I Regret Nothing

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A Stock Phrase used by characters about to or after having done some crazy action, especially if it could result in dying.

Can be a Facing the Bullets One-Liner. Compare Worth It, I Did What I Had to Do.

Examples of I Regret Nothing include:

Anime and Manga

  • Raoh's Famous Last Words: "My life was one lived without a single regret!" Of course, this often pops up in parodies.
  • In the Impel Down arc of One Piece, this is Mr.2 Bon Clay's last line, as he rushes forward Chief Warden Magellan. It's also a major theme in the following arc and the series as a whole, as part of being a pirate is to live life without regrets (especially according to Luffy and Ace).
  • A minor character in Samurai Champloo is killed by the shrapnel from a smashed baseball bat during a particularly intense game. His last words are "I die with no regrets."

Comic Books

  • In the Marvel/Wildstorm crossover World War Three, after being defeated by Deathblow and the Thing, the dying Skrull who had replaced Iron Man says "I did what I was ordered to do. I don't regret anything".
  • At the end of the Judge Dredd story arc Apocalypse War, the last words of the defeated war marshal Kazan are: "I... regret nothing! I apologise for... nothing!"
  • The dying words of a man who was killed shielding Namor: "It was a fair exchange ... and there are no regrets." Namor had enough regrets about it for both of them.

Fan Works

Hobson: Hobson give shares to Seto!
Gozaburo: Hobson, how could you do this to me? After I picked you up from the gutters-
Hobson: Hobson regret nothing!

Film - Live Action

Margiana: You followed me instead of Koura? Then he has won the race.
Sinbad: The race perhaps.
Margiana: And the prize?
Sinbad: Not the prize.
Margiana: A crown of untold riches!
Sinbad: I regret nothing.

Literature

  • Persuasion: Anne Elliot gives a speech about how "I have nothing to reproach myself with" regarding the eight years of needless pain and suffering she and Captain Wentworth endured as a result of her letting Lady Russell persuade her into breaking their engagement. Which actually makes sense in the context of the rest of the story, as the two likely would not have ended up as happily married eight years ago as they will now.
  • Played with in the Doctor Who Expanded Universe—the Doctor is caught in a crashing plane on Mars. The woman he's with hears him humming.

"What's that noise?" Asked Kadiatu.
"Edith Piaf," said the Doctor. "Born on a doorstop and sang the blues."
"I'd sing the blues," said Kadiatu, "if I'd been born on a doorstep. What's the song about?"
"Regret."
"What did she regret?"
"Absolutely nothing," said the Doctor.
They hit the ground.

  • Timequake features a short story by one of the characters entitled "Bunker Bingo Party," about the last few hours of Hitler's life. Before killing himself, Hitler ponders what his last words should be. He considers "I regret nothing" but it is pointed out to him that Edith Piaf has already made those words famous. He briefly considers "Bingo" but then settles on "I never asked to be born in the first place," and pulls the trigger.
  • In Jack Higgins' The Wrath of God, Oliver van Horne helped narrator Emmett Keogh against corrupt police (Keogh had tried to rescue a girl the cops were going to rape). Van Horne machine-gunned the cops, but then he and Keogh were caught and sentenced to death. As he was taken out to be shot,[1] van Horne said, "No regrets, Keogh."

Live-Action TV

  • A Stock Riff on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
  • Eko from Lost confesses this to what he thinks is the spirit of his dead brother (which is actually the Smoke Monster, judging him), right before it mauls and kills him, seemingly disappointed by his words.
  • On Friends, Joey once had a date with a girl which ended with him eating her dessert while she was in the bathroom. As she stares at him in utter disgust, he just grins and says "I'm not even sorry!"
  • When Earth: Final Conflict killed off Sandoval, they had him say this.
  • Subverted in the early Stargate SG-1 episode "Solitudes": trapped in an ice cavern with rescue apparently not coming, Captain Carter tells Colonel O'Neill that she has "no regrets... how about you?" True to form, O'Neill (who's currently suffering from some serious internal injuries including broken ribs) replies "I'll regret dying."
  • Played with in the House episode "Games", by Jimmy Quit, a terminally ill Punk Rock musician.

Amber: Don't you have any regrets?
Jimmy: A lotta drugs, a lotta fights... I regret everything else.

Music

Regrets... I've had a few.
 But then again, too few to mention.

Video Games

Shepard: "I'm sorry."
Mordin: "I'm not."

  • The Postal Dude from Postal says this when you have him commit suicide.
  • A recorded but unused Scout line from the Team Fortress 2 "Meet the Sandvich" video: "I regret everything! I regret everything I've ever done!"
  • Troll batriders in Warcraft will shout "The ends justify the means!" before perishing in a fiery kamikaze attack.
  • Last Scenario has Augustus' Famous Last Words:

I proved my superiority. I have already won. I regret nothing.

"Gh-ghuahh... I am... sorry for nothing. I regret... nothing. Because I did it my way... You win, Priestess. You must be delighted. Enjoy it while you can... Because... sooner or later... you..."

  • In Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution, when the Ork battlewagon boss is destroyed, its pilot states that his only regret is exploding.

Web Comics

Web Original

Western Animation

  • The Simpsons:
    • In one Halloween special, Mr. Burns is seen in hell, turned into an ugly (well, even uglier) creature, and he says this line.
    • Also, we pan over the Very Long Line to see the Itchy & Scratchy Movie, which goes over a drawbridge; the drawbridge opens and one person falls through. As he's falling he calls out the Stock Phrase in question.
  • In the Chowder episode "Grubble Gum", Gazpacho declares this once he realizes he's about to be consumed by an ever-growing katamari of grubble gum.
  • In Futurama:
    • Bender argues that all robots should be deactivated because they pollute too much, especially Hedonism-bot, who responds with "I apologize for nothing."
    • When That Guy from the 80s dies from boneitis at the end of "Future Stock" his dying words are "My only regret.. is that I have.. BONEITIS!"
    • In "The Duh-Vinci Code", when everyone thinks they're about to die, Leela implies her only regret was the time she wasted watching Tron: Legacy
  • Zuko on Avatar: The Last Airbender after passing up the opportunity to Heel Face Turn, resulting in his uncle being imprisoned:

Zuko: You brought this on yourself, you know. We could have returned together. You could have been a hero. You have no right to judge me, uncle. I Did What I Had to Do in Ba Sing Se, and you're a fool for not joining me!

Terra: My name is Terra. I have done horrible things. And I have absolutely no regrets.

It might be the Joker, or Two-Face, or just some punk who gets lucky. My decision. No regrets.

Real Life

  • The last words of Nathan Hale (British revolutionary who was hanged when caught spying on the King's Army): "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country [the secessionist Union of American States]."
  • Timothy McVeigh who blew up Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people, said before his execution that his only regret is that he didn't completely level it.
  • Serial Killer Carl Panzram made this statement after his arrest: "In my lifetime I have murdered 21 human beings, I have committed thousands of burglaries, robberies, larcenies, arsons and, last but not least, I have committed sodomy on more than 1,000 male human beings. For all these things I am not in the least bit sorry."
  • Andrew Jackson once said "I have only two regrets: I didn't shoot Henry Clay and I didn't hang John C. Calhoun." This is especially striking when you consider that Calhoun was his Vice President.
  • From Tallulah Bankhead's autobiography: "The only thing I regret about my past is the length of it. If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner."
  • Murderer Thomas Kemp's final words when he was executed in April 2012 were "I regret nothing."
  • Halle Berry has claimed she did not regret starring in Catwoman, despite being the first Razzie winner to actually show up at the award ceremony to denounce it. She claimed it was worth it for the "shitload of money" she got for the role, and that it taught her what not to do as an actress.
  • In 1986, future Vice-President Dick Cheney (who was, at the time, a Wyoming Representative) voted against the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, a bill that called for tough sanctions and travel restrictions against South Africa and its leaders, and for the repeal of apartheid laws and release of political prisoners like Nelson Mandela, then leader of the African National Congress. The vote passed with bipartisan support, and when President Reagan vetoed it, claiming the ANC was a "terrorist organization", it was passed via Congressional override, with Cheney opposing it again, clearly siding with Reagan on the matter. When Mandela passed away in December of 2013, long after the fall of the apartheid government, having been recognized as a Civil Rights leader after becoming the first black President of South Africa, Cheney said publicly, "I don't have any problems at all with the vote I cast 20 years ago."
  1. ↑ The local authority actually meant to use them to kill off a particularly nasty bandit, and put them through a mock execution to show his power over them.
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