Pomni mentions she is an urban explorer, but we do not see her exploring the circus much.

I actually think Pomni's scene would have been better if she was attacked by abstractions of the cast. Her fear is to be abandoned and alone after all.

I hate how it's so obvious that pomnis trouble is being looked down upon/ not taken seriously, but they just don't go into it. It would make sense if the others were skeptical of her decisions or thinking she was unreasonable for her actions, but no. It's so irritating

Character consistentcy is the main problem. Pomni is established as an extremly honest, kind and forgiving person. And she sticks to that when it comes to how she treads Jax, never giving up on him no matter what.

But she doesn't tread  everyone equaly in that reguard. For Example she never reaches out to Caine and tries to comfort or help him. But if she did, then this could have set her appart from the rest of the cast, since none of the others actually care about Caine at all. So, that could have been a breeding ground for inner and outer conflict.

If her altruistic mindset had remained consistent then the brainscan reveal could have caused her to give up hope. Not because her worldview got shattered but because she would have been unable to comfort the others in any way. Sure they may have talked to her to feel a bit better but at the end of the day she can't change the truth.
On top of that she would haven been haunted by the fear of everyone abstracting if she failed to keep them sane. And when it looked like it does it would have caused her to express a lot of self hatred in advance for failing them, blaming herself for the demise of people who hadn't even perished yet. And that should have been the type of trauma that was experiencing during the last act. Instead of trauma from her past we would have witnessed her trauma as it unfolded in front of our eyes.
While everyone else had off screen Trauma. She would be the only character with on screen trauma.

for a character new to the circus, she doesn't feel like she has anything other then the circus.

I believe that Pomni's character arc might've been stronger if she kept pursuing an exit after the pilot.

A desire is one of the most essential parts of a character.

Her trauma becomes Jax at the end of the series

if i remember correctly gooseworx said her least favorite episode was the pilot (take this w a grain of salt bc it was on her now-deleted tumblr), but honestly i miss the characterization pomni had from the pilot to episode 3. i remember being really excited for the ensuing psychological horror to come, considering she (seemingly) goes off the deep end at the end of episode 1- she bounced back surprisingly quick, but i was willing to let that slide too until about episode 6. and from that point on i felt like her position as a “kind mediator” 1. clashes with the existentially-terrified wreck from episode 1, 2. deprives her of a chance to have a story of her own if her role is essentially to give people therapy (and in a way that’s somehow never been attempted before), and 3. isn’t even applied consistently, considering how much it feels like she prioritizes jax over the people jax hurts (she had a moment with ragatha in the finale, but i genuinely can’t remember the last time she held a convo with gangle or zooble past the fast food episode)

Character-driven show without character arcs or time to show characters' day-to-day lives.

I had headcannoned before Episode 9 that Pomni was an NPC subconsciously created by Caine to act as the therapist he wanted to be to the cast as a way to rationalize how shallow she was for a protagonist.

finally, an explanation video about the finale that's not solely centered around jax or caine

A huge rule of writing I've learned is just...everything has consequences. If you're adding something to your story and it doesn't have consequences, you haven't written it well enough yet. Every plot point, character beat, and line of dialogue must have consequences. Especially when it comes to trauma, because trauma with no consequences is the most unsatisfying thing in the world, especially if the trauma happens on screen.

“Pomni’s meant to be relatable!” But characters are relatable BECAUSE they’re interesting and complex. It’s like that saying “a friend to all is a friend to none” if you are trying too hard to be relatable to everyone you end up being relatable to no one. I personally relate to Ragatha’s people pleasing, over-sanitized way of presenting herself that ends up pushing people away. I’ve known people who relate to Gangle “masking” her true feelings in an attempt to stay happy all the time, or people who identify with Jax’s fear of vulnerability or Zooble’s body dysmorphia. Having quirks, histories, traumas, flaws, and arcs don’t make characters less relatable. They make them more relatable.

Absolutely agree with everything detailed here. And I can't help but underline, how little we actually know about Pomni, our protagonist, by the end of the series. We know that she's 25, she's an accountant, and she likes exploring abandoned buildings. Great. Does she have a family outside the circus? Anyone who might miss her at all (before we find out they're just brain scans)? Parents? Pets? A significant other? The finale shows her urban exploring with a few friends; does she only make them after wearing the headset, and if not, why are they never mentioned beforehand?

It kills me how a line or two dedicated to who these people are outside the circus would have made for an infinitely more interesting read on them, something along the lines of when Jax asks Zooble "why the rush? Got someone waiting for you outside?" and Zooble replies, "don't you?"
That's GREAT dialogue for such a short interaction! Keeps it vague, but implies much about their lives.
We could have had kind, caring Ragatha asking Pomni whether she misses anyone outside, and Pomni could have hit us with a "...no one would miss me." and that would have done wonders more for our read of her character than what we have now.

It seems like most of them, save Kinger, don't have a great social network to fall back on outside the circus: Ragatha's family is horribly abusive, Gangle's relatives probably pressured her into giving up on drawing and working at a place that made her so depressed she made an attempt, Jax doesn't even warrant an explanation, Pomni... is a mystery, but the fact she doesn't mention anyone from her outside life makes me think she lead a pretty lone existence, and we don't know much about Zooble either, but we know they were a queer person hopping from job to job who most likely didn't have a place to freely be themselves before opening up their bar.

That could have been so interesting to explore: a bunch of lonely, struggling individuals, finding company and support in each other in this digital space. Isn't that what a lot of people do online?
Instead, most of it is merely left implied, no more than a faint aroma in the air, when it should have been the main meat of the story.

Pomni is the sort of person who clings to an abusive relationship as long as possible.
I feel like a lot more could have been done with that angle, but it's just kind of passed-over as if it's a non-issue.

It is so ironic that despite being supposedly the main protagonist of TADC, Pomni is also the most static and one dimensional character in the entire show.

This is so fricking underrated! I love the way you analyzed her character, especially her arc. I also felt kinda let down by Pomni, especially in the last episode.

Also FINALLY someone says it! The problem isn’t Pomni’s lack of trauma. If anything that enhanced the story for me, since we’re so used to seeing main protagonists with butt loads of trauma (not saying this is bad, it just gets old after a while).

But yeah great analysis! This definitely deserves more views!

I don't think the issue with Pomni is her lack of trauma, but the lack of any underlying drive or philosophy besides "I just wanna help people". We don't see her struggle to adapt to her new circumstances or desire for urban exploration reflected. It would be nice if she also had more agency too.

Pomni starts as what the show wants the viewer to think as the most scared, most likely to abstract character and then ends with her being the one the least affected by existential crisis' and losing her friends. I think Gooseworx kinda stopped caring about her as a character pretty fast.

4:09 Honestly as a Kinger fan from day 1, I was always hoping we'd go more in-depth with this but Gooseworx is allergic to writing Kinger it feels 😭 /j