BattleTech/YMMV

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Nicholas Kerensky was either a driven visonary or a Complete Monster, and there's plenty of evidence for both.
  • The same can also be said for Sara McEveredy and Clan Wolverine. Innocent victims of Nicholas' manipulations, a powder-keg waiting to go off or power-hungry monsters who merely were caught out before they could act?
  • Hanse Davion and Katrina Steiner are awesome leaders if you lived in the states that became the Federated Commonwealth. Not so much if you were in one of the three neighboring states that got curbstomped in the process.
  • Sun Tzu Liao: Scheming, opportunistic weasel of a ruler, or brilliant political tactician?
    • Aren't those two things the same?
• Complete Monster: Stefan "The Usurper" Amaris, who manipulated young Richard Cameron- heir to the Star League- into a conceited self-righteous Jerkass for his own political ends, and pretended to be his sole friend only to betray and murder him in a coup that ended humanity's golden age and replaced The Federation with a brutal tyrannical dictatorship that ruthlessly persecuted many groups of citizens, including intellectuals and artists. All in order to satisfy his lust for power. By the time Alexandr Kerensky and the Star League Defense Forces invade Terra to overthrow him, he has become completely insane, and even more evil, resorting to such unsavory tactics as using innocent civilians as human shields. So yeah, he's a major douchebag.
  • The Word of Blake during the Jihad. Dropped nukes almost impulsively, targeted civilian populations with bio-weapons... ALL the powers in the Inner Sphere pretty much went Enemy Mine against the Blakists, and much escalation occurred in response.
  • Malvina Hazen is edging towards this; certainly she's Axe Crazy already
  • The Society during the Wars of Reaving. They wiped out entire worlds with biological weapons and pretty much acted like the Word of Blake on a smaller scale; only with horrific human experimentation instead of reeducation camps.
• Designated Hero: When you think about it, Hanse Davion got a few hundred million people killed to impress his hot eighteen year-old Nordic wife. And to get payback from the man who tried to kidnap him and put a doppelganger on his throne.
• Game Breaker: There are some 'Mech designs that rather tedious to fight against. A most notorious example was the Clan pulse laser/targeting computer combo that practically guaranteed hitting your target. Land-Air-mechs in hybrid mode where practically unhittable. Under Solaris rules (extreme close combat for arena battles), multiple machine guns could reduce a 'Mech into scrap metal in short order, without generating any heat points. In most gaming groups, those things where countered by house rules forbidding the use of such designs.
  • Before the new rules removed the bonus for them, Rotary Autocannons found themselves mated to Targeting Computers quite a bit. The ability to put up to 30 points of damage on a targeted location, or even at a hit bonus, proved to be overwhelming, and as of the Total Warfare rules, rotary and Ultra autocannons at anything beyond single fire mode can no longer make an aimed shot, nor can pulse lasers. They still get the standard fire targeting bonus, though.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: General Motors is apparently a manufacturer of Battlemechs and, in 2020, will invent the engine that makes Battlemechs possible. Because they're always on the cutting edge of innovation these days.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Many players reactions to the Dark Age period, especially the releated CMG. The reaction was far from universal, however, with the CMG not only bringing in new players, but many older players enjoying it and the changes to the setting. And, in all fairness, this has been a reaction to just about any change to the universe or game.