"When all the trouble is all your fault, be a man and stand tall."
— Tonic Trouble magazine ad
There are many heroes and heroines, both in real life and in fiction. Often, they are paragons of virtue and idealism to inspire, and for us to aspire to.
Not every hero/heroine has their origin in altruism, however. Sometimes, heroes are born out of shame. Not simply a Dark and Troubled Past, but a lapse in judgment, a moral failing, or even something done purposefully that Went Horribly Wrong or cost them dearly. It might have been a moment of inaction, especially willful inaction, or the wrong decision.
The hero/heroine who is moved by shame is often The Atoner. They aren't simply motivated by the loss of a loved one, or by a turbulent event in their past that they wouldn't wish on anyone else. This hero/heroine feels responsible for the tragedy they experienced or witnessed, and in many cases, they're not entirely wrong. This can lead to a My God, What Have I Done? moment.
This can also apply to former villains who undergo a Heel–Face Turn but are not subjected to Redemption Equals Death. Instead, having their own bad actions come back to hurt someone they cared about will prompt them to mend their ways, trying to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
May frequently overlap with My Greatest Failure. Compare/Contrast The So-Called Coward.
A subtrope of The Atoner (almost everyone here is an Atoner, but you won't find every Atoner here). Also related to Failure Knight, who is seeking to make up for their own greatest failure.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Bleach: Yachiru Kenpachi accidentally caused a young fighter to put up a mental block that held back a substantial amount of his considerably formidable powers and vowed to find a way to undo the damage she had caused, taking on the name Retsu Unohana. The young fighter would go on to join the Gotei 13 and take up the name Zaraki Kenpachi.
- In Rebuild World, Sara and Elena mistake Akira, a ruthless Street Urchin, for a heroic stranger after he saves their lives by slaughtering a gang who had cornered them without equipment. He'd only been acting in self-interest as he feared that gang would come after him. But Sara and Elena's subsequent affection for him shames him into feeling indebted to them. After this, he starts rushing to Sara and Elena's side whenever it sounds like they need aid. He soon picks up a habit of doing good deeds to "earn some of his luck back". While he retains his Blue-and-Orange Morality, he gradually learns compassion for those he considers his allies and acts in service to his friends' interests in addition to his own.
- Snow White with the Red Hair: After being called out by Shirayuki for his ignoble behavior Prince Raj determines to become a "ruler his people can be proud of". This includes him forming a fleet of volunteer ships to pursue The Claws of the Sea, a group of notorious pirates, after they kidnap Shirayuki, and bestow the title "Friend of the Crown" on her to protect her from future harm.
Comic Books
- All-Star Superman: Having wielded Superman's power briefly, Lex Luthor sees the beauty and interconnected nature of everything . As he loses the power, he quietly surrenders and provides the world with the means of recreating Superman as he sits on death row, accepting his punishment for his past crimes.
- Fantastic Four: Reed Richards explains to his daughter Valeria that he founded the FF after the space mission that gave them their powers because it was his effort to make amends after ruining their lives, that by making them heroes with public identities and fame, he might be forgiven for the damage his arrogance caused...someday.
- Spider-Man: Peter Parker tried to turn his newfound powers into a means of making money. But when the fight promoter stiffs him on the payout, Peter turns his back when the promoter is robbed, letting the thief escape. This comes back to bite him hard when he comes home to find his Uncle Ben murdered. Enraged, Peter dons his Spider-Man costume and pursues the robber, only to find that the man who murdered Uncle Ben is the same robber he chose not to stop earlier. Now, Peter serves as Spider-Man because he fears that not acting to help others could cost him even more.
- Spider-Gwen used her powers as Spider-Woman to promote herself. But then The Lizard attacks her school, and she battles him until he dies, only to transform back into her friend and neighbor, Peter Parker. From that point on, she was wanted by the police for Peter's death and turned to heroics to prevent more of the same thing from happening to others.
- Steel: John Henry Irons first donned his armor when experimental weapons he'd designed somehow made their way into the hands of street gangs, and a young boy from his neighborhood was brutally killed by one of them. Knowing the nature of the weapons, and his responsibility in creating them, Irons becomes The Man of Steel, later simply Steel, to help take those guns off of the streets again.
Films — Animation
- The Black Cauldron: Gurgi, ashamed of always being a coward, decides to perform a Heroic Sacrifice, as the group had already been told that the only way for the titular cauldron to be stopped was for a living being to throw themself into it. Fortunately, Gurgi gets better in the end.
Films — Live-Action
- In The Force Awakens, Finn starts off as a First Order grunt who is Just Following Orders, but after witnessing his unit casually torch a peaceful village (including burning unarmed people alive), he develops a mild case of PTSD and jumps at the first chance to desert. He eventually joins the Resistance, setting out on a path to become the Unlikely Hero of the story.
- The Shadow: Lamont Cranston was a Tibetan warlord and slaughtered thousands. After his redemption and training by a Tulku, he learns to channel his dark side to become The Shadow and fight evil.
- SHAZAM!: Billy Batson was given the powers of the wizard Shazam, but initially used them in vain and self-serving ways. He gets a very scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech from his best friend and foster brother Freddy Freeman for caring more about being a celebrity and gaining fame than actual heroism, and another from the Big Bad Dr. Sivana, who scoffs at Billy running away from him like a coward rather than face him like a hero. Realizing that Freddy was right after he reunites briefly with his long-lost mother, he calls to apologize, only to find that Sivana has taken Freddy and the rest of his foster family hostage. Billy becomes a true hero as he goes off to save them.
Myth & Religion
- The trials of Hercules (or Herakles, depending on who you ask), began when the titular hero killed his wife and children in a fit of psychotic madness (or drunken rage, again depending on who you ask), woke from his stupor and realized what he had done, beginning the trials as a way to redeem himself.
Literature
- The Bible: Saul of Tarsus was a Pharisee who persecuted Christians, often to their executions. Then one day, on the road to Damascus, he has a vision of Jesus, asking him why he was persecuting Him and His people. Saul is rendered temporarily blind and sent to Ananais of Damascus, who restores his sight. From that point on he goes by his Latin name, Paul, and proceeds to proclaim The Gospel to the Gentiles, writing the epistles that make up much of The New Testament.
- Happens twice to Jean Valjean in Les Misérables: He starts off hating humanity due to an excessive prison sentence, even going so far as to steal from a poor bishop who offered him hospitality. But the bishop shows him mercy instead of sending him back to prison. As he's contemplating this turn of events a schoolboy walks by and drops some coins, and Valjean, without even thinking, puts his foot over one of the coins that rolled to him. When he realizes that he's basically stealing a kid's lunch money after having just been forgiven by the bishop, he has a "What have I become?" moment that sets him on the path of The Atoner. Later, he encounters Fantine who has fallen into destitution and realizes that she used to work at his factory until he brushed off her problems that led to her current state. To make up for his carelessness then, he adopts her daughter and makes sure she has the happy life that her mother never could.
Live-Action TV
- Person of Interest: Harold Finch created an all-seeing computer program to identify terrorists before they could strike. In addition to terrorism, the Machine also predicts ordinary homicides. Finch was concerned that thwarting every murder would draw attention and people would demand the Machine be shut down, so he programmed the Machine to label ordinary murders as irrelevant and ignore them. Harold's best friend, Nathan, told Finch that "everyone is relevant to someone" but Harold insisted that the Machine was meant to stop terrorism only. Until, Nathan was killed and Harold realized that the Machine knew it would happen, then Harold finally understood what Nathan was trying to tell him, and he resolved to save the people on the irrelevant list himself.
- Supernatural:
- Sam Winchester was trying to stop the apocalypse, but he allowed himself to be manipulated into doing the one thing that would actually release Lucifer from his cage, killing Lilith. He spends most of season five tormented by this, until he steps up to self-sacrificing heroism at the end of the season.
- Castiel has a Face–Heel Turn in Season 6, becoming a Well-Intentioned Extremist, becoming power mad and declaring himself the new God. He eventually comes to his senses and sacrifices himself trying to stop the Leviathans he inadvertently released. When he does return, he spends the rest of the series trying to make up for his actions.
Tabletop Games
- Pathfinder: The iconic Paladin Seelah was once a street thief who stole a knight's helmet. When that knight then died of a head wound in defense of Seelah's home city, she tried to commit suicide out of guilt, but was adopted by the knightly order instead.
Video Games
- Enter the Gungeon: The Pilot left his best friend to be captured by the law to save himself, and the Marine abandoned his squad rather than face down an Eldritch Abomination with them. Both of them are now braving the Gungeon in search of The Gun That Can Kill The Past in order to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
- Tales of Eternia: Farah Oersted developed a serious case of Chronic Hero Syndrome out of guilt for the Tragedy of Rasheans, where Farah, then a bit of a Spoiled Brat, inadvertently set off the chain of events that got her father possessed by a primordial god, leading to him massacring many villagers before her best friend Reid's father was able to stop him at the cost of his own life.
