The Amazing Digital Circus

Holy shit, that was way more horrific and depressing than I thought it was gonna be. Gooseworx is not pulling any punches.

The whole subplot with Gummigoo learning he's an NPC, grappling with it, overcoming his existential dread, befriending Pomni, and finding a new home only to be immediately killed just because Caine can't be bothered keeping track of who's a player and who isn't was some of the bleakest shit I've ever seen. Definitely shows how the Blue-and-Orange Morality aspect of Caine isn't just him being funny and wacky.

The way that Jax keeps being shown to genuinely just be a completely unlikable piece of shit, such that every time you think he might be showing a bit of humanity he instantly ruins it (like the bit where it seems like he's all sad only for it to zoom in and reveal he's being pissy about not getting to torture and kill the NPCs like he wanted to) and doesn't even take part in the funeral for Kaufmo at the end (something the others clearly don't mind). Like, he's not even a jerk in a funny way, there's a few times where he comes off as a Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist but then they instead show that, no, his behavior really is completely horrid and he really is just a complete scumbag who treats everyone around him like trash.

The exploration of video game mechanics and tropes is really interesting. I hope that's going to be a recurring theme of the series.

Okay, yeah, no, they did not miss a single beat here. Gummigoo's existential crisis, realizing who he is, then being fucking executed by Caine there was brutal.

After watching the episode, I realize that I am so effectively screwed. Will need to reorganize the effing chart. This is like 6:47 a.m. for me. Is this how I'm starting my day? Not that this is really a bad thing. Not that this episode is bad, just that I'm underprepared.

It's already up to a million views!

It hasn't been ONE HOUR and there's already more than a million views?! Have we hit a new record?!

Well, having seen the episode, I'll list what I thought:

Positives: The comedy revolving around Jax's sociopathy, Pommi helping Gummigoo with his existential crisis, and [[the funeral for Kaufmo at the end. I was not expecting for that to happen, but it was nice to add. Although I do have one critique about it.

Mixed: Pomni wanting Gummigoo to join the circus, only for him to get banished back to by Caine I get why they did it, but I feel that he would have brought an interesting dynamic to the cast. At least it got some interesting implications coming out of it. Hope to see him again to know what happened to him. I'll also mention Zooble sitting out of the adventure. I personally don't have any strong feelings about them, but I get why people would be upset.

Negatives: Gangle not going a minute without her comedy mask breaking again. I want to know what her personality is like with it on. At least she got a line with it on this time. I also don't like how Pomni's missed out on another adventure again for the most part with the others. I like her time with Gummigoo, but I want her to actually interact with the cast for the whole episode. And the eulogy for Kaufmo being played over by music in a montage. It would have been really nice to hear what the others thought of Kaufmo before he abstracted.

That ending was so depressing that I actually forgot that the episode has jokes in it.

It's clear that Jax is the Eric Cartman of this show, and I mean that in the best possible sense.

This episode reminded me of Undertale.

I also like how Kinger acts like the caring but mildly senile grandfather.

My opinion of Caine has gone quickly from: "Oh he's a bit oblivious and arguably an antagonist, but he's a lot of fun" to "I hope that bastard dies!"

Kinger is brilliant, I like his little moments of clarity. I also like how Zooble is shown to be a good person, just one who has become somewhat apathetic.

Edited by king15 on May 3rd 2024 at 11:50:40 AM

Kinger is very fatherly in behavior when he manages to be coherent. Makes me wonder if he was a dad in the real world, or even if one or more of the other players is related to him and he subconsciously picks up on it.

Gangle and Zooble really need to do more in the future episodes. Right now they feel like they're just kinda there for the most part.

Okay, but let's not downplay the fact that we got motherfucking Pizza Tower taunts in this episode.

…Jax scares me. Truely.

I knew Jax was a jerk, but him feeding the whole candy kingdom to the Fudge seemed really over the line.

But hey, none of them were real. So I guess it's fine.

And I liked Pomni's vision where a hands reached down to pull her out of the cellar. So even if she does abstract, at least she believes they care enough to help her.

Edited by Keybreak on May 3rd 2024 at 6:46:11 AM

Like I kinda noted earlier, they did a really good job making Jax not come off as "funny rude" and "genuinely uncomfortably asshole in behavior". He's like a schoolyard bully, bordering on full on sadist. He doesn't seem to feel any joy unless he's getting to torment and abuse people around him.

So, allow me to be honest: part of me was, for some inexplicable reason... afraid... afraid that they'd pull back on the existentialist horror to this show. Afraid that after the dark, dramatic first episode, they'd rein it back a bit (whilst being understandable that they did so), and we'd have an episode that was still pretty good, but not, you know, doing that deeper dive into what it means to actually exist as an NPC, versus an avatar... and that we were gonna, you know, take what we could get.

The reason I say all of the above, is to give a necessary added context to the following statement: The exact instant that Gummigoo walked up to his own model, realizing everything he knew was all fabricated lies? That... was utter brilliance, and what told me "...Oh, no, they know what they're fucking doing here."

Mandatory Edit: Holy shit, we're already almost at 2.5 million! WOW, the fans act fast...!

Edited by Ego-Man25 on May 3rd 2024 at 5:51:20 AM

Between this and Train to the End of the World, I'm convinced there are some recent creatives that are willing to commit to the premise instead of sanding it off after the introductory period.

So we're two for two now on Pomni glitching up the Circus in a fourth wall breaking way? Homegirl's not playing nice with Caine's programming, in a way that neither of the two probably realize.

It also seems like Jax, Pomni, and Ragatha make up a trio of "how I hope I don't react to a hellscape of being stuck in video games," "how I'd probably react," and "how I unrealistically hope I'd react but know deep down that's a lie." So as you can imagine, Ragatha is sus for me at the moment, and every other character is so deeply unsus that I think it might be a subversion and Jax is actually evil despite the sheer volume of signaling that he's just a rebellious dude stuck in a game that lets him feed his impulses.

But seriously, Rag immediately saying "Teehee, yeah you broke the rules of our reality to abandon me but I care nothing for any of it!" combined with her later dodging Kinger attempting to talk about her own early days? Too sus to be true.

...Okay, it wasn't exactly "teehee, I don't actually care that you did that", there was clearly still some twinge of resentment there, reading off more as, "nonono, it's fine, it's fine, we're moving on here, okay~?" But that's really quibbling over details there.

... I fucking hate Jax. And while I understand why it had to be done, Caine is on my shitlist for the foreseeable future after what he did to Gummigoo. Pomni and Ragatha still my favs tho.

To be honest if anything Caine’s remarks suggest to me this has happened before and ended disastrously, and he “learned” from it in the most Blue-And-Orange way possible.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on May 3rd 2024 at 8:15:53 AM

Honestly while I definitely got a lingering resentment vibe at first, Ragatha expliticly clarifies, when Pomni isn't around to hear her and thus has no reason to lie about it, that she's just worried Pomni hates her. Her voice also is no longer strained as she confesses this and she sounds more sad than resentful.

Caine in general strikes me as being genuinely well-meaning but also so utterly divorced from basic human thought processes that he can't really comprehend how stupid and/or insane a lot of his behavior is. Like, he intellectually understands that the players are all distressed and confused and freaked out over their situations, but can't really comprehend the how and why of it. Plus he seems to have very bad problem solving in general. Like, there's probably a million different ways he could've handled the Gummigoo situation, but he did in the most horrific way possible without even the slightest thought as to how Pomni would react. I wouldn't be surprised if the big reveal about Caine is that he's just a really shittily programmed AI that genuinely doesn't have the computational power or intelligence needed to do his job properly.

Before the adventure starts, Caine said that he was testing out a new AI. Perhaps this means that previous NP Cs would have been completely incapable of experiencing existential horror.

Just got back from watching the episode and I've already watched it multiple times, going to again but to give a quick summary 10/10, Man that episode was amazing. Gumigoo the GOAT, if there was any doubt before is doused him 100% sold me That man Caines brutal, the writing and character and movement beats Mmmnh Goose ain't pulling any punches.