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  • Abandon Shipping:
    • After "Rock This Town" and "The Bitterest Pill", it's pretty rare to find anybody who ships JT with anybody other than Liberty.
    • Once Eli hit the scene, most of the KC/Clare fans and Clare/Declan fans jumped ship.
    • Declan/Holly J was mostly abandoned after Love Lockdown, as most fans were uncomfortable with Declan pressuring Holly J into having sex.
    • After the Bite Your Tongue promo was released, most Zig/Maya fans jumped ship to Campbell/Maya.
    • Most people dropped the Zoe/Miles and Zoe/Zig ships when she firmly came out as gay in #OMFG
    • Fans of Lola/Tiny mostly jumped ship when he finally chose Shay over her at the end of season 2.
    • Just about anyone who shipped Emma/Peter stopped after Peter framed Sean for possession and got him suspended.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • In addition to the many slash-themed ones out there, it's common to have the Emma/Sean relationship be interpreted as Emma abusing Sean. Emma also abuses Manny, for the anti-Emma crowd. Rick is seen as having a mental illness, usually bipolar disorder. Alex is seen as a case of Rape and Switch because her mom was abused by her dad so she Does Not Like Men and is therefore a lesbian. When Manny was going back and forth between shipping Semma and Pemma, was it all just an Evil Plan to get revenge on Peter?
    • Zoe dating Zig and Miles is brought into question after she comes out as a lesbian, considering both had been paired with Maya. Did Zoe have a crush on Maya and deliberately go after boys that Maya liked because she didnā€™t want to see her with anyone else? For what it's worth, Zoe's actress herself proposed this theory.
      • Did some of Zoeā€™s extreme cruelty towards Frankie in Season 14 stem from unresolved anger over Frankie victim blaming Zoe for her sexual assault during two moments Zoe was especially needing support?
  • Angst? What Angst?:
    • Despite having every reason to be angsty, Toby is still optimistic and a good friend. However, this might be due to being Out of Focus.
    • Similar to the above, Liberty was remarkably well-adjusted considering what she went through in Seasons 5 and 6... then again, this could be due to lack of screentime.
    • Zane, when anyone other than Riley is dishing out the insults.
    • After bullying Maya and endangering her life, and writing her on his kill list Hunter has no problem bonding with Maya.
    • During season 6, Ashley, Spinner, and Jimmy are all held back and have to repeat their senior year all over again. This fact is only barely referenced, and none of them seem to suffer any form of embarrassment or frustration about this (although in Ashley's case, she chose to go to England instead of graduating with her friends).
  • Archive Panic: Even when there were only three seasons it would usually take a whole weekend for The-N to air all the episodes during their annual "every Degrassi ever" marathon. By the original series's close, there were hundreds of episodes to go through (due in large part to Seasons 10-13 doubling the length of earlier seasons by having 40-45 episodes per season), and the reboot pushes the series to well over 400 episodes, meaning you'd likely need an entire summer vacation or more of nothing but Degrassi nonstop to even attempt such a marathon again. And then there are the original series that Viacom doesn't have the rights to...
  • Ass Pull: Most fans' reactions to Grace pretending to be gay for Zoe, considering that for most of their time before that they were very close to each other and seemed to be essentially an official couple.
    • Spinner and Emma getting married without proper buildup, prior chemistry, or even any previous interactions to justify the pairing getting together is considered one of the most hated decisions in the show's history. The couple turning up later still married is also seen as the writers covering their asses to justify the unpopular turn rather than just having them get a divorce or annulment.
    • Though Jay had a couple of Pet the Dog moments, he was an overall toxic friend and ruthless bully who drove good characters into doing terrible things, up to and including bullying Rick to the breaking point before manipulating him into taking it out against Jimmy. Thus, many found his Heelā€“Face Turn with Manny lazy, undercooked, or just coming from out of nowhere; additionally, that he still suffered few consequences for a lot of shit that he pulled also made his happy ending with Manny even more hard to swallow. The fact that Peter enjoyed a successful Heelā€“Face Turn that was foreshadowed better and was much better-received by the fanbase made the sudden, abrupt change even more glaring.
  • Base-Breaking Character:
    • Spinner. You love him or hate him.
    • Fans either really LOVE Fitz or really HATE him...
    • Eli. Some love him for being a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and love his cute relationship with Clare with others hate him for being a wangsty Jerkass and find his relationship with Clare to be more toxic than cute (see below).
    • Clare and Eli's relationship is probably the most divisive in the show's history. Some see it as deeply romantic, whereas some see it as abusive and unrealistic.
    • Imogen. Even before she even appeared on the show. Although she became popular once she mellowed.
    • Poor Katie. To do everything right for a guy only to have him dump your for his ex. But did he use her for sex before leaving her for good or, given that he was drunk at the time, did she unintentionally rape him? It's definitely a bit hazy, given that he was definitely drunk, but he was able to behave so clearheaded that one would be forgiven for thinking he was sober. Regardless, this, in addition to how she took his rejection, definitely turned a number of viewers off to her.
    • Esme. Some fans find her a sympathetic character dealing with untreated mental illness while others think her mental illness doesn't excuse her behaviour.
    • Mr. Yates/Tristan. Fans think it's either a squicky portrayal of a predator preying on his underage student or a cute ship that's a victim of double standards since opposite-sex student/teacher relationships have happened in the past.
    • Tristan/Miles. Their kiss split the fandom in two, between people who saw it coming and love it versus people who hate the idea. Some members of the fandom love them, some think their entire relationship is based on manipulation and abuse.
    • Baringsworth (Yael/Hunter). Either it will be used as a device for Hunter's development or be a complete mess due to Hunter having hit her twice. Although, he was sort of redeemed when he went into a mental hospital and figured out he had issues such as depression.
    • Spike, like in the previous series, but for different reasons here. Depending on who you ask, she is either one of the best parents on the show who was extremely supportive to her daughter and was very progressive and non-judgmental, or a co-dependent piece of trash who put way too much responsibility on her daughter and lied to her about her mentally ill biological father. Much like with the original series, the negative criticism of Spike is viewed as a bit too harsh and unnecessary.
    • Connor. Some fans find him an Adorkable character whose behavior can at least partially be justified due to him being a Hormone-Addled Teenager with Asperger's (which causes people to act a certain way) while others find him to be an (unintentionally) offensive portrayal of the disorder with him stealing girl's underwear being seen as tasteless and making him come off as Unintentionally Unsympathetic to some fans.
  • Broken Base: Various arguments over which characters should get more screen time, or less screen time. Usually these arguments involve characters already getting more A plots than most of the cast needing more plots or arguing characters should just leave due to being a waste of space. And that's without bringing shipping into the equation.
    • It's also not uncommon to see arguments crop up about where the show faced Seasonal Rot, if any. Some think the quality declined after season four, others think after season six (another divisive season), while others believe it didn't until well after the original cast graduated, and with that there comes plenty of discussion over when the show improved again — if you believe it did; there are also those who believe the show was only good when the original cast was still in school.
    • From a character standpoint, Craig, Miles, and especially Eli get this from viewers. Half the fanbase sees them as romantic and misunderstood heartthrobs with tragic pasts who deserve sympathy, the other half views them as emotionally disturbed, borderline sociopathic manipulators and abusers who continued to receive storylines and screentime long after they outstayed their welcome.
    • The Questionable Consent in "Come As You Are". Did Katie actually rape Drew while he was blackout drunk? Or was he aware enough to consent to have sex?
  • Cargo Ship: Zig and his corndog, known as Zorndog.
    • Jake and his love of chicken has been a popular meme, even being called Jicken.
  • Crack Pairing: Paige showed some interest in Sean in season 1. All the Sean/Paige fanfics out there would make you believe they got together.
    • Believe it or not, Spinner and Emma did have some fanfics written about them long before Degrassi Takes Manhattan based purely on the possibility of them having chemistry even though they had barely interacted and the admittance that the ship would never be canon. Who could have thought that, years later, they'd end up getting (and staying) married instead of hooking up with any partner they'd had a history with?
    • Clare and Sav have become a popular fan pairing, despite the two never actually interacting on the show.
    • Eli and Marisol have also become a popular crackship on Degrassi Twitter despite the two interacting only once.
    • Aislinn Paul (Clare) ships Clare and Fiona
  • Creator's Pet: Mia and Emma are two of the more commonly cited examples, due to their amount of screentime and constant shilling; also Craig ended up receiving a lot of backlash in response to all the attention he was given. Eli, Spinner and Clare became one in later seasons.
  • Die for Our Ship: Just about any character that gets in the way of their preferred couple.
    • Emma is often portrayed as abusive by Ellie/Sean shippers, while Ellie is often portrayed as an annoying goth by Emma/Sean shippers. Additionally, though Peter was no saint before his Heelā€“Face Turn, some Emma/Sean shippers treated Peter like an irredeemable sociopath, while Emma/Peter shippers attacked the other pairing's dynamic for being boring and overdone.
    • Manny is often portrayed as a slut by Craig/Ash shippers, while Ashley is often portrayed as frigid by Craig/Manny shippers, many of whom make it clear that it's unique to Craig/Ash, not Jim/Ash or Sean/Ash.
    • And Craig/Ellie shippers have issues with both Manny and Ash.
    • Jenna was one of the most hated characters in Degrassi history, largely because she broke up KC/Clare... until the introduction of Eli instantly patched over any hard feelings from the breakup as Eli/Clare became more popular than the first ship could ever hope to be (Speaking against EClare in ANY way became blasphemy in the world of fandom LONG before Eli was ever featured in an episode) Afterwards, Jenna was treated better by the fandom when her pregnancy and KC's treatment of her put her in a more sympathetic light. Until she got in the way of KC/Bianca shippers, but some of that might just be Bianca's allure talking.
    • Writers inserted Sav in the aftermath of the split between power couple Holly J/Declan. His fanbase wasn't great to begin with, but Sav haters increased significantly after this. People who didn't care about him before suddenly had lists of reasons why he was a horrible character.
    • Mia, just... Mia... besides being a Creator's Pet, she got in the way of JT/Liberty and Peter/Darcy. It's almost like the writers were asking for it.
    • At a recent cast party (the one in Montclair), the entire room booed every time Jake was mentioned— except for when Clare told him she wasn't ready for sex, setting up for their eventual breakup. It got to the point where Munro Chambers, the actor who played Eli, basically yelled at the fans to shut up (mostly because the actor who plays Jake is his real life best friend.
    • Katie got this as well, when the show was setting up Drew/Bianca.
    • Tristan is despised by Miles/Lola shippers and interpreted as being comparable to Degrassi's worst villains. While he had a clear unaddressed biphobia issue, for the most part Tristan wasn't any worse of a boyfriend than Miles.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Due to the actor's charisma and the writers' clear affinity for him, Jay enjoyed a pretty big fanbase even before he developed a likable personality, and this was after he'd done some pretty awful things, including bullying Rick to the breaking point and then leading him to believe that the innocent Jimmy was the cause of it, leading to Jimmy's paralysis.
    • Though Peter wasn't looked upon fondly by all, he still had a lot of fans even before his Heelā€“Face Turn while dating Darcy.
    • Craig was probably the first big example of this, based on his tragic backstory and good looks. During the Love Triangle arc with Ashley and Manny in season 3, the fans were split. You either believed Ashley was an uptight, over-dramatic bitch and Craig belonged with Manny, or Manny was a insecure, devious slut and Craig belonged with Ashley. And then when Ellie was added to the mix, haters came out of the woodwork saying how terrible and dreary she was all the time. Craig mainly went through unscathed as the fans fought over which girl belonged with him.
    • Back in the day, fans either did this to Manny or portrayed her as a slut.
    • Drew is this, considering his Jerkass personality and some fans willingness to overlook it.
    • Hunter plots to shoot up the school, physically abuses his crush, and engages in a sexist harassment campaign that could have gotten someone killed. Doesn't dissuade the fans.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: Relationship-wise, Sean/Ash is amazingly popular, despite the fact that they were together for two episodes.
    • Morty, the hearse. Big time.
    • Toby had a surprising number of fans for his day that started off as a joke but later became unironic. So much so that on the now defunct The N website there was a quiz challenging the user to "take [it] to find out if you even DESERVE the Tobester."
    • Wesley developed a surprisingly large fanbase.
    • KC's mother Lisa for being a good parent on top of being a recovering addict.
    • Zane has a large fan following.
    • Liam Berish developed a large legion of fans, despite being a minor character.
    • Jay has become more popular despite (or perhaps due to) of his Jerkass tendencies.
    • Charlie's cat, Mr. Tuxedopants.
    • Grace started off as a minor background character, but her sarcastic nature, unclear sexual orientation, and punk look quickly made her extremely popular. Now she's a main character.
    • When Next Class started, Lola began getting a lot of love from the fanbase for being consistently supportive of her friends, adorable, and funny.
    • Also from Next Class, Saad gained a lot fans after his season 4 storyline.
  • Epileptic Trees: When TeenNick's promotional machine cranks for new seasons and spills just enough information to get fans riled up and leading to this trope. The carnival promo for season 10 is just the perfect example of this.
    • It's canon that Craig's mom died of cancer. Doesn't stop fans from blaming Craig's dad.
  • Esoteric Happy Ending: Spinner and Emma's Accidental Marriage (and deciding to STAY MARRIED). Fans were especially dismayed, because the two characters hardly even interacted before that.
  • Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Spinner's season 4/season 5 storyline is this, especially when they introduce Darcy, Friendship Club, and the Christian motifs.
  • Fan Nickname: The Candy Bandits came from Boycott the Caf; The Breaking Point stuck despite Stephen Stohn's repeated tweets that the second half of season 10 isn't officially called that.
  • Fanon: Much, usually related to sex.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: Quite a few examples.
    • In many fics containing season ten and eleven characters, Fitz still attends Degrassi. Occasionally, Blue and other vanished students will also reappear as if they never left.
    • Marco/Ellie fics remained popular long after Marco came out of the closet. No mention was ever made of what changed his mind. The same has been true for Jalex fics that take place after Alex came out as a lesbian.
    • According to many fans, Spinner never married Emma. Sean came back from Iraq and proposed to Emma and they lived happily ever after. And Spinner forgave Jane and took her back.
    • Fiona/Adam pairing fics are probably the best current example of this trope. In season ten, Adam broke up with Fiona when he realized that she actually wanted a girl and not a (trans) boy. Generally in slash or femslash fics wherein straight characters are made gay or vice versa, the author offers some explanation as to how this happened or why the character had not explored homosexuality/heterosexuality sooner. In most Fadam fics, including ones that take place after their breakup, no explanation is given as to why Fiona is no longer a lesbian and why Adam no longer minds being with someone who might see him as a girl.
      • Similarly, some fans still ship Zoe with Zig and/or Miles, despite Zoe firmly identifying as gay.
    • Some people like to pretend that everything after season 9 never even happened.
    • There are numerous fics in which JT is still alive and he and Liberty live happily ever after.
    • Many fans ignore Snake ever cheating on Spike, considering it just too out-of-character for him for it to be realistic.
    • Plenty of Grace/Zoe fans pretend that Grace never lied about being gay for Zoe and instead is gay or bisexual.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple:
    • Jimmy/Ellie, so much so that the writers caught on and hooked Jimmy up with Ashley.
    • Ever since Secret aired back in season 4, Jay/Emma has been a popular couple, rivaling the show's supercouple Emma/Sean, and is one of the few ships from the TNG years to still have stories written about them.
    • Sean/Ellie was a big one, due to their "outcast" status and similar personalities, though the creator eventually moved on fron that couple to pair Emma with Sean (as mentioned above) and Ellie with Craig.
    • Although Zoe/Rasha has many fans, a big portion of the fandom still prefers Zoe with Grace.
    • Most of the fans prefer Miles with Lola than with Tristan, who was a complete scrappy until the last season of Next Class.
  • First Installment Wins: When speaking to the average Next Generation fan about when was their most-liked time period, overwhelmingly they will say the first four seasons reign supreme, especially since it didn't have or at least focus on Base Breaking Characters (Mia, Peter, Jay, etc.), Emma and Spinner weren't Creators Pets and all of the Super Couples (Sean and Emma, Snake and Spike, Joey and Caitlin, etc.) were still together.
  • Fountain of Memes: Boy howdy. More recently fans of the show have created videos with iconic quotes for each character.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: One of the rare Canadian shows to attain significant popularity in the United States.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • The Asher arc of season 12 (wherein a famous journalist attempts to sexually assault Clare and ends up being reported to police by her and another intern he'd assaulted) has a lot of parallels to the Jian Ghomeshi rape scandal (which took place in 2014, years after the arc ended), in which Toronto-based journalist and media personality Jian Ghomeshi was accused of rape by multiple women and subsequently lost his job and reputation.
    • Miriam McDonald and Cassie Steele revealed in 2021 that they were intensely bullied at the height of the show's popularity, particularly after controversial storylines involving their characters. Steele said people couldn't separate her from her character. Miriam McDonald was also going through an eating disorder in real life at the same time that Emma was and felt that the show's writers and producers did a disservice by glossing over it so quickly.
    • Dave made his final appearance in the episode "Young Forever," an episode centered around Adam's loved ones following his unexpected death. Jahmil French passed away in 2021 at the age of 29.
      • In a season 12 episode while Alli is abusing pills, she briefly hallucinates Dave. After she begins to yell at him, Dallas tells her that no one's there. The next time Alli turns around, the hallucination of Dave has disappeared and all she sees is an empty chair.
    • Holly J's mother accusing Declan of assaulting her daughter and calling him out for being unable to control himself seemed petty and unfair in season 9. But come Love Lockdown...
    • In season 1, Jimmy takes Spinner's Ritalin as a performance-enhancing drug. While on it, he breaks Sean's leg. In season 4, Jimmy is shot by Rick (and loses the use of his legs), who is then shot (fatally) by Sean.
    • Toby and Sean speculate that Ms. Hatzilakos is having an affair with Mr. Armstrong despite the fact he's married. JT quickly shuts this down, saying she's not "like that." Three seasons later, she has an affair with the married Mr. Simpson.
      • From the same episode, Mr. Hatzilakos points out to JT that he needs to apply himself and get into college in order to secure the career he wants. It's heartbreaking to hear while rewatching, because JT is stabbed to death late in his high school years, and as such never graduates high school or goes to college.
    • In "The Mating Game", Paige casually says that "not everyone will wait until marriage" to have sex. In the next season she gets raped by Dean.
    • In "Dressed In Black" Toby jokingly remarks that J.T doesn't need an XL condom. A few seasons later, J.T gets Liberty pregnant after his king size condom slipped off.
    • Any remarks about what J.T would do when he was older, considering he was stabbed to death in season six when he was sixteen.
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight: In a season thirteen episode, ZoĆ« mentions that despite her character Gatsby being crowned Prom Queen in the show, she never got to attend prom for herself. Then, in season four of Next Class, ZoĆ« and her girlfriend are crowned Prom Queens- made doubly heartwarming when you realize that ZoĆ« finally got the acceptance and love sheā€™s always wanted from her peers, simply by growing into a better, kinder person and accepting who she is.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • While he is making a point, any of the times Jimmy dismisses turning his art skills into a career because "the arts are not a practical career field to go into". In another episode, Jimmy also considers submitting a guest rap demo Ashley cut from her recording list for himself but eventually chooses not to go into music. Compare all of this to how big Drake's music career has become in real life.
      • Likewise, Ashley initially asks Jimmy to guest rap on a demo song to sign with a recording label, but when she gets signed she reveals she cut that track from her record because she didn't want to continue being known as an associated actnote . With the success of Drake's music, one can see it as either a missed opportunity for Ashley or proof she may have had a point.
    • In one episode in the first season, Emma asks Liberty "What are those?" in reference to the latter's red cowboy boots. Cut to 2015 where that saying became popular.
    • Numerous times in Seasons Thirteen and Fourteen, Zoe assumes that Winston is gay. Much later in Season Two of Next Class, Zoe starts to realize that she's a lesbian and dates Winston to cover it up and lie to herself.
    • Zig and Tiny tease Maya at the beginning of season Fourteen about Maya "turning Miles gay". Cut to Next Class and Zig is Zoe's last sexual encounter with a man before coming out as a lesbian.
    • In an early Season Thirteen episode, Tristan and Zoe argue over whose "team" Miles plays for. In season one Degrassi Next Class, Miles runs for school president with the campaign slogan "I play for all teams!" and would come out as bisexual.
    • At one point in Season Thirteen, Tristan tells Miles that Zoe has never been good with boys- turns out there's a good reason why.
    • In a Halloween episode, Bianca makes the acidulous suggestion that as the "virgins," Katie and Clare should sacrifice themselves to appease the slasher. Bianca's main love interest, Drew, would, at separate points, end up sleeping with both Clare and Katie.
    • All of Spinner and Emma's very few and trifling or even hostile interactions are a bit funny, now that they're married.
    • In a season one episode of The Next Generation, Emma bemusedly asks Liberty "What are those," referring to a pair of tacky red boots Liberty is wearing. Some fifteen years later....
    • In the school shooting episode, early on Rick makes a gesture (referencing him spray painting an "X" on his bullies' car windows) with his arms that greatly resembles the Wakanda salute.
    • After breaking up with her early in Season Thirteen, Miles haughtily tells Zoe that he ā€œdoesnā€™t do reruns,ā€ when she tries to talk to him. By the end of the series, Miles has dated, broken up with, and then either pined after or gotten back together with Maya, Tristan, and Zoe herself- apparently he does do reruns!
    • In Season Thirteenā€™s ā€œBasketcase,ā€ Zoe, while drunk, cuddles up to and kisses Frankie, who reacts by smiling awkwardly and blushing, in a way many fans saw as Les Yay that pretty much came out of nowhere. Zoe would turn out to be a lesbian and Frankie would later enter a throuple with Zig and Esme, with most of her attention and affection directed toward the latter.
    • At the height of the show's US popularity, it was a running joke on the internet to refer to TeenNick as "the Degrassi channel" or that the network shows literally nothing but Degrassi all the time. This may have seemed like the case, but it obviously wasn't. Come October 2019, Pluto TV has a channel that shows almost every episode of Degrassi from seasons 1-13 on a continuous loop 24/7. Meaning that now years after the fact, a 24-hour Degrassi actually exists.
    • Clare's line when she was still in her uniform phase being "It's a good thing I'm here for school, and not for boys," becomes hilarious when she's kissed 6 boys, and has one of the most iconic relationships of the show.
  • Hollywood Homely: Clare, Toby, Liberty, Emma (in the earlier seasons...)
  • Hollywood Pudgy: Played with. Manny and Jenna aren't fat by any stretch of the imagination; however their low self-esteem issues make them believe that they are fat. Manny's feelings worsen after a bad audition in "Venus" where she's told to "dump the lumps" and being comparing to tall, willowy Emma.
    • Terri is a straighter example, especially in the first season. She's not that big, but the rest of the girls in the cast are pretty tiny.
  • I Knew It!: The plot of Bittersweet Symphony was hyped up as being shocking and unexpected. Which it would have been, if so many fans hadn't guessed that Cam was going to commit suicide months in advance.
  • It Was His Sled: Almost everyone knows at this point that Jimmy gets shot and JT dies.
  • Jerkass Woobie: After going through anger management after putting Terri in a coma, Rick tries to get a fresh start with the school, but is instantly despised by everyone and bullied mercilessly despite never actually having done anything wrong since his return.
    • Eli is portrayed as this, as he is controlling and uncaring with Clare, and commits multiple felonies against Fitz. The thing is though that the writers don't seem to realize he's a Jerkass.
    • Similarly Drew is this as well. He was pretty unpleasant to begin, but now he's pretty much turned into a raging lunatic.
    • Bianca has a reputation as the school slut with no shame and was more or less rude to everyone but Drew, encourages Drew to take drugs and drop his responsibilities, and publicly outs trans boy Adam which leads to others violently bullying him. But when people from her past come back to her in the present, it shows her dealing with serious, dangerous problems like a violent possessive ex who tries to rape and kill her, and a drug leader who forces her back into the ring by requiring sexual extortion if she doesn't sell for him in exchange for not going after the people she cares about. Once no one has to worry about either anymore, she noticeably takes a nicer turn and tries to better herself.
    • Zoe Rivas is a female example, a controlling, vindictive Alpha Bitch who goes out of her way to bully Maya, with a homophobic Stage Mom and severe loneliness. She also deals with being raped, victim blamed for said rape (by her own friends, some times), having her heart broken by the girl who made her realize her sexuality, self harming to repress her homosexuality, and her mother kicking her out of the house for being a lesbian. The girl is unpleasant, but she goes through a lot. Downplayed in Next Class, where she is less of a Jerkass, but still very much a Woobie.
    • Esme is incredibly manipulative, calculating, and a bad influence on almost everyone she befriends or dates. However, Season 4 of Next Class makes it very clear that she is dealing with some major mental health problems stemming from her Freudian Excuse.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Eli, Clare.
    • Then there's a character like Miles, who has the benefit of being bisexual and who has dated most of the female cast and part of the gay male cast.
    • Lola is headed this way too as of Next Class, with significant portions of fandom shipping her with Miles, Yael, Saad, Tiny and even Hunter (amongst others). Her having turned into the sort of character who often supports other characters with their problems, it's no surprise that she forms enough meaningful bonds for fans to work with.
  • Memetic Badass: Sean, both in-universe and out of universe.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • "I'm going to be an actress. Academy Award-winning. And you can sell this for a million dollars because I am going to be FAMOUS!!!"
    • "Boycott the Caf!"
    • "I... am so... high!"
    • "...this is where I deflowered Clare."
    • "Fitzy needs a date"
    • "You told me... TO PLAY BASKETBALL!!!"
    • "You gave me a social disease!"
    • "Are you high?" "Yes ma'am. Very!"
    • "Do you guys wanna, like blaze?"
    • Eli's pimp cane.
    • Jenna's love of chicken.
    • Last name Walking, first name Never
    • "Polar bears are white, I'm white, and you're racist"!
    • I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry....
    • "I think you have a great taste in hats."
    • "TOO BAD YOU CAN'T CURE BITCH!"
    • "I'm freezing. Who's gay?"
    • "It's New York, Holly J bitch!"
    • "Bummer times. At least there's a party."
    • "Paws off my fries, dawg!"
    • "Did you flip a switch and erase me from your memory?!"
    • Holly J's love for a taco screenshot has become a reaction image.
    • "I can't date you unless Adam liked you first", became a saying in the fandom when fans realized that Drew went out with every girl Adam had a crush on first.
    • Fans get a lot of mileage at Mr. Simpson's reactions whenever he sees his students nude.
    • The screenshot of Clare on the phone when Darcy's stalker shows up ("Hello? 9-1-1?") has became a popular reaction image.
    • A real life example which is Stefan Brogren's favorite reply to the Degrassi No Context Twitter page being "I live this scene, one of my favorites to direct".
    • After Aubrey Graham became more famous as a rapper than an actor, the scene of Jimmy getting shot is often jokingly referred to as a hit by one of his rivals in Hip-Hop, usually Pusha T or Meek Mill.
  • Mis-blamed: Spinner didn't exactly shoot Jimmy. Then again, he did help set up the paint and later pinned it on Jimmy...
    • Many Degrassi fans wrongly blamed Zig for Cam's suicide despite the fact he had no way of knowing Cam was depressed and later expressed remorse over what he said in the heat of the moment. Occasionally, Maya and Dallas are also blamed.
  • Narm:
    • "Are we gonna party? I think I need another bracelet."
    • "I'm gay. I'm totally, totally gay."
    • "I'm just a big, stupid loser."
    • "My dad used to yell at me!"
    • "I'm crazy, haven't you heard? I'M A CRAZY SLUT!" So much so that Shenae Grimes makes fun of her own acting in this scene.
    • Clare's entire "DID YOU EVER LOVE ME AT ALL!?" speech to Eli in Lovegame, on so many levels...
    • After Riley consults a man on how to "cure" his homosexuality, he tells Fiona about it at school. Fiona responds negatively, and says something along the lines of "Riley, you can't cure being gay" Riley in turn SHOUTS back with "TOO BAD YOU CAN'T CURE BITCH!".
    • "This is ECSTASY!"
    • In "Pride" part 2, when Spinner is writing homophobic graffiti on the boy's room wall about Marco, a disgusted Jimmy then openly asks if he's going to next write something about himself being Black. While it's supposed to call Spinner out on his bigotry, it moreso leads to the next obvious joke of him instead writing "Jimmy is Black".
  • Narm Charm: Some of the minis can fall into this category.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Now has it's own page.
  • No Yay: Darcy flirting with Mr. Simpson, Mr. Simpson hooking up with the principal.
    • Most fans- especially if they ship either Zig/Maya or Zoe/Grace (or are just big fans of Grace and Zig's friendship)- cringed when Grace confessed to Zoe that she liked him and especially when she kissed him
  • One True Pairing: It's a given that there are dozens of these considering the number of hookups on the show, but the most memorable power couples that still top popularity rankings include Sean and Emma (pretending that Spinner never happened), Paige and Alex, Craig and Ellie, and J.T. and Liberty. Clare and Eli were also immediately popular at a time when the writers were still testing the waters of chemistry among the new students, and the couple quickly joined the ranks of the aforementioned power couples.
    • Zig and Maya definitely qualified during their time on the show. Stephen Stohn later confirmed them as endgame.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
    • Manny went from being thought of as a slut to Only Sane Man.
    • Ashley has been Vindicated by History of sorts, as many fans now take her depressive moods more seriously than they did back when the show aired as they were dismissed as her being overdramatic. Her anger and feelings/actions towards Craig have been seen more in a positive light as well.
    • Peter was widely disliked due to the infamous incident with Manny's topless tape and actively getting in the way of One True Pairing Sean/Emma (including planting drugs in the former's locker). His popularity improved a lot when he started dating Darcy and supported her through her rape.
    • Chantay, who was disliked for being moving scenery and annoying until season 9 when she was given more of a personality and then later became Power Squad captain and a Class Representative.
    • Jenna seems to have become rather popular in season 11, and she's becoming even more well-liked for her relationship with Connor in season 12.
    • Fiona wasn't too well-liked in season 9, what with her actions in Degrassi Takes Manhattan, but after some fantastic Character Development in season 10, she remains one of the most popular characters.
    • Imogen seems to be much more popular as a character now in season 12, after her development extended beyond being "Eli's crazy stalker".
    • KC seems to have been Rescued since being Put on a Bus.
    • Mrs. Torres is definitely this, as her warming up to Bianca and becoming a surrogate mother to her helps Bianca improve her schoolwork and she eventually goes to college; she also comes to fully accept Adam's transition to male and allows him to begin the process of taking testosterone. And as the show went on, you can seen how much more she's actively involved and supportive in her children's (and friends') lives compared to many of the other parents. The fandom even affencionately calls her "Mama Torres". It's also really, really hard not to feel awful for her when Adam dies.
    • Zig has also gotten more liked as he atoned for his actions against Cam.
    • Winston after Zoe came out to him.
  • Retroactive Recognition: You know Aubrey Graham, the kid who plays Jimmy? No? Turn on the radio, and wait for a Drake song to come on. Yep. Jimmy got out of his wheelchair and started rapping. Huh.
  • Romantic Plot Tumor: The constant drama between Ashley and Craig grew downright intolerable.
    • Season 6 suffered from this in spades, particularly the last half.
  • Ron the Death Eater: Basically any character gets this treatment by the fandom if they get in the way of a popular ship.
    • Ashley gets the worst of it; she's no meaner than Paige was or any more flawed than anyone else in her class, but the fandom tends to over-exaggerate her Drama Queen qualities as well as vilify her actions no matter how benign (wanting Craig to tell her his true feelings for her before having sex and then being angry when he cheated on her). Though most of this came due to Craig being Degrassi's first major Draco in Leather Pants.
    • Clare does the sane thing and breaks up with Eli after he brings a gun to school and crashes his car to get her by his side, but heā€™s hot and broody so cue fangirlsā€™ cries of ā€œHe risked his life for her! Clareā€™s such a bitch.ā€
    • Jake, to EClare fans, much to Munro Chambers' annoyance as the two actors are close friends.
  • The Scrappy: Every character on the show has their own segment of hatedom amongst the fanbase for various reasons. A few notable examples:
    • Jenna was probably hated more so than any character who has ever appeared on this show (at least initially), due to her interfering with Clare's relationship with KC and her saccharine demeanor.
    • Mrs. Torres in the beginning for being a hyper-concerned know-it-all parent. The fandom's reaction softened as her relationship with Adam was explored.
    • Ashley gets this reaction for her haughty attitude; the hate compounded when she started dating Craig.
    • Leia, for literally doing nothing, and managing to be both bland and bitchy.
    • Imogen, before even appearing on the show, due to the fandom thinking the writers would pair her with Eli. When she was paired with Fiona and given her own plots, her popularity shot up.
    • Marisol, due to being a backstabbing Alpha Bitch.
    • KC hasn't exactly endeared himself to a lot of the fanbase, particularly leaving Clare for the other scrappy Jenna, abandoning Jenna for awhile while she was pregnant, and then emotionally cheating on her with Marisol.
    • Tristan is hated by many for his superficial attitude and his turning his back on Maya even after it was revealed that Maya was right to meddle with his relationship with a teacher. This got worse when he made biphobic comments to Miles. The hate cooled (but didn't completely go away) in the final season of the show, as being badly hurt in the bus accident finally gave him much needed depth.
    • Winston is now probably the biggest Scrappy out of season 11-13 new characters because of his treatment of female characters, especially Frankie whom he doesn't forgive after she was interested in another guy despite that he kissed another girl. This is not helped by his actor's real life behavior.
    • Next Class has Baaz and Vijay. It doesn't help that both characters feel underdeveloped and despite being main characters for four seasons have never had a storyline.
    • Hunter is shaping up to be this as of Next Class season 4. He already had his detractors due to his behavior the first three seasons, but his refusing to accept Yael's gender identity, his treatment of Saad, continued ignorant behavior and having yet to fully redeem himself for his past actions have caused him to have few fans.
    • Ms. Rivas, Zoe's mom took the "scrappy parent" title from Mrs. Torres for being a controlling Stage Mom, being homophobic and disowning Zoe and being a hypocrite.
  • Seasonal Rot: The seasons that get the most flack are seasons 6 through 8.
    • Season 6 is a commonly cited example; this was the first Degrassi season ever to focus on the high school graduates. This was great for fans of the graduate characters in theory, but in practice it just ended up splitting focus between the two settings with hardly any character interaction. This was also the season where fan-favorite JT was killed halfway through the season, causing stories to take a dour turn (not that they couldn't already get dark, but they seemed to Shoo Out the Clowns during this time). Some say the show didn't get better again until season 10, some say earlier.
    • Season 8 clearly hoped to undo some of the issues of the previous seasons by dropping the graduates almost entirely and introducing the "Minor Niners", along with the new Lakehurst transfer students from season 7. However, there was also a new set of high school graduates in the form of Emma, Liberty, and Manny, which meant the show was essentially juggling three generations of students across twenty two episodes - and the last four are actually a TV movie bringing Paige, Marco, Ellie, and Craig back for a very divisive finale plot. Suffice to say, a lot of people were happy when season 9 cut the original cast appearances down to cameos and were able to focus on the new blood, and it's generally well received (apart from, again, a divisive tv movie at the end).
    • After gaining significant acclaim in seasons 10 through 12, the show hit this again in season 13. The first 8 episodes are taken up by a disliked arc that split the cast between Paris and Degrassi during summer break, with the popular and sole transgender character Adam getting killed off at the end of the arc in what many felt was a poorly-thought out move. It's generally agreed that things got better as the show headed back to the school, but the show lost 12 regulars from the last season, consisting of the seniors that graduated in season 12, Jordon Todosey (who only recurred until her character Adam was killed off), Jahmil French, and Alex Steele, on top of Sam Earle leaving towards the end of season 12. This lead to most of that season to be handled by the characters introduced in season 11/12, and the new season 13 characters who were divisive (at least at first) and became something of a Spotlight-Stealing Squad (for example, Zoe goes through seasons worth of trauma and character development despite only being introduced that year). It came to no surprise that the next season had a reduced episode count and then became the final season to air on TeenNick.
  • Ship Mates: After the season 14 finale movie, many fans got behind the idea of "the Holy Trinity", consisting of Zig/Maya, Grace/Zoe, and Tristan/Miles. Aside from liking those couples, many fans like how 2/3 of the couples are same-sex and also how the three couples being together could end the Love Dodecahedron that had consumed most of season 13 and 14 and focus more on the six characters being friends.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: Still very present in the fandom, but nothing can compare to the Great Shipping War that took place during season 3 and didn't end until season 8. Namely, there were five people involved in four parings: Craig/Ashely, Craig/Manny, Sean/Emma, Sean/Ellie, and Craig/Ellie. With the constant back and forth between the characters in question, the Ship Tease, and Romantic Plot Tumors the show put out, the war spanned forums, YouTube, the official TeenNick boards, LiveJournal, and couple specific fansites. Which makes it even more unreal (or pretty damn realistic) that absolutely none of the parings in question made it to Official Couple status.
    • Though not as drama-laden as the above ships, there was a lot of tussling over whether Spinner was better off with Paige (who some preferred with Alex), Darcy (thus butting heads with Darcy/Peter shipper), or Jane (who many want to pretend never cheated on him). His actual future wife never interacting with him enough to even be in the equation).
    • Because the Love Dodecahedron of the newer seasons expanded, the fandom can be regularly divided up into Maya/Zig vs Maya/Miles vs Miles/Tristan vs Zoe/Zig vs Zoe/Miles vs Grace/Zoe.
  • Signature Scene: Rick shooting Jimmy. While already a memorable scene, it became iconic with the rise to fame of the latter's actor.
    • JT getting stabbed is the second most iconic scene, being one of the only other plot points that even non-viewers know about and acting as one of the most intense moments of the show besides the shooting.
  • Stoic Woobie
    • Liberty after JT's death.
    • KC.
  • Strangled by the Red String: Spinner and Emma. These characters barely even interacted before they "fell in love." Whether or not this is a good thing, however, is up to personal interpretation.
  • Take That, Scrappy!: Done twice in the same episode! Manny, The Scrappy on about half the message boards at the time, asks Emma, The Scrappy on the other half of the message boards at the time, why she's hooking up with Jay, and then Emma asks Manny if she should even be talking about this sort of thing. Then Emma gets gonorrhea.
    "Trading Darcy for Mia? That's like trading a Porsche for a bus pass."
    • Fiona's "I will never understand the power that Clare Edwards has over men" works, for those who dislike Clare.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The new cast for most longtime Degrassi TNG fans, but some of them have come on their own would say that most of them have been Rescued from the Scrappy Heap.
  • They Really Can Act: Annie Clark surprised a lot of viewers with her portrayal of Fiona's abuse, alcoholism, and coming out in season 10.
    • Likewise, Jahmil French's acting when Dave tells Alli about Jacinta being hit by a car in the end of Smash Into You really surprised a lot of people with his ability.
    • Demetrius Joyette gives on one hell of a performance in "Bitter Sweet Symphony, Pt. 2" in trying to cope with Cam's suicide and his feelings of guilt and responsibility regarding it.
    • While he was never a bad actor, Eric Osborne really blew people away in Next Class with how well he portrayed Miles' downward spiral, anxiety, drug abuse, and eventual attempts at recovery. Most people agreed he was the stand out from that season.
    • The same goes for Spencer MacPherson within the same season as well, especially his portrayal of Hunter's anger problems after Goldi and the Feminist Club shut down the school's Gaming Club, triggering a breakdown up to the point where he stopped short of a school shooting, courtesy of Miles talking him down from it, in the mid-season finale #SorryNotSorry.
    • Chelsea Clark's portrayal of Esme's Villainous Breakdown, especially during graduation where she destroys a motorcycle she bought for Zig as a last-ditch effort to keep him was a fantastic and absolutely chilling performance.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Season 6 Sean. He comes back, is completely fine from killing a guy, wants Emma, but Peter's with Emma, so Peter frames Sean for "possession". Sean doesn't go to jail yet. Sean challenges Peter to a race and then goes to jail. This is told from Emma's perspective, even though she's really secondary. Sean gets out, and so now there has to be a conflict with Jay. Over what? The shooting? (Jay framed Jimmy for a paint and feathers incident involving Rick; this prompted Rick to go a little nuts. Sean killed Rick.) Not so fast. It's about Emma having "not real sex" with Jay. To finish it off, we have Snake coming to grips with Emma as a sexual being. Feminist moment? It would be. If she didn't have herself making out with Sean as a PowerPoint in his class. Yeah.
    • Together Forever. This could have been a great Liberty episode (which was badly needed, since prior to this, the entire pregnancy storyline focused on JT and was from his POV). Instead, the birth gets pushed back to possibly the shortest subplot in the show's history. The clincher? Craig got the A-plot.
    • The whole KC/Jenna/baby plot itself. KC and Jenna would've been the first teen parents on TNG (not including Mia because we meet her when her daughter is starting school.) to actually keep their baby. Everyone was hoping we would get to see them raise the baby and all the drama that comes along with it, but instead they decide to throw this away and give the baby up for adoption. What good are KC and Jenna now?
    • How would Emma have reacted to school uniforms? By boycotting the caf?
    • Season Two of Next Class sets up Esme and ZoĆ« in a conflict that's also filled with sexual tension and mindgames- who wouldn't want to see see two of the most vindictive, manipulative characters in the show's history in a rivalry- and/or even an eventual relationship? Sadly, there are only two episodes with the two of them interacting.
    • The 500th episode was mostly well-recieved by fans, mainly due to the return of several fan favourites from across Next Generation history. However one thing that stood out was Emma and Spinner never interacting—depsite the fact that both characters return! Many bemoan how it could have been an Author's Saving Throw to show that despite the circumstances, they ended up being a good couple together. Instead, Spinner makes a one-off comment about them still being married, then the whole thing is never mentioned again.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
    • Season 6 has Sirina, a one-off character from the episode "Working for the Weekend." At the end of the episode, it's revealed she was one of the girls Alex bullied, and she's pissed that despite everything Alex has done to her, Alex doesn't even remember her. This would be a sympathetic point - except throughout the episode and before the reveal, Sirina is a complete and utter bitch towards Alex without any provocation whatsoever. To the point of nearly throwing a lacrosse game by not passing to Alex and even checking her to the ground. And to make matters worse, Alex tries twice to be cordial with her but instead Sirina rebuffs her. The "lesson" was supposed to be that even if you change, there will be people whom you hurt that won't be so accepting of it but Sirina was so completely hostile and flat that she ended up one a lot of "worst Degrassi characters" lists.
    • Grace was this for a lot of fans after she reveals that despite seeming very reciprocal to Zoe's feelings, she's straight and has feelings for Zig- meaning that she's essentially been leading on an already confused Zoe. It wasn't helped when she called Zoe a "notorious psychopath," despite knowing exactly what caused Zoe to do what she did.
    • Jane in "Lost In Love". Spinner never really lied to her about not getting into police college. She assumed he did, and never gave him a chance to tell her otherwise. In result, she ends up spending most of the episode upset that he didn't tell her he didn't get in.
  • Values Dissonance: There are a couple of quirks from Canada that don't quite mesh with a U.S. audience:
    • Canada's age of consent is 16, at which point that person can consent to sex with people of any age as long as they are not in a position of power. The "close in age" laws state that someone who is 12 or 13 can consent to sex with someone up to 2 years older than them, and someone 14 or 15 can consent to sex with someone up to 5 years older than them, the exception being that someone cannot consent to sex of any kind with someone in a position of power over them until they are 18. In season 8, Johnny (who was 17) dated Alli (who was 14) and had sex with her. This wasn't treated any differently than any other Degrassi relationship since it's perfectly legal in Canada, but this would have been illegal in some U.S. states (some states do not have close-in-age laws, and so if the age of consent in that state is 16 or 17, sex between a 17 year old and 14 year old is statutory rape). This was addressed in season 13 when Drew (age 18) had sex with Zoe (age 15). Zoe's mother angrily brings up statutory rape, but Simpson tells her that it isn't because of the "close in age" laws. Drew having sex with her was still portrayed as a massive mistake, but it wasn't statutory rape.
    • In Canada, abortion has no legal restrictions, are government-funded and minors can get them without parental consent, a stark contrast to the restrictions and legal battles state by state in the U.S., especially after Roe v. Wade was overruled in 2022 note  In the U.S., abortion continues to be a hot-button social issue compared to Canada where it is more mundane. The season 3 episode "Accidents Will Happen", in which Manny terminates her pregnancy wasn't seen in the U.S. for almost three years after its premiere in Canada. The show didn't tackle the topic again until the show moved to Netflix for Degrassi: Next Class, where they didn't have to deal with the typical television standards and practices.
    • It is generally illegal to gamble in Canada, unless it's overseen by provincial/territorial government, and gambling was totally illegal until 1985. In the US, gambling is legal federally (though online and interstate gambling is restricted) and restrictions vary state by state, but generally does not have the same stigma as it does in Canada. Canada also spends a lot of money and time trying to prevent teenage/adolescent gambling. Episodes that deal with gambling such as "Queen of Hearts", "Sunglasses at Night", and "Drop It Like it's Hot" as seen as boring/low-stakes in the United States (or overdramatic as the police have busted up card games in the latter two episodes), but in Canada, the teens are participating in illegal activity, which would make it worthy of a issue-of-the-week episode.
  • What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: At it's core, the show is meant as an educational program that portrays teen issues in a realistic way. However, as time went on and the audience aged with the show, Degrassi started tackling harder issues complete with some eyebrow-raising moments. One episode would be about your basic slice of life high school issues and the other episode would be about a gay character considering having sex with older men for money to deal with his crippling loneliness. It didn't help that the show aired on a Nickelodeon network in the US.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Ashley's dad's wedding is simultaneously pro-gay rights and Canadian nationalism.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: While both running for student body president. Sav and Holly both have posters that resemble real-life political propaganda. So, a vote for Sav is a vote for Barack Obama, and a vote for Holly J. is a vote for Chairman Mao.
  • Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: Hoo boy.
    • Ashley took back Craig more than enough times after he cheated with Manny (unprotected) and attempted to justify it by pointing to how "prude" Ashley was. Taken to the logical extreme in season 5, when Ashley's best friend Ellie who has been up to this point very anti-Craig starts to fall in love with Craig.
    • In season 7, Mia and Lucas get back together for about an episode. Lucas is the one who impregnated her at thirteen then completely ditched her and did zero to help support his child.
    • Going back to Craig, Manny took him back almost as many times as Ashley. Even though he lied to her, had unprotected sex which led to her brief pregnancy, and lied about his coke addiction while leading her and Ellie on at the same time. Luckily she realized that he was not worth her time.
    • When Johnny DiMarco leaves Alli to avoid the humiliation of telling Holly J he's dating a ninth grader, she takes him back and even takes nude photos of herself to get him to stop ignoring her in front of his friends. When he breaks up with her, shows the pictures to all his friends, and admits that he lied about being a virgin she still needs convincing not to go back to him.
    • Alex's mother's bailed her boyfriend Chad out of jail even after he not only beat her, but also falsified credit cards, landing them in severe debt. To make it worse, the money she used was money Alex had earned as a stripper, planning to use it to keep them from being evicted from their house. Alex promptly calls her out on it.
    • Zig. In season 13, Maya seems willing to take him back despite the fact that he cheated on her friend to get with her, bullied her previous boyfriend, and is generally somewhat of a jerk. He also has a very bad entitlement complex with maya and when spurred insults her
    • Miles in general. He spends much of his time on the show going from relationship to relationship with his girlfriends and boyfriend blaming each other instead of him when it all goes wrong. Some of his actions include: nearly cheating on Maya with ex-girlfriend, Zoe, pointing a fake gun at his romantic rival's head knowing full well that his behavior already frightens Maya, attempting to hook up with Maya while seeing Zoe, outing his own relationship with Tristan and making him feel used and that's only the half of it. The fact that he doesn't apologize for these things hasn't exactly endeared him to some fans. Despite his behavior, all three of Miles's exes have been shown to pine for him once their relationships ended as he bounced back by entering a new relationship.
    • Winston. In season 14, he cheated on Frankie with Lola and never came clean about it. He later demanded forgiveness and called her a psycho when she attempted to test his fidelity. Needless to say, most fans jumped ship during this season.
  • The Woobie: Almost everyone has been The Woobie at some point.

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