History Main / DontCreateAMartyr

* ''Fanfic/TheWhiteWolfOfWesteros'': Asha thinks on this when Euron returns to challenge Balon for the lordship. Sure, she could put an axe through his head to shut him up, but after he enticed the Ironborn to conquer, pillage and grow in power, Euron could easily be made a martyr and she'd lose her own standing as a now Kinslayer.

* ''Outlaw of Literature/{{Gor}}'' sees Queen Lara refusing to have Cabot executed because he would be made a martyr to the people of Gor, and with it a threat to the power she'd just gained from the death of her husband.

* In ''Literature/AbaddonsGate'', Clarissa Mao wants to get revenge on James Holden for his responsibility in bringing her father to justice for his crimes [[CorruptCorporateExecutive made for profitting off the protomolecule]], but knowing that simply killing Holden would make him a less controversial figure[[note]]You see, Holden may be partly responsible for igniting the war between Mars and the Asteroid Belt because he didn't consider that a difference between saying the unknown culprit used Martian emitters to fake a DistressCall and outright accusing Mars of doing so is mostly academic.[[/note]], she opts for a ploy to sabotage a few spaceships congregating in one place and [[FrameUp make it look like Holden's work]] so he will look like he's gone off the deep end.

** In the first novel ''Literature/CasinoRoyale'', M is reading the dossier on Le Chiffre, where it's noted that they can't just assassinate him as that would make him a martyr for the French Communists. In this case Bond is sent to bankrupt Le Chiffre in a high stakes gambling match.

* As part of his lessons on effective propaganda as he leads his insurrection in ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'', [[DarkMessiah John Rumford]] emphasizes that martyring enemies is extremely bad optics. If someone must be executed, it should be done in such a way that he gets no chance to become one: either by vilifying or humiliating him as appropriate so no one will sympathize with him, or else just merely having him disappear quietly, without attribution. Also, less ruthlessly, he does prefer a convert to a victim and pardons several enemies who are genuinely contrite and willing to switch sides.

** Inverted in "Discovered in a Graveyard", when a female terrorist shoots several [=CI5=] officers (including Doyle), gets wounded and takes sanctuary in her embassy where even Bodie can't pursue her. However, the embassy officials hand her back to Bodie, pointing out that she's dying anyway and will be held up as a martyr for the cause. It really doesn't matter where she dies, so handing her over avoids a diplomatic incident.

* In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', NCR's President Kimball's seven-year stalemate, militarily against Caesar's Legion and and politically against House in the Mojave has ruined his public image, so when Mr. House takes over the Mojave and ousts both the NCR and the Legion from the region, Kimball will take the blame from NCR's people. But if Caesar's assassins kill Kimball, he'll become a martyr for the Mojave once House takes over the region, which is why House wants him kept alive so that when he takes over, he can negotiate peace with NCR.

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'': [[spoiler:Queen Ga'ran Sigatar Khura'in could have sent assassins to kill Dhurke Sahdmadhi during her reign, but considering he was racking up a reputation beyond a terrorist, she schemes to frame him and paint him as a murderer to kill the spirit of rebellion. When he ''does'' get killed by her husband Inga it only messed up her plan, so she has to keep up the facade that Dhurke's still alive for a while.]]

* ''Webcomic/AntiBunny'': The mayor's robot has Nailbat broken and defeated... only for the mayor to order the robot to take him alive. The robot questions this until the mayor explains that new Nailbats can be created out of ordinary citizens who witness a martyr. The robot can kill Mors... but to kill Nailbat, he has to arrest him and have him judged by court and paraded by media, until no one wants to be Nailbat anymore.

* UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte was exiled after his defeat rather than executed because the monarchies of Europe knew that despite his losses near the end of UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars, Napoleon was still incredibly popular not only in France but in the rest of Europe where revolutionary sentiments still ran high. If they killed him, his popularity would skyrocket, resulting in revolutionaries and anti-monarchists continuing their rebellious campaigns and potentiality succeeding in overthrowing more monarchs. Instead, they chose to exile him to an island far away from Europe, in the hopes that his influence and popularity would waver and diminish over time. Their plan ended up failing regardless, as Napoleon's popularity continued, thanks in part to writing his own memoirs and whatnot, and despite their best efforts, revolutionary ideals and underground rebel groups would continue to rise and cause problems for the remainder of the 19th Century.

* During the Glorious Revolution, James II was allowed to escape captivity by William, Prince of Orange (the future William III), on December 23rd 1688. James fled to France, where he was received by his cousin, King Louis XIV.

* ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'': Regime Superman accidentally makes [[spoiler:Lex Luthor]] a martyr after killing him for his betrayal, which causes the populace to wonder if Superman has gone off the deep end for good. Superman learns his lesson in ''VideoGame/Injustice2'' in his story mode ending, [[spoiler:where he doesn't kill Batman outright, knowing that people would turn against him. Superman decides to make Batman BrainwashedAndCrazy to serve under him]].

* In ''Manga/HunterxHunter'', Shaiapouf refrains himself from killing Komungi, the blind girl who had made the Chimera Ant King [[TookALevelinKindness become kinder]] by showing him that even someone without physical power can have value, believed that if he killed her before the King had a chance to beat her in this competitive boardgame they were playing, she would always be a wall the king never overcame, and might cause him to abandon his goals for world domination and take a HeelFaceTurn.

* Manga/HunterxHunter In the Hunter x Hunter manga this is why Shaiapouf refrains himself from killing Komungi, the blind girl who had made the Chimera Ant King TakeaLevelinKindness by showing him that even someone without physical power can have value. Shaiapouf believed that if killed her before the King had a chance to beat her in this competitive boardgame they were playing, it would cause this trope as she would always be a wall the king never overcame, and might cause him to abandon his goals for world domination and take a HeelFaceTurn.

* ''ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderImbalance'': This is one of the reasons why Aang ultimately decides not to take away Liling's bending; it would only further cement the pro-bender supremacists' hatred and fear of the Avatar, seeing them as somebody capable of inflicting a FateWorseThanDeath.
* ''ComicBook/BatmanTheCult'': Batman faces the immortal (via regular BloodBath) cult leader Deacon Blackfire. Blackfire faces him in a ring of his followers, and actually ''wants'' Batman to kill him in front of them to invoke this trope. Batman realizes this and instead [[BrokenPedestal breaks his pedestal in front of all of them]] by hitting him in nerve clusters for maximum pain until Blackfire can't handle it anymore. Seeing their messiah as just a man, his cult kills him.
* In Season 8 of ''ComicBook/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Harmony has become an international celebrity who's making Buffy and the Slayer Organization's lives miserable, making vampires seem like misunderstood good guys and the slayers look like Nazis for unfairly hunting them. Still, Buffy orders her troops to let her live, for this very purpose.
* In the Fall 1152 storyline of ''ComicBook/MouseGuard'', this is the reason why the traitor [[spoiler:Midnight]] is not killed or executed. As the Guard realizes that his death would make him a martyr, he's [[PersonaNonGrata banished instead]].
* ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion2008'': Way back when, Dorek VII, Emperor of the Skrulls, had a problem with Princess Veranke, a fundamentalist who was an outspoken critic of his who wanted to invade Earth (she felt it was religious prophecy. Dorek thought she was a nutjob.) Since he couldn't kill her because of her popular support, he just had her exiled. Which meant when Galactus ate the Skrull homeworld with Dorek on it, that left Veranke as the only known Skrull royalty left...
* When [[BigBad Negan]], leader of the Saviors, is introduced in ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'''s 100th issue, [[spoiler:he lists off various reasons on why he can't just choose one person to execute with [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown Luc]][[BatterUp ille]]. For Rick, who is ''the'' leader of Alexandria, the group that had been butchering Saviors left and right, it's because of this trope. After all, the Saviors operate on ''dominating'' their opponents, not murdering them all]].
* ''ComicBook/XMen:'' Why the X-Men have to save Senator Kelly in ComicBook/DaysOfFuturePast. If he dies, other far more unpleasant politicians take up his cause of Mutant registration, and when that gets shut down skip straight to Sentinels, who promptly [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters turn on them]]. Alive, Kelly's simply an ungrateful pain in the ass.

* ''Fanfic/MyHeroAcademiaEntropy'': This is the reason why not all of the Pro Heroes who tangle with the Syndicate wind up dead. The Syndicate also makes a point of sparing Kendo during their disruption of [[spoiler:U.A.'s graduation ceremony]]; instead, they expose her as a SmugSuper; when she asks for them to TakeMeInstead, they argue that she's just shown that she considers herself to be more ''valuable'' and ''important'' than others.
* ''Fanfic/ShadowsOverMeridian'' (the RecursiveFanfiction of ''Fanfic/{{Kage}}'' above): Despite being fully capable of doing so, Jade refuses to immediately crush Elyon and the Rebellion with her Shadowkhan armies, because that would only motivate their friends and supporters to rally against Phobos more fiercely than before. She instead decides to [[HeroWithBadPublicity destroy the common people's faith in Elyon]] so that they'd have no choice but to accept Phobos as their ruler.

* Nodded to in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron''. When Quicksilver complains that Ultron and Wanda aren't being direct about the Avengers, Ultron rhetorically asks if he wants to make them martyrs.

* [[spoiler:HYDRA's S.H.I.E.L.D. mole agents]] are a SlaveToPR for this reason when they manage to capture Captain America and his cohorts in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier''. [[spoiler:Brock Rumlow]] tells one of his agents to stand down when he's about to execute Captain America in broad daylight because they know if they're seen doing the deed by anyone, it'll expose them and turn Steve into a martyr.
* ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'': This trope is the reason why [[BigBad Commodus]] doesn't [[CombatPragmatist just kill Maximus]] after the latter is revealed to be still alive. The whole point of Commodus's BreadAndCircuses act is to keep the people of Rome from realizing how bad a ruler he actually is. Maximus openly defies Commodus, but at the same time, he's so [[PopularityPower popular]] among the people that killing him would make Commodus in turn ''unpopular.''

* ''Film/Hercules2014'': [[spoiler:King Eurystheus]] says if he killed Hercules right away, the people would have revolted since Hercules is revered as a hero. So he aimed to ruin his reputation by framing him for the death of his family before trying to kill him.

* ''Film/ANewHope'': Grand Moff Tarkin accidentally falls victim to this trope when he demonstrates the Death Star's ability to be a roving KillSat on Alderaan, hoping that other systems hoping to join [[LaResistance the Rebel Alliance]] would think twice afterwards. The exact opposite happens; not only did the destruction of Alderaan hasten the defection of those who were already considering doing so, but a whole swath of otherwise neutral systems joined up en masse since they were either sickened by what the Empire did to an otherwise peaceful planet or felt that they had nothing to lose as the Empire showed that they would probably just destroy their planets too.

* ''Film/TangoAndCash'': The reason why [[BigBad Perret]] manages to convince the other criminal leaders that his plan to set up the titular pair of [[CowboyCop Cowboy Cops]] is the best ([[ComplexityAddiction even if they complain about how complicated it is]], and instead of just tossing as many assassins as it takes to kill them) is that if they just up and die, while they are still respected by the public and the LAPD as hero cops, the response will be an increase of difficulty in their criminal enterprises courtesy of crusading cops--''but'' if they are disgraced as a set-up for the kill...
%%* The reason why Ramses exiled Moses in ''Film/TheTenCommandments1956''. - ZCE; needs expansion.

'''Mr. Feather:''' But, sir, if we kill him, we'll only be making him a hero

** ''Literature/FireAndBlood:'' After the Dance of the Dragons, Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower is kept alive by what's left of her son's supporters, who've turned sides and killed said son just to end the fighting, because of this. Dead, she's a martyr. Alive, she's just a miserable old woman.

* The Party in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' don't simply kill people guilty of {{Thoughtcrime}} for this reason, instead subjecting them to MindRape to rid their brains of heretical thoughts. ''Then'' they kill them.
* In ''Literature/AbbadonsGate'', Clarissa Mao ''would'' have simply tried to kill Jim Holden for getting [[CorruptCorporateExecutive her father]] imprisoned, but realized this would turn him into a martyr in many peoples' eyes, so as Melba Koh she devised a ploy to plant bombs on spaceships that would concentrate around recently created alien artifact and make Holden's spaceship transmit a faked recording in which he claims the artifact for the Outer Planets Alliance and will destroy anyone who gets close to it, casting villainous intent on his previous exploits.
* ''Literature/AlexRider'': This trope plays into the villains' plot in ''Snakehead''. The criminal syndicate Scorpia has been tasked with assassinating the attendees at a peace conference; however, if they are seen to be victims of violence, it will make them martyrs for their cause. Instead, Scorpia seeks to engineer a "natural" disaster that will destroy the conference without any suspicion.
* This is why Achimas, one of the world's top ProfessionalKillers, is contracted to assassinate General Sobolev in ''Literature/TheDeathOfAchilles''. Sobolev [[spoiler:was preparing a military coup in Russia]], so his enemies required him dead ''and'' his death to be a shameful one because otherwise his aides would have turned him into a martyr and carried out his plans even without him.
* Katniss in ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' becomes this trope for her selfless and pacifistic behavior in the games, instead of killing her opponents like is expected, but with the unrest she causes, killing her would just make tensions worse. The FilmOfTheBook even directly has Haymitch warn Seneca "Don't kill her. You'll only make a martyr of her."

* In ''Literature/LegendsOfDune'', Serena Butler travels to a machine planet, ostensibly in order to negotiate peace with [[AIIsACrapshoot Omnius]], with only her loyal bodyguard for protection. However, she does her best to try to get the machines to kill her, specifically to cause this outcome and rally humanity behind her death, just like it happened before when Erasmus killed her infant son. However, Omnius is no idiot and keeps his machines at bay. [[spoiler:Unbeknownst to Serena, her bodyguard is actually loyal to Iblis Ginjo and has secret orders to kill Serena in order to turn her into a martyr. The bodyguard [[NeckSnap snaps Serena's neck]] with a well-placed kick before being gunned down by the robots, thus ensuring that the Army of Humanity has another martyr]].

* More than once in the course of ''Series/BabylonFive'', Sheridan is targeted for actions that try to turn or discredit him rather than kill him, for exactly this reason.
* This sets off the plot of ''Series/BlakesSeven'' in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E1TheWayBack The Way Back]]". Roj Blake was a RebelLeader who was captured, brainwashed into denouncing his own revolution, then had his memories erased. A resurgent rebel group tries to awaken his memories so he can be a figurehead, only to be massacred and Blake captured again. But this time the brainwashing doesn't hold, so the Terran Federation decide to frame Blake as a child molester and deport him to a penal planet. This tactic of ruthlessly massacring rebels while keeping their leader alive is later shown to be a standard tactic of the Federation.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' has Roose Bolton use this against Ramsay's suggestion of killing Jon Snow because of a potential claim on the North. After all, killing the Lord Commander of an extremely well-known and politically neutral organization over a tenuous claim that's ''against his vows anyway'' may not be the best way to pacify an already ''very'' pissed-off North. [[spoiler:Of course, that doesn't stop Ramsay from trying it anyway. Twice. And guess who was right? NiceJobFixingItVillain.]]
* ''Series/HouseMD'': In "The Tyrant", Chase uses this as an argument for why Foreman shouldn't reveal [[spoiler:that he faked a test to kill genocidal African dictator Dibala by treating him for the wrong disease, saying Dibala's followers will use it as an excuse to continue his plans.]]

* Michael Burnham warns Captain Georgiou this would happen on ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' if T'Kuvma is killed. Instead, she suggests capturing him; a dead T'Kuvma is a martyr for the Klingons, while an imprisoned one is discredited and dishonoured. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Ironically, Burnham is the one to cause the problem in the end when she kills T'Kuvma in anger after he kills Georgiou]].

* ''Series/Tyrant2014'': This concern is why Jamal, the new dictator of Abbudin after his father's death, is so careful about dealing with liberal protestors in the capital's public square. He knows full well that using violence to crack down on political dissenters will simply rally more people to their cause.
* TheSyndicate in ''Series/TheXFiles'' lets Mulder repeatedly get away with poking his nose into their various ventures because Mulder has a reputation in the worldwide community of conspiracy nutters and killing him would just serve as a message to everyone that he was digging in the right direction. By letting him live, the conspirators are basically KeepingTheEnemyClose, preferring one they already know to the hundreds to thousands that would replace him if something happened to him.

* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', this is why [[BigBad Scarecrow]] does not want to kill Batman right out of the gate. Killing him as he currently is would only solidify his status as a symbol of hope to people, whereas breaking him and holding him up for all the world to see before killing him would turn him into just another man and destroy that legendary status. This leads to friction between Scarecrow and [[TheDragon the Arkham Knight]], who doesn't care what Batman's legacy will be after he's gone, he just wants him dead.

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', Tulius lampshades this when the Civil War questline is completed for the Imperials, that by killing Ulfric they may have just created a martyr for rebellion against the Empire and the worship of Talos.
* In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', Mr. House discusses this with regards to NCR's President Kimball. Kimball's seven-year stalemate, militarily against Caesar's Legion and and politically against House in the Mojave has ruined his public image, so when House takes over the Mojave and ousts both the NCR and the Legion from the region, Kimball will take the blame from NCR's people. But if Caesar's assassins kill Kimball, he'll become a martyr for the Mojave once House takes over the region, which is why House wants him kept alive so that when he takes over, he can negotiate peace with NCR.

* In ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'', Kain accidentally falls victim to this trope in the first game. To prevent a tyrannous king called The Nemesis from taking over Nosgoth, he travels back in time to kill him as a young boy, William the Just. However, [[TheChessmaster Moebius the Timestreamer]] uses the death of a young and beloved king to galvanize the humans of Nosgoth into exterminating the vampires, and when Kain returns to the present, he finds his race almost extinct thanks to Moebius's crusade.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'': The end of Jaal's Loyalty Mission invokes this one. Aksul, leader of the fanatically anti-alien Roekaar, is holding Jaal at gunpoint, and Ryder is holding him at gunpoint. Aksul tries to goad them into shooting him in front of his followers. [[spoiler:If Ryder does shoot him, Jaal is horrified, and the angaran leaders scold Ryder for making Aksul into a martyr, noting it'll make the political situation worse. Note that the leader of the resistance doesn't object to the death, just the means by which it was done.]]
* Discussed in ''VideoGame/StarcraftII''. [[TheHero Raynor]] tells Tosh that [[TheEmperor Arcturus Mengsk]] chooses to marginalize him with the media and paint him as a fanatical terrorist because he knows just killing Raynor will make him a martyr for rebellious sentiment. Tosh agrees but points out that if Raynor causes enough trouble/becomes a big enough threat Mengsk will risk it and simply kill Raynor.
** In ''VideoGame/StarCraftIINovaCovertOps'', [[spoiler:Valerian uses this to stop Nova from assassinating General Davis. It doesn't work]].
* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheForceUnleashed'', the Emperor and Vader end up accidentally doing that by [[spoiler:killing [[PlayerCharacter Starkiller]], while he's covering the escape of the future LaResistance leaders. The Emperor instantly realizes their mistake and orders Vader to relentlessly root out the rebellion, lest this mistake doom them both. The rebels end up adopting Starkiller's family crest as their symbol]].

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'': [[spoiler:Queen Ga'ran Sigatar Khura'in could have sent assassins to kill Dhurke Sahdmadhi during her reign, but considering he was racking up a reputation beyond a terrorist, Ga'ran is well aware this trope is in effect. The whole point of her scheme is to frame him and paint him as a murderer to kill the spirit of rebellion. When he ''does'' get killed by her husband Inga it only messed up her plan, so she had to keep up the facade that Dhurke's still alive for a while.]]

* ''Webcomic/AntiBunny'': Nailbat. The mayor's robot has Nailbat broken and defeated... only for the mayor to order the robot to take him alive. The robot questions this until the mayor explains that new Nailbats can be created out of ordinary citizens who witness a martyr. The robot can kill Mors... but to kill Nailbat, he has to arrest him and have him judged by court and paraded by media, until no one wants to be Nailbat anymore.
* A twisted version of this is the end of Tarquin's story in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick''. Tarquin, an absolute slave to the idea of GenreSavvy, knows that the only good story is one that ends with the villain defeated in a grand final battle, making them immortal. [[spoiler:Elan defeats him, and then drops him on a rock in a desert, refusing to kill him - [[CruelMercy and thus ruining the story]]. Instead of a grand death at the hands of a hero, Tarquin is a bad joke, a pathetic loser defeated and left to wallow in his own pity.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ActionMan2000'': There was a peace conference/athletic competition that two high-ranking officials and their families were attending. Dr. X's mercenary drugs the officials with knockout gas, but asks him [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim why he isn't killing them]] instead of just broadcasting fake news footage of a reporter saying they appear to have died. His answer is that he wants to create confusion and fear, not martyrs to a peace process.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Amon only takes bending abilities from criminals and jerkasses [[spoiler:before proceeding with his grand plan to take over the city and eventually rid the world of bending]] for this reason. When Korra challenges him to a duel and he ambushes her with a group of chi-blockers and has her at his mercy, he actually tells Korra that taking her powers at this point would only make her a martyr, so he lets her go unharmed (albeit terrified).

* This is the reason why UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte was exiled after his defeat rather than executed. The monarchies of Europe knew that despite his losses near the end of UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars, Napoleon was still incredibly popular not only in France but in the rest of Europe where revolutionary sentiments still ran high. If they killed him, his popularity would skyrocket, resulting in revolutionaries and anti-monarchists continuing their rebellious campaigns and potentiality succeeding in overthrowing more monarchs. Instead, they chose to exile him to an island far away from Europe, in the hopes that his influence and popularity would waver and diminish over time. Their plan ended up failing regardless, as Napoleon's popularity continued, thanks in part to writing his own memoirs and whatnot, and despite their best efforts, revolutionary ideals and underground rebel groups would continue to rise and cause problems for the remainder of the 19th Century.

* ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion'': Way back when, Dorek VII, Emperor of the Skrulls, had a problem with Princess Veranke, a fundamentalist who was an outspoken critic of his who wanted to invade Earth (she felt it was religious prophecy. Dorek thought she was a nutjob.) Since he couldn't kill her because of her popular support, he just had her exiled. Which meant when Galactus ate the Skrull homeworld with Dorek on it, that left Veranke as the only known Skrull royalty left...

* The "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia was supposed to be a victory for white supremacists and the alt-right. While much of the nation was distracted by talks about nuclear warfare between the U.S and North Korea and investigations into Russian election hacking, this could have been an easy first amendment victory for keeping a statue of Civil War general Robert E. Lee up, and at worst a minor fracas similar to the recent brawls at UC Berkeley. Unfortunately, at around 1:45 PM that afternoon, one of the alt-right members, 20-year-old James Alex Fields of Ohio, [[CarFu drove a car into a crowd of counterprotesters]], killing 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. Heyer quickly became a martyr for both anti-Nazism and the anti-Trump movement as a whole, while the alt-right was badly damaged by the incident, with many of its members being kicked off the internet and getting fired from their jobs; not helping was their picking the ''worst'' possible way to respond (by taking reports of Heyer suffering chest injuries and trying to claim she actually died of an obesity-related heart attack, which just made them look like they were posthumously fat-shaming her on top of everything else). Trump's response was widely condemned, with him getting Bush-after-Katrina level polling on it and several people resigning in protest. To cap it all off, the anti-Confederate commemoration movement that the alt-right was trying to oppose got new life breathed into it.

* 1916 saw Irish rebel forces launch the Easter Rising, an armed insurrection against British rule. The Irish public was largely not supportive of the rebels at first, but when several were quickly executed after a series of controversial court-martials that Crown law officers later said were illegal, the Irish grew increasingly sympathetic to the rebels and hostile towards the British. The resulting change in public opinion led to the victory of Sinn Féin in the 1918 Irish elections and Ireland's independence shortly thereafter.

* ''Series/HouseMD'': In "The Tyrant", Chase uses this as an argument for why Foreman shouldn't reveal [[spoiler:that he faked a test to kill genocidal African dictator Dibala by treating him for the wrong disease, saying Dibala's followers will use it as excuse to continue his plans.]]

* ''Series/House'': In "The Tyrant", Chase uses this as an argument for why Foreman shouldn't reveal [[spoiler:that he faked a test to kill genocidal African dictator Dibala by treating him for the wrong disease, saying Dibala's followers will use it as excuse to continue his plans.]]

* The "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia was supposed to be a victory for white supremacists and the alt-right. While much of the nation was distracted by talks about nuclear warfare between the U.S and North Korea and investigations into Russian election hacking, this could have been an easy first amendment victory for keeping a statue of Civil War general Robert E. Lee up, an at worst a minor fracas similar to the recent brawls at UC Berkeley. Unfortunately, at around 1:45 PM that afternoon, one of the alt-right members, 20-year-old James Alex Fields of Ohio, drove a car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. Heyer quickly became a martyr for both anti-Nazism and the anti-Trump movement as a whole, while the alt-right was badly damaged by the incident, with many of its members being kicked off the internet and getting fired from their jobs; not helping was their picking the ''worst'' possible way to respond (by taking reports of Heyer suffering chest injuries and trying to claim she actually died of an obesity-related heart attack, which just made them look like they were posthumously fat-shaming her on top of everything else). Trump's response was widely condemned, with him getting Bush-after-Katrina level polling on it and several people resigning in protest. To cap it all off, the anti-Confederate commemoration movement that the alt-right was trying to oppose got new life breathed into it.

* ''Anime/VivyFluoriteEyesSong'': In the timeline that lead to the BadFuture, an assemblyman in favor of passing a law that contributed to a RobotWar happening in the long term was murdered. The murder motivated other politicians who were in favor of the law to put much more effort into getting passed, as to honor him. In the timeline in which the assemblyman stays alive, the law doesn't get passed, but an even more favorable law gets passed instead.

* In the Fall 1152 storyline of ''ComicBook/MouseGuard'', this is the reason why the traitor [[spoiler: Midnight]] is not killed or executed. As the Guard realizes that his death would make him a martyr, he's [[PersonaNonGrata banished instead]].
* ''ComicBook/BatmanTheCult'': Batman faces the immortal (via regular BloodBath) cult leader Deacon Blackfire. Blackfire faces him in a ring of his followers, and actually ''wants'' Batman to kill him in front of them to invoke this trope. Batman realizes this and instead [[BrokenPedestal breaks his pedestal in front of all of them]] by hitting him in nerve clusters for maximum pain until Blackfire can't handle it anymore. Seeing their messiah as just a man, his cult kills him.
* When [[BigBad Negan]], leader of the Saviors, is introduced in ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'''s 100th issue, [[spoiler:he lists off various reasons on why he can't just choose one person to execute with [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown Luc]][[BatterUp ille]]. For Rick, who is ''the'' leader of Alexandria, the group that had been butchering Saviors left and right, it's because of this trope. After all, the Saviors operate on ''dominating'' their opponents, not murdering them all.]]

[[folder:Film]]

-->'''The Man:''' Now Boutwell might be President?!... I want the White House to stay white. Eliminate him!
-->'''Mr. Feather:''' But, sir, if we kill him, we'll only be making him a hero.
* {{Inverted|Trope}} in ''Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian'': the People's Front of Judea could have rescued Brian from dying on the cross, but they decide to make him a martyr instead. He doesn't take it well.
* In ''Film/BatmanReturns'', when Catwoman and Penguin have their team-up, Catwoman shoots down Penguin's initial suggestion of turning the Batmobile into "an H-Bomb on wheels" by pointing out that Batman would have even more power as a martyr, and that the best way to destroy him is to destroy his reputation.

* In the live-action ''Film/MastersOfTheUniverse'' movie, Skeletor gives this as his reason for not outright killing He-Man immediately (though it's obvious there's ego involved, too).
-->'''Evil-Lyn:''' The people wait for He-Man. They believe he will return to lead them. For you to rule completely he must be destroyed.\\
'''Skeletor:''' If I kill him, I make him a martyr, a saint. No, I want him broken first!
* ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'': This trope is the reason why [[BigBad Commodus]] doesn't [[CombatPragmatist just kill Maximus]] after the latter is revealed to be still alive. The whole point of Commodus's BreadAndCircuses act is to keep the people of Rome from realizing how bad a ruler he actually is. Maximus openly defies Commodus, but at the same time, he's so [[PopularityPower popular]] among the people that killing him would make Commodus in turn ''unpopular.''
-->'''Commodus:''' And now they love Maximus for his mercy. So I can't just kill him, or it makes me even more unmerciful! The whole thing's like some crazed nightmare.\\
'''Falco:''' He is defying you. His every victory is an act of defiance. The mob sees this, and so does the senate. Every day he lives, they grow bolder. Kill him.\\
'''Commodus:''' No. I will not make a martyr of him.

%%* The reason why Ramses exiled Moses in ''Film/TheTenCommandments1956''. - ZCE; needs expansion.
* [[spoiler:HYDRA's S.H.I.E.L.D. mole agents]] are a SlaveToPR for this reason when they manage to capture Captain America and his cohorts in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier''. [[spoiler:Brock Rumlow]] tells one of his agents to stand down when he's about to execute Captain America in broad daylight because they know if they're seen doing the deed by anyone, it'll expose them and turn Steve into a martyr.
* Nodded to in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron''. When Quicksilver complains that Ultron and Wanda aren't being direct about the Avengers, Ultron rhetorically asks if he wants to make them martyrs.
* ''Film/TangoAndCash'': The reason why [[BigBad Perret]] manages to convince the other criminal leaders that his plan to set up the titular pair of [[CowboyCop Cowboy Cops]] is the best ([[ComplexityAddiction even if they complain about how complicated it is]], and instead of just tossing as many assassins as it takes to kill them) is that if they just up and die, while they are still respected by the public and the LAPD as hero cops, the response will be an increase of difficulty in their criminal enterprises courtesy of crusading cops--''but'' if they are disgraced as a set-up for the kill...
* ''Film/Hercules2014'': [[spoiler:King Eurystheus]] says if he killed Hercules right away, the people would have revolted since Hercules is revered as a hero. So he aimed to ruin his reputation by framing him for the death of his family before trying to kill him.
* In ''Film/ThePostman'' General Bethlehem, leader of the Holnists, has captured Ford Lincoln Mercury (it's a person's name) and has decided to execute him and another postman. When the two introduce themselves to each other, he realizes that they don't know each other and that therefore simply killing Ford would create a martyr, and the idea of the postal service and re-established government would spread.
* ''Outlaw of Literature/{{Gor}}'' sees Queen Lara refusing to have Cabot executed because he would be made a martyr to the people of Gor, and with it a threat to the power she'd just gained from the death of her husband.
* ''Film/RRR2022'': After [[spoiler:Bheem's public flogging causes a riot]], Ram convinces Scott not to execute him in the city, as it would create a martyr for the people to rally around. He's actually exploiting the trope: [[spoiler:by convincing Scott to hang Bheem in a secluded area, Ram can better execute his plan to free him.]]

* This is why Achimas, one of the world's top ProfessionalKillers, is contracted to assassinate General Sobolev in ''Literature/TheDeathOfAchilles''. Sobolev [[spoiler:was preparing a military coup in Russia]], so his enemies required him dead ''and'' his death to be a shameful one because otherwise his aides would have turned him into a martyr and carried out his plans even without him.
* Katniss in ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' becomes this trope for her selfless and pacifistic behavior in the games, instead of killing her opponents like is expected, but with the unrest she causes, killing her would just make tensions worse. The FilmOfTheBook even directly has Haymitch warn Seneca "Don't kill her. You'll only make a martyr of her."
* In Creator/GeorgeRRMartin's early short story "And Death His Legacy" (collected in ''Dream Songs'') the protagonist assassinates a right-wing demagogue during one of his sermons, which inspires his already fanatical followers to continue his work and the movement grows. "MyGodWhatHaveIDone."
** And in ''[[Literature/TalesOfDunkAndEgg The Mystery Knight]]'', a Blackfyre usurper is allowed to live for this reason, though also because if they cut off his head, the next-in-line of succession will take over the role. This way the current Blackfyre is their hostage, hampering any future attempts by the Blackfyre rebels to take the Iron Throne.
-->'''[[StateSec Bloodraven]]''': Should I be so foolish as to [[OffWithHisHead remove his pretty head]], his mother will mourn, his friends will curse me for a kinslayer, and [[EvilChancellor Bittersteel]] will crown [[SpareToTheThrone his brother Haegon]]. Dead, [[spoiler: young Daemon]] is a hero. Alive, he is an obstacle in my half-brother's path. He can hardly make a third Blackfyre king whilst the second remains so inconveniently alive. Besides, such a noble captive will be an ornament to our court, and a living testament to the mercy and benevolence of His Grace, King Aerys.

* ''Franchise/JamesBond''

* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'':
** ''Literature/TheWayOfKings2010'': Discussed. Kaladin organizes the bridgemen, turning them from slaves waiting to die into real, professional soldiers. Gaz promises to assassinate him, but his superior says that is a terrible idea, as it will just turn Kaladin into a martyr. Bridgemen have the most dangerous job in the army, so it's better to just let him die on the field. Of course, they are both unaware that Kaladin has magical powers that haven't been seen in centuries, and thus is extremely unlikely to fall to something as minor as arrows.
** ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'': Sadeas knows better than to assassinate Dalinar; even though Dalinar's reputation is at an ebb, he is still a respected general and leader. Killing him out of the blue would just make people flock to the ideals he's been espousing, which Sadeas hates. Instead, his wife's spies find [[spoiler:the written records of Dalinar's visions]] and release them to the public (edited slightly to seem more ridiculous). ''Then'' he tries to assassinate Dalinar since no one will care if a madman dies. This backfires when Dalinar survives the assassination, wins the war, and proves everything he's been saying is true. Sadeas still plans to politically undermine him, however. [[spoiler:He makes the mistake of telling Dalinar's son, Adolin, this while they're alone. Adolin snaps and kills him]].

* The Party in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' don't simply kill people guilty of {{Thoughtcrime}} for this reason, instead subjecting them to MindRape to rid their brains of heretical thoughts. ''Then'' they kill them.

* In ''Literature/AbbadonsGate'', Clarissa Mao ''would'' have simply tried to kill Jim Holden for getting [[CorruptCorporateExecutive her father]] imprisoned, but realized this would turn him into a martyr in many peoples' eyes, so as Melba Koh she devised a ploy to plant bombs on spaceships that would concentrate around recently created alien artifact and make Holden's spaceship transmit a faked recording in which he claims the artifact for the Outer Planets Alliance and will destroy anyone who gets close to it, casting villainous intent on his previous exploits.
* ''Literature/AlexRider'': This trope plays into the villains' plot in ''Snakehead''. The criminal syndicate Scorpia has been tasked with assassinating the attendees at a peace conference; however, if they are seen to be victims of violence, it will make them martyrs for their cause. Instead, Scorpia seeks to engineer a "natural" disaster that will destroy the conference without any suspicion.

* At the end of the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "[[Recap/StargateSG1S8E5Icon Icon]]", Rand Protectorate loyalist leader Jared Kane guns down the religious extremist leader Soren. Daniel Jackson tells him he may have just created a martyr.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E13AngelOne Angel One]]", the ruler of a matriarchal society sentences a male former member of the Federation named Ramsey and two accomplices to death for revolutionary activities. The crew of the ''Enterprise'' can do nothing to help them as far as legalities are concerned (a rare case where they abide by the Prime Directive), but Riker advises Mistress Beata of the possible consequences, saying her actions are trying to hold back evolution, which can't be done, and warns her that she'll make a martyr out of Ramsey. At the last minute, Beata relents and simply chooses to have Ramsey exiled.

* TheSyndicate in ''Series/TheXFiles'' lets Mulder repeatedly get away with poking his nose into their various ventures because Mulder has a reputation in the worldwide community of conspiracy nutters and killing him would just serve as a message to everyone that he was digging in the right direction. By letting him live, the conspirators are basically KeepingTheEnemyClose, preferring one they already know to the hundreds to thousands that would replace him if something happened to him.
* ''Series/Tyrant2014'': This concern is why Jamal, the new dictator of Abbudin after his father's death, is so careful about dealing with liberal protestors in the capital's public square. He knows full well that using violence to crack down on political dissenters will simply rally more people to their cause.

* In ''Series/FlashGordon2007'', Ming has captured Barin, the leader of one of the cantons on Mongo, and plans to execute him publicly for defiance. Knowing that Ming heeds the prophecies spoken by a fringe cult on Mongo, Flash and his friends infiltrate the cult, knock out the real members, disguise themselves, and fake the ritual (involving a cult member being stung by a scorpion-like creature, mumbling something that sounds like gibberish before expiring, and another member translating it). The chosen message is vague, but Ming immediately realizes that it warns him that, by killing Barin, he would be creating a martyr for the other cantons to rally behind. Instead, he opts to keep Barin imprisoned until he can find another solution. Interestingly, his [[TheDragon Dragon]] turns out to be a secret member of the cult and is aware that the "prophecy" is fake. However, he is [[spoiler:secretly working to bring Ming down]].
* ''Series/TheProfessionals''

* This sets off the plot of ''Series/BlakesSeven'' in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E1TheWayBack The Way Back]]". Roj Blake was a RebelLeader who was captured, brainwashed into denouncing his own revolution, then had his memories erased. A resurgent rebel group tries to awaken his memories so he can be a figurehead, only to be massacred and Blake captured again. But this time the brainwashing doesn't hold, so the Terran Federation decide to frame Blake as a child molester and deport him to a penal planet. This tactic of ruthlessly massacring rebels while keeping their leader alive is later shown to be a standard tactic of the Federation.

* An episode of ''Series/EarthFinalConflict'' has a computer virus infiltrate Taelon systems and spread across the world. This causes the shuttle piloted by Lili, with Da'an as the passenger, to crash in the wilderness. Worried about Lili, who's secretly a member of LaResistance, [[RebelLeader Jonathan Doors]] sends his men to find her. Despite Lili leaving her tracking beacon behind, the soldiers manage to find them. They level their weapon at Da'an but tell him that they're only here to offer medical aid to his human companion (since they don't want to jeopardize Lili's cover). Da'an asks if they are planning on shooting him, but the soldiers lower their weapons and say they have no intention of turning Da'an into a martyr. It's a moot point, though, since all they have regular firearms, which are harmless to the [[EnergyBeing Taelons]].

* Discussed in ''VideoGame/StarcraftII''. [[TheHero Raynor]] tells Tosh that [[TheEmperor Arcturus Mengsk]] chooses to marginalize him with the media and paint him as a fanatical terrorist because he knows just killing Raynor will make him a martyr for rebellious sentiment. Tosh agrees but points out that if Raynor causes enough trouble/becomes a big enough threat Mengsk will risk it and simply kill Raynor.
** In ''VideoGame/StarCraftIINovaCovertOps'', [[spoiler: Valerian uses this to stop Nova from assassinating General Davis. It doesn't work.]]

* In one of the alternate timelines Booker and Elizabeth visit in ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'', the alternate Booker never found Liz but instead joined Vox Populi, died fighting, and was posthumously turned into a martyr by the Vox Populi leaders. Moreover, when Booker Prime suddenly appears and everyone thinks he is BackFromTheDead, said leaders actively try to off him again, because he is more useful to them dead than alive.
* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', this is why [[BigBad Scarecrow]] does not want to kill Batman right out of the gate. Killing him as he currently is would only solidify his status as a symbol of hope to people, whereas breaking him and holding him up for all the world to see before killing him would turn him into just another man and destroy that legendary status. This leads to friction between Scarecrow and [[TheDragon the Arkham Knight]], who doesn't care what Batman's legacy will be after he's gone, he just wants him dead.
* ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'': Regime Superman accidentally makes [[spoiler:Lex Luthor]] a martyr after killing him for his betrayal, which causes the populace to wonder if Superman has gone off the deep end for good. Superman learns his lesson in ''VideoGame/Injustice2'' in his story mode ending, [[spoiler:where he doesn't kill Batman outright, knowing that people would turn against him. Superman decides to make Batman BrainwashedAndCrazy to serve under him]].
* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheForceUnleashed'', the Emperor and Vader end up accidentally doing that by [[spoiler:killing [[PlayerCharacter Starkiller]], while he's covering the escape of the future LaResistance leaders. The Emperor instantly realizes their mistake and orders Vader to relentlessly root out the rebellion, lest this mistake doom them both. The rebels end up adopting Starkiller's family crest as their symbol]].

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'': [[spoiler:Queen Ga'ran Sigatar Khura'in could have sent assassins to kill Dhurke Sahdmadhi during her reign, but considering he was racking up a reputation beyond a terrorist, Ga'ran is well aware this trope is in effect. The whole point of her scheme is to frame him and paint him as a murderer to kill the spirit of rebellion. When he ''does'' get killed by her husband Inga it only messed up her plan, so she had to keep up the facade that Dhurke's still alive for a while.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Amon only takes bending abilities from criminals and jerkasses [[spoiler:before proceeding with his grand plan to take over the city and eventually rid the world of bending]] for this reason. When Korra challenges him to a duel and he ambushes her with a group of chi-blockers and has her at his mercy, he actually tells Korra that taking her powers at this point would only make her a martyr, so he lets her go unharmed (albeit terrified).

* ''[[WesternAnimation/Ducktales2017 DuckTales]]'': In the series finale, Bradford Buzzard (the founder and leader of FOWL) has succeeded in obtaining all the lost artifacts and detained Scrooge and the Ducks (along with their friends, allies, and even their rivals and enemies) in his true plot to rid the world of all adventure. However, while he intends to erase all those who were detained by sending them into a black hole, he refuses to subject Scrooge to the same fate because he knows that doing so will make Scrooge a martyr for others who were inspired by Scrooge's stories of adventures to take a stand against FOWL; plus, he knows damn well that Scrooge is capable of, certain that even if Scrooge was erased, he would still somehow find himself a way back into existence.

* The "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia was supposed to be a victory for white supremacists and the alt-right. While much of the nation was distracted by talks about nuclear warfare between the U.S and North Korea and investigations into Russian election hacking, this could have been an easy first amendment victory for keeping a statue of Civil War general Robert E. Lee up, an at worst a minor fracas similar to the recent brawls at UC Berkeley. Unfortunately, at around 1:45 PM that afternoon, one of the alt-right members, 20-year-old James Alex Fields of Ohio, drove a car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. Heyer quickly became a martyr for both anti-Nazism and the anti-Trump movement as a whole, while the alt-right was badly damaged by the incident, with many of its members being kicked off the internet and getting fired from their jobs. Trump's response was widely condemned, with him getting Bush-after-Katrina level polling on it and several people resigning in protest. To cap it all off, the anti-Confederate commemoration movement that the alt-right was trying to oppose got new life breathed into it.

* ''Fanfic/ShadowsOverMeridian'': Despite being fully capable of doing so, Jade refuses to immediately crush Elyon and the Rebellion with her Shadowkhan armies, because that would only motivate their friends and supporters to rally against Phobos more fiercely than before. She instead decides to [[HeroWithBadPublicity destroy the common people's faith in Elyon]] so that they'd have no choice but to accept Phobos as their ruler.

* ''Literature/FromRussiaWithLove''. James Bond is aware that the Soviets are plotting something but doesn't think they're planning murder [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim because they could just assassinate him]]. Turns out they ''are'' planning to kill him, but in a way that will create a public scandal. In this case, the scandal is the object though, rather than Bond's death. Bond is a nuisance, but the real object is to discredit British Intelligence.

** ''Literature/TheWayOfKings'': Discussed. Kaladin organizes the bridgemen, turning them from slaves waiting to die into real, professional soldiers. Gaz promises to assassinate him, but his superior says that is a terrible idea, as it will just turn Kaladin into a martyr. Bridgemen have the most dangerous job in the army, so it's better to just let him die on the field. Of course, they are both unaware that Kaladin has magical powers that haven't been seen in centuries, and thus is extremely unlikely to fall to something as minor as arrows.

* At the end of the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "Icon", Rand Protectorate loyalist leader Jared Kane guns down the religious extremist leader Soren. Daniel Jackson tells him he may have just created a martyr.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Angel 1", the ruler of a matriarchal society sentences a male former member of the Federation named Ramsey and two accomplices to death for revolutionary activities. The crew of the ''Enterprise'' can do nothing to help them as far as legalities are concerned (a rare case where they abide by the Prime Directive), but Riker advises Mistress Beata of the possible consequences, saying her actions are trying to hold back evolution, which can't be done, and warns her that she'll make a martyr out of Ramsey. At the last minute, Beata relents and simply chooses to have Ramsey exiled.

* ''Series/{{Tyrant 2014}}'': This concern is why Jamal, the new dictator of Abbudin after his father's death, is so careful about dealing with liberal protestors in the capital's public square. He knows full well that using violence to crack down on political dissenters will simply rally more people to their cause.

* In ''Series/{{Flash Gordon|2007}}'', Ming has captured Barin, the leader of one of the cantons on Mongo, and plans to execute him publicly for defiance. Knowing that Ming heeds the prophecies spoken by a fringe cult on Mongo, Flash and his friends infiltrate the cult, knock out the real members, disguise themselves, and fake the ritual (involving a cult member being stung by a scorpion-like creature, mumbling something that sounds like gibberish before expiring, and another member translating it). The chosen message is vague, but Ming immediately realizes that it warns him that, by killing Barin, he would be creating a martyr for the other cantons to rally behind. Instead, he opts to keep Barin imprisoned until he can find another solution. Interestingly, his [[TheDragon Dragon]] turns out to be a secret member of the cult and is aware that the "prophecy" is fake. However, he is [[spoiler:secretly working to bring Ming down]].

* This sets off the plot of ''Series/BlakesSeven''. Roj Blake was a RebelLeader who was captured, brainwashed into denouncing his own revolution, then had his memories erased. A resurgent rebel group tries to awaken his memories so he can be a figurehead, only to be massacred and Blake captured again. But this time the brainwashing doesn't hold, so the Terran Federation decide to frame Blake as a child molester and deport him to a penal planet. This tactic of ruthlessly massacring rebels while keeping their leader alive is later shown to be a standard tactic of the Federation.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Webcomic/AntiBunny: Nailbat. The mayor's robot has Nailbat broken and defeated... only for the mayor to order the robot to take him alive. The robot questions this until the mayor explains that new Nailbats can be created out of ordinary citizens who witness a martyr. The robot can kill Mors... but to kill Nailbat, he has to arrest him and have him judged by court and paraded by media, until no one wants to be Nailbat anymore.

Compare WhyDontYouJustShootHim, and YouCantKillAnIdea, which this trope may be the answer to. See also NiceJobBreakingItHero and NiceJobFixingItVillain, which may overlap with this trope if the character ''does'' die and become a martyr, and PragmaticVillainy, which this trope is likely to be an instance of.

Compare WhyDontYouJustShootHim, which this trope may be the answer to. See also NiceJobBreakingItHero and NiceJobFixingItVillain, which may overlap with this trope if the character ''does'' die and become a martyr, and PragmaticVillainy, which this trope is likely to be an instance of.

* ''Series/AlteredCarbon'': Takeshi Kovacs is the last surviving member of Quellcrist Falconer's Envoys who fought a rebellion over 250 years ago against the United Nations Protectorate Forces. In season 2, he is back on Harlan's World, the place Quellcrist based her operations and is still home to rebels fighting the government's forces. When Kovacs is captured at the site of a slaughter of rich and influential people, he is sentenced to public execution. Once the officer who captures him realizes who Kovacs is, he strenuously advises they forgo the public one and just quietly shoot Kovacs in the [[BodyBackupDrive stack]]. Rather than lose face for stopping the public execution, the governor goes through with it. [[spoiler:Her actions end up with Takeshi not only alive but reveal that Quellcrist is alive when she comes to rescue him. The entire planet witnesses this before a mole cuts power to the prison, allowing both Quellcrist and Kovacs to escape]].

** Inverted in "Discovered in a Graveyard", when a female terrorist shoots several [=CI5=] officers (including Doyle), gets wounded, and takes sanctuary in her embassy where even Bodie can't pursue her. However, the embassy officials hand her back to Bodie, pointing out that she's dying anyway and will be held up as a martyr for the cause. It really doesn't matter where she dies, so handing her over avoids a diplomatic incident.

-->'''Susan Bro''' (Heyer's mother): They tried to kill my child to shut her up. Well guess what? You just magnified her.
* 1916 saw Irish rebel forces launch the Easter Rising, an armed insurrection against British rule. The Irish public was largely not supportive of the rebels at first, but when several were quickly executed after a series of controversial courts-martial that Crown law officers later said were illegal, the Irish grew increasingly sympathetic to the rebels and hostile towards the British. The resulting change in public opinion led to the victory of Sinn Féin in the 1918 Irish elections and Ireland's independence shortly thereafter.

* ''Outlaw of Literature/{{Gor}}'' sees Queen Lara refusing to have Cabot executed because he would be made a martyr to the people of Gor, and with it a threat to the power she'd just gained from the death of her husband.[[/folder]]

* In May of 1431, the English illegally rigged UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc's trial to ensure she was executed, as she had already cost the English dearly, lifting the siege of Orleans, destroying their army in the battle of Patay, and coronating the Dauphin as Charles VII of France. However, executing the woman who had saved all of France in a clearly rigged trial merely wound up turning what had ordinarily been a war of succession into a war of liberation against a foreign occupier. The French peasantry flocked to the banner, Charles VII repeatedly tried to get Joan acquitted, and the English would ultimately suffer shocking disaster after disaster, not only losing nearly all their lands on the continent but also creating conditions for the CivilWar that is the UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses. Historians widely agree that executing Joan was the worst mistake the English made.

* The "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia was supposed to be a victory for white supremacists and the alt-right. While much of the nation was distracted by talks about nuclear warfare between the U.S and North Korea and investigations into Russian election hacking, this could have been an easy first amendment victory for keeping a statue of Civil War general Robert E. Lee up, an at worst a minor fracas similar to the recent brawls at UC Berkeley. Unfortunately, at around 1:45 PM that afternoon, one of the alt-right members, 20-year-old James Alex Fields of Ohio, drove a car into a crowd of anti-Nazi protesters, killing 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. Heyer quickly became a martyr for both anti-Nazism and the anti-Trump movement as a whole, while the alt-right was badly damaged by the incident, with many members being kicked off the internet and fired from their jobs. Trump's response was widely condemned, with him getting Bush-after-Katrina level polling on it, with several people resigning in protest. To cap it all off, the anti-Confederate commemoration movement that the alt-right was trying to oppose got new life.

* A twisted version of this is the end of Tarquin's story in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick''. Tarquin, an absolute slave to the idea of GenreSavvy, knows that the only good story is one that ends with the villain defeated in a grand final battle, making them immortal. [[spoiler:Elan defeats him, and then drops him on a rock in a desert, refusing to kill him - and thus ruining the story. Instead of a grand death at the hands of a hero, Tarquin is a bad joke, a pathetic loser defeated and left to wallow in his own pity.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/IronManArmoredAdventures'': When Magneto tries to kill Senator Kelly, he won't do it in a way that makes it clear to everyone that Kelly was killed by a mutant because it'd turn Kelly into a martyr for other mutant haters to rally around.

* One thing the conspirators didn't seem to factor in after assassinating [[UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar Julius Caesar]] was that the guy was ''incredibly popular'', and that no amount of slander or smear campaigns could change the fact that Caesar's pro-plebian laws were incredibly benign and appealed to the average Roman. As a result, his assassination allowed Marc Antony and Octavian to spark ''[[FromBadToWorse another]]'' [[HereWeGoAgain civil war]], this time over whether or not the conspirators will be ''punished'' for their actions.

* The 1415 execution of the popular Czech religious dissenter Jan Hus for heresy led to the outbreak of the Hussite Wars, in which the armed forces of his followers repeatedly beat the armies sent to pacify them. Ultimately, Czechia was the first country in Western-to-Central Europe to (at least partially) split from the universal hegemony of the Roman Catholic church, paving the way for the rest of [[UsefulNotes/TheProtestantReformation the Reformation.]] And to this day, some non-Roman Catholic churches consider Hus a saint.

* The "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia was supposed to be a victory for white supremacists and the alt-right. While much of the nation was distracted by talks about nuclear warfare between the U.S and North Korea and investigations into Russian election hacking, this could have been an easy first amendment victory for keeping a statue of Civil War general Robert E. Lee up, an at worst a minor fracas similar to the recent brawls at UC Berkeley. Unfortunately, at around 1:45 PM that afternoon, one of the alt-right members, 20-year-old James Alex Fields of Ohio, drove a car into a crowd of anti-Nazi protesters, killing 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyer an injuring 19 others. Heyer quickly became a martyr to anti-Nazism and the anti-Trump movement as a whole, while the alt-right was badly damaged from the incident, being kicked off the internet and fired from their jobs. Trump's response was widely condemned, with him getting Bush-after-Katrina level polling on it, with several people resigning in protest. The anti-statue movement that the alt-right was trying to oppose got new life.

* ''Anime/VivyFluoriteEyesSong'': In the timeline that lead to the BadFuture, an assemblyman in favor of passing a law that contributed to a RobotWar happening on the long term was murdered. The murder motivated other politicians who were in favor of the law to put much more effort into getting passed, as to honor him. In the timeline in which the assemblyman stays alive, the law doesn't get passed, but an even more favorable law gets passed instead.

* In the live action ''Film/MastersOfTheUniverse'' movie, Skeletor gives this as his reason for not outright killing He-Man immediately (though it's obvious there's ego involved, too).

* In ''Film/ThePostman'' General Bethlehem, leader of the Holnists, has captured Ford Lincoln Mercury (it's a person's name) and has decided to execute him and another postman. When the two introduce themselves to each other, he realizes that they don't know each other and that therefore simply killing Ford would create a martyr and the idea of the postal service and re-established government would spread.

* This is why Achimas, one of the world's top ProfessionalKillers, is contracted to assassinate General Sobolev in ''Literature/TheDeathOfAchilles''. Sobolev [[spoiler:was preparing a military coup in Russia]], so his enemies required him dead ''and'' his death to be a shameful one, because otherwise his aides would have turned him into a martyr and carried out his plans even without him.

-->'''[[StateSec Bloodraven]]''': Should I be so foolish as to [[OffWithHisHead remove his pretty head]], his mother will mourn, his friends will curse me for a kinslayer, and [[EvilChancellor Bittersteel]] will crown [[SpareToTheThrone his brother Haegon]]. Dead, [[spoiler: young Daemon]] is a hero. Alive, he is an obstacle in my half brother's path. He can hardly make a third Blackfyre king whilst the second remains so inconveniently alive. Besides, such a noble captive will be an ornament to our court, and a living testament to the mercy and benevolence of His Grace, King Aerys.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/InAGoodCause": Altmayer is arrested for attempting to kill the alien ambassadors from Diaboli (he hoped to unite the human factions through an EnemyMine situation), he asks whether he's going to be shot without a trial. Instead, he's told that he'll only get a few years... they don't need a martyr. But all of his immediate co-conspiritors will be shot, creating the impression of him being a state witness.
* ''Literature/FromRussiaWithLove''. James Bond is aware that the Soviets are plotting something, but doesn't think they're planning murder [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim because they could just assassinate him]]. Turns out they ''are'' planning to kill him, but in a way that will create a public scandal. In this case the scandal is the object though, rather than Bond's death. Bond is a nuisance, but the real object is to discredit British Intelligence.

** ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'': Sadeas knows better than to assassinate Dalinar; even though Dalinar's reputation is at an ebb, he is still a respected general and leader. Killing him out of the blue would just make people flock to the ideals he's been espousing, which Sadeas hates. Instead, his wife's spies find [[spoiler:the written records of Dalinar's visions]] and release them to the public (edited slightly to seem more ridiculous). ''Then'' he tries to assassinate Dalinar, since no one will care if a madman dies. This backfires when Dalinar survives the assassination, wins the war, and proves everything he's been saying is true. Sadeas still plans to politically undermine him, however. [[spoiler:He makes the mistake of telling Dalinar's son, Adolin, this while they're alone. Adolin snaps and kills him]].
* In ''Literature/LegendsOfDune'', Serena Butler travels to a machine planet, ostensibly in order to negotiate peace with [[AIIsACrapshoot Omnius]], with only her loyal bodyguard for protection. However, she does her best to try to get the machines to kill her, specifically to cause this outcome and rally humanity behind her death, just like it happened before, when Erasmus killed her infant son. However, Omnius is no idiot and keeps his machines at bay. [[spoiler:Unbeknownst to Serena, her bodyguard is actually loyal to Iblis Ginjo and has secret orders to kill Serena in order to turn her into a martyr. The bodyguard [[NeckSnap snaps Serena's neck]] with a well-placed kick before being gunned down by the robots, thus ensuring that the Army of Humanity has another martyr]].

->''What do you think happens next? [[spoiler:She goes quietly? Nah. It'll be guns blazing and [[InspirationalMartyr she'll be a hero and for the rest of your life you'll have to see her fucking face on murals and T-shirts and have people talk about what a martyr this puta was,]] and do you really need that shit?''\\

* As part of his lessons on effective propaganda as he leads his insurrection in ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'', [[DarkMessiah John Rumford]] emphasizes that martyring enemies is extremely bad optics. If someone must be executed, it should be done in such a way that he gets no chance to become one: either by vilifying or humiliating him as appropriate so no one will sympathize with him, or else just merely having him disappear quietly, without attribution. Also, less ruthlessly, he does prefer a convert to a victim, and pardons several enemies who are genuinely contrite and willing to switch sides.

* In ''Literature/AbbadonsGate'', Clarissa Mao ''would'' have simply try to kill Jim Holden for getting [[CorruptCorporateExecutive her father]] imprisoned, but realized this would turn him into a martyr in many peoples' eyes, so as Melba Koh she devised a ploy to plant bombs on spaceships that would concentrate around recently created alien artifact and make Holden's spaceship transmit a faked recording in which he claims the artifact for the Outer Planets Alliance and will destroy anyone who gets close to it, casting villainous intent on his previous exploits.

* ''Series/AlteredCarbon'': Takeshi Kovacs is the last surviving member of Quellcrist Falconer's Envoys who fought a rebellion over 250 years ago against the United Nations Protectorate Forces. In season 2, he is back on Harlan's World, the place Quellcrist based her operations and is still home to rebels fighting the government's forces. When Kovacs is captured at the site of a slaughter of rich and influential people, he is sentenced to public execution. Once the officer who captures him realizes who Kovacs is, he strenuously advises they forgo the public one and just quietly shoot Kovacs in the [[BodyBackupDrive stack]]. Rather than lose face for stopping the public execution, the governor goes through with it. [[spoiler:Her actions end up with Takeshi not only alive, but reveal that Quellcrist is alive when she comes to rescue him. The entire planet witnesses this before a mole cuts power to the prison, allowing both Quellcrist and Kovacs to escape]].

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Angel 1", the ruler of a matriarchal society sentences a male former member of the Federation named Ramsey and two accomplices to death for revolutionary activities. The crew of the ''Enterprise'' can do nothing to help them as far as legalities are concerned (a rare case where they abide by the Prime Directive), but Riker advises Mistress Beata of the possible consequences, saying her actions are trying to hold back evolution, which can't be done, and warns her that she'll make a martyr out of Ramsey. At the last minute, Beata relents, and simply chooses to have Ramsey exiled.

* TheSyndicate in ''Series/TheXFiles'' lets Mulder repeatedly get away with poking his nose into their various ventures because Mulder has a reputation in the world-wide community of conspiracy nutters and killing him would just serve as a message to everyone that he was digging in the right direction. By letting him live, the conspirators are basically KeepingTheEnemyClose, preferring one they already know to the hundreds to thousands that would replace him if something happened to him.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' Has Roose Bolton use this against Ramsay's suggestion of killing Jon Snow because of a potential claim on the North. After all, killing the Lord Commander of an extremely well known and politically neutral organization over a tenuous claim that's ''against his vows anyway'' may not be the best way to pacify an already ''very'' pissed off North. [[spoiler: Of course, that doesn't stop Ramsay from trying it anyway. Twice. And guess who was right? NiceJobFixingItVillain.]]

** Inverted in "Discovered in a Graveyard", when a female terrorist shoots several [=CI5=] officers (including Doyle), gets wounded and takes sanctuary in her embassy where even Bodie can't pursue her. However the embassy officials hand her back to Bodie, pointing out that she's dying anyway and will be held up as a martyr for the cause. It really doesn't matter where she dies, so handing her over avoids a diplomatic incident.

* Michael Burnham warns Captain Georgiou that would happen on ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' if T'Kuvma is killed. Instead, she suggests capturing him; a dead T'Kuvma is a martyr for the Klingons, while an imprisoned one is discredited and dishonoured. Ironically, Burnham is the one to cause the problem in the end when she kills T'Kuvma in anger after he kills Georgiou.

* An episode of ''Series/EarthFinalConflict'' has a computer virus infiltrate Taelon systems and spread across the world. This causes the shuttle piloted by Lili, with Da'an as the passenger, to crash in the wilderness. Worried about Lili, who's secretly a member of LaResistance, [[RebelLeader Jonathan Doors]] sends his men to find her. Despite Lili leaving her tracking beacon behind, the soldiers manage to find them. They level their weapon at Da'an but tell him that they're only here to offer medical aid to his human companion (since they don't want to jeopardize Lili's cover). Da'an asks if they are planning on shooting him, but the soldiers lower their weapons and say they have no intention of turning Da'an into a martyr. It's a moot point, though, since all they have a regular firearms, which are harmless to the [[EnergyBeing Taelons]].

* Discussed in ''VideoGame/StarcraftII''. [[TheHero Raynor]] tells Tosh that [[TheEmperor Arcturus Mengsk]] chooses to marginalize him with the media and paint him as a fanatical terrorist because he knows just killing Raynor will make him a martyr for rebellious sentiment. Tosh agrees, but points out that if Raynor causes enough trouble/becomes a big enough threat Mengsk will risk it and simply kill Raynor.

* In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', Mr. House discusses this with regards to NCR's President Kimball. Kimball's seven-year stalemate, militarily against Caesar's Legion and and politically against House in the Mojave has ruined his public image, so when House takes over the Mojave and ousts both the NCR and the Legion from the region, Kimball will take the blame from NCR's people. But if Caesar's assassins kill Kimball, he'll become a martyr for the Mojave once House takes over the region, which is why House wants him kept alive so when he takes over, he can negotiate peace with NCR.

* ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'': Regime Superman accidentally makes [[spoiler:Lex Luthor]] a martyr after killing him for his betrayal, which causes the populace to wonders if Superman has gone off the deep end for good. Superman learns his lesson in ''VideoGame/Injustice2'' in his story mode ending, [[spoiler:where he doesn't kill Batman outright, knowing that people would turn against him. Superman decides to make Batman BrainwashedAndCrazy to serve under him]].

* When UsefulNotes/ErwinRommel began conspiring against UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler near the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, he stated to his rebel group that he was against the plots to assassinate Hitler because that would make him a martyr. He instead pitched the idea of arresting him and putting him on trial. Allied authorities have also cited similar concerns when they balked on the idea of assassinating Hitler outright as it may further inspire the Nazis to press on with their cause, and that someone else just as evil e.g. Heinrich Himmler could've taken Hitler's place anyway, should Hitler be assassinated.

* During UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, UsefulNotes/CharlotteCorday assassinated Jean-Paul Marat, a member of the radical Jacobin faction that had a leading role in the ReignOfTerror, hoping his death would stop the killings and bring peace. After she was caught and executed for the deed, killing him had the opposite effect; the Jacobins treated Jean-Paul as a martyr and the killings intensified.
* In May of 1431, the English illegally rigged UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc's trial to ensure she was executed, as she had already cost the English dearly, lifting the siege of Orleans, destroying their army in the battle of Patay, and coronating the Dauphin as Charles VII of France. However, executing the woman who had saved all of France in a clearly rigged trial merely wound up turning what had ordinarily been a war of succession into a war of liberation against a foreign occupier. The French peasantry flocked to the banner, Charles VII repeatedly tried to get Joan acquitted, and the English would ultimately suffer shocking disaster after disaster, not only losing nearly all their lands on the continent, but also creating conditions for the CivilWar that is the UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses. Historians widely agree that executing Joan was the worst mistake the English made.

* This is the reason why UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte was exiled after his defeat rather than executed. The monarchies of Europe knew that despite his losses near the end of UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars, Napoleon was still incredibly popular not only in France, but in the rest of Europe where revolutionary sentiments still ran high. If they killed him, his popularity would skyrocket, resulting in revolutionaries and anti-monarchists continuing their rebellious campaigns and potentiality succeeding in overthrowing more monarchs. Instead, they chose to exile him to an island far away from Europe, in the hopes that his influence and popularity would waver and diminish over time. Their plan ended up failing regardless, as Napoleon's popularity continued, thanks in part to writing his own memoirs and whatnot, and despite their best efforts, revolutionary ideals and underground rebel groups would continue to rise and cause problems for the remainder of the 19th Century.