Basic Trope: A historical figure is made much cooler and better at fighting in a piece of historical fiction.
- Straight: In real life, Bob was an average soldier with average fighting skills. The historical movie Troperia makes him into an incredibly powerful badass.
- Exaggerated: In real life, Bob was a Dirty Coward. In Troperia, he won a war almost all by himself.
- Downplayed:
- In Real Life, Bob was undoubtedly a war hero, and Troperia just exaggerated his role by virtue of The Main Characters Do Everything.
- In Real Life, Bob was a Non-Action Guy who nevertheless contributed materially to winning the war, thanks to his logistical and codebreaking skills. The writer and director of Troperia upgrade him into a Badass Bookworm who fights off enemies who are trying to capture and kill him in honor of the Rule of Cool.
- Justified:
- In the story, a time-traveller modified history by training Bob in fighting skills and giving him inspiring speeches.
- Bob's achievements went unrecorded because no one believed them.
- Bob was combined with a more badass soldier who served alongside him for The Movie.
- Inverted:
- Bob was a war hero in real life, but Troperia downplays his role in battles.
- Bob was a war hero in real life, but Troperia makes him a Dirty Coward.
- Subverted: Bob initially is set up as a badass, but it turns out he's actually a Miles Gloriosus who exaggerates his achievements.
- Double Subverted: Bob lives up to, or even exceeds, his reputation by the end of Troperia.
- Parodied: The screenwriter of Troperia writes a backward account of the true battle, making mediocre Bob a One-Man Army and multiply decorated Alan a Lovable Coward.
- Zig-Zagged: Some of Bob's battles make him seem more badass, others are accurate, and still others make him seem less badass.
- Averted: Bob's fighting skills are true to history.
- Enforced: The producers demand a badass hero, so the writers make a random soldier into their badass hero.
- Lampshaded: "Bob earned that medal? I don't believe you."
- Invoked: A time-traveller makes Bob into more of a hero.
- Exploited: A time-traveller realizes the timeline has been modified because Bob is more badass now.
- Defied: A time-traveller ensures Bob is not a badass.
- Discussed: "I don't know where that soldier got so good, he certainly wasn't good in my drills."
- Conversed: "I don't know why that soldier is so much better than he was in the real war, or why they felt the need to depict him that way."
- Implied: Bob is given a medal for achievement and shown alongside an Historical Domain Character who actually did receive that medal for doing in reality what Bob did in the movie.
- Deconstructed: Because Bob didn't do the things he's believed to have done thanks to the movie, his reputation exceeds what it should while the actual doers are forgotten.
- Reconstructed: War for Troperia: The Series comes out, restoring heroes like Alan to their pride of place and making Bob a background character.
- Played for Laughs: Bob is such a laughably Bad Liar that his superior officers humour his attempts at claiming responsibility for his braver squadmates' deeds.
- Played for Drama:
- In-universe, Bob finds himself realizing that Celebrity Is Overrated and wishing he'd just been one of the many soldiers who just did their duty to their country.
- Out of universe, the heirs of the person or people whose accomplishments were attributed to Bob in Troperia take affront that their ancestors have been forgotten at the expense of a nobody.
- Played for Horror: Bob uses his ahistorical talents to hurt people for the sake of it, crossing the Moral Event Horizon early and often.
- Intended Audience Reaction: One of the themes of the story is how Time Marches On and how, due to deterioration in historical education, people don't bother to question received wisdom about issues like who actually deserves credit, or blame as the case may be, for various deeds.
Back to Historical Badass Upgrade.
