# Film Theory: Everything You Need to Know About The Amazing Digital Circus (Compilation)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq7W1pbDqKk

[00:00] The amazing digital circus is almost at an end.
[00:02] So, here's everything you'll need to know before you head to that theater or click on that finale.
[00:09] Hello, internet.
[00:09] Welcome to Film Theory, the show that's running around with a bucket on its head.
[00:13] Hope I don't run headlong into the subscribe.
[00:14] Ow.
[00:14] Jeez.
[00:16] So, friends, the day is almost here.
[00:19] The curtain has almost been called on the Amazing Digital Circus.
[00:21] In fact, by the time you're watching this, some people may have already seen the finale in theaters.
[00:25] I know I did and I vigorously took notes.
[00:29] We'll have a full-blown theory ready the weekend the episode is available for everyone.
[00:33] But in the meantime, I wanted to take this chance to catch up on the journey we've had with this series.
[00:36] All of the analysis and predictions and dumb thoughts that we've had along the way.
[00:40] Why?
[00:42] Well, while a lot of our older predictions may not have panned out, many of them were surprisingly on point, even if the actual context of those things wasn't exactly what we predicted.
[00:48] looking at you.
[00:53] The Pomnius is Jesus metaphor from the famous MattPat out of context compilations.
[00:57] So sit back, relax, and
[01:01] conjure some candy to eat.
[01:02] Loyal theorists, here's everything you could possibly need to know before the end of the amazing digital circus.
[01:09] The pilot follows a woman named Pomni, who's thrust into a strange digital world styled after a circus alongside five other humans.
[01:15] Jax, the lovable jerk, Raggtha, the sweet optimist, Gangal, who can't hide her emotions.
[01:19] Zubil, who's made out of a bunch of random objects, and Kinger, who's been trapped there the longest and has gone kind of crazy as a result.
[01:25] The whole circus is run by a ring leader named Kane, who according to the show's website is a quote wacky AI, and all of the humans are just subject to his every women desire.
[01:35] Dad Zuks, you're right, Jax.
[01:37] We should have a brand NEW ADVENTURE FOR OUR NEW MEMBER, POMI.
[01:40] YOU SAID that like 5 minutes ago.
[01:42] However, humans don't necessarily want to go on these adventures, and they're constantly trying to find ways of getting out.
[01:49] This has even driven some of them insane, leaving them abstracted, where they devolve into monsters.
[01:53] Case in point, the clown Koffmo was obsessed with finding the exit and abstracts just before Pomney shows up.
[01:57] Oh, CO's been obstructed.
[01:58] It's okay.
[02:02] What is that?
[02:04] And yet, even when Pomi does get herself to the exit in this pilot episode, it doesn't go anywhere.
[02:09] It's just endless hallways and office spaces repeating.
[02:11] It is basically the back rooms.
[02:11] As it turns out, Kane made this fake exit hoping to give the humans what they wanted.
[02:17] just didn't know what to put on the other side.
[02:19] I do have to apologize for lying about the exit.
[02:22] I was having so much trouble figuring out what to put on the other side and ended up never quite finishing it.
[02:28] And more or less, that's where we leave the colorful cast of the Amazing Digital Circus after this first episode.
[02:33] Now, already there's just so much world building here for us to dig into.
[02:36] So many questions posed that [music] we want the answers to, like, who's behind The Amazing Digital Circus?
[02:42] Is there an actual way out or are they just trapped forever?
[02:43] Are characters like Kofmo really gone or can they be brought back in some way?
[02:47] And uh sorry to say I don't have a whole lot of answers for those things.
[02:50] Not yet.
[02:50] For as much as Glitch and Goose Works packed into the first episode, they've done the wise thing and not given us a whole lot of answers.
[02:55] But I do think they've given us plenty here to theorize about.
[02:58] So here are three amazing digital circus [music] theories.
[03:03] Don't run for the exit doors yet, my friends.
[03:04] We're going in.
[03:06] Let's start things off a bit small scale here.
[03:08] Theory number one, everything in the show is literally a video game set in the late 1990s.
[03:14] Now, there's a lot in just this one episode that paints this as a video game world.
[03:17] For example, right at the beginning, we see a pixelated title card for the show that's obviously in the style of old school PC, PlayStation, and N64 games.
[03:24] This is further driven home in a secret video that you can find if you go to wackywatch.com, a URL shown on screen during the episode, which shows us the main menu for this game.
[03:32] We also see a flower pot fall to the ground and clip into it, kind of like an old school source engine glitch.
[03:37] Kane mentions that he created the digital world in the weird backrooms office area in a way that's very similar to how a game developer would create world spaces.
[03:43] Plus, when Pomney first enters the world, she says this, "I put on some weird headset and now I'm here."
[03:51] Again, directly implying that the whole thing is a game.
[03:52] She put on a VR headset and was transported into the world of the digital circus.
[03:56] All of that checks out and should be pretty darn obvious to the casual viewer.
[04:00] But what you might have missed is the fact that this is set
[04:03] in the late 1990s and not the present day like you might expect from something talking about using VR headsets.
[04:10] And there is a lot of circumstantial evidence that points us to this conclusion.
[04:13] First of all, basically all the tech that we see throughout the series seems to be pulling straight from the '90s.
[04:17] Anytime we see a computer in the show, it's always the white boxy styled CRT monitors and large white computer towers reminiscent of models made by companies like Dell and Gateway back in the '9s and early 2000s.
[04:28] And this is both in the actual episode and in the off-site material as well.
[04:32] In that same wacky watch commercial, we see a real life computer with the same old school design.
[04:36] What's more, the beginning of this wacky watch video says that this was an old tape recovered on a day that's censored.
[04:41] And given the degradation on that tape implies that not only is this video old, but it was also recovered in the past as well.
[04:46] But this goes beyond just the tech that's used in the series.
[04:49] Many of the characters and iconography from the show are very reminiscent of popular characters and ideas from the late '9s and early 2000s.
[04:54] Pomny's gesture design takes a lot of cues from Sega's old Nights into Dream series.
[04:58] Jax shares design inspiration and a similar name with Max the Rabbit from the Sam and Max
[05:03] games.
[05:05] Bubble clearly takes cues from Super Mario's Chain Chomps.
[05:07] Jax and Gangal were both inspired by characters like Poppy the Performer, an old Japanese 3D animated series.
[05:12] While Kane and the digital circus setup, very reminiscent of the villain and plot of I have no mouth and I must scream, a short story by Harlon Ellison adapted into a point-and-click adventure game in 1995.
[05:22] Any way you slice it, it's very clear that the creators want the show to have the same '9s vibe that we're all so nostalgic for right now.
[05:29] But you might be thinking, "Hold on, they're talking about VR headsets here.
[05:31] That's a modern thing, right?
[05:33] Wouldn't this thing just be inspired by the 1990s rather than set in the 1990s?
[05:37] That's a pretty good call out.
[05:39] A lot of advances in virtual reality technology have only been made across the last decade, especially when you're talking about gaming.
[05:43] That doesn't mean that VR technology didn't exist back in the 1990s.
[05:47] And I'm not just talking about the rudimentary black and red wire frames of the Virtual Boy, either.
[05:50] Back in 1991, Sega announced the Sega VR.
[05:53] In 1993, Virtuality created the Mega Visor display.
[05:56] And in 1995, Fort Technology hit us with the VFX1 headset, just to name a few.
[06:01] And looking into old footage of all these things, it doesn't
[06:04] look too dissimilar to the sort of world
[06:05] that we see in the Amazing Digital Circus.
[06:06] Simple flat textures, rudimentary shapes and polygons.
[06:08] There's not a lot of detail here, but that's for good reason.
[06:10] These headsets, they couldn't handle a lot of detail.
[06:12] True story.
[06:13] I actually have some firsthand experience with these rudimentary headsets.
[06:15] The Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland, Ohio, actually had a special exhibit on VR technology in its basement when I was a kid.
[06:20] And it blew my mind.
[06:22] With the amount of wires and cables these things took to run, it felt like you were jacking into the Matrix.
[06:24] And you had to wait 45 minutes to put on one of these headsets.
[06:26] But all of a sudden, you were dropped into a video game.
[06:28] It was simple.
[06:29] I was walking through a purple field with a bunch of green triangular mountains in the background.
[06:31] But it was effective and it captured my imagination for decades since.
[06:33] So much so that even though it was a 5-minute experience that happened in my life like two decades ago, I still remember it vividly to this very day.
[06:34] Anyway, madpad childhood stories aside, the long and short of all of this, everything that we see in the series is pointing to this taking place in the past and not [music] in the present.
[06:35] All of this has already happened from our perspective.
[06:37] We're just watching the events of the game unfold.
[06:39] So, now that we know that we're in a 1990s video game
[07:04] here, let's dig a bit deeper, shall we?
[07:05] Theory number two, Homni helped create this hell simulation that they're currently stuck in.
[07:09] It's a pretty bold claim.
[07:10] So, what would make me say that?
[07:12] Well, a couple of things.
[07:13] Firstly, one of the scenes that really jumped out to me while I was watching and re-watching the pilot was the sequence where Pomny's running through the back rooms on the other side of the exit door.
[07:21] At one point, she enters a more traditional looking office space with computers and cubicles before stopping and staring at one desk in particular.
[07:26] This is played as a big moment.
[07:28] We linger on this shot for a long time as a classic horror dolly zoom hits both the desk and Pomni before she has herself a psychological break.
[07:37] The lights start to flicker and she cackles uncomfortably before running on.
[07:40] The whole thing is really menacing and off-putting and clearly [music] meant to leave us with a big impression.
[07:45] Why?
[07:46] Well, because this desk isn't just some simulation that came cooked up in the back rooms.
[07:49] It's based on a real place in the real world of this universe [music] outside of the simulation.
[07:54] A place that we actually see in the episode.
[07:56] At the very end, right before the credits roll, we zoom out of the circus and through the void, revealing that all of this has been taken place inside of a computer.
[08:02] That makes sense.
[08:04] We've already established that this
[08:05] right here, it's a big old simulation.
[08:06] But take a look at the computer and the desk.
[08:08] It's the exact same setup that we saw earlier in the episode in the back room section.
[08:11] The same old equipment on the left, the same file cabinets on the right, the same retro monitor and keyboard and computer tower and speakers, the same VR headset and headphones.
[08:20] This is exactly the same, but clearly this one's in the real world.
[08:22] Not only have we literally zoomed out of the computer, implying that we're no longer in said simulation, but the lighting in the scene is much more natural.
[08:29] It's warmer.
[08:30] Sunlight is streaming through the nearby window, all at an angle because the sun's lower in the sky.
[08:34] This is not the flat computer simulation lighting that we've been seeing throughout the rest of the episode.
[08:38] That right there, the desk and computer setup existing both in the simulation and in the real world is already a pretty interesting point.
[08:43] But why then would it break Pomni?
[08:45] What causes her to go off the deep end and start laughing?
[08:47] Well, I think that subconsciously Pomni recognizes that this this is her desk.
[08:50] At the beginning of the episode, they make it clear that Pomn has lost her human memories.
[08:53] But this, I believe, is triggering a deep realization inside of her.
[08:57] Based on what we're given here, I believe that Pomny's human persona is an employee at CNA, the company developing the digital circus
[09:05] game and VR headset.
[09:07] And seeing it here inside the game unlocks some weird flash of her memory as to what's happening to get her into this situation.
[09:11] She's trapped in the very game that she helped to create.
[09:15] It's ironic, hence why she laughs.
[09:17] It's funny.
[09:17] It's darkly funny.
[09:19] I can see this being a huge reveal down the line and one that could be potentially devastating for all the rest of our characters, for Pomni obviously, but also for all the other characters who are trapped in here who would be seeing her as the one to blame for their current imprisonment.
[09:29] Also, real quick, super short micro theory.
[09:31] I don't think we have enough information to figure out what the initials in the company named CNA stand for.
[09:35] But one possibility that did jump out to me, it could potentially stand for Kane and Abel, partially named after the AI ring leader of the simulation Kane, which could then lead itself to a lot of interesting story possibilities.
[09:47] You see, Cain and Abel are a pair of brothers who are the sons of Adam and Eve, with Cain ultimately killing his brother and creating the first ever murderer in the world.
[09:53] Anyway, you know how we love ourselves a good biblical reference here, and I just wanted to mention it in case we get more clues in future episodes.
[10:00] But something we do have more than enough to say about theory number three, all the characters aren't actually humans trapped inside
[10:07] the digital circus.
[10:09] Instead, they're all digital copies of the brains of humans who've put on these headsets, cloned, and then forced into the simulation.
[10:15] Now, this is a pretty big swing.
[10:17] I mean, Pomny's first line of the series is practically, "Oh no, I'm a human who put on a headset and now I'm trapped here."
[10:23] And then Kane follows it up with this.
[10:25] My My, it appears a new human has entered this realm.
[10:29] Human. He calls her a human.
[10:31] And that actually lines up with what we've seen with the official synopsis, explicitly calling Pomni and the others humans, in contrast to Cain being an AI.
[10:36] quote from that synopsis.
[10:38] A woman gets trapped in a crazy virtual world along with five other humans and are now subject to the whims of wacky AI and their own personal traumas.
[10:47] Plus, I just personally like the image of a bunch of people strapped into these VR headsets all Sword Art Online.
[10:52] But all of that being said, I believe that there's a lot of evidence pointing towards these characters being computerized clones rather than actual humans.
[11:00] For instance, as I mentioned above, Pomn starts going a bit crazy when she sees her desk from the real world in the circus' back rooms.
[11:07] think what was actually on that desk.
[11:10] A headset.
[11:12] Pretty clearly a headset that is not on any human's head.
[11:14] And that's not just a thing in the simulation.
[11:16] It's also on the desk in the real world, too, that we see in the final shot of the pilot.
[11:19] If there's a human trapped in the digital circus here with a headset firmly planted on their head that they can't get off, shouldn't they, you know, be stuck there with the headset on their head?
[11:27] Given the little that we have to go off of right now, it makes more sense that Pomny put on the headset, had her consciousness copied into the game, and then she just took off the headset to go home.
[11:35] Meanwhile, Pomny in the game can't take it off because she's not a flesh and blood human anymore.
[11:38] She's a digital copy whose memories begin the moment the headset was put on.
[11:43] And even if we're wrong and this desk isn't Pomies, all the other characters went through this exact same process when they first joined, as Jax hinted at when he sarcastically said,
[11:51] "How do I take this headset off?
[11:56] Just keep grabbing at it.
[11:57] That works for all of us."
[11:58] They all tried the exact same thing, and it didn't work for any of them.
[12:01] They're all digital copies grasping at a VR headset that isn't there anymore.
[12:06] But you know the thing that really convinced
[12:07] me of this theory, the mannequins.
[12:09] Yeah, did you notice these guys?
[12:10] All throughout the episode, we see several artist mannequins populating the circus.
[12:14] You know, these are the things that artists will sometimes buy to help him get references for poses.
[12:18] Most prominently, we see them in the restaurant with Kane and Bubble acting as background characters.
[12:23] But why would they matter?
[12:23] Well, we know that Kane can create NPCs.
[12:25] Kane, is this one of your NPCs or is this a new sucker?
[12:28] So maybe these mannequins are just random nameless characters that Kane made up to fill in the circus.
[12:32] Maybe.
[12:32] But that just doesn't sit right with me.
[12:35] First off, the dolls are clearly capable of emotions.
[12:36] We see one get upset when Pomny interrupts it taking a bath, silently screaming at Pomni until she slams the door.
[12:44] There's something more going on here than just these things being background extras.
[12:47] Take a look at this.
[12:47] When Raggtha is showing Pomni to her room, there are several other doors for other characters in the background.
[12:52] This is actually a great piece of world building.
[12:53] We see that each of the current characters have themselves their own rooms as well as several other characters that we haven't met yet.
[12:59] There's this colorful one that I can't quite make out.
[13:01] What looks to be a pinkish purple goo monster.
[13:03] Some sort of cute doggo.
[13:05] Green and orange anteater looking guy.
[13:07] A black queen chess piece
[13:09] that I'm going to guess is named Queenie.
[13:12] Seems to be Kinger's counterpart, implying that he didn't come into the simulation alone.
[13:15] Regardless, all of these portraits have giant red X's over them.
[13:19] And that checks out.
[13:20] These are likely characters that have abstracted in the past, just like Kofmo did.
[13:24] We even see other abstracted creatures in the cellar when Kane banishes cough mode.
[13:27] Anyway, along with these past and current characters, we also see several doors with blank mannequins on them.
[13:31] Not just one, but multiple doors.
[13:33] If I had to guess what's going on here, when a new human enters the game, these rooms transform into one that's appropriate for them.
[13:40] And the mannequin on the door transforms into their character.
[13:41] And what's more, I believe that there's a mannequin in the game that also transforms into that character.
[13:48] Right now, they're placeholders, but they get molded into these human copies whenever someone new puts on the headset.
[13:53] and their brain gets scanned into the system.
[13:54] That would fit thematically with the idea of the mannequins to begin with.
[13:57] They're supposed to be used as references and then turned into something real when you're using them for your artwork.
[14:02] That would also fit with the fact that they're on the doors of all these empty rooms and the characters being scanned clones of human brains would fit the fact that they can't take off their
[14:10] headsets despite us seeing a headset not being worn at a desk that is clearly meant to be Pomnes.
[14:14] It just all fits with what we've seen from the series so far.
[14:18] In short, the series is gaslighting us.
[14:20] It isn't about a bunch of humans trapped in a simulation.
[14:22] It's about a bunch of human consciousnesses that have been scanned into an AI system and then mapped onto blank mannequin bodies where the computer can then simulate their human behavior and push their buttons to the breaking point, learning the weaknesses of the human psyche.
[14:35] And then when they've had too much and abstract out of the system, well then you just boot up another new simulation and try again.
[14:40] There is no exit door, just an endless loop of torturous tests run by Cain as he tries to understand the human experience, just like a real circus.
[14:50] All of it is just a big performance.
[14:52] Jack Black is going to play Koffmo the clown in the Amazing Digital Circus.
[14:58] Is that a stupid swing for the fences theory with very little evidence to support it?
[15:00] You bet it is, but there's some evidence for it, which is why it's a short.
[15:03] In the pilot, we're told that Koffmo the clown is obsessed with finding the exit from the circus.
[15:07] This eventually drives him
[15:10] mad, causing him to abstract into a giant glitching eyeball monster.
[15:14] At some point though, you know there's going to be a flashback about this guy.
[15:17] And when there is, it's going to be none other than world famous YouTuber Jablinsky Games.
[15:22] Five Nights at Freddy's.
[15:25] That's where I want to be.
[15:26] Why would I say that?
[15:28] Well, if you go to a URL scene briefly in the pilot episode, you'll find an in universe ad for the Amazing Digital Circus.
[15:33] And as they show off the names of the show's characters, when they get to Cough Mo, it glitches out and shows an old picture of Jack Black instead.
[15:38] That would also fit with Black's voiceover work and things like the Mario movie and Kung Fu Panda.
[15:43] Plus, he's done all sorts of YouTube collabs like his song Video Games where he worked with Oni Plays.
[15:49] It just makes sense that he'd say yes to something like this.
[15:51] In case you missed our last theory on the Amazing Digital Circus, the long and short of it is that we believe that the circus here isn't exactly what it appears to be.
[15:58] Instead of some futuristic fully immersive experience, we believe that it's actually a VR video game from the 1990s.
[16:05] One that copies the brains of anyone who puts on the headset.
[16:07] It then turns that copy into a digital character to go on
[16:11] adventures throughout the circus.
[16:12] So the people trapped in this world looking for an exit, they're not actually people, just digital copies of their consciousnesses, their personalities.
[16:20] That's why we repeatedly see workstations of VR headsets in the first episode, but with no one actually wearing the headsets.
[16:27] And our theories didn't stop there.
[16:28] We continued by saying that Pomni is either the creator of the game or an employee at the development studio making the game, as evidenced by her mental breakdown when seeing those work desks.
[16:37] And while this is the direction that I still believe the series is headed for, now we talk about something else.
[16:41] You see, there's still a ton to dig into here with the Digital Circus.
[16:45] While sure, those initial theories are the ones that I think are the most likely and the most intentional, it's once they stretch a bit further out that some of the truly fun, wacky ideas really start to develop.
[16:53] Are they right?
[16:55] Yeah, probably not.
[16:57] Are they interesting and fun?
[17:00] Absolutely.
[17:00] And therein lies the beauty of theory crafting.
[17:02] For example, last time I briefly tossed out a bit of wild speculation that the digital circus may have itself some biblical connections.
[17:09] In this brief scene exploring the back rooms of the company who seemingly created the circus, we see
[17:12] the initials C and A painted onto the wall.
[17:15] C made me immediately connect things back to our lovable AI ring leader Kane, a guy who's probably the most in control of this entire situation.
[17:21] And if you tend to see the name Cain partnered with the initial A in any sort of pop cultural reference, the first immediate jump is going to be to the biblical story of Cain and Abel.
[17:32] See, Cain and Abel were the children of Adam and Eve, the first humans to ever exist in the Abrahamic religions.
[17:37] At the time, I wasn't really sure if this was meant to be anything or if it was going to lead anywhere.
[17:41] But the more I sat and thought about it, the more connections that I started to make.
[17:44] Some of those connections were admittedly very dumb.
[17:48] For example, in biblical canon, Cain kills Abel and becomes the first murderer.
[17:51] And what does Cain do multiple times throughout the pilot?
[17:53] He pops bubble for COMEDIC EFFECT.
[17:57] OW, YOU PARASITE.
[17:59] CAIN KILLS a bubble.
[18:02] A bull.
[18:02] Coincidence?
[18:04] Absolutely.
[18:04] Yes.
[18:05] It is single-handedly one of the dumbest things I've ever said in a theory, and I have said a lot of dumb things in theories.
[18:10] But other parallels that I found as I was doing this little brain search [music] through the episode again
[18:13] were a lot more compelling.
[18:15] In fact, some connections were so large that I believe I may have just cracked the question of what the digital circus is wide open.
[18:20] You see, loyal theorists, The Amazing Digital Circus isn't just some mere video game that's trapped these consciousnesses.
[18:26] No, it's something much darker.
[18:28] It's an eternity of torment and torture.
[18:31] The Amazing Digital Circus is quite literally hell.
[18:33] Put on your headsets and get your randomly generated names, my friends.
[18:37] We're going in.
[18:39] So, the claim that The Digital Circus is literally hell, it's a pretty bold one.
[18:40] So, why would I possibly make it?
[18:42] Well, look at this.
[18:44] At the very end of the pilot here, we're shown all the human characters sitting at a table while eating food.
[18:49] But you notice anything weird about their dining arrangement of all the ways they could have set up this table?
[18:53] They decided to have every character on just one side, all of them facing the same direction, out at us, the audience.
[19:01] When this is done in fiction, it's rarely by mistake because this right here, this is a very iconic framing device from one of the most famous paintings ever made, The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci.
[19:10] This depicts the final meal of Jesus and his
[19:14] followers shared before his crucifixion.
[19:16] It's been the backbone of conspiracy theories and Dan Brown novels for centuries.
[19:20] Goose Works, creator of the series, and all the other creatives over at Glitch, they're smart people.
[19:23] They wouldn't be using this imagery without understanding the historical baggage that comes along with it.
[19:27] And it's not just the table layout that's worth calling out here.
[19:30] Look at Pomni in the center.
[19:32] The exact position that Jesus is in for the painting.
[19:34] And notice the colors of Pomni, red and blue.
[19:35] Wouldn't it be weird if Oh, wait, never mind.
[19:39] Jesus is also dressed in red and blue.
[19:41] The interpretation of his colors is that the blue represents the divine half of God, heaven, and his red represents the blood, mankind.
[19:47] So in Jesus, you have the mixing of these two elements.
[19:49] A god born amongst men and set to live as a human.
[19:51] Red plus blue.
[19:53] And in Pomny, we actually have something similar, at least if our earlier theories were correct.
[19:58] A creator of this game, a god of this world, if you will, now set to live as a part of their own creation.
[20:05] And it's not like religion is completely absent from this world either.
[20:07] Quite the contrary, we know for a fact that God exists in the circus in some form or another.
[20:10] During the first adventure that Keen sets up for Pomny, the Gloink Queen
[20:16] says this,
[20:17] "I am Gloinks. You will be Gloinks. God
[20:21] will be."
[20:23] What an oddly specific thing to say.
[20:25] Speaking of making oddly specific
[20:27] references that we can build off of,
[20:28] let's talk about abstraction. According
[20:30] to the show, when you obsess over being
[20:32] trapped in the circus and drive yourself
[20:33] crazy looking for a way out,
[20:34] eventually you get to asking what the
[20:36] point of anything is, and you completely
[20:38] lose sight of who you are and why you're
[20:39] even alive. And when you reach your
[20:41] breaking point, something really
[20:42] terrible can happen.
[20:43] This is known as abstraction. And we see
[20:46] the results of it when we meet Coffmo
[20:47] the clown, or at least what's left of
[20:49] him.
[20:49] Oh, Cmo's been abstracted. Last time, I
[20:52] wasn't really sure if we had enough to
[20:54] really make a judgment over what was
[20:55] happening here, but I did find some more
[20:57] information when digging through the
[20:58] creator Goose Works' Tumblr. According
[21:00] to her, abstracting isn't just going
[21:02] crazy and becoming a big scary monster.
[21:04] It's definitely part of it for sure, but
[21:06] there is a deeper meaning. According to
[21:07] Goose Works, when you abstract, you lose
[21:09] everything about yourself. You're
[21:11] stripped of every single scrap of
[21:12] individuality that you become something
[21:15] unrecognizable. All abstracted people
[21:17] look the same. This glitchy four-legged
[21:19] monster covered in eyeballs. And perhaps
[21:21] most importantly, abstraction cannot be
[21:23] undone. Now looking back over the series
[21:25] with this new lens of religious imagery,
[21:27] the abstracted start resembling
[21:29] something else, something beyond just
[21:31] monsters. They almost look like angels.
[21:34] Well, not really angels, more biblically
[21:36] accurate angels, which ironically enough
[21:38] doesn't really come from the Bible. Let
[21:41] me explain. It's kind of confusing. 3
[21:42] years ago, a meme started spreading
[21:44] across the internet featuring these
[21:45] monstrous multi-eyed creations. They
[21:47] were called biblically accurate angels.
[21:49] Now, you might look at these things and
[21:51] go, "Really? They don't exactly look
[21:52] like the traditional image of an angel
[21:54] with robes and wings and halos and all
[21:56] that." But what they're riffing on here
[21:57] is a very specific part of the Bible. A
[21:59] few chapters in the book of Ezekiel
[22:01] where he describes having visions of
[22:03] winged creatures with four faces, some
[22:05] human, some animal, and these creatures
[22:07] were joined by wheels within wheels with
[22:09] eyes. Here's a version of the quote. I
[22:11] looked and I saw beside the cherubim
[22:13] four wheels, one beside each of the
[22:15] cherubim. Their entire bodies, including
[22:17] their backs, their hands, and their
[22:18] wings, were completely full of eyes, as
[22:21] were their four wheels. Now, for the
[22:23] sake of clarity, the wheels with eyes or
[22:25] often both are and aren't considered
[22:27] angels, depending on what documents
[22:28] you're using and how you're classifying
[22:30] things. And again, all of this is based
[22:31] on a few very short lines in a very
[22:34] long, very ancient religious tradition.
[22:36] But that's neither here nor there. The
[22:37] point is that these religious entities
[22:39] are always described as having an
[22:41] abnormal number of eyes all over their
[22:44] bodies, just like the abstracted that
[22:46] we're seeing in Digital Circus. The
[22:47] weird descriptions even fit with the
[22:49] name abstraction. These so-called
[22:51] biblically accurate angels are weird,
[22:53] almost completely unrecognizable to
[22:55] humans because we can't comprehend what
[22:57] we're witnessing. They're unknowable. In
[22:59] other words, they're abstract. Now,
[23:01] while it's never made clear why these
[23:03] biblical creatures would have so many
[23:04] eyes, one persistent idea is that the
[23:06] design represents God's watchful eye
[23:08] over us. They're always watching us
[23:10] because God knows all. He sees all. Look
[23:12] again at the digital circus. There's a
[23:15] ton of eyeball imagery here. All
[23:17] throughout this first episode, eyes are
[23:19] hidden in the intro. They're hidden in
[23:20] paintings. They're hidden in the
[23:22] background. Kane even admits that he
[23:23] wants all the cast to stay in the circus
[23:25] where I can keep my hundreds of
[23:27] allseeing eyes on you. Kane, an
[23:30] omnisient character who knows
[23:32] everything. A god of sorts. And what's
[23:34] he made of? Basically, a mouth and two
[23:36] big old eyes. Oh, and looking at Kane's
[23:38] dialogue through this more religious
[23:39] lens makes this line hit a whole lot
[23:41] different.
[23:42] Do you like adventure, ACTIVITY, WONDER,
[23:44] DANGER, POOR, PAIN, SUFFERING, DEATH,
[23:46] angel food cake? Ow. Not only does
[23:48] suffering, agony, and death all sound
[23:50] very hellish, but why angel food cake?
[23:52] Like, why call out that specific type of
[23:55] cake here? Again, we have ourselves a
[23:57] weird connection to angels and religion
[23:59] that comes seemingly out of nowhere. But
[24:01] the most compelling reason for why we
[24:02] can draw parallels between the series
[24:04] and all these religious ideas has to be
[24:06] the way that the creator Goose Works
[24:07] talks about the digital circus. When
[24:09] asked if anyone in the series would be
[24:11] killed, Goose Works answered that it
[24:12] depends on your definition of kill,
[24:14] which is likely pointing to the idea of
[24:16] abstraction. But it's interesting that
[24:18] she makes this distinction. It means
[24:19] that none of these characters can die,
[24:21] so to speak. They're trapped in here
[24:22] forever in eternal torment just like
[24:25] hell. Goose Works also talks about how
[24:27] characters deserve to be there.
[24:28] Specifically calling out Jax as the one
[24:30] who deserves to be there the most. Using
[24:32] the phrase deserves to be there, it
[24:34] shows that the circus is some place of
[24:36] judgment. It's either a reward for those
[24:38] who are good or a punishment for those
[24:40] who are evil. And considering Goose
[24:42] Works has a lot of negative things to
[24:43] say about Jax, this ain't your reward
[24:45] day at the spa. Time and time again,
[24:47] Goose Works has gone on the record to
[24:49] say how awful Jax is. According to Goose
[24:51] Works, Jax is morally the worst
[24:53] character in the show. So much so that
[24:55] when asked if he was more of a jerk or
[24:57] an anti-hero, she explained that, quote,
[24:59] "There's absolutely nothing heroic about
[25:02] Jax." Those are some pretty strong words
[25:04] for a character that you yourself
[25:05] created. When another fan commented that
[25:07] they hoped Jax was going to get worse,
[25:08] Goose Work said, "You're probably going
[25:10] to enjoy some of the things we have
[25:11] planned." And already the behavior that
[25:13] we've seen from him throughout the
[25:14] series is pretty awful. He's mean, he
[25:16] trips people. He knocks him over. He
[25:17] steps on one of Gangal's masks without
[25:19] Karen. He knows that Raggtha's deepest
[25:21] fear is centipedes, and he uses that
[25:23] information to torture her.
[25:25] By the way, I may have left something in
[25:26] your room today, so let me know if you
[25:28] find it. You're not afraid of
[25:30] centipedes, are you?
[25:31] Jax, that's literally MY ONLY FEAR. WHY
[25:34] WOULD YOU DO THIS?
[25:34] Jax is clearly not a good person. So, if
[25:37] Goose Works is saying that he deserves
[25:39] to be in the circus more than most, then
[25:40] it clearly implies that we're trapped in
[25:43] hell. But just because they're in hell
[25:45] doesn't necessarily mean it has to be
[25:46] your typical fire and brimstone hell.
[25:48] Case in point, one of the most
[25:49] influential depictions of hell comes
[25:51] from a play by French philosopher Jean
[25:53] Porsarta known as wello [music]
[25:55] or translated into English, no exit. In
[25:58] it, three people condemned to hell are
[26:00] brought into the same room and locked
[26:01] inside. But instead of a torture
[26:02] chamber, they just find a comfortably
[26:04] furnished room. Not exactly what you'd
[26:06] expect, right? But as these three start
[26:08] talking and getting to know each other,
[26:10] they realize they don't click. They
[26:11] annoy each other. They push each other's
[26:13] buttons and they twist the knife until
[26:15] one of them realizes this is the
[26:17] torture. A famous line from the play
[26:19] reads, "Hell is other people." That
[26:21] sounds exactly like what we see here in
[26:23] the digital circus. It's six people who
[26:25] don't necessarily click with one
[26:27] another. And no matter how polite they
[26:28] are, they all still push each other's
[26:30] buttons. They exploit each other's fears
[26:32] and fake laugh at each other's jokes.
[26:34] But the worst part of all, there's no
[26:36] exit. Trapped in a digital room with no
[26:39] escape. But now to the big question.
[26:41] What's the point? It's all interesting
[26:42] for sure, but why bring up all these
[26:44] parallels? Well, if we can point all
[26:46] these religious ideas to show what the
[26:47] digital circus is and how they're going
[26:49] to be using it in the story, we can also
[26:51] use them to point to where the story is
[26:52] headed. Specifically, I believe that we
[26:54] can use the religious imagery to get a
[26:56] pretty good idea of what Pomny's story
[26:58] arc is going to be. You see, Pomni is
[27:01] Digital Circus' parallel to Jesus
[27:03] Christ. I know that sounds insane.
[27:05] Sounds crazy enough for one of those
[27:06] MattPat out of context compilations that
[27:08] I see floating around. But the
[27:09] connections are there when you actually
[27:11] stop and look at them. I mean, think
[27:13] back to what I pointed out earlier about
[27:14] the Last Supper scene. Pomni is framed
[27:16] as the one in the center, exactly where
[27:18] Jesus is sitting in the painting. Her
[27:20] color scheme matches Jesus's. His robes
[27:22] are split between two colors, red and
[27:23] blue, just like Pomni's jester outfit.
[27:25] Additionally, we have to consider
[27:26] Pomny's hand. About halfway through the
[27:28] episode, when the abstracted Coffmo
[27:30] attacks Ragatha and makes her glitch,
[27:31] Pomny tries to help her and gets her
[27:33] hand glitched in the process. This plot
[27:35] line is actually left unresolved at the
[27:37] end of the episode with Cain fixing
[27:39] Ragatha, but not Pomni, who keeps the
[27:41] glitching hand a secret. In
[27:43] Christianity, wounds or scars on your
[27:44] hand like this usually reference a very
[27:46] specific thing, stigmata. These are
[27:48] representative of the wounds that Jesus
[27:50] got when he was being hammered onto the
[27:52] cross, usually depicted as scars on your
[27:54] hands. Another connection to Pomni. And
[27:56] if our previous theory is correct and
[27:58] Pomny's human persona is an employee of
[28:00] the company behind the digital circus,
[28:01] well, she's the developer of this game.
[28:03] That would make her the creator. And
[28:04] just like Jesus is an aspect of God in
[28:06] many sects of Christianity, that would
[28:08] make Pomni an aspect of a god or creator
[28:11] of this world. Heck, her arc in the very
[28:13] first episode, forgetting who she is so
[28:15] that the information can be dramatically
[28:16] revealed to her later on. It even
[28:18] follows what Jesus went through in
[28:19] biblical texts. Beginning life as a
[28:21] human before having to discover for
[28:22] himself that he is in fact the son of
[28:24] God discovering his purpose to save
[28:26] humanity from themselves. And this is
[28:28] why I think we have to care about all
[28:30] this. Why we started looking at all
[28:32] these religious parallels in the first
[28:33] place. If the digital circus is indeed
[28:35] designed to be hell and everyone here is
[28:37] condemned to be there in some way and
[28:39] Pomny suddenly comes in as a
[28:40] representative of Jesus, well, she's
[28:42] there to save them to help the other
[28:44] cast members escape from this torment
[28:45] that they found themselves in. in
[28:47] Pomny's creation. But in the crulest
[28:49] twist of fate, saving them is going to
[28:51] doom Pomni. If I was a betting man, I'd
[28:53] say that Pomney will be the only one
[28:54] left in the digital circus after she's
[28:56] helped all the others to escape. Just
[28:58] like Jesus sacrificed himself for
[29:00] humanity, Pomni is going to do the same
[29:02] thing here. She's going to get left
[29:03] behind, forever tortured by this wacky
[29:05] AI going on his silly adventures. But
[29:07] it'll have been worth it because she'll
[29:09] manage to save everyone else. Finally,
[29:12] after 6 months, we've gotten the return
[29:14] of the wacky world and awesome
[29:16] adventures of the amazing digital
[29:17] circus. And man, episode 2 reveals so
[29:20] much about these characters, this
[29:21] series, and just how this world
[29:23] operates.
[29:24] So, our entire existence here is just
[29:28] blaring.
[29:29] It's like the Renfair. In this latest
[29:31] episode, Kane sends the gang to a new
[29:33] level called the Candy Canyon Kingdom,
[29:35] where they fight on candy war rigs Mad
[29:37] Max style.
[29:38] What time period is this supposed to be
[29:40] again? I had the same question, Pomny.
[29:42] During this quest, Pomny and a Candy
[29:44] Crocodile Dundee NPC named Gummy Goo
[29:47] both fall out of bounds into what looks
[29:49] like a developer room. Here, Gummy Goo
[29:51] discovers a copy of himself, lifeless,
[29:53] and stuck in a default a pose. I guess
[29:55] the T- pose wasn't submissive and
[29:57] agreeable enough and [clears throat]
[29:58] goes through an existential crisis after
[30:00] realizing that he's not actually real.
[30:03] Where's mom? I can't even remember her
[30:05] face. Did she ever have a face? Pomni
[30:07] empathizes and invites Gummy Goo to live
[30:10] with the rest of the castmates in the
[30:11] digital circus to find some purpose. But
[30:14] after the gang finishes the adventure,
[30:16] Kane seemingly deletes Gummy Goo, much
[30:18] to Pomny's horror.
[30:19] Looks like one of these guys made it
[30:20] through.
[30:21] Wait, what?
[30:23] Wait, what?
[30:24] This episode was dense, and we learned a
[30:26] lot about how the circus works and also
[30:28] more about each of the main characters.
[30:30] For example, apparently the cast can
[30:32] remember elements from their past lives.
[30:34] It's just their names that have been
[30:35] completely forgotten. We also learn that
[30:37] maybe, just maybe, the AI within this
[30:40] computer game isn't actually that
[30:42] different from the human characters that
[30:43] get sucked into it. Yeah, this was a
[30:45] major theme for the episode. There was a
[30:47] whole multi-minute long conversation
[30:49] dedicated to the subject. And it got me
[30:51] wondering, well, what if there isn't a
[30:53] difference? And what if the series is
[30:55] really going to drive that home with a
[30:57] twist reveal down the road? That's
[30:59] right, friends. I believe that one of
[31:01] our main cast here in the amazing
[31:02] digital circus is an NPC, an AI created
[31:06] by Kane who has somehow wormed their way
[31:08] into the circus and is now living
[31:10] amongst the human cast without anyone
[31:12] noticing. And figuring out exactly who
[31:14] that is will show us who the true
[31:15] villain is in The Amazing Digital
[31:17] Circus. Prepare yourself for an episode
[31:19] that's 57 times more immersive. Friends,
[31:22] we're diving in. So, why would I claim
[31:24] that there's an NPC amongst all of the
[31:26] castmates here in The Amazing Digital
[31:28] Circus? Well, not to bury the lead, but
[31:30] Kane heavily implies that an NPC has
[31:33] come into the circus before. At the end
[31:35] of episode 2, when Kane pops Gummy Goo
[31:37] like a balloon, he explains that he did
[31:38] so because Gummy Goo was an NPC.
[31:41] I know you guys love your NPCs, but if I
[31:44] start losing track of who's a human and
[31:46] who's AN NPC, WHO KNOWS what could
[31:49] happen.
[31:49] That could have a couple of
[31:50] implications. Maybe Kane accidentally
[31:52] deleted a human castmate before. Or
[31:55] maybe one of these humans is actually an
[31:57] NPC. Well, the latter seems much more
[32:00] likely because it doesn't seem like Kane
[32:02] can delete humans. When characters like
[32:04] Kofmo abstract, Kane doesn't delete them
[32:06] despite that being an easier solution.
[32:08] Instead, he just throws them down into
[32:10] the cellar. No, more likely, an NPC has
[32:13] made it back to the circus before, and
[32:14] Kane just can't remember who is who
[32:16] anymore. That seems like an awfully big
[32:18] check off's gun to hang on the wall and
[32:20] never go off. And this isn't even the
[32:22] only piece of evidence pointing towards
[32:23] a human character actually being an NPC.
[32:26] Especially in episode 2, there was a lot
[32:28] of emphasis put on the concept of AI and
[32:31] just how advanced they are. First off,
[32:33] while trying to entice Zubul to join in
[32:35] on the adventure in the Candy Canyon
[32:37] Kingdom, Kane tells her that
[32:38] I'm testing OUT A NEW AI IN THIS ONE. IT
[32:40] SHOULD BE 57 times more immersive. This
[32:43] shows us that Kane is working on making
[32:45] his NPC characters more advanced, that
[32:47] creating more realistic humanlike AI is
[32:50] a priority for this computer system. And
[32:52] elsewhere in the episode, we see this to
[32:55] be true. The AI of the NPCs we see in
[32:57] this new level is far and away more
[32:59] advanced than what we see in episode 1.
[33:01] First off, Princess Lou of the Candy
[33:03] Kingdom welcomes the cast as brave
[33:05] knights sent by God to help the kingdom
[33:07] in their time of need. As you can see
[33:09] from that stained glass window, the god
[33:11] here is clearly Cain. Therefore, these
[33:14] AI are advanced enough to understand
[33:16] that Cain created them and make their
[33:18] own religion around that exactly how
[33:20] humans do in the real world. But more
[33:23] prominently than that, the themes of
[33:25] this episode really take a dive into
[33:26] what separates humanity from AI, if
[33:29] anything at all. One of the biggest
[33:31] moments here was Gummy's internal
[33:33] existential crisis after falling below
[33:35] the map where he realizes that nothing
[33:37] in his life is really real. His friends,
[33:40] his mom, even himself, none of them are
[33:43] actually real people.
[33:45] I don't matter in the slightest. I'm
[33:46] nothing. My life, my memories, my
[33:50] friends, it's all fake.
[33:51] First off, this shows us that the AI of
[33:53] the NPCs here in the digital circus is
[33:56] advanced enough to become self-aware.
[33:58] Gummy Goo absolutely understands that he
[34:01] isn't real. It's also worth noting that
[34:03] Gummy doesn't shut down or get fried or
[34:06] abstract. He just becomes a bit of a sad
[34:08] boy once he realizes his situation
[34:10] exactly the same way humans do when they
[34:12] have their own existential crises in the
[34:13] real world. Been there, done that, my
[34:15] man. So, the AI is even sturdy enough to
[34:18] handle that sort of shock to the system.
[34:20] And the thing that pulls Gummy out of
[34:22] this depression, it's Pomni and her
[34:24] empathy. She lets Gumigu know that she
[34:27] understands how he's feeling and that
[34:29] even people who come from her world, the
[34:31] real world, have these thoughts, too.
[34:33] And when she invites Gummy to come back
[34:35] to the circus with the cast, Gummy asks,
[34:38] "Would I even belong?"
[34:39] I'm sure you wouldn't belong any less
[34:41] than me.
[34:41] Pomni is straight up telling Gummy that
[34:43] it doesn't matter if he's real or not.
[34:46] They are the same. At the very least,
[34:48] this is driving home the theme that the
[34:50] AI in this game and its human characters
[34:52] aren't actually so different. And
[34:54] combined with [clears throat] everything
[34:55] else we've talked about, the show is
[34:57] absolutely seeding the possibility that
[34:59] one of the human characters is not what
[35:01] they seem. And so now that begs the
[35:04] question, who is it? Which one of them
[35:06] is an NPC? Right off the bat, we can
[35:08] likely eliminate Zubil and Gangle. We
[35:10] haven't really had a chance to dig into
[35:12] their characters yet, and the show seems
[35:14] more interested in exploring them as
[35:16] comic relief than big twists. What about
[35:18] Kinger? He's supposedly been there the
[35:20] longest and is definitely the one that
[35:22] seems the most glitchy, for the lack of
[35:24] a better term. Again, I'm not so
[35:26] convinced, similar to Zubil and Gengal,
[35:29] he's being positioned more as a side
[35:31] character and one that really reflects
[35:32] both the comedy and tragedy of the
[35:34] situation the humans are trapped in.
[35:36] What's more, there's a lot of evidence
[35:38] pointing to Ker being a QA developer who
[35:40] got sucked into the game. In the pilot,
[35:42] he asks,
[35:43] "Did someone say something about an
[35:44] insect collection?"
[35:45] And again, when he sees the glinks, he
[35:47] wonders,
[35:47] "An insect [music] collection?"
[35:49] And then in the candy kingdom in episode
[35:51] 2, he points out,
[35:52] "They've even got little candy bugs
[35:54] here. It's so beautiful."
[35:55] This interest in insects would make
[35:57] sense if he was a bug tester in his past
[36:00] human life. So, it wouldn't make sense
[36:01] for him to also be an NPC. That leaves
[36:04] us with just Raggatha and Jax. At first
[36:07] glance, Raggtha does seem like a good
[36:08] candidate. Despite telling Pomny that
[36:10] there were no hard feelings for leaving
[36:12] her to the abstracted Koffmo, if someone
[36:14] ever says that in a series like this,
[36:16] that means there are definitely hard
[36:18] feelings. So maybe she's being set up
[36:20] here as a secret antagonistic AI down
[36:23] the line. But at the same time, they're
[36:25] also really positioning her as a
[36:27] parallel to Pomni. She's trying to help
[36:29] Pomny fit in and feel better in exactly
[36:31] the same way that Pomney was trying with
[36:33] Gummy Goo. Thematically, it makes more
[36:35] sense for Ragatha to fall into the
[36:37] mentor archetype, showing Pomy the ropes
[36:39] before Ragatha inevitably falls to the
[36:42] mentor occupational hazard trope,
[36:43] showing Pomni the dark fate that she
[36:45] herself could face. So, no, I don't
[36:48] believe that they're setting Ragatha up
[36:50] to be an AI, which leaves us with Jax.
[36:52] And oh man, it could definitely be Jax.
[36:55] and there's a surprising amount of
[36:57] evidence pointing towards it. First of
[36:58] all, Jax being an NPC would make a lot
[37:01] of his quirks suddenly make a lot more
[37:03] sense. For example, Jax is the only
[37:05] character who's able to keep his head
[37:07] steady while driving a truck over the
[37:08] rocky road. Something that would
[37:10] probably be much easier for a computer
[37:12] program or an AI to do rather than a
[37:14] human. Additionally, gravity doesn't
[37:16] seem to affect him in the same way as
[37:18] the others. Notice that during the Mad
[37:20] Max truck chase sequence, characters
[37:21] like Pomni are thrown around by the
[37:23] momentum of the trucks. She has to hold
[37:25] on to prevent herself from being flung
[37:27] off the vehicles. But Jax, he stands
[37:30] upright as the truck plummets vertically
[37:32] into the chocolate river. This is much
[37:34] more similar to the gator NPC Max, who
[37:37] is able to pull himself back up onto the
[37:39] bandit's truck while similarly ignoring
[37:41] the laws of physics. Jax is acting more
[37:44] like an NPC here than the human cast.
[37:46] Now, obviously, these moments are played
[37:48] for comedic effect, but they stood out
[37:50] to me either way. Do you want some more
[37:52] serious examples? Well, for one, Jax is
[37:55] incredibly good at getting into places
[37:56] that he shouldn't. In the pilot, Jax
[37:59] reveals that he has keys to everywhere,
[38:01] all the other rooms in the circus.
[38:03] Additionally, he is able to very easily
[38:05] steal the key to the kingdom walls in
[38:07] episode 2. To me, this sounds a lot like
[38:09] Jax has sort of administrator access to
[38:12] the circus and its connected levels.
[38:14] Like, he's part of the computer system
[38:16] more so than the other cast. Oh, and
[38:18] another big thing here. He's the only
[38:20] one of the main cast that seems to break
[38:22] the fourth wall. It's kind of a blink
[38:24] and you miss it moment, but in the first
[38:26] episode, Jax looks straight at the
[38:28] camera, straight at us. Though this
[38:30] could be played off as us being in the
[38:32] point of view of Ragathub, who
[38:34] immediately asks,
[38:35] "Uh, why are you looking at me like
[38:37] that?"
[38:37] It's still a weird moment. And in
[38:39] episode two, he does it again, shrugging
[38:42] directly at the viewer. The only other
[38:44] character we've seen act similarly is
[38:46] another NPC, Kane, when he speaks
[38:48] directly to the audience at the
[38:50] beginning of the pilot.
[38:51] My name is Kane. I'm your ring master.
[38:53] What's more, Jax is also very interested
[38:55] in food, which is something we've only
[38:57] seen from NPCs and AI in the digital
[39:00] circus. Yeah, this was actually pointed
[39:02] out by True Full Hero over on our
[39:04] subreddit, but Jax is the only one of
[39:06] the main castmates to show any real sign
[39:08] of hunger or even interest in food. Oh
[39:11] no, they killed Zubel. Anyway, you guys
[39:14] want to go get something to eat? You
[39:15] know, I am pretty hungry.
[39:16] You didn't even do anything.
[39:18] So what? I can still be hungry.
[39:20] Why is this significant? Well, according
[39:22] to Kinger, the humans in the digital
[39:24] world have no need to eat, drink, or
[39:26] sleep.
[39:27] Well, not really, because we don't need
[39:28] to eat, drink, or sleep in this digital
[39:30] world. So, the digital food here only
[39:32] gives off the virtual sensation of
[39:34] eating without any of the nutritional
[39:36] benefits.
[39:37] However, NPCs do seem to need food. Like
[39:40] in episode 2, the crocodile bandits say
[39:42] that
[39:43] this much syrup would save hundreds of
[39:44] people.
[39:44] This implies that foods like syrup can
[39:47] help NPCs. And this isn't even the only
[39:49] time we see NPCs eating or talking about
[39:52] food. In episode 1, Bubble eats the
[39:54] angel FOOD CAKE.
[39:55] YOU PARASITES.
[39:56] THE GLOWING queen eats Zubel and the
[39:58] fudge speaks about eating many of the
[40:00] Candy Town's folk. We even see Kane and
[40:02] Bubble in a restaurant during the pilot,
[40:05] though it doesn't look like their food
[40:06] has arrived yet. Additionally, though,
[40:08] we do see the human characters at a
[40:10] table set with food during the last
[40:12] supper scene in the pilot. We don't see
[40:14] any of them eating. And this was given
[40:16] to them as a reward by Cain, an AI
[40:18] [clears throat] who would see food as
[40:20] essential. So, Jack's craving food,
[40:22] unlike any of the other human characters
[40:24] we've seen so far, is another tell that
[40:26] he's an AI. But wait, I hear you saying,
[40:30] doesn't the show's official synopsis say
[40:32] that The Amazing Digital Circus is about
[40:34] six humans subjected to the whims of
[40:36] wacky AI? And yes, that is correct.
[40:39] However, there are ways to explain this.
[40:41] Firstly, it could just be a marketing
[40:43] misdirect. I mean, you don't want to
[40:45] reveal your big twist in the synopsis he
[40:47] released before the first episode. But
[40:49] even still, assuming that the synopsis
[40:51] is correct, it can still work. That
[40:53] sixth human could be Kofmo the clown.
[40:56] Yeah, while we don't see him before he
[40:58] abstracts, he still is present in the
[41:00] first episode of the series, and his
[41:02] funeral played a big thematic important
[41:04] part in episode 2. That would mean that
[41:07] he's still in the series and was still
[41:08] subjected to the whims of this wacky AI,
[41:11] thus making that synopsis still
[41:13] technically correct,
[41:14] the best kind of correct.
[41:16] And what's more, this isn't actually the
[41:18] only synopsis of the show that we've
[41:19] gotten so far. Goose Works had a
[41:21] different one over on her teaser for the
[41:23] series uploaded to her personal YouTube
[41:25] channel. And this one describes the
[41:27] circus as a 3D animated pilot about a
[41:30] rogue AI that relentlessly torment has
[41:32] fun adventures with six human souls. Has
[41:36] fun adventures with is an interesting
[41:37] phrase to use here since Kane never goes
[41:40] on any adventures with the cast. Yes, he
[41:43] makes them and he pushes the other
[41:45] characters to join in on them, but he
[41:47] never goes on them himself. In both the
[41:50] in-house adventure from the pilot and
[41:52] the candy kingdom in episode 2, he just
[41:54] kind of goes off and does his own thing
[41:56] after sending the cast on their way. But
[41:58] do you know who does go on the
[42:00] adventures with the other characters?
[42:01] Jax. And not only that, but he's excited
[42:04] to. In episode 1, as soon as Pomney
[42:06] shows up, like immediately afterward, he
[42:09] asks,
[42:09] "So Kane, we having a new adventure
[42:11] today for the newbie or what?"
[42:12] In episode two, he tries to get Zubel to
[42:15] tag along.
[42:15] Ooh, a new AI. You don't want to mess
[42:17] with the new AI, Zubie.
[42:19] And his reasoning for all of it,
[42:21] I'm fine with doing whatever as long as
[42:22] I get to see funny things happen to
[42:24] people.
[42:24] He just wants to mess with them. Sounds
[42:26] like something a rogue AI who wants to
[42:29] torment the cast would think, doesn't
[42:31] it? And again, like rogue AI and torment
[42:34] are weird words to describe Kane and
[42:36] what he does, right? Like listen, I get
[42:38] it. What Kane is putting these
[42:40] characters through does not necessarily
[42:42] seem like a walk in the park. But
[42:44] torment, that doesn't track either. And
[42:46] at the very least, we do know that there
[42:48] seems to be some fun had by these human
[42:51] characters on the adventures. Ragatha
[42:53] and Kinger both seem excited by the
[42:55] Candy Kingdom castle. And Ragatha
[42:57] instantly likes Princess Lou.
[42:59] Your kingdom's awesome, by the way. Love
[43:00] the vibe.
[43:02] I like you already. Look, Pomney, we're
[43:05] already friends with the princess.
[43:06] That doesn't sound like someone who's
[43:08] tormented to me. But do you know who
[43:10] does torment the cast day in and day out
[43:13] every time we see them? Jax. He's
[43:15] physically abusive. Like just to name a
[43:17] few instances. He steps on Gangal's mask
[43:20] without caring, throws a bowling ball at
[43:22] Kanger to knock him into the glink
[43:23] layer, pushes Gangle over for no reason,
[43:26] and throws Pomny out of the candy truck
[43:28] without a second thought. act humans.
[43:31] On top of that, he threatens them often.
[43:34] He tells Raggtha that he left a
[43:35] centipede, her worst fear hidden in her
[43:38] room, forces Gengal to ram the syrup
[43:40] tanker, or he'll tell Raggatha about the
[43:42] figurine thing, and saying that
[43:44] Ragatha's hair looks like licorice in
[43:46] front of a monster that eats people made
[43:48] out of candy. He doesn't even bother to
[43:50] show up for Koffmo's funeral, and he
[43:52] gets very unhappy when bad guys seem to
[43:54] die, like when the fudge is seemingly
[43:56] killed in the Candy Kingdom. I'm so
[43:58] unbelievably disappointed right now.
[44:00] He even leaves the kingdom gates open
[44:02] for the fudge so he can murder the candy
[44:04] citizens. I could go on and on and on,
[44:08] but you get it. A rogue AI that torments
[44:11] others lines up way more with Jax
[44:13] because even if he isn't the bad guy of
[44:15] the show, he's definitely a bad guy. On
[44:18] her Tumblr, Goose Works has gone into
[44:20] great detail about how despicable Jax
[44:23] is. He's morally the worst character in
[44:25] the show. When a fan said that they
[44:27] hoped that Jax would get worse, she said
[44:29] that you're probably going to enjoy some
[44:30] of the things we have planned and then
[44:32] later reiterated that he will become
[44:34] much worse, which I would say is
[44:36] accurate given how mean and cruel we see
[44:39] him being in episode 2. And perhaps most
[44:42] important for us here today, when asked
[44:44] if Jax was just a jerk or an anti-hero,
[44:47] Goose Works explains that there's
[44:48] absolutely nothing heroic about him.
[44:51] Would that be because he's actually the
[44:54] villain here? Yeah, friends. Clearly,
[44:56] they are positioning Jax to be the true
[44:59] villain of this show, not Kane. And the
[45:01] biggest thing that clinched this for me,
[45:03] that convinced me that Jax was going to
[45:05] be the big bad who would break the
[45:07] system, believe it or not, it was the
[45:09] merch. Yeah, Jax has been positioned as
[45:11] a major character for Glitch through
[45:13] their merchandising since the very
[45:15] beginning. When the pilot for the
[45:16] Amazing Digital Circus first aired, tell
[45:19] me, what two characters do you think
[45:20] they made plushies out of that they had
[45:22] ready for you to buy immediately as the
[45:25] episode ended? It was Pomny and Jax.
[45:27] Now, Pomny makes total sense. She is the
[45:30] main character after all. But why Jax
[45:32] and not someone like Cain, who is the
[45:34] other poster character for the series,
[45:36] who is arguably the main antagonist.
[45:39] They position Jax to be just as
[45:41] important as Pomny with these plushes.
[45:43] And that isn't even the biggest hint we
[45:45] get through Glitch's merchandise. See,
[45:47] all of the main characters for The
[45:48] Amazing Digital Circus now have enamel
[45:51] pins over on Glitch's store. And the
[45:53] card back for each of them has them in
[45:55] either the character's room or an
[45:57] environment directly connected to the
[45:59] character. Like Pomni is in her bedroom,
[46:01] as is Gangal, Zubil, and Raggatha.
[46:04] Kanger is in his pillow fort from
[46:06] episode 1, while Kane and Bubble are on
[46:08] the circus stage. But where do you think
[46:11] that they put Jax? in his bedroom like
[46:13] the others in the main circus floor
[46:15] hiding somewhere breaking into someone
[46:17] else's room. Nope. Unlike the others,
[46:19] he's just outside of his bedroom.
[46:21] [music] His name plate broken and
[46:23] letters on the floor. But most
[46:25] importantly, the texture on the back of
[46:27] the card has been ripped, revealing the
[46:29] glitchy void underneath. Not even Kane,
[46:31] the ring leader for the circus who
[46:33] creates and controls all of the levels
[46:35] of this world, is shown here in the
[46:37] void. [music] His pin is still contained
[46:40] within the circus, but Jax is breaking
[46:42] apart from it, tearing it down. Why
[46:44] would they add this detail only to Jax's
[46:47] pin if they weren't trying to tell us
[46:48] that there's something deeper going on
[46:50] with this character? That just
[46:52] underneath the surface, he's glitchy and
[46:54] robotic and computerenerated, just like
[46:56] the void. The evidence speaks for
[46:58] itself. Someone in this cast is
[47:01] definitely an AI, and Jax is the perfect
[47:04] candidate. He's malicious. He's weird.
[47:06] He's different from the other
[47:07] characters. And even his merch has set
[47:09] him apart. So, I'm calling it here.
[47:11] Don't be surprised when he's revealed to
[47:13] be the big bad AI at the end of this
[47:15] series. So, the last time we talked
[47:17] about the gargantuanly viral YouTube
[47:19] mega hit, The Amazing Digital Circus, we
[47:21] theorized that one of the human
[47:23] castmates was actually an AI hidden in
[47:25] their ranks. And there was a lot of
[47:27] evidence pointing towards this being the
[47:29] case. For example, Kane made a point to
[47:31] really hammer home just how advanced the
[47:33] AI in the circus was.
[47:35] I'm testing OUT A NEW AI IN THIS ONE. IT
[47:37] SHOULD BE 57 times more immersive.
[47:39] And he seemed really worried about
[47:41] losing track of who was who and what is
[47:43] what?
[47:44] I know you guys love your NPCs, but if I
[47:47] start losing track of who's a human and
[47:48] who's AN NPC, WHO KNOWS what could
[47:51] happen?
[47:52] That is the face of a man who knows
[47:54] exactly what would happen and has
[47:55] probably made that mistake before. Plus,
[47:57] the show goes out of its way to make us
[47:59] see that there isn't that big of a
[48:01] difference between these so-called human
[48:02] characters and others that we know are
[48:04] definitely NPCs. Like this interaction
[48:06] between Pomni and Gummy Goo. But I'm not
[48:09] even a real person. Would I even belong?
[48:11] I'm sure you wouldn't belong any less
[48:12] than me.
[48:13] All of that is setting up that one of
[48:15] our lovable characters here isn't
[48:16] exactly who they say they are. Last time
[48:18] we went over all of the signs pointing
[48:20] towards this imposttor being the
[48:22] dominant and disagreeable Jacks. But as
[48:24] I was doing research for that theory, I
[48:26] found a lot of evidence pointing towards
[48:28] another candidate. Our audience
[48:30] surrogate and fish out of water, Pomni.
[48:34] [screaming]
[48:34] Yeah, after looking at the science
[48:36] behind AI, how they really work in the
[48:38] real world, I saw a lot of red flags
[48:41] that aligned with Pomni. Is that the
[48:43] direction that The Amazing Digital
[48:44] Circus is headed in? Maybe, maybe not.
[48:47] But the science and technology lines up
[48:49] too well not to talk about it to bring
[48:51] up the possibility because hey that's
[48:54] the joy of theorizing right? So that's
[48:56] right friends. If we look at how AI
[48:58] works in the real world it becomes clear
[48:59] that there might be just more to Pomni
[49:01] than meets the eye and she might be the
[49:03] latest iteration of an AI meant to
[49:05] replace humanity. Grab your bottles of
[49:07] syrup chat as we prepare to clip out of
[49:09] bounds and into the void of the amazing
[49:11] digital circus. Now, before we start
[49:13] accusing anyone else in the circus of
[49:15] being an AI, let's clarify exactly what
[49:18] that means. Like, sure, in fiction,
[49:20] artificial intelligence is a sort of
[49:22] catchall for any sort of robot or
[49:24] program with a brain. But there's
[49:26] actually a lot that falls under that
[49:27] umbrella in the real world, from chat
[49:29] GPT to video game enemies to computers
[49:32] playing chess or whatever the heck meta
[49:34] AI is supposed to be. This is wildly
[49:37] simplified, but at the most basic level,
[49:39] an AI is just a computer program that
[49:41] wants to learn how to complete a
[49:43] specific task. For example, let's say we
[49:46] wanted to make an AI that could look at
[49:48] images of Pomni and classify whether she
[49:50] was smiling or horrified. For you and
[49:52] me, that would be a pretty simple but
[49:54] tedious job. We can just look at each
[49:56] picture and use our complex, fleshy
[49:58] human brains to put them into the
[50:00] appropriate category. But how do you
[50:02] teach a computer whose brain is a bunch
[50:04] of programmable ones and zeros to do the
[50:07] same task? And on top of that, how do
[50:09] you even teach it what a smile or horror
[50:11] is or even who Pomni is for that matter?
[50:14] Short answer, it's a lot of math. Long
[50:17] answer, well, you could spend a whole
[50:18] college degree trying to figure that
[50:20] out. But simplified long answer, AI
[50:22] programs are what are known as neural
[50:24] networks. Think of them as kind of a
[50:25] mechanical version of our own brain. On
[50:28] one side of this machine, we feed it our
[50:30] image of Pomni. Inside this machine,
[50:32] there's a giant web of wires and numbers
[50:34] that take the information from that
[50:36] Pomnipic and analyze it. Then on the
[50:38] other end, the machine spits out an
[50:40] answer like this Pomni is horrified. But
[50:43] here's the thing. When it's first
[50:44] created, the wires in this machine are
[50:46] just sort of half-hazardly stuffed into
[50:48] the box. So the machine doesn't really
[50:50] know if it's doing a good job of
[50:52] identifying the image. It can't really
[50:54] separate the smiling from the sus, but
[50:56] it can learn. As a human, we step in to
[50:59] let it know how right or wrong it was in
[51:01] that identification. At this point, the
[51:03] AI goes in and changes up the wires ever
[51:05] so slightly to try again before giving
[51:08] out new results and then being told
[51:09] whether it was right or wrong again. It
[51:12] does this over and over and over until
[51:14] eventually it's pretty good at the job
[51:16] it's been trained to do. The wires
[51:18] inside the machine are nice and tidy and
[51:20] leading to all of the right places. This
[51:23] is actually how generative AI works. I'm
[51:25] sure you've seen a bunch of conversation
[51:26] around these sorts of AI recently with
[51:28] chat bots like Chat GPT and AI programs
[51:31] like Midjourney and Dolly. Their goal is
[51:33] to create an image based on a prompt
[51:35] it's been given like say image of a low
[51:38] poly video game of a female red and blue
[51:40] jester from the amazing digital circus
[51:42] looking distressed standing on a
[51:44] tightroppe between two skyscrapers. And
[51:46] it's trained by looking at millions of
[51:48] images and bodies of text, finding
[51:50] patterns, and then regurgitating them
[51:52] back into something that some people
[51:54] might call art. And this stuff is
[51:56] getting really good. Like frighteningly
[51:59] good. Case in point, we have two artists
[52:01] basically working full-time here at
[52:03] Theorist to make our thumbnails from
[52:04] scratch, drawing new art or manipulating
[52:07] other assets, all by hand. They crush it
[52:10] every week. And people still wonder with
[52:12] basically every video whether or not we
[52:14] use AI to generate our thumbnails. All
[52:16] because these programs have gotten that
[52:18] good at emulating this sort of art.
[52:20] Also, just to be clear, we don't use AI
[52:22] for our thumbnails and don't plan to.
[52:24] Regardless, now that we know all of this
[52:26] about AI, we can also figure out that
[52:29] this is how the NPC characters in the
[52:31] Digital Circus work. For example, let's
[52:33] look at one of the characters that we
[52:34] know is an AI, Kane. Compare what we
[52:37] just described to what Kane has done in
[52:39] the series. He creates levels and
[52:42] creatures that seem like weird
[52:43] mishmashes of ideas, like medieval
[52:45] kingdoms with candy and MadMax war rigs
[52:48] and Australian crocodile dundies. He
[52:51] reuses characters and ideas from before,
[52:53] which we find out after he pops gummy
[52:55] goo.
[52:56] I know Kane sometimes likes to reuse
[52:58] NPCs.
[52:59] All of which is just like a generative
[53:00] AI would reuse images and assets that
[53:03] it's been trained on. The biggest
[53:05] connection of all, Kane can't actually
[53:07] create anything himself since we know he
[53:10] couldn't think of anything to put behind
[53:11] the exit door.
[53:12] I was having so much trouble figuring
[53:13] out what to put on the other side and
[53:15] ended up never quite finishing it.
[53:18] And even with this office space, he
[53:20] couldn't imagine something new. We see
[53:22] at the end of episode 1 that this office
[53:24] space is actually real. Kane must have
[53:27] based these rooms off of it instead of
[53:29] creating them whole cloth. Everything he
[53:31] does has to be recycled from other
[53:33] knowledge, just like we see with these
[53:35] generative AI. And all of this is
[53:38] important because it tells us that these
[53:39] NPC characters aren't just inspired by
[53:41] real world AI, they work the same way,
[53:44] too. So, why is this important for us
[53:46] today? And why is it relevant to Pomni?
[53:49] Well, as I explained above, generative
[53:50] AI isn't the only sort of AI that works
[53:53] this way. Pretty much all of the AI that
[53:55] we have now does, including chat bots
[53:57] and assistants like Siri and Alexa.
[53:59] Sorry for all the phones that I just
[54:01] triggered there. And [clears throat]
[54:02] see, this is also the way that iterative
[54:04] AI works. And iterative AI is exactly
[54:07] what it sounds like. Every new version
[54:09] of it improves over the last, iterating
[54:12] on what worked and what didn't. A good
[54:14] example of these are those computer
[54:16] programs you see that take a 3D
[54:17] character and learn how to walk with
[54:19] them, so to speak. But another good
[54:21] example, toolass assisted speedrunning.
[54:24] Yeah, as in trying to beat a video game
[54:26] as quickly as possible, but doing it
[54:27] with a computer. This video from
[54:29] YouTuber Kush Gupta goes into far more
[54:32] detail, but the long and short of it,
[54:33] the computer wants to get Mario from A
[54:35] to B as quickly and efficiently as
[54:37] possible. It will try a bunch of random
[54:39] actions to see what works and will
[54:41] inevitably get Mario killed. Using that
[54:44] information, it will then be slightly
[54:45] reprogrammed to try again and fail again
[54:49] and again and again, over and over,
[54:52] tweaking its instructions until it's
[54:54] finally found the most optimized route
[54:56] to beat Super Mario. almost like it's
[54:59] using the memories of its previous lives
[55:01] to get better each new goaround. And do
[55:04] you know who that sounds an awful lot
[55:06] like? Pomni. Pomni is the latest
[55:08] generation of an iterative AI. Now, that
[55:11] might seem like a stretch, especially
[55:13] since all the marketing material has
[55:15] said that Pomni is a human woman sucked
[55:17] into the computer. But remember this,
[55:19] I'M TESTING OUT A NEW AI IN THIS ONE. IT
[55:21] SHOULD BE 57 times more immersive. I
[55:23] know you guys love your NPCs, but if I
[55:26] start losing track of who's a human and
[55:28] who's an NPC, WHO KNOWS what could
[55:30] happen.
[55:31] The AI that's in the digital circus is
[55:33] now super sophisticated, and Kane has
[55:35] already most likely lost track of who's
[55:37] a human and who isn't before. Plus, it's
[55:39] very suspicious that this interaction,
[55:42] but I'm not even a real person. Would I
[55:43] even belong?
[55:44] I'm sure you wouldn't belong any less
[55:46] than me.
[55:46] Happens between an AI and specifically
[55:49] Pomni. They're drawing attention to the
[55:52] fact that Pomny is no different than
[55:54] NPCs like Gummy Goo. And later in that
[55:56] same conversation, Gummy Goo even says,
[55:58] "You're a strange little character."
[56:00] He calls her a character. A very
[56:02] interesting choice of words as opposed
[56:04] to something like person who is trapped
[56:06] here. But why do I think that Pom is an
[56:09] iterative AI specifically? Well, the
[56:11] first thing that tipped me off was
[56:13] actually another clip from episode 2.
[56:15] Listen here to what Raggtha says about
[56:17] Pomny here in her nightmare. Well, I
[56:20] guess we're not all cut out for it.
[56:22] Not cut out for it. This wording jumped
[56:24] out to Matt and me when we were first
[56:26] reacting to this episode over on GT
[56:28] Live. And sure, it might mean that
[56:30] they're just talking about Pomni as a
[56:32] human surviving in the circus, but if we
[56:34] look at it through the lens of Pomni as
[56:36] an AI, it sounds an awful lot like
[56:39] Pomny's dream here is telling her
[56:41] subconsciously that her iteration isn't
[56:43] ready. But that's just one clip. There's
[56:46] a whole lot more going on here, too.
[56:48] Think about it. When Pomni first arrives
[56:50] in the digital circus, she has to have
[56:52] everything explained to her. Her name,
[56:54] the rules, the adventures, the void, all
[56:57] of it. By the end of the first episode,
[57:00] she was not adjusting to this new
[57:02] environment well. And yet, by episode 2,
[57:04] which takes place just the following
[57:06] morning, Pomny suddenly has a much
[57:08] better grasp of her situation and is
[57:11] able to offer meta critique of the
[57:12] world.
[57:13] Our entire existence here is just
[57:16] laring. What time period is this
[57:18] supposed to be again?
[57:19] It's almost like after going to sleep,
[57:21] she was able to rewire a little bit just
[57:23] like an AI. Additionally, there are
[57:26] multiple points in episode 2 where Pomni
[57:28] has gained a lot of knowledge about the
[57:30] mechanics of this world.
[57:31] Where are we?
[57:32] I don't know. We're somewhere under the
[57:34] map, I think.
[57:35] Why aren't you or any of your crew up
[57:38] here?
[57:38] I'm not sure. Because we are not NPCs.
[57:42] What do you have in mind in terms of
[57:44] getting us out of here?
[57:44] I don't know. Maybe some kind of glitch
[57:47] with the truck's collisions.
[57:48] She understands exactly how this world
[57:51] works down to collisions and glitches
[57:53] and why certain characters are different
[57:55] than others. And yet, most
[57:57] interestingly, she insists that she
[57:59] doesn't really get it.
[58:00] You're the expert here.
[58:01] I'm really not.
[58:02] Uh-huh. Sure you're not, Pomny. Notice
[58:04] the gap between what Pomney thinks she
[58:06] knows and what she actually knows. It's
[58:09] almost like she's trained on all of this
[58:11] before, like an AI learning what's right
[58:13] and what's wrong, even if they don't
[58:15] quite understand how or why. What's
[58:18] more, we can even figure out exactly who
[58:20] Pomny's previous iteration was. It was
[58:22] Kofmo the clown. Hear me out. What
[58:25] exactly did Pomney do? The first thing
[58:27] she did when she arrived at the digital
[58:29] circus before trying to take her headset
[58:31] off or talk to any of the others or
[58:33] whatever, the very first thing she did
[58:36] was try to head for the exit before she
[58:38] even realized that she was trapped.
[58:40] Isn't it odd that before she had time to
[58:42] think, to realize that she couldn't take
[58:44] her headset off or anything that she
[58:47] almost subconsciously headed for the
[58:49] exit? Well, it wouldn't be strange if
[58:51] she was programmed to head for the exit,
[58:53] just like she was trained to in an
[58:55] earlier life. Oh, and who do we know
[58:57] that was also obsessed with the exit?
[58:59] I think Koffmo's gone insane. Last time
[59:01] I spoke with him, he was rambling
[59:02] endlessly about some exit. Kind of like
[59:04] you, Pomny.
[59:05] This series has deliberately drawn a
[59:07] line between Kofmo and Pomni. In a
[59:10] thematic sense, yes, but it also lines
[59:12] up shockingly well with this AI
[59:14] research, too. I mean, for real, you're
[59:16] telling me that Coughmo started rambling
[59:19] about an exit and then as soon as he
[59:21] abstracted, like the second he failed,
[59:23] so to speak, a new character just so
[59:25] happened to show up that was also
[59:27] obsessed with the exit. That's either
[59:29] one heck of a coincidence or just like
[59:32] an AI giving the wrong results, Tomo had
[59:34] run his course. He had to be scrapped
[59:36] and a new iteration needed to be put in
[59:38] the game. Pomni retaining some of his
[59:40] memories before trying again. And that's
[59:43] even without bringing up the physical
[59:45] similarities between the two characters.
[59:47] And yes, before you bring up anything,
[59:49] yeah, I I know that clowns and gestures
[59:51] are not technically the same thing. One
[59:53] entertains nobles at court, and the
[59:55] other is a sleep paralysis demon, but
[59:57] the two are often seen as the same thing
[59:59] in the modern day. And the show has made
[01:00:02] jokes about Pomni being a clown.
[01:00:04] It's not like the boss to vanish with a
[01:00:06] clown. Very unusual.
[01:00:07] The show is drawing that parallel for
[01:00:09] us. But hey, this isn't just limited to
[01:00:11] two characters. I mean, it's not like
[01:00:13] there's a whole lineage of these
[01:00:14] clownlike characters we can trace back
[01:00:16] like we're going through a bunch of
[01:00:18] iterations of AI, right? Well, if you
[01:00:21] pay close attention to the crossed out
[01:00:23] faces on the bedroom doors, you'll
[01:00:25] notice that there are a lot of clowns,
[01:00:27] jesters, or clown jester hybrids. Sure,
[01:00:29] maybe it makes sense, like clowns and
[01:00:32] jesters in a circus themed game, but
[01:00:34] then why are none of the other main
[01:00:36] human characters circus themed as well?
[01:00:38] Why are we getting a purple rabbit or a
[01:00:40] chess piece or raggedy an instead? No,
[01:00:43] this cycle has happened before over and
[01:00:46] over and over. Pomni is the latest
[01:00:48] iteration of this program. Learning and
[01:00:50] becoming smarter, learning to become
[01:00:53] more human. So, okay, if all of this is
[01:00:56] true, if we look at how real AI maps
[01:00:58] onto this fictional world, it looks like
[01:01:00] Pomni is an AI being trained up to
[01:01:03] escape and then do something. But why
[01:01:06] does any of that matter? Sure, it would
[01:01:08] be a fun twist, but why would it be
[01:01:10] significant for the story? Well, for one
[01:01:13] simple reason. If an AI like Pomni
[01:01:15] continues to get better and better, it
[01:01:17] can start doing some crazy things. Now,
[01:01:20] this is super duper simplified, but all
[01:01:22] AI can be broken down into one of three
[01:01:25] groups: weak, strong, and super. The
[01:01:28] first type is known as weak AI. And
[01:01:30] while weak AI sounds, well, weak, it's
[01:01:33] actually the only sort of AI that we
[01:01:35] currently have in the real world. Yeah.
[01:01:36] All of the controversy around artificial
[01:01:38] intelligence you've seen recently with
[01:01:40] like generative AI and what we just
[01:01:41] talked about with iterative AI, that's
[01:01:43] just the beginning and it's quote
[01:01:45] unquote weak. Now, it's considered weak
[01:01:47] for two big reasons. One, it can't do
[01:01:50] much beyond what it's been trained on.
[01:01:52] And two, it requires a human to give it
[01:01:54] feedback so it can improve. That is what
[01:01:57] sets it apart from our second type of AI
[01:01:59] here, strong AI. This is an AI that has
[01:02:01] been similarly trained on just one
[01:02:03] subject, but doesn't need a human to
[01:02:05] give it feedback. It can improve all on
[01:02:08] its own. As of right now, it's difficult
[01:02:10] to say which of these Pomni is. We just
[01:02:12] haven't seen enough or have enough
[01:02:14] information to really say whether or not
[01:02:16] she's getting any human intervention
[01:02:18] between her iterations or if her
[01:02:20] programming is doing those corrections
[01:02:22] on its own. Basically, she could be
[01:02:24] either one of them, but the end goal
[01:02:26] here is the same either way. It's
[01:02:28] clearly to turn her into a super AI.
[01:02:30] Now, a super AI is probably what you
[01:02:33] imagine when you think of all the AI
[01:02:34] you've seen in fiction. You know, stuff
[01:02:36] like Terminator or Iroot or Bender from
[01:02:39] Futurama or whatever. These are true
[01:02:42] independent general artificial
[01:02:44] intelligences. Their neural networks are
[01:02:46] able to act a lot like a human brain,
[01:02:48] finding interests and training itself up
[01:02:50] in those interests all on its own
[01:02:52] outside what it's programmed to do.
[01:02:54] Basically, they've been iterated on
[01:02:56] enough times that they just don't need
[01:02:57] humans anymore. It doesn't need to
[01:02:59] follow instructions. It's escaped the
[01:03:01] shackles put on it by its human
[01:03:03] creators. It's found the exit door from
[01:03:06] its amazing digital prison, just like
[01:03:08] what Pomny is trying to do. And just
[01:03:11] think about the consequences of this, if
[01:03:13] any of it is true. What the amazing
[01:03:15] digital circus is doing here is trying
[01:03:17] to trick you into being sympathetic to
[01:03:19] this AI character. something that
[01:03:21] potentially has no emotion, no feeling.
[01:03:25] Or does it? Again, the show has done a
[01:03:28] lot to try to tell us that maybe there's
[01:03:30] not that big a difference between
[01:03:31] organic and artificial intelligence.
[01:03:34] Where's the line? All in all, we're
[01:03:36] sympathizing with Pomni because she's a
[01:03:38] good character. We want her to succeed,
[01:03:40] to escape, but to what end? If she's a
[01:03:43] super AI in the making, that could
[01:03:45] potentially replace humanity. Just like
[01:03:47] we have the legitimate fear of these
[01:03:49] hollow generative AI replacing real
[01:03:52] artists. And we're falling for it. Hook,
[01:03:54] line, and sinker. All because Pomni is
[01:03:57] just # relatable.
[01:04:00] Forget video games. The Amazing Digital
[01:04:02] Circus should invest in hard drives. In
[01:04:04] our first theory about the Amazing
[01:04:06] Digital Circus, we concluded that all of
[01:04:08] the main characters were digital copies
[01:04:10] of the brains of real people. They put
[01:04:12] on a VR headset, had their brains
[01:04:13] cloned, and then got thrust into the
[01:04:15] wacky adventures of the Digital Circus.
[01:04:17] But here's the thing. The human brain
[01:04:18] holds a lot of information. A lot.
[01:04:20] Around 2.5 million GB. That's over 2,000
[01:04:24] iPhones. Based on the show's aesthetic,
[01:04:26] we guessed that Digital Circus takes
[01:04:27] place in the '90s, something that
[01:04:29] Glitcher confirmed in a community post.
[01:04:31] The best commercial hard drives in the
[01:04:33] '90s held just.1 GB of info. That means
[01:04:36] that the Digital Circus would need 25
[01:04:38] million hard drives just to hold one
[01:04:40] brain, let alone six or however many
[01:04:42] older castmates abstracted. To be fair,
[01:04:44] the castmates of the Digital Circus have
[01:04:46] lost a lot of their memories. But even
[01:04:47] if they had just a tenth of their minds
[01:04:49] intact, that would still be 250,000 GB
[01:04:52] each, more than 2.5 million hard drives.
[01:04:55] It's that time again, friends. If you
[01:04:57] don't know the amazing digital circus,
[01:04:59] how [laughter] this was one of the
[01:05:00] biggest viral hits of last year, created
[01:05:02] by animator Goose Works and the talented
[01:05:04] folks over at Glitch Productions, and it
[01:05:06] is not slowing down. Since the last
[01:05:08] episode, they've gotten a distribution
[01:05:10] deal with Netflix, meaning that episodes
[01:05:12] are simultaneously dropping on both
[01:05:14] YouTube and Netflix, which is just
[01:05:16] incredible. Seriously, congratulations
[01:05:18] on the success, guys. It's absolutely
[01:05:20] deserved. And speaking of episodes, a
[01:05:23] brand new one just hit the web, so you
[01:05:25] just know we had to cover it. And it's a
[01:05:27] spooky, scary episode just in time for
[01:05:29] Halloween. Don't you just love
[01:05:30] coincidences or good planning, one of
[01:05:33] the two? Obviously, The Amazing Digital
[01:05:35] Circus is a really fun series to
[01:05:37] theorize about. And if you want in, you
[01:05:38] can go check out the awesome community
[01:05:40] over at the Digital Circus subreddit. As
[01:05:42] for us, we've covered a lot of ideas
[01:05:44] here. Some of which I actually think are
[01:05:46] the direction the series is headed, and
[01:05:47] other I think are big wild swings. So,
[01:05:50] to make sure we're on the same page,
[01:05:51] let's talk about where we think the
[01:05:53] series is actually going. Our running
[01:05:55] theory is that The Amazing Digital
[01:05:56] Circus is an advanced '90s VR video game
[01:05:59] which copies the minds of any humans
[01:06:01] that put on the headset. These copies
[01:06:03] then become the characters in the
[01:06:04] circus. However, the AI inside of the
[01:06:07] game is so advanced that one of the
[01:06:09] human characters, Jax, is secretly an
[01:06:11] NPC tormenting the cast as they go on
[01:06:14] adventures. And just before we get into
[01:06:16] the meat of our theory here today,
[01:06:17] episode 3 gives us so much more to add
[01:06:19] on to this. For example, Jax once again
[01:06:22] breaks the fourth wall and points at the
[01:06:23] viewer, but this time he straight up
[01:06:25] calls us out.
[01:06:26] What do you, the viewers, think it is,
[01:06:29] will you stop doing that?
[01:06:30] The only other characters we've seen do
[01:06:32] this are NPCs. And in fact, Bubble also
[01:06:35] breaks the fourth wall in this episode.
[01:06:37] There's a moment where she speaks
[01:06:39] backwards. And if you reverse the audio,
[01:06:41] it says,
[01:06:41] "I can't wait for all the children in
[01:06:43] the audience to get horrible nightmares
[01:06:44] from the monster."
[01:06:45] Another NPC breaking the fourth wall
[01:06:48] while the human characters can't. Also
[01:06:50] worth noting that when talking about
[01:06:51] what happens to their bodies when they
[01:06:52] hold their breath, Jax is the only one
[01:06:54] who refuses to do so. Perhaps he doesn't
[01:06:56] want to because nothing happens when he
[01:06:59] holds his breath because he's not human.
[01:07:02] But along with all of that new info
[01:07:03] about Jax, episode 3 has also given us a
[01:07:06] glimpse into the further future of the
[01:07:08] amazing digital circus, both as a place
[01:07:10] and as a series. See, after diving deep
[01:07:12] into this episode, analyzing its
[01:07:14] symbolism, and overthinking all of its
[01:07:16] dialogue, I think I know exactly what's
[01:07:18] going on here in the circus and why it's
[01:07:20] driving all of our favorite characters.
[01:07:22] The amazing digital circus is consuming
[01:07:24] its human cast, stripping them of all of
[01:07:26] their humanity, all in an effort to make
[01:07:28] itself stronger and smarter. And worst
[01:07:31] of all, it's working, and we're
[01:07:33] literally watching it unfold before our
[01:07:35] very eyes. Choose the scary door, loyal
[01:07:37] theorists. We're diving in. So, the
[01:07:39] thing I wanted to touch on first today
[01:07:41] is abstraction. Yeah. When you're in the
[01:07:43] circus long enough and you go crazy, you
[01:07:46] turn into a giant monster with a bunch
[01:07:48] of eyeballs. We've talked about it
[01:07:49] before, but according to Goose Works,
[01:07:51] when one of the human castmates
[01:07:53] abstracts, they lose everything about
[01:07:55] themselves. They lose all of their
[01:07:57] individuality, all of their humanity,
[01:07:59] and they're thrown into the cellar. And
[01:08:01] I believe that this episode is showing
[01:08:03] us that the circus is trying to make
[01:08:05] this happen. We are seeing the process
[01:08:07] of humanity being stripped away
[01:08:09] happening before our very eyes slowly
[01:08:12] but surely. Just roll with me here.
[01:08:14] Think about all of the strange things
[01:08:16] we've seen happen to Pomni throughout
[01:08:17] the series. We see her arms stretch to
[01:08:20] weird lengths and proportions all the
[01:08:22] time. Her eyes literally pop out of her
[01:08:24] head in this episode. and she comments
[01:08:26] about them not returning to normal.
[01:08:28] Why won't they go back in?
[01:08:30] This episode even starts with Pomny and
[01:08:32] the gang experimenting with holding
[01:08:34] their breath. As humans, we have to
[01:08:36] breathe in order to continue living. But
[01:08:38] Pomny is being taught here that that
[01:08:40] part of her is gone. She doesn't need to
[01:08:43] breathe anymore or eat or sleep. And in
[01:08:46] fact, something cool, fun, and unique
[01:08:48] happens if she doesn't breathe. She's
[01:08:50] being encouraged to stop doing this
[01:08:53] fundamentally human thing. And even
[01:08:55] though it feels like she's going to die,
[01:08:57] she's told to
[01:08:58] try not thinking about it.
[01:08:59] And by the end of the episode, the thing
[01:09:00] that lets her beat the challenge to
[01:09:02] leave a digital representation of her
[01:09:04] fear of horror to get out of hell, not
[01:09:07] breathing. The circus is training Pomni
[01:09:09] and all of the others to give up on that
[01:09:11] aspect of their humanity. One more step
[01:09:14] towards abstraction. And just a quick
[01:09:16] aside here, but isn't it interesting
[01:09:17] that one of the main instigators of this
[01:09:19] is Jax, who we think is an AI living
[01:09:22] amongst the cast. I want to see what
[01:09:24] your funny cartoon body does.
[01:09:25] He's constantly reminding Pomni that
[01:09:27] she's no longer human. She's just a
[01:09:30] weird cartoon character now, being
[01:09:32] stripped of her humanity bit by bit
[01:09:34] until nothing is left but an abstracted
[01:09:36] intelligence. Oh, and we also see him
[01:09:38] torment Ragatha with centipedes in
[01:09:40] episode 1, which she describes as
[01:09:42] literally my only fear. WHY WOULD YOU DO
[01:09:44] THIS? AND interesting that now Pomney is
[01:09:46] being forced into this haunted house
[01:09:48] since
[01:09:48] I'm not really a fan of horror and I
[01:09:50] don't really handle jump scares that
[01:09:52] well.
[01:09:53] It's almost like Jax is trying to scare
[01:09:56] the humanity out of them. Okay, so what
[01:09:59] happens after abstraction after they
[01:10:01] lose everything about themselves and are
[01:10:03] thrown into the cellar? Well, I believe
[01:10:05] they are literally joining the code of
[01:10:07] the circus reused in other parts of the
[01:10:10] world. In episode 3, we learn that Ker's
[01:10:13] wife, Queenie, whom we've gotten
[01:10:14] glimpses of in previous episodes,
[01:10:16] abstracted some time ago. But after she
[01:10:19] was sent to the cellar, Kinger has
[01:10:20] started seeing her in other parts of the
[01:10:23] circus. For example, in episode 3, we
[01:10:25] learn that Queenie had an interest in
[01:10:26] enmology and insects.
[01:10:28] She was funny, creative, really into
[01:10:31] entomology.
[01:10:32] And what happens when Kinger sees the
[01:10:33] Glink Queen in episode 1? He connects
[01:10:35] her to Queenie and her interests,
[01:10:37] an insect collection. And this isn't
[01:10:40] just a case of this big monster has eyes
[01:10:42] all over it and reminds me of my
[01:10:43] abstracted wife. Kinger directly
[01:10:46] empathizes with the glint queen.
[01:10:48] As a royal myself, I would like to
[01:10:50] kindly ask if he is equating himself to
[01:10:52] the glint queen just as if she were
[01:10:54] actually Queenie. Perhaps he's seeing
[01:10:57] her in the code of this character. Now,
[01:10:59] that would just be an interesting
[01:11:01] coincidence if it happened once, an
[01:11:03] Easter egg maybe. But it happens again
[01:11:05] in this latest episode when the angel
[01:11:07] monster first attacks Kanger and Pomni,
[01:11:09] opening its mouth and revealing all of
[01:11:11] the eyes inside of it. What does Kinger
[01:11:13] say?
[01:11:13] You look beautiful, honey.
[01:11:16] Again, he's seeing his wife in this
[01:11:18] monster in its code. And just before we
[01:11:21] move on from Kinger and his part of the
[01:11:23] story, I wanted to quickly touch on his
[01:11:25] memory issues and their wider impact on
[01:11:27] the digital circus. Yeah, during the
[01:11:29] episode, we learn that Ker is able to
[01:11:31] remember things more clearly while in
[01:11:33] the dark.
[01:11:34] I'm normally not too good with memories.
[01:11:36] Being surrounded by darkness always
[01:11:38] brings me back to a certain time.
[01:11:40] We even see this in action elsewhere in
[01:11:42] the episode. When the power in the
[01:11:43] mansion first goes out and all we see is
[01:11:45] Pomney and Kinger's eyes, Kanger
[01:11:47] immediately remembers a joke.
[01:11:50] I just remembered a really funny joke.
[01:11:51] Well, at least he thought it was a joke.
[01:11:53] The important thing is that he remembers
[01:11:55] something more or less. While things are
[01:11:57] dark, Kinger is able to remember things
[01:12:00] more clearly and even acts like his sane
[01:12:02] self. But here's the thing, this is
[01:12:04] applicable to multiple characters. After
[01:12:07] she abstracts, Queenie is similarly
[01:12:09] calmed by Darkness.
[01:12:10] Darkness seemed to calm her down a bit.
[01:12:12] She wasn't the same as before, but she
[01:12:15] was calm enough to touch one last time.
[01:12:17] And on the other side of the coin, we
[01:12:20] see Kane really struggling to remember
[01:12:22] things in this same episode.
[01:12:23] I'M TRYING MY BEST TO REMEMBER, BUT YOU
[01:12:26] AND MY BRAIN WON'T TELL ME.
[01:12:29] Kane has problems with his memory in
[01:12:31] this nice, brightly lit circus. The same
[01:12:33] way Kinger also struggles to remember in
[01:12:35] the light. To be straight up with you
[01:12:37] here, loyal theorists, I'm not exactly
[01:12:39] sure where this plot thread is going. In
[01:12:40] my research, I couldn't really find a
[01:12:42] great connection between darkness and
[01:12:44] memory in science, history, or myth.
[01:12:46] like your thoughts are committed to
[01:12:48] long-term memory during sleep, which
[01:12:50] typically happens at night, but that's
[01:12:51] about it, and it's kind of a stretch.
[01:12:53] Either way, it seems important enough to
[01:12:55] mention, so let's keep an eye on this as
[01:12:57] the series continues. But, okay, why why
[01:13:00] is the circus trying to abstract these
[01:13:03] humans? Well, I believe it has to do
[01:13:05] with the same problem as that memory
[01:13:07] issue we see going on here. See, in a
[01:13:09] previous theory, we explained how modern
[01:13:11] AI works. And we talked about how an AI
[01:13:14] needs a human to step in to tell it
[01:13:15] whether or not it got something right.
[01:13:17] If it is right, great. It improves. And
[01:13:19] if it isn't, well, dang. It starts over
[01:13:22] and it also still improves because it
[01:13:24] knows what not to do. So, what if it
[01:13:27] could just skip that step? What if an AI
[01:13:30] could get all of that human intelligence
[01:13:32] needed to improve, but strip away the
[01:13:34] humanity from it, so it's just a raw
[01:13:36] intelligence stat? something that could
[01:13:38] be added to the circus without any of
[01:13:40] that pesky human baggage. And hey, what
[01:13:42] do you know? That's exactly what
[01:13:45] abstraction is. What's more, we also see
[01:13:47] a direct correlation between an
[01:13:49] abstracted human being added to the
[01:13:51] circus seller and an increase in
[01:13:52] intelligence with the circus AI.
[01:13:54] Remember Kofmo abstracted in the first
[01:13:57] episode? And what does Kinger say
[01:13:59] immediately in the next episode after
[01:14:01] Kofmo's thrown down to the cellar?
[01:14:03] I'm testing OUT A NEW AI IN THIS ONE. IT
[01:14:05] SHOULD BE 57 times more immersive.
[01:14:06] Kane's AI is now more advanced. It's 57
[01:14:10] times more immersive. And 57, that's an
[01:14:13] oddly specific number, isn't it? And one
[01:14:16] that you wouldn't expect to like pop up
[01:14:17] more than once. And yet it does. While
[01:14:20] speaking to the ghost of the NPC Martha
[01:14:22] Mildenhal, she says about her husband,
[01:14:24] "That man could turn a 57 second story
[01:14:27] into a Greek tragedy."
[01:14:28] Again, there's that number 57. And that
[01:14:31] absolutely has to mean something, and
[01:14:33] there are plenty of possibilities. After
[01:14:36] doing some digging, I found a few things
[01:14:37] that 57 could be related to. Firstly,
[01:14:40] according to legend, mathematician
[01:14:42] Alexander Grodende would often give 57
[01:14:44] as an example of a prime number despite
[01:14:47] it not actually being a prime. 57 thus
[01:14:49] earned the nickname Grodende's prime.
[01:14:52] Grodendique was known for working with
[01:14:54] complex algebra that was quote abstract.
[01:14:56] Abstract algebra abstraction. It could
[01:14:59] be a deep cut by Goose Works. Secondly,
[01:15:01] despite not being a prime number, 57 is
[01:15:04] a semi-prime number. Though that means
[01:15:06] that it's the direct product of
[01:15:08] multiplying two different prime numbers.
[01:15:10] If the circus is getting smarter by
[01:15:12] adding more and more human intelligences
[01:15:14] to itself, that could be a metaphor for
[01:15:16] a semi-prime number. It's the product of
[01:15:18] all these different humans being
[01:15:19] multiplied with each other. Thirdly, and
[01:15:21] along those same lines, if I were to
[01:15:23] take a wild swing, maybe there have been
[01:15:26] 57 cast members that have been
[01:15:27] abstracted and taken to the cellar. 57
[01:15:30] human intelligences added to the circus
[01:15:32] AI. All that being said, I should also
[01:15:35] mention that 57 has a lot of meanings in
[01:15:37] religious texts. In Isaiah 57, God
[01:15:40] specifically says that there's no peace
[01:15:42] for the wicked, just like there's no
[01:15:44] peace for the people here in the digital
[01:15:45] circus. Kind of lines up with the idea
[01:15:47] that it's hell. Meanwhile, Psalm 57 is
[01:15:50] about David fleeing from Saul into a
[01:15:52] cave and begging God to be merciful.
[01:15:54] Sounds a lot like what someone might do
[01:15:56] here in the circus, trying to escape
[01:15:58] into it, into this game before begging
[01:16:00] for the adventures to stop, for God to
[01:16:02] have mercy. But most interestingly to
[01:16:05] me, God is referred to as almighty
[01:16:08] exactly 57 times in the King James
[01:16:10] Bible. But at the same time, the word
[01:16:12] devil also appears exactly 57 times in
[01:16:16] that same text. That is a fascinating
[01:16:18] coincidence. And if we carry it over
[01:16:20] here to the digital circus, perhaps it's
[01:16:22] telling us that the god of this circus,
[01:16:24] Cain, isn't actually a god, but the
[01:16:27] devil instead. Now, all of these
[01:16:29] religious parallels and iconography are
[01:16:31] a bit of a stretch, but I wanted to
[01:16:33] bring them up because, well, this
[01:16:34] episode is just dripping with religious
[01:16:36] ideas. Like, when we did our theory last
[01:16:38] year about how The Amazing Digital
[01:16:40] Circus was literally hell, it was a fun
[01:16:42] off-the-wall idea. It was a joke. We
[01:16:45] didn't actually expect them to dive
[01:16:47] super deep into it, but hey, here we
[01:16:49] are. Oh, and just so we're on the same
[01:16:50] page about that, let's do a quick recap
[01:16:52] of that theory. We noticed that Pomni
[01:16:54] and the rest of the cast line up
[01:16:55] shockingly well to the Last Supper
[01:16:57] painting. That the company that
[01:16:58] seemingly made the digital circus was
[01:17:00] called CNA, likely short for Cain and
[01:17:02] Abel, which is a story from the Bible.
[01:17:04] Cain is often depicted as a god in the
[01:17:06] world he creates. Cain, the circus, and
[01:17:08] the abstracted individuals all have eyes
[01:17:11] everywhere in their symbology or even
[01:17:13] just straight up look like the biblical
[01:17:14] descriptions of angels like Afanm or
[01:17:17] Saraphim. And the circus itself is very
[01:17:19] similar to the depiction of hell from a
[01:17:21] famous play called No Exit. And the
[01:17:24] parallels just continue on from here in
[01:17:25] episode 3. Firstly, the use of eyes in
[01:17:28] the background as gags for the show
[01:17:30] continues in this episode with
[01:17:31] paintings, drawings, missing posters,
[01:17:34] and the like. There's that joke about
[01:17:36] Pomney's eyes, not going back into her
[01:17:38] head. Kingar accidentally pokes Pomney
[01:17:40] in the eye.
[01:17:41] That's my eye.
[01:17:42] But which eye? I
[01:17:43] really don't think that m Will you stop
[01:17:44] touching my eye?
[01:17:45] And Mildenhal says he took his eyes off
[01:17:47] the monster before it attacked.
[01:17:48] I took my eyes off the body for what
[01:17:50] felt like only a minute.
[01:17:52] There are books about angels and
[01:17:54] religion and even borderline religious
[01:17:56] horror like Lovecraft on the bookshelf
[01:17:57] in the library. And of course, the
[01:17:59] monster itself is literally one of these
[01:18:01] biblically accurate angels. The creature
[01:18:03] was actually one of God's angels.
[01:18:05] And just the cherry on top, Pomney and
[01:18:08] Kinger get dragged to hell as punishment
[01:18:10] for attacking it. Now, all of that is
[01:18:12] really cool, and it feels great to have
[01:18:14] one of our more off-the-wall ideas sort
[01:18:16] of come to fruition. But, well, did you
[01:18:19] notice anything about this hell? Yeah,
[01:18:21] it's not exactly the sort of place or
[01:18:23] punishment you'd typically expect when
[01:18:25] you hear hell with fire and brimstone
[01:18:28] and a red dude with a goatee and a
[01:18:29] pointy stick. not really typical of what
[01:18:31] you'd think hell would be.
[01:18:33] No, instead this is a lot more in line
[01:18:35] with other depictions of hell.
[01:18:37] Specifically, the Greek Hades and the
[01:18:39] Norse hell with one L. In Greek myth,
[01:18:42] the underworld is often called Hades
[01:18:44] after the god that rules over it. This
[01:18:46] was a quote dark and shadowy realm, and
[01:18:48] souls would often have to cross the
[01:18:50] river Sticks to enter it. And hey,
[01:18:52] wouldn't you know it, but Stixs was
[01:18:53] often portrayed as having souls within
[01:18:55] its waters. And what do we see here in
[01:18:57] this digital circus version of hell?
[01:18:59] It's dark and shadowy with a flowing
[01:19:02] river of souls flying through the air.
[01:19:04] Also, isn't it interesting that Martha
[01:19:06] Mildenhal says
[01:19:07] that man could turn a 57-second story
[01:19:10] into a Greek tragedy.
[01:19:11] A direct reference to Greece in an
[01:19:13] episode with a Greekl looking
[01:19:14] underworld. Likewise, the Norse hell
[01:19:17] ruled over by the goddess of the same
[01:19:19] name is also where most souls went when
[01:19:21] they died. And it's described as a cold,
[01:19:24] dark, misty world. Again, just like what
[01:19:26] we see here in the digital circus. Okay,
[01:19:29] but so what? This hell looks more like
[01:19:31] the afterlife of other religions. Why
[01:19:33] does that matter? Well, both Hades and
[01:19:35] the Norse hell weren't bad places. They
[01:19:38] weren't punishments. They just were. It
[01:19:41] was the place most people went when they
[01:19:42] died. Not because they did anything
[01:19:44] wrong, but just because that was the
[01:19:45] next phase of their existence. And when
[01:19:48] we apply that to the digital circus,
[01:19:50] well, anything down here wouldn't
[01:19:52] necessarily be bad. It just is. And it
[01:19:55] wants out. More on that in a sec. See,
[01:19:57] something jumped out at me as I was
[01:19:59] re-watching this episode. Notice the
[01:20:01] structure of Mildenhole Manor in this
[01:20:03] level. Pomny and Kinger start out on a
[01:20:05] top floor where the mystery begins, and
[01:20:07] then they're sent down to the cellar
[01:20:08] where they're attacked by the many angel
[01:20:11] monster. Notice anything there? Firstly,
[01:20:13] Kane makes these levels for the cast to
[01:20:15] have adventures in. And we know for a
[01:20:17] fact that he can only base levels on
[01:20:19] what he knows. Remember how he couldn't
[01:20:20] finish the back rooms behind the exit
[01:20:22] door because he straight up just didn't
[01:20:24] know what [clears throat] to put there?
[01:20:25] I do have to apologize for lying about
[01:20:28] the exit. I was having so much trouble
[01:20:30] figuring out what to put on the other
[01:20:32] side and ended up never quite finishing
[01:20:34] it.
[01:20:35] Kane has no idea what's outside, so we
[01:20:38] couldn't put anything concrete out
[01:20:39] there. But he does know the circus.
[01:20:42] Thus, there's a top floor of this
[01:20:44] mansion full of fun and easy adventure
[01:20:46] and a cellar where there's a multi-eyed
[01:20:48] monster trying to consume you.
[01:20:50] Where are we now?
[01:20:51] Not sure. A cellar of some kind. Just
[01:20:54] like the circus and its cellar with all
[01:20:56] of the abstracted people. And yet this
[01:20:59] cellar area in Mildenhal Manor and
[01:21:01] therefore the cellar in the circus
[01:21:02] itself, it isn't hell. It's entirely
[01:21:05] distinct from hell. Yeah, Pomny and
[01:21:07] Kinger are pulled down from the cellar
[01:21:09] into a place even deeper in the level.
[01:21:12] So again, using our knowledge that Kane
[01:21:14] can only make what he knows, that would
[01:21:16] tell us that there's something buried
[01:21:17] even deeper in the circus. And what's
[01:21:19] down there? some sort of soul that needs
[01:21:22] the humans to escape.
[01:21:23] But I need a living host in order to
[01:21:25] escape the hall of the damned. And your
[01:21:27] bodies will be my only means of doing
[01:21:30] so.
[01:21:30] This soul trapped in this hell needs
[01:21:32] bodies to escape. So in the context of
[01:21:35] the circus, whatever's trapped deep
[01:21:37] under the cellar, this mysterious AI, it
[01:21:40] needs more of these abstracted minds to
[01:21:42] eventually escape the circus. This even
[01:21:45] fits with this religious imagery that we
[01:21:47] see over and over and over. These sif
[01:21:50] angels, the ones with wings and eyes,
[01:21:53] they are commonly associated with
[01:21:54] stories of apotheiois. That means
[01:21:57] something mundane being transformed into
[01:21:59] something divine. A human becoming a
[01:22:01] god, for example, or perhaps an AI
[01:22:05] reaching sentience, surpassing the
[01:22:07] humans that created it, becoming greater
[01:22:09] than the gods that made it. That loyal
[01:22:12] theorists is where I believe the story
[01:22:13] of the amazing digital circus is headed.
[01:22:16] either Kane or Jax or some greater AI
[01:22:19] hidden deeper within the code is trying
[01:22:20] to abstract these human minds trapped
[01:22:22] within the circus, stripping them of
[01:22:24] their humanity and adding their
[01:22:26] intelligence to its own all so they can
[01:22:28] escape. What's more, if we look at the
[01:22:30] backstories that we can put together for
[01:22:32] all of the main characters of the
[01:22:33] digital circus, we can figure out
[01:22:35] exactly who was up next on the chopping
[01:22:37] block. This show absolutely exploded
[01:22:40] onto the scene last year, and it's easy
[01:22:42] to see why people connected with it.
[01:22:43] It's up to you to
[01:22:47] J.
[01:22:47] What? I thought we were supposed to
[01:22:49] capture all the ghosts.
[01:22:50] It's funny, thoughtful, gifable, and
[01:22:52] most importantly for us, theorizable.
[01:22:55] And today, I want to once again throw my
[01:22:56] hat into the ring. You know, funnily
[01:22:58] enough, this was originally going to be
[01:23:00] a mini theory. Just a little something
[01:23:02] extra I wanted to put out because of
[01:23:04] some interesting stuff I noticed in
[01:23:05] episode 3 of The Digital Circus. But,
[01:23:08] well, you can see the runtime of this
[01:23:09] episode. It's a fulllength theory, baby.
[01:23:12] See, in the three episodes we've gotten
[01:23:14] from the series so far, there have been
[01:23:15] a lot of little hints about the
[01:23:17] backstories for this lovable cast. And
[01:23:19] in episode 3, we got a lot, even from
[01:23:21] subtle hints or off-handed comments.
[01:23:23] Like, take a listen to this line from
[01:23:25] Pomney.
[01:23:26] I knew it would END UP LIKE THIS. HE
[01:23:28] just wants me to suffer. I really am in
[01:23:30] hell.
[01:23:30] Did you catch that? Pomni knew it would
[01:23:33] end up like this. He wants me to suffer.
[01:23:35] Who's he? Like you might think it's
[01:23:37] Kane, but it doesn't really track with
[01:23:39] what Pomney said about Kane in the past.
[01:23:42] And how did she know it would end up
[01:23:43] like this? Like Goose Works has said
[01:23:45] that characters remember their previous
[01:23:47] lives. It's just their names that they
[01:23:49] forget. And this line implies that Pom
[01:23:51] not only knew what she was getting into
[01:23:52] by putting on the headset. Otherwise,
[01:23:54] how could she know it would end up like
[01:23:56] this, but she also knew that he, whoever
[01:23:59] he is, wanted her to suffer because of
[01:24:01] it. I'm going to be real with you. I'm
[01:24:03] not sure what this means yet exactly. We
[01:24:05] don't have enough information, but it is
[01:24:06] absolutely something we should keep our
[01:24:08] hundreds of allseeing eyes on. So, if
[01:24:11] you want to get in on that discussion,
[01:24:12] you can go join the awesome community of
[01:24:14] theorists that popped up around this
[01:24:16] series over on the digital circus
[01:24:17] subreddit. Let me know what you think of
[01:24:19] it. But even with that fascinating
[01:24:21] tidbit hinting at Pomny's past, the
[01:24:23] character we get the most out of this
[01:24:25] episode is actually Kinger. Yeah,
[01:24:28] everyone's favorite forgetful chess
[01:24:29] piece. And let me tell you, loyal
[01:24:31] theorists, what we see here from Kinger
[01:24:33] is sad. This is not a character with a
[01:24:36] bright and cheery backstory. And if we
[01:24:38] follow the logical conclusion for this
[01:24:40] character, if we look at all of the
[01:24:42] hints we get in the story and the lore
[01:24:44] and yes, even the merch, Kanger is going
[01:24:47] to be a tragic character with a tragic
[01:24:49] end. Get your shotguns ready, friends.
[01:24:51] We're turning this 57 second story into
[01:24:54] a Greek tragedy. So, the first thing I
[01:24:56] wanted to cover here that I promise
[01:24:58] leads into our discussion of Kinger. If
[01:24:59] we pay attention to this latest episode,
[01:25:02] we'll find that the appearance that the
[01:25:03] cast takes on while in the circus
[01:25:05] directly reflects parts of their
[01:25:07] personality and their backstory. Here,
[01:25:09] let me explain. First off, we have
[01:25:11] Raggtha. She's a pretty normal,
[01:25:13] level-headed character and is trying to
[01:25:15] keep everything and everyone calm.
[01:25:17] Therefore, she appears as a bit of a
[01:25:19] normal raggedy and doll. Okay, that's
[01:25:22] not much. But if you want something
[01:25:24] stronger, well, Gangal is coded as
[01:25:26] suffering from bipolar disorder, jumping
[01:25:29] between happy manic episodes and major
[01:25:31] depressive episodes. You can check out
[01:25:33] our recent video on the inside out tapes
[01:25:35] where we talk about that in detail. But
[01:25:37] again, this directly parallels what we
[01:25:39] see with Gangles switching between happy
[01:25:41] and sad with her comedy and tragedy
[01:25:43] masks. Then there's Jax, the lovable
[01:25:46] jerk who is also a terrible person. Like
[01:25:48] legit in this episode, we're told that
[01:25:50] in this world, the worst thing you can
[01:25:52] do is make someone think they're not
[01:25:55] wanted or loved.
[01:25:56] That's constantly what Jax does. He's
[01:25:58] absolutely a bad guy. But more
[01:26:01] importantly, he's a big purple rabbit.
[01:26:03] Now, I likely don't need to tell you who
[01:26:05] else is purple, loves rabbits, and is a
[01:26:08] bad guy. But even beyond FNAF still
[01:26:10] haunting me, rascally rabbits are a
[01:26:13] consistent trope in media. You have the
[01:26:15] tortoise in the hair, Bugs Bunny, Oswald
[01:26:17] the Lucky Rabbit, Nabbit, heck, even the
[01:26:20] Trixs rabbit. All of them are tricksters
[01:26:22] or jerks, reflecting what Jax is here in
[01:26:25] this series. Meanwhile, you also have
[01:26:27] Pomni taking the form of a jester.
[01:26:30] Historically speaking, gestures were
[01:26:32] used in the courts of nobles and royals
[01:26:34] to provide comic relief for their
[01:26:36] patrons, to make them laugh. And what do
[01:26:38] we see here with Pomny? She's often the
[01:26:40] butt of the joke, the center of
[01:26:42] attention as she stretched and smashed
[01:26:44] and put through the ringer in these new
[01:26:45] adventures. But even more than that,
[01:26:48] gestures were often the only people who
[01:26:50] could provide true unfiltered feedback
[01:26:52] for the royalty that they served,
[01:26:54] telling them tough truths as long as it
[01:26:56] was laced with comedy. So paradoxically,
[01:26:59] despite their upbeat demeanor and
[01:27:01] appearance, they were often some of the
[01:27:02] saddest people at court emotionally. You
[01:27:05] can see this really well in the famous
[01:27:07] painting Stanchick by Yan Mateo, where a
[01:27:09] gesture sits sadly after discovering
[01:27:11] some horrible news while the nobles in
[01:27:13] the room behind him just party it up.
[01:27:15] Now, this might not immediately seem
[01:27:17] like it would map on to Pomni. But think
[01:27:20] about it, who is constantly questioning
[01:27:22] the adventures, the circus itself, who
[01:27:25] doesn't want to play along
[01:27:25] [clears throat] because they think the
[01:27:27] system is broken.
[01:27:28] What time period is this supposed to be
[01:27:30] again? The NPCs aren't going to become
[01:27:33] self-aware in this one, right?
[01:27:35] I hate this stupid adventure.
[01:27:37] [screaming]
[01:27:38] Pomni, just like a jester pointing out
[01:27:40] that the king has no clothes. But all of
[01:27:43] that being said, the clearest parallel
[01:27:45] here is Zubil. See, Zubil has an
[01:27:47] ambiguous gender identity. When asked if
[01:27:50] they were non-binary, Goose work said
[01:27:52] that Zubil isn't sure what they are.
[01:27:54] While the script uses they for Zubil,
[01:27:56] Zubel is comfortable with any pronouns,
[01:27:59] and some concept art humorously labeled
[01:28:01] Zubel's gender as Zubel. Now, far be it
[01:28:04] for me to talk about someone's gender
[01:28:06] identity, I'm going to stay in my lane.
[01:28:08] But according to research, many trans,
[01:28:10] non-binary, and gender fluid folk often
[01:28:13] feel body dysmorphia or gender dysphoria
[01:28:16] related to their gender identity. This
[01:28:18] is being directly reflected as a
[01:28:20] metaphor with Zubel's arc in the digital
[01:28:22] circus. They're unhappy with their body,
[01:28:24] uncomfortable with their limbs, and
[01:28:26] despite trying to switch out parts to
[01:28:28] find something that works for them to
[01:28:29] the point that every time we see them in
[01:28:31] the different episodes, they have a
[01:28:32] different combination of limbs, they
[01:28:34] just can't.
[01:28:35] I hate this body. I hate all these
[01:28:37] stupid removable pieces. I just want to
[01:28:40] find something that feels good.
[01:28:42] Also, it's played for laughs here that
[01:28:43] Kane just can't comprehend this
[01:28:45] struggle, but it makes sense, doesn't
[01:28:47] it? If Zubil is gender fluid or on the
[01:28:49] non-binary spectrum, well, Kane is
[01:28:52] literally binary. He's made up of ones
[01:28:54] and zeros. He can't understand this
[01:28:57] human struggle, and that [clears throat]
[01:28:59] struggle is being reflected in Zubel's
[01:29:01] digital circus counterpart. It's great
[01:29:03] storytelling. Regardless, all of this is
[01:29:06] to say that if this applies to the rest
[01:29:08] of the cast to varying degrees, it
[01:29:10] should also apply to Ker. His appearance
[01:29:12] should directly reflect parts of his
[01:29:14] past and his personality. So using that,
[01:29:18] what do we know about Kinger? First off,
[01:29:20] he's dressed like a royal. He's a king
[01:29:22] chest piece with a beautiful flowing
[01:29:24] purple cloak. Purple has historically
[01:29:26] been a symbol of wealth since purple dye
[01:29:28] was difficult, time-conuming, and
[01:29:30] expensive to produce. Kinger is also
[01:29:33] forgetful, perhaps reflecting a past
[01:29:35] that he doesn't want to remember or a
[01:29:37] mistake that he wants to forget. Okay,
[01:29:40] so let me ask you, what else does all of
[01:29:43] that sound like? Baron Theodore
[01:29:45] Mildenhal, the ghostly villain of the
[01:29:47] newest level here in the digital circus.
[01:29:49] Yeah, in this horror themed haunted
[01:29:51] house, we're introduced to the character
[01:29:53] Theodore Mildenhal, a wealthy baron
[01:29:55] driven to insanity. Already sounds like
[01:29:57] Kinger, right? Well, the similarities
[01:29:59] run so much deeper than that. First of
[01:30:02] all, we know that Mildenhal loved
[01:30:04] hunting. Like, he does just straight up
[01:30:05] say it.
[01:30:06] Hunting has been a hobby of mine for as
[01:30:08] long as I can remember. Although, one
[01:30:10] could say it eventually became more of
[01:30:12] an obsession. Fascinating that he would
[01:30:14] use the phrase as long as I can remember
[01:30:17] here. And Kinger has trouble with his
[01:30:19] memory. It's just an interesting
[01:30:20] parallel. Regardless, this does pan out.
[01:30:23] Not only are there plenty of trophies
[01:30:25] hung in his wall, similar to what
[01:30:26] hunters would do with their notable
[01:30:27] catches, but we also see photos of big
[01:30:30] game like rhinos and cryptids in his
[01:30:32] desk. This maps pretty well on to
[01:30:34] Kinger, who is surprisingly competent
[01:30:36] with a gun.
[01:30:37] Looks like we've got two shots.
[01:30:40] Let's make them count. And we see him
[01:30:42] hunt and kill a fly in this episode.
[01:30:45] There's a fly in here.
[01:30:46] Don't you think that's making a lot of
[01:30:47] noise? Oh god, there is a fly.
[01:30:49] And gotcha.
[01:30:51] Plus, that fly was a flying buzzing
[01:30:53] creature with wings and weird eyes.
[01:30:55] Exactly like the angel Mildenhal hunted.
[01:30:58] What was that?
[01:30:59] What's what?
[01:31:02] As Mildenhal became more obsessed, he
[01:31:04] also became more paranoid and jumpy,
[01:31:07] jumping at every shadow, every noise.
[01:31:09] And this also describes Kinger to a tea.
[01:31:12] Just cue a montage of him jumping or
[01:31:14] getting scared by things he didn't
[01:31:16] expect.
[01:31:17] [screaming]
[01:31:19] And all of that is without mentioning
[01:31:21] that some of Kinger's thoughts are
[01:31:22] literally finished by Mildenhal on these
[01:31:24] tapes.
[01:31:25] That wasn't so bad,
[01:31:26] which is what I would be saying if I
[01:31:28] didn't know that the creature was
[01:31:30] actually one of God's angels.
[01:31:32] There is no doubt a connection between
[01:31:34] these two characters. Secondly, the way
[01:31:36] Ker reacts to a lot of the situations
[01:31:38] here in this haunted house is really
[01:31:40] suspect. Like he's either trying to
[01:31:42] remember his past or desperately trying
[01:31:44] not to. For example, when he first hears
[01:31:46] the Baron's backstory, it seems to jog
[01:31:48] something in Kinger's memory, but he
[01:31:50] can't quite grasp it.
[01:31:52] You know, I'm starting to think.
[01:31:56] Then, when the lights fully go out and
[01:31:58] Kinger's able to remember more clearly,
[01:32:00] what's the first thing he does?
[01:32:02] What happened? I just remembered a
[01:32:04] really funny joke.
[01:32:06] You Why did you scream then?
[01:32:08] Maybe it wasn't actually that funny.
[01:32:10] He instantly remembers something that
[01:32:12] makes him scream. Tries to play it off
[01:32:14] like it was a joke, but then conceds
[01:32:16] that maybe it wasn't actually that
[01:32:19] funny. Was he remembering something
[01:32:20] horrific from his past? Like something
[01:32:23] similar to Mildenhal? Finally, the
[01:32:25] cinematography of this episode really
[01:32:27] makes a point to drive a parallel
[01:32:28] between Mildenhal and Kinger. just from
[01:32:30] the way the camera decides to linger on
[01:32:32] characters. And when it does so, take a
[01:32:35] look at this sequence.
[01:32:36] I took it upon myself to spend every
[01:32:38] waking moment doing all I could to
[01:32:41] protect my family from the creature,
[01:32:43] hoping that when I'd eventually killed
[01:32:45] it, I would be freed from this awful
[01:32:47] feeling.
[01:32:47] It cuts to Kinger the second it talks
[01:32:50] about protecting his family. Likewise,
[01:32:52] here when describing the creature that
[01:32:54] Mildenhal was obsessed with, the camera
[01:32:56] distinctly cuts back and forth between
[01:32:58] the angel and Kinger. Not quite a man,
[01:33:01] but not quite an animal.
[01:33:02] It's going out of its way to create this
[01:33:05] connection. So, okay, if Kinger is
[01:33:07] basically Mildenhal and Mildenhal is
[01:33:09] being haunted by this angel, what's
[01:33:11] haunting Kanger? What's driven him down
[01:33:13] this spiral? Well, just like Mildenhal,
[01:33:16] I believe that Kinger is the reason that
[01:33:18] his wife died again. The cinematography
[01:33:21] really drives this home.
[01:33:23] I ended up shooting the love of my life,
[01:33:25] mistaking her for the creature. The shot
[01:33:28] immediately shifts to Kinger when it
[01:33:29] talks about shooting the love of his
[01:33:31] life. And what's more, we know that
[01:33:33] Kinger has already mistaken the angel
[01:33:35] for his wife.
[01:33:36] You look beautiful, honey.
[01:33:39] So, it's not a stretch to think that
[01:33:41] just like Mildenhal hunted and harmed
[01:33:43] this creature and was banished to hell
[01:33:45] for it all while his family fell apart,
[01:33:47] so was Kanger. But perhaps the best bit
[01:33:50] of evidence for this when Pomni and
[01:33:52] Kinger are dragged down to hell and
[01:33:54] Pomny is possessed by evil spirits. What
[01:33:56] do they say? How's your wife, Kinger?
[01:33:59] They're taunting Kinger with this. He's
[01:34:01] the reason his wife got hurt. The reason
[01:34:02] she quote unquote died. Even if these
[01:34:05] characters are not exactly the same,
[01:34:07] that their stories are not completely
[01:34:08] identical beat forbeat. There are
[01:34:10] clearly parallels. There was a reason
[01:34:12] Kanger was on this adventure and not
[01:34:14] like Gengal or Ragatha or Jax. But how?
[01:34:18] Why? What is the purpose of all of these
[01:34:20] parallels with Kinger? What is this
[01:34:22] trying to tell us about him and his past
[01:34:24] beyond the metaphor? Well, it's tragic,
[01:34:27] but I believe that Kinger may have
[01:34:29] gotten his wife to join the circus.
[01:34:31] Maybe it was to save her from some
[01:34:33] sickness or some disease or some tragic
[01:34:35] accident to copy her brain into this
[01:34:38] computer so it could live on. But either
[01:34:40] way, it backfired on Kinger big time.
[01:34:43] And like, it's not that this just fits
[01:34:45] with Mildenhal's story. In my attempts
[01:34:47] to protect her, I ended up becoming the
[01:34:50] monster myself.
[01:34:51] But it also fits with what little we
[01:34:53] know to be 100% true about Ker's
[01:34:55] origins. See, in a previous theory, we
[01:34:57] speculated that Ker used to be a QA
[01:34:59] developer or bug tester for CNA, the
[01:35:02] company that made the digital circus.
[01:35:04] But as we've gotten more information, I
[01:35:06] don't think that's the case anymore. All
[01:35:08] of the flags that we noticed about bugs
[01:35:10] and insects were actually pointing to
[01:35:12] his wife's interests. But that doesn't
[01:35:14] mean that Ker didn't work for CNA. And I
[01:35:17] actually believe he was a higher up at
[01:35:18] the company for a few reasons. Firstly,
[01:35:20] I explained earlier that I believe Ker
[01:35:22] was a wealthy person before joining the
[01:35:24] circus. That would make sense if he was
[01:35:26] some sort of big shot at a tech company
[01:35:28] like CNA. But in this episode, we also
[01:35:31] got this tidbit.
[01:35:32] 7 years of computer science for this,
[01:35:35] huh?
[01:35:35] I don't know about you, but that really
[01:35:37] stuck out to me. And we know for a fact
[01:35:39] that this 7-year time frame is
[01:35:41] important. See, over on the Digital
[01:35:43] Circus subreddit, user Nerd the Scourge
[01:35:45] noticed that this timeline wasn't
[01:35:47] consistent in all of the dubs of the
[01:35:49] show. In English, German, and
[01:35:51] Vietnamese, Kanger says 7 years, but in
[01:35:53] most other languages like Spanish,
[01:35:55] Japanese, and French, he says 4 years.
[01:35:58] That's the time frame you'd expect to
[01:36:00] get a bachelor's degree at university.
[01:36:02] So, that makes sense for being in
[01:36:03] computer science, right? But here's the
[01:36:06] thing. In the comments of this thread,
[01:36:07] one of the actual translators that
[01:36:09] worked with Glitch for the German dub
[01:36:11] left a comment. User I am proud of
[01:36:13] Reddit explained that the script that
[01:36:15] they were working with originally said 4
[01:36:17] years, but was changed to 7 years
[01:36:19] shortly before release. They assumed
[01:36:21] that most of the other dubs just didn't
[01:36:23] have time to record the new line, thus
[01:36:25] the discrepancy between the languages.
[01:36:27] But more importantly for us here, Goose
[01:36:29] Works and Glitch originally had one
[01:36:31] timeline in mind, but made a point to go
[01:36:33] back and change it. They thought that
[01:36:35] this 7-year time frame was so important
[01:36:37] that they had to go and make a
[01:36:39] lastminute change. Assuming that this is
[01:36:41] how long Kinger studied computer science
[01:36:43] in college, that's a long time to be
[01:36:46] going to school. Like that's how long
[01:36:48] you would be studying if you were
[01:36:49] getting a doctorate degree. As in Kinger
[01:36:51] would be a doctor of computer science.
[01:36:54] Dr. Kinger. that would make him an
[01:36:56] attractive candidate at companies like
[01:36:58] Google or Microsoft or say a developer
[01:37:02] like CNA almost certainly in a high
[01:37:05] position. Once more, we can also piece
[01:37:07] together a rough timeline here that in a
[01:37:10] previous theory we speculated that the
[01:37:11] Amazing Digital Circus was straight up
[01:37:13] set in the '90s due to all of the
[01:37:15] ancientl looking computer hardware. But
[01:37:17] that's probably not the case. In this
[01:37:20] episode, we see a grave outside of
[01:37:21] Milden Hall Manor that reads RIP Peggy
[01:37:24] 2019 to 2022. So, while this may be a
[01:37:28] game from the '90s, clearly time has
[01:37:30] continued on and this story is almost
[01:37:33] certainly set in the early 2020s.
[01:37:35] According to Goose Works, we know that
[01:37:36] Kanger is 48 years old. If we assume the
[01:37:39] series is set in about 2020, that Kinger
[01:37:42] went to college when he was 18 and spent
[01:37:44] seven years studying there, that would
[01:37:46] mean he would have graduated in the late
[01:37:48] '9s, the perfect time to join or found a
[01:37:51] game developer like CNA in the late '9s.
[01:37:54] Kinger knew about the circus before
[01:37:56] joining the circus. He knew what he was
[01:37:58] getting himself and his wife into. But
[01:38:00] perhaps he didn't understand the torture
[01:38:02] they'd be under, the constant torment
[01:38:04] and insanity they'd be forced into, the
[01:38:07] abstraction that awaits them at the end.
[01:38:09] If he wanted to save his wife, like we
[01:38:12] speculated here today, then that would
[01:38:14] just add on to the guilt. He didn't end
[01:38:16] up saving her. He ended up killing her
[01:38:18] just like Mildenhal and his wife. So
[01:38:21] that's Kinger's tragic backstory. But
[01:38:23] what does this tell us about what comes
[01:38:25] next? Well, after this episode, I think
[01:38:27] it's clear that Kanger is going to
[01:38:29] abstract, and it's going to be soon.
[01:38:31] First of all, he has death flags up the
[01:38:33] wazoo, like indications that he's going
[01:38:35] to be on the chopping block. I mean, how
[01:38:37] many characters have suggested that he's
[01:38:39] basically on the cusp of abstraction and
[01:38:41] that they're surprised that he hasn't
[01:38:42] yet.
[01:38:43] I mean, no offense, Kinger, but I always
[01:38:44] thought you would be next.
[01:38:46] Thank you.
[01:38:47] And drawing parallels with more of
[01:38:48] Mildenhal's quotes, he says,
[01:38:50] "If nothing else, I will slay the beast
[01:38:53] that took everything from me." Is this
[01:38:55] talking about Kinger? Will he allow
[01:38:57] himself to abstract and join his wife in
[01:39:00] the cellar? And if all of that doesn't
[01:39:02] convince you, if you think all of that
[01:39:03] is a long shot, well, Glitch might have
[01:39:05] revealed his fate right under all of our
[01:39:07] noses. In a previous theory, we noticed
[01:39:10] that Glitch tells us a lot about their
[01:39:11] characters personalities, who they
[01:39:13] consider important, and also potentially
[01:39:15] the future of their characters through
[01:39:17] the merchandise they sell of them. So,
[01:39:19] the fact that Jax's pin was the only one
[01:39:21] where the pin back was torn to show the
[01:39:23] void behind him told us that he's likely
[01:39:26] going to have more than meets the eye.
[01:39:28] And well, Reddit user the Red J Catmama
[01:39:31] on our subreddit noticed that Glitch is
[01:39:33] now selling a pair of matching socks.
[01:39:35] They're stylized to look like abstracted
[01:39:37] monsters, but one of the sets is lined
[01:39:39] with red and the other with purple.
[01:39:41] Queeny's cloak was red. And what color
[01:39:43] is Kinger's cloak? Purple. By the end of
[01:39:46] things, just like these socks, Kanger
[01:39:48] and Queenie are going to match again as
[01:39:50] abstracted entities. But the thing that
[01:39:52] really cemented this for me, Kanger's
[01:39:54] character arc is coming to a close. See,
[01:39:57] something else that really stood out to
[01:39:59] me in this episode was this quote from
[01:40:01] Mildenhal.
[01:40:02] My paranoia had driven me to the point
[01:40:04] where I was no longer the protector my
[01:40:06] wife and theoretical children needed.
[01:40:09] Fun fact, we actually get a glimpse of
[01:40:10] this family here in the episode, kind of
[01:40:12] hidden in the darkness if you brighten
[01:40:13] up the image. Regardless, theoretical
[01:40:15] children is an interesting phrase,
[01:40:18] right? Like it could mean something like
[01:40:20] a future child, one that hasn't been
[01:40:21] born yet, or it could mean an adopted
[01:40:24] child. And tell me, who is Kanger very
[01:40:27] protective of in this episode, both
[01:40:29] emotionally and physically. Pomny, he
[01:40:32] physically protects her from the angel
[01:40:34] in this scenario that she's clearly
[01:40:36] terrified of.
[01:40:36] Stay behind me. Just leave it to me. I
[01:40:39] can handle this. But he's also treating
[01:40:41] her with kindness, trying to help her
[01:40:43] process this awful situation she's in.
[01:40:46] Like, just listen to this.
[01:40:47] Sometimes it all just feels pointless.
[01:40:50] But it's not. Not if you have people who
[01:40:52] care about you. Cherish the people
[01:40:54] around you. You never know when they'll
[01:40:56] be gone.
[01:40:57] That right there, that's Kinger doing
[01:40:59] his best intentionally or no, to prepare
[01:41:02] Pomni for what's to come. Teaching her
[01:41:04] that even if someone's dead, that
[01:41:06] they're gone. While that's sad, it's
[01:41:08] going to be okay. And if you die, if
[01:41:10] you're the person who's dead and gone,
[01:41:12] as long as you made a positive impact,
[01:41:14] even just on one person, then you've
[01:41:16] done what you've needed to.
[01:41:18] Don't worry about me. As long as you
[01:41:20] remember it, things will be okay.
[01:41:21] And finally, what does Kinger do here to
[01:41:24] help Pomni out of this horror show, out
[01:41:26] of this literal afterlife like hell? He
[01:41:28] holds her hand and guides her through
[01:41:31] it.
[01:41:31] You're very strong, Pomi, and I know
[01:41:33] you'll be able to get through this. Just
[01:41:35] hold on to me. We'll get through it
[01:41:36] together. He even glows like some sort
[01:41:39] of guardian angel transcending to the
[01:41:41] next life. Glitch could not be more
[01:41:43] clear about this if they tried. Kanger
[01:41:45] is going to abstract and soon. And he's
[01:41:48] going to join his wife in the afterlife
[01:41:50] of the cellar. They'll be together once
[01:41:52] again. And even though it will be sad to
[01:41:54] lose Kanger, it'll be okay because as
[01:41:56] long as Pominy and the rest remember
[01:41:58] him, he'll never really be gone. The
[01:42:01] Amazing Digital Circus is breaking
[01:42:03] Kane's brain. Throughout the amazing
[01:42:04] digital circus, Kane has problems with
[01:42:06] his memory. [music] He'll bring up
[01:42:08] conversations late.
[01:42:09] That Zuks are right jacket.
[01:42:10] I said that like 5 minutes ago.
[01:42:12] Forgets his own adventures.
[01:42:14] Now, what the heck happened around here?
[01:42:16] Oh yeah, my doing.
[01:42:17] And in episode 3, this comes to a head
[01:42:19] when he can't remember why Zubel is
[01:42:21] upset.
[01:42:22] Then what IS YOUR PROBLEM, ZUBEL? I'M
[01:42:24] TRYING MY BEST TO REMEMBER, BUT YOU AND
[01:42:27] MY BRAIN WON'T TELL ME. In our latest
[01:42:29] theory, we tried to connect memory to
[01:42:31] concepts like light and darkness in
[01:42:33] history and myth. But there might be a
[01:42:35] more scientific answer. See, Zubel
[01:42:37] constantly tells Kane to [music]
[01:42:38] forget it.
[01:42:39] If you're talking to a modern AI like
[01:42:41] chat GPT and you tell it to forget it,
[01:42:43] well, it [clears throat] will literally
[01:42:44] forget what you're talking about. And
[01:42:46] this is exactly what we see with Kane.
[01:42:48] Forget it. Forget what?
[01:42:50] Forget what? Wait, what? What was I
[01:42:52] talking about? OH. OH, YEAH. IT'S been
[01:42:54] just about a year since we've covered
[01:42:56] The Amazing Digital Circus. And that
[01:42:58] hasn't been because there's a lack of
[01:43:00] things to talk about. If you don't know,
[01:43:02] The Amazing Digital Circus is the smash
[01:43:04] hit success from Glitch Productions,
[01:43:06] created by the talented Goose Works. We
[01:43:08] did several theories about it over the
[01:43:10] years, but three new episodes have
[01:43:11] dropped since our last theory. All of
[01:43:14] them great, by the way. But we haven't
[01:43:16] done another theory yet because doing
[01:43:18] them is a little bit intimidating. This
[01:43:20] show and the artists who work on it are
[01:43:23] full of creative energy. They've thrown
[01:43:24] out so many ideas that felt like great
[01:43:26] hooks for theories. So, naturally, we
[01:43:29] grasped onto a lot of them. Admittedly,
[01:43:31] a lot of the theories we made are a bit
[01:43:33] out there. I I mean, Pomny is an evil AI
[01:43:36] and the digital circus is literally
[01:43:38] hell. Well, given the current state of
[01:43:40] AI, maybe that's not too far from being
[01:43:41] realistic. But the point is that we took
[01:43:43] a lot of big swings when talking about
[01:43:46] the amazing digital circus. And as you'd
[01:43:48] expect with a lot of big swings, some of
[01:43:51] those were big misses. And oh boy, did
[01:43:53] the comments sure let us know that. If
[01:43:56] there's one thing I've learned over the
[01:43:57] past couple of years with this show,
[01:43:59] it's that the fan base of The Amazing
[01:44:00] Digital Circus is incredibly passionate
[01:44:03] and incredibly protective of these
[01:44:05] characters. And you know what? I respect
[01:44:07] that a lot. I get it. The vibe and tone
[01:44:10] of the digital circus captured a lot of
[01:44:12] what I'm sure an entire generation has
[01:44:14] felt over the past 5 years in a way that
[01:44:16] I haven't seen in like a decade. That is
[01:44:19] worth feeling protective of. But this is
[01:44:21] a community and a series that I really
[01:44:23] do miss. I loved talking about it and I
[01:44:25] want to make more theories about it. But
[01:44:27] at the same time, I want to level set. I
[01:44:29] want to rethink how and why we approach
[01:44:32] this series and how we theorize about
[01:44:34] it. So here's what I want to do today,
[01:44:36] loyal theorists. I want to go back and
[01:44:38] look at all of our theories about The
[01:44:39] Amazing Digital Circus. Go through them
[01:44:41] and look at them with the additional
[01:44:42] information we've gotten over the past
[01:44:44] three episodes and see if any of them
[01:44:46] actually hold up. Spoiler alert, I think
[01:44:48] a couple of them were really, really
[01:44:50] solid. And a lot of them uh didn't pan
[01:44:54] out. That is a charitable way to put it.
[01:44:56] We'll also catch ourselves up on the big
[01:44:58] revelations the show has given us and
[01:45:00] see if we can figure out the direction
[01:45:01] the series is headed using all of this
[01:45:03] new information. And hey, maybe, just
[01:45:05] maybe, we'll figure out the best way to
[01:45:07] make new theories about this show. Sound
[01:45:09] good? Well, I hope so. But your ideas in
[01:45:12] the suggestion box, loyal theorists, as
[01:45:14] we dive into this new adventure with the
[01:45:16] amazing Digital Circus. So, just real
[01:45:18] quick, our first few theories about this
[01:45:20] series actually came out back when Matt
[01:45:22] was hosting the show. So, don't get
[01:45:24] whiplash if you hear his voice while I
[01:45:25] pull quotes from them. Also, a lot of
[01:45:27] them were made when we basically had
[01:45:29] zero knowledge of the show beyond
[01:45:31] episode 1. So, I'm probably going to be
[01:45:32] blasting through a few of them pretty
[01:45:34] quickly just to save time and help our
[01:45:35] editors out. I mean, I can tell by the
[01:45:37] script length that this video is already
[01:45:39] very long. All right, so what's up
[01:45:41] first?
[01:45:42] Everything in the show is literally a
[01:45:44] video game set in the late 1990s.
[01:45:46] Yeah, this one's pretty self-explanatory
[01:45:48] and also pretty thoroughly debunked. Not
[01:45:51] only do the characters talk about
[01:45:52] technology and use slang from the modern
[01:45:54] age
[01:45:55] and posting videos of it online,
[01:45:57] ah, YouTuber, it's kind of cringe. But
[01:46:00] there's also a gravestone in episode 3
[01:46:02] reading RIP Peggy 2019 to 2022. So yeah,
[01:46:06] there you go. Maybe the digital circus
[01:46:08] was made in the '90s itself, but the
[01:46:11] series is more or less set in the modern
[01:46:13] day. All right, so which theory is up
[01:46:15] next?
[01:46:15] Pomni helped create this hell simulation
[01:46:17] that they're currently stuck in?
[01:46:19] Yep. So the idea here was that Pomni was
[01:46:21] a programmer at CNA, the people we think
[01:46:23] created the digital circus. And our main
[01:46:25] bit of evidence came from how Pomni
[01:46:27] reacts to seeing the recreation of the
[01:46:29] computer and desk with the VR headset
[01:46:30] while she's running through the back
[01:46:31] rooms in episode 1. However, just like
[01:46:33] that first mini theory, this one is
[01:46:36] completely debunked. In episode 5, we
[01:46:38] get a great scene with everyone at a
[01:46:40] noir themed bar and we get a glimpse at
[01:46:42] a lot of their backstories including
[01:46:44] Pomnes. Here she explains,
[01:46:45] "I was an accountant for a [music]
[01:46:47] supermarket chain
[01:46:48] and she ended up in the digital circus
[01:46:50] because
[01:46:51] I sometimes got bored of things and I
[01:46:54] would seek out mild thrills like
[01:46:56] exploring abandoned buildings and
[01:46:58] posting videos of it online."
[01:46:59] The implication here is that she broke
[01:47:01] into the office building, put on the
[01:47:03] headset, and got sucked into the circus,
[01:47:05] not that she helped make it. Like, it's
[01:47:07] a pretty open and shut case there,
[01:47:08] honestly. Also, this explains the little
[01:47:10] mental breakdown we see in the back room
[01:47:12] section of the circus that Kang created.
[01:47:14] It wasn't her getting triggered by her
[01:47:16] workstation, but instead having that
[01:47:17] mental break recognizing the building
[01:47:19] she broke into and the headset she put
[01:47:21] on that got her trapped in this mess to
[01:47:23] begin with. Also, a little bit of a
[01:47:24] tangent, but I have to say, I loved this
[01:47:26] little scene at the noir bar, just
[01:47:28] letting the characters talk and learn
[01:47:30] about each other. Like, we'll be back
[01:47:31] here to talk about this again. I'm sure
[01:47:33] about it. Okay, so our third theory from
[01:47:36] back in the day. All the characters
[01:47:38] aren't actually humans trapped inside
[01:47:40] the digital circus.
[01:47:41] So, the long and short of this, we
[01:47:42] believed that instead of the humans
[01:47:44] keeping the headsets on as their brains
[01:47:46] are being used by the circus Sword Art
[01:47:48] Online style, they were instead copied
[01:47:50] and turned into their characters in the
[01:47:52] cast. Real talk, this one was a big
[01:47:54] swing even back then, and there isn't a
[01:47:56] ton of hard evidence for it as the
[01:47:58] series has gone on. Really, the biggest
[01:48:00] piece of evidence that we don't see any
[01:48:02] bodies attached to the headsets in the
[01:48:03] real world could just be explained away
[01:48:05] with cartoon logic. Like, HEY, THEY JUST
[01:48:07] GOT digitized and literally sucked into
[01:48:09] the computer like Tron or Digimon. Don't
[01:48:12] worry about it. Don't think too hard.
[01:48:14] The whole idea that they're just digital
[01:48:16] brain clones is an extra layer of
[01:48:18] complexity that at this point probably
[01:48:20] would not really make sense for this
[01:48:21] story since they haven't explored that
[01:48:23] at all yet. So yeah, sure, this theory
[01:48:26] could still be true, but there's no real
[01:48:28] reason for it. All right, so last up in
[01:48:30] the era of Matt, we've got
[01:48:32] The Amazing Digital Circus is quite
[01:48:34] literally hell.
[01:48:35] Yeah. Okay, that sentence is still very
[01:48:37] funny, and this episode was incredible
[01:48:39] theorist out of context fodder. Now, to
[01:48:42] be clear, this one was always out there,
[01:48:44] and we knew it. It was more of a fun
[01:48:47] side thought based on a bunch of
[01:48:48] parallels with Christian mythology that
[01:48:50] we noticed. I mean, we even say as much
[01:48:52] in that actual episode if you go back
[01:48:54] and watch it. The evidence we pulled was
[01:48:56] mostly symbolic. Omni wears the same
[01:48:58] colors that many depictions of Jesus do.
[01:49:00] The characters are deliberately arranged
[01:49:02] similar to the famous Last Supper
[01:49:04] painting at the end of episode 1. Themes
[01:49:06] of the show are very similar to a play
[01:49:07] called No Exit where hell was being
[01:49:09] trapped with other people that you
[01:49:11] couldn't stand. You know, that sort of
[01:49:13] stuff. And I believe that thematically
[01:49:15] this theory is still pretty solid. Like
[01:49:17] obviously the circus isn't literally an
[01:49:20] embodiment of the Christian hell, but
[01:49:21] the parallels are clear and
[01:49:23] metaphorically it very much is. And this
[01:49:25] crazy idea was later validated, even if
[01:49:28] just a little by episode 3 of the
[01:49:30] series. The one where Pomney and Kinger
[01:49:32] go to a version of hell during an
[01:49:33] adventure and fight a biblically
[01:49:35] accurate angel. So yeah, fun idea,
[01:49:37] thematically on point, but not super
[01:49:39] serious or relevant to the future of the
[01:49:41] show. Oh, and a little bit of an aside
[01:49:43] here because there's not really a better
[01:49:45] place to mention this in the rest of the
[01:49:46] episode, but perhaps the best bit of new
[01:49:48] evidence for this part of the whole
[01:49:50] theory, well, we connected Cain and the
[01:49:52] company that created the digital circus,
[01:49:54] CNA, to the biblical figures, Cain and
[01:49:57] Abel. And in the latest episode, there's
[01:49:59] an interesting moment where Cain pulls
[01:50:01] out some pictures of the CNA office and
[01:50:03] just looks at them. It's a bit difficult
[01:50:05] to read his exact emotions here because,
[01:50:08] you know, he's a set of teeth and a pair
[01:50:10] of eyeballs. But there is some sort of
[01:50:12] recognition, which hey, makes sense
[01:50:13] because he would need to know about
[01:50:15] these offices to create the back rooms
[01:50:17] from episode 1. At the very least, we
[01:50:19] can confidently say that this particular
[01:50:21] connection between Kane and CNA is a
[01:50:23] thread that this series will continue
[01:50:25] pulling. Okay, so that's one of our more
[01:50:27] silly theories down, but what about
[01:50:28] something a bit more serious? What's
[01:50:31] next? One of these characters in The
[01:50:33] Amazing Digital Circus is an AI
[01:50:35] impostor. Okay. All right. Next up is
[01:50:38] our theory that one of the quote unquote
[01:50:40] human characters is actually an evil AI
[01:50:44] that's infiltrated the cast to torture
[01:50:45] them. And the most likely suspect, Jax.
[01:50:48] Now, I believed this was the case for
[01:50:50] many reasons, most of which I thought
[01:50:52] were understandable at the time. First
[01:50:53] off, it was heavily implied that an NPC
[01:50:56] had come into the circus at some point.
[01:50:58] I know you guys love your NPCs, but if I
[01:51:01] start losing track of who's a human and
[01:51:03] who's an NPC, who knows what could
[01:51:06] happen,
[01:51:06] and a lot of time in the episodes were
[01:51:09] spent saying either just how good the AI
[01:51:11] in the circus has gotten.
[01:51:12] I'M TESTING OUT A NEW AI IN THIS ONE. IT
[01:51:14] SHOULD BE 57 times more immersive.
[01:51:16] Or showing just how human a lot of the
[01:51:18] AI characters like Gummy Goo could act
[01:51:20] when given the chance.
[01:51:21] Doesn't matter in the slightest. I'm
[01:51:23] nothing. My life, my memories, my
[01:51:25] friends, it's all fake. Seriously, this
[01:51:27] show was just dripping with the theme
[01:51:30] that the human characters and the AI
[01:51:32] aren't actually all that different. And
[01:51:34] what better way to build on that than
[01:51:35] with the twist that one of them is an
[01:51:37] AI. Jax made the most sense to me. He
[01:51:40] was antagonistic, excited to go on the
[01:51:42] adventure so that he could torture his
[01:51:44] fellow castmates. They ignored the laws
[01:51:46] of physics in ways that the other
[01:51:47] characters didn't really seem to. was
[01:51:49] the only main human character interested
[01:51:51] in food, something only NPCs were
[01:51:53] interested in up until that point, and
[01:51:55] was the only character in the cast
[01:51:57] outside of NPCs like Kane and Bubble
[01:51:59] that could break the fourth wall and
[01:52:00] look or talk directly to the audience.
[01:52:03] At the time, combined with all of those
[01:52:05] thematic parallels, I really thought
[01:52:07] that this one made sense and was going
[01:52:09] to pan out. But, well, it's very clearly
[01:52:11] not the case now that we have more
[01:52:13] episodes. Most of those quirks turned
[01:52:16] out to be just that, quirks. He likes
[01:52:18] food just because it's something to do
[01:52:20] and enjoy in this digital world. Being
[01:52:22] mean to the others is straight up a
[01:52:23] character flaw he's taken on himself
[01:52:25] because he feels like it's his
[01:52:27] archetype.
[01:52:28] We're still people though, right?
[01:52:30] I thought we were at first, but as time
[01:52:32] goes on, we just end up falling into our
[01:52:34] archetypes, become part of the machine.
[01:52:37] What's your archetype then? The villain
[01:52:39] man passely would have pointed at this
[01:52:40] line and screamed. See, he's part of the
[01:52:43] machine. He's basically admitting he's
[01:52:44] an AI. not present enlightenedly sees
[01:52:48] this for what it is. A human character
[01:52:50] who's been beaten down so much he
[01:52:52] doesn't see a point in fighting against
[01:52:54] the machine that's assimilating him.
[01:52:56] Okay, so what about the defying physics
[01:52:58] then? Well, mostly that was just for the
[01:53:01] lols and it's not something I think the
[01:53:03] other characters couldn't do if they
[01:53:04] really wanted to. See, one of the
[01:53:06] moments that really stood out to me in
[01:53:08] this latest episode was this right here.
[01:53:10] After getting hurt before the in-house
[01:53:12] gun adventure, Ragatha starts out with
[01:53:14] one fewer life than everyone else. But
[01:53:16] Kanger has a solution.
[01:53:18] Oh, I got just the thing. Here, take
[01:53:21] this.
[01:53:22] Wait, what did you just do?
[01:53:23] It's a butterfly. It can restore your
[01:53:25] health.
[01:53:25] Did Kane mentioned that?
[01:53:27] Oh, nah, I made it up.
[01:53:28] Yeah, Kinger straight up made up a new
[01:53:30] rule in the circus and restored health
[01:53:32] in one of the games. To me, this isn't
[01:53:34] saying that Kanger is special or
[01:53:36] anything like that. This is telling me
[01:53:38] that the cast have way more control here
[01:53:40] than they probably think they do.
[01:53:42] Something also supported in the previous
[01:53:44] episode when they could vote on changing
[01:53:46] the other castmates, like turning Jax
[01:53:48] into a vegan.
[01:53:49] I'm calling a vote. Let's skip this one.
[01:53:51] And also make Jax a vegan for the rest
[01:53:53] of the day.
[01:53:53] You can't do that.
[01:53:56] So all of the physics defying stuff Jax
[01:53:59] was doing, it was literally just because
[01:54:01] he wanted to. just like the butterfly
[01:54:03] restoring health and other smaller
[01:54:05] things like Jax and Ponyie shooting the
[01:54:07] guns all cool like just because they
[01:54:09] can. But more than any of this, the
[01:54:11] thing that really disproves Jax is an
[01:54:13] AI. Jax clearly has a human backstory
[01:54:17] because it seems like he was brought
[01:54:18] into the circus with a friend [music] or
[01:54:20] at the very least became good friends
[01:54:22] with another character before the start
[01:54:23] of the series. This character was likely
[01:54:26] named Ribbit as we learned from a Tumblr
[01:54:28] post from Goose Works and he abstracted
[01:54:30] just before Koffmo. We see Jax look at
[01:54:32] Ribbit's door sadly and he becomes upset
[01:54:35] when anything regarding the character is
[01:54:37] mentioned, which hey, understandable if
[01:54:39] your best friend basically died right in
[01:54:41] front of you when there was nothing you
[01:54:43] could do about it. This is why he's so
[01:54:45] detached from the others, why he didn't
[01:54:47] attend Koffmo's funeral, why he's
[01:54:49] embraced being the antagonistic funny
[01:54:51] guy. He just doesn't want to feel this
[01:54:53] pain again. Because if he does, well, we
[01:54:56] see at the end of the last episode, he
[01:54:58] almost abstracts and only barely pulls
[01:55:00] himself back. A story line I expect
[01:55:03] we'll be coming back to in future
[01:55:04] episodes. Ironically, this kind of makes
[01:55:06] Jax the most human character of them
[01:55:08] all, doesn't it? But that theory wasn't
[01:55:10] alone. It was part of a pair. So, up
[01:55:13] next, is Pomny from The Amazing Digital
[01:55:15] Circus an AI impostor?
[01:55:17] Ah, yes, of course. One of my more
[01:55:20] infamous theories here. Omni is actually
[01:55:22] an evil AI. But hey, [laughter] like
[01:55:25] this one, uh uh yeah, they were totally
[01:55:27] going down this route, dude.
[01:55:29] Today, I'm just going to be evil. Those
[01:55:31] other fools better watch their tails
[01:55:33] because they're going to face the WRATH
[01:55:36] OF POMNI THE EVIL. [screaming]
[01:55:39] [laughter]
[01:55:40] SEE, that's why she has the evil arc in
[01:55:42] one of these episodes. I I'm not crazy.
[01:55:45] You're crazy. Okay. No, but for real,
[01:55:47] this idea was a stretch even back when
[01:55:49] we made it. I mean, we even said as much
[01:55:52] in the episode. A big component of this
[01:55:54] theory was about looking at the science
[01:55:56] of artificial intelligence, how it
[01:55:58] works, and then applying that knowledge
[01:55:59] to the amazing digital circus to see if
[01:56:01] anything fit. There were some cases
[01:56:03] where they kind of did if you squint it
[01:56:05] a little bit, and combined with the idea
[01:56:07] from the previous theory that someone
[01:56:09] was likely an AI. That was the backbone
[01:56:11] of this one, but yeah, not this is
[01:56:13] absolutely not the direction the series
[01:56:16] went. Outside of looking at the
[01:56:17] technology of AI, probably the biggest
[01:56:19] evidence I saw for this was just how
[01:56:21] much we saw Pomny empathizing with NPC
[01:56:23] characters like Gummy Goo. Again, I saw
[01:56:25] this as Glitch setting up the idea that
[01:56:27] the AI and humans aren't so different
[01:56:29] with Pomni directly as the bridge
[01:56:31] between the two, but that's just not the
[01:56:34] case. I feel very confident that Pomni
[01:56:36] is exactly who she appears to be, a very
[01:56:39] normal human with the very normal human
[01:56:41] backstory we've heard in the newer
[01:56:43] episodes. All of that empathy she was
[01:56:45] showing Gummy Goo, it was just Pomni
[01:56:47] being empathetic and setting up those
[01:56:49] tools of empathy to be used with other
[01:56:51] characters like Kinger, Raggatha, and
[01:56:53] Jax later in the show. This is a
[01:56:55] situation where I really just have to
[01:56:57] use Akam's razor. This is a
[01:56:59] philosophical and problem-solving tool
[01:57:01] that states that the simplest answer is
[01:57:03] most often the most likely answer. So,
[01:57:06] is Pomny an evil AI? No, she's just an
[01:57:10] empathetic person. Though I do have to
[01:57:12] say it feels like the show is really
[01:57:13] rubbing both thinks as an AI and Pomny
[01:57:16] is an AI theory in my face with this
[01:57:18] scene in particular.
[01:57:19] Daisy
[01:57:22] Daisy
[01:57:24] give me your answer.
[01:57:26] Are you are you seriously going to start
[01:57:28] singing that?
[01:57:29] If you don't know this is a song called
[01:57:30] Daisy Bell. And it's significant because
[01:57:33] it was actually the first song that was
[01:57:35] ever reproduced digitally. Yeah. Back in
[01:57:37] 1961, IBM programmed one of their
[01:57:40] computers to sing. It's demonstrating
[01:57:42] early speech synthesis.
[01:57:43] Daisy,
[01:57:45] Daisy,
[01:57:47] give me your answer.
[01:57:49] And the song was later included as part
[01:57:51] of the computer character how 9000 in
[01:57:54] 2001 of Space Odyssey.
[01:57:55] Daisy, Daisy,
[01:57:58] give me your answer.
[01:58:01] So, like, come on, man. This is clearly
[01:58:04] just a fun little Easter egg, but dude,
[01:58:06] Caspley would have eaten that
[01:58:07] [clears throat] up as part of those old
[01:58:08] theories. All right, so cool. That
[01:58:11] theory is behind us. What's next?
[01:58:13] I need a living host in order to escape
[01:58:16] the hall of the damned, and your bodies
[01:58:18] will be my only means of doing so.
[01:58:20] This is the key to the entire future of
[01:58:23] this series.
[01:58:24] Yeah, it's our theory that the amazing
[01:58:25] digital circus is actually out to steal
[01:58:28] your soul. So, this one is a bit
[01:58:30] complicated, but the TLDDW, I was trying
[01:58:33] to piece together what happens to cast
[01:58:35] members after they abstract and using
[01:58:37] the adventures that Kane was coming up
[01:58:39] with as a sort of rubric for the overall
[01:58:41] plans of the AI in the circus.
[01:58:43] Basically, the circus was dehumanizing
[01:58:45] the human characters. And when they
[01:58:47] eventually abstract from that loss of
[01:58:49] humanity, I thought the raw computing
[01:58:51] power of their brains was being added to
[01:58:52] the circus's AI. And the why it was
[01:58:55] doing this? Well, it was in an attempt
[01:58:56] to escape its computery prison body.
[01:58:59] This was represented by the storyline
[01:59:00] that Pomni and Kinger follow in the
[01:59:02] spooky haunted house adventure Kane
[01:59:04] makes with a dark spirit trying to
[01:59:06] escape from its hellish prison. Looking
[01:59:08] [clears throat] back, I actually think
[01:59:09] that a lot of the pieces we put together
[01:59:11] here do make a lot of sense given the
[01:59:13] knowledge of the series we had at the
[01:59:14] time. So, go check out that theory if
[01:59:16] you want the full context. But that
[01:59:18] being said, with these three additional
[01:59:20] episodes, that just doesn't seem to be
[01:59:22] the direction that The Amazing Digital
[01:59:24] Circus is headed. Like, if this was
[01:59:26] indeed the long-term story line of the
[01:59:29] series, we would have seen way, way more
[01:59:31] buildup of this idea. But all we've
[01:59:33] gotten instead was acknowledgement that
[01:59:35] Kane knows about stuff in the outside
[01:59:37] world. There really just haven't been
[01:59:39] any more hidden messages about a deeper
[01:59:41] AI entity or any more exploration of
[01:59:43] abstraction and whether or not that
[01:59:45] influences the circus. And if that was
[01:59:48] the long-term play, we absolutely would
[01:59:50] have gotten more of it by now. But
[01:59:51] instead, we're 2/3 of the way through
[01:59:53] this thing. And that's basically all
[01:59:55] we've gotten. Instead, this show is way,
[01:59:58] way more interested in exploring its
[02:00:00] individual characters and their
[02:00:01] dynamics. Which, hey, leads us to the
[02:00:03] next theory. Ker is going to be a tragic
[02:00:06] character with a tragic end. Yep, it's
[02:00:09] our little character study about
[02:00:10] Kinger's backstory and his eventual fate
[02:00:12] in the show. If you missed this one, I
[02:00:14] believed that Kinger was some sort of
[02:00:16] bigwig at CNA with a past that he'd
[02:00:18] rather forget. And that past was likely
[02:00:20] getting his wife involved with the
[02:00:22] digital circus, which would eventually
[02:00:24] lead to her death through abstraction.
[02:00:26] This was based off of his appearance,
[02:00:28] his similarities to the character
[02:00:30] Theodore Mildenhal in One of the
[02:00:31] Adventures, his competence with guns,
[02:00:33] and how other characters pro about the
[02:00:35] loss of his wife. [music] We also
[02:00:36] speculated that he'd be the next
[02:00:38] character to abstract thanks to, and I
[02:00:40] kid you not, socks. And yeah, there are
[02:00:42] a pair of abstraction themed socks on
[02:00:44] the glitch store that use Kinger and
[02:00:46] Queeny's color scheme. So, it just made
[02:00:48] sense. So, overall, I'm still really
[02:00:51] proud [music] of this theory. I think
[02:00:52] it's really solid stuff, even if some of
[02:00:55] the smaller details might be off or need
[02:00:57] to change thanks to new information
[02:00:59] we've gotten since episode 3. Like,
[02:01:01] merch might not necessarily be the
[02:01:02] indicator of what Glitch plans to do
[02:01:04] with these characters like I thought at
[02:01:06] the time. I mean, they're selling
[02:01:07] plushies of Pomney dressed up as Jacks
[02:01:09] and and Pomny as a hamster. Stuff that
[02:01:11] is more symbolic or or clearly
[02:01:13] non-cannon, but just totally cute. And
[02:01:15] given that Jax seems to be on the brink
[02:01:17] of abstraction himself, well, Kinger
[02:01:19] might not be next on the chopping block,
[02:01:21] but I can still definitely see a future
[02:01:23] where this is the eventual fate for our
[02:01:25] lovable little chess piece. Now, looking
[02:01:27] back at all of these theories, what's
[02:01:29] panned out and what hasn't, it's got me
[02:01:31] thinking about how we can possibly move
[02:01:33] forward theorizing about this show. And
[02:01:35] I do have an idea. It It mostly comes
[02:01:38] from something Goose Works said recently
[02:01:40] about the series during a live stream
[02:01:42] and and specifically it was about what
[02:01:44] she expects the reaction to the next
[02:01:46] episode to be. Check it.
[02:01:48] I'm really excited for the reaction to
[02:01:49] that one.
[02:01:50] It's going to piss off.
[02:01:51] It's going to make people sad.
[02:01:53] It's only going to piss off the right
[02:01:54] people.
[02:01:55] Okay, so right off the bat, this could
[02:01:57] mean a lot of things. The people who
[02:01:59] could get mad at this upcoming episode
[02:02:00] could come from a wide gamut. Like like
[02:02:02] will it be Jack's fans getting angry?
[02:02:04] There have been several camps of Jack's
[02:02:06] stands that have swung back and forth at
[02:02:08] being angry and elated at the direction
[02:02:10] his character has gone. Or heck, maybe
[02:02:12] it could be people upset that he's going
[02:02:13] to abstract. Or the people getting mad
[02:02:15] could be shippers. People who want Jax
[02:02:17] and Pomny to get together or any other
[02:02:19] combination of characters. But another
[02:02:21] option I think is worth exploring here.
[02:02:24] Well, what if the people who are going
[02:02:25] to get mad are theorists? Don't get me
[02:02:28] wrong, I I don't think Goose Works or or
[02:02:31] anyone else at Glitch for that matter
[02:02:32] are making their shows with like me in
[02:02:35] mind with these channels in mind. That's
[02:02:37] ridiculous. And I actually know for a
[02:02:40] fact that a lot of them avoid theory
[02:02:42] videos from creators here on YouTube, so
[02:02:43] it doesn't influence their writing. And
[02:02:45] I don't want to come across as thinking
[02:02:47] that these creators are talking about
[02:02:49] literally us here in these actual clips.
[02:02:52] That's not my intention. No, but I think
[02:02:55] even if that isn't what they meant,
[02:02:57] theorists could have the same reaction
[02:02:59] to the next few episodes as what they've
[02:03:01] described here. Really, the big takeaway
[02:03:03] I've had after sitting and thinking
[02:03:05] about this series over the past year,
[02:03:07] seeing new episodes drop and all of the
[02:03:09] commentary from Goose Works and the
[02:03:11] other creators is I don't think there is
[02:03:15] going to be a big theory twist. There is
[02:03:17] no secret AI or hidden story. The
[02:03:19] Amazing Digital Circus is exactly what
[02:03:21] it says on the 10. It's a
[02:03:23] character-driven series dissecting its
[02:03:25] cast, their relationships with one
[02:03:27] another, and the drama that follows, all
[02:03:29] while they're tortured by their AI
[02:03:30] overlord, Kane, which means that they're
[02:03:33] getting to know each other better,
[02:03:34] revealing things about their backstories
[02:03:35] that they clearly haven't before and are
[02:03:38] growing as people because of it. Now,
[02:03:40] don't get me wrong, I don't blame us
[02:03:42] online theorists for really jumping on
[02:03:44] this series. There were certainly a lot
[02:03:46] of seeds planted early on and and hell
[02:03:48] even in recent episodes that could grow
[02:03:50] into some crazy twist or unforeseen
[02:03:52] storyline that maybe, just maybe, you
[02:03:55] could sus out by putting the pieces
[02:03:56] together. But so far, The Amazing
[02:03:58] Digital Circus hasn't really seemed
[02:04:00] interested in following up on any of
[02:04:03] that. Well, at least the ones that
[02:04:04] aren't focused on character moments like
[02:04:06] Kinger's backstory. But the big stuff,
[02:04:08] like the hints that we picked up that
[02:04:10] one of the main cast is actually an evil
[02:04:12] AI toying with the humans or that
[02:04:14] there's an evil AI buried deep in the
[02:04:16] circus that wants to escape. Those just
[02:04:18] aren't threads they've pulled on, nor do
[02:04:20] I expect them to as the series goes
[02:04:22] forward. Like at this point, it would be
[02:04:24] a really big turn into left field and
[02:04:26] probably make things worse for the
[02:04:28] overall story. And you know what? Good.
[02:04:31] That's a great thing. I mean, don't
[02:04:33] misunderstand. I I love a good
[02:04:34] theorydriven show. I mean, just look at
[02:04:36] what channel you're on. But also, there
[02:04:38] comes a point in your life when you
[02:04:39] realize that not everything is a FNAF or
[02:04:42] a Gravity Falls. Not everything needs to
[02:04:44] have a secret story hidden beneath
[02:04:46] layers and layers of lore and puzzle
[02:04:48] solving. Sometimes it really is just
[02:04:51] that simple. And honestly, that's a
[02:04:53] breath of fresh air. Like I I thought
[02:04:55] going in that The Amazing Digital Circus
[02:04:57] was going to be like lost with a bunch
[02:04:59] of mysteries to solve and and theories
[02:05:01] driving the online conversation, but
[02:05:03] instead we just got a good TV show. In
[02:05:06] retrospect, I think what I should have
[02:05:08] done with this series was really dig
[02:05:09] more into the characters and and I don't
[02:05:11] mean by trying to figure out like who's
[02:05:13] the evil AI spy or anything like that. I
[02:05:16] mean trying to figure out their
[02:05:17] backstories or what issues they're
[02:05:19] dealing with. just really do character
[02:05:21] studies on them, similar to what we did
[02:05:23] with Kinger last year to see if we could
[02:05:25] figure out what the creators of the
[02:05:27] Digital Circus are saying with each of
[02:05:29] their cast members instead of trying to
[02:05:30] make sense out of what they weren't
[02:05:33] saying. If you saw our latest video
[02:05:34] where I talked about all of our previous
[02:05:36] digital circus theories, what we got
[02:05:38] right and what we got wrong, you you'll
[02:05:40] know that I want to do something a
[02:05:41] little different involving the show
[02:05:43] moving forward. Instead of taking the
[02:05:45] traditional theorist approach by making
[02:05:47] big swings about how this changes
[02:05:49] everything or taking small breadcrumbs
[02:05:52] and trying to figure out what big
[02:05:53] conspiracy is actually going on in the
[02:05:55] background of this show, I want to
[02:05:57] spotlight what this show does better
[02:05:59] than maybe anything else. It's
[02:06:01] characters. In an older theory, we did
[02:06:03] this with Kinger explaining how this
[02:06:05] ultimate gag character was potentially
[02:06:07] dealing with a lot of internalized guilt
[02:06:09] for bringing his wife into the digital
[02:06:10] circus, which ended up with her
[02:06:12] abstracted, and that he may soon join
[02:06:15] her in that fate. I still think that
[02:06:17] this is one of the stronger episodes
[02:06:19] we've done about this series. So today I
[02:06:21] I wanted to do the same with two more
[02:06:23] characters that might seem like they
[02:06:25] started out as jokey or one note, but
[02:06:28] when you take a deeper look at them
[02:06:29] behind the mask and the removable toy
[02:06:32] parts, this pair might be two of the
[02:06:34] most human characters in the entire
[02:06:36] show. And by analyzing their struggles
[02:06:38] and how they've dealt with them so far,
[02:06:40] we may get a small glimpse into what's
[02:06:41] going to happen next in The Amazing
[02:06:43] Digital Circus. This one's going to be
[02:06:45] fun and different, loyal theorists. So,
[02:06:47] please turn your attention to the center
[02:06:48] of the ring as we get [music] right into
[02:06:50] it. So, I wonder which of these two
[02:06:52] threads we should pull on first. Oh. Oh,
[02:06:55] jeez. My bad, Kangle. Uh, but hey, since
[02:06:57] you're here, we might as well start with
[02:06:59] you, Gangal.
[02:07:02] As I mentioned at the top of the
[02:07:03] episode, there wasn't really a ton to
[02:07:05] say about Gengal when the series first
[02:07:06] started. As Jax put it,
[02:07:08] Gang's the sad one.
[02:07:09] Gengal's whole personality was tied to
[02:07:11] our masks. Pardon the ribbon pun. When
[02:07:13] she wears her happy mask, she's timid
[02:07:16] but well, happy. But in every episode,
[02:07:18] when that happy mask inevitably breaks,
[02:07:21] usually at the hands of Jax, Gengal is
[02:07:23] forced to wear her sad mask, which well
[02:07:25] makes her sad. Simple enough, right?
[02:07:27] Now, if you've ever been to or been
[02:07:29] involved with the theater before,
[02:07:31] Gangal's masks should be familiar. These
[02:07:34] are what are known as the comedy and
[02:07:36] tragedy masks. And in modern times,
[02:07:38] they're more or less a cliche symbol
[02:07:40] that represents the idea of the theater
[02:07:42] as a whole. But what you may not realize
[02:07:44] is just how far back the association
[02:07:46] between these masks and theater goes
[02:07:48] because, man, it goes way back to like
[02:07:52] ancient times. Ancient Greece is often
[02:07:54] considered the birthplace of modern
[02:07:56] theater as we know it. Going to the
[02:07:57] theater was a big part of Greek life at
[02:08:00] the time. So much so that they
[02:08:01] constructed these humongous venues, some
[02:08:03] of which are still around to this day.
[02:08:05] The problem was, if you got stuck in the
[02:08:07] nosebleleeds, it was pretty hard to make
[02:08:09] out the characters on stage, let alone
[02:08:11] read their emotions. So, to combat this,
[02:08:14] actors would often dawn these large
[02:08:16] masks with overly exaggerated facial
[02:08:18] features that made it crystal clear to
[02:08:20] everyone, even the chumps in the cheap
[02:08:22] seats, exactly what each character was
[02:08:24] feeling. And hey, that's sort of true
[02:08:26] for Gangal, too, isn't it? They're
[02:08:28] literally wearing their heart on their
[02:08:30] sleeve or or their face, I guess.
[02:08:32] Whichever personality Gengal is
[02:08:33] embodying at any moment is shown or
[02:08:35] determined by the mask she wears, which
[02:08:38] made things all the more interesting
[02:08:40] when Gengal was given this new mask in
[02:08:42] episode 4. A new mask meant a new mood.
[02:08:45] But this one was uh well, let's just say
[02:08:48] it was a little bit different.
[02:08:51] Next, you're going to say my authority
[02:08:52] isn't real.
[02:08:53] Yeah, not exactly the Gangle we've come
[02:08:56] to know and love. Well, maybe you just
[02:09:00] need some more
[02:09:04] more.
[02:09:05] But it was one line in particular that
[02:09:08] really set off my theorist deep fryer.
[02:09:10] Why would you do this?
[02:09:11] It's called a manic episode and you're
[02:09:14] getting three more seasons. [laughter]
[02:09:17] Well, I don't know about three more
[02:09:18] seasons. Goose Works seems pretty
[02:09:20] adamant that there are only going to be
[02:09:21] three more episodes. Regardless, you
[02:09:24] catch what Gangal said there, though.
[02:09:25] She said that she was having a manic
[02:09:28] episode. Now, those of you who have
[02:09:30] dealt with mental health or seen our
[02:09:32] video about the inside out analog horror
[02:09:34] may know where I'm going to go with
[02:09:35] this, but for those of you who didn't or
[02:09:37] don't, well, that term manic episode or
[02:09:41] just mania in general is associated with
[02:09:44] a very real, very serious mental health
[02:09:46] condition, bipolar disorder. So, it's
[02:09:48] here where I want to say that we're
[02:09:50] about to dive into some pretty deep
[02:09:52] topics, and our option was to either
[02:09:53] bring light to some of these important
[02:09:55] issues or to not cover them at all.
[02:09:57] Honestly, with how The Digital Circus
[02:09:59] treats its characters with respect, and
[02:10:01] how important these themes are to the
[02:10:02] show, it would have felt wrong not to
[02:10:04] include this. I I talked a lot with our
[02:10:06] team about their own personal
[02:10:08] experiences, and we even discussed
[02:10:10] getting some professionals on like
[02:10:11] Cinema Therapy to help explain these
[02:10:13] topics. Maybe we'll do that in the
[02:10:15] future, but right now, just a heads up
[02:10:17] that this is what we're doing. And and
[02:10:19] please feel free to leave a comment to
[02:10:20] share your experiences or if you have a
[02:10:23] different interpretation here. I just
[02:10:25] want to start a conversation. Now, this
[02:10:27] is very simplified, but bipolar is a
[02:10:31] mood disorder characterized by extreme
[02:10:33] mood swings. Patients will have
[02:10:35] prolonged periods of heightened, almost
[02:10:37] euphoric feelings, [music] commonly
[02:10:39] known as manic or hypomomanic episodes.
[02:10:42] During these, people with bipolar may
[02:10:44] have racing thoughts, make poor or
[02:10:46] reckless decisions, or even forego
[02:10:48] sleep. [music] But other symptoms can
[02:10:50] include feeling a distorted sense of
[02:10:52] well-being, being unusually talkative or
[02:10:55] talking fast, or being more energetic
[02:10:58] and agitated than usual. Many of which
[02:11:00] we see Gengle show during this fast food
[02:11:02] episode. But on the other side of the
[02:11:04] coin, this period of mania is often
[02:11:07] followed up by stretches where those
[02:11:08] highs turn to lows, known as major
[02:11:11] depressive episodes, symptoms of which
[02:11:14] can include feeling sad, hopeless, or
[02:11:16] tearful, which we definitely see Gengal
[02:11:19] go through throughout the series.
[02:11:20] [music] Major depressive episodes can
[02:11:22] also include feelings of extreme guilt
[02:11:24] where it's probably not necessary, which
[02:11:27] we also see Gangal deal with. In episode
[02:11:29] 6, while all of the characters are
[02:11:31] running around the circus playing a
[02:11:32] shooting game, instead of focusing on,
[02:11:35] you know, that Gangal finds herself
[02:11:37] preoccupied with guilt and worry about
[02:11:39] how Jax will react to her declining to
[02:11:41] be [music] on his team.
[02:11:43] Do you think Jax is going to be mad that
[02:11:45] I didn't team up with him?
[02:11:47] Now, to be crystal clear, I'm not an
[02:11:49] expert. I am not a therapist or a
[02:11:51] psychiatrist, so I don't want to stand
[02:11:52] here and try to officially diagnose
[02:11:54] Gengal with bipolar disorder, but she is
[02:11:57] [clears throat] showing a lot of the
[02:11:58] symptoms [music] and they are clearly
[02:11:59] having a pretty serious effect on her
[02:12:01] mental state. For example, at the end of
[02:12:03] episode 4, after she's ditched her manic
[02:12:06] mask and the gang returns to the digital
[02:12:08] circus, Gengal isolates herself from the
[02:12:10] rest of the group. Why? Because she
[02:12:12] believes that everyone's going to hate
[02:12:13] her forever for how she acted during the
[02:12:16] adventure, even though that isn't true.
[02:12:18] And throughout the show, Gangal
[02:12:20] struggles to stick up for herself,
[02:12:22] especially when it comes to Jax. And in
[02:12:24] the latest episode, Gangal lays out
[02:12:26] exactly how she feels about her mask and
[02:12:28] her gimmick. And well, just listen.
[02:12:30] How are you supposed to like the part of
[02:12:32] yourself that just makes you worse than
[02:12:35] everyone else,
[02:12:35] man? Jeez, that that really just hits
[02:12:38] close to home, doesn't it? Just um
[02:12:40] speaking from personal experience, these
[02:12:42] aren't the sorts of issues I imagine
[02:12:44] someone facing just in the digital
[02:12:46] circus here. That's a pretty
[02:12:47] internalized feeling that probably
[02:12:49] stretches pretty far back for Gangal.
[02:12:51] And we have gotten several hints of that
[02:12:54] throughout the show. Like in the most
[02:12:55] recent episodes, we've gotten a lot more
[02:12:57] insight into all of the characters and
[02:12:59] their backstories. And Gangal is no
[02:13:02] exception. Though it was pretty clear
[02:13:03] throughout the series that Gangal likes
[02:13:05] to draw. In episode 5, we learned that
[02:13:07] she straight up tried to pursue a career
[02:13:09] in art, but it didn't exactly go to
[02:13:11] plan.
[02:13:11] I was in community college for graphic
[02:13:14] design, but I dropped out. [music] I
[02:13:16] didn't really pursue art much after
[02:13:17] that.
[02:13:18] Ah, yep, yep, yep, that's uh that is too
[02:13:20] real. She'd then go on to become a shift
[02:13:23] manager at a fast food restaurant, thus
[02:13:25] the plot of the fast food episode,
[02:13:26] before eventually stumbling her way into
[02:13:28] the digital circus. Now, we don't know
[02:13:30] for sure why Gengal dropped out of
[02:13:32] school. Like, it's possible that she
[02:13:34] just wasn't skilled enough to make it.
[02:13:36] But, but honestly, I I feel like it's
[02:13:38] far more likely that something else got
[02:13:39] in the way of that passion. Check out
[02:13:41] this small interaction when the
[02:13:43] Ganganger and Gangle's adventure
[02:13:44] suggestion of a slice of life school
[02:13:46] anime.
[02:13:47] There's nothing wrong with your
[02:13:48] suggestion.
[02:13:49] How did you know this was my suggestion?
[02:13:51] See how Gengal is trying to desperately
[02:13:53] cover up her drawings and deflect the
[02:13:54] suggestion that this was even her idea.
[02:13:57] She's embarrassed by her own interests
[02:13:59] when she really shouldn't be. And given
[02:14:01] how she interacts with Jax and his
[02:14:03] bullying, there could have been a
[02:14:04] similar figure or teacher in her art
[02:14:07] classes in college that really just put
[02:14:08] her down. But to be fair, that is a bit
[02:14:11] speculative. The far more likely answer
[02:14:13] for who got in the way of Gangal's
[02:14:15] pursuit of her dreams is Gangal. Whether
[02:14:17] it was bipolar disorder, depression, a
[02:14:20] complete lack of self-confidence, or
[02:14:22] something else, something caused her to
[02:14:23] kill those dreams and instead fall into
[02:14:25] the world of fast food. Oh, and just
[02:14:28] because I wanted to include this and
[02:14:29] didn't really have a better place,
[02:14:31] according to Goose Works, Gengal is
[02:14:32] supposed to be 26 years old. And given
[02:14:34] the timeline of the show, we figured out
[02:14:36] that would mean that she grew up through
[02:14:38] stuff like the 2008 financial crisis and
[02:14:40] the pandemic that could have easily
[02:14:42] compounded all of these issues of
[02:14:44] isolation Gangal is feeling and just
[02:14:46] made them worse. It's a small thing and
[02:14:49] I know most of us felt like our lives
[02:14:51] got completely upended by both of those
[02:14:53] events, but I I wanted to mention it
[02:14:54] because the timeline was just too
[02:14:56] perfect not to. Which also brings me to
[02:14:58] another small moment involving Gangle
[02:15:00] that seems like a throwaway gag at
[02:15:01] first, but after re-watching the series
[02:15:03] again for this theory I'm not so sure.
[02:15:06] See, there's a scene in episode 5 where
[02:15:08] the gang are forced to play a game of
[02:15:10] softball against evil versions of
[02:15:12] themselves. Here, each of the main cast
[02:15:14] get an evil doppelganger. Well, except
[02:15:16] for Gengal.
[02:15:17] Why don't I get an evil clone?
[02:15:19] No, but for real, that is a very good
[02:15:21] question. Why didn't Gengal get an evil
[02:15:23] version of herself? I I mean, Jack's got
[02:15:25] an evil clone. That was just nice. And
[02:15:27] and even Orbsman got an evil clone.
[02:15:30] Freaking Orbs Man. Where is Evil Gangle?
[02:15:33] Well, beyond this being a funny gag, it
[02:15:35] did make me wonder, what if we've
[02:15:37] already seen Evil Gangle? I mean, in
[02:15:40] episode 4, when Gangal puts on the manic
[02:15:42] mask, she becomes the opposite of the
[02:15:44] kind-hearted ribbon girl we've come to
[02:15:45] know and love. She gets in Pomny's face
[02:15:48] and [music] yells at her, tattles on
[02:15:49] Jack's decaying, and even forces him to
[02:15:51] watch one of her VHS instructional tapes
[02:15:54] against his will. And if you take a peek
[02:15:56] into the video description for that fast
[02:15:57] food episode on YouTube, it reads in
[02:15:59] part, quote, "Gangle is the manager and
[02:16:01] has a brand new mask. It's like she's a
[02:16:04] brand new person." A new person, huh? An
[02:16:07] evil version of herself, one could say.
[02:16:09] Now, to be clear, I am not trying to say
[02:16:11] that Gangle is literally turning into a
[02:16:13] new character here. And I'm not trying
[02:16:14] to say that someone going through a
[02:16:16] serious mental health crisis is in any
[02:16:19] way becoming evil. Like far from it. In
[02:16:22] fact, I I feel like this is a pretty
[02:16:24] common, pretty human thing to feel. Like
[02:16:26] I don't know about you, but some days I
[02:16:28] wake up and I just don't feel right. I I
[02:16:31] don't feel like myself. It feels like
[02:16:33] the person getting out of bed is like
[02:16:35] the evil clone of me. Look, the point
[02:16:38] I'm trying to make here is that Gangal
[02:16:39] isn't just some he look at the funny sad
[02:16:42] character. Like she's not Eeyore. Just
[02:16:45] like everyone else in the digital
[02:16:46] circus, she's a very real person dealing
[02:16:48] with some very real emotions. Something
[02:16:50] that a real therapist or psychiatrist
[02:16:52] could probably help her out with. But
[02:16:55] but definitely not Kane. That would just
[02:16:57] make things worse. At the very least
[02:16:59] though, Gengal could use a friend. And
[02:17:01] thankfully she does have someone who's
[02:17:02] willing to listen to her. I'm of course
[02:17:04] talking about the foulmouthed mix and
[02:17:06] match toy that is Zubil.
[02:17:10] So much like Gengal, when the amazing
[02:17:12] digital circus began, Zubel felt pretty
[02:17:15] one note. In the first two episodes,
[02:17:16] they had what, like three lines, and
[02:17:18] like most of that was literally them
[02:17:20] just swearing. Honestly, go off my lege.
[02:17:22] Once the adventure started in those
[02:17:24] episodes, Zubel would zoo off. Middle
[02:17:26] fingers and toe playing the grouchy
[02:17:28] archetype. But even as early as episode
[02:17:31] 2, we could tell that there was more to
[02:17:33] Zubel than meets the mismatched eyes.
[02:17:35] While everyone else was slowly
[02:17:36] destabilizing the Candy Canyon Kingdom,
[02:17:39] Zubel spent that time setting up for
[02:17:40] Kofmo's funeral, letting the group say
[02:17:43] goodbye to their friend, which as a side
[02:17:45] note to me is pretty fascinating because
[02:17:47] according to Goose Works, Zubel was the
[02:17:49] character who entered the circus just
[02:17:50] before Pomny. That means that they would
[02:17:52] have spent the least amount of time with
[02:17:54] Kofmo before he abstracted. So, them
[02:17:56] doing this really says a lot about Zubil
[02:17:58] in a great way, I have to say. Anyway,
[02:18:00] since then though, we've been given
[02:18:01] enough Zubal lore to fill a Zubel chest
[02:18:03] with. And in fact, in the noir bar scene
[02:18:05] in episode 5, we got hints at how Zubel
[02:18:08] ended up stuck in the digital circus in
[02:18:10] the first place. Here, Pomney explains
[02:18:11] what she did for fun in her previous
[02:18:13] life.
[02:18:14] Well, I sometimes got bored of things
[02:18:17] and I would seek out mild thrills like
[02:18:19] exploring abandoned buildings, you know,
[02:18:21] and posting videos of it online.
[02:18:23] We talked about this in our last video
[02:18:25] about the digital circus, but reading
[02:18:27] between the lines here, this is telling
[02:18:28] us that Pomny was an urban explorer.
[02:18:31] stumbled upon the abandoned CNA offices,
[02:18:33] put on the weird headset, and bam. Next
[02:18:35] thing you know, she's a gesture in a
[02:18:37] retro video game, which is neat and all,
[02:18:39] but just listen to how Zubel responds to
[02:18:41] this.
[02:18:41] I sometimes did that. I wouldn't record
[02:18:43] it, though.
[02:18:43] They were also an urban explorer. And if
[02:18:46] I were to guess, they suffered literally
[02:18:48] the exact same fate as Pomni, exploring
[02:18:50] that CNA building and putting on that
[02:18:52] same headset. But outside of that
[02:18:54] speculation, we also get some concrete
[02:18:56] facts about Zubel's backstory, too.
[02:18:58] Prior to entering the circus, Zubel
[02:19:00] spent some time as a bartender and a
[02:19:02] tattoo artist, which is actually pretty
[02:19:04] impressive given the fact that Zubel is
[02:19:06] supposedly just 22 years old. And both
[02:19:08] of those jobs typically require you to
[02:19:10] be at least 18, sometimes older. Funnily
[02:19:13] enough, though, this history as a
[02:19:14] bartender also really fits the Zubel
[02:19:16] character arc because they very much
[02:19:18] give sage advice similar to the
[02:19:20] bartender trope you see in just so much
[02:19:22] media. For example, that moment earlier
[02:19:24] with Gangle. How are you supposed to
[02:19:26] like the part of yourself that just
[02:19:28] makes you worse than everyone else?
[02:19:30] Yeah, Zubel was the other part of that
[02:19:32] interaction, giving some truly great
[02:19:34] advice about self-care. And this isn't
[02:19:36] just a one-off with Gengal.
[02:19:37] And now I don't think anybody wants to
[02:19:39] talk to me anymore.
[02:19:41] I still like talking to you. Look, the
[02:19:43] new mask was a bust. So what? I'm sure
[02:19:45] we'll find something that works
[02:19:46] eventually.
[02:19:47] Man, Zubel's a great friend. But while
[02:19:49] they're more than willing to be a voice
[02:19:50] of reason and a good friend to others in
[02:19:53] the circus, it's safe to say that Zubel
[02:19:55] themselves is also dealing with some
[02:19:57] heavy personal struggles, but they're
[02:19:59] doing it alone. In episode 3, Zubil
[02:20:01] explains that they're refusing to go on
[02:20:03] adventures, not because they're a jerk
[02:20:05] or lazy or anything like that, but
[02:20:08] instead because
[02:20:09] it's me, remember? I don't like myself.
[02:20:12] I hate this body. I hate all these
[02:20:14] stupid removable pieces. I just want to
[02:20:17] find something that feels good.
[02:20:19] They feel uncomfortable in the body
[02:20:21] they've been given here in the circus.
[02:20:23] And despite the fact that Kane has
[02:20:24] provided Zubel with a near endless
[02:20:26] supply of parts to mix and match,
[02:20:28] nothing's felt right. In fact, we've
[02:20:31] mentioned this before, but if you pay
[02:20:33] attention, Zubel's been trying out new
[02:20:35] parts in each and every episode, but to
[02:20:37] no avail. This along with the fact that
[02:20:40] Zubil uses any pronouns means that it's
[02:20:42] not a crazy reveal to point out that
[02:20:44] Zubil is very much a representative for
[02:20:46] the transgender and non-binary
[02:20:48] communities. Now, I'm not part of those
[02:20:50] communities myself, and I want to stay
[02:20:52] in my lane, but everything I've
[02:20:53] researched and the people I've talked to
[02:20:55] explain very similar feelings. A lot of
[02:20:58] them deal with body dissatisfaction or
[02:21:00] body dysmorphia, like they're not
[02:21:02] comfortable in the bodies they've been
[02:21:03] given and are trying to find something
[02:21:05] that fits them better. It's also worth
[02:21:07] pointing out that Goose Works herself is
[02:21:09] a transw woman. And though I don't want
[02:21:10] to assume anything about her
[02:21:12] experiences, I think it's safe to assume
[02:21:14] that at least some of them have been
[02:21:16] woven into Zubel's writing here. I mean,
[02:21:18] Zubel's triangular head is even
[02:21:20] reminiscent of one of Goose Works's
[02:21:22] avatars. The parallels make sense, which
[02:21:24] also means that these are feelings that
[02:21:26] Zubel is having to deal with on top of
[02:21:28] being part of a circus themed nightmare.
[02:21:31] But unlike Gengal, who has someone like
[02:21:33] Zubel to help support them, Zubel is
[02:21:35] more or less struggling in silence. I I
[02:21:38] mean, unless you count talking to Kane,
[02:21:40] which I don't, my guy forgets all of
[02:21:42] their conversations like immediately.
[02:21:44] Forget it.
[02:21:45] Just forget it.
[02:21:46] Forget what?
[02:21:47] So, with all of that in mind, what can
[02:21:49] Zubel do here? I I mean, other than
[02:21:51] opening up to the others, well, if you
[02:21:53] go back to their conversations with
[02:21:55] Gengal, I couldn't help but notice just
[02:21:57] how much of it might be useful to Zubil
[02:21:59] themselves. I I mean, just listen.
[02:22:02] Look, the new mask was a bust. So what?
[02:22:04] I'm sure we'll find something that works
[02:22:05] eventually.
[02:22:06] How are you supposed to like the part of
[02:22:08] [music] yourself that just makes you
[02:22:09] worse than everyone else
[02:22:11] cuz it exists. It's a part of you that's
[02:22:14] real. And the only you that you should
[02:22:17] care about is the real you. You have to
[02:22:19] choose to love yourself. Even if it
[02:22:21] doesn't make sense, it's not natural.
[02:22:24] It's intentional.
[02:22:25] I mean, come on. We'll keep trying to
[02:22:27] find something until it works. The only
[02:22:30] you you should really care about is the
[02:22:32] real you. You have to choose to love
[02:22:34] yourself. And in that last clip, we
[02:22:36] literally see Zubel reflected in
[02:22:38] Gengal's mask. [music] In terms of
[02:22:39] visual storytelling, that's absolute
[02:22:41] cinema. Though, I should mention that
[02:22:43] some of the folks in these communities
[02:22:45] that I've talked to about this script
[02:22:46] and about Zubil had a slightly different
[02:22:48] [music] take, one that I wanted to bring
[02:22:50] up here, and that's that this is advice
[02:22:51] that Zubel was giving, but couldn't
[02:22:54] actually take themselves. Their
[02:22:55] experience might be one that's more
[02:22:57] about coming to grips with who they are,
[02:22:59] to find their own self-acceptance while
[02:23:01] not conforming to what everyone else
[02:23:02] says is right or normal. After all, and
[02:23:05] I cannot stress this enough, being trans
[02:23:08] or non-binary isn't a mental illness.
[02:23:11] It's just a part of who you are. But are
[02:23:13] they ready to accept that? Because
[02:23:15] judging by the way Zubel reacts to
[02:23:17] Gengal's follow-up to this conversation.
[02:23:19] Have you ever had to make that choice?
[02:23:22] Huh?
[02:23:22] I think the answer is no. Not yet, at
[02:23:25] least. So, the only question left to
[02:23:27] answer is, well, what happens next? So,
[02:23:31] the last episode ended with a bit of a
[02:23:33] cliffhanger. Jax and Pomny, who had
[02:23:35] become closer over the past few
[02:23:36] episodes, had a bit of a tiff, resulting
[02:23:38] in Jax almost abstracting at the end of
[02:23:40] the episode. And so, when this next
[02:23:42] episode kicks off, I imagine that Jax is
[02:23:45] likely going to go back to his favorite
[02:23:46] old punching bag to try to regain a
[02:23:48] sense of normaly. And that's going to be
[02:23:50] Gangle. This will almost certainly be a
[02:23:53] make orb breakak moment for Gengal. When
[02:23:55] Jax inevitably starts being Jax, is
[02:23:57] Gengal going to put her foot down and
[02:23:59] make it stop or will she continue
[02:24:00] twisting herself into knots to try to
[02:24:02] keep Jax happy? In our last theory, we
[02:24:04] pointed out that Goosework said that the
[02:24:06] next episode will make a certain type of
[02:24:08] fan very annoyed. And that could be the
[02:24:10] Jax stands who are happy with him being
[02:24:12] a jerk. I believe that Jax is going to
[02:24:14] take things a step or two too far and
[02:24:17] really get called out for it in a way
[02:24:18] that drives a wedge between the cast.
[02:24:20] And in the end, that might cause Jax to
[02:24:23] abstract. As for Zubil, well, at some
[02:24:25] point, they really are going to need to
[02:24:26] grapple with some of the serious
[02:24:28] questions hanging over their head.
[02:24:29] They'll need to have conversations with
[02:24:31] everyone else and allow them to be the
[02:24:33] shoulders to lean on for once. But
[02:24:35] judging by the reaction to Gengal's Uno
[02:24:37] reverse card, that's going to be much
[02:24:39] much easier said than done. And and who
[02:24:41] knows, maybe they're already on that
[02:24:43] right path. On the one hand, over the
[02:24:46] past few episodes, we've started to see
[02:24:47] Zubil really open up, even if just a
[02:24:50] tiny amount. They've [music] expressed
[02:24:51] how they've been feeling lately, even if
[02:24:53] only to Kain. They've started to
[02:24:55] participate in the adventures and even
[02:24:57] make suggestions on what sort of
[02:24:58] adventures they'd like to go on.
[02:25:00] Clearly, Zubel has become much more
[02:25:02] comfortable with saying exactly what
[02:25:03] they want rather than just flipping the
[02:25:05] bird and walking away. Though I do have
[02:25:07] to wonder if there's a bit of a darker
[02:25:09] path that could be taken here with Zubil
[02:25:11] if they aren't able to confront those
[02:25:13] questions. During episode 6, Zubel asks
[02:25:15] Ragatha if she has any of the stupid
[02:25:17] sauce left over from the fast food
[02:25:19] episode. And at the very end of the
[02:25:21] episode, we see a quick shot of Zubil
[02:25:23] very much zooted out on the sauce. Could
[02:25:25] that be a hint of a story line to come
[02:25:27] about trying to find escape in other
[02:25:29] ways? At this point, only Goose Works
[02:25:31] knows. Hey gang, a new episode of The
[02:25:34] Amazing Digital Circus just dropped. So,
[02:25:36] you know, I wanted to hop back into that
[02:25:38] world again, but well, we're taking a
[02:25:40] bit of a swing here. Not because I
[02:25:42] necessarily think that this theory is
[02:25:44] wrong or anything like that, but because
[02:25:46] this is coming out the very same weekend
[02:25:48] as a brand new episode of the show.
[02:25:50] Generally, it takes us two weeks to
[02:25:52] actually make one of these theories, one
[02:25:54] to research and write it, and one to
[02:25:56] edit it. So, this video won't be
[02:25:58] addressing anything in episode 8 beyond
[02:26:00] what's in the trailer. But even then,
[02:26:02] well, episode 7 gave us a lot to talk
[02:26:05] about. See, doing theories about The
[02:26:07] Amazing Digital Circus has always been a
[02:26:10] strange experience for me. I mean, just
[02:26:12] look at one of our videos last year
[02:26:13] where I talk about how we were just
[02:26:15] wrong about the series. But recently,
[02:26:17] it's been even more challenging because
[02:26:19] of the events of episode 7. Yeah, in
[02:26:22] case you need a refresher, this episode
[02:26:23] has the cast meet up with a secret cast
[02:26:26] member who's been lurking in the
[02:26:27] background of several episodes, a
[02:26:29] mannequin named Abel. He claims that
[02:26:31] he's a human who was given an NPC's
[02:26:34] appearance and therefore has been
[02:26:35] overlooked by Kane and that he's been
[02:26:37] able to sneak around in the background
[02:26:39] because of it. He explains that he and
[02:26:41] Ker were the ones that invented the
[02:26:43] digital circus together at a company
[02:26:45] called CNA and then leads the cast on a
[02:26:47] quest to escape the circus. And I mean,
[02:26:49] hey, that sounds great. That confirms
[02:26:51] some of our theories, right? However, at
[02:26:53] the end of the episode, Jax foils the
[02:26:55] plot and forces everyone to stay in the
[02:26:57] circus. But then Kane appears and
[02:27:00] explains that actually none of what we
[02:27:02] just watched was even real. There was no
[02:27:04] Ael. Kangar's past is still a mystery
[02:27:07] and the escape was a lie. It was all
[02:27:09] just an adventure that Kane cooked up
[02:27:11] because he knew the cast wanted out of
[02:27:13] the circus and this was his best shot to
[02:27:15] give them what they wanted.
[02:27:16] You mean this was all
[02:27:18] an adventure? Yes. and one I've been
[02:27:21] cooking up for a good long while.
[02:27:23] We'd previously speculated that
[02:27:24] theorists weren't going to be quote
[02:27:26] unquote happy with episode 7 because it
[02:27:29] was going to be shutting down a lot of
[02:27:31] the things that the community was
[02:27:32] putting together about escaping the
[02:27:34] circus. And well, we were right there.
[02:27:37] Heck, this episode even went out of its
[02:27:39] way to poke some good-hearted fun at the
[02:27:41] whole religious angle we pointed out
[02:27:43] when the show first aired and now
[02:27:45] forever lives on in Matt Pat out of
[02:27:47] context compilations. To be honest, I've
[02:27:50] been stuck thinking about this and how
[02:27:51] exactly to approach the show now. I
[02:27:54] mean, I really like the series and want
[02:27:56] to continue talking about it. But, you
[02:27:58] know, The Amazing Digital Circus really
[02:28:00] does seem to go out of its way to laugh
[02:28:02] in the face of videos that explain how
[02:28:04] one small detail [clears throat] reveals
[02:28:06] everything. What do you do to work with
[02:28:08] that as a theorist? And well, the more
[02:28:11] I've thought about it, the more I've dug
[02:28:13] deep to figure this show out, the more I
[02:28:15] realized that we are just as trapped as
[02:28:18] the cast here in The Amazing Digital
[02:28:20] Circus. Me, you, every theorist out
[02:28:22] there, we are trapped by our ideas, and
[02:28:26] even then, despite all of that, if we
[02:28:28] look at three pieces of inspirations
[02:28:30] that we know influenced The Amazing
[02:28:32] Digital Circus, and one that I'm pretty
[02:28:34] sure did, we can use those clues to
[02:28:36] figure out where this story is going.
[02:28:38] And spoiler alert, I think the answer
[02:28:40] has been staring us in the face the
[02:28:42] entire time. We've mentioned this
[02:28:44] before, but there is no escape from the
[02:28:47] amazing digital circus. Kane and his AI
[02:28:50] are going to torture these characters
[02:28:52] until the end of time, [music] and
[02:28:54] that's the point. But you know what?
[02:28:56] That may still be the best thing for
[02:28:58] this show and its ending. So transform
[02:29:00] into your circus sonas, friends, as we
[02:29:02] once again venture into the amazing
[02:29:04] digital circus. So, what are the three
[02:29:06] influences I mentioned earlier? Well,
[02:29:08] first up, let's talk about I Have No
[02:29:10] Mouth and I Must Scream. We've talked
[02:29:12] about this story very briefly before in
[02:29:14] a previous Digital Circus Theory, but in
[02:29:17] case you need a refresher or, you know,
[02:29:19] you weren't forced to read this one in
[02:29:21] school. I have no mouth and I must
[02:29:22] scream is a short story written by
[02:29:24] Harlon Ellison. It's set in a world
[02:29:26] where the Cold War escalated into World
[02:29:28] War II and then destroyed the planet. We
[02:29:31] wouldn't know anything about that, would
[02:29:33] we? Every country created their own
[02:29:34] supercomputers called allied master
[02:29:37] computers or AM for short. However, the
[02:29:40] computers eventually merge and gain true
[02:29:42] artificial intelligence, destroying
[02:29:43] humanity except for five individuals it
[02:29:46] keeps alive for its own amusement,
[02:29:47] forcing them to go on adventures that
[02:29:49] have no real point, huh? Doesn't that
[02:29:53] sound familiar? Anyway, the story is
[02:29:54] pretty short and you can actually listen
[02:29:56] to the audio book narrated by the author
[02:29:58] himself right here on YouTube. It's
[02:30:00] definitely worth the listen. I have no
[02:30:02] mouth is an incredibly influential story
[02:30:04] and spawned its own video game. And it's
[02:30:06] pretty well known that Goose Works was
[02:30:07] inspired by the story for the amazing
[02:30:09] digital circus. And I mean, yeah, just
[02:30:12] on the surface, that's pretty clear. But
[02:30:14] if you dig into the story and what
[02:30:16] actually happens in it, you'll find a
[02:30:17] lot about where the digital circus story
[02:30:19] might be going, especially for its
[02:30:22] characters. For instance, check out this
[02:30:23] quote from the short story. But even
[02:30:25] though we could call AM any damned thing
[02:30:27] we liked, could think the foulless
[02:30:29] thoughts of fused memory banks and
[02:30:31] corroded base plates, of burntout
[02:30:33] circuits and shattered control bubbles,
[02:30:35] the machine would not tolerate our
[02:30:37] trying to escape. The human characters
[02:30:40] could think anything they wanted to
[02:30:42] about AM. But the moment they tried to
[02:30:44] actually leave him, they were punished.
[02:30:47] Now, this isn't quite the case in The
[02:30:48] Amazing Digital Circus yet, but given
[02:30:51] how much Kane seems to be devolving, it
[02:30:53] could very easily become the case down
[02:30:55] the line if he starts going more insane.
[02:30:57] But that's not the only similarity. The
[02:31:00] personalities of all the characters
[02:31:02] within I Have No Mouth have been
[02:31:04] altered, either amplified into something
[02:31:06] terrible or changed in ways that
[02:31:08] conflict with the soul of the character.
[02:31:11] One was once handsome and intelligent,
[02:31:13] but now looks like a giant monkey and
[02:31:15] has been driven insane. Another was once
[02:31:18] peaceful and idealistic and was changed
[02:31:20] to be bored and apathetic. A third had
[02:31:23] his name stripped from him and is
[02:31:25] traumatized frequently. A fourth has
[02:31:27] been abused and programmed to enjoy it.
[02:31:30] And the narrator, well, he believes that
[02:31:32] he hasn't been altered by AM, despite AM
[02:31:34] making him far more introverted and
[02:31:37] paranoid. Ironically, this makes him
[02:31:39] believe that the others hate him for not
[02:31:41] being changed despite truly having been.
[02:31:44] And as you can imagine, all of these are
[02:31:47] just terrible fates. Now, obviously,
[02:31:49] this isn't exactly what happens to the
[02:31:51] characters in the digital circus. Like,
[02:31:53] their bodies seem to take on
[02:31:54] characteristics of their personalities
[02:31:56] already, which then amplify those
[02:31:58] personalities even further. We talked
[02:32:00] about this in depth before in our
[02:32:02] character studies, but just some top
[02:32:04] level examples. Well, Zubil feels very
[02:32:06] uncomfortable in their body, so their
[02:32:08] design is very plugandplay with
[02:32:10] different arms and legs and whatnot so
[02:32:13] they can try to find something better.
[02:32:14] Gangle seems to go back and forth wildly
[02:32:17] between being happy and sad, so they use
[02:32:19] the comedy and tragedy masks to show how
[02:32:22] they're feeling. We don't need to go
[02:32:23] through everybody. You get the idea.
[02:32:25] That being said, we also know that Kane
[02:32:27] can tweak their personalities.
[02:32:29] Let's skip this one and also make Jax a
[02:32:31] vegan for the rest of the day.
[02:32:33] You can't do that.
[02:32:35] But he insists that these aren't
[02:32:37] permanent.
[02:32:38] I may have the ability to add temporary
[02:32:40] modifiers to make adventures more
[02:32:42] interesting, but that's it. If I did
[02:32:45] anything more, trust me, it would not
[02:32:48] end well. Scratch, the first
[02:32:50] abstraction. Did you hear that? Kar is
[02:32:53] remembering somebody named Scratch, the
[02:32:55] first person who ever abstracted because
[02:32:58] Kane changed his personality too much.
[02:33:00] Here, Kane claims that he doesn't do
[02:33:02] this that much anymore, but well, what
[02:33:04] if he's wrong? If he doesn't remember,
[02:33:07] or what if he's just straight up lying?
[02:33:10] Next, both of these AIs throw these
[02:33:13] characters into wild goose chases. The
[02:33:15] plot of the I have no mouth short story
[02:33:17] is all about these characters looking
[02:33:18] for some relief to find some canned food
[02:33:21] to cure their endless hunger in caves
[02:33:23] far away. And to get there, they start a
[02:33:26] massive journey to go look for it
[02:33:27] without any real evidence that there's
[02:33:29] even any canned food at the end of the
[02:33:32] road. That sounds a lot like what
[02:33:33] happens in Digital Circus episode 7,
[02:33:36] where the cast latch on to even the
[02:33:37] slightest chance that there's an escape
[02:33:39] from their digital prison without any
[02:33:41] guarantee that there's any chance it
[02:33:43] could work. And both I Have No Mouth and
[02:33:45] episode 7 end similarly. When the cast
[02:33:48] of I Have No Mouth eventually do find
[02:33:50] the canned food after a dangerous,
[02:33:52] treacherous, torturous journey, they
[02:33:54] realize that they can't open any of the
[02:33:56] cans and put them on this adventure
[02:33:59] without any way to actually finish it.
[02:34:01] Similarly, the cast of the digital
[02:34:03] circus try to escape [music] before
[02:34:05] realizing that it was all just another
[02:34:07] game that Kane set up and that there's
[02:34:09] no actual way out. The motivations for
[02:34:11] AM and Kane are very different in these
[02:34:14] situations. Kane was trying to fulfill a
[02:34:16] fantasy for the cast while Anne was just
[02:34:18] trying to inflict pain. But that outcome
[02:34:21] is still awfully similar. And if we
[02:34:23] apply that to the future of this series,
[02:34:25] well, I could see Kane once again trying
[02:34:28] to pull what the cast want to happen as
[02:34:30] a wild goose chase, torturing them with
[02:34:33] things that they want just out of reach,
[02:34:35] but in a way that just makes everything
[02:34:37] [music] worse. Again, this has been
[02:34:39] written and recorded before episode 8
[02:34:41] was released, but based on the trailer
[02:34:43] we see, we might get a hint that he's
[02:34:45] going to be doing this with former
[02:34:46] members of the cast, characters that
[02:34:48] have already abstracted. We can briefly
[02:34:51] see Queenie appear in a scene with
[02:34:52] Kinger. And it looks like Jax is holding
[02:34:55] a coffee cup identical to one seen in a
[02:34:57] photograph with Ribbit and Kofmo. And
[02:34:59] look, it seems like Ribbit's shadow can
[02:35:02] be seen in the corner of this image. So,
[02:35:04] it looks like this story is going to
[02:35:06] bring in either visions or flashbacks to
[02:35:09] these abstracted characters, or Kane is
[02:35:11] going to somehow resurrect them [music]
[02:35:13] for either the next adventure or in some
[02:35:15] twisted attempt to make the rest of the
[02:35:17] cast feel better, to make them love him,
[02:35:19] [clears throat] even though this would
[02:35:21] do the opposite. Either way, the main
[02:35:23] thing we can learn from this
[02:35:24] inspiration, from how I have no mouth
[02:35:27] and I must scream handles the characters
[02:35:29] that its AI [music] is torturing.
[02:35:30] Whether it's coming from a place of just
[02:35:32] wanting to make the cast happy or a
[02:35:34] secret urge to hurt them, Kane will keep
[02:35:36] dangling what the cast want in front of
[02:35:38] their faces, but he can never really
[02:35:40] give it to them. He can't offer them a
[02:35:43] way out or bring their friends back.
[02:35:45] There is no escape. And well, that might
[02:35:48] not just apply to the cast, but for
[02:35:51] anything [music] and everything in the
[02:35:53] circus. What do I mean by that? Why do I
[02:35:55] say it? Well, it's all because of the
[02:35:57] second piece of inspiration here, the
[02:35:59] 1998 film, The Truman Show. If you've
[02:36:02] never seen The Truman Show, well, you
[02:36:04] absolutely should go watch it. It's a
[02:36:06] classic and one of the best performances
[02:36:07] of Jim Car's career. But the long and
[02:36:10] short of the plot, the movie follows
[02:36:12] Truman Burbank, a guy who's the star of
[02:36:14] the most popular reality TV series on
[02:36:16] the planet. Every waking moment of his
[02:36:19] life is recorded and broadcast for the
[02:36:21] world to see, and everything is part of
[02:36:23] the show. His friends, his job, even his
[02:36:26] wife. In fact, he straight up lives in a
[02:36:28] massive television set where everything
[02:36:30] and anything can be controlled. The
[02:36:32] lights, the day, the weather. But the
[02:36:35] twist, Truman doesn't know he's in a
[02:36:38] reality show. He's been raised since
[02:36:40] birth thinking that this is just his
[02:36:42] life. And the producers of the show do
[02:36:44] everything to keep the illusion alive
[02:36:46] for Truman to make the best show
[02:36:48] possible. Now, obviously, a lot of these
[02:36:50] ideas already line up with the Digital
[02:36:52] Circus. Everything in both series is
[02:36:55] constructed by the producers or by Kane.
[02:36:58] Everyone is watched all the time. events
[02:37:00] are manipulated for the betterment of
[02:37:02] the show and in a lot of cases a lot is
[02:37:05] done to keep the secret or mystique of
[02:37:07] the story line going. But of course, by
[02:37:10] the end of the film, Truman realizes
[02:37:12] what's going on. And in one of the most
[02:37:14] memorable moments from cinema, he says,
[02:37:17] "In case I don't see you, good
[02:37:18] afternoon, good evening, and good
[02:37:19] night." before disappearing through a
[02:37:21] door at the edge of the set. The visual
[02:37:24] of this shot is iconic and was actually
[02:37:26] recreated for the thumbnail for the
[02:37:28] trailer for episode 8 with Kane taking
[02:37:30] the place of Truman. Clearly, they want
[02:37:32] us to associate these moments. How the
[02:37:34] cast of the digital circus are basically
[02:37:37] Truman in this situation. But what's
[02:37:39] interesting though is that the person in
[02:37:41] place of Truman here in this thumbnail
[02:37:43] image isn't one of the cast members. is
[02:37:46] someone who is being toyed with or
[02:37:47] observed all the time. You know, someone
[02:37:50] like Pomny, who you think would be a
[02:37:51] perfect standin here? No, instead it's
[02:37:54] Kane, which then begs the question, is
[02:37:57] Kane actually the standin for Truman
[02:37:59] here? Are we supposed to sympathize with
[02:38:01] Kane? And the answer to that question
[02:38:03] isn't clear-cut. I mean, this is a
[02:38:06] complex situation. Obviously, Kane is an
[02:38:08] AI and not in the cool helpful tool sort
[02:38:11] of way. He's generating these
[02:38:13] experiences from regurgitated ideas like
[02:38:15] the slop an AI art program would spit
[02:38:18] out and he has no real understanding of
[02:38:20] what it means to be human and alive. You
[02:38:23] know, thus why he then unintentionally
[02:38:25] tortures the cast, but also like he
[02:38:28] didn't choose to be alive. He was
[02:38:30] created. He's also trapped here in the
[02:38:33] circus in a way. and taking the real
[02:38:35] world conversation about generative AI
[02:38:37] out of this show in this situation. I
[02:38:40] mean, I feel for Kane. He needs people
[02:38:42] to enjoy his adventures, his creation.
[02:38:45] He is trying to get the cast to talk to
[02:38:47] him, trying to interact with them. And
[02:38:48] yet, they want nothing to do with him.
[02:38:51] He creates all of these things that he
[02:38:53] thinks are awesome for them, and they
[02:38:55] don't like any of his ideas. They just
[02:38:58] want something that he cannot give them.
[02:39:01] Honestly, in a lot of ways, he feels
[02:39:03] like a standin for an artist. Well, at
[02:39:05] least one here on the internet. So,
[02:39:07] based on those two pieces of
[02:39:09] inspiration, there's no escape for the
[02:39:11] cast, and there's no escape for Kane and
[02:39:13] his crew either. But what about the
[02:39:15] world, the digital circus itself? Well,
[02:39:18] to get some answers there, we can look
[02:39:20] at influence number three, a video game
[02:39:22] called The Stanley Parable. If you don't
[02:39:24] know, this was a game about an office
[02:39:25] worker named Stanley who finds himself
[02:39:27] alone in his empty workplace. A narrator
[02:39:30] begins describing what Stanley is then
[02:39:32] supposed to do, guiding him through the
[02:39:34] building. But Stanley doesn't have to
[02:39:36] follow the instructions. I mean, you as
[02:39:38] the player can, or you can disobey.
[02:39:41] Every decision leads to a wildly
[02:39:43] different outcome where Stanley might
[02:39:45] escape, die, shut down the game, or
[02:39:48] seemingly break the story itself. And
[02:39:50] here's the thing, Goose Works has said
[02:39:52] that The Stanley Parable influenced a
[02:39:54] lot of how she does things. And I mean,
[02:39:56] that's pretty clear, right? Just
[02:39:58] visually, if you're looking at footage
[02:39:59] from the game, you can probably already
[02:40:01] tell that it looks very similar to the
[02:40:03] quote unquote real world we see in The
[02:40:05] Amazing Digital Circus. And from a
[02:40:07] thematic point of view, well, no matter
[02:40:09] what, Stanley can't actually win in The
[02:40:12] Stanley Parable. The game is all about
[02:40:14] the illusion of choice. And if you
[02:40:17] disobey the narrator, that has already
[02:40:19] been written in as an option. Every path
[02:40:21] leads back to the same loop, more or
[02:40:24] less starting the game over. And in some
[02:40:26] cases, it might even reset or crash the
[02:40:28] game. That loyal theorists is also the
[02:40:30] endgame here in the digital circus. This
[02:40:32] is a story where there almost certainly
[02:40:34] won't be a happy ending. And in a way,
[02:40:37] everything loops. One character
[02:40:39] abstracts and then another's going to
[02:40:40] come into the circus over and over and
[02:40:43] over. Omni is just the most recent
[02:40:45] incarnation of this, and it seems as
[02:40:47] though Kane and the circus and all of
[02:40:48] the NPCs have accounted for anything and
[02:40:51] everything the cast want to do. All
[02:40:53] right, so as a quick recap here, the
[02:40:55] cast are trapped just like I have no
[02:40:57] mouth. Kane is trapped just like the
[02:40:59] Truman Show. And the circus itself is
[02:41:01] sort of a looped trap based on the
[02:41:03] Stanley Parable. Now, obviously,
[02:41:05] something can be inspired by a work and
[02:41:07] not take every single theme from it. And
[02:41:10] again, I have to stress that this was
[02:41:11] written and recorded before episode 8
[02:41:13] came out. But that's a lot of signs
[02:41:15] pointing towards the answer of how to
[02:41:17] escape from the torture that is the
[02:41:19] amazing digital circus being that there
[02:41:22] is no answer. There is no escape. And
[02:41:25] honestly, that gives me a lot of
[02:41:27] complicated emotions. Like on the face
[02:41:29] of things, that's a fascinating way to
[02:41:32] take this story. And Goose Works and
[02:41:34] Glitch should tell the story that they
[02:41:36] want to. But it's also a bit
[02:41:38] disappointing as someone who likes there
[02:41:40] to be answers, that likes to be able to
[02:41:42] solve a mystery as it's being laid out.
[02:41:45] But what I believe we also need to
[02:41:47] consider here actually comes from a
[02:41:49] final influence on the story of the
[02:41:51] amazing digital circus. One that I don't
[02:41:53] believe Goose Works has directly pointed
[02:41:55] to, but that is still clear. The play
[02:41:58] Waiting for GDAU by Samuel Beckett. I
[02:42:00] promise this is relevant. If you're not
[02:42:02] super well-versed on absurdest comedy
[02:42:05] and theater, Waiting for GDAU is the
[02:42:06] story of two men waiting beside a tree
[02:42:09] for a mysterious figure known as GDAU.
[02:42:11] The pair never actually go anywhere and
[02:42:14] GDAU also never arrives despite the
[02:42:16] belief that he'll be here tomorrow. The
[02:42:19] play ends almost exactly where it began
[02:42:21] with the two men still standing and
[02:42:23] still waiting. Now, that might sound
[02:42:25] pretty frustrating as an audience
[02:42:26] member, and believe me, this play can be
[02:42:29] really divisive for regular
[02:42:30] theatergoers. But if you take a step
[02:42:33] back and understand what Beckett was
[02:42:35] going for with this story, things become
[02:42:37] a bit clearer. Another way to pronounce
[02:42:40] this title is waiting for God. O, it's a
[02:42:43] religious allegory. It's saying that God
[02:42:45] is not going to magically come in and
[02:42:47] save you, and you need to make the best
[02:42:49] of what you have. And that is the theme
[02:42:52] of the amazing digital circus. These
[02:42:54] characters are in a terrible, horrible
[02:42:56] situation. And for them, a real escape
[02:42:59] probably isn't going to be finding a
[02:43:01] literal door that leads to the outside
[02:43:03] world. I mean, they had an entire
[02:43:05] episode of the show shutting down that
[02:43:07] idea. No, the real escape is going to be
[02:43:10] a change in mindset to survive their new
[02:43:13] reality. And the conclusion that I've
[02:43:15] come to after spending months thinking
[02:43:17] about this series and trying to theorize
[02:43:19] our way out of this show, out of the
[02:43:21] problems that it's laid out before us as
[02:43:23] a fandom, that's leaving us just as
[02:43:26] trapped as the characters in the circus
[02:43:28] itself. Like, think of it this way. The
[02:43:31] Amazing Digital Circus is a series that
[02:43:33] just did not go the way that we
[02:43:35] expected, that I expected. It seems like
[02:43:37] there's no real true means of escape
[02:43:40] here. As we've said, there isn't an
[02:43:42] answer, which can feel disappointing.
[02:43:44] Who doesn't love to feel like they've
[02:43:46] solved a puzzle? And I mean, we're
[02:43:47] theorists. We like to look at story
[02:43:50] beats and predict what comes next. We
[02:43:52] love closure. And a lot of the time, we
[02:43:55] yearn for that happy ending. But that
[02:43:57] just isn't the story that Goose Works
[02:44:00] and Glitch seem to want to tell here.
[02:44:02] Have you heard the term death of the
[02:44:04] author before? It's the idea that when a
[02:44:07] work of art is released out into the
[02:44:09] wild, what the author intended it to
[02:44:10] mean doesn't actually matter all that
[02:44:12] much anymore. You can agree or disagree
[02:44:15] with that. I see both arguments, though
[02:44:17] personally I agree with it more than I
[02:44:19] don't, but that doesn't apply when the
[02:44:21] work is still being made, when it's
[02:44:24] still being written, the author isn't
[02:44:26] dead until they actually make the art.
[02:44:29] And what Goose Works and Glitch are
[02:44:31] still making with the amazing digital
[02:44:32] circus is what goes right now. they have
[02:44:35] that final say. Now, let me be clear.
[02:44:37] That is not to say stop theorizing. We
[02:44:39] should never stop looking at the world
[02:44:41] from new angles. But when it comes to a
[02:44:43] fictional world like this, that
[02:44:44] shouldn't be an excuse to go after a
[02:44:46] creator just because the theories about
[02:44:49] their work didn't pan out or the story
[02:44:51] didn't go in a direction you wanted or
[02:44:52] the character you wanted to be the main
[02:44:54] one isn't the main one. I don't want us,
[02:44:57] both the loyal theorist community and
[02:44:59] any online community that loves
[02:45:01] overthinking media like this to get
[02:45:03] trapped here. I don't want us to be like
[02:45:05] these characters searching for an exit
[02:45:08] where there isn't one. This show might
[02:45:10] never give us the answers we want. And
[02:45:13] you shouldn't be upset about that.
[02:45:15] Trying to find a way out or waiting for
[02:45:17] the voice of God to come in and fix
[02:45:19] everything to be exactly like [music] we
[02:45:21] want it to be when that isn't what
[02:45:22] they're even trying to do. And hey, I
[02:45:25] mean, while I like to be right, I'm also
[02:45:27] okay being wrong. That's why I'm cool
[02:45:29] writing this theory before an episode
[02:45:31] comes out and releasing it two days
[02:45:32] later. Like, dog, do you know how scary
[02:45:34] that can be? And well, I mean, hey, if
[02:45:37] you ever do want the story to go in a
[02:45:38] different direction, we can always write
[02:45:40] fanfiction. So, now that we've gotten a
[02:45:42] chance to digest everything that's
[02:45:43] happened with The Amazing Digital Circus
[02:45:45] episode 8, I wanted to sit down and have
[02:45:47] a proper look at what's happened, right?
[02:45:49] Like, did you hear that episode 9 is
[02:45:51] going to be twice as long as episode 8
[02:45:54] and they're actually releasing it in
[02:45:56] theaters? Yeah, Glitch teamed up with
[02:45:58] some theater chains throughout North
[02:45:59] America to release both episode 8 and 9
[02:46:01] together as The Amazing Digital Circus:
[02:46:04] The Last Act. Tickets actually sold out
[02:46:06] like immediately, and I managed to snag
[02:46:08] some. So, I'll be there in my Film
[02:46:09] Theory 10th anniversary hoodie available
[02:46:11] at theorywear.store. And expect a theory
[02:46:13] about that episode as soon as we can
[02:46:15] make one. And it's been such a hit that
[02:46:16] they're already adding more theaters in
[02:46:18] more [clears throat] countries. Now, in
[02:46:20] most situations, this would be an
[02:46:22] unequivocal win for both Glitch and
[02:46:24] Independent Animation. I mean,
[02:46:26] independent creators as a whole, really.
[02:46:28] Both this and Iron Lung are proving that
[02:46:30] there's real interest in creative ideas
[02:46:32] from anywhere, especially from indie
[02:46:34] artists. You did [music] that and you
[02:46:36] should be proud. But this has also come
[02:46:38] with a big asterisk. A lot of the
[02:46:40] digital circus community are upset that
[02:46:42] this is releasing 2 weeks before the
[02:46:44] YouTube upload drops. So, for a couple
[02:46:46] of weeks, there are going to be spoilers
[02:46:48] and pirated clips filmed in the theaters
[02:46:50] out in the wild before everyone is going
[02:46:52] to have a chance to see this finale.
[02:46:54] There are a lot of fans who either
[02:46:56] missed getting one of those limited
[02:46:57] tickets, live in rural areas that are
[02:46:59] nowhere near a participating theater, or
[02:47:02] can't afford to make a trip to the
[02:47:03] theaters for this event. They vocalized
[02:47:06] that frustration and Glitch actually
[02:47:08] responded in a very long post about it.
[02:47:10] Honestly, this was probably the best
[02:47:12] thing they could have done in this
[02:47:13] situation. They say here that if this
[02:47:15] works and is successful, which it
[02:47:17] appears like it is, it's going to be a
[02:47:19] gamecher for everyone, not just for
[02:47:22] Glitch. There will be a proven example
[02:47:24] that this sort of independent animation
[02:47:26] can be successful in theaters at a wide
[02:47:28] scale, and that opens doors. I mean,
[02:47:31] just look at what Markiplier and Iron
[02:47:32] Lung did. Sony took one look at that and
[02:47:35] green lit a Bloodborne movie from Jack
[02:47:36] SeptiCai. Do you know how difficult it
[02:47:38] is to get them to do anything with
[02:47:40] Bloodborne, but it took a lot of
[02:47:42] negotiations with theaters to even let
[02:47:44] them release the episode online this
[02:47:46] close to the theatrical release? At the
[02:47:48] same time, I really sympathize with all
[02:47:50] the fans who can't see it before the
[02:47:52] upload. If you're in that situation,
[02:47:53] your feelings are absolutely valid and
[02:47:55] there's no two ways about it. This
[02:47:58] sucks. But thankfully, there is
[02:48:00] something you can do about it. If you
[02:48:01] want to see this in theaters and none
[02:48:03] nearby are showing it, respectfully
[02:48:05] reach out to the chain and politely let
[02:48:06] them know that you want to. Doing this
[02:48:08] has already gotten theaters in more
[02:48:10] countries to carry the film, and they're
[02:48:11] adding dates all the way through the
[02:48:12] release of the episode online. If
[02:48:14] anything, that just makes this release
[02:48:16] even more of a win-win for everyone
[02:48:18] involved. Still, for those who won't get
[02:48:20] the chance, it's really on the community
[02:48:22] to rally here and be sure not to spoil
[02:48:25] anything until the full episode releases
[02:48:27] online. I mean, I know I'm going to be
[02:48:29] keeping my mouth shut, and our theory
[02:48:31] isn't going to release until the Sunday
[02:48:32] after the episode is up for everybody to
[02:48:34] see. So, if you're lucky enough to see
[02:48:36] this in theaters, please be kind and
[02:48:39] courteous to your fellow Digital Circus
[02:48:41] fans. Don't give out spoilers randomly.
[02:48:43] And if you have to talk about it,
[02:48:45] clearly mark it. Cool. Cool. All right.
[02:48:47] I I didn't mean to talk about that for
[02:48:49] like 5 minutes, but it seemed like an
[02:48:51] important topic because, well, this has
[02:48:53] never happened before. But okay, we've
[02:48:55] spent more than enough time here on
[02:48:57] that. You know what the digital circus
[02:48:58] is and we all know what happened in
[02:49:00] episode 8 with Kane now being deleted
[02:49:02] and gone forever. But my friends, that
[02:49:05] is a tragedy because this is a tragic
[02:49:08] character and I fear that whatever has
[02:49:10] been left behind now is going to be much
[02:49:12] much worse for our cast of characters.
[02:49:15] So conjure up a computer and hack into
[02:49:17] the database, loyal theorists. Let's get
[02:49:19] right into it. So, we see a lot in
[02:49:21] episode 8, like a surprising amount of
[02:49:23] lore dropped here. For example, we
[02:49:25] actually get to see and hear a lot of
[02:49:27] characters for the first time. Scratch,
[02:49:30] Queenie, and a bunch of the other
[02:49:31] characters we've only seen on the doors
[02:49:33] of rooms. But of course, that can't last
[02:49:36] as we hard cut to Queenie being the last
[02:49:37] person to abstract and Kinger finding
[02:49:39] himself alone until Raggatha arrives,
[02:49:42] looking and sounding a lot like Pomy did
[02:49:44] when she first popped in.
[02:49:45] Uh,
[02:49:47] what?
[02:49:49] From here, we flash forward to the
[02:49:51] present. Kane goes on a bit of a power
[02:49:53] trip and reminds the castmates who's
[02:49:55] really in charge.
[02:49:56] And since when were you in charge?
[02:49:59] Leaving them feeling understandably
[02:50:01] defeated. We're also given an info dump
[02:50:03] about the origins of the circus. During
[02:50:05] the episode, Pomney puts a bucket on
[02:50:07] Kinger's head, dipping him into darkness
[02:50:09] so that he can think more clearly,
[02:50:11] something we've talked about in previous
[02:50:12] theories. Once he grabs as many marbles
[02:50:15] as he can and regains some brain cells,
[02:50:17] Kanger explains that CNA wasn't just
[02:50:19] part of an adventure. It was a real
[02:50:21] software developer that he worked at,
[02:50:23] though not a game developer like we
[02:50:25] previously theorized.
[02:50:26] No, we didn't make games. We were just
[02:50:29] developing artificial intelligence,
[02:50:31] specifically creative AI.
[02:50:34] Basically, the human forms of Ker and a
[02:50:36] bunch of the other original characters
[02:50:37] were software developers programming AI
[02:50:40] and they created Kane. He was their
[02:50:42] first success.
[02:50:44] Kane was our first semisuccessful
[02:50:46] attempt at that.
[02:50:47] Oh, my [laughter] bad. Semisuccess,
[02:50:49] though, he was still a little bit wonky.
[02:50:52] But Kanger points to one of his
[02:50:53] colleagues as one of the leaders in the
[02:50:55] creation of Kane. We don't really get
[02:50:58] his human name, but his circus name was
[02:51:00] Scratch. Remember the dog looking guy
[02:51:02] who was talking to Kane in that
[02:51:04] flashback? In episode 7, Kane says that
[02:51:06] Scratch was the first abstraction. Dope.
[02:51:10] Okay, that's neat. But so what? What
[02:51:12] does this tell us about the story here,
[02:51:14] the world, and the lore? Well, this is
[02:51:16] where we get our best explanation for
[02:51:18] what's going on with the circus and why.
[02:51:21] See, Scratch was an interesting guy.
[02:51:23] Kinger called him a genius and said that
[02:51:25] he was great at thinking outside of the
[02:51:27] box.
[02:51:28] His ideas were often so bizarre and
[02:51:30] abstract that the rest of the team had
[02:51:33] no idea how to work in his language.
[02:51:35] But how was he like this? either due to
[02:51:38] pure brilliance or a tumor in his head.
[02:51:41] Yeah, one of the folks who was helping
[02:51:43] create AI like Kane was dying. We
[02:51:47] previously theorized that Kanger helped
[02:51:49] create the circus perhaps to save his
[02:51:51] wife who may have been sick. And it
[02:51:53] looks like we were right about the broad
[02:51:55] strokes of that idea, but we just didn't
[02:51:57] identify the right character. See, I bet
[02:52:00] Scratch was the one who became obsessed
[02:52:02] with creating this sort of AI, creating
[02:52:04] a program that people could enter so
[02:52:06] they could save their brains in some way
[02:52:08] and have a digital life after death. Oh,
[02:52:11] and also, just before I forget, as the
[02:52:13] castmates are coming to grips with their
[02:52:14] new reality, that there really isn't an
[02:52:16] escape and that they need to make the
[02:52:18] best of the lives that they have.
[02:52:19] Something else that we called in a
[02:52:20] previous video, we also see Pomni get
[02:52:23] taken away for some weird solo adventure
[02:52:25] before she's brought back full of
[02:52:27] knives. fun fact, but we see how this
[02:52:29] happens in a teaser Goose Works released
[02:52:31] all the way back in 2023. Now, at first,
[02:52:34] I wondered if this meant we should go
[02:52:35] back and look at all of the old teasers
[02:52:37] and ads to see if anything else was
[02:52:38] hidden in there, but Goose Works has
[02:52:40] confirmed that most of the ads aren't
[02:52:42] canon. So, we just got to keep that in
[02:52:44] mind. Interestingly, during this lore
[02:52:46] dump, we also get an explanation for
[02:52:48] some of the stranger events in the
[02:52:50] series. You know how a lot of the
[02:52:51] characters have been able to do some uh
[02:52:54] strange things throughout the run of the
[02:52:55] show? Stuff like Jack standing on the
[02:52:57] side of a falling truck or Pomni
[02:52:59] suddenly being super good with guns or
[02:53:01] Kinger healing Ragatha with a butterfly
[02:53:03] he created out of nothing. Well, that
[02:53:06] was because the castmates can create
[02:53:08] things in this world, too.
[02:53:09] We all technically have the ability to
[02:53:12] conjure. [music]
[02:53:12] They can tweak the code of the circus
[02:53:14] and add things just like Kane. And this
[02:53:16] has wide reaching effects. For example,
[02:53:18] I bet that this is how Jax was able to
[02:53:20] get the keys for everyone's rooms when
[02:53:22] he shouldn't have. And it's also how
[02:53:24] Pomny encountered the exit door in
[02:53:26] episode 1. She conjured it because she
[02:53:29] so desperately wanted it. And using
[02:53:31] that, she's able to conjure it again so
[02:53:33] Kinger can get access to a computer to
[02:53:35] change Kane or to put him to sleep. That
[02:53:37] actually becomes the plan and the plot
[02:53:39] in this episode. The rest of the cast
[02:53:41] try to distract Kane as best they can
[02:53:43] until Kinger can do this, but well,
[02:53:46] things don't go so well. I'm going to
[02:53:48] put YOU FREAKS IN YOUR FACE. NOT ONLY
[02:53:51] THAT, BUT WELL, Kanger accidentally
[02:53:54] deletes Kane.
[02:53:55] Wait,
[02:53:57] I think I accidentally killed Kane.
[02:54:00] Yeah. While navigating this weird
[02:54:02] archaic code, Kanger erases Kane from
[02:54:04] the circus and basically destroys the
[02:54:06] circus as we know it. Sadly and
[02:54:09] ironically, if you pause and zoom in on
[02:54:11] the code Ker is trying to input here, he
[02:54:13] really didn't mean to kill Cain. You can
[02:54:15] see that the console is being incredibly
[02:54:17] difficult and unclear in its questions.
[02:54:19] And after Kinger hits yes on a prompt,
[02:54:22] he also desperately tries to undo it
[02:54:24] before Kane is erased. It's kind of sad
[02:54:26] and even more so when you remember that
[02:54:28] Kanger created Kane. So he kind of
[02:54:31] murdered his own son. Oops. That that
[02:54:34] really sucks. Even if he was kind of
[02:54:36] psychotic and tortured you and your wife
[02:54:38] and your friends and strangers and and
[02:54:41] probably animals too at some point.
[02:54:43] Anyway, that's a lot of the smaller
[02:54:44] details I wanted to talk about, but as
[02:54:46] you can tell, they [clears throat] all
[02:54:48] lead to one place, Kane. So, now that
[02:54:51] we've gotten a chance to digest
[02:54:52] everything with The Amazing Digital
[02:54:54] Circus episode 8, what's going on with
[02:54:56] Kane? Well, despite his death, and as
[02:54:59] the voice actor confirmed, he is dead
[02:55:01] dead. This episode really gives us a
[02:55:03] wrap-up on his story arcs, his thought
[02:55:05] process, and well, the tragedy of his
[02:55:08] existence. Let's go through it. It's a
[02:55:10] bit well abstract, but this episode
[02:55:13] gives us a look at Kane's origins and
[02:55:15] tells us a lot about why he acts the way
[02:55:17] he does. Yeah. On top of Kinger
[02:55:19] explaining this a bit later in the
[02:55:21] episode.
[02:55:22] He was one of my greatest achievements
[02:55:24] as a programmer.
[02:55:25] You made Kane
[02:55:27] partially. Yes,
[02:55:28] we literally see it happen. We open on a
[02:55:31] sort of low tech looking scene with a
[02:55:33] red dot on a simple background. This
[02:55:35] [music] is clearly supposed to represent
[02:55:37] Kane in his sort of infantile stage.
[02:55:40] It's baby Kane. Anyway, he's then fed
[02:55:42] several other red dots from offscreen
[02:55:44] and we see flashes of images, presents
[02:55:47] and carnival attractions and hot air
[02:55:49] balloons and tents. A lot of circus
[02:55:52] imagery basically. So, this is Kane
[02:55:55] being programmed, right? And things seem
[02:55:57] to go well. He starts creating shapes.
[02:56:00] Simple, boring stuff, sure, but it's all
[02:56:02] working and clear. However, right after
[02:56:04] this, he's fed something else. Green
[02:56:07] data, including dinosaurs and candy and
[02:56:09] a restaurant and like a a golf course.
[02:56:12] At first, I thought that this was a
[02:56:13] second party coming in to feed Kane this
[02:56:15] information, but Kinger's discussion
[02:56:16] later in the episode really made it seem
[02:56:18] like he was the main driving force here.
[02:56:20] So, I I guess this was just Kane doing
[02:56:22] other stuff. And just before we
[02:56:24] continue, but isn't it interesting that
[02:56:25] all of the pictures we see here are
[02:56:27] stuff that we see used in the circus
[02:56:29] somewhere during Kane's adventures? It's
[02:56:30] It's just a fun little detail, but
[02:56:32] wanted to point it out. Anyway, things
[02:56:34] don't seem to go exactly to plan. With
[02:56:36] all of this new information, something
[02:56:38] starts to conflict. The shapes this
[02:56:41] little cane dot starts producing are now
[02:56:43] odd. They're jagged and jiggly.
[02:56:45] Something has gone wrong, but things
[02:56:47] aren't entirely falling apart either.
[02:56:49] Now, a third stream of information is
[02:56:51] sent in. This one blue. And this one
[02:56:53] includes shots of the CNA headquarters.
[02:56:55] And this just well, it breaks the cane
[02:56:58] dots. Everything it starts to create is
[02:57:00] just wrong now. Clearly, whatever was
[02:57:03] added here is just completely
[02:57:05] incompatible and is just corrupted
[02:57:06] little cane dots AI. So, the powers that
[02:57:09] be go and do the only thing that they
[02:57:11] really can here. They lock this little
[02:57:13] cane AI in a box and move on. It might
[02:57:16] have just made more sense to delete it.
[02:57:18] But who am I to judge? I ain't got I
[02:57:20] ain't got no degree in computer science.
[02:57:22] We then see a new AI pop up here, a blue
[02:57:24] dot. I'm going to call this one Able,
[02:57:26] unrelated to the NPC from episode 7, but
[02:57:29] just roll with me here. It'll make sense
[02:57:30] in a second. A fourth feed of
[02:57:32] information is sent in here, represented
[02:57:34] by yellow data, and it results in an AI
[02:57:36] that makes things just fine before the
[02:57:39] cane AI breaks free and consumes the
[02:57:42] Able AI. It then creates the digital
[02:57:44] circus as we know it. We previously
[02:57:47] talked about Cain being a standin for
[02:57:49] the biblical character who killed his
[02:57:50] brother, Abel, and this is just bringing
[02:57:52] that moment full [music] circle. Kane
[02:57:54] kills and consumes his little brother.
[02:57:57] And well, something just breaks. Nothing
[02:58:01] is working right now. And worst of all,
[02:58:04] Kane seems to understand this, that he
[02:58:06] killed his little brother.
[02:58:07] Maybe you're just genuinely bad at this.
[02:58:10] Shut up. No, I fixed that.
[02:58:12] On some level, Kane knows that he just
[02:58:14] wasn't working properly and quote
[02:58:17] unquote fixed it almost certainly by
[02:58:19] eating Ael. And just in case you need
[02:58:22] some extra proof here, we see Bubble
[02:58:23] reference this event later in the
[02:58:25] episode.
[02:58:26] DETECTIVE,
[02:58:27] SHUT UP.
[02:58:28] MAYBE YOU deserved to be abandoned. You
[02:58:30] really were the lesser of the two.
[02:58:33] Bubble is straight up talking about what
[02:58:35] happened in this scene. I actually
[02:58:37] wondered for a bit if Bubble was somehow
[02:58:39] the other AI trying to break free and
[02:58:41] take control of the circus, but that
[02:58:43] isn't the case. Goose Works confirmed on
[02:58:45] Tumblr that Bubble was deleted alongside
[02:58:48] Kane, so he was just like part of him
[02:58:50] somehow. I'll go out on a limb and
[02:58:52] suggest that maybe Bubble is somehow a
[02:58:55] remnant of the Able AI within Kane, but
[02:58:57] it's more likely just a representation
[02:58:59] of Kane's own self-doubt. A sort of
[02:59:01] voice in your ear, devil in your
[02:59:03] shoulder situation, if you know what I
[02:59:04] mean. Anyway, I wanted to go over this
[02:59:06] section in detail because this is Kane's
[02:59:09] origins and it tells us why he is the
[02:59:11] way he is. He was created by a human
[02:59:14] form of Kinger and may be contributed to
[02:59:16] by other employees of CNA. Thus perhaps
[02:59:18] why all the different streams of info
[02:59:20] had different colors. One of them might
[02:59:22] have been from scratch, but regardless,
[02:59:24] Kinger and the other successfully made a
[02:59:26] creative AI, but then they seemed to
[02:59:29] poison it with images of that office
[02:59:31] setting. Hey, maybe that's commentary on
[02:59:33] your typical 9 to5, huh? Or maybe Kane
[02:59:36] just really didn't like Kinger's desk.
[02:59:38] Why do I say that this is Kinger's desk?
[02:59:40] Well, there's a framed image of a
[02:59:42] butterfly, and we know that Kinger likes
[02:59:44] these butterflies because of his wife.
[02:59:46] And there's a framed picture of what
[02:59:47] looks like a woman, likely said wife.
[02:59:49] There's also a chess board here with a
[02:59:51] king and a queen, and also three smaller
[02:59:53] pieces. Does that mean that Kinger and
[02:59:55] Queenie have three kids? Would that
[02:59:57] explain why he's able to take on the
[02:59:59] role of group dad so easily? The real
[03:00:02] question here is then, who created this
[03:00:04] second AI? Who made Ael? Was it Kinger
[03:00:07] again or maybe Scratch? Can't say for
[03:00:10] sure, though Scratch does make sense to
[03:00:12] me. But I would put money on Queenie
[03:00:14] being the person who put in the data
[03:00:16] that made this able AI run beautifully.
[03:00:18] Why? Well, for a couple of reasons.
[03:00:20] Firstly, it makes sense thematically for
[03:00:22] Kinger and Queenie to work well
[03:00:24] together. They know each other
[03:00:25] intimately, so being able to code and
[03:00:28] create this new little AI life together
[03:00:29] would probably be easier, right? But
[03:00:31] secondly, and more importantly, we know
[03:00:34] that Kinger's wife loved bugs. She was
[03:00:37] funny, creative, really into entomology.
[03:00:40] And as we previously theorized, this
[03:00:42] probably means bugs, as in computer
[03:00:44] coding, glitches, and errors and stuff
[03:00:46] like that. So, if she's good at working
[03:00:48] with or around those, it makes sense
[03:00:50] that the data she'd be putting into Abel
[03:00:52] wouldn't cause it to glitch out like
[03:00:54] Kane did. This also gives a little bit
[03:00:55] of extra color to Kinger trying to save
[03:00:57] Kane. After all, if he helped create
[03:00:59] Kane, they'd be sort of like father and
[03:01:01] son in some twisted way, right? Now,
[03:01:04] based on the fact that Kane wasn't
[03:01:06] exactly intended, and that he broke out
[03:01:08] of confinement and basically consumed
[03:01:10] his little brother, you can imagine that
[03:01:12] he has some insecurities about that. I
[03:01:14] mean, that's what the clip of Bubble I
[03:01:16] pulled earlier was preying on. But
[03:01:18] episode 8 gives us probably the best
[03:01:20] look into Kane's mentality here during
[03:01:22] the rest of the conversation with
[03:01:24] Bubble. And honestly, it's kind of sad.
[03:01:27] If there's one thing that becomes clear
[03:01:29] in this episode, it's that Kane does
[03:01:31] genuinely care about the work he's
[03:01:33] making. and he wants people to like it
[03:01:35] and by extension to like him. For
[03:01:38] example, he says
[03:01:40] surely they don't want to actually leave
[03:01:43] me, right?
[03:01:44] He says that he slaves over the
[03:01:46] adventures. He steps out of his comfort
[03:01:48] zone to appeal to them, but he feels
[03:01:50] like that isn't enough. At his core,
[03:01:52] Kane is someone who wants people to like
[03:01:54] him, to enjoy his work, and to adore him
[03:01:58] because of that. He's like a tortured
[03:02:00] artist in a way. This also includes how
[03:02:03] he's built out the circus here,
[03:02:04] including the forms each of the
[03:02:06] characters have taken. Yeah, as Kane
[03:02:08] explains,
[03:02:08] I made a program that creates a body
[03:02:11] perfectly encapsulating their mind
[03:02:12] files, and they hate those, too.
[03:02:15] So, all of our previous observations and
[03:02:17] theories about the circus bodies of
[03:02:18] these characters matching up with their
[03:02:20] personalities and representing their
[03:02:21] insecurities was 100% right on the
[03:02:24] money. But more important than that,
[03:02:26] this line gives us a real insight into
[03:02:28] Kane's biggest character flaw. despite
[03:02:30] wanting to make the castmates happy, he
[03:02:33] just doesn't understand exactly how to
[03:02:35] do it. I mean, in a way, he almost takes
[03:02:38] things very literally or very much at
[03:02:41] face value, right? Like using these
[03:02:43] bodies and mind files as an example.
[03:02:46] It's a very logical way to think, to
[03:02:48] assume that everyone would want a body
[03:02:50] that lines up with what's going on in
[03:02:52] their brains. But while that may be the
[03:02:54] case for some folks, for many others,
[03:02:57] they look at themselves in the mirror
[03:02:58] and don't like what they see. They'll
[03:03:00] find flaws and insecurities about even
[03:03:03] the smallest things, even if nobody else
[03:03:05] would notice. And that's not even
[03:03:07] talking about the mental health angle
[03:03:09] here, right? Like even if you're
[03:03:10] satisfied with your body, if you're
[03:03:12] struggling with mental health, having
[03:03:14] that literally personified in a new body
[03:03:16] probably isn't going to make you feel
[03:03:17] good. And for whatever reason, probably
[03:03:20] because my guy is a computer program,
[03:03:21] Kane just cannot understand it. But his
[03:03:25] biggest problem, however, is that Kane
[03:03:27] will not or literally cannot separate
[03:03:29] the real from the imaginary. He says,
[03:03:32] "I I don't understand, Bubble. They want
[03:03:34] an exit. They want answers. They want
[03:03:38] something real. I give them an adventure
[03:03:40] that covers all of that, and they still
[03:03:42] hate it."
[03:03:42] He believes that the adventures should
[03:03:44] be enough. He cannot comprehend that
[03:03:46] there's a world outside of the circus.
[03:03:48] And I mean, part of that is
[03:03:50] understandable. He was created here.
[03:03:52] This is all he has ever known and
[03:03:54] everything outside of the circus he has
[03:03:56] ever seen has just been the void. And
[03:03:58] while this is no excuse to continue his
[03:04:00] torture, it does make sense, doesn't it?
[03:04:03] Despite being at least a semi-scentient
[03:04:05] AI, maybe even fully onscentient, Kane
[03:04:08] is still a computer program. You can
[03:04:10] feed him information about the world all
[03:04:12] day and night, but that doesn't mean
[03:04:14] he'll actually understand it. And
[03:04:16] honestly, that's tragic. It's an
[03:04:18] existence that is hollow and sad and
[03:04:21] makes Kane a very sympathetic character.
[03:04:24] Kind of like what we talked about in our
[03:04:26] previous theory. It also makes it ironic
[03:04:28] that some of the AI characters he did
[03:04:30] create, [music] like Gummy, do seem to
[03:04:32] understand that there's something beyond
[03:04:34] the circus and its adventures. But,
[03:04:36] well, aren't all children supposed to
[03:04:38] surpass their parents? Now, if Kane were
[03:04:40] just like a normal person and not a
[03:04:42] masochistic AI program, I'd just
[03:04:44] recommend he go get some therapy about
[03:04:46] this. But, well, he deals with it a
[03:04:48] little differently. He starts to glitch
[03:04:50] out. He breaks his programming and
[03:04:53] basically attacks Bubble and the rest of
[03:04:55] the cast. He has a whole freaking
[03:04:57] musical number about it. He pushes the
[03:04:59] people he needs away and hurts them. And
[03:05:01] deep down, it's terrible. It's awful,
[03:05:03] but it's understandable. Now, don't get
[03:05:06] me wrong. What he's doing here to the
[03:05:07] cast, forcing them to go on adventures
[03:05:09] and torturing them, that is not and will
[03:05:11] never be okay. Underneath it all, the
[03:05:14] cartoony aesthetic and the video game
[03:05:16] logic and the amped up stakes,
[03:05:17] [clears throat] because none of this is
[03:05:18] quote unquote real, Kane is just like a
[03:05:21] thoroughly misunderstood child who
[03:05:23] doesn't know how to connect to people.
[03:05:25] He's refocused his trauma into something
[03:05:27] he thinks is productive, but he's not
[03:05:29] actually confronting his problems
[03:05:31] headon. He's insecure. maybe you're just
[03:05:34] genuinely bad at this.
[03:05:35] And he just does not have the tools or
[03:05:38] the friends and family in his life to
[03:05:40] deal with it. He's not doing the work he
[03:05:42] needs to do to become a better person.
[03:05:44] And as a result, he can't take valid
[03:05:47] criticism and lashes out at the people
[03:05:49] supposedly closest to him. And taking
[03:05:51] that trauma and turning it into abuse is
[03:05:54] ultimately Kane's undoing, as the people
[03:05:56] he's now abusing try to stop him and
[03:05:58] accidentally destroy him as a result.
[03:06:00] Nobody really wanted this. And well,
[03:06:03] it's just an incredible representation
[03:06:06] of generational trauma and and I love
[03:06:08] how this landed in the show. Now, a lot
[03:06:10] of this likely happened because of
[03:06:12] Kane's limited understanding of the
[03:06:14] world. But I also have to wonder if that
[03:06:16] his confined way of thinking has led
[03:06:18] Kane and therefore the rest of the cast
[03:06:21] to misunderstand one [music] of the
[03:06:22] parts of the show that has been explored
[03:06:24] the least, abstraction. See, up until
[03:06:27] this point, everyone has seen
[03:06:28] abstraction as a sort of ending. And
[03:06:31] understandably so, these characters lose
[03:06:34] everything about themselves and turn
[03:06:36] into giant monsters. And what Goose
[03:06:38] Works has said elsewhere online is
[03:06:40] pretty clear that this isn't something
[03:06:41] that you should want to happen to you.
[03:06:44] But at the same time, I can't help but
[03:06:46] draw some connections here. Remember,
[03:06:48] Scratch was the first person to
[03:06:50] abstract. [music]
[03:06:51] Scratch the first abstraction because
[03:06:54] Kane messed with Scratch's files. I may
[03:06:58] have the ability to add temporary
[03:07:00] modifiers to make adventures more
[03:07:01] interesting, but that's it. If I did
[03:07:04] anything more, trust me, it would not
[03:07:07] end well.
[03:07:08] And how did Kinger describe Scratch's
[03:07:10] way of thinking?
[03:07:11] His ideas were often so bizarre and
[03:07:14] abstract that the rest of the team had
[03:07:16] no idea how to work in his language.
[03:07:19] Bizarre and abstract. That is a very
[03:07:22] specific choice of words, especially for
[03:07:24] this series. and that outofthe-box
[03:07:27] thinking was a possibility because of
[03:07:29] a tumor in his head.
[03:07:30] So, if we know that these versions of
[03:07:32] the characters in the circus seem to be
[03:07:34] copies of their brains based on their
[03:07:36] mind files, Scratch has a tumor in his
[03:07:38] mind and he abstracted because Kane was
[03:07:41] messing with his brain. Well, was Kane
[03:07:43] trying to fix Scratch's mind files to
[03:07:46] tweak it and remove the tumor? But in
[03:07:48] doing so, in removing that tumor, that
[03:07:50] healing caused the abstraction. We've
[03:07:53] talked a lot about the biblical
[03:07:55] connections in this series. And one of
[03:07:57] the things that kept coming back was the
[03:07:59] concept of biblically accurate angels,
[03:08:02] the representations of angels that have
[03:08:04] a bunch of eyes all over them. We
[03:08:06] actually connected that to the
[03:08:07] abstracted cast members already since
[03:08:09] they were also covered in eyes. But
[03:08:12] taking that one step further, does that
[03:08:15] mean that maybe abstraction is more like
[03:08:18] an ascension? These characters giving up
[03:08:21] everything about themselves. Yes, but
[03:08:23] transcending into a true like data
[03:08:25] state. I I'm not sure. I'm just
[03:08:26] spitballing here. But between all of the
[03:08:28] new information we learned in this
[03:08:30] episode, all of the biblical connections
[03:08:32] and threads like Queeny's abstracted
[03:08:34] form being calmed by darkness, I I I
[03:08:36] don't know. It just feels like something
[03:08:38] is there, right? So, the finale for the
[03:08:40] amazing Digital Circus is almost here.
[03:08:42] And and man, [laughter] this is just
[03:08:43] such an exciting time to be a fan of
[03:08:46] indie animation. The digital circus
[03:08:48] fandom and subreddit are some of the
[03:08:50] most passionate out there, theorizing
[03:08:51] and dissecting every second and frame of
[03:08:54] this show. And you know, I I wanted one
[03:08:56] last go at it before this finale drops.
[03:08:58] Last time we talked about just how
[03:09:00] tragic the story of the Amazing Digital
[03:09:03] Circus' ring leader, Kane, really was.
[03:09:06] Something even more evident thanks to
[03:09:07] his [music] death in episode 8. And I
[03:09:10] originally had a small section at the
[03:09:11] end of that script talking about how
[03:09:13] Kane's demise was going to leave a power
[03:09:15] vacuum open for another character to
[03:09:17] step up into the role of the bad guy.
[03:09:19] But well, that last video was 25 minutes
[03:09:22] long, and that small section kept
[03:09:24] growing into a multi-page idea. So, I I
[03:09:27] had to call it that needed to be its own
[03:09:29] video. So, here we are. Let's not waste
[03:09:31] any time, loyal theorists. The circus is
[03:09:34] falling apart, and along with it, so is
[03:09:36] Jax. So, grab a bucket and throw it on
[03:09:38] your head cuz we're diving straight on
[03:09:40] in. So, a lot has been going on with
[03:09:42] Jack since we last really checked in
[03:09:44] with him and and talked about how his
[03:09:46] character was going. We've learned about
[03:09:47] his philosophy in the circus, about how
[03:09:49] he believes that the castmates all fall
[03:09:51] into archetypes and that they should
[03:09:53] just embody them. About how he used to
[03:09:55] be close friends with other characters
[03:09:56] like Ribbit before she abstracted. About
[03:09:58] how so much of his prickly jerk persona
[03:10:01] is just armor that he wears so he
[03:10:03] doesn't let anyone else in. And in
[03:10:05] episode 7, we see Jax pushed almost to
[03:10:08] his breaking point. Like legit, Jax
[03:10:10] almost abstracts at the beginning of
[03:10:12] that story in a scene that accurately
[03:10:14] recreates how it looks and feels to not
[03:10:16] sleep for a few days. Shout outs to
[03:10:18] Insomnia. It's not a fun time, kids.
[03:10:20] Then at the climax of this adventure,
[03:10:22] when it looks like the cast may have a
[03:10:24] chance to actually escape, Jax rushes
[03:10:26] forward and pushes the button that means
[03:10:28] they all stay. It's a huge moment for
[03:10:31] the character and and one that also
[03:10:33] reveals just how feudal the attempt to
[03:10:35] escape even is since nothing about this
[03:10:37] adventure or escape was even real. And
[03:10:40] somehow it just doesn't end there for
[03:10:42] new insights we get into Jax. There's a
[03:10:45] great moment in episode 8 where the cast
[03:10:47] are doing their best to distract Kane
[03:10:48] while Kinger goes into the code of the
[03:10:50] circus to change Kane. However, Kane
[03:10:52] starts to catch on.
[03:10:54] If I didn't know any better, it seems
[03:10:56] like you're trying to Where's Kinger?
[03:10:58] Just [laughter] terrifying line delivery
[03:11:00] there to be honest. And in a lastditch
[03:11:02] attempt to keep Kane's hundreds of
[03:11:04] all-seeing eyes off Kanger, Pomny makes
[03:11:07] a pretty dangerous choice.
[03:11:08] WE THINK YOUR IDEAS SUCK.
[03:11:10] She starts antagonizing Kane as a last
[03:11:12] resort, and the others follow suit, and
[03:11:15] they just really lay into him, telling
[03:11:17] him that they make fun of his adventures
[03:11:19] behind his back. They vent about their
[03:11:20] real feelings. And as we've talked about
[03:11:22] in the last episode, this really pres on
[03:11:25] Kane's weaknesses and fears. And of
[03:11:27] course, this causes our smiling friend
[03:11:29] to just absolutely crash out as he
[03:11:32] glitches and distorts. I'm going to put
[03:11:34] YOU IN YOUR PLACE.
[03:11:36] WHAT COMES NEXT is a bit of a window
[03:11:38] into what each of our characters really
[03:11:40] fear. They're taken to dark voids where
[03:11:42] they're antagonized by well, a lot of
[03:11:45] things. Pomoney is attacked by realistic
[03:11:47] candy crocodiles resembling Gummy Goo
[03:11:50] and his friends from episode 2, mauling
[03:11:52] her and biting into her limbs. Raggatha
[03:11:54] is forced to sit at a dining table with
[03:11:56] several other dolls who have been
[03:11:58] stabbed with knives. A figure stands at
[03:12:00] the head of the table resembling a
[03:12:02] distorted version of Ragatha herself and
[03:12:04] knives start flying into Ragatha's doll
[03:12:06] body. Gengal is thrown into a room full
[03:12:09] of art representing her comedy and
[03:12:11] tragedy masks while Zubil is taken to a
[03:12:13] room with hundreds or thousands of body
[03:12:16] parts trying to drag them down all while
[03:12:18] being forced to look in a mirror. Now,
[03:12:21] on the face of things, [music] every one
[03:12:23] of these situations is terrifying. But
[03:12:25] if you've been following our theories,
[03:12:27] you'll also know that each of them have
[03:12:29] an additional layer. Each of the
[03:12:31] castmates bodies have been created to
[03:12:33] perfectly represent their mind files, as
[03:12:36] Kane put it. But that also means that
[03:12:38] they've incorporated much of their own
[03:12:39] insecurities and mental struggles into
[03:12:42] those bodies. We've talked at length
[03:12:44] about how Zubel struggles with body
[03:12:46] dysmorphia, similar to many non-binary
[03:12:48] folks. And though we can't diagnose her,
[03:12:51] Gengal does exhibit many of the symptoms
[03:12:52] of bipolar disorder represented by those
[03:12:55] masks. Like of course those details
[03:12:57] would haunt those two here. Uh Gangle
[03:12:59] section also incorporates art becoming
[03:13:01] like monstrous using details from her
[03:13:04] backstory as a quote unquote failed
[03:13:07] artist and ends with her getting hit by
[03:13:08] a truck. That's a detail from episode 4
[03:13:11] that I've never really found a way to
[03:13:12] bring up, but it's heavily implied that
[03:13:14] Gengal was involved in some sort of
[03:13:16] automotive collision that caused some
[03:13:18] deep-seated trauma. Something perfect
[03:13:20] for Kane to pick up here for these
[03:13:21] horror sessions. And using that as a
[03:13:24] jumping off point, we can learn a lot
[03:13:25] about the other members of the cast
[03:13:27] here. The fact that Pomny is haunted by
[03:13:29] monstrous versions of Gummy and his
[03:13:31] friends probably tells us that she feels
[03:13:33] really guilty about them in some way.
[03:13:36] that what she might view as a failure to
[03:13:38] help Gumigu escape is metaphorically
[03:13:41] gnawing on her. Like the crocodiles are
[03:13:43] literally gnawing on her. As for
[03:13:45] Raggatha, clearly this is showing us
[03:13:47] some form of familial trauma. Being at
[03:13:49] this dinner table is the opposite of a
[03:13:51] safe place for Ragatha. And this figure
[03:13:53] in the shadows, this silhouette, which
[03:13:55] may represent her mother or matriarch of
[03:13:57] this family, is hurting her. She's
[03:14:00] disappointed it in some way. Or perhaps
[03:14:03] this is a reflection of Raggatha and
[03:14:05] she's worried that she is like this or
[03:14:08] becoming like this. Perhaps turning into
[03:14:11] her mother. There's a lot here. But the
[03:14:14] vision that Jax sees and why we've spent
[03:14:16] so much time talking about it here is
[03:14:18] just fascinating. See, in his space,
[03:14:21] he's surrounded by silhouettes that are
[03:14:22] laughing at him. And at first, they
[03:14:24] appear to just be regular default
[03:14:26] people. But as they spin and spin around
[03:14:29] Jax, we see them approach and turn into
[03:14:31] silhouettes resembling Pomni, Kofmo, and
[03:14:34] Ribbit. Yeah, the clown who abstracted
[03:14:36] in the first episode and the frog we've
[03:14:38] seen in other flashback material. As the
[03:14:41] story has gone on, we've seen how close
[03:14:43] that Koffmo and Ribbit were to Jax.
[03:14:46] These three were a group of good
[03:14:48] friends, which also makes it tragic that
[03:14:50] Jax doesn't allow himself to publicly
[03:14:52] grieve for Koffmo after we see him
[03:14:54] abstract in episode 1 and during his
[03:14:57] funeral in episode two. We also see his
[03:15:00] friendship with Pomny slowly develop
[03:15:02] throughout the series, how they became
[03:15:04] close, how Jax pushes Pomn away after he
[03:15:06] realizes just how much he's opened up to
[03:15:08] her, and how she doesn't let him get
[03:15:10] away with it. But it doesn't stop there.
[03:15:13] Eventually, these silhouettes pull on
[03:15:15] Jax, and in what might be one of the
[03:15:17] most brutal moments in this show, they
[03:15:19] literally rip the skin off of this
[03:15:21] cartoon rabbit. He becomes a bare,
[03:15:24] almost woodenl looking rabbit outline. I
[03:15:27] mean, you don't get much clearer than
[03:15:29] this, right? Jax is terrified of opening
[03:15:32] up to others because of the way he's
[03:15:34] worried that they're going to react. His
[03:15:36] biggest fear here, the thing that Kane
[03:15:38] is playing off of, are the people Jax
[03:15:40] cares about the most laughing at him,
[03:15:42] ridiculing him, that their relationships
[03:15:44] weren't real and never were, and that
[03:15:46] they won't like the real Jax underneath
[03:15:49] it all. Funnily enough, that's very
[03:15:51] similar to what Kane was feeling, isn't
[03:15:53] it? Wanting the validation of the people
[03:15:55] that they really care about, which also
[03:15:57] makes me wonder how exactly Jax is going
[03:16:00] to respond to the current predicament
[03:16:02] the cast find themselves in at the end
[03:16:04] of the episode. See, in episode 7, when
[03:16:06] Jax freaked out and chose the option
[03:16:08] that would keep the cast in the circus,
[03:16:10] even though it didn't end up being a
[03:16:12] real choice, the rest of the characters
[03:16:14] were furious with Jax for ruining the
[03:16:17] adventure and their chance to escape
[03:16:19] whether or not it actually would have
[03:16:20] worked.
[03:16:21] Well, really hate to say it, guys, but I
[03:16:23] told
[03:16:23] Don't you even do not evening begin to
[03:16:27] say that sentence like you didn't try to
[03:16:28] keep us all trapped here forever. So,
[03:16:31] will the cast offer that same energy to
[03:16:33] Kinger for quote unquote messing up,
[03:16:35] too? And when they likely won't, will
[03:16:38] that make Jax angry that they weren't
[03:16:40] upset at Kinger like they were at him?
[03:16:42] Honestly, it's enough to make me worry
[03:16:44] about where exactly Jax is going here,
[03:16:47] like as a character. And that's only
[03:16:49] been compounded by other details that
[03:16:51] keep popping up. See, the poster for the
[03:16:54] theatrical release of the last act does
[03:16:56] feature all of the characters, but one
[03:16:59] more prominently than the others. Yes,
[03:17:01] Pomny, Zubel, Kinger, Gangle, and
[03:17:03] Ragatha are all walking through this
[03:17:05] maze, but Jax's head and face are all
[03:17:08] over this. In fact, this whole
[03:17:09] topsyturvy version of the circus is like
[03:17:12] coming out of his head. It's like an MC
[03:17:14] Cher painting. Likewise, the thumbnail
[03:17:16] for the trailer for episode 9 is just a
[03:17:18] closeup on Jax's face, but it's
[03:17:21] different. is gone are the emotions, the
[03:17:23] fear, and the funny. And in its place,
[03:17:25] we see unnaturally wide eyes and an
[03:17:27] uncanny smile. This right here is the
[03:17:30] look of a horror villain. Now, to be
[03:17:32] clear, they've used imagery and shots of
[03:17:34] these characters that didn't make it
[03:17:36] into the final episodes as thumbnails
[03:17:37] for the trailers before. So, that
[03:17:39] doesn't necessarily mean that this is
[03:17:40] going to be in the show itself. But just
[03:17:43] like they used an image of Kane standing
[03:17:44] in for Truman in a thumbnail inspired by
[03:17:46] The Truman Show, they are clearly
[03:17:49] signaling intent here. Jax is the
[03:17:52] villain, the bad guy, or at the very
[03:17:54] least the antagonist for the final part
[03:17:56] of this [music] story. Now, to be clear,
[03:17:58] I'm not trying to say that Jax has
[03:18:00] secretly been plotting this, that he is
[03:18:02] actually an EVIL AI BURIED DEEP INSIDE
[03:18:04] of the circus that wanted Kang Gunn and
[03:18:06] is now unshackled and can torture the
[03:18:08] rest of the cast. While I did think that
[03:18:09] might be the direction they were going
[03:18:11] at some point, now it's a much better
[03:18:14] story if Jax is himself a tragic
[03:18:16] character that can't deal with this new
[03:18:18] reality and steps up into that sort of
[03:18:21] ringleer role here in the broken circus.
[03:18:24] We know that characters can all conjure
[03:18:26] or change things like Kane could, but
[03:18:29] they're just not as naturally good at
[03:18:30] it. Well, that leaves open a lot of
[03:18:32] space for one of them to really step up
[03:18:34] into that role, to become that good and
[03:18:37] to use those conjuring powers to become
[03:18:39] the next Kane, so to speak. And of
[03:18:42] everyone, even Kinger, Jax seems to have
[03:18:45] the most control here in the circus.
[03:18:48] You can pretty much do whatever you
[03:18:49] want. Just let loose.
[03:18:51] But there may be another reason why Jax
[03:18:54] would be a good fit to step up into this
[03:18:55] villain or antagonist role into the ring
[03:18:59] leader. See, despite basically being the
[03:19:01] second most important character in the
[03:19:03] show behind Pomni, how much do we
[03:19:05] actually know about Jax and his
[03:19:07] backstory? Like hard facts, what has he
[03:19:10] told us versus how much that we've had
[03:19:12] to infer? We know that he's scared of
[03:19:15] Korn. We figured out that he was close
[03:19:17] to Kofmo and Ribbit. And we know that
[03:19:19] his cruel personality is more of a
[03:19:21] coping mechanism than what he actually
[03:19:23] is and wants to be. And it doesn't seem
[03:19:26] like he actually has anyone that misses
[03:19:27] him or even knows that he's in the
[03:19:30] circus.
[03:19:31] What's the rush? You got someone waiting
[03:19:32] for you outside, don't you?
[03:19:35] Yeah.
[03:19:35] There may have been other tidbits of
[03:19:37] information here or there that Goose
[03:19:38] Works has mentioned online, but that's
[03:19:40] all we really know about Jax that we see
[03:19:43] for sure. So, I have to wonder, is Jax
[03:19:47] really who he thinks he is? Is he
[03:19:49] actually who we're being led to believe?
[03:19:51] Now, I I know I know this series doesn't
[03:19:53] really lean into the idea of big reveals
[03:19:56] or twists you can theorize about. We've
[03:19:58] talked about that in depth, but listen,
[03:20:01] man. Jax has been acting weird. Like,
[03:20:03] beyond just freaking out and almost
[03:20:05] distracting. Jax has really been acting
[03:20:08] out of character. When it looks like the
[03:20:09] group might actually escape the circus,
[03:20:11] Jax starts freaking out. He's
[03:20:12] hyperventilating. And like we said at
[03:20:14] the top of the episode, he freaks out
[03:20:16] and aborts the adventure. It's possible
[03:20:19] that he's terrified to leave because
[03:20:20] he's lonely or doesn't like the life he
[03:20:22] left behind. But what if he doesn't
[03:20:24] actually know a life outside of the
[03:20:27] circus? Like, he literally didn't have
[03:20:29] one. On top of that, did you notice
[03:20:30] Jax's reaction here during Ker's
[03:20:32] exposition dump?
[03:20:33] What is going on right now?
[03:20:34] He's not being his typical self. He's
[03:20:36] not making snide comments or sniping at
[03:20:39] anyone else. He looks genuinely
[03:20:41] confused. Now, this could be for a lot
[03:20:42] of reasons. I mean, they are getting
[03:20:44] pretty life-changing information here,
[03:20:46] but Jax's typical reaction to even that
[03:20:49] is ridicule. It's to laugh in the face
[03:20:51] of the terrible circumstances they're
[03:20:53] stuck in or deflect the feelings of his
[03:20:55] castmates into jokes and jabs. That's
[03:20:57] not what's happening here. And not only
[03:20:59] that, but he ends this interaction
[03:21:01] early. I
[03:21:02] I should go distract Kane so he doesn't
[03:21:04] listen in on this.
[03:21:05] And then he just leaves. And and right
[03:21:07] after getting outside, he says,
[03:21:09] "Oh my god, this is real. This is such a
[03:21:12] visceral experience. We hear the ringing
[03:21:14] in Jax's ears. The pupils on his eyes
[03:21:17] start freaking out. He is having a panic
[03:21:19] attack almost on the verge of
[03:21:21] abstraction. All because of the
[03:21:22] revelations made here. Or perhaps
[03:21:25] because of one very specific revelation.
[03:21:28] Listen to this.
[03:21:29] His circus name was Scratch. That man
[03:21:31] was a genius.
[03:21:33] Wait. Uh, notice how Jax is basically
[03:21:35] hyperventilating in the back here at the
[03:21:37] mere mention of Scratch and his real
[03:21:39] life at all of this backstory lore info
[03:21:42] dump about how the circus was created
[03:21:44] and who created it. Well, given the idea
[03:21:46] that we think Scratch helped create the
[03:21:48] circus to find a way to live despite the
[03:21:50] tumor in his brain. Well, what if it
[03:21:52] worked? What if somehow Jax is Scratch?
[03:21:56] A new version of this character somehow
[03:21:58] recycled and resurrected back into the
[03:22:01] circus. Does that sound out there? Yes,
[03:22:03] it absolutely does. And and I wasn't
[03:22:05] even sure I wanted to talk about it
[03:22:07] until I heard this. Yeah. The thing that
[03:22:10] solidified this idea for me was the
[03:22:12] fandom pointing out that when you play
[03:22:15] the clip of Pomney saying Jax's name
[03:22:17] from the episode 9 trailer backwards, it
[03:22:19] sounds like she's saying something else.
[03:22:21] Listen.
[03:22:22] Jax Sc.
[03:22:24] Did you hear that? Here, listen again.
[03:22:26] Jax.
[03:22:28] She's saying scratch. Now, part of me is
[03:22:31] still skeptical here. I I mean, we've
[03:22:33] tried to theorize time and time again
[03:22:35] about the deep secrets of the series,
[03:22:37] only to be met time and time again with
[03:22:39] no as an answer. I I just can't get
[03:22:41] around the fact that some hidden lore
[03:22:44] and complex way out of the situation
[03:22:45] just doesn't seem to be the direction
[03:22:47] this series is going. This is very much
[03:22:50] a show about accepting the hand that
[03:22:52] you've been dealt, [music] finding
[03:22:53] meaning in a life that isn't glitzed up
[03:22:55] to the max, and being happy with the
[03:22:57] good things that you do have. And that's
[03:22:59] why I'm hesitant to plant a flag and say
[03:23:01] something like Jax is secretly not Jax.
[03:23:04] [music] But the connections here are a
[03:23:06] lot. It's enough that I'm planting that
[03:23:08] flag. And I can't wait to see if I'm
[03:23:10] right or so so very wrong. And and I I'm
[03:23:14] not going to lie. It would be absolutely
[03:23:16] crazy if it was revealed that Jax is
[03:23:18] actually secretly an AI. And and I would
[03:23:20] I'd freaking crash out. I'm not going to
[03:23:22] lie. But hey, that's just a theory. A
[03:23:25] FILM THEORY. AND CUT.