History Main / FailureToSaveMurder

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

** In season 4, Mac is accused of this [[spoiler:by the younger brother of a childhood friend he had failed to save when he was 14 yrs old back in Chicago]].
** In season 9, in a case more like "Failure to Save = Abuse," an arsonist is proven innocent which gives him the strength to have a RoaringRampageOfRevenge on his family for all the abuse he suffered in childhood, including his foster sister whose only crime was ''being seven and too scared to do anything''.
* In ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' the doctors fail to save a woman and they must take her off of life support, as she signed a DNR years earlier. Her husband blames the doctors and comes back to the hospital for revenge months later, [[WhamEpisode shooting up the place.]]

* ''ComicBook/Batgirl2011'': In the first issue, a cop screams that ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} is a murderer when the villain kills someone and she doesn't stop him. Slightly more legitimate since it seemed like she was just letting it happen (she was actually petrified in fear, this being her first real mission since being [[ThrowingOffTheDisability un-paralyzed]]), but given that the real murderer was ''still standing right there'' it seems like the cop should have had other thoughts on her mind. [[PapaWolf Commissioner Gordon]] calls the cop out on this in the next issue.

* ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006''. A group of superheroes fail to stop Nitro from blowing up Stamford, resulting in 300 casualties, most of whom were school children. Naturally, the public blame all superheroes for this, and call for a radical political shift to make sure superheroes are controlled to avoid this ever happening again...somehow. Only a handful of people seem to actually care about hunting Nitro down. Wolverine finally tracks him down, well after the whole Civil War nonsense is in full swing.

* ''ComicBook/IronMan'': The Exile killed his father and possibly his brothers in a drunken rampage despite Tony's best efforts to stop him. The Exile rightly blamed himself at first, but his Mandarin Ring (the Rings' sole purpose is to make Tony Stark suffer) convinced him that it was Tony's fault for not stopping him in time.

* In ''ComicBook/{{WITCH}}'', Ari of Arkhanta (a farmer who enslaved a banshee to become powerful) carries a massive grudge against the Oracle of Kandrakar. The reason? Ari's son was born autistic, and the Oracle isn't doing anything to fix this.

* ''ComicBook/WhatIf'': In one story featuring ComicBook/TheFantasticFour having the same powers as the Human Torch, Susan Storm becomes distraught when she finds out her team caused the death of a little girl in a building they accidentally set fire to but didn't bother to put out in time until it was too late. This caused Susan to forsake ever using her powers again and [[TakingTheVeil becoming a nun]] in the process, while the other three team members went their own separate ways, with Ben Grimm joining the Avengers as the Human Torch.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'', [[spoiler:Harry]] expresses this in the [[strike:Season 2]] series finale, [[spoiler:blaming Spider-Man for the death of his father, Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the Green Goblin. Harry insists that Spider-Man should have helped his father, [[CrimeOfSelfDefense not fought him]]. [[DramaticIrony This probably]] [[BaitTheDog wasn't true.]] [[FakingTheDead Not to mention he's revealed to have survived and left New York in disguise]]]].

** Rayseline survived, but she still blames Toby for failing to save her and her mother from kidnapping and torture, despite Toby being [[BalefulPolymorph turned into a fish at the time]].

* ''Literature/{{Holly}}'': After her daughter disappeared, Charlotte hired Holly to find her. Holly investigated, and [[spoiler:learned that Bonnie had been kidnapped, killed, and eaten by EvilOldFolks who'd done the same to four other people]]. When she learned what happened to her daughter, Charlotte started screaming her head off and tried to attack the people who'd come to tell her (a cop and a psychiatrist). When she calmed down enough, Charlotte blamed Holly for what happened and swore that she never wanted to see her again.

* ''Literature/{{Holly}}'': After her daughter disappeared, Charlotte hired Holly to find her. Holly investigated, and [[spoiler:learned that Bonnie had been kidnapped, killed, and eaten by EvilOldFolks who'd done the same to four other people]]. When she learned what happened to her daughter, Charlotte started screaming her head off and tried to attack the people who'd come to tell her (a cop and a psychiatrist). When she calmed down enough, Charlotte blamed Holly for what happened and swore that she never wanted to see her again. [note] It's implied throughout the novel that, along with being half-crazy from grief and worry, Charlotte was never the most stable person (which [[MyBelovedSmother caused Bonnie to move out in the first place]]).[/note]

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* In ''ComicBook/{{Circles}}'', Paulie is the Child, Arthur is the Hero, and Douglas is the Fool. Paulie contracted HIV from a friend and Douglas blames Arthur for not stopping Paulie, but Arthur was too drunk and passed out before he could do anything about it. Needless to say, Arthur took it hard and blamed himself for years.

* ComicBook/IronMan foe The Exile killed his father and possibly his brothers in a drunken rampage despite Tony's best efforts to stop him. The Exile rightly blamed himself at first, but his Mandarin Ring (the Rings' sole purpose is to make Tony Stark suffer) convinced him that it was Tony's fault for not stopping him in time.
* ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' gives us an interesting variation: the Gryphon blames Paperinik for the death of [[spoiler:his father]] the Raider, but, as pointed out by Paperinik, he ''could'' have saved him by using his TimeMachine to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong prevent the Raider from going on the mission in which he would have committed his]] HeroicSacrifice, had he ''really'' wanted to. Trip, the teenaged son of the Raider brought there by Eidolon, wasn't happy to hear this... Especially after Paperinik is proved right when [[spoiler:the Raider shows up, as Eidolon taking him got him to [[PapaWolf cancel that mission to save his son]]]].

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':

* In the ''[[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 Wonder Woman]]'' storyline "Lifelines", Doctor Julian Lazarus' ex-wife Allison calls him a murderer when their son Kris dies after getting caught in an explosion at his lab. Lazarus was so distraught that he tried to use his experiments to bring Kris back to life, even though his work was only intended to recreate physical copies rather than a complete personality, and at best what he created was a computer program that ''thought'' it was his son.
* In a Marvel Comics' ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' story featuring ComicBook/TheFantasticFour having the same powers as the Human Torch, Susan Storm becomes distraught when she finds out her team caused the death of a little girl in a building they accidentally set fire to but didn't bother to put out in time until it was too late. This caused Susan to forsake ever using her powers again and [[TakingTheVeil becoming a nun]] in the process, while the other three team members went their own separate ways, with Ben Grimm joining the Avengers as the Human Torch.

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'' has Flay Allster blaming Kira Yamato for failing to save her father in Phase 9, all because he was hesitating in battle against his friend Athrun, who was working for ZAFT. This becomes Flay's motivation to make Kira pay for not saving her father, as she then proceeds to play the part of a supportive girlfriend -- banking on the feelings he holds towards her -- to get him to kill his fellow Coordinators, hoping he'll also die fighting.

* In the ''[[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 Wonder Woman]]'' storyline "Lifelines", Doctor Julian Lazarus' ex-wife Allison calls him a murderer after their son Kris dies in an explosion at his lab. Lazarus was so distraught that he tried to use his experiments to bring Kris back to life, even though his work was only intended to recreate physical copies rather than a complete personality, and at best what he created was a computer program that ''thought'' it was his son.

* In the ''[[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 Wonder Woman]]'' storyline "Lifeline", Doctor Julian Lazarus's son Chris died when Chris was caught in an explosion at Lazarus's lab, Lazarus's ex-wife calling Lazarus a murderer after he informed her of the death. Lazarus was so distraught that he tried to use his experiments to bring Chris back to life, even though his work was only intended to recreate physical copies rather than a complete personality, and at best what he created was a computer program that ''thought'' it was his son.

* ''ComicBook/CivilWar''. A group of superheroes fail to stop Nitro from blowing up Stamford, resulting in 300 casualties, most of whom were school children. Naturally, the public blame all superheroes for this, and call for a radical political shift to make sure superheroes are controlled to avoid this ever happening again...somehow. Only a handful of people seem to actually care about hunting Nitro down. Wolverine finally tracks him down, well after the whole Civil War nonsense is in full swing.

''Fanfic/ConsequencesMiraculousLadybug'':

* ''Fanfic/DragonsDance'':
** During a mission with Team Rocket, Lance stood guard outside the door while a high-ranking member threatened a wealthy man with his ursaring if he didn't renew his business contracts with Team Rocket. The man refused, and [[spoiler: the ursaring mauled him to death]]. Lance, frozen with shock and horror, didn't do anything to save him, and considers himself just as guilty of the man's death as the rocket member who ordered the ursaring to attack.