Tropescilloscope: Historical Villain Upgrade

A work's portrayal of a historical villain is heavily modified from the real-life figure the character is based on. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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