High School Musical/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


High School Musical

  • Does anyone have any idea why Troy's father didn't just tell him "You made a commitment when you took on the role as captain of the basketball team. Auditioning isn't much, Troy, but if you get the part in the musical, the rehearsals will increasingly conflict with our schedule, which you signed onto at the beginning of the year." instead of the equivalent of "Dude, you're a jock. Jocks don't sing. You may only have one hobby at a time"?
    • That really bugged me too. "Learn to take priorities" became "Cheat to do whatever you want. Since you're popular, you will not get punished".
  • In all the time between Gabriella was shown Troy saying that neither she nor the musical was important to him at all, INCLUDING when Troy and all the nerds told her it was either a set-up or "those stupid things", why did it never occur to her what the odds were of anyone getting a recording or whatever it was of him saying that without it being a set-up?
    • Even the world's smartest teenage girl is susceptible to turning into a moron where the person she likes is concerned.
  • I sort of throw my hands up every time a teen girl's laptop computer first does some sort of weird webcam linkup, then manages to control the entire school to set the stage for the finale. Yes, I know, 'it's just a show, I really...'
  • Am I mistaken or is Gabriella something an Omnidisciplinary Scientist with a smattering of Teen Genius, just with a glance of the books in her locker?
    • That would explain why she was called a freak at her old school.
  • At the audition Ms Darbus claims Sharpay and her brother were the only people to audition in pairs. So what about the pair who were on before them?
    • Maybe it was an auditioning student and his/her best friend and accompanist, who was willing to help their best friend get a part but couldn't be in the play itself because the soccer team, like the basketball team, had a schedule that conflicted with the drama club?
    • The girl seemed to be doing most of the vocalising, with the boy there as 'backup'.
  • Why are Sharpay and Ryan competing for a scholarship (rather than just a place in the school) if they're filthy rich?
    • Because it's still free money, you don't just pass that up.
    • Because it would meant they're better than everyone else there.
  • How come High School Musical 2 is titled, well High School Musical 2? The high school is only in it for, like, ten minutes and then the whole plot shifts to some swanky holiday resort.
  • It bugs me that Troy and Gabriella are still friends with Chad and Taylor despite the fact that they are assholes to them and tried to break them up in the first place. All they had to say was "whoops" and that was it. Maybe I'm a screwed up person, but if one of my friends did that to me, I'd never speak to them again.
    • You're not screwed up at all. I think that's what any sane person would be doing if their best friend screwed them over like that. Maybe they get away with it because admitting them to be villains would stir up the Moral Guardians. How dare a children's movie bring up such Unfortunate Implications over African-Americans!
  • Did the musical in the first movie only have two parts? Because that's the only reason this Troper can see as to why Sharpay and Ryan would fight so hard against Troy and Gabrielle and then settle for understudies at the end. I could see Sharpay's pride leading her to put up a fight, but then wouldn't they rather take a slightly smaller part rather than be the understudies to the people who took the leads? Weren't there any secondary romantic couples for them to play, assuming that they still refused to play characters who don't hook up?
    • If the lead character gets her kneecaps broken in an unfortunate collision with a random skateboarder who is suddenly twenty dollars richer, a person in a smaller role doesn't get the part, the understudy gets the part (except where the person in the smaller role is the understudy because the two characters aren't onstage or with speaking roles at the same time).
    • The above is normally only true for professional shows. In several high schools, the understudy for a main role tends to be one of the stage managers, or in a few cases, one of the prop managers. If the cast has an ensemble, one of the ensemble people may move up to a minor role, and the minor role may move up to the major role. It's rare that directors in high school would cast an understudy, because there is only a slight chance that they will not be able to go on.
  • High School Musical 3: We should put on a play! But our lead female gives up her part and our lead male doesn't show up! Then they return after the show starts and correctly assume they can just take their parts back! Yeah. That would go over well in a real school play.
    • As we have stablished elsewhere on this page: Darbus plays favorites like hell. Plus, everyone(with very few exceptions) are assholes.
  • I just got done watching HSM(Riff Trax commentary) and I just gotta ask: What does Zeke(the guy who bakes) actually see in Sharpay other than that she's a girl and that she's kinda cute? I mean they don't call her the Ice Queen for nothing. She's vain, selfish, snobbish, shallow and manipulative. The only time she actually started to noticing him was when she ate some of his cookies and begged him to make more for her. Unless he's into abuse, I see no good coming out this relationship.
    • He thinks she's hot which is good enough for most High Schoolers.
    • 'Cause 1: Ashley Tisdale is hot. And 2: she's actually not that bad deep down, as shown by the end of each movie and in Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure.
  • Ever notice how people try and convince Troy and Gabriella to stop singing...by singing a song about it?
    • Oh the irony.
  • The kids in the third movie are competing for scholarships to Julliard. Barring the obvious points about Julliard not working like that and the fact that none of these kids would have a chance of so much as being wait listed at the real Julliard- if they're competing for a scholarship, it means they were already accepted. Ryan receives the scholarship. If Sharpay wants to go there so badly, why don't her parents just use Ryan's unused tuition money to help pay for Sharpay and send them BOTH to Julliard?
    • Already discussed. It's still free money and she wanted to prove she was better than everyone else.
      • But at the end, Sharpe knows she didn't get the scholarship and says she's going somewhere else for college. It's like you absolutely need the scholarship to get into the school, which is just wrong. As the OP said, if you're competing for a scholarship, you're already in. So why would she be in and choose to go somewhere else without the scholarship? ESPECIALLY when she's by far the richest person in an already obviously affluent community (have you SEEN the high school? Tell me you've seen any public school as rich as that). It makes zero sense, and Ryan getting the scholarship is frankly an insult to any real musician who actually can't afford the school and can't go.
  • "I Want It All" implies that Sharpay's main goal is New York or Hollywood fame with Julliard as a stepping stone. So why, after not getting the Julliard scholarship (and not going, despite the logic given in the previous Headscratcher), did she go to school in Albuquerque instead of applying somewhere like NYU or UCLA?
    • Especially NYU, since it has Tisch and it's heavily implied she wants to major in something relating to musical theatre? (Which, amusingly, Julliard doesn't even offer.)
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