#drowsytown

So there have already been a fair amount of theories about Clivesdale and why the residents of Hatchetfield hate it so much. I'll start by reviewing one of the most popular theories: that Clivesdale and Hatchetfield mirror the black and white, and that Clivesdale is associated with the "white" while Hatchetfield is associated with the "black".

The evidence is pretty compelling:

Clivesdale is the "sister city" of Hatchetfield. Webby is the sister of the LIB

The townspeople hate Clivesdale with a violent passion, and people have already pointed out that this mirrors Wiggly's hatred of Webby. Meanwhile, the people of Clivesdale don't seem to hate Hatchetfield. They raise the bridge in TGWDLM out of concern, but they don't seem to aggressively dislike Hatchetfield and mourn them when they are gone. This again seems to mimic that attitude Webby and her brothers have with each other.

The names of Clivesdale and Hatchetfield have similar meanings. "Clive" means to "Split or to chop" and "Dale" means "Valley". Hatchets are used to chop things. The towns are literally "split apart". I talk about the names of some of the town's other landmarks here.

The fight between the Clivesdale and Hatchetfield High football teams is emphasized a lot, to the point where the news covers it more than the murders of the teens in NPMD, and warns that a "losing streaks coming", but says that hopefully they can "get them next year". This could signify how the war between the black and white seems to occur in several realities.

Clivesdale and Hatchetfield have other similarities too, like how the Hatchetfield Honey Festival (a cover for an evil cult sacrifice, according to Nightmare Time) parallels the Clivesdale Cherry Festival (which no one is interested in, according to a newspaper prop from the musicals, but that's the Hatchetfield news, so it might be biased reporting).

But even if we assume this theory is true, I don't think the LIB would make the residents hate the town merely because they hate their sister and her town. This is because there are two other potentially terrifying reasons why the LIB would want the citizens of Hatchetfield to hate Clivesdale.

The first, which I haven't seen anyone talk about yet, is that Hatchetfield is an island. To leave it, citizens either need to leave by plane, boat, or bridge. And where does the only bridge off the island lead? Clivesdale. The LIB make the residents hate Clivesdale so that they won't leave Hatchetfield because it likely means they'd have to go through Clivesdale, which many residents say they'd rather die than do. One piece of evidence that supports this theory is the way the LIB try to entice the residents of Hatchetfield to stay in "Drowsytown":

There are many times when the LIB refer to the Black or being under their control as being in "Drowsytown" (and I can make a whole other post about the LIB and sleep/nightmares and Drowsytown symbolism another time). But, this is significant, because when citizens "wake up" from the LIB's control, their followers and the LIB themselves specifically ask them to stay "Down in Drowsytown" (also possibly a metaphor for "Hatchetfield's Downtown", they do sound similar). In Nightmare Time, the sniggles also sing about how they can't leave Drowsytown.

The other reason the LIB want the citizens of Hatchetfield to hate Clivesdale so much is a bit darker, and stems from a combination of Clivesdale being the only way off the island and the deep seated hatred the people of Hatchetfield have for Clivesdale, particularly in NPMD.

I have a separate post on this, but Max Jagerman hates Clivesdale so much that when he dies, he declares that he's going to destroy the whole town Clivesdale, and in "Go Go Nighthawks!", the students declare that they are going to "kill Clivesdale". At first this seems like the usual Clivesdale hate, but then one might consider the facts that Clivesdale is one of Hatchetfield's only links to the outside world, and the LIB seem to have a vested interest in conquering said world.

Thus, when the citizens of Hatchetfield say they hate Clivesdale and are going to destroy everyone there, they are not just referring to the citizens of Clivesdale, or the White/Webby of the "Black and White", but the mainland, the rest of the world, and everyone in it.

Think about it. If the LIB convinced the citizens of Hatchetfield that joining them or doing what they wanted would destroy Clivesdale, most of them would join them in their world domination quest with no questions asked. The LIB also sing in NMPD "why help you with the Jagerman when we could help the world?" which when combined with Max's earlier threat about destroying all of Clivesdale, and the fact the LIB make sure they still have control of Grace at the end of NPMD, seems pretty concerning, because it appears to imply that the LIB would only help the kids with Max if they had the guarantee that they'd still have a way to conquer the world, but again, this is just a theory.

Then there are two other relatively unexplored aspects of the dynamic between Clivesdale and Hatchetfield that we just don't have very much detail on, but I'll share what I got.

The first is the names of their mascots: The Nighthawks and The Chemists (I already made a post about the Sycamore High Timber Wolves).

The "Nighthawks" seems pretty self explanatory, it fits with the whole "Nightmare Time" "Eternal Night" "Black" "Drowsytown" theme quite nicely. Also in NPMD, when singing about Max, the students sing "like a nighthawk he preys" and the nighthawks are called predators.

The "Clivesdale Chemists" is more obviously an odd mascot, but harder to figure out since we don't have much lore on Clivesdale. "Chemists" could mean "Alchemists" could mean "Witches", but it's still unclear what the significance could be there or what the history is between Hatchetfield and Clivesdale and how it mimics the history between Webby and Wiggly. (The Witch in the Web song and Wiggly's repeated statements about hating Webby and wanting "wrath"/"revenge" are the only clues we have on that for now. Also the Cross and Holloway rivalry).

The second is the existence of the Nantucket Bridge.

It provides compelling evidence for the first part of my theory about the LIB using the Clivesdale hate to keep everyone in Hatchetfield/Drowsytown/the Black. If the people of Hatchetfield hate Clivesdale, they won't use the bridge.

I googled the word "Nantucket" and found a few meanings: "island", "far off land" and "sandy, sterile soil tempting no one". Make of that what you will.

It is confirmed in TGWDLM that Clivesdale controls the Nantucket Bridge (or at least half of it), because they raise it when Hatchetfield becomes infected with Pokey's apocalypse. Interestingly, this is the only time they seem to do so and they do so in response to what seems like just reports of a meteor crash into a theater and the occurrence of random flash mobs (not the scariest sounding thing that's ever happened in Hatchetfield so idk).

"Bridge" could also be referring to a gateway to the Black and White from earth, or bridge between the Black and White in general. Keeping along with the word theme, the body of water under the bridge is called the "Nantucket Channel", and the use of the words "Channel" and "Black and White" could refer to television, but that association is a bit more out there than the other ones, which have more evidence.