True Blood/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Adaptation Displacement: Many of the characters get this view. Eric Northman, for example, is much more noble in the books and possessed of a strong personal code of honor. Yet, even fans of the books have started to view him as something of The Stoic and The Chessmaster.
    • Likewise, the Sookie Stackhouse of the books is considerably more harder edged.
    • Sookie is a bit of a Hidden Badass, as shown when she beat the shit out of Debbie, a werewolf and laughed maniacally as she poured Talbot's remains down a sink.
    • Pam is basically Sookie's best friend in the books.
  • Alas, Poor Scrappy: He may have been a pathological asshole, but Tommy didn't deserve to die like that. The fact that he put himself in harm's way for his brother's sake along with a death wish for murdering his parents makes it somewhat heartbreaking. It's no real surprise that Sam swears revenge.
    • And now with Tara, the biggest Base Breaker on the show getting a HOW COULD THEY?! response after the finale of season 4.
  • Alas, Poor Villain:Maryann's excitement for her wedding and her tears of joy when she thought she'd finally be wed to her god had some viewers feeling extremely sympathetic for her when Sam finally ripped out her heart.
    • Also, the expression on Daphne's face as she is murdered is quite heartbreaking.
    • Russell's heartbroken reaction to Talbot's death is quite moving. Though also quite heavy on the Squick.
    • The tears in Marnie's eyes as she screams "I am not a punching bag!" and the scene where she passes on to the afterlife.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: as Sookie and Eric make out passionately.
    • And as Sookie dumps Bill in season 3 finale... although who knows how long it will last.
  • Anvilicious:
    • Vampires in this series are a metaphor for everything from gays to people infected with HIV, but this often leads to a Broken Aesop since many vampires are dangerous to the people around them, and even the nicer ones aren't above vigilantism.
    • The constant subtext is hilarious! Just listen to Bill's speech as he breaks up with Lorena in 1935. Now listen again and imagine a gay man coming out of the closet to his wife and wanting a divorce. Now realize that only a tiny amount of his speech would need to be changed to fit that much different context.
    • Sookie herself will later tell Bill that she always hated discrimination against vampires because she felt it was similar to the way humans treated her—but she goes on to say that vampires are dangerous, and they're not exactly a noble oppressed minority, which makes her doubt her previous beliefs.
    • All this is probably just (or became) a joke. Even Tara points out how ridiculous it is to compare vampires to anything since everybody else doesn't need to drink the blood of the living (well, they used to, anyway).
  • Artistic License Sex Ed: Jessica and Hoyt lament the fact that she'll "be a virgin forever" since she was a virgin when turned and her hymen keeps growing back, even though that doesn't change the fact that she has still had sex since then.
    • Its not artistic licence per se, there's nothing scientifically inaccurate about her eternal hymen, just different viewpoints on what you consider a virgin to be. After all, it'll always hurt like the first time...
  • Non Sequitur Scene: Eric and Sookie having sex in a snowy dreamland.
  • Broken Base: A good chunk of fans are rooting for Antonia due to the vampires' asshattery.
  • Canon Sue: Sookie comes dangerously close to being this at times. It's less so in the books, though, as her only Sue-like trait was that half of the male supernatural characters were attracted to her or trying to marry her unless they were gay.
  • Cargo Ship: After Talbot's death, Russell takes to carrying his remains around in a cut crystal urn and talking to them. He caresses it constantly...
  • The Chew Toy: Poor Pam in season 4. Let's see, there's the rotting spell, losing her maker to amnesia, the painful and squicky waxjob, the unpleasant "Vampire Botox" she has to inject in a half-dozen places every night for all eternity, and having to bind herself in silver just like every other vampire in Louisiana to avoid being forced by the witches to walk into the sun, all piled on the fact that she didn't want to sacrifice Eric for Sookie and tried to blow through the witch wall, which caused Eric to basically disown her. Girl just can't catch a break.
  • Complete Monster:
    • Maryann Maryann Maryann.
    • Gabe, the Soldiers of the Sun Sergeant.
    • Season 1's killer.
    • Franklin.
    • Calvin and Felton Norris.
    • Eric. He tortures and murders people, many of whom are innocent, on a regular basis and feels nothing even approaching remorse for his crimes.
  • Crazy Awesome: Franklin. The vampire king of Mississippi sums it up best:

Russell Edgington:Franklin, you're a huge freak. But I like your work.

    • Russel
  • Crowning Moment of Funny: Eric's ringtone.
  • Designated Hero: The vampires. All of them. Bill murdered many people with Lorena and has deliberately murdered people even in the pesent day. Just about every vampire we've met we know for a fact have killed at least one human, and many of these vamps we know have killed more than that. Even "saintly" Godric murdered Eric's 2 best friends before turning Eric. And thanks to Jessica killing a man soon after she became a vampire, there's now no vampire we can definitely state has never killed a human. The Authority might be seen as a benevolent influence...except as their Arbiter they appointed a nasty "humans-are-inferior-to-vampires" bigot who regarded the fact Bill killed a vampire to save the life of a human as making Bill's crime of killing the vampire worse, not better, and as punishment had a terrified teenaged girl (Jessica) forcibly turned into a vampire by Bill. And we're supposed to be rooting for the vampires and their integration with humans why, exactly?
  • Designated Villain: Steve Newlin and Marnie Stonebrook. They lose sympathy points for being genocidal maniacs, but on the other hand, they and their respective followers were simply humans trying to fight back.
  • Designated Protagonist Syndrome: To the point where many people would feel the show would be better off without their star. Yikes.
    • Of course those people may likely want to keep Eric for themselves.
  • Die for Our Ship: Eric/Sookie shippers bashing Bill non-stop.
    • and vice versa. So very much vice versa.
    • Jessica/Hoyt fans towards Tommy.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Franklin, the sexually psychotic vampire who shows his love by tying women to beds and raping them before tearing them apart when they don't love him for it. In spite of all that, some fans find him sexy.
    • Essentially all of the vampires receive this sort of treatment from their fans—none of them are decent people, and all of them have spent decades (or centuries) torturing, murdering, and raping innocents. Arguably part of the appeal of True Blood is that they're all pretty bad, and fans learn to accept that. But there are those who don't, and downplay all negative or evil aspects of their favorite characters.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: From the episode 39 commentary, Jason getting gangraped by the women of Hotshot is supposed to be comeuppance for him objectifying women. Because, you know, you totally deserve THAT for being a horndog.
  • Dropped A Bridge On Her: Arguably, Queen Sophie Anne. The resolution of the season 3 cliffhanger with her and Bill is rather rushed and almost out of nowhere.
  • Ear Worm: Several, from the Theme Tune "Bad Things" by Jace Everett to Snoop Dogg's tribute, "Oh, Sookie".
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Lafayette was a minor character in the books, however, his popularity lead to him not being killed off.
    • Eric, to an extent. He did come with a build-in fanbase from the books, but the TV version managed to steadily gain supporters despite appearing for only a few minutes per episode in most of Season 1 and 2.
    • Franklin. Despite - or perhaps because of - being the definition of Axe Crazy.
    • Jessica, a very popular character who doesn't exist in the books. She even has an occasionally hilarious videoblog on HBO site.
    • Pam
    • Russell
    • Godric
    • Magnus
  • Evil Is Sexy: Most of the vampires.
    • Maryann also qualifies, considering her orgy powers.
    • Rene is Mr. Fanservice and a serial killer at the same time.
    • Subverted with Franklin Mott. He's a dark, suave, mysterious vampire with an amazing accent and the kind of rough-hewn looks that a lot of people go for, and he comes to Tara's rescue when she picks a fight she can't finish. All of which goes right out the window when you find out how completely batshit insane he is!
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Despite the fact that they barely even get to speak between their affair in the first season and their hookup at the end of the third, the pairing of Sam and Tara generates much more squee than either does with their other Love Interests.
    • Alexander with Sookie.
  • Fan Dumb: Those who endlessly whine that the show isn't faithful enough to the books, even though it's been clear since the second season that the show would follow its own direction.
  • Holy Shit Quotient:
    • Holy shit, did Bill just twist Lorena's head around 180 degrees and screw the crap out of her, which she absolutely loved?
    • Holy shit, did Russell just rip out that dude's spine? On national TV?
    • Holy shit, did that vampire just explode in a mass of stringy gore after being staked?
    • Holy shit, did Marnie just wipe Eric's memory?
  • Ho Yay: Lafayette doesn't hesitate to flirt with other male characters. Recently, he's fed from Eric, and Eric stroked his shoulder and winked at him after releasing him from his dungeon. Their actors have said these signs of sexual tension were intentional.
    • There has been speculation about Eric's relationship with Godric even before we learned that Godric is his Maker. Unfortunately, Alan Ball has Jossed any romantic subtext between Eric and Godric. (Although, watching their scenes, one wonders if he neglected to tell the actors, and directors, and possibly, the other writers).
    • When asked about a possible sexual relationship with Lafayette, however, Ball ambiguously stated that Eric is intrigued by him and might have some plans for him in the future. Indeed, there is sexual tension, as Lafayette has admitted to having some very kinky dreams about Eric since ingesting his blood.
    • The Season 3 opener has Sam getting into the act as well. See Erotic Dream above.
    • Eric is now flirting with both Russell Edgington and Talbot.
    • Forget flirting, Eric fucked Talbot in episode 32. Too bad he staked him immediately afterward.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Eric plays Sookie for a chump like a champ.
    • In season 3, Russell Edgington. Holy shit, Russell Edgington.
    • And then Bill, who buries Eric in concrete, and, pretending to be Eric, sends an assassin to kill Pam.
  • Karma Houdini: Marnie. All that death for pitiful, selfish reasons and she and she gets to move on to the afterlife?
    • Bill, Eric and Pam arguably count as well. They never got any comeuppance for attacking and terrorizing Marnie back before she had any villainous intentions—even the curses that Eric and Pam received were removed.
  • Kick the Dog: When Hoyt breaks up with Jessica, he scathingly throws in her face all the things she'll never experience as a vampire, like having children or sex without a hymen.
    • This may be Kick the Son of a Bitch for some, she did cheat on him after all. And later when she did the right thing and admitted it to him, she crossed another line when she responded to his rather justified outrage and inclination to leave her by glamouring him into forgetting everything she just told him and thinking everything was perfect.
  • Les Yay: Back in season 1, Pam helps Sookie clean up after she is nearly killed by Longshadow, she lingers while extracting a piece from Sookie's cleavage. She then smiles and says "I'm beginning to understand the fuss everybody's making over you." Cue the awkward pause.
    • When Daphne told Maryann how much she'd missed her.
    • Queen Sophie-Anne drinking from Hadley's thigh while receiving visitors.
    • After Sookie walks in distraught in a lavender dress:

Pam: How did you know that lavender was my favorite color?
Sookie: I'm in no mood for lesbian weirdness tonight, Pam!

  • Like You Would Really Do It: Pretty much every time a main non villain character is put in a deadly situation. So far Tommy is the only good (though how good he really was is arguable) main character to die thus far and he was a universally hated scrappy and not an original castmember.
    • Somewhat averted with the death of Jesus in season 4.
  • Magnificent Bastard Bill in the Season 3 finale, turns on Eric, Pam and Sophie-Anne.
    • Erik
    • Russell
    • Nan. If her flashback with Bill from the 1980's is any indication, it's clear that she's planning something.
  • Memetic Mutation: "I wanna do bad things with [favorite actor on the show]."
    • PIIIIIG!
  • Misaimed Fandom: Franklin kidnaps Tara, rapes her, abuses her, and threatens to tear her to pieces if she tries to leave. And people love and adore this character? And think Tara is crazy for hating him? Not to mention all the unfortunate racial implications in that he's a white man raping and abusing an African-American woman on a plantation in the South.
    • A woman who's NAMED AFTER a plantation, as she points out in the pilot!
  • Moral Event Horizon: Tara and the Witch Cult leap across it, following a evil spirit who possessed their leader. Their goal? Wipe out all the Vampires by getting them to walk outside during the day. Even Vampires who do NOTHING to humans.
    • Pam tried to blow up everybody in the Moongoddess Emporium—including Sookie—in order to take Marnie out. Even Eric hates her afterwards.
  • Motive Decay: Marnie starts with the honorable desire to protect herself and her coven from the vampires, then moves into the more villainous scheme of vampire genocide. Then when all that fails, her tune becomes "Woe is me, I was a doormat my entire life and now I'm a ghost with teh kewl powerz!"
  • Narm: While Lafayette's PTSD is treated seriously in contrast to the dark comic relief he normally provides, there's one scene where Lettie Mae (Tara's mom) has him at gunpoint and he has a flashback about Eric, and imagines Eric holding the rifle...while wearing her dress.
  • Nightmare Fuel:
    • Vampires collapsing into pools of gore after getting staked.
    • Bill and Lorena's "sex scene," in which Bill twists Lorena's head around backwards.
    • The dead fox being eaten by maggots in the opening credits.
    • The doll in Hoyt and Jessica's house.
    • Russel's speech after he kills a news anchor and takes over the broadcast.
    • The Reveal that the seemingly sweet and innocent Marnie is the one corrupting and controlling Antonia, not the other way around.
    • After Marnie has seemingly been defeated, Lafayette opens his eyes to see her ghost hovering over him. She then possesses him.
    • Marnie threatening to maim Lafayette's body, starting with his eye, and boasting that she won't feel it, but Lafayette will.
    • The return of Rene and the hint that Russell has escaped.
  • OT3: Sookie/Eric/Bill
  • Rape and Switch: Tara's Suddenly Sexuality in the fourth season indirectly implies that she switched teams after getting raped.
    • There's a few implications that it may be Single-Target Sexuality; it's not that Tara was raped and now loves women instead, it was that Tara threw away everything in her life in Bon Tempes and started a new life elsewhere, rather unexpectedly ending up in bed with another woman in the process because she happens to be everything "Toni" needs in her life at that moment.
      • Actually, its more implied that Tara just never tried women before, particularly where Sookie asks her why she never told her about liking girls before and she replies that she "didn't know".
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Jessica, though still sometimes annoying, has gotten much more sympathetic since she visited her family. Not to mention her developing relationship with Hoyt is seven different kinds of cute. Others liked her better when she had more bite.
    • The general response to season 4 is that Bill's much more interesting, fun and cool without Sookie weighing him down.
  • Rooting for the Empire: The Fellowship of the Sun may have been religious fanatics and terrorists. But at the same time, a lot of their claims about vampires are true.
  • The Scrappy: Lorena! She's back in Season 3, and is just as annoying as ever. But now she won't be a problem, having been staked by Sookie as of Episode 7.
    • Tara, to some.
    • Jessica started out pretty unpopular, but most agree she's gotten better.
    • Sookie has become grating to many viewers as well.
    • Tommy is definitely making headway into becoming this and has been since his first appearance.
    • With what Crystal did to Jason in season 4, she has officially used up all her sympathy cards.
  • Seasonal Rot: Season 3 for a lot of people. Less-than-stellar main plot, boring subplots and an underwhelming finale are to blame.
    • And Season 4 is rotting at about the same rate as Pam's poor sweet face.
  • Special Effect Failure: Sookie's new glow power and Maryann's vibrations.
    • Also, Miss Jeanette's corpse. It looks like a mutilated plastic mannequin. Daphne's corpse was a lot more realistic, fortunately.
    • More a case of Photoshop Failure, but the frequently glimpsed photo of young Sookie and Tara with Grandma Stackhouse is a hilariously bad attempt at making Lois Smith look younger. The final result is more along the lines of a horribly grimacing plastic monster.
    • Godric's death
    • The floating chandelier at the end of season 3. What was the point of that, I wonder?
    • The werepanthers' cat forms are clearly animated.
  • Squick: The show starts out with decaying animals during the theme song.
    • Maryann having sex with the seventeen-year-old Sam in a flashback.
    • Sookie's physical reactions to being clawed by the maenad.
    • And the orgy Maryann causes at Tara's birthday party. People were literally writhing on the ground eating soil while making out.
      • This show has a thing for squicky sex. In once scene, Bill crawled naked out of the ground, caked in dirt, and immediately got it on with Sookie. Infections much?
        • Well, if it's true that ALL bodily fluids of vampires are blood, then Bill's "release" would cure any infection she got....
      • And the flashback of Bill and Lorena brutally murdering a couple in Chicago 1926 and having sex covered in the dying woman's blood.
      • And the scene in season 4 where Crystal rapes Jason while he's tied up, unwittingly suped up on Viagra, covered in festering werepanther bite wounds, aaaaand suffering a fever while the other girls of Hotshot look on, waiting their turn.
    • Maryann feeding Tara and Eggs her Heart of Daphne Hunter's Souffle. Hell, the whole scene of her preparing it was squicky.
    • Longshadow getting staked in Season 1, complete with shots of Sookie completely covered in his blood.
    • Bill and Lorena's twisted sex scene in the third episode of season three.
    • Tara tearing a chunk out of Franklin's neck with her teeth. Yeesh.
    • The fact that, when killed, vampires don't just turn to dust, rather they turn to gory mush, after projectile vomiting fountains of blood. This means that anyone who's in the immediate vicinity usually ends up drenched in the remains.
      • Also, rather than be instantly annihilated or set on fire by the sun, vampires instead slowly sizzle, gradually withering down to something that looks like a used-up charcoal briquette. This is a lot grosser than it probably sounds, especially when we see several of them still alive after "tanning" too long.
    • Russell staking a living male prostitute.
    • After the Royce vs. Eric No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, when Eric is talking to Lafayette and a torrent of blood is coming out of his mouth at the same time.
    • Hotshot, the werepanther community. Just everything about the place is Squick. The rampant rape/incest, children living in squalid conditions, everyone chowing down on raw meat, etc. You just feel like taking a bath every time the show goes there.
    • After escaping from Hotshot, Jason, in an attempt to hide his scent, smears dirt all over his freshly wounded body. As someone else said above, infections much?
  • Straw Man Has a Point: Hoyt's mom might be an unpleasant hag with abandonment issues, but she has every reason to disapprove of him dating a vampire, for fear of his life.
    • Not that Steve's very good at expressing it, but vampires did murder his parents and younger sister. During Season 2, the Fellowship of the Sun storyline would sometimes crosscut to scenes of vampires doing despicable things, and not just random "evil" vampires, but the main cast. Like Eric torturing Lafayette or a Flash Back of Bill helping Lorena brutally murder a married couple.
  • Tastes Like Diabetes: Hoyt's bedtime song for his girlfriend. Normally these two manage to stay just narrowly on the good side of the awwwww so cuuute/Tastes Like Diabetes line, but this time Hoyt crossed it.
  • Tear Jerker: Lafayette's panicked reaction to former Detective Andy's enraged accusations that he killed Miss Jeanette. Terry's kind, calm consoling towards Lafayette also count for this as well.
    • Eric: Mr. Unflappable Stoic, breaking down in tears and begging Godric not to commit suicide.
    • "A human with me at the end, and human tears! Even after two thousand years, I can still be surprised. In this, I see God." If it wasn't Eric breaking down and weeping blood, it was Godric's total calm acceptance and joy combined with Sookie weeping that'll bring a lump to your throat.
    • When Bill gets the photo of his family.
    • Granddad Stackhouse's Heroic Sacrifice in the premier of season 4.
    • Tommy shapeshifting into Sam, sleeping with Sam's girlfriend, and then dumping her.
    • Jason trying to stop the magically entranced Jessica from stepping into the sun, only to apparently get shot. Fortunately, he survived and saved her anyway.
    • Tommy's death.
    • Season 4 Finale "And When I Die": Jesus' death, Hoyt and Jason ending their friendship, Sookie having to say goodbye to Adele's spirit, Sookie dumping Eric, and Tara's Heroic Sacrifice.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Not so much a plot as a character. Franklin, the psychotic vampire detective! May he rest in peace.
  • Trapped by Mountain Lions: Or rather werepanthers. Jason's dealings with a tribe of werepanthers in season 3 and season 4 hasn't done anything to further the main plotline (especially with Jason's fate in the books being averted) and hasn't been mentioned in several episodes. A worse example would be the season 4 episode that has a non supernatural subplot devoted to Andy and Terry hanging out at their childhood fort and shooting cans for the entire episode.
  • Too Cool to Live: Godric
  • Uncanny Valley: Instead of stylizing the characters, some of the comics' art styles tend to try to appear as realistic as possible and yet still manage to be cheap enough for a monthly production. The result is...not very nice to look at.
  • Unfortunate Implications:
    • The gay, black man is the only drug dealer in the town. Now, the Rattrays were the first drug dealers we saw (Momma's Boy Hoyt also mentions going to buy pot from them) as well as drainers until they crossed Bill and met their untimely ends.
    • Eggs. The second main male black character we've seen has a criminal background, especially as a drug user and dealer, and is now a cult member who is used by his guru to commit ritual murders. Finally, to call the circumstances of his death unfortunately drawn would be an understatement.
    • In the first season, you have three main black characters. One is an abusive, fanatical alcoholic; the other a constantly rude, self-absorbed young woman who accuses people of racism for everything from taking her at her word to telling her she snores. The last is a drug dealing prostitute. Oh, wait, we have the fake witch doctor out in the woods who is really just making it all up, scamming people out of their money and working in a supermarket.
    • And let's not forget the whole "vampires as persecuted minority" motif - but even the nice ones have no qualms in hypnotizing a police officer into handing over his weapon and then literally scaring the piss out of him. Or murdering people and making it look like a hurricane struck so they can get away with it. So we actually have every right to fear minorities because they ARE dangerous.
    • Luna, who's half-Mexican half-Navajo, is played by an East Indian actress, as if the producers were hoping viewers wouldn't know the difference.
    • True Blood has a lot of sex. True Blood has a lot of gay/bisexual characters. And yet nearly all of the sex scenes are either hetero or between two hot women (hello, Male Gaze). Hell, we've even had not one but two hetero on-screen rapes, one of them a gang rape (Jason). Of the few (and brief) male-male scenes we've had, one ended in death ( Eric and Talbot). It's like HBO is . . . suddenly squeamish all of a sudden. This pretty much sums it up.
    • The writers treating Jason's gang rape as comeuppance for his years of womanizing. No one deserves to get raped.
  • The Woobie: Eddie, and it doesn't hurt that he's easily the most cuddly and harmless vampire we've yet seen on the show; other than Bill, vampires have seemed very reluctant to give up human blood. Then sadly It Got Worse.
    • There's plenty on the human side of things as well. Sam had no idea what was happening to him when he started shapeshifting as a child, and his adoptive family abandoned him because of it. The flashback to Sam coming home as a child to find his house deserted and all of his family's things gone except for his is one of the most heartbreaking moments in the show.
    • Tara: Abusive religious wack-a-doodle for a mom? Check. Amazing boyfriend who gets shot in the head after one season? Check. Thinking you have someone who actually cares about your well-being when you were really part of a plot to summon the god Dionysus by a screwed up Maenad who wants to kill everyone in Bon Temps? Check! Being kidnapped, held hostage, terrorized and fucking raped by a psycho yandere vampire? Check!! Oh, and to top it all off, you find out that your childhood friend/crush is the one responsible for the death of the man you loved? Forget Woobie, goddamn it. This is a cruel case of Kick the Dog.
    • the sadness of Russell Edgington after Talbot's death is heartbreaking. Even if he is, you know, Russell Edgington.
    • Terry Bellefleur. The man is positively gushing with Woobie qualities; his PTSD makes him gentle as a lamb; and when he reveals in Season 3 that he nursed an injured armadillo back to health, named him Felix, and now lets him sleep under his bed, you can't tell me your heart didn't melt.
    • Jessica not only is turned against her will, she constantly has issues with her maker, her boyfriend Hoyt has a bigoted old hag for a mother, and on top of that her new job is almost ruined by Arlene's constant antagonizing of her. Bill and Hoyt know better than anybody she just needs a hug.
    • Jason got gangraped by the women in Hotshot after spending a year taking care of the community as best he could. Add that on top of the sickness and bondage he's forced to endure, you know he'll need a big hug when he escapes.
    • Eric after being mindwiped by Marnie. His helpless Puppy Dog Eyes and total awkwardness around Sookie almost makes you forget his total bastardry just an episode prior. Almost.
  • What an Idiot!: Steve's television appearances mostly make him look like a bigoted douchebag. There are plenty of good arguments he could be making against vampires, but he has somehow managed to fail to bring up a single one of them, instead relying on wild vague accusations with no proof and talking over anyone with a different opinion instead of acting with dignity. Of course this is probably intentional on the shows part.
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