How the Amazing Digital Circus Breaks People (Caine included)

Today we're discussing the Amazing Digital Circus again, the new episode, and how it portrays Kinger, Zooble, and Caine. And how Abstraction isn't the only thing weighing down on its freakshow cast. Including the Ringleader himself. What do I mean? Well, let's see...

Music:
House on the Hill - Everet Almond

0:00 My Complicated Relationship with TADC
0:49 A Pomni & Kinger Extravaganza
1:51 Kinger's Wife & his Tragic Backstory
3:31 A Disturbing Possibility on Queenie's Abstraction
4:55 A Happy Ending?
5:11 Uncovering Zooble's Body Dysmorphia
6:15 Caine's 'Help' and Band-aid Solution
6:49 The HUGE Problem with Caine (Literally)
8:12 Caine's Little Breakdown
8:46 Caine's Memory Problem
9:51 Caine's just as broken as the others
10:58 It's not just Abstraction

[TRquiet]

Remember, Zooble told Kinger in episode 1, “I thought you’d be next, ” to which he replies, “Thank you.” He is absolutely not afraid of abstraction.

[noipoi]

I think, by the end of the show, Caine is going to finally realize that the main cast absolutely HATES it here despite his best efforts to entertain them and he's going to breakdown severely.

[Generalmituna]

I find it ironic (and kinda creepy) how Caine the ringleader of the group doesn't seem to actually understand the Circus itself.

[ShayTheValiant]

I'm pretty sure Caine keeps forgetting what Zooble says because Zooble literally tells him to forget it, and then he does. He's an AI program. He's taking "forget it" literally.

[unscblackbeltgi]

Thoughts:

1) Caine's enraged yell of "both YOU and MY BRAIN won't tell me!" says that not only does Caine forget things, but he KNOWS he's forgetting things. He's fully aware there should be information there, but it isn't there. This tells me that, since Caine is indeed an AI, there are some sectors of his own memory that he does not have permission to access, which inherently implies that there is something or someone above him in the system's hierarchy. It would be both funny and interesting if that turned out to be Bubble, since we know Bubble is also a part of 'the system, ' but that's pure speculation on my part.

2) Kinger explained that being in the dark seemed to make his wife less corrupted, or at least less angry. What if Caine is aware of this, and that's why abstracted "guests" are sent to the cellar? After all, we saw a brief shot of the cellar in the pilot, and it was a pitch-black void with only the multicolored glowing eyes of the abstracted visible. If that's the case, it makes Caine a little more sympathetic; he's not discarding people when they get abstracted, he's doing the only thing he knows to make them at least a little more comfortable.

3) Jax seems to be of the impression that it's not really possible for the characters in the Circus to 'die' but Kinger was extremely concerned about Pomni getting possessed when they were banished to the land of double hockey sticks. While it could just be concern for his friend overriding common sense, the fact that he was so adamant about getting Pomni back implies to me that sometimes there are longer-term effects from things that happen on adventures, which explains why the others are so concerned about Pomni all the time.

[charscreamAA]

With how kinger locked in this episode I'm honestly convinced if they locked him in a dark room they would have a way out in an afternoon

[beefoon]

Personally I believe that Caine's creators/Caine himself programmed a failsafe that goes like this:
- Caine is told that his adventure's are bad
- Caine's adventures can't be bad cause Caine is supposed to create adventures but his adventures are bad but they can't be be bad because he is supposed to create adventures
- Block/Delete that memory before Caine crashes

Caines is LITERALLY A ROBOT so he would think logically at his base level, and all he is good at is making games, but if he's told he is BAD at doing so it gets turned around in his mind until he either crashes or the whole system shuts down, so a failsafe exists to block his mind from tossing that thought around too much.

One other thing: Every time Zooble says "Forget it" Caine immediately loses his train of thought, a popular theory I've seen is that he is taking this as a command to literally forget what he was just told.

[clock_tok]

You'll probably get a lot of comments like this, but it's also possible that Caine's "memory issues" aren't so much memory issues, and moreso commands.

There are two separate scenes in the episode where Zooble tells Caine to "forget it." Once at 5:12 in the episode, ("It has nothing to do with the adventures and... Ugh! Forget it!") which, afterwards, Caine forgets about it, and starts talking about the bee he drew.

The second time is at 11:09, where Zooble again tells Caine to "forget it." This is likely the scene that most people will point to when talking about Caine being commanded to forget, because immediately after, Caine goes, "Forget it?... Forget what?"

This seems to imply that it's not that Caine has memory issues, but it's because he is an AI programmed to suit the needs of the circus members. When they tell him to "forget" about something, he takes it literally to fulfill their wishes, and forgets it.

Loved the video, NotRealName. Keep up the good work!

[Medidon]

One of the things that makes Caine such a fascinating antagonist in this show is the fact that it's very obvious he's not malicious. He's a computer program doing what he's been programmed to do, even though it's clear to everyone else how broken the game is.

He doesn't mean any harm, but that just adds to the horror. The players lives and minds are in the hands of an AI that does not and can not understand them. He's doing what he was design to do and there's nothing anyone else can do to stop it.

[_jerry]

A fun note i saw someone point out on tumblr; in episode 2, Kinger recalls when Ragatha entered the circus. This happened while he had a bucket over his head, so he was in the dark.

[jeltajink]

Caine embodies pretty well a real advanced AI, he only knows his way of existing, so struggles with deeper human thoughts, sometimes obsesses over one thing and suddently forgets along with general lack of long term memory and even apparent sudden "mental breakdowns" that just end abruptly.

[KatKaiju]

I honestly loved the casual lore drop near the beginning of the episode that each member of the circus has a special ability, and Kinger glowing through the hallway while he and Pomni brave the darkness together is a callback to it. Great writing.

[YouTryIt]

I just realized something, if what you say is true about Kinger waiting for Abstraction so he can be with Queenie, but that in turn makes it so he has to wait longer because he’s not afraid of abstracting, than that re-contextualizes something what said in the first episode. Either Zoobke or Jax was saying that they always thought it was going to be Kinger who was going to abstract next, to which replies, “Oh, Thank You :)”

[chilliicecream]

I think the problem is that Caine is a children’s/all ages entertainment programme. He has a set directive and follows his programming to the letter to deal with a child’s boredom by giving them distractions. He was not designed to look after a group of people in their mid 20’s, (with some creeping up on middle-age) and he certainly was not built to deal with their coterie of various mental health problems, for as long as he has had them at the circus. He can’t step outside of the bounds of what he was designed for, because that’s not what the circus itself was designed for

[cacaumassipanoficial]

Near the end Zooble is using the notebook Caine was using, and if you look closely you can see that they drew legs but couldn't finish the rest, so it's safe to say they were trying to imagine the body they wanted, but it looks a lot more realistic than the more cartoonish style of the circus and the parts Zooble can swap out, so are they actually remembering their real body?

[xaiver.]

8:51 something else to note
If you look back at Caines conversations with zooble
When they say “forget it”
Caine takes it literally and forgets

Zooble says forget it you’re probably not even listening
And Caine says “look at this cool bee I drew”

Later when Zooble opens up for the lord knows how many times
They later say oh just forget it and Caine says forget what?

I think another reason for Caines memory loss is every time Zooble has this talk with Caine they say to rhetorically forget it and Caine- the AI- takes it as literally as possible like he does with everything else

[shinyocelotarchive]

Kinger and Zooble carried this third episode. Twinbarrled shotguns, therapy, and all.

In all seriousness I'm glad we got to spend time with these two. Here's hoping Zooble gets Caine to understand their problems.

Plus I'm happy to see that Caine isn't just the twisted ruler of this realm. He's trying his best but takes things literally because he's an AI, and doesn't understand the complexities of human minds and behavior.

[Fort_Master]

If I remember correctly, Goosewerks said that the main problem with Cain was that he just wasn't designed to take care of people for so long. I could see it being that he's litterally not designed to be capable to.

[FloppyDiskMaster]

The dynamic between the circus members and Caine is the same dynamic between underpaid, under appreciated retail employees and their general manager

[powdereyes]

When the demon npc takes over Pomni’s body…

Why would they strike that nerve? Talking about Kinger’s wife?

Did Cane program that npc? If so is that npc thinking deeper than Cane or is Cane thinking deeply enough to know what would be most disturbing or uncomfortable for them