Slayers/YMMV

Adaptation Displacement: "Huh? What do you mean there are novels?" This would actually apply to any number of fans, since the novels weren't translated until around eight years after the anime was first distributed in the states (and only the first eight are currently translated anyway.)
Alas, Poor Villain: Eris and her creation Copy Rezo, especially in the anime.
- Real Rezo. Particularly after Evolution-R, where his real goal is to be killed for good, before the Shabranigdu fragment takes control again and blows up the world.
And the Fandom Rejoiced: Funimation's announcement about the dub caused this in two parts: first, the voices of the Four Man Band were all being reunited from the original dub (that is, Lisa Ortiz, Eric Stuart, Veronica Taylor and Crispin Freeman). The fandom rejoiced. Second was the announcement that David Moo... was being replaced as the voice of Xellos. The fandom really rejoiced.
- Never mind the dub, the new seasons being made in the first place, after more than 12 years of waiting, is cause enough for rejoicing.
Broken Base: You'd think the dub vs. sub debate would have died down by now with the advent of DVD's, wouldn't you?
- This one has died down over the years with the advent of Revolution and Evolution-R, but many fans either liked or hated the third season (Slayers TRY) because of its darker plot and fascinating and well-done questioning of who is and isn't evil.
Chaotic Neutral - Lina is arguably the poster girl for this alignment.
Complete Monster: Hellmaster Phibrizzo, Copy Rezo in the original light novel, Joyrock in The Movie, and the pirates in the Falshes' Hourglass manga are the only true examples of this trope in the series.
Crowning Music of Awesome: The legendary second opening song, "Give a Reason".
- The theme song for the first Slayers movie. The melody of "Midnight Blue" sounded very unique and haunting.
- Likewise, the freaking epic theme that plays when Lina/L-sama is laying the smack down on Fibrizo.
- The first opening and ending themes.
- Plenty of Grit
Cult Classic: Moreso today, due to the fanbase having grown smaller over the years (It was wildly popular in the mid-to-late 90's when it came out). The newcomers who find it, though, love it as much as its original fans did.
Die for Our Ship: Amelia used to be on the receiving end of this treatment a lot, in order to pair Zelgadis with Lina or Xellos, although her most rabid haters seem to have diminished in number or lost enthusiasm over the years (likely due to the fact that the show itself has been laying on the Lina/Gourry and Amelia/Zel pretty thick since at least NEXT).
Ensemble Darkhorse: Xellos, Naga, and Filia.
Epileptic Trees: Some fans theorize that the reason Lina's so powerful is because she contains one of the seven fragments of Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo and is unconsciously drawing power from it. After all she's really good at casting Dragon Slave, which calls upon Ruby-Eye's power.
Fanon: less so than some series, but fairly well-entrenched. Among other things, fanon claims that Xellos's boss, the Mazoku Lord Beastmaster Zelas Metallium, is a good friend and drinking buddy of Luna Inverse... despite the fact that Luna Inverse is (Good Is Not Nice aside) a very powerful Paladin who houses a fragment of the chief god of the Slayers world in her soul, which means the two are natural enemies.
- KanzakaDex claims it's because of one misinterpreted picture (it's Luna and Dilgear, not Zelas).
  - There's also the theory that Zelas drove Dolphin insane and that they hate each other (Also false: when they show up briefly in the novels, they are on good terms and she's no more crazy than Zelas).
Evil Is Sexy: Eris from the first season and Mazenda from the second season.
High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Surprisingly for many people used to the anime's slapstick tone and tendency towards Disney Deaths for minor characters, there's a certain amount of this, often in the form of Body Horror, in the novels. (Two words: Raugnut Rushavna. If that doesn't make you shudder, you haven't read the second novel. Also notably, what happened to Copy Rezo in the third book is almost enough to make you feel genuinely sorry for him.)
- Then there's the part in the anime where everyone is surprised to see Syragg rebuilt after it's destruction and all of the people who were killed walking around normally. When Sylphiel sees her father again, he puts her hand on his chest and she notices that he has no heartbeat. He then tells her that Syragg is a literal ghost town with shadows of the fallen citizens who are controlled by Hellmaster Fibrizzo and that their bodies are trapped in a sleep like state in the underworld. Things get considerably worse after that when all of the ghosts attack the main characters, as they make their way to Fibrizzo's lair.
- Also, what happens to Hellmaster leading up to his death is pretty disturbing looking (and sounding, with the screaming he does during it). Though he DID have it coming.
- Another great example is when Hellmaster rips out Amelia's soul in front of the rest of the team toward the end of NEXT. The voicework in particular sells it in both languages, with Amelia in unspeakable pain for a few moments before... stopping in Zelgadis' arms, and then Zelgadis absolutely losing it. And not only that, but when this aired Amelia's Contractual Immortality wasn't guaranteed, so for people watching at the time? Hand-over-mouth horror.
- Watching Eris slowly fall and twitch on the ground while lying in a pile of her own blood and then get vaporized was a giant wake-up call to the audience that the show had stopped kidding around. May count as a Cerebus Syndrome moment for the show; in the original books, her death was much less gruesome. Oh, and then an episode later, LINA has the same thing happen to her, making it very convincing that she might not survive this one....
Hilarious in Hindsight: Lina was once the postergirl for "flat-chested". Compared to many many characters today, she is quite ample.
Jerkass Woobie: Zelgadis and some of the villains.
Jerk Sue: Filia has shades of this.
Magnificent Bastard: Xellos, naturally.
Memetic Badass: Lina Inverse manages to play this straight and subvert it at the same time. Whenever she deliberately tries to use her reputation to her advantage, nobody recognizes her... but that's because she uses nicknames and titles that she created herself to feed her ego. Mention any of the dozens of names that stem from her bad attitude and misbehavior, such as Dragon Spooker, Bandit Killer, or Enemy Of All Who Live, and people will run for miles, as everyone seems to have heard of them. Considering that, in the fourth season of the anime, this is someone who was put on trial for the crime of being herself, and that even her friends couldn't come up with an adequate defense, that does explain things.
Memetic Sex Goddess: Naga and Amelia. Being sisters, it must run in the family.
- Also Martina.
Moe Moe: While pretty active and go-getting, Amelia is the youngest of the four main cast members, also has the larger chest of the two girls, tends to be the cutest, and as noted below is sometimes used as a punching bag by the villains so that viewers will feel intensely protective of her. The term came into being some time after Slayers aired, but Amelia seems to have been a prototype of the trope alongside characters like Rei Ayanami.
Narm: Sylphiel's voice acting in the first season of the dub. Particularly her Big No when she sees Syraag's destruction at the hands of Rezo.
The Scrappy: Sylphiel rubs some people the wrong way. Ironically, the biggest Scrappy in-universe is Xellos.
- Amelia's love of justice being Flanderized in the adaptation from the novels initially made her this. Joani Baker voicing her at first didn't help at all.
  - Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Once Veronica Taylor took over her voice acting and her Flanderization was toned down, she quickly became a fan favorite.
Squick: In the first season, Zelgadis claims that Rezo the Red Priest is both his grandfather and his great-grandfather. Word of God has since been passed on that this was a verbal mishap, and that not only was Zelgadis supposed to be unsure whether Rezo is two generations removed (grandfather) or three (great-grandfather), but he's truly Rezo's great-grandson.
- Another mistranslation in NEXT has Amelia referring to both Christopher and Alfred as her uncles. Christopher is Phil's brother, so that works. However, Alfred is Christopher's son, and looks to be about Amelia's age, which makes Amelia and Christopher cousins. This botch is also probably the reason that Alfred sounds so much older than he is in the dub.
Stoic Woobie: Gourry seems pretty well-adjusted considering his back story.
Viewer Gender Confusion: If you watched NEXT in Japanese without subtitles, you'd have a hard time determining exactly what gender Hellmaster is. The dub fixes this by giving him a boy's voice.
The Woobie: Your hometown gets destroyed twice, and your main love interest doesn't even notice your affections, only to have him fall in love with the main heroine when the world is at stake. And even then it's not like they at least stay together and are happy. Isn't it sad, Sylphiel?
- Amelia is also somewhat Woobified as noted above; you're supposed to feel terrible for her and give her a protective hug when a villain tears a great bloody hole in her back or tries to rip out her soul or what have you. Amelia herself, though, is too damn genki to be held back by anything.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Valgaav, no doubt about it. Considering that his entire race was destroyed because the golden dragons were afraid of their power. This would make anyone angry and vengeful.
- On the other hand, fangirls tend to dress him up pretty and portray him as an innocent little lamb, kind of glossing over that whole "attempted genocide" thing.