Basic Trope: Altering the death of a real person in a work of fiction.
- Straight: Abraham Lincoln drowns in a boating mishap in 1866.
- Exaggerated: Abraham Lincoln drowns in a boating mishap in 1866. His Secretary of State (William Seward) and Vice-President (Andrew Johnson), however, died a year earlier in a house fire, Robert E. Lee died in battle, and John Wilkes Booth died while choking on a pretzel. The news of Abraham Lincoln's death causes Queen Victoria to die of shock, and Ulysses S. Grant dies of a heart attack during Lincoln's wake.
- Downplayed: Abraham Lincoln is stabbed rather than shot.
- Justified:
- Inverted: Abraham Lincoln survives an attempted assassination carried out by John Wilkes Booth.
- Subverted:
- Abraham Lincoln does initially die differently from how he did historically, but then a time traveler from the future sets off Disaster Dominoes that eventually lead to the fictional Lincoln's death circumstances matching those of his real-life death.
- Please, do not confuse sailor Abraham J. Lincoln (1831 - 1866) for President Lincoln (1809 - 1865)
- Double Subverted:
- Said time traveler also inadvertently causes Jefferson Davis to get fatally mauled by angry dogs in 1864.
- Both Lincolns were on the same boat and both drowned in the accident.
- Parodied: Characters watch a badly-made and deeply inaccurate film in which Abraham Lincoln dies by choking on a pretzel, William Seward and Andrew Johnson die in battle, Robert E. Lee dies in a house fire, John Wilkes Booth drowns in a boating mishap, and Queen Victoria dies of a heart attack and Ulysses S. Grant dies of shock.
- Zig Zagged: Some Historical Domain Characters die in accordance with their actual deaths, others die differently.
- Averted: Abraham Lincoln is killed by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865 while attending a performance of the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre.
- Enforced:
- The real death was deemed too violent for the children the show is meant to educate.
- The Alternate History story prevented Booth (either by design or consequence) from attending the performance.
- Lampshaded: After being informed that Abraham Lincoln drowned in a boating mishap in 1866, a character remarks, "But I thought he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in 1865."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Lincoln's Time Travel Exemption Act
- Discussed: Some characters contemplate what might have happened if President Lincoln had been murdered rather than having drowned.
- Conversed: Alice and Bob watch a Show Within a Show wherein Lincoln isn't fatally shot but drowns, and wonder if this is acceptable Hollywood History or not.
Back to Fictionalized Death Account
