Historical Badass Upgrade: Difference between revisions

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"So, all in all, just a normal day in the life of Leonardo da Vinci. Turn lead into gold, paint the most famous portrait of all time, and invent the first hang glider. And I bet it’s not even 9 AM."

Sometimes a Historical Domain Character is portrayed by adding a copious amount of Badassery and Stuff Blowing Up, that was either far lesser or non-existent with the Real Life person. The reasons could range from Did Not Do the Research or Rule of Cool.

Maybe a king, who was known for very little else but diplomacy, gets to be a war hero instead. Maybe Mohandas Gandhi gets to fight grizzlies. Maybe a pope hunted vampires in his spare time.

Compare Historical Hero Upgrade, Historical Villain Upgrade. Kung Fu Jesus is a subtrope. See also Beethoven Was an Alien Spy for a possible justification of this trope, and Memetic Badass.

Examples of Historical Badass Upgrade include:

Anime and Manga

Escaflowne: Sir Isaac Newton is an alchemist who uses the power of Atlantis.
Everyone in The Legend of Koizumi. Except Taizo.

Film

UHF's "Gandhi II".
William Wallace in Braveheart (possibly).
Leonardo da Vinci (post mortem), Buckingham and Cardinal Richelieu in the 2011 film adaptation of The Three Musketeers.
Qin Shi-Huangdi in Hero, as befitting a character in the wuxia genre.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Literature

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. That is all.
Belisarius Series. You would think the Real Life Belisarius was badass enough, but this Belisarius defeats an evil cyborg Conqueror From the Future.

Live Action TV

Used in-universe in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Living Witness". The story focuses on the historical depiction of an encounter with the Voyager crew by an ancient civilization hundreds of years before. The biased depiction portrays them as a ruthlessly violent gang of thugs, and the Voyager as an inpenetrable warship armed to the teeth with weapons, and containing a complement of Borg drones at the captain's disposal.

Video Games

Most of the cast from Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors and Sengoku Basara. Granted, some of those ancient warriors were actually pretty Badass on their own...

Web Original

Cracked.com and Theodore Roosevelt. Who was a legitimate badass in real life, but Cracked takes it to new levels.
- Arguably, Nikola Tesla as well.
Irregular Webcomic: Sir Isaac Newton is portrayed as a Time Lord, and gathers various scientists from history to fix the time stream.
The clone of Ben Franklin from Dr McNinja.

Western Animation

Robot Chicken does this frequently:
- A quick sketch has Benjamin Franklin practicing his bojutsu in a forest before triumphantly proclaiming, "For America!"
- A Dream Sequence of George W. Bush involved him in a lightsaber duel against Abraham Lincoln.
- One sketch consisted of a Tag Team match (in the vein of WWE, no less) with Ben Franklin and (in Big Damn Heroes fashion) Gandhi vs. the Wright Brothers.
- Another was a parody of Three Hundred called 1776. It was a very loose retelling of the story of the Declaration of Independence.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{trope}}
 [[File:abe_lincoln_croped_8884.jpg|link=Abraham Lincoln|right]]
-{{quote|''"So, all in all, just a normal day in the life of [[Leonardo Da Vinci]]. Turn lead into gold, paint the most famous portrait of all time, and invent the first hang glider. And I bet it’s not even 9 AM."''|'''[[The Agony Booth]]''' [http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Hudson_Hawk_1991.aspx?Page=2 recap] of ''[[Hudson Hawk]]''.}}
+{{quote|''"So, all in all, just a normal day in the life of [[Leonardo da Vinci]]. Turn lead into gold, paint the most famous portrait of all time, and invent the first hang glider. And I bet it’s not even 9 AM."''|'''[[The Agony Booth]]''' [http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Hudson_Hawk_1991.aspx?Page=2 recap] of ''[[Hudson Hawk]]''.}}
 Sometimes a [[Historical Domain Character]] is portrayed by adding a copious amount of [[Badass|Badassery]] and [[Stuff Blowing Up]], that was either far lesser or non-existent with the [[Real Life]] person. The reasons could range from [[Did Not Do the Research]] or [[Rule of Cool]].
-Maybe a king, who was known for very little else but diplomacy, gets to be a war hero instead. Maybe Mohandas Gandhi [[Completely Missing the Point|gets to fight]] [[Everything's Worse With Bears|grizzlies]]. Maybe a pope [[Vampire Hunter|hunted vampires in his spare time]].
+Maybe a king, who was known for very little else but diplomacy, gets to be a war hero instead. Maybe Mohandas Gandhi [[Completely Missing the Point|gets to fight]] [[Everything's Worse with Bears|grizzlies]]. Maybe a pope [[Vampire Hunter|hunted vampires in his spare time]].
 Compare [[Historical Hero Upgrade]], [[Historical Villain Upgrade]]. [[Kung Fu Jesus]] is a subtrope. See also [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy]] for a possible justification of this trope, and [[Memetic Badass]].
@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 == [[Film]] ==
-* ''[[UHF (Film)|UHF]]'''s "Gandhi II".
+* ''[[UHF]]'''s "Gandhi II".
 * William Wallace in ''[[Braveheart]]'' (possibly).
-* [[Leonardo Da Vinci]] (post mortem), Buckingham and Cardinal Richelieu in the 2011 film adaptation of ''[[The Three Musketeers 2011 (Film)|The Three Musketeers]]''.
+* [[Leonardo da Vinci]] (post mortem), Buckingham and Cardinal Richelieu in the 2011 film adaptation of ''[[The Three Musketeers (2011 film)|The Three Musketeers]]''.
 * Qin Shi-Huangdi in ''[[Hero]]'', as befitting a character in the wuxia genre.
-* ''[[Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter]]''.
+* ''[[Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter]]''.
 == [[Literature]] ==
-* ''[[Abraham Lincoln]], [[Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter|Vampire Hunter]]''. [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|That is all]].
+* ''[[Abraham Lincoln]], [[Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter|Vampire Hunter]]''. [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|That is all]].
 * [[Belisarius Series]]. You would think the [[Real Life]] Belisarius was badass enough, but this Belisarius defeats an evil cyborg [[Conqueror From the Future]].
 == [[Live Action TV]] ==
-* Used in-universe in the ''[[Star Trek Voyager]]'' episode "Living Witness". The story focuses on the historical depiction of an encounter with the Voyager crew by an ancient civilization hundreds of years before. The [[Historical Villain Upgrade|biased depiction]] portrays them as a ruthlessly violent gang of thugs, and the Voyager as an inpenetrable warship armed to the teeth with weapons, and containing a complement of Borg drones at the captain's disposal.
+* Used in-universe in the ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' episode "Living Witness". The story focuses on the historical depiction of an encounter with the Voyager crew by an ancient civilization hundreds of years before. The [[Historical Villain Upgrade|biased depiction]] portrays them as a ruthlessly violent gang of thugs, and the Voyager as an inpenetrable warship armed to the teeth with weapons, and containing a complement of Borg drones at the captain's disposal.
 == [[Video Games]] ==
@@ Line 35: / Line 35: @@
 ** Arguably, [[Mad Scientist|Nikola]] [[Nikola Tesla|Tesla]] as well.
 * ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'': Sir [[Isaac Newton]] is portrayed as a [[Doctor Who|Time Lord]], and gathers various scientists from history to fix the time stream.
-* The clone of Ben Franklin from ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja (Webcomic)|Dr McNinja]]''.
+* The clone of Ben Franklin from ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja|Dr McNinja]]''.
 == [[Western Animation]] ==
@@ Line 42: / Line 42: @@
 ** A [[Dream Sequence]] of [[George W. Bush]] involved him in a [[Star Wars|lightsaber duel]] against [[Abraham Lincoln]].
 ** One sketch consisted of a [[Tag Team]] match (in the vein of [[WWE]], no less) with Ben Franklin and (in [[Big Damn Heroes]] fashion) Gandhi vs. the Wright Brothers.
-** Another was a parody of ''[[300 (Film)|Three Hundred]]'' called ''1776''. It was a ''very'' loose retelling of the story of the Declaration of Independence.
+** Another was a parody of ''[[300|Three Hundred]]'' called ''1776''. It was a ''very'' loose retelling of the story of the Declaration of Independence.
 {{reflist}}