History YMMV / TheEdgeChronicles

** Are you the captain of a ship and bogged down with responsibilities? Yes? Don't have children, you'll be a crap parent.

** Does Linius neglect Maris because he feels involving her in his work would be too dangerous, or because she's a girl and he would rather have a boy working as his apprentice? The Edge in general seems to be pretty patriarchal (with the exception of the shryke and the termagant trogs) with women holding very few positions of influence. But Maris also mentions Quint is a few years older than her when she meets him. So it could be Linius would have been agreeable to Maris helping him if she weren't so ''young'' rather than because she's a girl. Then there's the third interpretation that he would never let her be involved because [[PapaWolf she's his child]] and that would be the same, boy or girl.

** Was Quint really unable to find the woodtroll village where he and Maris abandoned Twig? Given the famously conservative nature of woodtrolls and their well-trodden network of paths, it seems like they shouldn't be that hard to find, even in the Deepwoods. It's possible that Quint never looked that hard -- instead, seeing both Maris and Twig as reminders of his dashed dreams and ruined life, he was always planning to skip town on the ''Stormchaser'' and never look back.

* FanPreferredCouple: Rook ultimately ends up with [[spoiler: Magda]] and Xanth with [[spoiler: Rufus' unnamed mother]]. Most shippers seem to prefer Xanth with either Rook or Magda, though.

* EvilIsSexy: Thaw Daggerslash is ''very'' handsome. He uses it to his advantage.
** Danton Clore in ''The Descenders''.

** Vox Verlix is an absolute fountain of alternate interpretations. Did he truly have no conception of the misery his massive architectural works would create? Was he motivated by his own pride and vanity, or a sincere desire to make the Edge a better place? Or did he start as an idealist, but gradually slide into darkness thanks to being betrayed by everyone he ever trusted, winding up with no motivation except KillEmAll?

* AcceptableProfessionalTargets: Wealthy merchants are uniformly portrayed as grasping, scheming villains with no interest in fair competition, constantly plotting to undercut each other while grinding the majority of people underfoot. Interestingly enough, the sky pirates also engage in commerce, but set fair prices and negotiate honestly -- which is why the Leaguesmen hate them.

* WhatAnIdiot: That's right, Rook, just go on and stand [[spoiler:over an armageddon machine that's started up with a drop of water ''while you're dripping with sweat''. What could possibly go wrong?]]

** Quint: Much of ''Clash of the Sky Galleons'' merely follows the daily tribulations of sky pirate life, with the Turbot Smeal plot only sporadically coming up.

** In fact, all the main protagonists share the trait of being much more interesting as supporting characters than heroes. Quint, Twig, Rook, and Nate are all generic do-gooders who respectively become a badass grizzled sky pirate, a wandering wildman who talks to Banderbears, a battle-hardened cavalry officer, and a famous research scientist who charts the land beyond the edge. Presumably, if we get a fifth saga, we'll see the same thing happen to Cade.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: Oh boy. The series is written for young adults but loves to push at what it can get away with in terms of blood and gore. Made so much worse in that a lot of the NightmareFuel moments are lovingly illustrated by the extremely talented Chris Riddell. Though according to Wikipedia, it's actual a ''children's'' series. [[NightmareFuel Oh dear...]]

** And the award goes to... Xanth Filatine!

** Maris. Her mother's dead when we first meet her, her father is [[spoiler: killed by the Gloamglozer]] when she's a child, she has to abandon her son, Twig, after birth and never sees him again, and her husband vanishes. She spends her life wandering through the woods, never speaking a word after her husband's disappearance, until in her old age she meets her granddaughter, Veris.

** Twig [[spoiler:grows up as an outcast, then goes through all manner of crap in the Deepwoods. He finds his long-lost father, only to be treated like crap because Cloud Wolf can't risk people knowing he has a son. Once he becomes a sky pirate captain, Twig loses his crew almost to the last man, then very soon loses ''another'' crew after that one. Having left friends at Riverrise, he spends much of his life trying to return to them, failing every time. During that time, he loses his beloved wife in childbirth, and wanders alone into the Deepwoods to live with Banderbears. His ultimate reward for all this? Finally making it to Riverrise too late, being imprisoned for 500 years by a jealous dictator, and ''after all that'', still kicking Gloamglozer ass in ''The Immortals''.

* AccidentalAesop: Are you the captain of a ship and bogged down with responsibilities? Yes? Don't have children, you'll be a crap parent.

** Vox Verlix is an absolute fountain of alternative interpretations. Did he truly have no conception of the misery his massive architectural works would create? Was he motivated more by his own pride and vanity, or a sincere desire to make the Edge a better place? Or did he start as an idealist, but gradually slide into darkness thanks to being betrayed by literally everyone he ever trusted, winding up with no motivation except KillEmAll?

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Does Linius neglect Maris because he feels involving her in his work would be too dangerous, or because she's a girl and he would rather have a boy working as his apprentice? The Edge in general seems to be pretty patriarchal (with the exception of the shryke and the termagant trogs) with women holding very few positions of influence. But Maris also mentions Quint is a few years older than her when she meets him. So it could be Linius would have been agreeable to Maris helping him if she weren't so ''young'' rather than because she's a girl. Then there's the third interpretation that he would never let her be involved because [[PapaWolf she's his child]] and that would be the same, boy or girl.

* CompleteMonster:

* FanPreferredCouple: Rook ultimately ends up with [[spoiler: Magda]] and Xanth with [[spoiler: Rufus' unnamed mother]]. Most shippers seem to prefer them together, though.

* HilariousInHindsight: One member of Twig's crew is a brogtroll who's very big and strong but quite slow witted. His name? [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} Grimlock]].

* IronWoobie: Most of the main characters. Twig in particular suffers more than anyone ever should, but still keeps going.

* MoralEventHorizon: Crossed by plenty of villains. A few examples; The Gloamglozer trying to [[spoiler: kill Twig or successfully killing Linius]] depending on what order you read the books, Vilnix [[spoiler: trying to kill Quint and Maris]], Hemuel Spume working his slaves to death in the foundries making [[spoiler: weapons to enslave the Free Glades]] and Orbrix Xaxis [[spoiler: feeding Librarian children to the rock demons]].

** Then there's [[spoiler: Maugin falling in love with Twig. Which is fine... until you remember that Maugin's body will never mature beyond the appearance of pubescent girl, while Twig grows normally. Yeah...]]

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: Due to CrapsackWorld and AnyoneCanDie being in full effect.

* UglyCute: Some of the peoples of the Edge such as gnokgoblins.

** Twig too. And Rook. Honestly this is a series that throws so much crap at its characters that it would be easier to list those that don't get at least one moment of woobiedom!

** Maris. Her mother's dead when we first meet her, her father is [[spoiler: killed by the Gloamglozer]] when she's a child, she has to abandon her son, Twig, after birth and never sees him again, and her husband vanishes. She spends her life wandering through the woods, never speaking a word after her husband's disappearance, until in her old age she meets her granddaughter, Veris.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: Due to CrapsackWorld and AnyoneCanDie being in full effect.

* ShockingSwerve: The introduction of [[spoiler: stone-sickness and the end of the First Age of Flight]] which completely changes the world of the Edge and tends to get a "Holy crap, now what?" reaction from readers. Particularly since it happens in between books and so a fan is thrown into this new Edge with no warning as soon as they start the Rook Saga.

* JerkassHasAPoint:
** Wind Jackal tells Quint that this is kind of the point of a good quartermaster; they're always complaining and making steep demands, but these are needed to keep the more adventurous Sky Pirate captains grounded and get the ship what it needs. They grumble and complain because they know what's best for their ship and they're usually right.
** Thaw Daggerslash is a FantasticRacist who's very proud of being a fourthling. It's difficult to separate his ItsAllAboutMe (or at least It's All About Me And My Species) attitude with his contempt for the other races of the Edge. Trouble is, he's never shown to be wrong about this. Thaw muses how, though fourthlings are rare, they hold most of the positions of power in the new worlds of Sanctaphrax and Undertown...and he's right. Almost all Academics, Sky Pirate captains and Leaguesmen are fourthlings while the other species' tend to be portrayed as servants or more menial workers. Although things change by Freeglader and come to think of it, Undertown and even Sanctaphrax were kind of a nest full of vipers.

** ''The Curse of the Gloamglozer'', ''Beyond the Deepwoods'', ''The Immortals'': [[ForTheEvulz The Gloamglozer]] is the most devious and AncientEvil ever to plague the Edgeworld. The Gloamglozer is a sadistic, [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifting]] demon who, unable to truly harm prey itself, contents itself with [[ManipulativeBastard luring victims to their death]] while [[EmotionEater glutting itself on their fear]]. Upon being accidentally recreated by the brilliant professor Linius in the First Age of Flight, the Gloamglozer sadistically torments Linius by tricking him into thinking his daughter is dead, before burning Linius to death and going for his apprentice Quint next. The Gloamglozer spends the next Age of Flight luring hapless victims to the Edge itself where it throws them off--one of its victims being Quint's descendant Twig--and opens up the Second Age creating the stone-sickness, an epidemic that destroyed the technology and economy on which the Edgeworld had been built, affecting and ruining millions. In the Third Age, before its final death, the Gloamglozer rediscovered the ruined floating city of Sanctaphrax and magically transformed it into an illusion of its former glory, using it to corral entire villages and clans of people from the Deepwoods so the Gloamglozer could prey upon them.

* AccidentalAesop:
** Are you the captain of a ship and bogged down with responsibilities? Yes? Don't have children, you'll be a crap parent.
** Also never trust a quartermaster or anyone with glasses and a pointy goatee beard. To be fair the snidely Whiplash face should have tipped you off.

* MagnificentBastard:
** Vox is an odd case. He starts out as one, managing to backstab and double cross his way up to [[spoiler: being the Most High Academe]]. But then he puts his trust in the wrong people, gets out-gambited and loses it all. But ''then'' [[spoiler: he pulls off one last plan that absolutely no one saw coming and kills all his enemies in one fell swoop. He would have gotten away with it and come out on top if not for the betrayal of his servants and Amberfuce.]]
** Speaking of [[spoiler: Amberfuce, he definitely counts. Manipulating everyone around you til you reach the position of almost ruling over an entire populace, all while being completely infirm with age, is no small feat.]]

** Quint tells Twig that this is kind of the point of a good quartermaster; they're always complaining and making steep demands, but these are needed to keep the more adventurous Sky Pirate captains grounded and get the ship what it needs. They grumble and complain because they know what's best for their ship and they're usually right.

* HarsherInHindsight: Only if you read the books in the order they were released in, but in ''Stormchaser'', Hubble [[spoiler:dies the moment he leaves the Twilight Woods]] and Stope Boltjaw [[spoiler:actually wanders off [[FateWorseThanDeath into the woods themselves]]]] and both characters are subsequently forgotten. In the later two books of the Quint Trilogy, both have their characters [[RoundedCharacter seriously fleshed out]]. Unfortunately, [[DoomedByCanon they're still both going to die]].

-->Cowlquape: And I'd follow you anywhere, even... even out there, into Open Sky.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Quint tells Twig that this is kind of the point of a good quartermaster; they're always complaining and making steep demands, but these are needed to keep the more adventurous Sky Pirate captains grounded and get the ship what it needs. They grumble and complain because they know what's best for their ship and they're usually right.
** Thaw Daggerslash is a FantasticRacist who's very proud of being a fourthling. It's difficult to separate his ItsAllAboutMe (or at least It's All About Me And My Species) attitude with his contempt for the other races of the Edge. Trouble is, he's never shown to be wrong about this. Thaw muses how, though fourthlings are rare, they hold most of the positions of power in the new worlds of Sanctaphrax and Undertown...and he's right. Almost all Academics, Sky Pirate captains and Leaguesmen are fourthlings while the other species' tend to be portrayed as servants or more menial workers. Although things change by Freeglader and come to think of it, Undertown and even Sanctaphrax where kind of a nest full of vipers.

* {{Squick}}: Plenty. Special mention goes to how a rotsucker catches its prey. What exactly ''is'' that liquid...?

* WhatAnIdiot: That's right, Rook, just go on and stand [[spoiler: over an armageddon machine that's started up with a drop of water ''while you're dripping with sweat''. What could possibly go wrong?]]

* AwesomeArt: Chris Riddell's gorgeous illustrations.

* AccidentalAesop: Are you the captain of a ship and bogged down with responsibilities? Yes? Don't have children, you'll be a crap parent.

* AccidentalInnuendo: The slaver that took Maugin was called Zelt ''Pink-Eye''.

* CultClassic

* FanPreferredCouple: Rook ultimately ends up with [[spoiler: Magda]] and Xanth with [[spoiler: Rufus' unnamed mother.]] Most shippers seem to prefer them together, though.

* HarsherInHindsight: Only if you read the books in the order they were released in, but in Stormchaser, Hubble [[spoiler:dies the moment he leaves the Twilight Woods]] and Stope Boltjaw [[spoiler:actually wanders off [[FateWorseThanDeath into the woods themselves]]]] and both characters are subsequently forgotten. In the later two books of the Quint Trilogy, both have their characters [[RoundedCharacter seriously fleshed out]]. Unfortunately, [[DoomedByCanon they're still both going to die]].

* HilariousInHindsight: One member of Twig's crew is a brogtroll who's very big and strong but quite slow witted. His name? [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} Grimlock.]]
* HoYay: Twig and Cowlquape, ''Midnight over Sanctaphrax''. So very much.

* JerkassWoobie: Vox Verlix is a horrible person but ends up living such a miserable life it's difficult not to feel at least a little bad for him. [[spoiler: Later he becomes a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds.]]

* JustHereForGodzilla: If you don't read a single word, it's worth picking up the books just for the illustrations.
* MagnificentBastard: Vox is an odd case. He starts out as one, managing to backstab and double cross his way up to [[spoiler: being the Most High Academe.]] But then he puts his trust in the wrong people, gets out-gambited and loses it all. But ''then'' [[spoiler: he pulls off one last plan that absolutely no one saw coming and kills all his enemies in one fell swoop. He would have gotten away with it and come out on top if not for the betrayal of his servants and Amberfuce.]]

* MoralEventHorizon: Crossed by plenty of villains. A few examples; The Gloamglozer trying to [[spoiler: kill Twig or successfully killing Linius]] depending on what order you read the books, Vilnix [[spoiler: trying to kill Quint and Maris]], Hemuel Spume working his slaves to death in the foundries making [[spoiler: weapons to enslave the Free Glades]] and Orbrix Xaxis [[spoiler: feeding Librarian children to the rock demons.]]

* NauseaFuel: Many of Chris Riddell's illustrations. The man doesn't do [[GoryDiscretionShot Gory Discretion Shots]], apparently. One particularly bad one is [[spoiler: after Screed kills Spiker and leaves him dead in the Mire with his toes cut off. Just something about the bloody trail smeared from the stumps on Spiker's mutilated foot...]]

** Then there's [[spoiler: Maugin falling in love with Twig. Which is fine...until you remember that Maugin's body will never mature beyond the appearance of pubescent girl, while Twig grows normally. Yeah...]]

* TooCoolToLive: [[spoiler: Varis Lodd. Most of Twig's crews.]]

* VanillaProtagonist: Rook, who's basically just a nice, bright kid thrown in at the deep end.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: Oh boy. The series is written for young adults but loves to push at what it can get away with in terms of blood and gore. Made so much worse in that a lot of the NightmareFuel moments are lovingly illustrated by the extremely talented Chris Riddell.
** Though according to Wikipedia, it's actual a ''children's'' series. [[NightmareFuel Oh dear...]]
* TheWoobie: And the award goes to... Xanth Filatine!

** Twig too. And Rook. Honestly this is a series that throws so much crap at its characters that it would be easier to list those that don't get at least one moment of woobiedom!

* CompleteMonster: Many, many of the series' villains are this. Orbrix Xaxis, Thaw Daggerslash, Hemuel Spume and of course The Gloamglozer are good examples.