#PoorTroy

[deborahdeshoftim5779]

Questions for High School Musical II

I consider myself a disciple of the hard slog, and so if I have to endure torture to achieve a certain end, then I will do so. In such benevolence, I choose to rewatch High School Musical II and III, often in handcuffs and a gag so that I won’t hit anything in fury or scream at the laptop screen. From time to time, you might hear a muffled “Oh shutup”, often directed at Gabriella, and by the end, I end up cutting the movie short. I have, however, tasked myself in writing movie commentary for the second and third movie, which has the added benefit of helping me meet my daily word count of at least 1500 words. 

Since I have no regulatory body over my head, I can quite freely give you the most biased interpretation of HSM II that you will ever read. Here we have a young, mature high school student who is worried about securing finance for his further education. To his complete surprise, he is offered a job at an exclusive country club, which would promise a great salary and great contacts. Rather than taking the opportunity just for himself, he goes out of his way to secure a position for his girlfriend and all his friends, giving them glowing recommendations. However, given that his own hiring was part of East High’s Prima Girl’s plot to sexually entrap him, and given that he receives a series of privileges related to his position, his friends turn against him as his promotions limit the amount of time he can spend with them. Once they have broken him down and convinced him of his inherent selfishness; once his girlfriend has left him in a fit of righteousness based on a cocktail of distortions and guilt-tripping, he comes grovelling back to his friends, taking all the blame for something the Prima Girl did and for daring to care about his future. 

I do not pretend to have understood all of this on the first watch. This has come to me after reading meta analysis and rewatching with a more critical frame of mind. So here are my list of questions and prompts for this movie based on the above thoughts. 

On Gabriella’s Quitting

According to the canonical narrative, Gabriella quits her job at Lava Springs because 1)- she is tired of Sharpay’s games and 2)- Troy has changed. 

And so I ask the following:

1)- Prior to Gabriella’s claim that she wanted a summer to remember, she had expressed a desire to find employment. From Taylor’s dialogue, we hear that the two of them were becoming frustrated with their lack of success. Was it wise for Gabriella to quit her job if she was struggling elsewhere?

2)- Whilst being banned from the Talent Show was disappointing, that was not the reason that Gabriella took the job. It was simply an added benefit. So are her reasons for quitting justified? If anyone had a reason to quit, it would be Kelsi, who was writing for the show. Her role as a lifeguard was far more important to the running of the club, so doesn’t this lessen the value of her quitting?

On Gabriella’s accusations against Troy

1)- “...us working together sounded like a good idea.” How does she define “working together”? I take a literal view of this quote, and I see that they were not working together by any conventional stretch of the imagination. Am I missing something?

2)- “...but plans change and people change.” First of all, I assert that this is patently false. I see nothing in Troy’s behaviour that indicated a fundamental change in morals. At the very worst, he was inconsiderate (during the scene where he practically ignored Chad whilst speaking to the Redhawk guy), but that was it. Otherwise, he was polite to everyone-- even to Sharpay, who had spent most of her time relentlessly pursuing him. Despite being unqualified to teach golf, he was polite to all the kids, polite to Mr. Fulton despite being followed by the man, kind to his friends (having secured them all jobs) and bending over backwards for Gabriella. 

By comparison, Chad was incredibly rude, from poking fun at Troy and showing no sympathy to his struggles, to shouting at Troy in front of everyone on the slimmest provocation, to falsely claiming that Troy had been a jerk during the laughable “apology” scene WITHOUT acknowledging his own culpability. Zeke was also rude, poking fun at Troy and giving him dirty looks. Jason was rude, turning his back on Troy for no reason. Taylor was incredibly and quite unjustifiably mean to Troy, which puzzles me. After the gang practice “You Are The Music In Me”, Taylor seems kind and encouraging towards Troy, encouraging him to sign up for the Talent Show with a smile. Not long afterwards, she claims Troy forgot his date, without waiting to see the reason why (his wearing a suit might have been a clue to someone as smart as Taylor), and then she was planting unjustified suspicion in Gabriella’s head about Troy’s behaviour despite having heard (and I know this, because I’ve replayed the scene several times to be sure) Troy being clearly reluctant to sing with Sharpay. To Gabriella’s credit, she actually defends Troy in that scene, showing that she trusts him. I would have liked to have seen an apology from Taylor to Gabriella at the very least for misleading her throughout this movie. 

Wherein lies the change?

3- Gabriella accuses Troy of “missing dates”. The “freaky math girl” struggles to differentiate between singular and plural and has a gloriously short-term memory. Troy missed ONE date. Not several. One. The reason for this was due to his busy schedule and the importance of securing favour with the Evans father for his scholarship opportunities. He set up the picnic in clear defiance of Club rules. He was late for the dinner/swim because of circumstances beyond his control (Gabriella quite commendably waited up for him); being late is not the same as missing a date. (Or forgetting one, as Taylor claims). The only “date” that Troy missed was free cheeseburgers in the kitchen. Call me heartless, but I think Gabriella will survive. Troy offered an apology and a reasonable explanation for missing this date. Now, it may be likely that Troy’s increasingly busy schedule would have limited his ability to keep more dates, but let’s not forget that by this time, Troy and Gabriella had been dating for the entire school year. It is reasonable to assume that they would have shared many dates. (Troy arranging all of them, of course). So I struggle to sympathise with the horror of losing out on free cheeseburgers. 

Likewise, with the “blowing off your friends” accusation; Troy’s schedule required him to be called away on short notice. With the exception of his rather inconsiderate behaviour towards Chad at lunchtime (the same time he was supposed to produce free cheeseburgers), nothing in Troy’s behaviour suggested that he was intentionally avoiding his friends. In fact, he had even offered to practice with his friends moments before Chad blew a fuse and yelled at him for allegedly being selfish. (Troy’s hurt face at the end of that scene is heartbreaking). And notice that NO ONE came to Troy’s defence throughout this shouting match, because apparently ganging up on Troy doesn’t count as bad friendship, but Troy not giving you 100% attention due to future/career concerns is. 

Would it be fair to say Gabriella’s claims here are patently false?

4)- Even if Troy had been as objectionable as Gabriella claims, NONE of those sins stopped her from doing the job that she was being paid (quite reasonably, we can assume) to do. None. If she was pissed with Troy, she could still have watched over the pool. 

What, therefore, makes her complaint valid?

(TO BE CONTINUED)

[thegirlinapartment34]

Found this valentine in my mailbox today and it made my day a million times better #justcallmeHelen #poorTroy