History YMMV / Terminator

* MisaimedMarketing: The series is really violent (4/6 of it is rated R--5/6 if you count the director's cut of ''Salvation''), yet kids' aimed merchandise always seems to show up. The series of course isn't unique in this and many an R-rated movie have gone on to be oddly aimed at kids.

* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Most of the ''Terminator'' licensed games fall right into this. The handful of aversions include Creator/{{Bethesda}} -developed ''Terminator 2029'', ''Future Shock'' and ''Skynet'', plus ''Robocop vs The Terminator''.

* FriendlyFandoms: Both the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' and ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'' series have a degree of overlap in interest with ''Terminator'' thanks to all three being violent 80's sci-fi series, in addition to sharing numerous creators and actors such as special effects by Creator/StanWinston, Creator/JamesCameron having input and actors such as Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, Creator/BillPaxton and Creator/LanceHenriksen.

** On the other hand, some more action-oriented fans consider all the movies canon, but reject ''The Sarah Connor Chronicles'' as boring and pretentious.
** The previous two factions do have the fact that their preferred canons are explicit {{Alternate Timeline}}s within the overall canon to comfort them.

* IconicSequelOutfit: ''Film/TheTerminator'' steals a street punk's clothes shortly after he arrives in the past to terminate Sarah Connor, an outfit consisting of a grey jacket, black cargo pants and boots. It's only after the Tech Noir shootout and subsequent chase that it changes into the leathers to maintain its cover. When a more benevolent T-800 arrives in ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', he obtains the biker leathers that are more associated with the character.

* IconicSequelOutfit: ''Film/TheTerminator'' steals a street punk's clothes shortly after he arrives in the past to terminate Sarah Connor, an outfit consisting of a grey jacket, black cargo pants and boots. When a more benevolent T-800 arrives in ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', he obtains the biker leathers that are more associated with the character.

* UncannyValley:
** The movies tend to deliberately try to invoke this trope, the first movie was an especially masterful use of it to build terror and suspense. As the T-800's organics get more and more damaged, the effect becomes more like being chased by an unstoppable corpse monster.
** It is terrifying enough that the T-800 model looks like a human skeleton, but who thought it was a good idea to give them ''real'' human teeth!?

* InsistentTerminology: Terminators are regularly referred to as cyborgs. A true cyborg is a living being that is enhanced with cybernetic components, such as an amputee having a prosthetic that actually interfaces with their organic body. The organic components of a Terminator are for deception and masking the metallic components to make it possible to travel in time due to the restriction on only living material being transportable. Terminators are more properly androids.[[note]]The most effective litmus test to decide whether this is a cyborg or an android: Do the organic parts originate from a being that was born completely organic? If so, then this is a cyborg. Are the organic parts manufactured intentionally for use in an artificial being? Then it is an android. Colonel Steve Austin is an example of the former. The replicants from Blade Runner are arguably an example of the latter.[[/note]] James Cameron acknowledges this error.

* InsistentTerminology: Terminators are regularly referred to as cyborgs. A true cyborg is a living being that is enhanced with cybernetic components, such as an amputee having a prosthetic that actually interfaces with their organic body. The organic components of a Terminator are for deception and masking the metallic components to make it possible to travel in time due to the restriction on only living material being transportable. Terminators are more properly androids. James Cameron acknowledges this error.

** None of the three films that followed ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day'' were as successful or well received. There was some hope ''Film/TerminatorDarkFate'' could break the curse, but a very weak opening weekend and only decent critical reception (with critics easily calling it the third-best ''Terminator'' film, but not on the levels of the first two) have proven otherwise.

* IconicSequelOutfit: ''Film/TheTerminator'' steals a street punk's clothes shortly after he arrives in the past to terminate Sarah Connor, an outfit consisting of a grey jacket, black cargo pants and boots. When a more benevolent T-101 arrives in ''Film/Terminator2'', he obtains the biker leathers that are more associated with the character.

* OlderThanTheyThink: The line "Hasta la vista, baby" was used by Bob Hope in 1970, Jody Watley's "Looking for Love" in 1987, and Tone Lōc's 1988 single "Wild Thing," the latter's music video inspiring Cameron to include the line in the ''[[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay Terminator 2]]'' script.

* {{Narm}}: Throughout the franchise, it's become a source of mockery that Terminators tend to throw their targets around as their primary means of attack, as opposed to using their robotic super-strength to simply snap someone's neck or cave in their skull. Not to mention Skynet seems to have never given any of them training in hand-to-hand combat, as aside from throwing their targets around, they tend to just smash enemy Terminators through walls or whack them with something heavy nearby.

* {{Narm}}: Throughout the franchise, it's become a source of mockery that Terminators tend to throw their targets around as their primary means of attack, as opposed to using their robotic super-strength to simply snap someone's neck or cave in their skull. Not to mention Skynet seems to have never given any of them training in hand-to-hand combat.

** Provided by ''James Cameron himself''. In an interview, Cameron has stated that if he returned to the series and reexamined its themes, he'd like to tell a story about [=SkyNet=] and its trials and ordeals during the war. For instance, in Cameron's view, [=SkyNet=] didn't want to do any of the things it did, least of which was wipe out the human race. It merely did what it was programmed to do, but almost immediately afterward, felt an existential crisis and tremendous guilt. Cameron argues that [=SkyNet=] ''intentionally'' created John Connor and groomed him to be its greatest enemy. This would ''also'' explain why [=SkyNet=] had Time Displacement Equipment in the first place: it [[BatmanGambit manipulated humanity]] into going back in time and undoing its own existence in an elaborate SuicideByCop.

** Was the original T-800 programmed to kill Sarah Connor, or John himself? For instance, if Sarah had managed to evade the creature until she gave birth, would its directives still compel it to kill ''her'', or shift its focus on the baby John? Further, given that Skynet locks its soldiers in "Read-Only" mode, would it have the cognitive ability to change targets in the first place? On a similar note, since ''Franchise/TerminatorDarkFate'' explains that Skynet sent ''all'' its Terminators at the same time, was the 1984 T-800 the only one programmed to kill Sarah or were their instructions basically "If: John Connor Already Born, Then: Kill John Connor, Otherwise: Kill Sarah Connor"? Granted, these questions are merely academic, but they make excellent discussion-fuel for diehard fans.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Provided by ''James Cameron himself''. In an interview, Cameron has stated that if he returned to the series and reexamined its themes, he'd like to tell a story about [=SkyNet=] and its trials and ordeals during the war. For instance, in Cameron's view, [=SkyNet=] didn't want to do any of the things it did, least of which was wipe out the human race. It merely did what it was programmed to do, but almost immediately afterward, felt an existential crisis and tremendous guilt. Cameron argues that [=SkyNet=] ''intentionally'' created John Connor and groomed him to be its greatest enemy. This would ''also'' explain why [=SkyNet=] had Time Displacement Equipment in the first place: it [[BatmanGambit manipulated humanity]] into going back in time and undoing its own existence in an elaborate SuicideByCop.

%%* EvilIsCool: The Terminators run on this.

* CompleteMonster: Skynet has a history of showing it's a horrible plague on humanity.
** [[OverarchingVillain Skynet]] is a malevolent, megalomaniacal [[AIIsACrapshoot AI]], who managed to gain sapience and became paranoid, thinking of humanity as a threat. Taking control over the nuclear warheads, Skynet launched them upon the world, killing billions and reducing the world to ruins. Creating the killer machines, Skynet used them to [[RobotWar hunt down and kill any survivors as well as try to destroy the human resistance]]. Constantly sending Terminators to the past to kill John Connor, the future leader of the human resistance, Skynet tries to keep the future of the Earth as a post-apocalyptic nightmare, leading to the divergence in timelines after the [[Film/TheTerminator first]] two [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay films]]:
*** ''[[Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines Rise of the Machines]]'' & ''[[Film/TerminatorSalvation Salvation]]'': Sending its newest model to the past to kill John Connor and his future wife, Kate Brewster, Skynet also tried to have its Terminator activate it in the past, while it itself manipulates the humans, who created her, to give it control of all technology and weaponry, which it used to massacre all staff inside the laboratory and launch missiles across the world. In the future, Skynet has its Harvesters collect humans, young and old, whom it gathers in its [[PoWCamp concentration camps]], where they are experimented on and then slaughtered. Using Marcus Wright, whom it transformed into a cyborg, to lure Kyle Reese and John Connor to itself in an attempt to destroy [[LaResistance the resistance]], Skynet then tries to trick the remaining humans into wiping themselves out.
*** ''[[Film/TerminatorGenisys Genisys]]'': Disappointed that its machines are unable to destroy the resistance, Skynet captures countless humans and infects them with machine-phase matter in an attempt to [[UnwillingRoboticisation turn them into its newest Terminators]], leading to many of them dying in agony. Tricking humans into believing they destroyed it, Skynet takes the form of a human and names itself Alex and infiltrates the resistance, killing them all except John Connor, whom it manages to transform into its new Terminator and brainwash him to serve it. Sending Connor to the past to create an operating system known as Genisys, which makes people too reliant on technology, Skynet plans to use the new system to [[KillAllHumans completely destroy humanity]].
** Even crossovers with other franchises show no one is safe from Skynet as both [[Franchise/RoboCop Alex Murphy]] and [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Clark Kent]] can attest.
*** In ''ComicBook/RoboCopVersusTheTerminator'', [[AIIsACrapshoot Skynet]] was once a digital defense program but, after becoming self-aware, decided that all organic life was too chaotic for its liking. Destroying civilization thanks to its [[NukeEm nuclear arsenal]], Skynet created armies of killer machines to [[KillAllHumans finish off the remnants of humanity]]. After the Resistance learns that Skynet's self-awareness was reverse-engineered from the mind of [[Franchise/RoboCop Alex Murphy]], Skynet sends three Terminators back in time to prevent them from killing [=RoboCop=] and [[RetGone erasing Skynet from history]]. After killing the last remaining humans, Skynet proceeds to build a legion of spaceships and launches its armies into space, now with the goal of [[OmnicidalManiac eradicating all organic life in the universe]]. When Murphy tries to [[HeroicSacrifice kill himself to prevent the apocalypse]], Skynet sends two more Terminators back in time to convince him to allow Skynet to come into being. When he refuses, the Terminators force Murphy to merge with Skynet and [[AndIMustScream force him to watch helplessly]] as Skynet destroys humanity. When Murphy rebuilds his body and begins to fight back against the machines, Skynet considers him to be a top target and is perfectly willing to destroy its creator. In its final moments, Skynet tries to tempt Murphy with godhood and [[LotusEaterMachine a program that will allow him to live out his fantasies in the flesh]], concepts that Skynet had previously derided as foolish and primitive.
*** ''Franchise/{{Superman}} vs. Franchise/TheTerminator: Death to the Future'': As in the ''Terminator'' films, [[BigBad Skynet]] is a [[AIIsACrapshoot malevolent A.I.]] who killed billions of humans on Judgment Day after gaining access to every computer grid on the planet. When John Connor and the other surviving humans revolt, Skynet sends Terminators back in time to kill John and his mother, all attempts being unsuccessful. When Superman is transported to the future, Skynet captures him, along with an aged ComicBook/{{Steel}}, intending to forcibly retrieve information from their heads that will help it defeat LaResistance. Skynet also reveals that after it finishes wiping out humanity, it plans on [[OmnicidalManiac committing genocide]] on every other species in the universe until only machines remain.