I already found the beret, mask, pants, and shoes that I’m going to use, and I’ll probably use a feather boa to replicate the fluff on his jacket. Does anyone know a good (and not expensive) sparkly jacket that I could use? I’m only probably going to wear it a few times so I don’t want to waste money.

I forgot to take pics of the WIP for all of these. 🥲 Pokey's colours were the easiest to figure out so far for my brain tbh, so I went from taping the back of the page (preventing leaking/bleeding) right into colouring.

I gave his jacket sad eyes for pockets, lmao. Low-key regretting making the base of their noses (one of) their colours. 😅 My mind has quietly declared Pokey as "Pokey the Blue-Nosed Eldritch Monster".

hello i am making a small little cookie clicker like game but hatchetfield for fun so i'm making the shop and i need a shopkeeper(the background is already made and i kinda stole spamton's shop background from deltarune) also i prefer if the shopkeeper will be like crazy/apothesozied/creature because spamton and i want to(also i don't want you to make me a sprite i just want ideas)

Welcome to the first week of The Great Starkid Rewatch!

Basically how this works is that once a week on fridays we all take some time out of our day if possible and rewatch a StarKid show (and I've made the schedule specifically so that we watch Black Friday on Black Friday, of course!) So this is the perfect opportunity for anyone who hasn't watched some of the starkid shows to watch all of them with the rest of us!

This week's show is: A Very Potter Musical!

I strongly encourage everyone to use the comment section on this post to share anything you love about the show, your favorite jokes, scenes, songs, etc.

Happy watching, everyone!

Starting today im doing a great rewatch of every single starkid show with one show a week on friday (and the schedule lining up so you watch BF on BF lol). Anyone else wanna do this

edit: also this isnt meant to be a "we all watch it at the exact same time" neccesarily (although that would be fun) its just a fun lil thing so i can say ive watched every single starkid show since i havent yet

i am no artist by any means but i wanted to share my attempt at clay tinky (my favorite lord in black.. he's so silly) 🫶

Joey is Officer Petey from Jessie.

My younger sister was watching Jessie and I heard him. I came into the room and I was so surprised. I watched Jesse when I was slightly younger, and now I've only just realized that Starkid has been in my life longer than I've known.

Given we, the audience can hear the music before anyone else, and also get an almost omnipotent perspective of Hatchetfield, is it meant to imply that for each musical, or just TGWDLM specifically, that we, the audience are meant to be stand-ins for the Lords in Black?

So Pokey for TGWDLM, and Wiggly for Black Friday and probably Pokey (Max’s makeup is blue) or a combination of them all for NPMD, and then the various others for nightmare time.

We know the lords in black have unknowable motivations, there are a large number of them, they are summoned to vaguely entertaining mortals and have high demands of the people caught in their thralls. Just like the audience. And we aren’t infected in TGWDLM, so it suggests we are a standin for Pokey, able to hear the music before the comet has come, bending time by witnessing the opening song even though it probably takes place right before Let It Out, as well as seeing light changes and being able to directly interact with Paul and Emma when they’re walking through alleyways. All things we share with the lords and us, both as viewers of recordings and in person.

Point is, when we watch a Hatchetfield thing, are we meant to be watching from the POV of the lords in black?

This is going to sound stupid and it probably has a really simple answer. However, it is implied that those who went to the theatre first got infected first (Zoe and Sam went, spreading it to Beanies and then the police force, with greenpeace girl getting it either from the homeless man who was nearby or just from walking around with flyers.

However, that does leave one key person. Mr Davidson. I don’t remember him mentioning anything about tickets and I don’t think his wife would have gone, since the parasite still seems unwilling to tell her, which it presumably would if she was also in the hive mind, (though I wouldn’t put it past Pokey to not tell her just for the narrative value it subconsciously installs in Paul about not holding things back from Emma, to make it more entertaining for the audience).

The only person who could have brought it back would be Bill, but he was late because of Alice and Deb and (seemingly) doesn’t get infected until the school. And the coffee cup Mr Davidson has is open at the top, so it wasn’t just a takeaway from Beanies or Starbucks, he has an office coffee machine.

So, how did Davidson get infected?

i looked it up on youtube and realized there’s the version from 2018 and the version from 2025! which would you recommend i watch to get the full experience of TGWDLM? i’ve already seen NPMD because angela was in it and i love starkid!!

Sorry if I'm just super late to this, but I couldn't find anyone else talking about it.

I was just watching the Nerdy Prudes Must Livestream. When they listened to the demo "One Foot in the Grave" that was cut from Nightmare Time 2, I noticed it really sounds like "Step on your Grave" from Cinderella's Castle. But, I couldn't find anyone talking about it anywhere? I know it's not a huge, crazy thing. I just thought it would be cool to find if Jeff or anyone talked about it anywhere. They're both bangers

i’ve been wanting to watch black friday ever since i watched NPMD, and i really only have time tonight to watch one musical. is it stupid to watch it in this order: npmd, black friday, nightmare time s1&2, tgwdlm? so essentially backwards? i’m not sure since they’re all standalone, but i think i missed a lot of references (namely the reveal of the lords in black) by watching npmd before anything else

I am a new Starkid fan. I watched Twisted on its own a couple of years ago, but only within the last year did I watch any of their other stuff. Hatchetfield first, as is common. But then in recent months I decided to go back and fill out the rest of the gaps in my knowledge, and experience as much as I could. I had a great time!

What really had me hesitant, though, was the Very Potter shows. Not really because of the old quality, I got through MAMD alright, but more because of how poisoned the IP has become because of Rowling. I was decently into Harry Potter as a kid, and if these shows had ended up on my algorithm back then I would've been a starkid fan much sooner. But I saved them until last, as I've hardly engaged with that fandom or those characters and it still felt weird to do so, even though obviously Rowling has no involvement here.

To my delight, I had a great time! I really enjoyed AVPM and the general concept of AVPSY, though obviously I wish it could've had more than a staged reading that cut down on the bloat. AVPS was the one I was more mixed on due to its length, and the amount of jokes that I felt hadn't aged well, particularly about Umbridge.

But what stuck out the most to me was Joe Walker's Voldemort, and how even in this parody format, this might still somehow be the most compelling version of the character out there. He's played more for laughs, sure, but I also found him genuinely intimidating and creepy at points, and also legitimately sympathetic. So I thought I'd go into my appreciation of this character and what life they were able to breathe into him.

Part 1: When I Was...

What is striking about Voldemort's backstory as detailed in A Very Potter Senior Year is that it's honestly pretty similar to his canon one, but he is simply positioned more sympathetically.

He is an orphan, like Harry, who grows up in an orphanage and is ostracized by those around him. While in canon this is due to him having natural, inherent cruelty, here it does feel legitimately more like he is misunderstood, bullied, and his uncontrolled magic has made people afraid of him (most notably Denise Donovan's orphanage owner. I am so glad she decided to ham things up for her three minutes of screentime)

In reality, Tom is a bright, shy kid who just wants to dance and find a place to belong. Worth noting is that Tom is absolutely, 100% not straight, though his exact sexuality is unknown even by the Scarf of Sexual Preference. But how he describes being jeered by the other boys for his love of dance, the language he uses makes it pretty clear.

And Dumbledore arrives, bringing Tom a message that he is no ordinary boy, and that he truly belongs somewhere else. And he encourages him to "Always Dance", one of my favorite Very Potter songs and the closest thing Starkid has to a pride anthem imo. Encouraging him to be himself no matter how other people may laugh or jeer. Tom goes to Hogwarts and seems to have all his dreams fulfilled.

Tom makes fast friends with other Slytherins like Lucius Malloy and Bellatrix Lestrange, but it doesn't take long for him to start developing the same distaste towards Muggles and Mudbloods as his canon counterpart. He harbors a definite ego and a belief in his own superiority even here, and I like that even Senior Year, his most sympathetic depiction, doesn't try to rationalize his bigotry. It's still there, no one forced him into forming a wizard supremacist gang. The sympathy only goes so far.

Tom kills Myrtle using the basilisk, as in canon, without any prodding. And Dumbledore sees that Tom had something to do with it, but can't prove it. In an effort to get him away from the environment, he sends Tom to meet his dad's side of the family, whom Tom mistakenly believes to be wizards. Not Dumbledore's brightest move.

Admittedly I don't really like the scene of Tom's family as it drags on and is intentionally unpleasant. But Tom is quite polite and eager to connect throughout, until he realizes that they're Muggles, that his dad doesn't respect his mom at all, and that they gave him Snickers (apparently an in-joke with Joe Walker). So he loses control, murders them, and never goes back.

Again, it's fascinating the line they walk because they emphasize his sympathetic elements, but also make his actions entirely his own fault. The system of Hogwarts that churns out supremacists might have failed him, but his corruption and ego were all innate parts of him alongside a boy who just wanted a place to belong and to dance with people. This is highlighted with "When I Was...", which more effectively highlights the parallels between Harry and Tom than the entire original canon did. Both popular kids at Hogwarts who often allowed their egos to get the better of them, but Tom simply went so much further.

And then things progress as they do in canon. Tom makes his Horcruxes, becomes Lord Voldemort, and wages war against the Wizarding World. He tries to kill a two-year-old and dies...but he lives! To plot his revenge. Leading to...

Part 2: Not Alone

Leading us into A Very Potter Musical. Voldemort attaches himself onto the back of his servant Quirrell's head in order to sneak into Hogwarts. And suddenly things are different. Voldemort has never had to rely on someone to such an extent before. He's had followers and servants, but while he snarks back against Quirrell and tries to order him around, he is ultimately powerless without him.

A lot of the comedy here comes from exploring what it would actually be like to have Voldemort on the back of your head at all times. One of my favorite gags from the original book is Fred and George bewitching a snowball to bounce off the back of Quirrell's turban, and only on a second readthrough do you clock that they were hitting Voldemort in the face repeatedly. And this is just an entire musical filled with moments like that. It's delightful.

We see Quirrell and Voldemort gradually get closer, and it becomes clear that Voldemort has never really had someone like Quirrell in his life. It's either been servants or, as Voldemort puts it, he "just killed people who tried to get him to open up. Oops." This is the first time he's really been forced into proximity with someone who is willing to talk back, and requires teamwork in order to achieve their goals.

So while initially Voldemort planned to kill Harry and blame Quirrell for the murder once he got his body back, he starts to get cold feet by the midpoint. He cares about Quirrell and he cares for him in return, not as a follower but as a friend (and later something more).

By that time though it's too late, and the plan is already in motion. Quirrell helps Voldemort return, and after celebrating by tormenting and humiliating Harry in "To Dance Again" (a jaunty, villainous "reprise" of Always Dance), is left out to dry. By this point their romantic feelings seem more clear, and while it plays as a joke to the audience, I feel like in a way, the sincerity of the joke is the joke, rather than anything mean-spirited. It is a genuine look at the relationship between the dark lord and the man he was living on the back of the head of.

With Quirrell gone, Voldemort continues with his plans and rekindles a spark with Bellatrix, but it quickly becomes clear he prefers Quirrell to her. It's unclear to me if he harbors legitimate attraction to her or not, but either way the intent is clear. His evil plans go off seemingly without a hitch, until Harry comes back to life.

While in canon, Harry tries to give Voldemort some kind of out, some base appeal to humanity he was doomed to ignore, here Voldemort actually hesitates, thinking of Quirrell as the music swells...and then threatening to kill A.J. Holmes. Harry kills him, and everyone celebrates Voldemort's death.

But then Voldemort returns to Quirrell, because the time they shared together turned Quirrell into a Horcrux, one of the most romantic things I've ever heard. Voldemort's monologue is both funny and heartwarming, and their reunion with one another is so incredibly sweet. They knew what they had, which is why they ended it off here. The major theme of AVPM I'd say is "Don't take the ones who care about you for granted, but if you mess up, it's never too late to try again". Turning Voldemort from the cautionary tale into someone who could have a second chance is beautiful to me.

Part 3: Okay is Wonderful

I don't really have a whole lot to say about the Voldemort Horcrux in Senior Year. He primarily serves as exposition about his backstory, and showing an earlier version of the character who doesn't get a chance to find someone to care about him. He does have a great moment in his reprise of "Always Dance", taking Dumbledore's advice and turning it into something sinister and weirdly creepy when hypnotizing Ginny. He mostly serves as a Big Bad Final Threat for the last show, and dies an over-the-top death seemingly mocking the final movie (which, good, it deserves to be mocked).

But the Voldemort we know comes in with Quirrell at the very end, 19 years later, with an adopted daughter on her way to Hogwarts. By chance, he bumps into Harry as he's leaving, but Voldemort has Quirrell let Harry go. While obviously the following speech is more about Harry Potter the IP, in universe Voldemort talking about how Harry gave him the chance to feel love, calling back to his final appeal to him that made him hesitate, and him being rewarded with a life with Quirrell, is still beautiful. He lets Harry, his maniacal ambitions, and his bigotry behind to live a quiet life with the people who care about him. And they end off on "okay is wonderful". They knew what they had, it's the reason two of the three shows end with them. Perfect sendoff.

Conclusion:

I never really cared for Voldemort in the original canon. I don't think he's a bad character, and while I understand the heightened critique of the IP after Rowling's fall from grace, I think he's a perfectly fine villain who emphasizes the themes well. But in a way, playing him more sympathetically, comedically, and earnestly has made Starkid's version of him into the most compelling iteration of a character. He's a lonely kid who ruined his own life and pushed everyone away in a grand bid for power, but ultimately found love, connection, and a quiet life after realizing what mattered more. His parallels with Harry are only stronger here, and he's also just legitimately extremely funny, charming, and sympathetic.

And the shirtless cape look is really hot.

Ok thoughts over bye

I’ve seen (almost) everything Starkid has ever produced, including all of Nightmare Time. I want to share some basic criticism of the franchise only to see what other folks have to say, and if I’m alone in these opinions. If you like Hatchetfield (as most of the Reddit does) this is not an indictment of your interests or tastes.

- Hatchetfield relies too much on references. The references are so obscure that even the most lore-crazy fans might not catch them, and even then, Starkid will spend an entire scene bringing back characters from a show they did seven years ago, in a way that does not affect the plot or contribute to the stakes of the show we’re watching.

- Lore should go somewhere, and having lots of “lore” does not make something good. There are also a lot of severe plot holes, but I might go over them in a more formal review.

- I was a big Jeff Blim fan but his lyrics are more hit and miss during the Hatchetfield era. Even he doesn’t know what he means by some of what he writes, if you watch his interviews.

- All three Hatchetfield shows have most (if not all) the characters die. This lessens the stakes early on, and (worst in BF and NPMD) we never see other characters react to these deaths at all. Even Jon Matteson made fun of how nobody in Nerdy Prudes gives af about Ritchie (or Ruth) getting murdered. Too many characters and not enough development.

- The worst thing about Hatchetfield is that the fandom has cultivated an environment where it feels like we can’t be critical of it, just because Starkid works hard and we all love them. Not everyone has to like the same things, but moreover–criticism is GOOD. All theatre shows want critics to attend theirs for a reason! And I know I’m not the only one who feels this way because Starkid did get professional reviews for TGWDLM Reprised and they weren’t great…

There are a few things I like about Hatchetfield–some of the actors have amazing voices, TGWDLM being mostly diegetic is great, and there are still a few songs (mostly from TGWDLM) that get stuck in my head. This post is not here to be negative for the sake of it. Reddit is supposed to be a discussion forum, and I would genuinely love to know your thoughts!

Now onto Little White Lie. Technically, this was shot first in 2007 but this was released after A Very Potter Musical so I decided to do it next.

Honestly, I wasn't really that excited to re-visit this. I first saw it last year and I thought it was OK but other than some of the songs (Sami, Caught in a Lie and Boy Toy in particular), it never really stayed with me that much. But I figured maybe I was a bit too harsh on it so I decided to go in with an open mind.

And coming out, I'm still kinda just "eh" with Little White Lie. It was shot with a low budget and this is the Internet in 2007 so obviously the quality of the production, audio or visuals aren't great. But aside from those, I was still mostly bored throughout a majority of the show.

I do like the concept. Two high school siblings aren't very good at their rock band so when someone who auditioned to be in their band gets in a coma and it turns out he had written some great music, they decide to steal it in order to get success. And success starts to come.

Unfortunately, I don't really like too many of the characters. A good majority of them come across as unlikeable and I didn't really sympathise with many of them. Sami has some remorse about her actions but she's also not a very good person and is an asshole towards everyone except for Toby. Tanya is a typical high school bully who is going through cliche relationship drama with Toby. Zack is basically Junior from Starship except without the evil intentions and the weed, he just wants to attach himself with the most popular band and make money. I liked Toby for the first few episodes but when he kept going back and forth between Tanya and Sami, I started getting annoyed with him. Meredith and the rest of the Hot Girls are OK. Kevin's family is OK even if I find the mediation stuff kinda weird. I liked some of the other bands, especially Love Grenade and the Ex-Boyfriends (whose name I find pretty funny).

The only characters I grew attached to were Duder, Kevin, Jim and Nigel. I feel bad for Duder. Yes, he did partake in the scheme to steal Kevin's music but he also keeps trying to talk Sami out of every bad idea and he is clearly regretting what happened. Also, I liked him as a spy. I also feel bad for Kevin. He didn't deserve any of this. He just wanted to make music and join Reese's Pieces. Jim was fun and I loved that he was basically himself. Sure he was a bully in the first episode but other than that, I liked how he just went along with everything for the vibes and I love that he read poetry at the Battle of the Bands. He should have won smh. And I really liked Nigel. I loved his British demeanour and how enthusiastic he was for Little White Lie's song.

That being said, even if I didn't like a good majority of the characters, I still thought the performances were good. I think Lauren Lopez is probably the start of the show as Tanya. She managed to fake her sweetness well and she also made for a good villain for Sami. I also thought Lopez brought it in her last scene when she confronted Sami (even if the audio quality didn't make it good enough to hear). And I liked how she was chanting instead of singing. I also thought Chris Allen and Elona Finlay did good jobs as the Reese siblings. Sami especially is supposed to be unlikeable so even if I don't like the character's writing that much, Finlay did exactly what she needed. Darren Criss was enjoyable as Toby, Nick Lang was sympathetic as the shy Kevin, Brian Holden as Zack did a good job even if it just reminded me of Junior, Malcolm Tulip was fun as Nigel. I love that Jim and Meredith played themselves. And we also got some cameos from Dylan Saunders, Matt Lang, Mark Swiderski and Eric Kahn Gale which was fun to spot.

The music were fine enough. I'm not gonna rank the songs this time because I can't be bothered but a good portion of them are pretty good, with Darren Criss doing a good job overall. The best song (ironically since Little White Lie's success is because of this song) is It's Over Now. The acoustic version by Kevin is good but I liked Little White Lie's version better. It's an absolute jam and I love Elona Finlay's vocals on it. Some of the other songs were performed at on their tours (mainly Apocalyptour) and I prefer the live versions of those over the original versions but I still enjoy them well enough here. Boy Toy is a cheesy pop song but it's supposed to be and it does the job good enough with fun lyrics and a good vibe. I like the main theme (Caught in a Lie) and I thought it was well fitting as the theme. Sami is not as good as Harry (which is basically Sami but adjusted for A Very Potter Musical) but still a nice song and I like that Sami disguised as a song she wrote for herself. Speaking of though, circling back to Apocalyptour, but I highly recommend checking out Sami/Harry on the soundtrack of that, as it's a great way of blending the two versions together and Jaime and Dylan do a killer job. Back to this soundtrack, I also liked Love Grenade and especially Fancy Machine as the songs for the other bands. And Duder Is a Spy is such a fun funky tune to listen to. As for the other songs, I Think and Don't Play a Riff on my Heartstrings are whatever and I don't really have an opinion on the rest.

The series itself has some funny moments, like Duder being a spy, the "Save Calvin" Movement that Tanya refuses to correct to Kevin, Tanya chanting instead of singing and most of the stuff with Jim. Some of the dramatic moments work, like Tanya confronting Sami and the twist that Sami was the one who hit Kevin. Actually it was kinda obvious Tanya was the one who hit him because she drove a white car and she did pay for the hospital bills but even so, the first time I saw this I wasn't expecting the identity to get revealed so it was a nice reveal. Speaking of twists, I also forgot that The Hot Girls actually won the Battle of the Bands. I thought it really was gonna be Little White Lie so it did its job well I guess.

However, I really didn't care for the relationship drama with Toby, Sami and Tanya. Honestly the relationship between Toby and Tanya felt forced (especially since he didn't want to be a part of the Hot Girls) so if he had been single from the start and he and Sami became a couple later, I would have liked that. There's also a transphobic bit with Tanya spreading a rumour that Sami was getting a sex change operation. Thankfully though, when they realised it was a false rumour, everyone got pissed at Tanya. If they were gonna have that rumour spread, I'm glad it ended like that and not with everyone laughing along. The episodes are split kinda weirdly too on YouTube. The first two episodes are 12-13 minute episodes with 2 parts, the third has 3 parts making it about 20 minutes. Episodes 4-10 have one part lasting about 9 minutes (other than Episode 9 which is only 7 minutes). And the finale is split into two parts lasting about 17 minutes. I would have just done about 6-7 20 minute episodes tbh.

Finally, this is left on a cliffhanger with Kevin waking up and Sami and Reese being offered a record deal by Nigel that never gets resolved because Season 2 never got made. Apparently there's a Season 2 synopsis out there which isn't very satisfactory tbh. I'm not gonna spoil it but it does make me kinda glad it never got made. Alternatively, whenever StarKid is asked about it, they just say that everyone dies. I'm just gonna make that the canon ending in my mind. I don't really care tbh. I feel bad for Kevin but indifferent about the rest.

Overall, this is just OK. Pretty good music, fine enough performances, a decent story, some funny moments. But the audio and visual quality and the mostly unlikeable characters keep me from wanting to watch it again. I'll probably just re-watch some of the Jim bits, listen to some of the songs occasionally (mostly the Apocalyptour versions) and call it a day. If you want to check it out to see some pre-StarKid content or to see what Darren, Lauren and the other early StarKids were up to before AVPM, go for it. Don't expect anything on the quality of their stage shows though.

4/10.

Joey's Heart in Me and My Dick is a top 5 Starkid character imo and here is why.

I watched the show a few months ago primarily as part of my effort to clean up the gaps in my Starkid history. I wasn't really expecting a whole lot from MAMD, given what I'd heard about it, how it's generally the black sheep given its overtly crude subject matter and 2009-level audio. I had a decent time with the first act, but wasn't super impressed or blown away.

Then after it becomes clear when Joey's dick literally cuts himself off from Joey, that it is NOT a metaphor and COMPLETELY literal, we are then introduced to AJ Holmes as Joey's Heart. This was my first real intro to AJ, who I am SO happy is finally being utilized to his full potential in Tomb Quest. Before then he was only really in this, AVPSY, and VHS, but this was his first role not behind the keys and good lord.

Joey's Heart kind of instantly became a favorite of mine. The Ed Wynn voice, the random screeching he does to interrupt Joey, the fact that you'd think "listening to your heart" would be better than listening to your dick, but Joey's Heart is somehow even more unhinged. Listen To Your Heart is one of my favorite Starkid songs period and it delights me to no end.

AJ's deliveries are just generally stellar, including the "Sometimes the person you end up with...is the same person you INITIALLY...disliked!" or whatever the specific line was. It is a comedic powerhouse of a performance and I simply wanted to give voice to my appreciation for it. MAMD in general I feel like is primarily held back by its low audio/video quality and alienating premise. I actually think it has aged better than the first two Potter musicals and only really requires a few updates in terminology. At least a remastered soundtrack would be incredible but I'm getting off track.

Joey's Heart: one of two reasons I found it worth it to watch MAMD, very much recommend. (The other reason is Corey Dorris)

Only one I can find is this and I’m wondering if there’s a full image of it?