YMMV / Hivesnax AU

• Heartwarming Moments: The very first chapter is full of this, as it shows the Krew readjusting to their lives back in civilization; as shown in the end credits of the game if you get the Golden Ending, and Budleguard - now a photographer - going around and snapping photos of their day to day lives. Many of the moments are absolutely adorable, such as Beffica and Buddy getting into a pillow fight, Gramble attempting to teach Buddy how to knit, Floofty being shown as an excellent and surprisingly understanding professor to their class, Cromdo basically spoiling Buddy by giving them free food and drink at his karaoke bar and showing Filbo becoming mayor and everyone celebrating his achievement, as only a few examples!
  • Chapter 22 of The Rise is surprisingly adorable for the most part, as it shows Chandlo and Torianne, who was captured near the end of chapter 20, striking up an unlikely friendship as she's imprisoned in the same cell he is. Things get especially heartwarming when towards the end of the chapter, she's renamed to Kit, as a shout out to an OC of one of the authors friends and a fellow Bugsnax fanfic author.
• Love to Hate: Elder Chucklebait is this in spades. She relishes in being evil and murderous, is incredibly passive-aggressive towards her enemies/rivals like Jamfoot, and thinks herself above everyone else simply because of how powerful she is both mentally and physically. However, she is so entertaining to watch and is such a force to reckon with that you can't help but like her!
• Moment of Awesome: The fact that Triffany was able to withstand being tortured in order to obtain information from her. No matter what they did to her, no matter much she cried and begged for help and no matter how much she more than likely wanted to just give up, she didn't break! She doesn't tell them anything until she's eventually brought back to the Krew. Wambus even notices that the fire in her eyes was still "just as enduring and just as powerful" and no matter how angry he is about what happened to her, he still feels incredibly proud of her. Even Bolbort Jellyfoot - one of the elders of the Snakolytes - appears to be impressed with how she resisted.
  • Chapter 22 also reveals that Chandlo has been desperately trying to escape his cold and secluded cell - and has come close to succeeding multiple times! It hasn't worked, but you've got to admire his resilience! He's even been nicknamed "The Walrus" because he's landed several of the Snakolytes in the med bay by biting them!
    • The same chapter gives us Torianne doing an excellent - and somewhat amusing - job of trading insults with the Snakolyte agents that are imprisoning her.
• Nightmare Fuel: Everything that happens to the Krew is nothing short of horrible. From losing tails, tusks and eyes, to being declawed, to being whipped and quite possibly having salt poured on open wounds, to receiving acid burns on their paws, the torture everyone goes through is gut-wrenching, to say the least! The fact that most of it happens off-screen arguably only makes it worse as it leaves what happens to the imagination of the reader.
• Tear Jerker: The beginning of Aftermath shows everyone struggling with their recovery. No one escaped the Snakolytes either mentally or physically unscathed.
  • Snorpy is revealed to be pregnant. It's incredibly bittersweet because even though the embryo and egg appear to be fine, the fact that he had to be put through the wringer like that while pregnant is horrible! What makes the situation even worse was that he had planned on telling Chandlo while they and the Krew went on a vacation to celebrate both the anniversary of their escape and to watch a rare eclipse. But instead, they got captured by his worst nightmare.
  • There's a brief scene where Wambus, having clearly just had a horrific nightmare, runs out of the room crying. Triffany is awoken by this and follows him, soon seeing how hard he's crying into the sink as she goes over to comfort him.