History YMMV / WarAndPeace

* {{Anvilicious}}: No, Leo, tell us how you ''really'' feel about "great man" theory of history...

* HollywoodHomely: Princess Marya is as butt-ugly in the book, but adaptations rarely cast someone unattractive while still singling her out as plain.

** The fate of Natasha, as shown and explained in the epilogue, is especially outrageous in this respect. She's totally invested in first her marriage and then her children, which is fair enough, but she completely lets herself go in appearance and behaviour, abandons all the things she was good at like singing, and withdraws from polite society. Denisov, when he comes to visit, is appalled at the difference between the young and spirited Natasha and the plump, placid housewife she is at the end of the book.

** Princess Marya Bolkonskaya is abused by her father, mocked by her brother, her sister-in-law dies, her only friend Mademoiselle Bourrienne is constantly hooking up with the men in her life, [[spoiler: first Anatole, then Old Prince Bolkonsky himself!]] and her only company are random hitchhiker pilgrims.

** One could argue that Sonya is also a Woobie, considering that she lives in a household where her aunt despises her for no fault of her own, her closest friend Natasha doesn't really care for her, and [[spoiler:she ends up becoming a "sterile flower" after her fiancé ditches her for a rich heiress.]]

* {{Anvilicious}}: No, Leo, tell us how you ''really'' feel about "great man" history...

* EnsembleDarkhorse: While actually a minor character, Dolokhov seems to fit an unusual number of tropes, and makes enough of an impact on main characters' lives to merit distinction.

* ValuesDissonance: It's [[HistoricalFiction the early 1800s in czarist Russia]]: men and women aren't exactly on equal standing. The women are [[CharacterDevelopment fully-realized characters]] with understandable motivations, and their parts of the story are equally long and important as those concerning men. However, it's not unfair to say ''War'' belongs to the men and ''Peace'' belongs to the women.

* WhatAnIdiot: In the 2016 BBC version, Helene tries to pretend nothing's wrong even while she's desperately trying to get her marriage to Pierre annulled and marry one of her other lovers, which is exacerbated by the fact she's pregnant and clearly starting to show. So, ''what'' does she wear to Anna Pavlovna's party? A practically see-through dress, which lets everyone spot her baby bump. Anna naturally tells her to leave straight away.
* WTHCostumingDepartment: Many viewers found the female costumes in the 2016 BBC production utterly bizarre, from the dress that totally exposes one of Anna Pavlovna Scherer's shoulders, to Helene's often anachronistic and scandalous outfits, frequently looking as if she's dropped in from the 20th century rather than living in the 19th. [[spoiler: It says a lot that Helene's most period accurate dress is the one she ''dies'' in.]]

* HypeBacklash: You want some hype? This book is considered one of the greatest novels ever written, a masterpiece of world literature. It's been considered that for over a century now.

* HollywoodHomely: Princess Marya howers somewhat close to this. From the very beginning she is depicted as butt-ugly, but then, during her romance with Nikolai Rostov she becomes quite attractive. Go figure.
** She was never depicted as ugly, but rather just plain. A sort of "diamond in the rough"
*** Are we talking about the Russian original or some English translation? As a matter of fact, Tolstoy does mention her "ugly, unhealthy face" and "ugly, weak body" ("некрасивое, болезненное лицо", "некрасивое, слабое тело") very early in the novel. The first impression is so strong that the Russian high school students either tend to overlook her abovementioned metamorphose after the encounter with Nikolai Rostov (her plot line is a secondary one, after all), or it comes to them as a shock.
*** She remains physically ugly the whole time, but Nikolai kind of just gets over it because she's [[ClicheStorm beautiful on the inside due to her spiritual purity and love for others]] and has [[WhatBeautifulEyes really pretty eyes]] when she cries.

* HistoricalBadassUpgrade: Inverted with Napoleon; Tolstoy took pains to discredit him, most likely to the point of making him appear less competent than he really was.
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte, most certainly. While Tolstoy did do a lot of the research, he apparently had no problem skewing things to make Napoleon look as bad as possible. To give one example, the story of the Polish cavalry charging into a river at his command and nearly drowning themselves was based on a true story, though YMMV on how far he went. But while in the book Napoleon takes this moment to relish in his power over life and death, the reality was that he took a while to realize they were actually drowning, and when he did he [[BigDamnHeroes immediately jumped in to help rescue them.]]

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Napoleon Bonaparte, most certainly. While Tolstoy did do a lot of the research, he apparently had no problem skewing things to make Napoleon look as bad as possible. To give one example, the story of the Polish cavalry charging into a river at his command and nearly drowning themselves was based on a true story, though YMMV on how far he went. But while in the book Napoleon takes this moment to relish in his power over life and death, the reality was that he took a while to realize they were actually drowning, and when he did he [[BigDamnHeroes immediately jumped in to help rescue them.]]

* WTHCostumingDepartment: Many viewers found the female costumes in the 2016 BBC production utterly bizarre, from the dress that totally exposes one of Anna Pavlovna Scherer's shoulders, to Helene's often anachronistic and scandalous outfits. [[spoiler: It says a lot that Helene's most period accurate dress is the one she ''dies'' in.]]

*** She remains physically ugly the whole time, but Nikolai kind of just gets over it because she's [[ClicheStorm beautiful on the inside due to her spiritual purity and love for others]] and has really pretty eyes when she cries.

* MagnumOpus: Along with ''AnnaKarenina'', the book is considered to be the very best of Count Tolstoy's work.

* {{Padding}}

** The fate of Natasha, as shown and explained in the epilogue, is especially outrageous in this respect. She's totally invested in first her marriage and then her children, completely lets herself go in appearance and behaviour and withdraws from polite society. Denisov, when he comes to visit, is appalled at the difference between the young and spirited Natasha and the plump, placid housewife she is at the end of the book.

** The fate of Natasha, as shown and explained in the epilogue, is especially outrageous in this respect.

* MemeticMutation: tl;dr

** The fate of Natasha, as shown and explained in the epilogue, is especially outrageous in this respect.

* CharacterDerailment. People have been known to throw the novel away in disgust upon finding out what happens to the beloved character Natasha Rostov in the epilogue.

** The fate of Natasha, as shown and explained in the epilogue, is especially outrageous in this respect.

* DancingBear: Usually remembered for how long it is.