The Amazing Digital Circus - Western Isekai that probably will become Hazbin Hotel killer

[ThisIsGonnaBeGood]

Makes me wonder if troonworx saying "this episode totally gonna divide the fandom guise" is there so it can be used as an excuse to defend shitty writing and deflect most criticism when people call it out as such
"Oh you don't like it? that's the point, it's meant to be divisive and make people mad!"
probably not but I do wonder

I'd make a Rian Johnson comparison, but Last Jedi has become such an overused "Bad subversion" meme that I don't want to.

But it’s also super self-congratulatory because the creators are basically patting themselves on the back for not doing the obvious thing.

It's why I have to give credit to Hazbin S2's finale for managing to avoid that shit. Sure, it was Care Bears as fuck, but at least they didn't try to get one over on the audience in a vain attempt to outdo all the people who guessed what Alastor's plan was.

 

[Vibralldo]

Funny you say that, because that’s also a staple of millennial writing too. The creators are basically jerking themselves off because they’re so super smart and refuse to do the obvious thing.

Steven Universe did it by mocking the obvious sappy finale of Steven meeting his mom Rose in that crossover episode. Adventure Time did it with Finn’s dad—because of course they were so smart for subverting the fantasy trope of his dad abandoning him for a good reason by making him a loser. Rick and Morty did an episode mocking all the Evil Morty theories before the actual finale, etc.

Credit where credit’s due: it is a fun episode, and if it worked for you it was suspenseful right to the very end. They did take a huge risk and it did pay off. But it’s also super self-congratulatory because the creators are basically patting themselves on the back for not doing the obvious thing.

This whole "haha, you thought things mattered, idiot!" trope is just millennial writers who are afraid of being called cringe for being sincere. They self sabotage their emotional beats to pretend to be above it all when they're actually just cowards

 

[Lone Star]

I don’t think was Gooseworx’s intention, but it still just looks wrong.

I don't think it was either. All I was saying was that people are really obsessed with labeling any short woman without huge bazoongas as a loli, and Pomni checks all the boxes and now suddenly it totally doesn't count for...no real reason, really.

As for the episode, since there's two episodes left, obviously they couldn't just leave, so that was a forgone inclusion. I'm vastly disappointed that the episode that was going to "divide the fandom" ended up as a nothingburger where the only division is if this bait and switch episode was great or total ass. Putting the door in the trailer as a fake hook is scummy, I'll say that much. I admit I really thought it was all going to be real, and as soon as Jax started to freak out at the buttons, he was going to trap them in the circus forever (or rather, for two more episodes) and really change shit and make everyone hate him even more...but nah.

Also this Zooble/Gangle pairing is so cringe. And very subtle with the genderfluid metaphor there, I almost missed it as it was hitting my skull like a brick.

Zach as a funny fish character made me smile, though.

 

[Lingering butter taste]

I don't think it was either. All I was saying was that people are really obsessed with labeling any short woman without huge bazoongas as a loli, and Pomni checks all the boxes and now suddenly it totally doesn't count for...no real reason, really.

I can get that actually. In the sense that it seems hypocritical that any woman they dislike is a loli but any woman they like isn’t. I remember seeing someone accuse someone of drawing borderline childporn, and the sexualized character was literally a short stick man. The criteria is getting more and more arbitrary and confusing.

Zach as a funny fish character made me smile, though.

By the way, if anyone missed it, the fish was a reference to the Christian CGI cartoon, Gaither’s Pond

 

[Vibralldo]

I don't think it was either. All I was saying was that people are really obsessed with labeling any short woman without huge bazoongas as a loli, and Pomni checks all the boxes and now suddenly it totally doesn't count for...no real reason, really.

As for the episode, since there's two episodes left, obviously they couldn't just leave, so that was a forgone inclusion. I'm vastly disappointed that the episode that was going to "divide the fandom" ended up as a nothingburger where the only division is if this bait and switch episode was great or total ass. Putting the door in the trailer as a fake hook is scummy, I'll say that much. I admit I really thought it was all going to be real, and as soon as Jax started to freak out at the buttons, he was going to trap them in the circus forever (or rather, for two more episodes) and really change shit and make everyone hate him even more...but nah.

Also this Zooble/Gangle pairing is so cringe. And very subtle with the genderfluid metaphor there, I almost missed it as it was hitting my skull like a brick.

Zach as a funny fish character made me smile, though.

I didn't expect them to end the series and escape, but the plot hasn't moved forward at all which is antithetical to how a show that bills itself as a lore based horror mystery should work.

 

[MirrorNoir]

what the hell are you talking about? One of my least favorite things about anime is the fact that they do this all the time! Isn't One Piece a perfect example of that exact thing?

As for TADC and the characters finding the exit; I know everyone wants them to, but what happens after that? You stop having a show once they leave.

In One Piece's defense

1. Oda has an autistic "will not budge on it no matter what" idea that any lore drops have to come organically in-story and in the case of the One Piece itself, Oda has made it explicitly clear that the viewers will learn what it is the exact same moment Luffy does. And for the former, Oda has actually started actually paying off plot coupons with the Void Century and God Valley having been fully explained along with the introduction of Imu, the mysterious big bad of the series.

2. One Piece has a ton of anime filler because they don't want to overtake the Manga and even then they've finally listened to fans recently and announced they will stop the year round production schedule at the end of the year and going forward, they will move to a traditional season format split into two blocks of 13 episodes each starting in 2026 so that they can deal with Netflix bullying them into greenlighting a remake of the anime while the original is still airing because "there are too many episodes" for the retards Netflix considers their target audience for the one piece live action show

 

[Leather Gliscor]

 

[Lone Star]

In One Piece's defense

1. Oda has an autistic "will not budge on it no matter what" idea that any lore drops have to come organically in-story and in the case of the One Piece itself, Oda has made it explicitly clear that the viewers will learn what it is the exact same moment Luffy does. And for the former, Oda has actually started actually paying off plot coupons with the Void Century and God Valley having been fully explained along with the introduction of Imu, the mysterious big bad of the series.

2. One Piece has a ton of anime filler because they don't want to overtake the Manga and even then they've finally listened to fans recently and announced they will stop the year round production schedule at the end of the year and going forward, they will move to a traditional season format split into two blocks of 13 episodes each starting in 2026 so that they can deal with Netflix bullying them into greenlighting a remake of the anime while the original is still airing because "there are too many episodes" for the retards Netflix considers their target audience for the one piece live action show

The Straw Hats also have three of the four of what are essentially map pieces to the One Piece at this point. They've been progressing rather fast in the last few arcs. It's just that Wano was really fucking long and wasn't long after they started to get these pieces. The pacing of things has escalated fast in recent years compared to how it used to be. Of course the story was always moving forward in a literal sense, the plot basically became an "around the world" plot once they entered the Grand Line.

As much as the filler got out of hand...One Piece moving to seasonal is a bit of a bummer for me. At least those stupid fucking Chopper Recap episodes will go away forever...

 

[Ultraman Orb Dark]

Oh you don't like it? that's the point, it's meant to be divisive and make people mad!

Why do so many writers use this excuse?

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

While I would imagine KF is probably more clued up on this than average, this may be useful if you've not heard of it.

Chinese room - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Saxxon]

what is with everyone here still crying about lorebaiting?, the point of the episode is to implicitly tell the audience that shit doesn't matter at all and it even kinda makes fun of you for doing so, its the "characters" that you should care for, even though there was also comparably not much development compared to previous episodes, and lets be honest here, most of the cast is not even that interesting aside from Jax self-destructing.

You answered you own question, if the lore was never important then that leaves us with the alternative, the characters, who are for the most part kind of bland. Really this show should be renamed the Jax's show since he's the only one that has any deepness to his character arc.

Why do so many writers use this excuse?

Get out of jail free card.

 

[ThisIsGonnaBeGood]

Also this Zooble/Gangle pairing is so cringe. And very subtle with the genderfluid metaphor there, I almost missed it as it was hitting my skull like a brick.

I don't know if it's the actress or the direction or what, but the breathy tone Zooble's voice takes whenever she's delivering a "serious" monologue causes me physical pain.

 

[Vibralldo]

I don't know if it's the actress or the direction or what, but the breathy tone Zooble's voice takes whenever she's delivering a "serious" monologue causes me physical pain.

All the main voice actors are bad and sound like high school anime club nerds doing a fandub of an anime.

Jax especially doesn't sell his sociopath sleaze at all.

 

[Lone Star]

Jax especially doesn't sell his sociopath sleaze at all.

I mean hey, it kinda works. He's just pretending to be a sociopathic sleaze, after all.

 

[Metallic Blood]

From the looks of it, if the situation is so similar to Murder Drones', maybe part of it is a company problem rather than a writing one? Not even like attracts like. I feel that a company that relies on merch to stay afloat would want to avoid development. Dangling the lore carrot in kids' faces is enough to keep them on the treadmill, but changing things up too much drives them off.

I really really REALLY hope The Gaslighting District doesn't follow the same path as the other two shows. I will even take the breakneck-pacing of that the pilot had over literally nothing of TADC.

what is with everyone here still crying about lorebaiting?, the point of the episode is to implicitly tell the audience that shit doesn't matter at all and it even kinda makes fun of you for doing so, its the "characters" that you should care for, even though there was also comparably not much development compared to previous episodes, and lets be honest here, most of the cast is not even that interesting aside from Jax self-destructing.

That's what really grinds my gears, if they want to focus on the character drama then fine, I do care about the characters even if they are a little bland in the grand scheme of things... it's just.... we don't even get that.

Heck, I think they had a perfect opportunity to make something juicy with the ending, like what if they made the group gang up on Jax for pressing the wrong button, or even gang up on Pomni for allowing this to happen in the first place... but nope, fake ending guys! I guess what we all know now is that Caine was "evil" all along, or algo, idk.

Can't wait for the 10 more million Gangle x Zooble yuri scenes, since surprisingly, that's one of the few things that has been progressing.

 

[BABANGUIDE64]

I want the series to end just like the South Park's "Make love not Warcraft" episode. It would be the most "Fuck you, nigger" ending. And they're all obese pedophile faggots

 

[invisibult plus+]

I don't know if it's the actress or the direction or what, but the breathy tone Zooble's voice takes whenever she's delivering a "serious" monologue causes me physical pain.

Zooble sounds like a twenty-something goth disappointed she’s still working at Spencer’s.

 

[Kalsarikännit]

In One Piece's defense

1. Oda has an autistic "will not budge on it no matter what" idea that any lore drops have to come organically in-story and in the case of the One Piece itself, Oda has made it explicitly clear that the viewers will learn what it is the exact same moment Luffy does. And for the former, Oda has actually started actually paying off plot coupons with the Void Century and God Valley having been fully explained along with the introduction of Imu, the mysterious big bad of the series.

2. One Piece has a ton of anime filler because they don't want to overtake the Manga and even then they've finally listened to fans recently and announced they will stop the year round production schedule at the end of the year and going forward, they will move to a traditional season format split into two blocks of 13 episodes each starting in 2026 so that they can deal with Netflix bullying them into greenlighting a remake of the anime while the original is still airing because "there are too many episodes" for the retards Netflix considers their target audience for the one piece live action show

none of this makes sense. It's over a thousand episodes long. I'm sure a word-accurate animation of the bible would be about as long, if not shorter.

 

[Mystery Spy]

but at least they didn't try to get one over on the audience in a vain attempt to outdo all the people who guessed what Alastor's plan was.

That’s a thing modern writers refuse to accept. You’re just not going to be able to fool or surprise millions of people watching your show.

At best, a writer’s room is what—30 people? Realistically, though, it’s just 2-3 people writting an episode. You are vastly outnumbered and outmatched. Millions of people are exploring more than thousands of possible twists and endings that you ever could.

Before the Madoka finale aired, some people on 4chan literally made a flowchart with every possible ending mapped out. Including the right one.

Someone online will correctly guess your plan. And that’s okay. It’s called rewarding viewers for paying attention with the satisfaction of being right.

Nowadays, instead of rewarding the people who paid attention by validating them, creators get spiteful and “subvert” expectations with garbage, or an anti climax—because nobody wanted to expect that. Or they cheat with asspulls nobody could have predicted, because they withheld 50% of the information.

 

[Ultraman Orb Dark]

Get out of jail free card.

So the "It's just a prank, bro!" of writing?

I don't know if it's the actress or the direction or what, but the breathy tone Zooble's voice takes whenever she's delivering a "serious" monologue causes me physical pain.

Maybe Zooble can't find a new lung to talk with?

I guess what we all know now is that Caine was "evil" all along, or algo, idk.

This really pisses me off. Part of what made Caine such a compelling antagonist was the fact that he wasn't actively malicious. His misunderstanding of humanity makes his attempts to make the players happy do more harm than good. Even in the last two episodes, his desire for attention came off as immature, not evil.

But no, we can't have an interesting antagonist. Now Caine is the one who caused the abstractions, made Kinger insane, and probably killed Uncle Ben

Can't wait for the 10 more million Gangle x Zooble yuri scenes, since surprisingly, that's one of the few things that has been progressing.

But how will we know Zooble and Gangle like each other if they don't say it every episode?

That's what really grinds my gears, if they want to focus on the character drama then fine, I do care about the characters even if they are a little bland in the grand scheme of things... it's just.... we don't even get that.

I'd make a Smiling Friends comparison, but this episode got Charlie's VA to cameo.

Nowadays, instead of rewarding the people who paid attention by validating them, creators get spiteful and “subvert” expectations with garbage, or an anti climax—because nobody wanted to expect that. Or they cheat with asspulls nobody could have predicted, because they withheld 50% of the information.

There's an episode of The Owl House, a kids show with a cult adult following, that better handles the "making fun of fan theories" idea. Long story short, Luz and Amity, two characters from different worlds, try to find out how their favorite book series was available in the Human and Demon Realms, only to get an anticlimactic resolution.

This plot works for two reasons.

First, the theorizing is over something that's not too important in the grand scheme of things. You don't need to know the full story of where this book series came from, just what it means to the characters.

Second, the theories themselves are meant to be ridiculous as a joke. They're just trying to come up with stuff they want to hear, and it's not supposed to be taken seriously.

Here, not only does this episode try to pull a
"Gotcha!" with the door, something that had been established since the first episode, by using popular fan theories only to subvert them comes across as a meanspirited jab at the fans to punish them for daring to think critically about the show.