Justified (TV series)/YMMV

• Adaptation Displacement: Of both the novels featuring Raylan and of the poorly received adaptation of Leonard's novel "Pronto", which featured the Raylan Givens character.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Boyd gets one of these at the end of the first episode. Then he gets better. Also, Mags.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Is Boyd reformed? Or was it all a scam? Is it still a scam or did he actually reform in the middle of it? Or did he actually reform first and then lose his way? We could keep going...
• Asshole Victim: Gary. He did try to get Winona murdered, after all.
• Black and Grey Morality: Ruthless criminality notwithstanding, Boyd and Limehouse are loyal to their communities and have some notion of honor, in contrast to Quarles.
• Broken Base: Though only on it's second season, the show's fanbase has quickly broken into those who watch it for Raylan/Olyphant and those who watch it for Boyd/Goggins. In particular, there are those Olyphant fans who hate how Goggins has stolen the spotlight from Olyphant and want him gone from the series.
  • Furthermore, both sides evoke "Deadwood" in defense of their actor: some don't want to see Olyphant marginalized like he was in "Deadwood" while others point to "Deadwood" as proof that Olyphant simply doesn't possess the star power or ability to carry a show by himself and that he needs someone like Goggins to serve as a foil and do the heavy lifting actingwise that Olyphant can't.
• Cargo Ship: It might be prudent to say that both people in the show and those who watch it ship Raylan and his hat. But hell, who wouldn't?
• Complete Monster: Arlo is implied to have been this in the past, until he started taking medication. Now that he's calmed down, he's become a Magnificent Bastard.
  • Deconstructed with Boyd Crowder, as much of season one's arc with him is debated with the notion if his apparent reformation is just an elaborate con. In the end, he has indeed reformed and found religion. However, while he does ultimately relapse into villainy, he's dropped the racist element and has mellowed out somewhat..
  • Bo Crowder however, well...
  • Wynn Duffy, though he has since gotten demoted by new big bad Quarles (Duffy's superior who works for a crime syndicate based out of Detroit).
  • Robert Quarles in season three, who has no qualms about killing colleagues and mooks who outlive their usefulness. His proclivity for torturing, sexually abusing, and killing male hustlers solidified his Complete Monster status.
• Crack Pairing: This troper has actually read two incredibly well-written Rachel/Raylan fanfics. In the right hands, the pairing actually makes sense.
• Crocodile Tears: When Donovan threatens to shoot Quarles for killing Brady, Quarles tears up, confessing that his own father forced him into prostitution as a child. Quarles tears were probably not genuine, but rather a means of getting Donovan to let his guard down.
• Ear Worm: The title music.
  • Which was recently nominated for an Emmy. Hot damn.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Boyd Crowder.
  • Rachel and Tim, Raylan's fellow marshals, have their own devoted followers.
• Ho Yay / Foe Yay: Raylan and Boyd "dug coal" together.

Raylan: There's nothing like the bond between two men when they work a deep shaft together.

• • Walton Goggins supposes that Boyd is pretty much gonna sleep with every girl that Raylan has slept with.
  • All of the courtroom scene in Save My Love. All of it.

Raylan: I like the suit.

• • The invoking mentioned on the main page may be a subtle Take That at the shippers, though, because Raylan immediately rolls his eyes and walks away with an annoyed expression.
  • During their confrontation in Watching the Detectives Wynn Duffy threatens to ride Raylan "like a circus pony". Ugh.
  • In "Measures," Boyd subdues Quarles and orders him to be stripped naked and chained to a bed. Ooooookay...
  • In "Coalition," Quarles opens his robe in front of Jimmy while humming a tune. Jimmy is not amused.
• Every few minutes on the show, some character says a line that just screams gay subtext.

Art: Asshole first, girlfriend later.

• Idiot Ball: Boyd picks it up towards the end of Season 3. First, he gets the drop on Robert Quarles but leaves him alive chained to a pole in the care of two tweaking prostitutes, and then he decides it's a good idea to leave Dickie Bennett and Errol alone to be watched by his wheelchair bound cousin. This is a far departure from earlier seasons and episodes where he showed signs of being a Magnificent Bastard.
• Iron Woobie: Boyd Crowder. See Bulletville.
• Memetic Outfit: Boots, slim fit jeans, hip holster, designer shirts, skinny tie, blazer, and not-quite-white hat make Raylan Given's look immediately recognizable and iconic.
  • So much so that in one episode Dewey collects the above items and attempts to impersonate Raylan. it works..until the real Raylan finds him
• Mook Horror Show: In "Measures," Quarles goes into the house of two drug dealers under Boyd's protection to steal their drugs. He shoots one with his sleeve gun and subdues the other after a struggle. Quarles then proceeds to mercilessly punch the mook and slash his face and throat with a katana. The encounter ends with Quarles spattered with blood.
• Moral Event Horizon: Bo Crowder passes with flying colors, first when he gets Johnny to beat the crap out of Boyd and executes his entire band of merry ex-cons, and later when he shoots Johnny for working with Boyd behind his back. Arlo doesn't quite win father of the year either, agreeing to sell out his son to the cartel.
  • Mags Bennett crosses it by the end of the first episode of season two when she poisons a man at his own kitchen table. We still do not know precisely why she really did it. It might have been to send a message or maybe she just wanted to adopt the man's daughter.
• Nightmare Fuel: Maggs, fueling our nightmares with poisoned moonshine and mutilated hands by way of ball peen hammer.
  • Limehouse's slaughterhouse, where he can be found slicing up hog carcasses and the limbs of evil blond men as he intimidates his foes.
  • Quarles, who brutally killed two drug dealers in "Measures" and regularly tortures male hustlers.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: In season 2, Ava's role was reduced and she hooked up with Boyd allowing her to lose some of the ire she drew. Of course, now all of that is being directed at Winona...
• Stoic Woobie: Raylan Givens, most of the time.
• The Scrappy: Ava and Winona.
• Tear Jerker: The beginning of "Reckoning" when Raylan walks into his former home where Aunt Helen's body lay and the end scene where he is unable to kill Dicky because of what she taught him as a child.

Raylan: (hushed voice) Goddamn you, Dicky.

• Unreliable Narrator: Quarles. Earlier in season three, he claimed that he was the son that Theo Tonin always wanted, in contrast to Theo's weak-willed son Sammy. However, in "Measures," Theo is willing to put a bounty on Quarles' head for pointing a gun at his "real son," suggesting that he has greater concern for Sammy. Also, Quarles claimed that Theo arranged for him to kill his father at age 14 because Theo was horrified at the sexual abuse that Quarles' father subjected him to. However, Quarles' proclivity for similar depravity -- brutalizing rent boys -- only earned him exile, not death. Something isn't adding up with Quarles' backstory.
  • It was probably the fact that he would do that to his own son. It might also be reasoned that while Theo is disgusted by Quarles's predilection for torturing rent boys, he's more understanding of it because he knows what he went through as a child.
• Unusual Eyebrows: Wynn Duffy.