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Trelsi Fanfiction: Thou Shalts and Thou Shalt Nots

Troy and Kelsi.

What more can I say?

I will go into depth about my love for this ship at some other time, but suffice to say that this scene was like a glowing candle in the darkness otherwise known as High School Musical 3: Senior Year. I’ve only been a shipper for nearly five months now; I wanted so much to be a Troyella shipper, but just couldn’t connect to them at all. Then I discovered that Gabriella’s behaviour was the precise reason their interaction left me cold. But Trelsi? Completely different reaction; every scene with them reveals character and helps propel character development and/or the plot. They are incredibly important to each other’s character arcs and they are both quite complex on the inside. I will wax lyrical about this in another post sometime, because I’ve literally never felt so connected to another pair of characters in any other fandom (with the exception of the Harry Potter fandom) as I have with HSM (a movie franchise I used to dismiss as corny and overwrought). 

So few people write for this ship. Why? *weeps* I am a voracious reader, so I have scoured the net for as many Trelsi fics as possible and read them, regardless of the writing quality. (I am allowed to say that there are some really shit ones out there. Sorry, but there are.) I’ve added LOADS of useful things to my own headcanon for writing. Nonetheless, there are a series of tropes that I find so frustrating when reading, and which I hope to GOD that I will not copy in my own writing. So this list is as much for my own help as it is for anyone else who loves this ship (or indeed any other ship, bar Troyella, which is full of these terrible tropes by necessity). I’m a real writing technique junkie and though I’m better with the line-editing side of things, I have a real interest in characterization. Maybe if anyone else has a love for this fandom, they might find this list helpful, too. 

As follows, my “thou shalts” and “thou shalt nots”. I use the words relationship/pairing/ship interchangeably and they refer to platonic/romantic liaisons depending on the context. 

1- Thou shalt not foist Gabriella upon Ryan in order to bring Troy and Kelsi together. 

Code red. For some reason, many fans are favourable towards Gabriella and Ryan. Why is beyond my humble astounding. Gabriella only became friends with Ryan to make Troy jealous, which is cruel manipulation of someone as sensitive, caring and honest as Troy Bolton. That is no basis for a relationship. Then there’s the small matter of Ryan Evans being as straight as a circle. Thirdly, this is nothing but a contrived plot link designed to deal with the spare characters, and thus demonstrates a lack of thought on the author’s part as to the character journey, wants, needs and actions that are realistic to each character. Such advice applies to romance stories regardless of fandom anyway, and just writing in general. Don’t set up sham relationships. I’m no fan of Gabriella, but she deserves thoughtful characterization just like everyone else.

2- Thou shalt not have Kelsi being in love with Troy from the very start.

I actually don’t care too much about the fact that Kelsi may or may not have had a crush on Troy in canon. Having a crush on someone does not mean that you will fall in love with them, and there is no evidence in the movies that this would ever have been the trajectory. On the contrary, I think Kelsi became more mature and comfortable with Troy, particularly having dated Jason for a considerable period of time. I don’t think it’s particularly interesting or relevant, and I think that any such crush does not necessitate falling in love. You’re skipping the necessary character development before the falling in love part starts. I would prefer starting with the friendship. 

3- Thou shalt not kill off Gabriella to justify Trelsi.

Such a monstrous plot convenience implies that the only thing that would break the Troyella relationship would be death. You have got to be kidding yourself. There are several things that would single a long overdue demise of the Troyella relationship; Gabriella’s arrogance. selfishness, cruelty, manipulation and hypocrisy being key causes. Again, this just shows an abject lack of thought by the author. And dare I say it? Yes, I do dare say it: if you’re a Trelsi shipper (platonically/romantically), you cannot seriously consider Troyella to be on an equal level with that pairing, given the vast differences between the two. One is unhealthy and destructive, the other uplifting, egalitarian and complementary. No contest, folks. 

Besides, much as I dislike Gabriella’s behaviour, she doesn’t deserve to be killed off. 

4- Thou shalt not turn the Trelsi pairing into gooey, saccharine mush.

Leave that for Troyella. Granted, Troy and Kelsi are thoroughly decent, likeable characters, but neither of them are perfect. They have flaws and there is NO way (if one considers the romantic angle) that their relationship would be plain sailing. Both have significant self-esteem issues for one thing. Troy’s attachment to Gabriella is and should be the major cause of tension and struggle in achieving the character arc for both. Furthermore, Kelsi idealizes Troyella to a ridiculous degree, and I have said before that her songs feed into that wish fulfilment and yet idolatry of a thoroughly unhealthy relationship. Besides, depending upon where you begin (in my headcanon, I see no potential romance until after graduation from high school), you need to contend with how Troy’s dependence upon Gabriella has soared and his self-esteem has taken a shark jump. Is he just going to up and run into the arms of another woman? I wish he would, but that is just not realistic. 

And can we please scale back on the endless making out and “I love you’s” Troy and Kelsi have a much more esoteric language, which is far more interesting in revealing their bond. (”Playmaker/Composer/Hoops Man” are affectionate nicknames). 

5- Thou shalt not make Kelsi always shy and quiet.

If you do, you’ve missed the boat entirely. The whole value of Troy and Kelsi’s friendship is that they make each other more confident. Kelsi is very comfortable around Troy, and had they shared more screen time, we would have seen more of this. By the third movie, she is more confident, she can tell jokes (”I believe that actor would be you, Mr Choreographer!”) and she has an enjoyable sarcastic sense of humour, which I think would be very compatible with Troy’s own sarcasm (to Troy after a disastrous rehearsal: “You look like you’re having the time of your life!”). She directs an ENTIRE musical, people! Compare how she appears on stage for the callbacks in the first movie, and how she appears on stage in the third movie. It could be two different people. That’s thanks to Troy. He brought her out of her shell, which is why she is always so keen for him to participate in her musicals. In my headcanon, they always have great banter. There’s no way she’s just sitting in a corner writing more miserable love songs. 

6- Thou shalt not ignore the friendship.

This is why the whole crush thing is damn near irrelevant. The core of Trelsi is their friendship. It’s the alpha and the omega. Troy (literally) picked Kelsi up and made her feel good about herself. Kelsi guided and nurtured Troy’s performance abilities and connected to him via her music. I’m going to say something controversial: Gabriella is NOT the reason that Troy discovered his love for music. She was just the beginning. Like I have said before, the way Troy reacted to “What I’ve Been Looking For” was based on the quality of the song and Kelsi’s superlative abilities to translate emotion into music. The song moved him. Gabriella was simply pleased by the song. Big difference. Furthermore, the lyrics that Kelsi writes are more a reflection of her relationship with Troy than his relationship with Gabriella: “You know how life can be/It changes overnight/Sunny then raining/But it’s alright/A friend like you/Always makes it easy/I know that you get me/Every time/Through every up, through every down/You know I’ll always be around/Through anything you can count on me...”

Kelsi gets Troy, she is ALWAYS there for him, and he can always count on her. The same is true in the reverse: Troy instinctively understood how to raise Kelsi’s self-esteem, and if he had These lyrics do not reflect Troy and Gabriella’s relationship. Disprove this if you can. *hides behind fists* :D

The friendship comes first, people. 

(And the romance would be anything but conventional. I mean, Kelsi dresses like she lives at Woodstock. But seriously, there is no point breaking up Troyella if you’re going to write Trelsi like you write Troyella. Apples and (sour) oranges.)

7- Thou shalt not overuse song lyrics and movie tropes.

Yes, we know Kelsi is a composer. Like seriously, we know. And yes, it is called “High School Musical”. So music is a huge thing. But you’re a WRITER, and it’s your job to tell a story, so if you’re including song lyrics every other line then it stops being effective and now resembles padding. And I want to read a story that tells me MORE about Kelsi and Troy, not one that simply rehashes everything I already know. Things I could watch myself in the canonical movies. One of the most important things to note about Troy Bolton is that he struggles with the idea of being limited to basketball by his peers. He is more than that. He knows he is more than that, but his peers don’t understand this. They see Troy as a figurehead for their own expectations and their own dreams/aspirations, so they don’t take the time to see that Troy is a complex and nuanced character. (Which makes him awesome and fascinating). Take movie tropes and develop them in a realistic way. Add some new things. In my headcanon, Troy becomes a real auto junkie and loves classic cars. It’s the start of something new, folks. :D

8- Thou shalt moderate thy use of physical descriptors.

Blue eyes? Don’t care. Seriously don’t care unless you’re using exaggerated awareness in a skillful way. Long, curly hair? Don’t care. Smooth, lean body? Don’t care. Overuse of physical descriptors just means underuse of meaningful character descriptors and lack of good characterization in general. Exaggerated awareness is important in romance, but it is not separable from proper revelation of character, build-up of tension and the general structure of any decent story. Seriously, I have now read so many stories in a variety of fandoms where the author wants to let you know about the eye colour of so-and-so EVERY FRICKING PARAGRAPH which makes me wish I could take an eraser and erase the whole fricking page. 

This was supposed to by a “Thou Shalt/Thou Shalt Not”, but mostly appears to be “Thou Shalt Nots”. 

Anyway, I feel that if one abides by the above (and there may be more), then they will succeed. 

Of course, if you disobey all the above rules, what you have is not Trelsi, but just another Troyella fic.