YMMV / Trixie Belden

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Dan The Stoic or simply The Quiet One? How heavily was he involved with drugs? How long was he in juvie? Is he the Teen Anova of Sleepyside because All Girls Want Bad Boys, or do other students fear him due to his criminal past? Why does he never seem to want to hang out with his friends or confide in them? How close is Regan to Dan, and does Mr. Maypenny see Dan as a surrogate son/grandson? Is the reason he doesn't hang out with the rest of the Bob-Whites because he's envious of their sheltered, affluent lifestyle and doesn't want to create conflict with them?
  • Did Dan suffer torture by switchblades at the hands of his former gang?
  • Regan is always described as "wonderful" by the Bob-Whites, but how great of a guy is he really? He sends his nephew and one living relative to live out in the woods with a stranger, initially acts ashamed to be associated with his nephew (who has spent time in a juvenile detention center), does not give the boy proper clothing he would need for his job (which involves winter weather and rough terrain), and after the nephew proves himself, rarely spends time with him, and then, when he encounters a problem himself, runs off to another city with only a note giving a very vague explanation of his actions. It's worth noting that Dan has various chances to confide in his uncle about his troubles in The Secret of the Unseen Treasure and The Mystery of the Uninvited Guest, but he takes none of them.
• Angst? What Angst?: Trixie and Honey never are deterred by the life-threatening situations they get into.
  • Dan was held captive by his former gang for two weeks, on the third floor of a hotel, in the middle of the summer, in room that did not have air-conditioning. The possibility of him being physically tortured with switchblades was hinted at, and the shaky circumstances preventing him from being tortured fell through, increasing its chances. He never expresses any emotion about this at all.
  • Jim rarely shows signs of a teenager who's lived with an abusive step-parent. He mentions suffering from nightmares in the first book, but it's never raised again.
  • Dan is remarkably well-adjusted, considering his Dark and Troubled Past.
• Base-Breaking Character: Hallie Belden is either the greatest or the worst character. There is no other option or middle ground.
• Designated Hero: While part of the series' appeal is that she is a realistic teenage girl, Trixie sometimes acts unbearably bratty, hypocritical, self-centered, smug, and excessively judgmental.
• Die for Our Ship: Dot Murray, a one-shot character from The Happy Valley Mystery, is often horribly demonized by the fandom, especially those at Jixemitri, a Trixie/Jim fan website. Dot has no dialogue at all, no seen interaction with Trixie, and even Trixie honestly admits that Dot is "swell." But Dot is crucified for the crime of being pretty, slender, and interested in Jim when he is single. Jixemitri fans sometimes create threads specifically to bash her.
  • Double Standard: As Jim's Romantic False Lead and as a teenage girl, Dot is continuously slutshamed, but Trixie's Romantic False Lead is subjected to nothing of the same kind of treatment, presumably because he is male.
    • Seen here is a thread where Dot is written to be sexually promiscuous so members can pretend to be book characters and take turns calling her names. Oh, and ableist-tainted bashing of people with eating disorders, implying they are shallow, vain, and selfish for daring to have body issues. What makes this slightly pathetic is that most Trixie Belden fans are of the older female variety, which means a bunch of middle-aged women are Slut-Shaming a fictional character without an established personality, just because she got in the way of their oh-so-precious OTP.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Dan, Regan, and Cap Belden are extraordinarily popular among fans.
• Fanon Discontinuity: The last five books of the series are almost universally disregarded by fans, for the lack of meaningful character interactions, blantant inconsistencies with the rest of the series, and overall poor quality.
• Only the Creator Does It Right: The Julie Campbell books (the first six) are generally regarded as much better than the rest of the series.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: At times, the Trixe/Jim vs. Trixie/Dan threads devolve into this.
• The Scrappy: Hallie Belden and Bobby Belden for some.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Dan, in The Black Jacket Mystery. The audience is supposed to have some sympathy for him, but in his interactions with Trixie, he honestly comes across as an underprivileged kid who is being by bullied by his spoiled, entitled classmate. See Unintentionally Unsympathetic.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: In Trixie and Dan's interactions in The Black Jacket Mystery, neither of them are portrayed as completely innocent. Trixie, however, is the main character, and it is obvious from the narration that the audience is supposed to side with her. But that's difficult to do considering these factors, especially during re-reads:
  • Trixie lives in a sheltered small town, with an intact, stable family, in a nice farmhouse with farm property. Her father is the bank manager, her mother is a homemaker. The family is said to be poor, but they never face any financial difficulties or shortage of food or clothing, and they can afford to give four teenagers five dollars a week each (this was established in 1951. With inflation, that's over forty dollars per teen each week). Her closest friends are exceedingly wealthy for their time. Trixie is thirteen.
    • It's not likely the Beldens were actually poor. The kids complained about not being able to just get things on demand, as all kids will, but the Beldens were probably very firmly middle class. Crabapple Farm had been in the family for generations, so they would have to pay taxes, but not a mortgage. The father had a solid and well-paying job. There's no mention of the kids having to wear hand-me-downs or going to thrift stores/second-hand stores for clothes. Nor do the Belden parents seem to worry about money for genuine emergencies (such as when Bobby was bitten by the copperhead.) It's indicated there's college funds for all four children (including Trixie, when the initial books were written in a time where girls weren't usually encouraged to go to college.) The Belden parents were comfortable, and had money for emergencies, and were saving for their kids' futures. They just couldn't buy horses and play for flights to Europe on a whim.
  • In contrast, Dan lived through the death of his father, and later on, the death of his mother, lived on the streets of New York City for a time, joined a street gang to survive, was arrested in a gang fight, and shipped off to live with his uncle, who he didn't know at all. The uncle, embarrassed to be associated with him, denied relationship to him, and shipped Dan off to live with a hermit-like gamekeeper who lived in the middle of the woods. Not only did this mean Dan was isolated from diverse human contact, but we later see that he was forced to walk long distances to reach the school bus stop (or get to anywhere) and was not equipped with the proper gear for rough terrain in winter, nor did he actually know the way. Why this arrangement was allowed is anyone's guess. Dan is somewhere between fourteen to sixteen when this is going on. Granted, Trixie only knows about where Dan is living, not why, until the book's ending.
  • The very moment Trixie sees Dan, she points and laughs with her wealthy friends, mocking his clothing. He notices this and takes offense, and doesn't make any effort to impress them when they are introduced, which irritates Trixie. However, not only is it understandable to be cold toward a person who was openly mocking you, but on re-reads, the audience realizes that Dan probably did not have much other clothing to wear. Culture differences guarantee his city clothing would be viewed differently in a small suburban town.
  • When Trixie and her wealthy friend Honey go horseback riding, they notice Dan wandering around the game preserve where he works, attempting to walk home from school, wearing clothing that isn't adequate for winter or the wilderness. Honey offers to help him, while Trixie stares at Dan judgmentally, but Dan sullenly refuses Honey's help, expressing reservation about associating with the daughter of his employers (again, understandable in his situation). Trixie is angered by Dan's unfriendliness, and insults him to Honey as though Dan isn't there. This incident begins bad blood between Trixie and Dan for the rest of the book and verbal battles, including her accusing him of theft and vandalism based solely on circumstantial evidence, which brings Dan's uncle to dislike him even more (though Trixie isn't aware of this). All of this is in spite of three people, Honey, another wealthy friend, and family friend whom Trixie believes is Dan's grandfather (he's not), asking Trixie to make more of an effort to be nicer to Dan, at which she only gives a single, luke-warm attempt.
  • Trixie's actions and opinions unintentionally isolate Dan from his uncle, his guardian, and the few people who live within five miles of him, which includes Trixie's close friends. Some of this is Dan's fault due to his surliness in regard to Trixie and her friends, but he wouldn't have acted that way had she not begun deriding him the moment she laid eyes on him. However, if he had had someone to confide in with his problems, most, if not all, of the damage that took place during the story could have been avoided, and the villain certainly would have been caught sooner.
    • Basically, looking at the book from Dan's perspective, a sheltered, spoiled, wealthy girl who everyone loves continually belittles and insults him, destroys his chances of turning over a new leaf, ruins his relationship with his uncle, and makes false accusations against him, and leads to a dangerous criminal being able to go undetected. It's a wonder why he bothered becoming friends with her, let alone saving her and her younger brother's life at the end of the book.