#tadc 7

Even episode 7- I was thinking that it was my least favorite of all the episodes? Mainly because it's enjoyment I think relies on being there when it first aired, along with being in the general fandom? Because it's a bit of a "gotcha" moment. And I loved it, but i thought my joy would diminish a bit with rewatches

And uh- no! It's just as funny as any of the other episodes and just as gut wrenching and having so many cool character moments.

Especially after the fact, when it's confirmed to be an adventure. You notice all the red flags that, you either didn't notice, or forget as you gain the same hope that all the characters have.

My favorite of these moments is Caine purposefully setting up the location of his office key being INSIDE HIS MOUTH so Jax can reach into it. And he just pauses his fake blue screen while Jax is in there- just to see what he'd do- it's so fucking funny I love it.

And the characters just not giving a shit about any of Able's "sympathizing with Caine" moments, it's a fun detail that feels a little devastating when you think about Caine and why he does what he does.

And all of the character moments that have been building up to this point, most reaching their tipping point before seeing the beautiful aftermath that is episode 8????

THIS SHOT MAKES ME FERAL.

in this one little piece of the trailer we see the cast through a hole in the wall. we see everyone EXCEPT jax. then the wall glitches and we see that jax is BEHIND the wall.

you know what it reminds me of?

THIS FRAME. THIS FRAME!!!!!

HE IS WITH OTHER PEOPLE YET ISOLATED!!!! HE IS THE ONLY ONE VISIBLE!!!!! HE THINKS HES COMPLETELY ALONE.

look at the difference between the two halves of this frame. look at all the color on the left, how everyone else is highlighted. LOOK HOW HARD IT IS TO SEE JAX. quick reminder: you can only see him in this shot for like less than half a second, the rest of the time the wall is opaque.

Hey so animation is done frame by frame so every choice is intentional.

The recent drama around the show generated the push in my being to finally post this. My valoration about Episode 7. It had to be done.

This post is a continuation of this one other post, my Episode Ranking of 1-6. As of Episode 6, my episode rating was:

1 > 2 > 3 > 4 > 6 > 5

And 7 did the impossible. 7 became my SECOND FAVOURITE episode.

Warning: LONG. And a lot of Caine. And note that the underlined text leads to links, and you may click on them for more info and context!

Episode 7: Beach Episode 🥈

Oh my god. I couldn't have predicted this in the slightest. It felt like if Gooseworx had prodded into my brain and got EXACTLY what I loved into one episode.

Many of the things listed here are pretty deep personal references which of course won't hit you as deep as they hit me. Enjoy.

+ Goose LSD Scene™. I was expecting the proper Goose LSD Scene™ in Episode 8, so having one at Episode 7 left me shaking, with my hands in the air nearly crying in joy. I wish I had recorded my reaction. It felt so alien, so out of place, so perfect. 1:37 minutes of pure bliss. It's sad YouTube's compression makes the scene look that bad.

*Note that the title of "LSD Scene" is purely comedic. People have mentioned it looks closer to DMT. It's what I call the "psychedelic" scenes Gooseworx makes.

This is my computer wallpaper as of now, by the way.

+ Caine's Office Scene. In fact, I love the location SO MUCH I have even recreated it in Minecraft. Fully functional. At scale. And, of course, Gooseworx used the card of "Classical Music in beautiful scene". My god. I love when that trope is used. It was all so whimsical and beautiful. Everyone holding hands and walking, believing they're gonna get out of the circus with that music playing. That scene is a masterpiece. I go back to that episode just to watch it and Jax's LSD trip.

Note that this was made on a private Bedrock Aternos server. The limited rendering distance is unavoidable.

+ The music. Where do I begin with 7's music.

Alright, let's start with Jax's abstraction dream/LSD scene. Absolutely amazing. Due to the OST not having been officially released yet, I have to give views to people that have cropped the segment of the episode, which makes me sad. It's one of my favourite tracks from the entire series.

The song in Caine's Office. It's not an original song, it actually comes from The Polovtsian Dances in the opera Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin. The specific one that plays in the scene is called Gliding Dance of the Maidens.

The whole OST was incredible. There's a specific segment, when Jax arrives at the entrance of Caine's Office, which reminds me of Philip Glass AND Danny Elfman. I have something very deep with both of these composers. This episode is a goldmine even in the side tracks.

The song that plays while the screen is opening after pressing the red button. One of the reasons I want 7's OST to release is to hear the track that plays in that scene over and over again- well, and the others I have already mentioned!

+ Caine's depth revelation. This is something that hits me a ton in a personal level. Caine IS my Blorbo/hyperfixation. He has been so since the Pilot released. At first, it was because I love hyperactive showman characters because I see them as a reflection of the childish and theatre kid side of myself, but 3 released, and the guy got depth. He got an arc. This meant that he was as important as one of the other human characters. It was the lottery. And, since then, we've been getting more lore about him, and I started to relate to him even deeper. In fact, as of 7, Caine is the fictional character I have related to (and projected) the most in my entire life, and the most accurate representation of my personal troubles in media I have ever stumbled upon. And 7 did that.

This guy screams autism.

He's an incredibly misunderstood character- the outcast. He's always trying to appeal to the humans, to make them happy, in the only way he knows, but he still fails because he lacks information about social cues and human mannerisms (He's the Chinese Room. He sees, imitates, but doesn't understand. Note that he can stil evolve- note this quote by Alex Rochon). He wouldn't hurt anyone, but still hurts deeply, accidentally. He's also very childish and innocent and has a big relation to his own art. And is VERY reluctant to change.

However, those characteristics, which I deeply related to, felt incredibly exaggerated, to inhuman levels. In that last scene of the episode, I felt like I was seeing Caine sacrifice his humanity in exchange for a ton of depth. And it was glorious. While at first I saw the plot revelations of 7 surrounding Caine as a curse, I pivoted to the belief that we had won the lottery yet again, and I still see them as the best thing that has happened to the character until now. Thank you so much, Gooseworx. Thank you so much.

Waiter, more of this. I beg you.

+ Caine and the Macroverse. Caine attempts to appear more "human" in order to appeal to the humans (the humans with his "Milk and cigarette casserole" and the whimsical office [which I do believe is fake], Jax with the "date"). His understanding of it, as we've mentioned, is pretty shallow and lacks a lot. He's fascinated about humans, too- he even calls them "beautiful". This, for me, enters into my favourite trope ever, "Become a Real Boy", at least partially. At the minimum, it goes into "Intrigued by Humanity". The fact that my favourite character in the show and the one I have related to the most in my entire life is related to my favourite trope- yeah. I went insane.

+ Caine glow up pt 3. While he looks absolutely ASTONISHING visually and animation-wise now, I'm a bit mixed on the size of his eyes. They even CLIP into each other in some shots due to their size! He also looks kinda different in some scenes of this episode to me, maybe because they deformed his dentures a lot more?

However, we also got some INCREDIBLE shots of him.

The first one is my current WhatsApp profile picture!

+ General glow up! My god these shots! And everything was so colourful! It felt like a continuation of the glow up in 6.

+ Jax and Caine's "date". With a vore joke!!

+ This quote:

It always was real. Everything we felt. Everything we've done. Everything we are. It'll never leave us. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

+ The reveal of Caine behind the screen after Jax pressed the red button. It gave me "Willy Wonka presenting his factory" vibes. The shadows growing smaller with the reaction in all their faces with the silly track playing, oh.

Also, this gem:

Congratulations, my little cattywampus cucumbers! You picked the good ending, where you realize you'd rather stay with me than go back to that pesky old Macroverse, or whatever we decide to call it! I knew you'd make the right choice!

+ I must have been the only person that didn't see the plot twist. When Jax called Abel "Mr. Obvious Twist Villain" I was like They lampshaded it, this means that all this is real. Oh, how wrong I was. It hit hard. Amazing.

+ The fact Abel mentioned Caine had trouble with cube collisions made me laugh, and it was a throwback to Episode 2. It also made me believe more all this was real.

+ The ending revelations. LORE GALORE! Yummy!

+ Jax depth. I enjoy seeing more canon content of this guy, and 7 got a lot of it. It's nice to be able to understand the character more, now that we know that he's a very important one.

+ Loved Jax's panic attack scene in the red button room. Very well expressed.

+ The Shrimp NPC getting fried.

+ The beach scene! Very wholesome.

+ We got some Ribbit and some 4K uHD recreations of scenes in the previous episodes!

+ This episode was pretty funny because everyone's theories were proven wrong, but most of mine, or at least the base of them were proven right. I never believed we would get major C&A lore, for example- the circus is an excuse to put the characters into a "cabin fever" situation, basically. Look at my Bingo card!

+ Abel turning out to be nothing. I was fearing Abel would shake the whole narrative without any setup as in a "Deus ex machina" way, but he was nothing. I'm so glad. Also, I liked the guy. RIP.

+ The hotdog locket.

Now, for the negatives:

- Where did Zooble get the character development when talking with Jax? I thought they were still fighting their problems, but no... it seems 6 did it. That was too sudden for my liking.

- These two shots. One of the reasons I love Caine's visual design is the lack of eyelids/eyebrows- the fact that everything has to be conveyed with the shape of his eyes and "faceplates". The uniqueness of his "face" and everything surrounding him visually-wise. These two throw the concept out the window. And please don't say that they have already done that in his animation in the credits- that's 2D, and non-canon. And, he has blinked before by squising his eyes and shutting his faceplates. I understand why they went with the lines inside his eyes, probably to avoid unnecessary and quick movement of his eyes in such a close shot, but... yeah. I admit I'm not a big fan of the eyelashes either.

- These other two shots, which don't enter into the concepts I explained previously but I still dislike a ton visually. ALL of them in the same scene, by the way! That's intersting.

- The thumbnail doesn't match the bait title/theme of the episode.

Welp, here we go. That was a lot. This show is so worth it. I'm so incredibly grateful to have been able to experience it in my lifetime. Thank you to everyone who is making it. Thank you.

My episode rating as of Episode 7 is:

there is no sign of land

we are going to shrimptown

oh god