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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.