YMMV / Lily's Poke-Madhouse

• Abandon Shipping: Invoked with Gardevoir and Butterfree, as Orchard killed their budding romance after someone pointed out that Butterfree acted so childlike that it crossed over into Squick. Once this was pointed out, Orchard couldn't unsee the implications and became uncomfortable with the pairing.
• Adorkable: Mikaila's a very friendly woman who isn't above making a bad joke or two, is totally oblivious to Lily's request for her to move in until the latter flat out tells her what she wants, and has an overbite.
  Mikaila: Ah, Dr. Ponytail! We meet again!
  Dr. Ponytail: ...We've never met.
  Mikaila: Ah, Dr. Ponytail! We meet at last!
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is G a sincerely devoted friend who is sadly battling with her own instincts and perceived stereotypes about her species, or is she a possessive and toxic friend who views Lily as belonging to her and will do anything to keep it that way?
• Awesome Art: Mikaila’s art really makes the comic come alive with how expressive and cartoon-y it can get.
• Base-Breaking Character: G has become this as her story continues to develop. Some find her to be an extremely sympathetic character battling with the shame of perceived stereotypes, a fear of which has resulted in hurting the one person she loves more than anything else. Others find her to be toxic, abusive and possessive and become increasingly frustrated at the fact that Lily seems to avoid punishing her for her behavior.
• Broken Base
  • LilyVoir, the most popular pairing among readers, is practically made of this.
    • Supporters argue that Lily and G are closer than any two people can be, so much so that the insistence that their relationship is platonic is laughable at best. Additionally, G’s increasingly possessive behavior, mating bond, and eventually confession of being in love with her all support the idea that the two should get together.
    • Detractors argue that while all of this is technically true, the entire purpose of the comic is that these are not the basis of a romantic relationship. G and Lily’s relationship is unabashedly characterized as codependent and decidedly not healthy (though they are making the effort to be more healthy). Detractors also argue that while G is in love with Lily, it causes her distress because of a prolonged period of gaslighting that led her to believe that she was responsible for other people taunting her about stereotypes that only exist to facilitate abuse. G’s possessive behavior also has the unintended side-effect of her not considering Lily’s feelings and only being concerned about herself, and that a romantic relationship would be unhealthy for both of them.
  • Whether or not Marah qualifies as a "Plus sized character." She is sometimes derided as an example of Hollywood Pudgy. Marah's figure is, of course, hard to determine because she is both non-human and covered by a dress.
• Designated Hero: Lily, specifically during her time as an Enforcer, where she routinely broke up seemingly happy couples out of little more than adherence to the law. Of particular note is Nikolai and Gyra, who according to the wiki are respectively in prison and under the care of Cadenza's sanctuary; Gyra is even disqualified from the Gardevoir restoration project due to suicidal tendencies at being separated from his mate. This is magnified by the fact that Orchard relies on illegality and the inherent power dynamics in these sorts of relationships, rather than whether or not a relationship was actually healthy.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Lily’s Butterfree, a scatterbrained and hyperactive bug who’s excited and enthusiastic about everything and whose appearances always involve something cute or heartwarming.
  • Cala, the baby Ralts that Lily takes care of for several months. She is adored for her love of sweets, her cuddly and clingy nature, and the fact that she stared down G with no fear whatsoever.
  • Bonnie Orchard, a Creepy Cute hybrid child who quickly gained a fanbase before she was even announced due to her design and innocent personality.
  • Lacey Beaulieu, for her relationship with Lily and Bonnie, her sharp wit, and her being a chubby, attractive woman.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Lily/G. It's the most frequently demanded pairing and the one most commonly declared to be OTP. Even with more of the audience pushing back against it, it still remains the most popular and got its own story designed around exploring why it wouldn't work. Orchard has made it clear that Lily/G will never happen, but that doesn't stop people from shipping.
• Fan Nickname: "The Banshee" for G, due to Gardevoir being based off Banshee's from mythology.
• Growing the Beard:
  • The comic was considered to be disposable until the story arc regarding G's insecurities and anxieties started to play out. After that point, the character-driven nature of the story pulled in a lot of viewers who were hungry for stories about friends supporting each other through their issues.
  • Can be argued happened a second time after Orchard started leaning in to LilyVoir and writing several stories orbiting it as a concept, at which point the characters became far more endearing and less preachy.
• Harsher in Hindsight: An early comic that involves G explaining about how bonds with a trainer increase a Gardevoir’s lifespan has her glare at the audience after explaining they form bonds with human companions and then glares at the audience and says "I can see you snickering, shut up." This became a lot less funny after it was revealed that G lied and her extended lifespan came from forming a psychic mating bond with Lily, and her quick angry reaction looks more like a guilty conscience.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Blizzard foreshadows Violate through G’s instant relaxation and contentedness at simply being in Lily’s proximity, going as far as to sniff her sweater. She is taking comfort in her mate’s presence.
• Hollywood Pudgy: Marah's supposed to be plus-size, but can come off as a skinny woman being passed off as pudgy when compared to a character who has the proportions of a stick.
• Just Here for Godzilla: G is probably one of Orchard's most popular characters for her complicated psychology and Deconstructor Fleet status and is possibly the comic’s biggest selling point.
• Memetic Mutation
  • "Hug/Smooch the Banshee!"^Explanation Said by readers any time G is sad, or affectionate respectively.
  • "Love the Bon!" ^Explanation A sentence used any time Bonnie appears anywhere, especially in fanart, due to her Ensemble Dark Horse status and her Creepy Cute design.
  • "The sun is being rude." ^Explanation Due to being a hybrid, Bonnie has an adverse reaction to bright lights- the worst offender being the Sun. Every time the sun has appeared since, Bonnie wears sunglasses and/or tells it off for being rude.
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • Lilyvoir (Lily and Gardevoir) is the most popular pairing among viewers, despite it being made clear in the story that such a relationship is a terrible idea. This was slightly alleviated by the entrance of Lily and Gardevoir of the 2-82 universe, which revealed that in order for such a relationship to happen Gardevoir would have to break down Lily's mind and morals so much that she would be a completely different person, which our universe's G would never do.
  • There is a persistent belief among some viewers that Bonnie is autistic, due to her Cloudcuckoolander behavior and her issues with sensory overload. However, the former is often common among children Bonnie's age (3) and it is merely taken up to eleven in her case, while the latter is not exclusive to autism and the comic establishes that Psychic Pokemon (of which Bonnie is one half) suffer from sensory overload in their early life.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • For some readers, G forming a psychic mating bond with Lily to keep herself alive when she was a teenager, while she was sleeping and without asking her permission. This was considered a massive betrayal because G never once considered talking to Lily about forming the bond to extend her lifespan, as Lily revealed when she found out that she would have agreed to it because G was her best friend and the only family she had. G also instantly branded Lily a felon by doing this, as mating bonds are a massive neon sign to the Pokemon League that someone is in a sexual relationship with their Pokemon, and are themselves illegal. G also kept all of this from her for twelve years, causing all sorts of liabilities as Lily acted in a way that would be considered reckless had she known about G's actions.
  • Dr. Ponytail trying to have Bonnie killed in Cryptid. Not helped by the fact that she keeps referring to Bonnie as 'it' and "that thing" and is completely unsympathetic to Lily's obvious distress over the situation. This scene alone cemented her status as a Hate Sink in and out of universe, with even Mikaila having nothing friendly to say to or about her.
• Narm: Most of Mikaila's facial expressions are well done, or at the very least expressive enough to get the meaning across. Others ... not so much.
• Narm Charm: Lily has stated that the above expression is her favorite that Mikaila's drawn, due to the fact that this is the silliest expression that Mikaila has given Comic!Lily.
• Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading: The relationship between Lily and G is intended to be both platonic and familial, with wrenches thrown between them to facilitate the deconstructive nature of the story. But in practice their relationship plays out more like two have Belligerent Sexual Tension and are in denial about their feelings for each other. The fact that Orchard relied on the fact that a relationship between the two would be a felony in-universe to have total control of the story only served to exacerbate this feeling from readers. Ironically this became less of an issue once Orchard started leaning into this idea. Stories such as G coming to grips with her romantic feelings, their vacation to Kalos, linking dreams, and dealing with the loss of Cala were packed to the gills with Ship Tease, but ultimately did more to highlight their close platonic relationship than previous stories had. It has also been noted by multiple characters that Lily is extremely affectionate with her friends to a level that would normally be reserved for significant others, and that the difference between a romantic relationship and a platonic one is more a matter of a verbal agreement than anything significant.
• Ron the Death Eater: G is outright villainized by some readers and portrayed as an abusive, hostile demon who Lily is suffering Stockholm Syndrome for. Which becomes both Hilarious in Hindsight and Harsher in Hindsight with the reveal that 2-82's G most likely manipulated, gaslit, and/or outright brainwashed her universe's Lily into being in a romantic relationship with her. In other words, 2-82's G is everything mainverse's G is afraid of becoming.
• Starboarding: With the reveal that Lily no longer has any romantic feelings for G, many Lilyvoir shippers have moved to this.
• Tear Jerker:
  • G's utter terror in the Mega Evolution mini-arc that Lily might be in love with her. She's terrified of showing any affection at all to her friend due to fear of that affection being mocked for romantic love, and she's brought to angry tears when explaining to Lily that she's been afraid to be close with her the way they were as kids because Mismagius is just going to tear her apart for it. It's enough for Lily to finally put her foot down and stop Mismagius's mockery of her best friend.
  • Cala's departure from the comic, being adopted by a little girl. The way Lily is brought to tears once Cala leaves and Mikiala and Gardevoir rush to comfort her is intense.
  • When G is ultimately rejected by Lily in Disaster, she is shown to be absolutely crushed despite knowing this was how she would react. General reception to this comic was the same, with people remarking on how the rejection was inevitable, but still made them wish G could have what would make her happy regardless.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Pretty much everything from before the series starts, as Orchard has said on multiple occasions she has no interest in exploring the backstories of the characters. Examples include:
  • Lily's career as a League Enforcer, where she was so dangerous to Human/Pokemon couples that she is loathed even by people she's never met.
  • Lily's school life with G, where it's been implied she was bullied because of how close she and G were.
  • Lily's home life, where her parents became hostile to her after she came out as a lesbian.
  • Lily's relationship with G during their teenage years, where G was the only friend Lily had.
• The Woobie:
  • G. Trying to maintain her close relationship with her best friend while constantly having people talk and whisper behind her back, and Lily herself being weirdly vague about it has resulted in her being nervous and anxious all the time. This is only exacerbated by the fact that G is functionally a person, but the only person who treats her as such is indirectly responsible for isolating her from other pokemon. By the time the Violate Arc starts, G is already feeling shame for forming the mating bond, as well as having to deal with the fact that she's in love with Lily, something she's been terrified of since the beginning of the comic. It gets even worse during "Confessions", when Lily places a lock on her room and threatens to sever the bond with G, leaving G feeling even more isolated than ever. It takes Mikaila standing up for G for Lily to realize how horrible she's been acting to G, who already regrets going behind her back and has to deal with the fact that the only person she trusts threatened to kill her.
  • "Lily... do you hate me?" Despite all of G's faults and the gravity of her actions, the sincerity of that line instantly makes you feel for her and how heartbroken she is at Lily's anger.
  • Arguably reaches its peak during the Honesty Arc, when Lily rejects G after she asks for a romantic relationship. Despite everyone in-universe agreeing that Lily made the right choice (aside from Bonnie), the sheer heartbreak that G's going through is painful. It only makes sense that the next arc after this introduces a second love interest for G, allowing her to finally get to be happy.

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