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Institut Angel Guimerà
Students
General
- Meaningful Name: Merli calls them the Peripatetics which is in line with a school of thought of philosophers simplyfing he wants great things to happen to them.
Bruno Bergeron
- The Bus Came Back: Bruno returns to Madrid three episodes before the series finale and reunites with Pol and his former classmates.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Applies both to the real show and the spin off, even if he comes back by season 3 played straight in the second season of the spin-off.
- Gayngst : His troubles with pol rubio are the source of this.
- Put on a Bus: He leaves the school for Rome towards the end of the second season.
- Straight Gay
- Took a Level in Kindness: Unlike the first season, he becomes less prone to outbursts and mockery as the series progresses.
Tania Illa
Bruno's best friend.
- Big Beautiful Woman
- Didn't Think This Through: Tania is confronted by Berta via message for not keeping secret her fake pregnancy after she told Bruno, who later told Pol. Tania tries to apologize saying that she didn't think Bruno would tell him.
- Fat Best Friend: She is this to Bruno.
- Hair of Gold
- Sequel Non-Entity: Despite all the time spent developing her relationship with Pol in the original series, their breakup is mentioned very briefly in the pilot episode of the sequel and she never shows up again.
Pol Rubio
- Anti-Hero: He is abrasive is kind of the school bully (even if by season 3 he grows out of that) and gets into trouble easily but he is at a bad economical situation (that he tries to get several jobs as far as willing to sell drugs to get money for his family)and him being good at philosophy makes him really improve as a person
- Being Good Sucks: He eventually stops selling drugs because even if no one caught it, he felt really remorseful about it
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Gets introduced as someone who almost all teachers despised, by the end of the show he successfully becomes a Philosophy Teacher.
- Mr. Fanservice:
- Never My Fault: His *Fatal Flaw he never admits his flaws and it has to take a philosophy teacher to make him better
- Really Gets Around
- Spin-Off: Gets His Own at Merli Sapere Aude
Gerard
- Butt-Monkey
- Did Not Get the Girl: He doesn't end up with Monica, his first crush (but they do have sex), and Oksana has broken up with him.
- My Beloved Smother: His relationship with his mom
Marc
- Big Brother Instinct
- Nice Guy: Most of the time at least
- I Am Not My Father
Oliver
- Camp Gay: Though it's somewhat deconstructed by him befriending Ivan, a straight guy, and being a christian.
- Excessive Mourning
- Last Episode, New Character: He debuts on the last episode of season 1
- Odd Friendship: With Ivan
Monica de Villamore
- Berserk Button: Gerard's Innocently Insensitive comments he makes really tick her off.
- Green-Eyed Monster: When Laia assures Mónica she doesn't have to worry about Gerard because they're now a couple, she says she's happy for him. She even reacts with a big smile on her face when she learns they even had sex. But when Laia comments on how big Gerard's dick is, her face changes to a jealous one, even though she's in a relationship with Joan.
- Flat Character: She doesn't get much characterization other than her relationship with guys
Ivan
- All of the Other Reindeer
- Born Unlucky : Almost nothing goes right for him within the show when he improves on his agoraphobia his mom sleeps with the school bully, his crush rejects him and in a show where everyone gets laid he doesn't (subverted however in season 3)
- Did Not Get the Girl: He ends up by himself after Berta doesn't reciprocate his crush on her. But he at least gets to have sex with two beautiful girls in season.
- Hero of Another Story: Apparently when he grows up he will help kids around the world and live in Africa.
- Informed Deformity: In-Universe he is supposed to be the ugliest student in Merli's class but other than his (at times) abrasive personality he is not that ugly compared to any of the other characters.
Berta
- Always Second Best: To her sister, that is why she has such an abrasive personality
- Hidden Depths: She is surprisingly pretty good at drawing.
- Student–Master Team: Has this relationship with Manuel Millan, who is the only teacher (besides Merli) that supports her. They share common interests over them being misjudged for the way they look.
- Out of Focus: She is an important character in Season 1 but she does not have any significant role in season 2 and 3 getting sidelined for a one plot about her at *best*.
Oksana
- New Transfer Student: She is introduced in the second season as a student from Ukraine.
- May–December Romance : She has one with Pol's rubio brother Oscar Rubio.
- Teen Pregnancy: She is a mom after having a pregnancy pretty young.
Joan
- Antagonistic Offspring: He becomes antagonistic towards his parents after he snaps after receiving enough abuse from them.
- Freudian Excuse: His dad is abusive and doesn't evaluate him enough making him feel worthless and that he does not have any purpose in his life.
- Hazy-Feel Turn: He becomes *slightly* better after his dad is diagnosed with cancer he is still very abrasive to everyone but is not as much of a Jerkass towards his family,
- Took a Level in Jerkass: He starts off in season 1 as a stuck-up but is still amicable to everyone after receiving enough abuse from his dad, he snaps and becomes more antagonistic not only against his parents but against everyone in the school to the point Merli has to call him out a couple of times.
Teachers
Merli
- Brutal Honesty: He has no filter, though sometimes he uses that honesty to his benefit saying what he thinks but still trying to help his teacher colleagues or his students.
- Cool Teacher
- Deadpan Snarker: He is often prone to sarcastic comments surrounding his students and his teachers colleagues.
- Kavorka Man: Though he charms women with his words rather than his looks.
- Parents as People: His relationship with Bruno is complicated, while having to live with his mother does not sound ideal (he gets evicted in the first episode of the show), it becomes quite clear he does care about his son Bruno and wants him to be happy his Jerkass moments can be called back to a way of Tough Love and compared to the other parents we see in the show he at least tries to be a good parent which can not be said about the other parents.
- Really Gets Around: He charmed and had sex with the English teacher Laia, while she was in the relationship with Albert, Ivan's mom Miriam and Silvana, the new History teacher.
- The Hero Dies
Eugeni
- Befriending the Enemy: Initially starts off antagonistic to Merli but he quickly befriends him.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Even though he's sympathetic to Oksana's plight about Merli not allowing her to enter his class with her son in tow, Eugeni is right when he tells her that a child can be a distraction and that allowing them inside will only be up to the teacher in question. Merli and the rest of the teachers having mixed opinions about Oksana becoming a mother at such young age further proves his point.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold : Before Coralina was a teacher the students loathed him due to how easily he could get angry and be very overly critical but over the course of the show it is shown that he does care about the students in his way he is just so out of touch and lonely he does not know how. He eventually respects Pol Rubio and the other students in his class
- Pet the Dog: In the book Jo,Pol Rubio it is revealed he passed Pol Rubio in spite of failing Catalan thanks to how much he felt bad for Merli's death and allowing Pol's Rubio wishes (that Merli supported) of him studying a Philosophy Degree.
- Enemy Mine: For two teachers like Merli and Eugeni who often clash over their respective teaching methods, their mutual hatred for Coralina, who is far much worse than Eugeni, is the first thing that oddly puts them on equal footing, especially because Corlina took over the latter's old job as Head of Studies.
Manuel Millan
- Cool Old Guy: One of the oldest teachers in the same time one of the most comprehensive ones
- Nice Guy: Some people could argue he is by far the nicest character in the whole series while some people has wronged other people in the show even with his Alzeheimer he helps everyone in the ways he phisically can and all the teachers and students feel sorry for him when he leaves.
- Scatterbrained Senior
- The Bus Came Back: He makes a cameo in season 2 of the spin-off.
Gabriel Morales
Coralina
- Alas, Poor Villain: Even if she was massively hated for her vile attitude and unfair treatment of the students and teachers alike, Coralina gets a quite sad ending when she gets hit in the face with a toilet tank, she lived alone with a dog, and we will likely never know what's next for her son Ernest.
- Ambiguously Evil: Closest thing the show gets to an actual villain but even then most of her ways can be traced to her being an old woman.
- Brutal Honesty: She shares this trait with Merli, but in a much subtly crueler manner, especially when it comes to Berta, such as when she insulted her in front of her classmates for wearing very revealing clothes.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Yes, while she's been a massive thorn on everyone's side since day one, however, dying in the bathroom with the toilet tank falling off your face might not be the most pleasant death.
- Evil Is Petty: Not only does she kicks Berta off her class, but also expels her for a week, for supposedly stealing Iván's cellphone, just because she has "mania for thieves".
- Freudian Excuse : One could interpret her coldness as a way to cope with her loneliness. Coralina does not have any friends both inside Institut Angel Guimerà or in her real life. She lives alone with her cat and only has one son which she has a very restrained relationship with, this also implies that she either divorced her husband or her husband is dead, either way it is not looking good for her.
- Left Hanging: Whatever happens to her son Ernest will probably never be known.
- Malicious Misnaming: She sometimes calls Berta, whom she constantly humiliates and unfairly punishes during her classes, "Roberta".
- Stunned Silence: Coralina's reaction to Pau giving her an angry well-deserved "The Reason You Suck" Speech for her poor treatment of the students.
Mireia
- Ice Queen: A non villanous exemple
Silvana
- Cool Teacher: Being the new history teacher, she is arguably this to Merlí's students, even more than Merli himself.
- Hero Antagonist: She's not actually a mean person, but Merli chose to see her that way because of how she managed to quickly win over his students out of pure entitled jealousy.
- Hot Teacher
- Nice Girl
Family Members
Carmina Calduch
- Doting Grandparent : Towards Bruno
- Large Ham : A huge part of personality is being so loud about her public appearences
Elsa Garcia
- Parental Favoritism: Towards Cristina, thankfully her relationship with Berta gets better.
Alfonoso Rubio
- Abusive Parents: Applies to the main series, though it is subverted in the spin-off, he is very verbally abusive towards his son Pol, made his other son Oscar Rubio leave the studies to get to work, demanded ways to get money knowing fully well his son was working. It is his conservative way of thinking the reason Pol rubio remains closeted for all of the main series.
- Grumpy Old Man: Though he is not *that* old it can still be applied.
- Heel–Face Turn: He is by far one of the nicest characters in the spin-off and he does make an effort to be the parent he was not thanks to Gloria, when they have to pay rent in the spin-off he is the one who looks for a job, for example, when if this was the same Alfonso Rubio we saw in the main series he would had demanded Pol Rubio to get a job
- Love Redeems : His relationship with Gloria is what makes Alfonso start to be more sympathetic towards his son and have a healthier relationship.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Thanks to his Heel–Face Turn.
- Younger Than They Look : He looks to be on his 60s at best but is confirmed he is 55 years old.
Oscar Rubio
- Big Brother Bully
- Jerkass Has a Point: His resentment towards his brother Pol can be annoying but from his point of view, understandable, Oscar Rubio was a much better student than Pol Rubio was and he had to leave his studies so Pol could have an academic future, so seeing he has bad results academically it is easy to see why he would be pissed off that his brother is not working.
Miriam Blasco
- Parents as People : She is one of the most sympathetic parents, even though she has her own share of issues ( agreeing to have sex with her son's bully and her teacher are very morally ambigious things she does), she tries to give his son a good future and even when they are struggling economically she works herself harder. And it probably is not easy raising a child and having a house on your own.
- Struggling Single Mother: She has her own bar so Ivan can have her own academic future, even though she struggles financially.
Lidia
- Abusive Parents : She rarely spends time with her sons and even when she has her own time she decides not to spend time with them, leaves Marc (who is underage) to take care of her own son on her own and she seems more interested in her work and her freetime that she can be considered *hardly* a parent. Unlike the other parents in the show, she never even has her Heel–Face Turn moment.
- Family Versus Career : Subverted, she chooses her job working at her hospital before her kids.
- Hands-Off Parenting : Lidia is so neglectful she leaves Marc and Pau on her own. In spite of Pau having a learning disability and Marc having already enough problems at school.
- Parental Abandonment: Leaves their two sons on their own and ignores her kids willingly.
Jaume
- Abusive Parents : In the first season at least, he was overly strict towards Joan Capdevila and he verbally and physically abused him.
- Death Equals Redemption: He becomes way nicer in season 2 and onwards when we learn about his terminal cancer diagnosis, feeling guilty of the way he treated Joan.
- Heel–Face Turn: Thanks to his Death Equals Redemption moment.
- Strict Parents Make Sneaky Kids: His son Joan becomes a nightmare to work with (partly thanks to his overprectiveness) he takes drugs, misses school and by season 2 he has the behavior Bruno had.
Aurelia
- Parents as People: Unlike Jaume, Aurelia means well and wants both Joan and Jaume to be happy, but she goes a little overboard she is too scared to put up with Jaume's abuse in the first season and when Joan becomes the one who is harder to deal with, she does not know exactly how to deal with him and does not do much either. But unlike Jaume and Joan she cares about her family and tried to make the family's relationship as healthy as she could.
- Flat Character: She is Jaume's wife...and there is not much else to her character, even when Jaume has a terminal cancer we see the story mostly from Jaume and Joan's point of view than her and she does not get as much characterised as her son or dad.
Ricard Vilaseca
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A very *small* one but it is there, he does geniuely care about Pau and wants him to suceed economically, and he does *try* to make an effort to be a more active part of Pau and Marc lives, this does not excuse him stealing a computer of Marc's friends, however but the show heavily implies. he is more incompetent and childish than neglectful.
- Manchild: He acts like a kid and throws petty jokes at Marc which he doesn't like.He leaves because he is very easily manipulated by scams and has to find money somehow.
University of Barcelona
Students
Rai
- Ambiguously Bi: While his love for Minerva is geniune the exact nature of Pol and Rai relationship is never specifcied (at least towards Rai side). At the end of season 1 when he gives a passionate kiss to Pol it is not exactly made clear if it was a heat of the moment type of situation or if he is closeted and had some unattached feelings, by that point it does not really matter as Pol states he does not want to have any romantic relationship with him anymore
- Lonely Rich Kid
Biel
Oti
- Ambigiously Bi
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute : Of Tania both have relationships with slacker partners, were the closest friends to Pol the only main difference is that she isn't as slacky
Teachers
Maria Bolaño
- Brutal Honesty : Even more than Merli, while Merli would still be honest and help his students Maria would say what she thinks regardless if that is what would be the most helpful outcome or not.
- Lady Drunk: A Deconstruction, Maria Bolaño has a drinking problem and is beyond miserable for having that. Thankfully, she gets over it over the course of the two seasons.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Of Merli both being Philosophy teachers that have an alternative way of teaching, though in Maria Bolaño case it comes out more as a coping mechanism from her drinking.
