#i hate you mr 👞 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ramblingaboutglee · 2 years

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I deeply want to know your thoughts of Mr 👞 now, I’m admittedly not his biggest fan just because I never particularly cared for many of the adult storylines compared to the kids, but I have complicated feelings about the hate he gets

Ooh, now we're getting into the spicy stuff.

Also hi sudden spate of new followers! Er. Please don't immediately unfollow when this is the first post you see.

So, couple of things to lay the groundwork. One, like a lot of characters on Glee, Schue's development can be... complicated. In S1, he had adult friends, other hobbies, and was in general a more well-adjusted teacher than common opinion. But when S2 came around, and Glee's relevance seemed to hit its peak, the writers decided to give him a full-on midlife crisis where he goes overboard into his worst traits. If this is someone's defining era of Glee, it's worth acknowledging Will gets hit harder than anyone else with the genre shift from S1 to S2. He mostly levels out, early S2 is a bad time for basically every character, but yeah,

The other thing is that, like, 2010s era tumblr fandom is. Not a reliable source of information? I swear there are points where fandom just makes things up, in every fandom from that era I’ve been in.

Content warning: Will Schuester rapping, brief ED mention

Like, let's just begin with the one that always pops up. "Will called a student with an eating disorder selfish for not wearing a bikini." My guess is that this came about from people that watched youtube videos of songs rather than, like, the actual episode? this was S5, Katy or a Gaga, and even if we take the position that Marley's ED hasn't vanished into the black hole of Glee canon, this was the episode where the assignment was for the NDs to go outside of their comfort zone - not in terms of modesty, but in terms of fashion. Marley's brief was 'Wear a Gaga style costume.' Going by how the other characters acted in the episode and the rest of the series, there is no indication Will has any actual control over what they pick in weekly assignments, and there are plenty of Gaga costumes that cover more skin. Marley, for episode-drama related reasons, opted to go out dressed in cheery Katy Perry fashion, and was condemned for not only not doing the assignment, but for actively missing the point. Every indication is that whatever Gaga costume she'd have worn, was her choice, and the condemnation was for missing the assignment.

if you want to headcanon ED-related body image issues, I'm with you, the ED arc could have been handled so much better so trying to mind more from it is a good thing. But treating this take as fandom gospel as frequently as I seem to see it, is... weird.

So with the caveat that there is inconsistent writing, and not every criticism is necessarily justified, let's dig in.

The Cool Teacher

One of the biggest traps of teen media feels like it's middle-aged writers trying to write someone kids will feel is a Cool Teacher. There's always this need to include an adult character who's perceived as likeable and cool, and so often it fails miserably. Will is, in S1, Glee's attempt.

The thing about Will is that he's kinda pathetic. He's a dork in sweatervests that is perfectly content making a fool out of himself if he thinks the kids will enjoy class. Will is perfectly content with being laughed at. The idea is that he's so earnest, that it's supposed to come off as charming, because he acts with no significant expectation of seeming cool or hip. (It's also a neat counterpoint to the status and image obsession of some of the kids, which I will be getting back to).

Almost no media gets it right, because the simple fact is if you're a teenager, you're kinda hardwired to just cringe. But this is when we get to the much-maligned rapping. Middle-aged white guys rap to try and seem cool, Will isn't the first and nor will he be the last. There's a kind of fun lack of self-consciousness to Will's performances though - he's self-aware, it feels, with a level of consciousness that it is physically painful to watch sometimes, but he's having a good time and the kids are apparently vibing, that he doesn't care that he's embarrassing himself. he does it precisely to get that reaction from the kids. Will is the person who would consciously misuse slang to make the younger generation wince and honestly I’m entering the era where that’s me so, I support him. Should Will rap? Well, no, but there is a reason why he does. If you want to compare the raps to any musical number on the show, go for Run Joey Run - they aren't remotely played straight, they're meant to be a little awkward. But just as a lot of people wanted straightforward musical numbers and disliked the comedy-focus of Run Joey Run, too many people seem to treat Will's raps as things intended as 'cool' performances, and not the dripping in self-aware lameness that they really are.

But if, in S1, the idea of Will was that he's so uncool that it loops around, what about later?

Holly Holliday enters by taking a prank the kids intended to pull on her as an entrance opportunity, turning it on its head, sliding dramatically into the room, and promptly singing Forget You. Can we all agree that this is objectively an embarrassing entrance? But she's played straight, and this for me is when we really see the shift in Glee's priority. Will was the guy who'd knowingly get pranked for the heck of it, the embarrassing dad of the show. Holly is 2Kewl4Skool in a way that makes her as bad of a teacher as Will, but the show is now more willing to say that's enough. Like, I like Holly, but the shift in focus is startling.

Ditto, from the same episode, "I think I've found a Journey song we haven't done yet!" Joking flashbacks present Will as a Journey superfan trying to get the kids to sing their whole catalogue. In S1, Journey was Finn's thing, and Will learned to let the kids pick their favourite songs right from the second episode, if imperfectly.

It gets tricky to talk about Will because there are several iterations of him. He's always uncool, usually ultimately sincere, and does put the kids first (eg, skipping the S1 sectionals, where attending was his dream, so that they could go) but the way this is perceived varies. When the show was reinventing itself in S2, it picked up a cynical streak, likely from trying to replicate the popularity of Sue. This however ended up reframing Will's sincerity as more of a negative. We see him having a midlife crisis, when before his more extreme antics were a result of competition pressure. It's definitely the stretch where I most dislike Will.

All that to say, Will is supposed to be admired and liked by the kids for being sincere, even when he's making a fool out of himself. There are points where the show acknowledges his unpopularity, but ultimately that's the core of Will.

The Meta

Glee likes its fourth wall bending humour. That can make fan reaction and analysis awkward, though. When Sue calls out Will for staging an elaborate costume-heavy performance for just his benefit, do we take this as literal truth, or do we file it away with Brittany thinking she's doing a voice over?

There's a lot of stuff that's open-ended like this, and it goes beyond jokes. Say, Will having former students be significant figures at his wedding - do we take this as inappropriate boundaries, or as "Well the show would suck if random guest stars were Will's best friends?" Does Will have no adult friends, or did they get cut from the show after S1? For fictional characters, what is the difference?

Is the fact Will is so close to all the kids inappropriate, or just the inevitable end result of having a show set at a high school with a teacher as an actual character? It's hard to judge, honestly. Ditto, does he do too little to stop the bullying, is it beyond his ability to effectively tackle, are his hands tied by Figgins, or would the show simply not function if a teacher swept in and prevented the slushies that became so much a part of the show's identity and advertising?

So, yeah, untangling gets complicated, and as it is Glee typically offers you a lot of ways to engage with it. For me, while I can see how meta jokes and lines that serve to highlight fandom complaints can feel like confirming them in-universe, I tend to just treat them as jokes and acknowledgements rather than reflective of actual character detail. Glee continuity can be weird enough as it is without incorporating fourth wall breaks, especially when those fourth wall breaks contradict otherwise established details.

The Parallels

And to finish it up: the adults on Glee, in my opinion, can't easily be separated from the kids. One of the things that I genuinely find interesting about Will, is the fact that so many of his conflicts overlap with the kids.

So, a character who peaked in high school, who ended up with their high school sweetheart, like Quinn plans on being... that's Will. Finn leaving a long term relationship and trying to figure out who he is to even try to be with Rachel, the exact same advice Will gets after leaving Terri. S1 paralleled both the love quadrilaterals. Glee's take on the coming of age story is looking at how the same sorts of stories affect adults and kids differently, and Will and other adults in paralleled positions is part of that. (I rambled Shelby way for more in that vein)

Which, honestly that's a huge part of the show fo rme -it happens with way more than just Will - but I kinda want to ping it because, inevitably, watching Glee as an adult means a lot of his drama is inherently more relatable. The thing the show keeps saying, that high school is hell while you're in high school but a month after you graduate you won't give a damn about who dated who, is true, but for any teenager hearing that, it comes off as dismissive even if there is more nuance to the way Glee presents it.

Take the aforementioned fact that Will is so fundamentally uncool, and contrast that with all the Glee characters who worry about climbing the social ladder. 'Loser Like Me' doesn't just refer to the kids. (If we skip forwards to S6, Rachel's lowest point at the start is basically becoming Mr Schue. That feels intentional. She does the same thing, sharing artists she likes and the kids might not know, teaching values, etc).

Glee is built on the fact that who you are in high school doesn't define who you'll always be. Every character goes on that same arc - as does Will, who maybe shows it the most by reinventing himself decades on. Will isn't perfect, but what makes me interested in him is that he acknowledges that. You can list a myriad of times he messes up, I've no doubt, and I'm also sure that the vast majority of those times he freely admits that he was in the wrong. Honestly someone like Will, who can be an idiot, but has no shame about saying he was wrong and actually trying to improve, to me that's a good thing.

I freely admit I can be a hypocrite on this front - there are characters that claim improvement and such, but in the end I feel like they haven't changed. Will, to me, usually feels like his heart is in the right place, by contrast. This can partly be his actions, and partly be his willingness to actually face consequences for his decisions. By contrast, too much of the time with other characters, flaws feel unacknowledged, or the responses feel incomplete. This might be subjective, but for me this usually isn't the case with Will. The show is built around the fact he can be the butt of the joke, and it's not afraid to criticise him as a result. The reason he gets celebrated when he does, is precisely because he's willing to model development.

In which I vaguely try to be concise

Will is a mixed bag. Some iterations of him are terrible, others are better. That's the same as any Glee character, it just depends which you pay attention the most, and which you see as more reflective. Is Rachel the person that sends a student to a crackhouse, or the person who gives the solo to Mercedes? Is Brittany the supportive girlfriend who helps Santana be comfortable with herself, or the dumbass who posts a sex tape online? Is Kurt the person who pushes Finn to tell Quinn's family she's pregnant, or the one who tries to welcome Sam without making him uncomfortable?

By the same token, is Will the person who sacrifices his chance to go to Sectionals, tries to uplift students that seem to have a bad plan or limited confidence, and who prioritises teaching acceptance over winning? Or is he the person that convinces teenagers to star in Rocky Horror as part of a convulated scheme to break Emma up with her boyfriend, who performs La Cucaracha in a poncho and sombrero as a Spanish teacher, or dedicates a week to twerking?

No one's ever just the one thing. But, for me, the fundamentally sincere guy who in general doesn't care about appearances, and who is so unashamedly uncool, and who does, ultimately, care a great deal about the kids, that's a character I like. I can look past the dodgy stuff that is so ubiquitous on Glee because it feels like it defines him less, and I like his storylines because 'adult re-evaluates his life path' is not an unsympathetic one, and plays so well off the kids who feel like they're trapped in one way of life.

Because, at the end of the day, if a Spanish teacher in a dodgy relationship and a fake pregnancy can, over five years, end up running an arts school with a loving relationship and an actual child... Surely that says a lot about the prospects of all the kids too?

#Glee #Will Schuester #ask #Glee meta

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