History Main / FramedForHeroism

* ''ImAMarvelAndImADC'':The appears during the finale of the second season of After Hours. The Joker holds Harley Quinn hostage, and eggs {{Batman}} and {{Spider-Man}}, the only two heroes left in the room, to shoot him with a gun he threw earlier at Batman. As the morals of the two prevent them from murdering anyone, the Joker prepares to leave; however, a gunshot is heard, and the Joker drops to the floor, seemingly dead ([[spoiler:though he isn't]]). Both Batman and Spider-Man are baffled, until they see ThePunisher, who had been imprisoned earlier on, holding the gun.

* ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' has an excellent episode, titled "The Man Who Killed Batman". It's told from the perspective of a nobody mob underling voiced by Matt Frewer, "Sid the Squid", who was the lookout on a job in which Batman is apparently killed. From Sid's perspective, Bats fell into a gas explosion, but everyone else thought Sid pushed him. He has to deal with a jealous Joker, an obsessed Commissioner Gordon, and a few rival mob bosses who can't believe his story. In the end, of course, Bats turns out to have survived unharmed. In prison, a fulfilled Sid becomes, "The Man Who Almost Killed Batman, and who also made a fool of the Joker".

* In the ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}'' episode ''Prototype'' an Anubis clone with telekinetic powers is shot at repeatedly by Mitchell. He makes the hand movement to stop the bullets and for a second the audience believes he blocked them, then blood starts pouring from his wounds. The camera pans from Mitchell who is still holding his gun, to [[TechnicalPacifist Daniel]], who sneaked up and shot him while the clone's focus was on Mitchell.

* In one episode of ''{{Gunsmoke}}'', Matt is facing off against a tyrannical marshal (and former best friend) who has beaten him at every friendly QuickDraw they've ever had, and has used his skills to take over a town. The two (naturally) agree to a final showdown, take the usual positions...and then the marshal's lover sneaks down a side street and shoots him the very instant they draw.

Sometimes, the second hero is disappointed when no one will give him the proper credit and praise he deserves. See DudeWheresMyReward? and DudeWheresMyRespect?. Contrast EngineeredHeroics

* The battleship USS ''Missouri'', in the second book of the ''PosleenWarSeries'', fires a full salvo from one of its main turrets at a [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]] warship in a desperate attempt at destroying the vessel. The craft is destroyed, but it wasn't the battleship's rounds that did it: a nearby Planetary Defense Center armed with a gun designed to defend against those kinds of ships actually made the killing shot. However, from the perspective of the battleship's crew, their rounds were the fatal shot, as the PDC was completely destroyed by orbital bombardment from another Posleen warship immediately after firing. The notion of the battleship's rounds making the kill was ultimately responsible for the creation of the [=SheVa=] mobile artillery pieces featured in the third and fourth books.

* In the second ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}}'' movie, Rick Moranis's character, who has spent the film bumbling about, gets to the BattleRoyale, and clumsily fires up us laser stream just as the other guys take down the BigBad. The crowd doesn't see them, and cheers and starts parading him around instead.

* In the first season of ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space 9]]'', a famed Bajoran war hero reveals to Sisko that the "heroic deed" that started him on his path of glory was accidentally shooting an enemy officer who had been taking a bath, and the Heroic Legend grew out of control after that. But in the end he dies heroically.

* {{Spider-Man}}: Norman Osborn killing the Skrull Queen Veranke in ''Secret Invasion''. While the others have been battling for days, doing most of the dirty work, his team of [[{{Thunderbolts}} maniacs, criminals, and lunatics]] comes in and [[VillainWithGoodPublicity steals the show]]. What really makes the it a DownerEnding is that he kills the Skrull queen ''seconds'' before Wolverine was able to. Naturally, he was placed in charge of ''every registered superhero, the Avengers Initiative was renamed the Thunderbolts Initiative, and SHIELD was disbanded and replaced with HAMMER, which is also run by Osborn''.

* in ''DragonBallZ'', Mr. Satan tried to shoot Buu with a pistol, and it seemed like it had cut Buu in half, but it was actually Goku that did it

* In the videogame ''{{Snatcher}}'', there is a scene where "junker" Gillian Seed is being choked to death from behind by [[spoiler:Freddie Nielsen, the Snatcher who killed your co-agent Jean Jack Gibson]]. In order to pass this action scene, you have to use the mirror to aim behind you and make a shot. When you do, the Snatcher's head explodes, and it is revealed that it is not your shot that killed the Snatcher, but that of ace bounty hunter Random Hajile, who just happened to wander in.

* Happens in the JohnFord movie ''Film/TheManWhoShotLibertyValance''. JimmyStewart's character is a pacifist lawyer in a bad town in the old west. Throughout the film the outlaw and murderer Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) constantly assaults and belittles him, only stopping from outright murdering the whole town due to the presence of the badass but uncaring JohnWayne. After Valance beats the town's eccentric newspaper man, Stewart grabs a pistol and attempts to kill Valance on the town's main street. He misses the first five shots and is horribly wounded by the outlaw. [[spoiler:John Wayne, witnessing the scene from a secluded spot, fires from an alley at the same time Stewart does and]] kills Valance. The town only sees Stewart who gets the girl and the glory, and later on becomes a Senator. [[spoiler:John Wayne dies bitter and alone after drunkenly burning down his own house]]. When Stewart tries to set the record straight, the reporter replies "This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact... print the legend."

* In the second ''GhostBusters'' movie, Rick Moranis's character, who has spent the film bumbling about, gets to the BattleRoyale, and clumsily fires up us laser stream just as the other guys take down the BigBad. The crowd doesn't see them, and cheers and starts parading him around instead.

* In the ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'' episode ''Prototype'' an Anubis clone with telekinetic powers is shot at repeatedly by Mitchell. He makes the hand movement to stop the bullets and for a second the audience believes he blocked them, then blood starts pouring from his wounds. The camera pans from Mitchell who is still holding his gun, to [[TechnicalPacifist Daniel]], who sneaked up and shot him while the clone's focus was on Mitchell.

Sometimes, the second hero is disappointed when no one will give him the proper credit and praise he deserves. See DudeWheresMyReward? and DudeWheresMyRespect?

* In TerryPratchett and NeilGaiman's ''Literature/GoodOmens'', the character of Shadwell points an admonishing finger at a character who promptly vanishes in an explosion of blue light. This happens so often to him that he becomes convinced that his finger is the deadliest weapon known to mankind. In all cases, the explosions are due to there literally being an Angel nearby who is causing it.
* ''{{Discworld}}''

Sometimes, the second hero is disappointed when no one will give him the proper credit and praise he deserves. See [[DudeWheresMyReward Dude, Where's My Reward?]] and [[DudeWheresMyRespect Dude, Where's My Respect?]]

* In ''{{Berserk}}'', Farnese has her knights fighting Guts and getting slaughtered. Guts plows through them and charges Farnese who timidly holds out her sword in a feeble attempt to defend herself. Just as Guts reaches the point of her sword, the combined exertion from fighting an giant monster and then facing her knights causes him to collapse from exhaustion. The knights then cheer Farnese for single-handedly defeating the black swordsman.

* in ''DragonBallZ'', Mr. Satan tried to shoot Buu with a pistol, and it seemed like it had cut Buu in half, but it was actually Goku that did it

[[folder: Film ]]

* Happens in the JohnFord movie ''[[Film/TheManWhoShotLibertyValance The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance]]''. JimmyStewart's character is a pacifist lawyer in a bad town in the old west. Throughout the film the outlaw and murderer Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) constantly assaults and belittles him, only stopping from outright murdering the whole town due to the presence of the badass but uncaring JohnWayne. After Valance beats the town's eccentric newspaper man, Stewart grabs a pistol and attempts to kill Valance on the town's main street. He misses the first five shots and is horribly wounded by the outlaw. [[spoiler:John Wayne, witnessing the scene from a secluded spot, fires from an alley at the same time Stewart does and]] kills Valance. The town only sees Stewart who gets the girl and the glory, and later on becomes a Senator. [[spoiler:John Wayne dies bitter and alone after drunkenly burning down his own house]]. When Stewart tries to set the record straight, the reporter replies "This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact... print the legend."

* In the second ''[[GhostBusters Ghostbusters]]'' movie, Rick Moranis's character, who has spent the film bumbling about, gets to the BattleRoyale, and clumsily fires up us laser stream just as the other guys take down the BigBad. The crowd doesn't see them, and cheers and starts parading him around instead.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''{{Andromeda}}'' did an interesting variation on this: in the series premier, "Under The Night", Dylan survives a fight which Rhade clearly dominates. We are led to believe that it's his strength of character and force of will that bought his victory. But the {{Flashback}} episode "The Unconquerable Man" reveals the truth seasons later: Rhade threw the fight, having witnessed the dire consequences for the universe should he take the role of leading man.

* In a sidequest in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'', Genis and Mithos are going out by themselves to try to find a cure for Raine's sickness, but Lloyd follows them secretly. At one point the two are assaulted by a monster. Genis tries to attack it. He clearly misses, but Lloyd dashes out behind the monster and kills it. Mithos gives Genis the credit for beating the monster. Later on, after everyone has yelled at Lloyd for being useless during the crisis, Genis tells Lloyd that he knows what Lloyd did.

* ''[[ImAMarvelAndImADC I'm A Marvel... And I'm A DC]]'':The appears during the finale of the second season of After Hours. The Joker holds Harley Quinn hostage, and eggs {{Batman}} and {{Spider-Man}}, the only two heroes left in the room, to shoot him with a gun he threw earlier at Batman. As the morals of the two prevent them from murdering anyone, the Joker prepares to leave; however, a gunshot is heard, and the Joker drops to the floor, seemingly dead ([[spoiler:though he isn't]]). Both Batman and Spider-Man are baffled, until they see ThePunisher, who had been imprisoned earlier on, holding the gun.

* In the [[Characters/BugsBunny Bugs Bunny]] cartoon ''Windblown Hare'', Bugs gets involved in the story of the Three Little Pigs, when the pigs con him into buying their straw and stick houses before the Big Bad Wolf comes along. When he realizes that the pigs had conned him, Bugs has the Wolf try and blow down their brick house, which then blows up.

* In ''SavingPrivateRyan'' TomHanks' character starts shooting at a tank with a pistol, and the tank suddenly blows up. He then watches the American P-51 Mustangs who really blew the tank fly overhead.

* Variant occurs in ''TheLionKing''. Simba is trying to roar to scare off the Hyenas from the elephant graveyard. On his third try he suddenly lets loose with a loud, echoing roar.... Except it's his father coming to save him.

* In the first season of ''DeepSpace9'', a famed Bajoran war hero reveals to Sisko that the "heroic deed" that started him on his path of glory was accidentally shooting an enemy officer who had been taking a bath, and the Heroic Legend grew out of control after that. But in the end he dies heroically.

* ''CowAndChicken'': In the episode "Karate Chick", Chicken thinks his flying kick does the Red Guy in. It is actually Super Cow, doing an udder attack just microseconds before Chicken's foot connects.

* In a sidequest in ''TalesOfSymphonia'', Genis and Mithos are going out by themselves to try to find a cure for Raine's sickness, but Lloyd follows them secretly. At one point the two are assaulted by a monster. Genis tries to attack it. He clearly misses, but Lloyd dashes out behind the monster and kills it. Mithos gives Genis the credit for beating the monster. Later on, after everyone has yelled at Lloyd for being useless during the crisis, Genis tells Lloyd that he knows what Lloyd did.

----

* The movie ''{{Sahara}}'' has a minor subversion. After Dirk Pitt and friends [[spoiler:shoot down the local warlord's helicopter with lucky shot from a Civil War era cannon]], the enemy army surrenders while the heroes marvel that their plan actually worked. Realizing something's not quite right, they turn and see an entire (friendly) Toureg army positioned on the top of the cliffs behind them. The subversion is that while the army surrenders because of the Touregs, the heroes ''really did'' [[spoiler:shoot down the helicopter with a 150 year old Confederate cannon]].

* In one of the ''LeftBehind'' books, Rayford attempts to fulfill the part in [[TheBible Revelation]] about TheAntichrist, [[spoiler: Nicolae Carpathia]], getting killed. After accidentally firing his gun and actually [[SaveTheVillain wishing he hadn't]], it turns out that [[spoiler:Chaim Rosensweig had actually stuck a blade through his back.]]

* Variant occurs in ''TheLionKing''. Simba is trying to roar to scare off the Hyenas from the elephant graveyard. On his third try he suddenly lets loose with a load, echoing roar.... Except it's his father come to save him.

* ''{{Torchwood}}'': "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" [[spoiler: Ianto is forced to do a double-take at his unfired gun when a fish-alien drops dead seconds after insisting he wouldn't have the nerve to shoot. Then we pan over to Captain Jack, who's returned just in time.]]

* ''BattlestarGalactica'' 2005:

This is sometimes a variant of FalseGunshot. It could overlap with BigDamnHeroes, BigDamnVillains, or ChangedMyMindKid.

* The Brazilian movie ''Lisbela e o Prisioneiro'' does this twice in the same scene, using a FalseGunshot to boot. Frederico is about to shoot Leleu, the camera cuts and a shot is heard. It's revealed that Lisbela shot Frederico. Later on, it's revealed that Lisbela's gun was in fact empty and Frederico's wife was the one who shot him.

* The ''{{Illuminatus}}'' Trilogy combines this with a ThirtyGambitPileup for its depiction of the JFK assassination.

* ''TheBoondocks'' has a rather strange subversion. In ''The Story of Catcher Freeman'', each of TheRashomon tellings of the story give Catcher credit for killing the slavemaster, when every possible witness saw first-hand that Thelma did it. Since she's dead, we can't know for sure if this is a [=~Dude, Where's My Reward?~=].

* The previous TropeNamer was the JohnFord movie ''[[Film/TheManWhoShotLibertyValance The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance]]''. JimmyStewart's character is a pacifist lawyer in a bad town in the old west. Throughout the film the outlaw and murderer Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) constantly assaults and belittles him, only stopping from outright murdering the whole town due to the presence of the badass but uncaring JohnWayne. After Valance beats the town's eccentric newspaper man, Stewart grabs a pistol and attempts to kill Valance on the town's main street. He misses the first five shots and is horribly wounded by the outlaw. [[spoiler:John Wayne, witnessing the scene from a secluded spot, fires from an alley at the same time Stewart does and]] kills Valance. The town only sees Stewart who gets the girl and the glory, and later on becomes a Senator. [[spoiler:John Wayne dies bitter and alone after drunkenly burning down his own house]]. When Stewart tries to set the record straight, the reporter replies "This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact... print the legend."