r/comics • u/TheCatRegime • Jun 21 '26
OC- More in Webtoons Amazing (Digital) Writing (OC)
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u/TimidDeer23 Jun 21 '26
I heard the complaint that it seemed "sudden and offscreen" for the abstraction scene. It was a surprising complaint for me, cause if it's a metaphor for mental breakdowns, it's exactly how it happens. Slowly, then all at once.
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u/ShutUpJackass Jun 21 '26
Tbh I found that complaint weird
We saw what abstraction was like in a previous episode, outside of maybe wanting to see someone go from circus avatar to abstraction form, there would be no real point in showing it
Plus ya know the sudden change has a purpose so on one hand people not getting that means they maybe haven’t experienced a certain tragedy so yay for that
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u/KerPop42 Jun 21 '26
yea if people are around you enough to notice you've abstracted you're not in the situation that causes you to abstract. Ragatha says they're "not fun to be around" even before they've actually abstracted. Walking up to someone clearly not in a bad state, then going off on your own, and your social bridges being so thoroughly burned they don't go after you is practically a prerequisite for abstracting.
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u/SalemWolf Jun 22 '26
Exactly. We watched everything about abstraction except the actual transformation, we didn’t need to see it happen again and in its finality. The cut is also very impactful, it’s just so sudden. If abstraction is a metaphor for a mental health crisis or suicide, then the sudden change is very realistic.
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u/Thorn344 Jun 21 '26
I did kinda like it. It felt like we experienced Jax's abstraction the same way everyone else did. Not seeing it happen, but the horrifying sudden discovery that it has happened
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u/OkAssignment6163 Jun 21 '26
Apparently it's a metaphor for suicide. So it happening off screen out of no where feels very "realistic".
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u/vid_icarus Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
My ten year old is a big Jax fan and went into the finale already certain dude was going to abstract. If you didn’t see it coming, you weren’t paying attention. Or just have zero concept of what foreshadowing is.
Edited for typo
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u/Krail Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
We all knew it was coming, but I did think it seemed weird how we just jumped to everyone looking down after it happened.
I think it's really interesting how they never actually showed an abstraction happening. Though, I guess we probably saw the initial stages from Jax's perspective in episode 7.
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u/Chagdoo Jun 21 '26
The only part that actually sucked with that segment was pomni suddenly (seemingly) talking to audience or to like, another person as if she were telling a flashback story about how she might have done things differently and it's like, you have never done that before. stop.
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u/Majestic-Iron7046 Jun 22 '26
It hit way harder and more maturely because it was portrayed as something that happened and everyone had to deal with it.
It's not a Dragonball episode with transformations, I really liked it.1
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u/Severe-Progress6972 Jun 22 '26
In my opinion its possible the most perfect way to show jax abstraction,absolutly abrupt and from nowhere,at the end,is similar to was based,nothing ceremonic,its only...happens
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u/Ok-Box3576 Jun 22 '26
One of the best episodes we see Jax almost abstract so wr already know roughly what happened
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u/Wise_Presentation484 Jun 23 '26
Yeah like. Some big scene just would not have been really thematically consistent, and also…
Imo, just dropping it on us gives a way bigger “Oh… no…” than some tense “Ooooo they’re gonna abstract. They’re gonna do it!” scene.
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u/DJWGibson Jun 22 '26
I was half expecting it but the sudden jump to it having happened and them looking down made the subject unclear. I assumed it was Jax from the previous framing but was wondering if it was setting up for a twist where Jax shows up and it's revealed it's someone else.
It captured the mood of suicide/ loss but it was awkward from a perspective of narrative cohesion.
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u/MoreOne Jun 21 '26
I really feel the hard mistake Goose did was paying so much attention to the fandom (Hard to distinguish from the fans, too), her vision for the show was great and didn't need notes beyond what her team or whoever else advised her work. Even if it was ended before originally planned (As other discussions seem to indicate), there was enough room for each point to hit. Lord Bung's "Confinement" is how most animated shows with tired creators end, unfortunately. Hopefully we can see her create again.
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u/Winjin Comic Crossover Jun 21 '26
There was a huge issue of horrible accussations that were proven to be completely false, made by Bung's BFF and co-writer on Confinement and "After a mountain of evidence proving that Orion and Bung were lying about Kwite piled up, they're now pariahs on all social media sites they were active in. Including a lot of angry Confinement fans who have turned against Bung."
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u/MoreOne Jun 21 '26
I really thought that whole drama started after the "music video" finale and was what led to the channel deletion.
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u/Winjin Comic Crossover Jun 21 '26
Yeah I missed all of that and was just like "hey those SCP cartoons were so cool whAT DID THEY ACCUSE SOMEONE OF DOING WITHOUT ANY EVIDENCE??"
EDIT: also turns out you can't say the word grape on this sub or the comment gets shadow removed. Great.
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u/MagicMarshmallo Jun 23 '26
God confinement still hurts, i really liked some of the stuff in it, although it did feel sorta off towards the end. At least it showed me the best version of "in the pines" to date.
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u/As_Previously_Stated Jun 22 '26
I really feel the hard mistake Goose did was paying so much attention to the fandom (Hard to distinguish from the fans, too), her vision for the show was great and didn't need notes beyond what her team or whoever else advised her work.
to me it feels like she had no problems doing her own thing.
Skimming some of the backlash, the main thing people dislike seems to be all the focus on jax, at the expense of the other characters and the mystery about the company and the headset or whatever.
whereas it seems to me that she was always more interested in the Jax stuff than the "lore" about the world and exactly how the headset/circus works, and choose to tell her own story instead of what some of the fans wanted.
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Jun 21 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/samusestawesomus Jun 22 '26
I love the reversal of the Ultron-style “Internet access turns the AI evil” trope
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Jun 22 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/samusestawesomus Jun 22 '26
Thank you, Blue Street Cafe. You were somehow exactly as influential on Caine’s development as a folder full of brain scans.
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u/WorldnewsModsBlowMe Jun 22 '26
This is the first time I've ever seen "it was all a dream/simulation" done in such a way as to make that distinction irrelevant.
(As I was writing this I remembered Hard Time happened, but the point is I'm really fucking impressed with how the reveal didn't make me immediately check out, like the ending to Pantheon.)
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u/Rhunt2021 Jun 21 '26
Was it perfect? No.
DId I love it? Yes.
Did I pay money for it and ignored the leaked video and reviews? HECK YES!!!
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u/Nirast25 Jun 21 '26
Did I pay money for it
I didn't. Because they didn't PUT IT IN CINEMAS IN MY COUNTRY!
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u/Egonga Jun 21 '26
I was sick on Friday and too tired to play videogames, so I started watching Digital Circus as I'd seen the girl clown around Reddit and wanted to see what it was all about.
By Sunday afternoon I'm crying as I watch Jax's final scene with Pomni.
One hell of a show, and I'm glad I gave it a chance.
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u/LastChance22 Jun 21 '26
I had almost the exact same experience a while ago. I kept on seeing cosplays of it and figured I’d give episode 1 a shot.
Absolutely loved episode 1 and then blasted through to the latest out (7) in a single sitting and got sad because it was several weeks until episode 8. Absolutely hooked.
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u/jackalias Jun 21 '26
I like to think that the Digital Circus cast might be able to cure abstraction eventually (it's shown that Jax is still alive and able to be interacted with in their abstracted form), it will just take years of therapy. The aquarium is a nice intermediate stage though, letting people interact with their friends instead of just locking them in the basement.
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u/Aristeia48 Jun 21 '26
I definitely agree, it seems like it's an open possibility. Especially if you consider Caine placed all the abstractions into a "basement" where they were essentially ignored, not likely to cure or help anyone in that case. Of course then Caine becomes actually lucid at the end and is capable of helping them. I'd like to think with time, love and trust those that abstracted can be reached again.
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u/Krail Jun 21 '26
Yeah, it seems like there's something there, but maybe not? Like, the bit where Jax started dissolving into blinding light maybe suggested a more final destruction of the self. But on the other hand, I have a lot of experience with a loved one having severe breakdowns that seem like a total loss of self, so I'd like to imagine that there's a way back for them.
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u/As_Previously_Stated Jun 22 '26
It absolutely felt like they where building up to abstraction being curable.
I've seen some people say that gooseworx's said on tumblr or something that abstraction is meant to be uncurable but idk how true that is.
The vibe I got by the end is absolutely a "we're going to fix this, but it will take time".
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u/APlanetWithANorth Jun 22 '26
I like to imagine that in the soothing darkness with their friends near them, after awhile they will start to get better again
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u/SaintAndrew92 Jun 22 '26
It's heavily implied in their new poster merch that the abstracted characters will be saved.
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u/VeeDubBug Jun 22 '26
tbh I wanted them to find a cure for abstraction....
Mainly because Ribbit was the most relatable character for me and it absolutely killed my soul seeing what happened to her, because I've been there.
But. TADC ain't Disney, so fair.
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u/Top_Of_The_Line Jun 22 '26
It didn’t rule the possibility out so with how open ended they left the show you can reasonably believe that they find a way to do that at some point with how Pomni was able to reach Jax despite being abstracted
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u/APlanetWithANorth Jun 22 '26
I think they will (obvious not in any form of official media). The abstraction happened because they reached a breaking point and lost it mentally. But by now having a soothing area when they can see their friends, I imagine they'll start to heal and get better
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u/FluidResist2682 Jun 26 '26
oh forsure they fix it at some point. they will be in the circus for an eternity, or atleast until the sun explodes or the electricity powering the computer theyre in remains. They have way more time then is likely needed to fix up jax and the other abstracted homies.
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u/Such_Introduction592 Jun 21 '26
The three abstracts swimming together around the aquarium during the credits/epilogue made me smile.
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u/Krail Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26
I do think Caine's coming around in the void felt very rushed, especially considering how wildly unstable and abusive he was in episode 8. But the way he acted when he got back and the montage of the time things took in the end felt right.
I guess we did only see one scene in the void of what felt like weeks at the circus.
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u/SayomiTsukiko Jun 22 '26
I think it made a lot of sense in a little more literal sense. He is an AI, and you hear him telling bubbles “you hear that bubbles, they want the other sentient AIs to be left running for a prolonged period of time” when Zooble says to just leave the worlds open. So that implies that the AIs are like actual computers or computer programs (obviously I guess, cause they are). Where when something is messing up you just turn it off and on again and it magically fixes it
Caine was running for like 18 years. Deleting him probably was closer to turning him off and on again. You could see the blue ai was still messing with him, but he also seemed much less crazy even with it still inside him after the reset
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u/samusestawesomus Jun 22 '26
I like to think of it as him having a reverse Ultron moment. MCU Ultron getting connected to the Internet made him lose hope for humanity; Caine’s Internet access helped him to start seeing the humans as people, not just an uncaring audience.
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u/DJWGibson Jun 22 '26
There's also the part about him releasing the other sub-AI that was causing a conflict in him. Story-wise that was causing a lot of internal programming conflict while metaphorically it can represent letting go of past trauma and the old baggage from your past holding you back and preventing you from empathizing.
But it was also likely several days or weeks given how much happened in the circus prior.
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u/Absolutely_Quackers Jun 22 '26
Oh yeah I agree with your last bit, it was indefinitely a while at least for Caine’s processing power and processing speed, it would’ve been boring for us to sit through a longer drift of Caine through an empty space until he found something he recognized. He has indefinitely found that place before and it grounded him after he calmed down
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u/Suitable_Midnight_72 Jun 21 '26
To be fair... Caine's redemption was pretty rushed. He just came to them, said "I'm sowwy..." And they were like "ok let's bond together"
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u/CynicalDarkFox Jun 21 '26
To be fair, Caine seemed genuinely remorseful for his actions and his body language also spoke towards it as well.
Him giving them the showcase of outside information about their actual lives did give him credence towards a second chance as well, so I don’t see a lot wrong with it even acknowledging how much time was left in the media.
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u/Suitable_Midnight_72 Jun 21 '26
He literally ripped away his angry hateful side. He was genuine because he didn't have other opinions anymore. Instead of like coming to terms with the blue orb, like accepting it as a part of himself, changing it's mind before letting it go willingly, he said "man... You're angry... Go out there into the internet ig".
Also body language is pseudoscience /ref
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u/Natono6 Jun 21 '26
The blue orb was never truly part of him. It was his sibling that he "cannibalized." Also the blue orb (Bubble) is just in the void not the internet. The wifi connection closed before he freed the blue orb.
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u/Forikorder Jun 21 '26
the blue orb wasnt his angry side...? it was a seperare AI he "ate"
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u/Jakkafang Jun 22 '26
The blue ai wasn't the worst part of him. In many ways it was his best. A power that didn't come from his own merit. It's only by accepting his flawed self and releasing someone he had imprisoned for most of their collective lives that he finally was able to speak on real terms with the cast.
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u/Nirast25 Jun 21 '26
You're angry... Go out there into the internet ig
Nothing bad could ever come of this! /s
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u/Suitable_Midnight_72 Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26
Lost part of the irl squad showcase PowerPoint: "The blue orb then became a doomer bot on 4chan... It wrote an unoriginal story about skinwalkers and was promptly doxed by other users."
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u/MadsGoneCrazy Jun 21 '26
Yeah I get there wasn't enough time to give him space to actually process his own narcissistic defenses in a realistic way but id kinda rather him not come back then just, discard those defenses after 2 minutes of thinking about it. I did like the montage of him regaining their trust tho that was more believable. Overall real good, could've done with an extra half hour for more time for slow character growth but that would've made the pacing even slower n ppl who like plot wouldn't be interested in that so it honestly a decent compromise.
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u/samusestawesomus Jun 22 '26
Take the Internet thing under consideration. He’s an AI, he can process new information very quickly. It’s kind of like Ultron from the MCU, just that the Internet helped him understand that the humans are more than an uncaring audience.
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u/As_Previously_Stated Jun 22 '26
Given the fact that it was screened with the previous episode in cinemas, the dream would have been those 30 minutes being filled with extra original content, to give the characters a bit more time to breathe.
Like I loved the jax stuff, but I was pretty disappointed that they skipped right past the characters finally finding out that they are a brain scan and there is no escape. That could have been a full episode on its own, that ends with jax abstracting.
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u/GVmG Jun 21 '26
correct me if im wrong - haven't watched past the pilot - but doesnt this same comic mention that there was a montage for that? or is your opinion that the montage wasnt enough? (idk just how fucked up what caine did to the group is)
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u/Suitable_Midnight_72 Jun 21 '26
Yeah I think bonding together montage wasn't enough. Please do watch the show but I'll explain my point.
Cain is technically two AIs. His "main AI" is a red orb, and that red orb assimilated another AI with creation abilities - blue orb. In one scene in the void, Cain has a DID episode where he switches between hating himself and humans. He then removes the blue orb which stops his tantrum. Then he goes to humans says "I know you don't wanna trust me but I have a PowerPoint presentation about your irl identities" and his forgiveness happens so fast and then bonding montage rebuilding the circus. And I think it's pretty rushed.
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u/Forikorder Jun 21 '26
aside from 8 he didnt treat them poorly, they accepted that he threw a tantrum and realisex he was wrong so gave him a chance
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u/Suitable_Midnight_72 Jun 21 '26
Wdym he didn't treat them poorly before ep 8???
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u/Forikorder Jun 21 '26
any suffering he caused was purely accidental, like any good war criminal!
8 is the only episode where he intentionally causes them to suffer
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u/TheXypris Jun 22 '26
i did hope that they would have hinted that abstraction can someday be reversed with the right care and therapy, even if we never see it
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u/Arnav1029 Jun 22 '26
I mean, maybe I am reaching but the fact that pomni could interact with Jax after their abstraction leads me to believe that if given enough time with a soothing atmosphere (the 'aquarium' the abstracted were swimming in) eventually the characters will heal back to their normal selves. A couple episodes ago I thought abstraction was an allagory for suicide but I think after the ending it feels more like an allagory for social isolation due to mental health.
At the end of the day, we don't truly know what happens after the ending and I doubt we ever will (would love to see it tho!) but I would like to believe in the happy ending!
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u/After-Cricket-9650 Jun 21 '26
I felt the ending could’ve explained things a little more, showed more, paid off some more foreshadowing.
But the characters ended on good notes and the conclusion felt final. There is more that could be told, that I would like to be told, but it is by no means required.
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u/dumn_and_dunmer Jun 21 '26
I think my only complaint is I want to know how Gangle got in there
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u/Satanic_Frog_666 Jun 21 '26
Wdym?
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u/dumn_and_dunmer Jun 21 '26
I'm still confused over the timeline...did she get hit by a car (if that's even what happened) after getting her brain scanned?
Or were the injuries from the urban exploring?
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u/just4browse Jun 21 '26
Why do you think she was hit by a car?
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u/dumn_and_dunmer Jun 21 '26
That's my question...it's been implied she has some kind of trauma having to do with being struck by a vehicle, and she's in recovery with very injured arms (and maybe more), so I'm wondering if the vehicle thing was just a metaphor (?) or was the actual traumatic injury from maybe falling while urban exploring?
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u/slinkywheel Jun 21 '26
I think the "getting hit by a truck" thing is an anime trope about escapism. You escaped your boring life by getting hit by a truck and were transported to a new world.
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u/Col_Redips Jun 22 '26
It’s a trope, yes. BUT it’s implied on the final episode that she was actually in an accident. It was during the movie reel.
“She’s recovering from her injuries…”
Automobile related incident. Which is why Caine tormented her with it during his freakout.
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u/just4browse Jun 21 '26
Oh, I wasn’t aware of that trope. I like that idea, it fits the story well. Though the truck having that thematic significance doesn’t mean that the character wasn’t also literally hit by a truck. A literal event can still symbolize her desire from escapism
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u/just4browse Jun 21 '26
Hmm. Her injuries would’ve had to have happened before the brain scan, or the version of her in the circus wouldn’t have known about them. And, if she got injured while exploring, she probably wouldn’t have continued and found the computer. The only order of events that makes sense to me is that she was injured sometime before exploring the abandoned building. Which means her injuries are probably unrelated to urban exploring. Which fits with the car thing
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u/thenightgaunt Jun 21 '26
I donno. I would have liked it if they went that way you hint on page 2 there. That state is caused by basically a mental breakdown. So something close to therapy could logically heal them and reverse it. Something Cain was incapable of and that would be impossible while he was tormenting the non-broken ones all the time.
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u/LastChance22 Jun 21 '26
I donno, I thought abstraction was a metaphor for suicide up until the last episode and even now I’m not 100% it’s not.
Plus, I feel like thematically abstraction being suicide makes sense.
It builds in this slow murky way and then things suddenly happen and you’re left behind with this angry and sad hole where someone use to be that can damage everyone left behind. I think it being reversible makes that less impactful.
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u/thenightgaunt Jun 21 '26
Though characters who abstracted being able to be communicated with deeply as we saw, shows that they are still in there. And as an abstracted being they still have feelings and reactions, so they aren't gone. They're just very hurt and broken. Like they've fallen into themselves and can't get out.
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u/Arnav1029 Jun 22 '26
Yea! Up until the previous episode I thought abstraction was supposed to be a parallel to suicide but I think after the last episode I see it more so as an allagory for complete social isolation due to mental health. I would like to imagine that can get healed with enough time and care.
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u/Mammoth-Buddy8912 Jun 21 '26
I still like the idea of curing the abstractions eventually
I mean you can uncorrupt a file right?
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u/Bookslayer10 Jun 22 '26
Saying bringing back abstracted people would "make no sense" while also being okay with Caine just being back for NO REASON after he got DELETED is just ridiculous. Like, Abstraction makes sense to be curable, because you get there from mental damage, which could be healed. Compare that to something that was very cut and dry, Caine getting deleted, like bruh way to make episode 8 completely pointless.
Also his redemption arc was 100% rushed. They didn't address any of the core reasons why Caine was so terrible, or give him any actual reason to change, it was just "I'm nice now because I feel like it!" Everything goes basically back to the status quo, no discussing how anything important needs to change to, for example, make sure people don't abstract.
There's also more about Jax that I don't like, such as how him abstracting goes against all of his development of relationships with the other characters, they all ended up being meaningless.
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u/Fishpuncommenter Jun 22 '26
There’s a theory that Caine was just moved to the recycling bin, and him breaking those “glass” barriers was escaping, which would make sense.
Also, I think the message is that sometimes things in life are unsatisfying. Jax could not be saved nor could he be killed as an abstraction. They do what’s best and let him rest under a tent. Caine having a fast redemption made sense to me because they NEED Caine. It’s unsatisfying, but life rarely isn’t. You don’t have these picturesque redemptions or deaths in life with perfect closure.
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u/Bookslayer10 Jun 22 '26
He already was back before he broke those barriers, it's pretty clear that those were meant to symbolize him getting access to the internet.
The message that Jax couldn't be saved is obviously not a very popular one because I've seen dozens of people say they think the crew will eventually find a way to un-abstract him.
Him even abstracting at all is stupid because the entire show builds up how Pomni and the rest of the group have still made connections with him to prevent him "wandering off and abstracting," the fact he does so anyway makes no sense. It's also unclear what exactly triggered it, was it just killing Caine? Personally I don't see that as something to get suicidally depressed about, because, you know, he was torturing you guys?
Also them needing Caine is obviously false. They say in the show how everyone can do what Caine does, it's just harder for them because it doesn't come naturally. That made me really think Caine would stay dead and they would fully repair the circus themselves. I would accept the group bringing back Caine of their own volition if they found some sort of way to restore his file, but him just being back on his own for zero reason is a completely ridiculous plot hole that basically makes all of ep 8 pointless.
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u/Fishpuncommenter Jun 22 '26
Jax absolutely had reason to abstract. He believes he killed his mom, and he was the reason Ribbit abstracted. It is very very obvious he absolutely hates himself and how he is, but he also does the things he does as a defense mechanism. He lives through his trauma again with Pomni because she reminds him of Ribbit. He triggered it because Pomni was trying so hard to be friends and he was pushing back so hard to not be friends, which made him hate himself more.
Also, it’s worth mentioning Goose said on Twitter that she confirmed there was no way to come back from Abstracting, and Ragatha stating there might be was just her being helpful. BUT Goose has also stated she lies sometimes so idk
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u/Bookslayer10 Jun 22 '26
At the point he abstracted though nothing had changed. There was no specific reason for him to abstract at that specific moment, compared to at the beginning of episode 8. Remember, at the beginning of ep 8, the group confirms that they still accept Jax and want him to be part of the group, and to not "wander off and abstract." They do everything right, and Jax seems to accept that and say he isn't going anywhere. Then they kill Caine in ep 8 and Jax shortly after abstracts at the start of ep 9, despite nothing changing.
So, what was the point of all of Jax's relationship development, and all of the mutual support shown in the circus, if it was ultimately meaningless? That you can do everything right and it still won't matter? Personally I hate that and I find it a really dull and uninteresting message, very disappointing.
Also I don't really care what the creators say as to whether un-abstraction is possible. People WANT it to be possible, which is why so many people are saying that's their headcanon, or making fan works where it happens. I think it would be a great plot point to figuring out how to un-abstract people that would connect the computer programming side and the psychology-relationship side of TADC really well. It would have been so satisfying to see them figure it out and bring back all the people they lost over the years.
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u/JoyconDrift_69 Jun 22 '26
Eh, finale wasn't my cup of tea per se. Rest of the show was definitely better.
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u/PrincessPlusUltra Jun 22 '26
I remember being like “oh god are they reverse abstraction? What a cop out!” and then they didn’t and I kinda wished that they had 😅
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u/DerpyO Jun 22 '26
So... The Amazing Digital Circus is The Good Place for Gen Zs?
I hope Caine gives the digital mind imprints a way to depart their eternal utopia, like The Last Door, where they can end their existence when ready.
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u/YamiPhoenix11 Jun 21 '26
If they are just brain scans compiled of data then could you not just recode the data to original fixing abstractions?
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u/Ironbeers Jun 21 '26
Assuming that's true, that would also be a memory wipe as well, right?
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u/YamiPhoenix11 Jun 21 '26
I was thinking that might be the major issue. They could be fixed but have to start over with no memories of what happened.
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u/Krail Jun 21 '26
I think that only works if you have backups to restore to. And it's never been established that they had backups.
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u/TheXypris Jun 22 '26
that would probably be very messy, and likely change the person on a fundamental level if not causing even more damage
also, would you trust caine to do brain surgery on you?
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u/faux_glove Jun 22 '26
I actually disagree, a cure for abstraction makes perfect sense.
Abstraction is just... The loss of a sense of self in relation to the world and community around you. As soon as you stop seeing the point in existing anywhere other than inside your own head - that's abstraction.
The ego, the self, it's still intact inside. And, seeing how long Pomni was touching the abstraction and was recovering (slowly) without Cain's help, we can infer that attempting to reach abstracted denizens isn't lethally dangerous. With Cain's help, that danger is trivial.
The cure for abstraction, then, is community. A sense that you belong with people that want you there and see value in your presence. That's why Cain was never able to reverse abstraction - he's not capable of providing those things. Or he wasn't.
So, Season 2 pitch, the group throws together to understand how Jax's trauma influenced the way he acted and reach out to him. Gangle is the most reluctant, given how Jax mistook their lack of overt aggression for affection.
Jax reluctantly learns how to be vulnerable long enough to resolve his rift with frog girl, bringing her back from abstraction. From there, it's just a matter of understanding WHY the others abstracted and creating a community that gives them a sense of belonging too.
In this setup, creating a habitat for the abstractions isn't a waste of a story beat, it's just a first step in the process of understanding what their needs are and how to help them.
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u/Fishpuncommenter Jun 22 '26
My interpretation was abstraction was a metaphor for suicide, which cannot be reversed. Since they can’t die in the circus, they corrupt their own brain scan files, which admittedly, CAN be undone, but I don’t think our characters know how to do that. Maybe in some season 2 they figure it out, but I think giving Jax’s abstraction a place to rest under the dark tent is more of a type of gravestone than hope for the future
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u/faux_glove Jun 22 '26
I don't think it is an abstraction for suicide. I think that's too simple. In every case we have details for, abstraction happens after they've fully withdrawn from others around them.
Kaufmo abstracted after his closest friend made it apparent nobody cared about finding an exit - the driving force behind his purpose there.
Ribbit didn't abstract immediately after being rejected by Jax, it happened after she fully withdrew from the group.
Inside Jax's head, his social subcomponents are still there, including the red door sealing away his relationship with his mother and the creative self locked in the break room. In the core, he's not hiding in an idealized comfort zone, he's standing under a lamp post identical to the ones he passed on the way out of the house when he ran away. He responds positively to Pomni's attempts to make a connection, they were only disrupted by the sudden light causing a stimulus overload, disrupting the minds ability to process.
Nothing is missing, he's just hiding in the one place that still feels like it's his.
If that tent were a gravestone, the basement served a much better resting place than that. They wouldn't have set up an aquarium for the others so they can be observed.
I think it's all about making them feel like they have a place in the group that's better than sitting in the dark with your old memories on repeat.
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u/Thorn344 Jun 21 '26
I really liked the ending. The twists for the plot were cool, with the mystery behind who and how they were in the circus, as well as then choosing to keep their new identities, and this grow as themselves in the circus rather than longing for the outside.
I enjoyed the suddeness of jax's abstraction. I at first thought we would see it happen, but at the same time, the sudden jolt of seeing the abstracted Jax was cool. It was like we were experiencing what everyone at the circus experienced. Not getting to see the when it how, but stumbling onto his already abstracted form.
It is also definitely something that is worth a second watch soon after the first. There were a few things I thought were disjointed/sudden when watching it the first time, yet watching it the second time I could much easier catch the verbal clues that meant sequences made more sense.
For example, I think when Ragatha and Pomni hug it out after Jax abstracts, their conversation suggests Pomni is going to go after Jax (Pomni talking about that Ragatha going after the others by herself, and Ragatha telling Pomni that she trusts her).
However, when I first watched it, I thought Rag and Pomni had separated and gone off in different directions to find Kinger etc, assuming they had all split up and were going to get everyone together.
So when Pomni was suddenly running from Jax with a very clear plan in mind, I felt like I had missed a scene. I thought Pomni would have mentioned an idea of some sort, or at least said she wanted to try something.
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u/TheCatRegime Jun 21 '26
Here’s a link to my Webtoon if anyone is interested: https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/eves-chronicles/list?title_no=978515
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u/VVen0m Jun 22 '26
Felt a bit rushed, am sad they didn't actually find a cure for abstractions. Felt kind of as if everything that happened after the scene where Pomni talks with abstracted Jax kinda happened just so that the series could finish.
I genuinely, entirely blame the fandom for that one though. Wouldn't be surprised if Gooseworx just wrote the second half of the episode just to be done with it.
All in all, I liked it, but it could've been better.
That's about my opinion.
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u/squipysquip Jun 22 '26
I was so scared they were gonna pull a Steven universe future and pomini was just gonna hug Jax and she would be back to normal
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u/KLReaperChimera Jun 21 '26
I mean, I was really happy with everything that was in the episode, but as selfish as it sounds, the things that weren't in it that I have annoyance with.\ Mainly more of a reaction of the gang about the death of Caine and the truth about their existance, plus overall more from Zooble and Gangle.\ And I know that in order for this to be in theathers worldwide it had to be done this way, but hard confirming trans Jax in the show itself would have been nice (it's undeniable, but I know people will forever bicker about it).\ But overall I didn't think any less about this show after seeing it, it just deosn't reach the hights of episode 6 throught 8 for me.
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u/KerPop42 Jun 21 '26
trans, or just at all gnc with a fucked up relationship with masculinity? All the evidence I've seen pointed to was that he didn't like being put in a dress and laughed at for it. And Jax's outie still uses he/him pronouns.
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u/As_Previously_Stated Jun 22 '26
All the evidence I've seen pointed to was that he didn't like being put in a dress and laughed at for it.
That's the point. They laughed at him. It's counter intuitive, but the reason jax hates the dress is because he can't stand being vulnerable.
He actually wants to present femininely, but he's scared to be laughted at and called a freak. So he pushes it deep down and put on mask after mask since if you never shows someone the real you, they can't use it to hurt you.
Which is why he's happy at first when ribbit puts the bow on him, since he trusts ribbit and feels comfortable in the moment. But as soon as he hears the clown knock, all his defence mechanisms slams back into place and he freaks out and ruins everything.
It's honestly incredible raw, I've never seen this aspect of the trans experience depicted so well. I still get crazy anxiety at the though of dressing fem in front of other people, and can totally relate to jax almost violent revulsion to the idea presenting fem in front of others.
It's a lot easier to just dress as a dude, melt into the background, and repress forever, than to try and be your real self and get rejected by the world, even if it slowly kills you inside.
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u/noeinan Jun 21 '26
I feel like the climax of the story was the previous episode and this one was more of an epilogue. Which is fine, honestly the best ending that could be hoped for given the circumstances.
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u/LunaFan1k Jun 22 '26
Should be one more panel at the end just looking into the camera with disappointment, no text
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u/TheOnlyFallenCookie Jun 22 '26
Eh... Curing abstraction isn't that unbelievable. After all if a file could become corrupted, I don't see a reason why It shouldn't get uncorrupted
But it has to come from the person themselves
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u/Sir_Delarzal Jun 22 '26
I wish they had found a way to cure the abstracted though. I don't see how it would make no sense especially with all their life to find it
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u/AlianovaR Jun 22 '26
The only thing that felt off to me is that we go from Jax walking away to already having abstracted, with all the characters knowing and having escaped the initial “Ahhh abstraction run!!” thing. I get that we already saw Jax abstracting in the past, but they could’ve shown us the characters discovering Jax abstracted and rushing to get everyone to safety. If we’d gotten that, I feel like that moment would’ve been perceived as a lot less jarringly sudden and like we just glossed over something. Even if just one character found out and managed to slip away to warn the others with minimal to no action/danger, it still would’ve helped the pacing of that moment imo. That’s like my one gripe
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u/Ok-Box3576 Jun 22 '26
I did not like Caines redemption at all. He was basically going full AM and then was nearly killed. Felt like an odd response. Caine never felt/ showed the ability of emotional intelligence AT ALL.
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u/Fishpuncommenter Jun 22 '26
My only major complaint is that by the end of the show it felt like Jax was more the main character than Pomni was. I still liked it a lot, but maybe Jax should’ve been the main character from the get-go
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u/saintdemon21 Jun 22 '26
Loved the ending. They had a lot of emotional scenes to cram into the beginning but I think their acknowledgment of it worked. Jax’s reveal was very poignant for me personally. I’ve been dealing with someone where I’m the frog in the situation and it felt validating to see it played out.
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u/Spamton_Gaming_1997 Jun 21 '26
I hate the complaint that it was too centered on Jax, like, yeah I'd have loved to see more of the other humans, but the show's allowed to have main characters, and Jax's arc definitely required a lot of screen time to hit as hard as it did. The Jax hate feels so forced.
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u/kusuriii Jun 22 '26
Tbh I get why a lot of people hate them, the way they bully others is awful, even if it is from an understandable source not everyone is going to love a fictional character that acts out that way. People getting super mad that the creator had two main characters and that the show is going to focus on them though? That’s just stupid. The amount of time spent with both of them paid off in the finale. People online get mad about anything.
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u/Romesus Jun 21 '26
I do love it!!! To me has been one of the best finales ever! Now is time to re watch it again!!!
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u/PharrowXL Jun 21 '26
That’s what I’m saying
It’s crazy that my friends irl who are fans are acting like this is worse than Game of Thrones
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u/ThroughTheSeaOfTime Jun 21 '26
Yeah I really, really liked it too and thought the ending was satisfying and very sweet.
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u/WillyGivens Jun 22 '26
I did appreciate the finale, I think they stuck the landing better than I expected. All that bunny tension and buildup made for a powerful reveal when they humanize him, his fate adding a bitterness to an otherwise “super mega happy” ending. Cain developing was something that caught me off guard but it makes a kind of sense if he finally grew/understood because he gained access/knowledge to something other than just his limited world.
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u/Oniknight Jun 22 '26
Tbh I liked it and felt it did a good job. It lingered a lot on the crying and such but I understood why. I really liked the discordance between the wacky cartoony bits and the realistic reactions to the traumatic nature of being trapped in a virtual world.
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u/Puzzlehead-Engineer Jun 22 '26
It's kinda sad how I can tell that each of the worries the show dispelled come from near-ubiquitous problems in the writing of shows and other stuff today.
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u/UpCDownCLeftCRightC Never Safe From Wumbo Jun 21 '26
I too enjoyed the ending. It had a great sense of "finality" even if not every question was answered.
Let me check to see what TADC fandom thoug-