#also for the record not that he doesn't have. canon character development. i am however creating a version of him in my mind right now

[roseverdict]

How Can AvM Be Canon Within AvM? (Analysis/Headcanon)

Alright, so it's been, what, two, two and a half weeks since The King came out and downright imploded the fandom? There's so much going on during every second and every little detail counts. There've been revelations of Mango and Purple's narrative foiling, of what Mango's backstory means for the ages of the rest of the cast, and of what this means for the Beckerverse at large.

However, one odd little loose end continues to nag at a lot of us, it seems.

How is it possible for the original AvM video to exist within the continuity of the AvM "Shorts"?

I've seen a lot of speculation about whether in-universe Alan just has his screen recorder on all the time or not, and what this means for the apparent father figure to the very sticks in the video. Are the videos like vlogs in-universe? Do the sticks know they're being watched by millions of strangers?

I'd like to think I've figured it out. See, a post like this almost could have been made months ago, back when Green first saw Mango's explanation of the plan to Purple…except we didn't have one key factor then that we do now.

And that key factor…

…is Herobrine.

Lemme explain.

See, a lot of pieces of the puzzle fall into place once you work out Herobrine's whole deal. For context, in the original AvM video, he possesses Red and forces them to battle the rest of the Color Gang for seemingly no reason. When he next appears in Monster School, he's…

…a teacher?

Now, I'm not going to talk too much about the ins and outs of Monster School- that's not a canon I'm familiar with. What I am familiar with, though, is the previous Animation Vs. videos. Why on earth would a Minecraft cryptid who, by all appearances, should have a grudge against ROYGB…not have a grudge?

I mean, you've seen him in action.

If Red wasn't an unexpected-but-welcome visitor, we would have known. Instead, we got Herobrine making Red come to class. Almost like saying "Get in here- you might actually learn something."

And while he's pretty insistent that Red sticks around for class, as visibly Not A Mob as Red is, he's also a pretty chill teacher, all things considered.

At least, until his students are endangered.

Now, how does this characterization of Herobrine mesh with that from the original AvM, when the characterization for everybody else is so rock-solid that we're able to associate Minecraft proficiencies with stick figures who are visually indistinguishable save by color?

Simple: it doesn't.

Now, I'm not saying we've got two Herobrines running around, I'm saying that the Herobrine we meet in Monster School is, as it were, Beckerverse Herobrine's natural state.

The original AvM was an acting gig.

I'd even go so far as to suggest that almost all the "Animation Vs" videos that aren't AvM "Shorts" were planned out in-universe, and there's a simple way to tell which ones would have been planned and which ones weren't.

Does it happen on Alan's desktop (or an expansion of it)? It was most likely planned.

This goes for Vs. Youtube, Vs. Mario, Vs. Arcade Games, and Vs. Minecraft. An argument could even be made for AvM S1E1- The Rediscovery.

It does not go for Vs. League of Legends.

(Don't worry, I'll be coming back to Herobrine later. I'm not through with him yet.)

Now, Vs. League of Legends, while originally teased at the end of Vs. Minecraft, does not actually pick up from where Vs. Minecraft left off. It takes place sometime after season 1 of the AvM shorts, and it takes place within League itself.

It also features Purple.

I won't go into too much detail, but suffice it to say that the bit of character development we get here does seem to translate directly to the Parkour episode of AvM S3- in the previous AvM short with Purple in it, the rainbow squad leaves on less-than-friendly terms with Purple, what with Blue and Green being left to fall to their deaths and Purple being tossed in Minecraft jail, and all. In Vs. League, however, we get a good, old-fashioned stick fight between ROYGB and Purple, and it would be expected for the two sides to part as frustrated acquaintances at best…

…and then they go for another round, this time switching up who the 'villain' is and getting Purple to play with them.

Then, in Parkour, Purple uses this newfound trust to get them into the parkour trap. (And I could yell (hyperfixation) about Purple here, too, but I'm trying to focus purely on the meta right now so skdjskdjdk)

See, season 1 of AvM originally takes place on Alan's PC, but it does take a detour through the Nether and out through multiple different Minecraft worlds before the sticks finally get back.

Season 2, short as it is, takes place entirely on the desktop. (Or desktop-adjacent, in the case of the Lucky Blocks episode. Even in that trippy Lucky Block Dimension, the sticks can still influence the desktop directly.)

Season 3…well.

Season 3 takes us out of Alan's PC right from the get-go, and while there is a brief return or two before the end, it's still a direct continuation of what's been happening on the other side of the portal.

And what a happening it's been!

We've got the squad being split up multiple times, we've got a looming threat on the verge of deleting Minecraft, and we've even got a brief detour through somebody else's copy of the game.

But how does all this mesh together?

Well, like I said, if my theory is correct, the Animation Vs. videos (minus Vs. LoL) were all staged, at least to some degree. That means that, for all intents and purposes, Herobrine's original possession of Red was planned out beforehand and given the green light.

Maybe some of the other AvM videos were too, maybe they weren't. Unless we see them within the context of new AvM videos themselves, I don't think we'll ever know for sure.

But the videos that follow the sticks off the desktop are almost certainly videos that just don't exist in the Beckerverse. If in-universe Alan has a screen recorder trained on his desktop for funsies, he likely doesn't send his digicameras to follow the sticks around as they leave to do who-knows-what.

So what does this mean for the father figure to our favorite stick figures?

I propose that the Animation Vs. videos that could have been filmed using just Alan's screen recorder were, while videos that involve the sticks leaving to go who-knows-where weren't. The build battles, the first two music-related episodes, the first rollercoaster video, those were all done with at least the knowledge that what they were doing was being recorded. (I personally like to think in-universe Alan runs any "hey remember this? let's make it a video!" ideas past the sticks before uploading, but that's just me.)

Blue and Green leaving for the Nether the first time and ending up on Purple's Macbook, and everything that comes directly of it? That happens "off-camera" and probably isn't uploaded to in-universe Youtube.

The events of S3 as a whole, taking place almost entirely off of Alan's PC, wouldn't have been recorded, either.

Which brings us back to Herobrine. His first appearance, his acting gig, was definitely on Alan's desktop. In this context, it'd be like if you managed to successfully get Bigfoot to shoot a video with you- you shoot the video, you bid Bigfoot farewell, and you never expect to run into him again.

Except Red did.

When Herobrine sees Red in the halls, his first instinct is not to tell Red to get lost, the way it would be if he'd recognized Red and left ROYGB on bad terms. He squints at Red- and I would bet money that he does recognize them, because how many stick figures would a Minecraft Creepypasta brought to life even know?- and invites Red to class.

That's not something you do with somebody you dislike, especially when kids you care about, your students, are on the line and you've got the means to protect them.

Now, we know from Monster School and The King that Herobrine is perfectly capable of what we saw in the original AvM, but that he's also capable of so much more. The Doylist explanation is just that Alan and the crew came up with more abilities to show off after growing their skills for years on end.

The Watsonian explanation is that, well, in a scripted video, Herobrine didn't need to pull out all the stops. The original AvM was plenty entertaining as it was, and the sticks are durable enough to do things, like, say, brawl with each other in a website without end. If the first AvM was scripted, who's to say they were even really endangered?

(The AvA videos and the actually-short shorts…kinda hurt my brain to think about in this context. So I won't. At least, not yet.)

But they were definitely endangered in The King, and when Herobrine is in danger of getting pulled into the staff, nobody moves…

…except for Red.

Red was possessed in the seemingly-scripted original AvM video and, if they'd had a bad experience with being possessed for a video, they likely wouldn't have brought attention to themself right at this moment. If they hadn't, they might have beaten themself up over not doing so later, but their first thought in the moment wouldn't be to get closer.

But it was. They did.

And we all know what happened next.

We know that plot points from the original AvM are still true in-universe, scripted though the video may be.

Herobrine's abilities...

...the power of the Minecraft icon...

...that's all stuff that comes back later on.

Which brings us to the Mango man himself and the moment that's breaking all of our brains.

In-universe, if the only videos that exist are the ones that take place solely on or around one guy's desktop, who's to say stick figures in the interspace believe that anything that happens in them could be real? They don't go on that guy's PC. As evidenced by the Minecraft booth from Mango's backstory, they need a whole Star Trek holodeck-on-steroids setup to even get into Minecraft without using Minecraft mechanics directly, and this likely goes for other games as well.

Mango, however, was desperate enough to turn to Minecraft myths for his revenge plan. He's already considering things outside the box- who's to say he can't get the Minecraft icon from wherever the ROYGB sticks are?

So when he puts up his posters declaring that he wants to find the sticks who most people probably consider to be actors, who else would respond than the one stick we on the outside have seen before, the one stick who knows that the videos may be scripted but the abilities are certainly real?

When Purple sees Mango's Minecraft basement, they're looking around in awe, sure, but given that the use of Minecraft mechanics seems to be restricted outside of Minecraft, to the point that Mango needed to make a shady alleyway deal to get his hands on a command block…well, I'd be surprised too.

But they recognize the Nether portal for what it is, and they don't hesitate to follow Mango through.

There's probably a lot to be said regarding Purple's motivations at this point- given the assumption that Vs. LoL happened off-camera, for Purple to then turn around and lure the sticks into the parkour trap for Mango…there's something more going on there, there's gotta be. Something that might have been expanded on in a musical number, perhaps?

however this post took several hours of thinking to do and the better part of a day to make legible for tumblr, and i wound up passing out at one point, so i think i'm done for now wodjskdkd. i'd like to think i've at least clarified which videos would be available in-universe and why.

now if anybody needs me, i'm gonna go rewatch s3 and cry again :',D

#animation vs minecraft #avm #alan becker #avm analysis #avm headcanon #rosie babbles #id in alt text #sticks

[callixton]

Our beloved Toby Ziegler <3

tyy okay toby our beloved is answered here but. yknow what fuck it bruno headcanon time man is gonna get character development live

he has a lot of legitimate second thoughts when he first starts working for vinick, but not because he doesn’t believe in him. he’s very careful to keep these hidden, because none of them will benefit from any kind of doubt from him (including himself). i think mostly he worries about what kinds of bridges it will burn, but that’s not a priority which leads me into...

i know that. a lot of them really prioritize work above relationships (this is established with leo in the first few episodes) but i think that’s especially true for bruno. he has working relationships, and very casual relationships, but i think it’s really rare for him to have something meaningful, which is also interesting to me bc i think he is Very perceptive and understands people very well. he tells himself he prefers things this way. also think perhaps vinick is an exception here. but i’m still figuring out my take on their relationship.

mommy issues. i don’t. have a justification for this one it just feels true. rocky home life in general, became entirely self sufficient in his early/mid teens, and emotionally self sufficient (in yknow. an unhealthy way bc no kid is supposed to have to be that) even younger

he would never Want to work as a speechwriter, it’s not what he enjoys, but i think he’s a good enough writer that he could. also have no idea how he works in canon but he has ‘dictates his ideas/needs to talk out loud/needs to move when thinking’ vibes

this is less a headcanon than a. thought. but his relationship and the way he talks to bartlet really fascinates me. i wouldn’t say he’s Disrespectful, but it’s very uh. like respecting the president isn’t his job, helping him win is. and alright i did actually start to have a hc here abt him consulting in the past with bartlet and very minimally on the first campaign but also i was reading the episode transcript where he’s introduced and it’s. not at all how i remember so yknow. take that as you will

#i really meant to make some of these jokes i think ur bruno brainrot has rubbed off on me #also still thinking abt bruno/josh in a. a fun little hypothetical they would be so unhealthy for each other way. love it #also for the record not that he doesn't have. canon character development. i am however creating a version of him in my mind right now #bruno also strikes me someone who would sleep with. whoever. and then say he's not gay i'm just. i'm just saying #like a somewhat less dickish version of that angels in america homosexuals speech #also he would own a hairless cat #he leaves her with his neighbor when he has to travel which is most of the time. so kinda he has shared custody of the cat with his neighbor #also i Am gonna read that bruno/vinick fic i've been meaning to i'm so intrigued by it #i respect a rarepair thesis fic so much #bruno gianelli #the west wing #ted talks #aroacedonnamoss

[abouthoundsandlittlebirds]

Did you read the latest interview? Did they put Sesshomaru and R in the same parent pedestal? Did Narita Ken kind of supporting now the cursed ship?

It is kind of frustrating right now, considering the things that we are recieving from this show. Yet, I didn't expect anything different from this (or any other) interview, tbh, because people related to this show shouldn't be able to give us a spoiler or a different idea of the story that is going on without breaking their contract or ruining this show in the end of this season, since they would stir up the viewers (and we know it can become really bad), and considering Sunrise's circunstances (its merge with another company), I don't know if they have what is necessary right now to do a damage control of the situation if required.

I've just read the interview for the third time and I jumped to Narita and Noto's answers only, and Narita has never stated that Rin is Sesshomaru's wife or mother of his twins, all he did was speculation. Noto did it, though.

It is true that Narita talked about Rin, but he never did an official statement about Sesshomaru and Rin's relation/feelings, all he did was share his personal opinion (that he elucidates everytime he does it), different from Noto, that says openly that Rin is the mother of the twins (not Sesshomaru's wife) and do it in an official way. The curious thing is that Noto refers to Rin the same way the subtitle used to refer to Rin: Towa and Setsuna's mother, not including Sesshomaru in it.

So, about Narita, he could still be into a denial process (just like us), because of his personal values, or because he knows something that we don't and he doesn't want to bait us with this ship in an official way.

For me, there was two important things worth of note (despite the one mentioned above) in the interview:

1. The VAs are only recieving the script with their lines, but not being helped to develop the feelings that the scene they are recording requires, which proves to us that they actually are recieving only one script per time, so they are unaware of what is going to happen to their character and to the storyline; and,

2. When Narita was asked about his thoughts of Sesshomaru catching Rin in his arms once Zero was defeated and Rin was released from the silver scale curse, he says that in his own opinion Sesshomaru only took Rin at that time as his "heart" (when he says that he "embraced the heart he had been denying"), giving me the impression that he was denying it/her all along (not just because she was into a cursed state). It is a weird saying, especially if they were supposed to mean something to each other (and be aware of this meaning) for at least 15 years already... Perhaps my text interpretation is wrong, however if I am mistaken about his saying, then he didn't answer the question properly and he didn't answer what he was directly questioned, because the timeline he uses is cracked.

Yet, we must recall that after Kagura's death, Totosai tells Sesshomaru that "where there was a lacking in his heart, something has been born" (chapter 409 of InuYasha). Moryomaru calls it "compassion" (chapter 407), while Totosai states that Sesshomaru's heart changed, since whatever he had experienced made him feel angry and sad for the sake of someone else (chapter 409). Back then, Sesshomaru also denied his emotions, just like Narita says he has done with Rin. For me, it is kind of odd for he to repeat the same doing, since he had already improved at the end of the OG and we are once again talking about similar feelings that should've been mastered by now.

Oh, and I can't ignore the fact that Narita says that Sesshomaru is his parent's child, and that he has realized it while meeting Rin, and this is why he can interact with his twins. But... How can Narita states it, if we have never seen the dynamic of Toga with InuKimi (and Sesshomaru) to create an idea of what his parents were like, to elaborate our own ideas based in facts/canon info? I must say that if we should wait for the children to have the same dynamic as their parents, then the twins are NOTHING like them, even if Sunrise has stated once that their interactions with each other is similar to their parents, I can't see the Sesshomaru x Rin dynamic in them, nor Rin's personality whatsoever.

Even if I didn't see too much stuff in this interview worth of note, it is clear to me that the family bond is going to become a new plot in this show, that is why InuKag and Moroha already recieved their screentime and Sesshomaru x his wife and the twins didn't. Narita also wonders if this is going to happen after the current battle is over, yet he doesn't know for how long it will last. Somehow, it can end up being connected to the twins' family. We can speculate about it, but I rather wait until the end of this season to get more info to work with.