YMMV / Grimm

TV Series

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Prince Viktor. At first glance, he seems to merely be a Replacement Goldfish for cruel and sadistic Eric, but a close examination proves the two very different. Yes, Viktor is ruthless and will do away with those who have failed him, as is apparently typical for his kind. But then we find out his desire to find Eric's killer and get ahold of Diana does not stem from personal ambition, but from his uncle threatening to kill him if he doesn't. His examination of Sebastien is vastly different from the way Eric would have handled things. Viktor has him waterboarded and punched and doesn't even watch closely (suggesting he doesn't relish it), while Eric would have had him flogged until his skin was falling off and Eric would have enjoyed every second. While Viktor did give the FBI agent leave to kill Captain Renard (who, as far as he is concerned, is a known traitor), for his part he was willing to leave everyone in Portland alone in exchange for Diana, showing that he was slightly reasonable.
• Arc Fatigue:
  • The amnesia storyline, which was finally resolved at the end of season 2. Monroe went on to apologize for it during the opening episodes of season 3.
  • Adalind's baby, both times. The first dragged on for the entirety of season while almost never actually progressing, then went on to drag into the next as Adalind suddenly reversed course on whether or not she wanted to keep the child. The second not only represented the vanguard of an extremely controversial Audience-Alienating Era that divided the fanbase right up to the end of the show, but itself dragged on forever clogging up the lives of various characters with unnecessary drama.
• Audience-Alienating Era: The fourth season due to overfocusing on the baby Diana storyline and Adalind storyline and characterization while completely excluding the other major plotlines except for the Season 4-only Wesenrein after fans had already voiced disapproval with the arc. This was after the infamous final episode of Season 3, and the whole obsession with Adalind finally did lead to a small drop in ratings in the season, and prompted a different team to write the Season 4 finale and Season 5 premiere than the previous premieres/finales; these episodes also saw the elimination of the original version of Elizabeth Tulloch's character through killing her after she crossed the Moral Event Horizon and dropped back into Scrappy status (she Came Back Wrong later in the season), and eliminated Adalind's Hexenbiest powers on her own volition and gave her some badly-needed Character Development.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • A mild example with the addition of Theresa "Trubel" Rubel to the cast, with some feeling she was a welcome breath of fresh air, while others felt she was unnecessary and annoying.
  • Adalind Schade. Those who dislike her tend to cite her rape of Nick, Creator's Pet tendencies and multiple moments where she seemed to have superglued the Idiot Ball to her person (for example, sleeping with various characters and then being surprised when she gets pregnant), while her fans argue that Nick himself didn't view the act as rape, and bring up the fact that not only was Adalind acting out of desperation and doing everything she could to get her child back, Nick arguably sexually assaulted Adalind himself by kissing her to get her to bite him when he depowered her.
  • Juliette, Juliette, Juliette. Was she a victim of bad writing who was turned into Juliette the Hexenbiest in order to get her out of the way for Nick/Adalind to happen, or a badly acted mess who deserved everything she had coming to her? You decide! Interestingly, fan opinion has softened on Juliette in the years after the show went off the air, with many former detractors admitting that both the actress and the character were poorly treated by the writers.
• Broken Base: The final set of plotlines where Juliette is turned into a villainous character after becoming a Hexenbiest, while Adalind becomes Nick's Love Interest in her place because she got pregnant after pulling a Bed Trick. Setting aside Ship-to-Ship Combat between fans of Juliette and fans of Adalind, there is heavy division on whether or not the series of events leading up to that ending were good writing, whether or not they played favorites with the characters against the wishes of at least a major section of the audience, and whether or not it was responsible, well after problems with Double Standard Rape: Female on Male were mainstream and well-documented, to portray a victim entering a relationship with his rapist as a happy ending.
• Complete Monster: See here.
• Creator's Pet: Adalind Schade. She seems to exist for no other reason than causing unnecessary drama in the other characters' lives. David Greenwalt has gone on record about how much he adores her... more than one fan has already stated that he's probably the only one.
  • And now she is the mother of Nick's firstborn son Kelly. This, however, has given her character a Heel Realization and additional character development in small batches in an effort to get her out of Scrappy status.
  • By the Season 6 premiere, and really the Season 5 finale, she has arguably been fully Rescued from the Scrappy Heap. From the end of Season 4 on (specifically, about halfway through episode 4x19, "Iron Hans"), the writers succeeded rather remarkably in endearing their pet to the fans. The Heel–Face Turn and subsequent development, including an amazingly successful redemption arc leading to her becoming Nick's Second Love, achieved that goal, to the extent that at the end of Season 5, the overwhelming majority of fans wanted Nick to end up with her instead of with Juliette/Eve. They got their wish, as seen in the series finale.
    • Other fans found it reprehensible for a show to turn a character's rapist into their true love regardless, as it sends a rather terrible message.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Sergeant Wu. Deadpan Snarker and never blinks an eye at Nick and Hank's Wesen reactions. His bad reaction to seeing a Wesen for the first time was heartbreaking for most fans, and Nick and the crew's strange inability to tell him what he saw has sparked some intense rage. No one can deny there's a lot of love for this character.
  • Adorkable Bud, the Wesen repairman.
  • Sebastien, Renard's confidant. He's even got his own fan club - Team Silly Squirrel◊! (And they've nicknamed him Chirpy - it was originally "Renard's Canary", but "devolved".) They even pulled a "If Sebastien dies, we riot!" movement on Twitter and Tumblr. Sadly, Sebastien died anyways.
  • Meisner, owing to the fact that Damien Puckler is dead sexy◊ and a total badass. One (female) reviewer has taken to calling him "Tall, Dark and Dreamy".
    • He's got his own fan club as well - "Meisner's Army" or "Puckler's Army".
• Fandom Rivalry: With Once Upon a Time. The only things they have in common is having a fairy tale theme and premiering around the same time, but fans just can't stop comparing the two and arguing which is better. Fans of OUAT dismiss Grimm as either having too much of a slow-moving plot, just being a Monsters of the Week show dressed as a Police Procedural one or being a ripoff of Supernatural, while Grimm fans criticize OUAT as being too light-hearted, cheesy, soapy, Disney-fied and being a "chick show".
• Fan Nickname: Captain Renard aka "Captain No Pants."
• Fan-Preferred Couple: While Nick is all but engaged to his live-in girlfriend Juliette in Season 1, the fandom quickly took to pair him off with Monroe instead. This is mainly due to the chemistry and Ho Yay between them, as well the fact that Juliette is a major Base-Breaking Character in the fandom. Even when Nick later finds a second love interest in the form of Adalind and Monroe ends up with Rosalee, Nick/Monroe remains the most popular ship in the fandom. Those who don't ship Nick with Monroe tend to ship him with Renard over any of his canon love interests as well.
• Fanon: Lots of fans think that Monroe's full name is "Eddie Monroe" but Word of God says that's never been the case. As of "The Wild Hunt" his parents are using Monroe as his given name.
• Genius Bonus: More like paying attention bonus, but Monroe brings up during Season 2 that he found his grandmother's antique picnic basket. What kind of Wesen is Monroe again, and what well-known fairytale did one of those and someone with a basket feature in?
• Growing the Beard: As with all series there is some debate about when exactly this happened but "Game Ogre" is a good candidate. It had the first truly threatening Monster of the Week, foreshadowing some of the tough Hero Killer monsters that Nick would face in the second half of the season. It also added character depth to two previously unpopular characters, one of whom (Juliette) went from the Satellite Love Interest of early season 1 to the cool-headed, Sugar-and-Ice Personality Action Survivor of the second half almost in the space of one episode (one scene really).
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • This isn't the only time Dee Wallace has been a werewolf creature.
  • In the third season premiere, Monroe, Renard, and Hank are about to go into battle. Monroe and Renard woge in preparation and Hank says "Wish I could do that." By the end of the series, Hank's the only Badass Normal left of the regular cast.
  • Nick may have ended up with Adalind in the series finale, but in real life he ended up with Juliette - David Giuntoli and Elizabeth Tulloch began dating each other in 2013/2014 and were married in June of 2017.
• Ho Yay: Good grief. There's Nick/Monroe, Monroe/Roddy, Nick/Renard...
  • Even if you just appreciate the epic Nick/Monroe bromance (Monbromance?)... you might say it's Guy Love, Between Two Guys...
  • Nick calls Rosalee when he needs help with a Wesen medical issue. Monroe is jealous that Nick didn't call him.
  • When Nick and Monroe are talking about how they have to lie about their entire friendship to Juliette, it sounds more like they're talking about covering up an affair rather than hiding their supernatural natures.
    • This scene is included in NBC's video entitled "Nick and Monroe: A True Bromance", which is intercut with many other Nick/Monroe moments.
  • In "Kiss of the Muse", Monroe and Nick are awfully homey. Then Monroe gets all upset because Nick bailed on dinner with him to go talk to Juliette and didn't tell Monroe he wouldn't be home.
  • Then, these◊ photos◊ were◊ tweeted...
  • When Nick walks in on Juliette hugging Hank: "Whoa, whoa, whoa! He's mine."
  • The way Renard acts as a mentor to Nick at work while also secretly wanting to control him as a Grimm and being possessive of him.
  • There's a mild undertone of Renard/Meisner and Renard/Sebastien (which is amusing when one of them seemingly gets jealous when Renard pays attention to the other - Meisner glares and puffs up, and Sebastien pulls out the puppy-dog eyes).
• I Knew It!: A lot of people had speculated that Nick and Trubel were related, because of the strong resemblance between the actors. Come the series finale, one of the last lines of dialogue on the whole show casually mentions that Trubel is Nick's third cousin on his mother's side.
• Jerkass Woobie: Captain Renard. He was born the son of a King to a Hexenbiest mother, ostracized from the rest of his family. Then when his stepmother the Queen found out that he was a Zauberbiest, she tried to have both him and his mother killed. They escaped to America, where he ended up as a cop. His family (especially his brother) has tried to kill him more than once. And that was before the business with Juliette and the Zaubertrank. That was when the Sanity Slippage started, forcing him to reveal himself to Nick. That same Sanity Slippage also led to him being seduced by Adalind which led her to becoming pregnant, most likely. Then he finds out he's a father, and then has to give up his child forever.
  • Adalind Schade. Her mother abused her physically and emotionally in their one episode together and raised her to be a Manipulative Bitch working as an operative on dangerous cases, and she developed feelings for Captain Renard, who already flirted outrageously with her mother (she may or may not have been aware). The moment Adalind lost her powers, both her mother and Renard kicked her to the curb. However, her woobie status has begun to wear off as she caused the Juliette amnesia crisis and is now planning to sell her unborn child and is doing questionable things that could harm the baby, without any show of remorse for any of these things. However, she bonded with her baby after it's born.
    • "Synchronicity" and "Law of Sacrifice" seem to bring her full-circle. All the bad stuff that happens and all the Oh, Crap! moments that sneak up on her are all a consequence of her own bad choices and actions, up to and including having her baby taken away. You either feel bad for her or delight in her Laser-Guided Karma or both.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Captain Sean Renard, officially an upstanding officer of the law and Nick's charismatic boss, is secretly the half-Zauberbiest bastard son of King Frederick Renard of the House of Kronenberg. Forced to flee for his life as a child, Renard exploited his unique connections to eventually become de facto overlord of Portland. A calculating mastermind, natural leader and exemplary warrior, Renard is also a senior figure in the Laufer's fight against the Royals, possessing connections the other leaders can only dream of, whilst fooling the royals into believing he's one of them. Constantly working, be it in police business, outplaying rivals at international intrigue or protecting his city, Renard never misses an opportunity he can exploit. Amongst his successes, he plants a spy within his family's own castle; assassinates his brother Prince Eric on his own turf; sets up an alliance with other resistance leaders beneath the Royals' noses; and temporarily become mayor of Portland. His Machiavellianism tempered by genuine standards and a protective nature, Renard stands out both as one of Nick's greatest enemies and his most capable allies.
  • Prince Viktor Beckendorf, the second Crown Prince of the House of Kronenberg, is the main antagonist of Season 3 and the first half of season 4. A ruthless yet pragmatic, suave, single-minded professional, Viktor will do anything to increase the family's powerbase, with him responsible for rigging elections, overseeing the Verrat and infiltrating governments and intelligence agencies. Assigned to investigate Prince Eric’s assassination Viktor was the only one to figure out Sean was responsible. Ordered by the King to kidnap Sean's daughter Diana to be the family's heir or else face an agonizing death, Viktor manages to expose and break Sean's spy, tracking them across the world, and even after losing Diana manipulates Adalind into stripping Nick of his powers. Deducing he had been tricked and who really had her, he immediately got back to tracking Diana, successfully turning one of Sean's agents. Finally sick of his uncle's ill gratitude and threats, Viktor conspired with the Laufer to engineer his demise leaving himself King. Proving to be the most capable Royal, Viktor was the only recurring antagonist to end their run in victory.
  • "Plumed Serpent": Ariel Eberhart is a playful, alluring Dämonfeuer and the daughter of the slowly dying Fred Eberhart, a welder turned copper thief. Learning that Detective Nick Burkhardt is a Grimm investigating her father's involvement in a homicide, Ariel devises a plan to give her father an honorable death. She ambushes Nick when he follows her, tearing his shirt and answering his phone to trick his girlfriend Juliette into thinking he's cheating just to mess with them. The next night, Ariel tricks Nick to going to her house, kidnaps Juliette and brings her to her father's lair, thus forcing Nick to face her father in combat to the death to save Juliette and give her father a chance at dying honorably in accordance with their culture. When Nick emerges the victor, Ariel assures her father he fought well and causes an explosion, faking her death and leaving for parts unknown.
  • "The Good Soldier": Colonel Adam Desai blamed himself for being unable to achieve justice for Frankie Gonzales after she was gang-raped by four PMCs. Learning he was dying from cancer, Desai begins to hunt down and kill the four men responsible, luring one into his house by breaking his medals before stabbing him. When Portland police contact him about the rape, Desai tells them all he knows while tricking them into believing he's in the hospital while he's really in Portland. When one of the other contractors is killed along with his wife and Frankie is arrested, she calls Desai, who allows the Portland police to track his call, then confronts the last remaining rapist and reveals that he knows that he killed the contractor and his wife before engaging in a fight to the death. In the end, Desai deliberately leaves himself open for a killing blow, declaring that "You can't arrest him for what he did to Frankie, but you can for what he did to me." Colonel Desai is shown to be the cleverest Manticore depicted in the show and meets his end on his terms.
• Moral Event Horizon: Adalind went screaming right into the event horizon during the Season 3 finale, raping Nick and taking away his powers as a Grimm while disguised as Juliette. To make matters worse, she purposefully brought up the past issue of Renard and Juliette's obsession curse and tried to confuse their feelings merely out of spite. This, however, may pale in comparison to...
  • Juliette after turning into a Hexenbiest. In short, she sides with Kenneth, burns the trailer, and at one point even used her powers to force Nick to attempt to shoot Monroe, with his only being saved by Hank tackling him out of the way at the very last second. Making things even worse, she was part of the plan to lure Nick's mother, Kelly, into his house to take Adalind's daughter from her, ending in Kelly's death. This lost her the majority of the supporters she had left, and you would have been hard-pressed to find anyone mourning her (temporary) death soon after.
• Narm:
  • In "Leave It to Beavers", the main villain is a menacing troll Wesen...who would probably be a lot more menacing if he didn't have a rather frightful Speech Impediment
  "My great-uncle was a 'weaper'."
  • When Adalind meets Frau Pech (probably intended, at least for the weirdness):
  Frau Pech: I knew your mother well.
  Adalind: Me too.
  • Each and every time Captain Renard speaks German - the man grew up in Austria, you'd expect him to get the syntax right, at least! Same goes for most other instances of characters speaking German, although Monroe is excused for being a third generation immigrant.
    • It's even more egregious now that part of the show is set in Austria - some of the guest stars are absolutely horrendous (and there are complaints about Sasha Roiz unconsciously adopting the accent of whoever he's speaking to).
  • Nick's nightmare about Monroe and Rosalee's wedding. Supposed to be very creepy, it provokes more laughs than terror.
  • The entirety of Adalind's Mind Screw in the castle, especially if you don't sympathize with her. It's quite out of the blue and the method used is never truly explained.
  • The ridiculous demonic arms that come out of Renard's mirror and try to grab him.
  • Nick's three no's at the end of Headache. There's actually five, but the first two were fairly well done. It's just the last three that the audience hears while staring at his house that sound a little ridiculous.
  • At the end of "Dyin' On A Prayer", there's a dramatic cliffhanger as everybody stares at Juliet, who says "What?" Only problem is, Bitsie Tulloch's lazy eye is very evident in this shot, making her look very odd, and her "What?" sounds weird and out of place in an otherwise serious scene.
  • When Eve uses the witch's hat ritual to transform into Renard in "Skin Deep", her face is the last to transform, and for a few seconds there's a shot of her head looking ridiculously out-of-proportion on top of Renard's broad shoulders.
  • The Wesen transformations (at least in the first season). For no apparent reason, a normal-looking person abruptly shakes their head like they have dandruff, has their head replaced by bad CGI for a few seconds, stares blankly at Detective Burkhart, and then transforms back. On the rare occasions the production team opt for prosthetics, the results are much less narmy.
  • The scene in "Blind Love" where the Cupiditas is falling to his death has really bad CGI, but given the tone of the episode, this may have been intentional.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Many guest Wesen characters like easygoing, non-martial Blutbad Hap, Reinigen Scholarship Student Roddy, Barry (the Jagebar whose mother has him ready to start Hunting the Most Dangerous Game), tough but vulnerable Blutbad Wild Child Holly, Fuschbau Rebel Leader Ian Harmon, vengeful Balam detective Valentina, Cute Mute Naidad Elly, Unstable Powered Child Drang-Zorn April and Jess (the Lowen juvenile corrections officer who takes charge of April), alien-resembling Gluhenvolk couple Vincent and Jocelyn, unwilling Poisonous Person Folterseele Bella, alluring Manipulative Bitch Ariel Eberhart (a Damonfuerer), Knight Templar El Cucy, and Lovable Coward Eisbiber Bud The Fridge Repairman (even before he was promoted to a recurring character) have gained decent followings.
  • Among human characters, there's Casey, a would-be victim in "Mr. Sandman". She actually does some pretty savvy things like covering her eyes against a Wesen that targets them when he attacks her, gets a weapon as soon as she's able to, and ultimately is the one to defeat the wesen of the week.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: The episode "Game Ogre" has been termed "The Episode Where No-one is Useless" in which Hank Griffin and Juliette Silverton, previously somewhat bland characters, both get a bit more depth of character.
  • Unfortunately, Juliette skidded right back into Scrappy territory as of mid season four, with many fans clamoring for her death (preferably by Nick's hands). She isn't killed, but Trubel is forced to pull a Big Damn Heroes moment when Juliette has Nick cornered.
  • Finally achieved for Hank "One Punch" Griffin in in Bad Moon Rising when he goes from freaking out over finding out about the Wesen - and that his goddaughter and best friend are one - to dropping a Coyotl (in full game face, no less) in one punch!
  • Big time for Adalind, from the end of Season 4 on. Specifically from the moment in "Iron Hans" where she walks into Renard's office to reveal her pregnancy with Nick's child. A full redemption story pulls her right out of the heap, and by the end of season 6, she was beloved by fans.
• Romantic Plot Tumor: The Nick-Juliet-Renard love triangle could be seen as this until season 2 episode 13, when it becomes Fridge Brilliance by resolving that plot while developing another.
• Ron the Death Eater: It seems that no matter what Juliette did, no matter how much stronger she got, no matter how much help and advice she gave Nick, some fans were never satisfied with her and would find any and every reason to belittle her and even want her dead. They got their wish in the Season 4 finale after Juliette became a powerful and vicious Hexenbiest and crossed the Moral Event Horizon.
  • There are some who wish Nick would just get out of the Bauerschwein's way and let them get about exterminating the Blutbaden once and for all... no matter how many normal, well-adjusted people that means killing in the process.
  • A strange example with Adalind. As the show's The Scrappy, people latched onto her disguising herself as Juliette to have sex with him to strip him of his powers as something she did For the Evulz, even though the only reason she did that was because she incorrectly thought the Royals had Diana, and when she called in her desperation to get her back, they told her she could do this in exchange for getting Diana back. Most entries on This Very Wiki tend to leave that part out.
• The Scrappy: Adalind, who managed to become one of the good recent examples of what to do to fall into the trope. For some time until the penultimate episode she appeared in season 1 showed that she had a Stage Mom and was a Love Martyr to Renard. That, Renard's Manipulative Bastard-ness and her elegant and carefully-thought revenge increased her popularity for a while. However, her vile intentions and careless actions towards her own unborn child began to drag her back to this status. She seemed to suffer from an endless supply of stupidity and her monster baby storyline dragged out almost interminably, taking time away from the main storyline in Portland. Then she had her worst moment in the series by raping and depowering Nick in the Season 3 finale, which landed her firmly back in Scrappy territory. The news that she's likely pregnant with either Nick or Renard's baby already has many fans screaming bloody murder (this plot point, however was necessitated by Adalind's actress, Claire Coffee, becoming pregnant in real life). This is ironically not the first series with a serious Scrappy problem that showrunner David Greenwalt (who admitted he "adored" the character) has been involved in; he was also involved with Angel during the reign of another infamous Scrappy, Connor (both Connor and his Joss Whedon/Buffy predecessor Dawn were listed in the 2004 book What Were They Thinking? The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History; said book includes the Trope Namer).
  • From the end of Season 4 (specifically from "Iron Hans" on), the development of Adalind was a textbook example of how to redeem a Scrappy and turn her into a beloved character. By Season 6, the overwhelming majority of fans wanted Nick to end up with her, which he did, and according to the Distant Finale, is still with her 20 years later.
  • Juliette wavered in and out of this trope, and while initially seeming to have been rescued from it, albeit in a special way, fell back into Scrappy territory in Season 4, and her killing Nick's mother and burning down the trailer made her possibly the most hated character on the show.
• Ships That Pass in the Night: Roddy Geiger ("Danse Macabre") and Barry Rabe ("Bears Will Be Bears") are frequently shipped together, presumably because they are in the same age group, despite the fact that they have most likely never met. And both of them tend to get shipped with Holly Clark ("Let Your Hair Down") for roughly the same reasons.
• Special Effects Failure: The Volcanalis from "Ring of Fire." When he's on fire, the CG is painfully obvious, especially when little globules of lava fly off his body.
  • The actress playing "Mrs. Garcia" in "El Cucuy" is 54◊. Mrs. Garcia is 77, and the costuming department thought that the way they could age her up was giving her a ridiculous, cheap-looking wig◊. It looks worse in the episode - it looks unnatural and you can almost see where the wig ends and her real hair begins! This can be handwaved in that old age effects are among the most difficult to pull off (although they could have at least fitted the wig properly). And that said, much like La Llorona and Volcanalis, El Cucuy is presented or heavily implied to be extremely long lived. So while she may be 77 years old, it may not mean as much to her species as it does to other Wesen and humans.
• Squick: The less said about the frogs in "Lonelyhearts", the better. Or the rats in "Danse Macabre" who chewed off a man's face. Or the judge with a gavel shoved down his throat and the woman with her tongue cut out in "Game Ogre".
  • How Spinnetods kill their victims.
  • Not as bad as some other examples, but two words: Blood. Cookies.
  • What happens to Wu’s face in “Island Of Dreams”.
  • Basically, if you're going to get killed by a Wesen who isn't concerned about The Masquerade at the moment or you're bumping into a Wesen engaged in some of the more instinctual habits... it's probably not going to particularly nice.
  • What Geiers are infamous for as a species - brutally harvesting human organs from victims that are still alive, be they wounded soldiers on the battlefield or homeless kids on the streets - and selling them on a Wesen black market that uses the parts like apothecary ingredients.
  • The Lowen underground gladiator ring feeding new contestants the remains of defeated fighters.
  • Let's also not forget how traditional Coyotl families "introduce" seventeen-year old female members to the pack. Which is not an introduction and just a way to sugar-coat gang-rape and incest.
  • Also in "To Protect and Serve", Nick falls into a pit of decomposed corpses. When trying to find his flashlight, he accidentally grabs rotten body parts.
  • In "Mr. Sandman" we get the image of a parasitic worm wriggling out of a persons bloody eye socket. Sleep well.
  • A pregnant Gluhenvolk's "pickles and ice cream" is apparently raw cow ovaries. Yum.
  • Adalind's trials to get her powers back might be amusing given Adalind's discomfort but they truly are disgusting.
  • The hideous fate of Blutbaden who ate the "Black Despair" mushrooms in "Best Served Cold". Their helplessness and hopelessness are as horrible as their agony.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The Season 2 episode "La Llorona" introduced ex-detective Valentina Espinoza, a Balam (jaguar-like) wesen who assisted Nick and Hank in saving three children from the titular ghost after said ghost killed her nephew years ago. She had an intriguing storyline and an engaging character that could have been developed as an interesting new Wesen ally, but she never showed up again after her single appearance.
• Too Cool to Live:
  • Aunt Marie. Badass to the end (of the second episode).
  • Also Angelina.
  • And now Kelly as well.
  • As of the Season 4 finale, Juliette becomes the first main cast character to die... in a manner of speaking.
  • Conrad Bonaparte, the Big Bad of season 5 and an extremely powerful Zauberbiest, only appeared in a mere four episodes before being offed by Diana.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The entire cast of protagonists become this when they conspire to steal Adalind's baby from her. The episode before, Nick immediately decides that Adalind wasn't going to be a good mother to Diana, and worse, Kelly compares it to her choice to give up a life with Nick, saying that sacrificing what we love most is what we have to do... save that Adalind never made that choice, and they forced it on her. Made worse when Nick unsympathetically reaffirms his belief that Adalind wasn't going to be a good mother after she came desperately crying to them for help.
• Vanilla Protagonist: Some fans consider Nick's vanilla characterization to be a strength of the show, since it is a nice reprieve from all the "special" or "tortured" protagonists which are especially common in Genre show. Nick being a normal boring person who deals with his new abilities without a lot of drama is one of the aspects which sets the show apart.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: The idea of Grimms as boogeymen feared by even totally innocent members of the communities they're supposed to be policing became more relevant in light of the BLM protests.
• The Woobie:
  • Nick gets put through the wringer repeatedly throughout the series.
    • Seasons One and Two: He proposes to Juliette, she turns him down because she can tell he’s keeping secrets from her. Of course, he’s keeping secrets to protect her from the crazy dangerous stuff that he now has to handle. When he finally tells her, she doesn't believe him. It takes all of Season Two for things to be made right between them. However, with his new powers coming into play Nick was getting less pitiful and more of a threat.
    • Season Three: He loses his powers after being deceptively raped by Adalind.
    • Season Four: He regains his powers but the act of doing so turns Juliette into a Hexenbiest. This causes an irreparable split in their relationship as Juliette partly blames him for what happened to her and this directly leads to the deaths of Kelly Burkhardt and Juliette herself, the two of the most important women in his life.
  • Hap, the friendly Blutbad in "Three Bad Wolves" who gets killed over a blood feud he was never personally involved in.
  • Monroe is a Blutbad who lives apart from his family, likely because he has a vegan lifestyle while they still hunt. In "Three Bad Wolves" he gets caught between looking for vengeance of his friend's death and staying out of the fight to avoid escalating things to worse levels... even though that means his former lover may end up dead. Things go great for him for a while but now stands in danger of being disowned from his family altogether for loving a Fuchsbau.
  • Rosalee. She grew up different because she is Wesen. She pursued the wrong crowds to feel like she belonged. She ended up getting addicted to drugs and landing in jail, unknowingly missing out on her own father's funeral. She loses her brother to an armed robbery. Then she finally meets Monroe and everything is fine...for a while. She even manages to get reconciled to her mother and sister. But then she meets Monroe's parents. They turn out to be species purists who refuse to give their blessing to the relationship and Rosalee leaves the house in tears.
  • Sebastien. Worked as Renard's spy in the castle, was captured, tortured◊ and beaten to within◊ an inch of his life◊ (and as a result was forced to betray Meisner and Adalind), manages to ambush his captors, but ends up being shot and killed by Viktor after he ran out of bullets.
• Woobie Species: There are entire species of Wesen whose grief and suffering far exceeds their good fortune.
  • Folterseele emit pheromones which cause people to rape them, and which also kill anyone who touches them. It's implied that every Folterseele is a Child by Rape, and their parents constantly disfigure them with hot branding irons to discourage rapists.
  • Glühenvolk and Willahara are hunted and killed by other Wesen for their body parts, and the survivors of both races have little hope of survival besides constantly running or living in seclusion.
  • El Cuegle are plagued by physically painful visions of the future showing young children committing vicious murders when they grow up. El Cuegles can only prevent these crimes and stop the painful visions by killing those children as babies, which also causes them to be hated and feared in the Wesen community.
  • The Bauerschwein have spent their entire existence being slaughtered for food and sport by Blutbaden, although some of them enter From Nobody to Nightmare territory by retaliating in ugly ways.

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Fanfic

• Complete Monster:
  • Rosina is the tyrannical queen of the titular kingdom of Grimm. Originally a witch who ate children and tormented Hansel and Gretel, she first came to rule the kingdom after marrying and killing its king. Rosina would then enslave the king's daughter, Snow White, turning her into an abused servant and whipping her. Rosina would also arrange for children within and outside of her kingdom to be kidnapped and imprisoned for her to devour, believing it will keep her young forever; among those children are Hansel, Gretel, and Goldilocks. When Red, Lycan, and Woody arrive in Grimm and free some of Rosina's captive children, she has the Boy Who Cried Wolf and his whole family publicly executed for protecting them, before bringing them back to her castle and forcing Snow White to whip Woody bloody before marrying her off to Bluebeard. Rosina and Bluebeard then gather all the children they could find to boil them all in a cauldron for her to eat. When Red, Lycan, and Woody unite all of Grimm's people against Rosina, she orders them all to be killed while transforming herself into a monster and killing several fleeing townspeople.
  • Lord Bluebeard is an aristocrat with the second-highest position in the kingdom. Lusting for Snow White, he marries her when Rosina gives her to him and starts physically abusing her. When she rejects his advances, Bluebeard tortures her, attempts to rape her, and leaves her for dead after stopping one of her escape attempts. When Lycan, Red and the baker set out to kill Bluebeard, they discover in his basement the corpses of dozens of maidens, all of whom had been Bluebeard's wives before he horribly killed them one by one. When Red attempts to kill him, Bluebeard viciously beats her down and tries to kill her. Beneath his charming behavior and despite his smaller number of appearances, Bluebeard proved to be no less wicked than Rosina.