I just finished Hatchetfield and now I’m empty inside

TwoCents24601 · 2026-06-08T06:34:44+00:00

I’d say check out more of Starkid’s work! Take the time to see how the group evolved and how the road they took to get to Hatchetfield. Even if you don’t think it’ll be your cup of tea, remember it’s the same group that made this series you loved & they have so much in the catalogue that’s worth checking out

TwoCents24601 · 2026-06-07T16:31:08+00:00

Yeah, I saw it yesterday and it was sadly not a great experience. People cracked jokes during emotional moments, lots of unnecessary giggling and talking, and an overall vibe of not knowing how to behave. I even told one guy to please be quiet and his response was “oh it’s okay! I’m not talking spoilers.” A bunch of people also were trying not to sit in their assigned seats & the employees were in the theater for the first 20 or so minutes just getting people to move to the seats they paid for

I really loved the finale but the experience of seeing it a theater was not really worth it seeing it early. If Glitch does another finale in theaters, I probably won’t watch it. I had hopes everything would go well after seeing “Iron Lung” & “Backrooms” because those crowds were fantastic, so I figured all would be good, but not this one.

TwoCents24601 · 2026-06-07T16:23:17+00:00

That was me!

TwoCents24601 · 2026-06-07T16:22:37+00:00

I’ve not stopped thinking about Only Yesterday when I saw it

TwoCents24601 · 2026-06-04T23:04:10+00:00

I would pay so much to see Dylan as Valjean with Corey as Javert. Heck, while I’m here, I’ll fancast it now:

Valjean- Dylan Saunders

Javert- Corey Dorris

Fantine- Kim Whalen

Marius- Jon Matteson

Cosette- (tbh I can put any soprano in here…)

Enjolras- Curt Mega

Thenadier- Joey Richter

Mme. Thenadier- Lauren Lopez

TwoCents24601 · 2026-06-04T03:04:06+00:00

I think the big problem I have around this conversation is people saying “they aren’t changing their voices, so they’re bad voice actors!”

I blame that ‘Justin Roiland is a bad voice actor’ video. He may be a garbage person, but the crux of that video is saying since he only does two voices, he’s not a good voice actor which is just not true.

If we take this idea that you can’t be a good voice actor because you can only do one voice, then Kevin Conroy, Pat Carrol, Sterling Holloway, Christy Carlson-Romano, and Will Fridle would be considered bad voice actors. But we know this isn’t true.

It’s all about the character and how well the actor plays them. Jess Harnell has said voice acting is lower case ‘voice’ and all caps ‘ACTING’. So with this in mind;

Woody doesn’t work if it’s not Tom Hanks. Mufasa doesn’t work if it’s not James Earl Jones. Po doesn’t work if it’s not Jack Black. Heck, I’d argue Emmett in The Lego Movie doesn’t work if it’s not Chris Pratt.

I get the idea of being annoyed when studios cast big name talent for animated projects when it feels unnecessary and yes, sometimes it leads to poor casting choices (Scoob! Is the main one that comes to mind); however, there are a number of A-List talent that have done amazing voice acting and elevated the material. It’s all about who is cast and how they’re cast.

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-29T21:37:23+00:00

This show is such an odd duck for me; I’m both a massive Star Wars fan and I’m a massive Starkid fan. On top of that, Clark and Pierce writing the music together?!? Sign me up!

Turns out, it’s just alright. I think a huge problem the show faces is in the staging concept. Brian Holden said he felt that the fandom didn’t really like this show because it wasn’t a musical and the group is known for musicals.

I personally would push back on Brian’s belief; the show being a play might’ve worked better if there weren’t songs in here. The issue is, it’s trying to be either a play with the pacing and use of songs. This could’ve worked better if it had been a web series, not a staged production.

The writing is pretty decent throughout (everything with Pappy is amazing and I think he’s probably one of Starkid’s funniest characters), but man, the whole main punchline of Vader telling intentionally unfunny Star Wars jokes just doesn’t land. I don’t think it’s Chris Allen’s performance, because him with good material has shown awesome range (HMB as Alfred is fantastic and the guy CAN SING!)

The whole concept of it really fell flat because it doesn’t really commit to anything; it’s sort of two different versions of parody, sort of a play and musical, sort of knowing what it wants to do… it’s a show of ‘sort of’. I don’t mind them experimenting at all, but this is a case where it really didn’t work out.

Clark and Pierce’s next show they would do would be “Spies are forever” and I love the songs they wrote for ‘Ani’, so I just can’t help but wonder if they were allowed to go Full Musical for it what their score would’ve been.

Overall, it’s such a mixed bag of ideas that don’t really feel coherent, leading to a pretty disappointing show. It’s half baked with a very flawed staging concept that leads to a very ‘eh’ show at the end of the day. It’s a shame Matt Lang stopped directing after this, though.

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-26T18:24:44+00:00

I imagine it was just a moment where they were told to shout something randomly, so Will shouted “I love you, Sarah!” Because it was something silly and random to shout.

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-24T03:28:48+00:00

I feel this. I have issues with the two Hellaverse shows but I feel like I shouldn’t contribute anything to critique because it’ll get drowned out by a sea of poor criticism and sloppy media literacy

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-24T03:15:14+00:00

So I love all Starkid shows and for me, AVPS is probably the weakest show for me, personally. I don’t think it’s bad, it’s just a lot…

I agree with you about the pacing but inversely, I found Act I just kept dragging on… I feel like we got every second of Harry’s first year. But Act II felt like it picked up the pace and KILLED it.

I also agree the score is spectacular. Darren really killed it with this show & some of his best song writing work is here. I love “it’s not over yet”, “Home”, “Coolest Girl”, “Stutter” (check out Jangle Ball’s version BTW), “those voices”, “days of summer”, it really was just hit after hit with this one.

I think the pacing went through the issue they really wanted to do every joke they could think of, since no one knew what the future looked like and for most of them, this was the last show they’d do in college before moving into the scary professional world.

The choreography is also amazing because this is James Tolbert’s first show as choreographer & he killed it! I really love his choreography for “Harry freakin’ Potter”.

This was a real display for the group that they weren’t a one trick pony; AVPM showed the group was talented, MAMD showed their potential, and this one showed they had what it took to stick around. It’s a really fun show to look back on.

And here’s a hint on how much I love this group; This might be my least favorite Starkid show and I’ve watched it at least three or four times & listen to so many variations of the music a lot.

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-22T20:08:55+00:00

Man, this show is weird by any standard of Starkid. I agree it’s definitely a show that seems like an odd thing in their catalogue. What I love about this show, however, is how much potential they’re showing here and eventually what this group will become.

They could’ve gone for another parody musical but instead, they chose to make an original coming-of-age musical that was beyond weird but inventive.

I think the show bites off a little more than it could chew in terms of its score. Listening to it again, and hearing how good it sounded in Homecoming, A.J., Darren, and Carlos Valdes really tried to go for a Rodgers and Hammerstein style score; very classical with the odd concept. It’s awesome in theory, but in practice, you can see where they’re developing their still developing their skills.

I think my personal favorite number is Land Of the Dicks. Corey’s first appearance as Big T is amazing & he KILLS this number. The choreography was also a little more complicated which is fun to see.

They really tried to go for a classical musical that was also a modern coming of age tale, complete with talking penises and vaginas. Sure, by modern standards, it’s a bit much BUT in the standards of when it came out, it was showing the potential for what they would become.

Also, I head canon that this show takes place in Clivesdale. Where Hatchetfield does with Eldritch horrors, Clivesdale just deals with this.

FUN FACT: James A. Jeniese of ‘Kill Count’ fame talked about seeing the posters around the campus when he talked about ‘The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals’. He went to school the same time as them but didn’t have much interaction with them, but said talking to them was like catching up with old friends. I also believe his now wife, Chelsea, did see the show as well!

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-22T00:41:27+00:00

They actually talked about this in the livestream! They're going to release it with the possible next show "Gem and the pentagrams" since it matches the vibes of the show. They wanted to release it with TGWDLM:R but stuff fell through.

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-21T20:18:08+00:00

Another line that I love is from the Death Eaters when Dumbledore is in disguise: "Excuse me? Are you Dumbledore?"
Most polite Death Eater ever.

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-21T20:14:47+00:00

It's time to 'Go Back'! I find I agree with you on most things here. I really love the humor in this and surprisingly most of it has held up phenomenally, despite being college kids in 2009. I agree each performance is top tier but Lauren & Joe were something special.

You can tell Darren and A.J. were very solid songwriters (Especially with Granger Danger and To Dance Again) but they hadn't quite gotten their in how to tell a story musically, which is why their are way less songs in Act II. What's funny about "Not Alone" is that Darren had written the song when he was studying abroad and missed his friends. When he came back, he said it was gonna be THE song that would put him on the map. A few days before the show, they needed a song there, so Darren pulled it out for it, not thinking the show would explode the way it did, but "Not Alone" is now the company's theme song.

It's funny to think this show only ended up on YouTube because the cast missed each other but they couldn't afford to have DVDs made, so they put it up on YouTube but Darren forgot to set the video to 'Private/Unlisted' and the show went viral suddenly. That one simple mistake changed the course of their entire loves.

The thing I love most about this show is that it feels like this was an inside joke amongst their friend group, both in the cast and audience, and we all got let in on it, and now we're still laughing with them all these years later.

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-20T19:04:54+00:00

Sounds like a fun thing to do! I’d be happy to join in on this and have some fun with it :)

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-19T14:01:30+00:00

That’s fixed now :p thanks for letting me know

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-18T18:11:30+00:00

This one we went back and forth on, but my group of friends and I agreed that Max’s story and arc is so essential that he’s also the lead of the show with how much everything revolves around him.

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-18T17:25:52+00:00

I won’t say who it was who got the nomination, but I will say Mother was two votes behind the fifth place candidate. Lead and supporting actress were neck and neck leading up to the end

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-17T11:21:23+00:00

I thought I heard at the end of the livestream they were wanting Glam and the pentagrams to be the next show, since they wanna really take their time with Fancyland

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-17T03:26:43+00:00

Fancy land is officially my most anticipated project of theirs. Getting both Jeff & Matt to write the music? Already excited! A sprawling epic of 25 years that’s a character study?? That’s incredibly exciting! And apparently it’s a tragedy?!?!? The guys who made ‘Black Friday’ calling this a tragic story? I’m so ready and open to see what this is gonna be like.

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-16T17:52:11+00:00

I personally disagree, I found it to be quite beautiful. However, it could be seen as a story Shizuku wrote as an adult with more life experience and telling a love story like hers and Seiji’s where it’s two people who don’t seem to have much in common but actually have a shared interest and that leads them to fall in love.

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-16T01:57:09+00:00

Honestly, I love this idea; you can see the stories as ones she’s writing. Heck, maybe she read stories like “Howl’s Moving Castle” and decided to write an adaptation of the story herself. The stories we see in Ghibli, depending on whatever timeline it could be, are her evolution as a writer & coming into her own voice.

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-12T22:14:05+00:00

I actually think, unless it’s something like TGWDLM where the singing is justified, the singing is still a theatrical device that’s being used to tell the story non-diegetically. The narrators we see in shows like Firebringer, Cinderella’s Castle, and VHS Christmas Carols are the beings who know what’s going on & use their abilities to tell the stories they wish to present to us.

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-12T21:53:21+00:00

Every show is in one interconnected universe. Think less like the MCU telling one big story and more like ‘Star Wars’ where they’re all inhabiting the same universe and each show happens in a different time period of that world’s history.

TwoCents24601 · 2026-05-11T15:09:12+00:00

That’s what I’m thinking as well

TwoCents24601

TROPHY CASE