The Epic of Gilgamesh/YMMV

Your Mileage May Vary even on the oldest stories.


 * Fan Yay: Fans love the Ho Yay.
 * Historical Hero Upgrade: Possibly. There was a real King Gilgamesh that ruled Uruk, and this story may have started out as a propaganda piece for him.
 * Memetic Badass: The sole reason why the story survives today. We wouldn't have so many tablets if they weren't being made and put all over Mesopotamia just to tell everyone how Badass he was and how you can never hope to reach the level of sheer badassery he was at.
 * Memetic Mutation: A Japanese metal band named themselves after this story, which then resulted in one of their fans being immortalized on the internet.
 * Narm: "Enkidu you son of a fish" silliest line from a truly historic story ever!
 * Narm Charm: Who doesn't want to use that line on someone now?
 * Tear Jerker: The death of Enkidu.
 * Wangst: Same as above... and is cranked up when he realizes he lost the immortality plant.
 * What an Idiot: If you have a plant that will make you immortal, don't wait until after you've taken a bath to use it.
 * He was actually going to give it to an old man to see if it would turn him young again, so he was probably playing it safe since he didn't know if it would actually kill him instead.
 * So basically, not only was Gilgamesh not an idiot, he was actually incredibly Genre Savvy! Impressive, considering the age of the tale.
 * The real problem wasn't whether Gilgamesh was Genre Savvy enough, it was that he was Wrong Genre Savvy. Which might be understandable since he was the first to try to subvert many foolish actions, but because he was the first, he didn't realize option 2 could have just as many problem as option 1. For example, he knew it was bad luck to fall for Ishtar, but he didn't seem to realize just brushing her off and rebuking her was just as bad as accepting her advances.
 * Woolseyism: Since some portions of the story have been lost, some translations feature original material to fill the gaps which occasionally works quite well. Most notably, at least one changes Gilgamesh's motivation from wanting immortality for himself to wanting to bring Enkidu back to life.