TADC Criticism: Nine years?
It was confirmed, in the most recent episode, that Ragatha has canonically been in the circus for nine years, from 2008 to 2017, and has likely been here several years longer than any of the other circus members. Which is an interesting bit of character lore, but raises a few issues for me, in that Ragatha doesn't act like someone who has been here for nine years.
Sure, Ragatha frequently mentions things from past adventures, "Before Pomni's time", in early episodes, but I never really got the impression from Ragatha that she had some wider bank of knowledge that the rest of the cast (besides pomni) didn't know. There's never a moment where she recognizes an npc Jax, Gangle, and Zooble clearly wouldn't, there are no quirks that come from being comparatively really old.
Of course, Ragatha not having more random eclectic knowledge to showcase isn't the worst thing in the world, but this leads into a slightly bigger issue of Ragatha not having major information that is brought up in the show.
Why, in nine years of being in the circus and, maybe more importantly, being close to Kinger, has Ragatha never figured out that Kinger is sane in darkness? Why doesn't she know about him being a developer? Why doesn't she know who Queenie is? Why doesn't she know about manifestation powers, why didn't she ever at least see them before episode six?
I've seen people argue that Kinger couldn't have told her anything, because he's only lucid in the darkness, and maybe he was just never lucid enough around Ragatha to give her information. However.
1.) Kinger spends most of his free time in a dark pillow fort. If he's never been lucid enough around Ragatha for her to know anything about him or the circus that implies Ragatha's just..never tried hanging out with Kinger in their free time? Aren't they supposed to be close?
2.) Furthermore, in the series itself it's not that abnormal for the characters to be in areas with dim to no lighting during adventures. Even if Ragatha didn't ever talk to Kinger while he was in his pillow fort, they were never paired off or in a group adventure where the lights were out?
3.) Even if Ragatha never spent any time with Kinger in his fort and there was never a dimly lit adventure until Pomni came to the circus, I still find it hard to buy that Ragatha hasn't picked anything up from being around Kinger when he's not lucid (he uses manifestation powers in front of her in episode six without even needing to be in the dark) or just..figuring it out herself.
Alternatively, you could go with the interpretation that Kinger just..decided to never tell Ragatha anything. We know Kinger blamed himself for..everything..for a long time. Maybe he was too ashamed, to tell Ragatha certain things, like that he was a developer, that he made Caine.
That only works for certain things, though. Things like Kinger being lucid in darkness, or the fact that he had a wife, are things Pomni figured out within months of being in the circus, so are realistically things Ragatha absolutely should have figured out or been told at some point.
Furthermore, if Kinger was actively choosing to withhold certain information because of his own guilt, that has characterization ramifications on him that are never explored in canon but that probably should have been if this was the intention.
I don't think Ragatha not having lore knowledge on Kinger or The Circus is the biggest issue with her having been in the circus for nine years, though. No, I think there's a bigger glaring issue: abstraction.
Now canonically, Ragatha will have witnessed six abstractions at this point, five before Kaufmo, going off the number of crossed off doors we see for players that don't seem to be developers. This should be enough for her to 1.) Understand what abstraction is, 2.) Know what generally happens to abstracted players, and 3.) Understand on some level the signs that somebody is close to abstraction.
Which makes it strange, how she handles Kaufmo's abstraction in episode one.
Ragatha doesn't seem concerned at all that he may have abstracted, despite being told that Kaufmo was "going crazy" and knowing he hadn't been seen that day. You could argue that, well, maybe she suspected, but didn't want to say anything that might freak everyone out. But if she even silently suspected he was an abstraction risk, why would she bring Pomni to his room? Especially when she's generally shown to be very concerned about Pomni's feelings and making sure she has a smooth transition into the circus early on.
Furthermore, when they do find Kaufmo abstracted, Ragatha doesn't seem to know what to do at all. She tries to talk to him as if he's..well..still himself, which we've been led to believe isn't how that works. She lets him attack her. Possibly most egregiously she says "Maybe there's still time for Caine to fix him" which, again, doesn't seem to be how that works. Ragatha seems utterly unprepared for how to handle an abstraction, in a way I'd expect if she'd only witnessed one or maybe two abstractions, but with this being her sixth it feels strange to me.
And Ragatha continues to fail at recognizing the signs that someone is close to abstracting as the series goes on. We see both Jax and (probably) Gangle get very close to abstracting within the series and..Ragatha doesn't seem to realize either of them are at risk or do anything about it. Which is odd when we know people close to abstraction act noticeably unwell (which..both of those two did in the context of the show) and she's seen this before multiple times.
Not to mention that it's odd to me how little connection Ragatha seems to have with any of the abstracted players. She mentions Kaufmo and Ribbit one time in episode seven but it's in a vague and unpersonal way. She never speaks about any other abstracted players.
You'd think that Ragatha, the person who goes out of her way to try to connect with everyone else and be there for them, the person who holds herself responsible for 'failing' the other players when they're not doing well, the person who probably originated the funeral tradition to remember abstracted players, the person who has witnessed six abstractions now, would..I don't know..pay more attention to the people around her? Try to keep the memories of abstracted players alive by mentioning them sometimes?
I don't know. I like Ragatha being in the circus for nine years, I like the potential that gives her character, but within the context of canon it feels like a decision that wasn't thought through, and that retroactively makes Ragatha look painfully unobservant at best and like a really uncharacteristically bad friend at worst.
