Hercules: The Legendary Journeys/YMMV

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• Alas, Poor Villain: When Strife is killed by Callisto in "Armageddon Now," Ares is visibly upset:

"He wasn't so bad. He-he tried real hard. He was just no good at his job." (to Callisto) "You didn't have to do this!"

• Anvilicious
• Complete Monster: Dahak. Just one example (of many) is what he tells Zarathustra:

"And if it's any consolation, when I killed your family, I didn't give them a chance to scream."

• • Hera. The way she casually murders Hercules' family and then laughs about it leaves no room for doubt.
  • The Sovereign. He initially comes across as a Large Ham. While he certainly is, he's also a surprisingly intelligent tyrant that would gladly kill for nothing more than sheer amusement. His goal in "Stranger In A Strange World" was to takeover the world and slaughter everyone but his selected followers.
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: After Iolaus' death, a distraught Hercules states that Iolaus was his hero.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: Even people who don't care for the show seem to agree that the title theme is this.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Iolaus for reasons stated in Ascended Extra on the main page. Autolycus and Salmoneus also became fan-favorites.
• Growing the Beard: The fifth season brought a more serialized (and at points, darker) approach to storytelling than previously, as well as giving the main cast members wider acting opportunities. The season also benefited from Kevin Sorbo having fully recovered from medical problems that prompted lessened roles the previous season. Both Sorbo and Hurst have spoken highly of Season 5, citing the energy that Kurtzman and Orci brought in as showrunners.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In "Les Contemptibles," Michael Hurst's French character suggests calling their La Résistance group "the Powerful Rangers." When Power Rangers production was moved down to New Zealand, a number of local Hercules/Xena actors obtained various roles, including Michael "Vexacus" Hurst himself.
  • In "Porkules," Autolycus argues with a talkative, intelligent parrot. Became kind of a staple of another series starring Campbell.
  • In "Two Men And A Baby," Discord places Iolaus and Nemesis in a trap to fall their deaths. It starts out as a Sadistic Choice for Hercules, but he manages to pull off a third option to save both his heroic sidekick and Love Interest. Sounds like another production that Sam Raimi would be involved with.
• Ho Yay: Herc and Iolaus aren't quite as explicit as Xena and Gabrielle (not that this is saying much), but have you read some of the Fan Fiction?
  • Hell, have you read the original myth?
• Large Ham: Being a fairly campy show, most of the characters fit the bill now and then, but Salmoneus runs on this trope.
• Moral Event Horizon: The murder of Hercules' family was this for Hera. Before, their antagonistic relationship was more like business as usual. Afterwards, it became personal.
  • As far as Hercules is concerned, Zeus arguably has two of these - 1) for not stopping what happened to Herc's family (he was having an affair at the time), and later 2) for not stopping Serena from being killed.
• Retroactive Recognition: Hercules' daughter Ilia grew up to be Ranger Operator Series Yellow.
• Small Name, Big Ego: In-universe example with Autolycus, who prides himself on being the King of Thieves. Course, some important people don't seem to know his reputation.

Autolycus: Ah, then you've heard of me. Hercules: Not until today.

• Special Effects Failure: Some of the earlier CGI and blue screen effects have not aged well. (To be fair, the budget wasn't exactly high.) Hilariously, this was referenced in "For Those of You Just Joining Us":

Ares: What about those cheesy blue screen effects? They look so fake.