#jon matteson and will branner genuinely shined so much in this musical i was star-struck

[greenteabelle]

i'm sure i'm not the only one who's said this but richie's death scene genuinely hurts the worst ...

like what do you mean right when richie finally feels accepted , welcomed , NEEDED , that max comes along to tear away that very hope that he just got ????

it's so haunting that richie , albeit going along with the prank in the first place , got the most gruesome death out of all of them AND was the first victim ... bro just wanted a cinematic shot of his long-time bully pissing himself and all of a sudden he's drowning in his blood and toilet water ???

it's clear that max finds some parallels between him and richie , though he would rather die all over again than admit that , which is why he's so taken aback when richie cries out "i'm not a loser" at his impending death .

max , who's both feared and respected throughout the school , doesn't have a single person bat an eye at his disappearance , let alone his death ! hell , the only time people have mourned his loss is when they lose the big game , and even then they're mourning the loss of RICHIE of all people ! that's what max was so afraid of as he was torturing him , that no one prayed for him once he was gone , yet a loser that he held this overwhelming power over would be missed .

max even admits that richie ISN'T a loser . if max weren't in hatchetfield high , richie's social standing probably would have been relatively high even with his weeb status because of him becoming the team mascot !

richie is a loser , because max decided that he was one .

which is why richie's death (imo) was the most significant , because it was max dealing with the fact that he was ultimately unimportant and his peak in high school ended just like that before even graduating , taking it out on the one person he had sabotaged from the very beginning .

and i am so normal about this . so very normal !