The Dark Order / YMMV

Broken Base: The idea of Dark Order replacing Mr. Brodie Lee with a new leader following his untimely passing. Various Dark Order members have been clear in shoot interviews that they don’t want a new leader, and a portion of the fandom has respected that, or gone along with the joke that -1 is the leader; another portion has proceeded to fantasy book various people (Most commonly, Brodie’s former stablemates in The Wyatt Family following their WWE releases) as stepping into the role previously occupied by Lee. There’s also a subset of fans who side against appointing a new leader, but feel the most logical choice would be Honorary True Companion Hangman Page rather someone from outside AEW.
Ensemble Dark Horse: The group as a whole really took off in Being the Elite, with many finding their skits to be the funniest of the entire show. Silver & Reynolds in particular got a big boost in popularity from the skits. Beyond BTE, Silver especially was noted to be massively over by the time of his PPV singles match against another one of AEW's biggest dark horse stars, Orange Cassidy, at Full Gear 2020.
Evil Is Cool: With a great talker in Evil Uno, some talented wrestlers in the ranks of their recruits, and the terrifying Mr. Brodie Lee at their head, the Dark Order are considered one of the coolest groups in AEW, although it took a bit of effort to get there.
Heartwarming Moments: The "Brodie Lee Celebration of Life" special tribute episode of Dynamite on the 30th of December 2020, following the sad passing of Lee a few days earlier, saw the entire Order collectively turn face and wrestle a series of matches in homage to him, siding with other faces on the roster to get a clean sweep over the hapless heels who stood against them, while their newest recruit, Brodie's 8-year old son Brodie Jr. (who'd been inducted into the Order as "-1") watched from ringside (and even got involved by smashing MJF over the head with a kendo stick when the jerk stole his mask). Fans opined that it would be almost impossible to boo the Order again after this.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- The iconic Being the Elite skit in which the Dark Order try to recruit Jungle Boy (and end up grabbing Griff Garrison instead, with only Brodie being able to tell the difference between the two) is both oddly heartwarming and even funnier now that Jungle Boy is dating the Dark Order's Anna Jay.
- Anna Jay dating Jungle Boy, when one considers that in the run-up to Full Gear 2021, the Dark Order and their Honorary True Companions - Hangman Page and Tay Conti - were all involved in feuds with The Elite and Britt Baker, with the sole exception of Adam Cole^note who happened to be feuding with… Jungle Boy.
Ho Yay:
- The Dark Order’s segments on Being the Elite frequently head in this direction.
  - Reynolds and Silver’s attempt to recruit Wardlow was based purely about complimenting his looks, with the Dark Order boys getting really into discussing Wardlow’s muscles.
  - After Angels received a penis implant, the other guys (And Hangman) were so utterly impressed by it that they started taking selfies with the bulge.
  - Most of Dark Order making valentines cards for Wardlow; the sole exception was Angels, who instead made one for Hangman.
I Knew It!: Brandon Cutler was widely believed to have been one of the Dark Order "Creepers" who took part in the group's attack on the Elite and SCU on the December 19, 2019 episode of Dynamite; he was known to have played the part of one, but whether it was actually supposed to be him in-storyline wasn't known. This was eventually confirmed to be the case on the July 26, 2021 episode of Being The Elite.
Memetic Mutation:
- JOIN THE DARK ORDER.
- “[Recent WWE Release] should be Dark Order’s new leader”
- Thanks to their presence on Being the Elite, there have been several Dark Order centric memes that came from the show:
  - "Who the fuck is Griff Garrison?!"
  - "SHUT THE FUCK UP, SILVER/FIVE!"
  - Johnny Hungiee!
  - Explaining away Silver’s actions as being because “He’s just a kid”, followed by someone else saying "He's 29!"
  - “It’s all about the BUDGE!” and calling Adam Cole “BUDGE” instead of his actual name.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: The Dark Order got off to a very rocky start in AEW; when Evil Uno and Stu Grayson (together with a bunch of creepers) assaulted the Best Friends and Hybrid 2 after their match at Double or Nothing 2019 they were greeted with chants of "WHO ARE YOU?" from the crowd, most of whom didn't recognise the team formerly known as The Super Smash Brothers. Their first few months on Dynamite didn't improve the audience's opinion of them much either, with the nadir probably coming during an angle where the group assaulted The Elite and beat them down to close an episode, complete with an inept creeper who was caught on camera assaulting Dustin Rhodes with punches that weren't even in the same postcode as his head. Then AEW started playing up the Cult aspect of the group as they began recruiting members from the enhancement roster and releasing fascinating story vignettes, including one which excused the incompetent creeper as a mole who'd infiltrated the group, who they they disposed of at the command of their newly-revealed true master, the Exalted One, and the Dark Order started to really catch on. The debut of Mr. Brodie Lee as their sadistic and sinister mastermind was the final piece of the puzzle needed to make the Order one of the most popular groups on AEW, and when he defeated Cody for the TNT Championship it was highly praised for elevating the group to the level they deserved to be at in the company.
Tear Jerker: Episode #236 of Being the Elite, simply titled "Brodie", was just thirteen and a half minutes of recaps of some of the late Brodie Lee's greatest moments, running gags and catchphrases from the series, interspersed with clips of Silver and Reynolds talking about what Brodie had meant to them and everybody, including some hilarious outtakes of bloopers and times everyone, including Brodie, had cracked up laughing.

YMMV / The Dark Order

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