History YMMV / HIVESeries

* EvilIsSexy: Anastasia Furan was known as strikingly beautiful by all before [[spoiler:the burning of the original Glasshouse.]] Out of our "villainous" protagonists, the majority of them are remarked to be exceptionally good-looking: Nero, Raven, the Contessa, Lucy Dexter, Wing, Shelby, Laura, and Diabolus. Cypher, Wing's father, an actual arc villain, is noted to be handsome as well.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: The first few books, barring the language, are fine for small children. The last several are really not, although the language gets cleaner.
* WhatMeasureIsANonBadass: Should Laura be trained in hand-to-hand combat so she can keep up with the rest of the majority of the cast who can fight, or do her technical skills make her valuable enough to the team that she can survive on being a CombatPragmatist?

* AcceptablePoliticalTargets: One of, if not the only person Otto actually kills in the series is [[spoiler: Matt Rodney]], an excruciatingly obvious Mitt Romney clone who is tied to [[spoiler: the Disciples]] in book [[spoiler: eight.]]

* RelationshipWritingFumble: There is some ShipTease between Nero and Raven throughout the series, but starting in book four many flashbacks from Raven's past show up that paint their relationship very un-romantically- more like a father and daughter deal. If it turns out the two are related, the ship tease would be squicky in hindsight. If the two get together in the romantic sense, it would still be a little creepy that so many father-daughter analogies are being used.

* NoYay: In book eight, after Anastasia discovers [[spoiler:Laura sent the distress signal]], she calls her out of her room and the two have a very... disturbing conversation in which Anastasia tells [[spoiler:Laura]] just how much she enjoys causing her pain. It's long and subtext is found very easily. Doubles as FoeYay and a MindGameShip.

** Raven, who was raised at the [[TrainingFromHell Glasshouse.]] The vast majority of her flashbacks are tearjerkers. She makes two friends while there, the first of whom is shot in front of her while trying to help her escape, and the second of whom she is forced to kill because he had been brainwashed into attacking her. She is so lonely that she hallucinates about the former for years afterward so that she has someone to talk to. This all happens at the ripe age of eleven. At sixteen, she finally escapes and joins the Alpha program and has a hand in destroying the Glasshouse and killing Anastasia, but finds out two decades later that Anastasia is alive and [[spoiler: giving her own students the same treatment she gave to her.]]

* SisterShip: Otto and Wing are roommates. Laura and Shelby are roommates. Otto and Laura are love interests. Wing and Shelby are love interests.

* AcceptableLifestyleTargets: Played straight and then subverted with [[FunnyForeigner Franz]], who is morbidly obese throughout the entire series. In books one through five, its PlayedForLaughs, but after that it is either not mentioned or mentioned in passing, such as when he has to walk for several hours in Aftershock and remarks that he feels like he is going to have a heart attack.

%%* EvilIsCool

* MagnificentBastard: Overlord and Anastasia Furan in spades.

* EinsteinSue: Otto and Laura can become this at times. Everyone drops several dozen IQ points in their presence, and at least three times per volume someone has to tell them to "speak English please" when one of them is saying something that is actually completely understandable by laymen.

* EvilIsCool

* GrowingTheBeard: the series becomes noticeably better beginning with the revelation of [[spoiler:Overlord's identity.]] Serves also as CerberusSyndrome.

* SerialNumbersFiledOff: Some thought the series was one of these to HarryPotter based on book one, but all resemblance faded quickly with the accusations.

* RelationshipSue: Some think [[spoiler:Lucy Dexter]] is this to Otto. Others don't.

%% * UnfortunateImplications: Everything that happens to [[spoiler:Laura]] in the latter half of Deadlock has a strong subtext of rape. [[spoiler:Zero tortures her and mind rapes her to the point where she is nearly insane when he is done, and then remarks to Otto that he "understands why he liked her," treating the situation as if he had taken something from Laura that Otto could have had. Laura is visibly shaken in Otto's presence, and when she returns to the H.I.V.E. Nero offers to let her go home because of the trauma she has suffered.]]

* WhatMeasureIsANonBadass: Should Laura be trained in hand-to-hand combat so she can keep up with the rest of the majority of the cast who can fight, or do her technical skills make her valuable enough to the team that she can survive on being a CombatPragmatist?
* WorldOfWoobie: While most people who aren't named characters do fine in this universe, the vast majority of the named cast is firmly on the woobie spectrum.

* Wing, raised without friends or general interaction with people who aren't his parents. He comes home one day to find his mother murdered in their kitchen and his father essentially disappears into himself for several years. When he finally involves himself in his son's life again, it's to take him away from the only real friends he's ever had because his father misses the only thing he has left of his wife. He ends up trying to kill Wing's closest friend out of paranoia, and Wing is forced to kill him.
* Lucy, who was never allowed to leave the house or interact with other kids after her mother died when she was very young. She is told from childhood that she will be taken over by the instinct for evil within her, and survives until she's fifteen resisting the urge to use her [[spoiler:mind control.]] Once she joins the Alphas, she finds herself having to [[spoiler:use her abilities]] more and more, and it's implied she starts to enjoy it. She falls in love with the only boy on the planet who can relate to her problems, who is clearly already in love with someone else. She ends up [[spoiler: taking a bullet for him with a strongly implied knowledge he'll end up with the other girl,]] and a relief that she won't turn into the monster that everyone told her she would be.

** Otto himself. Watches his best friend [[spoiler:get shot]] in book two and finds out his [[spoiler:father is a homicidal AI who wants to take over his body]] in book three. In book four, he is captured by [[spoiler:H.O.P.E. and injected with Animus fluid.]] Book five features Otto as the [[spoiler:villain, under control by H.O.P.E. and forced to assassinate members of G.L.O.V.E.]] At the end, he is taken over by [[spoiler:Overlord, who tries to kill Laura and Wing. Laura]] shoots him, and he goes into a coma. The first good thing that happens to him comes in book six, where he kisses [[spoiler:Lucy Dexter,]] only for her to [[spoiler:die two days later.]] At this point, he thinks he'll only hurt anyone he gets close to, and makes no effort to get closer to Laura, whom he loves. In book seven, he finally [[spoiler:kisses Laura,]] only for her to be captured by [[spoiler:Anastasia Furan.]] He spends book eight trying to rescue her, only to find out that [[spoiler:his clone, Zero, has mind raped her and she will probably suffer permanent brain damage.]]
** Laura, who is kidnapped in literally every installment, suffers from homesickness, [[spoiler:grief over witnessing the death of Lucy Dexter,]] guilt over being responsible for the [[spoiler:death of more than half of her classmates]], and is [[spoiler:mind raped by Zero in book eight to the point that she is a quivering mess when Otto finds her.]] That she chose to [[spoiler:stay at the H.I.V.E.]] was shocking if not amazing.
** Raven, who was raised at the [[TrainingFromHell Glasshouse.]] The vast majority of her flashbacks are tearjerkers.

* UnfortunateImplications: Everything that happens to [[spoiler:Laura]] in the latter half of Deadlock has a strong subtext of rape. [[spoiler:Zero tortures her and mind rapes her to the point where she is nearly insane when he is done, and then remarks to Otto that he "understands why he liked her," treating the situation as if he had taken something from Laura that Otto could have had. Laura is visibly shaken in Otto's presence, and when she returns to the H.I.V.E. Nero offers to let her go home because of the trauma she has suffered.]]

* CompleteMonster: [[TheChessmaster Anastasia]] [[MagnificentBastard Furan]] is this. She runs the [[AcademyOfEvil Glasshouse]] where Raven was trained, [[spoiler:captures and/or kills all but four members of the Alpha Stream, has Laura betray the H.I.V.E. to save her family]], and then has her tortured by [[spoiler:Zero, Otto]]'s significantly more ruthless clone.
-->'''Anastasia Furan'''to [[spoiler:Laura]]: The only reason I haven't killed you is because I know you would rather be dead.

* UnfortunateImplications: Everything that happens to [[spoiler:Laura]] in the latter half of Deadlock has a strong subtext of rape. [[spoiler:Zero tortures her and mind rapes her to the point where she is nearly insane when he is done, and then remarks to Otto that he "understands why he liked her," treating the situation as if he had taken something from Laura that Otto could have had. Laura is visibly shaken in Otto's presence, and when she returns to the H.I.V.E. Nero offers to let her go home because of the trauma she has suffered.}}

* JumpingTheShark: the series becomes noticeably better beginning with the revelation of [[spoiler:Overlord's identity.]] Serves also as CerberusSyndrome.

->'''Anastasia Furan'''to [[spoiler:Laura]]: The only reason I haven't killed you is because I know you would rather be dead.

-'''Anastasia Furan'''to [[spoiler:Laura]]: The only reason I haven't killed you is because I know you would rather be dead.

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: [[spoiler: The Animus fluid]] and [[spoiler: Raven's experiences in Glasshouse]].