YMMV / The Lord of the Winds

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Does Kotura really become nicer with the youngest heroine or is it only temporary?
  • For that matter, how much of his villainy is him genuinely being a Manipulative Bastard towards humans and how much is his Blue-and-Orange Morality?
  • When the heroine asks Kotura to stop the blizzard because her people will die otherwise, is she meekly begging for mercy or is she giving him a subtle "The Reason You Suck" Speech? Her meaning can be interpreted as "You might want to pick a wife, but people are struggling to survive out there, have you thought of that?"
  • In the stop-motion adaptation, is Kotura really sick and in need of help or is he just performing a Secret Test of Character on the girls?
• Esoteric Happy Ending: So the youngest girl gets to marry the guy who earlier sent a snowstorm that nearly led to the death of her people just because he felt like it, and froze both her sisters (admittedly, Asshole Victims) to death. Er, great?
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • It's not stated directly in any version, but it's pretty clear Kotura's sisters are personifications either of the four winds or simply of the four cardinal directions.
  • The ending for the youngest girl isn't intended to be particularly happy. She makes a Heroic Sacrifice for the sake of her people, and she's just lucky that Kotura's not the worst of villains. There is the fact that the final lines aren’t about her marriage, they are about the blizzard stopping and happy people going outdoors.
• Fridge Horror: The old man quickly comes to the right conclusion that Kotura is angry and needs a wife. Could it mean that it's not the first time such a snowstorm happens for the same reason? Then, at worst, Kotura has The Bluebeard tendencies, at best, the girl is in for a Mayfly–December Romance.
• Heartwarming Moment: If you stick to the more benevolent character interpretations. The ending has an actual Love Confession (a rare thing in fairytales), where (an even rarer thing) not a word is said about the girl's beauty. Even more, Kotura doesn't start with telling her she has completed her tasks, but instead simply says he has grown fond of her and his family has as well. Only afterwards does he mention her housekeeping skills, and then he concludes by heartily praising her bravery. There are few traditional fairytale heroines who hear (or even are implied to hear) anything of that sort.
• Hollywood Homely: The elder sister in the stop-motion adaptation remains very pretty when she is transformed into a (supposedly) ugly old woman. The only noticeable changes are the color of her hair and the quality of her dress.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: It’s a fairy tale, of course it’s a lovely read for children… right? The possible unsettling interpretations listed above probably wouldn’t come to a kid’s mind, but seeing the character whose actions make him a Chaotic Neutral at best end up with the heroine (without any noticeable redemption arc and/or relationship development in the style of Beauty and the Beast or suchlike) would seem a very strange twist even for the younger readers.
  • Averted with the happily bowdlerized stop-motion adaptation. Most importantly, everything about the marriage got Adapted Out.