#zoë loses her sanity over hatchetfield

[iamdispleased]

I DECIPHERED SOME OF THE BLACK BOOK & FOUND MISS HOLLOWAY LORE.

ART CREDIT: @thirdchildart

Part Two.

TW: RELIGION

SPOILERS: the Black Book, Miss Holloway lore

It’s pretty solid foundation for lore, but please keep in mind that I couldn’t make out everything, and there might be some mistakes. If it’s not, then I’m a fool, and my eyes still hurting from an intense squinting session means nothing.

THIS IS WHAT I’VE GLEANED:

“[They] warned me I was a fool to seek out the lords and I [?] [?] but I hope searching for [a/s_?] will [?] [wor_?]. [p_?] of Holoy Blane/Blame(?) found a way [?] in Hatchetfield. And I [lo_?] [?] me [?] [?] [?] pages in the [b_?] what [?] [ago/I go?] myself [?] [?] world.”

“And now [?] with my mind and per. [D_?] of a mind. Into the Black and White.”

I know it’s not a lot, but…

Here’s why I think this is pretty bitchin’ lore wise.

If my assumptions are correct, Willabella was warned that she was “a fool to seek out the lords”, and I think the people who warned her were the Hatchetmen. It’s also worth noting the the very first page of the Black Book says, “You are a fool to seek the Black and White.”

She also mentions someone named Holoy Blane/Blame “finding a way” in Hatchetfield. I believe Holoy Blane/Blame (probably pronounced Holly) is Miss Holloway, and that Miss Holloway may have been the first to find a way to directly access the Black and White. In Killer Track, Miss Holloway changes her name to Miss Holiday— an absurdly similar name.

The Hatchetverse is notorious for having characters’ identities blatantly lining up with their names.

For example:

Man in a Hurry = Barry Swift

Greenpeace Girl = Harmony Jones

Lex and Hannah Foster have shit parents.

Grace Chasity is pretty obvious— chastity.

The Hatchetverse is full of religious themes.

Mainly Christianity based, and the name “Holoy Blane/Blame” could be a reference to “being holy and blameless” from the Bible, said by Paul the Apostle.

“He has now reconciled by the death of his body, so that he may present you holy and blameless, and above reproach in his sight.” Colossians 1:22.

Basically, Jesus died in a human body to windshield wipe away our sins, leaving us holy, blameless, and innocent.

There are three reasons for why Jesus’ violent death was the sacrifice needed to save people from their sins. He says the three reasons for Jesus’ painful death in a human body was to, one: present us as holy, for we cannot be holy without his sacrifice on our behalf, two: as we still sin in this life, his sacrifices provides forgiveness for our sins, so we are blameless, and three: something about innocence. I can’t remember, but you get the gist.

So, basically, Miss Holloway’s deal with the Lords mirrors Jesus’ sacrifice.

She sacrificed everything to keep evil at bay. She goes around, helping those who cannot find answers themselves. I’d say she also mirrors what Jesus is supposed to embody, especially considering she can literally resurrect. I would also say the Foster sisters embody the myth as well, especially when you know that Lex and Hannah are both in shop class, and Jesus was a carpenter.

The Black Book page line by line:

Feel free to reblog and add to this post!! I actively encourage it!!!

[iamdispleased]

Yippee ki yay, mfers!! Oh, boy, do I live for this shit!! Theatre/acting is one of my special interests. I’ve been in plays, been a casting director, script writer, and helped with costuming, so I’m not just pulling this out of my ass.

I say this because I know that everything is absolutely intentional. Maybe some things are random stuff that worked out, but most of the time— assume everything has some meaning.

I think Grace Chasity and her hair is a really good example of things like this.

In the opening, she starts out with little girl-esque pigtails.

The next time we see her, the pigtails are gone; however, the little butterfly hair clips are still there, keeping the ‘purity/little girl’ aesthetic.

By the time she has done horrible things, like stealing a gun, threatening her friends with it, lying to the police, touching herself, and helping dismember a body, her hair becomes more and more disheveled.

Her butterfly clips have fallen from their place, hanging loosely, and sometimes, one is even missing in shots (I do presume that’s due to different filming days).

The wild hair tossing is also seen throughout the musical, all having to do with secksual situations.

It’s in her ‘Dirty Girl’ fantasy.

Used for the awkward stereotypical seduction style.

And then, of course, in the beautiful chaotic masterpiece that is ‘Dirty Dudes Must Die’.

Which at the end, leaves her looking like this.

Cute <3

Bonus: I absolutely think the clips represent devil/goat horns.

Bonus 2.0: Fun fact for those who may not know; in the New Testament (a Christian Bible thing), God’s followers are called ‘sheep’, with the idea that they are easily led and docile, while 'goats' (sinners) tend to have a mind of their own. This is why the general public associating goats to the Devil, Satanism, and Paganism has bled over into mainstream media, such as Nerdy Prudes Must Die.

Bonus 3.0:

I love the juxtaposition of Steph wearing a red dress, while Grace wears the light blue one.

In western media, red is often associated with the evil, seduction, etc., while light blue is always the color of purity and general ‘goodness’. For my Hamilton fans out there— think about Eliza Hamilton’s demeanor and dress color. Compare that to Maria Reynolds, who is decked out in red.

To add, in general, hair is already used as symbolism for changes in a character's state of mind quite frequently. If you’ve seen ATLA, you can compare this to both Zuko and Azula.

Starkid went ‘flip-flop’, warped the universe, and I appreciate the hell out of it.

But, yeah. To bring it back to your original topic— I wouldn’t be surprised if that was intentional.

If you guys liked the whole "Stephs flannel matches Peter's suspenders and bow tie" thing then this costuming detail is in tgwdlm gonna fuck you up.

When we get our first scene with Paul and Emma, the two are dressed in their respective main outfits. These are the ones people tend to associate with them.

But throughout the show, as they get closer and bond, their outfits become more and more similar. Pretty soon Emma's lost the apron

Then at the professor's house, Paul loses the jacket

and by the time McNamara is infected, Paul has his sleeves rolled up and Emma's bow tie has come undone.

At this point, the two are at their most aesthetically similar, and also the closest they've been the entire show. This is moments before the helicopter crash and their failed kiss. They remain this way for a good chunk of time...until Paul comes back

It's like some fast-paced foreshadowing. Emma remains in her changed state, the same as her character, but Paul is back to square one. He's wearing the same outfit he was when they met, and they no longer align. She doesn't know who he is anymore.

I don't know if this was intentional (and if it was, no one explained it to Jon) but it plays out so damn well.

[iamdispleased]

Deciphering the Black Book pt. 2

BLACK BOOK ART CREDIT: @thirdchildart

Part One.

It’s the table of contents, y’all! Let’s do this.

Spoilers: Hatchetfield. At this point, it’s just Hatchetfield. It’d probably be easier to list what I didn’t talk about or allude to.

I’m not going to, but it’d be easier.

Ment.: H.P. Lovecraft

This is will be broken into parts, and then my analysis will follow!

1.

Part One - History and [S?t_f_d]

[?]

theatre

Part Two - Into the black

[Th?]/Kingdom

oblivion

Analysis:

The word ‘theatre’ shows up three times and the word ‘oblivion’ shows up twice in the table of contents. The Starlight Theatre is obviously super important to point where I don’t really need to say anymore on that right now.

Not gonna lie, at first, I thought it said ‘Random’ and pictured Willabella Muckwab writing random thoughts. I’d really like to see those. I bet she has crude doodles. Anyways— Kingdom!

‘The Summoning’ - “We dance around the pentagram, and take all our kingdoms back”

‘Oblivion’ is not just a word, but a concept heavily explored by H.P. Lovecraft and Isaac Newton, and the musicals themselves.

To some, oblivion is the state of total blackness, a place where everything is and is not, it is nothingness, and the knowledge that something resides within it. Take your pick. The point is to find what that means to you.

2.

3.

(totally stolen from: @hatchetfieldtheories)

Part Three - the men

The contents of this section are the same as part four. It was just flipped.*

Analysis:

If it is ‘the men’, I assume it’s about the Hatchetmen. Maybe some family history and stuff like that. Weaknesses, favorite characters from Alf, your guess is as good as mine.*

4.

A[?]

1 - [?]

2. Theatre

3. rea[lm] of [?]

4. america

oblivion

Analysis:

Oop! Here’s ‘theatre’ and ‘oblivion’ again! Honestly? Shrug emoji. My closest guess would be places that are susceptible to the Lords in Black/the Black and White. Why? Because of the words ‘theatre’ and ‘america’. Let’s take a look at this simple snippet from Black Friday:

“Only in America could Wiggly take root ... You think that in the Netherlands, they’d give a shit about some toy? No, they’re too busy on their paid vacations and the free healthcare.” - Uncle Wiley (spitting bars)

Number one looks like the same scribble as the first bullet in Part One, though.* For number three, I see ‘r-e-a’ pretty clearly, so ‘realm’ is context clues based. We’ll mosey on over to Hatchetfield’s little bio.

“In a realm outside of reality, somewhere in the crossroads of imagination and nightmares, there’s a place— a small, mid-western town, where the forces of evil and chaos tug at the fabric of reality. Welcome to Hatchetfield.” - Nick Lang

5.

Part 4 - The Lords in Black

Pokotho

theatre

believe

[?]

never

[Nibbly/Nibbles(?)]

[Queen?]

[?]

[?]

Analysis:

The contents under Part Four are the same as Part Three, but were flipped by the actual artist to fill space (I assume).

Here is that word ‘theatre’ once again! Why do I think the word under it is ’believe’? Simple! In the song ‘The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals’, we get this line nearing the end:

“You gotta believe in something, Paul, gotta believe in stupid Paul”

It looks like ‘never’, it reads like ‘never’, and the word ‘never’ just fits the vibe.

Okay, wait— I was going to write about Nibbly and the Honey Festival, because while the Honey Festival wasn’t founded until 1945, Nibbly and the word ‘queen’ could still coincide for whatever reason, but even with that, the Lords are usually listed in the order of ‘Pokey, Blinky, Tinky, Nibbly, and Wiggly’, but that might be one of the outliers, but I just remembered the Queen in White and something about that made me excited. We’ll see. What I was going to write about Nibbly still applies, though.

6.

Help Me Don’t [go]

In The Black, Po[kotho?]

wants me to

Analysis:

Not everyone wants to tango with the devils. It might be ‘Pokey’, but it’s the same either way, and the person who wrote this was most likely not Willabella, considering she seemed pretty chill with the Lords in Black and it’s coloring is different. Still looks like it was written in blood though. When you dabble in the dark arts, don’t forget to take a pen with you.

Overall:

My question is— what counts as lore? I think this does. Anyway. Again. If anyone figures out what the fuck that word is after ‘History and ????” in part one, hit me up. I’m gonna challenge the word to a duel. What’s it gonna do?? Fight back?? Part three will be out at some point. Okay, bye.

* I assume the artist occasionally used the same art, but warped it to make it look different, so more space could be taken up, and there would be no pain of having to go through It All. I think Part 4 - The Lords in Black is the proper way to read it, though.*

Feel free to reblog and add to this post! I grant you my permission!!

[iamdispleased]

[iamdispleased]

Is the P.E.I.P. reference in NPMD when Pete says, “Hey, fellas! Ready to make like Newton and get this physics project in motion? Eh, eh? … Y’know, like Newton’s Law of Motion. Like physics. … It was just a little joke. I’ve got it on good authority that I’m actually pretty funny.”

It makes sense when you look at the John McNamara scenes in Black Friday.

When he first enters:

President Howie: P.E.I.P? I’ve never heard of you guys.

John McNamara: We’re a fairly small team, just me and a few of my peeps… That was a joke, Sir.

When John McNamara is introducing President Howie to Xander Lee:

John McNamara: Xander Lee, theoretical physicist.

President Howie: Physicist… Is that like a scientist?

John McNamara: Yes.

President Howie is equivalent to Richie going, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

And I’m reaching a bit on ‘good authority’, but hey, P.E.I.P. is pretty much the ultimate authority.

[iamdispleased]

Hatchetfield & the Real Musical References

That theory of ‘the plays-within-plays foreshadow the next musical’ got me thinking about the real musicals referenced in the Hatchetfield Series and how they could connect to the story. That led to these findings.

CW: Relgion (Godspell), spoilers for the Hatchetfield Series, Godspell & Brigadoon

(I know there are more details I’m missing, as I haven’t seen either musical, but I’m just excited and wanted to share. Wikipedia is my ride-or-die.)

So. Godspell. Or, ‘God-awful’. Or, ‘Gotdamn That Was Bad’.

Y’all…

First, Godspell is mostly based on the Gospel of Matthew. Like Paul Matthews, the very guy who did not like musicals himself.

Skipping to Act II for a moment— there is a scene where…

“Jesus returns to his followers to find them all asleep. He begs them to stay awake, but they all fall asleep again, and Jesus warns them that they will all betray him three times.”

Remember in Act II of TGWDLM, after the song ‘Not Your Seed’, when Alice, Deb, and Hatchetfield Bee are talking to Paul after they killed Bill? And remember when they said:

“Bending countless civilizations to our will, yet, you, Paul, have defied us thrice!”

Insert The Incredibles’ (2004), “Coincidence? I think not!” meme here.

Godspell includes the tale of The Parable of the Prodigial Son, also known as the Parable of the Two Brothers, Lost Son, Loving Father, or of the Forgiving Father.

“The parable begins with a man who had two sons, and the youngest, who is impatient and greedy, asks his father to give him his share of the estate immediately. The father is like, “Y’know what? Fuck it. I’m feelin’ kinda funky today,” and agrees, dividing the estate in half.”

“Upon receiving his portion of the inheritance, the younger son travels to a distant country, where he squanders his wealth through reckless living.”

The younger son gets humbled, he comes back home in shame, blah, blah, blah, lesson learned.

If that’s not Emma Perkins, then I don’t know what is, especially considering she literally inherits land. I’m looking at you, Nightmare Time episode Perky’s Buds!!

And I admit, this is a reach, but the Parable of the Prodigal Son starts in Luke 15:11. Emma’s favorite band is 311. In military time, 3 pm = 15. So, 15:11 = 3:11 pm. This is either a happy accident or an intentional tidbit that managed to work out well.

Similar to the beginning of TGWDLM, it begins with God and the characters breaking the fourth wall and explaining shit via song.

At the end of Godspell, Jesus is crucified, and he is carried off stage by the cast. There has been a lot of controversy over the ending, because the musical does not mention Jesus’ resurrection at any point.

Almost like how in TGWDLM, Paul sacrifices himself, and when we thought Paul was resurrected at the end, he wasn’t. (To put it simply.) And we can’t forget how the cast carries a screaming Emma off stage, and the show ends on a (good) controversial note.

Brigadoon!

Brigadoon starts with these two New Yorkers, Tommy Albright and Jeff Douglas doing that fancy kind of hunting white people do when the men hear music coming from a village nearby. But wait a hot second! There is no village on their map! And yet!! Turns out that village is a special place called Brigadoon. Why is it special? Here’s some WIKI for ya’.

“200 years ago, the local minister prayed to God to have Brigadoon disappear that way it would remain untouched by the outside world, only to reappear every 100 years. All citizens of Brigadoon are forbidden to leave the town, or it will disappear forever.”

Kind of reminds me of the whole ‘no one can ever truly leave Hatchetfield’ thing. So, could Hatchetfield be seen as a mirror of Brigadoon in some sense?

Hm.

There is literally a character named Tommy who ends up falling for Fiona, a lass from Brigadoon. The issue is, he’s engaged to a woman named Jane who he isn’t really that into. Even after he leaves Brigadoon, Tommy still thinks about Fiona.

Tommy is Tom. Jane is Jane. Fiona is Becky. Of course, this isn’t to be taken as they are the Hatchetfield equivalent to that character.

And it turns out, Emma Perkins hates Becky Barnes. Why? Sisterly principle. (Emma knows Tom always viewed Becky as ‘the one who got away’, even after marrying Jane.)

Going back to Paul and Emma!

After after meeting Fiona, Tommy asks the Brigadoon schoolmaster, Mr. Lundie, if outsiders were allowed to stay. He replies:

“A stranger can stay if he loves someone here – not jus' Brigadoon, mind ye, but someone in Brigadoon – enough to want to give up everythin' an' stay with that one person. Which is how it should be. 'Cause after all, lad, if ye love someone deeply, anythin' is possible.”

In TGWDLM, Paul and General MacNamara have that Iconic Conversation which has a similar vibe.

MacNamara: I follow a higher law than any institution could decree, and that is the universal truth of love and the strength of the human heart.

&

Paul: I can’t leave without Emma.

MacNamara: Who’s Emma, Paul?

Paul: A friend of mine.

MacNamara: Friends don’t move my heart, son. Is there a chance at something more?

Paul: […] I’d like there to be. I want there to be.

Shout out to Mamma Mia, and Bill wanting to see a feel good musical with his daughter about a daughter and her three possible fathers.

I stand behind the idea that Alice is Bill’s biological daughter, she’s just white passing. I’d also like to appreciate the fact that Alice’s favorite restaurant is Red Lobster.

I plan on actually watching these musicals soon, that way I can make more in-depth posts, but like I said— this just made me really happy and excited, and I wanted to share it.

Feel free to reblog and add onto this post! Seriously! I love when that happens! Okay, bye!

[iamdispleased]

i have been trying figure out who ted spankoffski reminds me of since the day tgwdlm came out and i finally got it

joe from sewage from parks & rec

[iamdispleased]

has anyone asked if ley lines are a part of the reason Hatchetfield is bonkers?

i looked it up and a ley line falls on lake michigan.

thoughts, musings, concerns?

note: ley lines are (supposedly) invisible lines around the world that intersect, and cause the area they are in to have supernatural abilities. for example— if you live on a ley line, then you are more susceptible to experiencing things like magic.

also, this isn’t what ley lines mean in every culture— this is just the condensed general definition for the culture Starkid probably grew up in.

[iamdispleased]

Found Some More Hatchetfield Lore!

tldr; at bottom

I remembered that one of the Lang brothers said that Wiggly is based off of Cthulhu, so I decided to do something digging on a piece of shit author, H.P. Lovecraft and y’all… Okay, I don’t know if it counts as lore, but Hatchetfield is right under our noses.

CW: H.P. Lovecraft’s writing is full of bigotry, and if you plan on reading it, prepare yourself. For example, there is an evil entity named Shub-Niggurath. Yeah.

I don’t like H.P. Lovecraft, nor do I enjoy his writing in general, so here are some things that people should look up if you want to find out Hatchetfield’s inspiration. More thoughts on why I cannot write about him are at the bottom.

Also! I do not look down or dislike people who enjoy H.P. Lovecraft’s writing and his creations, and would really love for people to continue to look into things I cannot. I hope my little notes help!

(I’ve linked the stories in pink!)

SPOILERS: Hatchetfield? I guess? The Cthulhu Mythos & The Dream Cycle.

Cthulhu Mythos:

Just read ‘The Call of Cthulhu’. Everything makes sense.

Miss Holloway is based off of a character named Horvath Blayne from the anthology series The Trail to Cthulhu by August Derleth. Here’s one of them. ‘The Black Island, Being the Narrative of Horvath Blayne’.

Duke Keane is also taken from The Trail to Cthulhu.

The narrator of ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ is named Francis Wayland Thurston.

Professor Hidgens is based off of an art student named Henry who is known for being eccentric and living in solitude. (The Call of Cthulhu)

Emma Perkins is named after a ship called the Emma. The crew got into a battle with Cthulhu’s cult members, which resulted in the Emma having one survivor. (The Call of Cthulhu)

John MacNamara is based off of the police officer John Legrasse. (The Call of Cthulhu)

Willabella Muckwab resembles Lavinia Whateley, from ‘The Dunwich Horror’. She has a son, Wilbur Whateley (Wilbur Cross), whose father is the cosmic entity Yog-Sothoth (Wiggog Y’rath). Lavinia went missing on Halloween, and the assumption is that Wilbur killed her.

The Black Book is the Necremonium.

There’s always professors somewhere.

The Dream Cycle:

LOL. The Dream Cycle is a collection of short stories surrounding dream cities. I honestly haven’t read anything about this other than brief stuff from the Wiki, but the connections are painfully obvious.

The word ‘oblivion’ is written in the Black Book. H.P. Lovecraft has a poem titled Ex Oblivione. The narrator sees a gate in his dreams and wants to get past it, but he can’t access it. He eventually does, though. Yikes. Read this post, picture Willabella Muckwab as the narrator for Ex Oblivione, and enjoy.

Bonus: Some of the covers of the magazine that published H.P. Lovecraft’s work (Weird Tales) are sprinkled throughout Hatchetfield.

“Pete, get behind me! I’ve got a gun.”

“Steph… it’s a ghost. I don’t think that’s gonna do any good.”

Rosary? Killer Track, much? Also, the art style for the Black Book kind of resembles this… huh.

-

Note: I had planned to read all of H.P. Lovecraft and the associated work, but the racism is too much for me. I can’t “separate the art from the artists”, especially when everything evil is so obviously and horrendously based on Black people, as well as other races. Again— Shub-Niggurath. Like, seriously?

It’s a huge bummer, because I have so many thoughts— like the implications behind Willabella Muckwab associated with Lavinia Whateley, and Wilbur Cross also being associated with Wilbur Whateley. So much is at our finger tips.

I’m still going to be writing other things, though!

I have more of the Black Book deciphered, so that’s exciting, especially since I actually got some stuff right in my first post. (It was looked at through a more religious lenses rather than an H.P. Lovecraft lenses, though.) BUT STILL. MY EYES HURTING FROM INTENSE SQUINTING SESSIONS WAS NOT FOR NAUGHT! And I know I state some of these things as if they’re facts, but they’re ‘probably based on’ stuff.

Alright. I’m off to read about physics, the concept of nothingness, and the æther in the name of theatre kid.

tldr; the Lang bros made a the TTRPG Call of Cthulhu homebrew and turned it into musicals.

[iamdispleased]

Deciphering the Black Book

A.K.A., I attempt to transcribe the nonsense that is the Black Book and its contents.

This isn’t ‘official’ at all, as I am but a mere young lass relying on the hellscape that is third grade memories. I do think some of it’s right, which is nice.

Part One - that page with the door on it

Part Two - the table of contents

Part Three - will be out at some point