Awesome Music: Howard Goodall's theme track, which has been given different versions: a trumpet in Part 1, a recorder and electric guitar in Part 2, a harpsichord, oboe and cello for Part 3, a military band for Forth and two orchestral themes for the Back and Forth special.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Any character played by Rik Mayall is beloved by the fandom, to the point that fans regard him as part of the main cast despite only appearing in three episodes and a special.
Growing the Beard: Most fans prefer the seasons after the Retool. The first season has its laughs, but it's just not as much fun watching a screwball doofus, his moron friend and his clever sidekick as it is watching a wicked snarker and his two moron friends. However, if nothing else, the first season would still be required watching purely on the strength of BRIAN BLESSED's definitively hammy performance (in fact, it's the source of the current image and caption on his self-demonstrating page). Incidentally, Blackadder gains a literal beard in the second season, the first one after said Retool.
Crazy Is Cool: King Richard IV. A crazy and over-the-top Blood Knight who goes to war (and sometimes against his allies) just for the hell of it and is implied to have killed several thousand Turks with a fruit knife. Being played by BRIAN BLESSED certainly helps.
Fan Nickname: The nameless King played by John Savident in the original, unaired pilot has been nicknamed King Frederick I by fans, in reference to Savident's most well-known role.
Fanon Discontinuity: It's rare, but there are some fans who disregard the first season due to how out of step it is with the following incarnations.
Harsher in Hindsight: "The Foretelling" opens with a darkly comic depiction of the Battle of Bosworth Field and even has a scene where Edmund takes one look at the fighting and decides to run away, all played for laughs. "Goodbyeee" also deals with war, but plays it completely straight, and this time Blackadder doesn't get away.
Baldrick is the descendent of a long line of Dung Gatherers. Tony Robinson would later learn that there were many different permutations of the Dung Gatherer (called Pure Collectors) profession when he did The Worst Jobs In History (which also meant he actually had to do it), each in a different era no less! Apparently there were a lot of uses for literal shit.
I Am Not Shazam: Inverted. Other characters rarely call Prince Edmund "Blackadder".
Three guest roles are played by Perry Benson, who would later be best known for playing Henry Livingstone in You Rang, M'Lord?.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: There is really nothing wrong with the premise of the first season. In fact it can certainly be argued it had more potential than other seasons, since it's actually rather ingenious. The execution left much to be desired; plot elements with potential (the ghost of Richard III following Edmund around and taunting him) were thrown out, while others were sorely underdeveloped (Brian Bloody Blessed as king Richard IV!).
Blackadder II has:
Alternative Character Interpretation: The fact Miranda Richardson's later roles in the series were consistently devious characters only playing dumb leaves debate whether Queenie is the same, especially due to being a Historical Domain Character. Indeed the series itself implies she's not 100% The Ditz others believe she is, even if her childishness seems more genuine than Amy or Mary.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The scene in "Bells" where Blackadder falls in love with "Bob", which suddenly turns into a love song album commercial, for no discernible reason (well, okay, maybe one).
Ensemble Dark Horse: See One-Scene Wonder. Lord Flashheart is in this series for two minutes, and gets more laughs in his one scene than anyone else had the entire episode.
Fanon Discontinuity: Some fans believe that The Stinger to "Chains" never happened, as many fans thought it too contrived, out of character, and just plain not funny, as well as requiring Prince Ludwig to have survived being run through the chest and struck with a hatchet with 16th century medicine.
Growing the Beard: According to popular opinion, this is the season where it happened, quite literally. The original Black Adder is beardless, while the Elizabethan version is bearded, as well as more interesting, although Blackadders of the third and fourth installments are also beardless.
A little gem from the balladeer at the end of "Bells":
Lord Flashheart, Lord Flashheart
I wish you were the star
Lord Flashheart, Lord Flashheart
You're sexier by far!
Moments earlier, Blackadder was jilted at the altar (His fiancee ran away with Flashheart), so he now must marry his bridesmaid, who in fact is Baldrick, who agrees with the idea.
Percy is positively devoted to Blackadder in this incarnation, despite receiving nothing but abuse from him, crossing the line into Love Martyr territory more than once. He's even willing to sleep with the Baby-Eating Bishop of Bath and Wells for him, itself an example, and the Bishop basically lampshades it:
Who could you have got to have performed such deeds, to have gone lower than man has ever gone, to have plunged the depths of degradation just in order to save your filthy life!?
Nightmare Fuel: The Stinger to "Chains" more than qualifies. After the credits, we hear a tolling bell and eerie wind noises (from the intro to Elton John's "Funeral for a Friend") while the camera pans over the murdered, wide-eyed bodies of Edmund, Percy, Queenie, Nursie, Baldrick, and Melchett. We then see Queenie standing, alive and well, before she turns to the camera, gives a chuckle in a strange voice and says, in the master of disguise Prince Ludwig's voice, "Now this is a disguise I'm really going to enjoy. If I could just get the voice right." A more creepy than funny end to the series.
One-Scene Wonder: The fandom loves Lord Flashheart. So does the balladeer (see the entry for Ho Yay).
Signature Scene: Blackadder attempting to teach Baldrick maths using beans. Probably the most famous scene of the series after the ending of Blackadder Goes Forth.
The Woobie: Lord Percy Percy. Despite being constantly insulted by Lord Blackadder, he would do anything for him and sees his insults as nothing more than his friend being witty.
Cargo Ship: Lord Sod-off Baldrick has a relationship with his turnip.
Esoteric Happy Ending: While Blackadder may think that taking the identity of the future George IV gets him what he wanted, history shows us his successor won't be any descendant of his, but rather the brother of the individual whose identity he has assumed.
The ending of "Dish and Dishonesty" has Baldrick elevated to being a lord over Blackadder, much to the latter's annoyance. In 2013, Tony Robinson was knighted, while Rowan Atkinson "only" got a CBE.
Ho Yay: Twice, with Baldrick, during "Amy and Amiability". First, when Blackadder suddenly makes a hurricane of demands that include "take me roughly from behind", a confused Baldrick's only response is to ask which thing he's supposed to do first. Later on in the episode, he admits he'd be willing to try and marry the Prince Regent.
Magnificent Bastard: Edmund Blackadder Esq., the third Blackadder, is the butler to the idiotic Prince George of Regency England. A roguish cheat who constantly scams money out of his employer, Blackadder is also left with the task of running the royal court, manipulating the election of his completely idiotic sidekick Baldrick to the House of Commons to vote down a measure harmful to the prince by setting up a Rotten Borough and taking over the position as the only voter as well as the supervisor of elections by murdering his predecessors. When a bet is made for him to one-up The Scarlet Pimpernel, he simply opts to head down to a coffee house and find an exiled French aristocrat there. When the real Scarlet Pimpernel is about to reveal his treachery, Blackadder promptly murders him and wins a great award from Prince George by claiming to be the true Scarlet Pimpernel. Even in the finale, Blackadder sees Prince George dead when they've switched identities and takes the chance to claim to be the real prince to the insane King George III, gleefully ascending to the throne of England several years later.
Nightmare Fuel: Played for Laughs it may be, but any writer will probably cringe at least a bit at the Life's Work Ruined plot of "Ink and Incapability," and Edmund's panicky attempts at undoing the damage. Subverted when it turns out that the Dictionary was never actually destroyed. Double Subverted when it is revealed that the manuscript of Edmund's novel, however, was. Triple Subverted when the manuscript of the dictionary is then destroyed at the end.
Blackadder Goes Forth has:
Anvilicious: The show has been criticized for its over-the-top anti-war message. This is despite the fact, that if you actually watch the season, it's more "anti-war for stupid or selfish reasons, and while in war don't do stupid things or send others to certain death" than "anti-war."
Awesome Ego: Captain Flashheart is an egotistical braggart that views himself greater than God, while being so entertaining about it that he's one of the most memorable and quotable characters in the series.
Critical Dissonance: While fans consider it as the best incarnation, many critics in retrospective have panned its overtly pacifist stance.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Lord Flashheart. His role is greatly expanded from his previous incarnations, but he still only appears in "Private Plane", and he still gets the most laughs per minute of screen time than any other character.
Genius Bonus: Darling is The So-Called Coward if his medal ribbons are taken at face value. The Other Wiki handily lists them as The Military Cross, The Queen's South Africa Medal, The 1914 Star and the French Croix de Guerre. While in real life they were probably just something that the costume department threw on in universe they show that he served in the Second Boer War prior to 1901, rejoined the army at the outbreak of The Great War and managed to do something that got him not one but two medals for gallantry in the face of the enemy, (as the Croix de Guerre wasn't instituted until April 1915 he was serving somewhere where he could get shot at until at least the Summer of that year). It's notable that he's more highly decorated than Blackadder himself and it adds another layer of Fridge Horror to the idea that Darling's twitch is the result of PTSD.
Blackadder: Yes, why not? When this madness is finished, perhaps we could go cycling together. Take a trip to the Old Swan at Henley and go for a walk in the woods.
Hilarious in Hindsight: In "Captain Cook", Melchett (Stephen Fry) tells George (Hugh Laurie) that his Uncle Bertie sends his regards. Laurie went on to play Bertie Wooster in Jeeves and Wooster, with Fry as Jeeves.
Ho Yay: "Baldrick, I love you. I want to kiss your cherry lips and nibble at your shell-like ears."
Jerkass Woobie: Captain Blackadder to a certain extent, but Captain Darling to a massive extent. He's a hilariously obnoxious Butt-Monkey for the first five episodes, but as soon as he starts to realise that he's being sent to his death he becomes a real person, with a life at home, and even someone who loves him. His stoicism at the end is in sharp contrast to his desperate pleading to Melchett that he not be sent to the front.
Blackadder: How are you feeling, Darling?
Darling: Erm — not all that good, Blackadder. Rather hoped I'd get through the whole show. Go back to work at Pratt & Sons. Keep wicket for the Croydon Gentlemen. Marry Doris. [Beat] Made a note in my diary on my way here. Simply says..."Bugger."
The Downer Ending scene has become very memetic during Remembrance Day.
After this season, "Baldrick" has become the by far most popular name for regimental mascots in the British Armed Forces.
Nightmare Fuel: That chilling war drums soundtrack that plays as the characters go over the top.
Older Than They Think: Much of the anti-war themes, tropes, and character archetypes relating to World War I (or the Great War, if you prefer) are present in the British war comic series written by Pat Mills and drawn by Joe Colquhoun, "Charley's War."
Not to mention an entire literature of WW1 memoirs, poetry and fiction that came out mostly after the war's end—for example, the trope of the principal character being an officer and the Only Sane Man is at least as old as Robert Graves' 1929 Goodbye to All That, while the general depiction of the war as being a senseless slaughter overseen by callous Armchair Military was memorably done in the war poetry of Wilfred Owen, who like all the principal characters except Melchett was actually killed while serving at the front.
One-Scene Wonder: Field Marshall Haig is referenced multiple times, so when he finally appears played by Geoffrey Palmer, it's a big deal. Deconstructed on a meta level, since producer John Lloyd felt in retrospect that getting such a talented actor in to do one scene (where he never even interacts with any of the main cast) was a bit of a waste.
Tough Act to Follow: Part of the reason why a fifth series was never made, as nearly everyone involved realized that there was simply no way they could top the final moments of this series, and that critics would be merciless if they fell short. Sure enough, when Back and Forth was eventually released, one of the primary complaints was that it cheapened the ending of Goes Forth.
The Specials have:
Broken Base: Fans tend to be divided whether Back and Forth serves as a satisfying Book Ends finale to the series, or is a watered down Edutainment short.
Fanon Discontinuity: Some fans believe that the Blackadder lineage died with Captain Blackadder at the end of Blackadder Goes Forth, and that Blackadder Back & Forth never happened.note (Which would also require disregarding the future timeline seen in Blackadder's Christmas Carol, although that one does leaves open the possibility that what we see is All Just a Dream)
