#I'llDefendHim

[deborahdeshoftim5779]

Responses-- Troy Bolton: Things We Ought to Know

@boltonevans response to my post here. 

In a lot of ways, the song “Let It Go” from Disney’s Frozen, is a “Troy Bolton” song.

I know nothing about Disney, but I’ve found several songs that are indicative of Troy’s toxic relationship with Gabriella. “I don’t wanna cry” by Mariah Carey and “Fire and Water” by Free have some great lyrics:

I Don’t Wanna Cry- Mariah Carey

Once again we sit in silence After all is said and done Only emptiness inside us Baby look what we've become... 

And later here:

Too far apart to bridge the distance But something keeps us hanging on and on Pretending not to know the difference Denying what we had is gone Every moment we're together It's just breaking me down I know we swore it was forever But it hurts too much to stay around...

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Fire and Water- Free

Every single day I got a heartache coming my way I don't wanna say goodbye baby But look at the tears in my eyes I don't wanna say goodbye mama But look at the way you made me cry Every way that's nice you show You've got a heart that's made of ice And I know...

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The lyrics, “It’s funny how some distance makes everything seem small”, seem, to me, an apt explanation for why Troy has an affinity for secret locations several dozens of feet off the ground, such as trees, tree houses, and gardens on the roof of his high school. He needs the space to himself to simply breathe and exist as his own person, but the distance between himself and the rest of the world also, likely, acts as a means of temporarily shedding the weight of so many expectations and so much pressure to always be “the best” at everything off of his shoulders. In After the dream, I attempt to address this.

Great points. 

“Watching earthly things, like pavement, dirt, grass, and trees, recede, and people and buildings reduced to hardly more than specks miles beneath them before disappearing under a thick sea of smoggy haze and fluffy clouds, is oddly comforting to Troy. It’s as if, up here, there’s no pressure to be anyone but himself. Troy.

Not The Basketball Guy, or Hoops, or Wildcat.”

Great description here. I’m looking forward to reading the full third part.

Gabriella’s “observation” that Troy has the whole school “wired”, in context with her seemingly only becoming interested in him after visiting his secret hideout, expecting him to be the sole “provider” in their relationship, and never lifting a finger to do anything for him, in return, really doesn’t paint the most flattering picture of her. It almost gives one the impression that she was using Troy for the perks of dating him, such as getting to shed her unwanted reputation as the school’s “freaky genius girl” by becoming the most popular girl in school, and getting access to “secret hiding places” that Troy hasn’t shared with anyone else.

I think we’re discovering that very few things paint Gabriella in a flattering light. As the movies progress, her use for Troy diminishes to the point where she can up and leave on a whim and refuse to return, even after having promised to do so. After HSM I, Gabriella stops admiring his fame and treats it as an inconvenience, and an excuse for boasting (HSM II), and more importantly, a way of getting him to stop complaining. In HSM II, Troy confides his fears about the cost of college. Gabriella tells him that he’s pretty much destined for a scholarship. It may be a small thing, but there’s good reason to believe that Gabriella believes that because of his fame, he should have nothing to complain about. She drags the conversation away from his problems to her own and then tells him to focus on “right now”-- something he won’t be able to do, thus setting him up for further punishment. If you take Gabriella’s dialogue in HSM I and HSM II into consideration, this does support the notion of her impatience and insensitivity to Troy’s complaints and worries. He’s a “Wildcat”. He shouldn’t be complaining. And again, in HSM III, Gabriella chides Troy for not admitting to his love for Theatre. “You love it. Why is that so hard for you to admit?” Troy can’t be unsure. He can’t be limited by other people’s limited expectations of him and his future. Instead, he loves it, which must mean that he enjoys the attention. This indicates that she continues to misunderstand him throughout the movies despite having displayed understanding during that rooftop scene. 

I very much appreciate the shout out to Troy’s studiousness. For as much as the fandom and Taylor, alike, rag on him for his intelligence, and Gabriella generally views him as a dense, inconsiderate moron who needs the obvious painstakingly pointed out to him, he is shown doing his homework of his own volition, in the first movie, and, while it isn’t shown in the film proper, his tree house has a telescope inside of it:

HOW do you notice these things? I’m impressed. Thanks for this picture-- I need to use this for my story. 

This implies that he has some measure of interest in stargazing, potentially astronomy. In addition, he helped his father build the tree house, and makes repairs to his pickup truck unassisted. He has basic mechanical know-how, and could be quite the handyman. Sure, he isn’t the “genius” who made the papers in her previous hometown, won a Scholastic Decathlon, or got into Stanford University, but the kid is no slouch.

When Troy’s off the ground, he’s closer to the sky, so this actually makes sense. I would never have noticed this at all. In response to that link: first of all, the person ranting against Troy is incoherent, just like their claims. I have reblogged and responded to that original post. 

And, he’s more self-effacing than arrogant, without a doubt.

OH YEAH! HE stole the ball, not his team-mates. Wow, glad to see people notice these things; it’s amazing how much I actually don’t know. This actually makes Chad’s accusations against him even more absurd; if Troy was self-effacing enough to attribute his own excellent manoeuvre to his best friend, that destroys Chad’s comment here: “If I was as good as you?” I will reiterate that Chad NEVER apologizes for this comment, nor is he ever obliged to. When viewed in conjunction with Troy’s amazing last minute assist in HSM III (which I never really watched properly until recently), you definitely get a better picture of who he is and his moral values. 

I’m very sorry to hear that you’ve been struggling to get your works off the ground. I can relate, and it’s a very unfortunate place to be. :( I am glad you’re managing to climb your way out of this hole. If there is anything I can do to be of assistance, never hesitate to ask.

Thanks-- things are progressing much quicker now that I cut out the unnecessary stuff. I’ve come up with quite a few new scenes, some of which were inspired by your answers to my questions on Troy Bolton. (Worth reading, people, here and here). 

In response to your footnote: I’m sure Chad got into U of A on a basketball scholarship, though I do love the idea of Taylor assisting him, academically, and am still bitter about the implication that they’re splitting up, after graduation. If any couple should have made a clean break without even attempting to date long-distance, it should have been Troy and Gabriella. :[

You and me both. I love Chaylor, not just because they’re so sweet together, but because their relationship is built on realism and genuine affection. They don’t prance around onstage singing gooey songs about forevers that don’t exist, even though Taylor definitely digs the Troyella duos. (As does Chad). More importantly, neither of them manipulate the other into compromising their respective futures. When Chad says “Hoops all the way” in HSM III, Taylor does not react with the contempt that she would have done in HSM I. And Chad tells Troy that Taylor’s headed to Yale without making some derogatory comment about brainiacs. The only thing that infuriates me is the hypocritical double-standard they demonstrate towards Troy, whom both of them have known for longer than they’ve known Gabriella. This is astonishing. Without Troy breaking the status quo, Taylor would most likely not have come to like him, or even gone out with Chad, given that he only asked her out after the callbacks and not earlier when they were plotting against their friends. Without Troy, Taylor wouldn’t have recieved a summer job with excellent references, her perfect prom invitation from Chad, or persuaded him to return onstage during the graduation ceremony in HSM III. Yet despite clear evidence of Gabriella’s actions hurting Troy, she almost never takes his side because he’s a popular basketball player. Never mind that her boyfriend is a popular basketball player, too. Taylor is an enigma to me.