YMMV / The Sisters Of Dorley

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: Hoo boy, where do we start?
  • Is the programme a perpetuation of horrific atrocities and abuse, or a grim-but-effective way to reduce toxic masculinity and violence?
  • Is the programme at all ethically justifiable? Given the crimes of some of the "boys," and the likelihood that none of them would ever have faced legal consequences for their actions, it could be argued that Dorley Hall is the more ethical and humane option—and, in fact, that's precisely the argument they make.
  • If it isn't, even taking into account the positive outcomes, how does this complicate the ethics of the existing carceral system and capital punishment?
  • Are women intrinsically less prone to doing evil than men, or—given the same level of power—are they equally likely to become monsters?
    • This one seems to be answered, given how monstrous some of the Cis women can be, like Grandmother or Karen.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Aunt Bea a visionary, a monster, a misguided survivor of horrific abuse, or a tired, middle-aged woman doing her best to protect those she loves and do some good in the world?
  • Are the Sisters of Dorley a collection of abuse victims revisiting their abuse on the next generation, or a found family whose shared trauma has made them all the closer?
• LGBT Fanbase: Unsurprisingly, a substantial portion of Dorley's fanbase identify somewhere within the rainbow.
• Moral Event Horizon: Declan trots merrily past this point without a care, right up until Stef vaults over a sofa and lays him out with one punch.
• Nightmare Fuel: One moment, you're a creep moving blithely through a life of cis male privilege. The next, you've been abducted, drugged, tased, psychologically deconstructed, and castrated. Welcome to Dorley Hall, indeed.
  • And Aunt Bea's Dorley Hall is the reformed version. Grandmother's was much, much worse.
  • In-universe: Whatever Craig did to get washed out, it was bad enough to make Lorna shudder.
• The Woobie: Honestly, half the characters in the book qualify as one flavor or another, at one point or another.
  • Iron Woobie: Valérie fits this to a T.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Aaron's backstory establishes him as this. Will's Character Development does likewise.
  • Woobie Family: The Sisters of Dorley.