Ricky Bowen - Tumblr Posts - Page 2

Where are the tissues sis, because that last episode of HSMTMTS has your girl sobbing.

Need this on my blog

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL: THE MUSICAL: THE SERIES | 4x04 – Trick or Treat

I saw that you mentioned in a post a while ago that Ricky and EJ both held up a mirror to each other. Can you elaborate that idea?

yes! i say that especially about them in season 1, but i still think it's true to an extent to this day.

altough caswen's dislike for each other stemmed from their feelings for nini, i think the fact that they were ricky and ej made it significantly worse for both of them. when i say they held up a mirror to each other i always follow by saying that both of them had plenty of things they didn't wanna look at. having a mirror held up to your face is incredibly uncomfortable if you're in that position and can make you lash out at the person who's doing it. i don't mean that they're super alike and therefore "mirror" each other when i say that, the exact opposite, actually. everything one of them thinks they lack and is insecure about, the other one seems to have. so, simply by existing as they are, they piss each other the fuck off and it doesn't take much at all for things to escalate. ricky is just that person for ej and ej is just that person for ricky, it doesn't have to be on purpose.

ricky is very insecure in his talents, very insecure about trying out theater, and ej was putting out an image of himself that was overly confident, ESPECIALLY in his talents in theater, and that's the guy who got the girl he wants. when ricky tells ej "the way you dance is totally normal and not at all weird for a regular high school kid" (which i understand is a line that can be interpreted in different ways because of matt cornett's actual dancing skills, bless his heart), that's the perfect representation of what actually bothers him about ej. ricky struggled with the dancing in season 1 and just the theater of it all, and he saw ej excel at what he seemed to lack in. he couldn't insult his skills so instead he tried to act like it wasn't a fault on his part that he wasn't better at dancing, it was actually EJ who was WEIRD for getting it right. kinda like when a child doesn't get what they want so they go around saying they didn't want it in the first place.

ej, on the other hand, always knew his overconfidence was nothing but bravado. i've also mentioned before that i think while he saw nini as someone real and that made him like her more, i think he also saw ricky as someone real... and that made him dislike him more. ricky was trying something new, putting himself in a vulnerable situation for nini in many ways, and altough we as an audience know that doesn't come easy for ricky at all, ej probably didn't see it that way. all he could see was a guy who seemed to be able to just do the things he was most afraid of. let go of an image, not just "stick to the status quo". the bathroom scene between caswen is probably one of my favorite scenes in the entire show, it really puts this into perspective. ej is seemingly lashing out at ricky, but he says the lines "just stop acting", "why can't you just be real?" and "don't try so hard, it's embarrassing" LOOKING IN THE MIRROR. it's perfect! ej finds a way to beat himself up about the things he hates about himself by lashing out at ricky, as if these are things he hates about him. classic projection.

while in the topic of projection, we can fast forward to season 2. caswen's relationship is totally different now, mostly thanks to ej's growth. ej's no longer projecting an image of himself that is perfect and has everything under control, he's actually being more genuine, so, one, his alleged perfection is no longer a threat to ricky because he knows none of it was true, and two, he no longer resents ricky for being more genuine because he also took that same leap of faith and is trying to be more true to himself too. even then, in the basement scene in 2x10, we see ej admit pretty easily that he feels he has even less of his shit together than most (something he would've NEVER done in season 1, especially in front of ricky bowen) and ricky shows that his judgement of ej is still a little clouded, and to me, very obviously clouded by his own projection. he assumes ej is saying that because he's struggling to stay single, which is just not true given context, and... listen. ricky bowen? poking fun at someone because "they don't know how to stay single"? in season 2 of hsmtmts? that scene is literally under the definition of projection in the dictionary. however, you can see how one-sided the whole thing has gotten. ej doesn't really take offense in what ricky said (not that it was ill-intentioned and MEANT to be offensive, but come on, caswen acted like children in season 1 and back then that would've absolutely started something), later goes on to admit his fear of rejection and actually be really vulnerable and honest, so... ricky can project all he wants, it seems like it's just gonna bounce off ej now.

all of this is why i think ej is the perfect person to help ricky in his character development. maybe he can still hold a mirror to him now but more like the ghost of character development yet to come! i think seeing them have an actual genuine conversation and help each other intentionally for once would be an amazing pay off, i really hope we get that and i do feel like season 3 could be the perfect moment for that.

Omg what if the way Ricky finally see his feelings for Gina is when Ej and Gina are doing something cute around the camp fire and Ricky side eyeing them or giving them a look kinda being jealous. And he’s like “what’s this feeling?” “Had it been Gina all this time?” And him finally realizing what she was actually saying in the flash back scene w/ her having feelings. Lol and Big Red’s like “yes yes it has, it took you long enough”idk I’m just high typing all this 😂.

When they were a “we” #Rina

In honor of the holiday special, I present my attempt at drawing Josh/Ricky. I started in March and gave up after like two days because i decided I couldn’t get it any better than this. 

I love Nini

It’s hard to be apart the hsmtmts fandom when your favorite character is Nini. Also the fact she barely  gets screentime this season.  She gets sm hate for what? Also I love her beyond Olivia. Who else loves Nini?

spider man's real identity; ricky bowen

It's so nice to see Ricky and Gina smiling at each other again! It's been so long since they've just had fun spending time together without being weighed down by unspoken things. Of course, we can still expect a bunch of complicated feelings and rina's trademark deeper understanding, which naturally means they'll have some heavier conversations. But for now it feels so good to see them start to be friends again!

I've seen a lot of takes floating around about how we shouldn't make excuses for EJ/Gina/Ricky while talking about the others' mistakes. I can't help but wonder -

Am I the only one that's Team-Make-excuses-for-everybody?

Because fundamentally these characers are pretty young and that summer of firsts has put a lot on their plates.

EJ - isn't spending enough time with his girlfriend and friends? Yeah, because he was slapped with the huge responsibility of making a blockbuster musical work in a few weeks and nobody is helping him. (They are learning their lines and cues to be fair, but no one offered to help him plan for the read-through in that tent? Not one person?)

He's not telling Gina about the letter until she finds out for herself? That's absolutely bad, but he was planning on telling her after he had sorted it out. Which, let's be real, wasn't going to happen before the end of the summer after the documentary came out, so his plan really wasn't very likely to go well and even if it did, he would have still been in the wrong for not confiding in her.

But it makes sense, too. When we first meet EJ, he's a jock who gets leads in the musicals. A popular kid with grades impressive enough to make it reasonable for him to get into Duke. He's also prone to schieming and sabotage and has no clue how to sincerely apologize. We later find out that there's a lot of pressure to be perfect from his dad. You can't tell me that EJ grew up in an environment where it would have been acceptable for him to be vulnerable about something he was struggling with unless it was already in the past and he had already handled it. There's a reason this kid doesn't know how to apologize and I'd wager it's the same reason he doesn't know how to talk to his girlfriend about a something he doesn't yet know how to fix.

That doesn't make it okay, but it makes it understandable and I'm willing to make excuses for him and sympathize with him anyway.

Gina - is being passive-aggressive towards her boyfriend instead of talking to him directly? Yeah, because she's discovered that he's hiding something from her and I think the first few jabs were meant to give him the hint that he should maybe explain himself before she would bring it up. She's been busy with getting the lead in Frozen and trying to be 'a good girlfriend' for the first time, only to learn that EJ is hiding something from her and has been confiding in someone else about it instead. That would upset anybody. And I truly believe that most of her anger has been her trying to force a conversation, even if it wasn't in the healthiest way. Which is perfectly understandable.

She's also showing glimpses of old habits? Of course she is - ambition is not inherintly a bad character trait and "Gina 1.0" wasn't very long ago, so of course she has that ambition in her still. (Tbh I have a whole analysis in defense of Gina 1.0 that I wrote when I first watched that ep, so if anyone's interested in reading that I might still post it.)

And Ricky - has a crush on Gina while she's in a relationship with EJ? Yeah, that happens. It's already tough to rebuild a friendship after having had crushes even when those romantic feelings haven't lingered. Trying to navigate a friendship while having a crush on an unavailable friend is deeply complicated.

And that is what he's trying to do! He's not trying to interfere in portwell at all. We know what Ricky looks like when he's trying to sabotage a relationship and this isn't that. (I could make a whole other post about that difference tbh.) This is Ricky and Gina, who never got closure on their feelings for each other, trying to act like the casual friends they were before she ever pulled away from him. Only their casual friendship was founded on electric understanding that was likely already hurtling towards something way back then - so finding a new normal, that will actually look casual to the outside world (nevermind feel casual), is a tall order for both of them. (Not saying their attempt at friendship will leave them driving off into the sunset together anytime soon! Just saying that they've got a difficult goal here and it's bound to be awkward as they try to figure out new boundaries.)

At the end of the day, these characters are all trying to navigate pretty complicated romantic situations while also having a lot of other stuff going on at the same time. Be that the musical, the documentary, pressure from home, having to defend your ambitions to your best friends, or having to find your place in a group where some of your strongest connections were your ex, your ex-friend who you have a crush on that can't be more. (And I'd also list Ricky's friendship with Carlos here, but tbh their friendship is pretty uncomplicated so it's not relevant to my point right now.)

Of course all of them are going to make mistakes, but they're all very understandable. The discourse around not laying blame at only one character's feet feels to me a bit like people trying to justify their fave or even their ship at the expense of (more) nuance. (Which is also totally fair, I just felt like I had to throw my own take into the ring as well.)

AND HAPPY BI VISIBILITY DAY TO THESE TWO YUP

When you randomly go back and watch HSMTMTS and decided “Drivers License” by Olivia Rodrigo isn’t about all the drama between Olivia, Sabrina Carpenter, and Joshua Bassett but is truly about Nini, Ricky and Lily. And like Sour is just the music Nini wrote the summer where everybody was at camp in szn 3. Like I mean hear me out. My illogical conspiracy theories also include the songs being about Nini, Ricky and Gina and kind of EJ. But like rewatch the show and then listen to the album and than talk to me about it.