History Series / Tyrant2014

* WhamEpisode: "Zanjir." Full stop.
** "The Dead and the Living" turns it UpToEleven with [[spoiler:the deaths of Jamal and Emma]].

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Courtesy of Jamal in Episode 4. [[CaughtWithYourPantsDown And his wife walks in on him.]]

* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler:After Tariq's screw-up causes the Chinese to pull their investment in the oil industry, Jamal finally bashes the old bastard's head in.]]
* LadyMacbeth:

* StockholmSyndrome: A young woman who was forced to marry a Caliphate soldier suffered this over time, coming to long for when he'd come home, even though he raped her.

* PlayingGertrude: Creator/MoranAtias (Leila Al-Fayeed) looks about the same age as Cameron Gharaee, who plays her son Ahmed.

* AdultFear: Barry and Molly experience this when Emma is kidnapped by the Caliphate. [[spoiler:And then murdered with them watching helpless over a satellite feed.]]

* RevengeViaProxy: [[spoiler:Ihab Rashid kidnaps and kills Emma for no real reason other than to get revenge on her father. This is bad enough in itself, but he kills her in public '''while Barry and Molly are watching via drone.''']]

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: [[spoiler:Ihab Rashid kidnaps and kills Emma for no real reason other than to get revenge on her father. This is bad enough in itself, but he kills her in public '''while Barry and Molly are watching via drone.''']]

* NotSoDifferent: Despite his best efforts to prevent it, Bassam becomes the same kind of ruler that his father and brother were. He's none too happy about this development, either.

* LukeYouAreMyFather: Jamal finds out that he has a now-grown son, a decorated officer named Rami Said, from a short-lived relationship he had with a woman from the Rashid clan. His wife at first refuses to allow him into the palace, but later relents when she realizes that they need Rami's help to run Abbudin's military and perhaps save their regime from the Army of the Caliphate.

[[quoteright:349:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tyrant-s1-poster_5166.jpg]]

* HereditaryRepublic: Abbudin. Not only does Jamal instantly succeed his father as president (who had been in office ever since he seized power years before) but it's revealed that they aren't elected, even in a fixed race, until Barry convinces Jamal to amend the constitution so they will be. This makes it a more blatant example than most. [[spoiler:After Jamal's death, Barry automatically succeeds him, although he did manage to garner public support by becoming a hero in the civil war against the islamic insurgency.]]

* FreudianExcuse:
** Khalid tried to raise Jamal to be [[ShootTheDog ruthless]] and [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking strong]] enough to succeed him and lead the country. The end result of his manipulative brutality is a male BrokenBird with the power to make others pay for his suffering.
** Mocked by Deliyah when she questions Zamira why she would join a militant fundamentalist insurgency like the Caliphate, asking her if her parents did not love her enough.

* PlayingGertrude: Moran Atias (Leila Al-Fayeed) looks about the same age as Cameron Gharaee, who plays her son Ahmed.

* DealWithTheDevil: Ihab Rashid joins up with one of his old friends to overthrow the Al-Fayeed dynasty. This friend leads the Army of the Caliphate, which has superior weaponry and numbers to anything else that he has access to. However, the Caliphate believes in such things as spousal rape, child warfare and public executions of innocent people. Jamal notes that Rashid [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope has crossed the line between being a freedom fighter and an actual terrorist]] by making such a move.

* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery: Jamal dumps his frustrations, miseries, and unfulfilled sexual drives on Fatma, a married woman from a poor family that can do nothing about him. The entire neighborhood knows (he comes with his noisy red sports car and his guards), there are children in the house while he's raping her (it's in ''the middle of the day''), and it's pretty obvious that everyone around is having a miserable time-even he doesn't seem to be enjoying himself at all. The adultery is portrayed as very bad.

** [[spoiler:After his latest stunt costs the Army of the Caliphate their control over Ma'an, Abu Omar decides to leave Ihab Rashid to die.]]
* YourCheatingHeart: [[spoiler:Leila reveals to Ahmed that she had an affair with Barry while she was engaged to Jamal, who is really his father. Barry in the present has sex with Deliyah [[WhatTheHellHero just after Molly attempted suicide]], and has gone to a clinic in Germany for treating her depression.]]

* {{Qurac}}: The series takes place in Abbudin, a fictional Middle Eastern country.

** Freedom fighter Ihab Rashid. If not for his violent rhetoric and methodology, he would probably be an AntiHero. [[spoiler:Eventually subverted after Season 2 when he becomes a villainous KnightTemplar.]]

* FirstEpisodeSpoiler: [[spoiler:Khalid dies and Jamal gets in a car accident, resulting in Barry being forced to stay in Abbudin to help manage the transition.]]

* InnocentlyInsensitive:[[spoiler: The last scene of the series, after Bassam has canceled the elections and clamped down on civilian rights. Rami visits him before he leaves to see Sam in the hospital, and shows that he got him a portrait, similar to the ones of his father and older brother. Rami means it as a gift to cheer Barry up after all that has happened, but to Barry, and the audience, it is the final sign that Barry has become the Tyrant he has tried to avoid being. The last lines solidify this.]]
--> '''Rami''': I hope you like it.I think it captures you, don't you?

* MaritalRapeLicense: Jill, an American Muslim woman who joined the Army of the Caliphate, is referred to as "comforting" her husband Faisal, but replies "in America, we call that rape." This is one of the factors (plus the cold-blooded killings that the Army carries out) convincing her to flee.