Historical Hero Upgrade: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''William Wilberforce, renowned abolitionist, in the film ''Amazing Grace''''': "Remember that God created all men equal!"
▲{{quote|'''William Wilberforce in [[Real Life]]:''' "[The poor should know] that their more lowly path has been allotted to them by the hand of God; that it is their part ... contentedly to bear its inconveniences."}}
OK, let's say you're still writing that movie, which is [[Very Loosely Based on a True Story]]. You've chosen a period of history that involves a lot of [[Viewers are Morons|exciting fight scenes and explosions so your audience won't fall asleep]] and now you need some main characters.
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==Examples using real people==
=== Media in General ===
* Recently{{when}} some people have attempted to give this to Countess Elizabeth Báthory, one of the worst serial killers in history. Nicknamed the 'Blood Countess,' she is believed to be responsible for torturing hundreds of young women to death, but they only had the evidence to convict her for 80 of them. First with her husband and, after he died, as a solo killer with a three friends acting as accomplices, she would order them into her dungeon and sadistically beat them. Despite having hundreds of witnesses testify that young women would regularly enter the castle and only their corpses would come out, some people still claim she was innocent and the victim of a conspiracy by the catholic church and the Habsburg empire that ruled Hungary at the time, claiming that they wanted her money and land, and did not like seeing a woman in power. There are a few problems with these theories: first, her crimes were reported by the Lutheran church (which she was a member of), secondly, the Habsburgs waited about a decade between the crimes being first reported and launching an investigation, and finally, she did not have any land, money, or direct power after her husband died: their son inherited his father’s land, and their eldest daughter acted as regent while he was a minor. While it is true that, as the wife, and later, mother of the Count, she had a lot of pull, she was technically powerless. About the only detail about her life that actually ''is'' certainly a myth are the rumours that she would [[Blood Bath|bathe in the blood of her many victims]]. On a related note, Báthory has the strange distinction of also receiving [[Historical Villain Upgrade]]s at the same time, as other works change her from the particularly depraved human being she was in real life to a vampire. Two sympathetic portrayals from recent movies are:
** ''Bathory'' took the position that she was completely innocent of any of the murders, and was really a kind a loving mother and ruler who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and was the victim of the malicious slanders of greedy noblemen. That's not even getting into the ridiculousness of the monks spying on her.
** ''[[The Countess]]'' is similar, but with one main difference: Elizabeth Bathory is guilty of several murders. However, she is driven to it by circumstances, and an attempt to stay young and beautiful while she is in power. In this film, she is definitely a [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]. You still feel sorry for her and sympathize with what she is going through
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* [[Oda Nobunaga]] is typically portrayed as villainous, but from [[Samurai Warriors]] 2 onwards he gets treated as a pragmatic [[Anti-Hero]]. Historically, he was much closer to the game's portrayal of Hashiba Hideyoshi as an eccentric yet highly general and administrator. He was not only a ruthless commander, but embraced Western culture and technology before most other Daimyos and implemented several important policies that are still used or directly influence current policy today. Embracing the use of guns allowed him to rout his opponents in battle.
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* Pretty much ''everyone'' in the ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' series that wasn't instead [[Historical Villain Upgrade|made into an outright villain]] gets some degree or another of this, but [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] is the biggest—by ''Sengoku Basara 3'' he's basically [[The Messiah]], compassionate and honest, and his [[Power Fist]] combat style is symbolic of his desire to keep war from ever again severing the Bonds between people, rather than power-hungry and manipulative. Not to mention, he's a young [[Bishonen]] rather his usual portrayal of being a fat old man.
* Taking a leaf from ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'', ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'' promotes Liu Bei to a man concerned primarily with virtue and honourable behaviour.
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* In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', the official history records Delita as a hero, even though {{spoiler|he left quite a body count on the way to the throne.}}
* The protagonist of ''[[MediEvil (1998 video game)|Medievil]]'', Sir Daniel Fortesque, became a friend of the king through various exaggerated tales of his exploits. When an actual battle occurred, Daniel ended up getting killed by arrows minutes into it. However, due to being the King's friend, he went down in history as a hero. When the evil sorceror he fought against tries to take over the world again, Sir Dan gets a chance to finally prove himself as the hero history remembers him as.
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