Some Yurious Yellue Bc Friend Asked Heh

We are now being subjected to violent indiscriminate bombing.💔😭

I THINKKKK I think solar may like this image just a little tiny bit, just maybe I'm not sure

hmmmmm maybe just maybe...... just a little..... i dunno it would be really hard to telll............

Animation vs. Minecraft: The Problem with Meta storytelling

With the continued growth of the Animator vs. Animation Fandom alongside the recent release of Animator vs. Animation 11, I've started to see more and more people come out the woodworks to criticize the problems with Alan's storytelling. Whether it be his overuse of sad character backstories, or the harmful implications that arise from how its only two female characters are portrayed, and while those are all valid concerns, the biggest issue I have with the series arises from something far more systemic than simply the characters itself, and it all starts with this.

This right here is a screenshot from the 30th episode of the Animation vs. Minecraft Shorts episode "The King", specifically the moment when King Orange discovers the existence of the Color Gang.

Now, you can say a lot about how King Orange's backstory is kind of an Ass Pull from a storytelling perspective, but I'm not focusing on that today. Rather the thing I want to focus on is what this scene means for the Beckerverse and, more importantly, how this is possibly one of the worst uses of meta storytelling I have ever seen.

To give context for those unaware. What you're seeing here is a scene where, after failing to make any progress finding the Minecraft Game Icon that he's looking for, King Orange stumbles across a monitor playing the very first Animation vs. Minecraft episode. Specifically it shows the moments where the Second Coming and his friends are using the game icon.

This right here is how King Orange discovers not only the existence of the stick gang, but also the fact that they have the thing that he is looking for, which leads him to putting up wanted posters for the main five in hopes of someone knowing who they are, said action leading to Purple and King Orange meeting for the very first time.

Basically, had it not been for King Orange stumbling upon this computer playing the very first Animation vs. Minecraft episode, literally none of Season 3 would've happened.

Now you might be asking yourself, what exactly is the problem with this? So what if these videos exist both in and out of universe? This is far from the first work of fiction that will utilize elements of meta to tell their story, and you would be correct in saying this. But here's the problem with.

Despite what this episode would lead you to believe, Alan's videos do not exist in-universe, as a matter of fact, I'd argue that Alan's entire channel is not an in-universe entity. How do I know this?

What you're seeing here is a scene from the second episode of the third season of Animator vs. Animation entitled "The Box". In this scene, the Second Coming has just discovered the events of the Showdown, more specifically, the moment he goes all Deus Ex Machina on Dark and completely obliterates him using powers that he... basically pulled out of his ass if I'm being honest here.

(Here's a screenshot of what happened in that episode for context)

This moment is pretty clearly established as Second finding out about his powers for the first time. It's pretty clear that he had no idea he even did this and this is how he learns about what happened in that episode.

But, if you've been following what I've been saying at this point, you might realize a flaw with this. That being how on Earth does Second not know this?

With how AvM Episode 30 establishes these videos as existing in-universe, surely the events of The Showdown would also be documented correct? How does Second not know that he went sicko mode on Dark when he has access to said information through the internet?

Simple really, The Showdown does not exist as a video in-universe. The events of that video are not documented. Second can't possibly know this because in his world, because this video doesn't exist.

Throughout every single AvA/M episode that has been posted, not once have the characters ever established to know that they're in a YouTube video or that they have access to videos of their own adventures.

This becomes even more cut and dry in the Influencer Arc. Where after Green creates a YouTube channel and begins interacting with commenters. I can't find the exact reply where he says this, but I do recall him being asked about the events of Showdown and having no idea what the comment talking about.

Regardless of if it is acknowledged or not. It's pretty clear that Alan's YouTube channel, the one we all know and love, does not exist in this universe. Not only is it never brought up as a prominent element of in-universe Alan's characterization, but none of the characters seem to have access to knowledge outside of what they themselves experience in the episodes they appear in, which is honestly for the better. It prevents plotholes like the one I mentioned above about how Second doesn't know about what he did in Showdown because he has no recollection of what he did while he was awakened.

Now... with the knowledge that the AvA/M episodes aren't supposed to exist in-universe... can you see the problem with this scene?

In this one moment alone, Alan has singlehandedly shattered what seemed like a pretty comfortable boundary. He has established that actually, these videos do exist in-universe and are important to the AvA/M storyline.

This single scene here raises so many questions, none of which really have sensible answers.

How did this video even end up on this monitor? Who was recording it? None of this would be a problem if this series hadn't already established that none of these aren't supposed to be viewed as in-universe YouTube videos that the characters can go back to. That's a boundary that, in my opinion, was pretty clearly set with the existence of AvA Season 3 because if it wasn't, how on Earth is Second only finding out about his powers now?! Has Alan just been keeping the fact that all of their experiences are recorded a secret?

But that in it of itself also doesn't make sense, because all of the events of AvM happen without Alan's involvement. What is he just recording his computer 24/7? Why?

It makes absolutely no sense for Alan's channel to exist in-universe because that would create a metric fuckton of plotholes, and the thing is, I think Alan knows this. I think he knows that making these videos something that occur in-universe can easily break everything, which is why his YouTube channel and videos are never actually acknowledged as an important narrative piece.

Now, you might argue and say that this isn't actually the first time Alan has done something like this. We also see this happen in the Showdown.

Here, we can see, clear as day, Chosen and Dark fighting on a Desktop that is not only playing the exact video they are currently in, but also shows Alan's other animations in the sidebar. So if AvM appearing as a video in episode 30 is such a problem, why isn't this?

Simple really. This scene is not important to the overall narrative. In-universe this is just one of the many areas that Chosen and Dark fight in and it only lasts a few seconds. It's pretty clear to me that this isn't actually meant to canonize Alan's YouTube Channel and videos as much as it is just a neat little visual gag. It is not meant to be taken as some sort of massive lore reveal and is literally never acknowledged beyond those few seconds of fighting.

This same logic also applies to Animation vs. YouTube. Yes, Alan's YouTube account is seen here and Second and Green do stumble upon the first Animator vs. Animation, but again.

This moment is not established as a serious story moment, it's just a fun little reference that is quickly glossed over because you aren't supposed to think about it too hard. It has no bearing on the lore of the AvA universe, it's just there as a cheeky moment of the series acknowledging what it is while not having it play any part in the story itself.

This moment however, cannot simply be dismissed as a fun little reference, because it is literally the entire setup for how King Orange discovers the existence of the Color Gang, which inadvertently leads to him meeting Purple, thus leading to the events of AvM Season 3. The first Animation vs. Minecraft being a in-universe YouTube video is a crucial aspect of this story because without it it wouldn't have the pieces necessary for the rest of the season to function.

This is such a clumsy use of meta storytelling because it now establishes a prescient that all of the AvA/M episodes, or at the very least, the first AvM are in fact in-universe YouTube videos that anyone can watch. But if that's the case then how does Second not know abotu his powers? How do literally none of the characters know about these in-universe events when they apparently have access to videos that show said events from a third person perspective?

Perhaps you could argue that what we're seeing here is actually footage that Rocket Corp was secretly recording in order to get information on Alan. I mean, the monitor does have the Rocket Corp logo on it. So perhaps they had been secretly recording Alan's PC the whole time...

Except that doesn't make any fucking sense either.

Going back to the Box for a second, beyond Victim beating the shit out of Chosen for the sake of vengeance, he was also trying to pry Alan's location out of him. He wants to know where Alan is so that he can take his revenge, which tells us that he doesn't actually know the location of Alan's desktop. So you can't possibly say he was secretly recording footage of Alan's computer the whole time when in order to do that, he'd have to first know where Alan's computer actually is, which he doesn't.

So basically, no matter what way you dice it, there is no feasible explanation for how this...

makes any sort of canonical sense. It can't be the doings of Rocket Corp, and if Alan's channel and by proxy all of his animations are in-universe YouTube videos, then moments like the Second Coming discovering his powers for the first time in AvA Season 3 don't make any sense.

To me, it's pretty clear that Alan inserted King Orange finding out about the Color Gang through the first AvM video with very little forethought as to what this would mean for his universe. He tried sneaking in a self-reference and ended up creating massive plotholes that are very hard to dig himself out of. This right here is an example of what happens when you decide to insert elements of metafiction into your work when you don't actually want it to be a metafiction.

Alan wanted to have his cake and eat it too. He wanted to add elments of fourth wall breaking into his story without actually wanting to go the full mile. He wants to simultaneously write a story where his YouTube channel and the fact these are all videos that people can watch have no bearing on the story itself... while also making it so said videos are a crucial element of the plot. Perhaps something like this could've worked with better execution, but as it stands this is just incredibly sloppy storytelling and shows me that, at least with AvM Season 3, Alan didn't actually have a proper boundary for how he was going to incorporate meta elements without them completely destroying the foundation of his story in the process.

Let this be a lesson in meta storytelling. You need to set boundaries so that you don't break anything. I should note that Second finding out about his powers occured after the events of AvM Season 3. Which tells me that Alan himself probably realized the mistake he made in doing what he did and is going to try much harder in the future to separate the reality of our world, and the fictional narrative he is looking to create.

Maybe

cookies nomnom

close up, ha ha!

Hi Forsaken fandom…… throws this art at you

Finally drew my Orchid design :33

Animation VERSUS introduction animation

As a little celebration for the kickstarter hitting 1 million 🎉 (sound recomended)

Had to compress the file a little hope its not to bad in quality