- Designated Hero: Bertie. To elaborate, the reader is treated to her causing a bunch trouble around the theater with no provocation whatsoever yet it's viewed it as a matter of liberation and blithe freedom. All of the noble and decent characters respect and admire her, or are at least willing to give her a second chance, while the one person who rightfully objects to this behavior, the stage manager, is just a misguided bore for being upset that his livelihood is under fire by some bratty teenager. She's responsible for half of the bad things that occur in the book, yet she gets away with blaming everyone else. Apparently it's so evil for someone to oppose Bertie that it's fine to attack the stage manager with a sword and threaten to cut off his ear when he calls her out on it. She does nothing but act rude and inconsiderate toward just about everyone yet she's always in the right.
- Creator's Pet: Given how the whole book seems more dedicated to her unremarkable coming-of-age story, while reducing iconic heroes to voiceless extras with no development, Bertie was bound to be this from the get-go; despite being the main character. Readers looking for an inventive plot involving tragic heroes and archetypes will probably end up being irritated by some bratty teen whose relevance to the story serves no justifiable purpose.
- Romantic Plot Tumor: The Love Triangle between Bertie, Nate and Ariel feels forced at many points and mostly just draws focus away from the main story.
- The Scrappy:
- Bertie, for being, as mentioned above, selfish, manipulative and destructive, with no comeuppance.
- Many also found the fairies irritating for getting constant spotlight while contributing basically nothing, except crude humor.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The Theatre Illuminata is an interesting concept that doesn't get developed nearly as much as it deserves, due to the constant focus on Bertie.
- Unintentionally Sympathetic: The Stage Manager in "Eyes Like Stars". For all intents and purposes, Bertie is the one readers are expected to side with while opposing him whenever he flips out on her for causing trouble. He's the bad guy for being happy that the girl who wrecks so much havoc on his theater (and livelihood) may finally be getting some comeuppance and get kicked out for good. Yet, the narrative treats him like he's a huge jerk whose reasons are completely unfounded and even deserving of grievous injury...
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