Tropescilloscope: Artistic License – Biology

Inaccuracies in biological fact in a work of fiction, in the service of the story. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes Knife Nut Rule of Funny Freeze-Frame Bonus Male Gaze Roaring Rampage of Revenge Names to Run Away from Really Fast Determinator Creepy Child Blood from the Mouth Skewed Priorities Translation Convention Hero Antagonist The Oner Politically Incorrect Villain Funny Foreigner Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Rule of Three Maybe Ever After Big Damn Heroes Villain Ball The Great Depression Heroic Sacrifice Calling the Old Man Out Police are Useless Brother–Sister Incest Kill It with Fire Video Credits Woman Scorned Word of God Bottomless Magazines The Mole Getting Crap Past the Radar Bolivian Army Ending Villainous Breakdown Sinister Minister Christmas Movies Index Dogged Nice Guy French Films Naked People Are Funny Casting Gag Curb-Stomp Battle Meaningful Name Canon Foreigner Wretched Hive Pretty in Mink Jerk Jock The Brute Badass Boast The X of Y Blood Knight Title Drop Cluster F-Bomb Double-Meaning Title Film Noir Index Ominous Latin Chanting Creator Cameo Bare Your Midriff Visual Pun Sadistic Choice "Awesome McCool" Name Chekhov's Gunman Hollywood Darkness In the Back Soft Glass Rated M for Manly Super Strength Scenery Porn Attempted Rape Mundane Made Awesome Animal Motifs Big Eater Epic Fail Beauty Is Never Tarnished Badass Normal Stylistic Suck Silent Movie Made of Iron Suspiciously Similar Substitute Authority Equals Asskicking Adults Are Useless Death Glare Broken Pedestal Credits Gag Grey and Gray Morality Half the Man He Used to Be Broken Aesop Mood Whiplash Closed Circle Mooks Outrun the Fireball Alas, Poor Villain Loads and Loads of Characters Anachronic Order Dies Wide Open She Cleans Up Nicely Corrupt Corporate Executive Ass Shove Adaptational Attractiveness Immune to Bullets The Place Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass What the Hell, Hero? The Ditz Deliberate Values Dissonance The '60s Berserk Button British Films Hate Sink Adult Fear Intergenerational Friendship Sole Survivor No Antagonist Madness Mantra Diabolus ex Machina Award-Bait Song Made of Explodium Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Star-Crossed Lovers Hooker with a Heart of Gold Papa Wolf Villain Protagonist Empathic Environment Black Dude Dies First Evil Counterpart Action Prologue I'm a Humanitarian Heroes Want Redheads Mr. Exposition Yandere Mexican Standoff Wrong Genre Savvy Car Fu No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Catch-Phrase Real Life Retirony Anyone Can Die Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Arch-Enemy Ripped from the Headlines The Musical Plot Hole Vomit Discretion Shot Eiffel Tower Effect Works Set in World War II Mind Screw Dying Moment of Awesome Darker and Edgier In Name Only Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Tap on the Head Romantic False Lead Parental Neglect Country Matters Better to Die than Be Killed Malevolent Masked Men Villain with Good Publicity Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Up to Eleven Catapult Nightmare Left the Background Music On Demoted to Extra Karma Houdini Hypocrite Shout-Out Deus ex Machina Covers Always Lie Adaptation Distillation Setting Update Posthumous Character Woman in White Badass Bookworm Biopic Tranquil Fury Gold Digger The Atoner Reality Is Unrealistic Spanner in the Works Defrosting Ice Queen Evil Brit Jerkass Shown Their Work My Beloved Smother Italian Films Dual Wielding Driven to Suicide Punch-Clock Villain Reasonable Authority Figure Badass Grandpa Drugs Are Bad Big Applesauce Rule of Cool Determinator aka: The Determinator Shower Scene Music Stories Laser-Guided Karma Anti-Villain Obstructive Bureaucrat Light Is Not Good Ambiguous Disorder For Want of a Nail Manipulative Bastard Not So Above It All Kubrick Stare Irony "The Reason You Suck" Speech No Name Given Body Horror Get Out! The '70s Spiteful Spit Fanservice MacGuffin Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Undying Loyalty Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Did Not Get the Girl Manly Tears Death by Adaptation Eagleland May–December Romance Heel Realization Fanservice Extra Fat Bastard Slasher Movie Adaptational Badass Race Against the Clock Boom, Headshot! Darkest Hour Laughing Mad Depraved Bisexual Obfuscating Stupidity Make It Look Like an Accident Morality Pet Big Fancy House Big-Bad Ensemble Fatal Flaw Mr. Fanservice Evil Plan Dirty Old Man Final Girl "Shaggy Dog" Story Red Herring Asshole Victim Exact Words Japanese Films Lampshade Hanging Breaking the Fourth Wall Drives Like Crazy Never Trust a Trailer It's All About Me The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Heroic BSoD Really Gets Around Product Placement Idiot Ball Adaptation Name Change Took a Level in Jerkass Defiant to the End Sir Swears-a-Lot Eldritch Abomination Bilingual Bonus Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other Batman Gambit Betty and Veronica Heel–Face Turn Off-into-the-Distance Ending Killed Mid-Sentence Karmic Death The Stoic Spell My Name with an "S" Bavarian Fire Drill Tempting Fate Honor Before Reason Five-Man Band The Reveal Neck Lift Age Lift Dutch Angle Cruel and Unusual Death The Hero Advertised Extra Bloodier and Gorier Freudian Excuse Sassy Black Woman Gilligan Cut Frame-Up Psychopathic Manchild Hoist by His Own Petard The Cameo Offscreen Moment of Awesome Cain and Abel Slap-Slap-Kiss The Power of Love Framing Device Intrepid Reporter Improbable Aiming Skills All Men Are Perverts '80s Hair Revenge Break the Cutie Alliterative Name Handicapped Badass The Dog Bites Back Not What It Looks Like Poor Communication Kills Bland-Name Product Humans Are Bastards Loophole Abuse Heterosexual Life-Partners Overly Long Gag Evil Is Petty Fate Worse than Death Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Naïve Newcomer The Lost Lenore Cat Fight Kick the Dog Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Deal with the Devil Cool Guns Black Best Friend Mythology Gag Historical Villain Upgrade I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Amoral Attorney Break the Haughty Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies "Well Done, Son!" Guy Four-Temperament Ensemble Horror Films Costume Porn Unreliable Narrator Bullying a Dragon Slasher Smile Pay Evil unto Evil Bad Boss Black Comedy Danny Peary Cult Movies List Arc Words Daylight Horror Male Frontal Nudity Disguised in Drag Your Cheating Heart Narrator Those Two Bad Guys Man on Fire A God Am I Would Hit a Girl Kids Are Cruel What You Are in the Dark Spiritual Successor Refuge in Audacity Psychological Thriller Bond One-Liner The Smurfette Principle It Can Think Guns Akimbo Annoying Younger Sibling Self-Deprecation Gainax Ending Canadian Movies Big Bad Fainting Gorn Grievous Bottley Harm Manchild Abhorrent Admirer Cool Old Guy You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Celebrity Paradox Parental Incest Deconstruction The Starscream Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Early-Bird Cameo Stepford Smiler Animated Credits Opening Hollywood Law Sanity Slippage The Dreaded Time Skip Broken Bird Soundtrack Dissonance Even Evil Has Standards Action Genre Sealed Evil in a Can Only Known by Their Nickname Extreme Doormat O.O.C. Is Serious Business Anguished Declaration of Love Missing Mom Parental Substitute Dissonant Serenity Mad Scientist And Starring Plucky Comic Relief Camp Gay Ambiguously Gay The Big Guy Adaptational Heroism Bloodless Carnage Auto Erotica Training Montage Dwindling Party N-Word Privileges Pyrrhic Victory Scare Chord Straight Gay Historical-Domain Character Fourth Date Marriage Adapted Out Fun with Acronyms Every Car Is a Pinto Shoot the Shaggy Dog Vacation Films Vampire Fiction Expy Double Entendre Russian Films Decoy Protagonist Face–Heel Turn "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Real Life Writes the Plot The Lancer Once More, with Clarity! Smoking Is Cool My God, What Have I Done? Artistic License – Geography Chekhov's Gun Science Fiction Films Twist Ending Non-Indicative Name And I Must Scream Sequel Hook Due to the Dead Romantic Comedy Foil Big "NO!" The Stoner Truth in Television Corpsing Black and Gray Morality Fire-Forged Friends Insane Troll Logic Badass in a Nice Suit The '90s Hair-Trigger Temper Retcon Shipper on Deck The Mafia Greater-Scope Villain Lock and Load Montage Not So Different The Alcoholic Spared by the Adaptation Unwitting Instigator of Doom Character Development Say My Name Peek-a-Boo Corpse Evil Is Hammy Captain Obvious Taking the Bullet Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Foreshadowing Hell Is That Noise Scenery Gorn Groin Attack He Knows Too Much Take That! Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Captain Ersatz Henpecked Husband This Is Gonna Suck Men Are the Expendable Gender Actor Allusion An Arm and a Leg Dark and Troubled Past Unusual Euphemism Major Injury Underreaction Expository Hairstyle Change Fingore Imagine Spot Trailers Always Spoil Martial Arts Movie Ax-Crazy Token Minority Interrupted Suicide Toplessness from the Back Too Dumb to Live Older Than They Look Insistent Terminology Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Room Full of Crazy Department of Redundancy Department Film Series Chase Scene Disproportionate Retribution Jerk with a Heart of Gold As Long as It Sounds Foreign 20 Minutes into the Future Oh, Crap! Gratuitous English Bar Brawl Becoming the Mask Zombie Stories Abusive Parents Sequel Escalation Pimped-Out Dress Femme Fatale Nice Guy Friend to All Children No Ending Victoria's Secret Compartment The Un-Reveal Death Seeker Only One Name Adaptational Villainy Nice Hat The Dragon Chekhov's Skill NO INDOOR VOICE Artistic License – Biology After the End Children Are Innocent Vitriolic Best Buds Humiliation Conga Hong Kong Films Flashback Blackmail A Minor Kidroduction Card-Carrying Villain Despair Event Horizon Artistic License – Law Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Face Death with Dignity The Sociopath Retired Badass Damsel in Distress Evil Sounds Deep Neck Snap Wounded Gazelle Gambit Chiaroscuro Only Sane Man Drowning My Sorrows Camera Abuse Bait-and-Switch Take a Third Option Silence Is Golden Bad "Bad Acting" Improbable Weapon User From Bad to Worse Conspicuous CG Babies Ever After Off with His Head! Cloudcuckoolander One Steve Limit Line-of-Sight Name Cool Old Lady Love Triangle A.I. Is a Crapshoot As Himself Bowdlerise It's Personal The Smart Guy Tagline Mistaken for Gay Rousing Speech Dumb Blonde Genre Throwback Same Language Dub Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Stealth Pun Be Careful What You Wish For Awesome, but Impractical The End... Or Is It? Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Superhero Shell-Shocked Veteran Ambiguous Ending Never Found the Body Accidental Murder Even Evil Has Loved Ones Dramedy Jerkass Has a Point Crazy Jealous Guy Leaning on the Fourth Wall Faking the Dead Affectionate Parody Failed a Spot Check Eureka Moment Combat Pragmatist Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Dull Surprise Genre Shift Coming-of-Age Story Funny Background Event Composite Character Evil-Detecting Dog Butt-Monkey Rasputinian Death How We Got Here Distracted by the Sexy Action Survivor The Film of the Book Exactly What It Says on the Tin Mercy Kill Love at First Sight Paper-Thin Disguise Reckless Gun Usage Index of Film Westerns Overprotective Dad Stealth Hi/Bye Needs Wiki Magic Love Big Bad Duumvirate Your Head A-Splode Serial Killer Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Adaptation Expansion World of Ham Crapsack World Offscreen Teleportation I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Recycled IN SPACE! Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Reality Has No Subtitles Unusually Uninteresting Sight I Did What I Had to Do Riddle for the Ages Bald of Evil Red Right Hand Re-Cut Unresolved Sexual Tension As the Good Book Says... The Chick Kill 'em All Villain Opening Scene Small Name, Big Ego Military and Warfare Films Unspoken Plan Guarantee It Will Never Catch On Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy Our Zombies Are Different Anti-Hero Historical In-Joke Action Girl The Cavalry Wham Line Pragmatic Villainy All Girls Want Bad Boys One-Word Title Totally Radical Dark Action Girl Not So Stoic Monumental Damage More Dakka Jitter Cam Bond Villain Stupidity Running Gag Fish out of Water Not Quite Dead Anachronism Stew Bloody Hilarious Bury Your Gays Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Animal Title Index Blatant Lies Early Installment Weirdness True Companions Brainless Beauty Stalker with a Crush Green-Eyed Monster Police Brutality Married to the Job Random Events Plot Developing Doomed Characters La Résistance Historical Hero Upgrade Artistic License – Gun Safety Smug Snake Knight Templar No-Holds-Barred Beatdown The Remake The Ghost Thriller Destination Defenestration Contrived Coincidence Mama Bear Large Ham Would Hurt a Child Mugging the Monster Cat Scare Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Novelization Rich Bitch Ungrateful Bastard Famous Last Words Vomit Indiscretion Shot Red Oni, Blue Oni Central Theme Wicked Cultured Rewatch Bonus Sports Stories Together in Death Big Brother Instinct Not Even Bothering with the Accent Belligerent Sexual Tension The Alleged Car Extremely Short Timespan All There in the Script Logo Joke Our Vampires Are Different Genre Savvy All There in the Manual Meaningful Background Event Horror Comedy Beard of Evil Disney Death Obviously Evil Documentary Author Appeal Precision F-Strike An Axe to Grind The Stinger No OSHA Compliance Bunny-Ears Lawyer Epic Movie Chewing the Scenery Villain Song Didn't Think This Through Aluminum Christmas Trees Dark Reprise Never My Fault Girl-on-Girl Is Hot Cowboy Cop Dramatic Irony Red Eyes, Take Warning Protagonist Title Crucified Hero Shot Properly Paranoid Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Deadpan Snarker Film Noir Flipping the Bird Guile Hero One-Man Army Instant Death Bullet Beware the Nice Ones Very Loosely Based on a True Story Mystery and Detective Films Ship Tease In Medias Res Armor-Piercing Question Leitmotif Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Actually Pretty Funny Foregone Conclusion The '80s A Date with Rosie Palms Stock Footage Faux Affably Evil Alpha Bitch Deliberately Monochrome Curse Cut Short Everyone Has Standards Fan Disservice The Vamp Gender Flip He Who Fights Monsters Match Cut Shirtless Scene Rule of Symbolism You Have Failed Me Stuff Blowing Up Domestic Abuse Good Is Not Nice Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Hypocritical Humor The Voiceless Amusing Injuries Scary Black Man Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Fiery Redhead The Casanova Gone Horribly Right Last-Name Basis Bound and Gagged Bring My Brown Pants Brutal Honesty Insult Backfire Improvised Weapon Call-Forward Lighter and Softer The Bully No Celebrities Were Harmed Those Wacky Nazis Almost Kiss Ghost Fiction Earn Your Happy Ending The Bad Guy Wins Beta Couple For the Evulz Fantastic Racism Those Two Guys Meet Cute Implacable Man Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Important Haircut Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Author Avatar Daddy's Girl Market-Based Title Call-Back Whole Plot Reference Arranged Marriage Fake Shemp Continuity Nod All Just a Dream Here We Go Again! German Films Death of a Child Cold-Blooded Torture Adaptation Dye-Job Moment Killer Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Ironic Echo Parental Abandonment Hidden Depths Psycho for Hire Dark Is Not Evil Ascended Extra Motor Mouth Evil vs. Evil Throwing Your Sword Always Works From Nobody to Nightmare Gory Discretion Shot Bittersweet Ending All for Nothing Apocalypse How Show Within a Show Artistic License – Military Crazy-Prepared There Is No Kill Like Overkill War Is Hell A Father to His Men B-Movie Dramatic Gun Cock Sexy Discretion Shot Enemy Mine Does Not Like Shoes Pre-Mortem One-Liner timeperiod You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Dirty Cop Artistic License – Physics Badass Longcoat Shut Up, Hannibal! Dirty Coward Cool Shades Evil Laugh Nothing Is Scarier The Quiet One Cassandra Truth Antagonist Title Television Movie Index Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Fantasy Films Race Lift Informed Ability Taking You with Me I Need a Freaking Drink Eye Scream Cool Car Took a Level in Badass You Killed My Father Playing Gertrude The '50s Aside Glance And the Adventure Continues Black Comedy Rape Leave the Camera Running Bi the Way Hope Spot Hero of Another Story Death by Sex Does This Remind You of Anything? Air-Vent Passageway Easily Forgiven Disappeared Dad As You Know Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Brick Joke Adorkable Fatal Family Photo Only a Flesh Wound Dropped a Bridge on Him Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Demonic Possession Reality Ensues Dressing as the Enemy Serious Business Suddenly SHOUTING! Red Shirt Slashed Throat Noodle Incident Comically Missing the Point Based on a True Story Back from the Dead Only in It for the Money Meaningful Echo Ms. Fanservice Pragmatic Adaptation An Aesop Worthy Opponent The Hero Dies Suspiciously Specific Denial Let's Get Dangerous! Affably Evil Not Using the "Z" Word Eyepatch of Power Facial Horror Disney Villain Death Book-Ends BFG Put on a Bus Redemption Equals Death Public Domain Feature Films Sci-Fi Horror The Chessmaster Rape as Drama My Greatest Failure Kick the Son of a Bitch Artistic License – History The Ace Creative Closing Credits Establishing Character Moment Accidental Misnaming Well-Intentioned Extremist Punny Name Death by Irony Drill Sergeant Nasty Storming the Castle No-Sell Australian Movies Pretty Little Headshots She's Got Legs Sacrificial Lion Mighty Whitey The Faceless What Happened to the Mouse? Happily Married Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Wham Shot Downer Ending Jump Scare Have a Gay Old Time The Load Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold I Have Your Wife Redshirt Army Pet the Dog Homage folderlabel Manic Pixie Dream Girl Agony of the Feet