Mattie

20 lauren lopez lover|he/they

[quackximillian]

Hatchetfielders - your CURRENT lineup for NMT3

[roebeanstalk]

reblog to manifest gender euphoria for the person you reblogged this from

[booigi-boi]

Tick tock, Teddy 🐐🟨🕰️

Kind of a redraw of this

[virginshane]

watermelon eggs there's peas and bananas

[virginshane]

[jack-0f-stars]

Some Of My Favorite Cool Staging Choices in NPMD: a ramble, by me!

(is "staging" the right term? idk I wasn't a theater kid)

this will contain spoilers, which you can probably guess since it will be tagged as such.

When we see Richie getting attacked in the cold open, he's facing the audience; when it happens again (haha whoops) he's facing away from the audience & we get to see his attacker. idk man I just think the change in perspective is rad lol

Richie and Ruth taking the stage first for "High School Is Killing Me" because they're the ones who... y'know. (rip 💀)

when that first curtain thing lifts and reveals the rest of the stage 👌🏻

when Steph is trying to get Pete to help her cheat on the test the spotlight on them also lights up Grace before she butts in and gets them in trouble (foreLIGHTENing eh? eh?)

the rotating nerd huddle in "Literal Monster" brings me so much joy like Yes, put those nerds on a giant Lazy Susan and watch 'em go

the nerds sneaking along in the background when Max is singing

the bit with Miss Tessberger (sp?) leaving and returning to the stage from the opposite side

just everything about Pete & Steph's phone call. everything.

the stage going almost completely dark at the end of "Cool As I Think I Am" is fucking epic ok it's such a cool transition. also Max's "I bring light to darkness" and the lighting changes for that. they're both so cool

the bathtub prop. it just looks like it was fun to make. :)

when Steph is talking to Ruth & Richie and then she just turns and they're sneaking into the bathroom. it's like a movie transition in my brain. (also Mariah's little jump like she's trying to look into a stall is adorable)

NERDY PRUDES GOING TO THE WAYLON (sp?) PLACE MY BELOVED 💙 1. walking around the orchestra pit is cool & it's a fun, slightly-more-distanced throwback to when they walk thru the audience in TGWDLM & BF; 2. cool blue lighting + silhouettes, need I say more; 3. the tattered background descending as they walk is fucking magical

it's technically not part of the show at all but i have to give a shoutout to the person near the camera who goes "oh? oh?" when Pete & Steph exchange their cute lil looks in the Waylon House 😂

Richie moving behind the tattered curtains with the camera. also I know it isn't visible but the knowledge that the skele'on costume glows in the dark gives me life. (and Steph giving Ruth a thumbs-up when she's scaring Max??? adorable)

did they blur the npmd logo and put it over Max as he's dying? i fuckin love it no joke

that row of lights onstage just silently clicking off before Max shows up to get Richie 💀💀💀 and then they slowly come back RED

wHEN THE REST OF THE CAST LINES UP TO SILENTLY STAND WITNESS FOR RICHIE'S DEATH 💀💀💀💀💀

the pauses in Jeff's announcement to let everybody groan after their name is called (Joey's "ouhh noo" gets me every time)

I haven't really mentioned choreography because idk how to talk about dancing but... "Hatchet Town" my beloved <3 (all of the choreography in the show is so fun & cool)

BBQ monologues!! the stage is a stage! (whoa, is this tgwdlm???) Love the brief single spotlight on Ruth when she goes on, and bonus points for the red, white, & blue lighting bc barbecues are intrinsically linked to the 4th of July in my brain (🇺🇲🔥)

when Grace is talking to Detective Shapiro I love how gray the stage goes, especially after how colorful the BBQ monologue was, like ugh <3 it makes it feel more serious and important like shit's about to get real (it is)

Officer Bailey (I think that's his name? i do not trust my ears) just angrily moving the chairs after Grace steals his gun and escapes custody 😂

obligatory Beanies Paulkins & HCB scene 2.0 mention <3

Pete sweetie you were just at a football game how did you mix it up with baseball you fuckin nerd (affectionate)

The Chair Mishap™ (I'm not sure but I think all 3 of them broke there, to varying degrees)

Max chasing Solomon off the stage is fun, loved that. (oh shit if he gets you next make it thr... four. you'll be four. or five, technically...? are we still counting Max? this point got derailed.)

the squad car! the lights up top, the brake lights, and also I love when the car turns and everybody just leans to the side (SiS is my favorite for this). also Max just nyooming by as Shapiro takes off is hilarious.

HOLDING COURT WITH THE VOID!!! the increasing whispers, the lighting, the LORDS APPEARING, holy SHIT

the white lights & fog during the slow-mo bullet scene idk it just makes it for me

the homecoming disco ball and the different spotlights are great :D

the group pose at the end of "Best of Me"

the colored lights & Lords laughing at the beginning of "Dirty Dudes" 🤩

okay! that's everything that caught my eye on my fourth watch, lol. obviously there are many many many more awesome little details and funny bits but I wanted to focus more on the set & staging type stuff. it's really cool and interesting to me, especially after Black Friday's glorious secret Wiggly.

if you read all of this I hope you had fun!!

if you didn't have fun, feel free to keep that fact to yourself! 👉🏻👉🏻

[spaghettioverdose-deactivated20]

There's only one real way to categorise disorders and it's when you google it and the first results fit into one or more of the following categories:

1. "Is your child-" "Does your child-" "How to cope with the burden of being a parent for-"

2. "How to get better: Step One: have a lot of money!" "How to get better: Step One: simply stop having it!"

3. "10 Ways To Spot Sickopaths With This Disorder So You Can Protect Yourself" "The Bad People Disease -by Dr. Eugene X."

[lovely-kittens-blog-blog]

[wicked-naughty-diva]

Look at the center of this image for 30sec, then watch Van Gogh’s *Starry Night* come to life

(via TumbleOn)

[stealinghiswife-blog]

Whoa..

[unculturedandproud]

What the actual fuck, I thought it was gonna make the lines in the painting kinda wiggly and stuff but holy SHIT.

[turningvioletviolet]

What the FUCK

[lilboreddev-blog]

reblog if your name isn't Amanda.

[thatblackwatchdouche-blog-blog]

2,121,566 people are not Amanda and counting!

We’ll find you Amanda.

[iceslushii]

this has almost 11 million notes what is this

[yiffmaster]

I’ve never seen this post once in 10 years on this site

[a-couple-of-bees]

(MAJOR NERDY PRUDES MUST DIE SPOILERS)

Hello!! To those who have watched the show already, I hope you understand when I say The Lords in Black's song has been stuck in my head since… but I’m desperately trying to work out the lyrics.

(Edit; me and another fan have figured out what I was missing! These may not be 100% but here are the completed lyrics)

So far I have:

Out of the depths of hell and back, us spawn of the black and white

Cover our souls with robes of black and take up the arms of night.

Nibblene wants his sacrifice, and Wiggly wants his wrath

We dance around the pentagram and take all our kingdoms back.

Babble the spell that gets it done, babble it on command

Won’t stop until all the blood is drawn, the lords in Black demand…

You summon us once, you summon us twice, you gamble it on the roll of the dice.

The devil has won, It can’t be undone, the book has all but closed on your life.

(BLINKY: We’ve been watching you Gracie…Someone’s been a little naughty

TINKY: (laughter) Oh boy! A Spankoffski! I can have the whole set in my toybox.

NIBBLY: Stephanie yum yum.

STEPHANIE: Are you the Lords in Black?)

Out of the depths of hell and back, we travel very far

Cover our souls with robes of black , the lords in black we are.

(WIGGLY: Don’t be so formal Stephanie, we’re all pally wals here. I mean look at us, we even hold court in your own tongue and form. Go Nighthawks!

All Laugh

POKEY: Our true forms would melt your minds

WIGGLY: Don’t frighten them Pokey, you nasty boy.

STEPHANIE: We need to stop Max Jagerman. We heard you can help us)

The lords in black will help you yes, you stupid silly girl.

By helping rid the Jagerman, we can help the world.

(WIGGLE: Hm We could, we could take home little Maxy and pull him right down to Drowsytown.

NIBBLY: Swallow his soul, I wanna lick it.

WIGGLY: But why? Maxy poo’s about to get you, tear you all to bloody bits!

BLINKY: I wanna see that.

STEPHANIE: How about a bargain? We’ll give you whatever you want. Just get rid of Jagerman.)

WIGGLY: Whatever we want?!)

Whatever we want, we want, we want,

Whatever we want we get.

Whatever you want, you want, you want, forever in our debt

(WIGGLY: Hm, what could you give to me? Let me check my Christmas list. (gasps) there is something.

STEPHANIE: What? What do you want from us?

TINKY: Something fun!

NIBBLY: Something tasty.

WIGGLY: Oh, you’ll hardly miss it. We just want what you cherish most. That’s all

STEPHANIE: What we cherish most? What do you mean?

POKEY: What do you want, Steph…?

WIGGLY: One of you must give up the thing you treasure above all else.

POKEY: Do it or die!

STEPHANIE: What I treasure above all else? I know what it is! My phone! My whole life’s on this thing! It has my contacts, my pictures-)

WE DO NOT GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR PHONE

(WIGGLY: We want what you really want…you can’t lie to us Steph. You can lie to yourself but not to me. Think about it…

(Steph looks to Peter)

WIGGLY: Ah, there he is

PETER: Steph?

STEPHANIE: No! No!

WIGGLY: What’s in your pocket Steph-O-nie?)

Stephanie has got a gun, tra la la la, how fun

Stephanie has got a gun, she knows what must be done.

(WIGGLY: Put a bullet in his brain and we’ll take Maxwell off your plate.

STEPHANIE: I can’t!

WIGGLY: Pay the price or fuck off

Out of the depths of hell and back, us spawn of the black and white

Cover our souls with robes of black and take up the arms of night.

You summon us once, you summon us twice, you gamble it on the roll of the dice.

The devil has won, It can’t be undone, the book has all but closed on your life.

[thesassycat]

You can only reblog this today.

[askjennaflorida]

I missed my chance last year. Not gonna let it happen again

[henrywasnthereaskanyone]

[man-down-in-hatchet-town]

Steph’s Mom

So Solomon Lauter probably sacrificed his wife to the Lords in Black, right?

All the Starry Children lore aside, Solomon’s scenes in Act Two of Nerdy Prudes tell us several things: Solomon believes that certain problems can only be solved by asking the Lords in Black for help, he knows that help comes at a huge price, and that the last time he had anything to do with the Black Book things went so painfully that he refuses to so much as touch it again.

Put all this together, and it seems highly likely that Solomon Lauter made his own deal with the Lords in Black, probably around 2005 when the book first came into his care. But what was his price? What do you want, Solomon? The things he seems to cherish—power, respect, influence—are all very much still in his life. But he doesn’t have the mother of his child. So she was the sacrifice. And Steph is forever a reminder of that guilt and loss, which could go some way towards explaining his behavior towards her.

This also adds an additional layer to the Lords in Black sacrifice sequence in Nerdy Prudes. While the Lords in Black are perfectly willing to accept a sacrifice from any of the three teens, they angle extra hard for Steph to shoot Pete. And yeah maybe that’s so Tinky can put him in the Bastard’s Box, or because murder is always best, or simply because Steph is the teen doing the most talking. But maybe it’s also because they enjoy the idea of a pattern—generations of Lauters summoning them to sacrifice someone beloved, Steph unwittingly putting Pete directly in her lost mother’s place. The Lauters summoned them once, now the Lauters have summoned them twice….

(Also how poetic would it be for Steph and her father, despite their many differences and conflicts, to have ultimately made the same decision? Though of course Steph was lucky enough that Max and Grace intervened.)

But this does raise the question—What was Solomon’s deal? What would he have sacrificed his wife for? His position of power? He seems far too worried about losing the election for that to be the case.

(The timeline on this doesn’t really work because there’s a lot between 1979 and 2005 to account for and we have no real record of ghosts wreaking Max-level havoc for 25 years, but I keep coming back to the fact Solomon knows a lot in particular about the Waylon curse and how to stop it. And if nothing ever truly dies in the Waylon House, then where are the Waylons themselves? The obvious answer is that Miss Holloway did them in back in the 80’s… but still…)

And did he make that sacrifice in all the timelines? Or just in the ones where Holloway died and wasn’t around to have the book? There’s no mention of Steph’s mother in Nightmare Time, implying that the answer is the former. So who got the book from who? How do Miss Holloway and Solomon Lauter know each other?

Idk there’s so much to think about. It feels like we know so much and so little at the same time. Thoughts?

[halszkaraptor]

[ID: a video of misery x cpr x reese's puffs, with pete spankoffski as the misery part, ruth fleming as the cpr part, and richie lipschitz as the reese's puffs part. end ID.]

this took exactly 3 minutes and is the opposite of a magnum opus

[bi-force-1]

An embroidery project that was finished literally on the drive to see Nerdy Prudes last night. I'm so glad this self inflicted hell is over and so proud of how it turned out!

[willowcrowned]

happy to announce that my latest bout of dreaming about tumblr induced in me the conviction that tumblr had just instituted a "pet" button that appeared below all pictures of an animal so that tumblr users could pet the animal. the most notable use of this was a post with a picture of a porcupine that had a thread of users below it saying 'ouch'

[baddiethemattie]

love seeing people i follow on tumblr in the screenshot of an instagram post

@thecrabbybarista

[sarcasticsra]

I cannot stress enough how much everyone should watch Starkid’s A VHS Christmas Carol if you haven’t seen it yet. It’s pretty short, only about 45 minutes, and it’s truly one of the best adaptations of A Christmas Carol that I’ve ever seen.

No, seriously. I think it has even surpassed The Muppets Christmas Carol for me. That has been my favorite Christmas movie since I was a child. My mom and sister and I used to watch it every Christmas Eve. I still love it dearly and it is an amazing adaptation that I’ll defend to my death, but you guys. You guys. A VHS Christmas Carol is just THAT GOOD.

It’s done in the style of 80s music/videos, which is delightful. It’s an opera, so it’s all sung through, which I love. And it’s so good!

Let me enumerate the ways. Spoilers to follow. (Can you spoil A Christmas Carol? Once a story becomes public domain does that exempt it from spoiling? Idk, lol. Spoilers for the show, anyway. Also for Avatar: The Last Airbender. …I promise there’s a path.)

1) Bah Humbug! - Song number one and it goes hard right from the start. It is everything an opening number should be. Dynamic, sets the tone, and an incredible fucking bop. The interactions between Scrooge and Fred and Scrooge and Bob are done so well, too. You so quickly get a sense of their characters. Obviously we know their characters because this is a story that has been told many a time before, but it does it so well that you would immediately get them even if you were an alien who had never in your existence been exposed to A Christmas Carol in any capacity. That’s impressive to me. It’s not relying on the familiarity of the story to do its character work.

2) 3 Spirits - I love the tone of this song. This is a Marley with true regret and pain who is absolutely pleading with Scrooge to take the chance he’s being given. It’s less “scared straight” and more, “I need you to understand this like you’ve never understood anything before.” Marley becomes a character in his own right as opposed to merely a backdrop for Scrooge to react to. That’s a theme with this adaptation. Characters who are pretty flat in a lot of adaptations seem so much more like real people in this one. Also, whoever decided to cast Meredith as Marley here is a fucking genius. She’s so goddamn talented and she really shines here. The emotion, the weight. Gah. Beautiful. The interplay between Marley and Scrooge is incredible as well; these are two insanely talented performers breathing a new life into tried and true characters, and you really feel the relationship between them.

3) I’m The Ghost - Christmas Past is so pointed and snarky and incredible, making Scrooge come to certain realizations. “Huh, little boy left all alone. Oh, your sister died so young. Didn’t she have a son though? Why are the employees so happy, this party didn’t cost much? Thinking of something? Okay, last stop, buckle up, it’s all your own doing.” I love it so much.

4) That Scrooge - You guys. You guys. They’ve done what I assumed was impossible. They’ve done what even the Muppets couldn’t. It’s a Scrooge-Belle breakup song that isn’t the most unbelievably boring and bland thing you’ve ever heard in your life. Belle is a fucking person! She has a personality! She’s very clearly stating her case, that he’s changed and she doesn’t like it and does he have anything to say? No? Okay, bye! THE EMOTION IN THIS SONG. Scrooge starts singing not just with her but to her! All the things he didn’t say before! And then he starts singing angrily about/at his past!self for being an idiot! You actually FEEL THINGS about this relationship. It was a deep love and losing it super fucked him up! I have never before seen Belle/Scrooge done as well as this one (1) song handles it.

5) Christmas Electricity - Get ready to have this song stuck in your head for ten thousand years. This song is, I believe, the standard classical definition of “a fuckin’ bop.” It’s so high energy and exciting, you really can understand how Scrooge gets so caught up in it himself. You also see more of Fred in this song and, again, he’s a person! He has specific motivations for why he keeps reaching out to Scrooge. Corey’s Fred is hands down one of the best performances of this character full stop. He took what is usually a bit, side character and made him a full human with understandable thoughts and feelings. They gave the Fred-Scrooge relationship such incredible emotional weight because of it. I think that’s one of my favorite aspects of this adaptation.

6) Priceless - Here we see the Cratchits enjoying their Christmas with an incredibly sweet song about having little but feeling like they have a lot. I really like the way this song feels a bit cheesy (goes with the whole 80s vibe) but they also feel like a real family with some silliness and some sweetness and Bob’s wife having very strong opinions about Scrooge that he’s too polite for. Also “listen to this key change out of the bridge” goddamn just show off constantly how freaking talented this entire cast is, why don’t you.

7) The Final Ghost - I probably have too much to say about this song. It’s my favorite, which considering this entire show is pitch fucking perfect, is really saying a lot. Dylan Saunders is truly one of the most talented performers I’ve ever seen, and his Scrooge is so, so good. It really shines through here. His interactions with Christmas Future show him mirroring Bob from earlier (he has a line that’s almost an exact quote of a line from Bob in Bah Humbug!), correcting himself, and trying to be respectful/humble. Subtle displays of emotional growth even before he gets to the truly scary parts. The song is of course a darker tone, as is correct for this part of the narrative, perfectly setting up the finale song. We get Scrooge overhearing about a funeral no one cares about, the same man being robbed after death, and this death bringing actual happiness to people. Throughout it all so far Christmas Future only speaks in a wordless melody, as is apt. Scrooge asks for tenderness connected to death and is shown the Cratchits mourning Tiny Tim, which breaks him, and he asks who the dead man was from earlier. Still wordless, Christmas Future leads him to a cemetery, and that wordless melody perfectly transforms into an eerie, ethereal, “Ebenezer Scrooge.” The fucking amount of sheer EMOTION Dylan packs into Scrooge pleading for his soul, that he is changed, and the final bit of narration… fuck, you guys, it’s so good. I love all of the “scene” parts of this song so much. It all builds so perfectly.

7a) The narrator. - This isn’t a specific song, I just want to call out how excellent the narrator is through the whole show and how perfectly the narration ties the whole show together. It’s one of those things where it goes unnoticed because it’s so perfect, but if it were bad you would definitely notice. You need it to be there and understated or a lot a falls apart, but it can be such hard balance to strike. This show nails it.

8) Christmas Day - The finale! And what a finale it is! The energy is a perfect contrast to the song before it as Scrooge delights in being alive and having time to make things right. His joy is palpable as he goes about his day, buying Bob a huge turkey, making an incredible donation to the charity he blew off the day before, and showing up at Fred’s. Guys. This scene. Especially when I watch the live, but even sometimes just via the soundtrack, this scene just fucking perfectly, beautifully guts me. You know how in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Zuko has to go on his whole narrative arc to eventually join the right side, and along the way sort of betrays his Uncle Iroh, aka the only good father figure he’s ever had, because he’s a traumatized teenager, and eventually he meets back up with him and starts stumbling out an apology and Iroh just sweeps him up in a hug without a word, and you sob because it’s perfect? That is the energy present in this, what, 15-second scene, just this incredible emotional buildup and payoff accomplished in a scant 45-minute runtime. It’s truly wondrous. The finale, as all true finales should, calls back musically to previous character beats, and ends on the perfect bookend to the opening number. It’s just so, so immensely satisfying.

Tl;dr - this musical has made me feel more Christmas-y than I have in a long, long time, and I have listened to little else in terms of music since I watched it two weeks ago. (It was literally the only music I had listened to since then until right now, and that’s only because I’m in a van on a road trip to my sister-in-law’s for Christmas. While I would have been perfectly content to listen to this soundtrack on repeat for the entire 8-hour drive, I also recognize that the four other people in this van do not have my particular flavor of hyperfixated ADHD brain and probably would not appreciate that, heh. Thus I played it once and then other music. Compromise!)

But yes. Seriously. It’s so good. Gah. Go watch it!

[inamindfarfaraway]

Me: Of course I know that Starship is just a silly, lighthearted comedy and I shouldn’t think too deeply about it.

Also Me: Mega-Girl has spent her whole life being objectified and only valued conditionally as a tool. She may revel in the many ways she is superior to humans, but her hatred of them is rooted in resenting that they created her (“How could you make me so like you, and yet so unlike you?”). Listen to how she describes herself - “a hollow parody” of life? That is not a positive self-image! The source of her homicidal rage is self-loathing due to her robotic nature. She has fully internalized the human prejudice that she is “not real” and “unable to truly feel” and therefore unworthy of rights or love. Based on her parallels to the Terminator robots (the recommended way to kill her is to lower her slowly into lava), it’s highly plausible that she and other robots in this unvierse cannot self-terminate either and their constant anger is the result of being trapped in slavery without even the escape of suicide.

Tootsie is frequently dismissed and insulted for his lack of intelligence, which he is well aware of (“I may be dumb”, “I don’t know anything”). But unlike Mega-Girl, he has secure self-esteem because he accepts himself and appreciates his other good qualities. He has a great deal of compassion, selfless, honesty, courage, loyalty and crucially, emotional intelligence: he understands feelings, when people are lying about them (“folks say they’re fine when I know that they’re blue”) and their inherent worth (“The feeling I get when you’re close to me, when all my hairs stand up? That’s real.”). The one thing he understands is the same one Mega-Girl doesn’t. The parts of himself he values the most are the the same ones Mega-Girl despises herself for not having. So of course he’s the human to see that she deserves and is capable of love! He knows what it’s like to be treated like you’re less than, but also that everyone still matters just the same no matter how different they are.

By treating her personhood as a given when everyone else she’s met has done the opposite, he makes her respect herself and seek autonomy. He inspires her to want more out of life than what her oppressors want from her (“when you look at me I don’t wanna be programmed this way”). After she falls for him, she stands up for herself against her legal owner Junior, refusing to follow his orders, objecting to him risking her life and taking offence and even slapping him when he objectifies her. She’s starting to value herself. However, she still can’t shake the idea that love is at best fundamentally conditional when you’re a robot, hence her fear of Tootsie leaving her. His declaration of unconditional love stops her rampage because finally believing that she is lovable, and has worth, as she is removes her low self-esteem, the source of her bloodlust and resignation to her programming.

In conclusion, they’re perfect for each other and I love them. And oh my God, Tootsie Mega-Girl renamed himself their ship name. What’s their actual ship name, then? Man vs Machine? No, wait… Mega-Toots.

@indigos-shits-and-giggles @dontsteponthatfish