The Doctrine of Labyrinths/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Felix: horribly-damaged Woobie who hurts people only as a defense mechanism and who only needs unconditional love, or Felix, the mildly-deranged, extremely-manipulative sadistic asshole who doesn't know how good he has it? Yes.
  • Complete Monster: Malkar, without any question.
    • Also, Lorenzo (Felix's pimp from when he was 11-14), Felix's Keeper (whose name goes unknown).
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: Mildmay in basically any fight scene he has. For a (mostly) off-screen example, Felix when he totally pwns the ever-loving hell out of the Automaton of Corybant, and when he uses the fantome's own power against it to pwn the machine at the heart of Summerdown. And, slightly more spread out over time: Mehitabel when she navigates the Curia. And anyone who has put up with Felix for over two years deserves honorable mention, Gideon.
    • And Felix burning Malkar into a pile of ashes.
  • Crowning Moment of Funny: "When it comes to scrubbing potatoes, I don't fuck around."
  • Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Whenever Felix comes out from behind his defense mechanisms and actually admits that he cares about Mildmay. The best example is the ending of Corambis.
  • Ho Yay: Felix and Mildmay. Especially since Felix is explicitly stated to have the hots for his brother and they have shared one kiss. With tongue.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Felix again. The utter trauma and horror he's been through in his life, as well as the genuine need for love and companionship he has that is masked by his defense mechanisms, makes him a Woobie. His personality makes him a Jerkass.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Mikkary. Oh, god, mikkary.
    • And a lot of Felix and Mildmay's dreams. {"I spent all night looking for someone who wasn't dead."} Many of the sex scenes. And basically anything involving Malkar. For example, when Felix was young, Malkar cast spells on him to make him deaf, mute, and blind for hours on end.
  • Stoic Woobie: Gee, guess who? Mildmay.
  • Wangst: Felix falls into this at times. Gee, Felix, you're beautiful, intelligent, charismatic, powerful, and rich, and everyone and their dog is basically falling over themselves to make you happy... and you still act like an asshole and mope over what a monster you are.
  • The Woobie: Mildmay. Oh, Dear God, Mildmay...
    • Felix, as well. The crap he's gone through almost justifies the crap he puts other people through.
    • Up until he murders Gideon and attempts to push it on Felix (like whoa), Isaac seems like this progressively throughout the third book.
    • And of course, Gideon, who falls in love with a madman (Felix, of course) who is more often than not terrified of him, gets separated from said Felix by the people who he is absolutely terrified of being captured by, is (of course) captured, gets his tongue cut out, is rescued, meets up with now sane Felix, lives with Felix for upwards of two years-- but it's Felix, so those two years are fraught with constant fighting and bickering-- can only sleep with Felix in a way he personally finds demeaning and squicky, leaves Felix over a lover's quarrel, and is killed by the man who was the source of said lover's quarrel. Slowly killed. Oh, and through all this, Felix is only able to admit to himself that he loves Gideon back after Gideon is dead. Oh, and it's implied that Gideon was basically ripped away from his family at a young age, sexually abused by older wizards and tried to kill himself, all before the books ever start. All of this is hugely understated and matter-of-factly revealed to the audience, and never dwelled on very long. Poor, poor Gideon.
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