History YMMV / Bones

* MarySue: Brennan herself. Let us count the [[CommonMarySueTraits ways]].
** Declares herself the most brilliant forensic anthropologist in the world, to the extent that when she leaves, the Jeffersonian's lab is downgraded as the top forensic lab until she returns.
** At least early on, is a master martial artist.
** In the episode where Booth and her attend a fantasy cowboy shooting competition, she keeps up with Booth, an Army Ranger, trained sniper who is considered one of the top marksmen in the country, possibly the world.
** Not only rich, but rich because she is not only the best forensic scientist in the world, but is capable enough to be a massively profitable fiction writer.
** Always declares herself to be right or correct, which the script nearly always supports.
** Frequently is rude, condescending or outright cruel to people in positions of authority over her, which only causes them to be cowed rather than any actual consequences occurring.
** Gets away with a great deal, such as when she assaults a misogynist suspect in an interrogation room, has no remorse and is ultimately given a slap on the wrist.
** Contrasting Squintern Oliver Wells, who is just as abrasive as she is, he is described as a douche, while the core team tends to overlook Brennan's similar, if not more severe, behavioral tendencies.

** The writers initially seemed to be gearing up for another big ArcVillain with the Ghost Killer, with there being no consistent MO for the killings (unlike Broadsky or the Gravedigger), barely any clues on who the murderer could be (unlike Pelant, with whom the bigger problem was actually ''catching'' him), and no one but Brennan believing the serial killer even ''existed''. Then, in ''The Nail in the Coffin'', the writers instead took the route of TheKillerBecomesTheKilled, and used the Ghost Killer arc as a "bridge" to jump into the government conspiracy plotline that took up the S9 finale and the beginning of S10.

** Gets away with a great deal, such as when she assaults a [[Jerkass misogynist suspect]] in an interrogation room, has no remorse and is ultimately given a slap on the wrist.

** This trope was averted a lot, actually - [[spoiler: Reginald VelJohnson guests as a victim's boss, Miyam Bialik as a victim's best friend, Dan Castellaneta as a security guard, none the bad guy.]]
** Played very straight with [[spoiler: French Stewart playing a bit role as a fundamental preacher]] who gets shooed away by the cops in the beginning of the episode. He wasn't even in the running until TheReveal (by the characters, at least).

** [[Series/{{Suits}} Donna Paulsen]] is the real estate agent who discovered the burned body in "The Foot in the Foreclosure".

** Kovac torturing Aldo Clemens and an old lady who didn't even have a strong connection to Booth so he could find out where Booth was.

** Season 1’s “The Man in the Fallout Shelter”, specifically the quarantine Christmas, is certainly *something* in hindsight 2 years into the Covid pandemic.

* {{Wangst:}} Hodgins after losing his mobility. PTSD aside, considering he barely escaped death along with all the other good things he has in his life basically amounts to him throwing a tantrum about being inconvenienced.

* Wangst: Hodgins after losing his mobility. PTSD aside, considering he barely escaped death along with all the other good things he has in his life basically amounts to him throwing a tantrum about being inconvenienced.

** Wendell as of Season 9. [[spoiler: He was diagnosed with a specific strain of cancer with an extremely high mortality rate. His father died of lung cancer and wasted away the little years he had, so Wendell was not hopeful for his already minuscule chances. On top of that, to relieve the pain from his treatments, he must take medicinal marijuana. But this means that he cannot work at the Jeffersonian after Cam found out. All of this came down on a guy who was perpetually happy and all-around good-guy. Even Bones lament how it seemed like he was being unjustly punished.]]

** Dr. Leon Watters from ''The Spark in the Park'' Professor Watters is depicted as a DistaffCounterpart to Brennan. He is aloof and seemingly devoid of emotion regarding his daughter. This is supposed to be a sign that he is going through HeroicBSOD, but it's made clear that he has always been a {{Workaholic}}. His ParentalNeglect is so severe that she is willing to mutilate herself just to get him to notice her. Yet he can't even remember seeing her the evening she died. When you combined the ridiculous number of RedHerrings, the killer's motive comes across as InsaneTrollLogic with the fact that the only thing sympathetic about him is Brennan empathizing with him. It hard to see how he's supposed to be likable.

** {{Flanderization}} took Bones from being somewhat a socially inept and awkward, yet intelligent and strong woman, to being basically a clueless android who has no idea on how modern society works.[[note]]The final season episode "The Brain in the Bot" is a commentary of sorts on this: Brennan meets an intelligent robot that speaks pretty similar to her.[[/note]] It doesn't help that which characterization's used is DependingOnTheWriter.

* ParanoiaFuel: Pelant's [HollywoodHacking is this in-universe. Imagine a sociopath who has complete control of any electronics and can track you no matter where you go unless you go completely off-grid, and even then he might try to hack a satellite or your car's GPS. If you get on his short list, he WILL find you, and God only knows what your fate will be. Granted, out-of-universe it becomes severe {{Narm}} to most viewers, but Pelant's mere presence in DC at the start of season 8 caused Hodgins to force everyone to forgo any form of computer electronics for the entire investigation, due to the fear of Pelant hacking them again and sabotaging the entire operation.

* NeverLiveItDown: Sweets allowing Brennan to think Booth is dead for 2 weeks for reasons that basically amount to ForScience is considered to be an unforgivable act by parts of the fanbase even after he became a more clearly sympathetic member and TrueCompanions with the others, to the point of turning Sweets into TheScrappy for some and/or having it viewed as a MoralEventHorizon.

** Gravedigger expert Mason Vega. It's hard to reach a consensus on whether Booth is right that he's an opportunist a little too fixated on the infallibility of his target, or genuinely dedicated to catching the Gravedigger and saving the victims and happens to catch Booth on a bad day where he wants to lash out.

** Then there's “The Gamer in the Grease”, the episode with a person that was in used fry batter stuff... it's the usual NauseaFuel, right? Bones says that it's not her department and walks off... and then, when they pull the body out, the skin starts falling off, the organs start slipping out, and Bones quickly returns, since it is now in her department.

** The "pony play" episode.

** "The Cinderella in the Cardboard" features a dating app designer in tears over the fact that all of the beautiful women on his app would never look twice at him due to his bad looks. The narmy part comes in that not only it the guy HollywoodHomely ''at worst'', but Brennan tries to point out a glaring asymmetry in his facial features that -- unlike most of her observations of bone structure -- just ''isn't'' there.