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Many people talk a lot about Twisted music and songs, but I’m shocked at how little people talk about genius plot structure. I rewatched Twisted with some friends who went in fully blind and without even basic understanding of what’s going on, and they really praised “Dream a little harder” for it’s introductory properties. It is a genius way to start a story because it simultaneously manages to set up the tone and comedy angle, explain the unique aspects of this particular world, set up a huge problem that will be a driving force for the rest of the plot, introduce the protagonist and his character traits, briefly introduce Jafar’s moral code and his beliefs and set up a conflict between Jafar and the regular citizens. For a song that has to be catchy and sound good, that’s just great! Also, this one song introduces 3 out of 4 core motivations that drive Jafar’s character. Why is Jafar such a great and layered character? I believe the main reason is what I call the “square of motivations”. Jafar has 4 core “motivations”: help the city overcome the problems, be a lawful and honorable person, get respect and recognition from the citizen for his accomplishments, find a way to be with Shaherezade. These motivations exist in a vacuum, yet constantly interact and add onto each other. All this makes Jafar a complex character who isn’t one sided or flat in the slightest! On top of that, the interactions of the motivations often lead to mutual impossibility. For example, Jafar relationship with Shaherezade comes to an end because of his belief in law, as he served the sultan even after he took Jafar’s wife (“I thought that if I just did my duties, I can get her back”). Jafar wants to help the city, but the corrupt and inefficient ruling class prevents his from doing it, yet his belief in peaceful lawful reforms prevents him from pushing this class away from power, in return this makes supporting the city ineffective. Jafar is hated in the city because of his lack of power to fix the city’s problems, and this hate in return makes it harder for him to attempt reforms. But Twisted also keeps the realism mark, and in the song “Twisted” Jafar realizes that he cannot achieve everything at once, regardless of how many work and time he would put in. Sometimes, you have to give up your move selfish dreams (being respected in the city) and even moral codes (always following the law) to make a difference. Villains/antagonists. In my book, villains and antagonists should do these 2 things mainly: drastically challenge the protagonist’s ideology, putting it into question, and pose an active physical threat to the protagonist. You can say that a good antagonist plays against the heroes both of psychological and physical fronts. However, Twisted’s format, where Aladdin has to be a bad guy, doesn’t have room to make him threatening, so they had to split the antagonists in 2. First one is prince Achmed. Of course, he is not a villain, but he is an antagonist and he exists for a sole purpose: raise some stakes. Achmed is a joke, he doesn’t have some great mental presence and even his guards laugh at him. However, he had a mighty army and is motivated to slaughter every single innocent civilian. With that, Achmed powers one of the 2 main purposes of a villain, creating physical threat. Meanwhile, Aladdin is the exact opposite. He is no threat at all, in fact, he was at mercy of Jafar by the second half and he runs away the second after Jafar gains immense strength. However, Aladdin does challenge in his ideology. Jafar believes in a bright future, where compassion, motivated cooperation between the citizen and moral values above the physical wealth will create a better, more fair and welcoming society fueled by Jafar’s Golden Rule. Meanwhile, Aladdin was a kid in what seemed to be a relatively financially stable family, he got mad at his parents and killed them despite their compassion and support towards their son, he steals for the sake of his own wellbeing and he clearly does that because he loves it (I mean, he does it for survival, but when he was offered riches from the cave, he sings: “I can’t wait to be a rich dude, because I heard they told that stealing is so much easier when you already got tons of gold”, meaning that it’s not need that fuels his stealings, but his own enjoyment). For a character like Jafar, whose those ideology is built on the foundation that people, regardless of how bad they are, have the mentioned good features and just need to use them, it is a truly horrible experience when he has to deal with a egotistical psychopath who lacks any signs of compassion, cooperation or moral codes. It challenges Jafar’s ideas on a new level, even if Aladdin doesn’t play that major role in the story.

I love how it's all mostly fairly lighthearted stuff and then around 6:44 until the end of the video it's like SINISTER EVIL VILLAIN SONGS

NPMD is not my first Starkid rodeo, but it’s my first in this triology. That in mind, the Lords of Black felt like it came out of nowhere and I was like “is this a reference or something? I don’t get where this is coming from at all,” and now, knowing they’re from other shows, it makes sense. I felt like the first act was so tight and engaging and then around the BBQ Monologues we came to a stand still for very little payoff. I enjoyed the show quite a bit, one of their stronger originals, but it did need the context of the other Hatchetfield shows imo. I didn’t even know this was a sequel-I came to it from hearing the audio snippet from Richie’s death. I wish that I’d known it was a sequel-I would have gone in order.

I stay up late at night thinking about Jeff Blim's abs and Robert Manion's hips

ANI LAST!!!!!!! i’m offended

Ruth was by far my least favorite, as well as her solo. Like you said, too long and out of place. I always skip the barbeque monologues because it had nothing to do with the plot and I wouldn't mind if they rewrote it for future shows.

You captured all of my favourite moments!❤

“Content Dictates Form” is a rule that applies to literally everything. Why is Superman’s theme iconic while the Marvel themes in MvCI are interchangeable, despite them both being orchestral? Superman’s theme is designed to reflect him, while the MvCI themes (save GR) were all designed to be a “grand” hero theme. Why does “The Batman” look so distinctive and memorable? The visuals are designed around the content of the film? Why does the music in Rise of Trashwalker feel so random and bad? The music was only designed for nostalgia, rather than the content of the scene. Contrast the scene in The Force Awakens, where Rey’s theme is well placed between both the character of Rey, who spent most of her life without any real companionship, but at the same time desiring to see more of the world, perhaps seeing her parents again, and the environment, a barren desert that offers adventure as far as the dunes stretch. And why do the themes in the comic version of “The Boys” fall flat? Because the story wasn’t written around those themes.

I agree with you on the choreography, but one exception. In the digital ticket you can see the choreo for The Summoning. It's SO smart and fun. Every Lord has a signature move, but then their move goes to the next Lord, then the next etc. If you follow the pattern the moves switch off, it's a pentagram. And the lyric 'we dance around the pentagram' really ties it all together. You can also see that Corey messed up a move in the choreo there, but the fact that you can see the entire idea behind the choreo was BRILLIANT. I'm SO sad that the proshot didn't focus on this aspect of the choreo, it just looks like the Lords are doing unrelated little static moves. But it's a pentagram!! ARrgh I wish they'd shown it!! Digital ticket version can be found on youtube as well though, go check it out!

It was my first introduction and I immediately fell in love with this universe

Yeah, "Best of You" took me off guard at first, but I love it in context and it's grown on me a lot. It's supposed to feel like the cheesy "and they all lived happily ever after" type song you'd hear in a standard teen musical, only to immediately be undercut by the actual last song of the show, so good!

Oh yeah, totally agree on Jeff’s falsetto. When listening to TGWDLM again, every time it happened it was always just so unnecessary, and distracted from the rest of the song. It kinda just felt like he wanted to show off that he can hit that high note, even when it REALLY should not have been there. Otherwise, he’s a good singer, he just needs to learn to control the falsetto additions for himself.

Nerdy Prudes was my intro to the series, some parts were a little confusing, but loved it and it sparked my hyperfixation with Hatchetfield. The only problem area (for me) at first was Paul and Emma's scene confused me.

Three months late, but I actually saw the youtube version of NPMD as the first thing ever from Starkid. I also went in pretty blind, I saw an animatic of the who will pray for you bit and it peaked my interest enough to look up what it came from. I'm a decently big fan of horror, especially supernatural stuff so the plot pretty much fell right in place for me. I actually REALLY liked the lords in black, and I could tell by the audience reaction that these were returning characters of some variety but that didn't diminish the scene at all. For me it might of even enhanced it, because it made me very interested in what else this group might have produced. Weird unknowable outer gods type stuff is peak horror for me, so it fit right in.

I wanna see a musical thats set in clivesdale

I watched nerdy prudes must die first and it stands alone pretty well and it was pretty fun to learn about the lords in black after meeting them and connect all the references when I watched the other two

I saw Nerdy Prudes Must Die as my first Hatchetfield Starkids production. I'd only seen Twisted and The Trail to Oregon prior. The show works perfectly fine as a standalone. Never felt lost or confused. You really don't need any homework before watching this. I imagine if you don't have any background in Hatchetfield productions OR more general horror you might feel a bit more adrift.

7:11 THANK YOU someone else agrees with my opinion on Jeffs falsetto. Yes, its cool that hes able to do it, but in my opinion, it tends to ruin the overall experience of s a lot of the songs. Like, all of the Black Friday songs that have it. I love Jeff, hes INCREDIBLY talented, it just feels like a lot of the time, if not ALL the time, he writes it in just to get a moment of “WOAH 😮🫵” from people. His chest voice is so honestly soothing and wonderful to listen to, and i wish he would use that as much as he does his falsetto. Its gotten to the point where i cringe when hes about to sing, or just skip it all together 😕 I just hope he retires the falsetto for a bit and brings back his strong and beautiful chest voice like he used back in HMB@M and Twisted.

KIM AND CURT ARE MARRIED??? WJAT?? SINCE WHEN 😭😭😭

after nerdy prudes and nightmare time, the only change id make is laurens being just for once and jeff's being young at heart.

oh my god, i forgot the term beard was a thing lol.

The most obvious horror movie inspiration to me was “I Know What You Did Last Summer”: The accidental homicide and coverup, the messages written by the vengeful ghost killer that only the main gang can understand. That mixed with Revenge of the Nerds, all in a 2000s teen comedy pastiche.

The poor intern got destroyed so hilariously.

10:03 I actually agree with this a lot but my friend brought up the fact that her mom wears a skirt even though her mom doesn't really uphold the values it's also to provide more coverage for her leggings and a skirt so not only is she also has the modesty of a skirt

P.E.I.P - paranormal (NPMD), extraterrestrial (TGWDLM), Interdimensional (BF) phenomena. Also, the supposed link between the weird disconnected scenes and a future musical (the high school in BF links to NPMD being set in a high school. Old friends reconnecting and impact of death shown in BF.) So, it's likely BBQ monologues is connected to a future musical.

Great review! My thoughts on a couple of the points; I agree with you about the BBQ monologues, the first time I watched NPMD I enjoyed the scene but was a bit bemused at what I was watching. The second time I watched it, however, I got it, and Ruthie and her backstory solidified in my mind. I think they were trying to give us a window into her character, but she needed more of a set up for the monologues to make sense as a reflection of her life being boring and samey. The song was perfect for that, but broke the flow because it vibes totally different to the rest of the musical. The lyrics in her song were the best of any of them, imo, just incongruent with the theme. I do have to disagree with you about the camera work, though, I think some scenes really suffered for the closeups that they chose- namely the summoning. I only learnt in the comments that the LiBs trade movements to dance out the shape of a pentagram after the show, and I wanted to watch all of their reactions. I learnt that Pete kept looking over at Tinky in fear throughout the number, and these were some really nice touches that got lost in the YT version, I wish they'd done some more wide shots. I imagine there's other bits I missed without a digital ticket.

if i had a nickel for everytime i watched this video, i’d have like 5 nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it’s happened FIVE FREAKIN TIMES

I had watched NPMD as my third starkid show and my second hatchetfield show (I had seen AVPM and TGWDLM) and, while I was a little confused with the references in hatchet town and the summoning, I just took it as something that was referencing a different show. It didn’t really take me out of the experience and the fact that they didn’t have the hatchet town references in the live shows makes that all the better because then the audience who doesn’t know doesn’t feel excluded.

I had decided to check out StarKid because I'm subscribed to Smosh, and I kept hearing references to Angela being in StarKid. So NPMD was the first musical I watched, and I would never have guessed it was the 3rd in a series, didn't know that until I read comments and looked further into their channel. The only thing that stood out as confusing to me had nothing to do with the musical itself, it was when the crowd went crazy over Pete demanding his hot chocolate lol

When even the "low note compilation" includes Joey belting Ab4s in Wagon on Fire...oh Starkid, where everyone's a tenor...

Finally some love for If I Fail You

I use this video as a basis on how to judge other musicals. The rules you teach me such as how a song needs to progress the plot forward or explain certain things make me WAY more critical of songs in other musicals.

just watched workin' boys, seeing robert as hidgens again was a jumpscare

My favourite Lauren song is What If, but I'm okay with this one

I think we're headcanoning Hidgens as queer because whatever the working boys had going on it was not 100% straight. The way he says "and... Chad!"? He's in love. He's grieving. He's nostalgic. He's longing. He's everything. They were boyfriends.

1:58 "God did it to us, damn Him to Hell 😊" Lauren says that with such childlike innocence on her face!

Lauren & Jamie make such great siblings.

unbelievable editing dudee w t h

I lose it when craphole sticks the gun in his mouth

aaaaaaaaaa i never noticed owen pointing the gun at curt's heart!!! oml this show is KILLING ME

It’s been a while, so idk if you’re still making videos abt this, but I think a reaction to one of the Destiel compilations would be rlly funny. Yk, the highly edited ones that draw attention to how sus they really were, and how much Sam was always 3rd-wheeling lmao

Too bad Jim Polovo never got a good solo, I feel like they would've done so well.

Great list. I personally would have picked Get Back Up for Lauren though

Fun fact: my first great sexual experience started with watching twisted lol

after watching the documentary on this show finally understanding why Jeff got so happy over Jack Bauer was perfect

I feel like we don't always have to look for queer coding in homosocial works (i.e. the Ho Yay page) on the TV Tropes. To some degree, there is a community of writers on the LGBT spectrum who do push an agenda by suggesting that a film isn't meant to be a gay film, is in fact a gay film and something that is owned by the queer community (which has its own implications). I don't know if representation is needed in interpretation when there are 953 LGBT characters on TV and we have to erroneously misinterpret stuff as gay in the name of "visibility/representation." There are benefits to ignoring queer coding that don't have to do with homophobia, men suffer from lack of close friendships and emotional expression in friendships, and more movies that depict friendships like City Slickers or Butch Cassidy (or one of my favorites, Tag) can be called a love story between men that works for its own sake. That said, I was one of the people in the comment section that found "the line you'll be the death of the me, Maga" in the opening number homo-erotic, and I am not above finding certain films more queer-coded than my peers, but I think a good deal of this queer-coding you're reading before it becomes overt text is a bit insultingly simplistic: Being close to your mom is something everyone does and it's not like he's taking her to a mother-daughter dance and using her as a substitute fill-in, it seems like a healthy adult relationship with a nagging mom; a naggig mom would be very unlikely to meet a spy's boyfriend; Bond never engages Moneypenny romantically which is what Barb's relationship with her is. I think the more complex StarKid essay is the pedophile-laced subplot about Batman and robin in Holy Musical Batman. That one is extremely cringe, and they try to play it off like Batman just likes having a bro or buddy or pal, or whatever.

Orphaned at 33 IS Jeff's best performance you are so right

7:36 this is one of my favorite Starkid dances for no reason at all

23:25 I will share my experience as someone who didn't watch Hatchedfield Trilogy. For addition, I have watched TGWDLM but didn't aware of Lords in Black connection and Nightmare Time shenanigans. Heck, I didn't even know it was part of trilogy. Many years later I didn't catch on Starkid anymore, untill a week ago. I watched NPMD and Lords in Black to me was ... DAMN. It hooked me. I maybe bias, since I always like the devils or sins personafication in media (Homonculus from FMA:B, Nanatsu no Taizai, Servamp, etc..) Lords in Black was confused me at first because the audience reaction is too histerical for this trope. "Wow, these people like the same trope as me? Wait, or does this have elaborate lore that I'm missing?" I really didn't expect that turn to show the Devils in this show. From teenage slasher to fantasy-supernatural. Tho, it never really baffling to me, since I, y'know already had bias. It's only makes me curious even more.

I'm stand on the floor that say "BBQ Monologue meant to be out of place" 😂