History Main / MyGreatestFailure

* Miles Vorkosigan of the [[VorkosiganSaga Vorkosigan Saga]] became fixated on the death of Sergeant Beatrice at Dagoola IV, [[but moved on from this when Ekaterin, who would eventually become his wife, pointed out to him that saving her would have resulted in both their deaths]].

* Franchise/{{Batman}} blamed himself for the death of sidekick Jason Todd aka the second Robin. In the animated ''WesternAnimation/BatmanUnderTheRedHood'', he specifically uses the phrase "my greatest failure" in reference to Jason's death. Some versions of Batman's story have him blaming himself for the death of his parents. (In ''Film/BatmanBegins'', Bruce blames himself for the death of his parents, as they encountered Joe Chill after leaving the opera because Bruce was frightened by the bat-demon characters.)

* ''TransformersAnimated'': Optimus's greatest regret is [[spoiler:the incident Archa Seven that he thought cost Elita-1 her life. It only worsened when he found out what ''really'' happened to Elita.]]

* Franchise/{{Batman}} blamed himself for the death of sidekick Jason Todd aka the second Robin. In the animated ''WesternAnimation/BatmanUnderTheRedHood'', he and Red Hood both specifically use the phrase "my/your greatest failure" in reference to Jason's death. Some versions of Batman's story have him blaming himself for the death of his parents. (In ''Film/BatmanBegins'', Bruce blames himself for the death of his parents, as they encountered Joe Chill after leaving the opera because Bruce was frightened by the bat-demon characters.)

** Also in that movie, when Ra's Al Ghul tells Bruce that it's his dad's fault, he [[BerserkButton doesn't take it well]].

* Pick a BioWare game, and chances are you'll hear one of these from at least one of your party members. Chances are, you'll end up with them when they attempt to correct said failures, too.
** A more comprehensive list:
*** In MassEffect, Garrus was rather angry about an organ farmer that C-Sec's regulations prevented him from stopping. His personal mission in that game is to hunt down and kill the organ farmer.
*** In MassEffect2, you recruit Garrus from the battlefield in which most of his team was slaughtered. His loyalty mission is to hunt down the man that sold them out.
*** Also in MassEffect2 is Thane's regret that he left his son behind following his vengeance on his wife's murderers. His loyalty mission is to keep Kolyat, the son in question, from following in his footsteps.
*** While Samara cannot be blamed for having daughters who are Ardat-Yakshi, Asari with a rare genetic disease that makes them addicted to murdering people by draining their life energy, she later makes it her life's mission to hunt down and destroy Morinth, the daughter who ran to preserve her freedom rather than join her sisters in isolation at a remote monastary where they learn to supress their urges and are far removed from any temptations.
*** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', being forced to leave Earth in the midst of a Reaper invasion is this for Shepard [[spoiler:until the fall of Thessia where s/he hits his/her lowest point, blaming him/herself for not getting the right info and for the fall of the asari homeworld.]]
*** In the same game, [[spoiler: if Shepard tries to convince Mordin to fake curing the genophage, Mordin will finally break down and confess that he views his works to negate the slow krogan development of immunity to it as this. He spent the previous game and his earlier interactions in this one denying that he felt any guilt over it, though.]]
*** In JadeEmpire, [[TheAtoner Sagacious Zu]] regrets his failure to save Master Li's family from the Emperor's vengeance. You learn later that [[spoiler: Master Li's daughter is still alive, and she happens to be right in your party]].
*** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', Wynne was assigned to mentor a young elven mage during her younger days, and he ended up fleeing the Circle and getting killed by the Templars. [[spoiler: In her personal quest you learn that he actually escaped and Wynne was told he had died to mess with her, and the two get to meet again]].
**** Sten considers losing his sword to be his greatest failure. Swords are [[SeriousBusiness very important]] to the Qunari.
*** Oghren also blames himself for his entire clan dying and his wife Branka going insane, believing that had he been a better husband she may have not gone on her mad quest for the Anvil of the Void and dragged their clan into their gruesome fate.
*** In KnightsOfTheOldRepublic, Carth considers his failure to stop Admiral Karath from turning on the Republic to be his greatest failure; about three-quarters of the way through the game he gets to kill the Admiral.
*** In NeverwinterNights, the confused angsty mess of a person that is Aribeth considers her fiancee's unjustified execution at the end of chapter 1 to be her failure.

** In ''OOTP'', we get a peek into Snape's "Worst Memory": an incident of bullying against Snape by James Potter and Sirius Black, which culminates in Snape calling Lily Evans a [[FantasticSlur Mudblood]] in anger after she comes to his defense. Later, in ''Deathly Hallows'', we find out ''why'' it's his worst memory: [[spoiler: it ruined his friendship with Lily, the only person he ever loved, and destroyed any chances of him getting together with her. [[KickTheDog And just to twist the knife even further, the person she ultimately]] ''[[KickTheDog did]]'' [[KickTheDog get together with was James Potter himself]], [[TookALevelInKindness though he'd mellowed out of his bullying tendencies by then, according to Remus Lupin.]]]]
** Sirius' greatest failure: convincing James to let Pettigrew become Secret Keeper, not knowing that Pettigrew was a Death Eater.

** Equius still regrets [[spoiler: letting Nepeta get killed, by letting Gamzee kill him without complaint or restraint, do he couldn't protect her.]]

* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Edward Elric feels terribly guilty for pushing Alphonse to help him use forbidden alchemy to try and resurrect their mother Trisha, leading to the loss of Ed's limbs and Al's human body. It takes ''years'' before Edward gets up the courage to ask if Alphonse blames him for it, but the answer is ultimately no; Alphonse even says that he knew the risks and went along with it.
** The Elric brothers also consider their being unable to save [[spoiler:Nina Tucker]] from [[spoiler:being turned into a chimera, or dying shortly afterward]], a massive failure, as well as proof that they are ultimately mere humans.

[[caption-width-right:300:[[Film/ANewHope Those ]]''[[Film/ANewHope were ]]''[[Film/ANewHope the droids he was looking for.]]]]

* Speaking of Spider-Man, for his foe J. Jonah Jameson, it was definately the Scorpion. Jonah paid private eye [=MacDonald=] Gargan to undergo an experiment that would make him strong enough to subdue and defeat the hero. The scientist conducting the experiment warned both of them that he "didn't know how it will affect your brain" but they went ahead with it anyway; true to the scienist's fears, Gargan was driven insane, becoming more of a threat than Spider-Man could ever become. Jonah has never even tried to blame this on Spider-Man (at least in any convincing way); he has taken full responsibility for the villain, and to this day, pays for Gargan's psychiatric treatment out of his own pocket and orchestrates compensations funds to aid victims of the villain's crimes. And to make it worse for Jonah, Gargan hates him even more than he hates Spider-Man for what happened to him.

* It seems that [[spoiler: not being able to fully save Ace]] will haunt both [[OnePiece Luffy and Jinbei]] for years to come.
** And Luffy had one not long before that -- [[spoiler:the defeat that scattered the Straw Hat Pirates at the Sabaody Archipelago]].

** In the Series 7 finale, ''The Name of the Doctor'', it is revealed that [[spoiler: a previously unknown regeneration of the Doctor committed an act so heinous that it went against everything the Doctor stands for. The act was so horrible that the other regenerations ''refuse to even acknowledge his existence'' and he isn't believed to be worthy of the name Doctor]].

* Comicbook/{{Batman}} blamed himself for the death of sidekick Jason Todd aka the second Robin. In the animated ''BatmanUnderTheRedHood'', he and Red Hood both specifically use the phrase "my/your greatest failure" in reference to Jason's death. Some versions of Batman's story have him blaming himself for the death of his parents. (Notably, in ''Film/BatmanBegins'', Bruce blames himself for the death of his parents, as they encountered Joe Chill after leaving the opera because Bruce was frightened by the bat-demon characters.)

* At various points in his history, Comicbook/{{Superman}} has had the bottled city of Kandor to deal with. More recently, he's had the only time he's ever had to kill someone; this caused him to actually leave Earth for a while.

** In some continuities, at least, there's also Harvey Dent, who Batman saw as a friend and ally that could really clean up Gotham in ways he himself could not - until Harvey became Two-Face.

** In the Series 7 finale ''The Name of the Doctor'' it is revealed that [[spoiler: a previously unknown regeneration of the Doctor committed an act so heinous that it went against everything the Doctor stands for. The act was so horrible that the other regenerations ''refuse to even acknowledge his existence'' and he isn't believed to be worthy of the name Doctor]].

* In ''MightyMorphinPowerRangers'', failing to retrieve the Green Candle in season one, thus saving Tommy from losing his powers, was shown to have haunted Jason for a long time, to the point where he even makes reference to it in ''Zeo''.
** [[PowerRangersInSpace Andros.]] [[HurtingHero Dear Lord, Andros.]] First he loses his sister as a child [[spoiler: and she grows up to become TheDragon]], then his best friend Zhane is nearly killed during a battle and Andros puts him in cryogenic stasis to keep him alive. [[spoiler: They both get better.]]

* In Anne McCaffery's ''[[Literature/TowerAndTheHive Damia]]'', the title character accidentally fried the mind of [[TheirFirstTime her first lover]]. She considers it this because not only did she never consider keeping her mental guard up while with a far lower [[PowerLevel T-rating]], she ignored Afra's warning to "be careful" out of spite, due to a fight they'd had earlier (After Afra had rebuffed a rather unsubtle attempt at seduction). This helped drive a wedge between herself and Afra that lasted a decade[[hottip:*:Though not only did Afra actually want her, but wanted Damia to see him as himself and not just "Good Ol' family friend Afra", but she thought the whole thing was being driven by her mother,The Rowan.]] Later books showed that Damia made sure her children knew all about "the facts of life" so they wouldn't go through what she did.