YMMV / Di4ries

• Abandon Shipping:
  • While it was initially a fairly popular ship, in season 2 Pietro x Livia lost several supporters when Livia began actively avoiding Pietro for much of the season and he begins to develop a crush on Isabel.
  • Giulio has a huge crush on Arianna in season 1 and some were willing to give them a chance as Arianna began to reciprocate his feelings in the final episodes. However this finally ended when they decided to be Amicable Exes at the beginning of season 2 and Giulio develops feelings for Monica.
• Alas, Poor Scrappy: Bianca is a very controversial character and was treated as a Die for Our Ship to Mirko/Daniele fans. But you can't help feeling bad for Bianca when Mirko dumps her for Daniele.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Silverio commented that he never liked Matteo as his cousin's boyfriend. Did he never tell Livia this because he thought she was happy with him or was he afraid of what Matteo could do to him if he found out?
  • Was Pietro really in love with Isabel or was he indirectly using her as a replacement love interest for Livia? The latter is supported when we remember that, in addition to Livia and Isabel sharing many similarities, Isabel also used Roby as a replacement for Pietro and coldly broke up with him when Pietro reciprocated her feelings, just as Pietro broke up with Isabel when Livia showed interest in him again.
• Awesome Music: The two main themes, "Isole" and "Castello Di Sabbia", are easy-listening tunes perfect for winding down and relaxing after a long day that is sure to get your head nodding to the easy beat.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Pietro's fans love him for his Bully Hunter personality and constant Big Brother Instinct towards his friends, seeing him as one of show's biggest Woobies due to his bad home life and having his crush turn him down repeatedly. On the other hand, his detractors see him as a Hopeless Suitor who's unable to take no for an answer while pursuing his crush and not having much personality beyond being a Nice Guy. There are also those who argue that his romantic problems make him insensitive and undeserving of any girl's love or make him relatable given his youth and inexperience, provided interesting tension.
  • Livia is every bit as divisive as her love interest. She was one of the most beloved characters in the first season by being a Deconstructed Character Archetype of the Class Princess and the Dutiful Daughter, being a Nice Girl throughout the season and having flaws that made her a very identifiable character. However, her actions in season two earned her quite a few detractors who find her obnoxious or annoying by repeating the same mistakes from the previous season and being constantly rude to Pietro, while others still sympathized with her and understood why she avoided Pietro as he was the one who used her to win a bet.
  • Giulio is a character with a mixed reception, mainly because he almost always ends up being Unintentionally Unsympathetic. Those who like him find him adorable due he likes to do silly stuff, find his friendship as Childhood Friends with Pietro enjoyable and feel bad for the problems he suffers due to his dyslexia, while those who dislike him see him as an Designated Hero due to the way he behaves when things don't go his way, his tendency to motivate Pietro to do clearly wrong things, and the way he treats his crushes. Plus Giulio's status as Plucky Comic Relief makes him either the funniest character on the show or the most annoying.
  • Bianca is easily the most divisive character on the series. Some fans feel she's a great addition to the show thanks to her laidback and kind nature, making her one of the most sympathetic characters. Her detractors dislike how she came out of nowhere becoming everyone's best friend, how she's always perfectly sweet and good at everything (compared to the other flawed protagonists) and view her as little more than a Flat Character who only exists to overcomplicate the already-complicateds Livia/Pietro and Daniele/Mirko; and a third camp has taken the middle ground, liking Bianca as a character but don't like the amount of screen time she has compared to other characters that have existed since the beginning.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • After witnessing Matteo constantly bully and humiliate our main characters, it's deeply cathartic to see Livia break up with him and his team lose the final basketball game against the students he previously bullied.
  • After all the fans wished Daniele and Mirko to be together since season 1 and were bothered by Daniele's status as the Third Wheel in Bianca and Mirko's relationship, they finally get their wish in the second part of the season 2 where the two finally become boyfriends.
• Character Perception Evolution:
  • Livia was a favorite during season 1 because she subverted the common negative stereotypes of a "Miss Perfect" and several viewers sympathized with her desire to be herself without following the expectations of her controlling mother. This started changing during the first part of season 2, thanks she Took a Level in Jerkass by being dismissive towards to Pietro despite him constantly showing concern for her and abandoning her old friends by hanging out with Katia and Sara. Although Livia realized her mistakes in the second part of the season, it was too late for the fans to forgive her and it didn't help that she was jealous of Pietro and Isabel’s closeness, which made people sees her as a self-righteous hypocrite.
  • Isabel was perhaps the most popular female protagonist in the season 1 due to her Tomboy personality and her desire to have her First Love, along with her interactions with her classmates that showed an Adorkable side to her. However, season 2 decreased Isabel status by having her make some questionable decisions (falling in love with one of her best friends' ex-boyfriend, using Roby as a replacement love interest for Pietro, etc.) and generally making her flaws become much more obvious. While Isabel does have her defenders, most people now also see her as Unintentionally Unsympathetic.
• Designated Hero: Pietro and Isabel fall into this trope regarding Roby. On Pietro's side, Roby wanted to be his friend and helped him get on the basketball team, however despite knowing that he is clearly in love with Isabel, Pietro never bothered to know how Roby felt when he started a relationship with her. Isabel gets the worst of it due she agreed to go out with Roby not because she truly loved him but to try to overcome her feelings for Pietro, she constantly lied to Roby to not spend time with him and then coldly dumps him for Pietro. The worst thing is that when Roby is understandably angry with them for this, the show portrays Pietro and Isabel as the protagonists we should root for and Roby as an obstacle they need to overcome.
• Designated Villain: After he Took a Level in Jerkass in the last few episodes, Roby is supposed to be an antagonist who is just as bad as Katia and Sara, except that Roby has all the reasons to be angry at Isabel and Pietro. Isabel pretty much used Roby to hide her feelings to Pietro, despite Roby very loving and caring to her. And Pietro was supposed to be Roby's friend, since Roby was the only one in the basketball team who was nice to him. Then Isabel coldly dumps Roby for Pietro with neither of them caring about how he feels, made even worse by the fact that Roby genuinely loved Isabel, while Pietro dumped her for Livia after a few episodes.
• Die for Our Ship:
  • Depending on which side of the Livia/Pietro/Isabel Love Triangle they are on, the shippers will strongly criticize Livia or Isabel, unable to agree who should stay with Pietro.
  • Bianca and Nico constantly receive dislike and criticism by Daniele/Mirko shippers. Downplayed after Mirko and Daniele officially get together.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Although they are only Plucky Comic Relief in season 1 and are Out of Focus in Season 2, Michele and Silverio are well remembered by viewers because they are genuinely likable and friendliest. Individually, Michele is considered Adorkable for his unrequited crush on Isabel, while Silverio is loved for his Big Sister Worship to Livia and humiliating Matteo in defense of Pietro.
  • Bianca's mothers receive a positive reception due the series does not attempt to draw attention to the fact that they are a gay couple and, unlike the rest of the other parents, they are Good Parents to their daughter. Additionally, one of them is the coach of Pietro's basketball team and is a tough but fair authority figure.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: While the Official Couple Pietro/Livia has a big fanbase, many fans wanted Pietro to end up with Isabel, due to their bond and chemistry throughout season 2.
• Hollywood Pudgy: Arianna is of average weight at worst, but she is ridiculed for being fat in season 2, which made her very insecure about her body. However, the only people who make fun of her are Katia and Sara, who are bullies. None of the other characters find her fat.
• Ho Yay:
  • Giulio and Pietro are very open about their friendship, even being touchy-feely at times, which is not common for middle school boys. They also have a fight when they want to go to different high school the next year and can't be together anymore, until they make peace.
  • Isabel and Monica's Pseudo-Romantic Friendship. Monica gets jealous if Isabel has other friends in season 1, because she wants to be the only one for her. In season 2, they both get jealous of the other's respective boyfriend. In the season finale, Monica spends all the night looking after the heartbroken Isabel crying in the bed.
  • Livia and Bianca become close quite quickly, especially in the second part of season 2. Bianca protects Livia from Katia's harassment like a Violently Protective Girlfriend would and they both comfort each other when their love interests fall in love with other people.
  • Katia seems to have an unhealthy obsession with Livia, desperately wants to be her friend, likes her much more than her other friend Sara (who is frequently insulted by Katia), gets mad after Livia breaks off her friendship, even making several attempts to win Livia back, and turns violent after Livia rejects her. It helps that Katia is always hateful to everyone else and has never shown interest in boys either.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Monica is quite bossy and bitchy in season 1, but you can feel sorry for her when she's humiliated by Giulio.
  • Despite being an absolute Alpha Bitch, Katia is shown to be this way because she feels neglected by her parents because of their divorce. Downplayed, as she never changes her attitude, and remains a Hate Sink until the end of season 2.
• LGBT Fanbase: No surprise here. The show has been popular from the start with gay, trans and gender-nonconforming audiences for its familiar themes of social rejection, nonconformity and acceptance. In addition to the large number of intimate moment between some of the main characters, there are also two male characters having Ship Tease throughout the series until finally becoming an Official Couple before the end of season 2.
• More Popular Replacement: Katia replaced Matteo's as The Bully in season 2 and even her biggest haters admit that she is a surprising improvement as an antagonist over Matteo. This is mainly because Katia is a constant threat to the majority of the main cast, she has a memorable personality that makes her Love to Hate and a Freudian Excuse that, although it does not justify her sharing, gives some depth to her character, while Matteo was defined exclusively by his Jerk Jock personality without any Hidden Depths.
• Questionable Casting: All the characters are in middle school, but they are played by 14-16 years old actors, and some of them are visibly older than middle school kids.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: In the first season, Arianna is a Base-Breaking Character for being an Alpha Bitch and a total snob to everyone, especially Giulio, until her Character Development in the last few episodes of the season. In season 2, she earns a lot of sympathy from fans for being cruelly bullied by Katia and becomes the show's biggest woobie.
• Ron the Death Eater:
  • Livia is a character that people tend to dislike because in season 2 she begins neglecting her old friends in favor of spending time with two clearly evil girls, as well as gets demonized as a siren who dares threaten Pietro and Isabel's relationship being jealous of their relationship when she was the one who started being hostile to Pietro. This ignores the fact that Livia regretted what she did and redeemed herself by realizing what a horrible person Katia is, apologizing to her real friends and defending Arianna from Katia's bullying. Livia also had good reason to be angry with Pietro at the beginning of the season because he had previously used her to win a bet with Giulio and he didn't admit it until she discovered the truth. And although she was jealous of Pietro and Isabel's relationship, Livia was never mean or selfish towards them and Pietro kept being the Master of the Mixed Message around her by showing interest in Livia when he was still dating Isabel.
  • On the flip side of the shipping coin, Isabel is a perfectly nice girl who has a lot more in common with Pietro than Livia does and she is perhaps the person who supports him the most throughout the series. However, in season 2 she began to receive a lot of criticism for falling in love with her friend's ex-boyfriend to the point of being called a bad friend. It didn't help that Isabel started a relationship with Pietro when Livia kept pining for him. These criticisms ignore the fact that it was Livia who broke up with Pietro and he comes to reciprocate Isabel's feelings. In addition, when she and Pietro formalize their relationship, it is Isabel who thinks about how this could affect Livia by apologizing to her due she did not want to lose her friendship.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: In season 1, pretty much everyone shipped Pietro/Livia. After part of season 2 was released, the fanbase has become divided between Pietro/Livia shippers and Pietro/Isabel shippers.
• Strangled by the Red String:
  • One of the main reasons Mirko/Bianca was received with so much disdain is how rushed it feels. Prior to Bianca's A Day in the Limelight episode, she and Mirko had not had any significant interactions that foreshadowed a romance, in contrast with Mirko and Daniele showing that they have a close relationship even before Daniele's crush on Mirko was revealed. When we get to the episode the two become an Official Couple at the end even though they were just getting screen time together and growing closer as friends.
  • Giulio/Monica have always been a fairly popular pairing because of their opposite personalities and their interesting enemies-to-friends dynamic in season 1. But the way they actually get together comes off as this: they have never shown romantic interest in each other until the last few episodes of season 2, specifically the episode where Monica's boyfriend Manuel shows up, and Giulio suddenly turns a Crazy Jealous Guy, even sabotaging Monica's school test, just to make her spend less time with Manuel. When Giulio confesses to Monica that he did it because he has crush on her, it is to be expected that she will understandably get angry with him since her studies are very important to her, instead... she kisses him and decides to break up with Manuel despite that the only thing he has done is be understanding with her.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • While Michele and Silverio were never major characters to the story, they had their own scenes and personalities in season 1. In season 2 they are living props that hang out with the protagonists in the group scenes. Silverio in particular, despite being Livia's cousin, is never shown reacting to his relative's change in personality and instead it is the main cast who show concern for her well-being.
  • Nico was introduced as Daniele's replacement love interest indicating that he and Daniele could become an Official Couple or that there would be a Love Triangle due to the latter not having gotten over his feelings for Mirko. Instead, Nico just... disappears in season 2, him joining the protest at the end of season 1 meant nothing since he is barely mentioned, he and Daniele did become a couple but they broke up off-screen and the love triangle Mirko/Daniele/Nico changes to Daniele/Mirko/Bianca.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: As mentioned in Designated Villain, it is assumed that Roby wanting revenge against Pietro and Isabel would make him seen by the audience as an antagonist just like Katia and Sara. However, he never reaches the level of cruelty of the two girls and he gains a lot of sympathy from fans as a result of several factors. Roby wanted to be Pietro's friend and without his help he would not have made the basketball team that he wanted so much, and he was always very kind and understanding Isabel. What did he receive in return? Pietro showing a clear interest in Isabel despite knowing how in love Roby was with her and Isabel agrees to be his girlfriend solely to try to get over Pietro. Finally Pietro and Isabel starting to date without either of them caring about Roby's feelings. To make matters worse, Roby can gain sympathy even in his time as an antagonist since the only thing he does is a joke to the Marina Piccola students that can be considered a pat on the back compared to everything Katia and Sara did to Arianna, but in the end we must delight in the fact that he receives the same punishment as the aforementioned two without Isabel and Pietro ever realizing everything they did to him.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Giulio. He is supposed to act as Pietro's best friend, however his Jerkass moments make some wonder why they are best friends especially considering Giulio is one of the main reasons why Pietro ends up in trouble in first place. In Season 1, he has a crush on Arianna and constantly tries to impress her, but ignores numerous statements from his friends and Arianna herself that she was not interested in him. In season 2, he falls in love with Monica but she is in a long-distance relationship. When Manuel comes to visit her, Giulio is rude to him just because he is Monica's boyfriend and sabotages Monica at her studies just so she doesn't spend time with Manuel. Although he later apologizes to Monica, after she reciprocates his feelings, Giulio is simply excited that Monica quickly breaks up with Manuel without caring how she feels about it.
  • Isabel becoming a Romantic False Lead in season 2 would make viewers sympathize with her, but when Roby shows interest in her, instead of politely rejecting him, Isabel agrees to dating with him to try to forget about Pietro. When Isabel dating with Roby: she shows a clear interest in Pietro in front of Roby, seems happy to missing her dates with Roby to spend time with Pietro, gets irritated that Roby is affectionate with her in public and constantly lies to him to avoid it. When Isabel gains Pietro's love, she finally decides to break up with Roby without bothering to give him a proper explanation or apology. It's easy, intentional or not, to see Pietro coldly dumps Isabel for Livia as Laser-Guided Karma by what she did to Roby.
  • Pietro's Love Triangle with Livia and Isabel and his attempts to be together with any of them is supposed to come across as something tragic and make viewers empathize with him. However, Pietro's inability to choose between the two, on top of being Master of the Mixed Message, and continue pining for Livia while he's dating Isabel, just makes him come across as a shallow and irresponsible person who is ignorant to how his actions hurt others. He especially comes across as insensitive towards his girlfriend Isabel in the last episode, completely ignoring her in favor of Livia. Even when Isabel realizes Pietro still loves Livia and breaks down crying, Pietro is seemingly apathetic and goes to comfort Isabel only because Monica told him to do it.
• Vanilla Protagonist: It's not that Pietro is considered boring, but his character is defined solely by his romantic or platonic relationships to other characters and his personality does not go beyond being a Nice Guy who loves his classmates, lacking the Hidden Depths that make the rest of the main characters stand out.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: According to Netflix's maturity rating, this series is for kids 7 and up. While the show is quite tame and lighthearted in some ways (especially in season 1, which is more comedic than season 2), it also features issues like parental neglect, LGBT themes, learning disorders, panic attacks, and a First Period Panic episode with the blood visible on Arianna's jeans. Also, while the characters never talk about sex, some kissing scenes are not exactly the ones you expect on a kids show.
• The Woobie:
  • Arianna is possibly the most tragic character for good reasons. Although she is an Alpha Bitch in season 1 bit we later we learn that she has a very strict and controlling mother who is also neglectful of her physical and mental problems. In season 2 she is constantly bullied by two girls who hate her for no reason and who like to humiliate her just for fun. Arianna gets bad to the point that she breaks down crying on several occasions but ends up being too afraid to ask for help. Luckily she manages to improve at the end of the season.
  • Daniele spends most of season 1 regretting confessing his feelings to his best friend when he starts ignoring him and avoiding him until they make peace. In season 2, Daniele ends up being the Third Wheel in Bianca and Mirko's relationship despite still being in love with the latter and is mocked by some Marina Grande students for his interest in dancing, causing him to develop self-esteem issues.
  • Isabel gets the saddest ending of them all. Over the course of season 2, she falls in love with Pietro which leads to a close bond and then a relationship between the two... until Pietro breaks up with her at the end because he's still in love with Livia. Isabel spends most of the last episode crying.