#while evan and jared not only know each other but know each other well and a good bit of their dynamic/characterizations Together is based

[biscuitbakerbecca]

Jared Kleinman for the character asks :)

Favorite Thing About Them

Jared is so bad at communicating he reminds me a lot of myself. I have ODD so it’s a little different, but the man is an asshole in the best way possible. He is petty and gives off angry cat energy in both fandom aspects and canon. Also I appreciate that he never acted against Evan even when he had the opportunity and reason to do so, he threatened it but he kept his mouth shut. Real friend right there <3 (I could tell everyone everything! Okay great! You go ahead! Do that! Tell everyone how you helped write emails pretending to be a kid who killed himself! Fuck you Evan!)

Least Favorite Thing About Them

He doesn’t have enough screen time/show time. People mischaracterize him because his entire character is shoved into as little time as possible. I know I just said that I love how he’s an asshole but he’s more than an asshole. He’s so clearly lonely and more than just an angry kid. At least in the book they made him “hot” in the end but the show and movie pretty much get rid of him come act two

Favorite Line

Kinky!

Just kidding

Asshole!

Okay okay for real this time

Yeah I hate to tell you this Evan, but you may have already perjured yourself.

Isn’t that only when you’re under oath? Like in a courtroom?

Well weren’t you under oath? In a way?

No.

Or from the movie (since I view them as different canons)

Connor took a letter from me. It was an assignment for my therapist.

Ew.

(I’d offer a different line but Jared doesn’t have that many)

BROTP

Jared and Zoe friendship!!! They hate each other they’re best friends they get drunk and cry together!!

Another excerpt of my own writing that explains this. Again my writing quality has gone up since this but oh well:

Connor rolled his eyes, "I'm saying that Evan will always be there, okay? You are so fucking stubborn, and I'm trying to be nice and make you feel better, just say thank you like a decent human being."

"You just made me feel shitty."

Connor threw his hands up, "Fuck! You're impossible!"

Zoe's voice screeched from below, "FUCK OFF! HE IS MY BEST FRIEND!"

— I don’t know what I want, but I need you. Chapter 12

OTP

Either kleinsen or kleinphy. They both have potential. All my kleinsen fics are really fluffy (soulmates, hurt/comfort, etc) and my kleinphy fics are like…rough and angsty (teen parenthood, child abuse, etc) I like both equally, but what I want to read depends on the content I’m looking for as shown by my own writing style

NOTP

Nothing icky like the parents being involved obviously, otherwise Jared/Zoe fics just don’t feel right. Jared is gay. Like he has to be. The book tried telling me he liked boobs and I know Val Emmich lied. Evan was simping at the end for a reason. Jared doesn’t even have to like Evan the man is still gay. Best part of the movie but dear god at what cost? (I did like the movie I swear)

Random Headcannon

Jared has two moms, or his mother is bisexual. I tried writing him with straight parents and every single time it feels kind of wrong

Also he has a cat. Her name is Mayonnaise. Mayo for short.

Unpopular Opinion

Idk if this is unpopular or not but I’m glad they cut Goin’ Viral. It only pushes the he’s an asshole idea and even though I love the song it wouldn’t have helped his characterization. I would have liked for them to properly record the song when they released the deluxe album but apparently Disappear Pt. 2: the duet version was more important.

Also Jared Goldsmith was my favorite Jared actor other than Will Roland. Nothing can beat the Will Roland vibes

Book Jared shouldn’t have ditched his glasses and got buff, they made him too powerful. Evan couldn’t help but fall for him. Let him stay as he is don’t make him conventionally attractive!

Song I Associate With Them

Jared is such a complicated guy. His feelings are deep. He’s cringy but free. I haven’t thought about this in a while hang on…

I imagine that Jared is a pop girlie and this gives the desperate for attention vibes that I usually associate with him

And as for his inherently cringey vibes that I usually give him…

I’m not sorry

Favorite Picture Of Them

Again, we have options…

[unproduciblesmackdown]

as ever like: no two things Need to be juxtaposed, much less like material vs material deathmatch Only One Can Be Good, much less am i thinking i have thee objective word on fuckall b/c who does and it's like perfectly boring & unserious whenever someone just throws out Takes that are just "i think...[xyz] is [adjective]" like okay.

but anyways thinking of how, though differing in execution in a lot of ways ofc, deh & bmc start out in a v similar place & explore a journey to self-acceptance from a despairing starting point....it feels like a lot of the hindrance in deh's exploration of its own Theme there is in like, hey. :) hand on your shoulder. it's okay b/c you'll be able to be more normal. whereas w/bmc it's that it's okay b/c you'll be able to be more abnormal

[kachinnate]

you know what i have NEVER read like a multichap novella-esque kleinsen fic! and that is just a crime!!!

[sochilll]

October 26 - “Do you believe in ghosts?”

Day 25 Day 27 All Days (Prompt list)

“Jared this is a terrible idea.”

“People do this all the time.” Jared shoved the dusty window pane open. “Give me a boost.”

“How am I supposed to get in then?” Evan asked.

“You’re taller. You can jump.” He pulled Evan closer. “Come on. Help me.”

Evan glanced around before crouching down and linking his fingers to help heave Jared through the window.

This building used to be an orphanage, according to local legend. Evan was pretty sure it was a corner store. It didn’t matter though. Because what it was now was crumbly, dusty, and abandoned. So of course, every teenager in the city had decided it was haunted. The stories changed over the years. Sometimes it was haunted by the ghosts of the orphans. Sometimes one of the owners. Sometimes it was a crazy murderer who used to live there. October was infamous for the constant attempts at breaking and entering. Apparently, Jared was not immune to the lure.

Evan jumped up and hauled himself through the window. Jared was already shining his flashlight around the room.

Evan was right. It was totally a corner store. There was a counter covered in debris and dust. Two doors in the back were clearly bathrooms and the door behind the counter still had roughly half of the letters of “employees only.”

“This doesn’t even look haunted.” Evan whispered.

“Why are you whispering?” Jared’s voice echoed around the empty space and he stopped walking. “Oh.”

“Why couldn’t we do something normal?” Evan kicked a piece of wall plaster a across the floor.

“This is the normalest thing we could be doing this close to Halloween.” Jared argued. “Perfect.” He came up to a shelf that had been overturned onto its front, leaving a smooth sitting surface. Jared brushed off some of the larger pieces of debris and cobwebs and sat down.

Evan tentatively sat beside him, a little concerned that the shelf would collapse.

“Hold this.” Jared shoved his flashlight into Evan’s hands and then pulled his backpack around to his lap and unzipped it. He pulled out a bag of candy and a thermos of hot chocolate.

This was all pretty silly but stuffing Jared’s backpack full of snacks and drinks did make Evan feel a bit like a kid again. Like when they used to pack adventure bags full of snacks and flashlights and notebooks and go exploring in Jared’s backyard.

“We’re gonna get a lung infection from breathing this air.” Evan said, holding the thermos while Jared tore open the candy bag.

“Lung infection shmung infection.” Was Jared’s comeback.

Evan rolled his eyes. He propped the flashlight up on Jared’s now empty backpack and unscrewed the thermos lid.

“Do you like 100 Grand bars?” Jared asked. He was sorting the candy into two piles.

“Yeah.”

“Damn.” Jared divided the four 100 Grand bars between the two piles. “Okay. Here’s your gross shit.” He pushed a pile toward Evan.

Sixteen years of Halloweens together meant they were pretty well versed in each other’s candy preferences. Evan liked Laffy Taffy and Jared didn’t, so Jared always traded all of his to Evan for all of Evan’s Skittles. They both liked most chocolates except Jared didn’t care for Crunch bars and Evan wasn’t a fan of Kit Kats. Halloween candy trading was a fast and highly organized event for the two of them.

“You were right. It’s definitely like a Seven-Eleven or something.”

Evan nodded. “Yeah, there’s no way this was an orphanage.”

“Do you believe in ghosts?” Jared asked, conversationally.

Evan shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m kind of… on the fence, I guess. I wouldn’t say absolutely not. But I don’t like, think noises in the night are ghosts. I think if there is an afterlife on earth it would be a lot more subtle than it is in the movies.”

“So no full body apparitions of women in bloody dresses?”

Evan smiled. “No.” He took a drink of the hot chocolate, it was the perfect temperature. “What about you?”

“I don’t think I do.” Jared said, swinging his feet. “I think once you’re dead, you’re just dead. Gone.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Pretty much.”

“I hope not. I think that would suck.”

Jared shrugged, picking up the thermos. “I don’t know. If I’m dead what’s the point of hanging around here?”

“To see people you love?”

“Yeah but they can’t see me, right? So I’m either watching them cry over me being dead or watching them get over me being dead. Neither of those seem that great.”

Evan considered that. “I kind of thought this conversation was leading to a ghost story.”

Jared smiled. “I don’t have any.”

“Oh my god.” Evan tensed suddenly, pulling his feet up on top of the shelf unit.

“What?” Jared eyed him. “Don’t say it’s a ghost.”

“No. There’s like six rats over there.” Evan pointed.

Jared looked. “Aw. Cute. You think they want candy?”

“Don’t feed the rats candy.” Evan glared at him.

“You’re no fun.” Jared huffed.

“Can we please go somewhere less rat infested?” Evan begged.

“You’re so lame god.” Jared whined. But he stared cramming the candy back into his backpack.

They collected all their things and made for the window again.

“Bye ghosts!” Jared called, straddling the window sill. His voice echoed off the walls as he swing his other leg over and dropped onto the dirt outside.

Evan followed suit and they ran across the lot until they hit pavement. They were panting and out of breath by the time they did. Jared started laughing first and then Evan couldn’t help but start too. And soon they were both unable to breathe, clinging to each other to stay on their feet.

“You have cobwebs in your hair.” Evan said between giggles.

Jared brushed them out. “Souvenirs from my adventure.”

“Gross.”

Jared elbowed him. “Let’s go see how long we can sit inside McDonald’s eating candy we brought with us until they kick us out.” He started down the street, Evan quickly falling into step beside him.

[mrs-march-ahs]

How would the Evans react to you coming out as Bi.

How the Evans Would React To You Coming Out As Bisexual

warnings- slight smut, sexualisation of bisexual women

Tate

-Would be super proud of you for telling him - “I just think girls are so hot Tate-” - “Mmm don’t we all” - “But like boys are- - “You’re so right” -When you’d watch a film together he’d keep asking you if you find that girl hot, or that one, or that one -He’d really want to know your type - “So would you be top or bottom?” - “I think top” - Would get super excited, and subtly ask you to dominate him -You’d be able to watch much more porn together which would make him super happy

Kit

-Because of the time period I don’t think he would understand right away -He would ask a million questions, but respectfully -When he knew everything he wanted to know, he would smile -He’d tell you he loves you and supports you no matter what -Because he’s always willing to teach his kids to be accepting, he would explain it to them -One day when he was playing with Barbies with Julia, she would point out that daddy needs to buy her a Ken doll, because she only has Barbies and she wants to play wedding -He’d explain to her that you can have girls who love girls and she could make a wedding for two girl Barbies -Julia singlehandedly would start a Barbie Lesbian Uprising -All her female barbies would be married to each other and Kit and you would laugh about it -If you ever did get her a Ken doll, he would be the pastor to the weddings, not the groom

(Pre-Death) Kyle

-You would be super nervous to say anything to Kyle -One day when you were about to go out for dinner, he’d ask you if everything was okay because you looked a little nervous - “Yeah yeah… Ky I was just… I’ve been meaning to tell you that I think… I’m bi” - “Ah okay, glad you got that off your chest, are we going Indian or McDonalds?” -You’d look at him a little weird and then laugh about it, and he would barely mention it -But later than night before you went to bed, he’d kiss your forehead and remind you that you never need to be nervous telling him anything -If anybody ever said anything shitty about it, he would straight up fight them -He’d not a violent person but if any of his frat brothers dared to make inappropriate jokes or say anything even remotely bad about it he would throw hands - “Look Ky, your girl is talking to Madison over there, looks like you got some competition” - “Well Jared I hope you speak sign language cause all you’re about to see are these fucking hands-”

Post-Death Kyle

-Wouldn’t understand, but also wouldn’t really care -If you did explain it to him, he would nod along but not really understand -In his mind, you’re not attracted to other people, just him -He doesn’t understand that you are capable of feeling an attraction to other guys or girls -Your world revolves around him, your lap is always for him and your chest is for him to snuggle to -You’re all his, so you can be attracted to whoever you like -He’s jealous of the attention you give dogs nevermind other people

Jimmy

-Would find it kind of hot -Would at least ask to have a threesome with another girl so that he could watch you make out -If you agreed and did it, he would have a raging hard on the whole time watching, and would be happy touching himself while you girls did something -Maybe you could ‘put on a show for him’ -After that night, he would barely ever mention it -He’d accept you fully -Every so often you’d go to a diner together and you’d look at the waitress - “How come you’re allowed to look at other girls, but if I did that I would be sleeping on the couch?” - “You can say she’s hot Jimmy”… “Go on, say she’s hot” - … - “Nah this is a trap”

James

-I don’t think he would care at all -You’re his and only his, it doesn’t matter if you’re attracted to every other person in the world, you’re not allowed to look at anybody else -He would just be jealous around literally everybody, not matter how much you explained to him that you still have a type of girls you like -Wouldn’t even want Liz to hug you or kiss you because he’d be jealous -But all this possessiveness, though hot at first, would piss you off -You’d sit him down and make it very clear that you are faithful and always will be, and being attracted to girls and guys doesn’t change that you love him -He would sit there being told off and nod along -He wouldn’t be as possessive anymore, but every so often if you talked to a girl at the bar, he would take you to your room and make sure you only moan for him - “Think her nimble feminine fingers could touch you like this?”

Kai

-He’d find out during pinky power 

-He’d never say bisexual, he’d say greedy or confused or something crappy -Would be pretty shitty about it 

-Would maybe even make you ‘prove it’ 

-He’d sit you down with Winter and make you kiss 

-There would be no right answer, because if you refused to kiss her, to him that meant that you lied about being bisexual and he would be mad at you 

-If you did kiss her, he would be super pissed that you’re kissing somebody else (even if he asked for it) 

-He would get on another level of jealousy, he wouldn’t let you be alone with Winter 

-Would be a hypocrite about it even though he’s totally bisexual himself

[nitpick7]

Ayo anyone wanna see my essay on why removing Anybody Have A Map made the Dear Evan Hansen movie worse? It is slightly long

Disclaimer: I did like the movie (I cried three times), but I think they made some stupid decisions with it.

Dear Evan Hansen movie + musical spoilers under the cut, plus a fair amount of DEH neg/crit

Instead of Anybody Have A Map, they just have Evan's mom say "Hey are you writing those letters to yourself? Also you should ask the kids to sign your cast" before he goes to school and sings Waving Through A Window. They ignore every other part of the song and quickly insert the only thing from the song that's absolutely needed to understand the story so Evan can go be angsty at school. We don't even meet the Murphys until they meet Evan in the principal's office to tell him about Connor.

Disclaimer part 2 electric boogaloo: I complain about Evan a lot here. It's not because I think his experiences aren't valid and it's not because I'm trying to demonize people with mental illnesses or something. I know that his own struggles influenced his bad decisions. That doesn't mean they weren't bad decisions. He still did shitty things and he wasn't justified (listen to Words Fail), but I know it was influenced by his mental health.

On with the complaining!

First of all, the movie opens with Waving Through A Window? It feels like they're putting the most popular song first as a desperate grab for your attention to convince you the movie is good and like... they really didn't need to do that. Waving Through A Window is right after Anybody Have A Map, it's not like anyone's gonna walk out of the theatre after one (really good) song.

Anybody Have A Map establishes a few things: it shows us that both of these families are struggling so that we know immediately that the Murphys' perfect facade is fake, it shows us that Connor was a dick to his family (this is very important), and obviously it tells us why Evan was writing letters to himself. It also introduces us to the two main families at the same time so we know this story isn't just about Evan.

By starting the movie with an Evan solo song instead of the group song, they frame Evan as the one main character, the only person whose perspective we need to understand. But Evan is incredibly flawed, just like everyone else, and by making us think the story is only about him, it immediately makes us (the audience) more inclined to believe that Evan is always in the right and less inclined to consider everyone else's side of the story. Evan is an incredibly unreliable narrator, he's always going to frame his actions as correct, or at least excusable, even when he's actively hurting/lying to other people.

All of the Murphys get introduced through interacting with Evan instead of interacting with each other. This makes it seem like the Murphys only exist for Evan, but the entire point of the climax is that everything doesn't exist just for Evan! Evan is not part of their family, he can't just use everyone around him for his own benefit, and all of the Murphys have lives outside of him. When they're introduced through Evan, they're introduced as existing for Evan. Anybody Have A Map introduces them separately from Evan instead of attached to him.

Without Anybody Have A Map, we never actually see Connor being mean to Zoe, so she just looks like an asshole for not being sad about her dead brother. To make up for it, she's constantly having to tell the audience why she hated him, tripping over herself to talk about all the shitty things he did to her because we don't have Anybody Have A Map to show us their interactions. Zoe ends up complaining about her brother the entire time, so when it gets to Only Us and she says that she doesn't want everything to be about her brother, it seems out of character for her.

And with the removal of Anybody Have A Map, we don't ever see Connor interact with his own family in the movie. Anybody Have A Map is the only time we get to see Connor with his family. It shows us that Connor really was an asshole to his family, it justifies Zoe hating him, and it gives his mom more dimensions by showing her struggling to keep her family together even with everyone fighting against her. Without that, the writers ended up ignoring the most basic piece of writing advice - "show, don't tell" - to fill in the missing information from the song.

In the movie, all we get of Cynthia Murphy is... her being sad about Connor and refusing to admit that he ever did anything wrong. She's just boring and annoying in the movie, but in the musical, we get that bit at the beginning that shows her as an actual person with actual motivations! By cutting Anybody Have A Map, they made her into a more one-dimensional character.

So in a bit of a conclusion: Anybody Have A Map establishes the Murphys as main characters separate from Evan and shows us Connor's relationship with his family instead of telling us about it. It sets the scene for the story before just jumping into "Evan is sad and alone uwu anxious depressed soft boy" and makes everyone a better, more three-dimensional character. Getting rid of it meant that they had to do backflips to justify everyone's decisions during the movie instead of setting everything up at the beginning.

I do think the movie could've benefitted from Disappear but then again, it could've benefitted from the whole "Connor being the visual/vocal representation of Evan's justifications for why keeping up the lie is helping people" thing in general, but they got rid of that so Disappear wouldn't have worked. (I am salty that they got rid of that thing but whatever) The Anonymous Ones worked instead and it was a good song, so sure, why not I guess? /neutral

I could also complain about how they got rid of To Break In A Glove, Disappear, and Good For You, but none of those decisions actually impacted the story too much. To Break In A Glove and Good For You both got replaced with some tell-not-show cutscenes that gave us the same information in a less interesting way (and Larry got less character development without To Break In A Glove), and Disappear got replaced with an Alana song which was honestly pretty good so i'm fine with that one.

Now for some good changes that the movie made!

The Anonymous Ones was a good song, I actually really liked that. I'm disappointed that they got rid of Disappear, but they replaced it with another song that served the same purpose while also giving Alana more screen time and character depth! And it was a genuinely good song, I really enjoyed it and it made me like Alana more!

I really liked the ending of the movie. In the musical, there are literally no negative consequences for Evan, Zoe even forgives him at the end. She fucking forgives him for lying to her entire family about their dead son and and taking advantage of them because it "brought them closer together". And the internet never finds out what he did! He does all this terrible shit, lies to the entire fucking world, and gets away scot-free. And he never learns anything real about Connor. The movie changes all of that.

Connor's song was also a great addition! Every time we saw Connor in the musical, he was either being a dick or he was a fantasy version of himself made by Evan and/or Jared. Seeing that Connor can, in fact, be a nice person, that Cynthia's belief in him wasn't misplaced, was so satisfying. He really was just a meaner version of Evan a troubled kid lashing out at the world in self-defense. He wasn't an entirely bad person.

The Murphys still decide not to tell anyone what he did, but then Evan decides (on his own!) that he needs to own up to what he did. He records a video of himself admitting to what he did, shifts all the blame to himself, and then goes out of his way to fix his mistakes in any way he can. He says that his biggest regret is not getting to know Connor while he had the chance, so he goes online to find anything he can. He reads Connor's favorite books, tries to find anyone who might be able to tell him what Connor was like, and when he receives a video of Connor playing his song in rehab, he takes the time to send the video (through the mail, on a flash drive) to the Murphys, Jared, and Alana.

Evan doesn't contact Zoe at the end, she contacts him instead. She doesn't forgive him, and he doesn't ask for forgiveness. He knows what he did was wrong and he owns up to it and tries to fix it as much as possible, knowing full well that it could ruin his life. He does the right thing for the first time in the entire fucking movie (that's hardly even an exaggeration) and it's such a good ending. It makes more sense and is more satisfying than the musical.

The Dear Evan Hansen movie was not nearly as bad as the reviews say it was. It wasn't as good as the musical, it had its own problems, but it also made some good changes that I think made the story better. It wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed it and most movies aren't perfect anyway. It really could've benefitted from Anybody Have A Map, though.

[jacketpotatoo]

Dear Evan Hansen Movie: Review (spoilers)

It says review but trust me, it’s more of a well worded rant than anything. Taken from my Letterboxd

Where do I even begin.

Okay, I enjoy the original musical. I have listened to the soundtrack more times than I can count and I've watched a bootleg of the original Broadway run, as well as many, many animatics. I was one of the people who saw the trailer and went oh crap - Kaitlyn Dever from 'Booksmart'? Amy Adams? From the people who brought you 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' and 'The Greatest Showman'? This must be in good hands, Ben Platt looking way too old for the role aside.

Haha.

Something that makes the musical actually work is the fact that it acknowledges the morally squicky situation and constantly calls Evan out on his bs. They allow you to sympathise with him while making it clear that hey, Evan is in the wrong here.

THE FILM CLEARLY DOESN'T GET THAT.

Instead, Evan is portrayed as the victim and they spend little to no time dealing with the moral and ethical complexities that makes the source interesting in the first place, even when that would be totally something that could be done with more emphasis on film than on the stage. They cut out 'Does Anybody Have a Map' - a song that sets up (arguably) the emotional core of the musical which is the mothers and their relationship with their sons and family. They cut out 'Good For You' which is (and I don't know how to emphasize this enough) SUCH A CORNERSTONE IN THE PLAY. It's the song where Evan has to face the consequences of his actions head on. But noooooooo. All we get is zero fricking resolution with the side characters that the film wrote pointless songs for to accommodate and Evan and his mum NOT talking things out realistically and lashing out like humans. I cried while watching that 240p bootleg of 'So Big So Small'. I felt nothing here. Instead, all the emotion the stage offered is put up in a blender of terrible sound mixing and hilariously bad VEVO music transitions.

Speaking of that, my gosh was the editing awful in this movie. The stupid, stupid quick-cuts during 'Waving Through A Window', the asinine repeated shot of Evan falling down the tree, THE ENTIRE 'Sincerely Me' I MEAN WHAT WAS THAT?? The whole film visuals felt like the Nexus ad in WandaVision. Y'know. The dreary antidepressant advertisment. Except one was ironic and the other was completely genuine. 

The thing with adapting Dear Evan Hansen into a movie in the first place is that it's a low-key kind of musical. Most scenes are confined to 4 walls and include very few people just conversing with each other. It works fine on stage but when you're shooting 50% of your film in the same location and all the shots are either framed similarly or are straight up comical, it's going to be a problem. It was visually, either uninteresting or plain bad.

I didn't think the performances were terrible, aside from Ben Platt (oh we will get there). I liked Kaitlyn as Zoe (I will admit, I am biased), the others were... alright. They were passable. I blame it on the direction and script because they're clearly good performers.

And now we get to Evan Hansen himself. The 'too old' thing has been talked about to death but it genuinely takes you out of the film as you can't suspend your disbelief that he's playing a teenager, especially when his peers actually do look like teens. Ben is also overacting so much. When in theatre, the exaggerated slouches and ticks work because he's on the stage. Most people are far away. But on film when everything is close up, his stuttering and shaking come off as so forced. I genuinely don't understand. I've heard great things about him in The Politician and he's fine in the Pitch Perfects so what went wrong?

The only thing I sort of maybe liked was them getting closure with the video of Connor playing the guitar. But then, they went and got Jared to look sad for Connor when he literally has been doing everything to propel his social status and has no emotional stake with Connor, only with Evan for using him. WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN CLEAR IF THEY INCLUDED 'Good For You'.

I have calmed down since writing this and all I feel now is numb. I listened to songs from the original Broadway Soundtrack after the movie as it auto played on youtube and felt. Now I’m just upset that people would probably never give the stage version a shot anymore. Thanks movie. *sigh*

[nothingunrealistic]

how abt commentary for this Skating Interview section, to whatever extent possible without spoilers?

"Jared, what’s it like being an alternate?

KLEINMAN: I mean, no one’s excited to be the alternate. We want to get out there and compete.

HANSEN: It is kind of the point.

KLEINMAN: But I can’t really blame anyone but myself. And the judges —

HANSEN: — are doing their best —

KLEINMAN: At least I’m first. You should ask the third alternate how he feels.

HANSEN: The alternates don’t automatically attend the competition, though.

KLEINMAN: Yeah. Unless someone drops out last minute, I’m staying home next month.

HANSEN: It’ll be weird not having you there.

KLEINMAN: More practice time for me.

HANSEN: Not that there’s anything left for you to practice for this season."

this section is going to reflect very poorly on jared about a month after this is published. jared gives an interview with evan saying he’s disappointed to be an alternate and will only go to Worlds if someone drops out, and when Worlds rolls around he’s attending because evan was mysteriously injured in an accident that only jared witnessed and he had to drop out? it’s not a great look! was it really an accident? neither of them are telling and no one else knows!

of course, that’s just the surface-level stuff. other things to be gleaned from this section:

evan and jared have given interviews together before, and evan has had some practice softening things jared says that might not go over well, hence the quickness with which he redirects jared’s comment about judges.

evan and jared are used to training and attending competitions together, which is why evan figures it’ll be weird not having jared at Worlds. (unfortunately for evan, it’s going to get much weirder when they avoid each other for five years while the media endlessly speculates about why.)

evan is just as capable of passive-aggressiveness in this AU as he is in canon! jared doesn’t have a single competition after Worlds to practice for this season, and evan will make sure this interviewer knows it!

(pick any passage from any fanfic i’ve written and i’ll give you my commentary)

[antpelts]

49. nightfall + kleinsen

49. nightfall

every day you get me to get carried away with shit and write far too much so its under a cut now [rolling eyes] <3 /lh so much for micro story :sob:

Send me a number and I’ll write a micro story using the word or phrase

"Kinda surprised you didn't wanna go."

"Are you kidding?" It comes out without thinking and for a second Evan's worried his tone is too harsh and that it's going to snowball because he can never shut his mouth. They'd been talking for almost exactly three months now, to the day, and he really didn't wanna fuck it up again. Something, something.. not knowing what you have until it's gone or whatever.

"I guess you're right." Jared shakes his head to himself a bit and reaches up to tap the overhead light in his car to turn it on. The sun was finally dipping and the interior was getting more dim with each quiet song that played from the radio.

Evan watches as he almost spills his ice cream, the cup tipped dangerously. Maybe in another time he'd reach over and press a finger to it, forcing it back upright because sometimes Jared just wasn't aware of what he was doing. Not this time, though. It doesn't spill and Jared leans back against his seat with a dramatic sigh.

"Couldn't imagine you crammed in with a bunch of sweaty teens and loud music and, like, lights. You'd probably have a fucking meltdown or something."

So maybe it was a little weird but hearing an insensitive quip from Jared now, after all this time, only served to make his heart ache a bit. Just.. It was normal. Not that they could be normal again, but.. Still.

"Like you'd do any-- any better?" Instead of shrinking back or maybe even bristling at the comment he's pulling his own lopsided grin, brows drawing in a bit. "Mr. 'we're eating ice cream in my car 'cause it's too humid out' is gonna-- is gonna come at me, now?"

"Oh, you're so fucking smug," the end of the words tip into a laugh as Jared turns in his seat, propping an elbow against it, “for someone who’s enjoying my air conditioning right now.”

“Because you wanted to sit in here!” Evan can’t even pretend to be incredulous because he’s laughing and his eyes are crinkling at the corners and he’s gesturing with the hand that’s not holding onto his rootbeer float. It’s just so fucking absurd and such a nonissue--but that’s why it was funny, that’s why he was laughing.

That’s why he felt so wound up and giddy and happy. They were just two stupid teenagers who were scared to graduate but also not thinking about it. Who skipped prom to get ice cream together. Who were best friends but also afraid of the title, afraid to claim it back.

“Because I’m a genius, next question.”

It’s not even funny, but it’s about the dead set certainty in Jared’s voice. Evan can’t help how he practically doubles over in his seat, eyes tearing up as he snorts a laugh, careful not to spill anything at the same time.

“It wasn’t even a question!” His voice is weak between laughs and nearly threatens to give out as he gasps in a breath. “You’re so-- so fuckin’ absurd!”

“I think someone’s lost ice cream privileges.” If Evan didn’t know any better he’d say Jared was enjoying himself just as much as he was.

Maybe there isn’t any “better” to know, though, because Jared snorts, sticking his spoon in his own cup so he can reach with his free hand to snag Evan’s cup away. The whole time his face is scrunched up with such unbridled joy that Evan feels like he’s going to pass out. It sort of makes his whole body a bit weak, including his fingers--it’s easy enough for Jared to snatch the cup away.

“I paid for it!” The words are barely audible between Evan’s bursts of laughter. It’s all sort of starting to make his stomach hurt and his cheeks ache but he can’t be bother because he feels like a real fucking teenager.

“Sorry, can’t hear you.” Jared’s own shoulders shake with laughter as he leans away towards the driver’s side door, holding Evan’s cup close to himself while he starts trying to grasp for it back.

“Is this better?” Any snark is hidden behind giggles as Evan all but smacks the power on his stereo, promptly stopping the drone of the radio. Not waiting for a response he struggles to unbuckle his seatbelt--that’s why Jared was able to maneuver so much better, he already had undone his own.

“My ambiance!” There’s a feigned distress in the words while Jared draws in an exaggerated gasp which just led to Evan nearly doubling over again, weakly swatting at him.

“Well you could turn it back-- back on with a newly freed hand if you gimme my fuckin’ float,” Evan gives his best attempt at anything that wasn’t dangerously fond, rolling his eyes while he stops swatting at Jared. He finally catches his breath at least, bracing his hands on the center console while pushing himself up to sit.

There’s a beat of just.. quiet between them, Evan’s left in the little spotlight of the overhead light where he’s leaning. The immediate anxiety riddled RSD kicks in and Evan’s worried that he pushed too far or something but.. Jared’s looking at him and blinking and shifting in his seat--

When Jared kisses him he can smell outside on him, he’s not sure how to explain it because it’s not just sweat, there’s just a smell after you’re out in the summer heat--he swears. But he smells like outside and his lips are a little sticky from the ice cream and he can feel the heat radiating off his face despite the air conditioning blowing on them.

Worried at the prospect of Jared panicking and pulling back--which, hah, how the tables have turned, who was impulsively trying to kiss people now?--he moves his hands to press to his cheeks, both of them. Jared’s face is between his hands and he’s kissing him and his eyes are squeezed shut but they’re also watering.

“Holy shit,” it’s all but whispered against Evan’s mouth, because when they part he can’t bring himself to move, just trying not to cry.

Jared pulls a bit further back but Evan’s hands are still on his face and they’re close enough that they go cross eyed trying to look at each other.

“Kiss me again?” It’s impossibly small and Evan can’t help feeling a slight rush of shame at how pathetic he must look and sound. Part of it is curbed by how Jared’s eyes are immediately starting to water in response to his own and it’s absurd it’s all so absurd.

There’s no verbal answer, just a closed distance and the smell of summer again.

[live-laugh-lesbian80083]

Jazz Band Jazz

Summary: Evan heads over to his girlfriend, Zoe’s house to hang out. Zoe teaches him how to play guitar and things get a little spicy

Word count: 1,526

Warnings: gets a little smutty, swearing

Requested: nope

Please do NOT copy, rewrite, or translate onto another site. Permission will not be given if asked for it.

—

Zoe was peacefully strumming her guitar while playing one of her favorite songs, Unruly Heart from The Prom. It was one of the first songs she ever learned on her guitar. It may have taken her months of practice but once it was perfected, she sounded like an Angel. She was quietly humming the lyrics to herself when the doorbell rang. She carefully tossed her guitar onto her bed before jumping up and throwing open her bedroom door to see Connor already opening it.

"Zoe! Your boy to-" Connor started "Didn't know you were standing there. Evan's here"

"I can see that." Zoe commented as she sped down the stairs to greet Evan. Once she finally met with Evan, she greeted him with a warm embrace and a kiss on the cheek "hi babe."

"Hey babe." Evan replied, the couple earning a gagging noise from Connor.

"Let's go up to my room. Shall we?" Zoe asked, sticking her arm out for Evan to take.

"We shall." Evan said, linking arms with his girlfriend.

They made their way up the stairs, laughing at each other's clumsiness along the way. Zoe led Evan down a short hallway and into her bedroom. She then shut the door and noticed Evan eyeing her guitar. She smiled to herself and snuck up behind him, throwing her arms around his waist.

"Whatcha lookin at?" She questioned innocently.

"Your guitar." He replied, not taking his eyes off the wooden masterpiece before him.

"Want me to teach you how to play it? It's really not that hard." Zoe said, releasing Evan and jumping onto her bed and taking the guitar into her lap.

"I- I mean I'd love to but I've never even touched a guitar before." Evan commented, watching Zoe as she placed her fingers onto the strings

"Come on. It's so easy! Just try it." Zoe insisted.

"Alright fine. But if I make your ears bleed, that's on you." Evan commented, taking the guitar from Zoe.

"Only Jared could do that." She snickered

"True that." Evan replied, making a face which caused Zoe to burst out into a fit of laughter.

Zoe's laugh is what keeps Evan in check. It sounds like pure sunlight and sweet milk chocolate. It has the ability to make anyone in the room smile. It's contagious. But the person who catches the joy first is always Evan. Once he hears the start of her laugh, he immediately breaks out into a place of pure joy. His heart warms up to the perfect temperature, making him become overwhelmed with a warm fuzzy feeling. Then his smile breaks through. It's soft and welcoming, something anyone could get used to. Evan's smile is what keeps Zoe on her toes. It's bright and warm and something that takes effort to get out. But once you earn the right to see his true and genuine smile, it changes you. It makes you think about the good things in life. The things that matter. All of your worries melt away and you for once focus on right then and there.

Zoe proceeded to teach Evan the basics of guitar. He quickly got the hang of it, finding it was similar to typing on a keyboard. His fingers moved swiftly along the frets and strings. After thirty minutes of learning chords, Zoe showed him how to play one of his favorite songs, Birds by Thomas Sanders Feat. Terrence William Jr. He pushed through the pain coursing through his fingertips because of holding the strings. After forcing himself to finish the song for an hour or so, he finished the song. During his last run through of the song, Zoe snuck a quick video of him. She smirked to herself as she posted it onto her social media and sent it to him. He got the notification and looked up at his girlfriend, trying to pull his smile back.

"Why are you looking at me like that." Zoe commented, smirking but hiding it with her hands

"What do you mean?" Evan asked

"You looking at me funny." She chuckled

"Am not!" He exclaimed, taking the guitar off his lap and putting it to the side

"Are too!" Zoe giggled

Evan scowled playfully and stood up, turning his back on Zoe. That was a mistake. She pounced onto his back, attacking him with tickles. He fell onto the floor in a fit of laughter, begging Zoe to stop. She didn't. That was also a mistake. Once he got a hold of himself. He flipped the two of them over so he sat over her (Oh god this sounds sexual. I swear it's not lol.) and watched her facial expression go from beaming with joy to perplexed with his actions. He pinned her arms down so she can't attack him any further and smirked. Evan then leaned down and passionately kissed Zoe. She melted into the kiss. Evan's never kissed her like that before. Where did all this dominance come from?

All of the sudden, they hear Zoe's door swing open. The couple snaps their gazes to the door to lay their eyes on Connor. Both their faces were overcome with a deep red as they quickly scampered away from each other. Connor found himself smirking at the sight. His little sister was making out with his best friend. And he walked in on them. Both of them are embarrassed beyond belief, trying to think of a way to cover the situation.

"Connor, it's not what it looks like." Zoe called out.

"Oh it's exactly what it looks like." Connor smirked.

"I swear it's not." Zoe defended.

"It totally is. I'm gonna go tell Cynthia and Larry!" Connor yelled "Cynthiaaaaaa!"

Zoe ran over to Connor and slapped her hands onto his mouth while Evan just sat on the floor trying not to freak out. What the hell just happened? He just went full dom on Zoe. Because of a goddamn tickle fight! But why is he getting riled up over a dom moment you ask? No idea. He's just never done it before and it's something he never saw himself doing.

"You keep your mouth shut Connor." Zoe snared.

"And if I don't?" Connor questioned through Zoe's hand.

"I'll tell mom and dad about your Newsies obsession." Zoe threatened.

"Alright! Fine! Now let me out of this sex hole!" Connor agreed.

"It's not a sex hole!" Zoe exclaimed.

"Wait, since when have you liked Newsies?" Evan asked curiously.

"For fucks sake-" Connor swore, running his fingers through his dark hair.

"I caught him dancing to seize the day once." Zoe snickered, enjoying making her older brother embarrassed for it rarely ever happens.

"You dance?" Evan questioned

~Flashback brought to you by The Most Amazing Trees~

As Zoe came home from school one day, she heard a soft beat flowing through the house. Curiously, she followed the sound throughout the whole house. It led her to the basement door. She carefully opened it, trying to not stop whatever she was about to interrupt. Zoe silently made her way down the steep set of stairs, trying to figure out the source of the music. Connor's supposed to be home by now. So is Cynthia. Maybe it's one of them. No, this seems way too theatrical for it to be either of them. Who could it be?

As she reached the edge of the stairs, she recognized the music. It's Newsies The Musical. Okay. Now this is really weird. Zoe's the only one who listens to Newsies in the Murphy household. Did she accidentally leave her speaker on when she left the house this morning? Well, we're about to find out. She continued to follow the sound till she heard a large thud. She whipped back around the corner and hid behind a wall. The music continued. No more thudding. After waiting for a moment, she continued the journey to find the culprit of the music.

Once it felt safe, she fully turned the corner once again, to find Connor jumping around the hardwood floors. She immediately broke into a fit of hysterical laughter. Seeing her older brother in all of his angsty teenager glory prancing around the basement while listening to Newsies is something she never expected to see in her lifetime. Connor froze after hearing Zoe's laugh as his face turned beat red. His fists clenched into tight balls as he turned to face his very amused younger sibling.

"What the fuck are you doing here." Connor yelled.

"I-I heard music coming from the basement so I investigated." Zoe stuttered.

"You did your stupid little investigation. Now he the hell out!" Connor exclaimed, sending Zoe scrambling back up the stairs.

~Flashback Over~

"Do you still remember the choreography?" Evan questioned.

"Oh my god-" Connor exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air while storming out of Zoe's room.

There was a moment of silence before the couple bursted out into a hysterical fit of laughter. God, isn't Connor just the best?

[a-clockwork-justice]

Every Treebros Fanfic Ever

1. Starts one of two ways:

The first day of school, after Connor signs Evan’s cast and says “Now we can both pretend we have friends,” Evan says “What if we didn’t have to pretend” or something. Optionally, Connor could read Evan’s printed letter properly and say something like “Well, this is just the saddest fucking thing I’ve ever read” while also being internally shaken because how did this kid I’ve never spoken to perfectly say what I’ve wanted to say for years. Connor takes Evan up on his offer and Evan says “I’ll see you again tomorrow” and Connor, of course, decides to stick around for another day.

The other is at Evan’s first “fall” from the tree in Ellison State Park except that Connor really is there to find him because he was in the park to get high/get away from his family. Connor calls the ambulance for him/drives him to the hospital himself, they talk and become friends of sorts and text for the rest of the summer.

2. Much like the fake Sincerely, Me emails, Connor does end up trying to be “nicer” to his family i.e. not yelling at Cynthia; apologising for hurting Zoe, etc, much to Cynthia’s delight and the surprise of Larry and/or Zoe. He still fights with Larry though, mainly on the subject of him wanting to get proper help but Larry not taking him seriously. Larry may or may not be/stay an asshole.

3. Zoe eventually finds out from Connor and/or seeing him and Evan together at school that they’re friends and she’s like wtf how are you friends with my brother he’s mean and you’re not and Evan confirms it’s true and says Connor isn’t that bad and she should try being nicer to him. She and Connor decide to try and repair their relationship and she starts sitting at their lunch table (that’s yet another staple of these fics). She also signs Evan’s cast.

4. Meanwhile, Evan is telling Connor about his relationship with Jared and Connor says Kleinman’s an asshole, you don’t need him/need to stand up to him and Evan eventually starts pulling away from Jared, much to the latter’s surprise. 

5. Of course, he’s now jealous of Evan now buddying up with Connor and confronts him like Dude I thought I was your best friend/why are you with him he’s an asshole/a bad influence and Evan responds in kind with I thought we were only “family friends”/you only talked to me because of your car insurance/maybe you only talk to me because you don’t have any other friends.

6. Eventually Jared feels really guilty about being a dick to Evan for years and admits that the car insurance thing was a joke/he really doesn’t have any other friends at school and he and Evan make up, he signs the cast and sits at their lunch table. Depending on the fic, he may also be crushing on Evan but we know that’s gonna go nowhere.

7. Alana gets involved somewhere down the line, giving/offering advice as an acquaintance to the other characters and she eventually admits (probably to Connor and/or Zoe) that she feels alone and invisible too, and eventually they’re like Not acquaintances, friends, invite her into the group, she sits at the lunch table and has a 95% chance of getting together with Zoe by the end.

8. So everything’s unrealistically hunky-dory, they’re all having fun together, going around to each other’s houses and getting drunk, they might have some more drama along the way involving Connor’s parents or Heidi or Connor and/or Evan’s still present mental health issues (because love + friendship =/= cure for mental illness) but mostly Heidi is thrilled that her son has friends. Only thing now is that Evan and Connor have feelings for each other.

9. You know what’s gonna happen, they get together, it’s very sappy, and they all muddle along together until graduation where they all promise to go to the same college(s) except for Alana who goes to Harvard but they all promise to keep in touch.

A few minor discrepancies aside, I think that’s pretty much it. 

Am I wrong? 

[weekendwarriorblog]

DEAR EVAN HANSEN Review: Much Better Than Expected, Mostly Due to Ben Platt and Killer Songs

I’ll admit that I never saw the musical, Dear Evan Hansen, on Broadway, and you would generally have a hard time getting me to see many Broadway musicals for no reason other than… well, they’re damn expensive, and I really need to be persuaded to go. So therefore, I missed the musical when it ran on Broadway. I didn’t pay much attention when it won a lot of Tonys in 2017 and won a Grammy for the cast album a year later, and then I just forgot it even existed.

Cut to a bunch of years later, and some wise individual, probably Steven Levenson, who wrote the book and adapted it for the movie, decided it would work as a movie. If you’ve seen the film’s trailer or any of the derision that followed it, you might think differently. The thing is that the trailer does a good job relaying the story as quickly and concisely as possible but doesn’t really get into the reasons why the movie is so good. That’s what we’re here to discuss in the form of my review.

The gist of the story is that Ben Platt’s title character, Evan Hansen, is a high school loner, awkward and inept with his only friend being the equally nerdy Jared (Nik Dodani). He shows up on the first day of school with a cast after breaking his arm, and he’s been instructed by his therapist to write “Dear Evan Hansen” letters to himself in order to work out his issues connecting with other people. Fellow student Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan) has a run-in with Evan and grabs one of said letters from a printer. A few days later, Connor’s mother Cynthia and stepfather Larry (Amy Addams, Danny Pino) show up at Evan’s school with the letter saying that Connor committed suicide, and they’ve determined that the letter “to Evan” was his suicide note. Instead of telling them the truth, Evan concocts an elaborate lie about being friends with Connor in order to sooth his parents’ misgivings about his death. In order to maintain that illusion, Evan continues to lie to them as well as to Connor’s sister, Zoe (Kaitlyn Dever from Book Smart), and his lie just snowballs. Pretty soon, the school’s social justice activist Alana (Amandla Stenberg) has up the Connor Project so that others who feel alone can feel seen and heard, and Evan has become hugely popular at school.

That might seem like a lot, but that’s all in the trailer. What’s missing from the trailer is why it was a wise choice NOT to recast Platt in the role he played on stage for five years, even though he’s now 27 and already 4 years older than his stage portrayal. Platt is a fine actor, but he’s an even better singer with a beautiful lilting voice that one imagines would be very hard to find a suitable replacement for. Heck, I’m not even sure they could sell this movie to the higher-ups at Universal if the movie wasn’t offering the promise of reproducing Platt’s Tony-winning stage performance.

The thing is that I watched Dear Evan Hansen, and I could totally relate to all of it. When I was a kid, I started out a bit like Evan and I eventually turned into something more like Connor. I was never lonely and had plenty of friends, but I was awkward and that eventually just turned into anger, and also depression would inevitably strike every so often. (Is it any wonder that by my 20s I was a Goth? If you’ve met me, then probably not.) But Evan also reminded me of a good friend of mine who was a lot like Evan and who passed away a few years back, leaving many questions unanswered. Even not knowing fully what happened to this friend, I’ve always felt that I hadn’t been there for him, and I wish I had been. Maybe if we had stayed in touch, he would still be alive, who knows?

Although a lot of the focus of the singing is on Platt and his quite beautiful voice, each of the other primary cast have some amazing singing moments, whether it’s Stenberg doing a song about feeling anonymous like Connor or the song, “Requiem,” that shows off the amazing singing prowess of Devo, Pino, and even Adams. Julianne Moore, who plays Evan’s hardworking single mother, even gets an absolutely epic number towards the end that will get the waterworks flowing if nothing beforehand has done that job.

The movie’s absolutely showstopper is the number “You Will be Found” (which is featured in the trailer and was featured in the TV commercials for the musical), and it’s another great example of how the songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land) translate so well to the screen, and for the renditions by the film’s bigger name actors. After seeing the movie, I can fully understand why people might become obsessed with this musical and its songs.But it’s not all grief and teary dramatic slow songs either, because the movie also offers more than a few laughs, such as the song “Sincerely, Me,” which allows Colton Ryan to show his singing range in a very funny duet with Platt.

Director Stephen Chbosky has previously proven his prowess in making coming-of-age dramas, having had great success with his adaptation of Wonder (which I still haven’t seen) and before that, Perks of Being a Wallflower (one of my favorite movies of that year). That’s truly the case here as well, but Evan Hansen also shows that he has a strong grasp on social media, cyber bullying, viral videos, and even cancel culture and how it destroys people, including families.

Dear Evan Hansen brings out all the feels, and while I can understand why some people have issues with the story, I also can say that I have seen almost everything in this movie happen IRL, and these characters and the story feel very real, which is as much a testament to Chbosky as a filmmaker, but also his cast and the people behind the original musical. There’s a good reason why Dear Evan Hansen was such a success on Broadway, and all of that is retained by the movie.

Rating: 9/10

Dear Evan Hansen opens nationwide on Friday, September 24.

[sochilll]

Thoughts about the deh movie? What did you like, what did you not like?

I have SO many thoughts and I’m sure other people are gonna explain them much better so I’ll give you a top 5 on each side. (Also I did make a long ass story highlight of all my thoughts on my insta @ be_more_sochill always be plugging). Under the read more cause it’s long and for spoilers!

Likes

Jared Kalwani does is gay! I think they handled it pretty well. They just switched an existing line bragging about a girl to make it about a guy and gay him a pride patch! The “honey” moment was…….. a choice. But I didn’t think it was a big deal considering the tone of that scene. All around it was fun n good and makes sense that it wasn’t a major plot point given that Jared’s love life isn’t relevant to the story

Alana gets feelings! There was a lot of Alana changes I didn’t love tbh. But I really liked the scene of her talking to Evan in the park. It was a good connection moment and showed that while Alana feels the same as Evan, she actually sees that feeling in others too whereas Evan thinks he’s the only one.

Maybe cheating to make these two points but: Anonymous Ones! I really liked this song. It was good as a song, miss Amandla Stenberg has a beautiful voice, and it was good character development. I am disappointed they missed the fucking PERFECT opportunity to show a clip of Jared during the school shots god that would’ve been so good. But anyway, I really liked the addition

They gave us a few little kleinsen treats such as: Jared randomly telling Evan he put on 13 pounds of muscle and hooked up with some guy, and of course, Jared looking at a video of Evan and Zoe and being visibly upset literally in the middle of Only Us. Chefs kiss thank you

I did like the new ending of Evan actually trying to learn about Connor. Reading his favorite books, reaching out to old friends, finding the video. I felt like that showed how everything hit him and how he actually did care about what they were doing. I really liked that he sent the flash drives to Alana and Jared too.

Dislikes

Evan (and everyone else) isn’t responsible for anything. Other people have already talked about this but they removed everyone’s agency pretty much until the only people making bad decisions were people (like Alana) who didn’t *know* they were making them. Almost every single choice Evan makes in the stage version is taken from him. Cynthia literally just comes up with the idea of emails so Evan just has to agree. Alana comes up with the Connor Project and Evan says *no* at first before being pressured into it. Evan doesn’t even kiss Zoe or make the first (or any) move at all with her. There’s no mention of Cynthia and Larry making mistakes in regards to helping Connor except like one line before words fail. Plus, making Larry a step dad completely changes his role into like a hero for raising this difficult kid who “wasn’t his” or whatever. Jared is no longer the driving force behind Evan lying. He softly suggests that it would upset the Murphy’s to know the truth one time. He doesn’t freak Evan out and tell him he needs Jared’s help to pull it off. Everything is perfectly set up for Evan to just quietly nod along without doing anything himself. It undermines the message of the original show. It’s ABOUT people doing bad things. It’s about guilt and regret and GROWING from your mistakes. That can’t happen if no one is to blame.

Alana is very different. She’s quiet and you can sort of tell she has some stuff going on. Which is ???? The opposite of how she’s supposed to be. The whole point of her character was to show that even the loud, confident, outgoing, always good attitude girl feels alone and scared and sad. That doesn’t come across when her self doubt is prominent right away. It’s not as big of a shock when she gets her “I know what it’s like to feel invisible!” Moment. Maybe that’s why they didn’t even let her have it. She literally had to *whisper* her confrontation with Evan. Like they were so afraid to let her raise her voice they made her confront Evan for lying to her about this horrible thing in the library. Let her fucking yell!

Zoe and Evan’s getting together was so fucking weird. Without Evan kissing Zoe first, she doesn’t even know he likes her before launching into her love song for him. But more importantly, Only Us is not a “let’s start dating” song??? The lyrics are clearly about people who have been together. “What we’ve got going is good”??? What have you got going? A weird friendship where he’s trying to steal your parents???? It didn’t make sense. Also I don’t like how Zoe is the one to say “I wish we could’ve met now” at the end. I feel like it doesn’t make sense/feel right for her to say it.

Heidi. I’m sorry Julianne Moore but I can’t stand movie Heidi. She has zero emotion. The good for you fight was just SO boring and bland. She sounded vaguely annoyed. That scene is supposed to be SAD. Yeah she’s angry with Evan but she’s also SO heartbroken that he’s found this other family he loves so much. She’s hurt that he’s apparently been telling them how bad his home life is. She feels like she’s not doing enough for him and that makes her both sad and angry. In the stage version she’s on the verge of tears and she’s yelling and RBJ kills it. I got none of that from the movie. It was just a tense conversation. And because of that, Evan’s final “it’s not my fault other people can” had absolutely none of the punch it usually does. That’s a *gasp* moment in the show. It fell so flat. (I also didn’t like her version of so big/so small for similar reasons. She didn’t seem all that affected by Evan’s reveal :/)

And of course the biggest offense to me personally. Jared got fucked over so bad. They removed anything that gave him any development. Not just didn’t expand on it, fully removed it. He’s basically gone for the second act. He’s way less involved with the lying and the emails and TCP. And once the initial “I can do emails” plot is out of the way he’s just gone. He gets a few reaction shots looking at his phone and that’s it. And the worst part to me is the fact that they added those shots anyway. They put them in there to SHOW that Jared was upset. And then they just DIDNT RESOLVE IT HE DIDNT GET TO CONFRONT EVAN AT ALL. THEY DIDNT EVEN SPEAK IT JUST HARD CUTS TO “oh it’s graduation and we’re friends again”. It completely erases Jared’s entire character. He also feels alone and desperately wants to connect (specifically with Evan). We know that through the bits of him we see in the show ESPECIALLY during good for you. And they trashed all of that so he could be the funny side character.

Bonus dislike: they showed the scene of Evan falling so many fucking times and it was just so tasteless. Like… why was that necessary.

All in all I did enjoy it as a separate entity but comparing it to the stage version which I love so much, it was so, so disappointing for me. However I will be watching it 17 more times. Long live Nik Dodani Jared.

[zombieratt]

Alright so forewarning this is LONG as FUCK specifically because i came up with this idea in early high school and was just today POSESSEd By the Spirit Of Musical Theatre to put it to paper— er Tumblr.

So without further ado:

DEAR EVAN HANSEN BUT EVAN ISNT A TERRIBLE PERSON AND CONNOR LIVES.

the beginning is the same, canon diverges just after waving through a window.

*this ended up getting written is script format? i also just sorta ignore alana’s whole exsistance bc in this version of the play she’s unnecessary*

In the moments before he talks to Connor evan decides to omit Zoe from his letter, having resolved himself to move on from her. (instead of being a hella creep.)

Connor: “dear Evan Hansen,” what are you writing letters to yourself? *he laughs*

Evan: its, uh, its for my therapist. its just a stupid little assignment that she says is supposed to help me process my feelings or— uh or something

Connor: hm. here. * hands Evan the letter*

Connor: your cast. no one’s signed it.

Evan: uh no. no one has.

Connor: gotta sharpie?

Evan: huh?

Connor: gotta sharpie? im gonna sign it.

Evan: *handing the sharpie to Connor* w- whuh uh why?

Connor: *shrugs* feels right.

Evan: i wish i could do that

Connor: what?

Evan: UH, IMEAN—

Connor: no wait- dude.

Evan: i mean uh, i meant that i wish i could just be, y’know impulsive like that.

Connor: Why Cant you be?

Evan: i uh, my heads pretty messed up, and stuff like that just, makes it worse i guess.

Connor: well theres some thing we have in common— were both fucked up in the head.

*the bell rings*

Evan: oh shoot! i missed the bus—

Connor: i’ll give you a ride.

Evan: are you sure i mean i can walk its not far-

Connor: all the more reason, i probably have to pass it on my way home anyway, cmon.

——

they meet Zoe in the parking lot

Zoe: I have Late practice today

Connor: whatever, gotta passenger.

Zoe: who the fuck would be crazy enough to trust your ability to drive?

Evan *being Brave*: Me Apparently?

Zoe: Uh, Evan Right?

Evan: yeah, uh, yeah.

Zoe *holding her hand out to be shaken*: i’m Zoe, we’ve met though right?

Evan wipes his hand on his shirt and shakes it: yeah, uh, nice to formally meet you, Zoe.

Zoe: i’m off, don’t kill him stoner.

Connor: i wont Princess

Evan breathing heavy: that was,, an eventful ten minutes.

Connor: oh fuck— you cool? or—

Evan: Panic Attack.

Connor: Right, uh

Connor: can you get in the car?

Evan: yeah

*car nonsense*

Connor: Can i start driving or do you want me to wait

Evan: Distractions are good,, Can Uh, Can you Talk about Stuff?

Connor: What stuff!??

Evan: any Stuff!

Connor: Is Zoe okay??

Evan: Sure?!

Connor: Uhh we don’t get along as well as we used to?

we were really close as kids, shes a huge asshole now but *fully venting now*

i kind of miss it you know? having someone to talk to and care about— and i still care about her— but its scary and i always fuck it up! not to mention the fact that our parents hate me— make her see me as some alien and not just a fucked up kid who wants to talk and — (more ranting that i dont feel like writing, but its a whole monologue bro)

Evan: Connor

Connor snaps his mouf shut: yeah

Evan: thanks

Connor: oh that, uh actually helped?

Evan: yeah focusing on your voice and whats real and stuff— it makes a difference.

Neither of them noticed that Connor was just sort of Driving. they end up at the park where in canon Connor commits Sewer-slide.

Evan: i didn’t know there was a park here.

Connor: huh, oh, yeah i guess i just sorta auto piloted, i come here to think.

Evan: About stuff?

Connor: Yeah, Stuff.

*the convo lulls*

Connor: do you have a laptop?

Evan: no, i uh, i left it at home? why?

Connor: give me a second

Connor walks to the car and grabs his back pack out of the back seat

Evan watches Quizzically from the swing-set

Connor pulls out a Sketch Pad and Pen, flipping to a clean page.

Connor: So tell me how to write one of those letters of yours.

Evan: uh, well you start like any other letter- just addressing it to yourself

Connor writing: Dear Connor Murphy,

Evan: and uh, my first one was supposed to be about my ideal summer vacation? since i started in middle school- but you don’t have to—

Connor: thats perfect.

Connor starts to sing for forever,

eventually Evan joins in there is a minor gay moment where they’re holding hands face to face.

the song ends with Connor hugging Evan.

Evan: its- its pretty late.

Connor obviously crying: just— just a couple more minutes.

Evan lets go and grabs Connors sketch book of the ground, closing it and handing it off to him: then how about this, labor day weekend- we actually go.

Connor: what are you talking about?

Evan: being spontaneous?

Connor: o-okay.

and it cuts to black.

theres a small montage here, as the set changes to Connor and Evans bedrooms

sincerely, me is a lament in this context, Connor and Evan are duetting from their respective rooms, writing to themselves.

(the lyrics are completely different and i will not be writing them here because thats too much fucking effort.

but they’re duetting from their bedrooms about making a connection to another person, feeling seen, for the first time. what it felt like and how they really want to keep it up but are afraid of making a mistake and ruining it.

its got some themes of waving thru a window, and a little bit of for forever, but its still largely the same notes just in a different key.)

after wards, Zoe knocks on Connors door to tell him dinner is ready to find him peacefully asleep.

requiem is the same, Zoe sees Connor as Dead to Her instead of actually dead, so some of the wording changes, so and so about how a monster doesn’t deserve peaceful rest etcetera.

school day happens, Connor doesn’t die, but the hot goss is that everyone saw Connor and Evan go home together after school, jared makes a shitty homophobic joke to Evan and Evan kind of tells him off about it. they argue and it culminates in Evan saying “well god forbid I’m friends with someone who isn’t YOU!” or smth like tht and it hits jared right the fuck at home man.

Connor says from the side lines: damn that was pretty hard core dude.

Evan: you have, no idea how long i’ve wanted to do that.

Connor honest to god l a u g h s, theres a number of people who hear it and lose their shit, Zoe being one of them: i have a pretty good idea, wanna get some lunch?

Evan: yeah, sure.

this general routine continues until labor day weekend, when they plan to go on their little escape. theres a short scene of Connor leaving the house with his keys and a backpack.

Connors mom confronts Zoe about his oddly upbeat attitude and hows he’s seemed differently lately Zoe Shrugs but decides to investigate his room.

she finds the letters. the first one is for forever, the theme plays as she reads it frantically, and is signed “Sincerely me (connor murphy)” so she knows its him, i f i could tell her begins but its a real duet between Connor and Zoe and at the end she resolves to try harder to connect to him.

Evan sings disappear to Connor after breaking into a formerly public park, in this context its him confessing that he broke his arm attempting su!c!de. Connor records it, for personal reference.

jared hacks Connors phone and steals the video, posting it to yt, in an effort to ruin their friendship.

Evan and Connor get in a little fight about it, and in the meantime Evan is called to the school to give an assembly because hes a phenomenal speaker and Disappear got like 1000000 views over night.

Zoe and Connor bond a little bit in a short scene before the assembly

Zoe: wheres Evan what happened?

Connor: Kleinman Did!

Zoe: what?

Connor: Why Do you care?

Zoe: because! you look happy around him!

Connor: i, i do?

Zoe: yeah? he could tell the worst joke ever written and you’d crack up. i haven’t heard you laugh like that in years Connor, maybe ever.

Connor: oh.

Zoe: Come back inside?

Connor: y, Yeah.

they all perform You Will Be Found together.

end act 1.

(no more dialogue from here i got tired)

to break in a glove is Connor’s dad trying to reconnect with him, it goes mediocrely, but Connor feels like hes being seen by his dad for the first time in years. its said in metaphors, but this is Connors dads way of saying that if Connor is willing to put in the work, so is he. they hug at the end, things are looking up. some talk of therapy is sprinkiled in the dialogue as they walk of stage together.

Only Us is Evan and Connor saying that they saved each other. its loosely romantic, as its a love song, but they don’t out right say that they’re in love or anything, they don’t know if theyre ready for that. its a promise. the song ends with Connor finally apologizing for pushing Evan over at the beginning of the show.

good for you is sung by jared only, as a power ballad, about losing people you didn’t treasure. its his attempt at an apology, but it ultimately fails, since jared is unable to take responsibility for his own actions. this is where jared and Evan go their separate ways.

Evan’s mom comforts him, as he sings words fail, which is about specifically jared, and how their rocky friendship is ruined and Evan pegs himself as the cause, instead of parents or perfect girl he uses metaphors that apply to best friends— maybe more. and talks about how he didn’t try, he was happy so he ignored that jared was hurting, and how that was really shitty of him. but instead of it being a generally somber song the end is lighter, because Connor is there— waving through his front window.

Evans mom sings So Big/So Small as Evan steps out the front door to embrace Connor and they mime talking about jared, hug and take hands. the house moves off stage in preparation for the finale.

Connor and Evan open the finale saying each others names, and sing it together as the test of the cast (minus jared) joins in, Evans mom taking his hand and Zoe Taking Connors, Evans mom the Murphys and Zoe break off to the back where Evan and Connor finish the final “all i see is sky for forever” while looking into each others eyes, and finish the musical by embracing (maybe kissing if thats ur jam).

[kachinnate]

11. Recovering from an illness + u. Sharing a Bed + 14. “I’m going to take care of you, okay?”

send me prompts!

11 (recovering from an illness) + u (sharing a bed) + 14 (”I’m going to take care of you, okay?”) 

“So, I’m not, not sure if you remember, but I told you multiple times not to kiss me while I was sick,” Evan is trying to explain without smiling to the miserable lump currently peeking up at him through the mess of their several blankets on the bed. “so.. I hate to tell you this, but you kind of did this to yourself.” 

“Sounds fake,” Jared croaks back, maturely. As he does. Followed right after by a coughing fit.

  Evan waits until he’s done before walking up to the side of the bed, sitting down next to Jared. “Do you— d’you need anything?” 

  Jared shakes his head, carefully pushing himself to sit up as well with a wince. 

  “Okay,” Evan frowns a little. He reaches out, gingerly plucking Jared’s glasses from his face, before folding them up and leaning over to put them on the nightstand. “You sure? You aren’t hungry or anything?” 

  “No,” the other boy answers quietly, grabbing one of the blankets and pulling it around his shoulders. “m’just cold. And tired.” 

  Evan nods. He leans forward a little, putting a hand behind Jared’s head to guide him forward enough for Evan to gently press his lips briefly to his forehead. “You feel kinda warm, though.” 

  “I didn’t realize you were a thermometer.” 

  When Evan pulls back, Jared’s giving him a stupid, crooked grin. 

  This boy.

  To articulate that loving thought: “Alright, smartass, do you want me to go get a thermometer?” 

  “No,” Jared says, leaning his head back into the hand Evan still has there. “‘Sides, I’m pretty sure we only have, like. A cooking thermometer.” 

  “Hmm. I don’t think that’d work.”

  “Sure it could. Just gotta..” Jared yawns quietly, eyes fluttering shut for a second when Evan gently plays with the hair on the back of his head. “like. Jam it into my leg. Like an epi-pen.” 

  “Yeah, uh, no,” Evan says back with a quiet laugh, and Jared opens his eyes just enough to peer up at him, grinning dopily. “You’re so weird.” 

  Jared mumbles something incoherently, leaning forward enough to press his forehead into Evan’s shoulder. Evan lets him, easily, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and pressing another kiss to the top of his head. 

  They’re quiet for a few minutes - other than Jared’s slightly stuffed breathing.

  “Didn’t you have plans today?” Jared mumbles, pulling away only enough for his words to not be muffled by Evan’s sweatshirt. 

  “I mean, yeah,” Evan said with a shrug, “but I’m probably going to - to hold off.” 

  “Wait, no,” Jared pulls more, brows knitted together. “I—I’ll be okay if you go. I don’t want— you don’t have to stay here just ‘cuz I’m sick, dude.” 

  “I know,” Evan assures him with a small grin, shaking his head. “the library will still be there tomorrow, Jare. It’s fine.”

  Despite his words, Jared still looks a little guilty. “Are you sure? Seriously, I can—” 

  “Yes, I’m positive,” Evan tugs him close again, and this time Jared sort of just melts compliantly into it. “I’m staying, I’m going to take care of you, okay? I’m not— I want to. Promise. Especially since I’m sort of the reason why you’re sick.” 

  Quiet. And then, feebly,

  “Even though you told me not to kiss you.”

  “Even though I told you not to kiss me,” Evan repeats with a giggle, rolling his eyes fondly. “But - I mean, you’re— you were probably going to get sick either way? We kind of live together, s’kinda hard for us to not be around each other.” 

  Jared lifts his head again, grinning a little at him, and.

  Yeah, okay, maybe Evan could understand why Jared claimed that he just couldn’t not kiss him, if it was anything like this. 

  “Still - maybe you could’ve been less around me, though,” Evan comments instead, grinning back. 

  “Nah.” 

  “‘Nah’?”

  “S’completely unreasonable thing to ask from me.” 

  Evan blinks, before rolling his eyes again with a quiet laugh. “You’re ridiculous.” 

  “If you got me sick, then that means I can’t get you sick again, right?”

  “..I mean, probably not?”

  Jared tugs a little on Evan’s sweatshirt sleeves. “Lay with me, then.” 

  Again, Evan kind of just watches the other boy for a minute, before sighing, chuckling softly to himself as he pulled himself out of Jared’s grasp to crawl over and actually lay on the bed with him. “And apparently I was being the baby when I was sick,” he teases, and Jared lightly kicks Evan’s leg with one of his own. 

  “M’sick, asshole. You can’t be mean to me.” 

  “Okay.” 

  Evan shifts so he’s lying on his side, and Jared flops back down onto the bed too, facing him. 

  “Hi,” Jared stage-whispers, and despite himself Evan laughs again. 

  “Hello.” It’s quite unfortunate that Evan can’t blame the flush on his own face from fever. 

  Jared scoots a little closer to him, and knowingly Evan opens his arms enough for the other boy to plant himself pressed to Evan as much as he could be. He rests his head on Evan’s shoulder, and Evan’s hand returns to idly playing with his messy hair. 

  “Nap?” Jared quietly requests into Evan’s sweatshirt, and Evan hums in response, his eyes having already slid shut. 

  “For a little while, yeah.” 

  They open again, though, because he feels Jared’s head move so he’s looking up at Evan. 

  “Love you,” Jared tells him quietly after a moment. And.

  That’s still kind of new for them. 

  Or that’s what Evan tells himself, anyway, when those two words make his heart do way too much in his chest. 

  “I love you, too,” he says just as quietly, glancing down, brushing some of Jared’s hair off his forehead. “Get some rest, Jare.” 

  Shifting again, Jared hums affirmatively, closing his eyes. Evan thinks he might’ve noticed the way his heart skipped, because he puts one of his hands there, on his chest right above it. 

  They fall asleep for much longer than ‘a little while’, unsurprisingly to either of them.

[friendsforanotherday]

Anonymous said: wrol cousin angst you say? *eyes Emoji*

i’m only gonna talk about the main trio of Nato/Jer/Jare because they’re the ones i’ve been thinking about most and it gets very complicated when you add everyone else in but

consider the plot of bmc where Jeremy has Jared and Nato as his cousins, has had them in his life as long as he can remember, he used to live like a street or two away from Nato until he was four and his parents moved from Long Island to New Jersey, only about an hour away but the distance feels bigger when you’re small and you miss someone. (Jared has always lived further away but that’ll come up later)

Jeremy gets the squip and, just like with Michael, it makes him cut contact and avoid the cousins

Jare and Nato are Very Confused and Concerned about this, the last they heard from Jeremy was him signing up for the school play and then nothing?

also, remember that Jare and Evan canonically didn’t really talk/weren’t really friends during Junior year and, if we’re believing Evan when he says that Jared doesn’t have any other friends but him, then all Jare has junior year is Jeremy and Nato and Jeremy’s squip isn’t letting him talk to them right now

Jared and Michael are also pretty close friends because they both care about Jeremy and he trusts Michael to make sure Jer’s ok when him and Nato aren’t there

(maybe they confront Jeremy instead of Michael on Halloween and someone finally addresses that Jer is Not Ok after his encounter with Chloe and actually checks up on him)

They’re not sure what to do and Mr Heere’s also concerned about Jeremy but they were planning to come down to New Jersey to support Jeremy in the play anyway because they know he’s been excited about this, not just about potentially getting the chance to get close to Christine but also because he’s genuinely into theatre

They get to experience the fucking nightmare that was The Play, at least what they could see/hear from the audience, but Jared won’t forget the sound of Jeremy screaming anytime soon

Nato drives him and Jare to the hospital and ho boy is Jare Freaking Out

grilling Michael for the truth when they get because Jared Knows this wasn't just some normal drug and he's never see Jer do more than pot with Michael

him telling Jer to hurry up and wake up because doing the ribbits by himself doesn't feel right

jareds mom having to call the school to explain Why his missing a whole lot of classes bc he refuses to come back home until he Knows jeremy's fine

them trying their best to play it cool when jeremy does wake up to not overwhelm or upset him but jared is just there cryin

nato kinda freaked out bc he hasent seen jared crying that much since he was like 12

Jare crying himself out until he falls asleep in the chair holding Jer's hand

AND THEN

we get Nato crying in Mr Heere's arms bc holy shit! having to be the strong one for Jare while he's also scared out of his mind is hard!

like Jare's been freaking out since people started dropping to the floor screaming and he's Definitely not gonna be over hearing Jer screaming anytime soon and him being exhausted from crying is really the only reason he fell asleep because he Refused to for a good few hours incase anything happened to Jer

Nato trying to stay strong because he knows that him crying is just gonna make Jare cry more and make it harder to get him to calm down

him still trying to play it cool when Jare's asleep but Mr Heere just gives him a soft lil son and pulls him in for a hug and he's Gone

i'm very into these kids having adults they can depend on and feel safe with and Mr Heere got a lil lost for a bit but he's trying his best

doesn't matter how far into his twenties Nato is, he still needs that and Mr Heere cant exactly comfort Jeremy right now and doesnt like seeing his nephews in tears

now remember when I said Jare living like 6 hours away was gonna come into play?

It’s deh canon time, senior year, baby, and Jare’s having a fucking Horrible time

sure he got some quality bonding time with Evan in at the start but not being able to let Jer and Nato know what’s going on? after Jeremy’s bad year when they all promised to reach out to each other instead of suffering alone when things are going wrong?? Yeah

it all comes to a head after his and Ev’s gfy fight, like this boy is Not Doing Good, y’all

he’s canonically left home alone for a whole weekend with access to his parents liquor cabinet after he gets his heart broken by Evan, ok? i Worry for my boy!

luckily so do Jeremy and Nato

like they Know jared’s home alone but its fine hes been home alone before but then nato gets a weird call from jared and hes obviously Not Okay then nato calls jer, worried, and they decide to go to jared's because their baby cousin needs them

and like Jeremy tells his dad they're worried about Jared and want to make sure he's ok and Mr Heere has this flashback of Jare in hysterics over Jeremy at the hospital and not leaving until he Knows that Jeremy's ok and the idea of him being home alone when he's Obviously not doing well?

Mr Heere might be ready to fight his former in-laws

cue a tense as hell drive where Nato tries to fight his own worries while trying to stop Jeremy from hyperventilating in the backseat because he’s no use if he stops to think too long about what could happen to Jared before they get there

they pull up to Jare’s house and Nato and Jeremy are out of the car before it’s even stopped, there’s no time to think about their safety when Jare’s the one at risk

Jare’s pretty drunk when they find him and has already pretty much been crying since the fight

but he sees them and starts fucking Bawling bc they came to get him

they end up spending the weekend with him until his parents come home, they almost lost Jeremy last year, they’re NOT risking losing Jared

to quote Sun/ @folie-a-dois who contributed A Lot to these 2am hc’s and some of these are basically verbatim messages we’ve sent each other:

“its about the love and tenderness and the family bond between the wrol characters particularly the sad teenage misfits that deserved better, and the boys having someone to turn to bc them not really having anyone in canon hurts too much to think about.”