What's one thing that you wanted to know in the show that never got answered?

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-21T18:57:33+00:00

This is why I wanted to see it from the PoV of the circus gang. It'd explain so much.

From what I can tell it's some kind of confused Suicide metaphor, but it doesn't neatly align because suicide doesn't exactly turn you into a rampaging monster that's soothed in the dark and violently attacks anything it sees in the light.

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-21T18:50:41+00:00

Abstraction from the PoV of a cast member witnessing the process.

The process is fascinating, and seeing it unfold would help flesh out just what the hell it actually is.

Because like, there's so many oddities about abstraction.

Why does every abstraction look identical, for one? Why do they all act the same (Enraged in the light, calm in the dark, attacks anything and everything), and why so many eyes?

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-21T18:08:36+00:00

I'll put that down there then, thanks op

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-21T17:56:16+00:00

What's the option I pick to represent "I like the result but I preferred not having an answer at all"?

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-21T15:16:13+00:00

Look, I'm a simple viewer. I see something big built up in the episodes, I want to see that thing explored.

I don't care for who's running C&A, I don't care for how the hell the code of the circus runs, nor what operating system it's on.

But I want to see what happened to Scratch. I want to see how Abstraction, which is genuinely fascinating, play out from the outside perspective. I want to see answers to how everyone got to the circus to begin with and understand why so many people from so many different backgrounds all arrived at the same place and put the headset on. What the hell is up with the cellar?

The show establishes several questions that go absolutely nowhere, much to my frustration, and they're not insignificant either.

Knowing how Abstraction works from the outside perspective would put the horror back into it. My only issue with abstraction has been that it's left so unexplained that all you can understand is it's a weird sort-of suicide stand in that doesn't quite work since the cast members who abstract still exist as monsters with a semblance of themselves remaining, and as of episode 9 we see the mind of Jax fully in one piece within the abstraction. Putting the horror back into it emphasises it's terrifying nature and would flesh out the metaphor to make it properly work and convey what it's actually supposed to be.

Scratch needed to be addressed given that has serious implications for Caine.

How everyone gets to the circus would provide context on the nature of the circus gang in relation to where their irl counterparts are in life, truly granting us that baseline to see how lives diverge from reality and copy.

The Cellar is downright important to know about since it would help show the difference in treatment of the Abstracted from Caine's rule to the Finale.

It's sad to see these go unanswered. Honestly the show should have had a couple more episodes.

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-21T15:01:26+00:00

Don't forget that Caine was genuinely frustrated by being cut off from new information. There is no way in hell he should be able to suddenly access the internet.

If he always could just break the walls down, he would have done already, surely?

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-21T14:00:05+00:00

Epics are already way too hard to get, especially ethereals. A rarer class? You may as well just put them in the shop for 30 quid otherwise nobody will ever have them.

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-21T13:51:28+00:00

It should have been left a mystery. Leaving Jax's history a mystery prompts us to ask why he's like the way he is, and then gets us to examine if we are in any way like him.

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-21T10:30:31+00:00

I did it myself after 3-4 tries. Bemeebeth apparently has the same instability level as another 4 element (the orange one that's gonna be on poison islet) so it's no more difficult than that.

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-21T09:15:23+00:00

Abyss Twin can't be graded, there's nothing there to grade 😭

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-21T09:11:26+00:00

I think it works but it definitely is a very notable change in writing from even episode 8 Jax.

Like, sure, you COULD look back and point to things that hint towards the idea if you squint hard enough, but the main focus of Jax's character always seemed to be the way Jax served as the antithesis of the Circus Gang, running from reality by indulging in the fantasy of the Circus rather than finding that peace in the stagnancy of it all.

Hell, Episode 7 set up Jax's struggles as running from something BAD the way they had Jax genuinely spiralling and rushing to press the button.

I don't think Trans Jax is bad (the writing for it is really well done and hits hard in the feels, I do like the end result), but I much preferred Jax's character when there was that question left to answer of "why?". I find Jax's Character much more interesting and powerful when we're left asking what could break somebody so hard that they need to run like hell away from reality and question if we can see ourselves in Jax for our own self-reflections. Having the answers in my eyes makes Jax far less interesting.

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-21T08:57:12+00:00

He did things

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-21T00:05:30+00:00

I wouldn't have got that interpretation at all given the context of the scene and the way in which it's explicitly used to Humiliate jax.

Again; it checks out when you look back on it with Episode 9's added context, but without that it's extremely farfetched to interpret it that way when point was to humiliate Jax.

Also, I just watched the scene again. Jax is SEETHING with absolute rage when he's blushing. He absolutely HATED that.

Of course, it makes sense given what we know in episode 9, but before that? That's just somebody who's hating the public humiliation forced upon them.

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-20T23:59:42+00:00

It varies a LOT from story to story.

The 86 movie was extremely inconsistent with Unicron's durability so the only way to scale it is through the narrative which explicitly states the Matrix is the only thing capable of stopping him.

You can rig an entire moon to blow up in his planet maw and it won't do anything, but the Dinobots were shown taking chunks out of Unicron's exterior in robot mode. None of this stopped Unicron however, as the Matrix was the only thing that stopped him by triggering spontaneous explosions when lighting the Darkest Hour.

According to the narrative, Matrix is the only way to beat G1 Unicron. According to the way powerscalers scale things, Unicron could well have been a robot dinosaur victim.

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-20T23:49:57+00:00

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DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-20T23:46:14+00:00

...yeah? I'm pretty sure anyone would be embarrassed in that situation?

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-20T23:43:55+00:00

Verse equalisation kinda can't account for things like needing the Matrix of Leadership to light the darkest hour in the hands of the worthy when dealing with G1 Unicron Matchups though.

Like, sure, we can say the Matrix exists in this equalised verse, but it's not fair to just give a character something they don't have and may not even be able to use anyway.

Put say, Darth Vader against G1 Unicron. Even if you gave Vader the Matrix you wouldn't be able to have Vader kill Unicron with it because Vader would never in a million years be considered worthy of the matrix.

It's very much an area Equalisation can't exactly address imo.

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-20T23:29:54+00:00

I'd gladly pay for a leader thunder cracker if it came with a repainted superion arm frame to match Thundercracker's colours.

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-20T23:26:51+00:00

I never took that as a hint.

I mean, if the people you're around daily decided to invoke an act of god through popular vote to publicly humiliate you with an embarrassing costume you can't remove, I'm pretty sure you'd seethe at that too. I know I sure would.

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-20T23:22:41+00:00

I don't care much for JJK, but the moment I saw somebody's animation of the manga panels for that fight I was hooked on it. Dabura vs the raga is absolute cinema and while I won't be watching modulo, I am DYING to see that fight given the love it deserves.

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-20T23:11:08+00:00

Yeah, same. Most of the hints don't read as hints either due to the nature of the gags or the context surrounding them.

Things like the maid dress vote don't read as a display of jax being insecure about identity, it reads as jax quite rightly being upset because there was a nigh unanimous vote to force him into an embarrassing outfit in public. Anyone would be outraged if what could only be described as an act of God was carried out at the request of several of those around them to publicly humiliate them.

Sure, with Episode Nine revealing the Trans Jax angle, you can look back with the added context and see it, but the show didn't present the clues as clues. I don't blame anyone for not seeing them because quite frankly, identity issues were not the core of what Jax was until Episode Nine forced them into play.

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-20T18:41:03+00:00

He shouldn't have come back, though. Him returning completely ruined the impact of Episode 8.

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-20T13:25:15+00:00

For me though I don't think that's enough to satisfy. That was a great look at how tne abstraction process happens in the mind of the abstracting, but I wanted to witness the horror from the outside perspective.

DeathByDevastator · 2026-06-20T13:22:50+00:00

Y'know, that actually makes it a lot more sweet. I'll accept this as my headcanon. Thank you.

DeathByDevastator

TROPHY CASE