Belisarius Series/YMMV

• Acceptable Professional Targets: If a pimp gets more than a passing mention, expect word of his brutalization to follow shortly.
• Bittersweet Ending: Link is destroyed and Aide gains humanity . . . but the victory means that Aide's existence is now a time paradox, so he dies soon after. There's also the loss of all their other beloved friends and comrades, but the future--for now--looks bright.
• Complete Monster: Venandakatra the Vile.
  • Emperor Skandagupta and his spymaster, Nanda Lal, also qualify. Venandakatra blows well past them on sheer Squick factor, admitted, given his preference for preteen girls.
  • Nanda Lal also had the countervailing factor of actually being competent enough to earn some respect as a villain. Skandagupta and Venandakatra... not so much.
    • Belisarius pretends to be this to get his enemies off their guard. Even to the point of telling Venandakatra "God, how I love a sack". In reality atrocities by his men were the most certain way to make Belisarius send for the hangman, but he doesn't tell Venandakatra that.
• High Octane Nightmare Fuel: What the Malwa do to their enemy is not a pretty sight.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: The real Belisarius was a brave and loyal commander and very skilled. But there is no evidence that he would qualify for being the rescuer of humanity.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: The Real Life Narses was never a traitor and was almost as much of a Four-Star Badass as the Real Life Belisarius.
• Love to Hate: Venandakatra the Vile. His evil is so hammy that it is fun just to hate him.
• Magnificent Bastard: Narses.
• The Woobie: Justinian is this or a Jerkass Woobie.