What's even more humiliating for Colin than Ruby and Skyler indirectly referencing him while on the mic at the end of "Gurlfriend Take Over"? Violet caught the whole ordeal on her "Vi Life" stream, and now a mass online fanbase knows how much of a jerk he really is. Colin is indeed doomed.
Ruby and Skyler most likely already knew Violet had recorded Colin, and that reason combined with Skyler moving on and refusing to stay upset is why they didn't name him.
Colin's theme color is han purple, the color you get when you mix red and blue, Ruby and Skyler's colors respectively. And he specializes in mixed media. The character designers have a sense of humor here.
Everyone in the main runway group has a natural-related motif, not just in design but also in traits.
Ruby's is fire, it's one of her three words and a signature print on her designs. She is shown to be casual and empathetic with others (even if it took a while for her to warm up to Amaya). So you can say Ruby brings warmth to others like a living fire.
Poppy's is butterflies, one of her three words. She has monarch butterfly clips and boots, and Poppy is a social butterfly.
Sunny's is the sun and moon, with the print on the back of her jacket. Sunny is the Genki Girl who provides the series’ comedic relief even in some dramatic moments, her name contains two puns relating to the sun (Sunny Madison), and her hairstyle also references the iconic odango hair of Sailor Moon.
Jade's is darkness, it's not just because of her black tee. Her first appearance actually has her in the dark, and it can key into her sarcastic nature and Perky Goth fashion sense.
Skyler's is the sky, it's in her name and designed onto her socks. The sky symbolizes peace of mind and heavenly nature, and Skyler is gentle and a sweetheart.
Violet's is light, with her star earrings and sparkly dress. She carries a selfie stick with a ring light, and puts a spotlight on the current Rainbow High drama. You can say she wants to shine in the school, as she wants to be like the As. Violet is also close with Sunny, the sun and moon.
Bella's is time, one of her three words is "timeless". This is all meant to be ironic, her time is running out. The second episode has the group complete a timed treasure hunt as a challenging ice-breaker, which gave the audience the false security Bella would always be part of the group. In addition, Bella's “California Dream” t-shirt references vintage Barbie. Considering how MGA Entertainment referenced the rival brand last time, this is the second time they're calling the iconic fashion doll dated.
Amaya's is rain, since what follows rain is arainbow. Her second design has blue dominate all the colors to represent this. And as seen in the Meaningful Name entry, both first name and surname are related to the rain.
This is the only context (in this troper's opinion) that the "no-picture taking" rule makes sense: being used as part of a portfolio of a sort. The reason why Bella took the photo was to enter a contest that would grant her to study abroad. This is different from Violet's "Vi Life" or Sunny's "Hi-Hi Kawaii", which are just for fun. It's fine for Violet to play Poppy's music or show Skyler's designs in her vlogs because they're not intended to be used to get into different art programs. It does sound like an assassination against a student's artistic progress, but at this rate what else do we expect from Lou's school...
On second thought, for “The Vi-Life” Violet passes out waivers for students to sign so she has consent to use their images. It’s not far off to assume she handed one to the Rainbow High staff, Wright and Morton appeared in the vlogs. Violet might be the only one exempt from this rule because she has permission, in addition it’s part of her field of study (Photo & Video). Bella, on the other hand, had no permission and was planning to submit it to another program (as the above describes). It’s still an asinine rule, but this is the most logic explanation to why Violet can get away with it. Plus, there’s another student in her field (Karma), so it’s best to assume she has the same pardons.
The wave 1 characters are given traits that contrast with another character of the compliment color.
Ruby and Jade are both the tomboys of the group, however Ruby is more casual and friendly as opposed to the Deadpan Snarker Jade.
Sunny is a child at heart and personable with others, while Violet is more in touch with a royal, mature fashion sense and would rather film her everyday life than live in the moment.
Amaya and Avery also parallel each other. While both are fashion designers, Avery is a confident upperclassman while Amaya is the new first-year dealing with insecurity.
Why is Amaya’s first doll associated with the Hair Studio? You mix water with the playset’s included powders to create the play hair dye. And as we mentioned before, Amaya has a heavy rain motif. Also, she was a perfect candidate with her white hair, which the hair dye would work better with.
Ruby is one of the more criticized characters for her lack of proper characterization and focus time to flesh her out. In addition her constantly-changing characterization from a casual and understanding Cool Big Sis to a Jerk with a Heart of Gold driven by anger and frustration. Perhaps she does have a Fatal Flaw: acting on emotion over intuition. It’s exhibited well in “Gurlfriend Take Over”, where she immediately ditches Colin out of anger and runs to Skyler’s side out of regret and sympathy. In “Enter Amaya” she acts harsh against Amaya because she’s just-as-frustrated as Jade with Bella’s expulsion and how quick the school expected them to move on from that. And most recently in “Going Viral” her anger towards her otherwise good friend Violet for seeing no wrong in humiliating Bella led her and Jade to act impulsively in revenge. Combine it with the aforementioned Elemental Motifs of fire: as a positive, it brings warmth to others (Ruby’s empathy). As a negative, it can hurt someone (Ruby’s anger). She really isfirepersonified.
Although the As are shown in previous episodes to be not at all aloof or prissy, they are seen mocking Violet in "Going Viral". This is oddly out-of-character since the audience is used to seeing them as supportive upperclassmen. But it goes along with how they were established to be like in "When The GLAM Hits The Fan" and "Poppy Rowan, Keeping the Beats Goin'": leading model students, but also extremely sassy and opinionated.
The second episode of "The Vi Life" establishes that Ruby and Violet had built a close relationship as roommates, but even then Ruby is one the most critical of Violet only caring about her vlog series. This is to show that even as a Best Friend, Ruby can't hide that Violet's habit is actually annoying.
Sunny never expressed any resentment toward Violet after she tried to distance herself from her in the first arc. Well, Sunny isSunny, the most energetic and optimistic girl in the group. So although Sunny was hurt by Violet ditching her, she likely believed that deep down Violet still cares for her. Support from Skyler and Poppy definitely helped.
As part of the series’ magical realism, strobe lights and splashes of color are used to illustrate music playing. This is mostly specific to when Poppy plays her music. In “Shining Star”, Poppy reveals she has synesthesia, so said lights and colors must be depictions of what Poppy sees whenever she plays.
Also, the title of her song is “Turn Your Color Up”. “Turning up” is a phrase attributed to music. When Poppy plays music she’s not just turning the music up, but also the color.
In contrast to "The Vi-Life", "Kontent with Karma" is extremely jarring in tone. In her videos, Violet generally is sweet (except to Colin) while Karma is focused on Malicious Slander and exposing (if what she talks about is true) "twisted secrets". Violet is sugar-coating while Karma is wearing Jade-Colored Glasses. And what's Karma's theme color again?
Also, look at the titles: “The Vi-Life” and “Kontent with Karma”. Say what you will about Violet, but as much of an Unreliable Narrator she is she at the very least is credible. Violet passes out waivers (and later explicitly asks before posting) and puts interviews throughout her vlogs. Because Violet wants to show her life as truthfully as possible, even with some sugarcoating. We don’t know if Karma does waivers as well but she doesn’t include interviews and isn’t afraid of shading others. She’s more concerned with making interesting content.
Why is Violet overprotective about Amaya dating River? Remember what happened with Colin and Skyler? It’s apparent Violet doesn’t want to see another friend have her heart broken again.
River mentioning how he has a sister and was raised by only his mother contrasts him well with Colin. Colin infamously attempted to be a Casanova Wannabe with his (ex-)girlfriend Skyler and Ruby, and ended up being dumped by both and humiliated by Violet. River, on the other hand, was raised to respect women. It’s important to note it’s in a non-flirtatious way (obviously, it’s his family). And so became the sweet if awkward boyfriend to Amaya. The overall Aesop of this? Treating women with respect does better than trying to be a womanizer.
As stated before, Karma Nichols is much more mouthy than Violet when it comes to her videos. Because Karma can be a bitch!
Of all the characters, why's Delila the only one with regular glasses? Her albinism probably affects her vision.
In episode 6, Skyler tells Ruby she had always attributed the source of her creativity to Colin. Coupled with her shyness, is this another reason why she doesn't give herself credit?
The 7th “Vi Life” focuses more on new characters and not Bella and her expulsion, which is only briefly mentioned. Violet did say herself she is still in shock over the incident, so she might be intentionally avoiding delving into such a personal topic and focusing more on unrelated things.
Also, episode 5 shows that Violet has her roommates watch her vlogs before she uploads them, that includes Jade. She most likely didn’t bring it up to avoid upsetting Jade, who was extremely close to Bella.
Jade apologizes to Amaya for her attitude in "Amaya's Discovery". But circling back to the first scene of episode 1, Jade exclaims "This wouldn't have happened if Bella was still here!" Maybe she's not fully over her ill feelings about that day yet.
Although it’s agreeable that Jade’s treatment of Amaya is undeserving, that doesn’t negate that Jade is most likely blaming herself for Bella’s leave, since her efforts to stop her proved useless against Bella’s impulsive decision. And with the conflict being resolved in a matter of two episodes, only ending with Jade apologizing to Amaya, that definitely doesn’t mean Jade stopped feeling guilty. She most likely still thinks about this incident because she still thinks it’s her fault.
Not long after her leave in “Enter Amaya”, Bella’s reappearance via video call in “Going Viral” has her still with ruined makeup. Y’know, from crying. She’s also shown sniffling and wiping her eyes, so they’re recent. Pretty much well implying being expelled from the best fashion and arts school one could attend for a reckless decision really broke Bella.
"The Haunting of Rainbow High" has the twins scaring Skyler with a story about a student becoming stressed from a project (the same one Skyler is worried about) to the point they became a ghost and is now said to haunt the halls. How did that last part happen? Simple answer: Doesn't one need to die in order to become a ghost? Combine that with the fact of school-project-induced pressure, and it pretty much narrows down to something along the lines of the student ending things. Dark.
terrible implication.