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"Failure to Save" Murder: Difference between revisions
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Say there are three characters, The Hero, The Child, and The Fool. Let's say that The Child dies in a tragic accident, for whatever reason, The Hero "fails" to save The Child in some way. Let's say that The Fool was very close to The Child. Even if the events surrounding The Child's death couldn't have possibly been stopped by The Hero, The Fool will have a lingering hatred for The Hero's "failure" to save The Child, sometimes to the point of outright blaming The Hero for The Child's death. Often used as plot motivation for The Fool.
Another variation is when The Hero is overcome with guilt, acting as his own Fool. The antagonist may use this against The Hero to psychologically torture him or her.
Tropes explained via Jungian Archetypes, [[What Do You Mean It's Not Didactic?]] See also [[It's All My Fault]], [[Blood on These Hands]]. Also, [[I Thought It Meant|it has nothing to do with]] [[Save the Villain|saving the villain or not]].
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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Muhyo And Rouji]]'', {{spoiler|Rio Kurotori}} joins Ark after the two executors she goes to for help in saving her mother from a haunt turn her down for petty reasons.
* In ''[[Bleach]]'', Uryu's grudge against the Soul Reapers stems from the fact that they had Soul Reapers watching his grandfather, and when he got attacked by Huge Hollows, didn't intervene until after his death. Uryu comes to realize that he didn't do anything to try to help his grandfather at that time, and that it's wrong to blame the Soul Reapers when his grandfather was not bitter toward them. Also, he has since discovered that the [[Ax Crazy]] [[Token Evil Teammate|Token Evil Captain]] Mayuri was the actual culprit, bribing ''Shinigami'' so that they would be too late and, worse, abducting the survivors (including his grandfather) in order to perform horrific experiments on them to satisfy his own curiosity (if by "curiosity" you mean "torture and kill them in numerous horrible ways for no obvious scientific reason"). He has thus shifted his emnity towards him and away from ''Shinigami'' in general (though he doesn't fully like of trust them either), though recently he'd been reduced to Mayuri's [[Butt Monkey]].
* In a filler episode of ''[[One Piece]]'', a female member of the Desert Pirates remembers Princess Vivi and King Cobra visiting her city and promising to come help if anything happened, during which time she personally met a young Vivi. When the droughts hit, and Cobra didn't come to help, the city was deserted, and the girl was left in despair until the Desert Pirates recruited her. This caused her to resent Vivi upon seeing her again, but Vivi apologized, saying that there were many other towns requiring the king's attention, enabling the two to reconcile.
* In ''[[Naruto]]'', Sasuke's motives are based around {{spoiler|his feelings of guilt for not being able to stop the massacre of his clan}}.
* In one scene in ''[[Baccano!]]'', Jacuzzi insists that Isaac and Miria should stop treating him like a good person because he's not -- he's fleeing from Chicago because he murdered three men. Donny interjects that Jacuzzi didn't kill them, his friends did. Against Jacuzzi's wishes. ''Because those men were about to kill him''. [[Martyr Without a Cause|Jacuzzi fails to see the difference.]]
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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== [[Literature]] ==
* Roland spent at least a couple volumes of ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' chastising himself for letting {{spoiler|Jake}} die.
** Ditto {{spoiler|his first love Susan.}} Also {{spoiler|his mother, although to be fair he ''was'' mind controlled into killing her himself.}} This trope could easily have been named Roland of Gilead Syndrome.
* This is the source of many characters' resentment of Gaius Sextus in the ''[[Codex Alera]]'', specifically those who were close to "the Child," Sextus' son Gaius Septimus.
* At the climax of ''[[Hand of Thrawn]]'', {{spoiler|Tierce}} accuses Pellaeon of letting Thrawn die. Of course, by then he's [[Villainous Breakdown|not really making a lot of sense.]]
{{quote|"He ran out of time. He died at Bilbringi. You let him die at Bilbringi."}}
* In ''The Prodigal Mage'' Arlin Garrick blames Rafel and Asher for {{spoiler|the drowning of his father in a whirlpool at the blighted reef}}, despite all of their early warnings and later efforts to save everyone.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
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* In ''[[Heavy Rain]]'' it's heavily implied that Grace Mars blames Ethan for {{spoiler|their son Jason's death -''even though he jumped in front of the car to save him and was in a coma for months''.}}
* The entire motive behind {{spoiler|Godot/Diego Armando's}} quest for vengeance against Phoenix Wright in In ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]: Trials and Tribulations'' is that he blames Phoenix for Mia Fey's murder.
* In ''[[Vagrant Story]]'', Rosencrantz accuses Ashley Riot of killing his own wife and son. Justified in that Ashley actually did, and the situation was engineered to turn him into a more loyal Riskbreaker.
** Maybe. It's never really clarified if that's the case, or if it's played straight and the antagonists are just using his guilt to undermine his exponentially growing power.
* In ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' {{spoiler|Chocolat}} acts this way towards Lloyd after she finds out that he {{spoiler|killed her grandmother Marble}}. She forgives him later on when {{spoiler|the prisoners of the Iselia Ranch tell her that Marble was transformed into an Exbelua and Lloyd originally intended to save her}}. A similar case occurs with {{spoiler|Kuchinawa}}, who blames Sheena of {{spoiler|killing his parents by being unable to control Volt, even if she was merely a child at that time and most likely unable to translate Volt's speech ("It's ''just like before''! What the hell is he saying?")}}. He hides this grudge at first, but gives in to it after {{spoiler|Sheena actually manages to make a pact with Volt and multiple other Summon Spirits during the game}}. Sheena has to set him straight again by fighting a duel with him. Interestingly enough, {{spoiler|his brother Orochi}} insists that the tragedy was an accident and that Sheena should not feel responsible and accept the duel.
* In ''[[Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door]]'', Admiral Bobbery suffers from the second variation of this trope, after learning that {{spoiler|his wife Scarlette passed away while he was on a voyage}}. He blames himself for it, thinking that he could have {{spoiler|nursed her back to health if only he wasn't at sea at that time. He then vowed to never sail the sea again, filled with grief and regret. Mario manages to take away his pain however, by showing him a letter that Scarlette wrote with her last breath to prevent Bobbery from feeling guilty about her death}}.
* Pretty much Hope's entire story for the first half of ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]''. He blames Snow for his mother's death because she volunteered to help Snow's resistance faction fight, and although Snow tried he was unable to save her from falling from a broken bridge. {{spoiler|Hope plans revenge for quite a while, only to be interrupted before he can stab Snow by a missile attack which nearly causes ''both'' of them to fall to their deaths; Snow's insistence on protecting Hope (as he'd promised Hope's mother) at his own expense, and the revelation of how deeply he blames ''himself'' for her death, finally prompts Hope to get over his anger}}.
* In ''[[Disgaea: Hour of Darkness]]'', [[The Rival|Kurtis]]' family got killed and he personally holds [[The Hero|Captain Gordon]] accountable for this, even though the latter wasn't involved in this in any way. As far as Kurtis is concerned, though, Gordon didn't do his job as a Defender of Earth and should be replaced.
** ''[[Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten]]'' does this on a much larger scale {{spoiler|with Judge Nemo. Though Artina, the only person to show him kindness, was killed by her own country, he blamed Valvatorez for not saving her or avenging her death (Due to Artina asking him not to do so in the case of the latter). It eventually escalates to the point where he blames ALL of humanity as well as demons and angels.}}
* {{spoiler|Dustil Onasi's}} motive in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'': He joined the Sith out of resentment because he believed his father had abandoned him and his mother to die.
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