History Main / IgnoredEpiphany

*** After being caught and being forced to give up her spell book, she was heartbroken that she had to give up her magic and no longer be special. However, simultaneously, she genuinely wanted to make up with Danny and his friends for all the trouble she caused.
Also, after meeting Colette in person and realizing that Star WASN'T exaggerating on how awful she is, she feels truly bad for dismissing Star's woes.
Seeing how much trouble she caused by granting Colette's wish and getting called out by her. Misty realized that she was being selfish and spiteful and felt ashamed of her actions, especially since they nearly got Star killed and Danny in the claws of an unstable Yandere. At the end of the fic, it appears that she finally learned her lesson this time and tries to let go of her envy of Star and move on from her obsession with Danny and be a better person. However, the magic book she gave up appeared and revealed that it could not be destroyed without magic. It also reveals to be sentient and manipulates Misty, playing on her insecurity, jealousy of Star, and desire to be with Danny in order to take up magic again. What makes this more tragic is that Misty genuinely made an effort to learn her lesson and be a better person, but the magic book manipulated her into thinking that Star has not really forgiven her and hates her. It also prayed on her insecurities about being ordinary and promised her a future with Danny by showing a (possibly fake) vision of their future child. This is what ultimately causes Misty to ignore what she had learned and throw away her chance at redemption and a possible friendship with Danny and Star, choosing to go back to her selfish and obsessive ways in the end.

** At first, it appeared that Misty Smith-Yang realized how horrible her actions were when she was forced to confront the fact that Star was not the selfish girl she thought she was, nor did Star had the easy life that she believed that she had due to her wealth. Learning about Shi's past and how delusional he was in regards to his crush, Meilin, and the fact that his feelings had been unrequited and that he actually tried to kill his own brother to have her, Misty seemed truly disgusted by his actions and tried her best to stop Shi from hurting Danny and Star, ultimately trapping him by turning into wood.

!!Example Subpages:

[[index]]
* IgnoredEpiphany/AnimeAndManga
* IgnoredEpiphany/ComicBooks
* IgnoredEpiphany/FanWorks
* [[IgnoredEpiphany/AnimatedFilms Films - Animated]]
* [[IgnoredEpiphany/LiveActionFilms Films - Live-Action]]
* IgnoredEpiphany/{{Literature}}
* IgnoredEpiphany/LiveActionTV
* IgnoredEpiphany/VideoGames
* IgnoredEpiphany/{{Webcomics}}
* IgnoredEpiphany/WesternAnimation
[[/index]]

!!Other Examples:

[[folder:Music]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwWpLUmMD8Q Alestorm - Pirate Song]]
-->''And for what?\\
I've killed and I've shot\\
And reddened the cold tears of children with blood\\
And If I could go back and make my amends\\
I'd make all those mistakes again\\
I'd kill every last one of those bastards, my friend.''
* "The Curse of Millhaven", by Music/NickCave & The Bad Seeds, is a MurderBallad about an EnfantTerrible. At one point in the song she says she's trying to change but immediately gives up and instead tries wholeheartedly to be awful.
-->''Since I was no bigger than a weevil,\\
They've been saying I was evil\\
That if bad was a boot, that I'd fit it\\
That I'm a wicked young lady,\\
But I've been trying hard lately\\
Oh fuck it! I'm a monster! I admit it!''
* Creature Feature's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1C4xP1ikY4 Such Horrible Things]]
-->''I am not a bad man\\
Even though I do bad things\\
Very bad things\\
Such horrible things\\
But it's not quite what it seems\\
(Not quite what he seems)\\
Not quite what I seem...\\
Ah, Hell...\\
It's exactly what it seems.''
* The narrator of [[{{Music/Weezer}} Rivers Cuomo's]] "Hot Tub" spends most of the song trying to convince a woman to have casual sex... The bridge has him lamenting that pursuing meaningless sex instead of lasting relationships can leave him feeling unfulfilled, only to conclude that "I admit this is a problem / To be solved another other day", and subsequently go right back into the IntercourseWithYou chorus.
* Music/IceT's ''[[Film/NewJackCity New Jack Hustler]]'' has the protagonist briefly contemplate the destructive effect his drug dealing and accompanying violence is having on his community and the horrifying implication that ''this is exactly what was intended'', but he can't wrap his head around that and drug dealing is making him more money than he could ever hope to have otherwise, so he goes right back to it.
-->''Got me twisted, jammed in a paradox\\
Every dollar I get, another brother drops\\
Maybe that's the plan, and I don't understand\\
Goddamn! You got me sinking in quicksand!\\
But since I don't know, and I never learned\\
I gotta get paid, I got money to earn''
* Actor/comedian Creator/DenisLeary gives us the page quote from his song ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no6-vsHgHJg Asshole]]'', a satire and skewering of the American middle class in the early 90s. Throughout the song its main character talks about how, despite all the reasons he has to be content with life, he's actually an anger filled {{Jerkass}} whose true joys come from a nearly endless series of [[EvilIsPetty petty cruelties and abuses]] he inflicts on the people around him, along with just general [[ItsAllAboutMe self-centered]]/[[LackOfEmpathy douchebag behavior]]. Around the middle of the song he considers the idea that [[HeelRealization maybe he's wrong to act this way]], but, as seen in the quote, after only a second or two he dismisses the thought and refuses to change.
* In Music/TheMegas' second album, "History Repeating:Blue" Dr. Light gets a song that's a DarkReprise of one of Wily's songs from their first album, "I Want to be the One (To Watch You Die)". In it, Light seems to wonder at one point if what he's done isn't so different from Wily, and he expresses remorse for turning Rock into a weapon against his rival. He then decides it doesn't matter, Wily needs to die, and Light wants to ''watch it happen.''
* At the end of ''Hope Rides Alone'' by Music/TheProtomen, the citizens are asking questions like "what have we done?" and "where did we go so wrong?" They then do nothing whatsoever to ''act'' on this.
* In Music/StoneSour's double concept album ''House of Gold and Bones'', the antagonist Allen realizes in the song "Black John" that villains never win, and that he should at least give the main character The Human a chance. He goes through with this halfway, the next song "Sadist" is Allen trying to convince The Human to quit while he's ahead.
* 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.
* "Paradise (Stay Forever)", the ending theme of ''VideoGame/ParadiseKiller'', opens with the narrator lamenting that "now I'm a killer" and [[LoveMakesYouEvil love's driven him out of his mind]]. Then he thinks of the woman he's doing all this crap to be reunited with ([[spoiler:likely TheHero, his ex-wife, who was exiled some time ago]]), and decides it doesn't matter. Even worse, later verses imply that he expects her to eventually ''accept'' his lies.
-->''Say you don't love me, Lady\\
'Cos you got me goin' outta my mind!\\
Now I'm a killer, baby-\\
Well, [[StarCrossedLovers I'll see you]] in our [[IslandBase perfect 25]].''
* In the bridge of "Kill Bill", Music/{{SZA}} has a moment of clarity in which she mentions she's a mature woman who's seeing a therapist to help her with her breakup and thinks about how there are many other men out there... only to immediately conclude that she only wants her ex, following into the chorus in which she starts fantasizing about killing him and his new girlfriend.
-->''I'm so mature, I'm so mature''\\
''I'm so mature, I got me a therapist to tell me there's other men''\\
''I don't want none, I just want you''\\
''[[IfICantHaveYou If I can't have you, no one should]]''\\
''I might''\\
''I might kill my ex, not the best idea''\\
''His new girlfriend's next, how'd I get here?''\\
''I might kill my ex, I still love him though''\\
''Rather be in jail than alone''

[[folder:Podcasts]]
* ''Podcast/TheAdventureZoneBalance'': PlayedForLaughs when the party kills a {{mook|s}} on what was supposed to be a pacifist mission, and decide to throw his body off a cliff to cover it up. Just before they do that, they opt to go through his pockets, and [[GameMaster Griffin]] decides that they find his wallet, which contains pictures of [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes the guy's family]]. They consider this for a {{beat}}, and then...
-->'''Taako:''' They look racist.
* ''Podcast/WoodenOvercoats'': [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist Rudyard]] spends most of the series needlessly and relentlessly antagonizing his [[TheAce absurdly popular]] rival, Eric. However, in the episode "Rudyard Makes a Friend," he briefly wonders if maybe the reason Eric is so popular is because he's actually a nice guy, and if maybe ''he's'' the real problem. Unfortunately, the person he voices this thought to hates Eric even more than he does.

[[folder:Roleplay]]
* Bobby Jacks of ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest''. He quickly comes to the realisation that he's one of the bad guys, but immediately after he decides that he's gone too far to try and repent. He even supplements this with a quote from Theatre/{{Macbeth}} (the ''exact'' same one which Macbeth himself uses in this selfsame situation).

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* This is what happens to a Dark Elf in ''TabletopGame/BurningWheel'' when they've almost, but not quite, maxed out [[KarmaMeter Spite]]. (Maxing Spite [[DrivenToSuicide is a bad idea]].)
* This is how characters in the ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'' slide down the KarmaMeter. Every Morality check forces them to stop and ask themselves whether they can truly justify what they've done; if it's failed, they think, "Yep." and carry on unperturbed.
* In ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', this is the [[PlanetOfHats hat]] of the Dark Eldar -- they deliberately continue the nightmarishly hedonistic ways that brought their civilization to ruin, [[spoiler:primarily because they'll be utterly destroyed if they don't]]. On rare occasions, the epiphany sticks, and a Dark Eldar abandons their old life to join a Craftworld.

[[folder:Theatre]]
* ''Theatre/DoctorFaustus'' considers many times throughout the play whether he should rescind on his DealWithTheDevil. He always convinces himself that he's too far gone to repent, so there is no point. He is eventually more repentant when on the brink of death, but this is too late for Marlowe's God. Although Faustus was aware of religion, he chose to defy it.
* In Creator/EugeneONeill's ''Theatre/LongDaysJourneyIntoNight'', the characters are trapped in their past behavioural patterns, most notably Mary with her morphine addiction and James with his alcoholism and hurtful tongue.
-->'''Mary:''' The past is the present, isn't it? It's the future, too.
* In ''Theatre/{{Oliver}}'' Fagin, while "Reviewing the Situation," considered going straight and the situations it might result in, but finally decided:
-->I'm reviewing the situation.\\
I'm a bad 'un and a bad 'un I shall stay!\\
You'll be seeing no transformation,\\
But it's wrong to be a rogue in ev'ry way.
* Creator/WilliamShakespeare is fond of this trope.
** After the scene in which Banquo's ghost memorably interrupts his feast, Theatre/{{Macbeth}} has a quiet one of these. In the end he winds up deciding that it would be as bloody and dark a path if he were to turn back on his ambitions then as if he were to go forward, so he keeps going and soon after [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope jumps completely off the slippery slope]].
--->"I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er."
** Also used it in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', where Hamlet's EvilUncle has a moment where he realizes what a truly evil and unforgivable thing he's done by killing his brother and marrying his brother's wife. He even realizes that repenting is useless as long as he still profits from his act, so he prays for the strength to give up everything he's gained. When he finds he can't do so, he abandons any thought of repenting and just does his best to hold onto the throne.
** ''Theatre/RichardIII'' has his worst moment when the ghosts of his victims plague him in a nightmare. He shouts for mercy. But in the morning he declares that conscience is a fraud "devised to keep the strong in awe. Conscience, avaunt!"
* In ''Theatre/TurnaboutMusical'', the song "Decree of the Prosecutor" has Edgeworth go through one. He reflects on his actions and wonders if using underhanded tactics in the court makes him no better than the murderous people he prosecutes. He eventually decides that it's worth it, because "every criminal earns his punishment,/ so [he's] always done all [he] could/ What's the harm in filling in the blanks to some extent?/ If it's for the greater good?/ Indeed. If the defendant is clearly guilty, then [his] methods, no matter how extreme, should not be an issue at all!" He then wonders if his true motivations are actually caused by his personal feelings of "pretentious piety", but dismisses the notion on the grounds that it's best to use extreme methods to ensure that other people are spared the pain of loss that he himself went through.
* In ''Theatre/AVeryPotterMusical'', Harry tries to convince Voldemort that he regrets his evil deeds, and sad music starts to play...
-->'''Voldemort:''' Well... maybe there's one--NO! ''[[NoFourthWall points wand at musicians]]'' THERE ISN'T! ''[the musicians surrender]''

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* One genuinely heroic example in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight: Unlimited Blade Works''. When Shirou finds that his ideal and way of life are distorted after being challenged about them by Rin, he logically realizes that his processes are wrong. However, he also decides that he won't listen to her warning, because:
-->'''Shirou:''' There's no way that wanting to help people can be a mistake.
* In the [[AnotherSideAnotherStory Meakashi-hen arc]] of ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' [[spoiler:Shion brutally kills Satoko]] and remembers that [[spoiler:the last thing her disappeared boyfriend Satoshi had asked of her was to protect his little sister]]. At first, she's horrified... but then she realizes that she always knew in the back of her mind that [[spoiler:Satoshi]] would have never wanted any of this and that the "demon" [[spoiler:(aka the HatePlague)]] had taken over her mind to make her lose her sanity and forget her feelings of loss, as well as make her commit bloody revenge. It is at this point that she considers herself [[IveComeTooFar irredeemable and not deserving of any sympathy]], hence her tears when Keiichi shows her mercy. Regardless, at the very end, [[spoiler: after it's stated that she can't sense the Hate Plague affecting her mind anymore, she feels so much remorse that she commits suicide (not shown in the anime), apologizing to Satoko and everyone else in her mind in her last moments]]. [[spoiler:Of course, the next arc shows that perhaps it really wouldn't have been too late. An even later arc shows that Shion remembered this epiphany to become a better person in her next life, namely turning into Satoko's loving surrogate sister, willing to sacrifice her life for her]].
* In three of the four "true" endings of ''VisualNovel/{{Nicole}}'', the kidnapper is momentarily shaken by the way [[spoiler:the other potential love interests]] refute his reasoning for kidnapping the people he did, but he quickly shrugs it off and continues being a SmugSnake. [[spoiler:In his own ending, he subverts this and has a VillainousBSOD instead.]]
* The villain of the second arc in ''VisualNovel/ShikkokuNoSharnoth'' realizes he's in the wrong and that happiness is just in front of him if he just stops, but in the end he is just too insane to do it.

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/MegaManDiesAtTheEnd'': While having an experience in the afterlife, [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic Mega Man]] is told he has only one chance at redemption, but instead interprets it as a sign that he needs to be an even bigger asshole.
* [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Solid Snake]] has one of these at the end of [[https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/226467 this]] hilarious Flash video.
* ''WebAnimation/TerribleWritingAdvice'': Half the jokes in a given episode are based around this. While giving his supposedly great writing advice, JP will often think of a valid objection to said advice or an alternate approach that actually ''is'' good advice, only to then dismiss it as being ridiculous.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* John Cheese on ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' recounts how he was asked to be best man at his friend's wedding where they wouldn't have alcohol, and began to grow anxious and irritable because of not being able to drink. Eventually he cut his toast short and made up an excuse to leave early so he could drink. He realized that he was actually afraid of going without alcohol.
-->This realization is what motivated me to, uh, completely forget about it and continue drinking for about eight more years.
* ''Website/TheOnion'' plays with this trope in a RealLife context in [[http://www.theonion.com/articles/there-was-definitely-a-point-during-that-stoning-w,18165/ There Was Definitely A Point During That Stoning Where We All Thought, 'Is This Weird?']]

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* ''WebVideo/DrHorriblesSingAlongBlog'': [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation One way]] of looking at Dr. Horrible's final song has elements of this. [[spoiler:The song plays with double meanings that underline the tragedy of the scene, most importantly the first, "Here lies everything/The world I wanted at my feet." Arguably, Horrible acknowledges here that everything that has just happened is (at least partially) his fault, and Penny is dead because of his recklessness and his drive to join the Evil League of Evil. They offer him a place, though, and he accepts, even though [[TearJerker he hasn't forgotten his loss]].]]
* Even though WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic has a barrel-ton of GuiltyPleasures himself, when it comes to a movie he sees no good in (like the Creator/JimCarrey remake of ''Film/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas''), he never fully comprehends how others can like it. In the specific case of the Grinch movie, at the end of his review he contemplates taking a more tolerant, open-handed view and saying that if people take pleasure in it or see something in it that he doesn't, then maybe that's what counts... then essentially says "Nah, I'm right, they're wrong!"
* ''[[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]].
* There are quite a number of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' fan videos on [=YouTube=] that show PlayerCharacter Frisk facing off against Sans, the final boss of the No Mercy path. In many of these videos Frisk's famous {{determinat|or}}ion is finally wavering and Frisk is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone on the edge of a breakdown due to the actions Frisk has taken]] to get to this point. Frisk is even all but begging Sans to hurt and punish them further for their crimes and is about to hit the ResetButton to undo all the damage to the timeline... and then due to either one last burst of crazed determination or [[DemonicPossession the influence of Chara/The Fallen Child]], Frisk continues attacking Sans and succeeds in killing him, thus likely making the damage to the timeline permanent. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrfDI3LZTYA Here's one example]].

[[folder:Real Life]]
* This trope, along with NeverMyFault, is one of the many traits of [[TheSociopath sociopaths]] and {{narcissist}}s, since it is nearly impossible for them to feel guilt; even if they do, they tend to sweep it under the rug.
* Also a defining trait of fanatical people (whether religious, political, or otherwise). Whenever they discover evidence that their ideology might be wrong, they will make any excuse, no matter how strained or ridiculous it sounds, rather than change their minds.
* Early in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, during the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Nazis carried out conventional acts of genocide via having death squads (''Einsatzgruppen'') massacre whole villages of Jews and similar undesirables. Problems started cropping up when the soldiers participating in the massacres started [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone collapsing in horror]] at repeated murder, and even Heinrich Himmler vomited at the site of one such atrocity. Instead of acceding to these feelings of horror, however, the Nazis [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint simply decided they needed a more detached and mechanical means of mass murder]], and thus the original FinalSolution was born.

->''Say you don't love me, Lady\\

[[caption-width-right:350:In many ways, he was a refreshingly ''simple'' man.]]

* There are quite a number of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' fan videos on [=YouTube=] that show PlayerCharacter Frisk facing off against Sans, the final boss of the [[KillEmAll No Mercy]] path. In many of these videos Frisk's famous {{determinat|or}}ion is finally wavering and Frisk is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone on the edge of a breakdown due to the actions Frisk has taken]] to get to this point. Frisk is even all but begging Sans to hurt and punish them further for their crimes and is about to hit the ResetButton to undo all the damage to the timeline... and then due to either one last burst of crazed determination or [[DemonicPossession the influence of Chara/The Fallen Child]], Frisk continues attacking Sans and succeeds in killing him, thus likely making the damage to the timeline permanent. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrfDI3LZTYA Here's one example]].

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' uses the variation of having already crossed the MoralEventHorizon, to heartbreaking effect. [[spoiler: After confessing to Eren, Reiner breaks down and admits that he isn't even sure whether the things he's doing are right or wrong anymore. But since he's already [[IveComeTooFar come too far]], there's no choice left to him but to charge ahead and throw proverbial gasoline on the fire. He grimly accepts that he's a murderer doomed to a brutal, short life. Similarly, Bertolt's [[TheStoic stoic]] exterior crumbles when he admits that he's done horrible things and states it isn't even remotely possible to apologize. Like his partner, he accepts that it's too late to consider stopping. While more subdued, Annie seems to also realize just how far she's gone -- apologizing in horror to the corpse of a soldier, but later brutally slaughtering soldiers while hunting for Eren. When she finds herself cornered, she encases herself in a CrystalPrison to escape.]]
* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'': After the much-abused Ennis finally [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal turns on him]], Szilard Quates' ensuing VillainousBreakdown has him reveal that not only is she just the latest in a long line of [[OurHomunculiAreDifferent homunculi]] he's created and destroyed… because they '''all''' eventually rebelled against Quates just like Ennis. It seems that Quates just ''cannot'' stop himself from abusing his henchmen, no matter how often it backfires on him.
* ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita'': Aga Mbadi speaking to Queen Limeira causes him to have a HeelRealization and become overwhelmed with remorse for his actions to the point where he cries and almost confesses to ordering her father's assassination. While he vows to set the world right in order to make it up to her, it turns into a RedemptionRejection.
* Several times over the course of the Golden Age arc in ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', it dawns on Griffith just what atrocities he has to commit in order to achieve his dream. And each time, he buries it so that he can continue pursuing his ambition. It comes to a head during the Eclipse where he sheds his final tear for [[spoiler:sacrificing his most loyal soldiers]] just before completing his transformation into Femto. [[spoiler:And then he rapes Casca in front of Guts.]]
* ''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.
* ''Franchise/DragonBall'':
** ''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 ''Manga/DragonQuestTheAdventureOfDai'', Pop speculates at one point that [[ShrinkingViolet Merle]] might have liked him, but dismisses it soon afterwards.[[note]]This point eventually gets hammered into him late in the story, once Merle makes an AnguishedDeclarationOfLove to him.[[/note]]
-->'''Pop''': You'd think she liked me or something... as if! Ha ha ha ha!
-->'''Matoriv''': (thinking to himself) This guy... he's completely clueless unless the girl he likes is involved... he's hopeless.
* ''Manga/FutureDiary'' has one, with Yuno [[spoiler: about to kill her third self]], and realizing how twisted she has become, before deciding to [[spoiler: attempt it anyway]]. Then AGAIN, when [[spoiler: she is about to kill her family, realizes how much she loves Yuki, and how amazing he is for changing the future to allow her family to come together and be happy. She then attempts to kill all three of them anyway]].
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'':
** When [=DOME=] reveals the truth about Newtypes in ''Anime/AfterWarGundamX'', the authoritarian dictators of Earth (Fixx Bloodman) and the colonies (Seidel Rasso) take it in very different ways. [[spoiler:Bloodman realizes that he might have been mistaken in conquering Earth so he could destroy the perceived threat from space. Rasso, however, rejects [=DOME's=] claim that Newytpes are an anomaly rather than a spacefaring MasterRace and dives even harder into his zealotry.]]
** In ''Anime/TurnAGundam'', Kihel tries to spell out the {{Aesop}} she thinks should be taken from the Dark History: that mobile suit warfare is [[WarIsHell devastating and civilization-destroying]]. Guin, having seen the same footage, ignores her because he sees the possibility of industrial revolution in it.
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'':
*** Neo Roanoke is fully aware that he's a monster, and that what he does — {{brainwash|edAndCrazy}}ing {{Tykebomb}}s into serving as {{Sociopathic Soldier}}s — is beyond the pale. Yet he never does anything about it, and continues on his way despite his doubts, convinced that it is too late to turn back now. It's only with the revelation that [[spoiler:he too has been brainwashed]] that he turns around.
*** Meanwhile every time Shinn expresses doubt in what he and Rey and Durandal are doing, the other two either butter him up with something or try to guilt trip him.
* ''Manga/HunterXHunter'': Upon failing to beat Komugi at Gungi, Meruem begins to question his own ideals of supremacy, pondering how many of the people he killed may have had the potential to surpass him in a certain field... before turning back on his heel and proudly proclaiming that brute force is the only meaningful type of power, and he could kill Komugi in a second if he wanted to. When he approached Komugi to do exactly that, however, he ends up saving her from an eagle pecking at her and calls her a "valuable guest", while utterly confused at what exactly his own motives are anymore.
* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'':
** ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'': After being defeated twice, Boingo learns from the experience, and resolves to pull a HeelFaceTurn, get over his cowardice, and from then on use his power to help people. It seems things are finally looking up for him... only to kick away a box and accidentally hit Iggy in the head with it, who then proceeds to maul him. As a result, he gets sent to the hospital and ends up meeker than ever.
** ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean Stone Ocean]]'': When Ermes tells off Thunder [=McQueen=] on how he's gotta stop thinking of himself and drop Pucci's manipulation over him, he sheds TearsOfJoy on her words impacting him, but then shifts to say he's glad to find someone to [[TakingYouWithMe bring down with him]].
* A short scene in the ''Manga/MetroidManga'' mixes this trope and DramaticIrony. [[ArchEnemy Ridley]] watches over the destruction of Samus' home of K-2L that he and his men caused and then meets a toddler Samus oblivious to what he had done and tries to befriend him. Ridley had a clear feeling of shame, but that was tossed aside when Samus' mother came running towards them to save her which made Ridley go straight back to normal and killed her right in front of Samus. When they crossed paths years later, [[KickTheDog the first thing he does is gloat over eating her mother's corpse.]] Then again, this scene is also open to a fair bit of AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: maybe he pretended to be sorry to get Samus to let her guard down, or maybe he thought she was just so incredibly stupid for trying to befriend him.
* Shinji/Paul from ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' has done this one time, when he battled Shirona/Cynthia and got royally [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]], she told him he needed to treat his Pokémon with love and respect, which he scoffed at. [[spoiler:Then again, Paul is revealed to have not only eventually taken this advice into consideration, but he was revealed to be a lot nicer when he returned in ''Journeys''.]]
* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica: Beginnings'', Sayaka witnesses the gruesome sight [[spoiler:of Mami's death]] and goes home crying, understanding for the first time how brutal being a magical girl is... but then she remembers how much she wants that wish from Kyubey, and [[SuperEmpowering contracts]] a day later.
* In ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', after a ''ton'' of effort, the protagonists seem to finally convince Happosai that it's for the best to [[ItMakesSenseInContext let Pantyhose Taro pick a new name for himself]]. He agrees, Pantyhose Taro picks a name he loves, and goes to drop Happosai off in some distant land. Just when it looks like happy endings are for everyone, [[YankTheDogsChain Happosai decides that there's no better name than Pantyhose Taro, and he won't let there be a name change]].
* In the Manga version of ''Manga/SailorMoon'', [[TheDragon Queen Beryl]] actually has one of these, very briefly musing how she's sold her soul to [[BigBad Metallia]] and that there's no going back.
* ''LightNovel/SoImASpiderSoWhat'': Kumoko's musings turn toward her own shortcomings and how she's not all that different from the monsters she is slaughtering. She then immediately dismisses such thoughts from her mind and continues to behave in the same manner.
* ''Franchise/YuGiOh'':
** ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': Judai as the Supreme King believes that he killed Jim, one of his newer friends, in a heated duel. Then he casually turns to O'Brien and asks "So are you next?".
** ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' has Jack realizing, through his interactions with [[LoveInterests Carly]], that power isn't everything and it's possible for someone like him to be redeemed. After the Dark Signer Arc ends, he goes right back to being a power-hungry {{Jerkass}} who barely acknowledges Carly. Even worse, Bommer warns him at some point that Jack's obsession over power would later destroy him. As Jack is about to face that, he subverts this trope by using a different, less power-driven strategy, but double subverts this again when his Red Daemon's Dragon receives a NextTierPowerUp that focuses even more on power than before, but this time it's treated positively.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* The same willpower that allowed [[Characters/MarvelComicsDoctorDoom Doctor Doom]] to resist the [[Characters/MarvelComicsRedSkull Red Skull]]'s Hate Wave in ''ComicBook/{{AXIS}}'' also meant he was able to deny the revelations about himself the Truth Wave that was unleashed to counter the Hate Wave forced upon him (in the Axis tie-in issues of ''ComicBook/LokiAgentOfAsgard''). The literal bonafide Truth smacked Doom in the face...and he refused to accept it. That's either impressive or sad. Maybe both.
* ''ComicBook/BlackScience'': This is pretty much Grant and Sara’s FatalFlaw, in a {{Deconstruction}} of the {{Determinator}} trope. No matter how often they’re told and shown that their obsessions with the pillars and protecting their children are just causing chaos and destruction, they keep going and ignore any objections. Their alternate selves are just as bad; one Ward explicitly complains that, throughout the whole multiverse, Grant and Sara seemingly ''never'' learn their lesson and just keep ruining lives with the pillars. There’s a reason for this; [[spoiler:[[TheEarthPrimeTheory the Prime universe]] Grant has implanted a subliminal imperative to build and use pillars in all his alternates because he’s an OmnicidalManiac who wants to start a chain reaction that will destroy the multiverse. They keep using the pillars because they have an instinctual drive to use them]].
* [[spoiler:Hughie]] from ''ComicBook/TheBoys'' has a moment of this when [[spoiler:Butcher manipulates him into walking out on Starlight. She desperately begs him not to leave and calls out to him in tears, but Hughie is so angry, confused, and ashamed that he leaves her without looking back]]. As the narration from that scene puts it:
-->''The strange thing was, he knew she was right. Without being sure exactly why, he knew he was making the wrong choice. But he dredged up what he needed to keep going. To put one leaden foot in front of the other.''
* ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'':
** It uses one of these for maximum effect. After his [[MyGreatestFailure greatest failure]], Scrooge spends decades wandering the planet, building his fortune. When he finally comes home, his sisters (who abandoned him afterwards) have gathered his family to greet him... but he storms past them, demanding they arrange for the people seeking donations to get away. Hortense, furious at the change in her brother, tells him he can either stop them from leaving or never see them again, at which point all and sundry walk out (a young Donald Duck giving Scrooge a kick in the ass for good measure). Scrooge, realizing [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone how badly he's screwed up]], is about to run after them... when he sees his Roster of the Rich and realizes he's the richest man in the world. The last panel shows him laughing in celebration... as his family walks away, leaving him LonelyAtTheTop.
** Earlier, while he's looking for gold in the Yukon, he spends some time sitting on a mountaintop, enraptured by the scenery, and wondering if he should just give up his money-grubbing ways and live off the land... then he says to heck with that, and announces that he'd put an oil pipeline through it if it would make him rich.
** In ''[[http://coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=D+90283 "Cry Duck!"]]'', Scrooge [[CryingWolf staged "tests"]] to see how his employees (among them WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck) reacted. [[PlayedForLaughs Hilarity Ensued]] when a real thug attacked him and Donald dismissed his plight as another test, but Scrooge failed to learn anything, [[NeverMyFault refused to admit he was ever at fault]], and ends up chasing Donald out of town trying to clobber him.
* Mr Gone from ''ComicBook/TheMaxx'' knows every little psychological detail of why he does what he does. He even feels bad about it. That doesn't stop him.
* ''ComicBook/MegaManArchieComics'': After Xander rants about how robots will destroy humanity, Dr. Light points out the reality of the situation. It's the [[WellIntentionedExtremist Spears]] who are threatening people, and the robots saving human lives. Xander takes a moment to contemplate this, only to detonate explosives shortly afterwards.
* Cassidy's pattern of [[WouldHitAGirl abusing women]], then feeling [[WouldntHitAGirl remorse]] in ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}''.
-->'''Cassidy:''' Yeh do it an' yeh're one of the monsters...But yeh know what? Yeh wake up the next mornin' an' yer still alive...Yeh sort yerself out a bit... An' a wee tiny part've yeh starts to believe in a second chance.\\
'''Jesse:''' An' then you do it again.
* Velma handwaves this in a Gold Key ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' story (issue 23's "Tribute in Flames") where a monster from a volcano terrorizes a town. Shaggy thinks the monster is a scientist the gang met earlier, so he and Scooby run to confront him:
-->'''Fred:''' (''as he, Velma and Daphne run after Shaggy and Scooby'') We've got to stop him before he does something stupid.\\
'''Velma:''' (''dryly'') Why tamper with nature?
* ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'''s ''Giant Size Little Marvel: a vs. x'', the twins finally have enough of the in-fighting between the heroes and chew out Cyclops, Iron Man, Captain America and Medusa. The kids are remorseful over it, but when the twins ask if they would stop fighting for now on, all four declare "NAH!" and we're greeted with a two-page spread of an all-out war between heroes [[spoiler:and the twins end up joining the bad guys]].
* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'':
** In issue 59, Sonic and Tails get trapped in a pocket dimension with [[GreatGazoo Horizont-Al and Verti-Cal]], who are now locked in eternal combat thanks to the events of issue 50. At the end, after Sonic and Tails win with ThePowerOfFriendship, they give Al and Cal a speech about how they should go back to being friends. They briefly ponder this... then decide "Naaaaaaah!" and return to killing each other.
** After Sonic's return from space, Fiona Fox admits to him that his Heroic Sacrifice against the Xorda is what finally convinced her that he truly was a valiant hero, having convinced herself otherwise after he unintentionally left her behind in Robotnik's lab. Upon her defection to Scourge in issue 172, Fiona has disregarded this and throws his failure to save her in his face, telling Tails that he can't count on or trust anyone and using Sonic as her "prime example".
* ''ComicBook/StarWarsInvasion'': In Issue 3, during the battle for Rychel, Finn spares the life of the Vong warrior Tsalok when he has him at his mercy and tells him to "learn". Tsalok is left very confused by this, since he cannot understand why anybody would show mercy to a defeated foe, and the text builds this up to make it seem like he is about to reach some internal revelation... but he promptly goes back to slaughtering helpless captives soon afterwards.
-->''Tsalok has never ''heard'' of mercy, let alone ''employed'' it -- he is not about to start now.''
* ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon'': Pyotr at one point laments his own evil deeds, most notably having killed that universe's versions of Thomas and Martha Wayne. He even [[DrivenToSuicide attempts to commit suicide]] while [[DrowningMySorrows Drowning His Sorrows]], but is saved by Superman. At one point Pyotr says something along the lines of how Superman makes him want to be a better person than he is. But once Stalin dies and Supes becomes head of the Soviet Union, Pyotr promptly goes right back to being a ruthless, scheming bastard who [[TheStarscream actively attempts to depose Superman]].
* ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan'':
** One issue of ''Team Up'' had [=SpOck=]'s "Superior Six" plan utterly backfire on him with him realizing what he had done was horrible and that he's planning on quit being Spider-Man and turn himself in to ComicBook/TheAvengers. However, when he encounters [[ComicBook/SubMariner Namor]] and the former ruler talks to him about his problems... he knocks Namor on his ass, tells him to get out of his city and promptly swings away, proclaiming that he will still be the Superior Spider-Man.
** This basically applies to the digital recreation of Octavius that emerged during the events of ''ComicBook/DeadNoMoreTheCloneConspiracy''; learning about the circumstances of the original Octavius's death (he willingly deleted himself from Peter's mind because he recognised that Peter was the true 'Superior Spider-Man'), the 'new' Octavius instead convinces himself that his other self had some sort of mental breakdown because Peter's brain couldn't cope with his own superior intellect.
* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'':
** ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMegaseries'': After murdering [[MauveShirt Leadfoot]] in cold blood, Galvatron suddenly pauses and, for the briefest of moments, seems to realize how pointless and his obsession with power and violence really is; [[WasItReallyWorthIt it hasn’t made him happy and has cost him everything he truly cared about]]. Then the rest of Leadfoot’s squad attacks to avenge his death, and Galvatron [[AesopAmnesia immediately pushes the thought out of his head to focus on fighting]].
** In ''ComicBook/TheTransformersRobotsInDisguise'', [[spoiler:Prowl]] falls under Decepticon mind control. This causes a chain of events that culminate in riots, and death and critical injuries within the main cast. Afterwards, the character realises that the reason nobody [[spoiler:except Arcee]] noticed what was wrong was because he already had a reputation for being an insufferable jerk even before he was mind controlled. He then promptly goes back to his usual jerkass shenanigans, including [[spoiler:provoking Chromedome about his dead husband, spying on Optimus, pointing a gun at Jazz's head for a completely illogical reason, revealing himself and putting humans in danger just to chase ''one'' down for a simple talk, and generally doing things behind the Autobots' backs]]. [[GoodIsNotNice Go figure]].
** ''[[ComicBook/TheTransformersSinsOfTheWreckers Sins of the Wreckers]]'' lampshades this, with [[spoiler: Prowl]]'s old partner [[spoiler: Tarantulas]] noting that [[spoiler: Prowl]] often goes through "cyclical phases" of regretting his actions and wanting to change, only to go right back to being the same morally compromised jerk he always was.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'':
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': In ''ComicBook/JudgmentInInfinity'' after putting mankind to a test, the Adjudicator briefly wonders whether he should spare Earth in order to study humans further. One second later, he decides he is not interested in researching worlds but in "judging" them (that is to say, destroying them).
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': When [[Characters/WonderWomanVillains Circe]] regains herself after her MemoryGambit as Donna Milton she is quite conflicted about her newly learned sense of morality, and even tries to help rescue [[Characters/WonderWomanAllies Artemis]]. The next time she's seen she's still struggling with it, before deciding that she's furious she even has such thoughts and goes to help another villain kidnap, torture and mind rape a teen into attacking and murdering other teens before going on a murder spree of her own in New York.
* Rick Remender's ''Uncanny ComicBook/XForce'' has Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}}'s tendency towards this examined:
** Fantomex [[spoiler: kills a kid version of Apocalypse]], even after the rest of the team agreed it was unjustifiable? A clear sign that X-Force is going too far, right? No, according to Wolverine it was totally justified in hindsight and X-Force is still a perfectly good idea. Characters/{{Deadpool|WadeWilson}} and [[Characters/MarvelComicsPsylocke Psylocke]] immediately call him out on the fact that he's not just lying to himself, but also [[{{Hypocrite}} blatantly contradicting his previous opinions]]. And keep in mind that the only reason Fantomex didn't agree with them was because [[spoiler: he used the World to revive Kid Apocalypse and undo his indoctrination; in other words, instead of denying his sins like Logan, he actually made an effort to undo or atone for them]].
** Its eventually revealed that [[spoiler: the team's ruthless "no matter the cost" attitude will bring about a BadFuture where crime is prevented by brutally executing anybody who even ''thinks'' about doing something bad. Despite being given firsthand evidence that [[HeWhoFightsMonsters he's becoming just as bad as the villains]] and the rest of the team being justifiably unnerved, Wolverine ''still'' refuses to believe that he's done anything morally wrong and even tries to justify the horrific world his future self has helped create]]. It takes [[spoiler: Psylocke attempting suicide]] and [[spoiler: being forced to kill his own son]] for Wolverine to finally realize and accept the mistakes he's made.

[[folder:Films — Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/Cars2'', the villainous group of Lemons (cars that don't ever work right) are trying to become rich and powerful by discrediting alternative fuels during a high-stakes World Grand Prix, then selling oil they've begun drilling off the coast, so they can get revenge on the cars who had mocked them their entire lives. Mater, who had gone through an epiphany of his own upon realizing the world was mocking him just as much, gives a speech to the entire Lemon army about how he had been mocked his whole life, and that their schemes wouldn't make them feel better. The Lemons seemed touched by this sentiment and appear on the verge of tears, but they decide it's worth a shot to keep going with their plan anyway.
* In ''Anime/FinalFantasyTheSpiritsWithin'', WellIntentionedExtremist General Hein has a couple of epiphanies where he realizes what he has done as a result of his zeal for destroying the Phantoms but goes ahead with his firing of the Zeus cannon anyway, even though it kills him and many others on board the space station with him, and proves to be utterly unsuccessful.
* ''Franchise/{{Frozen}}'': [[spoiler:Prince Hans]] has two big moments where he is briefly reluctant about [[spoiler:his plans to seize control of Arendelle]], but these self-doubts are quickly ignored.
** [[spoiler:In ''Literature/AFrozenHeart'', a novelization of the movie from his POV, Hans felt slightly hesitant about quickly agreeing to a FourthDateMarriage with Anna, wondering if he's going way too fast and how his family would react to this -- his father would call him an idiot, while Lars would say that it was done too hastily. But then, these doubts are quashed by his goal to seize control of Arendelle.]]
** [[spoiler:He gets another when he tells Elsa that Anna is dead because of her and causes the snowstorm to stop, and briefly notices how badly Elsa is taking it. [[EvilCannotComprehendGood He's genuinely surprised at the grief she has for her beloved sister]], and for a moment, he starts to realize he [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope might have gone too far]], but he brushes it off, believing there's no point now that he has a big chance to end the winter and be free from the Southern Isles forever.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame|Disney}}'', Frollo seems to have one of some sort in the song ''[[VillainSong Hellfire]]'' when he sings "God have mercy on her/God have mercy on me". True to the trope, immediately follows it up with "But she will be ''mine'', or [[LoveMakesYouEvil she will burn]]!" For someone who's an EgocentricallyReligious ChurchgoingVillain, Judge Frollo ''himself'' [[EvilCannotComprehendGood doesn't]] realize the Bible's true message on compassion and pride. Others repeatedly try to knock some sense into him and call him out on his hypocrisy, but to his dying words, he never realizes he could be wrong. For all the HolierThanThou harping and Bible-thumping he does throughout the movie, he's just a paranoid loon who [[NeverMyFault blames others]], including ''God'', for his issues. His bloated ego prevents him from realizing that {{pride}} is the worst of the SevenDeadlySins, and it ultimately leads to his eternal damnation in Hell.
* At the end of ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'', when Shifu apologizes for his mistakes in raising Tai Lung, Tai Lung appears genuinely moved for a moment or two... but then decides that he doesn't want Shifu's apology and continues his assault.
* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'':
** Lord Shen spends most of the film thinking that his parents banished him from his homeland because they hated him. When he tells this to the Soothsayer, she reveals that they actually loved him to such an extent that having to banish him [[DeathByDespair literally killed them]]. Shen seems genuinely moved by this for a few seconds before promptly brushing it off.
** He gets another after [[spoiler:Po destroys his cannon fleet, where he accepts Po is right about not letting the past define who you choose to be now. He chooses to continue attacking Po, leading to his death]].
* The Onceler does this twice in the 1972 AnimatedAdaptation of Dr. Seuss' ''Literature/TheLorax''. 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 the book. The epiphany only sticks after it's too late to fix anything. Specifically, the Onceler has this musical InnerMonologue.
-->''Every once in a while, I sit down with myself asking,\\
"Onceler! Why are you a Onceler?"\\
And I cringe, I don't smile, as I sit there on trial asking,\\
"Aren't you ashamed, you old Onceler?\\
You ought to be locked in hoosegow, you should!\\
The things that you do are completely un-good!"\\
"Yeah? But if I didn't do them, then someone else would!"\\
"That's a very good point, Mr. Onceler."''
* O'Hare in the 2012 version of ''WesternAnimation/TheLorax'' provides a comical example during his portion of "Let it Grow".
-->''The things you say just might be true\\
It could be time to start anew\\
And maybe change my point of view...\\
Nah! I say let it die!''
* At the climax of ''WesternAnimation/PenguinsOfMadagascar'', after BigBad Dave has [[spoiler:turned all of the penguins into disgusting monsters,]] he states that he feels empty as if there is a hole in him now. He comes to the conclusion that the best way to fix that is to [[spoiler:plan MORE revenge and starts preparing to uglify every ''other'' cute animal species]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/SausageParty'', Sammy Bagel Jr. reveals that he’s friends with Hamas, whom Kareem Abdul Lavash is also friends with. But when Lavash is about to say that any friend of Hummus is a friend of his, he takes one good look at Sammy and tells him to get the fuck away from him. [[spoiler: {{Subverted|Trope}} later on, when Lavash and Sammy become FriendsWithBenefits.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SharkTale'' gives a rather humorous example from Don Lino [[ItMakesSenseInContext upon seeing his son Lenny in a dolphin disguise]].
-->'''Lino:''' What did I ever do to ''you''?! You took Frankie away, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking you turned Lenny into a dolphin!]] ''[his sadness quickly turns to fury]'' ''I'M GONNA GET YOU!''
* [[KnightTemplarParent Sheila Brokflovski]] from ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'' looked like she finally came to her senses after her son Kyle tries to reason with her. [[HopeSpot She then gunned down Terrence and Phillip.]]
* Plankton in ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongebobMovieSpongeOutOfWater''. [[spoiler:After defeating Burger Beard in the climax, Plankton lets Mr. Krabs keep the secret formula in an act of selflessness. When [=SpongeBob=] takes the gang back to Bikini Bottom, he tries disguising himself in a Gary robot to steal the Krabby Patty formula yet again. After being caught by [=SpongeBob=], he says it himself:]]
-->'''[=SpongeBob:=]''' Up to your old tricks again already, eh?\\
'''Plankton:''' Hey, I'm just putting things back the way they were...

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/TheBadAndTheBeautiful'', we first meet Jonathan Shields at the funeral for his father, a former Hollywood big shot who died penniless after his studio went bust. Despite the fact that literally everyone at the funeral except himself was paid to be there and pretend to be mourning, Jonathan takes nothing away from the fate of the man he calls "the king of the heels," except that he'll have to work extra hard to ram the Shields name down the throats of everyone who didn't pay him in the proper respect. He then spends the rest of the movie being a bigger bastard than his dad ever was.
* In ''Film/BeingJohnMalkovich'', Craig has a moment where he seems to [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone become horrified]] at how he locked up his wife Lotte in a monkey cage to keep her away from Maxine, the woman they both want, and he frees Lotte and allows her to call Maxine. Then the very next scene shows that he locked her up again and has gone off to meet Maxine in her place. It's left ambiguous if Craig's moment of remorse was a sincere one that he chose to ignore, or if he was faking the ignored epiphany to get Lotte to set up a meeting with Maxine that he could take advantage of.
* During the song "Special Kind Of White Guy" in ''Film/BoBurnhamInside'':
--> ''American white guys''
--> ''We've had the floor for 400 years''
--> ''So maybe I should just shut the fuck up''
--> *{{Beat}}*
--> I'm bored
--> ''I don't wanna do that''
* In Creator/JohnWoo's ''Film/{{Broken Arrow|1996}}'', Deakins kills a man by crushing his throat, then remarks, "I just realized something. I never actually killed anyone before. I mean, I dropped bombs on Baghdad, but, uh... never face to face." [{{beat}}] "I don't know what the big deal is, I really don't."
* PlayedForLaughs at the end of ''Film/ChristmasWithTheKranks'' when, after everything that happened as a result of them deciding to skip Christmas and go on a cruise, we get this:
--> '''Luthor:''' What a dumb idea. Skipping Christmas.
--> '''Nora:''' [[HereWeGoAgain Maybe next year]].
* In ''Film/DeathToSmoochy'', Rainbow Randolph decides that it is time to end his vendetta against Smoochy. He talks of "gracefully marching forward" and "admitting that the rhino has won." That is until he picks up a photo of Sheldon with his ex-girlfriend. Angelo's panicked reminder of his resolution falls on deaf ears as Randolf screams and curses that he's going to end Smoochy once and for all.
* Towards the end of Hong Kong {{wuxia}} film ''Film/DuelToTheDeath'', Ching Wan tries to convince an embittered Chinese lord against the plan that he made with the Shogun of Japan to betray China. It makes the lord think, but just a minute later he tries to backstab the hero, only to hit and kill his own daughter instead.
* ''Film/ForrestWarrior'': Corrupt logger Travis Thorne has a brief moment of softness, recalling how he used to play in the old treehouse as a kid and showing surprise at his spies report that it’s still there with a smile. Barely a second later, he orders his men to blow it up to give the kids less reason to hang around there and give him trouble.
* In ''Film/TheGodfatherPartII'', when Michael returns from Cuba to be told that his wife had a miscarriage while he was gone, he starts to think about what's happened to his immediate family since he became don and talks to his mother about it, asking whether it's possible to be so focused on the idea of protecting your family that in the meantime, you lose them -- basically spelling out the entire main theme of the three films. But his mother tells him that "you can never lose your family," and he's reassured that he's doing the right thing. [[spoiler:Later in his confrontation with Kay, he tells her he knows they've been growing apart and that she blames him for the miscarriage, but they'll get past it: [[WrongGenreSavvy "I've learned that I have the strength to change."]] She tells him how blind he is; that it wasn't a miscarriage but an abortion, because she wouldn't bring another child of his into the world, which enrages him so much he forgets any idea of repairing the damage he's done.]]
* ''Film/AKittenForHitler'' has Hitler being given a kitten for Christmas by a boy, which almost causes him to have a change of heart. This ends when he discovers the boy is Jewish, making him decide to continue his atrocities.
* In ''Film/KnivesOut'', Harlan realizes late in life that his children, their spouses and grandchildren have turned into a group of JerkAss [[SpoiledBrat Spoiled Brats]] and it was his fault for enabling them all this time. However, rather than sitting down with everyone and admitting to them that he made a mistake, Harlan decides to not only fire his son Walt without any notice, but also [[spoiler: cut all of his family out of his will without much explanation]]. To be fair, some of Harlan's dialogue implies he did intend to talk things out with his family, but his sudden death prevented that.
* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
** In ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', when the Chitauri are attacking New York, Thor tries for a last time to [[LastSecondChance approach his brother]], trying to make him aware of the destruction caused by the Chitauri and the fact that they are getting out of Loki's control. For a short moment, Loki seems genuinely shocked, telling Thor that "it's too late to stop it." But just when Thor responds that [[HopeSpot they can do it together]], Loki [[RedemptionRejection stabs him and flees]].
** Later in ''Film/ThorRagnarok'', Thor explicitly calls Loki out on this. As he points out, despite he fact that all his evil plans and tricks continually blow up in his face and have effectively ruined his life, Loki continues to act like an selfish, manipulative asshole who [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder constantly betrays the trust of others]]. Thor makes clear that he's given up on trying to redeem Loki, saying that he'll never change and will just continue to be a pathetic jerk for the rest of his life. [[spoiler:Ultimately subverted, as this TheReasonYouSuckSpeech ends up being what finally makes Loki realize that [[NeverMyFault he really has been blaming everyone else for his flaws]]. He proceeds to [[BigDamnHeroes back Thor and his allies up during their battle with Hela]] and by the end of the movie he is on his way to some degree of redemption.]]
** In ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', when [[spoiler:the Thanos of 2014 sees that his future self succeeded in his DepopulationBomb of the entire universe, but everyone's still recovering and people haven't gotten over the sudden deaths of half of all living things even five years after the event to the point that the Avengers are trying to undo it. Instead of realizing his solution to overpopulation was wrong, he decides everyone else is simply ungrateful and that he needs to be ''even more'' extreme, killing off the entire universe this time and replacing it with one that will never know of the horrible atrocities he committed and will see him as their hero]].
* ''Film/SchindlersList'':
** Schindler tells Amon Goeth in one scene that real power isn't in killing people, but in forgiveness. Goeth seems genuinely moved by this, and a couple scenes later, when a Jewish boy fails to clean the stains from his tub, he pardons the boy just to see how it feels... and then shoots him almost immediately after.
** Later, while alone with his Jewish maid whom he lusts after, Goeth begins to think that maybe the problem isn't with his feelings for her, but with the Nazi ideology telling him he should hate her. He quickly abandons the thought, blaming it on her evil Jewish powers, before beating her and smashing a shelf full of wine on top of her.
* In ''Film/SpiderMan2'', J. Jonah Jameson is just about to admit that Spider-Man was a hero [[HesBack until he notices that Spider-Man has stolen his suit back from the Bugle]], [[LastSecondWordSwap at which point he reneges his speech at the last second]] and [[StatusQuoIsGod returns to his original disdain of him.]]
-->'''Jameson:''' Yes. Spider-Man was a hero. I just couldn't see it. He was a- ''[notices that the Spider-Man suit is missing]'' A THIEF! A CRIMINAL! He stole my suit! He's a menace to the entire city! I want that wall-crawling arachnid prosecuted! I want him strung up by his web! ''[[SkywardScream I WANT SPIDER-MAN!!!!]]''
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** Vader has at least one such moment before doing his RedemptionEqualsDeath HeelFaceTurn. When Luke turns himself in to the Imperials during ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', the two have a talk together where Luke tries to turn him away from TheDarkSide. At the end Vader simply says "It is too late for me, son", hinting that he ''knows'' he's on the wrong side but he believes that after everything he's done, he is beyond redemption. Then, he takes Luke up to face the Emperor, knowing the Emperor's plans to corrupt Luke's soul. At least he comes to his senses later.
** In ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' Anakin does a MyGodWhatHaveIDone right after he helps Palpatine kill Windu. Right after that, he goes on with his FaceHeelTurn to become Darth Vader.
* In ''Film/YoungAdult'', Mavis Gary has to deal with the fact her high school boyfriend's actually happy with his wife and newborn daughter, and she herself has been behaving in an increasingly immature fashion; [[spoiler: but just as Mavis says "I need to change", she learns a ''very'' minor character still considers her a winner, and her narcissism is once again fed]].

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'': "Alice often gave herself very good advice, but she very seldom followed it."
* In ''The Case of Sergeant Grisha'', Major General Schieffenzahn is briefly convinced to rescind the order for Grisha's execution (and has a WhatHaveIBecome moment too); but a snowstorm prevents him making a phone call, and by the time communication is restored, he's abandoned his forgiving whim.
* In ''Literature/TheCaskOfAmontillado'', Montresor feels sick at heart after hearing Fortunato's bells jingle for the last time when walling him up alive, but dismisses it as being caused by the dampness of the catacombs.
* In the backstory of ''The Daily Task of Preventing My Disciple From Turning to the Dark Side'', Mu Chen realizes that he was a bad mentor to his disciple, which probably contributed to said disciple's FaceHeelTurn. However, he thinks that this realization ''in itself'' means he now knows everything necessary to be a good mentor. He happily trots off to redeem his past failures by finding his disciple's reincarnation, and teaching him badly ''again'', [[ALessonLearnedTooWell only in a completely different way this time]]. Although Mu Chen has technically learned something, he is still as ignorant as he was in the past, [[IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance and ignorant of that fact]]. This pattern of behaviour continues throughout the series, with Mu Chen feeling entitled to a place in his disciple's life, and assuming that Gu Yunjue [[FreudianExcuse has no agency]] in the increasingly horrific actions he does. And of course, his disciple's evil couldn't have anything to do with the fact that Mu Chen is spoiling him rotten...
* Literature/DarthBane has one when he realizes that he inadvertently killed his own father by unknowingly tapping into the Dark Side of the Force. His shock and guilt are strong enough to sever his connection to the Force, and he realizes that the Dark Side will ultimately destroy him. Unfortunately for everyone in the galaxy (especially himself), his desire for power overcomes this brief moment of remorse.
* According to Candayce this happens every time she or the other Wetherford bullies met Janine's eye and "soul-piercing gaze" in ''Literature/{{Dinoverse}}''. They became aware of how petty and treacherous they were, how little integrity they had, but while this would distract them from what they were doing and keep them from doing anything to her, they never changed their behavior.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** In Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/WyrdSisters'', Granny Weatherwax uses headology on Lady Felmet to show her all the evil she's committed. There's a moment when Felmet acts like she's about to pull a HeelFaceTurn, or at least a VillainousBreakdown, but she shakes it off and then says she knows exactly what she's done, and she ''likes'' it.
** The faculty members at [[WizardingSchool Unseen University]] tend to dump unwanted tasks on younger wizard Ponder Stibbons, but they don't realize the extent of this behavior until ''Literature/UnseenAcademicals'', when he pulls off a one-man majority vote using his accumulated positions. At this point they finally realize what a burden they've placed on him and decide that someone has to do something about it. Three guesses as to who gets ''that'' job...
* In the Franchise/DisneyFairies series, Vidia is infamous for plucking feathers from Mother Dove, whose molted feathers are used to make fairy dust. The first book, ''Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg'', reveals that Vidia didn't enjoy plucking the feathers, but convinced herself that Mother Dove was making the pain seem worse than it really was. Later in the story, she has to pluck a feather from a golden hawk, who has the power to telepathically share its pain, and thus she feels what plucking feels like for herself. The narration points out that Vidia could have acknowledged that what she'd done was cruel, but instead she decided to believe the hawk had made the pain feel more powerful than it was to spite her. This is averted in the movie continuity though. More specifically, in ''Great Fairy Rescue'' Vidia slams a door of a makeshift house trapping Tinker Bell inside. She has a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment, goes back for help and even ''admits'' her mistake. Since then, she had always been supporting Tink and the gang, if still a bit snarky and sassy.
* ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'':
** Lord Soth has at least several of these during the TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}} novel ''Knight of the Black Rose''.
*** The first, in his backstory, begins with Soth having just been found guilty at his trial. As he is carted through the city of Palanthas in disgrace, a mob angrily taunts him and throws fruit and rocks at the [[FallenHero once heroic knight]]. One of them shouts "The [[KnightTemplar Kingpriest]] is right! Evil exists even within the Knights!" This gives Soth a moment of remorse and reflection that he has provided just that proof for the fanatical Kingpriest, and about how this will allow the Kingpriest's CorruptChurch to strengthen its grip on the world... but then a rock hits him and he forgets all about that and goes back to angrily cursing the crowd.
*** After his escape from prison, Soth returns to his Tower, where the rest of the Knights [[TheSiege besiege him]]. As this drags on longer, Soth becomes more corrupt and starts falling further and further from the hero he used to be. At one point, after an argument with his wife, he hits her. [[RageAgainstTheReflection Looking at himself in the mirror afterwards]], Soth realizes just how far he's fallen, goes back, begs forgiveness of his wife and the gods, and gets a divine vision of a RedemptionQuest: to stop the Kingpriest from inadvertently causing the Cataclysm. Soth charges off on his quest... until he runs into a group that accuse his wife of being unfaithful, and Soth promptly charges right back, allowing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt so he can confront her about this.
*** After wandering into the magic border of TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}, the Demiplane of Dread, Soth is presented with a vision of himself and what might have been if he had fulfilled TheQuest above: himself with his honor restored, his dead wife by his side, and the son she was pregnant with there with him. Soth is told that if he merely repents and asks forgiveness from the good gods this might come true. Soth hesitates for a time, but his pride prevents him from doing so, and he instead fights the other version of himself, and kills his son when the son tries to interfere. An arguable case because we don't know what Soth was thinking while he hesitated (the chapter is told through the point of view of another character), and there's a good chance it was a cruel joke on the part of the dark forces that control the demiplane. [[spoiler:Though it is CanonDiscontinuity, he nevertheless later subverts it later, and was allowed to return to Krynn, where he had a DeathEqualsRedemption.]]
** The character [[SquishyWizard Raistlin]] does this in the alternate future where he becomes a god. When Raistlin has destroyed all the gods except Paladine (the chief god of good), he speaks with the [[TheWatcher immortal chronicler Astinus]]. Astinus tells Raistlin what will become of him after Paladine's death: [[PyrrhicVictory an eternity of helpless, angry loneliness]]. Raistlin hesitates... then laughs bitterly and kills Paladine anyway. It's worth noting that this version of Raistlin was almost totally insane prior to this conversation, and seems to have snapped for good after learning of his fate. The main-timeline Raistlin, thankfully, subverts this trope.
* In the ''Literature/FrogAndToad'' story "Cookies", Frog and Toad try to stop themselves from eating too many cookies by putting them in a box, but they keep opening up the box and eating cookies anyway. After some failed attempts at making the box increasingly inaccessible (tying the box up with string, putting the tied-up box on a high shelf, and so on), Frog throws the cookies to the birds to teach Toad about the importance of willpower. After this happens, Toad walks off and openly [[HereWeGoAgain announces he's now going to bake a cake]].
* In the ''Film/TheGodfather'', Michael realizes during his time in exile that the Mafia had been the ruin of Sicily, and further realizes that it will be the ruin of America too if it, and specifically "his father's empire", is allowed to continue to grow. Needless to say, this does not stop him from taking over his father's empire and doing his best to make it grow.
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** During a PensieveFlashback in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'', Hepzibah Smith notices briefly that [[spoiler:Tom Riddle, Jr.]]'s [[RedEyesTakeWarning eyes seem to have turned red]], but [[TooDumbToLive she dismisses it as a trick of the light]]. According to Dumbledore, she died two days later.
** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', when Harry and the Dursleys are parting ways, seemingly forever, Petunia looks as if she's about to say something to Harry, then she simply... doesn't. A deleted scene from [[Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows the movie]] suggests what she might have been about to say:
--->'''Petunia:''' You didn't just lose a mother that night in Godric's Hollow. I lost a sister.
* Happens to many of the characters in ''The Last Resort'' by Jan Carson, since an inability to move on is a major theme, but the best example is probably Richard. Richard works to help homeless people, but at home pretends he has the sort of job his father would approve of; one where he's climbing a corporate ladder with a suit and a briefcase. When the {{Impossible Th|eft}}ief takes his briefcase, he realises that if he goes home without it, his dad will ask where it is, and thinks that maybe this is his chance to make a clean breast of things and explain the whole situation. Or he could just say he left it at the office.
* ''Literature/MobyDick'': In Chapter 132, Ahab considers cutting his losses, abandoning the chase for Moby Dick and [[FamilyValuesVillain returning home to his family]]. He doesn't go through with it.
* ''Literature/ParadiseLost'':
** When Satan sees the beauty of Earth for the first time, he is deeply saddened and laments on how he used to be part of the beauty created by God, and that if he had been a lower angel, he would have been perfectly happy continuing to serve Him. Then he rejects the idea of repentance by concluding that any apology he gave would be insincere because he's gone too far into making evil his good, so he can't turn back.
** When Belial suggests that if all the fallen angels just say they're sorry, God may let them back in. Mammon shoots down the idea outright, but suggests that they could at least try to make Hell into a nice place and live basically at peace with {{God}}. It's Beelzebub (on Satan's earlier advice) who convinces everyone to just go with evil and try to corrupt humanity.
%%* Dorian has one in ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray''. It is based on hypocrisy rather than guilt.
* The scientist Chatton in ''Literature/ProjectTau''. Even after hearing Kata's story, his fury and guilt is centered around the fact that he's been involved in the torture of [[spoiler:a legal human, as opposed to just another clone like Tau,]] and not the act of torture itself.
* In Creator/LJagiLamplighter's ''[[Literature/ProsperosDaughter Prospero Regained]]'', Eramus has repeated moments of this after some revelations. He gets called on it, frequently.
* In Creator/JulesVerne's ''Literature/RoburTheConqueror'', Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans spend most of the book getting a FantasticAesop about flying machines proven to them in every possible way…but, as the narration points out near the end, both of them are just too stubborn and narrow-minded to let it alter their actions much.
* In Bernard Cornwell's ''[[Literature/TheSaxonStories Saxon Chronicles]]'' the hero, Uhtred, spends the first couple of books as a violent, arrogant, murderous thug whose only real virtues are loyalty to his oaths and being one of the best fighters around. Half-way through the second book a prostitute [[WhatTheHellHero tells him exactly what she thinks of him]], and he's forced into something of a personal re-evaluation after which... he doesn't stop being arrogant, murderous and unfaithful to his wife. But he does start to feel a little guilty about it.
* ''Literature/TheScarletLetter'': In the middle, Roger [[MeaningfulName Chillingworth]] realizes that his desire for revenge against Rev. Dimmesdale for cuckolding him has turned him into "A fiend!" Hawthorne's narration says that this sort of moral clarity sometimes only occurs to people once in many years. However, Chillingworth's long since lost any purpose in life other than revenge, and so continues down the path.
* ''Literature/TheScrewtapeLetters'' offers some insight into the psychology that causes this in RealLife, with a dose of [[TheCorrupter diabolical interference]].
-->I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who used to read in the British Museum. One day, as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind beginning to go the wrong way. [[BigGood The Enemy]], of course, was at his elbow in a moment. Before I knew where I was I saw my twenty years' work beginning to totter. If I had lost my head and begun to attempt a defense by argument, I should have been undone. But I was not such a fool. I struck instantly at the part of the man which I had best under my control, and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch. The Enemy presumably made the countersuggestion (you know how one can never quite overhear what He says to them?) that this was more important than lunch. At least I think that must have been His line, for when I said, "Quite. In fact much TOO important to tackle at the end of a morning," the patient brightened up considerably; and by the time I had added, "Much better come back after lunch and go into it with a fresh mind," he was already halfway to the door. Once he was in the street the battle was won. I showed him a newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a No. 73 bus going past, and before he reached the bottom of the steps I had got into him an unalterable conviction that, whatever odd ideas might come into a man's head when he was shut up alone with his books, a healthy dose of "real life" (by which he meant the bus and the newsboy) was enough to show him that all "that sort of thing" just couldn't be true. He knew he'd had a narrow escape, and in later years was fond of talking about "that inarticulate sense for actuality which is our ultimate safeguard against the aberrations of mere logic." He is now safe in [[{{Hell}} Our Father's house]].
* Jack Torrance has one of these in Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/TheShining''. In the chapter "The Snowmobile," Jack experiences a moment of clarity in which he becomes aware of exactly how the hotel has been manipulating him and turning him against his family. However, he ''keeps on'' thinking about the issue so intensely that he changes his own mind, concludes that everything is his five-year-old son's fault and that Jack himself is doomed whatever he does, and destroys the snowmobile, the family's one real chance to escape. It's worth pointing out that it's not just a case of him changing his own mind; as a result of its (very tangible, very unpleasant) influence, his thoughts take a different direction as long as he's not actually inside any of the buildings that make up the hotel.
* ''Literature/SisterhoodSeries'' by Creator/FernMichaels: Roland Sullivan from ''Lethal Justice'' is the personification of this trope! He started out as a relatively decent guy and family man. Then Arden Gillespie entered into the picture. He became addicted to her, and engaged in adultery. He helped Arden suck up all the money belonging to an elderly couple, causing this couple to be DrivenToSuicide. Then, to cover up their crime, they frame Sara Whittier (AKA Alexis Thorne), their own employee for it! Sara is found guilty and imprisoned for a year. It is only when they framed Sara that Roland had a HeelRealization. He made no attempt to make it right. He lost sleep over it, forced Arden to set up some pictures of Sara in their offices (as a reminder of how low they sunk), and tried to spend more time with his family. He and Arden practically blackmail each other. He actually wants to find Sara to apologize to her... and use BuyThemOff on her. He still uses his ill-gotten gain to live the high life. He still cheats on his wife with Arden. Sure, his internal monologues claim that he has no willpower, but it seems that he just uses that to excuse his behaviour. His wife finds out that he cheated on her, throws him out and makes moves to divorce him. He actually tried to claim that he did all this for his wife and brags that he'll bring in lots of money and they'll all live the high life, but she rejects this, and points out that she never wanted to live any high life. She makes it clear that she knows that he and Arden framed Sara and urges him to do the right thing. He just blows that off. Later, he says to Arden, "I just realized something. You don't have a conscience, do you?" Arden simply retorts that it is too late to worry about something like a conscience. Roland is clearly a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter if he only made this realization at this late date. He makes no attempt to do the right thing or break away from her. He gets involved in another money-stealing scheme with Arden. Sure, he tried to refuse, but he still went and got involved. By the end, he gives off the attitude of a man who wants to get caught and punished. The fact that he has multiple instances just makes him very unsympathetic.
* In the ''Literature/{{Spaceforce}}'' books, Jay is forcibly brought to the realisation more than once that his compulsive womanising may destroy his life, particularly as such behaviour is actually a criminal offence in the Taysan Empire. He does recognise this and vows to reform at the end of the first book -- the very first scene of the next book finds him in a tavern, attempting to pursue a liaison with the serving wench.
* In the ''Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'' novel "Path of the Perumbulator" a [[spoiler: Wolverine Wizard was driven insane because he was a coward, which is something against their natures. In his insanity he captured a Reality-Warping force to drive the rest of the world insane. In the end, the heroes free the force as well as cure his insanity through magic. He thanks them and realizes what he did was foolish, but then realizes that despite being insane and a coward, he had massive power over the world (Power is something all Wolverines pride above all else) which is now gone. So he decides to kill the heroes anyway]].
* Harold Lauder, a highly intelligent but ''deeply'' disturbed teenager, has one in Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/TheStand''. Prior to the plague outbreak, he was a fat pimply high school outcast that embodied {{Wangst}}. After spending weeks living in Boulder, he manages to make a place for himself in the community. His work helping to bury bodies causes him to feel a sense of camaraderie with his fellow workers. At one point, one of the workers calls him "Hawk". Harold thinks the guy is making fun of him- calling fat, pimply Harold Lauder "Hawk"- only to realize that he ''isn't'' fat or pimply anymore, the people around him don't know that he was a loser in high school, and even if they knew, they wouldn't care. For a brief moment, Harold can see that all of that petty high school bullshit that he was carrying around was just that: bullshit. He goes home that day resolving to abandon his plans to betray the Free Zone and become an honest and upstanding citizen. [[spoiler: Too bad the Big Bad sent Nadine Cross to seduce him back to the Dark Side.]]
* ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'':
** ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'':
*** When Gandalf offers Saruman a LastSecondChance, he genuinely struggles and seems perhaps on the edge of accepting before his {{Pride}} and [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]] of Gandalf cause him to refuse.
---->A shadow passed over Saruman's face; then it went deathly white. Before he could conceal it, they saw through the mask the anguish of a mind in doubt, loathing to stay and dreading to leave its refuge. For a second he hesitated, and no one breathed. Then he spoke, and his voice was shrill and cold. Pride and hate were conquering him.
*** Played with in Gollum's case. Seeing Frodo asleep at the top of Cirith Ungol, he teeters extremely close to a HeelFaceTurn, but goes right back to being TheStarscream a few minutes later, but only because Sam wakes up and, in his confusion, abuses him as he always does. Gollum didn't take it well at all.
** Tolkien ''loves'' these. In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' we have Sauron's repentance before Eönwë at the end of the War of Wrath, which he then takes back when Eönwë asks him to return to Valinor to be judged. The last king of Númenor Ar-Pharazôn also has one when he catches sight of the Undying Lands, and momentarily hesitates before invading them.
* Johnny in ''Literature/TheTruthOfRockAndRoll'' becomes the Gray Man because he forgets Jenny's lessons.
* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'':
** Edward ''knows'' that stalking Bella in ''Midnight Sun'' is wrong and he even points it out to himself; he just doesn't care. For that matter, Bella tells herself dozens of times throughout all of the books that Edward is dangerous, Jacob is dangerous, she's in danger, she shouldn't be with Edward, etc. She never pays these revelations much mind, and goes right back to ogling Edward right after.
** In ''Breaking Dawn'', Leah [[WhatTheHellHero calls Bella out on her selfishness]]. While everyone else jumps down Leah's throat for upsetting her, Bella admits that Leah is right. This realization is ignored by everyone, ''including Bella herself'', who proceeds to continue being selfish anyway.
* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' novel ''Caledor'', as the Phoenix Guard smack Malekith around with halberds glimmering with the flame of Asuryan, he realises that the gods found him unworthy to be Phoenix King. All this does in the long term is move him from "I am the rightful King and all the elves who oppose me are wrong" to "I am the rightful King ''and the gods are wrong''".
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
** In Creator/GrahamMcNeill's ''Literature/HorusHeresy'' novel ''Fulgrim'', Fulgrim realizes he is committing a horrible crime when he fights his brother Ferrus Manus, but his [[EvilWeapon sword]] convinces him to kill him. (''Then'' it lets him realize it, so it can destroy him.)
** Another novel reveals that [[spoiler:Kharn the Betrayer]] went through this when a Loyalist tried to redeem him. The true reason he is so AxCrazy is that, deep down, he knows he's on the wrong side.
* Years before becoming the biggest KnightTemplar out of many in ''Literature/TheWarlordChronicles'', Nimue was just a druid's apprentice who, for a single day, considered throwing magic and the gods aside, marrying the main character (who had been in love with her since they were just kids) raising a family and owning a farm. Considering that many years later Nimue's actions resulted in [[spoiler:[[MerlinAndNimue the death of Merlin]], [[FaceHeelTurn the betrayal]] of [[Myth/KingArthur Arthur]], the maiming of main character Derfel, the deaths of many of Arthur's most loyal warriors and thus, indirectly, Arthur's death at the hands of Mordred and the weakening of Britain's ability to resist the Saxons]] not to mention the misery these actions caused her, it might have been better if she'd done just that.
* Creator/{{Mark Twain}}'s "[[https://warprayer.org/ The War Prayer]]" describes the US as being in the grips of PatrioticFervor (inspired by the Philippine-American War), set against the backdrop of a pastor preaching the justness of war and for victory for their soldiers. Then comes a stranger, pronouncing himself a Messenger from God, to intone the ''un''spoken part of their prayer -- that the enemy their sons face [[PrayerOfMalice are torn to shreds]], and [[WarIsHell every possible consequence stemming from such a large-scale loss of life]]. Notably, Twain deliberately published this posthumously, for fear of public backlash.
-->[[{{Beat}} (After a pause.)]] "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits." It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.
* In Richard Adams' ''Literature/WatershipDown'', General Woundwort is offered an alternative to bloodshed by Hazel, and a chance to prove himself a "visionary" leader. He considers it for a moment, but then rejects it offhand in favour of his carefully planned destruction of the enemy warren.
* In the last book of ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', [[MagicKnight Demandred]], the [[FourStarBadass commanding general]] of [[DarkIsEvil the Shadow's]] forces, comes to the realization mid battle that he finally has everything he'd ever wanted- the love of a beautiful woman, an entire nation who revere him as a conquering hero, and the chance to (by [[HeelFaceTurn switching sides mid-battle]] along with his followers) defeat the Shadow himself and become the world's savior. Unfortunately, he then decides that even if he did that, he'd never be happy until he killed [[TheChosenOne Rand]], the reincarnation of his hated rival. Needless to say, Demandred did ''not'' turn on the rest of the Shadow's forces that day, and remained a villain to his death.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/TwentyFour'' has a tragic one late in the series. Alison Taylor, who up to this point has been the BigGood on the show, has ultimately allowed the masterminds behind the attacks on New York earlier in the day to go free in exchange for them signing a peace treaty. One episode later, her adviser Ethan gets her to realize she's just sold out her morals. But seconds before she's able to act on this [[spoiler: [[PresidentEvil Former President]] [[BigBad Logan]]]] is able to convince her that it's a necessary evil for the greater good, and she ultimately allows the coverup to continue. What really makes this a punch to the gut is had she not ignored her previous judgement [[spoiler: not only would she likely have been able to salvage her political career like Ethan suggested, but Jack could possibly have been called off his RoaringRampageOfRevenge before he [[MoralEventHorizon crossed the line]] and became an international criminal, a rampage where her agreeing to the coverup had been the deciding factor]].
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'':
** Lindsey gets one in Season One's "[[Recap/AngelS01E21BlindDate Blind Date]]". He decides he can't let Wolfram and Hart kill some kids and so helps Angel and company save them. Naturally, his bosses were aware of it, but they know him, and with the offer of a promotion, a raise, and "ungodly benefits", he ends up joining them again.
** Lindsey resigns for good in Season Two, ironically after having earned a top position and a replacement hand to boot; he leaves Los Angeles, burying the hatchet with Angel for good. ...Or not. Actually, he was studying for years on how to join the elite Circle of the Black Thorn.
** Angel's epiphany, from the season 2 episode "[[Recap/AngelS02E16Epiphany Epiphany]]", is completely forgotten for the entirety of the season 5 arc.
** In his final moments in the season 3 finale "[[Recap/AngelS03E22Tomorrow Tomorrow]]", Holtz openly acknowledges that he's most likely going to go to Hell for everything he's done... but makes it clear that as long as he finally gets his revenge against Angel/Angelus, he doesn't care.
** Harmony fondly remembers high school, and desperately wishes to be accepted by friends that way again. Unfortunately, Harmony self-sabotages every friendship she has due to being StupidEvil.
* Londo Mollari from ''Series/BabylonFive'' comes to have doubts about both the political games he is playing with his co-conspirators on Centauri Prime and the alliance with [[AbusivePrecursors The Shadows]] before being involved with them for long, but resolves to keep going, saying that [[IveComeTooFar it is too late to turn back now]].
-->'''Londo:''' I have made many choices lately, Vir. And today, for the first time I am not sure those choices were right.\\
'''Vir:''' Perhaps some good has come out of this tragedy. It's not too late to make some new choices.\\
'''Londo:''' No. The blood is already on my hands. Right or wrong, I must follow the path to its end.
* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' has an inverted example by Saul Tigh at the end of season three: [[spoiler:When he finds out he's a Cylon, he stops to think for a moment, then decides that he will stubbornly continue being Saul Tigh, ''human'' XO of the ''Galactica'']].
* ''Series/{{The Boys|2019}}'':
** The Deep has a HeelRealization in Season 2 during a MushroomSamba after joining a ChurchOfHappyology in which he gains insight into why he acts the way he does, and looks like he's [[TheAtoner ready to make amends]]. While he stops abusing women and [[ReformedbutRejected tries to apologize to Starlight]], he mostly stays the same selfish douche [[ButtMonkey that everyone loves to hate]] he's always been, and ends the season in the same exact position he started in, the same exact mentality, and still clinging onto the selfish goal of getting back into the Seven.
** AntiHero Butcher has a HeelRealization after a MindRape at the hands of the [[CapeBusters psychic superhero]] Mindstorm in which he's forced to relive his [[DrivenToSuicide brother's suicide]] and told that he either pushes away everyone he loves or gets them killed. Soon afterwards, [[spoiler:he's told by Starlight that the SuperSerum [[YourDaysAreNumbered is killing them]] but [[PoorCommunicationKills he neglects to tell]] his ReplacementGoldfish and MoralityPet Hughie that their lives are in danger (more than usual) in order to further their WellIntentionedExtremist crusade. Subverted, as he later uses PercussivePrevention to stop Hughie from taking any more]].
* On ''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]].]]
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E5EvolutionOfTheDaleks Evolution of the Daleks]]": [[spoiler:After becoming a HalfHumanHybrid, Dalek Sec]] comes to the realization that the Daleks' warmongering will beget their destruction. [[spoiler:The other three]] Daleks naturally ignore this, although [[spoiler:Sec follows it through to the end]].
** A couple of times in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastOfTheTimeLords Last of the Time Lords]]", the Master seems to ''almost'' listen to the Doctor's advice, only to go ahead with whatever he's planning.
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E3PlanetOfTheOod Planet of the Ood]]": Solana, the PR representative for the company that's enslaving the Ood, helps the Doctor and Donna once, but then chooses to call the guards instead of going with them.
** The Doctor himself has a somewhat unintentional example in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E13TheWeddingOfRiverSong The Wedding of River Song]]". [[spoiler:After the Doctor learns of {{the Brigadier}}'s death, one of his oldest friends in the show, this event shows him clearly realizing and accepting his own mortality only to reject it again when he finds a way out. Of course, [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt it's not like they'll ever really kill him off]].]]
* An episode of ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' had Frank and Marie living in a retirement home, and almost immediately getting kicked out. Despite the home giving a full list of complaints against the two of them, the pair blamed each other and guilted Robert and Amy into giving up their home, which they paid for, so they could live there again.
* In ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', when Crais and Crichton are forced to fight each other by Maldis, Crichton makes it clear to Crais that his brother’s death was an accident. Maldis then shows Crais an image of Crais’ brother’s death, and Crais goes straight back to trying to kill Crichton, ignoring all of Crichton’s attempts to reason with him.
* One post-war episode of ''Series/FoylesWar'' has a local right-wing politician who is little more than a brownshirt stir up a mob against Jews and foreigners, which results in the death of an innocent Polish couple when the mob hurls a Molotov cocktail through their window. The politican's son angrily refuses to have anything more to do with him over his hatemongering. For a moment, the man looks hurt by his son's words--and then he turns back to planning his next meeting.
* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' is practically the king of this trope. It's easy to lose count the number of times Frasier and/or Niles openly recognize and come to terms with one of their faults only to almost immediately turn things around and go back to the way they are within seconds.
* Lampshaded on an episode of ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir''. Will is blackmailing Hilary because he knows she dropped out of school and plans to make her do humiliating things at dinner:
-->'''Hilary:''' Will, if you have an ounce of compassion, you'll let me off the hook.\\
'''Will:''' That's a good point. ''[pause]'' Nah! We'll do it anyway!
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** Balon hesitates and [[ArmorPiercingResponse is clearly shaken by]] his son Theon's argument that everything Balon resents about Theon is Balon's own fault and a result of Balon's actions. By the next day in show time, Balon has chosen to disregard the exchange and refuses to acknowledge it or [[JerkassHasAPoint Theon's legitimate points]] ever again.
** There were moments in earlier seasons where Cersei ''tries'' to be nice to people: Sansa, Tyrion, her son Tommen, and Myrcella. She also understands that doing everything in her power to protect and prop up Joffrey isn't such a good idea. Then Joffrey dies, she immediately forgets her past kindness, and goes on a petty revenge binge that ultimately leads to her unleashing the biggest atrocity in recent Westerosi history just so she can be queen.
* Herod to Herodias in Creator/FrancoZefirelli's ''Series/JesusOfNazareth'': "He (John the Baptist) is right, you know. We have sinned... And we go on sinning. And very pleasant it is, too! Repent! (kiss) Repent! (kiss) Repent!"
* In the ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' episode "Selfish", the infant daughter of a young, irresponsible mother dies after contracting measles from another child whose mother refused to vaccinate. After the anti-vax mother is found not responsible for the other child's death, the child's grandfather convinces his daughter (the victim's mother) to let go and honor her daughter by becoming a better person in her daughter's name. Then her aggressive, impulsive mother gets involved and immediately turns the victim's mother back on the path of getting even, and eventually convinces her husband (the only member of the family who hadn't initially been on the warpath) to do the same.
* In ''Series/{{Lucifer|2016}}'', the titular character almost has a GreenEyedEpiphany when confronting a murderer who was in a situation mirroring his jealousy of Dan and Chloe’s relationship until stating they’re not at all alike.
* One episode of ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' involved Malcolm and Reese realizing they are the least popular kids in their school when literally every other student decides to skip class one day, and nobody told them to do it too. Infuriated, the two try to figure out what everybody has against them. At one point they realize that hey, maybe it's not just that everyone is out to get them, and everyone just hates them because they're both huge {{Jerkass}}es -Malcolm through his superiority complex and Reese through his bullying- but this is quickly shot down in favor of [[YoureJustJealous They're Just Jealous]].
* ''Naked Chef'''s Jamie Oliver showed a group of [[strike:American]] [[AcceptableTargets West Virginian]] school kids the [[NauseaFuel basically inedible chicken parts]] go into their [=McNuggets=] and they ''still'' wanted to eat them. [[spoiler: A follow-up article revealed the kids also rejected his healthy lunch for their usual pizza and soda, although they said they'll still try new foods so that's something.]] (Then again, the fact that we decree any part of a chicken inedible, when one clearly ''can'' eat it, is more than a little elitist.)
* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Regina is infamous (both in and out of universe) for her constant epiphanies about her life, none of which cause her to change her behavior except in ways that inevitably cause more trouble both for herself and others. Eventually, she has an epiphany about this... which she promptly ignores.
* ''Series/{{Rome}}'':
** In late season one, Brutus feels only betrayed by Caesar and gives in to his mother, going along with the plot to kill the dictator. He goes through with it, but then Antony comes in and they share a look where Brutus' guilt is written all over his face. He then cries out in agony over what he's done. However he seems to get over it rather fast, and stays allied to Cassius to the very end.
** Towards the end of the second series, as Atia accuses Octavian of being a monster, this is very subtly done with the look on Octavian face. One wonders whether at that moment he has a HeelRealization moment, but ultimately he goes on, business as usual.
* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': In a couple of sketches, Creator/SteveMartin plays a medieval character, Theodoric of York, first as a medieval barber-surgeon, then later a judge. In both sketches, he laments the state of current surgery/law and lays out a better, modern method... only to dismiss it with a loud "Naaah!"
* Goes with the territory in ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'': "no learning" was one of the rules of the show, after all.
** Season 7 opens with Jerry and George realizing that they're unfulfilled by their {{Manchild}} lifestyles and vowing to take relationships more seriously going forward. All it takes to cure Jerry of this is a chat with Kramer, while George almost instantly reverts to type after proposing to a former girlfriend and spends the rest of the season dragging his feet to the altar.
** "The Serenity Now" has Jerry [[StepfordSnarker getting in touch with his feelings]], which causes a [[WeWantOurJerkBack dramatic change]] in him and even [[spoiler:leads to a LoveEpiphany with regard to Elaine]]. After George tries to achieve similar emotional awareness by admitting his feelings to Jerry about everything, [[TakeOurWordForIt his admissions are so horrifying]] that Jerry snaps back on the spot, declaring that George has "scared [him] straight."
* Nearly every character in ''Series/TheSopranos'':
** One of the sharper examples is Phil Leotardo, who wages a brutal turf war against Tony during the final seasons. Tony attempts to put an end to it while Leotardo recovers from a heart attack in the hospital, pleading that they could bury the hatchet and live long enough to see their grandkids, which moved Phil to tears. But ultimately Phil's anger and resentments overrode his willingness to compromise, with disastrous results.
** 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.
** Tony's sister Janice also saw a therapist for anger management, though her sessions were court-ordered. She seemed to being making progress at first, but Tony goads her into losing control basically out of resentment shortly after. By the end of the show, whatever stability and self-control she'd managed were completely undone after [[spoiler:the murder of her husband]].
** Christopher Moltisanti gets perhaps the show's most disturbing epiphany when [[spoiler:he gets a vision of Hell while clinically dead for one minute, sees his father there with several old friends and enemies, and is told by Hell's "bouncer" that he too is going there]]. The experience disturbs him enough that he shares it with those close to him, and Carmela even tells him that [[spoiler:God Himself has given Christopher a miraculous chance to redeem himself]], but Christopher forgets all about it, and only changes for the worse as the show goes on. In ''Film/TheManySaintsOfNewark'', [[spoiler:we learn thanks to Christopher's ghostly narration that the vision was real, and he indeed went to Hell when Tony finally kills him in Season 6]].
* Oswald Danes has one in the final episode of ''Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay'' when exposed to the Blessing. He first seems headed to a VillainousBSOD when forced to confront his (child molesting, murderous) soul. He snaps right out of it, though, apparently enjoying this evil revelation.
* Lampshaded in ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' where Alex comments on having got a weird warm and fuzzy feeling after helping Hugh Normous and upon learning that this is what happens when you do good comments that it's not bad, but that she doesn't plan on making a habit of it.
* ''Series/{{Workaholics}}'': In "Dry Guys", the guys stop drinking for a while, and have a therapy session with their company's HR substance abuse rep. They have a real breakthrough-Adam realizes he's very selfish, Ders apologizes for being too controlling, and Blake admits part of the reason he's immature is he doesn't want to grow up and leave his friends behind. A few minutes later, the guys realize that being sober makes things too real, and they go right into a montage of drinking.

[[folder:Music]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwWpLUmMD8Q Alestorm - Pirate Song]]
-->''And for what?\\
I've killed and I've shot\\
And reddened the cold tears of children with blood\\
And If I could go back and make my amends\\
I'd make all those mistakes again\\
I'd kill every last one of those bastards, my friend.''
* "The Curse of Millhaven", by Music/NickCave & The Bad Seeds, is a MurderBallad about an EnfantTerrible. At one point in the song she says she's trying to change but immediately gives up and instead tries wholeheartedly to be awful.
-->''Since I was no bigger than a weevil,\\
They've been saying I was evil\\
That if bad was a boot, that I'd fit it\\
That I'm a wicked young lady,\\
But I've been trying hard lately\\
Oh fuck it! I'm a monster! I admit it!''
* Creature Feature's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1C4xP1ikY4 Such Horrible Things]]
-->''I am not a bad man\\
Even though I do bad things\\
Very bad things\\
Such horrible things\\
But it's not quite what it seems\\
(Not quite what he seems)\\
Not quite what I seem...\\
Ah, Hell...\\
It's exactly what it seems.''
* Music/IceT's ''[[Film/NewJackCity New Jack Hustler]]'' has the protagonist briefly contemplate the destructive effect his drug dealing and accompanying violence is having on his community and the horrifying implication that ''this is exactly what was intended'', but he can't wrap his head around that and drug dealing is making him more money than he could ever hope to have otherwise, so he goes right back to it.
-->''Got me twisted, jammed in a paradox\\
Every dollar I get, another brother drops\\
Maybe that's the plan, and I don't understand\\
Goddamn! You got me sinking in quicksand!\\
But since I don't know, and I never learned\\
I gotta get paid, I got money to earn''
* Actor/comedian Creator/DenisLeary gives us the page quote from his song ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no6-vsHgHJg Asshole]]'', a satire and skewering of the American middle class in the early 90s. Throughout the song its main character talks about how, despite all the reasons he has to be content with life, he's actually an anger filled {{Jerkass}} whose true joys come from a nearly endless series of [[EvilIsPetty petty cruelties and abuses]] he inflicts on the people around him, along with just general [[ItsAllAboutMe self-centered]]/[[LackOfEmpathy douchebag behavior]]. Around the middle of the song he considers the idea that [[HeelRealization maybe he's wrong to act this way]], but, as seen in the quote, after only a second or two he dismisses the thought and refuses to change.
* In Music/TheMegas' second album, "History Repeating:Blue" Dr. Light gets a song that's a DarkReprise of one of Wily's songs from their first album, "I Want to be the One (To Watch You Die)". In it, Light seems to wonder at one point if what he's done isn't so different from Wily, and he expresses remorse for turning Rock into a weapon against his rival. He then decides it doesn't matter, Wily needs to die, and Light wants to ''watch it happen.''
* At the end of ''Hope Rides Alone'' by Music/TheProtomen, the citizens are asking questions like "what have we done?" and "where did we go so wrong?" They then do nothing whatsoever to ''act'' on this.
* In Music/StoneSour's double concept album ''House of Gold and Bones'', the antagonist Allen realizes in the song "Black John" that villains never win, and that he should at least give the main character The Human a chance. He goes through with this halfway, the next song "Sadist" is Allen trying to convince The Human to quit while he's ahead.
* 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.
* "Paradise (Stay Forever)", the ending theme of ''VideoGame/ParadiseKiller'', opens with the narrator lamenting that "now I'm a killer" and [[LoveMakesYouEvil love's driven him out of his mind]]. Then he thinks of the woman he's doing all this crap to be reunited with ([[spoiler:likely TheHero, his ex-wife, who was exiled some time ago]]), and decides it doesn't matter. Even worse, later verses imply that he expects her to eventually ''accept'' his lies.
->''Say you don't love me, Lady\\
'Cos you got me goin' outta my mind!\\
Now I'm a killer, baby-\\
Well, [[StarCrossedLovers I'll see you]] in our [[IslandBase perfect 25]].''

[[folder:Podcasts]]
* ''Podcast/TheAdventureZoneBalance'': PlayedForLaughs when the party kills a {{mook|s}} on what was supposed to be a pacifist mission, and decide to throw his body off a cliff to cover it up. Just before they do that, they opt to go through his pockets, and [[GameMaster Griffin]] decides that they find his wallet, which contains pictures of [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes the guy's family]]. They consider this for a {{beat}}, and then...
-->'''Taako:''' They look racist.
* ''Podcast/WoodenOvercoats'': [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist Rudyard]] spends most of the series needlessly and relentlessly antagonizing his [[TheAce absurdly popular]] rival, Eric. However, in the episode "Rudyard Makes a Friend," he briefly wonders if maybe the reason Eric is so popular is because he's actually a nice guy, and if maybe ''he's'' the real problem. Unfortunately, the person he voices this thought to hates Eric even more than he does.

[[folder:Roleplay]]
* Bobby Jacks of ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest''. He quickly comes to the realisation that he's one of the bad guys, but immediately after he decides that he's gone too far to try and repent. He even supplements this with a quote from Theatre/{{Macbeth}} (the ''exact'' same one which Macbeth himself uses in this selfsame situation).

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* This is what happens to a Dark Elf in ''TabletopGame/BurningWheel'' when they've almost, but not quite, maxed out [[KarmaMeter Spite]]. (Maxing Spite [[DrivenToSuicide is a bad idea]].)
* This is how characters in the ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'' slide down the KarmaMeter. Every Morality check forces them to stop and ask themselves whether they can truly justify what they've done; if it's failed, they think, "Yep." and carry on unperturbed.
* In ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', this is the [[PlanetOfHats hat]] of the Dark Eldar -- they deliberately continue the nightmarishly hedonistic ways that brought their civilization to ruin, [[spoiler:primarily because they'll be utterly destroyed if they don't]]. On rare occasions, the epiphany sticks, and a Dark Eldar abandons their old life to join a Craftworld.

[[folder:Theatre]]
* ''Theatre/DoctorFaustus'' considers many times throughout the play whether he should rescind on his DealWithTheDevil. He always convinces himself that he's too far gone to repent, so there is no point. He is eventually more repentant when on the brink of death, but this is too late for Marlowe's God. Although Faustus was aware of religion, he chose to defy it.
* In Creator/EugeneONeill's ''Theatre/LongDaysJourneyIntoNight'', the characters are trapped in their past behavioural patterns, most notably Mary with her morphine addiction and James with his alcoholism and hurtful tongue.
-->'''Mary:''' The past is the present, isn't it? It's the future, too.
* In ''Theatre/{{Oliver}}'' Fagin, while "Reviewing the Situation," considered going straight and the situations it might result in, but finally decided:
-->I'm reviewing the situation.\\
I'm a bad 'un and a bad 'un I shall stay!\\
You'll be seeing no transformation,\\
But it's wrong to be a rogue in ev'ry way.
* Creator/WilliamShakespeare is fond of this trope.
** After the scene in which Banquo's ghost memorably interrupts his feast, Theatre/{{Macbeth}} has a quiet one of these. In the end he winds up deciding that it would be as bloody and dark a path if he were to turn back on his ambitions then as if he were to go forward, so he keeps going and soon after [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope jumps completely off the slippery slope]].
--->"I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er."
** Also used it in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', where Hamlet's EvilUncle has a moment where he realizes what a truly evil and unforgivable thing he's done by killing his brother and marrying his brother's wife. He even realizes that repenting is useless as long as he still profits from his act, so he prays for the strength to give up everything he's gained. When he finds he can't do so, he abandons any thought of repenting and just does his best to hold onto the throne.
** ''Theatre/RichardIII'' has his worst moment when the ghosts of his victims plague him in a nightmare. He shouts for mercy. But in the morning he declares that conscience is a fraud "devised to keep the strong in awe. Conscience, avaunt!"
* In ''Theatre/TurnaboutMusical'', the song "Decree of the Prosecutor" has Edgeworth go through one. He reflects on his actions and wonders if using underhanded tactics in the court makes him no better than the murderous people he prosecutes. He eventually decides that it's worth it, because "every criminal earns his punishment,/ so [he's] always done all [he] could/ What's the harm in filling in the blanks to some extent?/ If it's for the greater good?/ Indeed. If the defendant is clearly guilty, then [his] methods, no matter how extreme, should not be an issue at all!" He then wonders if his true motivations are actually caused by his personal feelings of "pretentious piety", but dismisses the notion on the grounds that it's best to use extreme methods to ensure that other people are spared the pain of loss that he himself went through.
* In ''Theatre/AVeryPotterMusical'', Harry tries to convince Voldemort that he regrets his evil deeds, and sad music starts to play...
-->'''Voldemort:''' Well... maybe there's one--NO! ''[[NoFourthWall points wand at musicians]]'' THERE ISN'T! ''[the musicians surrender]''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/AbsentedAgeSquarebound'': Rumi is initially shocked that her mistreatment and jealousy of Karen caused the latter to leave the Brass Band Club, but after Karen starts a new band with her friends, Rumi goes back to despising Karen and becomes worse than before. After Karen is pronounced dead due to a time paradox, Rumi reveals that she's actually glad that Karen is gone and spray paints over Karen's missing person poster out of spite.
* Andrew Ryan of ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'' has a [[http://bioshock.wikia.com/wiki/Mistakes very brief moment]] in one of his audio diaries where he admits that Rapture has gone straight down the tubes and it's pretty much his fault, only to go right back to his old ways.
* In ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'', this is how Father Comstock started down the path to become an ultranationalist, racist, religiously fanatical tyrant. The things he did in the Indian Wars drove him to get a baptism at a Christian revival, but instead of [[GoAndSinNoMore being washed of his sins and repenting]], Comstock interpreted the experience to mean that [[MoralMyopia his crimes weren't sins in the first place, and were therefore fully justified.]]
* In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer3TiberiumWars'', Killian Qatar expresses doubts about the war in the second act of the Nod Campaign, when she sees how swiftly [=GDI=] was able to reorganize and launch a counterattack. But because she knows full well that Kane does not take too kindly to people doubting him, she shakes it off.
-->'''Killian''': If Kane wants aggression: We will obey.
* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot4ItsAboutTime'': Dr. Neo Cortex begins to lament the [[TrappedInVillainy seemingly endless cycle of Crash beating him, and grows weary of their constant battles]]. [[spoiler:It isn't until Dr. Nefarious Tropy betrays him, however, that he chooses to act upon it and [[EnemyMine helps Crash take him down]]. Unfortunately, this doesn't last long, and the second he's defeated, he plots to [[RetGone wipe Crash from history so that he never existed in the first place]]. ...[[HereWeGoAgain Which fails.]]]]
* In ''VideoGame/TheCurseOfMonkeyIsland'', it's possible for Guybrush to throw an AndThenWhat at [=LeChuck=] that leaves him stumped, pointing out that that if the villain actually destroys the hero, he's also doomed to oblivion. That doesn't lead to anything, though -- it's a humorous bit of dialogue, not a way of making the main antagonist suddenly rethink his life.
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' gives us the final boss of [[spoiler: Knight-Commander Meredith.]] During the battle, at one point, all allies and enemies will become stunned, and she will ask how such evil can be so powerful. She then wonders if she is wrong, that everything she is doing is madness. She then hardens her resolve in her next statement, and says she must hold fast to her convictions, and the battle continues.
** [[spoiler:Anders]] apparently has one, but most of it is off-screen between Acts II and III. [[spoiler:He tries to put his obsession with the mages' plight aside and learn to rein in Vengeance. If he actually killed the mage he rescued during his personal quest, he outright calls himself a monster.]] Yet, by Act III, the obsession is back. And its much, much worse. [[spoiler:He goes so far as to fake an epiphany, using ExactWords to make it sound like he was trying to get rid of Vengeance, in order to trick Hawke into finding chemicals he can use to blow up the Chantry]].
* 200 years before the ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' DLC ''Dead Money'', Dean Domino concocted a scheme to ruin Frederic Sinclair and rob him of everything he had, [[EvilIsPetty purely out of envy that Sinclair was happier than him]]. Though he never managed to accomplish the robbing part, his scheme did result in the Sierra Madre becoming the poisonous Hellscape you see it as, as well as the tragic deaths of Sinclair and his love interest, Vera Keyes. If Dean (now a ghoul) survives to the end of the DLC, he will learn what happened to Sinclair and Vera and is said to feel remorse for his actions... except [[EvilCannotComprehendGood he doesn't understand]] ''[[EvilCannotComprehendGood why]]'' [[EvilCannotComprehendGood he feels sad]], so he merely shrugs it off. It's at least enough to make him give up on robbing the Sierra Madre Casino... and set his sights on the casinos of New Vegas instead.
** You can cause this in the DLC ''Old World Blues'' if you pick the wrong dialog choice. Doctor Borous conducted some terrible experiments on his dog Gabe - pretty much the only living thing that genuinely loved him - turning him from a lovable pooch to a slavering, vicious cyberdog monstrosity. After confronting Gabe (and either putting him down or avoiding him), the Courier can return his food bowl to Borous, who finds himself feeling an uncharacteristic sense of nostalgia... and regret. Two of your dialog choices - one of which will look like the obvious, straight-forward "right" choice - amounts to telling Borous that what he did to Gabe was wrong and terrible. Borous will agree... and then say that he doesn't like feeling this way, and will thus suppress it and put it out of his mind, which leads to no change in behavior. The third choice is to affirm that Gabe was just another specimen and the experiments served a good purpose; since this doesn't cause Borous to suppress his feelings, they will instead stew slowly until he has a genuine change of heart.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'': when Hope details Operation Nora for Lightning, she realizes that Hope intends to kill Snow out of revenge for his mother's death (which really wasn't Snow's fault). Lightning tries to talk him out of it, but Hope is smart enough to know that revenge solves nothing. He just doesn't care, and wants to kill Snow anyways. [[note]]In the end, he doesn't go through with it.[[/note]]
* [[VillainProtagonist Kratos]] has one in the first ''VideoGame/GodOfWarI'' game, when he sees a pile of soldiers killed by the followers of Ares, and has a {{flashback}} to [[DealWithTheDevil making his bargain with Ares]]. At the end he whispers "What have I become?" but then promptly forgets about it. Of course, the gods keep screwing him over, and at one point in [[VideoGame/GodOfWarII the second game]] he says that he's what the gods have made him. He says this again, word for word at the end of ''[[VideoGame/GodOfWarGhostOfSparta Ghost of Sparta]]'', after killing [[spoiler:Thanatos]] and [[spoiler:burying the bodies of his mother and brother]], the gravekeeper simply looks to him and responds, "You have become Death."
* ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'': Towards the end of the game, [[MissionControl Sylens]] reveals that [[spoiler:he is the one who discovered [[BigBad HADES]] and got him in touch with the Eclipse in exchange for knowledge about [[{{Precursors}} the Old Ones]], unwittingly kicking off the plot of the game]]. Aloy, while understandably angry about what Sylens's has unleashed with his obsessive knowledge-seeking, gives him credit for owning up to his mistake and trying to undo it... to which Sylens responds that he ''doesn't'' consider what he did a mistake (aside from [[FailsafeFailure not having enough safeguards in hindsight]]) and that he would happily do it again. [[spoiler:And you know he means it because ''[[AesopAmnesia he does do it again]]''; the master override he leads you too that will supposedly kill HADES does no such thing, it just incapacitates him so Sylens can capture him in a more secure container and plunder his data safely.]]
* Both [[spoiler:Atris and Kreia]] have several such epiphanies throughout ''[[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords]]'' and decide to continue their evil ways just the same. "It is such a quiet thing, to fall. But far more terrible is to admit it." Both characters then proceed to attempt to bring about the Annihilation of All They Hold Dear, proudly proclaiming how wrong they were about everything when they force the protagonist to kill them. Depending on how things play out, [[spoiler:Bastila]] may have met a similar fate in the first game.
* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' plays this for laughs when Jinx believes she's killed a large number of people in an explosion and starts feeling bad about her MadBomber ways, realizing she doesn't want to hurt people. Then she learns the building was evacuated in time, so she immediately and gleefully ignores the revelation.
--> '''Jinx:''' Yaaaaaay nobody died I didn't have to learn anything yaaaaaay!
* Scorpion suffers this in the orignal timeline of ''Franchise/MortalKombat'':
** In ''VideoGame/MortalKombat4'', he discovers that the elder Sub-Zero (whom he killed in the first game) was never involved in his family's deaths, that he had been framed, and that Scorpion's thurst for vengeance were uncalled for. That would mean Scorpion would not make any more poor decisions based on revenge, right? Sadly no, as Scorpion instead transfers his hate towards the actual culprit: Quan Chi. Scorpion's vengance would make him spend most of [[VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance the following game]] torturing Quan Chi until he escaped from the Netherrealm and formed the deadly alliance with Shang Tsung, [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom basically kickstarting the events of that game]].
** In ''VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon'', this obsession with wanting vengeance causes Scorpion to plot to kill Taven and Daegon as vengeance towards the Elder Gods, [[MovingTheGoalposts when they revive his Shirai Ryu clan as revenants, like Scorpion himself]] (after Scorpion spent [[VideoGame/MortalKombatDeception the previous game]] being their errand boy in trying to stop Onaga), with Scorpion seeing this as betrayal on their part.
* Near the end of ''VideoGame/Portal2'', [[spoiler:[=GLaDOS=]]] is [[HeelRealization terrified]] that the voice of conscience [[spoiler:she]] hears is [[spoiler:her]] own voice for the first time. After the final battle, [[spoiler:she locates the Caroline subroutine responsible for it and unceremoniously deletes it]].
** WordOfGod states that this is exactly what was intended. [[spoiler:[=GLaDOS=]]] learns a lesson but chooses to reject it, and [[spoiler:Wheatley]] learns a lesson but is in no position to repent.
** Although oddly enough, it's unclear if [[spoiler:Caroline was really deleted or if [=GLaDOS=] was just lying about it]]. Fan debate rages on, not helped by the fact that [[FlipFlopOfGod Word Of God can't seem to come to an agreement]].
* ''VideoGame/Psychonauts2'': When Maligula finally understands that she's the one who [[spoiler:killed her sister Marona]], she just dismisses her as one of the many she killed.
* Gehn from ''VideoGame/{{Riven}}'' decided that the number five was the ArcNumber essential to the art of writing Ages. All the evidence pointed to said number actually being six, but Gehn refused to acknowledge this. [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt It didn't end well.]]
* ''VideoGame/Sly3HonorAmongThieves'': Dr. M Has a brief discussion with Sly near the end of the last fight, and Sly manages to get M to acknowledge that Sly doesn't treat his Gang like Conner did when he and Dr. M were in the previous Cooper Gang. Dr. M appears to finally back down... but then Sly claims that he isn't like his ancestors, and that "touchy-feely rhetoric" enrages Dr. M past the boiling point.
* Throughout ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'', as [[PlayerCharacter Walker]] and his squad go deeper into the hell that is Dubai, they find evidence like audio recordings that indicate that [[BigBad Colonel Konrad]] had a HeelRealization about just what kind of a despot he was becoming in his attempts to maintain order in the sandstorm-choked city, even while Konrad [[WhatTheHellHero chews out Walker over the radio for fighting against him.]] ''Except''... [[spoiler:Konrad was DeadAllAlong, and was DrivenToSuicide by what he'd done to Dubai before Walker even showed up. So the "Konrad" that Walker is hearing over the (broken) radio is his own conscience trying to tell him that he didn't "have to" do any of the atrocities he committed to come this far, that everything's he's done has only made things worse, but Walker ignores it to shout back at "Konrad" and put all the blame on him. It's only at the very end, when he finds Konrad's long-dead corpse, that Walker is forced to confront the truth.]]
* In Episode 5 of ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands'' after Rhys [[spoiler:crashes Helios into Pandora]] he and [[ArtificialIntelligence Handsome Jack]] have a heart-to-heart conversation. Jack admits that [[AmbitionisEvil ambition blinded him while he was alive]], and he drove away everyone he cared about, including Angel. If pressed about her he admits he was responsible for her [[HeroicSacrifice suicide]], as he left her no other choice when he [[ForYourOwnGood locked her up]]. This heart-to-heart then ends with Jack [[GrandTheftMe hijacking Rhys]] and trying to [[KillUsBoth kill them both]].
* [[VillainProtagonist Arthas]] in ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} III: The Frozen Throne'' has one of these when he climbs up the steps towards the titular throne; he hears the voices of his former teachers and friends[[note]]and the Prophet, even though he wasn't around to hear him[[/note]] scolding him, warning that he is making a terrible mistake. Then the Lich King commands him to return the blade, so Arthas does, striking the Frozen Throne so hard that it shatters and releases the armor trapped within. Then Arthas puts on the armor, fusing his and Ner'zhul's souls to become a new Lich King.
** Kil'jaeden has one in the Legion expansion of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. He questions Sargeras over the destiny that was promised to him and that despite following Sargeras' orders for so many years yet has only constant failure to show for it. When Sargeras begins to question his resolve, Kil'jaeden angrily retorts that he's sacrificed his own world in Sargeras' name. And then just like that, he goes quiet and carries out the next step of Sargeras' plans.
* Chester Stoddart from ''Videogame/YsTheOathInFelghana'' has a moment of this midway through the game. Chester explains his desire for [[spoiler:revenge against the man who killed his parents and had his hometown destroyed, the count he's been serving]]. Dogi simply asks Chester "AndThenWhat" Considering that Chester [[AloofBigBrother abandoned his little sister to get what he wanted]], he has a moment where he considers what Dogi is saying... until he decides that [[IveComeTooFar he's come too far now]] and [[RevengeBeforeReason stabs Dogi in the chest]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* One genuinely heroic example in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight: Unlimited Blade Works.'' When Shirou finds that his ideal and way of life are distorted after being challenged about them by Rin, he logically realizes that his processes are wrong. However, he also decides that he won't listen to her warning, because:
-->'''Shirou:''' There's no way that wanting to help people can be a mistake.
* In the [[AnotherSideAnotherStory Meakashi-hen arc]] of ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' [[spoiler:Shion brutally kills Satoko]] and remembers that [[spoiler:the last thing her disappeared boyfriend Satoshi had asked of her was to protect his little sister]]. At first, she's horrified... but then she realizes that she always knew in the back of her mind that [[spoiler:Satoshi]] would have never wanted any of this and that the "demon" [[spoiler:(aka the HatePlague)]] had taken over her mind to make her lose her sanity and forget her feelings of loss, as well as make her commit bloody revenge. It is at this point that she considers herself [[IveComeTooFar irredeemable and not deserving of any sympathy]], hence her tears when Keiichi shows her mercy. Regardless, at the very end, [[spoiler: after it's stated that she can't sense the Hate Plague affecting her mind anymore, she feels so much remorse that she commits suicide (not shown in the anime), apologizing to Satoko and everyone else in her mind in her last moments]]. [[spoiler:Of course, the next arc shows that perhaps it really wouldn't have been too late. An even later arc shows that Shion remembered this epiphany to become a better person in her next life, namely turning into Satoko's loving surrogate sister, willing to sacrifice her life for her]].
* In three of the four "true" endings of ''VisualNovel/{{Nicole}}'', the kidnapper is momentarily shaken by the way [[spoiler:the other potential love interests]] refute his reasoning for kidnapping the people he did, but he quickly shrugs it off and continues being a SmugSnake. [[spoiler:In his own ending, he subverts this and has a VillainousBSOD instead.]]
* The villain of the second arc in ''VisualNovel/ShikkokuNoSharnoth'' realizes he's in the wrong and that happiness is just in front of him if he just stops, but in the end he is just too insane to do it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/MegaManDiesAtTheEnd'': While having an experience in the afterlife, [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic Mega Man]] is told he has only one chance at redemption, but instead interprets it as a sign that he needs to be an even bigger asshole.
* [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Solid Snake]] has one of these at the end of [[https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/226467 this]] hilarious Flash video.
* ''WebAnimation/TerribleWritingAdvice'': Half the jokes in a given episode are based around this. While giving his supposedly great writing advice, JP will often think of a valid objection to said advice or an alternate approach that acutally ''is'' good advice, only to then dismiss it as being ridiculous.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Happened once or twice to Black Mage of ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater''; he realizes that White Mage might actually like him if he stopped being an evil jackass. Then Fighter started talking and it all went stabways.
** In fact, BM is probably past the point where epiphanies have any chance of changing him -- because at least once, he ''saw one coming'' and took measures to "protect" himself from it.
** In a cunning moment, Black Mage [[spoiler:subverted this all to hell by ''faking'' an Epiphany after accidentally wounding White Mage. [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2009/05/12/episode-1127-invincible-sword-technique The faux epiphany made Fighter drop his guard and turn his back on Black Mage]], which Black Mage promptly took advantage of]].
** Three of the Light Warriors had near-simultaneous examples at the Castle of Ordeals. Black Mage stabbed the incarnation of all of his inner evil, and then reabsorbed it and refused to learn anything; Red Mage accidentally passed the Ordeal of Pride by admitting he had been bested, and then immediately concluded that he had passed because he was super brilliant and had passed it subconsciously; and Fighter, when told that he needed to stop resting on his swordplay laurels and use his brain in the Ordeal of Sloth, checked with his brain, found it suggested using swords, and killed the monster giving him the test. The only exception was Thief, who was randomly teleported away from his Ordeal before it could really get started, leaving Black Mage to solve that one too.
* Parodied in ''Webcomic/NoNeedForBushido'' when Ken threatened to have a moral epiphany and stop mugging strangers if the rest of the group doesn't help him perform a play for his favorite Kabuki actor. Since this is the only source of income for the group, Ina quickly agrees, only for Ken to immediately tell her he never planned on going through with his threat in the first place.
* Played with in just the ''second'' strip of ''Webcomic/ChoppingBlock''.
-->''Weary of being a slave to these homicidal impulses, Butch seriously considered getting a lobotomy. But for that he'd need a referral from his Primary Care Physician, whom he'd buried under the back porch last Tuesday. Damn HMO.''
* In ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan'', Bulgak the Orc Infernomancer keeps insisting that [[SurvivalMantra "(he) is good person"]], despite Infernomancers being evil by the very nature of their powers (they sell their souls to their patron demon in order to channel that demon's power) and Hell itself showing him the evil that he's done.
** He does get over it, and, surprisingly, is apparently EasilyForgiven by the powers-that-be when he makes the ''actual'' epiphany, but it takes ''way'' longer than it probably should.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Endstone}}'', when about to MindRape her ParentalSubstitute, [[http://endstone.net/comic/issue-1-page-42/ Cole wonders why she is doing these terrible things -- for a panel]].
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'':
** An inversion where the character ''isn't'' as bad as the semi-sarcastic self-description she delivers...but goes along with it anyway because it's useful.
--->'''Agatha:''' ''I'm'' the bad guy, because, for whatever reason, you didn't tell your nasty little friend who you are. And now she's sad. So you're mad at ''me''--because now she's all teary and sweet and needs rescuing. And ''I'm'' the evil madgirl with the deathray and the freakish ancestors--and the town full of minions--and the horde of Jagers--and the homicidal castle full of sycophantic evil geniuses and fun-sized hunter-killer monster clanks and ''goodness knows what else''...and you know what? '''I can work with that!'''
** At some later point, the [[GeniusLoci Castle]] mentions an incident regarding a previous master :
--->'''Castle Heterodyne:''' Master Robur thought they were ''Angels'' [..] He believed heaven itself was coming to punish him. Though he ''was'' rather fuzzy on which sin in particular had crossed the line. He experienced a genuine ''crisis of faith''. He didn't like it. So he smashed his device, which banished the... well, banished whatever they were... Then he had ''pie''. Crisis over. In many ways he was a refreshingly ''simple'' man.
** On the other hand, there's [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070709#.WrgyQojwaUk Klaus Wulfenbach's problem with female Sparks]]...
--->'''Klaus:''' Don't you know, every woman with the Spark has tried to kill me? They're dangerous!\\
'''Gilgamesh:''' Father, maybe it's ''you''.\\
''[two beat panels of Klaus looking shocked and confused]''\\
'''Klaus:''' ''[still uncertain]'' ... no? No, I don't ''think'' so...
* ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'': Saves-a-Fox almost managed to give Duv a HeelRealization about how far from a goblin she has become, but then her less-than-materialist party member Biscuit tried to cure Duv of her obsessions with his OWN version of HeelRealization, which involved violent crippling and sheer nihilism. Next we see the now-wingless Duv, she's plucking the wings from little birds and on the brink of madness.
* In ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'', Paz tells Annie that Kat is quite worried about the current situation, and that Annie had better not do anything to make it worse. While talking to herself later, Annie first wonders why Paz is speaking for Kat, then reflects that Kat doesn't always talk to Annie about her problems, and maybe she thinks she needs to put on a brave face in front of Annie, and Annie doesn't pay enough attention to notice. Then she decides Paz is just being unreasonable.
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': Cronus Ampora admits that his whole "humankin"-greaser persona might be just another cry for attention and perhaps he ought to change who he is (if only to have a chance with Meenah), but fortunately Kankri [[NiceJobBreakingItHero shows up to tell him to trust his feelings and never doubt himself]] thus preventing Cronus from learning anything from the experience.
* ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons'': During his duel with White Chain at the end of the TournamentArc, [[TotalitarianUtilitarian Solomon David]] comes ''this'' close to admitting to himself that [[RepressiveButEfficient his rule]] is unjust, that he knows this, and that he holds the Tournament of Power in the unconscious hope that someone will dethrone him... but he then he just... doesn't.
-->I wonder sometimes... why I do this at all. Perhaps... for the faintest hope... that someday [[WellIntentionedExtremist men like me]] need not exist. (''a sad expression crosses his face and he seems pensive, only to forcefully regain his composure'') Oh, well. [[AesopAmnesia Until a better age I suppose]].
* One ''Webcomic/LeastICouldDo'' story arc made it look like Rayne might come to terms with his skirt-chasing after learning that he blew his chance with his hot boss Marcy because she moved on after spending years waiting for him to make a move. But then he gets over it by hanging out with his niece, and by the next week's strips he's back to being a man-whore.
* ''Webcomic/NicoleAndDerek'': Adrian manages to get Miss Fluffy to see the light regarding her extreme ControlFreak ways. For about ten seconds, then Adrian finding a hair in his food sets Fluffy off to see to the matter herself (rather than let Adrian handle it himself).
-->'''Adrian:''' I really thought she was going to listen to me.\\
'''Shelby:''' It was a good try.
* [[TheDragon Redcloak]] of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' has a moment like this in ''[[Recap/TheOrderOfTheStickStartOfDarkness Start of Darkness]]'' when he has the opportunity to [[spoiler:help his brother kill [[BigBad Xykon]]]]. What he does instead becomes the subject of an awesome [[BreakThemByTalking breaking speech]] from Xykon that effectively defines Redcloak's character for the entire story to date.
** There's also [[HeroicComedicSociopath Belkar]], who Vaarsuvius uses Owl's Wisdom on to grant him the ability to use healing scrolls. That wisdom gives Belkar the chance to reflect upon the good he could do by devoting his life to healing instead of killing, then Vaarsuvius dismisses the spell, with Belkar reverting to his old self.
** Later on, a [[spoiler:half-dead]] Belkar has a genuine epiphany, as he realizes that being a blatant murderer and psychopath is eventually going to get him killed by one of the genuinely-good guys. This does not convince him to turn away from evil, however -- he just realizes [[spoiler:that he has to learn how to ''fake'' that he is becoming a better person. And it works]].
*** Of course, [[spoiler:the leaders of his genuinely good-guy group see through it immediately, but play along as it means that the little psycho would be easier to control for the [[YourDaysAreNumbered remaining months of his life]]. As time goes on, it also seems like Belkar is in fact BecomingTheMask ... but he refuses to admit it to himself]].
** Miko Miyazaki shows early on that she has a MurderIsTheBestSolution mentality; it takes very specific orders from her liege to even consider bringing in a target alive. But when she turns her sword on a helpless old man, the Twelve Gods strip her of her Paladin feats, marking her as Fallen. Rather than accepting that she made a bad decision, Miko fanatically assumes that what's happened to her is a clearly a SecretTestOfCharacter and continues to act as she always does, even after being arrested. [[spoiler: After she dies, the ghost of her order's founder tells her that because she never acknowledged that she did anything wrong, she won't be redeemed, and her single-minded attempts to 'fulfill her duty' without taking anything else into consideration actually [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom prevented]] said ghost from killing the BigBad.]]
* ''Webcomic/{{Polandball}}'':
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republika_Srpska Republika Srpska]] has one in [[http://i.imgur.com/7avDUUo.png this comic.]] Instead of killing Bosniaks, he decides to [[spoiler:keep killing Bosniaks, but with musical accompaniment]].
** [[http://i.imgur.com/OPsxK2v.png Through the Mind of North Korea]] has North Korea coming to the realization that he needs to open up and start interacting with other countries. He reacts by [[spoiler:shooting himself until the uncomfortable thought goes away]].
* In ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'', when {{Hikikomori}} Marigold is persuaded to go to the bar, Momo, her [=AnthroPC=] takes over her ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' character. When she returns Momo is too busy playing to talk to her about her night out. In the ensuing argument, Marigold realises that Momo was acting exactly the way she does ... and that reminds her that ''[=WoW=]'' is ''important''.
* In ''Webcomic/ZebraGirl'', Sam points out to Dr. Broadshoulders that villains are supposed to [[JustBetweenYouAndMe tell their plan to their captives]] for [[EvilGloating 'egomaniacal catharsis']] and convinces him to tell his [[StartOfDarkness backstory]]. As Broadshoulders explains that he's damned to Hell and has given up on examining his own motives years ago, Sam [[KirkSummation calls him out on his crap]]. Broadshoulders stops for a moment, considers Sam's argument and is almost swayed. Then he turns and goes off to carry out his plan [[UnspokenPlanGuarantee without telling Sam the plan itself]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* John Cheese on ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' recounts how he was asked to be best man at his friend's wedding where they wouldn't have alcohol, and began to grow anxious and irritable because of not being able to drink. Eventually he cut his toast short and made up an excuse to leave early so he could drink. He realized that he was actually afraid of going without alcohol.
-->This realization is what motivated me to, uh, completely forget about it and continue drinking for about eight more years.
* ''Website/TheOnion'' plays with this trope in a RealLife context in [[http://www.theonion.com/articles/there-was-definitely-a-point-during-that-stoning-w,18165/ There Was Definitely A Point During That Stoning Where We All Thought, 'Is This Weird?']]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* ''WebVideo/DrHorriblesSingAlongBlog'': [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation One way]] of looking at Dr. Horrible's final song has elements of this. [[spoiler:The song plays with double meanings that underline the tragedy of the scene, most importantly the first, "Here lies everything/The world I wanted at my feet." Arguably, Horrible acknowledges here that everything that has just happened is (at least partially) his fault, and Penny is dead because of his recklessness and his drive to join the Evil League of Evil. They offer him a place, though, and he accepts, even though [[TearJerker he hasn't forgotten his loss]].]]
* Even though WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic has a barrel-ton of GuiltyPleasures himself, when it comes to a movie he sees no good in (like the Creator/JimCarrey remake of ''Film/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas''), he never fully comprehends how others can like it. In the specific case of the Grinch movie, at the end of his review he contemplates taking a more tolerant, open-handed view and saying that if people take pleasure in it or see something in it that he doesn't, then maybe that's what counts... then essentially says "Nah, I'm right, they're wrong!"
* ''[[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]].
* There are quite a number of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' fan videos on [=YouTube=] that show PlayerCharacter Frisk facing off against Sans, the final boss of the [[KillEmAll No Mercy]] path. In many of these videos Frisk's famous {{determinat|or}}ion is finally wavering and Frisk is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone on the edge of a breakdown due to the actions Frisk has taken]] to get to this point. Frisk is even all but begging Sans to hurt and punish them further for their crimes and is about to hit the ResetButton to undo all the damage to the timeline... and then due to either one last burst of crazed determination or [[DemonicPossession the influence of Chara/The Fallen Child]], Frisk continues attacking Sans and succeeds in killing him, thus likely making the damage to the timeline permanent. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrfDI3LZTYA Here's one example]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'':
** Lumpy-Space Princess erroneously becomes convinced that her new boyfriend Johnny no longer has affection for her and is instead interested in Princess Bubblegum despite being informed that the meeting was strictly business. She speaks as if she will accept his "betrayal" and talks about how letting someone you love go into the arms of another takes a big person. She then says "I don't know if I can be that big." before throwing a bottle of gasoline into a nearby truck and crashing it into the castle, causing a huge fire.
** In the episode "Temple of Mars" from the final season, [[spoiler:Betty]] goes on a journey filled with metaphors designed to subconsciously get her to realize that she can't save Simon from being the Ice King, and that her obsession with doing so is just making things worse and killing any hope she has of saving herself. [[spoiler:Betty]] briefly acknowledges and accepts the lesson, but after exiting the temple she rejects it, talks about how much of a {{Determinator}} [[TheHero Finn]] was during the journey, and that it has made her decide that she just has to try harder to save Simon.
** In the series finale, Finn and Jake use a magic potion to trap themselves and Fern, Princess Bubblegum, and Gumbald in a collective dreamworld where they can sort out their differences without anyone else getting involved. Finn helps Fern overcome the demon inside him, while Gumbald and Bubblegum seem to get an understanding of the other. All of them wake up, and Gumbald tells Bubblegum that he's willing to put the war behind them and is about to embrace her when he's tripped by Lolly, exposing the fact he ''didn't'' come to an understanding at all, he just wanted to get close enough to splash Bubblegum with the [[PhlebotinumInducedStupidity Dum Dum Juice]] under his cloak. Instead, the bottle shatters when he lands, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard splashing]] ''[[HoistByHisOwnPetard himself]]'' [[HoistByHisOwnPetard with the juice]].
--->'''Lolly:''' [[LampshadeHanging He never was the epiphany type]].
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** By the season two finale, Zuko improves his life by listening to Iroh, adopts a positive outlook and more or less giving up his chase for the Avatar. [[spoiler: Then Azula arrives and gives Zuko the chance to capture or kill the Avatar together, which would finally restore Zuko's reputation and allow him to return from exile. Zuko ''almost'' listens to Iroh's plea not to listen to Azula and join Aang's quest instead, but Azula's [[BreakThemByTalking breaking speech]] convinces Zuko to join her attack on his uncle and the Gang.]]
** He has another one in "The Beach," wherein Zuko has to come to grips with why [[spoiler: he's still so angry and unsatisfied after returning to the Fire Nation. Despite having everything he's ever wanted he's still not happy, and after being pushed he realizes that what he's really angry at is himself, and the reason why is because he doesn't even know the difference between right and wrong anymore. (After all he's been steering his whole life around the idea that right meant being a good Fire Nation patriot, soldier, and a loyal son, but now he knows his country and father are on the wrong side of the war and about to commit genocide). Then he reconciles with Mai and continues to go along with things in the Fire Nation for about another half dozen episodes before finally doing his HeelFaceTurn for real.]]
*** In the same episode, Azula herself has one just before Zuko does, [[spoiler:where each member of the group is sharing some hidden aspect of themselves and their flaws. Azula's is how she resented how their mother, Ursa, lavished attention on Zuko, and her perception that Ursa considered her a monster. She then wraps it up with "She was right, of course, but it still hurt!" This epiphany came back with a vengeance in the series finale, alongside a VillainousBreakdown]].
** Lao Beifong, Toph's father, witnessed her true power in the climax of "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.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''
** 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.
** In "The Trial", the JokerJury of villains argue that [[CreateYourOwnVillain Batman is the reason they're all supervillains.]] Eventually, Batman's counsel convinces them they would have all been criminals anyway, just maybe without the gimmicks. However, since it turns out they all were [[CardCarryingVillain evil on their own]], they were going to kill Batman anyway, in spite of coming to the agreement that she was right about them all along.
* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'':
** In the episode "The Deepening", Teddy has an unhealthy amount of hate towards a shark prop from a movie he worked on because the shark operator made it bump into him as he was trying to hit on an extra, getting her messy and rejecting him, causing a lifetime of eating. It's only after all these years does someone, in this case Bob, ask [[MisplacedRetribution why he wasn't mad at the shark operator]]. Although Teddy does realize that, whether it's stubborness to accept he wasted his vendetta or genuine belief that it's evil, he insists the shark drove him to do the deed.
** In the episode "Secret Ceramics Room of Secrets", Louise tries to find and break into the long lost ceramics room to find a gift for her grandparents instead of making one from scratch. When they find it, the find Mr. Frond hid his darkest secret in the room. He reveals that he cheated in the election for student president when he went to Wagstaff by hiding the votes for his opponent and the room was closed in a fire before he could confess. He agrees not to punish the Belcher kids if they agree to tell no one his secret. Tina tells Mr. Frond he shouldn't hide his secret, and that if kids knew about what he did then they'd respect him more and look up to him. He immediately tells Tina it's a terrible idea because kids don't want a relatable guidance counselor and that kids listen to him because he's perfect, even after Louise doesn't ignore her epiphany. Mr. Frond's ego and inability/refusal to understand children destroyed a chance to actually improve at being a guidance counselor.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'':
** At the end of "The House of the Lucky Gander!", after Louie and the other kids reject him in favor of Donald's perseverance, Gladstone starts to reflect on how much he's come to rely on his supernaturally good luck, coasting through life with it at the expense of building skills and developing lasting relationships. Then a woman comes up and offers to sell him a yacht for $20 (which is the exact amount his luck has randomly granted him), and he happily declares, "Gladstone's back, baby!"
** Seems to be a recurring thing with Goldie O'Gilt. How much of it is genuine remorse and how much of it is faked in order to manipulate Scrooge et al.'s emotions is hard to determine, but in "Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake!", she does realize her scheming has put Louie in genuine danger and drops the act in order to protect him. Just when it seems like she may be turning over a new leaf, she betrays Louie and steals the treasure out from under him. "The Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades!" shows her softening and ends with her returning Isabella Finch's journal to Scrooge, leaving the adventure with no gain except her relationship with Scrooge, then a few episodes later she reveals she went back to steal the fountain anyway.
* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'': The ChristmasEpisode has Eddy embark on a personal journey to discover the joy of selflessness and giving. Upon fixing a broken decorated Christmas tree, he gets rewarded with a gigantic sack of presents for him and the rest of the neighborhood, but then he instantly goes back to his old self by snatching the load and running off to loot it for himself.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' episode "Apartnership!", Mama Cosma realizes how much her son loves Wanda. She then vows to try harder to break them up.
* In an episode of ''The Scary Door'', a ShowWithinAShow of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', a scientist invents a robot to do all his research and assume his social obligations, freeing him to laze around and drink beer. Years later, an official comes by with an award, which he presents to the robot, and the scientist's son calls the robot his daddy. The man realizes that [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor the robot has won all the fame and love that he could have had]]... and then orders the robot to experience the tragic irony for him. As the robot lets out a BigNo, he goes back to lazing around and drinking beer.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'':
** [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Demona]] gets one at the finale of the epic four-part episode "City of Stone". At the prompting of the Weird Sisters, she comes to the realization that all the events in her descent into villainy could be laid at her own feet, thereby shredding her justification for her genocidal hatred of humans into tiny pieces. After the Sisters stop talking, though, Demona angrily proclaims that she was tricked into saying that and has to be restrained by magic, leading [[TheHero Goliath]] to lament that she has learned nothing. Demona's still a villain the next time we see her.
** Also during "City of Stone", in the earliest part of Demona's StartOfDarkness, when Demona's first plan goes wrong, she reacts to the death of her clan and the permanent freezing of Goliath and the others in stone by saying "What have I... what have ''they'' done to you?!!" In a great CallBack, at the very end of the series John, (a human hunting gargoyles) accidentally shoots his brother while trying to kill Goliath and says the exact same line.
** Another Demona example: in the episode "Vows", Demona and Goliath travel back in time, and past-Demona [[FutureMeScaresMe reacts with horror to what she will become]] and helps Goliath defeat future-Demona. Goliath then delivers a speech urging Demona to amend her ways and live for the moment... only for future-Demona to wake up, tell Goliath she remembers his pathetic words of advice, spit in his face, and fly off into the night. Given that a well-established rule of time travel as depicted in ''Gargoyles'' is that [[StableTimeLoop it's impossible to change the past in any way]], it was a ForegoneConclusion that Goliath's speech wouldn't work.
** Xanatos in "The Price" imprisons Hudson for a scheme, and quickly finds himself subjected to ArmorPiercingQuestion after ArmorPiercingQuestion about what he really wants. Near the end, Hudson asks Xanatos what his legacy will be when all his scheming is done. Xanatos seems disturbed by this...and then goes back to seeking immortality. [[spoiler:WordOfGod confirms that this had a bigger impact on Xanatos than he himself realized at first.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'':
** The group runs afoul of a secret society who uphold the {{masquerade}} with a [[LaserGuidedAmnesia memory erasing gun]]. When Dipper points out their actions have driven [[spoiler:Old Man [=McGucket=]]] to insanity, their leader admits he feels bad, then immediately uses the gun to wipe that feeling from his mind.
** In the {{Gamebook|s}} ''Literature/GravityFallsDipperAndMabelAndTheCurseOfTheTimePiratesTreasure'', [[spoiler:Axolotl implies that [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Bill Cipher regrets destroying his home world]], but at the same time [[NeverMyFault he refuses to believe that it's his fault]]]].
* In the ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' episode "All the News" stuntwoman Adrena Lynn bungees out of the blimp and Kim catches her, only for it to be a dummy, as the lady fakes all her own stunts. Ron learns this and, repulsed by Lynn's actions, writes a story exposing her as a fraud, resulting in her show being cancelled and leaving Lynn vowing revenge on Kim and Ron. Lynn learns about Kim dating a football player named Brick Flagg (actually a fake story Ron made up to get himself on the papers for Middleton High) and kidnaps him, taking him to the abandoned Middleton Fairgrounds and tying him on a coaster. Then, as Lynn uses several obstacles to prevent Kim from rescuing Brick:
-->'''Adrena Lynn''': Hey, Kim! The quarterback's almost out of time, and you're going the wrong way!\\
'''Ron''': Adrena Lynn, you ''can't'' do this!\\
'''Adrena Lynn''': And why not? \\
'''Ron''': ''I'm'' the one responsible for you've been cancelled. ''I'' called you a fake.\\
'''Brick''': What?\\
'''Ron''': I guess takes one to know one. I made up that stuff about Kim liking Brick just to sell my story.\\
'''Brick''': Oh, harsh!\\
'''Ron''': It worked, kinda, but the thing is that if the fake part about you is what people like, what good is that?\\
'''Adrena Lynn''': Hmm.. You're right.\\
'''Ron''': Right. From now on, I'm keepin' it real!\\
'''Adrena Lynn''': Me, too...STARTING WITH MY VERY ''REAL'' DEFEAT OF KIM POSSIBLE!! (''[[EvilLaugh laughs maniacally]]'')\\
'''Ron''': [[LampshadeHanging Okay, well, that didn't work]].
* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'':
** In the episode "Stormy Weather 2", Hawk Moth briefly considers that he's taking too many risks with his actions, such as [[spoiler: his son jumping off a building to escape one of his supervillains,]] then immediately decides that he ''has'' to succeed in achieving his goals and creates his MonsterOfTheWeek.
** Also happens in the "Queen's Battle" Trilogy. After the most powerful akuma he made at the point is defeated [[spoiler:and his son got put in danger again]], Hawkmoth decides to give up trying to steal the heroes' Miraculous and move on with his life. Then Chloe outs herself as the holder of the Bee Miraculous and opens herself up to being akumatized. Seeing that he has another chance at winning, Hawkmoth is unable to resist taking the opportunity and comes out of [[TenMinuteRetirement retirement.]]
* A sad case in ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'''s "Grounded". Orel undergoes a near death experience to talk to {{God}}, and the resulting DreamSequence grants him a profound epiphany about his faith. Then his father spanks him until he forgets it because it didn't fall in line with official church dogma.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** In "Fame and Misfortune", Twilight and her friends manage to teach their arguing fans that nopony is perfect, complete with a big musical number, but the crowd goes right back to arguing when they're finished.
** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E8Frenemies Frenemies]]", Grogar sends his LegionOfDoom, consisting of Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow, on a mission to retrieve his bell and finally learn to work together. The villains end up bonding over their shared hatred of Twilight Sparkle and her friends while on the mission, and successfully complete their mission by working together and helping each other. When they reflect on this and realize that helping each other seemed smarter than to continue fighting each other and that [[GoodFeelsGood it actually felt nice to support someone other than themselves]], they quickly realize that they are becoming friends and immediately reject the idea, refusing to accept the "magic of friendship" out of pride. They agree to only continue working together until they can [[TheStarscream betray Grogar]] and [[EnemyMine defeat their common enemies]], afterwards they all agree to go back to trying to destroy each other.
* In ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'': a psychologist determines through hypnotism that Brain's desire to rule the world [[spoiler:was actually created in him subversively and accidentally by the scientists at his lab. What Brain really wanted was to go back to his family, who lived in a can with a picture of the world on it. But his mind was warped by the experimentation to the point that all he could remember was his desire for the image]]. Brain considers the possibility, but ultimately dismisses it and goes on as planned.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/PoundPuppies1980s'' ChristmasEpisode "Happy Howlidays", Katrina Stoneheart's heartless scheme is to shut down the Puppy Pound by revealing to Holly bills she had hidden from her for months. When the Pound Puppies are left on the street, they summon the aid of Zazu the Fairy Dogmother to get Katrina to see the error of her ways, which they do by having Katrina dream she is a puppy and witness firsthand the consequences of making the Pound Puppies homeless. After she wakes up from the dream, Katrina actually considers making an effort to be on better terms with the Pound Puppies, but brushes it aside and continues with her cruel plot.
* Happens twice in ''WesternAnimation/{{The Powerpuff Girls|1998}}'' episode "Ploys R' Us". First when the girls find out that the toys that they found in their room were stolen by the professor, but then they find that he was sleep walking when he stole them, they just let him go along with it. The second time occurs after the professor finds the toys, and the girls lie to him that they were gifts from the city, and Bubbles suggests that they should stop. But the girls go “''Naah''”, and let the professor do it again. {{Subverted|Trope}} when the girls confess to letting the professor sleep walk when they thought that the Mayor and Townsville police department had killed the professor, because they loved the toys so much.
* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': After Double Trouble's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech in the fourth season, Catra has finally hit rock bottom and has no choice but to improve. But instead, at the beginning of the final season, she tries to get in with Horde Prime the way she had with Hordak. When Glimmer calls her out on it, Catra blows her off, calling herself "a survivor", which belies her own cowardice. It isn't until Catra realizes that if Adora makes it to Prime's ship, Adora will be killed, Catra finally decides to improve and do "one good thing in her life".
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** Mr. Burns experiences one in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E4Rosebud Rosebud]]" after Maggie returns his beloved childhood teddy bear, asking Smithers to write down that from now on, he's only going to be good and kind to everyone. Smithers realizes that he doesn't have a pencil and Burns responds "Eh, I'm sure I'll remember it."
** Another case occurs with Barney Gumble in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E18AStarIsBurns A Star is Burns]]", after his film about his drinking problems wins the Springfield Film Festival. He vows that from now on, he will be a new person, specifically, a clean and sober one. That is, until Mayor Quimby brings him the grand prize; a truck filled with [[TrademarkFavoriteFood Duff Beer]]. Barney's response? "Just hook it to my veins!"
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E20TheBoyWhoKnewTooMuch The Boy Who Knew Too Much]]", Skinner tries to find where Bart is playing hooky, but all the places he expects Bart to be hanging out (like the 4-H Club) are abandoned. Skinner asks himself if he's really become this out-of-touch, but then only concludes, "No, it's the ''children'' who are wrong."
* Cartman in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' recurrently falls victim to this. He has a common inability to learn Aesops, especially about selflessness and empathy, as he is lampshaded as [[EvilCannotComprehendGood near physically lacking a conscience]] (he's even tried to deliver AnAesop, it was naturally mangled horribly). Even besides that Cartman is usually too egotistical and childish to learn from his mistakes.
-->'''Kyle:''' Dammit, Cartman, didn't you learn ''anything''?
* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', both Yellow and Blue Diamond clearly regret deeply how their actions and treatment of Pink Diamond as a bratty child led to the latter's death at the hands of Rose Quartz during the Rebellion, and want nothing more than to have her back... [[spoiler:And after the TomatoInTheMirror reveal that Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond and faked her own death, and that she had a son, they treat her son Steven the exact same way they treated Rose/Pink pre-Rebellion, which was the original cause of Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond deciding her family members didn't care about her at all. Subverted in "Change Your Mind", in which both of them ''finally'' realize they've been repeating the exact same cycle that drove Pink away in the first place]].
* ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces2017'': After Dick Dastardly experiences a race in a reality where all the other racers not only look and act like him, but [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat are just as much as compulsive cheaters]] and the races apparently always end up in a no-contest because they always wreck their cars, Dastardly berates them all, telling them if they focused less on cheating and more on racing cleanly they would win for a change. He is then transported into a "Hall of Epiphany" inside his mind, where he meets the personification of his intellect so that he can see that after talking to all those doubles he now can see why he can never win: [[spoiler:"It's all Muttley's fault!"]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* This trope, along with NeverMyFault, is one of the many traits of [[TheSociopath sociopaths]] and {{narcissist}}s, since it is nearly impossible for them to feel guilt; even if they do, they tend to sweep it under the rug.
* Also a defining trait of fanatical people (whether religious, political, or otherwise). Whenever they discover evidence that their ideology might be wrong, they will make any excuse, no matter how strained or ridiculous it sounds, rather than change their minds.
* Early in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, during the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Nazis carried out conventional acts of genocide via having death squads (''Einsatzgruppen'') massacre whole villages of Jews and similar undesirables. Problems started cropping up when the soldiers participating in the massacres started [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone collapsing in horror]] at repeated murder, and even Heinrich Himmler vomited at the site of one such atrocity. Instead of acceding to these feelings of horror, however, the Nazis [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint simply decided they needed a more detached and mechanical means of mass murder]], and thus the original FinalSolution was born.
[[/folder]]

* Shinji/Paul from ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' has done this one time, when he battled Shirona/Cynthia and got royally [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]], she told him he needed to treat his Pokémon with love and respect, which he scoffed at. [[spoiler:Then again, Paul is revealed to have not only eventually taken this advince to consideration, but he was revealed to be a lot nicer when he returned in ''Journeys'']].

* The same willpower that allowed Characters/DoctorDoom to resist the [[Characters/MarvelComicsRedSkull Red Skull]]'s Hate Wave in ''ComicBook/{{AXIS}}'' also meant he was able to deny the revelations about himself the Truth Wave that was unleashed to counter the Hate Wave forced upon him (in the Axis tie-in issues of ''ComicBook/LokiAgentOfAsgard''). The literal bonafide Truth smacked Doom in the face...and he refused to accept it. That's either impressive or sad. Maybe both.

** In ''[[http://coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=D+90283 "Cry Duck!"]]'', Scrooge [[CryingWolf staged "tests"]] to see how his employees (among them WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck) reacted. {{Hilarity Ensue|s}}d when a real thug attacked him and Donald dismissed his plight as another test, but Scrooge failed to learn anything, [[NeverMyFault refused to admit he was ever at fault]], and ends up chasing Donald out of town trying to clobber him.

* ''ComicBook/MegaManArchieComics'': After Xander rants about how robots will destroy them humanity, Dr. Light points out the reality of the situation. It's the [[WellIntentionedExtremist Spears]] who are threatening people, and the robots saving human lives. Xander takes a moment to contemplate this, only to detonate explosives shortly afterwards.

* Rick Remender's ''Uncanny ComicBook/XForce'' has ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'s tendency towards this examined:

* Plankton in ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobMovieSpongeOutOfWater''. [[spoiler:After defeating Burger Beard in the climax, Plankton lets Mr. Krabs keep the secret formula in an act of selflessness. When [=SpongeBob=] takes the gang back to Bikini Bottom, he tries disguising himself in a Gary robot to steal the Krabby Patty formula yet again. After being caught by [=SpongeBob=], he says it himself:]]

** In ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', when [[spoiler:the Thanos of 2014 sees that his future self succeeded in his DepopulationBomb of the entire universe, but everyone's still recovering and people haven't gotten over the sudden deaths of half of all living things even five years after the event to the point that the Avengers are trying to undo it, instead of realizing his solution to overpopulation was wrong, he decides everyone else is simply ungrateful and that he needs to be ''even more'' extreme, killing off the entire universe this time and replacing it with one that will never know of the horrible atrocities he committed and will see him as their hero]].

* ''Series/TheBoys'':

* ''Naked Chef'''s Jamie Oliver showed a group of [[strike:American]] [[AcceptableTargets West Virginian]] school kids the [[NauseaFuel basically inedible chicken parts]] go into their [=McNuggets=] and they ''still'' wanted to eat them. [[spoiler: A follow-up article revealed the kids also rejected his healthy lunch for their usual pizza and soda, although they said they'll still try new foods so I guess that's something.]] (Then again, the fact that we decree any part of a chicken inedible, when one clearly ''can'' eat it, is more than a little elitist.)

* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': After Double Trouble's ReasonYouSuckSpeech in the fourth season, Catra has finally hit rock bottom and has no choice but to improve. But instead, at the beginning of the final season, she tries to get in with Horde Prime the way she had with Hordak. When Glimmer calls her out on it, Catra blows her off, calling herself "a survivor", which belies her own cowardice. It isn't until Catra realizes that if Adora makes it to Prime's ship, Adora will be killed, so Catra finally decides to improve and do "one good thing in her life".

* ''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.

-->'''Matoriv''': (thinking to himself) This guy... he's completely clueless unless the girl he likes is involved... he's hopeless...

* A short scene in the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' manga mixes this trope and DramaticIrony. [[ArchEnemy Ridley]] watches over the destruction of Samus' home of K-2L that he and his men caused and then meets a toddler Samus oblivious to what he had done and tries to befriend him. Ridley had a clear feeling of shame, but that was tossed aside when Samus' mother came running towards them to save her which made Ridley go straight back to normal and killed her right in front of Samus. When they crossed paths years later, [[KickTheDog the first thing he does is gloat over eating her mother's corpse.]] Then again, this scene is also open to a fair bit of AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: maybe he pretended to be sorry to get Samus to let her guard down, or maybe he thought she was just so incredibly stupid for trying to befriend him.

* ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' has Jack realizing, through his interactions with [[LoveInterests Carly]], that power isn't everything and it's possible for someone like him to be redeemed. After the Dark Signer Arc ends, he goes right back to being a power-hungry {{Jerkass}} who barely acknowledges Carly. Even worse, Bommer warns him at some point that Jack's obsession over power would later destroy him. As Jack is about to face that, he subverts this trope by using a different, less power-driven strategy, but double subverts this again when his Red Daemon's Dragon receives a NextTierPowerUp that focuses even more on power than before, but this time it's treated positively.
* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': Judai as the Supreme King believes that he killed Jim, one of his newer friends, in a heated duel. Then he casually turns to O'Brien and asks "So are you next?".

* Both [[spoiler:Atris and Kreia]] have several such epiphanies throughout ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' and decide to continue their evil ways just the same. "It is such a quiet thing, to fall. But far more terrible is to admit it." Both characters then proceed to attempt to bring about the Annihilation of All They Hold Dear, proudly proclaiming how wrong they were about everything when they force the protagonist to kill them. Depending on how things play out, [[spoiler:Bastila]] may have met a similar fate in the first game.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

** The character [[SquishyWizard Raistlin]] does this in the alternate future where he becomes a god. When Raistlin has destroyed all the gods except Paladine (the chief god of good), he speaks with the [[TheWatcher immortal chronicler Astinus]]. Astinus tells Raistlin what will become of him after Paladine's death: [[PyrrhicVillainy an eternity of helpless, angry loneliness]]. Raistlin hesitates... then laughs bitterly and kills Paladine anyway. It's worth noting that this version of Raistlin was almost totally insane prior to this conversation, and seems to have snapped for good after learning of his fate. The main-timeline Raistlin, thankfully, subverts this trope.

** ''[[ComicBook/TheTransformersSinsOfTheWreckers Sins of the Wreckers]]'' lampshades this, with Prowl's old partner [[spoiler: Tarantulas]] noting that Prowl often goes through "cyclical phases" of regretting his actions and wanting to change, only to go right back to being the same morally compromised jerk he always was.

** ''[[ComicBook/TheTransformersSinsOfTheWreckers Sins of the Wreckers]]'' lampshades this, [[spoiler:with Prowl's old partner Tarantulas noting that Prowl often goes through "cyclical phases" of regretting his actions and wanting to change, only to go right back to being the same morally compromised jerk he always was]].

…\\

* In ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon'', Pyotr at one point laments his own evil deeds, most notably having killed that universe's versions of Thomas and Martha Wayne. He even [[DrivenToSuicide attempts to commit suicide]] while [[DrowningMySorrows Drowning His Sorrows]], but is saved by Superman. At one point Pyotr says something along the lines of how Superman makes him want to be a better person than he is. But once Stalin dies and Supes becomes head of the Soviet Union, Pyotr promptly goes right back to being a ruthless, scheming bastard who [[TheStarscream actively attempts to depose Superman]].
* One issue of ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan Team Up'' had [=SpOck=]'s "Superior Six" plan utterly backfire on him with him realizing what he had done was horrible and that he's planning on quit being Spider-Man and turn himself in to ComicBook/TheAvengers. However, when he encounters [[ComicBook/SubMariner Namor]] and the former ruler talks to him about his problems... he knocks Namor on his ass, tells him to get out of his city and promptly swings away, proclaiming that he will still be the Superior Spider-Man.
** Basically applies to the digital recreation of Octavius that emerged during the events of ''ComicBook/DeadNoMoreTheCloneConspiracy''; learning about the circumstances of the original Octavius's death (he willingly deleted himself from Peter's mind because he recognised that Peter was the true 'Superior Spider-Man'), the 'new' Octavius instead convinces himself that his other self had some sort of mental breakdown because Peter's brain couldn't cope with his own superior intellect.

* In an episode of ''The Scary Door'', a ShowWithinAShow of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', a scientist invents a robot to do all his research and assume his social obligations, freeing him to laze around and drink beer. Years later, an official comes by with an award, which he presents to the robot, and the scientist's son declares that the robot is his father. The man realizes that [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor the robot has won all the fame and love that he could have had]]... and then orders the robot to experience the tragic irony for him. As the robot lets out a BigNo, he goes back to lazing around and drinking beer.

!!Examples:

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': [[BigBadWannabe Alan Jonah]] has obviously responded this way to the aftermath of Ghidorah's death and the human-Titan coexistence -- so long as there are human beings in the world, he'll never be satisfied. {{Downplayed|Trope}} by [[spoiler:[=MaNi=]/Elder Brother]], who seems to pause and distantly recall his tragic origin story when [[BackFromTheDead Vivienne]] says the right word with the right context, but he promptly brushes it off.
* ''Fanfic/AdviceAndTrust'':
** In chapter 7 [[spoiler:Shinji manages to get Hikari out of [[HumongousMecha Unit 03's]] core where she was trapped]]. Gendo could have realized maybe it meant Yui could come out but she did not choose not to -therefore he should stop his little "I'll get the entirety of mankind killed in order to save my wife" scheme-, but he chooses to focus on the fact that it is possible for a soul to come out of an Eva.
** In chapter 8 Rei shows many signs that she isn't interested in Gendo and she doesn't even ''like'' him. Still Ritsuko refused to realize the implications, and kept drugging Rei because she thought that "the doll" was "competition".
* In ''Fanfic/AvengerGoddess'', according to Diana, the Twelve Labors were intended to help Herakles learn humility after he was temporarily driven mad and killed his family, but instead he viewed them as an opportunity to hone his skills and avenge his family by training to kill the gods themselves.
* In ''Fanfic/BoysUndSenshado'', this can be seen as applying to Miho's mother. At the end of the first season of the anime, after seeing Miho [[spoiler:defeat her older sister Maho's until recently undefeated school]], sighs and claps, signifying some degree of acceptance of Miho's style of tankery, even if it goes against that of the Nishizumi family. In the fic, however, she is still [[spoiler:planning on disowning Miho]], as she was in Episode 8, ''because'' of what had happened and because Miho now has boys on her team. [[spoiler:She ultimately ends up disowning Miho in Chapter 7]].
* ''Fanfic/LeCommencementDuDiableBlanc'':
** Petunia immediately regrets slapping her nephew for being smarter than her son, and it's compounded by the kid stating he ''hates'' her afterwards -- the first words he ever said to her. But she's ultimately too jealous of her late sister to start treating the boy differently, resolving to never raise her hand against him again.
** Dumbledore was acutely aware he condemned baby Harry to a loveless, neglected childhood when he sent him to the Dursleys, but stubbornly maintains this is the ''only'' way for Harry to become Voldemort's true equal.
* ''Fanfic/ContractLabor'': Motoko has a brief MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment after realizing she attacked an innocent Keitaro with intent to kill, but her very next scene has her back to blaming men for everything and refusing to own up to her actions.
* ''Fanfic/ACrownOfStars'': [[BigBad Jinnai]] was present when Asuka declared she liked neither -former BigBad- Winthrop nor Jinnai and she only went along with being their plaything for her own protection, and Winthrop hinted that Asuka had acted to protect Shinji. However he paid little heed to the exchange, and he got shocked -and jealous- when he heard Asuka had hooked up with Shinji.
* ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'':
** The show subverts the original Funimation dub with Vegeta mentioned in the Anime section above. In ''DBZA'', it's ''Goku'' who suggests that Freeza made Vegeta evil, but Vegeta insists he'd be evil anyway.
** Teased when Freeza is trying to hold off the Spirit Bomb before ultimately being averted.
--->'''Freeza:''' If I had any single regret for the countless horrific events that have transpired in my wake, [[ItsAllAboutMe it's that I'm dying.]]
** Played straight with Freeza after he becomes [[HoistByHisOwnPetard half the man he used to be]]. When Goku spares him some energy, he begins to ponder if he should turn over a new leaf.
--->'''Freeza:''' Maybe I was wrong... ''Nah!''
** In ''[[Anime/DragonBallZTheHistoryOfTrunks History of Trunks]]'' abridged, Android 17 actually becomes truly and completely bored with the pointless destructive rampage that he and his sister have been on. He begins pondering changing his life, becoming a park ranger and sparing the human race... and then in the middle of his reverie Gohan [[NiceJobBReakingItHero lands a surprise hit on 17]]. This immediately makes 17 change his mind and decide that he is definitely going to entirely wipe out the human race, ''then'' become a park ranger.
* ''Fanfic/EdenObsessmuch'': Upon assaulting Hermione, Lucius realizes that she's not some clever manipulator trying to use him, but a innocent girl who is terrified of him and wants him to stay away. He realizes this, but then clarifies that he's a grown man and she can't do anything to him, [[spoiler:so he rapes her]]. After that, he silently regrets what he did.
* Guan Yu has one [[spoiler:after his death]] in ''Fanfic/FarceOfTheThreeKingdoms''. Yes, he'd killed just as many people as Lu Meng, and had no right to complain... so clearly, he needed to kill a few more people.
* ''Fanfic/FateLongNight'': The Stranger's Champion helps Zouken Matou realize how his obsession with immortality has ruined his life and cut him off from his loved ones. Zouken seems to consider it for a few seconds, then angrily declares his goal is all that matters.
* ''Fanfic/ForHisOwnSake'': When [[Manga/LoveHina Granny Hina]] learns just how hellish Keitaro's time running the Hinata Inn has been, not only is she remorseful, she rebukes Naru and Motoko for trying to drive his father away as well, informing them that they are to treat her family with ''respect''. Unfortunately, she later slips back into seeing herself as the only one who ''understands'' the girls, and starts trying to manipulate everyone into doing what she wants again.
* While spying on [[WesternAnimation/TotallySpies Alex]] and [[Anime/RanmaOneHalf Ranko]] for potential blackmail material in ''[[http://cartoon.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600095039&chapter=2 How I Learned to Love the Wild Horse]]'', Caitlyn witnesses Ranko break down crying over her life and being comforted by Alex. For a moment she considers that editing the tape she's filming to make it look like an intimate moment is a dick move. But then she decides she'll simply advise Mandy not to post it online (and thus cause Genma and the Tendos to find out where he is) but if Mandy does anyway, oh well.
* Gladion has major issues with this in ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainKnightOfTheOrangeLily''. Before the main plot kicks into gear, he reflects upon recent events and muses whether things might have turned out better if he'd actually [[PoorCommunicationKills informed anyone]] about what he'd witnessed on the night his sister was traumatized. Had he done so, her Poké-phobia could have been treated more effectively much sooner, sparing her ''years'' of grief. However, he immediately dismisses that notion, deciding he was completely right to leave her behind while he embarked on a quest to 'grow strong enough to protect her'. When Lillie subsequently [[WhatTheHellHero calls him out on this]], he treats her like an UngratefulBastard, and his inability to consider her feelings is part of what [[EpiphanicPrison traps him on the Train]].
* [[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} Jaune Arc]] goes through this in ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger''. In the chapter "Gnawing", Pyrrha helps Jaune gain a moment of clarity, during which he comes to the realization that [[TheCorrupter Darth Nihilus]] has been manipulating him the entire time and that his use of the Dark Side has [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity deteriorated his mind]]. Unfortunately, Jaune is [[TheDarkSide addicted to the Dark Side]] at this point and has developed a total dependency on it. [[spoiler:Rather than coming clean to his friends about the [[AmuletOfDependency Mask of Darth Nihilus]], Jaune doubles down and believes that the problem is [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint he hasn't drawn]] ''[[DramaticallyMissingThePoint enough]]'' [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint power]] from the Dark Side. He then concludes that there's no point in trying to resist Nihilus' influence since he feels like he's already lost control over his life anyway.]]
* ''Fanfic/TheKarmaOfLies'':
** Notably ''absent'' with Adrien. Despite having it repeatedly spelled out to him throughout the story -- by Plagg, Marinette, Ladybug, his classmates and the Agreste family lawyers -- how his own actions have led to him being HoistByHisOwnPetard and facing serious karmic backlash, he ''never'' allows himself to consider the ''possibility'' that any of them are right. Instead, he remains firmly convinced that he is ''supposed'' to be getting everything he ''wants'' [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality because he's a 'good guy']], and that it's ''unfair'' for him to be suffering consequences when [[NeverMyFault he hasn't done anything wrong]].
** {{Downplayed|Trope}} with Alya and the majority of Marinette's former friends/classmates. Juleka notes that while they, like her, likely ''realize'' that they wronged Marinette by shunning her in favor of [[BitchInSheepsClothing Lila]], they refuse to admit any fault, expecting to be EasilyForgiven and for Marinette to accept them back with open arms... and go right back to letting them [[TakingAdvantageOfGenerosity exploit her generous nature]].
** Highlighted by Alya's MoralMyopia -- while scheming to ''force'' Marinette to take them back by appealing directly to her parents, Alya gloats about how she intends to [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten hold Marinette's 'mistake' over her head forever]]. While ignoring the fact that said 'mistake' is ignoring her former friends in exactly the same way they were ignoring ''her''.
* [[WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug Alya]] takes this to impressive levels throughout ''Fanfic/LadyBugOut'':
** When confronting Ladybug about being ''Retired and Replaced'' as the Fox Bearer, Ladybug points out that the anger she's feeling over this parallels how ''she'' felt about Alya posting that photo without context or permission. Alya appears to realize this, only to stubbornly insist that it's ''different''.
** Even after Lila unintentionally outs herself as a liar to Alya and Nino by claiming to have been Rena Rouge herself, causing Nino to have [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone his own realization]], Alya continues insisting that ''she'' was betrayed first and ''harder'', and that Marinette should apologize to ''HER'' for taking Ladybug's side. This leads to [[spoiler:Nino breaking up with her]], something that only adds to her victim complex.
* ''Fanfic/TheLamentSeriesChaoticNeutral'':
** In ''Gabriel's Lament'', he finds that the consequences of his actions as Hawk Moth have followed him into the [[RealityWarpingIsNotAToy new reality created by]] [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor his Wish]]. He also admits to himself that Emilie likely wouldn't agree with him that everything he did to save her was WorthIt, particularly when it comes to how he neglected and abused their son. Yet he continuously insists that his actions were completely justified, and balks at the prospect of doing anything that might endanger his 'happy ending', despite how it's already unraveling before his eyes.
** ''Chloe's Lament'' features her spiraling into increasingly intense levels of denial as Adrien [[GrewASpine stands up to her]] and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech takes her to task]] for being such [[ItsAllAboutMe a self-absorbed]] SpoiledBrat. Faced with mounting evidence that Marinette ''isn't'' SecretlySelfish [[PsychologicalProjection like her]], she [[IRejectYourReality rejects reality]] and makes a Wish to [[RoleSwapAU swap places with her]], expecting Marinette to become just as despised as she was... while ignoring that she was hated for her cruel, bullying ways.
*** The straightest example comes with she overhears [[OnlyFriend Adrien]] confessing that he [[WeUsedToBeFriends doesn't really consider her a friend anymore]], and mostly just pities her for isolating herself. This brings Chloe right to the cusp of a HeelRealization, only to back away and insist that [[EtTuBrute he's betrayed her just like everybody else]].
* ''Fanfic/LovedAndLost'': When ordered to massacre the entire population of [[spoiler:Ponyville]], the sadistic and [[KnightTemplar extremist Commander Hildread]] is disturbed by the idea of massacring ponies she believes she's protecting. However, she obeys her master regardless and chooses her delusions over her conscience when her rival Shining Armor calls her out.
* ''Fanfic/MastermindRiseOfAnarchy'': Katsuki [[VigilanteMan becomes a violent vigilante]] as a way of coping with his frustration over 'useless Deku' [[FaceHeelTurn becoming an infamous criminal mastermind]]. When this leads to him [[spoiler:accidentally killing somebody]], he's briefly [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone horrified]]... then gets furious at [[spoiler:his own victim for dying]]. Following his fall from grace, he's actually ''insulted'' by the notion that he's still considered less dangerous than Midoriya, and [[spoiler:runs away from home intending to prove his superiority by becoming the #1 Villain]].
* In ''Fanfic/MegaManReawakened'', Robert seems to be paying attention to what Wood Man is saying about his anger issues, but when he goes to talk it out with Dr. Light he becomes enraged at things being hidden from him, resulting in a huge argument.
* ''Fanfic/MegaManDefenderOfTheHumanRace'':
** Wily has one in the episode 11 epilogue as he realizes [[spoiler:[=ProtoMan=] leaving]] was his fault. Then he decides it can't be ''entirely'' his fault and rages at Dr. Light.
** Tiesel has one in episode 13 when he feels guilty for what the Conduit is making him do, but suppresses his guilt when he remembers the Conduit's threats against him.
* ''Fanfic/NeonMetathesisEvangelion'': Ritsuko rants internally over how even Rei has more people who care about her than she does, with Shinji and Asuka being outright in love with Rei. Ritsuko realizes she's pushing everyone out of her life to be with Gendo, who even she admits shows her no affection, but insists it's worth it because of how obsessed she is with him. Even after Rei starts showing emotions and emotional attachments, Ritsuko continues to think of her as a thing and blames Rei for all her problems. Eventually, Ritsuko decides to make Rei pay for all her own pain despite knowing the girl had nothing to do with it beyond Gendo valuing her (as a connection to Yui) over Ritsuko.
* ''Fanfic/TheOneILoveIs'':
** Played straight in chapter three. Shinji is making out with Rei. Suddenly he starts thinking about Asuka, and he is unable to go on. If he would have realized that it meant he loved Asuka the most, the LoveTriangle could have been resolved right then, but instead of getting a clue he complained about Asuka mucking things up.
** Played straight again one chapter later. Asuka dares Shinji to kiss her because she was bored. Typically clueless, Shinji replies that "You don't kiss a guy because you're bored". Exactly, Shinji. Hence, ''think'': Why does she want to kiss you?
** Nearly played straight again in a later chapter. Shinji suggests Asuka her parents surely care about her. She lets him know that his father does not give a damn about her and her mother is dead. After few seconds it hit him that she was just like him.
* ''Fanfic/TheOneToMakeItStay'':
** ZigZaggingTrope with Alya after she posts a [[ManipulativeEditing heavily edited video]] to the Ladyblog. Though she brushes off most of Ladybug's concerns, one point [[ArmorPiercingQuestion gives her pause]]: the fact that ''Hawkmoth'' might follow her blog for intel. However, that is the ''only'' thing she is willing to apologize for. The ''rest'' she still attempts to dismiss as no big deal, and accuses Ladybug of overreacting and [[DisproportionateRetribution punishing her too harshly]]. When Marinette brings up the same issue later, Alya blows her off completely, declaring that the Ladyblog [[BeneathNotice isn't likely to attract his interest]]. [[spoiler:She later recants and goes full-blown MyGodWhatHaveIDone after learning that Chat's Ring was stolen, fearing that her video inspired Hawkmoth's plan.]]
** When Marinette confronts her and points out that Ladybug wouldn't approve of her bullying Aurore, Chloe briefly [[OhCrap looks horrified]] before scoffing, dismissing her warning by proclaiming that [[YoureJustJealous Marinette's just jealous]] of her being Queen Bee.
** In his Interlude, ''Don't Step over My Head'', Gabriel is slightly shaken by the revelation that [[spoiler:he was fighting his son all along]]. However, he is all too quick to [[NeverMyFault shift the blame]], refusing to reexamine or reconsider his methods.
** All three have a {{Foil}} in Adrien, who notably {{avert|edTrope}}s this thus far by virtue of not having any kind of epiphany about his actions whatsoever, despite having done plenty of things one might ''expect'' would trigger a moment of self-reflection. The closest he has come is blaming Marinette and Alya for the guilt he feels over overhearing a private conversation -- by his logic, if Marinette just ''told him'' what he learned that way, he wouldn't have to feel bad about accidentally eavesdropping. Considering that his actions and ''inaction'' have led to consequences like [[spoiler:Miracle Queen swiping his ring and Hawkmoth setting Feline Fatale loose on Paris]], the fact that said eavesdropping is the only thing he feels mildly guilty about [[SkewedPriorities says a lot about his priorities]].
* ''Fanfic/SleeperHitAU'':
** Zig-Zagged by Aizawa. On one hand, he'd sincerely come to regret [[ForWantOfANail expelling Midoriya on his first day at U.A.]] long before Sleeper Hit [[InternalReveal mentioned that little detail in an interview]]. But this is partly because he believes that Midoriya would've been useful to have around during the League's assault on the USJ, which he considers [[MyGreatestFailure his greatest failure]] due to [[DeathByAdaptation the loss of]] [[spoiler:Asui and Mineta]]. When Shinsou [[WhatTheHellHero confronts him]], he still attempts to defend and justify away his decisions despite those regrets, and has difficulty admitting just how ''much'' he wronged Midoriya.
** Bakugou serves as a much straighter example. Not only does he show absolutely no remorse for how he treated Midoriya, he doubles down on his cruelty, insisting that Izuku ''deserves'' to be broken. This causes Kirishima to stand against him, calling him out with a MeaningfulEcho of Shigaraki's claims that King Nitro is more villain than hero. This cracks through Katsuki's denial... but he quickly [[NeverMyFault pins the blame on Izuku]] instead.
* In ''Fanfic/SpectacularSeven'', Moondancer seemingly has a HeelRealization when she learns that Twilight Sparkle loves Sunset Shimmer of her own free will, and that everything she did for Twilight was AllForNothing. Unfortunately, [[{{Yandere}} because she is determined]] [[EntitledToHaveYou to make Twilight Sparkle hers]], she shrugs it off.
* During his [[spoiler:massacre of the pandas]] in ''Fanfic/TheVow'', [[WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2 Lord Shen]] momentarily feels some pity upon spotting [[spoiler:Po (a baby at the time)]] before he brushes that aside.
* In the ''Franchise/DragonBall'' story ''Fanfic/TheWarriorsDaughter'', Gero sometimes met Lapis and Lazuli's mother while she was searching for her missing children, and felt a very brief twinge of remorse... which he proceeded to completely squash down.
-->Gero never returned to that village. Was it relief what washed over him when he found out [their mother] was dead, that she would no longer send search crews every year on the anniversary of their [children] disappearance? Or was it a sense of sadness that he had caused this innocent woman to suffer? He reasoned with himself for many, many years that he had done those kids a favor. He made ''them'' elite fighting machines. He gave them a purpose.
[[/folder]]

** [[spoiler:Anders]] apparently has one, but most of it is off-screen between Acts II and III. [[spoiler:He tries to put his obsession with the mages' plight aside and learn to reign in Vengeance. If he actually killed the mage he rescued during his personal quest, he outright calls himself a monster.]] Yet, by Act III, the obsession is back. And its much, much worse. [[spoiler:He goes so far as to fake an epiphany, using ExactWords to make it sound like he was trying to get rid of Vengeance, in order to trick Hawke into finding chemicals he can use to blow up the Chantry]].

-->I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who used to read in the British Museum. One day, as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind beginning to go the wrong way. [[BigGood The Enemy]], of course, was at his elbow in a moment. Before I knew where I was I saw my twenty years' work beginning to totter. If I had lost my head and begun to attempt a defense by argument, I should have been undone. But I was not such a fool. I struck instantly at the part of the man which I had best under my control, and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch. The Enemy presumably made the countersuggestion (you know how one can never quite overhear what He says to them?) that this was more important than lunch. At least I think that must have been His line, for when I said, "Quite. In fact much TOO important to tackle at the end of a morning," the patient brightened up considerably; and by the time I had added, "Much better come back after lunch and go into it with a fresh mind," he was already halfway to the door. Once he was in the street the battle was won. I showed him a newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a No. 73 bus going past, and before he reached the bottom of the steps I had got into him an unalterable conviction that, whatever odd ideas might come into a man's head when he was shut up alone with his books, a healthy dose of "real life" (by which he meant the bus and the newsboy) was enough to show him that all "that sort of thing" just couldn't be true. He knew he'd had a narrow escape, and in later years was fond of talking about "that inarticulate sense for actuality which is our ultimate safeguard against the aberrations of mere logic." He is now safe in [[FireAndBrimstoneHell Our Father's house]].

** AntiHero Butcher has a HeelRealization after a MindRape at the hands of the [[CapeBusters psychic superhero]] Mindstorm in which he's forced to relive his [[DrivenToSuicide brother's suicide]] and told that he either pushes away everyone he loves or gets them killed. Soon afterwards, [[spoiler:he's told by Starlight that the SuperSerum [[YourDaysAreNumbered is killing them]] but [[PoorCommunicationKills he neglects to tell]] his ReplacementGoldfish and MoralityPet Hughie that their lives are in danger (more than usual) in order to further their WellIntentionedExtremist crusade]].

* In ''Series/TheBoys'', AntiHero Butcher has a HeelRealization after a MindRape at the hands of the [[CapeBusters psychic superhero]] Mindstorm in which he's forced to relive his [[DrivenToSuicide brother's suicide]] and told that he either pushes away everyone he loves or gets them killed. Soon afterwards, [[spoiler:he's told by Starlight that the SuperSerum [[YourDaysAreNumbered is killing them]] but [[PoorCommunicationKills he neglects to tell]] his ReplacementGoldfish and MoralityPet Hughie that their lives are in danger (more than usual) in order to further their WellIntentionedExtremist crusade]].

* On ''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 throws and gives his $5 million away like candy.]]

* This trope, along with NeverMyFault, is one of the many traits of a [[TheSociopath sociopath]], since it is nearly impossible for them to feel guilt; even if they do, they tend to sweep it under the rug.

* Shinji/Paul from ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' has done this one time, when he battled Shirona/Cynthia and got royally [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]], she told him he needed to treat his Pokémon with love and respect, which he scoffed at.

** Fantomex [[spoiler: kills a kid version of Apocalypse]], even after the rest of the team agreed it was unjustifiable? A clear sign that X-Force is going too far, right? No, according to Wolverine it was totally justified in hindsight and X-Force is still a perfectly good idea. Characters/{{Deadpool|WadeWilson}} and [[Characters/MarvelComicsPsylocke Psylocke]] immediately call him out on the fact that he's not just lying to himself, but also [[{{Hypocrite}} blatantly contradicting his previous opinions]]. And keep in mind that the only reason Fantomex didn't agree with them was because [[spoiler: he used the World to revive Kid Apocalypse and undo his indoctrination; in other words, instead of denying his sins like Logan, he actually made effort to undo or atone for them]].

** In chapter 7 [[spoiler:Shinji manages getting Hikari out of [[HumongousMecha Unit 03]] where she was stuck into]]. Gendo could have realized maybe it meant Yui could come out but she did not choose not to -therefore he should stop his little "I'll get the whole mankind killed in order to save my wife" scheme-, but he chose focusing on the fact that it is possible for a soul come out of an Eva.

** Dumbledore was acutely aware he comdemned baby Harry to a loveless, neglected childhood when he sent him to the Dursleys, but stubbornly maintains this is the ''only'' way for Harry to become Voldemort's true equal.

* ''Fanfic/ACrownOfStars'': [[BigBad Jinnai]] was present when Asuka declared she liked neither -former BigBad- Winthrop nor Jinnai and she accepted to be their plaything for her own protection, and Winthrop hinted that Asuka had acted to protect Shinji. However he did pay little heed to the exchange, and he got shocked -and jealous- when he heard Asuka had hooked up with Shinji.

* ''Fanfic/NeonMetathesisEvangelion'': Ritsuko rants internally over how even Rei has more people who care about her than she does, with Shinji and Asuka being outright in love with Rei. Ritsuko realizes she's pushing everyone out of her life to be with Gendo who even she admits shows her no affection, but insists it's worth it because how obsessed she is with him. Even after Rei starts showing emotions and emotional attachments, Ritsuko continues to think of her as a thing and blames Rei for all her problems. Eventually, Ritsuko decides to make Rei pay for all her own pain despite knowing the girl had nothing to do with it beyond Gendo valuing her (as a connection to Yui) over Ritsuko.

* ''Franchise/{{Frozen}}'':
** [[spoiler:Prince Hans]] has two big moments in ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' where he [[spoiler:is briefly reluctant about his plans to seize control of Arendelle, but these self-doubts are quickly ignored]].

** [[spoiler:He gets another when he tells Elsa that Anna is dead because of her and causes the snowstorm to stop, and briefly notices how Elsa is taking it. [[EvilCannotComprehendGood He's genuinely surprised at the grief she has for her beloved sister]], and for a moment, he starts to realize he [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope might have gone too far]], but he brushes it off, believing there's no point now that he has a big chance to end the winter and be free from the Southern Isles forever.]]

* In ''Film/KnivesOut'', Harlan realizes late in life that his children, their spouses and grandchildren have turned into a group of JerkAss [[SpoiledBrat Spoiled Brats]] and it was his fault for enabling them all this time. However, rather than sitting down with everyone and admitting to them that he made a mistake, Harlan decides to not only fire his son Walt without any notice, but also [[spoiler: cut all of his family out of his will without much explanation]]. To be fair, some of Harlan's dialogue implies he did intend to talk with his family but his sudden death prevented that.

** Vader has at least one such moment before doing his RedemptionEqualsDeath HeelFaceTurn. When Luke turns himself in to the Imperials during ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', the two have a talk together where Luke tries to turn him away from TheDarkSide. At the end Vader simply says "It is too late for me, son", hinting that he ''knows'' he's on the wrong side but he believes that after everything he's done, he is beyond redemption. Then, he takes Luke up to face the Emperor, knowing the Emperor's plans to corrupt Luke's soul.