Most people who shipped Rain and Gavin jumped off once Rain found out she’s sapphic. Ana being introduced as Gavin’s eventual love interest also made more readers abandon the ship.
Rain x Maria shippers also jumped off once Chanel was introduced and her and Maria became a couple.
Alternative Character Interpretation: What's the deal with Todd? Is he a victim of an abusive childhood and is lashing out against everyone? A spoiled brat with neglectful parents that don’t regulate him? Or a guy with a very privileged life and loving parents who’s simply tormenting others for fun?
Even though Rudy's parents sent him to a Catholic school to "cure" his orientation, he seems very cheery.
Later comics, especially after his breakup with Rain, start to see his constant cheer break down.
In Chapter 34, both Rudy and Maria act like this after their father catches Rudy going out as "Ruby" and he finds Maria's texts and calls with her girlfriend Chanel, although they both admit they're just using humor to distract themselves.
Ana had a truly heartbreaking past yet she remains arguably the comic's kindest character.
Rudy can be this at times. While some people love his impulsiveness and boldness, others find him to be obnoxious, and do not like how he has trouble keeping a secret.
Jessica initially. While nobody objected to her coming into the story and offering to help Rain transition, some people found her personality to be a bit too pushy and outspoken, while others loved that about her.
Drew is either a nuanced depiction of a questioning/queer individual or an idiotic jerkass who's just annoying.
He caused a split in the fan base when a large amount of fans were cursing him for freaking out about Ky's outfit switch with Rudy, saying he was being selfish for expecting Ky to deal with their dysphoria and staying in a dress. On the other hand, another group was sympathizing with Drew, given that he is not confidant with himself and at risk for bullying, and some said that Ky should have been more considerate of that.
The comic's artstyle. Some find its minimalist style to be very charming and say that it makes the comic look like something you'd see in a high school student's sketchbook, adding a sense of authenticity to the whole thing. While others find it amateurish and even downright ugly. A third camp thinks that, while the artstyle is nothing special to look at, the story and characters are strong enough to make the comic enjoyable.
The sheer amount of characters that are revealed to be queer by the end of the comic. Some feel it very much makes sense as there are plenty of queer people in real life that are closeted. Some however, find it to be very unrealistic, bordering on ridiculous that a fairly conservative, mainly Catholic area would have this many queer people.
Rudy falling in love with Rain. While most readers found the comic’s handling of a gay man falling in love with a trans woman and seeing her as his only exception to be surprisingly well handled as well as a genuinely surprising subversion of expectations. A vocal minority found it to be highly problematic and couldn’t be happier when they finally broke up.
Whether or not Jessica and Aiken were both in the wrong when it came to them breaking up. While pretty much everyone agrees that Aiken went out of line and acted like a complete unsupportive jerk, some think Jessica should have been honest with Aiken and thought ahead of the scenario where there would be insurance problems. While others think Jessica was not obligated to out herself to Aiken. It's worth noting that Jocelyn herself believes that it's imperative for a trans person to be honest about being trans if they are planning on being in a relationship with someone.
The reveal that Chase got arrested in a drunken rage for attacking someone is extremely satisfying after all the pain and suffering he's caused Emily and many other young women.
Rain disowning Marcus as her father is also very satisfying as he was the main cause for why Rain repressed herself for so many years.
Out of the secondary student characters that appeared in Chapter Two, Holly was the most popular. This was lampshaded in Rain Delay 3. She doesn't contribute much to the plot but fans love her dimness.
Ky is a fan favorite due to their laidback personality, despite them being a tad Out of Focus. Jocelyn regularly points out that she gets asked about them all the time.
Fandom Rivalry: With Sophie Labelle's Assigned Male. Both comics center around trans girls navigating their way through school, yet take very different ways of approaching it. Fans of this comic find Assigned Male to be far too focused on preaching messages rather than develop any interesting, entertaining characters, or funny jokes. Fans of Assinged Male on the other hand, find Rain too saccharine and wishy washy in its writing, and wish that the comic would more harshly criticize bigoted characters rather than giving them sympathy.
Fan Nickname: Rain and her friends are often dubbed by fans as “The Gay Table”.
Fanon: Emily's mother is often given the name "Katherine" by the fandom.
Foe Yay Shipping: Rudy and Drew have this occasionally. They don't particularly like each other, but occasionally their conversations have flirtatious subtexts.
Fridge Brilliance: After Ryan comes out to Rudy as a trans guy, if you go back and read the commentaries before the reveal, you'll notice that Jocelyn completely avoids using pronouns for Ryan.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Emily has a lot in common with Amity Blight, who debuted about a decade later. Both are introduced as mean preppy characters, but warm up and work to make amends after befriending the protagonist. Both also learn to defy the parental pressure that made them meaner, and both end up dating said protagonists.
It Was His Sled: Rain’s hair being cut by Kellen is meant to be a truly shocking moment. But the fact that many of the comic’s posters have her with a short hairstyle means that a lot of new viewers know her hair will eventually be cut.
Love to Hate: Chase is a truly despicable human being. But the sheer depravity of his actions are what make him a great antagonist.
Memetic Mutation: Rudy's "Dude, she's a lesbian." became so memetic in a few days, that Lynn made a Rain Delay "Caption Me Rudy" where she'd replace the phrase with another equally hilarious one.
Memetic Troll: Rain and Emily's daughter Lydia is given a highly mischievous, chaotic trickster personality by most of the fanbase. This likely originated from her behavior in this post-epilogue page.
Before the beginning of the story, Marcus crossed it when he inflicted physical abuse on Rain and abandoned his kids and Liriel/Lorcan to their fate when the latter becomes sick of cancer.
Rain, along with many readers, consider Kellen to have crossed this when she cuts Rain's hair short so that she looks more like a boy.
Chase Brenton crosses it when he dates and impregnates Emily in her teen years while he's in his late twenties.
Norman Strongwell crosses it when he threatens to send Rudy to a conversion camp even after ignoring Donna's threats to stop when she changes her mind after Maria runs away from home.
Father Quenton crosses it when it's revealed that he accepted bribes from Todd's parents in return for ignoring Todd's awful behavior to everyone in the school.
Narm: The second page of the comic’s prologue where baby Rain cries can come across as unintentionally hilarious due to the then rough art as well as baby Rain’s over-the-top WAAAAAH!!.
Maria and Rudy's grandmother has gained a very sizable fan base as soon as an excerpt from Chapter C was posted. Despite only appearing in one panel, fans absolutely love her for her supportive nature towards the two and her Cool Old Lady attitude.
The waiter at Chanel and Maria's date only appears in "Valentine's Night", but is liked by fans due to him admiring Maria and Chanel's love.
Periphery Demographic: Jocelyn Samara clearly intended the comic to be for an LGBTQ+ audience, more specifically a trans audience, but the solid writing, endearing characters, and charming sense of humor made it very easy for even non-LGBTQ+ readers to enjoy.
Aiken seems to be at least trying to understand Rain now.
Heather used to be disliked, but then got rescued early on due to learning more about gender issues. Even more so when she tells Jessica that she has CAIS and that she resents Kylie for having feminine body parts but not wanting them.
Ron the Death Eater: While Gavin in the early chapters was certainly a bit of a rude, Jerkass who had trouble accepting that his childhood friend is Transgender, he was still genuinely trying his best to understand Rain’s situation and was struggling with his own crush on her as well. Despite this, some readers just found him to be nothing but an irredeemable Jerk with a Heart of Jerk, to the point that they even expected him to be the comic’s Big Bad. After he Took a Level in Kindness, fans eventually warmed up to him.
The Scrappy: Todd, while he is a character you’re supposed to hate he’s seen by a lot of readers as nothing more than a stereotypical, one-note bully character. He’s not as vile as Chase or Emily’s mother therefore making him lack a Love to Hate status. Even Samara herself isn’t a fan of the character.
Ship-to-Ship Combat: In the early days of the comics, "Rain x Gavin" shippers and "Rain x Maria" shippers went head to head.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Brett, a character introduced in the January Girls chapter was a tall, quiet kid who seemed to served no purpose in the story besides annoy Chanel. Some thought the comic was setting him to be a highly closeted queer person who was too socially anxious and distant to come out. Sadly, nothing was done with his character.
Rain. Any time things go well for her, you cheer. But when things go wrong, you just want to hug the girl.
Jessica can count as well. Her family didn't accept her wish to transition if what little she said about them is true, one boyfriend she thought was the man of her dreams ( Aiken) completely abandoned her after finding out her secret, not even bothering to understand her, she was kicked out of her apartment by said boyfriend, and is still having problems with herself.
Emily also counts. She never knew her dad, her mom travels a lot and clearly doesn't care about her and is emotionally abusive, something Emily even acknowledges out loud, she wanted her mother's attention so bad that she drove her girlfriend away ( Maria) and she was emotionally manipulated into a relationship with a sleazy boyfriend who would constantly cheat on her and would have used her to throw parties to perv on her classmates if she hadn't broken things off, and now that she's pregnant, she may have to drop out of her very strict Catholic school in order to raise the child.
Ana definitely counts. She was born intersex and AMAB and was bullied by everyone in her old school for it. Her mother hated her and promptly left her. She met a boyfriend and once he found out, he attacked her. Her father was essentially the only one who supported her throughout her childhood. After she gets bottom surgery, she thinks its best to simply let the past be the past.
The animated series
Awesome Animation: The series just looks amazing. Tresenella takes the comic's minimalist yet expressive art style and refines it to perfection with improved lighting, and very smooth animation.
Can't Un-Hear It: Larissa Frost is Rain. After the release of the animated series, many comic readers couldn't help but hear Frost's voice when reading Rain's lines.
. She doesn't contribute much to the plot but fans love her dimness.
