Blade (character)/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Adaptation Displacement: Before it was made into a popular movie series, Blade was a somewhat obscure Marvel character that was a part of one canceled horror-superhero series after another. Since the movies, Marvel has attempted to bring him into the limelight many times, only to have his series cancelled due to a lack of readership. It seems that the guy just works better in the movies.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Novak's death in Blade II. "Strange. It hurts, it hurts no more."
  • Anticlimax: The resolution of the rivalry between Blade and Reinhardt. Somewhat mitigated by the fact that it is very cool... but considering the conflict between them had been building for the entire movie, while Blade had only a single scene previous with Nomak, it still feels like a bit of a letdown.
    • Though it is very much in tune with their previous interactions in the movie; Reinhardt smugly antagonizes Blade and Blade effortlessly retaliates and humiliates Reinhardt in return. Really, if Reinhardt (who got owned by Whistler a couple scenes back) put up anything of a real fight, it would have clashed with the rest of the movie.
  • Badass Decay: In Trinity, it's become surprisingly easy for humans to beat up vampires. Even when the vampires are much, much larger than Ryan Reynolds.
  • Complete Monster: Deacon Frost, Drake and Danica Talos.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • Ryan Reynolds is given copious amounts of screen time to deliver ad-libbed wisecracks despite being a sidekick. Fans are a bit divided as to whether this dragged the film down, helped redeem an otherwise mediocre film, or both.
    • Donnie Yen as Snowman in Blade II due to Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja.
    • Whistler spends his time angry and being angry, and we love him for it.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: The Reapers in Blade II look a lot like Mr. Face.
  • Mr. Fanservice: Deacon Frost.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Blade's morals and social skills leave quite bit to be desired. In his defense, his life has been utter crap from day one.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Deacon Frost. Everything about the guy (aside from his slight frame) is larger than life, from his dandyish demeanour and dry wit to the lavish parties he throws for his friends, as well as his colossal ego.
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • Dracula is quite capable of curbstomping Blade and is pretty much an unstoppable veteran warrior otherwise. He really didn't need to crucify the blind nerd girl Nightstalker.
    • Danica Talos in Trinity came off as your typical villain that's more amusing than threatening, and then she demonstrated a disturbing aptitude to do something without Dracula or Vampire!Triple H: she became the only person who could get Hannibal King to shut up by telling him how she planned to turn him again, starve him, and then stick Zoe in the same room with him and watch Hannibal feed on her. The look on his face is heartbreaking.
  • Narm Charm: Blade's Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner from the first film. It makes zero sense, but damn if it doesn't sound Badass.

Blade: "Some mothafuckas are always trying to iceskate uphill."

    • It makes perfect sense. It's something that can work for about a second, and then failure. Frost just can't do what is impossible.
  • Older Than They Think:
    • Every now and again you'd see a review or two (especially regarding the sequels) that Blade was influenced by The Matrix due to the Badass Longcoats, Sunglasses at Night, wire-fu and Bullet Time. Despite the fact all these things were very much present in the first Blade film (1998) which was released before The Matrix (1999).
    • The character was introduced in the Dracula comic books back in the 1970s; he didn't become popular until the 90s though.
  • The Scrappy: Trinity was made in mind to launch spin-off movies featuring Abigail Whistler and/or Hannibal King. However, audiences didn't take to them or the third movie in general, and the plans were scrapped.
  • Sequelitis: The first two films were received with about the same overall approval, though fans are divided as to which was their favorite. Blade: Trinity, however, was almost universally panned as suffering from Sequelitis.
  • Straw Man Has a Point: In the first film, Frost says humans are like cattle, so Blade shouldn't care about saving them. Thing is, with all the examples of Apathetic Citizens we see in the film, it's hard not to concede that he has a point in-universe.
  • Tear Jerker: Whistler's honorable suicide in the first film, subverted by the second, which retconned it.
  • Tempting Fate: In Blade Trinity, TripleH!Jarko let's off a "you're not so big" line when Clan Talos arrives to abduct a heavily restrained and sedated Blade from the Police Department.
  • Too Good to Last: Blade: The Series. While it wasn't mindblowingly great, it was still a decent TV show with what you'd expect to see from something bearing the name "Blade." Sadly Spike TV didn't see it that way from the ratings and pulled the plug. Leaving the series unresolved.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome:
    • When the first film was released the vampire's being "ashed" was amazing for its day. And even a decade on is still pretty cool. The effect noticeably improved with subsequent sequels.
    • When the Reapers maw is revealed for the first time in all it's horrific glory it looks amazing.
      • Even better, there's a Reaver autopsy later, with the maw faithfully reproduced physically, in horrifically gooey detail.
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