History YMMV / WhateleyUniverse

* {{Squick}}: Several examples. Almost all the main characters are {{transgender}} in some way shape or form and there are rather frank discussions of gender issues in the early chapters -- for example, Ayla is mostly female except for... certain elements of his body, Jade uses her powers to "tuck" herself in and this is described rather frankly -- did we mention that Jade is physically 12 years old? Sara essentially vomits out her entire set of internal organs when she "awakens". For the most part however, the series is a fairly standard slice-of-life high-school drama, except with super-powers.

** Jade as written by Babs Yerunkle is a mature young woman struggling to overcome physical limitations and the dangers presented by the world with the help of her friends. Jade as written by Diane Castle is a CrazyAwesome [[PsychopathicManchild Psychopathic Girlchild]] who is a continual source of crazy, entertaining things. YMMV on which version is better. Given the timeline of the stories in question, it's possible to interpret at as [[CharacterDevelopment Jade being steadily pushed over the edge]] [[TraumaCongaLine by her circumstances]], [[DealWithTheDevil demon mark]], [[EldritchAbomination and exposure to mythos magic]].

* CrazyAwesome: A few secondary characters.

* {{Squick}}: Several examples. Almost all the main characters are {{transgender}} in some way shape or form and there are rather frank discussions of gender issues in the early chapters -- for example, Ayla is mostly female except for... certain elements of his body, Jade uses her powers to "tuck" herself in and this is described rather frankly -- did we mention that Jade is physically 12 years old? Sara essentially vomits out her entire set of internal organs when she "awakens". For the most part however, the series is a fairly standard slice-of-life high-school drama, except with super-powers. If you're squicked by transgender stuff, [[Administrivia/ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontLike why are you reading Whateley stories]]?

** [[EvilSorceress Hekate]] is a wizardess supervillain-in-training whose rap sheet includes using a spell to enslave two of her classmates for a year, during which they were repeatedly raped and otherwise abused while [[AndIMustScream being completely aware of what was happening but powerless to stop it]], as well as the fact that the athamé she used in the spell was empowered by the ritual [[HumanSacrifice sacrifice]] of [[WouldHurtAChild two young children]]. Not only that, but during a magical battle with Fey, after trying and failing to ensnare her in the same enslavement spell mentioned earlier, she summons a trio of iron elementals using the promise of dozens of future sacrifices. To top all that off, she used her athamé to stab Jade in the heart beforehand, just to torment Fey.

* BaseBreaker:

** "Sara's Little Purple Book," a guide to mutant sexuality, varies between CrowningMomentOfFunny and this.

* {{Squick}}: Several examples. Almost all the main characters are {{Transgender}}ed in some way shape or form and there are rather frank discussions of gender issues in the early chapters -- for example, Ayla is mostly female except for... certain elements of his body, Jade uses her powers to "tuck" herself in and this is described rather frankly -- did we mention that Jade is physically 12 years old? Sara essentially vomits out her entire set of internal organs when she "awakens". For the most part however, the series is a fairly standard slice-of-life high-school drama, except with super-powers. If you're squicked by transgender stuff, [[Administrivia/ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontLike why are you reading Whateley stories]]?

* ArchivePanic

** Deathlist is a psychopathic, NighInvulnerable cyborg who gets off on widespread carnage and considers the world to owe him a debt of pain. The most horrific thing he's done so far was to kidnap a mutant superheroine, jam a power-neutralizing device into her skull, then hack off her arms and legs and give her to his troops as a sex toy. Then, when she died after more than a month of torture and rape, he impaled her corpse on a pole with a thank-you message to one of her former teammates carved into her chest. Not even his FreudianExcuse--that his parents tried to kill him by crushing him in a garbage compactor--nets him any sympathy after that.
** Hekate is a wizardess supervillain-in-training whose rap sheet includes using a spell to enslave two of her classmates for a year, during which they were repeatedly raped and otherwise abused while being completely aware of what was happening but powerless to stop it, as well as the fact that the athamé she used in the spell was empowered by the ritual sacrifice of two young children. Not only that, but during a magical battle with Fey, after trying and failing to ensnare her in the same enslavement spell mentioned earlier, she summons a trio of iron elementals using the promise of dozens of future sacrifices. To top all that off, she used her athamé to stab Jade in the heart beforehand, just to torment Fey.

** Is Jobe Wilkins well-meaning if {{Jerkass}} MadScientist who genuinely can't understand that his attempts to help are worse than the original problem? On the forums even the canon authors have disagreed on this point, but the author of the Book Of Jobe goes for the second viewpoint.

** Deathlist is a psychopathic, {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le cyborg who gets off on widespread carnage and considers the world to owe him a debt of pain. The most horrific thing he's done so far was to kidnap a mutant superheroine, jam a power-neutralizing device into her skull, then hack off her arms and legs and give her to his troops as a sex toy. Then, when she died after more than a month of torture and rape, he impaled her corpse on a pole with a thank-you message to one of her former teammates carved into her chest. Not even his FreudianExcuse (namely, that [[spoiler:his parents tried to kill him by crushing him in a garbage compactor]]) nets him any sympathy after that.
** Hekate is a wizardess supervillain-in-training whose rap sheet includes using a spell to enslave two of her classmates for a year, during which they were repeatedly raped and otherwise abused while being completely aware of what was happening but powerless to stop it, as well as the fact that the athamé she used in the spell was empowered by the ritual sacrifice of two young children. Not only that, but during a magical battle with Fey (after trying and failing to ensnare her in the same enslavement spell mentioned earlier), she summons a trio of iron elementals using the promise of dozens of future sacrifices. To top all that off, she used her athamé to stab Jade in the heart beforehand, just to torment Fey.
** The Marquis is a PowerCopying supervillain who is in it purely for the kicks. Which is to say, torture and casual murder. The only thing that kept him from become a more serious threat was that he tended to torture his 'donors' to death at just the time when he needs their powers the most.
** The Necromancer is trying hard to maintain a reputation for being one, but he's obviously afraid of Nimbus.

** Is Jobe Wilkins well meaning if {{Jerkass}} MadScientist who genuinely can't understand that his attempts to help are worse than the original problem? On the forums even the canon authors have disagreed on this point, but the author of the Book Of Jobe goes for the second viewpoint.

* TearJerker: [[spoiler: Phase discovers that Fey's spells have been drawing Essence from nearby ecosystems, killing many of them. Fey is horrified and realises that she may have caused horrific amounts of environmental damage.]]
** Nacht meets her mother, who orders her around like a servant, demanding loyalty despite doing nothing to earn it. She mocks Kate for asking about her unknown father, and forces her to secure a magical object to learn more about him. At the end of their conversation, Nacht hugs her mother, and her mother asks why. Kate just says 'Just finding out what it was like.' It's safe to say that the Bell Witch is a huge bitch.

* {{Squick}}: Several examples. Almost all the main characters are {{Transgender}}ed in some way shape or form and there are rather frank discussions of gender issues in the early chapters -- for example, Ayla is mostly female except for... certain elements of his body, Jade uses her powers to "tuck" herself in and this is described rather frankly -- did we mention that Jade is physically 12 years old? Sara essentially vomits out her entire set of internal organs when she "awakens". For the most part however, the series is a fairly standard slice-of-life high-school drama, except with super-powers. If you're squicked by trans-gender stuff, [[Administrivia/ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontLike why are you reading Whateley stories]]?

** [[spoiler: 'Ayla and the Mad Scientist' has Fey finding out that many of her big fights have resulted in the destruction of entire ecosystems because she was drawing more Essence than they could give her. She accidentally killed entire forests.]]
** Billie Wilson:

** Chou's father is stuck in the personal clutches of a demon with a grudge.i
** Josie Gillman, a designated ButtMonkey and ComicReliefCharacter, is actually an aversion despite the universe constantly conspiring to humiliate her. Her [[ThePollyanna Pollyanna]], {{Cloudcuckoolander}} and WrongGenreSavvy tendencies prevent her from seeing anything, no matter how humiliating, as more than a temporary setback.

* [[WhatTheHellHero What the Hell, Teacher?]]: The "Gun Safety" Instructor is apparently such a paranoid psychopath that he ''physically assaults'' students for the "crime" of creating an ''illusion'' of a firearm. As a demonstration of what their illusions are.
** And he deactivates the safeties of a Danger Room, assigning it to try to ''kill'' Loophole, so that her mutation will activate ''against her will''. What if the mutation was mind-reading or supersenses? What if her mutation was an extreme GSD?

** Is Jobe Wilkins well meaning if JerkAss MadScientist who genuinely can't understand that his attempts to help are worse than the original problem? On the forums even the canon authors have disagreed on this point, but the author of the Book Of Jobe goes for the second viewpoint.
** Team Kimba: Powerful, but made up of compassionate and heroic individuals, or an [[AffablyEvil Affably Evil]] subversion of TrueCompanions whose members have almost no sense of restraint or mercy, care more about each other then the rest of the world, and are each a danger to the rest of humanity [[CorruptCorporateExecutive for]] [[TheFairFolk one]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes reason]] [[EldritchAbomination or]] [[IDidWhatIHadToDo another?]]

** Deathlist is a psychopathic, NighInvulnerable cyborg who gets off on widespread carnage and considers the world to owe him a debt of pain. The most horrific thing he's done so far was to kidnap a mutant superheroine, jam a power-neutralizing device into her skull, then hack off her arms and legs and give her to his troops as a sex toy. Then, when she died after more than a month of torture and rape, he impaled her corpse on a pole with a thank-you message to one of her former teammates carved into her chest. Not even his FreudianExcuse (namely, that [[spoiler:his parents tried to kill him by crushing him in a garbage compactor]]) nets him any sympathy after that.

* FetishFuelStationAttendant: ...Sara, a half (or 3/4, depending on your math) [[spoiler: demon]]. Her father was a [[spoiler: demon of lust]]. She has ''tentacles'', shapeshifting abilities, a will to use them, and she's [[AnythingThatMoves OmniSexual]]. At one point, to taunt someone she sticks out her tongue, which grows to three feet long, and sprouts tendril-like fingers.
* GodModeSue: Billie Wilson is intended as a {{deconstruction}}.

* MarySue: The biggest source of BrokenBase in the series; just about every character (and Team Kimba in particular) has fans and anti-fans who consider them sue-riffic. However, the school is a SuperheroSchool, so some [[CommonMarySueTraits common Sue warning signs]] are, well, really common. For example, one of the {{Most Common Superpower}}s in the setting is a passive power that makes you [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting slowly shapeshift]] into your ideal physical shape, usually something [[MostCommonSuperpower unbelievably]] [[TopHeavyGuy attractive]] (or at least a very HeroicBuild). Not that this is always a good thing, see the InvoluntaryShapeshifting entry above.
** Personality-wise, it often varies between authors. Whether and to what degree someone is sadistic (but never caught), competent (when no one else is), powerful (at the expense of plot) or annoying (yet no one in story catches on) changes depending on who's in the spotlight.

* {{Squick}}: Several examples. Almost all the main characters are {{Transgender}}ed in some way shape or form and there are rather frank discussions of gender issues in the early chapters -- for example, Ayla is mostly female except for... certain elements of his body, Jade uses her powers to "tuck" herself in and this is described rather frankly -- did we mention that Jade is physically 12 years old? Sara essentially vomits out her entire set of internal organs when she "awakens". For the most part however, the series is a fairly standard slice-of-life high-school drama, except with super-powers. If you're squicked by trans-gender stuff, [[Administrivia/ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontLike why are you reading Whateley stories?]]

* VillainSue: Mimeo, as a response to [[MarySue Team Kimba]].
* [[WhatTheHellHero What The Hell, Teacher?:]] The "Gun Safety" Instructor is apparently such a paranoid psychopath that he ''physically assaults'' students for the "crime" of creating an ''illusion'' of a firearm. As a demonstration of what their illusions are.

** Josie Gillman, a designated ButtMonkey and ComicReliefCharacter, is actually an aversion despite the universe constantly conspiring to humiliate her. Her PollyAnna, CloudCuckooLander and WrongGenreSavvy tendencies prevent her from seeing anything, no matter how humiliating, as more than a temporary setback.

* NeverLiveItDown: Fireball.
** Phase turned her into a monster by trashing her BIT (accidentally), and keeps thinking about it despite the fact that he never intended to do it and despite the number of Exemplars he did the same thing to, none of them got their BITs trashed.
** He likes Brass Monkey (an alternative band) that the majority of other characters hate. They never stop bitching at him about it.
** When he was a child, he donated millions of dollars to the MCO and supported Emil Hammond, believing that the doctor was a good guy who was being slandered by a lot of people with a grudge. Ayla found out the truth, and now he won't stop beating himself up for it- despite repeatedly being told by his friends that nobody would blame a kid for donating money to a cause that his parents told him was right.

* DudeNotFunny: Some fans felt this way about the BlackComedyRape scenes in ''The Book of Jobe''.
** The blatant MTF fetishism is offensive to some people.

* HollywoodHomely: When everyone else is an exemplar, minimum, the characters who are baseline in appearance (or worse) are pretty screwed. Or not, actually... Ayla comments a lot on this. (Actually, only about a third of the characters are Exemplars, but it does make a difference. X)

** Chou's father is stuck in the personal clutches of a demon with a grudge.

** Jade as written by Babs Yerunkle is a mature young woman struggling to overcome physical limitations and the dangers presented by the world with the help of her friends. Jade as written by Diane Castle is a CrazyAwesome [[PsychopathicManchild Psychopathic Girlchild]] who is a continual source of crazy, entertaining things. YMMV on which version is better. Given the timeline of the stories in question, it's possible to interpret at as [[CharacterDevelopment Jade being steadily pushed over the edge]] [TraumaCongaLine by her circumstances]], [[DealWithTheDevil demon mark]], [[EldritchAbomination and exposure to mythos magic]].

** Jade as written by Babs Yerunkle is a mature young woman struggling to overcome physical limitations and the dangers presented by the world with the help of her friends. Jade as written by Diane Castle is a CrazyAwesome [[PsychopathicManchild Psychopathic Girlchild]] who is a continual source of crazy, entertaining things. YMMV on which version is better.

* UnfortunateImplications: Multiple.
** The "glamor" mutants like Medusa, Fey or Sara have essentially makes them extremely attractive to people or causes sexual arousal in people affected by it, to the point that some of these powers can bypass even sexual orientation -- See EvenTheGuysWantHim above. Whether or not this is a form of mild MindRape (or actual rape, if they do anything with it) is up to the reader.
** The biggest one might be the fact that all the LGBT students are '''segregated''' from the rest of the school and asked to remain in the closet. The school attempts to justify this by saying that anti-queer bias is so deeply ingrained into Western society that homophobic bullying would be inevitable and apocalyptic in proportion, and all it would take is one incredibly angry homophobe for a tragedy.
*** And the most unfortunate part of that implication: The semi-official cover story for that dorm, obliquely hinted at by the school administration whenever someone outside the dorm wonders why so many Poesies seem a little "off", is that it's the dorm for students with mental problems.
*** FridgeLogic makes it worse: In canon people have an easier time accepting the fact that people at the school are very much non human than they do that that the hot chick might've been a boy until recently. If for example, Poes was instead "Every Jew, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist must hide their faith here because the world is simply too intolerant" it would never have gotten off the ground, which in and of itself just shows the blatant fetishism of transgendered people inherent with the series.
*** Funnily enough, in RealLife bashing LGBT people has become distinctly something that is not tolerated by Western society more and more, making the justification even more unfortunate.
*** Keep in mind that 1, the person who instituted the cover-up is in her seventies and did so decades ago when such attitudes were more respectable. 2, people aren't asked to remain in the closet, they are free to come out (individually; no outing of the cottage as a whole). 3, Poe's purpose is to give the LGBT students a place to be themselves without fear of oppression (well, OK, excepting people like Sharisha and Hippolyta, but thankfully they're the minority), and 4, if Poe was known as the cottage for LGBT people, everyone in there would be outed. At least with the cover-up, they can decide whether or not they want to be out, as opposed to having that choice taken away from them. 5, all of the cottages are populated by specific groups- Whitman and Twain by GSD students, Emerson and Dickinson by non-GSD students, Melville by students of high-profile (i.e. Alphas, a lot of Bad Seeds and Capes), Hawthorne by students with issues controlling their powers- everyone in Poe is clearly there for a reason, so how many explanations are there for why those specific students were there.
** After being a girl for only six weeks, Tennyo defended herself against a sasquatch-like mutant who had been trying to bully her by flipping him over her shoulder and pinning him to the ground after he grabbed her. When a teacher heard rumors about this event, he chastised her for not acting enough like a girl, implying that girls should act according to outdated stereotypes and that standing up for yourself, even if you are able to, is improper for a girl.
** The fact that the sole FTM of Team Kimba is the only one without his own set of stories.
*** The Meta-UnfortunateImplications inherent with people speculating that he is actually a villain because of that, and not that FTMs are basically ignored.
** SecondLawOfGenderBending takes place incredibly fast, even from characters virulently hating their situation. Fey for instance spends all of about a day worrying that she's become fully female, before giggling and deciding to take Tennyo on a shopping spree.
** The Goodkinds is just a landmine of [[StrawmanPolitical unfortunate stereotypes]] surrounding conservatives; perhaps not undeserved but still. What's worse is that despite their flagrant human rights violations (as in ''constantly'') they manage to control the country to an extent and the '''''superpowered''' community'' are powerless to stop them.
** The ThirdLawOfGenderBending tends to permeate most of the stories. By the time they arrive at Whateley, the four main characters who are shifting from male to female have all acquired the habits of tittering endlessly, pillow-fighting, constantly talking about their periods, and blaming everything on their hormones [[SarcasmMode because that's what women do]].

** Deathlist, a psychopathic, NighInvulnerable cyborg who gets off on widespread carnage and considers the world to owe him a debt of pain. The most horrific thing he's done so far was to kidnap a mutant superheroine, jam a power-neutralizing device into her skull, then hack off her arms and legs and give her to his troops as a sex toy. Then, when she died after more than a month of torture and rape, he impaled her corpse on a pole with a thank-you message to one of her former team-mates carved into her chest. Not even his FreudianExcuse (namely, that [[spoiler:his parents tried to kill him by crushing him in a garbage compactor]]) nets him any sympathy after that.
** Hekate, a wizardess supervillain-in-training, whose rap sheet includes using a spell to enslave two of her classmates for a year, during which they were repeatedly raped and otherwise abused while being completely aware of what was happening but powerless to stop it, as well as the fact that the athamé she used in the spell was empowered by the ritual sacrifice of two young children. Not only that, but during a magical battle with Fey (after trying and failing to ensnare her in the same enslavement spell mentioned earlier), she summons a trio of iron elementals using the promise of dozens of future sacrifices. To top all that off, she used her athamé to stab Jade in the heart beforehand, just to torment Fey.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: [[Awesome/WhateleyUniverse Here's the page.]]
* CrowningMomentOfFunny: In ''Yet Another Day As An Outcast'', the Outcasts take on the Goobers in an arena match. They start off by summoning the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
** At the Halloween dance, Miyet has Hello Kitty gear glued onto her. Jimmy T asks Circe (yes, ''that'' Circe) to get it off, and Circe does so with the spell 'Bippity boppity boo, no glue for you!' It works.
** In the first Boston Brawl story, people keep identifying Heartbreaker by her ass.
* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: A few, on and off, but on standout, perhaps, is the end of Jadis' first solo story. [[spoiler: She has a shrine in her wardrobe to the superhero she thinks is her mother. She sticks up a newspaper clipping of her saving a bunch of people, and asks whether her mother might one day tell her that she's proud of her]].
** In "Ayla and the Grinch", Ayla disguises himself as a beauty pageant contestant to hide from the MCO. He then ends up fighting a demon. Two of the other contestants face down the demon armed with nothing more than symbols of their faith (and it actually works). After the fight, Ayla goes to see them in the pageant, and while neither of them gets a place, he makes some calls and gets them scholarships and free long-term sessions with psychiatrists.