Ok so I am barely on Tumblr but I was reading through the hsmtmts tag and it just seemed so negative! I mean maybe it’s an unpopular opinion but I really liked this season! I mean I don’t ship characters on this show so maybe that’s why i’m not so passionate about either portwell or rina but honestly I think this season was a lot of fun! Sure I missed Seb and Big Red but the new characters were really good! The girls bonding was just so sweet! I love female friendships like this! Ricky’s birthday bucket list was such a fun plot line and Nini getting him the ticket was such a sweet closure to their story! Maddox and Jet finally getting to the point where they can laugh at each other “admitting” their crushes was such a great growth for their relationship! Big Red coming out was so out of pocket but so on brand that I literally squealed! Ej and Val’s friendship was perfect! The real housewives episode was the best tv episode i’ve seen in awhile! Everyones Frozen costumes were beautiful! Ej and Ricky’s enemies to friends to brothers arc was so great and I can’t wait to see where that leads! And sure they could have definitely handled the whole Ej situation better and hopefully they will handle it! Sure it was a little rushed but it was also such a fun season, the music was incredible as always, the jokes were hilarious, and I think so we’re most of the serious moments! Idk maybe i’m reading into it to much but I actually really liked this season and can’t wait for season four!

ok let me be honest for a second

i love ricky. i love gina. i love ej. i shipped rina so hard at the beginning of this show. but after all the drama that ricky unintentionally put gina through the past 2 seasons rina is a little bit dead to me. but that’s not what i wanted to talk about... spoilers ahead

gina is happily in a relationship with ej. there hasn’t been anything yet that proves otherwise. but ricky keeps inserting himself into their relationship as if they aren’t happy together. and i know people have been talking about the fact that ej has no right to be upset about gina hanging out with her friends (i.e ricky) but that’s not the case rn. ej has no problem with gina hanging out with her friends as we see when she hangs out with literally anyone else. it’s that fact that ricky and gina aren’t just friends yet that bothers both him and me. there is so much history there between the two of them. some angst some romance. so ej being not magically being ok with gina hanging out with someone who is basically her ex isn’t some wild unbelievable thing. we also have seen in the past that despite all efforts from ej ricky has succeed in driving a wedge between ej and his atm girlfriend (i.e nini). so ej being a little worried about ricky trying to steal his girlfriend once again (which is what ricky is basically doing you can’t convince me otherwise) is totally justifiable. 

also ricky inserting himself into ej’s relationship once again because he has feelings for ej’s girlfriend is so fucking exhausting for me. he did it in season one and now he’s doing it again. except this time he’s going with a “be friends first” approach. if gina wasn’t happy in her relationship with ej and ricky knew this i would be okay with what ricky is doing. sweep away my friend. but she’s happy and she’s not looking for a boyfriend cause she’s already got one. you said you wanted to be friends with her again and that’s what she sees your relationship as a friendship nothing else. if you have feelings for gina you should at least respect her, her relationship with ej, and ej enough to put some distance between the two of you until you can be friends in the way she wants you to be. so stop it. 

ugh i just needed to rant because all of the “ricky getting in between ej and gina” this episode left a bad taste in my mouth. ricky’s not a bad guy and he’s not trying to be a bad guy so please stop trying to put yourself in between two people who are to your knowledge happily in a relationship. like you can actually see the difference between how ricky and gina are “friends” and the way that val and ej are friends. like in ej and val’s talk about the letter a big focus of the conversation was the fact that ej needs to talk to his girlfriend about what’s happening in his life not her. and then ricky’s talk with jet just confirms that at some point ricky is gonna admit to either himself, someone else (maybe jet), or gina that he likes likes her in a way a friend doesn’t. and then during the movie night where we literally see ricky intently listening in on gina and ej’s conversation. like come on dude why must you only go after girls that in relationships??? specially in relationships with one ej caswell???? man’s is addicted to it by the looks of it. 

but i have no doubt in my mind that even if/when that^ happens gina’s going to want to be with ej. did you see how excited she got just by ej saying the word love??? like come on that was pure joy right there. i could feel it through the screen. 

portwell headcanons: ‘swim’

for user @portwellmakesmeweep!

so it’s a well-known fact that ej ‘captain of the water polo team’ caswell is an excellent swimmer but what a lot of people don’t know is that gina is too

when she was living in california there was a pool in their block of flats and every morning her mom would leave the house at some ungodly hour of the morning

gina wouldn’t be able to sleep after her mom left so she would kill the time before school with an early morning swim and it became a relaxing thing for her

when gina moves to salt lake for the first time she keeps herself to herself and doesn’t do much exploring so she never gets the chance to go swimming, but when she moves in with ashlyn she’s suddenly much closer to the local gym

upon gina’s request ashlyn takes her a few times but ash hates the gym and is also decidedly Not an early riser. so occasionally gina wakes up before anyone else and hits the pool because early morning swimming brings her comfort

one morning it’s 5:30am and gina’s arrived at the pool a little earlier than usual, and instead of it being empty she finds ej there doing laps

swimming is also an early morning thing for ej - years of water polo training at the crack of dawn has made jumping out of bed and straight into the pool a habit he can’t quite kick

the pair of them discover their mutual affinity for morning swims and find they miss each other by just a few minutes every time

as soon as ej finds out gina has been walking to the gym he immediately offers to pick her up. gina doesn’t know ej all that well or even just where they stand but the walk is long and it would save her a lot of time and energy and ej is really insistent that she shouldn’t have to walk so she accepts

so now they have a thing where ej stops at gina’s house and picks her up and they drive to the gym together

at first it’s a little awkward, with almost silent car rides and the two of them swimming on their own up and down lanes on opposite sides of the pool

but slowly they start playing music in the car, which devolves into full-on blasting show tunes and singing along at the top of their voices into the barely-lit sky

then their competitive spirits emerge because there’s only so long they can keep them tamped down and they start racing each other - ej always wins because he has the advantage of height and years of intense water polo training but he has to give gina credit where it’s due because she is never too far behind

swimming kind of becomes their Thing and they like that they can get as competitive as they want and know the other person will match their spirit instead of judging them for it - it’s nice to just let go a little

when they get to camp naturally they keep up the swimming - after all, it’s all the fun without the journey - and they swim every day that they can because that is their Thing and they love it

bonus:

on one of their drives ej explains to gina everything there is to know about water polo and she even gets to come to some of their practices and since then she’s never missed a game. she sits front row for every match he plays, cheering him on

one time the gang went on a group holiday and they managed to convince everyone to play chicken. ej and gina won every. single. game. and were so much better than the rest of them that it was almost painful, so they imposed a chicken ban out of fear of getting destroyed at the game 

this got v long lol but i hope u enjoyed <3 

p.s. i know you might have been expecting something closer to their impromptu swim and even though i was pretty inspired by that i thought i’d put a different twist on it :) hope u like it anyway!!

send me a word and i’ll write a portwell headcanon based on it!

all of these headcanons here

Sooooo now I’m just trying to figure out what the actual fck was the purpose of the Gina and EJ buildup in s2 if this was the payoff???? Also if we’re not gonna see jet in s4 they can honestly just keep it😂 If by some chance EJ is in s4 ( I hope so I actually like him) it’s going to be awkward as hell cause as of right now there is no way he can maintain a friendship with Ricky after this season. But let’s wait to see what happens next episode and I’ll come back to this.

HSMTMTS S3 EP2 : Into The Unknown

This episode was great!! I don't even know where to begin!

I think I will begin with Gina: yes she reminds me of her old self, but with a change, I don't disagree with Kourtney and Ashlyn, but I don't totally agree! Gina wants to shine, she wants to have the first role, and it's her time! She wasn't Gabriella nor Belle, but now she really wants to be Anna (or Elsa, she's the first role too). A part is because of the documentary, but another part is for her, she wants to prove to herself that she can do it!

I absolutely loved the two girls who were Gina's fan, and I really hope that someone will talk to them after what happened to the audition because I feel like one of them will have a good role while the other don't... I mean, Ash and Kourt saw that scene, they could have said something...

I really liked the way Gina looked at Ricky in the audition, I know people will freak out and pointed like "see Rina is endgame", but for me, Gina was like a proud mom/friend. She is the one that pushed Ricky in the first season, she just wanted him to realize he have talent and that he was born to be on stage!

About Ricky now, I liked the conversation he had with Gina, it was akward but I'm happy they decided to forget everything that happened! They are just friends and now the air is clear!

I absolutely love what Carlos said to him in the bed, that line about the fact that he always come unprepared and has the role because he is talented can't be a thing in Camp. This is not Miss Jen, and he needs to understand that he can't do this anymore.

But when he came late in this ski suit, I laughed so hard. Yes he was shown with it in the trailer, but the way he entered and Carlos said it was tradition... Epic 😂

What I also love in this episode is what happened with Jet: yes he has some attitude problems but his voice was so great!! And Ricky making a comparison with him, was cool to see!

I also really like the sort of conversation they had, because since the trailer I already ship them. I mean Ricky is definitely bi, the way he ask what were the relationship between Hans and Kristoff by saying "lovers?", is another proof to that.

About the other campers: I need to see more of Val before having a real opinion, but I don't like how everyone is saying she will make Portwell break up... I didn't feel this vibe from her, she was just happy to her friend! And I liked that she asked about Nini, because it's obviously a thing you will ask your friend if one year he is with a girl, and next year with another!

I liked that Gina was the one who said that Maddox was nice and just wanted everyone to be friend! I definitely could relate to what Maddox said about not having a lot friends because she doesn't know how to be with people! And I don't think that the last scene was a bad thing like they want us to think! It's just another weird tradition! And if Maddox is a witch, then it would be cool! I really want to see a good representation of modern witches!

Anyway, go back to the campers: I don't really know what Carlos changed, but I have a feeling it's not the final cast list just a draft! Val wouldn't have left the real list here, right?

About EJ's, I loved the Portwell scenes, the beginning, and the scene were he said to Gina that their couple was the only thing he was sure about!! I liked seeing him stressed because he was always this super confident guy, and seeing him freak out for once was great! Plus, anyone else wouldn't be able to be a director for a show like that... He's still a high schooler!

Now, let's talk about Nini in LA. I didn't expect at all that Jesse Tyler Ferguson would play the "father" (I don't want to say sperm donor because it's kinda a thing you said to a father who isn't great... Plus, he tried to be a father to Nini, and it was nice). I liked learning more about Nini's family, her moms weren't really shown in the series so far! Plus, this meeting inspired her a new song !

Speaking about the songs, I will first talk about Gina's : it was great, I really like the dancing, the lyrics really shown that she is determinate! But I must say that it didn't resonate with me, like "A Dancer's Heart", that song was so good that I was kinda hopping this new song to be as good... But it was still great !!

The audition songs were great, I love that everyone shine, their voices were great, and I don't want to be at Val's place because I couldn't even said who was better!

Jet impressed me, he had such a great voice, and Ashlyn joining him at the piano was nice!! I really loved how everyone was genuinely happy that he was this good, when he is a concurrent! At first I thought he could be Hans, but I don't know if it will be fair, knowing he didn't read any text... 🤔

And then, there's Nini's song. It was sooo good! I'm very happy to hear a song that isn't sad, it was full of hopes for this summer, and it's all I wish to Nini: to have a great summer! Definitely my favorite of the episode!!

Ej was such a big brother to Maddox. Just the pure joy when he saw her having fun, he humors her so much and it means everything.

Imagine Ej's earlier years at the camp:

Jock!Baby!Elton gets sent to Shallow Lake cause camp 'builds character' and Cash can't be bothered to raise his one and only son.

Ej figures he will coast by in the ensemble/security/person who can lift things.

Realizes quickly that all the fun tools and props are locked up to keep unsupervised children away from them, as instructed by the director.

Trys unsuccessfully to charm director because the old man can tell when a kid is helping, and when one just wants access to things that can make fire.

That's when he notices that the weird little tween that only speaks to the director and tinkers with the tech equipment has the only other set of keys.

Que: Operation: get keys to fireworks part 2.

Report: Mission failed because Maddox doesn't understand metaphors for stealing minor explosives and won't break rules anyway. Also never leaves them anywhere, so he can't just take them.

Ej decides to pretend to befriend this girl until she trusts him to have keys, and because he is at this point a proto-Cash, he does this by suggesting she do stereotypical 'camp' behaviors like playing reveille at 7 am, or asking for secrets in the cabins, or any other amount of behaviors that would get her socially eviscerated. He figures most of the camp would follow his lead, so he just needs to play nice for a few days, then they can do whatever while he gets to explode things. Starts calling her Gadget, cause he can't remember her name.

Except Maddox Loves Camp. To her, Ej is rapidly becoming her best friend because he actually wants to be around her, and do the things she loves. Sure Val listens to her, but Maddox's too awkward around pretty girls to have any real conversations, and Ej is even giving her suggestions to make this summer even more like the old movies.

Val pulls Ej aside like: Don't you fucking dare make fun of this child, she's going through things right now..

Ej get 0.001% into this plan and realizes, oh shit she's adorable, I can't let people ruin this for her.

Cue Mr. Elton Jock wholeheartedly throwing himself into every one of these stupid challenges and traditions. Taunting and egging on everyone and generally becoming the helpful kind of menace to society that makes the weird parts of a summer camp seem fun.

The first night the camp serves tacos, and that's awesome, but Maddox tells him it's not usually a great idea to eat twelve of them at once.

Spoiler: she's right. Ej spends a morning dedicated to vomit and pain in the medical cabin. Maddox sits with him and helps him read lines for his different ensemble characters in between laughing at him and dodging Val bringing him more water and crackers.

They are assigned to the same tent in the wooded camp out night, because the director has noticed, and she usually takes a solo tent, which is not a good look for their safety rating.

She's jumping at shadows and hiding as soon as the tale of Susan Fine is over. She knows it's not real, but she's still freaked out by it.

Ej tells her that they're going to make it real, and she won't be scared cause she'll know what 'susan fine' will be doing all night. Maddox is going to be the woman in the woods, he'll be a shrub monster and they can scare people together.

He buys a large pack of twizzlers, some geodes, and candles from the local shop, and they set up the first ever Susan Fine shrine.

They collect a record 11 full screams and 1 full tackle from some kid named Johnny that breaks things alot.

After they've had their fun, Ej and Maddox spend the night making up a dumb camp song. With references to the taco disaster and the scary stories.

They perform at a mid-week talent show, and get a request for an encore at camp prom.

During color wars, Ej notices Maddox was missing, and Val tells him she helps the director set up the fireworks every year, but she'll be back in time for the sing-off.

At this point Ej is having more fun doing the color wars than he would have had stealing the fireworks to begin with.

She saves him a bottle rocket. They launch it later and Ej catches his shorts on fire. once he is put out and in his boxers, Maddox and Val try to find something between them for him to wear. When cleaning Val notices a patch on the inside lining of the burnt shorts 'Elton John Caswell'. Maddox laughs at him and calls him Rocketman.

Most of camp thinks it is because of the bottle rocket, but Val and Maddox know.

Uses his call from winning color wars to tell Cash that he'll take some business courses in school if he gets to come back to camp every year.

not maddox falling for ashlyn, and ashlyn falling for val, please, i don't want anyone suffering

EJ CASWELL AND LIFE AFTER HIGHSCHOOL

EJ should go to community college instead of taking a gap year. Now that Portwell is broken up, EJ and Gina are most likely going to live down the street from each other. Given that Rina is probably going to happen during season 4 this could get really awkward. If EJ is going to community college it would help his character to transition into the next phase of his life without writing him out of the show or just have him around during his gap year.

Plus college is rarely represented in teen shows with the only focus being on getting in and not what happens after. Also it could give positive representation to people that go to community college given that it’s oftentimes looked down upon. It would be even better if what he wanted to was teach film/direct someday. I just think this is a lot better route and makes more sense given the context to the show. Not to say that him taking a gap year wouldn’t work but I just think this is a smoother way to transition without forgetting about him. After all the growth and change of EJ‘s character throughout the show I would hate for it to just be kinda thrown away because he’s graduated now. Speaking from experience of feeling like all of my best,exciting, memorable years were behind me once I turned 18 (I’m now 21) I know that there are a lot of teenagers out there that were/ are apprehensive about the future because the college experience or college age experiences are not really shown in media so you don’t really have anything to look at. I think the media does a really good job of romanticizing teenagers and kind of making you feel like once you turn 18 things come to an end which is not the case.

Maybe I’m reading too much into this maybe I’m not but I think the storyline idea could be really great if done well. It could show that just because your life doesn’t turn out the way that you planned it doesn’t mean that it’s not memorable or amazing like your teen years are “supposed to“ be. Everyone is on their own path.

the way ricky LITERALLY choked on his drink when gina walked into prom and always found her in every room and got nervous when she asked him to dance bc he knew he couldn't trust himself to answer and immediately cut his conversation short to make sure she was okay at coat check and those LONGING LOOKS JUST K!LL ME NOW

i love when a man is pining so hard AS YOU MF SHOULD

Season 3 doodles of high school musical the musical the series

I have never written so much in two days but Rina simply deserved it. Check it out and please cry with me in the comments about how much we already miss the showand these two. <3

YES! I NEED THAT

okay so here’s what i’m thinking: i think Carlos saw that him and Jet were up for the same role and erased Jet’s name OR saw that he didn’t get cast for a role but Jet did so he erased Jet’s name for a role and is gonna pull some kind of stunt to get him in the musical. Cause he said it himself he wants to get a lead role this time and also he REALLY wanted to me in Corbin Bleu’s show. i don’t think this has anything to do with portwell or rina i think he’s being selfish and messy

July 27th

Camp Shallow Lake

the most unrealistic thing about hsmtmts is that the camp shallow lake kids found camp rock that funny. like, nobody physically laughs that much at demi levato just messing around with some flour. are these camp shallow lake kids really that bored??? are they okay???

they literall gave ashlyn an oh. moment brb sobbing