TooLateToTheParty

Chad Charming. Or Doug.

First, Chad had all potential for being Cinderella and Prince(now King) Charming’s son, his mother was graceful but not someone who let you humiliate her all you want, his father was himbo who just leap out of the window when the king told him to not walk away on him. Chad could’ve been the combination of everything his parents had, grace, sweet, kind and nice, and talk to mice and just being adorably weird. He was canonically better than Jay at fencing, and has a lot of mice friends that he talks and lives with back in his parents castle. But we never really get to see those sides in movies just bc he’s a comic relief, jerk and an ass.

Do’s and Don'ts of Designing for Accessibility

Anxiety

Autistic Spectrum

Dyslexia

Physical or Motor Disabilities

Low Vision

Screen Readers

Deaf or Hard of Hearing

Take HSM3:

1) She tries to manipulate Ryan again, even though she knows there is only one scholarship.

2) She encourages Ryan to ask Kelsi to prom to get Troy’s and Gabriella’s song. And I love how even though Ryan asks Kelsi to prom, he never attempts to steal the song or does anything manipulative at all. He just completely ignores Sharpay. He grew, she didn’t.

3) She still tries to break up Troy and Gabriella. And this was all on her and for no reason at all.

4) She continues to treat Zeke horribly and continues to take him for granted, even though he is the only person besides Ryan who sees any good in her.

also, i do actually think she goes through growth concerning her relationship with ryan that continues into hsm3. does she still use the same manipulative tactics? obviously. but when he wins the scholarship over her, she isn’t angry at all, she’s genuinely happy for him. i don’t think she would have reacted this way if he’d won something over her in hsm1 or most of hsm2. she’s also happy to share the spotlight with him in i want it all (granted, there’s a few snide remarks from ryan first when she does focus too much on herself in the beginning of the song, but as soon as she starts genuinely including him in the fantasy, they’re pretty equal) and she’s proud of him for choreographing a night to remember. it’s small things, but i don’t think their dynamic is reset completely in hsm3.

Now, Troy and Gabriella had communication issues, yes. In the 1st two movies. This time, there was no communication issues. Gabriella knew about Stanford and chose to not go to the early admissions program. She chose not to tell Troy, because he’s a good guy who would have made her go. Which actually happens when he finds out, through Sharpay. And when Gabriella decided she wasn’t coming back, she told him.

But what was Sharpay’s reason for breaking Troy and Gabriella up? If it was the scholarship, she had two other people who were more likely to receive the scholarship to begin with. Two people that she have not worried about at all during the entire movie. Her excuse for Ryan was, “we’re twins, they’re gonna have to take us both”, which is something she pulled right out of her butt. And an excuse that he didn’t even believe, not for a second. He had done absolutely nothing to follow Sharpay’s plan. And she had done absolutely nothing to sabotage Kelsi, at all. Stealing Kelsi’s song wasn’t about Kelsi, it was about Troy and Gabriella.

That leaves her only reasoning for breaking Troy and Gabriella up to be that she wanted Troy for herself, and we have been down that road before, TWICE. And if Senior Year musical really was about them, wasn’t it absolutely pathetic that she wanted to be Gabriella so bad?

If anything, Sharpay was self-sabotaging all along. She wanted a guy who clearly did not want her. She jeopardized her relationship with her brother, twice. She threw away being part of a group of friends, actual friends. Not just followers sucking up to her. And, to top all that off, she kept ignoring a perfectly nice guy who would have done anything for her. Like seriously, can we take a minute to appreciate how Zeke only saw the good in her?

also, definitely not saying she treated ryan entirely right and didn’t regress, though! i just think it’s complicated with her, and i think it’s unfair and too simplistic to say that she doesn’t appreciate or love him at all.

i respectfully really disagree with your take on her and troyella. troyella did have communication issues in hsm3; the fact that gabriella decided to hide a big life changing event from her boyfriend to the point where there was even the possibility that he found out from sharpay is… not good. the rest of their issues may not stem from communication, but that relationship was not perfect at all (and never has been, i say sadly as probably the biggest troyella stan on this website; but same as with sharpay, if anyone else points it out, i get defensive and i should touch some grass lmao). i think their relationship going through issues every time is actually a bit similar to sharpay regressing every time as in they need that conflict for the ~hsm formula~ to work but it gets a bit frustrating by the third time, but that’s a different post entirely lol.

but back to sharpay, i really think it was about the duet for her. to put it simply, kelsi always writes her best stuff for troy and gabriella (sharpay explicitly acknowledges this and it’s true) and i think sharpay thought playing gabriella was her best bet at actually getting that duet. i think that’s a dumb move, by the way, because a night to remember was a much better showcase for her talents than just wanna be with you would have been, but i digress. i actually wrote a meta post a long time ago about why sharpay felt threatened by troy and not by kelsi and ryan, though which i’m just gonna casually self plug here, lol. tl;dr she feels threatened by troy because his talents are as closest to her own, she loves ryan too much to actually want to sabotage him, and she knows she needs kelsi if she wants to pull it off.

it was never about actually wanting troy for herself imo. the only time she wants him for herself is in hsm2. she barely pays him any attention beyond the “when’s the big game?” scene in hsm1 and in hsm3, it’s really obvious to me that she sees him mostly as competition - she’s pretty much trashing him all through the conversation she has with ryan before i want it all and i don’t think she’s dumb enough to try to get a guy by literally trying to tear down his confidence. she also doesn’t really make any moves on him after gabriella leaves as she would have done if she had been really interested in him.

she’s definitely still self-sabotaging, though, but i just think she does in a very different way. i see it as her scheming to get the best possible chance she could get at the scholarship and then it backfires spectacularly.

as for zeke, my feelings on that are… complicated. yeah, he does see good in her and he deserves better than how she treated him, but honestly? he sees her as a fantasy, the same way she sees troy as a trophy, so idk if that would have been ended well for either of them tbh.

sfa is actually the one time i think the character development might have stuck if they had ever done another hsm movie. sfa was actually made because she deserved better. she needed a true character arc for that happy ending to finally be hers and be earned and that happened in sfa in a way that never happened in the hsm movies.

I agree. The biggest issue with Sharpay is her selfishness, though. It is somewhat justifiable within the context of the first movie, but it just keeps getting worse to the point where it overshadows everything else. And that’s entirely on her father. For the entirety of the second movie, Vance is overly spoiling of her while being overly critical of Ryan. Derby Evans is the one that comes of as supportive of both of them equally. Hell, Ryan is even astonished that he got to hold the talent show trophy for a minute implying that while the twins perform together, Sharpay always end up winning the trophy.

Oh, the day I say Troyella’s relationship was flawless and that they always break up because of Sharpay is the day I know I have completely lost it. And I agree, 100%. The trilogy is far from perfect, sticking to the same formula 100% shot it in the foot. I’d go as far as say that the need to have a villain in the third movie was just unnecessary and regresses Sharpay for no reason. The theme and conflict of Senior Year, the scholarships and the pressures of ending that chapter of life and entering a new one was good enough and drives almost the first half of the movie perfectly. It did NOT need the new characters, it did NOT need to have Sharpay is a villain again and it should have focused more on character development. Kind of like how HSM2 develops Ryan, Chad (somewhat) and Sharpay, only to undo Sharpay’s development in her very first scene of the third movie.

I disagree that Kelsi writes her best songs FOR Troy and Gabriella, I don’t think she intentionally DECIDES to do so. No need to discuss the first movie, sine Kelsi wrote the music with no one in mind, there was no Troyella yet. In HSM2: 1) Sharpay and Kelsi are not friends, 2) Kelsi is a rehearsal pianist, she wasn’t hired to compose music for Sharpay, 3) Sharpay orders her to give up her music. In HSM3: 1) Canonically, Kelsi wrote I Want It All, A Night to Remember and their reprises. That’s a duet for the twins, a group number where almost everyone sings equally, Ryan performs the first reprise and Sharpay the second. She did not have to do that. 2) The musical was based on “them”, which is why Troyella get the love song. Sharpay’s songs were appropriate for her character.

I will now take a few minutes to read the post linked. Okay, done. Here’s my take on this, Sharpay always overlooks Kelsi, a thing she tends to do with both Kelsi and Ryan. With Kelsi, I do not believe it’s a matter of respect or not, she just fails to register Kelsi’s potential to change everything. Kelsi overcomes her anxiety, stands up to Sharpay and help Troyella perform in the first movie. Then Kelsi and Ryan, together, plot to get Gabriella back, get Troyella back together and take Sharpay out. Somehow, by the third movie, Sharpay still hasn’t learned to SEE Kelsi, if you will. It is, however, about respect when it comes to Ryan, though. He is a resource to Sharpay. He is the choreographer. He is the one who got the Wildcats in line for a performance in the summer. He is her biggest competition. And he stood up to her and is no longer within her control. And she respects him for it. Again, I still believe that trying to convince him to steal the song for her was manipulative and that she did not believe there was actually any chance both of them can get scholarships, but that’s an argument for another time 😂

As for Troy, I do not believe he was ever in the running for the scholarship. The Juilliard reps have already awarded Kelsi the scholarship, and made an exception and awarded Ryan another scholarship. They were not about to make another exception for Troy. So despite everything, turns out he was never a threat to her to begin with.

Here is the differences between Zeke and Sharpay, though. 1) “who is East High’s primo boy”, Sharpay thinks wants Troy because he’s popular, 2) Troy has a girlfriend, 3) Sharpay was manipulative, Zeke was persistent in his advances, 4) Troy never gives Sharpay any signs he might like her, Sharpay keeps playing hot and cold with poor poor Zeke and finally, 5) She is always a better person when they are “getting along”.

I think I don’t like SFA because I always thought Sharpay would discover that she’s more of a business woman than she has ever been a performer. I have always head canon-ed she would switch majors in college and take over the family business and being pretty freaking awesome at it. I don’t know why, I have always thought if one of the twins would take over the business, it would be her. That and her leaving U of A for New York is actually un-Sharpay-like. Sharpay is not a quitter, not the way I see her anyway.

Take HSM3:

1) She tries to manipulate Ryan again, even though she knows there is only one scholarship.

2) She encourages Ryan to ask Kelsi to prom to get Troy’s and Gabriella’s song. And I love how even though Ryan asks Kelsi to prom, he never attempts to steal the song or does anything manipulative at all. He just completely ignores Sharpay. He grew, she didn’t.

3) She still tries to break up Troy and Gabriella. And this was all on her and for no reason at all.

4) She continues to treat Zeke horribly and continues to take him for granted, even though he is the only person besides Ryan who sees any good in her.

also, i do actually think she goes through growth concerning her relationship with ryan that continues into hsm3. does she still use the same manipulative tactics? obviously. but when he wins the scholarship over her, she isn’t angry at all, she’s genuinely happy for him. i don’t think she would have reacted this way if he’d won something over her in hsm1 or most of hsm2. she’s also happy to share the spotlight with him in i want it all (granted, there’s a few snide remarks from ryan first when she does focus too much on herself in the beginning of the song, but as soon as she starts genuinely including him in the fantasy, they’re pretty equal) and she’s proud of him for choreographing a night to remember. it’s small things, but i don’t think their dynamic is reset completely in hsm3.

Now, Troy and Gabriella had communication issues, yes. In the 1st two movies. This time, there was no communication issues. Gabriella knew about Stanford and chose to not go to the early admissions program. She chose not to tell Troy, because he’s a good guy who would have made her go. Which actually happens when he finds out, through Sharpay. And when Gabriella decided she wasn’t coming back, she told him.

But what was Sharpay’s reason for breaking Troy and Gabriella up? If it was the scholarship, she had two other people who were more likely to receive the scholarship to begin with. Two people that she have not worried about at all during the entire movie. Her excuse for Ryan was, “we’re twins, they’re gonna have to take us both”, which is something she pulled right out of her butt. And an excuse that he didn’t even believe, not for a second. He had done absolutely nothing to follow Sharpay’s plan. And she had done absolutely nothing to sabotage Kelsi, at all. Stealing Kelsi’s song wasn’t about Kelsi, it was about Troy and Gabriella.

That leaves her only reasoning for breaking Troy and Gabriella up to be that she wanted Troy for herself, and we have been down that road before, TWICE. And if Senior Year musical really was about them, wasn’t it absolutely pathetic that she wanted to be Gabriella so bad?

If anything, Sharpay was self-sabotaging all along. She wanted a guy who clearly did not want her. She jeopardized her relationship with her brother, twice. She threw away being part of a group of friends, actual friends. Not just followers sucking up to her. And, to top all that off, she kept ignoring a perfectly nice guy who would have done anything for her. Like seriously, can we take a minute to appreciate how Zeke only saw the good in her?

Blender is an excellent freeware 3D renderer,possibly better than After Effects

Lightzone to replace Lightroom

Inkscape to replace Illustratr

Audacity to replace Audition (I also received a free version of Pro Tools with my Scarlett Solo audio interface)

- Medibang Paint and Fire Alpaca for more cartoon style illustration

- Krita for painting

- Clip Studio Paint (not free, but often on sale and cheap even at full price) is better than PS for art and I’m about to cut adobe entirely. Even does some photo editing.

- Paint Tool SAI (again, not free but cheap) old but good, there’s a ton of hacked copies around too. Not hard to get for free.

Also, heads up to anyone using it,

As of July 5th 2021, Audacity is now considered a potential spyware security risk,

Take HSM3:

1) She tries to manipulate Ryan again, even though she knows there is only one scholarship.

2) She encourages Ryan to ask Kelsi to prom to get Troy’s and Gabriella’s song. And I love how even though Ryan asks Kelsi to prom, he never attempts to steal the song or does anything manipulative at all. He just completely ignores Sharpay. He grew, she didn’t.

3) She still tries to break up Troy and Gabriella. And this was all on her and for no reason at all.

4) She continues to treat Zeke horribly and continues to take him for granted, even though he is the only person besides Ryan who sees any good in her.

The thing is, I see it as more heartbreaking for Ryan rather than Sharpay. Like, he spends the entire first movie barely taking to anyone other than her, she abandons him mid-conversation a few times and yet he sticks by her.

He is infinitely nicer and a more likable whenever he distances himself from Sharpay. He seems to have some sort of acquaintanceship/camaraderie with Kelsi, until he and Sharpay talk Darbus into rescheduling the call backs and Kelsi is furious. HSM2, he is leaning against Kelsi’s locker and they seem to be having a conversation, so safe to assume they’re actually friends now. The twins also supposedly work with Troy and Gabriella off screen on the musical, and Gabriella approaches him so easily so again, safe to assume some sort of acquaintanceship there too. Then Sharpay abandons him first and has Troy replace him without even telling him and disregards his feelings regarding this completely.

Then when he starts making actual friends, she throws this line at him to guilt-trip him? Honestly, good on Ryan for holding his ground. She could careless about him that, when she saw he was happy, making friends and having fun, she had his participation in the talent show impossible. When Gabriella confronts Sharpay, she tells her she needs to step away from the mirror to see the damage that will always be right behind her, and there is no doubt in my mind that Gabriella 100% meant Ryan.

Even in the final movie, she tries to manipulate him again. After everything. To get the Juilliard scholarship. Unbelievable.

And when you add to that, that the Evans parents seem nice enough on screen, it is actually implied that they are a bit absent. Sharpay and Ryan arrive to the country club on their own, their mum is already their and their dad arrives way later in a helicopter. And in the third movie, they arrive just on time for the show from India.