History YMMV / AnimatorVsAnimation

*** The second contender is when [[spoiler:he created the [=ViraBots=]. Him ending one to Alan ''may'' be justified, seeing how Alan treated him, but outright planning to do the same to every computer in the world is one step too far. [[EvenEvilHasStandards The Chosen One even came to save Alan after this.]]]]

** [[spoiler:The Second Coming's friends are all dead, the Chosen One has been neutralized, the Second Coming themselves has been beaten to an inch of their life, and the Dark Lord is about to send his swarm of [=ViraBots=] to ravage the internet. The Second Coming ends up tapping into his latent abilities, regenerating all his wounds, and proceeds to destroy all of the [=ViraBots=] ''and'' the Dark Lord with the Chosen One's repertoire of powers, except turned up since this time ItsPersonal. [[CallBack "The Chosen One's Return"]], indeed.]]

** [[spoiler:Dark Blue is a good contender for the most hated character in the series, as his treatment of Purple is not only [[RealismInducedHorror realistic]], but also sad and rage-inducing due to Purple being a very likeable and sympathetic character]].

** Some of the newer fans [[OlderThanTheyThink who didn't know about the series before]] ''[[OlderThanTheyThink vs. Minecraft]]'' came out refer to the Chosen One as "Black". It's more complicated with the Dark Lord, who is not the only red stick in the series, but he's usually referred to as "Evil Red" or something similar. Even those who ''do'' know their names tend to shorten them down to Chosen and Dark or TCO and TDL, respectively.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: ''Animation vs. Arcade Games'' features a fictional emulator named "Classic Arcade Game Emulator". This would have been the perfect opportunity to use MAME instead, an actual well-known emulator for arcade games, as all applications up to this point have been based in reality.

* CaptainObviousReveal: Excluding some [[EpilepticTrees weirder theories]], the majority of the fans '''immediately''' - and correctly - guessed that the mysterious grey stick figure from the end of "Wanted" is [[spoiler:victim]], as soon as they saw him. Suffice to say, "The Box" directly confirming this caused less "Wait, that's [[spoiler:victim]]?!" and more "Nice to have confirmation that's [[spoiler:victim]]".

** The fans that don't like [[JerkassToOne Bob]] hate him for this very reason: despite being a mere asshole, his bullying of Green is deemed extremely hate-inducing which eventually led to Green burying him under the taskbar.

** Some of the newer fans [[OlderThanTheyThink who didn't know about the series before]] ''[[OlderThanTheyThink vs. Minecraft]]'' came out refer to the Chosen One as "Black". It's more complicated with the Dark Lord, who is not the only red stick in the series, but he's usually referred to as "Evil Red" or something similar. Even those who ''do'' know their names tend to shorten them down to Chosen and Dark or TCO amd TDL, respectively.

** Some of the newer fans [[OlderThanTheyThink who didn't know about the series before]] ''[[OlderThanTheyThink vs. Minecraft]]'' came out refer to the Chosen One as "Black". It's more complicated with the Dark Lord, who is not the only red stick in the series, but he's usually referred to as "Evil Red" or something similar. Even those who ''do'' know their names tend to shorten them down to Chosen and Dark, respectively.

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

** The Second Coming is very often referred to as TSC, just Second or, more famously, Orange. The lattermost eventually became an AscendedFanNickname. This caused some confusion when we were introduced to another orange stick figure: most fans decided to call him King Orange. While he was first offcially called "King", King Orange was also accepted as a canon name and like Orange for TSC, became an AscendedFanNickname, though a certain portion of the fanbase (mostly the one on Website/{{Tumblr}}) instead took the name "[[FluffyTheTerrible Mango Tango]]", based on his color on a hexcode site.
** Some of the newer fans [[OlderThanTheyThink who didn't know about the series before]] ''[[OlderThanTheyThink vs. Minecraft]]'' came out refer to the Chosen One as "Black". It's more complicated with the Dark Lord, who is not the only red stick in the series, but he's usually referred to as "Evil Red". Even those who ''do'' know their names tend to shorten them down to Chosen and Dark, respectively.

** ''Every'' name for the Mercenaries is one, and this was purposefully done as so fans could have fun with their own names.
** victim is sometimes called Vic for short.

** [[OutdatedByCanon Fanon Victim]] vs. [[FromNobodyToNightmare Canon Victim]][[labelnote:Explanation (major spoilers!)]]Before he officially returned in ''Animator vs. Animation VI'', fans often theorized how victim's return would be like. A somewhat-big section of them decided he would be one of the good guys and an ally to the heroic stick figures, often as an incorporeal ghost. When the real victim returned and announced himself to be a CorruptCorporateExecutive who [[ColdBloodedTorture tortures]] the Chosen One for information, all in his relentless desire to get revenge on the Animator, it caused a major reaction within the fans who loved "[[WesternAnimation Victim, the Friendly Ghost]]", ranging from disbelief/anger that the canon victim was nothing like they wanted him to be, to excitement and joy, quickly accepting the canon victim.[[/labelnote]]

*** It should also be noted that Herobrine did not even reprimend them.

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: Major villains such as [[AxCrazy the Dark Lord]] and [[LeanAndMean King Orange]], and even the minor ones like the [[MagicKnight Witch]] and the [[TheAssimilator Orb]], are found ''way'' likeable because of their awesome soundtracks and great skills, achieving amazing things larger than life. Other characters, on the other hand, are just really despicable to admire.
** The students of Monster School are complete assholes to [[ButtMonkey Red]] as they make it a living hell for him, from sabotaging Red in Herobrine's classes, pretending to help him, disregarding Red despite being helpful to them, and making fun of him for failing. Though he did gain the respect of Skellington, Endie, and Spider, everyone else [[EnemyMine worked together]] to focus more on beating up Red for hindering them rather than finishing the final test.[[note]]They did congratulate the Yellow Team when they won, heowever.[[/note]]
** The fans that don't like Bob hate him for this very reason: despite being a mere asshole, his bullying of Green is deemed extremely hate-inducing.

** The Second Coming is very often referred to as TSC, just Second or, more famously, Orange. The lattermost eventually became an AscendedFanNickname. This caused some confusion when we were introduced to another orange stick figure: most fans decided to call him King Orange, which eventually became his official name, though a certain portion of the fanbase (mostly the one on Website/{{Tumblr}}) instead took the name "[[FluffyTheTerrible Mango Tango]]", based on his color on a hexcode site.

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains:
** The students of Monster School are complete assholes to [[ButtMonkey Red]] as they make it a living hell for him, from sabotaging Red in Herobrine's classes, pretending to help him, disregarding Red despite being helpful to them, and making fun of him for failing. Though he did gain the respect of Skellington, Endie, and Spider, everyone else [[EnemyMine worked together]] to focus more on beating up Red for hindering them rather than finishing the final test.[[note]]They did congratulate the Yellow Team when they won, heowever.[[/note]] Likewise, major villains such as [[AxCrazy the Dark Lord]] and [[LeanAndMean King Orange]], and even the minor ones like the [[MagicKnight Witch]] and the [[TheAssimilator Orb]], are found ''way'' likeable.

** [[OutdatedByCanon Fanon Victim]] vs. [[FromNobodyToNightmare Canon Victim]][[labelnote:Explanation (major spoilers!)]]Before he officially returned in ''Animator vs. Animation VI'', fans often theorized how victim's return would be like. A somewhat-big section of them decided he would be one of the good guys and an ally to the heroic stick figures, often as an incorporeal ghost. When the real victim returned and announced himself to be a CorruptCorporateExecutive who [[ColdBloodedTortures tortures]] the Chosen One for information, all in his relentless desire to get revenge on the Animator, it caused a major reaction within the fans who loved "[[WesternAnimation Victim, the Friendly Ghost]]", ranging from disbelief/anger that the canon victim was nothing like they wanted him to be, to excitement and joy, quickly accepting the canon victim.[[/labelnote]]

** The animator. He creates stick figures. Then you realize that he converts his second creation to a pop-up blocker at the end of II, until the opening of III. [[FridgeLogic You could take this as him testing things to create a homemade pop-up blocker that works the whole time he's been duking it out with his creation]]. Furthermore, in ''Animator vs. Animation III'', is the animator a totalitarian desperately clinging to his reign of terror, or a PhysicalGod desperately trying to [[WellIntentionedExtremist keep his subjects from ]][[NiceJobBreakingItHero wiping themselves from existence]]?
** The stick figures: [[ArtificialIntelligence sentient beings]] tortured and enslaved, or simply some self-inflicted [[ComputerVirus malicious code]]? [[note]]This one has an InUniverse application; On one hand, Avast! Antivirus recognized the Chosen One as a virus in 2. On the other hand, a plot-relevant side-ad link in the beginning of III implies that stick figure enslavement isn't an uncommon occurrence.[[/note]]
** Also in ''Animator vs. Animation III'', when the two sticks teamed up, was it because The Chosen One showed who the Dark Lord's ''real'' enemy is or did he force him to work for him under the threat of death?

** In "The End", did Purple [[spoiler: cruelly betray Blue and Green trading their precious lives for the dragon egg]], or were Blue and Green overacting in a game where they could just [[ForgotAboutHisPowers respawn?]]
*** It's also possible that they didn't want to gamble that the respawn mechanic would still work in Purple's world; it could have been Hardcore mode for all they knew, or at the very least they could have thought that they could only respawn if they died in a world with their original fighting window. With this in mind, either it ''was'' in Hardcore mode and Blue and Green's reaction was perfectly justified, or it wasn't and [[spoiler:Purple just didn't think to fill them in before abandoning them (which is still a jerk move but not MoralEventHorizon levels)]].

*** Conversely, it's possible that Second Coming didn't immediately realize that the characters were sentient and animate in the game itself (considering he saw everyone just standing there after the animator left), and therefore didn't think much of swiping one to bring to his world. Note that he does originally seem willing to give the Totodile back, moving to hand it to the cop, and only resists when the Totodile makes it clear that it doesn't want to leave him (which is something no-one else considers).[[labelnote:Fun Fact]]This phenomenon is actually canon to Pokemon lore: In Diamond and Pearl--the same generation as the animation's [=HeartGold=], for that matter--you're forced to swipe Professor Rowan's Pokemon to defend yourself from some wild Starly, and he basically says that he has to let you keep them because they've imprinted on you, so he can't hand them out to anyone else.[[/labelnote]] When he later entered the game, the Totodile rejoined him willingly, every other Pokemon was caught in the wild, and he beat every gym fair and square. Apart from ''maybe'' the fact that he took the Totodile again (which is the first thing Ethan calls him out for when they meet at the Pokemon League), he didn't really do that much wrong in the context of the game. Ethan [[{{Hypocrite}} broke rules himself]] by catching Pokemon without Alan's input, even exiting the game itself to fight the Second Coming.
** His shocked reaction at the end of ''vs. Pokémon'' notwithstanding, some theorize, between that and ''vs. Super Mario Bros'', that the animator actually ''wants'' the stick figures to play around with his games, since he'd have minimal reason to connect the consoles to his computer otherwise.

** TheReveal also puts the events of ''vs. League of Legends'' into question. People have wondered why Purple left the Stick Gang's Crystal when it was one hit away from destruction, to go kill the Second Coming attacking his Crystal. The working theory thus far was that the worm creature he was riding did this of its own accord without Purple's control. However, knowing [[spoiler:Purple's later betrayal]] brings up the possibility that [[spoiler:he intentionally did that to throw the fight; so he could be sad about the loss and prompt the Stick Gang to extend a friendly hand to him, allowing him to manipulate them into the Parkour course later.]]
** [[spoiler:Did King abandon Purple because [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he'd done his job]]; or did he know enough that doing so will upset Purple, prompting him to run away to the Outernet, where he will be safe from King's world-destroying plan?]]
** At the beginning of "Monster School", Herobrine (who is the teacher) looks Red over before chucking him into the classroom. Did he not recoginze Red from ''Animation vs. Minecraft'' and decided he was just a new monster or did he actually recognize him and force him to go through the class as petty revenge? The latter would also explain why he ignored the obvious sabotage from the other monsters and just kept failing Red.

** For all the details about [[spoiler: Purple's backstory]] we get in "Note Block Universe", it still begs the question as to what he was hoping to accomplish with regards to [[spoiler: his Dark Blue parent. Was Purple just subconciously still trying to live up to Dark Blue's expectations of strength, or did Purple hope to actually find Dark Blue one day? If it's the latter, did Purple want to gain Dark Blue's approval by showing how strong he became, or did he want to take revenge on Dark Blue for abandoning him once he became strong enough to actually win that fight? This also calls into question what the actual dynamic between Purple and King was; was Purple cooperating with King because they shared a common goal of gaining power, just for different ends? (Note that Purple clearly expected King to share, and it's implied with one of the map animations that King actually promised this to gain Purple's cooperation.) Or did Purple see King as a ParentalSubstitute and so yearned for King's approval the same way he once yearned for Dark Blue's?]]

** When he was created, did The Chosen One become destructive out of its own free will or was it programmed to fight his creator as part Alan's desire for a greater challenge? In III, it's shown that stick figures can be programmed into doing certain orders and [[GrewBeyondTheirProgramming can grow beyond their code]] as was the case for The Dark Lord whose mission was the destroy The Chosen One but later on allied with him instead. If the reason is the latter, TCO's origin story would have made a lot more sense why he was the way he was.
** When the titular Chef threw the Stick Gang out after discovering the charred doughnut, was it really because he was such a perfectionist that one bad doughnut failed them despite everything else being perfect, or was he more angry at the attempted deception? He seemed willing to complete the trade with only two out of three doughnuts visible; and the willingness to try to cover up, rather than own up to, a mistake in something being served to someone else is not a quality you want a chef to have. It's also possible he was upset at them not trying again on their own, since they could have gone through the ChainOfDeals again to get more cooking oil, and took this as a sign that they weren't taking the cooking seriously enough and were too willing to cut corners.

** The recurring song that plays throughout "Monster School" isn't half bad, especially during the scenes where the yellow team shines.

* CatharsisFactor: Watching the Second Coming beat the living shit out of [[spoiler:the Dark Lord]] was incredibly satisfying, given what he has done, especially [[spoiler:killing the Fighting Stick Figures]].
* CommonKnowledge: After "The Showdown" came out, many fans said that [[spoiler:The Second Coming's newly acquired powers are the same as The Chosen One's]], even though [[spoiler:their only similar powers are super strength and a differently animated EyeBeam while none of their other powers are shared.]]
* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler:[[KnightOfCerebus The Dark Lord]] was created by the Animator with the intent of stopping TheChosenOne's attack on his computer, but instead turned against his creator and teamed up with his target to destroy the animator's computer, killing every sapient program in it. Upon escaping into the Internet, the Dark Lord would terrorize and slaughter the citizens of various websites, before creating an army of {{Computer Virus}}es with the intentions of destroying as many computers as he could [[ForTheEvulz for no particular reason]], uncaring of how many programs would die because of it. When the newly-redeemed Chosen One and other stick figures try to stop him, the Dark Lord tries to kill his years-long friend, temporarily [[HeroKiller kills the Fighting Stick Figures]], and brutally injures the Second Coming. Wanting nothing more than to cause as much destruction as possible, the Dark Lord proves himself to be the most ruthless villain of the series.]]

** In ''Piggie Love'', Red's pig breeds with his new wife right in front of the audience at their wedding with the only thing shown being the stick figures' horrified reactions.

** The Animator can get hit with this. While he's ultimately evil for the first four entries, it's tempting to excuse his actions, especially in ''III'' and ''IV'' since he spends most of them on the defensive, ignoring that he caused the problem in the first place by enslaving the Chosen One for four years in ''III'' and attacking harmless stick figures just having fun in ''IV''.
** The Dark Lord, [[AxCrazy of all people]], also sometimes gains sympathy or some justification for his actions as the Animator simply didn't care about his death. Others also try to give another excuse, saying that [[spoiler:the Chosen One "betrayed" him (in fact, the Chosen One showed no signs of actual hostility and the Dark Lord was the one that tried to kill him)]]. In fact, some fans even say the Dark Lord is not even evil in the first place, but simply lashing out due to betrayal.
* EvilIsCool: Most villains tend to be too cool (or in some cases [[FlatCharacter too bland]]) to be hated, but a special mention goes out to these three:

** Despite being a total jerkass to his minions, many people still like King for basically being the Second Coming's {{Foil}} and his association with RealityWarper abilities.

** The orange stick figure is canonically called the Second Coming. However, most viewers are split between calling the Second Coming by his canon name (sometimes omitting the "The"), or just calling him "Orange" to fit the others. This got a bit awkward when another orange stick figure in [[spoiler:King]] was revealed. Some viewers compromised by calling the new one "Basic Orange"[[note]]He has the small, solid-colored head of the fighting stick figures instead of the Second Coming's larger, hollow-colored head.[[/note]], "Big/Tall Orange" or "Orange Giant"[[note]]He towers over the other stick figures.[[/note]], "King Orange"[[note]]He wears a crown and rules over the Piglin Brutes[[/note]], "Evil Orange"[[note]][[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin He's orange and evil]].[[/note]], "Dark Orange"[[note]]He's a darker shade of orange than the Second Coming[[/note]], or "[[TomTheDarkLord Mango Tango]]"[[note]]Fans gave him this nickname from a hexcode site.[[/note]]. Then it got even more complicated when "The Raid" revealed that his name is actually King, rendering every other name he had before a Fan Nickname.
*** Oddly, Alan stated [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qrnKpWmMTQ in this video]] that he also calls the Second Coming "Orange" on a regular basis, despite calling the Chosen One and the Dark Lord by their actual names. Even after that "other stick figure" was revealed.
** The Fighting Stick Figures are officially called just "[=StickFigure[Color]=]". However, everyone just shortens it to Green, Blue, Yellow, & Red for simplicity. Some later videos show that the Fighting Stick Figures refer to themselves as their colors as well, as seen in ''Animator vs. Animation V'' where Yellow types "[[CapsLock ITSMEYELLOW]]" as the "Publisher".
** Some of the newer fans [[OlderThanTheyThink who didn't know about the series before]] ''[[OlderThanTheyThink vs. Minecraft]]'' came out refer to the Chosen One as "Black". It's more complicated with the Dark Lord, who is not the only red stick in the series, but he's usually referred to as "Evil Red".
** If the fan-made subtitles of earlier episodes are any indication, the favored name for Red's pet pigs is [[VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode Reuben]].
** Sticking with the naming theme, [[spoiler:Purple's parents have been referred to as Pink and Dark Blue/Navy Blue/Indigo, the latter being to avoid confusion with the Blue we already know and love.]]
** Similarly, [[spoiler:King's son has been christened to either "Dark Yellow" or "Gold"]].
** While it isn't confirmed that the mobs in "Monster School" share their names with their counterparts in the Willcraft series, that's what a lot of fans default to.
** Between the villager chef's harsh perfectionism and his surprising fighting skills, a lot of commenters have taken to calling him Creator/GordonRamsay.

** While ''Villagers'' already confirmed the presence of stick figures on computers apart from Alan's, ''Lush Caves'' implies that stick figures can travel to computers that don't have pre-existing stick figures on them, and Minecraft works as a method of travel between them. Imagine if the stick figures went on a Multiplayer server or Realms world and visited some of the (probably very confused) players.

** In II, AIM gets killed and the Animator sends it to Heaven. In October of 2017, it was announced that AIM would shut down for good in December.

* HesJustHiding: Some fans think that [[spoiler:The Dark Lord survived at the end of "The Showdown"]]. It's mainly because of how powerful he is and that [[spoiler:if you look closely, The Second Coming's laser eyes didn't stop at the mountain, leading fans to think that The Dark Lord was blasted far behind the mountain, and didn't die in the explosion]]. ShrugOfGod when it comes to his fate only fuels the fans to think this.

** In the AVM Short "Potions", a pig accidentally gains superpowers after drinking every single potion possible and becomes a terrifying fighter. Come ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' following the inclusion of ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', you can get a Mii Costume of a ''Minecraft'' Pig for the Mii Brawler who fights in a very similar manner.

** The AVM Short "The Warden" has the Second Coming calm down the Warden by playing it a familiar song. In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd7cVNeb0Uk The Secrets Of Minecraft: How We're Making The Warden]], Narrator manages to stop the Warden from attacking him by playing a song on his guitar.

* IKnewIt:
** After the end of "The Virus" showed that The Chosen One survived, many fans correctly guessed that The Dark Lord is also alive.
** Following the reveal at the end of "Wanted" of the dark gray stick figure boss of the organization, many fans predicted that his identity was victim from [=AvA1=], which "The Box" confirmed.
* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: The students of monster school are complete assholes to [[ButtMonkey Red]] as they make it a living hell for him, from sabotaging Red to excel in Herobrine's classes, pretending to help him, disregarding Red despite being helpful to them, and making fun of him for failing. Though he did gain the respect of Skellington, Endie, and Spider, everyone else [[EnemyMine worked together]] to focus more on beating up Red for hindering them rather than finishing the final test.[[note]]They did congratulate Red's Team when they won heowever[[/note]] Likewise, major villains such as [[AxCrazy The Dark Lord]] and [[LeanAndMean King]] and even mimor ones like the [[MagicKnight Witch]] and the [[TheAssimilator Lucky Orb]] are admirable and are found ''way'' likeable.

** Yes, the animator's technically the BigBad until the end of ''IV'' where he became the BigGood instead, but given what a dangerous psycho the Chosen One is, it's hard not to feel bad for him and the icons who come to his aid, especially since the events of ''III'' are just him acting in self-defence. [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation As a matter of fact, some viewers still think the Animator was the good guy of the series.]]
** The Second Coming starts his revenge by going out of his way to insult all of the animator's FB friends before escaping to his phone and destroying its UI, but considering this was prompted by the Animator basically murdering all of the Second Coming's friends right before his eyes, it's hard to blame him.

** King is an EvilGenius capable of RealityWarper abilities and is a BadBoss who [[spoiler:ditched Purple once he has the Master Block]], but is still a complete badass who's fight with the Second Coming in "The Ultimate Weapon" is one of the best moments in the series. Oh, and he can tank multiple hits from ''the Warden''.

** [[AsHimself Alan Becker]], aka "[[AntagonistTitle the animator]]", is the owner of the two computers where the series takes place. For a challenge, the animator creates stick figures with the sole purpose of killing them in a fight. Growing a particular rivalry with his strongest creation, TheChosenOne, he first enslaves him and then creates [[AxCrazy the Dark Lord]] with the sole intention of killing his previous creation, that plan backfiring when they team up due to his LackOfEmpathy. Now on his second computer, the animator accidentally creates another stick figure and ultimately has a change of heart after seeing that his creation could teach him to be a better artist, letting him and his friends have fun on the computer. Despite all what they've done to each other, when the Chosen One reveals himself to be alive, the Animator decides to team up with him to take down the Dark Lord, who's become focused on destroying computers. When battling his creations, the Animator is just as likely to decimate the competition as he is to get decimated by them, both in a purely awesome matter and bouncing back every time.
** TheChosenOne is the most powerful of the animator's creations. Created for the purpose of giving a challenging fight, the Chosen One immediately escapes to wreck havoc on the main computer, using a combination of his powers and resourcefulness to defeat the programs that tried to stop him. Upon being enslaved, the Chosen One frees himself several years later by using the animator's own mouse cursor, and when the Animator creates [[KnightOfCerebus the Dark Lord]] to kill him, the Chosen One traps him in ''VideoGame/{{Minesweeper}}'' to take him out of the fight, and later convinces him to help him destroy the animator's computer and escape his tyranny. Upon finding out that the Dark Lord intends to destroy countless computers across the world with viruses, [[EvenEvilHasStandards the Chosen One grows horrified with his former friend]], and teams up with the animator to take him down. When the Second Coming does what he couldn't by defeating the Dark Lord and his army, the Chosen One shows his respect by a PoseOfSupplication.
** [[BadassTeacher Herobrine]] is the mysterious godlike entity hailing from the world of Minecraft. Having first been introduced possessing the Red Stick Figure and using him to steal the Minecraft Game Icon, Herobrine serves as the first real threat that stick figures have to face, forcing them to face legions of mobs and engaging in a brutal beatdown that leaves them on their last legs. Returning years later having come BackFromTheDead, Herobrine now runs a Monster School where he teaches various mobs how to effectively kill players, as well as helping them advance in other avenues. Submitting his students to brutal trials that force them to think outside of the box, before ending things off with a race to the finish. Realizing that four of his students have fled the scene, Herobrine goes after them and winds up at odds with King. Upon seeing that King was putting his students in danger, Herobrine proceeds to engage in a One-on-One brawl with him, stopping at nothing in order to see his adversary's defeat. Proving himself to be one of the most powerful entities you could ever be at odds with, Herobrine is one teacher you don't want to mess with.
** [[WoobieDestroyerofWorlds King]] is a vengeful stick figure who seeks the destruction of the Minecraft world for [[spoiler:losing his son in a simulation of the game. Researching everything there is to know about the game, King constructs a staff that is capable of channeling the power of in-game blocks and using them as a source of power. He then proceeds to seek out the Minecraft Game Icon in order to accomplish his ultimate goal of [[OmnicidalManiac destroying Minecraft]]. To accomplish this, he has his [[TheDragon second-in-command]], Purple, retrieve it for him, with him ultimately succeeding in doing so. King stops at nothing to destroy the world, fighting off the Stick Gang, their ally mobs, and even godlike figures such as Herobrine, [[OneManArmy managing to fend them off all on his own and ultimately winning]]. Whenever he's outnumbered or surrounded, the King uses his quick thinking and distractions to turn the tables and immediately get the upper hand again. Nearly succeeding in his quest, King only is stopped when he has a [[HeelFaceTurn change of heart]], gives up the staff and the Minecraft Game Icon, and instead chooses to embrace Purple as a son, ultimately getting something better in the end]].

* MorePopularSpinOff: [=AvM=] as a whole dominated the host channel in later years, to the extent that many newer viewers have no idea it was a originally a spin-off for [=AvA=] and if they did, it would be ignored because it doesn't have ''Minecraft'' content.

** In ''[[https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NcnmwZYSLzI An Actual Short - New Wallpaper]]'', many people were surprised to see that Alan is a father when his daughter called him; but it's not the first time Alan has featured his young child before, as shown in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM8AN2wppAQ this video]] when he was developing his video, ''Animation vs. [=Youtube=]''.

** The Chosen One and the Dark Lord wrecking the animator's computer at the end of ''Animator vs. Animation III''.

** The appearance of a sixth, purple stick figure at the very end of "The Nether."

** [[spoiler:Caught between a laser and a flamethrower courtesy of the Chosen One, the [=ViraBot=] flees into the the computer interface itself, takes control of it to smack the Chosen One around with various windows and text boxes, and when they all break apart, he forms the fragments into a giant spider. Shortly after that, the Chosen One basically goes [[Franchise/DragonBall Super Saiyan]].]]

** In the AVM short "The End", when the Ender Dragon and its baby return back to the End, one can notice the baby's tail "stuck" in the portal.

** ''WebAnimation/AnimatorVsAnimation'' can more or less be traced year by year, given that the entire concept is a stickman rampaging across a guy's computer and desktop, with programs coming and going as a real-life tech-savvy person would adopt and get rid of them. For instance, the third short is a cavalcade of all things from the late XP era, from bundled games like ''TabletopGame/{{Solitaire}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Minesweeper}}'', to Clippy, to AOL Instant Messenger, to Firefox being the big dog while Chrome was just taking off. The 2014 short has an operating system that looks like Windows 7, Chrome as the main browser, and Facebook and and an [=iPhone=] as significant plot elements.

* ViewerGenderConfusion: Website/ThisVeryWiki uses primarily male pronouns for simplicity, but really every stick figure is subject to AmbiguousGender. This reaches an apex with ''Note Block Universe'' which depicts a stick figure couple with a child; this seemingly establishes a binary gender for stick figures, but while the colors and behavior might lead one to assume PinkGirlBlueBoy is in effect, there's really no 100% clear indication which one is which--the colors could just as easily be because [[spoiler: Pink and Blue mix to make Purple]] rather than an indicator of gender.

** The artwork and animation for ''The Showdown'' is absolutely ''stunning''--many of the commenters on [=YouTube=] were blown away by the results.
** Just take a look at what ''The Ultimate Weapon'' does with its fight scenes!
** The special effects generated by [[spoiler: King's]] staff when holding a gold block or a Netherite block are rather satisfying to look at.
** The sequence of [[spoiler: Purple explaining why he sided with King and betrayed the Stick Gang]] is nothing short of breathtaking.
** The visuals of [[spoiler: The Nether slowly collapsing]] during ''The King'' are as incredible as they are terrifying.
** Not only does the animation in Animator vs. Animation VI Episode 1 look so much more incredible than ''V'', sporting incredible cinematography and dynamic animation, but we also get a unique taste of various different art styles through the Mercenaries, with special mention going to the pencil and pixel art Mercenaries having a totally different art style unlike that of the rest of the series, and Second Coming creating various fluidly animated animals to attack with.
** The visuals in Animation vs Physics are some of the most beautiful the series has to offer.

** Yes, the animator's technically the BigBad, but given what a dangerous psycho the Chosen One is, it's hard not to feel bad for him and the icons who come to his aid, especially since the events of ''III'' are just him acting in self-defence. [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation As a matter of fact, some viewers still think the Animator was the good guy of the series.]]

** The orange stick figure is canonically called the Second Coming. However, most viewers are split between calling the Second Coming by his canon name (sometimes omitting the "The"), or just calling him "Orange" to fit the others. This got a bit awkward when another orange stick figure was revealed. Some viewers compromised by calling the new one "Basic Orange"[[note]]He has the small, solid-colored head of the fighting stick figures instead of the Second Coming's larger, hollow-colored head.[[/note]], "Big/Tall Orange" or "Orange Giant"[[note]]He towers over the other stick figures.[[/note]], "King Orange"[[note]]He wears a crown and rules over the Piglin Brutes[[/note]], "Evil Orange"[[note]][[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin He's orange and evil]].[[/note]], "Dark Orange"[[note]]He's a darker shade of orange than the Second Coming[[/note]], or "[[TomTheDarkLord Mango Tango]]"[[note]]Fans gave him this nickname from a hexcode site.[[/note]]. Then it got even more complicated when "The Raid" revealed that his name is actually King, rendering every other name he had before a Fan Nickname.

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: The students of monster school are complete assholes to [[ButtMonkey Red]] as they make it a living hell for him, from sabotaging Red to excel in Herobrine's classes, pretending to help him, disregarding Red despite being helpful to them, and making fun of him for failing. Though he did gain the respect of Skellington, Endie, and Spider, everyone else [[EnemyMine worked together]] to focus more on beating up Red for hindering them rather than finishing the final test.[[note]]They did congratulate Red's Team when they won heowever[[/note]] Likewise, major villains such as The Dark Lord and King Orange and even mimor ones like the Witch and the Lucky Orb are admirable and are found ''way'' likeable.

** [[BadassTeacher Herobrine]] is the mysterious godlike entity hailing from the world of Minecraft. Having first been introduced possessing the Red Stick Figure and using him to steal the Minecraft Game Icon, Herobrine serves as the first real threat that stick figures have to face, forcing them to face legions of mobs and engaging in a brutal beatdown that leaves them on their last legs. Returning years later having come BackFromTheDead, Herobrine now runs a Monster School where he teaches various mobs how to effectively kill players, as well as helping them advance in other avenues. Submitting his students to brutal trials that force them to think outside of the box, before ending things off with a race to the finish. Realizing that four of his students have fled the scene, Herobrine goes after them and winds up at odds with King Orange. Upon seeing that King Orange was putting his students in danger, Herobrine proceeds to engage in a One-on-One brawl with him, stopping at nothing in order to see his adversary's defeat. Proving himself to be one of the most powerful entities you could ever be at odds with, Herobrine is one teacher you don't want to mess with.
** [[WoobieDestroyerofWorlds King Orange]] is a vengeful stick figure who seeks the destruction of the Minecraft world for [[spoiler:losing his son in a simulation of the game. Researching everything there is to know about the game, King constructs a staff that is capable of channeling the power of in-game blocks and using them as a source of power. He then proceeds to seek out the Minecraft Game Icon in order to accomplish his ultimate goal of [[OmnicidalManiac destroying Minecraft]]. To accomplish this, he has his [[TheDragon second-in-command]], Purple, retrieve it for him, with him ultimately succeeding in doing so. King stops at nothing to destroy the world, fighting off the Stick Gang, their ally mobs, and even godlike figures such as Herobrine, [[OneManArmy managing to fend them off all on his own and ultimately winning]]. Whenever he's outnumbered or surrounded, the King uses his quick thinking and distractions to turn the tables and immediately get the upper hand again. Nearly succeeding in his quest, King only is stopped when he has a [[HeelFaceTurn change of heart]], gives up the staff and the Minecraft Game Icon, and instead chooses to embrace Purple as a son, ultimately getting something better in the end]].

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: The students of monster school are complete assholes to [[ButtMonkey Red]] as they make it a living hell for him, from sabotaging Red to excel in Herobrine's classes, pretending to help him, disregarding Red despite being helpful to them, and making fun of him for failing. Though he did gain the respect of Skellington, Endie, and Spider, everyone else worked together to focus more on beating up Red for hindering them rather than finishing the final test. Likewise, major villains such as The Dark Lord and King Orange are admirable and are found ''way'' likeable.

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: The students of monster school are complete assholes to [[ButtMonkey Red]] as they make it a living hell for him, from sabotaging Red to excel in Herobrine's classes, pretending to help him, disregarding Red despite being helpful to them, and making fun of him for failing, even to the point where they'll all work together and focus more on beating up Red for hindering them rather than finishing the final test. Likewise, major antagonists such as The Dark Lord and King Orange are admirable and are found ''way'' likeable.