History Main / HistoricalVillainDowngrade

* ''Film/{{Downfall}}'': Hermann Fegelein is a self-serving opportunist, but he's still portrayed with some sympathy as a man who doesn't want to die for a megalomaniacal dictator's delusions and tries to get other people to come to their senses and flee Berlin before it's too late. The real Fegelein certainly didn't become Heinrich Himmler's adjutant by being a nice person with concern for others. In reality, in his role as the commander of the SS Cavalry Brigade, he committed severe war crimes, such as killing at least 17,000 Soviet Jews in the Pripyat swamps of Ukraine in 1941. He was also corrupt even by the standards of the SS, and one of the main sources for his personal wealth had been the plunder of valuables his unit encountered on the Eastern Front ''by truckload''. To top it all off, Albert Speer described him as the most [[{{jerkass}} personally]] [[TheFriendNobodyLikes loathsome]] member of Hitler's inner circle. While his infamous reputation is alluded to in the generals' disdain for him, none of his actual misdeeds are ever brought up.

* The SS camp commander Amon Göth in ''Film/SchindlersList'' is an AxCrazy, [[PsychopathicManchild overgrown child]] who uses the Holocaust to indulge in murder and seemingly does everything in his power to cement himself as an [[CompleteMonster irredeemably evil piece of work]]. The real life Göth was even worse. Spielberg had to tone down the man's senseless cruelty because his crimes were so horrible and numerous (which included a frequently-used TortureCellar built under his house, feeding prisoners ''alive'' to his starved dogs, shooting playing children with his sniper rifle, personally killing five hundred people, and more) that it was thought [[RealityIsUnrealistic an audience simply wouldn't have believed it on screen]]. Some had trouble even grasping that a lunatic such as the one shown in the movie could keep his job. (Incidentally, the real Göth was relieved from his duty in 1944 for embezzlement.)

* In the TV version of ''Literature/GenerationKill'', there is a minor character who told the POV group that [[PoorCommunicationKills Delta Company attacked a civilian hamlet because of cultural differences]]. The aftermath of this firefight is not described, though Fox News reporter Oliver North ([[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Yes,]] ''[[KarmaHoudini that]]'' [[KarmaHoudini Oliver North]] is said to be filming the incident. The author of ''Generation Kill'' [[http://rense.com/general63/genkill.htm later divulged]] that the real incident was far worse than the show's description: it caused massive casualties and Oliver North is said to be eager to take part in the attack himself.

* In the TV version of ''Literature/GenerationKill'', there is a minor character who told the POV group that [[PoorCommunicationKills Delta Company attacked a civilian hamlet because of cultural differences]]. The aftermath of this firefight is not described, though Fox News reporter Oliver North is said to be filming the incident. The author of ''Generation Kill'' [[http://rense.com/general63/genkill.htm later divulged]] that the real incident was far worse than the show's description: it caused massive casualties and Oliver North is said to be eager to take part in the attack himself.

* ''Film/CatchMeIfYouCan'': The movie ignores Abagnale's cons he pulled on ordinary people, most notably the Campbell family who he wined and dined with their own money. There's also no mention of his sexual abuse crimes; he once infiltrated a college posing as a doctor hired by Panam. However, he wasn't trying to recruit various female students to become stewardesses as part of some clever DistractedByTheSexy scheme against the FBI, he was just there to perform "physical examinations" on them.

* ''Film/CatchMeIfYouCan'': The movie ignores Abagnale's cons he pulled on ordinary people, most notably the Campbell family who he wined and dined with their own money. There's also no mention of his sexual abuse crimes; he once infiltrated a college posing as a doctor hired by Panam. However, he wasn't trying to recruit various female students to become stewardesses as part of some scheme against the FBI, he was just there to perform "physical examinations" on them.

'''Florence:''' I don't care. ''(Picking up a plushie)'' [[AdolfHitlarious Hitler shouldn't be cute]]. And he ''definitely'' shouldn't [[Literature/{{Twilight}} sparkle]]!

* The book ''Resurrection Man'' glosses over some of [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles Lenny Murphy's]] worse actions with its fictionalised version of him, such as his murder of an intellectually disabled young man or some of his more brutal actions [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing his victims to death]]. Of course, since the book is still about a man who murders brutally murders Catholics for no reason other than their religion, this doesn't really do much to make the protagonist more likeable.

* The book ''Literature/ResurrectionMan'' glosses over some of [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles Lenny Murphy's]] worse actions with its fictionalised version of him, such as his murder of an intellectually disabled young man or some of his more brutal actions [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing his victims to death]]. Of course, since the book is still about a man who murders brutally murders Catholics for no reason other than their religion, this doesn't really do much to make the protagonist more likeable.

* The book Resurrection Man glosses over some of [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles Lenny Murphy's]] worse actions with its fictionalised version of him, such as his murder of an intellectually disabled young man or some of his more brutal actions [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing his victims to death]]. Of course, since the book is still about a man who murders brutally murders Catholics for no reason other than their religion, this doesn't really do much to make the protagonist more likeable.

Note that this trope ''isn't'' the same as HistoricalHeroUpgrade. That trope is when you turn a historical-domain character (whether he was really nice or not) into a full-on Hollywood-style hero. This trope is when you tone down some of the worst actions of your historical-domain character, but keep him as a villain.

* While the gang itself is correctly portrayed as a bunch of vicious morons in ''Film/PainAndGain'', individually speaking, Adrian was much more of an [[AxCrazy unstable lunatic]] in real life.

[[folder:Common Examples]]
* For obvious reasons, UsefulNotes/FascistItaly is hardly ever portrayed in a positive light these days, but it tends to be portrayed as a relatively lesser evil than it was in reality. While its totalitarianism and imperialistic tendencies generally don't get glossed over, it's typically not depicted as being especially brutal or bloody, presumably at least partly due to the atrocities of its allies UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan being far more dominant in the popular imagination. In truth, while they may not have been quite on their level, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_war_crimes#World_War_II the Italians did commit serious war crimes]], particularly in Ethiopia, Yugoslavia and Greece. Not only that, but after the Nazis had established the Italian Social Republic in 1943, many of the Italian police and Fascists directly assisted the Holocaust (before that, the Italian Jews had not been killed, though subject to segregation laws modeled on those of Germany). The situation there was mixed though, as the Italian Fascists were not officially antisemitic prior to 1938 (although they had antisemitic members) and some Jews were even Fascists (along with anti-Fascists, of course). However, a significant number were increasingly aligned with the Nazis as part of the Axis, resulting in the antisemitic laws and eventually assisting the Holocaust.
* General Robert Lee often gets this treatment (especially in the South), mainly due to him [[NobleConfederateSoldier having something of an honorable streak]]. Despite this, he still did some pretty terrible things (such as re-enslaving slaves that had escaped or joined the Union). Also while he did free his own slaves eventually, it was done entirely because his father's will required they be freed within five years of his death. He also had the slaves his wife inherited from her father flogged when they escaped prior to being freed (in his father-in-law's will, similarly) because he refused to let them go early. Although Lee did oppose slavery, this was in the abstract, not practically. Many fictional portrayals mention his opposition while omitting the rest.
* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII stories often give Imperial Japan this treatment. However, the frank truth is that they, much like the Nazis, were a brutal dictatorship who, among other things, were extremely racist towards non-Japanese Asians, committed countless atrocities like torture, human experimentation, cannibalism, chemical and biological warfare, sexual slavery, and numerous massacres, as well as thinking that [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming being defeated was the most dishonorable thing imaginable and thus treated prisoners and conquered people as badly as they could.]]
* UsefulNotes/KingJohnOfEngland, in the vast majority of Myth/RobinHood stories, tends to get cleaned up a bit for family audiences. For sure, he'll be a villainous git who is petty, spiteful, and a PsychopathicManChild (attributes that are cited to have been very true to his character in real life), and he'll attempt to usurp the throne while his brother is off fighting in the Crusades, as he did in real life. But since the stories tend to focus on this era and this act, they don't get around to what John did after Richard died and he became king properly, which includes (but aren't limited to), marrying a girl who was only 12-15 years old (and though some might assume ValuesDissonance is in play, even at the time people were disturbed by how young she was), subjecting his young wife to DomesticAbuse, killing his young nephew Arthur (allegedly, he personally killed Arthur with a rock then dumped his body in a river) and imprisoned his niece Eleanor for life because they were potential claimants to the throne, auctioning off widows to fill the state’s coffers, abusing his authority as king so much that the barons of England pushed a charter to reign him in (the famous Magna Carta), ''breaking'' said charter almost immediately, repeatedly raping the daughters of his barons until it led to a full-scale civil war, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking being such a bad military and state strategist it led to the collapse of his family's empire and the loss of their lands in France]]. Some adaptations will at least portray him as a sleazy creep who'll try to rape Maid Marian (which in itself started with a play based on his alleged rape attempts of Matilda Fitzwalter, daughter of Robert Fitzwalter, who is sometimes inferred to be the "real life" Marian), but it's rare they'll go as far as to ''succeed'' in this effort.
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* The SS camp commander Amon Göth in ''Film/SchindlersList'' is an AxCrazy, [[PsychopathicManchild overgrown child]] who uses the Holocaust to indulge in murder and seemingly does everything in his power to cement himself as an [[CompleteMonster irredeemably evil piece of work]]. The real life Göth was even worse. Spielberg had to tone down the man's senseless cruelty because his crimes were so horrible and numerous (which included a frequently-used TortureCellar built under his house, feeding prisoners ''alive'' to his starved dogs, shooting playing children with his sniper rifle, personally killing five hundred people, and more) that it was thought [[RealityIsUnrealistic an audience simply wouldn't have believed it on screen]]. Some had trouble even grasping that a lunatic such as the one shown in the movie could keep his job. (Incidentally, the real Göth was relieved from his duty in 1944 for [[JusticeByOtherLegalMeans embezzlement]].)

* The SS camp commander Amon Göth in ''Film/SchindlersList'' is an AxCrazy, [[PsychopathicManchild overgrown child]] who uses the Holocaust to indulge in murder and seemingly does everything in his power to cement himself as an [[CompleteMonster irredeemably evil piece of work]]. The real life Göth was even worse. Spielberg had to tone down the man's senseless cruelty because his crimes were so horrible and numerous (which included a frequently-used TortureCellar built under his house, [[FedToTheBeast feeding prisoners]] ''alive'' to his [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals starved dogs]], shooting [[WouldHurtAChild playing children]] with his sniper rifle, personally killing five hundred people, and more) that it was thought [[RealityIsUnrealistic an audience simply wouldn't have believed it on screen]]. Some had trouble even grasping that a lunatic such as the one shown in ''the movie'' could keep his job. (Incidentally, the real Göth was relieved from his duty in 1944 for [[JusticeByOtherLegalMeans embezzlement]].)

* The SS camp commander Amon Göth in ''Film/SchindlersList'' is an AxCrazy, [[PsychopathicManchild overgrown child]] who uses the Holocaust to indulge in murder and seemingly does [[ForTheEvulz everything]] [[DisproportionateRetribution in]] [[EvilIsPetty his]] [[RedemptionRejection power]] to cement himself as an [[CompleteMonster irredeemably evil piece of work]], even among the SS. The real life Göth was '''''[[UpToEleven even worse]]'''''. Spielberg had to tone down the man's senseless cruelty because his crimes were so horrible and numerous (which included a frequently-used TortureCellar built under his house, [[FedToTheBeast feeding prisoners]] ''alive'' to his [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals starved dogs]], shooting [[WouldHurtAChild playing children]] with his sniper rifle, personally killing five hundred people, and more) that it was thought [[RealityIsUnrealistic an audience simply wouldn't have believed it on screen]]. Some had trouble even grasping that a lunatic such as the one shown in ''the movie'' could keep his job. (Incidentally, the real Göth was relieved from his duty in 1944 for [[JusticeByOtherLegalMeans embezzlement]].)

** The Empire of the Rising Sun in ''[=RA3=]'' are clearly modeled after [[UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan Imperialist Japan]], which in real life was infamous for its war crimes, which include pointless mass murders by the hundreds of thousands, enslavement of tens of thousands of women as sex slaves, and performing medical experiments on prisoners from their colonies that killed thousands of people. Even the whole honor aspect that's presented as a joke in the game was a scary thing in real life: they considered surrender dishonorable and would execute enemies who surrendered or use them as slave labor, and fed their civilians propaganda about the Allies that drove them to commit suicide by the tens of thousands when America invaded the Japanese home islands. All of these thing are of course never brought up in the game and the Empire is simply presented as an over-the-top comedic organization, though interestingly it is brought up in an in-progress mod called ''VideoGame/RedAlert3Paradox'' where in the mod's version of ''[=RA3=]'' events, the Empire butchered a major Soviet city.

* The SS camp commander Amon Göth in ''Film/SchindlersList'' is an AxCrazy individual who uses the Holocaust to indulge in murder. The real life Göth was ''even worse'': Spielberg had to tone down the man's senseless cruelty because his crimes were so horrible and numerous (which included a frequently-used TortureCellar built under his house, feeding prisoners ''alive'' to his starved dogs, shooting playing children with his sniper rifle, personally killing five hundred people, and more) that it was thought [[RealityIsUnrealistic an audience simply wouldn't have believed it on screen]] - some had trouble even grasping that a lunatic such as the one shown in the movie could keep his job, even in the SS. (Incidentally the real Göth was relieved from his duty in 1944 for embezzlement.)

* Tibeats and the Epps in ''Film/TwelveYearsASlave'' managed to be ''even worse'' in real life than in the film. For instance, the film omits a later scuffle between Northrup and Tibeats that ended with Tibeats chasing Northrup with an axe, while (contrary to the film where Patsey tries to bribe Northrup to kill her) Mrs. Epps tried to bribe Northrup to kill Patsey.

** Downplayed with Lavrentiy Beria; even in a cast full of unlikable {{Villain Protagonist}}s, he stands out from the rest due to being a depraved sexual predator who has not a single redeeming quality. This is accurate to real life, but according to the director, they actually had to ''tone him down for the movie''. For example, even ''Stalin'' himself was wary of him: after learning his daughter was alone with Beria at his house, he telephoned her and told her to leave immediately, and Beria even gloated about Stalin's death in real life, even going so far as to brag that he killed him.

* Nero appeared on one of Sherman and Peabody's segments of ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'', where he was presented as NotEvilJustMisunderstood. [[spoiler:His ''music teacher'' started the Great Fire of Rome in this reality.]] Though it perhaps bears mentioning that the true extent of Nero's culpability is not at all clear, as discussed in detail on the HistoryMarchesOn page, so this might be an unintentional subversion.

* UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler gets this treatment in some of the endings to ''VideoGame/TitanicAdventureOutOfTime''. [[spoiler:Leaving with the painting results in it becoming famous as the only relic that was saved from the sinking ship. It's creator, Hitler, becomes a famous painter, never rising to becoming the leader of the Nazi party.]] In all other endings where [[spoiler:the painting is not saved]], Hitler rises to power.

* UsefulNotes/KingJohnOfEngland, in the vast majority of Myth/RobinHood stories, tends to get cleaned up a bit for family audiences. For sure, he'll be a villainous git who is petty, spiteful, and a PsychopathicManChild (attributes that are cited to have been very true to his character in real life), and he'll attempt to usurp the throne while his brother is off fighting in the Crusades, as he did in real life. But since the stories tend to focus on this era and this act, they don't get around to what John did after Richard died and he became king properly, which includes (but aren't limited to), marrying a girl who was only 12-15 years old (and though some might assume ValuesDissonance is in play, even at the time people were disturbed by how young she was), subjecting his young wife to DomesticAbuse, killing his young nephew Arthur (allegedly, he personally killed Arthur with a rock then dumped his body in a river) and imprisoned his niece Eleanor for life because they were potential claimants to the throne, abusing his authority as king so much that the barons of England pushed a charter to reign him in (the famous Magna Carta), ''breaking'' said charter almost immediately, repeatedly raping the daughters of his barons until it led to a full-scale civil war, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking being such a bad military and state strategist it led to the collapse of his family's empire and the loss of their lands in France]]. Some adaptations will at least portray him as a sleazy creep who'll try to rape Maid Marian (which in itself started with a play based on his alleged rape attempts of Matilda Fitzwalter, daughter of Robert Fitzwalter, who is sometimes inferred to be the "real life" Marian), but it's rare they'll go as far as to ''succeed'' in this effort.

Of course, we all know what an HistoricalVillainUpgrade is: that's when you take a HistoricalDomainCharacter who is generally notable for being not a nice person (or at worst, an opponent of whoever your hero happens to be) and transform them into full-on Hollywood-style villain.

* UsefulNotes/EdwardI, will most likely only be depicted as evil due to trying to take over Scotland, but they tend to ignore the other evil deeds Edward has done. It includes, persecuting and censuring Jews and finally passing the 1290 Edict of Expulsion and starting the subjugation of the Welsh kingdoms