Would the characters of Mean Girls survive Euphoria if they were dropped into the Euphoria universe overnight? I will start with my thoughts on Regina George.
From my perspective, I don’t believe Regina George would survive in the Euphoria universe if she were plucked out of Mean Girls and dropped into the world of Euphoria overnight.
I think the level of mean girl energy she has would get her socially exiled quicker than anything else. When I analyzed her ability to fit into the Gossip Girl world, I mentioned the way she’d be forced to face off against Blair Waldorf, since both of them are queen bees in their respective universes.
But the thing about Euphoria is that there’s not necessarily any queen bee in charge of the school who functions based on social hierarchy, popularity, and bullying tactics. Something I love about Euphoria is that the characters all seemingly vibe well even though they come from such different backgrounds and have such very different interests.
Rue, for example, is a burnout and drug addict. Lexi is a success-obsessed overachiever. Cassie is a pick-me girl desperate for male validation and attention. Jules is free-spirited, adventurous, and vibrant in every interaction. Maddy is a bad bitch who’s definitely extremely popular at school, but not the way Regina George is popular in Mean Girls. Maddy is an aggressor who’s willing to fight people who piss her off and willing to stand up for what she believes in, but she isn’t the type to be cold, cruel, or callous for the hell of it like we always saw from Regina.
You might not think the Euphoria girls would vibe with each other too well, but they absolutely do. Which is why Regina’s mean girl energy wouldn’t thrive there at all. The same way I predicted a character like Blair Waldorf would fail in the Euphoria universe, I believe Regina would fail as well.
I can see her clashing with Maddy almost immediately. I can see her sparking up a frenemies dynamic with Cassie that would be much to Cassie’s detriment. I can see her treating Lexi like a background character with little to no respect. She would possibly vibe with Jules, but only if they kept their friendship operating on a surface level.
Her Euphoria boyfriend selection of Nate, McKay, Ethan, Fezco, and Elliot wouldn’t work out well. She could date Nate, but their breakup would be explosive and insane since they both want to be the one in control. The rest would see her as too intimidating, aggressive, or daunting to deal with.
Regina is accustomed to controlling the narrative. But in Euphoria, everything is so messy, chaotic, and out of control. If Regina needs to run the Euphoria world, she’d have to adopt and change so many things about herself. So my final verdict is that no, she’d have to realize that being a mean girl wouldn’t get her very far in the Euphoria universe.
I don’t think Gretchen Wieners would survive in the Euphoria universe if she were to be plucked out of Mean Girls and dropped into Euphoria overnight. And my argument is that she needs to feel like she’s getting approval from others in order to feel secure.
The thing about Euphoria characters is that they don’t have time to coddle someone like Gretchen and cater to Gretchen’s neediness on a daily basis. Gretchen also thrives on the predictable nature of the Plastics. She understands how they operate on campus, the rules she needs to follow, even down to the dress code she was given by Regina.
Characters on Euphoria are so much less predictable, which wouldn’t feel emotionally safe for someone like Gretchen. I can see her desperately trying to figure out the dynamics of everyone else, relationships, friendships, and alliances, and feeling completely in over her head throughout the process. She’d likely get obsessed with uncovering everyone’s secrets, and soon realize that she was surrounded by people with much darker secrets than she could ever have because the dynamics of Euphoria are so much darker than what we saw in Mean Girls.
Gretchen likes being a follower, and we know that’s true based on the way she served as Regina’s lap dog. I can see her setting her sights on Maddy as the fearless leader she could follow in the Euphoria world, but I don’t see Maddy having enough patience to deal with someone as needy as Gretchen. She loses patience easily, after all.
Another issue for Gretchen in Euphoria is that she’d be horrible at keeping her mouth shut if push came to shove and she found herself in a stressful situation. Possible friendships between her and any of the other girlies like Lexi, Rue, Cassie, and Jules would suffer because of that.
Her Euphoria boyfriend selection of Nate, McKay, Ethan, Fezco, and Elliot wouldn’t work out well. Nate would destroy her. McKay would find her too annoying. Fezco wouldn’t even consider dating her, not because she isn’t beautiful, but because he proved that he’s the type to go for the Lexis of the world rather than the bimbotastic Cassies of the world, and Gretchen sort of fits that category.
Elliot would date her, but she wouldn’t be interested. She’d probably only have a decent match in Ethan, but one for five isn’t a high success stat.
I think Karen Smith would survive in the Euphoria universe if she were plucked out of Mean Girls and dropped into the Euphoria world overnight. The reason I feel this way is because she’s not socially competitive or intentionally chaotic enough to become the center of any drama in an entirely new world.
Karen floats along in life in La La Land. She doesn’t desperately need status or attention by any stretch. In the Euphoria universe, that would go well for her. I can see her getting along with pretty much all the girls of Euphoria. Cassie, Lexi, Rue, and Jules would all be nice to her, likely seeing her as their cute, charming, innocent friend.
I also think Maddy would get along with her, although occasionally, she’d probably get annoyed by Karen’s airheadedness. But that doesn’t mean she’d make an enemy out of Karen over it.
Karen wouldn’t understand half the drama going down around her in Euphoria world, which ironically would protect her from getting sucked into it. I can picture her hearing something absolutely insane and responding with “Yay!” because she just doesn’t know better.
When it comes to her love life in the Euphoria world, Nate and McKay would think she’s too dumb, despite finding her attractive, but I can see Ethan being patient with her since he’s generally just a really good guy. I can see Ethan giving her the time of day with their shared chemistry of mutual slowness between them.
I can also see Elliot appreciating her for who she is at her level of intelligence, and appreciating the way she likely wouldn’t judge him for his lifestyle at all. My final verdict on Karen is that yeah, she would survive in Euphoria because Karen Smith has a character that remains inexplicably likable in most settings.
I believe Cady Heron would survive in the Euphoria universe if she were plucked out of Mean Girls and dropped into the Euphoria world overnight, even though the Euphoria world would initially be a terribly bad environment for her. But after creating the right friendships, I really do think she’d be okay.
What we see from Cady in Mean Girls is that she’s extremely intelligent when it comes to academics, but she’s also extremely susceptible to the behavior of people around her. In Mean Girls, we watched her morph from an innocent new girl into one of the Plastics and into a social manipulator incredibly quickly.
She wouldn’t have to go through any process like that in Euphoria because social hierarchy doesn’t exist in the first place. However, she would be exposed to much darker forms of peer pressure, such as underage drinking, hooking up, and partying. But I can see Cady growing fascinated by the people around her, living a more intense lifestyle than she ever experienced after years of being homeschooled in Africa.
In Mean Girls, there was a very clean social structure for her to navigate and master. In Euphoria, that doesn’t exist. So at first, Cady would totally spiral, trying to figure out where she belongs. But after hanging out with the girls of Euphoria, I see her finding her footing in their world.
Maddy would take her under her wing, teaching her to be more confident in herself. Lexi would connect with her over academics, and they’d share their love for intellectualism with each other. Rue would probably have a crush on Cady, so she’d be super nice to her, even if Cady didn’t return that interest.
Cassie might secretly become jealous of Cady, but she’d admire her too, and I think they’d still have a friendship, the same way Cassie was jealous of Maddy yet still maintained a friendship with her for years.
Jules would connect with Cady over the feeling of trying to fit into a new environment as the odd one out who sort of sticks out like a sore thumb, and they’d hit it off.
Her Euphoria boyfriend selection of Nate, McKay, Ethan, Fezco, and Elliot would work out well. Nate’s a no-go because he’s not a mentally safe person, but the rest of the guys would totally date her and treat her decently well if she were to be interested in any of them.
My final verdict is that Cady would vibe in Euphoria without falling down the terrible pipeline we saw from her in Mean Girls.
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