The Amazing Digital Circus gives us a group of very cute, very loveable characters who are trapped in a digital world - and in some cases, have been for years - with no means of escape. It's hard not to feel bad for them. Well... most of them.
As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
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Episodes:
Pilot
- Pomni. She's a girl clearly filled with anxiety, and you never really know if she's about to have a panic attack or just completely lose her mind.
- When Ragatha points out the door to Pomni's personal room, Pomni stops her walk to briefly stare at the door's portrait, sporting a frozen face as she gets her first glimpse of her avatar's appearance. Once she sees her physical reflection for the first time, she needs time to consider the harlequin in the mirror is her, and looks like she's gonna snap at any second.
- After escaping Kaufmo, she finally finds the exit door... only to find it leads to an office room with an exit door, leading itself to an office room with another exit door, and it goes on and on until the final door which leads to... the Void. The entire time she's pushing through the endless doors, she sounds like she's teetering back and forth between panicked gasping and sobbing uncontrollably.
- The best example of this is right at the end of the pilot, where while the rest of the gang chats with one another, Pomni just stares into space, as her face slowly changes to make a very forced smile. You know the poor girl is crying on the inside.
- Pomni's anxiousness and breakdown of sanity aren't just in the pilot. Pomni is present in the official video for the series' theme song
. At the start of the video, she just looks like she doesn't know what to do with herself, but by the end, she's in a full-on Troubled Fetal Position.
- Gangle after her comedy mask breaks, is constantly in a state of sad. She gets no sympathy from Jax, who casually walks over her already broken mask without a care in the world.
- If you're not laughing at Jax offering Gangle to go up the escalator first, only to shove her down to go first instead, you're feeling bad for Gangle getting bullied and doing nothing about it.
- Even worse (or more tragic, as may be): after she gets pushed down, she doesn't even try to get back up until the others have passed her by. It's like she ranks last and she knows it.
- Word of God is that Jax bullies her the most because he knows she won't stand up for herself.
- If you're not laughing at Jax offering Gangle to go up the escalator first, only to shove her down to go first instead, you're feeling bad for Gangle getting bullied and doing nothing about it.
- Ragatha has it rough too:
- When Pomni asks how to leave in the room corridor, Ragatha explains that looking for an exit is pointless... as everything happening in the circus is, and that thinking about it could make them reach their breaking point... something she's about to do when giving the exposition. Her following remark about adventures being a way to stay "healthy and stimulated" sounds more like a way to cope than a sincere thought.
- She's very quick to try to calm and befriend Pomni, who repays this kindness by abandoning her twice, albeit reluctantly: once after attempting to grab her and save her from Kaufmo, and again when she goes through the exit instead of looking for Caine. At the end of the pilot, after Caine unglitches Ragatha, she silently walks over to Pomni, stands next to her, and dejectedly looks away while Pomni also looks down in shame. The worst part is that Pomni's established as wanting to help Ragatha, trying several times in spite of the danger to herself, but the temptation of escaping the claustrophobic hellscape that stole her very name is just too much. It really hammers home that the Digital Circus is, for all its colors and whimsy, an astonishingly cruel place.
- Considering how she was right there for almost all of the worst things that Pomni had to witness on her first day, Ragatha could also be ashamed of how her own efforts to help have ultimately failed.
- At the end-of-adventure reward dinner, Ragatha is sitting as far away from Pomni as possible (with Kinger and Gangle between them, where every other option would have put her either next to Pomni or only one seat away). Is she upset with Pomni for failing to help her, or upset with herself for failing to help Pomni through her first day? Either way, it's a tragic start to their relationship.
- One can't help but feel sorry for Caine. He genuinely wants to help his performers, but completely lacks the understanding to do so, and due to not being able to control their minds, there's effectively nothing he can do for people who abstract except seal them away where they won't be a threat to anyone besides themselves. Hell, he even attempted to create an exit, but because he just didn't understand what the performers meant by wanting one, he wasn't able to complete it. As much as he may seem like a villain at first, he's ultimately just as helpless as everyone else, albeit in a completely different way.
- The ending of the pilot... Dear God. After frantically trying to break free with no success and exploring the darker secrets of this world, Pomni has to grimly accept that escaping the circus really might be impossible. Whilst the rest of human avatars have grown accustomed to their prison, casually talking with each other about having dinner, all she can do is give a Thousand-Yard Stare. The last we see of her is her stunned, silent expression slowly morphing into a distorted smile.
- What's made worse is how Pomni stares down at her food, which looks very low-resolution and fake. Not only has she lost her real name, she's also, according to Kinger, lost her body and the sensations that came with it, including eating.
- The juxtaposing triumphant music in the background only makes the pill more bitter and harder to swallow.
- Even better! The name of said music? "Your New Home".
- To top it all off, absolutely nobody around Pomni seems to even notice the fact that she's clearly going through a silent mental breakdown. They're all just talking to one another and minding their own business including Ragatha, the one person that seemed to genuinely care for Pomni the most. It just makes Pomni's situation feel all the more hopeless and lonely.
Other Media:
Other Media
- While it quickly veers into silliness, POMNI WAKE UP TIME TO GO ON AN ADVENTURE opens on a very unpleasant note. In the aftermath of the pilot, Pomni lies frozen on her bed, giving the ceiling a Thousand-Yard Stare, while a slowed version of "Your New Home" that can only be described as funereal plays in the background.
