History YMMV / Nibelungenlied

* DracoInLeatherPants: Much like [[Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities Madame Defarge]], modern audiences find Kriemhild more sympathetic and tragic than perhaps the original author and text intended. This is especially the case in Creator/FritzLang's [[Film/DieNibelungen really dark film adaptation]], but then Lang was a bit of a [[UsefulNotes/ {{feminism}} feminist]].

* DracoInLeatherPants: Much like [[Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities Madame Defarge]], modern audiences find Kriemhild more sympathetic and tragic than perhaps the original author and text intended. This is especially the case in Creator/FritzLang's [[Film/DieNibelungen really dark film adaptation]], but then Lang was a bit of a feminist.

* MisaimedFandom: It seems safe to assume that the author wanted to tell a tale of how revenge and HonorBeforeReason are not good ways to live your life by. However, the Nazis quite gleefully took the senseless slaughter at Kreimhild's feast as something to ''emulate''. In fact, Göring and Goebbels drew a parallel between what happened at Stalingrad and the doom of the Burgundians and urged the soldiers to do as Hagen had done. What makes this especially weird is the fact that the famous stab-in-the-back myth promoted by the Nazis and other German right-wing extremists cited imagery taken from Hagen doing the same to Siegfried in the epic, and yet it was Hagen and the Burgundians they wanted to emulate? The critic Lotte Eisner hung a {{Lampshade}} on how the Nazis hijacked and misappropriated the epic, noting that before the Nazis, the epic of Siegfried and Kriemhild had positive associations, with Friedrich Engels citing him as a hero of the common man who was tragically destroyed by the elite nobility.

* MoralEventHorizon: Many will feel that Hagen crosses this by killing Ortlieb, Kriemhild and Etzel's son.
* ShockingSwerve: For modern audience, the end when Etzel and Hildebrand decide to kill Kriemhild because she killed Hagen despite the fact that the latter killed a huge number of Huns including Etzel's six year old son. This is a case of ValuesDissonance: a woman cannot execute the sentence herself and for a hero being killed by a woman was a shameful end.

* MoralEventHorizon: Many will feel that Hagen crosses this by killing Ortlieb, Kriemhilde's and Etzel's son.
* ShockingSwerve: For modern audience, the end when Etzel and Hildebrand decide to kill Kriemhild because she killed Hagen despite the fact that the latter killed a huge number of Huns including Etzel's six year old son. This is a case of ValuesDissonance: a woman cannot execute the sentence herself and for a hero being killed by a woman was a shameful end.
* MisaimedFandom: It seems safe to assume that the author wanted to tell a tale of how revenge and HonorBeforeReason are not good ways to live your life by. However, the Nazis quite gleefully took the senseless slaughter at Kreimhild's feast as something to ''emulate''. In fact, Göring and Goebbels drew a parallel between what happened at Stalingrad and the doom of the Burgundians and urged the soldiers to do as Hagen had done. What is especially weird is the famous "Stab-in-the-Back" Nazi-German Right Wing fantasy cites imagery taken from Hagen doing the same to Siegfried in the epic, and yet it's Hagen and the Burgundians they want to emulate? The critic Lotte Eisner hanged a {{Lampshade}} on how the Nazis hijacked and misappropriated the epic, noting that before the Nazis, the epic of Siegfried and Kriemhild had positive associations, with Friedrich Engels citing him as a hero of the common man who was tragically destroyed by the elite nobility.

* MisaimedFandom - it seems safe to assume that the author wanted to tell a tale of how revenge and HonorBeforeReason are not good ways to live your life by. However, the Nazis quite gleefully took the senseless slaughter at Kreimhild's feast as something to ''emulate''. In fact, Göring and Goebbels drew a parallel between what happened at Stalingrad and the doom of the Burgundians and urged the soldiers to do as Hagen had done.
** What is especially weird is the famous "Stab-in-the-Back" Nazi-German Right Wing fantasy cites imagery taken from Hagen doing the same to Siegfried in the epic, and yet it's Hagen and the Burgundians they want to emulate?
** The critic Lotte Eisner hanged a {{Lampshade}} on how the Nazis hijacked and misappropriated the epic, noting that before the Nazis, the epic of Siegfried and Kriemhild had positive associations, with Friedrich Engels citing him as a hero of the common man who was tragically destroyed by the elite nobility.

* MisaimedFandom - it seems save to assume that the author wanted to tell a tale of how revenge and HonorBeforeReason are not good ways to live your life by. However, the Nazis quite gleefully took the senseless slaughter at Kreimhild's feast as something to ''emulate''. In fact, Göring and Goebbels draw a parallel between what happened at Stalingrad and the doom of the Burgundians and urged the soldiers to do as Hagen had done.

* DracoInLeatherPants: Much like [[Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities Madame Defarge]], modern audiences find Kriemhild more sympathetic and tragic than perhaps the original author and text intended. This is especially the case in Creator/FritzLang's really dark film adaptation, but then Lang was a bit of a feminist.

!! The Epic

** The critic Lotte Eisner hanged a {{Lampshade}} on how the Nazis hijacked and misappropriated the epic, noting that before the Nazis, the epic of Siegfried and Kriemhild had positive associations, with Friedrich Engels citing him as a hero of the common man who was tragically destroyed by the elite nobility.

!! Fritz Lang's Film.
* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: Lang's ''Die Nibelungen'' is perhaps his darkest, bleakest and most depressing movie. Which is saying something.
* EvenBetterSequel: The second part ''Kriemhild's Revenge'' is considered superior to the first part, this is mostly because of how different it is from tone, being DarkerAndEdgier and completely doing away with the supernatural aspects of Part 1.
* FollowTheLeader: The scene of Siegfried confronting the Dragon and other special effects were borrowed and stolen for the Douglas Fairbanks ''The Thief of Bagdad'' and it had a huge influence on Creator/SergeiEisenstein's historical films.

* ShockingSwerve: For modern audience, the end when Etzel and Hildebrand decide to kill Kriemhild because she killed Hagen despite the fact that the latter killed a huge number of Huns including Etzel's six year old son. This is a case of ValuesDissonance: a woman cannot execute herself the sentence and for a hero being killed by a woman was a shameful end.

* ShockingSwerve: For modern audience, the end when Etzel and Hildebrand decide to kill Kriemhild because she killed Hagen despite the fact that the latter killed a huge number of Huns including Etzel's six year old son. This is a case of ValuesDissonance : a woman cannot execute herself the sentence and for a hero being killed by a woman was a shameful end.

! Fritz Lang's Film.

* MisaimedFandom - it seems save to assume that the author wanted to tell a tale of how revenge and HonorBeforeReason are not good ways to live your life by. However, the Nazis quite gleefully took the senseless slaughter at Kreimhild's feast as something to ''emulate''. In fact, Göring and Goebbels draw a parallel between what happened at Stalingrad and the doom of the Burgundians and urged the soldiers to do as Hagen had done.

* ShockingSwerve: For modern audience, the end when Etzel and Hildebrand decide to kill Kriemhild because she killed Hagen despite the fact that the latter killed a huge number of Huns including Etzel's six year old son. This is a case of ValuesDissonance : a woman cannot execute herself the sentence and for a hero being killed by a woman was a shameful end.

* ShockingSwerve: For modern audience, the end when Etzel and Hildebrand decide to kill Kriemhild because she killed Hagen despite the fact that Hagen killed a huge number of Huns including Etzel's six year old son. This is a case of ValueDissonance : a woman cannot execute herself the sentence and for a hero being killed by a woman was a shameful end.

* MoralEventHorizon: Many will feel that Hagen crosses this by killing Ortlieb, Kriemhilde's and Etzel's son.

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: By the beginning of the first part, Kriemhild is a tender and meek PrincessClassic. By the end of the second part, she is a merciless angel of vengeance who has sacrificed thousands of lives, extirpated her own clan, ruined a kingdom and heavily decimated another in her quest for justice.