Line #16 YMMV/MaximumRide


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11	* AdaptationDisplacement:
12	** Today, the series is better known for the comic adaptation by Na Rae Lee than for the novels themselves.
13	** The series is actually based on an earlier two-book series by the same author, ''When The Wind Blows'' and ''The Lake House''. Naturally, far more people know about ''Maximum Ride'', especially since the two series barely resemble each other.
14	* AngstWhatAngst: Jeb Batchelder has every reason to angst -- his son dies, ''twice'', once practically ''in his arms'', his daughter would gladly kill him if given the chance, and he regularly gets [[TheChewToy slapped around]] by his superiors -- and yet he never says a word. He does get really upset during both of the times when Ari dies and it was mentioned that the clone of Max makes him very upset.
15	* {{Anvilicious}}: ''The Final Warning'', the fourth book in the series. The entire thing is about how Max needs to save the world by preventing global warming, and it focuses on that to the point where it doesn't even bother to give details on the villain. The book ends with Max making a speech to congress about global warming. Book five, ''Max'' focuses on pollution, though it's not as bad as the fourth.
16	* AssPull:
17	** When the kids develop all kinds of new powers in ''The Final Warning'', there's no proper explanation for why they've got ''those'' kinds of powers in particular, or for why they all got the new powers at roughly the same time even though they're of different ages.
18	** Angel reveals in ''Nevermore'' that she is the Voice. Despite the fact that the Voice knew things she didn't or shouldn't have known.
19	* BrokenBase: When ''The Final Warning'' came out, it divided the fanbase. Some really liked it, but others were driven completely up the wall at the plot shift from "bird kids running from {{Mad Scientist}}s and wolf monsters" to "bird kids save the world from global warming".
20	* CanonFodder: The series frequently wanders off and leaves plot threads hanging -- unfortunately, most of the fandom focuses on [[RomanticPlotTumor Fang/Max shipping]] and won't even touch the missing [[MadScientist mad scientists]], Max's past in the School, Jeb's true motives...
21	* ClicheStorm: From the evil twin and the stereotyped characters to the boy drama this series uses almost every YoungAdult fiction cliché known.
22	* TheChrisCarterEffect: The series suffers heavily from this, though it doesn't really become apparent until ''Saving The World and Other Extreme Sports''. As what was intended as the final book of a trilogy, you'd expect it to finally start resolving plot arcs, but instead it just keeps throwing in wackier and wackier twists while deliberately avoiding answering any questions.
23	* CreatorsPet:
24	** Angel, though widely disliked amongst the fandom, constantly gets a bunch of powers, and eventually got a book titled after her.
25	** Dylan, who is introduced six books in and relentlessly pushed (in-universe and out) [[CharacterShilling as the perfect romantic partner for Max in every possible way]], ''and'' he's as good a fighter as all of them, ''and'' he's supposedly better for the pack than Fang despite being [[FlatCharacter blander and less interesting]] in every conceivable way. This went over with [[DieForOurShip shippers]] and non-shippers alike about as well as you would expect.
26	* EsotericHappyEnding: ''Maximum Ride Forever''. [[spoiler:The world has been ravaged by an apocalypse that pretty much kills all of the Flock's loved ones, the new world is a dangerous place inhabited mostly by mutants, and chances of survival are looking fairly slim. But hey, [[OnlyTheLeadsGetAHappyEnding the whole Flock is alive!]] [[BabiesMakeEverythingBetter And Max gave birth!]] [[TeenPregnancy At fifteen]]...yeah.]]
27	* HilariousInHindsight: Let's start off by pointing out that the series focuses on ArtificialHuman characters on the run from the unethical scientists who created them. Going from there...
28	** Among the artificial humans:
29	*** The tough, streetwise, boot-wearing ActionGirl. She's the main character and the first one we meet. Her on-and-off LoveInterest is a charming, clever, mysterious badass who sometimes separates from her and does his own thing but is always there for her in the end.
30	*** TheSmartGuy, a chill, laid-back scientific expert who has a chronic disability from back in the lab. This character has a somewhat more childish and comical friend who is nonetheless a skilled expert and an invaluable ally.
31	*** TheFashionista, who is talkative and seemingly ditzy but also surprisingly perceptive. She appears to have a happy life but is actually lonely and just wants to fit in.
32	*** The CuteAndPsycho blonde. She has a childlike personality and outlook but often seems off her rocker and can be terrifyingly vicious if you piss her off. She also shares a mysterious connection with the main character.
33	*** The sassy guy with dark hair. Technically, he's not one of them, but they consider him an honorary member of the group.
34	** Other characters in the same series include:
35	*** A fatherly figure who helped design the main characters but ended up defecting from the scientific institute when he saw how unethical it was.
36	*** The main character's adoptive mother figure, who turns out to be more closely related to her than she knew.
37	*** The main character's biological brother. Initially, he appears insane and dangerous and works for the scientists who created the heroes. Later, he ends up doing a HeelFaceTurn.
38	*** At least one cold, unpleasant [[TheBaroness Baroness]] figure who works as a scientist in the institute that designed the main characters.
39	** [[Series/OrphanBlack ...Sound familiar?]]
40	* JerkassWoobie: Maya is Max's evil clone who tried to take over the Flock but everything that happened to her is quite sad. She was supposed to be the "superior" of the two but failed, her father figure keeps comparing her negatively to Max, and no one likes her. She joins Fang's new group under the name of "Maya" and, when Max finds out, she mocks her for trying to separate herself from Max. Maya finds love win Fang but Fang internally keeps comparing her to Max and how much better he prefers Max. And finally she dies and is immediately forgotten for the rest of the book.
41	* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Iggy, who in fanfiction has been paired with every member of the Flock (yes, even with 6-year-old Angel), Dylan, and Maya. And that's not even mentioning the sheer amount of {{Original Character}}s the fandom comes up with. [[CrossoverShipping Or even the crossovers...]]
42	%%* MemeticMutation:
43	%%** I vill now destroy de Snickuhs bahrs.
44	%%** "You looooooooooove me. You love me thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much."
45	%%** Fnick and Figgy.
46	* PortmanteauCoupleName: Fax/Mang (Fang and Max), Niggy (Nudge and Iggy), Eggy (Ella and Iggy), and [[HoYay Figgy (Fang and Iggy)]].
47	* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Dylan was widely despised by the fandom for shunting Fang out of the way while proclaiming himself superior in every way ([[InformedAttribute he wasn't]]) and for taking the books' infamous RomanticPlotTumor up to previously unseen levels. A lot of fans felt he managed to redeem himself in the final book, however, when [[spoiler: he realizes that Max will only love Fang and gives his life to revive Fang so he and Max can be together once more.]]
48	* RomanticPlotTumor: The series began life as a fairly decent kids' series, full of action and fighting stereotypical {{Mad Scientist}}s. By book five, ''Max'', the relationship between Max and Fang has become the entire focus of the (thin anyway) plot.
49	* TheScrappy: Dylan. The Max/Fang shippers hate him because the series hyped him up as a better love interest for Max than Fang, and everyone else hates him because he was subjected to a high level of CharacterShilling despite having a personality as flat as cardboard and his presence only made the RomanticPlotTumor worse.
50	* SeasonalRot:
51	** The first three books were all well done, engaging action-y novels, if increasingly showing the fact that the author doesn't so much [[GambitRoulette have a plan]] as more that he's [[KudzuPlot making it all up]] [[IndyPloy as he goes along]]. The fourth book (''The Final Warning'') is a 200-something page AuthorFilibuster on [[GreenAesop why global warming is bad.]]
52	** Books five to seven aren't any better, descending into the [[RomanticPlotTumor teen relationship wangstfest that would not die.]]
53	* ShipMates: The series features the official pairing of Fang/Max. What's to be done but pair up the remaining teenager with a preteen girl? God forbid he stay single or date outside his family.
54	* {{Squick}}:
55	** Roland suggesting that the underage Max and Dylan (who is really 8 months old) breed together. Not later when they're older, no they should do it right now. He even has a home set up for them already, not to mention how Jeb agrees with him. Thankfully Dr. Martinez goes MamaBear on his ass.
56	** People were disturbed by ''Maximum Ride Forever'', when 15-year old Max [[spoiler:reveals she's pregnant with Fang's baby]].
57	** The Gasman's flatulence, as well as the fact that he's actually named after it.
58	* StrangledByTheRedString: The series started out with just the gentlest of implied romance between the two main characters, focusing mainly on an intricate plot revolving around the {{mad scientist}}s who created them. Then book four hit, the plot disappeared, and suddenly they were all over each other, [[RomanticPlotTumor all the time]]. The fandom was thrilled for the most part... except for those who [[FridgeLogic realized]] that these two characters were, for all intents and purposes, brother and sister...
59	* StrawmanHasAPoint: In ''The Final Warning'', Max is furious that, after she and the Flock come to the government's attention, they would ''dare'' to try to put them in a boarding school. A few of their concerns -- being told they would be studied to a certain extent, etc. -- were valid, given [[PlayingWithSyringes their history]]. Several others not so much, especially when Max basically tells them "we've had it harder than you and we know better". It's kind of difficult to argue that they are properly prepared to move to civilian life when they decide to dive-bomb the Pentagon ''for amusement'' and then are ''surprised'' that there's retaliation.
60	* TakeThatScrappy: In ''Nevermore''. [[spoiler:Maya has her throat torn out by a cloned Ari, and Dylan goes berserk, terrorizes a city and ''tries to strangle Fang'']].
61	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: The experiments that the Flock frees in the first book could have easily made re-appearances later (especially the bird girl, who is implied to have become the leader of the group similar to Max), but they only appear once.
62	* ViewerGenderConfusion: Max. Considering that the book is written entirely in first person and her gender-neutral name, it's no wonder. It's not clear at all that she's female until at least about fifty pages into ''The Angel Experiment'', when she is finally referred to with a female pronoun.
63	* {{Wangst}}: Max has genuine reasons to be upset, but she seems to make it absolutely clear to the reader that she hates everything.
64	* TheWoobie:
65	** The entire Flock.
66	*** Nudge's desire to understandably be [[IJustWanttoBeNormal normal]].
67	*** Gazzy and Angel being sold for 10,000 dollars by their own freaking mother [[BreaktheCutie not to mention Angel being tortured at the School...]].
68	*** Fang finding out that his mother was a drug addict and having [[LoveInterests Maya]] [[DiedInYourArmsTonight die in his arms]].
69	*** Max having to struggle with saving the world and being betrayed by the people she loves the most.
70	*** Iggy. At first, being [[EyeScream blinded]] by the mad scientists of Itex doesn't seem to faze him... until ''School's Out -- Forever'' when he breaks down after the Flock's failure of not finding their parents when he confesses that if he would ever lose the Flock, he would [[GoMadFromtheIsolation lose himself]]. Then, after that, when he is finally reunited with his parents, it looks like they will accept him for who he is... until it turns out that they were planning to expose him to the world, basically gaining money from him and not even caring about what he thinks, forcing him to go back to the Flock. Poor kid.
71	** For some, all the shit Ari's been through can really tugs on one's heartstrings. He's ''seven years old''.

Context YMMV / MaximumRide