Stick Figures

Stick figures are generally bipedal, anthropomorphic humanoid digital beings that comprise about half of the characters in the Animator vs. Animation franchise. They are known for their thin, simplistic bodies and their lack of facial features and verbal communication.

There are several styles and types of stick figures, but they can all be divided into two races: The artificial ones, which come to life directly in the animation program and can gain levels and missions that change their behavior and abilities, and the natural stick figures, who need to have their animation files published on a website to come to life, and, depending on their file extension, their powers and abilities can also be changed.

Overview

Color palette of the stick figures in the . — Color palette of the stick figures in the AvA franchise.

Stick figures are virtual stickmen that exist across and are capable of jumping between different forms of digital media, most notably on computers and in the Outernet but can also exist in games such as Pokémon or Minecraft and even inside of smartphones.

They are most well known for their very simplistic yet charming forms but also due to usually lacking verbal communication, somewhat communicating telepathically^[1]. They usually also lack facial features. However, hand-drawn stick figures such as The Dark Lord and The Second Coming can manifest "eyes" when utilizing their powers and the latter can even talk through text-speech, albeit rarely and usually only to communicate with his creator, Alan. The Chosen One also once manifested a mouth like Pac-Man's, with which he ate the text on one of noogai3's essays before firing the letters back out of his mouth like machine gun bullets.

Most of them seem to live in a virtual universe known as the Outernet, which is a subspace in the Internet. It is where The Chosen One and The Dark Lord went to after escaping Alan's computer and causing destruction across numerous websites and also where notable stick figures such as Purple and King Orange originated from and currently inhabit.

However, not all stick figures inhabit the Outernet. The Second Coming and the Fighting Stick Figures all live on Alan's computer and in the latter's home website. Despite this, they have been able to travel to the Outernet and other websites/games through the use of dimensional cracks created by The Chosen One when he saved them from a Virabot sent by The Dark Lord or using Nether Portals to access the many different realms of Minecraft. They can also travel between devices via programs such as email, online games or Dropbox.

For the most part, stick figures seem to be inherently good and aren't particularly known for being evil, with rare exceptions such as The Dark Lord who grew corrupted by power lust over the years and how The Chosen One was initially a destructive being after being created by Alan but later mellowed down over the years. Others such as Purple and King Orange grew to become violent and anger-filled due to their sad backstories, with the loss of Purple's mother and the abandonment of his father or with King Orange having lost his son due to a fatal error during a Minecraft simulation, but both of them were able to change their ways due to the actions of The Second Coming and friends, ending their quests for retribution and returning them to the lives they once had, together.

All Known Stick Figure Types

Hollow-headed stick figures

The only known artificial race of stick figures that don't come from a website, but instead are created in the animation program. They are well known for their hollow ring-shaped heads and unique names, given to them by their creators. So far, only five of them are known to exist in the series, with their age in order from oldest to youngest being victim, The Chosen One, The Dark Lord, The Second Coming, and Hangman.

Solid-headed stick figures

The most occurring natural race of stick figures that live within the Outernet, where they number anywhere from the thousands to potentially billions. They are well known for solid perfectly circular-shaped heads and are named after their color. Among them, the most notable ones are the Fighting Stick Figures, Purple, and King Orange.

Pivot stick figures

They are differentiated from other kinds of stick figures that their limbs are perfectly angled, and never curve. One of the most known members of this race is Agent.

Pixelated stick figures

They are well recognized by their pixel-like forms and are natural shapeshifters, capable of transforming their body into very bizzare shapes such as making their head into a turret, creating weapons for themselves such as swords, and being able to move their limbs in a comical and unreallistic fashion such as a swarm of flurry punches that seem very fast. One of the most known members of this race is Ballista.

Painted stick figures

Very bizzarely-shaped stick figures resembling that of caveman paintings, given their very rough apperances and are always moving, even when standing still. They seem to have a natural affinity for pre-modern weaponry such as bows and arrows or spears, similar to how hunter-gatherers would hunt their prey. Similarly to the Pixelated stick figures, they also possess some form of shapeshifting as they can increase their muscle mass to become more bestial and savage. One of the most known members of this race is Primal.

Pictogram stick figures

Among the other races of stick figures, these ones are very unusual, as they resemble the pictogram-styled stick figures found on warning signs such as crosswalks, bathrooms and warning signs. Unlike most other stick figures, they move in a very blocky and seemingly unnatural manner while also moving at a lower framerate. They are supposedly flat and have their heads physically separate from the rest of their body. One of the most known members of this race are Hazard and AIM.

Outline stick figures

One of the stick figure races living in the Outernet and the first one outside of the solid-headed stick figures to be seen in mass. They are stick figures with thin, black outlines and pastel color-filled heads but unlike their colorful cousins, they are all seen wearing hats or other accessories such as flowers on their heads while moving at a slightly quicker framerate. So far, they have only been encountered by the Fighting Stick Figures after exiting the forest and making their way into town, looking for any information about the mysterious "rocket organization" that the Mercenaries took The Chosen One and The Second Coming to after capturing them.

Stylized stick figures

Another race of stick figures from the Outernet and another seen in greater numbers. They are white stick figures that are distinguished from others by their pointed limbs (as opposed to the more rounded limbs of most other races) and distinctive features such as hair and clothing. They also move at a lower framerate than most. They have so far been seen living together in a village where victim lived before Rocket Co., and many of them later began working there (though most have left after The Disintegration). One of the most known members of this race is Mitsi.

Powers & Abilities

Stick figures are very diverse when it comes to their physical abilities and fighting intellect or knowledge of programming and other forms of entertainment like games and artistry. Ultimately, the abilities of stick figures seem to depend on their race and backgrounds.

It should also be noted that stick figures' powers may be amplified by their file extension, The Second Coming being naturally more powerful because of his .exe extension, when compared to The Chosen One's (presumably) .fla file, with .dll and such being the most powerful, potentially allowing stick figures to fully control the computer they are in.

Natural stick figures are naturally not as powerful or intelligent as their synthetic counterparts but vastly outnumber them in terms of population due to their rarity. It has been shown that they are capable of becoming powerful combatants such as Yellow, Blue, Green and Red who are naturally advanced fighters and are known as the "Fighting Stick Figures" due to hailing from sticksfight.com, a website about stick figures constantly fighting each other. However, other stick figures like Purple are capable of rivaling them due to his rough past with his father and wanting to prove his worth to the parent who abandoned him and his mother.

Their physical abilities and intelligence can also be dependent on their age, as seen with King Orange who is a fully matured stick figure as opposed to Purple and the others who range from adolescence to young adult, due to being significantly taller and more physically capable despite being less knowledgeable in basic self-defense and combat. However, his naturally greater physical strength is able to make up for this as he proved to be able to fend off The Second Coming's friends and Minecraft allies in order to retrieve his staff and the game icon from Purple; he also displayed a much higher intelligence than the others in terms of general relativity relating to vortexes and black holes and the mechanics of Minecraft, which rivals The Dark Lord's understanding of programming and computer science.

Artificial stick figures are naturally more powerful and intelligent than their internet counterparts, as with The Chosen One and The Dark Lord who were both very cunning immediately following their creation and possessed innate superpowers according to the power levels assigned to them at the moment of conception, such as being able to fly, laser eyes, create energy balls and control over natural elements such as fire, lightning, ice and wind.

However, this power and intelligence appears to be dependent on said levels granted to them by their creators, with other hand-drawn stick figures such as victim and The Second Coming not appearing to possess the same powers or knowledge as their superpowered brethren. They do seem to make up for this due to being more creative and artistic, as the two both used their surroundings to their advantage to fight against their creator, with victim being able to use weapons and drawing tools to deflect Alan's attacks and The Second Coming create a beam gun from different animation tools and also bring his own drawings to life in order to help him wreck the computer.

Regardless of these differences, a hand-drawn stick figures' powers aren't always straightforward as shown in the case of The Second Coming; despite initially appearing to have no superpowers, after seeing his friends be deleted by Alan, for a few moments he manifested power identical to his predecessor, The Chosen One, likely due to his own title being "The Chosen One's Return". It was once again shown by in much greater clarity when he witnessed his friends be deleted again, this time by The Dark Lord and being viciously beaten and slashed by the virus-bands which seemed to have awoken a dormant power within him that greatly outclassed both his predecessors and granted him the powers of an anti-virus which allowed him to repel the Virabots with no effort at all and completely decimate The Dark Lord, even with his powers enhanced, from his raw speed and power alone before defeating the evil stick figure with a green energy blast that cut through the earth and destroyed a mountain.

His greatest abilities seem to lie in this anti-virus power that allowed him to reverse the effects of the virus bands that The Dark Lord used to delete his friends, able to bring the Fighting Stick Figures back to life despite nothing having been left of them, making him the most powerful stick figure in the entire series but at the catch of The Second Coming himself not being able to consciously control this power at will or being fully aware of what he is actually capable of when pushed to his breaking point, as he didn't remember resurrecting his friends and confused at why The Chosen One would bow to him, believing him to be the more powerful one despite the reverse being true.

All stick figures seem to have the ability to manipulate computer UI in ways that cannot be done in real life, like taking Adobe Animate tool icons from the toolbar to use them.

Known stick figures

Artificial stick figures

victim
The Chosen One ?
Giant ?
The Dark Lord
Tutorial Black ?
Kickstarter Video Stickfigure †
Stick Gang
- The Second Coming
Tutorial Blue ?
Tutorial Purple ?
Tutorial Green ?
The Second Coming's Drawings
- Cartoon Figure ?
Hangman ?

Natural stick figures

Unknown

Trivia

Stick figures can get to other devices via cables. This was showcased in "Animator vs. Animation 4", "The Flashback", "New Wallpaper" and "App Staff".
Stick Figures can imagine things, as shown in Animator vs. Animation 7.