heartbreak high, 1x08

Heartbreak High, the reboot

While binging all of the seasons of OG Heartbreak High (don’t you just love the 90s? 🥹), I discovered there was a reboot of the show released in 2022. But to my utter astonishment, they decided to my men, former bad boy/ current best boii, Peter Rivers so dirty by remaking him into “an ex-racist, sexist, homophobic man, likely formerly transphobic too” (©️ fandom). What the hell were they thinking?! Admittedly, he was a douche, but then again this is the same dude who at some point was friends with Rose, Jack, and Chaka (🇱🇧🇻🇳🇸🇻 respectively); started a very groundbreaking albeit illicit relationship with his teacher (whatever happened to Sam anyway?!); and as far as I could see showed nothing but respect for his gay teacher (albeit with an attitude because he is…you know “Rivers” 🤷). Said teacher was the only queer character I could find up until Rivers’ departure, because well this was Australia in the 90s I suppose? But I can’t see how he would’ve acted any different to any other queer character, than with his typical attitude.

The thing I loved most about Rivers is that he is an incredibly complex character, with a lot of different layers of problems. A difficult relationship with his very problematic parents, a tendency towards overcompensating by acting all tough, and a real difficulty with seeking help. Not in the last place because he suffers from prejudice and stigma. Whenever something foul has been committed, the cops first look for him.

Admittedly, I haven’t watched the reboot yet. (I still have approximately four seasons of OG to go through. 🫣) But you’re seriously expecting me to believe that this multilayered character, the guy with so many different sides, this dude who when it mattered always was there to help his friends. HE is nothing but a recovering sexist racist homophobic piece of vermin?!

I think I might be into Darren's Dad...

Okay so I just discoverd that the original Heartbreak High show form 1994 is also on Netflix, and there was nothing else I wanted to watch so I started watching it today and...

I am 10 and a half episodes into this show and I can't lie, I am a Rivers apologist. He's a bully and a dick, even putting aside the casual 90s homophobia(and slightly ignoring the racism, which I know is bad but it only really pops up a couple times and I kind of feel like the writers forgot that they made him racist), but the way he is with Chaka is really sweet and I couldn't help it, I just kinda started to like him and it doesn't help that I do think he's quite attractive. Idk if maybe I'm picturing him grown up as Darren's dad while I'm watching and the fact that I really like him in the reboot is affecting my perception of him (which it probably is), or if he just avoided my toxic men net, but I really like him. Also, him and his friend (had to google his name, it's Bolton) really remind me of Spider and Ant. There's actually alot of parallels and call backs from the reboot to the original, and I think that's pretty cool.

You should go and watch the original series if you haven't already. It is so dated and the drama is so extra sometimes, but it is so fun. And also, like, pretty good diversity and representation for a show from the mid 90s (not much LGBT rep, as is to be expected, but there is an openly gay teacher and I do love him). Highly reccomend.

more stray heartbreak high thoughts (mostly about rivers because i love him)

it honestly makes me so happy to see rivers have fun little interactions with quinni's dad in the sheriff. rivers in the original series was literally such a ratbag but as a dad you can see that he's really making an effort to get to know darren (he even corrects darren's mother on pronouns despite the fact that darren's mother is the parent they previously lived with for longer and should theoretically be more understanding) and is now having fun banter with his queer child's best friend's gay parent.

Rivers: I have a bad feeling about this...

Nick: What do you mean?

Rivers: Don't you ever get that little voice in your head that tells you if you're going to get into trouble?

Nick: No?

Con: That actually explains so much.

The trouble is, it's all back to front. My past is his future. We're travelling in opposite directions.

I was just listening to river say "He's the doctor. He doesn't just go around falling in love with people." And I'm just like babe, thats ALL he does! He's a whore. Falling in love with random people is ALL she does. They are a whore for humanity. That's the thesis of doctor who.

I'm entitled to that. I'm giving you my days. You and me, time and space.

based Doctor who

Peter to Remus, who’s about to get married: Today, two families are becoming one. James, in an ominous voice: Two families enter, one family leaves. Marlene: That sounds so threatening… Lily: The Wedding Games… Sirius: May the bouquet toss be ever in your favor. Remus: Beautiful. Peter: Fuck all of you!

Alright! So I finished hand binding Crimson Rivers by @mayzarbewithyou :) this was my first time bookbinding so excuse the mistakes I am far from great, but all in good time! This fic basically changed the trajectory of my life so I thought I’d give it the love it deserves! the spine is regulus standing looking up at the tree and he is purposely put on the last book because he finally learned how to climb and grow. I’m so emotional over the end of the fic so this is very emotional to me. I did the typeset myself and there are some cool details I’ll try to put in another post, but basically I added all of Zar’s end notes as footnotes to the specific scenes he talks about! All very fun and the dingbats match the theme for the books and the backs each have quotes the correspond. I split it into 5 just because it didn’t feel right to have the epilogues in the same book as the war. They were two completely different parts of the story so I separated them. Anyways I’ll make another post. This was a labor of love and I hope I did it Justice :)

And they both lived happily ever after. DOCTOR WHO — The Husbands of River Song (2015 Christmas Special) directed by Douglas Mackinnon | written by Steven Moffat ››› Alex Kingston as River Song ››› Peter Capaldi as The Doctor

two stray heartbreak high thoughts. one's pretty dark but the other's kinda nice. (spoilers under the cut)

ok sad shit out of the way first ... the conversation between darren and ca$h in the first episode about ca$h having repeated is really important. "you repeated. you're eighteen". darren could have just left the conversation at "you repeated"; the main characters are only in year 11, so ca$h could have repeated and still have been only 17 (I was 17 when I finished year 12 in 2011 and didn't turn 18 until march 2012), not to mention in nsw you can drop out of school at 17 (you can drop out before you're 17 as long as you have some sort of full-time employment or trade but once you're 17 you can legally yeet yourself out of school without any employment or tafe course whatsoever) but they specifically mention he's 18. ca$h and his mates get up to a lot of illegal shit and in the eyes of the law, he's an adult, which is going to affect how his involvement in harper's situation (even though he was the one who helped harper) is going to be treated. i hope they delve into that in season 2.

on a lighter note ... in the conversation between darren's parents about them moving in with their dad, peter rivers accidentally misgenders darren once. he's corrected on it, and every time he refers to darren, he always uses they/them pronouns for darren. then peter corrects darren's mum when she accidentally uses the wrong pronouns. it's really nice character development (especially if you've watched the original series, specifically episode 1x14)