Line #4 YMMV/TheSisterhoodOfTheTravelingPants


1	* BaseBreakingCharacter: Some readers ''hate'' Bridget with a passion, arguing that she's an EasilyForgiven [[TheScrappy Scrappy]] and CreatorsPet who the narrative is cloying to even as she causes havoc with the emotions of others, while others [[TheWoobie feel for her situation]] and find her an entertaining and strong-willed character.
2	* BrokenAesop: The novel series has an almost shockingly negative view of sex, which is perhaps appropriate given a teenage demographic, but it's worth noting that most of the people who have sex are either bad/unstable people, or are punished for it.
3	** Tibby is punished for having sex for the first time with a pregnancy scare that scars her so much she breaks up with Brian.
4	** Bridget having sex with Eric is an obviously reckless action driven by her mental illness; it also makes her miserable.
5	** Lena loses her virginity to Leo and becomes depressed that it wasn't with her one true love.
6	** Kostas and Lena don't have sex their second summer together, but he reveals that he ''had'' had sex with a previous girlfriend, who was ObviouslyEvil and faked a pregnancy to BabyTrap him. Basically, the message is that good people only have sex with their one true love, and even then, you better watch out!
7	* BrokenBase:
8	** There were a lot of fans who weren't happy that [[spoiler:the girls, sans Carmen (who ended the first book single), all ended up with their [[FirstGirlWins first love interests]],]] arguing that it was unrealistic and didn't speak of much growth, putting them right back to a romantic square one (and it doesn't help that said love interests [[RomanticPlotTumor weren't all]] [[TheScrappy received well]]). Others find the idea of ending up with your FirstLove romantic, connects the stories, and falls in line with many young adult narratives.
9	** Similarly, there were a number of readers who were annoyed at the lives the characters were leading ten years down the road – Lena was made a full-time professor at RISD almost right out of school, Carmen became a successful TV actress of at least B-lister status and even though Bridget is the one girl who seemingly doesn't have her life together, working odd jobs and bopping around, she's living long-term with the boy she first fell for in the very first book – who happens to be a lawyer now. While many found this unrealistic and more like wish fulfillment or fan fiction, others have pointed out that just because the girls were in financially fulfilling careers does not mean they are happy (Carmen and Lena are especially miserable, and Bridget is possibly more unstable than ever), and the point of the fifth book is that even if things are good on paper, without friends in your life, it can feel like it's for nothing.
10	* DiagnosedByTheAudience: It could be argued that Bridget and her mother, Marnie, are both bi-polar: a mental illness that is heavily genetic.
11	** Marnie’s demeanour was described by Bridget’s grandmother, Greta, as either “high or very low”; Bridget mentions her mother’s “episodes” while recounting a story; and the Vreelands cut Greta out of their lives because Marnie was in denial that she had an issue (something very common with bi-polar individuals) but Greta refused to play along. This all culminated in Marnie eventually taking her own life.
12	** Bridget often takes action without thinking through the consequences, and tells Eric that a therapist once described her as “single-minded to the point of recklessness”. After losing her virginity to Eric, she seems to move into a numb state and her letter to Lena concerns Lena to the point she urgently calls Carmen to go see Bridget, who has taken to her bed until Carmen and Tibby come by to see her.
13	* FirstInstallmentWins: Hey, ever read the two spin-off books? Neither did most fans.
14	%% * LesYay: Between pretty much all of the girls.
15	* RomanticPlotTumor: Good Lord, ''Kostos'' and ''Eric.'' They are likable in the first couple of books, but by the end, they've become nigh-insufferable in the way they interact with Lena and Bridget. It becomes even worse in the sequel book. Lena is ''thirty years old'' and still obsessing over Kostos, whom she hasn't seen since she was a teenager. At least Eric and Bridget have been living together.
16	* TheScrappy: Almost none of the long-term love-interests are well-liked, particularly because of the aforementioned RomanticPlotTumor status. Brian doesn't get as much hate, although he isn't a universally adored character either, it's simply that Tibby puts him through much more than he puts her through. Kostos, meanwhile, is seen by many as not being worth all of Lena's pining, especially considering how quickly he moved on from her in the second book and (allegedly) got another girl pregnant. Eric is a bit better because he seems to treat Bridget well, but some regard him as being EasilyForgiven for sleeping with a younger girl at camp (although Bridget lied about her age, she was still a minor and he was in a counsellor position at the camp, and she was displaying fairly reckless behavior). Essentially, these love interests aren't so much hated for who they are but rather for the fact that they represent a total lack of growth for the main characters.
17	* {{Sequelitis}}: The first four books are pretty well-liked, but almost anyone who's actually read the sequels prefers to forget them.
18	%%* UnpopularPopularCharacter: Tibby

Context YMMV / TheSisterhoodOfTheTravelingPants