Cartoon depicting quasar and radio galaxy views of an AGN. The H I clouds in yellow are located in the circumnuclear disk, and the clouds in blue are offset from the disk plane. The optical line of sight is indicated by the dashed blue line, sampling only little of the H I clouds. The sight lines to the quasars primarily pass through photoionization cone and sample cold gas closer to the jet axis and inner circumnuclear disk. The receding lobe would sample both positive and negative velocities corresponding to blue clouds. The galaxy view, with a weak core, primarily samples cold gas from blue clouds (negative velocities) in front of the lobes and the galaxy-wide ISM outside the photoionization cone.