History YMMV / JudgeDredd

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: ''Dreadnoughts: Breaking Ground'' induces this as it shows the disintegration of American democracy, civil rights, and due process in the face of the Judges system. Its protagonist, Judge Veranda Glover, is also a genuinely repulsive human being with all of Judge Dredd's flaws but lacking even his humanizing qualities.

* NeverLiveItDown: Due to the sheer memetic-ness of his dedication to THE LAW, it can be surprising to new readers to find that Dredd is actually one of the more sensible Judges. Judge Dredd is fairly unique among long-lived comic book characters in that he ages in real time and his personality gradually changes over the years as he increasingly questions his role. Despite this fans still often portray him as being obsessed with THE LAW and arresting criminals. He doesn't even use that CatchPhrase very much.

*** It's also possible to believe Judge Dredd went through CharacterDevelopment unlike a lot of comic book characters suffering from StatusQuoIsGod. Judge Dredd started as a far more idealistic and unambiguously heroic (if ridiculously strict) character around the events of "The Cursed Earth" only to become far more dark as well as menacing due to the events of "The Apocalypse War" that turned him into an executioner of hundreds of millions. This characterization would continue through the "Letter from a Democrat" and "America" storylines. That Judge Dredd was far more brutal as well as apathetic to the citizenry due to the inhumanity he'd seen as well as dished out. He then suffered a HeelRealization due to the events of "Letter to Judge Dredd" and only returned when the existential threat of Judge Death appeared. He is now far more suspicious of fascism and even liberal by Judge standards, opposing fascists like Judge Smiley. Out of universe, this would be justified by John Wagner developing the world and refining the character behind the scenes to deal with the politics of the day.

** The use of the Soviet Megacities as OmnicidalManiac DirtyCommunist stock villains was meant as satire even when they were initially presented as villains in the Eighties but has become cringe inducing to some readers, especially when Judge Dredd engages in mass genocide against East Mega City One as retaliation.

* ValuesDissonance: Early issues showed Dredd punishing victims of crimes for 'incitement' because they flaunted wealth that tempted the criminals. That works as 1970s satire on heavy-handed law enforcement, but may rankle with readers who are leery of wealth redistribution.

*** It's also possible to believe Judge Dredd went through CharacterDevelopment unlike a lot of comic book characters suffering from StatusQuoIsGod. Judge Dredd started as a far more idealistic and unambiguously heroic (if ridiculously strict) character around the events of "The Cursed Earth" only to become far more dark as well as menacing due to the events of "The Apocalypse War" that turned him into an executioner of hundreds of millions. This characterization would continue through the "Letter from a Democrat" and "America" storylines. That Judge Dredd was far more brutal as well as apathetic to the citizenry due to the inhumanity he'd seen as well as dished out. He then suffered a HeelRealization due to the events of "Letter to Judge Dredd" and only returned when the existential threat of Judge Death appeared. He is now far more suspicious of fascism and even liberal by Judge standards, opposing fascists like Judge Smiley.

** Due to how the comic is written, the characterization of Dredd tends to vary wildly. In more serious stories he's an extremely strict but ultimately fair and dedicated law enforcer who wants to protect Mega-City 1 and its inhabitants. In the stories focused more on black comedy, as well as some of the longer fiction such as the ''Democracy'' storyline, he comes off as a deliberate JerkAss who goes out of his way to make the citizens life a living hell. In the early stories, Pat Mills considered him a straight up hero, whereas John Wagner went with AntiHero at best and VillainProtagonist at worst.

** During "The Cursed Earth" mega-epic, Dredd faces a T-Rex that [[Film/JurassicPark was cloned using reptile eggs and recovered dinosaur DNA for the purposes of a theme park]]. Of course, this makes [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Apu's rant to Principal Skinner]] about UsefulNotes/{{Plagiarism}} even funnier.

* {{Anvilicious}}: ''Dreadnoughts: Breaking Ground'' is all about how there's a MisaimedFandom to anyone who thinks that the PoliceBrutality, police state, fascism, and cruelty of the Judges system would ever be worth living under. Then again, SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped.

For the Karl Urban movie, see YMMV/{{Dredd}}.

For the Karl Urban movie, see Film/{{Dredd}}.

* WhatAnIdiot:
** Fergie casually walking into a broken-into apartment in the middle of a block riot, mere hours after getting paroled. It's like he wanted to get arrested again. To be fair, it is supposed to be ''his'' apartment. He just figured he could ride out the block war inside.
** Fergie ''repeatedly'' blurts out Dredd's name in circumstances where it would be smart not to call attention to him.

* HarsherInHindsight: The plot revolving around Stallone's character being falsely accused of a serious crime (in the film, murder) and getting prosecuted for it became this trope when [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sylvester-stallone-assault-accuser-files-santa-monica-police-report-1069925 Stallone himself was falsely accused of sexual assault in 2017]].

* ValuesResonance: As stated in HarsherInHindsight, the theme of police's relation with society became more relevant under controversy of PoliceBrutality and Police Shootings in US. This is more pronounced in Democracy storyline and other stories dealing with questioning on the limits of the Judge's power and the effectiveness of Judge system.

* NeverLiveItDown: Due to the sheer memetic-ness of his dedication to THE LAW, it can be surprising to new readers to find that Dredd is actually one of the more sensible Judges. Judge Dredd is fairly unique among long-lived comic book characters in that he ages in real time and his personality gradually changes over the years as he increasingly questions his role. Despite this fans still often portray him as being obsessed with THE LAW and arresting criminals.

** The name of one vigilante featured in the strips(2000ad #442)? [[Franchise/MegaMan Megaman]].

** Bennett Beeny gets this from some fans. Many see him as TheWoobie with an UnrequitedLove that he was ultimately unable to stay hold of. Other see him as an EntitledToHaveYou {{Jerkass}} who ultimately takes the body of the woman he supposedly love to assuage his guilt and impregnates it without her prior consent [[spoiler: before giving the child to a group said woman loathed]]. This being Judge Dredd, it's entirely possible both positions are right.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Due to how the comic is written, the characterization of Dredd tends to vary wildly. In more serious stories he's an extremely strict but ultimately fair and dedicated law enforcer who wants to protect Mega-City 1 and its inhabitants. In the stories focused more on black comedy, as well as some of the longer fiction such as the ''Democracy'' storyline, he comes off as a deliberate JerkAss who goes out of his way to make the citizens life a living hell. In the early stories, Pat Mills considered him a straight up hero, whereas John Wagner went with AntiHero at best and VillainProtagonist at worst.

* CanonDefilement: This film has Dredd removing his helmet and showing his face not once, but multiple times. In fact he spends more time with it off than on. This is considered just a step short of heresy by many fans. It arguably doesn't help that the removal of the helmet isn't handled dramatically in any way - if it had been kept on until the moment he was exiled and stripped of his rank, it might have gone over better. [[ShootTheMoney But they paid]] for Creator/SylvesterStallone and by God they were going to use his whole face, not just that iconic jaw of his.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Even though his role was pretty much a mindless [[KillerRobot robotic]] brute, Hammerstein is considered to be one of the better things about the film for his effects, badass voice and for being somewhat of A ColbertBump for the ABC warriors

* TheScrappy: Fergie. The ones who didn't know about his comic book version hate him because he's played by Creator/RobSchneider and he's a hindrance to Dredd. To those who know about his comic book version, the hatred is because he's Fergie InNameOnly (and the aforementioned items do not help).

* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Creator/ArmandAssante looks like he's actually about to cry when he gets to the "That's your family! I'm your family! I'm the only family you ever HAD!" Careers are built on less sincere performances. (Especially notable since he actually manages to combine it with its supposed foil HamAndCheese- that line comes almost ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxfrziN7jNo right after]]'' "LAAAAWWWW!")
* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Whatever else about this film, the sets are impressive and capture to look of Mega City One very well.

** The Sons Of Booth attempting to organise an insurrection in Mega City One can be seen as a parallel to the events in the US Capitol in January 2021 where a group of {{Right Wing Militia Fanatics}}s stormed the place in support of Donald Trump, resulting in five deaths.

** Simping seems a lot less unlikely thanks to [[https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/07/creepy-clown-sightings-craze-speads-britain the Creepy Clown Craze]] of 2016.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Music/AlanSilvestri's soundtrack is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNwqVUyqqTY incredibly awesome]] and one of the parts people like more about [[SoBadItsGood this film]].

* WatchItForTheMeme: Creatot/ArmandAssante and Creator/SylvesterStallone both mangling the word "law" in the most hammy ways possible.

* WatchItForTheMeme: Creatot/ArmandAssante and Creator/Sylvester Stallone both mangling the word "law" in the most hammy ways possible.

* DorkAge: For the most part, Creator/GarthEnnis' run on the strip wasn't all that well received. Ennis himself feels that his own reverence for the character meant he didn't take the piss like in a lot of his other work.
** To be fair most consider that Ennis's stories were fairly well written with a few gems but that they simply did not live up to the potential Ennis had already shown and would shortly demonstrate when he went to America.In any case at this time Creator/JohnWagner was still writing the strip in the Megazine and it was during this period that he created both America and the Mechanismo series, both of which are considered classics. To an extent it largely depended which comic you read as to how much of a DorkAge there was.

** Its usually accepted the DorkAge began to come to an end with John Wagner's return to the Prog with "Wilderlands" in 1994, and that it ended completely with is his full time return later in the year and the publication of the classic "The Pit" in 1995.