YMMV / Winter Moon

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Augustus is presented to want to create a digital utopia in Magnolia Online, but according to himself, he is terribly scared of dying and wants to be immortal, so it's easy to reinterpret his "creation of utopia" as just an excuse, especially since he seems more like a communist than a good shepherd.
  • Is Valera really okay with Albright's terroristic attacks? She's no longer a naive child, so is the fact she can live in Magnolia Online is enough to convince her to follow Augustus' plans? Or is she just lying to herself or was she brainwashed?
• Arc Fatigue: In Season 4, Risa is attacked by Lance and an accomplice, intent on torturing and murdering her. This goes on and on for over half a dozen episodes. Readers finally revolted in Episode 50, with a majority of the top-voted comments being some variant of "Merry, either end this or we're going to stop reading!"
• Designated Hero: Both Risa and Florence, arguably. Risa is a manipulative bitch who leeches off of other players like no tomorrow, and Florence will kill other players at a whim and is a complete prick about it, getting an entire game shut down in the process.
• Diagnosed by the Audience:
  • Risa displays many symptoms of Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD), such as seeking for attention, seducing and flirtacious behaviour; it's also likely that she has social anxiety because of her depression, extreme shyness, introvertism, and inability to establish relationships with other people. In addition, it's possible she has had PTSD after her conflict with Landor.
  • Florence is often viewed as a man with Avoidant Personality Disorder (AvPD), because of antisocial behaviours, his fear of intimacy despite craving it, fear of rejection, and viewing himself as inferior to his teammates.
  • Aside from being autistic, Gideon is also considered as a person with Schizoid Personality Disorder (SPD) because of his apathy, coldness, and initial distance from his teammates.
  • Landor shows most of the symptoms of Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD, sociopathy), because of his lack of empathy, egocentrism, and tendencies to manipulate other people.
  • Valera is almost a perfect example of a non-romantic version of Dependent Personality Disorder (DPD) — she's extremely dependent on others, passive to the point of being a witting pawn, and afraid of rejection.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Risa acts like an asshole online to deal with the hideously abusive home life she has. She is slowly becoming self-aware about this.
  • Florence is a jerk, but it's hard not to feel bad for him when it's revealed that his father hates his guts just because he's "feminine". He is also implied to be physically abusive towards Florence.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Bob, a low-level bald, musclebound player. Clueless, guileless and friendly, he is adored whenever he shows up. He's a minor character for most of the comic, but joins the main cast's team for the tournament arc, and pulls off a stunning upset during his round.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Landor wasn't the sanest character at the beginning, but he lost any sympathetic traits after he exposed Risa's identity in public just for betraying him in the game.
  • Augustus was quite morally ambiguous throughout the series, and some of his actions had their justifications. He lost it after he became a tyrant in Magnolia Online and started to kill players just for not joining Ministry of Light.
  • For most of the series, Valera was a happy, nice girl who had been easily manipulated by her superiors. In Season 5, she crossed it after she admitted she knew about Augustus' terroristic attacks and didn't give a damn about them, justifying them, because they are meant to create a better world.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: For the first season, other than Easen and Bob, none of the characters were really good enough to cheer on: Florence and Risa were selfish jerks, and Gideon wasn't as assertive as in later seasons; other players weren't saints either, with some of them being more evil than Winter Moon, just always losing to them. This started to change in Season 2, where Florence actually started to gain more heroic traits, Gideon developed a stronger moral code, and even Risa was on her way to becoming a better person under Florence's influence. Other players were still jerks, but the good ones appeared and started to play more significant role in the story.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Risa. While the readers are supposed to empathize with her due to her Break the Cutie ordeal, she can come off as unsympathetic to many of the readers as she just keeps pushing away everyone and anyone who tries to help, including Florence and Gideon. It also isn't helped by the fact that the whole scenario started due to a misunderstanding that could have be resolved just by talking to each other.
• The Woobie: Valera was neglected by her father at young age and placed in a medical institution, where she was taken good care of but wanted to have friends. When she started playing Magnolia Online, her guild was disbanded; then, she was manipulated by a Ministry officer, then manipulated again by another officer, and when she finally joined other guild, she was manipulated again by the Guild Master. Poor girl.

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