Legend of the Five Rings/YMMV

Crab Clan

• Memetic Badass: Hida Kisada claims this trope for the Crab Clan. Yoritomo of the Mantis and Moto Chagatai of the Unicorn are have reached Chuck Norris-level badassery in some circles.

Scorpion Clan

• Crowning Moment of Awesome: After being framed for an assassination attempt on the Emperor, the Scorpion were declared traitors to the empire, exiled on pain of death, and their children kept as hostages. At a tournament to win a favor from the Emperor, the Scorpion began by brazenly bribing another clan into helping them (using the sword that created the Burning Sands, no less), and winning the tournament with their candidate pretending to be a ronin just long enough to secure the prize. As the Emperor was honor bound to fulfill the wish of the victor, they then openly used this to blackmail the Emperor into restoring their holdings and station, while pointedly not needing to swear fealty in so doing.
• God Mode Sue: With the possible exception of the Spider/Shadowlands (and then, almost entirely limited to Daigotsu himself), the Scorpion wildly fluctuate between this and the Anti-Sue. Examples of the former include such ridiculously over the top moments as leading a political revolt against Toturi III, previously a Chessmaster without equal, that was done with so great an ease that it occurred mostly off-camera and without explanation, while examples of the latter include the entire clan holding the Villain Ball against the Crab so tightly that an entire army walks right through both clans' territories without either the wiser, allowing the Spider to infiltrate Rokugan unopposed. A common player complaint is that Scorpion victory is either a certainty, regardless of who actually won, or it's doomed to fail, even if the Scorpion actually won the storyline tournament. Other clans are subject to this, too, but it's been outright stated by the story team that the Scorpion have to do both to an extent to appear plausible at all.
• Magnificent Bastard: The Scorpion Clan specializes in this trope, but there are plenty to be found among the other clans, as well.
  • Including at least one Scorpion-trained Emperor (Toturi III), and current Emerald Champion, Shosuro Jimen.
    • "I can swim."
    • "Scorpions are jerks"

The Unicorn Can

• Ambiguously Gay: Shinjo Min-Hee, the current Khan, comes off as this especially in regards to Naleesh. This fiction compounds that with Takeru mentioning that Min-Hee hasn't even said hello to her husband in over a month. She just continues to brood over Naleesh instead of visiting.

The Shadowlands/Spider Clan

• What an Idiot!: "Okay, I know that every other guy who has invoked the powers of darkness to get an advantage has brought only ruin... But I know that I can do better."
• What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: The Dark Moto school in 4th edition gets a power at rank 2 that lets them summon their demon horse mounts from anywhere. This happens by them rising out of the ground.

Rokugan in General

• And the Fandom Rejoiced: The 4th edition RPG made a...certain 3rd edition school that was allegedly awesome but was not in gameplay, really awesome! Oh, and the Lion bushi in the demo is statistcally Tsudao!
• Broken Base: Well it goes without saying that the supporters for each of the factions (even ones no longer active in the game) are pretty passionate and will defend their faction with great zeal. One can even find intense debates and divides within a single clan (the Shinjo vs. Moto flame wars among the Unicorn player base have been going strong for over a decade) to say nothing over the debates about which CCG ruleset was best, First Edition vs. Third Edition RPG, CCG vs RPG (judging just from this page), etc. etc. etc...
• Canon Sue: Iuchiban. For others, Daigotsu. Kaneka was also accused of being this during the Diamond/Lotus Era.
  • The Monkey catch a lot of flak of this sort, too, as they're a minor clan started by a peasant who claimed samurai status, have a very potent bushi school, haven't really had much happen to them in the timeline, and have the patronage of the Scorpion Clan.
• Crowning Moment of Awesome: Samurai selling their lives dearly is a staple of the genre.
  • Just as Daigotsu is ready to conquer all of Rokugan while Fu Leng simultaneously leads an attack on Heaven itself, and all those who could hope to stop them have already been defeated, Magnificent Bastard Naseru, the courtier among Toturi's children, steps up to the plate and mindscrews the God of Evil himself with a few well-chosen words, leading Fu Leng to ruin his own plan in its very moment of triumph by doubting the loyalty of his servants, and thus cutting himself off from the power that their faith granted him.

Daigotsu: You should have remained in Ryoko Owari. Your battle is already lost. Even should I die here, I will become a martyr to the Lost. Their faith in Fu Leng will increase a thousand fold, and his conquest of Tengoku will be assured.
Naseru: Their faith in Fu Leng? I see no such thing. Your people do not believe in Fu Leng. They believe in you. You, in turn, believe in him. You are the focus of Fu Leng's power. I wonder what will become of you once Fu Leng realizes that he relies so heavily upon you. I hope he is a trusting god.

• • And then, of course, at the close of the Second Day Of Thunder. One sentence capped off a thousand years of planning.

"That's right, Fu Leng. You are mortal."

• • An often-overlooked one: Hika Kisada's youngest and least favorite child, Hida Sukune, was the only one who opposed the Crab Clan's near-literal Deal with the Devil. When given as a blood sacrifice to Fu Leng, his soul was damned to the hellish dimension of Jigoku for eternity... only for his soul to overpower Jigoku due to his raw virtue, and leave of its own accord.
• Crowning Moment of Funny: "A Good Little Wife" - the story of how Hida O-ushi found her husband.
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: When Hida O-Ushi's uncle Tsume scornfully asked her (formerly Unicorn) husband Hida Yasamura whether he would have the resolve to cut O-Ushi down if she were slain and raised as a zombie. Yasamura replied that it would be impossible for him- because if O-Ushi were slain, he would already be dead.
  • Of all people, Hida Kisada had two: one, when realizing his son Hida Sukune, whom he had sacrificed to Fu Leng, had returned as a sacred spirit AND forgiven Kisada. Later, after Kisada's own resurrection, he found a previously unknown heir, a Dragon with less concerned with battle than with law, and showed the boy favor anyway -- proving that even Kisada can change.
• Dork Age: What many people consider The Hidden Emperor Arc to be.
  • Some people throw Diamond and Lotus Editions onto that pile.
  • And the third edition of the RPG had pretty terrible proof reading, including an appendix in Emerald Empire with NPCs with Honor stats sometimes twice as high as the rules allowed and a revision of a rather important rule in the Revised core rulebook that made the Defense skill unintelligable.
• Fanon Discontinuity: As far as many older players are concerned (especially those who play the RPG), the canon storyline ended with the Second Day of Thunder and Toturi I becoming Emperor.
  • The Destroyer War, Daigotsu taking over Jigoku and making the taint voluntary, and forcing Iweko to make Spider a Great Clan is being treated as discontinuity as well.
• Tear Jerker: Hoturi dying in Kachiko's arms after defeating Fu Leng in the Second Day of Thunder. While she forgives him for killing her son (and though he did not know at the time his son too) during the Scorpion clan Coup and they reaffirm their love for each other.
  • And then later, to permanently bind Shosuro to the lake beneath Kyuden Bayushi, Kachiko drowns herself in its waters knowing full well that her soul is likely to be bound and she won't be able to move on to the Heavens. Her last sight before going under is Hoturi, newly resurrected, reaching the side of the lake.
    • Kachiko inspires many of these. During the coup, Hoturi proudly kills Bayushi Dairu, the heir to the Scorpion leadership. It isn't until years later, as Hoturi's pondering Kachiko's sudden and passionate hatred for him after years of saying little to one another: Dairu wasn't Shoju's son, but Hoturi's.
• That One Disadvantage: Momoku. You can't spend Void Points. Imagine if you couldn't spend Willpower in The World of Darkness and you have an idea of how utterly this will screw you. Worth ten Character Points (the most of any disadvantage); not even remotely a fair deal.
  • It's now only worth 8 points, and only prevents you from using the common Void Point expenditures. You can still use Void Points to activate Techniques that require them.
  • Dark Fate. When the GM feels like it, you will betray everything your character holds dear, most likely including the other players, and probably become an NPC, if not dead (or a Fate Worse Than Death).
• They Just Didn't Care: More or less Wizards of the Coast's attitude during the entire period where they had joint rights to the gamer along with AEG. They day that AEG bought exclusive rights back from the was a a day of great rejoicing. Though some critics also say that this is the attitude towards Japanese and Samurai Culture of the post Wick Story Team as the setting has drifted further away from that over time.
• Too Cool to Live: Many. See also Anyone Can Die, Tear Jerker, Heroic Sacrifice and Dropped a Bridge on Him. Tends to happen in actual play, natch.