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picturejasper20 · 2 months

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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.

#moon girl and devil dinosaur #mgadd season 2 #lunella lafayette #the beyonder #Mgadd kid kree #MGADD quickwhip #Mgadd Molecular Man

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picturejasper20 · 2 months

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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.

#moon girl and devil dinosaur #mgadd season 2 #mgadd kid kree #Mgadd mel-varr #lunella lafayette #Mgadd Pad-Var #Mgadd analysis #character analysis

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