History Main / TheseHandsHaveKilled

* ''Film/{{Oppenheimer}}'':
-->'''J. Robert Oppenheimer''': I feel we have blood on our hands.

* In ''Film/ManOfSteel'', [[spoiler:Superman lets out a frustrated yell after [[NeckSnap snapping Zod's neck]].]]

Could be followed by ScrubbingOffTheTrauma, but it doesn't have to be. This has nothing to do with washing one's hands of blood, metaphorically or literally -- only with acknowledging the shedding. In some cases, murder isn't even required to invoke this trope; a sufficiently [[HeroicBSOD broken]] or [[RageBreakingPoint driven mad]] character may gaze upon their hands in this way.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[OutDamnedSpot And it never, EVER comes out.]]]]

Could be followed by OutDamnedSpot, but it doesn't have to be. This has nothing to do with washing one's hands of blood, metaphorically or literally -- only with acknowledging the shedding. In some cases, murder isn't even required to invoke this trope; a sufficiently [[HeroicBSOD broken]] or [[RageBreakingPoint driven mad]] character may gaze upon their hands in this way.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': Ed tells [[spoiler:Winry]] not to kill Scar, so that they don't have to go through this.
-->'''Ed:''' You delivered a baby. You gave me an arm and a leg. These hands...were not made for killing.

'''Will:''' ''(beat)'' It's the ugliest thing in the world.

* ''Anime/{{Trigun}}'': In the anime version, Vash is hit by this big time when Legato forces him into a no-win situation where he can either kill Legato or let the townspeople Legato is psychically controlling kill Milly and Meryl. Extremely reluctantly, Vash shoots Legato and then passes out. When he wakes up the next morning and remembers what he did, he starts screaming.

* In Creator/JamesSwallow's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' ''Literature/BloodAngels'' novel ''Deus Sanguinius'', after Gallio, Vode, and all their men are murdered, Rafen thinks it's his fault for having sent the message; their blood was on his hands.
* ''Literature/TheBible''

* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'' has Bernardo [=deLaPaz=] admit that when they, as the new Lunar government, publicly out those members of the revolution who were actually paid informants of the overthrown government, those they expose as traitors will be murdered by members of the public. "I will not duck the responsibility. Their blood will be on my hands."
* In ''Literature/WyrdSisters'', the Macbeth Expy Lord Felmet has blood-red hands from the night he murders King Verence until the night he dies. However, the fact that he uses progressively harsher methods to remove the blood (including sandpaper and a metal file) implies that maybe the reason it doesn't come off is that the blood is coming from an actual wound rather than karma. He eventually moves up to using a ''cheese grater'' after a book-long's worth of SanitySlippage, with the result [[NothingIsScarier never being explicitly described]] except that it's '[[BodyHorror not quite a hand anymore]]'. [[spoiler: This actually leads to his KarmicDeath, as, due to him being in a delirium from believing he's dead and a ghost (his SanitySlippage ''really'' kicked into overdrive by the third act) he wanders out onto the battlements during a dramatic thunderstorm, arguing with Death himself over whether or not he's actually dead, and pointing out that is he isn't, why can he see him? Death simply responds that he's 'waiting' before Felment ends up slipping off the battlements in the rain and unable to catch himself due to his damaged hand, falling to his death and becoming a ghost for real]].

* In ''[[Literature/{{Lensman}} Grey Lensman]]'', hero Kimball Kinnison indulges in this when trying to make Clarissa [=MacDougal=] understand what marrying him could entail. She basically tells him to can the dramatics; she knows perfectly well what his job entails.
* In Creator/GeneStrattonPorter's ''Literature/{{Freckles}}'', one villain objects to killing Freckles because he does not want this trope. They could have prevented him from seeing anything.
* In Creator/PoulAnderson's short story "No Truce With Kings", a new alien asks an old hand whether, when they see the future their DirtyBusiness is needed to bring about, the blood will wash off. The old hand says no.

** ManipulativeBastard Lord Tywin Lannister emphasises on several occasions that there's no blood on ''his'' hands from acts which are regarded as heinous even in the CrapsackWorld of Westeros (killing the royal children of the previous regime, and plotting a violation of SacredHospitality), but are [[UsefulNotes/TheThirtySixStratagems Killing With A Borrowed Knife]].

--->"It was a dream. [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial I was in my tent when Renly died, and when I woke my hands were clean]]."
* In the sixth book of ''Literature/TheSagaOfDarrenShan'', Darren participates in his first real battle. He kills an enemy for the first time-- and when he realizes what he's done, his tone dramatically changes. Before, he had been eager to catch the "bad guys", shame them, ''get'' them, and make sure there are no survivors. The [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy other vampires]] live in that mode, and Darren rode alone with their wave. But when he sees this dead person, dead at his own hands, he realizes how wrong it is. He realizes that no one ever even asked why members of the enemy clan were in Vampire Mountain, they just ran in for the kill. He realizes that everything he's been taught so far might be wrong...
* Happens in the fairy tale "[[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Red_Fairy_Book/The_Princess_Mayblossom The Princess Mayblossom]]", where the titular princess kills an ambassador who is trying to kill and eat her. Once the ambassador is dead, she realizes that he was the only other person on the island with her (the two were stranded there, and could not find a way out), breaks down in tears, and contemplates her fate. Luckily, she is rescued not long after.
* This is the immediate thought process of Jonah Wizard from ''Literature/The39Clues'' after he shoots a Vesper at point-blank range. He's especially traumatized because up until this point, barring the Clue hunt a few years earlier, he's lived the sheltered, luxurious life of a teenage pop star and hasn't yet come to terms with all the violence that the conflict entails.
* The ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' novel ''Literature/DeathStar'' has one of the gunners manning the superlaser go through a full-on nervous breakdown after [[EarthShatteringKaboom the destruction of Alderaan]]. [[AscendedExtra He's the same guy]] who in [[Film/ANewHope the movie]] repeatedly says, "Stand by... stand by" right before the Death Star goes up because he couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger again.
* ''Literature/ThereIsNoEpicLootHereOnlyPuns'': Delta didn't intend to kill anyone, but she did send out her goblins on resource gathering missions without instructing them about what to do if they encounter humans -- with the result that they rob a farmer, who chases them into the Dungeon and gets himself killed by them in self defence. When his angry and crying son comes to the Dungeon wanting revenge, Delta breaks down in tears herself, and vows to do what she can to repay the family. She also later unlocks an option to build a memorial room.

* In ''Inheritance'', the final book of ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'', after Eragon heals the baby Hope, he says that his hands are too bloody for that type of work.
* ''Literature/InDesertAndWilderness'' has Staś kill the kidnappers during his last attempt to escape from them. He's not proud of this.
* ''Literature/TheLateShow'': Ballard has to kill a bad guy. And even though it was a kill-or-be-killed scenario, she has to do some soul searching afterwards.
--> "It didn't matter whether it was justified, she was now a part of the population that knew what it was to take a life."
* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': Aladar, who's a veteran of Alethkar's DecadentCourt and has the cynical mindset to prove it, invokes this trope when grudgingly joining forces with the heroes.
-->'''Aladar:''' You realise that I'm stained through and through. I've got blood on these hands, Dalinar. I'm not some perfect, honourable knight as you seem to want to pretend.
-->'''Dalinar:''' I know you're not. I'm not either. [[ClosestThingWeGot We will have to do.]]
* ''Literature/TheDivineCities'':
** The source of Mulaghesh's trauma is [[spoiler: having killed innocents when she first started out as a soldier after being ordered to by her superior officer and not having questioned it.]] Her regrets over these actions define her later years as depicted in ''City of Blades''.
** Sigrud has killed so many, and regrets his actions so much, that by the third book, ''City of Miracles'', he has himself become a DeathSeeker.
* In the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' book ''A Light in the Mist'', Rootspring gives Firestar permission to take over his body temporarily, and Firestar ends up fighting and killing TheDragon Darkstripe. When Rootspring is given control again, he doesn't remember the fight, but he shivers uneasily at the taste of blood in his mouth and the realization that his claws have killed a cat. He gets over it pretty quickly, though: shortly afterward, he thinks about how his paws defeated one of the strongest Dark Forest warriors and is eager to see more of what they're capable of.

* Not quite the first time, but Faith has one of these when she kills for the first time (in self-defence) after deciding to attempt her HeelFaceTurn in the "Sanctuary" episode of ''Series/{{Angel}}''.
** And in the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "Enemies" after Faith stabs a demon to death in a frenzy she later shows Angel her bloody hands. Subverted when it's revealed she's trying to gain his sympathy so she can seduce Angel and turn him evil.
** In a flashback showing Angel's human soul being restored by the curse, he is clearly [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone absolutely horrified]] once he remembers everything he did as a soulless vampire.
** In the season 5 episode 'The Weight of the World' when the line between Ben and Glory starts to blur, Ben remembers all the people Glory killed as if it were him doing it. He stares at his hands and asks where the blood is, saying he can still feel it.
** Played with/referenced in 'Villains'; Xander says that he feels partially responsible for Buffy getting shot [[spoiler:and Tara being killed]] by Warren since he froze in fear and couldn't protect them.
--->'''Xander''': I just... I've had blood on my hands all day. Blood from people I love.\\
'''Buffy''': I know. And now it has to stop.

** While Barry is a hardened combat veteran turned hardened hitman, his old buddy Chris is neither (Chris was in logistics in the Marines). He breaks down in episode 1-7 after having to kill one of the Bolivians [[spoiler: (and makes the fatal mistake of telling Barry about it)]]. He tells them he was stunned and horrified at what he'd done, and decides to turn himself into the police. Barry stops him.
** Subverted: Barry tells a story in class of the first person he killed in Afghanistan. He tells them he felt remorseful (while looking guilty and uncomfortable), and the classmate acting out his story drops to his knees in horror in overly-dramatic fashion. In reality, his fellow marines were deeply impressed at his shooting skills and congratulate him, leaving Barry with an almost childishly-giddy expression, in the moment clearly having disconnected from the reality of having actually killed someone.
* ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki's'' Ren agonizes over this after he kills [[spoiler:Kamen Rider Odin]] in self-defense.
* ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'': Sento spends most of episode 21 broken after killing [[spoiler:Aoba]] while using [[TheBerserker Hazard Trigger]]. When Sento goes to pay respects his death site, he has a hallucination of [[spoiler:Aoba]] hating him, and the guilt becomes more than what Sento could bear to the point where Sento begs Kazumi to just beat him up until Kazumi is satisfied.
* In ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'',b Gabrielle has this reaction after she kills the priestess of a dark god while trying to save someone. It's made even worse by the fact that [[spoiler: the man she saves is also a follower of the dark god, and that Gabrielle was being duped]].
* In the Spanish series ''Series/ElInternadoLasCumbres'' about a BoardingSchoolOfHorrors [[spoiler: [[EvilPrincipal Mara, the headmistress ]]]] confesses to a sympathetic monk about killing [[spoiler:[[HeKnowsTooMuch Elías]]]]:
-->"I pushed him. I pushed him. With these hands. There's not... There's not a day, an hour, or a second, that I don't... That I don't see [[spoiler:Elías]]...falling into the abyss. Do you still want to take my secrets to the grave?"
* In an episode of ''Series/{{Doctors}}'', Creator/BrianBlessed played a character who exclaimed: "I killed a man... with THESE!".
* Midway through the third season of ''Series/{{Chuck}}'', [[spoiler: Chuck himself briefly has a moment like this after he shoots Shaw. Even though it's revealed in the finale [[NeverFoundTheBody Shaw survived]], Chuck very briefly looks down almost in shock at the gun in his hands before he has to rush to prevent Shaw from killing Sarah with his dying breaths]].
* On ''Series/{{Graceland}}'' Mike feels responsible for the death of a gang member. Mike is undercover trying to build a case against a major crime boss and has antagonized one of the man's lieutenants. The lieutenant threatens Mike and the FBI decides to neutralize the threat by making it look like the man betrayed his boss. The give the gang member fair warning but he is TooDumbToLive and dies right in front of Mike. Everyone tells Mike that he was not responsible for what happened but Mike still feels really guilty. At the end of the episode, he is doing the dishes and when he looks down it seems that his hands are covered in blood but it is just tomato sauce.
* In ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars,'' Emily fatally stabs [[spoiler:Nate.]] Even though he was going to kill her and her girlfriend Paige, and ''did'' kill [[spoiler:her previous girlfriend Maya]], she is deeply shaken by it and even needs a CoolDownHug. Later in the season, she admits to still being haunted by it, and everyone saying that what she did was really brave is just making things worse.
-->'''Emily:''' Everyone wants to talk about how I'm some kind of hero. Everyone tells me I... I ''killed'' someone. Someone had a life, someone was a living breathing person, and I...
-->'''Dr. Sullivan:''' You killed someone.
-->'''Emily:''' I know what he was planning to do, who he really was. In my head I know. But then I close my eyes, and I can see myself holding that knife. It was in my hand, and I can still feel what it felt like when it...
* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', Chloe has an unusual version, as it is actually Davis/Doomsday who killed the person.
* ''Series/BabylonFive'':
** From the episode "Knives":
--->'''Londo Mollari''': No. The blood is already on my hands. Right or wrong, I must follow the path to its end.
** In the fourth season, it is [[spoiler: not Londo, but the innocent and unlikely hero Vir]] who kills the insane Emperor Cartagia. He is shocked and later tormented by the memory of what he's done, and tries [[DrowningMySorrows drinking to forget it]]. Londo assures him that it was necessary and that the fact that he is feeling so troubled over it shows that he is a good person, which Londo envies.
* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'': "Collaborators":
-->'''Tom Zarek''': They have a jury, but they don't get lawyers. They don't get to showboat for weeks and months on end. They don't get to blame the system. And they don't get lasting fame as martyrs or innocent people just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They just disappear. Now. In the great twilight between the long night of the occupation and the dawn of a new era, you come into office clean, without their blood on your hands.
* ''Series/DickTurpin'': "The Impostor"
-->'''Swiftnick''': Happened? What happened to you? What happened to Dick Turpin? Shall I tell you? He's a memory! I believed in him. A lot of us did. Because he meant freedom and a chance to hit back at injustice, to struggle from the mire! But he's a memory. And you, you stand there in his place. With my uncle's blood on your hands!

-->'''Emily Quartermaine''': And now the blood of those two innocent kids she killed is on your hands!

-->'''Will''': There's no such thing as getting used to what you experienced. It bothers me a lot. I worry about nightmares too.\\
'''Abigail''': So killing somebody, even if you have to do it... it feels that bad?\\
'''Will''': ({{beat}}) It's the ugliest thing in the world.
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': Chapter Sixteen "Unexpected"
-->'''S.R. Gustavson''': You take on a partner. All you get is their blood on your hands.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': "One of Us"
-->'''Juliet Burke''': I'm taking that medication back to Claire. And you're gonna let me. Because if she doesn't get it, she's gonna die. And the last thing that either of you need right now, is more blood on your hands.
* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather, who was chopping up fish at the time.
-->'''Salvatore Lucarelli''': [shrugs, chuckling] I have blood on my hands.
* Used in ''Series/CSIMiami'': when Horatio has to [[ClearMyName clear his name]] he invokes this trope; the blood in question was the real killer's (he punched him in the face), which proves he was at the scene.
* Referenced/subverted in ''Series/{{Bones}}'': "The Hole in the Heart":
-->'''Booth''': I don't blame myself, Sweets, I blame the guy who pulled the trigger.\\
'''Brennan''': You still have blood on your hands.\\
({{Beat}} as everyone looks around awkwardly)\\
'''Angela''': Booth, [[LiteralMinded she means literally]].
* In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Things Past", Odo momentarily hallucinates his blood-drenched hands due to repressed memories of [[MyGreatestFailure his greatest failure]] coming to the surface.
* {{Subverted|Trope}} in the ''Series/{{Intelligence|2014}}'' episode "Athens" after NonActionGuy Nelson opens fire on [[MonsterOfTheWeek Jin Cong]]'s {{mooks}}. After the fight, he's a little shocked until Agent Jameson points out [[ATeamFiring all he managed to kill was an air duct]].

'''Jameson:''' No, you didn't. ''(points at the ceiling)''
* ''Series/GameOfThrones''. As he's being kidnapped in "First of His Name", Brandon Stark wargs into GentleGiant simpleton Hodor, and [[GrandTheftMe uses his body]] to brutally kill his abductor. Even Hodor is able to piece together what happened when he sees his bloodied hands and a neck-snapped man before him and is visibly distraught.
* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': Referenced by Eliot Spencer, when he tries to warn Nate that IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim.
--> '''Eliot''': ''You have no idea who I was before all this started. That guy—kid—he had God in his heart, a flag on his shoulder. Clean hands. I haven't seen him in the mirror in over ten years. And believe me, I get up every morning looking for him. So you can trust me when I tell you that if you pull that trigger, two men die: the guy you kill and the guy you used to be.''
* On ''Series/{{The 100}}'', Clarke stares at her bloody hands and cries after killing [[spoiler:Finn]].
* ''Series/HowToGetAwayWithMurder'' Connor's excuse for [[spoiler: supplying the prosecution with the evidence needed to convict Annalise's client]]
--> '''Connor''': Zoey would've killed again, and I cannot deal with any more blood on my hands.
* ''Series/BadEducation'': Alfie when he believes he pushed [[spoiler: Pickwell]] to suicide, emphasized when he spills red ink on his hands. Turns out [[spoiler: she didn't actually kill herself, but faked her death and personally blamed many people so she could laugh at their guilt]]
* Norwegian Mini-Series ''Hanging By a Thread'' has the main character assisting an illegal abortion. When the fetus comes out, she quickly wraps it up in a newspaper and shoves the whole thing into a burning stove. Cue this trope immediately afterwards, as she, visibly shaken, looks at her hands.
* ''Series/{{Hightown}}'': Junior is quite distraught after helping to murder someone with Osito.
* ''Series/PushingDaisies'': In order for Ned to bring somebody back to life for longer than a minute, someone else has to die in their place. He brings his mother back without knowing this as a child, and inadvertently kills his best friend [[TomboyishName Chuck's]] father; something he felt guilty for even decades afterwards. As a man, when given the opportunity to bring Chuck back from the dead, he takes it with full knowledge of the consequences. Although the man he killed in her place was an [[AssholeVictim asshole victim,]] he still struggles with the guilt of 'accidentally inadvertently manslaughtering' someone. It doesn't help matters that Emerson calls him a killer to his face.
* ''Series/TheProfessionals''. In "The Rack", Ray Doyle hits a man in [=CI5=] custody, who then dies (unknown to Doyle, his single punch exacerbated a previous injury). There's a formal inquiry into [=CI5=] that doesn't help Ray in dealing with his guilt over the issue.

[[folder:Tabletop RPG]]

* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'': Invoked very {{hypocrit|e}}ically by [[BigBad Leonard Testarossa]], when he tries to drive a wedge between [[PluckyGirl Kaname]] and [[TheStoic Sousuke]] by pointing out that the latter has killed over 100 people during his time as a ChildSoldier. Leonard has actually caused many more deaths, but since they were indirect deaths (such as ordering his subordinates to kill someone), he acts like they don't count when stacked against Sousuke's active killings. This nonetheless cuts Sousuke pretty deep--not because of the tally, but because he realizes in hindsight that a fair chunk of his kills (prisoners of war or soldiers ''hors de combat'' executed as a precautionary measure) probably constitute war crimes and that he [[HeroWithAnFInGood hasn't made the greatest progress trying to atone for them]].

* ''LightNovel/No6'': [[spoiler:Shion]] has a moment like this after killing a guard/Rashi who was trying to kill [[spoiler: Nezumi]]. In the manga/light novels, he [[spoiler:tries to kill himself]] when he realizes what he's done.
* ''LightNovel/NoGameNoLife'': During the great war, [[spoiler:Shuvi recalled it was she who wiped protagonist's village when protagonist propose to her.]]

* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'': Shino Asada, AKA Sinon has her character arc centered around this. At age eleven, she was in the middle of a robbery at a post office and trying to protect her mother, she jumped on the robber and caused him to drop his gun, then in the middle of the struggle, she ended up shooting him to death. Since then, she copes with the emotional weight of her actions, and it's not until she meets Kirito, who knows what it feels having to kill someone in self-defense or to protect others, that she finally begins to come to terms with it. [[spoiler:Also for Asuna in web version for sequence in Aincrad arc, for Kirito and Alice for Dark Territory Residents, and for Rinko for her involvement in SAO incident]]

* ''LightNovel/UnlimitedFafnir'': Yuu finds out that his sister Mitsuki was forced to kill a fellow student after [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie she turned into a dragon against her will]]. The camera occasionally focuses on her hands, or she'll look at them when saying that she'll kill Iris too if she has to. Fortunately, he stops her from having to do that, while also helping them to defeat the dragon attacking the school and coming for Iris.

'''Will:''' ''[Beat]'' It's the ugliest thing in the world.

[[folder:Film-- Animated]]

[[folder:Film-- Live Action]]
* ''Film/{{Avatar}}'': Jake Sully - a former Marine who might know first hand - tries to keep SmugSnake Selfridge from destroying a Hometree full of Na'vi children by telling him that he doesn't want that kind of blood on his hands. It doesn't work.
* A subtle one in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''; during the boat crash in ''Film/SpidermanHomecoming'' Tony tells Peter Parker that he would blame himself if he'd died. [[spoiler: After Peter disintegrates in his arms, Tony is left staring at his dust-covered hands, before pressing them against his mouth as he breaks down.]]

* ''Film/Dracula1931'':
-->'''Renfield''': I'm loyal to you, Master, I am your slave, I didn't betray you! Oh, no, don't! Don't kill me! Let me live, please! Punish me, torture me, but let me live! I can't die with all those lives on my conscience! All that blood on my hands!

* ''Dick Turpin'': "The Impostor"

-->'''Will''': There's no such thing as getting used to what you experienced]]. It bothers me a lot. I worry about nightmares too.\\

* In ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'', Gabrielle has this reaction after she kills the priestess of a dark god while trying to save someone. It's made even worse by the fact that [[spoiler: the man she saves is also a follower of the dark god, and that Gabrielle was being duped]].

* ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'' has a "These hands ''could'' kill" variation. At one point, Tirawit Kokin, one of the members of YOMI, sends the members of the Karate club to attack Kenichi, who quickly makes short work of them. Kokin then tells Kenichi that, whether he likes it or not, his hands have become weapons capable of killing, and the realization that "the power to protect your loved ones" is no different from "the power to kill your enemies" makes him afraid that he may commit AccidentalMurder the next time he fights an opponent.

* In season 5 of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', Jack is utterly horrified when he kills [[spoiler:one of the Daughters of Aku]] in self-defense and discovers they were a human being instead of a robot[[spoiler:, though he quickly gets over it and has little trouble doing the same to all but one of them]].

* Referenced by [[Series/{{Leverage}} Eliot Spencer]], when he tries to warn Nate that IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim.

* Happens in the fairy tale "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/aulnoy/1892/princessmayblossom.html The Princess Mayblossom]]", where the titular princess kills an ambassador who is trying to kill and eat her. Once the ambassador is dead, she realizes that he was the only other person on the island with her (the two were stranded there, and could not find a way out), breaks down in tears, and contemplates her fate. Luckily, she is rescued not long after.

* ''Film/WhiteGod': In a rare animal version, Hagen is clearly distraught after being forced to kill his opponent in a dog fight.

* ''Series/AdamTwelve'': When Jim Reed kills a perp in the line of duty in "It All Happened So Fast", the show goes to some length to show that Reed, while putting on a brave face, does show discomfort afterward. Malloy and Mac reassure Reed that what he's going through is normal and expected for a decent cop. In "Elegy for a Pig", Malloy's narrative brings up the subject again with an officer he knew and the first time he killed a perp on duty.

During an important part of the story, our hero, or just the character in focus, kills someone or something. This death could be popping his [[ItGetsEasier murder cherry]], or it could just be one of the first kills [[KickTheMoralityPet he thinks is wrong]]. Even if it was self-defense and completely justified, he still feels guilt-ridden. He looks down in a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment, shocked at his hands because they just became accomplices in taking a life. Often this leads to a HeroicBSOD particularly if [[IdealHero the]] [[AllLovingHero hero]] [[SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers is]] [[IncorruptiblePurePureness especially]] [[NiceGuy moral]] [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism or idealistic.]] The act itself is usually part of a BatmanGrabsAGun Situation with the hero [[PersonalHorror breaking a solemn vow that he swore never to break.]]

* ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'': Both of our protagonists realize that they are responsible for the deaths of up to millions of people. Yang in particular can't stop bringing up how much blood he's shed.

* ''VideoGame/Yakuza1'': Subverted in the [=PS4=] remaster, as it shows the BigBad at the very beginning of his StartOfDarkness: he kills a mook, is briefly fazed, but gets over it declares that killing will be his way of dealing with things from then on.

* ''Oppenheimer'':