I have seen you, and I have heard you. I 've been thoroughly informed that Ryan does, in fact, show up in a post-credit scene in Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure. A kind viewer sent me a link to the scene and it involves a white-and-red suited Ryan showing up, talking to Sharpay about her fame and his touring musical, and him getting stuck in a Murphy bed, very Sims style. In short, Disney+ did me dirty and doesn't have the extended version, which is why I never knew about it :( Thanks for all the heads up!!
Okay so, why did no one point out the baseball allegory angle of "I don't dance"? Baseball is (in)famous for giving the world some of the most recognizable intimacy expressions - First base, second base, third base, and homerun. It ends with Chad getting to homerun, which I feel gives a LOT of extra evidence. Especially with the clothes changing after. BTW I had fun watching, thanks!
Someone sent me the blooper video on insta and I was absolutely shocked. Shaking and crying. Why would Lucas Grabeel and Chris Warren do that to me personally
my headcanon is basically that chad and ryan got together in the second movie and they're dating secretly all throughout the third which is why they can't be seen interacting too much by others bc obviously they would get sussed out immediately lmao. and taylor is cool with it all and continued "dating" chad as his beard, because she's actually aroace and just didn't wanna be bothered by anyone 😂 happy ending for everyone ♥🏳🌈
Also Kelsey and Ryan act as each others beards during the 3rd film because neither want to come out yet (despite the fact that literally everyone is aware that they have this arrangement)
this or chad and ryan have some sort of argument around the time of the third movie due to chad dating taylor and they have a little angsty break from each other and thats why chad makes that sad little grabby motion towards ryan cause hes like “wait no i miss him” and they have some offscreen typical fanfiction argument before making up with each other. sorry i got a lil too detailed there it was just on the brain lmaoo
I just think it's fun and fruity for Ryan to continually tell Chad---his opponent in the baseball game---to "hit it out of the park." Homie is confident, self-actualized AND supportive??? What else could you want in a man?
Also regarding HSM3--Imagine if Chad and Ryan got Troy and Gabriella's song "Can I Have This Dance" because it would have been a perfect callback and parallel to "I Don't Dance" symbolizing that Chad had learned from Ryan and accepted his sexuality and was able to be in a happy relationship with Ryan
Love the video, but Chad's, "You call that a little game?" IS in reference to a previous scene. When Gabriel first brings Ryan with her to the game, Chad basically says like, "Do you even know how to play?" And Ryan says, "I've got a little game." And then he's really good, and admits in the costume swap scene that he actually like, won a league or some shit. So it's more a representation that Ryan has always known he can be feminine and masculine.
Honestly the reason why HSM 3 has like zero Ryan/Chad is because at the time so many people were calling Ryan gay and Chad bi, and Disney didn't like that. so, in the 3rd movie Ryan got Kelsie.
I think Chad started realising there was something going on with his sexuality in the second movie after The Baseball Scene and Ryan was helping gently guide him through it and it was fun and lighthearted but once classes started again it all got too real and he freaked out on Ryan, who had too much self worth and confidence to go chasing around someone who 1. still had so much internalised homophobia to work through and 2. was in love/obsessed with his best friend and didn't even realise it. So Chad probably said some insensitive things and Ryan kept his distance, letting him sort himself out on his own (Ryan also had to think about his future and Julliard and focus on coreography so he couldn't be spending all that time with the mess that was Chad's yo-yo of accepting and rejecting his bisexualit-- I mean "being able to like two things at once"). And now my fanfic starts: maybe in college (where anything can happen right Troy teehee) he'd be able to find himself, once Troy wasn't there to serve as a crutch for his identity. Maybe once Troy flaked on him enough times (because he was so focused on Gabriella like always) he'd see that he was the only one putting work into that relationship and then he'd call Ryan up and they could reconnect, but now he grew more as a person and knew himself better and accepted that part of him that always challenged his view of himself. Anyways, fantastic video, I hope someone wrote a fic like this that I can read because I just convinced myself that that's what happened
That's what I actually really liked about the I don't dance song, amongst other things. You got to see Ryan and Chad have some space from Troy and Sharpay for once. I wish we got a whole spin-off movie just about them, actually. Lol
I'm glad you pointed out that Ryan didn't dismiss or make fun of anyone. Ryan feels like the dude who slips in and out of friend groups easily and is friends with like everyone but the minute he's with Sharpey they tend not to hang out with him lol
looks like that might be happening.. . just came up as a recommended for me (i wasn't subbed) and as of the time i'm typing this, 18 out of 79 comments just happened in the last 24hrs, so it must have just hit that magical tipping point where it's fallen into the almighty algorithm's good graces..
There are things in this video I didn't even think about! I'm only 21 minutes in. This is super well done. And don't feel hesitant in you "overanalyzing" since Kenny Ortega said that he purposefully put queer stuff in the movies for people to see and understand. It's all there on purpose. Also want to point out in the third movie while there are barely any scenes with Ryan and Chad, there is that really cute scene at the end with Troy and Gabriella. They came back to do the reprise of "Just wanna be with you" and Ryan is excited they got the choreo down. Chad gets happy too and goes to hug him but disney cut it off right before we could see. HSM more like SMH.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!! also thank you for pointing that out about HSM3!! i think i was so fed up by the end of that movie i was ready to abandon all hope. also please make a t-shirt that says "hsm more like smh"
I noticed that too finally, like only a day or two ago! I was watching that scene and as I got to the part you mentioned, I suddenly leaned closer like "wait, where are his hands going?" I was already so happy with how he was following Ryan's hand movements, and then I realized: "Oh my god he IS going to hug him!!" My heart..
Okay but, about Kelsie’s outfits being “questionable” that’s the MAIN reason why I’d always relate to her as an enby character, cuz growing up trying to figure out your style as an enby person generally leads to some odd choices that you end up just committing to even if not 100% convinced all of the time, so it makes total sense to me
I stand by my assessment that Ryan had the most growth of any character in trilogy. Basically every other character just resets and repeats the same sticking point each movie (Sharpay is mean, gets nice at the end of a movie, then is mean again. troy and gab go through the same conflicts. chad has the same conflict evry movie etc), but Ryan gets development each movie, going from himbo lackey in 1, slowly getting wise to his sister's antics and finally stepping into his own fabulous shoes in 2, and in 3 just doing his own thang while still occasionally hanging out with Sharpay, while running a play and aiming for his own dreams. Sharpay still trys to treat HSM3 Ryan like it's HSM1, but he's having none of it. Dude really grows up, so proud of him. Kelsey was absolutely just a friendly prom date too. The gays all flock together for easy 'dates', those two knew what they were doing with that.
Ryan and Zeke sorta make sense, since Zeke is the first person (after Troy) who accepted doing something different. He has been hiding his love for baking all this time, while Troy basically had a new discovery for singing. All Zeke needed was a small push for him to truly be his authentic self (you saw how nervous he was to start Stick to the Status Quo, but he built the courage to do it), which is the same thing Ryan sorta needed. Chad’s problems run too deep, he’s still projecting his own issues on others and views things in a toxic way (he was the main one telling everyone to stick to the status quo), he has years of healing to do before he could be with Ryan
i agree about the ryan and zeke part because lucas said in an interview that ryan did canonically have a crush on zeke. but i kinda think that chad was only being "toxic" because he just couldn't accept the fact that his best friend, because of a girl, suddenly just wanted to focus more on something else other than something that they grew up doing together(?). he might've grown an attachment to either basketball or troy himself (if it is troy, then maybe he's trying to deny like, "oh, i'm not gay but why am i jealous that my best friend has a girlfriend and that he cancels all the plans he has with me to hang out with her?". maybe some sort of internalized homophobia for himself and that he doesn't want to accept the fact that he might be, even just a little bit, gay and the way he tries to cope with it, is by shitting on the fact that some people like 2 things, kinda like bisexuality, rather than only liking one thing, like heterosexuality, because he's denying and doesn't want to accept that he might be infatuated/inlove with his friend.) but hey, that's just a theory, A FILM TH-
it would make sense if ryan and zeke had even an ounce of chemistry (or more shared screen time/interactions than chad&ryan... which they don't), but there was zilch there. 🤷 just because something is technically or theoretically more healthy, doesn't mean it would work out better. chad and ryan might seem """unhealthy""" from a surface level, but their interactions have never reflected that at all. in fact, they seem to be good for each other, considering all they've ever done was encourage each other to get out of their comfort zone and try something new, and then be chill and hang out with zero animosity or judgment towards each other afterward. doesn't seem all that unhealthy to me. chad has an unhealthy relationship with troy for sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean he would have an unhealthy dynamic with ryan too. and from what we've seen, he doesn't.
@@MonAhgasInsomniAroELF fun fact there were actually multiple scenes filmed involving Zeke and Ryan that allows the viewer to see the tension between them, or more so just the crush that Ryan had on Zeke, looking at him longingly etc. But with these being Disney channel original movies released in the 2000s gay shit was not permitted..
What’s funny to me is that the boys from my school made fun of Troy calling him gay because of his solos but he’s arguably the only straight character in the trilogy
I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF I DON'T DANCE. Sorry, I'm pretty much screaming on the inside with how much I ship Ryan and Chad. It's seriously enough that I've taken to not only reading, but also writing fanfiction about them. I already shipped them years ago, but it's only in these past couple of weeks that I've gone completely crazy. And the fact that they SWITCHED CLOTHES AFTER THE, may I say, very sexually loaded BASEBALL GAME. I'm freaking out. Ryan is straight up making moves and hitting on Chad, and I'm absolutely all for it. The "one little thing that stops me every time" Chad sings about, while we're seeing the crowd watching the game. The one thing definitely, majorly is his friends, what they'd think, and also Chad's own, deep rooted beliefs. I swear, I've been coming back to watching the I Don't Dance scene or just listening to the song, both of these on repeat, especially staring at the video, rewinding a certain part and watching it again. I've just gone wild with it. The second time they have this exchange of "You never know." "Oh I know." "If you never try," and Ryan's got the mitt, he's holding it against his chest as if he's pointing at himself. It's like he's saying to Chad: "Come, take a shot at me. You never know unless you give it a chance." It's just.. * internal screaming * I'm such a fangirl and going crazy, again. You've done so much work with this video, I applaud you for it, really. I'm obsessed and having such a good time.
The creator of HSM, Kenny Ortega, has actually said he intended for Ryan to be gay but knew Disney wouldn't let him, so put in a bunch of hints and stuff. He said he figured these little things would be picked up on by the people going through the same things. Also, this isn't my revelation, I don't remember who noticed this originally, but...'I Don't Dance' parallels a Fred Astaire number called 'I Won't Dance'. In "I Won't Dance", Astaire doesn't want to dance with his love interest because he's afraid he'll fall in love with her. By the end of the song, he does end up dancing with his love interest and falling in love with her.
As a side note: I think Sharpay’s insistence on singing with Troy being the key to get him to fall in love with her is at least a callback to how Troy and Gabriella first fell in love when they sang a duet together. The difference of course is that Troy and Gabriella both sing together naturally, while Sharpay, in trying to orchestrate a duet with Troy that is fundamentally imbalanced in her favor, is unsuccessful. It’s one of Sharpay’s chief flaws that prevent her from getting with Troy; she has a crush on him, but loves the spotlight, which isn’t bad, but she can’t have both, because Troy is a collaborative singer by default.
Lucas Grabeel singing the "Baby" song in the Sharpay movie when he doesn't even appear in it killed me. Oh my God. This entire video was a masterpiece.
The part about Chad asking Taylor out to basically keep up appearances makes so much sense to me. And it’s kind of funny because in middle school, I (a baby Ace who didn’t understand why I didn’t have any crushes like my friends and sisters) made up a crush on Corbin Bleu as a cover. He’s cute, but I didn’t truly care as much as everyone else seemed to care about Zac Efron 😂
@@jasmca1958 yeh i think it was a special easter egg for disney channel only.. . i remember because i got the dvd when it was first released and was surprised to see ryan appear when it aired later on the disney channel.
@@amycox5733 the one I have bookmarked is called "a promise instead of a regret" I could have sworn I bookmarked more I'm disappointed in myself. Anyway that one's good
NOT THE DAD STRAIGHTENING RYAN'S HAT!! I never noticed, I opened my mouth in shock and thinking of the implications, thank you for bringing it up! Amazing work on the video, it was a lot of fun watching and listening to. I've always liked the idea of Ryan and Chad together, and lately I've loved it.
Here’s a theory: Chad and Taylor are EACH OTHER’S beards At the end of HSM1, Chad makes an impulse decision to assert his Totally Straight and Not Clingy status. He approaches her, and in the moment she’s like “why not?” But by the time HSM2 rolls around, they’re clearly supposed to be together, but also aren’t really shown as a couple. Sometime during the timeskip, Taylor must have realized that things were weird. Chad didn’t have much interest in her, she didn’t really care about him, and why did he even ask her out in the first place? So she sits him down and has a talk. He comes clean that it wasn’t really a considered or earnest thing he did, maybe even that he’s gay and was trying to reaffirm his masculinity And to her credit, Taylor gets it. More than that, she kinda feels similar about their relationship. She said yes because she figured it’d be easier to have a boyfriend like Chad than to deal with people trying to get with her. She’s not interested in romance, and just wants to follow her carefully planned life to the presidency. So she proposes a solution: they say they’re still a couple. That way people leave the both of them alone, and they’ll be free to focus on what they actually want. This lines up nicely with the post-baseball outfit-switch scene where Taylor is encouraging about the extremely obvious off-screen activities. It also explains why Chad has his most notable moments in the later group numbers with Troy and Ryan, rather than his supposed girlfriend And actually, I think there is a viable reading for the dual-beard theory in HSM3. By this point Taylor knows that Chad and Ryan have some chemistry, but she’s still acting as his beard. This means she still has to put on an act for people, and I think that’s really where her frustration lies. She wants Chad to get out of his own head and pursue Ryan, because he HAS found someone attainable. She snaps at him about asking her to prom because she wants him to go with someone meaningful. That first invite was really low-key, with few witnesses. She can easily shoot him down. But when he comes back to her with a grand gesture, she has no excuse to say no. She knows it means he’s too chickenshit to ask Ryan, and now it’d be suspicious if she refused. They’ve been each other’s beards for too long, and there’s too many witnesses ADDITIONALLY I think Taylor’s also angry with Chad because he’s back to obsessing over Troy. She’s besties with Gabriella and knows full-well that Troy is hopelessly in love with her. Chad has gotten it in his head that now that Troy and Gabriella have to part ways, he’s got another shot with his childhood BFF, but it’s just a pipe dream. Note that Chad’s initial prom invite is in front of Troy, for his benefit. Chad and Taylor have grown closer while fake dating, and she does care about Chad’s feelings (remember how they look at each other during Troy’s graduation speech). She knows it’ll end in heartbreak, and wants to spare him that. She’s not gonna be around to pick up the pieces, so she’s trying to give him some tough love in the hopes that he’ll make the right decision and ask Ryan out. Unfortunately, we know he doesn’t have the guts or common sense to follow through on that NOTE: I wrote all this before the ace Taylor tangent. I fully agree, she’s just so clearly not interested in a real relationship, and that prom dress is absurdly on-the-nose ALSO tangent but I think Ryan and Chelsea are cute as like. A songwriting duo. They’re just good friends who work well together in theater, a thing they’re both passionate about. Not to mention they’re both the most openly gay characters in the cast. Ryan… *is Ryan*, and Chelsea has that GNC swag that I could buy as lesbian, enby, or both. They gravitate towards each other out of kinship, not romance, and it’s probably pretty healing for Ryan to have a female theater friend that isn’t domineering and also his sister. I imagine that attending college together ends up being a great experience for him
Yes, agree with all of this. Just a little side note: please don't use "real relationship" instead of "romantic relationship". Aroace people do have and are interested in real relationships, because there are more than sexual or romantic relationships, that are real ❤
@@1evonvielen Oops, my bad! In this context I definitely meant “real relationship WITH CHAD” (as opposed to the fake one I hypothesized), but I totally see how that looks like a dismissal of QPPs and aroace relationships! Definitely not my intention, and I’m sorry for that misspeak
I’ve ALWAYS seen Taylor as Ace/aro or at the very least sapiosexual and I agree about Kelsey’s non-binary hints and I think an argument could be made for sapphic inclinations too. So to me it almost felt like they maybe worked out a deal with chad and Ryan to pretend to be dating so everyone left them all alone and that’s my personal headcanon. Also Troy being bi feels so obvious to me and always has like they don’t try to hide the parallels when his whole storyline across the series boils down to “everyone trying to tell him to pick one and in the end he says fuck you im doing both” 😜🤣
I completely feel you and am 100% down for the Kelsey and Taylor coupling it makes way more sense especially as them as beards for Ryan and Chad as it would make sense that this town seems overly hetero-centered especially since in the whole first movie going against the status quo. Plus Plus Ryan’s dad seems very homophobic and I don’t think it would be a safe space. Plus Ryan x Chad is beyond amazing and my favorite Disney ship
So, regarding 30:34 - one of my favorite bts fun facts about HSM is that “Fan Favorite Random Guy with a Mohawk” is Chucky Klapow, the actual choreographer for the HSM movies. He was in his mid-twenties, but he was short enough and looked young enough that he blended in the background of the team shots and is in a lot of the group dancing scenes because he…was already there directing everyone in them, haha. Anyway, this video is a masterpiece and an anthropological feat. Thank you for this thorough documentation of the best ship in these movies! Troy and Gabriella who? The “I Don’t Dance” scene was EVERYTHING.
a little add on to the hat theory,, the only other time characters touch ryan or CHADS hat is to turn it a little more askew,, taylor does it,, i think gabriella did it to ryan at the clothing switch scene,, they want them to embrace these sides of themselves,, that's what that means to me,, WHEN CHAD TURNS RYANS HAT EVEN MORE,,, cmon,,,
sometimes i watch hsm videos and think "but there's so much more" because of all the queer coding ryan has,, but something i've NEVER seen bought up is the hsm DOLL SET !!!! specifically hsm3 ,,, the graduation ryan doll wearing a skirt was the best thing we EVER got out of that movie,,
im pretty sure ryan is dyslexic and only the first movie acknowledges it (his trouble reading the shirts) which makes his talent for theater even more impressive because it generally requires reading to learn lines and songs
i choose to believe disney executives watched hsm2 and also saw the potential queer symbolism and basically forbade chad and ryan from interacting at all
Thinking about the Ryan and Kelsey being in a relationship/couple when my cousin and I watched it when we were younger as theatre kids we never saw them in the romantic way they were trying to push. We thought they were the queer kids who found comfort and friendship in each other as they were misunderstood and having to hide especially during the time . Great video really enjoyed ☆
I would like to say I also headcanon Taylor as asexual. Not even for a particular reason, I was just thinking about HSM characters' sexualities one day for fun, and it went something like: Ryan is gay (obviously), Chad is bi, Kelsey is a lesbian, Zeke kinda gives off pansexual vibes, and I could see Taylor being ace, but everyone else is straight.
Also: Troy makes it painfully obvious that he's bisexual (that's kind of the underlying theme in these movies, discovering that you like something that you "shouldn't", or realizing that your identity is more complex than just black or white, and when people tell you to choose, you choose both)
- no matter how many videos i watch on this topic, i will NEVER get tired of it, it is simply the truth and it needs to be told again and again. - the twist at the end with zeke, never saw that coming, whoever said that is insane - i really hope that in hsmtmts s4, since they're doing another hsm or something, i don't know, that they address this finally lmao - okay but my ryan and chad head canon is that after college, ryan is working in theater in new york, and chad has a basketball career, and they're both pretty sucessful. and one day chad goes to new york for a game, and himand his team go see a play/musical and he is surprised to see ryan there and they meet up after the show, and catch up, and in the years since high school, ryan obviously came out as gay, prety much as soon as he got to julliard, and chad got to be a bot more free and explore his sexuality in college and identifies as bi and idk, love story i guess. like maybe they hooked up in the second movie but stopped so this is them being like so let's give that a chance
@@drey6361 also for this specific pairing Ive noticed that the ones written more recently are better generally than the older ones from around the time the movies came out, probably because current writers are the grown up versions of those authors
The way you mention the brainiacs as a third category and my brain immediately went "they're the ace ones, calling it now",,, and then I was actually right,, I love that
thank you!! yeah i think no one expected that last chunk to suddenly switch the narrative. we had to pivot, we had to regroup, but we reeled it back in by the end
Notice how in hsm 3 Chad is the one reaching for Ryan? I posit that they had a summer fling after I don't dance, but Ryan didn't feel comfortable keeping it going if Chad was going to stay with Taylor, even with her as his beard so broke it off. Ryan's trying to get over it by focusing on the musical and his future. Chad isn't over it. That's my theory as to why they barely interact.
The one thing that I’ve always thought kind of weird about the last movie is that Chad and Taylor are both telling Troy and Gabriella that high school relationships never work out so they should just let it go but aren’t they supposed to be in a high school relationship… almost as if… it’s performative… and they aren’t actually in love…?
39:42 actually, that was a reference to the conversation before “I don’t dance” when Chad asked Ryan “you got game?” And Ryan was like “little”. Just wanted to point that out. Regardless, I am enjoying the video and the work you put into it
THIS IS WHAT I CAME HERE FOR, dissecting any element you could find! THE NECKLACE, never noticed it. The Basketball theory, so well developed but MAY I ADD, everytime Chad gives his ball to Troy, it’s to encourage him to do sthg “masculine” (not do theatre, rehearse basketball, ask Gabriella to Prom…). And the hat theory!!! GOLD. ROUND OF APPLAUSE 👏 Now the Zeke x Ryan suggestion?!? Even Jason x Fulton woulda been + plausible! 😭 #ryanxchad4life
Came for the Ryan x Chad, stayed for your breakdown of unrequited Chad x Troy. Your rendition of Chad comforting Troy about Gabriella leaving and how they're both gonna be at the same college where aNYtHiNg cOUld HaPPeN cracked me up
omg, my friend and i realized the hat theory when we watched through the hsm trilogy like two years ago, and NO ONE ELSE has ever mentioned it!!! im so glad u saw it too, it's been driving me insane for so long. like his dad STRAIGHTENS HIS HAT. i cannot that's just so on the nose and hints at so many aspects of ryan's relationship with his dad surrounding his sexuality, it's so small yet says so much??? anyway thank u so much for this 💗
tbh i feel like the parallel at the end of the first movie where theyre dancing could be read as chad being for troy but troy being for gabriella but idk 😭😭
okay my theory is as follows: ryan and chad had a fling during the second movie, but for ~reasons~ they never pursued a relationship, maybe ryan's theoretical crush on zeke and chad's codependency on troy, but from the clips we see from the third movie, it looks like chad has an unrequited crush on ryan, like they're friendly but chad wants more even if neither he or ryan realize it. ia m choosing to believe that they get together during their college years somehow or meet later in life and fall in love
The thing about Chad is his clinging to that basketball is the same as his clinging to Troy which is all just his way of clinging to the past. Many people think Sharpay is the antagonist and she is but Chad becomes an even greater antagonist than Sharpay because he’s so close and important to Troy. He’s afraid when people start doing other stuff because that means he has to come to terms with the other stuff he wants to do. He’s lowkey become the monster because he’s spouting what he thinks everyone else will say to him. Says so much w so little. Thanks for doing gods work w this video fr
The Ryan/Zeke allegations will never make sense to me especially since they set up Zeke and Sharpay and it was cute even in those few moments they had chemistry but they immediately had to swerve and retcon to maintain the Sharpay antagonistic Troy obsessed not really love triangle and for what 😭 The effort to make Ryan an actual distinct character in the second and third movies rather than Sharpay’s lackey only to turn around and go “oh yeah he’s getting hand me down love interests too”
i REMEMBER feeling some type of tension in that baseball scene but my child brain cannot comprehend the gei energy until this very moment watching your video! Your edit and commentary is gold please keep doing what you are doing girl
Your side theory about the brainiacs being ace made me have a re-realization that i’m ace lol. I remember really identifying with Taylor because she was a smart black girl too lol. I remember this one time, I was on the phone with my best friend like my senior year of high school trying to explain how love is dumb and not real (I was really annoying about that when I was younger lol. i don’t feel that extreme about it anymore b/c there’s different types of love/ people experience them differently and all that jazz) And anyway my friend group kind of pushed my now ex and i to date during senior year. it was awkward and not great lol. and long story short, when we went to college, I started realizing I was asexual and they (my ex) were realizing they were bisexual. I couldn’t help but think of that experience while watching lol. Anyway, great video ^^
adding to the baseball scene- baseball has a ton of gay metaphors? Beyond like, the bases thing relating to sex, but phrases like 'bats for the other team', 'swings both ways' and the 'pitcher/catcher' positions 👀 Anyway, it's great to see someone treating high school musical theory with the seriousness and academic rigor it deserves. Also my school district mascot was the Wildcats, this movie was an absolute SENSATION in my middle/high school
My first exposure to I DONT DANCE was when my theatre camp did it and they didn’t have enough boys to be the baseball team so I me and my partner were two girls and it gave me SOME kind of awaking but then I saw it and I love it
I wholeheartedly believe Ryan and Kelsey had a convo off screen later down the road and realized they’re both a little fruity and decided to go together as each other’s beards so no one would pester them
I was one of the kids who was "Too Good" for High School Musical but I was always deeply attached to Ryan {because he was my type as surely then as he is now, and I loved me some queer-coded white blond boys in the 2000s} so this is deeply delightful and I enjoyed every moment. Thank you for making it.
"It is thinly researched and solely based on my opinions"😂 WHAT a fantastic way to spend an hour! This is delightful and fun and hilarious, and though I was *already* fully on board the Chad/Ryan train, this was such a good breakdown! Loved that it sounded like you were having a blast making it too! A+ accents, 10/10, what heterosexual explanation indeed!!!!
ngl when u first said the hat theory I thought it was a reach, but the way I GASPED when ryans dad straightened his hat… and then pointed it out AGAIN later… you’ve won me over, great video 🙏🏼
Ryan actually did show up in sharpay’s fabulous adventure. I think it was a post credit scene where he goes to sharpay’s apartment and he’s basically like “I’m super successful now” Edit: it was a clip exclusive to the tv airing of the movie that was played over the credits. It’s a super cute clip. It’s revealed that Ryan was on tour and that’s why he wasn’t in new york to hang out with sharpay in sharpay’s fabulous adventure
I always thought the ‘stick to your one thing’ thing was dumb even as a kid…but a lot of the dudes in my choir who also were in musicals were also like football players and into sports…literally the start football guy got a solo in one choir concert and everyone was cheering for him (he was also like a very popular guy)
i think there was an interview where kenny ortega revealed that disney told him to pair ryan with a girl bc parents complained about ryan seeming queer so in hsm3 they pretty much have ryan away w kelsey and when they yelled cut at the graduation ceremony scene theres a behind the scenes Lucas kisses Zekes actor….
okay I might have totally imagined this but I remember Ryan making a small appearance at the end of the Sharpay movie. Like one of those shorts that happen at the very end of the movie after the credits. Like he also gets trap in Sharpay's closet bed. I don't know why I remembered this very specific detail of the movie, since I haven't watched it in over ten years, but just wanted to let you know lol
lol i said basically the exact same thing less than an hour after you did.. . good news: we didn't imagine it, however, it was an extra easter egg for the disney channel airing only, but not included on the dvd, which explains why we remember it, while a lot of ppl like grimm have never seen it : th-cam.com/video/SDPO00iULg8/w-d-xo.html
It’s so funny how many High School Musical analysis’s I’ve watched. I haven’t even watched the movies again in almost a decade 🫣 Loved the video by the way 💖💖💖
Came here from Dream Jelly and I am blown away by how fun of a watch this was!! The runtime of this vid totally flew by, you really made the most out of every minute👏👏
I didn’t watch the HSM movies growing up because I had really strict parents so a little over a year ago I decided to binge watch all three and with absolutely no prior context, no knowledge of the fandom, nothing, I immediately felt the intense gay energy between Chad and Ryan during the baseball scene.
I think they did the baseball thing bc Chad “didn’t swing that way” but by the end of the song, he does. And Ryan’s game is totally directly referencing the phrase game, he’s pulling Chad the whole time lmao
i can already feel this becoming one of my favorite go to videos. hsm is so cozy and nostalgic for me and this video somehow completely replicates that feeling (WITH the benefit of hindsight, and some great analysis) also small detail but you're so right about the color grading in hsm2 Feeling like how summer should feel. how did they do it!!!
This was top notch, I'm obsessed, I love everything about this- AND YES, RYAN HAVING FEELINGS FOR ZEKE MAKES NO SENSE! Okay, yeah, anyways, thank you, I'm gonna go read Chad and Ryan fanfics now-
33:20 about the bat thing, my small elementary school used to have us kids do that whenever we played our variant of baseball. This way the team leader who gets to tap the top (or bottom?) or the bat like Ryan did is the one who chooses whether their team is, I guess pitching or catching? (Idk if these are the terms) Catching the bat mid-air is part of it in order to rely on chance. It's like rolling dice. Though imo it's understandable to see this shot as something that adds up to the ✨️vibes✨️ in this entire scene haha Great video btw! I just felt inclined to comment this lmao
This video is, quite frankly, a work of art. I don't know why TH-cam recommended it to me; it must simply have known that I was a casual part-time Chyan fan in years gone by who could be convinced into becoming a full-on stan in the year 2023. This video achieved that and more. Bravo. Ryan x Chad forever
i have to say this YOURE HILARIOUS. i don’t know how much of this was scripted, but even if it was, the fact that you wrote it and executed it well, is amazing. your personality is just so pleasant and fun and i never got bored once ❤️❤️
I don’t know if anyone has said this, but the writer of high school musical did actually come out and say that Ryan was supposed to be gay, but that it was at a time in Disney’s history where they wouldn’t allow that. Ryan was before his time.
Girl, this is some obsessive fan-forward nonsense and I am HERE for it. Tell it like it is! That hat theory was gold. Very accurately reflects the high of HSM2 and low of HSM3 that ppl went through. Also, I could believe Ryan had a thing for Zeke. Doesn't mean he couldn't have a bigger thing for Chad. You're able to have crushes on multiple guys in your school; I certainly did. Some fall through, some stick around. If anything, Zeke reinforces that Ryan has a certain taste for chocolate if you know what I mean hrmhrrhrr.
@@no-qe9tb Frankly I think being weirded out by it feels like a white-guilt/American thing. I personally never minded being referred to as chocolate, cause who doesn't love chocolate? I acknowledge the thought, but I'd rather not be policed on how I positively refer to my own skin colour.
I think what's happening in 33:20 is a way to decide who bats first. In most organized baseball games, the designated "away" team always bats first. In a game like this where there's not exactly a "home" and "away" team, instead of, idk, flipping a coin like they do in American football, this is a quick little mini game to decide that. So Ryan gets his hand on the top of the bat, and then he decides he wants his team to bat second, because (sports jargon about you want to know how much you have to score to keep playing or win).
First of all I have to say this video is impeccable and definitely at the top of my list of favorite hsm content on youtube. Also Ryan does show up in Sharpay's fabulous adventure! he's in the post credit scene! Okay hear me out, I think Sharpay is actually a lesbian. She just doesn't seem to genuinely like Troy, it feels more like she just wants the most popular guy in school for status. You can tell that Zeke genuinely likes Sharpay because of the way he talks about her but I don't get a similar vibe whenever Sharpay brings up Troy. In the third movie, she asks him when the big game is and doesn't even listen to his response and usually if someone likes someone they would yknow actually listen to them when they speak. It just plays out as she just wants Troy to have him rather than because she actually has feelings for him. Also having a crush on a guy that you can't have screams comphet. You could also see that in the fact that she never gets in a relationship with Zeke despite her liking him enough by the end of each movie and the fact that he obviously has a huge crush on her. I think she just views Troy as the safest option for a crush because she knows he'll never like her back while if she pursues Zeke it might actually be something and I don't think she really wants that. In my opinion, Sharpay and Ryan are gay theatre twins as well as wlw and mlm solidarity.
I like three songs from the HSM movies, so I'm not a big fan, but this, an over 60 mins long video analyzing this relationship, felt important to watch. It was a good decision.
I have seen you, and I have heard you. I 've been thoroughly informed that Ryan does, in fact, show up in a post-credit scene in Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure. A kind viewer sent me a link to the scene and it involves a white-and-red suited Ryan showing up, talking to Sharpay about her fame and his touring musical, and him getting stuck in a Murphy bed, very Sims style. In short, Disney+ did me dirty and doesn't have the extended version, which is why I never knew about it :( Thanks for all the heads up!!
hey that was me! a kind viewer! glad to assist you with the knowledge of ryan evans presence
also i feel the need to point out that scene's obvious reference to ryan getting stuck in a closet lol
I know I'm 11 months late but Ryan and Zeke do make out in a blooper of the third movie. Still doesn't make it right for him to replace Chad though 😔
Just gotta say they dated in the last movie….
Kelsey and Ryan are the ultimate example of gay and lesbian solidarity and no one can convince me otherwise
Exactly
This is what pisses me off is that her name is spelt Kelsi but y'all say Kelsey
@@MazeRunnerStories This is not important enough to be "pissed off" about haha
Kelsi could have been bisexual. I knew I had a male crush on her
@@MazeRunnerStoriesboth would be said the same way so idk why you are mad about people saying it exactly how either of those spellings would be said
my jaw dropped at the dad telling ryan to straighten his hat, there's no way that's a coincidence
They definitely knew what they were doing, with the script editing and themes they used. They definitely knew
I screamed out loud
It's absolutely not, the director was also a director in the rocky horror picture show (2016) :) Kenny Ortega!
@@uncertain_zee I had no idea Kenny Ortega also worked in RHPS!! 😮 Now I love him even more❤
@@uncertain_zee KENNY WAS PART OF THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW????
Okay so, why did no one point out the baseball allegory angle of "I don't dance"?
Baseball is (in)famous for giving the world some of the most recognizable intimacy expressions - First base, second base, third base, and homerun.
It ends with Chad getting to homerun, which I feel gives a LOT of extra evidence. Especially with the clothes changing after.
BTW I had fun watching, thanks!
That’s insane. I can’t believe I didn’t realize that
Djdhdhdhshshshshs I SWEAR THE SCENE GETS GAYER EVERY DAY
Not to mention the gay-specific “pitcher” vs “catcher” (also they both throw pitches to each other so vers kings?)
AHHH
OMG YES I NEVER THOUGHT OF THIS
Ryan and zeke never made much sense to me either, but there is a blooper in HSM3 where Ryan starts making out with zeke 😭
Someone sent me the blooper video on insta and I was absolutely shocked. Shaking and crying. Why would Lucas Grabeel and Chris Warren do that to me personally
REAL. I remember seeing it and I was SHOCKED. What they did at the end literally made my jaw drop.
Link???????
HUH
@@spookyho5994 link in the replies! :)
my headcanon is basically that chad and ryan got together in the second movie and they're dating secretly all throughout the third which is why they can't be seen interacting too much by others bc obviously they would get sussed out immediately lmao. and taylor is cool with it all and continued "dating" chad as his beard, because she's actually aroace and just didn't wanna be bothered by anyone 😂 happy ending for everyone ♥🏳🌈
Also Kelsey and Ryan act as each others beards during the 3rd film because neither want to come out yet (despite the fact that literally everyone is aware that they have this arrangement)
amazing, yes
In conclusion, everyone's gay. The end 😌💅
Awww
this or chad and ryan have some sort of argument around the time of the third movie due to chad dating taylor and they have a little angsty break from each other and thats why chad makes that sad little grabby motion towards ryan cause hes like “wait no i miss him” and they have some offscreen typical fanfiction argument before making up with each other. sorry i got a lil too detailed there it was just on the brain lmaoo
Chad and Ryan have more chemistry than all the other couples combined in I Don't Dance, and no one can change my mind on that-
I just think it's fun and fruity for Ryan to continually tell Chad---his opponent in the baseball game---to "hit it out of the park." Homie is confident, self-actualized AND supportive??? What else could you want in a man?
Also regarding HSM3--Imagine if Chad and Ryan got Troy and Gabriella's song "Can I Have This Dance" because it would have been a perfect callback and parallel to "I Don't Dance" symbolizing that Chad had learned from Ryan and accepted his sexuality and was able to be in a happy relationship with Ryan
Omg omg omg, why did they rob us of seeing this!!! 😭😭😭
Yay i want a song where they sing about dancing together
No because I’m crying?😊
Love the video, but Chad's, "You call that a little game?" IS in reference to a previous scene. When Gabriel first brings Ryan with her to the game, Chad basically says like, "Do you even know how to play?" And Ryan says, "I've got a little game." And then he's really good, and admits in the costume swap scene that he actually like, won a league or some shit. So it's more a representation that Ryan has always known he can be feminine and masculine.
Came here to say this 😅
Honestly the reason why HSM 3 has like zero Ryan/Chad is because at the time so many people were calling Ryan gay and Chad bi, and Disney didn't like that. so, in the 3rd movie Ryan got Kelsie.
HC is that Kelsey and Ryan are homosexual besties
I think Chad started realising there was something going on with his sexuality in the second movie after The Baseball Scene and Ryan was helping gently guide him through it and it was fun and lighthearted but once classes started again it all got too real and he freaked out on Ryan, who had too much self worth and confidence to go chasing around someone who 1. still had so much internalised homophobia to work through and 2. was in love/obsessed with his best friend and didn't even realise it. So Chad probably said some insensitive things and Ryan kept his distance, letting him sort himself out on his own (Ryan also had to think about his future and Julliard and focus on coreography so he couldn't be spending all that time with the mess that was Chad's yo-yo of accepting and rejecting his bisexualit-- I mean "being able to like two things at once").
And now my fanfic starts: maybe in college (where anything can happen right Troy teehee) he'd be able to find himself, once Troy wasn't there to serve as a crutch for his identity. Maybe once Troy flaked on him enough times (because he was so focused on Gabriella like always) he'd see that he was the only one putting work into that relationship and then he'd call Ryan up and they could reconnect, but now he grew more as a person and knew himself better and accepted that part of him that always challenged his view of himself.
Anyways, fantastic video, I hope someone wrote a fic like this that I can read because I just convinced myself that that's what happened
That's what I actually really liked about the I don't dance song, amongst other things. You got to see Ryan and Chad have some space from Troy and Sharpay for once.
I wish we got a whole spin-off movie just about them, actually. Lol
I'm glad you pointed out that Ryan didn't dismiss or make fun of anyone. Ryan feels like the dude who slips in and out of friend groups easily and is friends with like everyone but the minute he's with Sharpey they tend not to hang out with him lol
I'm for the Taylor is Ace/Aro theory, also Ryan and Kelsey went to prom as beards
omg I totally see both of those especially that Kelsi and Ryan went to prom as beards
No one will ever change my mind about this video being underrated unless it goes viral.
hrrhrsdsea
looks like that might be happening.. . just came up as a recommended for me (i wasn't subbed) and as of the time i'm typing this, 18 out of 79 comments just happened in the last 24hrs, so it must have just hit that magical tipping point where it's fallen into the almighty algorithm's good graces..
it showed up in my recommended which is a fantastic sign it def deserves to go viral
@@girliboi nearly 400 comments now :))
it just showed up in my recommended... 8 months later!
There are things in this video I didn't even think about! I'm only 21 minutes in. This is super well done. And don't feel hesitant in you "overanalyzing" since Kenny Ortega said that he purposefully put queer stuff in the movies for people to see and understand. It's all there on purpose. Also want to point out in the third movie while there are barely any scenes with Ryan and Chad, there is that really cute scene at the end with Troy and Gabriella. They came back to do the reprise of "Just wanna be with you" and Ryan is excited they got the choreo down. Chad gets happy too and goes to hug him but disney cut it off right before we could see. HSM more like SMH.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!! also thank you for pointing that out about HSM3!! i think i was so fed up by the end of that movie i was ready to abandon all hope. also please make a t-shirt that says "hsm more like smh"
I noticed that too finally, like only a day or two ago! I was watching that scene and as I got to the part you mentioned, I suddenly leaned closer like "wait, where are his hands going?" I was already so happy with how he was following Ryan's hand movements, and then I realized: "Oh my god he IS going to hug him!!" My heart..
Okay but, about Kelsie’s outfits being “questionable” that’s the MAIN reason why I’d always relate to her as an enby character, cuz growing up trying to figure out your style as an enby person generally leads to some odd choices that you end up just committing to even if not 100% convinced all of the time, so it makes total sense to me
I stand by my assessment that Ryan had the most growth of any character in trilogy. Basically every other character just resets and repeats the same sticking point each movie (Sharpay is mean, gets nice at the end of a movie, then is mean again. troy and gab go through the same conflicts. chad has the same conflict evry movie etc), but Ryan gets development each movie, going from himbo lackey in 1, slowly getting wise to his sister's antics and finally stepping into his own fabulous shoes in 2, and in 3 just doing his own thang while still occasionally hanging out with Sharpay, while running a play and aiming for his own dreams. Sharpay still trys to treat HSM3 Ryan like it's HSM1, but he's having none of it. Dude really grows up, so proud of him.
Kelsey was absolutely just a friendly prom date too. The gays all flock together for easy 'dates', those two knew what they were doing with that.
Ryan and Zeke sorta make sense, since Zeke is the first person (after Troy) who accepted doing something different. He has been hiding his love for baking all this time, while Troy basically had a new discovery for singing. All Zeke needed was a small push for him to truly be his authentic self (you saw how nervous he was to start Stick to the Status Quo, but he built the courage to do it), which is the same thing Ryan sorta needed. Chad’s problems run too deep, he’s still projecting his own issues on others and views things in a toxic way (he was the main one telling everyone to stick to the status quo), he has years of healing to do before he could be with Ryan
i agree about the ryan and zeke part because lucas said in an interview that ryan did canonically have a crush on zeke. but i kinda think that chad was only being "toxic" because he just couldn't accept the fact that his best friend, because of a girl, suddenly just wanted to focus more on something else other than something that they grew up doing together(?). he might've grown an attachment to either basketball or troy himself (if it is troy, then maybe he's trying to deny like, "oh, i'm not gay but why am i jealous that my best friend has a girlfriend and that he cancels all the plans he has with me to hang out with her?". maybe some sort of internalized homophobia for himself and that he doesn't want to accept the fact that he might be, even just a little bit, gay and the way he tries to cope with it, is by shitting on the fact that some people like 2 things, kinda like bisexuality, rather than only liking one thing, like heterosexuality, because he's denying and doesn't want to accept that he might be infatuated/inlove with his friend.) but hey, that's just a theory, A FILM TH-
tbh i feel like chad needs ryan as that person to change his mind and open up. its perfect.
it would make sense if ryan and zeke had even an ounce of chemistry (or more shared screen time/interactions than chad&ryan... which they don't), but there was zilch there. 🤷 just because something is technically or theoretically more healthy, doesn't mean it would work out better. chad and ryan might seem """unhealthy""" from a surface level, but their interactions have never reflected that at all. in fact, they seem to be good for each other, considering all they've ever done was encourage each other to get out of their comfort zone and try something new, and then be chill and hang out with zero animosity or judgment towards each other afterward. doesn't seem all that unhealthy to me. chad has an unhealthy relationship with troy for sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean he would have an unhealthy dynamic with ryan too. and from what we've seen, he doesn't.
@@MonAhgasInsomniAroELF ayeee yeaa
@@MonAhgasInsomniAroELF fun fact there were actually multiple scenes filmed involving Zeke and Ryan that allows the viewer to see the tension between them, or more so just the crush that Ryan had on Zeke, looking at him longingly etc. But with these being Disney channel original movies released in the 2000s gay shit was not permitted..
the lack of highschool musical fanfiction is a sin
There’s a lot of Ryan x chad ones on ao3 I was surprised to see people are still writing about them
@@ellie5995 i was surprised there wasnt more Just in general but ig hs never really had a big fandom presence outside of memes
I looked it up and THERE IS NO SUCH LACK 😂
@silverdandylmao nah bc after this i read almost all the chad x ryan fanfics in one sitting
@@lemonkatze7461 mood, I ended up moving from ao3 to read old fics on FFN and LiveJournal 💀
What’s funny to me is that the boys from my school made fun of Troy calling him gay because of his solos but he’s arguably the only straight character in the trilogy
I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF I DON'T DANCE. Sorry, I'm pretty much screaming on the inside with how much I ship Ryan and Chad. It's seriously enough that I've taken to not only reading, but also writing fanfiction about them. I already shipped them years ago, but it's only in these past couple of weeks that I've gone completely crazy. And the fact that they SWITCHED CLOTHES AFTER THE, may I say, very sexually loaded BASEBALL GAME. I'm freaking out. Ryan is straight up making moves and hitting on Chad, and I'm absolutely all for it. The "one little thing that stops me every time" Chad sings about, while we're seeing the crowd watching the game. The one thing definitely, majorly is his friends, what they'd think, and also Chad's own, deep rooted beliefs. I swear, I've been coming back to watching the I Don't Dance scene or just listening to the song, both of these on repeat, especially staring at the video, rewinding a certain part and watching it again. I've just gone wild with it.
The second time they have this exchange of "You never know."
"Oh I know."
"If you never try,"
and Ryan's got the mitt, he's holding it against his chest as if he's pointing at himself. It's like he's saying to Chad: "Come, take a shot at me. You never know unless you give it a chance." It's just.. * internal screaming *
I'm such a fangirl and going crazy, again.
You've done so much work with this video, I applaud you for it, really. I'm obsessed and having such a good time.
YOU'RE SOO RIGHTTTT! THESE ARE SUCH GOOD POINTS!! I'm so glad you enjoyed the video 🥺
@@grimmelle I totally did! One of the best I've seen in a while.
The creator of HSM, Kenny Ortega, has actually said he intended for Ryan to be gay but knew Disney wouldn't let him, so put in a bunch of hints and stuff. He said he figured these little things would be picked up on by the people going through the same things.
Also, this isn't my revelation, I don't remember who noticed this originally, but...'I Don't Dance' parallels a Fred Astaire number called 'I Won't Dance'. In "I Won't Dance", Astaire doesn't want to dance with his love interest because he's afraid he'll fall in love with her. By the end of the song, he does end up dancing with his love interest and falling in love with her.
As a side note: I think Sharpay’s insistence on singing with Troy being the key to get him to fall in love with her is at least a callback to how Troy and Gabriella first fell in love when they sang a duet together. The difference of course is that Troy and Gabriella both sing together naturally, while Sharpay, in trying to orchestrate a duet with Troy that is fundamentally imbalanced in her favor, is unsuccessful. It’s one of Sharpay’s chief flaws that prevent her from getting with Troy; she has a crush on him, but loves the spotlight, which isn’t bad, but she can’t have both, because Troy is a collaborative singer by default.
Lucas Grabeel singing the "Baby" song in the Sharpay movie when he doesn't even appear in it killed me. Oh my God. This entire video was a masterpiece.
The part about Chad asking Taylor out to basically keep up appearances makes so much sense to me. And it’s kind of funny because in middle school, I (a baby Ace who didn’t understand why I didn’t have any crushes like my friends and sisters) made up a crush on Corbin Bleu as a cover. He’s cute, but I didn’t truly care as much as everyone else seemed to care about Zac Efron 😂
Ryan did actually make an appearance in Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure towards the end of the credits
Thank you! The frustration I felt when it got to the end credits, and the "Oh wait" moment was for a cover of Baby?!?!
after seeing this comment i went over to disney+ to see it and it wasnt there? so maybe it just depends on the version idk
@@jasmca1958 yeh i think it was a special easter egg for disney channel only.. . i remember because i got the dvd when it was first released and was surprised to see ryan appear when it aired later on the disney channel.
@@jasmca1958 oh what?? I remember it vividly, I'm sure Grim would've been happy about it. Must've been a Disney channel only scene. Damn that's rough
I have read every single 'high school reunion/5-10 years later' fanfiction for ryan and chad and there isn't enough of them.
Please please please tell me the fic names
@@amycox5733 the one I have bookmarked is called "a promise instead of a regret" I could have sworn I bookmarked more I'm disappointed in myself. Anyway that one's good
On what platform?
@@sabinatsang ao3
@@melancholist thanks
NOT THE DAD STRAIGHTENING RYAN'S HAT!! I never noticed, I opened my mouth in shock and thinking of the implications, thank you for bringing it up!
Amazing work on the video, it was a lot of fun watching and listening to. I've always liked the idea of Ryan and Chad together, and lately I've loved it.
Here’s a theory: Chad and Taylor are EACH OTHER’S beards
At the end of HSM1, Chad makes an impulse decision to assert his Totally Straight and Not Clingy status. He approaches her, and in the moment she’s like “why not?” But by the time HSM2 rolls around, they’re clearly supposed to be together, but also aren’t really shown as a couple. Sometime during the timeskip, Taylor must have realized that things were weird. Chad didn’t have much interest in her, she didn’t really care about him, and why did he even ask her out in the first place? So she sits him down and has a talk. He comes clean that it wasn’t really a considered or earnest thing he did, maybe even that he’s gay and was trying to reaffirm his masculinity
And to her credit, Taylor gets it. More than that, she kinda feels similar about their relationship. She said yes because she figured it’d be easier to have a boyfriend like Chad than to deal with people trying to get with her. She’s not interested in romance, and just wants to follow her carefully planned life to the presidency. So she proposes a solution: they say they’re still a couple. That way people leave the both of them alone, and they’ll be free to focus on what they actually want. This lines up nicely with the post-baseball outfit-switch scene where Taylor is encouraging about the extremely obvious off-screen activities. It also explains why Chad has his most notable moments in the later group numbers with Troy and Ryan, rather than his supposed girlfriend
And actually, I think there is a viable reading for the dual-beard theory in HSM3. By this point Taylor knows that Chad and Ryan have some chemistry, but she’s still acting as his beard. This means she still has to put on an act for people, and I think that’s really where her frustration lies. She wants Chad to get out of his own head and pursue Ryan, because he HAS found someone attainable. She snaps at him about asking her to prom because she wants him to go with someone meaningful. That first invite was really low-key, with few witnesses. She can easily shoot him down. But when he comes back to her with a grand gesture, she has no excuse to say no. She knows it means he’s too chickenshit to ask Ryan, and now it’d be suspicious if she refused. They’ve been each other’s beards for too long, and there’s too many witnesses
ADDITIONALLY I think Taylor’s also angry with Chad because he’s back to obsessing over Troy. She’s besties with Gabriella and knows full-well that Troy is hopelessly in love with her. Chad has gotten it in his head that now that Troy and Gabriella have to part ways, he’s got another shot with his childhood BFF, but it’s just a pipe dream. Note that Chad’s initial prom invite is in front of Troy, for his benefit. Chad and Taylor have grown closer while fake dating, and she does care about Chad’s feelings (remember how they look at each other during Troy’s graduation speech). She knows it’ll end in heartbreak, and wants to spare him that. She’s not gonna be around to pick up the pieces, so she’s trying to give him some tough love in the hopes that he’ll make the right decision and ask Ryan out. Unfortunately, we know he doesn’t have the guts or common sense to follow through on that
NOTE: I wrote all this before the ace Taylor tangent. I fully agree, she’s just so clearly not interested in a real relationship, and that prom dress is absurdly on-the-nose
ALSO tangent but I think Ryan and Chelsea are cute as like. A songwriting duo. They’re just good friends who work well together in theater, a thing they’re both passionate about. Not to mention they’re both the most openly gay characters in the cast. Ryan… *is Ryan*, and Chelsea has that GNC swag that I could buy as lesbian, enby, or both. They gravitate towards each other out of kinship, not romance, and it’s probably pretty healing for Ryan to have a female theater friend that isn’t domineering and also his sister. I imagine that attending college together ends up being a great experience for him
your eyes are wide open fr
Yes, agree with all of this. Just a little side note: please don't use "real relationship" instead of "romantic relationship". Aroace people do have and are interested in real relationships, because there are more than sexual or romantic relationships, that are real ❤
@@1evonvielen Oops, my bad! In this context I definitely meant “real relationship WITH CHAD” (as opposed to the fake one I hypothesized), but I totally see how that looks like a dismissal of QPPs and aroace relationships! Definitely not my intention, and I’m sorry for that misspeak
@@tlblitz42 thank you for understanding
I’ve ALWAYS seen Taylor as Ace/aro or at the very least sapiosexual and I agree about Kelsey’s non-binary hints and I think an argument could be made for sapphic inclinations too. So to me it almost felt like they maybe worked out a deal with chad and Ryan to pretend to be dating so everyone left them all alone and that’s my personal headcanon. Also Troy being bi feels so obvious to me and always has like they don’t try to hide the parallels when his whole storyline across the series boils down to “everyone trying to tell him to pick one and in the end he says fuck you im doing both” 😜🤣
I completely feel you and am 100% down for the Kelsey and Taylor coupling it makes way more sense especially as them as beards for Ryan and Chad as it would make sense that this town seems overly hetero-centered especially since in the whole first movie going against the status quo. Plus Plus Ryan’s dad seems very homophobic and I don’t think it would be a safe space. Plus Ryan x Chad is beyond amazing and my favorite Disney ship
what’s sapiosexual?
@@riddlussy3109 brief definition is someone who’s attracted to intelligence. So more into someone for their brain than necessarily any physical traits
@@glitzdancer ah yeah that’s definitely her then
@@riddlussy3109 right????
So, regarding 30:34 - one of my favorite bts fun facts about HSM is that “Fan Favorite Random Guy with a Mohawk” is Chucky Klapow, the actual choreographer for the HSM movies. He was in his mid-twenties, but he was short enough and looked young enough that he blended in the background of the team shots and is in a lot of the group dancing scenes because he…was already there directing everyone in them, haha.
Anyway, this video is a masterpiece and an anthropological feat. Thank you for this thorough documentation of the best ship in these movies! Troy and Gabriella who? The “I Don’t Dance” scene was EVERYTHING.
"Ball is life. Life is ball."
- Probably Chad
a little add on to the hat theory,, the only other time characters touch ryan or CHADS hat is to turn it a little more askew,, taylor does it,, i think gabriella did it to ryan at the clothing switch scene,,
they want them to embrace these sides of themselves,, that's what that means to me,,
WHEN CHAD TURNS RYANS HAT EVEN MORE,,, cmon,,,
sometimes i watch hsm videos and think "but there's so much more" because of all the queer coding ryan has,, but something i've NEVER seen bought up is the hsm DOLL SET !!!! specifically hsm3 ,,, the graduation ryan doll wearing a skirt was the best thing we EVER got out of that movie,,
im pretty sure ryan is dyslexic and only the first movie acknowledges it (his trouble reading the shirts)
which makes his talent for theater even more impressive because it generally requires reading to learn lines and songs
i choose to believe disney executives watched hsm2 and also saw the potential queer symbolism and basically forbade chad and ryan from interacting at all
the ending where it said ryan was supposed to have a crush on zeke... my jaw DROPPED 😭 i love this video so much
Thinking about the Ryan and Kelsey being in a relationship/couple when my cousin and I watched it when we were younger as theatre kids we never saw them in the romantic way they were trying to push. We thought they were the queer kids who found comfort and friendship in each other as they were misunderstood and having to hide especially during the time . Great video really enjoyed ☆
i actually gasped when i saw this, this has got to be the most important video essay ever made in youtube history
Yes
I would like to say I also headcanon Taylor as asexual. Not even for a particular reason, I was just thinking about HSM characters' sexualities one day for fun, and it went something like: Ryan is gay (obviously), Chad is bi, Kelsey is a lesbian, Zeke kinda gives off pansexual vibes, and I could see Taylor being ace, but everyone else is straight.
Also: Troy makes it painfully obvious that he's bisexual (that's kind of the underlying theme in these movies, discovering that you like something that you "shouldn't", or realizing that your identity is more complex than just black or white, and when people tell you to choose, you choose both)
I knew I needed this but was not prepared for how valid everything you said was…. THE HAT THEORY??? that’s FACT
when i say my jaw dropped when his dad fixed his hat… bro
- no matter how many videos i watch on this topic, i will NEVER get tired of it, it is simply the truth and it needs to be told again and again.
- the twist at the end with zeke, never saw that coming, whoever said that is insane
- i really hope that in hsmtmts s4, since they're doing another hsm or something, i don't know, that they address this finally lmao
- okay but my ryan and chad head canon is that after college, ryan is working in theater in new york, and chad has a basketball career, and they're both pretty sucessful. and one day chad goes to new york for a game, and himand his team go see a play/musical and he is surprised to see ryan there and they meet up after the show, and catch up, and in the years since high school, ryan obviously came out as gay, prety much as soon as he got to julliard, and chad got to be a bot more free and explore his sexuality in college and identifies as bi and idk, love story i guess. like maybe they hooked up in the second movie but stopped so this is them being like so let's give that a chance
There's some pretty good fanfictions with that scenario!
@@CanelaAguila omg could you tell me which ones, I'd love to read a fanfic of this premise
@@choko_mlk i’d also would love to read!
@@CanelaAguila please share!
@@drey6361 also for this specific pairing Ive noticed that the ones written more recently are better generally than the older ones from around the time the movies came out, probably because current writers are the grown up versions of those authors
The way you mention the brainiacs as a third category and my brain immediately went "they're the ace ones, calling it now",,, and then I was actually right,, I love that
this analysis is so entertaining omg good job, some of these takes actually had my jaw open and the "plot twist"?! what even is that?!???!
thank you!! yeah i think no one expected that last chunk to suddenly switch the narrative. we had to pivot, we had to regroup, but we reeled it back in by the end
Honestly I feel like that was fully Lucas Grabeel projecting his own crush on his character
Notice how in hsm 3 Chad is the one reaching for Ryan? I posit that they had a summer fling after I don't dance, but Ryan didn't feel comfortable keeping it going if Chad was going to stay with Taylor, even with her as his beard so broke it off. Ryan's trying to get over it by focusing on the musical and his future. Chad isn't over it. That's my theory as to why they barely interact.
It wasn't Taylor, it's because Chad is back to being obsessed with Troy in 3
The one thing that I’ve always thought kind of weird about the last movie is that Chad and Taylor are both telling Troy and Gabriella that high school relationships never work out so they should just let it go but aren’t they supposed to be in a high school relationship… almost as if… it’s performative… and they aren’t actually in love…?
✨️ The effort, the receipts, the clips, the DRAMA??? Iconic ✨️ Your edits are so good!!
39:42 actually, that was a reference to the conversation before “I don’t dance” when Chad asked Ryan “you got game?” And Ryan was like “little”. Just wanted to point that out. Regardless, I am enjoying the video and the work you put into it
Chad: “You call that a little game?” ** VIGOROUSLY SHAKES KETCHUP**
I can't get over the "drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel" music being played in romantic szenes in this video...
THIS IS WHAT I CAME HERE FOR, dissecting any element you could find!
THE NECKLACE, never noticed it.
The Basketball theory, so well developed but MAY I ADD, everytime Chad gives his ball to Troy, it’s to encourage him to do sthg “masculine” (not do theatre, rehearse basketball, ask Gabriella to Prom…).
And the hat theory!!! GOLD.
ROUND OF APPLAUSE 👏
Now the Zeke x Ryan suggestion?!? Even Jason x Fulton woulda been + plausible! 😭
#ryanxchad4life
10/10 the reunion movie should be a Chad/Ryan one
Came for the Ryan x Chad, stayed for your breakdown of unrequited Chad x Troy. Your rendition of Chad comforting Troy about Gabriella leaving and how they're both gonna be at the same college where aNYtHiNg cOUld HaPPeN cracked me up
omg, my friend and i realized the hat theory when we watched through the hsm trilogy like two years ago, and NO ONE ELSE has ever mentioned it!!! im so glad u saw it too, it's been driving me insane for so long. like his dad STRAIGHTENS HIS HAT. i cannot that's just so on the nose and hints at so many aspects of ryan's relationship with his dad surrounding his sexuality, it's so small yet says so much??? anyway thank u so much for this 💗
tbh i feel like the parallel at the end of the first movie where theyre dancing could be read as chad being for troy but troy being for gabriella but idk 😭😭
ONLY 1K VIEWS??? UHM THIS ANALOGY NEEDS TO BE VIRAL!! THE ALGORITHM IS HIDING THE TRUTH!!!
often, the deepest truths are shared only with the smallest of groups. you are now one of the elite. welcome aboard comrade
29,700 views now
@@cassandra1799 deserved 😌😌
@@cassandra1799 damn 3 days later it’s at 47k
okay my theory is as follows: ryan and chad had a fling during the second movie, but for ~reasons~ they never pursued a relationship, maybe ryan's theoretical crush on zeke and chad's codependency on troy, but from the clips we see from the third movie, it looks like chad has an unrequited crush on ryan, like they're friendly but chad wants more even if neither he or ryan realize it. ia m choosing to believe that they get together during their college years somehow or meet later in life and fall in love
istg i come back every other week to rewatch this video it’s a masterpiece
The thing about Chad is his clinging to that basketball is the same as his clinging to Troy which is all just his way of clinging to the past. Many people think Sharpay is the antagonist and she is but Chad becomes an even greater antagonist than Sharpay because he’s so close and important to Troy. He’s afraid when people start doing other stuff because that means he has to come to terms with the other stuff he wants to do. He’s lowkey become the monster because he’s spouting what he thinks everyone else will say to him. Says so much w so little. Thanks for doing gods work w this video fr
The Ryan/Zeke allegations will never make sense to me especially since they set up Zeke and Sharpay and it was cute even in those few moments they had chemistry but they immediately had to swerve and retcon to maintain the Sharpay antagonistic Troy obsessed not really love triangle and for what 😭 The effort to make Ryan an actual distinct character in the second and third movies rather than Sharpay’s lackey only to turn around and go “oh yeah he’s getting hand me down love interests too”
i REMEMBER feeling some type of tension in that baseball scene but my child brain cannot comprehend the gei energy until this very moment watching your video! Your edit and commentary is gold please keep doing what you are doing girl
Your side theory about the brainiacs being ace made me have a re-realization that i’m ace lol. I remember really identifying with Taylor because she was a smart black girl too lol. I remember this one time, I was on the phone with my best friend like my senior year of high school trying to explain how love is dumb and not real (I was really annoying about that when I was younger lol. i don’t feel that extreme about it anymore b/c there’s different types of love/ people experience them differently and all that jazz) And anyway my friend group kind of pushed my now ex and i to date during senior year. it was awkward and not great lol. and long story short, when we went to college, I started realizing I was asexual and they (my ex) were realizing they were bisexual. I couldn’t help but think of that experience while watching lol. Anyway, great video ^^
adding to the baseball scene- baseball has a ton of gay metaphors? Beyond like, the bases thing relating to sex, but phrases like 'bats for the other team', 'swings both ways' and the 'pitcher/catcher' positions 👀
Anyway, it's great to see someone treating high school musical theory with the seriousness and academic rigor it deserves. Also my school district mascot was the Wildcats, this movie was an absolute SENSATION in my middle/high school
My first exposure to I DONT DANCE was when my theatre camp did it and they didn’t have enough boys to be the baseball team so I me and my partner were two girls and it gave me SOME kind of awaking but then I saw it and I love it
I have rewatched this at least 4 times in the last three months.
Samee
I wholeheartedly believe Ryan and Kelsey had a convo off screen later down the road and realized they’re both a little fruity and decided to go together as each other’s beards so no one would pester them
I was one of the kids who was "Too Good" for High School Musical but I was always deeply attached to Ryan {because he was my type as surely then as he is now, and I loved me some queer-coded white blond boys in the 2000s} so this is deeply delightful and I enjoyed every moment. Thank you for making it.
"It is thinly researched and solely based on my opinions"😂
WHAT a fantastic way to spend an hour! This is delightful and fun and hilarious, and though I was *already* fully on board the Chad/Ryan train, this was such a good breakdown! Loved that it sounded like you were having a blast making it too! A+ accents, 10/10, what heterosexual explanation indeed!!!!
ngl when u first said the hat theory I thought it was a reach, but the way I GASPED when ryans dad straightened his hat… and then pointed it out AGAIN later… you’ve won me over, great video 🙏🏼
Ryan actually did show up in sharpay’s fabulous adventure. I think it was a post credit scene where he goes to sharpay’s apartment and he’s basically like “I’m super successful now”
Edit: it was a clip exclusive to the tv airing of the movie that was played over the credits. It’s a super cute clip. It’s revealed that Ryan was on tour and that’s why he wasn’t in new york to hang out with sharpay in sharpay’s fabulous adventure
It’s an angsty slow-burn and Ryan and Chad get together in college ok
I always thought the ‘stick to your one thing’ thing was dumb even as a kid…but a lot of the dudes in my choir who also were in musicals were also like football players and into sports…literally the start football guy got a solo in one choir concert and everyone was cheering for him (he was also like a very popular guy)
Yeah same I thought it was such a non-issue but I was like "maybe it's more of a thing in American schools" lmao
@@ND-kh5yw I mean maybe in 2006 but I don’t think things change THAT drastically in less than 10 years 😂
Whenever Chad sings “there’s just one little thing that stops me every time”, it literally pans to the crowd. It CANNOT get any more obvious 😂
Can we talk about how Chad checked ryan out at the Baseball scene?
And the smirk from ryan after that
I’m living for the hat theory and your analysis over what chad going around with his basketball represent
i think there was an interview where kenny ortega revealed that disney told him to pair ryan with a girl bc parents complained about ryan seeming queer so in hsm3 they pretty much have ryan away w kelsey and when they yelled cut at the graduation ceremony scene theres a behind the scenes Lucas kisses Zekes actor….
link or it didn't happen
okay I might have totally imagined this but I remember Ryan making a small appearance at the end of the Sharpay movie. Like one of those shorts that happen at the very end of the movie after the credits. Like he also gets trap in Sharpay's closet bed. I don't know why I remembered this very specific detail of the movie, since I haven't watched it in over ten years, but just wanted to let you know lol
lol i said basically the exact same thing less than an hour after you did.. . good news: we didn't imagine it, however, it was an extra easter egg for the disney channel airing only, but not included on the dvd, which explains why we remember it, while a lot of ppl like grimm have never seen it : th-cam.com/video/SDPO00iULg8/w-d-xo.html
holy shit dude I'm actually convinced, the parallels, the basketball, the HATS. undeniable atp
hey batter batter hey batter batter swing
these boys had a summer fling
It’s so funny how many High School Musical analysis’s I’ve watched. I haven’t even watched the movies again in almost a decade 🫣 Loved the video by the way 💖💖💖
Came here from Dream Jelly and I am blown away by how fun of a watch this was!! The runtime of this vid totally flew by, you really made the most out of every minute👏👏
i can't get enough of the hat theory. thats actually so canon imo
Ryan does mention a little game before the song when Chad asks "You got game?" Ryan says "a little" so I think thats what they're talking about
I didn’t watch the HSM movies growing up because I had really strict parents so a little over a year ago I decided to binge watch all three and with absolutely no prior context, no knowledge of the fandom, nothing, I immediately felt the intense gay energy between Chad and Ryan during the baseball scene.
I think they did the baseball thing bc Chad “didn’t swing that way” but by the end of the song, he does. And Ryan’s game is totally directly referencing the phrase game, he’s pulling Chad the whole time lmao
i can already feel this becoming one of my favorite go to videos. hsm is so cozy and nostalgic for me and this video somehow completely replicates that feeling (WITH the benefit of hindsight, and some great analysis) also small detail but you're so right about the color grading in hsm2 Feeling like how summer should feel. how did they do it!!!
This was top notch, I'm obsessed, I love everything about this- AND YES, RYAN HAVING FEELINGS FOR ZEKE MAKES NO SENSE! Okay, yeah, anyways, thank you, I'm gonna go read Chad and Ryan fanfics now-
brb i gotta go read some fanfiction about them so i can feel joy
We were ROBBED 😭
33:20 about the bat thing, my small elementary school used to have us kids do that whenever we played our variant of baseball. This way the team leader who gets to tap the top (or bottom?) or the bat like Ryan did is the one who chooses whether their team is, I guess pitching or catching? (Idk if these are the terms) Catching the bat mid-air is part of it in order to rely on chance. It's like rolling dice. Though imo it's understandable to see this shot as something that adds up to the ✨️vibes✨️ in this entire scene haha
Great video btw! I just felt inclined to comment this lmao
This video is, quite frankly, a work of art. I don't know why TH-cam recommended it to me; it must simply have known that I was a casual part-time Chyan fan in years gone by who could be convinced into becoming a full-on stan in the year 2023. This video achieved that and more. Bravo. Ryan x Chad forever
i have to say this YOURE HILARIOUS. i don’t know how much of this was scripted, but even if it was, the fact that you wrote it and executed it well, is amazing. your personality is just so pleasant and fun and i never got bored once ❤️❤️
I don’t know if anyone has said this, but the writer of high school musical did actually come out and say that Ryan was supposed to be gay, but that it was at a time in Disney’s history where they wouldn’t allow that. Ryan was before his time.
It wasnt until i was 45 minutes that i realized, the video was an hour and ten minutes
I loved corbin bleu movies as a child too!
Girl, this is some obsessive fan-forward nonsense and I am HERE for it. Tell it like it is! That hat theory was gold.
Very accurately reflects the high of HSM2 and low of HSM3 that ppl went through.
Also, I could believe Ryan had a thing for Zeke. Doesn't mean he couldn't have a bigger thing for Chad. You're able to have crushes on multiple guys in your school; I certainly did. Some fall through, some stick around. If anything, Zeke reinforces that Ryan has a certain taste for chocolate if you know what I mean hrmhrrhrr.
🤢
Ew, "taste for chocolate". Don't refer to someone's skin colour like that, that's weird af.
@@no-qe9tb Frankly I think being weirded out by it feels like a white-guilt/American thing. I personally never minded being referred to as chocolate, cause who doesn't love chocolate? I acknowledge the thought, but I'd rather not be policed on how I positively refer to my own skin colour.
@@kayzaac I guess as a brown person I find it gross because I've heard people fetishise me and the women of our culture like that.
@@kayzaac you dont get bothered by dark chocolate or caramel skin being the only way to describe us all the time?
im so glad we’re in a hsm (chyan) renaissance because it justifies my fanart for it 😭😭
I think what's happening in 33:20 is a way to decide who bats first.
In most organized baseball games, the designated "away" team always bats first. In a game like this where there's not exactly a "home" and "away" team, instead of, idk, flipping a coin like they do in American football, this is a quick little mini game to decide that.
So Ryan gets his hand on the top of the bat, and then he decides he wants his team to bat second, because (sports jargon about you want to know how much you have to score to keep playing or win).
First of all I have to say this video is impeccable and definitely at the top of my list of favorite hsm content on youtube. Also Ryan does show up in Sharpay's fabulous adventure! he's in the post credit scene!
Okay hear me out, I think Sharpay is actually a lesbian. She just doesn't seem to genuinely like Troy, it feels more like she just wants the most popular guy in school for status. You can tell that Zeke genuinely likes Sharpay because of the way he talks about her but I don't get a similar vibe whenever Sharpay brings up Troy. In the third movie, she asks him when the big game is and doesn't even listen to his response and usually if someone likes someone they would yknow actually listen to them when they speak. It just plays out as she just wants Troy to have him rather than because she actually has feelings for him. Also having a crush on a guy that you can't have screams comphet. You could also see that in the fact that she never gets in a relationship with Zeke despite her liking him enough by the end of each movie and the fact that he obviously has a huge crush on her. I think she just views Troy as the safest option for a crush because she knows he'll never like her back while if she pursues Zeke it might actually be something and I don't think she really wants that. In my opinion, Sharpay and Ryan are gay theatre twins as well as wlw and mlm solidarity.
time to read ryan/chad fanfics sigh
I like three songs from the HSM movies, so I'm not a big fan, but this, an over 60 mins long video analyzing this relationship, felt important to watch. It was a good decision.