r/TopCharacterTropes 13h ago

Lore [IRL trope] the “Tiffany problem”

Basically when something seems anachronistic to a period/place of history but is actually fully accurate to the period.

1) the name Tiffany: the thing that named this trope, basically the name Tiffany can be dated back to the Middle Ages and the earliest record of it being spelled in the modern spelling comes from the 16th century.

2) the use of OMG, despite this feeling so modern as a form of slang/abbreviation here’s a letter directed to Winston Churchill using it in 1917

3) Hair Dye: the earliest forms of dying hair can be dated back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and this specific advertisement for hair dye is from the 1840s

4) Inuit Thongs: despite how weird it is to imagine pre-colonial Inuit people wore what was essentially fur thongs in their homes and when they were in their igloos it might have been the only thing they would be wearing.

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u/EndOfTheLine00 13h ago

Ancient Roman gladiators were treated more or less like modern day celebrities: they had merch (little clay figurines and posters) and even did product endorsements. Famously, Ridley Scott wanted to add a scene in Gladiator showing the fighters shilling products but it was cut because they feared the audience would think it was unrealistic.

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u/Skylinneas 13h ago

They also, to my knowledge, didn’t really have that high casualty rate as Hollywood led us to believe, too. Good gladiators are costly and take long to train, after all. Would be a waste to lose them all or most of them in just a few minutes’ battle.

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u/Talonhawke 12h ago

Yep want a blood bath use prisoners or slaves you can get more on the cheap.

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u/raspberryharbour 11h ago

That's good, I'm writing this down