My Greatest Failure: Difference between revisions
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider Man]] didn't stop the burglar that would shoot his Uncle Ben (in various tellings, because of spite, laziness, or arrogance); later, he was unable to prevent his girlfriend Gwen Stacy from being killed by the Green Goblin. The latter is not helped by how his using his webbing in an attempt to save her caused her neck to snap from the recoil, a fact Marvel initially attempted to gloss over but has recently admitted (through, among others, ''What If?'' - where he saves her by diving in after her instead - and ''[[Spider-Girl]]'').
** For his foe [[Da Editor| J. Jonah Jameson]], it was definitely the Scorpion. Jonah paid private eye MacDonald Gargan to undergo an experiment that would make him strong enough to subdue and defeat the hero. The scientist conducting the experiment warned both of them that he "didn't know how it will affect your brain" but they went ahead with it anyway; true to the scientist's fears, Gargan was driven insane, becoming more of a threat than Spider-Man could ever become. Jonah has never even tried to blame this on Spider-Man (at least in any convincing way); after the Hobgoblin tried to blackmail Jonah about Gargan, the publisher has taken full responsibility for the villain, and to this day, pays for Gargan's psychiatric treatment out of his own pocket and orchestrates compensations funds to aid victims of the villain's crimes. And to make it worse for Jonah, Gargan hates him even more than he hates Spider-Man for what happened to him.
* [[Batman]] blamed himself for the death of sidekick Jason Todd aka the second Robin. As well, some versions of the story have him blaming himself for the death of his parents. (Notably, in ''[[Batman Begins]]'', Bruce blames himself for the death of his parents, as they encountered Joe Chill after leaving the opera because Bruce was frightened by the bat-demon characters.)
** That's not the only form of blaming himself for his parents - in some comics versions, he convinced his mother to wear pearls to the show, and those pearls are the reason they get robbed and shot.
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** In some continuities, at least, there's also Harvey Dent, who Batman saw a a friend and ally that could really clean up Gotham in ways he himself could not - until Harvey became Two-Face.
** For a time, he considered making Jean-Paul Valley Batman this, saying that it was done at a moment of weakness and it was a mistake.
** Batman later had a more recent one where he explicitly acknowledges that he and the rest of the Batfamily terribly mishandled the death of Alfred Pennyworth, and Damian's reaction to it, recognizing that Damian was suffering from a tremendous guilt that the Batfamily should have addressed in a better way, with Bruce never once calling Damian out for running away, acknowledging that the Bat family fully deserved Damian's scorn and making a much better attempt to be present to atone for it.
* At various points in his history, [[Superman]] has had the bottled city of Kandor to deal with. More recently, he's had the only time he's ever had to kill someone; this caused him to actually leave Earth for a while.
** Of course, now that one's only sorta in continuity. Hell remembers it enough to have one (1) demon capable of trying to corrupt Superman, but the man himself doesn't remember it.
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* In ''[[The Sandman]]'', the immortal Hob Gadling will never forgive himself for having made his fortune in the slave trade.
* [[Nightwing]] had a moment revealed following ''[[Zero Hour]]''. When he was Robin, it was up to him to rescue Batman and the DA that replaced Harvey Dent when he became Two-Face. When he confronted the aforementioned villain, he was planning to hang the both of them for their "crimes". Two-Face attempted to hang the DA and Robin responded by cutting the line with a Batarang. However, he didn't realize that Two-Face's MO applied to everything - he saved the DA from hanging, but couldn't save him from ''drowning''. Batman freed himself and saved the day, but the event haunted Dick until the first time he took up the Mantle of the Bat, finally making the save when confronting Two-Face again.
** Another moment for Nightwing would be when Bane killed Alfred, as Nightwing was suffering under an alternative personality at the time, which meant he never got to see Alfred again and led to severe fallout in the Batfamily, which Nightwing believes he could have stopped it. Very tellingly, Nightwing has used his new fortune to improve the lives of people in Bludhaven at Alfred's request in his will, rather than use it as [[Crimefighting with Cash]].
* Talia al Ghul, at least [[Depending on the Writer]] heavily implies she sees her prior treatment of Damian Wayne as this. While how much of an [[Abusive Parents|bad mother]] she was to him will always vary, the best depictions of her at least try to be a better parent than Ra's was to her, but were undermined by Ra's being a constant presence, while at worst she actively encouraged Damian to believe in Ra's mission and embrace it. More recent stories have emphasized this and she has frequently called out Ra's and respected Damian's choices.
== [[Film]] ==
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* In [[Persona 3]], one of the things The Answer deals with is [[Robot Girl|Aigis's]] Greatest Failure. That is, {{spoiler|her inability to prevent the Protagonist's death despite her promise to protect him.}}
* In ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'', Jade's backstory includes having accidentally killed his teacher with experimental magic as a child. He's mostly gotten past it now, but it drove him to extreme lengths trying to make a [[Replacement Goldfish]] for about ten years until Peony knocked some sense into him.
* According to the [https://
* Ethan Mars from ''[[Heavy Rain]]'' believes that his his son Jason's death was his fault, and seems to suffer some degree of PTSD as a result.
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