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