The Realm of Zexoguy

Zooble is what I meant last time of a character showing more layers than what their base character traits reveal. On the surface, they’re a grumpy nihilist who refuses to join in on the adventures because they’re sick of it all. But as the series goes on, we not only see why they act this way, but also see that there’s more to them than being “the grumpy one.”

Zooble does care. They care a lot, in fact. Sure there’s occasional irritation towards the others for stupidity or assholery, especially with Caine and Jax, but they show a softer side when the time is right. There’s, of course, the way Zooble acts around Gangle, speaking softly to her, raising her up, and doing what they can to make sure Gangle has a good day. Every scene involving these two are sugary sweet and shows that Zooble has more heart than the Pilot revealed. However, it’s not just Gangle that proves it, as it’s worth nothing that Zooble is the first and only character to speak up for Pomni’s discomfort towards these adventures. Everyone knows that Pomni’s having a rough go, but they never seem to talk to Caine about how he’s being an indirect involvement in that. After all, he’s the host, he should be doing his job in making sure everyone is having a good time. And it’s good on Zooble for speaking up for Pomni when the time is right. Though, to be fair, Zooble’s usually the one to speak up first anyway.

When it comes to Pomni, Kinger, Gangle, and Ragatha, Zooble’s not really all that grumpy. It’s really just Jax and Caine that they have any issues with and…Yeah, that’s valid. These two have their own set of problems that makes things worse for everyone else involved, but it’s always Zooble that says something about it. Part of it could be that they care about the others and are sick of these jackasses making them miserable, or it’s because working in a bar leads to Zooble being used to egomaniacal, insufferable douchebags. And only one of them intentionally acts that way.

Caine isn’t trying to make life hard in the circus, he’s just an idiot. Zooble recognizes this, saying in Episode Four that the only thing stopping Caine from actually hurting them for real is that he loves these humans. And yet, they’re still the first to talk shit, but you understand why. Caine is simply bad at his job, and Zooble is just trying to give some much needed criticism. Not everyone wants a wacky, looney adventure, with Zooble being more than content with something down to Earth or just being allowed to do their own thing. If Caine just left everyone to their own devices and came when actually needed, things would have likely ran much smoother. Just look at the gun episode. When given a simple task with easy rules, everyone goes about doing their own thing and it’s the one time in the show that looked like Zooble and Pomni, characters who find the most difficulty enjoying these adventures, are having fun. This is what Zooble wants, for things in the Circus to be simple. If they’re going to have an adventure, just make it something easy and not some whole convoluted mess that will likely aggravate more than it would entertain.

And maybe Zooble was gentle in these critiques at first. Maybe, like Pomni, Zooble tried to lightly put in some notes. But, after spending so much time being ignored, dismissed, and occasionally verbally abused by Caine, Zooble decided that being nice wasn’t worth it. So, they decided to be blunt and forward about voicing issues with Caine’s adventures, which had the unfortunate side effect of fueling the fire of Caine’s wrath, but can you blame Zooble? You try being patient when dealing with an idiot who refuses to listen to you. Take it from a guy who’s been dealing with that for the last three years, it’s not easy. Nor is it easy dealing with some wannabe class clown who thinks he’s funnier than he is.

Next to Caine, Jax is the only other person that Zooble shows genuine disdain towards. And you know why? Because he’s an asshole, plain and simple. He has a reason for it, but it all boils down to him distracting himself from his own shitty life by making everyone else’s worse. And Zooble can’t stand it. Would you? When everyone else is going through a tough time, would you let this dipshit think he can just make fun of or physically harm everyone for his own sick entertainment? Zooble, being so sympathetic towards Jax’s favorite victim, Gangle, leads to them being the only person who effectively gets Jax back for his bullshit. Ragatha may try to yell and berate him, but that’s the type of reaction Jax wants with even Zooble accidentally giving him the same thing too. However, they’re also the ones who fights him back and the only person in the Circus who knows how to really irritate him. Ragatha can only unintentionally do something that’ll piss Jax off, but Zooble’s the one to make Jax the angriest he’s ever been just by putting him in a dress, throwing his “I’m just having fun” mentality back at him. Zooble knows how to get under Jax’s skin because the least the shithead deserves. And yet…they still reached out a little.

At the beach, Zooble splashes Jax with water and lists all the things he’s done to deserve just a little inconvenience. But after seeing that he’s clearly going through something that prevents his usual shitboy behavior, it makes Zooble at least want to offer some advice about how change can be a good thing if you accept it. Again, they’re more empathetic than the Pilot showed, going so far as to reach out to the show’s biggest bully. It’s why I’d say Zooble is the heart and soul of the show, they care so much about everyone and almost everyone cares about them. More than that, they’re proof that the show’s main thesis works.

The Amazing Digital Circus is a show that says that a stagnant life isn’t a bad thing. As long as you have a human connection with someone you care about, and they care about you too, life will always be okay. And Zooble proves it through their relationship with Gangle. I’ve mentioned that Zooble’s been there to make life easier for Gangle, but it goes both ways too. Zooble had these big plans for their life, things they’ve always wanted to do. But the Circus ruined that, trapping them in a life they never wanted while also delivering an even worse side effect. You see, it’s heavily implied to have body dysmorphia, and are now trapped in a cartoonish body that they can change to look however they want and can never be satisfied by it. The whole place is a gosh dang nightmare that Zooble can never wake up from, and Gangle is the only person that offers any real light at the end of this horrific tunnel.

She never saw any problem with how Zooble looked, always feeling like that they’re perfect as is. Gangle can’t even imagine the idea of Zooble being as self-conscious or self-hating as she is. Not when they delivered such a beautiful speech about how self-love really works. And then, they only came up with it when Gangle got them thinking about it.

Then, when mentioned how they always wanted to make a mark on the world, Gangle steps up to say they’ve always made a mark on her life. Isn’t that enough?

The truth is that, well, it is. It always is. A stagnant life might not be as exciting as Zooble hoped, but it’s always worth living when you have someone in it that makes you the happiest you’ve ever been.

Back in the early episodes of the show, for whatever reason, I didn’t trust Ragatha. I’m not sure why, but I do know from watching a lot of cartoons like Digital Circus, I’ve gotten used to the notion that a character isn’t nice for no reason. I didn’t expect her to be a twist villain, that’d be insane, but I felt like there was something she was hiding. Especially since she wasn’t really acting that well at being a good person. The things that come to my mind are the ways she infantilizes Pomni, trying to hype up adventures and how fun they are to an adult woman who’s currently having the worst time out of everyone there. And there was just something about the condescending way she tried to cheer up Pomni after accidentally causing Gummigoo’s death that just rubbed me the wrong way. To me, that moment will always be worse than anything she said while on the stupid sauce. Yes, that was mostly a mask-off moment for Ragatha as she talked and insulted some of the others, but that’s only because she was high as fuck and became unfiltered. You see in her immediate questioning of whether or not what she said to Gangle was mean. I can shrug that off, but my brain always went to that scene with Pomni. The poor jester watched someone she grew incredibly close to die right before her eyes and all Ragatha could say was, “Aw chucks, sorry sweetie. At least you tried!”

It felt wrong and made me keep a closer eye on Ragatha, thinking there’s something about her that’s worth questioning. I even made a post about how and why I didn’t trust her and felt like there was some kind of twist planned with her and her intentions. And wouldn’t you know it, there was a twist! Ah-HA!

You see, as it turns out…Ragatha is a victim of abuse, spending most of her life with a mother who yelled at and implicitly attacked Ragatha for every mistake that she made. This led to her internalizing that lifetime of pain, making Ragatha afraid of the very idea of someone not liking her and trying desperately to be loved by everyone. But when she fails or makes mistakes, this causes Ragatha to feel like she was still the failure her mother always loudly said she was, and it makes her try even harder which only makes people push her away further, which only makes her feel more like a failure. And the reason why she can’t seem to effectively cheer Pomni up is because Ragatha has no experience with what it means to be a good, nurturing person, with the closest she has being Kinger in the rarest of moments when he’s actually sane. Meaning that the job she gave herself is something she can’t properly do because she’s naturally bad at it for no fault of her own.

…Yeah, after learning all that, I proceeded to delete that old post of mine and continuously side-eye anyone who called Ragatha the worst and most toxic person on the show.

Ragatha, in actuality, is another case of men not being able to handle a complex female character, myself unfortunately being included in that equation (Again, I am sorry). No, Ragatha isn’t a horrible person just because she’s bad at being a nurturing friend. Does she slip up and says the wrong thing or something she shouldn’t? Yes, but there’s always a clear sense of regret whenever she does it. She wants so badly for someone to at least appreciate her existence, and the thought of anyone hating her breaks Ragatha apart. She says so to Jax when high off the sauce. She hates him, she has the capacity to hate, but she doesn’t want to be hated either. In a way, it kind of makes her like Caine.

A friend of mine likes to point out how similar Ragatha is to Jax, which is fair to point out. Both wear masks to hide their true pain and so no one can see how badly they’re really hurting on the inside, they just do it for different reasons. For Jax, it’s to hide that he’s a real person with real emotions, and for Ragatha, it’s to hide that she’s weaker than she appears to be so people can look at her as a shoulder to cry on. That similarity is interesting to look at, but I still feel like the comparison between Ragatha and Caine is more fascinating. They’re both characters who gave themselves a self-proclaimed caretaker to those who didn’t ask for one, partially for a somewhat selfish desire to be loved by all. The main problem is that both are bad at their jobs some of it not being their own fault because neither had a proper baseline to work with, and most of it being unable to understand what different people need to feel loved and appreciated. That and a failure to really understand anyone. 

Ragatha knew Kinger longer than anybody else in the circus, and yet Pomni, after one week there, managed to learn that Kinger’s sane in the dark before Ragatha. Years of friendship, and she never pieced it together until Pomni made a vague comment about darkness. It shows that despite wanting to be the Mom Friend of the group, she doesn’t take the time to really understand everyone and their deals. Again, sort of like Caine.

However, what sets Ragatha apart is the self-awareness and the capability to learn. Ragatha fully knows that she’s responsible for her own failures. In fact, you can probably make the argument that she blames herself too much, as all of this is a responsibility she put onto herself. No one asked nor wanted her to be the Mom Friend. That’s a role she gave herself, and it’s mostly herself she criticizes for. The closest she comes to blaming someone else is telling Jax that he’s corrupting Pomni instead of coming to the conclusion that Pomni meshes better with Jax instead of Ragatha, but Ragatha still comes to the conclusion that it’s her that failed in the end. And after one talk with Kinger, it leads to Ragatha realizing that maybe she shouldn’t try too hard. The best part being she doesn’t. By the episodes that follow (That I’ve seen), Ragatha eases up in forcing herself to be the friend everyone needs and just help others in a way they actually want her help. She learns that she doesn’t have to be the Mom Friend, she can just be a friend.