"Failure to Save" Murder: Difference between revisions

Tropes explained via Jungian Archetypes, [[What Do You Mean It's Not Didactic?]] See also [[It's All My Fault]], [[Blood On These Hands]]. Also, [[I Thought It Meant|it has nothing to do with]] [[Save the Villain|saving the villain or not]].

* In one scene in ''[[Baccano (Light Novel)|Baccano]]'', Jacuzzi insists that Isaac and Miria should stop treating him like a good person because he's not -- he's fleeing from Chicago because he murdered three men. Donny interjects that Jacuzzi didn't kill them, his friends did. Against Jacuzzi's wishes. ''Because those men were about to kill him''. [[Martyr Without a Cause|Jacuzzi fails to see the difference.]]

* In [[The DCU]], [[Green Lantern (Comic Book)|John Stewart]] failed to save the planet Xanshi in the ''Cosmic Odyssey'' miniseries. John's guilt for this was extreme enough in the years afterward that one could be forgiven for assuming that he'd blown up the planet himself. The Xanshian warrior Fatality blames the whole [[Green Lantern|Green Lantern Corps]] for the destruction of her planet, and went on a crusade to kill them all.

* In ''[[WITCH (Comic Book)|WITCH]]'', Ari of Arkhanta (a farmer who enslaved a banshee to become powerful) carries a massive grudge against the Oracle of Kandrakar. The reason? Ari's son was born autistic, and the Oracle isn't doing anything to fix this.

** For example: Spider-man fights Green Goblin over Gwen Stacy, [[I Let Gwen Stacy Die|Spider-man lets Gwen Stacy die]], Green Gobling gets [[Hoist By His Own Petard]], and Miles Warren [[Go Mad From the Revelation]] and blames Spider-man exclusively and attacks him as his [[Split Personality Takeover]] villain The Jackal. To his credit, Miles Warren was [[Fighting From the Inside]] and when he wins, he realizes the idiocy of this and makes an [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save Spider-Man.

** Of course, a more legitimate example of this is a big part of the ''[[Spider Man]]'' mythos--before Peter actually became a superhero he [[Somebody Else's Problem|let a crook run past him]], only for said crook to murder [[Parental Substitute|Uncle Ben]] shortly afterward. His [[My Greatest Failure|guilt]] over the issue is what drives him to become a superhero in the first place.

* A random woman once berated [[Superman (Comic Book)|Superman]] for being off-world during the "New Krypton" storyline -- while trying to stop a war -- while her husband was having an aneurysm. She thought Superman could have saved her husband with heat vision or something. Superman was the only person that actually took her seriously -- everyone else in-universe and out thought she was crazy to expect that from Superman.

* Nero's motive in ''[[Star Trek (Film)|Star Trek]]''. The Fool is Nero, The Hero is {{spoiler|Spock, and by proxy the Federation}}, and The Child is {{spoiler|Romulus, with Nero's pregnant wife on it}}.

* In ''[[I Robot (Film)|I Robot]]'', Spooner plays the Fool against a robot who saved his life instead of a child because he had a bigger chance of survival. This caused him to develop hatred against all robots, arguing that the child's life was worth more and should have been prioritized over his regardless of the odds.

* Averted in one episode of ''[[Scrubs (TV)|Scrubs]]''. Paramedics failed to save a woman's son, but she was so impressed by how hard they tried that she decided to become one.

* ''[[Smallville (TV)|Smallville]]'''s version of Metallo hates Clark because he didn't save his sister when her apartment burned.

* The UnSub in ''[[Criminal Minds (TV)|Criminal Minds]]'' episode "Hanley Waters" was a woman who had been involved in a car accident one year before. The paramedics had managed to save her, but failed to save her six-year-old son.

* In ''[[Heavy Rain (Video Game)|Heavy Rain]]'' it's heavily implied that Grace Mars blames Ethan for {{spoiler|their son Jason's death -''even though he jumped in front of the car to save him and was in a coma for months''.}}

* The entire motive behind {{spoiler|Godot/Diego Armando's}} quest for vengeance against Phoenix Wright in In ''[[Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney]]: Trials and Tribulations'' is that he blames Phoenix for Mia Fey's murder.

* In ''[[Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|Tales of Symphonia]]'' {{spoiler|Chocolat}} acts this way towards Lloyd after she finds out that he {{spoiler|killed her grandmother Marble}}. She forgives him later on when {{spoiler|the prisoners of the Iselia Ranch tell her that Marble was transformed into an Exbelua and Lloyd originally intended to save her}}. A similar case occurs with {{spoiler|Kuchinawa}}, who blames Sheena of {{spoiler|killing his parents by being unable to control Volt, even if she was merely a child at that time and most likely unable to translate Volt's speech ("It's ''just like before''! What the hell is he saying?")}}. He hides this grudge at first, but gives in to it after {{spoiler|Sheena actually manages to make a pact with Volt and multiple other Summon Spirits during the game}}. Sheena has to set him straight again by fighting a duel with him. Interestingly enough, {{spoiler|his brother Orochi}} insists that the tragedy was an accident and that Sheena should not feel responsible and accept the duel.

* In ''[[Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door (Video Game)|Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door]]'', Admiral Bobbery suffers from the second variation of this trope, after learning that {{spoiler|his wife Scarlette passed away while he was on a voyage}}. He blames himself for it, thinking that he could have {{spoiler|nursed her back to health if only he wasn't at sea at that time. He then vowed to never sail the sea again, filled with grief and regret. Mario manages to take away his pain however, by showing him a letter that Scarlette wrote with her last breath to prevent Bobbery from feeling guilty about her death}}.

* In ''[[Disgaea Hour of Darkness (Video Game)|Disgaea Hour of Darkness]]'', [[The Rival|Kurtis]]' family got killed and he personally holds [[The Hero|Captain Gordon]] accountable for this, even though the latter wasn't involved in this in any way. As far as Kurtis is concerned, though, Gordon didn't do his job as a Defender of Earth and should be replaced.

** ''[[Disgaea 4 a Promise Unforgotten (Video Game)|Disgaea 4 a Promise Unforgotten]]'' does this on a much larger scale {{spoiler|with Judge Nemo. Though Artina, the only person to show him kindness, was killed by her own country, he blamed Valvatorez for not saving her or avenging her death (Due to Artina asking him not to do so in the case of the latter). It eventually escalates to the point where he blames ALL of humanity as well as demons and angels.}}

* In ''[[Wing Commander (Video Game)|Wing Commander]] II'', {{spoiler|Zack "Jazz" Colson}} allies with the Mandarins to take revenge on the Tiger's Claw crew for letting his brother die when the Kilrathi attacked Goddard.

* In ''[[Dragon Fable (Video Game)|Dragon Fable]]'', Konnan swears vengeance against your PC for failing to save his family and hometown from the dragon Akriloth (though in all fairness, the battle against the dragon in question [[Hopeless Boss Fight|wasn't winnable anyway]]). {{spoiler|This would eventually lead him to join the evil pyromancer Xan and become Drakonnan, the [[Big Bad]] of the Fire War}}.

* A variation occurs in ''[[Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]'', when Redcloak in all seriousness holds O-Chul responsible for the deaths of several captives - when it is in fact Redcloak who is about to have them killed (or worse) unless O-Chul reveals a particular bit of info (which he actually doesn't know). Ironically, since to him it's clear that O-Chul would callously let everyone die just to protect his secret no matter what, he lets the captives live.