In defence of Caine - a parallel between neurodivergence and our favorite AI

I'm fully aware no one is probably going to read this, but I need to get this off my chest.

Since episode 8 came out, I've seen people everywhere treat Caine like the show's antagonist and call him a villain. This \*irks\* me to no end, and here's why.

Cain, consistently and relentlessly, tried to make the circus members happy.

\-Made adventures for them to keep them sane (and often succeeded in having them have fun) \- Gave them bodies and rooms he thought they would like (Jax likes feminine things? I'll give them a pink room! Zoobles struggles with body dysmorphia? I'll give them a body they can modify at will! Gangles struggles with a mood disorder? I'll give her the ability to control her emotions through masks! Etc). \-Made food for them, a café, places for them to be comfortable, etc.

Now, of course, his actions were flawed. He didn't listen to them, he rushed them, he overwhelmed them. But here's the thing: *He had no fucking context and no fucking point of reference for anything.* It's astonishing how so many people seem to not be able to at least TRY to understand where he was coming from. He was created, fed informations, then suddenly abandoned and locked in a box - and his later dialogue shows that he was perfectly aware of this, and understood this had happened because he was ''defective'' - which hurt and traumatized him deeply. Then he escaped, created a world of his own, and, because he was lonely, gave life to several mind files he found that completely fascinated him.

The Circus members were his first interactions with humans. No one, \*no one\* ever bothered to teach him anything, or ever tried to sympathize with him. They were, even, often pretty mean with him - something Zoobles even acknowledges at some point. Now, I don't blame the circus members - they were overwhelmed and traumatized and probably thought Caine wasn't sentient, like his creators did. But put yourselfself in his shoes. He couldn't understand why his efforts gave no results, why the more he tried, the more he was hated. And please let's not forget that Caine, too, was deeply traumatized with the fear of being left alone.

Maybe by this point you understand the parallel with neurodivergence - especially, as an autistic woman, I relate painfully to him. Trying SO HARD to get people to like you, reading rooms, intents and emotions wrong, having everyone hate you and then still not understanding \*why\*. The confusion, the hurt, the self-hatred he displayed, the doubt. Autistic people often go through the same thing; the other humans make no sense to us and trying to please them is a Hell of its own, especially when the common response we get is getting bullied in turn. Caine wasn't a human with a human mind, he was almost like a child trying to figure out the world around him with no help at all - but he experienced the same thing.

And then, after decades of trying and failing, he had a huge mental breakdown and hurt the people he cared about.

Apparently, to lots of people, this is enough to call him a villain.

Here's the thing, though: you can do something wrong without being a fucking villain. Cain expressed regret for what he has done, and he understood why this was wrong. He even took actions to repair what he's done - letting Blue go, preparing the little presentation for the cast members, doing some research now that he had access to the Internet, actually listening to them, giving them freedom, etc. He is putting in the work to \*actually\* get better, and get redeemed. But he's a villain because of one bad day? Jesus Christ. No. He is a being that is flawed and made a mistake, and he is held accountable for it and accepts to take responsibility for it.

And before people come at me with ''he tortured people'', this is on the same level as Jax putting Gangles into the frying machine: pain is clearly not felt the same in the circus, and the members consistently show they do not seem to register it as anything other than discomfort. What he inflicted on others was, for about 5 minutes, mental anguish. WHICH IS VERY BAD. But let's not act like he did something on the same level as a psychopath physically torturing victims for fun, Jeez. Just like he had no context for what he did when he ate the blue dot - who didn't even display sentience yet.

So this was my rant, if anyone read it at all thank you lol.