The Amazing Digital Circus - Western Isekai that probably will become Hazbin Hotel killer

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Yeah so far it seems like the show is despite what the tranny in charge said in fact making the same mistake as Murder Drones, as in I have no fucking idea how it's going to wrap up the plot in a satisfying manner in like 3 episodes considering we still know next to jack fucking shit about what's actually going on, what the simulation is, why it even exists, who or what is behind it, ect. (And honestly they don't even have to answer everything just answer SOMETHING relevant please.)
So my theory is just like Murder Drones, it simply just won't fucking bother to answer anything. (Or if it does it'll be done in a really unsatisfying "lightning round" of sudden lore dumps.)

I'd love to be proven wrong. I really would.

I will say it's doing a better job of focusing on the characters than MD did but that's such a low bar that I'm not even sure it counts. And like other people have said we still have the issue of characters just getting completely sidelined.
 
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Still have yet to watch this show beyond the pilot.

I was disappointed by the premise being people stuck in a simulation, because you can see the tropes and twists coming a mile away.
A thing I like about Gooseworx's other animations is that usually the deeper darker implications are a joke, I think it would be very funny to build up all these characters and back stories only for the big reveal to be anticlimactic joke. But I don't think we're getting that sadly.
Even in the animations you're not supposed to take seriously you get mongoloids in the comments trying to analyze it and point how dark it actually is. I long for a show that's dedicated to fucking with those people specifically.
At the very least goose seems to have a pretty good sense of humor.

I think the best takeaway from what I've seen is holy shit 3D animation can actually look good on YouTube. This and Milky Subway (recommend) show how far we've come from Home and Storks being theater worthy movies.

Am I correct in assuming it is theory bait made with a fandom in mind? I feel like that will make the show somewhat dated in the future. Unless God forbid modern fandom continues to seep its way into shows.
 
ShiftyBoi said:
Am I correct in assuming it is theory bait made with a fandom in mind? I feel like that will make the show somewhat dated in the future. Unless God forbid modern fandom continues to seep its way into shows.
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Hate to break it to you, but every piece of media today that isn't a remake is lore bait. I want to blame FNAF but Adventure Time already did back in the past.
 
LucasSomething said:
No so far, it was never seen in later episodes. Feels like it was bait made for pilot and not meant to be that important.
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That kind of sucks. Pomni was so desperate to find a way out in the first episode and just has completely forgotten about trying to find a way to leave. It just seems like she has accepted her fate here just way too soon. These episodes aren't exactly taking place over a long period of time. From the sounds of it, each episode seems to be the next day.
 
Didn’t Caine explain in the pilot was just him trying to design an “exit door” to make everyone happy, even though it actually wasn’t an exit, just a fake one?
 
The exit door was fake. But whats odd is the characters not trying to find other means to escape. For instance trying to explore the forbidden area we saw in the pilot

Trying to make Caine to blue screen as a way to possibly make the simulation crash or escape would be a clever way to try to escape. But I think Zooble is just being too self centered to notice she is making Caine unstable.
 
Bob Barbas said:
Yeah so far it seems like the show is despite what the tranny in charge said in fact making the same mistake as Murder Drones, as in I have no fucking idea how it's going to wrap up the plot in a satisfying manner in like 3 episodes considering we still know next to jack fucking shit about what's actually going on, what the simulation is, why it even exists, who or what is behind it, ect. (And honestly they don't even have to answer everything just answer SOMETHING relevant please.)
So my theory is just like Murder Drones, it simply just won't fucking bother to answer anything. (Or if it does it'll be done in a really unsatisfying "lightning round" of sudden lore dumps.)

I'd love to be proven wrong. I really would.

I will say it's doing a better job of focusing on the characters than MD did but that's such a low bar that I'm not even sure it counts. And like other people have said we still have the issue of characters just getting completely sidelined.
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Goose will forever hide behind his "It's about people finding enjoyment in a stagnant world" Tweet to deflect all criticism.
"Who cares if literally nothing is ever explained or resolved? I already wrote myself a Get Out of Lore Free card, so if you don't like it, you just don't get it."
 
SteelPlatedHeart said:
Didn’t Caine explain in the pilot was just him trying to design an “exit door” to make everyone happy, even though it actually wasn’t an exit, just a fake one?
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Lets look at the chain of events

-Pomni enters the circus and sees the exit door.
-Pomni asks Caine about it and he says "What exit?" (does he not know or is he pretending?)
-Caine later stutters with "I uh uh-I assure you there is no exit door! you're hallucinating! Let's talk something else!"
-Kinger says Kaufmo was looking for the door before being abstracted, convincing pomni believe it's real
-Pomni finds the door and crosses it but there are more doors and rooms until an office desk building
-One desk has a VR headset that makes Pomni freak out
-Pomni goes into the final door and reaches awhite void, starts getting dragged through it
-Caine gets a alarm and says "things go wrong when someone goes there" (meaning someone went there before)
-Reminder that caine previously referred to the void with "Not even i know what is out there"
-Pomni was seemingly blanking out until Caine takes her from the void and she wakes up
-Caine says he lied and there is no exit, he only made one to trick everyone and "didnt finish putting stuff past it"
-The episode ends with with the camera panning away to show the circus then the white void then the office with VR headset, implying that yes, the exit really is beyond the white void.

Yeah "Caine said there is no real door" but Caine is a broken AI designed to keep everyone in the circus and could lie about it like he previously already lied. His words don't even make sense, why would Cain put the real life building and the VR set after the exit door?

It's also possible that Caine wasn't "lying" but within the context that 1-He doesn't know the exit is real as he doesn't know what is after the void or 2-The exit is real but doesn't apply to them specifically because THEY can't leave.

Maybe the big twist is that Pomni DID reach the exit and it was real, but she simply CAN'T exit because there is no body for her to "return". She's either already dead or a digital copy, both popular theories. Maybe kaufmo abstracted cause he found out.

Listen, maybe i'm sperging here but goose put too much effort and setup and theory fodder and the focus of the pilot episode on this door to be a throwaway gag with zero meaning. Not saying that the door should be the main driving force of every episode but it's more logical to believe "The exit is real or not? Should i try to find it?" would be something the characters would ponder once in a while.

And i'm not saying goose is dumb and "forgot" either but it's not impossible the final show simply ended up differing from the pilot as it always happens with these indie cartoons.
 
LucasSomething said:
And i'm not saying goose is dumb and "forgot" either but it's not impossible the final show simply ended up differing from the pilot as it always happens with these indie cartoons.
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Creators shoving way too much loreshit into the early episodes to get people hooked, only to get bored and meander off into character drama has been a thing since soap operas were first invented.
 
LucasSomething said:
They still sing that daisy song in ENGLISH and i didn't get the joke. The "Ming" joke wasnt translated either so it makes no sense.
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SteelPlatedHeart said:
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Damn, that's just lazy. The Hungarian dub did bother translating the ass-u-Ming joke and they did an okay job. They have rewritten the whole dialogue with assuming being replaced with segítségbeli (help-related) and it was broken up to segg-ittség-Béni [ass-presence-Béni (a name)]. Considering how specific this joke was with its words, this is an acceptable translation. It also made Zooble's confusion more reasonable.

I also looked up the studio responsible for the Hungarian dub. Their only non-Glitch-related projects are Patreon-financed video game dubs you can download for free (Silent Hill 2, Half-Life games). They claim to hire experienced professionals for their work, but doing some digging, almost none of them seemed to have any history outside of this studio (or I couldn't find any). I think they're doing a pretty good job regardless.

Knowing how deranged the voice actors Glitch is hiring for their English versions of their show are, I am more than happy to avoid hearing these people while not missing out on anything quality-wise. Never meet your heroes, I guess.
LucasSomething said:
Listen, maybe i'm sperging here but goose put too much effort and setup and theory fodder and the focus of the pilot episode on this door to be a throwaway gag with zero meaning. Not saying that the door should be the main driving force of every episode but it's more logical to believe "The exit is real or not? Should i try to find it?" would be something the characters would ponder once in a while.

And i'm not saying goose is dumb and "forgot" either but it's not impossible the final show simply ended up differing from the pilot as it always happens with these indie cartoons.
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Barely doing anything with the lore after the first episode is TADC's greatest flaw in my opinion. They tell you that something is wrong, and then nothing ever happens for more than half of the series. There's a valid fear for the last 3 episodes being too fast-paced story-wise, which definitely wouldn't give us a satisfying resolution for the series.
 
Decided to watch this to see what all the fuzz was about, and here's what I thought:
The good:
- The animation. I'm not really someone who enjoys CGI that easily but I was surprised by how cartoony and lively the animation was, the characters always were moving in interesting ways and great use of stretch and squash.
- The music. No surprise since that seems to be Gooseworx biggest strength. Very catchy tunes along with more moody ones.
- The voices. Overall great voice cast, I think all of them fit the characters nicely although I found some of Cain's glitch inflections to be a little too much, we get it he's crazy, no need to go that overboard.
- The characters. Design wise the come as "I'm a tumblr user and these are my OCs" but still have some appeal, it's their personalities where they really shine, mainly talking about the trio of Pomni-Jax-Ragatha who I found the most interesting for how they bounce out of each other. Pomni comes as a really well balanced protagonist altogether.

The bad:
- The humor. If you like it it's fine but I just don't think that this show is particularly funny at all, they're some chuckle worthy moments but the rest feels like the type of humor that you will only enjoy if you spend too much time online or if you are a "I have anxiety and this is so true!" guy.
- The pacing. You cannot tell me that there's only 3 more episodes left when it feels like the plot is barely advancing and nothing of what was teased in the pilot is being addressed, the characters just meander for most of the episodes and despite some of them being stuck in the circus for years are now having all this big arcs of change just because they interacted with Pomni for a few days? Pomni herself quickly ditched any hopes to escape despite her entering the exit and seeing the computers along with the void, her interactions with Kinger, etc. It's like nobody in the show cares to connect the dots. They should have made it so Pomni slowy loses her sense of time while playing games outside of camera, but thanks to her outside-the-box thinking is able to bug many of them finding the next breadcrumb of what's happening.
That way all the others changing personalities would make sense because for the first time in years they are seeing some progress that might lead to a way out. Seriously I want to know more about the moon, the void, something beyond the characters traumas!
- The therapy talk. This show dwells way too much on that, last episode was specially egregious with how much of its duration is different characters playing phycologist and pacient, Jax's panic attack also felt so cliche. There's also parts where they just straight up tell you what everyone's deal is, very lazy way to explain your own characters which speaking of, I do have some complains about some of them.
- Kinger. Crazy guy is actually the key to everything, typical with this kind of stuff but too bad that the writers decided that he also should be the lead therapist of the group, wanna know more about how he can generate healing butterflies? Sorry, Ragatha is crying and needs her venting out session.
- Gummigoo. Wasted potential, an NPC becoming self aware and trying to find meaning to its existance has so much to offer story wise and he being the first real friend that Pomni despite being not real could also lead her character in interesting ways, he even has his own mystery with the identity of his mother. Would have made for a great addition to the main cast but I guess he would have taken screentime from the next two wastes of air.
- Gangle. Typical self-portrait that online artists like to see themselves as. "I'm such a pathetic unemployed smol bean UwU" Although I liked that the moment she got any modicum of power, she let it get into her head it just ended leading to yet another therapy session. Her biggest problem is that she gets paired a lot with our next subject and suffers as a consequence because is never allowed to grow as a character.
- Zooble. Everyone's favorite worst character, I know sHEit gets seen as Gooseworx tranny OC but I don't particulary dislike the idea at least in this setting, getting fucked by the random character generator to end looking like a Pablo Picasso sketch must be horrible for your self-steem, I also know some of you have gripes about the "I want to be able to have sex" line but I think that it would make sense for an adult to miss parts of his body functions after being stuck in a fake world for years, the way I see it, she tries to hold to some of her remaining humanity (Pomni should be the one more likely to do that but whatever). But because he's the creator pet, his characterization is that of a cool snarky no bullshit guy that also protects the weak, so he remains very static and since he doesn't interacts that much with Pomni (or the plot even) his addition to the cast feels unnecesary.
- Miscellaneous. This is a nitpick that I talked about briefly in the humor section, but there's elements of this show that only makes sense when you are terminally online, you know things like Pomni being a clown, Jax's tumblr sexyman act, the maid outfit stuff, the 90's CGI visuals, the attemps at (analog) horror, all stuff very typical of modern fandoms online. I don't know if I should count it as a negative but what I want to say with this is that it ends up being a little too derivative for my tastes.

It's a solid show, definitely more solid than Hazbin Hotel but in many ways shares many of its mistakes, specially regarding not knowing what it wants to be and how the way the world works seems to be an afterthought. I don't know what the next 3 episodes can really do to wrap things up but given how the last episode was a little longer than the others hopefully we get more minutes to make up for the time lost. I know for sure that Glitch productions is going to milk this cow for as much as they can.
 
Saxxon said:
- The therapy talk. This show dwells way too much on that, last episode was specially egregious with how much of its duration is different characters playing phycologist and pacient, Jax's panic attack also felt so cliche. There's also parts where they just straight up tell you what everyone's deal is, very lazy way to explain your own characters which speaking of, I do have some complains about some of them.
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Dude you can't criticize the show for this because the people working on it are self-aware about the fact that the entire series is for stunted Twitter people

f.webp
 
i am disappointed gummigoo wasn't in episode 6. he's one of my favorite characters. i assume we will see more of him in the coming episodes. pomni's and jax's voice actors did a good job with the singing scene. and pomni beating up jax to try to get him to break his facade was also good. also obviously we don't get to see him for very long but disappearing guy is great.

the focus on zooble was annoying as fuck though. zooble is supposed to be the non-binary/trans representation in the show but she is angry all the time and explicitly states she wants to have sex. hmm it's almost likes trannies in real life are also angry and obsessed with sex. i guess she is technically a good representation of trannies, even though the representation makes trannies look bad.
 
"Hmmm, I wonder if this show is worth watching now that it's gone on for a while. I should check the thread on it and see whats-
LucasSomething said:
I hate how Jax had an unironic "hyper ventilating panic attack in the bathroom mirror" scene. I already know there is some retarded milenial making a video or tweet calling that scene "realistic showcase of TRAUMA!" and "proof that cartoons are not for kids!"
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Nope. Not going to watch it if it does this crap. I liked the pilot because it was funny. The following two episodes did indeed have "lore" and whatnot, but they didn't have as many jokes as the pilot. Everything seems like its turning into the reddit tier "adult animation" show a la bojack horseman or adjacent cartoons.
 
Am I the only one who liked Jax's story in last episode here? Like, you can say "cliche mirror scene", but it was also interrupted by the man disappearing, treating it spitefully as unseriously as it can gets. Not randomly, as it was frequent in Helluva Boss, but on purpose. Plus, he didn't immediately folded and sobbed how much of a "broken man" he is to Pomni, you know, typical Tumblr bullshit..Or vivziepop bullshit lul

Overall, I think he has most interesting storyline in the show, imo. The rest are kind of..Eh, your average "confidence/social anxiety" issues, aside from probably Kinger.
 
Beggamania said:
Am I the only one who liked Jax's story in last episode here? Like, you can say "cliche mirror scene", but it was also interrupted by the man disappearing, treating it spitefully as unseriously as it can gets. Not randomly, as it was frequent in Helluva Boss, but on purpose. Plus, he didn't immediately folded and sobbed how much of a "broken man" he is to Pomni, you know, typical Tumblr bullshit..Or vivziepop bullshit lul

Overall, I think he has most interesting storyline in the show, imo. The rest are kind of..Eh, your average "confidence/social anxiety" issues, aside from probably Kinger.
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I liked it. As sick of seeing “realistic panic attacks” as people are, in the context of “I have to keep it together or I’ll turn into a glitch eldritch abomination monster forever”, I think it was fitting for the setting and what was going on. Jax didn’t cry and bow to change, he essentially said “this is how I’m coping, back off.” He’ll probably have to change a bit to be “healed”, but I don’t think he’s going to become some “uwu softboi” if he does.

Anyway, here’s someone rotoscoping the fight from Ted with Pomni and Jax.
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Personally I think Kinger's butterfly was less 'he's the former admin/dev' and more that The Circus will just let you do things if you will it. Pomni's shooting is another more blatant example. She wanted to shoot the can/Zooble and The Circus let her.
I imagine everyone's quirks are more manifestations of this(to a lesser extent). Zooble can change/put on more limbs (as well as manipulate them when they aren't attached) and because she thinks it should work, it does. Gangle thinks her masks affect her personality, and so they do. Jax thinks he has a playdoh key that can open any door, and so it does.

Perhaps The Amazing Digital Circus is more of a canvas than a game. Caine may want to show off his own adventures, but I think the suggestion box shows that adventures can be made up on a whim when the players will it. Perhaps Jax is closest to the truth. "I know you hate it here. Everyone does. But the silver lining is you can pretty much do whatever you want." They may be trapped, but its only hell if they make it that way, literally. Perhaps its like a CHIM moment. You figure out you can affect The Circus, or you zero sum and abstract. It would explain Kinger's resilience. Some part of him knows he can manipulate The Circus, so he cant abstract because he's already achieved CHIM.
 
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If I may take this show seriously and speculate, I think there's enough foreshadowing and hints to suggest that the characters might be digital copies of real people. Perhaps I'm "taking it too seriously," but that's what makes speculating fun.

The song "Daisy Bell" might be a hint. Given that it was the first song performed by a computer, it makes sense that Caine, as an AI, would sing it. Its relevance lies in its connection to computers. The fact that Pomni and Jax also sang it might foreshadow that they, too, are not real.

I would also point out how Caine struggles to differentiate AIs from real people, almost as if the only difference is how they arrive, but otherwise, they’re interchangeable. Caine claims he can’t control human minds, yet we’ve seen him and his games affect the characters's minds such as with the voting, and the stupid sauce. Maybe he didn’t lie—perhaps the circus members aren’t human to begin with.

There’s also circumstantial evidence, such as the fact that without food or water, they should have died long ago from starvation. However, you could handwave this as cartoon logic.
 
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