YMMV / Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard

• Angst? What Angst?: In the case of his father's absence, which he never really gave any thought. This is actually briefly lampshaded in the first book.
• Anti-Climax Boss: After three books of build up, Ragnarok is postponed, which is fine, but it's postponed by Loki and Magnus engaging in an insult fight where Magnus does not insult Loki as much as he espouses The Power of Friendship until Loki is captured inside a nut and stuck back where he escaped from in the second book.
• Anvilicious: Did you know that Alex is gender-fluid? You will, after it gets mentioned every other page when s/he is introduced in The Hammer of Thor. It's dialed back beyond a reminder in his/her first appearance in The Ship of the Dead, as Riordan was probably fully aware the audience got the point by then.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • While not as drastic as many examples of this trope, Magnus's behaviour within the first couple chapters has drawn some contention. Early in the first book, Magnus justifies his stealing from people better-off than him, by arguing that they're rich and wealthy and so they can afford to give up a few of their nice things for his well-being. He then proceeds to go live in what amounts to the world's greatest five-star hotel where his every whim is catered to at no cost to himself. His entry into the Hotel Valhalla is supposedly justified due to how he died a hero's death, but the people he saved on the bridge were only in danger because Magnus himself was there, and the fact that he did actually die was almost completely inconsequential to the rest of the story. Some feel that the book is implying that the homeless are entitled to and should all be given high-class accommodations, even at the expense of others, just for the fact that they're homeless (that being said, Magnus isn't necessarily presented as being in the right when he mentions stealing from others). Some also feel that Magnus is only homeless by choice, as he has living relatives that he could stay with but deliberately chooses not to go to them for help. Others feel that he really didn't have a choice, since his mother had explicitly warned him to stay away from Randolph, and while Annabeth and her parents probably would've been happy to take him in, Magnus hadn't had any contact with them in years, didn't know where they lived, and as it happens, they were hundreds of miles away; it would have been immensely difficult for him to contact them.
  • There are those who feel that Alex was Anvilicious with her gender fluidity, paranoid, hostile, and overall unlikable in the second book. There are also those who relate to Alex being extremely defensive about his identity in a place he isn't sure is safe and going on the offense to prevent someone from doing it to him, and were grateful to see the difficulty of living as a visibly LGBTQ+ person realistically portrayed, especially given that Alex stops being that way once he's sure he's around people he can trust not to hurt him.
• Broken Base:
  • The inclusion of Percy Jackson in the last book. Some were excited to seem him while others are sick of Riordan inserting him in other mythologies and wish he be allowed to rest. This has lead to people who were fans of the series from the beginning to accuse new comers of only liking Magnus Chase because of the inclusion of Percy.
  • Riordan has made it something of a habit in this series of inserting his political views into the story, even at the expense of the mythology it's supposed to portray. This has caused some division among fans who liked the series for those reasons and those who wish Riordan would dial back on the heavy-handedness or keep his personal views and gripes to himself and focus on the story and myths. These debates have made Magnus Chase Riordan's most controversial series with people praising it for its inclusiveness and others seeing it as a platform for his beliefs. Claiming that Rick "went SJW" on this series is bound to spark a very heated debate among fans.
  • Sam and her connection with Islam has stired up debate in the fandom. Some love to see her as a good role model of Muslim representation. Others see her and her constant talking of her religion as out of place in a book based off of pagan mythology. Then there are those who see her character as an offensive stereotype.
  • Samirah's arranged marriage is also a source of contention. Some like the representation while others see it as gross and even grooming
  • The way that the Norse gods are portrayed has caused contention due to being played more for comedy. While some like this and appreciate that they stand out from the Jerkass Gods of previous works, others wish that they would be taken a bit more seriously.
• Complete Monster: The Big Bad Duumvirate of The Sword of Summer:
  • Surt, lord of the Fire Giants who also appears in 9 from the Nine Worlds' "I Play with Fire", seeks to bathe the entirety of the Nine Realms in flames and despises the god Frey for his compassionate, healing nature. Previously responsible for the Great Chicago Fire, Surt causes explosions throughout Boston as he hunts Magnus, threatening to incinerate nearby civilians if he isn't given the Sword of Summer and eventually killing the demigod with molten asphalt. Despite being weakened by their fight, Surt confronts Magnus and his friends again on the island of Lyngvi, slaying the Valkyrie Gunilla and attempting to claim the sword once more so he can free Fenris Wolf, start Ragnarok, and finally kill Frey before burning down all of existence.
  • Fenris Wolf, the monstrous son of Loki, was forced to be restrained by the Aesir due to the danger presented by his savage nature. Managing to loosen his bonds over the years, the Wolf causes havoc throughout the Nine Realms using his far-reaching Compelling Voice, manipulating events to secure his freedom. When confronted, Fenris Wolf gloats that he had Magnus's mother killed so he would become strong enough to retrieve the Sword of Summer—additionally noting that he ate Blitzen's father and countless other adventurers—in an effort to enrage the group so they will come closer to his confined circle and be devoured. Acting as the mastermind behind Surt's plan to claim the Sword of Summer, Fenris Wolf hopes for the blade to be used to cut away his remaining bonds, despite knowing full well that his release will usher in Ragnarok.
• Don't Shoot the Message: On one hand, his sudden tangent on how common homelessness on transgender people (like Alex) followed by his distaste for Valhalla's luau for being "cultural-appropration"-ey seems to come out of nowhere. Some feel this is a bit of an Author Tract and that, while Magnus is totally right about how often transgender teenagers are often homeless, his tone makes him seem almost condescending. On the other hand, some feel that the message about homeless transgender teenagers absolutely needs to be said, or that his sudden mention of Cultural Appropriation was a secret Take That!.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The Norse Gods enjoy a bit of popularity due in no small part to being refreshingly nice in sharp contrast to the Greek and Roman Gods.
• Fandom Rivalry: There's a relatively minor one with the Kane Chronicles, another series by the same author. Some fans of the Kane Chronicles feel that Magnus Chase only gained its popularity due to including Percy Jackson in the final book and resent that the Kane Chronicles is usually the least popular of Rick Riordan's series because of it. Meanwhile Magnus Chase fans point out that the Kane Chronicles has had three cross over with Percy Jackson, while Percy's appearance in Book 3 amounts to about two chapters' worth and a few mentions.
• Genius Bonus: Alex mentions liking The Left Hand of Darkness when looking at Randolph's library. The Left Hand of Darkness was one of the earliest sci-fi works to explore genderfluidity.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Not only is Thor explicitly contrasted with his Marvel Cinematic Universe counterpart when first introduced, but he's depicted as slovenly, unhygienic, and kind of a couch potato (albeit both badass and goodhearted). Come Avengers: Endgame however, that version of Thor has also become a slovenly, fat, unhygienic gaming couch potato out of depression for failing to stop Thanos.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Turns out the Riordanverse wouldn't be the last Classical Mythology-based series to make the shift to Norse Mythology.
• Ho Yay: Magnus likes to describe many of the men he comes across as "handsome" or "good-looking". Then there's Hearth and Blitz, who act Like an Old Married Couple, constantly fussing over and bickering with one another.
  • By the third book, Magnus outright confirms that he's still into Alex when Alex identifies as male.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: A contingent of fans are annoyed at how similar Magnus is to Percy, as the son of a god who's a First-Person Smartass, feeling that Rick Riordan's writing is getting formulaic.
• Jerkass Woobie: Alex Fierro in The Hammer of Thor. S/he grew up in an abusive household partially because his father and step-mother couldn't accept that s/he was genderfluid and partially because Loki tricked her father into conceiving him, eventually ran away from home and lived on the streets for a few years until she came across a fellow demigod being attacked by some of Fenris' children. When Alex tried to defend the demigod, he wound up being killed by the wolves while the man she was protecting ran away rather than help him. And to top it all off, once Alex gets to Valhalla, she's yet again treated differently for the same reasons he ran away from home in the first place. While her background is legitimately sad, he also spends the better part of the second book being an abrasive jerk to everyone, regardless of how they treat her. He brushes off Magnus and Samirah's attempts to get along with him and also regularly threatens others over minor offenses such as staring at her for too long or calling her by the wrong pronoun, whether it was intentional or not.
• Just Here for Godzilla: The book series became much more popular after it was revealed that Percy Jackson would make an appearance in the last book.
  • Then there are fans of Marvel's Thor who read it because of Loki and Thor being in the series
• Magnificent Bastard: Utgard-Loki is a powerful sorcerer and king of the Mountain Jotunn. Introducing himself by tricking Magnus into giving him his falafel and subsequently attacking him, the giant drags Magnus across buildings until he "swears by his troth" to bring him an apple of immortality. Utgard-Loki sends Magnus on a quest to go fishing for the World Serpent Jormungandr, which leads to them finding both an apple and the Sword of Summer needed to prevent Fenris Wolf's escape. Later killing Otis to try and prevent Magnus from falling into Loki's trap, the Jotunn king brings Magnus and his friends to his palace so he can tell them how to stop the trickster god and stave off the apocalypse. Knowing that his court would overthrow him if he helped the mortals for free, Utgard-Loki first puts them through challenges rigged against them so they can prove their worthiness by winning against all odds.
• Narm: When Magnus is first introduced to Alex and s/he coldly brushes him off, Magnus out-of-nowhere launches into this inner monologue where he laments how LGBTQ people are mistreated and cast out by others, even their own families at times, and recognizes that he should just take time to break through this front Alex has put up instead of continuing to shun him/her like everyone else has. This sort of in-depth tangent was so out of left field, even for Magnus, that it really seems as though Riordan was just trying to hammer the point in to the reader in as unsubtle a manner as possible, making it difficult to take his well-intentioned message that seriously.
• Never Live It Down: Despite Alex Fierro's development in the third book, most detractors are more likely to remember her as being a mean anvilicous jerk in the second book who threatened everyone who referred to her by the wrong pronoun. Even among their supporters there are those who believe that his actions were extreme and harsh.
• Paranoia Fuel: The idea that your conscience could actually be a superpowerful evil force whispering in your ear, manipulating you into helping him even while you're deeply convinced that you're doing the right thing. Also probably counts as Nightmare Fuel.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Gunilla. Being the daughter of a heavy-hitting god like Thor, many were excited at the prospect of her becoming one of Magnus' friends, as it would have been the first time in any of Riordan's books in which the strongest demigod among the main characters would have been a woman. There's also the small bit of Ship Tease between her and Magnus in The Sword of Summer when Magnus answers her knock at his door half-naked, which led readers to wonder if Gunilla was being set up to be Magnus' primary love interest, resulting in a relationship that would essentially be a role reversal of Percy's and Annabeth's own. Unfortunately, Gunilla winds up being the Sacrificial Lion and is killed by Surt at the end of the first book, leaving many fans wondering what could have been.
  • This was also what some felt about Gunderson, Mallory, and TJ since they were characters from different periods of history and spent the first two books mostly offscreen. Then the third book promotes them to traveling companions, sometimes even replacing Blitzen and Hearthstone.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Much was made of substituting Alex for Samirah in the wedding in the second book and the bride-price going to the bride's father. The plan is successful but absolutely nothing comes of it. It strongly feels like Riordan was setting something up and just abandoned it without clearing up the loose end.
  • The fact that, with all the buildup to Loki and Magnus's flyting, the final, climactic confrontation is rendered in prose dialogue rather than in verse. Even more baffling, the entire plot had surrounded finding Kvasir's mead, the literal source of poetry.
• Win Back the Crowd: The previous series, the Heroes of Olympus, had been somewhat divisive among fans, especially about the new characters and ESPECIALLY the last book, the Blood of Olympus. However, fan reactions to the first book of this series were mostly positive. Going back to a more Percy Jackson-esque story-telling style of singular P.O.V and the snarky chapter titles seen in both Percy Jackson and the Kane Chronicles have greatly reassured fans that Uncle Rick still has it.
• The Woobie: While just about everyone has their own backstory involving homelessness, child abuse, missing parents, mind control, slavery, manipulation, imprisonment, and death, Sigyn puts them all to shame. Because of what Loki did to Balder, her children were slaughtered and their entrails used to bind him, while Skadi sent a venomous serpent to drip venom into Loki's face. Throughout all of that, Sigyn stayed by his side, holding a goblet to keep the venom from dripping into his face - and she was forced to drain it, causing it to harm Loki. She hasn't spoken in a thousand years. What's more, this trilogy even adds more, since Loki not only treats her with disrespect but he cheated on her to have multiple illegitimate children all while she's been keeping venom from dripping into her face. This is a punishment worthy of Tartarus, and while Loki may have brought his punishment on himself (in-universe), Sigyn did nothing to earn this. One of the strongest moments in the series was when, during the flyting, Sigyn stares at Magnus, and when Magnus gives Loki a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, steps back and abandons her husband. The gods do at least hold a little bit of sympathy for her at the end.

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