#starkid meta

[t4tozier]

if bill tells alice she should date someone like grace chastity in tgwdlm does that mean grace is canonically queer in that universe

#or not bc he says someone like her #tgwdlm #npmd #grace chastity #starkid meta #hatchetverse #bill woodward #alice woodward

[man-down-in-hatchet-town]

Ani: A Parody and the Radical Act of Recovery

Okay, so let’s talk about Ani, and why I love it. It’s not my favorite Starkid show (look, they can’t all be), but the older I get the more precious it becomes to me. And I think that's because of the way it handles failure, damage, and healing.

Ani is of course about the villains, but in some cases it's specifically about those who are the villains of their own story. It's about the losers, the characters maligned for years for being too cringe or pathetic, the ones who self-sabotaged their way out of all success and potential they once held. Even Tarkin, who in A New Hope was a pretty cool and collected guy, is an awkward mess in this version of the story. In different ways and to different degrees, Ani, JJ, and Jeffrey (looking purely at his relationship with Emily here) all start from a place of hopelessness, a nest of despair they each built for themselves despite having once been at the top of the world (for Jeffrey, that would be holding a position of power inside the Empire that could easily impress Emily).

And they're also founding members of the Empire. The creation of the Empire went hand-in-hand with Ani's worst moments and JJ's worst instincts. Really, if you want to get symbolic about it, the whole damn system is a representation of those two characters' failures and traumas. Without even really realizing it, Ani's cast spend their entire lives drowning in a manifestation of their worst selves and mistakes. And whether they are able to put it into words or not, it's clearly not working out for them.

To borrow from Black Friday, the characters' psyches are riddled by holes caused by the decisions they made within the lives they lead. The idea of these "holes" is of course not unique to Ani. Characters having unmet wants and needs is a vital component to storytelling. But Ani stands apart from other Starkid shows because its protagonists start in a place of dreamless failure, where they have already fallen so completely from grace, and dare to dream anyway. Despite all reason and learned helplessness, Ani gets back in that podracer. He chooses to believe that the holes can still be patched.

Obviously, we aren't villains like Ani Skywalker (I mean, I guess I can't speak for you guys, but I hope that's the case). But Ani is nonetheless a show about potential that has already been lost, an adult life that has already and irrevocably become something different and worse than dreamed of years ago. And that's... what life is. At least when you're like me (and at the time of writing Ani, that's what the Langs and Brian were), and just trying to survive your late twenties in an unsteady industry fueled by latent dreams but swamped by late-stage capitalism (hahahaha the arts). And I think it's probably true for people in other paths as well. Unless you're very lucky, growing up contains that moment where your life turns from something you will get to live into something that you are currently enduring until it can be fixed, if such a thing is even possible. Can you recover from this fall? Are you your hero or your nemesis? Did you make the wrong choices? Are your weaknesses and failures going to be what defines you in the end, drowning out all that promise and hope you felt in your youth?

Black Friday says "Probably. All you can do under this system is learn to see the holes, accept them, and stop them from making you worse."

Ani says "No. It doesn't matter how fiercely you burned out. It's never too late to heal." More than lost potential, it is a show about recovery as a radical but ever-possible action, about re-learning to get Back of Top once more no matter the obstacles.

And I think both answers are important.

#Anyways I've been trying think of how to say this for days #I hope this makes sense #ani: a parody #Starkid #starkid meta #black friday #Talkfine #Starkid ani skywalker #Moff Jeffrey Tarkin #Starkid JJ #rewatchers2000

[iambecomeahamburger]

Guys, guys, you won’t fucking believe this. I figured it out! So you know how we all theorised that because River was named River then the other three Monroe boys would be named after bodies of water as well? 

They fucking are, guys. The River Trent and the River Seaton are both in England. The River Jordan is in the Middle East. They’re all fucking rivers. 

Honestly, very iconic of my queen Linda.

#starkid #starkid meta #honey queen #nightmare time season 2 spoilers #Linda Monroe #River Monroe #Gerald Monroe #Trent Monroe #Jordan Monroe #Seaton Monroe #just tagging the entire Monroe fam #four beautiful blonde boys #honestly I'm a genius #and should be celebrated as such #you're welcome #iambecomeahamburger #hatchetfield #hatchetfield theories #yeah its big brain time

[deathishauntedbyhumans]

I’m not super active in Starkid internet circles so idk if this is something that’s been talked abt before/anyone else’s theory/a common theory etc but.

I rewatched NPMD last night (the proshot is GORGEOUS) and developed something of a. crack theory? Actual theory? I’m not sure anymore. It could be both.

One of the lines in Dirty Girl sung by Max is “I am expecting you to be-betray me” which is a really interesting line on its own in the context of the rest of the play. It’s foreshadowing, it’s innocuously set in the middle of a sexy song, it’s wholly overlooked as Grace drools over fantasy!Max’s crucifix. But… why is it even there? What’s the point of that line in GRACE’S FANTASY? Why would her fantasy of Max expect her to betray him?

My theory. My theory is that it’s not really HER fantasy at all. Or… it is, but it’s complicated.

The whole musical, the entire power struggle with Max dying in the Waylon house eventually leading to Grace taking up her holy crusade to kill all dirty dudes using the Black Book and invoking the Lords in Black, only happens because Grace sets it all in motion. Because she gets horny, and engages with a fantasy of Max who appears to her and tells her… that he’s expecting her to betray him.

All I’m saying is that I wouldn’t put it past the Lords in Black to somehow be able to engage with the waking world (or NOT the waking world— Grace specifically opens her eyes when her dad knocks on her door at the end of Dirty Girl, if I remember correctly, like she was fantasising or DREAMING with her eyes closed) and beam a vision/dream/what-have-you of Max Jaegerman directly into Grace’s head in order to fuck with her and set THEIR plans into motion.

#they’ve done more for less! #npmd #nerdy prudes must die #starkid #hatchetfield #hatchetverse #wade talks #my meta #lords in black #grace chasity #grace chastity

[thejagermeister]

one of the saddest lines in npmd to me is "who will pray for me / when i'm gone / or is this the eternal dark without a dawn"

because i wholeheartedly believe that entire segment is max projecting on richie. richie is a nerd, therefore no one will miss him. except that's verifiably false— what about ruth, peter, the football team who became his friends?

meanwhile, after max died... everyone rejoiced. no one misses him. he is completely forgotten. so he starts his revenge plot, killing the nerds that caused his death.

it's not only that, though. the wording of "eternal dark without a dawn" implies that whatever sort of afterlife max is experiencing as a ghost isn't good. sure, he gets to be powerful and get his revenge, but... without a dawn? without hope? without rest?

even if he did achieve his goal, i don't think max would have ever been happy as a ghost.

#and THATS why he's doomed by the narrative babeyyyy #i want to see a fic where max kills everyone and is still miserable #nerdy prudes must die #max jagerman #hatchetfield #hatchetverse #starkid #npmd #meta #analysis

[akicklineisinevitable]

something about Hatchetfield is so Hadestown coded. something about how it's a sad tale, but we sing it anyway. as if it will turn out this time. (i'll find you in the next timeline). something about how not everyone can make it out, and those that do don't make it out unchanged. something about love that was doomed from the start (wait for me? i will.) (emma, im sorry, you lost) (i'd have to let you go). something about how the scenery changes, but the stories are the same. something about it was a world of gods and men (there are monsters and there are men).

#i am EMOTIONAL tonight gang. i am SAD. #there's no like one-to-one way to jam the narratives of hatchetfield and hadestown together #but the themes man. tgwdlm and orpheus' music. black friday and hades' capitalism. npmd and orpheus and eurydice's doomed love #remember when tgwldlm first came out and we were theorising that the show was all a loop? that they were all infected from the beginning? #someone's got to tell the tale. whether or not it turns out well #originals #hatchetverse #hatchetfield #hatchetfield musicals #hatchetfield series #hatchetfield universe #the guy who didn't like musicals #tgwdlm #black friday starkid #nerdy prudes must die #npmd #hadestown #hadestown musical #hatchetfield meta

[bitplayer8147]

A really interesting thing about Starship imo is Bug's coding. From how I watched it, he's got a lot of trans and ace coding.

Now, historically, trans and ace identities have usually been represented in non-human characters. Whenever there is representation like this, it is regarded as the "shtick" of that fictional species.

Although a lot of people say "all representation is good representation", it can still give the impression that these identities are strange and alien in humans.

Bug is interesting because he is just as isolated from other bugs as a trans and/or ace person might be IRL. The representation of identity through Bug feels human and not alien.

Idk but I just really like Starship.

#starkid #team starkid #starkid starship #starship #bug starship #starkid productions #tumblr meta #kinda #deranged ramblings #bitposts

[marvelmaniac715]

Sometimes I feel an overwhelming urge to write an intentionally bad fic as if one of the Lords in Black has tasked one of their Sniggles to write a fic shipping them with their favourite human but the Sniggles barely understand human languages and culture so it’s a mess and the Lord instructs the Sniggle to get rid of it but somehow it ends up published and the author’s note at the end is in character as the Lord going absolutely MENTAL because they also can’t figure out AO3’s system and now the fic is out there forever, tarnishing their name.

#starkid #team starkid #hatchetfield #hatchetverse #the hatchetfield series #hatchetblr #lords in black #the lords in black #sniggles #sniggle #fanfiction #ao3 #bad fanfiction #meta #plot ideas

[basilpaste]

people have been talking about the use of vocal technique to inform characters emotions recently because of glinda in wicked and it is making me think things.

now. okay. ive heard a lot of people say that they dont really like graces voice in nerdy prudes must die. which is totally fair, if its not your thing its not your thing. but. ive also heard people say that its just because angela 'doesnt have a very strong singing voice'.

which. i mean. compared to some of the crazy female vocalists in starkid, maybe her voice isnt the strongest! however: this isnt the first starkid show angela has had a major role in.

lex has a significantly fuller tone in black friday than grace does in npmd. its got more weight to it and its inspired at least vaguely by pop punk.

so. uh. anyhow. comparatively, graces voice is a little more scattered. shes a very high strung character and i am absolutely 100% sure that angela does her voice the way she does on purpose.

i think graces voice aligns pretty directly with if shes doing what she wants or not. because her voice drops to a much fuller tone in her songs twice throughout the show: in dirty girl and dirty dudes must die.

in dirty girl shes letting herself fantasize. because she does, actually, have a thing for max. so her tone in their imaginary duet reflects that. she lets herself get caught in the idea of it.

in dirty dudes must die, shes fully embraced her role as a vessel for the lords in black. she likes the power the black book has given her. she wants to shape the world, or at least hatchetfield, to her liking.

#nerdy prudes must die #starkid #hatchetfield #hatchetverse #nerdy prudes must die meta #npmd #grace chastity #angelas voice is more polished in the cast recording overall and tbh it makes grace lose a little of her charm for me! #i like that shes a bit rougher throughout the show.

[teranobriss]

General shoutout to @blazeoh and @lovelautski interacting with this post back-to-back and having the most perfect profile pictures ever for this screenshot, the stars aligned for this one

#the like 5 pixels of each pfp im so sorry lol #i just noticed this in my notifs earlier #hatchetfield #starkid #hatchetverse #team starkid #personal #meta #tumblr #not hatchetfield content #yellow jacket #nightmare time #nightmare time 2

[owlhari]

if grace & max win the death match i'm posting the beginning of my interactive hatchetfield project today instead of wednesday like i was planning to

#donate to cinderella's castle anyway but do it for them #and also for my meta ask blog. its got so much art. please #hatchetfield #starkid #hatchetverse #grace chasity #max jagerman #hatchetfield death match #conflux #<- .....hinting

[man-down-in-hatchet-town]

Do you guys ever think about how Matt Lang was a senior in college when they did AVPM, which means he started at UMich in Fall of 2005? And how when the Langs had to pick the most important year in the history of Hatchetfield, the year in which so much of the overarching plot has its roots, they (likely by coincidence) went with the year Matt arrived on campus and Starkid's origins started to form?

#like I'm sure they weren't thinking of that at all #but it's a cool bit of meta anyways #matt lang #the guy who didn't like musical #tgwdlm #black friday #nightmare time #nightmare time 2 #nmt #nmt2 #nerdy prudes must die #npmd #hatchetfield #starkid

[inamindfarfaraway]

I love how cleverly Black Friday recontextualizes Christmas music and imagery to be menacing and sinister:

Green is Wiggly’s colour, commonly associated with the supernatural and extraterrestrial because in terms of lighting, it’s very unnatural. You only see green light naturally occur in seemingly mystical phenomena like the auroras. In terms of animals, Wiggly’s trademark bright green is pretty rare and primarily used to warn predators of toxicity or be more attractive to a potential mate. In human culture, it’s the colour of American paper money and frequently considered the colour of greed (wanting more money and material things) and envy (wanting what others have).

Red is the lighting colour of human evil and vice. It’s most prominent in scenes like Wiley’s deal with Linda and Sherman strangling Lex. This also makes sense: red is blood, danger, fire. But together the villainous colours for lighting are the colours of Christmas. Often when things are the worst, people being immoral and Wiggly exerting his power simultaneously like during the riot, the lighting is also paradoxically the most festive.

The Christmas tinsel on the upper level looks completely ordinary, until it’s used as the tentacles of Wiggly’s true face. Not only is this being so otherworldly and incomprehensible that he’s ‘played’ by parts of the set (same with the stage light eyes), but it visually shows that he’s to a degree been part of the story the whole time, looming over the characters’ heads. An element of his spirit has always been there and remains after he’s defeated, just like the unfair, exploitative socioeconomic structures he takes advantage of. He isn’t killed at the end, merely overcome and kept at bay for now, just like the flawed nature of humanity.

In his first scene Frank, the personification of capitalism, sings sections of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” with Wiggly replacing Jesus. This is entirely of his own free will, as the toy shipment hasn’t even been unboxed. But then paralleling Wiggly with Jesus (“open your heart up to his love”, “The father’s the son, the son’s the father”, “the birth of a god”, “[Christmas Day is] going to be my birthday”, “you have kept the shepherd from his flock”, “He will rise up with joyful noise”, etc.) and associating him with Christmas music (the tune of “Carol of the Bells” is one of his leitmotifs and sung to in “Wiggle”, he’s introduced in person to jingling bells in “Made in America”) become motifs throughout the show. This theme is both a dark, terrifying perversion of everything Christmas is meant to be about, right down to Wiggly amplifying selfishness and greed while Christmas promotes selflessness and generosity; and a sobering reminder that through the extreme commercialization of the holiday, we ourselves have already corrupted it.

Why “Carol of the Bells” specifically, though? That piece of music contains the “Dies Irae” leitmotif, a widespread musical shorthand for death. The Gregorian hymn that originated it, Latin title translating to “Day of Wrath”, refers to Judgement Day. In this event God will supposedly judge all human souls and select those who have been good and followed his ways and laws to receive eternal reward, while those who have been sinful and disobedient are condemned to suffer forever. Given the strong ‘Wiggly = the Christian God but evil’ theme… what judgement do you think Wiggly would cast upon humanity? Makes the corresponding lyric “When Wiggly comes” even more ominous, doesn’t it?

#this kinda makes me want fanart of linda and a wiggly toy as mary and baby jesus #she’s even explicitly NOT a virgin! #starkid black friday #black friday meta #black friday analysis #black friday spoilers #wiggly #wiggog y'wrath #hatchetfield #hatchetfield series #hatchetverse

[v0id-of-thought]

One of my favorite part of Nerdy Prudes is that it forces you to rectify the extreme cringyness of Ruth and Richie with the awfulness of their endings.

Every time Richie says some weeb shit I want to crawl out of my skin, he and Ruth give me SO much secondhand embarrassment. But despite the comedy, they exist as people who are more than those traits.

Ruth wants to be seen and heard, she’s touch-starved, she’s tired of living in the shadows. Even her unabashed hornyness is just an extension of how lonely she is. She died on a stage, literally in the spotlight she set up herself after singing a song that wasn’t about her to an empty audience. Just For Once is a game of dissection on how much of this is Ruth and how much is the character she’s playing.

Richie finally befriends the kids that were bullying him, he finally feels like he belongs somewhere. I mean the kid is the school mascot for christs sake- the faceless school assigned furry that cheers on the athletes and represents the district. The ultimate symbol of belonging to something without actually being a part of it. Then he gets killed in the locker rooms without ever getting the chance to experience any of what he strived for.

It strikes me that although the tone with which the characters are presented is lighthearted and exaggerated, their deaths are nothing but horrific. It’s as though the show is beckoning at you to come and laugh with the bullys only to reframe with the nerds right after it’s too late for them.

#just for once makes me cry ok? #writing bad starkid meta instead of your final ok liv sure #nerdy prudes must die #npmd #starkid #‘I used to dance’😭

[thejagermeister]

npmd "everyone lives" au where...

❌ it's all fine and fluffy

❌ max and/or the nerdy prudes have visions of the canon timeline

❌ there are world-ending implications the gang must deal with because pokey/the lords in black demand that someone die

✅ everything is completely fine except max doesn't have his "meta powers" anymore and it leaves him feeling empty and quiet without a constant audience response to his actions and he must get used to that as a metaphorical journey to stop being a bully

#im joking abt the other aus btw i love them all #however my personal everyone lives au will be meta as hell #when i get around to writing it #nerdy prudes must die #max jagerman #npmd #hatchetfield #hatchetverse #starkid

[thisboydreamsoflife]

Having just watched Nerdy Prudes Must Die and being on my Hatchetfield bullshit again, TGWDLM gets more tragic and darker if you think of it in a meta sense; all of Hatchetfield was already taken over, and the whole world was doomed, but the aliens are putting on a show of how it all came to be for us: How it started in Hatchetfield and ended with Paul. Which explains the opening number- the guy who didn't like musicals; past tense. Paul was infected and now he no longer dislikes musicals. They're chronicling the story of him and the people around him before it was all taken over. It's a performance upon the past events. We never saw anyone from Hatchfield "alive" and human. They were all aliens all along putting on a musical for us, the audience

#tgwdlm #starkid #brought to you by me being on some bullshit after musicals #cuz i always have Big Thoughts #after a movie or series #every time #and!!! #it would explain why it's a musical to begin with #it's meta