YMMV / Overlord

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Gnarl just a loyal retainer to the Evil Overlord or is he actually The Man Behind the Man with the titular Overlord unwittingly playing The Dragon?
• Annoying Video Game Helper: Repeating yourself doesn't make you any clearer, Gnarl.
• Broken Base: There's a split right down the middle of the video game's fanbase over who exactly is supposed to represent the sin of pride. Some argue that it is the Wizard, who boasts constantly over his final battle with the Third Overlord and was responsible for corrupting the others (it is generally agreed that pride is the cause of the other six deadly sins). On the other hand, many believe that pride is represented by the Third Overlord himself; considering the Wizard was killed in a Grand Theft Me by the Second Overlord and not actually "corrupted" whereas the Third Overlord was the Eighth Hero, whose name is never even given, since he actually was corrupted thanks to a case of amnesia, into believing that he was an "Overlord". Even the title is prideful. He is also capable, true to the philosophy of pride, of committing each sin on his own (holding food vs. giving it back: Gluttony, Choosing shallow but sexy Velvet over caring Rose: Lust, Not forgiving those who betrayed you out of fear: Wrath. etc).
• Complete Monster: In this Dark Fantasy series that examines the thin line between Good and Evil, these three stand out the most through a mixture of cruelty, malice and unchecked ambition:
  • First game: The Second Overlord is revealed in the game's final chapter to be responsible for all the chaos and destruction in the game. Seemingly killed by the Seven Heroes in the past, the Second Overlord transferred his consciousness into the body of the Wizard to survive, destroying his soul in the process. He then tempts and goads the other heroes into sin and corruption, leading to widespread death and destruction as they invade, neglect, pillage, and plunder the lands they once protected. Meanwhile, he orders his minions to follow the Third Overlord in his place and ensure that each of the heroes dies, releasing substantial amounts of evil energy within their bodies that he uses to regain his powers. Finally revealing himself after the death of the warrior Kahn, the Second Overlord gloats extensively about how he tricked, fooled, and corrupted the Heroes and his own successor while plotting to end the Third Overlord's life and retake his place as master of the Dark Tower.
  • Raising Hell: The Forgotten God, once the consort of the Mother Goddess, was punished for spurning her by being cast down into the Abyss and having his name and existence wiped from the memory of all sapient races in the world. Having assumed control of the Abyss, the God hatches a plan to lure mortals from all over the world into his realm, where he torments them in dark and creative ways to force them and all the living to remember him and the reasons they hated and feared him. After the Third Overlord defeats him, the Forgotten God angrily curses the Overlord's name and traps him in the depths of the Infernal Abyss.
  • Overlord II: Florian Greenheart is a non-magic elf determined to accrue magic power for himself without regard for the consequences. His first attempt to steal the magic of the Tower Heart following the disappearance of the Third Overlord causes a massive explosion and fallout that scars the land and leads to widespread fear and hatred of magic. Florian takes advantage of both to rise to power under the guise of Emperor Solarius, leader of the Glorious Empire, while continuing to feign loyalty to his own people and the benevolent Queen Fay. Florian orchestrates a Genocide from the Inside on his people and all magical creatures in the land, using his legions and even the Fourth Overlord as mere tools to gather the magical energies of all fay creatures in his palace before ultimately revealing his plans to the Overlord just in time to absorb all the collected magic his forces gathered and transform into the hideous Devourer. Even in this form, Florian shows no care for his subjects or remorse for his actions, concerned only with fulfilling his deluded dreams of godhood.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Flame thrower dwarves. Getting past even one is beyond difficult, and fighting more than one is a Luck-Based Mission. Averted with the use of red minions, who are completely immune to fire while the flame thrower dwarf himself is not. Also averted with a solo overlord, who can literally run circles around him without worry.
  • The Ruborian Bombers are either this or Goddamn Bats, depending. Once you get to them they go down pretty quick, but until you get to them they'll be cheerfully lobbing grenades on Minion-pulverising strength at you and your non-red little guys.
  • The Sand Worms! It's impossible to kill them without using Blaster Beetles, they can kill dozens of minions at a time and they have incredible reach so even if you're not in the sand, you'll still likely lose a few minions to them.
• Fanon: A surprisingly large amount of fanfictions seem to agree that the Eighth Hero was either a Knight or Magus, and named Gallant.
• Fridge Brilliance: When looking at both characters, it becomes clear why the Third Overlord can be an Anti-Villain while his son is always evil no matter what. The Third Overlord was a Hero who was brought back from the dead and made evil by the minions. Something must be left over that drives him to good, even if it's filtered through Pragmatic Villainy. Contrastingly, the Fourth Overlord was raised by Gnarl for the better part of his formative years while being bullied and shunned by all the people of Nordberg for the rest. He's had plenty of time to learn "proper" evil without any external influences to temper it and a very good Freudian Excuse to act on, resulting in him being a great deal more straightforwardly evil compared to dear old dad.
• Gamebreaker: In the first game, get the best equipment maxed out with only brown minions. You just turned your Overlord into an adamantium-plated Stone Wall that hits as strong as a speeding train.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Looking back at this game post-Despicable Me, it's not hard to think of banana-eating yellow pill-people upon hearing the mention of the word "minions".
• Narm:
  • Kahn, during his whole "Get Back Here!" Boss routine, dragging out the fight with horrible dialog. He tried to do Punctuated! For! Emphasis!, but it wasn't really coming from his balls; rather it sounds like his diaphragm is where his adam's apple should be.
  • Sir William the Black has some pretty narmy dialogue in his own boss fight, too. But then, he is a Camp Straight whiner, so it fits and may even wrap around to Narm Charm.
• Refuge in Audacity: The first mission of the second game involves pitting your minions against seal-clubbing hunters because you need the life force of said baby seals while PETA-Expy hippie elves try to get both sides to stop. You also get an achievement for killing 100 of them.
• Ugly Cute: The Minions. Rose and Velvet even give them the charming nicknames of "Cherubs" and "Pixies" respectively. Visually fearsome to the point of hideousness. But they make the most adorable sounds that two metal objects scraping together can evoke. To hammer the point, the minions are a cross between E.T. and the cuter moments of Sméagol. They can look downright adorable, for example with the sequence in the tutorial of the second game where the minions disguises themselves as children, then they begin to sing...

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