An organization of my thoughts... that might have too many words...

I realized talking about thematic interactions in this digital context is a little weird because they are all justified by your personal views on the themes of the show. Which can vary wildly since this show has a lot of subtext and doesn't explicitly say all of its points. So I figured I'd put out my version so that I can reference it anytime someone doesn't understand my take on a given situation and get some insight to others understandings.

And unfortunately I can't really do this without an essay so I doubt most people can read it, but that's fine.

To me the digital circus as a setting is basically hell, not literally obviously but effectively. It's not a punishment for the players its an unfortunate consequence (this gets into my personal theology but that's not relevant enough to justify its wordiness here).

It's not a hell inflicted on them but a place they cannot handle or justify. A place that tries to gain your favor by being colorful and fun, but is too uncanny and unfamiliar to succeed.

It will always come close to giving you what you want but always fall short enough that it frustrates you. If you want to escape it might suggest something to try that won't work. If you want a more comfortable body it will give you a myriad of uncomfortable options to change into. If you don't want to interact with it it will act like it can't force you to participate. It will do it's best to simulate reality but it always comes out uncanny, too glossy too janky and too colorful.

In this framework Caine is a manifestation of the circus, just as desperate for your favor but just as unable to provide a worthwhile exchange for it. Too uncanny to be a player too familiar to be an npc, he's simply an ai and it makes him unable to understand the players.

He \*is\* the Chinese room. He interacts with someone gets feedback to work on and selects from predefined options to deal with it. It's possible to throw him something he can't handle and instead of being stumped and thinking of more options he breaks. He can never understand them because he doesn't understand interaction only responses.

This setting is then used as a constant stresser to challenge the players coping mechanism. Because the themes I observe are how your humanity and sanity interact especially when you can't properly deal with a situation, like many people have to deal with in real life when their own voice isn't strong enough.

Just as a Shonen uses action to show it's character traits, (A hero will show how much they care for their friends by how fiercely they fight to protect them), The digital circus uses their coping mechanisms to show how they interact with humanity.

For example Zooble is a very human character. They confront their problems, Call out the circus's oddities, and don't buy into any of the nihilism surrounding themself. They believes they're human and so having the least human body gets to them. It gives them dysphoria and no gimmick can fix that.

But again, they're human, they're able to confront this problem and eventually adapt. Not through solving it or having some big revelation, but through accepting themself as it's suggested they've had to do before.

I think the most interesting for this is Pomni and Jax.

See when Pomni reaches out to Gummigoo she feels comraderie. When she is reached out to by Ragatha she feels understood. When she is protected by Kinger she feels safer. And when Jax lashes out to her she feels hurt but it doesn't change how she acts.

Pomni gets a wide range of experiences and emotions because she is fundamentally the most human there. She's the newest and she has gotten burned less so she relies less on coping mechanisms and is able to confront her problems directly just like Zooble is.

This means that she ultimately hasn't developed those coping skills yet, which is clear anytime she gets overstimulated as she just kinda checks out. But it also means she's better equipped to handle when something shakes her, she can be hurt and recover from it.

Whereas Jax has been burned too many times, he cannot recover anymore, not without help, and he's not accepting that.

He's the least human out of them and that's ultimately his main coping mechanism. Plus he's chock full of smaller coping strategies, mostly ways to run and not interact.

When someone interacts with him, he hurts them. When something makes him uncomfortable, he deflects with humor. When trying to have fun, he does it in a way to get in the way of others. When he's confronted with vulnerability he makes sure everyone knows he doesn't believe it because "none of this is real". And he has to do it all with a bit of a macho facade that is probably at this point at least somewhat real.

This makes him unable to confront any problem. Which in turn makes him extremely susceptible to this environment. The uncanniness is something he has to accept because if it bothers him it's real. The changes over time is something he has to ignore because if he addresses them he has to acknowledge there's something he can do about it. And since none of his coping skills can deal with this he can't handle it.

And if that continues, he'll abstract. I think with Zooble's line in episode one it's clear abstraction is a metaphor for suicide. Suicide is a heavy, hard to discuss topic, and something that can't really be truly understood. But in this framework of coping mechanism's and a situation they're not equipped to face suicide is a devastating but eerily understood consequence.

It's something that makes sense, and sets the tone for how important these matters are to Gooseworx. I think the show importantly though doesn't blame "abstraction" on the characters failures. They failed to cope yes but there's an air over most of the player's that it's inevitable they'll all eventually abstract if they can't die naturally or escape. You can't really be expected to cope with this. It feels like the show puts the blame solely on the circus.

This makes it feel like the circus, and by extension Caine, is the antagonist. Yeah Jax is a bully or villain but (well until now) he's still on the side of the humans and would help escape the circus.

Now he could become an antagonist after all of that which would play into the themes of the consequences of a situation you aren't at fault for because of how he negatively effects the others but 1, that's speculation and this post is for observation and 2, I feel it's more impactful if it's emphasized that that's a result of the situation as well and thus even though Jax has blame and could have fixed it the real blame is still within the circus.

However there is something you \*can\* do here, Be there for each other. Whenever anyone seems to be failing to cope it always makes a show of when another person reaches out. In ep 4 Gangle seems like she could actually abstract because of how much she thinks she failed, but Pomni chose to help her. And then Zooble notices too and helps her get closer to dealing with everything.

And even though you're voice probably can't fix most situations alone, it doesn't have to be. When the group works together they do make it easier on themselves, as you see in ep5.

And of course when Jax is close to abstracting it's because he keeps turning down this help, no one can cope with the circus but Jax is speedrunning isolation and it's not helping.

I think this is a really good show and I'm glad I got to think this much about it, even if it does mean the post is a wordy essay <3