Out, Damned Spot!: Difference between revisions

[[File:handwashing 3390.jpg|frame|''[[Madness Mantra|Still not clean... still not clean...]]'' ]]

 

 

[[Being Evil Sucks|Consumed by guilt]], a killer tries to wash away [[Blood on These Hands|the blood they know is on their hands]], but they can't, no matter how much they scrub. This can extend to obsessively trying to clean away imagined bloodstain, or other evidence, when there is no physical trace of the crime left. Can overlap with [[Shower of Angst]].

 

WARNING: This trope quite literally concerns flesh and blood, so possible [[Squick]] ahead.

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* ''[[Inuyasha]]'', two examples. In one, a [[Jekyll and Hyde]] slasher-villain/doctor did this after his villain side savagely murdered some people. Earlier in episode 52, Inuyasha tried to clean his hands after he killed a bunch of bandits when his [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] took over, but after each frantic scrubbing found he could still smell their blood.

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'': After destroying Leliel, Shinji becomes scared of his own hands, because he can't get rid of the smell of blood.

* ''[[Kamisama Kiss]]'' has two examples. When Tomoe first met Mikage he was trying and failing to wash blood off of himself. Later on, Tomoe kills a literal [[Demonic Spiders|Demonic Spider]] and is trying and failing to wash to blood off when Nanami shows up to help.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* In ''[[The Sandman]]'' {{spoiler|after mercy killing his son Orpheus (who has spent millennia as a disembodied head)}} Morpheus is seen washing the blood from his hands in a bowl of water looking sadder than he ever has in the series.

 

* In the ''[[Firefly]]'' fanfic ''[[Forward]]'', River has a few of these types of moments, even using "Out Damned Spot".

* Subverted in the ''[[The West Wing]]'' fanfic [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3014491/1/Band_of_Blood Band of Blood]. Toby has this reaction to Josh's blood all over his hands while waiting in the hospital after the [[Wham! Episode]], although he wasn't even indirectly responsible and his guilt was fanciful guilt over the possibility that his decision to take down a protective canopy for PR reasons might have caused the shooting.

* In the ongoing "[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]" fanfic [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6139380/1/Clinging Clinging], Ivan (Russia) has a couple of these moments. {{spoiler|At 9 years old, he killed his father, who was trying to rape his older sister. Six years later, the owner of the orphanage he and his sisters wound up in repeated Ivan's father's actions, this time directed at Ivan himself. He killed the owner in self-defense.}} Even though both of them were at least ''somewhat'' justified, he has had at least two Out, Damned Spot! moments. So far.

* In ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7404056/1/Mutant_Storm Mutant Storm]'', a [[Harry Potter/X Men|X Men]] [[Crossover]], Harry kills {{spoiler|Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange}}, and then he goes through a [[Heroic BSOD]] while he tries to clean himself.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[The Robe]]'': Pontius Pilate is depicted briefly as washing his hands repeatedly, likely due to unconscious guilt over Christ's crucifixion.<ref>The version of the story found in Matthew's Gospel actually has Pilate publicly washing his hands in front of the crowd to symbolize that he is not responsible for the death of Jesus. This is an old custom referred to in the Old Testament, and is the origin of the modern expression.</ref>

* Parodied in ''[[Batman Returns]]'', by Catwoman: "The thought of framing Batman makes me feel so dirty. I think I'll give myself a bath right here." Then - being a [[Catgirl|cat-person]] - she proceeds to ''lick'' herself!

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* ''[[A Tree Grows in Brooklyn]]'': After Francie's [[Near-Rape Experience|attack]], she begs her parents to help her because she can still feel where ''it'' touched her thigh. Her father pours acid over the spot, leaving a permanent scar but Francie is happy to have it rather than the feelings or dirtiness left by her ordeal.

* In ''[[Warrior Cats]]'', {{spoiler|Hollyleaf}} killed {{spoiler|Ashfur}}. The official iOS app mentions that she can still taste his blood in her mouth.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* In ''[[The Second Coming]]'': {{spoiler|Judith, after she's cooked the poisoned pasta but before Steve's eaten it}} can be seen drying her hair and rubbing her head in a rather forceful manner.

* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''. One of Tom Servo's repeated riffs: "But you'll never be able to get rid of the stain on your soul."

* On ''[[Lost]]'', having just killed Ana-Lucia and Libby, Michael asks Eko about Hell while scrubbing Libby's blood off the floor. The conversation ends with Michael going outside to throw up.

* ''Bad To the Bone'': The 1997 TV movie had an example that eerily echoed ''Macbeth''. Francesca ("Frankie") Wells (Kristy Swanson) is a [[Fille Fatale]] (she is 19, but often behaves as if she is several years younger) who has [[Self-Made Orphan|killed her own mother]] in order to [[Insurance Fraud|get her hands on the family inheritance]] and then talked her younger brother into killing her latest boyfriend so that they can take over the nightclub the boyfriend owns. Both are eventually arrested and charged with the murders, but Frankie jumps bail, gives herself a false name, and eventually winds up living on a seacoast villa with a rich man she has seduced. She spends one morning swimming in the ocean. The rich man sees her coming in from the surf and mentions that he once heard that the ocean is supposed to wash all one's sins away. In a splendid display of dramatic irony, Frankie tells him that, unfortunately, that isn't the case. A subtle yet effective [[Cry for the Devil]], especially given Frankie's [[Freudian Excuse|Woobie-ish backstory]].

 

== [[Music]] ==

* In the ballad ''Bonnie St. Johnstone,'' a ''cruel mother'' ballad dating to the seventeenth century, the young woman who has slit the throats of her two illegitimate children attempts to wash the knife in a brook, but the knife keeps looking redder and redder.

 

== [[Theater]] ==

* Inverted, interestingly, in the [[William Shakespeare|poet's]] ''[[Julius Caesar]]'', in which Brutus suggests:

{{quote|''...Stoope Romans, stoope,''

* In ''[[Woyzeck]]'', the title character murders his unfaithful girlfriend, and obsesses over fear that someone will find the murder weapon. His determination to hide it in the river and wash off the blood gets him drowned. [[Author Existence Failure|Probably.]]

** This is the version of the ending used in the opera ''Wozzeck'' and Werner Herzog's film version.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In ''[[Dragon Quest VI]]'', there's a town that thrives due to their rejuvenating water, which, shortly after you arrive, turns blood red. Investigation reveals that a woman is trying to clean the blood off her sword at the water's source, consumed with guilt because she believes she killed her lover. You have to find him [[Not Quite Dead]], but she'll be cleaning her sword until you do.

* In ''[[Alpha Protocol]]'', [[The Dragon]], Conrad Marburg, wears black gloves at all times. At their first meeting, if the protagonist has accumulated enough of Marburg's dossier, he can accuse him of wearing them as a feeble psychological crutch to avoid feeling that he has blood on his hands.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* The line itself was parodied in ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' when Will Shakespeare uses the line to get his dog out of the server room.

** And previously on ''[[Carmen Sandiego]]'s Great Chase Through Time'', when he tries to get a dog out of his theater.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVLmC8Motfg NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU SCRUB, YOU'LL NEVER BE CLEAN,] [[Justin Bieber|JUSTIN!!]] '''[[Nightmare Fuel|NEVER BE CLEAN, JUSTIN!!!]]'''

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** A jealous Lisa hides a girl's ''Tell-Tale Heart'' diorama, and then hearing the metronome used to simulate the heartbeat.

** It was also used humorously when Homer became a food critic and was criticized by his editor for an inept review. Lisa finds him in the bathtub repeatedly scrubbing himself and babbling: "Still not clean! Stink of failure still on me!"

 

== [[Real Life]] ==