My God, What Have I Done?: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"The awful daring of a moment's surrender

 

 

 

Usually delivered dramatically, sometimes, [[Narm|well, over-the-top.]] A villain might utter this line if they're about to take the [[Last Second Chance]]. Or a hero after being freed from [[The Virus]], being [[Brainwashed and Crazy]], or a [[Super-Powered Evil Side]].

 

Often the result if the protagonist becomes an [[Unwitting Pawn]]. Sometimes combined with [[Heroic BSOD]]; common with [[Villainous BSOD]]. Can be a self-inflicted [[What the Hell, Hero?]]. Contrast [[I Did What I Had to Do]], [[Be All My Sins Remembered]], and [[I Regret Nothing]]. Compare [[It's All My Fault]], [[Heel Realization]] and [[Kick the Morality Pet]]. See also [[Out, Damned Spot!]], [[Being Evil Sucks]], [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]], and [[Sympathetic Murder Backstory]]. May be the result of an all too successful [[Pygmalion Plot]] to [[Teach Him Anger]].

 

** Gohan had this too, thanks to his cockiness.

* In the OVA of ''[[Angel Sanctuary]]'', Katan says this while looking down at his hands in horror after {{spoiler|accidentally killing Sara, when he was actually aiming for Setsuna}}.

* Sasuke in ''[[Naruto]]'' after finding out that {{spoiler|the brother he spent years trying to kill and finally succeeding did everything to protect him and Konoha and the Council ordered him to do it in the first place}}.

* ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'': It's discovered that [[Big Bad]] Ken Ichijouji, definitely an [[Evil Overlord]] with a [[0% Approval Rating]], never knew Digimon were sentient, thinking the Digital World to be a very, ''very'' realistic [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|video game]]. He gives this line once he finds out he's done real harm, and makes a [[Heel Face Turn]].

* Shinji Ikari in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' has a [[Heroic BSOD]] after he is forced to kill {{spoiler|the angel Kaworu}}.

** And another one after his EVA nearly kills Toji Suzuhara due to his inability to fight. {{spoiler|This haunts him to a greater degree in the manga since he, rather the dummy plug, actually kills Toji.}}

*** Earlier in the series, he gets a similar expression upon being informed that {{spoiler|his love interest's father was among the casualties of his latest battle.}} Although this isn't as objectively big as the aforementioned incident, it shook Lelouch rather badly and forced him to personally face the consequences of his actions and orders.

** Darlton gets one of these {{spoiler|after his hypnosis wears off and he realizes he just saved Zero by shooting Cornelia in the back.}}

** Shizuru also gets a slightly more understated one after {{spoiler|her resurrection in the [[Grand Finale]]}}, crying openly over the fact {{spoiler|she'd forced her lesbian crush into a [[Taking You with Me]] situation because she'd gone out of control}}. Not as severe as some, but given Shizuru's graceful serenity over the entire series to that point, seeing her outright crying and apologizing through the tears had impact.

** Yukino after she is blackmailed into {{spoiler|trying to kill Mai}}. Even after the almost victim later thanks her for helping her find {{spoiler|Takumi}}, she still feels quite guilty.

* The protagonist from ''[[Tsukihime]]'' goes through this in every route, after he regains control/consciousness from whatever insanity/inversion/dream-turned-reality he just went through, all of which generally involve him causing bloodshed and death.

* Gyoubu Kasumi from ''[[Basilisk]]'', after {{spoiler|Tenzen grabs a flautist boy and throws him into the middle of their fight, causing Gyoubu to accidentally kill the boy's father when the old man tries to save his son}}.

* Tony in ''[[Toward the Terra]]'' after he {{spoiler|accidentally kills Matsuka, a fellow Mu}}, while attempting to assassinate the antagonist. Complete with enough angst to last the rest of the series.

* The manga version of ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' has Chrono do this after {{spoiler|his [[Unstoppable Rage]] in volume 5}}. He's so distraught he can't even quite get out the words: "Oh, no. Have I done? Ro...sette!"

*** When {{spoiler|''Greed'' kills his only surviving True Companion after being Mind Wiped}} in the manga. [[Big No]] ensues.

** Roy after {{spoiler|killing Winry's parents}}.

* ''[[Kikaider|Android Kikaider: The Animation]]'' (not to be confused with the [[Toku|live-action ancestor]] of the "[[Power Rangers]].") In the first episode, Jiro [[Henshin Hero|(the android)]] helps some kids get their toy airplane out of a tree by pushing the tree over. (He was in his "human" form at the time, and the kids thought they were enlisting his help to ''climb'' the tree.) After the the kids run away, [[Mood Whiplash|any humor in this moment gets a kick in the nuts]] when Jiro realizes there was a bird's nest in the tree, and the eggs in it have been destroyed. In the English dub, he utters the trope verbatim.

* In the manga ''[[Pokémon Special]]'', Ruby does this when he realizes {{spoiler|he was a huge [[Jerkass]] to his Feebas after she loses a Contest and caused her to run away. He only partly realized that on his own at best, and it takes a [[What the Hell, Hero?|tongue-lashing from Wallace]] before it finally gets through to him completely.}}

** Urahara in the "Turn Back The Pendulum Arc" when he realizes that he sent Hiyori into a dangerous situation all alone.

** Don Kanonji when he learns that he had been turning ghosts into Hollows when he thought his exorcism technique had been sending them to Heaven.

* Bisco Hatori's ''[[Millennium Snow]]'' has the vampire male protagonist, do this after he {{spoiler|grazes Chiyuiki's neck with his fangs, meaning she will have to live for a thousand years with him}} also counts as a [[What the Hell, Hero?]] moment, as Satsuki promptly tries to kick his ass afterward.

* In the OVA of ''[[Angel Sanctuary]]'', Katan says this after he accidentally kills Sara.

* Mayo Sakaki in the 3rd ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'' OVA. When she realizes that her behavior is destroying the universe (and herself), and that love and obsession aren't the same after talking with Houki, she is [[Driven to Suicide]] and attempts to drown herself, believing herself to be beyond redemption.

** In the novel, Last Order claims that Accelerator never liked the killing of 10,000 sisters experiment in the first place and the reason why he acts so cruel to them is to discourage the remaining sisters from going after him.

* In ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]] Part 2'', Strohiem has this reaction once the "Ultimate Life Form" (Satanna) escapes from what he thought was an inescapable cell, and proceeds to start slaughtering every single Nazi in the base.

* In the final episode of ''[[Tenshi ni Narumon]]'', {{spoiler|after Silky sets their wings on fire, Mikael snaps out of his madness and when Raphael appears before him and confronts him with what his actions have led to, Mikael breaks into [[Tears of Remorse|tears]], expresses his remorse over what he has done and pleads his teacher to rescue everyone. When Raphael disappears, Mikael just resigns to the [[Redemption Equals Death|worst]].}}

* In the movie version of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', Precia gets one over how she had treated Fate when she remembered that {{spoiler|Alicia had always wanted a little sister.}} Unfortunately, by the time she remembers this, it's too late to apologize or make amends.

** Mai, when she snaps out of the Orichalcos' control.

* In ''[[Inuyasha]]'', [[The Stoic|Sesshoumaru]] had one of these [[Inner Monologue|moments]] in the Underworld upon [[Not So Stoic|realizing]] that [[Morality Pet|his beloved Rin]] was dead as a result of his quest to strengthen [[Healing Shiv|Tenseiga]]. "She can't be saved?...What's the point of it now? Tenseiga...just for something like this, (Rin) I let you die...To obtain this in exchange for Rin's life - [[Character Development|it means nothing]]." [[Death Is Cheap|She]] [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|got]] [[Tear Jerker|better]].

* In ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'', after seeing all of the death and despair caused by [[Complete Monster|Johan Liebert]], Franz Bonaparta breaks down completely, feeling guilt for being the man who made Johan into the monster that he is.

* In ''[[Tsukigasa]]'', Azuma, upon having a drunken illusion of his [[Love Interest]], Kuroe, being his [[Creepy Uncle|rapist uncle]], cuts Kuroe's arm off. He goes into [[Heroic BSOD]] mode almost immediately over it.

 

== Comic Books ==

** In ''[[Astonishing X Men]],'' the team is attacked by one of the giant [[Humongous Mecha|Sentinels]] that murdered the population of Genosha. Kitty defeats it by [[Instant AI, Just Add Water|kicking it up to full sentience.]] Suddenly capable of comprehending what mass murder ''is,'' with a machine's ability to actually evaluate all those deaths individually rather than just as a vague statistic, it suffers a [[Villainous BSOD]] and flies away in horrified remorse.

* In his origin in ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15, [[Spider-Man]] has a classic one - [[Tears of Remorse]] and all - when he recognizes the burglar who murdered his uncle as the criminal he allowed to escape a page earlier.

* In ''[[Invincible]]'', the titular character reacts this way after accepting [[An Offer You Can't Refuse]], even though it was the only way to avoid an [[Earthshattering Kaboom]]. So when he says the trope's title out loud, the character making the offer responds "You have saved the lives of every living thing on this planet".

 

* In the ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' doujinshi ''Besame Mucho'', Spain gets one of these (quoting the trope name included) when standing in front of a destroyed house in a village his army just slaugtered. He is passing by when he sees a dead child's arm peeking out of a pile of wreck, and it makes him remember about Romano. Something was in my eye when he says that they just killed people, who were the same as him or little Romano. His companion's answer? "You are wrong. You are not human.". [[Tear Jerker]], indeed.

* Also in ''Axis Powers Hetalia'', this is lampshaded by an authoress in the notes of the first chapter of her intense FACE bondage-dominance foursome. Repeat, the /first/ chapter.

** Asuka, who has been physically and sexually brutalizing Shinji for months, has minor moments of this whenever her temper finally abates, then has a ''massive'' moment of this coupled with [[Villainous Breakdown]] when {{spoiler|she finally beats Shinji badly enough to nearly kill him}}. The fic starts after this moment; when it's not filling in backstory, it's detailing her attempts to atone for her actions.

** A similar thing occurs in chapter 10 of ''[[Ace Combat: The Equestrian War]]''. {{spoiler|Fluttershy}} saved Cloud Kicker's life, but believes her actions partially led {{spoiler|Razor's death}}. She utters the actual quote (without the "My God" part) and until her friends comfort her later on, along with {{spoiler|Princess Celestia stating that Razor died in the explosion caused by [[Wave Motion Gun|The Burning Talon's]] overheating}}, she is reduced to [[Heroic BSOD|crying]] [[These Hands Have Killed|and blaming herself]].

{{quote|{{spoiler|"I do not need to be told the heinous nature of my actions!"}}}}

* ''[[Inner Demons]]'': Twilight is horrified when she {{spoiler|accidentally [[Taken for Granite|petrifies]] Princess Celestia in a fit of rage about the prophecy}}... at least until she's consumed by her [[Enemy Within|"Queen of Darkness" persona]] and goes from regretting it to [[Kick the Dog|bragging about it]].

** Shining Armor also has this reaction when he realizes that {{spoiler|the "Cadence" he slept with was actually [[Brother-Sister Incest|Queen!Twilight in disguise]]}}.

 

== Films -- Animated ==

** The second half of the song subverts the trope, as Jack revels in the fun he's had trying to run Christmas, though he still intends to set things right.

* King Triton says this almost world for word in ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'', when he believes his argument with Ariel and destroying her human artifacts led to her running away.

{{quote|'''Rex:''' "Great, now I have guilt."}}

* In ''[[Hoodwinked]]'' the wolf utters this phrase after [[Caffeine Bullet Time|giving coffee to]] his hyperactive squirrel partner so that he can run quickly and tell the police that {{spoiler|the rabbit is the villain}}.

* ''[[Home Alone]]'': Kevin's mom, when she realizes she left Kevin at home while the family left for Paris.

** ''"What kind of a mother am I?"''

{{quote|'''Delia Surridge:''' [V gives her a rose] Are you going to kill me now?

'''V:''' I killed you 10 minutes ago. [shows her hypodermic needle] While you slept.

** Which ''[[From a Certain Point of View]],'' he did...

** He also said "What have I done?" right after {{spoiler|saving Darth Sidious and killing Mace Windu.}} In both cases, it is followed not by any effort to [[Must Make Amends]] but instead by [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope]].

** He also seems to have an unspoken moment before he finally decides he [[Must Make Amends]] and intervenes to prevent Darth Sidious from killing his son in ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'', [[Death Equals Redemption|redeeming himself]] in the process.

* In ''[[The Mummy Trilogy|The Mummy 1999]]'', at the first sign of Imhotep's resurrection; a spontaneous plague of locusts; the Egyptologists says, "What have we done?" as he's covered with the damn things.

* This happens on two different occasions in ''[[What's Eating Gilbert Grape]]''. At the beginning of the movie, Arnie - the mentally challenged young man - kills a grasshopper by beheading it, and then cries to Gilbert about it. Later on in the movie, Gilbert loses his cool - leading him to slap Arnie around, after being so protective of him.

* [[Gene Wilder]] gets one in ''[[Young Frankenstein]]''. On the DVD commentary, Brooks says this was to keep the film in the structure of classic Yiddish theater, where act two always ends with either "What have I done?" or "She's pregnant!"

* Hilariously subverted in ''A Dog's Breakfast''. Patrick wants to kill his future brother-in-law, Ryan. Ryan offers to help him chop wood by holding the wood steady for him. Patrick lifts his axe up, clearly intending to render Ryan in two. We cut to a shot of the woods just as we hear a dull ''thunk'', complete with blood curdling scream. We then cut back to Patrick's face who whispers: ''"What have I done?"''.....only to watch him collapse in pain as we realise that he's actually hit ''himself'' in the leg with the axe's handle by accident.

* In ''[[Repo! The Genetic Opera]]'', Nathan says this after confessing that {{spoiler|his daughter is not sick, rather he has been poisoning her in order to keep her from ever leaving him.}}

* In ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (film)|TMNT]]'' (2007), during Raphael's fight with Leonardo, he manages to break Leonardo's swords, and then pin Leonardo down to the ground, and then, he realizes what he's doing, and runs off, only to come back to save Leonardo from the Stone Generals, but fails miserably.

* ''[[The Terminator|Terminator 2]]'' does this (but doesn't say it) to [[Action Mom|Sarah Connor]]. After spending the majority of the movie as a ''fundamentally'' screwed-up person, she tries to murder a man, not because of anything he's done, but based on what he ''will'' do in the future. Everything from her attitude during the "hunt" to the weapon she uses is <s> eerily</s> ''terrifyingly'' similar to the T-800's targeting of her in the original film. It's only when she's holding the gun to his head, in front of his terrified, sobbing wife and son, that she starts to realize [[He Who Fights Monsters|exactly what her fear of the future has done to her]].

* ''[[Wall Street]]'': Bud Fox's father is the union manager for an airport which [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Gordon Gekko]] intends to buy, using Bud's help to seal the deal. Bud has one of these moments after realizing that {{spoiler|Gekko is in fact going to fire the workers he [[You Said You Would Let Them Go|said he would let stay]]}}.

* Verbatim in ''[[The Rock]]'' after {{spoiler|Goodspeed and Mason pull General Hummel out of the mess with Frye and Darrow. Hummel relents using the trope word for word before telling Goodspeed the location of the last rocket ("Lower lighthouse!").}}

* In the made-for-tv ''Elvis Meets Nixon'', it's 1970, and Elvis has snuck out of Graceland, out on his own for the first time in over a decade. He has fond memories of LA's Sunset Strip, but when he gets there he's appalled to find it overrun with hippies and head shops where his records are back in the 'golden oldies' section. A hippie recognizes Elvis and excitedly tells how he changed his life - in an irony worthy of [[The Twilight Zone]], he points out that Elvis's spirit of rebellion created the counterculture. Elvis is horrified.

* [[Charles Dickens]] wasn't averse to this sort of twist. In ''[[Great Expectations]]'', the malignant Miss Havisham gives us the following line: '"O!" she cried, despairingly. "What have I done! What have I done!"'

* ''[[The Assassins of Tamurin]]'': This is Lale's reaction after she kills her would-be mugger/rapist. What stresses her out is that she didn't kill him simply in self-defense but because [[Evil Feels Good|she was excited to put her training to the test]].

** The Steward's family is big on these moments. Denethor has [[Fond Memories That Could Have Been|another]] when his younger son, Faramir, is brought back dying after being wounded in a pointless battle which Denethor sent him into.

* [[Jo Walton]]'s ''[[Small Change|Ha'penny]]'': Inspector Carmichael, after {{spoiler|saving Hitler's life}}.

* In ''[[Honor Harrington|Flag in Exile]]'', Honor Harrington is attacked by an assassin who sees her as a corrupting agent of Satan... but the beloved leader of his church [[Taking the Bullet|takes the bullet]] for her. Horrified, he drops the gun and falls to his knees: "My God, my God--''what have You let me do''?"

** Judas really shouldn't beat himself up. After all, without the crucifixion there'd be no resurrection, and do you think Jesus didn't ''know'' that?

*** Peter betrayed Jesus too [[Dirty Coward|In a different way]]. However Judas never came back to seek forgiveness.

** In [[Graham McNeill]]'s ''Fulgrim'', Fulgrim's first words after he {{spoiler|killed Ferrus Manus, were "Throne save me, what have I done?". His [[Evil Weapon|sword]] lets him [[Heel Realization|realize the depths of his crime]], and that his view of Ferrus Manus had been formed by spiteful misinterpretation of his deeds. }}

* In ''[[The Dark Elf Trilogy]]'' (the second book, ''Exile''), Drizzt ponders on this when he starts to realize that living on the run all the time, constantly paranoid, has caused him to start to lose his humanity, especially after {{spoiler|cutting off his sister's ''fingers'' and nearly killing his brother}}; however, it isn't until Gwehywvar looks him in the eye that he starts to realize it and tries to find ways to regain said humanity... or elfmanity.

* In ''[[Death Star]]'', MCPO Tenn Graneet, chief gunner for the [[Earthshattering Kaboom|superlaser]], is hit with the enormity of what he has done, and when he is called to fire on Yavin 4, [[Redemption Equals Death|desperately stalls for time]].

* The [[Dale Brown]] novel ''Act of War'' has Kelsey quite distraught after she realises that she had unwittingly ordered {{spoiler|Carl Bolton}} to his death.

** ''Edge of Battle'' has a US Army [[Humongous Mecha]] mobbed by rioters at a detention camp for illegal immigrants ([[Jumped the Shark|"Jumping the shark"]]? [[Your Mileage May Vary]]) and reflexively responding with predictably horrific results. When he comes back to his senses the mecha's pilot calmly and methodically climbs down from his vehicle, picks up the first available firearm and puts a bullet through his head.

** Also Severus Snape, after he realizes his actions have inadvertently sentenced a woman he loves to death. Whoops again.

** {{spoiler|Ariana's death - possibly at his own hands -}} was this for Dumbledore.

* In ''Cry Mercy'', the third volume of Toni Andrews's "Mercy Hollings" series, the title character confronts her adoptive parents in order to seek answers about her mysterious origins and troubled childhood. Throughout the series, she has expressed a great deal of anger towards her adoptive parents for dissolving the adoption and giving her back as a ward of the state at the age of twelve, which led her to spend her teenage years in a series of unhappy foster homes. She believes they abandoned her because they couldn't deal with the fact that she was a psychic with the power of [[Compelling Voice]]. However, her former adoptive mother reveals that {{spoiler|although her adoptive parents feared her powers and found her difficult to deal with, they cared about her and didn't intend to give her up until she used her Compelling Voice power to make them do so by telling them "Get out of my life and leave me alone!" in a fit of adolescent rebellion}}. She had repressed the memories of what had really happened, and realizes later that she is at least partly responsible for the problems that have made her miserable all her life. Mercy has another moment like this later on when trying to get an armed gunman to put down his weapon and release his hostage. She does not have perfect control of her power, and when he fails to respond at first she {{spoiler|loses her temper and thinks, "Goddammit, why don't you just blow your own brains out?!". Her anger makes her powers kick in and she has the man's death on her conscience, although she saves the hostage.}}

* In ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'', Jim strikes a little girl for not listening to him when he told her to close the door. It turns out she couldn't listen ''at all''. She was deaf.

* In ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'', Rand has one {{spoiler|when he almost kills his father during a heated argument in ''The Gathering Storm''. Quite a few of his friends have been telling him in book after book that he's [[What the Hell, Hero?|going too far in his actions and losing it]], but it doesn't sink in until this confrontation}}.

* In [[Aaron Allston]]'s ''[[Galatea in 2-D]]'', the hero [[Cold-Blooded Torture|tortures]] one of the villain's mooks to try to get information from another. He slackens off without getting everything he wanted, realizing that she didn't know anything and that he was invoking [[What Measure Is a Mook?]]. That thought horrifies him -- [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|just because they were]] [[Art Initiates Life|two paintings who came to life]], and whom the villain had sent to kill him didn't mean torturing them was all right. {{spoiler|In the end, the villain is killed, but the hero tells the mooks that if they stay out of his way, he won't bother them.}}

* Appears near the end of [[Jean De Florette]] for Papet. {{spoiler|He discovers that Jean, the man who he had ruined in the first part of the duology, was actually his son. Florette hadn't rejected him, as he thought, but was pregnant and had tried to move on when he didn't respond to her letter (a letter he obviously never received). Watching the look on Papet's face when this fact sinks in will quickly show the viewer why this movie launched Yves Montand to worldwide critical acclaim.}}

* In [[Adrian Tchaikovsky]]'s ''[[Shadows of the Apt|Dragonfly Falling]]'', Fenise asks "What have I done?" as she realizes why she won't kill Thalric.

* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[Prospero's Daughter|Prospero Lost]]'', Miranda leads a boat that is pursuing hers on a route that ends with his crashing and dying. In ''Prospero In Hell'', she learns he wasn't an enemy. Nearly has [[Tears of Remorse]].

* [[The Atoner|Jean Valjean]] of [[Les Misérables]] has a [[Heroic Blue Screen of Death]] based on this trope after he robbed a child. The robbing happened right after his encounter with [[The Messiah|Bishop Myriel]], who gave him a second chance at freedom after Valjean betrayed the Bishop's trust and robbed from him. The combination of these two events cause a guilt trip several pages long.

* Tsion Ben-Judah's reaction in in the [[Left Behind]] book ''Desecration'' when he realizes he has given away the location of where the Israeli Jews would flee to according to what the [[Book of Revelation]] says about the matter (the deserted city of Petra), fearing that he has messed up God's plan. He gets some reassurance from one of the Tribulation Force members that God may have intended for Tsion to let slip the location of where the Jews would flee to in order to lure Nicolae Carpathia's forces into a trap God has set up for them, which is all according to the Word of God.

* The concentration camp commander in ''[[The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas]]''. {{spoiler|Losing your son because of his naivete in regards to the camp ''you commanded'' can't be a good experience for anyone.}}

* Rick Deckard, the protagonist of ''[[Literature/Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep|Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep]]'', is a [[Bounty Hunter]] tasked with killing androids who are posing as humans. He gets one of these moments midway through the book, after eliminating an android who had been working as an opera singer, and had earlier moved him with a song. He is ashamed that he has destroyed something beautiful and, on another level, worried about what this newfound empathy for his prey says about him.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* Jerry ''[[Seinfeld]]'', after he gets engaged to Jeanie Steinem, a woman exactly like him...

{{quote|I think I may have made a big mistake! All of the sudden I realized what the problem is! I can't be with someone like me! I hate myself!}}

{{quote|{{spoiler|Gaeta: [[Heel Realization|We--we had the truth on our side. Now... now]]...}}

{{spoiler|Zarek: [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|The truth is told by whoever is left standing]].}} }}

** And Sharon (Boomer) {{spoiler|who has a change of heart when she sees the experiments being done on Athena's daughter}}.

** And Baltar, when he learns that he gave the Cylons information that helped them to kill billions of people.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'':

{{quote|"There should have been another way."}}

** The Ninth Doctor had one of these in "The Parting of the Ways", when he forcibly sends Rose back to her own time in the TARDIS to [[It's Not You, It's My Enemies|protect her from the Daleks]], {{spoiler|only for her to absorb the power of ''the Time Vortex itself'' to get back and save him. He is truly distraught as it threatens to burn up her mind: "The power's gonna kill you, and it's ''my fault''!" He sacrifices his Ninth life to save hers.}}

** "We have to go back!"

* In an episode of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'', Torres utters this exact line when she realizes the race of robots she is helping were responsible for the extinction of their creators.

* On the third-season finale of ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'', Howard and Raj make an account for Sheldon on an online dating site. Sheldon gets matched with Amy Farrah Fowler, who is almost exactly like him. Howard's reaction when he sees the two together: "Good God, what have we done?"

* ''[[Forever Knight]]'''s Nick Knight has several of these over the course of the series, many in the flashbacks where he's struggling between needing to feed to survive and not wanting to kill.

* Duncan on ''[[Highlander (TV series)|Highlander]]'' after he {{spoiler|killed Richie in a demon-induced haze}}

* In Season 4 of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', Samuel has this reaction after {{spoiler|murdering his brother, Joseph.}} He may or may not quote this trope by name, as Robert Knepper's well-done emotional performance makes it unclear whether he's saying "What have I done", or if he's begging {{spoiler|Joseph}} to "Hold on".

** Hawkeye has this in the episode "Fallen Idol." He sends Radar to Seoul to "sew a few wild oats", and Radar subsequently gets wounded by enemy fire en route.

** In the episode "O.R.", Frank Burns complains out loud about the difficulty he's having removing a wounded GI's kidney. On a hunch, Trapper goes over to look at the patient's x-ray...and shows Frank that the guy ''only has one kidney''. While Frank's borderline incompetence in surgery was usually [[Played for Laughs]] on the show, in this instance he's shown to be genuinely shaken at the realization that he could have killed the man through his carelessness.

''To take your fuckin' lives!'' }}

* "Evaporated" by Ben Folds Five uses this line as the last line of the chorus - though it's never actually revealed what the singer actually ''has'' done.

{{quote|''What have I done?''

''Please make me your son''

''What have I become?''

''Destroyed all I love!'' }}

* In the song "The Flame" by Chimera, the lasts lines are "Oh God…What Have I Done"

* The protagonist of [[Genesis (band)|Genesis]]' "One for the Vine" becomes the murderous conquerer he (as a lowly foot soldier) had deserted at the beginning of the song. No, not just a very similar figure - the ''exact'' same one.

 

 

* Link from ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time]]''. He pulls the Master Sword out of its pedestal, not knowing Ganondorf was using him to get into the Sacred Realm. Especially hits home when you visit what used to be Hyrule Castle. Link's expression can only be, "Oh my God, I did this."

* Alexandra Roivas from ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'', at the end of the game. After you defeat Pious Augustus, Alexandra finally realizes the {{spoiler|[[Cosmic Horror|ancient god]] she just released has the power to destroy all of humanity. Shocked, she kneels and says "What have I done!?". The Ancient God is then turned into [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] by Edward Roivas' spirit, after replacing two of the runes in the super-mega-huge spellcasting device.}} Except not really, because it's revealed through one hell of a [[Mind Screw]] that {{spoiler|Mantorok has [[My Death Is Just the Beginning|orchestrated events]] so that in three different iterations of reality a different Ancient was summoned each time, essentially meaning that all three were killed at the same time; not being subjected to the same rules of time and existence as us lowly mortals this could easily happen. Of course leaving Mantorok to fester for eternity, plotting his eventual escape.}}

* Subverted with another "What have YOU done" in ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] IV: Oblivion'', when Lucien Lachance reveals that {{spoiler|you've been killing the ''wrong'' people.}}

* Happens at the very first event of [[Fahrenheit (2005 video game)]], the main character, after coming to his sense, realized that he is holding a knife, blood dripping from his clothes, and a dead man lying right next to his feet, stabbed many wounds to the chest.

* Kastor in ''[[Age of Mythology]]'', after {{spoiler|blindly following Krios's hidden plan of releasing the Titans}}.

* [[The Woobie|Oichi]] from ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'', after {{spoiler|being [[Break the Cutie|driven insane]] by her [[Yandere|husband's death]] and her [[You Bastard|brother]] [[Oda Nobunaga|Nobunaga]]'s evil ways, goes on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]], killing her [[Kill'Em All|brother and all his subordinates]]. Afterwards, she briefly comes to her senses, realizes what she has done and bursts into tears... only to die when [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|the roof caves in on her]].}}

** Subverted, however: he says repeatedly that he would choose to do the same thing, and that he doesn't regret what he did. He felt it was necessary; however, he chooses to always remind himself of the price paid. {{spoiler|But it's played straight in ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', where he comes to fully regret working on the genophage and decides to help cure it}}.

** Two other Salarians involved in the project, {{spoiler|Maelon Heplorn}} from the second game and {{spoiler|Padok Wiks}} from the third, both eventually come to the conclusion that their work was unethical. Unfortunately, the former ends up falling ''even further down [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|the slippery slope]]'' when he tries to reverse his handiwork.

** In ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', if you can make {{spoiler|the Illusive Man}} realize that he's being [[Brainwashed and Crazy|indoctrinated]] by the Reapers, {{spoiler|he'll shoot himself in the head.}}

** Miranda Lawson is an interesting variation as her's is more, "My god, what did I ALMOST do?" Her hatred of her father comes from the fact that he tried to control her and her sister, make them slaves to do whatever he wanted them to do. She almost did this to Shepard, when she attempted to plant a control chip into his/her brain while bringing him/her back to life. By ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', she realizes this and feels unbearable guilt, telling Shepard how sorry she is for even considering it.

* Amazed no one has mentioned Zero's [[Narm|epic meltdown]] in ''[[Mega Man X]] 4'' after his defeat of {{spoiler|Iris}}. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LISmPmdUhYA "What am I fighting foooooooor?!?!?!"]

* In ''[[Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire]]'' and ''Emerald'', Maxie and/or Archie (depending on your version) come(s) to realize what he's brought upon the land when they use the Blue or Red Orb to awaken Groudon or Kyogre, respectively, as their intense sunlight or rain begins to spread throughout Hoenn ([[Story and Gameplay Segregation|storywise, anyway, as weather effects were not seen in the overworld of places such as Littleroot Town during the Weather Trio crisis]]).

* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' ''Cataclysm'', {{spoiler|Garrosh Hellscream}} has this reaction after {{spoiler|realizing that Magatha Grimtotem had poisoned his blade, and that by killing Cairne, he played right into her plans.}}

* [[Super Metroid]] even has a few of these moments. After fighting a big Metroid, it runs off in shame once it realizes {{spoiler|Samus is it's adoptive mother from the start of the game.}}

* ''[[Star Ocean 4]]'': {{spoiler|In the past Earth, Edge hands an energy source equal in power to a doomsday device to Earth military so they can prevent the future disaster which befalls Earth. [[Earthshattering Kaboom|This backfires.]] }}

* {{spoiler|Terra}} from ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep]]'' has this reaction after {{spoiler|trying to [[Kick the Morality Pet|stop Master Eraqus killing Ven, and taking it too far. Eraqus does it too when he calms down.]]. Then [[Complete Monster|Xehanort]] finishes him off.}}

* {{spoiler|Anders}} has this reaction in ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' right after {{spoiler|he blows up the Chantry and sparks open conflict between Mages and Templars}} if he is a full rival. After the most recent patch, he can even be convinced to {{spoiler|''side with the Templars'' after realizing that he has pretty much become a true abomination}} to help mitigate the damage to Kirkwall.

* In ''[[Tactics Ogre]]'', some of the leaders' death quotes might invoke this to the player. You kill a person who seems to just be a named Mook...then an optional battle (If you wanna recruit one of the characters) has a woman who wants revenge because you killed her husband. After you beat her, she reveals she's ''pregnant''. Another person laments that he won't be able to get medicine for his sick daughter.

** The PSP version also has a wizard who fights you in chapter two who wants revenge on Denam. What for? A boss you fought in chapter one was his twin brother.

* King [[A Father to His Men|Volechek]] in ''[[Golden Sun: Dark Dawn]]'' has this moment. When he realizes the [[Superweapon Surprise|ancient tower]] he got the heroes to reactivate was really going to cause an [[Total Eclipse of the Plot|eclipse]] that [[Apocalypse How|summoned hoards of monsters]] on half of the globe. Did we mention his kingdom was in the middle of it?

** And in the game before that, ''The Lost Age'', {{spoiler|The [[Final Boss]] the heroes killed turns out to be Isaac's father and Felix and Jenna's parents. This causes Jenna to have a complete emotional breakdown, knowing that not only her parents are going to die soon, but she was the one who did the horrible deed. To be fair, the Wise One did this trick to test the resolve of the heroes and the Golden Sun event winds up reviving the parents. Even then, Jenna is still shaken up by the whole ordeal.}}

* In ''[[Catherine]]'', girlfriend Katherine suffers from this after the incident on day 8, frozen in place screaming.

* Lara Croft in ''[[Tomb Raider]] Anniversary'' has this moment when she is forced to kill Larson, who held her at gunpoint. It was Lara's first human kill in her whole life.

* In the ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' DLC Old World Blues, it's possible to get [[Evilutionary Biologist]] Dr. Borous to feel intense guilt over his brutal experimentation of his loyal dog Gabe after you bring him his food dish. Of course, he quickly forces himself to suppress the feeling and goes back to his obsession with [[For Science!|Science!]]

 

* Archer from ''[[Fate/stay night|Fate Stay Night]]'' as revealed in UBW route. {{spoiler|He is trying to kill Shirou, himself from past, because he wants to prevent him making a pact with world to protect people, because it'll only make him one who kills some to save many.}}

* One of the extended bad endings in the [[PlayStation 2]] version of ''[[School Days]]'' has {{spoiler|Kotonoha murder Sekai in cold blood and then offer herself to Makoto, who was watching. Makoto's horrified reaction causes Kotonoha to realize what she has done, and she breaks down in tears.}}

 

== Webcomics ==

* ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' has a rare [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0451.html villain example], where [[The Dragon]] Redcloak comes to regret [[We Have Reserves|using hobgoblins as cannon fodder]] because of his [[Fantastic Racism|prejudices]]. "Oh my God... I'm turning into XYKON! What have I let myself do?"

** In the prequel book ''[[Start of Darkness]]'', Redcloak goes through a more tragic use of this trope after he {{spoiler|kills his brother}}.

** There is a more obscure example in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0448.html this strip]; after Xykon {{spoiler|uses a [[Idiot Ball|Symbol of Insanity]] to cause all the paladins to massacre each other}}, the last one standing recovers and cries, "Oh Twelve Gods... what have I done??" then commits <s>seppuku</s> [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|whatever Azurites call ritual suicide]].

** Vaarsuvius's expression upon realizing {{spoiler|the Familicide spell killed off Girard Draketooth's entire lineage}} is the non-verbal epitome of this trope. V has a verbal one in the next strip at the discovery of {{spoiler|just how many people Familicide killed due to the way the spell works.}}

* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'', it appears that Prince Aaronev Sturmvoraus seems to have had one of these as his daughter is dying, if Tarvek's flashback is accurate. Of course, considering that she is in this condition because {{spoiler|he had just tried unsuccessfully to overwrite his daughter's mind with the mind of his [[Evil Overlord]] / possible lover,}} the sympathy one might feel for him is abated some.

* In ''[[Thog Infinitron]]'', the aliens (Opians) that gave Thog his powers {{spoiler|1=finally [http://www.drunkduck.com/Thog_Infinitron/index.php?p=415148 realize that Thog's cybernetics are not inborn], and are in fact due to their medical intervention to save his life.}}

* [[Bob and George]] [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/031030 After confessing. So to speak]

* The Sacrifice comic for the video game ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' shows Zoey having this moment when she realizes what she did back home after the infection spread. {{spoiler|While Zoey was visiting her parents at home, a common infected wanders into the room and attacks Zoey's mother, infecting her. Shortly after, her mother turns and attacks her father, forcing him to kill her. Believing that she is infected, Zoey's father asks her to kill him so that he won't turn. It isn't until 2 weeks later after she and her other survivor friends get taken by the military that she learns that her father wasn't going to turn at all, due to having a gene that makes them a carrier but immune, which she has inherited as well.}}

** Seymore goes through this when a girl-turned-devill he wanted to truly reform finds his shotgun and goes on a rampage.

* ''[[Pibgorn]]'' [http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/2010/07/15/ Pib. . . What have I done?] (Why, lost Pib in the upper atmosphere when you need her help to save the earth.)

* Vriska in ''[[Homestuck]]'' goes through this when she realizes that {{spoiler|her actions have resulted in the deaths of most, if not all, of the people she ever considered friends.}}

* In [[Dragonball Z Abridged]], Dr. Briefs yells "WHAT HAS SCIENCE DONE??" after Goku blasts himself into space on a ship Dr. Briefs built.

** King Kai gets one too, after realizing that sending Goku home has resulted in him being all alone again. When Bubbles, Gregory and Bojack try to comfort him, he tells them to shut up.

** He looked crushed in ''[[Kickassia]]'' right after he accidentally shoots {{spoiler|Santa Christ}}.

* She'd never admit it verbally, but [[The Nostalgia Chick]] draped her dead BFF's ''[[Star Trek]]'' shirt over a nearby chair in guilty memorial of the Kirk vs. Picard fight that got her killed.

{{quote|'''Homer''': What have I done? What have I done???

'''Bart''': Dad! Look! There's still two left!

'''Homer''': (holding a still smoking shotgun): What have I done? What have I done??? }}

** Also parodied in "Homer's Odyssey", when he steals and breaks open Bart's piggy bank for beer money:

'''Pinky''': Uh huh. Narf! But I'm afraid my secret playhouse will never be the same... (''he had landed on top of it''.)

'''Brain''': Oh, it's all my fault. This obsession with taking over the world is causing me to hurt the ones I... [[Last-Second Word Swap|tolerate]]. }}

*** This ties in with a subdued, implied [[Mind Screw]] of the series: {{spoiler|the title song only promised that "one is a genius, the other insane" but never stated which was which}}.

* An episode of ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' features a robot clone of Batman that seeks to kill Batman and take his place. Once he (apparently) succeeds at this, he goes through an existential crisis since the real Batman [[Thou Shalt Not Kill|wouldn't kill anyone.]] He cries out "What have I done? I've taken a life!" and proceeds to smash the console evil supercomputer HARDAC was attempting to use in its evil ploy, both stopping the program and electrocuting himself, prompting the real Batman (who was hiding on a conveniently placed cliff crag) to wonder if his robot duplicate actually had a soul.

* In ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', when {{spoiler|the League's [[Kill Sat]] not-all-so-accidentally fires upon Cadmus HQ}}, [[Superman]] rounds up the founding members and questions: "What have we done?" Doubly subverted, though: First, they tell him that they haven't done anything, since someone else hijacked their main computer. However, he replies that it was their choice to keep the orbital cannon, therefore all of them must take the responsibility.

* Zummi says this in the [[Grand Finale]] of ''[[Gummi Bears]]'', after his carelessness results in [[Big Bad|Duke Igthorn]] capturing most of the Gummis, learning the secret of [[Super Serum|Gummiberry Juice]], and taking over Dunwhyn Castle.

* In [[Space Ghost Coast to Coast]], one episode deals with a pledge drive that's not going very well. Frustrated, Space Ghost orders the audience to give him money, or he'll shoot Brak. Brak starts crying, and Space Ghost feels ashamed of what he's doing. Brak calms down and tells him that "it's okay", which Space Ghost cheerfully takes as permission to shoot him.

** Fluttershy gets one in ''Putting Your Hoof Down'' after being a huge bitch to Pinkie Pie and Rarity, due to taking her assertiveness lessons from Iron Will.

** Twilight has one in ''A Canterlot Wedding'' when everyone calls her out on calling Cadence evil. {{spoiler|The twist is that it wasn't really Cadence at all, but an imposter posing as her.}}

{{quote|"I must have been insane!"}}

* In the ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]'' episode "The Problem With Power", Skeletor tricks He-Man into believing he's killed an innocent bystander (really a minion who was [[Faking the Dead]]) with his carelessness. In the [[Heroic BSOD]] that follows, He-Man retires. Fortunately, Orko finds out about the trick, and tells He-Man.

** Arnold felt this when he {{spoiler|blinds Helga on April Fool's Day}}.

* [[Madagascar]]. Kind of a "My God, What Did I Almost Do?" moment with Alex {{spoiler|after he almost kills Marty, who is luckily saved by Maurice dropping a coconut on Alex's head, which then leads up to Alex saying, "Oh no. What have I done?" and then [[Heel Realization|realizing he's too dangerous to be around his friends, including Marty]] and deciding to leave for their own safety.}}

 

== Real Life ==

* Captain Robert Lewis, co-pilot of the ''Enola Gay'', watched the city of Hiroshima disappear in an atomic blast. Some members of the crew would claim that Lewis was at first caught up in the moment and yelled, "My God, would you look at that sonofabitch go!", but after he calmed down, Lewis wrote in his log, "My God, what have we done?" (The rest of the crew maintained that they [[I Did What I Had to Do|did what they had to do]]).

** As he watched the first atomic test ever at the Trinity site:

** Likewise:

{{quote|Now we are all sons of bitches.|'''Kenneth Bainbridge''', Trinity Test Director, Manhattan Project}}

* Alfred Nobel developed dynamite in order to make the nitroglycerin used for mining, quarrying and construction safer to use. Instead it became widely employed as a weapon, to the point that a paper mistakenly published his obituary on the occasion of his brother Ludvig's death, with the title "The merchant of death is dead". His personal fortune at the time of his death was approximately 250 million dollars in today's money. He bequeathed ''0.5%'' to his family, and the rest to the newly founded Nobel foundation. He also specified that race and nationality was not to be a factor in choosing recipients, which caused a major stir at the time. (The prize committee made good on this specification relatively quickly, giving the Literature Prize to Indian [[wikipedia:Rabindranath Tagore|Rabindranath Tagore]] in 1914.)

* When the hysteria died down following the Salem witch trials, the people of Salem went straight to [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2051&version=KJV Psalm 51].

* A common reaction by people when they kill someone, especially the first time. The degree of trauma depends on a number of factors, such as group participation (squads, teams, etc), range (greater distance = more detachment), emotions and weapons used.

* [[Stephen King]] had one of these after he found out about the number of school shootings that had been linked to his novel ''Rage'', in which a high school student snaps after being expelled from school, takes out a pistol, and then kills multiple people as well as hold several students hostage and is portrayed as a [[Sympathetic Murderer]]. Investigation of students who had started shootings in their schools revealed that several of them had copies of ''Rage'' in their possession. Stephen King then requested that ''Rage'' be taken out of print in an attempt to make up for it.

* The story goes that General Launcelot Kiggell, Chief of General Staff in the British Army in World War One, saw the conditions at Passchendaele at the end of the battle, cried "My God, did we really send men to fight in that?" and burst into tears. Now considered to be anecdotal, as the higher-ups knew damn well what the conditions were but had legitimate military reasons for continuing. (Whether those reasons constituted ''justification'' for continuing is a matter for debate.)

* A [[Real Life]] self-styled [[Evil Debt Collector]] quit the industry after he discovered that a woman he'd tried to collect from [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJS9c0jgosQ died in 9/11].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Stock Phrases]]

[[Category:Older Than Dirt]]

[[Category:Friendly Fire Index]]

[[Category:Sadness Tropes]]

[[Category:Index of Shame]]

[[Category:Redemption Tropes]]