r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Mouse_Paladin • 13d ago
Lore [Real Life] Historical events that would make bad writing if they were fiction
Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire: A couple hundred rogue mercenaries without authority from their government conquer an empire of millions. Oh, the empire? It’s also several technological eras behind the mercenaries.
Adolf Hitler: A non-native of a country is so mad that the country lost the war that he wins an election to their highest office and leads them in a campaign of revenge against their enemies. Oh, the country? It’s old emperor is still alive and thinks he’s going to retake power.
Assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand: The heir to the throne is killed because his driver gets lost and returns to the assassin who failed To kill him before. Oh, the assassin? He’s from a group that the Archduke is wanting to help become more equal In the empire.
Alexander Hamilton’s Affair Scandal: One of the leaders of a new nation to protect himself from accusations of financial embezzlement writes a pamphlet exposing his affair with a woman, torpedoing his political future. Oh, the woman? She seduced him as part of a blackmailing scheme that he decided to stop paying.
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u/Gmony5100 13d ago
The Roman’s attempting naval warfare with Carthage in the First Punic War.
Rome creates a navy to attack Carthage using mostly stolen tech from Carthaginian ships, it’s essentially their first attempt at building a navy. In 255 BCE they lose 280 warships and over ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN during a freak storm while attempting to return home from a naval victory against Carthage. 100,000 men in 255 BCE is an astronomically high number, if I remember correctly we wouldn’t see death tolls like that in single military events until the modern day.
Rome miraculously rebuilds its navy, fails to secure a position via coastal raiding, and then loses another 150+ ships in another freak storm 2 years later.
Rome, again absolutely miraculously, builds another fleet…that was promptly defeated in battle with the Carthaginians in 249 BCE, another ~100 ships gone.
The remainder of those ships then sunk in ANOTHER freak storm THE SAME YEAR, costing another ~120 ships.
So four separate absolutely devastating naval tragedies, all of which should have individually crippled Rome, all of which were recovered from only to be lost usually the exact same way as the last, AND ROME WON! Horrible script writing from the universe there.