Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse / Fan Works

Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse in Fan Works.

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The following have their own pages:

• Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail

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Crossovers

• During their encounter in Chapter 69 of BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant, Adam's White Fang mask gets destroyed, revealing his brand, and he lashes out at Makoto and Blake for siding with the humans who caused his suffering. Makoto thoroughly rips apart his sob story in a "The Reason You Suck" Speech that makes it clear his suffering doesn't give him any right to murder innocent people, especially since countless other Faunus have suffered as he has yet never stooped to his depths.
• The Boys: Real Justice:
  • While admitting to understand how being Raised in a Lab turned him into what he is, the League make it clear that it does not excuse Homelander's atrocities and make it clear he's still a threat that needs to be taken down.
  • When the Deep tries to bring up his issues with his gills, Aquaman immediately shuts him down hard, telling him in no uncertain terms that his self-image issues absolutely do not excuse his bestiality or sexual assault.
• Code Prime:
  • While Suzaku Kururugi's decision to kill his father in the past because the latter ordered Japan to fight to the last man earns him some sympathy and makes his actions understandable, Ironhide points out that this does not excuse his actions as a member of the Britannian Army or the Decepticons. This is compounded by the fact he refuses to accept blame for these crimes.
  • Megatron, of all people, shows a modicum of sympathy for Emperor Charles' Dark and Troubled Past, but makes it clear that the Emperor's end goal of creating a "World Without Lies" via the Ragnarok Connection is incredibly childish and does not excuse how many people he has brutalized and killed.
  • After Ryo, Ayano and Yukiya explain their reasons for attacking General Smilas' convoy and their desire to find their own home, Ultra Magnus points out that their troubled pasts do not excuse their attack, or any other crimes they have committed.
• In Cursed Blood, when Todoroki reveals his Dark and Troubled Past to Izuku and his friends, they tell him that, while what happened to him was truly terrible, it does not excuse him being a Jerkass, nevermind that many other people have suffered worse than him due to Quirkism (among them Izuku himself, who is a subject of Bad Powers, Good People). When Lily points out that he still has his mother and can make peace with her, Todoroki loses his patience and angrily claims that she has no idea about what suffering is - only to remember just then that Lily was raped to death and is only alive because Izuku turned her into a zombie child. Izuku tells Todoroki that, for all that he claims he will never be like his father, he's shaping up to be Endeavor 2.0.
• In The Demon's Contract, Nabiki and Kasumi try to use their dead mother to excuse Akane's bratty behavior, but Ranma points out that: 1) She's had ten years to get over it, which her sisters have done just fine, 2) The real world doesn't care about her problems and she has to learn she won't always get her way, 3) Ranma's mother is dead too and unlike Akane, he neither knows what she looks like or where she's buried, leaving him unable to properly mourn.
• The Dragon and the Bow: Despite the fact that Astrid Hofferson lost her father in the war with the Highlanders, neither Merida or Astrid's mother Bertha consider it a valid reason for Astrid to persecute the princess. Bertha misses her husband too, but she knows that bullying Merida won't bring him back, and she warns her daughter that Merida needs to be on good terms with Berk otherwise their alliance with the Highlanders will fail. And Merida becomes even more enraged with Astrid when she finds this out: after all, her family were not the ones who killed Astrid's father, and the key word is "killed", not "murdered", so for all they know, Astrid's father died at the hands of a Highlander whose home he was attacking, and therefore Astrid can't claim the moral high ground for him. Merida doesn't start forgiving Astrid until the young Hofferson makes up for all the bad things she's said and done by this point.
• The Dragon and the Butterfly: Stoick eventually realizes this for himself; while he at first defended his horrible parenting on the fact that Hiccup was the only family he had left and he wanted him to toughen up, he eventually realized that it was his actions that led to Hiccup leaving Berk, and later admits to Hiccup that he had no excuse for what he did.
• Equestria Girls: A Fairly Odd Friendship:
  • While Twilight acknowledges that Timmy has to deal with a lot of horrible people in his life, she says this does not give him a right to be a destructive brat.
  • Twilight feels this way about the Dazzlings after hearing Adagio's Motive Rant — she acknowledges they've had terrible lives, but since they've crossed so many lines and have refused to accept responsibility for their actions, she no longer has any sympathy for them.
• Fate DxD AU: When Ritsuka Fujimaru learns why holy swords are Yuuto Kiba's Berserk Button (when he was a child, he and several other children were put in a dangerous experiment involving holy swords that resulted in many of their deaths), Ritsuka is not impressed. Ritsuka says that while what happened to him sucks, that is no excuse for Kiba going crazy whenever he sees a holy sword and endangering both himself and his comrades in his mad attempts to destroy the nigh-indestructible weapons. Ritsuka also calls him out on his Misplaced Retribution, pointing out that since the holy swords are not sentient, he should strive to find and punish the people behind the experiment.
• Fate/Parallel Fantasia: Kirei Kotomine learned long ago that he has a condition that means he is only happy when he makes people suffer, causing him to be a jerk and embrace a plan to wipe out most of humanity. His daughter Caren condemns him and says that is not an excuse because she has the same condition, but she still chose to be good, even if she can't enjoy it.
• The Gods Awaken: When Boscha is asked why she hated Willow, Boscha explains how she was like her once being a half-witch and a constant target of bullying, but she remade herself. Luz, however, points out to her that despite her bullying Willow for years, she never resorted to bullying weaker students. Luz goes as far as to say that Boscha actually did not change, but puts up a tough girl front to hide her insecurity.
• I Have No Sympathy For Either of You centers around Shirou calling out Issei and Jasmine for this. While both of them endured some awful shit, he makes clear that this doesn't give either of them the right to take their frustrations out upon others... least of all innocent people who had nothing to do with their suffering. He also berates them for not making any effort to address their actual problems or try improving their lots in life without screwing over or hurting people.
• In Imaginary Seas, Percy Jackson is a little sympathetic to Caenis after learning who she is because his father Poseidon had raped her, but he says that is no excuse for her threatening innocent people.
• Hater Good Side Story Swayed Decisions, a Breadwinners and Pickle and Peanut crossover: Buhdeuce tells Sophee her feeling left out is no excuse for her to bully SwaySway.
• Justice:
  • When Aresia tries to appeal to Nami and Robin into joining her crusade against men by citing the misogynistic atrocities done to women, they not only refuse on the account that her genocidal bioweapon is affecting their male crewmates but also find her hatred for the other gender to be childish at best and flat out hypocritical at worst. Nami even pointedly states that Aresia is no better than the men who did them wrong before they met Luffy.
  • In the Nazi-ruled alternate timeline of "The Savage Time", where the Straw Hats are waging a bloody war against the Nazi regime over losing Luffy, it is made clear that the horrible things they are doing are not excused just because they lost someone they loved. Some of the Straw Hats are more aware of it than others, but unable to stop themselves.
• In Kaguya-Sama: Love is War - Queen of Thieves, Shirogane tells Kaguya that regardless of the person's circumstances, it is not an excuse for them to commit selfish acts.
  Shirogane: It doesn't matter how much you've gone through in your life. It doesn't give you the right to be selfish. Being selfish is a choice. And if you use your own circumstances as a cop-out, then in the end, that's just an excuse.
• Several villains in The Last Son end up on the receiving end of this. Notable examples:
  • Magneto became a monster due to his past as a Holocaust survivor and fell into a Cycle of Revenge because he wasn't satisfied after he was done with the Nazis who killed his family. When Superman reveals this fact to Wanda, she remarks that's no excuse for his actions and Superman agrees.
  • Graydon Creed hates mutants with a passion because of his abusive father Sabretooth. His Friends of Humanity operatives quickly turned their backs on him when Superman made this fact public.
  • General Zod went mad after the death of his fiancée Ursa in the Shi'ar War, which he uses to justify his hatred for non-Kryptonians. Naturally, when the heroes find this out, they lose any shred of sympathy they could have had for him.
• Love's Sacrifices: As the Karnstein family history reveals, Count Falco used to be a somewhat decent — albeit privileged and entitled — noble, and blames his troubles on the fact he was forced to take responsibility as a teenage father. Falco resented his children because it meant he no longer had the freedom he once enjoyed and was unlikely to achieve much in life. Of course, neither Mircalla or Elias — who he was abusive towards and eventually tries to kill — are impressed with this, especially with how cruel and monstrous Falco became over the years. Almost no one who knows of Falco or his past shows him any kind of sympathy for it.
• Mia Fey: Ace Attorney – The Fool's Turnabout:
  • Sae Niijima is an amoral prosecutor who does everything she can to win cases — even if that means manipulating evidence and forcing false confessions from witnesses. When Mia confronts her about it before the last day of the trial, Sae rants about how she has to raise her sister Makoto on her own after their father died. Because of this, she has to do her best to do her job at the prosecutor's office. On top of the ruthlessness of the office, she also has to deal with sexism since she has to do twice the effort for the same amount of respect. And the way to get respect there is to win cases. Mia understands Sae's struggle, but she still says that it doesn't excuse the fact that she's trying to get her client, Ren Amamiya, convicted of a murder that he didn't commit. Nor does it excuse the harsh words that she says to Makoto just for trying to stop Sae from going down a path she will regret. She finally understands this by the end of the story.
  • This comes up with the actual killer. Goro Akechi has been abandoned by his father, Masayoshi Shido, and was used by him for years when he finally reunited with him. While he was adored by his fans as the Detective Prince, he never had any true friends like Ren. When he found out about Shido planning to discard him, he didn't want that to happen so he went to kill him. When he was found out, he revealed that he was jealous of Ren since he never had friends like Ren had, and decided to frame him out of envy. While the protagonists acknowledge how tragic they are, none of them excuse the actions of framing Ren and manipulating Sae to do it. Ryuji even states that the way he used people makes Akechi no better than his father — something Akechi acknowledges.
• Mission To Silas:
  • Inverted with Brigitte and Petrie. In canon, Brigitte has been through multiple traumas — being a runaway; stabbing her sister in self-defence; being stalked and nearly sexually assaulted; and being betrayed and imprisoned by a friend. When Brigitte is taken in by the Academy, Petrie shows No Sympathy for Brigitte's past, treating her like a flight risk. Petrie regularly belittles Brigitte using her own "troubled past" — which consists of having to go to prep and military school. Petrie apparently considers having to climb a rope to be worse than anything Brigitte went through. Amy suggests the real reason Petrie dislikes Brigitte is because Brigitte having a worse past than hers intimidates her.
  • Also Inverted with Lucy and Bobby. Bobby makes a dismissive "Cool motive, still murder" remark towards Lucy's past of her family being killed by the Schaffer's. The way Bobby dismisses it, you'd almost think the Schaeffer's as innocent victims of this unjust revenge plot by Lucy. Considering what's later revealed of Bobby's history — which consists of Accidental Murder and battery — his refusal to accept responsibility or treatment during his psychological evaluations, it's really a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
• Played for Laughs in Motivational Speaker For Hire. Grogar hires Matt Foley, hoping he can get his minions to work together as a team. When Cozy Glow admits she never had any parents, Foley gives her his usual routine.
  Matt Foley: Well boo-FRICKITY-HOO! Is this why you were stealing everyone's magic? Was it so you could fill in that big empty void where the love of your mommy and daddy is supposed to be? Well, GET OVER IT! My parents never even dropped me off at an orphanage, the only place they dropped me off was in a van down by the river!
• Naruto Rend: Naruto ends up talking with his parents while they're both in the hospital about the very rough state of their relationship, admitting that while he doesn't agree with how they handled things, he's done hating them and using his anger as an excuse to be hostile towards them and his siblings.
• Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!: Todoroki is called out on holding back his fire powers much earlier than in canon, albeit for different reasons, since the rest of Class 1-A sees this attitude as arrogant and petty. In the aftermath of the USJ incident, Aizawa outright tells him that whatever issues he's got with his father are no excuse to hold back his fire powers when there are lives at stake.
• The New Recruit: All characters in the fic show clear sympathy for Andrew, as he was ultimately just a kid in a bad situation. However, having a sick mother and a terrible father is no excuse for attempting to murder your cousin and destroy Seattle.
• Raise Your Voice Against Liars: All of Adrien's excuses as to why he refused to help Marinette deal with Lila are shot down by the Phantom Thieves.
  • He was worried that Lila might get akumatized? Why no concern about Marinette potentially getting akumatized instead? Or any of her other victims, for that matter? Lila was hardly the only person around him at risk.
  • He didn't think that her lies were that big a deal, and weren't really hurting anyone? All he needed to do to see otherwise was actually look at what was going on around him.
  • He assumed Lila was only lying because she wanted friends? Again, her actions said otherwise.
  • He didn't want to wind up isolated like Marinette for telling the truth? Well, at least he's being honest now about how self-serving his motives were, and that he let her twist in the wind to protect himself.
  • And on the other hand, the Phantom Thieves' excuses for their mistreatment of Adrien/Chat Noir is called out, as they basically left alone to deal with his father (who murdered someone) simply because they didn't like or trust him.
• In Revival, Nyarlathotep claims that he became the way he was because he was born without a name or identity due to his father being the Almighty Idiot. Patrick, however, denies him this citing that he was actually just a cosmological Psychopathic Manchild who was evil the moment he was born. When Lincoln states this to Nyarlathotep in the sequel, Nyarlathotep actually agrees there.
• Shadows over Meridian:
  • When Jade confronts Nerissa, who gets angry at having all her years of waiting and sacrifice mocked, she tells the sorceress not to bother telling any tragic origin story and dismisses her to be just like the number of baddies she faced in her own universe; an egomaniac who feels entitled to ruling everyone with unlimited power.
  • Amelia Emmony makes it clear in her first appearance that she's sick of hearing how Vera Bexley's driven to wipe out the Mogriffs to avenge her grandfather and remarks it's not like Vera's the only one who's lost a loved one during Prince Phobos' tyranny. Vera's closest friend Albel tries to defend her by noting that with so many others with similar experiences, her feelings should be understandable, but Amelia in return asks how many of said people follow Vera's example and dedicate their whole lives solely to revenge. Before Vera — who's gone off the deep end and betrayed her friends to have her revenge — receives her sentence from Jade in Chapter 32, Amelia tells her former friend that she's started thinking Vera has been using her grandfather's death as an excuse for chasing a twisted dream of purging Meridian of what she calls monsters, only to have turned into one of her own right.
• The Vasto of White: Gin gets captured by Soul Society and decides to explain his motives. When he and his best friend Rangiku were children, Aizen seriously injured her. Gin dedicated his life to revenge, but knowing he couldn't beat Aizen head-on, decided to pretend to join him so that he could one day stab him in the back. Everyone, including Rangiku, points out that is no excuse for being a total asshole, helping Aizen help their enemies, and hurting a bunch of people.

A-D

Ace Attorney

• In Turnabout Lockdown, Edgeworth notes that while Diego Armando's motives for having committed murder back in Trials and Tribulations might seem sympathetic on the surface, he had plenty of options available to him to prevent the situation from escalating to the point where an innocent woman had to die and he refused to take them out of personal spite and hubris.

Ace Combat

• In Three Strikes, after learning about the Dalsen twins' particularly tragic past that showed that they aren't so different from her, Trigger has a little bit of sympathy for them. Huxian and Count, however, still firmly believed that they got what they deserved and that bad circumstances shouldn't be an excuse for them not trying to make the best of what they got (like the former 444th members did) and gave in to the pressure and become villains.

Amphibia

• Queens of Amphibia: Marcy tries to reason with Walter Blum, pointing out that while losing his parents to the Frogvasion is certainly tragic, it doesn't justify him trying to kill everyone in Amphibia out of revenge. Unfortunately for her, Walter won't change his mind.

Arrowverse

• In Fighting for the Future. Lex Luthor explains his desire to kill all Metahumans comes from the fact that one Metahuman, implied to be Black Siren, caused a train accident that killed his fiancée. No one is very impressed with this, having seen it before in both Malcolm Merlyn and Slade Wilson; and Oliver explicitly states that that would justify killing that one Metahuman, not all of them. He even points out that the love of his life was murdered, but he still only killed those responsible.
• What It Takes: Lampshaded by Sara, who refuses to let herself be the excuse Quentin keeps on using to justify all his terrible choices, especially when those choices involve hurting Laurel. Laurel and everyone else agree, as his anger over her keeping Sara's death a secret, however rightful, does not justify the extremes he goes to over the course of the story. In the end, nobody forgives him and he ends up Dying Alone a year later.

Batman

• The Redemption of Harley Quinn: Cash points out to Harley that just because she was abused by the Joker, it doesn't excuse the fact that she's just as sadistic and psychotic as he is and that she's also responsible for countless lives that have been destroyed due to her actions.
  Cash: You've got some nerve playing the victim card. After all the graves you've filled and minds you've crippled, you think you're a hero just because your ex would slap you around.

Case Closed

• Dominoes:
  • Kaito became KID in order to bring down the man who murdered his father, then used his position to cover up the truth about what happened and escape any consequences for his actions. While Shinichi agrees that the culprit should face justice, he doesn't agree with Kaito's methods, or his willingness to prioritize his revenge over other concerns. Particularly when Kaito decides his agenda matters more than saving the life of an innocent victim.
  • Aoko despises KID because her father was so busy working that case that he failed to be there when her mother passed away in the hospital. Tragic as that is, she uses KID as a scapegoat and self-justification for her Black-and-White Insanity, refusing to acknowledge any of the serious ethical questions surrounding her actions by insisting that she and the other Irregulars are the good guys no matter what they do.

Danganronpa

• In Danganronpa: Last Hurrah, the second killer commits murder out of a desire for their parents' approval, and feeling overshadowed by their older brother. Nao Hisoka, the protagonist, asks whether the killer's parents abused them, and when the killer says no, Nao launches into a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, ending with him asking the killer if their parents will be proud of them for committing murder. It later turns out that Jirou, the second killer, is actually the mastermind, and that he survived his execution. Jirou then says that while he wasn't lying about his life story, he actually didn't care about that.

Danny Phantom

• Danny Phantom: Stranded: Valerie Gray hates Danny Phantom for ruining her life, as he accidentally caused her father to lose his job, leading to them becoming poor and her losing her popularity. Her best friend Star Strong calls Valerie out for holding a grudge against Phantom despite all he has done to protect the town, pointing out that it was an accident and he genuinely feels bad about it. However, Valerie does not care and says she still sees him as dangerous and a loose cannon. Star counters that Valerie is also dangerous, is justifying a reason to be cruel, and Phantom actually improved her life by getting her out of the A-Listers, and she still has her father and real friends. Star tells Valerie that she's sorry for what happened to her father, but Valerie cannot blame everything bad she went through on Phantom. When Valerie refuses to listen and still tries to claim Phantom is evil, Star loses her patience. She states Valerie has not changed at all from her time as an A-Lister and is still finding an excuse to be mean to someone, and Star is done listening to her whining and pinning the blame on someone who just had bad luck. Thankfully, Valerie finally gets her act together after this.
• Dream Lover: While Usul understands Desiree's feelings of vengeance, saying that being cast out and left to die was unforgivable, he tells her that taking "revenge" on people who had done nothing to her means she's lost the right to call herself innocent.
• Resurrected Memories: Vlad tries to cajole Ember into joining his side, citing her own miserable past as proof that she'll always be alone. Ember throws back that as horrible as her life was, she had no right to make others miserable as well.

DuckTales (2017)

• Shadow of Her Own: Scrooge McDuck had wondered if Magica De Spell had created Lena to gain a family to replace her brother, Poe De Spell. Thanks to a confrontation between Scrooge and Magica, Poe was permanently turned into a non-sapient crow and lost to the wilds. Lena points out that she was created to use against Scrooge, and that she was the one that started calling Magica "Aunt Magica". Eventually, Magica let Lena call her that for the sake of keeping Lena under control after she became sentient. When Scrooge suggests that the reason that Magica could not love Lena is because of what happened to Poe, Lena angrily rejects the notion that Magica loved her, with or without Poe, saying that all she was to Magica was her magical failure. Scrooge apologizes to Lena for putting Magica on a darker path, leading to her creating Lena and abusing her. Lena then assured Scrooge that she does not regret being made, and Magica's actions were not his fault; Magica chose her own path, and whatever excuses she comes up with regarding Scrooge don't excuse the way that Magica has treated Lena.

Dragon Ball

• Dragon Ball Multiverse: Universe 16's Vegito was a massively Abusive Parent to Son Bra. Not only did he put her through Training from Hell, he made no real effort to raise her outside of training, quickly giving up whenever he couldn't rein in her temper tantrums. What's more, his complex about being the strongest Saiyan led to him threatening to kill her so she couldn't outgrow him... all while simultaneously having incredibly unrealistic expectations about her abilities. Due to all this, Bra willingly let Babidi control her so that she could take out all her issues on everyone in the vicinity, including her own family and friends. Her counterpart from Universe 18 calls her out on this, declaring that her father's poor parenting skills do not give her free reign to become a mass-murdering slave of Babidi, adding that she'll never become Number 1 if she keeps letting her past control her rather than trying to overcome it.
• In Dragon Ball Z Abridged, Android 16 calls out Gohan for his Suicidal Pacifist actions by telling him that just because Goku isn't Father of the Year material doesn't mean that the entire world has to suffer because he wants to be the bigger man.
• In Hermit, Jamba wants to kill Shin in order to kill Beerus for destroying his home planet. Zuno knows exactly what Jamba desires to do and why, and tells him that his suffering is no excuse for his actions, which include helping Freeza's family rule 70% of the galaxy and planning to kill a child because the latter might try to stop him.
• Some of the earlier English dubs of Dragon Ball Z have Vegeta, prior to his death on Namek, tell Goku that Frieza twisted and corrupted him into a genocidal Space Pirate and he never had the chance to do anything else, stating outright that all of his actions and evil were on Frieza. In Reign, Frieza himself tears the claims he made apart by pointing out that Vegeta has repeatedly shown himself perfectly capable of killing and destroying without Frieza's orders or input. He cites multiple atrocities of Vegeta's, such as his blowing up the planet Arlia, committing genocide on the colonies of Ethrom, and beheading the king of Verbu solely because the man insulted his height, all done on his own initiative and of his own volition, as proof that Freudian Excuse or not, Vegeta was just a violent, petty thug.

F-L

Frozen (2013)

• The fanfic The Phoenix and the Snowbird has a rare one where Prince Hans himself acknowledges to Queen Elsa that he must stop using his claim of his 12 older brothers abusing and ignoring him as a way to justify his crimes. He even states that the time he spent without them slowly made him realize just how miserable he is.

Fruits Basket

• Silence: In chapter 6, the head maid calls Akito out on continuing to use her Abusive Mom as an excuse to pity herself and lash out at people, especially since by that point, Akito is married to Shigure, has a daughter of her own, and Ren is dead. She explains her history with her own mother to put things in perspective; Her own mother was a prostitute who forced her into doing so as well so they could make more money to get ends meet, resulting in her getting pregnant by a man old enough to be her grandfather and forced to give her baby up for adoption. It was after this that she ran away, got a job at the Sohma estate, and became head maid, eventually becoming Akito's Parental Substitute after Ren abandoned her.

Fullmetal Alchemist

• Phylactery: In chapter 12, Edward pulls this on a recently resurrected Envy when the latter finally succeeds in angering him by threatening his wife and children.
  Edward: I get it; I do. In a way, you couldn't help being the way you were any more than Gluttony could help being hungry or Greed could help being greedy. But to say that you were forced to act out of jealousy is just an excuse. The fact is that you were cruel and sadistic and enjoyed every bit of pain you caused, and even if you can change, I'm not convinced you deserve the chance.
  Envy: (completely furious) Shut up! Shut up! You don't- You don't have the right to talk about us like that! Like you know-
  Edward: But you're here and alive again, and I really do hope that you can change. I don't want to have to kill you. But if you try to hurt my family, try to threaten them, even try to meet or talk to them...If you try to kill anyone, I won't hesitate to stop you. In whatever way is necessary.

The Goblin Emperor

• Take These Tower Stones inflicts a brutal Karma Houdini Warranty on Setheris Nelar when his wife announces her intent to divorce him for abusing his ward. Yes, it explicitly was because the previous Emperor was a dick who exiled Nelar to the marshlands, away from everything and everyone he loved, but Nelar still chose to beat and demean a helpless child entrusted to his care.
  Hesero Nelar: The beating of a child is not a broken plate, Setheris. Thou art proven as the kind of man who will harm another on a whim, and being alone and afraid does not excuse that. Thou madest a choice, each time, and now here are the consequences. Less than thou deserves.

Godzilla

• Abraxas (Hrodvitnon):
  • When Alan Jonah tries to exploit Sympathy for the Devil by bringing up his traumatic backstory of his daughter being brutally murdered while he was away at war, which triggered his descent into darkness, Vivienne Graham thinks that that, while horrible and tragic, doesn't and can't in any way justify the things that Jonah has done, namely him deliberately causing millions of other innocent people to horribly lose their own children and other loved ones via him setting Ghidorah loose on the world.
  • During a Kirk Summation, Madison Russell calls out the sheer, nonsensical hypocrisy of her deceased mother Emma, who was presented by canon as a Tragic Villain, trying to make the death of her son in a Titan attack "matter" by engineering global repeats of the very same kind of disaster which killed him and creating millions more broken families who've now lost their loved ones the same way.
    • She even says it to her canon counterpart in this non-canon crossover, and Canon!Madison, despite holding a little more fondness and a little less resentment for their late mother, eventually agrees with Abraxas!Madison.

Harry Potter

• The Very Secret Diary: Ginny acknowledges that Tom had a rough upbringing, but, after some thinking, she concludes that that isn't the reason he's so horrible. After all, plenty of people, such as Harry, have had it way, way worse than Tom did and never turned out evil. She then tells him that she's thought it over from every angle, but she simply can't figure out what's wrong with him.
• Weasley Girl has an example where Hagrid, of all people, loses his temper with Snape and calls him out on his attitude and his unfair treatment of Harry.
  Hagrid: All right, that's enough! This is my house! I let yeh stay here ter rest, I made yeh supper an' breakfast, an' I don't even mind that I never heard a word o' thanks, but yeh don't talk ter Harry like that while yer under my roof! An' I've bin makin' excuses fer yeh all year, too —!
  Snape: I don't recall asking you to do that.
  Hagrid: Cuttin' yeh some slack here, cause yer still sick, an' yeh've bin with You-Know-Who, an workin' against 'im, mighty brave o' yeh an' all that, yer a true hero, but GROW UP! Yeh had a rotten life? Well, guess what, other people had rotten lives too, an' they don't go around sneerin' at everyone! NOW SHUT UP AN' EAT YER RUDDY EGGS!
  • The sequel, Weasley Girl: Secrets of the Past: has a scene where Peter Pettigrew tries to defend his actions by pointing out what a horrible situation he was in, how bigger and badder people forced his hand, how he was too weak to resist. He paints a pretty bleak picture of his own life, only to have it come crashing down on him with one question from Harry:
    Harry: What about the twelve Muggles?
    Peter: Wh-what?
    Harry: The twelve Muggles you killed when faking your own death.
    Peter: They were just Muggles...
    (pause)
    Harry: And to think I was actually starting to feel sorry for you.

Hellaverse

• Owl's Hell That Ends Well: Blitzo tells Baron Wastes, the deranged imp revolutionary who kidnapped and tortured Octavia as an owlet, that no matter what horrific tortures the Ars Goetia put him through that turned him into the Goetia-hating, unhinged maniac he is today, it can't justify what he did to Octavia, who was just an innocent seven-year-old child. Blitzo flat-out tells Baron that by torturing an innocent girl for being a Goetia just as the adult Goetia tortured him in the past, he's become just as bad as the demons he hates.

The Hunger Games

• The End of the World (FernWithy): In The Hanging Tree, Glass talks about how he and Snow were both inside a school that District 13 bombed at the end of the Dark Days Rebellion and crawled out over the bodies of kids younger than the tributes in the Hunger Games. Haymitch isn't particularly moved, since Glass and Snow are both obvious sadists who relish tormenting and destroying people on an individual level and can't even claim proper Sins of Our Fathers given how District 13 was acting, without much if any help from the districts actually being subjected to the Hunger Games. Stops on the Way to the End of the World also reveals that Snow nearly smothered a classmate at the age of six and Glass enjoyed torturing and killing animals since what is implied to be a long time before the bombing.

Infinity Train

• Down And Out: Zig-Zagged. When The Cat visits the Mall Car to see Simon, Grace lies, saying that Simon died, before blaming the feline for his downward spiral and demise. When The Cat points out it isn't fair that she should get all the blame when Grace also played a role, Grace responds that while neither of them is responsible for how Simon responded to his trauma, The Cat is still the source of said trauma.
• He Never Told You: Grace blames herself for Simon's death because she was the one who told him the lie that numbers increasing mean strength. The Cat points out that they both believed that lie and that got them into trouble. When they learned the truth Grace dealt with it and Simon didn't.
• The Sun Will Come Up And The Seasons Will Change: Dana, Mary Summer’s abusive mother, was abused as a child and as an adult by her own Female Misogynist mother. This does not, in any way, justify her mistreatment of Mary.

Kill la Kill

• After Mako learns about Ryuko's alien nature and origins in Natural Selection, she gets the idea to become a Positive Friend Influence to her to help redeem her from what she's become. Inumuta is quick to point out that at this point, whatever excuse she has doesn't matter. She has the blood of countless people on her hands and has taken sadistic glee in the destruction she's caused. Even if she can be made better, she must answer for the things she's done.

Kolchak: The Night Stalker

• In The Wings of Lilith, Kolchak interviews the owner of an occult book store centered around Lilith, who talks of how Lilith was mistreated by Adam and cast aside by God, eventually joining up with the demons of Hell and becoming a demonic monster herself. After the owner notes that Lilith is now a symbol of feminism, Kolchak notes that Lilith kills innocent babies for the sake of spiting God. The owner dismisses this as anti-feminist propaganda added on to a fictional character adopted by early feminist movements, though the reader and Kolchak already know that it is very, very true.

Kung Fu Panda

• A Different Lesson: While Tai Lung is on his way to realizing this from his first talk with Po onward (and especially after visiting the village with Tigress and meeting Oogway's ghost for the first time), in his narcissism and Never My Fault mentality it isn't until he has forgiven Oogway and is contemplating his battle with Shifu in the movie, their argument just before his rampage, and his reasons for refusing to accept Shifu's apology that he finally accepts the truth: that everything which happened to him, and the way Shifu raised and acted toward him, does not change how horrible and wrong his own actions were. This (along with Shifu explaining the truth behind why he never stood up for him to Oogway) is naturally what leads to their reconciliation as father and son.
  And yet, he'd still come that close to killing Shifu. That, too, was something that could never be forgiven. Not even by himself. As he had told Tigress, it was the worst thing he could ever have done, and every time he thought of it now, it filled him with horror. All his prior reasoning could explain his actions...but it could never justify them...

The Loud House

• In Stories and Tales from Dimension 63, Linka is revealed to have been physically beaten when three boys invaded the home in search of her older brother Loki, while Lane who was also in the house hid instead of trying to protect her because he had to protect the then-infant Lars. However, when Linka tries to use that excuse at times, other characters point out that she could've asked her family to stop being overly protective of her, and instead of being painted in a sympathetic light, Linka willingly tries to take over Lincoln's life simply because she felt that her own family didn't pamper her enough.

Love Hina

• For His Own Sake: Granny Hina reveals to Marumi that everything she's done with the Hinata Inn is connected to the tragic loss of Yoko, her eldest daughter and Marumi's older sister. Hina's nature as a Control Freak strained their relationship, especially when Yoko married Toji instead of Shakiko's son Sanji. When Yoko came to her mother begging for help, Hina turned her away; Yoko and her husband were killed in a car accident the following day, leaving Hina regretting her actions and seeking to atone by turning the Inn into an all-female dorm for troubled girls like Naru and Mitsune. However, Marumi points out that instead of helping her tenants through their issues, she enabled them, and her attempts to manipulate everyone around her into doing as she pleases are making matters worse and pushing everyone away. Hina storms out, refusing to acknowledge her mistakes.

M

Marvel Cinematic Universe

• In Legacy (DocSuess), it's revealed that Howard was physically abusive and judgmental to Tony and his mother, so Tony thinks that he was leagues better by giving Peter his space and that Peter is ungrateful for denouncing him. Unfortunately for him, the story (and everyone in it) has none of it, treating Tony's Parental Neglect as just a different form of abusive parenting.
• Heimdall in One Hell of a Ride tries to usurp Hela because his sister was one of the valkyries she killed before being imprisoned thousands of years ago. Tony and Hela counter that 1) his sister knew what she was getting into when she became a valkyrie and when she fought against Hela, 2) and Hela has been recognized by both the people and Asgard itself as the rightful queen. Regardless of Heimdall's feelings on the matter, his actions are sedition at best and treason at worst.

Marvel Universe

• In A Prize for Three Empires, Carol Danvers' mother calls her daughter out on using her past trauma as an excuse to be an obnoxious, blame-shifting ass to her teammates.

Miraculous Ladybug

• CONSEQUENCES:
  • WORLD BEYOND makes clear that no matter how much Gabriel might have been hurt by losing Emilie, it doesn't justify the reign of terror he went on as Hawk/Shadow Moth, much less his utter Lack of Empathy for those he hurt.
  • In WORLD BEYOND: PART II, Ladybug declares that while she understands why Félix wanted the Peacock Pin after learning he's a sentimonster, that doesn't excuse how he betrayed the heroes and all of Paris.
  • WORLD BEYOND: PART II also has Duusu reveal that Emilie was responsible for putting herself into a coma in the first place due to abusing the Peacock Pin's powers, while Gabriel knew the dangers and did nothing to stop her. As a result, Duusu doesn't sympathize with either of them: both wantonly abused the powers of the Miraculouses they had.
• The Cosmos:
  • While calling Adrien out, Marinette notes that he has grown up severely sheltered, starved of unconditional love and affection. However, she still points out that he had ample evidence that Lila's behavior was harming others, and only insisted otherwise because he didn't want to confront her... or that the world didn't work the way he wanted.
  • Lila turns out to have one heck of a Backstory: as a child, she got misdiagnosed with a terminal illness, with others abandoning her...then when the mistake was discovered, even more people turned on her, accusing her of having faked her illness for attention. Everyone in the Cosmos agrees that she endured something horrible, but as Chloé puts it, it doesn't excuse her behavior, only explaining it.
  • Also applies to Sabine, who had a rough childhood that made her obsessed with perfection. She then passed on that pressure to her daughter, complaining to her husband when Marinette scored 'only' 99% on a test and insisting that anything extraordinary she achieved was just 'as it should be'. While Marinette recognizes that her mother is flawed and trying to improve, her friends aren't quite as generous, with Kagami marveling at how much leeway Mari has given her.
• Couturiere offers several examples:
  • Adrien incorrectly assumed that Lila was lonely like him and just wanted to make friends with a few "harmless" lies. It's made very clear that even if that were the case, that didn't justify Lila manipulating their classmates or bullying Marinette, or Adrien's Betrayal by Inaction.
  • Said classmates believed that Lila could help them achieve all their dreams, so they were trying to make her happy and earn her favor... at the cost of turning against Marinette. Couturiere brutally berates them for this, calling them out as Fair-Weather Friends whom she can't trust anymore.
  • Ms. Bustier was effectively blackmailed into letting Chloé and Lila get away with their bullying, as if she didn't keep them happy, her job would likely be on the line. While she finally realizes that this was causing far much more trouble than it was worth, it doesn't excuse her inaction.
• The Dad Villain AU effectively picks apart Gabriel's supposed motivations for becoming Hawkmoth in the first place. Even if one allows for the possibility that he sincerely desired nothing more than to save Emelie's life, by the time he actually gets his hands on the Earrings and Ring, he's motivated more by pure spitefulness — to the point that his Wish revolves around punishing Ladybug for ever opposing him in the first place.
• The Karma of Lies:
  • Once Gabriel's motives for terrorizing Paris as Hawkmoth are revealed — namely, that he wanted to use the Miraculi to reawaken his comatose wife — Adrien immediately latches onto the idea that this could earn him a lighter sentence. Ladybug shoots that down; nothing excuses the extremes he went to in hopes of achieving his goals.
  • Also applies to Adrien himself, who suffers tremendously over the course of the story due to his Karma Houdini Warranty running out. When he finally snaps during the climax and rants about how hard his life's become, he's shot down, as despite his refusal to recognize it, he's the one who brought that backlash down upon his own head through his actions and inaction.
• Miraculous Ladybug Salt-Shots:
  • What Makes You Think I Still Love You? has Adrien protest that he can't possibly be held accountable for how he constantly harassed Ladybug, refusing to take no for an answer: "B-but, you can't blame me! I grew up watching anime and I didn't know how to pursue you, to make you love me!" Marinette shoots him down, calling out his childish reasoning for what it is.
  • Referenced in Nothing Comes For Free, when Marinette laments to her mother how Mme. Bustier refuses to ever hold Chloé accountable for her own actions:
    Marinette: Then there's Chloé, no matter how many times I told Madame Bustier that I didn't want to be in her class, that Chloé bullies me — she still insists that Chloé could learn a lot from me, that I need to be a good example! I can't! I'm tired of being a good example, I'm tired of being a doormat. Chloé won't change, no matter what. I know that her mother doesn't like her and doesn't spend time in her life, but that doesn't excuse her actions! Not to mention that one train incident. Chloé's a terrible person, she worked with Hawkmoth before, and it's impossible for her to change — especially when she isn't trying to change herself! I don't want to be their Everyday Ladybug anymore!
  • In A Price to Pay, Adrien helps his father make his reality-altering Wish. When this doesn't work out how he expected, Adrien turns to Marinette for help, crying that "I just wanted my mother back!" Marinette retorts that he did get her back; Emilie is alive, at the cost of Marinette's own father dying. She just refuses to be part of her ex-husband and son's lives anymore. She also stresses that Adrien's loss in no way justified him betraying her and all of Paris, much less inflicting that kind of pain upon another.
  • Broken Reflection Of Love has Adrien start dating Marinette as a stand-in for Ladybug, unaware that they're the same person. While Luka, Kagami and Zoé are convincing her that she should break things off, Luka notes that he can't blame his shoddy treatment of her on being sheltered; for all his faults, Gabriel treated his wife like a queen while Adrien is All Take and No Give.
• Scarlet Lady:
  • When the class confronts Chloé over how she sabotaged their efforts to celebrate Mme. Bustier's birthday, she's completely unrepentant, knowing that Mme. Bustier will never punish her for her bullying. Then Sabrina declares that she's acting that way due to how her own mother never bothers to remember her own daughter's birthday, saying that's no excuse for her actions. Chloé's utterly furious and lashes out at Sabrina for bringing up Audrey's neglect.
  • Discussed during the denouncement of "Queen Wasp". Adrien tells Plagg that he completely understands Chloé's desperation to connect with her mother, comparing it to how he's struggled to deal with his abusive, controlling father. But ultimately, he concludes, any underlying motives she had doesn't change how she hurt others, or completely explain away her actions:
    Adrien: Chloé did awful things. It doesn't matter why. She didn't steal from Marinette to impress her mom. She did it because she wanted to. Whatever happens now... Chloé brought it on herself.
• The Wolves in the Woods:
  • While calling out Adrien for his insistence on blaming Marinette for being bullied, Nino shreds apart the notion that he 'doesn't know any better' due to his sheltered background. As he points out, Adrien has had plenty of time to learn from his experiences at Francoise Dupont but continues acting selectively oblivious to anything that might challenge his worldview.
  • Alya claims to have been afraid that Marinette's successes as a fashion designer would result in her 'leaving her behind', and that she only went along with Lila's Malicious Slander in hopes of keeping her best friend around. Putting aside the question of whether she was anything more than a False Friend from the start, her parents make clear that this in no way justifies any of her actions:
    Alya: I just want my best friend back... Is that really too much to ask?
    Marlena: Considering you've disowned her, called her a bully, sent nasty messages to her phone, slandered her in court, and are alright with someone killing another in a twisted sense of 'justice'... Then yes. It is too much to ask.

My Hero Academia

• In Conversations with a Cryptid, the narrative and Midoriya point out that Bakugou grew up with a physically and verbally abusive mother, a spineless father, and a school system that fostered his sense of entitlement through the strength of his quirk and encouraged him to look down on Quirkless people like Midoriya. The narrative and All for One counters that in no way excuses Bakugou's decade of abusing Midoriya. All for One points out that Bakugou had attacked, burned, and belittled Midoriya on a daily basis of his own free will. Even going so far as Bakugou attempting to bait Midoriya into committing suicide which still emotionally scars Midoriya and throwing tantrums in front of his peers and live television when he doesn't get his way.
• In Crimson and Emerald, Endeavor is revealed to have been horrifically abused as a child by his father, Ryu and saw his mother be abused. Considering this is revealed to show how Endeavor doesn't understand why his treatment of his wife and children is wrong when All Might, Hawks, and Inko intervene to rescue his family from him, he doesn't get any sympathy points.
• In Deku? I think he's some pro..., All Might never passed on One For All to Midoriya, instead telling him that he could never become a hero and should give up on his dream. When Izuku proceeds to make it into U.A. anyway, he continues to disparage and dismiss his efforts, insisting that his Quirklessness means he's simply too weak and vulnerable. Sir Nighteye confronts him with the knowledge that he used to be Quirkless himself, suggesting that he's discouraging Izuku because he doesn't want to see him succeed where he failed — something he calls out as incredibly petty and disappointing. Particularly from somebody who otherwise insists that anybody can become a hero.
• In Fear No Evil Izuku calls Flect Turn out on how his tragic backstory is not that tragic. Flect blames his quirk for all his problems, but he never tried to control his quirk.
• Haigha: While Principal Nezu recognizes that Katsuki was taught several toxic ideas about Quirks at Aldera, he makes clear that he is still holding him fully responsible for his misbehavior, and that his treatment of others is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
• In Karma in Retrograde, Touya's self-loathing is only amplified by the fact he's disappointed with his own motive, since all his siblings went through the same thing he did, but hadn't become villains as he had.
  How weak could he be? Oh, boo hoo, he'd wanted his dad to love him. That wasn't an excuse for all the shit he'd pulled over the years. Natsuo and Fuyumi hadn't broken as he had.
• My Hero Academia: Entropy: A Deconstructed example: as one of the greatest agents of Izuku Midoriya's Freudian Excuse to become a Villain and decide to bring the world to its knees, Aizawa is too much of a jerk to care.
• In My Hero Playthrough, Aizawa does this to Shinso after learning that Shinso used his Quirk to brainwash Ojiro and Hagakure into helping him get through the first stage of the Sports Festival, then abandoning them when he no longer needs them, resulting in them doing poorly and nearly being placed on academic probation. Aizawa can understand why Shinso feels that the U.A. entrance exam favors those with flashy and destructive Quirks, but points out that Ojiro and Hagakure passed despite not having Quirks like those, simply because they worked harder than Shinso does. Aizawa's point is that if anyone is stacking the deck against Shinso, it's Shinso himself.
• One for All and Eight for the Ninth: Destro attempts to use his mother's death as justification for his terrorist campaign, only for Isamu to call him out, and say that because of said campaign, hundreds of Meta children lost their non-Meta parents and beloved ones, and Destro's own kind agrees with the government that he is a monster and that Quirks should be regulated.
• Sleeper Hit AU:
  • Bakugou is the only one who believes that his Inferiority Superiority Complex justifies his Irrational Hatred of Midoriya.
  • Since Izuku wasn't around for the Sports Festival, Shouto continued stubbornly using only the icy half of his powers, refusing to use 'his father's fire'. Once Midoriya starts figuring out his issues during Wasted Potential, he calls him out on prioritizing that over doing his job and protecting people from villains.
• Snap Before You Break:
  • Present Mic calls out Aizawa when he learns the real reason he's been expelling students is because of Oboro's death, something Aizawa refused to get therapy for even when offered.
    Present Mic: Shou, trauma doesn't allow you to be an abusive asshole. You should be in therapy, not teaching. You've ruined so many students' lives, and I thought you were coming from a rationale and ignored that all of them had the charm Oboro had. But you've literally just been culling so many good Hero Students just because they reminded you of someone dead for 15 years!
  • Also referenced during the denouncement; after learning that Principal Nedzu decided to turn Aizawa's poor management of Class 1-A into a Secret Test of Character for Izuku to see whether he'd stand up for himself and his friends, Izuku goes off on him about how his Dark and Troubled Past doesn't permit him to be a manipulative asshole. Nedzu shrugs it off, saying he knows he's manipulative, but agrees to lay off the "secret lessons" when pressed on the matter.
• Think Before You Speak:
  • Discussed by Chitose and Rikiya. While they acknowledge that Tensei's judgment was clouded by his anger over Tenya being hurt, Chitose maintains that as a Pro Hero, Tensei is expected to keep a better grip on his emotions. She also points out that he was the one who brought up the incident at U.A. while she was attempting to interview him over an unrelated topic, and that he chose to name names and identify a student as supposedly being responsible for the incident, throwing a minor into the media's line of fire.
  • Similarly, while Stain recognizes that Tensei was deceived, he still judges his rant against Midoriya to have been conduct unbefitting a Pro Hero. He also believes that Tensei should have recognized that since his brother was pursuing the same path, getting injured during training was all but inevitable, and U.A. had the best medical Quirks and resources on hand to help his brother. The fact that Tensei himself acknowledged that the Iida can regenerate their own engines also makes him look worse in Stain's eyes.
  • During the HPSC investigation into Aizawa's motives and actions towards Izuku, it's heavily implied Aizawa never worked through his trauma over the death of Oboro Shirakumo. Instead, it's implied he has chosen to push his trauma-motivated irrational standards onto his students, trying to avoid another "reckless" death at any cost, even if the student didn't do anything wrong and his actions damage their educations or careers. His choices regarding Izuku are just the most extreme example known. The HPSC makes very clear that this doesn't excuse his behavior towards his students and instead see this as a sign that he's completely unfit for his teaching position. Further, the duplicitous manner in which he acted in order to enforce his irrational standards means they don't find him trustworthy enough to be a hero, either.
• What Practical?: Discussed by Aizawa and Nezu as they review the footage of Katsuki attempting to outright murder Izuku during their first training exercise together. While Nezu observes that he doesn't show any signs of knowing his actions could have consequences, both agree that this in no way excuses his blatant sadism or the glee he took in assaulting Izuku.
  Nezu: It seems strange, doesn't it? His behavior is simply atrocious, yet he seemed utterly oblivious to the idea that he may be punished for it.
  Aizawa: Another kid with a strong Quirk getting spoiled by society?
  Nezu: If so, they've done him a grave injustice.
  Aizawa: (flatly, as Nezu nods in agreement) I'm finding it hard to sympathize.
• Whispered Tribulation:
  • After dealing with several incidents where his students were targeted by villains, Aizawa is naturally paranoid and desperate to ferret out the cause, latching onto Present Mic's suggestion that there might be a mole among their ranks. Unfortunately for all involved, he convinces himself that the Quirkless Gen-Ed student Midoriya must be the culprit, conspiring to kidnap and interrogate the innocent boy. Nedzu makes clear that their behavior went completely beyond the pale, and that the only reason he didn't fire everyone involved the moment he discovered the situation was because they were technically involved in an ongoing investigation.
  • Izuku also comes to realize that this applies to Katsuki as well. Yes, the teachers and staff at Aldera Middle School enabled him, feeding his ego and turning a blind eye towards his Barbaric Bullying. None of that changes the fact that Katsuki chose to be a bully, or how he hurt Izuku purely because he could.

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls

• In MLDC Firestorm Crisis, the Humane Five are making assumptions about why Sunset Shimmer is an Alpha Bitch. Then Rainbow Dash speaks up:
  Rainbow Dash: "Poor Sunset"? Really? [the others look to Rainbow Dash] So what if she did come from a crappy home, is an orphan, or was abused. There are other people who have gone through that and aren't total assholes. Taking out your problems on other people is a coward's way of dealing with them, instead of facing them!
  Rarity: Rainbow Dash!
  Rainbow Dash: I'm just making a point! If she really wants my pity or sympathy, then she has to earn it!

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

• Heir of the Nightmare: Nightmare Moon tells her daughter Twilight that her brutality and bringing of eternal night is meant to protect anypony from trying to hurt Twilight again. Twilight, however, throws back that Nightmare is hurting ponies who did nothing to her.
• In Pony POV Series, this trope is practically a major theme: a Freudian Excuse can explain a villain's actions, but it doesn't come close to justifying them at all.
  • Discord loves to excuse his behavior as being the fault of literally anyone except himself, especially Fate herself, but it's made clear ultimately his evil is no-one's fault but his own with Celestia describing it as him discovering his Sadism. Something Discord eventually realizes himself.
  • Queen Chrysalis has a pretty tragic backstory, including being Made a Slave and accidentally draining her parents into an Empty Shell state, but she is under no delusion she's anything but a monster and is proud of it. She knows she's going to Hell and has every intention of trying to take it over when she gets there. One major bit of development for Sweetie Belle (after Chrysalis comes to care for her but not enough to stop) is realizing that no matter what Chrysalis told her, she was a bad person.
  • Nightmare Eclipse and her Gallery have all suffered horrific tragedies having gone through the Dark World and all the suffering Twilight and her friends have, in some cases more, but the only one under the delusion this justifies their behavior is Eclipse herself. Even Nightmare Mirror openly admits the six of them are monsters and intended to drag all of them to Hell herself in the end. Rota Fortuna even gives Eclipse a "The Reason You Suck" Speech pointing out that it's gotten to the point Eclipse herself is the one doing everything Discord did to her onto others and thus she has zero moral high-ground left.
  • Nightmares in general are spawned from a tragedy. In fact, the Arc Words that accompany the transformation is some variation of the phrase 'the world isn't fair, so I'll make it fair.' Despite this, Celestia and especially Luna make it clear to any purified Nightmares that tragedy doesn't excuse anything they did, something Luna holds herself to as well. Most of the turned-sane Nightmares eventually come to agree.
• In ...That's It?, Twilight Sparkle is Disappointed by the Motive when Starlight Glimmer reveals that the reason she did things that could've caused the end of all space-time or doomed Equestria to rule by an evil entity was that Starlight's friend Sunburst got his cutie mark before she did when they were kids, causing him to move away. Twilight is disgusted with the self-righteous behavior, but with just the right Armor-Piercing Question, Twilight manages to convince Starlight to stop her plans.

N-Z

Naruto

• The Kakashi Way: While confronting Hiruzen over all the mistakes he made during his second tenure as Hokage, Sasuke learns that he lost his wife Biwako to the Kyuubi, and with her all of the support and advice she'd once provided. He privately muses that this means Hiruzen was effectively forced to retake a position he didn't actually want anymore without valuable allies like Biwako and Minato in his corner. Though he acknowledges that this helps him understand the old Sandaime more, he also believes this doesn't excuse how he allowed Danzo to go largely unchecked... especially since one of the main reasons he agreed to take the job again was because he knew about Danzo's ambitions and didn't want him to become the next Hokage.
• True Potential loves this trope:
  • In Chapter 17, when Hinata asks Naruto and Shikamaru not to hate Neji for his behavior, adding that Neji has his reasons, Naruto replies that no matter what Neji went through, it doesn't excuse him being rude to her.
    Hinata: That's...my cousin. He...wasn't always like that. P-Please don't hate him for that. H-He has his reasons for his behavior...
    Naruto: I don't care what reasons he has, no one can be that rude to you. He better hope we don't have to fight!
  • Risho, who's from Iwa, curb-stomps Kiba and almost kills him in the preliminary exams. Why? Risho is from the Kurogane clan. During the Third Great Ninja War, over a third of Iwa's casualties came from said clan alone. Sasuke and Sakura aren't sympathetic and the former clearly hopes to avenge Kiba. Naruto, while slightly sympathetic and pointing out that Kiba was also a jerk, also adds that Kiba had nothing to do with the Kurogane clan's casualties:
    "Disgusting." Naruto finished Han's sentence with a slight growl. The blonde was clenching his fists tightly. "...even if he lost most of his clan, even if Kiba was also being an ass, that is no excuse for that. He looked like he was going to straight up kill him, and Kiba didn't do a damn thing! He wasn't the one who killed anyone in war." The Uzumaki turned his look over to where Risho was in the corner of the room. His eyes narrowed. "It's disgusting and pathetic!"
  • Later subverted: When meeting Risho's cousin, who's even more of a Jerkass, verbally abuses Risho, and threatens to have him thrown out of the clan, Naruto quickly sympathizes with Risho.
  • An old woman explains to Shikamaru and Suigetsu in Chapter 45 that she is excited about the execution of five bloodline wielders because her husband and children were killed by the Kaguya Clan (who happens to have bloodlines). While they hide it, Suigetsu (who has a bloodline himself) later tells Shikamaru that he's not sympathetic at all and that he's sure that the people about to be executed have nothing to do with the woman's family's death. Shikamaru agrees:
    "I know about the fucking mission, okay? I'm doing what I can! But it's kinda hard hearing these bastards talk about how they're excited to watch people like me die." Suigetsu hissed at him. "I don't care who or what killed their families. It wasn't me and I sure as hell know it wasn't any of the people they're going to execute. So sorry if it pisses me off listening to them talk for too long!"
  • When Hiruzen orders Tsunade to come back to Konoha, he tells her that the loss of Dan and Nawaki is not an excuse to become bitter towards Konoha, as it would dishonor the very thing Dan and Nawaki fought for:
    Hiruzen: I know what happened to Nawaki and Dan, Tsunade. I know you are still affected by the events, but we have all experienced loss. I gave you all of the time in the world to mourn; I did not give you time to allow your grief to consume you. And I did not give you time to place any form of bitterness against Konoha, the very village that both Nawaki and Dan loved above all else! They would both be honored to see you as the Hokage and you know that. Don't reject the title [of Hokage] out of bitterness; the very action is a direct insult against everything they stood for!"
  • And again, when Naruto finds out that Kabuto used to be a ROOT agent at the tender age of ten, and that his childhood was probably many times worse than Naruto's. However, the Uzumaki still makes it clear that this doesn't excuse all the evil things he's done since then.
• Your Heart a Haven of Thorns: While calling Kakashi out on being a Sink or Swim Mentor, Kikyō acknowledges that he's scared of getting too attached to his students, afraid that he'll lose them like he has so many other loved ones. However, she makes clear that this doesn't justify neglecting their training — if anything, he's just setting up a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
  Kikyō: You have set them all up for slaughter by not giving them the skills to survive. You have a team composed of a civilian girl, a jinchuuriki, and an Uchiha. Every single one of them fits into the category of 'ends up dead sooner rather than later', and I will not stand by and let you throw them aside. I'm sure you've got some convoluted reasoning you tell yourself at night to help you sleep, but the truth is that you have proactively mourned for their loss and dug their graves. I will not let these children's deaths happen because you couldn't be bothered to put in the effort. You are going to pull your head out of your ass and stop looking at these children like they're already dead. You may be a dog, but I will not sit here and let you roll belly-up because you were afraid to get attached. Now, are you going to pull yourself together and help teach these cubs, or am I going to have to escort you out of this building?

Neon Genesis Evangelion

• In Ghosts of Evangelion, Ryuko calls her mother out, pointing out that childhood trauma doesn't justify a crappy disposition when you're in your forties. Asuka's reaction is, in fact... hugging her and expressing how proud she is of Ryuko.
  Ryuko: Bullshit! "The best you can," you say? Whatever. Today you were fine. I felt like you were an actual parent for a change, and that was nice. But last night? Fuck that noise. Back in the day, I guess you could get away with it since things were really rough for you back then. But now, not so much. We deserve better, father and I, and so do you!
• Going Another Way combines this with a Break the Haughty routine for Asuka by having her be the one absorbed into Leilel instead of Shinji. While it is acknowledged that what happened in her childhood was indeed tragic and painful, it doesn't give her a free pass to treat others terribly and she has to rise above that, lest she end up pushing anyone who could help her become a happier and more fulfilled person away and stay a miserable wreck. After this, Asuka becomes determined to make things right and becomes a much nicer person in the process (though she's still pretty Hot-Blooded).
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide: When discussing Asuka's behavior, Misato says she would surely be less abrasive and temperamental if someone had been there for her when she was younger. Nakajima replies old pains are not an excuse for a bad attitude, and Misato retorts she never said it was.
  Misato: Believe it or not, she used be a lot worse.
  Nakayima: (incredulous) I couldn't really imagine how anyone—
  Misato: Be any worse? Trust me, she's mellowed out lately. I guess being with Shinji really helps her deal with all that pain.
  Nakajima: Her pain? Miko still thinks she's responsible for Keiko getting hurt, even if she doesn't outright blame her anymore. It's not easy feeling sympathy for her.
  Misato: She wouldn't want it anyway — she'd think it makes her weak. However, wanting and needing can be quite different things sometimes. She definitely could have used some earlier in her life.
• The Second Try: At one point, Shinji calls Gendo out on blaming all of his actions - including abandoning his son - on the pain of losing his wife.

Persona

• The Royal Couple:
  • After seeing the true form of Kunikazu Okumura's Treasure, and hearing Haru explain that it was a model that Kunikazu's father couldn't afford because of his generosity, Ryuji remarks that it's no excuse for Kunikazu to become a Corrupt Corporate Executive who would set his daughter up with an Arranged Marriage to an abusive fiance in order to gain power. Makoto is offended, but Haru concedes that Ryuji isn't wrong.
  • Tsukasa turns out to have a Freudian Excuse for his behavior in this fic. His mother ended up getting swindled out of money and didn't notice that her husband was cheating on her, thus causing Tsukasa to conclude that women were easy marks and use his popularity with the ladies for his own gain. After hearing this from Tsukasa's Shadow, Makoto remarks that Tsukasa turned out to be just as bad as his father and the man who scammed his mother.
  • When Haru returns to school after her father's death, she receives an anonymous note from a fellow student. Said student hated Kunikazu for causing her father to work himself to death, and resents the fact that Haru is still well-off compared to her. With some sleuthing, Makoto uncovers the identity of the student responsible and tells her that while she sympathizes with the pain of losing her father (since Makoto lost both her parents), it doesn't give her license to lash out at Haru, who also lost her father.

Pokémon

• Pokémon: A Marvelous Journey: Amara's Jerkass behavior all began when her best friend was killed by a rampaging Gyarados, and her actions are because she's lashing out in grief at that. However, in the process, she's stolen Pokémon and Gym Badges, abused several of said Pokémon, and attacked innocent bystanders either by herself or by using her Pokémon. It's made clear in-universe that Amara's grief and pain do not excuse her behavior; Julia, her younger sister, openly states as such and tells their mother she wants Amara to be arrested.
• Pokémon Reset Bloodlines:
  • One sidestory has Red encounter a trainer named Rosso while traveling across the Sevii Islands. He was seen as a talented Pokémon trainer in his hometown, which quickly got to his head, but when he started his journey, he saw how tough the real world could be and that he wasn't as great as he thought. As a result, he started picking on weaker trainers and often beating them up while they were down, using an excuse that he was simply "giving his all out of respect" as he learned from Shinku Tajiri (Red's late mother who was a professional boxer). Naturally, Red took it very personally that someone was using his mother's philosophy as an excuse to be a bully to others, and called him out on it.
  • Another sidestory has Ash's Butterfree realize that, whenever he's reminded of the Pink Butterfree and how he lost her, he tends to take it out on people who had nothing to do with it (including Ash himself at one point). It takes a My God, What Have I Done? moment when he delivers a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on a female Vivillon who wanted to spar with him, even attacking her after she gave up, to realize how badly he lashes out at others for it.
  • The 2021 Holiday Special has Daisy, the oldest of the Sensational Sisters, reflecting on the way she and her sisters have been treating Misty. At first, she tries to blame her parents for being the ones to start the mistreatment and making them fear they'd treat them the same way if they didn't play along, but quickly realizes that it doesn't absolve them of responsibility, as they still continued to mistreat Misty even after their parents died.

Ranma ½

• Childhood's End:
  • Kasumi invokes this on her sister, Akane, over her love-hate relationship with Ranma.
    Kasumi: At first I thought that your behavior was due to the way you were treated by the boys at your school. Emotional scars that were taking time to heal properly, if you understand what I mean. I can't really believe that anymore — too much time has passed. It sometimes seems as if your emotional development has been frozen as if you stopped growing emotionally when you reached puberty. I'm sorry if that sounds rather harsh, but that is how it looks to me.
  • When the cause for why Akane and Ranma not developing emotionally is revealed, Akane initially blames her father for it before correcting herself, admitting that while her father and Genma did in fact use a spell that had the side-effect of stunting her and Ranma's emotional growth, she is ultimately the one responsible for her immature behavior, especially around Ranma.
• Tabula Rasa repeatedly emphasizes that Yoshino losing her son to a Junsekyo-cursed character does not justify her assisting the Jusenkyo Preservation Society. Especially in terms of the Cold-Blooded Torture she inflicts upon Ranma.

Red vs. Blue

• In Recovery None the Director tries to justify his crimes, manipulations, and the psychological damage he inflicted on his agents with the loss of his wife and desire to help humanity. Wash, South, Carolina, and York are in no mood for his bullshit and bluntly tell him that he ruined the lives of countless people with his project and nothing will ever justify or excuse anything he did.

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong

• This is Shen Yuan's conflict with Shen Qingqiu the person he transmigrated into in SV Wishes. Shen Qingqiu's life utterly sucked with him being a former Sex Slave having to survive in a very cutthroat and classist society being sabotaged by others around him from his household servants to the goddamn Emperor. Shen Qingqiu's husband betrayed his unconditional love, sacrifices, and devotion by getting a younger, prettier and richer spouse. Shen Jiu/Shen Qingqiu was also an awful person. He is a Bad Boss to his staff whenever he can get away with it and outright verbally, mentally, and physically abusive to his apprentice Luo Binghe. Luo Binghe would be made Shen Jiu’s emotional whipping boy and was neglected and abused when Shen Jiu/Shen Qingqiu needed to lash out at someone. Shen Qingqiu would rarely feed or teach him despite Luo Binghe being his apprentice, using him as an unpaid servant. Shen Qingqiu goes out of his way to sabotage Liu Qingge and constantly antagonized and fought with him. Shen Qingqiu went out of his way to make the world as miserable as he was, which had dire consequences on the whole world. Shen Yuan pities Shen Jiu and sees his complexities, but acknowledges he was a terrible person.

South Park

• My Super Best Friend: Kyle says that even if Heidi was influenced by Cartman during the time she was still with him, it did not justify her becoming a jerkass as it was still her own choice to mistreat others. Heidi already realizes, as she doesn't use her past relationship with Cartman to excuse her previous behavior, merely admitting she was a selfish person back then and wants to make amends with the people that she had mistreated.

Splatoon

• Inkopolis Chaos: When Obsidian explains that she was ostracized by both Octarians and Inklings, she gets called out that her tragedy doesn’t excuse her atrocious actions with Dylan even saying that she lies about certain parts of her backstory to gain sympathy.

RWBY

• The Makings of Team CRME: Cinder Fall is given a Freudian Excuse in the form of her abusive mother from My Name Is Cinder. However, it only explains why she is such a sociopath. The fact that she becomes exponentially worse than her mother in the show and in CRME nullifies any potential sympathy that she could have. Mercury even calls her out on this when he catches her abusing Emerald.
  Mercury: You know, it just amuses me that you talk about how terrible your mom was, but you seem to be a lot more like her than you think.
• RWBY: Destiny of Remnant: Adam Taurus was taken to a slave labor camp owned by the Schnee Dust Company alongside his family, forced to endure the abuse and humiliation as slaves for years. After several horrific events throughout Adam's time as a slave^note Adam's father would be killed in an insurrection, leading to the rest of the family getting branded. The slavers amputate the horns of Adam's mother in front of his sister Lily, traumatizing her. When the slaves outlived their usefulness, Adam's mother sacrificed herself to save her children. Adam and Lily would board a ship to Vale, only for Lily to pass away and for the ship's crew to dump her body in the ocean., Adam finally snapped and vowed revenge on all of humanity for the pain he's gone through. While everyone is horrified by Adam's tale and understand why he hates humans so much, they still note his tragic past doesn't excuse his actions, since he's willing to commit the exact same crimes against other innocent Faunus, namely amputating their animal body parts for opposing him. Velvet's speech says it best.
  Velvet: You want vengeance for what happened to you and while I for one am so, so sorry for what happened to you I don't think it justifies what you have done. I know you lived through so many terrible things, you lost everyone you cared for and I truly do feel sorry for you, but I know what you've done. WE know what you've done. You may have fooled the Elite Guard and your troops, but we were in that prison, we saw what you did to those people, we know you held a sword to Haulan's throat, you cut off Sun's tail and Yang's arm, you were going to murder my friends had Ruby not gotten away, and who knows what else you've done. I feel bad for you, no one should have to live through what you did, but it doesn't excuse the terrible things you have done, the lives you destroy in the Fall, the people who were killed, the pain you've cause, and the amputees we saw. As long as we live we will do our best to make sure your crimes become known, Adam. Your lust for revenge has twisted you into a monster, you're no different than the humans who killed your family, they would be ashamed of you.

Sofia the First

• A Magical Evening: Sofia does sympathize with Cedric for what he went through as a child, but Lucinda points out that it was still his choice to follow a dark path.

Static Shock

• Jimmy's Visit With Dr. Franklin: It's made clear that Ebon torturing then killing his brother is what caused Jimmy to attempt a mass shooting but it was made very clear that what he did still wasn't justified.

Steven Universe

• Last Call: Lapis is an alcoholic Troubled Abuser who has a Dark and Troubled Past with an abusive father, neglectful mother, and abusive boyfriend. However, as her ex-girlfriend Jasper tells her, none of that excuses all the mental and physical abuse she put her through.
• In When Sorry Doesn't Cut It, Pearl tries to apologize to Garnet over tricking the latter into fusing with her to help herself feel better. This gets Ruby and Sapphire to unfuse over arguing about it and leads to Ruby giving Pearl a massive "The Reason You Suck" Speech over how, yes, all of Pearl's actions are a result of her past trauma. Ruby also yells that it has been five thousand years since they were freed from the society that caused said trauma and that Pearl is still taking out her issues on other people.
  Ruby: [...] What?! Am I wrong? How long have we been putting up with her tantrums and her mood swings and 'I'm special Rose is the only one who will ever get me'? I know you never understood why Rose put up with her either!
  Sapphire: That doesn't mean you can–
  Ruby: What, tell her the truth?
  Sapphire: This isn't about Rose, it's about Sardonyx and–
  Ruby: It's about everything, Sapphire! She always does this! She gets mad at Amethyst for no reason, she yells at Steven for not knowing his own mother, she abuses fusion, and we all just deal with it. I'm sick of it! It's not our fault she's broken!
  • That said, after they reconcile, Ruby admits that she went too far, that having to keep Rose's massive secret under geass was likely why Pearl was stuck, and Ruby herself fails to note that pearls are bound to do what their masters order them to by letter and they have no power to go against it unlike rubies or sapphires.

Supernatural

• In The Corrupted Innocent, after she was sexually abused by her father when she was a teenager, Bela Talbot eventually gets a brief chance to talk with her mother's ghost (her mother died when Bela was little and her stepmother just liked to watch her husband sexually abuse her stepdaughter). Her mother is able to give Bela some details of her father's upbringing and how he ended up in such a warped psychological state, but Bela and her mother nevertheless agree that even understanding his past doesn't excuse the way he treated Bela.

Thomas & Friends

• In Sailor John: A Pirate's Vendetta, while the Fat Controller sympathises with Seymour Murphy having lost his father to an accident involving a steam engine at such a young age, he also states that it doesn't justify Seymour teaming up with Sailor John to steal morphine, shoot at the engines of Sodor, kill Emily's old driver or destroy Thomas.

Victorious

• In No Where Else, Tori gets fed up with Jade's behavior and calls her out. She points out that many people have neglectful parents, but don't act as bad as her. Tori even notes that her parents have been just as neglectful and she's nothing like Jade. Jade seems to take this to heart but then proceeds to insult Tori.

X-Men

• In X-Men: The Early Years, Scott Summers' parole officer asks him to go soft on a bully whom she's trying to reform, explaining Bruno's a bully because of his abusive father. Scott replies it doesn't make his behavior okay.
  Carol: Good, now that we're alone. I'm asking you to try to be a little nicer to Bruno, okay? I know it's not an easy task and he's not the most pleasant person you'll ever meet. Bruno's not a bad kid, Scott. Yes, I know he's a bully, but he's only acting out what he knows. What his father taught him.
  Scott: So? That makes it okay for him to threaten to hurt Bobby? That makes it okay for him to threaten to hurt someone younger than he is?
  Carol: No, of course not. But Bruno has only threatened, and he actually hasn't made a move to hurt Bobby. That leaves a lot of room for you to let it slide off your back and compromise until he actually tries something. If Bruno tries to hurt Bobby, you won't be the first one to trounce him. Trust me.

Young Justice (2010)

• Throne of Atlantis Abridged: Aquaman chews out Orm after the latter tries Playing the Victim Card.

Zootopia

• In the fanfic A New Dawn, this becomes a point of discussion following the reveal that Dawn Bellwether's lifelong vendetta against predators came about because of a traumatic incident where she was raped by one. Judy and Gideon both sympathize with her, while Nick doesn't. By the time Dawn finally accepts that not all predators are monsters, she turns this trope on herself, admitting that there truly was no excuse for her actions, and she does everything in her power to fix the mistakes she made.

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