Line #43 YMMV/TheMillenniumTrilogy


1	!!The Millennium Trilogy as a series contains YMMV examples of:
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3	* BrokenBase:
4	** Between the fans of Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth and those of Creator/RooneyMara's version. Or, if you prefer, English vs. Swedish versions. Making it more interesting is that the Swedish ''Dragon Tattoo'' film is more faithful to the tone of the novel, while the American one is more faithful to the plot, so everyone gets to decide which is more important to them.
5	** In regards to the books: The Larsson books or Post-Larsson books. Either you're okay with the series continuing and trying to fulfill Larsson's idea of ten books within the series ''or'' you find it a complete middle finger from Larsson's family decided to continue the series and disregard the fact his partner, Eva Gabrielsson should be a part of Larsson's estate (as she owns the last of the planned manuscripts Larsson had written before his death) due to the two never being married, as both Larsson and Gabrielsson did intentionally to avoid being tracked due to their anti-fascist work.
6	** And regardless of your thoughts on whether or not you were okay with the series continuing, ''The Girl in the Spider's Web'' was met with mixed reviews. Some enjoyed the plot and characters and were warmly receptive of it as a continuation of the series, while others found that the writing and plot failed to live up to Larsson's and [[{{Flanderization}} flanderized]] both Lisbeth and Blomkvist.
7	* CaptainObviousAesop: Human trafficking is a problem that needs to be dealt with. Rapists are bad. So are Nazis. [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs Nazi rapists are even worse.]] Pedophiles aren't so hot either.
8	* CompleteMonster: Besides the Vangers, the other two books have Alexander "Zala" Zalachenko, a Russian agent who took refuge in Sweden. Because of his high importance to the government, Zalachenko was allowed to do anything he wanted. His favorite activity was abusing his wife. He would often torture or beat her in front of their daughter. The last time, he beat her so bad he left her with severe brain damage, which resulted in his daughter, [[spoiler: who we find out is Lisbeth]], burning Zala alive in retribution. Surviving with hideous wounds, Zala became the leader of a powerful human trafficking ring where girls were forced into prostitution. Having many, many women sold into sex slavery or killed when their value diminished, Zala also had multiple murders committed by his [[TheDragon nightmarishly powerful son]], and when he found out his daughter's location, he spared no expense to murder anyone in his path to torture her to death himself.
9	* DesignatedHero: Lisbeth Salander may rarely be in the wrong, and may be up against more depraved people than herself, but she's still a deeply scary human being.
10	* EndingFatigue: A fairly common complaint about the first installment. After Harriet's murder is wrapped up, a lot of time is spent dealing with Blomkvist's and Salander's revenge against Wennerström.
11	* FanPreferredCouple: More than one fan expressed disappointment that Larsson asserts Lisbeth's feelings for Mikael are gone after the first novel, [[MayDecemberRomance age gap]] and [[OppositesAttract personality divide]] be damned, and find their respective OfficialCouple partners forgettable or undercooked. As ''Spider's Web'' makes these partners disappear and ends with Lisbeth going to Mikael's apartment (to renew their friendship), shippers tend to view it with romantic undertones.
12	* HarsherInHindsight
13	** In the first book, Mikael wonders if he'll meet some typical local ConspiracyTheorist in Hedestad who's convinced that [[SecretPolice Säpo]] is involved in a mind control conspiracy. [[spoiler: The next two books deal with an actual conspiracy within Säpo, even if it doesn't involve mind control.]]
14	** Michael Nyqvist, who played Stieg Larsson's AuthorAvatar Blomqvist in the Swedish films, died in his 50s just like Larsson.
15	** While, regrettably, parental sexual abuse has always existed, the idea of (well-off) men molesting their children secretly for years while appearing as wholesome and proper citizens and even creating dedicated rape dungeons has been seen as something too horrific to be true. The 2008 Fritzl case and other such crimes that recently came to light have changed that perception.
16	* HollywoodHomely: According to the novel, Lisbeth is supposed to be androgynous, flat, and [[ACupAngst very insecure about her appearance.]] The film series does very little to hide that it's MsFanservice, Creator/NoomiRapace underneath all those piercings and makeup.
17	* IronWoobie: Lisbeth Salander.
18	* JerkassWoobie: Despite all her attitude problems, there are times throughout the books when so much gets piled on her that you just want to give Lisbeth a big hug. Preferably when she's not holding a Taser.
19	* NoYay: [[spoiler:Martin with Mikael.]]
20	* StrawmanHasAPoint: Teleborian may be a sadistic SmugSnake and a prolific pedophile, but he is correct--promiscuous sexual behavior is indeed a marker of sociopathy. It's not, in and of itself, enough for a diagnosis, but Lisbeth setting her dad on fire ([[AssholeVictim even if he deserved it]]) didn't do her any favors as far as that goes, nor did her history of truancy and alcohol abuse or her evident (if justified) paranoia. He is ignorant of her torture of her (sexually abusive) social carer and her career as a world class cyber criminal, which is just as well for her because all in all he could make a pretty convincing case. She might not be a true sociopath, but she certainly displays many sociopathic traits.
21	* ValuesDissonance: From the Swedish perspective, a 16-year old is not really a child when it comes to having sex.
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23	!!''The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'' contains YMMV examples of:
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25	* AudienceAlienatingPremise: A variant: the U.S. version was a box office and critical hit, but [[DidntThinkThisThrough it would have fared better if it hadn't been released on Christmas Day]]. It even advertised itself as "The feel-bad movie of Christmas!" [[http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2011&wknd=51&p=.htm While it was the biggest opener in its weekend]], it's clear people preferred the safer films like ''Film/MissionImpossibleGhostProtocol'' and ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'' than an R-rated thriller with much rape and murder.
26	* AwardSnub: Creator/RooneyMara losing the Oscar for Best Actress is seen as this. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' score for the film wasn't even nominated at the Oscars.
27	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The score by [[Music/NineInchNails Trent Reznor]] and Atticus Ross for the 2011 film qualifies, not to mention the cover of [[Music/LedZeppelin Immigrant Song]], performed by [[Music/YeahYeahYeahs Karen O]] during the opening credits, or the other cover, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVEsA6BSsWc Is Your Love Strong Enough?]], by his wife Mariqueen Maandig.
28	* CompleteMonster:
29	** [[FauxAffablyEvil Martin Vanger]] is a polite, charming CEO who uses his position in society to cover up the fact that he is a SerialKiller and rapist of women, kidnapping them and spending days raping and torturing them before ending their lives. Martin has been committing his atrocities for decades, and his victim count handily reaches into the hundreds. Even worse is the reveal that Martin was raised to be a killer by his equally repulsive father, Gottfried, and though potentially tragic, it is made explicitly clear that Martin just enjoys raping and killing, made all the more obvious by turning [[VillainousIncest his own sister]] into his personal sex and torture slave after his father is out of the picture. Martin tries to subject Mikael Blomkvist to the same torments of his previous victims in the end, and simply excuses his crimes by proclaiming it is his hobby and he is living a "complete life".
30	** In the 2011 film, [[SerialKiller Gottfried Vanger]] is a more onscreen menace than his novel counterpart. A fanatical [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Nazi]] with an obsession for mimicking and mocking the Bible, Gottfried murdered more than 6 women in horrific ways [[ThemeSerialKiller resembling punishments from the Book of Leviticus]], always subjecting them to brutal rape and torture beforehand. Be it by bashing their skulls in or raping them to death with farming tools, Gottfried perpetrated his acts with zeal, and took his own personal sadism to such a level that he [[AbusiveParents sexually abused his own son and daughter]], helping the former--Martin--realize his love for killing while turning the latter--Harriet--into his toy to be tortured until he finally tired of this and attempted to [[OffingTheOffspring murder her]].
31	* HilariousInHindsight:
32	** Creator/EvaGreen and Creator/LeaSeydoux were among the actresses considered for the role of Lisbeth, five years after the former and four years before the latter would play a BondGirl opposite Creator/DanielCraig.
33	** In the 2011 film, Daniel Craig is hired by Christopher Plummer to investigate a disappearance in Plummer's family. In the 2019 mystery thriller ''Film/KnivesOut'', Craig plays a private detective investigating the death of Christopher Plummer's character.
34	* MoralEventHorizon: Bjurman - who is Lisbeth's legal guardian and caretaker - crosses this line when he [[spoiler: forces her to perform oral sex]] in exchange for the money she needs to replace her computer. And then longjumps even farther over it when he [[spoiler: violently sodomizes, rapes and tortures her]].
35	* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize: [[spoiler: Stellan Skarsgård as Martin Vanger]] in the American adaptation.
36	* NauseaFuel: [[spoiler:Blomkvist's adopted pet cat being left on his doorstep with its head missing and every limb snapped clean off.]]
37	* SlowPacedBeginning: The book gets off to a slow start, with a lot of infodumping about Blomkvist's legal troubles in a story that's supposed to be mystery. This thread doesn't get picked back up until the very end, causing EndingFatigue. Meanwhile, the book's whole first half cuts between Blomkvist and Salander's stories seemingly at random, making it quite a relief when they finally join forces. It's likely that Larsson would have done some editing to make it flow better if he'd lived.
38	* SpiritualLicensee: Not the entire film, but the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY4f_83t_rw opening credits]] to the 2011 American version are extremely reminiscent of the title sequence to a Franchise/JamesBond film, complete with surreal, sexual imagery and a dark, thrilling lyrical song. Bonus points since the American version stars Creator/DanielCraig.
39	* {{Squick}}: Lots of it. Most of all, the biblical serial murders and Harriet's history [[spoiler: of being raped repeatedly by her father and brother - once by her brother immediately after she'd murdered their father (while "his body was still floating in the water), to boot!]]. Lisbeth has a bit as well, when she gets revenge [[spoiler: on Bjurman]].
40	-->'''Lisbeth:''' [[AssShove Was this what you used on me last week?]]
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43	!!''The Girl Who Played With Fire'' contains YMMV examples of:
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45	* HarsherInHindsight: In the novel, it's hinted that Mia was pregnant.
46	* MoralEventHorizon: Zalachenko crossed it when he [[spoiler: beat Lisbeth's mother so badly that she suffered a crippling cerebral hemorrhage]].
47	* SlowPacedBeginning: The double murder that sets off the book's plot doesn't happen until a third of the way in.
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49	!!''The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest'' contains YMMV examples of:
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51	* HarsherInHindsight: At the beginning of the novel, Blomkvist says that he is going to talk with Dag and Mia's families about the publication of Dag's books, to get their opinion. In RealLife Larsson's family was much less considerate about the manuscripts, publishing them without his partner's consent.
52	* MoralEventHorizon: Even though he's trying to screw up Lisbeth's life, [[spoiler: Fredrik Clinton]] crosses this when he arranges for Mikael to be murdered and framed for dealing drugs in an effort to destroy his credibility. Wadensjö even calls him on it, saying that [[spoiler:Clinton]] will end up destroying The Section because of his actions.
53	* SeasonalRot: Generally considered the weakest in the series, with the gripping action of the first two novels put aside and more ponderous legal drama taking the stage.
54	* StrangledByTheRedString: Mikael and Monica each admit (separately) to Erika that "I think I'm in love with her/him". But despite this declaration, Mikael isn't sure if it's serious. Indeed, despite an obviously strong mutual attraction, there's really nothing to suggest this will be anything more substantial than the numerous flings he's gotten into throughout the trilogy.

Context YMMV / TheMillenniumTrilogy