What We Started

GUYS THE GREENZILLA ACCS ACTIVE AGAIN ?????

Oh, ohhh my poor vv...

Something I noticed in Showdown

There's one tiny scene in Showdown that always facinates me. After RGBY were all killed in front of TSC's eyes, his reaction was very interesting.

He did not charge at TDL blindly in grief and rage, he did not break down crying for his friends, he did not dwell on his friends' deaths at all. Instead, he turned to TCO immediately.

When he saw Chosen was surrounded by the swarm of Virabots, he still reached out a hand towards Chosen, then promptly got pierced in the back by Dark's virablades.

For me, this tiny detail made Second different from those typical fearless, hotheaded anime protagonists. This scene alone made Second a fleshed out, realistic character more than anything else in the entire season.

Yes, of course he grieved for his friends' death, but at that very moment, the fear for his own life surpassed everything else. He saw that powerful monster brutally murdered all his friends, and he knew he's going to be next. So he reached out to the only person he knew that could save him, and made a desperate plea:

"Please, help me. I don't wanna die."

Second was many things. He was a talented animator, an insatiable learner, a brave leader, a seasoned warrior. But at that very moment, on the brink of real, permanent death, he was just a scared child calling someone, anyone, for help.

And that made his conscious decision to protect Chosen all the more powerful, because it shows how brave Second really is. He knew his chance against Dark was minimal, he was scared, terrified even, but he still chose to put himself between Chosen and Dark, just because it was the right thing to do.

And that is true bravery. Bravery doesn't mean the absence of fear, it means feeling the fear, but choose to do it anyway.

navy purple and orchid headcanon time...

i genuinely do not think navy left because purple wasnt "good enough" or because of purple at all; that was just a symptom in what was moreso orchid and navy's growing hatred of each other.

because like canonically, purple was drawn as navy and orchid's child (alan clarified this after people began asking about whether sex was canon post avm29.)

and i like to think that

1. they were all created and uploaded at the same time with the specific purpose of being a family

2. purple and their parents were representative of the animator and their parents; the flash they uploaded to newgrounds was a sort of way to "vent" and figure out their trauma before they properly processed it as trauma.

so orchid and navy were drawn specifically to be a loving couple towards each other, but also designed to have these conflicting traits (navy being stubborn and abusive, and orchid avoiding stepping in until things get dire to avoid confrontation).

(other funny thing is that purple was drawn as a girl because the animator was repressed transfem, but still built to be a "boy" because that's what the animator felt they had to be. hence tmasc purple. anyways anyways.)

both orchid and navy care about purple, but (and especially for navy) it's something that was hard wired into them rather than an active choice they made.

orchid is supposed to:

1. love her husband ("femininely")

2. love her child ("femininely")

which turns into:

1. agree/defer to/side with her husband

2. take care of/protect her child

navy is supposed to:

1. love his wife ("masculinely")

2. love his child ("masculinely")

which turns into:

1. command/guide his wife

2. mentor his child to fit them into the right role for society

(this is all from an indian societal perspective btw. their animators indian therefore theyre indian because i say so)

these begin to conflict because orchid needs to protect her child (which she enjoys and wants to do) but also needs to follow navy's lead (which she is less keen to she'd rather they compromise), and navy's lead is to Abuse purple, because he wants to turn purple into the model fighting stick to make himself feel good and fulfilled (fulfilling the purpose he was drawn for) and he has decided to take the easy route to train purple instead of putting any effort or compassion into it. this is a failing on his part, not as result of his code.

now orchid wants to protect purple, but she also can't bring herself to disagree with navy, so it ends up with her glancing away during most of their training so she can avoid the horrible gut feeling she gets whenever she stands up to navy, but she still steps in when purple is in danger of possible permanent injury. it's like she's bargaining with her own brain to satisfy both its "success" criterias.

navy does not like it when orchid fights back because of his own success criteria. they also learn, in the four years between them being animated and navy leaving, that they're really not compatible in any meaningful way because they're both very headstrong and stubborn, and have VERY different opinions on how things should be done even, if they're going for a common goal.

just to clarify; this does not in any way put orchid on the same level as navy. navy was still beating up his child ("sparring him" bitch thats a child!!) in order to try and make himself feel like a good dad. he refuses to compromise with orchid at all because of his own ego, even when she's willing to give up some of her own ideals if he accepts hers in turn. that's like... the basic building blocks of a relationship.

while they both did not do great raising purple, with some neglect (especially towards the end) orchid definitely got the short end of the stick. it's so important to me that orchid tried, but it's equally important to me that she failed sometimes.

even if gender roles in stick society end up being "abolished" or warped very quickly due to lack of contact with humans, it doesnt change the fact that the animator built orchid in with that "female subservience" that people often want from women due to the animator's own subconscious beliefs about women.

i imagine post divorce is like. the weight lifting off orchid. and a separate weight settling onto navy. orchid no longer has to choose between her two life purposes and navy has to deal with the guilt of knowing he failed both. ironically enough, she's milder after navy leaves. she does not feel the need to constantly match his fire to have a chance at protecting purple and now she can raise purple the way (she thinks) it's meant to be. her beautiful daughter; they can be a family free from navy's abuse finally.

but purple won't stop talking about papa and asking when he's going to come back and asking "what would papa think?" "papa always said no to this" "papa said to do it this way" and it gets... grating. she doesn't get violent, god she'd never, but she does snap or make a few tired comments sometimes.

it's like that one jack stauber animation. she calls him an idiot once in passing because he's so attached to the idea of navy returning even after months.

purple figured out he wasn't cis at like 12 (just a few months before orchid died) and expressed as much to orchid. and orchid, who knew very well that purple still really loved navy, possibly more than orchid, took this to think that purple wanted to transition to be a man like navy (not the case) and so she got upset and told purple off saying they needed to let go of navy. probably the worst thing orchid did to purple.

so purple felt awful and stayed in the closet. when they buried orchid they cried a bit for the fact that (in his head) she would never approve of the man he would become. orchid, if she had lived, probably would've come around to the idea after understanding more about purple's feelings, but was particularly emotional towards the end. and then she died. purple will never get closure on this.

tldr; the secret to avam is that all sticks have generational trauma.

headcanon where King hallucinated walking home with Gold that night

handholding

You guys know that one game right

she can be happy for a moment but im taking that away

okay that was it 🤑

I can't even look at you

IM SCREAMING

more navy pixel art stuff

something something King and Purple freshing up King's house; scouring the last blemishes in a smooth, respective, natural flow in mutual and appreciative silence until everything stops when Purple is about to wipe down the chalk wall......................thewallthatheldthemostpainfulbutlastlingershehasofthem woah who said that

ALKSJLDGJLSKGSDG

HOW DID YOU GET THE NOTES FOR "DAY 3" OF "IN THE WEEK THAT FOLLOWS" /hj

something something indeed Anon

the episode of callbacks AAAUJJJ we were so fed

Scarlett's Short Thoughts About "App Staff"

Things I love about this episode SPECIFICALLY, besides just "the entire thing!" even though I wanna say that:

-Being thrown into the Recycling Bin is a minor inconvenience and not dangerous in the slightest, especially if you're on the top of the pile.

-Green loves accidentally invoking trauma-? Poor Second!! XD

First the poor prank with the Lava during Influencer Arc and poor traumatized Blue, now this!!

[Luckily despite being partially erased, Second seems more surprised than harmed (unlike a poor grey hollowhead we know-)]

-Google Maps staff is awesome. All the more reasons why the overpowered nature of the staff can't be used to locate Second and Yellow in the Ava timeline, for plot purposes of course. xD

-as soon as I saw Second messing with the calculator staff, I got all happy the orange blorbo is still as sharp with math as ever.

AND THEN HE POKED THE E, LIKE "Euler, you in there-?"

SECOND REMEMBERS HIS MATH FEVER DREAMS AND HE CLEARLY DIDN'T FORGET ANY OF IT

-Discord notifications do be like that.

Aggressive flying projectiles that attack you with bleeps.

✨️

-Among us! Owch, Red.

-Paypal!! XD NOO

Alan's poor bank account must suffer quite a lot with these regular stick figure shenanigans-

ALAN THIS WAS AMAZING