0:00 All right, everybody. We just got episode 6 of The Amazing Digital Circus, and I think this might be my favorite episode so far. Today, we're going to get into a little bit of everything that happened in the episode, but what I mostly want to talk about is, of course, Jax, as this was very much an episode about him and his crazy psyche. Now, before the episode even started, we already knew that this was going to be a pretty decent one due to all the teaser material showing off the story line that the characters are each going to be getting their own guns and going off in a battle against each other. And to make it even better, everyone was put into little teams so that we could see their little dynamics. Now, all in all, this premise made the episode the most adult episode so far. And that doesn't necessarily mean it's the most mature episode, but it was definitely the most fun. Before everyone was divided into teams, even we got to see a little bit into the minds of the characters based on how they tried to divide themselves.
0:47 Jax would apparently normally try to pair up with Gangle, which is really interesting because Jax is normally the bully to Gangal. You would think that Jax would want things to be like his safari adventure from the original episode where he gets to hunt down the people that he likes to bully the most, but Jax obviously just uses the idea of teams in order to get Gangal close to him so that he can torture her even more. Over the course of the last few episodes, however, Zubel's been getting really close with Gangal. And already anticipating that Jax was going to try and cause trouble, Zubel decided to team up with Gangal instead. Pomna actually wanted to team up with Ragatha, as I'm sure you saw. But of course, Ragatha wanted to team up with Kinger so that he wouldn't end up being bullied by Jax instead. And that ironically left Pomni to team up with Jax. This is not what Ragatha actually wanted. And we can see at the end of the previous episode that she was actually worried about Pomney
1:33 and Jax getting closer. And it's from this conflict that we actually get a good insight into what Jax is actually doing inside of the circus. Of course, the episode will claim many different things with all of them revolving around the idea of him having fun. But Jax's actual actions are actually shaped by Rakifa's intervention. You see, when this in-house adventure with the guns first started, Pomni didn't want to actually shoot anyone inside of the game. They don't actually feel pain the way they did as humans. Though, they do apparently feel something that does make them act stressed out when they experience what should be pain in the show. A lot of this, I think, has to do with the psychology of being trapped in a video game where you can't quite feel things the way you used to. And in part, it's the stress of having to deal with this sort of fake pain that maybe pushed some of these characters to abstract in the past. The point is here that Jax actually convinces Pomni that she should
2:19 just lean into the adventure and go around having fun shooting everyone while she can. What Pomny seems to really want here is actually just to bond with Jax. But in order to do that, she actually has to try and play this game his way. And to do that, she decides that she's going to be more like evil Pomni, who we saw in the previous episode. This is just imagination for Pomni, but it's a different version of herself that she gets to explore in a fantasy setting where no one can theoretically actually get hurt. But this apparently is just one small step in Jax's greater plan, or at least in the greater pattern that he has with other people. When Jax actually corners Ragatha in the game, instead of fighting back, she actually has a bit of an outburst about Jax's behavior. The way Raggtha phrases her accusation, it's that Jax is actually trying to corrupt Pomni and has done this to other characters in the past. Keep in mind that his words were corrupt and not
3:05 abstract, which is definitely something different here, but corrupting someone may be part of what leads them to abstract later. In the previous episode, Ragatha alluded to something Jax had done with the character Ribbit that he clearly feels very guilty about. Something we even see in this episode when he takes the time to stop and look at Ribbit's door. And then when Ragatha accuses Jax of corrupting people, he ends up shooting her in a fit of rage. I really hope that this isn't some sort of foreshadowing about Jax having a meltdown later in the series that actually leads to the death or rather the abstraction of one of the characters. But regardless of that, it was definitely a powerful moment that had me at the edge of my seat. Now, this corruption that Ragatha discusses is actually what Jax was doing with Pomni earlier in the episode, trying to get her to stop worrying so much about the real world outside of the game and more so about trying to have fun within the
3:50 game. Jax doesn't even really treat it as a game, but more like a TV show where they're each supposed to be a different character who embodies an archetype for the sake of fun. All of this is ultimately meant to be funny. And because of that, Jax says that he's the funny one. But this is really just a mask he wears in order to get away with hurting others. What Jax finds funny is the suffering of others. And when that's turned around on him, he actually gets really embarrassed and really upset because what he wants is to be in control. Something he mentions later in the episode, but we'll get to that later. What's important here is that Ragatha is hinting at the long-term psychological effects that Jax's mindset has on other people. Of course, it definitely has some negative effects on Jax as well, but ultimately this mindset is his coping mechanism. It's what he uses to hide himself from his real feelings. This is something that others can do as well, but it can only go so
4:35 far before that person has their own breakdown as well. Seeing Pomni become unhinged, as well as Zubel and Gengal really made this one of the most fun episodes that they could have possibly made. And with us being really close to the finale, I'm not sure how many episodes we'll have that'll be quite as fun as this one. But the reason Pomney started to enjoy this was leaning into a different persona than the one she's used to where there's consequences in real life without the more immediate consequences of real life physical pain and injuries. However, leaning into the idea of being your most evil self becomes more and more toxic over time. The way Jax presents it is he's just being evil for the sake of funny. But if Pomney were to do that over and over again every day for the rest of her life in this video game, then she'd essentially just be actually evil at some point. The whole point of this archetype of being humorously evil is
5:20 that you have to cross some sort of boundaries or lines. And that means making other people upset, even if it's not in a physical way. This makes me think that when Ribbit first entered the circus, they might have actually been a really nice person. Perhaps someone who is a lot like Pomni and even like Ragatha. Ragatha is an example of someone who tried to hold on to their human identity so that they don't lose themselves in the circus, but Ribbit seems like someone who got along with Jax more than Ragatha. This could be due to Ribbit having their own psychological issues, especially with being trapped in the circus. It's a pretty dark fate to have, and it makes sense that a lot of people would end up doing what Jax does, embracing the silly, pushing things to the extreme, and not worrying about what the actual consequences might be since we aren't technically human anymore. That's a big thing Jax discusses in the episode is the idea about whether or not they're human or just something else. And when the characters do this, it
6:06 makes them forget that being human goes far beyond just having a physical body. One thing really emphasized in the episode is that the characters are in avatars and each of the avatars have their own gimmick with Zubel wondering why certain characters have gimmicks that the others do not. And I think the answer is obvious that it's these gimmicks that are what makes them human that makes them more than just digital code. These digital avatars are made seemingly based off the characters personalities. Zubel is not just non-binary, but also dysphoric, and because of that, they like to have the option to customize themselves as they go. Something we actually see in this episode with Zubel adding more arms in order to hold more guns. Gengal, meanwhile, appears to have something akin to bipolar disorder with their happy and sad masks. And Raggatha, of course, is a ragd doll because they're a type of toy known for being able to take a beating, hinting at all the suffering
6:52 that Ragatha takes on both physically and emotionally. Something she even seemed to take on from her mother when in her human life. The point is that these aren't archetypes, as Jack says. But they're actual people with actual brains and actual psychological issues that come with having a brain. And scanning that brain and putting it into a digital space doesn't take that away from them. Over time, I imagine evil Pomni becoming more like Jax, someone who is pushing others to their limits in order to cause pain because Pomny herself just thinks that it would be funny. Whatever happened with Ribbit, both Ragatha and Jax seem to blame Jax for what happened. One thing Jax also notes in the episode is that before abstracting, people in the circus actually become pretty terrible to deal with, potentially with them acting more angry and aggressive instead of just sad or crazy. But because Jax does actually blame himself for what happened with
7:38 Ribbit, the end of the episode took a shocking turn when Jax got really aggressive with Pomni, but seemingly in order to protect her from him. What Jax seemed to really want in the last few episodes was to actually develop a bond with Pomni. Perhaps the same kind of bond he had with Ribbit. But after being reminded of Ribbit's fate, not just their corruption, but also their later abstraction, Jack seems to do a 180 at the end of the episode in order to get Pomni to shoot him and leave him behind. This was after they've already won the game and Pomni made a joke about how one of them had to betray the other now in order to complete the story, especially with them being the bad guys. But instead of Jax playing along in order to have a final shootoff with Pomni, he decides to just let Pomni be the evil one and shoot him. This led to such a crazy emotional scene that I can't even break it all down here and definitely want to talk about it more in a longer
8:24 video, especially when it comes into diving into Pomny's side of the story. But when it came to Jax, he was pretty one note. After finishing the game, what Jack's claimed here is that he doesn't have friends, and he doesn't really see anyone in the circus as having friend potential. This goes beyond him being a loner or being depressed or just not wanting to interact with people in particular. And if he had tried to phrase it that way, he knew that Pomney would just try to connect with him again later. After all, there's only so many of them in this circus, and there's only so much they can do outside of trying to actually connect with each other. So, with that in mind, we got what I have to think is going to be the saddest scene in the entire show, where Jax puts on an act of actually hating everyone and seeing them only as his toys that he needs to make suffer. To some degree, I do think this is truly how Jax sees the world. But the truth is that we all have very nuanced or even contradictory views
9:11 of the world that swing from one extreme to another. And part of that comes from us having to tell us that things are a certain way they are, even if it's not really true. something Jax does as a coping mechanism in order to deal with the fact that he can't get closer to people after what happened with Ribbit. It was so painful to watch him put on this act, but also on some level kind of mean it. It felt like because if he didn't mean it on some level, then he would have to give in to his other feelings of wanting to be friends with people, which would only lead to their destruction. So, in between these phases where Jack seems to think he wants friends and wants to try and connect with people like Pomni in particular, I believe he basically has to brainwash himself into being even more mean than usual, going from trying to actually have fun to trying to actually push people away so that they don't end up getting abstracted. This episode makes it clear that Jax has a much more
9:58 nuanced view of himself than I ever could have imagined, as it was really easy to believe up until this point that he was essentially unaware of what he was really doing. But this episode made it clear that even if he doesn't know what he's doing all the time, as he does have the human desire to grow and change and to try certain things that his subconscious wants to push him towards, once he gets in too deep, he knows that he has to pull away because ultimately he will just end up killing Pomni in some way. I talked a little bit earlier about the possibility of Jack shooting Ragatha being some sort of dramatic foreshadowing. But what if what we should actually expect is something more in line with what happened between Pomni and Jax? This scene talked a lot about the idea of betrayal. And if Jax really wants to prove that he can't be a friend to anyone without them getting hurt, perhaps winning Pomny's trust later and then betraying her is going to be the only way to teach her this lesson. But
10:44 what do you guys think? This was my first quick reaction to the episode, but I'm going to be making videos all week, so make sure you leave the video topics you want me to cover in the comments down below. I also promised that if someone drew me in a maid uniform that I would put it in a video, and that actually happened recently, thanks to YouTube user My Obsession 247. So, special thanks to them for embarrassing me. And if you want another video to watch before I get to tackling the bigger themes within this episode for tomorrow's video, go check out the video we put out this morning breaking down the Glitch series, Sunset Paradise. This is a complete miniseries from one of Glitch's earlier productions with a lot of interesting connections to the Mario franchise, so go check it out if you haven't seen it yet. and I'll see you guys next
