YMMV / Rainbow High

• Abandon Shipping: Everyone immediately dropped the at-the-surface tooth-rotting Skyler/Colin pairing once he cheats on her with Ruby in "Double Date Disaster".
• Accidental Aesop: And it’s a Hard Truth Aesop. Although Violet says she and Sunny have made up in the second episode of “The Vi Life”, Childhood Friends do often end up drifting apart during high school years in Real Life, and find themselves in better-suited friend groups.
• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Sunny is widely interpreted to be neurodivergent.
  • The entire school itself is occasionally (semi-jokingly) interpreted as a Boarding School of Horrors due to its rather nonsensical and draconian policies coupled with its questionable prison-like design. Students can be expelled for any number of reasons, including failing a single project or photographing their own work; visiting home on the weekends isn't allowed and there's seemingly no system in place to help kids deal with homesickness; the administration never gets involved in social situations that would very much merit teacher involvement in real life; and the workload and the hands-off approach of the staff seems much more appropriate for college than high school. Most of it can be attributed to the Rule of Drama, as well as the fact that the toyline is primarily aimed at children who have never been to high school and are young enough to view it very idealistically, but fans still like pointing out how awful it'd probably be to attend Rainbow High IRL.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: Another High School AU toyline with a noticeable lack in (on the surface) diversity, and to top it all off spinning off from Poopsie of all things. Despite that Rainbow High was an instant success, surpassing the original Rainbow Surprise in popularity and became a hit among fashion doll collectors.
• Angst? What Angst?: Rainbow High is supposedly the best school for artists, but with its nonsensical and borderline authoritarian rules set against students that put them down more than cultivating their talents, it's a little hard for some to take the upbeat and preppy tone the series sets the school in. This is especially true for “A Dorm With A View”, where Poppy faces homesickness and no one comments on that Rainbow High doesn’t let its students visit home on the weekends^note which is something regular boarding schools let their students do.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Oh, Violet. How she treated Sunny in the first episode led many people to instantly loathe her. Her portrayal in later episodes is better received, however she still remains to be the most controversial of the main cast. Then she became base-breaking again after “Going Viral”. Thus sparked the debate on whether she truly learned to watch what she posts and it sets up for future Character Development, or the episode just cemented she is a horrible person beyond redemption.
  • Come her series debut and Amaya began to suffer from this, as she is placed in the runaway group after Bella’s expulsion. Although she was able to win back some over in episodes 8-9, some fans accuse her of taking the focus away from the main runaway group.
  • Ruby is also hit with this for the same "screentime-hogging" accusations Amaya endures, combined with her extremely harsh moments in "Enter Amaya" and "Going Viral". While some fans interpreted these moments as the flawed aspects to her Cool Big Sis characterization, the dissenters cannot see it and take her to be a massive Jerkass.
  • River is either a great addition to the predominantly female cast (especially when compared to Colin), or a bland "masculine jock" who also is the main character's (in this case Amaya's) Sattelite Love Interest. His "Vi-Life" interview either repaired some fans' views on him by expanding on his backstory, or failed to do so. After " Audition Begins" many fans have expressed annoyance and anger for River when he broke up with Amaya, after not being able to pass the auditions and being cut as a host of Rainbow Vision his saying, he needs a break after she tries to cheer him up.
  • Ms. Morton is the Ms. Bustier of the fanbase. Although initially introduced as the more caring Cool Teacher, many were offput by her nonchalant dismissal of Bella's benching and her harsh demands for the runaway group to accept Amaya. She's either the better of the two teachers, as she's more approachable and hands-on than the no-nonsense aloof Ms. Wright, or she's just as bad for siding with the unfair, merciless side to Bella's situation.
• Broken Base:
  • Amaya's wave 2 appearance is often pitted against her original look. There is no clear answer to which look the fandom overall prefers.
  • Whether the less dramatic, episodic episodes hold up to the drama-filled episodes, or are inferior for being nothing but filler that could’ve been used on more plot points.
  • While the arc was gut-wrenching to watch, fans looking back on episodes 7-8 are now split on whether or not Bella's expulsion was truly unfair or deserved since she was aware of the consequences.
  • Those who sympathize with Bella and loathe Amaya butt heads with the vice versa, thanks to episode 8. However going from “Going Viral” and the “Turn Your Color Up” music video, the two girls get along well despite rarely interacting.
  • The aftermath of “Going Viral”. Whether or not Jade and Ruby humiliating Violet was well-deserved (as she had it coming) or extremely overkill, and make the two even more incriminating. Alternatively there’s the party who thinks this incident made all of them out as terrible friends. Then there’s the fans who felt Violet didn’t deserve the apology and Ruby and Jade taking down the video rids her free of any punishment for her should’ve-been-called-out-sooner carelessness.
• Catharsis Factor: In episode 9 Ruby's line, "It's not all about your channel, Vi!" is satisfying to hear for those who detested Violet for always prioritizing her vlog series over everyone's privacy.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Violence on another student is barely, if ever, funny or accepted in real life. Stella Monroe rushing out of her classroom and shoving another student (her roommate, no less!) with an audible crash out of excitement for a party? Hysterical.
• Designated Villain: Ruby and Jade in “Going Viral”. While humiliating Violet was never the proper solution, there’s nothing wrong in the motive: to have Violet realize her mistakes and teach why it’s terrible to upload videos of others without permission. Because of this there are fans who believe them apologizing left Violet scot-free from being penalized for her previous mistakes.
• Diagnosed by the Audience:In the first episode’s intro, Sunny makes sudden jerky movements while suffering from stress. Along with her recurring spacey moments, this has made many fans speculate that she is neurodivergent, possibly autistic.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Although she quickly became divisive when she was introduced in the webisodes, Amaya has enjoyed popularity in the fanbase even prior to her cartoon appearance.
  • Stella Monroe became a fan favorite following her first appearance in episode 5, where she pushed Sheryl aside to run to her dorm.
  • Plenty of the background characters. One example is Sheryl Meyer, the freshman Expy of Cher Horowitz.
• Fanon:
  • Because of her name, brown eyes, and dark roots (in her illustration), Karma is interpreted to be of Indian heritage.
  • Violet is also seen as of Asian descent by a handful of fans.
  • Because of his more effeminate nature, it’s well interpreted in the fanbase that Aiden must be queer.
  • Jade being bisexual has become a popular interpretation owned to her moments with Bella and her short-lived attraction to River.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Poopsie and Rainbow Surprise fans have carried over into the fanbase.
  • Also with collectors of L.O.L. Surprise, MGA Entertainment's other brand. Especially because of the dolls’ similarities to the O.M.G. Spin-Off line of fashion dolls.
  • Also with fans of the older Lalaloopsy, the toyline’s commonalities with its spin-off Lalaloopsy Girls being the bond instead. In addition, both We’re Lalaloopsy and the full Rainbow High series can be found on the same platform.
  • Many fans of Monster High and Ever After High have gravitated towards this brand after their brands ended.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • According to Google Trends, the toyline is fairly popular in the UK, Ireland, and Australia (Much like it's sister franchise Poopsie Slime Surprise.). It also has a sizable following in some Central European and Latin American countries.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Jade is the Perky Goth of the main cast and Ainsley’s theme color is black. They’re both voiced by Jenny Yokobori, who also voiced Kuromi in the 2020 Hello Kitty and Friends series.
  • Does Violet's voice sound familiar? Well, she's voiced by Kira Buckland, who many may have heard her before as Jewel Sparkles, The Diva in Lalaloopsy Girls.
  • In “The Gr8 Hairscape”, Poppy thought that an escape room puzzle with scrambled letters was an eye chart and proceeded to read it as such. Come “Double Date Disaster” and it’s revealed Poppy wears glasses when she’s DJing.
• Ho Yay: Has its own page.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: A common complaint about the webisodes is that they’re extremely brief, which is typical for webseries tied to toylines. However, it’s detrimental in this case as the series was marketed promising high stakes and dramatic arcs, yet they’re typically resolved in the next episode.
• It Was His Sled:
  • Bella's expulsion and Amaya taking her place became common knowledge in the fandom overnight.
  • Krystal picking Ruby to be on the cover of The SCENE in the end of “Shining Star”.
• Jerkass Woobie: Some dissenters of Violet find themselves feeling bad for her following her reality check in "Going Viral".
• LGBT Fanbase: To be fair, the series is themed after rainbows. The series has a huge LGBT+ following, and several of the characters are speculated to be LGBT+ themselves, the most common being Jade and Bella as girlfriends for their proximity, Aiden as gay for his aforementioned attitude, Ruby being bisexual due to her eye colors, etc.
• Love to Hate: The De’Vious Twins, the Big Bad Duumvirate of the Rainbow High social pyramid introduced in season two. They’re haughty, smug, and the fandom can’t get enough of them.
• Memetic Loser: Enter the fandom (and In-Universe) Butt-Monkey Colin, who will never live down his attempt to double-time Skyler and Ruby.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Stella's first appearance. "MOOOVE!"
  • Jade and Bella are Cosmo and Wanda.
  • Lou Wright is Edna Mode.
  • Bella's expulsion is grimly treated as a passing. How Violet framed it in "The Vi Life" only fed more fuel to the joke.
  • Those who detest Amaya’s second look often compare it to a clown.
  • “Poppy the Background Character”, as she’s usually being put Out of Focus and lacking depth compared to other main characters. Not helped by the reboot removing her from the lineup to place Amaya in instead.
  • “Rainbow Prison”, the jokes (and in some cases actual interpretations) that Rainbow High is actually a Boarding School of Horrors with its merciless rules^note Failing a project means ultimate expulsion, breaking the rules leads to automatic expulsion as well, students can’t leave the school premises at all, apathetic staffing, and boiling tensions between students they’re left to resolve for themselves. Also taking to account its questionable exterior.
  • The Storm twins and Heather Grayson laughing maniacally in “Phase One, Part One.”
• Narm: Amaya's make-up chart features catchphrases that are meant to be inspiring, but they're hilariously out-of-character. The quotes scribbled all over include "I speak Rainbow with Fire Lips", "Yaaas!" and "Turn Your Color Up". You'd think they fit well on Ruby and/or Poppy's charts rather than on Amaya's.
• Never Live It Down:
  • Despite making amends offscreen, many fans still don't forgive Violet for her nasty behavior towards Sunny in episode 1.
  • Also, Violet's line "So, you're trying to censor me!?" from episode 11 has yet to leave some fans' heads.
  • The fandom's preception of Ms. Morton, although she's undoubtedly the better of the two known Rainbow High teachers (even by a margin), has been broken since she still upholds the Rainbow High rules and doesn't emphasize with the runaway group's situation following Bella being cut and Amaya taking her spot.
• Overshadowed by Controversy:
  • What marred the hype for Rainbow High's first wave's release was its noticeable lack of diverse skin tones, Skyler having a darker complexion in the animation not helping the case. When wave 2 was leaked and Krystal's doll was revealed to have the same skin tone as Skyler, many fans demanded that her doll be made with a darker skin tone (which the line still lacked at this point). MGA responded and pulled the original Krystal in favor of giving her such, and she was released later than the other wave 2 characters.
  • The promotional images' tendency to heavily downplay the diversity aren't unnoticed by even the strongest fans. Most of the darker-skinned characters' illustrated profiles (more noticeable in Skyler's and Krystal's) make them appear lighter. Sunny's Cheer doll art is noticeably lighter than her original art as well. Karma's doll even became the subject of confusion as the character has a medium skin tone, but her stock photo is suspiciously lightened to make her appear white.
  • Fans would have rejoiced with Kia's appearance in "The Vi-Life", if it weren't for her downplayed baby hairs and unexplained change from brown eyes to purple.^note While the series is no stranger to Technicolor Eyes, along with Karma Kia is one of the few characters with brown eyes. This was later fixed in season 2.
  • Lila Yamamoto became the subject of criticism due to her outfits being a mix of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean fashion, as pointed out by Asian Rainbow High fans. Even with MGA’s official backstory for her being half Chinese and half Japanese, many perceived this as a lazy way to justify the lack of thought into her clothing.
• No Yay: Aiden and Poppy. Not because of fan theories of Aiden being gay, but because he is heavily implied to be a senior (17-18). Poppy is a freshman.
• Periphery Demographic: The toyline is popular with children and older collectors alike.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Fans who have deemed Aiden as a Camp Gay stereotype warmed up to him following episode 3.
  • Stella was first criticized for her odd design. Then came episode 5 and she won everyone over.
• Ron the Death Eater:
  • Lou Wright is canonically a strict, by-the-book fashion teacher. In the fanbase, she’s a tyrannical authoritarian of a principal. And with the noticeable lack in dark-skinned students and since her second major appearance saw Bella’s expulsion and the separation of the same-sex Fan-Preferred Couple, a number of fans have run with her being an extreme bigot... in spite of the fact that Wright also has significantly dark skin.
  • River gets this treatment as well, despite being a Lovable Jock with a Hidden Heart of Gold. Some have taken him to be a sexist serial flirt who is such a tool that Amaya shouldn’t even bother with him.
  • Amaya also gets this by those still bitter by her taking Bella’s spot and/or by those who accuse her of hogging screen-time and development from the other characters.
• The Scrappy:
  • Colin. Skyler doesn’t even forgive him or try to end off their relationship as Amicable Exes at the end of episode 6. The show, or at least the animators of “Amaya’s Discovery”, also seems to view him as this.
  • Lou Wright's perfectionist mentality and lack of sympathy towards the students, especially in episode 7, has made her an easy target. Several have suspected that she's actually the main villain of the series.
• Ships That Pass in the Night:
  • When River was leaked fans instantly paired him with Skyler and/or Aiden even before his name was revealed. Even though he canonically crushes on Amaya.
  • After reading Karma’s bio, fans immediately jumped onto the Karma/Violet ship with an influencer rivalry being hinted between them.
• Special Effects Failure: It’s blatantly obvious a good number of the background characters are fusions of recolored parts of the main characters’ models.
• Strangled by the Red String: Amaya and River’s crushes on each other for some, especially considering River has been in the school year-round while Amaya recently transferred.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Rainbow High is more popular than its predecessors Rainbow Surprise and Poopsie combined.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Colin gets hit by a football (speculated to be thrown by River) during a time-lapse sequence in "Amaya's Discovery".
• Tear Jerker: Everything about Bella being expelled. While Bella was well aware of the consequences of breaking the rules and her leave was a given since the first episode, her being mercilessly expelled out of the school was gut-wrenching to watch. Especially considering she was such a core member of the runway group and had such a close relationship with Jade, who likely feels guilty as she ultimately couldn’t prevent her from breaking the rules. Meanwhile, Amaya is finally accepted to her dream school, only to find out the reason she got out of the waitlist was that Bella's expulsion left a free spot. The already insecure Amaya cannot help but feel she's only there to be Bella's replacement. You really can't help but feel sorry for everyone involved, even Jade.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: In late 2023, the franchise softly rebooted to have more fantasy elements, and even brought back creature designs and the slime gimmick from Poopsie. Needless to say, fans were not happy, especially with Poppy removed from the lineup in place of Amaya.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The Cheer line and Amaya dyeing her hair have been hinted to be major plot points in the Rainbow High Vlogs. In episode 10, it’s revealed to be only part of a test (and not a major project) and Amaya dyed her hair only for it.
• Unfortunate Character Design: Rainbow High itself. The exterior’s full appearance as revealed in episode 13 reminds fans too much of a prison than an actual school, and only fueled the rising jokes and theories alike that Rainbow High is actually an "evil" school.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The CGI of the webseries has greatly improved since the first episode, with its more vivid colors and fluid motions.
• The Woobie:
  • Sunny in "When the GLAM Meets The Fan". Fortunately Violet drops the attitude and they get back on good terms.
  • Skyler in "Double Date Disaster" and "Gurlfriend Take Over". It's no wonder Colin is universally hated.
  • Bella in “Bella’s Night Out”. Despite her triumphant return in the season one finale, “Welcome Back, Bella!” shows that her reputation has been marred by her expulsion, and becomes overwhelmed with questions about her situation.
  • Amaya in her introduction arc as well. She finally gets to go to the school she always wanted to go only to be met with the fear that the other girls might resent her for something that isn't even her fault. Thankfully, she gets to bond with them in "Amaya's Discovery".

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