Survivor Guilt: Difference between revisions

* Fai from ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' was the last survivor of not one but ''two'' destroyed worlds, to say nothing of {{spoiler|his twin brother sacrificing his life so that Fai could be free of the magical prison they were both trapped in. Neither the first destroyed world nor the death of his brother was actually his fault, but everybody blamed it on him anyway. By the time the second world rolled around he was perfectly capable of blaming himself without anybody else's help}}.

* The writer of ''[[Grave of the Fireflies]]'' must've felt this way because, in [[Real Life]], Setsuko was the only one who died. {{spoiler|In the book he wrote and the film, Seita dies as well; [[Tear Jerker|showing the writers remorse that he hadn't died along with his little sister...]]}}

** {{spoiler|Kotomi's situation}} also fits this trope and narrowly skirts the edges of [[Deus Angst Machina]]; her parents died in a plane crash when she was very young, right after she had a fit and told them (untruthfully) that she hated them. And then she burned up an extremely important document, the only remaining copy of the last thing her parents wrote, in an attempt to bring them back. She becomes obsessed with her parents' death, and tries for years to reproduce the document, but never manages to; and she has trouble making friends because she's secretly terrified that she might make some other mistake and cause their deaths, too. She improves, though, when she learns that {{spoiler|the thing she incinerated was a teddy bear catalog, and that her parents managed to mail her a teddy bear ''from the crashed airplane'', because [[Heartwarming Moments|it was the only thing she'd ever asked them for.]]}}

* A large portion of the cast of characters in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' fit this trope.

* The premise of ''[[Ordinary People]]''.

** Similarly a major theme of [[The Big Chill]].

* In ''[[Stand by Me]],'' Gordie has a bit of a case of survivor's guilt over the death of his older brother, not because he was involved in it in any way so much as because he is [[The Unfavorite]] and thinks his parents would prefer it if he'd been the one who died instead of his brother.

* Nicolas Cage's character in ''[[Windtalkers]]''.

* An awful lot of people from the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'', actually. (Granted, ''recently'' the novels tend to kill off everything from main characters to [[Mauve Shirt]]s with impunity...)

** Specific examples from the ''[[X Wing Series]]''. Wedge Antilles has largely, though not entirely, handled this, but it pops up sometimes while he bears [[The Chains of Commanding]] and considers the friends he's sent to their deaths. Kell Tainer has incredible angst over failing to save a wingmate and being [[Medal of Dishonor|honored for the attempt]]. Myn Donos. And Tyria Sarkin is the last of her branch of the Antarian Rangers, sort of semi-Jedi, and she always feels that she's not nearly good enough to live up to them.

* This is the plot of the Lurlene McDaniel book ''The Girl Death Left Behind'', as the main character's family dies in a car wreck (on the 4th of July, no less) and she struggles with the aftermath.

* Septimus in ''Mrs. Dalloway'' watched his friend die in World War I and suffers from hallucinations.

[[Category:Solitary Tropes]]

[[Category:Sadness Tropes]]