Legend of the Seeker/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alas, Poor Villain: Denna takes an arrow in the back from Cara and falls off a cliff literally seconds after it seems Zedd has talked her into leading a better life and letting him go.
  • Author's Saving Throw - When Nicci originally appeared, she didn't look at all like her book incarnation and did not wear black. Then she was resurrected in a blonde body. Then she became Badass. Then, for the season finale, she put on a black dress.
  • Cliché Storm or Troperiffic: YMMV
  • Complete Monster: Nicholas Rahl in the first season finale
    • Darken Rahl himself. Commits mass infanticide, murders for kicks and for ink, horribly tortures people to gain magical powers, etc. He has his own sister violently beaten, lies to her so she will betray her other brother and bring him the tools to take free will from every living thing in the world, he also unleashes a plague on his own people (killing hundreds of them including a meek looking boy we are shown) for the sole reason of trying to turn people against Richard, and when all of this fails to win him victory he kills a kitten with his BARE HANDS . Bonus points come from that all of the above happens in one episode.
    • Princess Violet and her mother as well. Queen Melina is so horrible, that when Rahl kills her, you feel like it is his Pet the Dog!
  • Foe Yay: In the episode "Home," Rahl, as part of a spell inflicting a Lotus Eater Machine on Richard, ends up roleplaying as an old girlfriend of Richard's.
    • And apparently the Keeper and the Creator were once lovers.
    • There's also quite a bit when Nicci is forcing Richard to lead her to the Stone of Tears.
  • Growing the Beard: The first two episodes are rather rushed, basically cramming the first third of the original book into an hour and a half of screen time. The rest of the episodes have a more relaxed pace, and are a substantial improvement. In the premiere of the second season, this trope took a literal approach as well. (Richard actually grew a beard.)
    • The second season marks a noticeable improvement. The series becomes darker and there is much more suffering for both the main cast and the people around them. The D'Haran army, now leaderless, has turned to pillaging and terrorizing villages and towns, each commander fashioning himself into a warlord. There is also some (very welcomed) character development, especially with regards to Richard: he no longer carries the Idiot Ball all the time and at several points displays downright tactical genius (tracking the movements of invisible wizard-monsters by the tracks they leave in the mud; the way he both had the Sister of Dark captured AND got out of the Sisters of Light monastery). The addition of Cara to the main cast has also improved the series, since she is not only Fetish Fuel eye candy but has an interesting character development arc of her own.
  • Les Yay: The two Mord-Sith with speaking roles in the second season opener, one of them played by Charisma Carpenter.
    • Cara's emotional growth through season 2 has centered mostly on her growing friendship with Kahlan, and generated a strong femslash following.
    • In leather. After several teasing shots of the Mord-Sith giving each other sponge baths, the two in question kiss in a later scene. Can also qualify as Fan Service
      • Not strictly speaking Fan Service, as the precedent for lesbian Mord-Sith is Canon in the Sword of Truth series.
      • But in the series there's no relationship and is in fact probably nonconsensual; it's played just for titillation. Cara was also completely heterosexual in the books.
      • Cara's reaction to Triana's death in the s1 finale might suggest more to that relationship in the show, especially in light of "Eternity" and Cara's canon relationship with Dahlia.
      • Let's just say the Sisters of the Agiel are all really close "friends".
  • Padding: When Kahlan uses her Mind Control "Confession" thing on somebody the first time, the clouds part, the sky darkens, thunder rumbles, her eyes go black, and she passes out for nearly a minute. Averted, in that the production quickly tones it down for subsequent uses. By the second season, she barely breaks her stride.
  • Tear Jerker: The end of the first part of the second season finale. We've gotten to know Cara as a tough, no nonsense Mord-Sith who had nearly all her kindness and compassion beaten out of her. Then we're introduced to a Cara who got to live the peaceful life of a schoolteacher, raising two young children, and finally meeting the man of her dreams...seconds before Zedd needs to turn back time and give her back the life she used to have as a Mord-Sith. Seeing Cara, bound, confused, panicking, and pleading for the sake of her two young children is...hard to watch.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: While there are legitimate grievances to be had, some of the earliest complaints were along the lines of "They changed Rahl's hair color! SAM RAIMI MUST DIE!"
  • Too Cool to Live: Darken Rahl and Cara had a child. Let that sink in for a moment.
    • Possibly a nod to a scene in the books, where Cara notes that Darken Rahl had taken her to his bed several times, but she was lucky enough not to get pregnant.
  • Too Good to Last: Because Tribune dropped the show and ABC couldn't find any takers, there will not be a 3rd season. There is, naturally, a fan-led effort to save the show.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Nicci, even more so than in the books.
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