YMMV / The Shahnameh

• Complete Monster:
  • Angra Mainyu, known by his Persian name of Ahriman, is the Evil Twin of creator god Ahura Mazda, and the antithesis of everything good and just. Declaring that "it is not that I cannot make anything good, but that I will not," Angra Mainyu sought to prevent Ahura Mazda from creating life in the first place, by slaying the primal bull, his first creation. He seduced the daevas (demons) away from Ahura Mazda, transforming them into spiteful beings living only to spread fear and hatred. When Ahura Mazda created sixteen lands, Angra Mainyu responded with sixteen scourges, including old age, disease, war, vice, and death. He created the monster Aži Dahāka, destined to slay one-third of the Earth's population, and turned him loose in the world. He made two separate attempts at destroying the Earth's water supply and leaving all creation to die of dehydration. He made Jeh, the primal whore, so that women would suffer from menstruation, birth pangs, and mistrust from men. He tried to coerce Zoroaster into coming over to his side, and then set the daevas upon him when he would not. Responsible for the very existence of evil, Angra Mainyu works to seduce men and women away from Ahura Mazda, so they might join his campaign for control of reality. Hating everything good and just, and angry that he is not the one who created everything, Angra Mainyu's ultimate goal is the annihilation of the universe.
  • Zahhak, after delving into evil with the wicked Ahriman, becomes the worst tyrant the world has ever seen after murdering his own father. Conducting horrific massacres and bathing in the blood of his victims, Zahhak has two men a day sacrificed to feed their brains to the snakes growing from his shoulders. Upon learning of the hero Fereydun destined to defeat him to avenge his father, Zahhak massacres those close to him, even the cow who functioned as his wet nurse. Zahhak, after being driven back by Fereydun, flees to India where he proceeds to kill thousands of innocents. The pinnacle of mortal evil in the Shahnameh, Zahhak stands as a testament of wickedness even centuries later.
• Moment of Awesome: The blacksmith Kaveh, a Badass Normal with no role in the prophecy who still manages to be vital in Zahhak's defeat. After the serpent king ate the brains of all but one of Kaveh's sons, he couldn't take it anymore and marched straight into Zahhak's court and demanded the freedom of his last. Zahhak, not wanting to come across as a tyrant, agreed, but requested that Kaveh sign a contract saying how good and benevolent Zahhak was. Instead, Kaveh tore the contract to shreds, made a banner from his blacksmith's apron, and rallied an army against Zahhak. This dude deserves a movie.
• Periphery Demographic: The Shahnameh is understandably popular with the remaining Zoroastrians, as it preserves important information about Zoroastrian Iran, and Zoroastrian religious history.
• Squick: Zahhak, who had brain-eating snakes on his shoulders! His kind-hearted cooks trick him by mixing one victim's brain with a sheep's brain. Unfortunately, this still means that every day one innocent man gets his brain removed.
• Values Dissonance: Kondrow, the only named character to stay completely loyal to Zahhak, is noted to be "lowly and wretched" because... he's a slave. The narrative treats it as an affront that Zahhak would allow a slave to manage his kingdom, when in modern times, uplifting a slave to such a high position would probably be seen as a Pet the Dog moment on his part. Naturally, this wasn't seen as anything offensive in Iranian culture at the time; slave labor, and considering slaves to be lesser (since they were often criminals or prisoners of war) was completely normalized.
• Values Resonance: Perhaps one of the reasons the Shahnameh is so beloved is that, while firmly Iranian in its origin, language, and artistic composition, its values are pretty universal. The honor, piety, courage, and patriotism of the heroes are all still easy to respect, whether the reader is Zoroastrian, Muslim, or something else altogether.