#still not quite as tgwdlm but i enjoyed it a lot

[terriblelizbians]

love when life/school gets a little too busy or stressful and i have to go back and pick a random hyperfixation media from several years ago to consume my mind again to calm down

[icarusdiesatdawn]

Hatchetfield + Magnus Archives

I'm sure this has been explored plenty, but I've not actually seen much of it around so I want to give my own two cents to this conversation. I've been thinking about the Lords in Black and the Fears since NPMD came out, but I've never properly shared my thoughts, so here goes

Basically;

Pokey is the Corruption 🪱

Blinky the Eye 👁️

Nibbly the Flesh 🥩

These are pretty much on the nose I reckon. Tinky and Wiggly are a little more interesting to me personally, so I'm going to elaborate a bit. This ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated - apperantly Ido have many thoughts and feelings on this crossover - so I'm putting a break here.

[Also a fair warning for TMA spoilers]

Wiggly clearly got to be the Slaughter🩸 (at first I thought he might be affiliated with the Hunt, maybe they bleed into each other a little bit)

What I find most interesting though is when you put Black Friday in the context of TMA. Because it is basically just Wiggly's most devoted avatar Wilbur Cross, trying to execute a ritual for Wiggog Y’Wrath, aka the Slaughter, so he can come through to our dimension and bring about the apocalypse in his vision.

Similarly TGWDLM would be Pokotho's apocalypse (apokolypse) if the Web pushes through in a ritual. The fact that the Hatchetfield musicals all seem to be parallel universes works so well with the way the Fears work with parallel universes in TMA lore. Obviously this doesn't add up completely since Pokey's meteor backstory doesn't align with the concept of rituals in TMA, - and of course the whole point was that the rituals would all fail anyway because you need all the Fears together for it to work. But in Hatchetverse the Lords can!

Now I like to imagine what the rituals for the other Lords might look like. This is really scratching an itch in my brain

Also the Black Book is a Leitner, we all know it

Now I still haven't talked about Tinky. This is actually my favourite thing to think about because he's not as obvious to me as the others when it comes to the Fears.

I am very sure that Tinky is the Spiral🌀

The way he seems to enjoy to just fuck with Ted people's lives and trapping them in his toy box - which feels a little reminiscent of trapping people in, say, certain hallways. Fucking about with time and space to make their victims lose sanity seems about right for the Spiral.

Another part of the Spiral is deceit, the It Is Lies, and while this might seem like a stretch - I do think this is just as if not more so important to Tinky's whole deal. It's kind of the main thing he uses to play with Ted. He makes him believe he has anctually chance with Jenny again, makes him believe he's in control and knows what he's doing, when in reality it's just Tinky having a bit of fun toying with his feelings. All of this rings closely to the Web as well, but there two aren't quite off from eachother anyway, since lies and deceits are just a way of manipulation at the end of the day.

We only have Time Bastard to assess Tinky's personality, but it would be super interesting if this story would be explored in a whole play or musical, just to see the length of Tinky's manipulation tactics. Especially knowing they can take form as humans if they want to, he could - like the Distortion does - pretend to be Ted's friend to play his mind games. ...I might actually want to write this now

Okay, but the Spiral is not all T'Noy Karaxis is about. Again, just based on Ted's story, it actually becomes quite clear that Tinky is also the Lonely ☁️

Seriously, Ted's story is lonely coded through and through. Starting with the reason why Tinky picked Ted in the first place. He's at Emma and Paul's wedding, unenvited, unwanted, and probably the most lonely he's ever felt because what could make you more aware of your own loneliness than a room full of happy people who don't want you to be there. He's reminiscing about the time he had with the only person he's had a genuine strong connection to, then Tinky chimes in like "He's perfect, I can work with that"

And it's really just so sad. Ted has to go through losing Jenny again, and then ending up being comppletely and utterly removed from society. He doesn't even get to keep his sense of identity. His life. He just becomes "Homeless Guy", watching the people he once knew pass him by in the streets, seeing his little brother, his younger self - as strangers he lost all connection to. And he can't do anything about it. He is truly alone. Absolutely bonkers insane, I am eating drywall

do you get me???

Also just the Spiral / Lonely combo aesthetically clashes so hard but is actually not far removed. It really shows that the Fears bleed into eachother. From the Web to the Spiral, the Spiral and the Stranger, the Stranger and the Lonely, it kinda drives me insane I love it

Anyway, knowing that Tinky's a fan favourite for many of you, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, so please let me know what you think!!!

EDIT: as some have pointed out, Pokey much better fits the corruption than the web, you are RIGHT I am an idiot

[fencecollapsed]

Just watched your video on grace chastity, really good stuff!! I never thought of her that way, but she is honestly so compelling now. Was wondering, in your video you seemed to express you didn’t like parts of npmd? I’m personally not a huge fan of parts of it either, even if I love other parts. Would you be willing to share your thoughts on this?

hi! I'm glad you enjoyed the video, thank you! <3

yeah I can share some thoughts, I have a lot haha

so my biggest problem with NPMD is that I simply do not care about the Lautski plot thread. I think it's boring! I think their relationship in this story is hollow and bland and not emotionally engaging, which is a problem when the emotional climax of the story is staked on them. and I know it works for a lot of people, Lautski became one of the biggest HF ships after NPMD's wide release. I don't wanna discredit that, but I just don't see it.

I don't care about this relationship. the two weeks they have to hang out freely without Max's interference happens offstage during a timeskip and we don't get to see them at the football game together. the only scene they have one-on-one together in act two before CAITIA Reprise is them pretending they don't like each other. the show gives me very little to root for in terms of their dynamic and chemistry other than their first banter-y interaction at the beginning, and even then I think their first interaction is better in Abstinence Camp.

I have a big bias for Abstinence Camp Lautski, I think their chemistry is significantly more believable and charming in that story. they don't spend half of it pretending they're not into each other, for one. it's cuter, and we actually see more of their dynamic. just works better imo. I think their plotline in NPMD would work better if they were written more closely to the AC appearance.

Lautski basically splits main plotline spotlight with Grace's story, and because I'm so much more invested in Grace's story it sometimes feels like a waste of time whenever we snap back to the romance. mainly near the end - I don't think it's a huge problem throughout, honestly. but CAITIA Reprise is supposed to be like, THE big emotional moment of the story, this huge climax where we think Pete will die. and it does absolutely nothing for me! I feel nothing during that scene, I never have. and I understand the intent behind it, yknow? I understand the misdirection, and if it works for you emotionally then I'm sure it's really effective and that's great. but for me, because Grace's sacrifice is the one that actually happens and we spend all that time dealing with Steph and Pete's emotions rather than hers, it just feels a teeny weeny bit disappointing. like that time could've gone into a little exploration for Grace's thought process. I can pick up on the implications that lead to her ending, it's not difficult, but it would be nice to be shown some of that stuff too, dyou know what I mean?

it's just gonna inherently affect my opinion of the show when I don't particularly care about one of the two main storylines hgjskf

I think the Grace plot thread is extremely strong though. all things considered. she carries the show for me and she carries it so well that it makes up for the weaker elements. honestly better than the strong parts of Black Friday imo - I think BF has more to work with but it fumbles the bag more because the focus is spread thinner. both higher highs and lower lows. NPMD is still a more satisfying watch to me because the Grace story is so strong, while BF never feels like it quite comes together or gets the best use out of all its characters and ideas.

neither of them are as strong or satisfying as TGWDLM though. that show has a masterful balance of all its emotional throughlines and all of the characters get their proper amount of exploration for the story. even parts I don't particularly care about never feel like they're getting too much focus that it's distracting. it works the best at what it does, I think.

anyway yeah that's my main thing. I don't think NPMD Lautski is very well-developed and I'm not invested in their part of the story. it takes away from my enjoyment of the whole a little. also I don't love the barbecue monologues segment and Just For Once, I think that whole part is too long but that's more of a preference thing. I've read the positive analysis pieces on Just For Once, I totally get the intent and I don't even think it's objectively unsuccessful. I just think whether or not you like that song has a lot to do with if it emotionally resonates with you, personally. it does not resonate for me so I don't really care for it. just doesn't hit. that's just me though!

[markerofthemidnight]

did you get the digital ticket??

Indeed I did!

(some more, slightly spoiler-y details under cut!)

From now on, all I’ll hear when I go to sleep at night is “Halt the column! The prince needs a shit!”, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

Definitely a lot… shorter than I was expecting. Well, not short- it’s longer than TGWDLM, for God’s sake- it just feels about half as long as it actually was, or maybe that’s just me.

I gotta say… I wouldn’t quite consider it as good as Hatchetfield or Twisted? Though that might just be me underestimating it since it’s so fresh in my head: I tend to do that a lot. My opinion will probably improve by the time the YouTube version releases and I have more time to think it over.

And I’m not saying it’s bad, either! There’s no such thing as a bad Starkid show! Like I said, my opinion will likely improve: I’m still processing it in my head, after all. I only saw it 2 hours ago.

My favourite song, off the top of my head, is Facade, which I enjoyed a whole lot more than I was expecting to.

My favourite character… actually, you know what, I don’t think I can choose? They’re all amazing in their own ways.

And, since the possibility of this being a series was brought up by Starkid multiple times: the way that gods and religion work in The Lands that Are is definitely something I’d like to see expanded upon! You can expect me to think of worldbuilding for that for awhile.

[spacedykez]

hello! its paper. been a while hasnt it? i keep meaning to send an ask just to say "hi! im still here!" but i keep forgetting. so i figured id send one now! i do have a sort of question tho. i havent been too aware of your recent interests but the newest one, team starkid i think it is, does seem cool. theyre like musicals right? so im asking if theres like a specific one i should start with first or if i can just go to whatever basically. bonus points for summaries of the plots :]

PAPER ANONNNN ITS BEEN SO LONG ITS NICE TO SEE U AGAIN!!!!!!! hope ur well!!! u caught me at the perfect time actually i am in the exact mood to activate Infodump Attack

SO !! team starkid !! they r a group who writes & performs original musicals. these range from parodies like Twisted (Aladdin, but from Jafar's POV) to the thing theyre most known for- the Hatchetfield universe

Hatchetfield is the name of a town on a fictional island in Lake Michigan in which this series/these musicals take place. Within the Hatchetfield universe there is TGWDLM, Black Friday, and Nightmare Time. Everything in the Hatchetfield universe is best described as horror comedy, and it does get quite dark at times.

TGWDLM (which stands for The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals) is where I would recommend you start. It's the easiest for a new Starkid viewer to understand, is almost entirely self-contained (bonus lore from other content is FUN but not at all NEEDED or important to understanding anything). It tells the story of Paul, the titular Guy Who Doesn't Like Musicals, and what happens to him when a meteor crashes into Hatchetfield and causes everyone to start singing and dancing! I would honestly recommend it anyways just because it's a really fun watch regardless. Warnings: guns, character death, [fake] blood & guts, body horror, mind control. Also, a song near the beginning has very explicit (sexual) lyrics.

Black Friday is best viewed as a sequel to TGWDLM. It gets a little more into the lore and sets up more of the overarching world. I honestly like Black Friday better than TGWDLM, but it is also even darker & more lore-heavy. Also it can be confusing on your first watch. It follows various citizens trying to buy a new toy called a Wiggly for Christmas, and the subsequent events that causes. Warnings: death, [fake] blood (not a ton! Less than TGWDLM), what could easily be seen as mob mentalities/near mind control, guns, what could be seen as stalking/hunting people.

Nightmare Time is best seen as a series of podcasts/seperate "episodes." You can listen to just the audio if you want, you won't miss anything important (although the actors are AMAZING so I would definitely say watching it is worth it). There are two seasons, which have 3-4 episodes each. They elaborate a LOT on the lore/world of Hatchetfield. If you need individual tws, they should be in the video descs. I will warn you the Hatchetfield series is very dark. I love it and it is a LOT of fun though! Latte Hatte is the #4 cause of my homosexuality (/silly). also nb rep that i as a nb person very much enjoy!! also more of lauren lopez being iconic. also a KILLER theme song.

Also recommended outside of Hatchetfield are Trail to Oregon & Firebringer. I personally don't love the amount of toilet humor in Trail to Oregon, but it's still a fun musical and the acting is phenomenal as always. Firebringer has iconic songs, a HILARIOUS narrator character, leabians, and Lauren Lopez as the lead. there is literally nothing more you could ask for. it's perfect. Gods I love Lauren Lopez she's so iconic.

[god-mouths]

11 and 14 for the arrist asks!

11. Favorite comment you’ve ever recieved on your work?

I love every comment on my artwork of course but i think my favorite is one time someone added a piece of mine to a tag on their blog that was like "#all time fave" that one made me really happy!! I also like it when people are like "im looking respectfully" etc! its like yes i have won the lottery in hot ocs. 14. How has your art changed over the years? putting this under a readmore cause its gonna be a bit long

once again, a very good question to ask as I just unearthed some older digital art but up in my room i have a catalogue of all of my work since i was in like the third grade, behold let me show you my wares

mountain of sketch books

secret under bed drawer i'm going to try to do this in the order i THINK the art pieces range in year which will be a little hard since i never write dates on any of my art which is a habit i should get into especially because i like looking back on old art

these few are most probably the oldest telling by the RVB art which has been my most long running interest. the anatomy is really stiff in some places and the faces are all circles, hair taking up half of the face shape and makin' the face all squished together.

these ones the anatomy gets better ish but you can see the start of my weird long neck thing that i started to do. also the clothes are way too wrinkled i didnt know how to draw them yet. this one is the most easily datable since it's bandersnatch fanart and i remember drawing this when bandersnatch first came out in my middle schools gym

here i'm experimenting with anatomy, had the most trouble with arms. face shapes becoming better and faces are less cluttered

here the clothes are less wrinkly, arms are less bad and more connected but i was having trouble doing fullbodies. necks still uncomfortably long

here are some drawings i found that i really enjoy! i really like the anatomy on the first one and that second one is the first ever drawing of bear! I also like the little cross hatching on the face, i should do that more

after that i stopped doing noses for a while because i didnt like them. around the time that homestuck 2 came out in 2016. big gaps in the face, necks still really long

a return to noses soon after! necks still long. noses and the shadows under the face are drawn like that because at the time Jelloapocalypse's Epithet Erased had come out, and it influenced my art style quite a lot! i still do the double-shadow thing for the neck

(sylvie for refrence - i def got the shadows and nose from this art style :])

all of this finally brings us to the first art piece i ever posted here! paul, from tgwdlm! ( i used to post on instagram but i dont anymore/deleted some stuff because i was really weird on there as a middleschooler and i dont want anyone having evidence that hasnt already survived the horrors)

my necks were still really long back then. if i draw any more long awful necks i think i should be killed by firing squad. thank you!

[hatchetfieldtheories]

Return to Hatchetfield-Town – The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals Part 1

Alright settle down kiddos. Get comfy, find a warm blanket and hug your favourite fwendy-wend as we start our Return to Hatchetfield-Town series.

I’ll be rewatching all the Hatchetfield scripted content (i.e. not livestreams or interviews) and jotting down what happens, explaining some concepts and delving into some of the key theories in the series (and using the word “implications” that often it will cease to have meaning).

Even though I’ll be doing the rewatch by show in order they came out, there will be spoilers for all Hatchetfield content that is available as of the rewatch.  

I’ve also linked to a number of other blog’s theories here because they are amazing, but if you aren’t happy with your theory being included I will be more than happy to remove it!  Just let me know.

[Part 2]

The Guy Who Really Hated Brigadoon

TGWDLM starts off with the greatest song ever to feature dancing zombies… at least I can’t think of any other notable ones.

In the title song, the cast of singing and dancing zombies explain to us that all great stories have to have a hero, someone who knows right and wrong and that the best way to do this is through singing and dancing in musicals.  This with the later line of “they evoke the philosophical” make me think that Pokey took a class in Campbell’s Hero Myth in College and became that guy.

Hatchetfield Challenge: try not to shrug your shoulders along with the music at the chorus. Its impossible. No wonder the Hive spread so quickly.  Literally killer dance moves.

So then they introduce us to an awful Grinch named Paul and we hit the first point in the show where I laugh out loud every single time I watch.

I know TGWDLM was not originally intended to be the first Hatchetfield show but starting this series with a song which sets up the story so well is truly spectacular.   And is there anything more Starkid than introducing your main character by having other characters sing about how awful they are?

One thing I have noticed while writing, reading and collating Hatchetfield theories is that while most Black Friday and Nightmare Time theories are usually about the overall Hatchetfield lore, most TGWDLM theories are usually quite self-contained and focused on this one show.  TGWDLM – while so fully within the Hatchetfield extended universe, is definitely the show that can best stand-alone without the others.

It’s the end of the world, Paul

If you don’t sing

This is the bridge, Paul

Where we globalize everything

And the words will come to you

We swear we will teach you

What it means to love

What it means to obey, Paul!

On a first watch this is very funny.  On your 10th watch this is terrifying.

CCRP Technical: No-one here knows how to use their printer

Following the absolute bop of a title song we find ourselves in CCRP Technical and all feels very… normal. It’s very weird following all the revelations in subsequent Hatchetfield media, to be watching a show where there was genuinely nothing obviously fishy about CCRP.  We’ll obviously discuss CCRP more when we get to Nightmare Time, but for now all we know is that Paul works in the technical department of CCRP – an unknown corporation, with some key characters, Charlotte, Bill and Ted.

We also find out more about Grinch Paul’s personality and honestly, Paul is me pre-pandemic just outright avoiding social interactions and suddenly going for coffee in the middle of the work day. (I have become a changed woman in lockdown – someone please invite me somewhere… anywhere!)

For all the dark humour and death in the Hatchetfield series, Starkid do know how to bring the joy – I love how excited the town of Hatchetfield are for a touring production of Mamma Mia.  

Fake Fact: TGWDLM is actually an allegory for Europe in the 1970s, when we all became mind-controlled by Abba’s Waterloo.  (Find me a better explanation for Eurovision, I dare you!  The sequins were just too shiny!)

“The idea of sitting there… trapped in a musical.  That is my own personal hell.”

Two words: Emma Perkins – need I explain any more?  

Ah Hot Chocolate Boy.  I really look forward to finding out more about him.  Where does he come from?  He just appears out of the ether. What’s his story?  How old is he? How many hot chocolates does he have per day? I know we have since had some confirmation on who he is, but they raise more questions than answers. For now I will just point you to a gorgeous Mood Board by @hatchetfieldmoodboards which features a bit of a spoiler. 

For real though – is it just me who would love a full version of “I’ve been brewing up your coffee”?

Hatchetfield Challenge: Try not to sing “Shut the f*ck up” along with Emma.

“Watching people sing and dance makes me very uncomfortable”- oh boy Paul… you’re not going to enjoy the next hour and 40 minutes.  Also, Paul, you’re making me uncomfortable watching you throw your brand new coffee around as if you’ve just been given an empty cup.  There’s imaginary coffee everywhere.  Hopefully, HCB won’t slip on it before it’s cleaned up… he’s already having a bad day.

“Thunder and Lightning… very very frightening.  But a big rock hurtling through the clouds is no biggie.” – all the residents of Hatchetfield apparently.

The next sequence happens so fast and we get introduced to a lot of characters.  Notably Greenpeace Girl, Alice and Deb, Sam, and Hidgens (though we don’t find out his name until much later). This scene impresses me because they do such a great job of very quickly bringing out so many characters who nonetheless are memorable when they return later in the show.

Peanuts the Hatchetfield Pocket Squirrel is an Eldritch Being. I won’t go into Peanuts theories here as that could be a whole post in itself – and many a person more brilliant than I have written some fantastic theories on this. You can learn all about how a Squirrel took over the fandom in the following posts:

@dahlialupine : x

@frombothofmyhearts​: x

@abiimaryy​: x

And finally mine which is definitely a serious theory: x

It’s… A… Musical!

Now to remember we are actually watching a musical.  La Dee Da Da Day is such a happy joyful song performed spectacularly by a throng of the undead.

The song is about the Hive singing about how much of a great time they are having now they are tap-dancing zombies, and trying to find ways to convince Paul he should join them too. So the grins on all their faces are not at all terrifying.

 It’s worth noting also that according to the laws of the TGWDLM world, only those infected by the Hive can hear the music in the background.  This becomes important later when it becomes clear some characters have started being infected before they are fully turned into zombies, but for now it just paints quite a funny picture of what Paul must be witnessing. I definitely think for him, this whole scene just sounds like this clip of Greased Lightning without the music: x

The important thing here however, besides Mariah’s singing, is that the Hive leave Paul alone.  They don’t actually attempt to turn him at this point.  I have a theory on the implications of this, but note this has big spoilers for the end of the show and Black Friday.  It was written before we knew that the Hive (Pokey) was related to Wiggly but the content still stands: x

Charlotte, Honey, you don’t need that much sugar – you’re sweet enough

For reference:

@melchron​  noted that the lyrics for La Dee Dah sound very similar to the incantation for soul transferal read out in Jane’s a Car, which leads me to two possible implications.

The Freaky Furbies have a language other than English that they use for their incantations so this is why they sound similar.

There is soul transference happening to the souls of the bodies the Hive take over.

Or it’s just Starkid using similar sounding words for their content…. Three! There are three possible implications…

Paul – just print off another copy of the report

From this point on the musical numbers really do come thick and fast.  We move on to the first instance of Jeff Blim encouraging Paul to talk about his feelings, which I am sure is not important and isn’t worth discussing.  Paul goes through a musical rendition of a promotion interview, which is actually the Hive attempting to find out if he will be the “hero” of their story.  They picked out Paul for the role from the start. That he was chosen was inevitable.

What do you see for this company? I'm looking for someone with strong ambition Someone to sell their specific vision Someone to share with precise precision their thoughts 'Cause I want you to want…To want

So it turns out these will be looooong, so I will end here and see you in part 2!  I’m not sure yet what the upload frequency will be.  It takes quite a while to go through the show like this but it is a lot of fun!

Hatchetfield High Homework:

Where do you stand on the Peanuts the Hatchetfield Pocket Squirrel debate?

Why do you think that the Soul Transference Spell and La Dee Dah sound so similar?

Go follow all the lovely people mentioned in this post!

Bonus points if you know the reference in the post title.

[Part 2]

[lichfucker]

Hi! (feel totally free to ignore btw!) I used to looove starkid back in avpm days, but I haven't seen anything since Starship. You posting abt Black Friday is making me want to go back tho! What starkid/tcb shows should watch vs skip? I know twisted, saf, (&apparently bf) are great - which of the others have you seen & liked? Thanks! ☺️

twisted, saf, and bf are all TOP TIER and you absolutely should watch them

the guy who didn't like musicals is, like, technically kind of a prequel to black friday? they take place in the same town and there's a handful of overlapping characters (and since black friday is generally a lot. heavier in tone, a lot of the Jokes that get big audience reactions are just references to tgwdlm). you don't HAVE to watch tgwdlm to enjoy bf, and in all honesty I really didn't like tgwdlm very much (it's just not my kind of humor personally and the ratio of songs I liked to songs I didn't is just a little too low, y'know?). you'd be missing out on a LITTLE bit of context my watching bf without watching tgwdlm but not even really that much, they do a good job of re-explaining all the plot-relevant details and the relationship between the shows isn't quite as straightforward as prequel/sequel. so it's up to you whether you'd think it's worth it to watch tgwdlm in addition to bf

you mentioned starship which I LOVE. worth rewatching. starship and holy musical b@man are maybe the most underrated shows in the company's oeuvre. I love hmb so much it makes me insane. I'm so sick of superhero media that takes itself really seriously lmao the concept is inherently absurd and ridiculous, and hmb really leans into the idea that, like, this is all dumb as hell. the characters don't THINK it's dumb as hell, and they DO take it super seriously, but it's still very much dumb as hell

trail to oregon has a lot more potty humor than I usually like, but I absolutely fucking love it. tto makes me so happy makes me go 🥰🥰 turn my brain off and watch ppl be dumb abt The Frontier. (in case you couldn't tell, most of starkid's shows revolve around people being extremely stupid and they're soooooo good at it.) trail to oregon also has a choose-your-own-ending thing which is fun and because I'm me I have extremely strong opinions about which one is the best lmao but I won't tell you which bc I don't want to influence your decision-making

AND THEN THERE'S FIREBRINGER. the perfect lauren lopez vehicle. dumb idiot cavepeople my BELOVED. if you were On The Internet in 2017 you probably saw clips of the song 'work to do,' the "I don't really wanna do the work today" song. 'twas a big meme. it's very very good. and the music?? my g-d. heavenly harmonies. firebringer is just... fun. it's fun and very bisexual, if that means anything to you

don't watch me and my dick. it's good for corey dorris having a solo and bad/uncomfy for almost everything else. most people dislike ani; I have mixed feelings abt it. I'm not THAT into star wars so a lot of the references were lost on me, and a lot of people really didn't like that they don't sing (they did it in rep with tto, and tto took most of their best singers). that's not to say there's no music-- there is!! but the band does it all, movie soundtrack-style, instead of the characters. a lot of the songs are really good, though!! and clark's voice is soooooo 🤩. but it's, y'know, stylistically a very different experience than most other starkid musicals, and it's steeped in the granular details of star wars canon far more than the other parody musicals are in their source material. and in all honesty I haven't really watched much tcb beyond saf so I don't feel qualified to rec any other tcb stuff, though iirc people seem to really love solve-it squad

thank you for allowing me to ramble abt starkid lmfao :3

[popculturebuffet]

Nightmare Time Episode 1 Review: The Hatchetfield Ape-Man/Watcher World

I take a look at the first episode of Starkid’s new show Nightmare Time! Starkid, returns for a zoomcast, bringing back the casts of both Hatchefield plays for an anthology series of science fiction double feature picture shows! This week’s tales of terror:

The Hatchefield Ape-Man: A british heiress gets romanced by a shaved bigfoot with the help of everyone’s favorite kooky college professor. Forgotten fiances, murder and described nudity naturally insue. 

Watcher World: Bill and Alice return as Bill drags his daughter to a kitschy theme park for a day of family fun, which Alice enjoys and is as respectful about as much as you’d expect. As you’d also expect given Bill’s general luck, things take a turn for the Shining real quick. Spoilers and full review under the cut. 

Well this was a nice suprise. With the ongoing pandemic I genuinely did not think Starkid would be back anytime soon. Having just gotten back into them this years after several years of forgetting they existed via the Hatchetfield plays, I was pretty bummed, if understanding. So last week’s announcment of not only this series but a full scripted series from their sister production company the tin bros was a HUGE shot of happy I needed in this troubling times. Still need to watch spies are forver love the soundtrack nto important. 

Point is the Lang Brothers and their merry band of actors found a way to continue on via  format I didn’t realize existed outside of table reads but is a nice way to do things: The Zoomcast, basically a podcast done live on zoom, with the actors in plainclothes for the most part, with one person, in this case Nick Lang, reading out descriptions of what’s going on. Being a starkid production this also has musical director Matt Bohm playing accompaniment and pretaped if still via the actor’s own camera musical numbers. Overall while i’ts an understandably cheap production, only what costumes the actors have on hand and most props mimed, it WORKS, allowing for way more elaborate set pieces than the stage would allow and is anchored by Lang’s impeccable descriptions and the cast’s amazing as always acting really making the stories pop.  So things worked on a technical level despite having the barest of bones to work with. But did it work on a story level? Well yes, but if I ended my reviews with just that i’d have less than the 3 or 4 fans I do have, so without further ado, it’s nightmare time! The Intro: 

Now normally in my reviews I don’t talk about the intro because I come in mid way or because I just didn’t think to. This is an exception since 

A) I should be doing that anyway or at least when I cover a show’s first episode since intro’s are sometimes one of the most memorable parts of a show 

B) It’s a full musical number that’s been stuck in my head since the trailer for this series and has now set up an apartment there.  C) This series is a musical, if not to the same degree as the two plays before it, so it’d be weird NOT to talk about it’s signature song. 

So with that out of the way the intro.. is fucking impressive. Seriously taking disparate videos with probably as much as the directions “Sing this part of the song and be kind of creepy or alluring or whatever” and making it really flow? Good work, both to the starkids for bringing their a game to it as always and to Nick and Matt really did a good job   editing this together, musically and visually to be an abolute jawdrop. And somehow finding utterly stunning stock image animations that none of us realized were stock footage but still fit the tone perfectly. Just great stuff.  Some stray notes: Mariah is absolutely stunning in both voice and apperance in this, John Matheson’s bit as paul was great, and Jeff Blim of course got a great bit with his always astounding hair blowing in the breeze with him at full high pitch. Just an utterly great intro, and for Starkid’s first series in over a decade, and really ever but semantics, they really brought it. Good stuff. Onto the actual episode content. 

The Hatchetfield Ape-Man: Lucy, a british heiress played by Angela Giarratana, was saved by the legendary “Hatchefield Ape-Man”.. who apparently has a hyphen like spider-men because while sasquatches can do that. Point is she’s come back every year in the hopes of reuniting with her savior but has so far failed.  But as Lucy prepares to leave from this year’s failed expedition, an old friend finally gives her what she needs... old friend to us to her she’s just some grey haired lunatic who showed up out of the mist. Which while accurate, dosen’t quite quantify everyone’s favorite playwright/college professor/murderous psychopath/composer.

Yes at long last Professor Hidgens has returned! I honestly didn’t expect the anthology to bring in such a huge fan faviorite so soon. I mean I expected returning characters, mostly because the project allows old faviorites to come back for their own stories or for the stars of the musicals to get a chance at a much happier ending... there’s a lot of potetial there. That and let’s face it “Jane’s a Car” is a pretty dead giveaway it’s going to be about Tom’s dead wife and Tim’s dead mother coming back in horrible mash up of christine and my mother the car. Maybe. I could be wrong. I also doubt many of you know what my mother the car is and to that I say it’s an old sitcom i’m honestly suprised I know exists and know nothing about other than the title and it being about a son’s mom’s ghost possesing his car apparently. Well that and it was the basis for this. 

Point is, while I expected some returns, I wasn’t expecting one this large and this bombastic so soon, but BOY was it welcome.  So getting back on track after all that, HIdgens seemingly takes Lucy to meet her ape man, who goes by the name Klonk, played by everyone’s faviorite sexy caveman Joey Richter. Also it’s adorable he and Lauren share a streaming screen. I know practicality and all that but their engagment is genuinely a sweet thing to hear about at a time when the world’s going down the toilet fast. Fun Fact: I pegged the Ape-Man was either going to be Jeff or Joey, leaning towards Jeff, though given my love of Joey I wasn’t disapointed with him, especially with the twist... but I was EXASTIC to learn the answer was basically “Both.. kinda?”. But yeah Lucy soon bonds with the ape man, with HIdgens encouraging her since it’s more than he’s gotten out of Klonk in 11 months of looking after the guy, and this way they can get him to learn enough to decide what he wants for himself. 

So a few months, and some romantic bonding between woman and ape-man, pass but a wrench is thrown into Klonk’s wooing and attempt to tell lucy he loves her: Jonathan, Lucy’s just now mentioned fiance and royal dickhead played by Kurt Mega. And credit where it’s do whlie he clearly didn’t have to dress up, he did have a nice 50′s monster movie british person suit he put on.  Lucy is now conlficted and what not even though Jonathan is kind of an asshole who just wants to drag her back home. And i’ts not like Lucy didn’t keep in touch: she sent him texts and probably called, so i’ts not like he didn’t know she was here. He’s also a hunter for extra dick points as if he needed them.  Naturally when meeting his romantic rival he’s a dick.. but raises some valid questions: While Hidgens claim he shaved Konk due to lesions, there’s no mark of lesisons or the shaving. But his natural dickheadedness shines through and Jonathan talks about shooting Klonk before lucy takes his ring off and throws it and Jonathan goes after her.  Annnnd yeah turns out the disposable dickhead fiance for once is RIGHT. In a twist I did not remotley see coming but damn if it wasn’t clever, Klonk.. is Ted from TGWDLM and the plan was to seduce lucy with this con, marry her and then bump her off. It’s a hell of a twist and cleverly hidden since Joey’s such a starkid mainstay, it’s not a huge suprise he was Klonk and thus easily hid the fact he was also Ted. It’s clever stuff and pivots the story nicely. 

Ted is naturally a douchey as ever, going along with Hidgen’s plan to have him marry lucy then kill her and take her dough for themselves.. and unsuprisingly, so Hidgens can get Workin Boys off the ground. Granted there are easier ways to do this with the same scooby doo scheme: Just have HIdgens plan working boys casually, have Klonk really love it and being the sweetheart she is LUcy would fiance the thing just to make them both happy. I mean he can still marry her and ted can still have direct acess to her money if they want, it’s just an easier way that dosen’t shine supscion on the caveman who looks exactly like a local douchebag who everyone he’s met would testify against him. I mean would Paul and Bill REALLY be that suprised that Ted did this? 

Exactly. Then again neither of our “heroes’ Here is very bright, and this scheme only works because Lucy is clearly very sweet, very naive, and very much wants a romantic evening with an ape man after all this time and effort searching, so she wants to believe him. So the fact the best they could come up with is something out of Scooby Doo is unsuprisng but still great.  However things take a turn for the

Pretty quick as Hidgens takes disposable british douche fiance hunting.. then kills the guy after freely admiting he’s a fraud in what’s an INCREDIBLY chilling scene. Seriously it’s amazing how Robert takes a character as loveably redicilous, even his evil and murderous plan during TGWDLM was still hilariously rediclous, and makes him UTTERLY TERRIFYING. Even when dropping my fair lady refrences. Amazing stuff.  So the next day, after Konk “asks” what an engagment is and what not, we then get Lucy wondering just WHERE jonathan is and we get the second biggest laugh of the night as Hidgens gives us the iconic line of “Oh he left... said something about you being crazy and going back to london and basically to go fuck yourself. “. Naturally Lucy has followup questions and goes to find out while Ted, also naturally, isn’t exactly pleased when he finds out his partner in crime did a murder on someone. 

Ted may be a sleazy dickhead.. but even he sees maybe murdering a rich british person who just came here, went basically ONLY to this one location, and whose probably got many people who will misss him, one of whom is their primary target, is kinda dumb. Then again this is a plan that hinges on someone who could easily be identified, as he has or at least probably had an office job and three coworkers who know him, assuming a false identity to marry someone for their money. But again we’re dealing with a guy who thinks working boys is marketable to anyone who isn’t a starkid, and a moron who soon says he does his best thinking while erect. They only got this far because their target REALLY wants to fuck a sasquatch, is sweet but naive and well Ted IS still joey richter, and no longer has the porn stache so there you go.  Ted decides to cut Hidgens out of things.. partly because you know, he killed a person, and partly because instead of killing Lucy, Ted realized he honeslty has a LOT to gain by simply marrying her and staying married. He gains a hot rich wife (his word’s not mine, but angie is genuinely beautiful so fair point), a mansion, and while Hidgens points out the obvious, he has to stay Konk.. that’s actually appealing to Ted as he feels better as Konk, not just because he impresses an attractive woman for doing basic stuff, but because he feels better as Konk. This is.. an intresting turn for Ted i genuinely like. It shows that Ted may, as much as he presents with bluster and ego, actually LIKE the kind of shithead he knows he is. I mean looking at his life he has two workmates who calling them friends is a bit of a stretch, and one who he’s having an affair with but seems detemrined to make her doomed marriage to an even bigger asshole work. He really dosen’t have much as ted so it’s easy to see why being Konk is better: He’s a better person as him who actually has someone who cares about him.  Naturally Hidgens takes this as well as you’d expect and when Ted/Konk tries proposing he goes with the logical option for taking the fourtune for himself:

Yes really. Hidgens strips naked, and swings his arms around like an orangutan to try and convince Lucy he’s the real hatchetfield apeman. Sadly this dosen’t mean we get a shirtless robert manion as he needs to keep the turtleneck on for later, but the mental image.. I had to pause the video for a good minute to laugh over it. Just everything about it from it somehow being a dumber plan than his scheme this episode, to the orangutan swaying to just.. everything. It’s fucking genius.  But Higdens has more than a mighty penis to compete with Ted.. he reveals ted’s phone and Ted ends up revealing himsef by telling Hidgens to go fuck himself. Naturally Lucy is distraught and tries to leave and the professor pulls out his shotgun to threaten her into financing his musical because of course it’s about workin boys. Lucy tries to run, Hidgens tries to shoot.. and ted , doing the first good thing in his entire life, takes the bullet.  Lucy gets ted out of there then locks the door behind them, and we get the SCARIEST bit in this segment as Hidgens leans into the camera, simulating the peep hole of the vault door to the ape man inclosure and begs her to let him out. It’s some real Jack Nicholson in the Shining stuff and it’s utterly terrifying, but it’s also an amazing bit of acting. Nice job Rob.  So ted bleeds out, as much as Lucy wants to save him he knows he’s not going to make it and prefers to die as Konk, finally happy with himself. And I just realized everyone at Paul’s job is horribly miserable. I mean good god, Paul himself has serious depression issues judging by “Let it Out”, Ted clearly hates himself, Charlotte is in a horrible marriage and Bill just got out of one and has a strained realtionship with his daughter we’ll get into more in a bit. I mean honestly, Mr. Davidson is the only one of them who really dosen’t need therapy.. he just needs to tell his wife he wants her to choke him while he jerks off. For as ungodly hilarious as that line is he’s probably the most well adjusted person there. Go figure. 

Naturally being already insane, Hidgens breaks out, still naked mind, and chases after Lucy. Also noticable is apparently some people thought hidgens was manipulated by the blue shit hive mind in TGWDLM. Which.. no. I do love the guy dont’ get me wrong.. but it was very obvious both from the way his musical number was done compared to the rest of the ones in the musical, and his actions that was entirely him, and his playing the music was so he could join, especially since we don’t see the hive mind use any mind manupluation on anyone else. Regular manipulation sure as seen with you tied up my heart and not your seed, manipulating charoltte into freeing her asshole husband so he could infect her and torturing bill for funsies. Just something to get out of the way. Point is he was always crazy we just now have him chasing an innocentish woman with his dong hanging out to prove it.  He eventually catches her as Lucy catches herself in one of his bear traps when she hits the woods, because he had those for some reason.. and he has a resonable way out: Just give her the 30,000 dollars he needs for his musical. Thing is she dosen’t have the money.. or hardly any. She spent all of it trying to find the ape man and was marrying jonathan for his money and him for her title. And while it is a bit skeezy, it’s very clear both were using each other and likely knew it, and Lucy still comes out the most moral of our cast here.. granted it’s not a big stretch as hidgens is criminally insane, ted’s a skeeze and Jonathan.. well he’s just a diiiiiiccckkkk. It’s not hard is what i’m saying.. much like hidgen’s dick flopping around in the rain. But yeah he dosen’t take it well, Lucy goes up a tree, which is apparently something Becky did once. But before Lucy can die at the hands of a naked thespian, the REAL Ape-Man shows up and tears Hidgen’s arms off, taking lucy in his own arms afterwords and revealing he remembers her. The two hit it off instantly, it turns out his name is chumby in an excellent gag as that was what Hidgens wanted his fake ape man to be named but Ted froze, and go off into the night together. Awww.. what if a naked ape man played by my boy jeff blim and a british person can’t work who can? 

We then close out the segment with a cameo appearance by Jamie Lynn Beatty, who while not part of the cast for this double feature, does get a fun showtune about the ape man. Also fun fact that i found out here on tumblr: That costume is from something Jamie did in HIGH SCHOOL. As in well over a decade ago. Like holy shit, good for her. She looks great in it. But yeah it’s a fun song and a nice way to close it out.  Final Thoughts on the Hatchetfield Ape-Man: This was a great way to start things off. This one was more in line with starkids pre-hatchetfield work, a goofy story with some hidden depth inside. And like the guy who didn’t like musicals it was utterly terrifying in spots so yeah good stuff ,utterly hilarous and a great way to bring back some old faviorites while giving us a neat new protaganist. Good stuff. 

Watcher World:

Now from a mostly comedy with a horrifying ending to just.. pure unfiltered horror and depression! It’s Watcher World! Bill and Alice are back! And given I love Mariah Rose Faith and Corey Dorris, I was exastic to find this was what the second segment was about.. mostly because I had no idea Starkid had teasers for the episodes on their instagram, or I would’ve known Hidgens was coming. I wouldn’t of known he’d be stark naked for the last third of his story but still, pleasant surprise.

So Bill and Alice are spending the day at Watcher World, a run down amusement park on the edge of town. It’s Alice’s last weekend before College so Bill’s trying to reconnect with her by cramming a good old fashioned family vacation down her throat. Alice is less than enthused, both because she clearly resents her dad in general, and because Deb is throwing a huge rager on the same night. My honest interpretation of that is that Deb fully inteded for her girlfriend to come but Bill sprung this on Alice at the last minute and being pretty oblivious and hating Deb, either didn’t care about taking alice from one last night with her friends and girlfriend or didn’t generally think that through. I mean don’t get me wrong normally i’d side with a parent not wanting their daughter to attend a huge teen rager on their last weekend together.. but it’s also Alice’s last weekend in town for some time, and it’s likely a saturday.. so he has another day, and presumibly had friday before this and while things with his ex wife are tense, fighting for an extra day with her would be understandable and i’ts not like Alice, even if she hates Bill, would really fight him on getting an extra day in the town she didn’t want to leave. 

But that’s what I really like about this one that it’s layered. While Alice is slightly more in the right, she’s still shutting her dad out, refusing to let him follow her on instagram (though he does agree with her keeping it private as he dosen’t want Ted perving on her, which tracks, or Ted’s brother doing it which.. wait what?), and being on her phone the whole time to very clearly spite him and rub how much she dosen’t want to be there in her dad’s face. She dosen’t WANT to be at watcher world but instead of trying to talk to her Dad just wants to complain and apparenlty has on all their vacations.. it’s easy to see why Bill is annoyed by his daughter at times and thinks he has to FORCE HER to have fun with him, because otherwise she’d gladly ignore him for their entire weekends together for Deb. She’s so determined to punish her dad for the divorce, that she refuses to see on some level he IS trying, and is just sad about her leaving, and possibly leaving him forever and alone with nothing else in his life but his buddy Paul, whose getting married next week so that’s probably not helping.  On the other hand the reason I say Alice is more in the right is that well.. Bill’s a grown ass men. And while, speaking for himself, grown ass men don’t always make the right decisions, and not speaking for myself neither do fathers... Alice’s acting out is understandable coming from an 18 year old whose been through hell over the last year, having her parents divorce being forced to move, loosing her friends. Bill however just kind of uses her age and angst as an excuse to undermine and belittle her feelings. Because he doesn’t like deb for the very stupid reasons of she does pot, instead of assuring her that Deb wouldn’t cheat on Alice with Deb’s former crush Zigg, starkid’s first non binary character in a nice show that Nick Lang wasn’t just covering his ass when he said there’d be more representation in starkid, which in his defense I didn’t doubt him on but it’s still nice he did so at the earliest opportunity and very clearly plans to use Zigg if he can find a nonbinary actor for them. 

But yeah instead of assuring his daughter, Bill is just like “well sometimes relationships don’t work out” which while true is clearly his self serving way of trying to get Alice to break up with someone he dosen’t like. INstead of supporting her in her dreams of writing plays, one of which was good enough to get her a scholarship, he tries to act like she has no plans for her future and get her to be a doctor for more security, even though having a secure job has done.. no one at his office including him favors. I mean again, the most stable and happy person at the office is the guy in charge, and even he can’t tell his wife he wants her to choke him out at night. He wants her to choke him, he wants her to choke him while he jerks off, he wants her to choookeeee himmm while heeeee jerrrkssss offfff. 

While part of this seems to be that Deb plans to be a starving artist who can mooch off her parents in a pinch, Alice GENUINELY seems to have a full plan for her life. I do get his worrying about her future.. but she’s a smart kid. A bit of a brat but she knows what she wants clealry and clearly has talent. He’s just projecting his own fears on her. He also refuses to accept any responsibility in the divorce.. his hating his ex wife IS valid, as she took his daughter away, uprooted her life a year before graduation and spends gobs of money on impressive outings, the latter two seemingly just to spite him when honestly, it’d of made more sense for Alice to stay with Bill for the year before she graduates and been better for her. However, Bill still doesn’t take responsibly that he too is shoving fun down her throat to try and win her over, hates her girlfriend and refuses to treat her with any respect, and really DOSEN’T know Alice all that well. As we learn during their fun day she has anxiety, and he never knew about it. And the divorce isn’t really an excuse when he had years before that.  It’s the real problem of their relationship: Bill feels ENTITLED to a good father daughter relationship, but isn’t working at it and blames his ex wife or Alice for it instead of himself. While Alice isn’t an innocent as i’ve made clear, putting up walls and not telling dad things, given bill ignores her when she DOES try to tell him about her life, it’s easy to see she’s just given up. If he won’t listen why bother. Which yeah i’ve found myself there with my own dad from time to time. Bill’s not a bad person, he genuinely loves Alice, as he says “to the moon and back”, but it’s very clear from this outing he still loves the little girl who loved him unconditionally and not the complicated and mopey adult sh’es become, and dosen’t WANT to adapt to that and fears once she leaves for college she’ll avoid him for good, which isn’t unfounded. It’s a good, complex rich dynamic.  Naturally with.. all this I covered up front instead of sprinkling it throughout, the day doesn’t go great, with Alice utterly miserable most of the time, and ending up in a goofy novelty t-shirt due to a log ride. She also has an unsettling encounter with park mascot Blinky, our newest adorable abomination, who not only shows up the moment she does something bad on camera but also stares at her ass, which.. Paul you mind coming back for a second?

Thank you. They end up at the Watch Party, a cheesy kids show musical because Bill apparently equates this with his daughter loving musicals. I mean granted cheesy kids stage shows can be rad just listen to this. 

But I get Alice’s annoyance here. Thus we get the return of the sniggles, who apparently serve whatever eldrich deity is around this week and our first song of this segment, The Blinky Song. Which is catchy as hell as well as hilariously dark (”I’m so hungry”), and uses the stock footage well, as I could buy a cheap theme park ran by an eldtirch eye goblin using stock footage. But yeah it establishes Blinky as always watching and kinda fucked up.  Also the sniggles are now clearly the smurgs with Angie’s now being named Sniglette, Jeff being papa Sniggle and James being Snigglotts. However Sniglette considers leaving with another song with a long string of words. Then, things get.. dark as the rest of the sniggles don’t want her to leave and try and mob her, and then Papa Sniggle accidently wings her with a mallet and apparenlty injures the actual performer, before everyone’s ushered out and the usher pretends nothing happened. Good mind screw horror stuff. 

Alice and Bill then bicker a bit with my above point being made as Alice TRIES to get Bill to accept some respoinablity but he refuses and blames her mom. It’s now time for the Tear-Jerker, the reason they came. Bill’s buddy Paul says someone died. They also find three other people waiting in line and when one goes to the bathroom the other two start making out which.. yeah, dosen’t help Alice’s worry Deb’s going to cheat on her. So she takes the first single rider pass she can, with Bill worming his way in as to not let her get away.  The two naturally end up fighting on the Tear-Jerker before it stops up high, and ends up stalled, with the gloriously returning Nerdy Kid played by Joey from Black Friday being as helpful as usual. Seriously bless them for bringing him back. Man in a Hurry also showed up again, bless him too. Alice picks this time to reveal her fear of heights and anxiety, and an approaching storm isn’t helping. So Bill.. steps up. He helps ease Alice down taking her phone for her, if loosing it due tot he rain and helping her stay calm. It’s a REALLY nice portrayal of an anxiety attack, with Mariah herself apparently having them and thus portraying it really well. As someone who has them myself it really hits home and Bills calm attempts to help her are really heartwarming, getting her to describe her musical for him and the two bonding. It’s genuinely sweet.  But.. it can’t last, as Alice freaks out about her phone and Bill for once is in the right, as .. he was you know.. trying to save his daughter having a panic attack, and really stepped up given he was obnovious she had anxiety in the first place, and managed it well. He then gives the utterly heart stomping line “I love you to the moon and back, but sometime’s it’s really hard to like you. “

Just damn. So Alice runs off and both find their way to the fairway. Bill tries winning a doll for Alice, getting into a test of strength where he fails repedatly and is constantly mocked by the barker, played by James Tolbert who also played Blinky.. 

That should be Tolbert’s twitter handle. Anyway point is, Bill keeps trying even as he wracks up 400 dollars in credit card debt, for a 49.95 doll, before eventually the barker and hte crowd’s jeers get to be too much and he does smack it hard, thinking of all of his pent up rage towards alice.. just as the bell at the top takes the shape of alice’s head and explodes.  Bill is naturally horrified by this by the barker assures he loves him.. and that he should totally hobble his daughter misery style to make her not leave him and use the mallet for it.  Meanwhile Alice is at the shooting Gallery not wanting the blinky doll she wins, just blowing off steam when she runs into an old crone played by Lauren Lopez. But this Crone has her phone... which suspiciously has a ton of instagram photos of Deb and Zigg making out while sharing a toke. Granted Deb COULD’VE cheated, but given Alice is insecure, and her phone was given back to her by a witch working for an eye goblin.. yeah maybe just maybe Deb was loyal, and if she wasn’t wouldn’t be dumb enough to put it on instagram. But given Alice is already worked up it’s easy enough for her to beliive that her relationships in danger and if she gets there in time she can stop it and oh look her gun is now a real gun and can help her get the keys.  So yeah it’s time for a creepy as hell Shining-esque showdown, but if both sides were possesed instead of one. It’s.. a CHILLING as hell scene, not helped by Alice wielding a gun again as both fight. I was gripped the entire time and don’t have much to say utter than HOLY SHIT THIS WAS AS TERRIFYING AS IT WAS RIVITING. 

But a crowd gathers as the fight continues.. all with purple eyes which ave been seen on and off, watchers with a thousand eyes.. and with Blinky, now revealed NOT to be a costume probably, above them all. We also get one hell of a line.  “This is an amusement park but not for YOUR amusement.”

So yeah I love this sequence.. and Blinky as a villain. While it’s vague if he and Blinky  are the same entity.. I’m going with not. It’s not a stretch that like Cthulu, Wiggly has brothers in the black and white, with their own motives, methods and ability to get into our world. Unlike Wiggly.. Blinky’s already here and has no real ambition other than to find people to mentally tear apart and set loose on one another for his own amusement. He doesn’t have grand plans of burning the world.. he just wants to be entertained. It’s an interesting and chilling motive and I hope we see him again eventually. I also believe those at the park are trapped there bound after their own day there and trapped doing whatever Wiggly needs. Except maybe squeaky voiced teen. He probably just complains about cleaning up so much blood.  But yeah Blinky is very happy as the fight escalates into the hall of mirrors and Alice looses her gun.. with Bill now poised to strike down his daughter as the mirror reflects the various workers at the park, all encouraging him to kill her... it’s utterly terrifying as Bill’s eyes take on a purple tint.. and we get a POWERFUL use of the score and the “why does it hurt to love you’ bit from TGWDLM.. as Bill sees himself and what he’s about to do, sees his daughter understandably having a panic attack.. and calms her, his eyes returning and the two reconciling.  Of course Blinky isn’t happy about this “sappy bullshit” and brings htem into his domain, charging at them. But kinda missing that giving a pissed off teenager a rifle she knows how to use when you have a giant target for a face isn’t a good idea and she shoots him, with him bleeding a flood of purple goo that sends them out. While I doubt Winky’s dead, he is done with them.  Our story concludes on a sweeet note as the two find their car, and they finally make as tep forward, Bill having seen almost too late how selfish and controlling he was being and accepting his daughter on her phone.. and Alice realizing her need to open up and after checking Instagram, likely finding out those photo’s weren’t real, she throws her phone in the back.. but not before accepting her dad’s request, letting him in. Sure the road ahead is rough.. but the two have made a good first step towards repairing things and loving one another again in a healthy manner. and all it took  was bill nearly murdering her and allice shooting an eye goblin int he face and getting covered in his blood. Cue the credits, a beautiful song called “One Thousand Eyes” with Jeff Blim fucking nailing it. A great way to send off this bit.  Final Thoughts: This was the best one of the two. While Ape Man is really good too, this one took the darker tone of black friday, but with a tighter narrative. By focusing on a smaller cast, the darker elements really played better and the conclusion felt more satisfying.. though it helped that BOTH of these tails ended without everyone dying, and while I doubt EVERY story will have a happy ending, it makes things more interesting knowing that the heroes can get a happy ending this time around instead of an apocalypse. 

Overall Thoughts: This double feature was great, I’ll be getting a ticket to the next one if I can afford it, and if not i’ll see it presumably in December or next year when it comes on YouTube. Really excellent stuff.  So this was a first for me but if you’d like to see more starkid stuff from me, let me know in the comments or my askbox, commission me to review one of the musicals via dm, and if you liked how I did this review follow this blog for weekly ducktales and loud house coverage, and amphibia coverage when that returns, among more fun reviews. And until next time.. don’t blink. Play us out Jeff. 

I really hope this is the ending theme for the series. 

[frankensteindotpdf]

Jon’s TGWDLM Livestream

I offered to write out all of Jon’s answers in his q&a (not verbatim, just a summary but also it got a little long, sorry for that) so here it is! sorry if there’s typos, i wrote this at 2am lmao i put most of the qs in bold

it was hard not to kiss jeff in WDYWP, especially because his face was so close (great way to start it off)

“Sing the beginning of Moana wasnt improvised”

He loves Not Your Seed and Show Stopping Number

His favourite piece of fanart is one of the first ones with red paul blue paul (in let it out) and he had it as his homescreen for a while

he got into starkid by doing Power Prom with jeff and lauren, (as well as another show with jeff and another with quite a few of the starkids) and then they asked him if he was interested in auditioning and he sent in a video audition and tah dahhh

if he could play any other character from tgwdlm it’d be hidgens (though he says part of the reason he loves hidgens so much is because robert did such a good job fleshing him out)

“how close are you and jeff” “uhh who’s jeff?”

paul’s job was originally gonna be a movie critic (buzzfeed-esque) (and at one point in WDYWP they brought up how he was reviewing a Hamilton movie musical-which was, incidentally, his fav deleted bit) but it ended up being at a customer service center “but most of the time he fixes printers and plays on the internet”

jaime helped out with some of the lyrics to CORC/COPC because she’s a barista

his fav memory with the cast was before shows and one time when they hung out after the show at a diner

his fav line that almost made him break every time was “Latte hottay...my wife...yknow like borat, dude” (it made him break a couple of times but he was always walking off stage like right as he said it)

he really liked the line “we’ll make a jammin’ cup of java, mocha latte with the froth for you, jack, frappuccino!” he just thought the wordplay was real good

fav joke was probs the moana bit (he broke a couple of times there too)

fav song was Show Stopping Number (and he said the way the songs flow when you’re listening to it on the album is so good)

he never found it boring to go to rehearsals because James and Lauren are such good choreographers and all the actors are so good at singing and dancing he got to watch them perform all the time and he really enjoyed it (how pure)

his reaction to hearing the show’s plot was “hell yeah, this is gonna be so much fun”

when he first heard let it out he was stoked because in high school he had tried performing Confrontation from Jekyll and Hyde with just a boom box so no one could actually hear the music and it didnt go well so he felt like that song was letting him redeem himself

his fav moment from the show’s run was the first show because they were so stressed because it was the first time they went all the way through the show with tech and music and it went really well “It was magical. we were all,like, on this adrenaline endorphin high and, uh, it was awesome.”

fav character from any starkid show is either nick playing robin or nick playing obi wan from Ani (he’s seen the scene where obi wan walks into the bar “probably a million times” because he loves the timing and the dry humour) but also nick gage as sultan from Twisted

fav moment to watch in the show was the part after Not Your Seed when the aliens were trying to talk at the same time

“would i have wanted to sing more? no, because i got to sing these two awesome songs” Let It Out was really fun to do but also daunting, and in Inevitable he got to sing parts of the other songs

no real mishaps with the blood capsules, just getting fake blood all over his face and shirt (but that was fine cuz it made him look like more of a badass in the next scene, as long as he remembered not to wipe it off)

fav line that he said? “ok”

“will i ever make my own version of Love Never Dies?” he wants to be in a musical about death (more of a “silly fun romcom”) and thinks that concept has so much potential

he’s inspired by The Adventure Zone and that’s where he got the name Travis from (idk what he’s talking about being inspired about, he never really says)

if paul drank the coffee, he would have been infected

there were no pranks, but

before one of the last shows he was rehearsing outside and he “stepped in human poop” like 20 minutes before he had to go on (he threw out the shoes ofc and luckily a member of the band had extra shoes that fit)

general advice? “number 1 surround yourself with people who love and support you and that you trust and you like to have a lot of fun with 2 if you can develop a skill that you l can support yourself when you’re not working, develop that skill, its really important just so you can put food on the table and also you’ll hear a ton of advice and there are a lot of training programs about how to act and how to sing but find whatever works for you...understand the character and do whatever you can to remove tension” (that was a lot lmao but i thought it was good advice)

there were lots of little improvised bits in the show but his fav was trying to figure out what he and emma were gonna say when they were going through the alleys

before every show they’d put their arms around each other and make a one word story (i can explain the game if you dont know what it is)

paul still wants a carpet

the starkid actor he’d want to play paul (if it wasnt him) would be brosenthal or brolden

fav food is “fuh”?  im sorry im a dummy ive heard of it but i cant spell it but yeah he likes it cuz it hydrates you and it’s delicious

he doesnt know the “alexa play despacito” meme

he’d love to speak mandarin (and do a film in china, he’s never been)

paul cant hear the background music when the aliens sing

his fictional band would be named either Territorial Fashionistas, The Light Quixotic, or Immortal Bond

fav fan moment was with a fan who had just had a really bad breakup which reminded of himself and how being true to yourself is more important than staying with your partner

dark mode looks cooler on his phone so he likes it best

in songs where he got to watch others singing and dancing, he was smiling on the inside and the fact that he couldnt sing or dance for most of the musical was made up for by the songs he did get to 

MY QUESTION!! (yes, i screamed) “Why did Paul offer bill and mr.davidson a ‘nice caramel frappe, nothing better’ when he only ever ordered black coffee?” he’s gotten them for Bill before cuz it’s his favourite, and he was just saying anything to try to get away from mr.davidson

he knows the lyrics to Moana because he secretly loves musicals after having watched so many with Alice growing up, but he wont even admit it to himself “he says he likes hamilton way more than mamma mia, so, yknow. he has an opinion”

he hopes it’ll come to chicago but he doesnt know if it will

his fav musical is a tie between Chess and Little Shop of Horrors

the backstage was really nice

he was honoured to have lauren spit on him

he was, of course, sad when it was over (but he’s stoked to move to LA)

finally, in the ending he revealed what his decision was for the end with paul, but i think it’s better expressed through a gif so check out: https://showstoppinnumber.tumblr.com/post/182153650669/theguywhodidnotlikemusicals

that was so long haha sorryyy i didnt wanna leave out anything. it was fun! hope you enjoy it, @realshowstopper!! if y’all have any qs hmu

[inevitablekickline]

some high school (semi-AU) headcanons for the TGWDLM squad

well I’m on a fuckin roll here, so have some headcanons for our favorite non!infected humans

Paul Matthews gives off heavy band kid vibes. Is that just me? But no seriously, I could totally see him in his school’s concert band (I’m assuming that since they have no theatre department, the Timberwolves band is also pretty sad and small, unless it’s the opposite and they funnel all their money into vocal and instrumental music when it’s in terms of the arts? I’ll mull it over some more). But just based off of eight and a half years of band, he’s giving me some strong clarinetist vibes. Or maybe even oboe. But definitely not a brass person, although if any...maybe French horn?

Emma Perkins was not only in theatre in high school, but she was also on the speech forensics team. Hatchetfield is in the Midwest, and speech is pretty big at least in my part of the Midwest, so...yeah she’s a speechie, too. I could see her being big into Humorous Prose (Humorous Interpretation where I’m from) but I could also see her doing Poetry and Impromptu, although I know Impromptu is also kind of a regional thing, so ???

Bill was also in band, and he went to Sycamore with Paul. We know Paul and Bill are very close friends, so I’m gonna take that all the way back to at least high school, maybe even middle school. Bill gives me strong flute or MAYBE also clarinet vibes. Once I decide on Paul’s placement, I’ll put Bill where it makes sense.

Hatchetfield High and Sycamore competed in everything, and Sycamore was used to losing, mostly in sports. Just kinda works with the whole “We hated you guys!” “We hated ourselves,” exchange. Although, I’m going to say that Sycamore had some good vocal music groups, and their speech team was alright, so that’s where the main competition went. But Sycamore sports? Their only good teams were maybe tennis and golf, that’s about it.

Speaking of rivalries, Hatchetfield High vs. Clivesdale Central was like the high school version of Red Sox vs. Yankees (sorry to all my non-US followers who are lost, I don’t even sports ok) for these two towns. Their speech teams always went to State, their theatre departments were crazy competitive in One Act competitions, and their sports teams? Hooooo boy, major rivalries. Like, people vandalizing stuff bad. Sycamore was just kind of...there, actually. They didn’t get as wrapped up in the rivalries, because they hated themselves enough.

Paul was drum major senior year for his marching band. They got threes almost all season (that’s low average in the division ranking scale, FYI).

Emma tried color guard for one year and quit as soon as the season was done, because she hated the drama. (Speaking mildly from personal experience?) But she was amazing with the guard rifles and would kick anyone who tried to mess up her silks.

Ted Porker was definitely the “peaked in high school jock” type, except that his ego was bigger than his reputation. He was benched for most of the basketball season, and the tennis team hated him. Cross country was alright for him, although the team still hated him. He also went to Sycamore, but he never spoke much to Paul and Bill. Everyone at least knew of each other, because in small towns, everyone knows everyone, at least from their area, since Emma didn’t know the others.

Bill married his high school sweetheart, but we all know that didn’t end so well. However, we also know that they must have hit it off pretty soon, since Alice is 17/18 when the others are in their mid-thirties. Bill and his girlfriend were adorable in high school, however. She was an art kid, he was a music nerd who couldn’t talk himself up enough to do anything besides band. It was adorable.

Jane Perkins was a senior when Emma was in eighth grade, so while Emma never dealt with her sister being at the same school as her, she dealt with all the aftermath. Every teacher would ask how Jane was doing, and Emma hated it. She loved her sister, yeah, but... she didn’t enjoy this.

On the topic of Jane, Jane was also in theatre, as well as choir, speech, band, and dance team. She was student council president senior year, and drum major junior and senior year. She played flute, sang soprano, and was stellar in Extemporaneous, Dramatic Prose/Interp, and Persuasive/Original Oratory (more speech terms ok). Hence why Emma would always do anything her sister didn’t...until she finally tried out for theatre.

Paul Matthews didn’t mind Disney movies and such, but there was just something about that production of Brigadoon that really set him off. Maybe it was the fact that they had been forced to watch a production of a show from a rival school who actually had the funding to do these things. Maybe it was that their Tommy was awful and their Meg was pitchy and completely unfunny, or that Jean was the only good dancer in the whole show and she didn’t even get to sing much at all. Maybe it was the fact that they had all this funding and opportunity, but it was being squandered, while at his high school, he knew plenty of people with musical talent that could pull off this show, but they didn’t even get a chance. Or maybe he just really didn’t like Brigadoon. Or both.

Charlotte is actually from Clivesdale. She moved to Hatchetfield when she went to college, facing a lot of backlash from fellow students due to her growing up in Clivesdale. So for this AU, sadly, Charlotte doesn’t interact with the others as much. But she was definitely a band kid, too. She seems like a bass clarinet kind of person. Lots of clarinet in this group, wow.

Okayyyyy I think that’s all for now! I’d love to hear what else y’all have ideas for, but I’m really enjoying fleshing this out...plus, as more info on Black Friday comes out, it would be fun to tie it all together ;)

[inhale-fandoms-exhale-asdfghjkl]

Starkid Shows Ranked

Apparently i have nothing better to do on a Saturday night so i figured i’d rank all of the starkid shows after getting inspiration from watching a whole bunch of these videos on youtube. I figured i’d take it to tumblr and find out everybody else’s personal ranking because again i have nothing to do plus i find it interesting.

I understand that everyone has their own opinions so i don’t expect everyone to agree with me, but here is my ranking:

11. Firebringer - i'm sorry i really really tried to love this show but i just can't. I think the music is great and i absolutely love the cast and while i find a few moments in the show funny, i just don't find the overall show that enjoyable.

10. ANI - i don't really understand all the hate for this show. I understand the music is different as it wasn't the cast singing it but how can you complain about a whole soundtrack of Clark Baxtresser? I've never seen Star Wars so I didn't really get a lot of the plot of the show or the jokes but i still really enjoy the show and i think i would enjoy it a lot more if i was a fan of Star Wars. Because if this, it doesn't have the same re-watch value as their other shows for me but i don't think deserves to be as underrated as it is. 

9. A Very Potter Senior Year - it's incredibly unfortunate that they were not able to do a proper production of this show because i believe it would have been absolutely amazing. Despite the fact they had a very limited amount of time to prepare for this show, every actor did such a great job in the show and its one of my favourite starkid soundtracks because of sidekick, when i was and gilderoy.

8. Me and My Dick - i get why this show is not a lot of people's favourite, its definitely a lot to take in but you cant deny that the concept of the show is great and unique. When i first watched this show, i was twelve so i didn't really get most of it but watching it now i can actually really enjoy it. Despite all of that, the soundtrack for this show is amazing which isn't a surprise because A.J Holmes wrote the music. I love watching this show and their other early shows mostly just to see how much all of the actors' skills have developed, particularly Joey. Watching this and then watching Starship, TTO or TGWDLM, you can see how much he has improved not only with his acting but with his singing. 

7. A Very Potter Musical - every time i watch this show i get so nostalgic, i am so thankful that 2012 me decided to watch this harry potter musical that i kept hearing about because starkid has literally changed my life thanks to this show. This show is just amazing in every way and that's all i have to say.

6.The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - such a great concept. When starkid first pitched the show i was a little unsure about it but im so glad i decided to give it a go and contribute to their kickstarter because it turned out amazing. Naturally it being their newest show, it's been the one I've been re-watching the most lately and as amazing as it is, its not their best. I love the music for this show, i love each and every one of the cast members, I am so happy Corey and Robert are getting more recognition in the fandom now because they're amazing. Also i love Jon and i want him to be in literally every starkid show from now on and i love Mariah too, her voice is phenomenal. 

5. Holy Musical Batman - why this show gets so much hate, i do not understand. For me, i had to watch it twice before i could fully appreciate it. The music is quite different from the other shows but how can you hate those harmonies in Dark, Sad, Lonely Nights. The show definitely makes up for it in the storyline and its incredibly funny. 

4. The Trail to Oregon - this show is just pure fuckery and i love it. I just think its such a great concept and they orchestrated it really well. It's a little different from starkid's other shows but its great and it's probably the show that makes me laugh the most. Also, Joey's acting skills really shone in this show and he finally got the recognition he deserved.

  3. A Very Potter Sequel -  while AVPM comes with so much nostalgia from being starkid's first show plus the show that got me into Starkid, this show is much more enjoyable for me. It's just absolutely hilarious, i still cry of laughter every time i watch this mostly because of Lupin, Lucius and Umbridge. Also the music is amazing, To Have a Home makes me cry every time without fail.

2. Starship - this was the first starkid musical i watched aside from the hp ones so it has a special place in my heart. This was number one on my list until twisted came out as its one of starkid's most enjoyable shows with great music, an amazing cast and the puppets are just amazing

1. Twisted no explanation needed but i'll give you one anyway. Amazing music, amazing acting. I love everything about it, mostly because its an great spin on my favourite disney movie. Also, Two words - Dylan Saunders.

Feel free to add your own :)

[oh-theatre]

An analysis of the Voice of Lauren Lopez

⚠️ PSA: this is not hate at all. I love all the Starkids so much and find them so incredibly talented, this is simply me as an artist and a singer who is learning so much about the art of voice, wanting to use what I’ve learned to observe and analyze. This is not hate⚠️

Lauren Lopez (Generals):

Voice type: Soprano

Range: N/A (if someone knows please let me know!)

Starkid shows: All of them except Ani (right?)

Chest voice:

Lauren has an incredibly fierce chest voice and it’s really clear. Her chest voice can be seen prominently throughout group songs (Eg. “We got work to do” ). Funnily enough her chest voice is not used as much (may be wrong) as her head voice/high soprano which Lauren seems to favor.

Head Voice:

Lauren, as we know, is a high soprano. What her current range is, I don’t know, however I’ve noticed that using her head voice she tends to lose a lot of power. There are a few things I’ve noticed with Lauren’s head voice. First of all, sometimes she seems to swallow words, which can make them hard to hear or (dare I say) pitchy. This can be seen (sometimes if you listen for it) during the opening of TGWDLM with “And he pines after a cute lil barista” which she then switched into chest for “Isn’t that worth a show Stoppin fiesta yeah”. Another thing is that, it is very clear she’s in head voice because she’s not mixing. Just a quick definer, Mixing is when a singer combines her registers (or blends them) to appear as though they are singing or belting higher notes in a chest voice to produce a more forward sound. There are moments when Lauren does this, and it sounds really amazing. But in some examples Lauren’s head voice when used as a solo can become very annoying or overused very quickly. (Examples, “into the night” or higher parts of “What If” or “Naked in a lake” or a higher part which sounds almost pitchy or annoying “Days of summer solo bit” or “No way harmony”)

Harmonys or groups:

Now obviously we see Lauren in group projects quite a bit such as Starkids musicals and tin can brothers. Though harmonies are harder to listen to because the point is to blend voices to create when song, if you listen to it carefully and isolate specific voices you can identify many things. Lauren very often is the high part of harmony (obviously gotta have them sopranos) and she sounds really strong and her voice is doing exactly what it needs to. You can hear her above all else and the song feels complete. There are so many examples for her as a high harmony part tbh but a few off the top of my head are “Cup of Roasted Coffee” and And the opening song of TTO, during their harmony parts. Another thing to add is during duets or more scattered group parts, Lauren’s voice can be really powerful, and is commonly seen throughout projects.

Character voice:

This is something I’ve been wanting to talk about for awhile actually. Now Starkids is a very versatile group of people and I would die for them. They are also for prone to the more acting and character of it all. A lot of the time they manipulate their voice to give it a character accent and then use that during singing (which, kudos to them because that’s so hard to do, maintaining a character voice while singing 👏). Lauren as we’ve seen in the past has done her Iconic Draco Malfoy accent and other manipulations. The only one I can currently think of that applies both to singing and acting is her Draco voice. We see it throughout the AvPm trilogy and is used in many ways. Granger Danger, is actually a really great example of her mixing voice. It blends really well, the accent is very prominent and she still harmonizes her part with Joey. So I do take into account the character of it all and apply it to the voice analysis.

My opinion:

I love Lauren and all the Starkids. As a mezzo I relate to the struggles of forward projection with head voice and just the concept of support and mixing. Lauren is so incredibly talented and has been able to do so much but I just wanted to use what I’ve learned and apply it to her voice just to maybe help people understand some things.

Conclusion:

Now Obviously, you don’t have to read any of this or acknowledge it, but I hope that if you did you enjoyed it and maybe took something away from it. Maybe next time you can listen for some details and comment down below what you’ve noticed. Once again this is not hate towards Lauren, I really love her and think she’s incredibly talented. 💖💖(LETME KNOW IF I SHOULD DO THIS WITH OTHER STARKIDS)