Thoughts When Rewatching High School Musical

Thoughts when rewatching High School Musical

after being obsessed with High School Musical: the Musical the Series

pretty much just a bunch of parallels i noticed

Mostly how the characters in HSMTMTS match the characters they played with their season 1 arcs with a few exceptions.

1. I knew Chad carries his basketball everywhere, but boy he carries it everywhere…“She thinks I’m a Chad?!?” yeah you did bring a basketball to your audition so you sorta brought this on yourself Eej. He also just has a very Chad vibe I can’t explain.

2. Portwell in season 1 matches Taylor and Chad in just about every interaction they have from Taylor laughing at Chad up to Chad and Taylor scheming to get Troy and Gabriella out of the audition. Very wonderstudies with bad plans that don’t work out but then becoming the ones who go above and beyond to get Troy and Gabriella/ Ricky and Nini onstage for the callback/show for Breaking Free.

3. Troy sneaking through the building running around to auditions felt like a very Ricky move.

4. The only thing Seb and Sharpay have in common is that they deserved the lead and are under appreciated.

5. Alan the kid with the tie, who wrote his lines on his hands in the audition was giving me vibes of the kid who played Coach Bolton and sang Wondering in s2 auditions.

6. Ashlyn is Kelsi. Period. I love wondering for Ms. Darbus but like also it fits Kelsi too. And a Kelsi solo number would be like soooo good. The girl was frequently under appreciated I feel like she deserved it more than Ms. Darbus. Also since they are both songwriters.

7. And Ryan is not the brightest but always there with a funny one liner like Seb or Big Red, idk which he is more like.

8. Balcony scene- it mirrors the portwell couch scene so perfectlyi’m half convinced they copied the script. Also two seasons in and no one has ever gone on the balcony of the school and I want that so badly i don’t even know which couple should get it.

My findings are that Portwell season 1 is like Taylor and Chad and season 2 is Troyella. Almost like the wonderstudies got their chance to play both parts.

Also- How much time spans throughout the movies specifically between auditions and callbacks? Aren’t callbacks are usually within a week of the initial audition? the movie felt like more than a week

opinion time y'all

my thing is, i don't hate rina. i don't hate rina stans. i don't hate ricky. in fact, he's one of my favourite characters. i was actually a huuuge hardcore rina stan until s2, and tbh i still think they have absolutely unbelievable chemistry. i still enjoy rina fics and edits.

i think ricky really cares about gina, and it's obvious gina had feelings for him. however, rina would never be a healthy relationship because ricky will always put nini first. and that's ok, that's no one's fault! that doesn't make ricky a bad person/character, it just means he's not gina's person. he can never give gina the relationship she deserves. she is always chasing someone who can't love her the way she wants him to. while i think they have amazing chemistry, and definitely would be good together in different circumstances, it wouldn't be fair to gina to put her with someone who would never fully emotionally commit to her. nini will always hold more of ricky's heart than gina can, and rina getting together wouldn't be fair to any of them.

the reason i am a portwell stan through and through is because ej has already shown how he puts gina first and will be the person who loves her the way she deserves to be loved. she doesn't have to beg for his affection and break her own heart, he is standing ready to give it to her. it's part of both of their character development, but especially gina. she is learning she doesn't have to compete and "be the best" to be worthy of love, she just has to be herself, and ej has shown her that is more than enough for him.

also the only relationship ricky should be in is with therapy

dhdhdjdgewgywu GENIUS! I can totally see them passing down the alphabet of money and a J middle name, having BJ CJ then EJ so I just spent the last 40 minutes thinking of synonyms to cash and bill that start with an E, and with the help of thesaurus.com here’s what I got…😂

1) Estate James Caswell

2) Endowment James Caswell

3) Expensive James Caswell

4) Earthly-Possessions James Caswell

5) Earnings/Earn James Caswell

6) Escrow James Caswell

7) Emergency-Funds James Caswell

This is the best I could come up with, if you have others PLEASE SHARE.

I have this head canon that Ashlyn and E.J.’s paternal grandfather name is Bill Caswell because I think it would be funny since he has a son name Cash. Bill is not even short for “William” it’s just “Bill” like as in dollar bill and he was a banker before he retired. All the members of the Caswell family first name starts is at the beginning of the alphabet so following that same pattern it would be funny E.J.’s grandfather name is Bill and his mother’s name is Dolly like I said earlier.

sjhfdujekfa I'm DEAd. this is too funny, we've got cash, dolly, bill. What else? and it's the way the alphabet thing actually makes sense too lmao. your MIND anon.

risotto night

i'm not sure if they will actually show the portwell date happening in the show, but if they did, here's how i think it should go:

location: fancy italian restaurant (because i don't think salt lake slices has risotto lmao)

ash helps gina get ready and she looks absolutely gorgeous. as she finishes up, the doorbell rings. ash runs to get the door. it's ej all dressed up. she starts squealing with happiness and motions for him to come in and sit down. she tells him how happy she is for both of them and warns him not to hurt her. just then, gina comes into the room. ej's face lights up and he stands to go to her. he tells her how beautiful she looks and hugs her. gina smiles fondly, ash standing behind them looking like a proud mother with a daughter. she jokingly tells them to be home by 11. they go out to ej's car.

at the restaurant, they sit in a corner by the window. the lights are dim and the walls are covered with vines and exposed brick to add to the ambiance. they order 2 bowls of risotto.

as they wait for their food, gina and ej reminisce all of their little moments together and gina expresses once again how grateful she is to have him. ej responds by saying that having her in his life makes him so much happier than he could've ever imagined.

as they leave the restaurant and drive back to ash's house, they talk about what a magical night this was and gush over the food. as gina is about to head out of the car, she says something along the lines of:

i'm still in shock that you remembered risotto night at north high and gives him a soft kiss on the cheek.

with a smile, ej says: you know i would never miss risotto night

now picture this, but with the something there instrumental playing in the background. boom.

omg yes! so poetic! i also wanted to add they almost foreshadowed this idea about the plane taking off in 2x09 with jack saying the most dangerous part of the flight is taking off, not landing. Coming back to the lyric, “I’m safer when I’m on the run”, if running away= plane landing/going down is safer, like in hsm opening night when she is running away. then plane taking off (with ej) is more dangerous scarier and out of her comfort zone. but despite this she still takes off and takes her second chance and can fly with the right guy even if she is afraid she might fall. also making jack more of a portwell plot device to push them together. then after she takes that chance and asks ej to kiss him, taking off running toward him. like a plane on a runway. (changing the running away to running toward) even though it was dangerous and risky it was worth the risk for the chance to fly. and take off was successful because it was with the right guy!! more risk =more reward

thinking about gina’s line “maybe i’m safer when i’m on the run” and how it’s implied that she’s safer when she’s going from place to place with her mom because she doesn’t have time to open up her heart, but do you know where she runs the next time we see her running?? she runs towards ej. even when she tried to be “safer on the run” (whether that be moving in 1x10 or seeing her mom on break), ej was always the one there to bring her back from the airport where she belonged, which goes into the line “i got a second chance to fly.” airports have kind of become a portwell icon, and gina’s second chance to fly isn’t actually flying on a plane to run away, but to fly with ej and have him be her first kiss (and eventual boyfriend). she’s safer on the run because she’s running towards her person and she’s got a second chance to fly with ej instead of away from him.