Not usually, but Raven does have moments of awkward cuteness. In "Cupid Comes Clean...Kinda" her recently-developed crush on Dexter causes her to do things like mess up a potion because she was distracted from gazing at him dreamily.
Hopper manages to be dorkily cute in both forms, either as an extremely awkward teenage boy, or as an eloquent little frog in a bow-tie.
Apple White: a Politically-Active Princess who only wants what's best for everyone, or a petty manipulative Rich Bitch who's obsessed with the status quo and will do anything to get her Happily Ever After? Your opinion sees to vary based on which side you agree with. To some people, Apple is a perfectionist who believes everything must be done in a single way, or everything in the universe gets thrown into chaos.
Similarly, is Raven Queen right in rebelling against the status quo and is her encouraging others to abandon their pre-determined destiny an altruistic move, or is she selfishly putting everyone else's lives and happiness at risk for her own benefit?
Is Darling actually Apple's 'prince' or did the curse undo itself because of the CPR? Of course, the fact that CPR coded as true love's kiss is a well-established trope and nobody would question the ship's canonicity if a boy had saved Apple in the same way makes this a weighted question.
On a meta level, is Chase Redford Darling's love interest that got overrun by Darling/Apple or is he a Romantic False Lead that was never meant to be Darling in the first place? Is Darling bisexual and had the series continued we would've gotten a Bisexual Love Triangle?
The dolls themselves, at least at their peak. While it's clear the majority of the design budget went into the clothing, preventing lots of varied doll sculpts like those which made sister brand Monster High stand out, that costume budget focus has spectacular results. With so much attention to the costuming, the dolls have a vintage opulent style with outfits that have presence, antique-style aged color wash paint on accessories, and color palettes that lent the dolls a sense of refinement while still being colorful and distinct full of whimsy and fantasy drama. Ever After High dolls might have been the only playline fashion dolls that could accurately be described as baroque.
The animated series, produced by Guru Studios, is pretty astoundingly high-quality for toy-based web animations, with beautiful backgrounds, rich lighting compositing, and expressive and very detailed character models that often look better than the box art for the dolls.
Awesome Ego: Nobody in the school is as good as Daring at being a dashing heroic prince, but nobody in HISTORY is as good as Daring thinks he is. Despite this, his amusing ego combined with more focus on the genuinely friendly, chivalrous, and surprisingly sensitive guy beneath the bluster has made Daring increasingly popular as time has gone on.
The biggest one is Apple White. For some fans she is an adorable, sweet and kind character who genuinely cares about her fellows, including her designated enemy Raven Queen; for others, she is a rather selfish and annoying spoiled brat and a less interesting and more bland character compared with Raven. Also many fans are divided on whether she's a Parody Sue or a played-straight Purity Sue.
Raven's legacy day decision to Screw Destiny is controversial in and out of universe. Some fans see her just as selfish as others see Apple, and that she has basically forced Apple to give up her destiny just to remain friends. Others point out that her intended destiny was legitimately horrible, and that she was only trying to avoid a Fate Worse than Death.
Dexter's been somewhat controversial as well. While a number of fans enjoy him as a level-headed Nice Guy, there are also a number of fans that feel he's the least interesting boy in the cast because his awkwardness comes across as bland compared to Daring being a vain but good-natured Jerk with a Heart of Gold, Hopper's more amusing consequences of getting tongue-tied, and Sparrow being an amusing Jerkass. Some fans also find his romance with Raven to be forced and dull, while others think they have good chemistry together.
Ashlynn is one due to how generic some fans find her. Doesn't help that once her and Hunter's secret relationship arc concluded Ashlynn lost a lot of focus.
Alistair Wonderland and Bunny Blanc have started to become this due to their dolls lacking detail (not to mention Bunny's eye wonk) and their mutual Cannot Spit It Out romance being their biggest, or in Bunny's case, only defining characteristic. While some fans find this romance to be downright adorable, others find it to be irritating, particularly when their personalities are otherwise lacking- which is also debated amongst fans, as some like them as they are, enjoying Bunny's sweetness and Alistair's cleverness. For what it's worth, a good amount of the hate around Alistair, at least, was from before people saw him in Spring Unsprung. His more detailed webisode design and clever, charming personality helped fans warm up to him a good bit.
Even Ginger gets this as some feel her arc is too similar to Raven's.
Brooke Page and her meddling in the plots of the specials. She either comes off as amusing or annoying.
The O'Hair twins are a mild example, but some fans wish they would be featured less in merchandise in order to allow more prominent characters into the spotlight.
Ramona Badwolf due to her introduction in Dragon Games coming out of nowhere and her never being hinted at before despite being the sister of Cerise. While her being Cerise's sister does get a hint in Justine's diary, some fans consider it to be too small and almost offhanded.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In "Epic Winter," when the heroes are stuck in an enchanted sleep, the dream they have (before Crystal is woken up by her nightmare/vision of where the Winter Rose is) is essentially a music video they stuck in for no reason other than to advertise that the special had a song based off of it.
The series is pretty much designed to do this by asking the viewers to choose between the Royals and the Rebels, and giving both sides pretty good points. For the Rebels, the series shows that many characters would end up in very dismal fates if they followed their destiny, even Royals like Briar Beauty who would sleep for a hundred years and wake up with everyone she knows and loves long gone. For the Royals, the series shows that many characters have responsibilities that come with their destiny, such as Lizzie Hearts who is destined to rule Wonderland, and the dire consequences should they not take their rightful place.
Broken between those who like the webisodes, those who like the books, and those who like both. A common complaint is that the webisodes lack the depth of the books and play some characters, like Apple, as flanderized versions.
Dragon Games has proven quite divisive with the fandom because of things like whether it was better or worse than Way Too Wonderland and the fairly large amount of new characters introduced with little more than a few lines as introduction, some of which didn't even get that. Of course the biggest arguing point is Darling waking Apple from her curse after her brother, Daring, failed. Does this mean Darling is Apple's true Love? Does it count as a kiss if it was suppose to be CPR? Is this proof Apple is a lesbian? etc, etc.
Much like its sister series, the massive amount of puns is either unbearable or part of the shows charm.
The new faces in 2016. Are they better because they give the characters more life? Or are they childish, condescending, and creepy compared to the old faces, which were more dignified?
Catharsis Factor: Considering Apple seems to get away with being selfish, fans finally rejoiced in Dragon Games when Raven angrily calls Apple out for being selfish (and she can only retort with "At least my mom will be proud of me") and again, and this time it's a "The Reason You Suck" Speech that gives Apple a Despair Event Horizon.
The daughter of Little Bo Peep, despite being a very minor character.
In fact, several of the background characters seem to have their own little fanbases, in spite of most of them not having any lines or even being named. Of note are: an Indian-looking girl in golden clothes, a black-and-red haired girl in a red dress, a dark blonde girl in winter-themed clothes, a silver-haired girl with Odango, a red-hoodie wearing boy with wavy hair, a long-haired dark skinned boy in black clothes, a girl with a pink-and-purple bob, a dark-skinned girl with a fur collar, a girl with short red-and-black hair, and a set of twin girls.
Judging from the amount of fanart she gets online and how many stories there are centered around her, Kitty seems to be pretty popular as well.
Evil!Apple, it's scary how competent and efficient she is in destroying Ever After.
The Evil Queen (particularly as Mira Shards) and Faybelle Thorn could also count as examples. Both are relatively popular with the fanbase.
"Evil Raven" has a lot of fans.
Fandom Rivalry: There's an intense one with Disney's Descendants series due to the franchises being extremely similar. It got worse when Ever After High was cancelled barely a year after Descendants came out, with many fans thinking Disney intentionally sabotaged Ever After High.
The idea of Daring Charming being destined to be the Beast rather than Apple White's king was quite prevalent in the fandom, and was almost treated as canon by many despite not actually being so, even before it was canonized.
Apple being gay is also something that is almost treated as canon, and of course most fans assume she is one-sidedly in love with Raven.
The scene where Darling 'kisses' Apple definitely did not help matters. CPR or no, it worked.
Darling being a lesbian (or bisexual) is almost equal in prominence among the fandom, especially after Dragon Games.
A backgrounder with dark skin and a fur collar is speculated to be Cerise's cousin.
Apple suffers from mockery (either from her parents or other adults) or Internalized Categorism due to her blonde hair.
Its very common in the fandom to see Raven interpreted as at least partially Asian.
Foe Yay Shipping: One of the more popular pairings in the Periphery Demographic is Apple/Raven, with their clashing viewpoints sometimes being considered to resemble Belligerent Sexual Tension. Helped by neither Raven nor Apple actually hating the other (and both have in fact claimed to love the other), with nearly all of their conflict stemming from trying to get the other to see their point of view.
A meta example in-universe is in the webisodes, Raven tried and failed to find a replacement for her story. Later, we find Headmaster Grimm doing the same thing in the second book series, choosing Duchess as a possible replacement for Raven.
Disney Parks released a line of "Attractionistas" dolls as souvenirs from some of their popular rides. The Mad Tea Party ride got "Maddie", who has teal and purple hair, a teacup-and-saucer hat, and a polka-dot theme. Sound familiar?
Many fans had predicted that should the time come Daring's Kiss would not awaken a cursed Apple, which is exactly what happens in Dragon Games. Many had also guessed it would either be Raven or Darling to be the one to awaken the cursed princess, turns out it was Princess Charming to the rescue.
Before her doll and concept were revealed, many fans predicted that Rosabella and Briar were related.
Daring becoming the Beast had been a fan favorite theory for a long time, so the reveal in Epic Winter was met with many squeels of delight.
To some extent, Sparrow Hood seems to be this, surprisingly enough. While Sparrow is most commonly paired with Duchess, he's also been paired with Melody, Poppy, Cupid, Dexter, Hunter, and even Maddie. That said, Duchess/Sparrow is by far his most common pairing.
Don't forget Blondie, a small bit of the fandom loves it. The fact they have the most positive interaction out of Sparrow and the female students, sure doesn't help.
Though, due to the high ratio of females to males, nearly every male character has the potential to be this.
Darling Charming is shaping up to be this.
LGBT Fanbase: This show has a rather large following among young queer women, mainly because of the buckets upon buckets of Les Yay, several characters being easily interpreted as gay, and the fact that Darling and Apple have kissed in canon (okay, technically CPR, but most of the fandom agrees that's only the censor-friendly explanation. The imagery is very deliberate). The high female-to-male ratio helps, too.
Moe: Almost all of the female characters (especially the Royals). Apple, Ashlynn, Blondie, Madeline and Bunny in particular are seen as especially huggable. The fandom takes Ashlynn's moe and runs with it.
More Popular Spin-Off: Monster High was extremely popular and influential when launched, but it didn't take long for Ever After High to eclipse it in popularity. This was later subverted in the late 2010s due to Mattel promoting Monster High over Ever After High.
Despite the fact that they are pretty much in a Happily Arranged Marriage, most fans don't seem to support Daring/Apple, since the majority of fans ship them with others. It doesn't help that they barely interact and have a lot more Ship Tease with others. And now there's the fact that Daring wasn't Apple's Prince Charming in the first place, as his kiss wasn't able to wake her up after biting on a poisoned apple.
A lot of fans feel this way about Dexter/Raven, mostly due to similar reasons for Daring/Apple (stated above) as well as many fans just not liking Dexter.
Or maybe it's because they ship Cupid/Dexter. A lot of fans also say Cupid's too much of The Woobie (not that Raven also isn't but Cupid's more relatable) to ship Raven/Dexter.
A less extreme variant with the Bunny/Alistair ship being disliked for being seen as just plain boring by many fans.
Raven's mother, the Evil Queen, was sealed inside her own magic mirror after her story ended. This may have come from Fairest of All, which shows the same thing befalling the movie's Grimhilde.
This is also the case with the series premise of a Fairy Tale character trying to change the tale as Happily Never After showed us.
Rainbow Lens: Cerise is half-wolf and hides her ears behind her hood. Fans have taken this as either an allegory for being LGBTQ or an allegory for being chronically ill.
Ship Mates: Those who ship Raven/Dexter will ship Apple/Darling, those who ship Apple/Raven will ship Dexter/Cupid and Daring/Lizzie or Daring/Cerise.
Dexter/Raven shippers vs. Dexter/Cupid shippers and Apple/Raven shippers. Dexter/Raven shippers have gained support from the rapidly growing Apple/Darling shippers.
When it was hinted Lizzie liked Daring in her bio, then were confirmed to go out in a webisode description, Daring/Cerise fans were not pleased.
While the Daring/Lizzie ship is thought to be dead, one shudders to think the reaction of survivors of that ship and Daring/Cerise shippers thought when in Dragon Games, Daring gets together with Rosabella AND ACTUALLY GETS CANONIZED NO LESS
Thronecoming then causes the reverse when Daring/Cerise gets teased, as Lizzie/Daring had become popular by time of its release.
Because of fans' love of having Daring become the Beast, shipping him with Rosabella has become popular. This creates issues with Daring/Apple shippers.
Thronecoming, first we have the meta of the studio making a 45-minute episode when the longest webisode before that was barely ten minutes. Then all the revelations:The Book of Legends is a fake and has been since Raven's mother hid the real one in Ashlynn and Briar's room in her high school days, meaning no one has actually signed the thing. Apple is really worried that Raven and others denying their destiny and not signing the book will mean everyone she loves will go poof, Raven included. If proof of a bad outcome from not signing the book presents itself, Raven will sign it. Briar is terrified of her destiny because it will mean the loss of all her friends, which prompts her to unbelievable actions, and that's just the tip of the ice berg.
Way Too Wonderland has Raven signing the book and gaining her mother's dark powers so she can defeat Courtly Jester, then using her new powers to lift the curse her mother cast on Wonderland and to give everyone power over their own destiny by destroying the Book of Legends. And Apple decides to support Raven and Briar and the Rebels who want to choose their destiny even though she still wants to follow hers.
In Dragon Games, Apple frees the Evil Queen! We meet Snow White! Raven almost (unwillingly) joins her mom! Apple is cursed! Daring is not Apple's prince after all, instead Darling is her prince!
Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Is considered to be this to Monster High writing-wise. It helps that this was always intended to have an ongoing plot, while Monster High had to basically make one up as it went along.
Many of the backgrounders with interesting designs get this as well. For example, the reveal of Crystal Winter, a character in the Epic Winter special due later in 2016, has many fans disappointed that she isn't the ice-themed backgrounder some have been coveting as a doll.
Mira Shards (the teenage Evil Queen) only appears for half an episode during Dragon Games, despite promotional materials hyping her up as a major part of the plot.
Since Apple was awoken from her sleeping curse by Darling Charming, many speculate that she is gay. This is merely ambiguous, but how interesting would it be for the poster child of the Royals to be struggling with her attraction to other girls when her story supposedly should always have a Prince Charming and it prevents her from having children to pass her story on to.
Some people wanted Sparrow to eventually get a Throw the Dog a Bone or a Earn Your Happy Ending and not just a few Pet the Dog moments (mostly Blondie/Sparrow and Poppy/Sparrow shippers). This is less of a case of actually being wasteful and more the fact the webseries seems to have ended, But still.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The Evil Queen's dialogue when she swaps Snow White's mind with that of a snake during Dragon Games makes it sound like she was planning on using her body for something bigger down the line, but ultimately she just uses it to carry her things for her.
With Cerise being Ambiguously Brown, fans have come to interpret her as biracial or mixed race. This in turn, has lead to some fans reading her plot of being forced to hide her wolf heritage and relation to her father and sister as an allegory for being white-passing, while her sister is not. The way Red and Badwolf's marriage would be looked down on is easy to read as an allegory for how real-life interracial relationships can be treated. This also leads to overlap with the common They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character reaction to Cerise, since the series ended, this particular allegory was never delved into.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: We're supposed to empathize with both sides of the cast but considering that (in the show at least) the Book of Destiny shows that Raven's destiny if she signs is to be shunned by the world, become a fugitive from the law, and be put in chains forever, it just makes the Royals, especially Apple, look like selfish, shallow, assholes for not only being okay with this, but actively wanting someone else to suffer if it means they get to have their happily ever after. Especially ironic considering that Apple accused Raven of being selfish.
, who has teal and purple hair, a teacup-and-saucer hat, and a polka-dot theme. Sound familiar?