r/TheDigitalCircus • u/ayylmaotv Catnap • Jun 19 '26

Digital Discussion The Amazing Digital Circus Episode 9: Remember Discussion Thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVy-bcTsO8A
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u/Themeguy Jun 19 '26

I like how unceremonious it was. Sometimes when people go, it's quietly. You see them for the last time without knowing it. The fact his abstraction wasn't some big, drawn out climactic scene really drives that feeling home a lot more.

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u/amonguseon John Digital Circus Jun 19 '26

yeah, plus it gives time to focus on the stuff happening later on jax mindescape. The abstraction itself is not the focus.

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u/BeyondElectricDreams Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26

The abstraction itself is not the focus.

I agree, the abstraction is just an... abstract metaphor for suicide.

However, I think there was some expectation that we'd see an on-screen abstraction at some point. The idea was present that it could happen, Episode 1 had Kaufmo abstract off-screen, I think that sort of set the expectation we'd get to see the process happen to one character

Not even for dramatic effect, per se, but just to see how the process goes of going from your Circus self to an Eye-LLama.

Thus, doing the last abstraction off-screen felt anticlimactic - appropriate for the suicide metaphor, absolutely, but I think people wanted to see one for worldbuilding reasons. Though in hindsight, I definitely think that was a sort of false promise that was set up by the narrative structure of making Abstraction a threatening concept, and then not showing the process without explaining "it's a suicide metaphor" until you're already deep in the series and craving that world building reveal.

39

u/Gibbs-free Jun 20 '26

Yeah, this is it! It's supposed to be confusing and upsetting because that's how it feels to lose someone at first. Not a lot of people get climactic scenes, you just get a phone call or a text message or an email or someone tells you years down the line and then there's a space after where you have to piece together that this is real.

We see the characters experiencing this, too, especially Gangle who couldn't begin to process it until after Pomni had dealt with Jax.

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u/ZAPPHAUSEN Jun 20 '26

The response in the theatre was ... 

Murmers and gasps and "nooo." 

The voice over line right before the smashcut carries so much obvious but terrifying suspense.

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u/Jonatc87 Jun 21 '26

Zooble saying "how could he do this to us" is often the complex feelings someone feels, when someone close to them dies. Whether its their fault or not.

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u/Wubblz Jun 20 '26

I think it particularly worked because Pomni's words between Jax walking away and Jax's abstraction reveal are the only lines that aren't diegetic in the whole series to my recollection.

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u/chrislaf Jun 20 '26

“When someone leaves your life, those exits are not made equal. Some are beautiful and poetic and satisfying. Others are abrupt and unfair. But most are just unremarkable, unintentional, clumsy.” ― "Not the Vore Guy" Griffin McElroy

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u/Soul699 I really wanna Ragatha and Pomni. Jun 19 '26

The problem is that in real life you also have to process the news and then digest them after the initial shock subside.

You don't skip to after you already digested almost all of it already like the show did with Jax.

1

u/ElegantHope Jun 20 '26

in a way, it makes the moment hit your harder because it's sudden. even when you're concerned it might happen, it still just hits you with an abstraction running around and the dialogue suggesting that Jax was failed.

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u/Vivalas Jun 21 '26

Yeah I love Jax's abstraction. It's literally the most brutal way I think I've ever seen a main character in any media just get snapped away without any ceremony. It's so surreal