Lucaya COULD have been endgame, but here's why it wasn't.
To put it simply: Disney.
It's well known that Disney doesn't often allow more than 2-3 seasons and with the complex plot ideas that Girl Meets World wanted to cover... that's not enough time. I believe if the writers had more time, Lucaya could have been pushed, but because it was limited, the writers ultimately decided to go the easy route and just stick with the "original" pairings Rucas and I say this loosely-- Joshaya since they didn't have much time left for build-up and storytelling. The rushed writing really shows on the last episodes of the last season because of how illogically they played Lucaya off (this post hits the nail on the head as to why it was badly done).
When It comes to filtering , Disney does it best and it really showed with Lucaya's campfire scene aka supposed-to-be kiss that was took out because of Disney's one kiss rule. Disney is extremely basic when it comes to romance and they always go for the more simple fairytale type-of love stories like Rucas because of its younger audience and according to Peyton the writers also took the feedback very seriously. Meanwhile Lucaya was more mature, realistic, and complicated. It doesn't help that Girl Meets World was already deemed too mature and unrelatable for Disney's audience at the time which is one of the reasons it was canceled despite its success in ratings.
They could have made Lucaya "endgame" but between the way Riley's character was written, Disney's filtering, and many other things, it would have required too much de-tangling for the short time frame that the writers would have had to work out the kinks. So, the ending would have still felt rushed and left people unsatisfied no matter what due to Disney imo. Had another network picked up Girl Meets World, I think Lucaya would have had a better chance of happening and would have been handled with more care. Although I do believe the writers would have went through with Lucaya had the circumstances been different, I also believe they held themselves back with Riley being the main character and heavily leaning on the nostalgia Boy Meets World by wanting her to have an ending similar to Cory's.
And this is absolutely no hate to Rowan because I believe Riley wasn't a very strong or interesting main character as it is, but Sabrina really stole the spotlight. Peyton even talked about how he and Sabrina had a lot of on-screen chemistry and were the closest out of the cast at the time. In Peyton's words "I think the writers wanted it to be Lucas and Maya" and I definitely agree. There's many theories about why they added a Lucaya romance arc into the show if they were just going to stick to the original plan, but I believe Lucaya could and would have been worked into the show given it was on a different network, had more seasons/episodes, and if the writers were able to make up their mind (because according the Peyton they had a hard time choosing Riley or Maya and chose the safer option lol). Or it simply never would have happened had Sabrina and Peyton not been chosen to play Lucas and Maya.
I hate this whole good influence / bad influence thing Riley and Maya got going on, which sucks for me because that’s basically the whole show.
It has just always felt like the two had this weird toxic view of each other. Maya idolizing Riley(’s life) and never disagreeing with her, never acknowledging the areas in which she might be lacking and also shielding her from the real world which prevents her growth. And then Riley only seeing Maya as this bad girl and not letting her grow out of that persona in season 3 with that terrible “you turned into me” arc.
It’s just really weird and such a missed opportunity for a show which tagline is “people change people” to have their two main characters prevent each other from actually growing up
I did not know it was a remake of she's all that also never seen the movie. However, I fucking love Cinderella stories especially gender bent ones. Like Disney's geek charming that had Sarah Hyland, I like cheesy movies.
I did not know the main girl was Addison rae then again, my tik tok is mostly alt, neurodivergent, and pets. Who names their kid Padgett? Took me a while but Fucking Zander is the douchebag guy.
I know it's a shitty song like the logan Paul one's, but I couldn't help myself and sing it a bit in the end. Also, Mathew Lillard and Kortney Kardashian where in it. Lillard, I accepted he's barely in it and I love Shaggy but a Kardashian...
I wish They kept Cameron's long hair but that's just me but I'm glad they shaved him.
The ugly duckling getting a popular make over as a bet has got to be stopped. Glad all they did was cut his hair he kept wearing his regular clothes.
Padgett losing her basically job over her valid reaction to her boyfriend cheating was a shit move. It happens too much to celebrities or influencers you can't let anyone see you look bad. She should have also texted Nisha and Cameron that it was a pool party. I liked when Cameron saved her when she froze singing. Cameron and Padgett's hang out with the horses and grand central was so cute.
I loved this fight glad nothing happened to his sister and Cameron kicked his ass. He really did hold back when he was getting bullied.
I loved Maddison Pettis as the fake friend, but she really went to Jordan. Girl if he cheated on Padgett, He's going to cheat on you. She knew about where Padgett really lived for a year but still dropped her for prom queen and her ex. Girl that's a dumbass reason.
I was so glad when they kissed but I knew it was going to go wrong after. Also, glad she got called out by Cameron's sister. I'm glad Padgett went to prom and won. I'm mad Maddison Pettis's character didn't try to cheat her votes somehow. The speech was cute, I thought Cameron was going to show up in the middle of it on a horse. That random goth girl only showed up twice who the fuck was she? And how did she win runner up?
Cameron did show up on the horse a little late but still cute I loved it. Their traveling the world montage was so cute. I also forgot the bet but getting a loser tattoo is not so bad. It's so cute that they're matching.
Overall, I liked it, it wasn't good there were issues obviously, but I enjoyed it.