History YMMV / HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Hera. While she is responsible for a great deal of tragedy in the series, the sheer horribleness of Zeus's infidelities are very much overlooked and outright disregarded by almost every character. As Hercules is TheProtagonist and also the [[GoodAdulteryBadAdultery product of one of Zeus's affairs]], we're meant to sympathize with him, with Hera canonically as the DesignatedVillain. One forgets that she's not only a WomanScorned repeatedly by her unremorseful husband, but also that she's ''the Goddess of Marriage''. That means marital fidelity matters to Hera more than '''anyone'''. One might be able to understand just why she became so malicious, looking at her from that perspective.
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The centaur Deric and his human lover Lyla, despite being portrayed as victims of hatred and bigotry, manage to come off as this in the episode ''Outcast''. We were clearly meant to sympathize with them as the new town they move to is easily stirred into an anti-centaur mob frenzy and in all fairness, their son was actually innocent of wrongdoing and didn't deserve any of the persecution. However, by no means were Deric and Lyla innocent victims themselves. In their previous appearance, the two blinded Hercules for much of the episode and they even helped another centaur Nemis to kidnap some brides at a wedding. While the two did perform a minor HeelFaceTurn and decided to leave the service of Nemis, they didn't even bother giving much help to Hercules despite having helped cause much of the episode's troubles in the first place. Not once did they at least try to do anything to remedy the situation, like help Hercules rescue the brides they helped to steal to begin with. Because of their actions (and even inactions) in their previous appearance, both Deric and Lyla can come off as less the sympathetic victims of racism that the writers intended them to be and more of a JerkAss couple who [[LaserGuidedKarma deserved all the persecution they received]] considering the two helped to terrorize innocent families, blinded Hercules, and couldn't even be bothered to do the bare minimum to right their wrongs.

* MoralDissonance:
** Herc [[ThouShaltNotKill will not kill anyone]], however he will also condemn anyone who chooses to kill (except in battle). E.g. in one episode, the sole sheriff of a town is about to die (he has one day left). His town is over-run with gangs of cold-blooded killers and thugs (guys who kill and torture defenseless men, women and children indiscriminately and loudly boast about past crimes and plan new murders ''in public'') who he takes to court, but everyone is too scared to testify or to convict them (when they should have been hung long ago). This man is the only one who who stands up to these thugs, and he has a new-born son with no relatives that he knows he won't be there to protect him. So he goes out and kills these men so they can't kill anyone else. Despite the fact that if justice would have had its way, these men would have been dead by hanging long ago - and this sheriff was the one who ''took'' all these men to court ''in order to be punished by hanging'' - Hercules calls his act "evil" and ''Celestia'' - the messenger of Death - agrees with him. This isn't "these people did not have a fair trial to decide their innocence", these men ''were clearly guilty and would have been convicted'' for any one of their ''numerous'' crimes, and the sheriff is now 'doing evil acts that must be stopped' (as Hercules says).
*** In fairness, Hercules moralizes loudly while the sheriff is going after actual murderers and rapists, but doesn't actually try to _stop_ the guy until it's turned into a full-on rampage and he's about to start executing teenagers for being insubordinate and engaging in petty crime.
** 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.
*** Possibly DeliberateValuesDissonance -- in the bronze age, killing your neighbor or stealing his cow was a terrible crime, but getting twenty of your buddies together and conquering the next town to kill them and take their cows was politics as usual.
*** Actually lampshaded in an episode where he lands in 'enlightened' (read: anachronistically liberal and modern) Athens and is immediately put on trial for, essentially, being a vigilante rather than following the law. He's called out very specifically on giving Xena and another former assassin/mercenary a free pass while killing others that did far less.

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

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

* HarsherInHindsight
** In the ''Amazon Women'' TV-Movie, while talking about Iolaus' impending wedding, Hercules off-handedly brags that he might get a wife or two himself one day. His two marriages ended very badly, and he did not take any of that well.
** "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 Creator/KevinSorbo's later turn to [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalist Christianity]].
** Related to the above, any time Hercules and Xena teamed up have become this since Sorbo and Creator/LucyLawless are no longer friends since the former's embrace of ultraconservatism. Notably, Lawless chastised Sorbo for blaming far-left anarchists for the U.S. Capitol siege in January 2021.

* ActorAllusion: A genius one in "The Academy" as Hercules has to tangle with an upstart corrupt student, who mocks him on "being an old-timer, let me take over." The student's actor? A then-unknown Creator/RyanGosling who had played the title role in the short-lived ''Series/YoungHercules'' spin-off.

** Any time Hercules and Xena teamed up have become this since Sorbo and Creator/LucyLawless are no longer friends since the former's embrace of ultraconservatism. Notably, Lawless chastised Sorbo for blaming far-left anarchists for the U.S. Capitol siege in January 2021.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Became so big in inernational syndication that it managed to surpass Baywatch to become the most watched show in the world at its peak.

** Any time Hercules and Xena teamed up have become this since Sorbo and Creator/Lucy Lawless are no longer friends since the former's embrace of archconservatism. Notably, Lawless chastised Sorbo for blaming far-left anarchists for the U.S. Capitol siege in January 2021.

* CompleteMonster:
** "[[Recap/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneysS1E12TheGauntlet The Gauntlet]]" & "[[Recap/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneysS1E13UnchainedHeart Unchained Heart]]" (as well as an AlternateContinuity in "[[Recap/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneysS4E14ArmageddonNowPart2 Armageddon Now: Part 2]]": Darphus 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's monstrous pet. Darphus feeds innocent victims to said monster and shows no hesitation in killing his own men as well just for displeasing him.
** "[[Recap/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneysS4E7ProdigalSister Prodigal Sister]]": [[NamesToRunAwayFrom Mayhem]] 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!]]"

*** There was another one in the same setting where the staff go 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."

* FollowTheLeader:
** The portrayal of Loki in the Norse two-parter has him as a son of Odin, much like the Creator/MarvelComics portrayal.
** This show itself (and [[Series/XenaWarriorPrincess Xena]]) is the 'Leader' when it comes to action-based series featuring well known story characters around UsefulNotes/TheNineties. Chief examples of this include [[Series/TheAdventuresOfSinbad Sinbad]] and [[Series/TheNewAdventuresOfRobinHood Robin Hood.]]
* FunnyAneurysmMoment: The disclaimer included in "A Star to Guide Them" (see below) becomes a lot less funny knowing that Kevin Sorbo has since become a HolierThanThou [[TheFundamentalist religious zealot]] 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 Sorbo's later turn to [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalist Christianity]].

** In "Les Contemptibles," Michael Hurst's French character suggests calling their LaResistance group "[[Franchise/PowerRangers the Powerful Rangers]]." When ''Power Rangers'' production was moved down to New Zealand, a number of local ''Hercules''/''Xena'' actors obtained various roles, including Michael "[[Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm Vexacus]]" Hurst himself.

* SeasonalRot: Season six is considered to be the weakest season, due to a combo of season five being regarded as the high point for the series and Kevin Sorbo wanting to retire the character. Reportedly, Kevin Sorbo wasn't too happy with how the final season went down and also felt that the SeriesFinale was rushed.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Hera. While she is responsible for a great deal of tragedy in the series, the sheer horribleness of Zeus's infidelities are very much overlooked and outright disregarded by almost every character. As Hercules is TheProtagonist and also the [[GoodAdulteryBadAdultery product of one of Zeus's affairs]], we're meant to sympathize with him, with Hera canonically as the DesignatedVillain. One forgets that she's not only a WomanScorned repeatedly by her [[YourCheatingHeart unremorseful husband]], but also that she's ''the Goddess of Marriage''. That means marital fidelity matters to Hera more than '''anyone'''. One might be able to understand just why she became so malicious, looking at her from that perspective.

** Darphus, from season 1'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!]]"

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Hera. While she is responsible for a great deal of tragedy in the series, the sheer horribleness of Zeus's infidelities are very much overlooked and outright disregarded by almost every character. As Hercules is TheProtagonist and also the [[GoodAdulteryBadAdultery product of one of Zeus's affairs]], we're meant to sympathize with him, with Hera canonically as the DesignatedVillain. One forgets that she's not only a WomanScorned repeatedly by her [[YourCheatingHeart unremorseful husband]], but also she's ''the Goddess of Marriage''. That means marital fidelity matters to Hera more than '''anyone'''. One might be able to understand just why she became so malicious, looking at her from that perspective.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The centaur Deric and his human lover Lyla, despite being portrayed as victims of hatred and bigotry, manage to come off as this in the episode ''Outcast''. We were clearly meant to sympathize with them as the new town they move to is easily stirred into an anti-centaur mob frenzy and in all fairness, their son was actually innocent of wrongdoing and didn't deserve any of the persecution. However, by no means were Deric and Lyla innocent victims themselves. In their previous appearance, the two blinded Hercules for much of the episode and they even helped another centaur Nemis to kidnap some brides at a wedding. While the two did perform a minor HeelFaceTurn and decided to leave the service of Nemis, they didn't even bother giving much help to Hercules despite having helped cause much of the episode's troubles in the first place. Not once did they at least try to do anything to remedy the situation, like help Hercules rescue the brides they helped to steal to begin with. Because of their actions(and even inactions) in their previous appearance, both Deric and Lyla can come off as less the sympathetic victims of racism that the writers intended them to be and more of a JerkAss couple who [[LaserGuidedKarma deserved all the persecution they received]] considering the two helped to terrorize innocent families, blinded Hercules, and couldn't even be bothered to do the bare minimum to right their wrongs.

** The episode set in the present day which is all about Kevin Sorbo having gone missing, the show's staff trying to find him while keeping the show from being cancelled and features the memorable and hysterical restroom whistling scene.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Hera. While she is responsible for a great deal of tragedy in the series, the sheer horribleness of Zeus's infidelities are very much overlooked and outright disregarded by almost every character. As Hercules is the MainCharacter and also the [[GoodAdulteryBadAdultery product of one of Zeus's affairs]], we're meant to sympathize with him, with Hera canonically as the DesignatedVillain. One forgets that she's not only a WomanScorned repeatedly by her [[YourCheatingHeart unremorseful husband]], but also she's ''the Goddess of Marriage''. That means marital fidelity matters to Hera more than '''anyone'''. One might be able to understand just why she became so malicious, looking at her from that perspective.

* FollowTheLeader: The portrayal of Loki in the Norse two-parter has him as a son of Odin, much like the Creator/MarvelComics portrayal.

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

* 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 zealot]] [[HolierThanThou on par with Pat Robertson]].

*** Possibly IntentionalValuesDissonance -- in the bronze age, killing your neighbor or stealing his cow was a terrible crime, but getting twenty of your buddies together and conquering the next town to kill them and take their cows was politics as usual.

* HarsherInHindsight: In the ''Amazon Women'' TV-Movie, while talking about Iolaus' impending wedding, Hercules off-handedly brags that he might get a wife or two himself one day. His two marriages ended very badly, and he did not take any of that well.

* HilariousInHindsight: In "Les Contemptibles," Michael Hurst's French character suggests calling their LaResistance group "[[Franchise/PowerRangers the Powerful Rangers]]." When ''Power Rangers'' production was moved down to New Zealand, a number of local ''Hercules''/''Xena'' actors obtained various roles, including Michael "[[Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm Vexacus]]" Hurst himself.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The centaur Deric and his human lover Lyla, despite being portrayed as victims of hatred and bigotry, manage to come off as this in the episode ''Outcast''. We were clearly meant to sympathize with them as the new town they move to is easily stirred into an anti-centaur mob frenzy and in all fairness, their son was actually innocent of wrongdoing and didn't deserve any of the persecution. However, by no means were Deric and Lyla innocent victims themselves. In their previous appearance, the two blinded Hercules for much of the episode and they even helped another centaur Nemis to kidnap some brides at a wedding. While the two did perform a minor HeelFaceTurn and decided to leave the service of Nemis, they didn't even bother giving much help to Hercules despite having helped cause much of the episode's troubles in the first place. Not once did they at least try to give Hercules a cure or at the very least, help him rescue the brides they helped to steal to begin with, as Deric admits he's afraid of going against Nemis. Because of their actions(and even inactions) in their previous appearance, both Deric and Lyla can come off as less the sympathetic victims of racism that the writers intended them to be and more of a JerkAss couple who [[LaserGuidedKarma deserved all the persecution they received]] considering the two helped to terrorize innocent families, blinded Hercules, and couldn't even be bothered to do the bare minimum to right their wrongs.

* BadassDecay: Ares gets hit with this the hardest of all out of all in the show, especially for someone known as the god of war. 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, 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.

* SeasonalRot: Season six is considered to be the weakest season, due to a combo of season five being regarded as the high point for the series and Kevin Sorbo wanting to retire the character.

* 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, 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.