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jormis29
Since: Mar, 2012
KD
Since: May, 2009
2024-07-09 19:19:59
Seconding The Greatest Story Never Told for cases like "can't take credit", or needing to immediately go into hiding — whatever mechanism that means the hero can't even say their side of the story.
The others are Hero with Bad Publicity, which has a huge bullet point list of all the reasons why the hero might be vilified or ridiculed despite the genuine heroics.
Mac_R
(Experienced, Not Yet Jaded)

When a villain is victorious in the end of the movie, it's a case of The Bad Guy Wins. But, what about when the good guy wins, but some some sort of false narrative develops, in which the hero is villified, ridiculed or ignored?
So, the hero does manage to defeat the bad guy, but because the latter was a Villain with Good Publicity, the hero needs to go into hiding despite saving the world; or maybe the Fake Ultimate Hero takes credit for the victory, where everyone assumes the real hero is just making up stories out of jealousy; Or even, the hero can't take credit for his actions because of some duty related to his Secret Identity.
All the hero can do in those situations is rest with the knowledge of what really happened, despite what everyone else thinks.