YMMV / Sweet/Vicious

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Nate's behavior regarding his rape of Jules invites multiple interpretations:
  • He knows he is a rapist and he uses lies and gaslighting to keep Jules from revealing his depravity to Kennedy.
  • He truly does not understand the difference between consensual sex and what he did to Jules. He honestly believes they just hooked up.
  • He has convinced himself after the fact that his encounter with Jules was consensual.
• Anvilicious: The show can be extremely blunt during in-show discussions about consent, the value of counseling and rape crisis services, the failures of authorities in many cases. This is emphatically not a bad thing, given how poor general understanding of these issues is.
• Catharsis Factor: Appears throughout the show, with its premise being about two girls taking vigilante justice against sexual predators their campus protect over their victims. A few stand out
  • "Tragic Kingdom": Jules and Ophelia fighting the sadistic heads of Kappa Kappa Phi, not only beating them down but blackmailing them into turning themselves in and disbanding their sorority, thereby dissolving their torture porn operations.
  • "Fearless": After spending the first half of the season silently tormented by Nate's assault, and Nate himself lingering over her all season, Jules snaps in the record store to give Nate a piece of her mind, finally confronting him about what he did to her. Unfortunately, this leads to Nate "confessing" to Kennedy about "sleeping" with Jules behind her back, without letting her know it was rape and turning Kennedy and the sorority against Jules.
  Jules: Shut up. You're gonna listen to me. Let me get one thing straight. I told you to stop, and I told you no, and you did this. You put your hand over my mouth, and then you raped me.
  Nate: What are you talking about?
  Jules: I'm not done. What you took from me wasn't yours to take, and the fact that you thought it was sex for just one second is disgusting. And you came here tonight to make me feel safe? I don't think I'll ever feel safe again because of you. All I feel is just this... emptiness. And I've tried everything I can to get rid of it. I've lied to myself, to my friends and I've smiled and pretended and... and said I was gonna run away. And I've done everything I could except this, which is tell you how alone and broken I feel watching you with my best friend like nothing ever happened. Because you don't carry this like I do, and I hate you for that. And I-I envy you for that. And I just... I thought that you should finally know.
  • "Back To Black": After Kennedy spends much of the season blissfully unaware of Jules' plight, she sides with Nate after his "cheating confession". When Jules becomes more destructive as a result, Ophelia puts her foot down and confronts Kennedy for failing Jules, giving her a wake up call. This soon leads to Kennedy seeing Nate's true colors and quickly reconciling with Jules, and finally starts supporting her.
  Ophelia: She told you the truth, and you... you looked the other way.
  Kennedy: Okay, you actually have no idea what you're talking about-
  Ophelia: No, I know that you know what happened between Nate and Jules. You saw the change in her after that night. Somewhere deep down beneath the "Yas Girls" and the Zeta "realness", you know the truth, and it terrifies you. Well, it's high time that you grow some balls and do the right thing. She's not well, and you are the only person who can help her now.
  • "Pure Heroine": Jules and Ophelia's ultimate takedown of Nate, with the help of Jules sorority sisters, and Nate's friend Miles, who realized Nate's true colors. After initially bringing Nate's case to Darlington's campus, even getting a guilty verdict, the university overturns the case in favor of holding a ceremony celebrating Nate's accomplishments. Jules, Ophelia and their friends set up an intimidation campaign against Nate, and even after they beat him and his frat brothers in an eight on two fight, the actual takedown is at the ceremony itself; they get a taped confession where a drug fueled Nate brags about how untouchable he is, and getting away with his assaults, while bad mouthing the President of Darlington; they play this video at the ceremony, and utterly destroy Nate's reputation and standing with the university.
• Complete Monster: In a series that deals with on campus rape culture, and a system more interested in protecting sexual predators and their own reputation over victims, two perpetrators stand out:
  • Landon Mays is the son of the Darlington University President and a Serial Rapist to the campus and township. A particularly smug and sadistic predator, Landon has an accomplice who drugs girls at parties and bars, using his job as a driver to pick these girls up. He would take them to an isolated location, have his partner restrain them, and rape them while they're barely conscious, using his connections to avoid investigation. When Jules and Ophelia try to lure him into a trap, Landon takes Ophelia to a different location, where he nearly rapes her before being fought off. In a later confrontation, Landon acts as a victim when Ophelia ends up stabbing him in front of several witnesses, putting the campus on lockdown while police and security hunt them down. Escaping punishment, when Nate Griffin's reputation is ruined at the end of the season, Landon approaches Nate, proposing a team up to get revenge on the vigilantes.
  • "Tragic Kingdom": Chloe Freeman is the ruthless leader of the Kappa Kappa Phi sorority, an elitist house on Darlington University's campus, while running cruel hazing rituals of dozens of pledges on a weekly basis. The hazings include extreme verbal and physical abuse of their victims, as well as regular sexual assault and hospitalization; with Chloe releasing a video of a pledge forced to strip while throwing misogynistic taunts at her. When Ophelia infiltrates the Kappas, one of the hazing rituals she's put through is being locked in a room with the other pledges and forced to consume multitudes of alcohol and cigars. When one passes out from this, Chloe apathetically remarks this happens all the time. It's soon revealed that Chloe films the abuse of her pledges and posts it to a torture porn site to make a profit.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Jules and Ophelia are the most commonly paired ship in fics, with their friendship being center staged of the series, and Ophelia being confirmed bisexual by Word of Gay. This is despite Jules dating Tyler, and Ophelia being in a relationship with Evan throughout the show.
• Moral Event Horizon: Nate Griffin crossed this when he raped Julies at a party. The season finale reveals that he crossed this years earlier when he raped Shelby in his high school years.
• The Woobie:
  • Jules has gone through a lot during the series, and while she gradually heals from her trauma, it isn't an easy journey for her. Prior to the series, she is raped by her best friends boyfriend, Nate, someone Jules herself considered a friend. After trying to go to report her assault, the campus uses manipulation tactics to try to discredit and dismiss her case. This and seeing the injustice done throughout Darlington is what inspires her to be a vigilante, though she's initially in over her head. Throughout, her friend Kennedy is near oblivious to Jules' trauma and constantly hangs out with Nate, who tries to brush his assault off as "just sex". When Nate "confesses", he effectively turns Kennedy and the rest of the sorority against Jules; while her boyfriend Tyler thinks something's going on between her and Nate. This in turns leads to Jules taking up more destructive behavior and lashing out at Ophelia. When Jules and her friends reconcile, and they support her going through with reporting Nate, the university overturns their case in favor of celebrating Nate's accomplishments.
  • Grace from "Tragic Kingdom" is an overweight girl who tries to join Kappa Kappa Phi, and as part of their hazing, is forced to strip on camera while Chloe Freeman writes misogynistic slurs on her stomach, while giving a misogynistic rendition of "This Little Piggy". When Ophelia talks to her during one of the hazing rituals, she asks Grace why she just doesn't leave; Grace meekly replies that she had no friends in high school and Kappa will let her be something other than a loser, despite their abuse of her.
  • Iron Woobie: Ophelia doesn't have it as easy as she appears. Throughout the show, she is generally friendly, easy going, empathetic and funny; being the campus hacker, drug dealer and a rebellious trust fund baby; even acting as the brains of her and Jules' operations. Though it's soon revealed that she has a troubled relationship with her parents, casually mentioning that her mother called her a mistake. In "Tragic Kingdom", Ophelia infiltrates the Kappas, putting herself through indignities in hazing, but at the same time, bonding with her mother; when the Kappas are dissolved, her mother shallowly walks out on Ophelia, showing she cared more about what she wanted Ophelia to be. In an outing gone wrong, Ophelia is nearly raped and tries to put on a brave face, despite nearly breaking down, and crying about it in her bed. Despite all this, Ophelia stands tall and puts others before herself; when she calls out Jules increasing destructive behavior, Jules says Ophelia's parents were right and she is a mistake; Ophelia, barely keeping herself together goes to Kennedy, confronting her about taking Nate's side over Jules before helping them reconcile.