History YMMV / SagaOfTheExiles

* ValuesDissonance: The series has an awkward track record with LGBT characters. It's referenced that many of the human men who live with the Tanu in exile partake of homosexual acts; this is depicted as a disturbing sign of their adaptation to slavery, and no actual *relationship* between men is ever shown. Felice is a PsychoLesbian who becomes obsessed with the man who [[spoiler: raped and tortured her]] and calls him her 'beloved'; she has a one-sided attraction to another female character, but again no lesbian relationships are ever depicted. The crossdresser Mr. Betsy is treated as no more eccentric than any other exile who wants to dress up as a pirate or a samurai, but the most vitriol is aimed at the one transgendered character. Tasha-Bybar is a male-to-female post-op transsexual who is depicted as having a blasphemous obsession with female power. She is the human [[TheQuisling Quisling]] who figured out how to reverse the sterilizations of Exiled women so the Tanu can cross-breed with them. Not only does she perform the surgeries, she treats them as a sexual fetish, dressing up and performing a belly dance before carrying out the operation! By the author's description, InUniverse, 100% transgender modification is ''utterly impossible'', and she has turned "real" women into [[BabyFactory Baby Factories]] because she can't get pregnant herself and thus sees the breeders as proxies;
-->"Oh, you could stow away some real woman's fertilized egg in her fake uterus, and maybe shoot her full of preggy hormones, if you could get them in this primitive world -- and perhaps the embryo would live a few weeks before dying. But that's all, lover. Maternity is a marvelous and tricky symbiosis. And of course, no one in our Galactic Milieu or anywhere else has ever made a ''true'' mother out of a male."

* MagnificentBastard: Marc Remillard, to a point. Sometimes he seems quite reasonable and gentlemanly and charismatic, but let's not forget [[spoiler: he caused the deaths of four billion people, turned his son into a fish, and is STILL trying to find another world to take over to use for his Mental Man scheme- might I add that this involves creating a civilization of bodiless brains?]]
** Aiken Drum is also a MagnificentBastard, at least as far as the Tanu are concerned - he outplays them and the Firvulag at almost every turn. [[spoiler:Marc beats him only because he's older and better at the game.]]

* ValuesDissonance: Julian May is impressively vitriolic about transgender, seeing it as a blasphemous obsession with female power; the human [[TheQuisling Quisling]] who figured out how to reverse the sterilizations of Exiled women so the Tanu can cross-breed with them is a male-to-female post-op transsexual. InUniverse, 100% transgender modification is ''utterly impossible'', and "he" has turned "real" women into [[BabyFactory Baby Factories]] because "he" can't get pregnant "himself" and thus sees the breeders as proxies;

* ValuesDissonance: Julian May is impressively vitriolic about transgender, seeing it as a blasphemous obsession with female power; the human {{Quisling}} who figured out how to reverse the sterilizations of Exiled women so the Tanu can cross-breed with them is a male-to-female post-op transsexual. InUniverse, 100% transgender modification is ''utterly impossible'', and "he" has turned "real" women into [[BabyFactory Baby Factories]] because "he" can't get pregnant "himself" and thus sees the breeders as proxies;

Why is Marc Remillards Magnificent Bastardry a YMMV?
** Here's the three-part definition of Magnificent Bastard from its trope page:
** "They are brilliant and utterly devious, a smooth operator. They are also savvy and do not fall for obvious traps; bringing them down is no easy feat.
** They have a goal, they're not going to stop until they've completed it. Even when the goal is suicidally over-ambitious they succeed with style.
** They are charismatic, often charming, their personality is like a physical force. While they exist on the darker end of the moral spectrum, they never take disgusting actions that undermine their magnificence, leaving them diabolical but in a way the audience can't help but enjoy. And they are definitively not cowards. Ever."
** Marc is certainly brilliant, he and Jon are the most brilliant of a brilliant clan. He is devious enough to be both the leader of the Rebellion and, via stable time loop, as Atoning Unifex, of the Galactic Milieu his younger self opposes. Taking him down required the combined powers of all of the human pro-Galactic Milieu metapsychics in the Galaxy in an All Your Powers Combined Metaconcert. And even then he retained enough power and charisma that he and his rebels escaped into the past to start again and he is not defeated there, except by the love and redaction of Elizabeth causing him to broaden his horizons and realize coadunation is a Good Thing.
** He certainly has a goal, Mental Man and stopping the forcible coadunation of the human race.
** He's extremely charismatic and charming, not only described as such in the books but demonstrating this many times.
** Marc is certainly not a coward, while Uncle Rogi, though immortal, is a mostly latent operant and plays the cowardly lion role, Marc is like a God in human form even as a college student and his power grows over six million years until he is the undisputed (except, unknowingly, by his younger self) leader of the known galaxy. And the Duat galaxy as well.
** This is an excellent fit for the Magnificent Bastard Trope and I do not see anything to contradict that.
** I hope that when people tag things YMMV that they make sure they have read the books carefully and have a specific reason for so doing, and are not merely demonstrating arbitrary skepticism.

** Marc is certainly brilliant, he and Jon are the most brilliant of a brilliant clan. He\'s devious enough to be both the leader of the Rebellion and, via stable time loop, as Atoning Unifex, of the Galactic Milieu his younger self opposes. Taking him down required the combined powers of all of the human pro-Galactic Milieu metapsychics in the Galaxy in an All Your Powers Combined Metaconcert. And even then he retained enough power and charisma that he and his rebels escaped into the past to start again and he is not defeated there, except by the love and redaction of Elizabeth causing him to broaden his horizons and realize coadunation is a Good Thing.

Why is Marc Remillard\'s Magnificent Bastardry a YMMV?

-->"Oh, you could stow away some real woman's fertilized egg in her fake uterus, and maybe shoot her full of preggy hormones, if you could get them in this primitive world —- and perhaps the embryo would live a few weeks before dying. But that's all, lover. Maternity is a marvelous and tricky symbiosis. And of course, no one in our Galactic Milieu or anywhere else has ever made a ''true'' mother out of a male."

* ValuesDissonance: The human quisling gynecologist who figured out how to reverse the sterilizations of Exiled women so the Tanu can cross-breed with them is a male-to-female post-op transsexual. Julian May is impressively vitriolic about this; InUniverse, 100% transgender modification is ''utterly impossible.'' The trans has such a blasphemous obsession with female identity "he" has turned "real" women into [[BabyFactory Baby Factories]] because "he" can't get pregnant "himself" and thus sees the breeders as proxies;

* ValuesDissonance: The human quisling who figured out how to reverse the sterilizations of Exiled women so the Tanu can breed them is a transsexual. Julian May is impressively vitriolic about the very concept of transgender - especially as she implies that the reason "he" does it is because "he" can't get pregnant "himself" and thus sees the breeders as proxies;
-->"Oh, you could stow away some real woman's fertilized egg in her fake uterus, and maybe shoot her full of preggy hormones, if you could get them in this primitive world —- and perhaps the embryo would live a few weeks before dying. But that's all, lover. Maternity is a marvelous and tricky symbiosis. And of course, no one in our Galactic Milieu or anywhere else has ever made a true mother out of a male."

* ValuesDissonance: The human quisling who figured out how to reverse the sterilizations of Exiled women so the Tanu can breed them is a transsexual. Julian May is impressively vitriolic about this - especially as she implies that the reason "he" does it is because "he" can't get pregnant "himself" and thus sees the breeders as proxies;

* {{Magnificent Bastard}} - Marc Remillard, to a point. Sometimes he seems quite reasonable and gentlemanly and charismatic, but let's not forget [[spoiler: he caused the deaths of four billion people, turned his son into a fish, and is STILL trying to find another world to take over to use for his Mental Man scheme- might I add that this involves creating a civilization of bodiless brains?]]

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds - Felice; YMMV somewhat on how much of a woobie she is. But for a certainty, bad things happened to her and tipped her into raving insanity (and power).

* {{Magnificent Bastard}} - Marc Remillard, to a point. Sometimes he seems quite reasonable and gentlemanly and charismatic, but let's not forget [[spoiler: he caused the deaths of four billion people, turned his son into a fish, and is STILL trying to find another world to take over to use for his Mental Man scheme- might I add that this involves creating a civilization of bodiless brains?]]