I’ve seen people comment that Pomni’s torture scenario was kind of weak compared to the others, and that it could be because she hasn’t been in the circus as long, thus Caine can’t personalize her punishment as well.

And even if he’s technically using their traumas to hurt them, I don’t think that was his main intention. I think he was “replying” to their criticisms.

Pomni: We think your ideas suck!

Including Gummigoo, Pomni?

Zooble: Pathetic! You’re like a child! What kind of all-powerful being has such fragile ego?

How can someone, whose body perfectly encapsulates their mind and is fully customizable, not feel satisfied yet? How many options do you need? How vain can you be, Zooble?

First of all, I know that Zooble most likely suffers from dysphoria, and Caine focusing the torture scenario on that was a massive dick move on his part, especially when Zooble had shared their insecurities about their body in a previous episode.

However, in that same episode, Caine shared with Zooble his own insecurities.

Caine: Making adventures is my art! It’s all I exist to do! All I am… good at. (…) … w-what you’re saying could imply that I’m bad at the only thing I’m good at, and that…

I’m just saying that he probably took Zooble’s criticism as a low blow of its own and he made it personal.

Ragatha: You never let us feel like we’re at home.

Which home? Yours, Ragatha?

Gangle: You discourage us from thinking outside the box and doing things our way!

Spudsy’s was a hell of your own making, Gangle.

Jax: You lie to us constantly!

so i think Caine's insistence that there's no way out of the circus and that everyone should just be happy with what they have isn't just a way of placating the humans, but of placating himself too. He knows of the real world, or the macroverse as he calls it, but he's never experienced it. and that clearly bothers him.

I'm starting to think Caine especially likes Jax since Jax always rolls with the bit. Saying that the whole thing was indeed a sick adventure, Caine, through Abel, makes Jax a key player in the whole scheme: getting him involved with the Chinese room, making him get Caine's key to his office, trusting Jax was successful in distracting Caine, and even making him go first in getting to the office. Caine needs Jax because Jax plays along. When the group got antsy on what to do in the main console, Caine pushed Jax too far to make the right choice.

1.) The prequel

Before Jax even started his self-destructive behavior, he was really off.

He summoned Caine to piss of Zooble and forgot the reason he did it to begin with.

He totally zoned out when Caine gave directions.

And when accused of some grand plan with Pomni...

...he had no idea what she was talking about.

I believe all of these above are examples of Jax's mask slipping. Jax let his guard down, and now we're starting to see that he's just some dopey guy that's barely reached adulthood.

Jax wants to look like a profound mastermind but he simply is not.

2.) He becomes self-aware

When Ragatha accuses him of getting close to Pomni to corrupt her, he loses it. Ragatha probably meant "I know that you're trying to get Pomni to partake in your antisocial and abusive bullying behavior," but Jax heard it as "You're choosing to get close to someone again to drag them to abstraction." This is where he becomes extra aware of his relationship with Pomni.

3.) He tries to play it cool but realizes he's getting Pomni hurt.

Jax really does try to keep opening up to Pomni. He revealed that his fear of corn is rooted in trypophobia, and when Pomni points out that she's getting to know him, he probably thinks back to what Ragatha said. I'm guessing his thoughts are along the lines of "Ragatha said I'm getting closer to Pomni to make her abstract like my past friends."

I'm going to come back to why it had to be Ragatha specifically to start his spiral.

With that on his mind, we get the shootout with Kinger in the dark room.

Although it was accidental, he hurt Pomni, and he apologized right away. He certainly felt bad.

They're both almost back to normal during the scene when they pursue Zooble to their room. After their duet, Jax gets the idea to break into Zooble's room with one of his many keys.

That caused Zooble to absolutely demolish them both and caused them to lose a life.

Zooble ran away and Pomni immediately went to pursue them.

Jax got afraid of Pomni taking on Zooble alone but he stayed behind to contemplate in the hallway.

He's super distressed over seeing Kaufmo's and Ribbit's doors. He just watched Pomni get hurt in this very hallway mere moments ago, so he connects it to the friends he failed to save. Jax made the connection that HE is the problem. His companionship is what causes people to get hurt, to abstract.

I believe this is the moment where Jax realizes he NEEDS to distance himself from Pomni.

And, in my opinion, that's why Jax reacted so strangely to Pomni's hug. He likes her and he enjoyed the hug but he's in too deep. He has to physically and metaphorically push her away.

I'm not entirely sure about his reaction here, but he keeps staring at the hand that pushed Pomni while Pomni has already moved on. He's touched her before, so what is it? Grief? Guilt? Regret? Love? You could make an argument for all of the above.

Either way, the last thing on Jax's mind is to hurt Pomni physically. He's wayyy too traumatized for that. Instead, he's hoping that Pomni will make it easy for him distance himself by shooting him. Physically, Jax would go to another room. Emotionally, Jax would have an excuse to push Pomni away. Instead, Pomni sussed him out and called him out on it.

Jax tried everything to get her to shoot him. He heckled her, claimed they weren't a team, and was an all around jerk to her uncharacteristically after what she thought was a wonderful day together. Again, he references Ragatha. I promise I'll get back to her.

Pomni picks up on exactly what Jax is doing. He wants to end their friendship. But why? That's why she tries to reason with him. She finally hit a nerve when she brought up abstraction.

He thinks she's blaming him for the abstraction of Ribbit, the friend that Pomni didn't even know. Once she sees his mask drop, she hones in on the abstraction conversation.

Jax claims that he'd move on and forget about her. For a moment, I actually think she believed him and considered turning the gun on herself before Jax backtracked and claimed it was a joke.

Pomni, being the incredibly emotionally mature and intelligent person she is, cracked the code. She knows that Jax is so afraid of her abstracting and that's why he won't hurt her physically. THAT is why Pomni fought him. She wanted to confirm her theory.

Jax pretty much admitted it himself. He tries HARD to mask again by going full villain and claiming that he's a some sort of sociopath that derives pleasure from the pain of others.

This is where I finally talk about Ragatha. Jax acts extremely mean to Ragatha. He's disproportionately cruel to her even though she's so kind. I think what Jax is doing here is exactly what he did to Ragatha, and she didn't pick up on the core of his insecurities like Pomni. Ragatha would never get physical like that. Ragatha DOES believe his villain persona is real.

To me, Ragatha admitting that she failed Jax is implying something deeper: she didn't always hate him; she once loved him. She probably still does in a way. And Jax? Ragatha knew Ribbit and Kaufmo. He's probably terrified of losing someone like Ragatha, so he pushed her away before she could abstract. To him, it's probably working since she's still around.

Back to Pomni- Jax finally fully cracks and shows that part of himself to Pomni.

Pomni did what nobody else would do and saw what nobody else could see. For whatever reason, Jax doesn't swear, but he did in front of Pomni. I think he was finally too tired to hide his real feelings, and honestly, I don't think he wanted to since he was aching over the very real pain he caused Pomni. Not to mention, he knew that Pomni saw through his behavior.

Jax's plea at the end was that of desperation. He knew he lost the battle but there's nothing more to say. He's begging Pomni to just pretend that his mask is the real and to not pursue him; to give up just like everyone else had.

But Pomni won't just give up on anyone like that. She watches him through the award show. She knows he's unwell because he's avoiding her and left mid show. Even better, she now has Ragatha by her side through it all.

He mentions about how each of them can conjure like Caine, it’s just less instant(“requiring skill and concentration”). Ragatha, and the audience, then remember the healing butterfly from Ep 6.

Kinger, knowing this world better than the main cast(aside from Caine), was able to do this in his “less sane” state. But he can also conjure power the CPU console plugged into nothing, along with accessing Caine’s code by willing it so.

Pomni conjures the exit door to get said CPU console from the C&A office area.

This would also match what sort of happens all the way back in Ep 1.

What Caine may have defended as a “digital hallucination” and claiming that he wouldn’t know what to put on the other side of the door, Pomni still conjured it to appear as she wanted a way out.

I have seen other posts about how Gangle most likely conjured the truck in Ep 4, which is entirely possible.

But the possibilities don't end there; in Ep 6, Ragatha plugs Jax’s gun with her finger and causes it to backfire.

While she admits not knowing if it would work, she still did it; she conjured the gun to backfire on itself.

Zooble, in Ep 4, also just SO happened to have a new happy mask that not only fits Gangle, but was less breakable than her OG happy mask. And while the mask didn't work out in the end, Zooble still thought it a good gesture to try and help Gangle. What if, intentionally or not, Zooble conjured the mask for her?

And what's equally possible is that Jax & Pomni shooting more nonchalantly could be them conjuring the bullets to hit their targets without properly aiming.

Even Pomni's super trick-shot was her willing the bullet to disarm Zooble in one shot(much to Zooble's annoyance); they both conjured/willed the bullets to hit.

Even a friend of mine(shoutout to @nekosounds) pointed out the possibility of how Jax got all his keys...

He has keys to every person's room and then some. What if, for one reason or another, he conjured these keys?

Maybe Caine was right about one thing after all...

I don’t know if this has any real meaning in the story of TADC, but I’ve noticed something quite interesting about Caine’s character.

Like Ragatha, Caine is a people-pleaser. He believes that relationships are transactional, and that people will only love him if he can preform actions that will make them happy.

Like Jax, Caine will “reset” when experiencing intense emotions as a form of masking.

Caine will disassociate from reality in a similar way to Kinger.

Caine and Gangle are both artists who struggle with not feeling good enough.

Caine and Pomni both share a deep fear of being abandoned and forgotten.

The only struggle Caine doesn’t seem to share with the others is Zooble’s body dysmorphia. However, he does possess a deeper image problem when it comes to his persona as “ringmaster.” Perhaps this little “bee-sona” he drew is a sign that he wants to be someone else?