< Degrassi

Degrassi/YMMV


  • Abandon Shipping: After "Rock This Town" and "The Bitterest Pill", it's pretty rare to find anybody who ships JT with anybody other than Liberty.
    • Once Eli hit the scene, most of the KC/Clare fans and Clare/Declan fans jumped ship.
    • Most Declan/Fiona shippers gave up after Adam, Holly J, and Charlie were presented as romantic possibilities for Fiona.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: In addition to the many slash-themed ones out there, it's common to have the Emma/Sean relationship be interpreted as Emma abusing Sean. Emma also abuses Manny, for the anti-Emma crowd. Rick is seen as having a mental illness, usually bipolar disorder. Alex is seen as a case of Rape and Switch because her mom was abused by her dad so she Does Not Like Men and is therefore a lesbian. When Manny was going back and forth between shipping Semma and Pemma, was it all just a Xanatos Gambit to get revenge on Peter?
    • Jenna is actually a lesbian, but she's deluded herself into thinking she's straight. Or she's aware of it, but in denial about her sexuality, and so she steals other girls' boyfriends in order to convince herself that she likes guys.
    • Boycott the Caf theorizes that since Terri was using dark magic for her own gain using Tarot cards and ouija boards, she must have been working alongside the devil, and Rick was sent by God to rid this world of her wicked powers, and much like Jesus, he was killed by his peers and will one day be worshipped as a beloved martyr.
    • Eli lied about Julia. She's just some girl that he liked and when he moved away he started blaming his Jerkass behavior on his grief over her.
    • Eli is more than just a troubled kid who means well, but is actually a sociopathic monster who literally wants to kill Clare and drink her blood.
    • Imogen is similar, only she wants to consume Eli's blood instead of Clare's most of the time.
    • Drew has Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which would explain why he is such a raging Jerkass and the current Degrassi King of Kicking the Dog.
    • Bianca actually has feelings for Adam, but her pride and her fear of exploring feelings for an FTM caused her to lash out at him and push him away before anything real could come of it.
    • Despite taking quite a bit of effort to establish himself as transgender and exclusively interested in females, Adam would consider going gay for Eli.
    • Holly J actually loves Fiona, but feels guilty for dating her ex's sister and pretends to be 100% straight.
    • A number of fans believe that Emma was faking her pregnancy scare in order to get Sean to stay.
    • Darcy is not simply a disturbed survivor in season seven, but a dangerous sociopath who genuinely wishes to seduce Mr. Simpson.
    • Declan's playboy image was fostered out of a need to hide his own homosexuality, which usually has a way of targeting Peter.
    • Peter is bisexual.
    • Some see Zane as uncaring, selfish boyfriend towards Riley. A good example of this would be when Riley's already come out to the entire school and put his future career on the line, but Zane still pressures Riley to come out to his family, even though whether or not Riley is out to his family has little to no effect on Zane's life and Riley's mom has already refused to look him in the eyes or speak in complete sentences to him for months after he came out to her. The ultimate example, however, would probably be whenever Drew is threatening to out Riley and instead of coming to his boyfriend's defense Zane instead tries to use this opportunity to make Riley come out, even though later whenever someone is gaybashing Zane Riley comes to Zane's defense, even violently so. The fact that the writers expect us to side with him and see him in the right at all times arguably places him in Jerk Sue territory.
    • Rather than being a misunderstood (but intelligent) bad boy, Johnny is actually Darcy's rapist.
  • Acceptable Targets: As far as The Shep is concerned, anyone not a (male) jock or a cheerleader.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: When news leaked that Charlotte Arnold (Holly J) and Shannon Kook-Chun (Zane) would be returning for the season 11 finale, the fans flipped.
  • Angst? What Angst?:
    • Despite having every reason to be angsty, Toby is still optimistic and a good friend. However, this might be due to being Out of Focus.
    • Similar to the above, Liberty was remarkably well-adjusted considering what she went through in Seasons 5 and 6... then again, this is due to lack of screentime.
    • Zane, when anyone other than Riley is dishing out the insults.
    • During season 6, Ashley, Spinner, and Jimmy are all held back and have to repeat their senior year all over again. This fact is only barely referenced, and none of them seem to suffer any form of embarrassment or frustration about this (although in Ashley's case, she chose to go to England instead of graduating with her friends).
  • Anvilicious: Just about everything on the show.
    • Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: Even so, some of the lessons (such as the senselessness of teen violence, rape, abuse, and sex) need to be delivered.
    • It's much more educationally-oriented than most Teen Dramas, if not as painfully obviously so as the old Degrassi; Linda Schuyler, after all, started as a classroom teacher who wasn't satisfied with the filmstrips then available and decided to make her own. This has positive effects (boys are considered part of the audience they're trying to reach, not a Periphery Demographic, so guy stuff is taken seriously) and negative ones (sometimes it feels like every episode is a Very Special Episode).
  • Archive Panic: Even when there was only three seasons it would usually take a whole weekend for The-N to air all the episodes during their annual "every Degrassi ever" marathon. Ten seasons later and you'd need an entire summer vacation of nothing but Degrassi nonstop. Even though it should be called "every Degrassi since the Turn of the Millennium" since Viacom doesn't have the rights to Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High.
  • Badass Decay: Of the Candy Bandits Jay and Alex became a lot less impressive toward the end of their run.
    • Johnny DiMarco and Bruce had a similar process of turning Lighter and Softer in Seasons 8 and 9.
    • On the less bully side of things, Holly J and Paige suffered Bitch Decay.
    • Peter and Declan were both introduced to be Preppy villains, working people as opposed to brute force of the Bullies. Both suffered a fair bit of softening over time.
    • This has happened to Fitz as well. Started off as a the top bully (along with Owen), but now making a Heel Face Turn.
  • Base Breaker:
  • Broken Base: Various arguments over which characters should get more screentime, or less screentime. Usually these arguments involve characters already getting more A plots then most of the cast needing more plots or arguing character should just leave as they are a waste of space. And that's without bringing shipping into the equation.
  • Canon Sue: For the first three seasons or so, Emma being the voice of the writer's her own reason morality gave her some Fixer Sue qualities. Her vocal nature gave a heavy Jerk Sue overtone as well. (Her never getting called on this naturally it made things worse.)
    • Mia. Dear god, Mia.
  • Complete Monster: Not only does Dean rape Paige, but he tries to get her to put it behind her rather than face a trial. You know, a trial that would possibly convict him? (If she had any evidence...)
    • Bobby is a similar case, with how he treats Fiona.
  • Crack Pairing: Paige showed some interest in Sean in season 1. All the Sean/Paige fanfics out there would make you believe They Do.
  • Creator's Pet: Mia and Emma are two of the more commonly cited examples, due to their amount of screentime and constant shilling; also Craig ended up receiving a lot of backlash in response to all the attention he was given. Eli and Clare are becoming this as well. While a large part of the fandom likes them, a big part of the fandom also hates them, and it's obvious the people in control of the show favor them. Interestingly Clare gets hate from Eli fangirls for dumping Eli, while a lot of people that were against the Eli/Clare relationship hate her less for doing the 'sane' thing.
  • Critical Research Failure: An in-story example of this in a season six episode, combined with Writers Can't Do Math. During an argument with Sean, one point Emma raises is that "in three months, I'll be legally old enough to vote", meaning she'll be turning eighteen in three months. Now, this wouldn't be so bad if the episode took place in spring, and it wouldn't be noticeable to anyone who only saw the new series...but is outright painful for anyone who saw the original series Emma was born in. At the end of the second season on Degrassi Junior High, Emma's mother, Spike, went into labour at the last dance post-exams, which would place Emma's birthday in June. The problem? Season six only covers the first half of the semester and the episode in question takes place around September.
  • Derailing Love Interests
  • Designated Protagonist Syndrome: Since she was the link between the original Degrassi and the second generation, people often considered Emma to be the "main" character during her years on the show. However, she underwent a HUGE Flanderization in Season 4 and never really recovered from it, so many fans see her charcter in a pretty negative light.
  • Die for Our Ship: Just about any character that gets in the way of their preferred couple.
    • Emma is often portrayed as abusive by Ellie/Sean shippers.
    • Ellie is often portrayed as a stereotypical goth by Emma/Sean shippers.
    • Manny is often portrayed as a slut by Craig/Ash shippers; conversely, Craig might be portrayed as taking Manny for granted. (Not saying the latter's not true, of course.)
    • Ashley is often portrayed as frigid by Craig/Manny shippers, many of whom make it clear that it's unique to Craig/Ash, not Jim/Ash or Sean/Ash.
    • And Craig/Ellie shippers have issues with both Manny and Ash.
    • Jenna is one of the most hated characters in Degrassi history, largely because she broke up KC/Clare.
    • While a lot of Clare fans have shifted over to Eli/Clare, Jenna's still an unloved character getting this from KC/Bianca shippers. Some of that might just be Bianca's allure talking.
    • Declan/Holly J fans also hate Fiona sometimes blaming her for Riley being gay and for Bobby being abusive. Even after she made amends with everyone she hurt in DTM.
    • Writers inserted Sav in the aftermath of the split between power couple Holly J/Declan. His fanbase wasn't great to begin with, but Sav haters increased significantly after this. People who didn't care about him before suddenly had lists of reasons why he was a horrible character.
    • Mia, just... Mia... besides being a Creator's Pet, she got in the way of JT/Liberty and Peter/Darcy. It's almost like the writers were asking for it.
    • Speaking against EClare in ANY way became blasphemy in the world of fandom LONG before Eli was ever featured in an episode.
      • At a recent cast party (the one in Montclair), the entire room booed every time Jake was mentioned—except for when Clare told him she wasn't ready for sex, setting up for their eventual breakup. It got to the point where Munro Chambers, the actor who played Eli, basically yelled at the fans to shut up (mostly because the actor who plays Jake is his real life best friend.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Mainly Jay and Peter. Craig counts as his misdeeds with Ellie, Ashley, and Manny are often overlooked. Eli is this as well.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Relationship-wise, Sean/Ash is amazingly popular, despite the fact that they were together for two episodes.
    • Given his growing fanbase, Fitz might be next in line.
    • Morty, the hearse. Big time.
    • Hazel has a huge fanbase.
    • Terri. The first time TNG was Ruined FOREVER was her leaving.
    • Chantay, after she gets Rescued from the Scrappy Heap in season 9.
    • Wesley is developing a surprisingly large fanbase.
    • KC's mother.
    • Zane has a large fan following.
    • Liam has developed a large legion of fans, despite being a minor character (for now).
  • Epileptic Trees: When Teen Nick's promotional machine cranks for new seasons and spills just enough information to get fans riled up and leading to this trope. The carnival promo for season 10 is just made of this.
    • It's canon that Craig's mom died of cancer. Doesn't stop fans from fingering Craig's dad.
    • There are even bizarre theories for creators' motivation! Take Jimmy. He wears a lot of Triple Five Soul clothes, right? The acronym is T 5 S, which is l33t for TSS, which is an acronym for "Time Stands Still", the episode where Jimmy gets shot. Toby likes anime? Well, that only means that in a couple years, he'll meet the only boy who understands him and that boy is, of course, doomed. Both, of course, only came out after the shooting.
  • Esoteric Happy Ending: Spinner and Emma's Accidental Marriage (and deciding to STAY MARRIED). Fans were especially dismayed, because the two characters hardly even interacted before that.
  • Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Spinner's season 4/season 5 storyline is this, especially when they introduce Darcy, Friendship Club, and the Christian motifs.
  • Family-Unfriendly Aesop: In the episode "Eye of the Tiger", Spinner comes clean and finally confesses that he was responsible for driving Rick over the edge and shooting Jimmy. Jimmy then calls him cowardly and only saying this to make himself feel better, and never should have told anyone about it. Then he loses all his friends. Then he gets expelled. Moral of the story? Telling the truth will ruin your life, and it's much better for everyone to just let your dark secrets haunt you forever.
    • The point is driven further when we see Alex, who was also heavily involved in the paint and feather incident but never came clean, spending time happily around Jimmy who was left unaware.
  • Fanon: Much, usually related to sex.
  • Fan Nickname: The Candy Bandits came from Boycott the Caf; The Breaking Point stuck despite Stephen Stohn's repeated tweets that the second half of season 10 isn't officially called that.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: Quite a few examples.
    • Due to the large number of students Put on a Bus each semester, many fics ignore the numerous plot holes created by their absence.
      • Kendra, who has not appeared since season three, is often depicted living in Spinner's house and commenting on aspects of his life.
      • In many fics containing season ten and eleven characters, Fitz still attends Degrassi. Occasionally, Blue and other vanished students will also reappear as if they never left.
    • Marco/Ellie fics remained popular long after Marco came out of the closet. No mention was ever made of what changed his mind. The same has been true for Jalex fics that take place after Alex came out as a lesbian.
    • According to many fans, Spinner never married Emma. Sean came back from Iraq and proposed to Emma and they lived happily ever after.
    • Fiona/Adam pairing fics are probably the best current example of this trope. In season ten, Adam broke up with Fiona when he realized that she actually wanted a girl and not an FTM. Generally in slash or femslash fics wherein straight characters are made gay or vice versa, the author offers some explanation as to how this happened or why the character had not explored homosexuality/heterosexuality sooner. In most Fadam fics, including ones that take place after their breakup, no explanation is given as to why Fiona is no longer a lesbian and why Adam no longer minds being with someone who might see him as a girl.
    • Some people like to pretend that everything after season 9 never even happened.
      • Screw season 9. There are people that like to forget everything after season 5.
    • There are numerous fics in which JT is still alive and he and Liberty live happily ever after.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: (Jimmy/Ellie, so much so that the writers caught on and hooked Jimmy up with Ashley.)
  • Good Troi Episode: Inverted. In seasons 1-4, fans loved Sean. Female fans thought he was hot, male fans identified with him more than any other guy, and everyone agreed he was the most three-dimensional character on the show. He wasn't in season 5. The Bus Came Back in season 6, and fans generally wondered "What the hell happened?"

To wit, in season 6, Sean sees Emma dating Peter, Peter (in a Take That to aforementioned male fans) has a boy crush on Sean, Sean helps Emma cheat on Peter, Peter plants pot in Sean's locker, Sean challenges Peter to a race for revenge, Sean hits a guy, Jay tells Sean to run away, and Sean ultimately turns himself in. Emma can't believe Peter, the guy who filmed her best friend stripping and used it as blackmail, would frame Sean, until Peter admits to Sean he has access to all the locker combinations because his mom's the principal, and then it gets repeated back to Emma by Manny. Sean gets out early on good behaviour, moves in with Emma, learns Jay slept with Emma (well, not really...), and goes berserk. Then we get Emma making a PowerPoint of her making out with shirtless!Sean because she wants her stepdad to know she's having sex; it looks like Sean and Emma are friends with Peter again. At least Sean gets to be Badass after JT dies.

    • An actual example would be Hazel. Her only focus episode, Don't Believe The Hype, was incredibly well done compared to the usual sentence she gets twice a season and it remains a solid fan favorite.
    • Season 10 provides a lot of Good Sav episodes, when his A plots of previous seasons were lackluster.
  • Fridge Brilliance (If the In Too Deep commercial is to be believed, Fiona is a lesbian who is in love with Holly J. This put her behavior in season 9 in a completely new light - she's never been in a sexual relationship because she is not attracted to men, she uses Riley as her own beard, and the reason why she was bitchy towards Declan/Holly J is because she was attracted to her, and was trying to break Declan/Holly J up so either A) she could have a chance at her or B) get rid of her so she wouldn't admit the truth to herself.
    • It seems a little off that Eli is acting so overprotective of Clare once Fitz returns into mid-Season 10 that it's quite unnerving, but it makes sense when you consider his perspective: his last girlfriend was killed in an accident that he blames himself for, and his rival who previously tried to stab him is back and is in close proximity with his current girlfriend.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: In season 1, Jimmy takes Spinner's Ritalin as a performance-enhancing drug. While on it, he breaks Sean's leg. In season 4, Jimmy is shot by Rick (and loses the use of his legs), who is then shot (fatally) by Sean.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The show is very popular in the U.S., much more so than in its native Canada. The fact that the American market is so much more populous and lucrative gives the N a great deal of clout in the show's production, leading to frequent complaints by Canadian fans that the show is becoming increasingly Americanized. On the whole, though, Canadians stopped watching for a while; it was the lowest-rated show on CTV, forcing a Channel Hop to cable. Essentially, American viewers kept the show alive until then.
    • Since the channel hop, it's picked up in Canada. It's now MuchMusic's most popular show, and they consider it their flagship drama,[1] giving it much more of a publicity push than CTV did.
  • Hollywood Homely: Clare, Toby, Liberty, Emma (in the earlier seasons...)
    • You could count the entire cast as this, only Shenae Grimes, Landon Liboiron, and Nina Dobrev have gotten roles outside of Degrassi in the United States due to their mainstream conventional beauty.
    • Inverted with Sean in season 1. Horrible acne. Of course, everyone thought he was hot.
    • Rick
  • Hollywood Pudgy: Played with. Manny and Jenna aren't fat by any stretch of the imagination; however their low self-esteem issues make them believe that they are fat. Manny's feelings worsen after a bad audition in "Venus" where she's told to "dump the lumps" and being comparing to tall, willowy Emma.
  • Jerkass Woobie: After going through anger management after putting Terri in a coma, Rick tries to get a fresh start with the school, but is instantly despised by everyone and bullied mercilessly despite never actually having done anything wrong since his return.
    • Eli is portrayed as this, as he is controlling and uncaring with Clare, and commits multiple felonies against Fitz. The thing is though that the writers don't seem to realize he's a Jerkass.
    • Similarly Drew is this as well. He was pretty unpleasant to begin, but now he's pretty much turned into a raging lunatic.
  • Jerk Sue: Many fans view Emma as this (starting in Season 4), as she gets away with a lot of Jerkass behavior, rarely gets called out for said Jerkass behavior, is Easily Forgiven, and she is portrayed as somebody who can do no wrong.
  • Jump the Shark: YMMV on just when exactly the show did this, some say as early as season 6, but most agree that by season 10 the show is nowhere near as good as it used to be.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Eli, Clare.
  • Marty Stu: Zane. He's always portrayed as being a God-send for Riley even though he's never actually shown doing anything useful, bitches at Riley constantly and in fact actually makes things worse for Riley on two occasions, and when Riley does amazing things for him the show goes along with Zane supposedly being too good for Riley. Lastly, in their last plot, when Zane is pressuring Riley into doing something he doesn't want to (again), even ANYA, Riley's best friend sides with Zane forcing Riley to defend himself all alone yet again.
  • Mean Character, Nice Actor: While Eli isn't mean, compared to his character, Munro Chambers seems like a very laid-back and chill guy and could grow up to be a great comedian. It helps that his uncle is Colin Mochrie and his cousin is on That Guy With The Glasses.
  • Memetic Badass: Sean, both in-universe and out of universe.
  • Memetic Molester: Dylan. Also, a lot of fanfic on the-n.com deals with Jay raping Emma until it's taken down. But especially Peter.
  • Memetic Mutation: "I'm going to be an actress. Academy Award-winning. And you can sell this for a million dollars because I am going to be FAMOUS!!!"
    • "Boycott the Caf!"
    • "With a school like this... WHO NEEDS PANTS?"
    • "...this is where I deflowered Clare."
    • "Fitzy needs a date"
    • Boycott the Caf made Ellie into an ugly creature that people are only friends with when they hit rock bottom, and the moment an opportunity arises they make a break for new friends. Complete with a list of everyone that ever managed to escape her.
    • "You told me... TO PLAY BASKETBALL!!!"
    • "YOU RIPPED MY HEART OUT!"
    • "DID YOU ERASE ME FROM YOUR MEMORY?! DID YOU EVER LOVE ME AT ALL?"
    • "Are you high?" "Yes ma'am. Very!"
    • Eli's pimp cane.
    • Jenna's love of chicken.
    • Last name Walking, first name Never
  • Memetic Sex God: Sean, in-universe, even when he's in grade 7! Out-of-universe, pretty much any male character except the current Those Two Guys, but Spinner, Sean, and Craig take the cake. Both in- and oot-of-universe, we have a Distaff Counterpart with Manny, the Memetic Slut.
  • Misblamed: Spinner didn't exactly shoot Jimmy. Then again, he did help set up the paint and later pinned it on Jimmy...
  • Missed Moment of Awesome: How would Emma have reacted to school uniforms?
  • Moral Event Horizon: Usually subverted. From season 3 on, the Moral Event Horizon has its own Leitmotif.
    • Fitz almost knifing Eli.
    • Owen: Even if throwing Adam through a window doesn't fall firmly in this trope, his almost rape of Alli does—he tried to rape her after she decided not to take his offer to sleep with him for money.
    • Drew blackmailing Riley with threatening to out to him to the world and then gloating over gaybashing him and never apologizing or trying to make up for it. Also dating the girl that outed his trans brother and threatened to murder him. Also being friends with the guy who threw him into a glass door.
    • Bianca ripping Adam's clothes off in the middle of the school, thereby outing him and then later even threating to murder him.
    • Eli, with ruining Fitz's life, and manipulating Clare.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Craig's dad was... quite frankly terrifying.
    • The last minute of Jesus, Etc. 2 is all kinds of creepy.
    • But it's all topped by the end of Dirt Off Your Shoulder. Sweet Jesus. Munro Chambers deserves an award for that.
  • No Yay: Darcy flirting with Mr. Simpson, Mr. Simpson hooking up with the principal.
  • Purity Sue: A common criticism against Clare. Clare has slowly but surely developed into this, particularly after her makeover. The girl is a saint (although that hasn't stopped her from getting a few pretty good comebacks against Holly J and Jenna), she's smart, and she's apparently the third prettiest girl in her grade, and she's had a ridiculous number of guys show interest in her. The fact that she's dating the Troubled but Cute Eli and that the writers are trying to make her into The Woobie with her parent's divorce storyline certainly isn't helping matters. Then there's the fact that a HUGE deal is made out of her eyes, both in universe and out (which is odd, because she's hardly the first or only character on the show with Blue Eyes).
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Manny went from being thought of as a slut to Only Sane Man.
    • Chantay, who was disliked for being moving scenery and annoying until season 9 when she got a personality transplant.
    • Jenna seems to have become rather popular in season 11.
    • Fiona wasn't too well-liked in season 9, what with her actions in Degrassi Takes Manhattan, but after some fantastic Character Development in season 10, she remains one of the most popular characters.
  • Retroactive Recognition: You know Aubrey Graham, the kid who plays Jimmy? No? Turn on the radio, and wait for a Drake song to come on. Yep. Jimmy got out of his wheelchair and started rapping. Huh.
  • Romantic Plot Tumor: The constant drama between Ashley and Craig grew downright intolerable.
    • Season 6 suffered from this in spades, particulary the last half.
  • Ron the Death Eater: Basically any character gets this treatment by the fandom if they get in the way of a popular ship. Poor, poor Ashley.
    • Clare does the sane thing and breaks up with Eli after he brings a gun to school and crashes his car to get her by his side, but he’s hot and broody so cue fangirls’ cries of “He risked his life for her! Clare’s such a bitch.”
  • The Scrappy: While it seems like every character has their own segment of Hatedom, Jenna is probably hated more so than any character who has ever appeared on this show, due to her interfering with Clare's relationship with KC and her Tastes Like Diabetes demeanor.
    • Manny for being a slut, and Emma for being hypocritical. Oddly, Craig/Manny fans tend to like Sean/Emma and vice versa.
    • Jenna was initially more hated than any other teen character. Mrs. Torres beat her by a long shot; now the most hated teen character seems to be Marisol, for reasons listed below.
    • Leia.
    • Imogen, before even appearing on the show, seems to be running this way simply because the creators plan to pair her with Eli. Hoo boy, here we go again...
    • Dave, for being a Jerkass Karma Houdini, is this within much of the fandom. And the fact that one storyline focuses on a transphobic rant against Adam in Season 11? This hatedom will probably increase a bit.
    • Marisol, due to having no real personality or screen presence and yet being there for the sheer purpose of messing things up.
    • KC hasn't exactly endeared himself to a lot of the fanbase, particularly leaving Clare for the other scrappy Jenna, abandoning Jenna for awhile while she was pregnant, and then emotionally cheating on her with Marisol.
  • Stoic Woobie
    • Liberty after JT's death.
    • KC.
  • Strangled by the Red String: Spinner and Emma. These characters barely even interacted before they "fell in love." Whether or not this is a good thing, however, is up to personal intepretation.
  • Take That, Scrappy!: Done twice in the same episode! Manny, The Scrappy on about half the message boards at the time, asks Emma, The Scrappy on the other half of the message boards at the time, why she's hooking up with Jay, and then Emma asks Manny if she should even be talking about this sort of thing. Then Emma gets gonorrhea.

"Trading Darcy for Mia? That's like trading a Porsche for a bus pass."

    • Fiona's "I will never understand the power that Clare Edwards has over men" works, for those who dislike Clare.
  • Tastes Like Diabetes: Jenna is sickeningly sweet.
  • Tear Jerker: A given since it's a drama, by far the biggest was J.T.'s Death.
    • A close second is My Body is a Cage, seeing all that Adam went through and how difficult it is for a transgender person.
    • Time Stands Still.
    • After Alli loses her virginity, and they show her sitting alone in her ridiculously girly kiddy bedroom, being kissed goodnight by her mom, and making it all too clear that she was not ready for this.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: The new cast for most longtime Degrassi TNG fans, but they've come on their own and a lot would say that most of them have been Rescued from the Scrappy Heap.
    • In many fans opinions though (most of the fans of the old show) the show Jumped the Shark a long time ago and after everything changed in season 10 the show has become far far worse than it ever was before.
  • They Really Can Act: Annie Clark surprised a lot of viewers with her portrayal of Fiona's abuse, alcoholism, and coming out in season 10.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Season 6 Sean. He comes back, is completely fine from killing a guy, wants Emma, but Peter's with Emma, so Peter frames Sean for "possession". Sean doesn't go to jail yet. Sean challenges Peter to a race and then goes to jail. This is told from Emma's perspective, even though she's really secondary. Sean gets out, and so now there has to be a conflict with Jay. Over what? The shooting? (Jay framed Jimmy for a paint and feathers incident involving Rick; this prompted Rick to go a little nuts. Sean killed Rick.) Not so fast. It's about Emma having "not real sex" with Jay. To finish it off, we have Snake coming to grips with Emma as a sexual being. Feminist moment? It would be. If she didn't have herself making out with Sean as a PowerPoint in his class. Yeah.
    • Together Forever. This could have been a great Liberty episode (which was badly needed, since prior to this, the entire pregnancy storyline focused on JT and was from his POV). Instead, the birth gets pushed back to possibly the shortest subplot in the show's history. The clincher? Craig got the A-plot.
    • Seasons 10 and 11 are extremely guilty of this. One example would be how fan favorites Riley and Zane barely even appearred in s11, and that Jenna and KC were giving their baby up for adoption and yet they got an extremely short C plot in favor of yet another Eli plot.
    • The whole KC/Jenna/baby plot itself. KC and Jenna would've been the first teen parents on TNG (not including Mia because we meet her when her daughter is starting school.) to actually keep their baby. Everyone was hoping we would get to see them raise the baby and all the drama that comes along with it, but instead they decide to throw this away and give the baby up for adoption. What good are KC and Jenna now?
  • Unfortunate Implications:
    • When Paige got raped she ended up becoming much nicer to the other students. She helped Manny come out of her shell and get a make over. JT fighting Dean when he found out about him caused him to be friends with all of Paige's popular crew. Ashley became popular again, and stopped writing poetry and started becoming a real musician. Getting raped was the best thing that ever happened to Paige, and it seems everyone is all the better for it.
    • Chantay is a black girl named Black.
    • Anya falls for Owen after he sexual harasses her then takes advantage of her in a vulnerable moment.
    • Audra Torres got treated as The Scrappy, both in-universe and by the fandom, by having the gall of being upset that her step-son was hazed.
  • Values Dissonance: Indian marriage customs are seen as sexist by the writers. I doubt many people in Pakistan feel the same way.
    • Fitz bullying people is bad thing (which is true), but apparently Eli framing him for arson over a petty dispute is so much better?
  • Wangst: Craig.
    • Jimmy
    • Eli
  • What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: At least not for young kids. Of course, that doesn't stop a lot of adults from thinking that.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Political?: Ashley's dad's wedding is simultaneously pro-gay rights and Canadian nationalism.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Marco really shouldn't have badgered the nurse so much during the blood drive about how sexually active gay men can't donate blood. She didn't make the law, she is only required to follow it.
    • Emma and her "What will people think of me if Chris goes out with Liberty next?" comment. Both Liberty and Manny called her out on this and it was also pretty much the only time that she wasn't forgiven right away after being a Jerkass to a friend.
  • Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: Hoo boy.
    • Ashley took back Craig more than enough times after he cheated with Manny (unprotected) and attempted to justify it by pointing to how "prude" Ashley was.
      • Taken to the logical extreme in season 5, when Ashley's best friend Ellie who has been up to this point very anti-Craig starts to fall in love with Craig.
    • In season 7, Mia and Lucas get back together for about an episode. Lucas is the one who impregnated her at thirteen then completely ditched her and did zero to help support his child.
    • When Johnny DiMarco leaves Alli to avoid the humiliation of telling Holly J he's dating a ninth grader, she takes him back and even takes nude photos of herself to get him to stop ignoring her in front of his friends. When he breaks up with her, shows the pictures to all his friends, and admits that he lied about being a virgin she still needs convincing not to go back to him.
    • Alex's mother's bailed her boyfriend Chad out of jail even after he not only beat her, but also falsified credit cards, landing them in severe debt. To make it worse, the money she used was money Alex had earned as a stripper, planning to use it to keep them from being evicted from their house. Alex promptly calls her out on it.
  • The Woobie: Almost everyone has been The Woobie at some point.
  • World of Woobie
  1. ↑ Yeah, partly because it's the only Canadian scripted drama they run, but still.
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