i wrote a fic whoa...

Rina’s missing scenes! Angst! Insane amounts of fluff and pining!

For Gina: Beyoncé, SZA, FKA twigs, Michael Jackson, Clairo 

For Ricky: Weezer, Mac Demarco, Taylor Swift, Tame Impala, Queen

who do you guys think are ricky and gina’s favorite music artists 

who do you guys think are ricky and gina’s favorite music artists 

I LIED!!! i forgot i’m writing a rina fic and i need some help

going on hiatus until s4 ! see you guys then 

going on hiatus until s4 ! see you guys then 

Some people be like "They've ruined Gina’s character. S2 Gina would’ve never done this to EJ" and yeah, you are right, but not because she was a better character but because S2 Gina was trying to put everyone else before herself and would’ve tolerated EJ’s behavior for that.

Gina's entire arc this season has been about finding balance between her S1 and S2 self. Gina sang a whole solo about it. The lyrics for Balance and her speech before that made it very clear that most of her behavior from S2 was a watered down version of herself made to please people around her instated of herself. She felt like she had to act that way to form those friendships and her scene with Nini last season confirmed she didn’t want to come up as too "off putting" because of her energy.

While Gina from S1 was an exaggerated version of what she thought she should be to protect herself. S2 was her tuning down all her ambition to please others around her. The only person that got to know the soft and caring but poised and spunky Gina, her realest self, was Ricky.

S3 Gina made a bow to herself that she will find balance within her, not longer Gina 1.0 or Gina 2.0 but Gina. You can still feel Gina trying hard to be accommodating for others the first eps of the season but can see her coming into her own as the season goes on. This shows in how her wardrobe progressively goes from flowery pastel pink to bolder edgier looks. The self assured, ambitious, fearlessly protective Gina that wants the lead role, is supportive of her friends, is sassy but also a secret romantic that wants a summer romance, tries to mentor Emmy, knows she is capable of shining and has learned what she desires of a relationship as well as her own worth is Gina at her very core.

S3 Gina is the perfect balance from S1 and S2.

If you need "S2" Gina to come back when she was arguably the most insecure and unlike herself she’s ever been — you don’t like Gina. You just want someone that panders to EJ's needs. Gina is finally getting what she wants and aware she doesn’t have to dim her light in order to be loved and accepted by her friends. Tim teased we will see a more assertive Gina that will be settling her own rules from now on and I can’t wait for her S4 main girl serve.

i’m not ready for ricky and gina to be casually intimate...i truly am not

the chocolates theory was real...dear lord...

rina has to be one of the most divisive ships in history

Something I don’t understand is why portwells are saying “rinas would defend ricky even if he ignored gina for three more seasons”…WHAT?

In season 2, rinas *hated* how Ricky treated gina, but that doesn’t mean he was ignoring her. He remained friends with her until she cut him off in episode 6. She ignored HIM so she could get over him which is totally valid but ricky respected her boundaries and now y’all are trying to rewrite the narrative.

watching as rinis and pws say rina is gonna crash and burn like the other relationships bc they can’t keep ppl together is so 😭😭 the narrative of the season is rina together is the love they both deserve. pw was a plot device from the beginning and rini literally had ricky regressing by the end of s1 yet i was supposed to assume they wouldn’t crash and burn? rina will no doubt have problems in s4 but they’ll prevail unlike others …they can keep couples together but just like with every other teen drama midgames happen before the endgame 😭😭

After all this time, after interviews with the literal showrunner & creator of the show that confirm everything we've been saying, they still don't get it.

Both Rini & pw were built to fall apart and reducing their respective breakups to just being for the sake drama or because "the writers are incapable of keeping couples together" is a disservice to every character involved.

The Rini breakup was a huge sign of development for both Ricky & Nini. For Ricky, it meant letting go of his past, accepting his parents’ separation and embracing change. A part of Ricky resented his parents for not trying “hard enough”, for not “fighting” to save their marriage. Being with Nini was not only a way for Ricky to hold on to the last shred of his past, of his life before things were complex and difficult and confusing and changing -- but it was also a way for Ricky to try to prove, to both his parents & himself, that any relationship can be fixed if you just try really, really hard. Ricky wanted to believe that things don’t have to change if you don’t let them change -- but the more he tried to keep his relationship with Nini together, the more it became obvious that it was breaking apart at the seams. Ricky’s desire for stability & sameness was in direct opposition to Nini’s desire for the unpredictable & the new -- no amount of deleted comments or attempts at getting Nini into the musical were going to change that. In the end, Ricky realized that he & Nini couldn’t give each other what they needed or wanted anymore. When he did the mature thing and broke up with his first love -- this representation of his past/childhood -- it was an indication that he was growing up, finally ready to say goodbye to a part of himself that he outgrew a long time ago. Even if it hurt to realize it, he knew that his mom had been right all along, “Not all couples are meant to be together. Sometimes people change.”

For Nini, their breakup meant independence & room to breathe. She felt suffocated in her relationship with Ricky and she knew that he loved her not for who she was, but for what she represented (”am I something to you and not someone? ‘Cause I feel trapped on this pedestal you put me on.”) + Nini has, canonically, always been the kind of girl who judges herself by what boys see in her (in s1, Kourtney quite literally told her this & in s2, she wrote/sang the lyric “all my life I’ve seen myself through your eyes”). Gone is the girl who needed EJ’s encouragement to feel she was even worthy of auditioning for Gabriella at the beginning of the series. Gone is the girl who ran back to the safety of East High when YAC got too difficult. Now she finally has the confidence & self esteem to really go for what she wants. She realized that it’s her opinion of herself that matters. Ricky wanted her to be someone she hasn’t been for a long, long time -- but now Nini’s life gets to be solely about what she wants. 

People who ship Rini (In this, the year of our lord Tim Federle, 2022? Embarrassing.) really do not care about Ricky & Nini as individual characters at all because they hindered each other’s character development and became the worst versions of themselves (Ricky: clingy & vaguely controlling / Nini: neglectful & gaslighting) when they were together. 

pw was quite literally built, like you said, to be a plot device for Rina. Gina told Ricky she doesn’t do anything right the first time and EJ being her first relationship/boyfriend is a representation of that. EJ’s inability to share things with, support, listen to, show up for or understand Gina showed her that Ricky can, has & will do all of those things for her and more. EJ showed Gina the kind of love she deserves by not giving it to her.

Ricky & Gina had to be with and breakup with Nini & EJ, respectively, in order for them to be fully ready for each other.

In the immortal words of the great philosopher Taylor Swift:

Sometimes giving up is the strong thing Sometimes to run is the brave thing Sometimes walking out is the one thing That will find you the right thing

Like many people with Black parents (or parents of color in general), Gina’s relationship with her mother is complicated and it’s something I want to see explored in season four

I’m workshopping a fic about the “missing” rina moments in season 1-3…stay tuned….

Mr. and Mrs. Porter-Bowen

i understand that lily reminded ricky of gina, she was just a rebound, and he didn’t really like her; but i still hate that tim gave portwell’s ammo for that dumbass “third choice” thing

if portwells were going to accuse gina of cheating anyway i wish her and ricky would have just made out in 303, 305, and 307

why are we pretending that ej is the only one with parent issues...gina’s mom told her told her that if you’re not the best at something it’s not worth doing, and her dad isn’t even in the picture. ricky’s mother is essentially absentee and he’s poor like ej deserves his father’s love and approval but he’s not the only one who has suffered.