History YMMV / Defiance

* EvilIsSexy: Stahma Tarr [[spoiler:and Kindzi.]]

** A throwaway line about Creator/RobertPattinson playing the astronaut lead in the action-drama film about the Bravery 9 is clearly meant to sound silly, seeing as his acting career at the time was pretty much defined by Literature/TheTwilightSaga films. A bit over a decade later and seeing him in an action or drama film is suddenly a ''very'' realistic prospect.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: One of the reasons many fans of the original game didn't migrate to the ''2050'' re-release as ''2050'' changes the free-willing character progression system to a strict class system, weapons no longer can be upgraded indefinely, forcing players to constantly get new weapons due to how fast they become useless against stronger enemies, useable items are now abilities for specific classes and some Post-release content is locked until you finish the main story or reach a specific EGO level and the region of ''Silicon Valley'' was never added into ''2050''. The ''2050'' version of the game didn't even include all of the Episode missions, but a limited number of them.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: In the first episodes of season 3, a book about Irisa's exploits is treated as a joke, between the contemptible cover [[StylisticSuck cheesy writing]]. In "The Beauty of Our Weapons," the Defiance militia nearly crumbles because they expect her to be a badass killing machine because of the book, and she doesn't want to be that, and can't because of PTSD from what she did that got immortalized in the book.

** Andina. A well-liked, well-developed character who has some good dynamics with the Tarrs and [[spoiler:off-handedly gets her neck broken offhandedly by Kindzi when she attacks just for shock value]].

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The Armored Hellbug soldiers (one of the most annoying types of GoddamnBats in the game) had their armor heavily nerfed in the ''2050'' re-release.

* AnticlimaxBoss: [[spoiler:General Rahm Tak]] is built up as the most threatening antagonist ever faced on the show, [[spoiler: but he never gets his big confrontation with the protagonists, instead dying of instant vaporization to a DeusExMachina. The only time he's even in the same location as the main characters is when Irisa and Nolan trash his base camp in the third episode. The intense, personal confrontation that seems to be built up is instead given to [[TheDragon Lieutenant Bebe]].]]

** Season 3 is getting even more positive reception than the previous two, thanks to a strong new antagonist, tighter episode plotting, and a high quantity of [[WhamEpisode Wham Episodes]].

* LesYay:

** [[FemmeFatale Stahma Tarr]] is the [[BeautyIsBad beautiful]], elegant wife of Datak Tarr who hints that she took him as a husband after murdering her original fiancee. Loving Datak for his ruthlessness and ambition, Stahma connives for him to obtain a seat upon the Defiance city council, later murdering her extramarital lover when she threatens Stahma's life with poison. Betraying Datak to leave him in prison and run his criminal enterprise through their son Alak, Stahma repeatedly outplays those around her in an effort to secure her holdings and ambitions while also keeping her family safe.

** Even for an Omec, Kindzi crosses it when she [[spoiler:murders her father.]] In the eyes of the other Omec, [[spoiler:forcing them to cannibalize another Omec is the final straw.]]

** Minor character Gail the miner is rather easy to hate, due to being a violent and volatile racist and an all-around JerkAss with no redeeming characteristics.

* SpecialEffectsFailure:

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: The show's effects are movie quality, and that's a huge compliment for a television series. If nothing else, because a game is being made along side it, there's likely some cross-contamination of digital assets. On the other hand, some assets are show specific - the entirety of the mines in "Down where the Dead Men Go" save for the entrance itself, interior and exterior, were CG as seen [[http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi852469273/ here.]]
** The Season 2 finale has [[spoiler:the destruction and terraforming of New York City by the Kaziri's terraformers.]]

* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: This was how many reviewers and some veteran players felt with the ''2050'' re-release due to the fact that it was the '''same game''' (bugs and exploits included) but on a new engine with a few tweaks here and there and a new class progression system.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: One of the reasons many fans of the original game didn't migrate to the ''2050'' re-release as ''2050'' changes the free-willing character progression system to a strict class system, weapons no longer can be upgraded indefinely, forcing players to constantly get new weapons due to how fast they become useless against stronger enemies, useable items are now abilities for specific classes and some Post-release content is locked until you finish the main story or reach a specific EGO level and the region of ''Silicon Valley'' was never added into ''2050''. The ''2050'' version of the game didn't even include all of the Episode missions, but a limited number of them.
* TheProblemWithLicensedVideoGames: The game's launch was rife with bugs, server issues, and lack of content, getting mediocre reviews from critics as a result. However, the game eventually outlived the series it was supposed to advertise thanks to the addition of more story content, gameplay & bug fixes, fun-if-simple arcade-y gameplay and most importantly - going FreeToPlay. But then, it was slowly murdered by the company Gamigo after purchasing Trion Worlds (see above BrokenBase for details).

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: In the first episodes of season 3, a book about Irisa's exploits is treated as a joke, between the ContemptibleCover and [[StylisticSuck cheesy writing]]. In "The Beauty of Our Weapons," the Defiance militia nearly crumbles because they expect her to be a badass killing machine because of the book, and she doesn't want to be that, and can't because of PTSD from what she did that got immortalized in the book.

** Fyfe Monroe's cover version of "[[Music/DavidBowie Everyone Says Hi]]" used to close out the series as [[spoiler:Nolan wanders the stars like he's dreamed of.]]

* GrowingTheBeard: The general consensus is that the part of season 1 garnered a lot of negative responses, but from about the 9th episode, the show seemed to be finding its voice and getting better reviews.

** Even for an Omec, Kindzi crosses it when she [[spoiler: murders her father.]] In the eyes of the other Omec, [[spoiler: forcing them to cannibalize another Omec is the final straw.]]

** Season 3 has [[spoiler: the destruction of the St. Louis Arch]], which features some of the most obvious CG in the series. Made more bizarre for the fact that it's such a powerful moment otherwise, and that it happens in the same episode as the below-mentioned
** In the final episode, most of the scenes [[spoiler: aboard the Omec ship]] are obviously cheap green screen, and [[spoiler: Kindzi's demise]] just looks ''off''.

** It's doubtful that any fans were happy with the treatment the [=McCawley=]'s got in season 3.
** Andina. A well-liked, well-developed character who has some good dynamics with the Tarr's and [[spoiler:Off-handedly gets her neck broken offhandedly by Kindzi when she attacks just for shock value]].
* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: The shows effects are movie quality, and that's a huge compliment for a television series. If nothing else, because a game is being made along side it, there's likely some cross-contamination of digital assets. On the other hand, some assets are show specific - the entirety of the mines in "Down where the Dead Men Go" save for the entrance itself, interior and exterior, were CG as seen [[http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi852469273/ here.]]
** The Season 2 finale has [[spoiler: the destruction and terraforming of New York City by the Kaziri's terraformers.]]

** "My Name Is Datak Tarr And I Have Come To Kill You" packs two in quick succession: [[spoiler: Datak lopping his arm off in a horrifically realistic close-up]] and [[spoiler: the stasis nets exploding and vaporizing Rahm Tak's camp.]]
** The Season 3 finale gives us a whopper: [[spoiler: the Omec ship taking off with Nolan at its helm, followed by a surreal final scene following its trail through the universe.]] Some of the most impressive special effects work in the series, saved right for the end.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: One of the reasons many fans of the original game didn't migrate to the ''2050'' re-release as ''2050'' changes the free-willing character progression system to a strict class system, weapons no longer can be upgraded indefinely, forcing players to constantly get new weapons due to how fast they become useless against stronger enemies, useable items are now abilities for specific classes and some Post-release content is locked until you finish the main story or reach a specific EGO level and the region of ''Silicon Valley'' was never added into ''2050''.

** More of a "special effects failure due to lack of communication" event, but in the Season 2 episode "Painted from Memory," when [[spoiler:the Kenya clone arrives in the [=Paradise/San Francisco=] area via land coach, there is a shot of the Golden Gate bridge that can be seen when she arrives. The bridge model used in the scene isn't the model used in the game. The model used in the show was a previous version of the bridge design that looks complete with some additional bits added to it, which had been seen in one of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed7j3_xHxBw YouTube videos explaining what Defiance was]] before the game's launch. In the actual game, the bridge is partly buried under terraformed earth while the other half is damaged and serves as the entryway into the San Francisco area of the game world.]]