History Main / HistoricalHeroUpgrade

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRoadToElDorado'' greatly whitewashes HumanSacrifice in Mesoamerica though it is downplays this since its not about a historical personage that is idealised but rather a ''fictional'' civilisation when compared to its neighboring kingdoms of the time. It's treated as something the people of El Dorado don't like, but are led to believe is a [[NecessarilyEvil necessary evil]]. The one person pushing human sacrifice in the city, [[SinisterMinister Tzekel-Kan]], is evil and also uses it secondarily as a form of BloodMagic. In reality, human sacrifice was simply a fact of life for many Mesoamerican cultures, as accepted as any other aspect of their religion.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRoadToElDorado'' greatly whitewashes HumanSacrifice in Mesoamerica. It's treated as something the people of El Dorado don't like, but are led to believe is a [[NecessarilyEvil necessary evil]]. The one person pushing human sacrifice in the city, [[SinisterMinister Tzekel-Kan]], is evil and also uses it secondarily as a form of BloodMagic. In reality, human sacrifice was simply a fact of life for many Mesoamerican cultures, as accepted as any other aspect of their religion.

* ''Film/{{Khartoum}}'': Charles George Gordon is given a Custer-like hagiography, emphasizing his interest in ending slavery throughout Africa and his enmity with Muhammad Ahmad. The real Gordon wasn't as saintly as the movie claims. He spent most of his military career as a mercenary and if it hadn't been for the crisis in Sudan, he would've served in the Belgian Congo. Moreover, Gordon was considered a very mercurial officer prone to exceeding his command, and he owed his Sudanese command largely to his skillful self-promotion. Part of why his actions in Sudan provoked such a mixed response in Britain is because he backpedaled on his abolitionism, expressing a willingness to concede to some forms of slavery persisting, which alienated many of his former supporters and upset William Gladstone and his government. This was the main reason for his alliance with Zobeir. Far from being Ahmad's {{archenemy}} as the film paints it, the latter largely saw Gordon as an UnknownRival; while Gordon's letters projected a mutual fixation between them, Ahmad's own messages to Gordon largely consisted of asking him to surrender and avert further bloodshed.

** While the pre-illness months of UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}}'s rule were consistent with his portrayals by contemporary historians, the post-illness rule was portrayed as him having an epiphany as being a god. His infamous moment of declaring war on Neptune and collecting seashells as bounty was portrayed as conquering the elements to make crossing the English Channel easier, only stopping short of invading Britain (ergo leaving the task to Claudius) because of other matters to attend to.

** While UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli isn't exactly depicted as a NiceGuy, his trash-talk in his rap battle against UsefulNotes/MichaelJordan is a lot cleaner and more politically correct than it was in real life, which is unique for this series as the rappers are usually [[RuderAndCruder made more crude and vulgar]] ([[RuleOfFunny for obvious reasons]]). For example, he called Joe Frazier an "[[CategoryTraitor Uncle Tom]]", "ugly gorilla", and "the wrong kind of negro"; insulted George Foreman for his devout Christianity and called him "a [[NoTrueScotsman white]], flag-waving bitch"; and claimed Ernie Terrell was "an Uncle Tom nigger who is going to get his ass whupped". ERB's Ali also never brings up the fact that Jordan had a white wife, which the real Ali definitely would have done in this context considering he spoke at [[UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan KKK]] rallies advocating segregation and gave an interview to ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'' in 1975 where he said that any black person who married a white person should be lynched; the closest the battle gets to addressing the real Ali's extreme views on race is him saying Jordan "sold out to crackers". He did mellow out later in life, but the Ali of the battle is clearly depicted as the active boxer of the 60s and 70s.

** Hadrian's brutal crushing of [[UsefulNotes/JewishRevolts the Bar Kokhba]] revolt is outright glorified. While Simon bar Kokhba and his forces [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized were hardly saints themselves]], Hadrian took severe punitive measures against the Jews in general, not just those who took part in the rebellion. Not to mention the fact that the revolt was triggered in part by him reneging on a promise to rebuild the Jewish Temple, instead deciding to build a temple to Jupiter where the Second Temple once stood, then doubling down and building a ''colonia'' called Aelia Capitolina over the ruins of Jerusalem.

** Diocletian is portrayed as a capable but tragic figure and as such his more questionable actions are subjected to whitewashing. For example, his Edict on Maximum Prices (an attempt to curb inflation that only caused more problems for the Roman economy) is depicted as failing because the world wasn't ready for the full force of his reforming genius.

* Fletcher Christian of the HMS Bounty mutiny is generally portrayed in movie adaptations of the events (such as the ones in [[Film/MutinyOnTheBounty 1935]] and [[Film/MutinyOnTheBounty1962 1962]]) as a heroic, honorable man who stood up against Captain Bligh on behalf of the oppressed crew and ultimately led them to salvation and paradise on Pitcairn Island. This is notwithstanding the fact that many historians believe that Bligh's tyrannical behavior has been greatly exaggerated (in fact, some accounts indicate that Bligh was ''less'' prone to using [[ATasteOfTheLash the severe physical punishments of the era]] than most Royal Navy captains, preferring to simply ridicule subordinates with abusive language if they displeased him), and it mostly emerged after the ship had spent several months docked at Tahiti, the sailors had grown used to an easy life ashore with plenty of food and enthusiastic female company, and deeply resented having to return to a much less pleasant life at sea. It's hard for anyone who takes an objective reading of the accounts to regard Christian's actions as anything but purely selfish, he having even admitted to that after the mutiny; by his own claim, he simply could not handle being yelled at by Bligh any longer. Portrayals of the story conveniently gloss over several important facts. Regardless of Christian's personal feelings towards Bligh, he also set eighteen loyal crew members adrift with him, albeit they did volunteer to go rather than remain on the ship with the mutineers, and their number would have been greater if there had more room in the launch. One of the men perished during the arduous journey to reach Timor, the nearest European settlement, three others succumbed to illness soon after they reached safety thanks to being severely weakened by their horrendous ordeal, and two more died on their way back to England; responsibility for their deaths has to rest at least partly on Christian's shoulders. On the other hand, he also forced some men to remain on the ship against their will, intent on never allowing them to return home. Christian's command of the ship after taking control was also [[FullCircleRevolution strict and somewhat abusive like Bligh's before him]], resulting in over half of his band losing faith in his leadership and deserting him once they returned to Tahiti. Adaptations also leave out how Christian and his mutineers were responsible for the massacre of scores of indigenous people on Tubuai Island while trying to clear space for a settlement and forcing local women to be their 'wives', and that most of the Tahitians who 'accompanied' them to Pitcairn Island were actually abducted after they were deceived into attending a party on the ship. Once they reached the island, Christian and his mutineers soon starting treating most of the Tahitian men like slaves, forcing them to do hard labour while the British men lazed about and [[SexSlave "passed [the women] around from one 'husband' to the other"]], growing ever more tyrannical. Within a few years all of the Tahitian men and eight of the nine mutineers were dead, murdered by each other or by revenge-seeking widows, including Christian himself.

** Ancient Carthage gets portrayed as a kind of "good counterpart" to Rome whose victory would have been preferable. In reality, Carthage was also an imperialistic, slaveholding power prone to seriously brutal acts, and it was actually a harsher master than Rome to its client states and subject peoples in some ways. The UsefulNotes/PunicWars between Rome and Carthage were far more [[GrayAndGreyMorality grey-shaded]] than the show claims, with both sides being pretty questionable by modern standards and neither one holding a decisive moral edge.
** Hannibal was not a freedom fighter as stated in the show, but just a military man motivated by a family feud against another nation. Strangely, the show itself doesn't shy away from showing that Hannibal's oath against Rome was directly based on revenge, which turns it into a sort of inner contradiction.

** Duncan is portrayed as a good king who ends up dishonorably slain by someone he trusted while in bed. While he was killed by Macbeth in real life, it was in combat in which he was the aggressor.
* ''Theatre/MarieAntoinetteMusical'': As is per the norm with adaptations of the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette comes off quite well (though [[spoiler: she does ask the other crowned heads of Europe to invade France, in keeping with history]]) and Fersen's endorsement of the Brunswick Manifesto is notably not included.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'' gives one to Angolan RebelLeader Jonas Savimbi. In the game, he's a gregarious and enthusiastic player ally who rides into battle at the head of his army and even pulls off a spectacular GunshipRescue at the end of the mission he's featured in. He's also [[spoiler:the only foreign contact of the Cold War-era missions to ''not'' betray the protagonists]]. In real life, while he was known for his charisma and his courage (having a reputation for [[FrontlineGeneral leading from the front lines]] as he does in the game), he was also a war criminal who massacred civilians, funded his army by selling conflict diamonds, accepted military aid from apartheid South Africa, ran the territories he controlled like his own personal kingdom, ordered the torture and execution of his own men if he had even the slightest suspicion of betrayal, and re-started the civil war ''twice'' after previously agreeing to ceasefires because he didn't win the post-war elections - it took his death in battle with government troops in February 2002, a full sixteen years after the in-game level he's featured in, to finally bring the war to an end. The characters in the game do comment that Savimbi was insane but don't elaborate over.

** The series on Justinian gives his reign and overall campaign to reconquer and restore UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire a significant whitewashing. In truth, [[http://neobyzantium.com/impact-of-justinians-war-on-italy/ these conquests were devastating]] to UsefulNotes/{{Italy}}, and left Rome a shell of its former self and was the principal reason for its decay and depopulation until UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance. The creators admit that they "like" Justinian and they do insist that he was a dreamer and too overly ambitious to properly sustain his goals, but this still means that the show sentimentalizes his conquest of Italy and demonizes the Ostrogoths (whose opinions, views, and side of the story are left untold).

** Mark Antony's acts of treachery and extreme violence that he committed after Julius Caesar's assassination are said to be the result of him being mind-controlled by Cleopatra, who sought to use him to either subjugate or destroy Rome.
** While the pre-illness months of Caligula's rule were consistent with his portrayals by contemporary historians, the post-illness rule was portrayed as him having an epiphany as being a god. His infamous moment of declaring war on Neptune and collecting seashells as bounty was portrayed as conquering the elements to make crossing the English Channel easier, only stopping short of invading Britain (ergo leaving the task to Claudius) because of other matters to attend to.

** Hadrian's brutal crushing of the Bar Kokhba revolt is outright glorified. While Simon bar Kokhba and his forces [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized were hardly saints themselves]], Hadrian took severe punitive measures against the Jews in general, not just those who took part in the rebellion. Not to mention the fact that the revolt was triggered in part by him reneging on a promise to rebuild the Jewish Temple, instead deciding to build a temple to Jupiter where the Second Temple once stood, then doubling down and building a ''colonia'' called Aelia Capitolina over the ruins of Jerusalem.
** In real life, Caracalla had Geta murdered, but here he's portrayed as loving his brother and treating whatever he perceives as a negative influence, or suggesting he's the one to murder Geta, to a wrathful response. [[DownplayedTrope That being said]], his depiction is otherwise accurate to the violent and wrathful nature of the real Caracalla, albiet [[HeroicComedicSociopath played for comedy]].
** Elagabalus is depicted as engaging in some ridiculously debauched behavior to bring attention to the Empire's degeneracy problems, and preaching about Sol Invictus to streamline Roman religious practices. In reality, his unrestrained pleasure-seeking was motivated by nothing more than self-indulgent and unethical hedonism, and he simply placed his namesake Syrian sun god above the Roman pantheon.

** While UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli isn't exactly depicted as a NiceGuy, his trash-talk in his rap battle against UsefulNotes/MichaelJordan is a lot cleaner and more politically correct than it was in real life, which is unique for this series as the rappers are usually [[RuderAndCruder made more crude and vulgar]] ([[RuleOfFunny for obvious reasons]]). For example, he called Joe Frazier an "[[CategoryTraitor Uncle Tom]]", "ugly gorilla", and "the wrong kind of negro"; insulted George Foreman for his devout Christianity and called him "a [[NoTrueScotsman white]], flag-waving bitch"; and claimed Ernie Terrell was "an Uncle Tom nigger who is going to get his ass whupped". ERB's Ali also never brings up the fact that Jordan had a white wife, which the real Ali definitely would have done in this context considering he spoke at [[UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan KKK]] rallies advocating segregation and gave an interview to ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'' in 1975 where he said that any black man who married a white woman should be lynched (ditto a black woman marrying a white man); the closest the battle gets to addressing the real Ali's racism is him saying Jordan "sold out to crackers". He did mellow out later in life, but the Ali of the battle is clearly depicted as the active boxer of the 60s and 70s.

** Mansa Musa is characterized as a more positive foil to Jeff Bezos and scolds the latter for the way he treats his workers. While the working conditions Amazon employees have been the subject of criticism for a long time, it rings a little hollow coming from Musa, considering he owned thousands of slaves. To be fair, this was hardly unknown for Muslim rulers of the era, but the fact that the rap battle never brings up his slave ownership is pretty glaring, especially after George Washington and UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson were cast as hypocrites by their opponents for owning slaves.

* ''Film/ThorRagnarok'': During the BatmanColdOpen, Loki tries to invoke this on himself while posing as Odin. Thor finds him putting on [[StylisticSuck a terrible play]] that portrays Loki as [[DracoInLeatherPants a kind, innocent, and misunderstood soul who just wanted his family to love him]]. The play's version of Thor brushes off all of Loki's crimes as the actions of a lovable scamp.
** It also reveals, more seriously, that Odin did this to ''himself,'' hiding his history of conquest with his firstborn Hela. He did have a HeelFaceTurn that included banishing Hela when she became too bloodthirsty, but rather than owning up to his mistakes, he chose to sweep them under the rug (well, tile over the ceiling) and present himself as always having been a heroic figure, [[{{unperson}} erasing Hela from the narrative entirely]].

* An episode of ''Series/TheBradyBunch'' showed Bobby idolizing Old West gunman Jesse James. His worried parents take him to meet one of James's victims, after which he has a nightmare in which James murders his entire family. That cures him.

* ''Literature/TheFootprintOfMussolini'': Due to his magnanimity towards the Jewish people and the role he played in defeating the Nazis, Benito Mussolini's flaws and misdeeds are frequently glossed over.

* In ''The Hooded Riders'', author Creator/JTEdson portrays the outlaw and gunfighter John Wesley Hardin as a wrongly accused hero, and his killing of a black man under questionable circumstances is presented as self-defense.

** Justinian is depicted as an ideal ruler, and his general Belisarius depicted as a perfect commander waring a just war. The devistation of Italy, including Rome itself, from the war is left unmentioned. Meanwhile Justinian's [[PersecutionFlip persecution of non-Christians]] and of heretics is depicted as a completely justified curbing of {{Satan}}'s influence. Interestingly enough, they go out of their way to give Procopius (the chronicler for almost all we know about Justinian) a HistoricalVillainUpgrade to explain all the bad things you may have heard about the emperor. In other words, not unlike what ''WebAnimation/ExtraCredits'' did, except this one was on purpose.

* ''Film/{{Luther}}'': Some of the more unsavory things Martin Luther said are never brought up. For example, the movie never shows that during the German Peasants' War, Luther exhorted authorities to put down the rebels like mad dogs. Granted, this was a response to abuses committed by some of the rebels, but his calls for indiscriminate slaughter were still questionable at best. Also not brought up are some of the writings Luther produced in later life, where he viciously attacked Jews, Anabaptists and nontrinitarian Christians.

* The Indian film ''Mangal Pandey: The Rising'' rather blatantly does this to Mangal Pandey, an Indian sepoy during British rule whose attack on British officers at the Barrackpore garrison is credited with helping to spark the unsuccessful rebellion of 1857. In RealLife, all Pandey did was attack and wound two officers and one fellow sepoy who tried to stop him while rambling incoherently (he [[AmbiguousSituation may or may not]] have been on drugs at the time). Whilst he doe seem to have been at least partly motivated by British mistreatment, the film portrays Pandey as having much more involvement in the rebellion than he actually did: not only is he now leading an outright mutiny against the British (likely because the real incident, essentially a glorified brawl between Pandey and two British soldiers, wouldn't have made for a very exciting climax), but he's shown as having direct knowledge that a rebellion is about to start, with his attack being intended to inspire sepoys all over India to rise up. In reality there's no evidence Pandey knew about the upcoming rebellion or that he was intending to inspire freedom fighters all over the Raj: whilst this did end up happening, he almost certainly wasn't expecting it. The filmmakers also invent incidents where he stops one of the officers he later attacks from raping women and abusing servants, none of which happened in reality, to make him seem more like a dyed-in-the-wool freedom fighter than he really was.

* ''Film/TheAdventuresOfRobinHood'', like other versions of Myth/RobinHood written after Sir Walter Scott tied him to the Plantagenet period, lionizes Richard I of England by portraying him as TheGoodKing who openly regrets abandoning his responsibilities in England to go on Crusade. In reality, Richard snapped and plotted as much as any Plantagenet with the addition of being an enthusiastic BloodKnight. As the Duke of Aquitaine he was so unpopular he had to suppress multiple rebellions, which he did quite brutally. He also never repented his absence from England's throne and may have spent as little as six months actually on it--instead he used the realm as a cashbox to fund even more crusading and logically, he would not have spent the majority of his reign in England, due to factors such as the court of the Angevin Empire being held in Angers and Chinon and Richard viewing Aquitaine as his home, all of which were located in France. (He did, however, enjoy more popularity as king than John ever did.)

* ''Film/TheAdventuresOfRobinHood'', like other versions of Myth/RobinHood written after Sir Walter Scott tied him to the Plantagenet period, lionizes Richard I of England by portraying him as TheGoodKing who openly regrets abandoning his responsibilities in England to go on Crusade. In reality, Richard snapped and plotted as much as any Plantagenet with the addition of being an enthusiastic BloodKnight. As the Duke of Aquitaine he was so unpopular he had to suppress multiple rebellions, which he did quite brutally. He also never repented his absence from England's throne and may have spent as little as six months actually on it--instead he used the realm as a cashbox to fund even more crusading. (He did, however, enjoy more popularity as king than John ever did.)

* ''Impaler'': In this Image Comics title, Vlad the Impaler is an [[ImmortalHero immortal vampire slayer]] that defended humanity from vampires and demons summoned from hell by Sultan Mehmed in a desperate attempt to take over Europe.

* Earlier in the USA's history, General Custer was often depicted as a MessianicArchetype, a brave hero who fought against the Indians and died alongside his men. This myth extended to both literature and eventually, film. This is most notable in 1941's ''Film/TheyDiedWithTheirBootsOn''. More modern sympathies with the Indians have caused him to no longer be portrayed this way, however, often to the point of overcorrection (though eventually this second view would soften, so that Custer now comes off as more a PunchClockVillain than an Indian-hating sadist). Custer's heroic myths are due to his wife, who outlived him (she died in 1933, a little under 60 years after him). She wrote ''three'' books depicting her late husband as a folk hero. She was afraid he would be blamed for the humiliating defeat and slaughter his troops suffered, and thus spent the rest of her life lobbying extensively to make her husband look a hero.
* Fletcher Christian of the HMS Bounty mutiny is generally portrayed in movie adaptations of the events (such as the ones in [[Film/MutinyOnTheBounty 1935]] and [[Film/MutinyOnTheBounty1962 1962]]) as a heroic, honorable man who stood up against Captain Bligh on behalf of the oppressed crew and ultimately led them to salvation and paradise on Pitcairn Island. This is notwithstanding the fact that many historians believe that Bligh's tyrannical behavior has been greatly exaggerated (in fact, some accounts indicate that Bligh was ''less'' prone to using [[ATasteOfTheLash the severe physical punishments of the era]] than most Royal Navy captains, preferring to simply ridicule subordinates with abusive language if they displeased him), and it mostly emerged after the ship had spent several months docked at Tahiti, the sailors had grown used to an easy life ashore with plenty of food and enthusiastic female company, and deeply resented having to return to a much less pleasant life at sea. It's hard for anyone who takes an objective reading of the accounts to regard Christian's actions as anything but purely selfish, he having even admitted to that after the mutiny; by his own claim, he simply could not handle being yelled at by Bligh any longer. Portrayals of the story conveniently gloss over several important facts. Regardless of Christian's personal feelings towards Bligh, he also set eighteen loyal crew members adrift with him, albeit they did volunteer to go rather than remain on the ship with the mutineers, and their number would have been greater if there had more room in the launch. One of the men perished during the arduous journey to reach Timor, the nearest European settlement, three others succumbed to illness soon after they reached safety thanks to being severely weakened by their horrendous ordeal, and two more died on their way back to England; responsibility for their deaths has to rest at least partly on Christian's shoulders. On the other hand, he also forced some men to remain on the ship against their will, intent on never allowing them to return home. Christian's command of the ship after taking control was also [[FullCircleRevolution strict and somewhat abusive like Bligh's before him]], resulting in over half of his band losing faith in his leadership and deserting him once they returned to Tahiti. Adaptations also leave out how Christian and his mutineers were responsible for the massacre of scores of indigenous people on Tubuai Island while trying to clear space for a settlement and forcing local women to be their 'wives', and that most of the Tahitians who 'accompanied' them to Pitcairn Island were actually abducted after they were deceived into attending a party on the ship. Once they reached the island, Christian and his mutineers soon starting treating most of the Tahitian men like slaves, forcing them to do hard labour while the British men lazed about and [[SexSlave "passed [the women] around from one 'husband' to the other"]], growing ever more tyrannical. Within a few years all of the Tahitian men and eight of the nine mutineers were dead, murdered by each other or revenge-seeking widows, including Christian himself.

** The real Joyce Annette was irresponsible and self-absorbed, effectively abandoning her son and guilt-tripping him into not telling her ex-husband where she was. In the movie, she's a quirky but loving mother and her leaving Jeff is more pleasant.

* ''Literature/TheFireNeverDies'':
** Al Capone betrays the Five Points Gang to the IWW. He later appears leading a commando unit known as "The Outfit".

** Unlike in our timeline, Augusto Pinochet is democratically elected as president of Chile after defeating Argentina in the Beagle War. Upon his victory in the election, he even thanks his predecessor Salvador Allende for putting the good of the country above partisanship during the war.

* In ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', when Biff Tannen uses the almanac to make himself a wealthy and corrupt man, and turn Hill Valley into a WretchedHive, he does this twofold: in the museum in the casino he owns, he portrays his ancestor Buford Tannen, a sociopathic outlaw, into a brave frontiersman, and unsurprisingly, portrays himself as a patriotic and generous businessman.

* ''Film/{{Nixon}}'': Richard Nixon is shown to be desperate for this to happen to him and frustrated at how the process works. Various presidential portraits are shown in the background of scenes set in the White House, obviously a tradition that Tricky Dick aspires to continue, and Nixon is happy to point out the failures and shortcomings of previous presidents in order to defend and rationalize his own misdeeds. At the end, Nixon sees John F. Kennedy's unfinished painting and realizes that this process has already happened with JFK and there's nothing he can do about it.

** Perhaps even shown earlier in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' where after begin forced to land on a planet by an energy cloud, Kirk and company encounter a still alive and rejuvenated Cochrane. When he's informed that the energy cloud that's been keeping him alive is female and in love with him, he's disgusted by it as immoral which can be perceived as FantasticRacism. It's not until she takes over the body of a dying human woman is he able to return her feelings.

* ''Film/ThorRagnarok'': During the BatmanColdOpen, Loki tries to invoke this on himself while posing as Odin. Thor finds him putting on [[StylisticSuck a terrible play]] that portrays Loki as [[DracoInLeatherPants a kind, innocent, and misunderstood soul who just wanted his family to love him]]. Actor Thor brushes off all of Loki's crimes as the actions of a lovable scamp.

* One episode of the ''WesternAnimation/FairlyOddParents'' has Timmy wanting to make a parade float based on legendary Dimmsdale founder Dale Dimm; AJ scoffs at him, declaring Dale Dimm to be just a legend and wanting to base their float on Alden Bitterroot, who is given actual historical credit for founding Dimmsdale. It turns out they both sucked. When Timmy travels back in time, it turns out Dale IS real, but a moron who is an [[AccidentalHero accidental]] IdiotHero AT BEST, and Alden Bitterroot is an obsessive and delusional [[TheWitchHunter witch hunter]], identical ancestor of Crocker (who is actually a real witch himself and even more of an evil pain than his IdenticalGrandson!).
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': Initially, in "Irrational Treasure", presumed founder of Gravity Falls Nathaniel Northwest was, in reality, a waste-shoveling village idiot that the government used to hide the existence of the ''real'' founder of Gravity Falls, America's 8th and 1/2 President Quentin Trembley. [[spoiler:As it turns out, that was merely the tip of the iceberg -- Northwest and his wife gain untold amounts of wealth with the cover-up, along with a mayoral position, and then used the townspeople to build Northwest Manor with the promise of a party every year celebrating their hard work. The people built the manor, only to be betrayed and denied entrance to the party for the next 150 years. This was the ''first'' of the many lies and deceit the Northwests, Gravity Falls' supposed "first family", has been involved in since then -- a fact that Pacifica Northwest is very much horrified to find out]].

* In ''Literature/DragonBones'', the hero, Ward, is told to his horror that Seleg, the man he hero-worshipped and admired as role-model, had been NoHeroToHisValet, and [[spoiler: in fact, been the one who horribly punished the defenseless slave Oreg, when Oreg complained about his killing the dragons he (Seleg) was duty-bound to protect.]] Naturally, no report of those deeds made it to any ballad or other account of history.

* In the ''Literature/BelisariusSeries'', there are a couple of comments lampshading this, in which it is said that a character who died in battle would become an epic hero. In one of those cases King Eon of Ethiopia says that about himself as he is dying (ironically Eon's case is a subversion; his behavior clearly was heroic enough to win him such an honor, it simply lacked military professionalism as might be expected for so young a WarriorPrince).