Philosophical Three Card Monte
The Bait & Switch of "The Amazing Digital Circus"
When I first saw “The Amazing Digital Circus” (ADC) by Glitch, I was fascinated. The pilot episode seemed to be trying to do something more in it’s fantastical creation and spoke to some potentially interesting questions about the nature of being and existence. It’s why “Ghost in the Shell” is my all time favorite anime and second favorite movie of all time. It goes at those questions and explores them. What differs is I come from an objectivist Christian worldview. A philosophy ADC now clearly is opposed to.
Where GITS succeeds in it’s honest examination of the questions of meaning, truth and existence, ADC does something bordering on malice with the questions: it uses it as a bait and switch. You’re left expecting an honest examination, but instead it mocks the part of the audience whose beliefs are contrary to the writers.
The closest analogy I have is they pull an Andy Kaufman level prank on their audience. For those who don’t know Kaufman’s comedy, he was a master of absurdist humor and the bait and switch which subverted expectations turning the joke against the audience and denying audience expectations.
Look up his history. From the absurdist “Mighty Mouse” bit, to the abusive antics of “Tony Clifton, insult comedian” or the orchestrated publicity stunts with people like wrestler Jerry “King” Lawler. The man was a genius at times, but just as equally crazy with lots of mean-spirited little pranks he liked to do on the audience. At times, it was like he delighted trying to be mean spirited towards his audience, and often used his absurdist humor to make fun of those watching who didn’t quite get it that he seemed to view them as the joke and turned the laughter on them.
I bring this up because this is a similar vibe that emanates from ADC. There is something inside that is laughing at you, but more than that. It’s taking a wizz on deeper philosophies and spirituality. Although I thought I caught a whiff of it in the pilot, it wasn’t till I watched the second episode that I began to realize that was the intent. A very well crafted, high powered propaganda pushing subjective post-modernist nihilism and trans-humanist simulation theory. I really wondered if it was deliberate, now I have less doubt. It’s so well crafted I wonder “cui bono”? Who benefits? If it was an accident, I doubt it would have been so tightly and effectively presented.
“Oh, You’re just being hypercritical. Lighten up, it’s just a goofy show,” You may be thinking.
Hmmmmmm… yes and no. Lemme explain why.
(Spoilers ahead) I originally thought this was going to be a goofy show that took a look at deeper questions, as I said before. Then I watched Ep 2 and there’s a double whammy at the peak of the middle build and then the resolution of the ONLY good thing done in this episode.
Plus you learn more about the characters, and it is disturbing.
Pomni’s cosmic horror of abstracting nightmare kicked off the whole episode and set the tone. She is the epitome of failure and loss. Every good thing she tries ends up in disaster with increasingly nigh Lovecraftian madness.
Caine’s cruel toying with the other characters by gleefully shoving them into these Sisyphus-like adventures.
Jax’s flat out sadism and betrayal was horrifying. Especially how he treats Gangle who he describes as “submissive and agreeable”. Yes, she is, to an extremely unhealthy degree.
Ragatha’s nearly pathological need to please others and “be nice” despite the horrible abuse she suffers screams pathological co-dependency.
Kinger’s channeling of Prince Mishkin’s well intentioned but futile and ultimately harmful acts.
Gummigoo’s existential crisis while under the map and ultimate destruction for the sin of trying to become more.
The hollow nature of Kaufmo’s “funeral” left a feeling of futility for me as I quickly realized that the abstractions below the Circus are probably all sorts of other people who’ve been trapped and succumbed to the futility of existence and becoming the amorphous cosmic horrors everyone will devolve into over time. It’s the hypocrisy that it matters while spending the entire episode shouting “nothing matters, there is no purpose to anything” that rubs me raw.
It’s possible I’m “just not getting the point. They’re supposed to be bad examples!” If this is true, the question is, then why should I care for them? Is this a morality tale, like Aesop’s Fables? Then the horrible characters would at least provide a purpose. We’d learn, grow and become better people by taking the warning of their example and turn from it. If that’s not the case, what purpose is there to watching their base and wicked antics?
But the big rug pull came in two parts for me:
Pomni and Gummigoo fall through the map in a glitch and end up in a secret asset area beneath the map akin to the backrooms and false exit of the pilot episode. There, Gummigoo learns the truth of his existence, he’s just an NPC created by Caine for the purpose of the adventure. This was very cleverly done for what it set up. It’s the setup for the big bait and switch in a form of Chekov’s gun.
Pomni makes an impassioned speech of trying to do a right and good thing by comforting Gummigoo, despite her situation of being trapped in this insane existence. She encourages him to strive for a new life and meaning in spite of his origins. The audience at this point now hope of something good coming out of this horrifying realization for Gummigoo. Pomni is overcoming a small thing in her now hellish existence.
This could have been a good bit, but now comes the point where the writers pee in the audience’s corn flakes. The changed and now self-aware Gummigoo, joining our protagonists makes it back to the circus and is INSTANTLY obliterated by Caine. Why? Caine doesn’t want to get mixed up with who’s real and who’s an NPC.
This was absolutely shocking and where I felt a prick of actual scorn from the writers toward the audience from the creators. They effectively subvert expectations in one of the cruelest ways possible. By destroying Gummigoo they undo all the positives of the story. Essentially, they mock the audience by using their Chekov’s Gun and committing suicide with it. I was just as horrified as Pomni.
“I know how attached you get to your little NPCs,” Caine says.
This mockery is the equivalent of Lucy laughing at Charlie Brown for missing the football again. Almost like they were saying “You thought there was going to be a ray of hope that something good could be found here?? Aw hell naw! Nothing good exists, there is no purpose to existence and only fools believe such fairy tales.”
The implication is Gummigoo isn’t alive and has no real existence no matter what he does is a mockery toward objective morality. He is as he states “We’re just obstacles. Created to be defeated and forgotten.” Caine’s destruction of him drives that point home with 40 ton drop hammer, but also seems to point to the fact that all life is disposable and forgettable.
So why is this bugging the hell out of me? Because entertainment has one very powerful ability: It makes you lower your defenses to ideas and philosophies that may be very harmful to your mind and spirit. This is the danger of well crafted propaganda as well as grants real and lasting power to stories. Because you are in a passive, receptive state when you consume entertainment, messages in those stories slide right in like a pill in peanut butter that you lap up without knowing. This pill might be medicine or it might be poison. If you have no discernment, and don’t keep up your guard, mentally and spiritually speaking, you consume poison and medicine alike.
Therefore, consider, what is the philosophy hiding underneath this story? Is it something that will edify your spirit and mind? Are there lessons in there that feed your soul, or poison it? I would say that post-modern existentialism is a pernicious poison that puts cancer in your thoughts and poisons your soul. To embrace the nihilism that life is pointless, everything is fake and has no real meaning or truth because there is no objective truth harms you in little doses like arsenic. Building up till it kills your spirit.
Of course, discernment is your aegis against this attack. Being aware that these things exist at the base of the story can help you parse out what’s really being said. I love dark humor and storytelling as much as the next guy, but I don’t like the writers laughing at me because they subverted the tropes to mock my hopes in getting a story with redeeming qualities and showcasing things that are good in the world, or at the least present the negative as a cautionary tale. ADC chooses mockery.
It is said that the best way to present a message the audience can’t perceive is to showcase the ideals and philosophies you want to promote succeeding in rhetorical arguments. If you wanted to write a story promoting objective ethics and stoicism, write those values triumphing over others, even if they are straw-man arguments. If you want to promote whatever you think “social justice” is, you need stories that show that value succeeding and being rewarded. (Thankfully those pumping that pablum have forgotten you can’t get caught propagandizing your audience, and now fall into the same trap as most Christian fiction, sermonizing instead of entertaining.)
ADC is well crafted, and an outstanding example of delivering a philosophical worldview right past most people’s mental defenses and delivering it deep into the viewer’s mind where it can slowly affect their thoughts, pulling them in that direction. Every unaware view enhances that pull. Just like every other piece of advocacy entertainment we’ve all consumed.
This is only the second episode, and things might change… but I’m not confident in that from what I’ve seen. I’m not saying don’t watch it. I’m just advising, if you do, be aware of what you’re consuming. It will affect you in time and is that actually healthy? You discern for yourself.