Tropescilloscope: Historical Hero Upgrade

Fictionalized portrayal of a historical figure as more heroic than their real-life counterpart. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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