History WebAnimation / AnimatorVsAnimation

** Downplayed, depending on how you interpret the conflict between the Animator and the Chosen One, which is a much more gray area then his conflicts with Victim or the Second Coming. One can easily interpret that both the Animator and the Chosen One were completely flawed in their moral qualities; The Animator was at fault due to his {{lack of empathy}} to his [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman stick figures]], confining the Chosen One and only creating him for a fight, but he ''was'' right to contain him as his creation had gone out of control with his destructive powers, [[OmnicidalManiac annihilating everything and everyone to the point of destroying Alan's computer]].

** 2017-2019 -- ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHFeuBlBUos AvM Shorts - Season 1]]''
*** 2017 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVhWjSKywAQ The Rediscovery]]
*** 2017 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_PRXuovweE The Building Contest]]
*** 2018 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPWPAjYb5eI The Roller Coaster]]
*** 2018 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXgaSaME-Ms Potions]]
*** 2018 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9DrryMw248 Note Blocks]]
*** 2018 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5zW1c30MGQ Command Blocks]]
*** 2018 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2sRTaa9lZU PvP]]
*** 2018 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7x2pH6yiL4 The Nether]]
*** 2018 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fPhQLM4Iac Villagers]]
*** 2018 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkedWWxRABM The End]]
*** 2019 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTPt07NO61A SkyBlock]]
*** 2019 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3JPzQYJTZk TNT Land]]
*** 2019 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRD4-cl9_OU The Dolphin Kingdom]]
*** 2019 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCBP4M08ndE Cave Spider Roller Coaster]]
** 2020 -- ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xcIBCur-3k AvM Shorts - Season 2]]''
*** 2020 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7Mpp35EAqI Redstone Academy]]
*** 2020 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0egcErkap0 Note Block Battle]]
*** 2020 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDQ60JGcxkw Build Battle]]
*** 2020 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXUCbK3Au4k Texture Pack]]
*** 2020 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en5KyaRyRbw Lucky Blocks]]
** 2020-2022 -- ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWHTlq5Fcr8 AvM Shorts - Season 3]]''
*** 2020 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_4e85Q2EjE The Piglin War]]
*** 2021 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y2Mi2iAVMY The Witch]]
*** 2021 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4dANhP7BVg Parkour]]
*** 2021 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Z7lQTtJK8 Titan Ravager]]
*** 2021 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPCSUE0-4qI Lush Caves]]
*** 2021 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kiPjEeTaW4 The Ultimate Weapon]]
*** 2021 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ4W964hocA The Warden]]
*** 2022 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNuJrSP3JDA Monster School]]
*** 2022 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5RhbG3tOT8 The Raid]]
*** 2022 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P6l35M61GY Note Block Universe]]
*** 2022 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp2nxlrQ89w The King]]
** 2023 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5IhxDoA6KU AvM Season 3 - In Real Time]] [[note]][[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The entire season shown In Real Time]], with additional animations to fill the gaps.[[/note]]
** 2023-present -- ''[=AvM=] Shorts - Season 4''
*** 2023 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOo9iTx0aMQ Ultimate Minecart Race]]
*** 2023 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UPEJjZ0UAE The Chef]]
*** 2023 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlVUVsx6BYY Lucky Block Staff]]
*** 2024 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvfldRjkmW0 The Prank]]

[[caption-width-right:350:The main characters of Season 2 of the main series.[[note]]Pictured (top to bottom, left to right): [[ComputerVirus ViraBot]], [[AuthorAvatar the Animator]], [[AntiHero the Chosen One]], [[KnightOfCerebus the Dark Lord]], [[GadgeteerGenius Yellow]], [[CaringGardener Blue]], [[ArtAttacker The Second Coming]], [[TheAce Green]], [[AnimalLover Red]].[[/note]]]]

** 2006 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npTC6b5-yvM Animator vs. Animation 1]]

[[caption-width-right:350:(Most of) the main characters of the series.[[note]]Pictured (top to bottom, left to right): [[ComputerVirus ViraBot]], [[AuthorAvatar the Animator]], [[AntiHero the Chosen One]], [[KnightOfCerebus the Dark Lord]], [[GadgeteerGenius Yellow]], [[CaringGardener Blue]], [[ArtAttacker The Second Coming]], [[TheAce Green]], [[AnimalLover Red]].[[/note]]]]

* In July 2018, ''[=AvA=] Shorts'', with "''[=AvA=]''" standing for ''Animator vs. Animation'', was announced. These shorts would follow the life of the Second Coming along with the animator after ''Animator vs Animation IV''. The ''[=AvM Shorts=]'' series will not be cancelled, but they will air concurrently. These shorts were later compiled into a longer video titled ''Animator vs. Animation V''.

* 2006 -- ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npTC6b5-yvM Animator vs. Animation]]''
* 2007 -- ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxM1cnphLpw Animator vs. Animation II]]''
* 2011 -- ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCtr04cnx5A Animator vs. Animation III]]''
* 2014 -- ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VufDd-QL1c0 Animator vs. Animation IV]]''
* 2018-2020 -- ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF9I1GxNdJQ Animator vs. Animation V]]'' [[note]]Originally started out as a short series called ''[=AvA=] Shorts'', consisting of four episodes before they were merged together into one video[[/note]]
** 2018 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hgrw7QQpnE&a The Virus]]
** 2018 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL8F0B8Hj0o&t The Chosen One's Return]]
** 2019 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vfSvckpQWo&t The Flashback]]
** 2020 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a1r0JaONS4&t The Showdown]]
* 2023-present -- ''Animator vs. Animation VI''[[note]]Known as ''[=AvA=] Shorts'' - Season 2 in the [[https://www.youtube.com/shorts/t_E6pHNfyB4 teaser]].[[/note]]
** 2023 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzJvuswZ5ys&a Wanted]]
** 2023 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPo5_EBO5JM&a The Box]]

* TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects: Some scenes in ''Animator vs. Animation VI'' features 2D animated stick figures in environments rendered in 3D.

** In''Animator vs Animation II'', the Animator enslaves the Chosen One into a glorified pop-up blocker.

** The Animator himself was the series' first villain, spending the first four entries as nothing but a heartless man looking to fight and torture his creations, leading to them rebelling against their creation. After a HeelFaceTurn in ''IV'', however, he became the BigGood instead.
** The Chosen One technically served as this in the original series as the VillainProtagonist, being in a BigBadEnsemble and fighting against the Animator while being no better than him, killing the innocent computer icons.
** The Dark Lord returns as the villain of the ''[=AvA=] Shorts'', later ''[=AvA V=]'', trying to destroy everything with his army of {{Computer Virus}}es and being the first real villain faced by the Stick Gang.
** King Orange serves as this for Season 3 of the ''[=AvM Shorts=]'', seeking to [[spoiler:destroy all of ''Minecraft'' by stealing the Stick Gang's Game Icon and using it to launch a black hole, as revenge for losing his son Gold in a simulation of the game]].
** [[spoiler:victim]] seems to be this in ''Animator vs. Animation VI'', having placed a bounty on the Chosen One to get him captured as well as running a mysterious organization and a clear vendetta against [[spoiler:the Animator]].
* ArtEvolution: Compare the animation styles of the first three installments to "Animator vs. Animation IV''. Also, some later installments feature detailed custom backgrounds rather than just an empty white expanse or Windows desktops.

** The Animator and his animations haven't been hostile to each other since ''Animator vs. Animation IV'', so most entries taking place after it are titled "Animation vs. [media name]" instead. This is eventually subverted with ''Animator vs Animation V'' series; the Animator is still allied with his creations, but fighting a virus that has infected his computer, except it turns out the virus' creator is one of the Animator's creations, meaning he must actually fight an animation.
** The ''AVM Shorts'' eventually became this since some episodes are actually longer than the original ''Animation vs Minecraft'' video. "The King", while officially a "short", clocks in at over 30 minutes, becoming the longest single-episode animation on Alan's channel as of December 2022, beating out even the climactic mainline episode "The Showdown" by barely twice its runtime. Additionally, the ''[=AvA=] Shorts'' also count since they aren't any shorter than the original trilogy, and the runtime of "The Showdown" is par with ''IV'', being approximately 15 minutes long. Alan seems to have realised this, as the second season is titled simply ''Animator vs. Animation VI'', no "shorts" in the title.

** In several episodes outside of the ''AVM Shorts'' series, the empty spot in the taskbar where the ''Minecraft'' icon originally sat is missing. It's back as of "The King", where it's finally returned to the spot it was originally removed from in ''Animation vs Minecraft''; fittingly enough, it's visible on the taskbar in ''Animator vs. Animation VI''.

** Pretty much where the series takes place. First, the animation and the animator duke it out on the Flash program, [[InterfaceScrew causing a lot of damage to the interface]]. Then, in the latter two installments, the animation hops out of Flash and wreaks havoc on the animator's [[InterfaceScrew desktop]]. In ''IV'' and the spin-offs, it's shown that stick figures can travel through other devices from the computer such as Alan's cellphone or his gaming consoles.
** Outside of the desktops, video games, and websites, there is a world called the Outernet where stick figures which are shaped like the Fighting Stick Figures live normal lives similar to people in real life Earth. It first appeared in ''Animator vs Animation V'' as the location of the final battle between the Chosen One and the Dark Lord, then appears again in [[spoiler:"The King", revealing King Orange's old life with his son Gold before the latter's death triggered the former's StartOfDarkness]]. As the world is part of the Internet, anything that is connected to the Internet creates a gateway between the world and the desktop/website/game, allowing anything to come to and from the world.

* DroppedAfterThePilot: victim was the first ever stick figure, having appeared in the series' first ever installment ''Animator vs. Animation [I]''. His presence would set the precedent of a stick figure rebelling against their creator, but his death at the end of ''[=AvA=] I'' meant that's the last we'd see of him. [[spoiler:This gets subverted ''hard'' in ''Animator vs. Animation VI'', having returned 17 years later to claim revenge on the Animator.]]

* EverybodyDiesEnding: ''Animator vs. Animation III'' ended with the computer's total destruction, every program in it being destroyed via UsefulNotes/BlueScreenOfDeath; the only surviving character is the Animator, simply because he's a real person and not a program, but the cursor used to represent him was still destroyed. While the Chosen One and the Dark Lord return years later, it was via retcon and they were originally supposed to have perished.

** In ''Animator vs. Animation IV'', no important character dies with the Second Coming's friends resurrecting. While we never see the Facebook emojis again, it's easy to assume they were also revived due to how the story's rules work.

* MultiCharacterTitle: The title of the series refers to the titular animator, Alan Becker, and whatever stick figure he fights in the episode (Victim in ''I'' [[spoiler:and ''VI'']], the Chosen One in ''II'' and ''III'', the Second Coming in ''IV'' and the Dark Lord in ''V''). The ''Animation vs. [x]'' episodes, meanwhile, have the whole Stick Gang as the titular animations.

* OrderVersusChaos: In ''II'' and '''III''m BothSidesHaveAPoint. While the Animator (order) is explicitly villainous, the Chosen One (chaos) is pretty destructive even towards bystanders, and the Animator lets the violent little stick figure live (your mileage may vary whether this was a FateWorseThanDeath). In episode two, the Chosen One throws the first punch, and the Animator is simply trying to survive, even if that's [[BloodKnight exactly what he asked for]].

* PlotHole: ''Animator vs. Animation V'' contradicts some plot points from the previous episodes.
** Just the very fact the Chosen One never died, which contradicts ''Animator vs. Animation IV'' stating the Second Coming is his resurrection.
** "The Flashback" shows that after the Chosen One and the Dark Lord escaped Alan's computer at the end of ''Animator vs. Animation III'', they started to wreak havoc on the Internet. While never outright stated, it's heavily implied - especially by his reaction towards seeing them again - that Alan thought they were dead until the events of ''[=AvA=] V'', which happens seven years after '''III'''. Unless he hasn't been paying attention to what's happening on the Internet or the two were doing a really shitty job at wrecking havoc, Alan should have learned that the two stick figures he created were causing chaos on the internet shortly after they escaped his computer.

* RageAgainstTheAuthor: The entire premise is built on this. As of ''Animator vs. Animation IV'', this theme was dropped in favor of the now permanent main cast's shenanigans.

* ReusedCharacterDesign: Almost all of the stick figures introduced after IV are based on the fighting stick figures' designs, having small, filled in heads.

* RunningGag: The Animator's required essay isn't safe from his stick figures' presence, being shoryuken'd in ''II'', destroyed by the Chosen One's battle with Clippy in ''III'', and exploded by TNT in ''vs. Minecraft''.

* ScreensAreCameras: From ''Animator vs. Animation IV'' onwards, it's shown that anyone inside of the computer can see the real world through the monitor like a window. This has allowed the stick figures to see things such as what the animator is doing and if there are other devices nearby.

** When the Animator goes over what to name his new stick figure in ''II'', he goes through "victim", "killer", "BEAST", and then finally stops on "The Chosen One".

** The Animator sends AIM messages to a programmer friend in ''II''.
** The Animator's Facebook page is open in ''IV'', and he communicates with someone off-screen out loud. At the end, the Second Coming starts speaking in text, whereupon the Animator creates a text box to reciprocate; this carries over to the first ''[=AvA=] Short''.

* SoftReboot: ''Animator vs. Animation IV'' effectively serves as this, taking place several years after Alan's original PC was destroyed by the Chosen One and the Dark Lord in ''III''. What sets this apart from the previous entries in the series is that the characters introduced here make peace with the Animator and become series mainstays, setting up the series to showcase the stick figures' adventures without having to deal with an antagonistic animator.

* SuddenlySpeaking: Downplayed. The stick figures never speak per se apart from the Second Coming briefly speaking in text in ''[=AvA=] IV'' and ''[=AvA=] V'', but they do occasionally make sounds beyond the normal whooshing movements and footsteps:

** In 2015, Alan reuploaded both ''Animator vs. Animation [I]'' and ''Animator vs. Animation II'' in HD in contrast to those videos being released in 2006 and 2007 respectively.
** In 2019, Alan reuploaded ''Animator vs. Animation II'' again now with a live orchestra soundtrack.
** In 2020, after the ''[=AvA=]'' series finished, Alan released ''Animator vs. Animation V'', which is really just the 4 episodes edited together plus a new soundtrack.

** The second video had another, stronger stick figure named "The Chosen One", who ends up enslaved and makes a return in ''III''. The third one had the addition of a red stick figure named "The Dark Lord" created to rival TCO, but of course ends up as a another victim due to the Animator being ignorant that he was about to die.

[[caption-width-right:350:The main characters of the series.[[note]]Pictured (top to bottom, left to right): [[ComputerVirus ViraBot]], [[AuthorAvatar The Animator]], [[AntiHero The Chosen One]], [[KnightOfCerebus The Dark Lord]], [[GadgeteerGenius Yellow]], [[CaringGardener Blue]], [[ArtAttacker The Second Coming]], [[ConstructionIsAwesome Green]], [[AnimalLover Red]].[[/note]]]]

[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin An animator is pitted against his creations, the animation]].

''Animator vs. Animation'' is a [=YouTube=] web animated series posted by Alan Becker, aka [[http://noogai.newgrounds.com noogai]] ([[PunnyName who, by now, is not at all a new guy]]). It stars himself as the animator who'd draw a stick figure to fight for fun on his computer prompting them to fight back. That all changed with the fourth installment, where [[ArtifactTitle the two sides are now friends instead of enemies]] and the series now primarily focuses on the stick figures exploring many video games and fighting many new adversaries. The entire series can be watched [[https://www.youtube.com/c/noogai89/videos on Alan's [=YouTube=] channel]].

[[folder:Animation vs. Minecraft]]

** 2023 -- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5IhxDoA6KU AvM Season 3 - In Real Time]] [[note]][[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The entire AvM Season 3 shown In Real Time]], with additional animations to fill the gaps.[[/note]]

* 2023 -- ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1J6Ou4q8vE Animation vs. Math]]''
* 2023 -- ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErMSHiQRnc8 Animation vs. Physics]]''

[[folder:An Actual Short]]

* TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects: Some scenes in Animator vs. Animation VI features 2D Animated stick figures in environments rendered in 3D.

* AerithAndBob: PlayedWith in the sense that by stick figure standards, most stick figures identify by their color (with the exception of King) while Alan's stick figures are generally given more elaborate titles. To put it into perspective, the names of the main cast are Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, and The Second Coming.
* AliensSpeakingEnglish: The stick figures in-universe are capable of understanding English despite the fact they don't seem to communicate verbally when talking to each other and some of them are made into existence. A very notable case of this is The Second Coming who is the only stick figure so far to actually speak with words popping out when communicating with Alan Becker.

* AmbiguousGender: Stick figures don't have any defining features which indicate their gender, though most of them, such as the main cast, Purple, [[spoiler:Purple's father, and King]] are referred to as males. The only confirmed female stick figure is [[spoiler:Purple's mother, who has been long deceased before Purple's debut]].
* AnachronismStew: Minor example in season 3 of [=AvM=], but despite being set post Combat Update, the two zombie villagers that appear there (Zupay in "Monster School" and the one from "Note Block Universe") are using their pre-1.9 textures.

** In "Animator vs Animation II", the animator is so fed up by pop-up ads, that once he defeats the Chosen One, he turns him into a glorified pop-up blocker.
** In "Animation vs. [=YouTube=]", the stick figures have to deal with a few ads that pop up while they are watching [=YouTube=]. Later when they are fighting the website itself, ads interrupt the fight, and both sides express their disdain before skipping the ad and resuming their fight.
** The Actual Short "Pop Ups" shows the Second Coming getting increasingly frustrated with pop-ups appearing on the animator's computer. When one appears that steals clips from the animations to promote a mobile game, the Second Coming gets so infuriated that he starts smashing them all with a giant hammer.

** The animator himself was the first to serve as this as nothing but a heartless man looking to fight and torture his creations leading to them rebelling against the animator. After a HeelFaceTurn in ''IV'', however, he became the BigGood instead.
** The Chosen One, technically, served as one in II and III because while the animator did create The Chosen One to simply fight him and later enslaved him, The Chosen One was the one who striked first the moment he came to life destroying everything and killing everyone for no apparent reason.
** [[spoiler:The Dark Lord]] is this, as proven in the ''[=AvA=] Shorts'', where [[spoiler:he and the Chosen One wreck havoc across the entire Internet, not to mention that he created [=ViraBot=] and was one of the two people that caused the Blue Screen of Death in ''III''.]]
** King serves as this for Season 3 of the ''[=AvM Shorts=]''. His goal is to capture the main stick figures and steal the Minecraft icon from Alan's computer to create the most dangerous weapon and destroy the world of Mnecraft. [[spoiler:His backstory reveals that his son died in a tragic accident by a Minecraft simulator GoneHorriblyWrong which lead to him studying the intricacies of the game. He soon [[HeelFaceTurn redeems himself]] when he saved Purple who reminded him of his child and soon finds peace when [[FoundFamily he accepts Purple as his surrogate son]]]].
** [[spoiler:victim]] seems to be this in ''[=AvA=] VI'', having placed a bounty on the Chosen One to get him captured as well as running a mysterious organization and a clear vendetta against [[spoiler:Alan's cursor]].
* ArtEvolution: Compare the animation styles of the first three installments to "Animator vs. Animation IV." Also, some later installments feature detailed custom backgrounds rather than just an empty white expanse or Windows desktops.

** The animator and his animations haven't been hostile to each other since ''Animator vs. Animation IV'', so most entries taking place after it are titled "Animation vs. [media name]" instead. This is played straight with the ''Animator vs Animation Shorts'' series; the animator is still allied with his creations, but fighting a virus that has infected his computer. [[spoiler:It's a subversion; it turns out The Dark Lord, created by the Animator in [=AvA=] III, is the one who created the virus.]]
** The AVM Shorts eventually became this since some episodes are actually longer than the original Animation vs Minecraft video. The [=AVM=] "short" ''The King'' clocks in at over 30 minutes, becoming the longest single-episode animation on Alan's channel as of December 2022, beating out even the climactic mainline episode ''The Showdown'' by barely twice its runtime. Additionally, The AVA Shorts also count as well since they aren't even any shorter than I-III and the runtime on episodes like "The Showdown" and "Wanted" are on par with IV, being approximately 15 minutes long.
*** This is lampshaded with the real short videos being named [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin An Actual Short]] to prevent confusion with the longer artifact title AVM or AVA shorts.
* ArtificialHuman: Stick figures are sentient humanoid creatures who can be created in an animation program like Flash. [[spoiler:However, AVM short episode 29 reveals that some stick figures grow up, have kids, and die of old age like normal humans as shown by Purple's backstory, revealing that he was the son of blue and pink stick figures, the former which abandoned the family and the latter who died of natural causes. Episode 30 reveals this to be the same case for King, who lost his son to a glitched Minecraft emulator]].
* AuthorAvatar: The animator is, both literally and in-universe, noogai, or more famously known as Alan Becker. Inside the world of his PC, he is represented as his mouse cursor.
* BirthdayEpisode: In March 18th 2022, one of Alan Becker's animators made [[https://twitter.com/alanthebecker/status/1527046897373962245 an animation]] posted on Twitter dedicated to celebrating Alan's birthday with the Stick Gang making a cake and huge sign reading "HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALAN BECKER" alongside some birthday music.
* BreatherEpisode: The entire Season 2 of the ''[=AvM Shorts=]'' could be considered one for the spin-off, given that the second half of Season 1 involved a story arc and Season 3 had a story arc since the beginning.
* CanonImmigrant: By proxy. Several elements such as Herobrine and the Lucky Block are not original to Minecraft, being a fan character and a Minecraft mod respectively, but are treated in the world of ''Animation vs. Minecraft'' as if they've always been native to it.
* CentralTheme: The latter half of Season 3 of the ''[=AvM=] Shorts'' has one in the form of whether anyone could be truly beyond redemption; nearly every member of the stick gang makes an ally out of a mob that's normally AlwaysChaoticEvil in Minecraft--[[spoiler: The Second Coming befriends a warden; Red befriends a skeleton, a spider, and an enderman; and Blue and Yellow befriend a titan ravager. This culminates with Green forgiving Purple for his actions and Purple repaying this by joining Green in fighting King. Later on, even King himself is redeemed when he realized that he had strayed too far from his original goal]].
* CerebusSyndrome: ''Animator vs. Animation'' originally started off as a rather somewhat comedic and episodic series with not much of a concrete storyline with the first three installments mainly a stick figure fighting its creator. That all changed with the fourth installment which saw the introduction of mainstay characters becoming the central protagonists of the series, as well as the introduction of the AVM and AVA Shorts where it created many new story arcs, saw the return of older characters, expanded the worldbuilding, and brought major conflicts caused by villains old and new.

* CherryTapping: The titulat mob in the short "My Ghast Friend" is able to use it's infamous fireballs to cook a piece of raw beef without harming Yellow.

** One of the main stick figures in the series is actually named "The Chosen One". He wasn't chosen by gods nor does he have any quests, however. His name seems to simply indicate his power level and the animator intentionally created an over-powered stick figure to fight for fun. It took years of real time to see him do something heroic, which was stopping a virus from infecting every computer in the world, starting with the animator's computer despite the animosity toward each other they used to have.
** Alan's orange stick figure is named [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "The Second Coming"]], but unlike The Chosen One, we don't know where the name came from - Alan never even turned him into a named symbol. He also fits the role of hero much more cleanly than The Chosen One, being a FriendToAllLivingThings with a [[spoiler:[[SuperpoweredEvilSide Superpowered]] ''[[PlayingWith Good]]'' [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Side]]]], an ally to [[BigGood Alan]], and TheLeader of his group of friends; and he's been on multiple adventures to save his friends and [[{{Cyberspace}} the internet]], even [[spoiler:singlehandedly defeating The Dark Lord]].
* CityWithNoName: As of the episode "Wanted", the city located within the "outernet" appears to be unnamed and it doesn't help with the lack of dialogue in this franchise. It also extends to the world the city is located beyond the boundaries of the internet as the term "outernet" is a placeholder name and Alan (who likes the term "outernet") has an official name that is kept secret.

** In several episodes outside of the ''AVM Shorts'' series, the empty spot in the taskbar where the Minecraft icon originally sat is missing. It's back as of ''The King'', where it's finally returned to the spot it was originally removed from in ''Animation vs Minecraft''.
** Several ''Actual Shorts'' take place within the world of Minecraft itself rather than within the desktop, a nod to the AVM Shorts ''Parkour'' and ''Lush Caves'' where the fighting stick figures in the former and The Second Coming in the latter agree that staying exclusively at home in the desktop for the sake of safety would be too boring.

* {{Crossover}}: An inevitable one with the Animator vs. Animation series and various popular media given that the stick figures live in a Windows desktop, allowing them to directly interact with several forms of media. Minecraft is the most common example, items from that game sometimes being featured in a few "Actual Shorts" which are otherwise unrelated to Minecraft.

** Outside of the desktops, video games, and websites, there is a world where stick figures which are shaped like the fighting stick figures live normal lives similar to people in real life Earth. It first appeared in a flashback from the third part of ''Animator vs Animation V'' before properly appearing in the final part, then appears again in [[spoiler:"The King", revealing King's old life with his son before his son's death triggered his StartOfDarkness]]. As the world is part of the internet, anything that is connected to the internet creates a gateway between the world and the desktop/website/game, allowing anything to come to and from the world.
* DeathIsCheap: Or at least, it is when the stick figures are operating on Minecraft logic, as "PVP" demonstrates. Additionally, anything from a web page that is damaged or destroyed can be restored by refreshing the page, including deleted individuals. Subverted with The Chosen One, who escaped (off-screen) to the internet before Alan's first computer crashed.
* DroppedAfterThePilot: victim was the first ever character, aside from the animator, to appear in the series' first ever installment ''Animator vs. Animation [I]''. His presence would set the precedent of a stick figure rebelling against their creator. He sadly gets deleted after a brief fight with the animator. [[spoiler:This gets subverted where [[TheBusCameBack he makes a return]] in ''Wanted'' now with a much major role as the head of the organization.]]

** The stick figures were a lot taller in Minecraft in the earlier [=AvM=] shorts and ''Animation vs Minecraft''; since then they've shrunk from being four blocks tall to three blocks in "Rollercoaster" until "Build Battle" where they're two-and-a-half blocks tall.

* EasilyForgiven: In the main "Animation vs. (Video Game)" videos (not counting the AVM Shorts), the antagonist is always forgiven by the end of the video (except for [[DemonicPossession Herobrine]] who they barely noticed the existence).

* EveryoneLives: {{Downplayed}} in Season 3 of ''AVM Shorts''. [[spoiler:Save for the zombified piglins, several hostile mobs in the desert, and a handful of piglin brutes who worked for King, nobody who played at least one major role in the arc doesn't get to survive in the end, as anyone who got sucked into the Minecraft game icon or the void that King created were spat right out once the void was destroyed, and the titan ravagers who King actually killed were revived by King himself at the end]].

** Downplayed, depending on how you interpret the conflict between the animator and his creations. One would interpret that both the animator and the stick figures were completely flawed in their moral qualities. The animator was at fault due to his {{lack of empathy}} to his [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman stick figures]] confining them and only created the stick figures just to fight them. He was, however, right to contain them as his creations had gone out of control with their destructive powers, [[OmnicidalManiac annihilating everything and everyone even to the point of destroying Alan's computer]].
** [[spoiler:Herobrine, the Big Bad of the original Minecraft video, Animation vs. Minecraft, fights off against King, the Big Bad of the AVM Shorts Season 3, for a good while during the episode "The King"]].
** Invoked in ''An Actual Short'' "King Orange vs. The Dark Lord" with two of the most strongest stick figure villains pitted against each other in the nether. The fight ends with a biblically-accurate angelic version of a ''pig'' interrupting the fight where it turns out that both Green and Yellow were imagining the fight with toy versions of TDL and King respectively with Red interrupting the "fight" with his pet pig.

* ExtremelyShortTimeSpan: ''Animation vs. Minecraft Season 3 - In Real Time'' shows that the entirety of the adventure took place over an hour and 20 minutes.
** If you convert it into Minecraft time[[note]]one entire Minecraft day lasting only 20 minutes[[/note]], however, the events of Season 3 spanned across 4 days.

** The Second Coming: TheLeader and TheHero. From his first encounter with the Fighting Stick Figures, he takes on the role of team lead, helping them escape their animation and showing them the bigger world outside. He is also the most level-headed of the bunch and tries his best to keep them all out of trouble or danger. And when it's time for a hero to step up, TSC is always the one to volunteer (he faces off against The Dark Lord all by himself in ''The Showdown'' and is the one to carry the Minecraft-icon staff to the final nether portal in ''The King'').

** Yellow: TheSmartGuy. From the very start of the Minecraft series, he displays a knack for engineering and programming. He is a genius with redstone and command blocks, and he's usually the one to troubleshoot a solution to the group's latest problem. He even manages to reverse-engineer a lucky block in ''Lucky Blocks'' and gives the Animator an avatar in the "outernet" in ''The Showdown''.

* GelatinousEncasement: All three of the stick figures Yellow, Blue, and TSC get trapped in the huge slime block trampoline they built, much to the disappointment of Green and Red.

* GrammarNazi: In "Autocorrect", all of the main stick figures serve as this correcting Alan's letter to DJ; fixing the spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. However, this leads to a point where they start to rewrite Alan's letter turning it into a formal letter leading Alan in all-caps telling them to stop and just let him type, prompting Yellow to add a period at the end of Alan's sentence.

* GreenAesop: Blue's New Superpower and Animation vs. Trash has Blue use his money-powered abilities to grow trees & clean up garbage respectively as a metaphor for donating to their respective brands, [=#TeamTrees=] & [=#TeamSeas=].

* HalfArcSeason: The entirety of the ''AVM Shorts'' Season 1 is this as the first few episodes were centered around the main cast learning many different aspects of ''Minecraft'' until episode 8 "The Nether" where it kickstarted the first story arc. The second half of Season 1 revolved around our heroes exploring the many new worlds, fighting off many new enemies, and returning back home.
* HeroesPreferSwords: All five of the main cast, TSC, Green, Blue, Yellow, and Red use swords as their primary weapons besides [[GoodOldFisticuffs their fists]]. Justified, given that swords for a player are one of the most common weapons in ''Minecraft'' where they visit and it is where most of their adventures take place.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: All of the standalone adventures all follow this type of formula with each video being titled ''Animation vs. [Noun]''. The "noun" is typically replaced with the title of a video game, but other videos can be something else such as ''Animation vs. Trash'', ''Animation vs. [=YouTube=]'', ''Animation vs. Math'', etc.

*** "An Actual Short: Faces" averts this when Alan draws The Second Coming a face, which prompts the excited stick figure to draw different faces for his friends.

* ItBeganWithATwistOfFate: The entire plot of "The Piglin War", and by extension practically all of Season 3 would not have happened if Blue just used the Master Block or Creative Mode to get more nether wart instead of going to the Nether to get some. Alan himself was aware of it.
* ItsTheJourneyThatCounts: Bored with their basic Minecraft cooking repertoire, the group goes to get a recipe book from a master chef in a village, who agrees to give them the book if they can cook a few simple items. They mess up at the last minute, failing the task, but out of pity are given a second chance if they make a bunch more items that are more complicated and with no recipe given. They journey around the world, learning recipes from villagers in pseudo France, Asia and Central America, and return to flawlessly recreate the recipes. The chef reveals the recipe book was empty all along but the recipes they learned can now fill it up, a message Blue takes to heart. [[spoiler:Green immediately walks over, [[SubvertedTrope decks the chef for wasting their time]] and they all start scarfing down the food they made apart from a nonplussed Blue. Only blue was actually interested in cooking as an art form, the rest were just bored with cake, roast chicken and watermelon.]]
* JealousPet: In the short "Fox", Red is playing with his pet Minecraft fox which has the Firefox yearning for attention as well and Red decides to include the digital fox in. This, however, causes the Minecraft fox to be jealous that the other fox is stealing the attention away from its owner which causes conflict between them while Red tries to defuse the situation. The normal fox's aggression proves unwise, however, because apart from being cute the Firefox logo also breathes fire and has no problems using it if annoyed.

* LowerDeckEpisode: The short "Corn Dog Guy" follows the story of a random citizen of the stick figure city, the corn dog vendor. It revolves around from his perspective during the events of "Wanted" where his food cart is pixilated, caused by the mercenaries trying to shoot The Chosen One throughout the city.

* MacGuffin: The Minecraft Game Icon also known as the Master Block is said to be the most powerful item in all of ''Minecraft'' only located within every desktop that's downloaded the game. Originally pursued by Herobrine, the {{big bad}} of ''Animation vs. Minecraft'', it has also been pursued by King which is what leads to the main cast in stopping him.

* MultiCharacterTitle: The title of the web animation refers to the titular animator, Alan Becker, and the stick figures that Alan has created (victim, The Chosen One, The Dark Lord, & The Second Coming) or have originated from an in-universe web animation (Green, Blue, Yellow, & Red).

** The plot of Animation vs. Super Mario Bros. is a lot simpler with regards to conflict: Stick figure angers video game character on accident, leading to a brawl until everyone decides to be friends; whereas the other "Animation vs. [media name]" videos in the series tend to have higher stakes. The video is also a lot shorter with its runtime being ~5 minutes long, while other standalone adventures had a runtime of over 10 minutes.
** The entire premise of Animation vs. Math completely deviates from the entire franchise with The Second Coming [[ExcusePlot waking up]] in an unknown dimension with his friends absent unlike other episodes where it always takes place in Alan's computer and TSC's friends would fight alongside him. It's also the first standalone adventure where the opponent is not from pop-culture. The ending is left ambiguous only showing The Second Coming leaving through a mysterious portal presumably returning back home.

* OrderVersusChaos: Simply put, BothSidesHaveAPoint. While the animator (order) was explicitly villainous in the first episode, The Chosen One (chaos) is pretty destructive even towards bystanders, and the animator lets the violent little stick figure live (your mileage may vary whether this was a FateWorseThanDeath). In episode two, The Chosen One throws the first punch, and the animator is simply trying to survive.
* PartyScattering: All five of the main cast The Second Coming, Green, Blue, Yellow, and Red are always together with one of the members being absent from time to time. But some adventures have all of them being separated from each other.
** In "The Witch", all of them end up separated thanks to the titular witch; Blue gets tricked by the witch impersonating as TSC while Red, Yellow, and Green are subtly taken away by the witch impersonating as Blue leaving all of them with their bodies changed into various mobs and blocks. This leaves TSC alone to find his friends with the help of Red's pig in order to reunite together and fight the witch.
** In "Parkour", the main cast gets unwittingly separated when [[spoiler:they participate in Purple's parkour course never realizing they would end up trapped. It's later revealed that Purple is working for King who plans to capture the main cast in order to steal the Minecraft game icon from Alan's computer. When the main characters realize they cannot leave, they do everything they can to try to escape, leading to a chain of events where the stick figures end up in different worlds; Green and Red's pig end up in a Nether bastion, TSC and Red end up in a desert, and Yellow and Blue end up in a village]]. This takes a couple of episodes for them to reunite together.
** In "The Ultimate Weapon" where they get reunited, they get separated ''again'' [[spoiler:and just like last time, they end up in the many different worlds through the Nether portals in the Nether thanks to King gaining the Minecraft icon. The Second Coming ends up in the deep dark caves, Red ends up in a school of monsters, Yellow and Blue end up in the same village, and Green ends up in the Note Block Universe]]. This takes a couple of episodes for them to reunite together like before, now with the help of the various allies they recruit from their adventures.

** [[AuthorPowers Noogai]], [[EmpoweredBadassNormal The Chosen One]] and [[TheRival The Dark Lord]] all have [[SuperpowerLottery god-like power]] [[RealityWarper in a way]] [[FlyingBrick or another]].
** By the same standard, so does [[spoiler:The Second Coming once his latent superpowers are revealed in ''The Showdown.'']]
** Arguably, anyone controlling at least one Master Block [[RealityWarper counts as this]] within the world of [=AvM=].

* PlotHole: ''Animator Vs Animation V'' contradicts some plot points from the third and fourth episode.
** ''The Virus'' and ''The Flashback'' reveal that The Chosen One never died, which contradicts both the file description in ''Animator Vs Animation IV'', which says that The Second Coming is a resurrection of The Chosen One and The Second Coming's name.
** ''The Flashback'' shows that after The Chosen One and The Dark Lord escaped Alan's computer at the end of ''Animator vs. Animation III'', they started to wreak havoc on the internet. Despite this, Alan thought they were dead until ''The Virus'', which canonically happens about seven years after they escaped. Realistically, Alan should have learned that the two stick figures he created were causing chaos on the internet shortly after they escaped his computer.

** The main characters-- The Second Coming, Green, Blue, Yellow, and Red are simple stick figures but awesome fighters as most of their adventures and skills stem from the many video games they play, such as Franchise/SuperMarioBros, VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends, [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldandSilver Pokemon]], and particularly VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}. They also enjoy watching other people play video games and Website/{{YouTube}} action videos of other stick figures fighting each other.
** Purple is very knowledgeable and skilled in Minecraft as well as King who dedicated his life to learn everything about the game and the mysteries behind it in order to gain the most powerful item and destroy Minecraft.

** Many of the [[LivingProgram desktop icons]] qualify as this when they all work together and ally with [[TheDragon The Dark Lord]] to fight The Chosen One. They all have unique designs and some have a wide range of abilities such as {{flight}}, [[EyeBeams laser beams]], or {{extendable arms}}.
** The four mercenaries, like the desktop icons, are a group of stick figures each of them having their own style of animation and abilities who oppose The Chosen One. All of them are under the leadership of [[spoiler:victim, the first stick figure created by Alan]], who runs an organization in a world beyond the boundaries of the internet.

** In an AVA Short, "The Showdown", Both TCO and TDL are battling each other throughout the internet and TCO uses a video as a weapon against TDL. That video is the same one that ''they're in'' and it features ''both of them'' fighting each other.
** In an AVM Short, "The King", King finds a television streaming the events of ''Animation vs. Minecraft'' which is what leads King to discover that the main cast is in possession of the Master Block that he was looking for.

* RunningGag: The animator's required essay isn't safe from his stick figures' presence, being shoryuken'd in ''II'', destroyed by TSC's battle with Clippy in ''III'', and exploded by TNT in ''vs. Minecraft''.
** Of note: In ''vs. Minecraft'', he wises up and has a backup copy of the essay saved, but it gets blown up too. He also has a copy in the "STORAGE" folder [[RunningGagStumbles that remains untouched.]]

** When the animator goes over what to name his new stick figure in II, he goes through "victim", "killer", "BEAST", and then finally stops on "The Chosen One".

** A common theme in the building competitions where TSC would judge each building starting from Red who would have the simplest building to Green who would have a complex building (being the architect expert) while Yellow and Blue would be in-between resulting in Green being the winner.

** The note block episodes cements the trend of ever-larger scenarios regarding them. "Note Blocks" is merely Green and co. experimenting with note block combinations and keeping the absurdities to a relative mum. "Note Block Battle", while still a friendly affair, kicks it up a notch by having it be a rock duo between himself and the other FSF. Above and beyond is where "Note Block Universe" reaches in terms of scale: a high-stakes chase scene set in a dimension where everyone has an innate capacity for music and whose day-to-day culture centers around melodies.

** The animator sends AIM messages to a programmer friend in ''II''.
** The animator's Facebook page is open in ''IV'', and he communicates with someone off-screen out loud. At the end, the Second Coming starts speaking in text, whereupon the Animator creates a text box to reciprocate; this carries over to the first ''[=AvA=] Short.''

** In the ''[=AvM Shorts=]'' as of ''Note Block Universe'', the stick figures sometimes communicate with animated drawings above their heads. As shown in "Lush Caves," they can be physically interacted with.

* SoftReboot: ''Animator vs. Animation IV'' effectively serves as this, taking place several years after Alan's original PC was destroyed by The Chosen One and The Dark Lord in ''III''. What sets this apart from the previous entries in the series is that the characters introduced here make peace with the animator and become series mainstays, setting up the series to showcase the stick figures' adventures without having to deal with an antagonistic animator.
* StandaloneEpisode: A lot of the standalone adventures all qualify as this as each of them have their own self-contained story of our main cast exploring different aspects and fighting different enemies without needing to understand the entirety of the franchise. The only exception to this is ''Animation vs. League of Legends'' as it requires watching Season 1 of the AVM Shorts series for someone to understand who the purple stick figure is.
* StatusQuoIsGod: In most entries from ''The Rediscovery'' onward, any changes made in episodes are completely undone by the start of the next. Arc episodes are ''always'' exceptions, the largest example occurring in ''The King'' where [[spoiler:King adopts Purple and the Minecraft game icon is finally returned to its original location in the taskbar (also, Yellow keeps the Command Block staff that King gave him, something which he is shown using in the first episode of the fourth season)]].

* StylisticSuck: The characters from video games normally use their original animations, especially when they're in their home game, [[AnimationBump unless they do something that's not possible]] in their game. This is especially noticeable with the Minecraft characters, who can go from detailed body gestures to simply gliding as they walked.
* SuddenlySpeaking: Downplayed.
** The stick figures never speak per se apart from the Second Coming briefly speaking in text in ''[=AvA=] IV'' and ''[=AvA=] but they do occasionally make sounds beyond the normal whooshing movements and footsteps.
** In ''The Building Contest'', the Second Coming falls asleep while everyone else is building, snoring before the timer goes off.
** In ''The Dolphin Kingdom'', Green sobs after everyone escapes from a swarm of drowned, losing hope that they'll be able to return home and see the Second Coming again.
** In ''Cave Spider Roller Coaster'', everyone pants heavily, catching their breath, after destroying the Nether portal.
** In ''Titan Ravager'', Blue and Yellow's conversation is depicted with drawings above their heads. The same is true with Red and the Second Coming in ''Lush Caves'', with the added effect of being able to physically interact with the drawings, implying that they're not just for the benefit of the audience.
** In ''Note Block Universe'', Green initially tries asking where Purple went with the usual drawings, but isn't understood. He gets it across with a Note Block, but when the Villagers get rid of it, Green quickly learns how to make the noises himself in order to proceed. It's later shown that Purple learned to do the same.
** In Actual Short ''Faces'', the cat face that The Second Coming draws on Red allows the latter to make cat noises. The :P face drawn on Blue makes him make deep reverb noises.
* ToBeContinued: Commonly used in cliffhangers with a blank screen and the words "to be continued" typically seen in story arcs such as the AVA Shorts and the AVM Shorts.

* UmbrellasAreLightningRods: In the short "Rainstorm", all of the students of Monster School are leaving school for the day during a rainstorm. Endie, however, isn't able leave due to being an enderman as they are weak to water. Red brings an umbrella to protect him from the rain and it works, allowing him to meet up with his friends, that is until a lightning strike destroys the umbrella.

** In 2020, after the ''[=AvA=]'' series finished, Alan released "Animator vs. Animation V", which is really just the 4 episodes edited together plus a new soundtrack.

* VagueAge: Due to the artstyle of the stick figures as well as the lack of voices, the ages of the main cast and [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Purple]] is left relatively unclear. However, the existence of [[spoiler:Purple's parents (the mother having been shown to be dead) and King (who had a son who was killed by a fatal error)]] suggests that they're somewhere in-between their late teens and early adulthood.
* VersusTitle: The series as a whole is called ''Animator vs. Animation'' and the standalone adventures are called ''Animation vs. [media name]''. The exceptions of this are the ''An Actual Shorts'' series (except for King Orange vs. The Dark Lord), and ''Blue's New Superpower''.

** The first one started with a stick figure named "victim" who, after a brief fight with the animator, ends up (seemingly) deleted as well as all of victim's clones.
** The second video had a another but stronger stick figure named "The Chosen One" who ends up enslaved and makes a return escaping in III. The third one had the addition of a red stick figure named "The Dark Lord" created to rival TCO, but of course ends up as a another victim due to the animator being ignorant that he was about to die.
** The fourth installment had a new batch stick figures, The Second Coming and The Fighting Stick Figures. When the animator deletes the latter, TSC is the only one left to resist the animator's wrath, but the two sides come to a truce with the animator reviving TSC's friends and allowing them free autonomy on his computer, ending the animator's reign of terror against the stick figures.
* VillainOfTheWeek: The majority of the series' episodes have a lot of [[OneShotCharacter one-shot antagonists]] on many of his videos, specifically from the [=AvM=] shorts (e.g, The Killer Rabbit, The Cave Spiders, and The Witch) and the standalone adventures, albeit some of them end up becoming friends.
* TheVoiceless: Everyone, with the exception of Clippy, the Animator, The Second Coming, and Website/YouTube. Notably, [=YouTube=] communicates using annotation boxes and splicing together voice clips from different videos, making MadLibsDialogue. This is PlayedWith for The Second Coming in the Actual Short "Music Lesson" in the sense that he's only able to make "noises" via orange text.

** The Second Coming: TheLeader or TheHero
** Green: TheLancer, TheFace
** Blue: TheHeart
** Yellow: TheSmartGuy
** Red: TheBigGuy

* FiveManEnsemble:

* 2017 -- ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z9qOlZFn8Y&list=PL7z8SQeih5Aet2MFc30UHNDuX3N7rAknT&index=63 StickFIgureGreen]]''

* 2022 -- ''[[https://twitter.com/alanthebecker/status/1527046897373962245 HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALAN BECKER]]''

That's the work in a nutshell. But the fun part? [[SequelEscalation The craziness that ensues goes on a higher level with each new installment!]]