#post-ava5

[roseverdict]

Approaching the Roche Limit

Immediately after the events of the Dark Lord's failed invasion of the digital world, a conversation is had between two sticks with unimaginable power that somehow doesn't devolve into another no-holds-barred brawl.

No, the Chosen One doesn't quite know how they managed it, either.

(or, i am still very much thinking about morally questionable stick figures. i have Big Plans™ but i need to set up how we get from ava5 to the Big Plans™ so IT'S SEGWAY TIME! mild language from the bogeysticks but nothing too serious imo. ao3 link to come shortly so check rb's if it's been more than a few minutes!)

〜

By the time Chosen made it to where the mountain used to be, the sky had gone dark and the dust had settled.

Mostly.

There had been people out here during the day, news reporters and curious onlookers and the like, but Chosen had waited until they'd all gone home or set up camp for the night before sneaking past and climbing into the crater.

Dark lay there, unmoving and unaware of the world around them.

Chosen sighed and slid down the crater's side to them. "Oh, Dark…What's become of us?"

Dark didn't answer.

Chosen just shook their head and knelt down beside their oldest friend, removing and pocketing Dark's power-amplifying armbands before hefting them up into their arms. "C'mon. We should get going before someone gets curious enough to come looking down here."

"…Ch's'n…?"

They felt their heart stop as Dark shifted in place and blearily looked up at them, though Chosen couldn't say for sure how much of it was from joy and how much of it was pure dread. "Hey. I think we ought to talk about some things."

Dark didn't react for a long moment, then nodded silently.

Chosen nodded back, then got to their feet, crouched down-

-and leapt away, clearing the crater in an instant.

〜

Dark spent the next however-long in…well, in darkness. Occasionally, something would break through the haze, be it a dim flash of imagery or a distant sound, but for the most part, it was like a blanket had been thrown over the world, rendering it dull and fuzzy.

"…ell were you even func…" mumbled Chosen at one point.

"…rupted after spending so long with…" they muttered sometime later.

"…orry. This might hurt a li…" they said after that.

Something pinched in the deepest corners of Dark's being, and they couldn't keep themself from grimacing at the sensation as it grew more and more all-encompassing.

"…rry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry-" Chosen was saying now, continuing to repeat the word like it was the only thing keeping themself steady as they did whatever it was they were doing.

Dark could only groan and try to curl inwards, only to find themself too weak to do even that.

There came a feeling of something snapping within Dark, and suddenly the pain let up.

"It's done," said Chosen's voice.

Dark's head felt heavy as lead, but they forced it to turn enough for them to look at Chosen. They tried to ask what the other had just done, but all that came out was a weak-sounding questioning noise.

"There was corruption in your code," said Chosen. "I got a screenshot of it, and I can show it to you once you recover a little more. Just…focus on resting for a bit first, alright?"

Dark turned the thought over in their head, taking what was probably too long to be healthy to process it fully, then nodded slowly.

As they drifted back out of consciousness, a gentle pressure took their hand and squeezed.

Dark squeezed back.

〜

When Dark finally regained their bearings, the world was quiet and calm.

A look around showed them that they were back in the house they and Chosen shared, and the window gave them a wonderful view of the night sky.

Something shifted their left hand, making them realize that, while one hand rested atop their chest, the other hung over the edge of the bed they'd been laid upon. Next to them, slumped over in a chair and gripping Dark's hand, was Chosen.

Chosen mumbled incoherently and shifted slightly again.

They were asleep.

On instinct, Dark braced themself for the ever-present wave of instinctual bloodlust that came over them nearly every time they saw Chosen…

…only for nothing to happen.

Dark blinked.

They looked away, then looked back.

Still nothing.

Chosen blinked blearily awake, but upon noticing Dark, they seemed to snap awake fully. "You're up. How do you feel?"

"Like I got my ass handed to me by a kindergartener," Dark quipped weakly. "Probably because I did."

Chosen chuckled at that, though they quickly fell silent before… "I…I really do appreciate the gesture. Where you were aiming."

Dark scowled down at the bandages wrapped around their chest. "Coulda fooled me."

Chosen stiffened, then visibly forced themself to relax. "And this is part of what I was hoping to talk about once you woke up. Dark, I…"

"You what?" Dark snapped. "You were getting cold feet about a plan that, by all rights, was yours in the first place?"

"I just wanted to get back at Noogai for hurting me for all those years!" Chosen insisted, standing up and letting go of Dark's hand. "I didn't want to take down the entirety of humanity's international infrastructure!"

"Oh, so wreaking havoc is perfectly fine, but you draw the line at utter destruction?" Dark snipped dryly. "A bit late for those morals to show up, don't you think?"

"What I was fine with was destroying the websites that hosted the popups I was forced to block for years!" spat Chosen. "Using our powers to play the world's games our way! Not annihilating millions of devices belonging to millions of humans who've never even thought to do us wrong! Not terrorizing other sticks and murdering them just because they didn't want us to hurt their friends!"

"You signed on for this when you became my ally!" Dark shouted. They wound up coughing for a moment, but then, with even more venom, "I'm the Dark Lord, remember, oh, great Chosen One? That's what I am!"

"You were only coded to seek and destroy me, and you were able to break past that!" Chosen exclaimed. "I'd thought that once we were finished with everything, we could-!"

Dark laughed bitterly. "We could what? Sing kumbayah around a campfire for the rest of our days?! Did you really think you would get the choice between 'all-powerful evil ally' and 'happy friendship times' when everything was said and-?"

Chosen's hands slammed onto the mattress, and in a voice like thunder-

"YOU THINK I WANTED TO CHOOSE?!"

Dark fell silent, staring up at Chosen as they glared down at them. Their eyes may have only been metaphorically flaming, but it still burnt as if they were blasting Dark with their lasers at full power.

Was Chosen…tearing up?

"I never wanted to choose," Chosen said, a lot quieter and a little thicker. "You're my first and closest friend, of course I didn't want to have to choose between you and…well, anything. You just…you kept seeking out more and more destruction. Even with a name like 'The Dark Lord,' things were getting out of hand. I didn't realize my suspicions were right on the money until I patched you up from your beatdown courtesy of the Second Coming."

Dark watched mutely as Chosen handed them two sheets of paper, each of them a printout of programming that Dark thought they'd known as well as their own color code.

"This one," said Chosen, pointing to the printout showing an unhealthy mass of red numbers and letters spreading across the entirety of the program, "shows how your code looked when I first got you home. This one," this time gesturing to the other sheet and its much cleaner lines of code, "shows how it looks now."

Dark glanced between the two pages, and though it took them a moment, they noticed that the source of the tumorous code in the first seemed to be the very first line: a simple mission statement with its target completely illegible.

mission.The_Dark_Lord = destroy(▒▒▒_▒▒▒▒▒▒_▒▒▒);

"Noogai put that into you. Only that. From the very moment of your creation, that has been your driving force," Chosen said coldly. "As soon as we joined forces, that core part of your code became a conflicting statement with everything you unconsciously put there yourself, and the longer we went on our merry reign of terror, the more deeply entrenched the surviving code became."

Dark looked to the other sheet, only to freeze.

There, in the first line, commented out but still clearly visible without the corrupted characters obscuring it, was the full version of their 'mission statement.'

mission.The_Dark_Lord = destroy(The_Chosen_One);

"I had to comment it out- the corruption was spreading through the rest of your code unchecked while you were passed out. Once I did, the corruption receded and revealed the line in its entirety. It's up to you whether we remove it for good or put it back to the way it was." Chosen stood back up and turned to leave. "I'm not making that choice if I can help it, either."

Dark watched them leave, unable to string their thoughts together in a way that made sense before the door slammed shut behind Chosen.

〜

The morning dawned in a wash of grays and whites.

Chosen awoke feeling drained. Judging by the fact that the house was still standing, Dark hadn't gone rogue yet. Hopefully, that would turn out to be a good thing.

They trudged into the kitchen and got themself a glass of coffee, then, after a moment of deliberation, poured a drink for Dark, too. A bit of coffee, a lot of sugar, and then they were off to Dark's room with the two cups in hand.

Upon opening the door, they saw Dark slumped back against the pillow, asleep. The printouts were held against their chest with one hand, the other having flopped over the edge of the bed. As Chosen entered the room, however, Dark jolted awake, seemingly confused for a moment before they caught sight of Chosen and their expression sank.

Chosen tried not to read anything into it.

They sat down at the chair they'd left at Dark's bedside and set the two coffees on the nightstand. "Feeling any better?"

Dark made a noncommital grunt, looking down at the printouts in their hand blankly.

Chosen sipped at their coffee and focused on a spot in the corner. Sitting in silence was much better than the two of them screaming at each other.

It took a bit, but eventually, Dark spoke up. "The Entire Web."

Chosen blinked. "Hm?"

"Or The Entire Net. It could have been either," Dark said dully. "The corrupting part of my code. It would've had the same number of letters as 'The Chosen One,' and it would've fit, considering my plans for the Virabots."

Chosen had to admit, it did fit.

"I don't want to let that bastard have any sway over me," Dark hissed, their grip on the readout of the original, corrupted code tightening and crumpling the page.

Chosen nearly choked on their coffee, but managed to turn it into a regular swallow before setting the cup down. "Are you saying…?"

"Delete it," Dark confirmed. "I've got enough of my own handiwork in me that it shouldn't kill me or anything. After that…I don't really know."

Chosen set their coffee aside, then got to their feet. "Since the code is already commented out, I should be able to get rid of it without causing any more pain, even while you're awake. Did you want me to do that now, or…?"

Dark hesitated a moment, then nodded. "Before I think for too long and change my mind."

Chosen nodded back, then pulled their laptop out from the end table and opened it up, the program editor still open from their patch job on Dark. A quick click, drag, and delete, and the offending line of code was gone.

"Done."

Dark blinked. "You were right. That was painless."

Chosen chuckled quietly and set the laptop aside as quickly as they'd taken it out. "Perks of having the code already separated from what you're currently running on."

Dark shrugged and nodded, seemingly unable to think of a comeback.

"Here," said Chosen, picking up the second cup of coffee and holding it out. "If you want it."

Chosen watched as Dark warily took the cup and had a sip. Their eyes lit up, (metaphorically, anyway,) but all they did was hunch their shoulders and glance away. "…thanks."

Chosen nodded and picked up their own coffee again, taking sips from it every time they felt their eyes try to flutter shut.

Eventually, though, they ran out of coffee, and as they drifted out of consciousness, a gentle pressure took their hand and squeezed.

Chosen squeezed back.

〜

That evening found the two of them on the roof of their house in the country, sitting in relative silence.

"Heh, look up there," Dark finally said, lifting one heavy arm to point at the lights in the sky. "Looks like a pencil again."

Chosen chuckled quietly. "I wonder if any of them know they're all in the same group chat. Or whatever-it-is that's keeping them all up, really."

"Probably not. Humans tend to be either really stingy with their information or way too willing to share it," remarked Dark.

"You have a point," Chosen admitted.

The conversation petered back out for a moment, then Dark cleared their throat. When Chosen looked, Dark had averted their eyes and seemed almost…nervous? "So, uh…you mentioned 'appreciating the gesture' earlier, and you said you were perfectly fine with revenge on Noogai, but then when we fought…um."

"You're wondering why I teamed up with the man after everything he did," said Chosen. It wasn't a question.

"…yeah, that."

Chosen sighed. "Initially, I intended to just destroy the whole machine with the virus inside. Stop it before it could spread, but not exactly in the most delicate way I could. It was Noogai's PC, after all."

"But you didn't," Dark pointed out.

"But I didn't." Chosen sighed again and looked up at a point in the distance, vaguely in the direction of the Ohio-based IP addresses that helped make up the sky, where the tip of the 'pencil' happened to be. "It took me some time to get from the internet cable into the desktop itself, and when I got there…well, you saw those colorful sticks that stepped between us."

Dark blinked in surprise. "Wait, they came from Noogai's computer?"

Chosen nodded. "All five of them. Or at least, that's where the five of them had made their home. The four with solid heads, their code seemed to be a bit different from yours or mine, but that didn't stop them or the Second Coming from trying to fight off the Virabot. I even saw Noogai tapping frantically at the screen with a stylus, as though trying to drag the Virabot away from the trapped sticks."

Dark gawked at them. "This is Noogai we're talking about, right? The Animator who acts like he's above all of us just because he's out there and we're in here?"

"The very same."

"Huh," Dark said. Then, "If you think I'm just gonna 'forgive' him just because he's being more subtle or something-"

"Then I'd be a damn hypocrite," said Chosen.

That got Dark's attention.

Chosen sighed once more, struggling to put their thoughts into words. "Those younger sticks, they seemed so protective of him, as if they've never known what it's like to be chained and imprisoned and forced to dance along to someone else's whims, but I do. I was. He may have 'turned over a new leaf,' but I don't think I'll ever find it in myself to forgive him. At the same time…I've already gotten my revenge, and he hasn't earned any more from the sticks now in his care. If they've found him to be a suitable guardian…I won't act directly on my grudges unless I'm given a reason to."

"…huh," said Dark again. Then they elbowed Chosen. "And you don't want to get your ass handed to you by a kindergartener."

Chosen couldn't stop the surprised laugh that burst out of them. "Well, yes, that too, I suppose."

The two of them chuckled together, and for the moment, everything was okay. Maybe in a bit, Dark would decide to go their own way. Maybe they wouldn't.

But in that moment, as the night owls' IP addresses twinkled like stars in the sky, it was just the two of them.

[aannonn]

I feel like looking a lil' more deep into this An Actual Short so lets goヾ(•ω•`)o

Honestly- I like to think that this is like. A metaphor in a way. A metaphor- A representation of the complicated times that they face with worrying frequency, but that they still manage to get through it and have fun and be the silly teens they are like they always did. As if nothing can ever fully beat them to the ground and keep them there.

They will always get up, no matter how terribly desperately the entire universe wants them to stay down.

They've been through so much, and yet, they still manage to be so.. positive and stand their ground to the point where they can play a little song even in the middle of the sea, in the middle of a storm.

They keep being positive. Even after everything.

In my view... ;

The storm represents the pain and difficulties they all faced, being so strong and disorienting that it almost managed to shake them; To actually disorient them and their friendship. (Animation vs. Minecraft (first ever episode) , Lush Caves , Purple's double betrayal , AvA5 , King Orange , etc . . .)

The ship represents that, even after the many problems and difficulties they have gone through, and will continue to go through even so, they still manage to rise and hold on to a small thread of hope; The ship represents the thread of hope that they have been holding on to and have no intention of letting go, not now or ever.

And finally… The song.

The song represents their optimism, their confidence and most importantly.. Their bond.

The fact that they all took a little time for themselves, even in the middle of the ocean in the middle of a terribly strong storm, just to sing a little song together, really show how strong their bond actually is, and how hopeful and optimistic they all are.

Nothing can shake them for long, nothing can disorient them for long; As long as they have each other, as long as they hold on to this little ship, everything it's gonna be okay.

sigshwhs i love this actual short as you can tell loll /lh /pos this post is kinda messy because i just woke up from my nap a lil' while ago- so uh- sorry about that- (っ °Д °;)っ

[navy-leader]

Mildly losing my mind so im gonna talk about my AvA AU, Heaven's Underpass

Its essentially just a demon/angel au with some minor worldbuilding and slight altering of the already existing narrative (and lots of shipping...). It is by far Not comprehensive and merely done for fun so inconsistencies abound, sacrificed for self-indulgence

I made this AU before AvA6 came out and structured the initial timeline with what we had at the time so it branches off into different alternates ever since then

Anyways the story for the most part follows the actual AvA series with the added addition of them being some sort of divine or infernal entity. Chose started off as and angel but once Chosen was captured and enslaved by noogai he burnt off his wings and became a demon. Then AvA3 rolls around, another angel was created and tasked to take down Chosen, Dark. Though after Dark was defeated and accepted Chosen's hand in partnership her divinity slowly drained out of her as she becomes a fallen angel/demon, though she doesnt fully become one until AvA5.

Then comes The Second Coming, a deity that rivaled the power of the animator but was raised amongst mortals (The Color Gang) so they never found out of their divine nature until much later. Also Green was a guardian angel watching over RBY until he got his wings stolen by a demon and became mortal like them, aint all that bad though cause now they can actually get to know eachother! He still has that protective and caring nature from his time as a guardian and extends it towards Second when they came into the picture.

Purple intermission! Cause theyre the only other character outside of the AvA series that i put much thought into. Shes a demon who had stolen an angel's wings (wink) to reach some form of divinity. I havent really thought of her background all that much but i did entertain the idea that her parents are demons but them being a mix of angel and demon but leaning more into demon sounds more interesting and i feel adds a bit more to their character. I also had the thought that King was a mortal who had made a deal with the devil to achieve his goals, that demon being Purple. He has a lot of moral dilemmas just like canon Purple but made worse because of the everything 👍

Moving on, AvA5 happens and Second awakens their divine powers (though temporarily) and Dark gets blasted into the stratosphere and becomes a proper demon, but shes not dead! Somewhere down the line she met Purple in her weakened state and they bond over their moral dilemmas like good trauma bonding buddies should do, and Purple takes care of her as she recovers

Meanwhile something appears on the desktop as the color gang head home from the events of AvA5 and find,,, a demon hollowhead? They seem confused and absolutely terrified of the mouse cursor that belongs to the animator and attempts to attack it but was soon held down by the color gang and calmed down. After a brief introduction they find out this demon's name is victim. And then this essentially follows the AU i had for if victim came back, made before AvA6 came out. I discussed it in this post here.

Anyways Second and vic and Chosen get crazy gay with eachother in the end and Purple pulls up to the desktop with Dark in tow like "hi guys meet my girlfriend!" and Dark and Chosen look at eachother like "Shit. Thats my ex." but in the end they talk it out and agreed they should see other people and yayy happy times

And then AvA6 came out and uhh crushed everyone's headcanons and i couldnt be happier!!! And then i havent really figured out what to do with the AU timeline wise and im just having fun slapping wings and horns onto these sticks and bringing out the themes inside the story to be more visual and etc etc

Anyways goodnight

[oppipopi]

Tragedy in AvA 5

I've been in fd sticks for almost 2 years now and how tired I am of seeing a Lord in the role of a villainous villain from time to time for the reason "Well, his name is the Dark Lord, so he's evil and does evil things" You don't think that I'm trying to justify him somehow, no. He's an asshole and it's true. But I just want to say that perhaps the personality of Lord is much deeper and more complex than it may seem at first glance.

In short, post-reflections on the personality of Lord, his conflict with Chosen, as well as their relationship. I don't pretend to any canonicity, it's just my thoughts. Let's go!

To begin with, the stick names have no effect on the personality and character of the characters. This is proved by Vic, who in the first minute of his life swore at the creator and almost "defeated" Alan, as well as Chose, who from the first second of his appearance decided to choose the path of ultra violence and blow everything to hell. I think no one will argue that these are slightly different associations that come to mind when we hear the words Victim and Chosen One. Thus, we conclude that the name of the stick affects only the abilities of the bearer, but not the personality.

let's move on

I often see such an interpretation of the personality of Lord, where he is arrogant, aggressive and does not disdain to assert himself by bullying those who are weaker. (I'll make a reservation right away. This interpretation takes place and I do not forbid anyone to think so, but now about something else)

I don't think Lord has the desire to assert himself at the expense of the weak. He does not have the same bitterness towards the world and unremitted rage that Chosen has (four years in prison is no joke to you, and he was kind of mad from the very beginning, so yes …), which he releases at large. I think Lord has more fear of being rejected and abandoned again (as he was abandoned by Alan during the battle with Chosen), so he arranges the whole debauch more out of the thought that "This is what Chosen likes. This is what unites us"

Have you ever thought about what a really big influence Chosen could have on the Lord, and that most likely Lord in AvA5 is what he is to a greater extent because he got involved with the "bad company" in the person of Chosen?

Just to remind you that they were friends for seven years. SEVEN YEARS, DO YOU UNDERSTAND!!!?? And for at least five years, Chosen was satisfied with his way of thinking in the spirit of "arrange destruction, order sucks" and "there are bastards everywhere, cattle all around, give them heat, arrange a pogrom!"

I'm leading all this to the fact that it was Chosen who dragged Lord into all this. He showed him this world and how to behave in it. He held out his hand to him and offered to destroy Alan's computer to smithereens!

It's hard not to be grateful when someone who is capable of killing you, and was going to do it, suddenly decides to save your life and even offer cooperation. I don't know if Lord agreed out of fear, or for some other reason, but I think at this moment Lord mentally exalted Chosen over himself, put him in priority I mean, Lord is the only character who has been assigned a mission (and not just any, but the destruction of Chosen! I think this also played a role in his attitude to destruction and murder). What is it like to be born and immediately receive an order from above? Do not have your own opinion about the situation, but still faithfully execute orders… Despite the fact that eventually Lord stopped following the decree, I think he is still subconsciously waiting for orders. Only now from Chosen. And when he gets it (it doesn't matter if Chose says it directly, or if Lord himself thinks out what he might like), he does it. I am leading to the fact that Lord has completely lost his moral compass. He has no understanding of what is good and what is bad. On top of everything else, He is also follower! He has his own opinion, but no one has taught him how to use it. He only chooses a leader for himself and takes his words and views at face value. Of course, over time, from an authoritative figure, Chosen becomes a best friend in the eyes of Lord. But he still puts him above himself. He puts Chosen's ideals above his own. (although, I don't think that Lord had any ideals before meeting Chosen)

But Chosen's ideals have changed over time, and he forgot to tell Lord about it… Or is it a little different here?

As I wrote above, Chosen himself changed the personality of Lord, and therefore, we can say that Lord in AvA5 is in many ways similar in character, and even in habits to Chosen from AvA3.

By the way, have you ever noticed how much the Chosen from AvA2-3 and the Chosen from AvA5 actually differ in vibe? In AvA5, Chosen seems to me much more restrained, collected, quiet and thoughtful. And also immensely tired. We know that Chosen has rethought his views, but what prompted him to do it? Previously, he did not care about the screams of others, their fear. What has changed? I think that through destruction, intimidation, violence, Chosen released his endless anger and hatred, which seems to have been with him from the very beginning (maybe all the empty-heads created by Alan have their own conditional collective mind? And that's why Chosen got Vic's experience on some mental level? He doesn't know the situation, he doesn't have Vic's memories. Only a feeling of fear, rage and a desire to escape.) But at some point it just stopped producing results. One day he just froze in the middle of the burning streets and realized that he felt absolutely nothing but emptiness devouring from within. Then Chosen probably wondered for the first time, is this really what he wants? He wanted to be free, but is it freedom? Then Chosen begins to change and withdraw more and more into himself, trying to figure out what he wants. And he understands. He understands that he no longer wants to live like this, that he no longer wants to have anything to do with the person he was before, understands that he wants to be better. He wants to contemplate and create, not destroy. That this is the only way to become truly free.

Chosen becomes disgusted with the person he was in 2011. He hates him. He's disappointed in him.

And he sees this man in Lord too clearly.

The same habits. The same facial expressions. The same mindset.

Lord reminded him too much of the one he hated so much, the one he wanted to forget forever. Renounce. Expunge from life.

Maybe that's why he put off this conversation for so long? Maybe that's why he got so angry when Lord (usually docile) did not listen to him and went against him?

Speaking of Lord. Let's look at the situation from his side. You and your best and only friend have been keeping the entire Internet at bay for several years in a row, living soul to soul and just having fun. But at some point your friend suddenly changes. He no longer laughs with you, does not rejoice at the new trashed site. Does not look in your direction. Your friend no longer likes everything that once united you. All that he himself showed you. It's unclear. It's scary. And you're trying to fix it. To take revenge on the common offender. Increase the scale of destruction (maybe then Chosen will have fun again? Maybe he just needs more entertainment??) But he tell you no again. Without explaining anything. You're angry. Get angry because you don't understand. Get angry because you're scared. And you keep doing the only thing you know best, in the hope that it will fix something…

The main tragedy in AvA 5, as for me, is that Chosen created an enemy for himself. He had won Lord over to his side. Chosen himself raised the Dark Lord as we see him in AvA5 And then he changed. But he couldn't change Lord again, because he couldn't cope with his own hatred.

It's really very sad.

And, by the way, I'm not trying to put all the blame on Chosen. He has come a difficult way. He made himself and it's really cool. In AvA 5, he is in fact only at the beginning of his path of becoming the person he would like to be. So it's not surprising that things didn't go so smoothly. I believe that eventually Chosen will be able to accept his mistakes and take responsibility for them. Then his life will really begin to change for the better

[inksandpensblog]

I caved, I watched the teaser, here are my thoughts on it

Disclaimer: I will not be making predictions about the plot synopsis or character arcs of the upcoming episode in this post.

I want to keep a fresh mind for the episode, so that upon first viewing I can make my own observations without anyone else's influencing mine. If I get the notion to look for specific things that other people have noticed already, I might miss other things that maybe nobody has noticed yet.

I'll be perfectly happy and eager to compare notes with all of you after I've seen the full episode, but I'm doing my best to go into that first viewing with zero expectations about what direction the story might take. To that end, I'm not going to be making guesses about character motivations or plot points or anything along those lines.

With that said, I would like to point out some things about the teaser that I think are neat, the first being:

That is Victim. That is definitely Victim, without a doubt.

For comparison, have the opening seconds of AvA1 and AvA2, respectively:

Hmm, that figure on the left looks familiar.

The first half of this teaser intercuts AvA5 footage with, not the creation of The Chosen One, as one might expect given his presence in the rest of this teaser, but the creation of Victim, the very first character in the series (not counting the animator himself), whom we haven't seen since his debut episode.

...okay, I relent, I'll make one prediction: do I think this means we can expect Victim to come back, in this upcoming episode?

...no. Well, at least not in the way you might be thinking.

I don't believe Victim's character will return, and I have a few reasons for this:

As mentioned above, the Victim footage is all contained in the first half of this teaser, and it's intercut with previously-seen AvA5 footage. Once the new footage for the upcoming episode starts playing in the latter half of the teaser, there's no more Victim footage.

This also means that all the Victim footage in this teaser is old Victim footage. Victim's appearances in this teaser aren't new, in any capacity.

Moreover, it's all footage from the beginning of AvA1, before the animator had even named Victim. Before Victim moved on his own for the first time.

The editing of these clips makes no effort to connect Victim to what will be happening in the future, only to what has already happened. For this reason, I do not believe that Victim will have any agency in this upcoming short.

That doesn't mean he won't be there in some capacity, though. That doesn't mean his prior existence won't play a role in this short.

Notice I said "his existence," not him.

I don't think Victim will be making a reappearance in this narrative as a character with the agency to influence it. But. The fact that Alan is reminding his audience that Victim existed at one point has gotta mean something.

...okay, prediction over, back to neat observations!

Since I'm not making any speculations about the plot, the only comment I have on the footage of Chosen in a cityscape is that it is really starkly rendered, wow. They crammed a lot of detail into those buildings and that street. Look at the BRICKS.

It's a feast for the eyes, certainly, but...visually, it's an unusually busy setting for an action scene; there's so much visual information for the eye to take in that I worry I'll be distracted from the actual fight taking place.

We see Orange draw...a line XD and I'm not sure what we're supposed to get from that other than "this episode will feature Orange drawing again." Though I will note that he does this in close proximity to the cursor, which makes no move to stop him, so it seems that Orange and Alan are still getting along fine and still working together on projects.

We see Chosen being Chosen, making himself as unapproachable as possible by surrounding himself in a blazing arc of fire-breath and hovering over the water where no one can reach him unless they fly or take a boat. Yes the commentary in this paragraph is rather pointed, compared to the rest of the post.

I will say, though, that I cannot wait to hear whatever sound effects they've used for that scene. Chosen's fire-breath didn't actually sound like breath until The Chosen One's Return, and he hasn't used it since, so I'm really looking (listening?) forward to how it will sound in this upcoming scene ^_^

No comment on Orange apparently being in the outernet/interspace again...

...though I will say that Spyglasses' zoom feature looks a lot like the zoom feature in many computer programs XD

Speaking of, we've got new characters! Let's start with this guy, whom I've taken to calling Spyglasses, because frankly he's the least puzzling of the two:

Hello sir, please leave our orange boi alone.

Now, when I saw this guy, my first thought was to pull up The Flashback and take a closer look at the stillframe of Chosen and Dark terrorizing Stickpage. I'm sure many of you had this thought as well. Sure enough, our memories were not deceiving us, and it appears that some Spyglasses lookalikes did, at one point, dwell on Stickpage.

Awsome, mystery solved, right? Well, not quite.

There are, indeed, a grand total of four sticks in the Stickpage portion of Flashback who bear resemblance to our new friend Spyglasses, here. But if you take a closer look, you'll see that the resemblance isn't exact. Compare him, for instance, to these two Henry-Stickmin-looking guys near the bottom:

I think you'll agree that it's not the closest match. Spyglasses doesn't have visible eyes, and his hands look like the usual nubs instead of having distinct fingers. Plus, Spyglasses seems to have been drawn with a heavier lineweight than these two.

Well, I said he had four lookalikes on Stickpage, so what about the other two?

Aha, you might be thinking, here we have matches. Well, I say look again. Notice anything different?

That's right. The heads of these two were drawn freehand. You can see the slight imperfections in the circles; they're slightly wider than they are long, and there's a bit near the top of each where it's obvious the circle was closed.

By contrast, Spyglasses' head is a perfect circle. His head shape is too mathematically precise to have been handdrawn.

Gonna dip back into speculation territory just so I can talk about what I think this means: I don't think that Spyglasses is any of these four sticks that are shown on Stickpage in The Flashback. However, since Stickpage is the only other place in the entire series so far where we've seen black sticks with white-filled heads, I'm willing to bet that Spyglasses does come from Stickpage. Whether he still lives there now is another question that I won't be getting into, but I think it's fair to say that he lived there before The Flashback, at least.

And, if he comes from Stickpage, that almost certainly means he's a user-created stickfigure.

(My impulse is to say "score 1 for my theory about the rocket org. being founded by Stickpage sticks," but this teaser doesn't actually give us any confirmation that Spyglasses is connected to the rocket org. at all.)

And finally, we come to this guy:

Flowerbarrel has already pointed out that in terms of stylization, this guy bears more in common with the AIM icon than he does with any other stickfigures we've seen.

Not even anybody in the Stickpage Flashback screencap looks like him. No one else whom we've seen has that different-color outline, those proportions, those squared-off hands (and presumably feet), that…flat look…he looks like if you rotated him 90 degrees he'd just be a line XD like no dimension unless he's viewed directly from the front or back. He looks…almost artificial in a weird way. Granted, this is a digital space, so technically everything in it is "artificial," but still.

Honestly I consider this guy to be the biggest mystery in this teaser, from a worldbuilding standpoint. He looks like a desktop icon, but he's obviously not on a desktop in the short clip we get of him in action. He's in the outernet or interspace or whatever you want to call it; the place where stick-cities are, the place where Showdown happened.

Is he from a user-dominated, animation-populated website like Stickpage?

Is he from a stick-city that's populated by a different type of stick than what we've seen so far with Mango and Purple? So far, every glimpse we've gotten into a stick-city not including Orange's fundraiser dreams, from AvM30 to the Cherry Blossoms short two weeks ago, has shown them to be populated by sticks resembling Mango and Purple and their families: a single color, with small, filled heads, and toeless feet. We don't know yet if Orchid was buried in the same city that Mango lives near, or if they're in completely different cities, but either way we've only been shown one variety of stickfigure living in cities like this.

Maybe he's like RYGB, in the sense that, while he himself is animated, he didn't come from an animation? (Like… Slush Invaders and Henry Stickmin are both games where the player controls animated stickfigures, but…the animation in Henry Stickmin is mostly just the cutscenes, while in Slush Invaders animation gets used in the actual gameplay too. Or, like…animations on loading screens for programs, or something.)

I have no ideas about this guy, really.

And that about wraps up my thoughts on this teaser! Anyone who wants to offer their own input is free to do so, but if you want me to read it I must respectfully ask that you please refrain from offering theories on why the characters in the teaser are shown doing what they're doing, or what their motivations are, or anything like that.

Thanks folks ^_^

[bodylanda]

Wanted to draw this but ended up tired today so ill just write it down and pray i dont forget it tmrw lol:

Sticks vs ffxiv

Keep in mind some charas may have multiple jobs!

TSC: I think they’d be a Warrior ! Its a bit of the poster job of xiv, and they have their giant hammer. Theres no hammer looking weapon in xiv but the warrior axe is close enough. (Plus inner release + equilibrium and all that). An omnicrafter who just likes to make stuff for their friends. Tl;dr: Warrior!

Red: Paladin! I really debated summoner for them, but I think seeing them in AvM 25 with a sword and shield convinced me. Plus their tendency to rush ahead + how tanking is about love (and a side of that “dont look at these other hoes look at me” post) just made me think this actually really fit them. They can still be summoner, but I think they’d also just be a minion collector haha. Tl;dr: Paladin and Summoner!

Yellow: I think they’ve started off as a Black Mage (cool explosive magic!! Planning out your positions!! Knowing the technicalities of the content!! Yay!) but eventually migrated to Scholar or Sage to be a better playmaker. Scholar definitely fits their personality and aesthetic > Astrologian (even tho that’d be cool). I kind of see Yellow as a more supportive playmaker, making opportunities for everyone else to do more y’know. Tl;dr: Scholar, Black Mage and Sage!

Blue: Machinist! I do think they started out as an archer but just ended up enjoying machinist more. I think they got to bard, saw all the crafting stuff and immediately focused on that. By the time they all had to do combat, they just picked the least complicated ranged DPS. I think they’d also be the other healer, I think white mage, closest thing to a druid in this game lol. They spend most of their time in the island sanctuary tho. Knows the second most about how free companies work compared to yellow. Tl;dr: Machinist, White Mage!

Green: Dancer! I think they started out as conjurer, basically swapped with blue and started playing bard until they could be a dancer. I debated red mage as their main job here, but i think dancer fits both the musicality that green would enjoy with the mobility that they display (iirc they use the fishing rod for mobility the most, even in combat). They do have bard tho, theyre a Limsa afk musician 😔 Tl;dr: Dancer, Red Mage and Bard!

In case it wasnt obvious i made everyone have a little to do with the 5 warriors of light in ARR (warrior, paladin, white mage, bard, black mage) ^^; but some of them dont rlly fit it.

Purple: Hello it is now later, and I think they’d be a Dragoon! The jumps kind of simulate what its like to be flying, no? I think they’d enjoy the story a lot and pays attention to the job quests. Probably has the most jobs unlocked just so they can listen in. Their favourite stories is probably Reaper and Ninja but they really only play Reaper and Dragoon. Tl;dr: Dragoon and Reaper!

King: probably didn’t initially want to play but ends up tagging along because purple wants to play. King isn’t very good at fighting a lot of the times it seems, especially at close range, so I don’t think they’d be a tank… I think they might be the actual Black Mage of this group lol. Though I can see them also picking up Astrologian so they can run around healing (read: queue popping) for Purple.

TCO: Samurai for sure lol. It lacks a lot of the like, actual powers or abilities TCO has, but all of their like. Coolness factor I think. Its also the stormblood poster job so I think it fits ahaha.

TDL: Monk! If almost purely bcs its the second poster job of stormblood. There’s also them beating TCO in a straight up brawl in AVA5 even if they were enhanced by some thing.

Victim: omnicrafter lol. Just like tsc/tsc is just like them

[celestiachan]

Hey wouldn't it be fucked up if post-AVA5 Chosen thought that Dark was dead so he started dating Freedom but then Dark was alive and when he finally regained consciousness the first thing he did was look for Chosen and he found him making out with Freedom

I think that would be a little fucked up

[lara-prisma-avm-ask-blog]

Can you do something about Yellow having a nightmare (maybe Blue dying from AvA5) and going to Blue for comfort :3 (doesn’t have to be a full comic! Don’t strain yourself!)

There's a whole fic just about it! there's not much mention of the nightmare, and it's just the two of them Cuddling :3

https://lara-prisma-avm-ask-blog.tumblr.com/post/691898915104112641/why-yellow-x-blue-fanfic

[launch-3-telecom]

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[inksandpensblog]

I'm gonna make it it's own post so I don't keep scrambling Tulip's notifications. This analysis is inspired by Tulip's speculation here.

How might the series portray Chosen, if they put him in an antagonistic role the next time he appears in-series? Here are my thoughts:

I've always been firm in my deduction that Chosen doesn't want to hurt other stickfigures, or to see other stickfigures be hurt by Dark.

He has no qualms about frikin murdering AIM and doing who-knows-what to all the other icons.

But then he spares Dark for seemingly no reason.

While the two of them are rampaging, Chosen has no qualms about causing destruction on user-dominated sites, or about enacting violence against the possibly-sentient NPCs and PCs in videogames.

It's only when their rampage takes them to Stickpage, and other stickfigures come under their fire, that he begins to falter.

(And then he keeps faltering on Newgrounds, which isn't full of stickfigures, so I took that to mean he just sees web-animations differently from, like, animated videodame sprites for some reason.)

And my biggest piece of evidence for this has always been: judging by ...

the map hanging on his wall

the fact that he launched the first virabot at the IP-sky

the fact that he sent his virabot swarm directly into web-portals open to user-dominated sites

the fact that never, not once, did we see Dark directing any of the virabots towards stick-cities

Dark had never planned on targeting stickfigures with the virabots.

And yet, when Chosen freaks out about it, he only imagines Dark targeting stickfigures with the virabots.

Now, the implications of this communication failure between Chosen and Dark are a whole 'nother essay in and of themselves, but all it means for now is that Chosen doesn't like it when stickfigures are hurt, and he doesn't want to be the one hurting them.

Chosen's one exception to this code-of-conduct, so far, seems to be Dark himself, from the present-day scene in The Flashback and onwards into The Showdown (and, if Dark survived The Second Coming's attack, presumably onwards into the next AvA main series episode). Because, in Chosen's eyes, Dark became a danger to stickfigures.

Chosen caused a lot of collateral damage on alanspc, in his attempts to exterminate the virus. It's possible that this was because the computer belonged to his former abuser, so he felt no need to make any efforts to preserve anything. But it's also possible that Chosen was simply of the mind that what gets destroyed doesn't matter, as long as the source of danger to other stickfigures is eliminated. (The episode's animation barely gives any attention to the color gang, during Chosen's battle, but you'll notice that until the virabot cobbles together an Adobe Animate mec for itself, Chosen did a pretty good job of keeping the virabot on the left side of the desktop, away from where the color gang were stuck. And then once the mec collapses, he keeps it up above them, within the top half of the desktop, once again far away from the color gang, who are unstuck by that point and could theoretically run across the taskbar.)

Dark's status as (in Chosen's mind) a danger to other stickfigures might've just overtaken his status as a stickfigure himself, as well as his status as Chosen's companion.

I'm not saying that Chosen was wrong for this. But I am saying that this proves his morals aren't as cut-and-dry as "don't hurt stickfigures" and "don't let stickfigures get hurt." Because, as AvA5 proves, it's possible for those two rules to conflict with each other.

And now, we come to the rocket org. We don't have an actual name for the enigmatic entities (or possibly singular entity) behind that mysterious rocket logo on the television set and the wanted poster, yet. So I'll be calling them "rocket org." for now.

Due to both of its appearances so far having been within a stick-city, I think it's fair to guess that rocket org. was started by, and is run by, stickfigures.

My theory about web-space exploration notwithstanding, as of now we don't know why rocket org. has connections to the user-dominated site YouTube, or why they are offering rewards for reported sightings of Chosen.

The simplest theory is that rocket org. wants to hunt Chosen down, either to kill him or detain him.

Again, there could be any number of reasons why rocket org. wants to do this. It could be because Chosen hails from beyond the IP-sky barrier. It could be because they saw The Showdown on YouTube; and with Dark seemingly dead, and Orange having returned to the computer, Chosen is a loose end for them to do something about. It could be because rocket org. has stickfigures from Stickpage among its ranks, and they either want revenge or want to contain someone they see as a threat.

But why rocket org. wants Chosen isn't the point of this essay. The point is...how might Chosen respond, to being hunted down by stickfigures, potentially under threat of capture or death?

Chosen doesn't want to hurt stickfigures. But I highly doubt he would concede to being imprisoned once more, no matter who is doing the imprisoning. And something tells me that Chosen wouldn't see himself as a danger to other stickfigures.

And he's already proven that he will make exceptions to his rules.

And it's already been hinted that collateral damage is irrelevant to him, as long as the danger opposing him is handled.

Fear of captivity is not an evil motive. Freedom is not an evil goal.

But what might Chosen be willing to do, to stay out of enemy hands?

I think that, as a character, Chosen has the potential to be a very compelling take on a sympathetic antagonist. And not because of his backstory, but because of how his own choices have shaped him.

[launch-3-telecom]

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Launch 3 Telecom does buying, selling, and repairing of all telecom equipment in the industry. We are also constantly keeping a pulse on the industry to provide a well-rounded experience. Launch 3 Telecom has a knowledgeable sales team that provides easy transactions for all customers telecom needs.

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[launch-3-telecom]

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[launch-3-telecom]

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