YMMV / Of Blood and Steel

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Jackie Lambert a selfish and vain girl who wants to lead the team for all the wrong reasons, a fairly competent if flawed commander who's a better choice than Erwin, or some combination of both? How much does she deserve her classmates' and Erwin's distrust? Did she allow Erwin to be commander until she loses in order to give Erwin a chance, or because she expected Erwin to fail and hoped to take over once Erwin lost a battle?
• Angst? What Angst?
  • Zig-zagged with Erwin. She claims that she's largely gotten over her father's death two years ago, but she does angst about moving, at least until she's settled in and accepts that she's here to stay.
  • Henrietta Moran takes being bullied in stride, blandly noting that the bullies have done worse to her.
• Designated Villain: While not outright evil, Jackie's role as a rival to Erwin often makes her come off this way. Many of the other characters view her as arrogant and power-hungry, but she does have some arguably valid points about Erwin's lack of leadership skills. When she does take over the team, the narrative plays up her shortcomings, without showing them in much detail. As mentioned under Alternative Character Interpretation, it's hard to tell whether Jackie deserves her reputation, or whether we're even meant to think that.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: For a relative side character, Henrietta has been fairly well received by the readers, who consider her well-written and interesting.
• Fridge Logic: In the original fic, Erwin is pressured into not wearing her traditional cap and jacket because people won't approve. That's understandable, but Erwin wore her hat and jacket at Oarai, in defiance of the school's stricter dress code (including but not limited to requiring students to wear a uniform, unlike Raven's Peak).
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The Rivers twins could have been an interesting look at two sisters who have a good professional and familial relationships, as well as a foil to Erwin and Jackie's more strained relationship.