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She’s sarcastic, friendly, sensitive, witty, gentle, introspective, supportive… You get the sense that like Pomni became, she was the bedrock of the players. It also adds a lot more context to Pomni’s relationships with Jax and Ragatha.

Originally, Ragatha thinking Jax is trying to “corrupt” Pomni seems like her both understandably misjudging him and also projecting her own insecurities. But it s a legitimate fear; she watched Jax bully Ribbit to suicide, bit by bit.

Pomni points out that she, Zooble, and everyone else prefer “chill, normal adventures”. But Caine tries to give that to them. In Episode 3, he creates a pacifist route in addition to the one with the horrifying demons and whatnot. The first appeals to Ragatha and Gangle, who have a blast, and the second fits (what Caine thinks are) Jax and Zooble’s tastes. In Episode 4, Caine takes the request for a slice-of-life adventure about working in the fast food industry, and makes it as mundane as possible. In Episode 6, Caine comes up with a sports adventure after seeing how much everyone liked the softball suggestion box adventure - and gets shot down.

All of these fit the requests that have been made, but none of them work. Caine does try to provide comfort. There’s Caine’s Cafe, there’s the dinners, there’s the digital lake. All places he made for the humans to relax and unwind. They don’t care, and if they do, they never tell him. (Which, not their fault. Caine’s not easy to talk to and gauging how much of the Circus is part of Caine is pretty mindboggling.)

It doesn’t help that no one really gives Caine detailed feedback. Zooble only really tells him that his adventures are terrible and the negative effect they’re having, not why, just that it’s bad. Not that Zooble isn’t right to do so; Caine needed the dose of cold water and he’s a very overwhelming person. He doesn’t leave them much breathing room. Pomni similarly tells him what she doesn’t like, not what she does. And nobody else engages with him unless they have to. (Again, understandable.)

Caine doesn’t take rejection well. His entire life and the formative trauma that drives him is inexplicable rejection. He did what he thought his programmers wanted him to do, and was sealed off alone in the dark. He never understood why and still doesn’t.

But it’s not just a defense mechanism. Ragatha wants the other players to be happy because they’re her friends and she wants them to like her. She’s terrified of being hated so she puts her all into treating them like how she wanted to be treated. She comes off too strong because she had to reverse engineer being kind. And she’s also incredibly sensitive to rejection.

It clearly just hurts her a lot. A good example is episode 6; Pomni admitting she didn’t like the softball adventure clearly guts Ragatha enough that she decides not to partner with her. Ragatha knows it’s irrational but it was still hurtful to her, and her attempt to do a last minute save comes on too strong once again.

Ragatha does all the things you’re supposed to do to show you care, and all she gets for it is rejection for no reason she can tell. She’s constantly afraid slipping up will make people hate her. She puts immense pressure on herself because of that fear of her friends turning on her.

"Do you think Gangle’s actually capable of being happy?"

He’s not asking Pomni rhetorically. He’s not trying to rub salt in yet another wound he inflicted on Gangle. His tone is genuinely curious and concerned.

He’s quite sure the answer is no, but he’s asking Pomni anyway. Because he does care. It doesn’t justify his abuse and it doesn’t mean that he isn’t an asshole. But he does care.

“Does she think hanging out with Zooble is going to magically fix it?"

And here we see why he’s acting. Jax is empathizing with how Gangle masks her sadness and inner turmoil, how she tries to patch it up with quick fixes. She just does it a little more literally.

But Jax is also projecting himself onto her. He’s a self absorbed guy. He knows from experience you can’t patch over all those scars with band aids but he won’t admit that to himself, because that would mean putting his own mask down.

It also shows his pessimistic view of attachment. In his eyes, it’s a way to get burned. It’s another flimsy band aid. This isn’t something that Jax can consciously articulate, he’s not a self aware guy, but that’s damn sure what he believes.

He thinks Zooble is just another way to break Gangle’s stupid mask. But he’s also jealous because deep down he needs and wants to be loved and to give love.

So that’s why he’s letting his guard down by asking Pomni, who’s the only one he trusts to actually give him a straight and honest answer.

Frankly, Pomni starts off the series as a selfish coward. Understandably so, it’s not a situation anyone would comport themselves well in. But nevertheless, throughout episode 1 and the first half of episode 2, Pomni is her own first priority.

When the abstracted Kaufmo attacks, she abandons Ragatha to run for her life. She then abandons finding Caine to help Ragatha in favor of getting to the exit. It’s not like it’s not an understandable situation in the heat of the moment. But it’s still pretty shitty, and Pomni leaves someone who did nothing but help her to die.

In Episode 2, Pomni views everyone in the circus as a potential enemy. During her dream sequence at the beginning, it’s telling that Ragatha is presented as equally as malicious as Jax and Caine. Pomni doesn’t really care about her; she’s just another threat and Pomni is purely in self-preservation mode. It’s when Gummigoo has his existential, despairing meltdown that we get the first sign of her compassion. Pomni comforts him and goes out of her way to save him.

We see for the first time her deep empathy; once she sees someone as a person in suffering, she’ll go out of her way to help them. She saves Gummigoo out of selflessness - but she also doesn’t think she’s risking anything. Seeing Kaufmo’s funeral solidifies for her that the other players are people too, and they do care about her. Just as she carries on Gummigoo’s memory, they’ll carry on hers.

Come episode 3, when she’s stuck with Kinger, she’s clearly terrified and irritated with him. But she’s remarkably patient and gentle with him. She levels with him like a normal person, and not with the pity or annoyance of everyone else. After Kinger’s advice ("the worst thing you can do in this world is make someone feel like they’re nothing."), Pomni realizes she’s taken Ragatha for granted and marks the first step in their friendship by apologizing.

When Gangle refuses to be on his team, she’s cringing with fear when she’s alone with Zooble. She’s convinced that Jax will be mad at her. He’s going to make her pay for it, make her hurt. Zooble has to reassure her that she’s not just his plaything.

Meanwhile, alone with Pomni, Jax… doesn’t care. He’s unaffected beyond mild annoyance. He’s still more than happy to throw out taunts, but he cares more about moving on to the next fun thing: figuring out Pomni’s deal. When Pomni calls him out on his treatment of Gangle, Jax insists she likes it.

She’s constantly on edge and uncomfortable even when she isn’t actively under stress. When she is, she panics and makes bad decisions. When she has a serious conversation, her sentences are always uncertain and halting. Early on in the series, it means she avoids things like apologizing to Ragatha for abandoning her because she’s frankly scared shitless about it.

But it also doesn’t define her entirely. She likes to take control of her life by seeking out thrills on her own terms. She enjoys dark humor. When someone’s being an asshole to her, Pomni doesn’t withdraw. The anxiety just fuels her anger, such as in episode 2 ("ARE YOU TRYING TO FUCKING KILL ME?")

She’s usually too anxious and halting to express it, but as Episode 3 shows, she has a witheringly dry wit and a dark sense of humor ("It’s called a manic episode and you’re getting three more seasons!”) She gets angry when people (especially Jax and Caine) try to pigeon hole her even if she buries it a lot of the time. And then there’s the Tommy gun.

In Episode 8 they immediately forgive him. They rush Jax’s arc so he goes unnaturally far on his redemption arc without having to work for it, and rush Caine’s arc to make him descend uncharacteristically fast into villainy to force it.

Jax feeling guilty about it and starting to work on himself isn’t out of character, but he doesn’t have to face any consequences. Throughout the last three episodes, you see Zooble, Gangle, and Ragatha pushing back against him. They’re getting fed up and it feels like it’s going to explode. Jax is going to have his face shoved in what he’s done get the kick in the ass he needs to change. He’s going to have to take accountability and work to patch things up, get pushed out of his comfort zone! A great payoff to all that build up!

And he doesn’t. It’s all kosher. His change isn’t jarring like Caine’s, but the forgiveness of things that are unforgivable is. It’s all kosher and he doesn’t have to work for it, while Caine abruptly goes 180 degrees so that will happen.