Digital Circus Theory: Is Pomni a Dev?

[@KingIsAlive2400]

I think kinger was a bug tester for the circus and that is why he has an insect collection

[@michibmoon]

Clever!

[@KingIsAlive2400]

@@michibmoon thank you :)

[@Hitomora]

And why he seems to Bug Out a bit when first introduced. Ragatha seems more like a HR Representative since she seems very prone to helping out people and making sure everyone is getting along Gangel seems like an Intern fresh out of College. Extremely Nervous about their first internship, very submissive & agreeable (as noted by Jax in EP 2), and seems to be very passive Kinger seems to be a lead developer since he's pretty obsessive over certain things and kind of closed off to the others

[@Press_Playz12]

THATS WHAT IVE BEEN THINKING AND EVERYONE THINKS IM CRAZY

[@hippothehippo]

The fact that she also knew how to set up a collision momentum storage glitch after only experiencing it once in the bedroom also shows that she was paying attention to details the way a developer or game tester might.

[@thesummoner6462]

Literally anyway knows how to do that, its a common glitch in games

[@funnyfunnyvalentine7991]

...Do you people just not muck about in your games?

[@tastydoomtime8890]

​@@funnyfunnyvalentine7991 I've only mucked about trying to find collectibles

[@Changed46892]

Okay so is it just me who messes around with the physics on garrys mod?

[@mr.harrow3405]

it's a lot more common than that. i knew all this just by playing a bit years ago, now that i learned 3D modeling and animation basics, i don't have much more knowledge, just a better comprehension of how things are made.

[@JosephMaddoxJoyce]

They definitely do remember some stuff, since Gangle remembers the Geneva Convention, but not what it’s called.

[@yellowzz4242]

same i thought the same thing.

[@yellowzz4242]

pomni was an accountant btw. Zooble was also a tattoo artist. Was answered in tumblr QNA

[@Mushroom_Cutey]

I feel like she was just a gamer who really liked breaking the games beyond comprehension

[@Bill-the_allseeing_dorito]

She's backseat streams

[@Moonshine_Victory]

So basically Josh from Let's Game It Out

[@Venus-Vee-studio]

"You're the expert here." "Haha, I'm really not..!"

[@LoosieGoosie42]

This! So glad I'm not the only one to feel that line sticks out

[@PuddlyKatz]

@@LoosieGoosie42still doesn’t mean much like ohh im really not the expert here in the context of clipping out back into the map using her set up the fact she knew ab everything sticks out 10x more

[@zingkoinko1231]

@@PuddlyKatzpomini reminds me of Vanellope von Schweetz ?

[@Dracassult]

I think Gooseworx said in a Tumblr Q&A that Pomni was an accountant before entering the game. To add on this, I think she also said that Zooble was a tattoo artist before entering the circus, as well

[@Icalasari]

And now I'm imagining an episode where Caine gets her to cook some books

[@jacqstrappe]

she just said pomni is good at accounting, but we can reasonably conclude from that that pomni was an accountant. she did explicitly say zoob was a tattoo artist at one point tho

[@limehuzki]

I think pomni is the only real human in the circus. Caine lost track of human and not with the original dev

[@ParisthemusicalfanXD]

Holy shit you're smart I wode have never thought of that

[@mite3959]

Except that makes no sense lol

[@ParisthemusicalfanXD]

@@mite3959 dude let people have theories like-💀 If you watched the new episode of TAD you wode understand more

[@mite3959]

@@ParisthemusicalfanXD I did and it still makes no sense. EVERYONE being an NPC? Plus, Goose has referred to them as “humans” multiple times.

[@ParisthemusicalfanXD]

@garcat idk guess I miss spelled it- Gonna fix now And who asked btw

[@TheMurderousChicken]

I have this random Theory about TADC, so here's how it goes: The Characters (except for NPCs) are based off the things they liked in their previous Life before coming into the Circus. For an Example; Pomni liked Jesters. Jax liked Rabbits. Ragatha liked Dolls. Gangle liked Theatre and yk. Zooble probably liked art or maybe had multiple interests. Kinger liked Chess. And Kaufmo liked Clowns. If Caine was actually an actual Person playing the Game, then there MAY be an issue to this Theory. But otherwise, this Theory might align with certain Character Designs.

[@tylercunanan8255]

Gangle probably loved theater and ribbon dancing. or was seamstress Zooble... given her personality probably enjoyed abstract/cubism art while being a rebel Cain i have no idea about

[@therealTDjo]

Gangle could be theater related because of the mask, or fashion/dance related because of the ribbons. Zooble could have too many interests to manifest as a specific one or could be art/architecture related. Caine isn’t a person, right? So I feel like there really isn’t any issue with the theory at all! I actually kinda like it

[@TheMurderousChicken]

@@therealTDjo Thanks for the idea! I'll re-write my Theory to this:)

[@T3atheSnom]

​@@tylercunanan8255caine is an ai if i remember??

[@tylercunanan8255]

@@T3atheSnom it slipped my mind

[@_beanbag_2545]

Gooseworx said in a QnA once that the characters in the circus remember parts of their lives, they just don’t remember their names. I believe it was either on her tumblr or in the GlitchX interview, but I can’t remember at this moment.

[@YourLocalJesusChr1st]

I don’t think you need to be a game dev to understand that you went out of bounds considering she saw the models of all the characters. Basic gamer knowlage

[@watermelongd]

yeah but it was the 90s when it happened

[@arcanefury3666]

​@@watermelongdim sorry what? Where are you getting dates from? I just thought this was a vr game styled as an older one.

[@watermelongd]

@@arcanefury3666 it was confirmed in a community post

[@mydogghost]

@@watermelongdwhere? I looked through glitches community posts and there’s nothing

[@iris2573]

it’s like within the first couple seconds of her being there she still had a shred of memory to know “oh crap i gotta get out of here” before the exit door disappears and she doesn’t know what’s going on

[@santiagoacosta3372]

I don't know if she's a dev but she obviously has a big understanding of 3D games (even when the show is set on the 90s) Maybe she's a hobbiest programmer or a graduate student doing an internship on the company who made the game Whatever the answer is, it is still clear that pomni has a background on game development

[@AngelOfNoMercy]

Huh that theory sounds familiar Miss you matpat.

[@chancierbeet8915]

Martha and pomni sync up well and with Martha having a desk job this definitely tracks with the Martha theory

[@sunburst2740]

The C&A logo in the office area is probably a reference to cain and abel who are the sons of the first man adam

[@abbray]

If anyone has ever watched The Hollow, imagining it's like that with Pomni as the MC. Spoilers for The Hollow below: The Hollow is about 3 kids who wake up in a room and don't remember their own names, at first accusing each other of kidnapping. They find our from a presentor/genie that there is another group of 3 kids, and only one group is allowed to escape the world they've been pulled to, the losing team being trapped forever. The kid and the viewer go the whole season believing they've been maliciously trapped in this world, just for the team to escape and the end and reveal it was all part of a gameshow they'd willingly taken part in. With the whole forgotten memories and trapped thing being a storyline the gameshow uses. Imagine the digital circus is just a storyline that Pomni has willingly entered, and that's why Cofmo had abstracted just as she entered, as a sort of 'this is why you're here' mechanic. You could also think of it like that one Rick and Morty episode where Morty plays an arcade game and lives out a whole lifetime as the carpet sales guys, only leaving the game when he falls of the ladder and dies.

[@knightclub1296]

Idk she is knowledgeable but I’m in no way a gamer but I knew the things she was talking about. A game map. A non player character and glitching in and out of the map. It just seems more standard than one might think

[@evildoer-angel]

I like this theory, or at least a 'game' tester

[@lilm0nix3]

my theory is that the "C&A" stands for Caine & Abel. Caine is one of the devs who got trapped, and not an antagonist. However, I think 'Abel' is in the circus as well and has something to do with people abstracting.

[@dragoness777]

I think that everyone in the Digital Circus was either a test subject, bug tester or developer before putting on the headset. It would explain why they know abstraction is done when you mentally break down; there's no mention yet of characters suddenly abstracting for no reason or becoming suddenly motionless, implying that everyone is either under the thumb of a company that wants them in the situation or everyone's bodies are somehow absorbed in the digital world too. I don't think Pomni would have gotten to the digital world if the world knew people were going suddenly catatonic SAO style and frankly I think that if certain characters were around for so long (like Kinger), someone has to be taking care of their physical bodies or wondering where they have all gone to.

[@kangaroot_]

Also, she thought it was a dream which could be explained by the theory that she regularly dreams about the game she's developing it daily. And maybe she regularly goes in the game but that time was different and she got stuck

[@lordzero_akuma_5436]

Theory # 2 pomni is a dev Everyone : NO SH*T

[@Abizcool12]

Dude, I’m a game dev and that cardboard box trick was a dev knowing their own game, not predicting another.

[@silverchan9999]

I wonder when we'll see THE VOID again

[@99ZondaS]

I think all the characters work for C&A

[@TheProblemChannel]

Crazy I watched the First 15 secs of this show and Said: Wait? Isn't this just SAO?

[@anbellfox]

This realization just hit me like a frying PAN.

[@TheProblemChannel]

@@anbellfox I watched wayyy to much SAO abridged and the first episode hit home the plot of SAO I couldn't unsee it anywhere else

[@nateno8965]

​How... literally only thing they have in common is getting trapped in a video game after putting on a headset after that there's literally no more similarities?

[@TheProblemChannel]

@@nateno8965 I kinda timed out afterwards but thank you for verifying that there's more plot your very helpful.

[@CrystalClear094]

I think kinger was a bug tester because he loves insects

[@garrettwilson4812]

I honestly think that none of the characters are actually humans but are digital copies of gamers and developers who can't escape because they aren't real.

[@InconsistentImagine]

I have a similar theory, I think that the characters are copy pasted versions of real people. Like the headset scanned their brains and made characters off of them, but the real people were unaffected and are out living their lives totally oblivious of their digital clones.

[@leruetheday377]

It would make sense that Pomni is an Alpha or Beta tester. She knows enough to know when something's going wrong, but not enough to be sure of how to fix things

[@Bagel_Ice]

If she put on a headset to get there in the first place, it's not that big of a shot to say that she was a gamer and might have tampered around with mods of her favorite games and stuff.

[@TFocus97]

gooseworkz said that the crew can remeberer their lifes just not their names.

[@layasami9433]

only parts of there life not from the start to the end when they put the head set on

[@somerandomdude4588]

We playin’ Help Wanted with this one 🗣️🗣️🔥

[@cardboardcutout]

Shes the accountant

[@nateno8965]

Where is people getting this information from?

[@cardboardcutout]

@@nateno8965 gooseworx

[@xBerry_Berry]

Most gamers know some dev terms Also im pretty sure a creator of the show i think it was gooseworx said that they only forgot their names nothing else

[@erichunt9003]

lmao She just gathered context clues from her experience in the Digital Circus, any casual gamer could analyze what happened when she fell off from her bed & onto that block, when the war rig collided with the corner of the canyon wall.. She explained it to Gummigoo as she simply saw it given her base knowledge of a gamer, guessing she was once a dev is a BIG stretch.

[@nibblrofankles4051]

Also Cain is the name of one of the first sons of Adam and Eve. Most likely being the first character created for their game "The Digital Circus". Whether it's international or not I think it's pretty cool

[@luvisgone48]

I for some reason went "Shes a speed runner"

[@andrewengnell6004]

I mean she only experienced a cube throw once, and not only knew what cube caused it but guessed that other cubes could cause the same glitch. I can see speed runners with that kind of knowledge.

[@DuckShade_Official]

I hope this is cannon, it'd be interesting if she was a dev and a bug tester who liked breaking games just to find bugs then try and fix those bugs as a dev

[@kitsune_lover8257]

I think the digital circus is somehow a sort of futuristic punishment, like for petty crimes, like the before their transported into the circus, their given a headset, under the impression that their just going to have to play a horrific horror game or go through a virtual lecture on what they did was wrong, but instead, they head up in that inescapable hellscape known as the digital circus, and they abstract when their punishment is done

[@yaninox4445]

I just realized, C and A could stand for Caine and Abel the bibel story of the first murderer(Caine offed his brother able and got cursed with immortality or something like that)

[@Burgerman57]

But it's also possible she could have been an expert at spotting glitches in games she plays.

[@M0gicus]

Knowing that we have seen the PC running said circus(and its old asf), its safe to say Pomni is much more used to modern technology and played a bit of games before getting in there, but I doubt she is from dev team. Also, quick reminder - Gooseworx already said about age of every character, and as we know none of the NPCs mention their age, which means none of the main cast are NPCs, they are all humans

[@Sags-qp2tj]

Am I the only one who also notices that pomni sees the exit door the most out of any other character

[@couch2558]

I think it would be interesting if it was a similar situation to The Hollow, where they willingly went into the game, and they return into the real world, but a copy of their consciousness gets made. And they think they are trapped while their ACTUAL self is off living life. But does that make them less real when they feel real themselves? It really depends on what you think real is defined by.

[@commentcorner1374]

What if the office setting is modeled after an actual office space where the devs worked? She could be looking at her own desk for all we know.

[@cking4869]

Zooble was probably a programmer of some kind, since Caine tried to entice her with having developed a new AI

[@cheesewobble8650]

I don’t really think this is too likely, mostly because her appearance in the world set up a clear set of rules in the Digital Circus. 1. Humans get trapped here when they put on a mysterious headset. 2. There is no clear escape. There’s other rules but those are the two that matter most. The only way we find out these rules is because we watch Pomni figure them out for the first time during the pilot episode, and in this theory it’s guessed that she doesn’t remember cause of the clear amnesia that players get when entering the world, and I get that, but from a storytelling perspective it doesn’t make a lot of sense for the main character to be revealed to know these rules all along, not only that but also be the creator of these rules, and then put them self in this purgatory that they hate. It would just shatter the whole set-up of the story, and make the viewer feel confused and unsatisfied. Then again that’s just my opinion, if you think it’d be cool, good for you.

[@23skiddsy6]

C&A has to be Caine and Abel, yeah?

[@daltonkunath8252]

In the pilot they showed the computer making her go insane so either she was getting tired of the loop or she knew or knows something about the situation edit : I didn't watch the entire short he already talked about it so nvm

[@Sik-1802]

Imagine she finds out she is a dev and simply starts to manipulate reality using codes like Java, Phyton and C+

[@nateno8965]

I don't think those existed yet

[@Not_a_annon]

I think that none of them are actually stuck in their they just put on the head set it did a quick brain scan and now they're personalities are inside the game but the humans are still living their actual lives

[@milkecartonangel]

goose stated on tumblr that pomni is good at accounting, which suggests she was an accountant before getting trapped in the circus. i highly doubt there’s any devs in the circus, at least not right now. there’s just not enough evidence to prove there is.

[@techi9818]

C&A obviously is going to stand for Caine and Abel, since you don’t add a main character named Caine without having some murder allegory or a dead brother/brother-like figure

[@apronfluffy]

I think Jax is actually the dev and the only one who can actually help the others and been in the game for so long he forgot

[@Zonie-tj2lf]

i love it

[@jumpingmoose5554]

I wonder if the characters remember their motivations for going into the game. Like I wonder if they were tricked, cooerced, or decided to go in in purpose due to not wanting to live in their real lives anymore.

[@ronnie8984]

Does anyone know if C&A stands for Caine and Abel? I feel like there’s a biblical reference with Caine

[@damotoneko1500]

She could be and the reason she went into the game might be to help the others.

[@puffcat2357]

"they're gamers" YOU JUST SKIMMED PAST THAT

[@Idk_what893]

You got this from matpat

[@bigfreakinfrog]

Didnt even know he talked about it

[@ParadigmYT]

😎👍

[@FinalRuze]

Being a hacker could benefit you in a situation such as this. That is if you know what to do and where to look.

[@mrrigtastic]

They live in a matrix

[@BoopSnootAndTroubleshoot]

"she understands words like 'map' and 'collision'", but so do most casual gamers too.

[@thatangelrey6659]

Words like "map" and "collision" are pretty common gaming jargon so that doesn't it's really mean much hell players talk about hitboxes almost all the time

[@houstoncortez863]

Does the C&A stand for Cain and Abel?

[@makar4ik_cat]

I think she was a dev, but not TADC dev

[@Dragon_knight_art1]

I actually have a theory that probably isn’t true or won’t work but I’m going to say it anyway. So you know how there is that headset in the fake exit? What if the characters put it on and that’s how they get back? Probably not true but an interesting thought right?

[@kenjimamiku4542]

"They Are Gamers!"

[@Stumpytheyeepi]

Pomni is vanny confirmed

[@Cat-mr4oj]

Nope, gooseworxs already said that the characters remember their lifes except their names

[@Legithiro]

I’d like to point out that she says that she’s “not an expert” specifically when trying to glitch out of the dev room. This doesn’t disprove the theory since devs and glitch hunters don’t exactly overlap

[@redwinningsmilealt]

c&a is form wall-e

[@CoffeeRabbit8734]

She also could have been a game developer or a game tester

[@Gooey_Mess]

Pretty sure most gamers know about dev rooms and collision mechanics.

[@jaxontaylor4047]

I imagine a crazy plot twist is that they were never real people to begin with

[@cinemafanaticreviews]

C & A.........Caine and..................

[@LeGoofyAhhSaiyanFromEarth]

Abel. As in, Cain and Abel, sons of Adam in the Bible. well, tadc is kinda biblical so

[@Waiting851]

Alot of gamers know terms that a dev would, also doesn't pomni say that she found a headset and put it on?

[@claudedebussyreal]

you dont have to be a dev to know that 1: thats out of bounds, 2: what collision is, and 3: what a map is. not to mention who wouldnt try to escape if put in some digitsl place you were thrust into

[@Fungi-195]

Game theory made this theory

[@Michaelissimo]

I don’t think she’s a dev for one reason. When she said she put on the headset she didn’t say, “I put on the headset” she said “I put on a strange headset” this implies she has never seen it before. She is definitely a gamer though.

[@I-Fail-A-Lotl]

Literally all gamers know those terms

[@Markm8]

Na shes just a little goblin

[@BestOnThursdays]

I don't understand this _Jax is an NPC thing._ *Zooble is more NPC to me.* The 1st episode They say they don't want to participate and the Zoink immediately takes them out of the equation by un assembling them for 90% of the episode. Not to mention the Zoinks takes them straight to the climax of the adventure as if waiting for the gang to complete the assigned task. In the 2nd episode they also say they don't want to participate in the adventure. Caine stopped them and they still got to walk away when the 1st episode made it sound like they had to participate in any shape or form. Also zooble can be taken apart where pomni tried pulling on her face to get out of the helmet she pulled her eye out of her socket but it was still attached to her. Gangle has a mask which isn't the same as completely detaching your head because when it's broken that's it it doesn't come back until the next episode.

[@mydogghost]

Zooble set up the funeral tho

[@TheOffside0423]

Yeah we only see the characters as they are in the story, with only a bit of intel that they arent those people. But we dont know who they truely are

[@TewiInabaChan]

As a standard gamer, no dev or testing experience i knew everything pomni did. so it doesnt really work as a theory, its not like any of this is trade secrets or high-spec technical know-how. its pretty basic entry level stuff.

[@max-if5pt]

Maybe she knew what she was doing before putting on the headset. Maybe her life was horrible and the digital circus was her way out. She wanted to forget her past

[@chaoserror3156]

I feel like most people who atleast played a game know what a "map" or "out of bounds" mean

[@davisthegamelord]

Maybe she's an intern for the developers

[@thestranguy881]

Honestly I think that they are a digital copy of their brains and the reason they have the amnesia is to get rid of them knowing that

[@theyeastwiththeleast4718]

It’s all nocstisicm baby

[@zackerysheldon7362]

I think everybody knows these terms now

[@MegaNinjaRyan]

I bet the reason they forget their names is so they don’t confuse themselves with their actual counterparts in the real world.

[@Someguywepickedoffthestreet]

Maybe Pomini was an intern

[@Akuma_yuk1]

BRO THIS MEANS NOTHING WE ALL KNOW WHAT THOSE THINGS ARE

[@4piecespicy589]

I think the headgear thing is cope i think she doesn't remember anything at all

[@alyssamontgomery2978]

I think their bodies are probably in comas like in SAO. Meanwhile Pomni was sent in to try & bring them all back. But do to the amnesia she can't. The ones who abstract are probably brain dead.

[@g1shockwave1984]

I like to Think she the intern.

[@mcnuttkyle8617]

I mean.. I know what those terms mean too, but I’m not a game dev or anything 😐

[@dinosrawr13]

Nah Bubble made it, Caine is advanced AI and kinger is one of the first bug testers