Heartwarming / Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken

• Despite Agatha denying Ruby to go to prom, she says the video was a strong presentation, clearly admiring the effort her daughter made for a simple proposal.
• Ruby's friendship with her friends, including Margot.
• After her friends convince Ruby to go with them to prom, she says she'll invite Connor. Her friends are surprised at first, but Margot quickly accepts it. Even if Margot doesn't accept Ruby's proposal to use quadratic equations as a way to propose Connor, she accepts Ruby wanting to be with Connor, knowing how much she likes him.
• Connor in general as a character. He doesn't judge Ruby, he doesn't ignore her, he likes her for who she is, even before discovering she's a kraken. He also likes when she called him "alge-bae" when meeting her in the hallway.
• When Ruby tries to invite Connor to prom, Connor talks about how it's not necessary to go big to propose someone to go to prom, they can just ask. They both agree that prom is a “postcolonial patriarchal construct”, although he says it'd be fun to go with the right person while awkwardly and adorably looking at her.
• When Agatha finds a panicked Ruby in her Giant Kraken form, rather than scold her for going into the water, she realizes her daughter is scared and instead empathizes with her, promising to stick by her side. She even talks to Ruby about how she looked after a beached whale (whom Ruby named "Clarence J. Whifferton") until he could go back to the ocean. This happy memory and reassurance from her mother is enough to calm Ruby down and she shrinks back to normal size.
  • Later, on her way to the Kraken Kingdom, Ruby recognizes and reunites with that same whale. What makes this moment even sweeter is that Clarence remembers her even after so long.
• Brill reuniting with Agatha, and meeting his niece and nephew for the first time.
• When Ruby goes to the Kingdom of the Krakens, seeing her enjoy the freedom of swimming in the ocean for the first time will bring a smile to anyone's face.
• Ruby meeting her grandmother at the kingdom. She even brings out cookies!
• When Grandmamah introduces Ruby to the Kraken People, they're simply overjoyed in meeting their long lost princess. One Kraken kid (voiced by internet celeb Salish Matter) even swims up to Ruby and gives her some flowers, which she sweetly accepts.
• Grandmamah offers Ruby to train her to be the next heir to the throne, but Ruby says she loves her "teen stuff" like math and Connor, and doesn't want to give it up. Her grandmother understands, and she let her go. Before leaving Ruby is thankful for meeting her.
• After a tired Ruby returns home from the Kraken Kingdom (and barely escaping Gordon's trap), Nessie, sensing her owner's distress, snuggles up to her and Ruby gives her an appreciative hug before falling asleep.
• Arthur, Sam, Brill, and Nessie "volunteering" to go on Gordon's Kraken hunt to throw him off of Ruby's trail. Sure, Agatha may have put them up to it, but it still goes to show how much they care for Ruby by putting themselves at risk (as they are still Krakens themselves) to get the crazy captain to leave her alone.
• Ruby bonding with Chelsea during their "Super Sea-Girl Ditch Day," where they swim all over the world and open up about their issues, like Ruby's pressure about her destiny and Chelsea's lament about her people living in hiding, which inspires them to find the Trident of Oceanus and turn it into a symbol of peace.
  • Sadly, this gets mitigated by the fact that it was all a lie on Chelsea's part.
• The Training Montage where Grandmamah helps out Ruby by teaching her the powers the Krakens have.
• When Ruby reunites with her mom at the house party and asks her to help her with something, Agatha was ready to say she can go to prom after seeing how much it means to Ruby, when she saw a mother helping her daughter with a dress.
• During Ruby's Heroic BSoD, when she laments not listening to her mom and going back into hiding, Brill cheers up his niece by telling her that he now understands why Agatha gave up life in the ocean; to give her daughter the best life she can. She chose Ruby over a life as a Warrior Queen. This is enough for Ruby to break free from the rocks trapping her and head out to save Agatha and Grandmamah from Nerissa.
  Ruby: STAY AWAY FROM MY MOTHER!
• Gordon helping the Gillman family to stop Nerissa and capture her.
• Sam defending Ruby when Nerissa hurts her, shows that despite the arguments they both had together, it shows that they care for each other. This is followed up by Agatha throwing one of the houses she was selling earlier at Nerissa to prevent her from going after her son, and to buy Ruby time to recover.
  Sam: Leave my sister alone!
• Ruby saves everyone including her friends, her family and her classmates from being killed by Nerissa.
• Ruby’s friends (Margot, Trent, and Bliss) adoring her kraken form while she was fighting Nerissa after being saved by her. Connor even smiles at her. Margot then warns Ruby when Nerissa comes back to hurt her.
• Agatha's apology to Ruby:
  Agatha: Ruby, I’m sorry. I was wrong. I should have trusted you with the truth, and so from now on, no more lying.
  Ruby: And no more hiding. (Ruby and Agatha embrace. Grandmamah joins them)
• After getting sidelined by both Agatha and his mother throughout most of the movie, Brill gets in on a family group hug with them at the end, with Grandmamah telling that "It's Brill's time now" and Brill being happy about it that he waited 15 years for this, and tears up happily.
• After the battle with Nerissa, Agatha lets Ruby go to prom. She arrives in a beautiful, sea-themed dress and is hailed as a hero by all the prom-goers, all the while making up with her friends ("Squad solidarity?" "Squad solidarity!") and finally asking Connor to go out with her.
  • Remember when Ruby wanted to ask Connor out using Quadratic Equations? Well, Connor replies to Ruby's offer with the exact same thing and does so rather flawlessly.
  Ruby: Wait. Connor, are these quadratic derivative graphs?
  Connor: Let's just say I had a good tutor.
  • Even after Connor discovered Ruby is a kraken, he didn't mind, he wasn't afraid of her, nor did he find her disgusting. He always liked her even before knowing her true kraken form. True boyfriend material, folks.
• Grandmamah meeting and bonding with Sam in the finale:
  Sam: Do your tentacles shoot poison? Have you wrestled a hydra? Or better yet, have you ever played dodgeball?!
  Grandmamah: Oh, I am gonna like you!
• Ruby and Connor becoming an Official Couple. When Ruby is informed about a "devil whale" was afoot by her uncle, Ruby asks Connor to hold her books and leaves. A second later, she comes back to give him a kiss on the cheek. Awww.
• In an alternative deleted scene, after Ruby, in her kaiju form, saves everyone on the prom boat, she looks at them, ashamed of finally revealing her true colors. Connor is the first one who recognizes her, and makes her blush. They exchange a smile at each other for a couple of seconds.