Tropescilloscope: Historical-Domain Character

People from history that show up in a lot of works. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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