History YMMV / TheFamiliarOfZero

* DracoInLeatherPants: Fanfics tend to do this a lot for any number of characters in the series. Kirche tends to get her character development moved forward so that she starts the series as, say, VitriolicBestBuds with Louise rather than a mere AlphaBitch.

** Louise herself. She abuses Saito and treats him like dirt for the slightest to stupidest reasons non-stop to the point where she may as well punish him for breathing. She is rude, obnoxious and unpleasant to other females usually out of jealousy and arrogance, and she is ''never'' punished for her actions. Yet we're still expected to root for her for some reason.

** The interesting history of Tiffania's parents is never revealed in full. What is known is that an elf escaped from her home until she reached Albion, and a member of royalty (the uncle of Henrietta and Wales, and therefore a descendant of the founder Brimmir) fell in love with her.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Louise and Saito ''both'' qualify, depending on who you ask. Louise has the DomesticAbuse angle and Saito gets the WishFulfillment angle that Light Novel heroes often get.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Is Saito an exaggerated form of an ExtremeDoormat that takes Louise's abuse because he loves her or is he a masochist that likes it? The author himself doesn't believe either. That said it was semi-confirmed in Volume 8 when [[spoiler: he had a dream of Tabitha abusing him.]]

* {{Wangst}}: The author tries to justify Louise's abuse by showing her poor self esteem but most people don't see that as a good excuse to beat someone.

** The amount of {{Crossover}} stories where Louise summons someone else instead of Saito is mind-boggling, making up the overwhelming majority of fanfics for the series. It could even be argued that such works helped contribute to the rise of {{isekai}} stories where protagonists are forcibly summoned to a fantasy world that would come to populate the website Shōsetsuka ni Narō in the years afterwards.

** The amount of {{Crossover}} fanfics where Louise summons someone else instead of Saito is mind-boggling, to the point where such stories (and crossover fics in general) actually make up the ''overwhelming majority'' of fanfics for the series on sites such as Website/FanfictionDotNet and Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn. It could even be argued that such works helped contribute to the rise of "Shōsetsuka ni Narō"-style {{isekai}} where protagonists are forcibly summoned to a fantasy world.

** The sheer amount of {{Crossover}} fanfics where Louise summons someone else instead of Saito is mind-boggling. It's so popular that there are fics for it where Louise summons something that [[TabletopGame/{{Exalted}} really]] [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica shouldn't]] [[VideoGame/{{Overlord}} be]] [[VideoGame/{{Prototype}} summoned]]. You can trace a good amount of early "Narou" style isekai to these fanfics.

** Not quite as popular, though a still noticeable trend is Louise managing to summon ''herself'' (usually seen by herself InUniverse as an EpicFail of unheard-of levels) to the other universe in the {{Crossover}}, usually followed by her getting massive CharacterDevelopment and TookALevelInBadass. Whether she makes it back home or not varies.

* FanworkOnlyFans: Thanks to the above reasons, it's not uncommon to see fans that have only read/watched a little bit of the source material before switching to the crossover fans fics.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Louise, unsurprisingly. We're supposed to sympathize with her because of her enormous insecurity complex, her miserable school life, an abusive older sister, and emotionally distant and incredibly strict parents who are more interested in their daughter as an asset than as a person. Not to mention that being a noblewoman of minimal magical talent makes her a complete laughingstock due to the norms of Halkeginia society. So while Louise has plenty reasons for the audience to side with her, she '''still''' drives off many supporters due to her infamously brutal and non-stop abuse of Saito; which is not only horrible on a basic human level, but also makes her a blatant hypocrite given her home life. As a result, she comes across as an outright bully, rather than a JerkWithAHeartOfGold the story expects us to view her as. The novels try to address it in volume 11. This problem is amplified in the anime.

* {{OT3}}: Among those who don’t hate [[BaseBreakingCharacter Louise]] with a passion, Louise/Saito/Siesta is a popular pairing, because [[MistressAndServantBoy Louise]] and [[{{Meido}} Siesta]] balance each other out. This was teased a little in the 12th volume, where Louise says she would be disappointed if Siesta gave up on winning Saito so easily.

* WTHCastingAgency:
** The European Spanish dub was made with amateur voice actors, something that was highly controversial. The fact that said voice actors also did the critically panned 2013 redubbing of ''Manga/ElfenLied'' didn't help.
** The English dub of Season 1 featured a mostly AmateurCast with poor direction, despite industry veteran Creator/TonyOliver helming, which most likely played a part in why the other seasons were subbed only.

* MoralEventHorizon:
** There are fans that believe Louise crossed this the first time she whipped/exploded Saito... or the Nth time afterward.
** Saito's {{attempted rape}} of Louise made lots of fans think he's an irredeemable creep.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: The familiars of the void from past generations (Vindálfr, Mjöðvitnir and Lífþrasir) were never shown except for the first gandalfs sasha.

** The series as a whole often comes under fire for having a terrific premise, and absolutely terrible execution - mostly due to the focus being on the [[HaremGenre Harem antics]], centered on a boring OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent everyguy and his [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale violently abusive]] and [[BaseBreakingCharacter generally unlikeable]] main girlfriend. All the things people like about it are just the window dressing.

** An important element of the series that set up its premise was that each magician character had his own familiar. Except for the class of Louise and the familiars of the void, the ones of characters such as the Princess Henrietta, Professor Colbert, Louise's sisters, and other nobles are never revealed.

** The anime works at a conversion ratio of three to four volumes per twelve episodes. Due to this, at least two thirds of the source material have been outright omitted, and the rest truncated or chopped up. Though the manga and novels aren't immune to this criticism, either
..an important element of the series (being precisely the premise of it) was that each magician character had his own familiar but except for the class of louise and the familiars of the void, so the familiars of characters such as the Princess Henrietta, Professor Colbert, Louise's sisters and other nobles

....Tiffania's parents, since their interesting history together is never revealed, either because an elf escaped from her home until she reached Albion or as exactly a member of royalty (the uncle of Henrietta and Wales and therefore a descendant from the founder brimmir) falls in love with her

They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
.the familiars of the void from past generations (Vindálfr, Mjöðvitnir and Lífþrasir) were never shown except for the first gandalfs sasha
.