History YMMV / Lensman

* MainstreamObscurity: Despite being one of the {{Trope Codifier}}s of modern Space Operas, it isn't a very well known series.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Much like ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' is for fantasy, this is essentially the archetype for the SpaceOpera style of science fiction. Of course, with that comes the fact that so many of the concepts that seemed fresh and new when it was first written have either been explored even further or overplayed in the intervening years.

* ValuesResonance: [[spoiler:When the good guys learn Clarissa is about to be the first female Lensman, none of the men have any problem with the idea that she's a "real" Lensman. In fact, the only Lensman - and possibly person in the civilized galaxy - who does is Clarissa herself. For ''two decades''. ''Children'' notes that the Lensman vote to give her full Grey status was unanimous.]]

* ValuesResonance: [[spoiler:When the good guys learn Clarissa is about to be the first female Lensman, none of the men have any problem with the idea that she's a "real" Lensman. In fact, the only Lensman - and possibly person in the civilized galaxy - who does is Clarissa herself. For ''two decades''. ''Children'' notes that the Lensman vote to give her full Grey status was unanimous.]]
* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: The anime, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN09SUtsgzI according to Derek The Bard's review]], especially during the battle between Kim and Helmuth.

** The original stories were themselves published in an era when [[{{SciFiGhetto}} science fiction was regarded as lowbrow stuff unworthy of being called literature]], ensuring any following they had was a cult one, and [[{{KeepCirculatingTheTapes}} they're no longer in print today]].[[note]]That being said, they ''are'' easily found in digital audio and ebook formats.[[/note]] Nevertheless, in many ways they set the tone for the stories that followed in their wake and continue to attract a modest number of fans to this day.

* MainstreamObscurity: Despite being one of the TropeCodifier of modern Space Operas, it isn't a very well known series.

* SerialNumbersFiledOff: The shareware game ''[[http://jalada-children-of-arisia.soft112.com/ Children of Arisia]]'' takes place on the planet Medon, where the player, a third-level intellect, must fight against the forces of Boskone and the Overlords of Delgon who are attaching humanity via a hyper-spacial tube...

** When the series started, eugenics hadn't been [[GodwinsLaw discredited by association with the Nazis yet]], so aliens "encouraging" Earth's best and brightest to [[GeniusBreedingAct make babies with each other]] was seen as the proper thing for SufficientlyAdvancedAliens to do. Ironically, it doubles as in-universe values dissonance; the aliens see no moral issue with trying to make humanity do this.

*** There's a scene in ''Second-Stage Lensman'' where Kinnison tells a Boskonian woman that men and women are equal in Civilization. Even though he's working for a service where women (of any species) aren't allowed to serve as combatants and all the Lensmen are men. [[spoiler:This may be foreshadowing, since the first female Lensman appears later that same book. Also, two of the four most powerful Lensmen - and possibly sentient beings - in the entire series turn out to be girls, and they're all the kids of Kinnison and that first female Lensman.]]

* GeniusBonus: ''Galactic Patrol'' includes a very amusing technobabble explanation for the unlikely properties of one of Smith's favorite inventions, Duodecpylatimate, AKA Duodec, the ultimate chemical explosive. You have to understand scientific notation to figure out the joke. Smith was reportedly delighted to be called out on this "mistake".

%% * HilariousInHindsight: The Arisians' true form bears a rather striking resemblance to [[{{Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles}} the Utroms]].

* HarsherInHindsight: In "First Lensman" some of the characters note that even the USSR was strongly against drugs. The USSR had and modern Russia have strict drug policies, but the latter currently has a one of the worst drug problems in the world. [[note]]In fact, the drug laws are so serious they sometimes force addicts to share needles, which led to a spread in HIV and AIDS.[[/note]]
* HilariousInHindsight:
** "Galactic Patrol" implies future-Chicago and future-Paris are highly "Caucasian". Modern Chicago is actually heavily black, and Paris has a signficant amount of non-whites as well.
*** The Arisians' true form bears a rather striking resemblance to [[{{Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles}} the Utroms]].
** "Second-Stage Lensman" makes a point of trumpeting gender equality as a major criteron of Civilization. While the series might be FairForItsDay, a lot of the gender-related stuff may come off as sexist to modern readers, such as the lack of women in combat or leadership roles.
*** The book also introduces [[spoiler:the first female Lensman. Not only is she a textbook {{tsundere}} - except for the lack of physical assault - but she's also known as the "Red Lensman". The books inspired ''Franchise/GreenLantern'', and in that franchise, red is the Emotional Light of Rage (from a loss). Clarissa certainly has a blazing temper, and lost almost everyone on the hospital ship she worked on when the bad guys captured it.]]
** At one point in "Children of the Lens", Kinnison the younger asks his father what he knows about Kalonians. The response is "They're blue." It's even funnier when you realize it's a dad joke, written more than fifty years before the term "dad joke" was even coined.

* NightmareFuel:
** [[SerialKiller Kandron of Onlo]] is responsible for the worst of it, in ''Children of the Lens''. When Nadreck investigates him, he compiles a file of roughly a ''thousand'' cases of hitherto respected and admired citizens suddenly committing the most unthinkably savage and sadistic violent crimes (due to Kandron's [[BrainWashed brainwashing]]). The description includes summaries of a few of them, which are probably enough to give sensitive persons nightmares.
** The Delgonian Overlords are almost certainly objectively worse than Kandron, though their activities are thankfully not described in much detail. What they do to Kinnison in ''Gray Lensman'', though, ''almost'' matches him at his worst.
** The brief but haunting description of how the minds of the Overlords' surviving victims work after they have had their way with them in ''Children of the Lens'' makes their ''routine'' procedures at ''least'' as horrifying as anything Kandron ever did.
** Herkimer Herkimer's treatment of Jill Samms in ''First Lensman''. Not quite up to the standards set above, but made worse by the fact that unlike the people in those entries, he is not a monstrous alien, but a human (and FauxAffablyEvil) psychopath.
** Kinnison's experiencing a planet subjected to Boskonia's covert [[MindVirus subliminal propaganda]] campaign. It's fast-acting enough that he can observe in real time how the planet goes from a happy and prosperous modern society to a CrapsackWorld under martial law and on the verge of imminent breakdown, as more and more its population goes crazier and crazier.
** On a more "realistic" scale, the description of one of Boskonia's SpacePirate subcontractors massacring one of the Patrol's hospital ships in ''Galactic Patrol''. It's not especially lurid or even graphic by modern standards, but it rams home very effectively the horrors of fighting a war against an utterly lawless enemy.
** Similarly, what can be deduced of [[AntiVillain Illona of Lonabar's]] life in Boskonia from her debriefings after the Patrol captures her -- And by implication, what life for ''most'' people in Boskonia may well be like. Again, [[HumansAreBastards Humans Are The Real Monsters]]. This one probably also qualifies as a TearJerker.

* LostInImitation: Lensman is the first SpaceOpera with any worldbuilding behind it, setting the example for all to come after it. Yet, it has been eclipsed by ''StarWars'', ''Franchise/StarTrek'', and just about every other space opera that ends up imitating those two more than they do Lensman. The ''Comicbook/GreenLantern'' Corps (WordOfGod explicitly reference the Lensman as the primary inspriation) and the Jedi Knights are also derivative of the Order of Lensman and imitators are more likely to mention those two as Ur examples of super powered elite space warriors.