Asterix/YMMV: Difference between revisions

* [[Americans Hate Tingle]]: ''Asterix in Corsica'' was ridiculously successful upon its release in France, and for a while it was the best-selling title in the entire history of the series (a title that has since been taken by ''Asterix at the Olympic Games'' worldwide, although ''Asterix in Corsica'' is still the most successful in the French language). In other countries, it wasn't exactly ''hated'' per se, but it was definitely one of the less well-received comics, since most non-French readers don't know enough about Corsica to fully understand the jokes.

** Also the reason why ''Asterix and the Banquet'' was the last to be translated into English, as the publishers felt that Non-francophones would not be able to get all the French regional jokes.

** So Cacofonix was holding out on the village all this time; [[Crowning Music of Awesome|he CAN sing decently]]!

** A straight example in the animated ''Asterix and Cleopatra''. "When you're eating well, you're well..."

** The singing bath scene in the animated version of Cleopatra serves no real purpose (except maybe animated [[Fan Service]]).

** Quite a few scenes in Twelve Tasks (skull tennis, the subway, the circus scene...)

** Obelix, while Asterix' partner, is generally more popular. His lack of mental faculty, combined with his numerous catchphrase, childish behaviors, proneness to misunderstanding things make him a far more memorable character than the relatively bland Asterix. The authors picked up on it quickly, so much that except for the two very first books, Obelix almost always share the spotlight equally with Asterix.

* [[Jumping the Shark]]: ''Asterix and the Falling Sky'' is considered as the worst Asterix album by many, for good reasons. This album has aliens from outer space, a different and far less detailed drawing style, and on top of that the album is nothing but a gigantic [[Take That]] to mangas in general (Uderzo himself admitted this). Arguably, since [[Author Existence Failure|René Goscinny's death]], many critics were made on the quality of the new albums, but this one definitly cements the trope.

* [[Magnificent Bastard]]: Caesar

** Astérix and Getafix often lapse into this territory, to.

* [[Nightmare Fuel]]: The storm scene in ''Asterix Versus Caesar'' (the animated movie). Having Asterix nearly drowning in a dungeon, Dogmatix being flushed through the sewers, and Obelix desperately searching for both of them makes this easily the darkest moment in all history of ''Asterix''.

** The soothsayer in ''Asterix and the Big Fight'' terrified this troper when she was a child. It's the way he cuts up a fish to tell fate from it... and then uses it as a hand puppet. It should be funny. It's not.

*** Not to mention the eleventh task, where they have to sleep on a haunted plain. Like the Cave of the Beast it's pretty disturbing until the moment Asterix starts to argue with the centurion ghost. At which point it turns into a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]].

*** In one scene, Caesar pulls a genuinely creepy [[Slasher Smile]], after pondering whether Asterix and Obelix will survive the next task. This is immediately followed by a shot of the senators trying to hide under the table, being just as creeped out as the viewers, brilliantly lampshading this, but not quite managing to serve as [[Nightmare Retardant]].

* [[Villain Decay]]: Done to the [[Praetorian Guard]] in the course of ''Asterix and the Laurel Wreath''. At first the plan to waltz into Caesar's Palace to get said laurel wreath is dismissed by Asterix because even with the potion they wouldn't stand a chance against them. Later on, on the other hand...

* [[Weird Al Effect]]: The pirates are a parody of another French-Belgian comic book series, ''[[Barbe Rouge]]'', with the same characters reused. This series has become quite obscure nowadays, even in France and Belgium, and owes recognition mainly due to ''Asterix''.

** Due to the extreme levels of wordplay in the French originals, Woolseyism is essentially the only option. The English translators has said that because they could not translate the puns, they compromised by making sure that every page has the same number of jokes as the French original.

** It wasn't just the English translation. Nearly all of the translation were extremely well done. See the Italian example above.

*** And let it be known that the Brazilian Portuguese version is also excellent!

*** And so is the Swedish one, and... [[Overly Long Gag|let's just save some time and say this goes for pretty much all versions, okay?]]

*** Later, a new (and real) German translation was started, with the same high quality of other translations.