Unwitting Instigator Of Doom / Visual Novels

---

• Ace Attorney:
  • The games have one (although it's more attributed to the series being a Long Runner more than anything): Tsukasa Oyashiki/Katherine Hall is indirectly responsible for the DL-6 incident, and therefore the events of the series as a whole, thanks to inadvertently hiding the IS-7 victim's body. This was due to the fact that she stole and hid some sherbet sculptures made by the victim (a famous sculptor whose works her adoptive father enjoyed) in order to prevent his final works from being destroyed, not realizing that the killer hid the body among them until well after the fact. The body going missing led to Blaise Debeste forging an autopsy report and passing it on to Manfred von Karma, which led to von Karma getting a penalty when Gregory Edgeworth revealed the forgery in court (and the fact that they coerced a confession from the suspect), which in turn led to the DL-6 incident where Manfred killed Gregory and adopted his son Miles to get Revenge Through Corruption. DL-6 in turn ruined Miles Edgeworth and Yanni Yogi's lives, ruined the reputation of the Fey family (causing the family strife that was a partial Start of Darkness for Morgan and Dahlia), and led to the conflict between Mia Fey and Redd White, which ended in the latter murdering the former. Katherine's got a lot of blood on her hands she doesn't even know about, and all because she wanted to do something nice for her dad.
    • There's also the victim of IS-7, Isaac Dover. The whole reason IS-7 happened was because Dover thought it was a great idea to backstab his partner, who then killed him for it. If Dover had decided to not be an asshole that day, most of the tragedy in the series would never have happened.
  • Jake Marshall is one for Case 1-5. He approaches Bruce Goodman, asking him to re-open SL-9, but Goodman refuses. Marshall then steals Goodman's ID to retrieve the evidence himself, prompting Goodman to have to enter the evidence room with Police Chief Damon Gant in order to complete the transferal. Not realizing he was with Neil Marshall's true killer, Goodman changes his mind and suggests reopening the case, and is killed on the spot before being transported to the underground parking lot. Marshall thus, either by stealing Goodman's ID or planting a seed of doubt in Goodman, indirectly caused Goodman's death.
  • In Justice for All, when Adrian Andrews discovered the dead body of Juan Corrida, she swiped a card from the crime scene and tampered a few more things. The card in question is a literal Calling Card of assassin Shelly de Killer (and obviously Corrida's killer), who intentionally leaves them behind so the police would know right away that he's the one who committed the crime. But since the police never found the card and Adrian herself didn't know its significance until Edgeworth told her, they went with the evidence she planted, which was enough to implicate Matt Engarde, de Killer's "client", as the murderer. Because of this de Killer kidnaps Maya Fey in order to blackmail Phoenix Wright into defending Engarde in court.
  • Dual Destinies establishes that there were two cases behind the 'Dark Age of the Law' that occurred during the timeskip. While one of these involved a deliberate plot to discredit a lawyer (Kristoph Gavin framing Phoenix Wright for forging evidence), the other was not and only became a legal mess because of things that happened afterwards. The phantom's mission was just to sabotage the HAT rockets, and he killed Metis Cykes when she found him. He certainly didn't expect Metis's daughter Athena to incriminate herself while in a state of shell-shock, nor for prosecutor Simon Blackquill to take the fall for her, and it was the controversy surrounding Simon's conviction that helped lead to the Dark Age of the Law.
  • In The Great Ace Attorney, Inspector Satoru Hosonaga plays this role in the first game's second case just by existing in the general direction of the case's main actors. Nina Pavlova enters Kazuma Asogi's room looking for a pet cat, and they have a talk that turns into One Dialogue, Two Conversations, during which Nina begs him not to tell anyone that she's onboard the steamship because she's running away from her abusive ballet troupe back in Russia and intends to start a new life in America. Kazuma says that he wants a second opinion about the matter — Kazuma meant protagonist Ryunosuke Naruhodo, his best friend who he'd smuggled onboard, but Nina assumed he was talking about Inspector Hosonaga because Kazuma made a move towards the wardrobe where Ryunosuke was sleeping, which happened to be right next to the alarm bell, which she thought he was going to pull to alert Hosonaga outside. The thought of being discovered and shipped back to her terrible life back in Russia made her panic and, without thinking, she shoved Kazuma, who hit his head in just the wrong place on his bedpost, ended up in a coma, and got amnesia, which would drastically effect events from then on.
• In Cafe Enchante, it's revealed that ancient humanity is indirectly responsible for some of the ongoing problems occurring in the non-human worlds.
  • In Ignis's route, in the past, humans unwittingly woke up Vanar who would develop a taste for human flesh, which would be passed on to its descendant Ignis and compelling them to develop an insatiable hunger.
  • The A.I. God in Caelm reveals their original creator were humans who brought their technology and science to the world almost ten thousand years ago. It's also revealed that humans were used as a template for angels.
  • Yggdrasil was of human origin but the magic in Medio's soil caused it to become wildly out of control and needing fairy souls in order to sustain itself.
• Case 03: True Cannibal Boy: Marty forced Sally to come with him to bury Shadow's incriminating evidence on Mt. Candyhouse, but Sally accidentally broke the seal on the Cannibal Boy.
• Ryousuke Katayama of Corpse Party is a weird example, in that it's not exactly his fault. In Tenjin Elementary School, he loses his leg in a trap and bleeds to death. His friend Ohkawa, however, insists that he's still alive and needs to get to a hospital. In an attempt to "help" him realize the truth, Kizami pushes his body down the stairs. This works about as well as you'd expect. Ohkawa calls Kizami a murderer, which causes Kizami to have an "epiphany": It doesn't matter whether it's the school that kills you or him.
• Danganronpa:
  • Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc:
    • In the third chapter, Kiyotaka asks Makoto to take him to see Alter Ego, because Taka's best friend, Mondo, killed Alter Ego's creator, Chihiro, something Taka felt very guilty about being unable to stop. Makoto obliges, despite the fact that Kyoko doesn't want anyone near Alter Ego unless absolutely necessary, and the conversation with Alter Ego results in Taka taking on Mondo's spirit (maybe) and becoming obsessed with Alter Ego. He then feuds with Hifumi, who lusts after Alter Ego, and Celeste uses that feud to play the two against each other, resulting in Celeste manipulating Hifumi into killing Taka, Celeste killing Hifumi once his part is done, and Celeste being executed once she's discovered as the culprit. The anime had Makoto avert this trope, since Taka was with everyone else when they first found Alter Ego, so Makoto played no role in Taka's conversation with Alter Ego or resulting breakdown.
    • If you get to the end of Chihiro's Free Time Events, Chihiro will ask Makoto for the name of a "strong guy." Mondo is the only correct answer, and he ends up murdering Chihiro when they meet up in Chapter 2, so it's possible that Makoto played a role in that by recommending Mondo.
  • Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair: Fuyuhiko plays a video game set up by Monokuma, which reveal details about his sister's murder and how Mahiru is connected to it. He attempts to confront her on the matter, but this leads to Peko killing Mahiru under the misguided belief that it was according to her master's will.
  • Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: When the cast try out a virtual reality program, Himiko has to remind herself that her right hand is the one she uses to hold chopsticks when inserting two wires into the headset. Gonta turns out to be left-handed, so after hearing her, he gets the wires mixed up and is unable to remember anything that happened in the simulation, including him murdering Miu.
• Famicom Detective Club
  • Part I:
    • Kiku Ayashiro meant well, but it was her decision to make Kanda the Ayashiro Corporation's Legal Advisor that brought tragedy to her family.
    • Tokube Ayashiro driving the Kanda family to suicide on a selfish whim lead to the sole surviving member of said family, Kyonosuke, trying to kill off the entire Ayashiro family.
  • Part II: Genjiro Kaneda scamming a factory out of its owner's hands and driving him to suicide were what caused Hibino to go on a series of murder whose victims included Yoko, Genjiro's son, and Genjiro himself along with Hibino chasing after Shinobu until she died from getting hit by a car when she witnessed Genjiro's murder.
• There are two of them in Higurashi: When They Cry:
  • Ooishi, whose Inspector Javert tendencies provoke the events of the Spirited Away and Atonement chapters.
  • Oryou, whose actions and policies are directly responsible for Cotton Drifting and Eye Opening or indirectly responsible for many of the other chapters via the treatment of the Hojo siblings and in provoking Ooishi above.
• During Hanako's route in the Visual Novel Katawa Shoujo Misha decides to teasingly question her and Hisao about their relationship. As a result of this question Hisao is forced into a situation where he had to tell Hanako about the surprise birthday party that he and Lily were planning for her. This just happens to cause Hanako to have a SEVERE panic attack in the middle of the following class, which is so serious that she has to be taken back to her room. In Misha's defense she truly didn't know that Hanako's birthday had such terrible memories associated with it, is genuinely sorry for the consequences, and apologizes to Hanako as soon as she can talk to her.
• School Days:
  • Sekai seduces Makoto because of her own unrequited feelings for him, despite actually hooking him up with another girl, Kotonoha. This action itself, in the anime continuity, is what leads to Makoto developing a sex addiction, cheating on Sekai with Otome, and then Otome with every other girl in his class, Kotonoha becoming a Yandere, and well the nice boat.
  • Otome and Makoto might be even worse ones in some routes. It's depending on Makoto pulling one or another action that Otome will or not tell Makoto's best friend Taisuke that girls like forceful dudes during sex — which will lead him to rape his crush Kotonoha, under the very stupid belief that the poor girl's barely whispered "no, don't..." are actually a part of the "protest pretend" kink. ^note where the passive partner in hentai/ecchi/hard yaoi/etc. media fakes being embarrassment and unwillingness..
  • Also, Nanami, Hikari and Otome's Girl Posse can become the trope, when they horribly bully Kotonoha to keep her away from Makoto and make sure Sekai gets him. This can either lead to Makoto completely cutting Sekai off his life before choosing Kotonoha since he thinks she's the one instigating the bullying that Koto has been a victim of ^note (she's almost surely not, but Makoto is simply too angry to consider that because school bullying is his Berserk Button) or to Kotonoha breaking down so badly for said harassment that she murders Sekai in broad daylight. In either way, their support to one girl over the other makes things MUCH worse for the one they wanted to "help".
• Shinrai: Broken Beyond Despair:
  • To begin with, there's Rie, who holds the party at the resort, giving the killer a place to kill the victims without anyone calling for help. She also gives Hiro the keys when he convinces her that she accidentally locked the bathroom, thus allowing Momoko to open the guest room for her plan.
  • Rie's best friend Runa also counts. She insists that Rie invite Hiro and his girlfriend Momoko, despite the fact that Runa had been in love with the former, simply because she did not want to leave their friends out. She also agreed to do a matching cosplay with Runa, genuinely hoping to befriend her despite their difficulties in the past. After carrying out her plan of killing Hiro, Momoko uses the rope wrapped around her kimono to hang herself.
  • Momoko's best friend Kamen is probably the one who had the greatest indirect contribution to the murders. After Hiro tried hitting on her, she spoke with Momoko, and tried to convince her to dump Hiro, but Momoko jumped to the conclusion that Kamen wanted to steal Hiro away from her (not knowing that Kamen was in love with her). Hiro, undeterred, kept sending messages to Kamen's phone, and Momoko apparently got a look at the phone while Kamen was using the bathroom. Momoko then concluded that Hiro was cheating on her with Kamen, and planned on killing him and herself, while framing Kamen for the deaths.
• Umineko: When They Cry:
  • Battler Ushiromiya of all people, who drives Sayo Yasuda to orchestrate the murders by unwittingly breaking a promise to take them away from Rokkenjima. Battler didn't come back for it because of very serious family issues (depicted below), but unfortunately, the already broken Sayo took this very, very badly.
  • Furthermore, if that's the case, then Rudolf and Kyrie are also responsible. Had they not married too soon after the death of Battler's beloved mother for the teenage Battler's taste, he would have not broken ties with his paternal family. Therefore, he would've showed up in Rokkenjima sooner and/or more frequently and, as the Guile Hero he is, he would've found a way to help poor Sayo deal with their crappy situation, promise or not.
  • There's also Natsuhi, who is largely responsible for Sayo Yasuda's issues in the first place. Sayo was pretty much forcibly given to her by Kinzo as a baby to raise after she couldn't give birth to an heir, which the very traditional Natsuhi saw as a reminder of her "failure" as a woman. One day, out of anger and resentment out of having to raise a child that wasn't her own, Natsuhi completely lost it and pushed a servant holding the baby off a cliff. The servant died but the baby survived, though with injuries that damaged their sexual organs, leading to Sayo having major gender/body issues later in life, which would not exactly help with their increasingly unstable mental state. An alternate continuity shows that, had Natsuhi not snapped the way she did, Sayo would grow into the far more stable Lion Ushiromiya.
• In Zero Time Dilemma, Zero mentions a story of how a snail caused 6 deaths by just being where it was. A woman heavily hinted to be Eric's mother used a different way than usual because a snail was on the usual one. This caused her to meet a young Serial Killer, who turns out to be Mira, and get killed. An innocent man later revealed to be Akane's father was caught and sentenced to death, which lead to his wife to commit suicide. The man was going to catch a taxi but he couldn't, and the taxi driver took a surgeon going to operate a kid. The taxi had an accident and both the driver and the surgeon died. Since the kid never received his surgery, he died as well. Life is simply unfair.

---