Incidents that individuals see as their greatest failures in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- Asha al'Wahim's ancestor from the Mass Effect/Avatar: The Last Airbender crossover Avatar of Victory was actually a pretty good general, until he made a mistake during the First Contact War that got the previous Avatar killed. As such, her entire family is considered jinxed, and she takes it upon herself to try and regain some of her family honor.
- The Bridge (MLP):
- Godzilla Junior deeply regrets not being able to defeat Destroyah the first time they fought, as that led to his father Godzilla Senior fighting her and his death.
- Back when they were active soldiers, Stalwart Sentry and Fancy Pants arrived too late to prevent a dragon from killing Starlight and Moonbeam Glimmer's parents and neighbors. Though they were able to save the girls and kill the dragon, the event still haunts them.
- A Clash of NEETs: For Aqua, it was reincarnating Arthas Menethil to give him a second chance at being a hero. Everything that has gone wrong for Westeros since then has been a direct result of that well-intentioned but poorly thought out choice, and the Septa Cecily's Guide on it makes it clear that she knows it too; the main reason all of the Children Of Destiny are chosen from her Champions, rather than the other goddesses', is because she sees this as her mess to clean up.Cecily: Aqua knows she messed this one up. Trust me.
- Cor Autem Aurora:
- Gladio only arrives to Lestallum only after Ulldor has killed Jared and raped his sister Iris. The realisation that he was not there to pretect his only remaining family completely destroys his self-confidence.
- Sora believes that not noticing Riku's self doubt prior to Kingdom Hearts is his, since it led to Riku's Face–Heel Turn during that game.
- Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls: Discord still feels responsible for what happened to the Humane Five's mothers. As well as not seeing Starlight's eroding mental state and trust in him until she decided to strike out on her own to fix the problem she believed he was in on and would do nothing about.
- In Fate: Zero Sanity, Saber has two: Her canon failure to prevent Camelot's fall and her role in Mordred's betrayal, refusing to acknowledge her as her successor due to her bitterness against Morgan le Fay. The later is only revealed after she fights an illusion of Mordred created by a trap left by Assassin.
- Mare of Steel: Jor-El feels this way about being unable to cure his wife's lung condition. Rainbow Dash feels the same way about being unable to save her sick adoptive father from dying.
- In Metroid: Kamen Rider Generations
, just like in Gaim's post-series canon (listed below in Live-Action TV) Mitsuzane, for the rest of his life, will never live down the enormity of the sins he committed that culminated with Kouta and Mai's deaths. This portrayal of him is also coupled with Byronic traits led him to fight alongside Samus in her adventures.- Chase's death at the hands of Banno is for Gou. He got better when Chase is resurrected.
- The deaths of Gandrayda, Ghor, and Rundas are these for Samus when she mentions the events of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
- The Last of Us Series (Once Upon a Time, The Last of Us): Emma letting her pregnant girlfriend get killed is something that haunts her throughout the story.
- My Hero School Adventure Is All Wrong As Expected: Hachiman regrets losing contact with Zaimokuza after entering high school and never thanking him for letting him copy his Healing Factor Quirk, especially after learning that Zaimokuza went missing and likely died without Hachiman finding out until it was too late. This is the reason why he goes out of his way to be nice to Saki Kawasaki, another student who (albeit unwittingly) provided him with a Quirk essential to his heroic lifestyle. This is also why Hachiman is so determined to do everything he can in the U.A. Sports Festival to earn himself a spot on Hiratsuka's investigative team as they look into Zaimokuza's disappearance.
- The Spectacular Spider-Man: Lost In Gotham: Peter considers his failing to save Ben as this, internally regarding it as "his greatest shame". Bruce later tells Peter that he considers Harvey Dent becoming Two-Face as this.
- Star Wars vs Warhammer 40K: Davik Thune was present at the Fall of Cadia prior to his elevation to Chapter Master of the Crimson Razors and clearly regrets being unable to prevent Abbadon from destroying the planet, leading him to embrace the zealotry and bloodthirst of his predecessors when before he was a severe detractor of them.
- In Total Recall, Cassie tells Tom that she regrets letting his Yeerk get away with the morphing cube, because it ultimately led to Rachel's death.
- Blood Moon: Sokka harbors a considerable degree of self-loathing for his failure to prevent the Fire Nation from capturing Katara.
- In Learning to Fly, Yangchen is devastated when a trip in the Spirit World leaves her vulnerable to assassins, forcing her wife Akari and her friend Huizhong to fight and die to protect her. What makes it even worse was the fact that Akari was a Fire Nation princess, and her brother was so heartbroken he started to influence the country he ruled into mistrusting and loathing the Avatar — something that later culminated in the Air Nomads' genocide.
- Blackbird (Arrow): Sara regards everything involving her decision to go on the Gambit as this. Especially since it ended with her mother Dinah selling out her sister Laurel to the League of Assassins in exchange for Sara's freedom. She's well aware that she'll never be able to completely make it up to her sister, but is nonetheless willing to try because she can't live with the guilt.
- In Back to the Future Prequel, Doc still regrets the day one of his inventions malfunctioned and crippled Holly Webb.
- One Day at a Time:
- Damian's death is implied to be this for Jason. Jason was only present in the aftermath of Bruce's and wholly un-involved in the respective incidents that caused the deaths of Dick and Tim due to being busy with other pressing situations when they happened. Cass and him, however, were there when Damian made his Heroic Sacrifice, ending in him dying in their arms. Jason privately admits that out of all his siblings, Damian's death was always the one he regretted the most.
- The death of Joker III. Jason considers killing the third Joker to be the biggest mistake of his life, because it led to the rise of Joker IV, who ultimately killed Bruce. He fully admits that there isn't a day that goes by where he doesn't think about what life would've been like had he never pulled that trigger. It was this event that caused Jason to become more family-oriented and, most noticeably, give up killing.
- Dick's first great failure during his tenure as Batman were the deaths of Kate Kane and Renee Montoya during the Bat-Family's war with the Court of Owls. It's all but stated that their deaths are what drove Dick to be so obsessed with removing the Court from Gotham.
- Dick's other, more noticeable failure is the deterioration of his relationship with his brother Tim. In one timeline, this led to Tim making a Face–Heel Turn and traveling back in time to both brainwash the world and personally murder Dick.
- When Death of the Endless first forged the Balance, the first wielder she chose was a warrior of great renown who she instructed to kill all immortals. He did exactly that — and then started murdering innocents to keep seeing her, as he had fallen in love with her. A horrified Death promptly marked his soul when he died so he would be Deader than Dead and chose the next wielder much more carefully.
- Blackened Skies: Kaede naturally feels this way about how she wasn't able to stop her mutual killing game from playing out, especially since she's unaware that she didn't actually murder Rantarou.
- In the Tamers Forever Series, this is how Rika views being unable to save Takato from dying in front of her.
- Izzy also feels this way about being unable to save Mimi from being kidnapped.
- Walking in Circles: Solas, as per canon, considered his act of creating the Veil to be the biggest mistake of his life but by the time canon events start, he also considers what happened to Evelyn to be his other greatest failure. As he put it, he promised to save her but in the end, it was always her who saves him and she has to suffer for that, yet she has never once blamed or hated him and still chooses to accept him which only further his Guilt Complex.
- Shadow of Her Own: Scrooge deeply regrets how his actions led to Magica De Spell creating Lena and abusing her. When Lena, angry, rejected the idea that Magica could have loved her had Poe been around, Scrooge hugs her and tearfully apologizes to her. When Lena assures Scrooge that Poe probably was ok, Scrooge explains that he feels guilty for pushing Magica to a darker path that caused her to create Lena, who Magica took all her pain and anger out on because his pride would not let him see what his enemies could do. Lena assures him that Magica's actions were not his fault, that she does not regret being created because of all the good times she had with Scrooge and his family, and Lena thanks him for what he has done to help her.
- Here There Be Monsters: Several millennia later, the wizard Shazam! still considers giving Teth-Adam powers was his biggest mistake.Even so, he had seemed old when he bequeathed his powers in ancient times to Teth-Adam, which was a great mistake. Then, millenia later, he gave those powers to the three youths, which was anything but a mistake.
- In Pretender, Robin blames himself for not saving Emmeryn and feeling that he failed as a tactician for not predicting the events that led up it, even telling Chrom to let her die instead of giving up the Fire Emblem.
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): San isn't proud of the many, many horrors that he committed on many alien planets and on Earth when he was part of Ghidorah before his Heel Realization, but San's greatest shame is the psychological agony that he unwittingly inflicted on Vivienne whilst turning her into his new sister.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed
- Lan Xichen is at the center of two of these in Forget-me-not (don't leave me behind). Yue Liu's greatest failure was leaving him behind when she fled her captivity. Lan Qiren's greatest failure was letting him down as a child and not giving him the care he deserved.
- The Choices That Make Us: Cyrus Diggory believes not investigating Harry's claims that his name was placed in the Goblet of Fire (due to Fudge not wanting a scandal about the Tournament's security) was the worst mistake he ever made. An investigation might have saved his grandson's life.
- In Cruciamentum Eternus, Lucius fails to stop Voldemort from killing Draco, conducts a Heel–Face Turn, and spends years trying to make up for it.
- Snippets of Sirin Shariac's life: It's revealed that Sirin considers almost all the deaths she caused during the Second Honkai War, particularly by throwing meteors at earth, as this. The exception are the staff of Babylon Labs, whom she doesn't regret killing even many years later.
- Prodigal Son: It is not until after one of the children under his supervision dies in the arena during training that Gobber retires from training, passing on that responsibility to Astrid.
- In Queen of All Oni, Uncle views Jade's Face–Heel Turn as this, since he noticed the scar on her chi that allowed the Queen persona to be reawakened, but didn't do anything about it since he didn't feel it was a threat.
- You will always have a part of me nobody else is ever gonna see: For Jotaro Kujo, his biggest regret was his decision in 1999 to distant himself from his wife and their daughter Jolyne in a misplaced effort to protect them from enemy Stand Users drawn to his Stand Star Platinum. Unlike in canon where it lasted to 2011 and left Jolyne with much resentment towards her father, the difference is that this distance ended 2 years when Jolyne came with her mother to the University her parents worked at, where she snuck to Jotaro's office and let out a cry on how much she missed her father. Jotaro came to immediately regret his decision and worked with his ex-wife to spend more time with Jolyne as she grew up and get therapy for his PTSD from his time fighting DIO and other Stand Users, though by 2007 his past mistake still haunts him and Jolyne. Even when the option of time travel comes and the chance to prevent his decision to leave his family, Jotaro declines believing he has no right to meddle with Jolyne's life anymore.
- One of the enemy Stand Users, Karina has a Stand that sends people back to the moments that they regret. Besides the major incident above, Jotaro also regrets going to Egypt to fight DIO and leaving his mother to face her illness alone (albeit because killing DIO was the surefire way to save her life), allowing Avdol to fight and befriend Polnareff as he sees that decision is what led Avdol to sacrifice himself to save Polnareff and Iggy from Vanilla Ice, and keeping Polnareff Locked Out of the Loop about Avdol Faking the Dead which made him believe his impulsive attack at J. Geil led to the fortune teller's death for a period of time.
- Despite what Big Bad Jeff thinks, the decision to fight DIO isn't this for Jotaro, as Jeff hoped so he can go to that moment and change the past so DIO wins the fight against Jotaro. While Jotaro does grieve that many of his friends died fighting DIO, he will not regret their decision to take down the great evil.
- Invoked in The Amazing Spider-Man: True Purpose; while not his greatest failure, Spider-Man talks with Hope Summers about the death of Sally Avril, the short-lived ‘Bluebird’, as an example of why he feels responsible when people he cares about join him in the field.
- In “Langsyne”, when Wanda meets her long-lost maternal grandfather Magnus, he reveals that he had a son after he was separated from Wanda’s grandmother who was kept on a farm because the boy’s mutations meant he could never pass for human. When the boy became sick, Magnus refused to take him to hospital out of fear of discovery and his wife left after their son died, a subsequent private autopsy revealing that the boy died of nothing more than appendicitis which could have been easily treated if Magnus hadn’t been too scared
- Seen in Shepard's R&R. Commander Shepard chose the "Destroy" ending for Mass Effect 3, and although it saved the galaxy, it killed all the allied geth and his close friend EDI. He almost breaks down when he visits EDI's spot out of habit and remembers he caused her death, and it becomes a regular source of grief for the rest of the story.
- In Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race, while Duo had failed to stop the Stardroids on occasion before, his greatest moment of doubt came when he watched them destroy a planet in front of his eyes.
- In Mega Man Reawakened, Police Chief Marmalade thinks his biggest failure is voting for Wily to have a bail sum at all.
- After the Fall: Adrien sees his defeat and unmasking at Weredad's hands to be his greatest failure. Ironically, Marinette blames herself for this, seeing it as Ladybug's greatest failure.
- Papa Bear: Tom seems remorseful that he didn't do enough to try and stop Marinette's bullies at school (trusting that the teachers and faculty would put a stop to it), which is why he's so determined to help Adrien escape Gabriel's custody.
- Apotheosis: All Might's is Villain Protagonist Izuku Midoriya's descent into evil. A Moment of Weakness and a lack of tact led to him crushing the dreams of his greatest fan and turning him into Japan's worst supervillain since All For One. The worst part is that All Might didn't even remember Izuku until he became a possible suspect for the titular Apotheosis's civilian identity. His guilt over the situation ultimately becomes a double-edged sword: while it drives him to stop Izuku before finally passing One For All onto a successor, it also prevents him from doing what is necessary to take Izuku down.
- Build Yourself Up (Don't Let Them Break You Down): Endeavor regrets how his Skewed Priorities and the extreme methods he used to pursue his dreams cost him his two closest, dearest friends, as he drove them away with his decisions.
- King: Shouto blames himself for how Fujimori twisted his testimony around to ensure that his mother was institutionalized and blamed for everything his father had done.
- In Metallurgy, All-Might considers the USJ to be his greatest failure as using up most of his time dealing with petty crimes and joyriders beforehand resulted in Izuku losing a hand to Shigaraki.
- Sleeper Hit AU: Aizawa expelled Midoriya under false pretense] in order to ensure there was room in Class 1-A for his protégé Shinsou once he proved himself in Gen Ed. Then the League of Villains attacked his class at the USJ, resulting in Asui and Mineta dying at Shigaraki's hands. Suffice to say, Aizawa deeply regrets his decision, wondering how different things might have been if he hadn't kicked Midoriya out.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- In The Dear Sweetie Belle Continuity: Dear Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash seems to view failing to save Applejack's parents from the Great Storm as this- at least, when she gets a note worded as such from the one responsible for said storm, she knows what he's talking about.
- In Innocence once lost, Rainbow Dash blames herself for Fluttershy losing a leg during the war. She was showing off dodging enemy fire and forgot Fluttershy was flying behind her, she didn't warn Fluttershy to dodge and one of the projectiles hit her.
- Life in Manehattan: Orange Sherbet sees her failure to be able to properly bond with Applejack during her stay in Manehattan as her biggest failure. Turns out, Applejack sees walking out on her aunt as hers.
- Loved and Lost: Due to being banished from Equestria as hated pariahs, Princess Celestia, the Mane Five, Shining Armor, and Spike express deep regret over mistreating Twilight and inadvertently causing the Changeling invasion. This motivates them to return to Canterlot so that they can clear their names and make amends.
- This is the theme of the fan-song Lullaby for a Princess, combined with Celestia blaming no-one but herself.
- In one subplot of Parting Words, Applejack gets a very harsh wake-up call when she discovers how her lack of action (and good advice for that matter) with regards to the Cutie Mark Crusaders' bullying problem has essentially caused Applebloom to lose all faith in her. Learning from this mistake and fixing the damage this has done to their relationship becomes one of the focal points in the sequel The Great Alicorn Hunt.
- Downplayed in A Voice Among the Strangers: Captain Swift Dawn, one of the Royal Guards assigned to protect Jessica, loses track of her in Baltimare, and she almost gets recaptured by the Flim Flam brothers. He rescues her and ends up shielding her from a whip, leaving him with a scar across his muzzle. Jessica later learns that he refused to have it healed so that it would be a constant reminder of his near failure.
- Black Flames Dance in the Wind: Rise of Naruto: Naruto has two for the price of one. First, his defeat of a powerful demon accidentally triggered a horrific attack upon Konoha, causing scores of deaths. While dealing with said attack, he forgot about the badly wounded Anko, who very nearly died before she was found. The only reason she survived was due to taking multiple blood pills, meaning she was conscious for that whole time. Even weeks later, Naruto blames himself for accidentally abandoning her, writing down "I left her behind" on the written portion of the Chuunin Exam.
- Naruto: the Secret Songs of the Ninja: Naruto and Sakura both blame themselves for how Sasuke was killed during their first mission outside Konoha. Keiji, their new teammate, also blames himself for how his original team was killed.
- Scorpion Disciple: Sasori has two. First is how he was defeated by Orochimaru; second is how he learned too late that his "eternal body" was imperfect, making it worthless in his eyes and unable to qualify as his perfect masterpiece.
- Discussed in Son of the Sannin when Shisui gives Sasuke a lesson on forgiving yourself by showing him the grave of a rival of his whose death he was indirectly responsible for. Sasuke is surprised that he considers it a greater failure than the Uchiha Insurrection given that it was much smaller in scope, but Shisui explains that at least in the case of the latter he did everything he could to prevent it.
- Evangelion 303: This is how Asuka sees the Unit-04's crashing. Even though it was not her fault, she considers herself responsible for the failure of the mission and her best friend's death.
- In Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide, Misato comes to face the fact that she became so obsessed with avenging Kaji's death that she neglected her wards; and without the support of the only adult who cared about them, both kids crumbled under the weight of their psychological issues.Misato: You told me to move ahead. To look for the truth. I didn't. I stayed behind, and those I am responsible for suffered. It was up to me, but I didn't do anything. I failed Shinji. I failed Asuka. Everyone. I'm sure if you were here I would make you sick.
- Echoes of the Dark gives Neptune an Adaptational Angst Upgrade that causes her to view the events of Victory and VII as her two Greatest Failures - the former because Neptune's selfishness and stubbornness during an argument with her adoptive daughter Peashy inadvertently caused a chain of events that led to Peashy being brainwashed into working for the villain for ten years, and the latter because Neptune herself was brainwashed into working for the villain and almost killing her own sister, with Neptune especially giving herself a hard time regarding the fact that the things she said to her sister while brainwashed are what Neptune actually does feel, but is ashamed of.
- In Junior Officers, Professor Inkling considers promoting the previous captain, Seacliff, who then became abusive to the rest of the staff, to be this.
- Always Visible: Galbraith blames himself for Delia's death because he could not disobey mister chief inspector Schaeymoure's orders to leave her family's home, which results in the poor baby falling into the hands of an incompetent F.B.I. agent.
- Gligarman in Pokémon Reset Bloodlines considers his greatest failure having not stopped the children of the criminal Heratia from killing her in front of his eyes. From that day onwards, he vowed to never let anybody die in front of him ever again, not even a criminal he's trying to stop. The next time it happened, he retired from crimefighting for a long time.
- Professor Oak's in Shudo cross Modern Ash: The Professor Who Observes his Charges is the fact that his son, Gary's father, grew to hate him because the Professor did not know he was conceived. While the Professor did try to reconcile, it did not go well and his son died hating him.
- Rest In Piss: Piss Master's Daughter feels she should have done more to help her father and be a part of his life, which could have prevented his suicide. It is revealed that Piss Master always welcomes his daughter to visit him, but she never takes him up on that offer which she now regrets because she misses him. Before the incident that humiliated him on the internet, Piss Master told his daughter he was going after a 'notorious villain' with a long list of defeated heroes. She realized now that it was a suicide mission, and looking back now, she should've known he was on the edge. Piss Master's Daughter regrets not stopping her father before he ever went, asking him how he was doing and taking a bigger interest in his life. Finally, after Piss Master was embarrassed on the internet, his daughter regretted not contacting him to comfort her father. Piss Master's Daughter revealed that her father attempted to contact her after he was humiliated by the human on the internet, she made fun of her father on her podcast and ignored his texts and calls up until they stopped coming, and then the guilt hit her. Piss Master's Daughter visited her father only to find a man impersonation her father, realizing that her father killed herself and the man was trying to spear her feeling by assuring her that her father was ok and if anything happened to him it was not her fault she was heartbroken.
- In Hunters of Justice, The Fall of Remnant was this for several characters, but most of all for Teams RWBY and JNPR, Ironwood, and Ozpin.
- For Teams RWBY and JNPR, they were literally Remnant's last hope of saving the planet and the other cities. And yet, despite their best efforts, they were painfully curb-stomped by Brainiac and was Forced to Watch both the bottling of Vale and the complete destruction of their planet. It was only by meeting the Justice League that they were able to recover this and regain the hope of saving what's left of their people.
- For Ironwood, he was the head of the military forces of Vale, and thus he feels that the inability to save the city and stop Brainiac lands on his shoulders. The fact that he had been too far away to save Atlas as well did not help matters.
- As for Ozpin, he had spent thousands of years trying to unite and save humanity from the threat of Salem, suffering untold amounts of pain, betrayal, and loneliness all the meanwhile. And then in comes this alien warlord that wrecks all the progress he made within a scant two days, murdering millions and destroying his planet. Understandably, Ozpin is the one who both feels the most guilt for what happened and bears the strongest hatred of Brainiac of all.
- Weight of the World: Having found a Silver-Eyed Warrior for the first time in decades, Ozpin became foolishly overconfident and reckless in his fight against Salem. Summer Rose paid for his arrogance with her life and Ozpin vowed not to make the same mistakes again.
- In Empath: The Luckiest Smurf, Papa Smurf sees taking his only begotten son Empath to Psychelia where he was forcibly taken from him by the Psyche Master, and then having to hear the child's "dying" screams, as this. While it would lead to his wife separating from him and having Brainy with another Smurf, it would also lead to his redemption when he became the sole parent of about a hundred orphaned young Smurfs whose parents died in The Plague that was Only Fatal to Adults.
- Connie Swap: Connie considers the ill-fated mission to the Lunar Sea Spire to be her gravest mistake. Her desire to learn what might have happened if she'd actually succeeded eventually leads to her discovering a Bad Future stemming from those divergences.
- This fanart◊ makes the case that Superman's greatest failure isn't his inability to redeem Lex Luthor, save Krypton, enlarge Kandor or eradicate crime... but his total and complete failure to protect his family.
- Integrity's death is this for Sans in Not As Simple As A Happy Ending.
- In Everqueen, one reason Isha tries so hard to help the Thunder Warrior is because their flaws remind her of her inability to prevent the barbarization of the Krork.
