ChoDark

ChoDark is the non-binary ship between the Chosen One and the Dark Lord from the Animator vs. Animation fandom.

Animator vs. Animation III
After the Chosen One freed himself from the Animator’s imprisonment, the Animator found himself overwhelmed even with outside help from Clippy. Thus, while Clippy distracts the Chosen One, the Animator creates a second stick figure, initially considering to simply name it “The Chosen One’s enemy”, but settling on “The Dark Lord”. He programs him with the intention of destroying the Chosen One. After the Chosen One finishes Clippy off, the Dark Lord enters the picture and immediately starts attacking the Chosen One. The latter found himself overwhelmed by the Dark Lord’s sheer power and had to rely on using the Animator’s cursor to close the window to survive. While the Animator was “busy” playing Solitare, he pushes both of them onto the desktop to continue playing uninterrupted. On the desktop, the Dark Lord’s power increases, with him summoning all the tools on the Animator’s computer. After managing to avoid all of them, the Chosen One traps the Dark Lord in a game of Minesweeper. During his fight with the tools, the Chosen One throws a paintbrush from MS Paint at one of the Minesweeper fields, nearly setting off an explosion, much to the Dark Lord’s annoyance. He then manages to throw Firefox at the fields, setting off every mine and knocking the Dark Lord out. After the Chosen One spares the Dark Lord’s life, the former points at the Animator, showing that the latter is still playing Solitary and couldn’t care less about either of their lives. They then join forces, destroying the Animator’s “Turn Off Computer” button and then decide to create an implosion, hi-fiving each other before bluescreening the Animator, leaving their fate unknown for the time.

Animator vs. Animation V
“The Flashback” reveals that the Chosen One and the Dark Lord were actually panicking as they realized that they are doing irreparable damage to the Animator’s computer, only for the Chosen One to punch a hole in the Internet connection at the last second, allowing him and the Dark Lord to escape. During their escape, the Dark Lord shows notable pride and the Chosen One hi-fives him again. Together, they then spread a reign of terror across the whole Internet, destroying the likes of Yahoo, Angry Birds, Stickpage and Newgrounds. In the Present Day, the two of them have settled down in a house somewhere in the Internet, outside of the realms of personal computers. The Dark Lord is working on his latest project: A nearly indestructible computer virus. The Chosen One goes to check on him, the Dark Lord is happy to see him and proudly shows off his creation. He demonstrates its power by using one of its claws to disintegrate a nearby globe and drawer in a matter of seconds. Thinking of the idea of other stick figures being disintegrated, the Chosen One panics, only to realize that the Dark Lord already planning to send a virus off. The Chosen One grabs the Dark Lord’s hand, just as he was trying to push the button. He then tries to convince him to stop his plans, only for the Dark Lord to not listen and try to push the button anyway. The Chosen One wound up fighting his enemy-turned-friend and tries to find a way to turn off the cannon, only for the Dark Lord to sneak attack him. The Dark Lord manages to push the button just as the Chosen One punches him far into the horizon. As the virus is on its way, the Chosen One notices the coordinates: ALANSPC. He’s reminded of the horrible time he had in the clutches of the Animator, yet chooses to follow the virus, trying to prevent more needless deaths. After successfully defeating the virus, the Chosen One joins forces with the Second Coming and his friends, trying to find the Dark Lord and stop his evil plan.

In “The Showdown”, the Chosen One immediately finds the Dark Lord in a shack near a body of water. Upon approaching him, he doesn’t even give the Dark Lord a chance to react before punching him through the wall again. They wound up in another fight, with the Chosen One not hesitating to laser the Dark Lord with his eye beams. Having the Dark Lord cornered in the water, the Chosen One is barely containing his fury and jumps at him. Meanwhile, the other stick figures try to find out the Dark Lord’s plans, only for Red to accidently open the tunnels beneath them while trying to figure out how the Dark Lord’s technology works. The Chosen One has the Dark Lord underwater again, trying to use his eye beams up close, only for the Dark Lord to punch him in the face, nearly avoiding them and sending both of them through the tunnels. As they arrive in YouTube, they are currently at the video that they are starring in right now, with the Chosen One manipulating the player to attack the Dark Lord with his eye beams through the video (a call-back to “Animation vs. YouTube”). They wound up in Twitter, where the Dark Lord punches the Chosen One through someone’s timeline. They travel through some other websites (including Reddit, Google, Twitch, Wikipedia and Discord) whilst fighting each other, only to end up back where they started. The Dark Lord uses the opportunity of the Chosen One still catching up to him to prepare a powerful attack, sending him flying, then grabbing him and punching him into the water. With the Chosen One temporarily defeated, the Dark Lord uses this opportunity to return to his shack (where the other Stick Figures are hiding from him) and use his armband technology to create a beacon, with the Chosen One back at the surface, unable to do anything but watch. With his new power, the Dark Lord gets a second wind, flinging spikes at the Chosen One, who barely dodges them. However, the Chosen One is briefly saved with Yellow having summoned the Animator(‘s cursor), who joins the Chosen One in fighting the Dark Lord. But then it’s the Dark Lord’s turn to summon his ViraBots, with the Chosen One showing more concern for the Animator when the latter goes to attack the Dark Lord. As the Chosen One tries to save him from the ViraBots, the Dark Lord attacks him by flinging him against a cliff, then taking the Animator out by having the ViraBots disintegrate his cursor. He then sends them against the Chosen One, with the Second Coming trying to rescue him, shielding the Chosen One from the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord sends the ViraBots off to deal with the Second Coming himself, only for his friends to shield him in turn. He takes all of them on at once, killing them one by one, with the Second Coming and the Chosen One forced to watch. The Chosen One, overwhelmed by ViraBots, witnesses the Dark Lord stabbing the Second Coming, only for him to refuse to die even after the Dark Lord riddles him with marks. Thinking that he is free to send his ViraBots onto the world, fully intending the Chosen One to watch, the Dark Lord did not factor the idea that his beatdown might have awakened the Second Coming’s powers. With his own second wind, the Second Coming destroys the Dark Lord’s ViraBots and uses his new powers to completely curbstomb the Dark Lord. He then uses his own eye beams to send the Dark Lord against the cliffs, which explode, presumably killing the Dark Lord. The Chosen One is awestruck by the Second Coming’s power, who then uses the Dark Lord’s computer to bring his friends back to life. As the unconscious Second Coming is brought to his friends by the Animator, being given a group hug by his friends, the Chosen One approaches him and kneels before his successor, clearly thankful that he defeated the Dark Lord. The Second Coming bows back before the Animator returns him and his friends to his computer, leaving the Chosen One watching them return home all alone.

Animator vs. Animation VI
"Wanted" briefly references the Dark Lord when the Chosen One is flying past the area they fought in, reminding himself of how the Second Coming defeated him.

Fanon
ChoDark is the main ship of the Animator vs. Animation fandom, most likely due to longevity. Between the third and fifth installment, they've been together for 9 years (out-of-universe), giving ample opportunity for fanfic writers to figure out just what they've been up to before the Dark Lord completely lost his mind. On that note, the idea of shipping two characters literally designed to kill each other is often seen as kind of messed up, yet people were intrigued as they managed to find a way to resist their programming for long enough to live together, or perhaps even delete it altogether. Some fanwork for the ship doesn't even acknowledge their messy history, simply portraying them as a wholesome couple (or Murder Husbands). Fanart for the ship does portray them as attractive humans occasionally, but most of it sticks to stick figure designs, making displays of affection look a bit awkward. Following the release of "The Showdown", the Dark Lord's fate was left up in the air, although many fans headcanon that he survived and redeemed himself. Many fanworks include the Chosen One going to check up on the Dark Lord to see if he's okay, eventually leading to them forgiving each other following the Dark Lord's redemption.

On AO3, ChoDark is both the most popular ship for both characters and the most popular ship in the "Animator vs. Animation (Short Films - Becker)" tag.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

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