YMMV / The Thundermans

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Max using his powers to give Cherry a C in archery in agreement to use her car if she passes her driving test when he could've given her an A: Ungrateful Bastard (even though Cherry doesn't mind) or Max being Genre Savvy enough to not arise any suspicion to how someone who has a reputation for being terrible at archery somehow managed to hit the bullseye.
• Crossover Ship: Max has been shipped with Taylor Hathaway, Henry Hart, Charlotte Page ever since the crossovers.
• Designated Hero:
  • For all of the doting that the family does on Phoebe, her track record for staying out of trouble isn't that much better than Max's. Out of all of the characters, Phoebe is second only to Max in showing a willingness to break rules and cut ethical corners to get what she wants.
  • In "Date Expectations," Allison calls out both of them, telling Max, "You and Phoebe make me sick. You're both selfish. You don't care what you do, or who you hurt, as long as you get what you want," and it is absolutely beautiful to behold.
  • In "The Amazing Rat Race," it is implied that Phoebe would never lie to Nora ... despite the fact that she did exactly that in the earlier episode, "Max's Minions."
  • The Third Season Finale takes this literally with the Hero League officially designating Max a hero.
• Designated Monkey: A lot of fans thought that Max's treatment of being the Butt-Monkey was too much. Many rants were made about it and the hashtag "Protectmax2k16" was spread across tumblr.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Considering that Max is an aspiring supervillain, he's this by default.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: The series ends with Max and Phoebe being named leaders of the T-Force after the original is dissolved due to corruption. They then are allowed to name anyone they want as successors. Rather than choose the ones who lost the contest (bar Galaxia who was dangerously narcissistic), they choose their family. This is ignoring the fact the Hank admitted earlier that he's no longer in his prime and their siblings proved all season they're nowhere near their prime yet, and it's understandable at their age. Barb is the only one who's warranted as she's Still Got It.
• Evil Is Cool: This trope is one of Max's motivations for being a supervillain, and he and bunch of the villains on the show do an incredible job at it.
• Fanon
  • The headcanon that Max was bullied during his childhood is almost a common belief in the fandom dedicated to him, especially on Tumblr.
  • Among fans it is also very popular to consider Max as bisexual. This headcanon comes from the storyline of the character who, according to the fandom, could be queer-coded: the fact that Max is marginalized and ignored by his family, the "It's just a phase" and also the behaviors and movements of the character, very often deviant from gender role, have influenced the vision of many viewers on Tumblr. In addition, some believe that the annoyance felt by the boy towards Link is nothing more than a crush not even understood by Max himself: who would have thought that Phoebe was "stealing" a possible partner and that everyone prefers her to him. To reinforce this theory was the inconsistency of his reason that should have explained why Max tortures Link with his insults and irritating jokes: he states that what bothers him so much is the fact that Link is a good guy, despite also being the son of a very powerful supervillain like Evilman (“the son of Evilman should be evil... and not buying delicious goods for goofy girls”): but this justification is contrary to the story of Max, who is an aspiring super villain in a family of superheroes. Max also shows great admiration for Oyster, and an entire episode is centered on his dissuading him from romantically dating Phoebe since he doesn't want a member of his band dating his sister.
  • Always concerning the same character, Max would be neurodiverse according to the fanodm: probably ADHD or dyslexic, although for the second, the boy seems to have no problem reading a manual in the episode "Thunder Van", in the second season. Despite this, Max also seems to be making grammatical mistakes, including regarding Phoebe's name (In the episode "Restaurant Crashers", in the first season).
• Friendly Fandoms: With Henry Danger fans, due to their similar premises, and the fact that the two shows had a crossover episode.
• Heartwarming Moments: For all his declared hatred towards the Thundermans except Max, Colosso sure has a soft spot for Chloe, celebrating tea parties and sharing ice cream with her.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Max Thunderman is a Card-Carrying Villain who despite his failures still makes an active effort to be such, and has the ability to destroy the world if he wanted to. The least favorite characters tends to be a mix among the other Thundermans for mistreating Max, resulting in the inferiority complex that led him to want to be a villain. It speaks volumes when taking away his family's powers, despite being nearly regarded as a Moral Event Horizon In-Universe, is listed as a CMOA.
• Just Here for Godzilla: To many people (especially pro wrestling fans) the only reason to watch "Beat the Parents" was for Chris Jericho.
• Les Yay: Phoebe and Cherry, interestingly the biggest fan is Kira Kosarin herself.
• Moe: In "Phoebe's A Clone Now," after taking a bump on the head, the cloned Phoebe turns dumb, and also displays a sweet, childlike personality that is quite endearing. In the final scene, Phoebe's clone is adorably fawning over the cuteness of a rabbit (which is Dr. Colosso), which she thinks is a donkey, which she thinks makes sounds like a cow.
• Squick: In-Universe example: Phoebe and Max really do not like hearing about, let alone seeing, their parents kissing.
• Retroactive Recognition: Hacksaw from the episode Stealing Home is Prudence.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!:
  • Many people find the show to be the poor man's Wizards of Waverly Place, with superheroes instead of wizards...and even then is also seen as a copy of Lab Rats. The theme song, "What You See is Not What You Get", is eerily similar to "Everything Is Not What It Seems".
  • Dr. Colosso is a poor man's Salem.
  • Many view it as a poor man's The Haunted Hathaways which is also viewed as a poor man's Wizards of Waverly Place, which in turn certainly doesn't help either show.
  • Not to mention the family dynamic being a clear rip-off of The Incredibles.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Thundersense could have gotten the Thundermans out of a lot of tough times, and helped them predict villains' actions and counter them, but thanks to Forgot About His Powers, the power was never used in the series ever when they needed it, not even in the specials.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic:
  • The audience is expected to laugh and cheer when Max winds up the Butt-Monkey, especially since he, admittedly, brings most of it on himself. However, in some episodes, like "You've Got Fail," "Doubles Trouble," and "Cape Fear”, Max would make such a fool of himself that viewers were more apt to feel embarrassed for him than anything else. His reason for being a villain, feeling overshadowed by Phoebe, is far more sympathetic than the writers intended as the family makes it no secret that they prefer Phoebe, and many viewers have felt overshadowed by a more successful sibling.
  • Max more or less counts as this overall. While he can be a jerk, the fact he more or less gets ignored by his entire family in favor of Phoebe (even on occasions when he does something genuinely impressive), fails more often then not, and always comes through for his friends and family when they need him, means that despite his claims of being a villain, more often than not the audience's sympathy lies with him.
• The Woobie: Max. Even if he is a bit of a jerk, the fact that almost nothing goes his way no matter what more than justifies this. On top of being the Butt-Monkey of the show, the fact that his family ignores him, makes fun of him, and is generally just mean to him, makes Max count as this overall. Not to mention his low-self esteem and both the hero and villain leagues being hostile towards him.

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