Alternative Character Interpretation in the Animator vs. Animation series.
Stick Gang
- That's a pretty big stack of dynamite Green was preparing to blow up in "PvP". Did the Second Coming lunge at him out of anger over his creation being destroyed, alarm that everyone's lives were in danger, or both?
- Ethan acts like a jerk in Animation vs. Pokemon, but the Second Coming did steal Totodile originally—he and Totodile clearly hit it off, but the fact remains that those were Professor Elm's Pokemon to give away. This is never acknowledged by the stick figures.Ethan: What makes you think you can just walk into our game? The world doesn't revolve around stick figures, last time I checked.
- Conversely, it's possible that Second Coming didn't immediately realize that the characters were sentient and animate in the game itself (considering he saw everyone just standing there after the Animator left), and therefore didn't think much of swiping one to bring to his world. Note that he does originally seem willing to give the Totodile back, moving to hand it to the cop, and only resists when the Totodile makes it clear that it doesn't want to leave him (which is something no-one else considers).Fun Fact When he later entered the game, the Totodile rejoined him willingly, every other Pokemon was caught in the wild, and he beat every gym fair and square. Apart from maybe the fact that he took the Totodile again (which is the first thing Ethan calls him out for when they meet at the Pokemon League), he didn't really do that much wrong in the context of the game. Ethan broke rules himself by catching Pokemon without Alan's input, even exiting the game itself to fight the Second Coming.
- In "Monster School", did Red go back to help his team despite their abuse just out of the goodness of his heart, or did he realize he probably wasn't getting to the portal without aid and so made one final attempt to win their trust out of pragmatism?
The Animator
- The Animator creates stick figures, and it's confirmed he does it to have a fight. Then you realize that he converts his second creation to a pop-up blocker at the end of II, until the opening of III. You could take this as him testing things to create a homemade pop-up blocker that works the whole time he's been duking it out with his creation. Furthermore, in Animator vs. Animation III, is the Animator a totalitarian desperately clinging to his reign of terror, or a Physical God desperately trying to keep his subjects from wiping themselves from existence?
- His shocked reaction at the end of vs. Pokémon notwithstanding, some theorize, between that and vs. Super Mario Bros, that the Animator actually wants the stick figures to play around with his games, since he'd have minimal reason to connect the consoles to his computer otherwise.
- In the Actual Short "The Floor is Lava", Red and Green accidentally destroy some of Alan's folders in the titular lava, and Alan clearly doesn't take this well. Has he still not learned to make backups of important stuff in the event of stick figure shenanigans, or were those folders backed up after all and he was just angry that Red and Green were that careless regardless?
Purple
- In "The End", did Purple cruelly betray Blue and Green, trading their precious lives for the Dragon Egg, or were Blue and Green overacting in a game where they could just respawn?
- It's also possible that they didn't want to gamble that the respawn mechanic would still work in Purple's world; it could have been Hardcore mode for all they knew, or at the very least they could have thought that they could only respawn if they died in a world with their original fighting window. With this in mind, either it was in Hardcore mode and Blue and Green's reaction was perfectly justified, or it wasn't and Purple just didn't think to fill them in before abandoning them (which is still a jerk move but not Moral Event Horizon levels).
- With The Reveal in Season 3 that Purple is The Dragon to another orange stick figure, was he really a Heel–Face Revolving Door or always evil and pretending friendship since the beginning? Also is he serving this new stick figure willingly or did the latter threaten him in some way?
- The Reveal also puts the events of vs. League of Legends into question. People have wondered why Purple left the Stick Gang's Crystal when it was one hit away from destruction, to go kill the Second Coming attacking his Crystal. The working theory thus far was that the worm creature he was riding did this of its own accord without Purple's control. However, knowing Purple's later betrayal brings up the possibility that he intentionally did that to throw the fight; so he could be sad about the loss and prompt the Stick Gang to extend a friendly hand to him, allowing him to manipulate them into the Parkour course later.
- These are both cleared up in "Note Block Universe": Purple met King Orange shortly before Season 3, he's serving him willingly for his own reasons, the Heel–Face Revolving Door was genuine and his actions in AvLoL were likely a Villain Ball or, as stated before, the monster going rogue.
- For all the details about Purple's backstory we get in "Note Block Universe", it still begs the question as to what he was hoping to accomplish with regards to Dark Blue. Was Purple just subconciously still trying to live up to Dark Blue's expectations of strength, or did Purple hope to actually find Dark Blue one day? If it's the latter, did Purple want to gain Dark Blue's approval by showing how strong he became, or did he want to take revenge on Dark Blue for abandoning him once he became strong enough to actually win that fight? This also calls into question what the actual dynamic between Purple and King Orange was; were the two working together because they shared a common goal of gaining power, just for different ends? (Note that Purple clearly expected King Orange to share, and it's implied with one of the map animations that King Orange actually promised this to gain Purple's cooperation.) Or did Purple see King Orange as a Parental Substitute and so yearned for King Orange's approval the same way he once yearned for Dark Blue's? It's implied that yes, he did try to find Dark Blue and make him proud, and that he saw King Orange as a Parental Substitute.
Other
- The stick figures: sentient beings tortured and enslaved, or simply some self-inflicted malicious code? note
- In Animator vs. Animation III, when the two sticks teamed up, was it because the Chosen One showed who the Dark Lord's real enemy is, or did he force him to work for him under the threat of death?
- Probably the former, since in "The Flashback" the two are shown having some sort of a friendship before the Chosen One's Heel Realization.
- Did King Orange abandon Purple because he'd done his job; or did he know enough that doing so will upset Purple, prompting him to run away to the Outernet, where he will be safe from King Orange's world-destroying plan? If the latter, too bad Purple ran to a different Minecraft dimension.
- At the beginning of "Monster School", Herobrine looks Red over before chucking him into the classroom. Did he not recognize Red from Animation vs. Minecraft and decided he was just a new monster, or did he actually recognize him and force him to go through the class as petty revenge? The latter would also explain why he ignored the obvious sabotage from the other monsters and just kept failing Red.
- When he was created, did the Chosen One become destructive out of his own free will or was he programmed to fight his creator as part Alan's desire for a greater challenge? In III, it's shown that stick figures can be programmed into doing certain orders and can grow beyond their code as was the case for the Dark Lord, whose mission was the destroy the Chosen One but later on allied with him instead. If the reason is the latter, TCO's origin story would have made a lot more sense why he was the way he was.
- When the Chef threw the Stick Gang out after discovering the charred doughnut, was it really because he was such a perfectionist that one bad doughnut failed them despite everything else being perfect, or was he more angry at the attempted deception? He seemed willing to complete the trade with only two out of three doughnuts visible; and the willingness to try to cover up, rather than own up to, a mistake in something being served to someone else is not a quality you want a chef to have. It's also possible he was upset at them not trying again on their own, since they could have gone through the Chain of Deals again to get more cooking oil, and took this as a sign that they weren't taking the cooking seriously enough and were too willing to cut corners.
- Is the Orb just a purely evil entity trying to cause chaos For the Evulz, or does it want to show the Stick Gang that Evil Is Not a Toy?
- It's confirmed via Word of God that the Dark Lord's black-and-red wristband has laser immunity - something very specific given how the Chosen One uses laser eyes when fighting opponents. Was the Dark Lord always planning on backstabbing the Chosen One, made the wristband because he knew he was too weak in his normal state, and just waited for a good excuse to attack? Or was he hoping that he could convince the Chosen One to continue their rampage, and made the wristband as a "just in case" their Villainous Friendship breaks? While his friendliness towards the Chosen One in "The Flashback" could imply the latter, the way he suddenly goes No-Nonsense Nemesis leans into the former.
