Basic Trope: No matter how many people a character saves, they're torn up that they couldn't save everyone.
- Straight: After trying and failing to rescue his younger brother from a car trapped in a landslide, David curses himself for failing to help his brother from the wreck in time.
- Exaggerated: The incident haunts David for the rest of his life.
- Downplayed: David feels the usual Survivor's Guilt, which is understandable, but knows deep down he wasn't trying to hurt anyone and did everything humanly possible to save his brother.
- Justified: David was driving the car and caused the wreck by looking away from the road at the wrong time, giving him a whopping good reason to blame himself.
- Being the kind of guy who always has to be in control and can't take a break from it means David takes messing up pretty hard.
- Inverted: Despite their grief and David's liability, David's family reassures him that the accident wasn't his fault and that he tried his best to salvage things.
- Subverted: David doesn't feel guilty at all for what happened. As far as he's concerned, he's not his brother's keeper.
- Parodied: After failing to open a pudding cup for his brother, David laments his total uselesness.
- Zig Zagged: Through soul-searching and some therapy, David comes to terms with the accident and dedicates his life to not losing anyone else he cares for... until another wreck happens with him at the wheel. This time, he loses his parents and his girlfriend is crippled.
- Averted: Saving his brother Just in Time saves David from having to lament his failure, though the incident haunts him for a few weeks afterward.
- Enforced: Because of its rarity, David feels failure on a deeper level than most.
- Lampshaded: Even mentioning the incident gives David trauma flashbacks.
- Invoked: David's brother fakes his death to teach David a lesson about not taking his shortcomings so seriously. David isn't impressed.
- Defied: David doesn't save his brother, having in fact planned to wreck the car to ensure the little twerp's demise.
- Exploited: Charlie, David's rival, leverages David's guilt over the incident to get the better of him at next week's basketball game.
- Discussed: David sees a therapist to get to the root of his guilt, which amounts to him reciting the [Trope Name].
- Conversed: "David's the kind of guy who carries a Guilt Complex or two with him."
- Implied: As time goes by, David finds himself reflecting on how his brother's life could have turned out.
- Deconstructed: All the self-pitying rumination in the world doesn't change the fact that, yes, David should have been better. Knowing his brother's death is at least partly his fault sends him into a deep depression.
- Reconstructed: David realizes beating himself up will do nothing, and carries the memory of his inadequacy with him as a reminder to do better in the future.
"I should have gone to the main page first."
