History YMMV / Divergent

* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Fernando in ''Insurgent'' seems to be ruled by logic more than the average Erudite.

* {{Misblamed}}: Robert Schwentke initially received the brunt of the criticism (and blame) for the sequels' deviation from the source material and the films' rapidly declining quality. However, it was later revealed that [[ExecutiveMeddling the studio, Lionsgate,]] [[https://www.thewrap.com/allegiant-power-rangers-lionsgate-jon-feltheimer/ had rushed the third film]] ''Allegiant'' into production to [[ChristmasRushed "hit a date"]]. Additionally, the producers of the series (Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher) actually ''encouraged'' Schwentke to deviate from the vision of the original director (Neil Burger), causing the many creative decisions that fans were displeased with.

* SugarWiki/SheReallyCanAct:

* WTHCastingAgency: The casting of Theo James as Four has gotten this reaction, not because he's bad in the role but because he ''looks'' way too old. In the books Four is meant to be 18, while James was 28 when the first movie was filmed and looked it. Shailene Woodley was 22 playing 16 year old Tris, but she could pass for a teenager much better than James and so looked far younger next to him. Considering the pair have a romantic relationship, the apparent age disparity weirded out some viewers. Woodley [[https://www.hypable.com/divergent-movie-how-old-is-four/amp/ stated]] that Four was supposed to be [[AgeLift older in the movies]], about 24/25 years old, but considering Tris is still meant to be in her late teens this didn't help matters, as it means Four is still nearly a decade older than high school-aged Tris.

** Creator/ShaileneWoodley as Tris. A lot of book fans felt she was all wrong for the role, and many reviewers described her performance as "disaffected" - plenty comparing her unfavourably to Creator/KristenStewart in the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' films. Others however, particularly around the time ''The Divergent Series: Insurgent'' was released, praised her as one of the best parts of the franchise - and she enjoyed the same level of hype that Creator/JenniferLawrence got from ''Film/TheHungerGames''.

!! The Books:

** Was Eric's eulogy to [[spoiler: Albert]] a sincere PetTheDog moment, or was it a lie simply to make himself look good? While Tris thinks it's the latter, LivingLieDetector Christina didn't point it out.

* BrokenBase: The ending of ''Allegiant.'' Specifically, [[spoiler: [[HeroicSacrifice the death of Tris]], the main heroine, which has gone on to become a major point of contention among the fandom. Many readers felt this was an unnecessary stain on what would have otherwise been a satisfying ending, and that Tris breaking into the Weapons Lab in Caleb's stead robbed the latter of a chance to finally redeem himself for his betrayal in ''Insurgent''. However, another camp argues that her death is a fitting resolution to her character arc, which was all about self-discovery and understanding the true meaning of sacrifice. Some also believe that killing off the hero helped to set the books apart from other dystopian YA stories such as ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', which ''Divergent'' is frequently compared to.]] Reviews on Amazon averaged 2.5 stars when the book first came out, and there has even been clamoring for the film series to [[spoiler: leave Tris alive]] (which has more or less been granted with the cancellation of ''Ascendant''). At least a few [[FixFic Fix Fics]] have also followed suit.
** To make matters worse, the epilogue released in 2017, ''We Can Be Mended'', has [[spoiler: Tobias and Christina hook up, five years after the events of ''Allegiant'']], which has attracted some ire. Detractors feel as though the pairing came out of left field, as the two were never shown to have much chemistry throughout the series, that it's a slap in the face to [[spoiler: the dead Tris for her best friend to start dating her boyfriend]], and that the two work much better as close friends than lovers. Those who don't mind the pairing point out that the two deserve to be happy after everything they've been through, and that [[spoiler: Beatrice]] [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy probably wouldn't want]] [[spoiler: Tobias]] [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy to be miserable forever.]]

* FanonDiscontinuity: Some fans prefer to turn a blind eye to the epilogue short story ''We Can Be Mended'', mostly due to [[spoiler: Four getting together with Christina, five years after Tris's death,]] which has generally not been well-received. See BrokenBase above.

* HoYay: In the prequel novel, there's rather a lot of it between Four and his mentor Amar. Amar takes him under his wing as soon as he transfers to Dauntless and becomes his first friend. As Four isn't used to the Dauntless way of being so affectionate with each other, some of it does come across as a romantic subtext. What's more is that the portions of the novel where he helps Tris (because he's fallen in love with her) parallels how Amar helped him. [[spoiler: When Amar shows up in ''Allegiant'', he indeed confirms that he was interested in Four in a romantic way, but noticed that he didn't reciprocate his feelings.]]

* MisaimedFandom: All of the "which faction are you" quizzes and people proudly discussing which faction they are, considering a major part of the novel is that the faction system is oppressive and wrong towards Divergents and Factionless, and that it ultimately turns out [[spoiler: all five factions are failed genetic experiments whose various flaws caused the apocalypse.]]

** Numerous candidates for when Peter crossed this. Shining examples are [[spoiler: how he stabbed Edward in the eye while he was sleeping. Then there was the time he hung Tris over the chasm (claimed it was just to scare her) and groped her chest, while mocking her for "feeling twelve"]].

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: In ''Divergent'', Peter was an seemingly irredeemable bastard. However, [[spoiler: ''Insurgent'' showed his [[CharacterizationMarchesOn more]] [[PetTheDog admirable]] [[CharacterDevelopment traits]]]]. First, he [[spoiler: helped Tris escape execution. Sure, it was out of obligation, but it's still something]]. Near the end, [[spoiler: [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes he took the time to comfort his grieving mother after finding out his father died in the invasion]]]]. More so in ''Allegiant'' when [[spoiler:he reveals that he knows he's a horrible person and disgusts himself but can't help it and decides to wipe his own memory in hopes of becoming better.]] Makes him almost cross into JerkAssWoobie territory.
* RewatchBonus: If one reads the prequel from Four's perspective, [[spoiler: him shooting Eric]] in ''Insurgent'' now carries a lot more weight. [[spoiler: It's revealed that Four's mentor Amar was also a Divergent. Eric, who was a spy for Erudite, told Jeanine this and Amar was found dead. Four knew this all along but was powerless to bust Eric]].
* SpoiledByTheFormat: ''Allegiant'' alternating between Tris and Four’s POV, unusually for the series, might tip the reader off that [[spoiler: Tris is going to die.]]

** Marcus gets one in ''Insurgent'' when Tobias gets laughed at for fearing him. So, to prove that he's no coward, [[spoiler: he gives Marcus a well-deserved beat-down]].
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: How some people feel about [[spoiler:Tori Wu]] in ''Allegiant''. She is among those who get to the wall, but [[spoiler: is killed before she can escape with everyone else. And this is the start of the book, meaning she gets to have no impact on the plot at all - other than setting up an AnyoneCanDie situation. She becomes a ForgottenFallenFriend quite quickly too]].

** Al didn't belong in Dauntless from the get-go and only joined to make his family proud, when he clearly belonged in somewhere like Amity. His entire initiation experience is agonizing and terrifying to him, and he grows more and more distant until [[spoiler: eventually, when it's clear that his only choices are factionlessness and death, he joins with Peter and Drew in their attempt to murder Tris, regretting it immediately afterwards.]] It gets worse when Tris [[spoiler: coldly rejects his pleas for redemption, despite being fully aware of his mental state and the intentions behind his actions, which [[DrivenToSuicide leads to his suicide]]]]. A major WhatTheHellHero moment for many readers.
** Tris, by the end of the first book. During initiation, she is bullied, verbally harassed, and sexually assaulted for being a "Stiff", [[spoiler: becomes a victim of attempted murder, feels guilty when an ex-friend commits suicide, watches her entire world and society crumble around her, is forced to shoot one of her best friends (who was mind-controlled), loses ''both'' of her parents, and is ''nearly'' shot and killed by the boy she loves (who was also mind-controlled).]] Her mental state continues to spiral downwards in ''Insurgent'', to the point where she [[spoiler: is nearly DrivenToSuicide in the Candor Headquarters, and only holds back because she thought it would be ungrateful towards her parents, who sacrificed their lives for her. She also turns herself in to Jeanine without any escape plan, and the text makes it abundantly clear that she actively wants to die at this point]].

!! The Films:

%% * EnsembleDarkhorse:
%% ** Some fans seem to like [[WeHardlyKnewYe Fernando.]]
%% ** Considering the reaction to his character being cut from the first movie, Uriah seems to be this.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Attempted with ''Insurgent'', as noted in that book's bonus materials. One reader's critical comment about Tris seemingly brushing off [[spoiler: the deaths of her parents]] in the first book caught Roth's attention as she was writing the sequel. In response, Roth went to lengths to try and depict Tris' reactions to her trauma as realistically as possible — with... mixed reception from readers; see {{Wangst}} below.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: In ''The Divergent Series: Insurgent'', Tris had her hair cut into a pixie cut, much shorter than it was in the books[[note]]The reasoning for this is that Tris' actress Creator/ShaileneWoodley cut her hair completely short for ''Film/TheFaultInOurStars'' and couldn't grow it out in time for the film[[/note]], which received complaints. This led to ''The Divergent Series: Allegiant'' having her hair now at chin-length, which is how she cut it in the books.

* UnfortunateImplications: Discussed [[http://www.bustle.com/articles/19143-we-need-to-talk-about-the-divergent-movie-attempted-rape-scene here]] about a change in ''Divergent'' from the book to the film - in the book Tris's fear of intimacy is her third fear, which gets changed to a hallucination of Four attempting to rape her in the film. The post points out that the change (and by extension having Tris conquer the fear with a GroinAttack) opens up a can of worms:
--> "...Aren't we just putting the impetus on preventing sexual assault back on the women? So if someone not as strong as Tris is unable to fight off her attacker, is she not responding "appropriately"? Then, aren't we just saying she didn't do everything she could, and thus, it's partly her fault?"

* CriticalBacklash: The films are usually on many critics' 'Worst of X Year' lists, and "still better than ''Divergent''" is often used to describe other movies based off [[YoungAdultLiterature YA books]]. Some understandably don't find the movies to be ''that'' bad.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Al. Some fans were really sad [[spoiler:that he died and felt his death was a tragic cautionary tale against withholding forgiveness. Other fans felt that he deserved to die and that Tris was right not to forgive him]].

* {{Wangst}}: Depending on the reader, Tris's endless agonization over everything might be off-putting; especially in ''Insurgent''.

* {{Spoiled by the Format}}: As soon as Allegiant switches from Tris’ POV to Four’s, it’s painfully, stupidly obvious that [[spoiler: Tris is going to die.]]

* FoeYay: There's plenty of sexual tension between Peter and Tris, which is understandable since their actors are good friends in real life and had played lovers in ''Film/TheSpectacularNow''.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: In ''The Divergent Series: Insurgent'', Tris had her hair cut into a pixie cut, much shorter than it was in the books[[note]]The reasoning for this is Creator/ShaileneWoodley having cut her hair completely short for ''Film/TheFaultInOurStars'' and couldn't grow it out in time for ''The Divergent Series: Insurgent''[[/note]], which received complaints. This led to ''The Divergent Series: Allegiant'' having her hair now at chin-length, which is how she cut it in the books.

* {{Anvilicious}}: We get it, Roth. Facing your fears and being brave is very lovely and all, but could you please be a little more subtle about it?

*
WTHCastingAgency: The casting of Theo James as Four has gotten this reaction, not because he's bad in the role but because he ''looks'' way too old. In the books Four is meant to be 18, while James was 28 when the first movie was filmed and looked it. Shailene Woodley was 22 playing 16 year old Tris, but she could pass for a teenager much better than James and so looked far younger next to him. Considering the pair have a romantic relationship, the apparent age disparity weirded out some viewers. Woodley [[https://www.hypable.com/divergent-movie-how-old-is-four/amp/ stated]] that Four was supposed to be [[AgeLift older in the movies]], about 24/25 years old, but considering Tris is still meant to be in her late teens this didn't help matters, as it means Four is still nearly a decade older than high school-aged Tris.

** Al is arguably the biggest one in the entire series. He didn't belong in Dauntless from the get-go and only joined to make his family proud, when he clearly belonged in somewhere like Amity. His entire initiation experience is agonizing and terrifying to him, and he grows more and more distant until [[spoiler: eventually, when it's clear that his only choices are factionlessness and death, he joins with Peter and Drew in their attempt to murder Tris, regretting it immediately afterwards.]] It gets worse when Tris [[spoiler: coldly rejects his pleas for redemption, despite being fully aware of his mental state and the intentions behind his actions, which [[DrivenToSuicide leads to his suicide]]]]. A major WhatTheHellHero moment for many readers.

* JustHereForGodzilla: A large amount of the first film's press came from the fact that Kate Winslet of all people was [[PlayingAgainstType the villain]]. Half the interviews asked her about it.

** Uriah gets cut from the first movie, is a real OneSceneWonder in the second and has no lines at all in the third.

** Marlene's friendship with Tris is largely cut.

** Ansel Elgort shortly became a bigger name with the release of ''Film/TheFaultInOurStars''.
** Uriah's actor Keiynan Lonsdale later got cast as Wally West on ''Series/TheFlash2014''.

* LoveToHate: Kate Winslet makes Jeanine such a bitch that she's incredibly entertaining to watch.

** Creator/ShaileneWoodley as Tris. A lot of book fans felt she was all wrong for the role, and many reviewers described her performance as "disaffected" - plenty comparing her unfavourably to Creator/KristenStewart in the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' films. Others however, particularly around the time ''The Divergent Series: Insurgent'' was released, praised her as one of the best parts of the franchise - and she enjoyed the same level of hype that Creator/JenniferLawrence got from ''Film/TheHungerGames''.
** In ''Divergent'', there's Tris getting the flag instead of Christina like in the books. Those who argue against the change say that Christina needed her SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome after being abused by Eric. Others say that it has much more meaning if Tris is the one who gets it, visually showing that she has finally earned her spot (as Christina had never been in danger of being cut).

* {{Misblamed}}: Robert Schwentke initially received the brunt of the criticism (and blame) for the sequels' deviation from the source material and the films' rapidly declining quality. However, it was later revealed that [[ExecutiveMeddling the studio, Lionsgate,]] [[https://www.thewrap.com/allegiant-power-rangers-lionsgate-jon-feltheimer/ had rushed the third film]] ''Allegiant'' into production to [[ChristmasRushed "hit a date"]]. Additionally, the producers of the series (Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher) actually ''encouraged'' Schwentke to deviate from the vision of the original director (Neil Burger), causing the many creative decisions that fans were displeased with.