History Main / IgnoredEpiphany

* In one segment of the ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' episode "Best 'O Plucky Duck Day", "Duck in the Dark", Plucky Duck watches scary movies late at night while staying over at Buster's place. Buster tells Plucky to stop watching the movies before they give Plucky nightmares, but Plucky just laughs Buster off. Sure enough, Plucky goes to bed and has terrible dreams about being tormented by the [[Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Kruger-esque]] slasher villain in the movies he was watching all night long until Buster wakes him up...whereupon Plucky just goes right back to watching the scary movies without a second thought. At this point Buster, already cranky and tired from having to put up with listening to the scary movies all night long, loses his temper and kicks Plucky and his movies right out of his rabbit hole.

** Used rather infuriatingly in "[[Recap/TheAdventuresOfBatmanAndRobinE7Harlequinade Harlequinade]]". A hilarious episode, but the amount of abuse Harley puts up with comes to a ridiculous point when she [[spoiler:realizes the Joker is planning to nuke Gotham, ''without'' rescuing their friends at Arkham or their pet hyenas]], and goes ballistic. She comes to the realization that Mister J "might not be the guy for me" (that's a ''huge'' epiphany for Harley to have) and [[spoiler:fires her grappling hook at him, knocking him senseless. This causes a plane crash that had [[MadeOfIron absolutely no excuse for not being fatal]]. [[JokerImmunity When he emerges unscathed]], she holds him at gunpoint; [[KickTheDog he proceeds to verbally beat her down until she cries]], snaps, and ''[[TheDogBitesBack pulls the trigger]]''. That's right, Harley Quinn tries to whack the Joker. Of course, it turns out she picked up a gag gun by mistake, and nothing happens]]. And what happens within ''seconds'' of Harley's huge emotional breakdown? [[spoiler:[[EasilyForgiven Joker comes out with a fluffy romantic line and they're back to being lovey-dovey]].]] Even Batman sulks after seeing that!
** Happens again in the appropriately titled "[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE21MadLove Mad Love]]". The Joker crosses Harley's MoralEventHorizon [[spoiler:when he throws her out a window for upstaging him when she placed Batman in a DeathTrap as a gift to the Joker]]. As the episode ends Harley is back in Arkham, badly injured but looking saner than ever before in the series. Her expression is serious, her crazy grin gone, and her inner monologue shows that she now knows that the Joker is "a murderous, manipulative, irredeemable--" [[spoiler:And then she sees a flower and "Get Well" card the Joker sent to her. ''"--Angel!"'' And the insane grin returns]]. [[MadLove This is entirely in character]]. Knowing the Joker, he sent the card solely to get her back on his hook.

** ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': [[Characters/DragonBallVegeta Vegeta]] is a weird case. He was reduced to a sobbing FinalSpeech, disgusted by what he'd turned into and begging Goku to destroy Frieza so that it wouldn't happen to anyone else. [[DeathIsCheap Once revived]], he's right back to being a huge {{Jerkass}} and threatening to take over the universe; he then remains a dormant villain for years, and while he does eventually make a HeelFaceTurn, the exact moment is hard to pinpoint and it doesn't seem to be related to the first epiphany. However, him being disgusted at himself was just DubText Creator/{{Funimation}} [[DubInducedPlothole added in]]. In the original version, he never says anything of the sort, but just begs for Frieza to "fall by a Saiyan's hand", as revenge for his race.

* ''[[WebAnimation/TacoMan Taco-Man Plays a Video Game]]'' has an episode in which Taco-Man becomes so drunk, he awakens in a world based on several UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}} games. After he escapes, he swears never to drink again. A cut to "Later That Night" shows [[spoiler:Taco-Man sitting at home and reading a newspaper, appearing to subvert this trope. However, a cut to "Later Later That Night" shows him getting drunk at the same bar he visited at the beginning of the video, zig-zagging it]].

* ''Manga/DeathNote'': Light Yagami gives one of the quotes on the quote page after making his second kill. Light is briefly overwhelmed when it's confirmed that writing someone's name in the notebook really does cause them to die, and the consequences of what he has done drive him into a mini crisis of conscience. However, after a ''very'' short VillainousBSOD, he shrugs it off and decides that killing people off via the notebook is the perfect means to force the world towards [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans his vision for it]]. Over the course of the next few days he proceeds to kill so many people that [[EvenEvilHasStandards a death god is surprised]], and that's a tiny fraction of the total people he will kill with the notebook over the course of the series.

** ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': Vegeta is a weird case. He was reduced to a sobbing FinalSpeech, disgusted by what he'd turned into and begging Goku to destroy Frieza so that it wouldn't happen to anyone else. [[DeathIsCheap Once revived]], he's right back to being a huge {{Jerkass}} and threatening to take over the universe; he then remains a dormant villain for years, and while he does eventually make a HeelFaceTurn, the exact moment is hard to pinpoint and it doesn't seem to be related to the first epiphany. However, him being disgusted at himself was just DubText Creator/{{Funimation}} [[DubInducedPlothole added in]]. In the original version, he never says anything of the sort, but just begs for Frieza to "fall by a Saiyan's hand", as revenge for his race.
** ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'': Zamasu has such a moment after killing a mortal in cold blood when he could have simply left with his master; when Gowasu is [[WhatTheHellHero lecturing him over it]], he can't even look him in the eye. In his very next scene, Zamasu has gotten over it and believes his actions were justified because, as far as he's concerned, mortals are AlwaysChaoticEvil.

* In ''Series/BreakingBad'', Jesse has a profound HeelRealization in rehab, but quickly returns to the meth business. It seems to be more out of inertia than anything else; this is the only skill he's ever bothered to develop. But his conscience continues to eat at him — unlike Walt, who quits cooking a number of times, but never for that reason. [[spoiler:As of the second half of Season 5, it appears to have kicked back in full force, after he witnessed a child murdered by one of his colleagues. He now wants nothing to do with the meth business and even [[HonorBeforeReason throws and gives his $5 million away like candy in a nervous breakdown]].]]

* ''VideoGame/DyztopiaPostHumanRPG'': Prime Minister Morgalia starts showing regret about how she treated Chase and how she sold out Vulcanite to Zeta, [[spoiler:but when Clyde offers to brainwash Chase to obey her, Morgalia sides with Zeta anyways]]. In the scenario where [[spoiler:Edgar stays behind to start the minecart, he calls Morgalia out on [[NeverMyFault never taking responsibility]] for her horrible treatment of Chase]].

** Tony, of course, struggled constantly with the bad man that he is, and his therapy sessions often forced him to admit his faults. His exchanges with Dr. Melfi reveal that he ''is'', in fact, capable of deep reflection and insight. But his attempts at self-improvement never really take, and by the end of the show it's difficult to say that he's changed much at all.

* Creature Feature's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1C4xP1ikY4 Such Horrible Things]]

* Voltaire's "When You're Evil". After a long, gleeful, litany of varying acts of nastiness and reveling in his VillainCred ("''The Devil tips his hat to me''") , the narrator appears to waver and mournfully, (albeit selfishly) sings "''It gets so lonely being evil''", and says how sometimes he just wants to see other people smile and have companionship... but then snaps right back, and furthermore claims that his moment of weakness was just a lie to mess with your head. Played rather well in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0iEN4ZAwtg this]] ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'' fanvid.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwWpLUmMD8Q Alestorm - Pirate Song]]

* The Once-Ler does this twice in ''WesternAnimation/TheLorax1972'': once when the Bar-ba-Loots were sent away, and again when the Swomee Swans and Humming Fish leave. The latter instance segues into his rant from the climax of [[Literature/TheLorax the book]]. The epiphany only sticks after it's too late to fix anything. Specifically, the Once-Ler has this musical InnerMonologue:

"Once-Ler! Why are you a Once-Ler?"\\

"Aren't you ashamed, you old Once-Ler?\\

"That's a very good point, Mr. Once-Ler."''

* The Onceler does this twice in ''WesternAnimation/TheLorax1972'': once when the Bar-ba-Loots were sent away, and again when the Swomee Swans and Humming Fish leave. The latter instance segues into his rant from the climax of [[Literature/TheLorax the book]]. The epiphany only sticks after it's too late to fix anything. Specifically, the Onceler has this musical InnerMonologue:

"Onceler! Why are you a Onceler?"\\

"Aren't you ashamed, you old Onceler?\\

"That's a very good point, Mr. Onceler."''

You ought to be locked in hoosegow, you should!\\

* The Onceler does this twice in ''WesternAnimation/TheLorax1972'': once when the Bar-ba-Loots were sent away, and again when the Swomee Swans and Humming Fish leave. The latter instance segues into his rant from the climax of [[Literature/TheLorax the book]]. The epiphany only sticks after it's too late to fix anything. Specifically, the Onceler has this musical InnerMonologue.

* In ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysofEurope" this happens to commander [[GeneralRipper Yuri Evtukovich]]. While overseeing the results of a recent gas attack against ,,enemy" positions, he comes across the withered corpses of [[DeathOfAChild Mother and her Baby]]. This makes him question if [[ItMakesSenseInContext murdering thousands of his countrymen for the sake of an insane Jewish Fascist and a long dead-child prince]] is a good idea, but he eventualy decides that Orders are orders and they must be completed.

* ''[[LetsPlay/TacoMan Taco-Man Plays a Video Game]]'' has an episode in which Taco-Man becomes so drunk, he awakens in a world based on several UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}} games. After he escapes, he swears never to drink again. A cut to "Later That Night" shows [[spoiler:Taco-Man sitting at home and reading a newspaper, appearing to subvert this trope. However, a cut to "Later Later That Night" shows him getting drunk at the same bar he visited at the beginning of the video, zig-zagging it]].

** Lao Beifong, Toph's father, witnessed her true power in the climax of "[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheBlindBandit The Blind Bandit]]" when she took down seven master Earthbenders without taking a single hit or breaking a sweat. He saw her do things even her "teacher" Master Yu was astonished by. Recognizing her power and abilities, he promptly grounds her and tells her she won't ever be without escort; all to protect her from the world. Toph ran away that night. Then made even worse when he hires her teacher and one of the guys that kidnapped her earlier to bring her back because he believes the Avatar took her.