#mva reboot

[man-monsters-and-aliens]

older old doodles (2020 maybe?) of early episodes which scenes I liked

[robotlesbianjavert]

MVA is a Matryoshka Doll of Character Development & Framing: Yes This is About How the Anime Failed. Whatever.

Breaking it down, the My Villain Academia arc serves two (2) main purposes in the overall narrative.

→ Put the League of Villains back in a position where they can be a credible threat to the heroes after losing All for One and their potential partnership with Overhaul falling through. Obviously accomplished by upgrading Shigaraki / Twice / Toga, giving Shigaraki the Meta Liberation Army, Ujiko’s assistance, Gigantomachia’s loyalty, etc. 

Of course the anime undercuts all of this by letting the heroes know what the League is planning before the League can take advantage of their new position (ergo narratively giving heroes the advantage, as seen in the manga’s war arc) before we even get to see HOW they got all these cool new toys. So why bother. That’s a different sin that the anime has committed, we can put this on the backburner.

→ Pseudo-reboot the direction of the story so that villains are characters on equal standing with the heroes, rather than being obstacles to beat up. This involves a lot more factors, but it’s all rooted in how the arc and characters are framed, and how the characters are developed.

I talked a bit about my concern about the sympathetic framing of the League in MVA way back when we first learned about the anime arcs being shuffle here (my triumph of objectivity). The gist of it is that the arc switch undermines the way the League are portrayed as underdogs—broke, aimless, and relatively weak compared to the heroes and the army coming for their heads—and I was right! Worse, they didn’t just undermine that underdog framing, they straight up didn’t bother. There is zero context for the League’s situation post-Overhaul, pre-Gigantomachia. No explanation for how they have to rob other villain groups to get by, that their equipment is breaking down, that they have no solid end goal or means to achieve anything of note. Just a challenge from Ujiko and Gigantomachia that loses a lot of pressure without understanding the sorry situation the League is in.

Tellingly, they don’t even let the League kill the fantasy racists. Who doesn’t want to see the fantasy racists get murdered! Outside of the existence of the CRC being an interesting bit of worldbuilding that confirmed the existence of heteromorphic discrimination, which is likely to continue playing a role in the manga, it’s an easy way to let the villains be villains while allowing the readers to go with the flow into this villain-focused arc, without having to be outraged by their actions.

From the get go, we’ve lost the framing that made MVA an arc worth paying attention to when it was first released, which indicates a) that the anime doesn’t care about the actual purpose of this arc outside of setting up a flashy hero vs. villain fight for season six and b) that we shouldn’t expect much from the rest of the anime arc. Even if they get the technical aspects of it right, we’ve already lost the weight of the narrative.

MVA is also obviously known as being the big push to develop the villains as characters. We’ve gotten some character development for them before (Twice and Toga’s adventures with Overhaul, Shigaraki’s consistent growth from “brat” to a capable villain and leader in his own right), but MVA is the first arc solely dedicated to their stories and humanization. However, there are “tiers” of character development and focus here, nested within each other, that are tied into the arc’s narrative structure.

Getting them out of the way: Dabi and Compress didn’t get to do much, though we do get to see their relationships with the League in action, plus stuff like Dabi’s quirk limits which come up later. Otherwise, their actual storylines only come into fruition or start with the PLF Raid arc (which in itself is dependent on MVA but that’s another argument). 

More memorable and meaty is the development for Toga and Twice. We learn more about their backstories, we get to see them push themselves to the breaking point for the sake of survival, Toga gets to evolve her quirk while Twice finally uses his to its full potential. We also get to understand their personal philosophies, relationships with society, how they view the world around them, and their loyalty to Shigaraki and the League. And with the manga’s underdog framing and the life-threatening situations they were thrust into (plus at the time they didn’t have guaranteed plot armour the way the students and heroes did), the audience wants to root for them, even if they’re the bad guys!

Toga and Twice’s development are undeniable highlights of the arc, contribute strongly to the story as a whole, and justifiably receive a lot of attention. However, they are also primarily moments nested within the arc, tying into their personal ongoing storylines (Twice’s starting with the Overhaul arc and ending tragically with the PLF Raid; Toga’s storyline carries on into the PLF Raid with the loss of Twice and her confrontation with Uraraka). But they aren’t the primary storylines of the arc.

A primary storyline of MVA is in Shigaraki being able to identify the direction he wants to take the League in and make that a reality, as well as answering the questions of his past. MVA starts with the League’s aimlessness and with him revealing how little he remembers of his origins; the arc climaxes with him regaining his memories and having the confidence and strength to earn the Ujiko, Gigantomachia, and Redestro’s loyalty and resources, giving him the means to finally enact his dreams of destroying hero society. Toga and Twice’s development is encased within Shigaraki’s storyline, and that storyline provides a concisive beginning and endpoint structure of My Villain Academia—

Except Shigaraki’s narrative structure is encompassed by a layer even beyond that: Spinner’s story. When the arc begins, before Shigaraki can discuss his dream of a destroyed horizon, Spinner is the one challenging him about the League’s lack of direction and purpose. When the arc ends and Shigaraki stands victorious, Spinner is the witness who now understands that the destroyed horizon can be their reality. Spinner is the one watching Shigaraki throughout the arc, Spinner’s gaze is emphasized at the beginning and end of Shigaraki’s MVA storyline, and Spinner is the one who undergoes the most radical change from frustrated Stain flunky to Shigaraki’s devoted follower.

To paraphrase from @stillness-in-green, My Villain Academia is “about what Shigaraki coming into his own looks like to the people watching him”.  To Re-Destro, to Ujiko and Machia, and most importantly to Spinner.

It’s been frustrating enough over the past two years to see people who have read the manga discard Spinner’s role in the arc just because he isn’t a basic easy pretty boy didn’t get an elaborate flashback sequence the same way that Toga, Twice, and Shigaraki did. Seeing the anime not even bother emphasizes that lack of comprehension. But why does it specifically matter that the anime screwed over the Spinner & Shigaraki premise of MVA?

Aside from the anime’s decisions taking all the weight out of the story: In the current manga, Spinner is the only one left at Shigaraki’s side who is specifically loyal to and cares for him.

Barring executive meddling, Horikoshi changing his mind on plot points that he set up, and straight up bad writing (which can all very well happen): You don’t go through the effort of developing a character like Spinner, explicitly in conjunction with your main villain, as the framing perspective of an arc that is so vital to your story, without having a plan for that character. With the way Spinner is positioned right now, there’s a lot that can be done with him! And if that potential does get utilized, then the anime lost out their chance to give that potential its due.

Between the immediate loss of set up and context, tossing the pseudo-protagonist framing of the League, and gutting the emotional core of Spinner’s developing regard for Shigaraki, the anime adaptation has already lost. The rest of the episodes could be perfectly competent, but without the actual base of the arc it all falls flat. Hell, they could stick Spinner’s confrontation with Shigaraki in as a flashback in his fight against Trumpet and it won’t matter; that just nests Spinner’s story within Shigaraki’s the same way Toga and Twice’s is, when it should be the other way around.

Of course there are other reasons why MVA anime arc is set up to fail without reany spect for the source material (I know that the MLA got screwed over in the PLF Raid arc but that’s no reason to not even TRY with introducing them into the show properly just LET Rikiya be his fun, threatening, and engaging self!), but the fact of the matter is that I’m not going to get my Spinaraki AMVs and I want to fucking die about it.

[thebig-chillqueen]

Hi, please bear with me while I get this off my chest. I’m mostly stumbling over my words as I think of what to say.

Thank you, love you all!

Now, when I say that I love Ben 10, I really mean that I LOVE Ben 10.

Complain all you want about Alien Force/Ultimate Alien being too dark and gritty, Omniverse having an ugly artstyle, or the reboot “ruining” the series (which it isn’t), I love each and every one of the series and will protect them all with my life. (ง •̀_•́)ง

I do have my own criticisms, but I don’t feel like getting into all that right now.

Returning to my roots in Ben 10 has truly been an experience. It has brought me back so much nostalgia and memories of my earlier years on deviantART.

The classic series was what made me join dA in 2008; Alien Force was just starting out (it aired on my birthday 🥰 lkahsf) and I was drawing the aliens almost nonstop. My first deviation, if you dare to venture that far back in my gallery, is of Echo-Echo.

My art has only improved since then, thank Arceus. 😂

This love followed me all the way to college! If you look at my toy collection, you will see it’s practically all Ben 10 figurines. I’m certain my very first was a large Swampfire figure that shot colored goo from his hands.

I’m still collecting any that I see and want!

And now that I’ve rewatched the entire franchise, I can feel my creativity and urge to draw returning little by little. I was hoping to get this from Coco and Big Hero 6, but I felt myself lacking.

I suppose it was because I wasn’t exactly used to drawing skeletons, especially culturally important ones and felt intimidated by the cool armor designs and technological aspect that I didn’t quite understand enough. Something like that.

I was okay with humans and robots (Monsters vs. Aliens and Robotboy allowed me to draw a lot of those) but skeletons was a whole different ballpark. I struggled enough with drawing humans (skeleton hands were actually more fun to draw, though xD). As for Big Hero 6, I actually didn’t have any ideas. That pic of GoGo and Baymax was the first fanart I’ve done for it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I had trouble with trying to get my ideas down; I would try, sure, but I was never quite happy and it hurt because I wanted to draw my favorite characters to show my love to the fandoms. I was happy to be in them and talk to/meet new friends, as I was with MvA and Robotboy, but I couldn’t produce art as much as I would have liked for them and it just put me into a funk. 

Dude, That’s My Ghost! and Robotboy helped me out for awhile, but once my hyperfixation shifted into Coco, I felt like I was immediately drained of creativity.

It’s why I switched to doing fanfics about it, instead. Writing was somewhat easier. That and making random analysis posts, gifs, and taking screencaps to share. Ditto with BH6. At least I was contributing in some way and I did enjoy making those posts and seeing people discuss over them!

I do the same with Ben 10 but I can actually draw for it like I used to! I just have a lot more fun drawing the aliens and other characters. There’s a lot of aliens and each-well, most-of their designs are just fantastic and I itch to draw my favorites, again.

I also really want to redraw my first OCs that was born from it!

(you can be mad at me for abusing what I think was the burn tool aldkshf. Past me was an idjit who didn’t know how to shade properly :P)

They’re in serious need of redesign for Omniverse (in my style though) and I’ve gotten a few ideas for them! Not only that, but, with the case of my “Alien Dads” idea, people are actually wanting to draw and write about them???? And I haven’t drawn them, myself yet????

You have no idea how ecstatic and touched that makes me feel!!!

Everyone who has OCs can relate!!! It’s showing that other people besides yourself actually care about your babies! I had the same thing happen when I drew Jade, Aqua, and Split! Heck, someone even adopted Split and incorporated her into his own story!

I can’t wait to draw the Alien Dads and share them! You have no idea how bad I want to give Ro more alien uncles other than Nik. xDDD

Talking with the same friends has allowed me to come up with some cute design ideas!!! I also want to redesign my Ben 10 persona and update my profile pic.

I especially would love to draw a lot more of my phantom ice-moth husband! :D 

The Big-Chill Queen lives on and wishes to reclaim her ice crown!

[man-monsters-and-aliens]

HEY DUDE IT’S JACK’S MONTH WHY NO JACKPOSTING

OMG YOU'RE RIGHT I FORGOR

they're 🎃🍍🍈 gonna eat all your candy 🍭🍬🍫

[man-monsters-and-aliens]

whaaatt?? reboot aliens post????? ft sta'abi's first redesign

yes that's an obligatory swimsuit episode

[man-monsters-and-aliens]

posting my scribblies from 2021 hoo haa

[man-monsters-and-aliens]

and a bunch more as sqweep's debut is hilarious

[man-monsters-and-aliens]

the aliens from the show are difficult, I have a reboot in my head but I'll separate them for hopefully a more digestible read I also haven't seen the show in a long time so my memory is blahhh

General Headcanons

Coverton gives me amphibious vibes, tho I do think those cheek "flaps" are like. gills or something, not exactly. his chrysalis rejuvenation molting whatever is ?? helps keep his skin squishy soft and get rid of skin disease. human equivalent of a "birthday" but he only does it every 6¾ (earth) years, he's also 180 so you do the math for his human age

"Coverton" is not his real name, that's a title, as is "Coverlord" for leader of the interstellar conquering empire

loves a good mocha, I also think he would like boba tea. idk I like to imagine the aliens just trying earth drinks, I'm gonna project more and say he doesn't like soda, or champagne but does appreciate wine. the lemonade he had from the pilot was meh, whatever

from what I understand Sta'abi doesn't have a home anymore? she's a survivor of some horrid giant beast's rampage. at some point she left her planet to join an interspecies group of warriors that travel the stars, which has some association to the Coverlord Empire. so her position under this council of warriors is.. a monster hunter

her favourite kind of food is from the sea, enjoys shellfish & cephalopods the most (because her usual hunt is on land, seafood is fancy). she likes to dance despite not being very elegant, but her priority is "the mission" which excludes "having fun" (tho her idea of fun is tag)

Sqweep's skin is like. dry slime. or putty texture. she is like a sterilised marshmallow if that makes any sense. smells like roasted walnuts or a burnt almond cookie

Reboot Headcanons

concept art I love better than the og + sketches of inspired slight redesign from my ig (and a drawing I forgor)

Coverton's legs are pretty weak compared to even the average of his species, Earth's atmosphere & gravity doesn't help either. so while he can stand, it's only for a brief time, it also fluctuates how long depending on the weather. he'd use his hoverchair or just put the spacesuit on, especially for going outdoors

‌can't stand saltwater, lousy swimmer, afraid of Earth's ocean & easily seasick

‌unlike show canon, his telekinesis is artificial & enhanced with technology

weighs like a bunch of grapes, flexible & hypermobile, near-sighted so he may wear contact lense

he carries out his rejuvenation cycle in a secure chamber, symptoms include excessive sliming ("sweat"), bubbling skin (boils), and flaking (desquamation is just the beginning). like the rest of his species, he was grown in a lab

I honestly have no idea if that's natural hair or a wig lmao

concept art where I'd just combine the best ones imo

Sqweep is a nickname! she gets it from the "eep" sounds she makes when excited or surprised

idk why I feel like she has a hundred or more siblings, not many are close to each other. perhaps several parents too, at least 5

like her parents and grandparents and great grandparents she's a super rich adult scientist that works as part of an interstellar organisation dedicated to protecting life harbouring star systems

a field researcher therefore planetary explorer, her job is to document & study life on Earth

likes romantic comedies, and loves all animals on Earth, but she's allergic to fur, which is devastating

since she does have a face and therefore is able to emote, I think the antenna colour coded light emoting is unnecessary. I'd like to find another place for it in relation to her but not her biology itself. she sparkles instead

pretty sure no bones (therefore no teeth), light as a cloud so a gust of wind could send her off like a tumbleweed, but I feel the density of her own body can regulate itself, depending on certain conditions? covered in fine fuzz, her nubby hands (tentacles?) hold things like itty bitty hooks

can't digest foods unless in the form of fluids, probably likes bland foods tbh. anything too flavorful would make her head explode

y'know maybe her species is. delicious. their "flesh" tastes like space mango, but cotton candy weight & texture 💀

some of the concepts I refer to for the most challenging and frustrating of the alien bunch, and today's look of her as I also went through & played with various designs

this version of Sta'abi is dropped on Earth to manage her "anger issues". her peers decided she needed to chill out, which is coincidentally the same day a vornicarn is brought into the world. as a hunter, she would've killed on sight, but after helping to capture it and being held captive by Area 5X herself, she starts to empathize with and eventually befriend the creature

Coverton eventually gets her to somewhat roam free in the facility and offers her a way off world but only if she helps him with his plans. he's not completely transparent about them and Sta'abi just wants to leave, she's already familiar with the empire he works for so there's some trust in his word

the males of her species have wings? is that canon? I feel like it's canon.. but in modern days they're just for show, can't fly but can glide and catch wind to hover, though only for so long as they're mostly small

none of these concept art belong to me btw if that wasn't obvious I just took them from the wiki

came from the only egg that survived the initial meteor crash & wasn't frozen to death, laid dormant and got covered in the antartic ice until global warming exposed it millions of years later (which scientists soon discover but let the monster agents investigate as they have alien consultants)

instead of Link's nose I really hammed up the alien parody for my own indulgence haha (blood cw; initial drawings + non-canon chest bursting)

steals coverton's chocolate either when he's not looking or right in his face, probably doesn't like baths, loves chin/neck scratches & belly rubs (only from Sta'abi)

smells with the tip of his tongue, bipedal & quadrupedal, not great at hearing

skin is scaly like a snake, full of muscle

can and will survive in all extreme environments except the desert? for heat & hydration reasons mayhaps as he can't withstand both at once

some of these may change with time and I'd love to read everyone else's hcs! or how you'd rewrite them perhaps :]

since you made it to the very end you're obligated to tell me your favourite alien 🫵

[man-monsters-and-aliens]

I recognize Jack… But what’s with the Melon & the Pineapple?

those are fruits from the tv show!

link ate the jello from the movie in an episode and her name was diane, but I took the name for the pineapple monster that dockroach & susan made in an attempt to replace the eaten jello

ms melon is from frenemy mine

I liked them enough to make as characters for a hypothetical mva show reboot in my head, and jack there is actually jack junior, cause dockroach and dr cutter (a character from the show as well) recreated the phenomenon from the halloween special as an experiment!

[man-monsters-and-aliens]

more random scribs <3

[man-monsters-and-aliens]

context; dr cockroach gifts the security system R.U.L.E. ai and uses it for personal enrichment needs 💀

oh and smarty's there too

[man-monsters-and-aliens]

This is just a silly thought but I love parallels in villains and heroes so have this idea. In a MvA reboot Gallaxhar was also struck by quantonium during his wedding day and taken prisoner by his people. But unlike with Susan there was no one else there but him. This led him down a path of vengeance, hatred, and narcissism which accumulates in destroying his own world and seeking the rest of the quantonium to create his perfect world aka a world of himself. Susan attempts to reach him with a connection knowing the two come from a similar place but Gallaxhar no longer cares because why does he need anyone besides himself with the power of quantonium running through him and creating a clone army at the same time?

ohhhhh that's really sad

he did mention in his backstory going on "the road" with a giant (???), and that soon someone was married (presumably him & this 'she')

knowing this about Gallaxhar despite the same jerkish things Susan's had to deal with has her relate and sympathise. it's literally the same boat, but it doesn't excuse what he's done. she just understands where he's coming from and that this is an awful way to cope

the thought would come to mind if she was in his place would she do the same as he did, because you can imagine how horribly someone has to be treated to push them to extinguish their entire world like that (whether on purpose or accident)

[man-monsters-and-aliens]

suzies & linkies as they are the hot buff bi besties

[man-monsters-and-aliens]

Have you seen MVA specifically the tv series and what are your thoughts about it?

yes I have! like twice? or three times selectively? and that was like 2 years ago!

short answer; this show has all my love and hatred for its existence

long answer?

I like the concept of the monster agents having to "share" living space with the aliens, and I do like the idea of the different aliens sort of being foils or compliments to the monsters

the ongoing plots like coverton's relationships with the monsters and how he has redeeming qualities is really nice! and I appreciate some of the continuity like the teleportation bit. I am sad that didn't get resolved or that we got to see through with coverton's invasion plans

sqweep's relationship with link is especially sweet and I hold it so dear to my heart, and even small interactions for sta'abi with the others are also really nice

I adore and appreciate how the monsters interact with each other because they absolutely nailed the family vibe, and just how they behave with the aliens in general since there's that bit of speciescism in there

my favourite eps are;

‌The Toy From Another World

‌Frenemy Mine

‌Maximum B.O.B.

‌It Came... on a Field Trip

‌The Thing with One Brain

‌98 Pound Cockroach

‌Screaming Your Calls

‌It Came From Level Z

‌Driven to Madness

‌The Beast From 20,000 Gallons

‌It Spoke With Authority

‌This Ball Must Be Dodged

‌It Ruled With an Iron Fist

‌Race to the End...Zone!

‌That Which Cannot Be Unseen

(though I honestly don't remember what some of these were about haha)

now onto what I don't like

firstly, Butterflyosaurus isn't there, and secondly, Ginormica isn't ginormic all the time, but we'll touch on these later

the fact that nickelodeon produced it already had my expectations low, and the fact that it was in 3d made it worse. based on the style of the concept arts, I would've loved it better if it was animated that way in 2d.

the character designs for the aliens are so ugly and unappealing (except sqweep she's decent) but even the models are weirdly scaled and disproportionate for the humans. again, the concept arts for coverton, sta'abi, and vornicarn were so much better than the end result, it's a real shame honestly

the characterization for the monsters were awfully flanderised early on so it was very annoying how Bob was portrayed, and though it did improve a lot as the eps progressed there was always something better they could've done, which was frustrating and agonising to watch

I don't remember having any particular loathing towards any certain eps? because I kinda wanna stay positive about it, but my god were some of the writing just nauseating and aggravating I would get so frustrated and angry cause of how stupid it is

a major theme throughout monsters vs aliens is the use of camera angles and the sense of scale, and the other thing is accepting change since her entire life got flipped. that gets completely erased and the quantonium is replaced with hyperium in the pilot, so Susan can go big or small whenever she wants and the whole movie was a waste of time!! it might as well be a superpower instead of considering her a monster cause her whole thing was being abnormaly big!! and it's clear the show did this for convenience sake which really makes it unauthentic, hence why butterfly isn't there or mentioned at all. susan isn't even a main character most of the time it's bob, then doc, then link, and THEN..... coverton.

how poorly this show was mostly handled made me seethe so much that I have an idealised reboot in my head out of spite and love

it had the potential to be good, it just wasn't the best

[man-monsters-and-aliens]

Do you have specific headcannons for the MvA characters? My personal fave will always be; Link is Bi

Do I??! :D

Ginormica a.k.a Susan Murphy

she took cosmetics in college

her friends tried talking her out of getting a perm for prom but she was so excited & happy about it in the end

she & Derek started dating when they were 16

Dr. Cockroach a.k.a Jaques-Yves Cockroach

judging by his first name from the concept art book, he’s mixed race; specifically french/german/english

he goes by Cockroach because there already is a doctor by his birth surname

hella fucking gay dude I cannot see this man-roach with a woman, and you look me in the eyes & tell me he’s cishet, that’s right you can’t (but I also see him as being aromantic)

The Missing Link a.k.a Link

had a troop of his own with several mates & infants

sign language is his first language & Dr Cockroach tried to teach him morse code for one of their escape attempts

believes most things on TV but has learned to differentiate over time

Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate a.k.a B.O.B

he doesn’t have a brain because he IS the brain, all that slime is the equivalent of brain matter or some shit

everyone has trauma; his are mostly related to Monger

Susan is his favourite monster after Tim (The Invisible Man)

Butterflyosaurus

sheds like crazy

only eats sweet stuffs (and maybe their own silk)

will live forever

General W.R. Monger a.k.a Warren Monger

turned the empty robot probe body into a silo for his farm

has a niece named Peace

was told by the government not to interfere with Metro City’s aliens for reasons I cannot say

[man-monsters-and-aliens]

been looking through some drawings from last year and I really like my episode watch ones!! here's the pilot!! contains spoilers

the show isn't very great cause they get washed down but I'm allowed to like some aspects of it

Monger looks so tired in the pilot I adore it

they got fired oops

LET👏MONGER👏SWEAR👏

I love how throughout the show Coverton & Ginormica learn each others alien language (especially for insults)

the above is my redesign of Coverton for my reboot based on his concept art, I love it a lot

BOB SHE BLEW UP

anyways for my reboot every episode either contains or ends with at least one group hug