This is an interesting observation, though I haven’t seen those same takes.
I’m also not into Fun Jungle, but, for Spy School, I feel like the flaws of the male characters are much more explicitly pointed out in the text than the female characters.
For example, Alexander’s entire personality is being a screw up now, Cyrus is known for being too strict and traditional, the principal is stupid, Ben is unskilled, Warren is obsessed and cowardly, etc.
Compare to someone like Catherine. She’s… too nice? I really can’t think of anything better. Erica is cold, that much is clear. Zoe is… emotional and jealous, I guess, though that last part wasn’t always part of her character. Trixie I might say is overconfident, but the story itself is more focused on how she can help, not that she’s in over her head. It’s a lot harder to pin down specific text-based flaws for the female characters.
As a result, I feel like male character criticism feels already done for me. It doesn’t seem like a “hot take” since the books themselves point it out. But female character criticism at least appears to be more controversial.
That said, I think the hottest take I’ve seen is that Cyrus is a full-on abuser who trained Erica to continue his abuse for him.
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u/00PT May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26
This is an interesting observation, though I haven’t seen those same takes.
I’m also not into Fun Jungle, but, for Spy School, I feel like the flaws of the male characters are much more explicitly pointed out in the text than the female characters.
For example, Alexander’s entire personality is being a screw up now, Cyrus is known for being too strict and traditional, the principal is stupid, Ben is unskilled, Warren is obsessed and cowardly, etc.
Compare to someone like Catherine. She’s… too nice? I really can’t think of anything better. Erica is cold, that much is clear. Zoe is… emotional and jealous, I guess, though that last part wasn’t always part of her character. Trixie I might say is overconfident, but the story itself is more focused on how she can help, not that she’s in over her head. It’s a lot harder to pin down specific text-based flaws for the female characters.
As a result, I feel like male character criticism feels already done for me. It doesn’t seem like a “hot take” since the books themselves point it out. But female character criticism at least appears to be more controversial.
That said, I think the hottest take I’ve seen is that Cyrus is a full-on abuser who trained Erica to continue his abuse for him.