History Main / ILetGwenStacyDie

** Eddard Stark has never forgiven himself failing to rescue his sister and fulfills her LastRequest until he dies, though we don't know what it was and we can only suppose.

** This happens again with Gabriela in ''Film/RamboLastBlood'', sparking Rambo's RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the HumanTraffickers who drugged, raped, and killed her.

* ''Film/SupermanTheMovie''. There is a giant earthquake that threatens the very existence of California. Superman races against time to seal the fault before catastrophic damage is unleashed. While successful, several aftershocks occur, forcing Superman to complete several daring rescues (e.g., saving a school bus from falling over the railings of a crumbling Golden Gate Bridge and a train from falling into a hole in the tracks). While Superman is kept busy with rescue after rescue, Lois Lane is caught in one of the aftershocks while driving on a little-used road. The car -- which stalls after running out of gas -- begins to fall into a large crack, and the car is caught in an avalanche of debris and dirt before Lois can escape; she is eventually suffocated. Superman finally locates Lois' car, finds her dead and screams in {{angst}}.
** The trope is quickly reversed when the distraught Superman -– ignoring Jor-El's admonition to not alter human history –- reverses time to the point where Lex Luthor unleashed his evil plan (setting off the above-ground nuclear explosion), and thus saves Lois.

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'' has Euphemia li Britannia for Suzaku Kururugi, and Shirley Fenette for Lelouch vi Britannia. The latter eventually kick started a chain of events leading to Lelouch's [[ThanatosGambit Zero Requiem]]. [[SparedByTheAdaptation Though the movie version shows how it still would have happened if she had lived.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Things go downhill from here on...]]]]

** And lest we forget, Yurin L'Ciel for Flit Asuno from the latest series ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamAGE.'' [[UnstoppableRage Seeing Flit completely lose it]] afterwards makes this depressing scene worse. Her death haunts him for the next [[spoiler:''seventy years'', as he tries his hardest to slaughter all the Vagans he possibly can in revenge.]]

* In ''Literature/MyBrotherIsASuperhero,'' we get a FallenHero example. [[spoiler:Stellar is a version of Luke from a universe where [[ForWantOfANail he got superpowers instead of Zack]]. He did a poor job stopping Nemesis, so that one of the many fragments killed his world's Zack]]. And he's willing to kidnap a ReplacementGoldfish.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' after Haurchefant's death at the Vault, numerous scenes and dialogue options show that the Warrior of Light is haunted by his death, especially as he died from an attack meant for them.

* ''Film/AvengersEndgame'': [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]]'s failure to stop Thanos at the end of ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' [[spoiler:indirectly led to [[Franchise/SpiderMan Peter Parker]]'s death, which haunted Tony for years to come. In the first act of ''Endgame'', he is initially reluctant to help the other Avengers with the Time Heist due to his commitment to his new family, but in the end relents, largely motivated by the desire to correct Peter's death.]]

* ''Characters/ChicagoPD'': It happened with its main characters like Jay Halstead possibly causing his father to die in Chicago Med after the latter was saved from a apartment fire and a heated argument with each other. Hank Voight lost his son, Richard when he didn't noticed that the latter was killed for attempting to assist a friend who later died in the Season 3 finale.

* ''Chicago PD'': It happened with its main characters like Jay Halstead possibly causing his father to die in Chicago Med after the latter was saved from a apartment fire and a heated argument with each other. Hank Voight lost his son, Richard when he didn't noticed that the latter was killed for attempting to assist a friend who later died in the Season 3 finale.

* Inverted in ''Fanfic/AFrozenFlower'', where Oprah feels guilty for saving Orchid instead of killing her shortly after she discovered her murdering Edward J. Grimes, despite Oz telling her to kill her. According to her, it's because she's too kindhearted and too much of a pacifist to kill anyone.

* ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'': In ''ComicBook/DaredevilMarkWaid'' #11 [[TakeThat rather conspicuously]] call out Punisher's partner Cole for believing in this trope -- there are millions of cops and firefighters who simply want to do what's right, and claiming that they aren't as driven as someone with a dead loved one is a "vomitous insult".

* In ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'', healer Leetah has never seen death before when her friend Thiro suddenly dies from an animal attack. She realizes that because of her healer magic, the villagers had grown careless; but also that because she was so confident of her abilities, she was never prepared to deal with serious injury. To understand death, she ends up stabbing herself on purpose and healing her own mortal wounds and becomes a stronger and more responsible healer by doing so.
* In the period of ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' when Johnny Storm was thought dead, the Thing was hit with this horribly, as he had been restored to normal old Ben Grimm during that period, leaving him helpless to save his friend.
* Deconstructed in the original ''ComicBook/MarshalLaw'' miniseries. Marshal Law's girlfriend Lynn is raped and murdered by superpowered SerialKiller the Sleepman. It is then revealed that [[spoiler:the Sleepman is actually Marshal Law's MissionControl, and that the influence of Marshal Law's ultraviolent and sadistic approach to law enforcement played a major role in corroding his fragile mental and moral state to the point that he started killing people.]]
* In the last arc of ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', Klara and Old Lace are caught in an explosion; Old Lace dies, and Klara lives, but temporarily loses control of her powers, trapping the other Runaways inside a large forest. This irritates her teammates until Chase and Victor began blaming ''her'' for everything that has gone wrong. A later appearance in ''ComicBook/AvengersAcademy'' reveals that she's taken the accusations to heart, and now believes herself responsible for Old Lace's death.
* Sonic the Hedgehog went into a HeroicBSOD in ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'' when Chaos killed Johnny. In the [[Webcomic/SonicTheComicOnline online continuation]], when Sonic encounters [[JerkAss his past self]], he takes particular offence at the latter's disrespect of Johnny's sacrifice.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* In ''ComicBook/WonderWomanTheTrueAmazon'', [[spoiler:in her desperation to prove that she's absolutely worth all of Alethea's love and respect, Diana causes an incident that gets countless Amazons permanently injured, scarred, and/or paralyzed, including Alethea, who died trying to protect her]]. Diana does not take this well, and mourns her as much as she regrets what she did.

** In the same show, [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Rau Le Creuset]] may serve as a villainous example to [[WellIntentionedExtremist Gilbert Durandal]]. Durandal's flashbacks show that he, in his capacity as Le Creuset's doctor and closest friend, was well aware of the latter's [[SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum suicidal]] and [[StrawNihilist nihilistic]] tendencies, but was unable to do anything about them, ultimately leading to Le Creuset's [[SanitySlippage descent into insanity]] and eventual death while attempting to [[OmnicidalManiac trigger the apocalypse]]. Durandal's DarkMessiah persona is based around ensuring that no one else ever has to suffer through the kind of pain, [[CloningBlues identity problems]], and self-loathing that Rau did, leading him to try and create a world where no one will ever feel lost through [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans any means necessary]]. Le Creuset's ghost even visits the Chairman repeatedly, nicely driving home the point. A rare case of one BigBad's death triggering the rise of another.