History Main / BloodOnTheseHands

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->''Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red.''
-->-- '''Macbeth''', ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', Act II, scene ii.

A StockPhrase meaning "to lay blame for a death (or several deaths)", with the person on whose hands the blood lies being responsible (though not necessarily ''guilty'', depending on the circumstances) for the loss of life. The phrase is often used in statements of [[DirtyBusiness personal regret]] or accusation, and characters who are particularly plagued by remorse often try to [[ShowerOfAngst wash away]] [[OutDamnedSpot their guilt]], though this usually proves to be a [[HeroicBSOD pointless endeavor]].

The visual twin to the phrase is TheseHandsHaveKilled, and the two are frequently paired up.

!!'''As a DeathTrope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

----
!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* A major preoccupation of Manga/RurouniKenshin, who's been WalkingTheEarth as TheAtoner for ten years when the series starts. The closest he ever comes to actually saying the trope name is during the prologue to the long Bakumatsu flashback sequence within the Jinchuu arc.
--->'''Kenshin:''' This one's wife. Himura Tomoe, who was killed by these two hands.
* Lelouch Lamperouge from ''Anime/CodeGeass'' is a recent example. He doesn't make a big deal out of death because (as he puts it in the first episode), "No matter how much you cry and scream, it won't bring them back." Instead, he thinks the best thing one can do for the dead is to carry out their wishes for them so their death wasn't [[SenselessSacrifice meaningless]]. By the point he [[DespairEventHorizon thinks his beloved sister is dead and his subordinates turn on him]], he enacts a plan to [[SilentScapegoat scapegoat himself to the world]]. When his sister turns up alive and well, his resolve is shaken, but he sticks it out and allows himself to be killed, hoping that it will give her a happy and peaceful world.
* Balsa from ''SeireiNoMoribito'' doesn't use the phrase directly, but her entire life so far has been about saving lives because she feels responsible for her foster father having had to kill six men (his own best friends, who were all members of a king's PraetorianGuard, to boot) to keep her alive.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Book]]
* When [[TheKingpin Wilson Fisk]] first fell from power in ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'', he muses on his early days as a street thug when he would get blood on his hands. At the end of the story, he brutally kills a bunch of thugs who believe his glory days are over and once again gets blood on his hands. Noticing this, and remembering that his first rise to power involved a lot of days with bloody hands, he washes his hands in a gutter and wanders into the streets more determined than ever to be the Kingpin again.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Fic]]
* One ''Literature/HarryPotter''[=/=]''ComicBook/{{X-Men}}'' [[http://bobmin.fanficauthors.net/Mutant_Storm/index/ crossover]] has Harry killing two Death Eaters - one of them with his bare hands, and then [[ShowerOfAngst sitting in a shower for about an hour making washing motions with his hands...]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* In ''Film/{{Avatar}}'', Jake Sully - a former Marine who might know first hand - tries to keep SmugSnake Selfridge from destroying a Hometree full of Na'vi children by telling him that he doesn't want that kind of blood on his hands. It doesn't work.
* Bruce Wayne uses this line (#1) in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' after Joker kills several civilians because Batman didn't reveal his identity.
* ''{{Dracula}}'':
-->'''Renfield''': I'm loyal to you, Master, I am your slave, I didn't betray you! Oh, no, don't! Don't kill me! Let me live, please! Punish me, torture me, but let me live! I can't die with all those lives on my conscience! All that blood on my hands!
* ''Oppenheimer'':
-->'''J. Robert Oppenheimer''': I feel we have blood on our hands.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In JamesSwallow's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' ''Literature/BloodAngels'' novel ''Deus Sanguinius'', after Gallio, Vode, and all their men are murdered, Rafen thinks it's his fault for having sent the message; their blood was on his hands.
* ''Literature/TheBible''. Pilate washes his hands to get the figurative blood of Jesus off of them. History lesson: it doesn't work.
** The blood of the thousands of ''other'' miscellaneous threats to Rome he crucified, of course, are presumed to have come off easily.
*** Incidentally, Pilate's act was actually something of a Roman tradition, indicating that the official responsible for an act was not acting for himself, but rather in his official capacity. In other words, he wasn't trying to "wash his hands" of the Crucifixion, but rather saying (more or less): "''I'' didn't do what just happened. That was the Roman State." Unfortunately for Pilate, very few non-Romans in that time and place understood the concept of separating the office from the person; it was quite the Roman concept, which didn't really translate for the mostly Jewish and Hellenistic Greek early Christians.
*** In the movie version of ''JesusChristSuperstar'', when Pilate washed his hands, the water he washed them in turned red.
* Also from the Bible: This was the very reason God instructed Solomon to build the Temple instead of his father, David.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'' has Bernardo [=deLaPaz=] admit that when they, as the new Lunar government, publicly out those members of the revolution who were actually paid informants of the overthrown government, those they expose as traitors will be murdered by members of the public. "I will not duck the responsibility. Their blood will be on my hands."
* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Wyrd Sisters'', the Macbeth Expy Lord Felmet has blood-red hands from the night he murders King Verence until the night he dies. However, the fact that he uses progressively harsher methods to remove the blood (including sandpaper and a metal file) implies that maybe the reason it doesn't come off is because the blood is coming from an actual wound rather than karma.
* When Dorian in ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray'' drives actress Sybil Vane to suicide, blood-stains appear on his portrait's hands.
* In ''[[Literature/{{Lensman}} Grey Lensman]]'', hero Kimball Kinnison indulges in this when trying to make Clarissa [=MacDougal=] understand what marrying him could entail. She basically tells him to can the dramatics; she knows perfectly well what his job entails.
* In Creator/GeneStrattonPorter's ''Literature/{{Freckles}}'', one villain objects to killing Freckles because he does not want this trope. They could have prevent him from seeing anything.
* In PoulAnderson's short story "No Truce With Kings", a new alien asks an old hand whether, when they see the future their DirtyBusiness is needed to bring about, the blood will wash off. The old hand says no.
* Averted in ''ASongOfIceAndFire''. When [[BadassPrincess Arya Stark]] commits her first cold-blooded killing (cutting the throat of a sentry), she sees the blood on her hands and casually notes that the rain will wash it off. [[ManipulativeBastard Lord Tywin Lannister]] emphasises on several occasions that there's no blood on ''his'' hands from acts which are regarded as heinous even in the CrapsackWorld of Westeros (killing the royal children of the previous regime, and plotting a violation of SacredHospitality) but are [[TheThirtySixStratagems Killing With A Borrowed Knife]]. King Stannis plays the trope straight however, when he dreams of his brother Renly's assassination by dark magic, carried out by a shadow assassin created from his LifeEnergy.
-->"It was a dream. [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial I was in my tent when Renly died, and when I woke my hands were clean]]."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* In ''{{Smallville}}'', Chloe has an unusual version as it is actually Davis/Doomsday that killed the person.
* ''Series/BabylonFive'':
** From the episode "Knives":
--->'''Londo Mollari''': No. The blood is already on my hands. Right or wrong, I must follow the path to its end.
** Also, '''Vir''' has an awesome drunken self-accusation scene after he kills Cartagia.
* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'': "Collaborators":
-->'''Tom Zarek''': They have a jury, but they don't get lawyers. They don't get to showboat for weeks and months on end. They don't get to blame the system. And the don't get lasting fame as martyrs or innocent people just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They just disappear. Now. In the great twilight between the long night of the occupation and the dawn of a new era, you come into office clean, without their blood on your hands.
* ''Dick Turpin'': "The Impostor"
-->'''Swiftnick''': Happened? What happened to you? What happened to Dick Turpin? Shall I tell you? He's a memory! I believed in him. A lot of us did. Because he meant freedom and a chance to hit back at injustice, to struggle from the mire! But he's a memory. And you, you stand there in his place. With my uncle's blood on your hands!
* ''Series/GeneralHospital'':
-->'''Emily Quartermaine''': And now the blood of those two innocent kids she killed is on your hands!
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': Chapter Sixteen "Unexpected"
-->'''S.R. Gustavson''': You take on a partner. All you get is their blood on your hands.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': "One of Us"
-->'''Juliet Burke''': I'm taking that medication back to Claire. And you're gonna let me. Because if she doesn't get it, she's gonna die. And the last thing that either of you need right now, is more blood on your hands.
* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather, who was chopping up fish at the time.
-->'''Salvatore Lucarelli''': [shrugs, chuckling] I have blood on my hands.
* Used in ''CSIMiami'': when Horatio has to [[ClearMyName clear his name]] he invokes this trope; the blood in question was the real killer's (he punched him in the face), which proves he was at the scene.
* Referenced/subverted in ''Series/{{Bones}}'': "The Hole in the Heart":
-->'''Booth''': I don't blame myself, Sweets, I blame the bastard who killed Vincent.\\
'''Brennan''': You still have blood on your hands.\\
({{Beat}} as everyone looks around awkwardly)\\
'''Angela''': Booth, [[LiteralMinded she means literally]].
* In the ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Things Past", Odo momentarily hallucinates his blood-drenched hands due to repressed memories of [[MyGreatestFailure his greatest failure]] coming to the surface.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* The rock opera penned by ''Music/TheProtomen'', Act II, track 4, "The Hounds".
-->"There is a flame that I've been fanning/There is a fire waiting to catch
-->There is a hell that has been building/From the moment we first met
-->If there ever was a time/If there ever was a chance
-->To undo the things I've done/And wash the bloodstains from my hands
-->It has past and been forgotten/These are the paths that we must take
-->'Cause you and I, Tom, we are men/And we can bend and we can break"
* MelodicDeathMetal band Arch Enemy's "Blood on Your Hands". The first track on the album, and considered to be the best.
-->"You were born your brother's keeper/Why can I see blood on your hands?"
-->"Blood is on your hands/The Wages of Sin"
* Music/IronMaiden's "Blood on the World's Hands".
* DragonForce's "Through the Fire and Flames":
-->Now here we stand with their blood on our hands
* The Used's "Blood on My Hands":
-->There's blood on my hands/Like the blood in you!
* Demons And Wizards, a collab of Blind Guardian's Hansi Kürsch and Iced Earth's Jon Schaffer, brought us "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIluk2fYjV0 Blood On My Hands]]".
* The Smashing Pumpkins' "Wound":
-->Wound opens, reveal this broken man
-->And soon, there's notions of blood on his hands
* IcedEarth's "Blood On My Hands".
** The ending of "High Water Mark" (and of the entire Gettysburg trilogy).
* Shackleton's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi5fVlVRous&hd=1 Blood On My Hands]].
* The ''VideoGame/MegaMan''-based rock opera by TheMegas has an example in "Look What You've Done".
-->'''Dr. Wily:''' ''I see his hands/(Robots are stronger than man)
--> Covered in my children's blood/(I will not let victory... fall through my hands!)
--> And his eyes do not waver.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* In Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth still envisions the blood, and cannot mentally remove it.
-->'''Lady Macbeth:''' Out, damn'd spot!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 4'', after Victor Zakhaev kills himself to avoid being captured:
-->'''Imran Zakhaev''': Our blood has been spilled on our soil. My blood on their hands.
* ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'''s Sakazaki Yuuya was more or less driven to do [[DirtyBusiness what he did]] as a child but considers it ''his'' crime. The dirty hands there are his.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0547.html O-Chul disclaims responsibility: the act is on your hands, not mine.]]
* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', Dave gets blood on his hands when he finds the dead body of his alternate self. He ends up staring mutely at them for about ten minutes. Also lampshaded when dirk kills a hegemonic brute: " You spend the next ten minutes thinking about it while you stand on his head and stare at the blood on your hands, as the often utilized stock graphic in the bottom corner of the image would indicate"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Visually done by WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic after he's recalled memories of being bullied due to ''{{Doug}}''. He then looks freaked and puts his hands back down.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Any athlete, medical practitioner, or *ahem* murderer will tell you that blood actually is a pain to get off your hands when it dries. It's very sticky and requires some scrubbing with good soap, and forget it if it gets on your clothes. There's a reason that detergents brag about being able to get blood stains out. What? Why is everyone looking at me like that? No, [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial I'm definitely not a serial killer with tons of personal experience.]]
[[/folder]]

----

->'''Macbeth''': ''Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red.''
-->-- '''Creator/WilliamShakespeare''', ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', Act II, scene ii.

* The VideoGame/MegaMan based rock opera by TheMegas has an example in "Look What You've Done".

* In ''{{Homestuck}}'', Dave gets blood on his hands when he finds the dead body of his alternate self. He ends up staring mutely at them for about ten minutes. Also lampshaded when dirk kills a hegemonic brute: " You spend the next ten minutes thinking about it while you stand on his head and stare at the blood on your hands, as the often utilized stock graphic in the bottom corner of the image would indicate"

[[quoteright:350:[[Theatre/{{Macbeth}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/19943_nicholas_gleaves_as_macbeth_at_the_royal_exchange1_5556.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:MyGodWhatHaveIDone]]

[[caption-width-right:350:MyGodWhatHaveIDone]]]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/19943_nicholas_gleaves_as_macbeth_at_the_royal_exchange1_5556.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:MyGodWhatHaveIDone]]

* When Wilson Fisk first fell from power in ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'', he muses on his early days as a street thug when he would get blood on his hands. At the end of the story, he brutally kills a bunch of thugs who believe his glory days are over and once again gets blood on his hands. Noticing this, and remembering that his first rise to power involved a lot of days with bloody hands, he washes his hands in a gutter and wanders into the streets more determined than ever to be the Kingpin again.

* Averted in ''ASongOfIceAndFire''. When [[BadassPrincess Arya Stark]] commits her first cold-blooded killing (cutting the throat of a sentry), she sees the blood on her hands and casually notes that the rain will wash it off. [[ManipulativeBastard Lord Tywin Lannister]] emphasises on several occasions that there's no blood on ''his'' hands from acts which are regarded as heinous even in the CrapsackWorld of Westeros (killing the royal children of the previous regime, and plotting a violation of SacredHospitality) but are [[TheThirtySixStratagems Killing With A Borrowed Knife]]. King Stannis plays the trope straight however, when he dreams of his brother's assassination by dark magic -- authorised by him and carried out by a shadow assassin created from his LifeEnergy.
-->"It was a dream. I was in my tent when Renly died, and when I woke my hands were clean."

* Averted in ''ASongOfIceAndFire''. When [[BadassPrincess Arya Stark]] commits her first cold-blooded killing (cutting the throat of a sentry), she sees the blood on her hands and casually notes that the rain will wash it off. [[ManipulativeBastard Lord Tywin Lannister]] emphasises on several occasions that there's no blood on ''his'' hands from acts which are regarded as heinous even in the CrapsackWorld of Westeros (killing the royal children of the previous regime, and plotting a violation of SacredHospitality) but are [[TheThirtySixStratagems Killing With A Borrowed Knife]]. King Stannis plays the trope straight however, when he dreams of his brother's assassination by dark magic.

* Averted in ''ASongOfIceAndFire''. When [[BadassPrincess Arya Stark]] commits her first cold-blooded killing (cutting the throat of a sentry), she sees the blood on her hands and casually notes that the rain will wash it off. [[ManipulativeBastard Lord Tywin Lannister]] emphasises on several occasions that there's no blood on ''his'' hands from acts which are regarded as heinous even in the CrapsackWorld of Westeros (killing the royal children of the previous regime, and plotting a violation of SacredHospitality) but are [[TheThirtySixStratagems Killing With A Borrowed Knife]].

* ''ASongOfIceAndFire''. Inverted when [[BadassPrincess Arya Stark]] commits her first cold-blooded killing (cutting the throat of a sentry), sees the blood on her hands and casually notes that the rain will wash it off. [[ManipulativeBastard Lord Tywin Lannister]] emphasises on several occasions that there's no blood on ''his'' hands from acts which are regarded as heinous even in the CrapsackWorld of Westeros (killing the royal children of the previous regime, and plotting a violation of SacredHospitality) but are a KillWithABorrowedKnife. This is noted contrast to the Starks who always do their own killing.

* ''ASongOfIceAndFire''. Inverted when [[BadassPrincess Arya Stark]] commits her first cold-blooded killing (cutting the throat of a sentry), sees the blood on her hands and casually notes that the rain will wash it off. [[ManipulativeBastard Lord Tywin Lannister]] emphasises on several occasions that there's no blood on ''his'' hands from acts which are regarded as heinous even in the CrapsackWorld of Westeros (killing the royal children of the previous regime, and plotting a violation of SacredHospitality) but are KillingWithABorrowedKnife. This is noted contrast to the Starks who always do their own killing.

* ''GeneralHospital'':

[[folder: Anime & Manga ]]

* Lelouch Lamperouge from ''Anime/CodeGeass'' is a recent example. He doesn't make a big deal out of death because (as he puts it in the first episode), "No matter how much you cry and scream, it won't bring them back." Instead, he thinks the best thing one can do for the dead is to carry out their wishes for them so their death wasn't [[SenselessSacrifice meaningless]]. By the point he [[DespairEventHorizon thinks his beloved sister (the person for whom he did everything) is dead]], he enacts a plan to [[SilentScapegoat scapegoat himself to the world]]. When his sister turns up alive and well, his resolve is shaken, but he sticks it out and allows himself to be killed, hoping that it will give her a happy and peaceful world.

[[folder: Fan Fic ]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

[[folder: Real Life]]

* The MegaMan based rock opera by TheMegas has an example in "Look What You've Done".

* Demons And Wizards, a collab of Blind Guardian's Hansi Kürsch and Iced Earth's Jon Schaffer, brought us ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIluk2fYjV0 Blood On My Hands]]''

* One ''Literature/HarryPotter''[=/=]ComicBook/{{X-Men}} [[http://bobmin.fanficauthors.net/Mutant_Storm/index/ crossover]] has Harry killing two Death Eaters - one of them with his bare hands, and then [[ShowerOfAngst sitting in a shower for about an hour making washing motions with his hands...]]

* ''{{Dracula}}''

* ''Oppenheimer''

* In JamesSwallow's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Literature/BloodAngels novel ''Deus Sanguinius'', after Gallio, Vode, and all their men are murdered, Rafen thinks it's his fault for having sent the message; their blood was on his hands.
* Literature/TheBible. Pilate washes his hands to get the figurative blood of Jesus off of them. History lesson: it doesn't work.

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Wyrd Sisters'', the Macbeth Expy Lord Felmet has blood red hands from the night he murders King Verence until the night he dies. However, the fact that he uses progressively harsher methods to remove the blood (including sandpaper and a metal file) implies that maybe the reason it doesn't come off is because the blood is coming from an actual wound rather than karma.
* When Dorian in ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray'' [[spoiler:drives actress Sybil Vane to suicide]], blood-stains appear on his portrait's hands.

* In PoulAnderson's "No Truce With Kings", a new alien asks an old hand whether, when they see the future their DirtyBusiness is needed to bring about, the blood will wash off. The old hand says no.

* In ''{{Smallville}}'', Chloe has an unusual version as [[spoiler:it is actually Davis/Doomsday that killed the person]].

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'': "Collaborators"

* ''GeneralHospital''

* MelodicDeathMetal band Arch Enemy's ''Blood on Your Hands''. The first track on the album, and considered to be the best.

** The ending of ''High Water Mark'' (and of the entire Gettysburg trilogy).

* The MegaMan based rock opera by TheMegas has an example in ''Look What You've Done''.

* Any athlete, medical practioner, or *ahem* murderer will tell you that blood actually is a pain to get off your hands when it dries. It's very sticky and requires some scrubbing with good soap, and forget it if it gets on your clothes. There's a reason that detergents brag about being able to get blood stains out. What? Why is everyone looking at me like that? No, [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial I'm definitely no serial killer with tons of personal experience.]]

* One ''Literature/HarryPotter''/{{X-Men}} [[http://bobmin.fanficauthors.net/Mutant_Storm/index/ crossover]] has Harry killing two Death Eaters - one of them with his bare hands, and then [[ShowerOfAngst sitting in a shower for about an hour making washing motions with his hands...]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* Any athlete, medical practioner, or *ahem* murderer will tell you that blood actually is a pain to get off your hands when it dries. It's very sticky and requires some scrubbing with good soap, and forget it if it gets on your clothes. There's a reason that detergents brag about being able to get blood stains out. What? Why is everyone looking at me like that?

* ''Series/{{Babylon 5}}'': Knives
-->'''Londo Mollari''': No. The blood is already on my hands. Right or wrong, I must follow the path to its end.
-->Also, '''Vir''' has an awesome drunken self-accusation scene after he kills Cartagia.
* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'': Collaborators

* ''Dick Turpin'': The Impostor

* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': Chapter Sixteen 'Unexpected'

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': One of Us

* In ''{{Homestuck}}'', Dave gets blood on his hands when he finds the dead body of his alternate self. He ends up staring mutely at them for about ten minutes.

* When Dorian in ''ThePictureOfDorianGray'' [[spoiler:drives actress Sybil Vane to suicide]], blood-stains appear on his portrait's hands.
* In ''[[{{Lensman}} Grey Lensman]]'', hero Kimball Kinnison indulges in this when trying to make Clarissa [=MacDougal=] understand what marrying him could entail. She basically tells him to can the dramatics; she knows perfectly well what his job entails.

* In GeneStrattonPorter's ''Literature/{{Freckles}}'', one villain objects to killing Freckles because he does not want this trope. They could have prevent him from seeing anything.