The Six Wives of Henry VIII: Difference between revisions

* [[Boisterous Bruiser]] - Henry has elements of this in his personality. ("Ol' Bluff King Hal" was one of his nicknames.) Of course if you crossed Henry in any way, he could drop the jolly act and quickly [[Complete Monster|get mean]]...

* [[The Caligula]] - Henry became more and more like this as the years went by. As a Christian King and Head of the Church of England, he believed himself infallible and his actions infused with Divine authority. (Of course his frequent habit of offing those who displeased or disagreed with him would have qualified him for this trope even without his near-insane levels of egotism.)

* [[Chessmaster]] - In a court full of schemers, Cromwell stuck out as being the most ruthless and manipulative. It was his efforts that sent Anne Boleyn to the block. His Chessmastering eventually backfired when his scheme to create a Protestant Alliance in Europe failed because of Henry's dislike of Anne of Cleves.

* [[Corrupt Church]] -Bishop Gardiner and his faction who routinely tortured and burned anyone they deemed as "heretics". No doubt it's guys like this who inspired many evil [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]]-style anime and RPG religions...

* [[Gorgeous Period Dress]] ( An example of this in television. ''[[The Six Wives of Henry VIII]]'' was one of the first major British TV to be videotaped in color, and the costumes and settings take advantage of that fact.)

* [[Heroic BSOD]] -Catherine Parr has one of these after learning that her husband plans to send her to the Tower of London. It takes a talking down by her friend, Bishop Cranmer, to get her sane again.

* [[Historical Beauty Update]]: Averted with Henry, for the most part. Unlike that [[The Tudors|other show about Henry the VIII,]] this one didn't feel the need to keep its star looking like a hunky supermodel throughout the character's entire life. Keith Michell is just as compelling as the Older Henry covered with makeup and a fat suit as he was as the thin, handsome Younger Henry.

* [[Kick the Dog]] - Katherine Howard insulting the king's beloved jester and having him banned from court, just because she didn't like his looks. Considering he was one of the only members of the court who wasn't a self-serving jerkass this comes across as particularly mean.

* [[Morality Pet]]: Jane Seymour is this to Henry, to an extent. She tries to get him to go easier on the monasteries and the Catholics who are rebelling against him, but this largely fails, (although she does inspire him to [[Pet the Dog]] a few times - see example below.)

* [[Pet the Dog]] - After Jane Seymour's Death, Henry decides to honor her wish to support a convent, despite it going against his religious agenda. And he decides to announce his intentions of doing so in front of Jane's rival, the evil and scheming Cromwell, just to make a point about how much he loved her.

* [[Secret Test of Character]] - There's one for Henry himself during the trial being held to prove whether or not Catherine of Aragon actually ever slept with her first husband, Henry's late brother Arthur (and thus determine if there's religious grounds for annulling her marriage with Henry). Catherine bravely demands that Henry answer one simple question he should know: if she was a virgin on their wedding night. {{spoiler|Henry awkwardly stays silent, and Catherine acts as if she did get an answer from Henry.}} This exchange actually happened and is a nod toward a couple of observations Henry VIII's contemporaries made about him; basically, he really did have a pathological inability to lie.