These are what we call the 'YMMV items.' Things that some people find in this work. We call them 'your mileage might vary' because not everyone sees these things in the same way. This starts discussions in the trope lists, a thing we don't want. Please use the discussion page if you'd like to discuss any of these items.
YMMV: Conan The Barbarian
Adaptation Displacement: John Milius's Conan the Barbarian film is likely what many think about when they hear the name Conan the Barbarian and not the Howard stories. And it's very likely that Conan = Arnold for many people. Anyone who plays Conan gets compared to him. He is Older Than They Think, predating Superman's debut by five years.
The fandom rejoiced again when he wrote Road of Kings for Dark Horse.
Anvilicious: According to this OverthinkingIt article the 1980s Conan movies have strong feminist, anti-racist and atheistic themes. Then again, that's not necessarily a bad thing given the time.
Awesome Music: Well it does have one one of the best movie soundtracks ever made.
In fact, there are some music critics who consider the score to the 1982 Conan The Barbarian film to be one of the greatest classical music compositions of the 20th century.
Complete Monster: Most of Conan's foes are so irredeemably evil that you can't help but cheer when the mighty Cimmerian finally slays them.
Dull Surprise: Some of the characters in the movie. "Thorgrim is beside himself with grief!"
Fair for Its Day: While many of his female characters were stereotypical cringing females waiting to be rescued Howard also wrote some surprisingly strong female characters: Belit, Valeria and the Devi of Vendhya. His treatment of non-whites is more disjointed and complex. On the one hand is the revoltingly racist "Vale of Lost Women." On the other hand Conan is surprised to find in "Queen of the Black Coast" that his black crewmen, who he had expected to panic and run had fought and taken a toll of the werehyenas. Likewise, while a minor character, the black guardsman who seeks to kill, and inadvertantly frees, Conan in "Red Citadel" is given a sympathetic treatment. Yes he wanted Conan dead but for a perfectly acceptable reason, Conan had burned his village and killed his brother during his pirate days as Amra the Lion.
Another thing on race; while his most famous villain, Thoth-Amon was black, and was evil, he had several noble qualities; he was brave, strong, intelligent, and genuinely cared for the advancement of his people, compared to the usually selfishly motivated Conan.
Conan the Destroyer. The Queen asks Wilt Chamberlain to preserve a girl's virginity.
In the letters page of Conan The Barbarian #267, a reader asks for back issues of the title, and expresses regret that the title was cancelled. The editor points out that a) Marvel don't directly give out back issues and b) the title's clearly still going. That title was cancelled by #275.
Fanservice: In the film adaption, Sandahl Bergman in body paint and a skimpy leather outfit.
Fanservice has always been common in Conan narratives. One of the more blatant examples from the Robert E. Howard stories can be found in Shadows in Zamboula in which the primary female character spends most of the story stark naked, and near the end dances in the center of a ring of serpents.
Just Here for Godzilla: Many who bought the original books had no interest in reading them at all. They bought the for the lush, power paintings that served as the book covers. Courtesy of Frank Frazetta himself.
The Valley of the Lost Women features strange women capturing and kissing the female lead in order to paralyse her. Also in Red Nails Valeria assumes that Queen Tascela wants to drug her in order to have her way with her. She actually just want to suck her soul in order to keep her youth. Note that these example are portrayed in a negative light.
Also a little between the Jenna and Zula in the second movie.
Also in Red Nails, there's a scene of Valeria whipping the slave girl who tried to drug her.
So Bad, It's Good: Conan the Barbarian was a very popular, deeply thought out, and well-received movie. Conan the Destroyer...wasn't, but that's what makes it fun.
At least a few people have commented that Conan the Destroyer is the best Dungeons & Dragons movie ever made due to the fact that it features a full party of adventurers, a McGuffin, and hammy overacting.
Sometimes in the later non-Howard books, Conan's womanising instinct becomes so strong that the books feel the need to refer back to events and clarify that nobody got raped. Still you have to wonder how exactly Conan went about seducing Isparana while she was trying to kill him.
Adaptation Displacement brought about by the movies only leads to more Unfortunate Implications (as Roger Ebert noted as early as the first film's release): Conan becomes a Germanic superman with a black arch-enemy. As hinted by his name, the original Conan was Celtic (or rather, his people were ancestors of the Celts) and in his original stories he had no arch-enemy at all.
