History Main / FailuretoSaveMurder

* In ''FanFic/ConstantTemptation'' Light blamed himself for being unable to protect [[spoiler:his {{Love Interest}}s from [[RonTheDeathEater his father]]]] who had them killed.

* Emerald “Emry” Blair from OnlySuperhuman blamed her father for being unable to save her mother.

[[folder:Live Action TV ]]

* Played with in ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy''. In ''Film/BatmanBegins'', Bruce chose to leave Ra's al Ghul aboard a crashing train to stop his plot of driving the city to fear-toxin-induced destruction, which earns him the wrath of [[spoiler:Ra's' daughter Talia]] in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises''. The twists here? First, Bruce had been goaded by Ra's for some time to "do what is necessary," meaning the murder of criminals, so Batman defeating him without actually killing him was that much more significant. Of course, [[spoiler:Talia]] didn't draw any distinction between Ra's' death and murder, seeing the situation as Bruce betraying him and the League of Shadows. Illustrated perfectly in this dialogue from TDKR:
-->'''Batman:''' [Ra's] was trying to kill millions of innocent people.
-->'''[[spoiler:Talia]]:''' Innocent is a strong word to throw around Gotham, Bruce.

* 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]].

* On a meta level, this can be a driving force behind SaveScumming. Didn't act fast enough to save a given character and lock in the best ending? That's tough to live with. Good thing you don't have to! [[RealityWarper Roll back time]] and give it another go!

** 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 around 12 yrs old back in Chicago]].

** Of course, ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' reveals the likely real reason: Starfleet promised to help evacuate Romulus, but a devastating attack by [[AIIsACrapshoot Synthetics]] on Mars gave Federation the pretext to break their promise and refuse aid. Shortly after that, Picard left Starfleet, disgusted by what it has become.

* ''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]].]]

* In ''Film/IRobot'', Spooner's deep antipathy for robots comes because he blames a robot for this. Both he and a young girl were involved in a vehicle accident, and [[RestrictedRescueOperation a robot only had time to save one of them.]] It choose to save Spooner (over his objections) because he had a higher chance of survival. Though he owes his life to the robot's actions, he blames it for letting the girl die, arguing that a human would have considered it more important to save the child.

* In ''Film/IRobot'', Spooner's deep antipathy for robots comes because he blames a robot for this. Both he and a young girl were involved in a vehicle accident, and a robot only had time to save one of them. It choose to save Spooner (over his objections) because he had a higher chance of survival. Though he owes his life to the robot's actions, he blames it for letting the girl die, arguing that a human would have considered it more important to save the child.

* ''Series/CSINewYork'': More like "Failure to Save = Abuse", an arsonist is proven innocent which gives him the strength to have a RoaringRampageOfRevenge on his foster family for all the abuse he suffered in childhood, including his sister whose only crime was ''being seven and too scared to do anything''.

** The trope comes up again much later when Roy is tussling with another villain [[spoiler:(vampire Durkon)]], who tries to prey on Roy's feelings of guilt over [[spoiler:the death of his younger brother as a child]], pointing out that Roy had known his father could be careless and should have done something to prevent the tragedy. Roy tries to protest that he'd been just a child, but it's clear the attack is getting to him. [[spoiler:However, Durkon* overplays his hand by asking a needlessly gruesome question about the aftermath, which doesn't send Roy into the HeroicBSOD he'd been aiming for but instead convinces him the vampire wasn't Durkon at all.]]

* In Franchise/TheDCU, [[ComicBook/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.

* [[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...even though it was the Sith who killed his mother in the first place.

** Of course, a more legitimate example of this is a big part of the ''SpiderMan'' mythos--before Peter actually became a superhero he [[BystanderSyndrome let a crook run past him]] (in part because the guy the crook had robbed [[AssholeVictim had just ripped Peter off]]), only for said crook to murder [[ParentalSubstitute Uncle Ben]] shortly afterward. His [[MyGreatestFailure guilt]] over the issue is what drives him to become a superhero in the first place.

* In ''Film/IRobot'', Spooner plays the Fool against a robot who saved his life instead of a child because he had a bigger chance of survival. This caused him to develop hatred against all robots, arguing that the child's life was worth more and should have been prioritized over his regardless of the odds. He supports this by saying a human would know that and would have chosen to save the child, but a robot can't think that way.
** Notably, he fails to put any blame on the actual cause of her death - the car crash - and as part of his character trait of preferring old school manual ways of doing things, continues to drive mostly by hand instead of autopilot. Even at the films release, it was known that human error is the primary cause of the large majority of car accidents and fatalities, which played a large role in the desire for increased automation of driving as it became technologically possible.

* The entire motive behind [[spoiler:Godot/Diego Armando's]] quest for vengeance against Phoenix Wright in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations'' is that he blames Phoenix for Mia Fey's murder. [[spoiler: At the end of the game, he realizes that he actually blamed ''himself'' for her murder and was projecting his anger on Phoenix so he wouldn't have to face that truth.]]

** [[spoiler:Chocolat]] acts this way towards Lloyd after an enemy tells her Lloyd killed [[spoiler: her grandmother Marble]]. She forgives him later on when the prisoners of the Iselia Ranch tell her that [[spoiler:Marble was transformed into a monster and]] Lloyd tried to save her. Lloyd appears to feel this way himself as well, as he takes the villain's accusation in shame without ever revealing what really happened [[spoiler:(nobody killed Marble-turned-monster, she came to her senses and [[HeroicSacrifice self-destructed]] to allow Lloyd and Genis to escape the Desians)]].

* 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 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.

* In the original ''Film/{{Friday the 13th|1980}}'', the motive of the first killer, Pamela Voorhees, is that the camp counselors who were supposed to be watching her son Jason when he drowned were too busy having sex instead. However, Pamela's madness has extended this to ''all'' camp counselors, even those working at Camp Crystal Lake many years after Jason's death. Though to be perfectly fair, ALL the counselors at Camp Crystal Lake are AWFULLY interested in having sex.