- jax is a race car driver in a racing game (i hope this ages like fine wine i'll laugh), zooble is a bartender in a bartending sim, and ofc gangle would be like, the npc at a spudsy's papa pizzeria type thing

ragatha gets a cute farmer outfit bc shes in a farming game, pomni is a grocer bc she runs a store, kinger has like a bugcatcher outfit (hes in a bug themed educational game teaching kids code basics) -

the root canal joke also by my partner. they're funnier than i am

this show is!!!!! so fucking smart!!!! i love it for that!!! it's funny and heartbreaking and everything in between. and its so aware of its roots in the western canon and in computer science. i think it should be appreciated for that. and also possibly getting children into sci fi lit.

it would be a VAST departure from everything else the series is what im trying to say tho. because....like.....jax's whole deal shows why nihilism doesn't work. he'd be the one to piss his pants in smiling friends

anywayy i know there are a lot of jokes and analysis about haha caine is a sadist ai and while like, kinda i guess, and im sweating a bit about what ep 8 will bring, i dont think thats what the story is at its core, at least not to me. but hey, i might be completely wrong

adds to caines tragedy tbh, bc he's never going to understand that on a baseline level. not only because of the power imbalance, but i think he sees the characters' complexities with each other and themselves as problems to be solved as opposed to things that need to be lived through

plus, theres the bit where abstraction seems to get interrupted if another person interferes. like, people theorize that gangle was on the brink in ep 4 (and if not on the brink, then her mental state would have def gone downhill from there) but zooble and pomni's kindness helped pull her out

these are just gut feelings but i feel like what allows the characters' situation to be survivable is their connections with each other; it's cheesy but also true, humans are a social species and we do the best when we're working together.

and obv im not in tune with every single analysis or whatever but...even tho tadc is psychological and horrific and all of the above, i feel like its hopeful about human nature and its persistence. ihnm certainly is - not in an optimistic way but definitely in a hopeful way