History YMMV / Defiance

* BrokenBase: There's one regarding the playerbases of ''Defiance'' and ''Defiance 2050'' (the separate relaunch) as players of the former refuse to move to the relaunch due to changes in gameplay, events, items and weapons and the fact that you can't completely transfer your characters to the newer version while players of the latter believe that the original version is too outdated in many ways and the changes of ''2050'' aren't as bad they claim or make the game better and less of a hastle to play.

* HolyShitQuotient: The last five minutes of "My Name Is Datak Tarr and I Have Come to Kill You." DANG.

* BrokenBase: There's one regarding the playerbases of ''Defiance'' and ''Defiance 2050'' (the separate relaunch) as players of the former refuse to move to the relaunch due to changes in gameplay, events and the fact that you can't transfer your characters to the newer version while players of the latter believe that the original version is too outdated in many ways and the changes of ''2050'' aren't as bad they claim or make the game better and less of a hastle to play.

* ScrappyMechanic: The fact that ''Defiance'' and ''Defiance 2050'' are separated games on PC with totally separated playerbases and the fact that you can't transfer your characters from the original to the new version.

* TheProblemWithLicensedVideoGames: The game's launch was rife with bugs, server issues, and lack of content, getting mediocre reviews from critics as a result. Updates have alleviated the issue to some extent.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: or rather, a perfectly good species. Despite they’re interesting appearance, abilities and backstory the Gulanee are the only race in the Votanis Collective not represented among the Defiance characters.

* MagnificentBastard: A few.
** Datak and Stahma Tarr, a pair of badass chessmasters whose [[RedOniBlueOni personal styles of manipulation compliment each other]].

** 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 SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome at [[spoiler: Camp Arrowhead.]]

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

** [[GeneralRipper General Rahm Tak]], formerly of the Votanis Collective, is a brutal military commander also known as "The Beast". [[FantasticRacism Despising humans]], Rahm, after going {{rogue|Agent}}, sets out to destroy Defiance and slaughter it's human population as part of a genocidal crusade to create a purely Votan world. Slaughtering humans as he goes, Rahm keeps the heads of his victims on display in his camp, wipes out the [=McCawley=] family, and forces Datak and Stahma Tarr to act as his spies in Defiance by holding their son hostage. When Rahm's wife offers him clemency on behalf of the VC, Rahm murders her, drags her body through his camp, and sends her head back to his former superiors. Upon reaching Defiance, Rahm has his men slaughter hostages at the [=NeedWant=] and go on a killing spree throughout the town while his lieutenant infiltrates Defiance's militia to destroy it from within. [[FauxAffablyEvil Beneath a gregarious facade]], sense of humorr, and fondness for human culture, Rahm is a deranged madman, feared and despised by those who know him and who manages to [[KnightOfCerebus darken an already grim series]].

* CompleteMonster:
** [[GeneralRipper General Rahm Tak]], also called "The Beast", is the [[DiscOneFinalBoss main villain for the first part of season 3]], and a sadistic military commander formerly in service to the [[TheAlliance Votanis Collective]]. Despite a fondness for their culture, Rahm [[FantasticRacism despises humans]], seeing Earth as rightfully belonging to the Votans. After going rogue, Rahm sets out to destroy Defiance and slaughter its human population as part of a genocidal crusade to create a purely Votan world, slaughtering humans at will as he goes. Taking pride in his work, Rahm keeps severed human heads on display in his camp. Along the way, Rahm [[BoomHeadshot executes Quentin McCawley]], has his father, Rafe, gunned down when he attacks Rahm, and [[IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten forces]] Stahma to [[SlashedThroat slash Christie's throat]] by holding Datak at gunpoint. Rahm later forces the Tarrs to act as his spies in Defiance, forcing their compliance by [[IHaveYourWife holding their son Alak hostage]], then has Datak beaten in front of his family. After suffering a defeat at Nolan's hands, Rahm forces Datak and Stahma to destroy the St. Louis Arch out of spite. During Alak's captivity, Rahm forces him to dismember human corpses, while taunting him about his dead human wife (the aforementioned Christie). When Rahm's wife offers him clemency on behalf of the VC, Rahm murders her, desecrates her corpse, and [[DecapitationPresentation sends her head]] back to his former superiors. After his men take hostages in the [=NeedWant=], Rahm tries to force Amanda to surrender Defiance, ordering that the hostages be killed when she refuses. Rahm's men go on to slaughter random human families as a terrorist tactic, while Rahm's lieutenant, Bebe, infiltrates Defiance's militia, ultimately killing nearly all of them and leaving Defiance nearly defenseless.
** [[DarkActionGirl Eksu Tsuroz Kindzi]], the BigBad for season 3 once Rahm Tak is dealt with, is a particularly AxCrazy and sadistic [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Omec]]. Starting out as a subordinate to her father, T'evgin, Kindzi considers the Omec to be superior to all other races, whom she views as little more than animals for the Omec to enslave and devour at will. When she and her father discover an unconscious Nolan and Irisa, Kindzi tries to eat Nolan before T'evgin orders her to stop. After being poked with a stick by a curious child, Kindzi [[DisproportionateRetribution responds]] by [[WouldHurtAChild stabbing the stick]] [[EyeScream through his eye]], killing him. When T'evgin takes in a wounded Stahma, Kindzi terrorizes and even tries to kill Stahma, going so far as to reveal the Omec's [[TakeOverTheWorld plans]] in the hope of forcing T'evgin to kill her. When T'evgin begins seeking peaceful co-existence with Earth, Kindzi is disgusted. She goes on to create clones of Doc Yewll to hunt down and slaughter, moving on to citizens of Defiance when this becomes boring. When the real Yewll confronts her, Kindzi uses Omec technology to enslave Yewll and force her to act as Kindzi's [[TheDragon Dragon]]. Kindzi also [[TheStarscream mutinies]] against T'evgin, planning to conquer Earth and use its population as slaves and food for the Omec. When T'evgin escapes and subdues Kindzi, she [[ISurrenderSuckers feigns surrender]], then murders T'evgin while his guard is down. Forcing Yewll to imprison innocent people, Kindzi leads her followers in gruesomely devouring them. She later tries to eat Stahma's baby grandson right in front of her, solely to spite Stahma and her family. When one of Kindzi's lieutenants questions her, she kills him and forces other Omec to eat his corpse (a taboo in Omec culture; they see the predation of races they consider 'lesser' no different than we see eating the meat of cows, but other Omec? ''That's'' cannibalism and viewed no differently than humans view eating other humans), disgusting them. Confronting Nolan for the final time, Kindzi derides her dead father as "weak" before brutally beating Nolan and trying to eat him. And once when she had him captive, she outright ''raped'' him, and talked about keeping him as a pet.

** 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 VisualEffectsOfAwesome at [[spoiler: Camp Arrowhead.]]

* 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.]]

* AwesomeMusic: 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.]]

** To put it another way: The Omec are TheDreaded, and have fun by hunting and devouring races they consider lesser, in such numbers as to be threats to ''whole worlds.'' '''BY THEIR STANDARDS,''' Kindzi is considered a terrifyingly AxCrazy CompleteMonster.

* SpiritualSuccessor: A series about alien refugees having to integrate into society may put viewers in mind of ''Film/{{Alien Nation}}'' (just add the postapocalyptic Western setting and there you are). Rockne S. O'Bannon created both, so it's scarcely surprising.

** [[DarkActionGirl Eksu Tsuroz Kindzi]], the BigBad for season 3 once Rahm Tak is dealt with, is a particularly AxCrazy and sadistic [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Omec]]. Starting out as a subordinate to her father, T'evgin, Kindzi considers the Omec to be superior to all other races, whom she views as little more than animals for the Omec to enslave and devour at will. When she and her father discover an unconscious Nolan and Irisa, Kindzi tries to eat Nolan before T'evgin orders her to stop. After being poked with a stick by a curious child, Kindzi [[DisproportionateRetribution responds]] by [[WouldHurtAChild stabbing the stick]] [[EyeScream through his eye]], killing him. When T'evgin takes in a wounded Stahma, Kindzi terrorizes and even tries to kill Stahma, going so far as to reveal the Omec's [[TakeOverTheWorld plans]] in the hope of forcing T'evgin to kill her. When T'evgin begins seeking peaceful co-existence with Earth, Kindzi is disgusted. She goes on to create clones of Doc Yewll to hunt down and slaughter, moving on to citizens of Defiance when this becomes boring. When the real Yewll confronts her, Kindzi uses Omec technology to enslave Yewll and force her to act as Kindzi's [[TheDragon Dragon]]. Kindzi also [[TheStarscream mutinies]] against T'evgin, planning to conquer Earth and use its population as slaves and food for the Omec. When T'evgin escapes and subdues Kindzi, she [[ISurrenderSuckers feigns surrender]], then murders T'evgin while his guard is down. Forcing Yewll to imprison innocent people, Kindzi leads her followers in gruesomely devouring them. She later tries to eat Stahma's baby grandson right in front of her, solely to spite Stahma and her family. When one of Kindzi's lieutenants questions her, she kills him and forces other Omec to eat his corpse (a taboo in Omec culture), disgusting them. Confronting Nolan for the final time, Kindzi derides her dead father as "weak" before brutally beating Nolan and trying to eat him.

* 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]].]]
** The trend is repeated with [[spoiler: Kindzi, who is built up to be faster and stronger than any human and almost completely resistant to injury. She ultimately shows up near the end of the season finale, fights Nolan on even ground for half a minute, and briefly overpowers him only to get stabbed in the head after dropping her guard and thrown into a spinning engine blade.]]
* EvilIsSexy: Stahma Tarr [[spoiler: and Kindzi.]]

* HarsherInHindsight: Every single scene with [[spoiler: Pottinger]] in Season 2 becomes this after Season 3's "Dead Air". [[spoiler: That masked E-Rep soldier who [[RapeAsBackstory raped Amanda in New York]]? She was working alongside him, sleeping with him, and confiding her darkest secrets in him for the better part of an entire season.]]

** Christie and Deidre, the girl Alak hires to handle the record-playing on the Arch.

* EvilIsSexy: Stahma Tarr.

* HilariousInHindsight: A former soldier with a past he's ashamed of, trying (as of the end of season 1) to save his superhumanly gifted daughter from being abused and exploited by unscrupulous forces sent from a place called Columbia[[note]]The name of the capital region of the Earth Republic[[/note]]... will they [[VideoGame/BioShockInfinite eventually come to a lighthouse?]]

* 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," when 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.