History Characters / TheOC

* TookALevelInKindness: Downplayed. He never was really a jerk, but he was quite an aloof and brooding hothead, though it soon becomes blatant that he's actually a NiceGuy at heart.

* NiceGuy: Despite his tendency to be self-absorbed, he TookALevelInKIndness and is ultimately a kind and good-natured person.

* BrokenBird: Starting off as a privileged do-gooder whose family falls apart, and is then forced to deal with her conniving mother, negligent father, controlling stepfather, and basically everyone around her ignoring her rapidly declinging mental health. She's also almost raped by her boyfriend's brother and is then forced to shoot said brother to save Ryan, which sees her kicked out of her school and forced to move away from her friends and boyfriend. And then there's everything else she goes through in Season 3, including watching a friend die, Ryan breaking up with her and falling into a borderline-abusive relationship.

* BookDumb: The writers seemed unsure whether Summer was merely BookDumb or TheDitz. She seems to vary with different episodes, and at least one episode hinted she was more a SeeminglyProfoundFool ("what is a Jihad?").

* DivergentCharacterEvolution: At the beginning, Summer and Holly were distingushable only by hair colour, both being vapid, self absorbed party girls who happened to be friends of Marissa. Summer grew more likeable, became a main character and hooked up with Seth. Holly had an affair with Marissa's boyfriend and was quickly PutOnABus after the cheating was revealed.

* HiddenDepths: Thanks to CharacterDevelopment she goes from a slightly bitchy airheaded bimbo to... well, a nice airheaded bimbo and then to nice airheaded bimbo with a conscience.

* LastNameBasis: She persists in calling Seth by his last name, Cohen, even after they're in a relationship.
* LovableAlphaBitch: Or more precisely, her CharacterDevelopment goes from a bit of a rude AlphaBitch to a NiceGirl, becoming more of a somewhat ditzy, but likable girlfriend for Seth.
* TheMcCoy: Easily the most open one about her emotions among the main cast.

* SugarAndIcePersonality: In the first episodes; it takes her a bit to warm up to Ryan.

* {{Foil}}: To Seth - while the latter's fairly outgoing, quite impractical, carefree and witty, Ryan is brooding and StreetSmart. Ryan had AbusiveParents (at least his father and the stepfathers he had), Seth has GoodParents. Ryan is a naturally selfless guy who comes from a poor family, while Seth is rich, spoiled and used to be pretty selfish most of the time, although he gets better.

* {{Foil}}: To Ryan. He's outgoing, quite impractical, carefree and witty, while Ryan is brooding and StreetSmart. Ryan had AbusiveParents (at least his father and the stepfathers he had), Seth has GoodParents. Ryan is a naturally selfless guy who comes from a poor family, while Seth is rich, spoiled and used to be pretty selfish most of the time, although he gets better.

* PrettyBoy: To Ryan's {{hunk}}, as he's not very muscular, rather slim and with a gentler appearance.

* ChickMagnet: He attracts the attention of Summer, Anna, Alex, Taylor, and [[Creator/ParisHilton Paris Hilton]].

* BlackSheep: Seen as the black sheep of the family, known to have done little with her life.

* CoolLoser: Seth is clearly an attractive, talented, funny and ridiculously rich young man, yet he couldn't get a date for most of his life, despite living in a town full of golddiggers, and was constantly being beaten up by jocks. He apparently had no friends at all prior the arrival of Ryan. It's implied that Seth would probably be popular if he lived anywhere besides Orange County. This is particularly obvious when he briefly moves to Portland, and apparently has no trouble making friends. It's just that he's surrounded by people who are pompous and shallow.

* CoolLoser: A stunning, whip smart, witty young lady who is so unpopular she is reduced to following around Seth (and Summer) for want of a friend. Justified because her attitude can be annoying sometimes.

* TeensAreShort: {{Averted}}: her actress is the only teen among the main cast, but she's rather tall while Summer is pretty short.

* CharacterDevelopment: He becomes less short-tempered as the series progresses; still, he can't tolerate injustice.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: He kinda lives in his own world; {{justified}} as he's a geek who loves comic books living in a place where most young people are jocks and party girls.

* MsFanservice: Often wears revealing clothes, has some bikini scenes, and especially her scene where she wears a naughty BareYourMidriff [[CatholicSchoolGirlsRule schoolgirl outfit]] (to help her sister, tricking a boy making him believe she was a stripper) is ''very'' fanservicey.

* BareYourMidriff: While working as a stripper.

* BareYourMidriff: Sometimes wears outfits that do this.