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{{examples}}
== [[Anime]]
* The motto of [[Big Bad]] Makoto Shishio in ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]''.
* In ''[[Scrapped Princess]]'', Earth was conquered by {{spoiler|the aliens}} who then rewrote history, presenting the heroes of [[La Résistance]] and [[Les Collaborateurs]] as evil and good gods, respectively.
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* In ''[[Death Note]]'', Light tells the Task Force that if Kira wins, he's justice, if he loses, evil. {{spoiler|He loses.}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==▼
▲== Comic Books ==
* In an issue of [[Peter David]]'s ''Captain Marvel,'' Rick Jones and Genis-Vell travel to a far-flung [[After the End]] future where the Earth is covered in desert and has been colonized by aliens. The only surviving history was written by [[Big Bad|Doctor Doom]]. Notably, this means that all superheroes were portrayed as evil villains who stood in the way of progress. [[Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act|Hitler]] was still a bad guy, though, because he persecuted the Roma (Doom's ethnic group).
** So, this is a literal case of history being written by the Victor (Von Doom).
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* In ''[[The Cartoon History of the Universe]]'', Julius Caesar declares about the Gallic Wars, "I'll go down in history! By Jupiter, I'll '''write''' the history!!"
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* In ''Black Book of Arda'', one of the most prominent Russian [[J. R. R.
* Played with in the ''[[Pony POV Series]]'' when Celestia reveals she erased [[Complete Monster|Discord]] from the history books because, in her mind, he didn't deserve a legacy after all he'd done. She also explained that she {{spoiler|didn't want the memory of those like Shady who were related to Discord to be tainted by association with him.}}▼
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Braveheart]]'', the opening monologue: "I shall tell you of William Wallace. Historians from England will say I am a liar, but history is written by those who have hanged heroes."
** Ironically, the film is in fact [[You Fail History Forever|laughably historically inaccurate]] from ''any'' perspective.
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** Not quite: Viktor is quite willing to acknowledge the ''legend'' that vampires and werewolves came from the brother Corvinus ("One bit by a bat, the other bit by a wolf"), but he makes fun of it, probably to [[Fantastic Racism|diminish the connection between Lycans and Vampires]]. On the other hand, he's quite willing to rewrite {{spoiler|his murder of Selene's entire family}}.
** Selene [[Genre Savvy|shows signs of being aware of this]]. She recognizes that Kraven is not enough of a warrior to have actually killed Lucian, but as the only survivor could claim that he did. She also initially comments that the Lycans started the war, but then admits that that is what is said anyway. By the second film, she's (accurately) assumed virtually everything Viktor has said is a lie.
* One of Franklin's witticisms in ''[[1776 (musical)|1776]]'' reflects this:
{{quote|Rebellion is ''always'' legal in the first person -- "''Our'' Rebellion". It's only in the third person -- "''Their'' rebellion" -- that it becomes illegal.}}
:As does another:
{{quote|Treason, eh? Treason is a charge invented by winners as an excuse for hanging the losers.}}
* ''[[Avengers: Endgame]]'': {{spoiler|Past!Thanos, seeing that the survivors of the snap are [[Ungrateful Bastard]]s trying to undo it, resolves to use the Infinity Stones to destroy the current universe and create a new one that only knows what it has been given, not the price of doing so, and no pesky Avengers to say otherwise.}}
==
* ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four
▲* In ''Black Book of Arda'', one of the most prominent Russian [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]] fanfics, ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' is revised this way.
▲* Played with in the ''[[Pony POV Series]]'' when Celestia reveals she erased [[Complete Monster|Discord]] from the history books because, in her mind, he didn't deserve a legacy after all he'd done. She also explained that she {{spoiler|didn't want the memory of those like Shady who were related to Discord to be tainted by association with him.}}
▲* ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]''. This was the whole purpose of minitrue ([[The Ministry of Truth]]), which constantly rewrites history. ("He who controls the past, controls the future; he who controls the present, controls the past.")
* In ''[[Arcia Chronicles]]'', [[The Church]] rewrote history of the War of the Deer to remove all positive mentions of those heroes who didn't comply with its official doctrine.
* The same is done in ''[[Reflections of Eterna]]'', particulary in the prequel ''Flame of Eterna'': Rinaldi Rakan was sentenced to death by his royal brother and left in history as a [[Complete Monster]], while he was framed by his brother and Beatrix Borrasque.
** In the ''Taligoian Ballad'', his distant descendant Ramiro Alva was killed by Alan Oakdell for regicide and betraying the Cabitela City to the Maragonian Bastard. 400 years later, the last will of the "murdered" king was found and revealed that the king himself ordered Ramiro to give up the city.
*
** Subverted...kind of...in ''[[Small Gods]]'':
{{quote|Winners don't have glorious victories. That's because they're the ones who get to see what the battlefield looks like afterwards. It's only the losers who have glorious victories.}}
::Most people will take any excuse they can get to have had a glorious victory, but meh...this is the Discworld, after all. And the quote is from a tortoise.
** Another Discworld example, from ''[[
{{quote|"And then Jack chopped down what was the world's last beanstalk, adding murder and ecological terrorism to the theft, enticement and trespass charges already mentioned, and all the giant's children didn't have a daddy any more. But he got away with it and lived happily ever after without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done. Which proves that you can be excused just about anything if you're a hero, because no-one asks inconvenient questions."}}
* A couple examples from [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[Known Space]]'' universe where victors wrote the original history of a colony world:
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* In a ''[[BattleTech]]'' novel, a character counters to someone stating this that "History is written by the survivors" and that "given my track record, you should hope I remember you fondly".
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==▼
▲== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Blackadder]]'' - Henry Tudor has everyone else erased from history in the first series.
* ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' - In an [[Inverted Trope|inversion]], in the episode "Living Witness", the history was written from the perspective of the ''losers'' who were relegated to second class citizenry, and the winning faction was very annoyed at being portrayed as vicious, bloodthirsty tyrants who slaughtered innocents and made martyrs out of people that turned out to be pirates and raiders.
** Debatable, as there were some hints that the winning side really were that bad. Most of the martyrs were those who were gunned down after being convinced by Janeway to surrender.
* {{spoiler|Tom Zarek}} uses this theory to gloss over murdering {{spoiler|Laird and The Quorum}} on ''[[Battlestar Galactica
** Not that it mattered {{spoiler|since history was one of the many, many things that the Colonials decided to jettison upon reaching Earth.}}
* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]''
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* A variation in that they didn't really "win", but the version of the Peacekeeper battle against the Venek Horde that Aeryn relates in the [[Farscape]] episode ''Different Destinations.'' Subofficer Dacon was a cook and only ended up negotiating the ceasefire because everyone else was killed. Alternatively, if this is a case of a [[Stable Time Loop|Stable-ish Time Loop]], he was just following Aeryn's instructions in the first place.
== [[Oral Tradition|Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends]] ==
* Some [[Satan Is Good]] beliefs held this about [[The Bible]].
* Averted in [[Greek Mythology]], where it is established that Chronos ruled over a Golden Age, so the Olympians didn't bother to hide that.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In ''[[Eberron]]'' there was the War of the Mark, the first half of which was basically genocide preformed by the dragon mark houses against those with aberrant dragon marks, and the second half was a war because the victimized party got organized and put up a valiant effort, anyways [[Downer Ending|it didn't end well.]] Most people don't like and fear aberrant dragon mark wielders, although the extent of the prejudice is up to the DM. The dragon marked houses however are quite accepted, and while many people know of the War of the Mark (despite it happening almost 2,500 years ago), almost none know what actually happened.
* This helps explain the [[Continuity Snarl|untidiness]] affecting a lot of ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'''s backstory. The Space Wolves ''know'' that the Thousand Sons were traitorous sorcerers that their forebearers rightfully punished for using forbidden magics, while the Thousand Sons ''know'' they suffered an unjust and unprovoked attack ordered by the Emperor they up until then had loyally served. The [[Horus Heresy]] novels reveal that while the Thousand Sons were using sorcery, they were trying to ''warn'' the Emperor about the imminent rebellion, but then the true traitor, Warmaster Horus, changed the Space Wolves' orders from "bring in for questioning" to "kill them all," and the psyker-hating Space Wolves were happy to oblige. Nowadays the idea that the Space Wolves were played or that the Emperor should have believed the Thousand Sons' warning are treated as heresy.
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*** This Trope and the Lion's ultimate allegiance are dealt with in the Age of Darkness anthology story Savage Weapons, {{spoiler|Lion'el is absolutely loyal to the Emperor but his campaign against the Night Lords, and the Chaos Gods intervention in the Warp will prevent him from ever reaching Terra to aid in the defence. Night Haunter himself directly taunts Jonson stating that the Lion's character will always be questioned because he not was at Terra.}}
== [[Theatre]] ==
* The majority of Shakespeare's Histories (That is: ''[[King John]]'', ''[[Richard II]]'', ''[[Henry IV]]'', ''[[Henry V]]'', ''[[Henry VI]]'', ''[[Richard III]]'' and ''[[Henry VIII (play)|Henry VIII]]'') feature this to a greater or lesser degree, seeing as how Shakespeare wrote histories for the winners, his 'sponsors'. The [[wikipedia:Shakespearean history|other wiki]]'s article is a brief introduction to this.
* The Wizard's song "Wonderful" in ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]'' is all about this. ("A man's called a traitor- or a liberator. A rich man's a thief- or philanthropist. Is one a crusader, or ruthless invader? It's all in which label is able to persist.") Of course, he's used this to his advantage by wielding the [[Propaganda Machine]] against his political opponents.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'': {{spoiler|The known history has The Valkyria as demigods who arrived from the north and saved the land from the Darcsen race, who were fighting devastating wars with Ragnite weapons. The Valkyria are still worshiped as gods and saviors, and the Darcsen are prosecuted and marginalized. In truth, the Darcsen were peaceful, and the Valkyria were invaders who enslaved them - as well as causing enormous destruction with their ragnite weapons. They rewrote history to suit themselves, and hid the truth from all but their own descendants.}}
* ''[[Star Trek]]: Birth of the Federation'' - When you choose to play the Cardassians, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhV43JiGiSE their opening] claims this as one of their motivating principles.
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* ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' is full of this trope. {{spoiler|Saint Ajora and the Lucavi in the past and then the official history of Ramza and the Kingdom as a whole.}} Possibly subverted by the Durai Reports though.
* In ''[[Guild Wars]]'', White Mantle history records Saul D'Alessio's final battle against the Charr as a defeat. In fact, D'Alessio won the battle, but his gods murdered most of his followers and abducted him, never to be seen again. Ironically, this would lead to D'Alessio being villified by the people who overthrew the White Mantle when he would have likely sympathized with their cause.
* ''[[Guild Wars 2]]'' shows that [[Evil Overlord|Palawa Joko]] has been busy rewriting Elona's history after reconquering and expanding his land, replacing his embarrassing defeats with easy victories and [[Fake Ultimate Hero|taking credit for everything the player characters did to save Tyria from destruction]]. Par for the course for a [[Narcissist]] of his caliber.
* Mentioned by developers of ''[[League of Legends]]'' as the reason why Demacia is perceived as "good", while Noxus is "evil".
** The Journal of Justice is written by the League(neutral organization) and averts this trope(see also Morgana vs Kayle).
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* The ''[[Fallout 3]]'' expansion ''Operation: Anchorage'' has this as part of its backstory - a General Chase commissioned an elaborate virtual reality simulation of the Alaska campaign of the Sino-American War, in which he played a key role. But instead of serving as an adviser he kept tweaking and changing the script, even as the world shuddered towards nuclear war, until the events depicted in the simulation bore little resemblance to what actually happened (including entirely fictional Chinese secret weapons). The technicians developing the program privately worried that the man had gone insane. [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|Then they all died in a nuclear apocalypse]].
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
▲== Western Animation ==
* In the ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' episode "The Headband", Aang (in disguise) attends a Fire Nation school for a day. During the class's history lesson, the teacher quizzes the students on how Fire Lord Sozin defeated the "Air Nation Army". Of course, Aang (and the viewers) know full well that the Air Nomads were a mostly peaceful population of monks, who didn't even have an established ''government'', much less an army, and that Sozin's attack against them wasn't so much a battle as it was ''outright genocide''. When Aang tries to point this out, the teacher snaps that, [[Dramatic Irony|unless he was actually around 100 years ago]], he shouldn't be questioning the Fire Nation's history books.
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
▲== Real Life ==
'''To minimize the danger of [[Flame War|history politicizing discussion]], [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|please refrain from adding examples that are less than 200 years in the past]].'''
* Pretty much [[Historical Hero Upgrade|anything you were taught]] about Christopher Columbus or the story of Thanksgiving in Elementary School, if you're American. Though this is slowly changing.
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{{quote|History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.}}
:(And he did: among other works, a six-volume History of the Second World War.)
* The Byzantine practice of [[w:Iconoclasm|Iconoclasm]], the banning of the veneration of icons, became utterly hated after a century of intense religious debate, and thus, any emperor who even remotely promoted it got utterly slandered by the anti Iconoclasts regardless of all the good they did for the Empire. Leo III, who founded the Isaurian dynasty and who saved the Byzantine Empire from the Umayyad Caliphate, was utterly demonized by his religious rivals and slammed for heresy, to the point that it took more recent historians decades to restore his reputation. and Leo was more fortunate, since even his fiercest enemies had to concede he did bring an end to a century of turmoil. His successor, Constantine V, who was even more Iconoclastic, managed to follow up on the reforms of his father and managed win a string of victories against the Abbasid Caliphate and the First Bulgarian Empire, finally becoming the Emperor under which Byzantium could go on the offensive. Nevertheless, Constantine was still hated and bashed, especially since Iconoclasm would mark the end of Byzantium's hold over the Papacy and mark the permanent split of the churches. Not surprisingly, it took centuries for moderate historians to start to heal these reputations, pointing out their positive sides and actions and the fact that many Byzantine citizens associated Iconoclasm with military victory, as the Byzantines started winning when Iconoclasm was instituted, a state of mind that persisted until the victories of the Macedonian dynasty, who were not Iconoclasts, showed that Iconoclasm was not necessary for victory or the Empire's well being.
* Napoleon Bonaparte's early military career was remembered by history in drastically different ways than how it played out.
** His Italian campaign is depicted as Napoleon being completely undefeated, triumphing against all odds, without any support from the Directory, winning against a bunch of hopelessly incompetent Austrian generals. While Napoleon certainly did not lose any major battles, he still lost two battles at Bassano and Caldiero in November 1796. The Directory also sent Napoleon support and troops, albeit not nearly as much Napoleon asked for, which he complained bitterly about. Furthermore, the Austrian generals, while frequently out generaled by Napoleon, were not incompetent, and most of their strategies probably would have worked against a lesser commander. Very tellingly, they had Napoleon on the ropes twice, first in August during the first relief to the siege of Mantua, where Napoleon was effectively trapped between Quasdanovich and Wurmser, and it was only through an error by Wurmser and a strong rearguard action by Augerau before Napoleon managed to win at Castiliogne. The second time in November of 1796 during the third relief of the siege of Mantua, where Napoleon was outnumbered on every front, and where Alvinczi and Davidovich threatened to encircle him, and Wurmser could cut off his line of retreat. Napoleon actually seriously considered retreating all the way back to Milan, before realizing the Austrians were being too slow to take advantage of his defeats. He promptly launched a daring attack at Arcole, which allowed Napoleon to win and keep the Austrians at bay.
*** The two main battles of the Italian campaign that are remembered the most are often depicted vastly differently than how it really happened. The Battle of Lodi is frequently depicted as Napoleon first forging his legend, with the entire Austrian army defeated and Italy being open to Napoleon. While Lodi was where Napoleon first got his belief that he was better than most generals, the battle was actually quite a minor affair. Most of the Austrian army was already gone when the battle began in earnest and the fighting was primarily between the Austrian rearguard and Massena's decision. Furthermore, the Austrian rearguard suffered rather light casualties and escaped in good order, and Napoleon frequently conceded that the frontal attack would not have been needed since it was in the late evening. The battle of Arcole is also depicted as a classic Napoleonic plan, sweeping across the Alpone river and defeating the entire Austrian army with Napoleon taking the flag across in person. In reality, Arcole was a desperate last gamble to try to save the siege of Mantua, Napoleon had already been beaten on all three fronts three times, two of them defeated personally, and had the Austrians attacked, Napoleon would have had no choice but to retreat. Furthermore, Arcole was a messy battle, thanks to the terrain, neither side could deploy troops, and so it came down to troop quality, numbers and the skill of the commanders. Very tellingly, when the battle came to an end, the margin was very narrow and the Austrian army still presented a major threat. It was not until the Battle of Rivoli in January 1797 that Napoleon won a crushing victory that ended the war decisively in French favor.
** Napoleon's Egyptian campaign is also depicted as Napoleon being undefeated in battle, sweeping all before him and triumphing against all odds, securing Egypt and Syria as French territories and returning to France as a conquering hero. Although Napoleon certainly won a great victory at the Battle of the Pyramids, his expedition was stranded in Egypt due to the Battle of the Nile. Furthermore, his campaign into Syria was marred by controversy, as at Jaffa he ordered the execution of 3000 Ottoman prisoners under the arguments that he did not have the soldiers to guard them, several of them had broken their oaths not to fight against France, and they had executed his soldiers under a flag of truce. This controversy would stain Napoleon's reputation for the rest of his life. Furthermore, after a two month siege of Acre, Napoleon was forced to lift the siege and admit defeat, his first major strategic defeat of his career. After securing Egypt from an Ottoman invasion, Napoleon abandoned the army and left for France, a decision that would similarly haunt Napoleon's reputation, as he left his army sick, exhausted and no prospect of victory and Egypt was lost two years later.
{{reflist}}
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