Discussion Animorphs / TropesAToH

Regarding Artistic License-History:

Visser Four is established as being an idiot about Earth history from his first attempted intervention at Agincourt, which makes the intervention at Trafalgar excusable as his own doing. Alternately, the timing is critical; Nelson died, yes, but he was in command well into the battle, and his ship just as part of the line was important to obtaining victory; if he died early along with the entire ship in a spectacular explosion, that might well break British morale. Or bolster it, we can't know. We also don't know what effects retaining the American colonies did or didn't have. Maybe Nelson had more ships, maybe he had fewer.

We aren't given enough information about the ambush of Washington's crossing; Rall had been left in command just three days before, and his commander, Carl von Donop, was less than 20 miles away at Mt. Holly. It is recorded that he stayed there in part because he had made the amorous acquaintance of a young widow, held in local folklore to be Betsy Ross working deliberately to detain him. Without the promise of some bed action, he may well have agreed with his other officers when they recommended the main force move back to a town in supporting distance of Trenton, and he was much more ambitious than Rall and harsh to his inferiors. He might well have ordered all his men to march back and prepare for a dawn ambush had a spy come to him claiming knowledge of an imminent attack.

The validity of success for either intervention isn't really knowable, of course, because of the lack of detail in the books and because neither event happened in real history, but as alternate history and time travel both outcomes are reasonable enough within the bounds of possibility. Both battles were considered iffy by the winning sides before they won (though Nelson didn't accept his officers concerns and just planned for success). Neither is egregious enough to fit the trope.

Should the information under Does Not Like Shoes be moved to Losing a Shoe in the Struggle. It seems to fit that trope better.