Gonna talk about the tadc finale below the readmore, scroll away and dont click if you want to go in blind!
Please feel free to block me if you come across my blog to prevent any spoilers you dont wanna see, and as an extra precaution, here's a list of all the tags I'll be using (I wont be using any of the main fandom tags):
#tadc critical, #tadc episode 9, #tadc the last act, #tadc episode 9 spoilers, #tadc episode 9 leaks, #tadc spoilers
Anyway, my rambling thoughts below!
I'm going to try to be as concise as possible here, so bear with me:
To start, I want to say that the finale, to put it plainly, is Bad.
It had some moments that I enjoyed individually, but as an episode and finale to the series? Disappointing would be putting it lightly - incredibly overstuffed, badly paced, and despite spending a significant amount of its runtime developing 2 characters in particular, it fails to deliver in concluding their stories in a satisfying way, and even leaves some significant plotholes unanswered.
I know there's quite a few people that are critizing the fact that none of the characters escape, but while that may have been the badly established goal of the characters, it was never the point the narrative was trying to make. Staying in the circus was always going to be the conclusion to this story, despite how much of a mess the final product ended up being.
But the issue isnt the finale, but the lead up to it throughout the entire series.
Frankly, the series doesnt do a good job of following through with its goals for its narrative or the characters. It feels disjointed and unfocused, and frankly the second half of it is where the cracks that were always present inevitably become too big to ignore.
The first 5 episodes of TADC are, imo, pretty solid. We navigate the world and the situation the characters are in mostly through the lens of Pomni, who is the newest member of the digital circus. The pilot does a good job of setting up the premise, while episodes 2 thru 5 gives us an overaching theme - the importance of interpersonal bonds and relationships, especially when at our most vulnerable.
But unfortunately the series has a pretty crucial flaw - Too much telling, not enough showing.
We're told that the goal of our cast is to leave the circus.
But the only time we're shown anyone pursuing that goal is the pilot and ep. 7 (the latter example not even being incited by the humans themselves, but by Caine)
We're told that each character gets dedicated screentimes meant to develop each of them
But we're shown very little onscreen development for Zooble, Gangle, Ragatha, and Pomni apart from a few conversations
We're told that Jax was always meant to be a main character alongside Pomni
But we're not shown him getting any significant development until we're halfway through the series.
We're told that Jax is a genuinely terrible person and that his bullying is basically abuse disguised behind "bad jokes"
But we're shown him not doing much other than being a jerk and a bit of an ass, while spending significant screentime in painting him in a more sympathetic light.
We're told Caine isn't a villain, but a flawed AI that is moreso oblivious rather than trying to cause genuine harm.
But the finale shows him not only admitting to keeping them trapped, but he intentionally stole their names and also there's literally NO explanation for why Caine is alive. LIke none whatsoever, and it was set up as this huge impact to their entire status quo, changing their situation entirely to the point that it's basically the final push that leads Jax to fucking abstract but he's not even gone, he just gets transferred to the void which he can easily leave and also are we actually implying that the reason Caine was emotionally unstable was because of the blue AI instead of actually making him be responsible for his own emotional regulation, nope lets just remove the blue AI and let it float out into the void of course that wont be a problem ohmygodihatethisshitsogoddamnmuchraaaAAAAAA--
Anyway...!
The outlined goals of the show are completely misaligned with what we see in the series, and that's been an issue from the very start.
And I'm not going to speak on Gooseworx as a person or my personal feelings on a particular recent controversy, but it's clear that her skills as a writer are very amateur (and tbh, being so engaged with fandom made her a bit resentful and burnt out, which you can see reflected in her writing as well)
But hey, Abstragedy and Bluetooth (kinda) are basically canon, so tiny win yay *pops a single confetti popper*
