"I don’t regret anything I’ve ever done in life, any choice that I’ve made. But I’m consumed with regret for the things I didn’t do, the choices I didn’t make, the things I didn’t say. We spend so much time being afraid of failure, afraid of rejection. But regret is the thing we should regret most. Failure is an answer. Rejection is an answer. Regret is an eternal question you will never have the answer to. ‘What if …’ ‘If only …’ ‘I wonder what would have …’ You will never, never know, and it will haunt you for the rest of your days."
— Trevor Noah, Born a Crime
Regret is a common theme in media. Perhaps one of the ultimate fears that an individual can have, given his and everyone else's limited amount of time on earth is to lose the chance to do something and never get it back.
Tropes:
- Accidental Child-Killer Backstory: A mistake that kills a child leads to a lifetime of regret.
- The Atoner: Former evil-doer wants to make amends for the wrongs they have done.
- Bloody Hallucinations of Guilt: Regret for being in some way responsible for another's death leads to hallucinations of blood.
- Buy Them Off: A character offers monetary compensation in a shallow attempt to repair their wrongdoing.
- Career Not Taken: "I could have gotten this job, but I had to do this instead."
- Creator Backlash: A Trivia trope pertaining to when the people involved in a work wished that they never made the work in the first place.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Often contains a lot of regrets.
- Deathbed Confession: Character reveals a shameful secret they kept to themselves all this time right as they're going to die.
- Dissension Remorse: Characters feel bad about arguing and seek to reconcile.
- Dying Declaration of Love: A character dying uses their last breath to confess their love for someone after never telling them about it before.
- Fond Memories That Could Have Been: A character reminisces on the fun times they could've had with this person had they not died.
- Former Bigot: Someone used to be bigoted, but is now more open-minded.
- Guilt-Induced Nightmare: Regret won't leave someone alone even when sleeping.
- Haunting the Guilty: Someone gets haunted by the spirits of the people they've wronged, who appear to make them repent.
- Heel Realization: Someone is ashamed because they realize that they have been the bad guy.
- I Coulda Been a Contender!: A character is stuck on missed opportunities for glory and fame.
- I Hate Past Me: A character sees their past self and regrets their past actions or personality.
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: The hero blames themselves for not being able to prevent a loved one's death.
- I Regret Nothing: Character admits to not feeling remorse for anything they'd done.
- I Should Have Been Better: A character is upset because they failed to save someone and blames their failure on not being powerful enough.
- I Wished You Were Dead: A person wishes that someone they dislike would die, then feels guilty when the person actually dies.
- Jerkass Realization: A character realizes to their shame that they have been a jerk.
- "Leaving the Nest" Song: While often generalized as happy and upbeat, many songs of this nature are deeply sad and regretful.
- Mid-Suicide Regret: A character decides not to commit suicide when they're already halfway through it, and may or may not be able to stop.
- Must Make Amends
- My God, What Have I Done?: A character is deeply shocked and ashamed by something bad that they've done.
- My Greatest Failure: A failure so disastrous that it haunts the person for the rest of their life.
- My Greatest Second Chance: A character prevents My Greatest Failure from happening again, to them or to others.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: A character is upset that they never had the chance to say goodbye to a loved one before the loved one died.
- Not-So-Final Confession: A character makes a Deathbed Confession — and then doesn't die after all.
- Old Shame: A character is ashamed of something from their past.
- Parting-Words Regret: A character is upset about the last thing they said to someone before that person died.
- Personal Horror
- Post-Support Regret: A character regrets supporting their Jerkass and turning a blind eye to their mean streaks out of misguided loyalty, realizing the friend is not the person they thought they were.
- Pyrrhic Victory: A victory proves to have negative repurcussions.
- Reformed Bully: A bully becomes a nicer person after growing up.
- Regretful Traitor
- Self-Punishment Over Failure: A character makes a mistake and decides to punish themselves for it.
- Symbolic Weapon Discarding: Leaving behind, discarding, or destroying a weapon as a sign of regret about past actions.
- Sympathetic Murder Backstory
- These Hands Have Killed: A character is upset that they just killed someone.
- Was Too Hard on Him: Someone is remorseful of being too harsh to another person.
