Medea/YMMV


 * Alternate Character Interpretation - People have been arguing over whether Medea was justified or not for over two thousand years, and it doesn't look like it's gonna end any time soon.
 * Asshole Victim - Jason dumps the woman who gave up everything for him, so she kills his new wife, father-in-law, and children.
 * Jerkass Woobie - Medea, past her Woobie Destroyer of Worlds phase.
 * Values Dissonance - Medea would be a Villain Protagonist to us, if an extremely sympathetic one, but to Euripides and the chorus, she's just tragic. In both cases her acts (particularly the murder of her children, born of a foreigner or not) would have been unconscionable. This also applies to Jason.
 * Vindicated By History - The play came in last in the Dionysia festival when it premiered.
 * What an Idiot - Jason abandoned the woman who had sacrificed everything she had, AND put a Mama Bear's children in jeopardy. Not to mention the woman he did all this too was the granddaughter of a freakin' sun god! And had a gaze that could literally kill! And his patron goddess is Hera. You know, she of the doling out horrible punishments to the other women, which is exactly what Medea does to his new bride.
 * Jason's patron goddess is Hera. Hera is both Queen of the Gods, and her personal duty as a goddess is to rule over the concept of stable marriage. It does not occur to Jason that dumping his devoted wife will offend his patron goddess, a goddess known to do terrible things to those she despises.
 * When Medea murdered her brother and cut him up into little chunks to save Jason, Jason was so awed by her devotion to him that he swore by the Twelve Gods of Olympus that he would stay with her forever. It does not occur to Jason that dumping his devoted wife is thusly a direct insult to the heads of the pantheon, who would find a way to arrange a punishment.
 * When Medea was influenced to fall in love with Jason, she not only abandoned her family but killed some of them to protect Jason from pursuit, and uses trickery and violence to solve nearly every problem he has. It does not occur to Jason that dumping his devoted wife will redirect her violent tendancies onto himself.