YMMV / Holding the World On Their Shoulders

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Cinder's claim in chapter 18 of Reignfall, that she would have supported May's transitioning and kept their minor treason a secret to protect her team, is dubious, but not entirely implausible. Cinder takes her duties as a team leader seriously, even if the way she goes about it is entirely wrong for the people she's working with, and it's been shown that she does genuinely see her teammates as friends. Wether that sentiment would be enough for her to choose them over her loyalty to Ironwood is up for interpretation, though the fact that she only barely hesitated before blackbagging May on his orders does her no favors.
• Foe Romance Subtext: Cinder and May absolutely despise each other, though their old relationship as almost-friends makes it easy to read their relationship as that of very bitter exes. Their dialogue when seeing each other again for the first time in years adds fuel to the fire.
  May: You really pick the weirdest ways of getting my attention!
  Cinder: You don't write, you don't call. Not like you left me much choice.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In a reddit QnA with Kdin Jenzen, she mentioned a few details about May that correspond remarkably well to the fic, namely that May's favored element as a maiden would be either lightning (which it is in the fic) or ice, and that, if she had one, May's middle name would be Clorinda, which is her weapon's name in the fic.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: May. Dear god, May. The poor girl grew up knowing that if she ever was true to who she is, she would at best be disinherited and disowned by her own family. In Atlas, while still suffering under the rigid military system and hiding her identity, she does finally start to make some healthy friendships and connections, only for that to be ripped away when she stands up to Ironwood after getting a solid peek at the skeletons in his closet, only for that to result in one of her friends stabbing her in the back and sending her to a torture prison which she has no hope of escaping from until approached by an even worse power than Ironwood presenting themselves as benevolent. And that's just the abridged version of the first fic. Everything she suffers, as well as a solid dose of manipulation and gaslighting, sets her on the path to becoming a mass murdering terrorist and one of the most dangerous people in all of Remnant.