Really happy with how this EvilCaine page is coming along
But for the meantime, went back to working on this in hopes of finally finishing it. I forget how jarring this page can be lol.
Just thinking out loud to try and sort some of my thoughts on a few things, so uh… pardon me and also, welcome to my second Ted Talk.
I can’t seem to resolve the disconnect between ‘Caine is an AI who cannot truly understand humans and is therefore acting primarily out of obliviousness’ and ‘Caine is a self-aware antagonist and completely understands what he’s doing to the players’. Hear me out.
i want you to knowi have the caine friends bees drawings saved to my desktop under "CRYINGSOBBINGTHROWINGUP" and also mute your post notifications
distantmaniacallaugh asked
doncdesole replied
NO I ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT MUTE!
lol don’t worry, I’ve been in the same bee boat, hole? as you are fml. Seeing the bee drawing resonate only brings me joy. And a few tears. But mostly joy.
Also… I KEEP MAKING MORE. There’s some irony to be found in that, I’m sure. BUT OH my lord. They make me cry with how imperfectly cute they are, truly Caine’s work- the roundness and incorrect number of legs and all.
Anways, HERE, have more:
lol he’s so locked in for changing bee diapers. i cry
As an aside I was laughing when I saw that Caine actually has one of those little sliding kids toys on his desk in ep7 LOL
but yeah, I have more sketches that I am adding to this, they’re currently scrawled across several sticky notes. sigh.
After having some time to stew on this, I realize that I actually felt a bit disappointed after ep7, it just took me a minute to put my finger on it. I still absolutely adore this show and am exited to see more, but thread below if you’re curious to hear my thoughts!
(folks following me on twitter/bluesky will have more of an understanding where this is coming from. It’s nothing bad I promise lol, just organizing my thoughts really- but I do think I hit on some important points).
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I think my main issue is that I was waiting on a major character shift, but instead was given writing that felt off to me. There was a lot setup in ep6 that seemingly gets sidelined in ep7 and my core issue is that characters seem to act out of character in order for the plot of ep7 to progress how it wants.
Specifically, Pomni’s character feels oddly gutted to me. I felt she would have been the first person to question the validity of what’s going on or listen to Jax when he calls BS on the situation, but instead the plot sidelines her in order for Jax to be the one to make the realization about Caine’s plan. It was personally jarring to watch Pomni jump between asking no questions to her vouching for Kinger/doubting the button press.
Caine’s development coming off of ep6 also feels shelved just so the plot could function as it was. I feel there should have been more setup before he pulled out the ‘nuclear option’ of creating an adventure dealing with the exit since it was so clearly foreshadowed in ep6.
The fact that Caine is immediately shown being more manic rather than genuinely dejected and disinterested in the prospect of making engaging adventures for the players also sits poorly with me. Again, I feel that there should have been more setup given to that, especially since Caine is clearly the linchpin to this shows entire premise.
For me personally, Ep7 was objectively a better watch in the polish dubbing than the English because the dub takes the time to change some of both the writing and the voice acting to be more subtle and hence foreboding. And it’s what finally made things click in my head for me.
But yeah, I think ep7 dropped the ball a bit. In that it feels like we’re missing an episode of filler that absolutely needed to be there to properly setup what happens in ep7.
In addition, there was no need to have the plot to give Jax the major role of calling BS on Caine’s adventure. We don’t ever see Jax question Caine in prior episodes and it feels like Jax is instead taking the spotlight away from Pomni as it would have been her natural role to question what’s actually going on. Zooble is also a great candidate to naturally question the status quo and push Caine over the edge in ep7 and I’m not sure why they were acting so complicit (for the majority of ep7) instead. It could be argued that Zooble’s “character growth” is responsible for this change, but I would argue against that.
Caine also just feels off for 98% of the episode until the very last scene (for me personally). Again, I feel as if it might be the voice acting, as it’s far less jarring in the polish dub vs the English dub. But his actions do feel forced by the plot rather than him doing what is natural to him and his logic.
Again I think my overall feelings about this episode is that I think there was an episode of filler that was missing prior to the events in ep7. But i still love and appreciate the show so much! I just needed to piece together what I was feeling was so off in the characters for me. Heh thanks for coming to my Ted talk. Again, IN no way is this hate, I am just piecing together my thoughts…
Pls feed us More with bitrot caine please? 🥺🥺🥺
Anonymous asked
doncdesole replied
No need to worry Anon I have more of bitrot caine in the works! But here are a few wips to hold you over <3
But don’t worry, I have not forgotten about him!!
You know, I keep redrawing this Caine, and maybe I should just stop…
Couldn’t help but think, what’s actually stopping Caine from simply generating ‘friends’?
Anyway, here are some sketches of Caine spawning sad little🐝children to keep him company…
This old sketch page of Caine and Zooble dealing with each other never fails to make me chuckle. Time to see if anyone gets the reference…
As promised, Tumblr gets to peek behind the curtain and see my weird, unfinished behind-the-scenes messy art.
Here are some ABSOLUTELY ROUGH looking ideas/sketches of a humanized Caine that I’ve drawn at random points over the last few months (truth be told, this isn’t even all of em..). I’ve not had a chance to go back to these yet, but I can still see the potential in them haha. Even though most of these are failed attempts lol, I still quite like the version of him with Zooble and a handful of others. I will at some point go back to a couple of these and render them properly.
~enjoy
In your opinion is that version of Caine is actually evil or just pushed and frustrated to the point that he's deluding himself into thinking whatever he will force on the Circus is gonna be best for everyone?
jesterraconteuse asked
doncdesole replied
Lol yeah… my version of Evil Caine isn’t nearly so much ‘evil’ as much as it is simply how I imagine Caine acting post severe mental break. For context, the EvilCaine drawings were inspired by the song Artist Block by St4tic, because that song aligned so well with how I imagined Caine acting once he’d been pushed past his breaking point (i love that song to bits, it’s such a gem and so well done <333).
Anyway, my personal take on 'evil’ Caine is that he would [importantly] still retain his core boisterous, campy persona, but his facade would uncannily begin showing cracks, namely during moments of extreme frustration. That Caine would now regularly make adventures that undermine/punish the players while still remaining objectively 'nice’ toward them would quickly become apparent to the humans too – with Caine simply carrying on most days as if someone giving a complement through gritted teeth (pun not intended lol). Moreover, I imagine there would eventually come a point where Caine feels so embittered and besides himself, that he begins covertly using his adventures as a corrective action for the players’ overall dislike of his ideas, while still restraining himself from truly harming them. He is in turn slowly being driven mad by his code, which mandates that he remain a benevolent host and care for the humans.
Even though I can’t imagine Caine going out of his way to intentionally, physically harm the human without SEVERE provocation, because he is forced to contain the worst of his rage for so long, everything he does gradually becomes laced with something approaching malice. He begins acting out more often, being petty while soothing his own hurt feelings by putting the players through twisted adventures to show how their opinions are wrong and how his best intention-ed adventures were and are what is clearly necessary and best for everyone’s well-being.
Basically, it’s a lot like what you said, I imagine Caine would eventually force himself into a positive feedback loop of delusional thinking and things would only spiral further from there, or remain a constant hell for the players until such a time as one or several of the characters rise up against him in some way.
I guess what I would like to see for the actual series, is Caine retain at least a little bit of his former self, while also having intense moments where he’s completely serious and devoid of his natural entertainer traits. I think that would serve to be quite unsettling. Regardless, I’m very excited and curious to see what the series does with him! My hope ofc is that his character is handled with nuance and care! :3
This damned page of EvilCaine drawings is getting crazier by the day…
As promised, posting some dumb tadc doodles I’ve not posted anywhere else. There were just spur of the moment random doodles to unwind ~enjoy.
(YES, i know Glados is Caine, but I didn’t feel like redrawing Queenie lol. This page was a mess lol. Never did I think I’d be drawing tadc/portal crossovers…).
Posting more of my sketches of poor Caine having a mental break. I have been affectionately calling this guy EvilCaine - he’s spindly and full of GRRR and desperation 😂
As promised, giving Tumblr some extra love! <3
WAKE UP CHAT!! - DO YOU WANT TUMBLR-EXCLUSIVE TADC CONTENT?? SOUND OFF IN the comments!!
lol joking aside, I have a treasure trove of tadc wips that I am just sitting on and can post if people are hungry for it.
Anyway, drawing my take on Evil!Caine has been my brainworm for the past few weeks. He’s too amusing LOL pls send help. I imagine when Caine finally loses it he stalks about on the ground & drags his coattails LOL.
He’s a complete mess, but still tries to come off as ‘nice’ - however he just sounds like he wants to stab you despite his smile LOL.