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Heroic BSOD
Lloyd Irving of Tales Of Symphonia demonstrates.

"Who did you think you are? Did you think you'd actually be able to make a difference? Well, Woof, you were wrong, boy. Completely and utterly wrong."
— Jade, Beyond Good And Evil

An earth-shattering revelation or horrible event affects the hero or someone he cares deeply about, leaving him flummoxed or shocked to the point of mentally shutting down for a while. Alternatively, if this occurs during a fight with one of the Big Bad's minions, the hero may have a violent outburst, with the ensuing catastrophe killing Evil Minions and knocking his companions in different directions. In the latter case, the hero may disappear into the fog of war and have to be tracked down by his friends and given a heaping helping of Epiphany Therapy.

Reasons for the BSOD vary, but usually involves something that shakes the very core of the character's being. Classic examples include losing a loved one (especially one that the character failed to protect or save), discovering that the character is not who he thought he was, being betrayed by someone the character cared about, being forced to go against a personal code, core belief or deep abiding reason to live, or failing miserably at something that everything was riding on.

In any case, the result is a form of non-consensual Ten Minute Retirement. The aftermath may cause the hero to become emotionally comatose, obsessive and guilt-ridden, mute, or in really bad cases, a jaded violent amnesiac. Such personality changes may also scare the hell out of people who are now worried the hero is as much a danger as the villain was. If the incident happened before the story takes place, it provides a rationale for him to be the Shell Shocked Senior. Compare Freak Out.

The best thing that can happen to a person suffering from a Heroic BSOD is meeting a friendly Warrior Therapist, or for an extra layer of awesome, getting rebooted with percussive force. Meeting a hostile Warrior Therapist, on the other hand, is the worst thing that can happen to them, as they'd make damn sure that the character keeps his OS destroyed forever.

The villain version of a Heroic BSOD is a Villainous Breakdown, which often involves the villain going completely crazy instead of shutting down.

Named in honor of the infamous Blue Screen of Death, common term for the Microsoft Windows error that indicates that the system cannot continue functioning has screwed itself big time and must be rebooted.
Examples:

Live Action TV
  • The Doctor goes into one of these in The Stolen Earth.
    • Subverted in Bad Wolf, when he freaks out after Rose is apparently vaporized. Turns out he was just fakin'.
  • In the season five Buffy The Vampire Slayer episode "The Weight of the World", the idea that a moment of doubt had caused her to fail in her mission to protect Dawn caused Buffy to mentally check out for several hours, scaring the heck out of her friends and requiring magic to snap her out of it.
    • She has a brief BSOD in season 2 when she realizes that it was her love-making with Angel that caused him to lose his soul and become the evil Angelus once more.
    • The events of the Season 2 finale cause her to do the "Walk into the mist" version of this trope.
    • Giles has one in the season 2 episode "Passions" after discovering that Angelus had murdered his girlfriend, laid her corpse in the bedroom, and set up everything to look like she had planned a romantic encounter for the two of them.
  • In the first season of Babylon 5, Commander Sinclair is kidnapped, drugged, and interrogated by a bad guy of the week who wanted to know why Sinclair disappeared at the Battle of the Line, the climactic final battle of the Minbari War, which Sinclair blacked out during and has no memory of. While in this state, he discovers what happened to him (kidnapped, interrogated, and brain-washed by aliens), escapes from his captors, and spends some time in a state of drug-induced confusion, evading and fighting against B5's station security as they try to rescue him.
  • This actually occurs to Dr. Cox on Scrubs, after three of his patients (one of whom he was actually friends with) died due to an error on his part.
    • He really has two, although the first is very short. After the first two die, he starts to go into one, but JD snaps him out of it by pointing out they would have been dead much earlier if he hadn't done anything. Only when the third patient (who happens to be both the friend and the one that could have survived for at least a few months) dies does this take effect fully.
    • Cox has another Heroic BSOD in season 3, when his best friend unexpectedly dies, causing him to have a breakdown complete with hallucinations.
  • During the final battle with the Reavers in Serenity, River temporarily goes helpless and catatonic as the Reavers' madness presses in on her mind. It takes her brother getting shot in the stomach to break her out of it. Then she takes them on alone and kills them all.
  • In the season 5 episode of Star Trek: Voyager "Latent Image", the Doctor is revealed to have done this (using the Out Damned Spot version) following an incident in which two patients were equally at risk and equally treatable; he chose the one he was better friends with, which was contrary to his programming. The memory was erased from his program, and when it was restored he suffered the same condition, but eventually recovered. Since the Doctor is himself a computer program of sorts, the metaphor seems to have come full circle.
    • Kirk has occasional BSODs, usually triggered by the death of a Red Shirt, which result in him angsting for about fifteen seconds and then getting over it very quickly after a pep talk from McCoy. Spock has a much bigger one in "Amok Time" after apparently killing Kirk, and almost quits Starfleet. He presumably has another one offscreen some time between the end of the series and the first movie, and does quit Starfleet!
  • Supernatural loves these and it also loves never really making them better either. John had his after his wife died, causing him to drink and treat his sons like soldiers. Sam had his after his girlfriend died, causing him to be just as obsessive as John was about hunting this demon. And Dean? Someone dies to save him in a Season One episode, John dies to save his life in the Season Two premiere, Season Two completely breaks him down in as many ways as possible and all of it prompts a suicidally guilty breakdown in which, after Sam dies (and gets better), he ends up selling his soul in an incredibly poor and desperate bargain.
  • Admiral Adama in Battlestar Galactica has a huge one after his best friend reveals himself as a Cylon and tells Adama to use him as a bargaining chip during a Mexican Standoff with Cylons. Although Adama has displayed intense emotion over key events before, this time he destroys his office, drinks an entire bottle of liquor and is reduced to weeping nearly incoherently in his son's arms.
    • Colonel Tigh has one of these very briefly in the third season while still on New Caprica, immediately after he discovers that his wife has been feeding information to the Cylons. The look in the actor's eye clenches it for This Troper. Following all of this, he totally Took A Level In Badass.
  • In Act III of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Dr. Horrible gets a simultaneous dream come true and Villain BSOD, and expresses both in song to carry out the denoument. This inverted Heroic BSOD is appropriate for a show that inverts the very superhero genre by adroitly representing self-proclaimed villain as protagonist, and self-proclaimed hero as antagonist.
  • Ben Sisko has two big ones, both involving women he loves. The first was before the show began with the death of his wife at the hands of the Borg and the other was after Dax was murdered by Dukat.
  • Although he isn't strictly a hero, this trope is the best way to describe what happens to Avon at the end of the last episode of Blake's 7 when he kills Blake.
  • Mac, the Red Ranger from Power Rangers Operation Overdrive has one of these upon learning that he is an Android. Shortly thereafter, he turns into the Death Seeker.
  • In The Sarah Connor Chronicles episode "Allison from Palmdale", Cameron goes through several of these when her processor malfunctions, and she begins confusing herself with Allison Young, a girl whose personality and appearance she mimicked, and then later killed.
  • Happens to Stevie in Malcolm In The Middle when he learns his mother had abandoned him. He also regresses back into speechlessness and refuses to move anything other than his fingers (to operate a text-to-speech machine).
  • Boukenger does this with Masumi a few times whenever Yami no Aiba appears to fight him. However none were as bad until the last stretch of the series where after supposedly beating him, the guy still lives and forces Masumi to use the Artifact Of Doom to beat him. This leaves him out of action in heroicBSOD as Satoru disappears in the worse time as well. However they came back just in time to save the world.

Anime
  • Half the HiME throughout Mai-HiME as their loved ones are eliminated one by one in the "HiMElander" arc (almost the only reason the other half didn't go into Heroic BSOD is because they died. The only ones *not* BSOD'ing are Yukino and Nao, and even those two do NOT look well. ). Mai gets quite a few of these, even in situations that aren't really that dramatic, but in which a real person would probably react this way. For example, in the first episode, after becoming an unexpected witness of the fight between Natsuki and Mikoto that wrecks her ship to Fuuka, Mai is so shocked that she wanders aimlessly through the garage, nearly catatonic, until Yuuichi rescues her.
  • Mai-Otome — after the events of the Mood Whiplash Wham Episode near the midpoint of the series, Arika Himemiya is virtually catatonic.
  • The Big O: In the first episode of the second season, the main character goes introspectively catatonic as he struggles to figure out just who — and what — he is.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Asuka after being mind raped, and Shinji during most of End of Evangelion after being forced to Shoot The Dog.
  • A far less serious version of this is Dororo from Keroro Gunsou, whose "Trauma Switch" (triggered by feeling ignored, or by a reminder of how Keroro took advantage of him in their childhood) would frequently cause him to sulk in the Corner Of Woe, on the verge of tears. In one episode this became a plot point, where the Trauma Switch got "stuck", and Keroro, Tamama, and Giroro had to enter Dororo's mind to fix things.
  • A similar situation happens in Serial Experiments Lain halfway through the series. Lain Iwakura's older sister Mika is shocked beyond description after witnessing all the weirdness caused by Lain. During the rest of the series, she spends most of her time staring into blank space, pretending she's calling someone by phone and murmuring "Bee bee bee... ga ga", imitating the phone sound. If you look closely, this can be explained by Mika's mind slipping into the Wired and getting lost forever.
  • More than once in Soukou No Strain.
  • Yugi in Yu-Gi-Oh was plunged into a near-catatonic state after losing a duel to Seto Kaiba on the ramparts of Pegasus' castle. Kaiba played a desperate and cruel Xanatos Gambit in order to win; he stood on the edge of the castle wall and threatened to jump to his death if Yugi attacked his Blue Eyes White Dragon. Yugi's Heroic BSOD was brought on when he had to stop the Pharaoh from killing Kaiba, which for the first time fully alerted him to the presence of his Knight Templar of an "other self" and made him realize just how dangerous it could be. Anzu half-pulled him out of it after duelling with Mai, but it wasn't until his duel with Mai that Yugi fully recovered.
    • Kaiba, of course, takes awhile to recover mentally whenever he loses a duel: "I lost a card game! I no longer have a reason to live!" One of these duels, however, makes it worse: not only he was fighting to rescue his kidnapped brother Mokuba, practically turned into a zombie after his soul is stolen by Pegasus, but he gets his own soul stolen as well when he loses badly against his rival. He also almost had one when he arrived to ancient Egypt and witnessed the tragedy that surrounded the creation of his Blue Eyes White Dragon.
    • Atemu/The Pharaoh has his turn in the Doma filler arc when he gives in to his inner darkness, plays the Seal of Orichalchos, and loses Yugi's soul.
  • Judai Yuki in Yu-Gi-Oh GX goes into this state after realizing all the suffering Yubel caused his friends — including forcing a Heroic Sacrifice out of his new Ho Yay partner Johan/Jesse — was because of its twisted devotion to him and ire at being launched into space. Not only is Judai stuck in a catatonic state of guilt soon afterwards, but becomes obsessed with finding Johan alone. Judai's subsequent discovery of his Superpowered Evil Side — the Supreme King Haou — while in this state leaves him in an even deeper BSOD state after his rescue. But unlike Yugi, who recovered within the same arc, Judai never fully recovers. In the fourth season, he's still pissy and emo, even after reconciling with Yubel. Apparently, he's been dueling so long for the fate of the world and/or his friends, that the game isn't fun for him, anymore.
  • When the true identity of Deep Blue is revealed, poor Ichigo of Tokyo Mew Mew is shocked into a loss of common sense, attacking her teammates and then refusing to fight, until Minto slaps her back to sanity. We wouldn't blame her; after all, it was her boyfriend and ex Mysterious Protector, Masaya.
  • In Rurouni Kenshin, after Enishi defeats Kenshin, he fakes Kaoru's death ''very realistically , causing Kenshin to go into shock and spend a good few weeks catatonic in Rakuninmura (a village for people who no longer have anything to live for), with his sword chained shut. It takes Yakiho almost being killed to return.
  • After being forced to kill someone for the first time in his life (Legato) to save the life of his friends Milly and Meryl, thus shattering his long-held pacifism, Vash the Stampede from Trigun has a mental breakdown and spends an entire episode in an emotionally crippled and nearly catatonic state.
  • This occurs in Grave of the Fireflies to the main character Seita before he dies, though it is no wonder due to him losing his entire family and everything that he ever cared for in a horrifically tragic manner.
  • In Elfen Lied, Kouta, the male lead, suffers amnesia and spends an entire year in a coma after watching his little sister Kanae and his father get slaughtered right in front of him by Lucy. Lucy herself suffers some pretty bad ones, like...her entire childhood.
  • This is spoofed in Fullmetal Alchemist, when Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc, after getting soundly rejected by several women, falls into a catatonic state for the rest of the episode, with a simple, yet comedic, whistle-like sound playing every time the camera focuses unto his blank face (which is done three times in the episode).
    • Although there is a real one for Roy Mustang, caused by his participation in the Ishbal Massacre (in particularly his orders to kill Winrys parents) and shown in a flashback.
  • Occurs to Kazuma in s-CRY-ed after the death of Kunihiko Kimishima.
  • Chief Ikari from Paranoia Agent, after being fired for his and Maniwa's mishandling of the Shonen Bat case, effectively has one of these, retreating into a Lotus Eater Machine based on how he would ideally like the world to be.
  • A significant portion of the main cast of Blood Plus experience Heroic BSODs following Diva's mid-series Rape The Dog moment, especially Saya, who attempts to cut herself off from the rest of the cast and become an emotionless killing machine, and David, who spends a timeskip and several subsequent episodes depressed and pretty much constantly drunk.
    • Haji arguably had one of these himself after the events of Vietnam, though it was offscreen.
  • In Gundam SEED, after the return to Earth, Kira Yamato goes into a coma, partly from the stress of re-entry, and partly because he failed to prevent the destruction of a shuttle full of refugees.
  • A slow build over the course of five specific episodes leads to the main character of Ojamajo Doremi, Doremi Harukaze, going into this in the series finale. Her best friends for the past four years are moving or going to a different school, so Doremi locks herself in the Maho-dou on the day of her elementary school graduation. It takes Hana-chan threatening to reveal her identity as a witch to force her out.
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Full stop. However, when Simon reboots, he reboots...complete with several levels in badass.
  • In Gundam 00, Tieria Erde suffers a (literal?) Heroic BSOD after his partner and close friend Lockon Stratos is killed. And before that, he had one when VEDA was hijacked and crashed, making him completely lose their connection.
  • Freesia in the second season of Jubei-chan engages in psychological warfare on Jiyu; By revealing herself as not her best friend, stabbing her, throwing her off a cliff, and then turning her beloved father against her. This causes Jiyu to reject Ayunosuke and go catatonic, which results in Ayunosuke to turn into a tree. It takes some serious Power Of Love to get everyone back.
  • In X, Kamui does this after a REALLY rough day in which his childhood best friend turns murderously insane, impales Kamui on assorted objects, molests him, and forces him to watch as he kills his other childhood best friend. Team mystic Subaru Sumeragi, who once went through an Heroic BSOD himself after his boyfriend revealed himself to be an evil murderer who never cared for him and then killed Subaru's beloved sister, is called upon to go psychic-spelunking through Kamui's head to find his reboot button.
  • For being such a Magnificent Bastard otherwise, Lelouch Lamperouge goes into one of these nearly every other episode.
    • In this Troper's view this is partially to minimise the "Bastard" bit. Considering some of the *cough* minor consequences some of his slight mis-steps have had, some Heroic BSOD is rather called for.
  • Chiko in The Daughter Of Twenty Faces predictably suffers this after Twenty-Faces himself is seemingly killed. Given that she's The Littlest Ninja and still intends to take hold of her destiny as per the advice Twenty-Faces gave her, however, she doesn't take all that long to reboot.
  • In Princess Tutu Fakir suffers a brief one after Ahiru digs up the suppressed memories of his parents' violent deaths—that were the fault of his powers.
  • In Sentou Yousei Yukikaze, Rei suffers this when his beloved aircraft is destroyed. Somewhat justified that he is a loner, and somewhat a freak at that. Freak as in, he prefers the company of his aircraft (and the titular AI inside it) rather than anyone else, even his unusually very close commanding major. Thing is, the AI uploaded itself into a new aircraft before the old one got blasted, and it seems that the new AI, in the new aircraft, destroyed the old one in what seems as a Mercy Kill. As a result, Rei doesn't trust the new aircraft, even if it contains his old AI. Better not think about this too much...
  • In Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, Rika Furude, revealed as the true protagonist behind the scenes of the entire series, goes through temporary BSOD every time she inevitably dies in each arc at which point Hanyū Furude, an ancestral victim turned shrine god, resets her. It takes a while, the aid of Hanyu and events that create deja vu, to spark Rika's memory each time, since she lives her live over each and every time until her memories slowly flood back to her. Hanyu herself has gone through an epic BSOD in which she has lost all hope for changing Rika's fate and just goes through the motions of resurrecting her each time. It takes Rika's changes in attitude (which happens as a result of K1's loyalty and hope) to change Hanyu's attitude.
  • Grovyle in Pokemon has a Heroic BSOD when he finds out his love interest, a cute and motherly female Meganium, is already in a relationship with his rival. It only worsens when he evolves into a Sceptile, yet loses his ability to attack. It takes Ash almost getting killed two episodes later to rescue Pikachu and Sceptile from Team Rocket to make him get better.
  • Geo in the Mega Man Star Force anime has one when the villain of the week informs him that his alien partner whom he fuses with to become Megaman killed his father. The shock of the revelation is enough that his body literally forces itself away from said partner and he reverts to normal. Four hundred feet above the ground. Whoops.
  • Fate of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha got one in the first season after she discovers what she is, followed by a tirade from her mother, Precia, that ends with her stating how much she has despised Fate ever since she was born. The mind of poor, Love Martyr Fate simply couldn't take it and temporarily shut down in despair.
  • Sousuke spends a significant portion of Full Metal Panic The Second Raid in the throes of a Heroic BSOD after he's ordered to cease serving as Kaname's bodyguard and cut off all contact with her. Eventually it gets bad enough that he simply walks away in the middle of a mission and wanders aimlessly around Hong Kong, getting a bottle of scotch and picking up (or allowing himself to be picked up by) a prostitute who looks like Kaname. And that's before he finds out that his worst enemy is still alive and claiming to have had Kaname murdered in Sousuke's absence, making things exponentially worse.
  • Tsukasa suffers one in .hack//sign after Morganna tortures him.
  • In Dai Guard, Ibuke shuts down when she learns that her father died in a monster attack, not because he was trying to save the world, but because he was trying desperately to prove his pet theory. Problem is, she shuts down in the middle of a mecha-fight and almost gets her team killed, leading to a Ten Minute Retirement.
  • Dio of Last Exile goes into one of these after the ship he's on (the Silvana) is captured by his evil sister Delphine and he believes his friend and companion Luciola has betrayed him. He only snaps out of it right before his Rite of the Covenant. And then it gets worse.
  • Luffy gets two of these in One Piece, both under similar circumstances. The first is in the sixth movie when he thinks his crew is dead after witnessing them being absorbed into a life force draining plant. The second happens later in the manga when Bartholomew Kuma vanishes his crew one by one before his eyes. In both cases, he gets better after realizing that they are still alive.
  • Takumi in Initial D goes into one after his Trueno's engine breaks down in mid-race.
  • In Cyborg 009, Francoise aka 003 almost suffers one of these when she witnesses the destruction of a whole cityu with her powers and is unable to stop it. Later, Joe aka 009 has a full one when he lands into an Alternate Universe where the Black Ghost organization, the group he and his people have fought against during the whole series, have actually won the war and now own the world.
  • The Major from Ghost In The Shell has a BSOD at least twice over the course of the anime series. In the first, she's shellshocked after encountering a traumatic memory in Kuze's cyberbrain. Later, she adopts this expression after a rag-tag refugee takes down their super-duper V-22 with fifty dollar's worth of suicide bomb, severely injuring super-hacker Ishikawa and sending Section 9's million-dollar tiltrotor tumbling into a chasm. Wouldn't you?
  • Gravion Zwei has three people suffering Heroic BSOD in a relatively close time together:
    • Leele after finding out that Sandman is her father (no thanks to Touga), right after finding out her real name Leele Zeravire, which means she is connected with the invading enemies, was too much in a shock she goes into a frantic walk that got her slipping off the bridge falling to the lake.
    • Then, Touga, based on those events regarding on Leele (and being called out by Eiji), made worse by Eina's Heroic Sacrifice for his sake, eventually fell into one, leaving the castle, hanging in silence in the slums and lets himself be a victim of beating by punks (and here, we speak about some sort of Tykebomb with fighting skills)
    • And meanwhile, Sandman, after hearing all the disasters and how his past caught up with him along with how Gravion is losing as well as his brother's coming with Zeravire, finally fell into it. He got reprimanded by Raven or to be exact his lover Ayaka and quickly got back to his composure.

Manga
  • Yomiko suffers a Heroic BSOD late in the Read Or Die manga when she relives the events that led to her lover Donnie's death, and learns that she was the one who was forced to kill him. It gets so bad that she doesn't even want to read books anymore for a good few chapters.
  • Chrono suffers from this several times in the manga Chrono Crusade. The worst is probably after the carnival battle in volume 5, during which he flies into a rage and uses up so much of his power that he nearly kills Rosette in the process. Afterwards, he forces himself into a coma to keep from hurting her again. It takes Rosette going into his mind and digging around in his memories before he's prepared to continue on his quest.
  • In Mahou Sensei Negima, when the title character is confronted by the true form of Graf Herrman, he goes into an Unstoppable Rage that nearly gets him killed.
    • He later has a more traditional BSOD when Jack Rakan reveals how weak Negi is compared to his enemies.
    • And has a more comedic one when a series of stressful events is followed by Nodoka confessing her love for him.
      • He has an epic one in the Gecko Ending of the anime, after Asuna dies. He manages to hold it back for a short while, but then he finds one of the bells she used to wear in her hair and completely breaks down. He does eventually find a way to save her.
  • Being as Naru Taru is an unapologetically brutal deconstruction of the Mon genre, lead character Shiina Tamai is rather prone to this trope. The first time it happens is after a painful Shoot The Dog scenario, in which her crazed friend Hiroko is killed right in front of her. Several volumes later, she learns at the worst possible time that her Mon companion Hoshimaru isn't actually hers, but instead belongs to her ally Takeo. Finally, witnessing the death of her beloved father leaves her in such a terrible state that her friend Akira - a Shrinking Violet - has to slap her out of it.
  • The titular character in Ranma 1/2 all but shuts down when he believes Akane has died. He snaps back to form when he finds out she hasn't, not yet, but is in desperate danger anyway.

Comic Books
  • Strongbow the elf archer in Elf Quest loses his shooting skills after being forced to kill an elf who attempted to kill his son (up until this point in the series no elf has ever killed another elf, barring numerous threats and a couple of failed attempts). Only when he is able to commune with his victim's spirit and beg its forgiveness does he return to his old self.
  • In Animal Man, Buddy Baker has a BSOD lasting at least several days when an assassin murders his wife and children. This subverts temporarily the normal tendency of Dark Age superheroes to immediately go on a Roaring Rampage Of Revenge.

Web Comics
  • In Megatokyo, after a dramatic conversation with Miho, Ping the Robot Girl ends up with all of her emotional statistics jumbled up.
  • In Erfworld, when Jillian is unable to rationalize her way around a conflict between Wanda's influence and her loyalty to Ansom, she briefly collapses. She recovers and charges into battle, resulting in a major victory for Ansom's side. This stuns Wanda into a considerably more severe BSOD of her own.
    • Later, it turns out that this may simply be backlash from the breaking of Wanda's suggestion spell.
  • Parodied in Exterminatus Now! After hearing that an old friend of his is behind an assassination attempt on his boss, Eastwood goes into a trance and spends a few minutes repeating his name. His teammates take the opportunity to steal his wallet.
  • Grace kinda has one of these after making Big Bad Damien blow himself up.
  • In one of the rare dramatic moments of 8-Bit Theater, Fighter has a brief moment of sadness when Black Mage is killed by Lich. He replaces it with a screaming rage though.
  • When the inn burns down with all the group's treasure in Order of the Stick, Haley has a breakdown that causes her to talk in utter gibberish for many strips thereafter (this troper had endless fun decoding the gibberish). One of the other characters comments at the time, "I think we broke Haley."
    • Roy has one too after Xykon breaks his family sword. He just stand there and stares at the broken hilt for a while, flashing back to his childhood memories of it, even though he is in the middle of a battle. Then he goes insane and hurls Xykon into the gate, blowing him up.
  • Hanners of Questionable Content has one after learning her underwear was showing while she was drumming-from both of her MALE bandmates.
  • Ash from Misfile suffers one during her first defeat at the hands of Kamikaze Kate in this strip.
    • Although having his first period might have contributed to that emotional rollercoaster.
    • Ash gets it again when Vashiel tells her that Rumisiel won't be able to return to Heaven for another 72 years, meaning he won't be able to correct his misfile mistake until then. Considering the average human lifespan, Ash realizes that she (he?) will have to stay the way she is for the rest of her life. It takes a visit from Emily to snap her out of it.
  • In Sluggy Freelance, Torg goes through a mild one of these after an Alternate Universe version of Zoe he'd been dating dies. He never completely stops being his goofy self after this, but he is a lot angrier and mopier for a while, especially around Zoe.
  • Lilah's miscarriage in Ctrl Alt Del forces Ethan to go into Heroic BSOD mode. He spends the next several comics wandering around in a zombie-like state (the lack of sleep might have contributed to that), and was seen trying to get a soda out of a vending machine until moments later, when he says he's not even thirsty and that seeing Lilah inconsolable was far too much for him.

Literature
  • The Star Trek Voyager novel Mosaic details when Captain Janeway goes through one of these. Considering that Kathryn lost her father and her fiancee on the same day, I'd say she's entitled.
  • In Anne Rice's vampire novels, Lestat spends several books in a catatonic state after an encounter with a being he believes to be Satan.
  • Ivan Karamazov's Freak Out near the end of The Brothers Karamazov is brought on by this, which takes the form of a conversation with a Manipulative Bastard.
  • Possibly subverted in Harry Potter, where Harry locks himself in his room and refuses to talk to anyone after hearing that he is being possessed by the Big Bad. However, he is promptly told by another main character that he is being completely silly, nothing of the sort is happening, and everybody was jumping to conclusions anyway. Oops. Admittedly, this trope was played straight elsewhere in the series a couple of times, specially in the latter books.
  • Driz'zt, in R.A. Salvatore's later books (The Hunter's Blades Trilogy), especially The Lone Drow, where he flips back and forth between this and pure Wangst for most of the book.
  • Jake has one that lasts a whole year in the final Animorphs book, as a result of the final battle, in which he ordered his cousin to kill his brother - which she did at the cost of her own life, gaining nothing - and gave the order to massacre seventeen thousand defenseless Yeerks.
  • Bella spends nearly the entire book of New Moon in this state after Edward breaks up with her. She spends four months in survival mode and until he comes back, she is still in a locked down state of mind. According to Word of God, Edward also spent most of this time curled up in a fetal position hating the world, seeing as he pretended not to love her anymore because he thought she'd be safer without him around.
  • Phase, at the Super Hero School Whateley Academy in the Whateley Universe, nearly goes catatonic, and spends a week hideously depressed, despite tons of psychiatric help by powerful psis, when powers testing reveals that her screwed-up body is not Gross Structural Dystrophy, but a bizarre Body Image Template, which means that her subconscious fears drove her mutant manifestation into her current shape and hence ultimately she did this to herself.
  • The Star Wars Expanded Universe contains a textbook example. In the book Wraith Squadron, by Aaron Allston, Myn Donos's squadron is destroyed around him in an ambush. He escapes, but becomes emotionally numb. Later, his astromech is destroyed when his X-wing is hit in combat, and he shuts down completely for a while, feeling that he had now completely failed his squadron.
  • This is how Aramis reacts to Porthos's death in Forty Years After, but it's arguably more of a Villainous BSOD.
  • This happens to [[Miles Vorkosigan]] from time to time. With all he's been through, it's a wonder he ever comes out of it.
  • At the end of the third Sir Apropos Of Nothing novel, the titular (anti)hero gets an (anti)Heroic BSOD when he learns that Verah Wang Ho, the leader of an Asian-like crime syndicate and his temporary lover, is the Emperor's...brother. The BSOD consists of Apropos saying "I don't care" over and over, which just happens to be the trigger word of his [1], and the repeated triggering of the sheathed sword eventually causes a Hiroshima-like explosion (which is lampshaded in the last chapter, when he gives the sword to a fat man and his little boy).
  • In David Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean, both Garion and C'Nedra have BSO Ds: Garion's comes after he burns Asharak to death outside the Forest of the Dryads and is relatively minor as BSO Ds go. C'Nedra has at least one brief one in the Belgariad when she realizes the fate in store for the soldiers she has recruited as the Rivan Queen; it could be argued that she spends virtually the whole Mallorean in one, with brief remissions.

Western Animation
  • In WITCH, Hay Lin suffers a Heroic BSOD after believing that her grandmother Yan Lin has started serving Nerissa, and that her boyfriend has betrayed her as well. Hay Lin becomes depressed and nearly catatonic, culminating in a Transformation Sequence where her teammates call out their own elements happily, and Hay Lin just stands there, her head bowed.
  • Aang in the third season premiere of Avatar The Last Airbender, after almost dying (again), being comatose while everything around him changed (again), and waking up to a world that thinks he's dead... again.
  • In Toy Story, when Buzz Lightyear finally realizes he's just a toy.
  • In an episode of The Fairly Oddparents, Timmy tells the Crimson Chin that he's only a comic book character, resulting in CC going into a Heroic BSOD where he is curled up in a ball crying for most of the episode feeling unimportant. He snaps back to normal when Timmy has a brush with death at the hands of his nemesis.
  • Fitz from 12. Oz Mouse goes through a BSOD after his best friend Skillet is killed. He completely gives up on everything, and wanders off to play a game of Pinball.

Video Games
  • Final Fantasy IX. After her mother's death — suffered whilst trying to kill her, after finding out that she never loved her and just wanted her powers — Garnet/Dagger spends a good chunk of the later game completely catatonic, unable to talk and just dragged around by her comrades. Oddly enough, she could still join you in battle, though her hit chance went right down, and occasionally, she just gave up, with the notice "Garnet can't concentrate".
    • It should be noted that Garnet's mother was under the influence of the Big Bad when all that took place, and that she made peace with Garnet right before her death. Also, she doesn't become catatonic until her homeland is nearly wiped off the map by an invasion of undead monsters and an incredibly destructive magical attack. You can hardly blame Garnet for developing post-traumatic stress disorder after a trauma like that.
    • Another prime case of Heroic BSOD occurs near the end of the game to Zidane. After finding out his true origins and the morbid purpose of his existence he goes temporarily insane, turning into a raging, foul-mouthed misanthrope who attacks everything in his path both verbally and physically.
  • In Final Fantasy VII, Sephiroth convinces the hero Cloud that he (Cloud) is not who he thinks he is; that he is in fact an attempt at "duplicating" the real Cloud, who had died several years earlier. The hero is so distraught at discovering he's the Tomato In The Mirror that he gives up the Weapon of Mass Destruction to his enemy. As all hell breaks loose, Cloud disappears, only to be found nearly comatose by his teammates a week later.
    • Cloud is really, really good at these in general. He has a spectacular one after Aeris dies, blaming himself for ''another'' BSOD ''during'' her murder at the hands of Sephiroth. '...But I just let her die.'
    • Prequel Crisis Core seems to be gearing up to give poor Cloud yet another BSOD during Zack's traumatic death scene.
      • Well, okay, it's more like 'Snaps and starts believing he IS Zack, or at least basing his entire personality on Zack's...(Thus leading into his intro in the original game.)
      • Really, it's more of an inversion of the BSOD - Cloud was comatose before this happened (due to having his nearly-lifeless body used as a science experiment rather than the traumatic encounter with Sephiroth that lead up to it), and actually snaps out of it and is in the most lucid state he's been in (or will be in) in a long time right after Zack's death. Of course, this doesn't last long, but that's at least as much the fault of the experiments as the trauma.
  • This occurs to Kratos from God of War after he unknowingly murdered his wife and child. He spends all of God of War 1 and 2 in a constantly enraged state and on the brink of madness (although he may have had this personality even before his Heroic BSOD.
    • He has another one on God of War II, during a Boss Battle, after accidentally killing the last survivng spartan (perhaps he should stop killing people in the dark...) He's so pissed off and distraught, shouting challenges to the gods and lamenting his fate that he completely ignores the giant monstrous Kraken climbing up the tower until it actually grabs him.
  • In Fire Emblem, the half-human, half-Dragon bard Nils suffers a Heroic BSOD after his leader and protector, Eliwood, kills Nils' sister, the dancer Ninian, under the control of the powerful Durandal sword. He snaps out of it and returns two stages later.
    • Averted in Path of Radiance. After his father's death, Ike seems afflicted with Heroic BSOD which manifests itself as insomnia. However, aside from appearing more tired than usual, the other characters do not notice. It doesn't affect his performance on the battlefield either. When he finally avenges Greil, the narration describes Ike as sleeping well past dawn the next day. A Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming for this troper.
  • Happens to the main character in Shadow Hearts 3, when he's killed by The Dragon. Effectively, it unleashes a Super Powered Evil Side, and he nearly ends up killing his friends before being brought to his senses.
  • Slightly subverted in Suikoden 2 to the little girl Pilika, whom after watching her parents get murdered in front of her by Luca Blight, is emotionally scarred and mute for the rest of her life.
    • False, she's able to talk after reuniting with Jowy.
  • Frank gets one in the best ending of Dead Rising when he sees the helicopter that was supposed to get him and the survivors out of the mall go down and explode. He's so out of it that he doesn't notice the zombie shambling up behind him.
    • Looked to me like he was completely aware of the horde of zombies behind him... he just didn't care anymore. Made the ending a lot better in my eyes, especially in a somewhat story-light game.
      • Except that isn't the true ending.
  • Kyosuke Nanbu in Super Robot Wars Original Generation Gaiden suffers this (even this troper think his purpose to be in the said game is to suffer Heroic BSOD). Just when he thought he saved his Robot Girl companion Lamia Loveless, he got a bit distracted and that caused a cheap shot to get fired at him and promptly lose her, leading him to think that it's his fault she's dead. Heroic BSOD occurs for about 10 minutes, after the said killer was taken care of, and he vanished from the player's control for several missions. Shortly after he came back in action (or get controlled by the player again), he found out that Lamia is Not Quite Dead and Brainwashed And Crazy. Another Heroic BSOD occurs in Kyosuke for about 10 minutes again after the battle concludes. And in their next encounter, Kyosuke was about to suffer another Heroic BSOD recalling his failure to protect her, until his rival turned good Axel Almer proved otherwise and completely saved her. From thereafter, Kyosuke no longer suffers casual Heroic BSODs, but it's kinda worth noting that in one game he suffers this trope THREE TIMES.
    • Calvina Coulange from Super Robot Wars Judgment suffers this in the early portion of the game, though this is justified that she hasn't been piloting for years and fears her skills have deteriorated so it doesn't ensure survival for the imminent battle.
    • Ryusei in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 takes it very literally when Hazal destroyed his SRX and seemingly killed Aya. Took about a Time Skip (just several months) and several missions to get him back to fighting state. And since this hasn't happened in the OG Universe... He may get one later.
  • Flint from Mother 3 gets one halfway through chapter one. The good news? The drago tooth his friend found would be an awesome weapon! The bad news? The tooth was found after it went through Flint's wife's heart! Flint literally has to be knocked unconscious after hearing the news and breaking down.
    • He gets another near the end of the game, when he finds out the Masked Man is Claus. He snaps out of it in time to take the bullet (well, PSI attack) for Lucas.
  • This troper had a real life BSOD lasting roughly .8 seconds when the PC in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon's identity was revealed.
  • Laharl from Disgaea: Hour of Darkness suffers his after Seraph Lamington kills Flonne. His only response, after a few seconds of silence, are a series of guttural growls followed by murderous rage. Afterwards, depending on what ending the player got, either Laharl spares Lamington and it's revealed that it was all a test, and Flonne is revived, Laharl spares Lamington... in the sense that he's still BREATHING... and Flonne is revived, though Laharl is so apalled by his actions that he departs, never to be seen again or, finally, flat out KILLS Lamington, only to go completely insane when the truth is revealed and kill himself.
    • Also happens to Adell in the Bad Ending of Disgaea 2 after he is forced to kill Rozalin. This being the Bad Ending, of course, things immediately go from bad to worse as it jumps right into a big bloody pool of Nightmare Fuel.
  • As seen in the OVA screenshot at the top of the page, Lloyd Irving of Tales Of Symphonia does this when he discovers that Colette is giving up her life to save the world and then gets a front row seat to watch her "die", the angel Remiel who had previously acted as a guardian angel for the group is actually evil, and Kratos, who had previously been traveling with them to protect Colette, turns out to be Remiel's boss. Poor boy practically needed a kernel reinstall to get over that, which hidden pseudo-ally Yuan neatly provides.
  • Fellow Idiot Hero and Tales Series protagonist, Luke fon Fabre of Tales Of The Abyss, also has an epic one when, after the first part of the game, he begins to realize the gravity of what he's done: killed thousands of people all at once, sunk a huge portion of the world, and refused to accept responsibility for it all until the entire party turns their backs and give up on him. Even his best friend and the love interest. Oh, and by the way, he's a clone, and the party seems to like the original better. He comes out of the BSOD with wide eyes and new resolution, deciding that he'll do whatever it takes to become a better person. Indeed, throughout the rest of the game he completes his transformation from Jerkass to The Messiah. And it's great.
  • Part of the end sequence of Final Fantasy VIII involves Squall trying and failing to make it out of Time Compression using The Power Of Friendship, getting stranded alone outside of time, and having an epic Heroic BSOD complete with hallucinations.
    • SO epic, in fact, that this troper spent the entire end movie and the next two years until I played it again scratching his head as to what was going on.
  • Mitsuru Kirijo, in Persona 3 gets this when the Chairman betrays the party and murders her father in cold blood, and then, wounded himself, falls off the edge of the tower. During the Kyoto trip, it's Yukari that brings her to her senses. After Mitsuru gains her resolution, her persona ascends from Penthesilea to Artemisia.
  • Jade from Beyond Good And Evil has one of these. When she returns home to her lighthouse, she discovers that it's been destroyed, and all of her adoptive children have most likely been killed. She breaks down and delivers a heart-wrenching soliloquy (see the quote on the top of the page) about her uselessness. Said soliloquy was so impressive that they even included it on the official OST album under the trackname "Enfants Disparus".
  • Adrienne Delaney of the Sierra game Phantasmagoria is a shining example of this trope at game's end, walking away from her former home with an utterly blank expression on her face. Of course, by that point she had personally witnessed visions of Zoltan Carnovash brutally murdering his wives, been raped by her husband Don while he was possessed, lost her cat Spazz and her two new vagrant friends, murdered Don in order to keep him from killing her, and had successfully faced off against the demon who had possessed him, trapping it in a talisman. So yeah, it's easy to see why she'd be so messed up...
  • Higashizawa drives Shiki into one in