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[[quoteright:348:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rasputin5.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:348:[[UsefulNotes/RasputinTheMadMonk Grigori Rasputin]], for all his faults, [[WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}} wasn't]] an evil [[OurLichesAreDifferent lich...]] probably.]]

%%"Other" folder category was deleted. All examples were General or belonged in another category. Please do not re-create it unless a specific work not falling into the other categories is cited. Please also do NOT add General examples or Common Cases -- Examples Are Not General.

->"''... And every tale condemns me for a villain.''"
-->-- '''King Richard III''', ''Theatre/RichardIII''

OK, let's say you're still writing that movie, which is VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory. You chose a period of history that involves a lot of [[ViewersAreGoldfish exciting fight scenes and explosions so your audience won't fall asleep]] and now you need some main characters, but there's a problem: most of the RealLife figures were [[GreyAndGrayMorality morally grey and complex people]]. How are you going to make sure that your audience knows who the [[DesignatedVillain bad guy]] is?

Well, all you have to do is to pick someone who wasn't on your side. If you're American all you have to do is choose an evil [[EvilBrit Briton]] or [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany German]] or [[RedScare Russian]] or [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror Arab]]. Or failing that, an Italian or a Scotsman (just as long as they fought alongside those dastardly [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Anglo-commie-terror-nazis]].) And if you're English you'll want to use one of the Anglo-Saxon bastards against the brave and heroic King Arthur. Or those treacherous English bastards against that brave and heroic King William the Con... Hey--[[ArtisticLicenseHistory wait a second...]] but hang on. There's another problem. Your new villain wasn't actually "evil" per se. Well, all you have to do is give your newfound villain a few KickTheDog moments, [[ObviouslyEvil adjust his appearance to something more recognizably evil]] and [[ArtisticLicenseHistory ignore]] anything of his life that doesn't fit your artistic vision.

Note that just because this happens to someone does NOT mean that he or she was a good person in RealLife; it is perfectly possible to make absolutely ''anyone'' seem even more evil than in reality (yes, even [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]]). Also note that [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools this isn't necessarily a bad thing]], as it is [[ArtisticLicense often done to make a better story]].

A ''lot'' of sports movies do this to the coach of the OpposingSportsTeam; turning him or her from a paid professional whose job is to ensure that his team wins to a callous bastard whose philosophy is "win at any cost".

This trope is the [[InvertedTrope opposite]] of a HistoricalHeroUpgrade, although many figures often get one of those as well in works with a different viewpoint. They may also appear alongside each other when applied to different people, to make the BlackAndWhiteMorality contrast even more obvious.

Usually this is a part of PoliticallyCorrectHistory, although it can just as easily be the exact opposite. When FanFic writers do this to a canon character, it's RonTheDeathEater. When an adaptation does it to a character from a previous story, it's AdaptationalVillainy. Simply using bad people from history as villains goes under HistoricalDomainCrossover.

May overlap with HistoricalBadassUpgrade, HistoricalUglinessUpdate, BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy, AncientConspiracy or {{Flanderization}}. Compare with HijackedByJesus and EverybodyHatesHades, which do this to a member of a polytheistic pantheon. Contrast with HistoricalVillainDowngrade.

See HistoricalRelationshipOverhaul for other changes a HistoricalDomainCharacter may receive.

SubTrope of {{Demonization}}.\\
And SuperTrope to:
* StupidJetpackHitler, which is when the Nazis are technologically upgraded;
* {{Ghostapo}}, where they are given supernatural powers instead;
* WeDidntStartTheFuhrer, when it turns out that UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler was a supernatural evil;
* SovietSuperScience, where it's the Soviets who end up with the superscientific weapons;
* DemonKingNobunaga, where UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga is made a demon or given supernatural powers;
* {{Dracula}}, in the many instances where he is said to have been UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler.
* PrehistoricMonster, when prehistoric animals such as dinosaurs are depicted as unrealistically ferocious and violent.
----

!!Example subpages:

[[index]]
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade/AnimeAndManga
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade/ComicBooks
* [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade/LiveActionFilms Films — Live-Action]]
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade/{{Literature}}
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade/LiveActionTV
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade/{{Theatre}}
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade/VideoGames
[[/index]]

[[foldercontrol]]

!!Examples using real people

[[folder:Audio Plays]]
* In ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' [[Creator/PeterDavison Fifth Doctor]] story "The Kingmaker", Richard III is actually confronted by ''his own'' Historical Villain Upgrade. The reason why this entry isn't under the InUniverse page is because: [[spoiler:this story does the same to William Shakespeare, who became very bitter due to the way the Fifth Doctor treated him, and nabbed a TimeMachine and was willing to assassinate him, and his companions, and due to a TimeyWimeyBall ends up becoming Richard III at his last battle, and Richard III takes up the mantle of Creator/WilliamShakespeare.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
%%* Happens to UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison and others in the legendary Creator/PeterChimaera's ''Book of Hsitorical Faffiction''.
* This is quite common in the work of Creator/ShakespeareHemmingway.
** Lionel Logue is depicted as a Nazi spy in "The King's Garfield".
** Whatever one may think of Music/KanyeWest, it's very doubtful that he'd react to a perceived snub by threatening to [[DisproportionateRetribution infect people with Ebola]]. But this is exactly what he does in "The Garfield Bowl" after ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} is chosen for the next UsefulNotes/SuperBowl's halftime act instead of him.
** In "The Garfield Network", Mark Zuckerberg and Sean Parker ([[ActorRoleConfusion referred to as]] "Music/JustinTimberlake") try to steal "the Website/{{Facebook}}" from its real creator.
** And ''Fanfic/GarfieldRoyalRescue'', where Prince William is a wannabe [[Franchise/JamesBond Bond]] villain, while his younger brother Harry is an unstable psycho.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Folklore]]
* Myth/BrazilianFolklore: Labatut is a man-eating [[{{cyclops}} one-eyed]] monster who goes out at night looking for people to eat, especially children. It is believed he was inspired by the real-life general [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Labatut Pierre or Pedro Labatut]], who fought alongside Brazil in the Brazilian War of Independence. Supposedly, he would've been so harsh to his army that local folklore turned him into a cruel monster.
* Myth/JapaneseMythology: Queen Himiko (c. 170–248 AD) was a semi-legendary shaman queen who ruled the semi-legendary state of Yamatai [[note]]It's not entirely clear if it's a forerunner to the actual state of Yamato, corresponding to the modern day [[UsefulNotes/TheFortySevenPrefectures Nara prefecture]], or if it's another kingdom that was most likely located in northern Kyūshū[[/note]]. The only written records about her [[note]]Japan only started writing things down around the 8th century[[/note]] are from UsefulNotes/{{China}} (more specifically, from the [[UsefulNotes/ThreeKingdomsEra Wei Kingdom]]), where she is described as having used her magical powers to stop a 70-year civil war and unite 30 smaller states into Yamatai. She sent ambassadors and gifts to Wei and was considered a "friend of Wei" who sent her gifts in return. Modern portrayals of her are all over the place, considering there's basically very little we know about the woman. She's sometimes portrayed positively as a [[TheHighQueen wise old woman]] or a [[CuteWitch cute]] and/or [[HotWitch sexy]] BenevolentMageRuler, but sometimes she's portrayed as a sort of [[TheTimeOfMyths Yayoi-era]] equivalent of a FemmeFatale, [[ManipulativeBitch manipulating]] others with her magic powers and her good looks, when she's not outright an [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen evil oppressive ruler]].
* Myth/RobinHood: UsefulNotes/KingJohnOfEngland was deficient in moral character and had a remarkable talent for alienating people, but he wasn't the one-dimensional avaricious tyrant he tends to get portrayed as in these stories.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films — Animation]]
* In Creator/DonBluth's ''WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}}'' UsefulNotes/RasputinTheMadMonk is an undead evil sorcerer and traitor who sold his soul in exchanged for a demon-powered [[ArtifactOfDoom reliquary]], and sparked the Russian Revolution to kill the Romanovs, and is out to kill Anastasia. In real life, while he was an eccentric figure with a sleazy reputation, he was a staunch ally of the Romanovs and was murdered before the revolution broke out.
%%* Lapu-Lapu in ''WesternAnimation/ElcanoAndMagellanTheFirstVoyageAroundTheWorld''.
* In the Spanish animation ''WesternAnimation/ElCidTheLegend'', Yusuf ibn Tashfin is depicted as the BigBad and is even more over-the-top evil than than his incarnation in ''Film/ElCid'', in contrast to his historical reputation as an honorable man. While the real Yusuf and Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar were in opposite sides, the two never even met with Rodrigo having fought mostly against Yusuf's nephew. He also does other things that never happened such as capturing Rodrigo's wife Jimena and giving her the GoGoEnslavement treatment.
* Granted, the Huns weren't all that nice, but Disney's demonic portrayal of them in ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' (complete with inhuman yellow eyes) is pretty extreme. They shouldn't even have been Huns. The tribe that Mulan fought against were the Rouran Khaganate, a similar but distinct tribe.
* UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria was not a particularly mean person, despite many atrocities across the British Empire including in India and Ireland during her reign. The version of her that appears in Creator/AardmanAnimations' ''WesternAnimation/ThePiratesInAnAdventureWithScientists'', on the other hand, has been described as "a fiend in human form", and being a member of a society that ate rare animals.
* Governor John Ratcliffe from Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}''. The real John Ratcliffe seems to have been more foolishly trusting than villainous, as he wanted to trade with the Native Americans, not to rob them or commit genocide on them. By the way, he was tortured to death ([[FlayingAlive flayed alive]], actually) by the Powhatan Indians, who seem to have received a bit of a HistoricalHeroUpgrade in the movie.
* Rameses II is portrayed as the wicked Pharaoh of the Exodus in ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', in keeping with the precedent set by ''Film/TheTenCommandments1956''. He's treated significantly more [[AntiVillain sympathetically]] than is usual for the trope, but gets worse after his son's death in the final plague. Similarly, his father Seti I is the Pharaoh who ordered the slaughter of all the Hebrews' firstborn sons and feels no remorse for it (his idea of comforting Moses over it is, disturbingly, telling him that ''they were only slaves'').
* Fitting in with the other depictions of Prince John, listed above, Disney's ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood1973'' portrays the guy as a SissyVillain-cum-LargeHam who is prone to childish tantrums upon mention of his brother and always begins sobbing at the mention of his mother. He also taxes Nottingham until most of the citizens are in jail [[DisproportionateRetribution because they invented a song that insulted him]] and plans to have Friar Tuck hanged to lure out Robin Hood so he can hang them both.
* UsefulNotes/HernanCortez gets this treatment in ''WesternAnimation/TheRoadToElDorado''. Make no mistake, the real man was no KnightInShiningArmor, but he's portrayed as significantly worse than he was in reality. When he catches Miguel and Tulio aboard his ship, he says he'll sell them into slavery in Cuba. While the real Cortés did take Spanish prisoners after defeating a force sent to arrest him, the thought of ''enslaving'' fellow Christians [[EvenEvilHasStandards would have horrified him]]. The real man was also a [[AffablyEvil charming diplomat]] who forged [[EnemyMine genuine alliances]] with some native groups, while in the film he is a humorless hardass who uses the one native who submits to him as a tool to destroy and kill all the others, and betrays him the minute he doesn't get his way.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Wolfwalkers}}'', UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell, simply called "The Lord Protector", is sexist towards Robyn by making her work in the scullery, is bigoted towards the Irish people and sees the country as a wild land that he needs to civilize, and later outright [[spoiler: tries to kill the heroes.]] While the real Cromwell was considered a major political figure in England, for the Irish (where the film was made and set) he is pretty much ''the'' EvilColonialist due to his numerous atrocities against the Irish people so they would submit to English rule.
** In the comic adaptation, he killed the King of England. which he didn't do in RealLife.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* [[Music/SongsByTomLehrer Tom Lehrer]]'s song "Lobachevsky" has the eponymous Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky, the world-famous Russian mathematician and one of the creators of the non-Euclidean geometry, as a great plagiarist who inspires the narrator to replicate his "secrets of success" in mathematics. Needless to say, there is no reason to suspect the real Lobachevsky in academic fraud. Tom Lehrer himself stated that the song isn't intended as a slur against Lobachevsky and his name was chosen for "solely for prosodic reasons".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
* ''Literature/TheBible'': UsefulNotes/RamsesII is frequently depicted as the [[Literature/BookOfExodus Pharaoh of the Exodus]], more frequently than any other Pharaoh. Less commonly, he gets depicted as the Pharaoh of the Oppression. Scholarly consensus is that he was almost certainly not the Pharaoh of the Exodus (which is generally agreed upon to have happened earlier in the New Kingdom's history), and there's no evidence that an ethnic group was enslaved under his reign (so he almost certainly wasn't the Pharaoh of the Oppression either). Historical evidence says that, far from being a NephariousPharaoh, he was one of AncientEgypt's greatest rulers.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Nursery Rhymes]]
* UsefulNotes/LizzieBorden, who was tried -- and ''acquitted'' -- of murdering her father and stepmother in 1892, is almost universally demonized in the media, where she tends to be portrayed as an unhinged psychopath. In truth, this perception of her was due to the brutal nature of the crime itself, ostracism from her community, and the intense media attention given to it. Despite the acquittal, an often-repeated nursery rhyme (frequently chanted while skipping rope) assumes she was guilty:
-->Lizzie Borden took an axe\\
And gave her mother forty whacks.\\
When she saw what she had done,\\
She gave her father forty-one.\\
Andrew Borden now is dead,\\
Lizzie hit him on the head.\\
Up in heaven he will sing,\\
On the gallows she will swing.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Atmosfear}}'': Most of the Harbringers are taken from historical figures, with their qualities amped up to make them more menacing.
** By all available accounts, Anne de Chantraine was naught more than a Belgian girl burned at the stake for supposed witchcraft. Here, she's a sniveling, cackling hag.
** Elizabeth Bathory wasn't a vampire in real life, merely a notorious (purported) serial killer. Here, she's a a flirty, if grotesque, creature of the night who likes "bitting" people.
** The "Beast of Gévaudan" most likely was just a catch-all name to refer to any unexplained killings in the area. Here, we have an actual werewolf named after the county itself.
** Khufu in real life was a pharaoh of Egypt's Fourth Dynasty. Here, he's an egomaniacal {{mummy}} who converted most of Egypt into a Vegas-like empire once he rose from his grave.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': In the ''TabletopGame/ReignOfWinter'' module, Rasputin gets both this and a HistoricalBadassUpgrade. Pathfinder's Rasputin is a canonically NeutralEvil high-level divine spellcaster who is also the estranged son of Literature/BabaYaga and has a sinister scheme to steal her power through occult means. He's the BigBad of one of the major story arcs, and, appropriately, needs to be killed more than once for it to stick.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
** Doombreed is one of Khorne's most ancient and powerful Daemon Princes, older even than the Primarchs, has a cloak made of a thousand Space Marine skulls, and was elevated for the slaughter he carried out on a massive scale during the 1st or 2nd Millenium. {{Fanon}} has it that he was better known in life by the name UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan, or less commonly UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler or UsefulNotes/JosefStalin
** Another minor Daemon character, [[http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Uraka_Az%27baramael Uraka Az'baramael]] the Warfiend, is noted to have lead horsebound armies as a mortal, killing and plundering at his command. He ascended by massacring a city after defeating it in a siege and offering the butchery to the god Khorne. This matches accounts of the devastation the Mongol hordes wrought, all but stating that Uraka is UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan.
* A common staple of the metaplot and backstory of TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness, usually combined with BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy. Numerous historical and religious figures from throughout world history are revealed to be some flavor of supernatural monster.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* Some interesting cases in ''VisualNovel/ShikkokuNoSharnoth''. Any time you meet a historical figure, there's about a fifty/fifty chance that they're an antagonist, though not necessarily evil. The first is Josef Capek, oddly enough.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/UnbiasedHistory'':
** Enemies of Rome (with a handful of exceptions like [[WorthyOpponent Hannibal Barca]] and [[{{turncoat}} Josephus]]) are generally portrayed in a very negative light. The various Germanic peoples and Persia-centered empires (especially the Goths for the former and the Sassanian Empire for the latter) are particularly hard-hit, being portrayed as AlwaysChaoticEvil and outright "uncivilizable".
** While Dido was historically known for holding a grudge against Aeneas for leaving her and allegedly casting a curse on his descendants which would result in the Punic Wars, the series portrays her as an all-powerful evil sorceress who casts an ''actual'' curse on Aeneas. Even after death she remains as a vengeful spirit and is directly responsible for the numerous deadly plagues that have struck Rome as well as occasionally reincarnating into prominent women who tried to sabotage the empire from within, such as Queen Zenobia.
** Within Rome, senators from the time of the First Triumvirate on are generally depicted as cowardly schemers (with a few exceptions), while the PraetorianGuard from the time Sejanus becomes prefect has recurring problems with being made up of [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder backstabbers]] who [[BodyguardBetrayal turn on their emperors]] over payment disputes or petty jealousy.
** The Gracchi brothers are depicted as self-serving proto-communists only concerned with their own power, even uncritically repeating then-contemporary rumors that Tiberius -- the elder of the two -- wanted to have himself crowned king as acknowledged, objective fact.
** Cato the Younger was a stubborn senator who refused bribes and opposed Julius Caesar's overtures towards power. Here, he is portrayed as an insufferable [[Webcomic/VirginVsChad virgin]] who shoots down any attempt at compromise.
** UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII is a scheming sorceress who uses SexMagic to enthrall Mark Antony and has a massive, throbbing lady-hateboner for Rome. In addition, she is portrayed as a reincarnation of Dido seeking to destroy Aeneas' legacy once and for all.
** This series' portrayal of Livia takes cues from how she was depicted in ''Series/IClaudius''. As a matter of fact, she's even worse; she kills even more people than that version of her, and has none of the WellIntentionedExtremist qualities possessed by the version from the book and the show. She is also portrayed as an EvilMentor to Agrippina the Younger, who "she taught how a Roman viper should get ahead in life".
** Similarly, Commodus' characterization is a nod to how he was portrayed in ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'', only stripped of any nuances that version of him had and reduced to a one-dimensional monster who does utterly depraved and horrible things simply ForTheEvulz.
** King Shapur is depicted as a demon lord who tortured Emperor Valerian for a long time, then had him [[FlayingAlive executed by flaying]]. In reality, Shapur's mistreatment of Valerian probably never went any further than [[HumiliationConga humiliating him]]. The idea that Valerian was flayed alive is an embellishment of an account by the church father Lactantius, who wrote that Valerian was flayed ''after'' his (natural) death and his skin exhibited in a Persian temple (though Lactantius is the only author of the era to claim that Valerian was flayed).
** UsefulNotes/{{Manichaeism}} is portrayed as a "[[ReligionOfEvil demonic Persian chaos cult]]" whose followers deserved to be persecuted by Diocletian.
** Emperor UsefulNotes/TheodosiusI is commonly regarded with respect by historians for his reforms and recognition of certain necessities. But here, he's a jackass who patronized the chaotic, uncompromising Goths even as he ordered them to slaughter several Romans in Constantinople, then heavily clamped down on all non-Nicaean religions and tore down the Statue of Victory from the Roman Senate. He then left his empire to his useless son Arcadius (East) and his cowardly son Honorius (West).
** The Huns are depicted as a demonic horde of [[MadeOfEvil chaos incarnate]] who [[AlwaysABiggerFish even the Sassanids and Germans are terrified by]], with UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun as their dark lord who destroys all in his wake. [[spoiler:Eventually [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] when Pope St. Leo the Great meets them, with the Huns rendered harmless Spurdos who run back home]].
** Procopius is depicted as writing the Secret History (a slanderous account of Justinian's reign which claimed Justinian and Theodora were actually demons and that ''Justinian killed a trillion people'') out of jealousy at Justinian and his achievements. In reality, he probably wrote the Secret History as insurance in case Justinian was overthrown.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''[[http://www.ftg-comic.com/ Frederick the Great: A Most Lamentable Comedy Breaching Time and Space]]'' (yes) runs on this trope, which is inevitable.
* In an ''extremely'' strange version of this trope, UsefulNotes/GroverCleveland, U.S. President, in ''Webcomic/CaseyAndAndy''. Even though the two main characters are set in current time, the story arcs have now coalesced in a situation where Grover Cleveland has hired a supervillain as his advisor, and is about to marry Satan (it's complicated).
* ''Webcomic/{{Guttersnipe}}'' portrays Stanford-educated president UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover as a bumbling manchild -- with an oval office full of baby toys.
* Played with in ''Webcomic/HarkAVagrant'''s UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan [[http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=25 comic]]. An amiable Genghis Khan reassures a terrified man that he's more than a "scary warlord," informing him that he's a nation-builder who runs a meritocracy. In the last panel:
-->'''Genghis:''' We still kill all our enemies though.\\
'''Man:''' Oh, no doubt.\\
'''Genghis:''' I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty brutal.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
%%* The internet gives this treatment to Creator/LewisCarroll. In real life, he was a kind, innocent and cheerful man, and Alice Liddell was one of his fondest friends. But, as far as the internet is concerned, Carroll was a drug-addicted pedophile, and Liddell was his number-one victim.
%%* Creator/HPLovecraft gets a bit of this, too. It's true that he was not especially sociable, probably a bit neurotic, and more than a little racist, but to hear the internet tell it, he was a frothing-at-the-mouth bigoted shut-in who never felt joy. He actually loved to travel, had a decent - if dry - sense of humour, and maintained a close circle of friends. The racism was definitely there, and it was pretty bad, but it wasn't the all-consuming facet of his personality that most depictions of him portray it as, and despite what you may have heard, it wasn't especially shocking for his time and place. Other writers from the time - even vocal supporters of fascism, like Creator/TSEliot - get their bigotries treated like an embarrassing sidenote, but with Lovecraft, it's hard to even discuss him without someone bringing it up.
* The three Thomas More stories [[http://www.anthonymayer.net/ah/history.html#more at this site]], being ''Film/JamesBond'' parodies set in an AlternateHistory version of 16th century Europe, inevitably rely on this as well, giving several prominent historical figures of the Reformation and the thereabouts a Historical ''Bond'' Villain Upgrade. Here's a quote to demonstrate:
-->[[spoiler:'''Anton Fugger (head of the Fugger banker family):''']] [[JustBetweenYouAndMe "Before I kill you, Herr More, let me tell you of my plans to use Protestantism to establish a framework for mercantilism across Europe."]]
* Website/{{Cracked}}:
** Summed up in the list of [[http://www.cracked.com/article_17205_6-historical-villains-who-were-actually-ok-guys.html 6 Historical Villains Who Were Actually OK Guys]].
** Their list of [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18787_6-books-everyone-including-your-english-teacher-got-wrong.html 6 Books Everyone Got Wrong]] is mostly about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin misinterpreted books]], but does mention how the misinterpretation of ''Literature/ThePrince'' led to a historical villain upgrade for Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli.
** The site seems dedicated to giving this treatment to UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison whenever possible.
* ''WebVideo/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory'':
** Music/ElvisPresley talked a lot about how rock and roll stemmed partly from African-American music, frequently acknowledged black contributions to rock music, and believed Music/FatsDomino deserved the title of "[[RedBaron King of Rock and Roll]]" more than he did. But ERB's version of him proudly boasts about how he "stole from black culture".
** Tesla finishes his rap by saying "If they knew you prevented me from making power free, they would curse the name Edison with every utility". This is presumably referring to the Wardclyffe Tower, which didn't actually work in the first place.
** Done intentionally with Creator/WaltDisney, who is essentially a supervillain in the ERB-verse.
** Downplayed in "Babe Ruth vs. Lance Armstrong"; although the ERB version of the character didn't do anything the real Lance Armstrong didn't, Armstrong in real life seemed genuinely apologetic once he confessed. The ERB version is practically bragging about the fact that he cheated.
** Creator/GeorgeRRMartin is a fairly genial man (albeit something of a [[TheGadfly gadfly]] at times) who has deep respect for Creator/JRRTolkien. In his ERB episode, however, he's a rude, arrogant jerk who constantly insults Tolkien.
** A minor case with UsefulNotes/RobertOppenheimer in "ComicBook/{{Thanos}} vs. J. Robert Oppenheimer". In real life, Oppenheimer called himself "the destroyer of worlds" self-deprecatingly over the power of the atomic bomb. The Oppenheimer of ''ERB'' used it as a BadassBoast.
* Through his articles started out as arguably legitimate criticisms of US domestic and foreign policy, the articles of Progressive blogger Stephen Lendman eventually ended up as this, going as far to portray UsefulNotes/BarackObama and the entire leadership of America and NATO as a bunch of AlwaysChaoticEvil [[OmnicidalManiac omnicidal maniacs]] waging war on the entire planet and planning to start WorldWarIII and destroy the world by [[NukeEm nuking everyone]] ForTheEvulz through the usage of AbominationAccusationAttack.
* ''Literature/FearLoathingAndGumboOnTheCampaignTrailSeventyTwo'' has Donald Rumsfeld become a psychotic President who ends up creating the most oppressive government in US history, tanking the US economy with his crazed anarcho-capitalist economic policies, eliminating all forms of social welfare and consequently subjecting working-class Americans to truly dreadful poverty and working conditions, and privatising the US military and leading soldiers into many, many wars against "the communist nations" (which by Rumsfeld's reasoning is practically any country that's even slightly left-wing in any way -- he even begins supporting the IRA just because Britain voted for a Labour government) with woefully inadequate equipment. It's hard to tell exactly when Rumsfeld crossed the MoralEventHorizon, but good candidates would be either holding up the genocidal apartheid government of South Africa as a bastion of freedom or ordering for wounded US soldiers to be executed to duck out of paying for their healthcare.
* ''Literature/TheFireNeverDies'' sees President UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson adopt increasingly harsh (and racist) measures to try and deal with the civil unrest and subsequent [[SecondAmericanCivilWar Second American Revolution]].
* ''Literature/ForAllTime'' seems to make this a tradition, with some of the most marginalized figures in [=OTL=] becoming prominent figures here. Some prime examples include:
** Jean Bedel-Bokassa: Becomes Emperor of [[spoiler: France]] after the country suffers from a string of inept dictators and a civil war. He decides to solve famine by [[spoiler: importing "equatorial pork," which is later found to be [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies meat made from the flesh of slaughtered political prisoners.]]]]
** UsefulNotes/JimJones: Becomes Governor of Pennsylvania and later [[spoiler: President of the United States]], where he begins locking his opponents in labor camps, ruthlessly crushing militants of all stripes, and creating a paramilitary force called the "National Volunteer Army" to help enforce his rule. [[spoiler: He almost starts a nuclear war to fill a religious delusion, but he's quietly deposed in a coup before he can trigger it.]]
** Andrei Chikatilo: [[spoiler: Serves as the final premier of the Soviet Union, where he starts a nuclear war with China, launches an unprovoked nuclear attack on the Middle East, and later destroys his own country in a nuclear civil war.]]
* ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives''
** Maxwell Rayner, [[GrandTheftMe body-hopping]] leader of the Dark-worshipping [[ReligionOfEvil People's Church of the Divine Host]] was originally 17th-18th century astronomer and namesake of Halley's Comet, Edmond Halley.
** Wolfgang Von Kempelen, the real-life inventor of the hoax automaton [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_Turk the Mechanical Turk]] is portrayed as a servant of the Stranger, and the Turk and his Speaking Machine were to be used to enact [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the Unknowing]].
** The real-life Sampson Kempthorne was no saint (He was an advocate of the workhouse and specialized in designing them), but he wasn't serving a [[EldritchAbomination Fear God]] of [[BuriedAlive claustrophobia]] like the TMA version.
* WebVideo/ShipwreckedComedy:
** ''WebVideo/EdgarAllanPoesMurderMysteryDinnerParty'': As the plot deals with pastiches of real-world famous authors in a fictional murder mystery, one of them turns out to be a murderer, which they were not in real life. [[spoiler: It actually turns out to be two: Charlotte Bronte and Anne Bronte get blackmailed into helping Eduardo Dantes/Edward de Vere VI with his revenge scheme, killing multiple people in the process]].
** ''WebVideo/HeadlessASleepyHollowStory'': Henry Hudson in this version of events is accused of terrorizing natives in Nova Scotia and [[spoiler: was not the one who settled the Hudson Valley -- his wife, [[HistoricalCharactersFictionalRelative Henrietta]], did. In his jealousy, he conspired with her first mate Anneke Storms to curse her, [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy turning her into the]] HeadlessHorseman, effectively killing her and erasing her from history.]] The real Henry Hudson reportedly had mostly cordial trading relations with natives of the time (though there was some reported conflict in Nova Scotia) and the worst he did to his real wife, Katherine, was leave her destitute after he died from mutiny.
* WebVideo/Dimension20:
** ''The Unsleeping City'', being the campaign set in a world closest to our own, references some historical figures as existing within the magical world of the Sixth Borough. Most significantly, controversial urban planner and public official [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moses Robert Moses]] is the main villain of season one. But in this world, he's been conning both heaven and hell in order to become immortal and manifest his version of the American Dream into the world. In season two, the fictional company "Gladiator" that wants to destroy the historical magic of NYC is a very clear reference to "Amazon".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
%%* Michael Jackson in ''WesternAnimation/BlackDynamite''.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': While Ponce de Leon was pretty ruthless in RealLife, "The Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades!" portrays him as a psychopath who had been tricking people into swimming in the FountainOfYouth's waters (here depicted as transferring youth instead of granting it) for 500 years.
* On ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', it's a running joke to portray Creator/WaltDisney as a raging antisemite. While he did associate with antisemitic individuals and groups, there's no hard evidence that Walt himself had anything against Jewish people; to the contrary, he hired many Jews, frequently donated to Jewish charities, and some of the {{wartime cartoon}}s produced by the studio included implicit condemnations of Nazi Germany's antisemitic policies.
* A time-travelling episode of ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFourTheAnimatedSeries'' has the eponymous heroes popping up in the middle of the Battle of Marathon. The Thing asks whose side they're on, and Reed Richards responds "[[Film/ThreeHundred The Athenians invented democracy, while the Persians were ruthless tyrants]]". Neither statement is particularly accurate.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/KoalaMan'' with [[UsefulNotes/TheEmuWar the Emu "army"]]. In real life, they happened to be particularly destructive to the crops of [[TheGreatDepression Great Depression]]-era Australian farmers, but they were still, of course, just a bunch of birds -- albeit [[MadeOfIron astonishingly hardy birds]] -- who saw easy food. In ''Koala Man'', they were an intelligent and organized force which committed horrific acts of violence against the people of Australia.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/PrincessSissi'' TV series:
** The biggest victim is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchess_Helene_in_Bavaria Duchess Helene of Wittelsbach.]] Oh GOD, poor Helene. In RealLife, Nene actually got over Franz and was HappilyMarried to Prince Maximillian of Thurn und Taxis, and she and Sisi got along well enough to have Sisi as the recipient of Nene's last words. In the series, she's an ungrateful and clingy GoldDigger who wants to ruin Sisi and Franz's happiness at any costs.
** Also [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Sophie_of_Bavaria Arch-Duke Franz's mother, Arch-duchess Sophie]], who was less of an EvilMatriarch RichBitch and more of an IgnoredExpert [[HumansAreFlawed with her own set of problems]]. Blame it on the ''Sisi'' movies, which have been turning her into this ever since TheSixties (whereas Helene was mostly spared there).
** In order to make the villainousness complete they erased familiar ties between them. Nene was Elisabeth's older sister, not some duchess from I-don't-know-where and Sophie was her aunt. (weeeeeell... I can see why they removed the hint of Sissi and Franz being cousins, kids show and all that). Sophie at worst was adamant on holding up tradition and tried her best to make her daughter-in-law a good emperess, which clashed with Elisabeth's own free-spirited nature. Most basis for the villainous portrayal of Sophie comes from Elisabeth herself, while other sources described her as stern and strict but very caring and actually pretty worried for her daughter-in-law.
* UsefulNotes/RichardNixon was corrupt, but his ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' persona is one of the best examples of PresidentEvil. Although in the show his evil is partially attributed to his going mad after having to spend a thousand years as a body-less head in a jar.
* ''WesternAnimation/GodTheDevilAndBob'': UsefulNotes/RichardNixon is such a despicable person that he actually made it in Heaven because [[TooSpicyForYogSothoth the Devil himself was unwilling to keep him in Hell]], arguing he was disturbing the others.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'':
** As stated elsewhere, the Earp brothers and Doc Holiday were clearly no angels; however, when they appeared in one episode as restless spirits in they were clearly evil, tormenting the living for no apparent reason other than the fact that they felt like it.
** UsefulNotes/AlCapone was the villain in another episode, and... Well, despite the fact that he was ruling a hellish dimension that resembled [[TheRoaringTwenties Prohibition-era]] UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} with a gang of demonic mobsters (and had magical powers to go with it), this may have been a ''downgrade'', given the things the real one was responsible for (his kill-count in the actual episode was zero, given the type of cartoon it was, even though it did borrow a lot from the one in ''Film/TheUntouchables1987'', perhaps).
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' portrays a cabal of druids as evil sorcerers, who had been [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned inside a tree]] by more benign wizards centuries ago. While there is evidence that the real druids (a class of priests among the Celtic peoples of Gaul, Britain, Ireland, and possibly elsewhere during the Iron Age) engaged in HumanSacrifice and other sinister acts, they were certainly not demonic practitioners of black magic as shown here -- the leader doesn't even seem human; he looks more like some robed ghost with [[RedEyesTakeWarning glowing, red eyes]] peering out of a hood that hides the rest of his face. That having been said, the Druids ''were'' pagans, and this portrayal ''was'' in a cartoon series produced in a country that was -- and still is -- overwhelmingly Christian, so go figure.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheTwinsOfDestiny'' is set during the closing years of Empress Dowager Cixi's rule in China. The Empress Dowager is depicted as a tyrannical sorceress who [[TakenForGranite turns dissidents into statues]], and is the BigBad of the series.
[[/folder]]

!!InUniverse examples

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Xander]] in the prologue of ''[[http://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-29100/DarthTenebrus+Ship+of+the+Line+The+Death+Star.htm Ship of the Line: The Death Star]]'', provides a MercyKill for the whole of humanity on Earth once they've run out of time to evacuate after all Hell breaks loose. However, it's acknowledged by several characters that despite his intentions, within a century he'd be known as the monster who killed six billion people and destroyed the Earth. This is part of why Xander insists on pulling the trigger himself.
* ''FanFic/SonicXDarkChaos'':
** An interesting version of this. The refugee Seedrians eventually saw Tsali the Ultimate Weapon as a supernatural being and TheScourgeOfGod, and Hertia deliberately cultivated fear of him in order to control her people. While Tsali is indeed a genocidal AxCrazy android who murdered their entire race [[spoiler: after they turned him into a [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul robot]] and inflicted AndIMustScream on him]], it turns out that he didn't do it alone [[spoiler: [[TheManBehindTheMan and nor was he the only one behind it]]]].
** In the background material, this trope is also the reason why [[{{Satan}} Lord Maledict]] is considered the incarnation of evil in [[Literature/TheBible the]] [[TomeOfEldritchLore Bible]]. [[BlackAndGrayMorality He isn't the incarnation of evil]], but he certainly is a cruel, manipulative {{Jerkass God|s}}.
* Fuuka in ''Fanfic/{{Eroninja}}'' has a few legends based around her time as a revenant, such as a wicked pirate who devoured the souls of her entire crew. In reality, she was still an AntiHero at the time and insisted on only attacking fellow pirates. Her crew mutined and tried to kill her, causing her to kill them in response.
* Salazar Slytherin is known in the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' history as a bigot who advocated Pureblood Supremacy ideas and left the school after the other founders disagreed with him, though not before hiding a Basilisk that can only be controlled by his heir to massacre muggle-borns. In Izzyaro's ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/series/24736 Tales of the Founder]]'' series, Slytherin is a good person despite being highly suspicious of muggles ([[BurnTheWitch with good reasons]]). [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8550820/1/Strange-Visitors-From-Another-Century "Strange Visitors From Another Century"]] will presumably explain how his legacy would become so twisted in Harry's timeline.
* ''FanFic/{{crawlersout}}'': Another ''Harry Potter'' example, though significantly downplayed. While Gellert Grindelwald is remembered as a monster in Fem!Harry's time, and rightfully so, when she meets the man herself she is left wondering if this is in play. Grindelwald's revolution was driven by legitimate concerns, specifically the stagnation of Wizarding Society, problems that Harry and her friends are still dealing with now in their own time and universe. She eventually comes to the conclusion that while his intentions and ideals were noble, they were also twisted by his megalomania and in no way justifies the many atrocities he will go on to commit.
* In ''Webcomic/InvertedFate'', the monsters have a far more negative view of Chara than they did in ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' as since Undyne was the Royal Scientist, she released the True Lab tapes to the Underground, revealing to monsters Chara's plan and the truth behind Chara's and Asriel's deaths.
* In the ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/TruePotential'', the people of Iwa regard Minato as a monstrous mass-murderer, due to him defeating a whole army of theirs on his own during the Third Shinobi World War.
* ''FanFic/SeventhEndmostVision'': Shinra propaganda portrays Kisaragi Godo, the previous ruler of Wutai, as a greedy tyrant who tried to steal Shinra's secrets in constructing the Mako reaction, and caused devastation to his country when he immediately activated the reactor to cover his track. WordOfGod confirms that Godo discussed bringing in the Mako reaction to Wutai to ''improve'' the standards of living for his people, and when the reactor began to backfire due to faulty engineering, he was instrumental in helping evacuate his people.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films — Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'', Héctor [[spoiler: is remembered in the present as a man who abandoned his wife and child to pursue his selfish dream of becoming a musician when he actually wanted to support his family and would have returned home quicker if Ernesto hadn't poisoned him. Miguel is later able to set the record straight.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'', humans have forgotten everything Maui did for them in ancient times and he is only remembered as the one who stole the heart from Te Fiti and doomed the world. Also, everyone assumes he took the heart for selfish reasons, when in fact he intended to give it as a gift to humanity and didn’t know taking it would create the spreading darkness.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SongOfTheSea'', Macha laments how the old myths and legends paint her as a WickedWitch who steals emotions and has turned her son, Mac Lir, to stone all ForTheEvulz. In truth, the story fails to mention how she stole her son's emotions to save the world from drowning in his tears, which she couldn't bear to see, while the theft of ''other'' fairies' emotions stems from her belief that she's ''helping'' them, not out of pure malice. She's still doing wrong, but she at least has a somewhat logical argument to justify it all. She sees how wrong she's been after getting her own emotions back.
-->'''Macha:''' Well, now, those stories always paint me as the bad one. But I'm not so terrible, you know. [[WellIntentionedExtremist I'm just trying to help everyone]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''Literature/{{Dune}}'', it is said that Dr. Yueh is despised by future generations as a Judas figure who betrayed and murdered Muad'Dib's father, Duke Leto. This is true as far as it goes, but ultimately the real Dr. Yueh was a tragic, sympathetic character who was only driven to do what he did because of the Harkonnens torturing his wife (who herself may have subtly mind controlled him to prioritize her over his loyalty to the duke and his pacifist mental conditioning as a doctor of the Suk School) and tried to help Leto pull a TakingYouWithMe on Baron Harkonnen.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Ponyfinder}}'':
** The Tribe of Bones are depicted in the corebook as a depraved and power hungry tribe of evil {{necromancer}}s whom Queen Iliana destroyed because they attempted to enslave ponykind, which reflects the opinion of "modern ponies". The e-book splats on Forgotten Gods and The Tribe of Bones reveals they were actually a gentle and good-natured tribe of ancestor-worshipping, ghost-quelling shamans who were suspicious of Queen Iliana's bloody methods for forging her empire and requested she come to them for ceremonial cleansing, to prove she was not a powerhungry tyrant, before they would surrender to her leadership. In response, she destroyed the tribe, erected her central kingdom upon the ruins of their lands, and demonized them as evil amongst the other ponies.
** The Seekers of the One Herd receive this after the fall of the Empire, in part because their desperate efforts to find a new ruler to take Queen Iliana's place fueled the wars of succession that ultimately killed the Empire.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Klaus Wulfenbach. Stories featuring him with the Heterodynes have depicted him as both a cowardly sidekick and a outright villain. This is also an in-universe example of CharacterizationMarchesOn. Before Klaus made himself hugely unpopular by... you know... blowing stuff up and invading places no-one could spell, he was portrayed as a more classic SideKick, slightly naive and clueless and very accident-prone, but competent and unfailingly loyal.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Video]]
* ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'': The four-part ''Calamity'' prequel campaign double-subverts it; in the time of the main campaigns, it's known that the Calamity began when Vespin Chloris unleashed the Betrayer Gods, led by Asmodeus, and they unleashed a massive war against the Prime Deities and mortals. However, when Zerxus meets Asmodeus, he comes across as a reasonable, even compassionate individual, who bears no real ill-will to the mortals, leading Zerxus to the conclusion that this trope is in play. [[spoiler: It's all an act Asmodeus was using to trick Zerxus into helping him through to Exandria, and he promtply backstabs Zerxus to begin his plan of dammning all life to the Hells]]. In a double-subversion, however, [[spoiler: ''Vespin Chloris'' turns out to have been a victim of Asmodeus, rather than a collaborator as history remembers, and his brief intervention allows Zerxus to help seriously cripple Asmodeus' goals, thus allowing the Prime Deities the room to fight back they wouldn't have had]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** Aang attends a Fire Nation school which claims that the Air Nation had armies. They in fact did not have a formal military system at all. A downplayed example as it’s less about making the Air Nation villainous and more history making it look like the Fire Nation defeated them in a fair fight rather than a genocide. Justified as this is Fire Nation propaganda.
** While [[DownplayedTrope not a full-on villain upgrade]], Avatar Kuruk is remembered in history as a lazy, hedonistic, and generally mediocre Avatar who never took his responsibilities seriously, and Kuruk himself warns Aang to not act like him. But, as revealed in ''Literature/TheShadowOfKyoshi'', [[spoiler:it was actually ''Yangchen'', Kuruk's predecessor who is commonly thoughtof as the greatest Avatar, who dropped ball. She actively ignored her duties to the SpiritWorld in favor of humanity, throwing it out of balance and creating numerous dark spirits. Kuruk spent most of his time as Avatar cleaning up the messes Yangchen left behind, which combined with his own HeroicSelfDeprecation, his [[WeHardlyKnewYe early death]] (caused by the constant spiritual damage he took), and [[FutureImperfect years of misinformation]] to give poor Kuruk a historical reputation as a LazyBum.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': In "[[Recap/BobsBurgersS3E16Topsy Topsy]]", Louise creates a play about Thomas Edison for a science fair project. She portrays Edison as a ruthless animal-abuser who kills the titular elephant by electrocution. While parts of that story is true, Louise overemphasized Edison's bad characteristics just so she could spite her [[SadistTeacher bullying substitute science teacher]] who was a massive Edison fanboy. When Gene takes over the project, he turns it into a [[InterspeciesRomance love story]] between Edison and Topsy.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'': Tiadrin and Lain were the only Dragonguard soldiers who didn't abandon Azymondias when he was still an egg, and Tiadrin convinced Viren to spare the egg instead of destroying it. However, in the setting's present, they're believed to have been cowards who ran from their posts because, for all intents and purposes, they've vanished.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': In one episode, Cosmo has to learn to be evil for a day, so Timmy asks Wanda to introduce him to the most evil person in history; she ultimately comes back with... UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan. PlayedForLaughs and blatantly because anyone worse than him would be un-PC for a kids' show, but he's still not the usual figure most would apply that lofty label to.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "Ready, Willing and Disabled", Joe wins Special People's Games (thanks to steroids that Peter slipped him) and gets a LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek made about him. The film's version of Peter, as played by Creator/BeaArthur, is a FatBastard who mocks and belittles Joe for thinking he could be anything more than a crippled loser, which enrages Peter because he was the one who ''encouraged'' Joe to compete in the first place.
* ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'': {{Exaggerated|Trope}} and then {{inverted|Trope}} with Serpentor. He's a clone created by splicing the DNA of dozens of notorious historical tyrants and conquerors, and, due to errors and incompetence involved in his creation, would likely have caused ''every one of them'' to be embarrassed to be associated with him. He's barely better than the guy he replaced.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'': [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen Vexus]] propagandizes her attempts to conquer Earth as her defending the Cluster from Jenny. When Jenny ends up on Cluster Prime, nobody recognizes her because they only know of her through state propaganda that depicts her as a deranged monster. This leads to the Cluster citizens [[spoiler:turning on Vexus when the lie is exposed and they realize that Jenny is actually a hero who cares more about them than their own queen does]].
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Nightmare Moon. WordOfGod is that Princess Luna's transformation into her was due to some form of DemonicPossession or similar outside influence, but this didn't make it into the show itself -- all characters who comment on the issue, including Luna herself, consider her to have been culpable for her actions.[[note]]Incidentally, that idea was used in one of the early [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW IDW comic]] stories , with [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDWIssue5To8 Rarity being posessed in a similar fashion]].[[/note]] On top of that, Equestria's equivalent of Halloween is based around a Historical Villain Upgrade which suggests she flies around one night every year looking for ponies to eat. Not surprisingly, she doesn't take this particularly well when she finds out after her return.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': When first mentioned, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Eclipsa the Queen of Darkness]] is presented as the Buttefly family's BlackSheep and TheDreaded, who dwelled into TheDarkArts to the point she wrote a chapter about it in the family's grimoire, abandoned her husband to marry a monster and had to be [[SealedEvilInACan trapt inside a crystal]] to stop her evil. When she is freed and actually starts showing up in person, however, we gradually find out that not only is she a perfectly nice, if quirky, woman, whose worst flaw is being slightly selfish, but [[spoiler:she never actually ''did'' anything truly evil; while she did write the "evil" chapter in the family's book she didn't consider the magic described in it evil (people just assumed it was because ''she'' wrote it and never actually read it out of fear it'd corrupt them), and her husband was a colossal JerkAss who she left to marry a monster she genuinely loved; she then got crystallized immediately ''before she had time to do anything'', on the sole basis her people have strong FantasticRacism toward monsters, and her taking one as a lover was seen as a dishonor to her family.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In Garnet's story, [[spoiler:Pink Diamond]] was presented as a despicable monster who didn't care about the life on Earth, and openly mocked Rose Quartz for questioning her. She was also a DirtyCoward who called her fellow Diamonds for help when her back was against the wall. In order to stop the war, Rose was forced to [[spoiler:shatter her]]. In reality, [[spoiler:Pink Diamond ''was'' Rose Quartz. Everything Rose learned about humanity were actually things Pink learned. She created the Rebellion and faked her death in an elaborate scheme to save the Earth and free herself from her duties as a Diamond. Presumably, the story Garnet told was the version Rose gave the Crystal Gems, specifically [[InvokedTrope Invoking]] this trope.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'': Nox, the BigBad of the first season, is a TragicVillain driven mad by the deaths of his wife and his children; and by his use of the Eliacube, an artifact that gave him powers far beyond anything he could have achieved on his own but at the cost of his sanity. His ulitmate goal is to go back in time to prevent the deaths of his family, and in order to do that he needs to amass colossal amounts of life energy, called wakfu. In the process, he devastates countries and threatens the world's balance, coming close to wipe out a people, though he operates under the assumption that, if he succeeds, all his bad deeds will be erased. However, InUniverse, only one character learns about his true motivation and he dies before revealing it to anyone. Therefore, after Nox's defeat, most of the world see him as a power-hungry madman, having no way of knowing his sympathetic motivations.
[[/folder]]
----
->''[[Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms ...But criticize them, pedants, as ye may\\
The mighty dead will smile at what you say]]''