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Welcome to Monster High, a Mattel franchise (launched in July 2010, rebooted in 2016, and revived with another reboot in 2022) centered around a high school for the teen descendants of classic monsters, cryptids, and legends from folklore, page, and film. The initial setup:

Generation 1 (2010-2016)

Kindhearted, clumsy 15 day old teenager Frankie Stein is just starting off at a new school and itching to fully experience life for the first time. She makes friends quickly —there's Draculaura, a chatty, friendly and slightly ditzy Granola Ghoul; Clawdeen Wolf, a neophyte fashion designer and fashionista; Lagoona Blue, a somewhat spacy but amiable champion swimmer; and Ghoulia Yelps, the smartest kid in school. There’s also Cleo de Nile, Rich Bitch and Royal Brat extraordinaire with Hidden Depths who rules the school's in-crowd with an iron fist, and her loving but long-suffering boyfriend Deuce Gorgon.

The dolls have been noted for their unique concept, highly articulated bodies, and high variety of sculpts, with the dolls featuring a wide range of uniquely-sculpted bodies and heads with monster details. A 4-book series of tie-in novels was written by The Clique writer Lisi Harrison, followed by the Ghoulfriends Forever series by Gitty Daneshvari, and two graphic novels written by Heather Nuhfer and illustrated by Josh Howard and Kellee Riley. The series' first Halloween special aired on Nickelodeon on October 31, 2010 and has been followed by others ever since. The franchise was expanded with a series of CGI Direct to Video movies (excepting 13 Wishes and Welcome to Monster High, which had brief theatrical runs). A live-action movie was initially confirmed for fall 2016 with The Duff director Ari Sandel before being removed from the slate indefinitely — until it was announced to be returning with Generation 3.

In 2016, the franchise underwent a reboot which retained many elements of the original continuity and character designs but featured a new narrative, focused on Draculaura as the protagonist, and aesthetically shifted the franchise to be cuter, softer, and more approachable for a younger audience. Generation 2's (2016-2018) story is as follows:

Cheerful and bright (but miserably lonely) 1600 year old vampire Draculaura lives alone with her father Dracula, and has for years: in this world, monsters have lived isolated from each other and society at large ever since the Fright Flight, a mass exodus after humanity turned on them at least a century before present day. Dracula tries to stress to his daughter to stay in the safety of the home away from humans (never heard that before), but regardless of his efforts she's spotted by precocious 115-day-old Frankie Stein during a flying lesson. Frankie follows them home and convinces Dracula to let her stay at the house, after which she and Draculaura secretly decide to build a school—Monster High. One problem—they've no other students. On their search for them, they find 15-year-old Clawdeen Wolf, completing their trio. The three finally convince Dracula to help build a school, and create it. Afterwards they find many other students, starting with Cleo De Nile and Lagoona Blue, as well as new zombie nemesis Moanica D'Kay and ghost incognito popstar Ari Hauntington.

After the 2016 reboot, the franchise entered a decline and quietly faded away until February 2021, when it was announced that Mattel would be rebooting the franchise for Generation 3. This reboot consists of a toyline as well as both a new animated series and a live-action TV musical movie, both both of which got a 2022 release on Paramount+. G3 frames Clawdeen as the protagonist and the characters are reimagined more thoroughly than their G2 versions while keeping the tone more aimed at older kids than G2 was.

Although the reboots following G1 have different art styles, G1-style dolls have continued to be released even during the brand's post-G2 hiatus within Monster High's adult collector releases. In 2023, a Monster High Fang Club was established through Mattel Creations, with paid memberships granting access to early releases, behind-the-scenes info, and some exclusive merchandise, including Fang Club-only doll releases.

Ever After High was a fairy-tale spinoff set in the same universe as G1 Monster High. While the two had subtle crossover elements, all plans to unite the two franchises were canned with the Monster High G2. The two franchises finally crossed over with the book "The Legend of Shadow High," though that crossed over Generation 2 with post-soft-reboot EAH instead of G1-with-G1.

Special-specific tropes go to the respective pages in the recap section, and tropes specific to individual characters go on the character page.

Not related to Monster Prom.


     Movies, books, and myths referenced: 

     Licensed characters featured as collector dolls: 


Freaky Fab Tropes:

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     Tropes applying to multiple incarnations of the franchise 
  • All-Ghouls School: In all versions of the story, it’s a school for monsters and full of monsters. G1 subverts it just a bit with Jackson Jekyll, who’s a normie (human) who happens to have a monster transformation in his alter ego Holt Hyde. G3 makes it a point of conflict with Clawdeen, who's portrayed as half-human and doesn't discover her werewolf side which makes her eligible to enroll at Monster High until after she discovers the school and is turned away for being human.
  • All Myths Are True: Though not viewed from a human perspective, the franchise includes characters from all kinds of folklore and mythologies, and by the Greek monsters, indirectly indicates that the Classical gods exist.
  • All There in the Manual:
    • The official website has bios for all the characters and things like their favorite foods, colors, school subjects, and their flaws (which tend to be actual monster attributes rather than simple informed flaws). The dolls come with little diaries written by the characters themselves that talk about their daily lives. Even the licensed game has bits of continuity you won't get anywhere else!
    • This is even stronger in the case of Gilda Goldstag, whose only information is to be found online.
    • This is enforced in G2, as cut costs mean that diaries are no longer included with dolls.
  • Amazing Technicolor Population: Very few Monster High characters have normal human skin tones. Within the main G1 cast alone, Ghoulia is greyish-blue, Lagoona is aqua blue, Frankie is mint green (which looks a deeper shade of green in CG), and Draculaura looks really pale until you realize she's pink. In fact, the de Niles, the Wolf family, G1/G2 Deuce, Jackson, Headmistress Bloodgood, and Hexiciah Steam are the only merchandised characters to avert this.
  • Animation Bump:
    • The animation in the school fright song's music video (as well as in this commercial) is far more fluid and detailed than the animation in the web shorts.
    • The G2 movies’ animation is more stylized and advanced than the animation of the G1 films.
  • The Artifact: The original opening, "Fright Song," was this for a while due to sticking around so long. It initially named the first six characters to be merchandised, but by the time it was replaced, Deuce and Lagoona had smaller roles and Ghoulia and Abbey had functionally replaced them in the main cast, and the song referred to Cleo as "vile" even well after her redemption arc. The second opening, "We Are Monster High," didn't have this issue. The 2016 Fright Song, "Gaga For Ghouls", takes elements from the previous songs, and addresses this by rewriting the character rap to be more accurate.
  • Attractive Zombie: All of the franchise’s zombie characters still look like attractive people. The only zombie with any kind of disfiguring decay is half-zombie Neighthan Rot, who still isn’t portrayed as deformed or ugly.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: Fashion trumps function for a lot of the ghouls’ outfits, with heels and dramatic platforms being worn in some contexts (like surfing and fearleading) that would absolutely be dangerous in real life. The female dolls are sculpted with raised heels to fit into heeled shoes, so this is partially a consequence of the doll designs.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: Gil subverts this. In the webisodes, most of the mansters play this completely straight, but Gil alone is drawn with visible nipples, and his physical dolls have scales on his chest, with the implication, due to his faux-shaved scale “hairdo”, that they are analogous to hair.
  • Be Yourself: The overwhelming theme of the franchise, with the multitude of ways the message has been conveyed feeling like its own art form.
  • Big Creepy-Crawlies: Wydowna, a spider monster; the Create-A-Monster Bee; Bonita and Luna, moth monsters; and the smaller (but still pretty oversized) Forest Pixies. Big bugs appear in other places in this world, as pets and decorations.
  • Bland-Name Product: The series' omnipresent smartphone (the iCoffin) is the most far-reaching example, but many brands are given this treatment through horror-themed puns.
  • Cast of Snowflakes:
    • Zigzagged; while the characters all have the same body type (save for Manny and Finnegan), they still have different facial features and hairstyles, and several of them have body detailing to set them apart.
    • Even when characters share the same monster type, they have very different concepts. With the zombies, Ghoulia is a retro classic zombie, and Moanica is more modern and apocalyptic. With the vampires, Elissabat is much more gothic and has more references to blood than the fun and modern Draculaura, and despite the large number of werecats, they're all patterned differently.
    • Even in terms of skin color. While several characters fall under the same blanket color (pink, green, purple, blue, etc.) everyone has a different skin tone in that range, going from the large differences (Gooliope vs. Draculaura) to the slight (G1 Frankie vs. Scarah).
  • Celebrity Star: As mentioned above, Lady Gaga’s official likeness has made an appearance in the franchise, with her character not being portrayed much different from the real person.
  • Chained by Fashion: Every single ghost character includes chains or at least chain patterns in their outfits.
  • Classical Mythology: The source for several characters:
    • Deuce and Viperine Gorgon, son of Medusa and daughter of Stheno.
    • Iris Clops, daughter of the Cyclops.
    • Manny Taur, son of the Minotaur.
    • Wydowna Spider, daughter of Arachne.
    • Casta Fierce, daughter of Circe.
    • Gilda Goldstag, daughter of the Ceryneian Hind.
    • C.A. Cupid, daughter of Eros.
    • Avea Trotter, daughter of a harpy and a centaur.
    • Neighthan Rot, one of whose parents is a unicorn.
    • Posea Reef, daughter of Poseidon.
    • Peri and Pearl Serpentine, daughters of the Hydra.
    • The Create-A-Monster Gorgon and Harpy.
    • All of the Fright-Mares, who are part centaur, and part dream, infused with the traits of their dreamers.
    • Although she hasn't been released as a doll, Quill Talyntino, daughter of a harpy, also counts.
  • Cobweb of Disuse: Features frequently in the designs of the monster world, and as a recurring pattern in Operetta and Twyla's outfits in particular.
  • Composite Character: Frankie's parents, as far as characterization and backstory go. Her father is a combination of the doctor and the monster, and her mother is a combination of Elizabeth and the Bride. The Generation 1 diaries mention that the book Frankenstein exists in the MH universe as an inaccurate biography (enough that Dr. Stein begins speaking Angrish when it is mentioned).
  • Cool Shades:
    • Deuce wears them at all times, but that’s so he doesn’t turn anyone into stone.
    • Multiple lines also have these for characters. Standout examples include Boo York, Boo York's crystallized ones for the Frightseers, Viperine's pink shades from Frights, Camera, Action, and Gloom Beach's multiple character-specific shades (the molds of which kept being used for future lines and dolls).
  • Coordinated Clothes: Done frequently for themed lines.
    • The 13 Wishes line puts the main characters in genie-themed outfits which are given to them when they're banished to the lamp.
    • Because of the alien comet's arrival in the movie, the Boo York, Boo York dolls have crystalline accessories.
    • The Freak du Chic line is tied together by the same style of striped fabric appearing on each outfit, and most of the dolls have similar circus patterns on their dresses.
    • The Great Scarrier Reef Down Under Ghouls have similar prints on their tops.
    • All Electrified doll dresses have neon colors, plastic frills, and transparent shoes and/or accessories.
  • Cute Little Fangs: Quite a few characters, ranging from two downward fangs for vampires, werewolves, and Wydowna, upward tusks for Abbey and Lorna, and teeth pointing both ways, as seen on Venus and Honey.
  • Cute Monster Boy: The franchise’s aesthetic is friendly teen kids with monster features, which results in the male portion of the cast falling into this trope.
  • Cute Monster Girl: The majority of the cast— friendly, pretty girls with freaky monstrous features that don’t make them scary or ugly.
  • Dance Party Ending: In many webisodes and specials. Most notably in the 2015 CG musical, Boo York, Boo York.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Most of the student body are pretty much of the same mindset as your average teenager, not really having an interest in the bloodthirsty ways of their respective lineages. That doesn't make this series a Sugar Bowl... we've got our share of nasty kids.
  • Denser and Wackier: Ever since 2013, the plots for the G1 webisodes moved into this territory. Webisodes became mainly one-offs to introduce new toyline characters (even ones that purportedly came in arcs), CG specials padded out with comic relief in place of worldbuilding, and the subplot building up about monster-human relations all but disappeared entirely. Post-reboot, we'll be back to delving into monster-human relations—but the tone of the series itself will be focusing on more comedy than ever, and including a lot of wackier looking monsters (like a gluttonous, translucent, squat blob creature; a large blue furry girl beast with braces; and a mouse).
  • Diaries Are Girly: Most dolls typically come with a booklet made to look like a composition notebook. The Ghouls' booklets are typically referred to as "diaries", while the Mansters' are referred to as "journals."
  • '80s Hair: For the many of the ghouls, and always in large quantities. The Electrified line takes this up to eleven, with each character receiving a crimped texture to their hair as a more stylish imitation of the effects of electric shock.
  • Elegant Gothic Lolita: Draculaura, Elissabat, C. A. Cupid, and Amanita Nightshade lean towards this style.
  • Exotic Eye Designs: While the characters themselves are no strangers to this, this is exemplified with the Monster High Minis, which give each character unique eye-reflection designs reflecting their theme.
  • Family Theme Naming: All the Wolf siblings have pun names based on werewolves; Clawdia, Clawd, Clawdeen, the triplets, Howie, Howldon, and Howleen, Howldon, Clawnor, Barker, Pawla, Weredith and Packlyn.
  • Fantastic Racism: A common theme in the series, from G1-G2.
    • In the main G1 canon, there was an undercurrent of monsters and humans not getting along on a semi-equal basis. Due to the story following the monsters, most of it was told as monsters having prejudice against humans with Jackson being on the receiving end of the bulk of it. In the Lisi Harrison book canon, the humans have the upper hand and thus the monsters are portrayed more as victims.
      • The movie Ghouls Rule! brought these elements to a head with the monsters facing off against the human populace of their hometown in more direct ways... and again it's Jackson/Holt who got the worst of it, they almost getting executed by the humans.
      • Monsters themselves aren't one big happy family either. Vampires and werewolves don't like each other much and neither do fresh water monsters and sea monsters. Van Hellscream says centaurs and minotaurs don't get along either. Some monsters are discriminated against by the wider monster community, such as zombies, simulacrums, and trolls. According to a bonus story on the website, Monster High was the first school to let all types of monsters in, as opposed to the other schools that were all vampires, all werewolves, etc.
      • In Fright On!, we had Van Hellscream. He attempted to shut down Monster High with two (incorrect) rationalizations in mind: the only reason humans were safe from monsters was because monsters were too busy fighting each other; and if all types of monsters got along, monsters and normies would also begin to associate freely. The thought of the latter sickened him.
      • The enemy in the Ghoulfriends book is an organization of high society monsters who want to keep monsters and humans separate as well as restore the old social orders of monster society in which species decides how you rank.
      • As per Haunted, ghosts are as terrified of "solids" as, well, "solids" are of them. This is exploited by Principal Revenant to generate some goodwill, but in the end the students of Monster High and Haunted High learn to trust each other.
      • Kala Mer'ri perceived an indirect case of this towards her. Since her father, the Kraken, was so reviled, she kept her parentage secret and strived to prove herself by any means possible.
      • There's small hints in Great Scarrier Reef that legged monsters and tailed monsters are mutually capable of ugliness. In the junior novel adaptation, Lagoona unintentionally makes fun of Kala's clumsiness due to her lack of legs, while Lagoona herself is called a "two-legger" when she fails to dance.
    • In G2, starting with Welcome To Monster High, the Fantastic Racism is decidedly more aggressive: monsters are all isolated from society and each other due to human aggression in the past that forced them into hiding. Although modern-day humans are ignorant of their existence, monsters are still terrified to return. The zombie Moanica is the most outspoken proponent of meeting violence with violence.
  • Fangirl: Ghoulia is the series' foremost example. There's the webisode Daydream of the Dead, where she laments not being able to go to Nekrocon, where she hoped to get the first issue of the zombie comic book Deadfast. Her SDCC doll features her in a Deadfast cosplay, and that year's SDCC featured an official Ghoulia Deadfast cosplayer. There was also a fashion pack featuring her in a comic book club outfit (with a Deadfast shirt, comicbook, and figure).
  • Fate of the Frankensteins: Victor Frankenstein was an orphan and just wanted to create a family. Frankenstein's monster and his bride created their daughter, Frankie Stein. She, in turn, created her younger sister, boyfriend and pet.
  • Fiery Redhead: Operetta, daughter of The Phantom of the Opera; and Heath Burns, Holt Hyde, and the Fearfully Feisty Inner Monster (whose hair and heads can be literally fiery).
  • Fish People: Lagoona Blue, Gillington Webber, Sirena Von Boo, Lorna McNessie, and Finnegan Wake. Great Scarrier Reef adds Peri and Pearl Serpentine and Kala Mer'ri.
  • Flaming Hair: Holt Hyde and Heath Burns, which led some people to think they were one and the same when they're not.
  • Freaky Fashion, Mild Mind: The characters of this school often sport fashions adorned with skulls, spikes, stitches, brains, slime and morbid accessories to match—yet most are some of the nicest kids you'll ever meet. Moanica D'Kay is an aversion of this trope, though.
  • Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Draculaura and Elissabat are kind teenagers who don’t seek to hurt people.
  • Furry Confusion: Averted. While there are several anthropomorphic animals and several "realistic" animals, the former are explicitly stated to be werebeasts, thus qualifying them as humanoid monsters.
  • Gender Flip: The Skullector line, which Monster High-ifies classic licensed movie monsters, has switched all but one of the male characters it's adapted into female dolls. The only male monster with a male Skullector doll has been Frankenstein's Monster.
  • Glamour Failure: Draculaura has no reflection and only her clothes (and sometimes her hair) show up in photos (unless they have a vampire detection filter). She's usually okay with it at this point, and claims that centuries of practice have given her the ability to apply her own makeup.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Several characters have features that humans would consider disfigurements, but all of them are perfectly nice.
  • Gorgeous Gorgon: Deuce, the rare male example. His cousin Viperine and the Create-A-Monster Gorgon also count, despite being much more serpentine. G3 Deuce also counts despite having a narrower, snakier face and green skin.

  • Hartman Hips: Default body type for the ghouls, small shoulders with wide hips. This is especially noticeable with the Great Scarrier Reef merfolk and Luna Mothews. Draculaura’s body type in G3, being short and curvy, also follows this to a pronounced degree.
  • Helping Hands: Frankie’s hands can detach and operate independently.
  • Hold Your Hippogriffs: Monster puns are a series standard, so this is no surprise. Our most common examples are "ghoul" for "girl", and "manster" for "guy/man". This lingo isn't 100% consistent, however, as the normal words have been used on the odd occasion.
  • Hollywood Hacking: Ghoulia can hack anything including multiple satellites at once in a few seconds with her laptop. Well, almost anything... she couldn't hack the gossip column to find out who was running it.
    • G2 Frankie is such a proficient hacker she gets Draculaura onto the Monsternet (a monster-exclusive version of the deep web) in Welcome To Monster High.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters:
    • When monsters and normies have to interact the villain is usually a normie whipping up fear and distrust toward monsters, although there are normies that stick up for the monsters.
    • The Ghoulfriends books plays with this with a monster conspiracy that encourage monsters to think all normies are evil. The protagonists must prove that the normies are innocent.
  • Hurricane of Puns: Character names and so much more. Any opportunity for a monster, fear or graveyard pun is exploited. To the extent that this is practically a World of Pun, but the Earth is still called Earth.
  • Idol Singer: Catty Noir, Casta Fierce, Ari Hauntington, and Zomby Gaga.
  • Interspecies Romance: Draculaura and Clawd, though with them it's the potential awkwardness of having been best friends since Clawd was a little kid that's played up. Lagoona and Gil's relationship, being a metaphor for anti-racial behavior, is a more prominent example.
    • Because the setting is a school that accepts all monsters, romance between two different species happens a lot. There's Cleo and Deuce, a mummy and a gorgon. Iris and Manny, a cyclops and minotaur. And Catty and Seth, a werecat and mummy.
  • Kaleidoscope Hair: Pretty much any character with multiple dolls has been depicted with a varying range of hair colors.
  • Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Draculaura and Cleo, respectively.
  • Little Bit Beastly: This is pretty much where the werebeasts and other animal-based monsters fall in terms of design. Very human faces, but skin colors, ears, teeth, and tails help them seem more monstrous. This is taken farther than most examples, however, since most of their faces have animalistic touches (Lagoona's large lips and eyes, Batsy's upturned nose, Mouscedes' wall-eyes) to further suggest their creature basis while remaining humanoid and relatable.
  • Losing Your Head:
    • Headless Headmistress Bloodgood being this world's version of the Headless Horseman.
    • The Anti-Styling Heads take the unintentional creepiness of styling heads and make it intentional by being made to look like disembodied heads in cloche jars.
  • Mage Species: Played straight in G1, with the Create-a-Monster Witch and Casta Fierce embodying classic witches as a magical monster type, green skin and all. Averted in G3, where witchcraft is depicted as a practice and skill anyone can fall into, and the first witch seen in G3 is Draculaura, who's a vampire first and foremost.
  • Masquerade Ball: The Ghouls Rule! outfits and the "Dance the Fright Away" costumes from Welcome to Monster High.
  • Meaningful Name: All the characters' names have to do with what kind of monster they are.
  • Merchandise-Driven: A Mattel, Netflix, and App Store/Google Play store mainstay. They're not wrong. The brand caught on.
  • Missing Mom: Many characters start off with a focus on only one parent, often the father, due to the famous monster angle of the series, but most get their other parent mentioned eventually.
    • Draculaura is the adoptive daughter of Dracula and both her biological parents had perished long ago. Dracula remarries late in Generation One.
    • Lagoona is the daughter of Sea Monster, strongly implied to be the Gill-Man. Her mother was later revealed to be an ocean nymph with whom Lagoona has just as good as a relation as with her father. Only, ocean nymphs can't go far from their home, so while in the USA, only her dad can visit her.
    • Cleo and Nefera's mother was missing until Robecca discovered her in the SDCC Steam family two-pack's diaries.
    • Borderline jarring with characters who are the daughters of male figures who traditionally have wives. Not a word is spent on Psyche in relation to Cupid, on Amphitrite in relation to Posea, or on Mother Carey in relation to Dayna.
  • Monster Mash: All the main characters are offspring of famous monsters or mythological creatures.
  • Mummy: Cleo de Nile, though her only bandages in G1 were part of her outfits. G2 gave her molded wrappings on her body, which remain in G3. Her sister Nefera also counts. Mummy characters are also seen with the G1 Create-a-Monster Mummy (the first doll to have molded body bandages) and the non-merchandised Seth Ptolemy and his family from Boo York, Boo York.
  • Mythology Gag: The franchise is built on this trope; virtually everything is a reference to classic horror, and later lines play upon established traits of characters before. Some examples even cross generations, like G3 Frankie having a budget doll release with an outfit that looks highly similar to their G1 counterpart's signature clothing.
    • The Skullector doll line uses a different flavor—since they're MH's only licensed dolls from their given films, they adapt the characters while packing in lots of references to the characters' source movies that aren't covered by the character's original design. For example, the Grady Twins have hatchet hair clips, and their accessories are the yellow ball that appears in the film, a Room 237 key, and a page of Jack's manuscript. Their shoes also have topiary heels, referencing the original book, where animated topiaries were a threat.
  • Not Using the "Z" Word: Averted; Ghoulia and the other zombies at the school are openly referred to as such.
  • Older Than They Look: A few of the characters fall into this, but out of the main girls, Draculaura is really 1,599 years old (but becomes 1,600 in the special Why Do Ghouls Fall In Love) and Cleo is 5,842 years old.
  • Our Cryptids Are More Mysterious: More modern mythology is also a source of characters.
    • Abbey Bominable, daughter of the Yeti.
    • Marisol Coxi, daughter of the South American Bigfoot (maricoxi).
    • Lorna McNessie, daughter of the Loch Ness Monster.
    • Honey Swamp, daughter of the Honey Island Swamp Monster.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: While they still can't enter a building without being invited, they sleep upside down, and are repulsed (not injured) by garlic. Also, they don't have to drink blood if they can afford numerous supplements. Draculaura's diaries states that when in sunlight she slathers herself in sunscreen "more like sun WALL with how thick the stuff is" and carries a parasol, which probably means that MH vampires are more susceptible to sunlight than humans—just not killed by it.
  • Our Werewolves Are Different: The werewolves of MH are never in human form, but always humanoid with wolfish traits (wolf ears, sharp teeth and claws, golden eyes, and excessive hair).
    • The upcoming reboot changes it so that while still looking like they did before the change, they now can shift into a wolf form to better hide from humans.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: Ghoulia can’t speak anything other than zombie (grunt and groan), yet happens to be the smartest student in school and prefers fast food over brains. Zombish is even a language in this universe and those who don't know it are seen as the odd ones. Moanica is different by G1's standards; she can speak English, she's not particularly slow, and she has claws and fangs.
  • Pale Females, Dark Males: Gil to Lagoona, Garrott to Rochelle, and Neighthan in comparison to Ghoulia and Moanica. The Frankenstein Skullector set also does this, with the Monster being a medium green while the Bride is a whitish pale tone. The Monster, while not part of the main canon, is also darker than all versions of fellow Frankenmonster Frankie Stein.
  • Perky Goth:
    • Draculaura dresses in lots of goth-y attire—like black fishnets and boots with lots of bat and fang themed accessories. She also loves the color pink, is cheerful almost to the point of being a Genki Girl, and enjoys writing stories about her friends.
    • River Styxx, daughter of the Grim Reaper, is a party-loving and pastel-wearing young teen who likes to take dad's yacht on joyrides.
    • Luna Mothews, a self-proclaimed "goth-moth", who's pretty colorful and flashy and aspires to be a theater star.
  • Pointy Ears: It's a school of monsters, so this is present in so many spades you'll need a hardware store. Draculaura was the first character to have them, and more variations and distinctive shapes followed. Draculaura’s ears themselves were accentuated significantly for her G3 incarnation.
  • Punny Name: The vast majority of characters have puns in their names related to horror and/or their specific monster types.
  • The Rival:
    • It's initially made a big deal of that Clawdeen does not like Cleo De Nile & by extension, Deuce. At first when revealed in Ghoulia's diary that Cleo used to date Clawd, Clawdeen's brother. They broke up and Cleo started dating Deuce the next day. Seems reasonable at first, but Clawd's diary revealed that their break-up was actually mutual and was a long time coming. Cleo decided to be the one to seem harsh and Clawd, regrettably, let her take the fall. They got over it.
    • Amanita Nightshade and Cleo do not like each other, since Amanita's narcissistic mentality led her to abandon the de Niles after breaking out of the tomb.
    • Moanica D'Kay is advertised as such to Draculaura in Welcome to Monster High, with a two-pack release dubbed "Monstrous Rivals".
  • Rotating Protagonist:
    • The webisodes and movies do a pretty good job giving different cast members the spotlight, which is partially for the pragmatic reason that most of the characters are toys that the franchise wants to promote and sell.
    • A franchise-wide case across the three generations—while the lead trio of characters has stayed the same, each generation of MH places a different one of them as the focal character— G1 focuses on Frankie, G2 centers on Draculaura, and G3 is poised to put Clawdeen at the forefront.
  • Seductive Mummy: Downplayed, but Cleo and Nefera are both pretty mummies who emphasize glamor in their sense of style.
  • Shown Their Work: The franchise wears its passion for horror on its sleeve and often demonstrates how seriously it takes the genre with detailed designs, deep-cut folklore, and narrative references that show research went into making the dolls and characters unique and a tribute to their subject matter. For one case of this being evident, there's the Bride of Frankenstein Skullector doll, whose famous white hair streaks are precisely placed to match the oft-unnoticed (and virtually never-replicated) asymmetry of the wig worn by Elsa Lanchester in the film. Most assume with good reason the streaks are symmetrical, but the doll clearly studied the film stills and promotional photos to catch that they weren't.
  • Sigil Spam: Monster High's trademark skullette. It's this to the dolls' outfits, and in locations: even in places not tangentially related to the school it'll pop up.
    • To a lesser extent, coffins. Anything they can make coffin-shaped, they will, ranging from swimming pools to lockers to cameras and makeup kits. Also, the dolls' boxes have always had coffin-shaped windows or backgrounds.
  • Smart People Wear Glasses: Ghoulia, Kjersti, and Jackson- a general genius, a technological and video-game wiz, and a teenager who solved an impossible equation in half an hour respectively.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: An offscreen example, but in this universe, Medusa, her sisters, the Hydra, and the Minotaur weren't slain by heroes; they're parents.
  • Spell My Name With An S: Toralei (not Torelei; it comes from "tora" for "tiger"), Nefera (not Nefara; it comes from "nefer", not "nefarious"), Slo Mo (not Slow-Moe, as his name is Sloman Mortavich), and Penepole (not Penelope).
  • Stealth Pun: A World of Pun needs no excuse to be punny. Example: Lagoona has an Australian accent because she comes from the land down under. Underwater, that is.
  • Symbol Motif Clothing: Pretty much everybody has their own variation of it. To apply it to a whole line, nearly every Boo York, Boo York doll has crystalline comet-shard accessories and even shimmery skin and crystalline doll stands to tie in to the arrival of Astranova's comet.
  • Taken for Granite:
    • Deuce’s stare can only turn people into stone for about a day, then it wears off.
    • In "Hiss-Teria", Deuce's first pet was Smokey, a dragon. Sadly, he was the first thing a younger Deuce turned to stone accidentally (Smokey knocked off Deuce's glasses) where the stare hadn't worn off in a day. The only thing Deuce knows is that Smokey is to return to normal on the anniversary of when it happened, but doesn't know which one. This makes Frankie, Draculaura and Clawdeen cry (and is maybe the closest thing the websodes came to having someone die).
  • Title Theme Tune: Has two of them to date:
    • "Monster High, the party never dies!"
    • "Don't stop rocking your right to fright! We are Monster High!"
  • Uncatty Resemblance: Pretty much every pet looks like their owner in color scheme.
  • Universal Horror: The main 6 ghouls are (spiritual) descendants of Universal's horror titans and the CG specials are produced by Universal themselves.
  • Unlimited Wardrobe: Alluded to with Draculaura, who has acquired more than a few dresses and shoes over the past 1600 years she's been immortal. It's also alluded to that most of Clawdeen's clothes come from her (such as her Dawn of the Dance dress, as seen in "Fashion Emergency") and that her tastes have ranged over time from girly to punk to even chainmail.
    • Limited Wardrobe: On the other hand, they always seem to go to school in the same clothes. Even when the second half of Season 2 started up and you'd think that they'd want to advertise the School's Out line. The webisodes occasionally change the outfits, but it's the signature look for each character 90 percent of the time.
  • Undeathly Pallor: Naturally, the vampires have this, but in this universe, vampires are all some shade of pale pink!
  • Unmoving Plaid: Both generations of the webisodes (animated in Flash) have this trope by the truckload.
  • Unusual Ears: To the point where the instances of normal ears are unusual. In addition to the many different shapes, placement of ears also varies, and Skelita, River, Gil, and Finnegan avert this entirely- they have no ears.
  • Vacation Episode: Gloom Beach, Skull Shores, Scaris, Love in Scaris, Ghoulebrities in Londoom, Ghouls' Getaway, and Shriek Wrecked. Monster Exchange Lagoona and Draculaura also count, since they're traveling to Madread and Shibooya, respectively.
  • Vampire Vords: Draculaura can pronounce her Ws, at least, but she otherwise has a noticeable (and very cute) unspecifiable Eastern European accent. Also, Lord Stoker.
  • Vegetarian Vampire: Draculaura is one of the few genuine articles. She doesn't drink blood at all to the point she even faints at the mention of it, subsisting on fresh fruits and veggies and lots of iron supplements. Although in Boo York, Boo York, she lamented the Gala's dearth of crab rolls. Must've been a cheat day. This is averted by Elissabat, whose stance on blood is unclear, but she has no generation about including blood themes in her outfits.
  • Villainous Gold Tooth: Bartleby Farnum is a swindler by trade who plans to exploit the ghouls. He has two gold teeth.
  • World of Pun: Only in this doll franchise will you see cities like Monster Picchu, Boo York, and Barcelgroana. Or countries like Costa Shrieka, Fangladesh, and the Doominican Republic. And yet, Earth is still called Earth. Essentially every name is a pun. Most are just an Incredibly Lame Pun (take a look at the character page) but some of them are more thought out (like Gooliope's and Rochelle's). All, however, are corny as hell and stupidly fun to figure out.
  • Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Substitute "creature" Lou Zarr's parents had to have seen that coming. Also, Hoodude.
  • Younger Than They Look: Frankie, while possessing the knowledge and manner of a 15-year-old girl, is at most only a couple years old. Hoodude is even younger, considering she made him.
  • When All You Have Is a Hammer…: A majority of the problems that the ghouls have seem to be solved with the idea of throwing a party.

     Tropes applying specifically to Generation 1 
  • Aborted Arc:
    • Frankie gets in a love triangle with Jackson Jekyll and Holt Hyde, having no idea they're the same person, since they don't even know themselves. When it's revealed, they begin fighting over Frankie. Eventually she tells them she can't date either one till they work out their issues with each other. Neither element has been followed up on so far.
    • In the 2012 special Ghouls Rule it's said that long ago humans and monsters coexisted peacefully, with humans repaying monsters for assistance and protection. But that changed over time and now both groups despise and fear each other, with humans hunting for monsters at Halloween. After a series of events that almost included the death of a student, relations are restored and the special ends... that's all we've heard of human-monster relations since. G2 takes the franchise back in this direction.
  • Accidental Athlete: Frankie in the webisode "Fear Squad."
  • Acid Reflux Nightmare: Sweet Screams is a twisted candy-themed nightmare induced by Draculaura sneaking some candy before bed. Turns out, the nightmare is simultaneous, and Frankie, Abbey, and Ghoulia are trapped in it with her.
  • Advertised Extra: Occasionally happens with the movie-introduced characters, who are sometimes sidelined next to the established main characters and play a smaller role in the plot, and often make no appearances after their debut specials.
  • Afraid of Blood: Draculaura, the vampire, has a tendency to faint even at the mere mention of blood.
  • All Part of the Show: In Boo York, Boo York, "Steal The Show" is a meta-themed ego number at the beginning, but then Luna and Catty come in to reclaim Catty's stolen voice and continue the song to call Toralei out. The audience doesn't know any better, and the conclusion gets resounding applause.
  • Alpha Bitch: Cleo in Season 1. She then got some character development, and had to be replaced in her role as designated antagonist by catty Toralei in Season 2. Cleo's older sister Nefera steps in from time to time, and she manages to outdo them both.
  • Alternate Continuity: Many withiin Generation 1 itself, before the main continuity’s G2 reboot.
    • The initial doll diaries, which soon conflicted with webisodes, which also soon conflicted with Monster High New Ghoul At School. Volume 1 of the webisodes eventually became Canon Discontinuity with a few exceptions so that the canon could better weld itself together.
    • The Lisi Harrison series of books, which had Frankie and the other ghouls trying to blend in at an all-human school with a human Self-Insert, Melody. It was disliked by the then-existing Monster High fandom, panned by the public as a Twilight ripoff, flopped so massively in sales the series was canceled after just 4 books, and became fanon and Canon Discontinuity.
    • The 2-issue comic-book series.
    • The book series "Ghoulfriends Forever" worked to unify its canon with both the diaries and webisodes, with varying levels of success.
    • The Monster High Diaries book series, aimed at a younger audience than "Ghoulfriends Forever".
  • Always Identical Twins: A pair of werecatsnote , geniesnote , hydrasnote , and even humansnote .
  • Art Evolution:
    • The webisodes developed much better animation through the volumes, and character designs also get a bit of tweaking... perhaps most noticeably with Frankie come Volume 5, as she received a dramatic face model change.
    • The dolls themselves underwent a bit, with the original releases having a bit more edge and realism, but the dolls becoming a bit more colorful and fantastical in their fashion as the brand carried on and caught on with younger kids.
  • Art Shift: Starting with the 3rd special, all of the films have been done in CGI thanks to Nerd Corps.
    • In Great Scarrier Reef, the flashback of Lagoona and Kala as children switches from CGI to Flash.
  • Ascended Extra: Background characters Iris, Scarah, Gilda, and to an extent, the three-eyed girl were all eventually made into dolls, with the former three being promoted to fully-fledged characters and the latter being released as parts in the Create-a-Monster line.
  • The Atoner:
    • Draculaura's diary implies that she is one. When her dad tells her that he wishes she'd return to "proper" vampire ways, she writes that she is resolved to never go back to how she was before.
    • Spectra is also indicated to have a darker past that she seeks to make up for.
  • Badass Boast: "Steal The Show" from "Boo York, Boo York" consists almost entirely of these, with Toralei using Catty’s stolen voice to showboat to a theater crowd.
  • Bad "Bad Acting": After Nefera takes over the Fearleading Squad, Frankie comes up with a way to get her fellow cheerers back in the game. This involves Lagoona and Clawd publicly lamenting how bad Nefera's team is in totally horrid lies, with Clawd actually having to read off a script one with no inflection at all. It works.
    Draculaura: Clawd needs me!
  • Batman Gambit: Happens a few times.
    • After the Fearleading Squad has their routine stolen by Toralei and it's given to Smogsnorts, a rival school of vampires in "Road to the Monster Mashionals", Cleo remembers what Scary Murphy put them through and telling the girls "Follow my lead" and "Just believe" leads them into an improvised new routine based on the chores they had to do (doubles as Indy Ploy) that beats the Smogsnorts team, wins Scary Murphy's respect and the Spirit Staff—and foils Toralei's revenge.
    • "Nefera Again" has Clawdeen pick up with her hearing that Toralei notices Nefera wears the hottest fashions weeks before anyone else has them. This leads to the girls assembling an ensemble of Impossibly Tacky Clothes (from what might be the WTH, Costuming Department?) claiming they're the latest fashion trends—but Nefera should know this as she's a famous model, right? Nefera asks they be handed over to her—and with the new outfit becomes the laughing-stock of the Maul. (As a bonus, Toralei and her Girl Posse followed suit.)
    • In 13 Wishes, Frankie, Draculaura, and Ghoulia deliberately provoke Howleen into wish-banishing them so they can save Clawdeen who had been trapped in Gigi's lantern.
    • This is how Scarah and Invisi Billy are set up together, as seen in "Scarah-voyant". Both of them are afraid to approach each other, fearing that Scarah's telepathy will ruin the relationship before it even starts. Clawdeen laments that due to Scarah's psychic powers, they can't trick her into a date..but Frankie figures out a way. Clawd tells Billy that Scarah has a date in the cemetery, while the ghouls tell Draculaura that Billy has a date in the cemetery, and Scarah "overhears" when she bumps into Draculaura in the hall. Scarah and Billy both end up in the cemetery and become a couple, thoroughly confusing Draculaura when they're seen together the next day.
  • Beach Episode: Beach line: 2011 line Gloom Beach, 2012 line Skull Shores, 2013 line Make A Splash, and 2015 line Ghouls' Getaway. As this is a kids' show, these lines aren't really fanservice-oriented like other examples of the trope but stick more to fashion exploration; this is most noticeable in Ghouls' Getaway, where Jinafire, Spectra, and Purrsephone forgo swimwear entirely for casual sundresses and elaborate island looks.
  • Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: At least three groups follow the trope.
    • Group 1: Frankie (brains) Clawdeen (brawn) and Draculaura (beauty)
    • Group 2: Cleo (beauty) Lagoona (brawn) and Ghoulia (brains)
    • Group 3: Abbey (brawn) Spectra (beauty) and Operetta (brains)
  • Bigger on the Inside: Gigi's lantern, which has a pocket dimension containing a small desert and a palace in it.
  • Bilingual Bonus:
    • Catrine DeMew's profile is peppered with French words, and Robecca Steam's diary contains a dialog between Mr. and Mrs. Stein in their native German:
    I returned to hear Mrs. Stein ask Dr. Stein in their native German: "Werden wir jemals ein eigenes Kind haben?" note  to which he replied "Wenn die Zeit gekommen ist, das verspreche ich dir, werden wir es."note 
    • Casta Fierce's spell in "I Casta Spell on You" is spoken in Latin and directly foreshadows the mansters' transformation into "lovebugs".
  • Blithe Spirit: In “Ghouls Rule”, Frankie displays her knack for diplomacy and helps bridge the gap between monsters and normies.
  • Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: A few groups arrange themselves this way.
    • Meowlody (white hair), Purrsephone (black hair), and Toralei (red/orange hair).
    • Or Frankie (white hair), Clawdeen (auburn hair), and Draculaura (black hair).
    • Among the mansters: Manny, Clawd, and Heath.
    • In the Wolf family: Clawdia, either Clawd or Clawdeen, and Howleen (who wears her hair orange and/or pink)
  • Book on the Head: The vase variant was used on Operetta, in the episode where Cleo teaches her royal manners. Operetta improved over the course of one night, after several broken vases.
  • Bowel-Breaking Bricks: In "Frightday the 13th", Nightmare the horse poops hot coals in fear.
  • Boyish Short Hair: Gilda Goldstag (daughter of the Ceryneian Hind)'s pink mohawk.
  • Breather Episode: Volume 2's "Daydream of the Dead". Prior to this we got relationship troubles, Spectra making a nuisance of herself, and a cliffhanger with Cleo's sister. This episode is an advertisement for the MH booth at San Diego Comic-Con.
  • Brick Joke: In "I Casta Spell On You", the mansters are trying to distract Casta Fierce so she'll mess up her lyrics and turn them into animals. Manny wants to be a bug, Billy wants to be a snake, and Hoodude wants to be a "lovebug with a tiny top hat". Even though Casta's performance goes smoothly, she answers the mansters' request and transforms them...into little lovebugs with tiny top hats.
  • Broken Aesop: Kiyomi Haunterly, a ghost with no face, and no identity, can confound the "be yourself" message of the brand, since the only way for her to find confidence is to imitate others.
  • The Cameo: The Scarnival characters (Skelita, Draculaura, and Clawd) appear briefly in the Freak du Chic webisodes, suggesting that both lines are for the same fundraiser, and perhaps that the Scarnival itself is set up as a teaser for the Freak du Chic performance.
  • Circus Episode: The Freak du Chic arc/doll line is focused on a fundraiser carnival where the ghouls don extravagant circus costumes as part of their acts.
  • Continuity Nod: The catacombs playset released with the Freaky Fusion line includes Smokey, Deuce's petrified pet dragon.
  • Cosmetic Catastrophe: In one episode, Cleo does this to Draculaura as a practical joke. It backfires as the horrible makeup job impressed Draculaura's crush.
  • Crossdressing Voices: Holt and Jackson are both played by Cindy Robinson, and Ghoulia's voice is provided by Audu Paden, a male producer of the Generation 1 webisodes and specials.
  • Culture Equals Costume: Skelita, Jinafire, and Kiyomi follow this trend, and the Monster Exchange dolls of Draculaura and Lagoona give them culture-costumes for the places they're traveling to.
  • Dancing Theme: Initially "Fright Song", and then "We Are Monster High".
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Cleo's major motif in the first season of the webisodes & first edition diary.
    • Cleo breaks down in tears in "Kind Campaign: The Shockumentary." She was in the Kind Campaign's booth the longest (she has the most issues to deal with) and cries when she comes out with mea culpa in heart.
    • Boo York, Boo York really goes into her character... and the machinations of her family that made her the way she is.
  • Deliberately Monochrome:
    • Both Skull Shores and Signature Frankie were made into greyscale dolls to reference the classic films that spawned most modern monster icons.
    • The Freak du Chic Clawdeen and Twyla dolls have desaturated colors and limited palettes to invoke this.
    • The Reel Drama collector dolls reimagine the G1 ghouls with nearly-greyscale palettes with touches of their colors popped in to reference their classic horror-cinema origins.
  • Disaster Dominoes: Done psychologically by Nefera in "Kind Campaign: The Shockumentary." Nefera's insulting behavior to Cleo sets in motion a series of events that causes fights to break out at Monster High. Ghoulia calls in the Kind Campaign for help before it gets out of control.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?:
    • The 2012 movie "Ghouls Rule" involved some hysteria going on in both the monster and human races due to the Fantastic Racism that monsters are subjected to on Halloween. Holt was framed for trying to vandalize the human school because humans had previously vandalized their own school and mocked them for being monster; so a group of monsters wanted revenge and Holt just happened to be a part of it. Holt was caught with spray paint that was planted on him by a monster hunter. Human high-schoolers then started accusing people at a party of being monsters, and Holt was sentenced to the Trick-or-Treatment which was a machine similar to a hanging gallows. When the monster hunter finally confessed to framing Holt, the police officer refused to listen and wanted to continue with the Trick-or-Treatment. Oh, and this all took place in a town called "New Salem".
    • The movie 'Fright On' revolves around the tension between vampires and werewolves. Neither group is happy that vampire Draculaura and werewolf Clawd are dating each other and they even claim territories in the school and form 'empowerment groups'. An ex-monster hunter also spreads rumors about the two species, saying that werewolves have diseases and that the vampires' abilities mean they'll one day take over. Why does he do this? In his belief, so that monsters will be so busy fighting each other that they won't come after humans.
    • Clawdeen's and Ghoulia's first wave diaries depict an incident where Ghoulia is mistreated in a store because the employee doesn't speak Zombie and thinks zombies are lazy because they're slow and don't speak English. Consider how Mexican immigrants are treated in the US.
    • The webisode "Monster Morphoseas", Lagoona goes through a seasonal event that affects all ocean monsters once every 100 years. It makes her extremely prone to mood swings, need to be left alone, and beg the other ghouls not to tell Gil because "he just wouldn't understand". Leading to the webisode ending on Gil misunderstanding while trying to help.
    • Gil and Lagoona continually struggle with their relationship because Gil's freshwater parents don't approve of him dating a saltwater monster, resulting in Gil and Lagoona both hurting and trying to circumvent the taboo in detrimental ways. It's essentially framed as them being an interracial couple threatened by racist parents trying to stop the relationship.
  • Domino Mask: A few in Power Ghouls, and several dolls and characters have facial patterns to this effect, like the shading on the Ghost Create-A-Monster and Getting Ghostly dolls, and several of the Inner Monster faceplates.
  • Draconic Humanoid: The Create-A-Monster Dragon, Jinafire Long, and the Spooky Sweet mode of the Fierce/Sweet Inner Monster.
  • Drama Bomb: A couple.
    • Robecca Steam's basic diary details the story of a teenager being trapped underground for a century, waking up only on accident to find the world drastically changed and her father long missing.
    • Cleo's Gloom and Bloom diary gives us some information about her fairly sad backstory, and sheds more light on her situation.
    • Draculaura's collector edition diary gives us a small timeline of her young life. See her character page.
    • Freaky Fusion, containing the first straight up Disney Death in the series... that of Frankie Stein, who uses up her own life-force to save her friends from absorption.
  • Dr. Frankenstein: In the special Freaky Fusion, the ghouls travel back in time to the first day of Monster High, and meet a Mad Scientist student called Sparky. Sparky is eventually revealed to be Frankie Stein's grandfather, Victor Frankenstein himself.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The line was initially presented as featuring the children of famous movie monsters. It did not take long for the concept to move away from that- Frankie being the only one that did keep to this idea. Clawdeen is merely A werewolf and there are many of them. Ghoulia is a generic zombie with no real famous lineage stated. Lagoona is the offspring of a sea creature and a sea nymph, and Draculaura's father is actually an ancient Roman soldier who merely happens to be named Dracula (which would, at the very least, justify her being 1600 years old). As we find out in the diaries, Roman Dracula is actually her adoptive father who may have served in the army of Julius Caesar, and the more well-known Dracula was, in fact, the historical tyrant Vlad Tepes. The two apparently had a major conflict, the former not being too happy that a murderous tyrant was using his name).
  • Eat the Camera
    • In the episode "Totally Busted", the camera descends onto Cleo's uvula during a false flashback. Inverted for the intro of New Ghoul at School.
    • In Great Scarier Reef, Toralei falls into the pool, then rises up in a panic where the camera quickly zooms into her mouth, focusing on her uvula for a moment before cutting back to her in a whirlpool.
  • Eldritch Abomination:
    • In Monster High Fright On, several Star-Spawn of Cthulhu were seen living in the catacombs of Monster High, which weren't at all friendly to even the monsters they ran into. In a bit of Fridge Brilliance, it means that Cthulhu's kids were technically at Monster High... even if not as students.
    • Great Scarrier Reef gave us the Kraken. And his daughter.
  • Enemy Mine: "Neferamore" has Nefera recruit Toralei and her cat-girls to replace Cleo and the other girls in the Fear Squad. Given Cleo and the girls gave both grief at times, it's no surprise. When Nefera cheats against Cleo in "Monster Mashionals" is the moment Toralei and her catgirls decide enough's enough — not to mention that they're ticked off that Nefera didn't believe in them — and help foil the cheating.
  • Flintstone Theming: Any geographical location will have some horror / monster reference (such as Boo York).
  • Flowers of Romance: Subverted in the Love's Not Dead pack. Slo Mo has a bouquet for Ghoulia, but it contains brains.
  • Fog Feet: Djinni has this in shadow form, and a tornado-like variety features in one of the ensembles in the deluxe Inner Monster pack.
  • Foreshadowing: The characters' interactions in the beginning of Freaky Fusion foreshadow which ghouls will be fused.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble:
    • The six original ghouls; Frankie & Draculaura (sanguine), Clawdeen & Cleo (choleric), Ghoulia (melancholic), and Lagoona (phlegmatic).
    • The hybrid monsters from "Freaky Fusion"; Avea Trotter (choleric), Neighthan Rot (phlegmatic), Bonita Femur (melancholic), and Sirena von Boo (sanguine).
    • The main werecats of the cast; Toralei Stripe (choleric), Purrsephone (melancholic), Meowlody & Catty Noir (phlegmatic), and Catrine De Mew (sanguine).
  • Fractured Fairy Tale: The Scarily Ever After line.
    • Frankie as Threadarella loses her foot as well as the shoe wearing it.
    • Clawdeen as Little Dead Riding Wolf is the wolf of the story, so the guy causing her problems is Heath.
    • Draculaura as Snow Bite is unable to see her reflection, so the evil princess leaves her alone, secure in the knowledge that Bite will never know that she is truly the fairest.
  • "Freaky Friday" Flip: Cleo and Ghoulia get one in "Freaky Fridate" when Cleo accidentally touches one of her father's idols that Ghoulia's also holding. At the end, kissing their boyfriends has them returned to normal, but Deuce and Slo Mo are swapped.
  • Freaky Is Cool: A major theme of the G1 premise, and manages to apply in-universe even to things the monsters themselves think are "freaky" (such as Draculaura's former crush Heath Burns heartily approving of her makeup after Cleo wrecked it: "You look horrible!" [beat] "... I like that in a girl."). A G1 tagline of the doll line is even "Freaky just got fabulous!"
  • Frozen Face: Ghoulia in earlier materials, though she could occasionally force a rather pained-looking unsmile, a groan, or even, in the case of the webisode "Mad Science Fair", a truly epic Slasher Smile that only manages to dodge being terrifying by happening as she finally gets back at Cleo for using her. She's a lot more expressive these days.
  • Fundraiser Carnival: Scarnival, and the closely-related Ghoul Fair, both of which seem to be tied to the Freak du Chic line.
  • Funny Background Event: In the webisode "Road to Monster Mashionals", while Clawdeen mentions "Scary Murphy and her dumb chores", we see a background student getting pulled into the water by giant tentacles in the background. This joke has now become a series tradition carrying over into the CGI specials. The two are even implied to be in a relationship now.
    • In the episode "Ghostly Gossip", at the beginning in a blink and you miss it moment, when the image is focused on Cleo you can see in the background a student being attacked by her locker with octopus-like tentacles.
  • Fun Size: The vinyl figure, Monster Minis Mega Bloks products, and limited-edition Frankie and Draculaura Hallmark Itty Bittys follow this trend: they're of Monster High characters in smaller form, with more Super-Deformed proportions. They're also very, very cute.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Ghoulia. Not only is she the smartest ghoul in the school, but she once invented a two story tall trash-to-fuel recycling machine as a Mad Science Fair project. And woke up an alien in a Sleeper Ship before said ship could crash into and destroy the world.
  • Gag-per-Day Webcomics: Web series, rather. Volume 1 and 3 of the webisodes.
  • Generic Graffiti: This is the theme to the Boo York Frightseers outfits, to represent the ubiquitous street art and graffiti seen around cities.
  • Good Angel, Bad Angel: An odd variation in "Here Comes Treble", with Jackson and Holt as Frankie's shoulder angels fighting for her.
  • Good Parents: Frankie's mom and dad. For a couple of mad scientists, they've got a remarkable knack for knowing what's best for their little girl and what makes her happy without spoiling her either. In fact, most of the MH parents are good, with the Webbers being a notable exception.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Cleo and Frankie accidentally break a statue together in "Totally Busted", and Cleo blames it entirely on Frankie. The headmistress is thrilled, because the statue had imprisoned the ghost of Professor Irene Maiden for years in a terrible And I Must Scream situation, and is incredibly grateful to Frankie for this service to the school, leaving Cleo to start to protest that she did it all herself instead.
  • Gretzky Has the Ball: In the webisode 'Dodgeskull', Ghoulia secures a series of outs after dropping the ball. This incident counts as this trope as the rules of dodgeball explicitly state that after a ball has touched the floor or a wall, hitting a person cannot be counted as an out.
  • Grimmification: A Target exclusive line called "Scarily Ever After" (also called "Scary Tales") can be considered this, though not as dark as many Grimmifications go. It had Clawdeen as Little Dead Riding Hood, Frankie as Threadarella, and Draculara as Snow Bite; each came with a short rhyming storybook that retold the fairy tale from a monsterous point of view with the characters in their titles roles and other students in the supporting roles.
  • The Grim Reaper: Haunted introduces River Styxx, his bubbly party-loving daughter, who likes to borrow his yacht for joyrides.
  • Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: A Lighter and Softer example: in the Scarnival doll set, Clawd runs a high striker game, and gets a hammer. Draculaura runs a balloon dart game, and thus gets darts.
  • Halloween Episode:
    • Monster High Ghouls Rule focuses on monsters interacting with humans during the Halloween season.
    • Casta Fierce and her subplot provide a smaller case. Casta herself only performs on Halloween, and her design screams of the holiday, being based on a Wicked Witch with a purple-and-orange outfit.
  • Happily Adopted: Draculaura, Jane Boolittle, C.A. Cupid, and Gooliope Jellington.
  • Happily Married: Frankie's parents (Frankenstein's monster and his Bride, despite how the Bride reacted to the idea of even being his friend in her titular film).
  • Hate Sink: Nefera de Nile and Amanita Nightshade are both entirely unsympathetic; the former for her superior attitude and petty (and sometimes not-so-petty) evil, and the latter for her narcissism and complete inability to understand her selfishness.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Cleo started out as a hardcore snob/bully, but has progressed into a supportive friend (if not amusingly self-centered), first truly noticeable in "Daydream of the Dead". There's also Kieran Valentine, Djinni Grant, and Principal Revenant.
  • Hidden Depths / Defrosting Ice Queen: In G1, Cleo was a spoiled brat (but you would be too if you were entombed with your father who felt that royals were superior to everyone else for a few thousand years). Beyond just being an Alpha Bitch, though, she was best friends with Ghoulia from the start. Throw in some Break the Haughty and repeated exposure to Plucky Girl Frankie, and you've got the perfect recipe for the Lovable Alpha Bitch Cleo.
  • Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: The hybrids make for some interesting pairings: Centaur/Harpy, Mothman/Skeleton, Mermaid/Ghost and Zombie/Unicorn.
  • Hover Skates: Robecca Steam has a steampunk version.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Clawd and Draculaura in the animation. Later, Manny and Iris, in both the animated material and as dolls.
  • Hypocritical Humor: In the movie 13 Wishes, Cleo exhibits this when she mocks Howleen for wishing herself more popular: "In my day you couldn't just wish yourself to be more popular. You had to earn it, by being born into an incredibly rich royal family."
  • I Am Spartacus: Near the end of Ghouls Rule!, where normies stand up to the police, identifying themselves as monsters to protect the main cast.
  • The Igor: He's a gym teacher.
  • I Have to Go Iron My Dog: Meta-example. The line stopped including pets with the dolls, but still kept the "pet" category on the bio, leading to several creative excuses as to why the character has no pet.
  • Indulgent Fantasy Segue: Everyone during the Gloom Beach arc.
  • Intelligible Unintelligible: All Ghoulia can do is groan, but the other characters have no trouble understanding her.
    • For the most part. Occasionally a student in the school will be unable to understand "zombish".
    • Lampshaded in Freaky Fusion, where as Ghoulia and Viktor Frankenstein have an animated conversation in Technobabble, Toralei quips:
      Toralei: Okay, I can understand zombie, but I have no idea what those two are saying.
  • Invisibility: Friendly teacher Mr. Where looks like the classic bandage-wrapped Invisible Man, but he can make even those phase in and out of visibility.
    • Billy, being the son of the Invisible Man, has the ability to become invisible at will.
  • Iris Out: A few webisodes end this way.
  • Jaw Drop: Done literally by a background skeleton student in "Here Comes Treble", after witnessing Jackson's transformation into Holt.
  • Jekyll & Hyde: Jackson and Holt, obviously. The gimmick of the Inner Monsters is to accessorize them according one of two (for the deluxe set, three) contrasting emotions.
  • Karma Houdini: The sheriff in "Ghouls Rule" gets absolutely NO punishment, despite being a Knight Templar Jerkass and perfectly willing to execute an innocent monster so he'll remain sheriff. Made even worse due to the fact the true culprit comes forth and confesses to him that she did it and framed the monsters, he flat out states he doesn't care and is going through with it anyway. We last see him dancing with everyone like nothing happened.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Clawdeen in Freaky Fusion, when the efforts to revive Frankie don't seem to be working.
    Clawdeen: Ghoulfriend, if you're taking your sweet time for dramatic effect... you're killing us over here.
  • Level Ate: The "Sweet Screams" line uses this as its aesthetic, and its backgrounds depict a candy-based nightmare version of the school.
  • The Lopsided Arm of the Law: In the film "Ghouls Rule" some normies vandalize the monster school and nothing is done about that. Monsters are framed for vandalizing the normies' school in retaliation and the police arrest any monster on sight.
  • Lovable Alpha Bitch: Cleo de Nile, she was at her worst in volume 1 of the webisodes, but even then she would help our her friends. The doll's diaries often talk about how Cleo can be unbearable, but state that she is extremely generous to her friends. In Volume 2 of the webisodes, Cleo is much nicer to the ghouls, but still obsessed with being number one.
  • Magic Skirt: Many of the girls wear micro-miniskirts that barely reach upper thigh and yet never move or sway an inch.
  • Massive Numbered Siblings: Jinafire has seven brothers. She's also the only one of her siblings
to not convincingly pass for human (though her brothers do have tails).
  • Meet Cute: Frankie with both Jackson and Holt- she rescues Jackson from Manny's bullying in the hall, and Holt enlists her help when the electricity goes out at a party he's D Jing at.
  • Michael Jackson's Thriller Parody: Done with Zombie Shake, with a zombie dance outbreak and the werecat twins' outfits referencing Jackson's.
  • Monster Clown: Direct literality aside, Twyla's Freak du Chic outfit is a spooky Victorian-style clown costume with neck ruffles, pom-poms, and a harlequin pattern.
  • Morality Pet: Ghoulia to Cleo as the two are "beast friends forever." They plan their schedules together, and she acts as Cleo's personal assistant. Cleo even gets her staff to help get a rare comic book for Ghoulia (though she gets the others not to let word of this leak as it might ruin her rep).
  • Mouth Screen
    • In Escape From Skull Shores, as Farnum looks at the ghouls through his spyglass, he zooms in on Draculaura's fangs.
    • During Toralei's "Steal the Show" sequence in Boo York, the camera cuts to a close up of her mouth and uvula, before zooming away.
  • Mistaken for Transformed: One webisode involves Draculaura trying to turn into a bat. She fails, but her friends mistake a random bat for a transformed Draculaura.
  • Muggles: The natives of New Salem, and humans in general. Monsters refer to them as "normies" and fear them as much as the they are feared by them.
    • Also in Haunted, ghosts fear "solids", a category including monsters. The movie helps them get over that fear.
  • Mundane Utility: The ghouls take advantage of their different attributes for their acts in the Freak du Chic performance.
    • Frankie's detachable body parts make her the magician, easily able to do the "separation cabinet" trick.
    • Since she's a dragon, Jinafire is the circus fire-breather.
    • Toralei is a tightrope walker. Cats are good at balancing.
    • Stretched a little with Rochelle—she’s French; this apparently means she knows mime well enough to perform as one.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Lilith's reaction in Ghouls Rule to the news that the Trick-or-Treatment will be brought back.]] She clearly didn't expect things to go that far.
  • Naïve Newcomer: Frankie Stein at first, who in all continuities is only 15 days old when she starts at Monster High. In the updated website bio, she's lost count.
    • Afterwards, transfer students sometimes take this role.
  • Nerd Glasses: Jackson, Ghoulia, and Kjersti have them, and the Geek Shriek line includes comically large versions for its characters.
  • Nerds Love Tough Schoolwork: In "Scaris: City of Frights", the cast was given an incredibly hard math problem to do in class that no monster had ever done before. Jackson was ecstatic. In fact, he solved it, but the bell rang before he could show the teacher.
  • Never Say "Die": In "Ghouls Rule" Holt was sentenced to the Trick-or-Treatmentnote  and even without saying it was obvious what would happen to him—amped up by having it take place on a hill with a dead tree in a town called "New Salem".
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: Often, celebrity pastiches show up—resemblance to actual celebrity is optional.
  • No Flow in CGI: Goes with Uncanny Valley, but special mention goes to Clawdeen's hair, which has a tendency to look like polished mahogany boards.
  • Noodle People: Most of the females are extremely skinny. This is partially to cut costs on the dolls' clothes, and perhaps part of the creepy aesthetic. The males are more plausible, though, and the big-sister size and Kala are more curvy.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Despite the fact that they live in the MH equivalent of Australia, Kala, Peri, and Pearl have American accents, which contrasts to the Blue family and Posea, who have the appropriate Aussie accent.
  • Official Couple: Many, which are highlighted by a yearly "date pack" featuring one of the couples.
  • Only Known by Initials: C.A. Cupid uses this, as she and her classmates consider "Chariclo Arganthone Cupid" to be an Overly Long Name.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Ghoul Spirit reveals that "Slo Mo" is a nickname, and his real name is Sloman Mortavitch.
  • Oracular Head: Scary Murphy is a head in a crystal ball, with a witch's cloak forming her body.
  • People Puppets: Honey Swamp's Freak du Chic performance invokes this-she has an elaborate trapeze-like act, being connected to the ropes to resemble a marionette.
  • Phrase Catcher: "Ghoulia's right!" Pretty much every one of the main characters has said this at least once.
  • Production Foreshadowing: The first-wave Monster Exchange boxes have stamps from the locations of the second wave's characters.
  • Playing Cyrano: Draculaura, Frankie and Clawdeen to Ghoulia in one of the webisodes. The title is even "Cyrano De Ghoulia".
  • The Power of Friendship: When Nefera gets ready to cheat against Cleo and the Fear Squad, Deuce motivates Cleo up to get back into the competition in "Monster Mashionals Part 2". He also mobilizes the other ghouls (who'd pledged to back the Fear Squad) to foil Nefera. Toralei and her own catgirls even help, disgusted that Nefera had that little faith in them to win this fairly.
  • Product Placement:
    • The Lisi Harrison series was rife with them.
    • One of the 2016 SDCC exclusives is a Ghostbuster Frankie, to promote the film coming out the same year.
  • Precision F-Strike: By this series' standards, anyway. Draculaura gets frustrated at her lack of reflection and says "Sometimes, being a vampire really sucks!"
  • Preemptive "Shut Up": In the webisode "Substitute Creature" Mr. Lou Zarr commands a two-headed student to stop talking even though neither of the student's heads has a mouth.
  • Pretty Butterflies: Bonita Femur, Luna Mothews, and the deluxe Inner Monster invoke this with their wings.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Headless Headmistress Bloodgood. Stern and in control, yet good-natured and always willing to support her students.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Each new character's first doll gets a diary delivering information about themselves, and they subsequently make multiple appearances in the animated material. This is averted with Gilda Goldstag, however, as her only release is in a five-pack, she doesn't get a diary, and has only made background appearances in the webisodes even after being made into a doll.
  • Retraux:
    • Done with several outfits for several characters, and Ghoulia, Operettanote , Scarahnote , and Viperinenote  follow this trend consistently in their fashion.
    • This is also the design theme of the Ghoulebrities in Londoom pack. Elissabat's outfit is fifties, Catty's mod sixties, and Viperine is seventies.
  • Robot Girl: Robecca Steam is the old-timey variety and Elle Eedee represents the futuristic type.
  • Royal Brat: Cleo de Nile, and Nefera to an even worse extent.
  • Running Gag: Background characters getting pulled away by giant tentacles, especially Herbert East.
  • Salem Is Witch Country: Referenced, since the characters live in New Salem.
  • Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: In "New Ghoul @ School" Draculaura literally says "Siiigh..." while swooning over Justin Biter.
  • Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: Lagoona faces her childhood bully in Great Scarrier Reef.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Djinni, Gigi's manipulative sister, and Ms. Revenant, also known as the Red Lady, in Haunted.
  • Sense Freak: Pretty much everything is new to Frankie, and she wants to experience all of it.
  • The Shadow Knows: In the illustration on Jackson's Gloom Beach box, you can see Holt Hyde's Flaming Hair.
    • In 13 Wishes, this is how shadow-sensitive Twyla starts realizing something isn't right: Howleen's 'friends' have no shadows.
  • Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?: The ghouls regularly go on voyages away from school—sometimes explained by asking for permission or the school being in jeopardy—but for a series called Monster High, the titular place sometimes disappears for the majority of a movie.
  • The Show Goes Hollywood: Frights, Camera, Action! is about this.
  • Sirens Are Mermaids: It never was settled on what sirens are supposed to look like in Monster High and this trope is at various points averted, played straight, and subverted. Melody in the Lisi Harrison books is a bird-type siren, but the the Siren Create-a-Monster add-on pack is the fish-type. Meanwhile, Madison Fear is a fish-type siren, but she has legs like Lagoona instead of a tail.
  • Slobs Versus Snobs: The vampire/werewolf enmity in Fright On!: the lycans bug the vamps for being prissy, and the vamps bug the lycans for being sloppy.
  • Stock Footage: Some of the webtoons reuse background footage of students walking by.
  • Story Arc: A few of the webisodes come in these.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Heath started out as this for Holt, until both characters ended up in all continuities (neither replacing the other) and Heath underwent Cast Speciation to become more of a Butt-Monkey.
  • The Stinger: At the end of Boo York, Boo York, Astranova is seen communicating with Apple White and Raven Queen hinting the possibility of a crossover between Monster High and Ever After. Due to the reboot, don't expect this to come to fruition.
  • Theme Tune Roll Call: One that names Frankie, Draculaura, Clawdeen, Lagoona, Cleo and Deuce in a catchy rap.
  • Time Abyss: Draculaura's father. Draculaura says he is far, far older than he appears, and that he was already an ancient vampire "when togas were first becoming fashionable." A more recent diary confirms, according to translations of journals she wrote centuries ago, says that he served in the army of Julius Caesar.
  • Toilet Humor: In the book, although it's not as bad as other examples.
  • Token Human:
    • Jackson Jekyll, the only regular character who is a "normie".
    • Subverted by the "Inner Monster" dolls. While they initially seem to be normal, if oddly pigmented, human girl dolls, they have exposed brains under their wigs, translucent bodies containing skeletons with detachable innards, all sorts of purely inhuman and unsettling eyes, and monstrous back accessories ranging from wings to tentacles.
  • Training from Hell: Abbey imposes this on the entire school in 13 Wishes when, having been made Student Disembodied President, she becomes acting principal when Headmistress Bloodgood has to go on a trip. Abbey takes her responsibilities very seriously and orders the whole school to operate the way that best suits her, cutting lunch hour to 25 minutes "for more study time" and having the cafeteria serve unidentifiable trays-ful of weird meat because she thinks it's healthier.
  • Traumatic Haircut: Clawdeen misses five days of school in Draculaura's second diary due to having to shave her head bald after a hairstyling accident and the ensuing depression that followed. Draculaura suggests she and Frankie shave their heads too in solidarity, until Frankie reminds her that Clawdeen's hair grows back in a matter of days, while it would take years for Draculaura and Frankie to get theirs back to their current length.
  • Two Beings, One Body: We're talking three cases.
    • The main case are Jackson and Holt, who can only exist while the other is "asleep". They didn't know about being the same person until their teenage years and have since worked out a schedule between them.
    • One of the core elements of Freaky Fusion. The ghouls go back in time 200 years to when Monster High was first built, but when they return to the present everyone except Frankie and Ghoulia have merged with someone else: Draculaura with Robecca, Lagoona with Jinafire, Clawdeen with Venus and Cleo with Toralei. They enlist the help of the new hybrid students to help them coordinate and cooperate.
    • Any and all multi-headed characters fall under this, such as Peri & Pearl and Three-headed Freddie. In Peri's & Pearl's case, they operate the body together, but either one of them can control the body on their own if the other gives no input.
  • Very Special Episode: Aligned with the Kind Campaign.
    • The first, "Kind Campaign: The Shockumentary", focuses on how negative actions spread and how to stop them.
    • A second one working with WeStopHate.org deals with raising self-esteem in teenagers to keep them from putting others down.
  • Wax On, Wax Off / Chekhov's Skill: What Cleo realizes Scary Murphy was doing with the Fear Squad by putting them through harsher conditions than the other squads, including chores. Cleo gets the Fear Squad to follow her lead after their routine got sold out to Smogsnorts by Toralei. This allows for Cleo to make a new routine using the moves from their chores that beats Smogsnorts. This impresses Scary Murphy, and it wins the Fear Squad the Spirit Staff.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Clawdeen did not care for her friends and any of her family associating with each other romantically, so in Volume 2 she went to split up Draculaura and her brother Clawd by proving to them that they aren't right for each other. How does she do this? By dropping a giant steak in front of Draculaura to intentionally make her faint in front of carnivore Clawd, who hadn't known she was vegetarian, just to make a point to him. Quickly gathering that Clawdeen knew about her friend's intense aversion to meat, he immediately calls her out for it. Afterwards, Clawdeen apologizes for her actions and attitude the past several days, and this marked the start of her learning to live with her brother and friend as a couple. She's now cool with it.
  • Wilhelm Scream: Used by a background student who slips into the swimming pool in the webisode "Frost Friends".
  • With Us or Against Us: In "Fright On", the factions of vampire and werewolf that briefly form in the school follow this policy.
  • Yank the Dog's Chain: Played for laughs. In Scaris, Jackson solves an insanely complicated mathematical equation, and then turns into Holt, who immediately rips the paper to shreds. This sort of thing is why they don't get along.
  • Youkai: Kiyomi Haunterly, a Noppera-bō, is one.

     Tropes applying specifically to Generation 2 
  • Age Lift: Most of the returning cast in G2 are aged down from 16 from 15, which confusingly leaves the previously-younger characters like Twyla as the same age.
  • Art Evolution:
    • The aesthetic of the brand shifted to be less edgy, resulting in faces with wider eyes and lighter makeup, thicker doll bodies, and fashion with more modesty and bright colors.
    • G2’s CGI animation is more fluid and stylized and has better lighting.
    • While the characters have largely softened in aesthetic, several characters received new sculpted body details to reflect their monster types more where they had had the undetailed standard body before. Clawdeen and Abbey got fur detail on their wrists and ankles, Lagoona got fish scales, Cleo got body bandages, and Venus got a few curling vines.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: A large proportion of G1 characters, including those who recurred often in the G1 toyline, did not return in media or the toyline for G2. The most notable case is probably Ghoulia, who was taken out of the cast altogether and made no appearances in G2 material beyond a collector doll in the G1 continuity that was released at the same time as the reboot.
  • Good Feels Good: A major part of G2 marketing, for example: #KindGhouls, the Born This Way Foundation collaboration, the official Twitter description including "Where kind ghouls rule!", and a huge focus on teaching young girls to create a positive web presence.
  • Lighter and Softer: The brand underwent changes to make it less edgy and more approachable to a younger audience, with softer, less intimidating faces, more modest fashion, and brighter colors with less gory imagery.
  • Out of Focus: Several returning characters released during G2 only had doll appearances and nothing in G2's narrative media.
  • Pink Heroine: Generation 1 averts this by giving the lead to Frankie, but G2 (starting with the new wave of dolls and Welcome to Monster High) and the anime, Monster High Scary Girls, make Draculaura the protagonist instead specifically due to pink appeal.
  • Pirate Episode: The “Shriek Wrecked” doll line sees the characters meeting up with Dayna Treasura Jones, daughter of Davy Jones, for a nautical treasure hunt.
  • Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: G2's additions to the Wolf family create this for the clan. Now some of the Wolfs have tails, large paws, and dog noses, while others don't, and the youngest of them is the most wolflike of all. This may imply that werewolves become more human with age, or at least can adjust their form to be less lycan when they grow older.
  • Tamer and Chaster: Monster High itself had some innuendo and less modest fashion that was eliminated once the franchise got rebooted.

     Tropes applying specifically to Generation 3 
Tropes specific to the movies can go here; tropes specific to the animated series can go here.
  • Adaptational Badass: G3 have almost all the characters showing their monster powers more constantly than G1 (in G1 the ghouls have some powers, but the specials focused on other things, and they show limited few abilities, or practically none) and are getting more action scenes. Some characters get or show more abilities than their past generations:
    • Draculaura's had her vampire abilities since the beginning, showing traditional powers such as the bat transformation shapeshifting, super agility, and super strength, but she also has witchcraft knowledge, and she is one, if not the smartest monster in the school.
    • Frankie is a genius (but clumsy) ghoul and basically a case of many technological surprises. Their electrical power is now ridiculously powerful. Unfortunately for them, it's relative to their new emotions. Their brain is a mix of the brains of the most brilliant beings.
    • Clawdeen is clearly (and said by Cleo) more powerful than the other werewolves, and they say that she can defeat Toralei's mom. She uses her other werewolf powers as her super strength, keen senses, and agility more than previous generations, and now she has a werewolf instinct. She is also very skilled in knowledge about monsters.
    • Cleo does not depend on amulets, and she gets great powers such as weather manipulation, curses, magic storms, and plagues of scarabs.
    • Lagoona now is one of the most ferocious monsters in the school. While her G1 counterpart was able to swim, in G3 she maintains this, but she's also the fiercest monster in the school, with keen senses, aqua kinesis, various sea powers such as communication with sea creatures, and powerful piranha-like teeth.
    • Abbey can now control the weather and ice in greater proportions as gigantic snowfalls, and it's linked with her emotions. She even made a giant ice bridge with only her hands; at some point.
    • Twyla always had powers based on the dark and access dreams of others, but now she has control over shadows, creating and manipulating them into any shape or form.
  • Adaptational Curves: The previous two generations stuck to Only One Female Mold when it came to character designs; the only differences in body types usually amounted to "make this doll slightly bigger/slightly smaller to indicate that the character is older/younger than the rest of the cast". By contrast, G3 has a wider variety of body types among its characters, ranging from Draculaura being shorter and chubbier to Abbey being taller and more muscular to Catty being plus-sized.
  • Adaptation Dye-Job: G3 changes the colors of the characters' hair a bit, as well as some of their monstrous skin tones.
    • Frankie's skin shifted from a minty green to a blue tone in G3, and their hair now incorporates blue streaks as part of their basic look, while G1 Frankie's basic hair color was only black and white. G3 Frankie's pet Watzie, changing from G1 Watzit, is now a grey and black dog with a green hair tuft and blue wings, rather than a dog of patchwork brown tones with white wings.
    • In the first two generations, Draculaura's hair was black with royal pink streaks. G3 makes it a half-and-half style, with one side black and one side pink. The pink in her hair is also a bit lighter. Her eyes are purplish-pink instead of greyish-lavender, and her heart-shaped beauty mark is also black instead of pink.
    • Lagoona previously had greyish-blue skin and blonde hair with chlorine-stained blue streaks. In G3, she looks far more tropical, with pink skin that fades into translucent blue and pale blonde hair with pastel lavender and teal steaks. Also, her eyes were green in previous generations, but here they're hazel.
    • Ghoulia's skin was previously a light neutral grey, but in G3, it's a pale yellowish green. Her basic look now features dark blue hair, while this tone was an accent color or variation for G1 Ghoulia (her hair was primarily lighter blue).
    • Cleo's hair has shifted from a base mix of brown and black to a dark blue mix.
    • Deuce was the only gorgon character in the previous versions of Monster High to have a human skin tone. In G3, his skin is green, and his green snake hair has gotten more bluish.
    • Twyla's palette is largely the same as her G1 look, but the shadows on her limbs are now pink rather than grey, and she retains her blue eye color and slightly bluer hair from G2.
  • Adaptation Name Change: Frankie's pet from G1 returns, but now named Watzie instead of Watzit.
  • Adaptational Gender Identity: G3 changes Frankie Stein from female to a non-binary femme character who uses they/them pronouns.
  • Adaptational Nationality:
    • Lagoona was Australian in G1 and G2, but is Honduran (series)/Colombian (movie) in G3.
    • Toralei was American in G1 and G2, but she is English in G3.
  • Adaptational Personality Change:
    • In the original generations, Draculaura was optimistic, naïve, and carefree; G3 makes her more aloof, sarcastic, and down-to-earth.
    • In the previous two generations, Clawdeen Wolf was a fiercer and sassier type. In G3, while she keeps most of her fierce style, personality-wise she's a tad meeker and nerdier.
    • In the previous two generations, Lagoona was known for being one of the most down-to-earth monsters in her friend group and fought against the prejudices towards her seafolk kin. Here, she not only turns into a Cute But Psycho sheltered princess with little to no real-world experience, but has difficulties controlling her own negative sea monster behavior by often barring her shark-like teeth at people at the drop of a hat. If she is angry or frustrated, she has the compulsive feeling to bite everything. She's also afraid of disagreeing with others due to a bad experience that divided her family.
    • Cleo de Nile began in the first generation as an Alpha Bitch, self-centered, very egocentric, and a drama queen, despite her character development later. Here, despite still being a drama queen, she is in general a kind-hearted mummy friendly, fan of humans, and her treatment of the other characters is kind and generous. She serves as emotional support to characters such as Clawdeen or Frankie and is capable of sacrificing her heart and feelings to help rescue Clawdeen's mom.
    • Arguably the most jarring example is Manny Taur, who has made a complete 180-degree turn from a Book Dumb Jerk Jock bully who slowly developed into being kinder to a Gentle Giant that's kind from the start and is one of the few students who can challenge Draculaura for the title of "smartest kid in the school" as an avid puzzle lover.
    • In G1, Nefera De Nile was a cruel, haughty, narcissistic young woman who constantly mistreated her younger sister and made trouble for everyone. She was always an antagonist with zero redeeming traits whatsoever. In G3, Nefera is friendly and generous to everyone and has a more positive relationship with her sister. Their conflict in G3 is purely because Cleo resents how Nefera always gets the spotlight and is the heir to the throne.
    • Heath Burns in G1 was a Butt-Monkey and something of a chauvinistic pest constantly searching for a girlfriend. In G3, now he is characterized by a volatile temper, but despite this, he's kinder, is an environmental activist, and struggles with his father (named Hades here but implied to be the Devil) who is sowing evil in the world.
  • Adaptation Species Change: Some characters.
    • In G1, Clawdeen's pet Crescent was a cat. In G3, she's reimagined as a dog.
    • Clawdeen herself now is a half-werewolf, half-human.
    • Heath is said to be still an elemental, but his father is very implied to be the Devil himself, shifting him to being portrayed as a demon in all but explicit name.
  • Art Evolution: G3 looks closer to G1 than G2 did, but twelve years of cultural shifts have resulted in dolls with a different look. Their faces are more mature than G2's, but not quite as sharp or gothic as G1, and the fashion has shifted a lot with the times, being still teen-styled and creative, but still a bit more colorful and firmly of the 2020s decade.
  • The Bus Came Back: Most prominently, Ghoulia returns after being completely (and controversially) absent from the G2 media. Many other G1 characters absent from G2 return to the cast here in the doll line and narrative media as well.
  • Culturally Sensitive Adaptation:
    • Twyla's character design repertoire formerly included motifs of dreamcatchers given her status as a nightmare monster, but G3 shows intentional removal of the imagery, likely as a move to not appropriate from Native American cultures. Her first G3 doll is largely based on her G1 signature, but her right wrist bracelet swaps out a dreamcatcher charm for an hourglass, and her chunky spider earrings heavily resemble her Electrified earrings from G2 but now lack all of the design elements that made the G2 pieces double as dreamcatchers.
    • Abbey Bominable has always been Himalayan in accordance with her yeti folklore, but associations with snow and fur likely led to her inaccurate portrayal as Slavic before—she had a Russian accent and fur accents sometimes alluding to clothing from that sphere. G3 Abbey is now accurately portrayed in accordance with her stated geographic background, being a Nepali ghoul and ethnically South Asian.
  • Disabled in the Adaptation:
    • Frankie's design for their dolls and their TV series appearance gives them a prominent bionic metal leg to make them into a prosthetic user, a visual connotation their G1 and G2 counterparts lacked.
    • G3 Twyla is confirmed to be autistic and shows many common habits and traits associated with autism: hand flapping when she likes something a lot, playing with the charm on her bracelet when stressed as a form of stimming, and hypersensitivity to noise to the point of wearing noise-canceling headphones made of cobwebs to help soothe her discomfort.
  • Episode Title Card: The show features stylized title cards against a backdrop with elements reflecting whoever is the central focus of the episode (moon cycles for Clawdeen, bolts, and electricity for Frankie, bats and spider webs for Draculaura, snakes for Deuce, gold scarabs for Cleo, splashing goo for Ghoulia, fish bones for Lagoona).
  • Fantastic Racism: There's prejudice against witches, which is why Draculaura is hesitant to reveal her powers to others and Bloodgood says that witches aren't monsters. Other monsters have their own stereotypes to overcome: Deuce mentions that his mother was one of the first Gorgons to play casketball and yetis have been banned from Monster High in the past.
  • Hypocrite: In the first episode, Clawdeen gets made fun of for her love of monsters by a trio of goth kids who were attempting a seancé, AKA trying to communicate with ghosts. When they return in "Case of the Moondays", they've become full-on monster hunters, something that Clawdeen lampshades.
  • Literal Bookworm: One gets loose in the library during "Creepover Party", growing bigger with every book it consumes. Twyla traps it with her shadow powers, and Headmistress Bloodgood sends it to the book graveyard, which is apparently where Monster High buries its outdated textbooks.
  • Mama Bear: Ms. Bominable starts throwing razor-sharp icicles when she's under the impression that Headmistress Bloodgood has kidnapped her daughter. Luckily, Abbey clears things up before anyone's hurt.
  • More Diverse Sequel:
    • While ethnic and cultural diversity isn't to be sneezed at in the first two generations, none of the characters are explicitly queer despite creator Garrett Sander's wishes to provide queer representation from the start. Generation 3 makes steps to change that, starting with Frankie being nonbinary and using they/them pronouns. Other explicit queer characters in G3 are Deuce's mom, Medusa the Gorgon herself, who is partners with another woman named Lyra. Cleo was apparently straight in G1, as her only relationships were a short-lived bygone pairing with Clawd and a G1-spanning pairing with Deuce. In G3, Cleo has a crush on the nonbinary Frankie Stein.
    • The female/femme characters also have more diverse body types, with Draculaura being shorter and curvier and Frankie being taller, and the in-between characters have subtle body shape differences between them. In G1, body shape was divided by age group, with teens, younger teens, and older teens/young adults having one shared body type among them, and G2 followed in the same vein.
    • Physical disability was represented a bit in G1, but G3 continues the disability representation with toy/cartoon Frankie's prosthetic bionic leg and expands to include neurodivergence in the case of Twyla.
  • Myth Arc: The series is mostly standalone episodes, but there is an overarching plot regarding Clawdeen's search for her mother.
  • The Movie: A live-action movie musical was being directed by the men behind Hairspray and Chicago, being pitched as "Beetlejuice meets Grease meets The Addams Family meets Edward Scissorhands." The film was stuck in Development Hell until the goal of a live-action movie musical finally reached fruition for G3.
  • Power Incontinence: A frequent Running Gag is that teenage monsters haven't quite gained control of their powers.
    • Clawdeen is the most powerful werewolf around, but she's still discovering her abilities with the help of her inner wolf voice and the moon necklace.
    • Frankie as the youngest ghoul in the school (they have only days of birth) has extremely powerful electrical powers. Sadly it's connected to their new emotions that they are discovering and sometimes causes accidents.
    • Draculaura has perfect control of her vampiric powers but is still trying to control her magical abilities as she's studying witchcraft in secret.
    • Played for Drama with Abbey, since it's revealed that there's Fantastic Racism against yetis where they are considered unable to control their powers even though Abbey's no worse than any of her classmates in this regard.
  • Race Lift:
    • Clawdeen has gone from implicitly full black to Afro-Latina, having a black (possibly Creole) father and Mexican mother. This shift also now applies to her brother Clawd.
    • Lagoona was previously Polynesian or similar on at least her father's side and is now Latina (depending on the continuity, Colombian or Honduran).
    • Draculaura's ethnicity prior was either Romanian/eastern European (per her accent and Dracula's origins) or Roman/Italian (per her diary indicating her biological father was a Roman soldier). She's still Romanian/eastern European on her father's side in G3, but also half-Taiwanese on her mother's side.
    • Headmistress Bloodgood is now black.
    • Subverted with Abbey. She's still Himalayan, but in G3, she's now accurately portrayed as South Asian (Nepali, specifically) because of it. In G1, she was Himalayan on paper, but in practice, was portrayed as Russian or otherwise Eastern European.
    • Venus McFlytrap was ostensibly a white character in G1/G2, but is portrayed as Black in G3.
  • Remake Cameo: Several of the G1 voice actors have smaller roles in the G3 animated series:
    • Debi Derryberry (Draculaura) voices Stheno.
    • Salli Safiotti (Clawdeen, Cleo) voices Mrs. O'Shriek and the school's PA system.
    • America Young (Toralei, Purrsephone & Meowlody, Howleen) voices Euryale.
  • Repression Never Ends Well: "Crushed" has Frankie trying to deal with their feelings over not making the Fear Squad by literally bottling them up as bolts of lightning. The bottle eventually breaks and causes a power outage, after which Cleo talks them into just letting it out in a safe place.
  • Ship Tease: "Horoscare" teases Cleo and Frankie, with Cleo acting a bit flustered around Frankie when they give her jewelry and an Accidental Hand-Hold between the two.
  • Stock Scream: The bell at Monster High is the Wilhelm scream. It makes Clawd jump when he first hears it.
  • There Are No Therapists: Averted. Heath casually mentions that he went to a therapist for anger issues, and Cleo tells Frankie that it's an option if they're having trouble dealing with their new emotions.
  • Took the Wife's Name: Since Clawdeen's now raised by her human father, her surname "Wolf" is explained this way. Apparently, her father just found her mother's surname cooler than his own.
  • Wham Episode: "Pawzzle Pieces" answers many questions about Clawdeen's mother and sets the story arc going forward: Clawdeen discovers she was trapped in Another Dimension, nearly destroys the portal but rescues her long-lost brother Clawd before it closes, and learns that it needs six amulets, of which her necklace is one and Watzie's tag is another.
  • You Mean X Mas: "Nightmore", the longest night of the year, where monsters band together and celebrate until the sun comes back. It even has its own version of mistletoe for couples to kiss under: a bundle of missing toes.


-guitar riff-See more at MONSTERHIGH.COM.

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