YMMV / Tyrant (2014)

• Alas, Poor Scrappy: Emma was fairly unpopular in the first two seasons. However, it's almost impossible not to feel bad for her in Season 3 after she is captured by the Caliphate and murdered.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Rami Said, for being a well portrayed and honorable character who is arguably one of the most competent leaders in the entire show, second only to Barry himself.
• Gone Horribly Right: While Malik fatally failed to assassinate Jamal at the groundbreaking ceremony for the oil deal with the Chinese, he did manage to injure a Chinese official’s wife. Also, tons of cameras caught Ahmed repeatedly shooting his corpse. If anything, both incidents serves as an impetus to potentially severing relations between Abbudin and China.
• Growing the Beard: Season 2 has been well-received by viewers and critics alike, mainly because of better Character Development and the Caliphate story arc (one character also literally grows a beard).
• Heartwarming Moments: In "Hail Mary," Tariq's soldiers are prepared to attack the freedom fighters mercilessly. After Samira calls out Ihab for intending to escape at the first sign of danger, she decides to stay behind and face Tariq's soldiers as a show of dedication to her people. When her father Fauzi shows up, he fully intends to remove her from the situation, as he has attempted to do in the past. She calmly replies that she refuses to leave her people. It's clear she understands her dad's worries, but she (unlike some of the other freedom fighters) is doing this for her country, and she stands her ground. Fauzi's response? "I will stand with you." This emphasizes both Samira's devotion to her cause and Fauzi's devotion to his daughter, and it's really touching to see such a strong familial bond in a show full of backstabbers, manipulators, and psychopaths.
• Iron Woobie: By Season 3, Barry has definitely become one.
• Moral Event Horizon: Ihab finally crosses it when he kills Emma Al Fayeed as her parents watch helplessly to get revenge on Barry.
• Plot Tumor: Sammy's return to Abbudin in order to claim his inheritance was largely met with annoyance by fans, because it makes very little sense for either Sammy, Molly, or their lawyer to expect that they'll be treated fairly in a dictatorship that's already prejudiced against their family.
  • The only real danger they were in was from the Caliphate, Jamal actually agrees to give Sammy a portion of his inheritance, and Ahmed helps him look for Abdul.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: In "Hail Mary," Molly actually pulls some strings to get an innocent victim from the riots some much-needed medical attention. In other words, she finally does something other than complain about leaving, complain about not leaving, or criticize her husband's actions. Her career as a physician also shows itself.
• Rooting for the Empire: Jamal is undoubtedly an evil man, but he still resonates more with some viewers because he's so much more interesting than his brother (Ashraf Barhom's performance is responsible for much of the effect). After the Caliphate invades, he suddenly looked much better in comparison as well.
• Squick: The sex scene between Ihab and his bride delivers it twofold. First there's the disturbing implication that she is underage. But then things get hot and heavy, and she starts kissing his stump of an arm...
• Strawman Has a Point: Musa was caught trying to leaving Ma'an with his wife, ultimately giving away his betrayal to the current resistance against the Al-Fayeed dictatorship dynasty. When confronted by Ihab and the others, he denies it at first but then admits it.
  Musa: It's true. I don't want to become a martyr to a hopeless cause. We'll never have enough bullets or bombs to beat Jamal. I'm only saying out loud what each and every one of us is already thinking! We're dying for nothing! The people are getting tired of the raids and the checkpoints. And they're blaming us. And look at us! We're turning on each other. You can kill me, but whoever betrayed you will still be out there.
  • Instead, Ihab lets him go.
• The Scrappy: Molly and Sammy quickly became hated by many viewers - the former for being so utterly naive, the latter for being a brat. Emma arguably joins them.
• Take That, Scrappy!: A lot of people loved the moment in the pilot where Barry slaps Sammy twice.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: As is typical of FX shows. So we have a Stupid Evil Caligula tyrant of a man with a brutal Freudian Excuse that can do all the atrocities he can because he's got all the power (and we get to see with very little indiscretion), his brother that is trying with varying (but generally feeble) effectiveness to keep things under control (and flashbacks reveal is not exactly good himself, definitely setting up a He Who Fights Monsters plot), a Blood Knight General Ripper that wants things to go out of control so he can freely commit murder via war, a Lady Macbeth wife of the tyrant, a bunch of scrappies... who the hell are we supposed to be rooting for again? The title of the show is Tyrant. It does not specify who the Tyrant is. Though in the end it turns out to be Barry himself.
• The Woobie: Nusrat's torment at the hands of her in-laws begins in the pilot and only grows worse from there. Is it any wonder that we are intended to cheer when she finally snaps and shoots Jamal?