History YMMV / Erfworld

* AssPull: Book 4's ending has one after another, in the form of both ContrivedCoincidence and a lack of foreshadowing regarding what an awakened tower is capable of (although their being scary, unknown, game changing entities is sorta the point). While doing things that should be impossible is the entire premise of the comic and a major theme of Book 4 in particular, Parson is explicitly here in Erfworld to "break war itself", and it's more-or-less established that [[JustifiedTrope Fate is a real entity that will create incredible contrivances]] to ensure what is Fated to happen will happen (including and especially [[spoiler:Charlie]]'s death), said contrivances were seen as narratively dissatisfying by many fans. Many characters lampshade this by expressing concern about the rampant cheating getting out of hand and changing the status quo too quickly - Claud was always ambivalent about the [[spoiler:guns]] he hacked into existence, but is so appalled by the implications of [[spoiler:Big Think's infinite juice hack]] that he tries to threaten [[spoiler:Big Think]] into using Thinkamancy to force itself to forget what it's just discovered.

* AssPull: Book 4's ending has one after another, in the form of both ContrivedCoincidence and a lack of foreshadowing regarding what an awakened tower is capable of. While doing things that should be impossible is the entire premise of the comic and a major theme of Book 4 in particular, Parson is explicitly here in Erfworld to "break war itself", and it's more-or-less established that [[JustifiedTrope Fate is a real entity that will create incredible contrivances]] to ensure what is Fated to happen will happen (including and especially [[spoiler:Charlie]]'s death), said contrivances were seen as narratively dissatisfying by many fans. Many characters lampshade this by expressing concern about the rampant cheating getting out of hand and changing the status quo too quickly - Claud was always ambivalent about the [[spoiler:guns]] he hacked into existence, but is so appalled by the implications of [[spoiler:Big Think's infinite juice hack]] that he tries to threaten [[spoiler:Big Think]] into using Thinkamancy to force itself to forget what it's just discovered.

* AssPull: Book 4's ending has one after another, in the form of both ContrivedCoincidence and a lack of foreshadowing regarding what an awakened tower is capable of. While doing things that should be impossible is the entire premise of the comic and a major theme of Book 4 in particular, Parson is explicitly here in Erfworld to "break war itself", and it's more-or-less established that [[JustifiedTrope Fate is a real entity that will create incredible contrivances]] to ensure what is Fated to happen will happen (including and especially [[spoiler:Charlie]]'s death), said contrivances were seen as narratively dissatisfying by many fans. Many characters lampshade or express concern about the rampant cheating getting out of hand - Claud was always ambivalent about the [[spoiler:guns]] he hacked into existence, but is so appalled by the implications of [[spoiler:Big Think's infinite juice hack]] that he tries to threaten [[spoiler:Big Think]] into using Thinkamancy to force itself to forget what it's just discovered.

** Some people have argued that the [[spoiler:Uncroaked volcano]] from the first book is an asspull, as the only foreshadowing given is that links allow casters to do things they can't normally do. Other people have used said [[spoiler:volcano]] to justify Book 4's asspulls, since Book 4 gives us much better foreshadowing into the mechanisms that make these cheats possible.

** Charlie's archons have Wanda at [[spoiler:gunpoint. Charlie gives the order to pull the trigger, and the archons are immediately - and coincidentally - croaked by Big Think using Lilith's strings as a conduit]]. Briefly foreshadowed in the previous update where Tondeleyo directly states that this action might force Fate to intervene in a drastic and unpredictable way, an explanation which is more-or-less confirmed at the very end of the book when Fate allows [[spoiler:Charlie's second attempt to kill Wanda]] to succeed because circumstances have changed and it no longer needs [[spoiler:her]] for its plans.

* AssPull: Book 4's ending has one after another. While doing things that should be impossible is the entire premise of the comic and a major theme of Book 4 in particular, Parson is explicitly here in Erfworld to "break war itself", and it's more-or-less established that [[JustifiedTrope Fate is a real entity that will create incredible contrivances]] to ensure what is Fated to happen will happen (including and especially [[spoiler:Charlie]]'s death), said contrivances were seen as narratively dissatisfying by many fans. Many characters lampshade or express concern about the rampant cheating getting out of hand - Claud was always ambivalent about the [[spoiler:guns]] he hacked into existence, but is so appalled by the implications of [[spoiler:Big Think's infinite juice hack]] that he tries to threaten [[spoiler:Big Think]] into using Thinkamancy to force itself to forget what it's just discovered.

** Charlie's archons have Wanda at [[spoiler:gunpoint. Charlie gives the order to pull the trigger, and the archons are immediately - and coincidentally - croaked by Big Think using Lilith's strings as a conduit]]. Briefly foreshadowed in the previous update where Tondeleyo directly states that this action might force Fate to intervene in a drastic and unpredictable way, an explanation which is more-or-less confirmed at the very end of the book when [[spoiler:Fate allows Charlie's second attempt to kill Wanda to succeed because circumstances have changed and it no longer needs her for its plans]].

* AssPull: Book 4's ending has one after another. While doing things that should be impossible is the entire premise of the comic and a major theme of Book 4 in particular, Parson is explicitly here in Erfworld to "break war itself", and it's more-or-less established that [[JustifiedTrope Fate is a real entity that will create incredible contrivances]] to ensure what is Fated to happen will happen (including and especially [[spoiler:Charlie]]'s death), said contrivances were seen as narratively dissatisfying by many fans.
** Charlie's archons have Wanda at [[spoiler:gunpoint. Charlie gives the order to pull the trigger, and the archons are immediately croaked by Big Think using Lilith's strings as a conduit]]. Briefly foreshadowed in the previous update where Tondeleyo directly states that this action might force Fate to intervene in a drastic and unpredictable way, an explanation which is more-or-less confirmed at the very end of the book when [[spoiler:Fate allows Charlie's second attempt to kill Wanda to succeed because circumstances have changed and it no longer needs her for its plans]].

* AssPull: Book 4's ending has one after another. While doing things that should be impossible is the entire premise of the comic and a major theme of Book 4 in particular, Parson is explicitly here in Erfworld to "break war itself", and it's more-or-less established that [[JustifiedTrope Fate is a real entity that will create incredible contrivances]] to prevent ensure what is Fated to happen will happen (including and especially [[spoiler:Charlie]]'s death), said contrivances were seen as narratively dissatisfying by many fans.

* AssPull:

** [[spoiler:Caesar commits suicide, which would normally seal the end of Transylvito due to all sides being a KeystoneArmy. With little foreshadowing, it is revealed that awakened towers can promote units to heir, even without payment. It is also suddenly revealed that towers can break contracts, and Transylvito's tower rips apart the unpleasant contract Charlescomm had just made them sign.]]

** Sizemore. He's a pacifist, but he lives in a world of violence and lacks the free will to carry out his philosophy, so he's forced to kill. He's viewed as useless by his master. He's one of the few people who's interested in learning new magic and studying, but lacks the ability to cast anything but the most mundane and ugly. Simply put, he's trapped in a world he doesn't belong in, even more so than Parson.

* MagnificentBastard: [[ArchEnemy Arch Enemies]] Parson and Charlie, among others.

* AntiClimax: ''Erfworld'' manages to turn AntiClimax into a CrowningMomentOfAwesome when a shocking WhamEpisode ([[spoiler:an imprisoned Wanda taking the Arkenpliers from Janis using ExactWords to justify stabbing her with them, intending to decrypt her and use her to fight her way out of prison]]) is bluntly put down in the very next update ([[spoiler:Janis [[NoSell rolls her eyes and asks "Really?"]]]]), neatly pulling the rug out from under the 33 pages of forum ranting the first update had produced.

* CrazyAwesome:
** Parson. His "lateral thinking" approach to Erfworld has resulted in such awesome absurdities as:
** Setting up a relay system with carefully staggered flying mounts, allowing units to move far beyond their normal move limits.
** [[spoiler: Combining a Dirtamancer (rock-and-earth mage) and a Croakamancer (necromancer) to bring a dead ''volcano'' explosively back to life.]]
** [[spoiler: Allowing an air force to move out of an enemy city's airspace without the move to do so by having the riders kill their dwagons in midair and fall into the city proper (to be reanimated by the aforementioned Croakamancer). This doesn't sound like much, but in practice, it means that instead of being sitting ducks for a turn's worth of target practice, they were able to engage and sack the city.]]
** Invoked in book 3, page 43, when Parson tells Ace that he wants him to be linked up to Maggie and Sizemore to see if they can turn a tower into a kind of giant shapeshifting golem, like a [Franchise/{{Transformers}} Cityformer]], something that comes to pass in book 3, page 52. [[spoiler:It doesn't quite work, but it does unleash something new on Erfworld; Temples, Towers that've been granted [[GeniusLoci their own innate sentience]] and the ability to perform various feats to assist their cities.]]

** [[spoiler:Caesar commits suicide, which would normally seal the end of Transylvito due to all sides being a KeystoneArmy. With little foreshadowing, it is revealed that awakened towers can promote units to heir.]]

* AssPull: After investing a large amount of effort, Charlie gets a NearVillainVictory by [[spoiler:successfully tricking Parson into using a scroll designed to banish him back to Earth, or at least fatally slam him into the sky]]. How does he get thwarted? [[spoiler:It rather suddenly gets revealed that the mystical connections created by bonding with other people can be empowered to pull people to where they feel they belong (i.e. ThePowerOfFriendship)]]. Jed notes that this was actually cheating, and implies that serious trouble is coming because of it.

* ArcFatigue: Book 4: Lies and Dolls is the least focused and slow to progress book in the series.

* AssPull: After investing a large amount of effort, Charlie gets a NearVillainVictory by [[spoiler:successfully tricking Parson into using a scroll designed to banish him back to Earth, or at least fatally slam him into the sky]]. How does he get thwarted? [[spoiler:It rather suddenly gets revealed that the mystical connections created by bonding with other people can be empowered to pull people to where they feel they belong (i.e. ThePowerOfFriendship)]].

* CryForTheDevil: While not evil per say, [[spoiler:the morally ambiguous Great Minds got IMMEDIATE sympathy from the fandom when the majority of them were killed and Isaac was left a broken man from the psychic backlash and mental trauma.]]

** Stanley wants to train Parson in tactics after Book 1. Everyone scoffs at this idea, but if you think about it, he's right to a certain degree. Why did Bogroll die? Because Parson was unwilling or unable to croak Ansom on his own (with a possibility of surviving). Parson doesn't lead from the front when it's better for him to add his bonus to a stack. Finally, Parson is a level 2, overweight man who has no combat prowess. Warlord Artemis shows us that, with training, a unit can level without going into combat. Parson doesn't level at all between book 1 and book 2. Maybe Parson should have listened to Stanley just to get the combat lessons and his perspective on combat theory if not his strategic theory. This redeemed by the fact that Parson has been doing his own dirty work more and more since midway through Book 2.

** In an incredible example of AscendedExtra, Vinnie's [[http://www.erfworld.com/blog/view/55573/help-bat-11 Bat 11].