Individual Fics
Amphibia- Sasha and the Frogs: Sasha blames herself for getting herself and her friends transported into another world.
- Eleutherophobia:
- Tom blames himself for wandering into the back of a Sharing meeting and getting infested in The Day the Earth Stood Still, though he later learns to not victim-blame himself.
- In Ghost in the Shell, Tobias blames himself for Rachel's death, because he thinks that refusing to stay human was what caused her to have nothing left to live for. Tom talks him out of it.
- What Tomorrow Brings: Menderash blames himself for getting everyone sent back in time, because it was his idea to go searching for Ax, which ultimately got Jake et al killed.
- Maybe the Last Archie Story: Archie comes up with a plan to free Sabrina and her family from Mad Doctor Doom. Unfortunately, the gang is unable to rescue Sabrina, and Moose gets stabbed by Doom's henchman as he is releasing Sabrina's aunts. While making his way to the hospital, Archie blames himself for Moose getting wounded.
- Blackbird (Arrow): Sara Lance, who blames all the suffering her family went through (particularly Laurel's stint in the League of Assassins) on her decision to go on the Gambit. While to an extent that's true, what happened to Laurel is mainly their mother Dinah's fault, as she's the one who made the choice to trade Laurel to the League for Sara's freedom and essentially forced a traumatized Sara to go with it when the latter tried to protest the decision. In some ways, Sara is as much of a victim of the situation as Laurel herself is, as Oliver himself notes when he learns the full story.
- The Cutting Edge:
- Thea blames herself once Moira announces her refusal to follow up on the issues raised by the Restons' lawsuit, as the younger Queen recognises that there are many people in the Restons' position who didn't turn to crime and feels it's unfair that they should all suffer because of the Restons' actions.
- Likewise, Laurel blames herself both for how Thea's life has been in danger in unfamiliar circumstances and how some consequence of her changes led to Oliver recruiting Naomi rather than Felicity as his tech expert. Sara has to explicitly tell Laurel that people are going to make their own decisions in response to Laurel's actions and she can't keep trying to force a particular version of events on to them.
- To Hell and Back (Arrowverse): Cisco ends up blaming himself for Rupture almost killing his parents because he was so determined to stay away from them that he didn't even realize anything was wrong until it was almost too late. Dante, who is far and away the person who was harmed the most in this situation, tells him that he shouldn't blame himself for what Zoom did and the two brothers actually start to reconcile.
Avatar: The Last Airbender / The Legend of Korra
- The Saga of Avatar Korra: Asami Sato says this during Chapter Fourteen after the Red Lotus kidnap Korra and Asami realizes that Korra is the Avatar. She realizes that if she told other people she saw Korra use two elements at once when they were children, she could have helped save Korra from her fate years ago.Asami: I never wanted to be right. If I was right, then I never told anyone, and then... all this would be my fault. So, I guess it really is my fault in the end. I could have stopped it years ago.
- In Did I Make the Most of Loving You?, Sam Anders blames himself for the damage the Fleet suffered in the attack on the Cylon hub after he led the Colonial survivors and the renegade Cylons to the Fleet, but Kara assures him that he's not to blame for what happened and they would have needed to form such an alliance and mount an attack like that eventually even without his presence.
- In "Extreme Measures
", Sweets and Cam each take the blame for Booth and Brennan's current distance after Booth's brain tumour, as Sweets is worried that he basically convinced Booth he wasn't actually in love with Brennan and Cam told Brennan to go away for a few weeks to give Booth time to stop confusing the real Brennan with the Brennan in his dream.
- This is almost a stock phrase of Rainbow Dash shortly before and during her Heroic BSoD in Ace Combat: The Equestrian War.
- All For Luz:
- As Luz breaks down in tears in chapter 11, she believes she has failed her fallen camper friends, including Julia, when finds their butchered corpses.
- Stanley has this reaction when he discovers that Kennedy had half his team killed because he refused to hand Luz over to him and failed to warn his comrades in time. Despite being mad at him for not speaking up sooner, Luz reassures him it's Kennedy and his followers that are to blame for the slaughter. Despite he still tells Luz to take away his Quirk, believing himself to be unworthy of having superpowers.
- In chapter 13, Camila has this reaction when she hears what happened to Luz at summer camp she sent her to. That she had to kill several people around her age to avoid being killed herself. Doctor Rodriquez and Luz try to assure her it isn't and she couldn't have foreseen this happening.
The amount of guilt that racked the Noceda Matriarch was unlike any she had felt before. What happened at that camp was something that Camila could have never seen coming, Luz and Dr. Rodriquez said so. She knew that, and yet she blamed herself for sending Luz there. Luz should have never gone to that camp. If she hadn’t sent Luz to that camp, then Luz would have been happier. She wouldn’t have to deal with all this. - Avenger Goddess: Tony blames himself for the deaths caused by Vanko's attack even as Diana assures him that men like Vanko would find some reason to kill even if he didn't choose to focus on Tony.
- Avengers of the Ring: In the sequel Methteilien, Stark and Gandalf briefly blame themselves for Thanos learning about Loki's continued survival, but Thor reminds them to focus on the task at hand as only evil considers itself to be perfect and they must just accept that they made mistakes. Later, Sam Gamgee blames himself for how his daughter has been corrupted to become the Reaper, but all his allies affirm that Thanos alone is responsible for what has happened to Eleanor.
- Avengers: Infinite Wars: In Chapter 50, Padme reveals to the Avengers and Anakin that she salvaged Ultron's head and helped him get a new body, blaming herself for his subsequent attacks, but the Avengers all assure her that Ultron's dangerous enough that he would have found a way to be a threat even without her 'help'. In the same chapter, Mace Windu briefly seems to blame the Avengers for Ultron's attack, but Obi-Wan Kenobi halts that train of thought by pointing out that the Avengers had every reason to believe Ultron had been destroyed and can't be held accountable for not planning for a foe they assumed was gone for good.
- BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant (BlazBlue & RWBY):
- Ruby blames herself for when Noel ran away and suffered her identity crisis, feeling that, due to maintaining Noel and Penny's secret, she allowed things to spiral out of control.
- Part of why Yang became more temperamental after learning the truth about her mother was due to self-loathing, as she blames herself for almost getting Ruby killed in her hunt for answers years ago, and now that she has those answers, she feels like she risked her sister's life for nothing.
- Fallout: Equestria (Fallout & My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic): There were a lot of things that caused the war and a lot of things that made it worse, but one of the big ones was the massacre at Crescent Moon Canyon, where every pony (including the children) at Luna's school was killed over a misunderstanding with the nearby zebras. Celestia, Luna's sister, blamed herself for putting the school there in the first place. It was part of the reason she eventually stepped down.Celestia: I chose the site for Luna's school. There were three sites equally suitable, but I chose Crescent Moon Canyon because it amused Me. Because I wanted to see My Sister's face when I told Her I was sending Her students to the moon...
- The God Empress of Ponykind (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic & Warhammer 40,000): Celestia towards the end blames herself for Luna's fall and the Horus Heresy, saying that if she had stopped for a moment and just talked with Luna and Horus there might have been a different outcome. Horus forgives her, and says he also deserves some of the blame because he willingly chose to rebel instead of seeking a better alternative.
- Discussed in the Infinity Crisis spin-off In Hand and Foot when Matt Murdock starts talking about how he sees himself as responsible for those Fisk has killed, only for Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) to inform Matt that the heroes aren't responsible for the people Shredder and Fisk have killed because they chose not to kill their foes.
- Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: After a huge argument and Chloe leaving the Cerise Lab then subsequently being taken into the Infinty Train, Goh realizes that it's all his fault for ignoring her and never caring once about her feelings. He ends up heavily blaming himself for her disappearance.
- I'm a Marvel... And I'm a DC (The DCU & Marvel Comics): Spider-Man. From this episode:Batman: Don't you know, Spider-Man blames himself for Marvel losing the Transformers?
Hulk: But why?
Batman: I don't know, he blames himself for everything! - Last Child of Krypton (The DCU & Neon Genesis Evangelion):
- In chapter 1 Touji blames himself because his little sister had the suicidal impulse to see a giant robot closely and he was unable to catch her in time and get her back into the shelter before the battle.He pulled her into the arch of one of the low buildings that ringed the outskirts of the city, not far from the school, and cursed himself. This was his fault, it was all his fault.
- Later Kaji blamed Shinji for the failure to take over NERV and Maya missing a limb. Despite it being due to Gendo's actions Shinji blamed himself.
- In chapter 1 Touji blames himself because his little sister had the suicidal impulse to see a giant robot closely and he was unable to catch her in time and get her back into the shelter before the battle.
- Lost in Camelot: Arthur is shown to be tormented at the idea that his mother died because of the spell cast to ensure his birth, even if he obviously didn't have a choice in the circumstances of how he came into the world.
- In Lost Latte, the Healing Animals and Healin' Good Cures, especially Asami, blame themselves for Latte going missing, thinking they weren't responsible enough. Later, Tsubasa and Sora blame themselves for Latte supposedly falling to her death.
- In The New Recruit, it's revealed that Matt Garrety feels this way about the deaths of Steve and Andrew. He feels that if he'd paid more attention to what was going on between Andrew and his dad, then maybe he could have saved them both. He also holds immense guilt for Andrew's death, even though Coulson tells him that he did what he had to do. It's largely this attitude that makes him receptive to joining SHIELD.
- In the remastered version of The Night Unfurls, Alicia blames herself for her failure to rescue two more villagers from their fates during her hunt for an orc den with Kyril, even if those two are beyond saving by the time they arrived.Alicia: I still failed to rescue two others. It was my fault for not doing enough.
Village leader: [sighs] The Goddess protects all, but we must be careful when we venture out into the wild. - The Search for Victory: Daniel blames himself when a Prior comes to a planet he visited during the search, but the planet’s Head Protector makes it clear that Daniel can’t blame himself for what his enemy does.
- Shadows over Meridian:
- Elyon and Will both have this attitude when they realize that Kage was innocent of having served Phobos, and they hurt her for no reason. Elyon especially has this, being the most remorseful and taking responsibility when Tynar confronts her, saying it's her fault. While she's furious to learn someone countermanded her orders about Kage (throwing her into the Infinite City dungeon when Elyon wanted her kept in the castle), she also acknowledges even without it that her own treatment of Kage was just as bad.
- Albel, feeling he's failed to keep Vera safe from herself, blames himself when he learns she secretly went rogue and took five other nobles with her on a suicide mission to have her revenge.
- Metalbeak ends up feeling ashamed that he savagely killed Vera's grandfather in front of her eyes instead of just finishing him off out of the girl's sight, because that put her on her path of becoming the revenge-driven young woman who'll gladly throw away her entire life to have her revenge on him and all the Mogriffs. He wanted to make "the Nest Butcher" pay for all the lives he claimed, and he ended up creating a new Butcher of his kind.
- In The Shattering of Oz, Dorothy basically has a breakdown as the Nome King taunts her with the idea that his attack on Oz was only possible because he acquired the Slippers due to her mistake, requiring Elphaba to discreetly visit Dorothy and assure her that she was just a child in a difficult situation who can't be blamed for the consequences of her mistakes.
- Spiderhead: Bruce feels horrible guilt over Peter losing his leg and nearly dying saving Batman. He more-or-less snaps out of it when Peter tells him a) his healing factor helps him come back from pretty much any injury, and b) spiders can regenerate lost limbs and he can grow the leg back.
- In the Cuphead fan comic from DeviantArt, "Cagney Is a Carnation" by fuyuflowga, Cagney Carnation has brought his unconscious adopted flower children out of the casino after having signed the Soul Contract in exchange for their lives in his Deal with the Devil, but believes that it's all his fault and that if he hadn't hesitated, they would not have been tortured by the Devil in the first place. Cagney decides to leave quietly but needs to find someone else responsible to take care of the flower children. Unfortunately, things start going From Bad to Worse...
- En Tempus Veritas: Starts because Clark blamed himself for Lana's apparent death around the time of his fight with Bizarro and Kara's arrival. After meeting the meteor freak Tyme, who has the ability to show people visions of their lives if a key event turned out differently, Clark's vision of a life with Lois helps him move past this to recognise that he isn't responsible for other peoples' actions, particularly since Lana still ended up 'dead' even without explicitly seeing his powers because of his mistakes.
- Mercy: In this DC Animated Universe fic, Diana is attacked by a Black Mercy that traps her in a world where Wonder Woman is Gotham's defender, married to District Attorney Bruce Wayne and enjoying a close relationship with a still-living Thomas and Martha Wayne. When Batman learns the nature of Diana's fantasy, he blames himself for the fact that Diana is basically living his heart's desire rather than her own, prompting Superman to ask if Bruce even knows how to feel anything but guilty for things he couldn't be expected to control.
- In Supergirl story Hellsister Trilogy, Kara blames herself for everything her evil clone does.Supergirl: Okay. I'm ready to intercept her. If she's killed 318 people already... that means I'm responsible for it, in a sense.
- In Ultimate DCU Headverse, Kara blames herself for Barbara's paralyzed legs only because she was not around to stop the Joker from shooting her friend.
- Beyond Heroes: Of Sunshine and Red Lyrium: Much as in canon, Varric feels this way about many of the events of the fic. Pretty much the only thing for which he doesn't blame himself is the fact that Bethany is now the Inquisitor, and that's mainly because he's just glad she survived the explosion.
- Shadow of Her Own: While talking to Lena, Scrooge McDuck revealed that he blames himself because Magica De Spell created Lena to use against him and abuse her because he accidentally turned Magica's brother Poe De Spell into a non-sapient crow and did nothing to help him. In tears, he hugs and apologizes to her for all the abuse she suffered under Magica because of his pride in refusing to see what his villains could do. Lena assured Scrooge that the abuse she suffered under Magica was not his fault and thanked him for all he did to help her.
- In "LOST", Webby has spent the last three years blaming herself for Dewey abandoning the rest of the group; she had been dating his roommate and Dewey left because he was in love with her himself, Webby only realising after he gave her a parting kiss and vanished how much it must have hurt him to see her with Max for months and feel like he couldn't tell anyone else about his feelings for fear of ruining the group dynamic.
- Luso had a period of this in The Tainted Grimoire due to being completely helpless and only being able to watch Sir Loin burn to death, despite being the one to defeat Vaticus Finch. Thankfully, Judgemaster Cid was able to talk him out of it by going over how flawed that line of thinking is.
- In Fire Emblem: Awakening fanfic Golden Threads Tie Us, Severa blames herself for her sister joining the enemy, reasoning that she should have stopped her from leaving when Morgan declared she was going to look for their father... ignoring the fact that she tried to stop Morgan, and her sister knocked her out with a sleep spell.Lucina peered at her for a moment, then turned away. It seemed like she decided not to press the issue – Lucina would understand her, Severa realized, because she was a big sister, too. I wonder what Lucina would do if something happened to Cynthia. No, Lucina never would let Cynthia come to harm. Not like Severa, who had let her own younger sister go right before her eyes, and now she was – it was all Severa's fault -
- In Kimberly T's Gargoyles, after the death of Lexington's clone Brentwood, Brooklyn in particular spends time berating himself for what happened, even though all of the gargoyles were uncomfortable around their clones and it's unlikely just one of the clan reacting better to the clones would have changed anything.
Godzilla / King Kong / MonsterVerse
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Thanks to the abuse from Ghidorah's other two heads, San has a tendency to assume he's at fault when something goes wrong, and he'll mentally beat himself senseless over it to a point bordering on Guilt Complex. In particular, once he has his Heel Realization and ever after, San blames himself for unwittingly taking Vivienne's human life and everything it meant to her to be human away from her by transforming her into his sister, and he seems to regard the act as one of his greatest shames.
- The Rigel Black Chronicles: Lily blames herself for what happens on Harry's thirteenth birthday, when Harry's newly matured magic leaves her overwhelmed, feeling like she's on fire, and unable to control her power. It wasn't really anything Lily did, though; that overwhelming level of power was inherited. Changing baby Harry's eye colour was Lily's doing, but not really her fault either; it wasn't a proper decision, just a passing whim that her wild magic carried out.
- Hellsing Ultimate Abridged: Alucard provides a humorous example in Episode 7.Alucard: Oh, so this is my fault then.
Police Girl: N-NO!!!
Alucard: Everything is my fault, apparently. Ate the last spotted dick pudding in the fridge... my fault. Crashed a car into the world's first British Dairy Queen... my fault. Unknowingly shot Archduke Ferdinand and blamed it on some other guy? AH, MY FAULT!
- Kanashī, Wütend, Desolato, a What If? for Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: Italy blamed himself and himself only for the ostracization and ridicule Germany and Japan faced because he was the one to reveal their relationship to the world. His immense guilt led him to want to kill himself. He only failed because it is nearly impossible to kill the countries' personifications.
- A Thing of Vikings;
- Hiccup blames himself when he realises that Mildew has been capturing dragons in his new village using the Mangler plans he stole from Hiccup before he left Berk.
- After Fearless (Toothless's just-rediscovered sister) dies saving them from the Screaming Death, Ruffnut privately blames herself as she feels that she could have done something if she hadn't frozen at a crucial moment, as her current baptized state left her concerned that she wouldn't go to Valhalla if she died.
- In Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, the Kamen Rider Club put the blame on themselves for not saving Gentaro from Ryusei's Deal with the Devil and becoming the Serpent-bearer to Ophiuchus with each of them giving specific reasons as to why they weren't helpful. This ranges from Shun not taking a step forward in the Power Dizer, JK not getting intel on Ryusei sooner, Yuki only screaming "Stop!" but otherwise not rushing toward her friend's side, etc.
- In SplitxEnd, Yayoi blames herself for not saving Haruto from a sword that killed him and then being forced to be resurrected as a Creepy Doll by Damballa.
- The Golden Wind fic when your late night friends leave you (in the cold grey dawn) has Guido Mista blame himself for Bruno Buccarati's death after the battle with Diavolo. This is because he not only shot at Buccarati's body while Doppio (who he thought was Diavolo) was in it thanks to Silver Chariot Requiem and thought the shots were nonlethal but also because he failed to prevent Buccarati's death through Rolling Stone. Giorno assures him that it wasn't his fault by telling him that Buccarati was killed days ago by Diavolo: he was able to move his corpse thanks to his willpower and Gold Experience's healing his body.
- Jurassic What If...?: In Episode 5 ("What If The Indominus Rex was in Jurassic Park?"), Robert Muldoon blames himself for the death and destruction wrought by the Indominus/Diabolus rex and the downfall of Jurassic Park.
- In The Outside, this is Ryuuko's reaction to finding out Satsuki is sick, as the latter's health took a left turn shortly after she was taken away. Shiro, however, reassures her that her sister being sick isn't anything she caused and that she would have gotten sick anyway.
- Kingdom Hearts Ψ: The Seeker of Darkness: In Land of Oblivion, Aqua spends quite a while blaming herself for her choices in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep as she's forced to relive them in Castle Oblivion, especially when it becomes apparent that a lot of those choices helped set in motion the events of the original games (sparing Maleficent in Enchanted Dominion, allowing her to manipulate Riku years later, and saving Terra-Xehanort from the Realm of Darkness, allowing him to become Ansem's apprentice). Kairi and Naminé become increasingly insistent on telling her otherwise, pointing out that Terra and Ventus were hardly blameless in their argument in Radiant Garden, and arguing that showing mercy is never a bad thing, nor was saving her friend.Kairi: None of what happened here was your fault. Could things have been different if you had stopped the conversation to explain things fully? Maybe! But would Terra and Ventus have actually listened to you? Maybe not! There's no way to know, and it's pointless to beat yourself up over the "could have happeneds" It's not helpful.
- Land Before Time Retold: Aylene blames herself for the death of Littlefoot's mother, remembering that she had a bow and arrows and could have shot Sharptooth or done something before he killed her.
- In The Portal, Cynder blames herself for the creation of the Dark Ones.
- In the opening chapter of The Legend of Zelda: Twisted Fates, Link is captured by the Ghost Ship and presumed dead; Tetra, having pushed him into boarding the ship instead of her, blames herself and spends the next five years mourning his loss.
- Burning Secret:
- Despite it being an accident, Lincoln is still wracked with guilt at burning down his school.
- When Lincoln’s sisters and parents found out that he was near the fire when it started, they guiltily hug him for brushing off his fears.
- In The Artist's Garden at Madripoor, Steve goes to Madripoor in order to acquire the last component for the Quantum Tunnel and discovers that Sharon is the Power Broker, the city's Judge, Jury, and Executioner. She refuses to give him the component unless he hands over his shield or Sam's wings (which she stole for him and led to her becoming a fugitive) as well as more or less stating that she's largely uninterested in bringing back everyone who disappeared in the Snap because it could threaten her position. When Steve angrily asks what happened to the woman he used to know, Sharon bitterly fires back that "That woman died when [he] abandoned her," causing Steve to feel anger and guilt for failing to find her and causing her fall from grace. He resolves to actually help her, such as getting her a long overdue pardon.
- In born of hell('s kitchen), Malcolm spent seven years blaming himself for Jessica losing her baby, as saving him put her on Kilgrave's radar and led to Kilgrave forcing her to give her son up for adoption.
- A Colder War: Steve goes through this in “Arctic Front” when he learns that Hank Pym has died on a mission that Peggy was going to ask him to take, but Tony and Janet each assure Steve that he isn’t responsible for what happened to Hank when he couldn’t have known the consequences of his refusal.
- In If I Could Start Again, Odin places the death of the Valkyrior squarely on his shoulders, and considers sending them to Nifilheim to fight Hela to be "the greatest tactical error of [his] entire reign." Considering how long lived he and his rule have been, that's saying a lot.
- The Storms of War: Steve refuses to let Sharon, who was recently injured during a mission and hasn't fully recovered yet, accompany him, Sam, and Wanda to Wakanda when they receive a distress signal, stating that it's too dangerous for her to go, upsetting her, which isn't helped by the fact that he had already basically left her behind after she stole his shield for him. When Sharon is left alone at the team's safe house, she's attacked by mercenaries and the fight ends with her blowing the safe house up. By the time Steve, Sam, and Wanda get back, they can't find Sharon in the wreckage which causes Steve to feel immense guilt for his decision to leave her behind. When Steve meets Sharon again, who was rescued by Natasha, the two share an intimate hug.
- Crimson and Noire: In chapter 39, it's revealed that Nathalie as Monarch is motivated by this. Nathalie was the one who found the Grimoire originally and gave it to Emilie. Emilie would use it to find and use the broken Butterfly Miraculous with Nathalie as her Champion, eventually falling into a coma. Nathalie wants to get the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous so Emilie can be brought back.
- Jerk in Sheep's Clothing: Adrien blames himself for Marinette being in a toxic relationship with Henri LeRoi. This is because Marinette told him (as Chat Noir) that the reason she always takes Henri’s side over her friends’ and automatically believes that they bully him instead of the other way around (which is what’s really happening), is because she lost faith in her friends after Lila got her claws into them. She also tells him she left out certain details about Lila’s true nature, like how she threatened Marinette in the bathroom, when talking to Adrien because of all the times he defended Chloé’s bullying in the past, so she didn’t think he’d take action should he know everything about Lila. Adrien believes that he could have nipped this whole thing in the bud if he had been more proactive in stopping Chloé. Then Marinette would have trusted him more, and they could have exposed Lila, meaning Henri would have never gotten the chance to sink his claws into her.
- Miraculous! Rewrite: This marks a critical turning point for Adrien during the "Syren" arc. Master Fu calls him out for his actions, namely not treating battles seriously and spitefully threatening to quit over being Locked Out of the Loop, and punishes him by revoking the Ring. Rather than blaming the Guardian for this, Adrien recognizes that he was right, accepting responsibilty for his own actions and striving to make amends.
- In Ruined With You, Marinette blames herself for (she believes) ruining Adrien's life by arresting his father, leading her to give up on pursuing her crush on him, and at one point wishes she and Chat could have just continued fighting the akumas instead of going after Hawkmoth. However, when Alya brings this up with Adrien, he unwittingly tells her otherwise. "Ladybug and Chat Noir, they did what they were supposed to do. Sure, I mean it sucks my dad’s a shit person, but, why would I hold it against them? If I was Chat Noir or Ladybug... I would do the same. I just kind of wish I had the opportunity to thank them, you know."
- Spots Off: Both Marinette and Alya insist on blaming themselves for the former being publicly unmasked: Marinette for not finding a better hiding place to change back, and Alya for having followed Ladybug into an alley with her camera phone running. Adrien is equally insistent on blaming neither of them, but it's hard to deny that they both made avoidable mistakes.
- Unexpected Surprise: Marinette keeps crying and apologizing after The Reveal about the mess that came from the Two-Person Love Triangle. Adrien keeps trying to reassure her neither of them is more at fault than the other, and once that fails, simply resorts to a "Shut Up" Kiss.
- Mastermind: Strategist for Hire: Tsukauchi blames himself for All Might's death during the attack at the USJ.
- Reading Rainbowverse: Spitfire apparently blames her father's death on herself. Whether this is accurate or not isn't entirely clear, but it has ruined her relationship with her daughter.
- Loved and Lost:
- For a good part of the story, the Mane Five, Spike, Princess Celestia, and Shining Armor all consider themselves failures for refusing to listen to Twilight's warnings about the false Cadance and abandoning her at the wedding rehearsal, as well as allowing the invasion of Canterlot to occur. This, along with the Jerkass Realization they have when Princess Cadance tells them the story of how Twilight helped her and Shining Armor get together, motivates them to return to Canterlot in order to restore their friendship with Twilight and correct their mistakes. When the heroes are captured again in the 11th chapter, they proceed to verbally demonstrate this.Applejack: Sorry, Princess. We let ya' down again.
Shining Armor: No, I did this. I was supposed to make sure Canterlot was safe. But I let Chrysalis impersonate Cadance and trick me with her obvious lies. I even let her turn me against my own sister. Twilight was right.
Celestia: No, Captain. I'm supposed to be the wise high ruler of Equestria with thousands of years of experience. But I couldn't even tell the difference between my own niece and an obvious imposter. I failed as a ruler, I failed as an aunt, and I failed as a teacher. I'm an absolute failure.
Pinkie Pie: Hey, don't take all the credit. We helped too.
Fluttershy: We turned our backs on our best friend when she needed us the most.
Rarity: All for the chance to participate in a stupid wedding that was doomed to failure.
Rainbow Dash: Some friends we turned out to be. - In the 12th chapter, when Princess Celestia is sentenced to be hanged, she feels so guilty about the pain and suffering her nephew Prince Jewelius, the true mastermind behind the Changeling invasion, caused for Canterlot's citizens that she delivers them as well as Twilight a heartwrenching apology and accepts her fate, believing that she could have prevented the disaster from happening had she been wiser about who to trust. Ironically, admitting these feelings of regret is exactly what it takes for everypony to start forgiving Celestia and demand her to be spared.
- Further amplifying the heroes' guilt is the reveal that Jewelius has been punishing the town of Ponyville for the actions of the Mane Five out of spite.
- Twilight has one of her own later on when she discovers that the loved ones she has rejected were right about how evil Jewelius truly is and how he caused the invasion.
- For a good part of the story, the Mane Five, Spike, Princess Celestia, and Shining Armor all consider themselves failures for refusing to listen to Twilight's warnings about the false Cadance and abandoning her at the wedding rehearsal, as well as allowing the invasion of Canterlot to occur. This, along with the Jerkass Realization they have when Princess Cadance tells them the story of how Twilight helped her and Shining Armor get together, motivates them to return to Canterlot in order to restore their friendship with Twilight and correct their mistakes. When the heroes are captured again in the 11th chapter, they proceed to verbally demonstrate this.
- In the MLP:FiM fan-made song called Lullaby for a Princess, Celestia blames no-one other than herself for her little sister's Face–Heel Turn and subsequent misdeeds.
- Naru-Hina Chronicles: As she was the team leader during the mission at the Nation of Steel, Sakura blames herself over Naruto's death during said mission (until Naruto is revealed to still be alive).
- In Oyuban, Naruto (after joining the Yakuza) feels like this about his short stint as the leader of a gang in The Land Of the Waves who all got killed by him (inadvertently) starting a gang war. The senior members of the Yakuza (who know about it) agree with him but encourage him to learn from it.
- The Child of Love: In the epilogue that happens several years after the end of the story, Asuka blames herself for her daughter Teri having Psychic Powers, even though Teri has powers because Gendo altered her DNA. It is true Ritsuko prescribed her pills to nullify Gendo's modifications and Asuka blames herself because she stopped taking them, but the doctor never warned her about the consequences.
- A Crown of Stars: When he is not blaming people like his father, Winthrop or Jinnai, Shinji blames himself for the state of the post-apocalyptic world -since he chose to end it- and for all what happened to Asuka and how messed up she was because he was not there to help her, support her and protect her.
- Doing It Right This Time: As Asuka notes, Shinji blames himself for all what happened in the original timeline, including messes were not his doing or he had no control about.Asuka: Yes, I remember everything. So do Rei and Shinji, who's probably hiding because he blames himself for what happened to you; in fact, come to think of it he blames himself for pretty much all of it.
- Ghosts of Evangelion: Shinji blames himself for Third Impact. Asuka tells him he shouldn't blame himself for what Rei did, even if he asked her to.Asuka: He still feels he's responsible for Third Impact, for the chaos the followed, and for the current state of world affairs. No matter what happens he feels it's all his fault, since he set it all in motion.
- The One I Love Is...: When Shinji found out that his friend Touji had become a pilot because NERV promised to take care of his sister (who had been accidentally hurt during Shinji's first battle), he blamed himself for his wounds, despite Rei trying to convince him that he was not responsible:"It's my fault... I failed to take control of the EVA... Father... my hands... he used me to harm Touji. And now... you say he piloted because of his sister? It's... it's all my fault! If I hadn't hurt his sister in the first place, none of this would have happened! Touji wouldn't have piloted! IT'S ALL MY FAULT!"
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide: Shinji blames himself for Asuka's breakdown:This was his fault: he should have helped her when the Fifteenth Angel broke into her mind; should have done something other than sit in his Eva, hearing her scream as her psyche was torn to pieces. And afterwards, he should have been there to comfort her, to let her know that she was not useless and need not be alone.
Because, despite everything, they had shared a close bond through their Evas. He was supposed to understand her just as he had here come hoping she would do the same for him.
This was his fault ... because he had done nothing. - Read the Fine Print (Evangelion): When Shinji wants to apologize to Touji for getting his little sister hurt, both Asuka and Rei point out that he should not apologize for anything: he was brought in because Rei got injured, blackmailed into riding a war machine which he had never seen, and pushed in front of a giant monster. It is Nerv who is to blame, not him.
- Thousand Shinji: Rei blamed herself for all what happened after chapter 13 Shinji and Asuka falling into the Sea of Dirac, Asuka getting forced to kill Hikari, Unit 01 absorbing Shinji... It was not a misplaced feeling, since she was so jealous of Asuka and angry at Shinji that she was downright useless in battle, and due to her attachment to the Commander, Shinji and Asuka could not act against Gendo after Hikari's death, forcing Shinji to leave for a while and showed up too late to fight Zeruel.
- Olive's Last Partner: Oprah takes full responsibility for the Boiler Room incident, stating that the entire ordeal was her fault because she failed to realize how dangerous Blobisites are, she failed to send Olive and Otto with more backup than just Oscar, and she failed to tell Oscar about Owen removing the lock on the Boiler Room door just before the trio went downstairs to resolve the issue. Later on, she kicks herself further for failing to realize just how dangerous of a workplace Odd Squad is and for nearly causing the premature deaths of three of her employees.
- In This Bites!, when Cross manages to speak with Merry's Klabautermann directly, she has this mentality for being too weak to carry her crew through the Grand Line. She even asks Cross why he isn't blaming her for being too weak.
- Hours 'Verse:
- Subverted. When Minato learns how Hamuko saved her version of Shinjiro, he briefly considers the possibility that he could have done the same, but quickly realizes that he couldn't have pulled it off because Shinjiro never would have opened up to him.
- Played straight when Nanako dies, with Minato regretting being unable to save her.
- In My Kingdom for My Heart, Goro blames himself for Akira falling under Maruki's sway because he lashed out at him for taking the deal.
- Pichi from A Pikachu in Love feels this way when her playful antics cause her and Pikachu to crash into an Ursarings den, and nearly gets Pikachu killed trying to protect them both.Pichi began to softly cry, and she moved close to Pikachu and hugged him. She rested her little head upon him, listening to his weak heartbeat and she prayed for him to be all right. She could never forgive herself if he were to die. If not for her fooling around then they would not have been in danger at all. Pikachu could have died because of it.
- Pokémon Reset Bloodlines: Ash discovers the graves of Brock's parents he begins to blame himself for killing them even though he never actually did anything to cause their deaths, forcing Pikachu to snap him out of it.
- Common Sense: Whenever Team Rocket succeeds in their schemes, Ash will be quick to blame himself for not stopping them, since he feels it's because of him they're growing stronger every time.
- The Road You Choose: During the final quest, Ash comes to feel like his choices are causing the deaths of people around him, leaving him terrified at the idea of making choices.
- The Return-Remixed: Kelly Kelly blames herself for Eve Torres winding up in the hospital after being power-bombed on the concrete floor by Victoria, as Eve volunteered to replace her in the match after Kelly quit the Diva Army. Eve assures Kelly she doesn't blame her and wouldn't want them to trade places. This scene leads Kelly to end her 10-Minute Retirement and rejoin the Diva Army's fight against DEAR.
- Rest In Piss: Piss Master's Daughter blames herself for her father's suicide and for not being a good daughter by comforting her father after he was humiliated; instead, she made fun of him in her podcast and ignored his calls to her until he stopped calling her.
- Web Video Can One Change Fix All Of RWBY: Weiss blames herself for Winter becoming a Witch, since she was the original candidate who Salem intended to convert before she left.
- From Beyond (RWBY): Ruby and Blake blame themselves for Jaune's death during Initiation as they each heard his scream and decided not to check on it as they thought he was weak and didn't want to partner with him. Ruby feels especially bad as Jaune had been her first friend in Beacon. For Blake, she did eventually choose to go help him (after mentally comparing herself to Adam), only to find Jaune already dead and being eaten by a Grimm.
- Tending to the Soul: Jaune blames himself for his family's deaths (not without justification). The night Jaune ran away from home to become a Huntsman, a pack of Grimm attacked his family and because Jaune had taken Crocea Mors, his father was forced to fight them unarmed. While Jaune did run back to try to help, he had initially hidden himself and only got back in time to see his mother get killed in front of him.
- Tennmimuhou: Koromo blames herself for taking Kana to exactly 0 points rather than putting her below it, resulting in the game continuing and her team being defeated. Thankfully, her teammates don't mind.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
- Cat-Ra: This version of Catra, having been given the power of She-Ra instead of Adora, blames herself for Adora's fall to villainy due to the years of mistreating her despite being best friends. She also blames herself for Bow and Glimmer getting kidnapped at princess prom and for Entrapta's supposed death when rescuing them. As these setbacks keep pileing up, she develops a Guilt Complex even bigger than the one Adora had in canon.
- En Tempus Veritas starts because Clark was doing this regarding Lana's death at the end of the sixth season; after he has experienced the vision of a life with Lois, Clark moves past this to recognise that he isn't responsible for other peoples' actions.
- Sonic X: Dark Chaos: Dark Oak holds himself responsible for the destruction of his race at the hands of Tsali... which led to him starting a brutal galactic war so he could take revenge on his wayward creation and find a way to rebuild his race no matter the cost.
- My Mother: When Padme is found frozen in carbonite by Leia and revived years after the destruction of the second Death Star, Padme blames herself for both her husband’s fall to the Dark Side and Palpatine becoming Chancellor in the first place as she learns about Vader's dark reputation.
- Guilt Undone sees Sam Carter repeatedly blame herself for Daniel Jackson's death on a mission; she had turned down his request for a date the night before, so he went off on his own on their next mission because he was feeling emotionally hurt and was attacked by the natives. Jacob Carter, General Hammond, Cassie Frasier and Jack O'Neill all try to tell Sam that what happened was just an accident, but Sam can't get past her own guilt over how her friend died because she told Daniel she'd never feel that way about him... and that was how she felt before Sam realises (on the one-month anniversary of Daniel's death) that she actually was in love with him.
- What You Already Know: Daniel has a few of these after receiving his psychic abilities, ranging from canon moments such as the escalating war on Tegalus to the battle with Ares on Maybourne’s new planet, which escalates to a more significant degree than the battle in canon, as Ares’ Jaffa realise that "Dan’yar" (Daniel's alias among the Goa'uld) is on the planet and deploys more resources to try and kill him.
- In Jimmy's Visit With Dr. Franklin Jimmy blamed himself for his brother's death as he told Ebon that he had a brother in the first place.
- Snow Blind: Raphael blames himself for Donnie getting ambushed by the Purple Dragons because he stormed out of the lair after an argument, and Don was attacked when he went out to look for him.
- Underneath the Sakura Tree: Tang Shen feels responsible for Miwa's death because the place she hid her while the Foot Clan attacked burned down before she could get to her.
- The Brother's Grimm: Bernard (Emily's brother) has this reaction when he learns about Seymour Murphy's crime, believing that none of it would have happened if he hadn't accidentally killed Murphy's father.
- The Demon Awakens: Emily's fireman has this reaction upon returning to work after the events that lead to Thomas brutally killing a truck, believing that if he hadn't insisted on Working Through the Cold, he wouldn't have knocked both himself and the driver out, Emily wouldn't have been injured and Thomas wouldn't have committed murder. The Fat Controller comforts him, telling him that he may have caused Emily's accident, but he didn't cause the truck's death.
- Unbreakable Red Silken Thread: A consistent and rather troubling side effect of Gwen's relationship with Duncan is the development of this. Due to the nature of their relationship it's not exactly surprising.
- In the Gensokyo 20XX series tie in, the Gensokyo Diaries, in Sanae's second diary entry, she thinks she's misbehaved, ergo, for said misbehavior, she deserves to be slapped, the implications of which surrounding may be that she hasn't done anything. Actually, she seems to think she has done something that would warrant any sort of punishment when it is likely she didn't.
- In the Beast Wars fic "Dying Young", while this is never explicitly stated, once Cheetor is diagnosed with a terminal illness Dinobot's sullen reaction prompts some of the other Maximals to wonder if Dinobot is blaming himself for Cheetor's condition, on the grounds that Cheetor is only on this planet because of Megatron's theft of the Golden Disc; if Cheetor got sick because of something on the planet he wouldn't be here without the theft, and if he just got sick he could have been properly treated on Cybertron.
- Momentary Weakness: Following Nia's coma, Mio is convinced that it's her fault, but can't find the words to explain why. She even offers up her core crystal to wake her up, to the horror of her parents.
