#i felt bad so i uploaded the main cast lmao

[scruffyssketchbook]

hey scruffy so long ne see, so the more i think about it. the more i realize why i hated Vay so much and that because he come off as whiny instead of sympatric. he a emo Pokémon that lash at people who look at him wrong (even if some who care for him like blizz). we never see much of his sad side to see why he is doing this stuff. his ego is so bad and overdone that i felt like more annoyed than funny. and his relationship with daisy has basically no chemistry due to the fact that Vay never once said a word to her at all (which i won't mind if he didn't act so delusional about it.

sorry if i sound mean after a while talking to you, this thought came to me after a watched a show called murder drone where the mc is a emo girl robot called Uzi doorman that is kind of like Vay but had some moment where she can be relatable without her emo personality being on the way.

not saying you writing is bad and all, but i am tell you why Vay is my least favorite of the main cast and how i hope box 31 can fix the problem.

Few things!!!

1- I agree with this!!! :D I wouldn’t just call Vay emo tho, because he’s also like… really REALLY SPOILED. The other main boys enabled his bad behavior so much that he thinks everything he’s doing is RIGHT. His Ego is through the roof because he wants to desperately prove himself so much that it’s a detriment to literally everyone around him, and he’s really MEAN too, mean for no reason sometime. (Let’s remember the time Blizz asked him a question and Vay proceeded to BEAT HIM UP AND BITE PART OF HIS EAR OFF). I actually have talked about this a bit in the Discord server.

2- I recognized how we never saw Vay’s good side, and that’s why the “All in a Vay’s work” chapter was made, to show that good side a bit. SADLY IT’S A BIT TOO LATE FOR THAT THO LMAO. VAY IS KIND OF A HORRIBLE CORRUPT COP, THAT IS LITERALLY HIS CHARACTER. 😂😂😂😂

3- Daisy x Vay was never supposed to happen in ssec. Vay is a creep towards her due to being socially inept. The lack of chemistry between them is very intentional.

4- Box 31 fixes all of these problems with Vay. I mean. I guess they were not problems per se, but rather, these character flaws that made Vay extremely unlikeable. I basically just took out the variables that enabled his awful behavior but kept his base goals. I shared a bit of Vay’s new backstory and life with someone yesterday and accidentally turned them into “Vay’s #1 glazer” (self proclaimed). Oops.

5- Oh I’d def call my writing bad. Or rather, not bad, but there are fundamental problems with SSEC’s writing that I will be talking about in a video I’m making. And these problems have been a huge detriment to the story and characters at large for years imo.

Personally, I love the SSEC Criticism btw!!! I do wish I can get critique from people on what I’m writing for Box 31 before I upload it and what now, but for now I guess I gotta just keep developing it. So far, I can say that I like every single character more than their ssec counterpart (except B31 Miku. Honestly I’m very frustrated with her rn and I literally have to change the entire story I came up with regarding her cause I DON’T LIKE IT. SSEC Miku, my beloved💔💔💔. Genuinely sad I have to leave her behind for whatever Box 31 Miku is. 😡😡😡😡 I’m working on her 😭.)

[nono-bunny]

Thank Starkid for uploading VHSCC to Youtube, albeit temporarily, because their site doesn't work for me so I couldn't buy it or any other digital ticket (including Cinderella's Castle for which I was a kickstarter 🥲) and I'm so glad I can still watch it now!!

Anyway here are my thoughts/liveblogging post from watching! I didn't think to do this until I reached the second part and realized I had a lot to say so everything about the new material is retroactively written

I. Hate to say it, but I can't remember a single new song. One reason I love VHSCC so much is because it only took me one watch to remember the songs, they're incredibly catchy and iconic... And the new ones did nothing to me.

In general I didn't really vibe with the new material? I think it's important to note that I don't celebrate Christmas, like, it's not even the main wintertime holiday of where I live so inherently theres a level of disconnect for me with that angle, but I still find some Christmas stories charming- case in point, I genuinely love A Christmas Carol! I know these two stories outside of the lens of Christmas- I'm fairly certain I heard a different holiday version of Gift of the Magi as a kid, and I had the book of The Little Matchgirl as a kid and didn't uh. Really touch it after reading it once because I found it senselessly sad. So like? I'm familiar with these stories, but this version of them really didn't hit me in the way I think they're meant to or in the way the original versions do. I didn't really find Gift of the Magi touching or funny, which I feel like is what they should've gone for at the end, and I felt... Nothing with Little Matchgirl, which surprised me because I was fully prepared to cry.

Actually it. Felt really preachy while also somehow being just completely empty of meaning to me? Little Matchgirl in particular. Idk. The tragedy of it just... Completely failed to land for me when Clark immediately starts singing about uh. Activism essentially? It's like, bro, you didn't even give me enough time to process it or to get sad before you just started preaching at me??? Idk, I just. Really didn't like it. Clark's parts in general were the worst parts of the new material in my opinion, which surprised me, because I did like them in Christmas Carol! Idk, it might be a matter of the stories being too short, so it feels intrusive for the detached narrator to cut in to fill in blanks that weren't there or to hammer down the message, instead of letting the characters and story do it themselves.

I genuinely don't enjoy shitting so hard on the new stuff, but. I didn't really like them and kinda just wanted them to be over so I could watch a show I knew I DID like. I don't think it was all bad, I mean, the acting was fun and everyone's obviously mad talented, but in terms of musicality and story, which are the two things I really loved about Christmas Carol, it felt like a big step down for me. Also, I did like how Scrooge was just. There though, that was really funny

OK! Moving on! From here on its probably gonna be way more positive lmao because I love VHSCC and this is it now!

The smaller cast feels weird with how big the OG one was, in general the different casting is gonna be interesting. The stages configuration is a pretty big difference, but it does feel like, intimate which was probably really fun in person, and I like how they're playing around with it! I'm also less of a fan of this screen so far, it basically added nothing but uh. We'll see ig

Scrooge actually screeching after Clark narrating him doing it was a fantastic addition lmao. It caught me (and seemingly the audience!) so off guard and it was hilarious!! AJ has generally been way less physical than Dylan so far, which I kinda missed, but ngl he completely won me over with that one lmao

Meredith is so pretty, she's nailing it!! As I knew she would but. Still felt noteworthy lol

OK ngl given how Jaime was just. Not in the first half but still credited I was 100% sure she was not gonna be there physically, just through the screen similar to Ali in the OG, so I was actually really fucking surprised when she came out??? Where were they hiding her for the entirety of the first half!!! Travesty!!!

God the spirits are just as attractive a year later (two technically by the time of me watching this, but shh), they're SO good. A stark contrast to Clark's awful wig, actually, my god what is up with that thing???

Fuck yeah, physical chains!!

I wonder why they changed some of the interstitial lyrics? I mean, the snore was hilarious, but this isn't the first change and the previous one didn't have a comedic element added in.

The new choreography is excellent, I'm actually really happy with the stage for facilitating these changes

I'm sorry Curt is too much of a sweetheart and I'm really having a hard time buying him as post-money Scrooge lmao. He eats the singing though! Brian did too, but weirdly enough only on stage and not in the recorded version lmao

Janaya is fr so talented, I'd love to see her in other Starkid stuff!

I miss Corey. Unrelated to where I'm at in the musical rn but I forgot to mention it at the start. Brian is just. A completely different Fred and it feels weird

Best song incoming! VHSCC is what made me fall in love with James- it was the first time I saw him in a bigger role, and I can't wait to see him in Cinderella's Castle

Just wanna clarify: Brian's Fred is still fun, he's just like, different from Corey's? He's more... Sarcastic, if that makes sense?

Every year that goes by makes Brian playing Tiny Tim funnier

Thief Brian is giving Junior vibes lmao

I knew about Della and Jim replacing the gay couple so that wasn't surprising, but a nice cameo nonetheless, especially with how Scrooge bought Jim's watch lmao

Okay the "screen" aka what seems to be a sheet of fabric being projected onto is just. Completely pointless and useless aside from minor ambience. Not only have they lost the VHS aesthetic it had, the actually fun and cool effects just don't seem to be possible with it and it sucks

I do love the rest of the vast staring at and then dragging Scrooge down, that was cool

Is. Is that the ghost of the Little Match girl orrrr...? Are we dealing with an AU situation? I mean, the Della and Jim resolution doesn't necessarily conflict with what we saw and is very sweet too but. This sure raises some timeline questions lol

Matching uncle and nephew sunglasses 🥰

I wish more Starkid shows included the curtain calls, those are always so fun and they feel important to recreate the feeling of watching live theater, even through a screen.

Anyway, I'm done watching now! Final thoughts? Might warm up to the first half upon rewatching (not like it hasn't happened to me with some shows before!), but initially I'm not the biggest fan. I can't say that this rendition of a Christmas Carol is better, but it's absolutely not worse either, and honestly that's all I wanted really. It was still tons of fun, and I liked it a lot! There's for sure a disconnect between the two halves though- heck, even between the two stories in the first half- and they feel... Too different to me, so I can't exactly say doubling the length was exactly... Worth it? One advantage of the OG is that it's short, which results in me frequently rewatching it, and this doesn't really have the same advantage, especially not considering I'll probably only really wanna rewatch the second half Anyway... Regardless, I still wish I could've paid them to watch this last year, it sucks that their site just. Doesn't work for me, so I'm glad that they made it accessible for me here. And now I'm eagerly awaiting Cinderella's Castle!

[kiawren]

Heeyy.... Back again for tonight before I leave again. They leaked a bunch of SM stuff 😃I did not expect it, I thought all the leaks had been covered. I was really bummed cuz I KNEW there were things, but the main leakers perhaps just didn't go through the and upload them. But there have been some now!... But overall my mood is poop cuz I've been feeling really dreadful about exams. Discipline is something I really struggle with.

ANYWAY! Some of the leaked stuff includes concept description of the main alolan cast. I've yet to read through them all so I'll just say stuff about the Kiawe one.

Btw these character concepts are early and change over time. Also this is Google translated so the translation is not excellent.

Honestly the thing I found most funny and baffling is "African-American descent" and they put a pic of a Japanese dude. Not even mixed I think. I googled him and it looks like this particular pic he's just tan 💀 if you see the stuff they have for other poc it's also something along these ignorant lines LMAO. Anyway.

I'll go generally chronologically

- "master of flying", I just assume to do with charizard cuz he gives the player the pager for it after his trial. Although the games didn't show him with a charizard AT ALL, the anime did show this and other stuff mentioned in the character description.

Which is cool becuz although I ship with his game version I did merge some familial exposition from the anime. Anyway

- "his grandfather dancing acrobatically with Charizard" no idea how that's supposed to look like. But it's cool there's a bit of flying elements. Also in the anime Kiawe is the one who performs the flying-type Z move in the show. Not Kahili or any other character. (If I'm not wrong lol). If charizard is on his team along with talonflame, he'd have two flying types as the only other type outside of fire that he'd need to be more skilled in. I'm pretty sure it's obvious Wren would specialise in Flying types. So it could mean something kiawren but also nothing at all don't worry about it

-interesting that instead of dancing with charizard as the concept idea, they went with alolan marowak as his dance partner in the end, which I think is perfect and very fitting. It would be nice to imagine him navigating his image of dancing with charizard as his grandfather does, but then obtaining a marowak and adapting to it and finding his own style with that. In the anime his grandfather passed before the canon story takes place, not specified at what age kiawe was then,...

-but reading on about his conflict with his ambition and obligation... He'd probably feel quite lost for a while on his own without his grandfather.

I actually never thought about any expectations that may have been placed on him. But that MAKES ME EVEN SADDER hhggfghhhhh

I had the headcanon that his parents support him but he felt bad about them covering too much of his study and travel expenses so he wants to work and cover it himself. BUT.... BUT WITH THE IDEA THAT. IN THE GAME HIS PARENTS WANT HIM TO TAKE OVER THE FARM. WHAT IF HE'S WORKING TO PROVE HIS DETERMINATION THAT HE CAN BE SELF SUFFICIENT AND WORK FOR IT BECUZ HE REALLY WANTS IT. AND THEN THIS SHIT HAPPENED BRRUUGh well i just think of his parents as the versions in the anime cuz in the games it's just reused NPC models that don't look related to him especially his dad is a white guy. So I always envisioned his parents to be the supportive caring ones in the anime. Though the game has more maturity to it. In the anime he's not even a dancer btw LMAO. So. So. In my Kiawren vacuum universe. His parents look the same in the show. But they're slightly sterner (though still caring) and want him to look after the farm. ALTHOUGH LIKE. THEY'RE NOT EVEN THAT OLD. AND KIAWE IS STILL 18 LIKE HE STILL HAS HIS LIVE AHEAD OF HIM WHAT TAKING OVER THE FARM BRO YOU GUYS ARE STILL PERFECTLY YOUNG AND WORKING AGE

But yeah yay more kiawren lore to think about. Actively working through his dilemmas together. I guess in the end his parents would support him. OH YEAH HE HAS A SISTER. Yeah incorporating her into the game universe although the character concept didn't note him having a sister. She wants to help out on the farm all the time in the anime and he gets protective over her carrying heavy stuff so. I guess she can be take more responsibility for the family farm when she's older. Things will #work out

-Do you know how comforting this (below) is to me lol. That he's a silent romanticist. In this way he's a lot like me you know. I know I say this a lot but I'm not reaching with this, it's out there, not blatantly obvious in his character but theres traces of it.

That he is practical and realistic, but also has passions and dreams. I also can't decide if I'm more of a realist or idealist. I feel like I'm realistic about the world but idealistic when it comes to myself. I have self-actualising ambitions, but I know about the real life obstacles and work needed to get there. Which even right now, in my real life, is really bothering me. Academic exams are such a burden to me when I just want to get out to the field and the world and engage with the nature and people around me. There's always room for more conservation and I wish I could start NOW. And skip the school and textbook stuff. I want to help now!

Sorry for derailing to me but I feel like for Kiawe and I, we've found our passions. We know it's our calling. We want to extend it to other people and community, and deepen our knowledge and love for the world and nature, art, culture. It's just the getting there. The personal obstacles and constraints we have to overcome. The how to make it in a world that doesn't care about art and conservation as much. Do you understand meeeee???

When I first selfshipped with him I only did it for comfort and enjoyment. How in the world was I supposed to know he'd have me reflect on my own ambitions. And think about us talking about them and achieving them together. It just makes me yearn even more and feel even sadder that we can't experience it together. FUCK MY STUPID BAKA LIFE

Fck it's so late I need to sleep. Anyway. Less serious stuff ahead.

-"casual jeans and high-top sneakers" LMAOOO LMAO

-"Distinctive features include a beard. Very long black hair tied up" that's interesting to imagine..

Actually my previous ideas of a future version of him, and the au with my spidersona, has him tied up long hair (below) Haha haha.. Though it's a bit hard to imagine him with long hair being let down but he'd look nice. I guess as he becomes an older adult he'd want to keep facial hair. Taking notes

Alright about his ethnicity now. I reached 10 pic limit so scroll up to the pic of his parents if you'd like.

I always established him to be native Hawaiian at least from his mom's side. His grandfather is maternal btw, and since he was so dedicated to a native tradition I just established that that side of the family is native lol. That will still remain.

As for his dad he could be black but they don't put in enough effort to hint at any heritage of that which is expected but it would have helped. Since my mind was wandering to our fursonas (sorry the jump in topic is abrupt) and how it bugged me that I want to assign him the red ruffed lemur but it's not a native hawaiian animal. I was thinking his dad could be Malagasy. Though I haven't read up much about it and it's just a rough thought. But honestly a lot of this would already be headcanon. So I might as well.

Wikipedia: "The Malagasy (French: Malgache or Malagasy: Gasy) are a group of Austronesian-speaking ethnic groups indigenous to the island country of Madagascar, formed through generations of interaction between Austronesians originally from southern Borneo and Bantus from Southeast Africa."

Honestly I think it's interesting they're Austronesian, Google the map and see how far Austronesian people span! If I go with this headcanon, it'll enrich his cultural background so much and it'll be a lot of cool stuff for me to learn about! His dad and mom would both be Austronesian but native to completely different parts of the world. Borneo is also a region I'm very interested in. Although I'm Chinese diaspora, my home is in Southeast Asia (if you zoom in slightly more, Malesia, which is the part of SEA that overlaps with the Austronesian range more.) I want to learn all I can about SEA. I love this region so much. I don't even love Singapore that much. Our government doesn't like to acknowledge our Nusantaran roots. Btw, I have very little knowledge of history and what I know comes from recent interests (that I'm excited to develop with time) But yes I'm glad to be part of Southeast Asia. The lamest country in it fucking Yes but I'm glad I have time to learn about this region and Austronesia in general. It really fascinates me so much, the geography, history, languages, culture of Austronesia and how much it spans. How many people it includes, how so rich and diverse it is. To go back to kiawren... That only means there's so much to learn about together and discover about this together!!! WHERE ARE YOU BRUHHH MY CRINGE STUPID LIFE

The takeaway out of all this is that Kiawe and selfshipping with him makes me think about ambitions and culture and. It surpasses just a Selfship lmao. Changed my brain chemistry so much. It covers all my bases for greater fulfilment of my life. Does that make sense. But at the end of the day it's also a fun thing I do for little comforts. Thinking about us just hanging out and stuff. Just.. Why is he not real. WOW I FORGOR ABOUT MY EXAMS WHILE WRITING ALL THAT. NOW IT HIT ME AGAIN AND IM FEELING THE Dread™

Okay, that's it. If you read this Wow thank you 1 billion. Its very late as I write this and I should really be heading to sleep.