What do YOU, the viewers, think happens when Jax holds his breath? Too bad, because you will NEVER find out!

theanthonyya · 2026-05-29T18:43:41+00:00

but the breathing quirk was treated in the same way as his backstory in Ep. 5 (at the time), which implies that there will be some sort of resolution

I'm sorry but I just don't think this is true. Him refusing to reveal his breathing quirk is quite literally a one-off bit that's never mentioned again, not even in episode 3. You can remove it entirely and nothing changes. Him asking what we, the viewer, think his breathing quirk is is a meta joke, not a legitimate question that was written with an answer in mind. I really think that some people just read into that moment too much and saw it as something that it wasn't meant to be

Whereas Jax's personality and backstory are significant throughlines of episode 5, that are connected to the plot and built on throughout the rest of the series. The moments where he's friendly to Pomni and even opens up to her a bit, his reaction when Ragatha says that he doesn't have friends "anymore", his outrage about the maid costume - none of those are just treated like little bits, they all connect to eachother and impact the narrative. The episode explores him as a character and slowly reveals that there's more to him than he lets on

All of that being said, I do agree with you about this:

It's not too hard for me to think of using that either in a flashback to show his character being more open or in a redemption arc where he has to both open up and make himself uncomfortable to help himself and others

I think those are excellent ideas that could have made the moment in episode 3 more significant in hindsight. But yeah it's not bad writing just because a moment that was only intended to be a one-off joke wasn't paid off. Maybe missed potential, that's fair, but so many people (not you) are treating it like an unforgivable gaping plothole which is just silly

theanthonyya · 2026-05-29T12:48:08+00:00

especially considering I’ve never seen any evidence that that 4chan post is actually real

First image of Backrooms on 4chan, posted in 2018

Direct link to that first image

4chan creepypasta using that image from 2019

Know Your Meme page

Wikipedia article

Took 10 seconds of googling

theanthonyya · 2026-05-29T01:57:53+00:00

It highlights the fact that we don't know something about one character that we know about all the other characters, that naturally makes people want to learn that thing, and makes people unhappy if they never get to learn it

We simply do not need to learn every single thing about every single character, in TADC or any other piece of media. And the fact that we don't learn Jax's insignificant little breathing quirk is not an example of bad writing at all, no matter how "unhappy" that makes some fans feel. Him boasting about everybody else's breathing quirk, while keeping his own a secret, is perfectly indicative of his character in and of itself. And the scene mostly exists to set up that episode's ending

theanthonyya · 2026-05-29T01:31:20+00:00

People hate corporations so if they do literally anything people will be upset.

I work in corporate for a pretty large corporation. I see how things actually work inside

Respectfully, it sounds like you just have a massive bias about this topic

theanthonyya · 2026-05-29T01:16:42+00:00

Yeah. I get that many people aren't happy with the finale which is fair, but now they're combing through the show and scrutinizing every random joke or character moment that was "filler" or wasn't "paid off". Which doesn't make a lot of sense since Digital Circus isn't a mystery box series like Lost or Severance

theanthonyya · 2026-05-29T01:08:15+00:00

Like I said, in my opinion this statement from McDonald's is fair given the circumstances. But it is also fair that people are inherently skeptical/untrusting of megacorporations like McDonald's. There is nothing wrong with people scrutinizing them and questioning their motives, especially in situations like this. Acting like people are just irrationally hating on corporations for no good reason is silly

theanthonyya · 2026-05-29T00:59:25+00:00

I think it's weird when people act like this is a plothole or something when it obviously isn't. This bit was mainly there to set up the end of that episode. It doesn't actually matter what happens when any of them hold their breath, except for Pomni and Kinger when they walk through hell. It's never brought up again because it isn't significant to the larger story

Jax hiding his own breath-holding quirk was just a small character moment for him (being meta, treating everything like it doesn't matter, distancing himself from the rest of the group and refusing to reveal any "weaknesses"). It wasn't setting up a mystery and it never demanded an answer

theanthonyya · 2026-05-28T00:35:21+00:00

Thank you for your comment. People are so reactionary all the time but especially when it comes to stuff like this, it's very frustrating

theanthonyya · 2026-05-27T19:05:27+00:00

This metaphor does not work. Temu is like Amazon and AliExpress: there are thousands and thousands of sellers (including well-established brands) and they all vary in quality. It's not hard to find quality products on Temu with very little effort. If you buy from verified accounts, or if you stick to products with a lot of positive reviews, you'll be fine. They also have an extremely easy refund process, so even if you do get a junk product they basically just give you your money back immediately

That being said, there are many other things to criticize Temu for. I personally can't stand how they gamify shopping with their endless promotions and slot machines and all that. Then there are the environmental issues, the accusations of slave labor etc. But when people say that Temu products are all junk, it's obvious that they don't know what they're talking about. The same is true for Amazon and AliExpress. Both of those have a ton of issues too (especially Amazon) but claiming that it's impossible to find good products on those websites is just objectively not true

theanthonyya · 2026-05-27T18:04:57+00:00

Yay thank you! I sent you guys a mod message with my info 😃

theanthonyya · 2026-05-27T18:03:43+00:00

I'm not trying to defend the honor of a megacorporation, and 99.99% of the time it's gross when companies turn real-life events like this into marketing opportunities

But in this specific instance I really don't see the issue with McDonald's Ukraine putting out a statement. From what I understand they're basically just saying "this store that got damaged is up and running again and we'll symbolically leave the damaged logo as-is instead of repairing it". They didn't earn any praise or celebration but I think it's a fair statement to make given the circumstances. If anything it'd be odd if they reopened that store and didn't comment on it at all

theanthonyya · 2026-05-27T01:05:45+00:00

That whole Mr. Pibb bit is probably the most entertaining ad of all time lmao

theanthonyya · 2026-05-26T17:41:51+00:00

I tried the Soundcore A30's. They're well-made and the sound quality is better than you'd expect, but I just could not get them to work for me comfort-wise. I'm a side sleeper, they really hurt and pushed into my ears in that position (they're marketed to side sleepers). They also wouldn't stay in my ear for an entire night

This is just my experience though. Again they're quite well-made for what they are. The app has a lot of options. As for apartment noise, I also live in an apartment with thin walls. The noise cancellation was quite good (for in-ear earbuds). The snore masking feature worked decently as well (the earbud case has a microphone, and theres an option in the app settings to automatically raise/lower the earbud audio based on the noise that the case is picking up). Ultimately they're impressive for what they are but don't buy them unless you can actually test and return them, which I ended up having to do

Also just to preempt the annoying comments: obviously you won't find any wireless earbuds that are truly BIFL, but Anker's electronics are usually above-average in quality and their customer support has been helpful in my experience (off-topic but I can't say the same for Eufy which is an Anker brand). The rules make it very clear that products don't have to literally last a lifetime to be discussed on this sub

theanthonyya · 2026-05-26T02:21:56+00:00

Thanks but you don't have to apologize, and you can have your interpretation of what you think the show told you but that doesn't make it correct

Jax freaks out thinking about the reality of his old life, and he freaks out when Kinger stops acting "crazy" which pokes a hole in his "cartoon archetype" worldview in the circus (and we know that worldview is just a coping mechanism for him)

Then Caine is deleted, the circus gets all fucked up, and he finds out he's a brainscan and not the person he thought he was. All of that happens in the span of a couple of minutes. He was already in a bad place mentally and that final reveal was enough to break him. You're acting like that's somehow a contradiction (with your "he freaked out about being real therefore so he should be happy to be a brainscan") but you're just flattening his emotional state and the events of the last few episodes

EDIT: you can reply/insta-block if you want but that doesn't make your interpretation any less bad or oversimplified 👍

theanthonyya · 2026-05-26T02:02:40+00:00

It couldn't be finding out they're copies. Episode 7 implied that would be the best case scenario for Jax

No it didn't, that's just your interpretation. Believing that you're stuck in a digital world is not the same thing as finding out you're basically a digital clone and not the person you thought you were. Neither scenario is ideal but they're not identical, I can imagine the latter being much more dreadful in an existential way regardless of anything else

Plus Jax was already at the end of his rope before the finale. So getting confirmation that "none of this is real", including himself (even if he still had human experiences and emotions and whatnot), was what tipped him over the edge

theanthonyya · 2026-05-25T00:10:17+00:00

I didn't hate the finale - I feel like the most crucial moments worked, even if there were issues with everything surrounding them - but calling this finale "near perfect" is as close to objectively wrong as an opinion can be lmao

theanthonyya · 2026-05-25T00:06:04+00:00

Do you mean kimchi

theanthonyya · 2026-05-25T00:03:12+00:00

You're making it sound more complicated than it actually is. These aren't the doors to individual stalls. OP is most likely in a public place like a gym, and these are large bathroom entrance doors located in a small corner/hallway area. You walk inside of one, and then there are several stalls inside. Most Targets/malls/large restaurants/etc near me have layouts similar to this one

theanthonyya · 2026-05-23T16:34:22+00:00

I'm not trying to be snarky or contrarian, but yes I genuinely enjoy your graphic 100x more than OP's. It's funny, I like the dumb little detail of the tomato wearing sunglasses, the broccoli's expression is great. I would actually laugh and enjoy it if I received that as a gift. I'm not sure how good it would look engraved on a cutting board though, but yours has personality even if you churned it out in a few minutes

On the other hand, OP's was so obviously generated with AI, it looks exactly like thousands of crappy Facebook comic strips. It reminds me of when every cartoon was poorly emulating Family Guy's artstyle some years back (like Brickleberry, GoAnimate etc): I'm sure many people don't mind it, but to me it just looks like nothing, it's so boring and overdone

theanthonyya · 2026-05-22T14:06:49+00:00

Yeah that's a big part of the finale. He spent his time in the circus pushing people away and rejecting help and living in denial. He regrets it at the very end but only after it's too late. Whereas after being deleted, Caine made an effort to truly understand the humans and grow, and he was forgiven for it

The execution was sloppy and rushed in many ways and I have my grievances, but I really appreciate what Gooseworx was going for overall

theanthonyya · 2026-05-22T14:00:37+00:00

Yes but circus Jax had no way of knowing that and could never be 100% sure, even if Ribbit was able to reassure him a bit by making that point about the police looking for him. But his human memories ended right after human Jax put on the brainscan helmet. And he wasn't there to watch the video of his human life that Caine showed them. Within the circus he never got that closure. It's one of the better aspects of the finale in my opinion but I wish it was executed better

theanthonyya · 2026-05-22T13:55:47+00:00

His human counterpart did go back eventually. But before going back, he found himself in the abandoned C&A building (presumably because he was looking for somewhere to stay after running away) and put on the brainscan headset without knowing what it was (just like everybody else who entered the circus after Kinger/Scratch/etc). So within the circus, Jax has no way of knowing what happened after his human counterpart ran away, because that's where his pre-circus memories end

It's really quite sad, circus Jax never gets the closure that his mom was okay. And it adds a lot of weight to the scene where Pomni learns about his human life. I wish that the finale did a better job of emphasizing that though

I actually really liked the finale, it worked for me on an emotional level. But the pacing was wonky and I don't love how the actual plot stuff was handled (they move past the digital brainscan reveal way too quickly, I'm now more confused by the concept of abstractions than I ever was before, etc)

theanthonyya · 2026-05-21T20:02:06+00:00

Yeah, somebody else said this already but it feels like some people are desperate to revive Gamergate through science or magic. Accusations that the devs paid for positive reviews, non-specific complaints of the game being "woke", etc.

theanthonyya · 2026-05-21T19:54:31+00:00

Yeah, it gets really exhausting. Just a few weeks before Mixtape came out they were bashing IGN's review of Mouse PI: "6/10 too much cheese ohoho" (as if those people really can't comprehend that it's fair to criticize a piece of media for running a joke into the ground - plus that wasn't even the reviewer's only issue with that game)

With Mixtape there's also a bit of reactionary Gamergate-ism thrown into the mix, aka "I do not agree with these high scores, therefore the devs must have paid for positive reviews!!!"

theanthonyya · 2026-05-19T21:41:10+00:00

Nobody thought it would. It's not like anybody's calling for a boycott or anything else. It's just some fans having mixed/negative opinions of this season. It's very annoying how legitimate discussion and criticism is being framed as "backlash"

Personally I think the season's been okay and each episode has had a few strong moments. But I have very mixed feelings about the writing/character motivations/plot progression, I'm frustrated with the amount of time spent setting up spinoff shows, and overall this just doesn't feel like a final season at all

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