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Line 1: {{trope}} {{quote\|''Maybe I shouldn't be singing this song ''Ranting and raving and carrying on ''Maybe they're right when they tell me I'm wrong... ''... ''NAAAHHHHH!~~\|[[Denis Leary]]\|Asshole}}~~'' \|[[Denis Leary]]\|Asshole}} A close cousin to [[My God, What Have I Done?]], this version tends to happen mostly to [[Villain Protagonist]]s, [[Anti-Villain\|Anti Villains]], [[Fallen Hero]]es and sometimes [[Anti-Hero\|Anti Heroes]]. Whereas [[My God, What Have I Done?]] tends to make a difference in a character's behavior and personality, the '''Ignored Epiphany''' has a moment where the Villain or gray character has [[Epiphany (trope)\|a moment of ~~[[Heel Realization\|~~clarity or revelation]] [[Heel Realization\|about themselves and their actions,]] seeing it in perspective for perhaps the first time and realizing exactly how useless and off base their various self-delusions and justifications were. It's often a low moment for these characters, and may provoke sympathy from the audience. The character may acknowledge it various ways, with a sigh, a bitter laugh, muttering "[[What Have I Become?]]" or possibly saying to someone or themselves "I've really messed this one up". A common variant is a character starting to so say "[[My God, What Have I Done?]]'', stopping halfway through, then blaming the whole thing on some other person or outside force. And then... there's nothing. No [[Heel Face Turn]], no [[Redemption Equals Death\|last minute redemption]] or even an ''attempt'' to [[Must Make Amends\|undo the harm they've wrought]]. Nor is there any mental trauma equivalent to a [[Villainous BSOD]] or [[Villainous Breakdown\|mental breakdown]]. [[Redemption Rejection\|Just... nothing.]] Line 14 ⟶ 15: One interesting version of this involves a character realising they've crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]]... and therefore, there's no turning back. You have no hope of redemption, so there's no point worrying about it any more - may as well [[Card-Carrying Villain\|embrace the Dark Side]], and hope that being [[Drunk on the Dark Side]] will [[The Dark Side Will Make You Forget\|help you forget your troubles]]. Compare [[Heel Realization]] which is when a character has an epiphany and realizes for the first time that they're one of the bad guys. Then again, they might be on to something if the [[~~Heel~~Deadly ~~Face Door Slam~~Change-of-Heart]] is any indication. This may happen before pulling a [[Redemption Rejection]] when offered that [[Last Second Chance]]. Overlaps with [[Jerk with a Heart of Jerk]]. {{examples}}▼ ▲{{examples}} == Anime and Manga == * {{spoiler\|Shion}} has one in ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]''. It really accentuates the already significant horror of the scene. ** More specifically, in Meakashi-hen, {{spoiler\|she had just killed Satoko when she abruptly remembered that Satoshi had asked her to protect his little sister. She had an [[Oh Crap]] moment for a sec, before deciding something like, "Oh well, too late!" and cheerfully bounding off to continue the killing.}} Line 34 ⟶ 35: '''Jesse''': An' then you do it again. }} * Mr Gone from ''[[The Maxx]]'' knows every little psychological detail of why he does what he does. He even feels bad about it. That doesn't stop him. * ''[[The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck]]'' uses one of these for maximum effect. After his [[My Greatest Failure\|greatest failure]], Scrooge spends decades wandering the planet, building his fortune. When he finally comes home, his sisters (who abandoned him after his crossing the [[Moral Event Horizon]]) have gathered his family to greet him... but he storms past them, demanding they arrange for the people seeking donations to get away. Hortense, furious at the change in her brother, tells him he can either stop them from leaving or never see them again, at which point all and sundry walk out (a young [[Donald Duck]] giving Scrooge a kick in the ass for good measure). Scrooge, realizing [[My God, What Have I Done?\|how badly he's screwed up]], is about to run after them... when he sees his Roster of the Rich and realizes he's the richest man in the world. The last panel shows him laughing in celebration... as his family walks away, leaving him [[Lonely Atat the Top]]. * In ''[[Superman: Red Son]]'', Pyotr at one point laments his own evil deeds, most notably having killed that universe's versions of Thomas and Martha Wayne. He even [[Driven to Suicide\|attempts to commit suicide]] while [[Drowning My Sorrows\|Drowning His Sorrows]], but is saved by Superman. At one point (if I remember correctly) Pyotr says something along the lines of how Superman makes him want to be a better person than he is. But once Stalin dies and Supes becomes head of the Soviet Union, Pyotr promptly goes right back to being a ruthless, scheming bastard who [[The Starscream\|actively attempts to depose Superman]]. * In issue 59 of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)\|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'', Sonic and Tails get trapped in a pocked dimension with [[Great Gazoo\|Horizont-Al and Verti-Cal]], who are now locked in eternal combat thanks to the events of issue 50. At the end, after Sonic and Tails win with [[The Power of Friendship]], they give Al and Cal a speech about how they should go back to being friends. They briefly ponder this...then decide "Naaaaaaah!" and return to killing each other. Line 45 ⟶ 46: O'Hare provides a comical example during his portion of "Let it Grow". {{quote\|''The things you say just might be true ''It could be time to start anew ''And maybe change my point of view... ''Nah! I say let it die! ''Let it die, let it DIE, Let it DIIIIEEEEEEEE!'' }} Line 82 ⟶ 83: When Satan sees the beauty of Earth for the first time, he is deeply saddened and laments on how he used to be part of the beauty created by God, and that if he had been a lower angel, he would have been perfectly happy continuing to serve Him. Then he rejects the idea of repentance by concluding that any apology he gave would be insincere because he's gone too far into making evil his good, so he can't turn back. ** When Belial suggests that if all the fallen angels just say they're sorry, God may let them back in. Mammon shoots down the idea outright, but suggests that they could at least try to make Hell into a nice place and live basically at peace with [[God]]. It's Beelzebub (on Satan's earlier advice) who convinces everyone to just go with evil and try to corrupt humanity. * In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[~~Discworld/Wyrd Sisters\|~~Wyrd Sisters]]'', Granny Weatherwax uses headology on Lady Felmet to show her all the evil she's committed. There's a moment when Felmet acts like she's about to pull a [[Heel Face Turn]], or at least a [[Villainous Breakdown]], but she shakes it off and then says she knows exactly what she's done, and she ''likes'' it. * In [[Graham McNeill]]'s [[Warhammer ~~40000~~40,000]] [[Horus Heresy]] novel ''Fulgrim'', Fulgrim realizes he is committing a horrible crime when he fights his brother Ferrus Manus, but his [[Evil Weapon\|sword]] convinces him to kill him. (''Then'' it lets him realize it, so it can destroy him.) * Jack Torrance has one of these in [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Shining]].'' In the chapter "The Snowmobile," Jack experiences a moment of clarity in which he becomes aware of exactly how the hotel has been manipulating him and turning him against his family. However, he ''keeps on'' thinking about the issue so intensely that he changes his own mind, concludes that everything is his five-year-old son's fault and that Jack himself is doomed whatever he does, and destroys the snowmobile, the family's one real chance to escape. It's worth pointing out that it's not just a case of him changing his own mind; as a result of its (very tangible, very unpleasant) influence, his thoughts take a different direction as long as he's not actually inside any of the buildings that make up the hotel. * ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'': "Alice often gave herself very good advice, but she very seldom followed it." * Harold Lauder, a highly intelligent but ''deeply'' disturbed teenager, has one in [[Stephen King\|Stephen King's]] ''[[The Stand]]''. Prior to the plague outbreak, he was a fat pimply high school outcast that embodied [[Wangst]]. After spending weeks living in Boulder, he manages to make a place for himself in the community. His work helping to bury bodies causes him to feel a sense of comraderie with his fellow workers. At one point, one of the workers calls him "Hawk". Harold thinks the guy is making fun of him; calling fat, pimply Harold Lauder "Hawk", only to realize that he ''isn't'' fat or pimply anymore. For a brief moment, Harold can see that all of that petty high school bullshit that he was carrying around was just that: bullshit. He goes home that day resolving to abandon his plans to betray the Free Zone and become an honest and upstanding citizen. {{spoiler\|Too bad the Big Bad sent Nadine Cross to seduce him back to the Dark Side}}. * Years before becoming the biggest [[Knight Templar]] out of many in ''[[The Warlord Chronicles]]'', Nimue was just a druid's apprentice who, for a single day, considered throwing magic and the gods aside, marrying the main character (who had been in love with her since they were just kids) raising a family and owning a farm. Considering that many years later Nimue's actions resulted in {{spoiler\|[[Merlin and Nimue\|the death of Merlin]], [[Face Heel Turn\|the betrayal]] of [[King Arthur\|Arthur]], the maiming of main character Derfel, the deaths of many of Arthur's most loyal warriors and thus, indirectly, Arthur's death at the hands of Mordred and the weakening of Britian's ability to resist the Saxons}} not to mention the misery these actions caused her, it might have been better if she'd done just that. * ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' ** When Gandalf offers Saruman a [[Last Second Chance]], he genuinely struggles and seems perhaps on the edge of accepting before his [[Pride]] and [[Green-Eyed Monster\|jealousy]] of Gandalf cause him to refuse. {{quote\|''A shadow passed over Saruman's face; then it went deathly white. Before he could conceal it, they saw through the mask the anguish of a mind in doubt, loathing to stay and dreading to leave its refuge. For a second he hesitated, and no one breathed. Then he spoke, and his voice was shrill and cold. Pride and hate were conquering him.''}} Line 156 ⟶ 157: == [[Tabletop Games]] == * This is what happens to a Dark Elf in ''[[Burning Wheel]]'' when they've almost, but not quite, maxed out [[Karma Meter\|Spite]]. (Maxing Spite [[Driven to Suicide\|is a bad idea]].) * In ''[[Warhammer ~~40000~~40,000]]'', this is the [[Planet of Hats\|hat]] of the Dark Eldar—they deliberately continue the nightmarishly hedonistic ways that brought their civilzation to ruin, {{spoiler\|primarily because they'll be utterly destroyed if they don't.}} Line 164 ⟶ 165: [[Shakespeare]] is fond of this trope. He also uses it in [[Hamlet]], where Hamlet's [[Evil Uncle]] has a moment where he realizes what a truly evil and unforgivable thing he's done by killing his brother and marrying his brother's wife. He even realizes that repenting is useless as long as he still profits from his act, so he prays for the strength to give up everything he's gained. When he finds he can't do so, he abandons any thought of repenting and just does his best to hold onto the throne. ''Richard III'' has his worst moment when the ghosts of his victims plague him in a nightmare. He shouts for mercy. But in the morning he declares that conscience is a fraud "devised to keep the strong in awe. Conscience, avaunt!" * In Eugene O'Neill's [[~~Long Days Journey Into Night\|~~Long Day's Journey Into Night]], the characters are trapped in their past behavioural patterns, most notably Mary with her morphine addiction and James with his alcoholism and hurtful tongue. {{quote\|'''Mary''': The past is the present, isn't it? It's the future, too.}} Line 177 ⟶ 178: * [[Dragon Age II]] gives us the final boss of {{spoiler\|Knight-Commander Meredith.}} During the battle, at one point, all allies and enemies will become stunned, and she will ask how such evil can be so powerful. She then wonders if she is wrong, that everything she is doing is madness. She then hardens her resolve in her next statement, and says she must hold fast to her convictions, and the battle continues. ** {{spoiler\|Anders}} apparently has one, but most of it is off-screen between Acts II and III. {{spoiler\|He tries to put his obsession with the mages' plight aside and learn to reign in Vengeance. If he actually killed the mage he rescued during his personal quest, he outright calls himself a monster.}} Yet, by Act III, the obsession is back. And its much, much worse. * Near the end of ''[[Portal 2]]'', {{spoiler\|[[~~G La DOS~~GLaDOS]]}} is [[Heel Realization\|terrified]] that the voice of conscience {{spoiler\|she}} hears is {{spoiler\|her}} own voice for the first time. After the final battle, {{spoiler\|she locates the Caroline subroutine responsible for it and unceremoniously deletes it.}} ** [[Word of God]] states that this is exactly what was intended. {{spoiler\|1=GLaDOS}} learns a lesson but chooses to reject it, and {{spoiler\|Wheatley}} learns a lesson but is in no position to repent. Line 200 ⟶ 201: * In ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'', Bulgak the Orc Infernomancer keeps insisting that [[Survival Mantra\|"(he) is good person"]], despite Infernomancers being evil by the very nature of their powers (they sell their souls to their patron demon in order to channel that demon's power) and Hell itself showing him the evil that he's done. ** He does get over it, and, surprisingly, is apparently [[Easily Forgiven]] by the powers-that-be when he makes the ''actual'' epiphany, but it takes ''way'' longer than it probably should. * In ''[[Endstone]]'', when about to [[Mind Rape]] her [[Parental Substitute]], [https://web.archive.org/web/20120625182359/http://endstone.net/2009/06/15/issue-1-page-22/ Cole wonders why she is doing these terrible things -- for a panel]. * An inversion from ''[[Girl Genius]]'' where the character ''isn't'' as bad as the semi-sarcastic self-description she delivers...but goes along with it anyway because it's useful. {{quote\|'''Agatha:''' ''I'm'' the bad guy, because, for whatever reason, you didn't tell your nasty little friend who you are. And now she's sad. So you're mad at ''me''--because now she's all teary and sweet and needs rescuing. And ''I'm'' the evil madgirl with the deathray and the freakish ancestors--and the town full of minions--and the horde of Jagers--and the homicidal castle full of sycophantic evil geniuses and fun-sized hunter-killer monster clanks and ''goodness knows what else''...and you know what? '''I can work with that!'''}} Line 215 ⟶ 216: {{quote\|'''Voldemort:''' Well... maybe there's one--NO! ''[[No Fourth Wall\|points wand at musicians]]'' THERE ISN'T! ''[the musicians surrender]''}} * [[The Onion]] plays with this trope in a [[Real Life]] context in [http://www.theonion.com/articles/there-was-definitely-a-point-during-that-stoning-w,18165/ There Was Definitely A Point During That Stoning Where We All Thought, 'Is This Weird?'] * John Cheese on ''[[Cracked.com]]'' recounts in [https://web.archive.org/web/20140829111816/http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-questions-you-need-to-ask-to-avoid-ruining-your-life_p2/ 5 Questions You Need to Ask to Avoid Ruining Your Life] how he was asked to be best man at his friend's wedding where they wouldn't have alcohol, and began to grow anxious and irritable because of not being able to drink. Eventually he cut his toast short and made up an excuse to leave early so he could drink. He realized that he was actually afraid of going without alcohol. {{quote\|This realization is what motivated me to, uh, completely forget about it and continue drinking for about eight more years.}} * Even though [[The Nostalgia Critic]] has a barrel-ton of [[Guilty Pleasure]]s himself, when it comes to a movie he sees no good in (like the [[Jim Carrey]] remake of ''[[The Grinch]]''), he never fully comprehends how others can like it. In the specific case of the Grinch movie, at the end of his review he contemplates taking a more tolerant, open handed view and saying that if people take pleasure in it or see something in it that he doesn't, then maybe that's what counts... then essentially says "Nah, I'm right, they're wrong!" Line 238 ⟶ 239: {{reflist}} [[Category:~~Ignored Epiphany~~{{PAGENAME}}]]▼ [[Category:Evil Tropes]] [[Category:Drama Tropes]] [[Category:Characterization Tropes]] [[Category:Heel Face Index]] ▲[[Category:Ignored Epiphany]]