#kinger npc theory

[aalien-s]

im seeing a lot of the npc jax theory and though i must say i like it (literally just cuz hes my fav) i can see it more being Kinger than Jax.

short rant under the cut

Kinger has been here the longest- Long time for Caine to forget and none of the current squad to know (someone that abstracted mighve known)

Kinger calling himself a royal in the pilot- he wouldve probably been coded as a king and seems to genuinely think he is one.

Hes been there for so long, is literally insane and yet, he hasnt abstracted. Im guessing NPCs cant abstract.

i think itd be funny if Caine just made an npc specifically for Queenie during one adventure and maybe Queenie got so attatched that she brought him with her and maybe abstracted soon after. So when Caine found Kinger he thought he was Queenie (as in: Queenie never existed instead it was Kinger all along)

anyway i dont really care what happens. it would also be extremely hilarious if the creators put that Caine line where he said that he can forget whos an NPC and whos human, just because they knew ppl would go crazy with the implications lmao. ik its been said that theres a lot of hidden secrets and forshadowing (if im not wrong ofc), but not everything has to be.

[almadash]

she knows

(continuation to the NPC Jax comic)

[skekilla]

hh

npc

so anyway developments in the au plot hehe

when the gang all try to leave the uncanny world pomni made, the key she programmed in to get them out doesn't work. they kinda glitch and no-clip as a result, all scattered throughout the bottom of the map---amidst all the assets! now remember this world was originally created by caine a really long time ago and pomni just reused it as a base? well the original setting and plot had to do with anthropomorphic animals. a certain rabbit character had been sculpted and programmed, but scrapped and forgotten by him as he made the world. but that npc still existed ! and so, forgotten and having nothing to do in the world, he had snuck into the circus when the adventure was done oooo

he was hiding there for a long time before he witnessed kinger appear in the circus. that gave him an idea: he'd fake being a human coming in and just hope for the best. so he did, and caine, having forgotten all about him, just kinda accepted it and called him jax! and jax has been hiding this ever since :) until everyone, underneath the map, stumbled right across his model :))))

everyone is very disturbed and things will not go well, but for now, everyone's agreeing to go back to the circus and pretend nothing happened hahaha

[stars-around-scars-collective]

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[pockethep]

TADC Theory...One of the Characters could be an NPC.

Even before episode 2 dropped people were theorizing that one of the main cast could be an NPC. With episode 2 having come out yesterday a very specific line said by Caine only fuels that theory....

"I know you guys love your NPCs but if I start losing track of who's a human and who's an NPC, who knows what could happen..."

I LOVE this idea for the drama. If the main goal is everyone escaping from the circus, there’s a lot of potential for a scene where everyone leaves but one of them physically can’t make it out because they aren’t a real person. (Very Wreck It Ralph like.)

Just based off what we know from two episodes I'm trying to decide who is most and least likely.

We know it probably isn't Pomni or Ragatha, they both glitched out in the pilot plus Pomni has outside game knowledge. She's been saying "collision" and "glitch" and "we're somewhere under the map", these are video game specific terms. And although NPCs can glitch as well (The Gloinks glitched in the pilot) Kinger remembers Ragathas arrival and how hard it was.

Jax can be ruled out in a similar way for the same reason as Pomni. He referenced Augustus Gloop, the child from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, this episode. This is real world knowledge that would be a very specific reference for an NPC to know let alone make.

I can somewhat rule out Kinger just based on the fact that Queenie was a character who (presumably) abstracted. Based on naming conventions and design alone (weak defense but there's only two episodes out) they could have come to the digital circus together. With all the characters having such random designs it feels intentional for two characters look similar. If this is just a coincidence it would be cool for his erratic and paranoid personality to be a result of being an NPC. His spontaneity comes from the fact that he's in an area he isn't supposed to be in. Also he's been at he circus for so long and hasn't abstracted which is very very interesting.

My bets are on Zooble and Gangle. Although mainly because we don't know much about Zooble and the mask gimmick with Gangle is both something no other character has and feels like something from an actual game. Gangle is cheerful with the happy mask and more emotional and depressed with the tragedy mask while the other characters are more permitted to show emotion without something actively filtering them. Also my own bias thinks it would be cool for Gangle to snap, it'd be fun to watch the characters try to avoid getting grabbed by the ribbons while hiding around the circus.

HOWEVER we could look at what Caine said in a different way. Mainly the "who knows what could happen...". What if it was a warning about an actual event that happened? He actually couldn't tell the difference. What if him not being able to tell a human and an NPC apart led to the death of an actual character?

Gummigoo looked very distinct from all the other characters in the circus. He was more gelatinous, had an accent, and was very much from the candy world that Caine had created. It was easy to rule him out from the main group design-wise.

But Kinger and Queenie who look VERY similar...

It would be interesting if the real reason Queenie disappeared was because Caine mixed up the two because of similar designs and blasted the wrong one.

Probably more in tags but TL;DR someone in the main cast could be an NPC and Caine could have accidentally killed a human because he couldn't tell them apart from an NPC. RIP Gummigoo

[dullahanblorboposting]

Re: Jax and the NPC theory

I've seen everyone speculating about which of the current TADC cast is most likely to be an NPC, but I don't think any of them are? I think it's much more likely that either

A different NPC is confused for a human in a future episode, and terrifying shenanigans result as expected

We get a flashback of that happening with old former humans who have since abstracted, tying to some of the portraits on the doors maybe?

Or my favorite possibility: I think there is more potential in that line foreshadowing the exact opposite.

What if Caine in a future episode mistakes one of the human members for an NPC? Apparently Gooseworx teased that Jax will be crossing moral event horizon at some point in the series, and to be honest there is no way it involves him slaughtering NPCs. He's a jerk for messing with the other humans' enjoyment in that regard, sure, but the NPCs aren't real and don't matter. He cannot be 'evil' by harming them because there is no true harm done. He's treating the NPCs as the video game characters that they are.

So whatever he does that earns him the crossing-the-line badge has to be something that directly affects one of his fellow humans, the people who ARE real and DO matter. I've seen the idea that he causes someone to abstract somehow and I think that's the only way for him to cross that line.

Wouldn't it be interesting if for some reason something happens that causes Caine to lose track of who is human and who is an NPC momentarily at some point, and for shits and giggles since Jax treats everything so carelessly, he does a bit where he tries to convince Caine that one of the humans is an NPC. Maybe not even thinking anything seriously bad will happen, just in the usual asshole menace type of way, just to freak the victim out. Only for Caine to actually buy it and try to poof them away. But since they're human, the impact of the attempted poof is that they abstract instead? I doubt that will be how it plays out, like if Jax does cause someone to abstract it will probably be because he went too far with his words and mentally breaks them, but like wouldn't that be fucked up? It would be so fucked up.

[thekingofwinterblog]

Did Caine accidentally kill all the original players(Except Kinger)?

So there is some rather blatant foreshadowing at the end of episode 2, where Caine has an obvious PTSD moment thinking back to something terrible that happened, which in turn is why he murdered Gummigoo on the spot.

The implication is of course that Caine at some point accidentally killed a player by mixing them up with an NPC.

However, there are some hints that suggests this wasnt just one, or two, but maybe a total extinction event for the then players.

Of the 28 players we know of(including the one door we know exists, but havent seen the icon for), 10 of them have the look of Caine's usual mannequin NPC's.

There are two likely explanations. 1. is that these are just placeholders, but the 2. is that these are all the players that Caine accidentally killed at some point, thinking them NPC's, he tried to erase them as he did Gummigoo, only to completely erase their very beings, leaving them as nothing but puppets, mayhaps still running around the circus somewhere, completely unable to recover, or even aware that they used to be something greater, or even worse, maybe they are now lifeless puppets, just lying around.

Then of course there is the mystery of how the oldest resident human went completely insane... And there might be an answer tying into this accidental killing spree.

Kinger is, or at the very least if we take this concept art at face value, was going to have a moment of complete shock where he proclaims "Everybody's Gone.

Assuming this isnt foreshadowing that he'll be left behind in the game while the rest eventually escapes, this probably has already happened at some point, maybe after being stranded in the Digital Circus as it's one, lone human occupant.

[ryuuko-ko]

Kinger could be a NPC

Since ep1 released everyone's been debating if any of the main cast is a NPC. Well, I'm putting my bet on Kinger! (if the NPC theory is true) Now here's my thought process (too lazy for evidence sorry) Kinger has been there the longest so it makes sense that the rest of the cast wouldn't know if he's a npc. In the pilot episode Kinger was going on about a "bug collection". Now OBVIOUSLY this was probably just a jpke, but we're ignoring that. As others have said, he could be talking about game bugs. If so, wouldn't it make sense that Kinger would be ESPECIALLY worried about game bugs? If he's a NPC, he would be not only completely powerless but really the only one who COULD bug and glitch out. Kinger's design also tips me off a bit. Everyone else's design makes sense as "toys" and "circus themed" but Kinger is a literal chess piece. Yes I know chess/chess pieces can TECHNICALLY be considered toys, but it's still really odd. If Caine has worlds that surround one theme (I.E candy) then it makes sense that Caine would have totally made a chess themed world! What about Queenie though? Well, she actually helps this theory! The entire cast (yes even the abstracted ones) all have VERY different designs and themes, but Kinger and Queenie are from the same theme! Hell, even game! There are NO OTHER characters that share that much of a resemblance (Kaufo and Pomni are kinda close but are still very distictly "clown" and "jester".) This could mean that they came from the same world! Perhaps one of/the reason(s) Kinger is so Coo-Coo is because he saw Queenie lag/bug out? Or maybe Caine accidently assumed Queenie was a human, put her in a situation that only humans could do, and she died (or anything similar to that concept.) Anyways I know this is pretty lame and not very convincing but I just wanted to write my thoughts down before they spiraled and took over my brain fuctioning lol

[the-jade-jester27]

I believe that the theory that one of the main cast in The Amazing Digital Circus is an NPC is true, but instead of Jax as the NPC, it makes much more sense if the NPC is Kinger instead.

The main point about Jax being the NPC is that he acts so different from the rest of the cast, but this isn't a strong point considering the following points:

Him having a counterpart - Kinger is the only character in the entire series thus far to have a counterpart, that being Queenie, and having two completely different people being themed after chess pieces and having similar names is a major point for them both being NPCs.

Having been in the circus the longest - this point means that the people who would have brought him there already being abstracted and with Caine losing track of who's human or not and Kingers fragile mental state there wouldn't be anyone in the circus who would know except for Caine

Obsession with bugs - one of Kingers main traits is that he is obsessed with bugs, bugs being a mirror to glitches in programming. This is a big thing because NPCs are likely more aware of bugs than players are, they are part of the same program that the bugs are after all.

Kinger being crazy - with how realistic Caine's NPCs are with how Gummigoo acted in the second episode, it's likely that after the players who brought him into the circus as well as Queenie were gone that he couldn't take it and turned into the Kinger we see in the show.

This theory makes the most sense to me personally but I believe that it is more likely that it being Jax

[toastedclownery]

Hello Jax is an AI theorists.

https://aijobs.net/insights/jax-explained/

[burgercheese1812]

TADC THEORY

OK YA’LL I FINALLY FOUND SOMEONE WHO HAS A SIMILAR THEORY FOR THESE GUYS:

AND WHY THEY HAVE THEIR FACES ON ALL THE DOORS

Basically if you haven’t seen this post I just talked about all my current small thoughts about the show and I said how these guys may be like NPC bases for the characters?

WELL @ ChipNCola on TT put this theory into like, actual words that make sense:

So they’re theory is that when a character enters a game files have to be created and so those faceless figures are like the “blank files”

Also when these characters leave the game their file just kind of becomes corrupted because well, the character isn’t in the actual game anymore,

THIS ALSO backs up my other theory that (I don’t think I posted lmao) the other abstracted characters have actually left the game

But then that brings up my SUPER sad headcannon that Queenie left the game and is now in the real world trying to free Kinger :(

I WANT THEM TO BE HAPPY SO BADLY 😭😭

[koimethehorizon]

Amazing Digital Circus Theory: Gangle is an NPC

Sooo, I wasn’t expecting to talk about this show. I was perfectly content to just enjoy Digital Circus as is.

It’s a show that invites theories as to what exactly’s going on with the setting and characters, but I didn’t have much room to think too hard about it. Who’s Abel? Is Pomni really a human? Why is this VR game emulating an N64 game at the start? I like the show plenty, but it just wasn’t as interesting to go hard on any of those questions at the time.

But with this recent episode… a single, perhaps throwaway line got the brain nagging. And it’s kind of a bizarre one to waste hours analyzing.

Okay, so yeah, it’s a joke on submissive and breedable. (Don’t give them ideas) But try taking it at face value.

What does he mean by this? Sure, Jax is an asshole, and being a bullied kid is Gangle’s whole archetype… but what if it means a little more than that?

Gangle’s trapped for all eternity this asshole and she’s just letting him boss her around. Zooble can choose not to participate, so no one has to. Why does Gangle listen to Jax at all?

Let's entertain a thought: Is Gangle an NPC?

With Episode 2 bringing so much attention to the autonomy of NPCs, it seemed natural to start pointing fingers at characters being this or that. But this isn't just a random crackshot, I feel that there is a story to tell here.

Look back at Pomni’s “orientation” with the other humans. Ragatha, Zooble, and Jax ease her by saying that they’ve been trapped in this world for years and then bring attention to Kinger being the oldest.

But Gangle… she’s isolated from the peanut gallery, busy moping about the broken comedy mask instead.

Every character has been given some hints as to how they’ve been coping with the situation. Jax no longer empathizes with anything, Ragatha once had trouble adjusting but now tries to stay happy, Zooble picks and chooses her involvement, Kinger is the eldest and just exists for the hell of it, and Pomni is new to everything.

With Gangle, it’s a blank. No opinion, no hints of her human side, how long she’s been here, no thoughts on the games, nothing. She’s just Jax’s punching bag.

Even Kinger gets a potshot on Gangle in a rock-paper-scissors game…. and he likely forgot that she doesn’t have hands!

And that brings me to another detail. Doesn't Gangle look different from the others?

Unlike everyone else, Gangle's just a mask and a ribbon. No hands or legs, or just any limbs in general. She stands out as looking a bit simpler than the others.

Gangle's most interesting design trait is that she's based on comedy and tragedy masks. The ones used old Greek theater to dictate the emotions of their characters.

The first episode seems to imply that with a broken comedy mask, Gangle literally can’t stay happy. Hence why we see her sad most of the time. That's a strange limitation if Gangle's human mind is supposed to be completely intact, especially with how expressive the other characters can be.

It's not delved into too much but does Gangle actually rely on these masks to "feel" emotions?

The obvious hole is that Caine would’ve just killed her a while ago if she was an NPC, but he's not exactly omniscient.

He even admits that he has to kill them off because it’s possible for him to lose track.

Now normally I could just stop here, but I’m all about the grand statements. You know, the retroactive readings of an episode once you get a theory going. Why does Gangle being an NPC matter at all? How does Ep 2 change?

While deep diving, I realized that the thematic core of Episode 2 is Pomni and Jax’s approaches to surviving the Digital Circus.

In Pomni’s A plot, we see her connecting with Gummigoo, the NPC that Caine pitted their group against. After discovering him lamenting his new reality, she finds a strange comfort in being existentially lost together. Because in the end the NPCs and the humans are just as displaced and frightened in this meaningless world.

In Jax’s B plot, he forces Gangle to follow some insane orders. Sabotage the game to let the big chocolate turd monster destroy the Candy Kingdom. To Jax, he is the main character. Helping or displeasing this giant population of fake people doesn’t have any consequence for him, so why humor anyone but yourself?

A bit of a stretch, but what if Jax already knows Gangle is an NPC and is keeping it quiet as long as Gangle follows orders, hence the “submissive” comment? He’d be a way more unpleasant character with this reading, but it doesn’t seem off the cards with how he treats everyone anyway.

This dichotomy already plays out well within the episode, but when reframing it as Pomni and Gummigoo vs Jax and Gangle, the parallel is a lot more interesting.

Make an NPC an equal, they die. But keep an NPC under wraps as long as they continue to obey you… they live.

The episode ends with a grim conundrum that NPCs can’t be together with the humans, not because of their differences but because they're just... not allowed to be. But what if one already in the group, proving that they’re just as capable as the humans to play the games and grieve loved ones together?

PS. Despite knowing everyone else's name, I actually forgot Gangle's until I started finding evidence for this intrusive thought. Sorry Gangle.

PSS. I couldn't fit this anywhere, but Gangle's door frame doesn't work as evidence against the NPC theory, because even the mannequins have their own rooms in that hallway.

[mawinswag]

DIGITAL CIRCUS JAX THEORY

MASSIVE SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY BUT HERE WE GO!!!

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So, as many have pointed out already, there’s a scene at the end of episode 2 [22:23] where after Caine kills gummigoo and sends him back to the canyon, that he fears he can’t know for certain who’s a human and who’s an NPC. So foreshadowing, reference to past events or wacky non-sequitur? Maybe none of them, but the possibility that one of the circus members is actually an NPC is obviously too tantalizing for me to pass up, and given events AFTER this scene I think it can only be Jax, and I’ve got a few pieces of evidence why.

The main crux of this whole thing is that Jax IS an NPC, but he’s the only one in the circus who KNOWS that and is absolutely desperate to make sure that no one finds that out.

Episode one! Small note to start out on, but literally the first thing we learn about Jax, the VERY FIRST thing he has to ask is if Pomni is an NPC or not. Narratively, he’s the person who introduces the CONCEPT of NPCs into this universe, not Ragatha - who tries to break in Pomni the most - or Kinger who seems the most knowledgeable about the circus as a concept. He’s also very intrigued at the concept of a new AI in episode 2 [02:49} Like, the fact that she popped up in the circus unexpectedly doesn’t tip him off that she’s a human character immediately. Which may be how HE was able to trick everyone into thinking he was a human instead of an NPC - possibly by sneaking back through a portal like Gummigoo did and hiding until the start of the next adventure. 

He DOES mention knowing about the headsets like the other human characters, but there’s no reason he CAN’T know about that considering he’s not the latest person to enter the circus. Like, we have a GENERAL idea of who entered first, but that’s just the characters who are still around for the pilot - there’s a lot more considering how many bedroom doors there are. https://shorturl.at/asESX 

So, generally, it’s Kinger, Ragatha, Jax/Gangle, Zooble, then Pomni. Now, how can I argue that Jax is an NPC when he has a canonical age? Not to mention, he’s got a canonical ‘appearance moment.’ Well, there are a few options. Option one is that - NPC or not - Jax HAS been here for a very long time, but rather than being a human, he was born inside the circus. He has a definite, APPEARANCE moment, but it's only implied that this is because of him ENTERING the circus proper - new NPCs appear in the big top all the time, i.e. the gloinks all the mannequins, etc. 

But also, take those ages with a pinch of salt, considering a lot of it was about quelling shipping wars and stopping any discourse about characters being adults and all that lovely hellish nightmare stuff. I think goose had an idea in her head about which characters entered the circus FIRST for sure, but how much they’ve aged and WHETHER they’ve aged is its own question.

ALRIGHT! But enough about Tumblr asks, back to the pilot, I wanna note something that happens with Jax in particular more than any other performer in the circus. He’s the most apparent of the interstitial nature of the circus itself - and the most meta. This can range from him basically winking at the camera like in the pilot [8:37] but I think it’s a bit more than that. Jax in particular is more aware of being a CHARACTER in-universe than specifically being a character in an indie animated series.

After this moment in the pilot [19:58] where Jax says ‘ladies first’ to Gangle as if to be polite before promptly following that up with “no, wait, why would I say that,” indicates a few things to me. Jax is at the very least aware that he’s supposed to act a certain way, and realizes when he’s acting out of ‘character’ in this scene and course-corrects promptly. Again, could be a funny meta reference, but also it could be a hanging notion of the fact he literally WAS a character in-universe, an NPC with a pre-programmed personality and understanding of the world. He’s got this rigid understanding of how the characters are SUPPOSED to act and this comes up again in episode two when goading Gangle into driving the tanker over the rocks - saying she’s SUPPOSED to be ‘submissive and agreeable,’ [Episode 2, 7:24]. This sort of disconnect from how complicated people can be and his overall detachment and overstepping of peoples lives [NPC or otherwise] comes up a lot. He doesn’t really ‘get’ other people, WHICH DOESN’T AUTOMATICALLY MAKE A PERSON EVIL, I SHOULD PREFACE, and him not getting it doesn’t automatically make him more ‘robotic’ and thus an AI, but it does explain why he’s more emotionally distant than the other performers. Coming from someone who could’ve been programmed to behave a certain way, his confusion makes sense.

Now for that juicy stuff! One of the few moments where Jax isn’t in control of a situation is in the pilot, where he’s trying desperately to hide from an abstracted Kaufmo. Now yes, obviously this is a sign of his own instincts of self-preservation, but what interests me is how he seems the MOST bothered by the thought of Kaufmo than any other character. Like at [17:27] of the pilot where he sees a glitched gloink and immediately his eyes start darting around him as if he’s listening for threats. He even explicitly says at [19:19] that he’s “just here to hide from [Kaufmo]” and isn’t invested in the adventure at all. And yes it's a very interesting character moment, but how does it push us closer to him being an NPC. Well, it’s because he’s afraid of dying. When you compare how he reacts to Kaufmo to how RAGATHA reacts to him, there’s a comparative lack of fear with her. Like yeah, she’s scared of him, but she’s never convinced that she’s gonna die and even tells Pomni later that Caine will be able to fix her up no problem [14:52]. She’s scared because she CAN feel pain, [https://tinyurl.com/ye275884] but she can’t die, none of the performers can, Caine doesn’t kill Kaufmo when he abstracts, he just throws him in the cellar with the others. His mind is GONE, sure, but it’s not dead. 

NPCs on the other hand, can ABSOLUTELY DIE. So if Jax is an NPC, then there’s a very good reason why he wouldn’t wanna even get CLOSE to Kaufmo in the pilot, because he’s not as durable as Ragatha is and there’s not gonna be an easy fix for him if he gets hurt.

Now, episode two has little sprinkles of Jaxs’ detachment all over it, but none of it explicitly points in the direction of him being an NPC until a partway through the episode. We do get a lot of him showing absolutely no value for the lives of those around him whether than being putting Gangle and Pomni thru the ringer or setting the people of Candy Canyon Kingdom up to be killed by the fudge, but the question is…why? 

My answer is; he’s AM from ‘I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.’ Uhmm, what? Yup that’s right. Ok so it’s no secret that IHNMAIMS was a big inspiration for TADC [https://shorturl.at/hnsFV] and while Caine obviously got the most of this influence with him being a godlike AI who only has control over a bunch of sad, sappy humans, some of which he throws into a giant abominable melting goop monster of human suffering, but if you look at Caine's inspirations [AM from IHNMAIMS] you’ll find that the same motivations more than drive Jax under this theories' interpretation of events. Simply put, AM, a war machine, gains sentience and absolutely despises humanity because DESPITE that sentience, he is absolutely powerless to do anything meaningful with it except torture a group of humans. He’s painfully aware of his own sentience and hates all humanity for creating him, is the gist.

My interpretation is that while Caine has the thematics, Jax has the motivation. In this theory, at some point Jax was an NPC and gained a sentience of his own either through a quirk of programming, intentional design, or AI learning. He realizes that he can keep himself alive if he pretends to be a performer, because he learns that Caine can’t affect the minds or actions of the real humans in his realm. He’s sapient, but he’s in this uncomfortable position where he’s not immortal like the performers, but completely aware of his own mortality unlike the other NPCs, and fully cognizant of the fact he can’t be brought back as he is. Yeah…that’d make someone bitter for sure.

So he psychologically torments the other performers because he knows they can’t die, but can go insane - while killing indiscriminately any NPCs he can because he knows they can die, and he won’t face any consequences for it. He’s this twisted death spiral of a being who finds his own existence an agonizing paradox and takes that pain out on the people around him for all eternity basically - finding disappointment in being unable to act out these pent-up emotions [TADC ep 2: 20:50] and seeing Kaufmo’s funeral as a painful reminder of an ending he can never have. Or maybe he’s bitter because he knows Kaufmo isn’t really dead in a way that HE can die, and finds personal distaste with the funeral on principle. Frankly, there’s a whole HOST of ways you could interpret this scene at the end of episode two with this framework, and I encourage y’all to find your own!!!!

[ghostdiva]

ok so the new trailer for episode 3 just dropped. big hype. here are some theory's, notes, and observations.

also I took a lot of screenshots...

anyway here we go.

so the adventure is set to be "The Mystery of Mildenhall Manor". Now, I do think that Caine is gonna be the quest giver this time, sending the gang to find something inside the spooky, probably haunted manor.

small guess is that they gotta find Matilda, one of the ghosts haunting the manor, and trap her in a vacuum. idk why, it's literally just a hunch.

Jax also takes a moment to harass Pomni with a vacuum, which just makes me think of Luigi's Mansion.

anyway, the gang (minus Zooble) are gonna go in the manor and try to find whatever they're looking for, and either by agreement or random set of events, the gang is gonna split up, Pomni and Kinger being paired up. I don't really know if Ragatha, Gangle, and Jax stick together or not, as they're not really shown much in the trailer.

I am inclined to believe it is a set of events that separates the gang tho.

it's the one of the reasons I can think of that'd make Pomni climb on the door like that.

I mean... outside of the very spooky decorum.....

which Pomni has a pretty reasonable reaction to

btw, I fucking love Pomni's cartoon physics with the squash and stretch rubber-hose animation. it's so expressive and fun to watch.

anyway, it seems Caine is determined to have Zooble go on adventures. so he literally sits them down and tries to therapize them.

though with Caine being an AI with very little knowledge of how the human mind works, this goes predictably horribly.

I imagine Zooble tries on some level to convey to Caine the ludicrousness of their situation. stuck in a digital world getting repeatedly traumatized by meaningless adventures that seem to do more harm than good. though I get the feeling Caine would miss the point, leading Zooble to correct him, and/or get upset at him for not understanding. watching this verbal fight happen between these 2 will probably lead to us, the viewer, understanding more about Zooble.

anyway, back to the manor with this cute little guy.

look at him, he's so cute and squishable. unfortunately this guy is the only cute and squishable NPC here because Pomni and Kinger seems to really be going through it.

they're mostly poking around, opening drawers and stuff. maybe they're looking for a key to get back with the others or something? who knows.

they both probably stumble around in the dark for a bit, both figuratively and literally.

they might end up stumbling into an antagonist NPC, which is the only way I can explain some of these screenshots.

it looks to me like Kinger is facing something. I mean, He's missing an eye in the first one, smacking something with a gun in the second, and looking really worried in the third. Plus the fist 2 have similar lighting so I'm inclined to believe those 2 pics come from clips in close time frames to each other.

there's also another image that has similar lighting...

now... this may sound weird, but I think that either Pomni got Possessed somehow, or something tried to take her shape. Possession seems more feasible since we know at least 2 of the NPC's in this adventure are ghosts, and at least in media ghosts are known to possess people. seeing as digital circus seems to love pulling from video game mechanics, this wouldn't surprise me at all.

this would also kind of explain why in the "POMNI WAKE UP!! IT'S TIME TO GO ON AN ADVENTURE" video, in the "Kinger with a shotgun" clip, he seems to be hitting Pomni with the gun. it makes a lot more sense if Pomni ends up getting possessed somehow, forcing Kinger to hit her in order to defend himself from the ghost.

this also could tie back to the worried look on Kingers face in the screenshot before Possessed Pomni. Cause he'd know what he has to do, even though he doesn't want to hurt Pomni.

Hell, I'm pretty sure Kinger even openly protects Pomni in this episode.

because of the shot in the trailer taken from this hole's perspective

not only is Pomni hiding behind Kinger, but he has one of his hands out in front of her, as if to protect her from whatever is in that hole.

also in regards to guns, Kinger isn't the only one who gets to have a gun.

Pomni gets to wield a shotgun too, and it's likely to help both herself and Kinger fight off whatever was after them in the hole.

Ghost possession and gun-slinging aside, I do think that Pomni and Kinger have a little heart to heart in this episode.

boy doesn't that screenshot look familiar. reminds me of episode 2 with the blue lighting and concerned expression on Pomni's face. That scene in the test room where Pomni comforts Gumigoo. this time tho, she's comforting Kinger. it almost makes me wonder if this will be a reoccurring theme, with all the other characters eventually having a heart to heart with Pomni, and Pomni comforting them.

it'd really make her live up to her quote in episode 2 "I guess I just don't want you to feel like you're nothing. I don't want anyone to feel like that".

the only thing I do still have questions about, is wtf is Kinger looking at here?

I mean, it looks like the eyes of a ghost, if they could make their eyes glow like that.

ya know what, maybe he's looking at a mound of pillows or something.

yeah, like that.

[tboom10]

So there have been a few "one of the Digital Circus humans is an npc" theories floating around, and it got me feeling like:

My guess if any? Probably Kinger. Maybe he was created as a counterpart for Queenie. And since he's the longest there, no one (aside from Caine) really knows how he was like when he entered. So theres the possiblity he didn't.

If not him, Jax, mostly cuz he doesn't have a room design as seen with the pins. Kinger is debatable, but Jax just doesn't. Might also be an explanation as to why he always has keys.

I've seen Gangle being speculated to be an npc, but idk why, but it just feels wrong. Also, as seen with the pins, she has a room.

The "one character is an npc" thing is pretty interesting to me, might make a dedicated post about it.

Edit: I've changed my mind. Probably Jax, not Kinger. The latter is not impossible in my mind, but I still think Jax.

[triasticalwarlock]

Jax is an NPC theory

Do I truly think he is? No

But do I think it's a possibility? Definitely

Not just for the way he acts but also because of all the characters designs, like the fact that everyone is not symmetrical but Jax is:

Caine has Mismatch eyes, one green and the other blue.

Pomni's colors are in a opposite pattern on both sides of her body.

Kinger has a eye that more drooped than the other.

Ragatha has patches throughout her dress.

Zooble is pretty obvious, made of different shapes.

Gangle is just a bundle of ribbons.

But Jax? Nothing. None of his straps of his overalls dropped, both of his ears are straight up, and his colors are all the same.

But look at gummigoo, he isn't symmetrical, his arms are the opposite color. But he's a NPC. So it's extremely weird that Jax is the only symmetrical character.

Jax is the only symmetrical character, and NPC or not, there is something off about him.