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Out, Damned Spot!: Difference between revisions

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== [[Fan Fiction]] ==
* In the ''[[Firefly]]'' fanfic ''[[Forward (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.
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** ''Xenocide'' <ref>One of the sequels to ''[[Ender's Game]]''</ref>. Han Qing-jao becomes a "Godspoken" after she suddenly starts feeling her hands constantly dirty, washing her hands all the time and scrubbing them with stone until they bleed. {{spoiler|It then turns out it's because Qing-jao, as well as all the Godspoken, was born with OCD}}.
** ''[[Alvin Maker]]'' series: The trope features prominently in the form of a curse.
* This is taken to extremes in the [[Ray Bradbury]] short story [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fruit_at_the_Bottom_of_the_Bowl:The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl|"The Fruit At The Bottom Of The Bowl"]], in which a man becomes so obsessed with removing all his fingerprints from a murder scene that {{spoiler|he actually forgets that his main objective is to escape and get away with the crime -- the police eventually find him at three in the morning, polishing old coins he'd found in a box in the attic, by which time he seems scarcely bothered about being caught and is only concerned with making sure he polishes the handle of the door as they lead him out of the house.}}
* [[Edgar Allan Poe]]
** Played in ''The Telltale Heart'', in which the main character murders his master because of an imagined [[Evil Eye]] that the man possesses, and afterward, he hears the man's heart beating loudly below the floorboards where he buried the man. {{spoiler|The guilt of this beating drives him insane, to the point where he loudly confesses the crime to two policemen who were visiting his house, believing that they heard the sound as well and were playing a cruel joke on him by pretending not to hear.}}
** Done twice in ''The Black Cat'', where the protagonist {{spoiler|kills his cat in a fit of drunken rage and murders his wife and hides her behind a wall. In the first instance, his wife brings home a new cat which is suspiciously similar to the old one, and the shadow of a gallows eventually emerges in its fur. After the wife's murder, the cat disappears, only to later reveal her grave to visiting policemen.}}
* In ''Mila 18'', which is based on true events in German-occupied Warsaw, Poland during WWII, one of the Nazi leaders is constantly bathing. At least one of the more astute people around him is aware he is trying to wash away his guilt in the slaughter of Polish Jews.
* After hearing {{spoiler|[[Manipulative Bastard|Smerdyakov]]}}'s explanation of events in ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]'', Ivan begins to continuously recount the events prior to his father's death over and over again, trying to convince himself that {{spoiler|he is not the one responsible for murdering him.}} This ends up with him talking to [[The Devil|Satan]] and eventually [[Freak -Out|freaking out spectacularly]] at the trial of his brother.
* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'': The robes of the Wardens are enchanted so that blood will not stain them. Keep in mind that the Wardens are tasked with administering death to anyone found in violation of the Laws of Magic [[All Crimes Are Equal|even if they had no knowledge of the Laws and were unaware that they were performing dark magic (most of whom are teenagers)]]. Because of how [[Black Magic]] affects people in this 'verse, though, most of the ones they execute are, by that point, less "[[Disproportionate Retribution|punishing someone who broke a rule]]" and more "[[Shoot the Dog|putting down a rabid beast before it kills anyone else]]."
* ''[[Redwall|Outcast of Redwall]]'': Veil in suffers something similar. His victim was poisoned, and the Abbey herbalist puts out an announcement that it will be easy to find the killer because the particular poison used will stain one's skin and fur red within two days if one touches it with bare paws. Veil, unaware that this is a complete and utter lie, starts frantically scrubbing his paws at every opportunity, even with sandstone, thus making them look red. He breaks into the infirmary to find the "herbal solution" the herbalist supposedly left there and dips his paws into the basin without looking, only to find that said basin actually contains beetroot juice, thus leaving his paws very obviously [[Red Right Hand|red]] and proving his guilt.
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''Carried by the current fleet.'' }}
* Robert Harris' ''[[Fatherland (Literature)|Fatherland]]'' has a disturbingly understandable version. The protagonist, a U-Boat captain, finds out that {{spoiler|[[Nausea Fuel|the socks he was issued for 10 years]] [[But It Really Happened!|are manufactured from]] [[Moral Event Horizon|the hair of executed Jews.]]}} He describes not feeling clean after bathing repeatedly for days; more justified than most given the close physical contact involved...
* ''[[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 (Literature)|Warrior Cats]]'', {{spoiler|Hollyleaf}} killed {{spoiler|Ashfur}}. The official iOS app mentions that she can still taste his blood in her mouth.
 
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* ''[[M*A*S*H (TV)|M*A*S*H]]'' turns this into a [[Live Action TV/Tear Jerker|Tear Jerker]] in "Heal Thyself," when a [[The Ace|talented and experienced new doctor]] has a [[Heroic BSOD]] after a grueling session in the OR.
* On ''[[Lost (TV)|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]].
 
 
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[[Category:Villains]]
[[Category:Out Damned Spot]]
[[Category:Trope]]
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