The OC/Characters

Ryan Atwood

 * Abusive Parents: He had them
 * Badass Decay
 * Chronic Hero Syndrome
 * Deadpan Snarker: Leaning more to the Deadpan side of this trope
 * Mr. Fanservice
 * The Hero and The Big Guy
 * Fish Out of Water
 * Happily Adopted
 * Naive Newcomer
 * Opposites Attract: Ryan/Marissa and Ryan/Taylor
 * Only Sane Man
 * Parental Abandonment
 * Rags to Riches
 * Shirtless Scene: Constantly
 * Troubled but Cute
 * We Used to Be Friends: Especially at the beginning of the fourth season.

Seth Cohen

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 * Can't Hold His Liquor
 * Cool Loser
 * Deadpan Snarker: Incarnate
 * Mr. Fanservice
 * Five-Man Band: The Smart Guy
 * Geeky Turn On
 * Give Geeks a Chance
 * Hollywood Homely
 * Hollywood Nerd
 * Jewish and Nerdy
 * Mushroom Samba
 * Nice Jewish Boy: A snarkier version of one but one nevertheless
 * Opposites Attract: Seth/Summer
 * Shirtless Scene: A couple.
 * Uke: A rare, male het example, to Summer's Seme. He also attracts a couple of seme-ish girls throughout the series.

Marissa Cooper

 * Attention Whore
 * Bi the Way
 * Bottle Fairy
 * Broken Bird
 * Fallen Princess
 * Five-Man Band: The Chick
 * Horrible Judge of Character
 * Opposites Attract: Marissa/Ryan
 * The Scrappy
 * The Scrappy

Summer Roberts

 * All Girls Like Ponies
 * Alpha Bitch: Initially.
 * Bitch With A Heart Of Gold
 * Deadpan Snarker: Leaning more to the snarker side of this trope
 * Defrosting Ice Queen
 * Five-Man Band: a conbination of The Chick, The Smart Guy and The Big Guy
 * Genius Ditz
 * Granola Girl: in Season 4.
 * Opposites Attract: Summer/Seth
 * Seme: A rare, female het example, to Seth's Uke.

Taylor Townsend

 * Cloudcuckoolander
 * Cunning Linguist - Fluent in French, Korean, Spanish and Latin.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse
 * Full-Name Basis - Not quite constantly but much more frequently than any other character.
 * Genki Girl
 * Manic Pixie Dream Girl
 * Opposites Attract: Taylor/Ryan
 * Remember the New Guy?

Luke Ward

 * Big Man on Campus
 * Mr. Fanservice
 * Fallen Prince
 * Five-Man Band: The Big Guy
 * Jerk Jock -> Jerk with a Heart of Gold
 * May-December Romance: With Julie Cooper
 * Odd Friendship: With Ryan for the latter half of Season 1.
 * Put on a Bus
 * Reformed but Rejected

Sandy Cohen

 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Informed Judaism
 * Opposites Attract: Sandy/Kirsten

Kirsten Cohen

 * Blonde Republican Sex Kitten: At one point in the show Sandy mentions to another character that Kirsten is a political conservative. There are also a few points in the show where Kirsten criticizes Sandy's "hippie parenting."
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Defrosting Ice Queen
 * Family Business
 * Hot Mom
 * Kuudere - in the first episodes; it takes her a bit to warm up to Ryan.
 * Lady Drunk
 * Lethal Chef
 * Opposites Attract: with Sandy
 * Well Done Daughter Girl

Julie Cooper

 * Chronic Villainy
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: Julie Cooper very gradually becomes more sympathetic as the show goes on. By the final season she had shed much of the bitchiness that defined her in the show's first few seasons.
 * Gold Digger
 * Hot Mom: very much so
 * Magnificent Bitch
 * May-December Romance: Constantly, but the most prominent exanple would be wiht Luke Ward
 * Mrs. Robinson
 * Rich Bitch
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Money
 * Socialite
 * The Vamp

Caleb Nichol

 * Batman Gambit - Caleb Nichols almost pulls this off in Season One.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive
 * The Patriarch
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Money
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Money