Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

The "revelation" that a famous historical figure actually had a secret life far more fantastic and magical than history records. A historical [[Retcon]], if you will. Artists and writers tend to be the most common examples, followed by American Presidents. There is a subtly misanthropic theme if ''everyone'' remotely skilled at anything in history turns out to not be human or relying on special powers.

While the mixing of fantastic elements into historical texts is as old as mankind (see the [[King Arthur|Arthurian]] cycle for one example), the modern form of this trope probably originates with ''[[Dracula]]'', essentially the incorporation of a fantastic secret life into the history of Vlad the Impaler.

 

 

** And he's a demoniac sorcerer in ''[[Shadow Hearts]]''.

** Rasputin was an undead sorcerer in ''[[Anastasia]]''. Certainly explains why he ''just would not die.''

** He also appeared as a villain in ''[[Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army]]''....Well,[[Ridiculously Human Robot|Kind of]].

** And it turns out the whole assassination thing was a massive disaster between [[Faction Paradox|three time powers and a couple dozens of temporal copies]]. [[Black Comedy|It was hilarious]].

*** Given the polarizing effect he had on people, and how allegedly hard he was to kill, it shouldn't be surprising. The attempts to smear him before his assassination may only have served to make him more enigmatic, and thus more appealing to authors looking for such a figure.

** Actually, {{spoiler|it was later confirmed that C.C. was not Joan Of Arc, but the "Witch Of Britannia", and the woman mentioned above was Joan Of Arc.}}

* In ''[[Fantastic Children]]'', Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was an alien, sort of.wmfb2

** In Part 1, Jack the Ripper was turned into a zombie by Dio Brando.

** It seems to be the case in Part 7, ''Steel Ball Run.'' The corpse parts they are traveling the USA to find are blatantly, almost outright confirmed to be from {{spoiler|Jesus Christ.}} Making him one of the most powerful Stand users from the series, since he can actually pass Stand powers even after his death.

* In [[Yaiba]]'s Universe, the famous poet Basho Matsuo was actually a ruthless assassin whose goal was to [[Take Over the World]] with the power of [[MacGuffin|Ryujin's Orb]].

 

== Comic Books ==

* ''[[Witchblade (Comic Book)|Witchblade]]'' reveals Joan of Arc as one of the keepers of a mystical weapon (quite a few other historical warrior-women including Cleopatra and Mulan were wielders as well).

* The Magdelena, from the same universe as ''[[Witchblade (Comic Book)|Witchblade]]'', is descended from a long line of women warriors sworn to protect the Catholic Church (and supposedly descended from the offspring of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdelene). She also wields the [[Public Domain Artifact|Spear of Destiny]] as a weapon.

*** This is partly because, with the exception of The Island of Dr. Moreau, Wells usually does not give his narrators names or complex personas. They more or less simply retell the action. Thus it is simple to use Wells in place of his characters.

** The aforementioned ''War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches'' makes nearly the same claim, but with a twist: {{spoiler|Lovecraft's writing was inspired by his own suppressed memory that ''he is one of the godlike horrors the Martians had invaded Earth to escape''.}}

** The [[Atomic Robo]] story arc "The Shadow from Beyond Time" starts out with two issues where Lovecraft {{spoiler|turns out to be possessed by a true Lovecraftian [[Cosmic Horror]] that breaks out and rampages through the streets of [[Big Applesauce|New York]]}}.

** Interestingly, this wasn't intended. Rather, it was a [[Sure Why Not]] on the part of the author when fans pointed out how much The Immortal looked like Honest Abe.

*** Technically, it's only ''implied'', which is thankful as it makes no sense that one of the most unusual and well-known faces in history can masquerade as a completely different, extremely famous figure without any character mentioning it.

**** Well, no character has mentioned it in-universe, onstage, but that doesn't mean they haven't noticed the resemblance. For them it might be beneath notice, considering that The Immortal has lived in his superhero persona for decades already, and his memory is spotty, so he might not remember much of his life as Lincoln. For Mark and friends it might have been just a brief note in history class, and The Immortal's groupies and enemies probably include more Civil War reenactors than most superheroes', and maybe that's it.

* ''[[The Authority]]'' never comes out and says it, but via some well-placed art, hints that figures like [[Jesus]], Gandhi, and [[Albert Einstein]] were previous Shamans. In addition, Einstein was apparently involved in at least one cross-dimensional adventure with Jenny Sparks.

* In Howard Chaykin's ''[[The Shadow]]'' miniseries, Lamont Cranston is made into an ambassador of Shangri-La, like others before him. Including [[Clark Gable]] and Veronica Lake.

* ''Helen Killer'' is the story of how Alexander Graham Bell gives an adult Helen Keller a device that allows her to see and hear, and she becomes a super-ninja, trying to stop the assassination of President McKinley and an attempt to turn all of the world's gold into lead to get revenge for losing out on the telephone patent. Seriously.

* In ''[[The Umbrella Academy]]'', Gustave Eiffel (designer of the Eiffel Tower) was apparently a [[Mad Scientist]] [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Zombie-Robot]].

'''Ben:''' Alive! After all these years--!! }}

** Also, according to the semi-senile Jetfire, his father was "The wheel! The ''first'' wheel!" And what did he turn into? "Nothing! But he did it with honor! Dignity, dammit!"

* In the Marvel universe, Deep Throat was really a Skrull spy living as a government official, who had come to love the United States.

** The Beatles aren't Skrulls, but they did have Skrull impersonators who went native.

* In ''[[Marvel 1602|1602]]'', Virginia Dare, the first colonist born in the United States, is a mutant with the uncontrollable ability to change into animals native to the New World.

* One ''[[Spawn]]'' comic showed Houdini as a powerful sorcerer who uses his stage act to cover himself. He teaches the title character a few more tricks he can do with his hell-borne powers.

** Houdini also figured prominently in a DC [[Elseworlds]] special, "[[Batman]]: The Devil's Workshop", where a 1920s Batman teamed up with Houdini to fight vampires. Other Elseworlds books had historical appearances; "Dark Allegiences"(1930s) featured a plot {{spoiler|to assassinate both Hitler and Roosevelt, and install a fascist leader in the White House, who would ally the US with the Axis during WWII}}, while "Detective 27" also featured FDR and Babe Ruth(talk about your [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Bat-Man!]])

* Related to that, Uri Geller is implied to have superpowers in ''[[Daredevil]]'' #133 (1976), and having fought the villain Mind-Wave.

** Earlier in Russian history than that, Peter the Great had three demons summoned to aid him in seizing Swedish land. As payment, they ensured that his sons would die young and that his heart would be cold and unfeeling.

* The basic premise of Void Indigo was that [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Mick Jagger was a resurrected alien prince out for incredibly violent revenge]].

* In the [[Wildstorm]] universe, Napoleon was really an alien warlord named Lord Emp, and many other historical figures were actually one of four alien warlords.

* Vertigo's [[The Unwritten]] shows that several authors of world history have been secret agents of a conspiracy or were troubled by said conspiracy in giving life to the things they wrote (literally), e.g. Kipling.

* In the French comic ''La Licorne'', Ambroise Paré, Andreas Vesalius and other Renaissance scientists (including Paracelsus and Leonardo da Vinci) are members of a secret sect controlling the "Primordials", monstrous creatures that mimick legendary beasts such as griffins or dragons.

* ''[[Spinnerette]]'' revealed that Benjamin Franklin travelled forwards in time to the desk of Adolf Hitler, where an assassin from the future promptly arrived to kill Hitler, but Franklin, not knowing the implications of the action, stops him and is accidentally pulled into a sort of time travel warp-tunnel. The assassin drops him in the year 2002 and continues on his merry way. Due to the fact that he hadn't discovered electricity (required for time travel) yet, he's effectively immortal and invincible (e.g.: it is impossible to land a blow or shot on him) until he gets back, in order to prevent a time paradox. Presumably, no one realized what had happened until he showed up in 2002.

* In ''[[The Sandman]]'', some of the historical figures to have had encounters with Dream include Emperor Norton, Harun al-Rashid, and Shakespeare.

 

* Chapter 36 of the ''[[Persona 4]]'' fanfic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6813246/1/Persona_4_Welcome_to_Tokyo_Act_II_End Welcome to Tokyo]'' implies that Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Oda Nobunaga, Joan D'Arc, and John F. Kennedy may have been Wild Cards, much like the main characters of the Persona games.

 

== Film ==

** And the sequel does the same, proposing an alliance between Queen Victoria and the South, with assistance from Edouard de Laboulaye, in order to find funds for the Civil War via the 'real' El Dorado. Oh, and [[Government Conspiracy|a secret book belonging to the President, detailing...''things'' about the government]].

* In ''[[The Man From Earth]]'', the protagonist is immortal, {{spoiler|and was the person history remembered as Jesus}}.

* ''[[Time After Time]]'' had H.G. Wells build a time machine and travel to the future in pursuit of Jack the Ripper, who happened to have been a friend of his. He meets a woman there and brings her back to his time and marries her.

** His girlfriend makes a quip about becoming {{spoiler|Susan B. Anthony}} although she probably wasn't being completely serious.

*** The girlfriend's name was Amy Robbins. Historically, Wells' second wife's name was Amy Katherine Robbins.

** The second movie even had [[Michael Jackson]] begging Z to let him be an Agent, ''please'' Z, come on, he'd be the best Alien agent ever! He could be Agent M!

** Unfortunate cameos ahoy... It also implies that Martha Stewart ([[Cats Are Mean|or possibly her cat]]) is actually an evil(?) alien overlord.

* A key plot point of ''[[The Prestige]]'' is the fact that [[Nikola Tesla]] {{spoiler|was able to invent a device that created clones of whatever was put in it.}} He's also [[David Bowie]], although that doesn't have anything to do with the plot.

** Apart from being awesome.

** This line is actually a reference to Chekov's running gag about things that were supposedly invented in Russia.

*** It's older than that, referring to a common joke about "Shakespeare in the original German." It's not that Shakespeare is a Klingon or a German, it's that the themes of his works resonate so powerfully with Germans/Klingons that they assume that he must have been one of theirs. It's a variant of [[Adaptation Displacement]].

*** More likely, it's both.

** In the sequel, the Great Pyramids are a cover-up for {{spoiler|an alien portal generator}}.

** And in the third film, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin went to the moon {{spoiler|to explore the ruins of a Cybertronian starship.}}

* ''Edge of Sanity'' reveals that [[Jack the Ripper]] (played by Anthony Perkins, [[Psycho|appropriately enough]]) was actually [[The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde|Edward Hyde]].

* ''Netherbeast Incorporated'' reveals that President James Garfield was one of the titular netherbeasts.

 

== Literature ==

** This all led, eventually, to the titular character {{spoiler|being the 'mysterious wanderer' who interrupted the writing of Kubla Khan.}}

* Greg Bear's ''Songs of Earth and Power'' does this with numerous personages to good effect.

* In ''[[Children of the Lamp]]'', it is stated that Harry Houdini was a djinn, possibly of the same tribe as the heroes.

* [[Dan Brown]]'s book ''[[The Da Vinci Code]]'' provides silly, entirely fictional, insights into Leonardo da Vinci's motivations in his artwork. Of course, Leonardo may have been insane.

*** Speaking of Galileo, the [[Speculative Fiction]] book ''Galileo's Dream'' by Kim Stanley Robinson has him visited by time travelers who show him how life is doing on the colonies of the Galilean Moons.

* In Clive Cussler's ''[[NUMA Series|Sahara]]'', [[Abraham Lincoln]] is captured by the South (a double is killed by Booth in the theatre) and is held captive on an ironclad, which runs the Union blockade and escapes to Africa, where it ends up trapped in the Sahara Desert after a river it followed dries up.

* In Gabriel King's ''The Wild Road'' (and its sequel, ''The Golden Cat''), The Alchemist (the series [[Big Bad]]) was actually Isaac Newton. Although this was never explicitly stated, enough hints were dropped to make it indisputably obvious.

** Including [[Anvilicious|his surname being NEWTON, and his THEORY ON GRAVITY]].

* The ''[[Illuminatus]]!'' trilogy did this with a large number of real and [[External Retcon|fictional]] characters; John Dillinger as a set of quintuplet Zen masters, Jesus as the world's first Bingo caller, Billy Graham as the Devil, and the Beatles as anarcho-capitalist prophets, among many others.

** Perhaps most notably, {{spoiler|Marilyn Monroe}} was trained to become {{spoiler|an avatar of Eris}} (although her identity is only implied).

** Jack accidentally kills {{spoiler|Nemo}}, {{spoiler|[[Jules Verne]]}} is running a massive [[Xanatos Gambit]], {{spoiler|Jamie Barrie}} is Peter Pan's greatest enemy after Captain Hook, also known as {{spoiler|Mordred, Mordred and Merlin are brothers, their father was Odysseus, who was six generations removed from Deucalion son of Prometheus, their mother was Calypso, Arthur is the son of Merlin and married to a descendant of the Jesus (the Holy Grail), an alternate version of Charles burned down the Library at Alexandria, Mark Twain had an agent (Hank Morgan) at the tournament where Arthur became the High King and Hank's banner was a}} Cubs pennant, which apparently used to mean Triumph over Adversity, but now better represents Impossible Quests and Lost Causes, {{spoiler|Jack is the Jack of Jack and the Beanstalk, the Pandora are a group of three witches, Mordred was the good guy until the fire of Alexandria and Merlin was the bad guy, "Aragorn" is a corruption of "Argo", Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini were rogue Caretakers, Houdini had a pair of wardrobes that formed a passage between them and those were the inspiration for the wardrobe into Narnia, the Red Dragon ship was originally the Argo, the Yellow Dragon is the Nautilus, Pythagoras built Archimedes, a clockwork owl, Alexander the Great was descendant of the Argonauts, Verne was an apprentice of Twain, Caliburn (better known now as Excalibur) was the sword of Aeneas (a hero of the Trojan war and one of the possible ancestors of the guy who founded London)}}, etc. These books are ''full'' of nothing but plot and this trope. Pretty much any genius in history was a Caretaker. {{spoiler|Oh, and Da Vinci wasn't a genius, he was just a plagiarist. All of his sketches and paintings were originally by Bacon. Mona Lisa was smiling because Bacon was doing something rather obscene while he painted her.}}

** Actually, not everyone was a Caretaker. It's revealed in Book 4 that several of the villains are the brilliant guys that were never given the proper chance to be Caretakers, and the fifth book in the series reveals that there's another society made of people that aren't Caretakers that includes {{spoiler|Benjamin Franklin.}} Oh, and villains include {{spoiler|John Dee and Nikola Tesla.}}

** [[Lawrence of Arabia]] and [[The Mole]] Kim Philby in ''Declare''.

* ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians|The Lightning Thief]]'' by Rick Riordan has a couple of throwaway lines to the effect that George Washington's mother was actually the Greek goddess Athena, and Harry Houdini was another demigod who successfully traveled to the Underworld and back.

** Underground Railroad operator Harriet Tubman and Secretary of State William H. Seward were also revealed to have been demigods.

** In the Percy Jackson universe, EVERY SINGLE famous person you have ever heard of is a demigod.

**** What do you think happened to Paul?

** Later in the Callahan's books, [[Nikola Tesla]] became a recurring character, having been made immortal by Lady Callahan and cured of his various phobias so that his scientific genius could aid Jake Stonebender and his friends in saving the world.

** Well, not ''every single'' influential person in the world. Anyone born before the 16th century is out, for starters, and while the Cahills try to get people to marry into the family, it doesn't always work; Rembrandt is a canonical example.

* [[Dan Simmons]]' ''The Terror'' adds a supernatural arctic menace to the doomed Franklin Expedition, which allows a lone survivor, {{spoiler|Crozier}}. His ''Carrion Comfort'' blames many tragedies of the 20th century, such as Nazi atrocities and the assassination of John Lennon, on a lethal competition between sociopathic human mind-controllers.

** A variant occurs when the protagonists ask the Arisians if they interfered with human history in a similar fashion. While no great human leaders were actually Arisians, the character of Bergenholm (a fictional scientist from earlier in the book who developed a truly ''efficient'' FTL drive) was in fact one of their agents - for their [[Gambit Roulette]] to work, they needed humans to get proper FTL ''now''. Bergenholm may not be real, but the impact on the characters was similar.

* In [[Charles Stross]]'s ''[[The Laundry Series]]'', Alan Turing discovered a way to use mathematics to do [[Functional Magic|magic]], which was immediately [[Government Conspiracy|covered up by the government]].

* In Laura Whitcomb's 'The Fetch', Rasputin is a cover identity being used by a supernatural being. Only {{spoiler|Anastasia}} sees him as he truly is.

* The Western Galactic Empire presumes (but does not prove) this of Shakespeare and, to a lesser extent, Jesus, in Robert Zubrin's ''[[The Holy Land]]''.

* ''Touch The Dark'' has:

** the Consul {{spoiler|Cleopatra}}, not Shakespeare himself, but {{spoiler|Christopher Marlowe}}, Raph {{spoiler|the Renaissance artist Raphael}}, and Rasputin (which explains why he was so hard to kill).

* The [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] novel ''Endgame'' has Kim Philby as part of a secret society to counter a group of immortal "gamers" who caused the Cold War. The Eighth Doctor has to help him, and the rest of the Cambridge Spies, escape to Russia.

* In [[Tanya Huff]]'s ''[[Blood Books|Blood]]'' series, vampire Henry Fitzroy was ''the'' Henry Fitzroy, illegitimate son of Henry VIII.

* In Elizabeth Bear's ''Promethean Age'' novels Christopher Marlowe, who may actually have been a secret agent, is taken into Faerie by Morgana after his "death". His place as a spy is taken by [[William Shakespeare]] and Ben Jonson. {{spoiler|Eventually he sells himself to the devil and becomes a warlock}}. The three of them along with others contend with the Promethean Society, a secret society of sorcerers whose ranks include the Earls of Essex, Southampton and Oxford (The latter of whom is one of the popular candidates for the role of the man who "really" wrote Shakespeare's plays. In here he does cowrite some of Shakespeare's earlier works but his "help" is more of a hindrance.)

* This trope is the very essence of [[Thomas Pynchon]]'s Mason & Dixon.

* Giles Brandreth's ''Oscar Wilde Mysteries'' have Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Robert Sherard fighting crime together. It's just as awesome as it sounds.

* In the novel ''Yellow Blue Tibia'', {{spoiler|Stalin}} is revealed to have been an alien invader (on the grounds that no human could ever do what he did; c.f. [[We Didnt Start]] heFuhrer).

* In ''[[The House of Night]]'', many historical and current figures are said to have been vampyres, including Cleopatra and Shakespeare.

* In the novel ''One Foot In The Grave'' the protagonist half-vampire encounters and enters into an uneasy team-up with the vampire that unintentionally transformed into his partially converted state: Vlad Tepes aka Dracula. Vlad relates the atrocities he had to commit to protect his tiny kingdom from being conquered and his recent abandoning leadership of the vampire enclave in NYC (enclaves being scattered locations where vampires and other supernatural creatures attempt to live in secret and relative peace with human society and lead by a vampire lord with greater powers than the standard) in order to lead a more trouble-free life (didn't quite work out that way for him).

* In ''Dracula Unbound'' by Brian Aldiss, Bram Stoker and a time-traveling scientist from the modern day fight vampires.

* Tom Holland's novel ''Lord of the Dead'' reveals that Lord Byron was a vampire. Mad, bad and dangerous to know indeed.

* Another famous vampire; in Christopher Golden's "Vampire Oddessy" trilogy, one of the main protagonist vampires is Buffalo Bill Cody.

* In the novels ''Heretic'' and ''Prophecy'' Giordano Bruno is a spy working for Lord Walsingham, head of Elizabeth I's secret service.

* In ''The List of Seven'' by Mark Frost, a young Arthur Conan Doyle gets swept up in a conspiracy against the British Government, working alongside a mysterious investigator named Jack Sparks. This adventure would inspire him to create [[Sherlock Holmes]].

* There is a series of novels by Michael Thomas that have Jane Austen as a vampire.

* In [[The Stand]], Randall Flagg claims to have been Cinque/Donald DeFreeze, one of the key figures in the Patty Hearst case and leader of the Symbionese Liberation Army.

* In James P. Hogan's "The Proteus Project" Winston Churchill, Edmund Teller and Albert Einstein, among others, work with time travelers to ensure a Nazi defeat (in the travelers timeline they won.)

* In ''Sacre Bleu'' Vincent van Gogh doesn't commit suicide he's murdered by a millenia old shaman who works wiith the Muse of Painting. Other painters involved, past and present, with the duo are Toulouse Lautrec, Pissaro, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Michaelangelo, Seurat and Turner. The shaman, named The Colorman, is hinted to be the inspiration for [[The Hunchback of Notre Dame|Quasimodo]]. Later a drunken Lautrec gives his version of things to an equally drunken Oscar Wilde and it becomes the seed from which ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'' grows.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

** Angel also tells Roger Burkle that Spiro T. Agnew was a [[Our Demons Are Different|demon]] during "Fredless".

** In "I've Got You Under My Skin", Wesley tells us that Lizzie Borden was possessed by an Ethros [[Our Demons Are Different|demon]].

** In "The House Always Wins", Angel tells Fred and Gunn that two members of the Blue Man Group are [[Our Demons Are Different|demons]].

** In "Why We Fight", one of the vampires captured by a WWII-era US submarine claims to have been Rasputin's lover.

** In the later episode "A Late Delivery from Avalon", a man claiming to be [[King Arthur]] shows up on the station. The crew don't believe any of this though, and [[Shown Their Work|with good reason]]: When one of the crew suggests that it might be another case of the Vorlons preserving a historical figure, another points out that the actual [[King Arthur]] [[Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe|would not speak anything even close to modern English]]. They soon find out a traumatic experience in the very beginning of the Minbari War simply [[Napoleon Delusion|caused the man to escape reality]].

** The series would make similar claims about other historical persons, such as [[Oscar Wilde]], who, according to Blackadder, was the father of hundreds of illegitimate children and the author of a pamphlet entitled "Why I Like Doing It With Girls." Any evidence to the contrary is the work of a very skilled prosecuting attorney with a grudge.

*** They also claimed that all the famous female writers during the [[Regency England|Regency era]] were men and that [[Jane Austen]] was really a <s>fat, bald man</s> huge Yorkshireman with a beard like a rhododendron bush.

** In a Season 6 episode, Anya claims that Martha Stewart is a witch, and that this is how Stewart has accomplished certain things she is famous for.

*** Buffy realizes mid-history class that Rasputin might have been a vampire, explaining the difficulty they had in killing him.

** In the ''Origin'' graphic novel, Merrick tells Buffy that Emperor Caligula and [[Jack the Ripper]] were both vampires - or, more accurately, the ''[[Julius Beethoven Da Vinci|same]]'' vampire.

*** ''Tales of the Vampires'' shows that, indeed, Jack the Ripper was a vampire. ''Tales of the Slayers'' also implies that Joan of Arc was a Slayer.

*** ''Tales of the Slayer'' also tells us that General William Tecumseh Sherman was a Watcher (sort of.)

** First and his companions also cross paths with [[Richard the Lion Heart]], Saladin, Robespierre, [[Napoleon]], Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.

** Three counts Admiral Nelson amongst his personal friends.

** The Doctor has admitted to sitting in a tree and dropping apples on Newton's head.

** In "The King's Demons", the Fifth Doctor thwarted the Master's attempt to replace King John(whom the Doctor declared was a fairly decent king, as far as [[The Dark Ages]] went) with an android in order to prevent the signing of the Magna Carta.

** "Silver Nemesis" revealed that the Doctor had launched the Nemesis weapon from the Earth inside a satellite to keep it out of the hands of his enemies, only to have that satellite's orbit bring it close to the Earth every 25 years, where the weapon's energy would adversely affect Earth history. The Doctor claimed that Nemesis may have influenced the start of World War II and the asassination of President Kennedy.

** "Tooth and Claw" reveals that [[Queen Victoria]] faced a [[Our Werewolves Are Different|werewolf]] (implied to be the source of the haemophilia widespread among European royalty in the late 19th century), and subsequently set up the Torchwood Institute.

** "The Girl in the Fireplace" followed the life of Mme. du Pompadour as she faced clockwork robots.

** "The Shakespeare Code" had [[William Shakespeare|Will]] involved with real witches.

** "Victory of the Daleks" sees Eleven helping old friend [[Winston Churchill]] with the Daleks.

** Eleven may have been directly responsible for the Watergate scandal, as he advised [[Richard Nixon]] to 'tape everything' in an effort to defeat the Silence in "The Impossible Astronaut" and "Day of the Moon".

'''The Doctor:''' "Oh, Dicky. Tricky Dicky. They're ''never'' going to forget you! Say hello to David Frost for me." }}

** A future incarnation of the Doctor ends up as the [[Merlin]] of an alternate universe in "Battlefield".

** It has been hinted that the Doctor was rather friendly with Elizabeth I, the so-called "Virgin Queen".

** The Doctor was friends with Albert Einstein, who kept trying to learn time-travel from him. In response, the Doctor nicked his toothbrush.

** Winston Churchill, the Doctor's personal friend, seems to have a habit of trying to steal the TARDIS keys off the Time Lord.

** The Doctor's apparently on Virginia Woolf's bowling team.

** The Doctor apparently used to have a laser spanner, but Emmeline Pankhurst stole it.

** Tales From the Crypt rip-off ''Perversions of Science'', in one episode, similarly has Orson Welles trying to flush out two real Martian spies by making them think the invasion has begun without them. {{spoiler|All to get them out of the way for him and his Jupitarian brethren to begin their ''own'' invasion!}}

* An episode of ''[[Highlander the Series]]'' has [[Mary Shelley]] writing ''[[Frankenstein]]'' after she sees [[Lord Byron]] dispatch a fellow immortal.

** One of the novels claimed that [[Elvis]] was an immortal and had to 'die' because he got too famous-which would explain the sightings over the years.

* The ''[[Masters of Horror]]'' episode "The Washingtonians" (and the [[Bentley Little]] short story from which it was adapted) spins a tale of how George Washington was secretly a prolific cannibal, and the only people who knew this were part of a cult of cannibals in Revolutionary War-era clothes and wigs. Also, Benjamin Franklin apparently never existed and is based on the accomplishments of several lesser individuals.

* ''[[Dark Skies]]'' is almost built around this trope, including such notable individuals as JFK and Norman Schwarzkopf as part of the story.

** Furthermore, James Watson, who in real life discovered DNA, is in ''[[Sanctuary]]'' a few decades older, a member of the same group of metahumans as Jack the Ripper and Nikola Tesla, and was the real-life inspiration for Sherlock Holmes (having insisted on having his name shifted to the sidekick).

** And if Helen Magnus is to be believed, more famous people than not were secretly "abnormals". For example, [[William Howard Taft]] had such a brief presidency because he had difficulty staying in human form, and asks what normal human would want the job in the first place, implying that this applies to multiple presidents.

* In ''[[Saul Of The Mole Men]]'', Benjamin Franklin was the keeper of two of three legendarily powerful stones, or, as he called them, "igneodes". This was in addition to being the first man to encounter the Mole Men, which also sparked his invention of "interspecies erotica." Oh, and [[Thomas Jefferson]] was a brutal [[Ax Crazy]] murderer who skinned Franklin alive for the power of the "igneodes".

** There's also John Henry, the steel driving man of legend, who defeated the steam engine but survived, and eventually drove his way into thte depths of the earth and became a cyborg; one with the engine he had once called his enemy.

** Also, in "Wolf in the Fold", [[Jack the Ripper]] is revealed to have been an alien.

** In "Little Green Men", we find out that an alien ship actually ''did'' crash at Roswell in 1947. It was Quark's shuttle.

** {{spoiler|Which also unlocks the gates of Hell. Which are located in the middle of a giant devil's trap made of churches linked by privated railroads. Which Colt owned.}}

** The episode ''Crossroad Blues'' strongly implies that Robert Johnson, Mozart, Van Gogh and other famous people that displayed great talent and died young had sold their soul to the Devil.

** And the Christian God/his angels cannot help those who do not believe in Him?

*** If memory serves one of their main lines was 'accept that God loves you' so...

** In fact, the series is all about magical objects that belonged to famous people, so it is going to thrive on this trope.

*** A few artifacts invert this trope, they seem to have mystical powers due to the fame of their owners.

** The second season reveals that H.G. Wells is an evil genius, formerly held in [[Suspended Animation]] in the Warehouse...and a woman.

* [[True Blood]] has a "Is Pasteur a vampire?" moment sandwiched between greater and astonisher revelations.

* ''[[The X-Files]]'' "The Unnatural" is about a gifted Negro baseball player in 1947 who turns out to be an alien Grey. The person telling [[Agent Mulder]] this story suggests that all the great baseball players were aliens, which is too crazy an idea even for Mulder.

** The player is strongly suggested to be Josh Gibson, one of the greatest Negro Leagues players of all time. Not only was Gibson a prolific home run hitter with the same first name as the player in this episode, he also spent most of his career playing for the Homestead Grays (the team in the episode was the [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Roswell Grays]]). Furthermore, early in the episode, Mulder was running through the names of some baseball Hall of Famers, asking his informant whether they were aliens. When Mulder asks, "Gibson?" the informant responds with "Bob or Kirk?", omitting the (arguably) much more accomplished Josh.

** A [[Harry Turtledove]] short story reverses this, with an ordinary human baseball player who's a knuckleball thrower. A visiting alien is convinced by his throwing that he has telekinesis.

 

 

== Radio ==

 

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Nephilim]]''. This whole French role-playing game's background was solely designed to allow game-masters to re-write History and incorporate it in their scenarios in any way they liked. They give you a basic backstory about the world; then you are supposed to study your region's various historical details to build up various conspiracy theories. Even if that's not your thing, the way they rewrote the entire history is absolutely overwhelming; evil secret societies trying to take over the world galore! Then they explain very seriously to you that the myth of modern Santa Claus was solely created to put back the actual Saint Claus in the collective imagination, in order to liberate him from the parallel dimension he had been put a millennium before. And don't get me started on Joan of Arc, [[Atlantis]] or the Dinosaurs... This game just defines the trope and has exploited it further than everything else.

** And the small-press RPG ''Shattered Dreams'' claimed that Hitler wasn't initially evil, but was driven mad by Vacyge who'd invaded his nightmares.

* The ''[[Shadowrun]]'' game-setting was rife with this for a while, back when the writers were stuffing it with historical ties to ''[[Earthdawn]]''. Figures such as Elizabeth I and (yet again) Leonardo da Vinci were revealed to have been immortal elves, left over from the Fourth World and killing time while awaiting the next Awakening of magic.

** In addition, a school of magic called Iconomancy allows its practioners to channel the famous dead. Curiously, you can't channel Jim Morrison. One wonders why...

*** Because the only person that can channel Jim Morrison is {{spoiler|Morrison himself, who is currently living in Los Angeles}}.

* ''[[Deadlands]]'' has some of these, including {{spoiler|[[Abraham Lincoln]] (Harrowed following his assassination), Jefferson Davis (killed and replaced by a shapeshifter), and Edmond Hoyle (whose ''Book of Games'' is the coded grimoire of the hucksters)}}.

** ''Rifts: England'' revealed that Merlin is an evil immortal being that had been trying to take over the world when he was helping out [[King Arthur]].

 

== Theater ==

'''Ben Franklin:''' ...I like it. }}

** This is almost written word for word in one of Adams' letters. Note that Adams is talking about what later people will tell. I think it's safe to say Ben Franklin could not actually conjure generals on their horses.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Castlevania]] Bloodlines'' plays with the story of the original ''[[Dracula]]'' novel, stating that Quincy Morris had a son, John Morris, and that the family was related to the Belmonts.

** The ''Castlevania'' series also does this with non-fictional characters. Aside from [[Dracula]] himself, Elizabeth Bathory (translated as "Bartley") is an antagonist in ''Bloodlines'', and happens to be ''a different character from Carmilla''. Gilles de Rais is [[The Dragon]] in the Nintendo 64 games, and ''Curse Of Darkness'' casts the Count of St. Germain as a [[Trickster Mentor]].

** Hell, the whole game's set in the fever-induced deathbed dreams of Chopin himself...

* Though it's probably lost on anyone not familiar to Japanese history, ''[[Okami]]'' suggests and eventually confirms that historical figure Minamoto no Yoshitsune is a 200+ year old Moon-born celestial. For those wondering when the hell Yoshitsune was ever shown or even mentioned in the game, just remember that his childhood nickname was {{spoiler|Ushi'''waka'''}}

** None of those {{spoiler|matings}} were ever mentioned, or even implied. However, it is strongly implied that the Furons (or, at least, Arkvoodle) mated with the apes ages ago, which is why you need to collect brains, because apparently that's where most of the Furon DNA is stored.

*** Actually that isn't implied, it's fact. Pox states it at the beginning of the first game. Also, in the second game, Milenkov reveals that after the Tunguska Event in 1908, the Blisk were controlling and influencing the Russians from then until 1969, with {{spoiler|Milenkov}} being the last of the Blisk.

**** Ah, but the Templars ''want'' you to believe that it's all [[Crazy Enough to Work|too crazy to be true]], in order to continue their [[Ancient Conspiracy|shenanigans uninterrupted]]. Not to mention, the Templars are [[Unreliable Narrator|lying liars who lie]], which is why the Assassins are necessary, as they guard free will. After all, [[Arc Words|Nothing is True]].

*** Suffice to say: in the [[Assassin's Creed]] universe everyone but you the player, is probably involved in a secret war.

*** And in the category of things ''not'' coming from a paranoid madman, the Auditore Family Crypt reveals that {{spoiler|Marco Polo knew of and worked with the Assassins, and Dante Alighieri was one. They knew each other, and they were actually both murdered by the Templars.}}

*** No, it doesn't make sense that Machiavelli would be essentially a member of [[La Résistance]] against the Borgias, since in real life he believed them to be the ultimate politicians and pretty much loved them. His being an Assassin makes the least sense when you think about it.

** Throughout the series and supplemental material, even objects have been given this. Notice how many famous [http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Apples_of_Eden orbs], [http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Staff_of_Eden staffs], [http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Shroud_of_Eden pieces of cloth], and [http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sword swords] there are in history?

* The ending of ''[[The Conduit]]'' reveals that {{spoiler|President [[John Adams]] <s>was</s> is actually an alien mastermind who helped create the United States for his own purposes.}}

** The ending of ''[[The Conduit]] 2'' has {{spoiler|[[George Washington]] and [[Abraham Lincoln]] alive and well and ready to help fight the upcoming alien invasion.}}

** ''Imperishable Night'' features Reisen Udongein Inaba, a [[Moon Rabbit]] who fled to Earth during the Lunar War between Earth and the Moon, in which Neil Armstrong was heavily involved; and Reisen's mentor on Earth, Eirin Yagokoro, was responsible for what happened to Apollo 13.

* ''[[Live a Live]]'': {{spoiler|Sakamoto Ryouma}} fought ''robots''.

* The ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' module "The Bastard of Kosigan" has an ancient civilization of primordial hyper-advanced humans playing god (or more specifically angels (the 'control' faction, led by Gabriel) and demons (the 'free will' faction, led by Elisa Than (geddit? Elisa Than? Satan?))) to use humans as proxies in their constant war with each other. Among other things, Jesus was sponsored by the demons (the apostles John (who you get to meet) and Judas were immortals, the rest were normal humans and actually believed it all), Gabriel did appear to Muhammad in a dream, the demons set off the barbarian invasions to destroy the corrupt Roman Empire the angels had set up, and the angels created Catholicism to use Jesus' message against those who sent him in the first place.

** Abraham Lincoln also invented stairs, before he was assassinated by John "Tower of Hats" Booth.

** The rocket launcher, the two-story house, America and the stage play were all invented by Shakespearicles, the strongest writer who ever lived.

* The not-well-known ''[[Hercs Adventure]]'' for the [[PS 1]] reveals that Hades (the [[Big Bad]]) was... A giant robot piloted by aliens.

* ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' does this quite a bit. Atlantis was ruled by alien gods and King Arthur's Excalibur was a supernaturally-powerful weapon. A shard of Excalibur was later used by a Crusader. The rebooted games, from ''Legend'' onwards, establish the idea of the "monomyth", that all the legends and folklore of the world can be traced back to a "single remnant of the ancient world".

 

 

== Web Comics ==

* ''[[Dresden Codak]]'' has some interesting theories about notable scientists/psychologists/etc. One of the more notable examples suggests that Niels Bohr was a cat, and thusly, by Schroedinger's principles, is immortal, so long as he remains unobserved.

 

== Web Original ==

** That's actually probably the most likely thing mentioned on this page.

* ''[[New Vindicators]]'' features an immortal Isaac Newton as a recurring character.

* In ''[[The Salvation War]]'' Dante's ''Inferno'' is an accurate portrayal of Hell based on visions sent to him by demons.

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'': Alexandre Gustave Eiffel is discovered to be a 19th-century ghost hunter, and the prominent French landmark which bears his name turns out to be a primitive ecto-containment system.

* ''[[The Venture Bros]]'' suggests that [[Oscar Wilde]], Aleister Crowley, Samuel "[[Mark Twain]]" Clemens, Eugene Sandow & [[Nikola Tesla]] (along with Fantomas and Dr Venture's ancestor) were members of a [[League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]-esque Guild that was meant to safeguard and research an artifact made by the greatest minds of the past (from Archimedes to Leonardo). The fracturing of this guild would give birth to the Guild Of Calamitous Intent (a named coined by Wilde), who would become a [[Weird Trade Union]] for [[Super Villain|Supervillains]].

** Also, the leader of the Guild is {{spoiler|[[David Bowie]]}}, who's also a shapeshifter.

** And Charles Lindbergh accidentally flushed away his son when he was teaching him how to use the toilet, then got rid of Amelia Earhart because she had seen too much.

*** AND [[Michael Moore]] and [[Rush Limbaugh]] are just [[Real Life]] characters made by Fred Savage. This one's justified; Fred Savage wanted fame.

* A classic ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'' arc involved the Kirwood Derby, a hat that made its wearer the smartest person in the world. Supposedly Einstein was wearing the Kirwood Derby when he developed his Theory of Relativity, and Archimedes wore the derby in his bathtub when he discovered his theory of water displacement (or at least remembered where he left the soap). According to the narrator, it was worn by [[Alexander the Great]] when he conquered the world, by Philip of Macedonia when ''he'' conquered the world, and by [[Elvis Presley]] when ''he''...well, you get the idea.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Time Travel Tropes]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]