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✦ before the finale

the last two episodes weren't doing it for me but i think this finale is going to be good... better than last season's at least. 

+ idk how i feel about ricky singing kristoff's lullaby for gina

LISTEN,,, i have a "objective" pov on this and a shipper's pov on this. let's start with objective lol

some of the lyrics match rina's story ((calling gina brave and strong,,, tho this is more s2 gina than s3 gina imo)),,, others not rly. 

ig i wanted to talk about the "ricky started changing when gina came" point that comes up a lot. i think when people say this,,, they're talking about the homecoming scene where ricky says that he stayed in the show bc of her,,, and bc of this,, she "changed" him. 

ngl the thought that gina is why ricky changed is... a misinterpretation almost ((tho the show is maybe trying to make it a "fact"))? bc we all know gina wasn't the one who changed him,, it was theatre that did. ik the reasoning is that if it weren't for her,, he wouldn't have stayed, yeah? but if we're following that reasoning,, i could say that it was actually nini who changed him bc if it weren't for her,, he wouldn't have auditioned in the first place,, he wouldn't have been interested in theatre at all without her. see what i'm getting at???

this is related to what i said on one of my episode rants,,, how crediting  gina (or nini) for ricky's character development is... a no. both girls were catalysts for his growth fr,,, but they're not the core reasons why he grew. he grew bc of his own choices. ik ricky's stories have largely been tied to these girls,,, but these girls don't define him. idk why we're only seeing characters as independent individuals if they're female¿?

back to kristoff's lullaby,,, i also don't like how the show would be pushing the idea that gina taught ricky what love is when that isn't true from what happened canonically. i've seen people say ricky grew a lot this season bc of how different his actions are compared to s1,,, but i don't think he grew at all this season or had any development besides the first two episodes??? again,,, him being more mature now is a result of what he learned last season. he didn't learn anything else this season if you rly pay attention. stepping back,,, putting others first before himself,,, putting a love interest's needs before his,,, he has done all this before. he learned the importance of all this in the last few episodes of s2 to be specific. all his actions in this season is him applying what he learned. he didn't only learn all this now that he likes gina ((love is too strong a word to use when he only started crushing on her a few days ago))???

now my rini pov on this is that i think nini pushed ricky to change more than gina ever has LMAO. she was the stronger influence imo. this is biased ig so feel free to disagree¿?

gina has always assured ricky. that was her role. she understood him better when it was about home life bc she had her own experiences that were similar... that's why people ship them,,, bc "they get each other". but all their scenes has been gina assuring him of... everything. bc she understands. she never rly pushes him to do smth about his problems ((aside from giving advice for nini related situations lmao)). she only tells him that she understands. that's it. it's good to have someone with mutual understanding but rina never goes further into pushing each other to overcome their problems,,, their conversations are usually them saying,, "yeah,, i get that." "i know how that feels,, believe me". then nothing. it's interesting bc these are also the two characters who run away from their problems a lot.

nini is the person who pushes ricky. all those pep talks about,,, "different isn't necessarily bad" or "not for me this time,, for you," says it all. she tells ricky the things he might not want to hear,, but what he needs to hear.

+ ngl it looks like ricky might help portwell get back together,,,

+ nini better have scenes with the wildcats and not just miss jenn lmao,,, also rly curious to see how they write her out!

+ ej needs his redemption

+ josh and sofia said that the finale is unexpected and,, the ad for it is that it changes everything. i'm hoping this has smth to do with the characters and who they are,,, but maybe it's just bc of the documentary???

+ if we don't get this is our song from camp rock 2 i'm rioting

+ where does big red fit in all this¿? smth to do with ashlyn

+ maybe everyone is so busy with opening night drama that they ignore ricky's birthday? maybe they greet him but it's not rly a big deal bc they're focused on everything else...

+ i'm rly excited so i hope this isn't disappointing LMAO