every little thing he desires- talent, fame, and fortune. Recognition and esteem like he has only ever seen from afar; fine company like the wealthy men and women whose scraps he picks at over the sink.

Put me on your head, the rat says. Put me on your head and think of nothing.

It is strange at first, yes. Strange to feel another take control of his life and live it better than he ever could. To see miraculous things created with his own two hands, to feel his feet move in graceful and fantastic ways with a confidence he has never had.

But the rat delivers as he had promised: he receives promotions, notoriety, admiration. He is noticed. Envied. Every day is a waking dream, rubbing elbows with beautiful women and handsome men and influential personalities who lavish him with praise. It is addictive, this lifestyle- never mind that he is only ever truly conscious of it as a passenger of in own brain.

It is when he has reached heights few can ever conceive, with all that the rat had ever promised- a beautiful wife in a beautiful house with all the world in his palm, in possession of all the wealth and success a man could ever want, that the rat says that it is leaving.

Leaving? The rat cannot leave. Everything he is, the rat has provided.

"I have delivered on our bargain", the rat says. "I have brought to you all that you have ever dreamed. What more could you desire? I must live my own life, now."

The man is furious. He is terrified. He destroys the rat, in all of the ways that a rat can be destroyed, until nothing is left of it but a fine smear of marinara sauce.

He returns to the restaurant the next day moving like the shell of something hollowed-out and brittle. He cooks well- his fingers remember the movements, his eyes recognize the patterns, his mouth knows without his asking what orders to speak and what platitudes make patrons smile pleasantly with their straight white teeth.

He retains the talents of the rat. The charm of the rat. All the worldly pleasures the rat had provided him.

Still, it seems, he is little more than a vessel for the talents of the rat.

But the rat is gone.

it's been a while since a drew some tarots cards here are a few more i did recently and a bonus one that doesn't fit the usual art style but i won't change it because it's perfect

also here's the previous part for those who are curious

I would never pay money for a redbox. if you ask politely and are very very persistent (i.e. annoying) they will let you take it away

here's my dad and i taking it away

luckily there are no shortage of freaks like us who will just take them away on our own volition. we did it all "by the book", too: we set up cones and caution tape, disconnected electricity properly, used an angle grinder to grind down the bolts in the concrete so nobody would trip on them, then cleaned everything up afterward and sealed off the electrical panel so the store would know everything is safe and tidy. though they were hesitant when we were first contacting them, they were honestly very relieved and grateful when we finally took it away, especially once they saw that we "knew what we were doing" (we don't) and look like we've "done this before" (we haven't).

the fun part: the reason why this redbox, in particular, was completely full and unraided is because the computer hardware inside had failed some months before the bankruptcy, and a failing company sure as hell wasn't gonna send a tech out to our podunk dipshit city to fix it, so it was impossible to rent movies or take any discs out. plus, for who knows how long, people were returning old redbox discs to this machine and not taking any out, leading to a much higher variety of movies than your average redbox.

there is a thriving community of redbox hackers and modders out there, as well, creating open-source software for repurposing the machines and not letting their very interesting and robust disc-management hardware go to waste. this one belongs to my brother (who was very annoying persistent and did all the legwork of contacting managers and securing permission) who is a programmer by trade and will be hacking it into a family-access movie library, with whatever discs we want. i mean the machine is completely weatherproof and has a built-in AC unit, it would be such a waste to not try to turn it into something cool.

if we get another one, i'm gonna try to mod it into some sort of art or zine vending machine. the disc boxes are just the right size for small print art or stickers. would make a great "little free library" too.

So you can avoid them stealing things from you, the artist/writer, etc.

Pro GenAI websites/Programs:

Facebook

Instagram

X/Twitter (Remember, Grok gives people cancer)

Threads

Pro Writing Aid

Grammarly

Duolingo

Google Docs

Microsoft Word/all Microsoft products Takes from and will feed their machine.

Youtube (taking advantage of people who are hearing impaired. ==;;)

Adobe Products. All of them. If you HAVE to use them (Some businesses require it), save offline because there is a film of at least some privacy protections there, so if you have to sue, you can say it violates US privacy law. Remember, contracts do not circumvent US law.

Corel won't feed the machines, but still uses AI stolen from other artists. Which sucks since Corel Draw is the second best overall for vector programs. (Plus I love Painter, but I bought the offline version to avoid AI). (Canadian company)

Canva Takes and feeds their machine.

Deviant Art Not only supports AI, but put a tool in and said they are going to steal your work if you like it or not for their machine.

Sketchup went Pro-GenAI. The thing is that you can do the same thing in Blender these days with precise measurements.

Autodesk has stated they are Pro-Gen AI here. It is not clear if they will use your models to feed their machine. But be on guard. They make Maya and 3Dmax. You can replace it with Blender.

Neutral ground:

Tumblr (there is a way to opt out [Link] and they don't have an active AI machine.) https://www.tumblr.com/dookins/743519550598987776/heres-how-to-disable-third-parties-like-ai

Etsy allows GenAI, but still has some (minor) restrictions. I'd still be cautious. (Also be cautious of drop shippers). Complaints about too much AI and AI images+patterns made by Ai still exist on the website. They lean slightly more pro-AI, but still won't let it run completely amok, say like Facebook. They won't feed your work into a machine, but also don't ban it through robots.txt.

Bluesky They don't use an AI algorithm except for in the "Discover" section of their website, but while they are anti-GenAI strongly, they don't seem to block the Gen AI bots from entry, so you'd still have to use Nightshade or Glaze (links below). There is no opt-out because they don't need an opt out. (Leaning towards strong position on AI, but I wish they would block GenAI bots).

Searxng- If you super want to screw over Google, in general, and have some tech savvy, you can set up your own search engine through searxng. It's easier on Windows and Linux than it is on a Mac. (Mac you need Docker), but if you're determined on privacy, Searxng adds a layer of privacy. Some of it sometimes uses bits of AI, but most of it doesn't and you can fuss with the settings so it doesn't spit out AI results. At sheer minimum Google will stop spitting out weird videos on Youtube at you because in your private browsing, you searched for the origin of ball bearings while not logged in for a book and Google likes to break privacy laws.

Strong positions against AI:

Scrivener (Creator vowed against AI) Writing program. There is an active forum, and versions for Mac, Linux and PC. It is paid, but at ~60 USD, it's cheaper than most programs. There is usually a holiday sale around Christmas. It has a learning curve, but with an active forum with the programmer of it there to ask obscure questions it's not a dead zone. They often take suggestions and implement them over time. (Especially if you rank the importance, applications, etc) US company.

LibreOffice Open source and free Spreadsheet and Word processor program that can replace Microsoft Word. Some people might have seen older versions where it was called Neo Office (now extinct) and Open Office. LibreOffice is still populated, plus the forums are super helpful if you get stuck. The UX is pretty intuitive if you've used Microsoft Word. Scrivener, BTW, supports exporting to odt (the native file) as well as .doc, and this can open both. The slight thing is that sometimes it doesn't export to .doc smoothly. And I DO wish more magazines, and agent (big clue here) supported .odt files since it is free. Part of the reason .odt isn't as supported is because Microsoft and Adobe have a deal with the devil with each other, so Adobe's Book formatting program InDesign doesn't support ODT. (BTW, if you have a good open source replacement for InDesign that supports ODT, let me know.)

Dabble (as suggested by SF stories, see reblog) is a writing program. Similar to Scrivener. Has vowed against AI and to resist it. 108 dollars a year for Basic. It is almost twice the price of Scrivener who lets you update for fairly cheap. 29 dollars a month, v. 59 dollars for the whole program (Scrivener) for the same features of Premium. You choose.

yWriter is a free Writing program and like Scrivener, and has vowed against AI Last I looked it had some UX issues, but some people swear by it. The learning curve is higher than Scrivener which is saying something.

Ellipsus is an online writing program and vowed against AI. The main feature I like (which Scrivener doesn't have) is the ability to change spellcheck based on region/language. It is a requested feature of Scrivener, but lower priority. So if you have a Brit, you can get the spelling for the character. They are a British-based company.

Cara.app (The creator of the website sued GenAI there is no chance they'll convert) is an artist website. Cara is trying to institute an auto Glaze/Nightshade into the website if given enough funds. People see it as a soft replacement for deviant art. (which went fully AI) If you believe in human art, please donate if you can. Zhang Jingna, the Creator,is Chinese-Singporean. She lives in Singapore.

Clip Studio Paint added AI, but saw the light and decided to protect artists instead because of protest and removed it. There are tutorials and a good forum if you get super stuck. Based in Japan, so the UI and UX is really clean.

Davinci Resolve Pro is a film editing software that's super good. There is a free version and a paid version. The forums are responsive. The programmers aren't always present. There is a healthy group of tutorials. US company. Clean UX. It does take a little bit of time to remember the shortcuts.

Tahoma2D is anti-AI and open source animation program. Takes a little getting used to, but is good for animations and doesn't crash as often as Animate. Programmers are in the forums and some bugs are fixed within hours. The forums are super responsive and helpful.

Krita open source and free, no AI. I'd rank it secondary to Clip Studio Paint (which is paid) I haven't tried the forums, but it's pretty intuitive and can stand for a lower level replacement for Painter, and do a lot of the basics of Photoshop. It's usually ranked higher than the equally open source Gimp.

Writer P AKA Writer+ (app for when you're on the go) is a simple word processor app for your phone that doesn't use AI. The original programmer stopped updating, so Writer+ person took over and isn't out to make a profit since it's free in the spirit of the original app. It has subfolders you can use. Since it was programmed before GenAI it doesn't have AI. Intuitive, easy to use. Fairly easy to upload the files through three dots->share. The files can save to your card or phone with some settings fussing. Simple word processor.

Inkscape is a free vector program and no AI. It is harder to use than illustrator and has less features. But if you're doing smaller vectors for one-offs with less complexity, it'll do you after some learning curve. Best of the lot. I hate Affinity Designer which is the same thing, only paid. (Neither Affinity program was worth the money paid)

Affinity (Designer, etc) swore to be AI-free and does Vector and Photos. The UX is messy, I dislike the program and regret paying for it. Inkscape and Krita are better UX and do the same thing. The forums aren't as friendly since there has been an onslaught of people seeing it's supposed to be a replacement for Photoshop and Illustrator, but the programmers aren't present. The people on the forums are often on edge about this assertion. And the capabilities of the program don't outshine basically Krita or Inkscape capabilities (both free). What is usually intuitive is not. UK company. If you're going to pay for a program, go for Clip Studio Paint which rivals Corel Painter.

Blender is a 3D art program and does not use GenAI. It can do 2D animation, but Tahoma is easier to use in this regard. It's open source and free. Plus there are plenty of tutorials. The forums can be touch and go sometimes, but there are plenty of sub Blender communities that might be responsive. It can also do animation.

Handmade vowed against AI and promised to never sell itself for stock prices to prevent AI (as a replacement for Etsy.)

Proton (to replace Google Suite) as suggested by SF Stories (see reblog) Vowed against AI. They are missing a spreadsheet, but have online and offline capabilities, plus a built-in VPN.

But you need a pro website...

Look up robots.txt and AI bots: https://www.cyberciti.biz/web-developer/block-openai-bard-bing-ai-crawler-bots-using-robots-txt-file/

Use cloudflare:

Use Nightshade:

https://nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/whatis.html

which will poison the algorithm

Use Glaze:

Take Away:

The thing is you think you doing it alone will do nothing, but the more AI feeds on itself, AI images, the worse they become, and the less detailed so, denying it the images, adding poison or not being able to read the human text is eventually going to lead to an AI collapse.

And why not help that along?

14 years ago when I had recently moved to Alaska, I went hiking with an Aleut friend, and she pointed to a feather lying on the ground and said "hey that's a bald eagle tail feather, you should grab it!" and I was like "uhh I'm very white and that's very illegal" and she went "they're fuckin everywhere up here man. I have 20." so she grabs it off the ground and hands it to me and says "there, now it's a ceremonial gift from an indigenous person."

and I'm like, okay, cool, I guess this is how we do things in Alaska. nice.

so I keep this bald eagle tail feather around for years. display it in my home among other cherished memorabilia from places I've lived and visited, etc.

on a whim, I have just now looked it up. there is no exemption to that law for a ceremonial gift from an indigenous person. the last 7 years I lived in the US, I was technically a bald eagle poacher.

the law against 'picking feathers up off the ground' means that you can't go shoot an eagle then sell the feathers on etsy by saying you 'just found them'. you can't own them no matter where they came from, which makes sure that they're not going to come from any birds killed and then secretly disposed of.

More info from GLAAD:

https://glaad.org/fcc/

They have some good tips about writing a comment and protecting your privacy which, fuck it, I'll just paste here:

Providing an email address is optional. If you have concerns about privacy, you may use your initials or public address in your local area, such as City Hall. Do not use a joke name. It diminishes the comment’s credibility.

Your submission does not need to be long. A single, well-reasoned paragraph is sufficient.

Do not copy/paste a template comment. The FCC values unique perspectives, and an original comment carries significantly more weight in the public record. You can explain why this matters to you without revealing private or sensitive personal information.

Here's what I said:

“Free speech is a fundamental American freedom. I do not need a warning about seeing queer people, much like I do not need a warning about women, veterans, or any other group of people.”

Here's the link to submit your comment by May 22: