A View From The Hill (Stephens)

their kids have taken their places in the same high school they once attended. It
is a story of love, loyalty, integrity, consequence, and most of all humility. I've
been looking into some of the fan fiction surrounding One Tree Hill, trying to
understand how some of the more dedicated viewers see the characters and the
story. Looking at a short twist by thedreamygirl, there is a twist in which
Haley (one of the main characters) forgets for the first time that it is
Valentines Day. A holiday that plays such a key role in her relation ship with
her husband Nathan, she feels a sudden panic. This is interesting because with
one of the themes of the series being love and relationships, this puts a twist
on something that would normally be a huge part of the idea of love. Thedreamygirl
justifies her amendment to the original plot-line by claiming that her depiction
is okay due to the confusing nature of the timeline. The fan fiction community
of One Tree Hill is huge, due to the length of the story over the nine seasons.

There are a lot of controversial decisions surrounding
characters within every TV series. When a series runs for nine seasons, it’s
difficult to hang on to all of the original characters for the entire running.
One Tree Hill is no exceptions. There are five main characters that we follow
from start to finish, but along the way there are a few that we gain, and a few
key characters that we lose. New kids are born, old characters die off, and
sometimes they just leave. This is the case with Lucas, one of the main
characters for the first seven seasons. He and his new wide Payton (who is also
one of the main characters from the very beginnings) move away with their
newborn daughter before the eighth and ninth season. This is difficult for a
large portion of the fan community. In this case, Lucas left the show because the
actor (Chad Michael Murray) didnot renew his contract because he wanted to
move on with his career. He also claims that the producers didn't even try to get him to come back.

   Over the course of the nine seasons of One Tree Hill, there are fourteen deaths that effect the main characters. On top of that, there are dozens of near death experiences that mold the characters into the people that we see from then on. The precious nature of life is depicted in every episode of One Tree Hill. We are constantly reminded through the characters how it can be taken away at any time. Every near death experience that occurs, the characters come out stronger and more prepared for the challenges that will come for them later on in life. Several of the main characters lose loved ones that had played a huge role in their lives from the beginning. The biggest impact was Keith Scott, the uncle to Lucas and Nathan. He is killed by their father because of jealousy and a misunderstood murder plot. This death leads Lucas and Nate to exile their own father from their lives. Nathan forgives him after his prison sentence and many more years after, but Lucas never does, considering Keith practically was his father growing up. This leads into another worthy topic for discussion, being forgiveness.

Though the metaphors may be a little out there in a sense,
the symbolic lessons behind them can be applied to real life. A constant battle
between friends, enemies, and people, who don’t even really know each other,
begins to unfold. They struggle over boys, girls, and jobs, until it usually
goes too far. The common theme here is forgiveness. Brooke and Payton fight
over Lucas, although they are best friends. Dan Scott kills his own brother,
after his wife tries to kill him. In the end however, they are very forgiving.
Brooke and Payton remain great friends. Dan forgives his ex-wife, and Dan
eventually reaches redemption and is forgiven by his dead brother after he is
killed himself, when saving his son. The lesson here is that life is too short
and precious to not forgive others.

   Love, and the sacrifices we make for it are drilled into the story that is One Tree Hill. Such a close group of friends and family that do more than most people could ever imagine just to be there for the ones they care about. Nathan and Haley are the ideal couple in One Tree Hill. Nathan is a jock and Haley, the smart tutor. They are married while still in high school and start their life extremely early together. They face more trials than any normal couple would care to dream about. They have a son at a very young age, Haley leaves to go on tour for around a year, and Nathan goes away to play college basketball and into the NBA. They almost lose their son more than once, and Nathan is paralyzed for a brief time. On their wedding day, Nathan almost drowns trying to save some friends who drove off a bridge. Plus, Haley is hit by a car while she is pregnant. Though all of that, they still gown up to watch their son play high school basketball as a Tree Hill Raven. Haley gives up her career for Nathan after about a year, and Nathan gives up multiple college offers just to stay with his family. They grow to only make decisions as a family. This is the sacrifice of true love.

#### Analysis

With any series as long as One Tree Hill, there are a lot of
relationships that are formed and broken. We may love certain characters
together, and we may be thrilled when some characters end up separated. Fans
notice things like this, and they all have their own input. They don’t just
want to express their own opinions though, they want to read other peoples and
criticize them if they disagree. A controversial plot twist in One Tree Hill
that I can was personally intrigued by was the split between Jake and Payton,
before she ends up with Lucas. Jake is a kind and caring single father that has
a daughter while they are all in high school. He cares about Payton and would
do anything for his child. Payton and Jake have the most adored relationship in
the show for the short time that they are together. He leaves to go fight legal
battles with the mother of his child, and Payton is nothing but supportive.
Payton goes to be with them later on and he can tell that she is in love with Lucas, so he tells her to go back to him. This
essentially ends her relationship with Jake. There are a lot of critics that
liked their relationship however. Blackforestangel says, “Jake and Peyton were
great together. I loved to see her with Jenny. Peyton cared a lot about this two.”
It’s kind of a bittersweet moment when they finally break up. They are really
good together, but the producers just make us want Lucas and Payton together in
the end. Not everyone necessarily loves Jake and Payton though, just a select
group. Nathan and Haley is the couple that everyone really wants to talk about.
They go strong for most of the nine season storyline. It seems like everyone supports
Nathan and Haley, because they can look to them when things seem like they are
hopeless. They always support each other and make the best of a terrible
situation.

Like any good series that has
a huge fan base, there are spoilers for One Tree Hill. I watched the entire
series on Netflix, so I didn’t have to wait for the next week or the next
season. I can see why it would be so hard to actually have to wait. I would
want to know what is going to happen, sooner rather than later, especially
since the plot gets twisted up so often. Considering the sudden end to the series,
there were also a number of fans who wanted to see a tenth season with Lucas
and Payton back in it. But that’s not really considered spoiling. What is
spoiling however is the announcement that Lucas would return for a brief period
in the final season. He comes back to the airport gate, just long enough to
take the kids from Haley while she searches for Nathan. They have a god talk,
and Lucas has completely changed his appearance, but the fans are really
excited to see him come back. Another good example of spoiling is when it is
uncovered that one of the main characters is going to gain about 60 pounds and
become overweight. So the shock of this happening on the show is taken out by
the time the first episode hits TV. Spoiling is a waste of effort, because it
takes time to uncover what is going to happen, and even then it is just
speculation until the show is aired. Collecting information can come from a
variety of places, such as members of the cast, employees working on the set,
or any creeper with a decent camera looking for a good story. A knowledge community is a
group that wants to exchange information that is uncovered about a certain
topic, in this case being One Tree Hill. Groups like this are dangerous to
producers who want to maintain a wow factor for their show. Like the spoilers
for Survivor, they are usually pretty good, but misunderstood by anyone who doesn't
share their same interests. Within these communities, there is often debate,
because not everyone wants to agree with predictions that are made. They don’t want
to believe that certain things are going to happen until they see for
themselves. At the same time however, they could just stay away from forums
that contain potential spoilers.

As it mentioned earlier, there is a huge potion of the One
Tree Hill online community that wanted to see a tenth season. If it had gone to
a tenth however, they would have wanted an eleventh and twelfth. Then it would
have become incredibly stupid, much like the series *Lost*. Most of the online community wanted to see the same things in
the tenth season, which is probably worth comment from the producers of the
show. Similar pressures were effective for other shows, such as *Prison Break*, which recently announced
that there would be ten additional episodes aired, years after the series
finale. The biggest question I have for the producers is, why are there so many
sudden, stressful, life-changing occurrences in the first nine seasons, but we
are expected to believe that they will just stop at the end of the series? Bad things
continue to happen when everything seems to be going great for everyone, just
like they are right at the end of season nine.  BRITTANY, points this out in a comment on
SpoilersGuide by saying, “thats what i was thinking, there was so much left
undone like logan coming into the picture and what happened to lucus, payton,
swyer, lilly, and karen what happened with all of them? and mouth and millie
having a baby?? thats a very bad way to end. i NEED MORE.” Though many
online contributors don’t pay much attention to grammar, they share some
interesting ideas. So many unanswered questions, and so much room for things to
dramatically change, yet it just ends. On the same comment section, jen makes
the comment that a spinoff where Jamie (Haley and Nathan’s son) and Lilly
(Lucas’ younger sister) go to Tree Hill High School together, which is about
where season nine leaves off. The possibilities are endless, especially with the
creative nature of the show up to this point.

1. ↑ thedreamygirl
2. ↑ Lucas' contract
3. ↑ Fourteen Deaths
4. ↑ Quote on forgiveness
5. ↑ Lucas' return
6. ↑ Weight gain
7. ↑ Lucas' return picture
8. ↑ SpoilerGuide