History YMMV / ThePendragonAdventure

* UnintentionallyUnsymapthetic: Nevva Winter's [[spoiler:death is meant to be a tragic redemption moment after learning she was a HalfHumanHybrid who never felt like she belonged anywhere.]] However, most fans thought she'd crossed the MoralEventHorizon after [[spoiler:threatening to murder Mark's parents so he'd give her his Acolyte ring and founding the Cult of Ravinia,]] finding her FreudianExcuse to be too little too late and treating her death as a KarmicDeath, especially since her death was a TooDumbToLive moment after she [[spoiler:admitted to betraying Saint Dane by saving some dissidents under his nose because she had doubts about his plan.]]

* NeverLiveItDown: D. J. [=MacHale=] mistakenly thought anime was hentai, leading early prints of ''The Merchant of Death'' to refer to "cutesy hentai" posters on Mark's walls in his room. While the line was changed in later reprints, this didn't stop the fandom from jokingly characterizing Mark as a CovertPervert into [[AllAnimeIsNaughtyTentacles tentacle porn.]]

** The Travelers being [[spoiler:bodiless spirits from Solara]] is similarly an AssPull, as they were more than capable of [[spoiler:being maimed or even dying before,]] with Gunny [[spoiler:losing a hand,]] Kasha [[spoiler:being crushed to death,]] and [[DroppedABridgeOnHim Aja]] [[spoiler:being murdered offscreen.]] While Loor was [[spoiler:resurrected inexplicably]] and both her and Bobby were unsettled by the experience, it had been heavily implied that Loor was [[spoiler:sent back by the souls of the other Travelers [ItIsNotYourTime because she was still needed]]]] rather than because of some inherent ability of the Travelers to [[spoiler:dodge death]] as long as they knew they could. Hell, when Saint Dane said [[spoiiler:the Travelers weren't "real",]] Bobby immediately dismissed it as [[ConsummateLiar Saint Dane]] [[MindScrew trolling him.]]

* AssPull: Suffice to say that pretty much ''no one'' predicted what the actual answers to the series' [[DrivingQuestion driving mysteries]] (Where do the travelers come from? How does evidence related to their lives disappear? Where is Saint Dane from and how is he so much more powerful than the other travelers?) would be, mainly because most of those answers revolve around the sudden introduction of [[spoiler:Solara]] in the last book. The fact that years of theorization ended up being AllForNothing because hugely important puzzle pieces were missing without any sort of {{Foreshadowing}}[[note]]The only thing ''close'' to a clue given was Saint Dane's extremely cryptic [[TheUnreveal "reveal"]] that the Travelers were "not real", which Bobby outright dismissed as Saint Dane trying to [[MindScrew screw with him]][[/note]] did ''not'' go over well with the fans, which is one of the major reasons Book 10 was so poorly received.

* AlternativeAesopInterpretation: In ''Black Water'', the world Eelong features a world where the cat people Klees keep the humans, Gars, as pets and slaves. The message is an anti-racist and [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil anti-slavery message]], but can be read as being pro-animal rights, because you might not like it if your roles were reversed.

* AternativeAesopInterpretation: In ''Black Water'', the world Eelong features a world where the cat people Klees keep the humans, Gars, as pets and slaves. The message is an anti-racist and [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil anti-slavery message]], but can be read as being pro-animal rights, because you might not like it if your roles were reversed.

* AternateAesopInterpretation: In ''Black Water'', the world Eelong features a world where the cat people Klees keep the humans, Gars, as pets and slaves. The message is an anti-racist and [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil anti-slavery message]], but can be read as being pro-animal rights, because you might not like it if your roles were reversed.

* AccidentalAesop: In ''Black Water'', the world Eelong features a world where the cat people Klees keep the humans, Gars, as pets and slaves. The message is an anti-racist and [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil anti-slavery message]], but can be read as being pro-animal rights, because you might not like it if your roles were reversed.

* AccidentalAesop: In ''Black Water'', the world Eelong features a world where the cat people Klees keep the humans, Gars, as pets and slaves. The message is that SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil, but can be read as treat animals (especially your pets) well, because you might not like it if your roles were reversed.

* PlatonicWritingRomanticReading: Mark and Courtney spend the entirety of the series getting close to one each other. Mark is the one to save Courtney from [[spoiler:one of Saint Dane's attacks]] and he spends time in the hospital by her side. Courtney's boyfriend, Bobby, [[spoiler:ends up breaking up with Courtney since he fell in love with Loor, a sentiment that Courtney accepts as she feels she has grown apart from Bobby in the many years he's been gone]]. In book 8, Mark and Courtney share an AnguishedDeclarationOfLove at gunpoint that made fans think the two had become an OfficialCouple... Only for it to be entirely ignored in book 9 and then [[spoiler:sloppily retconned out by the end of book 10 in favour of Bobby/Courtney]].

** Press Tilton mentions in book 10 that Saint Dane was once a WellIntentionedExtremist who wanted to do good but later became a monster with a God complex obsessed with pleasing only himself. Is this true, or was Press just thinking fondly of him and not understanding (or perhaps not wanting to believe) that Saint Dane was always the monster that he is in the present?
* {{Anvilicious}}: The books are not always subtle or intelligent about their Aesops. The worst example is probably ''The Quillan Games'', which at one point has Saint Dane gloat for several pages about how he didn't ruin this particular territory, unrestrained capitalism did it for him.
* AssPull: Suffice to say that pretty much ''no one'' predicted what the actual answers to the series' [[DrivingQuestion driving mysteries]] (Where do the travelers come from? How does evidence related to their lives disappear? Where is Saint Dane from and how is he so much more powerful than the other travelers?) would be, mainly because most of those answers revolve around the sudden introduction of [[spoiler:Solara]] in the last book. The fact that years of theorization ended up being AllForNothing because hugely important puzzle pieces were missing without any sort of {{Foreshadowing}}[[note]]The closest to a clue given was Saint Dane's extremely cryptic [[TheUnreveal "reveal"]] that the Travelers were not "real", which Bobby outright dismissed as Saint Dane trying to MindScrew him[[/note]] did ''not'' go over well with the fans, which is one of the major reasons Book 10 was so poorly received.
* AudienceAlienatingEnding: Starting with Book 8, the series is seen as declining in quality, ending with a very poorly received Book 10 due to several reasons (including VillainDecay, a ResetButton ending, breaking up the [[FanPreferredCouple Fan Preferred Couples]], dropping a bridge on [[BreakoutCharacter Mark]], and some [[AssPull rather out-of-nowhere]] [[TheReveal reveals]] about the MythArc) that make few people want to recommend the series to others.

* GrowingTheBeard: Some people think that the later books are an improvement over the first ones. More specifically, some think the series starts off rocky with the first two books, but gets really good starting from the third book.

* MisaimedFandom: Those who love Saint Dane [[DracoInLeatherPants despite his monstrous villainy]] rather than [[ManipulativeBastard because of it.]] It's safe to say that a lot of fans wanted him to win at the end of the series. Also, [[spoiler:some love Nevva Winter even though she's almost as much of a monster as he is.]]

* AssPull: Suffice to say that pretty much ''no one'' predicted what the actual answers to the series' [[DrivingQuestion driving mysteries]] (Where do the travelers come from? How does evidence related to their lives disappear? Where is Saint Dane from and how is he so much more powerful than the other travelers?) would be, mainly because most of those answers revolve around the sudden introduction of [[spoiler:Solara]] in the last book. The fact that years of theorization ended up being AllForNothing because hugely important puzzle pieces were missing did ''not'' go over well with the fans, which is one of the major reasons Book 10 was so poorly received.

** Another popular theory is that [[spoiler:the end takes place in Lifelight, and nothing's really been reset, though this makes the BittersweetEnding into an EsotericHappyEnding when FridgeHorror kicks in.]]

* {{Anvilicious}}: The books are not always subtle or intelligent about their Aesops. The worst example is probably ''The Quillan Games'', which at one point has Saint Dane gloat for several pages about how he didn't ruin this particular territory; unrestrained capitalism did it for him.
* AssPull: Suffice to say that pretty much ''no one'' predicted what the actual answers to the series' [[DrivingQuestion driving mysteries]] (Where do the travelers come from? How does evidence related to their lives disappear? Where is Saint Dane from and how is he so much more powerful than the other travelers?), mainly because most of those answers revolve around the sudden introduction of [[spoiler:Solara]] in the last book. The fact that years of theorization ended up being AllForNothing because hugely important puzzle pieces were missing did ''not'' go over well with the fans, which is one of the major reasons Book 10 was so poorly received.
* AudienceAlienatingEnding: Starting with Book 8, the series is seen to decline in quality, ending with a very poorly received Book 10 due to several reasons (including VillainDecay, a ResetButton ending, breaking up the [[FanPreferredCouple Fan Preferred Couples]], dropping a bridge on [[BreakoutCharacter Mark]], and some [[AssPull rather out-of-nowhere]] [[TheReveal reveals]] about the MythArc) that makes few people want to recommend the series to others.

** Many people believed Bobby would become Saint Dane far in the future, with several theories arising as to how Saint Dane's promise was somehow tied in with saving someone Bobby held dear and how that tied in with sending Territories on the 'wrong' path. This was jossed in ''The Soldiers of Halla''.
** Another popular theory is that [[spoiler: the end takes place in Lifelight, and nothing's really been reset, though this makes the BittersweetEnding into an EsotericHappyEnding when FridgeHorror kicks in.]]
* EvilIsCool: Saint Dane who's a ManipulativeBastard and one of the coolest characters in the books by far.
* FanDislikedExplanation: This is the usual reason people hated the last book. The existence of [[spoiler:Solara]] came out of nowhere and some important answers (such as who Saint Dane made his promise to) were never answered. Even worse, this explanation [[VoodooShark raises further questions,]] such as whether [[spoiler:Veelox]] was always doomed to fail given the existence of [[spoiler:Ibara]] was contingent on its fall.

* MisaimedFandom: Those who love Saint Dane [[DracoInLeatherPants despite his monstrous villainy]] rather than [[ManipulativeBastard because of it.]] It's safe to say that a lot of fans wanted him to win at the end of the series. Also, [[spoiler: some love Nevva Winter even though she's almost as much of a monster as him.]]

** Saint Dane [[spoiler: seducing Courtney and becoming her LivingEmotionalCrutch, only to use the opportunity to run her over and leave her for dead in a ditch.]]
** [[spoiler: Naymeer]] crosses the MoralEventHorizon line by orchestrating the deaths of thousands of people at once in a baseball stadium under the pretense of trying to win them over.

* PlatonicWritingRomanticReading: Mark and Courtney spend the entirety of the series getting close to one each other. Mark is the one to save Courtney from [[spoiler:one of Saint Dane's attacks]] and he spends time in the hospital by her side. Courtney's boyfriend, Bobby, [[spoiler:ends up breaking up with Courtney since he fell in love with Loor, a sentiment that Courtney accepts as she feels she has grown apart from Bobby in the many years he's been gone.]] In book 8, Mark and Courtney share an AnguishedDeclarationOfLove at gunpoint that made fans think the two had become an OfficialCouple... Only for it to be entirely ignored in book 9 and then [[spoiler:sloppily retconned out by the end of book 10 in favour of Bobby/Courtney.]]

** Press says [[spoiler:that to avert any more damage to Halla, anyone displaced from their Territories must stay where they've been brought to, including Courtney and Mark in the ruins of Third Earth. Instead of exploring the consequences of this and people's efforts to rebuild and integrate in their new worlds, Bobby complains that [[ItsAllAboutMe he doesn't get to go back to his normal life]] and we're treated to a MindScrew ending contracting everything that Press just said about Solaran spirits not being part of their worlds and the damage to Halla being irreversible.]]

* TooCoolToLive: Vo Spader, the BreakoutCharacter SurferDude Traveler from Cloral, would clearly have overshadowed Bobby if he was kept in the story for any long periods of time, hence his multiple [[PutOnABus bus trips]].
* VanillaProtagonist: Bobby is a normal jock teenager suddenly whisked away on a grand adventure (initially without his consent). His ultimate goal is to be able to go home to Second Earth and live a normal life. He contrasts the colorful and often more experienced Travelers around him, such as SurferDude Vo Spader or badass AmazonianBeauty Loor. In-universe this is deliberate, [[spoiler:as he is a Solaran spirit meant to become as typical of a resident of Earth as possible to better serve his Territory's interests.]]

* CompleteMonster: The shapeshifter, [[BigBad Saint Dane]], manipulates [[TheChessmaster catastrophes across parallel universes]], called "territories", ensuring they result in the worst possible outcome. [[ManipulativeBastard Manipulating]] the oppressed people of a territory, Saint Dane causes a catastrophic war to destroy their planet; on another planet, creates a poison to kill the plants in the hopes of creating mass famine; on Earth, gives nukes to the Nazis to help them win UsefulNotes/WorldWarII; on a jungle planet, tries to use his poison again in the hopes the natives will hunt each other to extinction; on a desert planet, inflames tensions, trying to lead to one tribe being wiped out; and on yet another planet, crushes a rebellion against tyranny, ensuring the people would continue to suffer in the dystopia. Using the Cult of Ravinia to conquer various worlds, Saint Dane has those he deems too weak killed or banished, while trying to [[AGodAmI become a God]].