i cant remember where but i heard somewhere that the reasone we dont see abstraction is because its meant to represent sudden death... more specificly like suicide

since when someone is trully suicidel they wont tell it to anyone, from anyone finding out afterwords it thoes feel sudden and... yea...

So as much as we'd want to see the transition into a abstraction... in my opinion its better that we dont

Not sure if ya missed this, but the Favourite Character Awards were voted by the NPC Committee and not the Players… So that one’s not on them; it’s that even his creations won’t favour him over the players — except the Moon, who learned to love him on her own (and that’s the point he himself realised upon his return to the Circus).

I definitely had that kneejerk moment in the theaters where so much was happening so quick in the Void scene and I thought, "what, so he just pulls out the blue AI, and that was the 'evil' part all along? Boo!," but after I got a chance to think about it more, I've actually come around on it being great (if rushed and unclear, like so much else in that scene). The blue AI isn't 'evil', but it represents a kind of toxic perfectionism and need for control that ultimately made Caine worse off. Caine thought he needed the perfect shapes the blue AI made to impress the humans, which was a reasonable assumption from the events at the beginning of Episode 8 where his programmers discarded him in favor of the blue AI. But it was that 'perfection' that swelled his ego and exacerbated his controlling, stubborn streak (e.g., being so stuck in his ways about adventures, convinced that he knew better than the humans) that actually got in the way of what he really wanted, which was connection to and validation from the humans.

This was again a really hard thing to piece together in the first watch, and I really wish so much hadn't happened so fast, but I think this idea is also supported by the shape-bridge scene. The shapes that start to fail are blue cubes - perfect shapes that Blue would have made. Caine tries the same thing a few times here until he realizes that won't work. He's always struggled with cubes. It's only Caine's natural creativity and imperfection that gets him to where he wants to go, which builds up to his realization that the blue AI isn't working out for what he wants -in general-. He has to be humbler and more adaptable to connect to and understand the humans. (This is an idea that could've been better underscored if he had walked over to the humans instead of floating his little coattails over to them but I digress, scene framing is hard or whatever) (god I love Caine sm)

You could also analyse several other NPCs in relation to Caine. Sadly not the Sun — she’s too one-note — but… the Gloink Queen, the Fudge, and (in particular) Baron Mildenhall all show thematic ideas underlying their various surface-level simplicities. Just a thought.

😭I love the funny teeth man.  As an autistic person, I relate to him so much. And I do wish we had another episode for his redemption arc.  His character is just really interesting.

I thought Caine was a very good representation of my own autism since episode 1 and he has been my favorite character because of that

Btw gooseworks did mention on tumblr that the show was rushed in some part.

48:26 my interpretation was that it was drawing a comparison between when Caine selfishly obtained the mind files, and what he would later go on to do in obtaining information about the humans, which is arguably the first selfless thing he's done in the show, which I suppose also fits in the metaphorical journey to become more human

2:20 I think abstraction is an algorithm for suicide so the fact we don't see it and it happens suddenly is actually pretty accurate. You don't always see it happen, it's usually very sudden and you don't get an explanation as to why they did it.

abstraction is suicide- it makes sense to me why they wouldnt show it on screen, esp with the age rating of the show

Hour long video? Hell yeah 😎

I really would have liked the explanation for his return to be a subconscious conjuring from the humans (or at least Kinger).

Every abstraction happens in private, because if people who care about you are in your presence, its a lot harder to fully believe that you shouldn't exist. Taking Jax's perspective during the abstraction would also be very dishonest to the situation of having someone in your life commit suicide; you generally don't get a warning, and you certainly don't get to see it through their eyes.

I like Jax's studden abstraction, it's how it would've been of Pomni didn't wanted to include her in episode 7
but they should've name dropped her I thought Jaxed released someone from the basement
also it needed more time to have the others sit with it but there needed to be more time for so many more things yes especially Caine just being there again

I agree with everything you exposed here.
This are my thoughts exactly.
I see your vision, you're not crazy 😂

I don’t know why everyone says we didn’t see Jax abstract.  We DID see it!  It ALMOST happened two episodes prior, when he tripped through kaleidoscope worlds and was startled out of it right before he transformed.  We didn’t really need to see it again, did we?  Is everyone really so upset just because we didn’t get to see it from the outside?

And besides, that’s very much the point.  When someone “gives up on life” they almost exclusively do it privately.  No one sees them do it.  No one gets a last-minute chance to stop it. No one is there to share the final moment.  They just have to live with what comes after.  THAT’S why Jax abstracts offscreen, and that’s why a smart writer wouldn’t have done it any other way.

I really wish this show had a A plot B plot sorta deal, like in hindsight it would work perfectly. Like you could have Pomni trying to figure out the secrets of the circus and how to get out, while Jax keeps  trying to keep the adventures going and stuff, and as the series goes on the two conflicts merge. Sorry I'm just bitter the series tried too much.

I'm at 17:53, and I don't feel inclined to continue.

You've said that plot points in the finale have no consequences because of how they are utilised. I don't see how that is that case. Maybe something there's more that I'll now miss, but so far I am put off.

Jax suddenly abstracting, beyond being an analogy to suicide, essentially finalises Pomni and Ragatha's friendship as they grieve. Ragatha has been a parallel to Jax throughout the series, and this is essentially the moment that definitively says that Ragatha will not end up like Jax. Had Jax not abstracted, Ragatha's arc of accepting love for how she is instead of how she pretends to be would not happen like it does.

Caine coming back, which I agree could've used a bit more than pure implication, results in him accessing the internet, and subsequently finding out more about the cast, and subsequently realising that he was in the wrong, and subsequently changing his mind. Him almost dying also serves as a reality check to curb his Am arc and make him question if he was in the wrong, which frames his subsequent discoveries and revelations.

These are consequences. And maybe you have more to say, especially as I remember what your thumbnail says, but that 'maybe' is not promise enough for me to continue the cognitive dissonance I am experiencing, so far.

I won't say your argument is wholly flawed, because I didn't listen to your whole argument, but I will say your presentation has put me off.

Yeah agreed

Jax abstracting offscreen is actually a decision I think was good. It’s jarring and sudden and makes the audience think “wait… what..?” and it feels pretty final. Death can be like that. You feel shocked and hollow because of how fast it happened. And it wouldn’t do much good to show it since we both see Jax have breakdowns that nearly lead to abstraction (showing it from the outside) and what goes on inside when she nearly abstracts in her room (showing from the inside). To do it again would be redundant. I think the weird thing is more of Pomni narrating since it never happened before. It’d probably be more impactful if that didn’t happen and it just showed you abstracted Jax