ao3 commenter MaybeMaureen made a Domino Effect meme from my seblos fanfic If You Wanna Fly and it makes me so happy!!

1920's New York Seblos for the feelings left by the series finale

Carlos asks Seb out on a date, and it doesn't go well. (Or the prom episode S1E5 in 1920s New York)

So I've been working on this thing...an outline that rewrites all of S3 and S4 to have Caswen as the main romance as well as fixing some of my other issues with the series' plot. It is still in the rough stages needing some refinement, but I figured I should share it here too in case people are interested. And I put in the work anyway so...might as well spread the word.

I also made a playlist of all the songs mentioned in the document so that they're all bundled together for easy listening. There's a link in the document, but I'll put it here too for good measure.

If anyone wants to use any ideas from here, since I am probably months at least away from being able to spin this into a full fanfiction, please let me know. A. Because the James Somerton scandal is fresh in my mind, and B. Because if you're writing or drawing or doing anything Caswen, I'll probably want to consume it anyway.

making a list of the best tropes / ship dynamics in media (imo) and i cannot think of more so tell me things?? so far i have;

-mc dies

-villain doesn’t realize their the villain

-childhood best friends to lovers

-pastors queer kid

-rivals to lovers

-found family

-lesbian and their himbo

-black cat X golden retriever

-acts like an old married couple

-everyone thinks their dating (their not…yet)

-‘this is a horrible idea’ X ‘this is the best idea ever’

The inner Seblos stan within me hates me for making Carlos such an awful person in my current fanfic series (He's really bad).

So... I will be going back to my roots and writing Seblos again in my next fic. Don't know when that will be, but it'll be after Love, East High!

Oh, and when I mean "going back to my roots", Seblos comes back but I'm still gonna be angsty because that's just me :)

S4, you may have attempted to destroy Seblos, but I'll always love them. There was no such thing as a cheating storyline in s4 so I'll just be enjoying my Seblos endgame while all the people on Twitter fight about it (Face it TWITTER STANS, did you guys ever like Carlos before S4? Or did you only like him because of his friendship with Ricky? I can see right through you TWITTER STANS)

Guys, I'm so s4 seblos fanfics deprived I started writing myself

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Seb Matthew-Smith/Carlos Rodriguez, E.J. Caswell/Gina Porter, Big Red/Ashlyn Caswell, Maddox/Nini Salazar-Roberts, Everyone & Everyone, Ricky Bowen & E.J. Caswell & Gina Porter, Jet & Maddox (HSMTMTS), Ricky Bowen & E.J. Caswell, Ashlyn Caswell & E.J. Caswell & Gina Porter Characters: Nini Salazar-Roberts, Ricky Bowen (HSMTMTS), Gina Porter, E.J. Caswell, Ashlyn Caswell, Big Red (HSMTMTS), Kourtney Greene, Carlos Rodriguez, Seb Matthew-Smith, Maddox (HSMTMTS), Jet (HSMTMTS) Additional Tags: chatfic, Group chat, gc, Discord Servers - Freeform, if the wildcats had a discord server, it's really chaotic, ej is the mod, ej gina & ricky are besties bc yes, seb ej nini gina and maddox are swifties, Texting Summary:

taylor swift (BOT) congratulations @gadget, you advanced to level 13! - or if the wildcats had a discord server

@underscore-jude wrote a fic,, i drew a thing. go read it <33

" But there, standing beside me, is Seb! "

lil doodle based off of that one moment in the novel :] ( i am also so obsessed w the fact that seb uses glitter lip gloss )

Big red falling in love with Seb during the summer and realizing he's bisexual, it's an idea that doesn't let me but I don't know how to write fanfic😭 #sendhelp #fanfic

sorry this chapter is late, hope you enjoy!

HSMTMTS spoilers ahead!

My friend (a Big Red fan) and I (a Seb fan) were prepped to hate s4, so we decided to binge the entire thing tonight to get it over with! I had completely avoided spoilers (and had managed to avoid the seblos duet all this time) because I wanted to see everything in context and like it or not as it was meant to be seen. Luckily, the season left me feeling really happy! I feel like they did a great job of wrapping things up (which I had thought they didn't know it was ending and was expecting a true cliffhanger, so the closure made me really happy!) Most importantly, there were so many things in the eps THAT WERE STRAIGHT OUT OF MY FICS!!! Like my friend was constantly turning to me going "OMG you literally wrote that!" and is convinced someone's been stalking my ao3 account. I just think it shows how much I love these characters and how much I've tried to be true to them in my fics (and can't wait to write more!!)

More thoughts below

I know people will have different opinions about this, but I was so relieved about the Seb/Big Red thing. When Seb said he cheated, I freaked out because I was like "Seb would not cheat!!" But after a moment, I turned to my friend was like "Unless it was with Big Red. I think I'd be okay with that." My friend and I were so upset that our characters weren't going to be on s3 that I wrote an entire fic about Seb & Big Red hanging out over the summer while the others were gone and Seb helping Biggie realize his sexuality. Even though I didn't have them get together in my fic (they just hang out and watch Heartstopper a lot), I felt like I could see them both missing their sig others and accidentally getting together, so I was like "I could forgive Seb if it was Big Red, and vice versa." So when that happened, I felt relieved because I felt like it was truly in-character (while any other "cheating" would be completely out of character). So while I know others have issues with this, I'm just relieved (and glad that it was just a kiss and not actual cheating!) Also, the Natalie thing is hysterical. The very first HSMTMTS fanfic I ever wrote was Seb discussing auditioning for Sharpay with Natalie!! However, the Natalie/Seb thing doesn't work with the timeline because Natalie says in season 1 that she was the stage manager for Brigadoon the year before! But I'm willing to allow that inconsistency since at least we got Natalie in the final season! And I really liked the Big Red and Ashlyn scene (which I know others have issues with). But it was so cool to see that discussion on a "kids show" and to see that they could still be friends. And I loved redlyn, but I really like madlyn and wasn't sure how I was going to deal with a redlyn breakup, but this scene made it okay for me! I have lots more to say but I'm barely going to get 4 hours of sleep as it is so I'll stop rambling here. But I'd love to chat with people about s4 or the entire series! I now want to go and reread all my old fanfic (I've literally written over 380K words of HSMTMTS fanfic) and start writing some new. If anyone else is interested, my fics are here: season 1 season 2 [plus others, but these are in order for these seasons]

One last comment--I never realized that 1) I had so many random scenes AND choreo from HSM3 memorized and 2) I always sing the Troy harmony on all the Troy/Gabi duets! HSM2 is my fave, but I really enjoy 3, too. Oh, and Seb getting to sing along with "I Want It All" from the audience made me feel better about the fact that he didn't get to be Sharpay!!!

would you ever consider writing a seblos fic? Their tag on ao3 is so empty rn 😓

I'll be honest, I've stayed away from writing Seblos specific fics because, well... I'm a (mostly, anyway) cishet woman! They pop up all the time in my Portwell fics, but centering the queer experience has felt a little bit of a clout chaser move when it hasn't been my own.

That said, I'm definitely not opposed because I LOVE Seblos and they make me so happy! And what I'd love more than anything is to collab with another creator who identifies as queer to make something that's authentic and beautiful and honors these two amazing characters!!

Following a painful break-up which left them both with emotional scars, Carlos and Seb have spent six months on opposite sides of the country. Suddenly, though, a high school reunion thrusts them back into each other's lives, and they're forced to pick up where they left off - whether they want to or not.

Chapter 4: At a Fourth of July house party, Seb and Carlos find themselves navigating some inconvenient truths, and some uncomfortable challenges.

fanfics im gonna need after that finale:

- pw getting closure before the time skip bc wtf was that

- alternatively, angsty pw as exes and neighbors in s4, like im ok if they’re not gonna end up together, but i just need fcking closure and maybe them becoming friends again at least 🥺

- canon divergent fic where ej was able to leave the barn instead of singing “everyday” with the cast after the show so he runs into nini just as she’s about to leave and they bolt to california together (ejini bffs agenda)

+ bonus if he bonds with nini’s moms and maybe reunites with mr. mazzara at caltech?

(if the writers won’t give ej healthy parental figures, i will)

- carlos finding a distraught ej after his call with cash, and, since he knows first hand that it’s not easy to direct a show, he tells ej, that, for what it’s worth, he’s proud of him and thanks him ‘cause he had a fun summer 🥺

+ bonus if ej says something like “yeah, i wish i spent more of it with you guys” so carlos promises to take the lead in making plans for group hangouts once they get home, (but he also offers just him and seb if that’s what ej would be more comfortable with, considering the drama) and ej just really appreciates it

++ with this, i imagine carlos and seb being his support group during the time skip, so you can imagine how angry/protective ej got on seblos’ behalf after seeing the trailer (he will fight anyone who messes with his friends, he swears)

- ashlyn going rage mode on her uncle cash once she finds out that he hung up on ej then the two of them just taking the caswell money and spending the rest of their summer in the most needlessly excessive ways (“go big or go home”, they’re gonna say)

- kourt and ej friendship fic that explores how they went through a similar storyline this summer, leading to them getting to know each other better and helping each other out

The idea to write a Seblos masquerade ball oneshot hits rn... l'll come back when I think more about it lol.