History WebAnimation / ExtraCredits

* CrossoverCameo: "The Mass-Murdering Mongoose", which is sponsored by Rovio, has [[VideoGame/AngryBirds Red, Chuck, and Bomb]] make several cameo appearances through-out the episode, which is about how the introduction of mongooses to Hawaii drove many native bird species to extinction.

* CrossoverCameo: [[VideoGame/AngryBirds Red]] is hiding in the bushes at the beginning of "The Mass-Murdering Mongoose".

* CatsHateWater / AnimalJingoism: During their series on Majapahit, a dog made out of water is used as a metaphor for the Indonesians' maritime expertise; said dog appears at the end of one episode in the background, prompting Zoey to enter a hilarious chase scene around Matt's legs.

''[[http://extra-credits.net Extra Credits]]'' is an animated AnalysisChannel, formerly published by ''The Escapist,'' then [[Webcomic/PennyArcade PATV]] and later self-published, which is hosted by James Portnow (writing), Matt Krol (narration), Dan Jones and Scott Dewitt (art), the latter three's spots formerly belonging to Daniel Floyd, Allison Theus and Elisa "[=LeeLee=]" Scaldaferri before they left to work on other projects. The hosts use the series as a means to cover many issues pertinent to the video games industry, in particular what goes into the creation and development of video games, what video games have to do to become recognized as a legitimate artform, and creating intellectual discourse on important issues in the video game community.

''[[http://extra-credits.net Extra Credits]]'' is an animated AnalysisChannel, formerly published by ''The Escapist,'' then [[Webcomic/PennyArcade PATV]] and later self-published, which is hosted by James Portnow (writing), Matt Krol (narration), Dan Jones and Scott Dewitt (art), the latter three's spots formely belonging to Daniel Floyd, Allison Theus and Elisa "[=LeeLee=]" Scaldaferri before they left to work on other projects. The hosts use the series as a means to cover many issues pertinent to the video games industry, in particular what goes into the creation and development of video games, what video games have to do to become recognized as a legitimate artform, and creating intellectual discourse on important issues in the video game community.

Discussion of Extra Creditz can be found [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=12925389060A94505200&page=64#1584 here]].

* BRollRebus: Done in a similar style as ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'', the narrative is accompained by relevant and/or related pictures and drawings.

* {{Foil}}: Near the begining of the "[[http://youtu.be/WXA559KNopI Microtransactions]]" episode, Daniel says that EC is always trying to be the calmer voice, while a crude picture of EC-inspiration [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] shows up, angrily saying, "What are you getting at?"

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1qndga6SNU True Female Characters"]] discusses how to write female chacters. It also cements a theme through these episodes that writing a character like this requires thinking about what expectations that character's society places on them, and what aspects of [[Administrivia/NotASubversion those expectations they choose to embrace]] and [[AvertedTrope what they choose to reject]], saying that someone who rejects every social expectation placed on them is just as sterotypical as someone who embraces every expectation.

* HundredPercentAdorationRating: Edward Jenner is uinversally praised by everyone for developing the smallpox vaccine. Even Napoeleon and [[spoiler: Thomas Jefferson]] celebrate him.

** Cheng I Sao, the leader of Pirate Confederation, was able to bring the Chinese Empire to it's knees and defeat a far stronger fleet.

** After Ghengis Khan successfully united the Mongol steppe under his banner, he moved on to conquer neighboring kingdoms to the west, east, and south, since he was a lifelong conquerer who seemed unable to settle down and enjoy the peace he had created.

* DeadPersonImpersonation: When Adimiral Yi is mortally wounded during the last battle of the Korea/Japan war, one of his sons dons his armor and takes over the war drum his father was beating, so the rest of the fleet won't be demoralised by their admiral's death.

* DemocracyIsBad: Otto von Bismarck is convinced of this, so much so that he almost refused to attend a Parliament called by the King because he suspected it would be used to establish an elected Parliament. When he did attend, Bismarck was greatly offended when somebody present claimed that the promise of a constitution is the only reason why Prussia defeated Napoleon. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_Reform_Movement_(1806%E2%80%931815) His opponent was correct - Prussia had been promised a constitution and the political reforms were what gave the country the strengh needed to throw back Napoleon]] - but Bismarck took offense because it sounded like his opponent was claiming the Prussians would have refused to defend their country if it remained a monarchy.

* EvilVersusEvil: "The Battle of Kursk" features the Soviet Red Army vs. the German Wermacht, both authoritarian and brutal regimes grinding against one another in [[TankGoodness one of, if not]] ''[[TankGoodness the]]'' [[TankGoodness largest tank battles in history]].

** Scipio Africanus successfuly besieges the city of Carthago Nova by having 500 men wait near a lagoon to the north of the city while the rest of his army attacks the west gate. When the weather drains the lagoon, his men are able to cross and attack the one part of the walls the Carthaginians didn't station defenders at.

** The Haitian Revolution is all about this, with an occasional dose of EvilVersusEvil peppered in for good measure. Pre-Revolution, all four castes (the "big whites," "small whites," "free people of color," and slaves) wanted changes that benefited themselves with little regard for the others, and all castes committed attrocities and betrayals that horrified the world (and, at times, their own allies), and no one walked away from the Revolution morally clean. (Only the slaves had the truly sympathetic motive of just wanting to not be slaves anymore, and even the best of them committed war crimes aplenty.)

** When Japan invades Korea in "Admiral Yi", the Koreans initially refuse to counter-attack because they mistake the Japanese transports for a trade fleet, or possibly a Japanese ambassador coming to apologise for Japan's rudeness during previous negotions.

** Extra History makes it clear that the Haitian Revolution probably would not have been so violent or complicated if the four castes weren't solely out for themselves. The wealthy "big whites" wanted to remove economic restrictions placed on them by France but otherwise maintain the current class and race structure since it put them on top of both. (Refusing to budge on even the tiniest black rights.) The "small whites" wanted to gain more economic advantages like the "big whites" yet restrict rights of the "free people of color" who were generally more prosperous and educated than them. The "free people of color," in turn, wanted to lift racial policies against ''themselves'' but were fine with (and actively enforced) the institutinon of slavery for ''other'' Africans. The slaves were the only ones who wanted abolition. During the revolution, pretty much all sides made and broke alliances with the others to advance their own interests at the expense of others (with even many slaves trying to screw over other slaves for their freedom/advancement), with no one able to find a compromise that worked for everything.

* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Since a lot of patriarchal societies ran on patralinial inheritence laws, yet paternity tests didn't exist yet, you can bet this crops up every now and again.

** In The First Opium War, Charles Elliot (Britian) and Qisan (China) were both sent to negotiate a peace deal and both worked out a reasonable one. Their reward? The former was fired and ridiculed by his countrymen for the rest of his life, the later was fired and sentenced to death (though the sentence was lifted).

* NotSoStoic: Dan could hardly be considered stoic, but he generally keeps to his calm and even tone while narrating. While he rarely raises his voice, his avatar is occasionally drawn noticably annoyed or angry, such as when in the episode on the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, when mentioning how the managers had locked some of the doors so they could check each worker for theft.

* PinballProtagonist: Rasputin's series focuses more on the environment of late-tsarist Russia than on Rasputin himself, and on how his legend was born from wild rumors and the malicious slander of his enemies. He has little control over the forces that subsume his life, seeing him as a symbol of whatever they, personally, think is wrong wtih Russia.

* SeriousBusiness: The "Early Christian Schims" does a good job in explaining how and why debates on whether Christ was both man and God, or part-man and part-god, or all man and all god and other smaller hairs split between these examples were deadly serious in the later Roman era and played a role in the shaping of Christianity.

* TakeUpMySword: In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5l75BSJZo8 "Policing London - The Bow Street Runners"]], Henry Fielding basically assembled what was the first real police force in London and did so out of a personal desire to fight crime. The episode ends with him dying of gout and serosus, and with his brother John Fielding taking over his post.

** Suhkra in Iran, accused Kavadh of being this after being dismissed from court. Suhkra talked openly about how Kavadh wouldn't have a throne if it weren't for him. In Kavadh's defense, Suhkra had been undermining the shah's authority and acting in the shah's name without permission. And while Suhkra was a helping factor in securing the throne, Kavadh could have taken it with the Hephtalite army he had just marched into Iran with. So Suhkra is an UnreliableNarrator from the beginning.

** Robert Moses in "Interstate Displacement", was seen as a master-builder who helped develop American urban infastructure as well as a job-creator. However, the episode also describes how he demolished minority neighborhoods to build his projects - sometimes going out of his way to do so.
* VillainousLegacy: Robert Moses's racist method of developing urban infastructure by displacing minority neighborhoods was copied by cities all across America.

** Similarly, the Latin American revolutionaries in the Simón Bolívar series. The same factionalism which kept the colonists from overturning Spanish imperial rule before the Penninsular War undermined their attempts to unite against the restored crown of Spain, and would repeatedly give the Spanish openings to try to retake their South and Central American possessions. Later, after Spain was finally ejected for good, Bolívar's attempts to unit the former colonies into a Republic of Gran Panama ran aground on factionalism, provincialism, and [[PrideBeforeAFall Bolívar's own intransigence towards the governments he'd help establish]].
** Even before the revolution began, Haiti had four social classes all struggling with each other. The "big whites" who owned the plantations wanted to keep everyone else in their place while breaking free of French mercantilist policies to market their huge stock of agricultural goods elsewhere. The "little whites" wanted to get rich upon immigrating, and resented both the "big whites" for their wealth and privilege, and the free people of color for often having more wealth and education than themselves. The free people of color resented having many openly racist laws (proposed and supported by "little whites") stripping their rights with a fairer system still in living memory. And, of course, all three groups looked down on and oppressed the slaves, who lived in unspeakable conditions and misery, and plotted to get their freedom through violent force of arms. After the French Revolution proper begins, both whites and free people of color in the slave-owning castes are too busy wrestling with one another over power, especially the whites who fight the French government and attempt to gain independence rather than give up white supermacy, to see the slave uprising coming right under their nose. And once it begins, the other parties never manage to crush the rebellion and reinstitute slavery because of their inability to unite, and the whites' unwillingness to compromise on racial supremacy.

* YouShallNotPass: The 21 Sikh officers manning the communication post of Saragahi. When the Afghan tribes rebelled against British Rule, these officers fight them off for as long as possible. Every single one of them is killed, but they take down hundreds of rebels with them and their sacrifice allows Fort Gulistan and Fort Lockhart to fortify themselves and suppress the rebellion.

* JoackDadNerdSon: While Frederick William loved the military and was prone to hypermasculine posturing, his son Fritz loved music and high culture. This becomes PlayedForDrama, as the elder Frederick was prone to physically and verbally abusing his son over his "unmanly" habits.

''[[http://extra-credits.net Extra Credits]]'' is an animated AnalysisChannel, formerly published by ''The Escapist,'' then [[Webcomic/PennyArcade PATV]] and later self-published, which is is hosted by James Portnow (writing), Matt Krol (narration), Dan Jones and Scott Dewitt (art), the latter three's spots formely belonging to Daniel Floyd, Allison Theus and Elisa "[=LeeLee=]" Scaldaferri before they left to work on other projects. The hosts use the series as a means to cover many issues pertinent to the video games industry, in particular what goes into the creation and development of video games, what video games have to do to become recognized as a legitimate artform, and creating intellectual discourse on important issues in the video game community.

* SinisterMinister: In the "Rasputin" series, the crew makes the case that Rasputin's nasty reputation as an evil wizard who manipulated the tsar was largely an exaggeration cooked up by jealous reactionaries who envied Rasputin's proximity to the tsar, those looking for a scapegoat for the tsar's own failings, and a sensationalist press that wanted to sell newspapers and discredit the tsar. Rasputin is portrayed as having a more benign presence within the Romanov family. [note]While he probably didn't have healing powers, he may have helped Alexei and Alexandra by simply calming them down through prayer.[/note] He also had many good sides, like advising the tsar against entering World War I. [[ZigzaggedTrope That said]], he did have some genuine flaws; public drunkenness and excessive promiscuity, and may have been very inappropriate with his female followers even beyond that.

** When Justinian hires an assassin to kill Vitalian, the assassin [[Videogame/AssassinsCreed wears a white cape with a beak-shaped hood and is armed with a hidden blade]].

* ArmchairMiliary: The Japanese militarists of the 1930s and 40s are depicted as as ultranationalist ideologues who put their fantasies of conquest and power above any actual long term strategic goals, to the point that they stumbled from one undeclared war to another, uniting much of the world against them.

* IncrediblyLamePun: A lot of the {{visual pun}}s. For example, Daniel might say, "Let's dive into why", and it'll show a picture of a person preparing to dive into a Y-shaped pool.

%%* VisualPun: Very common.

* AprilFoolsDay: Their 2020 video about Grigori Rasputin was actually [[Music/BoneyM "Ra Ra Rasputin"]] narrated in the series' style. They would eventually make an actual series about him the following year.

** The Broad Street Pump: You know nothing John Snow!
** Otto von Bismarck: Bismarck had a plan, Bismarck ''always'' had a plan.
** Joan of Arc: GET ‘EM!

* CryingWolf: This was why the Romanovs were willing to keep Rasputin around: the willingness of the press and politicians to bash Rasputin with hyperbole led the royal family to ignore more credible accusations against Rasputin.

** Suleiman The Magnificent dies old, alone, and a shadow of the man he used to be, after his HairTriggerTemper had cost him two of his children, and in his final moments hallucinates his loved ones, one by one, coming to see him at his bedside.

* EvilIsPetty: Apart from intentionally displacing minority neighborhoods, Robert Moses also ordered the bridges over the southern state parkway built low specifically to make it harder for black people to reach jones beach. [[note]]The low bridges prevented the bus system from using it, thus keeping out those who couldn't afford cars.[[/note]].

** The series does show that Rasputin did have many genuine flaws like public drunkenness and excessive promiscuity and possible sexual assault on his own followers. However, his presence in the Romanov family itself was actually pretty benign: he may have genuinely helped both Alexei and Alexandra with his presence and was seen by the other children as a friendly uncle. While he may have used his position as an adviser for his own gain, he did also support decent ideas like keeping Russia out of the First World War.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: How [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKQ-djCmsrQ Genghis Khan]] is interpreted.

* HollywoodTactics: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brnoj4CCGG0 corresponding Lies episode]] acknowledges that Joan's tactics ''were'' more advanced than '''Get 'em''', but clarifies that the creators not only wanted to avoid being too bogged down in military history after the recent Siege of Vienna episode but were trying to capture Joan's leadership ability and sense of righteousness more than literally describe them.

** Genghis Khan. In his youth he murdered his elder brother and his best friend because he didn't want to answer to them. Yet when his own sons have a rivalry he tries his hardest to make them get along.

** Robert Koch from "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP-WXLsnMjY Curing Tuberculosis]]" ends up being a deconstruction. As a result of his rivalry with Louis Pasteur, he buys into the myth of a scientist as a heroic singular figure, rather than part of a community building on each other's work. This results in him abandoning the methodical practises he relied on early in his career and pushing his "cure" for tuberculosis before he can guarantee its effectiveness, leading to a medical scandal.

* SinisterMinister: In the "Rasputin" series, the crew makes the case that Rasputin's nasty reputation as an evil wizard who manipulated the tsar was largely an exaggeration cooked up by jealous reactionaries who envied Rasputin's proximity to the tsar, those looking for a scapegoat for the tsar's own failings, and a sensationalist press that wanted to sell newspapers and discredit the tsar. Rasputin is portrayed as having a more benign presence within the Romanov family. [note]While he probably didn't have healing powers, he may have helped Alexei and Alexandra by simply calming them down through prayer.[/note] He also had many good sides, like advising the tsar against entering World War I. [[ZigzaggedTrope That said]], he did have some genuine flaws; public drunkenness and excessive promiscuity.

* VideoGameMoviesSuck:[[invoked]] The phenomenon is [[ConversedTrope brought up]] in the video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnP2boSC-FM "Why Are There No Good Video Game Movies"]]. There's no single answer, but the biggest ones are that most people who are currently in the film industry (either executives or creative folk) aren't that familiar with video games, since video games themselves are such a new medium while other properties such as works of literature have been around for decades before being properly put into a film format (citing ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' as an example of this). Also films based on comic series went through a similar DorkAge.

** Edward Jenner from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke6tT3_QTuM History of Vaccines - Killing Smallpox - Extra History]], who cured smallpox and developed modern vaccination.

On December 5, 2022, Matt announced that due to a combination of the Website/YouTube algorithm and the channel steadily leaning more towards history and mythology, ''Extra Credits'' [[EndofAnEra as we know it]] would be moved to its own separate [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVzt0Ltq6VNKRqRMrry3OIA Gaming orientated channel over the next 2 months]], with the main channel rebranded as Extra History from this point forward.

On December 5, 2022, Matt announced that due to a combination of the YouTube algorithm and the channel steadily leaning more towards history and mythology, ''Extra Credits'' [[EndofAnEra as we know it]] would be moved to its own separate [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVzt0Ltq6VNKRqRMrry3OIA Gaming orientated channel over the next 2 months]], with the main channel rebranded as Extra History from this point forward.

%% Please redirect all PA and Escapist links to Youtube if you find them.

** Teddy Roosevelt is depicted as a man who detested the excesses of large corporations. But in practice, he was mainly a ''regulator'' of trusts than a ''buster''. In fact, Teddy was supportive of big businesses that followed the rules, and ridiculed genuine socialists like Upton Sinclair as crackpots.

** In season 4 they added [=LeeLee=] to their ranks, and while her and Allison's styles were mostly similar, difference between the two could be seen during certain points.
* ArtEvolution: The show's signature art style went through three iterations during its run, not counting the guest artists. The pre-''Escapist'' videos used a crude, but bright art style employed by Floyd. After the series became weekly, Allison provided smoother art with a more pastel-type color palette. After she was replaced by Scott [=DeWitt=] during Season 6, the new artists revamped the style, making them closer to SuperDeformed.
* ArtShift: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I39t8RuzMhs "The Economics of Obsession"]] is presented in ''Extra Sci-Fi'''s art style, but when Matt's [[AlternateSelf casual self]] shows up at the end to promote Nebula, the episode switches to its usual art style.