#hsmtmts lily

[nataliealynlind]

lily as belle in north high's beauty and the beast is that you?

[team-wonderstudy]

I love Ricky. He sees a scary, misunderstood person and is like “I’m going to be their friend.”

[insomniactalks]

Gonna drop this quick and run. But hear me out. I will start by saying that Ricky may very well have genuine feelings for Gina. I'm not dismissing that. I just couldn't help but notice somethings about Ricky's reactions here:

As soon as EJ and Gina start fighting in 3.05, Ricky immediately covers his ears (kinda like a child does when their parents are fighting at home). I get the feeling he was used to his parents fighting a lot when he was younger, and his instinct was to cover his ears. He also looks at both EJ and Gina in 3.06 during the canoe scene. I think it's at that moment that he realizes just how much EJ and Gina truly care about one another, and how much they're fighting for their relationship. Thinking back to S2, he was also fighting really hard for his rela with Nini. But he learned to let her go because that was for the best. He actually gets that advice from his mom, who he understandably holds a lot of resentment towards. I could be wrong, but I read his expression in the 2nd gif as someone who has seen his own parents fail to save their relationship, but sees two people, despite all their recent tensions, still fighting for their relationship.

Earlier that day, Ricky comes face to face with his dad's new girlfriend and is presented with a gift from Mike via Miss Jenn:

I definitely think Ricky still feels uncomfortable at the idea of his teacher and father dating, even if he's trying to act like he's okay with it. When he receives the gift, he's not exactly happy about it. It's sort of surprises him, but not in a good way. Perhaps it's a not so subtle reminder that things have really changed for him back home. Later that day, he sees EJ and Gina trying their best to save their relationship, then hears this from Jet that night:

Jet, being "little Ricky" and all (3.02), admits that he feels like it's his fault Madison and Maddox broke up. Does that not sound like how Ricky feels about himself in terms of his parents marriage? Perhaps he also blames himself for the downfall of his parents relationship. He couldn't save it or fix it. Instead of dealing with his own problems, Ricky is throwing himself into Jet and Maddox's issues to try to save their relationship. I think the majority of Ricky's issues in terms of romantic relationships always goes back to his parents, which they still haven't fully addressed. Three seasons in a row, and Ricky's main storyline revolves around his love life. If there's any chance for Ricky to truly move forward and find the path to true happiness, this season has to end with Ricky single and not ready to mingle and being okay with that. He hasn't taken any significant amount of time for himself to himself. I also think it's difficult for him to see EJ and Gina have the kind of summer he was expecting to have with Lily. While I don't think Lily broke his heart, I do believe she broke his trust. He even blames himself for why things fell apart because he said "How could I be so stupid?" in 3.01 during his breakup w/ Lily. He shows up to camp and the first image he sees are a genuinely happy and loving couple (Portwell). It seems like Ricky wants what they have because he was expecting to have a fun summer in a new relationship. Jet's line above definitely hit a nerve for Ricky because I think it reminds him of how things fell apart for his parents. In order to escape the pain he's feeling, Ricky tries to "fix" the relationship problems around him. One last thing, I don't think it's a coincidence that 3.06 is the first time this season that Ricky's acknowledged his past with Nini (also in conversation with Jet). In Ricky's eyes, he's had two failed relationships in a short amount of time, and to overcompensate for that, he tries to fix everyone else's relationship problems instead. I'm wondering what the last two episodes have in store for his character arc, because so much of it so far has been romance-based. For this character to actually progress in a positive way, he has to learn that it's okay to not be okay and that true happiness doesn't come from being in a relationship.

[plz-degrade-me]

Okay but to be fair for Lily didn't Nini and Kourtney steal things then they laughed it off. Like let's not act like she was the first character to steal something on this show

[jaehyunsbreadbasket]

Loving how quickly Lily got kicked to the curb, Ricky had no hesitation 💀

Also her calling him "Richie", who does she think she is trying to change his nickname? Goodbye 😭

[fallindomino]

how i would have changed s2 of hsmtmts

obvious disclaimer but im not a screenwriter or anyth so im not claiming what i want is best, this is just for fun lololol

okay so first of all nini would still have dropped out of yac but she wouldn’t have gone back to east, she would have transferred to north bc she was too ashamed to tell anyone she left at first and maybe she still wants to explore who she is away from ricky and the others

nini could join north’s batb and this way maybe we could have some playful rivalry with lily and nini and more scenes with antoine shdhdjdj also it could have been a great opportunity to flesh out lily’s character so those scenes where she reaches out to ricky and her confession at the end of the season actually make sense lol

speaking of ricky ,,, i think he should have left the play at some point hear me out. he only joined in the first place because of nini and barely wanted to do it at all once he realized he wasn’t gonna be able to perform with her. he could have joined crew and been a manager with natalie or smth considering he rlly does see the theater gang as a second family. also this would leave so much room for ej and ricky development and bants since ej joined the av club and began to pursue film. they could have some convos where idk ricky asks ej how he figured out what he wanted to do after duke didn’t work out and ricky could actually develop some interests that arent the play or nini ,,, maybe fucking art club i mean he did p good on that centerpiece for carlos’ quinceañera.

with ricky not being the beast anymore i think seb should take his place that would be soooo good. and since seb isn’t chip anymore carlos won’t make those snide comments about chip being a small unimportant role and we can just cut that whole fight bc it was dumb and bad. we could still have seb being insecure that carlos is only dating him bc there aren’t really any other gay guys at school. in a heartbeat is great and i did like ricky being supportive in the background it was kinda funny too idk dhdjdjfj

ooh i almost forgot abt rini ahshdj okay so i still think they should break up. but in my version there’s no ricky pulling an ej 1.0 and deleting comments off of nini’s insta, cause with ricky in art club and nini at north trying to figure out what she wants i think one of them would realize that they’re going in different directions and only got back tgt because they made each other feel safe cause what they had was familiar. this could be triggered by ricky mentioning smth abt nini at yac and then nini breaks down and tells him that she dropped out and is at north and doesn’t know where she’s going. and then they can both realize they aren’t good for each other rn and have a less tragic mutual break up.

honestly i really liked the scene of nini taking charge after miss jenn freaked out cause with the character detail of nini giving every person in the cast of productions she’s in a thank you note she just seems really like someone who is suited to lifting others up. this could still be explored at north, maybe she could help lily through her issues that were briefly implied in ep 11 and nini realizes she wants to be a drama teacher and encourage kids to go off book and put themselves into their acting, something she couldn’t have at yac.

okay now ej ,,, so like i said in ricky’s section, more bants between them cause i feel like friendships kinda fell by the wayside due to all the relationships so more friendship !!!! also the scene where ej tells his dad he’s not going to duke shouldn’t have been an ending scene, it should have been fleshed out with his dad pushing back saying how he pulled all these strings to get him in and ej saying he doesn’t wanna go if his own hard work couldn’t get him there. and also more scenes of ej doing av club things !!! and realizing he rlly likes film and wants to do it OMG IT WOULD BE SO COOL IF HE BROKE THE FOURTH WALL AND ASKED THE DOCUMENTARY CREW ABT THE FILM INDUSTRY god i would love that. the only scene we rlly got of ej doing film things was at the quinceañera which made me kinda sad. uhhh also i just wanted to specifically mention how ej got mr mazzara that job at cal tech bc it really showed how he wanted to be there for people not just for gina, who he had a crush on, but for mr mazzara who supported him outside of romance, so i wanna keep that for sure.

gina !!! okay so i mostly liked her arc in this season, the only changes i would make would be to flesh it out a teeny bit (god this hypothetical s2 would have to be like 22 eps at least shdjdjdjfj) anyways besides ashlyn singing home to get gina to stay i think there should be a scene where they actually talk in her room abt how gina feels safer when shes on the run (second chance reference ilysm) hhhh and also a scene of her and carlos actually working out compromises for their choreo cause i liked that bit of development too and fleshing that out would make gina an even better foil for lily, who felt a need to hog the spotlight like gina used to. with gina’s own arc fleshed out her character would feel more whole independently from romance and portwell would be even more rewarding than it is in the current s2. the only thing i would really change abt portwell is that they would kiss !!! in the finale but thats bc im biased.

ashlyn should have gotten a more fleshed out storyline about being insecure about not being a good enough belle or the typical belle. there were some throwaway lines when north did their typical dramatics but the only two real scenes that showed it were when ash talked to big red about it and when she was telling nini she wanted to do a run in “home” bc lily did it. ashlyn should get more screen time where she has to grapple with the reasons she doesn’t feel good enough and big red can still support her but also gina too bc i would like more roommate besties interaction.

kourtney could still date howie, that harry potter shit was cute but there needs to be smth else for kourtney’s arc. idk she’s still into fashion so maybe she could be out here trying to create her own line or smth? this doesn’t have to be resolved in s2 like making a wholeass line takes time and she could work on it into a potential s3. kourtney just didnt get much outside of howie and the stuff at the beginning of the season where she said nini inspired her to be independent and that's why she got a job was just dropped?? so i think that fashion could fill that for her if she’s still dating howie cause like having her whole arc just be the pizza place kinda overlaps w big red’s mini arc abt how he wasn’t settling for hospitality, its what he wants to do with his life.

ik what ur thinking. anna, even if you added more episodes, where would u find the room to add all these plotlines?? well first we cut (most of) the seblos fight, so thats some time saved. honestly most of the time that we r going to gain is going to be from cutting ms jenn’s time. things like ms jenn’s and nini’s car ride would get cut, but mostly all of ms jenn’s romances would get cut down. considering she’s the teacher and isn’t actually a character with an arc how does she have THREE love interests this season?? like all of the weird tension between her and zack can be cut, like just some short scenes of them being competitive can stay. all of the stuff with ricky’s dad can go bye bye we don’t need it. i did like her w mr mazzara so most of that can stay i just didn’t like how he said he would give up cal tech for her, ew no that would be gone.

the MENKIES !!!! this is the last thing im gonna address cause in a perfect world every character would get a long fleshed out arc but then the season would be waaay too long and also im mostly trying to work within material the show gave so this is mostly made up of “realistic” deviations from what actually happened. lol idk what that even means it just makes sense to me. but anyways!! uhhh bro idk i thought them dropping the menkies was funny but it also made the finale really BAD lmao. in this finale, seb is the beast, east still had to deal w the fact that they’re underfunded compared to north but no one is injured, lily is less of a poorly written character and maybe ppl are even rooting for her, and wow i just realized i never actually said what role i think nini should have in north’s show. OOH she could be student director instead of lily cause lily both being in the play while also directing was weird considering omg i just checked and according to her wiki page shes a FRESHMAN?? and they let her be student director? lol hell nah. okay so with all that in mind ,,, the menkies should have been the season cliffhanger instead of portwell. east and north should both be nominated, both schools perform at the menkies, and then the award winner is about to be announced and THATS when it cuts to natalie and the end of the season.

one, this actually gives more tension for a summer s3 as we would be waiting to see the consequences of whichever school won. also i bet people would be wondering if nini’s gonna be transferring back to east or staying at north. people would also prob wonder if ej would be getting the scholarship if east won and what that would mean for his interest in film.

lmao that got longggg and idk if anyone’s even gonna read this but it was fun to do :D

[tofandomhellandback]

Lily stealing the harness made no sense when it comes to storytelling. There was no reason for it. It made Ricky do the old transformation but we didn't even get to see it??? So what was the point? It was also not brought up again.

[between-two-fandoms]

Current stance/thoughts on Lily:

The actress is doing an amazing job portraying her. Olivia Rose Keegan is the actress, in case anyone was wondering.

I want to take a second to remind fans that the actress is not the character.

Professional acting is first and foremost a job and they get hired to portray a character. Aside from special cases actors mostly dont have a say in what happens to their characters/what their characters do.

Please do not send hate to Keegan over something Lily did/does/will do.

I love how much potential Lily has to be a great catalyst or problem the club will have to face. She screams villain-esque potential.

She's devious and cunning. I lowkey think she's a North High spy or a spy from another competing school. Or she just wants to dismantle the patriarchy starting with the East High Drama Club. It's a toss up.

I despise Lily so far and I dont even know why. She just gives off vibes and I dont like the vibes she gives off.

I can't wait to see more of her! She's probably going to cause most of the drama in the returning cast of characters and I'm excited to watch 👏 all 👏 the 👏 shit 👏 go 👏 down.