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The Hug Was Never Healthy - Dissecting & Making Peace With AVM30

Animation vs Minecraft 30 is a piece of art. From the animation to visual stylisation, to narrative theming to writing, to color parallels to psychodynamic responses, to SFX to leitmotifs, to structure to the choreography.. the qualities this episode offered were absolutely packed. In a balance, there are flaws within the episode as well, whether it may be pacing issues or a particular introduction to imprudent meta (explored by blog splonk-fox); while for me, my conflict stems from King and Purple's questionable denouement—not that my conflict was kickstarted by episode itself, but how it's rather treated as a follow-up which I believe ultimately derails what the episode's psychology worked hard to establish. Affording those shapes to our qualities in this manner appears otherwise vacant.

Admittedly, I am someone who is emotionally invested in pieces of media that contain characters who explore themes of loss and renewal and how they are being eaten alive by their respective ghosts that they refuse to, or plainly can't leave (plus the various ways they react to that). Perhaps half of my reluctance to elaborate is born from worries of scrutiny from arbiters who are much more of an engorged gluttonous little bluffer fish than of myself, who may call into question the depth of my grasp on these characters.

While I have seen a handful of astonishingly meticulous and well-written pieces analyzing AVM30, it's always separately cut off and not the full equation; because I'm serious when I say every single basis goes hand in hand to facilitate one another. While it's not a problem, I easily follow a specific and personal structure otherwise I become overwhelmed with that structure breaking. It should only be the case that there are those who won't be beholden to only one piece of processing information as different groups interpret and consume media differently.

But before I get into the dive, let me reintroduce King and Purple as characters.

Who Are They?

King is characterized by his extraordinary intelligence, intellect, relentlessness, restlessness, charisma, confidence, dedication, determination, mockery, narcissism, cockiness, strategy, and lasting adrenaline. His actions and defenses are all logic-based from chronic studies and analysis of the sticks who he is up against.

Behind all of that, he was a father; a very caring, interactive, loving father who adored his child more than anything. Following their death, King sold any and all personal possessions aside from the bare minimum needed to support his chronic studies, as well as any possessions that belonged to Gold. King scheduled a specific appearance for an illegal trade to procure the command block. King experienced frequent withdrawals such as vivid auditory and visual hallucinations, as well as obsessive behavior and difficulty in emotional regulation which is commonly associated with those who have PTSD. King internalizes his life in partnership with his revenge because plainly, he did not plan to continue living when his child is no longer with him. This is not just the behavioral actions of someone who is devoted, this is severe emotional dependency.

There is a relationship between Gold's death and the rise of King's persona, but not a birth. There is a third missing factor here. I believe this could be a pacing flaw, a writing flaw, or perhaps even both. Gold's death evoked lament and the easiest, most effective way for King to externalize revenge was through cultivating his persona. King's rotten traits are not associated with his persona, it's associated with grief, and grief was the cause of his actions.

King in Speedrun Competition requests a crown to partner with the command block staff while not exhibiting any qualms or discomfort with the position and even enjoys himself rather than any traumatic whiplash many would associate him with due to its correlation with the burning memory of Gold's death. This is due to the fact that correlation does not imply causation.

This is plainly because the king had always been a present core. There are various foreshadowings and references before we even see King procure a confirmed relationship with his persona. King is at perspective-level of a caricature crown in the opening of the episode. King is shown to specifically observe a performative crown at the festival. King's legal name is associated in a lineage of royalty. King has typical royal bedsheets and a comforter. King sets up a throne for himself as soon as he conquers the Nethers. King did not hesitate or question before immediately accepting Purple's offer of a crown. King's scarf in the short Ice Skating is a reflection of his crown. The references are not just for nifty callbacks, they're deliberately there to imply a title that had always existed.

But the origin of that title? shrugs

Purple is characterized by their emotional hypervigilance, devotion, determination, relentlessness, acrobatics, combat, strategy, obedience, hyperactivity, and anxious-awkward nature.

Purple is shown to have an inconsistent relationship with emotional maturity and immaturity, often mentally regressing when up against older figures such as King which is commonly associated with those who have ADHD (AVM 22, 25, 28). They tend to physically harm themselves during meltdowns as they are seen to struggle regulating, though in any case, Purple constantly touching and compressing their head could be explained by the fact that people with developmental disorders feel reassured by repeating specific actions (AVM Season 3 real-time), as well as possessing a hobby of collecting which is also commonly associated with those who have ASD (shiny crowns, an elytra). They exhibit dissociative amnesia in their retelling which is commonly associated with those who have C-PTSD (AVM29) while also exhibiting avoidant behavior which correlates with the difficulty in forming relationships.

While C-PTSD and AuDHD can overlap in its symptoms making identification and diagnosis difficult, I personally find it reductive to evade the potential interpretive potency of these two co-occurring.

Many of Purple's flaws stem from parental issues. Both parents. Purple's father possesses a strict pessimistic worldview which connects to Purple's issues with running away from their problems and a refusal to accept reflection while Purple's mother has the flaw of simultaneously being comforting and attuned to never being there enough, resulting in Purple having the problem of dealing with their inner turmoil on their own and confiding only in themselves. It shows in how Purple's first response goes from clinging to their mother for secure comfort to clinging to themselves (or more specifically their head) when she is right. there. The inconsistency made Purple mark her as someone unreliable and someone who won't be there to meet their needs.

And as tragic as their retelling is, it doesn't explain how they were able to hop onto a MacBook nor does it explain their knowledge of market trade with their whole business in the village. However, I don't criticize the central value like I do King's because of the context behind it. It served as an explanation to their behavior and actions to another character, not an intended full-fledged backstory while King's was. King's story was a story to make this character a character we sympathize with, someone we want to root for, and a plan to flesh him out. With Purple, their origin is unrevealed because it's implied to still be a work in progress.

While I had seen a handful criticize the episode's pacing issues, as someone who psychoanalyzes fandom as much as she does the media itself, I noticed a pattern of eyes that falls mutual with King's complete 180 with Purple, and that it doesn't align with anything season 3 had set up. This is where I digress because King suddenly caring about Purple was never the premise of the sequence to begin with.

In the same nerve, there's a very specific chronology King's PTSD has set up.

What Exactly Is PTSD?

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder that's caused by a horrifically stressful and/or terrifying event. This ranges from either experiencing a part or being a witness to said event.

It's natural to experience frequent reactions and responses following a traumatic event as the mind works to regulate. The variety of reactions is often reported and/or observed. Most survivors exhibit immediate reactions, yet these typically resolve without severe long-term consequences. This is because most trauma survivors are highly resilient and develop appropriate coping strategies as well as including the use of social support to deal with the aftermath and effects of trauma. Most recover with time, show minimal distress, and function effectively across major life areas and developmental stages. Individuals who continue to experience symptoms may be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Research shows, for example, that adults with PTSD have a reduction in an area of their prefrontal cortex and a reduction in the volume of the hippocampus. The hippocampus, like many parts of the brain’s limbic system, is involved in memory, learning, and emotion. Its largest job is to hold short-term memories and transfer them to long-term storage in our brains. It also plays a role in emotional processing, including anxiety and avoidance behaviors. In the absence of these regulatory mechanisms, adults with PTSD may feel overwhelmed with stress and anxiety, even in the absence of any real danger, and hypersensitivity in the presence of one.

Research also shows that adults with PTSD may have an increase in the activity of the amygdala. The amygdala manages the processing of information between prefrontal-temporal association cortices and the hypothalamus. The amygdala is one of the components of the limbic system, which is responsible for the control of emotions and behavior besides memory formation. The effect results in an increased startle response and more noradrenaline being released into the body.

Purple's Last Stand

Rather than an immediate link to the two characters, it starts with the alerting sound and a red flash from an alarm. It's what immediately breaks the concentration King had. The flashback serves as a narrative callback to the rising panic and terror that something is wrong.

What King remembers next is himself slamming his body and arms against those protective panels. He remembers the need to immediately act upon the situation. The suspect of who he is trying to get to isn't anywhere in the frame—it's just himself, or perhaps what he feels as it is happening.

King tries to dismiss the traumatic flashback, but his previous locked concentration has already been disturbed. Only when he sees what Purple is being put through, their body optically disintegrating and glitching, then he begins to see Gold.

Between Gold and Purple, it's their motions, their gestures, and their similar body language that King begins to visibly wince. But even with those connections his subconscious is recalling and visualizing, even with those links of what he deeply cherishes and loves the most in Gold, it doesn't make him stop procuring the staff. In fact, it makes him feel encouraged to continue as seen when he lowers his head in a churn of conflicting determination and deliberately pushes forward.

King sees the similarities, but that's all it is.

When Purple loses their strength, the current forces them backwards. The motion startles King, and it evokes the most traumatic memory which holds the most barring to the active situation. He sees Gold being forced back. This makes him react immediately.

It's especially harrowing because the leitmotifs to both situations are so scarily similar to each other. Because that's exactly what it is.

Realizations

On the track, we as the audience are witnessing a conceptual overview of King's entire thought process. It demonstrates the very premise of the body and mind's egregious will to protect itself from emotional hurt and how it overrides any and every goal it had set itself prior. They're not correspondingly different from one another here, they work instantaneously to facilitate. Except this time, it isn't subconscious. King is actively aware.

There's frantic panic but strict composure that sets in with King. His body moves in a near automated fashion until he stumbles over his own feet from attempting to reach out. When King looks up to see the suspect of the chase, it causes him to slow down just slightly upon being dazed, only to increase in a new set of acceleration as he redirects his view to the blocks below him as he begins to recontextualize. He doesn't reach out again after that; it's almost like he can't bear to look at them.

It applies an emphasis that King is someone who is desperate. This is someone who is terrified, shamed, and induced by revenge. The fear of losing someone again as someone who is destructively encouraged by loss is something indescribable. Destructive grief is neither a logical nor illogical chain you can reason yourself out of. When grief turns destructive, it's less about logic and more about overwhelming emotion that disrupts every single function you're familiar with. It's by pure instinct that he lunges forward. It's his brain signaling a need for protection. Internally for himself and externally for Purple.

It's like someone who is allergic to bees. You're going to absolutely freak out once you see a bee. You had to have experienced a sting from a bee before sometime in your life, making you acutely aware of what it is and the severity it inflicts. Your body will jolt, lunge, push, or do whatever as a defensive response to your brain messaging that familiar and potential harm.

Everything beyond dropping the staff imminently serves to show how these two characters can be distinguished. In the track, the concept is evident. This isn't Gold, King would have never treated them this way.

King knows that logically, he exploited, misled, held authority over, threatened, physically harmed, and abandoned Purple. While he doesn't suddenly care about this stick whom he holds no personal emotional attachment to, he doesn't want to submit himself through the pain of losing someone again. His body responds with one hundred percent instinct here. King is intellectually aware of who he is chasing—but he doesn't just continue, he leaps with zero hesitation knowing he will be disintegrated as well.

And it's important to note that King still did not catch up in time to do what he originally wanted: avoid death altogether. In fact, it's the last thing he sees before he meets the same fate.

While I'm not opposed to the critique in its nature in pacing, this sequence seems to host the most central negativity. With an observation however, it's honestly very believable and well-executed past those said issues, while not wanting to undermine how it's valid.

Which is why this isn't where my critique stems from. My conflict stems from the sequence that follows shortly after.

But here's the thing, King's arc in itself was bold and okay, from the beginning of the episode to the end beyond pacing issues. Because my confusing relationship with the episode here does not stem from King; it stems from Purple.

Dreams & Reconciliations - A Contrast

Purple is assigned the role of a violin while Gold is associated with that of a piano. The musical language part of it is especially harrowing because, in a series where one of the only clear tools of communication we as an audience have is leitmotifs aside from body language, having Gold's tempo audibly stop upon their death then imminently pick up while decreasing in its new set of notes upon King's destructive tendencies is just so… heartwrenchingly harrowing and vapid at the same time.

I say harrowing because it paints an audible emphasis that King is someone who changed beyond recognition following the loss of a loved one, something they would have never supported or wanted, and vapid because the piano notes are all fucked. It gets virtually baritone while imminently overlapping the first notes of a certain violin before gradually coming to a permanent stop; while the violin on the other hand, takes over the new environment as the now dominant instrument.

(In any case, I'm still not over the part where the violin comes on before Purple's illusion on the wall can even make its appearance, or how the piano doesn't abruptly stop upon the overlapping, it's just slow and gradual before finding a stop on its own.)

And ironically enough, it doesn't stop at instrumental theming.

If you were to, let's say hypothetically, slam your whole body (or arms) against polycarbonate panels—regardless of thickness, mounting, installation, or size, it wouldn't as much as shatter.

In booth 30, due to the empty, open space and how the flat-lined panels create a rectangular enclosure, it would make a soft, plastic-like, "thud" sound.

My research erupted from an analysis I read in which they referred to the panels as glass, but I was skeptical considering the SFX used and clear lack of any damage, which wouldn't correlate given the impacts inflicted. In this case, what exactly is the material then? I was going to land on specifics: laminated glass, but that material provides high sound insulation, making the sound effects used interchangeable, but not exact to what was uniquely emitted. As I was skimming through college engineering websites, I was able to land (or at the most, closely match) on polycarbonate, which is most often used for safeguarding and security. Between the two, polycarbonate is significantly more impact-resistant, making it ideal for applications where resilience is critical.

Laminated glass would be rigid, layered, and muffled followed by a heavy, dull "thump" meanwhile polycarbonate will bend and flex upon absorbing the impacts (depending on thickness), producing a much softer, plastic-like "thud". Laminated glass can stay intact even when broken or significantly cracked due to its layered structure while on the other hand, polycarbonate can absorb any impact without as much as shattering as it's 250 times more durable.

King's PTSD becomes evident with its symptoms vía auditory and visual hallucinations. The red light, the alarm, but more appropriately in this context, the haunting effects the panel emits when he slams against it.

His arms slam against his wall reliving the event as a clear narrative callback to his earlier episode.

《When the walls begin to emit that familiar effect of the panels, when the environment changes to a bright illuminating red, and when everything goes.. desolate once Gold is pulled back, which forcefully brings King back to his house walls.》

But there was a problem. I could not apply his hallucinating episode to this sequence simply because there was never a visual hallucination to begin with, not even the auditory of an alarm or a body slamming against that specific plastic set. It never once made an appearance in this sequence. Just arms against cement walls because this is reality.

And in reality, Gold is dead. King knows this.

When King finally manages to break down his wall, it isn't those same panels that trapped Gold, but rather glass. Evident with the shards and evident with the fragile material breaking with just a few impacts.

Because this isn't polycarbonate, it's glass. Who King ends up seeing isn't Gold, he sees Purple.

Even upon verifying that it's Purple, King doesn't wince or contemplate for even a second, but increases in acceleration and beckons an embrace. He's just relieved to be able to hold someone after being given the impression of what he feared the most: loss.

And if I'm being completely honest? I think King would have been content dead that way.

These things tying them together are objectively little nothings (lol) in the grand scheme of things, but are also a fundamental part of what builds King's conflict as a storyline.

But there's a huge lack of Purple.

What Exactly Is C-PTSD?

Complex-post traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) is caused by multiple, prolonged, repeating, or lasting trauma. Prolonged trauma can alter brain development, leading to more entrenched changes in neural circuits. This affects areas like the corpus callosum (inter-hemispheric communication). The corpus callosum is responsible for how you think, remember, and coordinate your movements. This may result in lasting challenges with emotional regulation and social functioning.

C-PTSD Includes PTSD symptoms, including similar hippocampal and amygdala changes, but the prolonged trauma may exacerbate memory fragmentation and dissociation, making it harder to form coherent autobiographical memories, plus additional features like significant emotional dysregulation, dissociation and difficulties with self-concept and relationships, reflecting broader neural impacts from chronic long-lasting trauma.

C-PTSD significantly deactivates the prefrontal cortex. The PFX deals with emotions and impulses, and therefore has a substantial role to play in someone’s actions. Under normal circumstances, it would act in tandem with the hippocampus, sending signals to the amygdala to ‘switch off the alarm system’ when a situation calms down. This effect in the area can manifest as someone being withdrawn, irritable and appearing ‘cold’ or showing avoidance or disengaging behaviours.

What Is Trauma Bonding?

Trauma bonding is most often a misused term to describe a connection formed in traumatizing situations; however, trauma bonding is when a deep and psychological attachment develops from a cycle of physical or emotional abuse, manipulation, neglect, or trauma followed by positive reinforcement. It often fuels a cycle of abuse and affection that can be difficult to break.

A trauma bond is oftentimes characterized by a feedback loop of addiction in which a bout of abuse is positively reaffirmed with affection and care to the victim by the perpetrator. This can create a false sense of safety during the reconciliation and calm phase.

Positive reinforcement includes verbal praise, stimuli, rewards, immense hope for change, or reconciliation.

On a side note, I don't believe this applies to their dynamic by intent, but rather by plain definition.

Dreams & Reconciliations - More Contrasts

Now that I am finally on this section, I have seen a handful validly proclaim their conflicting matters on the topic of projection within both characters, and that it's extremely discomforting in the same vein of if we were to pursue an infamous and supported parent-child relationship which otherwise appears contradicting in this context.

While projection was the case with King, it's not in the fashion the fandom faults for. Subconscious and imminent conscious links within him served as a constant whiplash of how Gold and Purple are distinguishable from one another. Realizations and Dreams & Reconciliations takes underlying pains to emphasize these two characters being different in King's interpretation solely because he would have never treated Gold in the manner he did Purple.

By proxy, the fandom commonly faults Purple for projecting King onto their father in the same gesture they misread with King projecting Gold onto Purple; but the counterintuitive difference is the fact that any topic of projection was never the expectation to begin with for Purple. The entire substantiation is such a profound misreading of Purple's character that it's honestly flooring. This is where I believe the primary flaw of pacing clashing with execution really starts to make its presence dire here. Purple before Dreams & Reconciliations never likened King to their father. He's an older authority figure to them, yes, but he's expectantly distinct (but not of a complete difference) of their father.

[This is where the concept of these characters being complementary to one another comes into play. In psychology theory, complementary relationships share very similar traits but are not completely the same. This can range from being different in some departments to being the complete opposite. Regardless of that spectrum, they inhabit their own unique role.]

The misreading stems from AVM29 where Purple, in a dissociative episode, seemingly places King onto the same pedestal as their father when fundamentally, Purple deliberately places King onto the same position as the dragon egg. While Purple does not necessarily think of King as a parental figure, it's explicitly shown how highly they think of him in this context. He was only a linchpin in their climb to gain acceptance as a supporter of inclusion. King plays such a large role as a framework because, like I mentioned earlier, this is someone significantly older than them. While this isn't someone who shares that nature of relation, he has a present share of a role in authority.

Likewise, Purple was always conscious of their propensity to extend themselves on the behalf of others to their own benefit, and how such a tendency poses them susceptible to being taken advantage of. To justify their continued involvement with King's scheme, they internalize the responsibility that he assigns to them is in his nature to be perpetually self-involved, thus all mistreatment is warranted for having the faults of desiring anything more.

Internally, King was perceived to have offered them a sort of sense of belonging which served as the driving force behind the bulk of its tension. They latched on so fast and so hard because this was the disruption they desired due to being alone for so long (the bout being presumably 8 years), and that attachment is not healthy to have.

The landing strike to their torso was a kickstarter. The abandonment added insult to injury, now that we're aware that the display canonically had the intent of a parallel with their father. While the display itself had the intent of a parallel, its primary focus was on how Purple felt when it happened. The extended hand they envisioned wasn't an offer of inclusion or belonging; it was an extended hand because he needed something, and that something wasn't them. (or was it?)

In lieu, Purple's entire character arc was on their eventual (and very well needed) acceptance of others' decisions because it's plainly their own. Nothing they say or do will redirect it. In the context of what they were subjected to, this means being abandoned and left vulnerable. While it's never okay, being left doesn't mean they're alone. They have a friend group that will be there for them. Love them for them. They don't stand up against King because they were told to, because they were influenced to, or even because they were told that it's right. They stood up against King because it was what they wanted to do, what they believed was right; it's explicit character development.

And Purple... replicated... King's hug... yeaahh that's pretty bad.

By the latter, the drilled contrasts between Gold and Purple can be applied to King and Purple's father as well. Rewatching and observing body language, Purple didn't look like they were expecting a hug, not a beat-down, nor even a scolding, but stood up because they are plainly conditioned to.

If Purple saw their father, then it's only with speculation that you can fix his role into a more taut picture. He is just as anonymous as he is familiar once you compose his style based on Purple's responses, body language, and worldview. It's with amusement that you note that when confronted with lacking, their father does what he always does; demand them to get up.

Purple didn't get up because they wanted to, they didn't get up because they wanted him back into their life (because we just established that they accepted his departure) but stood up as a somatic response.

The hug was what broke it. It’s how Purple was able to concoct that this isn't their father, it's King.

...who is the furthest from someone whom you'd want to positively engage with. King had done virtually nothing for Purple's benefit, and they replicated the hug… because? There's really no healthy way to reconcile it.

Of course, you can say King did do something to deserve the replication, and you wouldn't be wrong for thinking that. From an audience's perspective, King completely abandoned everything at that moment like it was utter trash to chase after Purple,

but it's the evident factor that Purple was not conscious to see it.

So the question remains, why did Purple replicate the hug?

An Unhealthy Reconciliation

The underlying pains can only be read as the capstone for both arcs. It can only be the very beginning of their dynamic and respective characters, not the denouement, not the end. These two are still strangers. They do not know anything about each other. It's the main reason as to why the only contrast King could concoct between Gold and Purple was the most traumatizing memory reminiscent of the current and active situation, as well as the difference in treatment he lays on the two. Not their personalities or characteristics because King does not know Purple to that extent.

The two seem to engage with each other as a catharsis if anything, not due to the idealizations of their respective ghosts.

It feels as though it's setting up an extremely personal clash between these two characters (and there are many, many unresolved issues within the two surrounding grief, interpersonal projection, and senses of sufficiency and insufficiency). While the massive setup gets defined and polished, there isn't development or any additional content that builds upon it, which is extremely harmful for reasons that I will be getting into later.

There are 2 shorts that were released shortly after the season 3 finale that highlighted what was already established, I like to refer to this as "defining" and "polishing" if anything.

Purple is someone who regularly initiates interactive contact and is shown to be the lead of the dynamic while King plainly... follows and goes with it. Purple trailed King home and insisted on becoming his partner when King plainly wanted information on the color gang. Purple was the one to hand King a crown, encouraging his persona. Purple was the one to put a halt in the embrace and reclaim common ground and bare necessities. Purple was the one to hand King a snack and expectantly offer simple silly-play bonding.

King's lack of reluctance for saving, protection, and (assumed temporary) shelter is due to the idea that he has become enmeshed in the narrative of Gold's links within Purple, therefore quickly developing a familiar drive in nature that wasn't present before. King rebuked his staff to chase after Purple. King ran to hold Purple upon seeing their (thankfully not an exploding-pixely mess!) state, then huddled them closer and slightly cradled their head upon the impact of the icon adjusting back into its place. If Purple is in a short, expectantly King would follow and be cameoed as well.

These are not the actions of characters who had their dynamic developed. I can't emphasize enough that this is through a narrative reading and not through a psychological approach because evidently, their dynamic did positively develop on surface level.

While King didn't want Purple, he needed them. With Purple, it's the counterintuitive inverse.

In any case, I find it reductive to believe these two imitate a familiar parent-child relationship seen in King and Gold. While Purple with no doubt reminds King of Gold, I don't think King took the persistence of treating them like Gold. They can mimic the bond but they can't imitate it.

In short 1 Ice Skating, Purple led the interaction and King followed. It was a presumed nod to King and Gold's own interaction shown in AVM30 while serving as a parallel-bond.

In short 2 Cherry Blossoms, Purple procures cherry blossoms and visits their mother's grave. During their walk, they glance back to a family of 3.

[As for speculation, this makes me wonder. King is not present as one would expect for support like a commonly assumed peer bond which involves the continuous positive encouragement of support, healing, and open/shared life experiences. Thematically, Purple has not exactly shared in on their family history with King just yet, implying their bond isn't particularly personal or emotionally close. In the same vein, just interpretation because there's a plausible scenario that they wanted alone time with such a private activity, or another plausible scenario that King could be occupied with who knows what.]

Resolution

In the set of resurrection, Green asserts a hug first and the rest of the group follows in. Purple's tease of a supportive group got affirmed and they're aware that they are no longer alone. It's what we were anticipating in the episode prior, it's something they not only always wanted, but needed, and it's something we learned to root for.

King repaired any and all collateral damage, surrendered his crown, and kneeled as a genuine apology. With everything out of tension, he was as done as one could be, and left.

But Purple still reached out to King.

This was the bout in which I broke and took a long hiatus in my analysis because plainly, I could not make sense as to why Purple would respond that way if King had been nothing but a one-time catharsis. Everything had been frustrating up until this point and this was the gauze pushing the glass into the wound. There were still unnoticed shards laying around somewhere in the flesh that I just could not flick away, and I was far beyond caring.

I gravitated to Purple's parents after this. I like to think of myself as observant if anything, and I wanted to test those bounds with the plainest characters (I severely underestimated just how much shit these two contained.. good. lord.). I obsessively rewatched, captured, and obtained every piece the two were in and kept my notes. When I happened to come across a clip of King's departure on Instagram, it felt like a nuclear bomb's false wiring just got snipped.

While I did develop a clear memory which erupted a connection, I had to verify. I gathered my recordings in a folder, went back to The King (for the first time in a year), fast-forwarded to the clip, screen recorded, went onto my editing software, uploaded my first clip, uploaded the second clip as an overlay, lowered the opacity, edited the graphs to mirror each other's curves, and practically froze.

So. Pretty sure their father's animation cycle upon his abandonment got reused with King and his departure. Down to the sag of their posture to the head turn to the, well, quite literal cycle. Or in short, Purple legitimately got triggered and their body, on absolute somatic instinct, reached out.

And then the contrast, the cycle wasn't entirely reused because King came back to Purple after the first head turn.

The season 3 finale ended with both characters heading back to the Outernet together on neutral terms. King did not have any plans on walking home with Purple because all he needed to be satisfied was their safety, but he didn't seem to mind (though seemingly a bit awkward, but not reluctant).

Making Peace

Animation vs Minecraft 30 is a piece of art. Art is an expression. To express yourself you must have an opinion and that opinion is a reflection of the values you hold.

I don't particularly oppose the caveat with the exception that they have to obtain some degree of development with weight and/or peaks & troughs, which is still lacking to this day. While I wouldn't mind the lack as in most cases, the writing would work as a means to add emphasis to these characters not having the most-best relationship, but the abysmal lack of elaboration or topics surrounding accountability and healing just leaves a questionable (and otherwise harmful) lesson to younger audiences. While it's possible that taboo was not intentional, intention does not erase context.

While I had already acknowledged that the taboo regarding the series may be imprudent given the nature behind the potential intent, what I am actually arguing is that the faculties of intent and critical discernment need not be mutually exclusive.

If you wanted to convey a meaningful lesson, introducing a message of accepting an abusive figure back into your life because they had it tough as well and enacted a sorry one-time hug wouldn't cut it, given that the conflict is still not scratched on. Though built on rocky foundations, the capstone is portrayed in an astonishingly unique manner while reigning in psychological accuracy; though it seems as though the team may not be the best with the portrayal in the aftermath or any topics in compliment as a response to irresponsibly introducing sensitive topics that ended up being... way too extensive than they may had initially planned. The process does not have to be bombarded in the audience's faces to deliver the fact that these two characters are healing and that the replication, just wasn't okay, to say the least.

By theory, I absolutely loved Purple's arc of self-discovery, renewal, and friendship. If I had to make it perfect, I would introduce an arc of accountability. Holding those in your life who mistreated you accountable, because damn they need it.

It's a major issue that leads back to the central flaw of the series in general. Teasing the premise without going so much as to scratch on it in a meaningful weighted way that partners with the weighted introduction.

#alan becker #animation vs minecraft #analysis

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