YMMV / Leviathan

Leviathan (Webcomic)

• Broken Base: The series' switch to a webnovel format was contentious among readers. While some preferred the overall art-style of the webcomic format, other fans felt that the prose of the webnovel greatly benefitted the overall flow of the story.
• Unexpected Character: Nobody was expecting Schadenfreude of all abnormalities to make an appearance.

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Leviathan (The novels)

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: The flechette bats seem absurd (what's a dart going to do against a warship?), but they're actually based on real WWI-era aerial flechettes. These were simple steel darts dropped from aircraft (either dumped out of the aircraft with a bucket or released from special belly-mounted steel containers) that were scattered over enemy trenches and infantry formations to wreak havoc. When dropped from sufficient height, they hit with enough force to pierce a steel helmet and the skull beneath it, or even nail soldiers' feet to the ground. There was even discussion of using larger flechettes to penetrate the roof armor of tanks. Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better, indeed.
• Awesome Art: Keith Thompson's insanely gorgeous◊ illustrations expertly depict Bio Punk and steampunk Technology Porn in equal measure and are a major draw for fans.
• Angst? What Angst?: Alek copes with his parents' deaths really well... It's especially jarring in comparison with Deryn, who's still pretty broken up about her father dying two years before the start of the story.
• Crazy Is Cool: Zaven. So much. Nikola Tesla is even crazier, and even more awesome.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Nikola Tesla, to the surprise of exactly no one who knows their history well.
• Ho Yay: Loads between Alek and "Dylan", mostly in Behemoth.
• I Knew It!: chapters 78 and 80 of the fanfic collection Quite Peculiar made up a two-part story arc called "Fit to Print". They were uploaded just weeks before the release of Goliath, and made a spot-on prediction on how Alek learns about Deryn's gender in the book: by reading a newspaper article about her father's accident.
• Les Yay: Lilit. Her last line to Deryn before she leaves implies that she figured out that Deryn was actually a girl, and this is after she kissed Deryn full on the lips and said she was "just curious."
  • "I know you better than you think, Mr. Sharp." (Cue chuckling from Bovril.)
  • It's worth noting that Deryn doesn't seem too bothered by it, either.

    Alek: That girl is quite mad.

    "Dylan": Aye. But she's not a bad kisser.

• Narm Charm: Alek and Deryn's declaration of love at the end of Goliath is pretty cheesy, but it's pretty sweet as well.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Dalek has become quite popular in the fandom for Deryn/Alek...no, not that Dalek. Volger and Barlow also have Varlow.
• Tear Jerker: Zaven's death.

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Leviathan (The Band)

• Archive Panic: So many demos, that's all we can say. And that's not even going into Jef's other projects such as Lurker of Chalice, his involvement with Twilight, and god knows what else.
• Awesome Art: The album cover and supplementary artwork for Scar Sighted, which were made by Jef's girlfriend while she was dying of a brain tumor, and which he decided to keep.
  • The rest of his album covers could also qualify, particularly A Silhouette in Splinters.
• Awesome Music: Everything, most have been recently labeling Scar Sighted as his best work, although a majority of his albums such as The Tenth Sub-Level of Suicide, Tentacles of Whorror, and Massive Conspiracy Against All Life are considered this as well.
• Broken Base: True Traitor, True Whore tends to be this for many people, if not helped due to the Reality Subtext over the allegations towards him by his ex-girlfriend. And even besides that, most people find it very weak and underwhelming compared to the complex-like nature of Massive Conspiracy Against All Life.
• Creepy Awesome: Jef is the living embodiment of this.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: A Silhouette in Splinters, arguably due to it being Jef's experimental chance to dark ambient.
  • Jef's secondary project Lurker of Chalice is this, due to being incredibly depressing and haunting, even more so than Leviathan.
• Epic Riff: He's more known for the atmosphere of his music, but he can still write some distinctive, memorable riffs when he wants to. "Aphonos" is a good example.
• Jerk Ass Woobie: Jef Whitehead had a very rocky childhood and it's clear growing up was rough for him, with him mentioning once trying to kill himself during the Tenth Sub-Level / Tentacles era of Leviathan, adding to the tragedy of his deceased girlfriend, who was his muse for Lurker of Chalice. At the same time of course, the controversies surrounding him in 2011 really doesn't paint a good picture of him, even if he did clean up his act in the end.
• Nightmare Fuel: Basically everything about his music, but especially his screams, which are just inhuman. Then there's the hateful, despairing, and disjointed tone of the music itself. It really isn't surprising when you learn about the dude's Creator Breakdown.
  • Again, his album covers. Tentacles of Whorror might be the worst one, because of how obscene it is.
  • All of Scar Sighted is nightmarish, but the closing track, "Aphonos", might be one of the most apocalyptic, crushing things he's ever recorded. Between the brutalizing riff and Jef's tortured screams, it legitimately sounds like a nightmare. The haunting ambient outro doesn't help matters.
  I wanna see it in your face. I wanna see it in your eye. I wanna see it in your tears.
  • The chaotic atmosphere of the first two albums really add a sense of paranoia and sense of The Nothing After Death in The Tenth Sub-Level and the hateful fury of Tentacles of Whorror. Special points with songs such as "The Idiot Sun" and "Vexed and Vomit Hexed".
    • Even non-metal stuff is unnerving, the hauntingly depressive tone of the Lurker of Chalice debut and A Silhouette in Splinters can give a creepy vibe.
• Tear Jerker: Oddly enough, in the VICE documentary One Man Metal, Jef opens up about his struggles when he was a teenager writing his first two albums, and then explaining his depression about the loss of his girlfriend Jesse.
  • When he talks about Lurker of Chalice and mentions that the project had a "muse", only to pause and simply say... "…she’s dead, so I don’t think Lurker will happen again…" before looking away in sadness. The doc even shows a scene where Jef's showing interviewer JR Robinson a sketch he did of Jesse, along with a newspaper clipping of her obituary. He then mentions to JR how Jesse used to leave him little drawings each time he'd leave to work, before uttering a small but quiet "I've saved them all", showing that he did save all her drawings.
    • It goes more into Tear Jerker territory when one looks at Jesse's little drawings and notices they're all the supplementary album art for Scar Sighted. Gives the album a much more saddening vibe.
    • Lurker of Chalice's music also qualifies, considering how much more depressive it is than Leviathan. The intro to "Piercing Where They Might" and "Specter as Valkerie Is" are particularly sad.
  • The title track of Scar Sighted definitely counts. The instrumental sounds almost like a funeral dirge, and the vocals are mainly just tortured, agonized screams.
  • The majority of Massive Conspiracy Against All Life feels this way, especially considering it was essentially a Grief Album about Whithead's deceased girlfriend, notably with the song "VI-XI-VI" being believed to be about her death (the Roman numerals being the date of her death) and being the only song off the record to not have its lyrics published.
• Values Dissonance: Tentacles of Whorror and True Traitor, True Whore can cause some to quirk eyebrows due to it's misogynistic lyrics. While Tentacles can be chalked up to shock value (as the title track and "The History of Rape" seemed to be the only songs that have those type of lyrics), True Traitor makes it clear it is all of that due to it's Reality Subtext.