#MGADD Molecular Man

[picturejasper20]

Redemption arcs and restorative justice in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Season 2 A analysis

(Taken from my thread on twitter and explained in more detail in here) In this post i'm going to talk about one of the main themes of MGADD Season 2 A, which is, as the title says, redemption arcs and restorative justice. I'm going to analyse different episodes that tackle this theme and how they are followed up in the rest of this part of the season.

Spoilers down below

One of the big themes in MGADD Season 2 A is the idea of how people who are ¨villains¨ have a lot more in them and the reason why they became evil is more complicated than it seems. Also how they have the capacity to regret their past actions and change for the better.

Restorative justice is a whole complex topic, but to put it in simple words: It has to do with the criminal rethinking their past actions and doing something to make amends with the person or people they hurt. It's less about punishment and more about what can the person do to fix their bad decisions and be pushed to be better in the future.

While redemption arcs and restorative justice aren't that rare to find in Disney TVA animated series and other animated shows, emphasis on this theme in superhero animated series is a lot more rare to find in my personal experience.

In superhero shows the line between who is good and bad is very clear. The heroes are good and the villains are evil. Villains are evil because they chose to be or they ¨were born that way¨. The possibility of redemption and rehabilitation is often seen as naive, and at times mocked at. Punishment and incarceration is seen as preferable over rehabilitation in these type of shows.

That's not to say that redemption arcs don't exist in superhero shows, but it is more rare and the idea that villains are just evil is what gets pushed the most.

Quick Whip/ Zekiyah

In MGADD, this idea is being to put into question in Season 2 episode 4 ¨Ride or Die¨ in which Lunella caughts a well known criminal known as ¨Quick Whip¨. Lunella reports to SHIELD that she is going to take Quick Whip there by using a sub train.

While they are on the train, the power goes out for a moment and Lady Bullseye shows up with her followers, looking for Quickwhip, who used to work for her. Lady Bullseye doesn't allow people to ¨get out¨ from her criminal group, explaining why she is here since Quickwhip left it.

Lunella is forced to work together with Quickwhip to power up the train and get away from Lady Bullseye. For a good part of the episode Lunella considers that Quickwhip is only a villain and that's what she would always be.

However, in a moment they are hiding from the Diabolical Darts, Lunella learns that Quickwhip's real name is Zekiyah and that she used to be a person who only dreamed of starting a bakery and spent hours every day to study how to make pastry. Once she came to New Work, it was too expensive for her to afford a place and soon she was on the streets.

Lady Bullseye took advantage of Zekiyah's difficult situation and persuade her into joining her crime group. Zekiyah became pretty good at stealing but over time she realized how she strayed away from the path she originally set up for her. She left the Diabolical Darts and has been in the run ever since.

Seeing that Zekiyah had more going on that she assumed, Lunella thinks there has to be other way for her to be more than just a ¨street rat¨ and teams up with Zekiyah to take down Lady Bullseye and her followers. When she is about to give Zekiyah to SHIELD, she talks about how she wants to help everyone, included those who happened to fall in a bad path and asks to try something different this time.

By the end of the episode Lunella reconsiders her views about crime and such and decides to open a program that could help villains who regret their past actions and want to make things right. She gives Zekiyah (Quick Whip) a change to work in a bakery like she wanted originally when she came to New York.

Kid Kree

In episode five ¨Kid Kree¨, the one following ¨Ride or Die¨ we are introduced to a new character ¨Kid Kree/Marvin¨, who is original from the MGADD comics. He is a kree teenager that was sent by his father, Pad-Varr, to capture a superhero to prove his worth as warrior after not reaching the expectations on his homeworld planet.

Lunella meets Marvin at his first day at school. During gym class she notices that Marvin shares similar interests in science and math like she does. Overtime the two develop a close friendship over sharing interests and views of seeing the world, happy to find someone else that they can be their ¨nerd¨ selfs with. Lunella because she didn't know much kids from her age that we into same stuff like she is and Marvin since he feels like he can be himself around Lunella.

In meantime Lunella and Marvin continue to fight each other as Moon Girl and Kid Kree, without knowing each other's identity. They have a bit of rivarly, with Lunella trying to come up with new ways to outsmart ¨Kid Kree¨. During one of those fights Moon Girl defeats Kid Kree and he accidentally drops his communicator, the one his father usually contacts him with. Lunella takes and tries to hack into it. She discovers an video recording of Marvin talking about his mission on Earth and revealing that he is Kid Kree when he takes his helmet off.

Lunella gets angry at this and, without thinking too much of the implications, she ends up answering a call from Pad-Varr and tells him that she has defeated Marvin, making Pad-Varr clearly upset.

When Marvin comes to eat dinner at Lafayette's home, Lunella tells to Marvin that she knows about him being Kid Kree by giving him his communicator and adds that she has called his father. This makes Marvin scared and the Lafayettes ask him why he is worried about his own father.

Marvin explains isn't happy at being a warrior and it is forced by his father to be something that he is not. His father doesn't approve of Marvin's preference for science, making their relationship pretty strained. In general Marvin doesn't feel comfortable with being himself on his planet nor with his father. He thought that Lunella was someone who understood him but he is sad that apparently this wasn't the case. He lefts the house upon hearing that Pad-Varr's ship is coming to get him.

Lunella goes after Marvin and apologizes to him for jumping to conclusions about his true intentions. Pad-Varr orders Marvin to catch Moon Girl and Devil, which he does, but moments after he traps his father and later Lunella and Devil helped Kid Kree with standing up to him.

Kid Kree expresses to his father that he doesn't want to be a warrior and he is into science instead. Pad-Varr reconsiders this and praises Marvin for his gadgets, telling him that they could be useful for the Kree Empire. Lunella and Marvin remain as friends and keep in contact with each other.

Marvin appears in other episodes like ¨In The Heist¨ and ¨Dancing by Myself¨ where he helps Lunella in different ways and their friendship continues to develop. While Marvin is stil working for the Kree empire, it is likely that he will turn around, like he does in the comics.

With Kid Kree's case, Lunella realized what Marvin was going through and inspired him to stand up against his father to be himself. She made the error of doing some rushed decisions when she found out that he was Kid Kree and apologized for it, both staying as close friends so far.

The Beyonder

In episode ¨Wish Tar¨ the Beyonder shows up again to visit Lunella by showing up from the Wish Tar machine James got from Coney Island. He doesn't understand why Lunella is being hostile towards him, which leads to Lunella and Casey to remind him of the times he messed up with them.

The Beyonder explains to the girls that he has been reflecting since the events from ¨The Great Beyonder¨, when he and Lunella spent days stuck on Molecular Man's destroyed planet and worked together to escape. He also started to see Lunella as a sort of friend after that episode. He wants to makes things right with Lunella but she asks him to leave before he makes things worse.

Later Lunella finds out that a wish she had asked for the Wishtar machine has been granted. Both her and Casey get suspicious about this event and go back to Roll With It to check the machine. It turns out that Beyonder is the one that granted the wish. He tells them that he ¨wants to be a good friend¨ for Lunella by making her wishes become true. Lunella sees the benefit of the wishes and decides to give it a try.

In this episode we see Beyonder using his powers to help Lunella, or at least to be a ¨good friend¨. He has good intentions of be someone better than he was in previous appearances. The problem is that this power goes up to Lunella's head, who ends up taking advantage of Beyonder's good intentions and they have a falling out with him disappearing after Lunella lashes out at him.

While Beyonder had good intentions, his approach wasn't the best since he still has yet to understand how human friendship works. Granting all Lunella's wishes just lead to her take advantage of it and not so much appreciate what Beyonder was trying to do.

From Lunella's part, some of her reactions are understandable since Beyonder did some bad things to her in more than one occasion. In spite of being on friendlier terms after ¨The Great Beyonder¨ she was still angry at him for the things he did in the past. However, as mentioned earlier, the way she used him and lashed out at him was pretty dirty considering that this time Beyonder was trying to be good.

In contrast to Kid Kree, Lunella and Beyonder's friendship took a bad turn and Lunella would have to find a way to apologize to Beyonder for how she lashed out at him. Beyonder has still growing to do, but the fact that he was trying to use his powers to be nice was a good start.

Other episodes worth of mentioning that continue this theme more or less are ¨The Devil You Know¨ and ¨Dog Day Mid-Afternoon¨.

In The Devil You Know Devil joins a group of sidekicks called the ABC that feel mistreated or underappreciated by their heroes-owners. Near the end of the episode it is shown that the conflict was a miscommunication problem and that, in fact, the heroes love their sidekicks.

In the Dog Day Mid-Afternoon Lunella jumps to the wrong conclusions about the dog alien Pops adopts (later named Franklin) being a villain. Later Franklin reveals that he is a space hero and he was on an undercover mision to find the real villain who was stealing dogs using a powerful dog wistle. Lunella and Franklin team up and work together to defeat the main antagonist.

Molecular Man's return.

All this development in Lunella's character in this arc has a conclusion in ¨The Molecular Level¨ when Molecular Man shows up in Lafayette's house and attacks Lunella and her family since Lunella is ¨someone Beyonder cares about¨.

Molecular Man was introduced in ¨The Great Beyonder¨ as someone who suffered the loss of his planet, becoming a wasteland, thanks to the Beyonder's antics. He wants to get revenge on Beyonder for what he did to his planet, being the reason of why Lunella and Beyonder are stuck in that place for days.

He destroys a good part of Lunella's house through ¨The Molecular Level¨ and endangers the Lafayettes. When Lunella finally finds her suit she is able to fight back and defeat him, leaving his body broken.

When she is about to give him the final blow she is reminded of how Molecular Man lost everything to the meteor shower thanks to Beyonder and feels sorry for him. She understands that he went through a lot and gets why he was so angry.

Molecular Man sees Lunella's compasion and says that he is really sorry for attacking her and her family. He admits that he let himself be destroyed by his desire to make others feel his own pain and anger.

Lunella gives him a piece of her self repairing suit so he is able to heal himself and get his powers back. Molecular Man thanks Lunella for understanding and uses his molecular abilities to repair Lafayette's home and heal Pops's broken arm. He promises himself to use his powers to rebuilt his planet from scratch and leaves, saying goodbye to Lunella.

¨The Molecular Level¨ serves as a good conclusion for this part of Lunella's arc in this half of the season. She has grown enough to understand that sometimes people are driven to do bad things for certain reasons. The world is often more complex than it seems to be and there aren't just ¨good¨ and ¨bad¨ guys. She applies the lessons she learned with Molecular Man by showing she gets what he went through and inspires him to use his powers to heal in the future.

[shippingdumbster]

A little vampire bat crash lands on a planet and gets in the good graces of a stick bug. They might smooch~

[i-belong-to-too-many-fadoms]

ok, so, the first part of mgadd second season is amazing, no doubt.

But, what I'm curious about is Devil past.

Where did he came from? He is not from Earth, so technically he is not a actual dinosaur. In the comics he is a species called dino-beast from another dimension, and he is a mutant. Obviously this was changed for the show, but he is still form another world, right? What world was it? We can tell he has no connection to Molecular Man, as the show would show it. So, Devil's home world is still unexplored.

But I think the most important question actually is, Why did he choose to stay with Lunella, and not going back to his home? How was his life back there that make him prefer to stay in a completely alien and strange world to him? Was it that bad? Was he running away from something? Someone? Why?

Again, from what I remember of the comics, he ends on earth by accident, and a way back is unknow. So, staying on Earth is not really a choice. But in the show, it was. Why did he choose to stay?!

I love the exploration of Lunella's growing and her relation to her family. But Devil is her family to, and I'm curious as to his backstory. How was his life before meting Lunella.

Hoping we get this answer in the second half of season 2. If not, please Disney, give it a season 3 so we can get answers.

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

You know, I might as well share this with the MGADD tag. Because I want to ramble about it. I genuinely question if I want to continue that Spider-Man/MGADD crossover idea of mine. Even though I question if I would ever write it. My main focus was always, "How would this work and what would the story be about?" because I've been trying to make a take on Spider-Man that's essentially the Peter Parker in the world of MGADD. A Peter who's been Spider-Man for almost a decade and the story idea is...something special.

Yet when watching "Family Matters" and "The Molecular Level". Those are two really great episodes by the way. But holy crap, the show basically did what I was trying to think about for the crossover. I'm amazed of how far they want with those last two episodes but still being "Family friendly" in the sense. I shouldn't forget the first episode of season 2 and just overall, the show is awesome.

Granted, my story ideas are more along the like of...here's a funny way to describe it.

Imagine trying to crossover a show like MGADD. While it can be mature, it's still a family friendly show. But imagine crossing that over with a Spider-Man I consider the Batfleck/Battinson of Spider-Men. Which sounds insane.

This is all fanfic crap. But it's something that's been back in my head again. The idea seems to be is that I should make this take on Spider-Man and set it within the world of MGADD. Even though the show does some "MCU Synergy". But imaging the larger world of Marvel outside the show...the fact Thanos was even mentioned meaning the events of the show takes place within a time where major stuff has already happened.

I am not making a Spider-Man that's similar to MCU Spider-Man, no. I want to make a Spider-Man that honors those original comics going from the 60's to mid 2000's. Yet I shouldn't ramble more about it but...

This is a funny discussion. I'm getting off topic. Because again, those last two episodes (And those weren't even the final episodes of season 2) really set the bar. Because in some way, what the Hell am I going to do with the Spider-Man one? Which doesn't sound tricky. Yet to be it strangely is.

[picturejasper20]

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Molecular Man character analysis

Molecular Man is a main antagonist that is introduced in the Season 2 episode ¨The Great Beyonder¨. While not having much appearances in Season 2 A, his episode debut manages to leave an important impact on Lunella’s character and Beyonder’s in part.

In this post i’m going to analyse his motivations and character in the episodes his appears and how he is tied to the themes from Season 2 A as a whole.

Let’s begin:

On the surface, Molecular Man is someone who seems to be quite reserved, serious and intelligent. He doesn’t play nor joke around, always taking what he is doing seriously. From what it explained by the Beyonder, he used to be once a person who had a lot of power and influence in the galaxy and his planet was a very well known spot before it got destroyed by a meteor shower accidentally by the Beyonder.

Before the meteor shower event, Molecular Man used to be someone who was rejected by others in his own universe. So he looked for a place where he could feel safe and built his own planet that would later become a touristic spot for other alien species to visit. He deeply cared about it and took him a lot of work turned into a place that later became respected by others. Based on flashbacks, he used to be a caring and welcoming man, allowing aliens from all kinds to come to his planet.

In all, he used to be someone who felt like an outcast, wanted a place to be in the universe and posibily for other aliens were in the same situation as he was. He didn’t look to cause any harm to anyone and stayed living on his own corner.

After the meteor shower event, his planet became a deserted wasteland. Almost everything got destroyed, making Molecular Man lose what he built for years if not decades. He was deeply affected by this loss and defined him for the rest of the years that came after that. He was traumatized by this event, as seen how he gets flashbacks of it during a moment in his fight against Lunella in ¨The Molecular Level¨.

He became consumed by rage and a sense of great injustice. He spent many years for Beyonder to return to his planet. He used his wand to desactivate Beyonder’s powers and catch him defenseless, that way he could get his revenge for the great loss he suffered. It seemed it was the only way for him that he would be able to be ¨at peace¨ considering that he rejected Beyonder’s offer return his powers and allow him to rebuild the planet.

In ¨The Great Beyonder¨ Molecular Man attacked Lunella without showing any mercy, probably just because she was associated with Beyonder or he saw her as Beyonder’s friend. Trying to make Beyonder go through the same pain as he did by taking someone he cares about.

Before he was able to finish Lunella, Beyonder stepped in to get the wand and stopped Molecular Man. Beyonder transformed Molecular Man into a baby and escaped from the planet along with Lunella. However, Lunella was traumatized by her encounter against Molecular Man, having almost died. This is something that haunted her for a while until she was able to overcome her fears in ¨Suit Up!¨ episode.

Even having being able to trust in her own abilities again, the battle was one of the reasons Lunella started to question the idea of hiding her superhero identity from her family, as it was becoming too much for her to handle it on her own and to keep lying to her parents and grandfather about it.

The encounter also introduced another theme in Season 2 A, which is about Lunella learning that the world is more complex that it seems and how people who do bad things often have their reasons to do what they do and how they can fall into a bad path and make regrettable choices. Molecular Man acts as a set up for this since he has more than legit reason to feel angry to Beyonder, the issue is how he decided to approach his loss in a very innappropiate way.

Between ¨The Great Beyonder¨ and ¨The Molecular Level¨ Molecular Man became a lot more enraged than he already was. Consumed by hate and anger, his body structure started to mutate and gained the ability to control matter itself. He tried looking for Beyonder in every place he could think, only to not find him anywhere. (Thanks to the events from Wish-Tar leading to Beyonder to ¨disappear¨).

SInce he couldn’t sastify his desire for revenge, he tracked Lunella’s location down using a piece of material from her stealth suit she lost in ¨The Great Beyonder¨. The main reason being because he knows that Beyonder cares about Lunella and he wanted to make him lose something that was important to him, just like he did when he accidentally caused the meteor shower.

In ¨The Molecular Level¨ he shows up at Lafayette’s deparment house and begins to chase both the Lunella and the family down. He explains to Lunella how he was able to find her and why he is after her after not finding the Beyonder. He spends most of the episode trying to hurt the Lafayette and fighting against Devil, destroying a good part of the department complex.

This keeps going until Lunella manages to get her battle suit thanks to Devil. She asks her family to escape and prepares herself to have her rematch against Molecular Man. Molecular Man tells to Lunella that his planet was a place where he finally could be accepted by the multiverse and ¨that meant the world¨ to him. Since he lost everything, he didn’t care if his desire for revenge got him destroyed in the process because ¨he didn’t have anything to lose¨.

Unlike their first encounter, Lunella ends up defeating Molecular Man after a hard fight. However, once he is at her mercy, Lunella stops herself from delivering the finishing blow. Molecular Man doesn’t get why Moon Girl spared him, to which she explains she understands the pain he went through after the loss of his planet as she would have felt in a similar way if wasn’t able to protect her familly and friends. She feels really sorry for what happened to him.

Molecular Man then apologizes to Lunella for having destroyed her home and attacking her, admitting that he let himself be so consumed by his own pain that he wanted others to feel the same he went through. Seeing that he deeply regrets his actions, Lunella gives him a piece of her suit, that is self repairing, and allows Molecular Man to heal himself.

Feeling better with himself, Molecular Man realizes that he could have used his new found powers to rebuild. He uses his powers to quickly repair the damage he caused in Lafayette’s department and to heal Pops’ broken arm as a way to make up for his previous actions. He thanks Lunella for understanding him, stating that not many beings have that ability. He opens a portal back to his home planet and tells to Lunella that he would try his best to rebuild it before going through the portal.

In some ways Molecular Man acts as a foil to Lunella, representing someone she could turned into if she lost someone she cared about and wasn’t able to save them. It could also be what she could have turned into after her first terrifying battle against Molecular Man if she had chosen to be herself be defined by anger and revenge. Molecular Man represents what happens when a person chooses bad ways to cope with their own pain and trauma and how they can hurt others and get themselves destroyed in the process. But, at the same time, what to do when someone makes mistakes like this and realize how you hurt others in the way.

In all, Molecular Man is a character who wanted to belong and be accepted by others, only to have that be taken away in an instant. He assumed that getting revenge and making others ¨feel his pain¨ was the way to deal with his loss when what he really needed was someone else who could understand what he was feeling. This is what leads him to change his ways and to choose to repair the things he lost instead trying to take away things from others.

[picturejasper20]

One of the reasons of why Molecular Man works as a antagonist is because he doesn't try destroying a whole world because his was destroyed.

His grudge mostly stays with the person who caused the destruction of his planet (The Beyonder) and then, when he isn't able to find him after ¨The Great Beyonder¨, he takes it out on Lunella since he sees her as a close friend of Beyonder, which was his huge mistake.

He doesn't take it over proportions, he only attaks Beyonder and Lunella and no one else from we know. This makes it more realistic than other antagonists we see from other shows and the idea that only wants ¨justice¨ for his loss but he distorts it in a way that becomes full revenge.

[picturejasper20]

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur The Beyonder analysis (Season 2-A)

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Season 2 A brought a lot of interesting changes for the series, one of them being the development that the Beyonder gets as character in some episodes from this part of the season, where we get to see a new side of him and his dynamic with Lunella changing as result.

In this post i'm going to talk about this development and where i think it his arc it is going to go from there:

The Beyonder made his character debut in Season 1 Episode 6 ¨The Beyonder¨. He introduces himself by shapeshifting into Lunella's family members and other people she knows, making Lunella believe for a moment that her secret identity as Moon Girl was found out. Then he changes into his normal form while laughing about how he scared off Lunella.

Beyonder's introduction scene leaves clear that, at his core, he is a troll. Someone who enjoys pulling pranks up on others and laugh at them. He uses his divine like powers to do this, usually altering reality or shapeshifting himself.

His divine powers also allow him to avoid having to face the consequences of his actions most of the time since he is an immortal being thanks to them. He can simply snap his fingers to make himself disappear. In general he seems to be untouchable for his enemies.

Unlike other villains in the show, The Beyonder doesn't have desire to commit crimes, get more power or get revenge on someone. It is easy to assume he isn't interested in these things since he already is ¨all powerful and all knowing¨.

He is on Earth because he was casted away from his own planet/species and he was sent to study humanity as species and see how they operate. While it is his ¨job¨, he shows certain interest in learning about human culture and psyche, which usually involves getting Lunella dragged to take part in his ¨experiments¨.

Lunella's relationship with Beyonder is quite unique since the Beyonder, when not trying to put Lunella into some form of trial, seems to be amicable to her. The way he interacts with Lunella at times gives off the impression that he sees her as a sort of friend, in his own way.

The Beyonder is, in plenty of ways, amoral. He doesn't seem to care about principles nor morals when it comes to messing with other people. Being an immortal semi-god, his moral code is very different from the mortals', seeing the universe as his own playground to do whatever he pleases. For example, he didn't care about making Lunella believe that he erased humanity for a minute just to reveal that he was faking it.

¨The Great Beyonder¨ (Season 2 Episode 1) explores deeper how Lunella isn't the only person he likes pulling up heavy pranks on since many aliens come to the planet Lunella and him find themselves stranded in to get revenge on the things that Beyonder did to them. He fully admits in one point of the episode he likes going to other universes just to mess with different versions of Lunella, such as it is the case of Devil Girl.

It wouldn't be out of place to assume that the reason he got casted from his own planet was because of the way he abused his powers on mortal beings, if not his own people. He doesn't seem to take his job that seriously and prefers to go around starting chaos.

In ¨The Great Beyonder¨ he sees Lunella going through an interdimensional vortex and takes her to planet that it used to be a sort of vacation-relax spot instead of her own home. When Lunella demands to Beyonder to take her back to Earth, he tries using his powers, only to realize he that they aren't working and they are both stuck on this planet.

Lunella proposes the Beyonder to work together to get out from the planet by using a black hole: She builds the spaceship for them to travel while Beyonder shows her the way to where the black hole is since he has been in this planet before. Beyonder says that he doesn't need the help from someone like Lunella and he can find his own way out.

Suddenly he gets attacked by an alien he trolled time ago by changing her spaceship into a polo stick. Since he doesn't have his divine powers, he gets beaten down by this alien. Lunella offers getting rid of his enemy if in exchange he helps her with finding the black hole. Beyonder is forced to accept the offer and Lunella sends the alien flying, followed by taking Beyonder with her. Unfortunately, without them knowing, the same alien sends a message to many people throughout the galaxy telling tjem about how the Beyonder is without his powers and vunerable to attack.

For around half of the episode (what would be a day for the characters), the Beyonder is reduced to someone who is pretty much helpless. He isn't used to having to walk for hours. He doesn't know why he gets thirsty nor why he yawns, because with his powers he doesn't have to worry about these things. For the first time he gets to experience what is to be a mortal, or a ¨human¨ as Lunella puts it. He has to rely on Lunella to hide and defend himself from people who are searching for him to get back at him for pranks he pulled up.

It could be said that he gets to experience what it is to be like to be the people he often messes with, not being to fight back or defend himself. Not only that but having to deal with the consequences of his chaotic actions, which he doesn't have to face when he has his powers.

During their battle against Devil Girl and Moon Dinosaur Devil Girl makes fun of Beyonder by telling him how he is useless without his god-like powers, something that hurts Beyonder's pride and self esteem. Lunella manages to get them away by causing a distraction to Devil Girl and Moon Dinosaur.

At night, while they are resting and Lunella is trying to build a spaceship using the remains of a bigger one, Beyonder asks to Lunella about how she is able to fight and ¨do all this stuff¨ without any powers. Then he starts to break down about how he can't do anything and that Devil was right about him being useless. He doesn't know who he is supposed to be without his own powers, having a bit of an identity crisis.

Lunella feels sorry for Beyonder and tells him that he can do great things without any special powers. She shows him how to braid his own hair, something that he tries doing by himself and is able do one braid. He gets happy that he can do something for himself. Then he goes to sleep, being tired of having to walk all day.

Next morning, Beyonder wakes up Lunella to show her that he made more braids in his hair and grabbed some vines and tied them around the spaceship so they would have a way to take it with them to the black hole. Beyonder is back to his confident self, indicating that he learned from what Lunella taught to him last night.

There is a montage of Lunella and Beyonder working together to take the spaceship to the black hole ride. In these scenes they are in better terms with each other, even laughing together at one part. They take several days until they are able to reach their destination.

They are finally able to finish their journey when they arrive at the black hole ride. They both get inside the spaceship and Lunella checks that all things are working, ready to take off. Lunella tells to Beyonder that she is proud of him by how much he helped, to which Beyonder replies that he is proud of being able to do things without his powers and thanks to Lunella for teaching him that.

However, before they are able to take off, they are stopped by Molecular Man. It turns out that he has been waiting to get revenge on the Beyonder all this time since he was the one that caused the planet, the one Molecular Man spent years building, to become a wasteland by him playing a golf space game and accidentally throwing asteroids to the planet.

This is a good metaphor of the way Beyonder usually abuses his own powers, not considering how he can hurt other people. He didn't consider that he was the reason this planet got destroyed. Since he is a god like cosmic entity, he sees himself above others, in the sense that makes him hard to empathize with mortals.

Lunella tries taking on Molecular Man and gets a terrible beat down, to the point it is traumatic for her. However, while Molecular Man is distracted by giving a speech to Lunella, Beyonder tip-toes and takes the opportunity to take the wand from Molecular Man. He gets his powers back by breaking the wand, transforms Molecular Man into a baby and saves Lunella.

He makes the ship appear near them and asks Lunella to test it out to see if it works. The spaceship goes through the black hole without any problems and Beyonder takes Lunella to Morlak's lair, where the portal opened in Season 1 finale.

In this episode Beyonder goes through an important change in character, as he is forced to experience what is like to be without powers and face the consequences of his own actions. He learns that he is capable of doing things on his own in spite of being powerless. His relationship with Lunella ends on better terms in some ways, having a new found respect for her.

While Beyonder appears a few times to narrate the episodes that followed, it isn't until episode ¨Wish-Tar¨ that he truly shows up again by popping out of a wishtar machine and scaring Lunella and Casey. Although he still has his troll tendencies, He expresses regretting the way he brought chaos to Lunella's life in the past and that he wants to make things right. He admits he sees Lunella as his friend after the events of ¨The Great Beyonder¨ but she doesn't totally feel the same way because of the times he antagonized her.

When walking down the street, Lunella and Casey notice how the wish that Lunella asked for the wishtar became true. They decide to go back to Roll With It and see that Beyonder is the one behind the wish becoming reality. Beyonder wants to grant Lunella's wishes to prove that he can be a ¨good friend¨. After getting the shoes she wanted so much, Lunella agrees to Beyonder's idea.

In the sequence ¨Switch it up¨ Lunella and Casey try to constanly keep up with new trendings in social media by asking the Beyonder to give them all the things they want. Beyonder doesn't seem to have any problem with this, as he assumes he is being a good friend by giving them anything they ask.

The problem is that the Beyonder doesn't a clear understanding of how human friendships work because he believes that giving a person anything they want is enough make them his friend. He doesn't realize that in reality Lunella and Casey are taking advantage of his powers.

Around half of the episode Lunella wishes for Bobby the Myth singer to show up in Roll With It so she is able to get all the attention from her school. Bobby accepts Lunella's offer of hosting his concert on Roll With It but he says that he needs a cooler piano than his competition. Lunella goes again to Beyonder to wish for the ¨baddest¨ piano in the world and he grants her wish.

When the concert starts all seems to be going well... until Bobby plays the piano that Lunella wished for him. He gets posessed by an evil energy that comes from it and endangers the audience. Lunella changes into Moon Girl and people are lead to the exit of the skate rink.

Then Beyonder appears on the rink, observing what it is happening. Lunella calls him out for summoning an evil piano. Beyonder explains to her that he made the "baddest piano" (as in evil) just like she asked and they shouldn't let a mistake get away in the middle of their friendship.

Lunella snaps at Beyonder by telling him that they "aren't friends", indirectly revealing that she had been taken advantage of his powers during the events of this episode and she didn't see him as a friend. In her moment of anger she says some awful things to the Beyonder and wishes that he was gone.

Because he isn't sure what he did wrong, Beyonder is left confused by Lunella's words. He is heartbroken upon learning that Lunella didn't see him as a friend in return like he assumed she did and sadly disappears, calling Moon Girl "former friend".

At the end of the episode Lunella realizes that she was really mean to Beyonder, regretting the way she lashed out at him for something that was her own fault.

In the rest of the episodes from Season 2 A that followed Beyonder isn't seen narrating the villains backstories like he used to before Wish-Tar, leaving clear that he is truly gone, at least for the moment.

In this episode Beyonder's development involves him trying to be a "good friend" to Lunella and make amends for his previous misheeds. The problem is that he still has quite a lot to learn on how to be a friend and that he can't just buy friendships from others by using his powers. He is forced to learn this lesson the hard way after learning that Lunella took advantage of him to get what she wanted.

It's a bit hard to guess Beyonder's whereabouts for the rest of Season 2 A. Nevertheless, it's worth of pointing that it has been confirmed by the crew that there is going to be a resolution for this fallout between Beyonder and Lunella, meaning that Beyonder won't probably go back to his old ways of causing problems for others.

Source: https://twitter.com/e1n/status/1754972244206665910 (The Op account who posted the tweet got deleted but Ben's response is still there)

My speculation is that in Season 2-B there is going to be an episode about Lunella finding out where Beyonder is and she apologizes to him for the way she treated him and lashed out at him in ¨Wish-Tar¨. They are likely going to make up but it isn't possible to tell if they are immediately going to become friends again or just start over.

Another thing i think it is going to happen is that Beyonder is going to learn better how friendships and human relationships work, gaining a better understanding of them. Maybe he would learn from the mistakes he commited in the past and try not repeating it again in case he wants to form new connections with people in the future.

I don't necessary believe that that he is going to become an antagonist again or trying to get revenge on Lunella for what happened. If anything, his expression in ¨Wish-Tar¨ after Lunella yelled at him was a heartbroken one. His body language before leaving read as he was going to left Lunella alone, just like she wished in her outburst.

It is going to be interesting to see what happened to his character after the events of ¨Wish-Tar¨ and how he is going to change in Season 2 B. This part of the season already did some really good things for Beyonder in terms of character evolution and i'm intrigued to see where it goes from here.

[shippingdumbster]

About asteroids and destruction

This is 100% most likely a me problem, but it bugs me, so I will make a text post about it.

Moon girl and Devil Dinosaur S2 spoilers and stuff below

Molecule man has an interesting way of talking about things in general. He refers to the world/universe as the 'multiverse' every time, giving an implication that he has traveled enough between dimensions to a point that it has affected his way of seeing the world around him. It builds the idea that he isn't ignorant of the structure of the universe and him being able to track down Lunella shows that he has the means to find his way around.

But the thing that's particularly interesting to me is how he speaks of his planet.

'My world was destroyed' '(...)Everything I spent a lifetime building... gone, in instant!' 'This place was a haven and it was my home'

He is clearly angry and hurt about his planet, but he seems incapable of saying why that is. He has spent who knows how long, decades, possibly centuries alone on his planet, silently stewing in his hurt and anger, when he has the power to rebuild a lot of it in an instant as well. Being demoralized and angry of wasted work, of having to rebuild because something was destroyed by no fault of your own, is a very human. Wanting pay back for someone wrecking your shit is very human as well, but... Enough to murder a child? Enough to spring a trap that's been ages in the making, just to beat down one guy, who barely even knew he'd done anything?

Not to mention that his planet... is very much intact. It's still around, even if structures are destroyed and everything is clearly abandoned. Beyonder had most likely cheated a bit at his golf game to send such a storm of asteroids careening towards MM's planet, most seemingly hitting the population center/resort area.

For a man who is in the position uniquely ready for rebuilding, why sit and stew for all this time? During the second encounter, we get more context to this grief, despite his language about it all remaining much the same.

'My world was shattered' 'I lost everything'

But it adds the context to that grief. The one thing he couldn't fix when it came to his home before: the people.

'My planet was the only one place where I didn't finally feel like an outsider for being different. Where I finally belonged!'

And then we get the zinger: 'Being accepted, embraced, by the multiverse meant everything to me! And just like that, it was all taken away!'

This is followed by him remembering the people on his planet. Presumably children, who had found his abilities less scary and more fantastical. It implies that his knowledge of the multiverse stems from being rejected on different planets, maybe even in multiple dimensions. Until his planet brought him the unique opportunity to create. Maybe he wanted to make something from himself, but the beauty attracted travelers and he found people who wanted to live there with him. To help him allow everyone to enjoy the fruits of his long labor and now... he had a community.

He could manipulate matter, make flowers bloom and create buildings, but he couldn't heal people. So, what he witnessed on that day left him more than traumatized. Fleeing people, chaos, deafening impact sounds as the asteroids came crashing down. He could probably only do so much to save others, leaving many people buried in rubble and the rest fleeing off planet.

(Source) There is a cut little scene from the flashback he has during the second fight sequence, where we see MM sitting in the rubble, grief struck and utterly emotionally destroyed after it all. Losing a lifetime of work, compounded by the disaster and death that had to have surrounded him...

For MM, trauma shows up as anger. And who wouldn't be angry and righteously so, after finding out your home was destroyed, lives lost... because of a stupid game. Because SOMEONE who is supposedly all seeing and all knowing didn't NOTICE they destroyed the thing most important to you.

I imagine that for a long time, Lunella and Molecule Man were similar wrecks. Having flashbacks, unable to cope, afraid. The difference was that Lunella had the support she needed to find a way to heal, while MM literally lost everyone he'd known. The people he'd called friends, maybe family in a platonic sense.

So, in the end, when he lays down to accept his fate, there's a sense of finally giving up. That it wouldn't matter in the end if he lived or died now, since he has nothing to return to, no place to actually call home.

'It's very painful...' MM is resilient, as otherwise he wouldn't have been able to live on for eons, but the heartbreak is what took him down. What good is rebuilding, when the people who were there won't come back? When houses are grave sites and ruined. Who'd want to visit a place like that?

It's most likely because of remaining child friendly that the way he speaks of what happened is only limited to destruction, but... it feels like it glances over a lot of what he must have felt. I also think it adds a punch to him finding someone willing to offer him a hand, even after what he'd done was equally as painful to Lunella. He'd passed his trauma and pain unto her and now... she might not feel safe in her home for a long time. But despite this, he gets a chance and a hope to rebuild. To find new people he can surround himself with and watch over.

And the hug? While perhaps not deserved, it was clearly appreciated.

Thank you for reading my rambling post and have a good day

[shippingdumbster]

Just imagining being held, all wrapped up in Hadron's arms, while I wait for my troubled self-worth to recover ;; v ;;

"You'll be alright. You're worthy of being loved and always have been."

And while I might not believe it today, I might believe it tomorrow.

[picturejasper20]

List of my Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur series analyses:

Lunella's arc of keeping her superhero identity secret (Season 2-A) Redemption arcs and restorative justice in MGADD Season 2-A Analysis of Devil's conflict in ¨The Devil You Know¨ episode Molecular Man character analysis (Season 2-A) The Beyonder character analysis (Season 2-A) Kid Kree/Mel-Varr character analysis (Season 2-A)