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** This trope is an explicit belief held by Donquixote Doflamingo, who says that whoever wins the current war between the World Government and Whitebeard will be the ones to define what "Justice" means.
* ''[[Saint Seiya]]'' - Cancer Deathmask subscribes to this theory, but was in the wrong side of the conflict. {{spoiler|However, in the Hades arc, he could've been subscribing to this and just been smart for once.}}
* One of the tools that ''[[Twentieth Century Boys|20th Century Boys]]''' [[Big Bad|Friend]] uses to win over all of Japan {{spoiler|and, later, the rest of the world}}. It's so much easier to be a [[Villain with Good Publicity]] when the public at large is convinced that ''you'' saved the world <s> instead of</s> from that [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]].
* In ''[[Death Note]]'', Light tells the Task Force that if Kira wins, he's justice, if he loses, evil. {{spoiler|He loses.}}
 
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* 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).
* In another issue of [[Peter David]]'s (this time ''[[X-Factor (comics)|X-Factor]]''), [[Quicksilver]] offers his own version of the phrase: "The future is written by the winners. History is written by the survivors."
 
 
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== 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 4000040,000]]'''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.
** Another example is the history of the Dark Angels. Outsiders know the chapter to be one of the original First Founding legions and exemplars of loyalty. The chapter itself is wracked with guilt over how fully half their members turned traitor during the Horus Heresy, a secret they jealously guard and which drives them to obsessively hunt these Fallen Angels. Meanwhile there's hints that the Dark Angels' primarch may have been sitting out the civil war altogether, and the "Fallen" were merely defending themselves against their possibly traitorous kin...
*** 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.}}
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* ''[[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.
* ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius]]'' reminds you that Chaos Is Evil. Uh, then you uncover the millenium-long coverup setup by the one survivor of the Law vs Chaos War. And he's the King of Dragons!
* ''[[Fire Emblem: theThe Sacred Stones]]'' has a variant of this. The common myth is that the Demon King was defeated by the "Five Heroes" led by Grado. {{spoiler|It turns out that the "Five Heroes" were led by Morva, the leader of the dragonkin. Together, they defeat Demon King. However, as centuries pass, the human nations which the heroes founded eventually forgot about Morva. The people of Caer Pelyn are rather unhappy about this, believing the other nations are being ungrateful to the Great Dragon who saved mankind.}}
* In ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'', {{spoiler|quite a bit of the legend of Mithos the Hero is false, created by Mithos himself}}
* In ''[[Last Scenario]]'', {{spoiler|pretty much all of the standard history is a load of crap.}} This is used as part of the game's subversion of [[Video Game Tropes]] of all kinds, as it means {{spoiler|''the opening [[Info Dump]] [[Playing the Player|lies to you]]''.}}
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