History YMMV / SienkiewiczTrilogy

** Is Kmicic really a case of [[FaceHeelTurn redemption]] or just the same old brutal and murder, only this time serving the right master? His whole redemption quest had nothing to do with RapePillageAndBurn at the beginning of the book (Oleńka calls him out on it, and he feels fairly guilty, but that's essentially forgotten just about as soon as Radziwiłł announces his pact with Sweden) and the main issue in the redemption arc is his later actions, caused by loyalty conflict. He had never felt or said sorry for what he had done in Wołmontowicze, yet he is going to live among them as the husband of the [[StandardHeroReward richest local beauty]]. One might wonder how he survived to the next book.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Wołodyjowski goes from supporting character to star of his own eponymous novel. And of course, there's Zagłoba...

** Kończ, waść, wstydu oszczędź! [[labelnote:Translation]]''Finish it, sir! Spare (me) the shame!'' [[/labelnote]] - perhaps the most (mis)quoted line from ''The Deluge'', which Kmicic utters when completely owned in a duel against Wołodyjowski. In the book, Kmicic, clearly outmatched by Wołodyjowski's fencing skills, begs Sir Michał to [[CoupDeGrace finish him off]] and thus spare him further humiliation. Nowadays, this quote is used mostly when you ask someone to stop ''embarassing themselves''. Note that "me" part is absent in the original Polish text as personal pronouns can be omitted in Polish, hence the confusion.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Kuklinowski might be seen as that by some modern readers. Although he is treated as a traitor and AssholeVictim who did betray Poland and insulted Kmicic and later tortured him (since latter humaliated him in return for insult). Kmicic responds by tortuting Kuklinowski in return and it is very much treated as moment of awesome for Kmicic (and some readers (even more in older days) cite it as one of their favorite moments and further reinforces Kmicic as one of their favorite charaters. Though, Kuklinowski later being revealed to have been left and freezed to death. That might be seen by some modern readers as little excessive. From certain point of view, it can be seen as Kuklinowski's only real crimes are betraying Poland (which isn't really elaborated how much deaths of innocents it caused, if any at all) and maybe torturing Kmicic who now often comes off as DesignatedHero. Kmicic has actually far bigger bodycount in contrast to Kuklinowski especially at RapePillageAndBurn he does in the beggining. Yet, Kuklinowski is meant to be seen as a AssholeVictim while Kmicic who as already mentioned, has bigger innocent bodycount, is seen as a hero despite them possibly being now seen as no different; simply Kmicis is loyal to Poland and Kuklinowski is not.

** Kończ, waść, wstydu osczędź! [[labelnote:Translation]]''Finish it, sir! Spare (me) the shame!'' [[/labelnote]] - perhaps the most (mis)quoted line from ''The Deluge'', which Kmicic utters when completely owned in a duel against Wołodyjowski. In the book, Kmicic, clearly outmatched by Wołodyjowski's fencing skills, begs Sir Michał to [[CoupDeGrace finish him off]] and thus spare him further humiliation. Nowadays, this quote is used mostly when you ask someone to stop ''embarassing themselves''. Note that "me" part is absent in the original Polish text as personal pronouns can be omitted in Polish, hence the confusion.

* MemeticMutation: Several quotes remain popular and entered colloquial Polish [[OlderThanTelevision over a century ago]] and are still alive to this day. Surprisingly, despite the popularity of the books, mamy of said phrases end up being frequently [[BeamMeUpScotty misquoted]] or used in the [[YouKeepUsingThatWord wrong context]]:

** When someone tries to bewield something that doesn't belong to them, such an act is often referred as ''selling [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livonia Livland]]'' (Inflanty in Polish), supposedly after a sarcastic piece of advice Zagłoba gave to Jan Zamoyski. In the book, when Swedish king Charles X Gustav promised to give Jan Zamoyski Lublin Voivodeship (i.e. a territory the Swedish king had no rights to) in hereditary possession for opening the gates of Zamość, Zagłoba asked Jan to promise in return that he would ''offer'' Swedish king the province of ''Netherlands'' in exchange.

* MemeticMutation: Several quotes remain popular and entered colloquial Polish [[OlderThanTelevision over a century ago]] and are still alive to this day. Surprisingly, despite popularity of the books, mamy of said phrases end up being frequently [[BeamMeUpScotty misquoted]] or used in the [[YouKeepUsingThatWord wrong context]]:

* MemeticMutation:
** Several quotes remain popular in Poland, but nothing beats "Finish this, sir, and spare me (further) humiliation" Kmicic utters when completely owned in a duel against Wołodyjowski. It entered colloquial Polish [[OlderThanTelevision over a century ago]] and its still alive and well in the present day, due to the wide applicability it has outside the original context.

* AdaptationDisplacement: Outside Poland, people are more likely to be familiar with the ''VideoGame/MountAndBlade'' adaptation of ''With Fire and Sword'' than the books.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Kuklinowski might be seen as that by some modern readers. Although he is treated as a traitor and AssholeVictim who did betray Poland and insulted Kmicic and later tortured him (since latter humaliated him in return for insult). Kmicic responds by tortuting Kuklinowski in return and it is very much treated as moment of awesome for Kmicic (and some readers (even more in older days) cite it as one of their favorite moments and further reinforces Kmicic as one of their favorite charaters. Though, Kuklinowski later being revealed to have been left and freezed to death. That might be seen by some modern readers as little excessive. From certain point of view, it can be seen as Kuklinowski's only real crimes are betraying Poland (which isn't really elaborated how much deaths of innocents it caused, if any at all) and maybe torturing Kmicic who now often comes off as DesignatedHero. Kmicic has actually far bigger bodycount in contrast to Kuklinowski especially at RapePillageAndBurn he does in the beggining. Yet, Kuklinowski is meant to be seen as a AssholeVictim while Kmicic who as already mentioned, has bigger innocent bodycount, is seen as a hero despite them possibly being now seen as NotSoDifferent; simply Kmicis is loyal to Poland and Kuklinowski is not.