History YMMV / TheSaxonStories

* IronWoobie: Father Judas. He handles his father's brutal scorn with nothing but dignity and grace, and even gives [[spoiler:Uhtred his last rites after his near-fatal confrontation with Cnut Longsword]].
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: To some, Uhtred may come off like this. Granted, he was never intended to be a paragon of kindness, but his [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor repeated betrayals of Alfred]], [[{{Wangst}} his self-pitying angst]], [[ParentalFavoritism his poor treatment of his eldest living son]], and general [[{{Jerkass}} jerkassery]] can make him very difficult to empathize with. Mitigated by the facts that he gets over the angst, he does have genuine ties of loyalty to those he betrays Alfred for, and is generally entirely self-aware and up front about his own faults. For instance, when he first enters Alfred's service, Alfred gifts him some rather fine armour, and Uhtred observes that looking back on it, he hadn't actually done anything to deserve any favours like that, unless to be general {{Jerkass}} is a qualification. Of course, as he also notes, [[MagnificentBastard Alfred was hardly acting out of the goodness of his heart either]]. And as it looks like he's dying, and his eldest living son, IronWoobie Father Judas, insists that he was a good father, Uhtred's first thought is a rather irritable, 'what the hell are you talking about? I was a terrible father.'
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Uhtred's father [[spoiler: doesn't survive the prologue of the first book]]. In that time, he was shown to be a formidable warrior and savvy politician, even having designs on the throne of Northumbria. He wasn't the most loving father, but characters who knew him seem to imply that had HiddenDepths, and [[SmallRoleBigImpact he has a large impact on later books in terms of the post-mortem influence he has on Uhtred's own character.]]

* CrazyAwesome: Sigtryggr's MajorInjuryUnderreaction.

* MagnificentBastard:
** Uhtred in a military sense, Alfred in a political sense.
** Haesten exists in a kind of limbo between this and SmugSnake. On the one hand many of his plans are quite cunning and he's probably the most threatening of the viking leaders. On the other hand he [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption always loses]], [[spoiler: eventually ending up dead in ''Warriors of the Storm'' having not achieved very much at all.]]
** Cnut Longsword was definitely one in the ''Pagan Lord'' and would have easily succeeded if not for the SpannerInTheWorks that is Uhtred.

* ReplacementScrappy: [[spoiler: After Alfred's death, some Saxons see Edward as this, believing that he'll never be able to fill his father's boots. With Uhtred's help, he proves them wrong]].

* HilariousInHindsight: Ragnar the Younger's second-in-command is named [[{{Vikings}} Rollo]].

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: To some, Uhtred may come off like this. Granted, he was never intended to be a paragon of kindness, but his [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor repeated betrayals of Alfred]], [[{{Wangst}} his self-pitying angst]], [[ParentalFavoritism his poor treatment of his eldest living son]], and general [[{{Jerkass}} jerkassery]] can make him very difficult to empathize with. Mitigated by the facts that he gets over the angst, he does have genuine ties of loyalty to those he betrays Alfred for, and is generally up front about his own faults - for instance, when he first enters Alfred's service, Alfred gifts him some rather fine armour that. Uhtred observes that looking back on it, he hadn't actually done anything to deserve any favours like that, unless to be general {{Jerkass}} is a qualification. Of course, as he also notes, [[MagnificentBastard Alfred was hardly acting out of the goodness of his heart either]]. And as it looks like he's dying, and his eldest living son, IronWoobie Father Judas, insists that he was a good father, Uhtred's first thought is a rather irritable, 'what the hell are you talking about? I was a terrible father.'
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Uhtred's father [[spoiler: doesn't survive the prologue of the first book]]. In that time, he was shown to be a formidable warrior and savvy politician, even having designs on the throne of Northumbria. He wasn't the most loving father, but characters who knew him seem to imply that had HiddenDepths.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: To some, Uhtred may come off like this. Granted, he was never intended to be a paragon of kindness, but his [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor repeated betrayals of Alfred]], [[{{Wangst}} his self-pitying angst]], [[ParentalFavoritism his poor treatment of his eldest living son]], and general [[{{Jerkass}} jerkassery]] can make him very difficult to empathize with. Mitigated by the facts that he gets over the angst, he does have genuine ties of loyalty to those he betrays Alfred for, and is generally up front about his own faults - when he first enters Alfred's service and Alfred gifts him some rather fine armour that, looking back on it, he hadn't actually done anything to deserve any favours, unless to be general {{Jerkass}} is a qualification. Of course, [[MagnificentBastard Alfred was hardly acting out of the goodness of his heart either]]. And as it looks like he's dying, and his eldest living son, IronWoobie Father Judas, insists that he was a good father, Uhtred's first thought is a rather irritable, 'what the hell are you talking about? I was a terrible father.'

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: To some, Uhtred may come off like this. Granted, he was never intended to be a paragon of kindness, but his [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor repeated betrayals of Alfred]], [[{{Wangst}} his self-pitying angst]], [[ParentalFavoritism his poor treatment of his eldest living son]], and general [[{{Jerkass}} jerkassery]] can make him very difficult to empathize with. Mitigated by the fact that he is generally up front about his own faults.

* ChaoticGood: Uhtred is this, to Alfred's LawfulGood. He holds disdain for most forms of authority and order, but he maintains his own code of honor and can usually be counted on to do the right thing in the end. However, his love for the Danes and the Danish way of life occasionally leads him into ChaoticNeutral territory, especially earlier on in the series.

* GodModeSue: Uhtred, who crosses over with JerkSue. He is almost single-handedly reponsible for saving Alfred's Wessex from the Danes and has never been bested in combat. Not only that, he beds almost every major female character he comes across. Given the fact that the stories have an unreliable narrator, it's possible that Uhtred's accounts are a deliberate sendup of this trope.
** He's definitely not a JerkSue, as many of the characters utterly hate him, including the arguable "good" guys on Alfred's side. In addition, he is rather humble about being a GodModeSue, saying that it's a mix of pure luck and the gods' intervention that kept him alive.
** Uhtred also openly admits that the only reason his survived his fight with Ubbe Lothbrokson was due to the guy losing his footing in a pile of entrails he himself created.

* LawfulGood: Alfred is this, to Uhtred's ChaoticGood. He is a visionary who plans to unite all the lands of the Angelcynn through law, education, and religion. However, his moral inflexibility and inherent lack of ruthlessness sometimes lead him into LawfulStupid territory.

** Haesten exists in a kind of limbo between this and SmugSnake. On the one hand many of his plans are quite cunning and he's probably the most threatening of the viking leaders. On the other hand he [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption always loses]].

* BrokenBase: Inevitably, opinions were divided when the first shots of Uhtred from the TV series were released. Some think that Dreymon looks good as Uhtred during his younger days, while others think that he doesn't look tough enough. Also, some complain about him having black rather than blond hair ([[HilariousInHindsight the opposite]] of what happened to Series/{{Sharpe}}) while others don't mind.

* BrokenBase: Inevitably, opinions were divided when the first shots of Uhtred from the TV series were released. Some think that Dreymon looks good as Uhtred during his younger days, while others think that he doesn't look tough enough. Also, some complain about him having black rather than blond hair ([[HilariousInHindsight the reverse]] of what happened to Series/{{Sharpe}}) while others don't mind.

* BrokenBase: Inevitably, opinions were divided when the first shots of Uhtred from the TV series were released. Some think that Dreymon looks good as Uhtred during his younger days, while others think that he doesn't look tough enough. People also complain about him having black rather than blonde hair ([[HilariousInHindsight the reverse]] of what happened to Series/{{Sharpe}}) while others don't mind.

* BrokenBase: Inevitably, opinions were divided when the first shots of Uhtred from the TV series were released. Some think that Dreymon looks good as Uhtred during his younger days, while others think that he doesn't look tough enough, and complain about him having black rather than blonde hair ([[HilariousInHindsight the reverse]] of what happened to Series/{{Sharpe}}.)

* BrokenBase: Inevitably, opinions were divided when the first shots of Uhtred from the TV series were released. Some think that Dreymon looks good as Uhtred during his younger days, while others think that he doesn't look tough enough, and complain about him having black rather than blonde hair.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: To some, Uhtred may come off like this. Granted, he was never intended to be a paragon of kindness, but his [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor repeated betrayals of Alfred]], [[{{Wangst}} his self-pitying angst]], [[ParentalFavoritism his poor treatment of his eldest living son]], and general [[{{Jerkass}} jerkassery]] can make him very difficult to empathize with.

** Cnut Longsword was definitely one in the ''Pagan Lord'' and would have easily succeeded if not for the SpannerInTheWorks that is Uhtred

* LawfulGood: Alfred is this, to Uhtred's ChaoticGood. He dreams to unite all the lands of the Angelcynn through law, education, and religion. However, his moral inflexibility and inherent lack of ruthlessness sometimes lead him into LawfulStupid territory.

** Uhtred in a tactical sense, Alfred in a strategic sense.

* IronWoobie: Father Judas. He handles his father's brutal scorn with nothing but dignity and grace, and even gives [[spoiler:Uhtred his last rights after his near-fatal confrontation with Cnut Longsword]].

** Cnut Longsword was definately one in the ''Pagan Lord'' and would have easily succeeded if not for the SpannerInTheWorks that is Uhtred

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Occasionally, Uhtred may make you wonder why exactly you're supposed to be rooting for him. His [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor repeated betrayals of Alfred]], [[{{Wangst}} his self-pitying angst]], [[ParentalFavoritism his poor treatment of his eldest living son]], and general [[{{Jerkass}} jerkassery]] might push him over the edge for some readers.