CARNIVAL AU - First And Only Visit

With Gooseworx all but confirming that the Jax being an AI thing is bullshit, I personally want to talk about an interesting part about Jax that a lot of theorists used as "evidence" that validates the theory:

Jax's fourth wall breaks are a common topic brought up amongst the "Jax is an NPC" theory. After all, Caine broke the fourth wall in the pilot, knowing full well that the world of The Amazing Digital Circus isn't real and is talking to some unseen viewer as he introduces the Circus Crew.

There's also this bit of official art surrounding Jax's pin:

Where everyone else is inside their room, Jax is outside as pieces of the circus fall apart around him and all of reality to crash. Certainly lends itself to this idea that Jax knows he's not a real person and that his presence could cause great disruption to this world. And he doesn't care because none of it is real. Might as well have fun and cause chaos in a world that doesn't exist.

And I'll admit, all of this seems like valid claims for how the theory could be true. I saw it all and thought that it surely COULD be possible...but there are some things that stop me from being convinced.

Firstly, Caine breaking the fourth wall in the pilot doesn't really seem like an AI talking to the audience. It looks more like an AI programmed to talk to a player as a game boots up. What we saw in the opening could be more like a morning routine that he has to do at least once a day. Plus, we've yet to see any other NPC talk to the audience like Jax has. He explicitly called out the viewers in episode three, knowing full well he's being watched by SOMEONE. Or, at the very least, acting like he is. What do I mean by that? Well, to explain, I'd like to use one of my favorite fourth wall breakers as an example:

Deadpool, in most adaptations, knows fully well that he's a fictional character. He'll talk to the readers/viewers, move the camera around, and constantly talk shit to the writers/studio for occasionally screwing him over. It's all in good (Sometimes bloody) fun...but there's a canonical reason for this. It's not like She-Hulk where the fourth wall breaks are a way to tell HER stories HER way. You see, Deadpool...is just fucking insane.

No, really, that's the reason. Due to the trauma of gaining his powers, Deadpool's mind breaks and he's led to believe that he MUST be a fictional character. In comics, he actually gets voices in his head that makes him think he must be some comic book superhero, and the movies implied that something similar happened given how he never broke the fourth wall ONCE before getting his powers. This means him breaking the fourth wall could be seen as a coping mechanism. After all, it's better to believe you're a fictional character designed to entertain some invisible audience than believe that all of the shitty things that happened to you and people close to you is just a cruel joke from the universe.

Sound familiar?

Going back to the pilot, remember how Pomni's first instinct was to say that the Circus was all just a dream? To her, it's better to live in a lie that everything around her isn't real than to accept the reality that she's stuck in digital purgatory. Jax very well could be going through something similar, but unlike Pomni who seemed to just accept her reality, Jax never did. The trauma of being stuck in the Circus had led to his mind breaking just like Pomni's, Kinger's, and anyone else's. It's just that, for him, he thinks he's coping with it better because he discovered the secret that no one else did: None of this is real.

They're not actually people trapped in some hellscape while an AI unintentionally tortures them. They're all just fictional characters whose tragedies and silly antics are used to entertain viewers. I mean, it's either that or they're real people forever trapped in the circus with the closest thing to death being a full, psychotic break as they give up their sanity because they no longer want to exist in this hell anymore...But that possibly can't be true. Because if that IS true, then Jax has to face that he's a real person stuck in a real, awful situation that he can't joke his way out of. So, it's best to think nothing is real and nothing they do matter. So, might as well have fun with it.

Going back to the pin...

I don't think this is damning evidence about Jax being an NPC. Actually, it perfectly captures who he is as a character. He knows the circus isn't real. He even thinks HE isn't real. So instead of grappling with that, Jax lets himself believe that if nothing is real than nothing he does matters. He can break things, ruin lives, and assist in torturing the others in the circus. It's what he thinks will make the show more entertaining, even though all he's really entertaining is himself so his mind doesn't break more than it does.

Now, could the same apply if he's an NPC? Well...maybe. Gumigoo definitely proves how far someone could fall when they're told their world is fake. He was about ready to give up on life because he didn't think he had one. If Jax was an NPC, I could see him having a similar break, but going in the far opposite direction where, instead of giving up on life, he chooses to live the way HE wants it. Instead of being some one-off NPC for a lame adventure, he could go off on adventures of his own and ruin the lives of others now that his is thoroughly ruined.

However, Gooseworx makes a good point: "...a lot of people come up with theories based on how unexpected they'd be, and not because they make sense or align with the show's themes."

If Jax is an NPC, it would harm the overall message of the show. That there's meaning to be found in a stagnant life, and you find that meaning with people close to you who make that life worth living. Jax represents a sort of foil to that idea, with his way of coping with the madness being pure chaos and breaking others. It's his coping mechanism, and it works because it shows how human Jax really is. They're ALL human and they have human desires and wants, with the Circus pretty much stripping that away and leaving them...as they are now. They're emotionally broken, their sanity is decreasing, and some of them are losing all sense of self. By making Jax an NPC, it would definitely be surprising, but it would take away from that idea. It no longer makes him a human facing his own tragedy but instead an AI that's just as broken as Gummigoo. More than that, it gives the others an easy out. All the crew has to do is tell Caine that Jax is an NPC and POOF! No more annoyance. So making him someone who HAS to stay with the others and they're forever forced to deal with him also adds more to THEIR tragedy and torture.

Jax being an NPC is an interesting theory, but I don't think it's one that SHOULD be true. To me, it's more fascinating watching Jax treat the world around him as meaningless knowing he's a human instead of a rogue NPC breaking everything. And Gooseworx made it clear how they feel about it. Now, could it potentially be a mislead to get fans off the trail? Genuinely...I don't think so. That sounded very "I don't like this idea so it's not gonna happen" type of response. Still, we won't know until the show wraps up. Anything can happen, but don't get your hopes up if a character who does bad things to people that don't deserve it is more human than you think.

Jax is Yakko Warner but in lowercase

// spotlight on me and I’m ready to break

WOOO!!! Finally got my Carnival bunnydoll drawings done!!!

It's my favorite AU and actually the first AU I've ever drawn, I just never got around to finishing them until now.

Carnival AU by @sm-baby

I will Not Stand for bayverse Optimus Prime slander in this house not one bit.

That mech has all the signs of what I call "ugly PTSD" and he's most definitely not being treated for it and exactly nobody around him acknowledges it.

It's rather easy to see exactly why he gets more violent as the pentology goes on, because time and time again people are pushing his moral boundaries. More and more of his friends die, and he's gradually becoming more and more desensitized to death. Hell, he legitimately died for almost an entire movie and was resurrected in the middle of a major battle. The human government, which does at first present as a threat, afterwards consistently needles the autobots and makes it rather clear that "hey yeah we will betray you the very second we consider you not useful enough". And he goddamn tries to be at least polite to them, even in Darkside of the moon where they not only keep very important secrets for them but at the end decide to go on a full ass hunt. Most of the damage to the human cities is honestly because that's where the Decepticons decided to drag the autobots to, and something something purposeful choosing of battlefield because Megatron knew that would fuck with Optimus and that that's where he could cause the most damage. It's why in the real world military leaders choose to hit the most populated areas in enemy territory, because it's tearing into vital places. The great Cybertronian war we see in the bayverse films is a dirty and rough war that's clearly caused so much horrors on every front, and Optimus tries (and fails) to play damage control.

In the beginning of AoE? There's a reason that the instant he wakes up, he goes full fight mode because he can't run. He's absolutely fucking terrified that he'll die like his friends, and he's trapped in a very small space. Even as the movie progresses and he's become attached to these three humans, the other autobots we meet deride him for this because they have very good reason to mistrust the humans the same way they mistrusted the Decepticons. Hell, I'd argue he has less reason because of how we see the humans straight up torture and experiment on the Cybertronians they get a hold of. They quite literally bring back one of there greatest enemies and nearly end up destroying the whole planet with the cyberforming seed.

Nemesis Prime we see in the last knight? That shit was inevitable. He wasn't just manipulated by Quintessa or tortured by Quintessa. She straight up psychologically broke him down to his core and rebuilt him to her liking for her goal. Now being honest that last movie was fairly ehhhhh and the quest in it was pretty human based, but when we see Optimus broke out of his Nemesis persona I'd argue that he's not the same Optimus we see in the first movie, hell not even the same mech we saw in AoE. At the end of the movie, he has been through hell and back several times and just. Doesn't know what to do. The ending of that movie is messy as hell and leaves us on a major cliffhanger and the earth is irrevocably changed. But, just because he isn't Nemesis anymore doesn't mean he's magically fixed.

Pacific Rim is the best movie ever made for the same reason Sif is the best boss in Dark Souls. It's not bcs of quality or craftmanship or whatever it's bcs when I hear "giant robots fighting giant monsters with the power of love" and "huge wolf with a big fucking sword" I am overcome with the urge to scream "HELL FUCKING YEAH" at the top of my lungs before headbutting a wall so hard I leave a dent the plaster.

Pacific Rim (2013) dir. Guillermo del Toro

Call me crazy….. but I like to believe Treasure Planet and Arcane are in the same universe somehow. Runeterra already has pirates, robots, and flying aircraft’s.

Biggest of all….. I’d want Silver to be Vander’s dad (Silco’s adoptive dad).

he's so cute I wanna bite him so bad- I WANNA BITE HIM.

He’s so fucking proud of himself LOOK at his silly ass