once again, this is very much not the content that you all signed up to see, but i have no choice but to make this post because i am mad at disney.

now, i’m sure most of us feel at least a little inexplicable rage at that mouse once or twice a week, but today my rage has surpassed both “little” and “inexplicable” and become full fledged anger that the audacity of the stupid little mouse.

thats right. im talking about high school musical the musical the series.

if you happen to be one of the fortunate people who has never heard of this, consider yourself lucky because it has been taking up valuable space in my brain for the last year.

most of us know high school musical, the beloved disney channel movies from the latter half of the 2000s starring zac efron, vanessa hudgens, ashley tisdale, lucas grabeel, corbin bleu and monique coleman. they told the story of basketball star troy bolton falling madly in love with scholastic decathlon champion gabriella montez through their unlikely and accidental love of high school theater. and we all definitely cried when they broke up in the second one (however briefly it was).

these movies became the staple of a generation (mine) and however cheesy they may be, they rank in only the most iconic of television. i, like many others, are very protective of these classics.

so. in 2019. a grand total of 13 years after the first high school musical movie aired on the disney channel, disney released a disney+ series called one other than high school musical the musical the series, starring olivia rodrigo and joshua bassett.

from the beginning, i was infuriated by this. but not because of the content of the show, i did watch the show and the show was actually quite good and i thoroughly enjoyed it. my issue was with the absolute abomination of a title.

titles should roll off the tongue. and whatever the fresh fuck that is certainly doesn’t roll off anything. it’s long. it’s clunky. the acronym looks like a pre schoolers attempt at spelling their name. it infuriates me.

but, i was willing to put this aside because i enjoyed the show.

but now, two whole years later, i am no longer willing to overlook this outrageous and dastardly mistake that the mouse made because the show was renewed for a new season. and guess what. they are not putting on high school musical.

now, in my rage i realize that i forgot to explain the premise of the show. in said show, east high school (the school where high school musical took place), gets a new drama teacher who learns that the school has never put on high school musical before. and the show is about their trials and tribulations of doing so.

so in season 2, which just recently came out, the east high drama department puts on another show, you know, as drama departments tend to do. and guess what show it is?

since this is a rant post, i will tell you.

it is beauty and the beast.

yes. that is correct.

and last i checked, beauty and the beast has nothing to do with high school musical.

so why on earth is the show still called high school musical the musical the series of season two has literally no connection to high school musical except for the fact that it happens to take place at the same high school (and yes apparently they were initially supposed to put on hsm 2 but changed it because of a plot point).

and disney, the cheeky bastards, knew that this show was going to get renewed. because in the very end of the last episode the theater teacher says “wait till you see what i have planned for the spring” or something. so they knew. they knew that this was going to get renewed. and yet. they still named it.

high school musical the musical the series.

if we’re following the trend, it should be called beauty and the beast the musical the musical the series.

they could have named it something so much better. like. east high theater. or east high drama department. or something other than fucking HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL THE MUSICAL THE SERIES.

HAPPY BI VISIBILITY DAY TO GINA PORTER & RICKY BOWEN

can we talk about this scene though? like literally what reason does EJ have to be looking at gina and ricky like that? and the look he and nini share right after? The way his smile legit dROPS . like i'm not saying anything, but if anyone didn't know better they'd say he was jealous or something. and i don't know better so idk

i am SO confident in my prediction that now that gina and ej know that their feelings are mutual they’re both gonna be so comfortable with physical touch, like i don’t even mean kissing i mean gina casually sitting on ej’s lap, ej throwing his arm around her shoulder and kissing her forehead, holding hands, i just know they’re both physical touch people once they’re comfortable enough and i cannot wait

Carlos: did you buy eggs like I asked?

Seb: even better!

Carlos:

Carlos: what did you do?

Seb, holding up a chicken: her name is fluffy!

Manifesting

We need it 🕯️

Gina really got the whole crew simping for her

she likes to give me heart attacks at the most random times—

Quick Portwell headcanon to warm your Portwell heart

Gina and EJ were talking once and EJ (same as Matt) said screw toxic masculinity and started ranting about how it is unfair that in society giving flowers to one's s/o is girly or femenine, and that men should be able to be called "beautiful" or recieve flowers or chocolates from their partner. Heck, he hasn't even been asked what his favorite flowers are!

Gina laughs and asks what his favorite flowers are. He says orchids and poppies are his favorite.

Flash forward to 6 months later on EJ's birthday. Gina shows up at his door with chocolates, a bouquet of orchids and poppies and tells him he's beautiful.

From then on they have the tradition of eating chocolates and giving each other flowers on their birthdays.

i wanna start a lil' chain of positivity here, so i'm gonna ask you: why do you ship portwell? what about them resonates with you in your life that makes you wanna fight for this ship? just curious to see everyone's answers :)

this is so cute, thank you for asking!

i think the main thing that absolutely floors me w portwell is how real they feel bc of their chemistry. matt and sofia are phenomenal actors and you can see how ej and gina feel in every look, every sentence, every minuscule shift in body language. when they’re around each other there’s this obvious respect and admiration (best showcased in the 208 couch scene i’d say) that i just can’t get enough of.

they’re also just ,, perfect for each other?? i didn’t realize it before but i’m a sucker for growing together/bc of each other and they execute that perfectly to a t. from 1.0 to 2.0, they’ve always been equals and ready to bounce off of each other and it makes so much sense for them to develop feelings and fall in love. portwell received so much buildup bc they DESERVED the buildup. it’s true to their characters and how they each needed to heal from past romantic situations, and now they get to flourish together 🥰

no but ej caswell would be the type to rock you back and forth as he hugs you. and when you cry he softly cups your face in his hands and brushes away your tears with the pad of his thumb and tells you it’s all gonna be okay, in this essay i will -

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL: THE MUSICAL: THE SERIES 2x03 - Valentine’s Day | 2x04 - The Storm

i don't think ej was actually jealous of gina in that scene cause his first reaction is to look at nini, so my interpretation of the scene is actually ej realizing that nini is still jealous of ricky and that he can't and won't compete with ricky which is kinda his arc in this episode with him confessing the things he did wrong to nini and i think this scene completes his story in this episode. but i do think this scene is important in the portwell story and why ej was not bothered by the chocolates thing and he mades a joke about it, cause he always knew that gina liked ricky, especially with the "do you care about ricky now" that he says also in the same episode, like we all know that ej pays really attention to gina so there are probably more moments where he realized the ricky x gina thing but i think these two are ones shows that in a more explicit way.

so i agree with this mostly, def agree that he wasn't exactly jealous of gina and ricky. but imo it wasn't bc of nini either? like he looked at them hugging and before that he was totally smiling but all of a sudden the smile just drops? and thats all before he looks at nini. I guess this scene can have different interpretations, and i def like your theory. but i personally think its about losing someone to ricky, and not in a romantic interest way but in a 'person' way. like it made him wonder what was so great about ricky, that people kept choosing him over ej (again not in a romantic way). and it made him rethink all the bad things he's done? i feel like i'm not explaining this properly so if you get it then you get it. if you don't then sorry im such an idiot xD

currently missing portwell.

You see, Miss Jenn's ass could catch these hands......but I would literally throw hands and beat someone's ass for Kate, I love her so much. And I love her relationship with the younger cast

So first of all this part gives me FAMILY vibes and I love it!!!

But the real thing here that got me thinking about is Ash checking on Gina after her reaction when talking to Ricky in the hallway. How Gina was standing in a spot of confusion and pain with her feelings for Ricky, and Ej is in the frame, casually close to his cousin and talking to Big Red, just the four of them. He on the other hand was going through a hard time too, in a different way than Gina but sharing the same feelings. And little did they know that very soon would start a new chapter for them, a beautiful one as individuals and with a true love by their sides. Maybe I´m being too cheesy but I love that this proves that the sun can come out faster than we can imagine and that the right person can be in front of our nose and don´t notice it yet. Don´t know if this is foreshadowing but I´LL TAKE IT as if it is!

Why do yall say Ricky makes Gina cry as a reason to not ship, when it’s not true. Ricky was crossing a boundary and Gina simply told him to respect it, and he did. He never brought up his relationship with Nini after that. And who knows if he even understood that when Gina said “I wouldn’t quit on us”. She meant what they had, not the group.

I didn’t even say anything? Are you digging up the past? Because I literally never brought up Ricky making Gina crying since the finale aired…

Ricky stopped talking about Nini to Gina but she was still uncomfortable with him and it was proven when she rejected being his partner and chose EJ instead.

You don’t have to tell me what angst is, nonnie. A person can unintentionally hurt another, it’s not a reason for me to not ship (EJ unintentionally made Gina cry in 2x12) I never said that. It’s just when you look at the bigger picture, EJ looked 10x the man Ricky was in S2 when he constantly proved himself to be worthy of Gina’s friendship/trust. He was the one who showed up (the staying is still uncertain but he’s not leaving yet) and from a objective standpoint, we as an audience were/are supposed to root for EJ/Portwell. That’s not to say Ricky can’t earn Gina’s friendship/trust back, but he needs to apologize and rebuild what they had without hurting EJ in the process, which is a very fine line and I’m skeptical about it.

Also, how long are we gonna pretend like Ricky is dumber than he actually is? He understood what she meant. Watch that scene again, look at his face and then tell me honestly he didn’t know. Besides, nothing even suggested that he didn’t know. It was a far fetched theory created by Rinas to justify his behavior. In addition, if he truly didn’t know then he would be asking why Gina is avoiding him (2x06) but he never did. When she rejected being his partner and started avoiding him, he didn’t bother saving their friendship or even asking what’s wrong. Therefore, he knew.

missing the night with joshua bassett concert

Gina: I was imagining Be Our Guest to be more of a shared spectacle, but maybe no one else's opinion matters apart from yours.

Carlos: Look, just shut up, Gina.

Everyone else: Whoa, Carlos..!

Carlos: I'm sorry, that was rude. Let me try again.

Carlos: Gina, could you please get your head out of your ass? It's not a hat.

EJ: No one is judging you. It's completely understandable. Ricky is cute and funny and sorta stupid but in an endearing way.

Gina: I'm not in love with Ricky but I'm starting to think you are.