History Main / ArtisticLicenseHistory

* ''LightNovel/TorturePrincessFremdTorturchen'': [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanged,_drawn_and_quartered Drawing and quartering]] ''was'' a fairly well-known historical means of CruelAndUnusualDeath, but it wasn't done the way depicted in volume one. Drawing and quartering consisted of partial strangulation by hanging, followed by disembowelment and castration, followed by beheading and dismemberment ("quartering"). What Elisabeth refers to as "drawing and quartering" when she inflicts it on the Knight, is actually a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dismemberment#By_four_horses dismemberment by four "horses"]].

* The first line of "Sink the Bismarck" is "In May of 1941, the war had just begun." UsefulNotes/WorldWarII had actually been going on for about two years prior to that, and no country first started getting involved in the war in May of 1941. (Britain, for example, had been trading air strikes with Germany since the second half of 1940.)

** Governor Ratcliffe is shown being arrested by his own men and taken back to England to face justice at the end. The real John Ratcliffe (who wasn't as bad as his movie counterpart) was tortured to death by the Powhatan.

->''In a real historical piece, if they tried to make everything slavishly right any show would be unwatchable, because there would be too much that the audience couldn't understand. The audience would be constantly distracted by details like un-filmably dark building interiors, ugly missing teeth, infants being given broken-winged songbirds as disposable toys to play with, crush, and throw away, and Marie Antoinette relieving herself on the floor at Versailles. [...] We cannot make an accurate movie of this -- it will please no one.''

->''In a real historical piece, if they tried to make everything slavishly right any show would be unwatchable, because there would be too much that the audience couldn’t understand. The audience would be constantly distracted by details like un-filmably dark building interiors, ugly missing teeth, infants being given broken-winged songbirds as disposable toys to play with, crush, and throw away, and Marie Antoinette relieving herself on the floor at Versailles. [...] We cannot make an accurate movie of this -- it will please no one.''

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MightyMouse'' pastiche of ''Comicbook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', the role of the Monitor is taken by the Minotaur, explained as being the original anthropomorphic animal. In reality, the Minotaur is greatly predated by the Lion Man statue, which dates to between 35,000 and 40,000 years ago.

* ''[[ComicBook/LadyDeath Medieval Lady Death]]'' takes place in the [[UsefulNotes/KievanRus Novgorod Republic]] and shows Teutonic Knights serving as the local authority under Pope Paul V. Novgorod was an [[UsefulNotes/OrthodoxChristianity Eastern Orthodox]] state and as such as [[ChristianityIsCatholic a Catholic order like the Teutonic Knights would have absolutely no jurisdiction over it]]. To top it off, Honorius III was the correct Pope during that time, while Paul V would only be born two centuries afterwards.
* ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel''

* ''ComicBook/TreasureChest'': ''This Godless Communism'' gets a lot of things wrong in regards to the history of communism, Creator/KarlMarx and the Soviet Union, as [[https://www.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/3vfwn6/this_godless_communism_a_1960s_comic_series_about/ this]] Reddit post details.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Crimson}}'', Templar Grandmaster D'Orense proudly claims to be a direct descendant of Bernard of Clairvaux, the patron saint of their order. However, Clairvaux was a celibate monk who is very unlikely to have fathered any children (it was stated that he jumped into cold water to resist any lustful temptations). If he had sired any offspring, he would have broken his vows and that would have been something really shameful for the Templars to admit, much less take pride in it.

** The game has, since its inception, described a ''longsword'' as a one-handed sword. Only as of 5th edition has the weapon been given the 'versatile' trait, allowing it to be wielded in two hands to increase damage, but even this is historically inaccurate. In reality, the term "long sword" was explicitly devised to describe swords too long to be used in one hand (what the game typically classifies as "greatswords"). The term was meant to differentiate from swords meant to be wielded in one hand, which were typically just called "swords," or in some cases "arming swords." Then there's the term ''short sword'', which was also not a designation used with any regularity during the time swords were common weapons.

-->-- '''[[Literature/TerraIgnota Ada Palmer]]''' on [[http://exurbe.com/?p=2176 "historicity"]] in fiction

** Harmodius was actually a teen when [[spoiler: him and Aristogeiton murdered Hipparchus, but they changed his age, so his relationship with Aristogeiton]] wouldn't be {{Squick}}y.

** Records state that when Hippias learnt about [[spoiler: his brother's murder, he acted rationally]]. Here, he is seen crying over his [[spoiler:death]].

* Music/BillyJoel's song "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" is almost nothing ''but'' artistic license--the only similarities between his Kid and the real one is that they were both outlaw gunfighters. Joel has publicly acknowledged this since 1975, the year after the song came out.

* Music/JonathanCoulton in "Ikea" has Ikea being founded not by a modern Swede in 1943 but in "days of yore" under the god [[Myth/NorseMythology Thor]] and his Viking followers.

* ''TabletopGame/{{FATAL}}'''s creator Byron Hall claims that the game is absolutely historically accurate--when he's not claiming that some hideously offensive magical item was included for controversial humor. In practice, "historically accurate" in this case means that he just looked up stuff that people used to believe at one point or another, and treated it as though it's actually true.

** Studded leather armor, common throughout all editions, never existed: just putting metal studs on pieces of leather provides essentially no additional protection. What ''did'' exist is "brigandine" or "coat-of-plates" styles of armor (for example what Stark soldiers are shown wearing in ''Series/GameOfThrones''), where small steel plates (often recycled from scrapped plate armor) were riveted to the inside of an outer layer made of leather or thick cloth. It provided decent protection at a price even many commoners could afford. The game designers likely saw a picture of brigandine and jumped to the wrong conclusion. Also, it's grouped as a "light" armor, while splint mail, which operates on a similar principle but has metal strips on the ''outside'' of a foundation material, is grouped as "heavy" armor--and speaking of which, splint armor tended to be used in greaves or vambraces (often paired with brigandine) rather than as an entire suit.

** The Civil War episodes also play slightly on the old myth that the Confederacy had better generals than the Union. This is only possible if one (like the video does) focuses mainly on Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia, because elsewhere the Confederate generals were generally so inferior as to make Lee seem SurroundedByIdiots. In the end, the North found four men who could all competently lead major armies to victory: the aforementioned Grant, William T. Sherman, Phil Sheridan, and George Thomas. The South really only ever had Lee, and even that is debated since many historians now criticize Lee's overall strategy as too wasteful of Confederate manpower.[[note]]Confederate generals like Stonewall Jackson, Jubal Early, and Nathan Bedford Forrest were certainly gifted but worked on a smaller scale and displayed [[ThePeterPrinciple crucial command flaws in semi-independent command]]. Other historians and civil war buffs--especially critics of Lee--will point to James Longstreet as the South's best general (which hit pop culture with the novel ''Literature/TheKillerAngels'' and it's film adaptation ''Film/{{Gettysburg}}''), but this disregards Longstreet's own serious flaws such as his EpicFail in his one big shot as an independent commander at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Sanders Knoxville]].[[/note]]

* In ''WebAnimation/InventionPioneersOfNote'', the episode on Alexander Graham Bell asserts, among other things, that he fought in World War 2. While the error is definitely intentional, it's not as clear if this is supposed to be a CriticalResearchFailure, or BlatantLies, or something else.

** At the beginning (1916), the Dowager Empress narrates that the 300th anniversary of the Romanow dynasty's rule over Russia was celebrated. In RealLife, this anniversary was in 1913.

** Diminutives are not being used correctly (or not used at all). For example, Vlad is a diminutive of Vladislav, not Vladimir (although it has also started to be used that way after the fall of the USSR). The diminutive of Anastasia is Nastya, not Anya. And the proper way to address someone twice your age is using their [[UsefulNotes/RussianNamingConvention name and patronymic]] (Vladimir Nikolayevich). As for Dimitry, whom she cares for, she should be calling him Mitya (this diminutive has since been replaced by Dima in the 20th century and only among the commoners).

** While Rasputin actually being a sorcerer rather than a religious mystic and having a talking bat sidekick is presumably an intentional departure from history, other details about him don't match up with his historical counterpart either: Rasputin died months before the Russian Revolution at the hands of a few young aristocrats resentful of his influence over the Imperial family.[[note]] Interestingly, the first draft of the movie acknowledged this by showing his ''surviving'' this assassination thanks to his magic, and having him consider it the Tsar's fault, hence his vengefulness.[[/note]] Although he wasn't even remotely a saint by any means, he considered himself a Christian and would never deliberately indulge in any occult practices. Furthermore, he was also a monarchist who never harbored any ill will towards the Tsar nor his family (beyond, if one takes an uncharitable view of his character, generally wanting to profit off of their faith in his supposed psychic abilities).

*** At the beginning (1916, see above), the Dowager Empress narrates that the 300th anniversary of the Romanow dynasty's rule over Russia was celebrated. In RealLife, this anniversary was in 1913.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfTheTitanic'' has a mouse who sneaked aboard the ''Titanic'' named Top Connors tells his grandchildren the "real" story of the ''Titanic'': a giant octopus named Tentacles was tricked into throwing the iceberg into the ship by a gang of sharks as part of a whaler's evil scheme, and he saved the ''Titanic'' and everyone on it.

** While Rasputin actually being a sorcerer rather than a fraud and having a talking bat sidekick is presumably an intentional departure from history, other details about him don't match up with his historical counterpart either: Rasputin died months before the Russian Revolution at the hands of a few young aristocrats resentful of his influence over the Imperial family.[[note]] Interestingly, the first draft of the movie acknowledged this by showing his ''surviving'' this assassination thanks to his magic, and having him consider it the Tsar's fault, hence his vengefulness.[[/note]] Although he wasn't even remotely a saint by any means, he considered himself a Christian and would never deliberately indulge in any occult practices. Furthermore, he was also a monarchist who never harbored any ill will towards the Tsar nor his family (beyond, if one takes an uncharitable view of his character, generally wanting to profit off of their faith in his supposed psychic abilities).

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Mulan}}'': The Huns never invaded China. Historically, the villains in the movie would more properly be the Xiongnu.

* Music/NeilYoung's song "Cortez the Killer" describes the Aztecs as being a peaceful people and "war was never known". The Aztecs are notorious for being particularly brutal, practicing HumanSacrifice on a virtually industrial scale, to the point where part of the reason Cortez was able to conquer their empire so easily was because practically every other tribe in Mexico joined him in an EnemyMine.

* Music/GordonLightfoot took some artistic liberties for his song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." For instance, he sings that the ship "left fully loaded for Cleveland." The ship's actual destination was Zug Island in Detroit, though it would have departed for Cleveland afterwards for the rest of the winter.

** Despite the gags at the beginning of first French Revolution episode, King Louis XVI wasn't always an AdiposeRex. Based on historical records, he was quite tall for his time, standing at an impressive 6'4'', and was actually pretty muscular. In fact, he was the outdoors type, with hunting being one of his more passionate hobbies. It wasn't until his late thirties, after slacking off on exercising for years, that he became fat, and even then, he was more on the chubby side than obese.
** The Civil War episodes include several gags portraying Ulysses Grant as a hard drinker, while actual historical evidence points strongly towards Grant being actually a [[CantHoldHisLiquor severe lightweight]] whose occasional indulgences were pounced upon by envious rivals, especially [[TheStarscream John McClernand]], using the partisan press, although the video does point out his enemies exploiting it.
** The Civil War episodes also play slightly on the old myth that the Confederacy had better generals than the Union. This is only possible if one (like the video does) focuses mainly on Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia, because elsewhere the Confederate generals were generally so inferior as to make Lee seem SurroundedByIdiots. In the end, the North found four men who could all competently lead major armies to victory: U.S. Grant, William T. Sherman, Phil Sheridan, and George Thomas. The South really only ever had Lee, and even that is debated since many historians now criticize Lee's overall strategy as too wasteful of Confederate manpower.[[note]]Confederate generals like Stonewall Jackson, Jubal Early, and Nathan Bedford Forrest were certainly gifted but worked on a smaller scale and displayed [[ThePeterPrinciple crucial command flaws in semi-independent command]]. Other historians and civil war buffs--especially critics of Lee--will point to James Longstreet as the South's best general (which hit pop culture with the novel ''Literature/TheKillerAngels'' and it's film adaptation ''Film/{{Gettysburg}}''), but this disregards Longstreet's own serious flaws such as his EpicFail in his one big shot as an independent commander at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Sanders Knoxville]].[[/note]]

But all of this is secondary to telling a good story. In most cases, historical works focus on a particular event taken out of context, revolving around [[TheMainCharactersDoEverything a set group of individuals]] and depict the events with the pictorial and narrative structure as per the fashions of the year of its exhibition. Real history is filled with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters with plenty of HeroOfAnotherStory. In addition, many writers commit what's called the "historian's mistake", which is the idea that historical characters acted and made their decisions with [[OmniscientMoralityLicense full knowledge of the future]] -- including the repercussions their actions would cause (like for example portraying Churchill as saying his DarkestHour RousingSpeech with knowledge that Nazi Germany was going to be defeated in 4 years).[[note]]This is also known in psychology as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindsight_bias Hindsight Bias]]. Although some historical individuals made predictions that came true, this is not the same thing as ''knowing'' what would happen. For instance, a character in 1919 could plausibly predict that the Treaty of Versailles would cause hardship, anger and instability in Germany (indeed, Marshal Foch himself said at the time it was "not a peace treaty, just an armistice for twenty years", if only because he understood it to be too lenient), but it would be stretching it for him to confidently assert that the instability would specifically result in the rise of a [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany ruthless racial supremacist paramilitary regime]] in Germany that would be hellbent for revenge starting [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the biggest war in human history]] and along the way, responsible for the systematic murder of millions of Jews, Roma, and others.[[/note]] Likewise, works of art are not so cheap to create. It costs something in time and money to properly research, find and create the material needed to portray a given period with some degree of accuracy. There are also the limits of the medium to contend with. To play a famous painter believably, casting another famous painter is usually not considered a smart rule for casting. The best of actors will struggle to believably render genius convincingly. There are limits to the illusion cast by a work of art in portraying a historical reality, even in the best scenario. This also applies to writers who would struggle to render the thoughts and dialogues of the distant past in a manner that [[RuleOfPerception is convincing to the reader]], that gives a believable impression of a past where society and values were different from the present, but not so different as to be unrelatable. In cases where the given period has very few records available, most of it ''has'' to be fictionalized anyway. Likewise, where history does lean on records, there is still room for interpretation and ambiguity, so in these cases historians and artists share common ground.

->'''Bluto:''' Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!\\
'''Otter:''' Germans?\\
'''Boon:''' Forget it, he's rolling.
-->-- ''Film/AnimalHouse''

* In the ''Comicbook/MightyMouse'' pastiche of ''Comicbook/CrisisOfInfiniteEarths'', the role of the Monitor is taken by the Minotaur, explained as being the original anthropomorphic animal. In reality, the Minotaur is greatly predated by the Lion Man statue, which dates to between 35,000 and 40,000 years ago.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
** Studded leather armor, common throughout all editions, never existed: just putting metal studs on pieces of leather provides essentially no additional protection. What ''did'' exist is "brigandine" or "coat-of-plates" styles of armor (for example what Stark soldiers are shown wearing in ''Series/GameOfThrones''), where small steel plates (often recycled from scrapped plate armor) were riveted to the inside of an outer layer made of leather or thick cloth. It provided decent protection at a price even many commoners could afford. The game designers likely saw a picture of brigandine and jumped to the wrong conclusion.

Still, while artists and historians have parallel jobs, in cases where the former doesn't keep up to pace with new research you can see the persistence of discredited information, decades and even centuries after being academically debunked. See DatedHistory for those rare cases where new evidence or insight actually does change the historical record. Compare AnachronismStew (where the inaccuracies are not fictional inventions, just details drawn from different eras), HollywoodHistory (where the facts are mostly right, just caricatured and stereotyped, subject to {{Bowdlerization}} and NostalgiaFilter) and FutureImperfect (where characters in a speculative fiction story set in the distant future get history horribly wrong). The HistoricalHeroUpgrade and HistoricalVillainUpgrade sometimes fall into this.