History Main / YourWorstMemory

* ''Series/TheHauntingOfHillHouse'' establishes that Nelly's sightings of "The Bent-Neck Lady" comprise some of the worst moments of her life, chief among them being the death of her husband courtesy of a stroke. [[EldritchLocation The house]] brings this back in a particularly cruel way when [[spoiler: it fools Nelly into hanging herself, then sends her ghost plummeting backwards through time: the realization that [[TomatoInTheMirror she was the Bent-Neck Lady all along]] is bad enough, but the sight of her husband's death repeating itself before her is even worse.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', while preparing for the red moon ritual, Mei flashes back to when she had mauled Tyler in her giant red panda form.

* In ''[[Fanfic/TheNewRecruit Adjusting]]'', Matt clearly views his fight with Andrew (where he had to kill his cousin to save Seattle) as this trope.

* ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'': In [[Recap/InfinityTrainS1E5TheCatsCar "The Cat's Car"]], Tulip is trapped by a device that sucks her into her own memories. It's pleasant at first, but then things get increasingly distorted. Tulip realizes she's romanticizing her pleasant memories and exaggerating her bad ones, and she has to remember what really happened. This includes facing her memories of the day her parents told her they were undergoing a separation and confronting how bad she feels for lashing out at her parents and blaming herself for their divorce.

* ''Fanfic/{{Spider-Ninja}}'': The most traumatic moment of Petra's life was watching her Aunt May and Uncle Ben be shot to death by an armed robber...when she was ''four''.

* ''WesternAnimation/Nimona2023'': In the finale, the friendship between Ballister and Nimona breaks down due to a seed of doubt between them, resulting in Nimona running away and having a flashback to easily the worst moment of her life: [[spoiler: it turns out that she spent a great deal of time trying to make friends with various animals and being rejected by all of them, until Nimona befriended a human child, even becoming close enough to reveal her powers to her - only for the friendship to come undone when the little girl's parents and fellow townsfolk violently rejected Nimona, resulting in an accident that burned down her village. In the wake of the disaster, the little girl - [[FamedInStory Gloreth]] - rejected her as well, eventually forming the basis of the society that continues to demonize Nimona and everyone like her to this day. The recollection is so painful that, back in the present, it causes Nimona to give into every horribly thing said about her and transform into a monster.]]

* ''Fanfic/{{Spider-Ninja}}'': The most traumatic moment of Petra's life was watching her Aunt May and Uncle Ben be shot to death by an armed robber...when she was ''four''. While she found [[HappilyAdopted a safe home]] [[InterspeciesAdoption with the turtles and Splinter]] shortly after, it's implied that this moment was this trope for her, with Mikey pointing out in Chapter 6 that she's never discussed the memory, encouraging her to finally tell her brothers what happened. Ten chapters later, she willingly tells the story to Fury, implying that, while the pain is still there, she's come to accept what happened to her and is finally letting go of her grief.

** In the sixth book, Dumbledore starts sobbing and pleading to someone after drinking a potion in the Horcrux cave to hurt him, instead of "them". It freaks Harry out but since there are more pressing matters, he doesn't really have the time to give it much mind. Harry, at that point, knows two things about his younger years, he defeated a dark wizard named Grindelwald some fifty years previously and he has a brother named Abeforth. Over the course of the next year, Harry learns more about his backstory like that he and Grindelwald were "friends" and he had a previously unmentioned sister named Ariana who died when the three of them were teenagers. Once Harry gets a chance to meet Abeforth for real, he learns that his reaction was this trope. During a confrontation between him, Grindelwald, and Abeforth, Ariana died in the crossfire and while they don't know who exactly killed her, he considers himself her killer and still hates himself a century later for it. The implication is the potion makes you relive the worst moment of your life. The unspoken implication is that this is also the moment Dumbledore is forced to relive every time he is near a Dementor.

* In ''Anime/TokyoGhoul'', Kaneki holds his mother in high regard, faithfully holding on to her belief that that kind people can tolerate any pain or any wrong done to them and still be happy. [[spoiler: However, suppressed memories from his childhood reveal that Kaneki's mother was occasionally abusive towards him and that he held deep resentment towards her after her death. This revelation is what causes him to leave his mother's way of life and start following his own ideals.]]

The memory counterpart to YourWorstNightmare, this trope can occur in a number of different ways: on the simplest level, it can appear in the [[PastExperienceNightmare form of a dream]], especially if the memory was traumatic enough; in more extreme cases, it can be brought back through magic, technology, or even an afterlife. In some cases, time travel may be involved. Whatever the case, the character is made to watch their worst memories play out all over again — and if they're unlucky, more than once. If they're ''really'' unlucky, forever.

Everybody has one bad memory worse than any other, a traumatic moment that haunts them for the rest of their lives. This experience often grows to define their character, and drives them to compensate for what it represents. Sometimes, they may even force themselves to forget it, with varying degrees of success.

The memory counterpart to YourWorstNightmare, this trope can occur through a number of different ways: on the simplest level, it can appear in the [[PastExperienceNightmare form of a dream]], especially if the memory was traumatic enough; in more extreme cases, it can be brought back through magic, technology, or even an afterlife. In some cases, time travel may be involved. Whatever the case, the character is made to watch their worst memories play out all over again — and if they're unlucky, more than once. If they're ''really'' unlucky, forever.

* In the manga and 7th OVA of ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'', Seras is subjected to MindRape, forcing her relive her painful childhood memories, particularly when she was ForcedToWatch her parents being murdered by gangsters and her mother's corpse being raped.

* In ''Anime/TokyoGhoul'', Kaneki holds his mother in high regard, faithfully holding on to her belief that that kind people can tolerate any pain or any wrong done to them and still be happy. [[spoiler: However, suppressed memories from his childhood reveal that Kaneki's mother was occassionally abusive towards him and that he held deep resentment towards her after her death. This revelation is what causes him to leave his mother's way of life and starts following his own ideals.]]

* While Comicbook/{{X 23}} has endured loads of pain and trauma in her young life, and it has taken ''years'' for her to come to terms with the terrible things she has done, and had done ''to'' her, it's implied her single worst memory is of being forced to kill her mother under the effects of the trigger scent. Emma Frost specifically uses this memory to torment her in an effort to drive her away from the school. It reduces TheStoic Laura to ''tears''.

* In ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', one of Rey's worst memories is the day her parents [[ParentalAbandonment left her on Jakku as a child]], never to return. When she finds the Skywalker lightsaber, she has a number of disturbing visions and one that horrifies her the most is seeing her child-self being restrained as her family's ship flies away, screaming for them to come back. Shortly after, Maz Kanata tells Rey that deep down she knows her parents aren't coming back, but she's so distressed by this she initially [[HeroicBSOD goes into denial and runs off in tears]]. The vision in fact seems to have partly triggered by Finn, her first real friend, telling her he's leaving, which brought up her old memories and fears of abandonment.
* In ''Film/{{Inception}}'', Dom Cobb has created a prison inside his mind in which he stores his most painful memories. Ariadne pays a visit, and discovers that chief among them are the scene of Mal's suicide and the moment when Dom [[WhenYouComingHomeDad had to leave his children to go on the run]]. Later in the film, as the heist grows more strenuous and his composure begins to slip, the image of his children begins to haunt Dom alongside Mal's [[EnemyWithin shade]], always out of reach and always with their backs turned to him.
* ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier'' features this as an apparent effect of the villain's powers: Sybok has the ability to telepathically confront others with their "[[SingleIssuePsychology secret pain]]" and heal them of it, usually converting them to his side in the process. Bones relives the moment he was forced to take his father off life support, while Spock recalls his birth and the conflict between his human and Vulcan heritage that resulted; however, neither of them join Sybok.[[note]]apparently because Creator/LeonardNimoy and Creator/DeForestKelley rejected the idea entirely.[[/note]] In Spock's case the effort backfires when [[ShutUpHannibal Spock points out to Sybok that he had already made his peace with that demon]].

** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', Harry views Snape's worst memory using the Pensieve, a MemoryJar containing Snape's unwanted memories, during occlumency class. The chapter is even called "Snape's Worst Memory". The memory involves [[spoiler: Snape being brutally bullied by Harry's father, which horrifies Harry.]] Later revelations in the seventh book reveal that the real reason it was his worst memory was because [[spoiler: it was the day he lost Lily, the love of his life, for good.]]

** In ''Literature/AGameOfThrones'', Eddard "Ned" Stark is haunted throughout the story by his sister's death, continuously remembering a "bed of blood" and her last words to him: "Promise me, Ned." After getting his leg crushed under his horse in a street brawl with Jaime Lannister, Ned is given milk of the poppy for the pain, and experiences a dream in which he relives both Lyanna's death and the events leading up to it.

** In "[[Recap/FarscapeS01E08ThatOldBlackMagic That Old Black Magic]]", [[EmotionEater Maldis]] taunts [[StarterVillain Captain Crais]] with a vision of the day he and his brother Tauvo were conscripted for Peacekeeper service, specifically the moment when his father entrusted him with keeping Tauvo safe. Already miserable enough on its own, the fact that Tauvo was killed in in an accident at the start of the series only makes the vision even more upsetting for Crais, fueling his hunger for vengeance against John Crichton -- who he blames for the accident.

* In the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "[[Recap/StargateSG1S2E4TheGamekeeper The Gamekeeper]]", SG-1 is unexpectedly captured and placed in a virtual reality simulation by the eponymous villain, each scenario modeled off a particularly traumatic moment from a team-member's past: Jackson and Carter relive the day when Jackson's parents died in an accident, while O'Neil and Teal'c repeat a disastrous mission from O'Neil's black ops days. The Gamekeeper initially claims to be giving them a chance to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong correct the mistakes of the past]], but in reality, he's just delaying them with a LotusEaterMachine to ensure that none of his captives wake up and spoil the paradise the planet has become. As such, every attempt at righting the wrongs ends in failure.

* ''VideoGame/AnotherCode'': Ashley's worst memory is [[spoiler:her third birthday, seeing her mother get shot to death.]] The fact that she frequently sees this as a fuzzy nightmare doesn't help her any.

* ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'': In [[Recap/InfinityTrainS1E5TheCatsCar "The Cat's Car"]], Tulip is trapped by a device that sucks her into her own memories. It's pleasant at first, but then things get increasingly distorted. Tulip realizes she's romanticizing her pleasant memories and exaggerating her bad ones, and she has to remember what really happened. This includes facing her memories of the day her parents told her they were undergoing a separation, and confronting how bad she feels for lashing out at her parents and blaming herself for their divorce.

** In "Knock Knock Knockin' on Hooty's Door," Hooty drugs Eda with potent sleeping magic, inadvertently forcing her to not only confront her Owl Beast curse, but witness the most traumatic memories related to her curse, namely [[spoiler:when she lashed out at her father while cursed and when her partner Raine broke up with her]]. It also appears that the Owl Beast itself relives a traumatic memory alongside Eda, as we see a memory of the beast [[spoiler:get captured and trapped inside a spell]] that seems unfamiliar to Eda herself.

* ''WesternAnimation/TwelveForever'': In "Secrets Forever", Reggie, Todd and Esther comes across a grocery store in the middle of Endless that doesn't seem to have any groceries within initially. However products with their faces on the labels start popping up and they find that anytime they they open them, it plays a embarrassing memory from their lives. Todd and Esther's aren't too bad on the first few products, but when they get to Reggie's, hers turns out to be a memory she's not keen on. Namely that on her eleventh birthday, she tried to invite her class to her party, but no one other than her mom's friend showed up. It does end up subverted in the end as, while disappointed her classmates didn't come, her mother and said friend did cheer her up.

* Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, aka PTSD, is based largely on this; the sufferer essentially relives the event which caused the trauma when they're reminded of it, and enters the same state of panic. It can be triggered by something relatively mundane, (e.g. first-responders at the Pulse nightclub massacre being triggered by cell phones because of the victims' phones ringing as their loved ones tried to contact them), and sufferers often feel like they're back at the traumatic event.

* ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'': In [[Recap/InfinityTrainS1E5TheCatsCar "The Cat's Car"]], Tulip is trapped by a device that sucks her into her own memories. It's pleasant at first, but then [[UncannyValley things get increasingly distorted]]. Tulip realizes she's romanticizing her pleasant memories and exaggerating her bad ones, and she has to remember what really happened. This includes facing her memories of the day her parents told her they were undergoing a separation, and confronting how bad she feels for lashing out at her parents and blaming herself for their divorce.

** In the sixth book, Dumbledore starts sobbing and pleading to someone after drinking a potion in the Horcrux cave to hurt him, instead of "them". It freaks Harry out but since there are more pressing matters, he doesn't really have the time to give it much mind. Harry, at that point, knows two things about his younger years, he defeated a dark wizard named Grindelwald some fifty years previously and he has a brother named Abeforth. Over the course of the next year, Harry learns more about his backstory like that he and Grindelwald were "friends" and he had a previously unmentioned sister named Ariana who died when the three of them were teenagers. Once Harry gets a chance to meet Abeforth for real, he learns that his reaction was this trope. During a confrontation between him, Grindelwald, and Abeforth, Ariana died in the crossfire and while they don't know who exactly killed her, he considers himself her killer and still hates himself a century later for it. The implication is the potion makes you relive the worst moment of your life.

* [[spoiler: Grogu’s as revealed in an episode of ''Series/TheBookOfBobaFett'' was, shock of all shocks, Order 66.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Omori}}'': Sunny's darkest, most repressed memory that [[MentalWorld Headspace]] was created to keep hidden is [[spoiler:him accidentally pushing Mari down the stairs and killing her]].