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

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

''which an age of prudence can never retract."''

 

A misguided character comes to realize that his actions have caused incredible damage, physical pain, emotional pain, or even loss of life. What usually follows is the character uttering some variation on the trope title, optionally accompanied by [[Tears of Remorse]] and/or a [[Thousand-Yard Stare]].

* 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.

** "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.

 

 

* 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.}}

* 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 ==

** 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!"}}

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

* The reaction was this [http://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/dashcam-video-shows-montana-officer-breaking-down-after-fatal-shooting-n285331 Montana police officer] had when he shot and killed a passenger during altercation. It was after he was forced to use deadly force when he learned the guy he killed wasn't unarmed, causing the officer to break down in tears.

 

{{reflist}}