YMMV / The Innsmouth Legacy

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • The entirety of the book is one of these for the Deep Ones when they were taken prisoner by the US government.
  • This trope drives the philosophical conflict between the Yithians and the Mi-Go, with humans caught in the middle. Are the Yithians an enlightened, Anti-Nihilist society dedicated to the preservation of knowledge and culture through eternity? Or on the other hand are they engaged in Immortality Immorality on a truly monumental scale and cynically manipulating Aeonists into not even trying to fight their stranglehold on the timeline? Are the Mi-Go an enlightened association of many species, and fighting for free will? Or are they trying to subvert the natural order through supposedly benevolent mind control?
    • The narrative itself doesn't pick a side, partly because most characters simply don't have enough information and there are a lot of conflicting accounts by people with reasons to lie. As it currently stands, however, it's most likely the answer for the Yithians is both. And the Mi-Go, being no better or worse than human beings, are absolutely capable of the double-think required to pursue free-will through the medium of mind control or, say, try to present themselves as an enlightened, egalitarian multi-species federation while not designing their controls for other species' hands.
• Anvilicious: Prejudice is bad, even against fish men.
• Older Than They Think: Ruthanna Emrys isn't the first to try and rewrite Lovecraft's racism and larger horror fiction; a previous work was The Black Brat of Dunwich by Stanly Sargent.