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Creative Artificial Intelligence Networking Entity[1] abbreviated and more known as Caine, is the main antagonist[2] of Glitch Productions' indie animated web series The Amazing Digital Circus. He is voiced by Alex Rochon, and made his first appearance in the pilot episode. Caine is an A.I. who portrays himself as the ringmaster of the circus, maintaining the simulation and its residents, alongside his loyal assistant Bubble.
He is the highest artificial intelligence program in the simulation, due to the fact that he can create other AI, being able to levitate indefinitely, is the only one capable of reversing the glitch effect of those attacked by an Abstraction and is able to teleport himself and others to anywhere within the simulation, which includes The Void.
He appears to be responsible for the creation of all the NPCs in the circus, along with the entire Candy Canyon Kingdom, given that Princess Loolilalu refers to him as "God" and given that he can "delete" NPCs who wander into the Circus either intentionally or by accident, due to him being worried that losing track of who is human and who is an A.I. could cause severe problems later on.
Appearance[]
Caine is dressed as a ringmaster, sporting a red tuxedo with a gold underside, black collar and bow-tie with white outlines. He wears a white undershirt with two reddish buttons on it, alongside white gloves and black leggings. Lacking most human features, his head is formed as a pair of dentures with pearly-white teeth and red gums. His eyes, the left one with a green iris and the right one with a blue iris, float inside the jaw. Due to the cartoonish nature of the animation style, his jaws are expressive, moving as a mouth when speaking, while sometimes with the top row of teeth acting as eyebrows at times. Similarly to Bubble, he forms a tongue when needed. To cap it off, he wears a black top hat and tends to hold a gold-tipped baton depending on the situation. Occasionally, he is seen wearing The Wacky Watch.
Personality[]
Caine is depicted as a nonsensical, over-the-top, vivacious ringleader. However, there is an aloofness about him and a significant disconnection towards the traumatic events that the characters around him are experiencing, illustrated by his forgetfulness of Zooble's criticisms of their own form and his adventures.
Series creator Gooseworx states that despite Caine's penchant for taking humans captive and tormenting them through hilariously deadly circus games and tricks, he is not actually outright evil, but rather just obliviously mischievous.[3] She also stated that "there is a whole spectrum of human emotion that he just doesn't feel."[4]
Caine is shown to be secretive at times, often concealing or even lying about information related to his 'unfinished work' to the point of gaslighting the other members, such as when he quickly blamed the exit door which Pomni saw on "Digital Hallucinations". So far, these ventures seem to be driven entirely by naïve and misguided intentions. Despite this, Caine appears to have at least some measure of morality. He does not appear to intentionally inflict harm onto the Circus members and does what he can to entertain them. He was also clearly depicted having a disdain to any form of cursing or swears which are always censored in the Circus.
Caine has often been seen having tense interactions with Bubble, another member of the Circus and an AI like him. The first incident is after Bubble eats his Angel Food Cake, to which Caine yells at him, calling him a parasite before popping him. Shortly after, as Caine is explaining the Gloinks to the crew, he gets agitated with Bubble's constant questions and pops Bubble once again. However, Caine does appreciate Bubble's company. While the rest of the crew is off on an adventure, Caine and Bubble are seen in a restaurant chatting amongst themselves.
Near the end of Candy Carrier Chaos!, he also expresses some degree of fear that he might lose track of who was A.I. and who was a player, which could lead to problems.
He expresses some degree of insecurity and self-esteem issues, appearing almost obsessed with the enjoyment of his players, leading him to attempt to appeal to Zooble especially due to their lack of engagement. When Zooble criticizes Caine's adventures (and how every other human refuses to criticize them for varying reasons), it causes Caine to have an existential crisis as creating pleasing adventures is "all [he exists] to do!" and "all [he is] good at." This crisis causes him to space out and twitch, while the circus glitches out around him, indicating that his own mental status can have an influence over the circus itself.
He is viewed differently by every member of the circus. While Jax believes that Caine cannot do anything intentionally malicious due to it "not being in his nature", others like Zooble believe that Caine is fully capable of doing such things if it crosses his mind given his power and the only thing that stops him is the fact that he likes the inhabitants and they should not try to push their luck, believing as long as Caine is pleased, any harm he does is purely accidental and will not have any reason to attempt anything intentionally harmful.
Biography[]
"PILOT" (Episode 1)[]
Caine makes his debut in this episode, introducing himself as the Ringmaster of The Amazing Digital Circus, which transitions into the beginning theme song that introduces all the other characters. He then explains that The Amazing Digital Circus is for all ages and that swearing is censored by Pomni.
Afterward, he gives Pomni a tour of The Circus Grounds and then shows her The Void. He tells Pomni that they don't venture out into The Void often, and stay in The Grounds where Caine can keep his all-seeing eyes on them. As soon as he's done explaining it, Moon says to Caine, "Hello Caine, I love you," and Caine tells Pomni to go back inside before Moon "gets frisky". He is then disgusted by Bubble's way of cleaning up Pomni's vomit, stating "Why are you like this?" When Pomni mentions that she saw an exit door, Caine tells her she was probably experiencing digital hallucinations, in which when she protests, he insists that she is experiencing digital hallucinations.
After a brief pause, he asks Pomni her name, which she doesn’t remember. He then explains that when somebody enters the digital plane, they won’t be able to remember their name, which he states is one of the things he doesn’t have control over. He then uses a name generator, in which the first name that is spun is "XDDCC" which Caine calls terrible. He then spins it again and lands on "Pomni," which becomes her new name. Caine suddenly bursts out that Jax had a good idea in having a new idea, which Jax protests that he said five minutes ago. He then asks Pomni if she likes things that include adventure, activity, wonder, danger, horror, pain, suffering, agony, death, disease, death (again), and angel food cake, to which he holds one out. Bubble consumes the angel food cake, and Caine yells "You parasite!" At Bubble, popping him. Caine continues, starting to explain his "Gather The Gloinks" adventure. While explaining, Bubble interrupts Caine multiple times, which results in Bubble getting popped again. After he explains the new adventure, he vanishes, leaving a cloud of translucent smoke.
Caine appears again, much later in the episode, on some sort of dinner date with Bubble. Their conversation gets interrupted by an alert on Caine's Wacky Watch, notifying him that one of the performers has entered The Void. He then vanishes again, leaving Bubble at the table. Caine teleports to The Void, grabs Pomni, and teleports back to the Grounds. He looks around, asking "Now, what the heck happened here?" to abstracted Kaufmo's mess. He then asks why nobody told him that Kaufmo abstracted when Kinger explains what happened. Caine snaps his fingers, and abstracted Kaufmo appears. He opens a portal hole in the floor, sending Kaufmo in The Cellar. He then snaps his fingers again, fixing Ragatha from her glitchy form. At the end of the episode, he presents a digital feast for the performers, as a reward for finishing the adventure.
"Candy Carrier Chaos!" (Episode 2)[]
After Pomni wakes up from her dream, she heads to the circus stage where Caine is seen introducing his new adventure. He starts by informing the crew that the Candy Canyon Kingdom has been robbed of their syrup. He tells them to catch the bandits who stole it and bring them to "sweet, buttery justice". After pushing all of the cast though the portal to the kingdom (minus Zooble), he uses a tobacco pipe which produces bubbles instead of smoke, before offering it to Bubble, who declines, saying "No thanks I'm trying to quit." Caine is not seen throughout the adventure in person, but is depicted as a god in a stained-glass window. After the crew arrive back from their adventure along with Gummigoo, Caine welcomes the crew back. When Caine notices that Gummigoo came through, he snaps him out of existence, saying that if he got humans mixed with NPCs, he is scared of what might happen. He then leaves to "go drink water", which he apparently hasn't done in a while, while Pomni has a slight breakdown from losing Gummigoo.
"The Mystery Of Mildenhall Manor" (Episode 3)[]
Caine pops out of nowhere after the group discuss how their avatars each have different types of bodily reactions towards holding in their breath. Caine then begins describing his new adventure, which was made with a 'mature' option for the overly serious Zooble, only to find that they have not shown up to hear the pitch. He then teleports the group via a portal to Mildenhall Manor, without Zooble, and starts looking throughout the tent for them. After realizing he could just teleport Zooble in front of him, he does so, and begins a therapy session to try and find out how he can make his adventures more appealing for Zooble. Zooble talks about what they don't like about their existence in the circus, but after they state that, Caine begins to think he's bad at the one thing he was created for at, causing the map to glitch. Zooble makes a comment about about who's therapy session this is is supposed, and Caine snaps out of it. Then they switch places, with Zooble now being the therapist and reluctantly listening to Caine's nonsensical issues regarding the "wild west". Near the end of the episode, Caine ends the therapy session, and teleports the humans back to the circus. He calls them his "meowing milkmaids", to which Jax disgustedly responds by telling him to never call them that again.
"Fast Food Masquerade" (Episode 4)[]
Caine first appears in the episode when all of the main cast (except for Kinger) is in Zooble's room. He descends from the ceiling and asks if anyone said "adventure," to which Pomni tells him no.
They then all go down to the main area where Caine announces the adventure of the day. He announces that the adventure is called "The Curse of the Violent Psychopath Butcher," and that the adventure involved human meat on the walls. He was about to explain the objective of the adventure when Pomni cut him off and requested that they don't have a horror-themed adventure, as she didn't want the adventure to be like the previous one. She explains the adventure to Zooble, to which Zooble asks Caine why he thought they would like that adventure. Caine then told the humans that they should suggest better adventures if they were only going to criticize his ideas. Zooble then points out that they had a suggestion box, which Caine admits he forgot existed.
Caine takes some of the suggestions out of the box and reads them. He reads a suggestion written by Jax, followed by one written by Zooble, where the two both insult each other. Gangle asks if they can have an adventure that's more "normal," to which Caine tells her he doesn't know what counts as "normal" to them. He reads another suggestion which reads, "Let's have one where we all work at a fast food place." Gangle accepts the idea as normal, and so he changes the adventure to "An Honest Hard Day's Work at Spudsy's Restaurant Chain." He then appoints Gangle as the shift manager.
Zooble attempts to leave again, but Caine protests. Kinger proposes that he sits out on the adventure and Zooble takes his place. Zooble tells him that's not how it works, but Caine accepts the suggestion and opens a trapdoor underneath Zooble, taking them directly to Spudsy's before they can object any further. He then opens a portal for the rest of the crew to go through, and all (except Kinger) enter it.
During the adventure, Jax throws Ragatha into a deep fryer to mock Gangle's manager attitude. Gangle says they won't have anything like that around here, to which Jax mockingly inquires what she was going to do. Gangle said she is calling the "upper management", which turned out to be Caine. Gangle tells him they had issues with some employees and if he could punish them at the end of the day if they keep messing up. Caine answers that it is motivation and that's what his adventures had been missing.
Later, Jax asks Zooble about how they're actually doing the job, and Zooble answers they're only doing it so Caine doesn't punish them. Jax says that Caine won't do anything malicious, for it's not in his nature. Zooble responds that the only thing holding Caine back is the fact he likes the humans, and they wouldn't push it, to which Jax agrees.
Caine again appeared to give Gangle her performance review at the end of the day. He points out all the positive things and negative things, and also points out Gangle's trauma in this adventure, making things go wrong. Caine suggests she could put her blame on to someone else, as Gangle was in a higher position. However, Gangle accepted her own faults, and Caine marks her B+ like the rest of her friends (except Kinger, who got A+). Gangle says nothing, and Caine tells that not every executive is as forgiving as him. After Gangle leaves the room, Caine begins to tell "I'm such a good-" and then suddenly starts glitching and shapeshifting.
Powers and Abilities[]
As the highest artificial intelligence program in the digital world, Caine is the most powerful entity within the Digital Circus and is the creator of all other A.I. in the circus. Due to this, he is viewed by his creations as "God", with Princess Loolilalu noting him through a ceramic window in her castle while Baron Mildenhall refers to the antagonist NPC from the horror-style adventure as "one of God's angels". Despite his immense power over the digital world, he has admitted that there are a few things outside his control and isn't fully aware of everything that happens:
- Cyberspace Lordship: Being the ringmaster of The Amazing Digital Circus, Caine has almost complete control and rulership of it and its inhabitants and has no known master or superior to him. Despite this, he has admitted that there are some things that are out of his control, such as the minds of humans in the simulation.
- Cyberspace Nigh-Omnipotence: Caine appears to have complete control over The Amazing Digital Circus, with him being able to create, manipulate, and control anything within its boundaries. With his only current known limit being that he has no control over the minds of those who are trapped in it.
- Cyberspace Omnificence: Caine has been shown to be able to create anything, including virtual food, a random name spinner, and a virtual species called "Gloinks" along with the "Gloink Queen". In episode 2, he is responsible for creating an entire kingdom and its surrounding landscape, containing at least hundreds of NPCs, along with at least five new developed A.I. that are "57 times more immersive" than Gloinks.
- Virtual Reality Manipulation: Caine is shown to have complete control of the environment in the digital world. He can heal glitched characters, and put the Abstracted into the Cellar.
- Cyberspace Omnificence: Caine has been shown to be able to create anything, including virtual food, a random name spinner, and a virtual species called "Gloinks" along with the "Gloink Queen". In episode 2, he is responsible for creating an entire kingdom and its surrounding landscape, containing at least hundreds of NPCs, along with at least five new developed A.I. that are "57 times more immersive" than Gloinks.
- Cyberspace Nigh-Omniscience: Caine is implied to have almost complete awareness of the digital world and what is happening in it. It is shown that he was aware when Pomni exited The Digital Amazing Circus into the void. He also somehow knew that Pomni used one of the exit doors. However, he does not have any awareness or knowledge of the Void and has a hard time being able to differentiate his own NPC creations from humans due to them all looking cartoonish, thus why he doesn't want any NPCs in the circus unless they're intended to be there, such as the Sun, Moon and Bubble.
- Cyberspace Sustainer: Caine is not only the master of the digital world, but also appears to be what sustains it as he admits to Zooble that being the ringmaster who makes adventures for the human inhabitants to go on is all he exists to do and is the only thing he's good at doing. However, when he learns from Zooble that he is "bad at the only thing he's good at", it causes his code to start contradicting itself, which in turns results in the entire Digital Circus to begin glitching out violently until Zooble manages to snap him out of it, resulting in everything going back to normal.
- Cyberspace Nigh-Omnipotence: Caine appears to have complete control over The Amazing Digital Circus, with him being able to create, manipulate, and control anything within its boundaries. With his only current known limit being that he has no control over the minds of those who are trapped in it.
- Teleportation: Caine is able to go from one point to another within the digital world, as he was shown teleporting in and out of The Amazing Digital Circus, and saving Pomni by teleporting her from the void back into the digital world.
- Toon Force: Caine can manipulate his own body parts and proportions with ease and without harming himself. He can stretch, bend and warp his limbs, eyes, teeth and tongue to impossible lengths.
- Flight: Caine has the ability to fly, or hover in the air freely. He can also cause other characters to float/fly at will such as Pomni and Abstracted Kaufmo.
- Amorphous Eyes: Caine is able to control his eyes' shape and make them move around, as shown in POMNI WAKE UP TIME TO GO ON AN ADVENTURE, he played Hacky Sack with one of his eyes using the other.
- Fourth Wall Breaking: Caine was able to talk to the audience in the intro of the PILOT.
Appearances[]
- THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS: PILOT - Debut/Major
- Candy Carrier Chaos! - Minor
- The Mystery of Mildenhall Manor - Major
- Fast Food Masquerade - Minor
Friends/Allies[]
- Bubble (pet/assistant)
- Mannequins
- Kinger
- Ragatha
- Jax
- Gangle
- Zooble
- Pomni
- Princess Loolilalu (ally)
Kaufmo
Enemies[]
Trivia[]
- Caine has complete heterochromia, meaning he has two different-colored eyes.
- In a behind the scenes video for POMNI WAKE UP TIME TO GO ON AN ADVENTURE, Kevin Temmer revealed that the green eye is named Jeffery.
- Additionally, Kevin Temmer made a music video about Jeffery.
- In a behind the scenes video for POMNI WAKE UP TIME TO GO ON AN ADVENTURE, Kevin Temmer revealed that the green eye is named Jeffery.
- Gooseworx has stated that Caine is inspired by the supercomputer "AM", the main antagonist of the 1968 short story I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison, who had caused the extinction of humanity during World War III and whisked the only five survivors into his complex to torture for eternity.
- However, she mentioned that Caine is essentially what AM would be "if he was a zany fun lil' guy" instead of "a crazed sadist who embodied absolute hatred", who wasn't fully aware that his various "circus games" were harmful to his performers/captives.[5]
- He is also inspired by Four (BFB), who in the show has killed many characters. They are also very menacing similar to Caine.[6]
- Gooseworx has jokingly stated that Caine's acronym was Creative Ass Insertion Newlywed Experiences.[7]
- Even Caine gets weirded out by some of the things Bubble does. For example, he asks Bubble why he is like he is when he licks up Pomni's puke and calls Bubble a parasite when he eats Caine's entire generated cake.
- According to Gooseworx during GLITCHX 2023:
- His voice was inspired by Alex Rochon's voice acting as Spamton from Deltarune.[8]
- "There's a whole spectrum of emotion that Caine just doesn't feel," which makes it difficult for him to empathize with the human characters.[9]
- When asked if Gooseworx thinks Caine is an antagonist, she replied with "I wouldn't call Caine a villain, but I would call him an antagonist" and states that he "doesn't mean harm but he causes harm" and is "an obstacle for these characters a lot of the time."[10]
- Caine lets things happen if he thinks it's funny.[11]
- Caine doesn't need to brush his teeth, but he could if he wanted to.[12]
- His name, Caine, is possibly a pun on the dental term "canine," which denotes a pointed tooth typically located between the incisors and premolars in mammals. It could also come from Novocaine, a sedative commonly used in dental procedures.
- He came up with his own name, first coming up with "Creative Artificial Intelligence Networking Entity", before turning it into an acronym to seem more professional.[1]
- Caine would fall for all verbal pranks, such as up-dog.[14]
- A Twitter post by Gooseworx showed a drawing (link) that resembled Caine but with only ears and a nose, Glitch Productions replied, "Caine's evil brother, Paine."
- Caine has no knowledge of the internet.[15]
- On the Spanish dub of the Pilot, Caine specifically mentions that a person’s chosen name cannot be transphobic. This is not said in any other dub.
- In the Polish dub of The Mystery Of Mildenhall Manor, when the humans get back from the adventure, he refers to them as "Skibidi Sigmas", whereas in the English dub, he simply refers to them as "Meowing milkmaids".
Other Language VAs[]
| Language | Voice Actor | Localized name |
|---|---|---|
| Arabic | معتصم بالأشهر (Motasm Belasher) | كاين |
| Dutch | Alexander de Bruijn | Caine |
| Filipino | Ralph Ernest Francia | Caine |
| French | Yann Abiven | Caine |
| German | Nils Wicke | Caine |
| Hindi | Siddharth Awasthi | Caine |
| Hungarian | Márk Gargya | Caine |
| Indonesian | Muhammad Nur | Caine |
| Japanese | 菅原壮一郎 (Soichiro Sugawara) | ケイン |
| Polish | Michał „Młody” Matuszak | Caine |
| Portuguese (Brazil) | Guilherme Briggs | Caim |
| Russian | Макс Манн (Max Mann) | Кейн |
| Spanish (Latin America) | Rodo Balderas | Caine |
| Thai | กษมา ตรัวกูล (Kasama Truakul) | เคน |
| Turkish | Cafer Kadir | Caine |
| Ukrainian | Василь Кіселичник (Vasyl' Kiselychnyk) | Кейн |
Videos[]
References[]
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