Nerdy Prudes Must Die was the first Starkid production I ever saw, and it got me to check out the rest of the Hatchetfield stuff and a few other of their shows. I think there was plenty of information and context clues that I was more than able to follow the story. Sure, I didn't know who Paul and Emma were, but when everyone cheered, it wasn't hard to understand that they were beloved characters from other stories. Sure, I misinterpreted Tinky's comment about having the whole Spankofski set to mean Pete's whole family winds up trapped, but that still made Time Bastard surprising. Maybe it comes from growing up watching reruns of long-running shows broadcast out of order.

Joey really needs to stop destroying me emotionally just for his character to be totally fine in the next scene. Like, the whiplash, I cannot.

HOW could you not put ethan's death in the black friday part

Great video and fantastic editing!!!!

MAMD only exists purely for shits and giggles and I am fully here for it.

NPMD was my first Starkid musical, and I've got to say, the harmonies won me over

Trail to Oregon would be right after MAMD in my list, possibly even last place because it had no emtional impact on me. I would have to not rank TGWDLM though because I wouldn't be able to be objective about it cuz I really hate it. I just find it annoying.

considering a war with lobsters involving a million dollar bill is a major plotpoint in it, TTO is actually a kind of emotionally deep show.

Starkid content here we gooo

Idk why this is the thing I needed right now but thanks.

Honestly I probably also would’ve put Twisted first just for “science says you’re dead and gone forever. Reason says I’m talking to the air. But something in my heart, some secret hidden part, illogicallly insists that you are there, somewhere.” I get chills everytime

mamd is a *very* strong last place. Never underestimate that musical

oh hey, NPMD was my first starkid musical and I enjoyed it quite a bit. the escalation made sense and the basic lore of the lords in black given in the summoning made sense and easy to follow as it served the story well.

I knew twisted was number 1 before clicking on the video

My amateur group did Twisted a few years back and the rehearsal period was so long because of COVID so even though I'd just met these guys we'd ended up becoming friends over nearly two years. So when we did the final "Power in Me" I (as Jafar) rambling through the spoken lines at the end because I was too choked up, but at least I got to go striaght off, whilst Princess was still tear for the next scene.

Wonder where Cinderella's Castle will rank

the entire scene surrounding Not Your Seed is fucking heartbreaking :(

man, i forgot how genuinely GOOD twisted is

12:02 "'Cause baby, you're not alone, 'cause you're here with me -" "WHO WILL PRAY FOR YOU? WHEN YOUR BODY IS GONE?!"

I really hope VHS Christmas Carol*s* from last year is released on KZfaq. It actually made me sob.

Nothing will probably make me cry harder than the whole section of AVPSY set in Godric's Hollows; Dumbledore and the statue? Ron's speech about what it means to be Harry Potter? Everything ends? Going back to Hogwarts reprise? I'm tearing up just thinking about it (and I'm probably going to rewatch it now). So that would probably be my first place, maybe tied with Twisted, because the whole show is beautiful and heartbreaking. I would also switch AVPM and AVPS, because beside Sirius' scene, Sequel feels a lot less emotional to me (it's also why is my least favorite of the trilogy). I do agree with most of the rest though! Always a pleasure to watch your videos!

Man, I would've rated Black Friday first. I mean, that scene with Becky... Tom's two amazing solos... That whole ending... It would've been a hard battle between that and Twisted, but Black Friday would win for me because Twisted does have a happier ending. The whole Disney feel makes it feel sweeter, while Black Friday's tone makes it feel more emotional to me.

And to think this list is just the full shows and doesn't include Workin' Boys, the Nightmare Time and Nightmare Time 2 stories, or Little White Lie (not to mention any Tin Can Bro stuff). Darn Team StarKid for making us have such strong feelings for fictional chataters.

Dylan Saunders bias on full display, not that I disagree lol

as soon as I clicked I was like "it's gonna be MAMD first lol" and then I was floored when firebringer was below Ani (context: never watched Ani so any placement for Ani would've thrown me)

I was like “Wow these keep getting sadder and more emotional by the second...” Then realized that was the point of the ranking-

to the comment about picturing Grace wearing a long skirt instead of jeans...I think you're thinking of the religious group called Apostolic Pentecostals- where the women wear long skirts all the time and most don't even cut their hair. Grace is just Christian. Christians are allowed to wear jeans lol. they worship the same God but its different views. just wanted to clarify.

Wow, really loved both of your views on Destiel and their relationship।❤

Double checking, this came out before Black Friday right, bc if not Corey’s is CRIMINAL

It really goes to show how prevalent queer-coding and queer-baiting is in the media because despite all of the tension and subtext it wasn’t until I started watching videos about saf that I realised that they were gay. I’d just gotten so used to passing similar actions off as false representation that even when it was staring me in the eye I didn’t see it but now every time I watch it back it seems so obvious.

bryce is the lead of starkids new musical cinderellas castle and im so happy i cant wait to see it

0:22 same, I saw this clip in the 7th grade in my choir class, now I am in love with it

Thank you for making this!

It’s kind of bizarre that Twisted’s second worst song (in my opinion, of course) “Orphaned at 33” made it in, while a number of masterpieces by Dylan Saunders were ignored. (No hate to this list, of course. “Orphaned at 33” is still a good song, it just doesn’t really compete (for me) with rest of the songs that are unbeatably amazing)

NPMD was my first starkid show. It was so good I’ve by now watched almost all of them.

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