With the recent High School Musical: The Musical: The Series trailer, a nostalgic trip down memory lane was in order for fans of the original series. From the start of something new all the way to the final moments of seeing East High on screen, the series has left an impact. Troy and Gabriella’s relationship is well-known and relatable.
Like any movie, there are many problems that the characters run into. The way they deal with them is important, as they drive the story along. Since High School Musical focuses on the decisions of the characters, here are some of the worst they made throughout the series.
No One Texts
While the original film does take place in 2006, every main character is shown to have a cell phone with texting capabilities during homeroom on the first day of class after the break. And that is it for texting throughout the series until the end of the third film. It’s all phone calls and surprise balcony visits.
This is a terrible decision because most of the problems that happen could be easily fixed by just talking about it, even through text. After every fight that happens with Gabriella and Troy, either one of them could have used a text or two to describe their problem, especially when the film hinges on neither of them actually talking about things.
Rescheduling the Callbacks
Miss Darbus is guilty of a lot of things in the series and favoritism for the Evans twins is one of the biggest. She is also wildly confusing in her own actions. First, she denies Troy and Gabriella their audition, only to turn around and give them a callback. Then she shifts the date of the callback to spite the students who didn’t actually get to audition.
When she settles on her decision to move the callbacks, she knows full well that it would be antagonistic toward two solid performers, yet she still does it. If she truly believed that every performer deserves a chance, as she yelled at Coach Bolton, she has a poor way of showing it.
Choosing the New Team Captains
Since the third film deals with the main cast moving on, they wanted to show a little bit of focus on the next class of students. The movie does that by focusing on Jimmie Zara, played by Matt Prokop, Donny Dion, played by Justin Martin, and Tiara Gold, played by Jemma McKenzie-Brown. Jimmie and Danny are set up as the next captains of the basketball team. Ignoring for a moment that the two are funhouse mirror copies of Troy and Chad respectively, the only direct route to them as top choice is their existence since apparently the whole team is graduating except for them.
The problem is they do away with the established tradition of team captains. In the first movie, Chad notes that the team voted Troy captain unanimously. During the opening game of High School Musical 3, Jimmie is thrown into the game last minute as a wild card. If sports teams did that regularly, there would be heavily mismanaged teams. Though the Wildcats weren’t as managed as one would believe because…
Troy, Team Leader?
From what viewers saw of Troy’s leadership capabilities throughout the three films, it is clear that Troy is a bad leader. He has the charisma and power that comes with being the leader, aided by the fact that he is the coach’s son, but when the decisions start flying, Troy mostly faulters.
When he is broken up with by Gabriella the first time, he completely abandons his team, opting to ignore them in favor of alone time. It is understandable. Break-ups are the worst, but that isn’t the only time he does it. The entire second movie’s plot revolves around Troy abandoning his team again. He even does it for the big show in the final movie. A good team leader doesn’t typically abandon their friends.
Chad and Troy’s Friendship
In a healthy friendship, conversation and understanding are necessary. For Chad and Troy’s friendship, it requires Chad to blow up on Troy, then apologize later. In the scene from the first movie, where Chad makes Troy feel bad for caring about something other than basketball, Chad is not being a good friend.
Throughout the series, Chad makes it a point that he is anger first, care second kind of guy. In the second movie, he refuses to talk to his friend, instead, he ignores him. While friendship is a two-way street, it helps if both sides aren’t blocked off. It isn’t until the third movie that viewers see any real friendship between the two.
Sharpay Drives Her Brother Away
Sharpay Evans fills the villain role for all three movies. She is ruthless and high school levels of evil, but the worst of her attitude problems go toward her brother, Ryan. In the first movie, Ryan is treated as a lackey and he follows along because that is what he has done his whole life.
During the second film, however, Sharpay sews seeds of dissension in Ryan by betraying him in favor of the reluctant Troy. This causes Ryan to befriend the rest of the Wildcats and work alongside them until the end of the series. Had she just respected her bother’s talent, she would have had a life-long friend. Instead, she loses him to school and new friends.
Troy Committing Crime
Troy has a habit of climbing into things he is not supposed to. Over the course of three films, he breaks many laws. Perhaps the biggest blatant lawbreaking is during the third film.
After being broken up with and thinking about school choices, Troy goes to the school in the middle of the night. Since his father is a teacher, it should be assumed that Troy stole the keys to the school to get in. As if the breaking in part wasn’t enough, he then proceeds to tear up the school, causing damage. When he is caught, he faces no punishment. That might be because the one that caught him also engages in illegal activities.
Miss Darbus’ Illegal Julliard Application
When announcing that there were four students Julliard was looking at in the upcoming show, Miss Darbus neglects to mention the fact that she submitted one of the applications. Since the college admissions scandal recently hit the news, it seems like a good time to talk about Darbus’ crime. She submitted an application to Julliard for Troy, a fact that she admits during Troy’s break-in.
Looking at the Julliard application website, there are several requirements for admission. A personal essay and a teacher’s recommendation are required to even be considered. This means that not only did Miss Darbus write a recommendation for a student without their knowledge, but she also wrote his personal essay for him. Viewers can believe that she was doing what was best for him, but she is also one of the main reasons for his inner turmoil.
Gabriella’s Leaving Solos
Gabriella’s solo music numbers are, arguably, the backbone of the High School Musical trilogy. They are deep and meaningful, not to mention relatable, but after the first one, they are unnecessary. If a major part of the relationship is breaking up every few months, there is a problem.
Each time Gabriella breaks up with Troy, she makes it a point that they would never work, only to end up back with him a few days later. While there are issues on both sides, especially regarding communication, neither tries to fix it until after the breaking point. These problems build over each movie, but the end result is the same as their relationship as strong as ever. So much so it becomes the top priority for both.
Troy’s College Decisions
High School Musical 2 focuses on Troy losing his friends for a few weeks because he was trying to establish a connection with the college he is most likely going to, University of Albuquerque. By the time High School Musical 3 comes along, those connections are seemingly gone and Troy has to start over. Thanks to Darbus’ actions, he also has to decide whether singing is a part of his life.
Rather than deciding for himself, he decides for everyone else. He chooses the University of California at Berkley as his school. His reasoning is that he can play basketball and do musical theater at the school, though that can be done at literally any school. He also notes that he chose the school because Gabriella at Stanford is 32.7 miles from him.
