History YMMV / TheThingOnTheDoorstep

* ValuesResonance: The [[AbusiveParents overtones]] of this story, and Ephraim's [[ItsAllAboutMe outlook on life]] and callous attitude toward his own family, still unsettle many modern readers. Even accounting for the supernatural shenanigans, this is one of Lovecraft's more realistic stories in terms of characterization, and it's all the more effective as a result.

* EvilIsSexy: Asenath Waite is one of the vanishingly few Lovecraft villains who hold any claim to this, being a very good-looking and sort of seductive scholaress of the occult. Naturally, she carries ''several'' particularly horrifying dark secrets to make up for it.

* ValuesDissonance: As with anything Lovecraft this turns up, most notably the assertion that Ephraim can't use the full extent of his magic until he gets a male host because female brains are inferior. Later Mythos writers occasionally justify this as a result of being unable to properly focus due to sexual dysphoria or other compatibility issues between a male personality and female body rather than anything wrong with the female brain itself. Also it's possible this is supposed to sound this way in-Universe to highlight Ephraim's level of egotism, since Lovecraft's other work ''The Dunwich Horror'' has Lavinia Whateley who is a witch in her own right and no one implies she's less powerful than her father because she's a woman and in fact she's partially responsible for teaching her son Wilbur black magic rituals. Plus you would assume being half Deep One as it's implied Asenath is would make her ''more'' magically powerful due to their direct connection to Dagon and the other Great Old Ones.

* ValuesDissonance: As with anything Lovecraft this turns up, most notably the assertion that Ephraim can't use the full extent of his magic until he gets a male host because female brains are inferior. Later Mythos writers occasionally justify this as a result of being unable to properly focus due to sexual dysphoria or other compatibility issues between a male personality and female body rather than anything wrong with the female brain itself. Also it's possible this is supposed to sound this way in-Universe to highlight Ephraim's level of egotism, since Lovecraft's other work ''The Dunwich Horror'' has Lavinia Whateley who is a witch in her own right and no one implies she's less powerful than her father because she's a woman and in fact she's partially responsible for teaching her son Wilbur black magic rituals.

* ValuesDissonance: As with anything Lovecraft this turns up, most notably the assertion that Ephraim can't use the full extent of his magic until he gets a male host because female brains are inferior. Later Mythos writers occasionally justify this as a result of being unable to properly focus due to sexual dysphoria or other compatibility issues between a male personality and female body rather than anything wrong with the female brain itself. Also it's possible this is supposed to sound this way in-Universe to highlight Ephraim's level of egotism and evil, since Lovecraft's other work ''The Dunwich Horror'' has Lavinia Whateley who is a witch in her own right and no one implies she's a lesser one than her father for being a woman.

* ValuesDissonance: As with anything Lovecraft this turns up, most notably the assertion that Ephraim can't use the full extent of his magic until he gets a male host because female brains are inferior. Later Mythos writers occasionally justify this as a result of being unable to properly focus due to sexual dysphoria or other compatibility issues between a male personality and female body rather than anything wrong with the female brain itself.

* CompleteMonster: [[ImmortalityImmorality Ephraim Waite]], the father of Asenath Waite, was a man affiliated with various dark covens and powers in life who sought immortality regardless of the suffering he inflicted upon others. Consulting dark tomes for a way to live forever, Ephraim finally found a way to expand his own life by [[GrandTheftMe body-swapping with his own daughter]] and damning her to [[AndIMustScream insanity and slow death within his own old body]] as he took hers. Seeking a male body with strong intellect and weak will to him to weaken and possess, Ephraim slowly seduced Edward Pickman Derby while slowly driving him further and further into madness. When Derby killed Asenath in a desperate bid to stop Ephraim, Ephraim ultimately swapped bodies with him and condemned him to horrific undeath within the rotting corpse of Asenath. Unstopped, Ephraim's dark practices would destroy the peace and comfort of the world as he unleashed untold horror on humanity, jumping from body to body and damning countless more innocents to death for all time.

* ValuesDissonance: As with anything Lovecraft this turns up, most notably the assertion that Ephraim can't use the full extent of his magic until he gets a male host because female brains are inferior. Later Mythos writers occasionally justify this as a result of being unable to properly focus due to sexual dysphoria or other compatibility issues between a male personality and female body rather than anything wrong with the female brain itself.

* EvilIsSexy: Asenath Waite is one of the vanishingly few Lovecraft villains who hold any claim to this, being a very good-looking and sort of seductive scholaress of the occult. Naturally, she carries ''several'' particularly horrifying dark secrets to make up for it.

* EvilIsSexy: Asenath Waite is one of the vanishingly few Lovecraft villains who hold any claim to this, being a very good-looking and sort of seductive scholaress of the occult. Naturally, she carries ''several'' particularly horrifying dark secrets to make up for it.
** HeelRealization: Swapping minds with Asenath brought Derby to admit the ''being'' he slept with for more than 3 years was neither fully (genetic) human, nor truly female. [[SarcasmMode Quite a shock for the poor guy]].

* EvilIsSexy: Asenath Waite is one of the vanishingly few Lovecraft villains who hold any claim to this, being a very good-looking and sort of seductive scholaress of the occult. Naturally, she carries ''several'' particularly horrifying dark secrets to make up for it.