YMMV / Syngenesophobia

• Arc Fatigue:
  • It's not an universal opinion, but some readers felt the therapy sessions went on way too long. Not only do they focus on the sisters and their problems in order to try and make them sympathetic (which, as shown in Broken Base below, isn't enough for some readers), but because they push Lincoln's trauma, possibly one of the main draws of the fic, into the sideline to focus on the sisters and their problems.
  • To further specify the issue, Dr. Lopez and the therapy sessions begin at around chapter 10. Considering that Lucy was the last therapy session , the sessions ended in chapter 21. 11 chapters in all.
  • On the other hand, Lincoln does appear in chapters 14 and 18 (the latter of which has Dr. Lopez talk to him on the phone), and the trope can be justified because a. in order to truly help Lincoln, the family as a whole needs to be analyzed to find the real cause of the fight that led to Lincoln being hospitalized and b. at this moment Lincoln is still in the hospital and thus in no condition to see Dr. Lopez.
  • Shifting attitudes towards the sisters and their capacity to be forgiven suggests it's possible that the biggest reason for the massive Broken Base was just that the story itself dragged out the angst and the process of actual forgiveness has only started in earnest by chapter 40 after some nearly 300,000 words, letting the sisters fester until then.
• Angst Aversion: The story is about how the sisters (Except Lily) took their anger out on Lincoln instead of each other and beat him within an inch of his life and how their temper ruined their social lives isn't exactly a fun walk in a park for many readers to sit through. It also describes perfectly just how badly traumatized Lincoln has become as a result of the beating, and begins to question both his relationship of his sisters and their remorse. Later in the story, his fear is slowly being replaced by resentment and distrust. While this story is not as bad as the other Loud House Dark Fics, Lincoln's severe aforementioned beating, the girls' being alienated by their peers (Albeit off-screen), their self-hatred, and constant guilt, and their parents questioning their own parenting skills is definitely no walk in the park to read through.
• Angst Dissonance: This is one of the major reasons why the more vindictive readers feel the Loud Sisters are Beyond Redemption despite their remorse. Considering how they nearly beaten Lincoln to death all because their flawed Protocol failing and Lincoln inadvertently revealing the girls' insults to each other. It is similar to how abusers of Domestic Abuse feel towards their victims, just because they are wracked with guilt doesn't clear them of their actions. Some have been open to at least some of the sisters being redeemable so long as they make actual efforts to make amends with Lincoln after the story started moving past the initial shock and therapy sessions.
• Awesomeness Withdrawal: The update schedule is really erratic, due to the author having to switch focus between this, What is a Person Worth?, and college work. Though the updates have improved a bit since the completion of What is a Person Worth?, it's still slow enough to incite this reaction. This slow and erratic update schedule has further contributed to the negative reception of the sisters, as readers have had years to see the consequences to their actions but have only in the later chapters been able to read of the process of forgiveness, making the sisters seem as if they're still potentially Troubled Abusers.
• Base-Breaking Character: Just like in canon, the characters themselves give mixed reactions between the readers.
  • Some readers see the girls as Troubled Abusers despite their actions, as they all felt deep remorse and hate themselves on what they've done to Lincoln and fearing that Lincoln will never let go of his own fear towards them nor forgiving them. The story also reveals their Freudian Excuses and Hidden Depths with the therapy sessions. Not to mention they are punished by having possessions and hobbies taken away, and how their temper ruined their relationship with their friends and acquaintances at school. However, the more vindictive readers point felt that what the sisters have done is Beyond Redemption (or at least still holding contempt), and the fact the aforementioned fallout was never actually shown on-screen until Chapter 38 with Leni confronting Becky and Mandee. Considering that Chapter 35 reveals that it was Lori that broke up with Bobby out of shame, not the other way around, how much the girls are treated as outcasts is seen as pretty exaggerated or even fabricated by some of the readers. Furthermore, despite their remorse, which only angered the vindictive readers even further, they've still nearly beaten Lincoln to death and their problems in the past does not justify what they've done now.
  • The Parents themselves, some readers like how they vow themselves by defying the Adults Are Useless trope by showing their love for Lincoln, punishing their daughters by enforcing stricter rules, and even threatening to belt all of the girls if they sneak past their punishment or lose their tempers again, even though they hate themselves for resorting to such a punishment. Other readers on the other hand, felt the parents are Hypocrites by letting the girls beat Lincoln within an inch of his life, and are seen as Dirty Cowards. The most vindictive of readers even saw their daughters' punishments as still too lenient, and prefer that the daughters would have been disowned or sent to juvenile hall.
  • The number of vindictive readers has started tapering off the more Lincoln has been able to express his feelings as well as the more obvious it's become that the sisters are starting to actively try to earn forgiveness, but some of the sisters have remained more popular than others. Particularly, Lucy has emerged as several readers' "most desired" to reconcile due to her own history of neglect and general relationship with Lincoln prior to the attack leading to her gathering a substantial amount of sympathy. Conversely, readers have remained deeply suspicious of Lori due to her status as a deeply flawed Team Mom who abused her position and seemed disrespectful of Lincoln despite having the maturity to know better than to allow such teasing and bullying of one of her siblings.
    • After Lori snaps at Lincoln in chapter 41, rather than incite more hatred towards her, the situation instead seems to have garnered sympathy even from vindictive readers who now understand more clearly how twisted of a situation she was forced into, even though many still point to her actions as proving Lincoln has a reason to fear his sisters.
• Broken Base:
  • Whether or not the girls truly deserve forgiveness is one of the main questions of this fic. Ironically, the sessions with Dr. Lopez explores the psyche of the girls' personalities were suppose to give sympathy to each sister but the Arc Fatigue mentioned above only enraged some of the vindictive readers into hating the girls even more. Not helping is that the girls being shunned by their peers occurred off-screen, rather than happening in the chapters up until chapter 38 where Leni attempts to make peace with Becky and Mandee. The ones who want to forgive the girls thought the visits with Dr. Lopez was worth the time in understanding each of the sister's psyches while not minding the off-screen alienation, as the latter takes away the main conflict with Lincoln and his sisters.
  • Are the girls being punished enough? Or are the parents and the author too lenient on them? Those who see the latter (Especially in the earlier chapters) thought it's not enough of a punishment, their actions are too unforgivable with remorse not cutting it out, and preferred if they were sent to juvie. The former shows the sisters being wrecked with guilt and alienated before shunned by their peers albeit off-screen, along with all of them being grounded and most of their possessions/activity privileges taken away.
    • Lynn's session with Dr. Lopez revealed that she let Ronnie Anne beat her up. While this may cause some readers to gain sympathy with her going through some kind of a Self-Harm and is a more realistic way to explain her loss since Lynn is two years older and is a black belt; the more vindictive readers though thought the author denied them a Catharsis Factor moment and had Lynn and the girls not be allowed to feel proper remorse. Chapter 24 attempts to mitigate this by Lynn explaining to Ronnie-Anne the former's side of the story. Some readers are finally letting go of their hatred of the girls, while others still hold on to their grudges.
    • Similarly, in Chapter 35, it turns out Lori was the one who broke up with Bobby out of shame, and not the other way around. Some finally feel sympathy for Lori despite what she did, while others thought it still should have been Bobby.
  • Have the therapy sessions been going on for way too long now? Some readers don't mind the sessions, since it gives the author chance to develop the girls' personalities and explain some of their worst issues. Other readers hate them because not only do they take an insanely long time to get over with (couple with the schedule issues, which only make it worse), but because they put focus away on Lincoln's trauma.
    • Likewise, do the things revealed by the sisters in these session actually explain their behaviors, or just sound like an attempt at excusing their behavior?
  • The minor implication in the author's notes of chapter 40 that Lucy may become suicidal over her actions has seen a reaction as well, even among those who still feel vindictive towards the sisters. Would one of the sisters killing themselves out of guilt prove a tragic case of Death Equals Redemption, or is it the most unforgivable action of all?
• Fridge Brilliance: How did the Loud Sisters get the idea that a girl bullying a boy means she likes him? Because Lori did the exact same thing to Bobby when she got a crush on him, and it worked!
• Fridge Horror:
  • At least 4 of the Loud sisters have legitimate mental issues (Lisa thinks she's a sociopath, Luan and Lola were both so traumatized by events in their past that it's warped their personalities and Lori has been forced to let the responsibility of being the eldest ruin her relationship with all of her siblings) that were in place long before the mess with Lincoln took place and which may have even contributed to their parts in said mess.
    • And Lucy is confirmed to feel ignored and abandoned by everyone in her family who isn't Lincoln with her relating, among other things, an incident where the entire family failed to notice she wasn't in the car for a family trip until they were 30 miles away and another where a worried teacher tried to call attention to Lucy's issues by calling the Loud parents but they just called it a phase and did nothing.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The fact that Rita and Lynn Sr. care a lot for their son in this fic is rather jarring ever since "No Such Luck" premiered. This issue is later discussed in the author's other fic.
  • Pretty much everyone generally failing to acknowledge Lucy's existence is particularly painful after we see how in tune her family is with her in canon during the events of "Tricked".
  • A common complaint of the story is that the girls' alienation from their peers happens off-screen, and discussed between one another, instead of actually showing the fallout to the readers. One particular example is with Bobby dumping Lori. Chapter 35 then reveals that Lori was the one who broke up out of shame.
• Narm:
  • Some of the drama in the story can feel a little forced and over-the-top at times. This is especially notable when the characters make long statements towards one another; rarely are there ever any breaks in-between the sentences, making it look like the characters are making one big long speech, and the actual dialog comes off as either too cheesy or doesn't really sound like something you'd expect their canon counterparts to say, regardless of the ordeal in question.
    • Chapter 3 is a good example; while the sisters are not exactly forbidden to feel remorse, the story describing how they reacted with guilt seems corny, regardless of what they've done.
  • This was the reason why the former cover art of the story^note which showed a scared Lincoln in the dark surrounded by the eyes of his sisters watching him was changed as it didn't exactly convey the somber and rather dark tone of the fanfic very well, since most of the eyes were making goofy cartoony expressions (including one that was squinting).
• Never Live It Down: The idea that Lynn allowed Ronnie-Anne to beat her up is one for the vindictive readers, believing that the author denied them a Catharsis Factor moment. Ironically, the author was going for more of a realistic approach, and gain sympathy for Lynn as she goes through Self-Harm. This only angered the readers into hating Lynn more, as they see it as shameful, cowardly act for Lynn.
• Nightmare Fuel: Because getting beaten to within an inch of your life by 9 of your sisters is already horrifying enough in and on its own.
  • The story deconstructs the Amusing Injuries and Played for Laughs fights that often happen in The Loud House by showing exactly how much someone can be hurt in a Big Ball of Violence. When his nine sisters gang up on him, Lincoln actually ends up in the hospital with a broken arm, broken ribs, a broken nose, missing teeth and huge psychological trauma. While his sisters didn't mean to hurt him like that and deeply regret it afterwards, it's frightening to see how much one moment of anger was enough to seriously wound him.
  • Lincoln's nightmares are scary as hell since most of them feature his sisters being pretty much in their right minds (the first nightmare had Luan crack a bad pun, and the other girls groan), and yet willing to at minimum maim him and frequently kill him, often messily (with Chapter 22's nightmare featuring Lisa feeding him alive to sharks that look like the other girls and Chapter 25's featuring his superhero avatars of his sisters turning into sadistic murderers).
  • It's also kinda disturbing how messed up some of the sisters turn out to be once they sit down with a therapist. Lori, Luan, Lisa and Lola all turn out to have some degree of mental trauma that's warped their personalities, and which was in place long before this whole mess with Lincoln, Leni's disorder isn't properly medicated and Chapter 21 reveals that Lucy not only feels that her family generally ignores her existence but has been right at least twice.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Though we get snips here and there such as Margo still talking to Lynn. The story could have been better showing the fallout of the girls' friends and acquaintances to the readers, rather than happening off-screen and only told among the family. This could have given more sympathy points to show how their poor actions affected their social life, instead of just the divisive therapy sessions mentioned above.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The girls despite all of them feeling remorse and disgust for their actions and accepting that they have became outcasts as a result. They've still sent Lincoln to the hospital to the point he's afraid of them. It also doesn't help that the readers never actually see the fallout of their friends and peers until chapter 38 with Leni confronting Becky and Mandee for avoiding the former. Nor the reveal that Lynn allowing Ronnie-Anne to beat her up and Lori was the one that cut off ties with Bobby, not the other way around. With all of the girls being Unreliable Expositor, it's hard to feel sorry for them when vindictive readers see them as Dirty Cowards.
• The Woobie: Lincoln, in this fanfic, qualifies as this big time. Apart from being mistreated in "Brawl In The Family", his final rant here makes his sisters beat him up so badly, he had to go to the hospital. While Lincoln's suffered beatdowns from his sisters before, this one nearly killed him. It's no wonder the poor boy's become afraid of his own sisters. When his fear is finally starting to diminish, he begins to feel deep anger towards them for all the bad things they've done to him. Which makes him feel worried if he'll ever love them again.
• Wangst: While no one is saying the girls are forbidden to feel guilty for what they've done, the way they behave and their thoughts seem over-dramatic and corny.

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