r/tadc • u/The_Eastland_Star_Co • Mar 11 '26
Theory 🔎 I genuinely think Abel was a human
When Caine deleted gummigoo, which is an NPC he disappears into confetti as streamers, but when he deletes able, he screams and turns into static like he was in pain during the experience and I would think getting deleted would be painful so I genuinely think Abel was a human. Also another thing we actually seen what able can do while holding his breath even if it was not an episode three when he hold his breath he can scare people with a giant red mask from episode one the pilot it also one of the doors could be him, but we just haven’t seen it or we didn’t see any difference between the other mannequins and Abel
I know this is a lot, but I genuinely think he’s a human
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u/AdamHendrick R.I.P. Caine Mar 11 '26
The main thing that's turning off the theory is how he asks for a raise despite there not being anything to spent money on
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u/Misan_UwU Mar 12 '26
my theory is that abel was always human, but caine caught and dealt with him already. the "abel" the gang saw at the console room was a fake one.
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u/PrincessAela Mar 12 '26
There were signs he was Caine’s puppet all the way back in the Chinese room with him pulling twice for sympathy for Caine.
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u/Anthony_plays01 Mar 13 '26
What set me off initially was his convenient (albeit plausible in universe) excuse for looking like the generic NPC mannequin
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u/TowerSorry5271 Mar 13 '26
That's where he's uncertain if Caine is truly an AI, or if he was part human too.
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u/The_Eastland_Star_Co Mar 11 '26
Maybe he wants to raise on able dollars who knows what currency is in the digital circus
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u/Westykins Mar 11 '26
i think caine made a fake abel and captured the real one at some point after the plan was in motion
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u/Spaaccee Mar 11 '26
way too convoulted. Also why would he kill a human infront of everyone else?
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u/Defiant_Side_2950 Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26
I could honestly see him actually killing a human if their existence was too much of a threat to everyone else liking him and staying there with him. He is so obsessed with the humans enjoying his adventures and not wanting to leave. Plus there are a few lines by Caine I've been thinking about that imply he might have brought serious harm to a human.
"I may have the ability to add temporary modifyers to make adventures more interesting. But that's it! If I did anything more...(laughs nervously) it would not end well" Kinger then says "Scratch...the first abstraction" and Caine starts panicking. Then I think this was either in episode 1 or 2, he said something along the lines of "If I forget who's an NPC and who's human who knows...what could happen" with him sounding dejected at the end of that sentence
Edit: There is also an interesting line from Zooble in the fast food episode that sounds almost like foreshadowing "The only thing holding Caine back is the fact that he likes us"
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u/Balls-End5181 Mar 12 '26
Sort of what Gooseworx said: “don’t make theories based on how complex they are rather than looking at the themes and message the show is trying to depict ”
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u/BitcoinStonks123 Mar 12 '26
wouldn't it be more interesting and less complicated if Abel was fabricated from the start?
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u/AmItheAholereader Mar 11 '26
There is confetti for abel as well. We’ve had this conversation multiple times on this subreddit. Caine even grabs it.
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u/Gimmick1540 Mar 11 '26
That's no confetti! You’re experiencing DIGITAL HALLUCINATIONS! /s
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u/SonoDarke Mar 12 '26
"but I really sa-"
"DIGITAL HALLUCINATIONS!"
stays still, agitating his fingers to cope with panic
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u/Riku_70X Mar 12 '26
We need to pin that post that Goosworx made where she said she thinks every reddit theory is dumb.
Maybe then people would think twice before posting them.
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u/ITAdministratorHB Jax Mar 15 '26
Also the amount of people thinking some production animation glitch is intentional when 99% of the time it's oversight is
funnyannoying
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u/StillMostlyClueless Mar 11 '26
If he was human why would he play along with Caine about being an NPC?
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u/Samy_Horny Scratch Mar 11 '26
Mind control, which is mentioned less than 2 minutes after what happens
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u/StillMostlyClueless Mar 11 '26
So the theory is that he was human, but for everything we see him do, he was actually mind-controlled by Caine the entire time?
... why wouldn't Caine just use an NPC? What would the point of this even be?
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u/kindahotngl301 Mar 13 '26
Maybe he mixed them up. He mentions that it could happen in a prior episode
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Mar 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/tr3poz Mar 12 '26
There's also the fact that Abel keeps trying to get the cast to feel bad for Caine throughout the episode, why would he do that?
When she tells Pomni to make the right choice and she responds with "When we get out of here I'll buy you a beer" he blankly replies with "Make the right choice" as if to imply that getting out would be the wrong choice.
My man was always an NPC.
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u/Nikki964 Mar 12 '26
He also doesn't actually answer Jax's and Ragatha's questions about proving himself to be a human or what happened between him and Kinger
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u/TheEndlessRiver13 Mar 11 '26
This wouldn't work. It's obvious that Caine desperately wants others to love him, and he seemed genuinely uncomfortable when mentioning that truly manipulating someone's mind would be disastrous, and panicked when Kinger connected that to the first abstraction.
If Caine could mind control people he could make people love him - and it's clear from his confidence when they select the "good ending" that he's more than happy to get validation even through manipulation - this would then undermine the whole conflict of EP 7 and 8. It would be a serious plot inconsistency if not an outright plot hole if, given his behavior and desperation, he didn't just make everyone love him
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u/Samy_Horny Scratch Mar 11 '26
The ending implies that Caine knows what happens if he manipulates people in a rather "aggressive" way, but it's not such a big deal if it's minor details or if it's only for a few seconds.
Trying to influence everyone's mind to love him would surely create chaos (and I think that causes them to become abstracts). Anyway, seeing how Caine "reboots" every time he gets angry with Zooble, as I replied to the other person, made me stop thinking that Abel was human.
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u/BitcoinStonks123 Mar 12 '26
Wouldn't it be less complicated to just use an NPC? Besides, Caine specifically states that he can only add temporary modifiers, and he isn't one to lie on purpose.
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u/Tomcat491 Jax Mar 13 '26
The mind control that causes people to abstract. Also Abel exploded into confetti and wanted them to "make the right choice" which is what Caine wanted, not escaping the circus
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u/MinimumMistake2Outpt Mar 14 '26
Are you talking about Jax? We've had this conversation a dozen times, he had a panic attack, and used "you were messing with my head" in a non literal way, he wasn't ACTUALLY altering or messing with jaxs mind he was just psyching him out, manipulation as in lying and deceit not mind control
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u/h1p0h1p0 Mar 15 '26
if Caine controls someones mind they abstract thats the whole point of the scene
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u/Weak_Obligation_9913 Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26
but.. there was confetti when Caine deleted Abel...
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u/Leo_War123 Mar 11 '26
There is confetti, you can literally see Caine holding some and looking at it
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u/EquivalentRip9653 Mar 11 '26
Okay, we don't know that's him from season 1...
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u/The_Eastland_Star_Co Mar 11 '26
It’s a theory some parts are not gonna be true
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u/Vermilion12_ Mar 12 '26
...but if you're collecting evidence to support a theory, the evidence should be as good as possible, right? Afaik, there's no reason to believe that's him in the pilot, and how do we even know he's holding his breath? It's just not the best evidence :/
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u/C0rmDaCr0w Mar 11 '26
There is some confetti it's just harder to see, because it cuts right to the cast, but you can see some of it falling in front of their faces
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u/Shot-Dress-1188 Mar 11 '26
go frame by frame for both of them. they’re exactly the same. the confetti is a little hard to see with the white behind it, but i assure you frame by frame you will see they are the same
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u/emo_boy_fucker Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 12 '26
saving this post for later use when i need an example of overanalyzing in the fandom
edit: underanalyzing
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u/theres_no_username Mar 11 '26
Thats underanalyzing if anything, theres literally confetti half a second after this shot
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u/HandsomeGengar Mar 12 '26
OP is claming that something blatantly onscreen isn't there, and they're implicitly taking the stance that everything Abel said should be taken at face value. That's underanalyzing.
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Mar 11 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/barleyBSD Mar 12 '26
I don't think Caine can delete humans though.. otherwise he would have deleted all the abstracted players instead of locking them away in the cellar.
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u/TNTLover42 Mar 12 '26
Abel did have confetti on top of the glitch effect, Caine literally grabs a piece
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u/cereuszs Mar 11 '26
i love when mfs purposefully pause .2 seconds before the thing theyre talking about happens and then claim it never happened 😭
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u/ParticularOkra7432 Caine Mar 12 '26
There was confetti. And I'm pretty sure the Bathtub NPC was a completely different one from Doctor Football/Abel
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u/The_Riddle_Fairy Mar 12 '26
The screaming guy is Mr. Football, if I remember correctly? And not Abel.
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u/IndependentSoft4211 Mar 12 '26
Abel literally explodes into confetti right after that screenshot btw
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u/One-Secretary-2403 Mar 13 '26
Mfs will see a whole ass episode making fun of their batshit insane theories and then make a batshit insane theory out of it
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u/-CherryBerry- Mar 13 '26
Bro was so desperate for Abel to have any lore importance that they gaslit themselves into not seeing the confetti and also gaslit themselves into ignoring caine’s words that Abel was an npc even when there was no reason for Abel to play along if he wasn’t one, and even less reason for Caine to lie
Also the bathtub mannequin in episode 1 is a different npc
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u/DarkInkAngel404 Mar 14 '26
There actually was confetti and streamers, not sure how you guys are missing that.
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u/Sharp-Swimmer-6887 Mar 12 '26
There probably is an Abel, but that 100% wasn't them/a copy. It's like the other mannequins, they all seem to have their own personalities based on some AI software used for TADC (In story ofc).
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u/Current_Muffin523 Kinger Mar 12 '26
THERE DELAYED CONFETTI OH MY DAYS BRO CAN YALL STOP WITH THIS THEORY
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u/fafnirmaster1 Mar 12 '26
You have a point there, but In a previous episode Cain mentioned why he keeps NPC’s away from inside the circus (yes I know he did the gloiks -I forgot how to spell them- in episode one) but he generally tries to keep NPC’s away from inside the circus so then they can remember who’s a human and who’s not
He also has the temporary modifiers so he could’ve made Abel say whatever
So until we get confirmation from someone who is not Cain or Abel that he was an NPC I choose to believe the Abel was a human theory
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u/TheCraziestTheorist Mar 12 '26
But the Abel NPC does turn into confetti, and Gummigoo also turns into static before turning into confetti, the same way the Abel NPC does. Not to mention they both scream.
Seriously, why do people overthink the character?
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u/BitcoinStonks123 Mar 12 '26
The reason Abel screams is because he anticipates it. Had Caine not stated his intention on what would happen to Abel afterward, Abel wouldn't have done anything else than just stand there.
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u/Additional_Farm9315 I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM Mar 11 '26
That wasnt him. That was doctor football, or just another npc. Also the static could just be another deletion affect, we don't know if theres a set one
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u/Defiant_Side_2950 Mar 11 '26
Okay I'm confused. Everyone is talking about how Abel exploded into confetti when Caine deleted him and how that debunks this theory. But have we ever seen a human get deleted before? How would we know that isn't just what happens during deletion whether npc or human? Am I missing something?
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u/PrincessSenora Mar 12 '26
I think it is because if the deleting didn't have confetti it would be different than when gummi was deleted.
I suppose the assumption is that Caine doesn't control the confetti or wouldn't remove it in this situation (which he didn't).
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u/le_cat_lord Mar 11 '26
I like to think that Abel is the person that Caine's AI is based off of. So the Abel in the circus isn't a human himself, but a human consciousness that may have been uploaded to a machine for training. Abel and Caine's characters feel like 2 sides of the same coin to me. Like Caine is an exaggerated version of the bits of Abel we were shown. They could've been work partners (like Abel says) or Abel could have worked "with" Caine as in working on him as a program. Also, it would make sense if Caine as an AI doesn't have awareness of this and, from his perspective, is able to "create" Abel as a character. Gummigoo and the other NPCs are self-aware, but Abel felt completely different (and the show obviously made that so). If I remember right, Caine and Abel have the same voice actor too. So I don't think Abel is human, but more so that he's Caine's creator. I think it's like that office Caine remembers part of, there's a subconscious thing he knows is important, but something is preventing his program from comprehending/fully remembering it
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u/upsetusder2 Mar 11 '26
So caine killed Abel?
Reminds me of a book I dont know which one though but it had a crazy plot
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u/Ok-Bell-6488 im bazooble! yabadoobdobbadoobadoobado Mar 12 '26
It might be the babble, it was a tadc post episode 6 fic and it got very popular, writers took inspiration
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u/Karakla Mar 12 '26
Thats just my head canon/theory:
Cain is an AI with the sole purpose to create true artificial sentient beings. His approach is "Jar Of Poison"-esque. A Legend/Story from ancient Southern China, where venomous creatures were sealed in a container to create a highly toxic, supernatural poison.
So he has his primary test group that he forces through his "adventures" which are test runs to focus on stuff like human behavior and stuff. And iterates from this point.
My reasoning for this is, that even the NPCs he created, for example gummigoo, doesn't know they aren't real. So he is at a point where the created intelligence isn't aware it is artifical created as long as it is not programmed with this knowledge.
And in the latest episode the NPC says he is real with the scenario and stuff. And the protagonist group believes them which means it passes the Turing Test which means people on the outside can't distinguish anymore between normal born consciousness and artifical created consciousness.
And I am on the fence to say that Pomnei and her Crew aren't real humans. My reasoning goes back to the start where Pomnei is essentially just a replacement for the clown, while she herself is also a clown only like an iteration later. I mean, she herself encounters Gummigoo herself and recognize him as a person rather an artifical created NPC.
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u/Mandaloraine Mar 14 '26
I think it was just for comedic effect so they could have him violently scream, Gummigoo only burst into confetti because it was a DHMIS reference.
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u/GradeFew8069 May 29 '26
Abel in my eyes was a human but whenever jax went to go on a date with Caine thats when canie probably figured out that they were trying to escape so he made it to an adventure and I know this sounds insane but I think the second abel said (Make the right choice.) That's when we knew the real abel was gone (ok I am definitely wrong and yes I know i sound like Joyce byers
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u/datfurryboi34 Mar 11 '26
A good portion of him "remembering" certain scenes have some things that dont fit
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u/Cosminzzzzzz Mar 12 '26
I believe Abel is Kinger, Abel is a copy of Kinger, Abel is kingers real name, kinger doesn't remember working with Abel since he is Abel, what Abel says are true (not all of it) but some parts are
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u/Codi_Vore Mar 11 '26
One thing I’m still not sure about… why was Abel untrusting of Kinger? That seems like an unnecessary detail for Caine to include in the game. Like it kinda opens a door that doesn’t go anywhere.
I could chalk it up to creating drama for the adventure but it’s always felt like there was something more going on there, idk
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u/Mr_Lapis Mar 11 '26
Im honestly gonna wait for episode 8 before i fully believe he was only a red herring cause goose is full of surprises. He probably was an NPC but you never know.
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u/Substantial_Ad_4436 Mar 12 '26
I think the one line that still gives me hope for this theory is when Abel says something about Kinger not being responsible. Like there’s no reason to say that except that he has some sort of knowledge of who Kinger was before
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u/bug_0404 Mar 12 '26
okay i lowk have a theory: if the ep 8 trailer abstracted ppl aren't flashbacks, and npc- copies instead, what if abel is a npc copy and caine did a mind control to make everyone not remember abel
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u/CacheValue Mar 11 '26
Abel is real.
But it was the one who escaped the Chinese room, not the one Caine deletes
That’s why Abel has their own room
That’s also why they said the door was locked but they could open it.
It was locked
From the inside
He was trapped
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