Fridge / Tsun-Tsun TzimTzum

• Fridge Brilliance:
  • In the first book, Noah, long before he even considers making her one of his companions, remembers Brielle's mockery of his Potty Failure with a surge of anger that inspires him to defeat an opponent during the trial. He uses this information to mock her later... but it's also Foreshadowing, since inspiration is inspiration.
  • The Party Scattering at the start of the second book showcases the importance of a balanced party of companions by demonstrating what happens when the saviour lacks one. Before Noah's reunited with Imogen, he wanders aimlessly and is unable to make meaningful plans. Before he's reunited with Emma, his morals get increasingly compromised and he's easy victim for Victor's efforts to corrupt him. Valeria's and Neveah's absences are less potentially catastrophic, but it still makes a tangible difference when he once more has access to the former's practicality and organisation and the latter's supreme fighting skills. And if he'd listened to Neveah from the start, things wouldn't've gone to pot, while if he'd been able to stay close to Valeria, she might not have failed during that critical moment of temptation.
  • After spending all of The Hindering Ones trying to get to the Black Tower and fight the epynomous Cyclopes that dwell there, the party never actually fights them but just flies straight to the top of the tower and enter the portal to the next world there. Nor does the long-awaited battle to retake the Tower ever take place, since Noah sends his army into hiding instead of engaging its defenses. Anticlimactic? A little... but the Hindering Ones are the embodiment of obstacles and diversions, seeking to bog you down in side errands that don't lead you closer to your goal. Circumventing them is precisely what you should seek to do. And being bogged down is precisely what's happened all book.
  • Imogen's and Valeria's manifold trials require them, in order to pass, to symbolically give up what has been their main heroic traits up to that point - Imogen, who main virtue has been that her thinking is unclouded by personal desire, has to learn to care about herself and Valeria, whose defining trait has been her willingness to keep fighting against impossible odds, has to show that she Knows When To Fold Them. This is very much in keeping with the nature of Lilith (whose agent controls the manifold) as a force that enables personal progress in its attempts to corrupt: the test makes Imogen and Valera less heroic and takes away a major source of strength, but in doing so it also clears away hurdles to long-term personal growth.
• Fridge Logic:
  • Shalarra claims that war and inequality are signs of Lilith's influence, and that this proves that she rules even our world at least in spirit. However, a quick look at history - even quite recent history - shows that the world has in fact never been as peaceful and equal as it is now. It's not that things are great or anything, only that they've only ever been worse, so either Lilith has ruled our world since before the dawn of history (which is admittedly not contradicted by anything in the story - no one ever states how long the war has been going on) or this is baloney. ^note Shalarra also claims that ecological devestation is a sign of Lilith's rule, and that part unfortunately fits a lot better.
  • At the end of The Manifold, Noah is faced with the choice of letting Enigma live and continue tormenting the people of Tagimron in return for him showing Noah and his companions the way to leave the sphere, or risk being stuck there forever. He chooses to Take a Third Option by killing Enigma and trusting that there is some way for him to leave Tagimron without Enigma's help, which does turn out to be the case, claiming that he's learned not to commit immoral acts even in the pursuit of the greater good. Great, except... performing an immoral act in pursuit of the greater good is what he's been doing the whole book, as he's been using a cornucopia machine to assist him in his quest even though its absence meant widespread starvation, including children dying. One minor villain even declared a few chapters earlier that Noah was no true saviour since he was willing to let children die to further his goals.