Tropescilloscope: Artistic License – History

The creator of a work ignores historical inaccuracy in the interest of telling a better story. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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