History YMMV / ParadiseLost

* MightMakesRight: Arguably the [[UrExample]]. God's authority derives from his overwhelming power, and rebellion against him is taken as self-evidently wrong.

* MightMakesRight: Arguably the ur-example. God's authority derives from his overwhelming power, and rebellion against him is taken as self-evidently wrong.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: It's been around for more than three centuries, and has picked up a ''ton'' of these... for some of the most popular, see GodIsEvil and the various portrayals of {{Satan}}, in the Main tab.
* [[EvilVersusEvil Black and Black Morality]]: One of the ''many'' alternative character interpretations. God is an absolute dictator, Satan is a jerk who wants to ruin the plan out of spite, and humanity is like the kids caught in the crossfire of a nasty divorce.

* FirstInstallmentWins: ''Paradise Regained'', the sequel, is about the Devil's temptation of Christ. It's shorter and not nearly as frequently read or critically acclaimed.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: John Milton’s intentionally subverted this trope. Since the poem starts off from his viewpoint, Satan comes across as more of a DesignatedVillain than an actual bad guy. However, as the poem progresses, the reader is shown the story from the point of view of the angels and God, and it becomes clear that Satan is rationalizing his behavior [[AuthorTract just like humans tend to do]]. The reader is supposed to sympathize with Satan, but they are not supposed to realize why they are doing so until [[WordOfGod God]] (literally) tells them why he is wrong. However, because of the eloquence of his passionate arguments, even many who have read the work [[MisaimedFandom miss the point]], and so believe that “Satan” is in fact the hero of the story, making this a straight trope. This may be a case of ValuesDissonance mixed with CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority.
* ValuesDissonance: "What?" you say. "Seventeenth century religious fiction features Values Dissonance? No way!"
** Milton's portrayal of Eve is [[StayInTheKitchen certainly a product of its time]], yet also FairForItsDay.

[[AC: The Music/HeavyMetal band Music/ParadiseLost]]

** God is perhaps a more straight example, as Satan finds out over the course of the epic: all of his scheming went [[AllAccordingToPlan according to plan]] for God, proving that as the omniscient creator of the universe, God simply is more magnificent.

* MagnificentBastard: Subverted by Satan, who seems this way to his minions, as well as the reader for some of the early parts of the story, until he starts admitting his shortcomings to himself in the later chapters.

* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: Gabriel facing down Satan in the garden, Michael cutting Satan's legs off, the angels responding to the rebels' war machine by ''dropping a mountain on it'', Abdiel's "ShutUpHannibal" speech in Book 5, and finally, the Son smiting all of Satan's forces single-handedly, causing the demons to throw ''themselves'' into Hell.

* FanonDiscontinuity - Many fans disregard the band's synthrock era.
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff - Despite being a British band, Paradise Lost are considerably more popular in mainland Europe.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks - This is par for the course with a band that changes its sound pretty much every album.
* {{Wangst}} - Oh, come on, ''they're a gothic metal band!''

* MotiveDecay: {{Satan}} opens with a lot of stirring rhetoric, but by the later books he's mostly just trying to piss off {{God}} in any way he can, no matter who he has to hurt to do so.
** Interestingly, this may have been [[JustifiedTrope intentional]], as part of the story's philosophy is that evil degrades the sinner--as he sins Satan is becoming less of a person, and thus less developed. Also note his size throughout the books: he starts out as indescribably large, larger than Titans or Leviathan (both have no definite size), but he shrinks down bit by bit, untill he takes the form of small creatures on Earth.

* FirstInstallmentWins: ''Paradise Regained'', the sequel, is about the Devil's temptation of Christ, and it features his final major loss. Both are often collected with ''Samson Agonistes'', which has some similar themes and is sort of a SpiritualSequel.

* NightmareFuel: Satan gave birth to Sin out of his head; she was, at least to Satan, beautiful enough to [[ParentalIncest have lots of sex with]]; after they were all thrown into Hell, she gave birth to Satan's child, Death; ''he'', in turn, ran after and raped his mother; the resulting birth tore up Sin's lower parts so badly that her legs are now a snaky tail, which is not surprising because the babies were all large dogs. The large dogs then run in and out of her womb.
* {{Squick}}: Satan gets his daughter pregnant, and then their son constantly rapes her and the children attempt to eat their way out of her womb.

** Interestingly, this may have been [[JustifiedTrope intentional]], as part of the story's philosophy is that evil degrades the sinner--as he sins Satan is becoming less of a person, and thus less developed.

** God is perhaps a more straight example, as Satan finds out over the course of the epic: all of his scheming went [[AllAccordingToPlan according to plan]] for God, proving that as the omniscient creator of the universe, God simply is more magnificent and more of a bastard.

** Interestingly, this may have been [[JustifiedTrope intentional]], as part of the story's philosophy is that evil degrades the sinner--as he sins Satan is becoming less of a person, and thus less developed.

[[AC: The HeavyMetal band Music/ParadiseLost]]

[[AC: ''Literature/ParadiseLost'' by John Milton]]

[[AC: The metal band Music/ParadiseLost]]

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** Milton's portrayal of Eve is [[StayInTheKitchen certainly a product of its time]], yet also FairForItsDay.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: It's been around for more than three centuries, and has picked up a ''ton'' of these... for some of the most popular, see GodIsEvil and the various portrayals of {{Satan}}, below.
* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Gabriel facing down Satan in the garden, Michael cutting Satan's legs off, the angels responding to the rebels' war machine by ''dropping a mountain on it'', Abdiel's ShutUpHannibal speech in Book 5, and finally, the Son smiting all of Satan's forces single-handedly, causing the demons to throw ''themselves'' into Hell.
* CrowningMomentOfFunny: Following Adam's & Eve's celebratory sex after eating the fruit, Adam blames Eve for their current predicament, and they end up not speaking to each other for the rest of the day.
* DracoInLeatherPants: Satan's conflicted, stirring speeches and soliloquies are some of the best writing on the book, causing him to have a legion of fans. William Blake was probably the first to suggest that Milton was subconsciously on his side, and Satan has developed one of the most loyal {{Alternate Character Interpretation}}s in literature.

** God is perhaps a more straight example, as Satan finds out over the course of the epic: all of his scheming went JustAsPlanned for God, proving that as the omniscient creator of the universe, God simply is more magnificent and more of a bastard.

* MisaimedFandom: {{Satan}} has one due to his charisma, which jumps off the page a little too effectively for some readers to really appreciate Milton's intended message.

* MisaimedFandom: {{Satan}} has one due to his charisma, which jumps off the page a little too effectively for some readers to really appreciate Milton's intended message. Of course, some readers are predisposed to sympathize with Satan, and ''deliberately'' mis-aim their support.