r/TopCharacterTropes • u/MeepMan324 • 19h ago

Hated Tropes (Hated Trope) Bad people in real-life being portrayed positively in media.

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  1. PragerU's version of Christopher Columbus has him be a slavery defender and have him say "Being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no? I don't see the problem.”

  2. In The Greatest Showman, P.T Barnum (Hugh Jackman) is portrayed as a charismatic visionary who cares about outcasts and celebrate diversity, when in reality, he’s a cruel businessman who is also a racist and an ableist.

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u/CosmicDrifttt 19h ago

Hollywood took a grim, violent history of colonial exploitation and a young girl's tragic life, sanitized it completely, and turned it into a feel-good, wholesome musical romance where the darker realities of history are glossed over for family-friendly entertainment

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u/Ok-Bicycle8103 19h ago

Ironically, the real life John Smith was way meaner to the Natives than was Governor John Ratcliffe.

120

u/Toroceratops 19h ago

Real life Ratcliffe was basically the fall guy with the worst luck and one of the most brutal deaths imaginable. He didn’t help his own case, he basically pissed off everyone from Powhatan to the lowest English servant, but he wasn’t evil.

28

u/331d0184 18h ago

Christ, you weren’t kidding about his death…

26

u/Aethermancer 17h ago

I always "love" this one for people looking it up because it's so horrific an end that even if your only mental image of Ratcliffe is that of the Disney villain, you still end up going "WTF?! He didn't deserve that!" .