History WhatTheHellHero / Literature

* Joseph Rosenberger's ultra-violent ''COBRA'' novel series often has its "heroes" -- a group of secret operatives -- crossing the MoralEventHorizon for the sake of a mission. In one of the books a colleague challenges the team leader, Jon Skul, when Skul indicates that he needs to kill a police car full of cops in order to prevent them from interfering in a mission. Skul replies with a "put up or shut up" statement and proceeds to follow through with his plans.

* ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'': The Count's revenge against Villefort goes farther than he intends when [[spoiler: Villefort's innocent son gets poisoned by his own mother]]. Villefort acknowledges his own guilt, but invokes this by showing the Count the grisly scene. Leads to a MyGodWhatHaveIDone on the Count's part.
* In Jeff Long's ''Literature/TheDescent'', the bad guys (or one set of bad guys at any rate) are [[spoiler:seeding the underworld with a deadly biological weapon to kill everything and later colonize it. Then at the novel's ending, the main character, who had been living with the degenerate troglodytes/demons for years, uses the dead Dragon's bioweapon trigger, effectively genociding most of them.]] Also doubles as Nice Job Breaking it Hero because the big bad (YMMV. The demon king, at any rate) survives, and is likely not happy about it.

* Parodied in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'' by Susan: "... and then Jack chopped down the beanstalk, adding murder and ecological vandalism to the theft, enticement and trespass charges already mentioned, but [[KarmaHoudini he got away with it and lived happily ever after]] without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done. Which proves that you can be excused just about anything if you're a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions."

*** Tris's dad calls her out for [[spoiler:shooting Peter in the arm]]. Though she points out that, despite being Dauntless, he is cowardly and borderline psychopathic and lives depended on it. She knows he will give in quickly once he is in pain.
** In ''Insurgent'', Tobias calls out Tris multiple times of being suicidal. In return, Tris calls out Tobias for being a hypocrite. He tells her that she's strong enough to take her scolding, but still tries to "protect" her. He insists she be open and honest with him, while still insisting on the right to keep his own secrets. He says he trusts her perceptiveness, but refuses to listen to her warnings about people ''repeatedly''. Thankfully, the both of them get better. Eventually.

** There's a moment at the end of ''Literature/FoolMoon'', second novel, where he has to confront a pack of hexenwolves, or werewolves who use enchanted belts to change form. At this point, he's physically and magically exhausted. Having defeated one earlier and stolen his belt, he uses it, and becomes a raging monster. His wake-up call moment comes when he sees his reporter girlfriend, and she's terrified of him.

** Oddly enough, whenever Gaunt does go into a WTH, H moment (drinking, giving up, etc.), it is normally Rawne, one of the most morally grey characters of the series that sets him back on the straght and narrow. Normally by being an utterly MagnificentBastard.
** Creator/SandyMitchell's Literature/CiaphasCain, [[FakeUltimateHero HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!]] gets one of these near the end of ''For the Emperor'', when he shoots a pair of troopers with no warning or provocation. The surrounding soldiers initially freak out, and then he explains his [[TheVirus reasons]].

** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', we learn that back before Dumbledore was a hero, he was about to to take his mentally ill sister with him, despite the dangers, to [[AmbiguouslyGay go off with Gellert Grindelwald]] on a mad chase for power and glory when his brother called him on it. The ensuing fight, and its tragic consequences, led Dumbledore to rethink his path and ultimately become the nearly universally admired man he was.

** Snape gives one to [[spoiler:Dumbledore]], when Dumbledore reveals that [[spoiler:Harry, whom Snape has been protecting out of his love for Harry's mother, must die in order to defeat Voldemort. It wasn't that simple but Snape didn't know.]]

** Eragon then delivered his own What the Hell, Hero? to Sloan, calling him out for betraying his entire village to inhuman monsters whose primary diet consisted of [[IAmAHumanitarian humans]] as well as [[WhatAnIdiot trusting them to keep their word]] when they kidnapped his "beloved daughter", who he ALSO sold out to them out of a petty grudge toward Eragon's cousin (who wished to marry her and wound up getting mauled by those abominations) as well as irrational superstition. He also murdered a night watchmen in order to rat out his village to the Ra'zac.
** Later, Elva calls out Eragon for his actions (namely, trying to cast a spell to more completely undo the enchantment he'd placed on her, after she said she preferred to leave it as it was) by comparing him to Galbatorix. This seems to have more of an effect on him.

* In ''Literature/TheMalloreon'', Garion gets a tongue-lashing from Belgarath after the thunderstorm he creates to stop the Mimbrate civil war ends up disrupting weather patterns across the continent, and is told that magic shouldn't be used so recklessly.

* In Creator/BernardCornwell's ''Saxon chronicles,'' the hero, Uhtred, spends the first couple of books as a violent, arrogant, murderous thug whose only real virtues are loyalty to his oaths and being one of the best fighters around. Halfway through the second book, a prostitute tells him exactly what she thinks of him, and he's forced into something of a personal re-evaluation. He doesn't ''stop'' being arrogant, murderous and unfaithful to his wife, but he does start to feel a little guilty about it.

* In ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'', when the orphans are forced to burn down a hotel to survive, they wonder if they are really the "good guys" after all. To elaborate [[spoiler: they have been framed for murder again and Olaf threatens to poison every person in the building. Sunny suggests the burning and reluctantly Violet and Klaus comply wondering what Sunny's plan was, since they had to worry both about getting out of this sticky situation alive and about saving all those people from the Medusoid Mycelium. They do it mostly to themselves but Justice Strauss also phrases it, even though she comes across as very naive. They then use the elevator to warn as many people as possible and Sunny reveals that she did this as a way to warn that it was no longer safe there.]]

** Yoda and Tahl admonish Qui-Gon for essentially giving Obi-Wan a SadisticChoice to either abandon his friends, who had helped them when trying to rescue Tahl in the first place and were trying to end a generations-long bloodbath, or leave the Jedi entirely.

** Foxleap's plan to save a group of a cats from a hawk goes wrong and one Tribe cat gets killed. One Tribe cat scolds him harshly for not listening when he was told to not interfere.

** In the twelfth book, Rand [[spoiler:balefires an entire friggin' castle in order to kill ONE (count 'em, ONE) of his enemies. And we [[NeverFoundTheBody never even see her body,]] so there's no proof it actually worked.]] It was at about this point other characters began to take a lot more notice of just how goddamn insane he'd gotten. Later in the same book he almost rains lightning down on an army of potential allies simply because they got highhanded (in such a way which invoked his irrational fear of being confined which had been caused a few books earlier) but manages to be talked down with another comment invoking this trope. Given Rand had access to destroy the world and was by this point overcome with paranoia, rage and schizophrenia, it is little wonder people waited until he was at the very limit before they really started calling him on such tendencies (which had been building for many books as his breakdown and psychosis developed).

** [[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/01/26/queen-18-3/ Chapter 18.3]] has Clockblocker listing just how many bad things Skitter has done, that despite being claimed for the greater good, had farther reaching terrible consequences.

* WhatTheHellHero: In book #6 (''The Cat Who Played Post Office''), Qwill gives ''himself'' one at the end of the book. While his girlfriend Melinda is praising him for learning the truth about what happened to a missing servant girl, Qwill points out that by digging into the girl's disappearance, he caused those responsible for what happened to the girl to panic and kill three other women; if he'd stayed out of it, the killers would never have been brought to justice, but those women would still be alive.

* ''Literature/TheCatWhoSeries: Qwill gives ''himself'' one at the end of ''The Cat Who Played Post Office''. While his girlfriend Melinda is praising him for learning the truth about what happened to a missing servant girl, Qwill points out that by digging into the girl's disappearance, he caused those responsible for what happened to the girl to panic and kill three other women; if he'd stayed out of it, the killers would never have been brought to justice, but those women would still be alive.

** [[DeadpanSnarker Diana Ladris]] LOVES giving these out. And she ain't pleasant about it, either, which usually makes for a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}}.

* Qwill gives ''himself'' one at the end of ''[[Literature/TheCatWho The Cat Who Played Post Office]]''. While his girlfriend Melinda is praising him for learning the truth about what happened to a missing servant girl, Qwill points out that by digging into the girl's disappearance, he caused those responsible for what happened to the girl to panic and kill three other women; if he'd stayed out of it, the killers would never have been brought to justice, but those women would still be alive.

* Ward of ''Literature/{{Hurog}}'' is given one of those on several occasions, but among the most impressive moments is when he calls Oreg to him (using magic) after they have been separated for a time, and Oreg slowly materializes, clings to his legs and begs him not to leave again. The person who witnesses this wants to know what the hell Ward did to Oreg. It is nothing that Ward did, though - it is just that Oreg is magically bound to him by magic that's far older than Ward himself, and doesn't react well to being separated from him due to this.

* ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'': The Count's revenge against Villefort goes farther than he intends when [[spoiler: Villefort's innocent son gets poisoned by his own mother]]. Villefort acknowledges his own guilt, but invokes this by showing the Count the grisly scene. Leads to a MyGodWhatHaveIDone on the Count's part.

* ''Literature/NightfallSeries'': Myra makes some naive choices and [[spoiler: misses an opportunity to kill Prince Vladimir]]. Franka has no problem calling her out.

* In ''Literature/FireAndHemlock'', Polly desperately wants a question answered by her friend Tom, which he does not wants to answer. She then forces him to, [[spoiler: using magic, ruining everything.]] He calls her out on it.
* ''Literature/GriffinRanger'': Harrell, the JerkAss lead protagonist, does the one unforgivable thing for a griffin - he panics and kills an insane hanz (a ServantRace tightly allied with the griffins) that was trying to kill his partner Kwap, and ''compounds'' the mistake by killing Ranger Rekken, for whom the hanz was a servant - all because the BigBad [[IHaveYourWife had Rekken's lifemate and chicks.]] To his credit, he immediately recognized that his shred-first-and-ask-questions-never approach [[NiceJobBreakingItHero just screwed both of them but good]] - and will come back to haunt him again and again later on.
* ''Literature/LoyalEnemies'' has a moment that doubles as a 'what the hell'-moment for both participants. Shelena's mocking of Tairinn, Veres' [[TheLostLenore dead girlfriend]], finally [[NotSoStoic makes him slap her]] in front of the entire tavern. Though he's got a good reason considering Shelena's behaviour is just plain distasteful, he goes ahead and slaps a woman in front of everyone despite her having a rather good point in questioning Tairinn's motives. The only thing in her defense is that she's drunk at that time and Veres is emotionally very invested in keeping Tairinn's name clean, seeing as he suffered through torture for it. Shelena is enraged enough to expect Veres to apologize but after thinking it through decides to take the first step.
* In Creator/BernardCornwell's ''Saxon chronicles,'' the hero, Uhtred, spends the first couple of books as a violent, arrogant, murderous thug whose only real virtues are loyalty to his oaths and being one of the best fighters around. Halfway through the second book, a prostitute tells him exactly what she thinks of him, and he's forced into something of a personal re-evaluation. He doesn't ''stop'' being arrogant, murderous and unfaithful to his wife, but he does start to feel a little guilty about it.

* ''Literature/WarriorCats'':
** Foxleap's plan to save a group of a cats from a hawk goes wrong and one Tribe cat gets killed. One Tribe cat scolds him harshly for not listening when he was told to not interfere.
** Also, Echosong did not approve of Leafstar driving Billystorm out of the gorge and had to spell it out for her.
** In ''The Sun Trail'', Clear Sky calls out Gray Wing for [[spoiler:killing Fox]]...though HE was the one to tell [[spoiler:Fox]] to attack him. Later, Gray Wing calls Clear Sky out for [[spoiler:banishing Jagged Peak from the community and refusing to take in his son Thunder]].
** Squirrelflight calls out anyone who [[BerserkButton messes with or insults Leafpool]]. The cats she yells at include Brambleclaw, Ashfur, Jayfeather, and Lionblaze.
* In ''Literature/WhenTwilightBurns'', Victoria runs away and doesn't save people who are getting attacked by vampires because those people had put her in jail and were trying to get her killed. Max chews her out for this, though it might not be so bad because [[PayEvilUntoEvil at least one of those people was probably in league with the vampires.]]
* Pretty much every main character in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' has had several of these. The one calling them out on it -- mostly in a sober, thoughtful fashion -- is usually one of their own, commonly Cassie.
** Jake [[spoiler:defeats the Yeerks]] with a truly magnificent What the Hell, Hero? sequence. Erek the android calls him on it before he even ''starts'', but he does it anyway. One of the major steps in the sequence is when he [[spoiler:flushes the Yeerk pool in the orbital spaceship into space, killing tens of thousands of Yeerks in one shot. After the war is over, he gets accused of war crimes during a trial]]. In addition, [[spoiler:recruiting the auxiliary Animorphs in the first place, all of whom are [[DisabilitySuperpower handicapped children]]]] because the Animorphs knew [[spoiler:the Yeerks wouldn't bother to infest them]], got a What the Hell, Hero? out of Cassie's dad.
** A slightly less serious example, but still in and of itself a What the Hell, Hero? moment is when Tobias is at a dance with Rachel, in his human morph, and she tries to trap him in it so they can have a normal relationship. Tobias doesn't exactly call her out on it, because part of him isn't entirely convinced she wasn't right.

* In ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', Winston Smith joins what he thinks is the resistance movement against "Big Brother." The supposed leader of the resistance, O'Brien, questions him on what he's willing to do for the movement. Smith agrees to everything O'Brien asks, including rape, murder, arson, terrorism, and even throwing sulfuric acid into an innocent child's face. Later on when it is revealed that [[spoiler: O'Brien is a double agent working for Big Brother, he plays a tape of Smith confessing to this in order to destroy Smith's claims of moral superiority]].

* ''Literature/TheElenium'' features a scene where Sparhawk wants to go kill Krager before he can cause more trouble, and it given this reaction from Aphrael, pointing out that if Sparhawk goes to do this, then Ehlana is left vulnerable to attack.
* Parodied in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'' by Susan: "... and then Jack chopped down the beanstalk, adding murder and ecological vandalism to the theft, enticement and trespass charges already mentioned, but [[KarmaHoudini he got away with it and lived happily ever after]] without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done. Which proves that you can be excused just about anything if you're a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions."
* In Jeff Long's ''Literature/TheDescent'', the bad guys (or one set of bad guys at any rate) are [[spoiler:seeding the underworld with a deadly biological weapon to kill everything and later colonize it. Then at the novel's ending, the main character, who had been living with the degenerate troglodytes/demons for years, uses the dead Dragon's bioweapon trigger, effectively genociding most of them.]] Also doubles as Nice Job Breaking it Hero because the big bad (YMMV. The demon king, at any rate) survives, and is likely not happy about it.

** Karen Traviss's ''Literature/RepublicCommandoSeries'' provide a chance for various characters to call this on the Jedi, the ostensible good guys of the Star Wars universe, for taking a conveniently provided army of 'living slaves' who have been 'torturously abused' since birth and using them as 'cannon fodder' for a war in which the soldiers have no stake.

* Lucas Trask in ''Space Viking'' by Creator/HBeamPiper has an ''internal'' one when he's talking with an eight-year-old princess and wonders how many of the people killed in his raids earlier in the book had been children.
* The [[http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/dhpw/readiness/suicide.aspx Army Suicide Prevention Interactive DVD]] has a moment like this - video clips show two soldiers and their families talking and the viewer chooses from options on what one soldier should do to help the other. Near the end, a choice comes up - "Physically restrain your friend and take him to a psychiatrist." Selecting this causes the OmniscientNarrator to say "Whoa! Really? Think about that for a second..." Followed by the main character placing his friend in a headlock and dragging him out of a mess hall while other soldiers look on, stunned.

* At the end of ''The Ethos Effect'' by Creator/LEModesittJr, the hero is forced to decide whether it is permissible to kill many people now so that more can live peacefully in the future. He decides that it is, and decides to commit genocide on the new would-be EvilEmpire, ''before'' it can become a threat to the rest of the galaxy. Some extremely pacifistic SufficientlyAdvancedAliens call him out on this, accusing him of misusing [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum their technology]]. [[ScrewYouElves He argues with them]], saying that no, he's not a deity, just a tool-using creature who used the biggest hammer he could find because nothing else could possibly do the job, complaining that they're [[StupidGood too afraid of corrupting themselves]] to take sides when humans fight each other.
* In ''Literature/{{Emma}}'' by Creator/JaneAusten, Emma gets rebuked by Mr. Knightley because of her cruel behaviour to Miss Bates.
* Patroclos, in the ''Literature/TheIliad,'' calls Achilles for [[AchillesInHisTent moping]] over Briseis instead of fighting for Greece.
** Subverted by [[ButtMonkey Thersites]], who attempts to call out Agamemnon for being a {{Jerkass}} to Achilles, among other failings on his part, but gets beaten down by Odysseus for his arrogance. AndThereWasMuchRejoicing.
* In Book 3 of the ''Literature/{{Aeneid}}'', Aeneas and his men stop on an island and prepare for a meal, when a bunch of harpies come down and ruin the food (because that's what harpies do). So they prepare again, this time concealing weapons: when the harpies return, they attack. But not only are the harpies invulnerable (so the meal is still ruined), once they've flown to safety, one of them, Celaeno, gives a What the Hell, Hero speech, pointing out that the harpies were there first, and it's a little disproportionate to start a battle over some ruined food.
* One of the ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' short-story collections had a tale with an AI that could recharge itself off emotions, attempting to get enough power to send a message and prevent the destruction of the planet it was on. In the end, it decided that the best solution was to call the Doctor out on some of his less pleasant actions - such as abandoning his daughter on a relatively barbaric world and inciting a race to war to find his lost pen.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' probably contains a couple, but first to mind is Sandor Clegane's deeply satisfying rebuttal to the accusations that the seemingly-oh-so-noble Brotherhood Without Banners lays against him. "I'm the same as you. The only difference is, I don't lie about what I am. So kill me, but don't call me a murderer while you stand there telling each other that your shit don't stink. ''You hear me?''"
** An earlier one is when [[TheSpymaster Varys]] tells the imprisoned [[spoiler: Ned Stark]] that his HonorBeforeReason has caused a lot of damage that would have been avoided if he had simply chosen one of the several less honourable options he had been presented with.
** When [[spoiler: Stannis]] pulls off a BigDamnHeroes at the Wall, he says that [[spoiler: Davos]] made him realise that, even though it might not benefit him, it was his ''duty'' as a prospective king to save his kingdom. Regrettably, the readers only hear a summary of what was said, [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome and don't actually get to see the speech in its entirety.]]
** [[spoiler: Arianne]] and [[spoiler: Doran Martell]] give this to each other after the former has nearly gotten an innocent girl killed and started a war in a scheme to claim her birthright, which she only started because the latter's apparent passivity and secretive nature gave her good reason to think she had to force the people of [[spoiler: Dorne]] into action. The result of this reciprocal [[BuffySpeak What-The-Hell-Hero-ing]] is that [[spoiler: they mutually acknowledge their own faults, heal the breakdown of communications, and reconcile enough to work together.]]
* At least OnceAnEpisode in the books of Creator/DaleBrown, some legalistic person will condemn the Dreamland team for being {{Military Maverick}}s, at times going up to TurnInYourBadge level.
* Wendy, heroine of Creator/JohnCWright's ''Literature/WarOfTheDreaming'', calls out her husband for [[spoiler: killing an innocent person through his DealWithTheDevil]]. Trying to atone for this forms the base of Raven's character arc.
* ''Literature/TheActsOfCaine'' are rife with this in all directions, given how nastily the [[BloodSport Actors]] sent by the Studio act one they're on Overworld, and how much of a {{Jerkass}} Caine is. Notable ones in ''Blade of Tyshalle'' include the message sent by the dying primal regarding the HRVP infection, sections of Raithe's slow BreakingSpeech to a captured Caine, and Caine and Kierendal ripping each other verbally after the HRVP outbreak in Ankhana. That last example is an interesting two-way example of this trope (Caine is the obvious protagonist, and Kierendal suspects she may be saving the Folk and the city from a SociopathicHero).
* In ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'', when the orphans are forced to burn down a hotel to survive, they wonder if they are really the "good guys" after all. To elaborate [[spoiler: they have been framed for murder again and Olaf threatens to poison every person in the building. Sunny suggests the burning and reluctantly Violet and Klaus comply wondering what Sunny's plan was, since they had to worry both about getting out of this sticky situation alive and about saving all those people from the Medusoid Mycelium. They do it mostly to themselves but Justice Strauss also phrases it, even though she comes across as very naive. They then use the elevator to warn as many people as possible and Sunny reveals that she did this as a way to warn that it was no longer safe there.]]
** In ''The Wide Window'', the orphans briefly give Aunt Josephine one when she offers to let Olaf have them if he wants, so long as he lets her live.
** In a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome, at the end of ''The Vile Village'', Hector finally overcomes his fear of [[ItMakesSenseInContext stuffed crow hats]] to call out the village elders for their horrible treatment of the orphans, pointing out that the children have had nothing but poor treatment since their parents died, that the village was called upon to take care of them, and instead they just used the children as cheap labor. Of course, the village elders are only "heroes" in the sense that they aren't affiliated with Olaf...
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''
** There's a moment at the end of ''Literature/FoolMoon'', second novel, where he has to confront a pack of hexenwolves, or werewolves who use enchanted belts to change form. At this point, he's physically and magically exhausted. Having defeated one earlier and stolen his belt, he uses it, and becomes a raging monster. His wake-up call moment comes when he sees his reporter girlfriend, and she's terrified of him.
** In ''Literature/WhiteNight''
*** Murph calls out Harry when he lets his temper get the better of him and he flings a fireball at a building. As Murph points out, Dresdenverse magic can only be done when you truly ''believe'' in what you're doing. This fact is the wake-up call Harry needed to realize Lasciel's shadow was influencing him.
*** In New Mexico, Ramírez tried the same. All he achieved was Harry's mercy, by execution, for the ghoul he'd been torturing. Harry himself remained cold and angry and terrifying.
** In ''Literature/SmallFavor'' Harry gives the RageAgainstTheHeavens variety for God's perceived inaction when Lucifer ''twice'' [[spoiler:gives his earthly-bound minions access to Super Hellfire]] and all it seems God did was send two [[ThePaladin Knights of the Cross]] into action, and now one of those men is in the hospital fighting for his life. This catches the eye of a simple janitor, who states he can see how Harry could be angry, but that is because he doesn't see things like God does, from all angles at all times and all that could be, and perhaps where Lucifer was overt in his action, Heaven was subtle, giving someone the right hand at the right moment. Harry's own hand tingles and when Harry turns to the man the janitor is mysteriously gone. [[spoiler:Harry realizes the mysterious magic he threw earlier in the book but had no idea what it was is linked to this. As it turns out, the janitor was Archangel Uriel and he bequeathed Harry Soulfire, the Fires of Creation, to balance the scales]].
** It's averted in ''Literature/{{Changes}}'', when Harry agrees to [[spoiler:become Queen Mab's Winter Knight]]. Everyone understands why he did what he did, and offer their moral support. Then it goes double for substantial chunk of the next book, ''Literature/GhostStory'', features Harry mentally applying a What the Hell, Hero? to ''himself'' for the lines he crossed in ''Changes''. The other characters don't really get to do it until ''Literature/ColdDays.''
** Harry gives a few of these to Molly over the course of the series when she does something reckless, often when she's tried to once again MindRape someone despite being absolutely forbidden to do so ([[EvilTastesGood for extremely good reason]]) under pain of both her and Harry's deaths.
* In the French short story "The Blanket," the main character, having fallen on hard financial times, considers sending his elderly father away on his wife’s advice, [[UngratefulBastard despite his father having done much for him, including paying a dowry to secure his marriage]]. He then sends his son to get a blanket for his father (the boy's grandfather) to use when he’s away, and the boy cuts the blanket in two, [[CallingTheOldManOut telling his father that the other half is for him when he gets old]]. The main character then realizes what he’s done and apologizes to his father.
* In Chekov's story in the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' book ''Kobayashi Maru'', he gets called out for his actions during a training exercise where the cadets are told the scenario is one where one of them was [[TheMole a traitor]]. Chekov's solution, which is what he imagines his hero, Captain Kirk, would do? [[KillEmAll Stun all the other cadets]], including the ones who had allied with him, to make sure he wouldn't be taken out by the traitor. No cadet actually had been designated as a traitor; the exercise was to see how they dealt with a situation that could cause paranoia. (Kirk's solution had been to get everyone to ''cooperate''.)
** Mackenzie Calhoun from the Literature/StarTrekNewFrontier series got a doozy of speech from his first officer when he ran the Kobayashi Maru test when she disagreed with his solution: [[spoiler:destory the Maru, on the basis that if the ship was a trap, the explosion would damage the Klingon ship and, it is was a genuine distress call, he would be saving the crew from torture and execution at the hands of the Klingons while buying his ship time to escape.]] Amusingly enough, the first officer also got a speech for failing to obey his orders during the test.
* In ''[[Literature/{{Temeraire}} Victory of Eagles]]'', Captain Laurence is sent to take a group of dragons and interfere with French foragers, thus disrupting Napoleon's supply lines, and is told to "give no quarter", meaning that if any Frenchmen try to surrender...too bad. Eventually another character shows up and says, "Laurence, what are you doing?" [[spoiler: Unusually optimistically for this trope, this is, in fact, enough to get Laurence to stop.]]
* Joseph Rosenberger's ultra-violent ''COBRA'' novel series often has its "heroes" - a group of secret operatives - crossing the MoralEventHorizon for the sake of a mission. In one of the books a colleague challenges the team leader, Jon Skul, when Skul indicates that he needs to kill a police car full of cops in order to prevent them from interfering in a mission. Skul replies with a "put up or shut up" statement and proceeds to follow through with his plans.
* Literature/InDeath series: Eve got this from Peabody in ''Ceremony In Death'' and ''Witness In Death''. It made Eve feel bad. Eve, on her part, got to pull some epic ones with Don Webster in ''Judgment In Death'' and Karen Stowe in ''Betrayal In Death''.
* Literature/SisterhoodSeries by Creator/FernMichaels: The book ''Payback'' had Jack giving Nikki this after suffering a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown from three men with gold shields sent by Charles. Shortly afterwards, Nikki gives one to Charles. In ''Sweet Revenge'', Jack gives this to Nikki over the Vigilantes trying to get revenge on Rosemary Hershey by driving her literally insane!
* The prominence of BlackAndGrayMorality in ''Literature/ChroniclesOfMagravandias'' means that What the Hell, Hero? is almost the status quo of the series. The heroes of the story, such as they are, constantly disagree, do questionable to deplorable things, and argue with each other over who is less wrong.
* ''Literature/SkulduggeryPleasant'': Valkyrie gets this from Fletcher on a number of things in ''Death Bringer''. It even makes her pause and consider her actions. For a moment.
* No one is really happy with anything John does in ''Literature/DirgeForPresterJohn'', and he is often called out for his prejudice. Even Hiob, several centuries later, judges John for falling away from Christian teaching.
* ''Literature/{{GONE}}'' series;
** [[InsufferableGenius Astrid Ellison]] is constantly on the receiving end of this, both by the characters and the fandom. Especially when [[spoiler: she threw her brother out of a window.]] That spawned quite a reaction.
** [[ButchLesbian Dekka Talent]] gives one to [[GenkiGirl Brianna]] in ''FEAR'', and she raises some pretty good points too about her being selfish and having insane delusions of grandeur.
** [[DeadpanSnarker Diana Ladris]] LOVES giving these out. And she ain't pleasant about it, either, which usually makes for a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}}.
** [[BadassNormal Edilio Escobar]] is possibly better than anyone else at making Sam realize the implications of some of his actions, or inaction, as the case may be.
* Qwill gives ''himself'' one at the end of ''[[Literature/TheCatWho The Cat Who Played Post Office]]''. While his girlfriend Melinda is praising him for learning the truth about what happened to a missing servant girl, Qwill points out that by digging into the girl's disappearance, he caused those responsible for what happened to the girl to panic and kill three other women; if he'd stayed out of it, the killers would never have been brought to justice, but those women would still be alive.
* In ''Literature/StarTrekArticlesOfTheFederation'', President Bacco gives two of these speeches. The first is when she condemns the Federation Council for considering renewing trade agreements with Aligar, a culture whose exports are prepared by slave labourers - she later apologises for her behaviour. The second time, she points out the disturbing implications in the actions of Admiral Ross after the truth about his role in deposing President Zife comes to light. She notes that not only did he take it upon himself to remove the President from power, but in his public support for Bacco he also used his influence to encourage the ascension of a leader he personally preferred.
* In ''Literature/CaptainVorpatrilsAlliance'', [[spoiler:Simon Illyan]], who is implicitly trusted by the Emperor, especially in matters of national security, conspires to help a group of foreigners steal priceless historical treasures, starting a course of events which results in [[spoiler:the sinking of Imperial Security's headquarters]]. On finding out about this, more than one person's response is "What the ''hell'', [[spoiler:Simon]]?"
* Cathy and Chris are constantly demanding this of each other in ''Literature/FlowersInTheAttic''. Cathy because Chris is so easily duped by their mother, who is keeping them locked up. And Chris because Cathy is extremely critical of their mother, who is the only person they can rely on to take care of them.
%% * Luke calls Clary out (with good reason) at the beginning of [[Literature/TheMortalInstruments City of Glass]].
* In ''Literature/OfFearAndFaith'', Phenix has called out North on a couple occasions due to the latter’s [[BloodKnight tendency to]] [[PayEvilUntoEvil jump to extremes]]. However, North has far more conviction than Phenix does and often turns this around on him.
* In ''[[Literature/TheLandOfStories The Wishing Spell]]'', Carter calls the Fairy Council out on how they were punishing a fairy who lost her temper and turned the wings of another fairy who was teasing her into prune leaves for a few seconds (and how they were ready to ''banish'' her), but they weren’t doing anything about the Trolls and Goblins enslaving people. Though they don’t show their shame, they all admit that he’s right, and the fairy is pardoned.
* In ''Literature/TheUnderlandChronicles'', Luxa gets called out more than once on her behaviour.
* At one point in ''Literature/TheScorchTrials'', [[spoiler:Teresa psychologically and physically tortures Thomas to a severe extent, because WICKED had requested her to do so, and she believed it was for the best]]. When Thomas recovers from the ordeal, he is understandably angry at Teresa, especially since she didn't try to find another way to go about things, as Thomas and his friends had on many occasions. Teresa believes she has nothing to apologize for, due to being ordered to make the hard choice between letting WICKED murder him, or hurting him emotionally herself. She gets annoyed at Thomas because he resents the way she treated him. Teresa acts like nothing happened and tries to continue their budding young romance, even kissing Thomas to shut him up. Thomas calls her out on her behavior [[spoiler:and is completely turned off to her for the rest of the series]].
* ''Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh'' has one near the end, though it's more about arrogance than vile deeds. Having finally reached the ends of the earth, Gilgamesh asks the immortal man Utnapishtim how to never die. Utanpishtim gives a long and terrifying account of how he saved every living thing from a flood sent by an angry god by gathering them all in an ark[[note]]the first recorded instance of the Deluge myth, which you may know better as Noah's Ark[[/note]] and enduring the subsequent terrors. For this, the other gods rewarded him and his wife with immortality. Then he says, paraphrased, "so what did ''you'' do to earn eternal life lately?"
* Lucy from ''Literature/TheSexLivesOfSiameseTwins'' saves two homeless men from being killed by a deranged gunman and is hailed as an instant hero by the media. This quickly changes once it's revealed that she, in reality, saved two serial pedophiles from a broken victim of child sexual abuse.
* Helga delivers a few of these in ''Literature/{{Unique}}''. Don't ever discharge your firearm in her presence without confirming your target, and don't ever tell her to trust the government.
* ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'':
** ''Divergent'':
*** {{Subverted|Trope}} when [[spoiler:Al commits suicide following Tris's]] RejectedApology. Four doesn't call [[spoiler:Tris]] out for that, since her anger is reasonable given the circumstances, though he does ask if her anger at [[spoiler:Al is useful after his death]] but for sticking out like a sore thumb and risking trouble.
*** Tris's dad calls her out for [[spoiler:shooting Peter in the arm]]. Though she points out that, despite being Dauntless, he is cowardly and borderline psychopathic and lives depended on it. She knows he will give in quickly once he is in pain.
** In ''Insurgent'', Tobias calls out Tris multiple times of being suicidal. In return, Tris calls out Tobias for being a hypocrite. He tells her that she's strong enough to take her scolding, but still tries to "protect" her. He insists she be open and honest with him, while still insisting on the right to keep his own secrets. He says he trusts her perceptiveness, but refuses to listen to her warnings about people ''repeatedly''. Thankfully, the both of them get better. Eventually.
* In ''Literature/StarTrekDestiny'', Geordi La Forge gives Captain Picard this when he decides that the best way to beat the Borg is to use thalaron weaponry, a weapon so deadly people died to stop it from being used. Geordi specifically points out that he wasn't going to sully Data's memory to use a weapon he gave his life for to prevent being used - when he goes to object to Picard, he's not doing the 'I want it on the record that I protest this action' spiel we'd seen done many times, he outright refuses to do it, telling Picard that he can relieve him of duty and court-martial him for it, but he will under absolutely no circumstances develop or utilize ANY thalaron weapons.
* In one of the ''Literature/LeftBehind'' novels, a minor character who has been pretending to be a Christian but has secretly been lining his pockets at their expense and may be planning to betray them is tricked and cheated by the main characters, who are congratulating themselves about it when ''another'' minor character asks them almost literally the trope question. His point is that they've almost certainly doomed the guy to everlasting hellfire because he ''might'' eventually have repented and become a Christian for real, but after being cheated by them there's no way he will ever do so now. Given the general tone of the books (where "Christian" and "Good" are treated as essentially synonymous), this is rather surprising (and a bit of a TakeThat to the reader, who was probably rejoicing along with the protagonists at their "victory").
* A handful of times in the Literature/RizzoliAndIsles series, Jane Rizzoli gets called out on her IrrationalHatred of beautiful women (which is out of jealousy that she herself is average looking). In particular, her first partner Thomas Moore adds a dash of BrutalHonesty to this when he suggests that what really turns men off isn't her plain looks, but her brusque and abrasive personality.
--> "What guy is going to like you when even YOU don't like yourself?"
* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': Katniss imposes this on herself a few times, most notably in Mockingjay [[spoiler:when, after killing the unarmed woman, Katniss notes how she's graduated to killing unarmed civilians, and also notes in passing that she's become so accustomed to killing that she forgot all about taking the woman's life]].
* ''Literature/CityOfLight'': Rahze's companions react this way when he kills a defenseless man in cold blood for striking him.
* ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'':
** In ''Literature/ManaMutationMenace'', Kasile gives [[spoiler: Nolien]] a royal dressing down for knowingly setting off Dnnac Ledo's anti-ordercraft alarms, thus endangering the Medical Mana Mutation negotiations and potentially starting a war.
** In ''Literature/TranscendingLimitations'', Eric is enraged by the Ordercrafter Hunters kidnapping human infants in Sueno. They see themselves as {{The Kindnapper}}s and he sees someone separating a child from their parents.
** In ''Literature/TranscendingLimitations'', Annala is struck and berated by Meza and then scolded by Sagart for [[spoiler: launching depopulation arrows at ten towns as a MercyKill for the hopelessly mentally dominated people living there.]] Once she comes to her senses, she has a MyGodWhatHaveIDone. [[spoiler: Fortunately, her future self steps in and saves the towns.]]
* In the ''Literature/DreambloodDuology'', Sunandi at one point asks how Ehiru and Nijiri can effectively live as hitmen. They in turn ask her how she can lie for a living.
* In ''Literature/{{Below}}'', Brenish goes off on Tibs for [[spoiler:murdering [[AssholeVictim Dex]] by [[MurderByInaction letting an approaching danger]] sneak up on him]]. Tibs isn't having it, claims full justification, and throws it right back in Brenish's face—for which Brenish later chastises ''himself'' for beginning to think too much like their boss. BewareTheNiceOnes, indeed.
* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'': After going through Hell and climbing up a mountain of trials to meet his long-dead lover, our great hero is met with a stern, distant woman who reminds Dante that he forgot her after his death, chased women who lacked any of her goodness, and set himself on a self-destructive path in life despite all the good she did for him. She refuses to show him any kindness and reminds him of his failures until Dante bursts into tears.

* Quentin Coldwater gets generous lashings of this in ''Literature/TheMagicians'' as his behavior turns more unpleasant and more reckless: the first two doses come from Alice, who is first enraged at him for cheating on her - enough to punch Quentin in the face - and secondly infuriated with the fact that he's growing dissatisfied with Fillory after all the time he spent wishing he could be there. Ember delivers the third dose when Quentin [[NiceJobBreakingItHero screws everything up]] and accidentally gives the Beast everything he wanted, wearily pointing out that Fillory isn't a playground where Quentin can play at being a hero.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/TheGentleVultures": The human calls out the Hurrians for only acting after the war happens instead of helping to prevent it.
* ''Literature/TheMarvellousLandOfSnergs'': The King of the Snergs berates Gorbo for bringing Joe and Sylvia to their city instead of taking both kids back to the Miss Watkins' colony where they would be safe.

** Phineas' portrait gives Harry the WhatTheHellHero treatment when he's about to flee at Christmas, taking his ChronicHeroSyndrome too far.

* ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'': DeadpanSnarker Bartimaeus does this constantly to Nathaniel; it is practically the basis of their relationship. Sadly, Nathaniel rarely seems to get the point. This is especially ironic because Bartimaeus is a borderline NobleDemon and Nathaniel is ostensibly the KidWithTheLeash. It is open to interpretation whether Bartimaeus actually ''cares'', or just gets his kicks seeing Nathaniel squirm.

* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'': After going through Hell and climbing up a mountain of trials to meet his long-dead lover, our great hero is met with a stern, distant woman who reminds Dante that he forgot her after his death, chased women who lacked any of her goodness, and set himself on a self-destructive path in life despite all the good she did for him. She refuses to show him any kindness and reminds him of his failures until the mighty hero of the ''Comedy'' bursts into tears.

** [[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/chrysalis-20-5/ Chapter 20.5]] has [[spoiler:Taylor]] calling out [[spoiler:Dragon and Defiant]] for breaking the unspoken superhero/supervillain rules by [[spoiler:outing her secret identity in front of a cafeteria full of high school students]] -- a maneuver which, incidentally, could have put a lot of civilians in danger. Her arguments are actually compelling enough that [[spoiler:a third of the students join her and help her escape from the superheroes]].

* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'':
** In ''Inferno'' Canto 5, the protagonist lets the sweat words and ode to love of a damned adulteress to stir his sympathy not even two circles into Hell. Virgil is shocked and asks the hero what he's thinking shortly before he faints from disproportionate sympathy.
** After going through Hell and climbing up a mountain of trials to meet his long-dead lover, our great hero is met with a stern, distant woman who reminds Dante that he forgot her after his death, chased women who lacked any of her goodness, and set himself on a self-destructive path in life despite all the good she did for him. She refuses to show him any kindness and reminds him of his failures until the mighty hero of the ''Comedy'' bursts into tears.

* Literature/CyranoDeBergerac: Thanks to his MommyIssues and insecurities Cyrano ruins two lives besides his own, Roxanne and Christian's. Nice going.

* One of the Literature/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse short-story collections had a tale with an AI that could recharge itself off emotions, attempting to get enough power to send a message and prevent the destruction of the planet it was on. In the end, it decided that the best solution was to call the Doctor out on some of his less pleasant actions - such as abandoning his daughter on a relatively barbaric world and inciting a race to war to find his lost pen.

* Parodied in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'' by Susan: "... and then Jack chopped down the beanstalk, adding murder and ecological vandalism to the theft, enticement and trespass charges already mentioned, but [[KarmaHoudini he got away with it and lived happily ever after]] without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done. Which proves that you can be excused just about anything if you're a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions."

** A twofer in the person of Kyp Durron. Durron ''destroys an [[ApocalypseWow entire inhabited solar system]]'' while DrunkOnTheDarkSide, and when he sobers up Luke takes him in with no questions asked. Luke is called out for this by Corran Horn and his own future wife Mara later on, while Durron hears about it [[NeverLiveItDown for the rest of his life.]]

* The Franchise/StarWarsLegends work ''Before the Storm'' had Luke being called out on boasting about destroying the Death Star, the accuser pointing out the deaths of the million people onboard. Of course, Luke points out that the Death Star was a ''planet-killing superweapon''.
** In ''[[ComicBook/XWingSeries Wraith Squadron]]'', the Wraiths pull a prank that gets a cantina full of people to think that one of their female pilots is married to their [[PigMan Gammorrean]] pilot. Falynn is highly offended and doesn't find this funny, but then Piggy stops her, asks if she'd react like this if the prank had involved, say, Kell instead of him, and she immediately realizes that she's [[FantasticRacism being speciesist]], realizes that it ''is'' funny and apologizes, and they play along with what the cantina thinks, HoldingHands like young marrieds.

* The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse work ''Before the Storm'' had Luke being called out on boasting about destroying the Death Star, the accuser pointing out the deaths of the million people onboard. Of course, Luke points out that the Death Star was a ''planet-killing superweapon''.

** In ''Literature/WhiteNight'', Murph calls out Harry when he lets his temper get the better of him and he flings a fireball at a building. As Murph points out, Dresdenverse magic can only be done when you truly ''believe'' in what you're doing. This fact is the wake-up call Harry needed to realize Lasciel's shadow was influencing him.
** In New Mexico, Ramírez tried the same. All he achieved was Harry's mercy, by execution, for the ghoul he'd been torturing. Harry himself remained cold and angry and terrifying.

* In one of the ''Franchise/LeftBehind'' novels, a minor character who has been pretending to be a Christian but has secretly been lining his pockets at their expense and may be planning to betray them is tricked and cheated by the main characters, who are congratulating themselves about it when ''another'' minor character asks them almost literally the trope question. His point is that they've almost certainly doomed the guy to everlasting hellfire because he ''might'' eventually have repented and become a Christian for real, but after being cheated by them there's no way he will ever do so now. Given the general tone of the books (where "Christian" and "Good" are treated as essentially synonymous), this is rather surprising (and a bit of a TakeThat to the reader, who was probably rejoicing along with the protagonists at their "victory").

* In ''[[Literature/InheritanceCycle Brisingr]]'', Sloan finally calls out ostensibly heroic sociopath Eragon on his actions in a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.

** In a CrowningMomentOfAwesome, at the end of ''The Vile Village'', Hector finally overcomes his fear of [[ItMakesSenseInContext stuffed crow hats]] to call out the village elders for their horrible treatment of the orphans, pointing out that the children have had nothing but poor treatment since their parents died, that the village was called upon to take care of them, and instead they just used the children as cheap labor. Of course, the village elders are only "heroes" in the sense that they aren't affiliated with Olaf...

** [[DeadpanSnarker Diana Ladris]] LOVES giving these out. And she ain't pleasant about it, either, which usually makes for a CrowningMomentOfFunny

** Phineas' portrait gives Harry the WhatThe HellHero treatment when he's about to flee at Christmas, taking his ChronicHeroSyndrome too far.

* ''Literature/GriffinRanger'': Harrell, the JerkAss lead protagonist, does the one unforgivable thing for a griffin - he panics and kills an insane hanz (a ServantRace tightly allied with the griffins) that was trying to kill his partner Kwap, and ''compounds'' the mistake by killing Ranger Rekken, for whom the hanz was a servant - all because the BigBad [[IHaveYourWife had Rekken's lifemate and chicks.]] To his credit, he immediately recognized that his shred-first-and-ask-questions-never approach [[NiceJobBreakingItHero just screwed both of them but good]] - and comes back to haunt him again and again later on.

* ''Literature/GriffinRanger'': Harrell, the JerkAss lead protagonist, does the one unforgivable thing for a griffin - he panics and kills an insane hanz (a ServantRace tightly allied with the griffins) that was trying to kill his partner Kwap, and ''compounds'' the mistake by killing the Ranger for whom the hanz was a servant - all because the BigBad [[IHaveYourWife had his lifemate and chicks.]] To his credit, he immediately recognized that his shred-first-and-ask-questions-never approach [[NiceJobBreakingItHero just screwed both of them but good]] - and comes back to haunt him again and again later on.

* ''Literature/GriffinRanger'': Harrell, the JerkAss lead protagonist, does the one unforgivable thing for a griffin - he panics and kills an insane hanz (a servant race tightly allied with the griffins) that was trying to kill his partner Kwap, and ''compounds'' the mistake by killing the Ranger for whom the hanz was a servant - all because the BigBad [[IHaveYourWife had his lifemate and chicks.]] To his credit, he immediately recognized that his shred-first-and-ask-questions-never approach [[NiceJobBreakingItHero just screwed both of them but good]] - and comes back to haunt him again and again later on.

* ''Literature/GriffinRanger'': Harrell, the JerkAss lead protagonist, does the one unforgivable thing for a griffin - he kills an insane hanz (a servant race tightly allied with the griffins) that was trying to kill his partner Kwap, and ''compounds'' the mistake by killing the Ranger for whom the hanz was a servant - all because the BigBad [[IHaveYourWife had his lifemate and chicks.]] To his credit, he immediately recognized that his shred-first-and-ask-questions-never approach just screwed both of them bigtime - and comes back to haunt him again and again later on.