#so here’s a very long analysis of high school troy! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

classicslesbianopinions · 2 years

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Italian here. I don't know if I count in the Discourse but in Italy we have a specific "brand" of high school called "classical" high school (but now I'm in Greece for an exchange program) where we start to study Latin and Ancient Greek as soon as we enter (and some kids I know start studying Latin in like. middle school) and even if I'm not the best in these subjects I still like. Have a pretty wide knowledge on myths and stuff (also because we have mandatory epic and ancient literature classes throughout middle school and high school) and sometimes it baffles me to see with how much confidence usamericans come here talking absolute nonsense about these kind of subjects without understanding the basic core of them. Like, all the myths have different versions due to oral transmission and such or that time when Italian tumblr was joking about the tavern found in Pompeii (I don't remember precisely but it was called the whole Nicia discourse if you want to search it up) and some usamerican student came to explain to us our culture. Idk, it's weird. It's almost like they forget that Italians and Greek people still you know. Exist.

Also, after reading the articles in your pinned posts (very interesting even if I don't plan to study classics after high school) I was confused because I thought that some things were common knowledge but apparently they aren't. Like this is by no mean an universal experience I think but many of my friends and I had the luxury (?) To have well informed and left leaning teachers, so in my experience things like "the result of uncritical analysis of ancient history and mythology and literature has been used by mussolini and many other fascist ideologies and white supremacy as propaganda and explanation for their actions" or "the ancient Greeks and Romans weren't all white with blue eyes and blonde hair and their societies were way more multicultural than our" are stuff that the teacher tell you on day one of middle school even.

(I was the one who sent the troy 2004 anon with the middle school teacher, and one of the things I'll never forget about that lesson were all the times she told us "yeah OF COUSE they weren't this white all with blonde hair and blue eyes. This movie it's so american").

I think it's important to have this kind of discussions but I think that if you are this invested in classics you should try to read stuff written by people who actually live in the Mediterranean (and this means also people from North Africa and West Asia of course) or at least try to listen to us when we talk about stuff that in a good way or in a bad way is part of our heritage and culture. Some other Italian and Greek users have formulate this in a better way but I hope this wasn't much of a bother. Have a nice timezone!

okay "have a nice timezone" is maybe the best online signoff i've heard... and you're definitely never a bother. i promise everyone in our inbox, as long as you're not being like... actively mean or engaging in bad faith, you're not a bother! and especially if english isn't your first language, we are very happy to hear from you and with whatever wording you've got! i'm really enjoying the conversations we've been having on here.

but! yeah okay so 1. you totally count in the discourse, we've got people coming in from all sides and i really appreciate your input! 2. i think like... there's two sides to classics (as an american classicist). there's the actual stories and traditions and the way they've come through to the modern day, and then there's the way people have manipulated and used those stories and traditions over time (which is more like... where the articles in our pinned post come in). and both are important to study and be aware of.

so like, yeah. i can only speak for my experience, but i can say that my experience has not done nearly enough to consider the people still living in the mediterranean, and it also has not considered the full mediterranean-- like, we don't really talk about mediterranean areas outside of greece and rome unless they feature prominently in a latin or greek text.

and i have also seen patriarchy, white supremacy, and (i don't know how to phrase this) enforced christianity? i guess? in action, and i can see how those things have shaped classics as a field over the years. like, actually nothing said about classics in the pinned articles was like... all that surprising to me? there were insightful points, of course, but it felt very accurate to what i've seen and heard in the field. and seeing and hearing all that in the field almost turned me away from academia entirely. so i'm really glad people are talking about it. so i guess i would say from a usamerican perspective/experience, those articles felt 100% accurate, and i'm glad you had a different experience.

and like, as a usamerican classicist, i think it's important to study the context of classics throughout history of the united states. this interview (from the pinned post) talks about what classics means for the Black community in the united states, both in terms of how classics have been forced on them as part of their history of oppression, and in terms of what it's like to read the actual texts and see what's actually there (which, like you say about troy-- it's not actually a bunch of white blonde people!).

and like... white europeans have projected ourselves onto the classics for so many years that like... we can't ignore that. and yeah i do think the best way to cut past a lot of that projection is to go back to the original texts, actually read them with an open mind, and listen to what people who have a direct connection to that heritage and religion have to say; we have such a strange disconnect between past and present in the united states.

but a lot of it is also examining the history and context of these works in more recent history (by which i mean... anytime in the last couple thousand years). which also includes listening to people of color (and other marginalized people) when they talk about how these works and societies have been weaponized against them over the years-- which is what a couple of the pinned articles are there for. like studying how the texts have been used and weaponized is its own whole thing. like, it's a whole aspect of the field.

oh and also i would add that the us education system is uh... not that great. so. it's not surprising to me that people think they know a lot when they only know a little, but it is discouraging.

and i've gone on FOREVER but i don't think i really have like. the full knowledge/research/context to like... really talk about this, this is like. just me rambling. and i welcome any further discussion or feedback!

#mod felix #i hope ANY of this makes sense. there's a lot here. like. there's a lot to consider

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royalequeenofships · 3 years

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HSMTMTS Season 3 Predictions and Character Analysis

Ricky & Nini:

Ricky and Nini have a complicated relationship. I feel like they have the whole dynamic of “right person, wrong timing” vibe. They have chemistry and a bond with each other. However, for them to grow as a couple, they really need to have character development first. Nini really needs to figure herself out and who she truly wants to be and figure out her dreams and how she wants to pursue them. We had the whole YAC arc in season 2, where she goes there because she thought it was something that she wanted, but she realized that YAC was not truly what she wanted and isn’t what makes her happy. So, she’s slowly trying to figure herself out with independence and not relying on anyone except herself. In Season 1, most of her moments were with Ricky, with only the YAC arc really showcasing her independence, but her reliance on others in season 1 and parts of season 2. For example, Kourtney was the one who submitted her application to YAC, and partially her reasons for coming back to East High were also her relationship with her friends and Miss Jenn. Also, the fact that Carlos posted her song online, and she asked Ashlyn for help to write “Ain’t see nothing.” However, in episode 11 and 12, really starts showcasing her independence and stop relying on others for her journey. She BECOMES the one other people rely on, she hypes everyone up for their performances and is really figuring herself out and blossoming like the Rose. It is a great metaphor for Nini’s journey, and the fact that she herself calls Jamie’s brother instead of other people doing it for her, really makes it more special. Gina could’ve easily called her brother and be like “Oh yeah I have this friend who’s a great songwriter, yadda yadda.” But she does it herself, which is really great. Now with Ricky. Many people would agree with the fact that he truly does need therapy. He needs to learn how to handle change, and dare I say, realizing that other people are more important in his life. Personally, I felt like Ricky was very selfish this season. Last season, he was being selfish as he broke up with Nini because he couldn’t say I love you, and once school started again, he wanted Nini back so badly, but he proved himself worthy at the final episode when he stops being Troy to give Nini a chance to perform for YAC. However, this season once he and Nini are back together again, he was being selfish and thinking of himself again. When Nini goes to YAC, all he could really think about was how HER leaving was affecting him and his relationship with her.

For example, he would ask Gina for help on HIS own relationship, and sending Nini the message of how much he missed her and wishes she would be there because HE misses her so much. And thinking that Nini came home for him and him only. Plus, he thinks that the rose song that she wrote was SPECIFICALLY related to him, and then the whole situation with Miss Jenn and his dad, in which he was only thinking about himself and his feelings, with no regards to theirs. However, in episode 10, he finally stops being selfish and really opened his eyes to his surroundings, as he helped Carlos with his song for Seb. I hope this development continues, and once he realizes that he needs to stop being selfish, and is able to handle change and mature as a person, then maybe the Rini ship can happen once again. Another thing I’ve noticed about their “angst” in season 2 was the long-distance relationship, especially in episode 3. Although, Ricky and Nini were in the same city, throughout the episode, it still felt like they were going long-distance, which was probably foreshadowing their breakup. They only communicated through their phones that episode, and even at the end, their songs for each other wasn’t sang in person, but through the phone. As for predictions on the Rini relationship, I think that if Tim only plans on 3 seasons, then Rini will probably get back together at the end of Season 3, but if he has 4 seasons planned (which I am hoping for), then Rini will probably get back together then. Now we also have to take into consideration the career of Olivia Rodrigo. We do not know if she wants to continue with HSM, and even she herself is not sure. What I think will happen is, if Olivia decides she wants to take her music career to the next level, I think a really easy way to write her out without breaking the contract, would be to have her travel to L.A. to work on her music for the summer, so that there will be reason as to why she is absent for most of the season. This will probably take 1 episode to do and Olivia can spend the rest of her time focusing on her music. However, if Olivia decides she still wants to work full time in this season, then she might stay in Salt Lake and do the musical and write some songs for Jamie, etc but personally I think Olivia would want to focus on her music more than the show, as she posts about it more on social media than the show, and even with interviews. Nini might return for the final episode when summer ends and the new school year starts, so Olivia might just be in like 2 episodes. That’s my take on Rini for now, we get back to Ricky later.

E.J. & Gina:

Portwell is literally my favourite ship of the series, and it is just amazing. I personally would not like to see any angst in their relationship next season, but honestly it is probably going to happen and here’s why. Their relationship was built really steadily and took a long time to flourish. With other couples, like Seblos, Redlyn and Kowie, they got together awfully fast, taking 2-3 episodes to truly get together. So, the angst that those couples go through gets resolved rather quickly. Seblos with their relationship gets solved within 1-2 episodes, for the whole “does he like me because im the only gay one” storyline. Redlyn has the whole “Antoine” situation (which I will get back to later) and the “Red’s future” which again, took 1 episode to resolve. And Kourtney and Howie took 1-2 episodes to resolve the whole “Howie is from North high” and “Why Howie seems weird”. The reason is because those couples got together really quickly, and therefore their angst can be easily resolved through that, and wouldn’t really take time to fix. As you can see, Rini took a while to really get together. They were childhood friends off screen and we get to see their past relationship through flashbacks in season 1, but technically they took around 10 episodes to fully get back together. They have their cute., fluffy episodes for the first 4-5 episodes of season 2, but then their angst slowly starts to build at episode 5-6. It drags on until episode 8 where they fully break up, and counting episode 9 with their take on how they’re handling the breakup, so that’s around 5 episodes worth of angst for the couple that took 10 episodes to get together. So, with Portwell, they’ve technically been building them up at the end of season 1, but we’ll truly count the buildup starting from the Quincenero episode, which is episode 5, and they had 7 episodes worth of relationship buildup. So, I think, for the first 4 episodes, we’ll see some fluff and cute moments between the two when summer starts (and hopefully some kisses cuz like please I need to see at least one), but the angst will probably start in the middle of the season. It might take like around 4-5 episodes to fix, but I truly believe that they will not break up, and it will get resolved either near the final episode or the final episode of the season. Now for the REASON of their angst. I truly think the only “angst” worthy storyline is about EJ going off the college. As I can’t think of anything else that can topple their relationship. Firstly, EJ knows about the chocolates, which makes me think that he probably knows about Gina’s past crush on Ricky. Secondly, they resolved the whole “Big Brother” situation, and EJ knows that Gina doesn’t see her in that way. And the character development of E.J. and Gina. Back in season 1, they were arrogant and straight up ambitious people, who really don’t care about how others feel, but they truly changed as people in season 1 and 2, and had their character development moments. The contrast with them and Rini is that Season 1 focused on rini’s relationship development and season 2 and maybe 3 will really focused on their CHARACTER development. For Portwell, I think that would be flipped as they already had their Character development in season 1 and 2, so we probably will see their RELATIONSHIP development in season 3. So, since they already had their character development, I think it would be pointless to have unnecessary drama about their personalities or jealousy or whatnot, since they truly developed as people. So, the only thing I can possibly think of for their angst is EJ college arc. I know that they will probably fix it, but still I’m dreading to see it as I don’t want Portwell angst anymore. ☹ (ALSO PLEASE GIVE ME A PORTWELL DUET!! I NEED IT! Also, an EJ solo)

Ricky & Gina:

Personally, I do not ship Rina. I don’t think they would make a good couple; however, I think they would be really good friends. Someone they could confide in about their issues like Gina said “Sometimes I tell you things I don’t tell anyone else” and Ricky being like “I think we do that for each other.” We didn’t really get to see Ricky and Gina resolve their issues in season 2, partly because of Ricky’s character development. I am hoping to see in season 3, Ricky working on himself and fixing up his friendship with Gina. I think something that might happen is when Gina is going through her angst with EJ, and Ricky going through his own angst with Lily, they might be able to give each other advice and on how to handle it. However, PLEASE for the love of God, do not drag the whole love triangle back, because we do not need it. Gina has truly gotten over Ricky, and Ricky never seeing Gina as someone for his romantic relationship anyways, and he really needs to work on himself more, they should not be together as a couple. However, I do hope that they amend their friendship and is able to confide in each other once more, which I think will be cool and really help with Ricky’s character development.

Ricky & Lily:

Now this one. We know they will not be endgame, and I am 90% sure of the fact that Lily does not have romantic feelings for Ricky. Sure, she might find him attractive (and I mean who can blame her, Joshua Bassett is gorgeous), but she definitely does not like him in that way. We can see it when she “confesses” to him, she said to him “I like your brown hair and brown eyes” which are all physical descriptions of him, nothing about his personality which makes sense because she barely knows him, so how could she develop feelings for someone she doesn’t know. She has also stolen the harness, so we know that there would be no way that she likes him, and at the end of season 2, we don’t even get to see her feeling guilty about doing it, because she likes him. So that definitely setting in stone on how she’s only using him and manipulating him. Now for Ricky, yes you might be thinking “oh he’s calling her, why?” But Ricky does not know what we know. He was not there when Lily was talking to Gina about their roles as Belle, he was not there when Lily was laughing at Big Red, he was not there when she had a conversation with Miss Jenn, and he was not there when she planned with Antoine and when she stole the harness. In Ricky’s eyes, the reason that she was so mean to them is because of the Menkies, and their schools were enemies and rivals for it. He doesn’t know about Lily’s evil and ambitious side, and he believes that the Menkies might have made her that way. For example, he knows that the Menkies has turned Miss Jenn into someone different and a little bit mean, so he assumed the same for Lily, and when she asked for a second chance, Ricky gave it to her as he didn’t know. I feel like for the first couple of episodes, it will show Lily and Ricky “bonding” or getting to know each other, but Lily lying about the whole situation and really planning something behind his back, but we don’t know what yet. Maybe Ricky will be like “Huh, she’s a cool person, I’m starting to like her.” But then figuring out her plan, and finding out that she stole the harness. He then will be very upset and kind of heartbroken as he gave her a chance and she was only manipulating him the whole time. Maybe then, his character development will continue to grow and he will realize that he does not need to be in a relationship right now, and that he needs to work on himself and mature as a person. And I think him and Lily’s “relationship” will be a strong pushing point that he needs.

Seb & Carlos:

Now Seblos is one of my favourite ships in the show, and I love them to bits and pieces. However, as regarding their relationship, I feel like they have already resolved all their angst in season 2, it will be hard to make up angst for them in season 3, if they ever have one. I would like to say this though, I knew there was going to be angst for them in season 2, but the way they built it up, I thought the angst would be about how Carlos’ family is really rich, and Seb can’t compare because he lives on a farm, and it might make him self-conscious. Cause that’s where it seemed to be leading in the first few episodes of Season 2 (the sled, cashmere etc.). However, they brought a completely different angst to them which I thought was pretty surprising. Personally, I think they should’ve done the “class/money” difference in season 2, and then maybe the whole “why are you with me” angst for season 3, but maybe they MIGHT switch it around for season 3, and have the whole “class/money” difference then. Although, that’s probably the only “issue” I see for them ever, cause they’re a power couple and like what other angst could there be? Maybe they’ll introduce a new love interest but I highly doubt it because they already resolved the “I choose you always” in season 2. So, hoping there’s no Seblos angst, but if they do decide to throw in one, that might be the one they’ll do.

Big Red & Ashlyn:

Again, Redlyn is one of my favourite ships and they’re just so amazing. However, their storyline is hopefully again, all fluff for season 3, but one thing I realised that they didn’t really resolve in season 2 was the whole “Antoine” storyline. After episode 7, they never really talked about it again and introduced the new angst next episode with the whole “Career” thing. I feel like Antoine will be a more recurring character in season 3, as he only got like what? 10 minutes worth of screentime this season? (Maybe even less) and especially at the end as he joined Natalie in the final scene. So maybe there will be more of him in the next season, and slowly moving in on Ashlyn and making Big Red feeling like he’s not good enough, and then maybe Redlyn will FINALLY get their “I love you” confession then, because WE NEED IT! I’m manifesting for Redlyn “I love you” next season, and I think the whole situation with Antoine would be a nice way for Ashlyn to TRULY confirm to Big Red how much she loves him and how grateful she is for him, and vice versa. (Also manifesting for more EJ and Big Red friendship moments, like maybe Big Red goes for EJ for advice for his relationship with Ashlyn, and maybe EJ confiding in Big Red for Gina as well)

Kourtney & Howie:

As for Kourtney and Howie, they’re probably still going to work at the pizza shop together and continue to bond. A plot point that I think will be very interesting is maybe Kourtney trying to convince Howie to move to East High, but Howie kind of not wanting to, because he spent like 3 years there and it’s kind of his home. That might be a nice storyline to do, or it can be the opposite, where Howie is trying to transfer to North High, but Kourtney being worried like “Is he going to North High for me? I don’t want that, what if he hates it here”, but Howie confirming that he’s going to North High because the environment for him is better there and less competitive and toxic than North High. That might be a storyline that can happen for these two. I would also like for them to have a duet as well; I think Dara’s strong voice goes well with Roman’s soft voice and it would mesh well together.

Miss Jenn & Mr. Mazarra:

Now this one is a toughie, but I have some theories. Now we know that Ricky has given Miss Jenn permission to date his dad, which is another great character development for him, as he’s handling change and seeing other people’s happiness. However, as soon as he gave her permission, Mr. Mazarra confesses his feelings for Miss Jenn, which seemingly makes her happy, as we did get to see a little smile on her face when he did. Throughout Season 2, Benjamin was really the one comforting her, and giving her courage for the Menkies. We see it through episode 8, when he helped Miss Jenn film the commercial and how he put so much effort into making her coffee and setting up a table, just so she could relax. Same goes for episode 10, when she confides in him, and he acting like a therapist to her and accepting her anxious feelings, and helping her feel calmer and better. They are both opening up to each other. And I believe Miss Jenn truly appreciates him as a colleague and a friend. Now another moment is when Ricky’s dad comes to the show with flowers, and she was talking with Mr. Mazarra at the moment. When he called out her name, she smiles awkwardly and immediate turns to Mr. Mazarra saying something along the lines up “Why we always running into him?” and very awkwardly makes his way to him and you could tell she was slightly uncomfortable, with her awkward smiles and everything. This really contrasts from episode 3, where she herself walks up to Ricky’s dad and starts up a conversation, and how now, it is the other way around. Now, the whole problem of Mr. Mazarra leaving for Caltech. He confesses his romantic feelings to Miss Jenn, and really emphasizes on how she’s the only one who is stopping him from running off the California, which I believe that she is a big part of why, but also not fully. We really get to see Mr. Mazarra bonding with a lot of the students this season as well, E.J., Ricky, etc. I feel like he truly cares for his students, and in season 3, maybe he is thinking about if he really wants to stay in Utah for his students and of course, his budding relationship with Miss Jenn. Now, there was a scene in episode 4, where he was confiding to EJ about his rejection from Caltech. And he admits to EJ how he doesn’t think about Caltech very much anymore. He’s made his peace with it. This kind of mirrors EJ’s situation about Duke. EJ didn’t get into Duke from his own accord, but rather his dad got him in. Same can be said for Mr. Mazarra, EJ’s dad made the call for him for Caltech, and he didn’t really get in from his own as well, as he said previously, He was rejected many, many times. So maybe next season will really show him and his decision of staying at East High back in the fall, or leaving for Caltech. Now moving back to Miss Jenn. Next season, I feel like will focus on her and the students more, as this season, she was a really crappy teacher, and kept pushing them due to stress and wanting them to beat her ex at the Menkies. This season, I believe that she will return to the teacher that she was in season 1, and really focusing and hyping up the kids’ talents. I would love to see that Miss Jenn come back, and really help her students. Of course, the whole love triangle debacle will probably be fixed, I can maybe see Miss Jenn going out on a date with Ricky’s dad but thinking of Mr. Mazarra the whole time, and Ricky’s dad is a good man, so he might notice something is different about her, and tells her to go for it, her relationship with Mr. Mazarra before he moves or something. Also, since in season 2, we got to see Mr. Mazarra comfort Miss Jenn a lot, maybe this season will have Miss Jenn comforting Mr. Mazarra about Caltech, and if he truly wants to leave his students. Another thing I’d like to maybe see is Mr. Mazarra singing a song for Miss Jenn. We know that Mark St. Cyr has a good voice, as we saw from the Christmas special. So, him singing to Miss Jenn even though he doesn’t like musicals that much and all that, would show a lot of character development from Season 1.

Overall Plot:

Now, I have a few theories about summer. I’ve seen a lot of people saying they will go to a camp like “Camp Rock” which I think will be very likely to happen, and they put up a musical. What I can also see happening, is like High School Musical 2, where they go to a resort for work, and then putting up a musical there for the audience as well. Or they could just stay in Utah, and just relax for the summer, and not have any musical but just a lot of original songs about their summer in general and the stuff they’re going through. If they do a musical, I don’t think that they’ll do a musical from a movie or theatre, but rather write their own musical. I think it would be a really interesting concept, it can show us more imaginative and creative concept for a musical and have more original songs for the season. I would truly love to see that.

So that’s all for the character analysis and predictions I have for Season 3, sorry if it’s long lol

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bigfan-fanfic · 3 years

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High School Musical feels to me like a very gay narrative, and doing a close reading reveals this fact. Long post ahead, with analysis of lyrics and story beats that contribute to a queer reading of the story

Basically, Troy is the repressed gay who hides in the closet, and Gabriella is the outcast nerd who is just discovering the gay, never knowing before then how she doesn't fit in. She talks about how she has been outcast before, because she was different. While in and of itself this is not particularly specific to the queer experience, Gabriella’s journey of becoming comfortable in her skin is prevalent to the story and a queer reading of HSM. Likewise, Troy’s growth in his confidence to do what he wants even though it’s easier and more comfortable to bow to societal pressure is also queer in its telling.

In "Start of Something New,” they both have that realization that this thing they're feeling is so right for them, they feel a belonging. :It feels so right/to be here with you” and “I feel in my heart/the start of something new” seems less to me an anthem for love at first sight and more simply the recognition of this feeling of attraction to someone - and despite Troy and Gabriella being ostensibly cishet, the combination of this song and the use of drama/the arts as a stand in for homosexuality in this reading make it feel as though both are nervous but excited in discovering their queerness - another interesting thing is that each of the love songs in HSM are gender neutral, and thus play the same if sung by two people of the same gender as by a hetero couple.

This moment is a growth for Gabriella’s queer journey - prior to the song, she is nervous and afraid to socialize, but afterwards she is open and excited to discuss with Troy their experience and be friendly. Troy is a little more closed-off, foreshadowing his journey of trying to stay in the closet - he makes a point of saying how this was something he’s never done before and is not a typical part of his character.

They meet later, and Gabriella's a little more confident, although not technically "out" yet - she doesn’t hide her interest in the “singing thing” and though she doesn’t want to be seen as the Freaky Math Girl, she does have no qualms about showing off her intelligence in class. Basically, despite this being a new territory for her, she is more comfortable in her skin. Troy, meanwhile, basically thinks about his gay experience but hides back in the comfortable closet, returning to being a jock’s jock and ridiculing Ryan and Sharpay, the story’s flamboyant representations of the “out” gays.

Ryan and Sharpay are interesting villains, and they read to me as what might be termed the LGBT+ gatekeepers, since we have drama/the arts as our allegorical stand-in for the queer community. Ryan and Sharpay are unapologetically gay, but they are also used to the ostracism they recieve and thus as a reaction, they have become fiercely protective of their safe space - Sharpay’s fear of the musical being taken over here reads as the worry of LGBT spaces being co-opted and appropriated by cishet people and thus returning them to marginalization.

The song "What I've Been Looking For" is a big jazzy pop number for out gays Ryan and Sharpay, further referencing their absolute comfort in who they are. However, when Troy and Gabriella sing it, it's a soft romantic ballad because they're still on the journey to discovery of their queerness. The lyrics are really gay in "thought I was alone/with no one to hold/but you were always there beside me" - the song is about finding a love when you thought you never could, and if that doesn't scream gay I don't know what does. Despite Kelsi’s insistence that Troy and Gabriella’s way is how it is “supposed” to be sung, the song works just as well as a hopeful romantic tune about the future as it does a celebration of finding acceptance of any kind, even platonic. Again there’s a reference to “this feeling like no other” - this song follows up “Start of Something New” as a continuation of the journey to self-acceptance, and speaks of finding comfort in the experience of meeting those like oneself - “I never had someone/that knows me like you do/they way you do.”

“Get’cha Head in the Game” is here to show the environment Troy lives in - he’s being constantly pressured, and the song is fast paced and imperative. It also provides a contrast in lyric theme, referring to the “head” instead of feelings and heart. Troy’s tonal shift in the middle of the song where he sings about his heart feels like now that he’s had this gay experience and knows this truth about himself, he can’t go back fully into the closet.

The posting of the callback list feels very much to me like Troy and Gabriella being publically outed as queer. When Troy and Gabriella are "outed," there is a reaction of support and others "coming out" in solidarity, but those voices are shouted down by those seeking not to upset the status quo. The song is chaotic and loud, with walls being broken down and students from different groups merging - Chad mentions later in dialogue that the social hierarchy is breaking down. Interestingly enough, despite the general tone of the song being disapproving and admonishing, everybody joins in the dance and shows support, until Sharpay literally shouts everybody down. This kinda feels to me like saying that the majority of people would be accepting and tolerant, except for a minority of vocal voices who dominate the conversation and push their agenda of hatred.

Homophobic Chad manipulates Troy back into the closet to protect the status quo, and a heartbroken Gabriella sings about how she "thought [he was her] fairy tale," and that really says to me like a gay thinking they've found a relationship only to be heartbroken by realizing the person was straight or too closeted to continue on. She “confused [her] feelings with the truth” and thought “[he] felt it too,” but luckily the ensuing fallout of Gabriella and Troy forced apart and into their respective closets makes their straight friends realize their horrible mistake and do their best to repent, becoming “allies” to them.

“Bop To the Top” is just a fun number, again showcasing Ryan and Sharpay as confident in who they are. However, the interesting part is that Ryan and Sharpay’s world is breaking down around them as well, just as it is for the straight people. Sharpay snaps at Zeke because she can’t quite comprehend this guy from the straight side reaching out to befriend someone of the queer set, and her walls go up. In her own way, she’s trying to restore order as well - however instead of forcing Troy and Gabriella apart, she instead tries to make it so they must prove their commitment to one side or the other - making it so that their activities with their friends take place at the same time as the callback - basically a choice between their closets or the queer community, but with the help of their allies, Troy and Gabriella bring everything crashing together - though the straight majority floods the theater, they do so in support of the community she has protected. At this moment, Gabriella and Troy have overcome the external queer-phobia.

And then the big emotional number at the audition, "Breaking Free," really feels gay to me, in that the song is about the world trying to tear this couple apart but with their faith in each other and themselves, they can rise to new heights. The verses each feel like an anthem to a queer experience in fighting against societal pressure and having confidence in who you are. “The world can see us/in a way that’s different than who we are” is about the pressure to conform to gender and sexuality norms, “but your faith, it gives me strength/strength to believe” they can break free and be themselves. In particular the bridge where they sing "more than you/more than me/not a want/but a need" gives me "born this way" vibes and describes the need to be who you are even when others might not understand. And yet, even in all of this, they are supported and tolerated - the audience dances in the seats and claps to the beat and supports them.

And then "We're All In This Together" is of course the fantasy of tolerance and overcoming bigotry within and without the LGBT community, where everyone is singing together in harmony, where there is nothing but acceptance of the differences that make us all special and unique, with the recognition that we are all human.

#just my thoughts #my two cents #my thoughts #high school musical #super long post

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siriusbunbryist · 4 years

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In defence of Abed x Annie.

Thanks to the magic of Netflix, I’ve rewatched Community at age 24, and still found Abed and Annie to have hit the heartstrings as much as I did when I was in high school watching the show for the first time.

But watching the series in its entirety just reinforces my thought that Abed and Annie had so much potential that was wasted, and it’s a shame that the writers planted all these seeds to only decide that perhaps this direction was not worth it / too risky / unfavoured by the audience. But I mean, Alison Brie herself (and I’m assuming Danny Pudi as well) endorsed them! Find here and here.

This was a pairing that with all the crumbs scattered throughout the show (I think we are all aware of these crumbs I speak of), could’ve easily played the “oh we’ve been secretly dating this whole time” trope during the last episode and it would’ve still made sense.

Naturally I did some scoping, and of course unsurprisingly the J.eff x Annie pairing takes the cake, while not a lot of love for Abed x Annie. So here are common points of contentions I see surrounding Abed and Annie, and my rationale on them.

Before I start, a note - I fully respect the J.eff x Annie ship and I don’t intend on starting a ship w.ar/debate. I understand where their support comes from! I just needed to vent because no one else in my social circle watches this show. No hate please.

1. Abed doesn’t see Annie romantically

I think on the contrary it’s been set up rather long ago that Abed at the very least is attracted to Annie.

Exhibit A: “What are you making” in Beginner Pottery

Exhibit B: “Flat B.utt and the one Abed wants to nail” in The Art of Discourse

This video basically explains it! The summary: Annie is Pierce’s favourite, Pierce constantly insults Britta, therefore Britta is flat b.utt.

Exhibit C: Not even trying to hide it in Accounting for Lawyers

But, a romantic interest has to be further built upon finding someone attractive right? There has to be intrigue to their character, such as

Exhibit D: “I can only connect to people through... movies” in English as a Second Language

youtube

It is pretty obvious here that Annie is a rare someone who has successfully broken the impartial screen that Abed filters everything through. Jeff saw it too which is why he said Annie was the ark of the covenant before Abed fell for her disney face. I can only imagine Abed to be quite struck with Annie’s infiltration.

A romantic interest should also share common interests, such as

Exhibit E: “Which makes Annie is my third favourite show” in Paranormal Parentage

I’ve said before that for Abed, a guy who lives life and communicates through comparing it with television and movies, it’s not unthinkable for him to be attracted to someone who genuinely watches his favourite shows and commits to roles during cosplay. And who, besides Troy, would fit this profile? Annie.

And finally, the biggest indicator of it all, we also see how Abed views the Jeff and Annie pairing in everyone’s favourite episode Remedial Chaos Theory. Keeping in mind that the timelines are rendered by Abed, out of all the timelines, J.eff and Annie only kis.sed when Abed left the room for pizza. As well, as conjured in Abed’s head, Evil Jeff and Evil Annie only existed as a couple in the Darkest Timeline. To me at least, it’s arguable that this alludes to Abed’s omniscient “director” standpoint that he may be the obstacle in the Jeff and Annie relationship - pointing towards him perhaps harbouring feelings for Annie.

2. Annie doesn’t see Abed romantically The general consensus on this point is that Annie is only attracted to Abed when he’s playing a character. I rather think that being attracted to someone, and being attracted to someone during role play, aren’t mutually exclusive. Let’s take a look at the different characters that Abed played.

Don Draper: serious, sophisticated, and smooth.

Han Solo: immature, flirty and a smarta.ss.

Batman: mysterious, complex, and brave.

Three different personas, yet Annie responded to all of them. Since the common denominator to all three is that they are played by Abed, I would like to offer a counterpoint that perhaps the attraction to Abed has always been there, it’s just emphasized when Abed plays a character. Who knows, role playing might even be Annie’s ki.nk. After all, during For a Few Paintballs More, it is shown that Annie is disappointed when Abed dropped the Han Solo persona after the battle ended.

Annie also loves big romantic gestures. Who’s better than doing that than Abed? Since the beginning, Abed has already been doing big romantic gestures of varying degrees for Annie. With this, it’s not ridiculous for Annie to see Abed as a romantic potential.

Exhibit F: Staying in a room for 26 hours in Social Psychology

Annie: You sat in a room for twenty-six straight hours. Didn’t that bother you? Abed: Yeah I was livid. Annie: Then why didn’t you leave? Abed: Because you asked me to stay and you said we were friends.

Exhibit G: Rescuing her from “captivity” and inviting her to move in in Remedial Chaos Theory and Studies in Modern Movement (even Troy was surprised at Abed’s invitation)

Exhibit H: Tearing down the Dreamatorium in Studies in Modern Movement

Annie: What about the Dreamatorium? Abed: Oh it's staying. The Dreamatorium is more important than any of us. But you're more important than our bedroom so we put the bunk bed in the blanket fort.

Bonus: Confirmed by Alison Brie

3. The show was about Jeff and Annie

Dan Harmon said that Community’s approach is that anything and any pairing is possible. We see this is as the series started with the classic “player vs smart snarky girl” trope with setting up Jeff and Britta as the main pairing. We also see Troy and Annie as the potential B couple in the show. The writers also threw Pierce and Shirley, Annie and Britta, Dean and Jeff, and even Chang and Britta in for a laugh.

And then the show subverted this all by introducing Jeff and Annie, and made Troy and Britta a couple, showing us that Community is a show that intends on breaking these classic sitcom stereotypes by experimenting with different pairings. Abed and Annie was no exception to this, as the writers often pair them up in different shenanigans and hint at possible grounds to explore*.

A few examples: Han and Leia in For a Few Paintballs More, Hector the Well Endowed and the Elf Maiden in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, spy partners in Modern Espionage.

No doubt that the show dabbled in and out of Jeff and Annie throughout the series. However, to say that Jeff and Annie was the primary pairing in the series would mean overlooking Jeff and Britta. Especially when Jeff and Britta have the whole love-hate dynamic, three(?) marriage close-calls, and emotional snippets such as helping Jeff reunite with his father in Cooperative Escapism in Familial Relations.

Anyway, not to discredit Jeff and Annie, but knowing that the show explores the possibility of different pairings**, why write off Abed and Annie?

* Not to mention that the cop pairing in The Science of Illusion was originally written with Abed and Annie in mind! ** We also see a stray Abed and Britta during Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps.

4. Annie is in love with Jeff To keep this short and shipper-goggle free, Annie has said on numerous occasions that she’s in love with the idea of Jeff, not Jeff himself. Specifically this scene in Virtual Systems Analysis:

Abed as Annie: "…We love Jeff…" Annie: "No we don’t, we’re just in love with the idea of being loved. And if we can teach a guy like Jeff to do it, we’ll never be unloved, so we keep running the same scenario over and over hoping for a different result."

And this scene in Conventions of Space and Time:

Annie: All right, I may have been play-acting that we were married, and then the staff thought you were cheating, and I had to save face. Jeff: Do I have to worry about this? Annie: No, I was just daydreaming. I mean, I've married you at least a half a dozen times. And Troy. And Zac Efron.

Not to mention that their conversation in the finale says it all.

Jeff: I don't wanna be fine. I wanna be 25 and heading out into the world. I wanna fall asleep on a beach and be able to walk the next day, or stay up all night on accident. I wanna wear a white t-shirt without looking like I forgot to get dressed.* I want to be terrified of AIDS, I want to have an opinion about those, boring a.ss Marvel movies. And I want those opinions to be of any concern to the people making them. Annie: Well I want to live in the same home for more than a year, order wine without feeling nervous, have a resume full of crazy mistakes instead of crazy lies. I want stories and wisdom, perspective. I wanna have so much behind me I'm not a sl.ave to what's in front of me, especially those flavourless unremarkable Marvel movies.

*Shipper-goggle on: Part of me thinks this is a reference to Abed, whose iconic style almost exclusively comprises T-shirts. What Jeff is saying is that he wishes he is 25 again with his future open before him, someone who compatible with Annie, but here he acknowledges that he isn’t, and lets her go in the end.

5. Abed and Annie wouldn’t work as a couple Another point I see is that Abed and Annie are strictly platonic and are more like brother and sister. On the basis that they have made out a couple times and are attracted to each other, I would disagree with the sibling statement.

Troy, in contrast to Abed, I think actually resembles a more sibling-like relationship with Annie. Although Troy and Annie have the strong friendship of Abed and Annie, when disregarding the high school crush stage of season 1, their storylines never dwelled further down an attraction path, nor was there any specific episode that was dedicated to a deep dive of vulnerabilities and confrontation between them. As a comparison, Troy and Britta had opportunities to explore these setups (Troy admitted to lying about his b.utt stuff story and Troy helped Britta face Blade) - an indication that Troy and Britta were heading into non-platonic territory. Jeff and Britta too, had several opportunities to confront their feelings (up till the very last season), a clear indication of a non-platonic relationship.

For Abed and Annie, what I think pulls their friendship towards actual love interest potential is best pinpointed to Virtual Systems Analysis. Annie’s participation in the Dreamatorium prompted her to not only fully submerge into the way Abed thinks and comprehends his surroundings, but she also got to understand and address Abed’s stubbornness and flaws in a vulnerable way, confronting some of her own flaws as well.

Abed as Shirley: Your hospital school, young lady, is a simulation being run through a filter of other people's needs. Abed's been filtered out because nobody needs him. Annie: I need him!

And to point out this little tidbit in VCR Maintenance and Educational Publishing,

Annie: That's why Abed is like a brother to me. You guys are so alike. Abed: I can't accept that based on one time machine story.

This whole episode, instead of establishing Abed is like Annie’s brother, I would argue is rather doing the opposite. Abed and Annie’s hyper antics in the episode were basically matched by Anthony and Rachel’s blatant indifference and confusion. For lots of Abed and Annie supporters, this episode was a major setback. But I think it instead highlights how in-sync they are with each other, which is a good thing.

Another point, despite Annie trying to prove otherwise, Abed and Anthony had different vibes, and each shared different dynamics with Annie. And as Anthony pointed out in the end, who were Abed and Annie trying to replace in the apartment? Troy. The person who they are trying to fill is Troy - their roommate, their brother, their best friend. Troy was the brother role that neither Abed and Annie can fill for each other.

In Basic Sandwich, we get this exchange:

Abed: The point is, this show, Annie, it isn't just their show. This is our show, and it's not over. And the sooner we find that treasure, the faster the Jeff-Britta pilot falls apart. Annie: Got it. Thank you, Abed. Abed: You're welcome. I have a girlfriend. Annie: What? Abed: You were about to start a kiss lean. Annie: I was not.

Not only did Abed saw right through Annie’s anxiety and comforted her in his own uniquely Abed way, but he also felt the need to remind her of his girlfriend. The fact that he broke the fourth wall here is likely the writers’ way to be meta, but simply acknowledging the tension and bond there says a lot in between the lines. If tension does not exist, there would be no need for this line.

Besides, instead of thinking that they’re strictly platonic (which of course is also okay), they would rather work great as a couple. In terms of opposites attract, Annie grounds Abed with just the right amount, while Abed clearly encourages Annie to be her true self and be immature. Such as this scene in Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism,

Annie: I’m following him. Troy: You moving in here was supposed to tone us down!

Annie also doesn’t just tolerate Abed’s idiosyncrasies, she actually likes them and fully participates as multiple paintball games and cosplays would tell us. Special shoutout to the missing lovers footage in Wedding Videography, which through Britta, actually shows us that Annie is the only one who would go along with Abed’s projects - while Britta found the project extremely weird and unhealthy, Annie thought it was fun and commits well to her role.

And while others may tiptoe around Abed, Annie isn’t afraid to call Abed out when he’s out of line and makes a point to teach him about empathy in Virtual Systems Analysis. Remember that Britta tried teaching him this but it didn’t work as well.

I am Abed Nadir... And I don't know a lot of things everyone else knows. I wander the universe with my friend, Troy, doing whatever I want. Sometimes accidentally hurting innocent unremarkables. This week, however, Troy went to lunch and I adapted. I now have the ability to enter the minds of others using an elusive new technique known as "empathy".

As well as in the entire episode of Cooperative Polygraphy.

They also know each other best. Abed knew her cushion preferences, was the one who spelled out her true pas.sion for forensics, and after living together, Annie knew how to navigate Abed’s peculiarities and to soothe him whenever he had a nervous breakdown.

Annie also knows him so well that she can predict his reaction.

They are also each other’s exception. Annie was always the one who manages to pull Abed out of a trance and back to reality, usually with touch.

Abed is also very forgiving with her. An example is when Annie seemingly lost all common sense because she broke Abed’s special edition dvd in Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism.

Annie: Well, Batman, on behalf of all of us that aren't perfect, can I just say I'm sorry I broke your DVD? Abed: Apology accepted. But I wouldn't mention it to Abed. That guy's pretty ruthless. And that's coming from Batman.

And in Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas, Annie was the only claymation doll that didn’t have a weird form (except Troy as toy soldier of course). Annie was a ballerina because Abed sees her as a creature of grace. Abed was also the first one who got her “brighter tomorrow” diorama and responded with enthusiasm.

They are also in the same stage in life. As Dan Harmon explains the choice of Abed and Annie being the ones who leave the group, with Troy gone, Abed and Annie symbolize the many possibilities of the future - a possibility that makes them viable. I like to think Annie transfers to the LA FBI office after her internship and they reunite.

And as the Spice Girls said, “if you wanna be my love.r, you gotta get with my friends”. In Paleyfest, Dan Harmon says this about whoever Troy and Abed ends up dating, “I mean a woman that comes into either of their lives is either going to drive them apart or she's going to have to be really accepting of a very special relationship”.

Britta tolerated their friendship but to a point of asking Annie to distract Abed for alone time with Troy, Troy dumped the librarian as she called Abed weird, Robin disappeared, Rachel we never got to see much of, but was pretty quiet and separated from the group. From this, logically speaking, Annie would actually be the perfect match for Abed, as we all know they’re the ultimate trio within the study group and a transition from friends to more will be natural.

Oh, and, Abed is wrong. They’re not Chandler and Phoebe with little storylines together, they’re Chandler and Monica.

Anyway, that’s it for my super long rant/analysis. Community the series is done and over, so there isn’t a need for any ship war. All I want to say is, if #andamovie happens, hopefully, the writers will actually take a leap.

#abed x annie #community #annie x abed #abed nadir #annie edison #sorry if you've seen this already i'm trying to figure out why my tags won't work #mine #thoughts

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anarchist-caravan · 4 years

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(My) TOP Discovered Albums of the year 2019 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Here again, for the fourth year in a row! Ready to go through the list of discovered music that I have found this year. It has been quite a long year. The thing that is different from the other years is that I have felt a little bit more stressed about the list. I don’ t know why. Just is. And that is a good judgement of what my year has been about. Stress. Angst. Hardships. Fatigue. And Surprises.

I always think I won’t be able to find any new music each year. But I am always mistaken. Thousands of albums down the road. And ain’t that the best thing. Amidst the times.

And thus, a lot of the music I found this year, that has been put on this list is of the more chill side. Not anything too harsh. Just.... a stream of consciousness.

As Usual, Albums I have encountered throughout the year are listed below -with only the last five in a true top order:

40.

Mad Doctor X - Picnic with the Greys (1997)

A picnic we should all attend, -don’t forget the Oui’d!

39.

Tomb Mold ‎– Planetary Clairvoyance (2019)

Dang, that’s death metal done well.

38.

Moor Mother - Analog Fluids Of Sonic Black Holes (2019)

Self-explanatory.

37.

Darzamat - In the Opium of Black Veil (1999)

Good AF black metal.

36.

karl sanders - saurian meditation (2004)

Darker than you think. Hypnosis.

35.

The Dolphin Brothers - Catch the Fall (1987)

Richard Barbieri and Steve Jansen plays wonderous synth-pop akin to something... I cannot remember right now. But they are good nonetheless.

34.

Reiko Kudo - Rice Field Silently Riping In The Night (2019)

(Dis)harmonious multi-instrumental live-recording’easque music with singing and (soft) noise.

33.

Michael Stearns - M'Ocean

Michael Stearns makes the most chill music in the universe. Except for maybe that one U.F.O. trip album that can be chill in the scary cold sense.

32.

Henryk Górecki - Kleines Requiem-Lerchenmusik

Classical album of the year. Górecki always delivers.

31.

VOIGHT KAMPFF - MORE HUMAN THAN HUMAN (2012)

Fast techno-trash metal band.

30.

Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble Of Shadows - Death And Flamingos (2019)

Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble Of Shadows is a band that will always have a special space in my heart. Their music got me through the most part of high school. The dark ambivalent songs. Yet, never forgetting the ironic twinkle in the eye.

29.

Earl Slick - Zig Zag (2003)

That edge of the seat feel of rock; next stage to come, just: SLICK.

28.

Kooba Tercu - Kharrub (2019)

You will be grateful I rec’d this jammin’ piece of fast jumping action of absurdity and happiness. :)

27.

Red Snapper - Making Bones (1998)

Trip Hop Album of The year. Seeing to what trip-hop releases there were around the time of this album’s release, I am so fucking surprised I had never heard of these before. They are just as brilliant as the all too famous Portishead, if not with an upper edge in a lot of cases.

26.

Supercar - Three Out Changes!! (1998)

Shoegaze of the year. Lovely. CHILL. Summer evening breathe’

25.

Anna Domino - East & West (1984)

Timeless synth-pop with rich textures of dreamy lyrics that ensnares you into a downtempo that.... goes up.

24.

Troy Gregory - XAVIERA (2018)

Monumental Prog.

23.

shit & shine - bad vibes (2018)

It is What it Says. Yeah I am on Acid’

22.

Datarock ‎- Face The Brutality (2018)

Norwegian indie masters. I love Datarock very, very much. I’ve listened to them since the 2007 release Red and I don’t know a band with as much coercive pop in each track. This album was a surprise find, since I was convinced they were out of the loop.

21.

HIZAKI grace project - Curse Of Virgo (2008)

Symphonic Metal. Hizaki is a master of the guitar. Such Riffs. If you need to drain your brain to metal and feel energized but still mesmerized, this is it.

20.

Institut Für Feinmotorik ‎- Abgegriffen (2011)

Coolest Experimental Band of the year. Go check them out on youtube. The making of the music here is truly an Experience.

19.

Deafkids ‎- Metaprogramação (2019)

D-beat, Raw Punk, Downtempo ... band from Volta Redonda, Rio De Janeiro - Brazil. NOISE.

18.

WipEout Omega Collection OST (2017)

The wipeout games are and will forever be my favorite way of anti-gravity racing. The music to Wipeout Omega Collection is as stellar as ever, a great list of electro and techno musicians.

17.

Hammer Bros. - Police Story (1997)

Imagine being at an underground hardcore noise rave party in 1997. Imagine the beat blasts. The speed. The energy. Just the grinding shouts, the beat, and you. Ready to dive. BURN. WATER. REPEAT.

16.

AFCGT ‎– Square Microphone Tapes

Noise rock galore. Glory. Wonderful. Gnarly. Intelligent. Different. Moody.

15.

Future Of The Left ‎– Human Death (2013)

Great leftist lyrics. Another one of RIk’s rec’s. Just Awesome. Good Music. Hate on capitalism and its endless bringer of deaths.

14.

Molchat Doma* ‎– Etazhi (2018)

Youtube rec of the year. Darkwave energies en masse!

13.

3.2 - The Rules Have Changed (2018)

The follow up to the infamous To The Power Of Three album from 1986 by Emerson, Lake and Berry. The first record was hated on by many, but I love it. And this very late follow up is a huge accomplishment and honoring to the late people involved. A record my dad would have liked. I just love prog music. Sigh.

12.

Saori Kobayashi - Terra Magica (2016)

Ethereal Game Music is not easy to make. Yet somehow, Saori manages it. No wonder really. She was behind Panzer Dragoon. Masterpiece album for what a tribute it is.

“Terra Magica is a love letter from Saori Kobayashi to her fans. Featuring the same rich, melodic tones that defined the iconic soundtracks of Panzer Dragoon Saga and Panzer Dragoon Orta, Kobayashi invites listeners to enter the world she has created, while encouraging them to create their very own story to match the progression of the music.“

11.

ENTROPY CREATED CONSCIOUSNESS - Impressions of the Morning Star (2018)

Symphonic Doom Metal of the year

10.

Sleaford Mods - Divide and Exit (2014)

Rec of the year by @planetsedge - Rik has served several discs on this list this year.

Mobile Suit Z Gundam BGM Collection (Vol.1 - Vol.3) (1985)

The title track to this animé, sung by Mami Ayukawa, and its subsequent soundtrack is probably one of the best I have heard. 80′s animé has the best soundtracks, mostly.

K2 - Iron Kulture 7' (1996)

Noise artist of the year.

Klaus Dinger + Japandorf (2013)

Surprise find of the year in the sense of knowing the artist in other bands (NEU! and Kraftwerk) but totally missing this somehow. Late late find. Total love. Electronic mists will seep into your ears listening to this.

Beak - >>>

Pop-like krautrock. Laid back, but with thought behind it. Allé Sauvage is my fave track. Just the perfect amount of mystery and rhythm and synths. First list find of the year.

The Muffs - Alert Today Alive Tomorrow

20 years ago The Muffs released this album, and I wish... the years had been kinder. This album helped me a lot though when I found it. A lot of nostalgia will arise listening to this.

Damned if you feel alright ~

BIG STICK - LP (2019)

EARWORM OF THE YEAR!!! Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co Butter Calamari Co Co ButterCalamari Co Co Butttttttttttttttteeeeerrrrr.

In the bodega.

Jesca Hoop - Stonechild (2019)

Indie folk niceties. Chill, interesting blend of rock and singing elements. Not mystical, but still with mysteries. Got third place because I kept remembering it so much. It penetrated my skull.

Doji Morita - A Boy (1977)

This album was an early find and should be my album of the year. Morita’s voice is amongst the softest and kindest I have ever heard. And she has all the wonderful aesthetics to boot! Acoustics with accompanying strings and pianos in most of the tracks. It isn’t, because the N’1 is such an explosion of a surprise.

The third track, ふるえているネ (One who is trembling) is my favorite. I do tremble at the very thoughts expressed in this track. The bird wings at the end... yeah. Every track on this album is a masterpiece.

Music as pulling one’ s strings of the heart. That is what this album is about.

I will keep it at that with the words. No more has to be said. Just listen, you will understand.

Kagami - Star Arts (2002)

Explosive, Happy, Creative, Constantly Changing Originality.

Techno. Disco. TeSco.

Toshiyasu Kagami was a genius in his genre. I’ve heard a lot of techno mixes and textures in my life, but not anything like this before.

Each track slaps you in the head and forces you to the rhythm, only for you to go.... HMMMMMMMMmmmMmmMmMMmmMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMM when the flow enters its synergies of musical delight. What else is there to say when your ears are filled with such pleasant sounds. Just when you think it won’t change up, it will change up. Impossible to predict. Dancefloor killer. Intelligent Mixes.

No philosophical analysis, only my body moving to the most energetic beat EVER.

Concrete Masterpiece. My album of the year in 2019.

#Moi #Music #Top #Top Albums #Discovered #Albums #Personal

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isharkseoservice · 3 years

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The quality and effectiveness of the content are its essentials. Even if you have unmatched quality and informativeness in your work and you also keep up with the trend, the right keywords are the ones to drive the right amount of and suitable traffic to the content.

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junker-town · 3 years

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NBA mock draft 2020: Our writers make picks for their favorite teams

Our latest mock draft is from those who know each team best.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are finally on the clock. After a nearly five-month delay because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 NBA Draft is set to be held on Wednesday, Nov. 18. While this isn’t considered the strongest draft class in recent memory, it is still full of young and exciting players who will one day help shape the future of the league.

As the draft approaches, the SB Nation NBA community sites have held a mock draft. One representative from every community made the pick for their team. No trades were allowed this year because of the league’s delayed salary cap announcement.

Click the related link to each SB Nation NBA community for further analysis of the selection, and join the discussion in the comments. In a draft with little consensus at the top, there’s certainly going to be plenty to debate. We begin the draft with Canis Hoopus selecting for the Wolves.

1. Minnesota Timberwolves - Anthony Edwards, G, Georgia

Sans the ability to trade picks in this Blogger Mock Draft, this becomes the most logical move for Gersson Rosas at the top. The Wolves currently have their cornerstone PG/C duo (for better or worse), so selecting either James Wiseman or LaMelo Ball doesn’t appear to make much sense for Minnesota. While Edwards does carry the slight risk of becoming Andrew Wiggins 2.0 in the land of 10,000 lakes, his overall athleticism and offensive potential are too good to pass up for a team desperately in need of talent on the wing.

- Kyle Theige, Canis Hoopus

2. Golden State Warriors - James Wiseman, C, Memphis

Because we can’t trade the pick, I went with the player who is the best available and fills a big need for the Warriors. Wiseman has all of the tools to be a very good center in the league. He is one of the best athletes available and will develop into a solid rim-protector. Although his college sample size is small, Wiseman has apparently been killing it during workouts. General manager Bob Myers can focus on adding a wing via free agency and take a flier on a cheap PF/C to fill out the roster.

- Jas Kang, Golden State of Mind

3. Charlotte Hornets - LaMelo Ball, PG, Illawara Hawks

The Hornets are in talent acquisition mode, and LaMelo Ball might be the most talented prospect in this draft. Ball is positionally redundant with the Hornets’ current two best players, but his size allows him to share the floor with either Terry Rozier or Devonte’ Graham, and even both for stretches. His ability to create looks for others will open up scoring opportunities for both of the other Hornets guards, who were often overburdened on the offensive end last season. He would also bring a superstar presence to a franchise that’s always struggling to attain media relevance.

- Jonathan DeLong, At the Hive

4. Chicago Bulls - Killian Hayes, G, Ulm

Like Charlotte, Chicago is also in talent acquisition mode and should be aiming to take the best player on the board. That player is Killian Hayes. He also fits Chicago’s need for a lead guard who can get everyone into the right spots on offense along with creating some scoring of his own, especially with his shooting off the dribble. Hayes has already shown he can play over in Europe and has the tools to be a good player in the NBA. With Coby White viewed more as a two guard, Hayes will easily slot in as Chicago’s point guard of the future. There is a lot of upside with this pick.

- Vijay Vemu, Blog-a-Bull

5. Cleveland Cavaliers - Onyeka Okongwu, C, USC

For the record, Deni Avdija and Isaac Okoro were the other options strongly considered here. But the Cavs desperately need a defensive presence for now and the long-term. Andre Drummond just isn’t that. Okongwu’s ability to cover ground, rotate correctly and play smart defense is needed for a franchise that has been historically bad on defense for the past two seasons. What his offensive game looks like is a mystery and it’s hard to pass up two wings - another position of need. But Okongwu’s upside and ability to fill a need is just too good to pass up.

- Chris Manning, Fear the Sword

6. Atlanta Hawks - Isaac Okoro, F, Auburn

This is a draft class in which many of the prospects are bunched tightly together, meaning that a lot of the picks in this range come down to personal preference. The Hawks would’ve considered Killian Hayes as an upside swing if he fell to No. 6, but with him off the board, the decision came down to Okoro and Devin Vassell. There isn’t a massive gap between those two players in a vacuum, but Okoro brings an intriguing skill set, with athleticism, strength and defensive upside. Offensively, he can attack close-outs, finish at the rim, make plays as a passer and serve as a secondary creator. His jump shot is a work in progress but, if he can become a league-average perimeter shooter, the sky is the limit. Even if he can’t, his other skills, headlined by his defense, will carry the day.

- Brad Rowland, Peachtree Hoops

7. Detroit Pistons - R.J. Hampton, G, New Zealand Breakers

This was an incredibly tough decision based on how important it is for a franchise desperately in need of top-end playmaking and talent to reach in the draft for a player with the potential to fill that goal. Do you take a player with all-around skills you are confident in or do you evaluate who might have that small chance of being a No. 1 option? That was the great Patrick Williams vs. RJ Hampton debate in the Pistons war room. In the end, we decided first-year GM Troy Weaver should swing for the fences on guard R.J. Hampton who has athleticism and playmaking skills to lead the Pistons offense at the one or the two, whichever he naturally fits best. Williams, meanwhile, would be a great complementary piece, but Detroit really needs that piece he’d be complementing. Other factors in Hampton’s favor are a) his youth, b) that Hampton has been working to remake and transform his shot into something that would work at the next level. If he can become a potent perimeter shooter, he could be an incredibly successful offensive player in the NBA and while he has a lot to work on from a defensive perspective, he has the athletic tools to be successful with dedicated development time.

- Sean Corp, Detroit Bad Boys

8. New York Knicks - Devin Vassell, G, Florida State

The Knicks need a little bit of everything, but one thing they need most is outside shooting. Devin Vassell shot over 40% in both of his seasons at Florida State, and is a certified genius in team defense. He rose from outside the top 200 in the high school recruiting rankings to a top-10 pick in two years, so we’re betting there is still some upside to be had.

- Joe Flynn, Posting and Toasting

9. Washington Wizards - Tyrese Haliburton, G, Iowa State

The Wizards need defensive help at every position. We were hoping for Okongwu or Okoro to be at No. 9 but both were gone. In addition, Precious Achiuwa was more of a reach with the No. 9 pick and we can’t trade down. While Avdija seemed tantalizing since he fell to No. 9, Washington does need another guard who could play a major role if the team gets into firesale mode in a year. And if the team starts winning many games, he can still be a strong option off the bench. Halliburton is a strong three point shooter and can be a good point guard option for the Wizards in a post Wall/Beal world. But he can also help right away with their playoff hopes which the Wizards want to do in the immediate term.

- Albert Lee, Bullets Forever

10. Phoenix Suns - Kira Lewis Jr., G, Alabama

The Suns really need a point guard of the future to take over for Ricky Rubio in 2021 or 2022, and that PG is Kira Lewis Jr. He and Booker can share the ball handling duties, playing off the ball next to each other as well as leading the second unit when the other is resting. Lewis has a bright future as a combo guard who can even get minutes his rookie season playing off ball next to Rubio in Booker-less lineups. The Suns got a steal here, in my opinion. Lewis could be one of the very best players in this draft.

- Dave King, Bright Side of the Sun

11. San Antonio Spurs - Deni Avdija, F, Maccabi Tel Aviv

Coming into the draft with an appetite for frontcourt talent, the Spurs were surprised to find themselves with a handful of appealing, and contrasting, options at 11. Those included Avdija and Obi Toppin, both guys they expected to be off the board, and the raw Patrick Williams. They went with the Israeli prospect, who exists somewhere in the vast ocean that spans Toppin’s ready-made offensive game and Williams’ two-way potential. Avdija’s playmaking and versatility are welcome complements to a Spurs youth movement that’s heavy on guards and light on shot creation, and his professional experience makes him the rare Spurs rookie that can expect a role early in their career.

- Bruno Passos, Pounding the Rock

12. Sacramento Kings - Patrick Williams, F, Florida State

Williams’ numbers aren’t eye-popping but he provides something the Kings desperately need: toughness. He has plenty of room to develop and with Sacramento still a while away from contending for a playoff spot, the team can be patient with him. The Kings could lose Alex Len and Harry Giles in free agency, so they need to bolster their frontcourt. Williams is a very good team defender who will help strengthen the back line of the team’s defense. He makes up for his lack of athleticism with a high basketball IQ, but he will need to work on his explosiveness in order to have an impact on the offensive end.

- Sabreena Merchant, Sactown Royalty

13. New Orleans Pelicans - Aaron Nesmith, SG, Vanderbilt

With the futures of Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson in mind, the Pelicans would be happy to score a high end role player in a weak draft devoid of booming potential. Aaron Nesmith fits the bill perfectly as his extraordinary shooting skills (52.2 percent from three-point range on 8.2 3PA) will keep driving lanes open for years to come for the two New Orleans cornerstones. Mentoring under JJ Redick could prove invaluable, and between Van Gundy’s teachings and Aaron Nelson’s training staff, a good chance exists for the 6’10 wingspan of Nesmith to reach his ceiling as an above average defender.

- Oleh Kosel, The Bird Writes

14. Boston Celtics - Obi Toppin, F, Dayton

The Celtics have three first-round selections, and must thread the needle between taking best player available and filling the need for immediate impact. An unforeseen slide of Obi Toppin makes him a high-value draft pick, both in trade markets elsewhere and in how he can make an immediate impact in Boston. Toppin is a freak athlete, shot above 39% from 3 and has the inside-outside offensive game needed in a hybrid big man. While there are legitimate defensive concerns, the talent and impact was too much to pass on at 14, and Boston provides him the opportunity to play the 5, likely his best NBA position

- Adam Spinella, Celtics Blog

15. Orlando Magic - Cole Anthony, G, North Carolina

It’s no secret that the point guard position has been a hot topic for the Orlando Magic over the last few years. While Markelle Fultz showed some positive signs last season, the Magic still need some depth at the position, especially with both D.J. Augustin and Michael Carter-Williams hitting the free agent market. Taking Cole Anthony gives the Magic a guard that can create his own shot, and can shoot the ball from beyond the arc some as well. Anthony will give the Magic the needed depth, and the ability to run out some two point guard lineups as well.

- Zach Oliver, Orlando Pinstripe Post

16. Portland Trail Blazers - Saddiq Bey, F, Villanova

The late-lottery, boom-or-bust prospects were off the board when this pick arrived, forcing this selection in the direction of the safe route. In a draft class filled with uncertainty, Saddiq Bey is on a short list of safe bets. Depending on how the offseason rolls out in Portland, it is possible that Bey could push for minutes as a rookie. There is always room for tertiary scoring alongside the Blazers’ star-studded backcourt. Again, this isn’t a flashy pick, but it is one that falls inside Damian Lillard’s prime.

- Steve Dewald, Blazer’s Edge

17. Minnesota Timberwolves - Tyrese Maxey, G, Kentucky

One of the core competencies at Canis Hoopus is simple: Pick Kentucky Players (shoutout John Meyer). Maxey’s speed, athleticism, and ability to finish around the rim would instantly be a huge boost to Minnesota’s second unit, and if his stroke from deep can (consistently) develop, he would immediately become the next Wildcat alum to take a sizable leap from college into the pros.

- Kyle Theige, Canis Hoopus

18. Dallas Mavericks - Aleksej Pokuševski, F, Serbia

With the 18th pick the Dallas Mavericks select perhaps the most polarizing player in the 2020 draft. The Mavericks won’t have a pick this high (or a pick, period) for years, so this is their last chance to add raw and young talent to their roster. Does he make sense for the short term? No. But if Poku can add weight and perform against better quality talent, he might just be ready for Dallas right when Luka Dončić’s rookie extension kicks in and it gets more difficult financially to add pieces to the Mavericks. His skill set and size it just too much to ignore at this point in the draft.

- Kirk Henderson, Mavs Moneyball

19. Brooklyn Nets - Precious Achiuwa, F/C, Memphis

This pick is all about size and athleticism. Having a big like Achiuwa who is super athletic, quick, can defend and rebound the basketball slip to No. 19 is a nice get here. For his size, to be able to keep pace with the likes of Durant and Irving, plus being able to provide an extra body on the growing list of athletic fours in the game; you can see where Achiuwa and his 7’2” wingspan can come in and make an impact right away.

- Tom Lorenzo, Nets Daily

20. Miami Heat - Jalen Smith, F, Maryland

At No. 20, the Heat are looking for a contributor to their core. Jalen Smith provides the length, defensive versatility, and shooting they lacked to pair with or behind Bam Adebayo in the playoffs. Smith’s 7’2” wingspan paired with some Culture will make him someone with immediate impact.

- Matt Pineda, Hot Hot Hoops

21. Philadelphia 76ers - Desmond Bane, G, TCU

In their never-ending search for perimeter scoring, the Sixers go with TCU product Desmond Bane. Bane was a four-year player at the NCAA level which may scare some other teams off, but Philly is pretty smitten with how things turned out with Matisse Thybulle (also a four-year player). Bane has the size and athleticism to hold his own defensively, and if his career 43.3 percent mark from three-point range translates to the next level, he’ll contribute out of the gate. Longer term, he could be a perfect complement to Ben Simmons as a secondary ball-handler.

- Kevin Love, Liberty Ballers

22. Denver Nuggets - Tyler Bey, F, Colorado

The Nuggets take the local kid, grabbing a forward who reportedly registered a 43.5” vertical jump in his combine measurements. Bey is an athletic defender whose skills as a rebounder help strengthen one of the Nuggets strengths. He doesn’t have to come in as a shooting threat, and his ability to score around the rim plays well next to Nikola Jokić, Michael Porter Jr., and potentially Jerami Grant. If Grant leaves, Bey can slot in as the forward defender the team needs. He could have a lot of highlight reel plays finishing lobs on a loaded Nuggets team.

- Daniel Lewis, Denver Stiffs

23. Utah Jazz - Josh Green, G, Arizona

After their disappointing finish in the playoffs, Dennis Lindsey said Utah’s goal in the offseason would be to improve their defense while not sacrificing spacing. Josh Green should help with both those things. Green has great size at the wing standing 6’6” with a 6’10” wingspan and uses it well on the defensive end filling lanes and playing good on-ball defense. Green also shot 36 percent from three and has a nice looking shot that should only improve with time.

- James Hansen, SLC Dunk

24. Milwaukee Bucks - Theo Maledon, G, AVSEL

Milwaukee is searching for more dynamism in their backcourt after yet another playoff flameout and Maledon offers the upside and playmaking potential that could fit the bill. While his iffy shooting figures provide some pause, the hope is that Bud’s staff can give him a salvageable deep ball to accompany his nifty passing skills to ease Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton’s playmaking burden. With 6’9” length, if he improves his body he could follow in George Hill’s footsteps as a solid guard capable of scoring capably on several levels offensively.

- Adam Paris, Brew Hoop

25. Oklahoma City Thunder - Leandro Bolmaro, G, Barcelona

He can give the Thunder a point forward off the bench so Dennis Schroder doesn’t have to be fully responsible for creating all the plays for the bench unit. He’s versatile and he’d be a solid addition to the team.

- Sarah Dewberry, Welcome to Loud City

26. Boston Celtics - Tyrell Terry, G, Stanford

Another guy with lottery rumors falling to our pick, Terry has the potential to be the long-term point guard of choice next to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. A sharpshooter with a brilliantly quick release and deep range, Terry would add a Curry-esque dynamic to this offense. While his point guard skills and on-ball defense are in need of seasoning, the Celtics have proven capable of blanketing a smaller point guard in the past. Expect a few minutes off the bench early in his career while he’s groomed to be a floor spacer around Boston’s core in the future.

- Adam Spinella, Celtics Blog

27. New York Knicks - Malachi Flynn, G, San Diego State

The Knicks haven’t had a legitimate point guard since...well, it’s been awhile. Malachi Flynn was one of the best players in college basketball last season, a pick-and-roll maestro who can shoot it from anywhere. He might start for this Knicks team.

- Joe Flynn, Posting and Toasting

28. Los Angeles Lakers - Grant Riller, G, Charleston

Riller is a three-level scorer for a team that could benefit significantly from an on-ball creator, as outside of LeBron James and Anthony Davis to an extent, no other player on the team was a dependable source of perimeter creation in the halfcourt (Playoff Rondo notwithstanding). Riller’s push skills are whether his passing can catch up to his shotmaking, and whether his defense looks better when not asked to take on such a large offensive load — Riller showed flashes of the latter, albeit inconsistently this past season. Would still handicap the pick as likely to be traded on draft night, but Riller would be a solid addition who could likely have a fair shot of contributing in the short term at a spot of need for a defending title team.

- Ben Rosales, Silver Screen and Roll

29. Toronto Raptors - Jaden McDaniels, F, Washington

It’s a bit of a surprise to see McDaniels still on the board, and since the Raptors promised to be aggressive in their mission to add talent to their young core, he’s their guy at no. 29. Listed at 6’10” and 200 lbs, 20-year-old McDaniels has the talent and two-way potential to propel his way into the conversation as one of the better players in this year’s draft class. He also presents the Raptors with another multi-dimensional option on the wing, giving coach Nurse even more lineup flexibility with which to tinker. In all, it’s not hard to bet on Toronto’s ability to develop McDaniels with the right mindset and along the best path to unlock his full potential.

- JD Quirante, Raptors HQ

30. Boston Celtics - Isaiah Joe, G, Arkansas

The Celtics didn’t enter this draft expecting to take three domestic players, but we can finagle things to make room for the right three. If there’s one theme in our picks, it’s that shooting rules the roost. We have a superstar scorer, some great slashers and enough defensive versatility and firepower to remain a threat. Isaiah Joe could easily end up the best shooter in this class, and bringing he and Terry to Boston, as well as a pick & pop threat in Toppin, should open up the floor plenty for Tatum and company.

- Adam Spinella, Celtics Blog

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mbtizone · 7 years

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Troy Otto (Fear the Walking Dead): ISTP

Dominant Introverted Thinking [Ti]: Troy is obsessed with killing people of different ages, sizes, and ethnicities to see what he can learn about the turning process. He wants to collect data, which he then goes on to categorize, or draw conclusions from. He is confident in his assertion that it will take him 87 minutes to die, because of his age, weight, and BMI. He’s so obsessed with collecting this information that when Nick threatens to kill him, Troy begs him to time how long it takes him to turn. He cares about accumulating knowledge and, when Nick wants to know what’s wrong with him, Troy simply responds that Newton stabbed himself in the eye just to understand the nature of light. Troy wants to know why people spoil. He seeks to understand what is going on around him and remains callous and detached in his quest for answers. Troy’s way of thinking about things is subjective. He does what makes sense to him. He wants to take out the horde that he spots on the side of the road because they can’t risk allowing them to reach the ranch. Cooper argues with him, trying to tell him that it’s not on their to-do list and says that they’re on the clock, but Troy doesn’t care about their schedule. He’s guided by his own internal logic and is able to arrive at likely conclusions quickly. He spots shells from a gun that was owned by Phil, which leads Troy to deduce that Phil had engaged an attacker before retreating to the outpost.

Auxiliary Extroverted Sensing [Se]: Action and adventure are exciting for Troy and he likes to be in the thick of things. When he spots the horde on the side of the road and leads his men to take them out, he doesn’t allow them to use their guns because it’s “too much noise” and “not enough sport.” He enjoys taking risks and living in the moment. Troy is often reckless and puts himself and others in dangerous situations. He enjoys a good fight and is skilled with weapons. Troy is always aware of his physical surroundings and knows how to engage with them. His constant vigilance allows him to make many observations about his environment. Troy has very keen senses. He’s the first one to notice the smell that leads his men and Madison to the pile of charred bodies. Troy tells Madison that he’s “always been a bit of a nature boy.” He notices what’s going on around him (Se) and makes note of it (Ti). Although he is aware of the severity of most situations, he tends to treat the new world like a personal playground, with Madison noting that it’s like a “game” to Troy. Troy is impetuous and has trouble controlling his impulses (slaughtering the Trimbol family in the heat of the moment). He doesn’t believe in dwelling on the past. When someone dies, they’re gone. All you can do is get your revenge and move on. When Troy sees what Walker did to their people, he immediately wants to hit them back.

Tertiary Introverted Intuition [Ni]: Troy’s singular focus is on studying, observing, and acquiring information about the dead (Ti-Ni). He is consumed by it. He has a good sense about people and he sees right through Madison’s speech. Troy realizes that she said what she said to garner sympathy and remind the people at the ranch that she’s a victim. She didn’t say what she said to memorialize him. She had a reason and Troy saw right through her manipulation. He usually has an idea of what will happen in most situations (though, having a concept of what the consequences may be is rarely enough to stop him). Troy thinks that what he does is his “calling” in life. He believes it’s what he’s meant to do. It’s his purpose.

Inferior Extroverted Feeling [Fe]: Because he is so wrapped up in trying to comprehend the world around him, Troy doesn’t typically display empathy. When Madison is upset after seeing where the helicopter went down, he admonishes her, saying “there’s no room for grief.” In certain instances, he can become extremely emotional and throw a tantrum. He killed the Trimbol family because they left the ranch and Mike couldn’t even do him the courtesy of looking him in the eye and talking to Troy about it. He has a hard time dealing with his feelings and they cause him to lash out. Troy can be very good at understanding people (seeing Madison’s real motivation for her speech about Travis). Troy does genuinely care about the people at the ranch and wants to help them and protect them, but because he’s so unhealthy, he sometimes ends up doing more harm than good. He’s genuinely upset when he finds the heap of burned bodies and when his group comes across Phil. When Madison tells Troy that his mother never loved him, he later holds a knife to her throat in her sleep, but is unable to go through with it. When he returns to the ranch after their encounter with Walker, Troy wants to keep the truth from them. He only wants to tell Jeremiah, and Troy tries to keep Mike from telling everybody what happened, to no success.

Note: Troy is unbelievably unhealthy. He’s also very complex. Troy has sadistic tendencies and it’s difficult for him to control himself. He didn’t intend to kill the Trimbol family and he means what he says when he’s saying it. He’s just extremely damaged and probably one of the worst examples of an ISTP on television. It’s hard to separate what parts of Troy’s personality come from his cognitive functions and which parts stem from whatever psychological disorder he suffers from. I actually considered high Si for him, because he believes in preserving the ranch, serving it, and doing what he believes must be done in order to protect it. He also talks about the importance of “order, discipline, chain of command,” but I think he means that more for other people and not necessarily for himself. He doesn’t embody those values and tends to just do whatever he wants in the moment. His past has a huge, lasting impact on him, but I believe anyone of any type would be affected if they had the same experiences as Troy. He’s a stickler for “the rules” and how things should be done, but I think that might be part his illness. He uses his loyalty to the ranch as an excuse. They “don’t have enough resources” for Travis, but he’s okay with allowing Madison and Alicia in. I believe Jeremiah and Jake didn’t want to allow Luciana inside because that’s “not how they do things.” Troy hid behind this reason as well, but I think it probably had more to do with his desire to kill people to “learn.” He was probably already thinking about how long it would take Luciana to turn. The same goes for when Vernon, Mike, and the rest of the Trimbol family left the ranch. He was angry and upset, so he used the rules as a crutch. He berated them for leaving with “ranch property.” He didn’t really care about protecting the ranch in that moment, as Jake pointed out. He just used that as his reason because he didn’t want to get into the truth – that he was hurt and felt betrayed. It was also hard for me to decide what his dominant function was – Ti or Se? But there are strong signs of inferior Fe, and nearly everything he does is to feed his Ti curiosity, so ISTP seemed the better fit. Troy can be interpreted in numerous ways, so I used my own analysis of the character, as well as what I’ve read in interviews or heard on Talking Dead to form my judgments. He hasn’t been around very long, though, so I may see something that will cause me go back and retype him in the future. Time shall tell.

Enneagram: 8w7 5w6 3w2 So/Sx

Quotes:

Troy: Did you have contact back home before comms failed? Travis: No. Troy: Oh, shame. New Zealand’s isolated. I just thought, uh maybe your people – maybe they dodged all this. Maybe they turn different or not at all. Eh, could’ve learned something. We may still. Nick: Where’s my mom and my sister? Troy: Being processed. Nick: Don’t hurt them. Troy: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, ease your mind. I’m not a savage. Travis: That’s that’s good to hear. This woman needs attention. Troy: Yeah, she’ll be taken care of. Travis: No, she’s dying. Troy: Everyone here dies. It’s the only mercy I can offer for the sick and the maimed. Now, you can take a seat.

Madison: What are you writing? Troy: Oh, it’s just observations. I’ve always been a bit of a nature boy. I just I mark things down. It will matter later.

Troy: Two ways it cuts, huh? You can’t sleep ’cause of what’s weighing on you or bad times just waiting for you when you wake. Madison: What do you want? Troy: This area’s burned. You shouldn’t go back out there. Madison: Troy. Troy: We’re leaving. I can take you home with us. You and Alicia. Madison: What about Travis? Troy: Our resources are limited Madison: Is he alive? Troy: I’ll release him. I will… if you come.

Nick: Luci, hey- Man: Not sure she can hear you. Nick: What what do you mean? Troy: She’s not going to make it is what he means. Nick: Help her. Troy: No. We take her to the infirmary, she may turn. It’s against policy. Nick: It’s your fault. You shot her. Troy: I was defending my people. I’ll do it again. I know what to do. Nick: No, no, no, no. Troy: This is how it has to be. Nick: No.

[Madison enters and sees who she thinks is Nick in bed.] Madison: How’s Luciana? Troy: Oh, still alive. I liked your speech. I liked how you said his name. Travis. It makes him matter. Makes him real. Madison: He was real. Troy: That’s not why you said it, though. It wasn’t out of grief. It was pointed. You wanted to remind us that you’re a victim, too. Madison: You feel like a victim? Troy: Are you analyzing me now? Madison: No. Troy: What did you do in the old world? Madison: Guidance counselor. Troy: At a high school? [Madison nods] Oh. I never attended. “Certain social aspects of academia proved challenging for Troy.” Madison: You must have been lonely. Troy: No, no. No, I, uh I had this place. Everything that I do is in service to this place. Madison: Does your father believe that? Troy: Yeah, he understands. You know, complicated problems call for complicated solutions. Madison: Killing people’s not complicated. It’s simple. Troy: Do you see? You understand this world. You understand me. That’s why I picked you. But I didn’t – I didn’t pick Nick. Madison: He comes with me. Package deal. Troy: Why were you separated? Why was he with strangers and not his family? He doesn’t deserve his place here. I think you know it. Madison: He’ll earn it. [referring to the bed] That was made this morning, Troy.

Jake: Stay away from Madison and her family. Troy: They’re my friends. Jake: They came here under my invite. They trust me. Troy: They came here not to get eaten. I wouldn’t flatter yourself. Jake: Yeah, but they’re staying ’cause I said I’d protect them from you. Troy: And how are you going to do that? Jake: Please don’t do this. Troy, please. I’m the one that still believes in you. Troy: Well, I don’t need you to anymore. Jake: Yeah, you do. You do. If the ranch knew what you really are- Troy: And what am I, Jake? Jake: Do you really think that you were helping those people out at the depot? Troy: I think I was helping all of us. Jake: Troy when Dad’s gone, this is all on us. We have to take care of this place. We have to lead – Together. Troy: Together. Jake: Yeah. But I need you to do something for me. I need you to stay away from the Clarks. Do you hear me? Troy: Yep. I hear you. Jake: Do you mean it? Troy: I always mean it, Jake.

Troy: The ground’s soft. You could dig a grave real easy. I mean, people would suspect you, but well, they really wouldn’t know for sure. Nick: I wonder how long it’ll take you to turn. Troy: Eighty-seven minutes. Eighty-seven minutes given my weight, BMI, age. You know, if you do do it, you should time it. Journal’s in my pocket. Nick: You are not a scientist. Troy: Time it. Nick, please. Nick: What is wrong with you? Troy: Newton stabbed his own eye to understand the nature of light. I just – I need to know. I need to know why we spoil.

Troy: Cooper, are you seeing what I’m seeing? We got a party to attend! Cooper: It’s out of our way, Troy. We need to get to the Huey and back. Over. Troy: No, no, no, we leave them, they could migrate up the highway toward the ranch. We can’t risk that. Cooper: Not on our to-do list. We’re on a clock, man. Madison: I’m with you. Troy: We’re not making this someone else’s problem, Cooper. We’ll be in and out in five minutes. That’s it. Oh, no, no, no. No guns. It’s too much noise. Not enough sport.

[after he, his men, and Madison take out a horde] Troy: Oh, it’s a beautiful thing. It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing. Who timed that? Man: It was just under a minute. Troy: Eh, it’s good work. Short work.

Troy: You ready for what comes next? It’s gonna be living, not dead. Whoa, you’re gonna need more fight in you than that. Madison: I’ll have fight. Don’t worry. Troy: You sure? Madison: Seeing where it happened was harder than I thought. Troy: Oh, you need to let that go. There’s no room for grief. Madison: If it was your father, you wouldn’t mourn him? Troy: Big Otto is immortal. Madison: And you didn’t grieve for your mother? Troy: Nah, if someone is dead, they’re dead, you know? There’s no point dwelling. All you can do is take out the assholes who did you wrong. Madison: Eye for an eye. Troy: Ah, a tooth for a tooth, amen. Madison: It’s just a game to you. Troy: No, it’s not a game. It’s my calling.

Madison: Your men are tired. Troy: Yeah, well, newsflash so am I. Listen, Walker and those assholes will make it back before us if we don’t move double time. You want that visited on your family? Huh? You really think Nick can handle something like that? Madison: We’re not gonna make it back. Troy: You’re overstepping, Madison. Mike, will you pick your ass up? Just wrap your foot and hoof it. Come on, let’s go. Madison: You want them to follow you out of fear or respect? Troy: What did you just say to me? Madison: Being a leader is knowing when to stop. Troy: Okay. Okay. Come here. This is my mission and these are my men. Madison: Yours or your father’s? Would he back this play? Troy: Who do you think you’re talking to? I’m not your son. Madison: But you have such a strange fixation on him. You wanna be a mama’s boy, Troy? Was your mother too cruel for that? Troy: Shut up. Madison: She hated you, didn’t she? Troy: Shut up. Shut up. Madison: Even in the end, when you cared for her and bathed her, she still didn’t love you, did she? Who says we should rest up? Troy: I’m the only one who knows the way back. So you better pick your asses up at first light because I will leave you. I’ll leave you all for the wasted.

Mike: They’re dead. They’re all dead. Troy: Mike, lock your shit down. Lock it down. Mike: They’re dead. And we’re gonna die, too, if we don’t leave! Troy: Shut up! Man: Is that true? Mike: If we stay, we- Troy: Mike, shut the hell up. Mike: If we stay, we die!

Troy: No, no, no, we go after them. Now. We hit them back. Jeremiah: So you can stroll into another ambush, Colonel Custer?

Madison: I was worried you might do something rash. Troy: To my family? No, no. Never. Madison: Can’t blame my worry. Troy: No. All I’ve ever had in my – my whole life is this – this place and these people, and I don’t know, it just I don’t understand, you know. Like, the world out there, it’s, uh – it’s burned. Madison: They wanted to see for themselves. Troy: Anyone who leaves is dead to me. Now, Mike, he was – he was soft, but he was – he’s been my friend since I was a kid. He stayed in school when I got – I got pulled. But he never quit on me. Never. Even when others did. Madison: He didn’t quit on you, Troy. He just stood by his family. Troy: He wouldn’t look at me. He just… Hard to know how to react to something like that. Madison: You make sure no one else leaves. Save them from the same mistake. I’ll help you.

Troy: I didn’t go out there to do that, I swear. I – He owed me. He had to look me directly in the eye. He had to say it to my face, say it like Vernon said it to my father. He owed me that. Madison: He didn’t want to do that, did he? Troy: He said some things, and I did some things. Then it went bad. Not what you want to hear, is it? Madison: You could run this place, Troy, but not if you let things break like that. Last night you had command. I saw that. Your militia saw that, and they responded. Your brother doesn’t have what you have. He’s not of this place. You’re the survivor. You’re the heir. So, no, the last thing I want to hear is how you lost control. That can’t happen. I don’t care how you did it. I don’t care why you did it. All I care about is that you can control it. There’s a fight coming, and you have to save us. Can you? Troy: Yes, ma’am.

Troy Otto (Fear the Walking Dead): ISTP was originally published on MBTI Zone

#Fear the Walking Dead #FtWD #Troy Otto #ISTP #mbti #mbti types #mbti personality types #fictionalcharactermbti #fictionmbti #tv mbti #enneagram #enneatypes #enneagram type #Type 8 #enneagram 8 #8w7 5w6 2w3 #So/Sx

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Community Re-Watch Season 1: Advanced Criminal Law and Social Psychology

Community Re-Watch: Season 1 Hello everyone! Once again, watching in intended order. Which means this week we've got "Advanced Criminal Law" and "Social Psychology" (yes in that order). Advanced Criminal Law

Commentary by Dan Harmon, Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, and Andrew Guest (co-writer with Dan)

Dan says the script for this episode was pretty much written on-set. Andrew confirms that the script went through a lot of changes. There was originally a secondary story involving Professor Duncan. According to Dan, Duncan just had a paper published called “Born to Leave,” which was about why women always leave men. Andrew clarifies that the comedy about the paper was that it was clearly Duncan publicly grinding an axe.

Dan says that a lot of people didn’t get the exchange between Jeff and Duncan where they talk “in code” using sitcom titles. Joel is kind of shocked by that statement.

Dan admits that Abed is loosely based on a friend of his (side note: original Abed did make an appearance as one of the custodians during S5 in “Analysis of Cork-based Networking). He said Original Abed (the guy’s name is actually Abed) is incredulous. That was the basis of the Abed-Troy storyline in this episode. Joel points out that Original Abed actually read for the part of Fictional Abed.

Starburns’s first line in the entire series is said in Spanish class. It’s, “My name is Alex, dude.” According to Dan, this exchange was originally longer and descended into a huge argument between Chan and Starburns. Unfortunately, NBC hated the argument and it got cut as a result.

Gillian said during the day they were shooting in the Spanish class, Ken Jeong was doing a lot of Andrew Dice Clay impressions.

Joel actually doesn’t remember which episode he’s commenting on. He sheepishly admits that during the break when no one is talking he was quickly looking up on his phone to see which episode it was.

Dan once again repeats that this is one of the episodes where Jeff gets his one-on-one with each character in the study group. This episode is meant to be Jeff’s one-on-one with Britta. This is the episode where we discover that Britta is a character who cuts and runs “because she’s a skank.” Gillian cheerfully agrees that Britta is a skank-y, cheating, ‘ho, “which is what the people want.” Dan assures Gillian that she is selling herself short, and that he is in negotiations about that stuff with “the people.”

Dan says there were multiple re-shot scenes between Pierce and Annie at the piano while Pierce is trying to write a school song for Greendale. He mentions that some of the scenes will be included in the DVD extras. The point was to say something about Pierce (not Annie, apparently). Dan repeats that Pierce is Dan’s avatar representing him as an artist. Namely, that he’ll shut himself up in a room and procrastinate, then go around and lie about what a genius he is.

Joel notes that Alison’s neck is bright red in the scene where Chang threatens to flunk the class unless the cheater comes forward. Gillian points out that it’s because Alison just screamed. Joel asks Gillian if the same thing happens to her, and Gillian confirms that it does. She adds that she bruises very easily.

Gillian says that during the scene where the class throws balled up paper at her, some of the extras in the scene whipped the balls at her pretty hard. Dan admits that he ended up debating the scene with Joe Russo during editing. Joe wanted a beat before people starting flinging paper at her, and Dan wanted it to happen right away. Dan won.

Joel calls the scene where Jeff approaches Britta in the Cafetorium as “the battle of the awesome coats.”

Dan asks if Joel was the one who ad-libbed the line that a dirty bum is higher on the totem pole than Britta. Joel and Gillian say that the line was actually in the script.

Dan says that Jeff is based on a combination of his friends. In addition, Jeff Winger is both the voice of “the dorky writer who created him” and Joel McHale. He credits McHale with really highlighting Jeff’s “pomposity, narcissism, and shallowness.” (Umm, compliment? I guess?)

Dan says the dirty bum line to Britta was the point at which he realized that they had managed to successfully create a very flawed character as their Jeff protagonist and they had to commit to it.

Andrew says that there are a couple of different versions of the Jeff-Britta conversation that were put into the script, but that writer Neil Goldman was the one who locked it down to its current form.

Andrew also says that writer Hillary Winston came up with Britta storyline, and that she came into the writers’ room with the plot almost fully formed before they even wrote the script. Dan confirmed the storyline was Hillary’s. Although he adds that he always had the idea in his head that he wanted to do a trial storyline where the trial takes place next to a swimming pool. He notes that if the idea had come from Joe Russo, it might get shot down as being too expensive. But because Dan wanted to do it, people were willing to make it happen.

The pool-side trial was apparently a long day of filming. Gillian points out that on that day, Alison was on-set for 16 hours, and only worked for a half-hour. Turns out, Alison had a scene as a witness at the trial, and she ended up being cut from the final version of the script/episode.

Dan says that part of it was that when he went down to the set, he thought the pool-side trial scenes weren’t working. So he and Andrew basically sat on the bleachers and re-wrote the trial scenes. Then they were printing out the re-written pages to give to the actors, while they were still shooting the original script. Andrew jokes, “It’s really not the way you want to work.”

Gillian points out the guy diving into the pool in the background at the end of the first pool-trial scene made that dive 30 times.

Dan says the scenes between Annie and Pierce were originally much darker in tone. All of the scenes had to be reshot because NBC because they felt the scenes were too dark. Dan admits that NBC may have had a valid point. However, he says that the whole point of the Annie-Pierce storyline was to “find the Pierce character” that both Dan and Chevy would be happy with.

Dan goes off on a tangent and says that Chevy basically wanted to be Fletch. Dan’s argument was that Pierce wasn’t Fletch, he was meant to be a buffoon and that Chevy had been warned that Pierce was the target of jokes. But Chevy insisted that he wanted to be “Fletch-y and sexy.” So the Pierce-Annie storyline was Dan’s attempt at finding a happy medium. Pierce was written to be an angry character because he’s not getting what he wants in life.

Dan says in the original scenes between Pierce and Annie, Pierce is very abusive towards Annie throughout their storyline. In the final piano room scene between the two of them, Annie snaps and dresses down Pierce. Actual Dan quote describing the original scene where Annie finally confronts Pierce: “You know why you have seven wives? Because everyone who gets close to you, you shit on them. Now I’m one of one of those people, and I accidentally thought you were a decent guy. Now I’m out of here too, and that’s just the way it is.” As Dan put it, Annie was supposed to be Pierce’s first real friend. Dan admits that the storyline was inspired by Malcolm in the Middle.

Back at poolside again, Gillian says she got great joy out of the seeing posters of the Human Being in his swimming form. Andrew adds that the art department did an amazing job on the set. Both Joel and Gillian pipe up and say that the set was infested by very large cockroaches.

Gillian says that it was her idea to crawl up onto the platform to give Britta’s testimony. Joel says he thought it was kind of adorable.

Dan says that he had a real problem with Gillian’s boots. Gillian adds that he seemed upset that she was wearing heels. Dan counters that he has a problem with dishonesty, and it seems to him that if someone is short they should own it. He had a hard time wrapping his head around why someone like Britta would wear high-heeled boots, because Britta was supposed to be a character that represented practicality and honesty. So, why is Britta stumbling around on stilts? Gillian interrupts and says it’s because she’s not very good at walking in heels.

Andrew points out that this is the first episode where the writers actually address Britta’s character. Gillian agrees that this is the first episode where you see Britta is flawed (Ummm, did we forget Britta admitting to being a hypocrite in “Spanish 101?”).

Dan says that this episode is one of his favorite episodes, however, it’s also an episode that had a huge number of problems during production and post-production. There was “political” pressure on him, plus a lot of second-guessing and over-correction. For example, a lot of the act breaks got shuffled around in the edit bay to improve the flow of the episode, so as a result none of the act breaks we see are the original act breaks in the script, which seems to drive him crazy. In short, filming and putting this episode was, in Dan’s word, “a mess.” Plus he was in the middle of the learning curve of learning to work with his team and the network. There was not enough confidence on his part.

Gillian says that both she and Joel got to really enjoy watching Jim Rash, John Oliver, and Ken do improve during the poolside-trial scenes. She says that it was like being at a comedy show that never ended.

Joel says the shower scene between Chang and Duncan and Jeff and Britta was shot about 20 minutes before they were about to be thrown out of the pool. Gillian says that both scenes were shot very quickly, with only two takes for each scene.

Dan calls Gillian’s acting in the scene between her and Jeff “brilliant.”Dan thinks that looking back at the Jeff-Britta scene after 25 episodes of pounding on Britta by pointing out that she’s humorless and joyless, you realize in this scene that Britta is “a crazy person.” He says that Gillian’s performance informs that realization, because it’s “so real.” Britta is the character on Gilligan’s Island who sticks out because she’s different from “all these sitcom characters.”

Andrew says that the Jeff-Britta scene was shot at the end of a 16-hour day and Joe basically had to tell Gillian, “Okay, this is your big scene!” Gillian repeats that they had to do the scene in two takes.

Dan’s still complaining about act breaks.

First appearance of Leonard (By the fabulous Richard Erdman! I recommend you see him in one of his most famous roles in Stalag 17. Great movie! Somehow it served as the inspiration of Hogan’s Heroes. If you squint, you can kind of see it.).

Everyone talks about how Dan almost drowned Richard. Gillian says it was fascinating to see two people swim out with Richard to guide him to his mark and then he’d sink about five inches down the second they let him go. Dan says “the legend” is that Richard had to do 20 takes of his “Busted!” line, but the thing is, he nailed it on his first take while Dan was in the bathroom. And then when Dan came back, he kept asking for more takes. Eventually, the first assistant director took Dan aside and said, “He’s going to drown!” Dan admits that the ended up using his first take. Gillian starts laughing that Richard is basically “eating water” during his scene.

Dan starts singing Richard’s praises and urges people to look him up on IMDb to see what he’s acted in and what he’s directed. He’s basically a museum of early television and a living legend. Gillian says that Richard was Marlon Brando’s roommate at one point when they were both starting out in Hollywood. Dan says everyone on the set should salute Richard when he comes on set. Gillian says he’s always in a good mood, and is always happy to be there.

Gillian says that she loved watching Danny shoot his scene where he’s pretending to be an alien communicating with his home world. She says that for the “alien twin,” Danny insisted that make-up draw in his eyebrows really heavy so he’d have a more alien look.

Dan says the scene between where Troy confronts Abed about trying to fool him into thinking he is an alien was re-shot as well. Originally Troy bought it, but Dan thought it was too implausible that Troy would think Abed was an alien. Andrew jokes that now the writers know Troy well enough that they’d probably go for the original storyline.

Dan says that in the first season of any freshman show, everyone involved has the correct feeling that it’s their job to save the show. This sometimes leads to the equivalent of a car crash at a four-waystop. But the thing is, everyone is right because it is everyone’s job to save the show. So everyone has to learn to work together. Eventually people learn over time. But early on “you think you’re writing the Constitution and everyone if Thomas Jefferson.”

Gillian says that Chevy loves playing the piano. Joel adds that he’s actually very good at it.

Dan clearly isn’t feeling the scenes between Annie and Pierce and calls them “watered-down.” However, he adds that writer Liz Cackowski did a good job re-writing the scenes between the two characters. Turns out that Annie’s final speech to Pierce about being a cheerleader is actually taken from a combination of Hillary’s and Liz’s real lives.

Dan says he actually loves Annie’s cheerleader story because it’s so specific of a backstory and it allowed them to learn stuff.

Andrew says adapting the Bruce Hornsby song “The Way It Is,” came about because someone in the writers’ room thought the name of the song was “That’s the Way It Goes.” And they got to talking about what if Pierce thought that was the name of the song.

Dan says they tried to get Bruce Hornsby and The Range to play the closing song of the episode, but was turned down. Dan adds that he hopes to get Bruce on the show at some point.

Gillian says that Luis Guzman posed for the Luis Guzman statue.

Dan thanks Luis. He adds that he originally asked Mark Hamill to pose for it. Although Mark said no, Dan still got an awesome letter in response to his request. Dan said it actually made him love Mark, because he he’s one of the few people who can say “no” without coming off like a dick. He said Mark came across as fairly reasonable in his rejection.

Social Psychology

Commentary by Dan Harmon, Joel McHale, Yvette Nicole Brown, and Anthony Russo. Danny Pudi watched them do commentary from outside the recording booth.

Anthony states that the episode was aired out of order. It was moved up, which resulted in a rushed post-production.

Dan says that Liz Cackowski wrote the draft. It was apparently a big milestone for Dan. He felt that this was the first script that was just “ready to go” and he felt from the start that they could actually do this story.

First appearance of Vaughn (Erik Christian Olsen). Yvette notes that he’s (as of when they were recording the commentaries) a full-time cast member of one of the NCIS shows. Yvette says he was a great guy.

Anthony says that commentaries were recorded out of order from when the episodes aired. Apparently they had just finished commenting on later episodes and this was a return to the earlier episodes for them. Antony says that part of the fun of the early episodes is that you’re getting to know the characters, and in this case, exploring the relationship between Jeff and Shirley. He adds that another part of the fun is finding characters outside your core cast. Some of those characters wound up having “lives” in the first season, despite the fact they were originally cast as a one-shot guest.

Everyone loved the character of Vaughn, and they’re kind of sorry they didn’t get to explore him more. Dan mentions about making Vaughn a musical rival to Pierce (which only sort of happened).

Yvette says the nice thing about this episode is that she got to spend time with Joel. She says that just as Shirley and Jeff were getting to know each other, she and Joel were getting to know each other at the same time.

Dan credits Liz for coming up with the idea that the basis of the friendship between Jeff and Shirley is their mutual love of gossip, specifically talking smack behind people's backs.

Dan repeats that this is part of the series where “in the first six episodes” (umm, it took longer than six episodes for Annie,just sayin’), where Jeff would interact with each member of the study group and become inextricably tangled in each character’s life. This was the Jeff-Shirley episode. The problem they were trying to overcome was how to make that happen with Jeff and Shirley. That’s why they leaned into the whole thing where Jeff says at the open of the episode that he hates walking with Shirley and making small talk with her. However, he likes the fact that Shirley is the first to really bond with Jeff.

Yvette points out that Jeff and Shirley are really toxic together, so does that mean that they shouldn’t be together in future episodes? Dan disagrees, since the whole point is for “the family” to grow together so much that, if they want, Shirley moves up from being Jeff’s “least favorite family member” to someone he likes more.

Joel points out that the name of the coffee shop is Hot and Brown. Dan says it was tough coming up with a new coffee shop name after going through 15 names of coffee shops used on other sitcoms. Yvette jokes that she thought it was in homage to her. Dan points out that it’s racist. Yvette asks how it’s racist. Dan says, “It’s not racist if you say it.”

Yvette says that John Oliver has the cutest dimples ever. Joel adds that comedy just flows out of John and Jim Rash like a broken Roman fountain. Dan says that both John and Jim are amazing in different ways. He calls Jim “a machine” who hits every mark in exactly the same way if you want him to, which makes it easy to edit his scenes. John does a different thing every time and it’s amazing every single time.

According to Dan, there were a lot of shots (that were cut) where Duncan was leering at Annie, and it just made him feel very uncomfortable. He is very protective of the idea that Annie was an innocent little girl.

Yvette says that during this episode, a writer from Entertainment Weekly was on the set.

During S1, the exterior shots were shot at LA Community College. They also did outdoor shots on the Paramount lot. The Paramount lot was dressed to mimic the exterior of LA Community College. In this episode, they were shooting on the Paramount lot.

Joel points out that during his and Yvette’s first walk-and-talk scene, they were walking across the street from the office of the President of Paramount.

First official onscreen appearance of Garrett (Erik Charles Nielsen) is in Duncan’s group of lab rats for the Duncan Principle! (Although, he does also appear in “Advanced Criminal Law,” but from an airing order perspective, this episode is his first appearance.) Dan admits that in this episode, Garrett didn’t have a name. He was just a background character in the scene. Dan says Erik is “a darling of the underground stand-up comedy scene in LA.”

Troy’s meltdown was completely improvised by Donald Glover, to the point that the script only said "Troy melts down." Everyone on the commentary track just bursts into laughter. Yvette says that Troy's meltdown just makes her happy.

Dan notes that this episode runs longer than all the other episodes in S1, because NBC let them “super-size” the episode. Anthony says that even with the super-sizing, this episode was eight minutes too long. NBC waived the length requirements on the episode because this episode got moved up in the airing order, which meant they had a very short post-production window. So NBC took pity on them. Anthony says the version on the DVD is the as-aired longer NBC version. However, on streaming sites, they use the chopped-down syndicated version that’s only 22 minutes.

Yvette is convinced that Jeff is in love with Britta.

Dan feels this episode has a weird effect. He notes that the critics had a weird reaction as well, because they commented that suddenly Jeff Winger is Jim Halpert from The Office, and it’s now a rom-com and Jeff is so devastated because some girl he likes is making out with another guy.

Dan feels that Jeff is very, very inexperienced when it comes to feeling anything genuine about women. He’s had a crass, collector mentality when it comes to women. That as soon as he gets what he wants from them (he calls it “validation”), they become disgusting to him and he moves on. However, Britta, for whatever reason is different. He’s got a big crush on Britta, he likes her, he’s attracted to her “dirtiness,” and the eclecticness of her. In short, (and this is Dan’s actual words) Jeff “believes Britta is the girl he’s supposed to be with.”

Joel asks Dan if he thinks Jeff leaning his forehead against the vending machine was over the top. Dan admits they cut it down, but that he likes the fact that privately, Jeff is bummed out that Britta is “the one that got away.”

Joel says that when he read the script he was heartbroken in a “how could she” kind of way.

Dan says that Britta reminds him of so many of his ex-girlfriends. That one of things he finds attractive is that Britta is that tough girl you can throw into a suitcase and bring with you around the world. Then she turns out to be a mattress full of bed bugs and gives you ringworm. (This is greeted by groans and admonishment from Yvette.)

Dan admits that Duncan’s breakdown is him doing a "take that" against doctors and therapists because he hates people in white coats.

Yvette said she was very nervous about making Shirley making fun of Vaughn because she’s not really a physical comedian and she had to physically make fun of him.

Erik (Vaughn) was wearing tiny fake nipples. Anthony said that they weren’t actually prosthetic nipples. It was actually a trick of the make-up because they couldn't really afford the prosthetics.

Dan really likes the scene of Jeff and Britta sitting on the couch together. Dan mentions that the focus groups had a really simplistic view of Britta and the Jeff-Britta relationship. Focus groups felt that Britta was “the normal one” in the ensemble. Also, they really weren’t on board with the will-the-won’t-they between Jeff and Britta, but they liked the sibling vibe when they hatched schemes together and hung out as friends.

(Dan is obviously unhappy with that feedback as he stumbles a little bit over his explanation over whether or not to pay attention to the feedback. On whether or not Dan really wanted to know what the focus groups said, and he admits that early on he did. He kind of closes the discussion with “to me, you could get good feedback form a fire hydrant.” Anthony adds that NBC never “misused” the focus group information. They only shared the feedback.)

In the scene where the study group reassembles in the study room and the shit hits the fan, Joel jokes about Alison’s costuming by saying that she walked onto the set directly from her audition for Dukes of Hazard II. Dan adds that it’s subtitled, The Prep-ening.

Dan says that the study room scene is the first time they had a “shit hit the fan” scenario, and he now considers it a Community staple. Dan and Yvette said they both felt bad during this scene. Dan points out that in this scene, Vaughn becomes the most likeable character. Dan says it was also part of his “beating up on Britta to make her more likeable” campaign so she'd become the group Charlie Brown. It’s also the point where you realize the Study Group is made up of bad people.

Yvette says the scene following the Britta-Vaughn break-up scene was hard to do with Joel. However, it was due to behind-the-scenes reasons. Joel was being a sarcastic ass, and Yvette thought he was being mean to her. (She stresses that at this point they didn’t know each other very well.) Joel admits that he makes jokes and is sarcastic with people he doesn’t know people all that well. Dan points out that Joel just admitted that his defense mechanism is to be an ass.

Dan comments that Joel and Yvette have good chemistry. Yvette jokes with Joel and asks when she’s going to be getting a kiss.

Dan says that the scene between Annie and Abed where she gives him the apology DVD set was longer. In the cut scene, Duncan comes back and tells Annie that she’s brilliant and wants her to come with him to help him continue his work. Annie turns him down because she decides that she’d rather watch the DVDs with Abed. Anthony says that the point of the scene was to show that Duncan realized his meltdown actually confirmed the Duncan Principle. By cutting it, the storyline didn’t get paid off. Plus, Anthony adds, it was one of the funniest scenes that John Oliver had ever done. Dan says that this was part of the learning curve of learning how long a script needed to be to essentially make a 20-minute movie. The tragedy was they had to “kill their children” early on, the children in this case being scenes and jokes.

Dan says that a lot of the cool songs in the show comes from Joe Russo’s Ipod.

The tag between Troy and Abed was shot at 4 a.m. Joel says he had to leave directly from the shoot to catch a flight to New York.

Anthony said the episode needed to be locked two days later on a Saturday at 9 p.m., so he was up for 36 hours straight in editing to make the deadline.

#jeff x annie

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newyorktheater · 5 years

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I might go a great distance to watch Ben Whishaw strip off his suit and turn into Helen of Troy and Marilyn Monroe before our eyes. But I only had to travel to 30thStreet and 10thAvenue, in between the High Line and Hudson Yards, to the Griffin Theater on the sixth floor of The Shed, a new $500 million performing arts center .

As it turns out, though, it was the creative team that went far — too far. “Norma Jeane Baker of Troy,” which is half sung and half spoken by both Whishaw and Renee Fleming, combines the myth of Helen of Troy with the story of Marilyn Monroe (birth name: Norma Jeane.) The piece reflects the mission of The Shed, as articulated by its artistic director Alex Poots, to commission original works that “take creative risks and push artistic boundaries.” The show, with a starry cast and impeccable avant-garde credentials, is an intriguing and erudite experiment on multiple levels. On too many levels, however, it just didn’t work for me.

Its author, Anne Carson, a poet and a scholar of Ancient Greek literature, was inspired by “Helen,” the play by Euripides that told the story of Helen of Troy and the Trojan War from her point of view. Carson created a text that is neither a translation of Euripides, nor an adaptation, but more of a poetic riff. It’s threaded through with a kind of fever dream that more or less merges the two misunderstood women, so that, for example, the text turns Arthur (as in playwright Arthur Miller, Monroe’s third husband) into “the king of Sparta and New York,” mixing him up with Helen of Troy’s warrior husband Menelaos. That’s in the storytelling sections, which are largely in the first person and could be considered monologues. The best of these are entirely in the voice of Norma Jean. Here’s a long, beguiling excerpt:

“One thing I learned from psychoanalysis is how to fake it, with men. The guy I went to, Dr. Cheeseman – one day we were talking about Arthur’s dimpled white buttocks and how I felt no sexual attraction for them or for him, which was awkward as we were newlywed and Arthur, king of Sparta and New York, hoped to engender a tiny prince Arthur – and Dr. Cheeseman went into his Lacanian riff, about how “desire full stop is always desire of the Other capital O”, which I took to mean “visualize Yves Montand when screwing Arthur” but that didn’t work for me and what did work for me, oddly enough, was when I found myself one day describing Arthur to Dr. Cheeseman as an Asian boy – Asian boys being Dr. Cheeseman’s own little problem – and so discovering Arthur to be desirable by seeing him shine back at me from Dr. Cheeseman Is this too weird? I don’t think it’s uncommon. Psychoanalysts call it triangular desire. “

From there she goes into an analysis of the difference between faking it and acting.

These lively storytelling sections alternate with explicitly labeled “history lessons” – e.g. “The economy of ancient Greece, like that of early modern America, depended on the institution of slavery. “ – which include subsections announced as “teachable moments” or “discussion topics.”

While there are some clever, enlightening and even entertaining passages, the text can feel like something one would be assigned in school to study.

As it happens, Carson also wrote the lyrics for the songs in “The Mile-Long Opera: a biography of 7 o’clock,” one of my favorite theater pieces of 2018. But I favored it not because of the text so much as the way it was staged: 1,000 performers sung little excerpts of it over and over again as the audience members made our way along the entire 30 block length of the High Line.

By contrast, director Katie Mitchell’s staging of “Norma Jeane Baker of Troy” doesn’t so much enhance the text as compete with it.

The two performers divvy up the text, with Renee Fleming mostly singing her lines to an original score by Paul Clark, and Ben Whishaw mostly speaking his. (although sometimes they switch.) They’re doing this in the context of a scenario in which it is New Year’s Eve 1963 (as we hear in a radio at the outset), and Whishaw is apparently a Greek scholar and simultaneously obsessed with Marilyn Monroe (who has died several months earlier.) Whishaw as the scholar is in an office late at night dictating much of the Carson text to Fleming as if she is his secretary. And while doing this he speaks aloud the punctuation – “period,” “brackets,” “new line” etc. – as if phoning in a telegram to a telegraph operator.

Now, there are undeniable pleasures in “Norma Jeane Baker of Troy” – Fleming’s lovely singing, Wishaw’s meticulous and sexy morphing from male to female; I even get the conceptual brilliance of this transformation, its underscoring of Carson’s themes — the reversal of gender roles show how unfair the traditional assumptions about women have been.

But there are ample examples of the creative team being more interested in experimenting than in communicating. Composer Paul Clark has explained that almost every sound effect in the play — from the sounds of the air-conditioner, and police sirens in the background – are made up of digitally processed recordings of Fleming’s voice. Why? Well, it’s cool.

At least this playfulness doesn’t hinder audience perception. Far worse: “Norma Jeane” was the second show I saw in three days with a set that featured little more than an ugly metal office desk and a couple of table lamps that provided much of the (very dim) lighting. The proceedings were conducted largely in the near darkness – as they were in The Diary of One Who Disappeared, which Ivo van Hove directed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

When did making the audience struggle to see and hear what’s going on signal that a show is on the cutting-edge?

This brings up an issue about the Griffin theater itself, a black box theater (meaning it can be altered for each show.) It is part of a new performing arts center whose architects make a point of how forward-looking it is, that they designed it for the future. Don’t they think there will be disabled theatergoers in the future? Perhaps they’re just working out the kinks, but as of now, the theater offers far from state-of-the-art accessibility, which is worse than a disappointment. They should be embarrassed.

Norma Jeane Baker of Troy Griffin Theater at the Shed Written by Anne Carson, composed by Paul Clark. Directed by Katie Mitchell, set design by Alex Eales, costume design by Sussie Juhlin-Wallén, lighting design by Anthony Doran, sound design by Donato Wharton Cast: Ben Whishaw, Renee Fleming Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission Tickets: $45 to $125 Norma Jeane Baker of Troy is on stage through May 19, 2019

Norma Jeane Baker of Troy Review: Ben Whishaw as Marilyn Monroe! Renee Fleming! Euripides! But… I might go a great distance to watch Ben Whishaw strip off his suit and turn into Helen of Troy and Marilyn Monroe before our eyes.

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deborahdeshoftim5779 · 7 years

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The Marvel of Trelsi (Part III)

Because this image NEVER gets old. It also epitomizes the relationship between Troy and Kelsi as complete equals, quite unlike a certain other relationship.

In this instalment, I want to discuss the introduction to Trelsi, which will include scene analysis, comparative analysis, musings and headcanons. I love this scene primarily for what it says about Troy Bolton as a character, as well as for how radiant and confident Kelsi becomes throughout the rest of the canonical movie series. I will demonstrate the superior importance of this scene in establishing relationships thus far, particularly in comparison to Troy’s introduction to Gabriella, and how this scene represents everything the movie was supposed to support.

Now, first of all, I must start by noting the unrealistic spectacle of every other candidate being laughably inept at performing except for Sharpay/Ryan and later, Troy/Gabriella. I must presume that this is all in aid of plot-related reasons. In real life, although it is more believable that Sharpay still would have reigned as Queen of the Drama Department (with Ryan as her Page Boy), there would have been plenty of decent candidates for this role. After all, there is a Drama Club and I refuse to believe that this is populated by incompetents. Nonetheless, Kelsi’s patience throughout, playing whilst people mess up her song, is both hilarious and endearing.

As I write this analysis with the film playing, I often have to fast-forward or rewind to see which parts are visible to Troy throughout this to explain why he decides to reach out to Kelsi. Remember, he appears not to know who Kelsi is prior to this moment, as she is not shown in his homeroom class. (This begs the question of how Kelsi came to be there during HSM II and HSM III). After being denied the opportunity to rehearse, Troy would have had no choice other than to leave and return to his other lessons. Instead, he stands there in disappointment for a moment until distracted by Kelsi tripping over in an ironically dramatic fashion. So if we rewind and view the Auditions scene from Troy’s viewpoint, is there any reason to speculate that Troy might have intended to make friends with Kelsi? Personally, I don’t know. Obviously, I am biased and like to think this was the case, but it may well have been a spur of the moment decision. However, there is room, in my view, to speculate otherwise.

So, how much does Troy see prior to this grand introduction? (I say “grand”, because Trelsi :D). As we recall, he has performed an elaborate ninja routine in order to get to said auditions, which involves throwing Chad off his back, cutting through a D & T room, dashing downstairs, confusing his dad by doing a Houdini and hiding behind a mop once he reaches the Drama stage.

It is very important to note that Troy did this himself, as much later, in HSM III, Troy will make a grand speech in which he falsely claims that: “Problem is, East High changed when you got there. Now it’s changed again because you left.” As you can see here, the decision to check out the auditions was of Troy’s own making. Gabriella had even told him prior that she had no intention of signing up for anything, and just wanted to get to know the school first. This forward-thinking on Troy’s part explains his decisions much later on in the movie, not least his decision to make friends with Kelsi.

Obviously, Troy sees Kelsi introduced by Ms Darbus, but I don’t think he makes anything of it. He sees the slew of embarrassing performances throughout. It is interesting to note that, despite the glaring incompetence of many in East High, Troy is STILL nervous about trying out for the auditions. Having sung with Gabriella in karaoke over the holidays, it is clear that his confidence soars when performing, but in East High, it’s almost nonexistent. This is most likely due to Chad shooting him down earlier*, basically implying that Troy won’t make it as a top basketball player if he spends (wastes) time doing School Musicals. (“You ever think LeBron James or Shaquille O’Neill auditioned for their school musicals?”) It is also because Troy is scared of being sent off in disgrace by Ms Darbus and laughed at by everyone else. (“Ms Darbus is a little… harsh.”). After this, a thoroughly exasperated, but now somewhat hopeful Ms Darbus introduces Sharpay and Ryan who will “give us a sense of why we gather in this hallowed hall”. Given that Troy reluctantly agreed to watch Sharpay in the musical earlier, I assume that he is not looking forward to this performance. His expression throughout is priceless. But he doesn’t appear aware of how much dismay is caused to Kelsi by this performance, at least not until afterwards.

I had to rewind this a lot to make sure, but Troy does see Sharpay’s mean and condescending jabs at Kelsi afterwards. During this scene, Sharpay belittles Kelsi for being a heretofore unknown composer who has no right to question someone as seasoned as Sharpay, even though Kelsi wrote the music. “And you should be glad that me and Ryan are here to lift your music out of its current obscurity! Are we clear?”/”Yes, Ma’am! I mean, Sharpay!” Dismayed and subdued, Kelsi is knocked back onto the piano stool and accepts Sharpay’s Reign of Terror without question. However, as I discussed yesterday, it surely is significant that Kelsi overcame her shyness for one short moment of resistance by telling Sharpay that she hadn’t captured the meaning of the song. Hence why Sharpay was so insulted: “IF we do the part?” Anyhow, because Troy is such a decent and fair guy, he would clearly object to Kelsi being pushed around like this. However, as I asked earlier, did Troy have any intent in reaching out to her just then? Not long afterwards, he tells Gabriella that they should leave, presumably before Ms Darbus discovers them peeking round the corner like spies. So I suppose not, and the ensuing meeting was probably by chance.

I criticize Gabriella regularly, but I think she displayed real initiative by conquering her stage fright to audition. So now we need to zoom out of Troy’s perspective and into Kelsi’s perspective for this scene, as she spends the entire time at the piano, probably despondent as she arranges her scores. But she is within earshot when Troy, quite commendably, puts himself forward as Gabriella’s singing partner. We are not given Kelsi’s reaction to this, which would have been very interesting. Troy Bolton, King of East High, agreeing to audition for a part? Stop the world! It would have been more effective if Kelsi had turned around at this point in astonishment, before getting up to leave and then tripping over. But that’s just my viewpoint. She definitely hears the ensuing exchange, as Ms Darbus makes no secret of her astonishment when Troy shows up from behind the corner. Had Kelsi shown some engagement with this scene, it would have made her tripping over seem a lot less contrived for the purposes of introducing her to Troy. Again, my opinion. But what the hell? My analysis, too. :D We can only speculate as to her reaction, which I believe would be of astonishment. I exclude Gabriella from this part, given that Kelsi does not know her name, presumably not until Ms Darbus gives the two a callback audition.

Kelsi’s trip is marvellous! Gasp of surprise, papers flung everywhere… Really well done! :D

And Troy’s first instinct is to run over and help her, even though he is a considerable distance from the stage. Now, if you watch this carefully, look at Gabriella’s reaction. Troy does not hesitate to rush over and help, but Gabriella actually hesitates. In fact, I see unwillingness in her expression for a moment, before she runs over after Troy. I may be wrong in this, but if you get the time, please look over that scene and tell me what you think. In any case, Troy reaches the stage before Gabriella does. It’s almost as though Gabriella is either a mixture of unwilling/exasperated and yet resigned before deciding to help Kelsi. I usually rewind minute by minute to be accurate, and that is what I see. It therefore seems to me that were Troy not present, Gabriella would either have hesitated to help Kelsi, or not done so at all. That may seem a harsh assumption, but at the very least, it does provide more proof as to why Gabriella is not in ANY WAY responsible for Kelsi’s character development. She’s friends with Kelsi because Troy is. That’s it, really.

You’ve got to love Kelsi’s stunned disbelief when Troy fricking Bolton comes and helps her pick up her manuscripts. Remember, Kelsi is limited by the status quo: cool guys don’t come within throwing distance of nerds like herself. You may see, by pausing at selected moments, that Troy catches her staring and smiles in a friendly manner, which makes me SQUEE! But again, if someone stares at you like you’re the Loch Ness Monster, some people might be pretty annoyed or self-conscious. I think this is Troy trying to break the ice, once again demonstrating that he sees Kelsi as a complete equal, and not some specimen from a different social class.

“So you’re a composer?”

Kelsi’s mute nods are cute. She cannot believe this moment is happening.

“You wrote the song Ryan and Sharpay just sang? [*nod*] And the entire show? [*nod] Well, that’s really cool. I uh-- [*holds out hand for her to shake*] I can’t wait to hear the rest of the show!”

I can’t get over the SWEETNESS here. Yet more evidence that Troy is nowhere near the arrogant and entitled jerk some “fans” allege him to be. Remember, Kelsi has just been put in her place by Sharpay, is despondent that two people who have ruined her song will most likely get the leads and has probably been discouraged from offering any suggestions in future, since Sharpay has made it clear that Kelsi would be nothing without her. After having had her musical ideas rejected time and time again by the Drama Department, this doesn’t feel like much of a reward, hence the resigned way in which Kelsi cleared her manuscripts from the piano earlier. So for Troy to tell her that what she does is “really cool”, and to express genuine admiration for her ability to write “the entire show” is everything. It is completely superficial to assume that Kelsi’s stunned disbelief is due to her having a massive crush on Troy. Whether this may or may not be true is besides the point; we don’t have any information about that. What is far more important, is the obvious fact that prior to now, very few, if any people, have ever spoken to Kelsi like this. With respect, admiration and friendly encouragement. We know this, because Kelsi is too astonished to respond. She must have felt like a complete idiot, just nodding instead of speaking, but Troy does not try and goad her into conversation. He just takes her as she is without judgement. It’s almost as though he understands her shyness and will let her speak when she’s ready. This is one of the first signs that Troy and Kelsi are attuned to each other on such an instinctive level that is impossible to ignore.

Furthermore, Troy tells her that he “can’t wait” to hear the rest of the show. Think carefully about this. Not long beforehand, Sharpay said “I hope you can watch me in the musical”, and made Troy promise to do so. He only nodded, clearly unable to bring himself to say anything. He nodded to get her off his back. His discomfort around Sharpay is self-evident. Now here he is, telling Kelsi, a girl with whom he has NEVER spoken before, that he is excited to hear the rest of her compositions. Up until now, he has only heard a few measures of ONE song. For all he knows, the rest might be mediocre or terrible. (I doubt it, but that’s always a possibility). Her compositions have never been selected before. There’s no discomfort here for Troy at all. He comes across as completely genuine in his interest and willingness to support Kelsi. So we can infer that Troy must like the little he has heard and thinks she has untapped potential. And prior to now, has Troy ever watched a musical? I tend to assume not, given his complete unfamiliarity with the Drama stage, and his lack of knowledge about Broadway: “Who’s Michael Crawford?” For heaven’s sake, he spent the entire audition hiding behind a mop! He has never seen the preparation it takes to write a musical, and I assume he has never been to one of the school productions, given how reluctant he was to watch Sharpay perform. Add to that his supreme status as East High’s Primo Boy, the significance of his offer is HUGE.

All of this underscores how accepting Troy is of everyone around him. He accepts Gabriella, who is extremely intelligent and always comes top of her class. He accepts Zeke’s interest in baking. He presumably accepts Martha’s love of hip hop, and the skater dude who likes the cello… All in all, Troy never expects anyone to change who they are for anyone. Troy never judges people, unlike Chad. He is always happy to extend the hand of friendship (quite literally in Kelsi’s case, and later in Ryan’s case), irrespective of the alleged social divides. Troy doesn’t think that anyone should be limited just because of who they are: “[Chad] You ever think LeBron James or Shaquille O’Neill auditioned for their school musicals?”/ [Troy] “MAYBE.” (Capital emphasis my own). And later on: “Look, I just did it! [auditioned for the musical] Who cares?” Furthermore, Troy always takes an interest in other people’s lives and admires their achievements, even if he knows nothing about what they do. We are not told whether Troy plays any musical instruments, but I assume not. We are not told whether he reads music, although I have to assume from his excellent, and sometimes unrealistically good sight-reading skills, he must have had availed himself of school music lessons. Either way, I wouldn’t call him an insider in the music profession. Yet he immediately takes an interest based on very little information other than a couple bars of Kelsi’s song.

I reiterate again: this is significant.

I love the hand-shake, as Troy helps her to stand again. The metaphorical significance of this is beautiful; he is raising her self-esteem, pulling her up, lifting her mood, making her feel like an accomplished young lady, instead of a nobody. The friendly smile remains even though Kelsi seems unable to detach her hand from his-- again, I think the reason for this is stunned disbelief first and foremost. Clearly, she is unused to such friendliness from anyone, let alone Troy Bolton. And remember, he’s just told her that he wants to hear her other compositions.

At this point, having helped Kelsi pick up her manuscripts, Troy could have left. After all, free period is now over. He should be getting back to class. Instead, he has something else to say, which fuelled my earlier query about whether he had intended to speak to her beforehand. And remember, Kelsi has not said a word thus far, so he might have concluded she was too shy and gone back to class. Yet he is still keen to engage with her, whether she might answer or not.

“So… why’re you so afraid of Ryan** and Sharpay? I mean, it is your show.”

I love Troy telling Kelsi, in effect, that she doesn’t have to be afraid of the Evans twins. He’s offering her a way out. He’s offering her options she had never previously considered. He’s reminding her that these are her songs and she is therefore a lot more than a Sideshow Bob.

“It is?”

The fact that Kelsi questions something that is so OBVIOUSLY true shows how little self-esteem she has up until this point.

“Isn’t the composer of a show kinda like the Playmaker in basketball?”

“Playmaker…?”

“You know, the one who makes everyone else look good. I mean without you, there is no show. You’re the Playmaker here, Kelsi.”

First of all, just look at the effect these words have on Kelsi:

For the first time since being introduced into the movie, she looks delighted. Given her crippling shyness and introverted nature, I feel fairly certain that she has probably rarely, if ever, been made to feel like this. Empowered, confident and worth something. The utter delight on her face, the way she completely lights up, shows her unfamiliarity with such praise. It further highlights that very few, if any people, have taken an interest in her music, or have given her the chance she craves to be heard and understood, as I explained yesterday. Compare this to her intimidation, disappointment and dismay when Sharpay belittled her earlier. THIS is the moment that the deal is sealed: she takes to Troy in an instant. Her excitement is brimming beneath the surface. And make no mistake, this is entirely directed towards Troy. Gabriella, up until now, has not said a word, and neither is she the recipient of this delighted expression.

The most important thing to note here is “the one who makes everyone else look good,” as the inimitable teamwork between Troy and Kelsi throughout all three shows in movie canon is a living demonstration of this. Again, I must reiterate that Troy has barely heard any of Kelsi’s music, and is saying that her compositional skills make everyone else look good. Ms Darbus, whom I presume had previously rejected many of Kelsi’s ideas and now selected these ones, is never shown to have given Kelsi such high praise, despite having considered these songs on their artistic merit to her play. (Correction from last post: Ms Darbus wrote the plays. Credit to BoltonEvans). And because Troy doesn’t treat sports like a religion (unlike a certain Mr. Danforth), he doesn’t judge her for being ignorant about sporting terminology, either, which is a small but once again noteworthy point.

This scene basically launches the term “Playmaker”. Let’s discuss this. Troy is not only giving Kelsi a nickname (something he hasn’t done for Gabriella or indeed anyone else), but it is the very same name that others in his team use to refer to him. More importantly, it is a term with which he has a love-hate relationship. We know this because later on, Troy’s father tells him, “but you’re Playmaker. Not a singer.” Troy’s reaction to this is one of rising frustration; in other words, he appears tired of hearing about his Playmaker/Basketball Guy status ALL the time. A lot of viewers seem to, in their haste to judge/belittle Troy for his mistakes, ignore the effect of constantly being praised and touted as the Top Gun for the team. He is, around this time, between 16 and 17 years old. Adolescence is a time of self-doubt and learning to figure yourself out. Coming of age. The pressure that Troy’s father and his team-mates put on his shoulders by such honorary titles must be immense and counter-productive.

So I feel it is very important to note that the term “Playmaker” does not necessarily have very positive connotations for Troy, as it reminds him of the pedestal upon which he is placed, and how much is expected of him by everyone else. In which case, it is somewhat unusual that Troy deems this nickname appropriate for a composer, let alone a girl he has only just met properly. But he chooses “Playmaker”, for several key reasons: 1)- he sees the value of Kelsi’s work, 2)- he believes she deserves it more, 3)- he senses that she needs it. Troy himself suffocates under all these honorary terms and wishes he could “just be a guy”. Like I said yesterday, Troy is running away from his pre-destined status and longing to be ordinary as well as try something new. Kelsi, on the other hand, thinks her path as a composer is predestined and is longing to be extraordinary. The title “Playmaker” and its special significance gives her precisely that. ALL of this is communicated from Troy to Kelsi with precious little dialogue. Troy just instinctively understands what she needs right then and can encapsulate all of this with the nickname “Playmaker”. This seals the deal, folks. It makes their bond esoteric, rather than transparent-- later on, when Troy calls her Playmaker in front of a cheering crowd, only he, Kelsi (and Gabriella) know what he means. Again, Kelsi’s delight here says it all. It underlines all their later scenes together and is the centrepiece of their friendship. They are both Playmakers in their own respective fields. So Troy demonstrates his ability to take something with difficult implications for himself and turn it into a positive for someone who would otherwise be unheard. This is a special moment in the movie, and definitely the most significant up until Troy revealing his love for performing later on.

The movie makes a great deal of hullabaloo about Troy meeting Gabriella, using twinkling lights, night skies and romantic music. We’re meant to believe that this is a once in a lifetime meeting, when in fact it is a fateful night that starts Troy on the path of self-destruction. This is supposed to be the centrepiece of the movie: boy meets girl. But I assert that this is NOWHERE NEAR as relevant, inspiring and special as when Troy meets Kelsi. There is barely any significance in Troy meeting Gabriella, other than the plot. He could have sang that karaoke with any other girl. There is no evidence that Troy would not have had chemistry with any other of the many girls standing there. But Troy meeting Kelsi is relevant, because this is how Troy is introduced to her music and how he gets to practice the musical. It’s inspiring, because it involves the hero at his very best, reaching out to make friends with an outcast, and showing that he values everyone based on their merits and not based on transient constructs like social hierarchies. It’s special because they forge a bond together near instantly that to me, is far more poignant and deeper than that between Troy and Gabriella. Their bond leads to a solid music partnership, but even more importantly, a strong friendship, UNFAILING loyalty and support for each other throughout the entire movie series. Troy and Gabriella’s meeting leads to a solid music partnership, but not a friendship, and definitely not unfailing loyalty or support, with Gabriella more than happy to abandon Troy when things aren’t going her way. We will discuss more of this in later instalments. But bear that in mind. Furthermore, Troy and Gabriella do not have an esoteric bond. There is nothing between them that only they can understand, except for the fact that they’re together! :D On the contrary, we see Troy and Kelsi totally attuned to each other when performing in ways that are not demonstrated with anyone else. That’s why Troy always looks to her for a boost/confidence. It might just be me, but I don’t see this with Gabriella at all.

All this does is just demonstrate how the screenwriters accidentally did with Troy and Kelsi what they should have done with Troy and Gabriella.

“You’re the Playmaker here, Kelsi.”

[*beaming*] “I am? Do you want to hear how the duet’s supposed to sound?”

So they’ve clicked instantly. Kelsi now decides to trust Troy, a complete stranger, with her music. She is definitely speaking to Troy directly here, even though Gabriella is the first to move towards the piano. She wants to prove herself to him, now that he has given her the confidence to believe in herself, her talent and her music. More importantly, she has decided, in just a few moments, that Troy is the one. Don’t assume I mean this in a romantic way. Sure, it has romantic potential, as I will discuss later. But what I mean is that she just knows-- instinctively-- that Troy is the one who can interpret her songs as she envisions them. He has proven that he gets her, understands her vision and thinks she has potential. Therefore, she sheds the shyness and excitedly offers to play her song, finally getting a chance to show someone what she can do. Please note that Kelsi is not shown to have done this with anyone else. This is why, like I said in the introduction, she only has to NOD at Troy to begin singing a song with which he is relatively unfamiliar. (He certainly hasn’t read the score before). That’s just a silent way of stating that she trusts him to take the music and roll with it. And Troy is surprised by this, as well as her offer to play her song, but notably NOT hesitant. Compare this with when Gabriella found him hiding behind a mop. His expression is wary, awkward and shamefaced, even though they are just spying on the auditions. But when confronted with Kelsi’s song, he gives it a go without thinking, and clearly gets it right, because Kelsi is smiling throughout. I don’t like to speculate, but it appears her smile at the end may be directed more towards Troy than Gabriella.

The fact that she barely needs to prompt Troy to begin also explains why, in HSM II, she felt confident enough to teach him a new song on the very night of the Talent Show at Lava Springs. Previous to that, she had written “You Are The Music In Me”, with the expectation that Troy would participate-- again, I emphasise Troy given her pleading expression is directed at him. In HSM III, she is so comfortable with his style of performing that she lets him incorporate her into his dance routine, which I think is just genius and the mark of a true performer, such as Troy is. I’m sure that Troy needed coaching practicing to sing (vocal runs etc), but their rapport is demonstrated in HSM I when Troy is energetic and riveting whilst PRACTICING the song; so much so that Kelsi feeds off his energy and is standing up, dancing/miming along. Given that Troy does appear more nervous about performing than Gabriella, it would perhaps seem likely that the scene where Kelsi is rehearsing with Gabriella, during which Kelsi shows Gabriella how to breathe properly when singing the chorus, would better apply to him. Maybe it’s just me. I’m making assumptions, but I wonder about these things.

At the end of the duet between Troy and Gabriella, the latter is pleased by the song and how well it went, even though she hasn’t received a chance to audition. Troy, as I have said before, is moved. “Wow… That’s nice.” I have to make this point: THIS is the point at which Troy discovers his love of performing. He did NOT react this way after singing karaoke with Gabriella-- sure, he was surprised, but here he seems stunned, as though he has just released a part of himself. I think this is due to the very emotional and personal nature of the song, and Kelsi’s undeniable talent in expression an emotion into words and music. This is when he realizes that he’s good at this singing thing, and that he can express himself in a totally new way. Remember, performing becomes a part of Troy’s identity, because it’s his method of projecting his true self, his therapy, his way of releasing pent-up frustration and anxiety. And if you think about it, the lyrics have some significance to Troy’s situation himself, but not in the way that the screenwriters want you to think. We’re told to believe that because Troy and Gabriella keep looking at each other throughout, that they are what they have been looking for. But actually, given how powerfully Troy reacts to the song, what he has been looking for is the ability to express this strong talent that he has. In other words, it’s hard for HIM to believe that he had this strong and natural ability to express himself in song: it was there the whole time (when he was singing in the shower!), but he never noticed it. This seems a better interpretation than the unrealistic spectacle of him falling in love with a girl he just met. Therefore, I argue that Kelsi is the reason that he discovers his love of performing, and this seems realistic to me, given their intense chemistry when performing. And taking into consideration how Troy not only takes to Kelsi’s songs in an instant throughout the film series, but makes them uniquely his, I feel certain in stating that Troy’s development is possible without Gabriella, but impossible without Kelsi, who understands him instinctively.

“Bolton! Montez! You have a callback. Kelsi, give them the duet from the second act. Work on it with them.”

How far did Ms Darbus get before hearing them sing? She either has VERY good hearing, or decided to stick around for some reason.

Kelsi excitedly rattles off a list of places where Troy and Gabriella can come and rehearse including her house. Now, there are several other roles available for this musical, meaning several other people auditioning. Kelsi must surely have time with other people on the show, and the natural question is, has she ever invited anyone else to her house for breakfast and rehearsal? It appears that her excitement and openness is entirely down to how Troy has liberated her, given her a chance to prove herself and raised her self-esteem to its highest. Of course, Troy is too bewildered by his sudden opportunity to sing to hear half of what she says, including her “basketball class” comment (it’s basketball practice!), but it remains relevant nonetheless. This sets the precedent for Kelsi’s endearing excitement about all her musical ideas from here on out.

In short, this AMAZING scene is vital for plot and character arc progression, and is therefore the most significant meeting in the movie. Some of the points here are relevant for upcoming instalments, particularly when I discuss the friendship potential and romance potential for Trelsi.

TO BE CONTINUED

(*FOOTNOTE-- Of course, Chad mocking show tunes in musicals is amusing, as later on, he tells Troy that his mother has seen Michael Crawford in “Phantom of the Opera” 27 times. How could Chad have come by this information, unless he too, had been either watching or counting the times his mother watched? I don’t believe a word he says, given that he arrogantly claims that he doesn’t dance, after having danced when school finished for the summer!)

(**FOOTNOTE-- (”So why’re you so afraid of Ryan and Sharpay?”) We can ignore the inclusion of Ryan here, as throughout this movie, he is just Sharpay’s unwilling accomplice. That being said, Kelsi was visibly timid when she asked him “What key?” and didn’t even question him when he told her that HIS rehearsal pianist had done a new arrangement-- a.k.a completely changed KELSI’S song without her prior approval at his and Sharpay’s behest, and chose to just randomly reveal this information to her at the audition. We know this because, Kelsi wanted to know whether they had a particular preferred key. This leads to Kelsi’s surprise and disappointment (she doesn’t even question him on this creative decision with her own intellectual property), making her look useless and unwanted throughout. So actually, I suppose it is fair that Ryan is included here, but I would place Sharpay’s name first, given that, despite Ryan’s complicity in the ruining of Kelsi’s song, his intentions are never malicious or even mean. He simply wants to win the role of Arnold and thinks Sharpay knows best. Later on, when Troy and Gabriella win the roles, he is good-natured about it and doesn’t question the decision.)

#Trelsi OTP #TroyBolton #KelsiNielsen #HSM1 #Playmakers #IFrickingLoveTheseTwo #Deb'sAnalysis #ThisSceneisSOImportant #ToBeContinued #WhatI'veBeenLookingFor #TwinkleTownMusical #MsDarbus

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deborahdeshoftim5779 · 7 years

Text

The Marvel of Trelsi (Intro)

I can’t stay away from these two; they will have me smiling in my grave. Having been heavily critical of the writing for the High School Musical series, I must temper my own acidic tongue (typing fingers) to celebrate what I call “The Marvel of Trelsi”. As I am currently writing Trelsi fic (which WILL be finished sometime this century), and trying to get at least 1500 words a day, I need to write as much meta as possible to flesh out my ideas and headcanons for this pairing.

What to say? That I love Trelsi is an understatement. That I will keep repeating this is a given. And despite all of my sarcasm, opprobrium and inveterate anger towards the writers of the HSM franchise, who ruined my viewing experience by sinking the RMS Troy Bolton whilst claiming the ship could not sink, the creation of Trelsi is to their credit. It is gloriously ironic that the show set out to demonstrate that the main couple epitomised the ideal of love and a solid relationship, but ended up demonstrating this between the protagonist and an allegedly minor character instead. As I have said before, Troy and Kelsi grow from strength to strength throughout the movie series, whilst Troy and a certain other lady go careening down a mountainside in blizzard conditions. So, I must give full credit to the screenwriters for creating this ship and thus fostering an enduring love for two of the most likeable characters I have ever seen onscreen.

In reality, no introduction to Trelsi is needed. Or at least none that supersedes the beautiful screenshot I have at the top, reposted for the pure joy of it. Interestingly, when I use the word “Trelsi”, I am actually referring to their canonical friendship FIRST, before referring to a potential romantic ship. Apart from being easier to write, I like to adhere very closely to canon and build my ideas from that basis before branching into my own headcanons. I have an intense dislike for OOC and all the horrors that spring from that Pandora’s Box. This friendship comes as a result of Troy taking an interest in Kelsi’s music and resurrecting her self-esteem after she has been bossed around by Sharpay Evans during the first movie. The two become friends very quickly and prove to work as a great team during the production and execution of two major musicals in Junior and Senior Year.

You will notice, of course, that I exclude Gabriella from this description-- not because she wasn’t present for the beginning of the Trelsi timeline, but because she had no hand in its development. I am currently planning several Trelsi fics, one of which includes a significant rewrite of the canonical timeline without Gabriella, and most of the major events would have happened either in a different way or with no change whatsoever were she not there. I notice that many fandom writers will often describe Kelsi as being friends with Troy and Gabriella. This intrigues me, as it implies that she is friends with them on an equal basis. Call me picky, but appears to be untrue. I cannot think of any scene between Kelsi and Gabriella that comes anywhere near the Trelsi bond. What do I mean by the Trelsi bond? I mean primarily the unspoken understanding between them that makes the two so effortlessly comfortable around each other. Case in point: the lovely, LOVELY hug in HSM III seems obvious, but I draw the viewer’s attention back to HSM I, when Troy tries out “What I’ve Been Looking For”. Isn’t it interesting that Kelsi only has to nod at him to start singing the song, but guides Gabriella through the first line before letting her sing the rest? Troy, who is notably MORE nervous about performing, has never tried this song before and seemed a little surprised when Kelsi asked whether he wanted to hear “how the duet’s supposed to sound?”

Yes, I know, this is MINOR. But it intrigues me. We will discuss this in more detail during the next instalment.

I have LOADS of notes in my Google Drive on Trelsi, because it was and still is incredibly important for me to understand WHY I shipped them, the potential and realistic avenues for this ship and how to portray their dynamic. I’m going to try and condense those notes in my next couple of posts when I explore their beautiful, but cruelly limited scenes together. Unlike the average shipper, I tend to think-- overly much, from the length of my Tumblr posts-- on ships and dynamics. In the beginning, I wanted to ship Troyella. It seemed natural to me, as they were stamped across the screen. Turns out I could only ship one half of Troyella; that is, Troy Bolton, who is so such a sympathetic hero. He has flaws. He struggles*. He has a journey. He grows (when the screenwriters allow him to!). We see this. Gabriella? I got nothing. Believe me, I tried. That’s why I was pinning my hopes on HSM III to deliver. This did not happen, and that prompted a 13 (see my archive for April/May!) post series on my fury with this movie and the dreadful implications for Troy Bolton, the art of writing and human decency.

So, throughout this series, I will examine Trelsi with my usual fine-tooth comb, as viewed through the scenes in the movies as well as my headcanons and musings. Of course, I do not pretend to be impartial. I have a very unfavourable view of Troyella, as one may already have gathered; however, whilst being scathing towards this “relationship”, I have and will continue to provide evidence for my opinions here. I will frequently compare the Troyella dynamic with the Trelsi dynamic. Please do not be surprised to find that Trelsi wins 11 times out of 10. I am not bound by the Trade Descriptions Act or any other regulatory equivalent, so I can say whatever the hell I like.

The particular themes and questions I want to explore alongisde my scene analysis are:

1- Who IS Troy Bolton?

2- Who IS Kelsi Nielsen?

3- What makes the Trelsi friendship and dynamic so friggin’s special? Why does it make me want to weep and write poetry?

4- Friendship, Romance or Both? What’s their dynamic? What would attract the both of them? What are their flaws? How would these flaws work together?

5- Why is Trelsi a superior potential romantic ship to Troyella? (Oh, I’m going to have a field day with THAT one!) Why is Trelsi so poorly appreciated as a potential romantic ship?

I may add some more questions later on. I am definitely open to prompts and questions from anyone reading this. My posts are long, partially because I think too deeply about things, partially because I have a daily word count to smash, partially because I am depressed by the lack of all things Trelsi and mostly because HSM, despite infuriating me, GAVE ME TRELSI SO I’M HERE FOREVER! :D Anyway, I hope this will be fun. One thing I’d like to see more of in the HSM fandom is a willingness to at least consider other ships that aren’t called TroyHELLa. I’m not asking for conversion to Trelsi. (Although that would be nice. One, I’m pretty lonely out here. Two, these two have a healthy dynamic!). But it would be good if more fans actually detached Troy from Gabriella’s umbilical cord and viewed him firstly as a man and a hero protagonist, and secondly with potential other characters either platonically or romantically. For a series that is supposed to represent being YOURself, you would think fans would take that on board, huh?

Try it? You might like it.

TO BE CONTINUED.

(*FOOTNOTE- I have no time for people who claim that Troy Bolton is a privileged brat. Unless you can give me the name of a privileged brat who treats everyone equally, is kind, generous, thoughtful, mature, hard-working, gets ALL his friends jobs for the summer and makes friends with kids who would be considered “uncool”, always has a kind word for everyone, always appreciates other people’s achievements and is always on hand to help his friends, then please do be quiet. With a father who is a public school teacher and who struggles to pay high tuition fees, I think any such argument is dead in the water. Claims that Troy was a “jerk” in HSM II are entirely unfounded-- please refer to my Questions for HSM II Part I and Part II for further information. Claims that Gabriella was right to pursue her own future are fine, without the odious implication that Troy stood in her way. This is completely false. Rather, it is Gabriella who stood in Troy’s way of achieving a much-needed scholarship back in HSM II. Claims that being a popular basketball player make you a jerk are rendered absurd by the very obvious social pressure that accompanies such a level of fame, and which deeply affect Troy in every movie. This is thoroughly nonsensical. Claims that Gabriella is a privileged brat are, of course, founded in fact).

#Trelsi #OTP #HighSchoolMusical #TroyBolton #KelsiNielsen #WhatATeamTheseTwoMake #Meta #EastHighWildcats #Deb'sAnalysis #LiterallyTroyAndKelsiForever #GabriellaMontez #NOTP

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