Cal

Like, okay so, Star and Michael…. Star-chael…. Starkle…. Sparkle? Mikestar, seems to be misunderstood at large. Based off of the few fics that feature the ship and some comments out there in the wild… I get the feeling that the 3 ballads and a kiss are being passed over a little because it feels like a typical 80s shoehorned romance, but the story here isn’t actually cliche, nor is it shoehorned. I know it seems that way because he tries to pull a love at first sight, but the play is pretty good at expanding on this interest beyond the fact that she is the most beautiful woman in the world. Not to mention Michael isn’t, like, attracted to Star so he can marry her and have kids with a nice house, nor is she interested in him because she wants to settle down and live in peace. In fact, living is like… the last thing in either of their minds. Let’s go down the list of those three (really it’s 2.5) ballads and the kiss, shall we? Because have y’all heard those lyrics?

(All links to the lyrics taken from @itmighthurtalittle’s Google doc collection of preview lyrics!)

Hurt a Little

A bit of a straight forward song (pun not intended). Star isn’t dropping hints so much as she’s pitching them at Michael like she’s in the Yankees. And he’s not dodging them insomuch as he’s catching them so he can eat them like candy. She says: I Am Going To Kill You and he says: Pretty Please?

The thing about Michael is… he’s not actually suicidal, but he could fool anybody with how much he’s looking for that adrenaline rush. He’s like mountain climbers and cave explorers. Completely voluntary hobbies. Movie Michael is kind of just a really funny and easily influenced guy, but Musical Michael gets labeled as a himbo unfairly in my opinion, probably because of movie Michael. He’s actually quite observant! He notices that she means to isolate him suspiciously before they even begin singing anything, and he’s also glocking her avoidant tendencies before he barely even meets her. But he doesn’t care, is the thing, because he wants a choice in his own destruction. He wants to get in trouble and survive it on his own terms because he’s traumatized and depressed. Also, she’s sexy but relatively harmless, as even Sam (the superior judge of character among the Emersons) correctly dismisses her as a threat. It isn’t disrespect, it’s probably just their observation skills (which may or may not have been gained from watching out for their father’s moods.)

Granted, part of the huge appeal of this number is also that they’re very cute while singing it. Michael doing his cute lil dance and getting all the tools for the piercing while she’s begrudgingly endeared… it’s very meet cute! Very sweet! But catch how this piece doesn’t end in them laughing about his earring. It ends in Star running away—mistakenly thinking she’s the most dangerous thing to Michael at the moment and removes herself from the situation. Or perhaps she was only thinking about herself and how she doesn’t want to personally hurt anyone, and definitely not Michael who has been so endearing to her! Either way, she did Michael no favor, because the moment she is gone You Know Who pops in and inserts himself to fill her place.

David’s timing is deliberate, of course. Whichever way it ended he knew that he was going to win—because either she ate, or she didn’t. Star was never going to make out with you Michael, sorry. (David wasn’t gonna make out with you either fyi. Sorry.) I’ve seen many interpretations of this scene as David trying to teach Star a lesson, and I think that checks out. He’s definitely already noticed Michael by this point, and in all instances it’s in relation to Star. He doesn’t really see Michael as one of the precious little trinkets he can collect until a little later, though of course he notices that he smells really damn delicious. (He’s so weird ❤️)

It’s kind of an interesting oversight on Star’s part given how awfully attentive David has been up to this point. She must have known he was watching. But it also makes sense that she’s just accepted that she’s not capable of stopping anything that David has set his mind out to do, so it’s very possible that when she ran away she was just hoping Michael actually went home before she did something she’d regret and left the rest to chance. We all know he didn’t go home, but part of that wasn’t on him for not listening to her and more on David not giving him the chance to. I don’t even think he gets 5 seconds to walk to the stairs.

There’s also the context of the scene to consider. Star has just pierced Michael’s ear, and David finishes the job for her by giving Michael his earring to fill in the hole. The metaphor isn’t hard to decipher—Star has unfortunately set Michael up in a trap, bleeding and all, ripe for David’s picking. But thankfully for everybody Michael has a family that does seek him out, so David didn’t accidentally eat a future boytoy brother. Yay!

Now, Forever

Now we’re talking. This is when it starts getting personal, and the connection they feel for one another goes beyond Michael and Star finding each other cute and hot. First off, right before they start singing anything Michael points out that Star is watching the stars in the sky (don’t be hard on yourself, Michael, it was funny). Star then lets him know that the stars are so far away, that many of them are already dead by the time their light reaches them. Did anybody order some subtlety? cuz it didn’t arrive. But that’s alright WHO NEEDS IT

Michael isn’t suicidal, but Star very likely is. And if she’s not, it’s because she feels like she’s already dead. This girl just wants to waste away in peace, she seemingly has no future to long for. If Michael and David are running from their past, longing for a future where they’re free, Star is stuck constantly in the present moment. She’s tired of the pain, but is afraid of change. When she sings Now, Forever, it’s in the context of wishing for that connection that she’s feeling with Michael to remain static.

Comparatively, the lyrics of Hurt a Little are textually the opposite of Now, Forever. Hurt a Little is spoken entirely through the use of what ifs and has beens. “You better take it slow,” “where it will lead,” “might find the wrong kind of fun” “something that can’t be undone”. She references the past whenever she says “if I know anything at all”. Hurt a Little says “let’s not do this, my experience assures me it won’t end well.”

But Now, Forever is focusing a lot on how they’re feeling right at that very moment and not wishing for a future at all. Whereas Hurt a Little was very hypothetical, very “but what if it ends badly? (So what if it does?)” which is very funny because it did end badly and Michael barely survived, but anyway—Now, Forever is about that specific moment they are feeling and how they wish that nothing else could happen. They wanna make the world stop spinning, and capture the moment, and make it last “'Cuz the good goes fast”.

It’s just… very interesting! Sadly interesting! Time! How it holds them back! Thinking of the past hurts, and the future is scary. They wanna be static and stuck in time. It’s very Star-core, and you can see how it helps Michael. Being in the moment helps him evaluate himself, take a moment to think about his circumstances, but mostly he’s just really in need of companionship, and he’s getting that so wholeheartedly with Star. They’re making friends! The world feels brighter! It’s such a beautiful moment, about connection and understanding. I know they’re talking about watching stars from the very beginning but the lighting in this scene also signifies that they start at sunset and the song ends once there are no more orange rays and it’s all in blue—the sun has gone down. It’s very unfortunate that time did not stop, huh?

Because Gee, I wonder if there’s a character in this play with the ability to stop time, who ensures he uses it like 80% of the time he speaks to Star, and once again inserts himself immediately after these two stop singing? Yeah. Surprise? The song was a call for David all along! Or, if it wasn’t, he’s certainly making it so. Two doesn’t make a pattern but David popping in immediately after Star and Michael have a moment… I’m noticing SOMETHING. There’s also a weird thing happening here near the end of the song where Star and Michael are telling each other that they can hear each other breathing. Very interesting line given that David tells Michael to “never stop breathing” back in Time to Kill. What does it MEAN???

I can tell you what my best guess is, and that’s that Michael and Star are kind of… I guess making each other like. Ultra weak. picking at their scabs without getting specific. They’re both hurting, and they recognize this, so they’re technically going through the Right Steps to reach a proper understanding of one another. If they were alone it would probably be fine, but they Are Not, they are under the influence of a very particular guy and he’s very pushy. Star in particular puts on that black jacket that kind of gobbles her up immediately after this song, and then runs to David’s call. And of course, Michael will follow, so would ya look at that… she’s done it again! Accidentally set Michael up for a trap!

Star doesn’t seem to notice that Michael is projecting unto her (it’s like rock paper scissors but projecting unto one another with these three) and that her actually being so visibly close with David undoes any chance she has at convincing Michael to stay away from him. Because if Star is doing so well with him, how can Michael not? When the two of them are so similar? (I have a Hot Take, and it’s that David isn’t even that bad for Star, because without him she’d be dead already and the reason she hasn’t done so even now is because he’s too annoying to let her, on purpose. It’s probably part of why she’s given up on leaving him even though she knows he’s dangerous and not the answer to any of her problems. This isn’t quite the case for Michael, but he’s not seeing it that way, so.)

A pattern seems to be set up: David->MikeStar song->David. Right before Hurt a Little starts, the audience sees David pressure Star, and like a minute later they start singing, once it’s over it’s his scene to sing. To Michael, the last he had seen of Star was her having the time of her life on stage with the band, being more than a little close with the lead singer. And it’s Like… she’s surrounded by David. If David is associating Michael with Star, Michael’s associating David with Star. (Directionally, the audience is enticed to too, as she’s wearing the black jacket when we first meet her. If you’ve read my not so little Star costuming essay, I believe that black jacket symbolizes David’s influence darkening Star’s light.)

It happens again before Now, Forever, where their conversation brings up David pretty much immediately, and he is both validated and rejected by Star. And then the moment Now, Forever ends… well of course he’s gonna answer their summons. So David keeps surrounding their every interaction before Michael even really has a normal conversation with him. I’ve also noticed how the title of Now, Forever grammatically parallels David’s response right after: Lost, Boy.

And frankly… how is David supposed to pass this up? They make each other so vulnerable and raw and open. Did you guys notice how in Lost, Boy, Michael admits to feeling alive for the very first time? But wasn’t he noticing some kind of feeling that he wanted to feel for a longer time when he was connecting with Star? Does that mean it wasn’t life? So what is it?

I think the remaining half a ballad may give us a proper clue of what is it that Michael and Star are looking for in each other. Let’s look at that second half of Lose Yourself (reprise)

First off: Michael’s goals are to “make things right [and] Find what’s real and hold on tight before I lose myself”. He’s feeling pretty betrayed by David at this point because of the Surfer buffet. Don’t worry I’m sure he’ll get over it. So it stands to reason that he wants to know if Star is a traitor too. She isn’t—that girl was gonna lose vocal cords begging Michael to Not Go In That Cave, and even continued to speak on his behalf once he had reached the point of no return—but something I find fascinating is how she blames herself for this situation in the first place anyway. Objectively, we know that their troubles are all on David and he is the one that should be held to account, but subjectively… well, I’ve already talked about how she keeps leading him into traps. And Michael keeps chasing her into them!

To go back to this reprise, the theming of their biggest enemy, time, of course comes back. It’s very subtle this round! The typical synonyms and phrases for time aren’t used, we’re relying on context clues. Michael tries to use his past experience as justification for why he allowed himself to be surrounded by the world’s most obvious serial killers—“I could’ve gotten away […] I’ve taken hits // Way worse than this.” But obviously we know he’s being a little absurd, and Star isn’t pulling her punches. His traumatic experiences made him more vulnerable to David’s influence, not stronger. Michael’s spiraling into “wow I’m a fucking idiot” territory, but Star spirals into “I wish we had never met”, trying to manifest time travel, because she can see her role in this and it hurts her.

So Michael can’t let her continue that route, because she does help, bloody traps and all. Michael’s been depressed the whole story, looking for thrilling experiences to bypass the numbness. Which is why he sees her as a “bolt of lightning // [that he] had to know”. He needs companions SO BAD, and now that he feels the rift in his and David’s, uh, let’s call it ideologies, the only one he can turn to is Star.

When it’s not her, Michael is forced to face his brother and his mother, the two people he loves most in the world and whom he feels such deep bitterness and resentment for. How worth it is it even to hold on to them and fight for them in his life? And it’s obvious that he doesn’t know the answer. He doesn’t want to let go of them, but a part of him wishes they’d set him loose. You can see why he looks to Star so much, who has disconnected herself from her family, and is just drifting away, only barely tethered to the world (never mind that this is because a Really Annoying Guy ❤️ won’t let her die in peace, but I digress).

And uhhhhhh that’s kind of what this song is getting at. Like, sure, they’re acknowledging their vested interest in keeping each other alive (they even say “you make me feel alive” which is quite the progress given that back in Now, Forever, Michael didn’t really think so), and also in the uncertain ways they affect one another (such as “You made me feel, and it was frightening,” “My god, you burn so bright”), but have we noticed yet how there is no actual future mentioned in this song? Even though it’s their last dual ballad?

In the same stanza where they end with “Alive”, they mention that their only recourse from this point is just survival. They say “survive” three times, while “alive” only once in the whole song. Meanwhile, to go along with the theme of survival, Michael’s original goal of “Finding what’s real and holding on tight before he loses himself” is utterly discarded. He’s back to his original goal in the first iteration of “Lose Yourself”, where he wanted to dissociate and escape. He’s back to wanting to dissociate and escape BUT…. With Star this time!! Isn’t that romantic!!! Also his first line in this version of the song is “I don’t wanna disappear,” but near the end he goes on to say “maybe we can disappear” like the regression is so real you guys. These two are so Over It.

They put themselves in the perfect emotional position to be frozen in time forever. Everyone keeps writing fanfics where Michael gives in during the massacre dinner or when David does a different method but I actually think Michael is at his lowest possible point right here, where he’s tired and downtrodden and the only other source of strength he could draw to can’t provide him any methods of escape. Looking to Star was never going to save him, she Is Not some metaphorical answer to his problems the way Max and David present themselves as, she can only give him her presence and comfort, and with it some relief. Is there a drug analogy here—nooo no no I’m not going there.

And again, this would be Fine™ if this was It. Star doesn’t HAVE to fix Michael, and he doesn’t have to fix her. They just have to be there for each other, and with time they’d heal and find a future to look to. But oh, man. David has a whole song about killing time 😬 If Sam hadn’t come in to the rescue and force the issue, I’m sure David would have had A Very Good Week. Remember that pattern earlier about how it felt like David kept creeping himself into their moments? Let’s look at the David name drops!

Star is the first character to name him in the play, like two minutes before they start playing piano in Hurt a Little (there’s time for Michael to win the teddy bear and Sam popping in to interrupt the first murder attempt). In Now, Forever, Michael name drops David like a minute and a few seconds before they start playing the piano. It’s how they start the conversation at all (but I do wanna give a shoutout to her mentioning how the earring isn’t half bad—Oh I’m sure. That one is like 30 seconds before the piano keys). In the Lose Yourself Reprise? David is name dropped smack dab in the middle of their part of the song: “I’ll run.” “David will find you, his blood is in your veins!”

I’m almost certainly overthinking this, I know. David is always there because he’s like. The most important character in the play. But my god. If I may continue this train of thought… it feels like the conclusion of how he integrated himself into more than just their relationship. In the first instance, he had to physically be there to talk to Star, in the second instance Michael feels prompted to mention him because of the results of his botched murder attempt (a nice earring), in the third David has successfully placed himself into their very beings. He’s not even outside of their songs now! Literally by just being Michael and Star, David is There, through their blood. Nobody can tell this man NOTHING.

He doesn’t NEED to pop up after they’re done singing this time, his goal has been achieved, which is to tie Star and Michael to himself and have them feel the same. Michael and Star are good for each other, just enough to address the emotional issues that were popping up (I’m not sure how effective vampire blood is at curing depression), but they’re not mentally equipped to cut David off like the fungus he is. Individually, he’s also just kinda playing, like, idk. RPG romance simulator. Fire Emblem? LMAO. You know those games where you ship characters together for their benefits? Yeah. He’d be great at the later Fire Emblems. He’s having trouble turning Star fully and as we’ve mentioned, she’s depressed and longing for disengagement with the world (to put it mildly). The singing helps (agreeing with Vraik’s headcanon here), but again. That’s not therapy. So it stands to reason that he’d use the very first cute person that can make her look away from the sky down to the earth. That’s ALSO not therapy but David is sure that something will stick if he just keeps throwing stuff. On Michael’s end... well… she’s the perfect bait… but also Michael is depressed too and also in need of someone that he doesn’t wanna throw out of a window after David accidentally misjudged his willingness to murder random strangers and made him angry at him and his boys and also isolated him from his own blood family. Woops. And what does David get out of it? Like, aside from two wives and eye candy in each arm? Uhhhh two new siblings :)

(The real answer is probably its own essay.)

I’ve mentioned before that Star’s positioning in Secret Comes Out isn’t mutually exclusive from David’s even though they visually appear to be two opposing forces. You can kind of already tell this is the case because of the lyrics, and the fact that they harmonize constantly, My argument in this absurdly long essay is that he makes it so it can’t be mutually exclusive. Because he (caringly) has Star in his pocket, and he knows it, she knows it, Michael now knows it, time to profit? It’s kind of both hilarious and Next Level, with a spoonful of horrifying. The only saving grace is that David doesn’t know that Star WOULD chose protecting Michael over standing with David, and Michael will always chose Sam over any of you. His miscalculation came in the form of outside forces that he completely set aside as Unimportant. Dumbass. That’s what you get for not believing in the power of love 🙄

IN CONCLUSION: David ships them because they bring out in each other just the right amount of hope and survivability that it takes to last a decade or two until he can get them to turn but not enough to write petitions against him. These two are not fighting for their freedom or autonomy, they’re just as likely to go settle in the corner of the factory and chain themselves with handcuffs, but at least they love each other and are equally so attached to him that they can’t even kill him happily. It’s like toxic threesome bingo.

I also think the desire for a normal family with a future that follows the norm is kind of required for those pesky thoughts such as hetnormativity and comp-het and what-have-you. MikeStar is not framed like this at all. In fact, there’s an argument here to be made that they should probably stay away from each other if they really need Michael’s little brother to get himself in danger so they can realize that they gotta kill the guy they’re in love with. We also already know that they don’t even mean to do it, they weren’t even ready, they are like babies. Sam and his bros are badassing around that house oneshotting hardened killers while Mike and Star are gonna cry because David died. I’m being so mean but this is genuinely so delicious to me. MikeStar isn’t even a duo it’s a trio where the missing member is holding the other two like Barbie dolls. He’s gonna haunt them SO bad post-canon.

BONUS Thoughts I didn’t get to:

-Right before Michael wins the teddy bear, he asks her how he can convince her to be his girlfriend. She tells him “I don’t know… promise me eternal happiness and a love that never dies?” What kind of Belong To Someone foreshadowing bullshit is this??? Ey yo Hornsby and Hoch can I have you on call real quick?? Rescues??? ANYONE??? DID SHE PUT THAT IN HIS HEAD???

-okay so you guys know that wild dialogue that David used to say to Star in previews before it got cut to a more chill and sympathetic rendition, right? How he’s like “Go, be with [Michael] for a night”?? (I still can NOT believe they even considered having him say that. Oh my god.) And then she sings War because she’s so Tired and Over It and Frustrated at how David will never look inward and realize he’s never gonna win at Happy Family Legos so instead he’s dragging her into this eternal state of depression and guilt?

Okay cool so chronologically for her after this she meets up with Michael after all that and then they have their whole argument and then the end of the Lose Yourself Reprise and they kiss. And right after they hold hands and run off to a fade to black? So like we’re aware that’s a nod to how during the movie this is when they have sex? Specially considering that Michael gets home super late afterwards as shown by the framing of Lucy singing Michael? So like, am I the only one thinking about the implications here?? That David orders Star to have sex with Michael and then she DOES IT??? HELLO?? CAN SOMEONE GIVE ME DAVID HORNSBY’S NUMBER I HAVE QUESTIONS!!!

Like I know that this isn’t the case in the current show any more because that dialogue is completely reworked and whatever goes on between Michael and Star in private is their business but this warrants a discussion??? Writers??? What the fuck.

-I hope this panicked paragraph inspires someone other than me to write the AU where Sam and the Frog Brothers are. Idk. Watching Rambo together or something. In Summer camp. And don’t catch on who the vamps are fast enough so David can enjoy the fruits of his labor by crashing into Star and Michael’s night, as he’s wont to do. Chop chop fan fic writers.