#rini handling their break ups in similar ways

[gracestone]

1x01 | 2x08 | 2x09

Nini and Ricky dealing with heartbreak.

[obsessioncalledhsmtmts]

What I would've done for S2 & S3 of hsmtmts if I was the writer/director:

Nini

I would've probably changed Nini to not getting into YAC in the first season. She would've stayed the second semester at East High. She would spend the season working on her acting to get ready for an audition for YAC for senior year (so the audience could feel like she actually deserved it- instead of just bc she's the MC). -

She would have to reckon with the fact that her going off-script was probably why she wasn't accepted. -

I would've also given Nini more personality, maybe explore her interests outside of school, or her relationship with her moms. Make her have more flaws and have her learn to work through them. -

Nini lands the understudy for a main/secondary role and gets casted as the rose. She ends up helping backstage and works with Ashlyn as a songwriter/composer for the show. -

I'm thinking throughout the season she'll deal with a lot of school pressure, along with relationship problems, and her own stress of trying to make it into YAC and she'll eventually break down from the stress (Gina, Kourtney, and her parents would be there for her) -

her audition could've been in the last episode (making the "second chance" song more meaningful) -

I think Nini being low-key iced out by her friend group for going to YAC was messed up. That was her ambition. -

ALTERNATE IDEA: She could've also transferred to North High instead, making their menkies competition more relavent. Then tranferred back after a while and have to deal with going against her friends. [Idk just most of her personality in the two seasons, even after Ricky and Nini broke up, revolved around Ricky and she didn't get to have a life or personality beyond 1) the musical and 2) the boys in her life]

Ricky

Ricky's arc would be similar to the original. Him having Nini as his lifeline was pretty toxic for the both of them anyway. This time with him having some character development. Maybe having a scene where Nini says something like "I care about you Ricky, I really do. But I can't handle my own problems along with yours. I'm always here if you need to talk, but...maybe you should get some help first. You should talk to your parents." then after a bunch of stuff, Ricky learns to ask for help, and his parents send him to therapy. He apologizes to Nini. [Btw this arc wouldn't be to bash Ricky, but more of have him learn healthy ways of venting and finding help]

He finally talks and works things through with his mom and she and his dad finally realize the emotional toll their problems have caused Ricky

I was thinking about a flashback to Ricky seeing his parents fight all the time but that might be too dark for a Disney show

Ricky wasn't interested in musicals before, so therefore he should, realistically, have to learn to play the piano or guitar (Nini could've taught him)

if the writers wanted him to have acting/singing as his actual passion and not just as something he joined to get Nini back- then we should've had him practicing singing or acting (not for Nini this time) while also doing his old hobbies.

Nini and Ricky

I feel like they missed a really good opportunity to teach the audience how to open up and work through problems when they just decided to make Rini break up over miscommunication.

For a relationship that mentions them as childhood best friends, i wasn't feeling the best friends thing when they were together

If the writers were intending for us to root for Rini, then they should've made Ricky have more redeeming qualities, him doing stuff on Nini's phone was EJ-like which they established in S1 was bad

Consider this as some dialogue Nini and Ricky could've had about their relationship in the treehouse scene: Nini: "I don't even know how I got from loving you so much to not even wanting to fight for this" instead of just stating the obvious of "we've been miss-communicating all year" Ricky could've said something like: Ricky: "I wasn't honest with you. I tried to hide things from you. It feels like we're not even friends anymore." Nini: "We were friends...what happened?" Ricky: "I don't know, what's been going on with my parents has-" Nini: "No, this isn't their fault. It's ours." *a long pause* Nini: "Since we're admitting things we've done wrong. I've got one. I wasn't intending on sharing the rose song with you. I don't know i think i was just- scared it would cause more problems and i...hid a lot of the things i was feeling...about us." Ricky: "Can I ask...what are you feeling... about us? Like... was the song really all about us?"

you get the point- Rini would actually work through their problems instead of constantly having miscommunication problems that were unrealistic given that they were friends since kindergarten

Kourtney

Kourtney should've been given an arc and I would probably cut Howie (i like him but not every girl needs a love interest- if not then Howie shouldn’t have been the only depth she has).

Kourtney could have a fashion internship and we could explore her personality.

Make her more than the bff of Nini- have Nini be the one to reassure and be there for her

healthy feminism that's not just there for tokenism (and not whatever S1 Kourtney was)

Make people be there for her and don't just leave her alone because she's "strong" and "independent" People need help sometimes. Being independent is different to having no one there for you.

Gina

Jack appeared and disappeared- would've probably made him show up once more. And Gina and him wouldn't meet like that- maybe they knew each other from another school (bc normal ppl don't randomly talk to strangers at airports lol) -

I liked Gina's arc overall and would've kept it.

Introduced or at least hinted at Gina's brother more (him calling her but her refusing to answer because it's been so long)

Even if her main plot will revolve around love, Gina would have...well... a life.

Explore her relationship with her mom

explore how traveling all the time has affected her

things like not wanting to get attached bc even tho she has a place to stay, things can change at any moment and she knows that

showing her adapting to new situations really quickly

Her relationship with her brother could've been explored more

EJ

More on-screen character development

Building off the arrogant, confident character he was in the first season and still having some of those qualities as the second season progressed

Follow up for him and his dads conversation

Cousin duo with Ashlyn

EJ should've had a storyline outside of Gina being a symbol of his "development,"

He could have talked to Nini about how he was feeling about his future since they both were worried about the same

Gina and EJ

EJ's is a lot more tactful than Ricky and if the writers had wanted for us to root for them more- Ej could've represented what Ricky didn't do. Instead they had him misscomunicate about the big brother thing for shock and drama value and have Gina be the one to clear it up.

Have EJ try to be a good person, not for Gina, but for himself.

Consistent friendship with Gina before it was implied he had a crush

ALTERNATE PLOT IDEA: Instead of having them end up together, have them be more brother/sister and support system. Have EJ learn to be a good person without doing it for someone and rather do it for himself

All in all I would've kept the basic framework of their relationship and just change up a few things

Carlos and Seb

I loved Carlos' arc too (and Seb's).

Have Seb sing more

more screentime alltogether

Ashlyn

I liked them touching on body image issues with Ashlyn but i probably wouldn't have mentioned it once and then never mention it again. I think it should've lasted at least 2/3 episodes.

Ashlyn could've seen a plus size actress in a musical she goes to with Kourtney and Gina (bc that trio is amazing) and feeling a lot more confident but still a little insecure (cuz insecurities don't just disappear with a short monologue)

I'm very anti one-dimensional mean girl so, as part of Lily's redemption, lily would build up Ashlyn a little.

Maybe cut out Big Red/Ashlyn because i see them more as friends (they could still have similar scenes together tho)

have ashlyn and big red break up by spring break- ashlyn won't tell anyone and keep her personal life out of her acting and end up spiraling

completely cut out any french guy jealousy from Big Red (completely unneeded)

Lily

I would've had Lily be more of the 3 dimensional character- i think we should be over the mean girl trope. I'm thinking parental issues/pressures (building off episode 11) and some insecurity or anxiety would be pretty realistic. Maybe she’s sick of constantly being the center of attention and wants some downtime.

If they intend to make Ricky and Lily end up together (or at least have a friendship), I would do it a little differently. In the Ricky section of this post i mentioned Ricky, if acting/singing had become his passion, should've taken up some lessons. What if Lily had ended up being his tutor or something? Maybe he signed up before all the drama and got to know her before.

just think of all the possibilities tho- it would also make the “let you go” song that Ricky does on the piano have some double meaning

Lily stealing the harness makes absolutely no sense plot-wise, so I would also cut that out

Side characters

French dude should've gotten more screentime

Mazzara/Jenn should've been equal pining like in S1- not just mainly one sided

Plot

more episodes, most of the problems and conflicts presented weren't resolved or addressed by the end of the series. Characters, especially the ones in relationships, don't even talk about their problems. And yes, realistically, sometimes people don't talk it out, but most get closure within themselves and problems don't appear and disappear magically. -

maybe change the menkies competition for another competition, something where you can have more creative liberty with the plot and songs -

cut out the dance/sing off, it was completely unneeded

cut out the "come back video" to North High's diss video

cut out the sleepover episode

All these episodes did was provide unneeded drama that could've been used to instead to take a break from the conflict and be more character driven -

Maybe a different musical- BATB was a weird choice for an official competition. If not then different casting

Ej for beast, Ricky for Gaston, seb for candleholder, carlos for clock,

The scenes from the musical should've been included, I felt like there was an episode missing between ep.11 and 12

Every relationship was the exact same- the guy pining to the loosely interested girl and then when they get together the girl having to constantly reassure him about the relationship

Ok, guess they wasted that entire semester just to never open the envelope (they should've opened it because they realized that the Menkies tore them apart and they lost sight of their passion)

a lot of the events, character development, and reactions were off-screen, which made it so annoying to watch bc a lot of those scenes were important to the plot

Disclaimer: Not hating on the writers, directors, or actors of this show. I'm just inputting my own ideas of what I think would've made the show better for me. I kept and cut out some ships i did/didn't like so my personal opinion on the relationships do have an influence

[cypher-of-the-night]

Information about Subaoki Kids~

Mun!Yuki: Okay so I’m just going to be like “Fuck it. I’m showing them now.” Let me introduce you my new grandchildren. :D I don’t have proper bios of them but I can always show what they are like here.

Let’s start off with the oldest to youngest.

~

Ichiru Sakamaki (逆巻 一縷; Sakamaki Ichiru)

Age: 14 (Pre-Timeskip) -> 18 (Post-Timeskip)

Birthday: September 5th

Height: 160 cm (5’3") -> 177 cm (5’10”)

Weight: 53 kg (119 Ibs) -> 67 kg (147 Ibs)

Occupation: Next heir to the throne, Model, 3rd year High School Student (Post-Timeskip)

Seiyū: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka ( Akashi Saginuma from M3: Sono Kuroki Haagen ) (Talking / Singing)

English Voice: Daman Mills ( Varma from Taboo Taboo ) (Talking)

Personality:

Very similar to his father, Ichiru is a silent loner that is quick-tempered and is capable of causing a lot of damage, such as breaking things, even if it is accidental; However, he can also be sweet due to the influence of his mother, whom he loves very much, very similar to how his father loved his own mother. He is said to be a tsundere like his father, which he often denies. However, he is not a DO-S (extreme sadist) like his father; Due to the damages he caused when he was much younger, Naoki taught him to not damage things when throwing fits by teaching him many ways to calm himself whenever he is angered; Eventually, Ichiru chose to vent out his feelings by writing out his feelings in a private journal in the garden (very much like his mother when she is writing lyrics to her raps). Not wanting to make his mother worried whenever his father damages things, Ichiru is the one that often fixes it, which he later finds as a hobby.

Like his mother, Ichiru loves food to a point of eating anything, and like his father, He dislikes nothing when it comes to food. Very much like his mother, He has a disinterest in studying despite holding higher-than-average intelligence. Like Naoki, Ichiru has a golden heart, and is strong-willed and honest (but in his case, it’s brutal honesty). And also like her, He is understanding, caring, hardworking, and helpful. Despite his tsundere personality, Ichiru was taught to be a gentleman to women; Very similar to his mother, Ichiru is eccentric and is highly curious, to a point of having a strange way of thinking.

Despite admiring his father, Ichiru calls him “Old man” and snarls whenever someone comments about him being similar to him. This is due to the fact of learning about his mother’s time with Subaru when she was still human, and became protective of her as a result; This has caused a rivalry between Ichiru himself and his own father. Regardless, it is revealed by Naoki that Ichiru truly does love his father, but he’s just very stubborn to admit it due to his own pride, like his father.

~

Trivia:

• Just as Tsundere as his father; But still has a kind heart like his mother.

• As the oldest, He often scolds his sister and the damages she causes; However, the dismissiveness for the scoldings resembles their father’s dismissiveness of the scoldings he received from their Uncle Reiji.

• Because He is to be next-in-line for the throne, Ichiru is has to keep his composure and restrain himself from losing his cool; Even resorts to healthier ways suggested by his mother on how to calm himself down.

• At the age of 14, Ichiru was scouted to work as a model; While he initially plan to decline, Ichiru accepted in order to make money for himself without having to rely on his parents financially, especially his father, the Vampire King.

• While he inherited his father’s strength, Ichiru doesn’t take advantage of it due to not inheriting any destructive traits or tendencies.

• Despite his father and sister being left-handed and his mother right-handed, Ichiru is ambidextrous.

• Despite inheriting his black hair from his mother, Naoki herself attests that he inherit most of his looks from Subaru due to an incident where she witnessed Subaru’s hair dyed black from an incident involving an octopus ink.

However there was one incident that happened to Ichiru where his hair was bleached for a whole month because of his sister; Ichiru looked exactly like his father to a point where even Naoki can attest that they would’ve looked like twins.

• In Naoki’s HDB Brute Ending, only Ichiru was born through her becoming mentally broken from Subaru’s sexual assault; Where a cycle begins where an insane Naoki starts failing to differentiate between people, mistaking Ichiru as Subaru himself due to him sharing the same face as him, and, as a result, deemed him as “filthy”, despite loving and doting him when not mad; Very much like the relationship between Christa and Subaru himself and how Christa becomes mentally broken because of Karlheinz.

~

Tsukika Sakamaki (逆巻 月下; Sakamaki Tsukika)

Age: 12 (Pre-Timeskip) -> 16 (Post-Timeskip)

Birthday: June 8th

Height: 149 cm (4'11") -> 158 cm (5’2”)

Weight: 49 kg (108 Ib)

Occupation: Idol, 1st year High School Student (Post-Timeskip)

Seiyū: Taeko Kawata ( Amy Rose from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise ) (Talking / Singing)

English Voice: Amanda Lee ( Zero from Grimoire of Zero ) (Talking / Singing)

Personality:

While she inherited her mother’s bubbly cheerfulness, Tsukika inherited her father’s strength and tendencies to break things near her, including walls; However, this is mainly whenever she is happy and excited, as there has only been a very few times she has ever used her strength in anger and/or intentionally; Due to this, her older brother, Ichiru, always has to clean up after her and often scolds her for the damages she caused, which she prefers to ignore; The same way Subaru ignores Reiji whenever he is being scolded. Unlike her mother, Tsukika isn’t exactly smart when it comes to school work no matter how hard she tries as she only barely passes, very much like her father. Tsukika is rather girly, sometimes boy-crazy/girl-crazy (not often taken seriously), and fashionable, and is just as extroverted as her mother.

When annoyed, Tsukika shows to have also inherit her father’s temper, but shows it in a tranquil fury way just like Asher when he is angered. While she is temperamental and stubborn in private, Tsukika, as an idol, presents herself to the public as an fragile, air-headed star. Due to watching Kou’s performance as an idol, Tsukika wanted to become an idol when she reached of age. While it was difficult to handle at first, She admittedly enjoyed performing as she loved to sing and dance; This is something she inherited from her mother with rap music. As an idol, Tsukika is very cautious about using her strength in public and to keep herself in-character as a normal girl.

However, unlike her brother, Tsukika has Do-S tendencies due to her vampiric nature that she fully embraces, to a point where she has taken advantage of using her strength and her looks to do as she pleases, and feels no remorse in the things she does. Her victims would always be obsessive stalkers that happen to be cute to Tsukika, Men or women, and would often be broken down and tortured into mindless dolls by Tsukika, by shattering their pure image of her and themselves feel disgusting. On the full moon, She becomes a seductive temptress, turning from a playful flirt that often jokes around to a shameless flirt that has no shame for doing the things she does. Tsukika holds the belief that she would rather embrace her vampiric nature than to suppress it like her brother does, as she takes pride in being a vampire and doesn’t see any reason to hold back who she is behind closed doors; Alas, she would be forced to keep her activities secret to keep her job as an idol and her pure image from being tainted.

~

Trivia:

• By timeskip, Tsukika is not a virgin as she has had sex with her victims once she got older.

• Despite her history of sexual activities, she has never genuinely been in love before; But it is hinted that, when she does genuinely fall in love, she becomes rather yandere-ish. (Very much like Satou Matsuzaka from Happy Sugar Life)

• She has a crush on Rini (by @adiabolikpastel), as Rini is her first real friend; As a result, she genuinely cares for her and is heavily clingy/overprotective of her. It is implied that she established a secret fanclub for her in which Tsukika herself is the leader of.

• Tsukika has an immense love for cute things and sweets to a point her room is filled pastel colors and colorful plushies and a mini-fridge containing her sweets.

• Tsukika has a soft spots for animals, and even has memories of herself as a child being surrounded by animals with her father.

• Tsukika’s real name is “Měi-Rén”/“美人”, meaning “Beautiful Person”.

Tsukika’s name comes from the two first characters of “月下美人” (Gekka Bijin) or "Beauty under the Moon", which is what the Queen of the Night is known as in Japan for its rich history.

• Tsukika admits that Kou was the one that inspired her to become an idol herself. She even declares him her favorite uncle, despite the fact that he is not related to either of her parents by blood.

• Tsukika is actually pansexual and demiromantic.

• While She has a good relationship with her mother, Tsukika loves her father and cherishes the times she spends with him as a child; As much as she wishes to spend more time with him, she understands him being busy as the new Vampire King. Although, it could be said that, while having Naoki’s eyes, Subaru gets reminded of his mother due to the physical resemblance Tsukika has with her.

~

Images used for references:

Ichiru -> 1/2

Tsukika -> 1/2