History YMMV / TheManInTheHighCastle

* EvilIsSexy: Obergruppenfuhrer John Smith. Maybe it's the fact that he's played by Rufus Sewell or that he's a SharpDressedMan, but he is just ''sexy''.

!!The Television Series

** Reichsführer-SS [[FourEyesZeroSoul Heinrich Himmler]], Heydrich's superior, was one of the chief architects behind the Holocaust and Germany's wars of aggression. While part of the recently-named Reich Chancellor Martin Heusmann's war council, Himmler is dismissive of the tens of millions of casualties that would result from the nuclear war of annihilation the Nazis are planning against Japan. Himmler subsequently arrests Heusmann after learning of his murder of Adolf Hitler and to assume power. As Fuehrer, Himmler [[IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten forces Joe Blake]] to kill his father to prove his loyalty to the Reich, and has his [[SuperBreedingProgram Lebensborn elite soldiers]] sent out to assassinate ex-Nazi defectors and Japanese politicians, overseeing these soldiers completing their training by killing "subhuman" targets. Himmler has also ordered the construction of an InterdimensionalTravelDevice to conquer neighboring dimensions and authorizes [[PlayingWithSyringes torturous experiments]] on human test subjects, and finally initiates mass riots across the Greater Nazi Reich after having former American monuments destroyed as part of "Jahr Null". Fully convinced of the genocidal and totalitarian policies of National Socialism, Himmler is one of the worst Nazis depicted in the show.

* CriticalResearchFailure: There has never been a state called the "Greater Nazi Reich". Not only was Nazi Germany titled the Greater German Reich, the term "Nazi" would never have been used by the original Nazis themselves; instead it was a derogatory term for a country person (the equivalent of the American "Bubba") applied to the party by its enemies as an insult.

* CriticalResearchFailure: There has never been a state called the "Greater Nazi Reich". Not only was Nazi Germany was titled the Greater German Reich, the term "Nazi" would never have been used by the original Nazis themselves; instead it was a derogatory term for a country person (the equivalent of the American "Bubba") applied to the party by its enemies as an insult.

* AluminiumChristmasTrees: Trading cards themed around WarIsHell might seem like something Philip K. Dick invented for the book, but there were an real thing, and yes, they came with gum as described. The [[https://www.deanscards.com/c/503/1938-Gum-Inc-Horrors-of-War 1938 "Horrors of War" set]] the characters discuss is about as graphic, if not more than, what's mentioned: each card contains full-color, graphic depictions of various scenes from the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar, the Ethiopian War, and the UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar, such as "Big Shells Kill Madrid Children at Play", "Nanking's Week of Horror", and, yes, "U.S.S. Panay Sinks as Crew Abandons Ship" (which is actually one of multiple cards depicting the sinking of the USS ''Panay''), and the descriptions on the back are very explicit about the carnage inflicted on both military and civilians alike. It's no surprise the motto of the series was "To know the HORRORS OF WAR is to want PEACE".

* EsotericHappyEnding: The series ends with [[spoiler:the Japanese having withdrawn from the Pacific States, the Nazi leadership in Berlin replaced with fresh blood, John Smith dead at the hands of the resistance and his subordinate ripping off his Nazi insignia when he's apprised of this, and the ''Nebenswelt'' portal being permanently opened and masses of people from other worlds arriving in the Axis world. While Smith's soul was so far gone by this point that the world would be better off without him, it's already pointed out that even if he died [[EvilPowerVacuum he would just be replaced with someone else]]. The US has been ruled by the Nazi regime for twenty years, with all the indoctrination and fanaticism of rank and file soldiers and citizens that implies. His replacement would have to contend with hardliners and rogue units in the American Reich attempting to depose him, not to mention the Reichsfuhrer in Berlin might just decide that his deal with Smith is null and void with the latter's death. It's a recipe for a civil war. Japan is also still lording over a massive empire in the Pacific and East Asia, with the withdrawal from North America giving them renewed resources to keep those territories under their thumb.]]

** When Smith is watching all of Hitler's film of alternate universes to find anything relevant,he comes across a filmstrip which documents how a chicken farm is run. (Note that up until this point everything has been newsreels or military footage of things like the first H-Bomb test or the dimensional travel experiments). Smith has a blase look while watching it, giving us the impression that he's had to watch a lot of irreleveant crap while trying to find things that are important. [[spoiler: The strip actually ends up being important, because the owners of the farm are revealed to be Abendsen and his wife. Smith uses this information to catch them.]]

** In "Revelations", it is shown that the secret "Baynes" tries to get over [[spoiler:are nuclear fission formulas.]]

** In Season 3, [[spoiler:Joe Blake crosses this by killing his own father then threatening Julianna to comply at gunpoint, to a point when Julianna kills him in self-defense, Joe qualified as an AssholeVictim after losing all sympathy]].
** Smith finally crosses this line in Season 4 [[spoiler:when he finally decides on his plan to essentially kidnap Alt-Thomas Smith to "replace" the one he lost while simultaneously approving the American Reich's invasion of the West Coast, with all the plans of concentration camps, genocide and cultural destruction included. It finally dawns on Helen how irredeemable her husband has become when she finally gets sees the extremely-detailed invasion plans for herself.]]

** The cop Joe meets while driving the truck was quite memorable for showing how Nazi policies have warped the average American: the cop [[PunchClockVillain is genuinely friendly]]...[[ConditionedToAcceptHorror while seeing nothing wrong with the mentally and physically disabled being killed and cremated, talking blissfully about the ashes falling around him like it was weather]].

** Reichsführer-SS [[FourEyesZeroSoul Heinrich Himmler]], Heydrich's superior, was one of the chief architects behind the Holocaust and Germany's wars of aggression. While part of the recently-named Reich Chancellor Martin Heusmann's war council, Himmler is dismissive of the tens of millions of casualties that would result from the nuclear war of annihilation the Nazis are planning against Japan. Himmler subsequently arrests Heusmann after learning of his murder of Adolf Hitler and to assume power. As Fuehrer, Himmler [[IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten forces Joe Blake]] to kill his father to prove his loyalty to the Reich, and has his [[SuperBreedingProgram Lebensborn elite soldiers]] sent out to assassinate ex-Nazi defectors and Japanese politicians, overseeing these soldiers completing their training by killing "subhuman" targets. Himmler has also ordered the construction of an InterdimensionalTravelDevice to conquer neighboring dimensions and authorizes [[PlayingWithSyringes torturous experiments]] on human test subjects, and finally initiates mass riots across the Greater Nazi Reich after having former American monuments destroyed as part of "Jahr Null". Fully convinced of the genocidal and totalitarian policies of National Socialism, Himmler is one of the single worst Nazis depicted in the show.

* OneSceneWonder: Jim [=McCarthy=], Ed's grandfather. He appears in only two scenes (one of which consists entirely of him shooting insults at Frank over the phone), but manages to make a deeper impact than some of the main cast.

** Obergruppenfuhrer John Smith, due to being a SharpDressedMan played by Rufus Sewell and his sympathetic traits like his love for his family above everything else. Also the fact that he was a U.S. military officer before Axis victory and indications of him being a PunchClockVillain whose hand was forced by the Nazis winning the war also further helps.

* CriticalResearchFailure:
** The name of the German-occupied "Greater Nazi Reich" doesn't really make sense. "Nazi" was a German colloquial abbreviation of "national socialist" and was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism#Etymology never officially in use during the period of the Nazi rule in Germany]] - officially naming a state like that would have been like officially calling the USA "United Yank States" or the USSR "Commie Union of Russia". The real name the Nazis used was Greater ''German'' Reich. If anything, it would have been dubbed the [[https://image1.hoerzu.de/files/imagecache/raw/images/magazin/ManintheHighcastle_artikel.jpg "Greater Germanic Reich"]] if they had been able to carry out all their plans. On top of that, the word is derived from a South German term for an uneducated peasant, and was used by opponents of the Nazis as a mocking derogatory term. They did attempt to re-appropriate the word, but soon gave up. [[WildMassGuessing Maybe]] it's officially called the Greater National Socialist Reich and "Greater Nazi Reich" is just a colloquialism, but there's no indication of this in the series itself.
** As in the book, characters whose surnames are traditionally associated with Jewish heritage change their names to avoid persecution, even if they aren't actually of Jewish descent and/or don't personally identify as Jewish, with Frank Frink (originally Frank ''Fink'') a prominent example discussed in-universe. So how the heck is no-one talking about the fact that the Obergruppenführer's son is being treated by a doctor named ''Adler''? Since [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adler Adler]] is German for "Eagle," it presumably slipped under the radar.
** At one point, Smith listens to ''Mack The Knife'' on a record player. Considering the song is from an unapologeticly Marxist stage musical, it's very unlikely that a loyal Nazi officer would pick that particular song to listen to. [[FridgeBrilliance Then again,]] hypocrisy was a common trait among nazi leaders (and totalitarians in general), and Smith is also an IFightForTheStrongestSide type, rather than a true-believer. He probably just likes the song, and none of his underlings dare risk his wrath by questioning it.
* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: The second season can be riddled with this, as the LaResistance are shown to be corrupt and even act as part of the BigBadEnsemble with the Axis Powers mostly towards Julianna, who undergoes hell by being [[spoiler:hunted by the resistance for both Joe Blake's escape and Karen's death, which was actually [[NeverMyFault caused by Gary]], who was the one who issued the manhunt on Julianna]].

* SpiritualSuccessor: To the revived ''[[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 Battlestar Galactica]]'' series. Three actors from ''Galactica'' play Resistance members in ''High Castle'', and unexplained fantasy metaphysics along with the presence of seemingly omniscient advisers in the midst of science fiction are important details in both series. Also, current politics and events and history in today's contemporary world are playing out in -- or are being read into -- the themes and plots in both series.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Most non-fans only remember the show for a P.R. mishap wherein ''an entire New York City Subway car was covered with Nazi and Imperial Japanese imagery'' as part of it's advertising campaign.

* PropagandaPiece: In an alternate universe where the Axis powers won WWII, Hudson Aberdeen made anti-Nazi propaganda to bolster the Resistance movement, which pretended that the Allies won. The films were so realistic, that mistakenly, [[DimensionalTraveler Travelers]] started sending him ''real'' films of the Allies winning, sparking the plot. In a second example, he later gets coerced into hosting a TV show that is much like the original ''Franchise/TheTwilightZone'', with Nazi aesops such as "In an alternate universe, you might have a ''[[AndThatsTerrible black boss]]!''" This is specifically to discredit his previous work, which gets portrayed as another negative alternate universe story.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To the revived ''[[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 Battlestar Galactica]]'' series. Three actors from ''Galactica'' play Resistance members in ''High Castle''. And unexplained fantasy metaphysics along with the presence of seemingly omniscient advisers in the midst of science fiction are important details in both series. Also, current politics and events and history in today's contemporary world are playing out in -- or are being read into -- the themes and plots in both series.

** The name of the German-occupied "Greater Nazi Reich" doesn't really make sense. "Nazi" was a German colloquial abbreviation of "national socialist" and was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism#Etymology never officially in use during the period of the Nazi rule in Germany]] - officially naming a state like that would have been like officially calling the USA "United Yank States" or the USSR "Commie Union of Russia". The real name the Nazis used was Greater ''German'' Reich. If anything, it would have been dubbed the [[https://image1.hoerzu.de/files/imagecache/raw/images/magazin/ManintheHighcastle_artikel.jpg "Greater Germanic Reich"]] if they had been able to carry out all their plans. On top of that, the word is derived from a South German term for an uneducated peasant, and was used by opponents of the Nazis as a mocking derogatory term. They did attempt to re-appropriate the word, but soon gave up.
*** [[WildMassGuessing Maybe]] it's officially called the Greater National Socialist Reich and "Greater Nazi Reich" is just a colloquialism, but there's no indication of this in the series itself.

** At one point, Smith listens to ''Mack The Knife'' on a record player. Considering the song is from an unapologeticly Marxist stage musical, it's very unlikely that a loyal Nazi officer would pick that particular song to listen to.
*** [[FridgeBrilliance Then again,]] hypocrisy was a common trait among nazi leaders (and totalitarians in general), and Smith is also an IFightForTheStrongestSide type, rather than a true-believer. He probably just likes the song, and none of his underlings dare risk his wrath by questioning it.

* AssPull: The fact that [[spoiler: the ''I-Ching'']] is responsible for the writing of ''The Grasshopper Lies Heavy'' feels like a case of Dick's SugarWiki/GushingAboutShowsYouLike, which is prevalent throughout the book.