- Alternate Character Interpretation: Fading Moon's relationship to Broken Sword. In Nameless's version of events, Broken Sword sleeps with her in an attempt to get back at Flying Snow for her affair with Long Sky. The king cannot imagine such valiant swordsmen could be that petty, and in his version of events her relationship with Broken Sword is platonic. The third, ostensibly true version, does have her devote herself to Broken Sword (noting she looked up to him since she was eight); but there is no overtly romantic overtone to their relationship, and there is no enmity between her and Flying Snow. Ultimately their relationship is portrayed as one of a dedicated master and student, though a romantic angle could be found if one really looked for it.
- Harsher in Hindsight: The Emperor calls Nameless' first story out as a fake because Snow and Broken Sword would never behave the way he claimed they did. Their arc ends with a scene that bears more than a passing resemblance to Nameless' story (although the nature of the conflict is political rather than romantic).
- Heartwarming Moments: The entire Blue flashback. It's interesting that the King is the one telling this flashback, describing his two mortal enemies as tender, selfless lovers.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: Jet Li tried to assassinate the First Emperor, then he became the First Emperor. Similarly, Chen Daoming, who was the First Emperor here, later portrayed Liu Bang in King's War, who helped ended the Qin dynasty.
- Just Here for Godzilla: It's not as prominent to Western viewers, but the promise of a Jet Li / Donnie Yen rematch was a huge deal to wuxia aficionados.
- Magnificent Bastard: "Nameless" is a Zhao loyalist seeking to kill the King of Qin posing as a Qin prefect. Concocting a story of defeating the King's deadliest enemies, Nameless stages duels to Qin soldiers to make his tale perfect, all to get himself within ten paces of the King to kill him. Even when the King sees through the stories, Nameless is still able to take the lead and provide him with the philosophies of true martial arts, ensuring the King will seek to conquer and unify the nation into one state, even letting himself be killed so the King may continue to become The Emperor of "All Under Heaven."
- Narm: The DVD subtitles often have the characters' battle cries rendered as "Yaaagh!" which is rather silly compared to other descriptions of sound effects.
- One-Scene Wonder: The unflappable calligraphy master, knowing too well that this might be the last day of his nation, continues practicing his art while arrows pierce everything and everyone around him.
- Special Effect Failure: Being the Wuxia genre, Wire Fu is to be expected, and most of the movie is absolutely stunning. However two examples stand out, and both involve the separate instances when Nameless proves himself to Broken Sword and Flying Sword. In the first instance he throws a cup into the air before catching it on the flat of his sword. The effect looks almost 2D as Jet Li stands there, completely motionless, while an equally motionless cup descends onto his sword. The second instance involves Nameless flinging a hundred black brushes into the air and piercing the single white brush among them. The effect is well done, until the camera pulls out. Instead of seeing a fairly uniform cloud of black brushes falling, someone has obviously just taken two buckets of brushes and dumped them in front of Jet Li.
- Tear Jerker: Each of the three tales explaining how Nameless got to the throne room is a tear-jerker, and the film ends on a fourth."He was executed as a traitor. And buried as a hero."
- Values Dissonance: Many Western viewers see the film as an open endorsement of despotic rule, while Eastern viewers are more likely to see it as a question of whether the end justifies the means, or whether your goals or their potential aftereffects are more important. Also, "The country must be united by a strong leader because division only leads to chaos," is an aesop common in China that goes back centuries, due to its history of civil wars.
