History MyGodWhatHaveIDone / Literature

* In ''Literature/AlwaysComingHome'', "The Miller" ends with the titular character, who just raped a woman he was obsessed with (an incestous relationship to boot), jumping into his watermill’s wheel.

* In ''Literature/TheEveOfRUMOKO'', the protagonist has his moment near the end, after the RUMOKO project goes wrong and [[spoiler:destroys an entire city, killing everyone in it including the protagonist's love interest]]. The protagonist had worked security on the RUMOKO project and spent most of the story foiling a saboteur who had been trying to shut the project down to prevent exactly that outcome.

* ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory'': Bastian, after turning to the dark side for a while and nearly killing Atreyu....in fact, he thought he flat-out HAD killed Atreyu, which makes his "My God, What Have I Done?" even more dramatic.

** In the prequel, ''Belgarath the Sorceror'', as it becomes increasingly clear that the War of the Gods will be necessary, Belsambar, an Angarak exile, notes that because Angaraks build walls around everything, any attack on their cities would require the use of siege engines. He then suggests that raining fire down upon the cities would probably encourage the Angaraks to surrender more quickly. The war comes, and his brothers put his suggestions into practice, causing thousands of deaths, and driving Torak into such a panic that he actually uses the Orb of Aldur, cracking the known world in half, which naturally has catastrophic effects. Horrified at what has happened, and convinced that he was responsible for all of it, [[DrivenToSuicide Belsambar unmakes himself]], blowing both himself and his tower to bits.

** In the ''[[Literature/TheBelgariad Malloreon]]'' series it's revealed that when [[spoiler:Zakath]] was a young man of nineteen and madly in love, there was a plot against his life; with overwhelming evidence that his lover was the mastermind, he sentenced her to death. Shortly afterwards, it was revealed that the mastermind was actually [[spoiler:Taur Urgas, King of the Murgos]] and he had deliberately framed an innocent young woman just to spite someone he feared might one day become a threat to him. Utterly beside himself, [[spoiler:Zakath]] shut himself up in a room for a month before emerging as an EmptyShell that spent the next twenty-thirty years trying to wipe out the entire Murgo race. [[spoiler:When the Orb of Aldur reveals to him that Taur Urgas' bloodline was wiped out out years ago by the current Murgo King, Urgit, who is the secret product of an affair between one of Taur Urgas' wives and a Drasnian noble, he breaks down completely and weeps over both his lost change for revenge and over the many lives that he's taken in the pursuit of it. This starts his road to redemption, which takes him a while because, even after ending his obsession, he's spent so many years as a DeathSeeker driven by self-hatred that he struggles to accept that it's okay for him to allow friendship and love back into his life.]]

** In the ''[[Literature/TheBelgariad Malloreon]]'' series it's revealed that when [[spoiler:Zakath]] was a young man of nineteen and madly in love, there was a plot against his life; with overwhelming evidence that his lover was the mastermind, he sentenced her to death. Shortly afterwards, it was revealed that the mastermind was actually [[spoiler:Taur Urgas, King of the Murgos]] and he had deliberately framed an innocent young woman just to spite someone he feared might one day become a threat to him. Utterly beside himself, [[spoiler:Zakath]] shut himself up in a room for a month before emerging as an EmptyShell that spent the next twenty-thirty years trying to wipe out the entire Murgo race. [[spoiler:When the Orb of Aldur reveals to him that Taur Urgas' bloodline has been wiped out out years ago by the current Murgo King, Urgit, who is secret product of an affair between one of Taur Urgas' wives and a Drasnian noble, he breaks down completely and weeps not only over his inability to finally obtain vengeance, but over the many lives that he's taken in the pursuit of it. This becomes the start of his long, slow road back to redemption, which takes him a while to accept because, even after ending his obsession, he's spent so many years as a DeathSeeker driven by self-hatred that he struggles to accept that it's okay for him to allow friendship and love back into his life.]]

** In the ''[[Literature/TheBelgariad Malloreon]]'' series it's revealed [[spoiler:Zakath]] went through this. When he was a young man of eighteen, [[spoiler: new to position of Emperor of Mallorea]] and madly in love, there was a plot against his life. The mastermind was revealed to be his lover. With the evidence against her so overwhelming as to be undeniable, he sentenced her to death. Shortly after her death, it was revealed that the mastermind was actually [[spoiler:Taur Urgas, King of the Murgos]] and he had deliberately set up an innocent young woman just to spite his sworn enemy. Utterly beside himself, [[spoiler:Zakath]] shut himself up in a room for a month. What eventually emerged from that room was an EmptyShell that spent the next twenty-thirty years trying to wipe every Murgo alive off the face of the planet.
** It gets even worse. He looks into the Orb of Aldur when Belgarion is his prisoner and learns [[spoiler:that the current king of the Murgos, Urgit, was the result of an affair between a Drasnian and one of Taur Urgas's wives - in fact, the bloodline of Taur Urgas went extinct ''years'' ago]]. He has a complete breakdown, ''weeping'' for what's probably the first time in thirty-odd years, as he realizes how many people have died [[spoiler:for revenge against a family that doesn't even ''exist'' anymore]].
-->"He has escaped me... and I've slaughtered tens of thousands for '''''nothing'''''..."

* ''LightNovel/IveBeenKillingSlimesFor300YearsAndMaxedOutMyLevel'': Azusa, without quite understanding the cultural significance of it, gets tricked into touching Flatorte's horns thinking it will help foster peace between the Red and Blue Dragons. What she didn't realize was just how completely Blue Dragons become subservient to their mistress or master, never leaving their side and not even eating or sleeping unless specifically ordered to, and if they should leave their mistress/master's side for any reason, even being ordered to, the dragon will commit suicide. Azusa is pretty understandably freaked out and compares it to actual slavery.

* ''Literature/TheLittlePrince'': When the pilot is trying to repair his airplane and he is getting distracted by the titular Prince's questions relating to sheep eating roses despite them having thorns, he just curtly cuts him off, tells him that roses just make thorns out of spite and to let him work. This causes the Little Prince to fly into a rage, deliver a TheReasonWhyYouSuckSpeech to the pilot and saying why the ordeal of roses and sheep should be considered SeriousBusiness before he finally breaks down into tears. The pilot immediately feels awful and tries his best to console the young alien.

* ''Literature/TheLittlePrince'': When the pilot is trying to repair his airplane and he is getting distracted by the titular Prince's questions relating to sheep eating roses despite them having thorns, he just curtly cuts him off, tells him that roses just make thorns out of spite and to let him work. This causes the Little Prince to fly into a rage, deliver a TheReasonWhyYouSuck speech to the pilot and saying why the ordeal of roses and sheep should be considered SeriousBusiness before he finally breaks down into tears. The pilot immediately feels awful and tries his best to console the young alien.

** Harry, when he realises his actions lead to Sirius' death; probably Sirius' reaction when he realised James and Lily died because of him.

* ''Literature/Dune'' has Gurney asking for Paul or Jessica to take his life after believing he has betrayed them when he holds Jessica hostage, demanding that she confess that she betrayed Leto, only to learn that it was Yueh. He is horrified that he almost took his innocent friend's life, but both Paul and Jessica freely forgive him, for they know he had been fooled and meant well.

* Appears near the end of ''Film/ManonDesSources'' for Papet. [[spoiler:He discovers that Jean, the man who he had ruined in the first part of the duology, was actually his son. Florette hadn't rejected him, as he thought, but was pregnant and had tried to move on when he didn't respond to her letter (a letter he obviously never received). Watching the look on Papet's face when this fact sinks in will quickly show the viewer why this movie launched Yves Montand to worldwide critical acclaim.]]

* Creator/DavidEddings :
** In ''[[Literature/TheBelgariad Malloreon]]'' series it's revealed [[spoiler:Zakath]] went through this. When he was a young man of eighteen, [[spoiler: new to position of Emperor of Mallorea]] and madly in love, there was a plot against his life. The mastermind was revealed to be his lover. With the evidence against her so overwhelming as to be undeniable, he sentenced her to death. Shortly after her death, it was revealed that the mastermind was actually [[spoiler:Taur Urgas, King of the Murgos]] and he had deliberately set up an innocent young woman just to spite his sworn enemy. Utterly beside himself, [[spoiler:Zakath]] shut himself up in a room for a month. What eventually emerged from that room was an EmptyShell that spent the next twenty-thirty years trying to wipe every Murgo alive off the face of the planet.