YMMV / Epithet Erased: Prison of Plastic

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Martin's habit of letting things go quickly when they are gone. Is he legitimately carefree and made it a habit not to get upset about these things, using them to not grieve over his dead wife or is he sociopathic with no empathy for anything that stays with him, including his family. Even Lorelai wonders if this is the case when musing on how he didn't seem all that affected. In the flashback around Molly and Lorelai's memory, it was shown that he did love his wife, and the feelings seem to have been mutual. But with Molly knowing how tired and stressed her mother was, Calliope might have been a Stepford Smiler to deal with the business and the idiocy of her husband. However, the series creator stated that the two of them balanced each other as people and parents, and Martin was the only person who could calm Calliope down. It’s equally possible that Calliope overworked herself because of her workaholic nature, and Molly just saw her having a bad day when she was overworked, which had nothing to do with Martin.
  • Naven's true nature. It is implied his chauffeur is a member of Bliss Ocean, so is Naven in the dark about his bodyguard's true nature, or is he fully aware and a secret member? While being held hostage, he remains calm and manages to emotionally break Lorelai when he tells her he knows that she might have been responsible for her mother's death.
• Catharsis Factor: If Molly's abusive family pisses you off, you will definitely feel much better by the end of this book. Let us count the ways:
  • Molly finally stands up for herself against Lorelai, giving her the verbal beatdown she had coming (along with a physical one) after finally reaching her Rage Breaking Point, ending in "I hate you".
  • Martin is an amazingly neglectful father, who barely seems to care about Molly. Giovanni throws a baseball at the back of his head after realizing how horribly he treats both her and even Lorelai.
  • After working herself to the bone barely keeping her family afloat, enduring Lorelai and Martin walking all over her for years with no one able to save her, Molly is "kidnapped" by Giovanni to live at Crusher's house for the foreseeable future. Her first day is marked by her getting a full night's rest, then waking up to an enormous breakfast of all her favorite foods, finally ending her years of sleep deprivation and malnutrition.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • Molly, during the Museum Arc, is panicking and saddened that she’s a criminal now cause she was in a museum after hours when she wasn’t supposed to. By the end of the book, she fully embraces her new life as a minion "bad-doer" and finds herself a new home with Giovanni and his minions.
  • Played for Laughs when Giovanni made a mental note to feed Molly since she reveals she’s light because of lack of food. At the end of the book, after kidnapping her, Giovanni feeds Molly a buffet of breakfast to welcome her to her new life.
  • Back during the Museum Arc, Giovanni insists that "nobody makes my minions cry, except me!", which seemed like a joke then and became even funnier when it became clear that Giovanni was unlikely to actually follow through on that. And then he actually does it...but it's Molly breaking down in Tears of Joy during her breakfast.
• He Really Can Act: While the voice actors were shown to be quite talented during the animated series, many can agree the audiobook truly brought out their best performance.
  • Dani Chambers, as Molly, brought out some of her best voice acting for the overworked kid. Chapter 7 is a massive highlight as Molly finally lets go, lashing out against Lorelai's poor treatment of her and subsequently breaking down when she realizes their relationship might be permanently damaged.
  • Ray Chase role as Rick Shades is praised for his bombastic personality and a somber moment when he reveals his past as a gladiator and how many of his friends left him. His voice tone changes when he reveals his true name and what his personality is like without the Rick Shades persona.
• Memetic Mutation: Fans have taken to creating tier charts of the characters based on how much they like them. The tiers tend to be titled as something along the lines of "I love them", "I like them", and "I hate them". However, multiple charts also add a category below their most hated characters simply titled "Martin Blyndeff" and consisting solely of the character in question to illustrate how despised he is. The creator himself even got in on the fun.

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