History Main / ThePowerOfLegacy

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', the Warden is asked by Ruck's mother to find her son in the Deep Roads, where he's been missing for two years and assumed dead. While the Warden finds him alive, he's been turned into a half-crazed Ghoul as a result of the being infected with [[TheCorruption the Taint]] either by constant exposure or consuming Darkspawn flesh to survive. The Warden has the option to agree to his request to tell his mother that they found his body in the Deep Roads, letting her believe he died a hero.

'''Warning: EndingTrope[=/=]DeathTrope, uncensored spoilers ahead.'''

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': Beckett decides to do this for [[spoiler: Captain Montgomery]], and the rest of the cast agrees.

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', the Warden is asked by Ruck's mother to find her son in the Deep Roads, where he's been missing for two years and assumed dead. While the Warden finds him alive, he's been turned into a half-crazed Ghoul as a result of the being infected with [[TheCorruption the Taint]] either by constant exposure or consuming Darkspawn flesh to survive. The Warden has the option to agree to his request to tell his mother that they found his body in the Deep Roads, letting her believe he died a hero.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Sacrifice}}'', the ending for Persephone/James' sees Eldred omit the fact that [[LouisCypher Mithras was a guise of Marduk]] and instead claim Mithras made a HeroicSacrifice and should be remembered as a hero for telling the truth.

* One of the quotes in ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri''.
-->Richard Baxton piloted his Recon Rover into a fungal vortex and held off four waves of mind worms, saving an entire colony. We immediately purchased his identity manifests and repackaged him into the Recon Rover Rick character with a multi-tiered media campaign: televids, touchbooks, holos, psi-tours--the works. People need heroes. They don't need to know how he died clawing his eyes out, screaming for mercy. The real story would just hurt sales, and dampen the spirits of our customers.

-->Nobody would believe that Tanya could be Zhao's real murderer after word of that speech got out. The right to rename captured cities was afforded to generals as a way of recognising their achievements, and to date had only been used to rename somewhere after the general themself [[Egopolis in a vain attempt to immortalize their own name]], [[ProfessionlButtKisser or after whatever wealthy lord the general was hoping to impress]]. It had never been used to honour the memory of a fallen soldier before, and you could bet that the ignorant masses would lap it up when they heard. When stories were told of Tanya's victory, Zhao would now forever be cast as the wise and kindly mentor who led her to greatness. And that same wave of goodwill would strangle the rumours of the truth in their crib.

-->Nobody would believe that Tanya could be Zhao's real murderer after word of that speech got out. The right to rename captured cities was afforded to generals as a way of recognising their achievements, and to date had only been used to rename somewhere after the general themself in a vain attempt to immortalise their own name, or after whatever wealthy lord the general was hoping to impress. It had never been used to honour the memory of a fallen soldier before, and you could bet that the ignorant masses would lap it up when they heard. When stories were told of Tanya's victory, Zhao would now forever be cast as the wise and kindly mentor who led her to greatness. And that same wave of goodwill would strangle the rumours of the truth in their crib.

* ''Fanfic/TheSagaOfTanyaTheFirebender'' has Princess Azula find out that [[EtTuBrute Tanya had killed Admiral Zhao]] in order to rise in the ranks, and plan to use this to make Tanya bend the knee to her authority; only for Tanya to immediately decide to rename the Northern Water Tribe Capital she had conquered into ''"The City of Zhao"'' in honor of her former superiors' military strategy that paved the way for the Fire Nations' victory: which she had immortalized in a public speech after returning victorious.

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': At some point, a Knight ordered to guard Myne attacks her because she's a commoner holding a job usually given to those of noble blood, but currently experiencing shortage of applicants of proper lineage. In the process, he worsens the problem both Myne and the group of Knights he's part of were sent were sent to fix. He gets executed, and his family gets two options: getting punished themselves or having his father sign a contract promising nobody in the family will ever interact with Myne in the future and paying a fee. The latter option, which was taken, comes with the extra feature of replacing the Knight's attack on Myne and execution by a honorable death in battle in official records.

* Featured in the ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' story "The Tarnished Angel." At the end of the story, the mastermind is unmasked as the disgraced former super-hero El Hombre, a HeroismAddict who staged EngineeredHeroics in a bid to kill hundreds of villains for his return to the limelight. His complicity is covered up by other heroes, however, out of respect for his past valor.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': [[DirtyCoward Leo]] dedicated his [[FallenHero entire life]] to serving the people and protecting Mistral to the best of his ability. At the end of his life, he fell under [[BigBad Salem's]] influence and betrayed both [[BigGood Ozpin]] and the people of Mistral who expected him to protect them. After the battle to save Haven has ended, Ozpin makes sure the truth of Leo's betrayal is [[TreacheryCoverUp buried with him]]. Leo is officially remembered as a hero who fought to the death to protect the school. When Yang challenges him about the cover-up, Ozpin tells her that he's not whitewashing how reprehensible Leo's actions were; he thinks that one [[TrappedInVillainy terrible mistake]] at the end of a person's life should not undo the good of a lifetime's worth of service, and that the people of Mistral therefore deserve better than the truth.
** Even more poignant is the fact that Leo was a [[ALittleBitBeastly Faunus]] in a high position of power within a society of Humans [[FantasticRacism that often look down upon them]] due to the actions of militant groups like [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized The White Fang]]. Mistral was shown to still have some degree of discrimination towards the Faunus before the battle at Haven despite the fact that the Headmaster was one; Ozpin probably also covered up Leos' involvement with Salems' faction (who at the time was using The White Fang as their pawns in destroying the C.C.T. Towers to cut off further communications with the other Kingdoms and sow dissent) in order to preserve the integrity of the Faunus as a whole.

* In the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' series the Andalite high command pressure Ax into doing this with his murdered older brother Elfangor upon learning he used his last minutes [[ImDyingPleaseTakeMyMacGuffin to give morphing power to humans]]. Ax reluctantly takes the blame so that the Andalite citizens can continue remembering his brother as a hero untainted by disgrace (the war against the Yeerks started when an Andalite gave tech to less-advanced species). It's a rare case, though, where the decision to do so clearly isn't liked by the main characters, who feel the Andalites over-enforce their PrimeDirective law and because Ax has now been barred from advancing further in the military. [[spoiler:He becomes enough of his own hero in the end, allowing him to be promoted to prince.]]