* FairForItsDay: To modern audiences, Salgari is a moderate racist and sexist. When the novels were written (between 1883 and 1911), Salgari was a radical proponent of equality between genders and races.
* HarsherInHindsight: In "The Kind of the Sea", the original American crew of the titular ship interrogates the "Pilgrim", and when he claims they have no way to force him to talk they break him in minutes through the "[[ColdBloodedTorture water cure]]", that is forcing him to drink water until his stomach streaches to the point of horrible pain and letting him suffer, much to Yanez's horror. In 2004 it came out that the CIA engages in waterboarding, a very similar water-based torture.
* HilariousInHindsight: When people explored the area of Mount Kinabalu they found that the lake on whose shores Sandokan was born didn't actually exist. Now it does, dug by ''UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire''.
* NightmareFuel: The water cure scene in "The King of the Sea". One moment the fake Meccan Pilgrim is bragging that Yanez, the Tigers, and the Americans won't be able to force informations out of him as he can take any torture they can come up with, and the next the Americans subject him to a torture he had ''not'' imagined and couldn't take, with Yanez watching in horror as the Pilgrim breaks.