#anti rini

[blues-valentine]

Ricky going from “I think I kinda, you know” and “I don’t not love you” to Nini. Then, his confession being around their past memories. Their duet called “Just For A Moment” because their love was not meant to last forever.

To Ricky singing “I'm in love i'm in love i'm in love and I know it. Not net, not fear, right now in this moment (...) I said it first not matter what the cost. Here I am. Full heart. Full stop. I love you.” (...) "Cause I love you feels a lot like high school and forever after that” to Gina. Because Gina has always represented his future. And he knows what he feels for Gina isn’t some “puppy love” (which is a also an actual childhood song on the show, you get it?). He knows that what he feels for Gina is real, strong and long lasting.

[platonicsoulmatesstobin]

Rini- wrong person, right time

Portwell- right person, wrong time

Nini and EJ- right person, wrong time (fight me)

Rina- right person, right time

Seblos- right person, right time

Madlyn- right person, right time

Redlyn- wrong person, right time

[rinaforreal]

Ha ha ha no I’m sorry Gina saying that Nini putting I think I kinda you know on insta took guts and that Ricky should preform the song for her in front of a large group of people for him to kinda not even get all the words out, to him preforming his own love song with no hesitation for Gina on a live press conference broadcast is just like poetry idk.

[youarentamaybeyoureayes]

there's very few people i can't stand more than a "if olivia had never left the show, r*ni would've been endgame" truther

you mean to tell me that the same ship that was already having communication issues less than 5 minutes after their big love confession scene was going to be endgame? and you want me to be convinced it's not just the nostalgia and obsession with real life shipping talking? (because let's be honest, more than half of r*ni's hype existed because of j*livias, without them, it's hard to even believe the ship would've made a dent of impact)

then of course there's not only tim's interviews that came after the season 1 finale aired where he talked about how not every couple lasts as well as the importance of portraying healthy breakups in high school, but the fact that the first 3 episodes of season 2, all written sometime between late 2019 and early 2020, explicitly showed r*ni's communication issues and overall incompatibility. they were never a ship that was built to last. i don't see how they could've made it more obvious.

[magicwithineleteo]

i know that a lot of people say that ricky’s confession to nini in 1x10 is cringey and you can tell joshua improvised it but i think it was perfect for rini because everything he said was never shown in the show

in his confession, he goes on about past experiences w nini that we as the audience never saw. this is so perfect for rini because the sole reason they came back to each other in the first place was because gina left and they started talking about their past in 1x08.

ricky specifically was growing after he stopped chasing nini in 1x05 and where he started to really get closer to gina. gina is the embodiment of change, and ricky absolutely hates change. she helped him a lot, he’d reach to text nini or something like that and then gina would end up saying the right things needing to help him.

ricky and nini only started to “fall back in love” after gina left. ricky didn’t think he would ever see gina again (her saying there’s no point in calling her anymore and not responding to his dozens of texts) so he ended up regressing back to who he was pre-gina.

this included being in love with nini.

and this may not make sense and may sound dumb but i think it just summarizes rini’s relationship, the fact that them coming back together was based on moments the audience never saw.

we never saw rini as kids, ricky microwaving her doll, them coming up with their nicknames for each other, etc. everything they reminisce on before.

ofc the show isn’t gonna show this stuff because the show is in the present, not their past.

but i find it interesting that their memories are somewhat baseless to the audience because we never see them.

whereas with gina’s confession in 3x08, we saw everything she looked back on. when they met, her giving him the hat, etc. everything with rina, we saw. we saw them both grow. we saw them help each other. we saw gina validate ricky and support him during his world falling apart while everyone else was berating him. and we saw ricky accept gina when no one else did, him being her first friend at east high and help her break down her walls a little. i imagine she doesn’t let herself get emotionally attached to anyone whenever she moves, so it doesn’t hurt when she leaves. that’s why in the beginning she primarily looks out for herself and has her walls up.

ricky breaks down those walls, and she later gets hurt because she let them down. since he got back with nini after thinking he would never see her again.

“maybe i’m safer when i’m on the run, no time to open up my heart. maybe i’ll hide behind my walls again, instead of tearing them apart.”

anyway

sorry, just a random thing that i liked about the show, the fact that rini’s whole foundation was based on them romanticizing their past; it just foreshadowed that they weren’t going to last.

[bisexualfemalemess]

“Rina copied pw/rini scenes”

I’ve seen this and “Gina is like the new nini.” all over my TikTok fyp from rinis and pws and it’s simply put not true. There are parallels yes, there are some with madlyn and rina too, doesn’t mean they copied but there are huge and important differences.

Gina is canonically ambitious, her mom wants her to have a successful career. Gina canonically has always wanted to make her mark. It’s not ‘copying’ nini because she’s finally found a chance to do so. It’s not copying nini that she finally got gabriella because Gina parallels gabriella more, they’ve both moved a lot in their lives and were outsides to east high. The most important difference is that gina actually made a compromise to stay. She wanted to stay in salt lake but she also wanted to become a movie star so she found a way to be with ricky, stay in salt lake and still get this incredible opportunity. Nini didn’t make a compromise.

Rina canonically parallels Troyella with the outsider to east-high and outsider to theatre trope, except rina doesn’t need couples therapy in 15 years but you grt the jist. Ricky was extremely giddy and in love with gina for the entirety of season 4 he spent around her. Ricky was so supportive of her when she took over the role of bailey, hr decorated her trailer and recited her confession back to her when he saw that she was nervous, I don’t think he ever wrote a duet with with nini for which he provided the music and she the lyrics, and then told her that he wants to hear everything she has to say or that he never forgot a thing she said. Neither pw nor rini ever had a puppy date or secret dating trope that lasted half the season. They didn’t get a rain kiss and GINA SIGNED UP FOR THE MUSICAL BECAUSE OF RICKY. He ‘had a vibe’ and she ‘had an instinct’. Even in the final two episodes, rina get backstage and onstage kisses which neither rini nor pw got. He literally practiced his “i love you” speech to gina because he wanted it to be perfect, he didn’t for nini. One very important difference and parallel is the potential moving away, Ricky was so supportive once he found out FROM GINA’S MOTHER NONETHELESS and she wanted to tell him from the beginning once they went to meet up in the dressing room. (quinn had to ruin that.) And other that nini, who had already come back when ricky told her to stay and still made a fuzz about it, Gina wanted ricky to ask her to stay and stayed without ricky asking her. Gina never told ej that he “made her feel seen, and known, and understood.” while crying hysterically before she’s about to leave him. Another very obvious and important parallel is the i love you song and once again that was handled a million times better, Ricky was saying “i love you” first. It was not a hail mary or trying to fix what’s already broken like it was when he sang itikyk for nini where he wasn’t actually able to speak out the words. Every single line in that song was how ricky felt and how rina felt about each other. Ricky was actually able to say i love you and not even that but that he was also in love with Gina and that they’re love was forever.

Stay mad that your ship sunk but don’t make-up stuff to feel better and stop saying that sofia wylie only became the main character because olivia left. Just say you don’t want black girl representation and move on. Ricky and gina are gonna adopt a bunch of puppies and get married in 10 years no matter how many times y’all say that they copied your ships scenes and that it only happened because liv left because “their love feels a lot like high school and forever after that.”

[ginaluvr]

rinis claiming that rini MUST have been endgame originally probably didn’t watch s1 closely enough

not only was nini unhappy in their relationship in s2, but that was already implemented in s1. kourt called her out for hinging so much for her self worth on ricky’s perspective of her. she confessed that without him she felt she was able to bloom and find herself. nini had nothing left to gain from being with ricky.

gina, alternatively, was set up in s1 as having everything to gain from him. the ability to fully be herself, to open up and let her guard down, to experience ‘firsts’ that she never got to have before.

they didn’t just spontaneously ruin rini on a whim in s2. they were destined to fail. nini had just outgrown ricky at that point and by s3 gina was finally growing into a version of herself where she COULD allow herself to finally love someone as much as she loved him.

to summarise rinis don’t get either of the girls’ characters or development and it’s likely that they wouldn’t respect them even if they did

[wildm00re]

tapping back into my rina obsession for 5 minutes just to say that irl drama played no role in your ship not being endgame because 1). the first eps of s2 (when rini evidently were abt to die a slow, painful death) were filmed at the beginning of 2020 literally a whole year before driver’s license drama

and 2). if the writers *really* wanted to, they could’ve easily delena-ed them and made them endgame regardless of the actors’ irl relationship + they could’ve easily written nini off (like they wrote elena off when nina wanted to leave) and still have had her and ricky do long distance for real this time or whatever—

but they didn’t because as explicitly stated by the writer, he completely changed the direction of the show once he was moved by rina’s chemistry in 1x05/6

also if this scene, filmed in s1, wasn’t the biggest foreshadowing ever that a lot of y’all obtusely ignored, then idk what else to say

[starrrbakerrr]

Portwells shipping Mack & Gina just proves that they never cared about Gina and EJ — especially Gina. They are Rinis that jumped ship because their favorite couple is 6 feet under (which they also refuse to accept), so Gina and EJ being together keeps Gina from Ricky. And now they are convinced that Gina is gonna leave Ricky for Mack, who is a guest character. All of Gina and Mack’s press photos are literally stills from the movie they’re filming and Portwell/Rinis are like “she’s so much happier with him” or “they have so much chemistry” when we haven’t even seen one scene between the two of them. How can they see all the photos of Rina released today, read Tim’s interview, and watch the clips of “Can I Have This Dance?” and the puppy song Ricky sings to Gina and claim Rina isn’t gonna be endgame? The level of delusion, pettiness, and implicit racism is astronomical. I’m starting to hate the argument that Portwell/Rinis are delusional and lack media literacy, they are truly just petty and jealous more than anything.

P.S. 99.9% of Rinis are weirdo Jolivias. I actually haven’t seen one that doesn’t romanticize Olivia and Joshua’s relationship and want them back together.

P.S.S. To Portwells/Rinis/Jolivias: Olivia/Nini isn’t coming back and she’s definitely not gonna come in and whisk Ricky away like you want. If it bothers you so much don’t. watch. the. show. I promise you won’t be missed.

[butchnavi]

olivia really channeled her inner nini salazar-roberts hardcore while writing scared of my guitar I said what I said

[curtsies-from-princess-ashlyn]

Listening to Just for a Podcast for the first time and this Mads/truecastaways commenter is SO REAL 😭 I'm on 2x08, and this person cheering at the Rini breakup? Same. And beyond what my feelings have always been about the Rini storyline and breakup this ep, this commenter is the only one making astute observations and predictions about Portwell and Rina's future. Like, EJ and Gina being 2 years apart actually means they're in 2 different stages of life and won't work out because of it? Confirmed in S3. There's been comments on previous eps from this person that were also really great.

Rinas have been so consistent in understanding these characters and the story, which is why claims that their story (including Rini's and Portwell's stories) was weakly written simply aren't convincing to me.

(also I realized that Ricky got rid of that dogtag the second him and Nini broke up, but he kept that hat from Gina for the months they weren't even talking?!?!? She was always special to that boy)

[blues-valentine]

I used to like Rini and I didn’t make the connection that Ricky’s I love you on the season 1 finale was more of a flight or fight response than a really secure declaration of love. And I am starting to understand more of what a lot of you have been saying about them. And I don’t know why I didn’t notice before.

I mean, when I say he kind of blurted it out I’m not trying to say he didn’t love her but like the reasons he said I love you were kind of coming from his fears of losing what he knows and his insecurities and he knew he needed to say that if he wanted for things to “go back to normal”.

It’s not a coincidence this happens after Ricky has a break down over seeing his mom moving on with Todd and stepping out as Troy because he couldn’t handle the pressure of things going wrong. So like, yes, he loves her but also saying the words has never been the core problem of their relationship and that gets proven later on. They simply were not compatible anymore.

The difference in how he says he loves Gina comes from the fact that he isn’t speaking out of impulse and fear or for Gina to stay by his side. He is saying “I love you in spite of…” and that being not knowing what the future might hold for them. In Love You Forever the lyrics are clear “not net, not fear…”. He is confident and he is secure and he is saying it because he feels it and he isn’t trying to fix a situation in his life.

And I said this a few months ago. That Ricky needed to say I love you for the right reasons for his arc to have a full circle moment (X).

And it’s not just saying i love you to Gina, but we see Ricky saying he loves his parents, and Miss Jenn, and Big Red. Ricky is not longer associating love with this big and scary thing that he has to shy away from. Hence, the lyrics of Love You Forever saying “how 3 little words feel so brand new…”. It’s a beautiful thing to say you love the people that are important to you. It shows Ricky’s growth, how much he has come to see changes as a positive thing but like, how much he has grown emotionally as well.

[ma1moreau]

I find it laughable how rini and portwell shippers still think they will be endgame. I thought they would be finished with the 5 stages of grief

[rinaforreal]

No omg yeah when you really think about it, Ricky never really knew what nini wanted from him so he did hesitate a lot in their relationship and instead of asking her he ended up asking Gina, (which is crazy in of itself) (because it was easy to talk to her, he valued her opinions, and he never felt judged or self conscious with her) he ended up learning and discovering all the things that Gina would want and like in a relationship (and when he tried to apply that to his relationship with Nini everything backfired(because she wasn’t Gina)) but then he ended up applying that to his and Gina’s relationship (because he was always doing things with Gina in mind anyways.) like that’s actually crazy.

Every girl likes a sweet gesture: singing her the mark and spark theme song (Ricky’s version), decorating her trailer, Writing a song together.

Going behind your back but for a good reason: the chocolates, trying to help her be less stressed and have Dani take over as Gabriella.

If you love her don’t you think you should make your song a little more public: singing her love you forever.

Never say give up your dreams and stay with me forever: Again, sings her a song about how he is going to LOVE her FOREVER.

HES NEVER FORGOTTEN A THING SHE HAS SAID, like the proof is in the pudding.

[youarentamaybeyoureayes]

I'll never understand why people act like the first season of HSMTMTS is or should be deemed the best?

Don't get me wrong, it's totally fine to have a sense of nostalgia because you might recall season 1 being the first time you fell in love with the show or you're reminiscing about what drew you into it in the first place, but most arguments about season 1 never involve talking about any aspects of the show other than the fact that it ended with the R*ni love confession, and it makes it difficult for me to believe that there's any other reasons why you deem the season so superior to the others.

When you remove the nostalgia blinders, season 1 only gives a semblance of justice to a tiny amount of characters. Ricky and Nini get the most attention devoted to them, but whether it's because of the writing or simply the fact that she's the best actress on the show who's also capable of elevating any material that's given to her, it's Gina personally that stands out to me this season. Yet while it was airing, she was getting harassment from R*nis who were ignoring the obvious issues in their relationship to take all of their anger out on Gina. This would go on to happen for two more seasons.

Everyone other than Ricky, Nini, Gina, and maybe EJ, gets abandoned or shoehorned into things that age in a horrific way. I would argue that Kourtney's character suffers the most this season, and it was actually jarring seeing someone as vocally talented as Dara Reneé play a character that wasn't initially a singer. She wasn't even supposed to have a role on the show that lasted beyond two episodes, and yet she has one of the strongest, if not the strongest voice in the entire cast. For a show that was meant to revolve around theater kids, that alone was unrealistic and as a black woman, I can't ignore how colorism played a role in that. No one with a voice like that would have been given a supporting position if they were nonblack. Somehow the likes of M*tt C*rnett were given more solos on the show, and he is easily the worst male "vocalist" of the cast.

I won't even get into the fact that other than Gina, EJ was one of the most hated characters that season singlehandedly for getting in the way of R*ni, yet once the chances of R*ni making it to endgame status were getting increasingly lower, everyone decided that he was their favorite person and became P*rtwells. Not because they saw potential in anything (we all know one of the biggest plot points of season 1 was Rina getting closer, no matter how many people want to ignore it) but because they hated the idea of any character involved in R*ni being happy with someone who wasn't a part of their ship. Because I'm saving that for a later conversation.

The point is, like every season, season 1 had more flaws than most of the fandom wants to acknowledge, especially in the characterization of the ensemble cast, which was never the right move for a show that would not be as strong without their ensemble. Nostalgia as well as the plague of real life shipping has made people believe that this season was somehow unbeatable, when I would even argue that at the show's absolute worst in season 2 we would already see the improvements and corrections that season 1 failed to expand on. Such as giving underutilized characters like Kourtney and Carlos more depth by introducing their storylines with dealing with self doubt and acceptance.

I've always said that the episode that really made me stick with the show was episode 5 of season 1, and it isn't just because I'm an avid Rina. One of my favorite parts of the episode will always be the Born to Be Brave group number. Seeing Carlos start off dancing by himself and then Ashlyn going up to join him was one of the first moments of the show where I noticed just how strong the ensemble was and just how much heart they all brought to the show.

One love confession that didn't even manage to end up being the best love confession on the show is not what made the show what it is now. Delusional nostalgia is trying to tell you that despite other seasons allowing characters who were overdue in getting their own storylines finally have their moments to shine, nothing will ever amount to season 1 because of what you shipped. Season 1 didn't even deal with their deepest subjects. In retrospect, the entire season was essentially like a trial run. Even the first 4 episodes were written by a different show runner. The entire thing was an experiment. And while it was a good start and while I do understand why it's a season that's so loved, I just wish more people would unpack the reasons why they loved it and stopped dismissing the fact that there were seasons that did things better, even if your nostalgia is trying to tell you otherwise.

[taylorkellyreporting]

y’all ever think about gina stealing ukulele girls phone, her sister AND her man and just start laughing?