History Main / TheseHandsHaveKilled

* ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'': Queen Elsa has a realization that she [[spoiler:killed her sister, Princess Anna, when she sees her ice statue frozen right in front of her. She then starts [[TearJerker weeping]] and [[DespairEventHorizon completely breaks down]] in TearsOfRemorse. Fortunately, Anna gets better.]]

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]

* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite '': Elizabeth has a moment of this after [[spoiler:killing Daisy Fitzroy, before she could murder a child]].
* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 4'', after Victor Zakhaev kills himself to avoid being captured:

* ''Franchise/TombRaider:''

[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''{{Literature/Deviant}}'': [[spoiler: The main protagonist, Genesis, is a deeply altruistic, idealistic hero. As such, she doesn't take killing well when it comes with the occupation.]] She isn't alone - other characters in the story mention their distaste for having to murder as well, and many mention how guilty they feel for their kill counts.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker'': [[spoiler: Tim Drake]] feels terrible after killing [[spoiler: the Joker]], even decades afterwards.
--> '''[[spoiler: Tim Drake]]:''' Oh, God. I killed him. I didn't mean to. I tried so hard to forget. But I still hear the shot, still see his dead smile. Every night the dreams get stronger. He's there when I sleep, whispering, laughing... telling me [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim I'm just as bad as he is, we're both the same.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': In "Sacred Cow", animal-rights activist Randy accuses Bob of this when he is about to make his 100,000th burger. Made worse for him when Linda comes out of the restaurant with actual blood on her hands, and Louise frequently screaming 'MURDERER!' at him. While he ignores their accusations at first, later on in the episode he begins to feel guilty. He feels better about it once [[ItMakesSenseInContext he passes out and hallucinates about passionately making out with a cow]]
* [[ComicBook/GreenLantern Hal Jordan]] has this in the ''[[ComicBook/DCTheNewFrontier Justice League: The New Frontier]]'' movie, in his segment of the setup for the actual plot. He got through what seems to have been the Korean War doing the closest thing to a pacifist run a [[AcePilot fighter pilot]] has ever pulled off, and then he goes down some ten minutes after the war is officially over and can't make the Korean he lands near understand that he doesn't want to fight now, it's over, they're not at war...so he winds up shooting him in the face at incredibly close range. Blood everywhere. Seriously screws him up.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "Look Who's Purging Now," Morty stares at his hands after killing the owner of the lighthouse.
--> '''Rick:''' Whoa, Morty! You just purged!
* In season 5 of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', Jack is utterly horrified when he kills [[spoiler:one of the Daughters of Aku]] and discovers they were a human being instead of a robot. It takes much of the next episode for him to come to terms that he's justified killing in self-defense [[spoiler:after which he has little trouble doing the same to all but one of them]].
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'': In "Fragments", Steven is shocked to discover that he has just shattered Jasper, and runs into the house to prepare her for a healing bath. As soon as he apologizes to Jasper, she bows before Steven in acknowledgement of his strength, calling him "my Diamond", which also shocks him.
* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Island'': Parodied when [[BigEater Owen]] is left alone in the kitchen with a plate of ribs meant for the competition. When Leshawna comes back to check on him, she finds the room [[SymbolicBlood spattered with sauce]], a pile of bones on a plate, and Owen staring at his sauce-covered hands with a horrified expression.

* ''VideoGame/EternalSonata'': In the ending of UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 UpdatedRerelease, Frederic Chopin does this when he wakes up following his defeat in battle and sees that Polka is gone and that the world around him hasn't changed. He blames himself for not being able to do anything to stop her sacrifice. "Why? The dream was at an end. Oh no. It can't be. Not Polka."

* ''[[https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/72301/1-lifesteal/ 1% Lifesteal]]'': Freddy figured that intentionally allowing a disgruntled man to ambush him outside the gym would be a good chance for some real combat experience. He didn't figure on his punch to the face actually killing the man. He gets recurring nightmares that have him waking in a cold sweat, and every time he uses an essence technique, he's reminded that a part of his essence was absorbed from the death.

* ''Webcomic/WildeLife:'' [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Cliff]] doesn't seem all that concerned about killing a rougarou to protect [[TeamNormal Oscar]], until he learns that it WasOnceAMan. The revelation seems to bring his own fears about being a "monster" to the fore. It doesn't help that Oscar is understandably freaked out by his near-death experience and the rather violent means that Cliff used to protect him.

* ''[[https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/72301/1-lifesteal/ 1% Lifesteal]]'': Freddy figured that intentionally allowing a disgruntled man to ambush him outside the gym would be a good chance for some real combat experience. He didn't figure on his punch to the face actually killing the man.

* In flashbacks for ''[[VideoGame/Yakuza1 Yakuza: Kiwami]]'', [[spoiler:to fully show Nishiki's StartOfDarkness he [[GuttedLikeAFish guts]] his disrespectful subordinate Matsushige ([[KickThatSonOfABitch who completely had it coming]]). After slicing him open and spilling his blood everywhere. Nishiki is briefly fazed by his sudden brutality and looks at his hands, [[RuleOfCool before using Matsushuge's blood to slick his hair back]]. Declaring that killing will be his way of dealing with things from then on fully cementing his fall from grace]].

* ''Literature/{{Tempest}}'': In ''Tempest Rising'', Tempest kills Malu in self-defense by stabbing him in the stomach with a shell fragment. She's disgusted and horrified by what she's done, even though it was necessary. In later books, she becomes more comfortable with killing.

* ''Fanfic/MutantStorm'' has Harry killing two Death Eaters - one of them with his bare hands, and then [[ShowerOfAngst sitting in a shower for about an hour making washing motions with his hands...]]

* ''Fanfic/MutantStorm'': After Harry Potter kills for the first time (Lucius and Bellatrix), including one person with his bare hands, he spends about an hour sitting in a shower making washing motions with his hands...

* ''Film/Studio666'': After being exorsised ([[spoiler sort of]]), Dave Grohl stares down at his hands in horror once he finds out [[ItMakesSenseInContext what he did to the rest of The Foo Fighters while possessed.]]

* ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs'': Happens to [[spoiler:Jackie Ma]]. Wei is outfought by his opponent, who knocks him down and puts a gun to his face... then blood sprays and the scene cuts to [[spoiler:Jackie]], who is now holding a gun. He drops it and spends a good ten seconds or so staring at his hands until Wei (and the sound of approaching police sirens) manage to snap him out of it. During the drive with Wei to [[spoiler:the Initiation]], it's made clear that it's the first time he's ever killed; he'd thought about what it would look like, but not how he'd feel about it.

* ''Film/TotalRecall1990'' (1990). Quaid does this right after he slaughters the five agents trying to kill him on Earth before he goes back to his "wife" Lori. He actually has their blood on his hands at the time.

* Wrestling/BookerT also used to stare at his hand obsessively - but it was a subversion, as he did it for [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} pretty much no reason]].

* Saya in ''ComicBook/DeadlyClass'' is shaken up after stabbing a cop through the back with a katana, even though she played it cool at the time.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

* Josh's reaction to killing a mugger in ''ComicBook/NoHero''. [[spoiler: Given what we find out [[BoxedCrook about him]] later, it's almost certainly a lie.]]
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* ''ComicBook/TheKingpin'': When Wilson Fisk first fell from power in ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'', he muses on his early days as a street thug when he would get blood on his hands. At the end of the story, he brutally kills a bunch of thugs who believe his glory days are over and once again gets blood on his hands. Noticing this, and remembering that his first rise to power involved a lot of days with bloody hands, he washes his hands in a gutter and wanders into the streets more determined than ever to be the Kingpin again.
* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':
** In ''Spider-Man Versus Wolverine'', Spider-Man, while trying to punch Wolverine really hard in the face, instead, punched a woman to death. On the plane ride home, he can't erase the image from his mind. This still happened in continuity. But he never ever talks about it.

* In ''ComicBook/TarotWitchOfTheBlackRose'', Tarot decides that she must kill her archnemesis after he manages to attack her and her mother while rotting away in a prison. After she does the deed, she is seen trying to furiously scrub away all the blood on her hands.
* In ''ComicBook/NewXMen'', Dust once killed a bunch of Purifiers in a rage after waking up in her underwear and thinking that they'd stripped her (she had actually been knocked out and stripped by her roommate Laura, who had found out that Dust was being targeted and thus impersonated her to lead the Purifiers away from her.) A devout Muslim and pacifist, Dust was horrified and later struggled to wash the blood from her hands.
* ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}'': Phoney, after his first battle, throws away his sword in shock when he realizes that the blade is covered in blood.

* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersDrift Empire of Stone'': Hellbat has a moment during his MotiveRant. But don't feel sorry for him just yet--he's such an OmnicidalManiac he said it in ''pride''.