History Main / YourWorstMemory

* In the season 2 finale of ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', Gus uses his illusion magic on Belos to drag up the memories of him [[spoiler:[[SiblingMurder murdering his own brother Caleb]], and creating the Grimwalkers in Caleb's image]]. This causes Belos to grab at his head and scream in agony, and after Hunter interrupts the spell by pulling Gus out of harm's way, Gus has one hell of a ThousandYardStare on his face.

* For Yuko in ''Manga/TheDemonGirlNextDoor'', the time when she was an IllGirl in the hospital [[spoiler:dying from a double dose of the Light Clan's curse on her family]]. When she uses her DreamWalker powers on herself, she was trapped in this part of her memories, [[spoiler:being attacked by syringes and IV drips in a labyrinthine hospital with no exit]], to the point it took Momo [[spoiler:[[CrazyEnoughToWork with (temporarily) to become Yuko's vassal to make them family]], as only another family member can enter a {{Dream Walker}}'s dreams, so Momo can go into Yuko's nightmare]] to pull her out.

* In the season 2 finale of ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', Gus uses his illusion magic on Belos to drag up the memories of him [[spoiler:[[SiblingMurder murdering his own brother Caleb]], and creating the Grimwalkers in Caleb's image]]. This causes Belos to grab at his head and scream in agony, before trying to crush Gus under his hand.

* In the season 2 finale of ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', Gus uses his illusion magic on Belos to drag up th memories of him [[spoiler:[[SiblingMurder murdering his own brother Caleb]], and creating the Grimwalkers in Caleb's image]]. This causes Belos to grab at his head and scream in agony, before trying to crush Gus under his hand.

* ''WesternAnimation/WorldOfQuest:'' In "The Fall Of Odyssia" two-parter, the protagonists enter the Valley Of Sorrows, in which the mist causes them to relive their worst memories. Excluding Way, we see their respective bad memories, but the episode gives most focus to Quest's bad memories, specifically from the day when he was banished by the Queen for failing to prevent the then baby Nestor's kidnapping.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDragoon'', Rose is eventually revealed to be carrying a great deal of trauma over the death of her friends [[spoiler: in the final battle of the Dragon Campaign [[TimeAbyss over eleven thousand years ago]]]], the worst moment being the eternal petrification of her fiancé, Zieg - and her last attempt to save him before the two of them were parted forever. Rose finds herself [[HistoryRepeats unintentionally re-enacting this moment]] while she and Dart are [[LiteralCliffHanger dangling from the edge of the phantom ship's prow]]; Dart already reminds her of Zieg, so when he urges her to let him go and save herself as Zieg once did, Rose begins having flashbacks; after the two are washed ashore, leaving Rose tending to an unconscious Dart through the night, she relives the moment in every horrific detail.

* In the ''ComicBook/CaptainBritain: ComicBook/ACrookedWorld'', Linda [=McQuillan=] (AKA Captain UK) is revealed to have escaped [[RealityWarper Mad Jim Jaspers]]' anti-superhero pogrom and is now living an ordinary life in our dimension. However, she's soon stricken by [[PastExperienceNightmare horrific nightmares]] of her worst memory from the world she escaped: the day her husband died at the hands of [[MechanicalAbomination the Fury]] while getting her to safety. The horror is compounded when she discovers that Jaspers' counterpart in ''this'' dimension has just been elected [[PresidentEvil Prime Minister]]... and then the Fury finds her again. Suffice it to say, this was a plot arc that spent a lot of time hammering Linda's TraumaButton.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS3E1TheRickshankRedemption The Rickshank Redemption]]" features this courtesy of a VirtualRealityInterrogation: imprisoned by the Federation, Rick is grilled for info on the physics behind his portal gun and sent back through his memories to find out how he got it to work. As it turns out, ''our'' [[FromNobodyToNightmare Rick was once an unambitious family man]] who gave up on interdimensional physics when he saw what the other dimension-hopping Ricks across the multiverse [[HisOwnWorstEnemy were like]], even turning down an offer of assistance from the Council of Ricks. Unfortunately, the Council retaliated [[KickTheDog by murdering his wife and daughter]], leaving Rick with nothing left to do but work out the calculations in the ashes and cobble together his first portal gun. It's made abundantly clear that his present self is left absolutely devastated from re-witnessing this moment -- not helped by the fact that the agent supervising the interrogation [[TheSnackIsMoreInteresting couldn't give a damn about any of it]]. [[spoiler: And then subverted when it turns out that Rick faked the memory from beginning to end just so he could hack the MindProbe and steal the supervising agent's body.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDragoon'', Rose is eventually revealed to be carrying a great deal of trauma over the death of her friends [[spoiler: in the final battle of the Dragon Campaign [[TimeAbyss over eleven thousand years ago]] ]], the worst moment being the eternal petrification of her fiancé, Zieg - and her last attempt to save him before the two of them were parted forever. Rose finds herself [[HistoryRepeats unintentionally re-enacting this moment]] while she and Dart are [[LiteralCliffHanger dangling from the edge of the phantom ship's prow]]; Dart already reminds her of Zieg, so when he urges her to let him go and save herself as Zieg once did, Rose begins having flashbacks; after the two are washed ashore, leaving Rose tending to an unconscious Dart through the night, she relives the moment in every horrific detail.

* [[TheTrickster Loki]] inflicts this on [[ActionGirl Valkyrie]] during their fight in ''Film/ThorRagnarok''. During the backstory, her fellow Valkyries were all wiped out in a hopeless battle against [[BigBad Hela]], leaving the future "Scrapper 142" as an alcoholic ShellShockedVeteran: a little MindRape from Loki brings back the memory in exquisite detail, giving her an extended flashback of all her friends being slaughtered en mass, portrayed in eerie slow-motion glimpses that make it look all the more like a nightmare. For good measure, it's also implied (and later confirmed) that Valkyrie [[BuryYourGays lost a lover]] in this fight, given her devastated reaction to a fellow soldier TakingTheBullet to save her from one of Hela's blades. However, instead of stopping her, the mind rape just pisses Valkyrie off: kicking Loki's ass, [[NiceJobFixingItVillain she then decides to give up the life of an outcast and join Thor]].

* ''Series/WandaVision'': [[spoiler:Agatha]] casts a spell that makes Wanda relieve key moments of her life, including some of her worst memories -- the death of her parents from a bomb, and Wanda becoming HYDRA's test subject. [[spoiler:Agatha]] follows Wanda into these "re-runs" because she wants to find out the origin of Wanda's powers.

* In ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'', Captain Walker is left traumatized by [[spoiler: the White Phosphorous incident, particularly the sight of the mother and child he'd burned alive during the massacre.]] Not only does this cause him to experience flashbacks to the incident for the rest of the game, Colonel Conrad is able to get under Walker's skin by painting the incident on canvas. [[spoiler: And then it turns out that the Conrad you've been talking to for most of the game is nothing more than a hallucination, making the painting just another product of Walker's guilt-stricken mind.]]

The memory counterpart to YourWorstNightmare, this trope can occur through a number of different ways: on the simplest level, it can appear in the [[BadDreams form of a dream]], especially if the memory was traumatic enough; in more extreme cases, it can be brought back through magic, technology, or even an afterlife. In some cases, time travel may be involved. Whatever the case, the character is made to watch their worst memories play out all over again — and if they're unlucky, more than once. If they're ''really'' unlucky, forever.

* In the ''ComicBook/CaptainBritain: ComicBook/ACrookedWorld'', Linda [=McQuillan=] (AKA Captain UK) is revealed to have escaped [[RealityWarper Mad Jim Jaspers]]' anti-superhero pogrom and is now living an ordinary life in our dimension. However, she's soon stricken by [[BadDreams horrific nightmares]] of her worst memory from the world she escaped: the day her husband died at the hands of [[MechanicalAbomination the Fury]] while getting her to safety. The horror is compounded when she discovers that Jaspers' counterpart in ''this'' dimension has just been elected [[PresidentEvil Prime Minister]]... and then the Fury finds her again. Suffice it to say, this was a plot arc that spent a lot of time hammering Linda's TraumaButton.

** The crux of ''[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho014TheHolyTerror The Holy Terror]]''. After exploring the Castle at length, the Doctor learns that it's actually a PrisonDimension for a single inmate: [[spoiler: Eugene Tacitus, the court scribe]]. Most of the time it's a LotusEaterMachine to lull the prisoner's troubling memories; every few thousand years, however, [[HumanoidAbomination a new character]] appears in the Castle and forces the inmate to relive his crime "in every horrific detail": [[spoiler: the murder of his own son.]]

** As with the rest of the franchise, Batman is haunted by the death of his parents: his second dose of Scarcrow toxin in ''[[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum Arkham Asylum]]'' results in him regressing back to childhood and stumbling across the bodies, while ''[[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamVR Arkham VR]]'' allows the player to experience a nightmare of the event in first person.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDragoon'', Rose is eventually revealed to be carrying a great deal of trauma over the death of her friends [[spoiler: in the final battle of the Dragon Campaign [[TimeeAbyss over eleven thousand years ago]] ]], the worst moment being the eternal petrification of her fiancé, Zieg - and her last attempt to save him before the two of them were parted forever. Rose finds herself [[HistoryRepeats unintentionally re-enacting this moment]] while she and Dart are [[LiteralCliffHanger dangling from the edge of the phantom ship's prow]]; Dart already reminds her of Zieg, so when he urges her to let him go and save herself as Zieg once did, Rose begins having flashbacks; after the two are washed ashore, leaving Rose tending to an unconscious Dart through the night, she relives the moment in every horrific detail.

* This is the main effect of the "A" pill in ''Series/{{Maniac|2018}}''. While under its influence, the test subjects relive their worst memory, allowing the researchers to map out their traumas for the next stage of the treatment. Here, [[{{Tsundere}} Annie]] repeats the last day she spent with her little sister Ellie, during which Annie [[PartingWordsRegret went out of her way to hurt her feelings]] -- right before their car veered into the path of a truck, killing Ellie. Meanwhile, [[ShrinkingViolet Owen]] recalls an incident in which he [[FreakOut suffered a psychotic episode]] and become convinced that a girl he had a crush on was spying on him -- resulting in a public meltdown that destroyed their relationship and left Owen forever in doubt of his own sanity. In turn, the "B" and "C" stages bring back elements of these memories, but in progressively more constructive ways until Annie and Owen should finally be able to confront and overcome them... [[spoiler: or at least that's their trajectory up until the computer in charge of the treatment starts developing personality problems of her own.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDragoon'', Rose is eventually revealed to be carrying a great deal of trauma over the death of her friends [[spoiler: in the final battle of the Dragon Campaign [[TimeeAbyss over eleven thousand years ago]] ]], the worst moment being the eternal petrification of her fiancé, Zieg - and her last attempt to save him before the two of them were parted forever. Rose relives this moment while she and Dart are [[LiteralCliffHanger dangling from the edge of the phantom ship's prow]]; Dart already reminds her of Zieg, so when he urges her to let him go and save herself, Rose begins suffering flashbacks - eventually reliving the incident in full.

** Spinoff game ''VideoGame/ThePark'' is eventually revealed to be an entire instance of this trope for Lorraine Maillard. In the aftermath of her visit to [[AmusementParkOfDoom Atlantic Island Park]], during which [[spoiler: she suffered a MindRape and was forced by Nathaniel Winter to murder her own son]], she repeats the opening lines: "in my heart and mind, I always return to Atlantic Island Park." Then, once the credits are over, you have the option of [[HereWeGoAgain "continuing" the finished game]]; this, combined with your inability to leave the area on the grounds that you "[[ButThouMust still have things to do]]," indicates that the whole game was just Lorraine reliving the events of her visit to the park in her nightmares... and she will continue to do so for the rest of her natural life -- [[spoiler: and given the fact that she becomes effectively immortal in the main game, [[WhoWantsToLiveForever this may be a while]].]]

* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick,'' Durkon being kicked out of his homeland without any notice or explanation was the worst day of his life. The experience left him miserable and bitter for decades until he met Roy and became friends with him. [[spoiler: The vampire spirit controlling his body then forces him to relive that memory, using it as the basis for a BreakingSpeech that leaves Durkon unable to speak back.]] He [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1130.html later inverts this]], [[spoiler:regaining control long enough to let Belkar [[DyingAsYourself stab his vampirized form]], as EvilCannotComprehendGood. So badly, in fact, That he ASSIMILATES the vampire spirit!]]

* ''VideoGame/AnotherCode'': Ashley's worst memory is [[spoiler:her third birthday, seeing her mother get shot to death.]] The fact that she frequently sees this as a fuzzy nightmare doesn't help her any.

The memory counterpart to YourWorstNightmare, this trope can occur through a number of different ways: on the simplest level, it can appear in the form of a dream, especially if the memory was traumatic enough; in more extreme cases, it can be brought back through magic, technology, or even an afterlife. In some cases, time travel may be involved. Whatever the case, the character is made to watch their worst memories play out all over again — and if they're unlucky, more than once. If they're ''really'' unlucky, forever.

** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', Harry view's Snape's worst memory using the Pensieve, a MemoryJar containing Snape's unwanted memories, during occlumency class. The chapter is even called "Snape's Worst Memory". The memory involves [[spoiler: Snape being brutally bullied by Harry's father, which horrifies Harry.]] Later revelations in the seventh book reveal that the real reason it was his worst memory was because [[spoiler: it was the day he lost Lily, the love of his life, for good.]]

* In the manga and 7th OVA of ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'', Zorin Blitz performs a MindRape on Seras, forcing her relive her painful childhood memories where she was ForcedToWatch her parents be murdered by gangsters and her mother's corpse being raped.