High School Musical

Logical-Master, As a novice debater I thank you for pointing out my error of the use "elaborating later in the next round", when my topics may not even reference the ones I must counter in my next round. Thank you, as I try to take in as much as I can from those more experienced. I will go back to the concept of my favoring of the nerd getting the girl, as opposed to the way things are presented in High School Musical. The "nerd getting the girl" theme is usually displayed as follows: Phase One: The nerd is belittled by those higher on the social chain. Phase Two: The nerd sees that he must change his appearance in order for the popular girl to take notice of him. Phase Three: The change is a success, either solely with the girl or with the entire student body. Phase Four: The girl explains to the nerd her true feelings; that she liked him for who he was, and that he didn't need to change who he is to get her attention. Phase Five: The nerd and the girl both live their lives as they used to, and still get along. The moral of these stories is that in order to get attention, to be appreciated or to be liked is to just be yourself; it's the most you can do, unless you want to live a false hope. I'd also like to focus on the concept of the characters of Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez. Troy Bolton is your typical, cool, everyday BMOC with a superstar smile. He is captain of the basketball team, and their overall best player. He is well-liked by the girl population of East High, being referenced to at one point a "superbuff". What more could one want in their life? Gabriella Montez is the typical, brainy, everyday nerd; or is she? In the movie, her intellectual background is portrayed well, through talks of her math championships and high intellect. However, her physical appearance is something to be questioned; she is shown in the movies with no "nerdy style" to her clothing, wearing typical, hot fashion trends that the other girls in school don. She lacks glasses, braces, and outspoken hairstyle (pigtails, frizzy hair, etc) that many nerdy girls are portrayed to be. Her appearance creates a false illusion to viewers, in that this girls is supposed to come off as the underdog, the nerdy one who comes victorious; and yet she is still drooled over by guys of all ages (including me...drools on keyboard), and if you minus all the smart, nerdyness that surrounds her, she is still beautiful. Other nerds in high school musical portray this attire. Why shouldnt she? It loses effect. When they first meet, they are both immediately drawn to each other. The movie progresses, and the mutual attraction still follows. The focus on Montez's braniac personality is not mentioned as much, as the movie primarily focuses on-guess who?-Troy Bolton, superstar, Mr. Popular, and his possible downfall. I'm sure everyone's heart jitters when they think of even the slight possibility that the teen at the top of the world just might have a slight dent in his side, ruining his reputation forevermore. Oh, the humanity of it all! But fear not, for in the end, the direction of the film takes a turn for the best of the American audience, because everyone realizes that they're "All in this together", and that disregard for others shouldn't be a part in their life. Can't we all just get along? Unfortunately, the world isn't as happy-go-High School Musical as we'd like it to be, and I believe it gives the false illusion that when you try something new, the whole student body congregates together in song (figuratively or literally) approving of your choice to be different. If I could change the ending of this movie, I would have it be like this: rather than the whole school congregating together and making everything perfect for Montez and Bolton, giving them the best of both worlds, that the BMOC and the braniac should've been left to fend for themselves, audition for the musical on their own terms, and end up together, without the support of the entire student body; in life, nobody has that kind of support, and nearly every time your decisions are weighed based on your priorities, what you believe is right-everything isn't going to fall perfectly into place. You've got to make things work on your own.