What would you say some of the main themes of the the NPMD Recast AU are, in contrast to what they are in canon? Do they change a lot or not at all?
Hmm, this is an interesting question.
(This is a very long rambling post)
On one hand, no, I don’t think the themes would necessarily change too massively. But on the other, I suppose they do change quite a bit - rather the focus of said theme changes or the way in which the show would look at it. It’s hard to say, they simultaneously do and don’t.
Considering the limitation of everyone having to reach the same beats, I am limited. It can’t change completely or else the story would be entirely different and no point in it being the NPMD Recast AU. So I think it has to stay on base with the key themes of the canon NPMD, but as said above I can easily tweak how exactly we go about exploring them and to what lengths.
Nerds vs popular kids/bullies
The principal theme of nerdy losers/outcasts versus the popular (jock) bullies is still there, but rather than being primarily explored through Pete and Max, I want to open the floor to talk about Grace, give a little more focus to Ruth (as she’s lacking compared to Richie), and even Steph.
Grace is always shoved off to the side, as though she isn’t also a nerd; as though she isn’t the actual nerdy prude and the kid in particular who is at the bottom of the food chain, seeing as her fellow losers don’t want anything to do with her. She’s only spared the same exact bullying style as Pete, Richie, Ruth and the other nerds because Max currently wants in her pants. That’s why Kyle and Jason initially give her the same treatment as that is what Max has instructed to do previously. If Max’s desire was a longstanding crush, they never would have dared insult her - this was new, that’s why they have to told to change their behaviour, that’s why they are surprised when Max tells them off for it.
And even then, she’s not treated with any level of respect. Max doesn’t tell them off for insulting her because “criticising people on appearance is wrong”, he tells them off because they’re insulting his sex toy and ergo insulting him. He himself never says Grace is pretty. Any time he mentions her it’s about the conquest of obtaining the impossible, to further cement his power and godlike status by claiming the one person nobody else can. She’s always spoken about like an object or possession of his. She’s no better off than the other nerds. The entirety of Literal Monster and Max’s own speech indicates he’ll do whatever and stop at nothing to fuck Grace, her saying “no” clearly doesn’t mean shit to him; he’ll eventually just take what he wants and force submission from her like he does with the other nerds.
Outside of being treated differently and arguably worse than most of the nerds we see, Grace is further shoved aside because of her own feelings. Her attraction to Max muddies the situation and by playing her harassment/assault - and even her own refusal - as shits and giggles, does a horrible job at illustrating the complexity of the situation. I’m not saying it can’t be funny. There is absolutely a way it could have been done effectively, but this is not it. All that aside, let’s be clear, Grace hates Max. She does, however, find him attractive, borrowing his face to explore her sexual fantasy, but she does not want anything to do with him. Evidenced by her version of him being not remotely accurate to him and the fact she only “enjoys” him when he is either not there (Dirty Girl scene) or too far away to interact with her (the Waylon Place), both cases have her safely out of his way/touch and she can just enjoy watching the physical features she likes. By her liking Max’s body, it is incorrectly taken by some as her “consenting” to his treatment in spite of her constantly saying and doing the opposite, thus her entire case is dismissed.
Before anyone tries to argue that her case doesn’t matter because she herself doesn’t care or try to stop it before murdering him, go rewatch the show because she does. She tells Max “no” repeatedly which is the big obvious one and Max himself never learns that Grace finds him hot so he has zero excuse. Girl’s walking around with a goddamn neon sign, how clearer can she be? Second, we have Grace trying to tell her parents - yes, the Chasities have an usual communication style and greatly exaggerate shit, but Grace clearly tells her parents someone’s harassing her and Karen gets it, initially suggesting Mark speak to Max’s father to get him to stop. Mark misunderstands and brushes it off as harmless flirtation, akin to what he and Karen were like at that age, which again Grace is shown to be disgusted by and wants no part in with Max. She tries to continue to reach for help from them but is distracted by her repressed sexuality rearing its ugly head. Ultimately resolved to take matters into her own hands.
Sure, Grace has a very poor understanding of sex and relationships. Blaming Max for her attraction rather than his actual crimes, but considering this clearly comes from a combination of her parents brushing off harassment and how they’ve raised her, the Jerries and everything they teach at camp, the fact her best friend Gabe treats her pretty much the same way Max does, plus the general ideals of church, it’s not entirely Grace’s fault she reached that conclusion. She doesn’t know any better. But not the point just now.
And even when she does take things into her own hands, it’s not murder. It was the ghost prank. Max killed himself by stupidly running and jumping around an old, rotting and clearly unstable building like a dumbass - children are more cautious around that stuff than he was. And yes, she suggested the idea to cover up the crime, but she didn’t force anyone to participate and is literally canonically one of the shorter/weaker in the group. If they wanted to stop her physically, not that she was holding any of the weapons in the first place as she has everyone else handle them or doing anything but twirling until the others joined in but hey ho, they could have. If they wanted to outvote her, they could have. If they wanted to call the police and still do the right thing, even if it meant telling Grace off, they could have. But they do not. Granted Steph had no phone but she could have borrowed one or just ran off to get help - she’s one of the taller ones and canonically the strongest/most physically adept. I’m sick of Grace being dumped with all of this. They are all equally to blame for their part in covering up Max’s death; it’s not solely one person to blame, they’re in this together, as Steph says.
By the end, she’s coerced into sex to save Steph (and Pete plus the rest of the world) with said bully. Post-her physical attraction for him fading, see the start of act two. Post-him dying and being a rotting corpse of a ghost, who she cannot canonically do anything physical to but he can do whatever the fuck he wants with her. In Max’s defence, yes, he doesn’t know she’s coerced and not actually consenting, but his dumbass does believe her comically bad “I’m into you” act (which is just bits of dialogue he fed her earlier and actions/movement she copied from Steph) and it’s very, very clearly stated throughout the show on repeat Max would stop at nothing for this. Her consent was always irrelevant to him. She was just another victim. Not bullied in the typical “shove in lockers” sense, but bullied nonetheless.
Not to say Grace is completely flawless in NPMD, she has a fuck ton of problems, but people too easily disregard how she was wronged.
There, that’s Grace. Let’s talk about Ruth.
This isn’t as big, given Ruth is a more secondary character, but considering Max (and the rest of the football team’s) bullying of Richie is very drawn out and developed, it is only fair Ruth gets something more equal. Max and Ruth weirdly end up being the pair that spends the most time together out of the six - if we don’t count Steph and Pete or Steph and Grace - given all their little interactions and whatever happened in the Reprise of TGWDLM. They are simply ensemble members there in one song but got a lot of interaction and implications at least in the West End version; I can’t remember much about them from the LA digital ticket but assuming it can’t be too different.
It’s interesting to me that they do. They are so alike. The show jokes about it a lot by giving them shared lines and mannerisms. If Max was less interested in going after the impossible and wasn’t a massive shallow dick, he’d probably have a very sweet dynamic with Ruth. Big freaks but seems to like musicals to a degree, have a lot of energy, and dance is clearly something they both have some kind of passion towards. Maybe before Max turned bully there was some friendship there, maybe they went to tap class together. But we aren’t here to talk about their childhood.
Max is implied to be as much of a bother to Ruth as he is to Richie and Pete but we don’t see it, until her death. They could have benefitted from some interaction before the Waylon place. We don’t really have the time for a whole new scene for them both and it makes no sense adding her to Pete at Pasqualli’s but she could easily be added into Richie’s with no problem. Or as Max comes on, just have Ruth accidentally run into him and he shoves her out the way before he goes to Richie. Just something.
An idea I’ve been toying with for Recast is have Ruth there for both Richie and Grace’s scene with Max, but in the background. And that she’s the one he has an actual crush on. But being as shallow as he is, refuses to say it out loud, knowing how Ruth is judged for her appearance; he’s part of the problem. Grace is deemed ugly too but at least fucking her makes him look cool. Adds something to their dynamic and differs it from the other nerds while also highlight how is thing for Grace is very much about control. It then explains why he specifically is very kind to Ruth later, complimenting her acting and participation in the prank when he does to no one else (including Grace who he supposedly likes and Steph his best friend), while also making her death more brutal. It would be given more development and breathing room. The idea’s a work in process, but I wanted to share as it’s something I’ve been thinking about since London because Lauren and Iván were on something else.
And the drama club themselves. Trevor doesn’t seem to mean any harm, just messing up his lines because he misremembers them, and Angela goes out of her way to have her unnamed character (that I named Josie) have a friendly, supportive moment with everyone in the scene. Meanwhile Joey’s unnamed character (that I named Kevin) sticks to himself throughout, only interested in himself and his performance, and we are explicitly told Caitlyn and Ruth have hatred going. The latter two can’t be overly welcoming to Ruth, even if she is only in the booth and not onstage with them. Possibly all four of them have an issue with her but Trevor does look apologetic and Josie seems to feel bad, so I’m inclined to say they are at least neutral to Ruth if not friendly. But Kevin and Caitlyn? Hell no.
It’d be nice to see some judgment from the other nerds, like the theatre nerds of Kevin and Caitlyn looking down on Ruth. The implication is there but we could afford to tease it open a little more without losing anything. And highlight how bullying spreads, if only to avoid becoming targets themselves - as we see Max’s bullying trickle down onto Kyle and Jason, somewhat Brenda and Stacy, but surely they aren’t the only ones affected by his rulership of the school?
Then we have Steph. She’s almost the reverse here.
She’s never bullied by Max, only called a nerd to group her and the others together easily, and to highlight her fall from Max’s favour. A favour she seemingly held really easily when compared to the fellow football kids. Considering she gets away with insulting, swearing and physically berating Max with no consequence. He doesn’t even get mad at her for it, has zero reaction for it funnily enough while losing his shit at the minor infractions Jason and Kyle make. On one hand, he easily outranks Max and that might be what kept him in line until death where none of her money and power can protect her. On the other, Max proves he really doesn’t care too much for that shit. But… she herself is shown to be somewhat of a bully. Or at least has been previously.
Unaware of what Max’s doing and doesn’t really care until confronted with the physical evidence of Pete’s black eye - Hannah being bullied by Brad is an exception because she’s two years younger; Brad is therefore picking on a minor. She listens to Brenda and Stacy insult Pete and doesn’t tell them off either. And let’s not forget she did lightly manipulate him into cheating, and she herself admits had Pete said no, she would have done the same to someone else. She is surrounded by nerds in that opening number - Ruth, Richie, Grace and PJ. She had options, Pete just happened to be the closest. And as I’ve seen someone else suggest recently, Richie does call Steph by the friends’ only nickname she offers to Pete in exchange for his answers, indicating Richie was probably a previous cheat sheet. When she interacts with the nerds for the first time, she doesn’t introduce herself at all like she did with Pete, so possibly Ruth was also one too. Hell, Grace only calls her Steph/Stephie but she certainly didn’t help cheat, nor does Steph ever tell her off for doing so and it’s very implied they aren’t childhood friends who’ve grown apart… so something must have happened there that gave Grace the same nickname privilege.
Point is, regardless of her being nowhere near as dangerous as Max, she’s not entirely off the hook as a saint. Given her own attitude, her threatening Richie, Solomon’s teaching and Pete’s mean girl comment, this makes sense. Even if she’s never seriously bullied anyone in the same way, she’s certainly never really put a stop to it either. But we do stay with her long enough to see her grow and develop, realise it’s wrong and attempt to do right by the nerds. We even get Pete calling her out for her privilege and power, that even if they had gone to the police in spite of having the littlest excuse, she would have been the only one to get off lightly if not completely free.
While the call-out is good and Steph does lose her phone as punishment for cheating in the show albeit more for getting caught than having nerds cheat for her, more could be done. Otherwise Steph just gets away with it and loses that development. The nerds, perhaps minus Grace as Steph is never shown to really wrong her on screen to be fair, could easily have more of a go at her in any of the scenes prior the Waylon place. Particularly the nerds being more cautious before sending Pete on the study date. Or even them calling her out in the bathroom for being a hypocrite regarding Max, leaving her to apologise and wanting to do more to help them, cue Grace barging in with her plan.
It also offers a stronger parallel arc to Grace going from victim to bully, as she goes from (minor) bully to good person. And gives her a little more reason to be involved with everything becoming attached to Pete and just “his girlfriend”. You get to see her sense of justice, the want to not be a rich asshole like her parents, the regret of letting Max’s behaviour go on for so long and her own complicity in it/her own mistakes, etc.
Being cool, popularity and high school hierarchy
Is this really a theme? I don’t know but it’s repeated a lot and very crucial to the main characters. Max finds his coolness means nothing after high school/in death, Pete is determined to become cool to win Steph but thinks he’s cool anyways, Steph who… her lack of development really fucks her over here but it’s presented as something about losing it for Pete, and Grace who continually disregards being cool and cares little for the school hierarchy. And honestly? Outside of Max, this doesn’t really work.
Steph isn’t developed enough, Grace mentions it once than never again, Pete has the development but his characterisation is too contradictory for it to have the effect. Nothing about Pete is cool and nothing about Pete implies that he believe he’s cool, which makes Steph’s line pointless and comes out of nowhere. Had Pete kept Nick!Pete’s personality in NPMD, you wouldn’t need to change anything just a few directing/acting choices, this would have worked. He has the self confidence and the attitude, he does believe he’s cool in his own way, but NPMD/Joey’s Pete are lacking and too meek for this to really work. He stands up to Max, but there’s never any sign he believes he’s cool in any sense of the word, even once he clocks Steph is genuinely interested. Someone once said the Lautski songs would work better with Lautity, because Grace does actually believe she is cool in her weird way just not the school judgment way, and yeah, it would. Pete’s character needs to be tweaked ever so slightly.
If Steph had her solo song, this might have helped but I don’t think it would fix everything. Post-Max’s death, nobody has any concern about interacting with the nerds and Steph herself, mostly due to power and privilege in her own right, is so far above criticism that she’s never at threat of losing her status. She is too cool. She is the coolest girl. Max didn’t like it, but that was more because of his own beef with the nerds, seeing as Steph didn’t get any kind of “stay in your own lane, date a jock” talk. Only Pete was punished. And that’s perfectly okay, I don’t want to change that, it’s a fascinating decision. The problem is that we never really talk about it, we need Steph’s reflection on her status and how the hierarchy/bulling/school problems have never touched her. She can’t possibly relate to any of these kids, even her fellow popular ones. We need to see her wanting to dismantle the hierarchy, not so she can be with Pete “without judgment”, but to stop the problems for everyone they actually effect.
Grace, while she doesn’t repeat it again, it does establish how little she cares about it. But her big stick does revolve around a fair bit of it, unintentionally. Sexual harassment can come from anyone, but more so from people in power who can afford to get away with it. People like Max. These dirty dudes she’s going after aren’t nerds, they are bullies and jocks that were at the top of the food chain, who either harassed her directly or did nothing to stop their bro doing it to her. Her judgement is completely fractured by the end and, with time, she’ll probably turn to nerds too, but it would be nice to have had some reflection on it before that point. Even on the school and teachers who let them get away with it because “boys will be boys” and they don’t want to risk harming their sporting chances. Even her parents dismiss Max because he’s the golden athlete, popular jock, he’s “not the type” to do stuff like that. In the end, Grace does become cool by cementing herself the ruler and keeping those dirty dudes under her thumb.
By giving this added layer to Pete, Steph and Grace, it in turn also helps Max’s. He is the one judging who goes where, he made Pete a nerd in his eyes; his own popularity, however, is not guaranteed like Steph’s, he could loose it at any point and as soon as high school ends, he has none of her powers that will remain with her always; and it’s directly his coolness that allows him to get away with shit, to dictate Kyle and Jason, to harass Grace, to take what he wants.
It’s a repeated mantra, it ties these four characters together, it needs to be fully developed.
Sexuality, sexual attraction and sexual expression
These are bigger themes for AC. But they are there, just a lot more subtly in NPMD. Mostly through Ruth and Max, and to a lesser degree Steph, maybe then Pete and Richie at a push - not that they aren’t positive, just not as obvious about it as the former three. And then, of course, there is Grace who encompasses the more negative and self-hating side of things.
Ruth and Max are clearly there comfortable with themselves, perhaps take too much. They are both very open and loud, and even kind of push that onto the un-consenting people around them.
Steph is nowhere near as loud and certainly isn’t as pushy, but still very comfortable with herself. Alongside Max, she is obviously the more experienced and deliberate, whereas the others are just kind of throwing shit at the wall and hope it sticks or attempting to pray it away and live in denial. I gotta take a quick pause to show some appreciation to some details that I haven’t seen get much acknowledgment for.
Firstly, Mariah’s hair fiddling. A lot of her characters, in StarKid and beyond, touch or play with their hair in some way - when it is so long or wearing such elaborate wigs, meaning everyone in the theatre can see it - it works as a great way to highlight the character in show don’t tell and illustrate the differences in personalities (when playing more than one). For here and now, I’m gonna limit it to her main StarKid roles:
Alice (plus Harmony and Melissa) - very nervous and self-soothing, born out of anxiety and uncertainty
Zoey (though Caitlyn falls into the same box) - hair-ography, it’s part of her performance, in place of actual choreo; also sometimes uses it to flirt
Steph - trying to pull attention to her, uses it to flirt/manipulate/seduce, follows Lauter playbook but does make it impossible to look away from her; vanity, ties to Nibbly; also a pride thing, maybe a symbol of wealth that she can have it so nice
Putrice - obviously didn’t have hair as a troll, is very unused to it and keeps picking it up very weirdly/frequently; contrasts with Justine who almost never touches her hair because she is used to it
Second, more specific to just this show, but Steph’s physical flirtation/seduction/manipulation. I won’t be the first to say Mariah doesn’t have the greatest strength in dancing of the StarKids, she doesn’t have the same training there and the nerve damage in her knee hasn’t helped, to reference her. A lot of her characters/songs forego it entirely or only have very limited number of steps for her or just straight up hide her in the back, in a chair or give her a direct reason not to participate. It’s cleverly done and allows her to show off the powerhouse vocals or jaw-dropping acting instead. By nature, Steph is a very physical and restless character, even out of her songs. She likes to be up and sauntering, especially without a phone to busy her. And this is shown in her movement and choreography. With very deliberate moves, positioning, expressions and actions when she is flirting. And as I mentioned earlier, this is very crucial, not only to her but to Grace, who has to see this so she can copy it to flirt with Max. Beat for beat. Even her stroking the long hair riding over her chest she does not have. Even up to having her end up on the same stage cues as Steph when she originally does them. So props to Angela and Mariah.
Tangent over, linking back to this form of sexual expression, what is comfortable and fluid for Steph, is very awkward and uncomfortable on Grace. Because it’s made by Steph for Steph. It doesn’t work on Grace, they aren’t the same. Not to mention she lack the self-expression, practice and emotion behind it. Which is why her attempt at copying If I Loved You Steph really fails, but she matches High School Is Killing Me Steph far better. Because she isn’t flirting with an interest in the person. She’s flirting to get something out of them, the same way Steph is flirting to get answers out of Pete in the beginning. Complete with the same looks back and around to make sure the deceit is working. Though Grace is a lot more anxious, as obviously she and the others die if she fails, whereas Steph is nonchalant and cocky - she doesn’t think she’ll fail and hey, even if she does, there’s other nerds.
Richie and Pete are minor, it’s more implicated than told explicitly. Richie shares the same openness as Ruth and Max, casually talking about things and objectifying, but after being threatened by Steph does more or less shut up about it. At least around her. Out of fear she’ll do something, if not actually realising he’s in the wrong. Pete is clearly comfortable, but inexperienced and with a lot of insecurity in regards to himself. If Ted’s influence is still here like it is in AC, he doesn’t mention it in any way and has more doubts about everything. He has to ask a lot more for reaffirmation from others and overall hesitancy, but tries to deny it to himself at the same time. So while comfortable in his sexuality, his expression of it is pretty poor.
Grace falls into the unfortunate, accidental word vomit a lot, but more or less keeps her thoughts and feelings to herself. Raised to regard the whole process with a lot of shame and disgust, she struggles to even have a moment alone to herself about it. She can’t admit she’s the one having sexual thoughts, she knows too little (beyond very inaccurate and negative views) to properly understand them and has to pin the blame elsewhere because she has to be perfect and pure, just as everyone has taught her and expects from her at this point. She’s failed a lot by the adults in her life and has nobody she can really come forward with any of this too, given her lack of close connections. She’s screwed from the start. The dangers of purity culture and repression.
Yet… while hating Max and loathing the physical attraction she has to his body, she views her connection with Steph a lot more fondly and less dangerously. She casually compliments Steph’s charms; she always tries to help, albeit misguidedly; touches her without issues and lets Steph touch her back; lets Steph “carry her books” - daily reminder: these two are the only ones who touch the Black Book in NPMD; then most importantly, sacrifices her life (let’s not forget Max could have snapped her neck at any point while having sex and she wouldn’t have been able to stop him) twice for Steph as well as giving up what she cherished most to prevent Max from ever laying a hand on her. She could have intervened sooner or later, but it’s just before Max (and Lumber Axe/the Jerries in AC) can make Steph a victim that Grace plays guardian angel. And you could argue it’s platonic, but Grace never gives anyone else the same treatment. Has nowhere near the same care to her best friends. Steph is different.
Steph too never resorts to the same hatred or dislike she has for other characters with Grace. Yells at her, sure, but she yells at everyone a she yells at Pete equally as much as Grace. So Grace isn’t someone she completely despises too. She’s harder to read and gage why she feels that way because of the lack of the development - the only going reason is that she recognises Grace has been neglected by the adults in her life too and sympathises with her - but for Grace it could easily be a comfort and safety thing. Nobody else treats her so kindly (low bar, huh?), Steph has judgement but not for anywhere Grace is vulnerable. She is comfortable to be around Steph, to be open and honest, because it’s safe to express herself. And while still very hesitant, that does ultimately include her sexuality. Regardless of the nature of her feelings with Steph, but that surely plays a part too.
Sexual harassment/objectification of teenaged girls
Ruth is fortunately spared this treatment, but I do however get to talk about PJ. I could make a point about Max’s one-liner about Miss Tessburger, but as she’s not a teenager it doesn’t seem entirely relevant and it is one line - so just reminding you it exists and that is also not okay, Max.
Mainly shown through Grace, but Steph and PJ are fairly necessary to this in more minor ways.
Steph revives comments from Ruth and Richie that she more or less gets them to shut up about it. More so Richie. She just ignores Ruth going forward. She never really builds a relationship with either, possibly because their sexualisation of her left a bad taste in her mouth and that’s fair. Privilege, power and Max do protect Steph from most comments and mistreatment in NPMD. You see it more in AC for her, but it still felt very necessary to bring it up as it highlights how girls across the hierarchy receive the treatment from all kinds of people.
Alongside the unnamed popular girl he knocked up, it’s implied that he tried something on PJ during their study sessions. If he was just going to hurt and bully her like the other nerds, he wouldn’t have hesitated, therefore never giving her time to get out. I’m inclined to believe he harassed her before Grace, trying to force her into agreeing on a date. And, “regarding her future”, PJ got the hell out of there and stopped tutoring him to avoid being alone more one on one. Considering her lines prior talk about how hot he is, this matches up more than him just shoving her in lockers or giving her swirlies. It also is direct foreshadowing to Grace. Being attracted to him physically, hating him and being scared to get too close to him. Also their similar colour palettes and costumes have to be somewhat intentional.
I subscribe to the whole PJ and Reese are dating thing and given Max’s love for conquest, obtaining the impossible, he would totally go after a lesbian/sapphic girl and misuse study sessions to get that. After that failed and unable to take a loss, he needed something more surefire to highlight his desirability and masculinity, thus him settling on Grace as the next target.
I feel like everything I’ve said previously summarises Grace and everything she goes through in this theming, so I won’t repeat myself now. But she is heavily harassed, mistreated and objectified by almost everyone around her, primarily Max but there’s plenty of others. A bit ironic for apparently someone so ugly she should wear two bags on her head, you know? However, this implies the fact that harassment isn’t born out of what you wear/how you act, and is more or less about control. Steph receives harassment and she’s polar opposite to Grace and PJ. It’s not really about what you look like, how you act, your sexuality, whether you have a partner or not, or even if you say “no” to their advances. They are still going to do it.
Again, within NPMD and to a lesser degree in AC, this is all played off for laughs. “Can you believe Ruth and Richie would just say this to Steph? Look at this prude saying no to the hot jock harassing her and ignoring her? Here’s that same scene again but with her supposed best friend Gabe? Isn’t it funny?” And so on and so forth.
It’s not funny. It could be done comedically and still be effective, but this is not it.
This is pretty much on par with Emma yelling at the audience in the end of Guy. She wants help, to get the hell out of there, and you’re just laughing/cheering. They only are kept inside the fourth wall and obviously can’t yell at you for it.
They are teenagers. With a school that won’t help. At least for Steph and Grace, parents who aren’t helping either. It’s shit. There’s nothing to laugh at. Steph is big and strong enough to push Ruth and Richie away, but that doesn’t stop words from hurting, just means she’s not at risk of a physical assault like Grace and PJ are.
It’s fucked up what happens to the boys too but those scenes are more or less played straight or the funny bit is Jason’s interruptions as he completely misunderstands what’s going on and tries to befriend everyone. Love you, Jace. But the girls don’t get someone or something else to be comedic relief to an otherwise tense scene. And in Grace’s case, has to double as the comedic relief. Considering with Grace it happens repetitively with several people across several shows/episodes, they could afford to have at least one of those scenes be different.
So in Recast, we’re really deconstructing all of this and talking about it, this will be front and centre.
It’s the catalyst of everything and ultimately Grace’s motive at the end, to completely disregard to talk about Pete’s love of Star Wars references and for Steph to just be there as his soon-to-be girlfriend as his echo, seems like such a waste of potential.
As you said before in one of our asks or reblogs, Nerdy Prudes is like Jennifer’s Body except it forgot it was about sexual harassment. And I want to bring that back.
I hope this answers the question! Thank you for the ask, I was a little unsure how to answer this one - there are so many themes and all very important in their own right, but these seemed like the very basic four the show couldn’t be the same without.
It was a little easier coming at this from a character perspective. As while I don’t necessarily have the narrative/scenes structure completely worked out yet, I do know where I want the characters to go. Specifically the main four. Which subsequently gives me a better idea for songs, so this is more answered to the theming of the soundtrack than the plot and scenes themselves. I hope this is okay though!
I agree with everything about how Grace is handled in canon. I also agree with the point that it *could* have been funny with better writing but it wasn’t handled properly. I feel like the show focuses too much on criticizing Grace and the caricature/archetype she represents, that it doesn’t take time to have us sympathize with any of the horrific things she goes through. Even just a few musical cues and maybe tweaked lines could do a lot of heavy lifting.
I like shifting of Max’s defeat being moved to the end of act one. I think it allows for more space to let her story breathe but also I think it emphasizes her foil status with Max as they both have equal weight in the story (though I don’t know if the two are foils in the same way as canon in the recast au)
Ruth
I think Ruth and Max’s dynamic is SOOOOO untapped and I like the ideas you’re bringing up for her. The two are very similar as you said and I wish the narrative acknowledged that. (In another world npmd unpacks its themes of sex, sexuality and consent differently regarding Grace and max and I think Ruth would be such an interesting player regarding those ideas) Regardless I really like the idea of them being old friends who grew apart or something like that.
Also the drama club is such a good way to subtly and efficiently show more of the dynamics of the social hierarchy.
Steph
I think Steph is a really good example here of how even if you aren’t actively trying to bully people, being complicit is also an issue. (Also in the context of her being Solomon’s daughter, it’s like a microcosm of how political complicity aids those who want to oppress others).
Also her getting the bully redemption arc fleshed out the themes more for sure. I like the antithesis you’ve made between her and Grace. Grace becomes a bully while Steph stops being one. I hear character parallels and I perk up like a dog hearing “treat”.
Coolness
Every day the collective mourns Nick!Pete (no shade to Joey there are things like about his characterization, and a lot of it was also probably about direction)
There probably wouldn’t be room for this, but including Social Light and maybe some sort of reprise of it to reflect her deconstruction would be really interesting. (I am a reprise lover. I fear there is only one reprise out there I don’t like so far). Maybe even a mashup reprise like cool as I think I am borrowing from if I loved you.
I think Grace overturning the hierarchy makes sense because she also suffers a unique and in many cases more harmful form of bullying/harassment (in part because sexual harassment is often disregarded like you said).
Also yes on developing the other characters more inherently fleshing max out more!
The way you described his position of popularity being precarious in comparison to Steph makes me think of the underlying class element of npmd again for some reason. Pete is afraid of looking poor so he wears suspenders and a bow tie, and Steph can live a comfortable life because she’s the mayors daughter.
Your point really made me think about how highschool is a mirror of the larger capitalistic system we live in, but in highschool things are viewed through social capital. Also that ties into Steph’s song being a play on the term socialite for sure. (Also it makes sense then that wiggly has a special relationship with the lauters which you’ve pointed out before)
Themes of sex and such
Never fully noticed Mariah’s acting choices with hair but now I really appreciate it (it always comes back to hair doesn’t it, it’s everywhere). Also the stage cue parallels! Love hearing someone point out details I’ve missed.
Agh I love putting characters into the positions of other characters and seeing how they differ ugh. (In general I appreciate your insights to the more theaterish aspects of storytelling. Yes I’m a theater kid of sorts, but my strengths lie in literary/language and art based analysis)
I like your take on Pete and his role in all of this, drawing on more AC Pete stuff.
The detail of both Grace and Steph touching the black book hello???????
Objectification
I will say this regarding Max and Miss Tessaburger, there is a real phenomenon of male students not respecting their female teachers because of misogyny and sometimes even objectifying them. I think it’s interesting to reflect how, even with age differences and teachers being in positions of power patriarchy can still trump those sorts of things. Max is aware that his power extends beyond just his peers. (I only elaborate on this point because education/teaching is one of my interests lol)
Love your PJ thoughts.
Also I’m glad we’re acknowledging that Ruth and Richie don’t understand boundaries. I feel like that isn’t acknowledged enough.
I need to make a full layout of my NPMD is Jennifer’s body but mixed up analysis because I have so many thoughts on it. It feels like max is Jennifer for the first half even though he treats Grace like how Jennifer is treated at the beginning, and then at the end the writers were like “ah wait fuck Grace is supposed to be Jennifer” and gave her ddmd and then promptly ended the musical.
Also this was a good response! It felt validating to hear your opinions about the original story and also learn about some details I missed in it. Im very character brained so framing it that way was helpful!
just saw a 'comments' tab on someones blog you know where the following and likes tabs would be if enabled and it was just showing all the replies theyve made on peoples posts. this is fascinating when did this feature come out
if you've made replies on posts there is now a tab on your blog showing every post youve replied to and your reply.
if this is not what you want, either go to your blog and click comments and disable it from there or just go to your individual blogs setting pages. just change it from blue to grey if you dont want everyone to see your replies AND the post you're replying to
PLEASE BE ADVISED that it is set to disabled for blogs that have not made any replies but it will turn ON if you reply with that blog in the future.! i just tested it with my main, which was greyed out but it turned on the moment i left a test reply
figured i'd get the word out bc i have not seen a single mention of this and i'm sure there are plenty of people who maybe comment on things they don't want on display for everyone to see on their blog lol. you can still look at your replies with it toggled off just no one else can, like locking the following and likes list
so for some reason this feature was actually announced on the tumblr engineering blog. interesting choice not to reblog it to the staff or tumblr blog, esp considering they asked for user input on how to implement it, but i suppose considering the response to the last update maybe the replies would be too overwhelming...
so couple of clarifications. comments are disabled as default for primary blogs that have their likes disabled. they are seemingly enabled for all other blogs that have replied to posts
posts you comment on may show on your followers 'for you' page if you leave your replies publically available. they may, in the future, show in on your followers dashboard if your follower goes to their dash settings and enables this. apparently, if your likes are enabled, your followers can already see those on the dash if they've gone into preferences and selected to do so, which I was unaware of, and that seems to be disabled at default, but it's possible i disabled it previously and forgot about it ig
the dinosaur rattles and the pink mouse and the collie are finger puppets :) the grey mouse is a 2000s jellycat which i’m pretty hyped about because i got it for £1.50 from the charity shop
does the body ALWAYS have to keep the score? maybe we could just have a friendly game this time. maybe we can just have fun without putting numbers on it
being in the shower: there is no past and there is no future, there is just the here and now, i am alone but i am not lonely, i am calm and one with the universe, existence is sublime
getting out of the shower: evil evil evil (wet version)
watched three girls who reblogged its new blog mutual aidpost (made literally 15 minutes ago) already disappear from its notifs. transfems are not included in their pride :/
turnnoffyourmind
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