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illmoraineakoi · 2 months ago

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An Attempt to Predict AvA11, Using All The Sneak Peaks We’ve Been Given

So, given the fact that it’s the final 24 hours to the Episode drop, I really wanted to go deep into what I think might happen in the upcoming episode, as well as some potential theories.

To do this, I’ve gone back to the Newsletters first, to refresh myself on their contents.

Warning! VERY long post!

For those who don’t know, around the start of every month, Alan and his team send out email newsletters to those who register on his shop site. Within these newsletters have been Sneak Peaks, a lot of neat Behind-the Scenes stuff, and just generally really interesting information about the production of the episodes. I highly recommend signing up for them, they’re actually really cool!

But the most important part of them, for AvA11, has been the 3 Sneak Peaks sent out with the October, November, and December newsletters. Here they are:

October’s is the one I find the most interesting, and it’s strangely, the one I haven’t seen discussed nearly as much as the others.

October’s Sneak Peak is clearly showing one of two things: a new black stick figure, or (much more likely) victim in a reanimated/flashback scene from AvA1. The reason why it’s more likely to be Victim in a redone/flashback scene is because Victim was recolored gray to avoid confusion between him and TCO. Why would Alan then go an add a brand new black stick figure? [omg that sounds so accidentally racist I’m so sorry.]

Additionally, the focus of AvA11 will most likely be on Victim. The close-out of AvA10, of the Cursor burning, is the perfect leave off for a delve into the past. To show WHY Victim is burning the photo, why he hates the Animator so much, why he wants to find him. It’s a logical narrative flow.

Plus, the Episode is literally titled “Victim”.

And Victim’s backstory is going to be important. It’s going to be by far the most important backstory in AvA, ever. Purple’s, King’s, hell even Dark’s if he comes back, won’t ever even come close to Victim’s.

Because Victim was the first. He STARTED AvA, the series, which makes him so goddamn important to both the story but also to Alan himself. Alan brought back Victim for a reason, and I believe that he wants to give Victim the character arc and attention he deserves. For such an essential stick figure to the AvA series and to Alan’s own life, he’s been neglected for too long.

So I think a lot of time and effort has been put into AvA Season 3’s story, and Victim in particular. You can only ever bring Victim back into the story once, after all.

(Unless they kill him and go ‘sike!’ again, but, y’know, it just won’t hold as much weight. And people would probably be expecting it, like they’re still expecting Dark to pop out of his grave.)

Which brings me to my first theory, or more like my first hope: The Animator as a character is going to be important, and his past actions are going to matter.

It’s rather strange, but the Animator as a character has largely been pushed to the side for a long time now. He’s sort of just become the occasional cameo character or relegated to JUST being the Cursor.

But The Animator is very important to the entire AvA narrative, and his absence as a character is starting to feel strained.

His story is undeniably linked with Victim’s; I thoroughly believe that Victim’s arc cannot exist without him. And not just as the object of Victim’s ire and goals, not, I think there NEEDS to be an interaction, an altercation, between them. Victim’s current character is far too entangled with the Animator for anything else to be satisfying.

As well, The Animator hasn’t really ever truly taken accountability for his past actions. The most we’ve gotten is the nod between him and TCO, and the assistance he gave to TCO during the fight with Dark. That is it.

That’s not good enough. Not for Victim.

That’s not an admission of guilt or remorse. That’s not an apology.

And there is a LOT the Animator should be apologizing for. Or at least held responsible for. Nearly killing Victim. Imprisoning TCO. Trying to kill TCO, via Dark.

The Animator’s past actions are terrible to look at from the current standpoint of the series, no matter the intended viewing perceptive they were originally made for. And I thoroughly believe that Canon should address this. It’s important, both for putting the past behind all of the characters, but also to fully solidify just how the Animator has changed.

His spur-of-the-moment decision to make a deal with Orange instead of potentially deleting him no longer holds up his character as well as it used to. It is woefully weak, now. He needs more. He needs to be shown doing more.

Especially since Victim’s story is pretty much guaranteed to take a massive sledgehammer to the audience's opinion of the Animator. We the audience have almost always been on the Stick Figure’s sides, during those early episodes. The Animator was originally the antagonist. And Victim’s backstory might remind us of that and shake our faith in him.

This, too, is also a topic Alan has one shot to nail. The Animator’s potential true redemption/making amends is such a critical thing for the narrative. There’s a reason why the fandom has dabbled with the idea of the Animator being forced to deal with the consequences of his past for years now. It’s because it could make or break The Animator as a character. It’s probably one of the most important things Alan could ever touch upon in canon.

The Animator needs to show how much he’s changed, and he needs to show it to Victim specifically.

He needs to make right his original mistakes.

Enough about the Animator, lets get back to the Sneak Peak.

I believe this sneak peak is probably depicting this scene from a slightly different perspective:

Which is why I think that parts of AvA1 (or potentially another one of the Animator’s early animations that weren’t posted online, but since I believe it’s Victim specifically, I believe it’s AvA1) have been reanimated in a different perspective.

Victim’s perspective, to be specific. Showing it from his side, not the Animator’s like the original technically is.

Of note, Victim and the Cursor are the only two things shown in this Sneak Peak. I think that’s probably significant, for a variety of reasons, most of which I’ve already gone over above.

[As a side note, I think it’ll be so cool seeing the original style of AvA1 being ‘mimicked’ in the current AvA. I am a sucker for that kind of a call back.]

I’ve recently talked about this in another post, but I’d like to restate it here: Victim was probably fine when the Animator closed Flash, because his .EXE had been automatically saved in Flash’s directories upon his very creation. His .EXE is a separate application process that is not dependant on Flash to run.

This means there is nothing to suggest that Victim’s fight with the Animator ended when AvA1 did. It’s entirely possible that Victim continued the fight on the desktop after Flash closed, potentially till he found an alternative method of escape or the Animator had done something to ‘get rid’ of him.

Next up, November, and the one that made pretty much everyone loose their minds.

November’s newsletter was interesting, because it wasn’t just the Sneak Peak image included that got people hyped and speculating, it was something they added towards the end pf the letter:

1 Truth, 2 Lies Want to know what will happen in the next AVA? Well, I’ll tell you! The only trick is that I like lying >:) Only 1 of the following sentences is actually in the next AVA. It’s up to you guys to find out which one is the truth! 1- We learn about Purple’s origin 2- We see the Mercenaries interact for the first time 3- Victim builds a chicken coop

Most people already reading this are probably well aware of this 2 Lies and 1 Truth ‘game’, as well as the fact that the option “Victim builds a chicken coop” became the most popular one. There were a wide variety of posts going around in November about people’s thoughts on these options, debating which one was most likely the true option.

The general consensus I saw was that the Victim one was most likely, given the general belief AvA11 will focus on Victim and his backstory, but also because of the Sneak Peak image included: they seemed to match to hint at something – mainly that Victim might’ve spent some time on a farm or at least near one.

[Another popular counterpoint to this theory I saw was that this Sneak Peak image could just be a random background or transition shot from the episode with little greater significance that was included in the newsletter to obfuscate the truth. This is something I don’t actually put past Alan doing, especially since it seems he wrote the 2 Lies 1 Truth thing himself. Just something to keep in mind, I think.]

There are two possible places this image could be depicting: The Outernet (which has shown rural farmland-y areas in both the start of “Wanted” and around the area where King lives, so there’s precedence.) or, an option tying into the December Sneak Peak, an animation on Newgrounds.

Both are possible, as we’ve already seen different styled sticks with the Mercenaries, so the sticks in the background not being the ‘usual’ looking ones on the Outernet isn’t a deal-breaker.

I personally think that Farmer Vic will be likely, from both the Sneak Peak and the game option, but also because of Victim’s clear skill with the lasso in “The Box”. I think this might have been some really clever foreshadowing that was also a callback to AvA1. Victim was quite good with the lasso to begin with, but he’s much better in “The Box” (lassoing Chosen while he’s trying to fly away is, admittedly, impressive.) so I think he could have honed those skills on a farm during his absence from the limelight. I’m hoping, anyway, it’d be so cool if there was a scene where he’s being taught how to use a lasso more effectively.

The most popular theory I’ve seen (and may have have accidentally contributed to) is the idea that Victim lived on a farm after somehow escaping the PC until TCO and TDL destroy his life in their terrorist rampages.

I’m gonna be honest: I don’t want this to be the case.

I think it’s a bit too much of a cop-out, to pin the blame for Victim’s villain trigger on TCO and TDL. It’s too easy and lazy. And it would also muddy the viewer's perception of TCO, in particular, which kinda doesn’t fit with the vibe season 3 has been going for for TCO. TCO has thus far been painted quiet sympathetically in season 3, very much a victim of Victim. Furthermore, adding a negative backstory point with TCO and TDL would distract away from Victim’s main complicit with the Animator. Having Victim be laser-focused on hating and wanting revenge on his Creator is a good character motivation. Suddenly adding two extra characters that he might hate and have a grudge against? It makes it feel sloppy.

(The only way I could kinda see it working is if Victim doesn’t realize it was Chosen and TCO. Even then, I doubt Victim wouldn’t eventually figure it out.)

There is also too much of a parallel, between Victim and TCO and Victim and the Animator with this idea. TCO and the Animator’s positions would be far too similar: person who did terrible things in the past having those actions come back to bite him in the ass.

(There’s also the debate on weather or not TCO’s shitty actions need to be delved into more or him being held responsible for them. This comes down to what potential things TCO has done that we’ve not seen yet; we haven’t seen TCO actually hurting any stick figures, unlike Dark. As it stands, his past actions currently don’t look “that bad” in comparison. And even if he should be held responsible...does it need to happen in Victim’s arc???)

I, personally, don’t like this theory. It feels like we’ve just defaulted to TCO and TDL causing bad evil shit because they’re literally the only ‘bad’ characters we’ve had in AvA thus far.

This being said, the theory does make sense, especially with Victim’s previous behavior towards TCO in “The Box”.

Victim is a very vengeful stick. He holds grudges. He’s terrifyingly dedicated to hunting down those who’ve hurt him.

I originally though that Victim didn’t seem to care about who TCO is in “The Box”, he just careed that TCO is more powerful than him and has information about the Animator. But upon reconsideration, Victim’s behavior in the Box feels VERY vengeful. It feels like Victim is only beating the crap out of TCO to make a point. To prove he can, to make himself feel superior and powerful, to prove he’s better. It’s to force TCO to submit. To hurt him, for no other reason.

Victim could have used the Memory Scanner at any point. He could have started with it.

He chose not to. He WANTED that fight. He STARTED the fight, and forced TCO to participate, and then pushed him until TCO was desperate enough to start fighting to kill.

This was a very calculated effort to back TCO into a corner he couldn’t get out of. To make TCO the victim.

It feels like Victim has something out for TCO, a personal vendetta. It’s so aggressive.

(On the flip side, Victim gives literally zero attention to Dark getting murdered in the memory, which, if he had a vendetta against him too, you’d think there’d be a reaction? Instead, Victim only seems pissed at Orange because Victim himself is the only Alan-created stick to not have powers. Perhaps that discovery overpowered his reaction to Dark?)

It begs the question why Victim seems to hate TCO so much.

Not much more to say about this Sneak Peak (for now) so onto December.

This is the one that stumped me, because I personally didn’t recognize this at all. However, this is Newgrounds.

This really bumped the ‘Victim was somehow involved/affected by TCO and TDL’s attack on Newgrounds’ theory in popularity. That’s the only time we’ve seen Newgrounds in canon thus far.

But Newgrounds has likely been important to the Animator in the same way it was for Alan irl. After all, the Animator’s username “Noogai” comes directly from Alan’s own Newgrounds account (which is still there btw. Inactive, but still there.)

And Newgrounds is probably also significant, because AvA1 was posted there. Not only that, but that was the FIRST place it was posted online.

I think there might be a connection to the Animator being active on Newgrounds at this point in the timeline, rather than a nod towards TCO and TDL’s attack. I think it might be possible that Newgrounds could be how Victim gets off the computer.

It’s at this point that I feel like the question of how stick figure life works becomes a little important. TCO and TDL’s attack on StickPage show stick figures fleeing their respective games and animations. This implies that they can leave, and that their original ‘home’ games and animations are their own little digital pocket dimensions. This is even the case with RGBY and their home website; their home is shown to be much bigger with rooms the user of a computer would never see from their perspective. It’s also clearly a safe place for them to store items, because in Green’s tour video, we see a bunch of their stuff there.

So each stick figure game and animation is kind of like it’s own little world. Or, potentially, all digital things are, not just stick figure stuff.

As shown numerous times with RGBY, external stick figures can also enter these little worlds.

Which implies that every single thing on the Sneak Peak image is it’s own space that could be entered from the outside.

Of the things show in the Sneak Peak, two have been identified as not actually existing on Newgrounds, (Apparently. I don’t have the energy to verify this.) “Shepard” and “Mitsi”.

Well, it seems we have one more thing to add to the ‘farming’ theme.

I think this makes it much more likely that November’s Sneak Peak is depicting an animation world, rather than a place on the Outernet, specifically “Shepard”’s world, though “Mitsi”’s isn’t out of the question. There must be a story reason these two things were added to the list.

And Mitsi, at least, is going to be significant, because of this:

The new plushie set, the mystery one of which clearly being Mitsi. There is no reason why she’d get a plush alongside two of the most popular characters of the series if she wasn’t inordinately important. I think she’ll probably have a connection to Victim, again because the episode is probably going to be a Victim-centric, but also because I think there’s a secret theme to this plushie drop: best friends. Dark and Chosen were friends before Dark fucked that up, so it’s possible Mitsi’s will be Victim’s.

[As an aside, for those of you worried about (or even expecting) her to be a love interest: I’m very skeptical because Alan has explicitly stated he doesn’t want to include that in the series. It’s in his 7 million subs Q&A livestream, which is still on his channel under the livestreams tab. It’s 5 years old at this point, so it’s not impossible that he could have changed his mind, but I really don’t think he has. Whatever relationship or interaction between the two will probably be platonic.]

Finally, the last Sneak Peak image: the community announcement on Alan’s channel:

This one is really interesting, but it’s also a little confusing, because it shakes up everything else.

The other Sneak Peak images have seemed like they’ve been hinting towards Victim’s past, but this one is clearly happening in the current present of Season 3, because Victim’s in his facility. This might suggest that this episode might be like “The King”, and split between Victim’s backstory and continuing the events of Season 3.

The most interesting part of this image is the green sparkles, which are almost the exact same color as Orange’s power sparkles. The scene also looks VERY similar to when RGBY were revived in “Showdown”.

But we’ve not seen this scene before, so how is Orange connected to it? Is he even connected? Are those his powers, or someone else’s?

I wonder if it’s possible that, when Orange did whatever he did to revive his friends, he might’ve revived OTHER sticks on accident too. He wasn’t exactly in his right mind or in control of himself, really, so perhaps his riving had been more widespread than he might’ve intended.

(or perhaps it was limited to the sticks TDL might’ve killed…)

[Side note: Dark’s not getting brought back tomorrow. It’s just not happening, guys. Probably not until Season 4, if at all. We’ve already got so much other stuff going on right now to be bringing in Dark’s resurrection too.]

I’m personally very confused about the blue and pink floor. Is that some sort of device? Or just a fancy floor? A portal of some sort? Is there a connection between it and Orange’s powers?

Are they somehow testing Orange’s powers? Or manipulating them for their own use?

I thought the arm in the scene might’ve been Victim’s, implying it was Victim’s own memory, but I’m not sure anymore. It’s possible it could be TCO’s, since they could have gone searching through his memories even more, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think TCO’s served his ‘use’ already, and Victim’s turned his attention towards Yellow. It could also be a random stick who’s memory they have.

(A particularly crack-y theory I have is that that isn’t Orange’s powers, but Mitsi’s. This could be Victim’s memories of Mitsi using her powers. The only real reason why I think this is that the floor looks like a dance floor and Mitsi’s animation description is a dance test.)

This image is just so mysterious, it’s hard to try to find a place to put it or try to figure out what it’s supposed to be showing.

And those are all the Sneak Peaks!

Currently, there are several important holes that AvA11 would need to patch up in Victim’s backstory: how he survived, how he got off the Computer and into the Outernet, what happened to trigger his villain arc.

(And also personally where the hell did the rocket logo come from; I need that answered too.)

(The last of those I feel is probably the most important, though they’re all very important to Victim. But giving reasons for why the antagonist characters are doing what they’re doing is a lesson that Alan and his team learned from Dark. Dark did not have a definitively stated reason or motive for his actions, and it left his character feeling incomplete and confusing to the viewer. Come King Orange, they’ve learned to put more attention and focus on this aspect, and they did so amazingly with him. The same will likely be done with Victim, as it should, because it’s very important to him in particular. )

At this point, I think I’ve got a fairly decent way of putting these pieces together, so allow me to propose my AvA11 theory:

We might see the events of AvA1 again, from Victim's perspective. Hence, October’s Sneak Peak image.

The fight might continue past when Flash is closed, on the desktop.

Something might potentially happen that causes Victim to feel the need to flee, to escape, instead of trying to continue the fight against the Cursor (as Victim doesn't seem the type to give up that fight unless he absolutely HAD to, to potentially save his own life. He never faltered or showed any signs of fear or inclination to stop at all in AvA1. He was laser-focused on beating the Cursor. There has to be an external reason to force him to stop.)

Victim might escape onto Newgrounds, which the Animator might have had open in a web browser because he’s a frequent user of the site, fleeing from the computer onto the internet. On Newgrounds, he (maybe accidentally?) tumbles into one of the animations, probably "Shepard", where he's found by the denizens of that animation. Perhaps he chooses to stay, to hide from the Animator, or maybe he doesn't know how to leave.

Hence, November's.

I think he chooses to stay. And I think, if he can leave that animation, he might hop between the animations on Newgrounds too. Perhaps making friends with other animated beings. Including Mitsi, who probably becomes his best friend.

Alternatively, he might fall into Mitsi's animation first, and be found by her. He might also potentially be taken care of by her, allowing for the possibility that she's a more maternal figure to him in this version.

(Though Mitsi gives off pretty young vibes so I think the best friend angle would be more plausible.)

There will probably be scenes of Victim’s life, which is probably where we’ll see him build the chicken coop, as well as build his friendship with Mitsi. Establishing and building her character, y’know.

And then, Chosen and Dark's attack on Newgrounds.

If Victim stays on Newgrounds long enough, it's inevitable that he'd be caught up in the attack, and Bad Shit is gonna happen to him. Namely, Mitsi's probably dying. Because we gotta have a death to make his backstory Tragic. She'll probably die in a way where he'll witness it, or even in his arms, in a way he's helpless to prevent.

(This is the part I'm hoping I'm wrong about the most, because honestly it'll just feel bland and generic, especially after King's story. I want the episode to make me FEEL something for Mitsi, and this ain't gonna be it because it feels too obvious that she's gonna die.)

Minirant aside: Victim becomes displaced from Newgrounds by the portals/tunnels TCO and TDL use to access websites, either by accidentally tumbling into one, getting thrown into one, or deliberately following after TCO and TDL as they leave.

This brings him to the Outernet, where his new loss and grief turns to boiling anger, and his quest for vengeance finally starts in earnest.

But, we have a problem: what makes Victim angry at Alan?

Why, after so long on his own, would Victim turn his aggression on him? It doesn't make sense for Victim to pursue vengeance just based on the events of AvA1, not after so much time, and certainly not after TCO and TDL fucked his life over.

The idea that Victim gets angry at Alan for Chosen and Dark’s reign of destruction doesn't make sense either.

Again, he’s vengeful. He’d target THEM, not Alan. But he didn’t, not until “Wanted”, which is YEARS after the attack on Newgrounds. Even if we be conservative and say the Newgrounds attack happened a year before “Showdown”, it’s still been six years in between then and “Wanted”.

But the two of them didn't seem to matter that much to him. Not like Alan.

So why? Why is Victim targeting Alan?

Alan must have done something else to piss Victim off. Something that Victim KNOWS is Alan's fault, specifically, that’s pushed Victim over the edge and motivated him to come after him.

But if the Animator hasn’t had any contact with Victim since Victim escaped, what could he have possibly done?

It just doesn’t make sense.

[As a side note, I did have a theory that perhaps the Animator might do something to Mitsi that might enraged Victim, but again, the lack of contact after Victim escaped. The theory was that Mitsi would convince Victim to give the Animator a second chance, to return to try to make peace, and things go terribly bc it's before Alan's change. A tragic idea, but one that doesn't make any sense.]

This is where my ability to try to put the tiny pieces we've been given together breaks down.

As for what happens to continue the present day events, I think Victim’s attention might have turned towards Orange’s powers, though in what way I’m not sure. Orange’s powers seem to be hinted to be an important thing, by that last community sneak peak image.

Victim hadn’t seen Chosen’s memory of RGBY being revived for him to know that's one of Orange's abilities, but maybe they discover that another way, perhaps through another stick’s memory. Maybe it’s enough for Victim to make the connection between the two, and realize that Orange could revive sticks.

Maybe that’s why he seems interested in Orange’s powers; maybe he thinks Orange could revive Mitsi...

There might also be Yellow being forced to summon the Cursor. Which hopefully won’t include any torture [Yellow’s getting tortured enough in the AvG thumbnails.]

There’s also a question that’s been left unanswered at the end of “The Box”: Were Red, Green, and Blue captured too?

The workers look to be walking away from them. If not, what could they potentially do? Their efforts at infiltration have already been thwarted once. If so, how would they fit into things?

I honestly have no idea. And I’m running out of steam, so I’ll just end this here.

We’ll see what happens tomorrow. Regardless of what’s revealed, it’s guaranteed to be amazing.

See you all at the premiere!

#Animator vs Animation #AvA #Alan Becker #AvA 11 Predictions #AvA 11 Theories #ava11 #Illmoraine Theorizes #AvA Victim #AvA Mitsi #Long post #no seriously it's reaaaalllllly long #This took days for me to write out so sorry if it sounds disjointed in some places

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