These are what we call the 'YMMV items.' Things that some people find in this work. We call them 'your mileage might vary' because not everyone sees these things in the same way. This starts discussions in the trope lists, a thing we don't want. Please use the discussion page if you'd like to discuss any of these items.
YMMV: Sinfest
Alternate Character Interpretation: Just how much are we meant to like Xanthe (aka Trike Girl) anyway? While her Knight Templar actions have not yet been criticized or faulted by any "good" character, yet, some readers wonder if there isn't just a slight Deconstruction element in her character somewhere...
Archive Binge: Oooooh yeah... over 4500 entries exactly at the end of 2012.
Archive Panic: This webcomic started in January 2000. According to the archive, it's been updated almost every day... for 12 years. At about 350 (or so) comics a year. Not as bad as some of the other examples on the Archive Panic page, but getting there.
Anvilicious: Pretty much anything do with the Patriarchy and Xanthe.
Pointed out on this strip. Whether or not he's right or if it is victim blaming (as it says in the title) is yet to be established.
Base Breaker: Xanthe, and the whole Sisterhood plot in general for stealing the spotlight from most of the cast in general. To some it has been labeled as when the comic Jumped the Shark. Her degree of polarizing effect is so bad that she can accurately be compared to Sasuke (stateside only) and Miko in terms of how divisive she is.
Black Hole Sue: Xanthe, again; her actions and their results have been taking the spotlight for what some see as a disproportionate amount of time.
Not to mention that practically every other character has undergone a major change or all but vanished since she was introduced, and most of the changes have been caused by the Sisterhood or can be linked to it (like the Devil changing in order to become the one behind the Patriarchy).
Broken Base: The fandom got along relatively peacefully, but that changed starting around 10/2011. Now a days its gone into fandom civil war grade fracturing.
Creator's Pet: Xanthe and her cohorts, to those who don't like her. See Base Breaker above. She and the Sisterhood story arc shows up in 1 out of every 5 strips.
1-of-5 is as a whole. In practice, the storyline will have a huge percentage of strips focusing on it in a fairly short time period. For instance, since about May, the Sisterhood plotline has more or less made another attempt at taking over the strip, as about half of the strips since then have focused on it.
The scale used to sit at the cynical end, but slowly started working its way up to the idealistic side thanks to an ever increasingly amount of strips that can't help but tug at your heartstrings.
Double Standard: This comic shows glasses that "translate" what men say without context to the writer's life. This should be impossible (Rule of Funny aside), so apparently women can judge men as much as they want.
This comic seems to imply that women feel miserable and worthless because men make them feel that way, while men feel miserable and worthless because they inherently are.
The 7/5/2012 strip gets lots of flak for this. Charlie Brown gets the restraining order, yet Sally and Lucy get nothing. Very jarring to Peanuts fans since in the comic, Sally and Lucy's actions are considerably worse than Charlie Brown's
The different reactions from Xanthe towards Legion wanting a cookie (reacts with low grade physical violence) and Baby Blue trying to KILL her (reacts with simple evasive maneuvers). The problem here stems from the grade of reaction seeming to be based on gender rather than on the grade of the action. Combined with the example above, this indicates that Xanthe may be a misandrist.
Dude, Not Funny!: The 7/5/2012 strip hit a nerve with Peanuts fans. This particular strip is... polarizing.
Partially related is that others dislike that strip because a strip toward Xanthe's return (and the introduction of the Sisterhood plotline) was basically the same joke, except with Calvin And Hobbes.
Subverted in that, while generally portrayed as appealing (especially when compared to the alternative), the devil's pleasures are ultimately unsatisfying. Even for himself.
Played straight by the succubi, until Fuschia's Character Development made her not so evil anymore.
Flame War: The Sisterhood Arc is so divisive and controversal that mentioning it is just asking for trouble.
Fridge Logic: Lil' Evil frequently mocks the damned, but what does he think is going to happen when he makes it to the other side himself?
Well, there seems to be a big difference between being the damned souls and being the demons who torment them; he probably assumes he will end up in the second group.
Also, Lil'Evil is the Devil's son and, disappointed or not, he isn't likely to torture him for eternity.
If Monique's former fans hate her new act so much, why do they keep going to see it?
Most likely an allegory for how the Sinfest complainers continue to lurk at Sinfest.
Ho Yay: A few strips on bromance get pretty close to this, but the most obvious is Lil'Evil and his feelings for Satan... until we learn that Lil'E is actually the devil's son.
His crush on the Devil is rather transparent.
Goes beyond transparent to explicit in this strip. He likes the idea of spending eternity "locked in homo erotic embrace with the devil."
May actually be a case of If It's You, It's Okay or even Single-Target Sexuality, seeing as he doesn't really act that way over anyone else, male or female, and often talks down to the oversexed or hormonally frustrated main characters.
Baby Blue has been subjected to Good Feels Good a few times, but unlike Fuschia something tends to go wrong before it has any chance to stick, sending her back to square one.
The Devil and Lil' E now that we get to see some of their backstory.
Jerk Sue: Xanthe. She never gets called out or suffers bad karma for her behaviour.
One could argue that Xanthe doesn't really do anything particularly jerky. She tries to enforce her Ideals in a similar-ish fashion to Seymour, but is much more passive about it when compared to him really. She spends more time encouraging females than she does attacking males, which is the kind of behaviour that would really push her to Jerk Sue levels. It should however be duly noted that the 7/5 strip shows in a darkly ironic way that she's every bit as sexist against men as the Patriarchy is towards women. Namely due to as many Peanuts fans point out, the behaviour of Sally towards Linus is far worse than Chuck's is. This point does point her more towards being a Jerk Sue.
What truly directs Xanthe toward this is that the author is clearly more sympathetic to her views than that of Seymour. It may not truly be to the point of using her as a mouthpiece and hell, a lot of her points really make sense, the massive amount of exposure she and her cause have gotten in the past year, plus the fact that the vast majority of it is portrayed mostly positively indicates that she's supposed to be at least "right" in a lot of her points.
Moe: Criminy, Fuschia, Pooch, Percy, Squig, Buddha and Tangerine.
The Green Devil Girl and the enlightened Illuminati Drones are all kinds of cute.
Though a quick look at the Characters page, the Awesome page, the Heartwarming page, and even the main page will tell you that it seems to be the most referenced, popular story arc in the comic.
Seymour gained a considerable hatedom after the September 14th, 2010 block of strips, especially after a Despair Event Horizon. The hatedom seems to have dimminished after he Took a Level in Kindness
Xanthe, due to being the herald to an infamously polarizing arc.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Part of the problem with the Sisterhood plot is the strip shifting from skewering all examples of extremism to ignoring its own message when it comes to feminism. Before the Sisterhood plot began, fundamentalist religious beliefs, consumerism, and other extremes of belief and behavior were heavily parodied in a manner promoting a moderate perspective. However the feminist extremists of the Sisterhood are always right and there's no longer a middle ground.
To some, it's an even simpler explanation: The Sisterhood is such a Plot Tumor that it's damn near omnipresent in the strip now. In an admittedly bad choice of words, it just won't go away. Overall, something like 20% of the strips since its introduction have focused on it, and it's even more counting how many strips have involved it by extension or focused on the results of its actions, which would be something more like half of the strips. It isn't whether the Sisterhood is right or wrong, it's just that most of the other storylines have been so pushed aside in its favor and even then will usually involve it when they're brought up.
Strawman Has a Point: Unwittingly or not, Slick does point out one of many complaints people have about the Sisterhood in this strip; namely, that Monique's characterization has drastically changed since their introduction.
In "Victim Blaming" Slick (clumsily) points out that if you say things to rile people up, they're going to get riled up.
Despite Squig getting Third Wave Feminismcompletely wrong, he does point out that many women see the sisterhood's decrying of femme traits and open sexuality as oppression to be outdated. The point of the movement is to allow women to be able to wear and act however they feel like without being labelled as a slut or being victim-blamed or say, someone depicting a female politician as a pig in drag.
Unfortunate Implications: So far, nearly every male character has been firmly stuck at viewing women as objects and the Sisterhood's membership appears to be entirely female.
With the exception of Criminy, whose ostensibly healthy relationship with Fuschia has yet to attract the attention of the Sisterhood, negative or positive.
Most of the non-deity characters have gotten moments of this, but Fuchsia, Squigley, and Slick are the most frequent, especially Squig over the course of 2010.
The Zombie. Have you EVER wanted to comfort a mass of undead, maggot-ridden flesh this much since Corpse Bride?
