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This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
| “ | Huh? Did somebody say something about an insect collection? | „ |
| ~ Kinger in the Pilot. |
| “ | I know how it can feel in this... circus. Sometimes it all just feels... pointless. But it's not. Not if you have people that care about you. Good memories can do a lot. Hold on to them. And cherish the people around you. You never know when they'll be gone. | „ |
| ~ Kinger comforting Pomni about her current predicament. |
Kinger is one of the tritagonists (alongside Zooble and Gangle) of the dark comedy/surreal web series The Amazing Digital Circus.
He was the first human to be trapped in the Digital Realm and as such, tends to be rather mentally unstable and skittish. Despite this, Kinger is genuinely kind-hearted and is rather compassionate to his fellow humans.
He was voiced by Sean Chiplock, who notably voices Revali and Teba in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Guido Mista in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo and Diluc in Genshin Impact.
Appearance[]
As per his namesake, Kinger takes the form of a tall, anthropomorphic white king chess piece made of wood. He has two round, teal, hyper-realistic eyes that are lopsided and he has white cartoon gloves for hands. Kinger wears a purple robe with a white fur trim that has brown spots.
Personality[]
Thanks to being trapped in the Digital Realm for many years, Kinger tends to be extremely frantic and nervous at all times, being on edge even when there's no reason to be scared around and as such constantly hides in his pillow fort. Kinger also seems to be quite mentally unstable as he falsely thinks his pillow fort is impenetrable and seems to be somewhat of an amnesiac, forgetting things rather quickly and screaming in surprise after forgetting people are next to him and realizing they're present.
Despite this, Kinger is rather polite, noble and compassionate, being affable to even the Gloink Queen and showing a degree of willingness to help despite his incompetence. While he is very forgetful and absent-minded, Kinger is also rather fairly intelligent as he was able to deduce Pomni and Kaufmo's mental instabilities, and also seems highly familiar with the inner workings of the Digital Circus, being eager to share his knowledge with the other humans. He also is quite wise, comforting Ragatha when she worries over Pomni and assures her that whatever she's going through is natural as a part of adjusting to the Circus.
Later on, it's revealed that Kinger is struggling with getting over the abstraction of his wife Queenie and that his senile behaviour is a result of only being able to remember things in the dark. In this state, he displays that he is incredibly wise and socially intelligent, comforting Pomni and giving her assurance that the most important thing in the Circus is making each other feel needed, making her regain confidence in herself. His intelligence also seems enhanced in this state as he is able to solve puzzles with little difficulty, deducing the hints in the Baron's riddle and taking advantage of his detachable parts to scout out the area.
Biography[]
Background[]
At some point in the past, an unnamed man would be the first person to be trapped in the Digital Circus, where Caine would give him the name Kinger. From there, Kinger would witness the disappearances and abstractions of numerous other humans who would enter the Circus after him, causing him to become a paranoid nervous wreck.
The Amazing Digital Circus[]
Pilot[]
Kinger first appears performing the show's theme song with the other humans, but this soon ends when Pomni accidentally bumps to him, toppling the rest of the cast over. Later when Jax shows Pomni the rest of the cast, Kinger briefly emerges from his fort to ask about an insect collection before going back in, though his fort is dismantled by the Gloinks later on. When invited to check on Kaufmo by Ragatha, Kinger refuses as he fears the clown has gone insane and remarks Pomni, having seen an exit like Kaufmo, may be going crazy too. As such, Jax sends Kinger and Gangle to rescue Zooble after they were dismantled and abducted by the Gloinks, while he, Ragatha and Pomni go check on Kaufmo.
Kinger and Gangle eventually track the Gloinks to a dark pit which they end up staring into for a while, with Gangle having to remind Kinger on what he's doing. Jax arrives, telling Kinger that Kaufmo seems alright upon being asked but he soon tosses a bowling ball at the duo, causing them to fall into the hole while Jax jumps in. The duo slide down a slide into the Gloink nest where they witness the Gloink Queen devour some furniture to produce more Gloinks. Kinger cordially greets the Queen, asking for Zooble's location and when he sees their head being carried away, he tries to grab them to no avail as his hands float away and Zooble is eaten by the Queen.
Suddenly, just as the Gloink Queen begins ranting about how everything must be Gloinks, the abstracted Kaufmo crashes through the ceiling and crushes her, causing her to spit Zooble out. The gang escape through a spontaneously manifesting escalator, during which Zooble gets mad at Pomni not being here for her own adventure while Jax just tells them to keep quiet. When Caine rescues Pomni from the void, Kinger quickly tells him that Kaufmo abstracted, to which Caine banishes the clown to the cellar, with Zooble remarking they always thought Kinger would abstract before Kaufmo. Caine also comes clean on the exit door being a fake he created as he knew the humans wanted one (not realizing they wanted the exit door to actually let them leave). With the quest complete, Caine treats the gang to a digital feast, which Kinger points out to Jax doesn't give them any real nutrition but only gives the sensation of eating. He later sits next to Ragatha and Gangle and is seen happily chatting with the former during their meal.
Candy Carrier Chaos[]
In the episode, Kinger joins his friends in adventuring in the Candy Kingdom to steal back its supply of maple syrup. Arriving in the Kingdom, he's fascinated by the candy insects that flutter about. The princess of the kingdom emerges, introducing herself as Loo and reveals that since the bandits used a modified truck to steal the syrup, she's granting the humans a modified, Mad Max-esque tanker to chase them on as well, entrusting Ragatha with the key back into the kingdom after they're done.
Spotting the bandits in the distance, the gang speed after them and eventual catch up. Jax throws Pomni out the hatch as she holds onto both vehicles and stretches, becoming a human bridge. Jax attempts to cross over with a boot-bazooka but Pomni loses her grip and ends up on the bandits' truck, with Jax only managing to shoot down one of the bandits who barely manages to cling onto the truck via a rope. The gang chase the bandits over bumpy terrain, causing Kinger and Ragatha to be filled with knives that happen to be in the backseat. Jax orders Gangle to ram down the bandits and, despite Ragatha's protests, Gangle does so after Jax threatens her with telling everybody about her figurines.
In response, the bandits activate spikes on the sides of their truck which end up harmlessly impaling Ragatha. In an effort to save Pomni, Kinger throws an anchor to her which misses and goes over the side, sending the two trucks colliding before the humans' truck is sent barreling over a canyon into fudge below. A fudge monster emerges and begins to eat them, but Ragatha quickly tells him they're not candy so he releases them. The monster introduces himself as the Fudge, a former inhabitant of the Candy Kingdom who was banished for eating the Princess's citizens. Jax thus proposes a deal with the monster: he'll let him back into the kingdom if he helps the humans capture the bandits. Just then, the bandits' tanker and two of them land in the fudge next to the humans.
Moved out of the canyon by the Fudge, the humans question the crocodile bandits on where their leader and Pomni went, to which they admit that they flew off into the distance. Kinger recommends asking Caine to find her, but Ragatha is concerned about Pomni getting traumatized and not liking her. Kinger assures Ragatha that Pomni probably just went through a lot yesterday and was still adjusting when she abandoned Ragatha, recalling how long she took to adjust when she first arrived. Just then, the bandit leader, Gummigoo, and Pomni arrive flying in on their tanker, squashing the Fudge. Seeing as there are two duplicate tankers, the humans decide to return the syrup in the original tanker to the Kingdom while the bandits can keep the duplicate syrup for their village. Princess Loo congratulates the gang and bids them farewell, though she quickly hears loud banging from the distance as it's revealed Jax let the Fudge in to uphold his deal.
Arriving back in the Circus, Caine welcomes the humans but after noticing that Gummigoo got through quickly evaporates him, revealing that he isn't allowed to let NPCs into the Circus for fear of mixing up the humans and AI. Pomni is rather shaken by this, so Ragatha comforts her, stating that she tried her best to help him live out a fulfilling life after he realized his nature as an AI and that he may reappear one day. She also invites her to Kaufmo's funeral, which Kinger states is their tradition for people who've abstracted. At the funeral, the humans each give eulogies on their experiences with Kaufmo, causing Pomni to realize how much the Circus's members care for each other.
The Mystery of Mildenhall Manor[]
The episode begins with the main cast all hanging out, watching Pomni attempt to beat her breath-holding record as she still has the reflex to breathe in. Jax explains that the reason they got Pomni to do this is because each character does something different when they hold their breaths: Kinger starts to glow, Ragatha's hair stands up, Gangle's mask begins to spin, Zooble's arms stiffen while Jax isn't known as he "wants to keep the mystery alive". Caine suddenly arrives and presents a new adventure for the cast: The Mystery of Mildenhall Manor, where the cast will explore a haunted mansion to record its ghostly activity. Unfortunately, Caine realises that to his dismay, Zooble left even though he crafted the experience specifically for them. Pomni asks if the NPCs will become self-aware again, to which Caine just laughs and sends the gang through a portal.
Venturing through the manor, the crew hear some creepy laughter before a ghost suddenly pops out, spooking Pomni so much that her eyes pop out. As Kinger tries to re-insert Pomni's eyes, the spirit introduces himself as Ghostly, the crew's guide to the manor. Ghostly presents them with a horror-themed door and a normal door, but Jax sucks him up with a vacuum cleaner. When Gangle asks which door to go through, Jax grabs her comedy mask and chucks it at a wall, revealing a gigantic maw which Kinger jumps into to try and retrieve Gangle's mask, dragging Pomni along with him.
Kinger and Pomni end up in a hidden room, where they find mountings of twisted versions of their heads. Kinger plays a recording by the manor's lord, Baron Theodore Mildenhall, who recounts that he hunted down a monster (now mounted in the room) to try and protect his family but even then he still feels uneasy. As the recording ends, Kinger and Pomni try to find a way back to the others, though to Pomni's frustration all of the possible ways up are locked. Pomni continues to search for any objects that could help them while Kinger finds another tape, revealing that the monster's headless body is still alive and trying to reunite with its head, with the Baron imploring the listener to never let the head out of sight. Just as Pomni finds a key to the elevator, the power goes off so after some brief squabbling over Kinger's cluelessness, the duo decide to hold onto each other and go back to the trophy room.
The duo slowly sneak their way back, disturbed by the creaking they hear. Unfortunately, Kinger gets distracted by a fly and starts swatting it, drawing the attention of the creature. Kinger gets hypnotised by it temporarily, but Pomni manages to unlock the elevator and pushes him inside, only to find that it's going down instead. The duo crash into a cellar, where they find another recording by the Baron, where he bemoans his paranoia of the creature led to him accidentally shooting his wife, which is why he's left himself in the cellar to fend the beast off. Pomni grabs a shotgun from the Baron's corpse (who graciously agrees to not come alive) and as the creature's head and body both come down, Kinger shoots both of them, killing them. Unfortunately, the Baron's recording comes to life again and reveals that the creature is actually an angel, with anybody who hurts it being dragged to Hell. It's also revealed by the Baron that he purposefully planned this so as to possess the bodies of whoever followed his recordings and thus, Kinger and Pomni are dragged to their damnation.
Arriving in a dark labyrinth, Kinger calms Pomni down and detaches one of his eyes, allowing him to see a staircase that could help them. Pomni rushes in and gets possessed by evil spirits, who taunt Kinger about his wife, Queenie before he bludgeons them out of her. Pomni rants about how she's been suffering every day she's been here so Kinger tries to talk to her, apologising for getting them into this mess. Pomni notices that Kinger seems more sane, to which he remarks that the dark always helped him with remembering things. He recounts the day Queenie abstracted: the two were in the pillow fort together, where the darkness seemed to calm her down enough to let them embrace one last time before she was sent to the cellar. Kinger also reveals that Queenie was the one who made him interested in insects despite hating them earlier. Kinger comforts Pomni, telling her that while the Circus may seem crazy and meaningless, people that care about you can help bring meaning to it and he asks Pomni to hold onto them and make everybody feel cherished.
Kinger recalls the tape and theorises that they can get through the evil spirits if they don't breathe. Pomni bemoans that Kinger won't remember anything when he gets back to the Circus, to which he comforts her by telling her it's alright if only she remembers. Together, the duo brave the spirits and return to the surface, where they encounter Ragatha and notice that Jax is tied up in the wheelbarrow. Kinger compliments Pomni's bravery earlier while Pomni thanks Ragatha for her kindness. Unfortunately, Kinger realises that the duo forgot to retrieve Gangle's comedy mask, which is why they even went on the adventure in the first place. Arriving back in the Circus, Kinger goes back inside his pillow fort to spend some time alone.
Gallery[]
Concept Art[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- Based on his 3D model, Kinger is the tallest character in the Digital Circus, standing at nearly twice Pomni's height.
- Thanks to being stuck the longest in the Circus, Kinger is also the oldest character at 48 years old.
- Kinger asking Zooble if they "saw a game show" in the Gloink Queen's stomach is a reference to the recurring game show "Gastric Giveaway" that appears in numerous animations by the show's creator Gooseworx, often making an appearance in the gullet of a character.
- In the scene where the rooms of each human is shown, a room with a black queen chess piece is shown with her face crossed out. As this character's name was confirmed to be Queenie, it's implied that she may have been Kinger's romantic partner and that her disappearance may have caused his unstable nature. Furthermore, as the Queen is often used as a last resort to save the King, Queenie may have died saving Kinger from something which led to his cowardly nature.
- Despite this, it's noted that Queenie is a black piece while Kinger is a white piece, which are opposing sides in chess. However, this contrasting coloration could just be for the sake of character design and to help better distinguish Queenie from Kinger.
- Kinger's skittish personality may be a reference to the playstyle of the king chess piece, as it being captured spells defeat for the player and as such, the king piece must be defended at all costs.
- Kinger's tendency to hide in his pillow fort may also represent the move of castling, in which a player protects their unmoved king by swapping its position with an unmoved rook, moving the king two spaces horizontally in the process.
- Thanks to numerous details in the show, it's been theorized that Kinger was once a programmer for the Digital Circus:
- Kinger seems obsessed with insect collections, with insects also being called bugs. As Kinger's memory seems deteriorated, this may be a foggy memory of him debugging the Circus when it was still in its development.
- It's later revealed that Kinger's obsession with bugs is actually something he got from his wife as she convinced him to like them.
- The flooring of the Circus has a chessboard pattern, which may have a connection with Kinger's appearance as a chess piece.
- Kinger takes the form of a king chess piece, the most important piece in the game, which could indicate a role of significant importance in his past life. Furthermore, he and Queenie are the only humans not to take the appearance of toys but rather board game pieces, implying a level of sophistication and intelligence.
- Because of this, he considers himself to be royal to a degree, such as when he talks to the Gloink Queen.
- Kinger also remarks about taking seven years of computer science in the third episode, adding more implications that he was once a programmer.
- Finally, Kinger's design is also rather simplistic compared with the other characters. This, along with his tendency to ragdoll and glitch may display that he was added to the game when its rendering capabilities were still rather limited, such as during its development phase.
- Kinger seems obsessed with insect collections, with insects also being called bugs. As Kinger's memory seems deteriorated, this may be a foggy memory of him debugging the Circus when it was still in its development.
- He is the second major Glitch Productions character to be voiced by someone who works at Nintendo as character voice actor, Sean Chiplock, with the latter having previously voiced Thad in Murder Drones.
- Appropriate to his appearance, Kinger can play chess though his level of skill hasn’t been revealed.
- While mostly a heroic character, Kinger may become either antagonist in a future episode as a teaser for him attacking someone with the butt of a shotgun is shown, implying that he could feature as the villain of a murder mystery episode, or will try to use it to protect others.
- It's later revealed that he used the shotgun to bludgeon an evil spirit out of Pomni after she got possessed.
- As revealed in an ad for plushies of the series’s characters, Kinger has a fantastic singing voice.
- On the topic of merchandise ads, Kinger acknowledges and is put off by the fact that his plushie "looks pregnant" in the eyes of the fans.
- As the abstraction-themed socks sold by Glitch are called the "Checkmate Socks" and have Kinger and Queenie's robe colours as their secondary colours, it's possible that this is foreshadowing that Kinger will abstract.
External Links[]
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