What You Are in the Dark moments in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- Whitley Schnee in The Amazing Jaune Arc
has some very good and legitimate reasons for wanting to undermine Weiss and become the one to inherit the Schnee Dust Company: Remnant is running out of Dust. Luckily, Whitley is already setting plans in motion to be able to replace Dust with clean and renewable energy, which he can only do as the next head of the SDC. He also can't allow his sister to become the next heir because she also wants to be a Huntress, and she believes she can handle both lifestyles, while Whitley knows that she cannot and that she'll eventually crack under the pressure. Whitley knows that his plans will make his sister hate him, but still plans to do it for the good of Remnant. - The Bridge (MLP): Big Good Godzilla Junior is grappling with worries that he is not that different from his highly destructive, revenge-driven father despite honestly trying to be heroic. Psychologist Moonbeam Glimmer manages to hit all his buttons in the worst way possible in front of a live audience in a misguided attempt to show he's too dangerous to be around the public and that he is more psychologically damaged than he thinks. Junior later finds out about Glimmer's history, where her being too trusting of someone with power got her family murdered, and tracks her down to her parents' graves she was visiting in a completely isolated area. They were entirely alone, he still has all of his powers as a stallion while she was a normal mare, and when she finds out who she was alone with she realizes he could very easily exact his revenge. Instead Junior proves he's not like his father by placing some flowers on the graves, whispering that he understands and forgives her, and saying she can come to him to talk later if she needs to.
- In Ghosts of the Past, sequel of Child of the Storm, Harry's refusal to give in to the temptation to use the Phoenix fragment/become the Dark Phoenix to rescue Carol during the Bloody Hell arc is cited as this. It's considered particularly remarkable, as it came despite extreme provocation (two of his friends are almost killed, one maimed) and desperate circumstances, all of which giving in to that particular temptation could have solved more or less instantly, as well as whose life was on the line. Instead, he chose to do what was right, rather than what was easy.
- Children of an Elder God:
- In chapter 23, Nyarlathotep tried to talk all Children into joining him while they slept. All refused him."Look, my offer stands, up until the bitter end, okay? So when you're face down in the dirt and your friends are all dying around you, keep me in mind. Just say the word and you'll be saved, your friends will be saved, your sister and Kensuke will be saved, and everything will be alright."
"You're still not taking my soul." - The Children and Misato could have lived forever in the False Utopia created by Gendo and Yui, even though that world was being steadily corrupted by the power used to create it, and no one would ever know it. However they chose to fight and restore the real world.
- In chapter 23, Nyarlathotep tried to talk all Children into joining him while they slept. All refused him.
- In the Love Hina cross-over fanfic Contract Labor, this is the reason why Keitaro risked his life by going to Roanapur in what almost everyone considers a suicide mission to rescue Sarah McDougal, a young girl who does not like or respect him, who may be already be dead or beyond recovery. As Keitaro said before he left, "I knew what I was doing when I made that promise. Even if you release me from it, I would know that I did not do my best to get Sarah back. I would have to live with myself in the dark with that knowledge. I won't. I can't."
- Equestria Girls: A Fairly Odd Friendship:
- Invoked. While punishing Timmy with chores, Applejack and Apple Bloom stay hidden, wanting to see if Timmy would use "The Stone" to get out his punishment if he thought no one was looking. Timmy does do the chores on his own...but only because he can't use Da Rules to get out of punishment.
- Timmy is given a choice by the Dazzlings: he can grant them what they want and rule at their side, or he could lose his fairies. Without knowing the Rainbooms are listening in, he furiously refuses to help them, not wanting Cosmo and Wanda to be reduced to magical batteries.
- In Heaven's Light, Flynn basically realises he's changed when Quasimodo gives him a chance to leave with the stolen crown and he doesn't take it, Flynn realising that he prefers staying with his new friends to continuing his life as a thief.
- In the Infinity Crisis spin-off/sequel Brothers of Thunder, Lokia- a female version of Loki from the gender-inverted Earth-911111- only realises that she's picked up her sister's Mjolnir when she's already holding it, although the hammer is still too heavy for her to be sure of using its power and she puts it down before anyone else sees her holding it.
- Lost in Camelot:
- From Morgana's perspective, Arthur has shown a surprising degree of maturity and selflessness when he 'breaks up' with Gwen to let her be with Lancelot (unaware that Gwen's feelings for him were greater than what she felt for Lancelot in the past).
- Merlin also concludes that Kilgharrah has shown his true colours during a confrontation with Morgana in his cave, as despite Kilgharrah's claim that Morgana is evil Merlin points out that the dragon is clearly enjoying the chance to point out Morgana's shortcomings whereas Morgana has never taken pleasure in the suffering of others.
- Pokemon: Dark Multiverse brings together the Pokemon and Dark Nights: Metal, with Ash Ketchum being essentially an alternate version of Bruce Wayne. At one point, while trapped in the Dark Multiverse by the Dark Knights, Ash escapes two versions of Superman loyal to the Batman Who Laughs by fleeing to a world decimated by a zombie apocalypse where the only survivor is Superman. Having "recognised" Ash as a version of Bruce, Superman is then confronted by his twisted counterparts- one wearing a Batsuit and the other in Lex Luthor's old battlesuit- who offer to let him join them in changing his world's history if he will help them capture Ash. Affirming that he will not betray a version of his oldest friend to help beings who have some connection to Luthor and serve a master, Superman vows to fight his other selves and protect Ash.
- In Rabbit of the Moon, Bell is thoroughly exhausted in every way after killing Gascoigne and is elated to discover that he can return home to Orario. But after thinking about Gascoigne's daughter, he can't find it in him to go home when she's still waiting for her parents. So he ends up staying to search for her mother and later escorts the girl to Oedon Chapel after discovering Viola's remains. Only after the Little Girl is safe does he return to the Hunter's Dream and then Orario.
- SAPR: The infamous Breach in the chapter "Defined By Choice" has the moment for Sunset. Turns out she wasn't a hero after all.
- The Spectacular Spider-Man: Lost In Gotham: After Spider-Man saves the monorail, he's too injured to fight back when Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, and Signal basically kidnap him. They take him to the Bat Cave for medical treatment. They briefly wonder if they should unmask him; seeing as how he's unconscious, they could take it off, see his face, and put it back on him without him ever knowing. However, seeing as how they wouldn't want anyone to do that to them if they were in Spidey's position, they leave the mask where it is, only pulling it up to his nose so he can breathe easily.
- In Suzumiya Haruhi No Index, Kyon could have left Mugino, who had been trying to kill him, to be killed by the Celestial while they were both in Closed Space, but he instead saves her. It pays off because she falls for him.
- Essentially applies to Max's actions in Unexpected, where Max and Caroline met a year before Caroline's father was arrested, allowing Caroline to set up the cupcake shop for Max just because she admired Max's skills. After news of Martin Channing's arrest goes out, none of Caroline's rich friends bother returning her calls, but Max not only calls Caroline but offers her a place to stay even when she believed that she was going to lose the cupcake shop and any money Caroline might have given her. Since Caroline had already signed the shop over to Max (Max just hadn't realized because she never checks her bank statements), this gives Caroline a secure place to stay straight away, but the fact that Max was willing to be there for Caroline even when she wasn't rich affirms to Caroline that Max truly cares about her, rather than the money.
- In Dirty Sympathy, Edgeworth points out that Klavier and Apollo could have left Vera Misham to hang so they wouldn't have to deal with Kristoph Gavin but instead save the girl.
- In Queen of Diamonds, after Jafar takes the lamp and banishes him, once rescued by Carpet Aladdin decides to go back to Agrabah despite Carpet's warnings. Carpet, in turn, takes him to the Cave of Wonders to go on a Vision Quest, even though Aladdin assures Carpet that he can just take Aladdin to the outskirts of Agrabah and then leave.
- Blackbird:
- In the end, Oliver, Laurel's cheating ex-boyfriend, and Sara, her sister and the one he cheated on her with, prove that they love her more than either of her parents ever did (or in Quentin's case, bothered to express) by saving her from the League and, in the case of the former, nearly dying in the process. Not only did they prove that they truly do care for Laurel, but they have also changed and become better people.
- By contrast, Quentin's reaction to Laurel's abrupt departure was to assume she abandoned him and resent her for the next three years, while Dinah outright traded Laurel for her sister because she didn't want to live with her own guilt of letting Sara go on the Gambit. To say nothing of their treatment of Sara when they got back, where they rejoiced in her return and then summarily ignored her, allowing her to slowly self-destruct over the guilt of what happened to her sister. Ultimately, while Laurel's plight showed that Oliver and Sara were good people at heart who had changed for the better, it also revealed to her and to them what Quentin and Dinah really are: self-centered people and terrible parents.
- For most of lessons in tea making, Zuko does his best to refuse the call and remain neutral within the war despite Team Avatar's best efforts to get him to join them. Eventually, Zuko demonstrates what kind of person he really is when he finds out about Zhao's plan to kill the Moon Spirit and immediately rushes to the North Pole to help the heroes, effectively joining Team Avatar and becoming Aang's Firebending teacher in the process.
- A technically public example of this occurs in the The Dark Knight fanfic Legend; the Joker has captured Gotham police officer Anna Ramierez, the woman who helped the mob capture Rachel Dawes and Harvey Dent, and hence one of the few people who knows what happened to Dent and thus has reason to suspect that Batman wasn't the one who killed the people Dent went on to kill. The Joker then televises his subsequent torture of Ramierez with the goal of getting her to confess that Dent was the one who committed the murders, thus destroying Gotham's faith in him and everything that's been accomplished in his name... but instead, on live TV, Ramierez claims that she committed the murders, destroying her reputation and condemning herself to death as the Joker beats her in a fit of rage, knowing that only a few people such as Commissioner Gordon and Batman will ever know the truth about what she did. Her funeral is attended by only a half-dozen people with no regard for the usual honours given to a police officer who fell in the line of duty, but it is noted in the narrative that those who know the truth will forever judge Ramierez by her final acts, with James Gordon attending the funeral with the other public mourners and Bruce Wayne watching from the distance long after everyone else has gone.
- It All Came Tumbling Down sees Lee Adama in a position where he passes such a test from his own perspective and "fails" it from the perspective of Admiral Helena Cain. After Lee and Kara are captured and tortured by the Cylons for a time, a chain of events leads to Lee being found by Pegasus while Kara is able to return to Galactica. When Lee convinces Pegasus to return to Caprica for a rescue mission, he identifies the copy of Cavil in the resistance as one of his Cylon captors, but doesn't request the chance to torture the captured Cylon when Cain discusses her plans. Cain considers this a sign that Lee isn't truly a member of her crew, which she considers a failure on his part even as Lee holds on to his humanity.
- Hope for the Heartless: When the injured Horned King passes out after saving his escaped prisoner Avalina from the Mad Pack, she has the perfect chance to leave him to die and be free of him. However, she has a mental conflict between her head and heart about what is right. Deciding that she'd be a murderer as much as the Horned King if she willingly left him to die, she gives in to her heart and takes the lich back to his castle.
- Whistler in Preconceptions has his charge changed from Angel to Xander but has a moment where Xander seems to be going against the plan laid out for him. Whistler realizes he could nudge Xander onto the "correct" path with no consequences but he swore not to interfere and is determined to keep his word.
- In Ties That Bind, Faith basically passes one for her long-unknown daughter Eleanor; Eleanor was conceived when an agent of the Watcher's Council had Faith raped as a teenager because it was foretold that her daughter would play an important part in a soon-to-be-fulfilled prophecy and the baby was abducted after the birth, but Eleanor has spent years believing that Faith abandoned her willingly. When the Scoobies learn about the extent of Travers' plans for Eleanor, Faith asks the gang not to tell Eleanor the truth because she wants to protect her daughter's image of Travers, but she is unaware that Eleanor was listening to them on the other side of the door, and Faith's shock reaction when she finds Eleanor outside the room affirms to Eleanor that everything she heard was the truth.
- Zero/Lelouch decides in The Black Emperor that converting Suzaku is a lost cause when the latter refers to the Japanese as Elevens in a discussion between the two of them. Even though the only people around were those sympathetic to the Japanese, he still refers to them by the "name" given to them by Britannia.
- A Student Out of Time: Mahiru has made it clear that she doesn't trust Kasugano and also knows he's Hajime at this point. However, when she and Hiyoko are kidnapped by Junya's traffickers, he offers to let them both go if she tells him who Kasugano is. She basically tells him to pound sand, refusing to give up the identity of someone she doesn't trust whatsoever.
- let's go out with a bang!: After joining the Enforcement Team's efforts to instill order in the locked-down convention center, feeling more accepted among their number than she is by her fellow alumni from V3, Miu is given a gun and ordered to help ensure that they meet the hostage takers' demands. She finds Kokichi, the one she blames the most for her isolation, hiding alone. He taunts her, challenging her to pull the trigger and prove that he was right all along: that she was already Beyond Redemption. To their mutual surprise, Miu can't bring herself to do it, and her tearful confession of how much he terrifies and haunts her forces him to have a Heel Realization.
- In Resurrected Memories: Ember's Heel–Face Turn is put to the test in chapter 38, appropriately called Temptations. Here Ember, being confused over how real her friendship is with Danny and having discovered from Star a major secret that could get Paulina expelled but has promised to keep it quiet, is very confused. That night she has a dream where she is confronted by a representation of her former self, who tries to tempt her into taking advantage of her situation by using the information from Star to win the bet, as well as use her situation to use her powers from her fans in order to take over the world. For a moment, Ember is tempted, only to remember how much she has grown to care about Danny, how he genuinely trusts her and she remembers that if she tells, she may very well end up ruining Star's high school life in the process. Ember remains firms and tells her alter ego point blank that she will not betray Danny or Star's trust, thus cementing her Heel–Face Turn for good.
- In Lady Luck's Favor, Danny is given a chance to have sex with a MILF who hasn't had sex in over two years. Said MILF happens to be Sam's mother, Pamela Manson. While initially torn, Danny eventually decides to go through with it, but he also decides to tell Sam afterwards.
- Smoke and Ashes focuses on a mass shooting at Lawndale High, showing the normally sardonic Daria leaping forward to protect her sister as soon as she's aware of what's happening. She later runs back outside to help Jane, who stayed behind to drag a heavily injured Tiffany into the school away from the gunfire. The two try to keep Tiffany going by performing CPR and applying pressure to her gunshot wound. She doesn't make it, but Tiffany's parents are grateful that Daria and Jane tried to save her when she could've simply died alone and forgotten during the chaos. The girls later find out Mr. DeMartino, a man who is quite vocal about how much the idiocy of the student body pisses him off, risked his life saving several kids. He also informs a distraught Daria that if it hadn't been for her, Quinn might've been killed.
- Fade: Light quickly figures out that Near was his killer in the story, and deduces that he might also know that both he and L are Kira. In spite of all that, he refuses to kill Near or tell L, and begs L not to either when Near confronts them via broadcast, as all he is doing is opposing them — he has yet to commit any actual crimes. This shows that this Light still has morals, integrity, and above all else, humanity. It's no wonder why Beyond is so intent on saving him.
- Dragon Ball Reboot: In the prequel spin-off, Gine is competing with Fasha to earn a spot on Bardock's team. King Vegeta decides to settle the matter by assigning the two Saiyan women on a mission with Bardock's team to eradicate the inhabitants of an alien planet so Frieza can mine its minerals, proclaiming that whichever woman performs the best will be picked to join. Gine initially appears very gung-ho about the mission and even agrees to a Body-Count Competition with Fasha. However, upon splitting off from the others and arriving at a city she's assigned to destroy, Gine encounters a terrified family, the sight of which paralyzes her with indecision as she struggles between her moral compass and her desire to join Bardock's team. Ultimately, she decides to do the right thing, warning the city's inhabitants about the Saiyan invasion and helping them evacuate their planet. Afterwards, she reunites with Bardock's team and lies to them that she succeeded in wiping out the city's inhabitants.
- In The Two Seers, with Mirabel having gone into hiding with Bruno after she received the gift of visions as well, Dolores discreetly helps Bruno and Mirabel while they're living in hiding in Casita because she can't stand hearing her cousin suffering due to sickness, even though nobody would know if she did nothing.
- Final Fantasy VII: Another Side: After shooting down the Turks' helicopter, Cissnei thinks back to a conversation she had with another ex-Turk about why she'd getting so involved with AVALANCHE. When said former colleague demands to know if she thinks she can erase all her dark deeds of the past or if she wants to be a hero, Cissnei replies, "It's not about being a hero...it's about being able to look at myself in the mirror."
- In Shadows of the Mind, Cloud becomes convinced that Lazard is giving away Shinra secrets (or at least knows something about it and is refusing to investigatte), secrets that eventually got a battalion of his comrades killed. When Cloud decides to investigate, Snow offers that they could just go back home right now, which no one would ever find out about. Cloud refuses.Snow: Nobody would ever know if we walked.
Cloud: We'd know.
- Corrin Reacts: Flora encounters this situation in the past when Corrin attempts to rescue her from a canyon she'd fallen into and nearly dies from exposure to the raging blizzard, despite loathing Corrin and chewing him out for his (as it turns out, unintentional) participation in her being held hostage at the Northern Fortress. Instead of leaving him to die, Flora goes to save his life and later becomes Fire-Forged Friends with him. It's implied she still feels massively guilty about this incident.
- In the fanfic White King, Black King, Yuri underwent this before the story started, when he was hired to assassinate Bernadetta. Despite knowing that he and his single mother desperately need the gold that the job will bring, and trying his best to work up some kind of hatred for her, he cannot help but acknowledge her suffering and hurt. Unusually for this trope, the night he is ready to do it, standing with a knife over her asleep in bed, he realizes he can kill her... but he gets to choose, and so decides not to, sparing her life, because he didn't want to be the kind of man that killing her would make him. Privately, he likes to believe his new circumstances (as effectively the leader of the Abyss, even called a King by others) are a reward from Sothis for his decency.He was grateful for that. In a life dictated so much by circumstance, Bernadetta had made sure that, unlike so many, Yuri got to decide cold and clear and sober who he was going to be.
- Son of the Desert: Despite hating Roy for killing many of his family during the Ishvalan War and having fantasized about killing him, when Ed and Roy are faced with the murderous Scar he protects him. Edward was spared by Scar because he didn't want to kill a fellow Ishvalan. Edward could have let Scar kill Roy and not be blamed for being unable to stop him, but he saves Roy and gets Scar to back off with some well-placed words.
Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire
- In Purple Days, Joffrey Baratheon, trapped in a "Groundhog Day" Loop, is led by circumstances into a high-ranking position at the Dawn Army in Yi-Ti. Eventually, the Zombie Apocalypse spilling from Westeros reaches Yi-Ti. With the White Walkers and wights laying siege to the Dawn Fortress, a heavily injured Joff reflects that he's likely to die for real if the Walkers kill him. Briefly, he considers running away or killing himself to reset the loop, sending him back to his pampered lifestyle at King's Landing. However, he ultimately decides doing so would mean abandoning his men and proving he still was the same idiot coward he started as in canon. He stands his ground and dies with the rest of the Dawn Army, and while the return trip is extremely bumpy even for his standards, Joff manages to return for another try. And another. And as many as it takes to save the world.
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): The narrative lampshades that when Vivienne Graham made her canonical Heroic Sacrifice in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), she could have instead left Mark behind to save herself and no-one would have blamed her under the circumstances, but that just isn't her way.
- Daphne Greengrass and the Boy Who Lived:
- Snape confirms to Daphne that he’s basically on Harry’s side by destroying a letter from Charlie Weasley that was his only evidence that Harry had been planning to smuggle Norbert out of Hogwarts, but he makes Daphne swear to tell nobody else about this (all Daphne can say is that Snape did something that convinced her he’s not a villain).
- Daphne basically tests Snape’s thoughts on the Malfoy family by insulting Draco when it’s just the two of them in Snape’s office, Daphne reasoning that Snape would be angered by the insult if he genuinely liked Draco while his lack of reaction assures her that he just praises Draco to uphold appearances.
- In A Father's Courage, Harry's baby daughter is being cared for by Madame Pomfrey while he's sick with dragon pox at Saint Mungo's. Draco receives a message telling him to kidnap the child and send her to Voldemort. He takes her from the hospital wing unnoticed, places her in the Vanishing Cabinet and is about to cast the spell to transport her when he has a fit of conscience and decides to return her to the hospital wing.
- In Princess of the Blacks, after Ingrid, one of the junior champions in the Triwizard Tournament, is badly injured in the First Task, Jen visits to see how badly she's been hurt. Ingrid has been left paralyzed and because she physically can't compete, the Goblet will consider her in breach of contract and remove her magic. Jen considers that she could leave the girl there with no one ever knowing, but decides to heal her instead. Granted, she later uses Ingrid's gratitude to gain an advantage in the tournament, but she could have easily just let her be eliminated from the competition.
- Many of the one-shot stories in Tizenöt cover moments in Austria and Hungary's lives that only they alone know.
- Mad World: When sneaking into Nny's house, Dib is faced with the choice of whether to save Dillon and Tess (a pair of Asshole Victims Nny has kidnapped), when their escape might alert the killer to the fact that someone's snuck in, thus threatening Dib's mission. Dib actually hesitates to consider this, before his better nature kicks in and he frees them.
- In His Honor, The Mayor, Drew Lipsky? when Bonnie is taking part in a fashion show with her family in the audience she sees Kim trying to push a large gas tank with a timer into an airtight room, she connects the dots and helps push the tank, and when it becomes obvious that there's not enough time for them to run outside and lock the door behind them before the timer hits zero she locks them both inside Fortunately, the payload is nonlethal; unfortunately, the payload is Nanomoths.
- Splint:
- When Rukhash first finds Cadoc – who is badly wounded and unconscious – she seriously considers killing him purely because he's a Man and to get revenge for everything his race have done to her and other Orcs over the years. She doesn't. As she later tells him:Rukhash: ...I thought for a moment to take that out on you while you were bleeding out, but I didn't. I didn't blame you because that weren't fair, because I didn't think it were right to make you pay for shit you didn't do.
- Rukhash alone knows that Baladnor, the Orc hunter who took part in slaughtering her clan, mate and children several years earlier, is slowly dying of the poison that transferred into his body when she stabbed him with a blade back then, and she chooses to settle for leaving him to that fate as revenge. However, after he has a Heel Realization about her and helps rescue her from being murdered by Barmund's Orc hunters, she tells him about the poison and gives him the antidote for the sake of having a future. Cadoc lampshades afterwards how this action proves Rukhash's nobility.The knowledge of what she had intended to do, to leave Baladnor to a pitiful fate, was a horrifying thought, and yet, he was proud of her. She could have never told a soul about the poison and the orc hunter would have died miserably, her family avenged. Instead, she offered him a cure. Cadoc would not call what she did gracious. Sentencing a man to a vile death was a terrible punishment, no matter how deserving Baladnor might have been of such an end in her mind. What Rukhash did was show him mercy. Cadoc was proud of her for doing the right thing, no matter how much she may have wished to do otherwise.
- When Rukhash first finds Cadoc – who is badly wounded and unconscious – she seriously considers killing him purely because he's a Man and to get revenge for everything his race have done to her and other Orcs over the years. She doesn't. As she later tells him:
- For His Own Sake: Kagura schemes to turn Keitaro against Nagisa with her "charms", for no other reason than because she likes hurting her. She makes this offer while Keitaro is tied up and seemingly completely at her mercy, and is incredibly upset when he turns her down flat.
- In Because I Knew You, Wanda comes to New York to investigate the spell that erased all knowledge of Peter Parker from the rest of the world because she assumed that it might be something to do with her own current efforts to find her children. However, when she reads Peter's nightmare and learns what really motivated the spell, away from the Darkhold's corruptive influence Wanda finds herself wanting to stay and comfort him even when they barely knew each other before the spell, particularly when she finds herself recognising how they both had no help from the other Avengers post-Blip even as their lives fell apart.
- In Two Spiders on a Web, multiple women proposition Spider-Man despite the fact that they know he's already in a relationship with Spider-Gwen. They even cite the classic phrase of "she doesn't have to know". Peter turns down every request.
- In Mega Man Recut, Wily has a moment like this in "Robosaur Park" when he briefly contemplates killing Proto Man to stop him from becoming The Starscream in the future. However, he ultimately decides against it, admitting to himself that he considers Proto Man a friend.
- BURN THE WITCH: Given how Lila attempted to completely ruin Marinette's life — and continues trying to do so even as Marinette is trying to protect her from Witch Hunter and the angry mob she's turning all of Paris into — nobody would blame her for simply leaving the ungrateful girl to her fate. Yet Marinette refuses to do so... not just for Lila's sake, but in order to protect the akumatized Rose and all of her victims from doing something she knows they'd regret.
- The Cosmos: Adrien witnesses Lila threatening Rose in private. Up to this point, he has deliberately ignored the impact of her lying and bullying, and there is nobody else around. Neither girl realizes that he's there. But Adrien still decides to intervene, signaling the start of his Character Development.
- Feralnette AU: During Even a Worm will Turn, Alya makes a horrible impression upon Felix with her invasive behavior and reckless endangerment of others, all in the name of getting "exclusive footage" of White Knight for her Ladyblog and "proving herself" to Ladybug... while ignoring the fact that Ladybug doesn't want her to get involved with akuma attacks. Felix has the opportunity to leave Alya to suffer the consequences of her actions, but chases after her and helps Chat Noir get her out of harm's way. Of course, when Alya then complains about this, he calls her out on her ingratitude and disrespect for everyone, including the heroine she claims to idolize.
- The Karma of Lies: Ladybug approaches Chloé due to needing funding for a plan to take down Hawkmoth. However, she makes clear that Chloé will not become Queen Bee again, and that this is purely Teeth-Clenched Teamwork on her end. Even if their plan succeeds, Chloé won't receive any recognition for her part in it. While this clearly stings her pride, Chloé ultimately agrees to help, deciding that it's more important to ensure Hawkmoth's defeat than to seek glory and fame.
- Marinette later learns just how much Chloé took this lesson to heart when she discovers that Chloé has been working to atone for her previous bratty behavior without seeking any recognition for her efforts.
- Marinette Dupain-Cheng's Spite Playlist: Marinette sees Gabrielle, a Rich Bitch bully at her new school, being followed by some creepy guys. She immediately steps in, putting herself at risk in order to help out a girl who's been nothing but cruel to her.
- The One to Make It Stay: In I Owe You Every Joy of Love, Alya has been having a really rough month. Ladybug benched her alter ego Rena Rouge after she posted a manipulatively edited video on the Ladyblog; Marinette asked her to give her some space after an argument; she got grounded after inadvertently ignoring her family's attempts to call her and causing her sister to miss an important match, and her boyfriend has just suggested that they might need to take a break. Cue Hawkmoth attempting to akumatize her into Friend Zone. Alya manages to resist and reject the butterfly, refusing to let him tempt her into betraying Ladybug. She does so knowing full well that nobody else will know what she's done — if she had been akumatized, people naturally would have found out as she rampaged, but because she resisted, only she and Hawkmoth are aware of what happened.
- Of Patience and Pettiness: As part of his Jerkass Realization, Nino figures out that Ladybug permanently benched Carapace because of how he treated Marinette. While he could have kept this to himself, or simply blamed Lila for deceiving him (like Alya and most of their peers), he not only accepts fault, but tells Marinette while apologizing to her, stating that in Ladybug's position, he wouldn't have trusted him either. His honesty convinces her that his apology is sincere, and earns him a second chance with a new secret identity.
- Sins of the Past: Before she enacts her Wounded Gazelle Gambit, Lila privately offers Marinette the opportunity to spare herself by backing down and admitting defeat. Marinette refuses, sticking to her principles... and because of this, winds up losing everything.
- Thanks, but no centers around Marinette repeatedly rejecting the call by finding better holders for all of the Miraculouses Master Fu keeps sending her way. When she tells Wayzz she couldn't possibly be worthy of the Turtle Miraculous since she doesn't have a protective nature, he points out that her actions speak otherwise: rather than letting the other Miraculouses she was entrusted with go to waste, she went out of her way to find suitable candidates for each one.
- Wings to Fly uses the fact that a character considers they failed such a test as a plot point; Lucreiza Noin had a chance to prevent the Libra drop attempt by shooting Zechs Merquise, who she loves, in the back at one point. She never even thought to raise a weapon. Noin considers this the greatest shame of her life, though no one knows she had the chance. Noin eventually confesses to her wingman in the apparent hope she'll be judged harshly.
- In Forgiveness is the Attribute of the Strong, All Might faces his ultimate test as a hero when he encounters a young version of All for One who traveled through time.Sir Nighteye prophesizes that either All Might or young Hisashi will die. All Might must decide if he’s willing to sacrifice himself to save an innocent child who has the potential to become his worst enemy.
- Endeavor in Midoriya Tenko manages to unintentionally net himself some good publicity after some paparazzi spying on him find him admonishing the concepts of "heroic" and "villainous" quirks and encouraging Midoriya to be a hero despite his quirk being considered "villainous".
- Deconstructed in the Sleeper Hit AU. Aizawa expels Izuku from U.A. on the very first day, fudging the results of his Quirk Assessment Test so that he can boot out the Quirkless kid and keep on the girl with Invisibility while creating a slot for his protégé to eventually enter his class. He then secretly issues an anonymous endorsement to help him get into another Hero Course. When he reveals this to Shinsou, he's less than impressed, declaring that it doesn't balance out the harm caused by his public actions. In fact, it makes them worse: he didn't truly believe that Midoriya lacked potential, but that didn't stop him from kicking him out for his own selfish reasons and presenting it as though he just wasn't good enough for U.A. In light of this, his secret act of compassion just underscores his hypocrisy, coming off more as something he used to soothe his guilty conscience.
- In Walk A Mile In Anothers Shoes, Izuku receives an offer from All for One to murder his abusive father, his only chance to get revenge outside the law without anyone finding out.
- Yesterday Upon The Stair has a particularly dark example: Chuuza, a Yakuza member whom Overhaul personally disposed of, gives Izuku false information, remaining loyal to her former boss despite how he murdered her, knowing that he'll never find out about what she did for him.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Background Pony:
- Lyra ambushes Straight Edge, the alcoholic, abusive father of Snips, and breaks his legs, knowing that she can get away with anything thanks to her curse, which edits her out of the memory of anyone she interacts with after a short period of time. However, she stops short of breaking his horn because of this trope, and even transports him to the hospital once he's forgotten about the attack.
- Lyra's decision in the penultimate chapter also qualifies. The only way she can remove her curse is to play the last elegy of the Nocturne of the Firmaments, and, in the process, rewind time to the moment she was cursed and erase all the good she had achieved, up to and including the crucial role she played in defeating Discord. No one, herself included, would ever know if she took this option, but Lyra decides against it and returns to Ponyville to live out her life as an Unperson with a fractured memory.
- The Best Night Ever has Prince Blueblood, stuck in a "Groundhog Day" Loop on the day of the Grand Galloping Gala, work very hard at shedding his Prince Charmless qualities and go full-out to make the Gala as good as it can be in order to escape. Due to the huge amounts of loops (numbering in the hundreds if not thousands) as well as the desperate attempts of becoming free (he even attempted a dark spell to create an unquenchable fire at the cost of his soul) before he attempts to improve, he is clearly reaching a limit. While his latest attempt seemingly goes off right, it fails because he's trying too hard, and all of it comes across as artificial. As he goes out into the palace sculpture garden, stands at the foot of Discord's statue, and seriously considers setting him free in exchange for finally stopping his nightmare. After a long moment of contemplation, Blueblood finally decides he can't do it, and walks away to try one more time. He finally ends up succeeding and completing his transformation from Prince Charmless to The Wise Prince.
- A Diplomatic Visit: In chapter 7 of the second sequel, Diplomacy Through Schooling, Neighsay is offered a chance to join Tirek as a loyal follower, and revenge on Twilight for causing all this misfortune to happen to him. He considers for just a second before refusing.
- The Pieces Lie Where They Fell: As revealed in chapter 26 of the sequel, Picking Up the Pieces, Prince Blueblood was given the chance to end the line of changeling queens... but refused to do so, since it would have involved murdering an infant.
- In the Pony POV Series, it's shown in the Origins arc that when Discord was reincarnated on Earth following the Alicorn/Draconnequi War, Galaxia attempted to smother him in his crib... and couldn't bring herself to do it, even knowing what he would become if he regained his memories. She lived to regret this.
- in dreams you follow (but I dream in the dark) begins when Kiba overhears Tsunade and Jiraiya complaining about not having any solid information about Akatsuki. Neither was aware of his presence, and he could have easily moved on. Instead, he approaches Tsunade and volunteers to help infiltrate the group as a Deep Cover Agent, a move that not only puts his life on the line, but forces him to destroy his own reputation and leave behind everything he's fighting to protect.
- In the first scene of Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide, starts out similarly to End of Evangelion with Shinji visiting a comatose Asuka in NERV's infirmary. He accidentally gets Asuka's gown unbuttoned, and he realizes he can do to her whatever he wanted and no one would ever find out. However, signalling the beginning of the divergent storyline, he catches himself and instead quickly covers her up before leaving the room, feeling profusely disgusted with himself.
- In Peggy Sue fanfic The Second Try, nobody knew that Shinji and Asuka were time-travellers. They could have let everything happen again, not try to change anything, or quit piloting to spare themselves their worst ordeals, and nobody would ever know that they had left the world dying. Still they chose fighting and trying to save the world.
- In a sidestory of Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, Butterfree has an argument with Ash and flies off to try and find his mate, the Pink Butterfree. He does find her, but she doesn't recognize him, and has found herself another mate. He actually has the chance to kill his rival and make it look like a Fearow did it, but ultimately can't bring himself to do it, and decides to let her be happy with him.
- Also, in the main storyline, Ash catches a Gyarados on Misty's behalf when he could have easily caught it for himself (although in this case he was also aided by his 'knowledge' that this was the Gyarados Misty had in the original timeline which had a past history with her).
- In Atlas Arc, Jaune's initiation into Atlas Academy involves being dropped off in the middle of nowhere while wearing a token that will allow Atlas personnel to view his progress once he returns. While traveling, he comes across a lone Huntsman who is in desperate need of reinforcements but is unable to call it in due to the area's poor reception. Without hesitation, Jaune destroys his token, which prompts Atlas to send in Huntsmen to investigate and save them. While destroying the token meant that Jaune failed his intitiation, Ironwood decides to make an exception for him because it was an emergency.
- In Midnight Divergence, Cinder sees her Stepsister (who had abused her and than tried to apologize) being pursued by a beowolf. Despite hating her and realizing that no one would ever know if she let her die, Cinder ultimately saves her stepsister because that's what a huntress does.
- In the Concerning Us endgame, Janine finally faces the man who ordered the assassination of her aunt, instigated then covered up the incident leading to her brother's possession and death, tried to kill her girlfriend and has been the source of much misery. She has the choice to kill him herself or bring him to justice. She admits that killing him is a tempting option, but she will refrain from doing so to give justice to the other victims and because her dead friends believed in her to do the right thing.
- In The Prodigal Daughter, while Marla Gilmore feels that she failed this test when she not only went along with what happened on the Equinox but also rebuilt the enhanced warp drive for Section 31, Janeway counters with her new understanding that events on the Equinox were exceptional circumstances and chooses to focus on how long Marla held out against torture specifically designed to break her in the second case.
- In the fic To the Journey, after Voyager returns to the Alpha Quadrant, Tom is disgusted that most of the people coming to see him are his former 'friends' who abandoned him after Caldik Prime; while Tom was willing to forgive his father's past treatment of him because Admiral Paris accepted that he hurt Tom and wants to apologise, everyone else showed their true colours when they abandoned Tom after the accident and are only here now expecting everything to be as it was before.
- The Will of the Empire: Discussed by the Noghri when they learn of the Empire's deceit; despite Vader using them for the Empire's gain and doing nothing to help them, he told them the truth even when he could have taken it to his grave, and that is at least enough to give Luke and Leia some benefit of the doubt.
- On Trial: Madeline works as a cook and server in the prison where Cassandra is sent. Seeing as how she works in the prison and Cassandra (under the orders of the King) has been abused/bullied by everyone else there, no one would stop her if she chose to ignore Cassandra or treated her as badly as everyone else did. Instead, Madeline, being a genuinely good person, befriends Cassandra and does everything she can to help her (or at least make her less miserable). When Cassandra is sold via the prison matron's human trafficking ring to an abusive drunk, Madeline is the one who saves her life and gets her medical care after.
- In Don't Let Go, Jack goes back to the night of Ianto's death with a syringe of nanogenes specifically programmed to cure the poison used by the 456 and bring Ianto back to life. However, when Jack witnesses a man sobbing over the body of his pregnant wife, even though he could easily cure Ianto and never tell him what happened, Jack sacrifices the nanogenes to bring the mother and unborn child back to life instead.
- Transformers Animated: Cybertronian Genesis: A couple in this Transformers: Animated fanfiction:
- When push comes to shove, Sentinel betrays Gigatron and chooses to side with Optimus in the end, and apologizes to his friend. Optimus accepts the apology and forgives him in turn.
- After so much debate over Blackarachnia's true character, including the sociopathic characteristics she displayed during her time as Elita-1, Optimus' faith in her is ultimately rewarded. Blackarachnia willingly sacrifices her life to merge her spark with the All Spark, empowering it and allowing it to evolve, adapt, and finally kill Gigatron for good.
- The Land of What Might-Have-Been:
- Elphaba reflects that Glinda choosing to dance alongside her at the Ozdust basically proved to Elphaba that Glinda was basically a good person.
- When Elphaba is attacked by the Hate-Creature (a manifestation of Frexpar's hatred for Elphaba), Dorothy realises that she could just wait in the 'Lobster Pot' that had been intended to protect her from the Hellion during the original mission and claim she wasn't able to get out to do anything about Elphaba's situation herself. However, although nobody else would ever know if she told such a lie, Dorothy recognises that she would know, and instead makes a deal with the Hellion to surrender to her if the Hellion saves Elphaba.
- In The Shattering of Oz, a very literal example of this occurs for Dorothy and Elphaba when Elphaba briefly talks to Dorothy before she takes part in the Nome King's 'game'; as they are talking in a darkened corridor and Elphaba doesn't introduce herself, both parties give their honest feelings about the current situation, with Dorothy's genuine grief at her perceived role in the deaths of the Witches and Elphaba offering unnecessary sympathy and condolences for Dorothy's trauma helping both parties accept that they no longer have to be enemies.
