History Main / FailuretoSaveMurder

* {{Smallville}}'s version of Metallo hates Clark because he didn't save his sister when her apartment burned.

** [[OrIsIt Or did he?]]

* A variation occurs in ''OrderOfTheStick'', when Redcloak in all seriousness holds O-Chul responsible for the deaths of several captives - when it is in fact Redcloak who is about to have them killed (or worse) unless O-Chul reveals a particular bit of info (which he actually doesn't know). Ironically, since to him it's clear that O-Chul would callously let everyone die just to protect his secret no matter what, he lets the captives live.

* In ''DragonFable'', Konnan swears vengeance against your PC for failing to save his family and hometown from the dragon Akriloth (though in all fairness, the battle against the dragon in question [[HopelessBossFight wasn't winnable anyway]]). [[spoiler:This would eventually lead him to join the evil pyromancer Xan and become Drakonnan, the BigBad of the Fire War]].

* In ''IRobot'', Spooner plays the fool against the robots who saved him instead of the child because he had more of a chance to survive.

* In ''WingCommander II'', [[spoiler:Zack "Jazz" Colson]] allies with the Mandarins to take revenge on the Tiger's Claw crew for letting his brother die when the Kilrathi attacked Goddard.

* Roland spent at least a couple volumes of ''TheDarkTower'' chastising himself for letting [[spoiler:Jake]] die.

* In ''PaperMario: 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]].

Tropes explained via Jungian Archetypes, WhatDoYouMeanItsNotDidactic? See also ItsAllMyFault, BloodOnTheseHands. Also, [[IThoughtItMeant it has nothing to do with]] [[SaveTheVillain saving the villain or not]].

* Pretty much Hope's entire story in ''FinalFantasyXIII''. [[spoiler:Snow tries to save Hope's mother after a giant bridge starts collapsing, but fails and she falls to her death. Hope is a witness to this from far away, and blames Snow for recruiting her to fight in the first place (which she actually did to protect Hope); he tries to get revenge on Snow for half the game until Snow saves Hope's life (having promised Hope's mom he would protect her son) after Hope tries to STAB HIM.]]

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 The Hero.

* In ''MuhyoAndRouji'', [[spoiler: Rio Kurotori]] joins Ark after the two executors she goes to for help saving her mother from a haunt turn her down for petty reasons.

* 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 ''PhoenixWright AceAttorney: Trials and Tribulations'', [[spoiler:Godot]] plays the Fool and accuses Phoenix of letting Mia Fey die.

* Nero's motive in ''Film/StarTrek''.

* Pretty much Hope's entire story in ''FinalFantasyXIII''. [[spoiler:Snow tries to save Hope's mother after a giant bridge starts collapsing, but fails and she falls to her death. Hope is a witness to this from far away, and tries to get revenge on Snow for half the game until Snow saves Hope's life after Hope tries to STAB HIM.]]

** He then attempts to demoralize the captives by telling them that O-Chul was willing to let them die. This backfires.

* In ''The Prodigal Mage'' Arlin Garrick blames Rafel and Asher for letting [[spoiler: his father drown in a whirlpool at the blighted reef]], despite all of their early warnings and later efforts to save everyone in the first place.

* In ''PhoenixWright AceAttorney: Trials and Tribulations'', [[spoiler:Godot]] plays the Fool and accuses Phoenix of letting Mia Fey die.
* In VagrantStory, 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.
** [[OrIsIt Or did he?]]

* Sentinel's main reason for hating Optimus in ''TransformersAnimated''. Well, his main claimed reason; Sentinel is kind of a dick.
* Roland spent at least a couple volumes of TheDarkTower chastising himself for letting [[spoiler:Jake]] die.

* In ''TalesOfSymphonia'' [[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 ''PaperMario'': 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]].

* In ''IRobot'', Spooner plays the fool against the robots who saved him instead of the child because he had more of a chance to survive.
* In TheDCU, [[GreenLantern John Stewart]] failed to save the planet Xanshi in the ''Cosmic Odyssey'' miniseries. John's guilt for this was extreme enough in the years afterward that one could be forgiven for assuming that he'd blown up the planet himself. The Xanshian warrior Fatality blames the whole [[GreenLantern Green Lantern Corps]] for the destruction of her planet, and went on a crusade to kill them all.
* Averted in one episode of {{Scrubs}}. Paramedics failed to save a woman's son, but she was so impressed by how hard they tried that she decided to become one.
* Pretty much Hope's entire story in FinalFantasyXIII. [[spoiler:Snow tries to save Hope's mother after a giant bridge starts collapsing, but fails and she falls to her death. Hope is a witness to this from far away, and tries to get revenge on Snow for half the game until Snow saves Hope's life after Hope tries to STAB HIM.]]
* In ''DisgaeaHourOfDarkness'', [[TheRival Kurtis]]' family got killed and he personally holds [[TheHero 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.
* [[spoiler: Dustil Onasi's]] motive in KnightsOfTheOldRepublic: He joined the Sith out of resentment because he believed his father had abandoned him and his mother to die.
* In ''MuhyoAndRouji'', [[spoiler: Rio Kurotori]] joins Ark after the two executors she goes to for help saving her mother from a haunt turn her down for petty reasons.
* In WingCommanderII, [[spoiler:Zack "Jazz" Colson]] allies with the Mandarins to take revenge on the Tiger's Claw crew for letting his brother die when the Kilrathi attacked Goddard.
* 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, [[spoiler:as a result of Mayuri bribing them to collect his soul]]. 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.
* In a filler episode of ''OnePiece'', 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 ''DragonFable'', Konnan swears vengeance against your PC for failing to save his family and hometown from the dragon Akriloth (though in all fairness, the battle against the dragon in question [[HopelessBossFight wasn't winnable anyway]]). [[spoiler:This would eventually lead him to join the evil pyromancer Xan and become Drakonnan, the BigBad of the Fire War]].

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* Pretty much Hope's entire story in FinalFantasyXIII. [[spoiler: Snow tries to save Hope's mother after a giant bridge starts collapsing, but fails and she falls to her death. Hope is a witness to this from far away, and tries to get revenge on Snow for half the game until Snow saves Hope's life after Hope tries to STAB HIM.]] So Yeah...