History YMMV / HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys

** The episode set in the present day which is all about Kevin Sorbo having gone missing, and features the memorable and hysterical restroom whistling scene.
** There was another one where the cast goes on a teamwork-building retreat hosted by Sunny Day (played by Renee O'Connor; normal role Gabrielle). It leads to a Scooby Doo ending where Sunny is revealed to be B.S. Hollinsfoffer (played by Robert Trebor, normal role Salmoneus), who is 1. a lot taller than Sunny, 2. at least a hundred pounds heavier, and 3. male, and concludes with Ares revealing himself to the cast. On top of that, most of them aren't even all that surprised to learn that Greek god of war is real; one of them even claims "I find the thought rather comforting myself."

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: Even people who don't care for the show seem to agree that the title theme is this.

* HoYay: 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 FanFiction or [[OlderThanTheyThink the original myth]]''?

** I don't think it would be a problem afterwords. It would take all the gods including Hera to confidently overthrow Zeus. She was one of the most powerful so without her they did not have the raw power. Her getting thrown into Tartarus would have scared the others into falling back in line. Finally, the gods quarrel with each other as Zeus. Without a strong leader to unite them they could not get their act together to do anything to Hera.

* BrokenAesop: all over the place, but not as many as you would think considering the nature of this show.
** Despite espousing (repeatedly) that everyone should be themselves and beauty is on the inside, Hercules only has love affairs with beautiful women. To his credit, Herc only goes for people he falls in love with (and has rejected the likes of King Thespian's Daughters). Still, it's all off-putting compared to the moral of "Protean Challenge" or such.
** There were a number of episodes where the moral was essentially "war bad" or "murder bad", but fundamentally both Hercules and Iaolus make their living as warriors, and they essentially never actually check a given monster to see if it's sentient before ganking it.
** It helps that, as a camp comedy show, when one writer contradicted another it was usually lampshaded, and there are a number of episodes specifically pointing out the failure of other episodes, such as the introduction of Typhon and the explicit acknowledgement that Echidna's hatred of Hercules is pretty much entirely justified, since he murdered all of her children before the beginning of the series. There is also some evidence that the changes are actual personal growth (he stops hiring on to wars as the first three seasons progress) rather than hypocrisy.

** In the fifth season, Hercules battled against Gilgamesh who was associated with Dahak, a dark god based off the Persian deity Azi Dahaka. Well over ten years later, the anime Anime/FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorks featured another fight between different incarnations of Hercules and Gilgamesh, who this time was associated with the dark god Angra Mainyu, a Persian destroyer god who was known as the creator of Azi Dahaka. Also doubles as HarsherInHindsight because in both battles, both incarnations of Gilgamesh end up [[spoiler: killing the people closest to Hercules with Gilgamesh murdering Iolaus in the live action TV show and Gilgamesh slaughtering Illya, the little girl who happened to be Hercules' master]].

** In the fifth season, Hercules battled against Gilgamesh who was associated with Dahak, a dark god based off the Persian deity Azi Dahaka. Well over ten years later, the anime Anime/FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorks featured another fight between different incarnations of Hercules and Gilgamesh, who this time was associated with the dark god Angra Mainyu, a Persian destroyer god who was known as the creator of Azi Dahaka.

** In the fifth season, Hercules battled against Gilgamesh who was associated with Dahak, a dark god based off the Persian deity Azi Dahaka. Well over ten years later, the anime FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorks featured another fight between different incarnations of Hercules and Gilgamesh, who this time was associated with the dark god Angra Mainyu, a Persian destroyer god who was known as the creator of Azi Dahaka.

** Darphus from season one's "The Gauntlet" and "Unchained Heart" (as well as an AlternateContinuity in Part 2 of season 4's "Armageddon Now) is the former [[TheDragon second in command]] of Xena before her HeelFaceTurn. Darphus earns Xena's [[EvenEvilHasStandards disfavor]] by sacking innocent villages and slaughtering women and children [[ForTheEvulz for fun.]] When Xena objects, Darphus stages a [[TheStarscream coup on her]] after trying to force her to murder a baby. When Xena survives the gauntlet to leave the army, Darphus tries to have her killed anyways. After being killed by Xena, Darphus is [[BackFromTheDead revived by Ares]] and carries on a brutal campaign of slaughter where he also has care of Ares' monstrous pet. Darphus feeds innocent victims to said monster and shows no hesitation in killing his own men as well just for displeasing him.
** [[NamesToRunAwayFrom Mayhem]] from season 4’s "Prodigal Sister" is the leader of a renegade band of Amazons that routinely terrorizes the countryside in Greece and massacres entire villages, except for the little girls she turns into her weapons. Most Amazons who did raids would go for minimal loss of life, and are appalled by Mayhem's actions. She personally [[WouldHurtAChild blinds Ruun]], (just after killing his parents and kidnapping his sister who she turns into a mindless killing machine) who's only five years old. Fast forward years later, when most of the renegade Amazons have rejoined the Amazonian Nation, Mayhem still leads raids which RapePillageAndBurn entire villages for fun. When confronted by Hercules, she laughs off that her actions will lead to an Amazon Civil War which will be crushed by the outside world. And finally, when confronted on what she did to Ruun and his sister Siri after she is beaten by Hercules she flat out says [[ItsAllAboutMe "So what, I turned her into the greatest Amazonian Warrior!"]]

* VillainDecay: Ares gets hit with this the hardest of all out of all the villains. None of his very early appearances were played for laughs and whenever he was involved, his stories usually involved serious matters like recruiting child soldiers or human sacrifice. When he made his physical debut in the show in the Golden Hind trilogy, he was an outright KnightOfCerebus whose very presence took the show to a darker and more tragic level when he took away Hercules' strength, had Herc's new wife Serena killed, framed Hercules for her murder, and nearly took away everything from the demi-god. When they fought for the first time, Hercules struggled against him and only won a very narrow victory because he had a Hind's blood soaked dagger on him which he managed to use to his advantage and force Ares to surrender and submit to his demands. From the fourth season onwards, almost every other time they fight, Ares pretty much gets turned into a punching bag for Hercules and almost every fight they have ends with Ares getting beat down. By the end of the series, Ares' dignity is completely gone and when Hercules and Iolaus make fun of him, the god of war's self-esteem is pretty much crushed and he walks off crying. In Xena, Ares appears to subvert his decay when he convinces Zeus to lift his ban on killing Hercules but nothing ever comes of it because he gets knocked out by Hera before he can even fight Hercules. And if the Hercules-in-modern-times episodes are anything to go by, Ares feuded with Hercules for centuries leading up to the late 90s and still had absolutely nothing to show for it.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: The disclaimer included in "A Star to Guide Them" (see below) becomes a lot less funny knowing that Kevin Sorbo has since become [[TheFundamentalist a religious fundamentalist]] [[HolierThanThou on par with Pat Robertson]].

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: The disclaimer included in "A Star to Guide Them" (see below) becomes a lot less funny knowing that the show's lead actor has since become [[TheFundamentalist a religious fundamentalist]] [[HolierThanThou on par with Pat Robertson]].
* GrowingTheBeard: 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.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: The disclaimer included in "A Star to Guide Them" (see below) becomes a lot less funny knowing that the show's lead actor has since become a religious fundamentalist [[HolierThanThou on par with Pat Robertson]].

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: The disclaimer included in "A Star to Guide Them" (see below) becomes a lot less funny knowing that the show's lead actor has since become a religious fundamentalist [[HolierThanThou on par with Pat Robertson]].

** "A Star to Guide Them" (which includes the presumably-humorous disclaimer, "No unnamed Baby of key biblical and mythological importance was harmed during the production of this motion picture") might also count given the lead actor's later turn to [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalist Christianity]].

** The 4th season episode "... And Fancy Free", in which Hercules enters a dance competition. Nothing rests on this competition other than his partner's self esteem, and a nice trophy. The town magistrate finds this competition important enough that he spends most of the episode sending assassins after Hercules and his partner to stop them from winning. No other motivation is given, he just wants his daughter to win. It guest stars Michael Hurst in drag as the dance instructor.

** There is a later episode featuring the same characters in struggle over fashion...which is about as pointless as "...And Fancy Free". Also no explanation is given as to why the town magistrate has apparently given up his duties to go into the world of ancient Greek fashion.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Hercules' daughter Ilia grew up to be [[Series/PowerRangersRPM Ranger Operator Series Yellow]].

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Iolaus for reasons stated in AscendedExtra on the main page. Autolycus and Salmoneus also became fan-favorites.

* HoYay: 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 FanFiction?
** Hell, have you read ''[[OlderThanTheyThink the original myth]]''?

* TearJerker: In the season 3 episode ''The Lady and the Dragon'', the villain of the week (Adamis) uses a dragon named Braxis to do his bidding. However, as we later find out, [[spoiler: Braxis is only a child who's still mourning his mother's death. Even worse, Adamis lied to him and said Hercules had killer her when Adamis was actually responsible. Adamis even plans to kill Braxis because he's getting too big to control, even though Adamis has actually grown fond of him.]]

** Xena, who got popular enough to her own spinoff series that actually surpassed this on in popularity.

** In "Two Men And A Baby," Discord places Iolaus and Nemesis in a trap to fall their deaths. It starts out as a SadisticChoice for Hercules, but he manages to pull off [[TakingAThirdOption a third option]] to save both his heroic sidekick and LoveInterest. Sounds like [[Film/SpiderMan another production]] that Creator/SamRaimi would be involved with.

** Herc goes to ridiculous lengths to SaveTheVillain, in many episodes. However, for people like Xena and Dirce, he lets them go, despite their manifold crimes, as long as they promise to stop, while for many people who have done much lesser crimes, he forces them to "face justice" even though they have accepted the error of their ways and want to atone. Basically it works like this: killed manifold people in cold blood, conquered entire countries, oppressed people's way of life and sold people into slavery = freedom; performed many robberies, became part of a gang with a bad reputation, killed a couple of people in cold blood = death by hanging (according to justice). And the times that Hercules thinks that the court is unfair, he will free people or stop the court from performing punishments (despite the fact that ''the point'' of justice by court is that a magistrate or group of people decide according to their interpretation of the law and the crime). So it boils down to: Hercules decides someone's fate (including delivering them to a court knowing they will be killed), and then allows the court to kill the people that deserve it rather than by his own hand, because he doesn't believe in killing. [[UnfortunateImplications Does anyone else see a problem here?]]

* MoralDissonance: may count as an OutOfCharacterMoment. When Hercules falls in love with Serena, everything seems well and good... until you find out that he can visit his dead wife and kids any time he likes and when he decides to marry Serena after knowing her for barely one episode, he goes to see his wife to explain that he's fallen in love with someone else, for all intents and purposes ''leaving'' her and the kids and having not a single qualm of conscience over the fact that he is breaking the heart of his dead wife who is stuck in the afterlife ''because'' of him (we know that people can move into Eternity or get reincarnated from certain aspects of their afterlives from both this series and ''Xena'' with the implication that something is required to keep people from moving along, and this does include people who have gone to the Elesian Fields, as we find out).[[note]]If it was even ''difficult'' to visit his family, this might be different but all he has to shout is "Hades" and he gets a free trip across without having to even travel ''through'' the Underworld, with his family not being surprised at all to see him with added evidence that he ''does'' see them often, and his wife being so utterly devastated by his confession that it brings to light the fact that their relationship has really been relegated to a long-distance one (Hades giving Herc a free pass to the Underworld due to his help with Persephone), and that Hercules has basically committed adultery.[[/note]] That Hercules milks the fact that his family died in future episodes for sympathy makes things seem rather hypocritical. So much for loving Deinaira "beyond measure."
** Visits to the Underworld by the living are frowned upon because they interfere with the deads' peace in the afterlife. Every time Hercules visits, he asks Hades to wipe his family's memory so that they won't be grieved when he inevitably leaves. His family cannot come back to life and they cannot remember him. Therefore, Hercules decided to stop stringing the dead along and move on with his own life.

* YourCheatingHeart: Hercules with Serena (when you find out that he regularly gets a free pas to the other side (courtesy of Hades) to visit Deinara and the kids, and that his relationship with them was, at the time he fell in love with Serena, more of a long-distance one that actually accepting that his family is dead and moving on. Hence, when he tells Deinara that he's fallen in love with someone else and that he's getting married - after knowing her for ''one'' measly episode - she is completely and utterly devastated and has no idea how she is going to break it to the kids that their father is essentially "leaving them." The entire thing really makes Hercules morality and behaviour look incredibly self-centered and hypocritical, never more so than that he ''still tells other people that his family is dead and he understands what they are going through when they have lost a loved one, milking it for sympathy.''
** He's able to visit, but not actually be part of the afterlife without dying, and his presence literally spoils his family's paradise, to the extent that Hades has to mind-wipe them to make them happy again after each visit. There's a reason he only visits the underworld infrequently, nephew of the boss or not. This also explains why he still finds his family's death a source of frustration and pain.

* TearJerker: In the season 3 episode ''The Lady and the Dragon'', the villain of the week uses a dragon to do his bidding. However, as we later find out, [[spoiler: the dragon's only the equivalent of a child. He's an orphan who was raised to think his mother was murdered by Hercules. Even worse, the villain actually plans to kill the dragon because he's getting too big to control, even though the man's actually grown fond of him.]]

* MoralDissonance: may count as an OutOfCharacterMoment. When Hercules falls in love with Serena, everything seems well and good... until you find out that he can visit his dead wife and kids any time he likes and when he decides to marry Serena after knowing her for barely one episode, he goes to see his wife to explain that he's fallen in love with someone else, for all intents and purposes ''leaving'' her and the kids and having not a single qualm of conscience over the fact that he is breaking the heart of his dead wife who is stuck in the afterlife ''because'' of him (we know that people can move into Eternity or get reincarnated from certain aspects of their afterlives from both this series and ''Xena'' with the implication that something is required to keep people from moving along, and this does include people who have gone to the Elesian Fields, as we find out).[[note]]If it was even ''difficult'' to visit his family, this might be different but all he has to shout is "Hades" and he gets a free trip across without having to even travel ''through'' the Underworld, with his family not being surprised at all to see him with added evidence that he ''does'' see them often, and his wife being so utterly devastated by his confession that it brings to light the fact that their relationship has really been relegated to a long-distance one (Hades giving Herc a free pass to the Underworld due to his help with Persephone), and that Hercules has basically committed adultery.[[/note]] That Hercules milks the fact that his family died in future episodes for sympathy makes things seem rather hypocritical. So much for loving Deinaira "beyond measure."