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Jerkass Realizations in Fan Works.


Crossovers
  • Avenger of Steel has Sif experience this after circumstances force her to fight alongside Alfyse, Queen of the Dark Elves, to escape a barren planet, allowing her the chance to learn more about the history of the Dark Elves beyond their current campaign. While she is still committed to stopping Malekith's attack, Sif makes it clear to the Warriors Three that they need to draw a line between fighting the Dark Elves to stop Malekith and fighting the Dark Elves because of what they are.
  • In Avengers: Dagor Arnediad- a sequel to Avengers of the Ring- during a mental talk with the Hulk, Bruce Banner is shaken to realise that his dynamic with the Hulk basically reflects his history with his father, with Brian Banner never seeing Bruce as anything but a threat.
  • An offhand comment Yang makes in Chapter 48 of BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant regarding Pyrrha's true feelings about being put on a pedestal causes Weiss to have a subtle one, realizing that she treated her the exact same way.
  • In The Chronicles of the Fellowship, it's revealed at Aragorn's coronation that the main reason Aslan sent the Pevensies to Middle-Earth was to make them experience these, such as helping Peter recognise that he doesn’t always need to take charge or make Susan realise that she shouldn’t be in such a hurry to grow up.
  • A Familiar Change of Fate: Because she summoned the happy-go-lucky and humble Starfire, Louise Franoise realizes she's been treating the nicest person she knew as a pet. It particularly hits home when Starfire is overjoyed by her "luxurious meal" of bread and water.
  • Infinity Crisis:
    • Different Strokes reveals that Felicity had one of these while she was 'dead' regarding the way she'd treated Oliver over his attitude towards killing, acknowledging that a willingness to kill when necessary doesn't mean Oliver isn't a hero.
    • In Taking Flight (and Fights) Johnny Storm has a smaller moment when Peter Parker tells Johnny how Peter only thought about using his powers for personal benefit back when he became Spider-Man until the events that led to the death of his uncle.
  • Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: Professor Cerise, in searching for clues that could help locate his daughter Chloe, learns that she's a Nightmare Fetishist who enjoys writing horror stories. He's greatly disturbed by some of what he reads, wonders why she couldn't be interested in anything more normal. His son Parker angrily responds to this by saying that Chloe isn't insane, a reaction which confuses him until he realizes that Chloe must have been heavily bullied due to her love for the macabre, and was hiding her stories from her parents precisely because she feared they'd also belittle her interests. Which he had just been doing. He resolves to engage with her hobbies more once she eventually returns home.
  • In the Kingdom Hearts/RWBY crossover The Light of Remnant, Blake and Ruby end up giving Sora the cold shoulder for over a week, Blake because Sora made an Innocently Insensitive comment about Faunus while asking about them, and Ruby because she was developing feelings for him and didn't know how else to cope. They realize they were jerks to him after Sora goes off with Yang to track down the White Fang without telling them.
  • Invoked in Lost in Camelot when Arthur's criticism of Dyson's lack of honor in training is cut short when he learns about how a friend of Dyson's was betrayed by his previous king. Shaken at the realization of how severely Dyson's friend was betrayed, Arthur recognises that trying to go after Dyson and apologize wouldn't work as he can't offer anything more than platitudes.
    • More explicitly occurs when Morgana is contemplating letting Uther die during the invasion of the Knights of Medhir until a talk with Dyson reminds her that Bo and Merlin wouldn't do something like that, driving Morgana to push that part of herself down as she wants to be worthy of them both.
  • The Many Dates of Danny Fenton: Katie Kaboom has one after Danny yells at her after she accidentally hurt her little brother during one of her rampages.
  • When Tony Stark exclaims how great it is that Harry is immortal in Master of Death and What it Means, the others quickly shoot him down. Harry's explanation of what it means to truly be immortal makes Tony realize just how insensitive his remark was.
  • A minor example features in Spider-X after Lance and Tabitha return to Xavier's to save Wanda from the Brotherhood's plans to brainwash her. Looking back on Lance's previous attempt to join the team, Scott reflects that he probably pushed Lance too hard during that last attempt, and accepts that he'll give Lance a better chance now.
  • There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton: The plot of the story To Rule Alone, to Build Together is kicked off by Chloé Bourgeois having an epiphany after nearly being killed by Stoneheart, realizing that her Alpha Bitch attitude is to blame for the situation, and also that said attitude means almost no one would mourn her if she died. After this, she becomes determined to become a better person, which seems to be the catalyst for her receiving the Bee Miraculous.
  • Told That Devil to Take You Back:
    • When Amelia Pond returns from the dead, Dean is forced to acknowledge that, despite his claims that he killed Amelia because she was a monster who would inevitably kill more people, he only did it because he had lost so much recently and just wanted to be able to kill something.
    • Dean experiences a lesser version of this when Bela reveals why she made a deal to kill her parents as a teenager, with Bela quickly assuring him that she forgives his past harsh words.
  • In Twilight Storm, when Bella Swan learns about the destruction of Gallifrey shortly after she starts travelling with the Doctor, she feels ashamed of how she let herself become virtually catatonic for months just because her boyfriend left her when the Doctor has been acting so normal in her presence and he actually had to destroy his entire planet to save the universe.
  • In With Pearl and Ruby Glowing, Tyler, after hearing Aaron Z. say on TV that anyone who uses his name to assault someone is no fan of his, starts to feel immense guilt over his treatment of Meilin.

Aaahh!!! Real Monsters

  • In Citizen Krumm, Krumm Takes A Level In Jerkass after being nominated for Academy President, which leads to him insulting both Ickis and Oblina. During his campaign speech, he notices that they've shown up despite being angry with him, and this makes him feel guilty enough to apologize to them.

Amphibia

Angel

  • In Splinter, when the Angel Investigations team find themselves in an alternate reality, Wesley, Cordelia and Gunn reject Angel because they believe his counterpart in this world has joined Darla, killed Wesley and Buffy, blinded Cordelia, and is attempting a ritual involving brutally removing human livers with his soul intact. However, they later realise that Wesley and Cordelia's fates are due to Vocah's attack, with Buffy's death having nothing more to do with Angel than that he wasn't there, and Angel taking human livers is actually part of another ritual to try and stabilise his collapsing pocket universe. Faced with this evidence that Angel is still trying to save lives, Wes and Gunn acknowledge that Angel only fell so far in this world because he didn't have anyone else, as well as accepting that his decision to fire them was based around a desire to protect them from what he felt he had to do rather than him just being cruel.

Animorphs

  • What Tomorrow Brings:
    • Cassie explains to the others that her experience with compromise in Washington has left her more willing to accept the need for it during an active war, assuring the others that she will accept the need for more brutal actions now that might end the war earlier.
    • Ax in particular has one for himself and the rest of the team, feeling more willing to acknowledge that the other Animorphs occasionally hurt him by insisting that he act more human without truly trying to explain things to him but that he didn't make it easier to bond with humans by isolating himself in his scoop.

Arrowverse

  • In the AU fic All will be well, as long as you stay by my side, Lena and Kara first meet in the kitchens of the royal palace of Theonia and only learn a couple of days later that Lena is the Queen of Theonia and Kara is one of the journalists visiting the palace to interview the new rulers after a recent revolution. When Lena realises that Kara is a journalist, she invites Kara for a private meeting to provide a list of pre-approved questions and an official request that nothing they spoke about in the kitchens be discussed, but Kara’s reaction affirms that she was never planning to do anything like that and is hurt that Lena ever thought she would, helping Lena realise that she made a mistake.
  • Blackbird:
    • Quentin finally recognizes how much of an asshole he's been to everyone but especially to Laurel when he realizes that he completely failed to notice that his eldest daughter had been missing for three years. Worse yet, it was Oliver who pointed out how strange Laurel's departure was, which is just rubbing salt in the wound at that point.
    • After seeing Oliver near-death, learning about her father's true fate, and finding out about what really happened to Laurel, Thea finally begins to realize how small and insignificant her problems are in comparison.
  • What It Takes:
    • Diggle has had one prior to the start of the story, realizing that Laurel has actually been fighting for the city longer than any of them (she just didn't used to use a mask) and that he let his anger over Deadshot getting away cloud his judgment of her. He is currently trying to do better by her.
    • Roy appears in Chapter 7, and he also regrets his crappy treatment of Laurel when she first joined (or wanted to join) the team.
    • Diggle has another in Chapter 10, when he learns more about Oliver's time in A.R.G.U.S. (and how Waller kept him in line), and comes to understand just how long Oliver has been fighting. He even compares the times Oliver has left the city to a soldier on leave.
    • Diggle has a final one in the last chapter when Laurel outright compares his potential plans to find a way to bring Andy back to Quentin's inability to let go of his own issues, encouraging Diggle to acknowledge the family he still has rather than fixate on what he's lost.
  • In Wrong Road to the Right Place, Dinah Lance has one in Chapter 15 when she realizes that she's spent so long dealing with her mistakes by just running away and never looking back that she's lost any right to go back by the time she's ready to do so.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

  • In Bring Me to Life, after Xander defends Cordelia from Anya's accusations that she's responsible for everything the 'Beastmaster' did in her body, Xander suddenly realises that this must be what Buffy felt like when defending Angel for Angelus's crimes, as the only difference between Angelus and what happened to Cordelia is that Angel's soul wasn't present when Angelus was active but he still had no control of what his body was doing.
  • In Echoes of the Fallen, Buffy gets one after Xander rolls up his sleeve and explains he has his costume's full memories when asked if he had anything leftover from his transformation on Halloween. While Giles and Willow are horrified, Buffy doesn't see what the big deal is about such a small tattoo, until Giles explains that it's an Auschwitz tattoo.
  • In Hunter, Xander realizes Angel has returned and Buffy isn't telling anyone so he asks Faith to talk to her about it. When Buffy hears this, she interrupts Faith's explanation and quickly tells her what really happened, not Xander's jealousy-tainted version. Buffy feels like a terrible friend after Faith tells her that's exactly the same explanation Xander gave.

Charmed (1998)

  • In Tempus Fugit, circumstances lead to Paige from the end of Season Eight travelling back to the end of Season Three to save Prue’s life, the future Paige sacrificing herself to help Prue and Piper vanquish Shax but her spirit subsequently "possessing" her past self. Once her future memories have straightened out, Paige apologises to Cole for the way she treated him in her time, now able to recognise the difference between him and the Source and regretting how she acted as though Cole was equally culpable of the Source’s crimes when he was basically a prisoner.

Danny Phantom

  • When Sam in KNight Wolf changes the school menu to entirely vegetarian, she realizes she screwed up when Danny calls her out for trying to force her beliefs on others and taking away the option to choose.

Doctor Who

  • In Aliens of London, when Alice and Gwen have to stop the 456 with the Tenth Doctor’s help, Alice spends some time regarding the Doctor as just another alien playing with humanity, particularly when the Doctor reveals that he created the 456 as weapons for the Time War, until Gwen shows Alice recorded footage of the Doctor’s future death ("The End of Time"), helping Alice accept that the Doctor genuinely does care about the humans caught up in events.

Fire Emblem

  • A Tactician's Testimony: In "Blood of Pride", Katri recognizes that her prejudices against Sacaeans were wrong when she sees Marquess Araphen openly badmouthing Lyn for being Sacaean, calling her a "nomadic mongrel." The realization that she used to think the same as such a Jerkass leaves Katri remorseful and feeling sick to her stomach.

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends

  • One Step Ahead: After tricking Mac into humiliating himself in front of everyone, even if a handful don't necessarily care all that much for the child, all the imaginary friends realize just how horrible the prank was. The sole exception is Bloo, who doesn't even acknowledge why what he did was wrong, and complains that Mac is just being a "being a baby" for having never come back to visit. It isn't until he decides to visit Mac himself a few years later, and discovers that his creator has happily moved on with his life in the time since, that he finally realizes what he did.

Gargoyles

  • In Kimberly T's Gargoyles, Angela of all people has one at the conclusion of the New Orleans arc, when she is confronted about her treatment of Broadway and is forced to recognise that she truly loves Gabriel, the clan leader back on Avalon, and was basically trying to make Broadway more like him.

Godzilla

Harry Potter

  • In The Chosen Six, while it required Dumbledore to basically lock himself in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and deal with her moans for a couple of hours, eventually he's able to help Myrtle realize that her attitude towards her death has only been hurting herself.
  • In Cronus while spending time in a Ministry cell for making a false complaint to aurors, Ron acknowledges how much of a jerk he's been after realizing that if Harry hadn't insisted on rescuing Hermione from the troll, he would've been a murderer during his first year.
  • For Love of Experimental Time Travel: At the end of the story, Hermione comes to the conclusion that she doesn't mind if Harry has sex with other women despite marrying her because she doesn't feel threatened by them and comments that it'd be like if "a wife felt threatened by the family pets." Immediately afterwards, she realizes how incredibly arrogant she must be to use such a metaphor and realizes that Harry was right when he said she wouldn't be able to "lower herself" to being a simple housewife, no matter what she claimed.
  • In Goldstein, Yehudah has long been annoyed by Terry's many questions about his religion and instinctively finds Terry's own outspoken Christian beliefs to be threatening. Eventually he hears Terry signing him up for something related to Easter and explodes at him, which puts Terry on the outs with most of their fellow Ravenclaws; however, it turns out that he was only signing Yehudah up to go home during their break, which Yehudah actually wanted. Yehudah eventually writes Rabbi Zeller, asking if he has to apologize for wronging someone who isn't Jewish...and, upon realizing how bad he sounds just asking that, figures the answer out for himself.
  • In Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, Harry hears an I Have This Friend version of the Snape-Lily-James story by Snape, and draws perfectly reasonable conclusions from what little information he is given... expressing them very bluntly and completely and utterly hurting Snape's feelings. Harry isn't insensitive by all means, but this story taught him he should know exactly what he's talking about before recklessly flapping his mouth.
  • In Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past, Harry has a minor one when he sends himself back to the beginning of his first year after a decade-long war with Voldemort killed everyone else. Looking back on his interactions with Hagrid in the 'original' timeline, Harry is ashamed to realise how often he, Ron, and Hermione visited Hagrid to interrogate him about the latest crisis rather than just dropping in to spend time with Hagrid as a friend.
  • In The Power of Seven, Gabrielle basically has one when she witnesses her mother's attempts to seduce Harry away from Fleur, realising that she'd basically be guilty of the same thing if she tried to go through with her original plans to seduce Harry.
  • Jen's friends undergo this in Princess of the Blacks when Jen starts acting more withdrawn than normal. When they insist she not bottle up her problems and share with them, Jen shares some of her Dark and Troubled Past.
    • Tracey, who managed to avoid it the first time, really sticks her foot in it when she makes fun of Jen's boggart: a small crying child. Jen curses her out then reveals that her boggart isn't a random child crying over some minor scrape; it's her shortly after being thrown out on the streets and not long before she was raped.
    • Luna has a moment in the fourth book when she sees the entity that represents her relationship with Jen and realizes it's afraid of her, meaning she's just as responsible for their damaged relationship as Jen is.

How to Train Your Dragon

  • In Bound, Astrid flat-out tells Stoick that Hiccup feels like a disappointment and that he should take the time to make him feel valued.
  • In A Thing of Vikings, Sigurd realises how much of an asshole he was when he was Snotlout; his abandonment of his old name in favour of his new one is partially because he wants to be a far better person than Snotlout was.

Infinity Train

  • Down And Out: In Chapter 7, Grace questions why she's been causing Simon so much pain when she isn't even getting any sense of satisfaction from enacting revenge, realizing that she's hurting him just for sake of it. As a result, Grace relocates Simon to her room and begins earnestly caring for and rehabilitating him.

Invader Zim

  • Asylum of Doom: After telling Dib that he should give up on studying the paranormal because other people couldn't care less about his ramblings when if he is right, she has a dream where she's trapped in an old asylum. Over the course of the dream, Gaz is made to experience how isolating and dour it feels to have no one believe or support the things you say, prompting her to apologize for her words once she wakes up. Downplayed as she already felt guilty about what she said; the nightmare just made her admit it.

Kill la Kill

  • Ryuuko in Batteries, while in labor and at the hospital, realized how much she had really hurt Satsuki with her feud.
    • When Iori calls her out for her Slut-Shaming and reminds her of what Satsuki did to get by, Nonon doesn't say anything else.
  • From Kill la Kill AU, we have this with Nui, when she learns that Satsuki was the one who gave her a name. Realizing that she's been treating the person who name her so badly makes her feel "gross".

The Land Before Time

  • Land Before Time Retold: As in the first film, right before the volcano and tar pit fiasco, Cera badmouths Littlefoot's mother, resulting in their big fight and the group splitting up. After Littlefoot and Original Character Aylene save them, Aylene explains to Cera that Littlefoot reacted the way he did because his mother was killed by Sharptooth; Cera is instantly ashamed of herself and apologizes to Littlefoot.

The Loud House

  • Thicker Than Blood: While everyone is dealing with the emotional fallout of Lincoln finding out he's adopted, Lori takes a long look at her relationship with her siblings and realizes she hasn't been the Cool Big Sis she would like to think of herself as and swears to make an effort to be a better influence in their lives.

Miraculous Ladybug

  • Fashion Upgrade:
    • Chloé comes to recognize just how selfish and entitled she's been and starts working on adjusting her attitude for real.
    • Bustier has one after cracking under the stress of the play and abandoning her students, forcing them to work things out without her aid, as she realizes that she constantly put that same pressure onto Marinette, making her repeatedly step up and compensate for her failings as a teacher.
  • Feralnette AU:
    • While confronting Marinette alongside Felix over her self-destructive tendencies — specifically, how she keeps going after akuma to distract them — Adrien abruptly realizes that he's been subjecting Ladybug to the same Anger Born of Worry with his own reckless behavior as Chat Noir. This causes him to go into a Heroic BSoD as he realizes he needs to apologize to his partner ASAP.
    • Alya and Nino have a shared one during the Lady Clarity incident, thanks to Lila's akuma-induced phantom voice gleefully bragging about helping 'Hawkie', forcing them both to realize that they turned on Marinette and effectively abandoned her on the word of a Manipulative Bitch.
  • Recommencer: During the battle with Repeater, Chat Noir proves to be The Load, whining about Ladybug getting help from a Badass Bystander before proving that she needs reliable people to work with by refusing to follow her plan, trying to Blackmail her into 'admitting how much [she] loves [him]'. This forces another student to step in and do the job instead, and he's called out afterwards, Shamed by a Mob into fleeing the scene. Adrien then reflects upon his behavior as Chat Noir and realizes just how skewed his priorities were, right before Master Fu takes away the Black Cat Ring.
  • A double example in We're inevitable takes place several months after Marinette confessed her feelings to Adrien, only to be met with an "I know," and "I'm sorry," expressed with barely concealed irritation. At the start of the story, the two are brought together for the first time in months by Master Fu, learning that they're Ladybug and Chat Noir, and are forced to confront what happened.
    • Marinette starts by saying that she doesn't blame him for his reaction, admitting that the way she'd acted didn't really set her apart from any of his other obsessed fangirls.
      Marinette: I wanted to believe I was different, because my feelings hadn't stemmed from your looks or your position in life or anything like that. They were feelings that were entirely anchored in the right reasons, so I let myself believe that because I liked you for your kindness and your talents and your selflessness that I wasn't just putting you on a pedestal of unreachable proportions just like everyone else had. But I was lying to myself. I had put you on a pedestal. I idolized everything that made Adrien Agreste who he was, but felt as though I could never be good enough for you, or even be myself around you, so I got to know you through ways that didn’t involve actually forming a friendship with you, under the illusion that it was okay because I did know you, and we were sort of friends and everything. I found so many reasons to admire you, but without even realizing it I used all those reasons to further push you to an unreachable point. It was bad for myself, and it was bad for you. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is, I'm sorry. Not for having the feelings I did, but the fact that I let them stop me from treating you like a normal person.
    • In turn, Adrien tells her that nothing she did justified him being (as he now sees it) a jerk and a hypocrite about it, bringing up his own feelings for Ladybug.
      Adrien: We're partners and best friends, but the fact that I didn't know Ladybug's civilian side and totally idolized her on this unreachable level kind of meant I was no better than everyone who does the same with me, even if I liked her for the right reasons, just like you. When you told me how you felt, I already knew, but to hear it directly from you and to immediately feel kind of annoyed - once again, sorry - well, I looked back on it not much later and realized how hypocritical it was in retrospect. But all the times I wanted to apologize and try and patch things up Alya would pull you away because she was angry on your behalf, and no longer being in the same class meant we didn't see much of each other anyway. And I never really knew what I'd have said, anyway. 'Hey Marinette, sorry I was a jerk when you said you liked me but the thing is, I have a massive crush on Ladybug who doesn't like superhero me and doesn't know civilian me and I put her on a pedestal the same way you did so really I'm in no position to judge you but I'm just sick of people idolizing me is that okay?' never really had the best ring to it.
  • Weight Off Your Shoulder:
    • Adrien has one after his father publicly exposes himself as Shadow Moth and attempts to akumatize him. Prior to this, Adrien had been furious over Ladybug voiding Chloé's Karma Houdini Warranty and scolding him for his Skewed Priorities as Chat Noir; his frustration only mounted as nobody at school seemed to share his sympathy for Chloé, culminating in him snapping at Ladybug for suggesting Gabriel might be Shadow Moth and attacking her, forcing her to strip him of the Ring. Once it's revealed that she was right about Gabriel, Adrien starts reconsidering his actions and realizing just how naive he'd been. In particular, it hits him that he was taking their victories completely for granted, assuming that they'd always win since they were the good guys.
    • Tikki comes to realize that she was too hard on Marinette, scolding and criticizing her for the slightest slip-up and accusing her of having Skewed Priorities whenever she was distracted from her duties as Ladybug by problems in her civilian life. She got what she wanted from the new Ladybug, who focuses exclusively upon being a hero, forcing Tikki to see just what she was demanding from Marinette...as well as how she contributed to her past holder having a massive Guilt Complex, automatically blaming herself for everything that goes wrong and seeing herself as a Failure Heroine.

My Hero Academia

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

  • Castling Cozy Glow Has a bit of an unconventional example, given the "jerkass" is a hero who simply refuses to consider if the Villain Protagonist's punishment might have been too harsh or if she may deserve a second chance, but still. Twilight initially refuses to seriously consider Sweetie Belle's request to free Cozy Glow from her stone prison, simply writing off the filly's fate as what she brought upon herself and outright saying she has No Sympathy for her, and shoots down any criticisms regarding how much more forgiving she was towards one Starlight Glimmer for similarly serious crimes, despite Cozy being a child and Starlight being an adult. She's even about to just storm off angrily when Sweetie doesn't back down and only gave in when Sweetie outright threw back the honorary Friendship School diploma Twilight gave her. And even after reluctantly agreeing to give reforming Cozy a serious shot and even putting a fair amount of effort into making her dwelling as comfortable as possible, Twilight is rather blunt that this is Cozy's only second chance and she will turn her back to stone if she steps out of line. But when she catches Cozy trying to steal her key to escape and actually has to decide if she personally is going to go through with her threat to imprison a child in stone for eternity, Twilight realizes and admits to herself just how cruel a punishment that is to even threaten a child with. Even a child as dangerous and wicked as Cozy Glow. And promptly swears that the threat of turning her back to stone is off the table and promises Cozy that she'll never give up on trying to help her.
  • Loved and Lost, an extended retelling of the 2nd season finale, makes the canon example with Twilight's friends as well as her brother and Celestia more profound, specifically because Prince Jewelius turns them all into pariahs by holding them responsible for the Changeling invasion due to not listening to Twilight's suspicions regarding Queen Chrysalis and neglecting to postpone the wedding and get the unknown threat over Canterlot out of the way first. They become banished along with Cadance and Luna, and after they're reunited, Cadance sadly tells them how she and Shining Armor first became a couple with some secret assistance from Twilight. The revelation of his adoring little sister having helped him get together with the mare of his dreams makes Shining Armor feel even worse than he already did about banning Twilight from his wedding, and Twilight's friends better understand how self-centered they were behaving during the wedding preparations. They then return to Canterlot, determined to set things right.
    Fluttershy: Twilight wanted you two to be together forever!
    Applejack: All this time, we've only been thinkin' about how much the weddin' meant to us and not how much it meant to Twilight.
    Pinkie Pie: Some friends we are.
    • While trying to earn back their lives and make it up to Twilight, the disgraced heroes are also forced to face the fact that they forgot to consider the feelings of Canterlot's citizens who, while expecting the wedding, also had to be anxious over the threat of unknown attackers who managed to strike despite Celestia and Shining Armor's safety measures, causing civilian casualties (at least one filly's parents became hospitalized in the attack). Before the heroes earn back their prestige and the public's trust, Jewelius angrily declares sympathizing with Twilight and the other heroes to be an act of treason in the 17th chapter. This outburst causes the citizens of Canterlot to realize that the dishonored heroes were all along right about Jewelius being evil and that they had chosen the wrong side. In the epilogue, the heroes apologize for their mistakes before proceeding to the wedding, and the public in turn apologizes to them for blindly believing Jewelius' propaganda about them and spurning them.
    • The three original bridesmaids — whom Chrysalis hypnotized and replaced with Twilight's friends on the excuse of slanderous lies — get to call the disgraced heroes out of not caring about their disappearance. Twilight's friends apologize to them during the epilogue and offer them the bridesmaid positions back, only to be forgiven and allowed to keep the positions.
    • Twilight is manipulated by Jewelius to stop trusting her friends, mentor, and brother for their treatment of her, and she acts coldly toward them as they try to tell her how evil Jewelius truly is. After she realizes the truth, she seeks them out to reconcile with them, with everypony owning up to their respective mistakes. It should be noted that prior to Twilight discovering the truth about Jewelius, she admits floating the idea of pardoning her friends, expressing a desire to forgive them for their mistakes and apologize for being too harsh on them. Discovering the truth leads her into blaming herself for it all.
  • Misunderstandings: Sergeant Peppermint York gets one when Peter shows her the scar from his time in a sideshow and later when her subordinate Swift Wind angrily tells her off, saying he has forgiven Peter for accidentally shooting him and asks her "Why do you hate him so much?". She realizes she has been targeting an innocent creature for nothing and confesses to her role in the conspiracy against him. She gets an even bigger one when she learns of the sabotage, and how it will not only kill Peter, but it nearly destroyed Canterlot and is willing to drop her anonymity, realizing she supported a group that had no interest in protecting ponies.
  • The Nuptialverse: Post Nuptials takes the Jerkass Realization Twilight's friends are implied to have in the season 2 finale for ignoring Twilight's warnings against the evil Cadance (actually an imposter), and brings it up to eleven: here they realize that they'd broken Twilight's heart by turning their backs on her, and profusely beat themselves up over how they could have treated her so coldly.
  • In the Ponies of Olympus series, Rainbow Dash has one at the end of Ditzy Don't when, upon calling out Mademoiselle Doo for treating her like a dumb foal just because she's not as good as her, realizes that that's the exact same way she's always treated Ditzy.
  • The Rise of Darth Vulcan:
    • Diamond Tiara's experiences while being held hostage by Vulcan do this to her, forcing her to realize just how terrible she was to everyone... which was Vulcan's whole point.
    • When Vulcan is a prisoner of the Princesses, Luna uses Jack Bauer Interrogation Techniques to get information out of him, believing him to be the black-hearted warlock he presents himself as. When she realizes that he's just an empowered teenager with trust, authority, and anger issues, she's horrified at herself, but it's too late to explain herself to him.

Naruto

  • Eroninja: While escorting a caravan to Suna, Naruto and Samui run into one of Samui's ex-boyfriends. Given that Samui is using a specialized Henge to appear to have gotten breast reduction surgery, her ex remarks to his friends about how Samui used to have "tits so big, they should have qualified as national treasures." Naruto, who has no idea Samui didn't get surgery, pulls him aside and tells Samui's ex that it's people like him that made such a beautiful woman so insecure she got plastic surgery to change her looks. Samui's ex-boyfriend buys her a drink and sincerely apologizes for his comments.
  • The Mouse of Konoha: After Anko remarks that Naruto's ability to juggle is "an interesting trick for a civilian but useless to a shinobi", Naruto explains that he taught himself because none of the other kids would play with him and playing catch by himself got boring after a while. Understandably, Anko feels horrible afterwards.
  • NBH: Anko angrily asks Naruto if he knows what it's like to be hated for something that wasn't his fault. It's only after Yuugao explains things to her that Anko realizes/remembers that Naruto is a jinchuuriki.
  • Space to Breathe: While Naruto is naturally upset when Sakura transfers out of Team Seven in order to take an apprenticeship under Ibiki, he doesn't realize the part he and the others played in driving her to leave in the first place. When he asks her out in an Innocently Insensitive fashion, she calls him out on treating her as nothing more than a prize to be won, spelling out how she left because nobody was treating her like part of the team. Upon hearing this, Naruto immediately tries to convince Sasuke that they need to make amends; Sasuke, sadly, is having none of it, and Chidoris him through the chest for his troubles.
  • In Team 8, Sakura overhears Naruto warning Rock Lee against trying to pursue her romantically, stating that she's not the Nice Girl Lee believes her to be, but a self-centered brat who only cares about herself and Sasuke. Realizing that he's not exactly wrong about her, she decides to start trying to become a better person.
  • What You Knead: Tazuna starts out treating Team Seven rudely and disdainfully, frustrated by how a genin team was assigned to protect him. After learning how he lied about his circumstances, Kakashi spells out how he screwed himself over. What really cements things, however, is seeing Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke panic when Kakashi collapses after fighting off Zabuza. Specifically, Naruto calling Kakashi "Nii-san" forces him to recognize that they really are children — children with their own loved ones and families, just like everyone in his village, whom he recklessly endangered with his deception.

Pokémon

  • In Chapter 25 of Common Sense, Ash is trying to hide his pain over not being able to save Butterfree's mate from Team Rocket. Misty wants to help comfort him; however, Brock points out that given how she's treated him since they first met, any expressions of sympathy would come off as pitying and condescending, only making matters worse. Misty then realizes that since she's been holding a grudge against Ash ever since he beat her at the Cerulean Gym, he doesn't see her as a friend. This makes her resolve to be kinder to him going forward.
  • A Perfect Match? opens with Misty having accepted Rudy's offer to stay at the Trovita Gym, believing that Ash's rapid departure after he lost the match proves that he's still just an immature kid. However, when Tracey calls her back to give Ash a pep talk after he nearly drowned stopping the Legendary Birds, it turns out Ash left because Misty combined her decision to stay with a rebuke of Ash's abilities as a trainer, making him believe that Misty never saw him as an actual friend and was only sticking around in hopes of getting her bike paid back. Misty is shaken to realize both how much her terrible word choice affected her best friend and that he actually does share the same romantic feelings, and apologizes for never making it clear how much she came to love his company before kissing him.
  • In A Pikachu in Love, Pikachu has several of these in regards to how coldly he's been acting to Ash, but what really hits home is when Misty is carrying him back to the campsite after he had been attacked by the Ursaring, and she starts to talk about how much they all love him and how devastated they'd be if something had happened to them, especially Ash. It's at this point Pikachu realizes just how loved he is, and that Ash would never forget about him or leave him behind.
  • Pokémon Reset Bloodlines has a sidestory centered on Ash's Butterfree. When the group reaches the spot where his species finds mates, he reminisces about his mate (as they had heard the mating Butterfree had been captured by Hunter J). He gets very angry at Ash for dragging him back to his adventure, thinking that he doesn't care, and decides to try and go find his mate by himself. Eventually, he does find her safe and sound, having barely escaped Hunter J, but she's now in a relationship with another Butterfree. Despite being upset, he decides to let her be happy, even if it's not with him. When he returns, the first thing he does is apologize to Ash for the things he said, understanding that Ash never meant to cause him pain and that he still has reasons to move forward.

Power Girl

  • It happens to Power Girl in A Force of Four after her cousin's death. Upon reflecting she never told him she loved him, she realizes her "I have to be a tough bitch to survive" massive-child-on-her-shoulder attitude did more harm than good and hurt people she loved.

Rosario + Vampire

  • Rosario Vampire: Brightest Darkness Act III: Due to their belief that Tsukune and his friends are just Attention Whores claiming to fight Fairy Tale for attention, the near-entirety of the Yokai Academy student body goes above and beyond to ostracize and bully them. Come chapters 41-44, the gang proves the rumors true by fighting off Kuyou, and then a Fairy Tale armada, one after another; the students all get hit with this, along with the fact that Tsukune's group is risking their lives to save the school despite how poorly the other students treated them, and thus, the entire student body is galvanized into helping the group fight Fairy Tale off.

RWBY

  • In Drive, Blake is seemingly indifferent about the fact that she nearly got herself, Jaune, and Ruby killed. When Blake brushes aside all the physical and psychological damage her actions caused the team, saying that it isn't her fault they decided to search for her, an angry and frustrated Ruby calls her a bitch for not understanding that all of them (even Weiss) considers her a friend and for not giving them even a half-hearted apology. The shock of her "cinnamon roll of a teammate" cursing her out immediately spawns this realization.
    The sheer amount of self-reflection that happened in the span of mere seconds did two things. One, it caused Blake's eyes to bulge out of her skull with the implications of what she just put her team through, shocking her mental system to the very core. Secondly, right after realizing this, she promptly passed out from a combination of crushing guilt, anxiety, and the thought of having to explain this to her mother.
  • A Rabbit Among Wolves: Jaune's working with the White Fang is mostly out of self-interest at first, with only a cursory care for the plight felt by Faunus. Being nearly raped by an SDC manager changes it somewhat and gives him a deeper understanding of how bad they have it.

Smallville

  • En Tempus Veritas:
    • Fears of losing Lois and their unborn son lead Clark to the realisation that if he had ever truly loved Lana everything would have been easier, but in the end, he was never able to truly trust Lana to know what she wanted or trust his own judgement of her.
    • Just after the birth of Clark and Lois's son Jonathan, General Lane admits to Lois that he should have realised after her mother's death that he couldn't continue living life the way he had before, as his wife was the one better equipped to keep the family together and her death meant that there was nobody to make him realise what he was doing to his daughters.
    • When Chloe explicitly tells Clark that she loves him, Clark acknowledges that he may have subconsciously used that knowledge to keep Chloe ‘loyal’ to him even if he knew he would never feel the same way.

South Park

  • In The Mysterion Mythos, a chain of events leads to the now-teenage boys and various others finally "remembering" that Kenny is unable to die. As they start to go over their memories of his past deaths, they are all shocked to realise just how often Kenny has died and how they have so often been relatively nonchalant about the horrible death of their friend.

Star vs. the Forces of Evil

  • Stay: Kelly is deeply upset when Marco rejects her advances, blaming Star despite how the problem was that he felt No Sparks with her. In response, she abandons Marco in his time of need, leaving him to grapple with his heartbreak over his Unrequited Love for Star along with fears that he's just lost his friendship with Kelly. Janna later calls her out for acting entitled to Marco's love, forcing her to realize what a bad friend she's been.

Teen Titans

  • In The End of Ends, after Beast Boy leaves his resignation letter behind, the other Teen Titans regret how they treated him in response to his behavior following being rejected by Terra. Unfortunately, it's too late for them to make amends, and things get much worse.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)

  • In Consequence for Indifference, Don, Leo and Raph realise they've been mistreating Mikey and making him afraid of them, and they become determined to make things right.

Thomas & Friends

  • In The Brother's Grimm, the Grumpy Passenger is outright hostile to Emily and her brother Bernard, even hitting them with a cane. After being made homeless and penniless, he realizes just how awful he is and vows to become a better person.
  • In A Cracked Ruby, Emily laughs at Molly for pulling empty trucks, then laughs at her again after Thomas's trick to make everyone think Molly is pulling a special delivery fails. When Molly leaves in embarrassment, an angry Thomas gives the assembled engines a savage What the Hell, Hero? speech, which causes Emily to realize just how cruel she was and seek out Molly to apologize to her.
    • Molly herself has one when Emily reveals the bullying she'd suffered for years and how it contributed to her horrible attitude, and breaks down crying while apologizing for telling Emily that she hated her.
  • In Goodbye to Yesterday, Gordon overhears Thomas mention jumping Vicarstown Bridge to bring Gordon his safety valve, only to be thanked with ignorance and impatience, and realizes just how mean he's been in the past.

Tolkien's Legendarium

  • In History Teaches Us, when Thorin is sent back to basically "re-do" the Quest for Erebor after his death, he has a few of these when people compliment him on his efforts in the current quest and he has to contrast it with how he performed originally, such as letting Lake-town burn and likely killing most of the people he's currently meeting.

Transformers

  • In the Transformers: Generation 1 fanfic The Young and the Gullible, Starscream, thinking that Thrust is trying to pull a prank on him when the Conehead tries to court him, lies about Thrust raping him, which gets the other mech thrown in the brig. Later, when Starscream confronts Thrust over the "prank", Thrust reaches his Rage Breaking Point and gives Starscream a savage "The Reason You Suck" Speech, cumulating in calling the other Seeker a bitch. Starscream is initially driven to tears, then anger, but he quickly realizes just how horrible he really is, and tries to put things right.

X-Men: Evolution

  • In Wanda's Life, Jean never starts dating Duncan because Wanda makes Jean realize that she's been becoming too caught up in being popular to realize what she’s losing.

Young Justice

  • With This Ring: When Paul is trying to persuade Artemis to pick up more equipment and skills, not just her bow, he gets over-focused, and not only challenges her to a duel to prove her bow's inadequacy against his shields, but during the test, he suggests that she flash him as a way of interfering with his focus on shielding against her. Once he takes off his power ring later to meditate, he comes back down to normal and is disgusted with his own behaviour, setting out to make it up to her.
    It took a while to sink in. I knew that I was being a bit hard on Artemis, but I thought it was proportional to the potential gain. It wasn't until I cut my way out of the foam and none of the others would meet my eyes that I appreciated how far overboard I'd gone.


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