 Even though many of the viewers may have been samurai, the Edo period in which these plays were largely composed and performed was a period of peace, and so the notion of fierce battles and heroic sacrifices was still something of a romanticized escape for these samurai, just as historical dramas are for us today.Stories were almost always derived from classic epics ("monogatari") or from other historical sources, and it was not at all uncommon for elements to be changed.Characters might be invented, or elements of their histories changed, to make the story more interesting or to otherwise serve the author's purposes.