prtwell - Tumblr blog

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it's been ten months since i was active on here. i was unsure if i would post about s4, because unfortunately s3 made me lose a lot of the passion i had for the show. i finished s4 last night, and while i didn't really like the season again, i am so incredibly relieved they at least had gina and ej end on good terms. they were brief but beautiful and meant everything to me.

i shipped them since the s1 finale with ej buying her the plane ticket, and back then, i didn't know if there was even a chance they'd happen. but they did. and even if they weren't "endgame," i'm so happy to have watched their story with you all.

portwell was the first ship i wrote for. they will always have a little place in my heart, and so will you all for being along on the ride. :)

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season 2 portwell you will always be famous

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Oh … ok.

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nah bc straight up ej a better person than me i woulda beat ricky’s fucking ass for pulling that bullshit TWICE

brother? bitch try it

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I don’t understand why they couldn’t have left Portwell as a cute high school relationship where they’re unfortunately going two different directions, realize that together, communicate about their future, and come to a respectful breakup where they’ll have their good memories, and they’ll always care about each other in some way. That’s more consistent with these characters, it respects the shippers and the characters, and it’s something that happens in real life. I still think with the Portwell we saw in season 2 they could have worked out (like, they’ve always been in somewhat different places, like him having his future planned out and hers always being up in the air as discussed in the couch scene, but they still understood each other and connected, that’s part of why they work so well), but if the writers needed to break them up, that would at least be better than destroying them and making them out of character. 

Seriously, why did the writers act like Portwell was bad and would never work? And now, acting like Gina didn’t have feelings for EJ. I feel like I’m being gaslit as a viewer. How can you spend all of season 2 making me not want to ship R*na, pouring everything into making Portwell one of the best relationships ever, give two characters incredible growth, and then try to backtrack and act like none of that happened. When I saw the way these characters looked at each other and acted around each other. This is bad writing, plain and simple. 

It’s not just a matter of liking one ship more than the other. If R*na was handled better, if they found a way to handle Portwell respectfully in a way that made sense, I could have been on board. Imagine if they had let Portwell unfold more like Jack and Gina’s airport episode, where they’re cute and fun but at the end of the day Ricky is the one she really feels things for. Because the way they wrote Portwell, it feels real and important and they’re so clearly in love and happy together. It’s not just this cute little midgame ship, they have a connection like I’ve never seen. They fake date, they scheme together, they do so much for each other and they have so much effort put into their relationship only to have it torn apart and treated like it was never important. 

Also, once again, EJ has fallen in love with a girl and she doesn’t love him back (Gina was definitely in love with him too but whatever the writers want to gaslight us into believing I guess. Which is so dumb because you can love more than one person in your life. Why did they feel the need to completely destroy every bit of Portwell after working so hard to make us ship them). Pointing this out isn’t prioritizing EJ in the relationship, it’s pointing out the crappy writing. Why are we doing this again. I think the writers must hate EJ or something because he never gets serious songs, of the main four he has the least time spent on him (other than this season with Nini being gone), and the writing this season for him was just awful. 

And this sucks for Gina because she’s having to put in the emotional work again with Ricky, which I discussed in this post so I won’t get into again. Do they hate Gina too? She wanted the guy who shows up, and Ricky hasn’t really done that yet, not in a meaningful way because it was just him hanging out with Gina because he didn’t have any responsibilities while the only reason EJ wasn’t “showing up” for her like normal this season was the pressure on him, and he still found ways to encourage her and make sweet gestures like picking her flowers. Ricky should be putting in so much more work. 

It’s sad for so many reasons but in large part because it’s going to be hard to watch the show from here with how all the relationships were handled. I wish I could love R*na and ignore the bad writing, but I can’t. And they could have been such a cute couple. 

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I’m so sad that hsmtmts didn’t come out with a 3rd season!!😔

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And for my next rant…

For a show as DEEPLY self-referential as HSMTMTS is, why did we get almost zero in-references for Portwell this season? No ‘babe,’ or risotto, or Duke sweatshirt. No Wonderstudies. No mention of EJ being the one to buy the plane ticket. 

Because to make the path they chose make sense, they had to downplay EVERYTHING they built in season 2 between EJ and Gina.

You will NEVER convince me that the series endgame was supposed to be anything other than Rini. Plans change, and that’s fine. But even Gina’s speech to Ricky stalled out at the end of season 1. They had to disregard literally a whole season of their own canon to make it fit. That’s not an epic slow burn, it’s a hard left.

And the lovely thing they built between EJ and Gina was the casualty.

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if this pw break is final i just want them to remain friends they’re good together even if it’s not as a couple. okay? okay.

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Gina being “this is not about Ricky” during their break up only to get with Ricky some time later 💀💀💀

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I feel deeply sorry for EJ as a character, he deserved so much better. He just wanted to have a great last summer with all his friends. Instead, he got all this shit dumped on his head and still tried his best to make a great musical happen so those friends could shine and his dad could be proud of him. And in the end, he never even got a “thank you for the effort, EJ” from his friends. Or any recognition from his dad. And ended up losing the girlfriend who apparently didn’t even like him in the first place and was just killing time waiting for someone else. For the second time. And even then, he chose to take the higher road and managed to call Ricky his brother (which they aren’t, they are barely even friends). Everyone else gets support from the wildcats, everyone else gets to wrap up their summer happily. He just gets to be miserable all the time. Honestly, I’m never watching another episode of this show, but I still hope they can give him even an ounce of happiness on season 4. Because what he got so far is just complete bullshit.

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adding onto this, using kristoff's lullaby (my favorite frozen bway song) for rina when the lyrics were so portwell/ej coded. that was so evil. i can't believe that was real.

tim federle hates me personally

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i can't believe they used a clip of big red (a guy who is barely in the documentary) introducing himself as ashlyn's (who the public doesn't know yet) boyfriend and coming out as bi as the documentary trailer's mic drop moment. i mean cool he's bi but that was such a weird way to do it imo, like no one who watches the trailer is going to know who he is 😭

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tim federle hates me personally

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why didnt i realize how mirrorball ej is until rn

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ugh why is this so cute to me im emo

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TFBFFR

Tim Federle be fucking for real.