Fans of Disney Channel original films got to spend three movies with the original cast of High School Musical. However, the Disney Plus follow-up to the record-breaking musical trilogy has allowed for fans to spend way more time with the characters. Ten episodes and counting have come out to flesh out the East High cast and crew.
Because of this extra time, fans get to know the characters better than they would have otherwise. Therefore, the moral alignment charts of each of the Disney stars are a bit clearer as each character's specific traits have pushed them in one direction or the other. That's the beauty of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
Nini Salazar-Roberts - Lawful Good
The lead of the show, Nini, fills the Gabriella role from the original film. Like Gabriella, she is an upstanding and accomplished student who is poised for bigger things to satiate her budding ambitions.
However, Nini is not willing to stoop to achieve her goals (aside from one quick slip-up when she stole some of Gina's belongings). She always aims to play by the rules and when she fails, she makes sure to apologize for her actions. Nini's lawful good status paints her as one of the purest characters on the show.
Ricky Bowen - Neutral Good
Like Nini, most of Ricky's actions come with the hopeful attempt to be doing good and putting good into the world. Ricky never wants to do the wrong thing, but sometimes he does it anyway. But his heart's always in the right place!
His actions may be a bit controversial (joining the musical just to have a shot at getting back together Nini being chief among them), but they are done with the best of intentions. Ricky is just your average high school student: doing his best to figure out how to act his age.
E.J. Caswell - Chaotic Neutral
The best way to understand E.J.'s character is to watch the Thanksgiving episode of the show. After a season in which he has done nothing but lie and cheat, he feels guilty and wants to atone. E.J. then takes to Instagram Live to make apologies for his actions on the streaming show.
While playing a High School Musical trivia game with his fellow cast members, he Googles the answer to one question, receives praise for his surprising knowledge, and then promptly admits to lying in an exasperated tone. It's a very funny moment, but it is also a clear one that shows E.J. as an unpredictable character.
Gina Porter - Neutral Evil
For the first half of the first season of HSM:TM:TS, there is no doubt that Gina is an evil character. Granted, she does come around to the pathos side of things by the end of the show, but the majority of her time was spent being conniving and scheming.
Viewers and fans will see if she redeems herself fully in season two, but the first arc for her character is to be a transfer student who embraces the philosophy of kill or be killed. Fans understand where she comes from, but it doesn't make her actions any less nefarious.
Miss Jenn - Chaotic Good
As evidenced by the musical number put on by her students at her school committee hearing, Miss Jenn is a good teacher to whom students really gravitate. This counts for a lot, especially considering the passion she sparked in many non-theater kids.
However, she would not have been at a school committee meeting if she had not lied about her teaching credentials and drama experience. The fact that she invited herself along on a girls' night between Nini and Kourtney, two of her students, cements her status as a chaotic person.
Mr. Mazzara - Lawful Evil
Mr. Mazzara, the other main teacher at East High in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, follows a similar trajectory to Gina. By the end of the show, one cannot help but root for his character's ambitions, but it is still hard to shake his actions from earlier in the arc.
He's the one who set Miss Jenn on the path to being embroiled in controversy and he also made fun of Carlos, a student, along the way. Sure, he is a stoic, by-the-book character. This just makes his choices all the more confusing as an educational professional.
Carlos Rodriguez - Lawful Neutral
Carlos has friends and people he is close to as a high school student at East High. There is his friendship with Ashlyn, his relationship with Seb, his connection with Miss Jenn. Ultimately, however, Carlos is loyal to one thing and one thing only: the show.
Carlos' first passion is the theater and it is where his loyalty and his lawful characteristics lie. His actions are always conducted with the best interest of the show at heart, but the fans did see Carlos becoming more humanized and less of a theater machine by the end of season one.
Big Red - True Neutral
Has there ever been a character more equipped to be a true neutral than Big Red is? As Ricky's best friend and the stage crew manager, there is a lot asked of Big Red throughout the show, even though he gets few moments to shine himself. (Though, his season-ending tap dance number was something to behold.)
Big Red has no bad relationships with anyone in the school and he is fully aware of his ineptitude at managing a stage crew. But does it ever get to him or eat at him? Not that fans see on screen.
Ashlyn Caswell - Lawful Neutral
Fans would be hard-pressed not to see where Ashlyn is coming from at all times of the show, but that does not absolve her of some of the things she does. Yes, Ashlyn is a good person (with one banger of a voice, as evidenced by "Wondering"), but she still gets down in the muck with E.J.
She comes very close to stealing Nini's phone, showing that she was willing to do it. Fortunately, Ashlyn does not commit to the nefarious deed and she ends up convincing E.J. to apologize to Nini, too.
Kourtney - Neutral Good
Just as Ashlyn enables some of E.J.'s more dubious impulses, so too does Kourtney with Nini's. At the outset of season one, this comes in the form of Kourtney teaming up with Nini to steal some of Gina's belongings.
Fortunately, the good nature of Kourtney's character shines through by the end of the season when she instead uses her unconventional, gut instinct techniques to help Nini for good. Without telling her friend, she invites a youth actors' conservatory dean to the production of High School Musical and it's a decision that ends up paying off. Of course, the results of it will not be apparent until season two.