Quotes / Unwitting Instigator of Doom

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

— A famous proverb where one small action could lead to disastrous consequence.

Professor X: At the Paris Peace Accords in 1973, [Mystique] found Trask... and killed him. It was the first time she killed.
Wolverine: It wasn't her last.
Professor X: But killing Trask did not have the outcome she expected; it only persuaded the government of the need for his program. They captured her that day. Tortured her. Experimented on her. In her DNA, they discovered the secrets to her powers of transformation. It gave them the key they needed... to create weapons that could adapt to any mutant power. And in less than 50 years, the machines that have destroyed so many of our kind were created.

— X-Men: Days of Future Past

Fackler: Hey, did you hear the news on the radio? A riot's broken out downtown.
Thompson: A riot?
Hooks: How come?
Fackler: Who knows how these things get started?

— Police Academy (Fackler himself is indirectly responsible for the riot. It's a long story.)

[laughs nervously] Hey, I got an idea. Let's not tell anypony that part where you maybe, for sure, accidentally helped Starlight enslave a town! [laughs again, then gives Maud a Death Glare] Tell nopony!

— Pinkie Pie (to her sister), My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

This is your fault! You and your Torchwood! You've killed us all!

— Jackie Tyler, to Yvonne Hartman as they are led to be upgraded, Doctor Who, "Doomsday"

Caitlin: This is all his fault. He's the one who released the Anti-Monitor.
J'onn: He paid dearly for his misjudgment... but not as much as some others.

— Crisis on Infinite Earths (2019)

Teacher: (reading from a textbook) "Foes vanquished, he trod the shores of his fatherland, family by his side, finally at peace. This epic ends with the homecoming of not just a man, but a hero."

Luz: Hero? Everywhere he went, people ended up suffering.

Teacher: It does get bleak, but no one said his mission would be easy. And when you take into account the ripple effects of his actions...

Luz: Who cares about the ripple effects?! He was just a pawn in someone else's game! A-And he was never smart enough to realize it! If his friends and family knew about his mission, they'd know that their lives would never have been in danger if it weren't for him! They should hate his guts! And it would be better if he literally never existed!

—The Owl House, "Thanks to Them"

If he hadn't walked into my office that day, Walter White would've been dead or behind bars within a month. And Agent Schrader and Agent Gomez and a whole lot of other people would still be alive. Fact is, Walter White couldn't have done it without me.

— Saul Goodman, Better Call Saul

Lex Luthor: You! Alien! This is your fault! Your stupidity created Dark Kahn! Now the Earth is doomed! And people say that I'm the villain!

Superman: You are a villain, Lex!

Lex Luthor: Not this time! This time you brought ruin to the world! My world! You ruined all my plans! And I am going to make you pay!

— Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

Raiden: You are right. But this fight is mine alone. It was my lightning blast that created Dark Kahn.

Shang Tsung: Do not be a fool! You have heard what Quan Chi said. We must fight together!

Raiden: No. The rage would only lead us to turn against each other. I will face him alone.

— Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

GUESS I. STARTED A LITTLE BIT OF A. WAR. OOPSIE-DOODLE.

— Magic Mirror, My Time at Sandrock

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