YMMV / The Cousins' War Series

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • The White Queen portrays Elizabeth as a brave, independent and intelligent woman who - although she's capable of behaving ruthlessly to protect herself and her family and her refusal to give up on the crown and be 'ordinary' eventually becomes a little too obsessive - is a far better person than most of the power-hungry and amoral Decadent Court. Margaret in The Red Queen, on the other hand, dismisses her as a slut who seduced the king to gain power for her family and has no right to place her children on the throne. Isabel and Anne Neville, meanwhile, grow to hate and fear her in The Kingmaker's Daughter, since they believe she's a witch who's cursed them. To be fair, they have some pretty compelling evidence for her being so (although, in keeping with the Magical Realism of the series, it's left ambiguous).
  • In fact, this applies to just about every major character in the series, since all the books are obviously extremely biased towards their narrator's point of view. Men and women that naturally think of themselves as being in the right are seen from outside eyes and vice versa; people that are seen as conniving or treacherous will almost always have their motivations and beliefs explored in another book.
• Creator's Pet: Elizabeth Woodville. Philippa Gregory obviously tends to show that she's a brave heroine, but fans have other opinions...
• Designated Hero: Elizabeth Woodville as the protagonist. Despite the author's intention to portray her as a heroine, her actions certainly do not depict her a strong, brave, intelligent woman.
• Expy: The arc of Neville sisters is quite similar to the arc of Boleyn sisters in The Tudors series The Other Boleyn Girl.
• Imaginary Love Triangle: Really YMMV with Richard III, Anne Neville, and Elizabeth of York. Richard told Anne that it was all just a charade to keep York men on his side against Henry Tudor. Anne herself was convinced that Richard no longer cares for her and she was not needed, while Elizabeth of York believed that Richard loved her for real. Whether he did is made somewhat more ambiguous by the inclusion of Elizabeth Woodville's magic as a factor.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Margaret Beaufort in The Red Queen. She's portrayed as cold, calculating, self-absorbed, and treacherous, but if you consider her horrible childhood under the rule of an equally cold and cruel mother and how she was repeatedly raped by her much older husband at age twelve and had to go through childbirth at age thirteen, it's hardly a surprise that she turned out the way she did. Not to mention the fact that every single person in her life (save her second husband) bullied her for being passionate about praying and studying.
  • George, Duke of Clarence. He's definitely the Jerkass to end all jerkasses, but all his schemes go south. Plus, he wasn't wrong about his brother's marriage being 1) a world of trouble in general and later 2) invalid, making George the rightful heir. Plus, he slides into madness after Isabel's death and even Anne, who hates him, pities him. She and Richard both have reason to hate him, but they are horrified by the manner of his death and Edward's coldness about it.
• Misaimed Fandom: The novels are supposed to show strong side of women in the Wars of the Roses and that they are brave heroines. And yet, readers ended up criticizing the presentation of the three female protagonists. Elizabeth Woodville doesn't have much Character Development; Anne Neville became a cruel Lady Macbeth; and Margaret Beaufort is... fanatic and insane at best.
• Romantic Plot Tumor: The novels are supposed to be about women in War of Roses and their overlooked and forgotten roles and impact on history. However, most parts of the books are about romance.
• Take That!: When Montague refers to visiting Cromwell at home in "The King's Curse", and his mother disdainfully replies that she wouldn't eat there; it's kind of hard NOT to see the shot at Wolf Hall.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Gregory barely makes use of the legend that Anne Neville was forced to work in a kitchen either to hide from George or was forced by George to hide her from Richard. Instead, Anne and Richard briefly disguise themselves as servants to escape George's residence. Meanwhile, novels like The Sunne in Splendour and The Virgin Widow have Anne spending weeks in servitude, although in the former she's hiding herself while in the latter she's George's prisoner. In both cases, Richard rides to her rescue.
  • Missing siblings! The brothers had a fourth brother, Edmund, who barely gets a mention owing to the fact that he was murdered before the action begins. In real life, Edward IV used his brother's death to paint his enemies as cold-blooded villains. Plus, the brothers had sisters, one of which was married to a Lancaster and the other, Margaret of Burgundy, kept the Yorkist cause alive after Richard's death, making herself at thorn in Henry VII's side for the rest of her life.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Rape, abandonment by parents, being bullied or humiliated, being cheated on... and the list goes on and on. However, when all of these applied to almost every female character then audience/readers find it rather repetitive and overdramatic.

---