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 ''[[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}}.

* In ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (film)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'', Sweeney gets one of these—in musical form—after he {{spoiler|discovers that the beggar woman he killed was his wife Lucy}}.

* 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.

* [[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 [[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]].}} }}

** "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.

''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.}}

* Similar to ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'', ''[[Far Cry|Far Cry 2]]'' seems to be designed to eat away at the player until they realise just how many people they're butchering and what a monster they are, resulting in a My God, What am I doing? moment.

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

* In the Ulduar raid of ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', Algalon the Observer is sent by the Titans to "re-originate" the planet (read: [[Kill'Em All|destroy all organic life]]) in the event the corruption from [[Eldritch Abomination|the Old Gods]] got too severe - actually triggered by your [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|earlier murder of one of the Titans' corrupted overseers.]] However, if your raid [[That One Boss|manages to defeat him]], he has one of these moments, in which he laments just coldly following his orders without considering the lives of the people he was destroying.

* In a more humorous example, in ''[[The Nameless Mod]]'', Despot says this when he tells the player that he left [[Cloudcuckoolander|Ghandaiah]] in charge instead of the far more competent King Kashue.

** 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.}}

* 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!]]

 

* Part of the meltdown of {{spoiler|Acro}} in ''[[Ace Attorney]]''. You don't actually see the moment onscreen but the aftereffects are obvious during his breakdown. {{spoiler|In attempting to murder Regina he accidentally killed her father, to whom Acro and his brother owed everything.}} As [[Sympathetic Murderer]]s go he's high on the list.

* 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 ==

** 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.

* In ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'', White Mage has a moment of this trope after [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2007/07/07/episode-867-night-and-day/ attempting to become evil]

* ''[[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.

* [[The Nostalgia Critic]] is pretty broken up about shooting his childhood icon, [[Mary Poppins]], when she didn't explain all the [[Plot Hole]]s in ''[[Quest for Camelot]]''.

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

{{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:

* 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.}}

* In an episode of the ''[[Krazy Kat]]'' animated series, Krazy is [[Born Lucky]], and Ignatz is jealous and wants her luck for himself. Then he comes up with the perfect solution—he'll give her some [[Cement Shoes]], get her to sign her luck away to him, then dump her underwater. Only after he's already done this does he have this reaction and dive underwater to save her.

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

** 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}}

** On the topic of [[WW 2]], the Marines having arrived on Okinawa, experienced no resistance from the Japanese. This had the marines extremely on edge, especially the first night since the Japanese were infamous for night attacks (especially of the Banzai Charge nature). Unfortunately that night, a convoy of Okinawan civilians were fleeing the Japanese. [[Tragic Mistake|The Marines thinking it was a Banzai Charge...]] This trope was the reaction of the Marines.

* 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 classic sports example of this happened when Lawrence Taylor gruesomely (but inadvertently) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH8SZOqc6Pk broke Joe Theismann's leg]. As soon as it happened, Taylor—known then as a vicious defensive player and a bit of a trash-talker—immediately and frantically called to the sidelines for the medical staff to come and help Theismann, knowing that he'd inflicted an exceptionally serious injury. Indeed, it ended Theismann's career.

* 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.)

* Many raiders who run in on people in their homes threatening the occupants and getting them to tell said raiders, for example, the password to the home safe, will hate having to do this to parents of kids (particularly if the kids are seeing the whole ordeal). There have even been cases in which robbers have turned themselves in due to their guilty conscience about how they traumatized a poor kid haunting them. Some raiders will even try and comfort the kids, if they have to.

* 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].

* Often experienced after a binge drinking session, especially with some of the more foul tasting beverages.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Stock Phrases]]

[[Category:Older Than Dirt]]

[[Category:Friendly Fire Index]]

[[Category:Sadness Tropes]]

[[Category:Index of Shame]]

[[Category:Redemption Tropes]]