251 - The Amazing Digital Circus (feat. Radio Free Tote Bag)

Shoutout to tumblr for banning gooseworx a few months ago for the crime of being a trans woman. She's back, but many others aren't.

not me realizing right now that I missed episode 8. that would probably make episode 9 more coherent to me

From my interpretation, Abstraction is less about actual Suicide and more about a destructive spiral into phantasm and hatefulness (like Mage: the Ascension's Nephandi). It's willful repression and dissolution of the self to the point where you effectively crush your own Id (like Wraith: the Oblivion's Specters... or SIGNALIS's Corrupted Replikas). It's succumbing to the hatred you feel for yourself and your mistakes until it consumes you in your entirety just to play itself out again and again (Like Earthbound from Demom: the Fallen). It does, I think, make sense in the context that the characters in TADC are meant to be online personas extracted from the people who put them on for the benefit of a platform which wants and expects engagement within its own moderation policies (no swears, no sex). And unlike the people they are based-upon, these personas can't go out and "touch grass" as it were, they are trapped under constant exposure to the performance you are expected to put-on online, which is presented as inherently destructive and eroding to the psyche. I do think it should be reversible, because that's what people do when you crack and break down utterly, you form a new consciousness and identity to frame your existence around. But also, that's a long process which realistically might exceed the life of whatever platform and moment these personas are sharing.

"what if we had something that seemed sinister but was actually cartoonish" I feel like is just real life. Or Mercy, that dogshit movie that posited "what if the racist surveillance state was good, actually?"

My kid wanted to watch this with me and I loved it. From the get-go I saw this as bright, colorful, horror. People trapped in a digital world by a mad AI. Very Black Mirror and I thought it was great at that. Check the Black Mirror ep USS Callister. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5710974/

I watched the series this weekend so I could listen to this episode, and Kinger ended up really carrying the show for me. I got invested starting with the end of episode 3, and unlike the other characters, something about Kinger's vocal performance sounds distinct/non-"stock anime character" in a way that grabbed me.

More HORSE CORNER only makes AJ STRONGER!

a friend just told me this series made her cry so hard she passed out which she then learned is a narcolepsy symptom so now she finally has a diagnosis & treatment options ... art can truly improve our lives in the most rube-goldberg-ass ways imaginable

Character designs and animation of this show are very cool, but would not be able to sit through the horrible cloying voice acting

You shouldn't get OBSESSED about anything, full stop. It's unhealthy. I would not want my daughter to obsess about a cartoon. You can be emotional, critical or sad about it, but there is a difference between enjoying art and being fanatical. If you're going to get obsessed about something, do so about something you made. Or about an activity. Play an instrument. Learn a language. Systematise your vast music collection. Build a boat. Whatever. If you have that obsessive energy in you, put it into something real, something productive. Or at least, something harmless.

Nice Bartleby, the scrivener joke! Just when I think I won’t understand any of the references on this episode it appeared. Thanks English degree!

The discussion around Jax’s personality is making me think of yet another character from a fandom-riddled media: Kokichi Ouma from Danganronpa V3. The difference is, I might find Jax annoying when onscreen but I still like the character. I can’t fucking STAND Kokichi. And it’s fascinating, because I’ve seen so many people love Kokichi the same way I love Jax. Maybe it also has to do with the fact that you’re basically “trapped” in scenes with Kokichi, because it’s a visual novel—scenes in a video aren’t as much of a slog to get through. I don’t know. Interesting to think about.

I saw the pilot on release, but probably wouldn’t have watched the rest if my sister wasn’t into it (autism-wise). We hung out and watched like five episodes together. I definitely have a soft spot for Ragatha now, because she’s who my sister glommed onto—as opposed to the obvious transfem lmao who’d’ve thunk. And a bit of a correction: MatPat DID do a theory on the pilot pre-retirement. I haven’t kept up on those channels since then, so I don’t know if they covered the rest of the series, but the original Film Theory episode was Matthew Patthew himself

I was one of the minority that followed Kevin Temmer way, way back for his silly parody songs. Coincidentally, around the same time I subscribed to Gooseworx for her own musical arrangements. Then I was like “Well, I guess I should watch their little collab pilot thing” when it released.

HORSE CORNER

On the finale: the rest of the thing with Cane is the antithesis to Jax's self immolation. How does one make amends, how does one build a community & a sense of home after the end of all things, what does it mean to cultivate compersion. Like it is clear the bodies Khayn gives are tailored to each guest, to allow them to externalize their traumas & intervene upon them such wise (Like Gangle's masks are meant to allow them to recognize their emotional state as they are prone to masking it even from themselves... yadda yadda) but The Circuit Boi isn't transparent & in opacity even good intentions sour. It can be read as an Ars Poética but it really resonates when looking at it as a how not to give into despair

Every time Brian says "Evanjellyon" I feel like I'm going to rip my hair out.

Dropout has a short animation anthology series that is currently releasing. It very well may be a venue for future independent animation projects.

To be fair, i note that Jax didn't toss away the bow until someone else knocked on the door, sharing that secret once in a secluded area was one think but as soon as she was reminded that other people might have to find out, she flipped again

AJ's horse corner brings me so much joy every time. Especially the 'no's from the others the insant they realize what's coming.

Top-tier horse corner this week AJ

What I was always missing and didn't know I was missing from media critique is all of the context surrounding said media. The history of the creators involved, people's reactions to the media, how that is a result of the times we are living in and vice versa. Always incredible guys. I really feel like I understand narratives, art direction, etc etc far more than I ever did before because of your show. Keep up the good work!

kinger? i hardly know ‘er!

Great episode but yeesh, every time they cut in clips from the show I see exactly what Josh means. The combination of totally flat, subtext-less writing with overwrought, incredibly earnest delivery just makes my skin crawl.

The first time I heard Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two) was as the song that 90's spyware gorilla BonziBuddy used to sing

I feel like I got attached to Caine pretty early, because I started thinking about things from his perspective and it made much more sense that there wasn't necessarily a grand evil motive behind his actions. On a re-watch, especially, it's pretty clear that he is trying to do his best to use his power to help everyone, but by enforcing this separation between himself and the other characters, he is creating an adversial relationship. It's like he wants to be a good parent, without understanding that he also has needs. I think Dono really nailed it that the power he has becomes a corrupting influence, and it twists those initial good intentions to become feelings of righteous anger. EDIT: Slightly surprised nobody mentioned this, but in the final episode, the way the characters care for Jax is that they construct their own, smaller circus for her. I think it recontextualises Caine's actions as being those of someone struggling to know how to take care of people he cares about, and it ultimately reinforces that the characters are the same as him (aka there is no separation between them anymore).

i live in a world of delusion where the finale skipped all of caine returning and the only irl stuff we get is that credit stinger bus shot.

I did not consider or I forgot that the kiwi farms side of tumblr is just another type of fandom. Is this what tumblr does to people? It was interesting to hear these critiques on the series. I enjoyed the series since day one but I imagine revisiting it by myself after the ending may bring some of the flaws in the writing to my view. Still a really good series. I am glad it is to other people what I Saw the TV Glow was to me.

Can someone please tell me what the music at 1:54:20 is?

I'd never heard of the show before the episode. I'm 2 hours in and I still don't get it. This isn't a critique of TWOAPW! Stay skibidi!

I had never heard of this series but am dying to see it. You talked about avenues for indie animation drying up but forgot one that you talked about with Ben Collins. Sam Reich's Dropout is an immensely queer friendly platform. From the outside it seems like they have a pretty equitable business model. I could absolutely see them producing a show like this.

Honestly, it reminded me of the game Soma where people put copies of their minds in computers but the original is left behind.

Y'all gotta do infinity train now!

I watched the show at the recommendation of a friend and I liked it, but also I think the deletion should have been permanent from a realism perspective because that's a terminal, you can accidentally delete something and it's just gone. Also the narrative purpose, because sometimes you make a mistake and things are gone forever

I AM TRANS-INVESTIGATING THE RABBIT - Audrey

originally saw the pilot of this immediately after watching the worst dogshit cartoon movie "Our Drawings" (on youtube, only suitable for kuso enjoyers) so my expectations were subterranean. Even then, the writing had me turned off in a "it's just not my taste" way. Later watched the series in a marathon viewing and was shocked at how much better it got after the pilot in like every department, like genuinely it just got better and better. Still processing my full opinion on it, but I do hope Gooseworx gets a nice long vacation and 1 pomillion dollars

I laughed at the break so hard. I knew what it was immediately. I saw the whole path. It still got me.

wow i just found out about this show last week because someone i follow on a social medium was making posts that were clearly Televisual Media Discourse, but trying to infer what they could possibly be talking about from the names and concepts being cited made me feel like i'd just been hit in the head with a looney tunes frying pan

"I bet this would hit, but I'm never going to watch it" was also my reaction to it.

This was posted after I’ve started thinking “I wish people would stop trying to talk to me about this show” so just know I’m listening to this and shaking my head the whole time to show im annoyed (joking)(obviously otherwise I would just not listen… excited to see what yall gotta say)

Oh wow, an epispde about something new that I actually know about 😀 and I saw it on upload to boot!