“I don’t like drama, and I don’t deal well with it. Whether she was actually cheating on me or not, it didn’t matter so much. She’d lied. So I called her up, and I told her we were done. I promised I’d have all her stuff ready for her to go when she got back. No drama. No fuss. But we were done.”

This quote illustrates the differences between Carl’s image of himself and his actual behavior. While he claims to avoid drama, he also planned to take Donut with him when he moved, in order to protect her from being abandoned by Beatrice. Given that this decision would have caused considerable drama had Beatrice learned of it, Carl is clearly willing to face the prospect of conflict in the course of helping those he cares about.

“So let me tell you about Donut the cat. Like I said, she’s one of the fluffy, flat-faced cats that look like they need to be sitting on the lap of a Bond villain. Bea and I shared a two-bedroom apartment, and one of those rooms was dedicated to the cat if that tells you anything. More specifically, the room was devoted to Donut’s Best-in-Show ribbons, her Best-in-Breed ribbons, and the countless trophies and frames photographs of her.”

This quote provides a quick yet descriptive character sketch of Donut. She has high charisma—unusually high for Level 1—and her experience in cat shows helps her to survive within the dungeon as well. While Carl is a fighter and a builder, Donut knows how to entertain a crowd, and this proves to be a vital skill in a world where viewership often determines survival.

“It hit me, at that moment. The sudden shock of the buildings was one thing. But there were people in those buildings. It was almost everybody in the damn city. Hell, even most of the homeless people were in shelters. […] It was two in the damn morning on a Monday night. Everyone would be in bed. And that meant everyone was dead!”

This quote explores the theme of The Ethical Implications of Sadistic Entertainment. The show has already killed billions of people around the world, all to create a twisted and lucrative form of entertainment for trillions of intergalactic fans.