* CreepyCute: As part of the series’ overall enlightened approach to writing aliens, their personalities don’t necessarily match their descriptions. For example, Pincer-Tip is a large, armoured, one-eyed, radially-symmetrical crab monster with the personality of an excitable nine-year-old.
* {{Sequelitis}}: The "Uplift Storm" trilogy wasn't as well received as the first three books in the series.
* WoobieSpecies:
** Humans themselves are presented this way. Most aliens despise or hate them as an upstart rogue species that never had a proper upbringing, but even in-universe a few view them as TheWoobie.
** The [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Karrank%]], good God. Their patrons, the Nr~klat, warped their bodies and minds so severely that every one of them is born incurably insane, and they live their whole lives in horrendous mental anguish. They were allowed to "retire" to Kithrup, but they're near the bottom of the legal and social totem pole and appear to be physically unable to leave the planet, thanks to how they've continued to evolve.
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