One of these characters in the amazing digital
circus is an AI imposter, an NPC that somehow slipped through the cracks and is now living
amongst the human cast of the circus without anyone noticing. And the worst part of it
all? They are the true villain of the show, the real monster torturing the rest
of the cast for their own amusement. Hello internet, welcome to Film Theory, the show
that wants you to pop that subscribe button like a crocodile-shaped balloon. So finally, after
six months, we've gotten the return of the wacky world and awesome adventures of the amazing
digital circus. And man, episode two reveals so much about these characters, this series, and just
how this world operates. So our entire existence here is just LARPing? It's like the Ren Fair. In
this latest episode, Caine sends the gang to a new level called the Candy Canyon Kingdom, where
they fight on candy war rigs, Mad Max style. What time period is this supposed to be again? I
had the same question, Pomni. During this quest, Pomni and a candy crocodile Dundee NPC named
Gummigoo both fall out of bounds into what looks like a developer room. Here, Gummigoo discovers a
copy of himself, lifeless and stuck in a default A pose. I guess the T pose wasn't submissive and
agreeable enough. And goes through an existential crisis after realizing that he's not actually
real. Where's mom? I can't even remember her face. Did she ever have a face? Pomni empathizes and
invites Gummigoo to live with the rest of the castmates in the digital circus to find some purpose. But after the
gang finishes the adventure, Caine seemingly deletes Gummigoo, much to Pomni's
horror. Looks like one of these guys made it through. Wait, what? Wait, what? This episode was
dense and we learned a lot about how the circus works and also more about each of the main
characters. For example, apparently the cast can remember elements from their past lives.
It's just their names that have been completely forgotten. We also learned that maybe, just
maybe, the AI within this computer game isn't actually that different from the human characters
that get sucked into it. Yeah, this was a major theme for the episode. There was a whole
multi-minute long conversation dedicated to the subject and it got me wondering, well, what if
there isn't a difference? And what if the series is really going to drive that home with a twist
reveal down the road? That's right, friends. I believe that one of our main cast here in the
Amazing Digital Circus is an NPC, an AI created by Caine who has somehow wormed their way into the
circus and is now living amongst the human cast without anyone noticing. And figuring out exactly
who that is will show us who the true villain is in the Amazing Digital Circus. Prepare yourself
for an episode that's 57 times more immersive, friends. We're diving in. But before we talk
about the bright, colorful characters of the Amazing Digital Circus, let's talk about the
bright, colorful clothing of Lumen. So for most of my life, I've been a black hoodie, black
t-shirt, black pants kind of guy. It's a great look and I do dig it. It's actually why I've loved
the merch we've made with Theorywear over the years. But as I've gotten older, I've realized
that sometimes you want to add a splash of color into things to wear something with a little bit
more pizazz that isn't just a logo on a t-shirt. And as we started coming up with more ideas, we
realized that Theorywear just wasn't quite the right fit for what we wanted to do. And so
Theorywear is evolving into something new. Our new apparel line, Lumen. Lumen is all about
making creative clothing that anyone can wear, from me to my mom to your average Joe and
con-goer. We wanted to make things that anyone can wear at any time and crush it. Like you can
rock up anywhere wearing the ombre bomber jacket and you'd get head swiveling your way thinking,
man, that guy's cool. And just to be clear, we're still going to be doing all of the same
sorts of stuff that you've loved with our logos and the channel colors and collabs like FNAF,
Dune, and Godzilla x Kong. In fact, we've got partnerships with Poppy Playtime and some other
IP you've definitely heard of coming up in the next year. And if you have any guesses for what
those might be or just some collabs that you'd love to see, let me know down in the comments
below. We'll be reading all of them because we want these collabs to be for you guys and by you
guys. Regardless, this evolution from Theorywear into Lumen lets us do all of that and more.
Like the cotton candy cardigan, that's just good clothing. And something that I'm proud of with
this that we've worked incredibly hard on is to be inclusive with all body sizes and shapes.
Believe me, that's very relevant to me. And being able to buy something online in plus sizes
that actually fits well AND looks good? I could not be happier about it. I actually got to grab
a Scenic View crew neck early and this thing has immediately entered my wardrobe rotation. I am
so incredibly proud of what we've come up with here and cannot wait to wear it myself. And if
you want to check out what Lumen has to offer, head over to LumenOfficial.com or click the link
in the description. There's a ton of cool stuff over there that I haven't even mentioned here
that you are going to love. And now that we're all comfy in our new Lumen apparel, let's dive back into the mystery
of the Amazing Digital Circus. So why would I claim that there's an NPC amongst
all of the castmates here in the Amazing Digital Circus? Well, not to bury the lead, but Caine
heavily implies that an NPC has come into the circus before. At the end of episode 2 when Caine
pops Gummigoo like a balloon, he explains that he did so because Gummigoo was an NPC. I know
you guys love your NPCs, but if I start losing track of who's a human and who's an NPC, who
knows what could happen? That could have a couple of implications. Maybe Caine accidentally deleted
a human castmate before, or maybe one of these humans is actually an NPC. Well, the latter seems much more likely
because it doesn't seem like Caine CAN delete humans. When characters like Kaufmo
abstract, Caine doesn't delete them despite that being an easier solution. Instead, he just throws
them down into the cellar. No, more likely, an NPC has made it back to the circus before, and
Caine just can't remember who is who anymore. That seems like an awfully big Chekhov's gun to
hang on the wall and never go off, and this isn't even the only piece of evidence pointing towards a
human character actually being an NPC. Especially in episode 2, there was a lot of emphasis put on
the concept of AI and just how advanced they are. First off, while trying to entice Zooble to join
in on the adventure in the Candy Canyon Kingdom, Caine tells her that... This shows us that Caine is working on
making his NPC characters more advanced, that creating more realistic, human-like
AI is a priority for this computer system. And elsewhere in the episode, we see this to be
true. The AI of the NPCs we see in this new level is far and away more advanced than what we see
in episode 1. First off, Princess Lu of the Candy Kingdom welcomes the cast as brave knights sent
by God to help the kingdom in their time of need. As you can see from that stained glass window,
the God here is clearly Caine. Therefore, these AI are advanced enough to understand that Caine
created them and make their own religion around that, exactly how humans do in the real world.
But more prominently than that, the themes of this episode really take a dive into what
separates humanity from AI, if anything at all. One of the biggest moments here was Gumigoo's
internal existential crisis after falling below the map, where he realizes that nothing in his
life is really real. His friends, his mom, even himself, none of them are actually real people.
First off, this shows us that the AI of the NPCs here in the Digital Circus is advanced enough to
become self-aware. Gumigoo absolutely understands that he isn't real. It's also worth noting
that Gumigoo doesn't shut down or get fried or abstract, he just becomes a bit of a sad boy once
he realizes his situation, exactly the same way humans do when they have their own existential
crises in the real world. Been there, done that, my man. So the AI is even sturdy enough to handle
that sort of shock to the system. And the thing that pulls Gumigoo out of this depression? It's
Pomni and her empathy. She lets Gumigoo know that she understands how he's feeling, and that
even people who come from her world, the real world, have these thoughts too. And when she
invites Gumigoo to come back to the circus with the cast, Gumigoo asks, would I even belong?
I'm sure you wouldn't belong any less than me. Pomni is straight up telling Gumigoo that
it doesn't matter if he's real or not, they are the same. At the very least, this is
driving home the theme that the AI in this game and its human characters aren't actually so
different. And combined with everything else we've talked about, the show is absolutely seeding
the possibility that one of the human characters is not what they seem. And so now that begs the
question, who is it? Which one of them is an NPC? Right off the bat, we can likely eliminate Zooble
and Gangle. We haven't really had a chance to dig into their characters yet, and the show seems more
interested in exploring them as comic relief than big twists. What about Kinger? He's supposedly
been there the longest, and is definitely the one that seems the most glitchy, for the lack of
a better term. Again, I'm not so convinced. Similar to Zooble and Gangle, he's being
positioned more as a side character, and one that really reflects both the comedy and tragedy of the
situation the humans are trapped in. What's more, there's a lot of evidence pointing to Kinger
being a QA developer who got sucked into the game. In the pilot, he asks, Did someone say something
about an insect collection? And again, when he sees the gloinx, he wonders, An insect collection? And then in the Candy Kingdom
in episode 2, he points out, They've even got little candy
bugs here. It's so beautiful. This interest in insects would make sense if
he was a bug tester in his past human life, so it wouldn't make sense
for him to also be an NPC. That leaves us with just Ragatha and Jax. At
first glance, Ragatha does seem like a good candidate. Despite telling Pomni that there
were no hard feelings for leaving her to the abstracted Kaufmo, if someone ever says that
in a series like this, that means there are definitely hard feelings. So maybe she's being
set up here as a secret antagonistic AI down the line. But at the same time, they're also
really positioning her as a parallel to Pomni. She's trying to help Pomni fit in and
feel better in exactly the same way that Pomni was trying with Gummigoo. Thematically,
it makes more sense for Ragatha to fall into the mentor archetype, showing Pomni the ropes,
before Ragatha inevitably falls to the mentor occupational hazard trope, showing Pomni
the dark fate that she herself could face. So no, I don't believe that they're
setting Ragatha up to be an AI. Which leaves us with Jax. And oh man, it could
definitely be Jax. And there's a surprising amount of evidence pointing towards it. First
of all, Jax being an NPC would make a lot of his quirks suddenly make a lot more sense. For
example, Jax is the only character who's able to keep his head steady while driving a truck over
the rocky road, something that would probably be much easier for a computer program or an AI to do
rather than a human. Additionally, gravity doesn't seem to affect him in the same way as the others.
Notice that during the Mad Max truck chase sequence, characters like Pomni are thrown around
by the momentum of the trucks. She has to hold on to prevent herself from being flung off the
vehicles. But Jax? He stands upright as the truck plummets vertically into the chocolate
river. This is much more similar to the gator NPC Max, who is able to pull himself back up onto
the bandit's truck while similarly ignoring the laws of physics. Jax is acting more like an NPC
here than the human cast. Now obviously, these moments are played for comedic effect, but this
stood out to me either way. Do you want some more serious examples? Well, for one, Jax is incredibly
good at getting into places that he shouldn't. In the pilot, Jax reveals that he has keys to
everywhere, all the other rooms in the circus. Additionally, he is able to very easily steal
the key to the kingdom walls in episode 2. To me, this sounds a lot like Jax has sort of
administrator access to the circus and its connected levels, like he's
part of the computer system more so than the other cast. Oh, and another big thing here, he's the only one of the main
cast that seems to break the fourth wall. It's kind of a blink and you miss it moment, but in the
first episode, Jax looks straight at the camera, straight at us. Though this could be played off
as us being in the point of view of Ragathub, who immediately asks, uh, why are you looking
at me like that? It's still a weird moment, and in episode 2, he does it again, shrugging
directly at the viewer. The only other character we've seen act similarly is another NPC, Caine,
when he speaks directly to the audience at the beginning of the pilot. My name is Caine! I'm
your ringmaster! What's more, Jax is also very interested in food, which is something we've only
seen from NPCs and AI in the digital circus. Yeah, this was actually pointed out by TrueFullHero
over on our subreddit, but Jax is the only one of the main castmates to show any real sign
of hunger or even interest in food. Oh no, they killed Zooble. Anyway, you guys wanna go get
something to eat? You know, I am pretty hungry. You didn't even do anything! So what? I can
still be hungry. Why is this significant? Well, according to Kinger, the humans in the digital
world have no need to eat, drink, or sleep. Well, not really, because we don't need to eat, drink,
or sleep in this digital world. So the digital food here only gives off the virtual sensation of
eating without any of the nutritional benefits. However, NPCs do seem to need food. Like,
in episode 2, the crocodile bandits say that this implies that foods like syrup can help NPCs,
and this isn't even the only time we see NPCs eating or talking about food. In episode 1,
Bubble eats the angel food cake, the glowing queen eats Zooble, and the fudge speaks about
eating many of the candy town's folk. We even see Caine and Bubble in a restaurant during the
pilot, though it doesn't look like their food has arrived yet. Additionally, though we do see
the human characters at a table set with food during the last supper scene in the pilot, we
don't see any of them eating, and this was given to them as a reward by Caine, an AI who would see
food as essential. So Jax craving food, unlike any of the other human characters we've seen so
far, is another tell that he's an AI. But wait, I hear you saying, doesn't the show's official
synopsis say that The Amazing Digital Circus is about six humans subjected to the whims of
wacky AI? And yes, that is correct. However, there are ways to explain this. Firstly, it
could just be a marketing misdirect. I mean, you don't want to reveal your big twist in the
synopsis you released before the first episode. But even still, assuming that the synopsis is
correct, it can still work. That sixth human could be Kaufmo the Clown. Yeah, while we don't
see him before he abstracts, he still is present in the first episode of the series, and his funeral played a big,
thematic important part in episode two. That would mean that he's still in the
series and was still subjected to the whims of this wacky AI, thus making that synopsis still
technically correct. And what's more, this isn't actually the only synopsis of the show that we've
gotten so far. Gooseworx had a different one over on her teaser for the series uploaded to her
personal YouTube channel, and this one describes the circus as a 3D animated pilot about
a rogue AI that relentlessly torment, has fun adventures with, six human souls. Has fun adventures with is an
interesting phrase to use here, since Caine never goes on any adventures with the cast. Yes, he
makes them, and he pushes the other characters to join in on them, but he never goes on them
himself. In both the in-house adventure from the pilot and the candy kingdom in episode two, he
just kinda goes off and does his own thing after sending the cast on their way. But do you know who does go on the adventures
with the other characters? Jax. And not only that, but he's excited to.
In episode one, as soon as Pomni shows up, like immediately afterward, he asks, So, Caine, we having a new adventure
today for the newbie or what? In episode two, he tries
to get Zooble to tag along, Ooh, a new AI. You don't wanna
mess with the new AI, Zoobie? And his reasoning for all of it? I'm fine with doing whatever, as long as I
get to see funny things happen to people. He just wants to mess with them. Sounds
like something a rogue AI who wants to torment the cast would think, doesn't it? And
again, like, rogue AI and torment are weird words to describe Caine and what he does, right?
Like, listen, I get it. What Caine is putting these characters through does not necessarily
seem like a walk in the park. But torment? That doesn't track either. And at the very least, we
do know that there seems to be some fun had by these human characters on the adventures. Ragatha
and Kinger both seem excited by the candy kingdom castle. And Ragatha instantly likes Princess Lu. That doesn't sound like someone who's tormented to me. But do you know who does torment
the cast day in and day out every time we see them? Jax. He's physically abusive. Like, just to
name a few instances, he steps on Gangle's mask without caring, throws a bowling ball at Kinger
to knock him into the gloink layer, pushes Gangle over for no reason, and throws Pomni out of the
candy truck without a second thought. On top of that, he threatens them. Often. He tells Ragatha
that he left a centipede, her worst fear, hidden in her room, forces Gangle
to ram the syrup tanker, or he'll tell Ragatha about the figurine thing, and saying that Ragatha's hair looks like licorice
in front of a monster that eats people made out of candy. He doesn't even bother to show up for
Kaufmo's funeral, and he gets very unhappy when bad guys seem to die, like when the fudge
is seemingly killed in the candy kingdom. He even leaves the kingdom gates open for the
fudge so he can murder the candy citizens. I could go on and on and on, but you get it. A
rogue AI that torments others lines up way more with Jax because, even if he isn't THE bad guy
of the show, he's definitely A bad guy. On her tumblr, Gooseworx has gone into great detail about
how despicable Jax is. He's morally the worst character in the show. When a fan said that they
hoped that Jax would get worse, she said that you're probably going to enjoy some of the things
we have planned, and then later reiterated that he will become much worse, which I would say is
accurate given how mean and cruel we see him being in episode 2. And perhaps most important for
us here today, when asked if Jax was just a jerk or an anti-hero, Gooseworx explains that there's
absolutely nothing heroic about him. Would that be because he's actually the villain here? Yeah,
friends, clearly. They are positioning Jax to be the true villain of this show, not Caine. And
the biggest thing that clinched this for me, that convinced me that Jax
was going to be the big bad who would break this system, believe it or not, it was the merch. Yeah, Jax has been positioned
as a major character for Glitch through their merchandising since the very beginning. When the
pilot for The Amazing Digital Circus first aired, tell me, what two characters do you think they
made plushies out of, that they had ready for you to buy immediately as the episode ended? It
was Pomni and Jax. Now, Pomni makes total sense, she is the main character after all. But why
Jax, and not someone like Caine, who is the other poster character for the series, who is arguably
the main antagonist? They positioned Jax to be just as important as Pomni with these plushies.
And that isn't even the biggest hint we get through Glitch's merchandise. See, all of the
main characters for The Amazing Digital Circus now have enamel pins over on Glitch's store, and
the card back for each of them has them in either the character's room or an environment directly
connected to the character. Like, Pomni is in her bedroom, as is Gangle, Zooble, and Ragatha. Kanger is in his pillow
fort from episode one, while Caine and Bubble are on the circus stage. But where do
you think that they put Jax? In his bedroom, like the others? In the main circus floor? Hiding
somewhere? Breaking into someone else's room? Nope. Unlike the others, he's just outside of his
bedroom, his nameplate broken and letters on the floor. But most importantly, the texture on the
back of the card has been ripped, revealing the glitchy void underneath. Not even Caine, the
ringleader for the circus who creates and controls all of the levels of this world, is shown here in
the void. His pin is still contained within the circus, but Jax is breaking apart from it, tearing
it down. Why would they add this detail only to Jax's pin if they weren't trying to tell us
that there's something deeper going on with this character? That just underneath the surface,
he's glitchy and robotic and computer-generated, just like the void. The evidence speaks for
itself. Someone in this cast is definitely an AI, and Jax is the perfect candidate. He's malicious,
he's weird, he's different from the other characters, and even his merch has set him apart.
So I'm calling it here. Don't be surprised when he's revealed to be the big bad AI at the end of
this series. But that being said, Jax wasn't the only contender I had in mind while writing this
video. There's actually a lot of evidence pointing towards Pomni being an NPC too, which we will be
exploring very soon. Yeah, we'll be doing another episode exploring the possibility that Pomni
is actually a secret AI NPC in the near future, so subscribe if you don't want to miss that
episode when it hits. But until then, as always, remember that it's all just a theory. A film
theory. And cut! And if you want another digital circus theory right now, check out our video
proving that the digital circus is literally H-E double hockey sticks.
