#MGADD analysis

[picturejasper20]

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur S2-A: Trying to live a double life- Lunella’s character arc analysis

In Season 2-A, one of the main character arcs of Lunella is her trying to balance his normal and superhero life and her being conflicted about telling her family that she is Moon Girl and the reactions she could get from them. Along with this, Lunella’s life as superhero is becoming harder as she is having to deal with tougher enemies and it is taking a mental toll on her. She tries to hide things that are affecting her negatively, mentally speaking, and even doesn’t want Mimi to know about.

In this post i’m going to discuss this part of Lunella’s arc on this season and the different problems that trying to keep her identity as supehero from her family brings to her. I’m going to go by episode that explores and develops the conflict in some way.

Let's start:

The conflict is brought up for the first time in ¨Suit Up!¨ by Mimi to Lunella. Mimi asks Lunella if she wants to talk to the rest of the family about her being Moon Girl, Lunella says that she isn’t sure but mentions that then they would have to explain that Mimi was the Original Moon Girl too. Mimi understands that it could take a while before they explain the situation. Instead she decides to take Lunella to a friends’ house from her days as scientist to help her with building a new suit.

The episode on itself doesn’t explore the struggles that come with keeping a super identity secret. However, it explores Lunella’s mental state after the battle she had with Molecular Man. We are beginning to see that she tries to keep all these issues to herself, struggling with opening up about her traumatic experiences. This gives a good idea of why she needs her family support in these situations and not deal with this issues on her own.

The episodes that follow are more about Lunella learning that some people she fights against may have their own reasons of why they end up doing bad things. The conflict about Lunella’s superhero identity is dropped for a while until what would be more or less the later half of season 2 A. It could be argued that there is some parallel between Marvin standing up to his father about what the type of person he wants to be in ¨Kid Kree¨ and Lunella struggling to tell her family about her being Moon Girl. Both characters have parallels to each other, so, it wouldn’t be out of place to say that this could be intentional from the writers’ part.

¨The Devil You Know¨ brings up this conflict again, exploring the stress that is bringing to Lunella and Devil’s relationship. Lunella explains that she has to keep his superhero and family life separated, accidentally making Devil feel that he isn’t part of Lunella’s family. This leads to the two of them having an argument and being angry with each other, with Lunella leaving for her family road trip.

This episode is mainly from Devil’s perspective and how he feels treated as a sidekick by Lunella at times. I discussed more about this in detail on this post. On B plot, it explores Lunella feeling bad about dismissing Devil’s feelings and having a fight with him. She tries her best to have fun in her road trip but she can’t help missing Devil and thinking about how much fun he would have if he had come with them.

At the end of the episode, Lunella and Devil have a talk, Lunella apologizes to Devil for making him feel like he isn’t important. She tells Devil that she understands that he wants to be part of Lafayettes family and she promises that she is going to work harder on trying to bring both of her lives together.

The episode ¨Dog Day Mid-afternoon¨ brings up this idea of Lunella living a double life with ¨Franklin¨ hiding that he is an alien from Pops as a parallel to Lunella hiding about being Moon Girl. Franklin gets found by Pops at the start of the episode. Believing that he is a dog, the Lafayette family takes him in and allows him to stay.

Over the course of the episode Lunella sees that Franklin acts strange and finds out clues that he may be an alien. Pops insists that even if Franklin does weird things, it doesn’t mean he is evil. Later in the story Franklin reveals to Pop and Lunella that he is, in fact, an alien that was going undercover to trap a human criminal that was exploiting and controlling dogs using a special whistle.

Lunella (as Moon Girl) teams up with Franklin and Pops to stop the antagonist and get her arrested. Franklin says goodbye to Pops and Lunella, taking off with his ship. Lunella brings up to Pops that he is taking the reveal of Franklin being an alien quite well, to which he answers with saying that ¨when you care about someone, you want to love them for what all they are¨, indicating that he would prefer someone to be honest about who they are than having to keep secrets from him.

Pops’s relationship with Lunella is explored again in ¨Roller Jam!¨. While the episode is more about the friendship and rivalry that Pops has with another character, it leaves a clear point that he is a huge fan of Moon Girl. He admires what Moon Girl does for her community and helps Lunella with fighting against Brian Glory. It could be assumed that seeing her grandfather being supportive of Moon Girl is another thing that influences Lunella to convince herself to reveal to her family that she is a superhero. It helps by knowing there is another person in her family that probably wouldn’t get angry at her for keeping this a secret from them.

It is worth of discussing that Season 1 has been building towards this arc as well.  In the episode ¨Skip Ad-olescence¨ James almost seems to find about Lunella being Moon Girl with Lunella using the time jumps. In ¨Like Mother, Like Moon Girl¨ Adria tells to Lunella that Moon Girl reminds her a lot of her, pointing out the similarities between them. She says that she admires Moon Girl but adds that ¨her mother must be crazy letting fight all those supervillains¨, giving some perspective of how she would react to Lunella being Moon Girl reveal.

Lunella mostly keeps her identity a secret out of fear of how her family would react to it, she fears that they would freak out or get angry at her for having lying to them for so long. She is scared that they wouldn’t allow her to be Moon Girl anymore. She tries working with it but this fear always stops her from doing so.

Another reason that likely motivates Lunella to keep her identity a secret from her family is that one of her biggest fears is not being able to protect someone she loves or losing someone. This was explored in the episode ¨Coney Island, Baby!¨ when the Beyonder is testing Lunella’s fears. He is able to figure out that this is Lunella’s greatest fear based on thinking she almost lost Mimi when she was a little girl.

Lunella likely keeps her identity a secret as a way to protect her family, from the way she sees it. She doesn’t want them to get worried nor get hurt because of her fights against supervillains and criminals. She may believe she would put them on risk if she reveals her secret to them and they could get hurt because of that.

She has also the habit of thinking that she has to take the burden all herself. She thinks that she to tackle these issues mostly on her own, that it would make it worse if her parents/family knew about it. She often has the habit of struggling to ask for help or telling others what is happening to her.

This idea of keeping things hidden seems to work for a while until the events of Season 1 finale involving Mordak, then being stuck on a wild planet for days and having a brutal fight against Molecular Man. All this leaves an impact on her, making her question how much she can deal with this on her own since it is being too much for her.

¨Family Matters¨ is when Lunella keeping a double identity secret really catches up to her. Her family is beginning to pick up how she gets really late and is absent from family activities. At the start of the episode Adria asks Lunella where she has been and she tries getting away from the conversation. Adria says that she is just worried about her and would like to spend time with her more often. She gaves Lunella a teddy bear she made for her.

Some minutes later Mimi goes down to Lunella’s secret hideout and finds Lunella making a mess, trying to change her schedule. Mimi brings up that it would be a good idea for her to tell the rest of the family the truth as she is seeing that having to keep all this hidden is leaving Lunella exhausted. Lunella says that she would think about it and leaves to do supehero stuff.

She, Devil and Casey (who sent a drone) find out that the alarm came from supehero Turbo fighting the villain Silvermane. Turbo is someone that Lunella is a huge fan of, getting distracted in the battle by telling Turbo how much she admires her. Silvermane runs away in the middle of the fight. Turbo explains that Silvermane has been trying to steal her special suit that is powered by unique technology. She explains to Lunella that she is in New York for personal business and Lunella offers (more like begs) if she can help her with fighting Silvermane, to which Turbo accepts.

Lunella comes up with a tracker that can help them with looking for Silvermane. As the team along with Turbo try finding the villain, Lunella gets multiple calls from her family asking her to hang out. Lunella turns down or skips most of these activities, making the family worried that she isn’t spending any time with them.

The team takes a break after not being able to find Silver. Turbo tells to Lunella where she got her special suit and the two have a moment talking about their struggles of being superheroes and their mistakes when they were starting. Turbo says that she usually doesn’t get to talk to other people about these things and is happy to see someone else who gets it.

Lunella later comes up with a new plan to get Silvermane to come to them by using Turbo’s suit as bait. She gets interrumpted by Adria, who asks her if she wants to join family game night since they found free time in her schedule for her to play. Lunella plays with them for while, knowing that she has been missing spending time with them recently.

While they are having a fun time, Lunella gets an alert about Silvermane. She tries getting out from the game only for Adria and the rest to ask her why she is constanly skipping and barely around. Adria gets specially suspicious and demands to Lunella to explain what is going on. In a moment of stress, Lunella accidenatlly yells at her family and realizes what she said, running away to met with Turbo.

The team and Turbo manage to trick and capture Silvermane. To celebrate, Turbo takes them to spot on top of a building she knows. From the roof Lunella notices that Turbo is looking at someone through a window: It is a woman with a birthday cake. Turbo explains to Lunella that the woman is her mother and that she comes to her like this every year during the day of her birthday. Her relationship with her mother went rock bottom after the constant lying with Turbo having to keep up her super hero identity a secret from her. She talks about she hasn’t seen her ever since then and that there are some things she can’t change about what happened between them.

Turbo acts as a parallel to what Lunella’s relationship with her family could turn into if she keeps up constanly lying to them. For Turbo, hiding her super person for too long meant her accidentally ruining her relationship with her own mother permantely. Lunella sees that she is falling in a similar pattern away, with lately not spending time with her own family and breaking into ugly arguments with them.

This is what finally pushes Lunella to come out with the truth about her being Moon Girl to the rest of the Lafayettes, as she would prefer taking the risk than ruining her relationship with them just like it happened with Turbo and her own mother. The episode ends with Lunella saying to her family that she has something to tell them.

In the next episode, ¨The Molecular Level¨, when Adria, James and Pops listen to Lunella reveal that she is Moon Girl at first they think it is a joke until Devil appears, leaving them shocked. Devil gives them some gifts, saying that he is happy to meet them.

Pops takes the reveal quite well, expressing that he is proud of Lunella and asking her if he could be her sidekick some time. James panicks but still seems to take it well in spite of the shock. However, Adria shows to be mixed about the situation, as she is happy that her daughter is a superhero yet she feels bad that she didn’t know that all this time Lunella was fighting crime.

Lunella gives them a detailed explanation of how she has been trying to balance her schedule and how she has a lot of good equipment to protect herself and others. She wants to convince her parents that there shouldn’t be any serious problem. James and Adria still feel very shocked about everything but Lunella assures them that nobody else knows about her being Moon Girl aside from Devil, Casey and Marvin.

However, Molecular Man suddently breaks into the Lafayette’s deparment, destroying a good part of the house. He managed to track Lunella down and he wants to get revenge on her since he wasn’t able to find the Beyonder nowhere. He attacks them, chasing them down around the house and breaking everything in his path. Lunella tries to fight Molecular Man, only to be pulled back by the adults, trying to keep her safe.

In the middle of the struggle, Adria, James and Pops learn about how Lunella went through an interdimensional portal and ended stranded on a planet. They later learn that Mimi used to be the Original Moon Girl too, leaving Pops specially angry at Mimi for not telling him about that.

The battle gets more intense, with Lunella ending up trapped inside her own room and her family on the other side of it, being attacked by Molecular Man. Fortunately, Devil is to get Lunella her superhero suit using the drone that Casey controlled the previous episode. She puts it on and order the rest of the Lafayettes to escape, as she is going to fight Molecular Man.

After Lunella defeats Molecular Man, she realizes that he went through a lot and understands how painful it must have been for him getting his own planet destroyed. Molecular Man admits that he took his revenge too far and apologizes for his actions. Lunella gaves him part of her suit, which has self repairing abilities. Molecular gets healed and decides to use his powers to rebuild, first repairing the damage he causes in the house and then leaving to rebuild his own planet.

Once Molecular Man leaves, Pops, Mimi and James congratulate Lunella for winning and James comments that they already consider Devil part of the family. On the other hand, Adria doesn’t look so happy, she tells Lunella that she is proud of her and she growing into a mature person… but she says that she ¨is never doing this again¨, forbidding her for being Moon Girl. The episode ends with the frame of the Lafayette photo breaking, mainly where Lunella and Adria are, symbolizing how their relationship has become ¨broken¨ after the ending of The Molecular Level.

I would argue that Adria’s reaction is understandable. She was shocked when Lunella revealed her super identity at the start of episode but she seemed to be going along with it. It was after seeing the chaos that Molecular Man brought to the house and attacking them that she decided to not allow Lunella to be Moon Girl any further, worrying for her safety. As her mother, it is reasonable from her perspective since she is looking after Lunella. Season 2 B would explore the consequences of these decisions and how Lunella finds a way to persuade Adria to let her do superhero stuff again.

In all, one big part of Lunella’s arc in this season is her choosing to tell or not tell her family about her being Moon Girl. She sees if the risks in doing so are worth it, afraid that they won’t talk to her for being lying to them for so long. Eventually she sees that trying to do this double life and having to be always lying about her superhero persona is bringing too much trouble in her life and her relationships with her family. It is when she sees what happened to superhero Turbo that finally pushes her to tell the Lafayettes the truth about it.

I’m looking forward to seeing how Season 2 B explores these changes in dynamics and how the Lafayettes are going to see Lunella knowing that she is Moon Girl. I’m also interested in watching the relationships that Devil is going to have with Pops, James and Adria too. It is certainly something that is going to bring a lot of changes to the status quo of the show from now on.

[flower-boi16]

Moon Girl: The LES's Hero

One of the themes of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is community; or rather, standing up for your community. It comes as early as the very first episode; where Lunella's mother, Aidria, tells her that "one girl can make a difference", and Lunella keeps that advice with her throughout the episode at least until the obligatory 2rd act break-up.

The threat in the episode wasn't some big supervillain wanting to take over the world or some shit, rather, the main villain was taking the LES's electricity which caused blackouts in the town. While it's not a typical world-ending threat or anything, this conflict is personal to Lunella, because now businesses are closing down because of the power shortages, and the LES is her home, she's not going to let people take away its power.

So, in the climax of the first episode - Lunella exposes Aftershock as the one taking away the LES's electricity and defeats her by grounding her using a pole, which manages to get the LES's power back. Lunella stood up for her home and community here, again, while it wasn't a threat that was world-ending or anything, the threat was personal to Lunella, because the LES is her home, and she's going to stand up for it. Especially when other heroes can't do that, since the episode drills into your head that "nobody cares about the LES", so they never had a hero to protect them...until Moon Girl came in. Moon Girl is the LES's hero, and she'll do anything to stand up for her community, even if it isn't a world-ending threat or anything.

This theme pops up again in episode 11, "Like Mother, Like Moon Girl'', which introduces the idea of Lunella being a "community hero", she's not just a superhero, but someone with a prominent voice for the community, a community hero, so her voice matters over all else. Lunella ends up using her voice wrong, letting the muzzlers gentrify the LES, removing its heart and soul. Again, this isn't a super world-ending threat or anything, but this is something that's personal to Lunella, because again, the LES is her home, and while its not going to be destroyed, the muzzlers are removing the culture and identity of the area, turning it into their own vision of what they think the LES should be.

Gentrification is actually something that happens in real life, which makes the climax of the episode all the better; Lunella learns to use her voice as the community hero more wisely, and finds a way to make sure that not just her voice is heard, but everyone else's. She's able to defeat the muzzlers and restore the LES to its original glory. Once again, Lunella stood up for her home and community, not letting some assholes rip the soul straight out of it; she made her voice heard and made everyone else's heard too.

She was not going to let her home be gentrified, she stood up for her community, her home, and all of the people in it.

Moon Girl is a typical superhero, she doesn't just save the city from bad guys, she stands up for her community and home, she's not just a hero, she's the LES's hero. If she hadn't stepped in, things would have looked far darker; the LES would have kept on losing its electricity and businesses would have continued to shut down, and the LES would have been completely gentrified if she hadn't done anything.

That "one girl can make a difference" line hits a lot harder because in these cases, Lunella did make a difference; she stood up for her community & home. It resembles what a lot of figures in real life did, especially black figures since Lunella is a black girl, and how they made a difference through their actions. Lunella's a black girl who stands up for her community and home, no matter what.

[crazycartoonnerd123]

I watched the first 7 episodes of this show and I have both good and bad thoughts that I would like to share.

NOTE: While I will be discussing other shows in this analysis, this is not a comparison. The show hasn't had enough development to be compared to shows like TOH, Amphibia or even Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.

The Pros:

The Story overall has a really great setup. It was able to clearly establish the conflict(s) of the show, and the plot has a clear direction.

The show has enjoyable characters. I already love Hailey so much and I also love Scott. And Beta slays so hard.

The animation is pretty good and I absolutely love the character designs.

IT HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL. It has an overall great plot setup that could lead to a great overarching plot, and I'm pretty sure that is the intention.

The voice acting is really great especially from Hailey's VA who is slaying with her character.

The Cons:

I cannot express how much I HATE that part of the main conflict is that she has to kiss her best friend and that there’s a love triangle. This is mainly a preference thing because I don't like it when romance is deeply involved in shows, and it's literally a major plot point and I hate it. But again this is just a preference thing.

Other than Hailey and Kristene, none of the characters have really had any character development and their development has been very subtle and minimal. Granted, we're only 7 episodes in but I feel like there should be more. EDIT: I was just informed that we're actually only 6 episodes in to like a 30 episode season which means we're only 1/5th ways through the 1st season, so the lack of development makes complete sense.

I feel like there should be a little more development with the plot by now and lore should be revealed.

This has nothing to do with the show itself but every time I hear the phrase just a friend I think of miraculous and it gives me war flashbacks because every time I watch that show I'm in destress about how bad the writing is but the writing is pretty strong in Haileys on it so i think I'll be fine.

Overall, it's a pretty solid show. I didn’t get the same feeling off of this show as I did with Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, but I think it's because MGADD has more of the elements I like compared to this. But also I feel like I'm gonn be surprised by this show. I don't think it'll get as dark as Amphibia and TOH did, but that's fine because the vibe is so much different.

Rating: 7/10

[picturejasper20]

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Kid Kree/Mel-Varr character analysis

Kid Kree/Mel-Varr is a character that gets introduced in the Season 2 episode ¨Kid Kree¨ as a semi antagonist to Lunella and later becomes an ally and friend on the long run. He is a character that is original from the comics, having some differences in the way he is characterized in the series.

In this post i’m going to talk about his character, how he develops in this part of the season and his relationship with Lunella, which is important for his character growth.

Let’s start:

As i previously mentioned, Mel-Varr/Kid Kree gets introduced in the episode ¨Kid Kree¨. In this episode Lunella and Casey first meet Marvin scanning and acting strange with other people on the street. All this time Marvin is seen wearing his human disguise, which makes him pass off as a regular teenager. Later Lunella is asked by LOS to show Mel-Varr the school around. Since Mel-Varr is an alien there are many earthly traditions he doesn’t understand yet. He laughes too loudly when trying to imitate Lunella and mixes up words. He is pretty awkward when it comes to human interactions, still trying to get used to them.

During gym class, he approaches Lunella, who is working on some formulas she has, and brings up a small correction she should change in her math. Lunella quickly realizes that Mel-Varr is into science and math like she is and asks him if he would like to hang out later. Mel-Varr agrees but says that he has to receive a call from his father first.

It gets revealed that Mel-Varr is on a secret mission to capture Moon Girl, explaining why he is passing off as a student at school. He got sent to Earth by his own father,Pad-Var, to prove his worth as kree soldier and as punishment for having failed at the military academy. He explains to his father that he assumed Lunella was Moon Girl but the tests he ran didn’t match the results. He doesn’t know that Lunella is Moon Girl and visversa.

The reality is that Mel-Varr doesn’t enjoy being a warrior. It is something that was forced by his father, who sets very high expectations on him. Kree’s society puts emphasis on its people to be soldiers, or at least the social circles Mel-Varr finds himself in his species. He mainly follows what his father tells him because that’s what is expected of him and he really wants his approval.

Mel-Varr is into science and math, something that Pad-Var heavily disapproves of when they interact. Their relationship is very strained because of this, as Mel-Varr feels like he can’t be himself around his father and he is forced to be someone he doesn’t want to. Pad-Var acts pretty distant towards his own son, more often refering to him as a soldier rather than his own family.

There are implications that Mel-Varr didn’t have any friends before coming to Earth as he mentions that he was bullied in his previous school by his peers for being a ¨nerd¨. So not only he has a complicated relationship with his father, there is the chance that he is rejected by other people from around his age as well.

This is why Mel-Varr doesn’t take time in befriending Lunella: She is someone he feels like can be his own self around. He doesn’t have to hide who he is. They both bond over having similar interests and ways of thinking, something that Lunella herself appreciates since she was interested in finding someone she could talk about science as well.

As Mel-Varr helps Lunella with her inventions, the two become closer and hang out very often. On the other hand, Moon Girl and Kid Kree develop a sort of rivalry between the two, trying to Outsmart the other on each encounter they have. During this time Mel-Varr and Lunella are unaware that Mel-Varr is fact helping Lunella to come up with weapons to defeat ¨Kid Kree¨.

During the same day Lunella invites Mel-Varr for dinner and to meet her family, Moon Girl and Kid Kree have another encounter in which Mel-Varr loses his communicator-phone that he uses to contact his father. Lunella grabs it and takes it to her lab to examine it.

Along with Casey, they both learn that Kid Kree is Mel-Varr by checking a visual-audio recording saved on his communicator. This makes Lunella very upset, jumping to conclusions about Mel-Varr instead of talking to him and calls Pad-Var to provoke him.

During dinner Lunella reveals to Mel-Varr that he knows his secret identity as Kid Kree by giving him his  communicator back. This leads to Mel-Varr to realize that Lunella is Moon Girl too. Lunella also tells him that she called his father, making Mel-Varr get very nervous at the mention of it.

When asked by Mimi about it, Mel-Var explains to the Lafayette family that his father is forcing him to do things he doesn’t want to and be someone he isn’t. He was happy to meet Lunella because he could be himself around her. For the language and expression Mel-Varr has when talking about Pad-Var, it gives the impression that their relationship is abusive to an extent. He gets scared by the idea of having to talk to him and the mere mention of him. He leaves the department, not before clarifying to Lunella that he didn’t know that she was Moon Girl.

Realizing her mistake, Lunella goes after Mel-Varr as Moon Girl and followed by Devil behind. They find him on top of a buiding, where Pad-Var’s ships arrives to pick up Mel-Varr. Pad-Var sees Moon Girl and Devil and fights them to capture them. While the fight is happening, Lunella apologizes to Mel-Varr for jumping to conclusions and causing trouble for him. She wants for the two of them to be friends and asks him to tell his father how he truly feels about him.

Mel-Varr decides to help Lunella fighting against Pad-Var and gains the courage to tell him that he can’t be what his is expected to be and that in reality he prefers to study science, even if Pad-Var doesn’t approve of it. Instead of being dissapointed, the commander shows interest in Mel-Varr’s inventions, seeing that they could be useful in battle. He asks Mel-Varr to come back so they could put his science skills on use.

After the fight, Lunella and Mel-Varr still remain friends and Marvin gives Lunella a communicator, so they can keep in contact with each other. Mel-Varr goes inside the spaceship, saying goodbye to Lunella.

Kid Kree retuns in the episode ¨In The Heist¨. He is first seen when Lunella calls him using the comunicator to ask him about the crystal that she and the kids are shown to in the museum. Mel-Varr is doing what resembles a military obstacle course while talking to Lunella, indicating he was able to rejoin his previous school, mentioned in ¨Kid Kree¨. This means he is still trying to be a soldier or that kids in his planet are trained to be soldiers from a young age.

He shows to be deeply concerned about the crystal being inside the museum. He tells to Lunella to take out of there since it has special powers that, when exposed under direct sunlight, it generates horrible weather conditions, which in Kree society are used for a tradition called ¨Bloodvember¨. This demostrates that while he wasn’t on Earth for a long time, he cares about it enough for people to not get hurt by the crystal’s powers.

Mel-Varr shows up near the end of the episode to retrieve the crystal that Lunella and the STEAM kids took from the museum. He hangs out with Lunella and laughs at her retelling of the heist she and others carried out to get the crystal. They both act a bit awkward with each other, making Mel-Varr almost forget taking the crystal with him in the process. He gives a side hug to Lunella and says goodbye, going back to his home planet.

Mel-Varr shows up one last time in Season 2 A in the episode ¨Dancing With Myself¨. When Lunella is talking to Devil about how she doesn’t have anyone that could be her date for the school dance, Mel-Varr drops from the sky near them and explains to Lunella that the Zargarian (an moth like alien race) are after him because they are sworn enemies to the Pad-Var and they are trying to capture him (again). He asks to Lunella if she knows any place to hide, specially if it is dark to not attract the Zargarian.

Instead of taking Mel-Varr to a more secure place to hide, Lunella asks him if he could try hiding inside the school dance. She persuades him into believing that it is safe and could help him with ¨fitting in¨ with other teenagers to go unnoticed. Lunella’s true motive is that she is the only one at the dance she doesn’t have a date and takes the opportunity that Mel-Varr is   here to have someone to ¨date¨ and that way fit in with the others.

Mel-Varr quickly goes along with it, probably because he believes that he is going to be safe from the Moth men while hiding in the school. He is still unaware of human culture as a whole, so he trusts that whatever Lunella is telling him is safe. Another point that could be made is that Mel-Varr was in part interested in being Lunella’s date considering he really likes her romantically speaking. Perhaps he wanted to know how dating worked for humans and wanted to try it out.

In the school dance, they both try imitating what other couples do but it ends up with both of them feeling very awkward and uncomfortable while doing so. It isn’t a situation they enjoy, they feel pressured to do it just to fit in with their peers (mainly from Lunella’s side). In a moment they start talking about science and Lunella stops Mel-Varr, telling him that they should ¨act¨ more like the other couples.

Some time passes when Mel-Varr asks Lunella if they could go elsewhere to hide from the Moth men. Lunella promises they’ll go after a slow dance and Mel-Varr agrees to it if they leave the place after that. They both seem to be having fun dancing until the spotlight light turns on and Lunella asks them to stay a bit longer.

Finally Mel-Varr snaps at Lunella, telling her to stop. He then explains that the whole dating thing makes him feel uncomfortable and that he ¨is still a kid¨. He doesn’t feel ready to get involved in romantic things even though he admits he really likes Lunella. The spotlight light falls on them, attracting the Moth men who take Mel-Varr.

In the middle of the chaos, Lunella learns that the rest of her friends were dating other people because they thought that that’s what they were supposed to do for a school dance and in reality they feel the same as her when it comes to dating. This make her realize her mistake and goes to look for Mel-varr. Lunella apologizes for pressuring him into being her date, admiting that she was also uncomfortable and if they could stay as friends instead. Mel-Varr happily agrees to the idea.

Lunella frees Mel-Varr and they both take their identities as Moon Girl and Kid Kree to fight against the Zargarian. Eventually Devil and the rest of the school join the fight, helping with chasing the Moth men away. Mel-Varr and Lunella go back their non-superhero identities and return to inside the school. The episode ends with Lunella and Mel-Varr having fun dancing in the school dance, not as a couple but as friends.

Another aspect that is worth of bringing up from this episode is that Mel-Varr still struggles with standing up for himself. While what Lunella taking him to the school dance was wrong, he admits that he could have said something sooner about it. He could have been more clear with Lunella that they had to leave the school earlier. It seems to be an issue that he is trying to work through ever since the episode ¨Kid Kree¨.

As for what direction his character arc could take next, it is possible he starts living on Earth since he that’s where Lunella is and he seems enjoy being more on Earth than his own planet overall. It could also be that he moves in out of safety reasons, having in mind that he seems to be the target of plenty of his father’s enemies.

In all, Mel-Varr/Kid Kree is someone who starts as a somewhat enemy of Moon Girl until he realizes that he has a lot of common with her and they become friends. He becomes someone close to Lunella as well as an ally. Thanks to her, Mel-Varr gets inspired to stand up for himself and stay true to who his is as a person.

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Devil's conflict in ¨The Devil You Know¨ analysis (MGADD Season 2)

One of the main conflicts in Season 2 A is Lunella struggling to tell her family that she is Moon Girl and trying to balance out his family life with superhero life. Through out the arc Lunella´s relationships with others often become a bit strained because of this, leading to arguments.

In one of those occasions she has a fight with Devil, leaving the two angry with each other for a few days in the episode ¨The Devil You Know¨ In this post i'm going to talk about Devil's charaterization and development in this episode and how he feels affected by Lunella keeping his superhero identity a secret.

The episode starts with Lunella about to go on a road trip with her family. She is talking to Devil and he asks if he can come. Lunella answers to that that she wants some ¨family time¨ since she has been so busy being Moon Girl lately. This leads to Devil misunderstand that he isn't part of Lunella's family but Lunella insists that isn't the case. The issue is that she can't introduce Devil to the Lafayette without having to talk about Moon Girl.

Devil feels frustrated with how is usually left out of the Lafayettes' family time and he wants to be included in it. He feels treated more as a ¨sidekick¨ than as friend or part of Lunella's family. There are some flashbacks that show some examples of this, with him having to hide and having to keep his distance away from the Lafayettes, not being able to be part of the moment. This ends with Lunella and him getting angry with each other and Lunella leaving for her family trip.

These scenes give some insight to previous Devil episodes from Season 1. In ¨Devil On Her Shoulder¨ one of the reasons of why Devil wanted to be smaller in size is because he wanted to do the same activities Lunella and Casey did but he can't because of how huge he is. He in general doesn't like being left out and would like to spend more time with Lunella, Casey and the Lafayettes.

It can be said that in contrast to Lunella, Devil enjoys being around people. He is very extroverted and friendly and likes spending time with others. He feels bad when he isn't able to do this as much as he would like to or is limited to these social interactions. Another point that could be made is that Devil, in spite of having an intelligence similar to a human and having complex emotions, he is still an animal, and, much like a dog or cat, he wants to be around Lunella or her family. Spending too much time apart causes him to be stressed.

After the Lafayette leave for their family trip, Devil goes for a walk. He sees some families passing the time together and wishes he could be part of something like that. Suddenly he finds a poster that talks about a group called the ABC that is for sidekicks who feel underappreciated by their supers. Devil buys into the idea and decides to check for this group.

He goes inside the entrance where the ABC usually reunite and moments later he meets the members: Aragorn, Toothgnasher, Redwing and Pebble (who is the leader and founder). Everyone presents themselves to Devil and tell their story with their superheroes. Devil does the same and the ABC don't take time in making him feel welcome to the group.

Devil feels himself happy in ABC as he sees himself being part of a family like he wished. He gets along with the members and spend the rest of the day together.

However, as much fun he is having with these new friends he made. Devil begins to notice that some things are off from the ABC. First they don't pay for the food when they go to eat in a restaurant, leaving Devil being the one who has to pay for the tip.

When they are back in the HQ, they play a game night called ¨How bad were day?¨ that is about telling stories about how terrible were their supers. Devil sees that the only thing they seem to talk about is their supers instead of playing something that is fun. He starts to remember the times he usually spent with Lunella, realizing that he can't bring himself to hate her like the ABC do with their owners.

Devil pretends to be tired to leave early, not being a fan of this ¨game night¨. Pebble then suggest that they are going on a ¨family trip¨ as last activity, something that Devil wants to take part in. They go to a cave that is covered with a huge boulder. Pebble asks Devil to use his tail to destroy it and they go inside.

They are having fun inside of what it looks like a lair. Devil then notices that they are inside Granite's (Pebble's super) lair and the ABC start to destroy the place as sort of ¨revenge¨. This is when Devil realizes that he joined with the wrong type of people and their support group doesn't look for a healthy way to deal their issues and instead they bring the worse of them.

In addition to this, they act in some ways like a cult. Pebbles yells at Devil destroy the furniture from Granite's cave like the rest of them. They have their own mantras and routines that usually involve talking about how terrible their supers are.

Devil sees it was a bad idea to join this group and that in reality Lunella loves her. He can't bring himself to hate her. He undertstands that part of Lunella wants to introduce him to the rest of her family but she still struggling with revealing her identity as Moon Girl. He expresses that he shouldn't have joined the ABC, this escalates to a fight between Devil vs the ABC, in which Devil wins.

A few moments after the fight Granite shows up and shows to be very happy to see Pebble. Pebble reminds to Granite that he was going to move to Florida without her, to which Granite explains that paper that she read was to move his actions figures to her mother's department. He was heartbroken when Pebble left and had been looking for her ever since.

Granite adds that Aragon and Redwing's supers have been looking for them and that they both realize their problems were caused by misunderstandings. Everyone (except for Toothgnasher, whose issue with his super remains a mystery) goes back to their super, seeing that their resentment was mainly result of lack of communication.

Back in Moon Girl's HQ, Devil meets Lunella who has returned from her road trip. They both make up and Lunella apologizes to Devil for dismissing his feelings before she left for the trip. She promises to him that she is going to work harder to bring both her superhero and normal life together soon, so Devil gets to be part of all Lunella's life.

Devil's character growth in this episode is learning to trust Lunella a bit more and understand that she is still working on telling to her family that she is Moon Girl. He realizes that he was wrong about Lunella only seeing him as a ¨sidekick¨ and that she does in fact see him as part of her family. She is trying to figure things out and in the end she admits to Devil that she gets why he wanted to be included.

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One of the reasons why I love "Family Matters" so much is because it pretty much reminds me why I love Lunella as a protagonist. Lunella is a flawed person with her own flaws and struggles that she overcomes, from facing her trauma in "Coney Island", to learning to use her voice for the community better and learning how to make her voice heard in "Like Mother, Like Moon Girl", to learning to trust in her abilities in "Suit Up", to be even learning to be proud of her hair in "Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow".

She's somebody with flaws and struggles, but she's able to push through her flaws and learn from her mistakes. Her mistakes also have clear negative consequences within the story; because she used her voice in a wrong way, the LES was getting gentrified, because she was so obsessed with winning and didn't listen to LOS when they said they were overheating, she almost got herself killed and LOS almost died, because she got too impatient, well, the entire plot of "Run the Rink" happened. And she learns her mistake and grows from it.

She feels like a real flawed person with her own struggles, and we also get to see her life outside of being a superhero, getting to see her day-to-day life and her relationships with her family members. And after all of that, she's still a 13-year-old, and he ofc has the same attitude and insecurities as one too. She feels like a real person that people can relate to with some of the things she often struggles with, and THAT'S why I love her so much as a character.

Season 2 makes Lunella into an even better protag than she already was; we first have her dealing with her PTSD of almost being killed by Molecule man, and in the next episode has her dealing with that PTSD, believing her suit needs to become stronger and invincible to be able to defeat any threat, only learn that she needs to trust in her own abilities, and thus overcomes her PTSD.

Then there's Family Matters, where Lu's superhero life is beginning to wear on her and she needs to tell her parents what's actually going on. She meets Turbo, another young superhero, someone who never told her mother her secret identity, and because of that, their relationship split off. Turbo's superhero life was fucking with her normal life, and because she never told her mother and kept on lying to her, it ended up damaging it, permanently. After all the lies and things she said to her mother in order to keep the secret, there's no coming back.

Turbo is basically a reflection of what could happen to Lunella if she keeps lying to her parents about being a superhero, and, it almost did happen to her with the scene where she said that she maybe doesn't like being around them. If Lunella kept on lying, she would have ended up pushing away her family forever, and there wouldn't be any coming back from that. If she kept up the lie, she could have damaged her relationship with her family forever.

Lunella does go and tell her parents that she's Moon Girl, so she can finally stop lying to them. And in the next episode where Molecule Man attacks Lunella's home, when she defeats him, she relates to his story of how he lost his planet because he wasn't able to protect something he loved, like how Lunella wanted to protect her family, the thing she loves.

Season 2 does such a great job with Lunella's character and amplifies all the things I loved about her, and I'm only expecting Lu to get even better once the second half of the season comes out.

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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.

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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.

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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)

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Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur ¨Moon Girl Landing¨ Episode analysis

¨Moon Girl Landing¨ serves as the ¨pilot¨ and first episode of the Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur series. It serves as an introduction for the world, the characters and the premise. In addition to this, it explores the origins of Moon Girl and how she becomes a superhero. It’s a particularly long episode and in result there is a lot worth of discussing about it.

Starting with the intro, the musical sequence does a good job at establishing Lunella’s character: She is someone who really cares about her community, she likes to find solution to problems using her super intelligence, she tries to help her family as much as she can and worries about the safety of her neighborhood. Just in the five minutes in we have an idea of what motivates Lunella to become a superhero. The area where she lives in has been having tons of blackouts, which leads to robbery and places closing as result. Lunella’s family is afraid that they’ll have to close their rink soon because of this. With many stakes at hand, Lunella tries to make a back up power source to restore the neighbourhood’s electricity.

In addition to introducing Lunella’s character, the first minutes help with the worldbuilding by allowing to see how the community interacts with Lunella and each other. It gives the feeling that there are actual real people living in this place and they have their own lives instead of being an empty houses that the protagonist has to protect. Lunella’s family gets a nice quick introduction with their getting their personalities somewhat established and their relationships with the main protagonist. Overall, i really like their family dynamic. It’s cute and you can see that they really love Lunella. I also like how they try to hid her from the truth that the rink business hasn’t been doing so well lately thanks to the blackouts.

Moving on to the school, some school peers get established. There is Eduardo who usually annoys and is impressed by Lunella for her intelligence; Aylan, the snobbish clever kid rival; and Casey, one of the main protagonists of the show. This scene explores Lunella’s current situation in school. Her peers consider her weird and make fun of her. She doesn’t have any friends. She also gets respected for her smarts. This indicates that she is lonely and doesn’t completely fit in between kids of her age, much like her version from the comics.

Once she returns home from school, Lunella goes to her secret laboratory which is hidden in an abandoned subway under her house. She finishes working on the power source that it was inspired by a scientist ¨Moon Girl¨ who went missing after she worked in her plans.* The moment the power source gets activated, a giant portal to another time and place opens and giant red dinosaur comes from the other side of it (Devil Dinosaur). Before Lunella gets any chance to talk to him, the dinosaur escapes and Lunella runs after him.

While Devil is running through the city there is a change in animation where we get to see his point of view. It’s an interesting way of showing how his vision works. He stops for a moment when he smells hotdogs. This gives Lunella the idea of feeding Devil to calm him down. A few minutes later the big red dinosaur starts to like the girl and quickly befriends her. Immediately, there are blackouts again. Lunella and Devil pick up that it comes from someone named Aftershock, who is absorbing all the energy from the neighborhood. Casey, who was following the duo, almost get crushed by debris but gets saved in the last minute thanks to Lunella ordering Devil to stop the debris. Both escape from the place before getting more unnecessary attention, leaving a confused Casey behind.

Back in the laboratory, Lunella tries to find a solution to blackouts. While talking to Devil she comes up with the idea of the two of them becoming superheroes to fight against crime and stop Aftershock. Devil is thrilled by this idea. He is very enthusiastic about helping Lunella with fighting villains. A few minutes later Casey arrives to thank Lunella for saving her earlier. She becomes intrigued with the whole blackout problems and decides that she is going to Lunella and Devil by promoting them through social media and helping them gain recognition.

I appreciate how the team comes together in a way that feels natural in the story. These scenes do a good job at setting their relationships and interactions with each other. However, i feel that events are rushed and the narrative is chaotic. It would have worked better if there were more minutes between each scenes to allow the pacing flow better.

The rest of the first half of the episode involves Lunella and Devil gaining some experience to become superheroes. There is a failed attempt at stopping some thieves, a training montage and then succeeding at defeating the same thieves again. In all, i like watching the team struggling with the superhero duties since they completely have zero experience in this. It feels more realistic this way and it makes it satisfactory when learn to work together.

This is when the second half of the pilot starts. In this part the tone gets more serious and emotional since it involves the duo facing Aftershock, who is a lot more dangerious than your common street criminal. She posesses powerful electric powers. She is poses are real threat for someone as young and unexperienced as Lunella is. Aftershock is a fun villain that manages to be both fun, intimidating and clever at the same time. She quickly figures out Lunella’s identity, she hurts Devil badly and threatens to hurt Lunella’s family too. 

On one hand i like the situation becoming more emotional and Lunella feeling scared of standing up against this villain. It gives her character some good conflict and development. It’s a bit rare to see a hero protagonist this scared, specially considering that this is the first time for her to face someone like this. On the other hand i feel like these moments could have worked better later in the series, after having spend more time getting to know these characters and them developing. I understand that writers the wanted to establish Moon Girl’s origins in one long episode but this works better in mid Season finales or season finales.

Despite this issue, these moments still are good. They make sense for the characters and the plot. Feeling guilty and scared, Lunella has a fight with Casey and sends Devil back to his time since she doesn’t want him to get hurt more. It’s a sad moment because she was finally able to make her first friends and she ends up pushing them away out of fear of them getting in danger.

Mimi, Lunella’s grandmother, finds Lunella stressed and asks her what happened. Lunella explains to her that she feels bad about not being able to fix the blackouts (skipping the superhero and finding Devil part). Mimi comforts her by telling her that she doesn’t have to do things alone and that she should try relying on her loved ones. Eventually this leads to a sweet scene in which Lunella and Casey make up and come up with an idea to stop Aftershock once and for all.

Moon Girl grabs many people’s attention and makes them follow her to show them that Aftershock is the cause of the blackouts. In the middle of the battle Devil shows up to help Moon Girl and tells her that he wants to stay to live with her, moving Lunella.

What follows is a great scene with a remix of the Moon Girl theme playing in the background (mixtape moment) while Lunella and Devil try to make a big electrical rod to lead Aftershock’s electricity powers to the ground (electric grounding). There is a great moment when some civilians help to carry the pole while Devil is fighting the villain. It’s nice to see the community coming together to stop the antagonist. Lunella’s plans succeds. Aftershock gets ¨destroyed¨ and the electricity returns to the east side. The people celebrate Moon Girl and Devil’s victory.

The episode ends with a really nice sequence involving Lunella and Devil helping the neighborood. The song that was at the start of the episode plays in this sequence, representing how both characters have finally become ¨full¨ heroes.

In conclusion, ¨Moon Girl Landing¨ is a flawed yet solid first episode that does a good job at showing the origins of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur and introducing the premise of the show. It’s rushed is some ways but this can be tolerated since pilots are often quite messy. In all it’s an emotional good start for the series. *Minor note: The Moon Girl scientist is given some importance in this episode. I like how the pilot already sets up a mystery asking what happens to this person and what caused her to go missing. I’m looking forward to see how this plot thread gets explored in future episodes.

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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.