Red-plica Baron

The Undead Legend.

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, and more

The bloody Red Baron, was running up a score

Eighty men died trying to end the spree

Of the bloody Red Baron of Germany.

— "Snoopy vs. The Red Baron", The Royal Guardsmen

Manfred von Richthofen, the man known as the "Red Baron", was a fighter pilot with the German Air Force during World War I. He is considered the ace-of-aces of the war, being officially credited with 80 air combat victories. He gained this cool nickname thanks to his Albatros D.III biplane and later Fokker Dr.I triplane, which were the only ones painted red, as well as having the "Baron" honorific.

His fame overpassed the war itself and ultimately, also the time, with various characters in fiction being modeled after the famous pilot, as well his Fokker triplane and Albatros biplane. This trope is for those fictional characters based on von Richthofen and/or any of their Cool Planes, as well their expies in fiction.

Sub-Trope of No Historical Figures Were Harmed and Stock Parodies. Compare Char Clone, an archetype indirectly inspired by Richthofen, who usually wears a Cool Mask and pilots a red Humongous Mecha. See also Borrowin' Samedi for another feared Baron.

Although Richthofen is the Trope Namer, this should not be confused with Red Baron, which means an awesome nickname which a character is known for. This is for appearances of the real Baron von Richthofen, or else parodies, expies, or homages to this historical character. Also shouldn't be confused with Super Robot Red Baron nor its Animated Adaptation which are In Name Only.

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Examples:

Advertising

• One of General Mills's retired cereals is "Baron Von Redberry". The mascot was a German WWI pilot with a red triplane decorated with raspberries. His rival was the British "Sir Grapefellow".
• Schwan's produces the Red Baron frozen pizza brand, often advertised with the catchphrase "Bring the Baron home tonight." The packaging and many of the ads have used the image of a dashing WWI pilot in scarf and raised flight goggles.

Anime & Manga

• Char Aznable of Mobile Suit Gundam is based partially on the Red Baron, nicknamed the Red Comet. Both are aces famous for their striking red vehicles. For extension, a character who's a Char Clone is an expy of an expy of the Red Baron.
• The Saga of Tanya the Evil: The protagonist Tanya von Degurechaff was compared to the Fallen Hero of Germany named Manfred von Richthofen a.k.a Red Baron. Both of them are considered as "Ace of Aces" during their own World War.

Comic Books

• In one of his stories about the WWI, Corto Maltese witnesses the defeat of the Red Baron.
• Hans von Hammer, the troubled protagonist of Enemy Ace was inspired in part by Richthofen. Piloting a scarlet Fokker Dr. 1, von Hammer is a flying knight who fights according to the code of chivalry, despite being deeply disturbed by the slaughter around him. Unlike the Baron, however, Hans von Hammer was depicted as having survived to fight in World War II, in adventures inspired by those of Adolf Galland. However, he eventually learns of the Nazis Final Solution in the war's final days, and is outraged enough to promptly lead a mutiny at his base at his first opportunity.
• Baron Soontir Fel, a character in Star Wars Legends (first appeared in X-Wing Rogue Squadron comic book series), was based on the Red Baron.
• Maxwell von Kloor is the eponymous Villain Protagonist of the Thunder strip Black Max. He is an ancient vampire man-bat who flies in a blood-red plane and controls a swarm of monstrous bats. He also appears in the WWI arc of Fiends of the Eastern Front, fighting against the differently-vampiric Constanta.

Comic Strips

• One of the Snoopy's alter-egos in Peanuts is the "World War I Flying Ace", in which uses an aviator hat and his doghouse is his plane. Being his fantasy to be in WWI, his nemesis is no less than the Red Baron himself, getting a personal duel between both characters. These consistently result in Snoopy getting his clock cleaned. Of all his appearances in other media, The Peanuts Movie is the first time the Red Baron got a human form, usually being just mentioned or just seen the plane instead the pilot.

Fan Works

• In the Discworld of A.A. Pessimal, the commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch Air Police ^note Which doubles as the Air Force in times of need and has experience of air combat with Elves is a noblewoman from the Disc's Expy of Russia. She would prefer to have left her noble status behind. But her command still covertly refers to their auburn-haired squadron commander as The Red Baroness.

Film - Animated

• Classic Disney Shorts: The Red Baron was caricatured in the Disney propaganda film, Victory Through Air Power.
• The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: In the antepenultimate scene of Aardman's first feature-length film in the Wallace & Gromit franchise, canine antagonist Philip pursues canine protagonist Gromit on a fairgrounds. Gromit comes upon a ride called "Dog Fighters", enters it and flies out in a Sopwith Camel, but Philip follows close behind in Richtofen's Fokker Dr.I, somewhat similar to the setting of the Baron's final fight.
• Porco Rosso is a parodic example, as the protagonist is depicted as an anthropomorphic pig (his name actually means "Red Pig" in Italian).
• Rankin/Bass Productions's TV movie The Red Baron for The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie. This animated feature casts the Red Baron as a hero, in a world of heroic anthropomorphic dogs and villainous anthropomorphic cats (here he was portrayed as a brown German Shepherd.)
• The Malayan animated film War of the Worlds: Goliath (that goes as a loosely sequel of The War of the Worlds) shows a Diesel Punk version of 1914 ad-portas of the first World War. Here all the nations have to unite against the Martians, and one of the Ace Pilots that got the call is the Red Baron himself, now armed with his classic Fokker Dr. I triplane but with Dieselpunk technology.

Film - Live-Action

• There are various biopic movies made that told the life of the Red Baron himself. Some of the most famous:
  • Richthofen, a 1927 German silent war film, starring Carl Walther Meyer as Richthofen, was the first film to portray the life of the World War I fighter pilot.
  • The 1971 Roger Corman movie, Von Richthofen And Brown, alternatively titled The Red Baron, starred John Phillip Law as Richthofen.
  • The Red Baron from 2008 is the last movie made based on his story, this time as a romanticized biopic, with Matthias Schweighöfer as Richthofen and co-starred by Lena Headey as his Love Interest.
• In The Blue Max, the actual Red Baron is mentioned by Stachel as a pilot he looks up to, and then later in the film shows up as a pilot that Stachel saved from getting shot down. He offers Stachel the chance to transfer to his elite squadron, but Stachel chooses to remain with the squadron he is currently serving in because he doesn't want to be overshadowed.
• In the Blake Edwards movie Darling Lili, set in World War I and starring Julie Andrews and Rock Hudson, the Red Baron is more accurately portrayed as quieter and more reserved than portrayed in The Blue Max (wherein the Baron comes across as rather pompous) and was played by actor Ingo Mogendorf.
• In Flyboys there's a Red Baron expy called the Black Falcon, who is the main villain of the film. Notably, all of the German planes are depicted as red...except for the Falcon's, whose aircraft is painted black.
• The 1994 comedic film Revenge of the Red Baron is about a former World War I pilot haunted by a doll version of the Red Baron that flies a toy plane.
• A Richthofen-based character appears briefly in the World War I-epic Wings, a 1927 movie directed by air combat veteran William A. Wellman.

Literature

• Arrowdreams, a Prix Aurora Award-winning anthology of alternate history short stories, includes "Misfire", a story by Shane Simmons in which Richthofen survives World War I and eventually commands the Luftwaffe in World War II, displacing Hermann Goring, and leading them to an unqualified victory in the Battle of Britain.
• In the novel Back in the USSA features the Red Baron assisting Mexican forces invading Texas, during a communist revolution in the United States led by Eugene Debs.
• In Berserker short story "Wings out of Shadow" (1974), a personality construct of Manfred von Richthofen, together with other World War I flying ace constructs, plays a pivotal role in a defensive withdrawal while pursued by a numerically superior force.
• The Bloody Red Baron is the second novel in the Anno Dracula series, set in an Alternate History where Dracula's successful invasion of England led to vampires coming out of the shadows. One of the main vampires is the Red Baron himself, who also has an inexplicable hatred toward a small white beagle.
• In the novel Burning Shore by Wilbur Smith, one of the main character, Lord Andrew Killigan, is shot down by the Red Baron's Flying Circus.
• The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress: Erich Blitzdonner, "The Crimson Hawk", is both a Red-plica Baron and Char Clone. He filled Richthofen's position as Wiltia's (Germany's) ace-of-aces in the Great European War (an alternate version of World War I), but his signature red machine was a Humongous Mecha created from newly-discovered Lost Technology.
• An occasionally mentioned but never seen character in the Diogenes Club series and "Coastal City" is Hans von Hellhund, the Demon Ace, who seems to be an expy of an expy, with a name suggesting Hans von Hammer.
• In Dean McLaughlin's Hawk Among the Sparrows, the protagonist, a pilot of modern VTOL interceptor, accidentally appears in 1916, where he withstands Red Baron.
• The last book in the Time Machine Series, World War I Flying Ace, asks the reader to find out who shot down the Red Baron and take a photograph to prove the answer.
• Manfred von Richthofen is one of the main characters of Jeffrey Shaara's book, To the Last Man.

Live-Action TV

• In the Battlestar Galactica episode "Scar", there is an ace Cylon Raider who is based on the Red Baron.
• In Blackadder Goes Forth, Captain Blackadder, Baldrick, and Lord Flashheart meet the Red Baron, who is portrayed by Adrian Edmondson as a closeted homosexual who is fascinated with "how the English find the toilet so amusing".
• Richthofen was featured in an episode of Fantasy Island, titled "The Red Baron", in which a patron of the island wished to save the Baron from his doom.
• Richthofen has been featured on two different shows on The History Channel, Unsolved History and Man, Moment, Machine.
• Horrible Histories: Manfred von Richthofen appears in a sketch in the "Frightful First World War Special". He is portrayed as a Glory Hound who tells terrible jokes and is surrounded by a band of yes-men who cheer him on and laugh at his jokes whose demands for a new war trophy are hampered by a shortage of silver.
• A recurring antagonist in Space: Above and Beyond is a chig ace whom humans promptly nickname "Chiggy Von Richthofen".
• The pilot episode of Voyagers! sees Bogg and Jeffrey dogfighting with Richthofen when they travel back in time. In that episode, Richthofen personally challenges American ace Eddie Rickenbacker; in reality, no such engagement ever occurred.

Music

• The Brazilian band Barao Vermelho has similtudes with the band below: both have the name of Red Baron (this time in Portuguese), born in The '80s, play Rock and became influential to their countries. Unlike Baron Rojo, they took the name from the Peanuts' "Snoopy vs Red Baron" instead of Richthofen himself.
• The '80s Spanish Heavy Metal band Barón Rojo is precisely named after him, being the band name the Spanish translation of Red Baron. Even more, their logo has his black silouette behind the letters, various of their album covers included the Fokker Dr. I and/or an image of Richthofen himself, and they have two Homage songs to him: "Baron Rojo" and "El Baron vuela sobre Inglaterra."^note "The Baron flies over England", an Instrumental song
• The Glorious Burden is the seventh studio album by the American heavy metal band Iced Earth. It is a concept album, which explores various moments in military history. One of their songs pays tribute to world events such as World War I, being the song "Red Baron/Blue Max" referred to Richthofer and the Pour le Merite medal (nicknamed as the Blue Max by Max Immermann, another famous German Ace Pilot in WWI that won it) respectively.
• Red Baron's last name also was used by some DJs as their artistic names: "Richthofen" from Canada and "Richthofen D" from Mexico.
• The '60s Rock band The Royal Guardsmen made the song (and album) "Snoopy vs. The Red Baron" in 1966, a year after the comic strip was created and it was based on the Peanuts story of Snoopy as the Flying Ace against the Red Baron. Although they were sued by United Features Syndicate, Peanuts creator Charles Schultz allowed them to make more Snoopy songs, one of them was the sequel, "Return of the Red Baron."

Tabletop Games

• Very, very early in its timeline, BattleTech featured an infamous yet honorable Draconis Combine nobleman and officer, Duke Hassan Ricol, often called The Red Duke (or sometimes The Red Hunter). Due to the game featuring a focus on Humongous Mecha, he does not fly an aerospace fighter but instead is known for piloting a distinctive blood-red Marauder. Interestingly, he does not serve the Germanic-inspired House Steiner, but instead is a vassal of the Japanese-inspired and red-coded House Kurita.
• The Red Baron was the inspiration for Avalon Hill's 1970s board game Richthofen's War, one of the first World War I aerial combat board games.
• The Red Baron was also prominently featured in Snoopy & The Red Baron, a Milton Bradley skill game released in 1970.
• Whenever it makes a miniature of a plane Von Richthofen has flown, Wings of Glory has made at least one version of that plane with his name and paint scheme. As of 2020, this includes no less than 3 versions of the Fokker Dr.I (they also make a version in yellow that was flown by his brother Lothar), the Albatros D.II (in camouflage, before he adopted the red color scheme), D.III and D.V (in red), and the two-seater Roland C.II.
• In Warhammer 40,000, the Red Nob (Nob being an Ork term for "noble") is an Ork flying ace who fights on Armageddon.

Theatre

• Des McAnuff wrote The Death of Von Richthofen as Witnessed from Earth, which he directed at the Public Theater in 1982, for which he was awarded a Rockefeller grant.

Toys

• A great variety of model airplanes of all scales, and flying balsa planes, portrait dolls and figurines representing the baron and his aircraft have been produced.
• Ghost of the Red Baron◊ model kit, by Monogram, shows a 1/6 scale skull with chrome stahelm (helmet) on an Iron Cross stand.
• The Red Baron name has been attached to small plush figures and teddy bears and is widely applied to products unrelated to the WWI ace.
• Divebomb from the Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen toyline transforms into an Albatros D.III in Red Baron-inspired livery.

Video Games

• There have been a number of World War I flight simulators involving Manfred von Richthofen. They include Hunt for the Red Baron, written and published by Small Rockets, Knights of the Sky by Microprose, and Red Baron by Dynamix and published by Sierra which was followed up by a less successful sequel Red Baron II.
• The Ancient Art of War in the Skies, the third game in the The Ancient Art of War series for PC, Amiga and Atari ST, the player plays either the British or German forces in World War I. In this air combat simulation, the player makes aerial assaults against opponents, being one of them Richthofen himself, even appearing his classic Fokker Dr.I triplane in the game cover.
• Army Men: Air Attack 2 features a character, Baron von Beige, who is based on Richthofen. "Tan Baron" flies a Fokker Dr.I, like The Red Baron.
• Battlefield 1:
  • Richthofen is prominent character in the game since it's based on the WWI, even having his own DLC, the Red Baron Pack included in the Heroes Bundle.
  • All German fighter planes in the campaign Friends in High Places are painted like Richthofen's.
• Call of Duty:
  • The Red Baron is mentioned in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare as a codename.
  • A character named Dr. Edward Richtofen appears in the Zombies mode on the games World at War, Black Ops, Black Ops II, Black Ops III and Black Ops 4.
  • In Call of Duty: Black Ops II, if the player earned a kill with a Dragonfire, a flying vehicle, they earn a badge named "Red Baron".
• Empire Earth has a German campaign in which four missions allow the players to control Manfred von Richthofen.
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas features a red remote-controlled bi-plane called "RC Baron".
• In League of Legends, one of the champions, Corki, had a purchasable skin designated "Red Baron Corki" that is designed to make his aircraft a red World War I biplane.
• In Left 4 Dead, there is an achievement, "Dead Baron", that can be earned by completing the Dead Air campaign, a campaign set in an airport.
• In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, one of the characters is named Manfred von Karma. Like the Red Baron, he is known for having a perfect career. He also receives his comeuppance from a single bullet.
• Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, features a character named "The Black Baron", a flying ace who has never lost a dogfight.
• The first game of Sengoku Ace series (called as Samurai Aces outside Japan) shows one of the protagonists, Koyori Togashi, riding a WWII-like red biplane, that looks a lot like the Albatros D.III biplane used by the Red Baron.
• Sky Kid, an arcade video game by Namco depicts the fanciful air journey of the "Red Baron" and the "Blue Max".
• Star Trek: Judgment Rites features the character Trelane from the original series TV episode "Squire of Gothos" imagining himself as World War I pilot complete with the Red Baron's signature Fokker Triplane.
• In Thrillville: Off the Rails, there is an arcade flying ace named Barry von Rictoven who is referred to several times as "The Red Barry" and flies a triplane.
• The arcade version of Trivial Pursuit included a player avatar called "Baron von Rightoften", designed to resemble the Red Baron.
• Titanfall 2 features a skin for the Ion Titan called "Red Baron". It is unlocked if a save file for Battlefield 1 is located on the same system.
• Wings 2: Aces High has the player will get to face off with the Red Baron.

Western Animation

• Before becoming Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines, the show was developed as "Stop That Pigeon" and featured a Baron-esque type of pilot. He was eventually replaced with Dick Dastardly who would certainly fit the trope as well.
• The Red Baron is parodied as the "Black Baron" in a Gumby episode where Gumby is an aviator of the WWI.
• In the Looney Tunes short "Dumb Patrol", Yosemite Sam stars as the antagonist, Baron Sam Von Schpamm. Hilariously, he switches between different planes across the short due to Bugs repeatedly shooting him down, only using a red plane in one scene.
• Exo Squad: Thrax, a Neosapien pilot, is known for the large number of pilots he's shot down, and for piloting a red Y-wing. Upon actually meeting him, we also see that he is an honourable warrior who will choose not to execute an opponent after they are shot down and helpless.
• It's played straight in the 1968 one-shot cartoon Flying Circus, with the Red Baron-esque Fritz who indeed flies in a red plane, is of German descent and dogfights against the American Ace pilot in a wacky fashion. At the end of the cartoon among seeing he had landed in an American airbase, he curses in German (with English subtitles), "My mama told me there'd be days like this."
• The New Scooby-Doo Movies episode "The Ghost of the Red Baron" features a Villain of the Week masquerading as Richthofen's ghost.
• In Ring Raiders, the character Baron Von Claudeitz is meant as an homage to Richthofen, and retains his original (modified) aircraft, a Fokker Dr.I.
• Red Lynx from SWAT Kats was a pilot who dominated the skies during Mega War II, known as the most evil pilot in history, He shot down any who dared oppose him, until he himself was shot down by Mayor Manx's ancestor, the Blue Manx. Then in actual era, his plane was found and with it Lynx's ghost, who still wants to get his revenge against Manx, no matter if is against his Paper Tiger descendant.
• Baron Elrik Vonreg from Star Wars Resistance: His unique red armor was designed so that he could stand out from other First Order pilots, as an indication of his superior rank and skills. His character was developed with the famous World War I German ace Red Baron in mind, from which he inherited the red color and the title of Baron.
• In Wacky Races, the Red Max and his car, the Crimson Haybaler, are based on the Red Baron and his plane.

Real Life

• An American gun truck that served in Vietnam was named and painted as "The Red Baron◊".
• Formula One driving legend Michael Schumacher was nicknamed "the Red Baron", due to his German heritage and his fame as a driver for the red colored Ferrari team.
• Baseball pitcher Rick Sutcliffe, during his career was nicknamed "The Red Baron", because of the color of his beard and hair.
• Former St. Louis Blues player, and current University of Michigan head hockey coach Red Berenson was also nicknamed "The Red Baron", both due to his hair color, and his last name.
• There exists a flying replica◊ of the Baron's Fokker Dr.I triplane, shown here at the 2006 Berlin Air Show.

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Baron, your sad mission turned off your glory.

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