Historical Villain Downgrade: Difference between revisions
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But there are [[Adolf Hitler|certain]] [[Josef Stalin|characters]] [[Emperor Caligula|in history]] whose actions can't be depicted realistically on, say, a children's TV series.
That's where the
Basically, this trope occurs whenever an historical villain's evil actions are either glossed over or reduced in severity, in order to make them palatable, [[But Not Too Evil|even as a villain]], to mainstream television audiences.
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== [[Literature]] ==
* [[Dracula]] may be pretty bad, but he is absolutely ''nothing'' compared to Vlad the Impaler, upon whom the character is based. (Though this is complicated by several [[Historical Villain Upgrade
* Happens sometimes in ''[[Dear America]]'' series, due to the fact that it's made for children. A very obvious example of a whole group being downgraded is in ''My Heart is on the Ground'' by Ann Rinaldi, which makes the white men who took Lakota children to be "reeducated" in the ways of white people seem only like misguided missionaries.
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* ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'''s aunts met Caligula in one episode. No need to get bogged down in the whole "fetus-eating" thing.
* Uday Hussein's sadistic nature is toned down quite a bit in the ''House of Saddam'' [[Miniseries]] for much the same reason as Amon Goeth in ''[[Schindler's List]]'': the producers thought the audience would just have trouble accepting that a human being could be as wantonly cruel as he was in real life.
* [[The Borgias]] depicts Juan Borgia as a stupid lech whose actions can be explained away by insecurities. And he really does love his family. The real Juan was sometimes referred to as a sort of idiotic
* Being a kids' show, ''[[Horrible Histories]]'' has to do this occasionally; though they do talk about death and violence frequently, some historical figures ''still'' have to be downgraded or at least simplified. Hitler is rarely used at all, and a lot of things are omitted from the segments about people like Caligula or Henry VIII.
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* '' [[Hark! A Vagrant]]'' often does this for laughs, such as [http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=25 this] comic about [[Genghis Khan]].
* In-Universe example in ''[[Eerie Cuties]]'', where Nina writes an essay on Queen Lamia Asra-pa Quintessa, portraying her as [[Not Evil, Just Misunderstood]] and a [[Kindhearted Cat Lover]]. (Lamia's cat was, in fact, a demonic familiar and accomplice to Lamia's crimes, which included genocide.) Nina doesn't get a very good grade. {{spoiler| She really has no sinister motive trying to portray Lamia positively, simply doing so because she is naive and loves cats herself, although when it is suspected she might be the reincarnation of Lamia herself, this incident seems to be evidence to confirm it. (She is not.)}}
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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** Japan is a good example. But so are the other Imperial powers. That means, America, Britain, France, Spain and many others often get toned down.
* Various historical dictators will have their atrocities glazed over by the modern apologists, for political reasons.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110116100648/http://www.canadianlegends.ca/Products.asp This] action figure of [[wikipedia:John A. Macdonald|Sir John A. Macdonald]] comes with a brief biography (obviously written for children) in which it is stated that he and [[wikipedia:Louis Riel|Louis Riel]] "[[Understatement|did not get along very well.]]" The fact of the matter is that Macdonald and Riel fought two wars against each other at the conclusion of which Riel was executed.
* In media based on the New Testament of [[The Bible]], Pontius Pilate is often portrayed as reluctant to sentence Jesus to execution. This is unlikely given that Pilate was recalled to Rome because the ''[[The Empire|Romans]]'' though he was too brutal.
* [[wikipedia:Gilles de rais|Gilles de Rais]] was one of [[Joan of Arc]]'s companions, an [[Rated "M" for Manly|all-around man's man]], and a succesful soldier. That's the [[Theme Park Version]] anyway, the fact that he was also a serial rapist and killer of ''children'' tends not to be mentioned in kid's history books. [[Darker and Edgier|For older readers, however...]]
* The history books often leave out the fact that some African tribes profitted from the slave trade by capturing and selling rival tribes.
* [[Mao
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