Heroic BSOD/Fan Works

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Because non-canon Heroic BSOD's are the best kind!


  • In the Super Smash Bros. fanfiction "Smash Generation," Mario appears to have one of these after finding out that Dr. Mario dies in a year, since they're being visited by their future children. Yeah, it kind of slipped out. It didn't help that they were about to fight the zombie of said doctor. Bonus points to the writer who even referenced the site for the idea.
  • Homer Omarn of Bart the General suffers a Heroic BSOD for most of the series as a result of seeing Marge having sex with his new neighbor Toadfish.

Omarn: Maaarrrgee...yer breakin' my heart... Maaaaaaarrrgee....

  • In the Undocumented Features story Aegis Florea 2 Sumire Kanzaki is revealed to have spent three decades in a state of self-imposed emotional catatonia starting shortly after the Hanagumi defeated the threat of the Invaders once and for all. This was due largely to her belief that with the Imperial Floral Defense Force no longer being needed and the love her life (Gryphon) having left and most likely never coming back that she no longer had anything to look forward to -- not even old age and death. She remains in this state until Kei reboots her with a What the Hell, Hero?/"The Reason You Suck" Speech that is so scathing and insulting that her own pride demands that she finally snap out of it and get angry.
  • In the well-known Star Trek fanfiction "Atlas" Kirk has one after Alpha nearly kills Spock just to devastate Kirk, a case of in universe fridge stuffing.
  • While the game itself does not include this, Knights of the Old Republic fanfic almost always pulls this if the writer is exploring the aftermath of The Reveal with a light-sided character.
    • It may not include it, but the dialouge from other characters does imply it.
  • Subverted in Kyon: Big Damn Hero, when it looks like Haruhi is about to go into one of these, they intiate a Memory Gambit which prevents that from happening.
  • In the LXG fanfic series "The Private Diary of Elizabeth Quatermain," the pacifistic title character has one of these when circumstances require her to kill someone.
  • In the Warcraft fanfiction Arestis' Childhood, Tarsia has one of these when, in this order and all on the same day, her little sister is accused of murder, her village is attacked and just about every occupant is either killed or captured, she is raped by the soldier that captured her and finally she is placed in captivity with the rest of the survivors.
  • In the Pokémon fanfic Storm Clouds, Missy suffers a rather scary one when she returns to her world, only to discover that she's still an Eevee.
  • In the Firefly fanfic Forward, River goes through a couple of these, but the most intense is at the end of the "Hunt" story, after she accidentally shoots Simon, then butchers a Hand of Blue who shoots him shortly afterward. The look of shock on Simon's face afterward, with her covered in blood after having stabbed the Hand's face to the point that it completely unrecognizable as human, sends her into a complete Freak-Out and causes her to run away in horror.
  • A notable example for Mass Effect fan fics is the story Exitus, in which its Commander Shepard suffers from an intense Heroic BSOD just before they reach the Collector base.
  • Disgaea fic, Fail to the King opens with Almaz in one of these, curled up catatonic in the fetal position from the events of Disgaea 3's Almaz Ending. One Bright Slap that pounds his head into a crater later (what, you expected sympathy? It's the Netherworld!) and he's more or less good to go, though he has to take great pains to remain the Determinator and not slip back into despair when things, inevitably, gets worse.
  • In the Dragonball Z fanfic Goku's Wish: The Return of Broly, Goku ended up suffering from the frozen in fear portion of this trope after a wounded Vegeta (Long story short, Vegeta, angered that Goku resurrected Broly, regardless of whether Goku gave him a clean slate and removed his hatred, due to feeling sore about Broly wounding his pride from their first encounter, got into a fight with Broly and ended up being completely beaten to a pulp, although not without Broly getting exhausted as well) turned into a Super Saiyan 3 before passing out. Gohan, after attempting to call out to his dad and shake him didn't work, tried to punch Goku in the cheek to get him to snap out of it. It doesn't work, despite hitting his dad hard enough to leave him with a large bruise on his cheek.
  • The Portal 2 fic Test Of Humanity has Wheatley break down sobbing and go into a depression after watching 2001: A Space Odyssey and becoming overwhelmed with guilt for his actions after seeing he was just as evil and heartless as HAL (and GLaDOS). He spends at least a chapter of the story in a catatonic state barely saying anything and wondering why Chell is being so kind to him after all he's done and why he even feels so guilty in the first place. He finally snaps out of it when he realizes the reason he feels so guilty is that he loves Chell.
  • Twilight Sparkle goes into one at exactly the wrong moment. Once she snaps out of it, it's too late...
  • Ditzy Doo freaked out when she started to recover her memories; that's because the fragmented images of her past made her think that she was a gangland enforcer who killed Dinky's parents for kicks when in fact, she was actually an undercover secret agent trying to warn them that they were targets of organized crime.
  • Happens to Pinkie Pie due to having a horrific nightmare where she killed her friends, causing her to believe a part of her is going to act it out. She's pretty much in a state of terrified shock when Rainbow Dash finds her, and reduced to a sobbing wreck after she's broken out of that. Turns out it was just a simple nightmare and nothing to worry about, and after some comfort and consoling from her friends, she's able to recover.
  • In Ace Combat: The Equestrian War, this happens to Flutershy and Rainbow Dash, the former thinking she killed a sentient being and the latter due to her encounter with an ex-friend Gone Horribly Wrong.
    • Though the one experienced by Derpy in chapter 15 pumps the whole drama Up to Eleven.
  • In the megacrossover self insert fanfic Sleeping With The Girls this happens to the main character when Mokoto tells him that she thought she'd killed him.

A fatal exception OE has occurred at BRAIN. The system has been shut down to protect your mind. Use Ctrl Alt Delete to reset your train of thought. Any unsaved information will be lost...

  • Paul in With Strings Attached goes through one of these for a night after he nearly loses control and attacks the Hunter for killing a bunch of wolves. The others talk him down. And in the morning, the Hunter unexpectedly apologizes, which helps.
  • In When There Was a Tomorrow, While recovering in the medbay from getting curb-stomped by a Hunter, Grunt realizes how much his arrogance has embarrassed himself and Shepard. He doesn't take it well when Shepard insists his injuries were punishment enough and demands worse. He eventually concedes to Shepard refusing to take him along on missions for the next few days.
  • Adelle suffered one after Sir Loin died in The Tainted Grimoire.
  • L in A Cure for Love after Light has Watari killed. It's later revealed that this reaction is helped along by Light drugging him.
  • The Axis Powers Hetalia fanfic Ice Cream is basically about England trying to help America, who is sufferring from a Heroic BSOD after 9/11.
  • In the Touhou doujin Though the Wind Cries, Suwako suffer's from a brutal case of this. And since she is the local god who normaly protects the area and makes sure that the rain fall the people that worships her ends up feeling the effects of it aswell.
  • In The Dark, Melanie suffers a nasty concussion after being thrown from the bus. Later, she gets kidnaps be a cultist but escapes. This causes a series of emotional stress on to her.