YMMV / Descendants

A-F

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Has its own page.
• Americans Hate Tingle: Descendants, while already having a divisive reputation elsewhere, flopped in Australia. One reason could be because of ongoing issues with Australia keeping children locked up and abused in Nauru, but also because of its own history as a nation settled by convicts. Even its Disney Channel hardly airs the films or Wicked World.
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • Wicked World when compared to the original movie. The villain kids go from abused kids who grew up in a hellhole who genuinely don't know better due to being raised evil to dissing Auradon as uncool in comparison to the Isle of the Lost.
    • It's intended for a younger audience, so it's a bit more justified in the aspect of the kids goofing around and being rude pranksters, but it still has a bit of an awkward lapse where Mal makes jokes about how crappy her mother was.
  • Also from Wicked World, Audrey seems quite okay with having her boyfriend (and thus her future title as queen) taken away from her, which is a bit strange considering the kind of person she is. Wonderfully averted in Descendants 3, where she is shown to indeed be very bitter over Ben asking Mal to be his queen, as well as her grandmother berating her for not winning him over, to the point where she makes a Face–Heel Turn.
  • In the third film, Jane comes across the Fairy Godmother turned into stone (possibly forever, as they don't have a cure yet), yet does not seem remotely distraught and talks to her petrified mother very calmly.
• Applicability: The ostracization and prejudice against Villain Kids and Villains in general can be interpreted from a range of social clique differences within the school to prejudice against those of different classes/backgrounds/ethnicities.
• Ass Pull: Hades' ember comes off as this in the third movie. It's established as the only thing that can match the power of Maleficent's scepter; however, not only was it (and by association, Hades) never mentioned in the previous films, it also ignores the fact that the magic wand — which was the main MacGuffin in the previous films, and was established to be just as powerful — is an option, and a far more accessible one at that. Really, the ember subplot only seems to serve as a way to resolve the issue of who Mal's father is...and at the expense of book canon, at that, as it had been mentioned that her father was a human.
• Awesome Music: The entire soundtrack. "Rotten To The Core", "If Only" and "Set It Off" seem to be getting the most acclaim, with the first two making it to the Billboard Hot 100. The Wicked World spinoff series also starts us off with "Good is the New Bad" and "I'm Your Girl" in season 1 and "Rather Be With You" in season 2.
  • The second film’s "Ways To Be Wicked" manages to be even more awesome than "Rotten To The Core", and "What's My Name" is one hell of an introduction for Uma.
  • The second movie plays the intense Battle Rapping number "It's Goin Down" when Uma threatens to make Ben Walk the Plank and Mal threatens her in reply.
  • Each of the style-shift songs in the movies is great. The first film gives us "Evil Like Me", a classic Broadway-esque number by Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth, and the second film has "Chillin' Like a Villain", which aims for a Michael Jackson influence but ends up sounding more like a Jason Derulo track (see Suspiciously Similar Song below).
  • The third movie has the spectacular Villain Song "Queen of Mean", and the daddy-daughter rock duet "Do What You Gotta Do".
  • "Night Falls," in the third movie, is a stirring and catchy fight song.
  • The last song of Descendants 3, "Break This Down", which is sung by the Auradon Kids and the Villain Kids when Mal decides to permanently destroy the barrier.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Audrey is either a funny Lovable Alpha Bitch who suffered emotional abuse from her grandmother and whose issues with the VKs are understandable, not to mention being subject to a lot of bad luck, or just a prejudiced, unlikable bitch and Hypocrite who never learns from her mistakes. Even then, it didn't stop fans from being disappointed in her absence during the second movie. Her role as the Big Bad in the third movie has been generally well-received, but has still divided opinions further between those who think the turn she took was justified. Or not.
  • Mal is seen as either a very complex and likable character, a fundamentally selfish person who never takes responsibility for her actions or improves her behavior, or a Cliché Storm who caused Maleficent's Badass Decay.
    • Her portrayal in Descendants 2 only makes her more divisive, not only with a visual redesign but having her backtrack on her development from the original movie, coming off as a sociopathic delinquent who enjoys doing evil for evil's sake rather than due to parental pressure (which is the opposite of how she's portrayed in Wicked World, where she was twice framed for doing exactly what she actually did in Descendants 2)!
  • Then there is Ben. He is either a charming and likable character that serves as a positive influence on the VKs or just a Designated Love Interest.
    • His portrayal in Descendants 2 is more divisive; Is Ben really worried for the people on the Isle of the Lost or does he just use the island as a prison? The third film shows it is the former, and he questions Mal's decision to close the barrier permanently.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: All three of the films have a musical number that doesn't advance or build-up the plot.
  • "Evil Like Me" from the first film is a show-style duet between Maleficent and Mal that doesn't really advance the plot or ever get referenced again. It's also ambiguous whether or not Maleficent's statue really came to life or if it was just Mal's fantasy.
  • The second film has "Ways To Be Wicked" - the opening number, which all turns out to be a fantasy sequence from Mal, about her "evil glory days".
  • "One Kiss" from the third film may be catchy to some viewers, but it never gets acknowledged again after it's finished, and one could skip that scene and the story would still move along smoothly. The fact that the whole song takes place to save Doug, who has no significant role in the rest of the film and less than five lines after that point, doesn't help.
• Broken Base:
  • The novel The Isle of the Lost states that villains who were killed in their respective stories were brought back to life to be punished with exile. This has been a point of contention. One side says it's a terrible idea because it opens up the threat of the villains once again like Dragon Maleficent, Genie Jafar or Chernabog. Another party says that the villains may not stay dead permanently, but says it was cruel of King Beast and Queen Belle to allow the villains to have children and allow them to grow up in an island prison with very little human rights and have them be abused so terribly.^note Although Descendants 3 kinda gave us the idea that maybe not all villains are terrible towards their children or grandchildren.
  • The novels reveal that the various Direct to Video/low-budget prequels/sequels to Disney Animated Canon films are not in Descendants canon. This is seen as either a way of getting rid of terrible sequels or a case of They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot, since any villains that reformed in the sequels (like Anastasia or Iago) are now trapped on the Isle of the Lost instead, and in one case ignoring the fact that an official Disney Princess already has a daughter.
  • The fact that there is very little continuity shared between the movies, the Wicked World series of shorts, and the novels, with each essentially existing within their own continuity.
  • The fact that this isn't animated has divided fans. For those in favor of animation, doing so would make the work Truer to the Text and eliminate the Narm factor when watching the movie. For those in favor of live action, doing so would create a Sequel Gap and believe that Narm Charm is in full effect.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: Pretty much every fan guessed that Mal's father would be Hades the minute the first teaser for 3 was released.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Carlos's life on the island. Growing up with a phobia of dogs thanks to Cruella? Terrible. Jay scaring him by woofing? Guiltily hilarious.
• Designated Hero: The Disney Heroes are considered this because of their treatment towards the residents of the Isle of the Lost. Sure, the Disney Villains were bad, but you can't help but pity them for being revived to be banished to an island where magic is forbidden, and their children/grandchildren are treated as criminals just for being related to them, and they're given rotten food and no access to modern technology. And these children are unloved, and must steal from others in order to survive. The universe of Descendants is clearly a Crapsaccharine World where heroes are allowed to banish people just because they hate them, regardless of their crimes.
  • The children of said heroes in Wicked World, who are constantly portrayed as Fair-Weather Friend Straw Hypocrites.
  • The Core Four are even seen this way by some fans (especially the ones who preferred Uma, Harry, and Gil) who think that their disregard for the children still trapped on the Isle makes them no better than the people of Auradon. In-universe, the Isle residents feel this way at least for Mal in Descendants 2, and Uma actually mentions this as why she also seeks revenge against all four of them (not just her personal grudge with Mal) in her quest to bring the barrier down for the Isle kids.
  • Queen Leah becomes more of this in Descendants 3. Not being nice to Mal because she reminds her of Maleficent and the pain brought to her family is one thing, but blaming her own granddaughter Audrey for Ben breaking up with her and falling for Mal instead because it ruined their family's goal for her to marry him so their family can regain high status is another, and ironically reacted similarly to how her family’s enemy Maleficent did when Mal refused to go through with her plan.
• Ending Fatigue: There are two climaxes in the second movie, the latter of which suffers from Fight Scene Failure due to lame special effects.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Dizzy and Celia, due to being kind, young girls who seem to be really close friends. Many fans wish they had more screen time in Descendants 3.
  • Hades in the third movie isn't as prominent a character as the marketing made him out to be, but he steals the show in the few scenes he has. His positive reception likely contributed to The Royal Wedding focusing heavily on him.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: At the end of Descendants 3, Mal permanently lifts the barrier on the Isle of the Lost, allowing people to come and go as they please. While it's treated as a good thing, since this gives VKs the opportunity to live in Auradon and allows villains who've since turned over a new leaf to make amends with both their children and their enemies, this also means that the villains who haven't made such a change, let alone retired, have every opportunity to try to regain their power and take revenge on their foes, which is glossed over.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Uma may have been the main antagonist in Descendants 2, but she quickly became a favorite character, with both a catchy song and an understandable motive for why she wants revenge for being left on the Isle. Being the captain of an extremely fun and devoted pirate crew doesn't hurt.
  • In an unorthodox case of Rescued from the Scrappy Heap, Descendants 3 turned Audrey from a snippy, fairly insufferable Alpha Bitch into an awesome, campy and all-around fun villainess to watch.
• Fan-Disliked Explanation: As highlighted under Broken Base, the canonical explanation that the heroes went out of their way to resurrect the villains in order to trap them on the Isle of the Lost is...contentious, to say the least; many fans instead prefer the idea that they were resurrected by Hades or any of the other surviving villains.
• Fandom Rivalry: Ever After High fans are not happy that their show and toy line went through a soft reboot (to go with its sister franchise's hard reboot) and subsequently quietly died, while Descendants, which many of them see as a cheap knockoff only popular because it's got the rights to the most popular versions of the fairy tales, continued to thrive.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • Every character from the Disney Animated Canon is exists in the Descendants universe, and based on what we see, every one of them now has a kid. The possibilities are endless.
  • Now that the barrier is down, how will those on either side adjust to the new situation?
  • The Core Four VKs in the end run across the bridge back to the Isle to see their parents again. What kind of reunion will those be like?
  • Mal being a demigod opens up for potential crossovers with Hercules and also the Percy Jackson series.
• Fanon:
  • The most commonly accepted theory is that Auradon is just as corrupt and evil as the Isle, but is hidden under so much chrome no one either notices or cares.
  • With only Mal having both of her parents confirmed, the other Villain Kids have only one confirmed parent, leaving the other up for speculation:
    • Evie's father is usually the Huntsman. Some fans also theorize Snow White's father could be her father, too, assuming he was longer lived in this continuity. Before the Descendants 3 reveal, some thought her father could be Hades, given they had a matching shade of hair, of which was notably absent from the Evil Queen's aesthetic.
    • Carlos' father is either Cruella's husband from the original novel or either Jasper or Horace. Other theories include Jean-Pierre Lepelt from 102 Dalmatians, Man from Bambi (as a hunter can furnish furs), Mc Leach from The Rescuers Down Under and Clayton from Tarzan (for the same reason). Once, Gaston was considered too (still a hunter), but not any more since the second movie came out: clearly, Gil and Carlos do not interact in it like brothers would do.
    • Jay's mother is usually one of the female villains from Aladdin: The Series.
    • Uma's dad is usually considered to be Davy Jones, explaining her pirate attire, though the idea that Chernabog is her dad also has its supporters. Facilier is also theorized due to China Anne McClain playing both Uma and Freddie.
    • Gil is almost universally considered to be a Bimbette offspring; specifically Laurette, as they wear a similar shade of yellow. Gaston Junior and Gaston the Third are also generally considered to be Bimbette children, although whether Gil and them share the same one or not varies. Gil is the Odd Name Out because he was either Gaston's favorite or The Unfavorite, depending on how Gaston is characterized.
  • A common idea in the fandom is Jay, despite being Agrabahian by blood, knows next to nothing about Agrabah due to being raised on the Isle his entire life.
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • Mal/Evie (Mevie) is way more popular than Evie/Doug. Largely because their close bond and their duet in the second movie having romantic undertones. Even Dove Cameron has voiced her approval for the ship.
  • Jay/Carlos (Jaylos), mostly because people see better chemistry between them than in Carlos/Jane (Jarlos).
• Friendly Fandoms: Descendants fans appear to get along with High School Musical fans. With some older fans of the former having grown up with the latter and the fact that both film series share the same director probably help.

H-R

• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Cameron Boyce stated that the third film would be his last role in a Disney Channel production. In a deleted scene, his character, Carlos, also said that Jay would miss him the most.
  • The Isle of the Lost revealed that Mother Gothel ended up having a biological daughter on the Isle, 4 years before Tangled: The Series revealed that Gothel had a biological daughter before the events of Tangled, whom she treated as bad if not worse than Rapunzel.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The existence of this is rather amusing when you keep in mind the original draft for the "Pomp and Circumstance" short from Fantasia 2000, which would have featured every Disney character in attendance at the christening of the Disney Princesses' newborn children and was scrapped due to being deemed a stupid idea by the Disney veterans brought back to animate it. As pointed out by a user of a Disney forum: "Didn't expect that Fantasia short to transform into this."
  • This wouldn't be the last time Dove Cameron ended up playing a Mommy's Little Villain, nor the last time she would play one to Kristin Chenoweth's Big Bad.
  • The joke from House of Mouse that sprouted the Hades/Maleficent ship became this when Descendants 3 revealed that Hades is Mal's father.
  • Any of Harry's (failed) flirting towards Mal and the reminders that she's not available, as Dove Cameron and Thomas Doherty were a real-life couple during the last two films after meeting on the Descendants 2 set.
  • Depending on how you look at it, Dr. Facilier attempted to manipulate Tiana into giving him his talisman in their prior film. It wasn't until Tiana brutally rejected his offer and explained that even though her father didn't live to see her achieve her dreams, he had one thing that he needed from her: love. In the third Descendants film, he happens to be one of the villains to actually care about their kids as he is shown to be a loving father to Celia, who's shown to love him back. You could say that he actually learned something from his enemy.
  • In Wicked World, Audrey is distraught over her musical number being ruined and proved unable to perform it without the help of her friends. In Descendants 3, her film counterpart performs a solo song that's one of the most popular songs in the entire franchise without anyone's assistance.
  • One of the ways Cruella abused Carlos was by telling him that dogs were vicious pack animals that would attack him without a second thought. One has to wonder if that included telling him that Dalmatians murdered her mother.
• Ho Yay:
  • One of the most popular ships among the fandom is Jay/Carlos. It's not hard to see why. Exhibit A: when Jay is showing off his new tourney jersey to the other three villain kids, Carlos wolf-whistles and then looks down with a coy grin. Exhibit B: They don't seem to have much personal space between each other, like when a scared Carlos jumps right into Jay's arms and the latter doesn't seem much bothered by it. Exhibit C: This quote from Isle of the Lost.
  Jay laughed again, which made Carlos feel good, though he couldn't exactly explain why, not even to himself.
  • Ben/Carlos while not as popular as Jay/Carlos, have some cute sweet chemistry together while Ben helps Carlos over his fear of dogs.
  • For that matter, Mal/Evie. The scene where Evie is complimenting Mal's appearance in the mirror while leaning her head on Mal's shoulder is a big example. The sequel even gives them a song together. A song that fans have compared to Troy and Gabriella's "Gotta Go My Own Way" from the High School Musical 2.
  • Wicked World gives us some Evie/Audrey. Example.
  • Ironically enough, there's even some underlying Mal/Audrey in the "Rather Be" musical number of Episode 19 - the song's lyrics don't help. The ensuing arc then has Audrey thinking Mal has returned to evil and taking it as personally as if she were a lover accusing their spouse of cheating.
  • In the sequel, Mal and Uma have some tension going on. When they meet again and exchange insults, the conversation comes off as almost flirty. Then they arm wrestle, while making intense eye contact.
  Uma: You know I've dreamed of this.
  Mal: I'm so flattered that you dream of me.
  • China Anne McClain and Dove Cameron have actually confirmed that they interpret Mal and Uma as being ex girlfriends.
  • The third film has Harry calling Jay "gorgeous-face" while he thanks Jay for saving him.
  • D3 also has Jay deciding to take a gap year after graduation so he can go exploring with Gil. And during the ending number, which features everyone with their romantic partners, like Ben and Mal, Carlos and Jane, Harry and Uma, Chad and Audrey, Evie and Doug, it also has Jay and Gil dancing with each other.
• I Knew It!: Descendants 3 confirms that popular fan theory/joke that Hades and Maleficent were a couple and that Mal is their daughter and Audrey is indeed the villain of the film.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: A common complaint about the second film is that it's a bit weird that the Fairy Godmother's wand is being used as the crux for the plot again.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Let's be honest, the villains all have their own equally large share of fans for very different reasons. Maleficent's notable for her hamminess, One-Winged Angel form and decent performance from Kristin Chenoweth, Uma's cunningness and natural leadership and sympathetic motives for getting revenge on Auradon, and Audrey's later underlying reasons for going rogue and terrorizing the land making her ironically similar to those whom she considers enemies.^note Ironically, they were all indirectly caused by Mal. Meanwhile, good luck finding anybody who likes Chad Charming who appears in all three films, yet somehow never does anything worthwhile. He's a hypocritical ladies' man who hates the VKs by claiming they have to be like their parents, gets Evie to do his work for him so he can take the credit for himself, tries to sell her out for cheating just to look good in front of others, refuses to let Lonnie play on a sports team just for being a girl, and callously tries to team up with an evil Audrey at first because he thinks he'll have power too, then just so he can save his own skin from the latter's power, plus he's not even good at being an evil accomplice.
  • Many people hate Audrey's grandmother Queen Leah who is first introduced with seemingly racist undertones towards the Villain Kids. The movie has her being emotionally abusive towards Audrey partially contributing to her Face–Heel Turn
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Many of the people who watched Descendants were only interested in its ties to the Disney Animated Canon.
  • Many viewers who are big Liv and Maddie fans tuned in only for Dove and many Cameron Boyce fans flocked to see his first DCOM.
  • Come Descendants 2, Uma became a draw for a lot of people; just searching "Descendants 3" on Tumblr will reveal a lot of people saying that they will disown the coming film from Descendants canon if Uma does not receive satisfying closure.
  • A lot of fans tuned into Descendants 3 just to see Cameron Boyce act one last time, as he passed away shortly before the premiere.
• Magnificent Bitch: From 2 & 3: Uma is the daughter of the powerful sea witch Ursula, and Mal's most personal rival. Back when they were best friends, Mal turned Uma into the Isle's laughing stock, and eventually abandoned and forgot about her. This made Uma grow bitter towards Mal and vow to defeat her by any means, as well as developing a reasonable philosophy about how the Disney Heroes were no better than actual villains for leaving the villains' children on the Isle of the Lost for no reason other than their parents being evil. Forming her own pirate crew and quickly rising to the top as a fearsome threat, she constantly takes advantage of her surroundings to take down anybody in her way. She later joins Mal's team to defeat Audrey, in exchange for the Villain Kids being released. She and Mal begin to make amends and she powers up Mal's ember so she could take Audrey down. Once Auradon realizes that morality didn't depend on where they grew up in, Uma's pleas are finally heard, as the barrier gets lifted and Villain Kids are finally allowed to go to Auradon.
• Meme Acknowledgment: Given her personality and parentage, Audrey appears to be one of the famous "bitch Aurora" Tumblr gifset meme.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • The kitchen scene is an off-screen moment of this for the villains, when the kids reveal to Lonnie that their parents don't love them and never parented them in anything resembling a normal manner. This is confirmed by their depicted behavior/demeanor: Cruella's makes her son live in fear and has lied to him about many things, Jafar treats his son just as an employee for his shop and is always concerned with what he can steal for him, the Evil Queen wants to make her dreams come true through Evie rather than let Evie pursue her own dreams, and Maleficent is... well, Maleficent.
  • Maleficent transforms into her draconic form once more and brutally attacks the teenagers at the climax, which may very well imply that she's all too willing to murder the teens for not being as demonic as their parents!
• Narm:
  • "Be Our Guest" having a hip-hop remix just... doesn't really work. The lyrics "don't believe me? Ask the dishes!" definitely don't even make sense when the song doesn't involve talking dinnerware.
  • While the battle between Mal and Uma in their One-Winged Angel forms in Descendants 2 is pretty sweet, near the end there's a silly part: Ben, watching from the boat, starts to shake and lets out a mighty roar. Pretty much everyone expected him to become a Beast and join in the fight, but instead he just hands off his crown and coat before diving in and telling them that they have to respect each other. So basically, the roar was completely pointless.
• Narm Charm: As expected from the director of High School Musical.
  • Given that the four protagonists aren't particularly villainous, all things considered, "Rotten to the Core" comes off more as a choreographed ego boost than as a declaration of villainy. It's still a provocative ear worm.
  • In Descendants 3, Evie ponders whether Doug is her Romeo. Normally it would be Narm, especially since Juliet and Romeo both end up dead, but considering Evie's mother is the Evil Queen, and Doug's family are the Seven Dwarfs, and they're enemies, it comes across as this instead.
• Older Than They Think: A Disney movie where a major character is the child/successor of a villain and, as a result, people expect them to become a villain as well? The Lion King II: Simba's Pride did it first, Sky High (2005) did it second.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • From Wicked World, CJ Hook is none other than Torra Doza! Although given that she's a goofy villainess, Carla Delgado may come more to mind.
  • Meta: For the first movie, Disney Channel got an up-and-coming Teen Idol and former Radio Disney Next Big Thing to do the credits song, "Believe". His name was Shawn Mendes, and this was just after a little song named "Stitches" got off the ground...
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • The two main are Bal (Ben/Mal) and Devie (Doug/Evie). Others include Jaudrey (Jay/Audrey), Jarlos or Jaylos (Jay/Carlos; the latter is the most commonly used due to Jarlos being taken by the James/Carlos ship from Big Time Rush), and Darlos (Dude/Carlos).
  • Another one that's gaining traction is Choug (Chad/Doug), partially due to their actors (Jedidiah Goodacre and Zachary Gibson) being best friends in real life and partially due to a couple of scenes where Doug ends up holding Chad and vice versa. For that matter, Jackary (Jedidiah/Zachary) has somewhat of a fanbase as well.
  • Huma is used for Harry Hook/Uma from the sequel.
  • Malvie or mevie is used for Mal/Evie.
  • Jonnie is used for Jay/Lonnie, and Uma/Audrey's is Umaudrey or Audruma.
• Questionable Casting:
  • Mitchell Hope did not do his own singing in the first film. In the second film, he does his own singing and it shows. It doesn't help that auto tune was used so heavily that the voice sounds entirely robotic. However, his singing does get much better by the third movie, as one can tell from hearing the now slowed-down lines from "Did I Mention" being utilized in the scene where Ben proposes to Mal.
  • Kristin Chenoweth, who is mostly known for comedic roles, plays Maleficent, the Mistress of All Evil. Even when she is downgraded to Adaptational Comic Relief, people simply couldn't wrap their heads around that casting choice.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Audrey. Her Lovable Alpha Bitch tendencies in Wicked World, particularly in the second season, softened quite a few fans' opinions of her. She was even more rescued in Descendants 3, where she gets a frankly awesome Villain Song and becomes an Evil Is Cool sort of villainess. A lot of fans ended up even sympathizing with her because of the tragic circumstances leading to her fall.
  • Although she wasn't a complete scrappy to begin with, some fans of the first film felt that Lonnie only served as a Satellite Character who's only purpose was to reveal how the four protagonist's parents treated them along with providing Mal with her tears to concoct her love spell cookies to Ben. Came the second film where she Took a Level in Badass and assist the main characters on rescuing Ben from the Isle of the Lost along with showcasing impressive fencing/sword skills to boot.
  • After her characterization in "Descendants 2", Mal is shown to have made mistakes and apologizes to Audrey and Uma for the events of the first two films.
• Rooting for the Empire:
  • Many fans took to Uma's side in Descendants 2 when she unveiled her intentions of taking over Auradon. Seeing how the very rulers of Auradon herded innocent children and their enemies into what could only be described as a ghetto, this comes off as an attempt to Pay Evil unto Evil rather than some kind of Moral Event Horizon as depicted in the film.
  • Happened again in Descendants 3 with Audrey, who more than a few viewers looked at her reasoning for turning evil and wanting revenge and said "Well, she's not entirely wrong". The popularity of her Villain Song and delightfully campy style also helped.

S-W

• Sailor Earth: Pick a Disney character, any Disney character. Give them a kid. Now give that kid a name that sounds similar to the name of the Disney character you picked. Congrats, you now have a Descendants OC.
• The Scrappy:
  • Ally, Alice's daughter from Wicked World has had a rather tepid reception. The attempt at making her a Cloudcuckoolander Genki Girl comes off as forced and grating, and she can also come off as incredibly passive-aggressive toward her friends. It really got bad at the climax of Wicked World's second season where she just sat back and let Audrey go on an ill-informed rant toward Mal and refuse to help her, and then only some time after Mal had left did she suddenly think to reveal to Audrey that Mal hadn't been in control of her actions.
  • The Evil Queen and Jafar do not get any love out of the fandom because of the Adaptational Wimp both suffered and how they were pretty much reduced to Adaptational Comic Relief for the duration of the movie.
  • Few people seem to care much about Dude after he was accidentally given the ability to speak with a truth serum. Mostly because the concept of a wise-cracking animal is simply out-there for an already absurd series of Live-Action movies, and many find his jokes and personality to be way too obnoxious to be funny.
• Seasonal Rot: The second season of Wicked World has gotten these complaints due to it being an absurd repetition of the first season's storyline. It literally has the exact same premise as the first: there's a visit to the Isle of the Lost, a big event coming up at Auradon Prep, a new Villain Kid follows the heroes back to Auradon from the Isle of the Lost and goes about framing Mal, making all the Auradon Kids distrust her, and then the real culprit makes their move at the big event. The only differences are it's CJ Hook in Season 1 and Zevon in Season 2, and the method of framing Mal differs (CJ does it the normal way, Zevon does it when Mal was put under Mind Control.)
• Shocking Moments: Evil Audrey in Descendants 3 blew a lot of people's minds.
• She Really Can Act: The casting of Dove Cameron as Mal was initially met with plenty of "What the Hell, Casting Agency?" cries from the more hardcore Disney fans. When the movie came out, many were impressed by how well Dove pulled off Mal's character.
  • To a lesser extent, Cameron Boyce as well, with Carlos turning out to be a far cry from the troublemaking Casanova Wannabe Luke Ross.
• Signature Scene: Audrey's transformation during "Queen of Mean" in the third film, as it shows the rise of the franchise's most iconic villain.
• Signature Song: "Rotten to the Core" from the first film, "Ways to be Wicked" from the second, and "Queen of Mean" from the third (Disney was clearly trying for "Good to be Bad" to be this in the third, given that it's the film's opening song like the other two were, but "Queen of Mean" just proved too awesome to be eclipsed.)
• Special Effect Failure:
  • Rotten to the Core has a moment where Mal's lip-syncing is off by one word.
  • The tentacles on Uma's One-Winged Angel form are very clearly CGI because the lighting on them doesn't match the background. The same can be said for Mal's dragon form.
  • The wig Dove Cameron wears as Mal in the first film was fine, being dark enough to contrast, but the one in "Descendants 2" is significantly lighter, and the combination of it and the lighting makes the incredibly-pale Dove look like she has purple skin.
  • The lip syncing during Mal's Badass Boast in the middle of "Night Falls" in the third film doesn't match what she's saying at all, despite the fact that the camera won't cut away to a reaction shot.
  • Ben's Beast form is obviously just a guy with bad make-up on. It's one of those rare cases where using CGI would've looked better.
• Spiritual Successor: No doubt this DCOM is one to High School Musical, as it is music-oriented, and is also directed by Kenny Ortega.
• Strangled by the Red String: Doug and Evie comes off this way for a lot of people, especially in the third movie, where Evie uses true love's kiss to wake him from the sleeping spell. Mal and Ben also get this but to a much lesser extent.
• Strawman Has a Point: The Beast, when he tries to stop Mal from opening the barrier AKA the only thing that keeps a bunch of psycho super villains who tried to kill a lot of people or other crimes away from Auradon.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: "Rotten to the Core" has a beat reminiscent of Britney Spears' "Work Bitch", especially during the chorus.
  • The second film isn't immune either, as "Chillin' Like a Villain" bears a striking resemblance to "Want to Want Me" by Jason Derulo.
  • The third film's "Good to be Bad" has a few beats that sound similar to those of Cardi B's "Bodak Yellow".
  • The third verse from the film's "Night Falls" sounds an awful lot like the opening of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song."
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: Some people see this as a ripoff of either Monster High or Ever After High. A few even see it as a copy of Once Upon a Time, which is actually Disney-produced.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Some fans of the Disney Animated Canon aren't fans of how fast and loose this franchise plays with its source materials, most notably by being set in a world like The Present Day, with WiFi, cellphones and everything. In fact, the more one thinks about it, the less and less sense it makes.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • The general reaction to Ursula's minuscule role in the sequel. While Maleficent and the other Disney Villains were prominently featured in the first film, Ursula was reduced to a mere cameo, and never fully showed up onscreen (save a CGI tentacle). Not to mention, she's voiced by Whoopi Goldberg; not only is she a pretty solid choice for the character, her amount of star power could've easily helped the film's promotion (as Kristin Chenoweth's did with the first movie).
  • Ignoring the Disney DTV sequels means ignoring the fact that Melody — the canon daughter of Disney Princess Ariel — exists. Considering how loved Melody is, many fans were rather disappointed no live action version of her appeared in the films.
  • Freddie Facilier. Despite the books saying that she's Celia's older sister, she doesn't even get a mention in D3.
  • The VKs introduced in D3 are generally considered to be interesting, but their lack of development is a disappointment.
  • Despite Dizzy Tremaine having a Small Role, Big Impact in the second film and being close friends with Evie, while she does finally get to come to Auradon in the third film she's absent from all the plot scenes babysitting Squeaky and Squirmy offscreen and later falling under Audrey’s sleeping spell, with Celia instead following the Core Four throughout the film.
  • The Anti-Heroes Club members from the books, big time. They were established young VKs who fans had wanted to see in D3, yet rather than getting ANY of them, we got Celia, Squeaky, and Squirmy (with the latter two servicing no real purpose in the film). Special mention goes to Hadie, who is Hades' son in the books which makes him Mal's younger brother, yet he doesn't even get a mention. Honestly, its confusing why Squeaky and Squirmy are even in the films, they could've easily been replaced by any of the Anti-Heroes Club members.
  • Some argue that Lonnie wanting to be part of the fencing team is throwing her previous characterization out of the window. Mainly because her being a pacifist, while both of her parents are warriors, made her a much more interesting character in their eyes. Forcing her to become a fighter like her parents is technically a Broken Aesop to the main message of the series, that children don't have to follow their parents' footsteps.
  • A number of fans wish that more focus had been placed on Jay and Carlos (especially in Wicked World), as their subplots never really got as much attention as the plots related to Mal and Evie. Carlos especially got this sentiment after the passing of his actor, Cameron Boyce, with many fans wishing he got more attention in hindsight.
  • In the original 101 Dalmatians book Cruella is married. Having her husband and by extension, Carlos's father show up even as a cameo would have been a great Mythology Gag and call back to the original book. However, Carlos's dad (Whoever he is) is never even alluded to.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Believe it or not, people actually wanted to see villains and heroes across Disney canon share the same universe. It would have been good to see all the different aspects of how all the cultures across all eras blended.
  • King Beast, Queen Belle and Fairy Godmother were the ones who brought the villains back, and imprisoned them the Isle with the magic-blocking force field, and yet the characters rarely point this out, instead treating it like it's a natural disaster of some sort. Beast is barely called out by the others for his actions or has to acknowledge what he did to Villains Kids and apologize. Considering the Beast was already impulsive and prone to rash decisions in his movie, it would make sense for him to carry that trait here, and have the characters —especially the Villain Kids whom he had impromised— call him out for his decision onscreen, forcing the king to go through an arc and get better. This would make the make the film less black-and-white, and showcase that even so-called "heroes" can do shady things.
  • Having Villain Kids interact with the enemies of their parents would be interesting (ex: Mal with Aurora and Phillip, Evie with Snow White and Dopey, Jay with Aladdin and Jasmine, Freddie and/or Celia with Tiana and Naveen, Gil with Beast and Belle, Dizzy with Cinderella) but we never really get to see it.
  • Audrey could have hypnotized Ben into making him her husband in the third movie…or better yet, a love potion could have been a lot more ironic since Mal used one. But instead, she turns him into a beast.
  • Audrey transforming Mal into an old woman in the third movie. With how much the fans have complained about her being a one-woman Spotlight-Stealing Squad compared to the other characters (especially Jay), this would've been the perfect time to put the focus on them for a change as they worked to find a way to reverse her transformation. Instead, she goes with them to the Isle and the anti-magic barrier instantly lifts the curse permanently, turning the whole thing into something of a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment.
• Tough Act to Follow: General consensus is that "Good to Be Bad", the first single from the third movie, fails to live up to the bar set by "Rotten to the Core" from the first film and "Ways to be Wicked" from the second, and as such it's much less popular than other numbers like "Queen of Mean" and "Do What You Gotta Do".
• Trapped by Mountain Lions: Ben's subplots in the Isle of the Lost series of books. While the VKs are busy securing magical objects that could tip the scales in favor of evil if they fell into the wrong hands, he is... negotiating with unions and playing ambassador between kingdoms, which seem like much less important tasks and really only serve to keep him out of the main plot. Mitigated in the second book, where his subplot does tie into the main one to an extent. He also doesn't have a subplot at all in the fourth book.
• Unexpected Character: Of sorts - many Disney fans were surprised when, at the tail end of "Queen of Mean" in Descendants 3, the Black Cauldron is there in full view on one of the pedestals.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic:
  • Many people had this reaction toward Uma in Descendants 2, as she was no worse than Mal was in both movies and some may argue she was less evil since Mal was always the one bullying her back on the Isle of the Lost, and yet she ends up denied any sort of redemption in the end. The movie's attempts at painting her as a villain for wanting to take over Auradon is often met with ridicule, citing that Auradon is chock full of Designated Hero characters who fans believe deserve comeuppance for their gross mistreatment of the children stuck on the Isle of the Lost.
  • Audrey, for some. She's somewhat of an antagonist in the first movie, but she still gets her long-time boyfriend stolen from her by Mal via love spell. Addressed and heightened in Descendants 3, when the movie shows that her grandmother is disappointed in her for being unable "to keep" Ben and it's implied in a photo shown in "Queen of Mean" that her life has revolved around becoming Ben's wife and the future queen of Auradon since she was a child. In fact, this is why her villainous motivation is to takeover Auradon when she's under the influence of Maleficent's scepter. In the end, Mal and Ben apologize, which Mal acknowledges was long overdue.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Likewise, Mal in Descendants 2 lost many viewer's goodwill by revealing that she actually enjoyed being evil and missed it (undermining her whole big speech about choosing to be good in the first movie), left to go back to a life of villainy on the Isle of the Lost rather than simply talking to someone about her feelings and troubles relating to not fitting in at Auradon, got Ben kidnapped by Uma, and displayed a startling Lack of Empathy for Uma and everyone else who was stuck and miserable on the Isle throughout the entire movie. This gets even worse in the third movie, in which she tells Beast, Belle, and Fairy Godmother that the program to bring villain kids to Auradon needs to be shut down and that the Isle needs to be closed off completely, then hides from her friends that she was the one to suggest it. On top of that, she lies to Uma and her squad and says that, if they help her save Auradon, she'll let any villain kids who want to go to Auradon go, even though it was previously established that she plans to do quite the opposite. In the end, she acknowledges her mistakes in "My Once Upon A Time" and mends her ways by publicly proclaiming at the end of the movie that the barrier needs to be taken down, which she herself takes care of.
    • That being said, the sequel has Uma throw this in Ben's face and tells him how unfair the situation is, and both movies make it clear that the Villain Kids could easily be good if given the chance to be away from their abusive parents, so this might be an Intended Audience Reaction.
  • Believe it or not, even Ben qualifies for this in a way. He carelessly broke up with Audrey without even acknowledging her feelings and after taking the Core Four off the Isle, he completely forgets about the VK program even though it was pretty much the only thing he had planned, so his excuse over being too busy being king is pretty much void. Musical Hell rightfully calls him out for this.
    • Does Audrey even have feelings for Ben? Let alone in love with him? She only focuses on losing her chance to be queen rather than losing Ben.
  • Your favorite Disney heroes deciding that how their respective villains lost and died in their stories wasn't enough and punishing them and their children (by virtue of Sins of the Father) by making them live on a remote island.
• Unnecessary Makeover: Mal's Evil Costume Switch in the second movie was almost universally hated for both being inferior to her VK-get up in the first movie and not a good costume on its own. Particularly the wig is a common cause for criticism. Thankfully, it's gone once the third movie arrived.
  • To say nothing about their modernized take on Be Our Guest.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: The plot of the story is that the "good guys" have forced the villains onto an island to live out the rest of their days and expect the Villain Kids to be the same, until the Villain Kids are allowed to attend Auradon Prep with the other Hero Kids because people have realized it isn't right to punish kids for what their parents have done, but this is still met with heavy backlash because others still believe the Villain Kids are naturally evil. In the third movie (which aired during a controversial time in the U.S. political climate), Hades even points out that when a "good guy" like Audrey does something terrible, they're excused as being troubled, while villains don't get another chance to redeem themselves.
• WTH, Costuming Department?:
  • The Villains' Kids' outfits. They're way too over the top with their spikes and cheap plastic leather in an attempt to look "edgy" and "cool," and also extremely on the nose with the homages to their parents. Really, they're so cheesy that they look more like Halloween costumes.
  • When Uma was first introduced, some viewers had difficulty pinning her parent down, considering how there aren't many villains out there with blue hair, with the Pirate Girl get-up already excluding Hades as a possibility. Some thought that her parent was Davy Jones before it was confirmed to be Ursula.
• The Woobie: Carlos is only fourteen years old and has been raised by Cruella to be deathly afraid of dogs. Not only is he happy to leave the Isle, he escapes his mother while holding his possessions in a garbage bag. It says a lot about his life on the Isle.

---