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popart-vvv · 21 hours ago

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Arcana Analysis--The Amazing Digital Circus: Gangle (The Moon)

Only the fourth so far, but this one was the most difficult for me in terms of choosing which arcana fits best. Here we go!

Next up is Gangle, a super-emotional woman with the motif of masks. Also the star of the most recent episode, which most of this essay will cover. I chose her card as The Moon, number eighteen in the arcana deck. A card representing illusions, anxiety, and the subconscious, it fits very well with Gangle's limelight episode, Fast Food Masquerade.

Gangle's most prominent character trait is her comedy and tragedy masks, both of which represent her moods. She's cheerful in the comedy mask, and downbeat in the tragedy mask. Unfortunately, the former gets broken easily, and it happens a lot, thus most of the time Gangle is in tragedy mode. Here's the thing, though--Gangle's real face is her tragedy mask. So what does that make her comedy mask?Fast Food Masquerade gives us an answer. Not only does the title itself hint at Gangle's true nature, it also evokes The Moon.

After yet another comedy mask is broken thanks to Jax, Gangle is offered an unbreakable plastic mask by Zooble, a player with an abstract body. She's delighted by the new mask, and it gives her a mood boost. Then we get to the adventure of the day, Spudsy's. Gangle is made the shift manager by Caine the ringmaster. Sounds like a moment of stupidity, considering Gangle's meek personality up to this point, but as it turns out, she has experience in the role stemming from her pre-Circus life. She takes the job very seriously, and the mood boost allows her to dominate Jax for once.

Now comes the dominant theme of the episode--"masking". We pretend to be different from our true selves in a certain situation. And it can't get any more literal than Gangle and her masks. Despite the mood boost, she doesn't seem to truly be happy. As a matter of fact, there are visual and aural clues that she's slowly losing her sanity over the course of the workday, meaning that she was dangerously close to Abstracting. The two key moments are when Jax and Ragatha comment on Gangle's new chipper nature; the former says "I like you better when you're sad", and the latter, hopped up on Stupid Sauce, says "you're kind of annoying when you have your happy mask". Both of them are followed up by a *tink* and a close-up on Gangle. Indeed, Gangle just seems to be faking her happiness with the comedy masks. After sunset, she takes a moment by herself to take off her mask and scream in frustration, unaware that Pomni was close behind. Despite the latter's attempts to reach out to her, Gangle puts the comedy mask back on and tries to mirthlessly laugh it off. She remains miserable for the rest of her shift until Pomni offers to close up shop for her. Once Gangle leaves, she throws away her mask, and despite being in "tragedy mode", she's able to genuinely feel joy and bliss, even if only for a moment.

We also get to dip into Gangle's mind and get some insight as to why she was especially stressed during the adventure. When she punishes Jax for his comment, she uses an instructional video where she makes fun of the viewer for having the dream of being a comic artist. It's a pretty specific rant, which comes back in the end when it's shown that Gangle is an artist herself. So perhaps before the Circus, she wanted to be a comic artist, but was instead working as a shift manager at a restaurant. Perhaps the adventure dug up some bad memories for her, which she kept to herself even when Caine brought up the idea of working at Spudsy's. That's an example of The Moon Reversed, where you push your feelings further within your subconscious.

To cap it off, Gangle's story is evocative of The Moon with the prominent themes of masking. Perhaps in the future, she may start becoming more comfortable with showing her real self and eventually stand her ground against Jax. (please Goose, she's suffered enough! :(( )

#the amazing digital circus #tadc #gangle #tadc gangle #major arcana #tarot cards #the moon

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sleepy-lulu · 24 hours ago

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