39,327
edits
Survivor Guilt: Difference between revisions
m
update links
m (update links) |
m (update links) |
||
Line 42:
* Cloud in ''[[Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children]]''. His depression and antisocial tendencies returning is strongly implied to be due not to Aerith or Zack's deaths, but him surviving.
* Yuya, a [[Wholesome Crossdresser]] in the hentai manga ''Secret Plot Deep'', suffers from this along with being [[The Unfavorite]], as his twin sister had died in a car crash and his parents went into deep depression as a result. Then one day, as his back-story reveals, his mother mistook him for his sister when he was coming out of the shower (his having long hair didn't help), and when he came home from school the next day, all his stuff was thrown out and his sister's stuff put back in place instead; he decided to [[Wholesome Crossdresser|go along with the charade]] in order to keep his parents happy. When he reveals this to his love interest, he's clearly unhappy with the situation, declaring that it should have been ''him'' that died instead of his sister. [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Said love interest disagrees]].
* [[Angel Beats!]] has Yuri, who had to deal with a group of robbers who broke into her house and told her to bring valuables to them quickly, or one of her three siblings would be killed every ten minutes. It took thirty minutes for the cops to come.
* In the anime, [[Tokyo Majin]] has Aoi Misato, who feels bad about being unable to save a friend who got locked in a building that was on fire. It's worth noting that she had also been injured at the time, and has burn scars on her back as a result.
* In [[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]], Madoka is so horrified about {{spoiler|Mami's}}death, she goes to her house and says "I'm sorry for being so weak." Taken [[Up to Eleven]] with {{spoiler|Homura. She saw her best friend die to protect her, and prayed that she was the one to die instead of her. She went back in time and saw it over and over again, so it's no doubt she felt this again at some point.}}
Line 157:
** Big Boss also suffered from this in regards to killing The Boss.
* This triggers the [[Face Heel Turn]] of Elpizo, [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Mega Man Zero]] 2''. He's the only survivor of [[Operation Blank|Operation Righteous Strike]], a disastrous attack of [[La Résistance]] upon [[The Empire|Neo Arcadia]].
* {{spoiler|Virgil}} from ''[[Xenosaga]]'' is this twice over, as revealed in Episode Three. [[spoiler:Turns out why he hates Realians so much was because his squad was destroyed by Realians. Later, he fell in love with a [[Ridiculously Human Robot|Realian]], who was later killed by other Realians. This caused an extreme rejection to love and, by extension, Realians.
* Between all her psychological problems, this is the biggest one in ''[[American McGee's Alice]]''. And in Wonderland, this guilt is personified by the Jabberwock, and the cutscenes make it clear that confronting him terrifies Alice more than any other boss/trauma. Appropriately enough, [[That One Boss|the player will agree]].
* This shows up a few times in ''[[Dragon Age]]'' ''Origins''. {{spoiler|The mind reading Guardian of the Ashes of Andraste}} reveals that Alistair feels this way about surviving Ostagar. Alistair straight up admits that he thinks everything would have been better if he had shielded Duncan from the killing blow and died in his place. The Sloth Demon of [[That One Level|The Fade Dream]] even invokes this to keep Wynne imprisoned.
Line 165:
** Jack from [[Mass Effect 2]] is a ''huge'' and Anvilicious example of this. You only get to hear about it if you romancer her, though.
** In Garrus' Loyalty Mission in [[Mass Effect 2]], {{spoiler|Sidonis, the man who betrayed Garrus' team is shown to suffer from this. By giving him the chance, he reveals that he wasn't [[The Starscream]], but was forced into doing so by mercenaries and is filled with incredible guilt over his actions. Upon hearing the story, Garrus is unable to execute him, which Sidonis repays by delivering himself to C-Sec.}}
** Han Olar on Noveria, {{spoiler|when asked how he escaped the Rachni, says he "killed her", meaning he closed the tram door on a co-worker and watched her die.}} His letter in [[Mass Effect 2]] also indicates he wished he had died in her place.
** An Asari commando suffers heavily from this in [[Mass Effect 3]] after killing a young girl who was crying, to avoid attracting the attention of the [[Eldrich Abomination]] that infested her farm. {{spoiler|There are implications, too, that she thinks Shepard's aware that this girl was sister to one of Shepard's crew. As the war heats up, Shepard can requisition a gun for her, which she promptly uses for suicide... leading the player to feel a touch of [[Survivor Guilt]], too.}}
** The krogan as a race suffer from this to an extent due to the genophage leaving 99.9% of their young stillborn.
* General Alister Azimuth in ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]'' {{spoiler|was left in behind by the Lombaxes as punishment for giving Tachyon access to Lombax technology. He is determined to bring them back, even if it means risking the universe}}.
* Implied with [[Disco Dan|Milla]] in ''[[Psychonauts]].'' Straying off the designated path [[Journey to the Center of the Mind|in her Mental World]] leads you to discover that {{spoiler|she used to work in an [[Orphanage of Love]], until it burned down one day when she was out shopping}}. Going even ''further'' reveals that {{spoiler|she has a group of monsters called Nightmares locked up in fiery cages, continually hissing things like "help us" and "you let us die"}}. [[Word of God]] says she's mostly over it, however, which explains why they're locked away instead of roaming free like in other characters' minds.
* Getting over this is a major theme in ''[[Rule of Rose]]'': first Jennifer had to come in terms with surviving from an airship accident that claimed her parents, and then {{spoiler|being the only survivor of the orphanage massacre instigated for her sake}}.
* Samus in the ''[[Metroid]]'' series has a hefty dose of this, exacerbated by the fact that every time she starts to come to terms with the tragedy that is her past, it happens all over again.
* From [[Crisis Core]]- "Men cry not for themselves, but for their comrades."
** Sephiroth was strongly implied to have suffered through this when his friends had died (or in the case of {{spoiler|Genesis}}, believed to have died).
Line 216:
* A lot of war veterans experience this.
* Family and loved ones of those who commit suicide.
** And people who attempt suicide and fail may get a VERY twisted form of this, because either they couldn't even manage to DIE properly, they feel like they've been cheated out of relief, or they feel they "chickened out" and have now burdened their loved ones with financial and emotional stress—the exact thing they wanted to avoid.
* Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent assigned to protect Jackie Kennedy, suffered this after the JFK assassination. He revealed in an interview how much he regretted not moving a second faster and taking the third (and fatal) bullet himself.
* You. Statistically, you will have a conversation with a loved one that goes south, and you will get chilly and distant. Both of you wait for the other one to come to their senses, and then something will happen to prevent you from ever making it up. You get to dwell on the pointless, petty nonsense that divided you in those remaining days, and always get to wonder whether you could have saved them by doing things just a little different. [http://www.xkcd.com/791/ Here's what Xkcd has to say on the matter].
** Inverted with one widow whose husband was killed coming home on their anniversary with vacation tickets in his pocket. They had made a habit of saying "I love you" to each other every day, and that day the husband had tried to slip out without waking her. She chased him down, and said that the reason she could go on was that her last words to him were "I LOVE YOU[sic]!" [[Tear Jerker|*sniff*]]
* Actor Telly Savalas, before his rise to fame, worked as a lifeguard, and never forgave himself for the drowning death of a man on his watch.
* The Arlington National Cemetery was created in the aftermath of the American Civil War, intentionally invoking this trope: it was built in the backyard of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
* One of the workers trying to shut down Chernobyl's nuclear reactor had, through some fluke of genetics, a seeming immunity to the radiation that gradually killed all his coworkers. These men were simple workers, and did not understand how radiation could kill, so the survivor chalked it up to luck. Baffled Soviet scientists found him healthy, and sent him home to an understandably relieved family. Don't look under the spoiler if you want to believe in a happy ending. {{spoiler|He gave his son his "lucky" hat that he wore during the event, but sadly his son did not inherit his immunity, and died of a brain tumor brought on by the souvenir.}}
| |||