YMMV / Brotherband

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • How much is Erak a Reasonable Authority Figure? He sends Hal and the Heron crew up against a gang of ruthless pirates, but then they did allow Zavac to steal the Andomal, and passing Brotherband training seems to mean that they're considered full-grown men in Skandian society.
  • Does Olaf really care for Stig at all? Or does he only value his potential fighting abilities?
  • One of the above's few genuinely kind moments is when he goes to Lydia's aid when she's injured. Does this indicate some sense of decency out of genuine fellowship? Is it a case of seeing her as the weaker sex who needs to be protected? Or is it a calculated act to improve his standing in the eyes of the Heron's crew?
• Catharsis Factor: Having the helmsman of Wolfwind be highly proficient in The Stern Chase, making Hal seriously work to beat him. With the incredible proficiency of the Heron crew, especially on water, Flanagan avoids making it an easy battle until the crews come to close quarters (and even then, there's some drama), where it's more understandable. Given how the Temujai were defeated fairly easily last book, it's a nice way to keep the Herons from having an easy victory again.
• Complete Monster: Zavac is the vicious captain of the Raven, a Magyran pirate vicious even by the standards of his people, with around 200 ships slaughtered, plundered and robbed by him and his crew. Debuting by massacring a Skandian fleet and leaving a man and his young nephew to drown after he promises to save the boy, Zavac steals the Andomal, a precious treasure of the Skandians, and afterwards slaughters an unarmed, peaceful ship of traders, gruesomely torturing its captain to death. Finding the traders with a cache of emeralds, Zavac heads to the source city, Limmat, razing and massacring his way through the city and enslaving the populace to drain their emerald mine dry. When the city is liberated with him, Zavac abandons his close allies to die.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In the second Brotherband book (published in 2012), Barat, the blond man who's running for office, declares his intention to "make [his town] great again," and wins the election handily. How much of his character parallels that of Donald Trump shall not be discussed here.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Most readers didn't actually expect Ingvar to die of his infected wound in Book 3, as Flanagan generally avoids killing off the main heroes.
  • Book 6 has another example. Stig leaving the crew? Yeah, right.
• Moral Event Horizon: Zavac takes a running leap over this line when he massacres a fleet of Skandian trader ships, before proceeding to order the final two survivors—the captain and his young nephew, the latter whose life he barters with to get information about the Andomal—drowned after promising them their lives.
• Narm Charm: Wulf's terror and panic when his brother is nearly hurt, and refusing at first to let anyone but Edvin look at the wound, can make him come off as pathetic. However, given that this is his twin brother bleeding out at his feet, it's actually understandable why he's reacting that way (even if it's illogical and a bit annoying).
• Sequelitis: Book 8 is generally not as well-liked as its predecessors, partially because the Temujai experience significant Badass Decay, and partially because significantly fewer things go wrong for the protagonists than usual, all of which amounts to the entire thing seeming too easy.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: We're supposed to side with the Herons when Duncan gets upset at Erak sending an "inferior" wolfship to serve as the Araulen duty ship. However, as he has just been (accurately) told, the Heron has a half-size crew of teenagers, rather than a full crew of experienced warriors, and isn't big enough to carry a horse. He has every reason to get upset with Erak! Fortunately, Gilan is on hand to smooth things over.