The Tudors/YMMV

• Alas, Poor Villain: Wolsey's prayer in the last episode of season one.
  • Thomas Cromwell's monologue and prayer prior to being executed in the season 3 finale.
• Alternate Character Interpretation / Historical Hero Upgrade / Historical Villain Upgrade : of course.
• Complete Monster: Edward Seymour. While she is waving at the people, he casually informs Jane their father died a week ago and she missed the funeral. This is still a whole lot nicer than the way he treats prisoners, personally wielding the hot poker for instance despite relatively high station probably not requiring such.
  • His wife also doesn't seem to have any redeeming qualities.
    • Which is somewhat unfair for both of them. Edward Seymour wasn't the nicest guy around, but he wasn't anywhere near as bad as the show - people were pretty upset when he was executed and he was referred to as "the good duke." (The promotion to duke was after Henry died, so not on the show.) As for Anne... she was a bitch, yes, but not a cheating wife. She and Edward were actually a happy couple - or at least one would hope so, they had ten kids.
    • In season 4, Anne Seymour had a Pet the Dog moment when she eased the suffering of Anne Askew.
  • Thomas Boleyn, especially in the last episode of season 2. When the Duke of Suffolk comes to his cell to tell him about George's execution, Anne's impending execution, and his own punishment by having most of his lands taken away, what is his reaction? To ask whether he can keep his Earldom. Charles' reaction is a thing of beauty. Especially considering how much he hated Anne.
    • Another example occurs early in Season 2, after Thomas More's cook is sentenced to being boiled alive for trying to poison Thomas and Bishop Fisher, and the successful poisoning of four other bishops (all at Thomas Boleyn's instruction). He watches the execution all the whole way, right down to the cook's gurgling last moments as he is fully submerged in the boiling oil. Even Thomas Cromwell had to turn away from the sight.
  • Henry is pretty damn selfish and cold for basically the entire show. He will also take down anyone who gets in the way of the things he wants, even going so far as to having them killed, stripping them of everything they have, or letting them die alone. This is no better demonstrated than how he treats almost all of his wives when he tires of them. Not to mention the peasants who rebelled against his religious reformations...
    • And he's not adverse to ordering his subordinates to do whatever is necessary to get a "confession" from someone he's suddenly decided is his enemy.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Getting Cromwell sentenced to death on trumped up charges was fine, plus about what you'd expect for political enemies in the show, but it was probably not in very good taste to get his executioner drunk to the point where decapitating him took five hits of the axe.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: The title theme.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Anne Boleyn and arguably Thomas Cromwell. Mary isn't quite at their level, but has plenty of fans too.
• High Octane Nightmare Fuel: The torture scenes. Oh, God, the torture scenes.
  • The sweating sickness, especially since we still have no idea what the hell caused it.
  • Episodes 4 and 5 of Season 3. Have an Oop North accent? You will not be making it to Episode 6.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: Thomas Cromwell and, above all, Anne Boleyn. Traditionally portrayed as the ruthless, evil villains in depictions of Henry's life. The show breaks away from that by simply making them human. Cromwell does some pretty bad things, but James Frain plays him in a way that makes it clear that he doesn't like everything he does. He just turns loyalty into a vice. Anne meanwhile is portrayed as a spirited young woman who falls in love with the king and is driven by that love, rather than greed. She is also shown to be a very loving mother, which she was in real life.
  • Anne Boleyn has almost aways been portrayed as such, and not a villain. At least, since the 60's.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Edward Seymour, for one. While he probably wasn't a great guy - he was a major force at court for a good amount of time, you didn't do that and be nice - he was definitely not the Complete Monster shown in the series. When he was Lord Protector (read: de facto King) during Edward VI's minority, he was pretty well-liked by the common people because his policies were helpful to them. When he fell from power and was executed, they actually needed extra guards to make sure there wasn't a riot over it.
  • George Boleyn. He and Jane Parker not liking one another is generally accepted as historical fact, but to depict him as a rapist without even one person he knew ever even hinting at such a thing in their writing is harsh.
• Hollywood Homely: Anne of Cleves as played by Joss Stone. "Looks like a horse"? Okay-then.
• Ho Yay/Yaoi Guys: The composer Thomas Tallis and William Compton. Later, George Boleyn and Mark Smeaton.
  • Bury Your Gays: During the Season 2 finale, George Boleyn and Mark Smeaton are accused of treason/sleeping with Anne Boleyn and are executed.
  • It's strongly hinted that Katherine Howard and her friend engaged in lesbian sex at some point in the past.
• Les Yay: Slightly hinted between Queen Katherine Howard and her old friend, Joan Bulmer.
• Magnificent Bastard: Thomas Cromwell. Critics agree, James Frain is one of the best things on the show.
  • He will be missed. Apparently Henry, doing his typical later reflection, would agree (about Cromwell that is. I don't think the real Henry knew Frain).
  • Cardinal Wolsey was no slouch when it came to some magnificent bastardy on his party playing the political games of court and European politics like a pro. His later downfall from Henry's favor is made more tragic because it was largely to outside circumstances than anything he did aside from taking the pension from the French that is.
  • Edward Seymour shows flashes of this.
  • So does his wife: especially in the last few episodes.
    • Which is appropriate; historically Edward and Anne Seymour were quite the evil power couple, but apparently there is no such thing as a functional marriage on this show, hence Anne having two on-screen affairs.
• Moral Event Horizon: After seeing Thomas Culpepper rape a game keeper's wife and then kill her husband when the man tried to bring him to justice, with no remorse and instead a tad of annoyance what's coming to him can't come soon enough.
• Narm: The siege of Boulogne, due to a combination of dodgy CGI and even dodgier French accents.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Anne Boleyn. When she first appeared she was hated by most of the fans (for just being Anne Boleyn and a lot of biased history writers paint her out as the villain) but quickly grew into the perhaps most beloved character on the show (at least in its first two seasons). When she met her demise a lot of fans said they didn't want to watch anymore now that she was gone.
  • Mary Tudor also arrived with a lot of negative historical baggage but her portrayal as a seriously flawed yet very sympathetic character won viewers over. At the end of the show many fans were expressing disappointment that they wouldn't get to see Sarah Bolger's take on Queen Mary.
• Retroactive Recognition: In one episode Henry passes a poor woodsman on the road and casually confiscates his wife for the night. The wife in question is Katie McGrath, who was working in the wardrobe department at the time, and is now currently starring as Morgana on Merlin.
• What an Idiot!: Why was the woman three queens back executed? (Officially, at least.) That's right, for adultery. And what happened to the men who were accused of being her lovers? They were executed too, right again! So, explain to us...how is it a good idea to have mad passionate sex with your lord and master's new trophy wife, and vice versa with the staff?
  • Also Katherine Parr, a bit. Appointing the guy who was just stripped of his bishop's role for suspected heresy as your chaplain is a bit of a risk, as her sister points out.
• The Woobie: Katherine of Aragon. Her daughter too.
  • Anne of Cleves, until Henry divorced her. Then she became the happiest (as well as luckiest) of his wives.