#platines | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ghostdiva · 3 months ago

Text

Pomni's Character Arc Analysis

So, I made like, 2 posts in the past that talked about the amazing digital circus (specifically Jax). I’ve made edits and theories that didn’t get much attention, but the theory of Jax’s character Gimmick, and my character analysis for Jax got some good feedback. This has sparked the idea that people here like reading what I have to say on the amazing digital circus. There are also some topics I haven’t seen anyone talk about on the amazing digital circus, and I seriously want to bring more attention to it.

that said, full disclaimer, the rest of this is 6 pages long. so be ready for that.

So today’s wall of texts will be about Pomni’s character development.

I’ve only seen 1 post even allude to the growth and development Pomni’s character has gone through over the course of the 4 episodes of TADC, and I seriously want to shed more light on it. I’m also going to go on a bit of a tangent when I get to episode 2, because there’s a bit that NO ONE HAS TALKED ABOUT. AND I DON’T CARE IF I’M LOOKING TOO DEEP OR NOT. THERE ARE IMPLICATIONS THAT I THINK SHOULDN’T BE IGNORED! THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

-ahem-, sorry about that. Anyway let's start with the pilot.

Now, the pilot has a lot of world building, along with Pomni’s arrival to the digital circus, so the narrative really makes us relate to Pomni, because we, as the viewer, know just about as much as she does when it comes to the digital world. That’s why the first 4 minutes are just exposition, showing the characters, their names, where they are, and little bits of character lore + the digital world's inner workings are sprinkled here and there to add depth.

Now, many people speculated if Pomni’s behavior in the pilot was just her reacting to her new, wild circumstance, or if it truly was just how she is as a character. I believe it’s a mix of both. Pomni is a naturally anxious character, and it’s made clear by her expressions and how she holds herself. Hell, the only thing that stopped Pomni from having a panic attack within the first few minutes of her being in the digital world was her confusion at the censor bar. Which, by the way, is an actual grounding technique that is taught to those looking to go into psyche fields.

Anyway, I think it’s worth noting that Pomni barely interacts with any of the circus members throughout the entire pilot. The 2 characters that she interacts with the most are Ragatha and Jax. Ragatha ends up telling Pomni more about why none of them have been trying to leave, stating it’s impossible and briefly going down an existential spiral in the process. Jax takes a moment to once again tease her on the delusions she held upon arriving to the digital world, and that’s it as far Pomni and Jax interactions go in the pilot. Jax dips once all 3 of them find Kaufmo’s abstraction, and Ragatha gets slammed around, leaving her glitched and jumbled. This leaves Pomni to run for her life, after preemptively apologizing to Ragatha for doing so. Afterall, Pomni doesn’t really know any of them yet. They’re all strangers to her. And she spends the rest of the pilot alone. Pomni only reconvenes with everyone when Caine teleports her back to the tent after she accidentally went into the void. The Pilot ends with Pomni sitting at a table, surrounded by everyone, who seem to be talking with one another, though we can’t hear their dialogue. An interesting thing I noticed is that none of the circus members tried to talk to Pomni at all, sure it would’ve interrupted the beautiful rendition of the theme song, but it also makes a point in solidifying that she doesn’t know any of the people around her. They’re all strangers who don’t have a single reason to care about her, as she also doesn’t have much reason to care about them. Of course there is some, like, surface level decency, but like, most strangers tend to have some surface level decency to those around them. So that’s not really worth much as far as bonds and friendships go.

We definitely see Pomni carrying that feeling of loneliness and isolation as we go into the second episode. Going into the second episode, the first thing we see is Pomni’s dream/nightmare sequence. It shows her standing alone in the main stage area, alone. She calls out, to see if anyone is nearby, and doesn’t get a response. She starts walking forward, and sees something traumatic. This thing pushes her to her breaking point, and she looks down to see her arm abstracted. She panics and starts calling out to anyone for help. No one helps. She’s sent down into a hole screaming and begging, and the silhouettes of Caine, Ragatha, and Jax seem to brush off her abstracting, just as they’d brushed her off when she asked about the exit door. Afterall, how could she trust them if they didn’t trust her too?

Pomni has an abrupt wake up call, and Ragatha guides her toward joining the adventure with the others. At the very beginning of the adventure, Pomni noticeably lags behind everyone else. She seems to follow them all from a distance, under the belief that they don’t really care about her, and as such she’s not really trying to play an active role. One could compare what she’s trying to do to shadowing someone on the first day of a new job. Which makes Pomni’s cagey behavior understandable when Ragatha tries to see what Pomni could do to help out. Jax’s following actions sort of solidify Pomni’s belief that none of them really care about her, as Jax throws her out of the truck. The rest of the circus crew seem to show a blatant disregard for Pomni’s safety and well-being, as she has no idea that she can’t really die by normal means anymore. Again, it’s something she takes as them just not caring about her. And then she gets separated from the group when the trucks collide, sending the main group over the edge of a cliff, and the NPC’s + Pomni spinning into a cliff. Unfortunately the collision there was a bit wonky, so both Pomni and Gummigoo end up clipping through the floor and falling through a void of Utah teapots, and into the test room below. Now, it is here that Pomni actually starts to make a connection with someone. I genuinely think it’s because upon becoming self aware, Gummigoo was just as lost and confused as she was when she first arrived. I haven’t seen anyone else point this out or talk about it. And I seriously considered making a post back when the second episode came out, but I forgot, oops. But, the main difference between Pomni’s situation and Gummigoo’s situation, is that Gummigoo has Chad and Max that care about him. Pomni doesn’t think anyone cares about her, and it’s heavily implied in the dialogue she shares with Gummigoo. I’m gonna give some quotes, and in parenthesis I’m gonna put what it implies.

“Feeling like you’re nothing is… kinda normal” (I know what it’s like to feel like you’re nothing, it sometimes even feels normal to feel that way)

“Y-you still care about your buddies up there, don’t you? I’m sure they still care about you.” (I don’t have anyone who cares about me, but I know you do) [it’s her tone that implies it to me]

“I guess I just don’t want you to feel like you’re nothing. I don’t want anybody to feel like that” (I know what it’s like to feel like you’re nothing, and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone)

“I’m sure you wouldn’t belong any less than me” (if we’re both capable of experiencing the same struggles, then we are the same on that level, regardless of how we originated)

“I could use a friend” (it’d be nice to know someone cares about me, and I’d care about them in return)

Pomni’s dialogue here heavily implies that she has dealt with depression before, and she likely still experiences symptoms of depression from time to time. Perhaps before the circus, Pomni had seen a therapist about it, and that therapist helped her realize when she was feeling depressed, and helped her develop coping mechanisms or ways to get out of that depression. Maybe she took anti-depressants, or maybe she had a mix of the 2. I personally believe she just saw a therapist about it, opting to not take pills because she couldn’t comfortably afford it.

Getting back on topic though, I’ve seen absolutely no one talk about the implications that Pomni has experience with depression in the second episode. The most I’ve seen is stuff about grief, because Caine kills Gumigoo when Pomni tries to bring him to the circus with her. This makes Pomni go through grief, because Caine essentially killed her first friend in the circus in front of her. Those 2 bonded over being depressed and struggling to cope with their crazy circumstances, and Pomni basically lost Gumigoo for trying to bring her friend back with her.

It’s only when Pomni is invited to Kaufmo’s funeral that we start to see her start to let down her walls a bit. When she attends Kaufmo’s funeral, we, as the viewer, can practically see the moment Pomni realizes that they’re all there for each other. They do care about her, and their care for her goes farther than common decency. It’s that sense of comradery, in the mindset of “we’re all stuck in this bad situation, but we’re stuck together”.

Episode 3 is the episode that pushes Pomni to her very limits. See, episode 2 helped Pomni establish that the members of the circus were there for her. Episode 3 pushes her to actually need their support.

When the adventure begins, Pomni states almost immediately that she’s not a fan of horror, and has difficulty handling things like jumpscares. I believe this is due to Pomni’s nervous nature. She’s already prone to being high strung in normal settings, so when external stressors pull those strings even tighter, she’s bound to snap. Anyway, it’s not even 5 minutes into the adventure when Pomni does in fact, get scared by something. A cute little ghost named Ghostly. Pomni, after getting so scared her eyes popped out of their sockets, is confused and concerned when her eyes won’t retract. Kinger comments on the wild take like everyone has had one at some point, apparently he still remembers his. Pomni lets Kinger pick up her eyes as he tries to help retract her eyes so they’re back in her head. However when Gangle loses her mask to the scary door, Kinger sees another circus member needing help, and tries to help Gangle by diving after her comedy mask. Kinger forgot to let go of Pomni’s eye though, so he ends up dragging her with him down the scary door.

When Pomni and Kinger end up in the trophy room, seeing fucked up taxidermied versions of their heads mounted on the walls, Pomni is very tightly strung. She gets so caught up in the actual horror that she briefly loses her sense of surroundings, accidentally bumping into Kinger. This really showcases how sensitive to horror Pomni is. The recorded tapes and trophy heads are passively unsettling at most, and that alone is enough to spike Pomni’s nerves so much she becomes irritable; snapping, being sarcastic, and even sometimes experiencing hysterics. There are even moments in episode 3 where we, as the viewer, can visually see Pomni catching herself snapping at Kinger, and visibly seeming to feel bad about it. She doesn’t want to take her stress out on Kinger like that, but the stress from the horror is pushing her so hard that it’s practically involuntary. Kinger, the awesome character he is, doesn’t seem to take any offense when Pomni snaps at him or gets annoyed. Also the more lucid he gets the less Pomni snaps at him. I think it’s like a parallel line with Kinger’s rising lucidity, and Pomni noticing something is up with Kinger, but not questioning it until they’re both in hell. There is also the factor that Kinger was doing more of the handling of the stressful/scary situations the more lucid he got.

Anyway, when Pomni and Kinger do actually arrive in hell, Pomni actually starts breaking down. All the stress from the horror has built up, and Pomni is basically mentally done with the adventure. Kinger manages to Keep her calm and focused for a few minutes, as he tries to figure out how to go through the hall of the damned without dealing with the evil souls. Pomni, however, had hit her mental limits a while ago, and she just wanted this adventure to be done. So Pomni just ran in, hoping if she was fast enough she’d be fine. Pomni’s hopes were woefully wrong, as she gets literally possessed for her troubles. When Kinger eventually beats the evil souls out of her, Pomni, now back in her own body again, visually has a panic attack. Her chest heaves as she rapidly looks around, as if trying to visually ground herself. After that she continues breaking down. Kinger tries to reassure her, but his reassurances fail based on their circumstance. So he offers to have them both relax for a bit while nothing is chasing them. It’s with that offer, that all the fear, panic, and stress that Pomni had been dealing with, just lets itself out as she breaks down crying. Kinger contemplates comforting Pomni, but doesn’t know if touching her would make it worse or not, and decides not to risk it. So he uses his words instead. Kinger owns up to the fact that it was his actions that forced Pomni down this path, and he apologizes for it. Pomni, who is once again confused out of her panic (like in the pilot), asks Kinger why he’s been acting so different lately. Kinger drops his dead wife lore, and then offers Pomni some advice. The connections they make with the other members of the circus help give their existence meaning. Hold on to the good memories you have, and cherish those around you. The worst thing you can do in this world is make something feel that they’re not wanted or loved.

Pomni immediately takes this advice to heart, scooching closer to Kinger and telling him she’s glad he’s with her. And then after that, she thanks Ragatha for always being concerned about her.

This really solidifies the aspect of Pomni having to sometimes rely on the other members of the circus for help, and prompts Pomni to start establishing connections with the other circus members.

In episode 4, Pomni gets considerably less screen time. I think it’s mostly in part to the main part of her character development being done. There are established messages that Pomni has received, and now we, as the viewer, get to see Pomni put the things she learned into practice. Now, episode 4 had a lot of people in the fandom going “omg abstragedy? Let’s go? Even the creator thinks they’d be good for each other? Omg? Does this mean abstragedy is canon?”(platonically yes, romantically no). However very few people were like “oh Pomni being friends with Gangle? Yes, give me more”, which I think is borderline criminal.

Anyway, onto the episode itself. Pomni takes more of a backseat this episode, as its main focus is around Gangle. However growth doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time. And having days where you slow down and sit at the point you’re at, are important. This allows the spotlight to shine on the other members of the circus, and have those characters reveal more and more about their character. It really makes Pomni feel real here, as we stop following her character as much, now that she’s undergone this development. For the most part, Pomni follows the premise of the adventure, which is working fast food. Pomni can’t cook for shit, so she’s confined to the cash register. She only leaves it to do chores or talk to Gummigoo, who reappears in this adventure. Pomni almost seems surprised by Gummigoo’s reappearance, her actions toward Gummigoo seem to be out of hope that he remembers her. That is until Gummigoo asks “do we know each other?” that Pomni seems to pause for a bit. Pomni seemed to question herself a bit, her voice almost sounding hollow or detached when she says “I… don’t know…”. Pomni gets lightly scolded by Gangle for leaving the register, and is basically told to get back to work, and to stop harassing the customers. Pomni, seeming to just want her first friend back in the moment, gently argues back “but it’s Gummigoo. Can’t the job wait a bit? It’s not like this is real”. Gangle gets in her face a bit as she says “next you’re going to say my authority isn’t real”. It’s this interaction that plants the seed of the idea that Gangle isn’t ok for Pomni. Sure, she hasn’t really gotten to interact with Gangle much, so she has no mental baseline of “normal behavior” for Gangle yet. However Pomni doesn’t believe the way Gangle’s acting is anyone's baseline of normal behavior, and looks concerned for her. Gangle’s mask tinks a bit, and lunch time begins. Pomni goes back to the register, respecting Gangle’s authority, and she doesn’t leave it again until Gummigoo is about to leave. It’s then that I think Pomni is able to get a bit of closure, as she takes the moment she has to say goodbye to Gummigoo.

Pomni then basically returns to the premise of the adventure, manning the register, and possibly even cleaning off camera. It’s when Gangle goes to the back to let down her mask and freely express herself for a minute, that we see Pomni attempt to make a connection with Gangle. She sort of acknowledges the pattern of her finding herself having deep conversations with someone else while alone with them, before asking if Gangle’s mask was making her happy or not. When Gangle doesn’t respond, Pomni changes her approach and asks if she has anyone to talk to. Pomni seems to bring up Ragatha on the basis that Ragatha has shown constant concern about her, and offers that Ragatha would likely be willing to help her too. Gangle shoots that down, stating that while she does like Ragatha, it’s sometimes hard to tell when she’s being genuine with her. Gangle values genuinity when interacting with others, and Ragatha will say anything to ease tensions, even if it isn’t the truth. Pomni seems like she’s about to offer herself as someone to listen to her, but Gangle cuts her off by putting her mask back on and saying “we can’t spend all night talking about our feelings” and heading back inside. This solidifies to Pomni that Gangle definitely isn’t ok, and leaves her wondering what she can even do to help her out. Cause she wants to help her, and even show that she’s someone Gangle could rely on should she need it.

So Pomni does the one thing she knows she can do, she offers to close for her, letting Gangle go early so she can rest. Pomni even insists when Gangle asks if she’s sure. Gangle has her moment after that, with Zooble checking in on her after the adventure. And the Pomni & Gangle friendship is nailed home when we see the post that Glitch made, showing Gangle’s drawing of herself, Pomni, and Zooble all chilling in a fast food environment. And god dammit I seriously wish there was more Pomni Zooble & Gangle friendship content out there. Their dynamic would be so sweet and cute and alsdjfkaskdjfkd.

But yeah, I love how Pomni went from not knowing or trusting anyone in the pilot, to feeling a sense of comradery at the end of episode 2, to not only relying on one of the members, but also being prompted to make connections with everyone in episode 3, and making efforts to make connections with others in episode 4.

It’s fucking beautiful and I see very few people actually addressing the developing friendships between Pomni and the other circus members when it comes to the content I find on TADC. it seriously deserves more recognition and spotlight. I will die on this hill, I swear.

#tadc #pomni #tadc pomni #the amazing digital circus #character analysis #pomni character development #pomni character arc #the amazing digital circus pomni #tadc analysis #I need more platinic sillystring #I need more platonic funnyparts #i beg of thee

37 notes · View notes