Shows that have not yet entered production should get WMG folders here, as should general speculation about the Myth Arc of Hatchetfield and possible shows that have not yet been announced.
Speculation relating to any specific Hatchetfield installment (including future episodes of Nightmare Time) should go on the WMG page for that installment.
This theory started getting kicked around as soon as "Watcher World" came out on Nightmare Time, with Blinky mapping onto the Eye/the Beholding. People have speculated by extension that Wiggly represents Extinction, and that in "Watcher World"'s companion story "The Hatchetfield Ape-Man" Prof. Hidgens becomes an avatar of The Hunt. The associations for the other Lords in Black are less clear, but Pokotho/the Hive Mind from The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals could be the Corruption (since it's called "the Hive") or the Stranger (since it replaces people with "zombies"). Likewise, Tinky the Time Bastard fits the Lonely or the Spiral (with the Bastard Box adding a touch of the Buried), and while we know little about Nibblenephim ("Nibbly") the whole "eating people" motif makes him fit the Flesh. And Webby, of course, would be a more-benevolent incarnation of the Web.
- The Reveal that Nibblenephim's epithet is "The Thing That Feeds in the Dark" means we might be able to switch his corresponding entity from the Flesh to the Darkness. This is extra appropriate given the opposition between him and Blinky (the Beholding) — one has a mouth but no eyes, and one has a giant eye but no mouth.
The plot of The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals was a standard MTF mission gone wrong, whereas the dimensional portal sequence in Black Friday is a classic testing log gone wrong.
Note that, like the SCP Foundation, "Special Unit: PEIP“ has a name that refers simultaneously to the organization itself and to the thing the organization studies and combats ("an SCP" in the SCP-verse is "a Paranormal, Extraterrestrial, or Interdimensional Phenomenon").
The plot of Black Friday is almost a textbook illustration of The Evils of Free Will rant Hidgens gave in TGWDLM — humanity wantonly destroys itself due to our selfish greed and fear, born of our flaws and insecurities and our fundamental inability to trust each other. The Wiggly cult is almost the opposite of the Hive Mind, a bunch of narcissists trying to climb over each other's backs in hopes of being more special and more worthy than those beneath them. The Hive Mind vs the Wiggly cult is a classic Order vs. Chaos conflict, with the two possible extremes they represent for the human race, becoming immortal Stepford Smiler zombies or dying horribly in a Hate Plague to feed a Soul Eater, being equally horrifying to us — but the Hive Mind may from its perspective be a Well-Intentioned Extremist saving us from an otherwise inevitable apocalypse.
- Word of God has all but confirmed that Pokotho is the origin behind the Hive Mind. Regardless... perhaps the Lords in Black aren't the unified front they appeared to be when they debuted as a quintet. Pokotho, if he is indeed responsible for the Apotheosis, currently rules the reality in which TGWDLM took place. Wiggly may have started World War III, but he failed to pass through his portal and take over the Black Friday reality. Wiggly may now resent his brother for taking over one of the realities before he, Wiggly, the group's ostensible leader, could do so.
- In "Yellow Jacket", Webby describes Pokey as an Omnicidal Maniac out to destroy everything but himself, suggesting he is indeed no friend to his brothers.
It's almost an exact match, so much so that I'd be shocked if the Lang Brothers (who are connoisseurs of horror films) didn't have this movie in mind when writing "Time Bastard". Tinky's MO is constructing intricate and confusing Time Paradoxes that involves dragging a screwed-up person into a Mind Screw via hallucinations and the like, designed to manipulate them into eventually getting themselves killed in a Stable Time Loop.
Along the way, other people affected by the Stable Time Loop (called the "Manipulated Living" and the "Manipulated Dead" in ancillary materials) have their actions carefully arranged to mislead the Cosmic Plaything into thinking he's the Chosen One, have him explore the greatest heights and lowest depths of what he's capable of, push him to the limits of his sanity. People who die as a result of the Stable Time Loop appear as avatars of the mysterious force arranging the loop — whether before or after their deaths occur doesn't matter (since the loop itself is driven from a Place Beyond Time by a Predestination Paradox).
The similarities are uncanny, especially the degree to which Jenny is parallel to Gretchen and Tinky himself is to Frank the Bunny, with the disturbing nature of the Tinky goat-man "costume" being an almost exact match for Frank's grotesque "bunny suit" (meaning that Andy Kilgore is a candidate for human! Frank, and Tinky may look like Jeff Blim Beneath the Mask).
Many things are different between the movie and "Time Bastard", but the basic concept is such a specific idea and the plot of "Time Bastard" is so close to it that it's very hard not to see it as a Spiritual Adaptation.
This has become a very popular theory thanks to a large number of Call Backs to The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals in Black Friday, which almost comes across as Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory from some of the characters in question. Maybe the "alternate timelines" literally involve some kind of fail-safe where, every time the people of Hatchetfield experience some kind of apocalypse and the world ends, a new timeline splits off around the time of Jane Houston's death and they try again until a different threat, which they'll only be free from once they succeed in defeating it. Hints in favor of this theory include the idea that "Wiggly" is just one guise worn by the Ruler of the Black and White, and that the song that name-drops the idea of an "alternate reality", "Take Me Back", is all about the idea of going back in time to Set Right What Once Went Wrong. It's also a payoff for McNamara's rant in TGWDLM about how "time is a precious thread in the fabric of the universe."
This theory would explain the otherwise very strange lyrics of the final song, "What If Tomorrow Comes?", which would become Hannah receiving a psychic vision that not only might everyone die but tomorrow literally won't come because the timeline will be reset. ("Do you all see the memories? Tomorrow reminds me") This would also set up McNamara becoming The Constant who remembers the resets now that he's merged with the Black and White, which exists outside of the timelines, and becoming the Big Good whose memory of past apocalypses becomes the key to finally stopping it and earning a happy ending in Nerdy Prudes Must Die! (The need for such a person to survive past the apocalypse might be the meaning of Hannah's line, "What if tomorrow comes, to break the dawn/And there's no one to stay?") And the sound of something rushing through the air at the end might be the meteor from TGWDLM rather than the Russian nuke everyone expects.
The mention of Wilbur Cross disappearing to become Uncle Wiley 13 years ago is oddly specific, and Word of God has since clarified that Hannah is supposed to be 13 (like her actor) and just acts younger than her age because of her ambiguous disorder. It may have some connection to her abilities — maybe he seduced Lex and Hannah's mom because of her genetic potential to conceive The Chosen One. (It wouldn't be too different from what he did with Linda)
It makes perfect sense that Emma would hate Becky Barnes, her sister's husband's ex. She's unlikely to show sympathy for Becky's situation, as she's repeatedly shown to be irrational or at least petty, and the town's continued obsession with Tom and Becky (as shown in What Do You Say) would irritate her.
- If Pokotho is, as speculated, "the Hive" that the Assimilated speaks of, then the order in which they're listed is the order in which the audience has met the lesser ones, with Wiggly going at the end instead of second because he's their leader, and Nibblenephim being the only one that hasn't taken action yet. Might the multiverse be out of balance somehow because Wiggly got impatient and made his move immediately after Pokotho did, instead of waiting his turn?
What if Webby was originally sent to appear to Hannah by her brothers, posing as her "imaginary friend" to groom her for whatever it is the Lords in Black need her for? We don't know how long Hannah has known Webby, but it's been a long time. My theory is that Webby became the mask grew to truly care for the girl, and by extension, all of humanity. Rather than use Hannah to help her brothers take over the multiverse, she began to try and help her, giving her warnings of what was to come (likely keeping them vague to keep her brothers from catching on) and teaching her how to protect herself from her nightmares.
Perhaps Webby's sudden disappearance before "The Witch in the Web" was due to her brothers working out that she'd turned on them and was choosing Hannah and humanity over them.
- It really wouldn't. As the Hatchetfield Timeline notes, fitting as many Nightmare Time stories as possible into a single timeline results in "Watcher World" and "The Witch in the Web" seemingly leading us into a happy ending... in which Paul and Emma have been killed and replaced, Ted has disappeared forever, Tom has gone mad, and Becky is possessed by Jane. Far more logical to assume that every Hatchetfield story takes place in a completely different timeline, with the Simultaneous Arcs of "Forever & Always" and "Time Bastard" being an explicit exception that proves the rule.
- The presence of a John MacNamara in both main-stage Hatchetfield stories and the fact that he dies in both would suggest that the timeline resets don't center around Hatchetfield; the paranormal phenomena do, but the timeline resets apply to the entire universe. Alice used to spend most of each month at her mother's home in Clivesdale and has left Hatchetfield for college; Emma spent much of her youth traveling the world, and apart from Emma many Hatchetfield residents express a desire to live somewhere else, so the perception many fans have that Hatchetfield the town is some sort of Closed Circle or Small, Secluded World that people never leave, and that the rest of the world continues turning as normal, would seem poorly thought-out. Remember, a good portion of Black Friday, the parts where Wiggly is seen in person and intervenes directly take place in DC. All that to say, Hatchetfield's hatred of Clivesdale being fuelled by the magic of the Witchwood seems unlikely, though certainly not impossible.
While much focus has been given to Wiggly — the first Lord in Black properly introduced, their leader, the "Lord in Black" himself — there's something even more sinister about Pokey, the entity who pulled the strings behind the scenes of the first Hatchetfield story we ever saw. Nightmare Time 2 made a point a few times of noting that each of the Lords in Black is quite unlike the others; and when this was said of Pokey, Webby noted his uncompromising nature, his desire to destroy everything but himself, to be "The Singular Voice". If Pokey is truly an enemy to everyone and everything, the Hatchetfield saga may culminate in all the forces of the universe, even including his four brothers, coming together to put a stop to him.
In contrast to the previous guess about Pokey being Hatchetfield's Big Bad, perhaps Pokey isn't to be taken seriously. Sure, he conquered the world in the very first Hatchetfield story, and "Next Time" has been interpreted as Pokey declaring that he will return and conquer next time. On the other hand, he's only ended one timeline in the Hatchetfield multiverse, and his scheme in "Yellow Jacket" is much smaller. And he willingly participates when people invoke the names and summon all five of the Lords; even given his humorless affect in Nerdy Prudes Must Die, he got in on the taunting. Perhaps the other Lords in Black are well aware that he'd like to destroy everything — but he enacts his schemes at such a slow pace, pokey if you will, that they're not afraid of him. Wiggly, Tinky, Blinky, and Nibbly are all such Meaningful Names that "Pokey" must surely mean something. He might still be shunned and mocked among the five; thus far the only time we've ever seen one Lord directly interact with another is when Wiggly chides Pokey for delivering the You Cannot Grasp the True Form line, calling him a "nasty boy".
And their ultimate enemy? None other than the Capital G, God himself! Frustrated with Yahweh's irrational jealousy of deities other than himself and general unfair treatment of LGBTQ+ people, pro-choicers, and "non-believers", the Black and White decided to go on a crusade against him in order to build a paradise for everyone. But somewhere down the lane, the five Lords In Black gradually became corrupted and became no better than the vicious, two-faced prick they sought to destroy. Only Webby has remained pure ever since.
