History ArtisticLicenseHistory / Hernan

* Pedro de Alvarado is portrayed literally as a loose cannon, crashing the first meeting with indigenous ambassadors by shooting a cannon to amuse himself. Joke aside, the series generally paints him as a psychotic drunkard who seems genuinely out of control and begs the question of why Cortés has him as second-in-command. In real life, while most sources agree Alvarado was a volatile, cruel person who wasn't cut to be a commander, they also describe him as an elegant OfficerAndAGentleman, the opposite of his disheveled, barbarian version in the series.

* A flashback shows Creator/BernalDiazDelCastillo and his father as rude shepherds who hunt wolves to protect the livestock. In real life, while their family was not outrageously wealthy, Díaz's father was a city councilor, one who was even nicknamed ''El Galán'' ("The Dandy") among his peers, meaning it would have been exceedingly unlikely for them to have such lowly occupations. Bernal himself received a basic education and was a huge bookworm, things that would have not been available to a shepherd boy in any case.
* We don't know when Díaz started writing his memories, but it was likely well after the Conquest, if not well into old age, as he admits in a couple of occasions that there are things of the expedition he honestly cannot remember anymore. In any case, although it is not beyond the realm of possibility that he kept a diary during the campaign, he wasn't treated as the expedition's official chronicler as in the series.

* The real Blas Botello was an astrologer and obtained prophecies through arithmancy, and Díaz describes him as an immensely cultured and refined man. His version in the series, on the other hand, seems to be rather a mentally ill person who suffers from terrible visions and seems barely functional at all, with WildHair and a shaggy appearance.

* As with many other productions set in the 16th century, the series has the Spaniards wearing unrealistic amounts of leather, including big kneeboots more proper of cold northern Europe than the light Mediterranean ''alpargatas'' everybody should be wearing. More notably, it also gives the characters an odd choice of swords, with Cortés himself carrying a medieval longsword that seems directly inspired by Andúril from ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''.
* Many Spaniards wear the iconic ''morrión'' helmet associated with conquistadors in pop culture, which is anachronistic. Contrary to popular belief, Cortés and his people never used it; the model only came in use decades after the Conquest of Mexico.

* The series perpetuates the myth that the Aztecs believed Cortés to be Quetzalcoatl. The line from Creator/BernalDiazDelCastillo's chronicle where Moctezuma states they are all men, and thus he knows perfectly that the foreign ''teules'' are of flesh and blood, is given here to Cortés himself, as a way to clear out the misunderstanding.

* When Cortés asks Moctezuma to pledge loyalty to UsefulNotes/CharlesV, Moctezuma counters by asking how would his soldiers feel if asked to become slaves, apparently meant to be an ArmorPiercingQuestion given the Spaniard's reaction. In real life, the comparison would have been quite tone-deaf given that the Aztec Empire was composed of plenty of vassal peoples that were not slaves, so Moctezuma should be well aware of the difference. Anyway, going for the chronicles, the real Moctezuma was not vocally oppossed to pledging loyalty to Charles, although posterior developments (namely that Moctezuma secretly negotiated with Narváez to dispose of Cortés) imply he might have been just playing along when he signed the treaty.

* The founding of Veracruz and the rebellion against Velázquez are portrayed as a con, even PlayedForLaughs with Cortés and Alvarado obviously making up laws on the fly and babbling about King Alfonso X with confidence that nobody in camp has enough knowledge to contradict them. In real life, although sketchy, the expeditioners were exploiting an existent loophole, which eventually got their move officially sanctioned by King UsefulNotes/CharlesV. There were several people versed in laws in the expedition, and trying to dupe all would have been difficult at least.
* Cortés has the ships scuttled and sank, when in real life they were beached and dismantled to recycle their woodwork.

* The series inflates the importance of the Massacre of Cholula, which is portrayed as a disastrous decision, initially conceived as a countertrap to a Cholultec ambush, where the Spaniards end up butchering women and children because yolo and ultimately leave Cortés, Díaz, Olid and everybody traumatized by their own actions. All of this drama is fictional; contrary to popular belief, the massacre remained relatively surgical on the part of the Spaniards, who took great effort to kill only combatants (their Tlaxcaltec allies did engage in a lot of RapePillageAndBurn, but Cortés prevented and undid what he could), and the city remained operational enough to be recruited in Cortés' anti-Aztec coalition. Díaz himself mentions that while cold-hearted the attack was controlled, adding that the Cholultecs themselves accepted their fault and never made a big fuss about it.

* In the series, one of the reasons factoring into Moctezuma's reluctance to let Cortés into Tenochtitlan is that Cortés has Tlaxcaltecs among his men, a danger to Moctezuma's eyes. In real life, this would have been unlikely, as Cortés only had around 2,000 Tlaxcaltec warriors in a city where the Mexica could easily deploy twenty times that number. The recorded talks between Moctezuma and Cortés also have the former amused, and even a bit derisive, of Cortés befriending the Tlaxcaltecs, whom the Aztecs considered worthless people.
* The series has Tlaxcallan allies led by Xicohtencatl II supporting Cortés and company when they storm Narváez's camp. In real life, Tlaxcala refused to send reinforcements for the mission because they were afraid of fighting so many Spanish soldiers. Cortés indigenous allies at the battle were Chinantecs, not Tlaxcaltecs.

* Cortés asks Moctezuma to marry his daughter, having Friar Bartolomé's help to nullify his own marriage so he can do it by the Christian rites, but the marriage never happens due to the combination of Narváez's arrival and the revolt of Tenochtitlan, where they lose the girl. In real life, it was Moctezuma who offered Cortés one of his daughters in marriage, but Cortés declined with the pretext of his existing marriage. Reasons behind Cortés' rationale remain unknown, as the notion that he was in a massively unhappy marriage was ''not'' invented for the series, but it's possible that he simply didn't want to offend his Tlaxcaltec backers or make King Charles V afraid that a conquistador entangling with native royalty might want to appoint himself king of the Indies.
* Moctezuma seems not to have any contact with Narváez: he only learns about the conflict because his daughter Ana is told by a jealous Marina.

* Oddly, the ''Noche Triste'' ends literally BehindTheBlack: Cortés falls unconscious during the scuffle and when he wakes up next morning, the survivors are all waking up at the same time in the lake shore, with no explanation to how they survived or why the Aztecs didn't chase them. In real life the battle continued on the beach after crossing the bridge, and Cortesians only escaped because the Tlaxcaltecs guided them away from the roads.

* For budgetary reasons, the number of people in the historical events portrayed are seriously scaled down, to the point we never see more than maybe twenty extras together in any side of any battle. In-universe logistics are occasionally adjusted to this change (most poignant example being when the Spaniards learn that a single brigantine in Tenochtitlan contains enough gunpowder and food to sustain them for a long time), but not always (you can count eleven ships in the harbor of Veracruz, when one would have been enough for the diminutive Spanish expedition in the series).

* Huejotzingo is mentioned as a tributary of the Mexicas by Xicomecoatl, but in real life it was tributary of Tlaxcala.

* Cortés' background in the series, having been in love with a Muslim girl who was caught by the Spanish Inquisition, which apparently instigated a certain disdain for Christian authority on him, is pure fantasy. The real Cortés was a fervent Catholic, sometimes to the chagrin of his own religious advisor Friar Bartolomé de Olmedo, who was ironically a more grounded character. The series also has young Cortés fascinated with the Indies, but it doesn't mention that he considered a military career with UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba in Italy first.

* The real Cortés trusted Marina's knowledge of native politics, but by all accounts, he was himself a skilled, charming planner. In contrast, the series makes Cortés an erratic if charismatic hustler with absolutely no sense of diplomacy whose mistakes come often from not listening to her.

* Speaking of the slave, in real life Cortés owned slaves, but no source mentions any in his expedition to Mexico. This is likely inspired by a real painting of Cortés and a black man, but it's debated if the man depicted is meant to be Juan Garrido (a free black conquistador who was a member of his expedition in real life), a slave, or some other member.

* Pedro de Alvarado is portrayed literally as a loose cannon, crashing the first meeting with indigenous ambassadors by shooting a cannon to amuse himself. Joke aside, the series generally paints him as a psychotic drunkard who seems genuinely out of control and begs the question of why Cortés has him as second-in-command. In real life, while most sources agree Alvarado was a volatile, cruel person who wasn't cut to be commander, they also describe him as an OfficerAndAGentleman, the opposite of his disheveled, barbarian version in the series.

* A flashback shows Bernal Díaz del Castillo and his father as rude shepherds who hunt wolves to protect the livestock. In real life, while their family was not outrageously wealthy, Díaz's father was a city councilor, one who was even nicknamed ''El Galán'' ("The Dandy") among his peers, meaning it would have been exceedingly unlikely for them to have such lowly occupations. Bernal himself received a basic education and was a huge bookworm, things that would have not been available to a shepherd boy in any case.

* The real Blas Botello was an astrologer and obtained prophecies through arithmancy, and Díaz describes him as an immensely cultured and refined man. His version in the series seems to be rather a mentally ill person who suffers from terrible visions and seems barely functional at all, with WildHair and a shaggy appearance.

* The portrayal of Xicohtencatl the Elder also goes for the creepiest outlook possible, with a deadly serenity and asymmetric blind eyes, and he has no interaction with the Spaniards other than giving away daughters in marriage and looking bitter in the process. In real life, although very old and blind, Xicohtencatl was seen by the Spaniards as a CoolOldGuy, charming and funny (he was also the first tlatoani to convert to Christianity). After signing the alliance, he had his throne placed next to Cortés' and passed the feast constantly feeling the Spaniard's face and beard.
* The series has Xicohtencatl the Younger acting with full approval from the lords of Tlaxcala in the battles against Cortés, who only gets the Tlaxcaltecs open to negotiate by sheer insistence. In real life, the lords of Tlaxcala became open to diplomacy very early, but Xicohtencatl disobeyed their orders and kept warring until the lords became personally involved (at least they claimed so, but later events make the claim believable).

* In real life, Xicohtencatl the Younger wasn't part of Cortés' entourage and didn't go with him to Tenochtitlan due to his opposition to the Hispano-Tlaxcaltec alliance. His role in the Conquest was very small, only returning to the frontlines during the siege of Tenochtitlan before being executed for a supposed coup attempt.

* Many Spaniards wear the iconic ''Morrión'' helmet associated with conquistadors in pop culture, which is anachronistic. Contrary to popular belief, Cortés and his people never used it; the model only came in use decades after the Conquest of Mexico.

* Alvarado is initially portrayed as a racist who refuses to take a native woman or to mingle with the natives in any way, and other conquistadors use racial slurs against the Aztecs, calling them monkeys. Portraying conquistadors as racists is popular in media because it fits with modern conceptions of colonialism, but it is actually an enormous anachronism as such beliefs would not become popular until the Enlightenment (even by then ''mestizaje'' or inter-marrying was well established in the Spanish Empire, meaning the issue became more related to social class and place of birth than racial difference). In real life, Alvarado had been living for a decade in Cuba and Hispaniola before embarking with Cortés, so it would have been definitely odd for a ladies man like him to shun native women.

* The founding of Veracruz and the rebellion against Velázquez are portrayed as a con, PlayedForLaughs with Cortés and Alvarado obviously making up laws on the fly and babbling about King Alfonso X with confidence that nobody in camp has enough knowledge to contradict them. In real life, although sketchy, the expeditioners were exploiting an existent loophole, which eventually got their move officially sanctioned by King UsefulNotes/CharlesV. There were several people versed in laws in the expedition, and trying to dupe all would have been difficult at least.
* We don't know when Bernal Díaz del Castillo started writing his memories, but it was likely well after the Conquest, if not well into old age, as he admits in a couple of occasions that there are things of the expedition he honestly cannot remember anymore. In any case, although it is not beyond the realm of possibility that he kept a diary during the campaign, he wasn't treated as the expedition's official chronicler as in the series.

* The series has Tlaxcallan allies led by Xicohtencatl II supporting Cortés and company when they storm Narváez's camp. In real life, Tlaxcala refused to send reinforcements for the mission because their warriors were afraid of fighting so many Spanish soldiers. Cortés indigenous allies at the battle were Chinantecs, not Tlaxcaltecs.

* Huejotzingo is mentioned to be a tributary of the Mexicas by Xicomecoatl, but in real life it was tributary of Tlaxcala.

* A flashback shows Bernal Díaz del Castillo and his father as rude shepherds. In real life, while their family was not outrageously wealthy, Díaz's father was a city councilor, one who was nicknamed "El Galán" (''The Dandy'') among his peers, meaning it would have been exceedingly unlikely for them to have such lowly occupations.

* Cortés' background in the series, having been in love with a Muslim girl who was caught by the Spanish Inquisition, which apparently instigated a certain disdain for Christian authority on him, is pure fantasy. The real Cortés was a fervent Catholic, sometimes to the chagrin of his own religious advisor Friar Bartolomé de Olmedo. The series also has young Cortés fascinated with the Indies, although it doesn't mention that he considered a military career with UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba in Italy first.

* Speaking of the slave, in real life Cortés owned slaves, but no source mentions any in his expedition to Mexico. This is likely inspired by a real painting of Cortés and a black man, but it's debated if the man depicted is Juan Garrido (a free black conquistador), a slave, or some other member of the expedition.

* Consequently, Alvarado has a troubled relationship with Bernal Díaz del Castillo, who is disgusted by his brutal ways, especially after Alvarado tries to force him to kill a little boy ForTheEvulz. In real life, while Díaz criticized Alvarado's lack of strategic finesse, Bernal didn't have a special dislike for him and there was no incident of this kind.

* Cristóbal de Olid appears as a deeply conflicted character, stiff and by-the-book but at the same time very emotional and doubtful, who works directly for Governor Velázquez and only follows Cortés kicking and screaming. Nothing echoes the historical figure described by Díaz del Castillo and other sources, where he is an efficient captain, loyal to Cortés, who betrayed him long after the Conquest because of his own ambitions. Díaz himself spares him a lot of criticism, lamenting that Olid was ultimately a too proud man who just let himself be ensnared by people giving him the wrong advice.
* Olid's wife was named Felipa, not Juana, and they didn't marry until after the Conquest. In addition, she was Portuguese. He had been previously in an indigenous marriage with a Tlaxcaltec princess, Zacuancozcatl.

* A flashback shows Bernal Díaz del Castillo and his father as rude shepherds. In real life, while his family was not very wealthy, he was the son of a city councilor.
* Gonzalo de Sandoval claims not to believe in God, when in real life he was a devout Christian.

* The series has Xicohtencatl the Younger acting with full approval from the lords of Tlaxcala in the battles against Cortés, who only gets the Tlaxcaltecs open to negotiate by sheer insistence. In real life, the lords of Tlaxcala became open to diplomacy very early, but Xicohtencatl disobeyed their orders and kept warring until the lords became personally involved (or they claimed so, but later events make the claim believable).
* In the series, the only Tlaxcaltec princess given in marriage to the Spaniards is Tecuelhuetzin, who is baptized as María Luisa and marries Alvarado (other women baptized appear to be servants). Tolquequetzaltzin, the princess that married Gonzalo de Sandoval, is AdaptedOut; instead he remains single and ends in a LoveTriangle with Marina and Cortés. Cristóbal de Olid's wife Zacuancozcatl is also excised.
* In real life, Xicohtencatl the Younger wasn't part of Cortés' entourage and didn't go with him to Tenochtitlan because of his opposition to the Hispano-Tlaxcaltec alliance. His role in the Conquest was very small, only returning to the frontlines during the siege of Tenochtitlan before being executed for a supposed coup attempt.

* The Spaniards are portrayed as dirty-looking, with unkempt hair, etc even civilians who don't have the excuse of being away on a military campaign. This is a common cliché about Europeans in Mexico that has no basis in reality.

* Alvarado is initially portrayed as a racist who refuses to take a native woman or to mingle with the natives in any way, and other conquistadors use racial slurs against the Aztecs, calling them monkeys. Portraying conquistadors as racists is popular in media because it fits with modern conceptions of colonialism, but it is actually an enormous anachronism as such beliefs would not become popular until the Enlightenment. In real life Alvarado had been living for a decade in Cuba and Hispaniola before embarking with Cortés, so it would have been definitely odd for a ladies man like him to shun native women.
* The series perpetuates the myth that the Aztecs believed Cortés to be Quetzalcoatl. The line from Creator/BernalDiazDelCastillo's chronicle where Moctezuma states they are all men, and thus he knows perfectly that the foreign ''teules'' are of flesh and blood, is given here to Cortés himself, as a way to clear out a misunderstanding.

* When Cortés asks Moctezuma to pledge loyalty to Charles V, Moctezuma counters by asking how would his soldiers feel if asked to become slaves, apparently meant to be an ArmorPiercingQuestion given the Spaniard's reaction. The Aztec Empire had plenty of vassal peoples that were not slaves so Moctezuma would be well aware of the difference.

* During their stay in Tenochtitlan, the real Bernal Díaz del Castillo married Francisca, a Mexica noblewoman gifted by Moctezuma, but this doesn't happen in the series.

* We don't know when Bernal Díaz del Castillo started writing his memories, but it was likely well after the Conquest, if not well into old age. In any case, although it is not beyond the realm of possibility that he kept a diary during the campaign, he wasn't treated as the expedition's official chronicler as in the series.

* The duel between Cortés and Xicohtencatl the Younger, in which the former gets captured after sparing his rival and has his precious horse beheaded to spite him, followed by a timely eclipse that saves the Spaniards, is entirely fictional. No eclipse happened during the Conquest or beforehand.[[note]]This cliché that keeps popping in depictions of early Spanish-Native American contact is rather based on an incident between Columbus and Jamaican natives.[[/note]]
* In the series, Cortés orders all Tlaxcaltec hostages to be gruesomely mutilated, with their noses and hands cut off, before sending them home as a warning to stop hostilities. In reality, he did this to spies of Xicohtencatl the Younger in a later time, and solely cut hands or thumbs. The sources say that Cortés’ treatment of Tlaxcaltec hostages, constantly sending them home fed and unharmed, finally convinced Tlaxcala that he was not their enemy.

* The series inflates the importance of the Massacre of Cholula, which is portrayed as a disastrous decision, initially conceived as a countertrap to a Cholultec ambush, where the Spaniards end up butchering women and children because yolo and ultimately leave Cortés, Díaz, Olid and everybody traumatized by their own actions. All of this drama is fictional; contrary to popular belief, the massacre remained relatively surgical on the part of the Spaniards, who took great effort to kill only combatants (their Tlaxcaltec allies did want to RapePillageAndBurn, but Cortés prevented and undid what he could), and the city remained operational enough to be recruited in Cortés' coalition. Díaz himself mentions that while cold-hearted the attack was controlled, adding that the Cholultecs themselves accepted their fault and never made a big fuss about it.
* It's also strange that Moctezuma calls out Cortés for Cholula, considering that Bernal and the Spaniards find proof that the Cholultecs were going to do the same to them. Either this version of Moctezuma is a massive cynic, which is not suggested by the scene's framing, or he didn't order the ambush and the Cholultecs were acting on their own.
* In the series, one of the reasons factoring into Moctezuma's reluctance to let Cortés into Tenochtitlan is that Cortés has Tlaxcaltecs among his men, a danger to Moctezuma's eyes. In real life, this would have been unlikely, as Cortés only had around 2,000 Tlaxcaltec warriors in a city where the Mexica could easily deploy twenty times that number. The recorded talks between Moctezuma and Cortés also have the former amused, and even a bit derisive, of Cortés befriending the 'worthless' Tlaxcaltecs.

* Cortés arrests Moctezuma with the excuse that two racist soldiers were killed by Mexica warriors while flirting with native women. In real life, he did it because the Mexica had attacked the Totonacs and killed Juan de Escalante, the mayor of Veracruz, and he was pressed by his captains into doing it.
* Cortés asks Moctezuma to marry his daughter, having Friar Bartolomé's help to nullify his own marriage so he can do it by the Christian rites, but the marriage never happens due to the combination of Narváez's arrival and the revolt of Tenochtitlan, where they lose the girl. In real life, it was Moctezuma who offered Cortés one of his daughters in marriage, but Cortés declined with the pretext of his existing marriage.
* Similarly, Moctezuma seems not to have any contact with Narváez: he only learns about the conflict because his daughter Ana is told by a jealous Marina.

* In the series, Cortés orders callously the Tlaxcaltecs to be the last section in their column to exit Tenochtitlan, clearly not caring about them as much as the rest of his people. In real life, there was no difference, Spaniards and Tlaxcaltecs went out mixed up in several sections. Cortés trusted the Tlaxcaltecs so much that he put them in charge of guarding the hostages and protecting the women, and after escaping the city he had the Spaniards of Díaz del Castillo march around the wounded Tlaxcaltecs to protect them.
* Oddly, the ''Noche Triste'' ends literally BehindTheBlack: Cortés falls unconscious during the scuffle and when he wakes up next morning, the survivors are all waking up at the same time in the lake shore, with no explanation to how they survived or why the Aztecs didn't chase them. In real life the battle continued on the beach after crossing the bridge. The Cortesians only escaped because the Tlaxcaltecs guided them away from the roads.

* In the series, Cortés and company storm Narváez's tent and find him surrendering, only for it to be a trap and an attempt on Cortés' life, after which the Cortesians gouge one of Narváez's eyes in revenge with a dagger. In real life, Cortés wasn't present when Narváez was captured and there were no theatrics or traps involved; Narváez lost the eye by a pike wound.

* UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition calls Muslims "Pagans", which is a huge archaism; only earlier in Medieval Europe (and outside Spain!) was Islam referred to as a Pagan religion. The series also uses it for crypto-Muslims as an exchangeable word with "heretic", which people could not be at the same time - a "Pagan" was polytheistic, while "heretic" was the wrong kind of Christian. Muslims were called "infidels" because they knew of Jesus but didn't worship him.
* The Inquisition appears in pop culture's favorite incarnation, gleefully torturing Aisha and her family into confessing their secret adherence to Islam, and it takes a young, idealistic Hernán to say that "nobody gets closer to God by torture". In real life, the torture used by the Inquisition was a remnant from lay justice, and it was used in relatively few cases, with the extra limitation that solely confessing under torture was not enough "proof" by itself (this last point is at least implicitly acknowledged, with Gonzalo telling the priest how and where to find evidence of the misdeeds). The case seen in the series would be very unlikely to include torture: if it was the first time the family was tried, which is strongly implied, they would not be threatened with a death sentence or any other harsh punishment, and would be simply advised to confess, take the imposed penance and fines, and call it a day.

* UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition calls Muslims "Pagans", which is a huge archaism; only earlier in Medieval Europe (and outside Spain!) was Islam referred to as a Pagan religion. The series also uses it for crypto-Muslims as an exchangeable word with "heretic", which people could not be at the same time - a "Pagan" was polytheistic, while "heretic" was the wrong kind of Christian. Muslims were called "infidels".

* We don't know when Bernal Díaz del Castillo started writing his memoires, but it was likely well after the Conquest, if not well into old age. In any case, although it is not beyond the realm of possibility that he kept a diary during the campaign, he wasn't treated as the expedition's official chronicler as in the series.

* The Tenochtitlan of the series has low, ford-like dirt roads instead of tall stone bridges, presumably by similar budgetary reasons.
* Huejotzingo is namedropped by Xicomecoatl as a state tributary to the Mexicas, when in real life it was tributary of Tlaxcala.

* In the series, the expedition has at least one big, angry dog that scares the natives. In real life, although war dogs were commonly used in the Spanish Conquest of the Americas, the Cortés Expedition didn't have one. There was only a female whippet that belonged to a previous expedition but was lost, then found by Cortés on his way to México.

* In the series, Cortés and company force the Totonacs to rise against Moctezuma by ambushing the Mexica tax collectors and imprisoning them. In real life, Cortés directed the Totonacs into capturing the collectors themselves, and then played a double game with the Mexicas by secretly freeing the collectors and pretending to be in their side. In the series, it's not even clear how exactly does Cortés justify the capture of the collectors to Moctezuma when they finally meet.
* The founding of Veracruz and the breakup from Governor Velázquez are portrayed as a massive con, and even a bit PlayedForLaughs, with Cortés and Alvarado obviously making up laws on the fly and babbling about King Alfonso X with the confidence nobody in the camp has enough real knowledge to contradict them. In real life, although the whole thing was sketchy, the expeditioners had a legal point and were in fact exploiting an existent loophole, which eventually got their move officially sanctioned by King UsefulNotes/CharlesV. There were several people knowledgeable in laws in the expedition, and trying to dupe all of them the portrayed way would have been difficult to say the least.
* We don't know when did Bernal Díaz del Castillo start writing his memoires, but it was likely well after the conquest, when he had his hands free, if not well into old age. In any case, although it is not beyond the realm of possibility that he already kept a diary during the campaign, he wasn't treated as the expedition's official chronicler as the series shows.
* Cortés has the ships explicitly scuttled and sank, when in real life they were beached and dismantled to recycle their woodwork.
* The whole duel between Cortés and Xicohtencatl the Younger, in which the former gets captured after sparing his rival and has his precious horse beheaded to spite him, followed by a timely eclipse that saves the Spaniards, is entirely fictional. No eclipse happened during the conquest of the Mexica Empire or beforehand.
* In the series, Cortés orders all the Tlaxcaltec hostages to be gruesomely mutilated, with their noses and hands cut off, before sending them home as a warning to stop the hostilities. The real Cortés could have hardly attracted Tlaxcala's loyalty by showing a front that was savage even by the standards of Mesoamerican warfare. He only did it once, with a batch of natives that turned out to be spies working for Xicohtencatl the Younger, and it comprised solely cutting hands or thumbs; otherwise, according to the sources, it was precisely Cortés’ excellent treatment of his Tlaxcaltec hostages, constantly sending them home fed and unharmed, which finally convinced Tlaxcala that he was not out for blood against them.
* Related to the previous point, the series strongly suggests that the "alliance" with Cortés was more of an embarrassing "beating into submission" for the Tlaxcaltecs, with Xicohtencatl the Elder looking completely miserable when signing their pact and giving their daughters away. You can also note it in their auxiliar warriors, who seem to hate the Spaniards as much as they hate the Mexicas. In real life, while one can always doubt that things happened exactly as Spaniards or mestizos claim, that the Tlaxcaltecs did not embrace wholeheartedly the alliance with them is out of the question: not only they actively eased things into solidifying their union, but they also basically became the benefactors of the Spaniards for the rest of the Conquest of America, working as a bottomless source of reinforcements and helping them conquer the Mayans and the Philippines, and in turn receiving ungodly political benefits from them (and even centuries later, during the UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWarsOfIndependence, Tlaxcala still had a reputation to be a strongly royalist state), nothing of which would have been natural for pissed off subjects who seem to be wishing for the Spaniards to drop dead already.
* In the series, Cortés wants to go to Tenochtitlan by way of Huejotzingo, but Xicohtencatl the Younger convinces him to go by way of Cholula so they can strategically conquer it. In real life, it was exactly backwards: the lords of Tlaxcala wanted Cortés to go through the allied state of Huejotzingo so they could properly supply and cover him, while Cortés wanted to see Cholula so they could probe Moctezuma's forces. Xicohtencatl the Younger, as mentioned above, had nothing to do with this and didn't go with Cortés. The line about not letting Moctezuma believe they are cowards, in fact, was Cortés', not his.
* The series gives a hyper-inflated importance to the Massacre of Cholula, which is portrayed as a disastrous decision, initially conceived as a countertrap to a Cholultec ambush, where the Spaniards end up butchering women and children because yolo and ultimately leave Cortés, Díaz, Olid and everybody traumatized by their own actions. All of this drama is entirely fictional; contrary to popular belief, the massacre remained relatively surgical on the part of the Spaniards, who took great efforts to kill only the combatants that were involved in the ambush (their Tlaxcaltec allies did want to RapePillageAndBurn and indulged quite a bit on it, but Cortés prevented and undid what he could), and in fact, it left the city operational enough for it to be later recruited in Cortés' own coalition, from which it never broke away. Díaz himself mentions it in his writings, and although he admits the whole thing was a cold-hearted thing to do and left an awful rap among chroniclers, he states the attack was controlled, adding that the Cholultecs themselves accepted their fault and never really made a big fuss about the move.
* It's also strange that Moctezuma calls out Cortés for the Massacre of Cholula, considering that Bernal and the Spaniards find obvious proof that the Cholultecs were going to do the same to them. Either this version of Moctezuma is a massive cynic, which is not suggested by the scene's framing, or he sincerely didn't order the ambush and the Cholultecs were somehow acting on their own.
* In the series, one of the reasons factoring into Moctezuma's reluctance to let Cortés into Tenochtitlan is that Cortés has Tlaxcaltecs among his men, a danger to Moctezuma's eyes. In real life, this would have been quite unlikely, as Cortés only had around 2,000 Tlaxcaltec warriors in a city where the Mexica could easily deploy twenty times that number. The recorded talks between Moctezuma and Cortés also have the former amused, and even a bit derisive, of Cortés having befriended the Tlaxcaltecs, as he believed them to be utterly worthless.
* The series has Tlaxcallan allies led by Xicohtencatl II supporting Cortés and company when they storm Narváez's camp. In real life, Tlaxcala refused to send them reinforcements for the mission because their warriors were afraid of fighting so many Spanish soldiers, having tasted it already from Cortés' men in previous entanglements before signing their alliance. Cortés did have indigenous allies at that battle, but they were Chinantecs, not Tlaxcaltecs.
* Cortés arrests Moctezuma with the excuse that two racist soldiers were killed by Mexica warriors while flirting with native women (as odd as it sounds). In real life, he did it because the Mexica had attacked the Totonacs and killed Juan de Escalante, the mayor of Veracruz, and it were rather his captains who pressed him into doing it.
* The fictional Cortés asks Moctezuma to marry his daughter, having Friar Bartolomé's help to nullify his own marriage so he can do it by the Christian rites, but the marriage never happens due to the combination of Narváez's arrival and the revolt of Tenochtitlan, where they lose the girl. In real life, it was Moctezuma who offered Cortés one of his daughters in marriage, but Cortés declined with the pretext of his own marriage.
* Similarly, this Moctezuma seems not to have any contact with Narváez: he only learns about the whole conflict because his daughter Ana is told by a jealous Marina.

* Cristóbal de Olid zealously proposes to execute Alvarado to appease the Mexica, even calling to garrote him as a vulgar thief. There is no evidence that Olid or any other captain ever proposed this, or that he could be so ready to sacrifice a comrade like that.
* In real life, the Cortesians didn't remain as much time in the Axayacatl Palace as to completely run out of food and gunpowder, and they definitely didn't idiotically sacrifice time to escape to melt the gold.
* The portrayal of Moctezuma's death seems to be a mix of historical versions with some original details added. Moctezuma is stoned by his people (like most versions claim, including Díaz del Castillo), but he also falls off the wall (which is original to this series), and after some days, he states he wants to die (echoing Díaz's writings, where Friar Bartolomé de Olmedo speculates Moctezuma committed suicide with poison) and later asks Cortés to stab him so he can die the death of a warrior (which is also fictional, but echoes a Mexica claim recorded by Creator/BernardinoDeSahagun that the Spaniards stabbed Moctezuma to death). Also, in this version, Moctezuma comes out to the wall alone, when in real life he was accompanied by ''rodeleros'' that tried unsuccessfully to shield him from the stones.
* In the series, Cortés orders Cacama and all the other Mexica hostages to be executed before exiting the palace (adding to a previous scene where he threatens Moctezuma with killing all of his family). In real life, Mexica sources do accuse him of this, while Spanish and mestizo sources state that the Cortesians took all the hostages alive with them and it were in fact the Mexica who indiscriminately killed everybody they could reach during the Sad Night. Any of the two is admittedly possible, but it would be very improbable, and very out-of-character for Cortés, to order a gratuitous massacre of VIP hostages who might be highly useful later, especially given that he took care of keeping alive all the remnant Mexicas they captured during the Siege of Tenochtitlan (including the new Mexica tlatoani himself, Cuauhtemoc).
* Moctezuma's daughter is hidden by Marina so she would not be executed, and it's there where Cuitlahuac's forces find her. In real life, his daughers were captured (or recovered) much earlier by the Mexica, who intercepted the soldiers that were trying to extract her and other noblewomen from Tacuba.
* In the series, Cortés orders callously the Tlaxcaltecs to be the last section in their column to exit Tenochtitlan, clearly not caring about them as much as the rest of his people (though it's hard to blame him, seeing how hostile his relationship with Xicohtencatl the Younger and his people is in this version). In real life, there was no conscious difference, and Spaniards and Tlaxcaltecs went out mixed up in several sections. In fact, Cortés trusted the Tlaxcaltecs so much that he put them in charge of guarding the hostages and protecting the women, and after they escaped the disaster of the Sad Night, he had the Spaniards of Díaz del Castillo's squadron march forming a circle around the wounded Tlaxcaltecs to protect them.
* Oddly, this version of the Sad Night ends literally BehindTheBlack: Cortés goes unconscious during the scuffles, and when he wakes up next morning, the survivors are all waking up at the same time in the lake's beach, without no explanation of how did they survive without Cortés' command or why didn't the Mexicas chase the heck out of them by sea and land. In real life, it goes without saying no Spaniard of Tlaxcaltec slept that night, or stopped running for their lives, and in fact the battle continued on the beach after crossing the bridge. The Cortesians only escaped because the Tlaxcaltec guides knew well enough the lands to guide them away from the Mexica roads.

* Cortés' whole background in the series, having been in love with a Muslim girl who was caught by the Spanish Inquisition, which apparently instigated a certain disdain for Christian authority on him, is pure fantasy. The real Cortés was a fervent Catholic, sometimes to the chagrin of his own religious advisor Friar Bartolomé de Olmedo. The series also has young Cortés fascinated with the Indies, although it doesn't mention that he considered a military career with UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba in Italy first.

* In this version, "Malinche" (from ''Malintzin'', "Marina's captain"), as an indigenous nickname for Cortés, is not used until a resentful [[UsefulNotes/LaMalinche Marina]] brings it herself as something people say behind his back. Otherwise, Moctezuma, Xicohtencatl the Younger and the rest all call him Cortés. In real life, Malinche was basically Cortés' public name among the natives from the point he had Marina in his entourage.

* In the series, Xicohtencatl the Elder seems to be the supreme lord of Tlaxcala, with Maxixcatzin being clearly subordinated to him. In real life, as tlatoanis of two of the four domains composing Tlaxcala, they were more or less equal, and there is some evidence that Maxixcazin was the most influential of the two (he housed Cortés in his palace, while Xicohtencatl housed Alvarado). If Xicohtencatl ended up being the most politically relevant of the two might have been mostly because he had several sons heavily involved in the war (not just Xicohtencatl the Younger) and obviously because Maxixcatzin died of smallpox during the siege of Tenochtitlan.

* The portrayal of Xicohtencatl the Elder also clearly goes for the creepiest outlook possible, with a deadly serenity and asymmetric blind eyes, and he has no interaction with the Spaniards other than giving away their daughters in marriage and looking bitter in the process. In real life, although he was certainly very old and blind, Xicohtencatl was seen by the Spaniards as a CoolOldGuy, being usually very charming and funny (and not coincidentally, also being the first tlatoani to convert to Christianity). After signing their alliance with the Spaniards, he was apparently so happy to have the powerful foreigner in his side that he had his throne placed next to Cortés' and passed the feast constantly feeling the Spaniard's face and beard.
* The series has Xicohtencatl the Younger acting with full approval from the lords of Tlaxcala in the battles against Cortés, who only gets the Tlaxcaltecs open to negotiate by sheer insistence. In real life, the lords of Tlaxcala became open to diplomacy very early, but Xicohtencatl disobeyed their orders and kept warring until the lords became personally involved and the whole thing fell down (at least they claimed so, and the posterior events make it quite believable).
* In the series, the only Tlaxcaltec princess given in marriage to the Spaniards onscreen is Tecuelhuetzin, who gets baptized as María Luisa and marries Alvarado (other women are seen getting ready to be baptized, but those seems to be servants or lower people). It's particularly notable that Tolquequetzaltzin, the princess that married Gonzalo de Sandoval, is AdaptedOut; this version of Sandoval remains single and ends up in a LoveTriangle with Marina and Cortés. Cristóbal de Olid's wife Zacuancozcatl is also excised.
* In real life, Xicohtencatl the Younger wasn't part of Cortés' entourage and didn't go with him to Tenochtitlan, among other things because his opposition to the whole Hispano-Tlaxcaltec alliance made him lose the favor of the Tlaxcallan senate (and not less because Xicohtencatl happened to be a political enemy of Chichimecatecuhtli, a powerful general who was very invested in supporting the Spaniards). His true role in the conquest was actually very small, only returning to the frontlines during the siege of Tenochtitlan before being executed for a supposed coup attempt.
* Moctezuma is played by Dagoberto Gama, who is much stockier than the real Moctezuma was described to be. In contrast, Xicomecoatl was morbidly obese in real life, to the point he could barely walk, but is played by the merely heavyset Silverio Palacios.

!!Culture
[[folder:Fashion]]
* As with many other productions set in the 16th century, the series has the Spaniards wearing unrealistic amounts of leather, including big kneeboots more proper of cold northern Europe than the light Mediterranean ''alpargatas'' everybody should be wearing. More notably, it also gives the characters an odd choice of swords, with Cortés himself carrying a medieval longsword that seems directly inspired by Andúril from ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''.
* Many Spaniards wear the iconic ''Morrión'' helmet associated with conquistadors in pop culture, which is anachronistic. Contrary to popular belief, Cortés and his people never used it; the model only came in use decades after the Conquest of Mexico.
* The Spaniards are portrayed as dirty-looking, with unkempt hair, etc even civilians who don't have the excuse of being away on a military campaign. This is a common cliché about Europeans in Mexico that has no basis in reality.

[[folder:Society and Religion]]
* Alvarado is initially portrayed as a racist who refuses to take a native woman or to mingle with the natives in any way, and other conquistadors use racial slurs against the Aztecs, calling them monkeys. Portraying conquistadors as racists is popular in media because it fits with modern conceptions of colonialism, but it is actually an enormous anachronism as such beliefs would not become popular until the Enlightenment. In real life Alvarado had been living for a decade in Cuba and Hispaniola before embarking with Cortés, so it would have been definitely odd for a ladies man like him to shun native women.
* The series perpetuates the myth that the Aztecs believed Cortés to be Quetzalcoatl. The line from Creator/BernalDiazDelCastillo's chronicle where Moctezuma states they are all men, and thus he knows perfectly that the foreign ''teules'' are of flesh and blood, is given here to Cortés himself, as a way to clear out a misunderstanding.
* UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition calls Muslims "Pagans", which is a huge archaism; only earlier in Medieval Europe (and outside Spain!) was Islam referred to as a Pagan religion. The series also uses it for crypto-Muslims as an exchangeable word with "heretic", which people could not be at the same time - a "Pagan" was polytheistic, while "heretic" was the wrong kind of Christian. Muslims were called "infidels".
* The Inquisition appears in pop culture's favorite incarnation, gleefully torturing Aisha and her family into confessing their secret adherence to Islam, and it takes a young, idealistic Hernán to say that "nobody gets closer to God by torture". In real life, the torture used by the Inquisition was a remnant from lay justice, and it was used in relatively few cases, with the extra limitation that solely confessing under torture was not enough "proof" by itself (this last point is at least implicitly acknowledged, with Gonzalo telling the priest how and where to find evidence of the misdeeds). The case seen in the series would be very unlikely to include torture: if it was the first time the family was tried, which is strongly implied, they would not be threatened with a death sentence or any other harsh punishment, and would be simply advised to confess, take the imposed penance and fines, and call it a day.
* When Cortés asks Moctezuma to pledge loyalty to Charles V, Moctezuma counters by asking how would his soldiers feel if asked to become slaves, apparently meant to be an ArmorPiercingQuestion given the Spaniard's reaction. The Aztec Empire had plenty of vassal peoples that were not slaves so Moctezuma would be well aware of the difference.

* In this version, "Malinche" (from ''Malintzin'', "Marina's captain"), as an indigenous nickname for Cortés, is not used until a resentful [[UsefulNotes/LaMalinche Marina]] brings it herself as something people say behind his back. Otherwise, Moctezuma, Xicohtencatl the Younger and the rest all call him Cortés. In real life, Malinche was basically Cortés' public name among the natives from the point he had Marina in his entourage.

* Pedro de Alvarado is portrayed literally as a loose cannon, as he even crashes the first meeting with indigenous ambassadors by shooting a cannon to amuse himself. Jokes aside, the series generally paints him a pathetic, psychotic drunkard who often seems genuinely out of control and begs the question of why does Cortés have him as his second-in-command in the first place. In real life, while most sources do agree Alvarado was a volatile, cruel person who wasn't cut to be commander either, they also describe him as an exemplar OfficerAndAGentleman, as well as a bit of a dandy, the exact opposite to his disheveled, barbarian version from the series.
* In a particular example of the previous, Alvarado has a troubled relationship with Bernal Díaz del Castillo, who is disgusted by his brutal ways, especially since Alvarado even tries to force him to kill a little boy ForTheEvulz. In real life, while Díaz's writings do show a certain snark towards Alvarado's lack of strategic finesse, Bernal didn't have a special dislike of him and there was no incident of this kind.
* Cristóbal de Olid appears here as a deeply conflicted character, stiff and by-the-book but at the same time very emotional and doubtful, who works directly for Governor Velázquez and only follows Cortés's maverick ways kicking and screaming. Nothing in this characterization echoes the historical figure described by Díaz del Castillo and other sources, where he appears instead as an affable, efficient captain, loyal to Cortés to the end of the conquest of the Mexicas, who only betrayed him much later due to his own ambitions. It's notable that Díaz himself spares him a lot of criticism in his writings, almost lamenting that Olid was ultimately a too proud man who just let himself be ensnared by the wrong people giving him the wrong advice.
* Olid's wife was named Felipa, not Juana (contrary to what her actress Aura Garrido claimed), and they didn't marry until after the conquest of the Mexica Empire. He had been previously in an indigenous marriage with a Tlaxcaltec princess, Zacuancozcatl.
* A flashback shows Bernal Díaz del Castillo and his father as rude shepherds. In real life, while his family was not exaggeratedly wealthy, he was the son of a city councilor.

* The real Blas Botello was an astrologer and obtained prophecies through arithmancy, and Díaz describes him as an immensely cultured and refined man. His version in the series seems to be rather a mentally insane person who suffers from terrible visions and seems barely functional at all, with WildHair and a shaggy appearance to complete it.

* In the series, Xicohtencatl the Elder seems to be the supreme lord of Tlaxcala, with Maxixcatzin being clearly subordinated to him. In real life, as tlatoanis of two of the four domains composing Tlaxcala, they were more or less equals, and there is some implications that in fact Maxixcazin was the most influential of the two (he housed Cortés in his palace, for instance, while Xicohtencatl housed Alvarado in his own). If Xicohtencatl ended up being the most politically relevant of the two might have been mostly because he had several sons heavily involved in the war (not just Xicohtencatl the Younger) and obviously because Maxixcatzin died of Spanish smallpox during the siege of Tenochtitlan.

* During their stay in Tenochtitlan, the real Bernal Díaz del Castillo married Francisca, a Mexica noblewoman gifted by Moctezuma, but this doesn't happen in the series.

* The Inquisition appears in pop culture's favorite incarnation, gleefully torturing Aisha and her family into confessing their secret adherence to Islam, and it takes a young, idealistic Hernán to say that "nobody gets closer to God by torture". In real life, the torture used by the Inquisition was a remnant from lay justice, and it was used in relatively few cases, with the extra limitation that solely confessing under torture was not enough "proof" by itself (this last point is at least implicitly acknowledged, with Gonzalo telling the priest how and where to find evidence of the misdeeds). The case seen in the series would be very unlikely to include torture, especially because unlike crypto-Jews, crypto-Muslims weren't severely persecuted during the reign of UsefulNotes/CharlesV: if it was the first time the family was tried, which is strongly implied, they would not be threatened with a death sentence or any other harsh punishment, and would be simply advised to confess, take the imposed penance and fines, and call it a day.

!!Culture
* As with many other productions set in the 16th century, the series has the Spaniards wearing unrealistic amounts of leather, including big kneeboots more proper of the cold, northern Europe instead of the light Mediterranean ''alpargates'' everybody should be wearing. More notably, however, it also gives the characters an odd, even anachronistic choices of swords, with Cortés himself carrying a medieval longsword that seems directly inspired by Andúril from the film trilogy of ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''.
* Many Spaniards are seen wearing the classical ''morrión''-type helmet widely associated to conquistadores in pop culture, which in this case is a case of anachronism given that, contrary to popular belief, Cortés and his people never used it; the model only became in use some decades after the events of the series.
* For budgetary reasons, the number of people in the historical events portrayed here are seriously scaled down, to the point we never see more than maybe twenty extras together in any side of any battle. In-universe logistics are occasionally adjusted to this change (with the most poignant example being when the Spaniards learn that a single brigantine in Tenochtitlan contains enough gunpowder and food for sustain them all for a long time), but not always (you can clearly count eleven ships in the harbor of Veracruz, when one of them would have been enough for the diminutive Spanish expedition seen in this series).
* The Tenochtitlan of the series has low, ford-like dirt roads instead of tall stone bridges, presumably by similar budgetary reasons.
* Huejotzingo is namedropped by Xicomecoatl as a state tributary to the Mexicas, when in real life it was tributary to Tlaxcala.
* In the series, the expedition has at least one big, angry dog that scares the natives away. In real life, although those were popular war beasts in the Spanish Conquest of America, the Cortés expedition didn't carry them. They only carried a hunting bitch, of the kind more proper for small game, that had originally belonged to a previous expedition before getting lost and found by Cortés and company in their way to México.
* It's notable that, although he later changes his opinion thanks to Luisa, Alvarado is initially racist, refusing to take a native woman or to mingle with the natives in any way by no clear reason, and some other conquistadores even use racial slurs against Aztecs, calling them monkeys. Portraying conquistadores as racists is popular in media because it kind of fits modern conceptions of colonialism, but it is actually a enormous case of AnachronismStew given that beliefs of the like would not become popular until the Enlightenment (and it fails to explain how did mestizaje happen unless zoophilia was somehow in vogue in Castile). Moreover, in real life Alvarado had been living for a decade in Cuba and Hispaniola before embarking with Cortés, so it would have been definitely odd for a known ladies man like him to keep this attitude towards native women by this point.
* The series perpetuates the DatedHistory trivia that the Aztecs believed Cortés to be Quetzalcoatl, which has been disproven many times as the work of Christian chroniclers messing things up. Amusingly, the line from Creator/BernalDiazDelCastillo's chronicle where Moctezuma states they are all men, and thus he knows perfectly that the foreign ''teules'' are of flesh and blood, is given here to Cortés himself, as a way to clear out the misunderstanding.
* In this version, "Malinche" (from ''Malintzin'', "Marina's captain"), as an indigenous nickname for Cortés, is not used at all until a resentful [[UsefulNotes/LaMalinche Marina]] brings it up herself, explaining it to be something people say behind his back. Otherwise, Moctezuma, Xicohtencatl the Younger and the rest all call him Cortés. In real life, Malinche was basically Cortés' public name among the natives from the point he had Marina in his entourage.
* The series shows UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition using casually the term "pagan" for Muslims, which by this point of history would be a huge archaism; only in the Middle Ages Islam was widely thought to be a pagan religion. The series also uses it for crypto-Muslims as an exchangeable word with "heretic", which in this case is just plain wrong, as you could not be a pagan and a heretic at the same time (to put it very simply, "pagan" means non-Christian, while "heretic" means wrong-kind-of-Christian).
* The mentioned inquisition appears in pop culture's favorite incarnation, that is, gleefully torturing Aisha and her family into confessing their secret adherence to Islam, and it takes a young, idealistic Hernán to say that "nobody gets closer to God by torture". In real life, the torture used by the inquisition was a remnant from lay justice, and it was used in relatively few cases, with the extra limitation that solely confessing under torture was not enough "proof" by itself (this last point is at least implicitly acknowledged, with Gonzalo telling the priest how and where to find evidence of the misdeeds). The case seen in the series would be very unlikely to include torture, especially because unlike crypto-Jews, crypto-Muslims weren't severely persecuted during the reign of UsefulNotes/CharlesV: if it was the first time the family was tried, which is strongly implied, they would not be threatened with a death sentence or any other harsh punishment, and would be simply advised to confess, take the imposed penance and fines, and call it a day.
* When Cortés asks Moctezuma to pledge loyalty to King Charles V, Moctezuma counters by asking him how would his soldiers feel if asked to become slaves, which is apparently meant to be an ArmorPiercingQuestion given the Spaniard's reaction. In reality, the comparison is tone-deaf in a number of ways, the first of them being that, as a ruler who had both vassals and slaves under his command, and in a society where this mere difference may be literally a life or death situation, Moctezuma should really know better. It's interesting to say that in real life, Moctezuma ultimately accepted the vassalage, or at least so he claimed, with full knowledge that by doing so the Mexicas were formally becoming Spanish citizens and therefore not enslavable (except in case of high treason) and that he and his elite would stay in their thrones, things that the fictional Cortés should have brought up.

* Cortés' whole background in the series, that of having been in love with a Muslim girl who was caught by the Spanish Inquisition, which apparently instigated a certain disdain for Christian authority on him, is pure fantasy. The real Cortés was a fervent Catholic, sometimes to the chagrin of his own religious advisor Friar Bartolomé de Olmedo, and was not known to have any similar anecdote. The series also has the young Cortés fascinated with the Indies, although it doesn't mention that he also considered a military career with UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba in Italy.
* Contrary to what the mentioned background shows, Cortés and Sandoval weren't childhood friends with only a couple of years of age difference. Cortés was 12 whole years his senior, and even called him "my son Sandoval".
* The real Cortés did trust heavily on Marina's knowledge on native politics, but by all accounts, he was himself a skilled, charming planner. In contrast, the series makes Cortés an erratic if charismatic hustler with absolutely no sense of diplomacy whose mistakes come often from not listening to her. The series even gives him a bit of SanitySlippage by being outrageously tormented by his crimes, with nightmares and visions included, which in real life, aside from being certainly not the case (he did go off a bit later in his life, but because he was given for dead in a HungryJungle and until it was cleared out he believed he had lost everything he had), it would be evidently debatable if he had reasons to begin with.
* Oddly enough, the series also portrays Cortés as a bit of a fop, wearing rich clothing, constantly doing elegant ContemplativeBoss poses, and being followed by a slave with a prim and proper parasol. The real Cortés was reportedly the direct opposite of this, to the point after the conquest, his own lieutenants sometimes had to insist him to take more aristocratic customs in order to get respected by his countrymen.
* Speaking of the slave, in real life Cortés owned slaves, but no source mentions he brought any of them in his expedition to the Mexica Empire. The character might be a reference to Juan Garrido, the famous conquistador negro who was part of the expedition, although Garrido was a free man and did not directly serve under Cortés (not at this point, at least). There is some real artwork of Cortés accompanied by a black bodyguard, but it's difficult to ascertain if this is meant to be Garrido, a slave, or any other member of the expedition.

* As with many other productions set in the 16th century, the series has the Spaniards wearing unrealistic amounts of leather, including big kneeboots more proper of the cold, northern Europe instead of the light fabric and Mediterranean ''alpargates'' everybody should be wearing. More notably, however, it also gives the character an odd, even anachronistic choices of swords, with Cortés himself carrying a medieval longsword that seems directly inspired by Andúril from the film trilogy of ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''.
* Many Spaniards are seen wearing the classical ''morrión''-type helmet widely associated to conquistadores in pop culture, which in this case is a bout of anachronism given that it only became used around half a century after the events of the series.
* For budgetary reasons, the number of people in the historical events portrayed here are seriously scaled down, to the point we never see more than maybe twenty extras together in any side of any battle. In-universe logistics are occasionally adjusted to this change (with the most poignant example being when the Spaniards learn that a single brigantine in Tenochtitlan contains enough gunpowder and food for sustain them all for a long time), though not always (you can clearly count eleven ships in the harbor of Veracruz, when one of them would have been enough for the diminutive Spanish expedition seen in this series).

* In the series, the expedition has at least one big, angry dog that scares the natives away. In real life, while those were popular war beasts in the Spanish Conquest of America for the mentioned reason, the Cortés expedition didn't carry them. They only had a hunting bitch originally belonging to a previous expedition which they found on their way to Mexico.
* It's notable that, although he later changes his opinion, Alvarado is initially racist, refusing to take a native woman or to mingle with the natives in any way by no clear reason, and some other conquistadores even use racial slurs against Aztecs, calling them monkeys. Portraying conquistadores as racists is popular in media, but it is a enormous case of AnachronismStew given that beliefs of the like would not appear until the Enlightenment (either that or mestizaje happened because zoophilia was somehow in vogue in Castile). Moreover, in real life, by this point Alvarado had been living for a decade in Cuba and Hispaniola, so it would have been definitely odd for a known ladies man like him to keep this attitude.
* The series perpetuates the DatedHistory trivia that the Aztecs believed Cortés to be Quetzalcoatl, which has been disproven many times as the work of Christian chroniclers messing things up. Amusingly, the line from Díaz's chronicle where Moctezuma states they are all men (and thus knows perfectly that the foreign ''teules'' are of flesh and blood) is given here to Cortés himself (as a way to clear out the misunderstanding).
* In this version, "Malinche" ("Marina's captain"), as an indigenous nickname for Cortés, is not used at all until a resentful Marina brings it up herself, explaining it to be something people say behind his back. Otherwise, Moctezuma, Xicohtencatl the Younger and the rest all call him Cortés. In real life, Malinche was basically Cortés' public name among the natives from the point he had Marina in his entourage.
* The series shows the UsefulNotes/SpanishInquisition using casually the term "pagan" for Muslims, which by this point of history would be a huge archaism. The series also uses it for crypto-Muslims as an exchangeable word with "heretic", which in this case is just plain wrong, as you could not be a pagan and a heretic at the same time (to put it very simply, "pagan" means non-Christian, while "heretic" means wrong kind of Christian).
* The mentioned inquisition appears in pop culture's favorite incarnation, that is, gleefully torturing Aisha and her family into confessing their secret adherence to Islam, and it takes a young, idealistic Hernán to say that "nobody gets closer to God by torture". In real life, the torture used by the inquisition was a remnant from lay justice, and it was used in relatively few cases, with the extra limitation that solely confessing under torture was not enough "proof" by itself (this point is at least implicitly acknowledged, with Gonzalo telling the priest how and where to find evidence of the misdeeds). The case seen in the series would be very unlikely to include torture, especially because unlike crypto-Jews, crypto-Muslims weren't severely persecuted during the reign of UsefulNotes/CharlesV: if it was the first time the family was tried, which is strongly implied, they would not be threatened with a death sentence or any other harsh punishment, and would be simply advised to confess, take the imposed penance and fines, and call it a day.

* Contrary to what the mentioned background shows, Cortés and Sandoval weren't childhood friends with only a few years of age difference. Cortés was 12 whole years his senior, and even called him "my son Sandoval".

* Speaking of the slave, in real life Cortés owned slaves, but no source mentions he brought any of them in his own entourage. The character might be a reference to Juan Garrido, a famous conquistador negro who was part of the expedition, although Garrido was a free man and did not directly serve under Cortés (not at this point, at least).
* Pedro de Alvarado is portrayed literally as a loose cannon, as he even crashes the first meeting with indigenous ambassadors by shooting a cannon to amuse himself. Jokes aside, the series generally paints him a pathetic, psychotic drunkard who often seems genuinely out of control and begs the question of why does Cortés have him as his second-in-command in the first place. In real life, while most sources do agree Alvarado was a volatile, cruel person who wasn't the brightest bulb in the box, they also describe him as an exemplar OfficerAndAGentleman, as well as a bit of a dandy, just the opposite to his disheveled, barbarian version from the series.
* In a particular example of the previous, Alvarado has a troubled relationship with Bernal Díaz del Castillo, who is disgusted by his brutal ways, especially since Alvarado even tries to force him to kill a little boy ForTheEvulz. In real life, while Díaz's writings show a certain snark towards Alvarado’s lack of strategic finesse, he didn't have a special dislike of him and there was no incident of this kind.
* Cristóbal de Olid appears here as a deeply conflicted character, stiff and by-the-book but at the same time very emotional and doubtful, who works directly for Governor Velázquez and only follows Cortés's maverick ways kicking and screaming. Nothing in this characterization echoes the historical figure described by Díaz del Castillo and other sources, where he appears instead as an affable, efficient captain, supportive of Cortés to the end of the conquest of the Mexicas, who only betrayed him much later due to an excess of ambition (and it's notable that Díaz himself spares him a lot of criticism, almost lamenting that Olid was ultimately a loyal if proud man who let himself be ensnared by the wrong people with the wrong advice).

* In the series, Xicohtencatl the Elder seems to be the supreme lord of Tlaxcala, with Maxixcatzin being clearly subordinated to him. In real life, as tlatoanis of two of the four domains composing Tlaxcala, they were more or less equals, and there is the implication that in fact Maxixcazin was the most influential of the two (he housed Cortés in his palace, for instance, while Xicohtencatl housed Alvarado in his own). If Xicohtencatl ended up being the most politically relevant of the two was mostly because he had several sons heavily involved in the war (not just Xicohtencatl the Younger) and obviously because Maxixcatzin died of Spanish smallpox during the siege of Tenochtitlan.
* The portrayal of Xicohtencatl the Elder also clearly goes for the creepiest outlook possible, with his sinister, deadly serenity and his asymmetric blind eyes, and he has no interaction with the Spaniards other than giving away their daughters in marriage and looking bitter in the process. In real life, although he was certainly very old and blind, Xicohtencatl was seen by the Spaniards as a CoolOldGuy, being usually very charming and funny (and not coincidentally, also being the first tlatoani to convert to Christianity). After signing their alliance with the Spaniards, he was apparently so happy to have the powerful foreigner in his side that he had his throne placed next to Cortés' and passed the feast constantly feeling the Spaniard's face and beard.
* The series has Xicohtencatl the Younger acting with full approval from the lords of Tlaxcala in the battles against Cortés, who only gets the Tlaxcaltecs open to negotiate by sheer insistence. In real life, the lords of Tlaxcala became open to diplomacy very early, but Xicohtencatl disobeyed their orders and kept warring until the lords became involved and the whole thing fell down (at least they claimed so, and the posterior events make it quite believable).
* In the series, the only Tlaxcaltec princess given in marriage to the Spaniards onscreen is Tecuelhuetzin, who gets baptized as María Luisa and marries Alvarado. It's particularly notable that Tolquequetzaltzin, the princess that married Gonzalo de Sandoval, is AdaptedOut; this version of Sandoval remains single and ends up in a LoveTriangle with Marina and Cortés. Cristóbal de Olid's wife Zacuancozcatl is also excised.

* Bernal Díaz del Castillo married a Mexica noblewoman gifted by Moctezuma, but this doesn't happen in the series.

* In the series, Cortés and company force the Totonacs to rise against Moctezuma by ambushing the Mexica tax collectors and imprisoning them. In real life, Cortés directed the Totonacs into capturing the collectors themselves, and then played a double game with the Mexicas by secretly freeing them and pretending to be in their side. In the series, it's not even clear how exactly does Cortés justify the capture of the collectors to Moctezuma when they finally meet.

* In the series, Cortés orders all the Tlaxcaltec hostages to be gruesomely mutilated, with their noses and hands cut off, before sending them home as a warning to stop the hostilities. The real Cortés could have hardly attracted Tlaxcala's loyalty by showing a front that was savage even by the standards of Mesoamerican warfare. He only did it once, with a batch of natives that turned out to be spies working for Xicohtencatl the Younger, and it comprised solely cutting hands or thumbs; otherwise, according to the sources, it was precisely Cortés’ excellent treatment of his hostages, constantly sending them home fed and unharmed, which finally convinced Tlaxcala that he was not out for blood against them.
* Related to the previous point, the series strongly suggests that the "alliance" with Cortés was more of an embarrassing "beating into submission" for the Tlaxcaltecs, with Xicohtencatl the Elder looking completely miserable when signing their pact and giving their daughters away. You can also note it in their auxiliar warriors, who seem to hate the Spaniards as much as they hate the Mexicas. In real life, while one can always doubt that things happened exactly as Spaniards or mestizos claim, that the Tlaxcaltecs did not embrace wholeheartedly the alliance with them is out of the question: not only they actively eased things into solidifying their union, but they also basically became the benefactors of the Spaniards for the rest of the Conquest of America, working as a bottomless source of reinforcements and helping them conquer the Mayans and the Philippines, and in turn receiving ungodly political benefits from them (and even centuries later, during the UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWarsOfIndependence, Tlaxcala still had a reputation to be a strongly royalist state), nothing of which would have been natural for pissed off subjects who seem to be wishing for the Spaniards to drop dead.

* The series gives a hyperinflated importance to the Massacre of Cholula, which is portrayed as a disastrous decision, initially conceived as a countertrap to a Cholultec ambush, where the Spaniards ended up butchering women and children because yolo and ultimately left Cortés, Díaz, Olid and everybody traumatized by their own actions. All of this drama is entirely fictional; contrary to popular belief, the massacre remained relatively surgical on the Spaniards' part, taking great efforts to kill only the combatants that were involved in the ambush (their Tlaxcaltec allies did want to RapePillageAndBurn and indulged quite a bit on it, but Cortés prevented and undid what he could), and in fact, it left the city operational enough for it to be later recruited in Cortés' own coalition, from which it never broke away. Díaz himself mentions it in his writings, and although he admits the whole thing was a cold-hearted thing to do and left an awful rap among chroniclers, he states the attack was controlled, adding that the Cholultecs themselves accepted their fault and never really made a big fuss about the move.

* The fictional Cortés asks Moctezuma to marry his daughter, having Friar Bartolomé's help to nullify his own marriage so he can do it by the Christian rites, but the marriage never happens due to the combination of Narváez's arrival and the revolt of Tenochtitlan, where they lose the girl. In real life, it was Moctezuma who offered Cortés one of his daughters in marriage, but Cortés declined with the excuse of his own marriage.

* In the series, Cortés and company storm Narváez's tent and find him surrendering, only for it to be a trap and an attempt on Cortés' life, after which the Cortesians gouge one of Narváez's eyes in revenge with his dagger. In real life, Cortés wasn't present when Narváez was captured and there were no theatrics or traps involved; Narváez lost the eye by a pike wound.
* Cristóbal de Olid zealously proposes to execute Alvarado to appease the Mexica, even first calling to garrote him as a vulgar thief. There is no evidence that Olid or any other captain ever proposed this, or that he could be so ready to sacrifice a comrade like that.

* The portrayal of Moctezuma's death seems to be a mix of historical versions with some original details added. Moctezuma is stoned by his people (like most versions claim, including Díaz del Castillo), but he also falls off the wall (which is original to this series), and after some days, he states he wants to die (echoing Díaz's writings, where Friar Bartolomé de Olmedo speculates Moctezuma committed suicide with poison) and later asks Cortés to stab him so he can die the death of a warrior (which is also fictional, but echoes now a Mexica claim recorded by Creator/BernardinoDeSahagun that the Spaniards stabbed Moctezuma to death). Also, in this version, Moctezuma comes out to the wall alone, when in real life he was accompanied by ''rodeleros'' that tried unsuccessfully to shield him from the stones.
* In the series, Cortés orders Cacama and all the other Mexica hostages to be executed before exiting the palace (adding to a previous scene where he threatens Moctezuma with killing all of his family). In real life, Mexica sources accuse him of this, while Spanish and mestizo sources assure that the Cortesians took all the hostages alive with them and it were in fact the Mexica who indiscriminately killed everybody they could reach during the Sad Night.
* Moctezuma's daughter is hidden by Marina so she would not be executed, and it's there where Cuitlahuac's forces find her. In real life, his daughers were captured (or recovered) much earlier by the Mexica after killing the soldiers that were trying to extract her and some other noblewomen from Tacuba.
* In the series, Cortés orders callously the Tlaxcaltecs to be the last section in their column to exit Tenochtitlan, clearly not caring about them as much as the rest of his people (though it's hard to blame him, seeing how hostile his relationship with Xicohtencatl the Younger and his people is in this version). In real life, there was no conscious difference, and Spaniards and Tlaxcaltecs went out mixed up in several sections. In fact, Cortés trusted the Tlaxcaltecs so much that he put them in charge of guarding the hostages and protecting the women, and after fleeing the disaster of the Sad Night, he had the Spaniards of Díaz del Castillo's squadron march forming a circle around the wounded Tlaxcaltecs to protect them with their superior armor.
* Oddly, this version of the Sad Night ends literally BehindTheBlack: Cortés goes unconscious during the scuffles, and when he wakes up next morning, the survivors are all waking up at the same time in the lake's beach, without no explanation of how did they survive without Cortés' command or why didn't the Mexicas chase the heck out of them by sea and land. In real life, it goes without saying no Spaniard of Tlaxcaltec slept that night, or stopped running for their lives, and in fact the battle continued on the beach after crossing the bridge. The Cortesians only escaped because the Tlaxcaltec guides knew well enough the place to guide them away from the Mexica roads.

* As with many other productions set in the 16th century, the series has the Spaniards wearing unrealistic amounts of leather, including big kneeboots more proper of the cold, northern Europe, instead of the light fabric and Mediterranean alpargates that everybody should be wearing. More notably, however, it also gives the character an odd, even anachronistic choices of swords, with Cortés himself carrying a medieval longsword that seems directly inspired by Andúril from the film trilogy of ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''.

* For budgetary reasons, the number of people in the historical events portrayed here are seriously scaled down, to the point we never see more than maybe twenty extras together in any side of any battle. In-universe logistics are occasionally adjusted to this change, with the most poignant example being when the Spaniards learn that a single brigantine in Tenochtitlan contains enough gunpowder and food for sustain them all for a long time (though not always - you can clearly count eleven ships in the harbor of Veracruz, when one of them would have been enough for the Spanish expedition seen in this series).

* In the series, the expedition has at least one big, angry dog that scares the natives away. In real life, while those were popular as war beasts in the Spanish Conquest of America for the mentioned reason, the Cortés expedition didn't carry them. They only had a hunting bitch originally belonging to a previous expedition which they found on their way to Mexico.
* It's notable that, although he later changes his opinion, Alvarado is initially racist, refusing to take a native woman or to mingle with the natives in any way by no clear reason, and some other conquistadores even use racial slurs against Aztecs, calling them monkeys. Portraying conquistadores as racists is popular in media, but it is a enormous case of AnachronismStew given that beliefs of the like would not appear until the Enlightening (that, or mestizaje happened because zoophilia was somehow in vogue in Castile). Moreover, in real life, by this point Alvarado had been living for a decade in Cuba and Hispaniola, so it would have been definitely odd for a known ladies man like him to keep this attitude.
* The series perpetuates the DatedHistory trivia that the Aztecs believed Cortés to be Quetzalcoatl, which has been disproven many times as the work of Christian chroniclers messing things up. Amusingly, the line from Díaz's chronicle where Moctezuma states they are all men (and thus knows perfectly that the foreign ''teules'' are of flesh and blood) is given here to Cortés (as a way to clear out the misunderstanding).

* The series shows the UsefulNotes/SpanishInquisition using casually the term "pagan" for Muslims, a custom that in real life would be a huge archaism, and also for crypto-Muslims as an exchangeable word with "heretic", which is just plain wrong (you could not be a pagan and a heretic at the same time).
* The mentioned inquisition appears in pop culture's favorite incarnation, that is, gleefully torturing people into confessing their sins, and it takes a young, idealistic Hernán to say that "nobody gets closer to God by torture". In real life, the torture used by the inquisition was a remnant from lay justice (which used it much more liberally), and it was used in relatively few cases, with the extra limitation that solely confessing under torture was not enough "proof" by itself. In the case seen in the series, it seems Gonzalo told the priest how and where to find evidence of the misdeed, which would have probably eliminated the need to employ torture at all: if it was the first time the family was tried, which is strongly implied, they would be advised to confess, take the punishment (which would not be a death sentence) and call it a day, especially because Muslims, unlike Jews, weren't severely persecuted at the time.
* When Cortés asks Moctezuma to pledge loyalty to King UsefulNotes/CharlesV, Moctezuma counters by asking him how would his soldiers feel if asked to become slaves, which is apparently meant to be an ArmorPiercingQuestion given the Spaniard's reaction. In reality, the comparison is tone-deaf in a number of ways, the first of them being that, as a ruler who had both vassals and slaves under his command, and in a society where this mere difference may be literally a life or death situation, Moctezuma should really know better. It's interesting to say that in real life, Moctezuma ultimately accepted the vassalage, or at least so he claimed, with full knowledge that by doing so the Mexicas were formally becoming Spanish citizens and therefore not enslavable (except in case of high treason) and that he and his elite would stay in their thrones, things that the fictional Cortés should have brought up.

* Cortés' whole background in the series, that of having been in love with a Muslim girl who was caught by the Spanish Inquisition, which apparently instigated a certain disdain for Christian authority on him, is pure fantasy. The real Cortés was a fervent Christian, sometimes to the chagrin of his own religious advisor Friar Bartolomé de Olmedo, and was not known to have any similar anecdote. The series also has the young Cortés fascinated with the Indies, although it doesn't mention that he also considered a military career with UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba in Italy.

* Pedro de Alvarado is portrayed literally as a loose cannon, as he even crashes the first meeting with indigenous ambassadors by shooting a cannon to amuse himself. Jokes aside, the series generally paints him a pathetic, psychotic drunkard who often seems genuinely out of control and begs the question of why does Cortés have him as his second-in-command in the first place. In real life, while most sources do agree Alvarado was a volatile, cruel person who wasn't the brightest bulb in the box, they also describe him as an exemplar soldier and lieutenant, as well as a bit of a dandy, just the opposite to his disheveled, barbarian version here.
* In a particular example of the previous, Alvarado has a troubled relationship with Bernal Díaz del Castillo, who is disgusted by his brutal ways, especially since Alvarado even tries to force him to kill a little boy ForTheEvulz. In real life, while Díaz's writings show a certain snark towards Alvarado’s lack of finesse, he didn't have a special dislike of him and there was no incident of this kind.
* Cristóbal de Olid appears here as a deeply conflicted character, stiff and by-the-book but at the same time very emotional and doubtful, who works directly for Governor Velázquez and only follows Cortés's maverick ways kicking and screaming. Nothing in this characterization echoes the historical figure described by Díaz del Castillo and other sources, where he appears instead as an affable, efficient captain, supportive of Cortés to the end of the conquest of the Mexicas, who only betrayed him much later due to an excess of ambition (and it's notable that Díaz himself spares him a lot of criticism, almost lamenting that Olid was ultimately a too proud man who received the wrong advice by the wrong people).

* In the series, Xicohtencatl the Elder seems to be the supreme lord of Tlaxcala, with Maxixcatzin being clearly subordinated to him. In real life, they were more or less equals, and there is the implication that in fact Maxixcazin was the most influential of the two (he housed Cortés in his palace, for instance, while Xicohtencatl housed Alvarado in his own). If Xicohtencatl ended up being the most politically relevant of the two was mostly because he had several sons heavily involved in the war (not just Xicohtencatl the Younger) and obviously because Maxixcatzin died of Spanish smallpox during the siege of Tenochtitlan.
* The portrayal of Xicohtencatl the Elder also clearly goes for the creepiest outlook possible, with his sinister, deadly serenity and his asymmetric blind eyes. In real life, although he was certainly very old and blind, Xicohtencatl was seen by the Spaniards as a CoolOldGuy, being usually very charming and funny (and not coincidentally, also being the first tlatoani to convert to Christianity). After signing their alliance with the Spaniards, he was apparently so happy to have the powerful foreigner in his side that he had his throne placed next to Cortés' and passed the feast constantly feeling the Spaniard's face and beard.

* The founding of Veracruz and the breakup from Governor Velázquez are portrayed as a massive con, and even a bit PlayedForLaughs, with Cortés and Alvarado obviously making up laws on the fly and babbling about King Alfonso X with the confidence nobody in the camp has enough real knowledge to contradict them. In real life, although the whole thing was sketchy, the expeditioners had a legal point and were in fact exploiting an existent loophole, which eventually got their move officially sanctioned by King UsefulNotes/CharlesV.

* The whole duel between Cortés and Xicohtencatl the Younger, in which the former gets captured after sparing his rival and has his horse beheaded to spite him, followed by a timely eclipse that saves the Spaniards, is entirely fictional. No eclipse happened during the conquest of the Mexica Empire or beforehand.

* Related to the previous point, the series strongly suggests that the "alliance" with Cortés was more of an embarrassing "beating into submission" for the Tlaxcaltecs, with Xicohtencatl the Elder looking completely miserable when signing their pact and giving their daughters away. You can also note it in their auxiliar warriors, who seem to hate the Spaniards as much as they hate the Mexicas. In real life, while one can always doubt that things happened exactly as Spaniards or mestizos claim, that the Tlaxcaltecs embraced wholeheartedly the alliance with them is out of the any question: not only they actively eased things into solidifying their union, but they also basically became the benefactors of the Spaniards for the rest of the Conquest of America, working as a bottomless source of reinforcements and helping them conquer the Mayans and the Philippines, and in turn receiving ungodly political benefits from them (and even centuries later, during the UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWarsOfIndependence, Tlaxcala still had a reputation to be a strongly royalist state).

* The series gives a hyperinflated importance to the Massacre of Cholula, which is portrayed as a disastrous decision, initially conceived as a countertrap to a Cholultec ambush, where the Spaniards ended up butchering women and children because yolo and ultimately left Cortés, Díaz, Olid and everybody traumatized by their own actions. All of this drama is entirely fictional; contrary to popular belief, the massacre remained relatively surgical on the Spaniards' part, taking great efforts to kill only the combatants that were involved in the ambush (their Tlaxcaltec allies did want to RapePillageAndBurn and indulged quite a bit on it, but Cortés prevented and undid what he could), and in fact, it left the city operational enough for it to be later recruited in Cortés' anti-Mexica coalition, from which it never break away. Díaz himself mentions it in his writings, and although he admits the whole thing was a cold-hearted thing to do and left an awful rap among chroniclers, he states the attack was controlled, adding that the Cholultecs themselves accepted their fault and never really made a big fuss about the move.

* Cortés arrests Moctezuma with the excuse that two racist soldiers (!) were killed by Mexica warriors while flirting with native women. In real life, he did it because the Mexica had attacked the Totonacs and killed Juan de Escalante, the mayor of Veracruz, and it were rather his captains who pressed him into doing it.

* In the series, Cortés and company storm Narváez's tent and find him surrendering, only for it to be a trap and an attempt on Cortés' life, after which the Cortesians gouge one of Narváez's eyes in revenge. In real life, Cortés wasn't present when Narváez was captured and there were no theatrics or traps involved; Narváez lost the eye by a pike wound.

* The portrayal of Moctezuma's death seems to be a mix of historical versions with some original details added. Moctezuma is stoned by his people (like most versions claim, including Díaz del Castillo), but he also falls off the wall (which is original to this series), and after some days, he states he wants to die (echoing Díaz's writings, where Friar Bartolomé speculates Moctezuma committed suicide with poison) and later asks Cortés to stab him so he can die the death of a warrior (which is also fictional, but echoes now a Mexica claim recorded by Creator/BernardinoDeSahagun that the Spaniards stabbed Moctezuma to death). Also, in this version, Moctezuma comes out to the wall alone, when in real life he was accompanied by ''rodeleros'' that tried unsuccessfully to shield him from the stones.
* In the series, Cortés orders Cacama and all the other Mexica hostages to be executed before exiting the palace (adding to a previous scene where he threatens Moctezuma with killing all of his family). In real life, Mexica sources accuse him of this, while Spanish and mestizo sources assure that the Cortesians took all the hostages with them and it were in fact the Mexica who indiscriminately killed everybody they could reach during the Sad Night.

* In the series, Cortés orders callously the Tlaxcaltecs to be the last section in their column to exit Tenochtitlan, clearly not caring about them as much as the rest of his people (though it's hard to blame him, seeing how hostile Xicohtencatl the Younger and his people are in this version). In real life, there was no conscious difference, and Spaniards and Tlaxcaltecs went out mixed up in several sections. In fact, Cortés trusted the Tlaxcaltecs so much that he put them in charge of guarding the hostages and protecting the women, and after fleeing the disaster of the Sad Night, he had the Spaniards of Díaz del Castillo's squadron march forming a circle around the wounded Tlaxcaltecs to protect them with their superior armor.

* It's notable that, although he later changes his opinion, Alvarado is initially racist, refusing to take a native woman or to mingle with the natives in any way by no clear reason, and some other conquistadores even use racial slurs against Aztecs, calling them monkeys. Portraying conquistadores as racists is popular in media, but it is a enormous case of AnachronismStew given that beliefs of the like would not appear until the Enlightening. Moreover, in real life, by this point Alvarado had been living for a decade in Cuba and Hispaniola, so it would have been definitely odd for him to keep this attitude.
* The series perpetuates the DatedHistory trivia that the Aztecs believed Cortés to be Quetzalcoatl, which has been disproven many times as the work of Christian chroniclers messing things up. Amusingly, the line from Díaz's chronicle where ''Moctezuma'' states they are all men is given here to Cortés as a way to clear out the misunderstanding.

* The mentioned inquisition appears in pop culture's favorite incarnation, that is, gleefully torturing people into confessing their sins, and it takes a young, idealistic Hernán to say that "nobody gets closer to God by torture". In real life, the torture used by the inquisition was a remnant from lay justice (which used it much more liberally), and it was used in relatively few cases, with the extra limitation that solely confessing under torture was not enough "proof" by itself. In the case seen in the series, it seems Gonzalo told the priest how and where to find evidence of the misdeed, which would have probably eliminated the need to employ torture at all: if it was the first time the family was tried, which is strongly implied, they would be advised to confess, take the punishment (which would not be a death sentence) and call themselves lucky, especially because ''moriscos'', unlike Jews, weren't severely persecuted at he time.

* Cortés' whole background in the series, that of having been in love with a Muslim girl who was caught by the Spanish Inquisition, which apparently instigated a certain disdain for Christian authority on him, is pure fantasy. The real Cortés was a fervent Christian, sometimes to the chagrin of his own religious advisor Friar Bartolomé de Olmedo, and was not known to have any anecdote similar. The series also has the young Cortés fascinated with the Indies, although it doesn't mention that he also considered a military career with UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba in Italy.
* Contrary to what the mentioned background shows, Cortés and Sandoval weren't childhood friends with only a few years of age difference. Cortés was 12 whole years his senior.
* The real Cortés did trust heavily on Marina's knowledge on native politics, but by all accounts, he was himself a skilled, charming planner. In contrast, the series makes Cortés an erratic if charismatic hustler with absolutely no sense of diplomacy whose mistakes come often from not listening to her.
* Oddly enough, the series also portrays Cortés as a bit of a fop, wearing rich clothing, constantly doing elegant contemplative poses, and being followed by a slave with a prim and proper parasol. The real Cortés was reportedly the direct opposite of this, to the point after the conquest, his own lieutenants sometimes had to insist him to take more aristocratic customs in order to get respected by his countrymen.
* Speaking of the slave, in real life Cortés owned slaves, but no source mentions he brought any of them in his own entourage to this expedition. The character might be a reference to Juan Garrido, a famous conquistador negro who was part of the expedition, although Garrido was a free man and did not directly serve under Cortés (not at this point, at least).
* Pedro de Alvarado is portrayed literally as a loose cannon, as he even crashes the first meeting with indigenous ambassadors by shooting a cannon to amuse himself. Jokes aside, the series generally paints him a pathetic, psychotic drunkard who often seems genuinely out of control and begs the question of why does Cortés have him as his second-in-command in the first place. In real life, while most sources do agree Alvarado was a volatile, cruel person who wasn't the brightest bulb in the box, they also describe him as an exemplar soldier and lieutenant, as well as a bit of a dandy, just the opposite to the disheveled, barbarian-like appearance chosen for him in the series.
* In a particular example of the previous, Alvarado has a troubled relationship with Bernal Díaz del Castillo, who is disgusted by his brutal ways, especially since Alvarado even tries to force him to kill a little child ForTheEvulz. In real life, while Díaz's writings show a certain snark towards Alvarado’s lack of finesse, he didn't have a special dislike of him and there was no incident of this kind.
* Cristóbal de Olid appears here as a conflicted, by-the-book conquistador, with a very fragile personality and lots of inner doubts towards everything, who works directly for Governor Velázquez and only obeys Cortés kicking and screaming. Nothing in this characterization echoes the historical figure described by Díaz del Castillo and other sources, where he appears instead as cold, efficient captain, supportive of Cortés to the end of the conquest of the Mexicas, who only betrayed him later due to an excess of ambition.
* Olid's wife was named Felipa, not Juana, and they didn't marry until after the conquest of the Mexica Empire.

* The real Blas Botello was an astrologer and obtained prophecies through arithmancy, and Díaz describes him as a cultured, polite guy. His version in the series seems to be rather a mentally insane person who suffers from terrible visions and seems barely functional as a soldier.
* In the series, Xicohtencatl the Elder seems to be the supreme lord of Tlaxcala, with Maxixcatzin being clearly subordinated to him. In real life, they were more or less equals, and there is the implication that in fact Maxixcazin was the most influential of the two (he housed Cortés in his palace, for instance, while Xicohtencatl housed Alvarado in his own). If Xicohtencatl ended up being the most historically relevant of the two was mostly because he had several sons heavily involved in the war (not just Xicohtencatl the Younger) and because Maxixcatzin died of Spanish smallpox during the siege of Tenochtitlan.

* The series has Xicohtencatl the Younger acting with full approval from the lords of Tlaxcala in the battles against Cortés, who only gets the Tlaxcaltecs open to negotiate by sheer insistence. In real life, the lords of Tlaxcala became open to diplomacy very early, but Xicohtencatl disobeyed their orders and kept warring until the lords became involved and the whole thing fell down (or so they claimed, anyway).

* Bernal Díaz del Castillo never marries a Mexica noblewoman in the series.
* The role of Moctezuma's daughter Tecuichpo, baptized Isabel, is played by an unrelated, presumably fictional daughter baptized Ana.

* In the series, Cortés wants to go to Tenochtitlan by way of Huejotzingo, but Xicohtencatl the Younger convinces him to go by way of Cholula so they can strategically conquer it. In real life, it was exactly backwards: the lords of Tlaxcala wanted Cortés to go through the allied state of Huejotzingo so they could properly supply and cover him, while Cortés wanted to see Cholula so they could probe Montezuma's forces. Xicohtencatl the Younger, as mentioned above, had nothing to do with this and didn't go with Cortés. The line about not letting Moctezuma believe they are cowards, in fact, was Cortés', not his.
* The series gives a hyperinflated importance to the Massacre of Cholula, which is portrayed as a disastrous decision, initially conceived as a countertrap to a Cholultec ambush, where the Spaniards ended up butchering women and children because yolo and ultimately left Cortés, Díaz, Olid and everybody traumatized by their own actions. All of this drama is entirely fictional; contrary to popular belief, the massacre was apparently relatively surgical, with the Cortesians taking great efforts to kill only the combatants that were involved in the ambush (their Tlaxcaltec allies did want to absolutely wreak havoc, but Cortés managed to avoid a lot of it), and in fact, it left the city operational enough for it to be later recruited in Cortés' anti-Mexica coalition, from which it never break away. Díaz himself mentions it in his writings, and although he admits the whole thing was a cold-hearted thing to do and left an awful rap among chroniclers, he defends the decision, even stating that the Cholultecs themselves accepted their fault and never really made a big fuss about the move.

* Cortés arrests Moctezuma with the excuse that two racist soldiers (!) were killed by Mexica warriors while flirting with native women. In real life, he did it because Mexica warriors had attacked the Totonacs and killed Juan de Escalante, the mayor of Veracruz, and it were rather his captains who pressed him into doing it.

* Cristóbal de Olid zealously proposes to execute Alvarado to appease the Mexica, even first proposing to garrote him as a vulgar thief. There is no evidence that Olid ever proposed this, or that he could be so disdainful to Alvarado at all.
* In real life, the Cortesians didn't remain as much time in the Axayacatl Palace as to completely run out of food and gunpowder, and they definitely didn't sacrifice time to melt the gold.
* The portrayal of Moctezuma's death seems to be a mix of historical versions with some original details added. Moctezuma is stoned by his people (like most versions claim, including Díaz del Castillo), but he also falls off the wall (which is original to this series), and after some days, he states he wants to die (echoing Díaz's writings, where Friar Bartolomé speculates Moctezuma committed suicide with poison) and later asks Cortés to stab him so he can die the death of a warrior (which is also fictional, but echoes a Mexica claim recorded by Creator/BernardinoDeSahagun that the Spaniards stabbed Moctezuma to death). Also, in this version, Moctezuma comes out to the wall alone, when in real life he was accompanied by ''rodeleros'' that tried unsuccessfully to shield him from the stones.
* In the series, Cortés orders Cacama and all the other Mexica hostages to be executed before exiting the palace (adding to a previous scene where he threatens Moctezuma with killing all of his family). In real life, Mexica sources accuse him of this, while Spanish and mestizo sources assure that the Cortesians took all the hostages with them and it were in fact the Mexica who indiscriminately killed everybody during the Sad Night.

* Oddly, this version of the Sad Night ends literally BehindTheBlack: Cortés goes unconscious during the scuffles, and when he wakes up next morning, the survivors are all waking up at the same time in the lake's beach, without no explanation of how did they survive without Cortés' command or why weren't the Mexicas chasing the heck out of them by sea and land. In real life, it goes without saying no Spaniard of Tlaxcaltec slept that night, or stopped running for their lives, and in fact the battle continued on the beach after crossing the bridge. The Cortesians only escaped because the Tlaxcaltec guides knew well enough the place to guide them away from the Mexica roads.

* In the series, Cortés orders all the Tlaxcaltec hostages to be gruesomely mutilated, with their noses and hands cut off, before sending them home as a warning to stop the hostilities. The real Cortés could have hardly attracted Tlaxcala's loyalty by showing a front that was savage even by the standards of Mesoamerican warfare; he only did it once, with a batch of natives that turned out to be spies working for Xicohtencatl the Younger, and it comprised solely cutting hands or thumbs. Otherwise, according to the sources, it was precisely Cortés’ excellent treatment of his hostages, constantly sending them home fed and unharmed, which finally convinced Tlaxcala that he was not out for blood against them.
* Related to the previous point, the series strongly suggests that the "alliance" with Cortés was more of an embarrassing "beating into submission" for the Tlaxcaltecs, with Xicohtencatl the Elder looking completely miserable when signing their pact and giving their daughters away. You can also note it in their auxiliar warriors, who seem to hate the Spaniards as much as they hate the Mexicas. In real life, while one can always doubt that things happened exactly as Spaniards or mestizos claim, that the Tlaxcaltecs embraced wholeheartedly the alliance with them is out of the any question: not only they actively eased things into solidifying their union, but they also basically became the benefactors of the Spaniards for the rest of the Conquest of America, working as a bottomless source of reinforcements and helping them conquer the Mayans and the Philippines, and in turn receiving ungodly political benefits from them (and even centuries later, during the UsefulNotes/WarsOfAmericanIndependence, Tlaxcala still had a reputation to be a strongly royalist state).

* Oddly, this version of the Sad Night ends literally BehindTheBlack: Cortés goes unconscious during the scuffles, and when he wakes up next morning, the survivors are all waking up at the same time in the lake's beach, without no explanation of how did they survive without Cortés' command or why weren't the Mexicas chasing the heck out of them by sea and land. In real life, it goes without saying no Spaniard of Tlaxcaltec slept that night, or stopped running for their lives, and in fact the battle continued on the beach after crossing the bridge. The Cortesians only escaped because the Tlaxcaltec guides knew well enough the place to guide them away from the Mexica roads.

* Cortés' whole background in the series, that of having been in love with a Muslim girl who was caught by the UsefulNotes/SpanishInquisition, which apparently instigated a certain disdain for Christian authority on him, is pure fantasy. The real Cortés was a fervent Christian, sometimes to the chagrin of his own religious advisor Friar Bartolomé de Olmedo, and was not known to have any anecdote similar. The series also has the young Cortés fascinated with the Indies, although it doesn't mention that he also considered a military career with UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba in Italy.

* The real Blas Botello was an astrologer and obtained prophecies through arithmancy. His version in the series seems to be rather a mentally insane person who suffers from terrible visions and seems barely functional as a soldier.

* Moctezuma is played by Dagoberto Gama, who is much stockier than the real Montezuma was described to be. In contrast, Xicomecoatl was morbidly obese in real life, to the point he could barely walk, but is played by the not much heavier Silverio Palacios.

* The whole duel between Cortés and Xicohtencatl, in which the former gets captured after sparing his rival and has his horse beheaded to spite him, followed by a timely eclipse that saves the Spaniards, is entirely fictional. No eclipse happened during the conquest of the Mexica Empire or beforehand.

* Cristóbal de Olid zealously proposes to execute Alvarado to appease the Mexica, even first proposing to garrote him as a vulgar thief. There is no evidence that Olid ever proposed this, or that he could be so disdainful to Alvarado at all.