YMMV / The Red Queen's War

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Is Jalan actually as cowardly as he appears or does he have a (small) hero within him? There's actually some question to this, unlike similarly cowardly heroes like Ciaphas Cain.
  • Snorri is shown to be an insightful person. Therefore, is he truly blind to Jalan's cowardly nature, since the latter often ends up becoming an Accidental Hero? Or did he eventually see through his companion? And if he did, why does he never address it? Is it because he wants to troll Jalan? Or did he see the good in him and is he a Trickster Mentor who wants to help him become a better person?
• Complete Monster: Edris Dean is a servant of The Lady Blue and masterminds a series of cruel attacks to create the "Unborn", murdering pregnant women to damn the souls of their unborn children to hell, where they will become powerful undead beings to be unleashed on the world, the fate that befalls the wife and unborn baby of the Viking hero Snorri. It is also revealed that when the hero Jalan was young, Edris Dean nearly killed him and murdered his pregnant mother to turn his unborn sister into the strongest Unborn ever seen. Torturing and murdering a friend of Jalan's to obtain the Liar's Key that can help reshape the world, Edris later enslaves the soul of Jalan's sister to get her to kill her brother to help tear a hole through reality which could kill countless people in the cities. Ostensibly on board with the Lady Blue's plan to usher in the apocalypse to become gods, Edris Dean murders the men she assigned to him to turn them into undead slaves, trying to kill Jalan to hijack the plan and become the new god of all creation.
• Jerkass Woobie: Jalan is a Smug Snake and a Dirty Coward, but it's hard to not feel at least a little bad for him in the third book when he loses in the span of a few days his father, then his two brothers.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The Reveal at the end of the first book. Snorri's family was Dead All Along and all he can do for them is Mercy Kill his unborn child who has been turned into an undead monstrosity.
  • In the third book, Jalan loses in the span of a few days his father, just when they were starting to mend the bond in their relationship, then his brother Darin, then his brother Martus. He's genuinely heartbroken by this.
  • The moment when Jalan finally meets his sister, after she's freed from the curse turning her into an Unborn, only to lose her almost immediately after as she passes on. All he can do is plead her to stay with him a little longer.
  • At the end of the third book, Garyus sacrifices his life to help his sisters defeat the Lady Blue. His funerals also count, but it's mixed with heartwarming moments as Jalan, the Red Queen and the Silent Sister show how much they loved him during the scene.