Accomplices By Inaction in Video Games.
- In Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten Judge Nemo considers everyone evil because no one but Artina helped him when he was tortured as a prisoner of war, but what really pushed him over the edge was when Artina was executed for her kindness to him.
- In Ensemble Stars!, Natsume calls out Tsumugi for just sitting back and allowing Eichi to systematically destroy the Oddballs, claiming that knowing about a crime and doing nothing about it is the same as committing the crime itself. Except Tsumugi wasn't an idle bystander. He actually provided Eichi with a lot of insight and ideas, including bringing Natsume's existence and potential as an Oddball to his attention.
- In Final Fantasy VI, General Leo confesses to Terra that he feels this way about Kefka using the Slave Crown to take away her free will, and says that because he didn't do anything to stop it, he considers himself no better than Kefka.
- In Final Fantasy XV, Ravus never forgave the kingdom of Lucis or its king, Regis, for abandoning his home of Tenebrae to be conquered by the Empire of Niflheim. Strangely, he decides to carry out his revenge by allying himself with Niflheim to help them conquer Lucis.
- Fire Emblem
- Bloom of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War is outraged if his niece Tine faces him in battle because he treated her kindly after abducting herself and her mother, Tailtiu, back to the family home in Tine's infancy. But although Bloom did not kill Tailtiu, he didn't lift a finger to stop his wife from abusing her until she died for shaming the family. And he doesn't like the Child Hunts much, but nor does he do anything to prevent them from being carried out on his lands. The second time Tine faces him, Tine holds him as responsible for her mother's death as if he'd done it himself because he sat back and allowed it to happen.
- In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, Hector comes across his friend Eliwood under attack in Santaruz and notices a guard standing by. He asks the guard if he's planning on doing nothing, but the guard replies that it's none of a "foreign lordling" like Hector's concern. Hector then kills the guard and joins the fight to help Eliwood, remarking after the battle that the guard "was planning on seeing (Eliwood) die."
- Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Sanaki accuses Hetzel of doing this for over twenty years when she finds out that he could've at least tried to stop his superiors from committing atrocities over the years, one of which was locking her away. Needless, to say, he does not walk away alive.
- In Fire Emblem Engage, late in the game, Mauvier, one of the Four Hounds, along with his fellow hound Marni, accompanies Alear and their army to Lythos and confronts the Hounds' leader Zephia. In the ensuing confrontation, it turns out that Zephia put a magical helmet on Veyle, suppressing Veyle's true personality and allowing her artificial evil personality to be dominant. Marni then tries to break the helmet, but while she damages it, she fails. Zephia then kills Marni on the spot, resulting in Mauvier doing a Heel–Face Turn. Through it all, Griss, the other Hound, does nothing, instead remaining with the Hounds until he and Zephia die of their wounds fighting Alear two chapters later, and Mauvier holds him accountable for Zephia's actions.
- Judgment: Chief Prosecutor Kunihiko Morita was part of the The Conspiracy around AD-9, ensuring that no interference, legal or otherwise, came to it. His reason for this is that he lost his mother and brother to dementia, and believes that with AD-9, nobody else will go through the same pain as he did. Yagami, for his part, is not only void of sympathy for Morita, but points out that his inaction not only led to an innocent woman being murdered, but also led to her boyfriend being wrongfully accused of and put on death row for said murder. Near the end of the game, it's revealed that AD-9 was doomed to fail no matter what was done, resulting in anyone who receives the drug dying a horrible death with their eyes turning blue, making Morita concealing the truth absolutely pointless.
- In Kingdom Hearts II, during the first visit to the Land of Dragons, when Mulan is exposed as a woman, Shang realizes that Sora, Donald and Goofy knew the truth and kept it from him, so he gives them the same punishment.
- Minecraft: Story Mode: Lukas doesn’t participate in teasing Jesse’s gang like the rest of the Ocelots, but he doesn’t try to stop it either; instead he tries to shift around it. This leaves Jesse’s gang wary of him until he proves himself later in the game.
- In the game Misao, Kudou saw Misao being bullied, but didn't speak up about it, abandoning her despite the two of them formerly being friends. In the game proper, as a vengeful spirit, Misao punishes him for this by running him over with a car (original version) or crashing the theater's stage lights onto him (remake).
- This is a major theme of Persona 5. Many of the villains bring up the fact they can do the horrible things they've done because the general public are more interested in being told what to do than doing what's right on their own. This is a deliberate commentary on Japanese culture and society, specifically how societal harmony and stability is given priority at the cost of the well-being of individuals, which leads to willful ignorance, blindness or so on of the problems, because confronting them would be "rocking the boat".
- One notable specific example is with Student Council President Makoto Niijima. Makoto struggles with her inability to really help others along with how she suspected Evil Teacher Kamoshida's abuses, but never did anything about it. Ann calls her out on this though Makoto counters by saying that Ann did the same when she wasn't there for Shiho (her best friend). When Makoto unlocks her Persona and joins the Thieves, both apologize to each other, Makoto for this and Ann for her projecting her own shame on Makoto.
- Comes to a head in the final dungeon, which turns out to be the Mental World of the entire population of Tokyo, Mementos, who would rather turn a blind eye to corruption in authority to maintain societal order. They collectively represent the Deadly Sin of Sloth.
- In Persona 5 Strikers, Zenkichi ends up falling into this in his backstory. He starts to realize that Corrupt Politician Jyun Owada was the one who killed Zenkichi's wife Aoi in a hit-and-run accident, but backs off the investigation after Owada threatens Zenkichi's daughter Akane, resulting in an innocent man being blamed for the accident. While Zenkichi had understandable reasons for this course of action, he's deeply ashamed when Akane's Shadow calls him out on it, resulting in him awakening his Persona, Valjean.
- Likewise in Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth, the Phantom Thieves' battle theme, Invitation To Freedom, serves as a "The Reason You Suck" Speech taunting their enemies for underestimating them as "bored teenagers," and asking how many times the listener ignored cries for help by people suffering.
- Phantom Brave: Midway through the game, Marona is hired by the Elder of Desert Island to stop a rampaging Raphael, only for the culprit to be an impostor, upon which said Elder uses Loophole Abuse to cheat her out of her rightful pay. The real Raphael, who showed up to help her stop the impostor, hears the entire exchange and promptly starts going on an actual rampage to teach him a lesson. Immediately, the Elder proceeds to beg Marona for help in stopping said rampage, promising to pay her if she does; instead, Marona refuses to help him and walks away, leaving Desert Island to Raphael's mercy.
- Portal 2. During the Final Boss fight against Wheatley, he suffers a severe Villainous Breakdown, in which he - among other things - expresses resentment against Chell for not catching him at the beginning of the game (something which, by the way, is impossible to pull off). For a robot, he sounds awfully close to tears...Wheatley: And another thing! You never caught me! I told you I could DIE falling off that rail, and you DIDN'T CATCH ME! YOU DIDN'T EVEN TRY!
- Timecrest: the Player themselves can do this in Timecrest 3: Luthor. Specifically, when Luthor asks the Player to not rewind time after jumping off the Sovereign Eye, the Player can listen to his request and he ends up committing suicide with the Player as an accomplice for assisting in his suicide by doing nothing. Even more, this option is necessary in order to obtain the Altered Future ending.
- In Until Dawn, the prank on Hannah mainly involved Mike, Emily and Jessica. The others weren't as involved. Ashley gleefully observed it. Matt filmed it. Sam's involvement was unclear; she does tell the others that the prank was cruel, but she went upstairs to either warn Hannah or tell her Mike is ready for her. The only innocent ones would be Josh and Chris, both of whom were passed out drunk, and Beth. Because of Josh's mental state after the deaths of his sisters, they viewed all the friends as this way and are even implied to blame themselves as well.
- Valkyria Chronicles:
- General Jaeger was aware that Maximillian never truly loved Selvaria, but in actuality was manipulating and abusing the latter's affections for him in order to achieve his ends. However, he could do nothing about it as much as he wanted to because Maximillian was his boss and because his homeland's independence depended on being in his service. He spends most of the game keeping his distaste to himself but still treating Selvaria with kindness to make up for his inability to intervene on her behalf. When Maximillian orders Selvaria to use her Final Flame, he breaks his silence and calls him out on it. However, it is too little too late as Selvaria had crossed the Despair Event Horizon by that point and already made up her mind to die. After he is defeated by Squad 7, he has a Heel Realization and leaves Maximillian's army out of remorse for doing nothing about his behaviour.
- The Anime of the Game has Johann, a lowly foot soldier, take General Jaeger's role of being a powerless spectator to Selvaria's situation. While he does give Maximillian a well-deserved "The Reason You Suck" Speech after Selvaria's death, his goodwill is rewarded with being shot in cold blood.
- Watch Dogs: Legion: One of the trailers uses a modernized version of "First they came..." to explain why everyone and their grandmothernote is capable of rising up against the fascist Albion instead of continuing their movement routines:First, they came for the foreigners, and I did not speak up, because I am not a foreigner. Then, they came for the protestors, and I did not speak up, because I am not a protestor. Then they came for the journalists, and I did not speak up, because I am not a journalist. Then they came for the street artists, and I did not speak up, because I am not a street artist. And I realized, that eventually, they'd come for me. And there would be no one left to speak for me.
- World of Warcraft: Grand Magister Rommath (along other blood elves) hate the Kirin Tor because they did nothing when every elf in Dalaran, a city many of them considered home, was imprisoned and sentenced to death because of a false accusation.Rommath: "A monumental betrayal. In Dalaran, beneath the ever watchful eyes of the Kirin Tor."
Aethas Sunreaver: "They really had nothing to do with —"
Rommath: "I assume you mean that the Kirin Tor did nothing. Did nothing to prevent it, did nothing to stop it. And instead left us to rot in the prisons beneath a city many of us called home as much as ever we did Silvermoon."- Related is the reason the blood elves were imprisoned in the first place. Garrosh infiltrated the Sunreavers and used the Sunreavers' portal network to steal the Divine Bell. The Sunreavers themselves knew nothing about this plan—but Jaina Proudmoore, head of the Kirin Tor, believed otherwise, and accused them of looking the other way while Garrosh did his thing.
