Ship So Good They Had To Cancel The Fucking Show

the gmw writers really showed their inability to think outside the box and I have gone on a million rants about this (mostly to myself in my room lol) but just to pick up one of the many things that made me roll my eyes: when Maya is asked why she likes Lucas her response is he’s a nice/good guy and that’s all she says. And while I don’t begrudge her that, I do find it a little ridiculous that that is all the writers could come up with when there are at least like 5 obvious reasons (very clear/present in canon) for why Maya likes Lucas:

1. He challenges her, and honestly as far as I can remember he is the only one that does actually go toe to toe with her. (Lucas:”You wanna tangle with me?”/ Maya: “You think you can take me?”)

2. He makes her smile and laugh despite herself. Maya enjoys interacting with him. It’s all over her face when they play their little games or she teases him. She gets a thrill from flirting with him (and, yes, it’s flirting. It’s so obviously flirting that if you look flirting up in the dictionary you’ll find a picture of the “mad dog” scene where Lucas is asking Maya “well, what do I seem like to you?”)

3. He supports her (”I don’t want that for Maya, I want her to be happy” “They’re taking away something you’re very good at”) like homeboy was actually fired up about the arts program because he knows how much it means to her and that support resonates with her (she literally can’t stop staring at him when he says that and when Riley tries to get her attention she’s in a daze)

4. He KNOWS her, arguably better than the people who have known her for a lot longer. Lucas sees Maya and her selflessness even when others don’t (“Maya did that for Riley because that’s who Maya is”). 

5. He gets her! He’s been in her shoes before, making a mess of things, getting into trouble and letting his anger at the world get the best of him (This isn’t just shown in the show, I think he even straight up says this to Maya at one point) They also both see themselves as their friends’ protectors. In so many ways, they really are two sides of the same coin. 

6. She is attracted to him. Body language y’all. Maya is always finding herself leaning into Lucas’s personal space, yanking him towards her, touching him unnecessarily and ya! I’ll say it! He totally turns her on. When he gets all strong angry boi she finds that shit hot. That’s literally in canon.

To conclude, when Maya is asked if she likes Lucas it’s fucking dumb that her only response is “he’s such a nice guy” when her response could have been “I can’t explain it, he makes me laugh” or  “He’s the first guy in my life that’s ever been supportive and showed they cared about me” or “I feel like we just understand each other” or even “I don’t know why, but I’m drawn to him.” Literally any of those responses would have been more in line with what we are actually shown. 

(also, all these things that Maya likes about Lucas are very distinct to her relationship with him- they are NOT the things Riley likes about Lucas, which does pretty much amount to “he’s a good guy.” Hence, another reason it’s total BS that Maya only likes Lucas because “she’s turned into Riley”) 

Anyway, I just wanted to make this post because I’ve been thinking about season 3 a lot lately and just how messy and all over the place the writing is. I hate that the writers lost sight of the natural arc of the show, I hate how they wasted everyone’s time with the triangle arc by essentially just invalidating the feelings Maya and Lucas had for each other, having literally no one experience growth from it, and putting all the characters back to square one. And I hate that they didn’t take the great opportunity that was before them to subvert tropes/expectations. Legitimizing Lucas and Maya’s feelings for one another would have allowed all three characters in the triangle to grow, develop and be further fleshed out as characters. And, also, it would have meant that Lucas isn’t just Riley’s love interest and Maya isn’t just Riley’s unlucky sidekick. When you have a chance to give characters nuance so they can break away from 2D tropes/clichés seize on it! That’s what makes entertaining stories! The writers walked themselves into a storyline, realized that relationships were inevitably gonna change and characters were inevitably gonna get hurt (which is okay! why do the writers avoid hurting Riley at all costs? disillusionment and disappointment is simply an unavoidable part of growing up) and then turned around and ran to the exit rather than deal with the actual consequences of the story they set up/developed from (arguably) season 1. It was cowardly, lazy writing and that’s on that.

you know sometimes I listen to the jatp soundtrack and I'm okay. like yeah I will forever be bitter but at least I can rewatch s1 and listen to the soundtrack whenever I want and I still love to jam out to it

BUT THEN

the grief and anger crawl back up with a vengeance and I get PISSED that we didn't get more seasons which meant also no more music and I get filled with a fiery rage at Netflix all over again

Good day to say a big FUCK YOU to netflix for canceling Julie and the Phantoms. Absolutely unforgivable

1 episode / 100 episode

a series of unfortunate events is seriously such a piece of art like it’s so well acted, cleverly written, unique story, amazing scenery and colouring….. it’s just objectively such a good show !!!!

long post on the hsmtmts initial core 4 and their relationships and development i guess:

a lot of yall think getting into a relationship solves every existing problem within these characters and then get shocked when these exact problems get brought up again. the dumbest thing is that yall then bring up the argument “why spend the whole season building them up only to break them up in the next” or “you’re ruining their character development” as if we are not watching the same show and the answers are not right in front of you.

ricky accepted moving on from nini and it took her making a move and almost kissing him for him to realise he could go back to that and have one thing stay the same. he was terrified of change while she running towards change. i’m not saying he didn’t love her, but i’m saying that loving her was not the only reason for him to run back on his path of growth. and then in season two he did not like the person he was becoming with nini. ricky is not out of character this season but actually falling back to his character. because i don’t know what show yall were watching in season one but he was always goofy and carefree around gina. when he was reminiscing his friendship with nini he talked about himself as someone who was carefree and easygoing. he is not acting weird now just because yall did not pay attention to his character. he finally restored his relationship with his mother and no longer in a relationship where he feels he is being left behind, of course he no longer acts like an angsty teenager. please think a little.

nini got called out for making her life about boys and she tried to find her own person. but people seem to forget that besides that silly song that she did not actually grow from boys. in fact, right after that conversation with kourtney she was already getting jealous of ricky and gina. and right after that song she was already trying to kiss ricky. she needed that second chance with him to realise that an “i love you” wasn’t the problem of their relationship and they needed to work a lot more than just ricky’s feelings and communication. she also needed to know that her song wasn’t just for show and she actually needed to define herself and not having relationships define her.

they have not once been on the same page throughout season one and that was an argument people made before season two even aired and for some reason some of you were still shocked how things unfolded. (some even blamed outside drama but that’s another topic altogether) i feel like some of you guys are just not watching the show because this is a disney show, the subtext is not that deep. most of the things are right in your face.

and for some reason yall doing it again this season and i’m confused what part of the show have you missed? ej’s anxiety has been ongoing since season one. he is a guy that has never known anything less than perfection, and we could see that it comes from his family. he doesn’t work well with pressure and doesn’t really know his own way if things are not mapped out for him. he freaked out with having to play troy last minute, and freaked out with not being accepted into duke. mr mazzara told him to find a story and learn from it, so he focused on gina. now i’m not saying he hasn’t or couldn’t learn from gina, but that it was a pivotal moment in his life to finally learn about himself but he chose not to. now he is at camp with his girlfriend, with a responsibility he did not ask for but obviously wouldn’t turn away because that’s who he is. he had the summer mapped out for him but not anymore and that freaks him out. delivering anything less than perfection also freaks him out. this is something he should’ve started dealing with since last season when he realised his sense of self came from his family expectations. just like ricky, he got into a relationship to delay a growth that’s impossible to stumble upon. in addition, this guy severely lacks communication skills for someone that has been implied to be in several relationships. it happened with nini, it happened in the season finale with gina, and it’s happening once again. he creates scenarios in his head and goes with it instead of talking with the other person. in fact, he communicates his problems with anyone (ashlyn and now val) but the intended person. contrary to popular belief, “i’m no longer cunning” is not growth. specially when all his actions of redemption in season one was to make himself feel better. his character development is only starting now because besides not accepting that duke offer his dad practically bought him, he actually had no growth.

and then you have gina, a girl who entered a relationship in order to feel safe, seen and loved while not being over ricky. and deny it all you want, but that scene in carlos’ party wasn’t closure. her having to be away from ricky to create a path for ej and have her focus on it is not moving on. it’s only just creating a diversion that would eventually go back to its original path. this is also not me saying that she doesn’t like ej. it’s me saying that her heart has never been 100% with him because she never actually retrieved it from ricky in the first place. moreover, her character growth has never been about her “dropping the attitude” but about opening herself up to others and not run away when things get complicated as she never actually had the opportunity to form relationships and know how to communicate in them. that she doesn’t have to compromise who she is in order to feel loved and accepted.

and to just be clear, i’m not saying that these ships can’t eventually find each other again. but it’s never a surprise when a breakup is eventually coming towards them. and using “but they spend the whole season building them up” as an excuse is not the take you think it is. and that their character development is more than just “i did bad things and now i don’t” when they’re not actually growth. a lot of yall take one song or dialogue as character development and fail to realise that their actions are not following along and then call it “repetitive” when it gets brought up again when it hasn’t even been solved in the first place.

and i’m also not saying rina is above them. (although i do believe they are) but what i’m saying is that ricky and gina always had story arcs that flowed together and yet, it wasn’t time for them. so for me it makes no sense to question why rina is still a thing because you just do not understand the concept of slow burn and do not understand that these characters and their storylines have always been intertwined from the very first season. i understand the denial in season one, but if you finished season two truly believe they were over and done with, you’re either obtuse, or you were settling for extremely bad writing.

1.26 vs 4.26

tom after chat turns marinette down

Listen I know I am hardcore on that HSMTMTS bullshit and I promise if you follow me for the multitude of other shows I talk about/write about I will get back to them. But before that happens…

I’m seeing a lot of negative feedback regarding how “bad” some of the actual production of HSM was (as in, the show within the show). 

All I can say is…that’s the point? The point is to make this show (as in HSMTMTS) as realistic as possible. 

Which is meta in it’s own right, isn’t it? The kids in the HSM FILM were all so unnaturally good at singing/dancing? Like Chad had a whole song about how he doesn’t dance while he was doing freaking pirouettes and backflips on the baseball field. Come on. 

But an entire cast is not going to be like that in a normal, real world public school. Even “East High.” Those kids are just like anybody else; some of them are good, some of them are not so good, but all of them are trying their best.

And again, that’s the point.

The scene with Ricky and EJ as Chad/Troy in the hallway talking/walking? Do you really think that was supposed to be anything other than awkward? Do you remember the rehearsal for “Start Of Something New?” Or how Ricky can’t really dance that well, or how EJ’s voice breaks sometimes, or Nini’s subpar acting/getting thrown off by things that alter the production?

That’s high school theatre!

Federle was concerned the dancing in the show was TOO good! He didn’t want it to look like a professional production (but the dancers they hired were so awesome and the choreographer was so talented he decided he had to keep it). 

If the argument is that Gina and EJ deserved the lead-they explained that. Ms. Jenn cast Nini and Ricky as leads because of the emotional connection to the material. Her gut said to go with the underdogs, because there was something between them she felt read like Troy/Gabriella. It happens in life, because it happened with my senior musical–the director cast kids in leading roles who had NEVER performed before, because he felt they embodied the character they auditioned for so well. 

It worked for my high school theatre director and it worked for Ms. Jenn. She was completely on point, because Ricky and Nini legitimately recreated the “Breaking Free” scene in real time during opening night.

Again, the META of it all!

This show is incredibly high concept and while I know not every viewer is going to pick up on all these small moments and decisions and appreciate them like I do, I just hate to see this blind hate without really thinking a little bit more critically about what a piece of art or entertainment is trying to tell you. 

(We all in agreement no one should be getting into that performing arts program, though…besides maybe Seb)

first vs last appearances

       the core four