Iron man or weakling? Ligand-field strengths are conveniently expressed by the empirical spectrochemical series. Although cyanide has been deeply entrenched as a strong-field ligand, a couple of recent examples cast doubt toward the position of this ligand, namely the high-spin (S = 2) states of [Cr(II)(CN)(5)](3-) and [Fe(II)(tpp)(CN)](-). tpp = meso-tetraphenylporphinate.