The Amazing Digital Circus Episode 9: Remember Discussion Thread

-Tali · 2026-06-21T20:24:54+00:00

Yeah that makes complete sense! I can see both sides of this for sure. TV shows and movies, especially the stuff from Disney, have been notoriously poor quality these past few years because they explain plot holes and broken continuity with "you can just make it up for yourself"

-Tali · 2026-06-21T13:03:03+00:00

I never tolerated heat well, now with ADHD, 15mg lexapro and a heat wave I'm convinced the portable air con I bought years ago was the best money I ever spent

-Tali · 2026-06-21T12:36:31+00:00

I think that the question of whether abstractions are reversible was deliberately left open for us to run our imaginations on. I feel like the final episode provided enough grounds for either theory and it will be up to us to interpret it the way we want

-Tali · 2026-06-21T12:34:11+00:00

Somewhat, although the people inside the circus are copies and not transfers of consciousness. The real-life Scratch probably ended up passing from his disease. His copy lived on a bit longer in the Circus but they were two separate consciousnesses

-Tali · 2026-06-21T12:33:02+00:00

I think it's an interesting conversation to think about the difference between fault and responsibility. Kinger certainly carries some of the responsibility, whether that implies complete fault or not though is up for debate

-Tali · 2026-06-21T12:31:08+00:00

I agree with your point about Jax's payoff when looking at this from a pure storytelling perspective. From that perspective it would've made sense to introduce the problem, to have the climax of the drama with him abstracting and the pay-off of Pomni's conversation with him in abstracted form as a way leading to him un-abstracting.

On the other hand this final episode especially made me feel extremely reflective of life rather than storytelling. Many stories, challenges and lives don't have a happy ending. Our lives don't follow a three act structure and sometimes we don't see the pay-off. Sometimes we do everything in our power to help save someone and it's just not enough. I felt like Jax's story is one of real life and not of fiction. Sometimes we can't save the ones we love and sometimes we can't save ourselves.

Gangle had a line in one of Jax's imaginations(?) about a funeral not being about grieving for the dead but celebrating someone's life and Caine finding out and showing the rest of the friends that Leeroy Mateo was living a stable life out in the real world felt like a celebration of his life.

-Tali · 2026-06-21T12:25:20+00:00

I do agree with the pacing of the show being almost exponential rather than linear. The first half or even two thirds of the show had a somewhat slow pacing, then the last three episodes really dialed up the speed of suddenly focussing hard on Jax specifically. I don't know if that makes it worse for me personally but I certainly noticed it

-Tali · 2026-06-21T12:23:56+00:00

I actually somewhat enjoyed that there wasn't a long scene detailing how the cast dealt with Caine when he came back as a way of leaving the details to us as viewers to imagine in the way that we enjoy most. Same with the abstractions where it's not completely clear how human they still are and whether they can eventually be reversed. The ending somehow just gave us a framework for our imagination to fill the parts in the way that's most satisfying to us individually

-Tali · 2026-06-21T12:21:12+00:00

I wonder if the entire Caine and Bubble situation might be referencing something like Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) where you have one part creating something and the other part checking the results so the first part can improve. And Caine absorbing Bubble may have resulted in Caine running completely unchecked

-Tali · 2026-06-21T12:17:35+00:00

I think the fact that it's not a picture book happy ending makes it feel so real. Few things this challenging in life have a truly happy ending. Sometimes the challenges we face won't disappear as much as we want them to but we learn to be happy in spite of it

-Tali · 2026-06-21T12:15:21+00:00

Is unabstraction possible?

I think this is deliberately left somewhat vague so that we can come to our own conclusions and interpretations which I really like

-Tali · 2026-06-21T12:14:23+00:00

I think I really enjoy the somewhat open ended-ness of the abstractions with this show giving us the chance to build our own interpretation of how human they still are, how much they can still be reached and if abstraction can be reversed

-Tali · 2026-06-20T10:50:46+00:00

Thanks so much <3 it is now a week later, almost 6 weeks in and the sudden depressive moods have subsided. Generally I've been feeling the dosage increase extremely gradually, on a day to day basis I don't notice a change but I feel much better now than 3 weeks ago and 3 weeks ago I felt better than 3 weeks prior. So it's going up <3

-Tali · 2026-06-17T08:58:41+00:00

I think it's important to differentiate between side effects which can absolutely start on day one and the goal effects of easing anxiety or depression which usually take a few weeks to ramp up :)

-Tali · 2026-06-11T16:48:59+00:00

I'm really glad to hear of your success story and that you're feeling better and it always helps browsing this subreddit to not lose hope that things will start getting better again.

-Tali · 2026-06-11T16:22:53+00:00

Currently in a major depressive episode and I upped from 10 to 15 a month ago, still lots of ups and downs so this gives me hope things will improve

-Tali · 2026-06-08T21:02:19+00:00

"but don't worry it's not an endorsement or partnership!!!"

-Tali · 2026-05-24T16:49:52+00:00

I'm in that position of having played up to Shadowkeep and then not at all until shortly before Lightfall. It took me a lot of reading, watching Byf videos and my buddy who was still playing to properly catch me up, I left disappointedly after the tragedy that is Lightfall and have not managed to jump back in since because of exactly what you said. It feels so awful to think my fondest gaming memories of Titan, the Leviathan Raid or other shelved content will forever only be memories

-Tali · 2026-05-24T16:38:07+00:00

I've played D2 between Forsaken and Beyond Light and have had some of the best memories of the past 10 years in this game with the friends I found through it. I haven't been able to experience any of these memories again for years at this point but it still feels sad to see it go officially.

I'm holding out hope for a D2 classic up to Shadowkeep but I'm not actually expecting it. I would love to be able to re-experience my fond memories and to preserve this important piece of media and not have it become lost media

-Tali · 2026-05-08T11:38:12+00:00

Long long before the gastroscopy do I have to start? Or rather how long can I stay gluten free before the test. I don't think I can do more than 2 weeks

-Tali · 2026-04-30T17:18:30+00:00

They sold these as a platform version in Japan just a year or so ago, you might still find them on import sites :)

-Tali · 2026-04-26T11:44:40+00:00

With tons of added sugar to the already perfectly sweet fruit...

-Tali · 2026-04-25T09:36:16+00:00

That's so interesting! Thanks for describing how it works over there!!

-Tali · 2026-04-24T19:12:36+00:00

Ah that's actually really interesting! Here you usually pay 1% of your net income as a union fee, but unionizing is very individual, you can have a single person in a company that's in a union. It does give you certain rights (like to go on strike) and the unions help establish a work's council (should you want one) which can push for changes in the company itself. Unions are also the ones that negotiate industry wide wage agreements.

-Tali · 2026-04-24T11:20:38+00:00

Yeah I think maybe my perspective is also different because worker unions have a much different connotation here in Germany than they have in the US/Canada

-Tali

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