YMMV / The Winter's Tale

• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The bear.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The bear of course, being the most famous part of the show.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: Leontes reunites with his wife and daughter and is forgiven by them for his crimes against them, but Mamillius remains dead and buried. This means Hermione will never be reunited with her beloved little boy and Perdita will always have to live with the fact that she had a big brother that she'll never get to meet. And it's all due to Leontes's insane stupidity.
• Memetic Mutation: "Exit, pursued by a bear." ^Explanation The stage direction for Antigonus's death, in which he is abruptly mauled by a bear in Bohemia. The direction stood out for both its Deus ex Machina nature (as the bear is never hinted at and is only present for that one moment before exiting the plot completely) and the inherent absurdity of the phrase. Consequently, it became a popular subject for parody, to the point where it was named a trope.
• Never Live It Down: Beginning with Ben Jonson, seemingly every commentator on the play has pointed out that Bohemia does not, in fact, have a coastline.
• Signature Scene / Signature Line: "Exit, pursued by a bear".
• One-Scene Wonder: The bear. Noticing a pattern here?
• Watch It for the Meme: Not nearly as well-known as some of Shakespeare's other plays, save for a certain piece of stage direction.
• Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: After everything that Leontes put her through, why does Hermione get back together with him at the end of the play? (And plus there will always be the fact that Mamillius is dead because of his father's actions and, unlike his mother, won't be coming back...)

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