don’t feel bad, i love infodumping about my special interests!! if i can help more people get into them then i feel accomplished

monster high was created by garrett sander, and introduced in 2010! it’s probably pretty obvious but all the characters are the children of different iconic/legendary monsters, and they all go to high school together and have slice of life adventures. and there’s lots and lots and lots of terrible monster puns so if you dont like puns then just give up now

these are the main 6 characters + a few more core people and some backstory if they have any! (bc some of them do not have backstory but thats ok it just means more headcanoning)

frankie stein - frankenstein’s daughter, and also the MAIN main character, and usually one of the two faces that people think of when they think “monster high”. she is probably one of the sweetest characters in the entire show and has relentless optimism, and would die (and has died) for her friends before. she had only been alive for 15 days before MH canon started, and thus hasn’t been exposed to many things yet, so she loves trying new things. she’s adorable and i cannot believe some people don’t like her/call her boring, because she is a ray of sunshine

draculaura - dracula’s daughter, and is the OTHER face ppl think of. she wears almost exclusively the colors pink and black (with some exceptions for blue or yellow sometimes). she’s very peppy and uses a lot of words like “totes!” in speech. she’s 1600 years old and her biological parents are both dead now, she was adopted + turned to a vampire by dracula himself because he was in love with her mother. she is the main character in the reboot instead of frankie

clawdeen wolf - a werewolf and the resident fashionista (well, they all kind of are but she’s the one that wants to go into the fashion industry). she’s got SEVERAL siblings, and we only saw 3 of them in the preboot but we know there are many more; growing up with them has made her develop an attitude. but she’s SUPER loyal and would do anything for the people she loves. she’s ride or die and i love her

lagoona blue - a sea monster, BEYOND chill and friendly, seriously she is the kind of person to make you feel like you’ve been friends with her for years even if you’ve only known her a couple days. she’s on the swim team and she got way way too many bad plots with her boyfriend gil later on in the series so i feel like she didn’t get as well-rounded as the other mains, but i still love her to bits

cleo de nile - a mummy and also the HBIC of monster high. she’s the fearleading captain and she takes a little bit to warm up to, but once you get on her good side she is a wonderful friend. and it doesn’t take much to get on her good side, just be a decent person to her. she’s been through a LOT like her dad is straight-up abusive and manipulative, and her sister terrorizes her and her friends, and she was separated from her loving mother for most of her life so honestly i cannot blame her for being a rude person. she’s my favorite i love her so much

ghoulia yelps - a zombie and the brains of the group (ha ha), she is literally a superhero or something i think because she can do anything, she literally hacked the mh version of youtube a few times. she doesn’t speak english, only zombie (which sounds like a series of groans), her favorite thing in the world is the comic series called Dead Fast, and the whole fandom loves her and for good reason. she doesn’t get enough screentime OR dolls, and she hasn’t shown up in the reboot media yet. she deserves so much

deuce gorgon - medusa’s son, and one of the most popular dudes at school, cause he’s super friendly and nice. he’s quiet sometimes but when he does talk his sentences usually have the word “dude” in them. he sees good in everyone, and he was dating cleo before canon began and she had developed as a character/became less mean, so to me that shows how genuine both of them are with their feelings. i love him too but people often write him wrong, they write him as all stoic/annoyed by everything but he’s honestly a dork and probably the most genuinely nice boy in the series

abbey bominable - a yeti who has trouble understanding non-yeti societal norms. she can come across as cold (ha ha) but she doesn’t mean to, she’s just not good at emoting or communicating, and speaks very literally. the others understand this after getting to know her and accept her and love her just as she is, which is part of why i love monster high so much. she is also very strong and can lift a car. i thought that was worth mentioning

heath burns - a fire elemental and very, very impulsive and reckless. he gets himself injured a lot; the hospital even has a seat in the waiting room with his name on it. he’s also super flirty and speaks without thinking, but honestly? he means well. i love him and also at one point he wore a skirt/heels and OWNED it and nobody laughed at him

there are several more characters that i could write more paragraphs on, but this is getting long enough as it is so if you wanna know more about more characters shoot me another ask and i’ll be glad to tell you!

this IS a merch-driven franchise, but that isn’t a bad thing! the dolls themselves are SO cute. just look them up (i dont wanna include images in this long post) but they’re so cute oh my god. there’s nearly 700 of them now i think? and you can use this website to help you get started on your collection/help you keep track of it! i honestly use it like…every single day https://mh-merch.com/

as for the media itself, i have already written a big thing about it and how to go about watching it in [this post], but i will now talk about my favorite movies in chronological order in case you want recommendations. these wont be in-depth analysises

new ghoul at school - this 20min special gets a lot of flack but honestly? the plot itself is so so good. it avoids the typical “protag girl steals jock bf from mean girl” cliche and turns it on its HEAD. REVOLUTIONARY. this special is on youtube but not netflix i dont think!

scaris: city of frights - i think part of why i like this one is that most of the core characters are present for it, and it’s centered around clawdeen and she is SO good in this movie

13 wishes - everyone pretty much agrees this is the best mh movie period. it also has a lot of core people, the plot itself is SO beyond clever and unique, and i can’t think of anything bad about it?? this is what i always recc to people for their 1st mh movie

boo york, boo york - ok listen this movie is OBJECTIVELY a mess because there are 2 entire singing voices and the pacing is weird but i love it anyway it holds a very special place in my heart. also i think this is the preboot movie with the best animation, it’s gorgeous and please watch it and embrace its campiness and jam to pharaoh’s (w)rapping

the reboot does merit mentioning; it started in 2016 and began with the movie welcome to monster high, and the two movies out for it so far are honestly fun but they are nothing like the pre-reboot. you have to watch the reboot with the mindset that it is an alternate timeline to the preboot universe, instead of having it completely erase the preboot! they exist in side-by-side universes in my head

in the reboot, instead of monster high being an already-established school/having monsters live in big communities and towns, monsters are in hiding because the humans are scared of them. draculaura and dracula lived in their mansion for several years to hide, but through a series of events which i will not summarize here bc its a lot, they build monster high in their mansion, and get other monsters there to be students!

FINALLY FOUND WHERE JOSEPH SAID HE DOESNT THINK ALEX KILLED AMY OUGHHHHH

(link, he talks about it a little more from 3:15:50-3:17:25)

Absolutely!! i LOVE helping people get into MH!

There’s three main sections of the MH media: the movies/specials, the webisodes, and the diaries. I think it’s better to start with the movies or the webisodes, and read the diaries after you’ve finished, or at least started, those.

The movies/specials are all listed [here] on wikipedia, and story-wise, there’s not much continuity between them, as in it’s all slice of life kinda stuff. So you can watch those in any order you want! All the pre-reboot movies except Great Scarrier Reef are on Netflix. I recommend 13 Wishes first, since that’s the one movie that’s pretty much universally loved by the entire fandom. My personal favorites besides 13W are Boo York, Boo York, and Scaris.

A note to add about the movies: everything up to Great Scarrier Reef is part of the pre-reboot. Welcome to Monster High was the first movie of the reboot, and is the start of a brand new timeline, so I recommend watching those A) after all the pre-reboot movies, and B) with the mindset that it’s an alternate universe, if that makes sense. I say this because the reboot movies (so far) are really great, but lots of people don’t like them because they’re different, so I’m just letting you know in advance so you can keep an open mind.

The webisodes are many, but they have some arcs to them so they’ll need to be watched in order during some parts. I recommend skipping season 1 at first if that doesn’t bother you, since it’s really not my favorite and lots of the characters feel OOC to me in that season since that’s when the series was gaining its footing. But season 2 is WONDERFUL, and there’s a playlist with all the episodes in order right [here]! And the episode list is on the same page as the movie list farther up on the page, but I’ll link it again anyway [here].

The diaries are booklets that came with the dolls themselves, and are all written in the perspectives of each characters! They’re SO overlooked in the fandom, and they’re very rich and have so much cool lore in them! But there are a whole lot, and it took me a while to get through them my first go, but it’s so beyond worth it. I haven’t really got a solid chronological order for these, but you should be fine starting with the main characters’ diaries and branching out from there, or maybe going from A to Z if you’d like, though the 2nd option may get a bit confusing. The diaries may also be best to tackle after you’ve watched at least a bit of the movies/webisodes, since you’ll get a feel for who each character is and you’ll be able to picture them all better. All the diaries are on the MH wiki right [here].

Outside those three sections, there’s some other media too, mainly books, but the ones by Lisi Harrison I do not recommend at ALL unless you’re already an MH fan and want to see an OOC trainwreck. The other books (not by Harrison) are fun, but not vital to the MH canon. I haven’t read very many of them yet :0