Admitting guilt over your actions can be difficult. After all it recquires for a person to acknowledge that they have done or said something wrong, and therefore that they are flawed, or not as good or as smart as they think they are, something many people with strong pride are not willing to do, preferring to repress their guilt over their actions rather than admit it, even as their conscience is torturing them.
The fear of facing the consequences of their actions, under the form of a punishment or being ostracized by others, can also be a factor leading people to choose to repress their guilt. There are even cases where letting an injustice or wrong happen can benefit some persons, making them unwilling to compromise their success by letting their conscience guide their actions.
Other times, characters feel the need to appear strong and refuse to show their weaknesses to others because they can't stand appearing vulnerable and weak. Other times they feel they have gone too far with their crimes, and cannot go back, and so admitting their crimes wouldn't change anything.
Despite their denial however, the remorse for their actions never leave these characters, with them showing signs of being miserable in their life, sometimes coping with alcohol, smoking, drugs or other unhealthy ways to keep their guilt at bay, or trying to do something good in another way in order to ease their conscience, though it only worsen their mental state in the long run.
These characters can also suffer from Guilt-Induced Nightmare when the guilt is too strong for them, or even suffer emotional breakdowns or Sanity Slippage once they can't contain their guilt anymore.
Refusal to admit and atone for their sins can also lead to these characters going down a toxic or even villainous path, with them committing even worse actions until karma catches up with them, or they finally crack under the pressure and try to atone for their actions though by this point the damage they have done is such that they have very little to save left, and often die in the process.
Contrast with I Regret Nothing, where the characters genuinely don't feel remorse over their actions.
May overlap with Never My Fault, The Unapologetic, Heel–Face Door-Slam, I've Come Too Far, Pride, Ignored Epiphany, Scrubbing Off the Trauma, Emotion Suppression, or Defiant to the End.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Ace Attorney (2016): Discussed, but ultimately subverted. Manfred von Karma does seem to take a shine to a young Miles Edgeworth after killing his father, comparing his most recent courtroom opponent unfavorably to the latter and allowing the former to stay in his house. However, in a private moment, after deciding to formally adopt Miles, Manfred reflects that he's not doing so because he feels the slightest bit of remorse or cares about covering it up: he's just curious where his karma will lead him.
- Code Geass: This is one of Suzaku's biggest flaws. He feels guilty for killing his father during the invasion of Japan when he called for do or die resistance against Britannia, but he hides it under the pretense of becoming an Internal Reformist after joining the Britannian Military.
- Death Note: Light Yagami tests out the Death Note by writing the names of two criminals in it. When they both die and Light realizes that the Death Note does in fact work as advertised in its instructions, he's horrified that he unwittingly killed two people, but quickly convinces himself that he didn't do anything wrong and that he has the perfect opportunity to kill the worst people in the world and make it a better place.
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (2005): It's revealed that when Link's father confronted Agahnim over his Deal with the Devil to free Ganon in exchange for some of the Triforce's power, Agahnim banished his friend to the Dark World, first justifying it as a necessary evil to make all of Hyrule happy with the Triforce, and years later saying he was "foolish" for trying to oppose him. In the final confrontation with Link, he goes into a Villainous Breakdown when he imagines Link's father standing next to the hero, and is killed seconds later by Ganon for outliving his usefulness.
Comic Books
- Batman: Surprisingly it's been hinted several times that the Joker does have the capacity to feel remorse for his many terrible crimes, such as his unusually somber expression after killing Sarah Essen, Jim Gordon's second wife, or the few times his sanity has been restored briefly such as when Martian Manhunter altered his mind or when exposed to the Lazarus Pit, during which he will express deep remorse for his actions. However, his insanity is so strong that any guilt he may feel has to be buried very deep inside his mind, and on the very few occasions he's made sane again, it never sticks for long.
- Captain Marvel: Mar-Vell, the original Captain Marvel, had hangups over the death of his lover Una. She perished when she was wounded during a battle against their commanding officer Yon-Rogg, but as Mar-Vell was clouded by revenge against Yon-Rogg he didn't realise how severe her wounds were until it was too late. He tried to get her up to the orbiting Kree ship that had the technology to save her, but could only helplessly listen to her heartbeat slow and finally stop. This was also what led to an inability to consummate a relationship with Carol Danvers, despite their mutual attraction. Years later, after he and the Titan Elysius became close, he confesses that part of the reason he'd thrown himself into his role as "Protector Of The Universe" was because it allowed him to forget, at least for a while, his tremendous guilt over letting Una die thanks to his own short-sightedness and ego. When Elysius tries to comfort him, he tells her that he only really knew to keep moving forward because he feared that actually sitting down to try to process his feelings of guilt would destroy him.
- Fantastic Four:
- Defied by Doctor Doom. As far as he is concerned, Utopia Justifies the Means and so any and all horrific acts he performs (among the most heinous being sacrificing his childhood sweetheart to a trio of demons for a temporary magical power boost, and mutiliating numerous Asgardians, including children, into cybernetic monstrosities) will be worth it in the end. He feels no guilt at all, to the point he can No-Sell Ghost Rider's Penance Stare.
- As the Devourer of Worlds, Galactus is responsible for countless deaths throughout the ages, be it directly from the consumption of worlds or indirectly when wars and other forms of chaos are left in his wake (for example, his destruction of the Skrull Throneworld resulted in a massive Skrull civil war, partially because the peace-loving crown princess died with her homeworld). On some level he feels a slight amount of pity (this being why he sends his Heralds to announce his arrival, intending to give the populace of a populated world time to evacuate), but he's compared it to the pity a human might feel for eating a fish: a human might feel a certain amount of guilt for robbing the fish of its life, but it is necessary to preserve the human's life and so a Necessarily Evil. He's capable of conversing, such as during the trial of Reed Richards, where he made an appearance and confronted the terrified Majestrix Liliandra of the Shi'ar Empire, but generally he doesn't bother. When he's temporarily freed of his position and made into the mortal he once was, the guilt begins settling in until he makes a Heroic Sacrifice to buy the heroes time from him becoming Galactus again.
- The second Ryan North run introduces the Invincible Woman, an Alternate Self of Susan Storm who realized the greater potential of her power when she discovered her force fields much earlier. During a nightmare, she unconsciously unleashed her new powers and murdered everyone on Earth except Johnny, who managed to save himself with his own powers. Overcome with remorse wandering a dead world, she eventually pressured Johnny into assisting her in a precise lobotomy to excise the capacity to feel it. This made her proud of her actions, seeking to repeat them across the universe.
Fan Works
- Code Prime:
- Just like in Code Geass canon, Suzaku is nursing a Guilt Complex over killing his father, but hides it as he tries to reform the Britannian Empire. Unlike in canon, where Suzaku acknowledged that it was his fault, Suzaku here refuses to take responsibility for his father's death (implied to be due partly due to the Decepticons and Megatron's influence), and it takes the Autobots and Black Knight chipping away at his guilt repression, along with Lelouch calling him out on it, to snap Suzaku out of his funk.
- Notably Averted with Megatron, as he doesn't feel any guilt whatsoever for all of the things that he's done. Despite the fact that he was responsible for infecting Cybertron's core with Dark Energon, rendering it uninhabitable, Megatron refuses to let it get to him, as he makes it clear that nothing will stop him from accomplishing his goals.
- Defense Attorney Maya Fey AU: Yours Truly, Franziska von Karma shows that in Franziska's first few years as a prosecutor, she got several innocent people sent to prison, but she bottled up her feelings by convincing herself that she was making her father proud by being "perfect".
Films — Animation
- The Bad Guys (2022): Diane Foxington is revealed to be a former thief known as the Crimson Paw. After her Heel–Face Turn, she still chooses to be quiet about her past due to being afraid of facing backlash, since she never got caught for her crimes.
- Beauty and the Beast (1991): When Belle cries because Beast doesn't allow her to say goodbye to her father, Beast feels guilty, but doesn't know how to handle that, so he rudely interrupts her by saying he is going to show her to her room.
- Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show: Throughout the series, it was implied that Double D was suppressing a Guilt Complex over being complacent in Eddy's scams. At the beginning of the movie, as he's trying and failing to write a letter to his parents before fleeing the Cal-Da-Sac due to a scam that finally went too far, the bubble finally pops as he lets out an anguished My God, What Have I Done?, and bursts into tears.
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney): Judge Claude Frollo is already racist and self-righteous, but he develops a serious case of Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny regarding Esmeralda, believing that she should belong to him or die. The best sign that he's actively repressing any guilt over this comes in his Villain Song "Hellfire" when he sings "It's not my fault!" and the background choir responds "Mea culpa", meaning "It is my fault".
- KPop Demon Hunters: For the past 400 years, Jinu the demon has been tormented by the guilt of leaving his mother and sister in poverty while he was elevated to a life of luxury as part of a Deal with the Devil. He wants to erase those memories permanently, which Gwi-Ma, the demon king, promises to do if he manages to break down the Honmoon and flood the earth with demons.
- Waltz with Bashir: The film follows a former IDF officer who struggles to remember what he and his unit did during the First Lebanon War of 1982. As he talks to surviving members of his unit, what emerges are memories of how he and his peers got involved with the Phalangists and looked the other way as they kidnapped and tortured Palestinians. By the end, he realizes that what he's really repressing is his guilt over his unit failing to prevent the Sabra and Shatilla massacre.
Films — Live-Action
- 12 Angry Men: Repressed guilt over the abuse he inflicted on his son drives Juror №3 to continue to seek a guilty verdict against another young man. Finally, after tearing his picture of his son at the end of his Villainous Breakdown and having a My God, What Have I Done? realization, Juror №3 can no longer deny the fact that he is responsible for ruining his relationship with his son, he breaks down in tears and says not guilty.
- Gentlemen of Fortune:
- Vasily Alibabaevich is the most conscientious of the escaped criminals. He constantly wants to return to prison with a confession, and only the fact that his meager prison term of one year has now increased many times over holds him back.
- Fedya is quite simple-minded. At first, it seems that he does not particularly repent of his criminal life. Only a meeting with a childhood friend, who lives an honest and happy life, truly shows how ashamed and bitter Fedya is for his criminal life.
- Even though Gavrila is the most cynical of the escaped criminals, stealing money from his own gang, he still has to deal with repressed guilt. When he receives a letter from his son, the guilt overwhelms him so much that he attempts suicide.
- Troshkin constantly struggles with guilt for deceiving Vasily, Fedya, and Gavrila by pretending to be the leader of the gang. He is forced to continue doing this in order to find the helmet of Alexander the Great, which is of great historical value.
- The Machinist: The main character is suffering from insomnia after having killed a child in a hit-and-run vehicle accident a year prior. It is not until he confesses and turns himself in that he is finally able to sleep.
- The Silence of the Lambs: The serial killer "Buffalo Bill", of his true name James Gumb, despite his insanity does look touched and guilty when his last victim Catherine cries for her mother, showing that he's not entirely without empathy, though he chooses to repress his empathy for her and his other victims, addressing them as "it" in an attempt to distance himself from them.
Literature
- Adrian Mole: In Adrian's novel Lo! The Flat Hills of my Homeland, Jake gives his mother a High-Voltage Death by tampering with the electrics of the lawnmower. When Jake's mother dies, Jake feels guilty, but then represses it as he remembers that his mother had ignored his advice to install a circuit breaker.
- The Age of Madness:
- Prince Orso feels horribly guilty about the people who have been hanged as a result of his negligence when he rescues Savine dan Glotka. He desperately tries to shut it out to continue his role as prince with mixed success.
- Rikke heeds advice to "make of her heart a stone," resorting to increasingly underhanded means across the war in the north by executing a captive Stour Nightfall and later betraying Orso to execution. She feels horrible about it in both cases, especially with Orso, but forces her emotions and guilt aside so she can achieve victory.
- And Then There Were None: Most of the characters on this island suffer from this, feeling guilty about the murders they committed. However, when they are all accused of their respective crimes, most of them try to lie or justify their murders, in order to keep a respectable appearance.
- The Count of Monte Cristo: Gérard de Villefort, the magistrate who chose to frame Edmond Dantès and sent him to a Hellhole Prison despite knowing him to be innocent of the crime he's accused of, in order to preserve his reputation and advance his career, as his father was part of the conspiracy to restore Napoléon Bonaparte to power, feels terrible guilt for framing Edmond Dantès and sending him to prison, but chooses to repress his guilt and let Dantès rot in prison. This decision will haunt him terribly years later, when a vengeful Dantès returns as the Count of Monte Cristo.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: Theon Greyjoy starts to feel terrible remorse over his actions over the course of A Clash of Kings as his attempts to earn his family and the Ironborn's respect, and practice the Old Way, and rule over Winterfell lead to him committing increasingly heinous actions such as betraying Robb Stark, who loved and trusted him like a brother and taking part in the Ironborn's invasion of the North, taking Winterfell and treating its inhabitants horribly, murdering several of his own men and having farm boys murdered and burned to pass them off as Bran and Rickon as a desperate attempt to hold on Winterfell, which makes him increasingly miserable and make him suffer terrible nightmares and Sanity Slippage. Despite this, Theon refuses to admit how horrible he feels over his actions, and even taunts Ser Rodrik when he returns to take back Winterfell, though it reeks of him attempting a Suicide by Cop to put an end to his misery. It's only after having been captured and horrifically tortured and enslaved by Ramsay Snow that Theon acknowledges his guilt over his actions and becomes The Atoner, wishing that he had died with Robb at the Red Wedding, and helping Jeyne Pool escape to start atoning for his crimes.
- The Stormlight Archive: After Moash's Face–Heel Turn, part of what keeps him a loyal servant of Odium is that Odium promises to eat his guilt so he doesn't have to take accountability for his actions. This is in contrast with the main characters, who grow specifically because they do face their past and learn from it.
Live-Action TV
- Better Call Saul:
- Jimmy McGill aka Saul Goodman suffers from this, burying deep his remorse over his actions such as over his scams, his defense of Lalo despite knowing Lalo is guilty of Fred Whalen's murder, his role in ruining Howard's life out of spite and leading to Howard's death at Lalo's hand, and his role in Chuck's relapse and suicide, by deflecting the blame on others and hiding himself under the persona of Saul Goodman even further, even as he becomes even more miserable in the process. It's only in "Saul Gone" when he finally admits his guilt and faces the consequences of his actions that he manages to find some peace again.
- Chuck McGill, Jimmy's older brother, feels remorse over his abusive treatment of Jimmy and how he sabotaged Jim's career as a lawyer, but buries his guilt under his jealousy and resentment towards Jimmy, and paranoia of seeing Jimmy falling back to his old scheming ways. After losing his job as a lawyer, and alienating everyone around him, and cutting ties with Jimmy in the most hurtful way possible by saying that he never mattered to Chuck much, and how he should stop hiding who he is, the remorse of hurting Jimmy and cutting ties with him ends up being the breaking point for Chuck that causes him to have a mental breakdown and then to kill himself by setting his house on fire.
- The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed: Levchenko, who served in World War II, encountered and showed real heroism there, deeply despises the gang of robbers and murderers with which he got involved. Having already been to prison, he is not ready to return there — so he suppresses his guilt and continues to be in the gang. However, he does not reveal the truth about Sharapov, his former commander, who is trying to deceive the gang.
- Red Dwarf: Rimmer is responsible for the deaths of almost everyone onboard Red Dwarf, including himself, by improperly repairing a drive plate. In true Rimmer fashion, he seemingly blames everyone but himself, tearing into Lister for not being there to help him. However, "Justice" reveals that he actually does carry guilt over being responsible for their deaths, which the Justice Computer picks up on and uses to sentence him.
- Seventeen Moments of Spring: When Rolf (with the help of Barbara) tortures a baby with cold and forces his mother, Kat, to watch, he drinks a sedative and says that he is very afraid to do it — but he will continue to do it anyway. However, his subordinate Helmut is the one who can not put up with the atrocities any longer, kills Rolf and Barbara, and saves Kat and the baby.
Tabletop Games
- Chronicles of Darkness 1st Edition: The flavor text for the Karma Meter describes every stage of degeneration as an Ignored Epiphany where the character rationalizes that they don't actually feel bad about their transgression because hey, they had their reasons. Conversely, passing a degeneration test means that they both felt guilty and learned from it.
Theatre
- The Book of Mormon: Besides being about repressing homosexual desires, "Turn It Off" is also about repressing guilt. Elder Thomas's verse is about how he decided to skip visiting his sister, who was dying of cancer in the hospital, to go buy the new iPhone. She died while he was still in line, so he copes with the feeling that he abandoned her in her final hours by simply refusing to think about it and staying cheery.
- Macbeth: Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth are gnawed by their guilt over their betrayal of Duncan, and Macbeth's murder of him at his wife's suggestion so he could become king, no matter how much they try to suppress it. Both go through Sanity Slippage, with Macbeth growing increasingly paranoid and murderous, which worsens his guilt, while Lady Macbeth eventually kills herself. Lady Macbeth's guilt takes the form of her dreaming she has a bloodstain, which she desperately tries to get rid of but never can, no matter how hard she tries to clean it.
Video Games
- Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown:
- Late in the Lighthouse War, Dr. Schroeder monologues about how he feels guilty for having Mihaly take increasingly dangerous flight sorties to collect flight data to improve Erusea's drone army. Despite that, he represses his guilt and presses on with his work, which comes to a head when it's revealed that he was only in it to avenge his homeland of Belka.
- In Mihaly's final showdown with Trigger, he reveals that he continued to fly for Erusea due to his ego, and admits that he held back the guilt that he felt for abandoning his granddaughters so that he could continue flying despite his body being way past his prime.
- Dynasty Warriors: Origins: Invoked by Cao Cao in the aftermath of the Battle of Ye, where he drives the sons of his deceased childhood friend Yuan Shao out of their family stronghold of Ye and kills the eldest son Yuan Tan after Yuan tried to pull a Uriah Gambit while allied to Cao. He muses that Yuan Shao was a dear friend who once upon a time he thought would be a great leader, but now he must kill the sons of that dear friend. He dismisses the idea of feeling guilt, because he knew from the very start that once he embarked on his path of conquest, he would have to pave that path with the corpses of friend, family, foe, and innocent alike. To feel guilt now would invalidate the sacrifices already made, and Cao is determined to follow his path to the end.
- Genshin Impact:
- Zhongli, the Geo Archon, feels immense guilt over all of the things that he's done in the past, from taking part in the Archon War to forming contracts with the Heavenly Principles to maintain his silence regarding the Khaenri'ah Cataclysm. Despite that, he maintains a stoic demeanor and chooses to live as a mortal rather than let the guilt he feels eat away at him.
- Raiden Ei, the Electro Archon, felt guilty for being unable to save her sister, Makato, from the Khaenri'ah Cataclysm. Rather than face her guilt head-on, she chose to retreat into the Plane of Euthymia. Unlike with Zhongli, Ei is convinced by the Traveler to face her guilt, so that she can retreat from the Plane of Euthymia and move on from her sister's death.
- Subverted for Neuvillette, the Iudex of Fontaine, as he is incapable of showing any guilt that he has for all of the people who were convicted of crimes. This isn't because he doesn't feel guilty for the crimes that people committed, but because he's the Dragon Sovereign of Hydro, as most of the guilt that he feels comes in the form of rainstorms that occur after every trial that he takes part in.
- If Tartaglia is to be believed, the Tsaritsa is a gentle soul who feels guilty for deploying the Fatui all across Teyvat to collect the Gnosis, but had to harden herself to accomplish her goal to rebel against the Heavenly Principles.
- Final Fantasy XIV:
- In Stormblood, Fordola insists that I Did What I Had to Do when she complies with an order from Zenos to fire on Castrum Speculatoris, killing many members of the Resistance along with her own men, including her Childhood Friends. She constantly justifies to herself that this is the only way for Ala Mhigo to be "free" and that she had to do it. But her guilt clearly gnaws at her, and Lyse calls her out for Just Following Orders.
- This trope is central to the Stormblood Dark Knight quests. The quest explores the Warrior of Light's guilt and Samaritan Syndrome. While they're able to put up a stiff lip when saving the world, the quest log descriptions depict them as someone drowning in guilt for all the people they've killed and failed to save, with one entry wondering how others could possibly see them as a good person after everything they've done. Myste is the embodiment of the Warrior's Guilt Complex and runaway empathy, leading him to try to "undo" the Warrior's failures. His ultimate plan is to suck the land dry of aether to create facsimiles of all the people the Warrior of Light blames themselves for killing or allowing to die, thereby offering themself absolution. But given the incalculable cost for such an act, the Warrior opposes Myste. The quest ends with the Warrior accepting the guilt they're feeling and finally forgiving themself with the help of Esteem.
- Project Wingman: Crimson 1 is implied to be holding a Guilt Complex for being the leader of the Cascadian Peacekeepers for the Federation. Nonetheless, he hardens himself and pushes his guilt to the back of his mind as he continues to fight for the Federation against Cascadia's war for independence due to his inability to accept his defeats at the hands of Monarch, who he initially dismissed as a lowlife mercenary.
- Zenless Zone Zero:
- In Trigger's Agent Story, she's forced to contend with another survivor of the Fall of the Old Capital, who like Trigger herself, lost her entire team during the Fall. However, unlike Trigger who focused herself on protecting her new teammates, she instead began hunting people she felt undeservedly enjoyed the peace bought with her comrades' lives. When she's confronted with the fact that one of the people she murdered had not only argued against abandoning soldiers during the Fall but had even tried to go back for them, she's initially taken aback but quickly suppresses the feeling, declaring that one good person doesn't make up for everything.
- Thanks to a Freudian Excuse, Pulchra has major trust issues. As a result, she adopts a "if you get tricked, it's your own fault for falling for it" attitude as a defense mechanism. This allows her to trick people all over, and part of the reason she agrees to be drafted into the Sons of Calydon is because they agree to help protect her against any unhappy former comrades, clients, or employers. In return, however, they expect her to cut out her more mercenary tendencies, as while they're willing to help her out against old enemies, they aren't interested in helping her against new ones. In spite of herself, her Agent Story and other events show that the Sons of Calydon accepting her as one of them despite her past is having an effect on her, though she remains as snarky and scheming as ever.
Web Animation
- The Amazing Digital Circus: In "They All Get Guns", Jax continues to bond with Pomni—who roleplays as a villain during the battle royale—but has his Trauma Button pressed. When Pomni hugs him following their victory, Jax begins to genuinely smile before abruptly pushing her away and staring at his hand in disbelief. Pomni is taken aback when Jax tells her to just shoot him, and when she confronts him, Jax attempts to drive her away by sneering that they were never friends and that he's nothing more than the sadistic bully he presents himself as. When Pomni doesn't believe him, Jax doubles down and—frustrated and emotionally exhausted after their argument escalates into a fight—tells Pomni to stop trying to see good in him when there isn't any. At the end of the episode, he is shown to be miserable and upset to the point of having a panic attack, but isolates himself rather than try to apologize.
- Helluva Boss: Blitzo, the founder and manager of the hit-man startup company, I.M.P. (Immediate Murder Professionals), has a long history of grievous mistakes and burning bridges. However, the imp is rather prideful, secretly self-loathing, and typically refuses to make amends, which tends to make his relationships worse, leading a great number of people to hate Blitzo. However, for all of Blitzo's bullshitting and confident demeanor, Blitzo does regret his actions that led to so much pain but simply buries his feelings of guilt and remorse, as Blitzo believes he doesn't deserve forgiveness. This has naturally led to an unbalanced mindset and emotional state for the imp, which he has only recently begun to address.
- RWBY: Raven Branwen shows signs of remorse over her decision to leave her family and team, and her terrible treatment of them, especially of her daughter Yang, admitting regret over how terrible her attitude was during her first meeting with Yang by saying "I know" after Yang points out she wasn't kind during their meeting once Yang is out of earshot; as well as over her murder of the previous Spring Maiden and her Dirty Coward actions such as endangering Yang by temporary allying with Salem's forces and setting a trap for her, her uncle Qrow and sister Ruby and their friends in order to save her own skin from Salem, with her face showing hesitation when Vernal asks her about Yang, and her looking at Yang when she hears her crying in pain only to shake her head as she descends to the Relic of Knowledge. However, each time she denies and represses her remorse out of pride, trying to rationalize her actions and convince both herself and others that she's doing this because she's a strong survivor, and refuses to acknowledge her faults for all of Volume 5. It lasts until her confrontation with Yang in Haven's vault where Yang tears apart Raven's excuses and facade of strength and forces her to face the coward she is, causing Raven to finally let go of her pride, shed Tears of Remorse and apologize to Yang before fleeing away in shame.
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Princess Azula shows signs several times over Book Three that she does feel remorseful over the way she treats Zuko, as well as her friends Mai and Ty Lee, such as in "The Beach" where she anxiously asks Zuko if she's the one he's angry at, and even shows a regretful look when Ty Lee cries after Zuko mocked Ty Lee and she laughed at it, only to turn away her head and pretends she's unapologetic when Ty Lee looks at her. During the scene where she hallucinates seeing her mother in the mirror, her face becomes loaded with regret when Ursa's hallucination brings up Mai and Ty Lee and how she used fear to keep them in check. However, her pride and refusal to show her vulnerabilities to others prevent Azula from opening up and admitting her remorse and properly apologizing to Zuko and her friends.
- The Fairly OddParents!: In one episode, Timmy feels bad that the town's mascot, Chompy the Goat, is locked in a cage 24/7, and wishes that the goat was free. Cosmo and Wanda grant the wish, allowing the goat freedom. Due to a coincidence, Vicky is discovered near the empty goat pen, leading to her getting arrested for Chompy's disappearance. At first, Timmy's overjoyed to be free of Vicky and showered with gifts for catching the goat thief. However, he does feel guilty for making the town worry about Chompy, but chose to bury the guilt since his actions brought him so many rewards. His guilt eventually gets the better of him, and he confesses to freeing the goat (though the people admit he had a point that keeping an animal locked up is cruel). Fortunately, Chompy returns at the end of the episode with a wife and two kids in tow. Now that the town has four mascots instead of just one, Timmy is forgiven (though his parents sill ground him for lying).
- Gargoyles:
- Demona is fully aware that all of her problems are due to her Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, and she has nothing to live for except revenge against the human race, whom she chooses to blame. When the Weird Sisters enchant Demona to get past her defenses, she tearfully admits her thirst for revenge just brought her more pain and gives up the access code: "ALONE". Once the spell wears off, she's back to blaming the humans for everything.
- Jon Canmore was the least evil of his siblings, until he accidentally shot his brother, paralyzing him. His desire to absolve himself led him to become the leader of a Fantastic Racist mob. Both he and Demona are defined by a moment in which they spoke the same phrase.
What have I . . . . What have they done to you?
- Miraculous Ladybug:
- Sabrina managed to successfully repress her guilt over the horrible things she's done to her classmates over the years by assuring herself that she was just being a good, loyal friend to Chloé and preventing Marinette from "taking" Adrien away from Chloé, who obviously deserves him more than that Stalker with a Crush. When the self-delusion stops working sometime around season 5, years of accumulated guilt finally catch up with her and turn her into a nervous wreck. She remains a wreck until "Daddycop" in season 6, when Zoé and Marinette help her start to make amends.
- Gabriel Agreste spends the first five seasons waging a campaign of terror across Paris, frequently betraying his friends and allies and neglecting his only son, convincing himself that it will all be worth it if he manages to get his hands on the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous and resurrects his wife.
- The Owl House: When she finally gets to enter Emperor Belos' mindscape, Luz finds out that his memories of his past murders, mass destruction, and chicanery are literally buried under a false mindscape that conveniently shows none of them.
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: In season 4, Catra feels guilty for having sent Entrapta to Beast Island to the point of having nightmares about her. However, she keeps lying that Entrapta betrayed Hordak and "got what she deserved," because she knows how Hordak will react if he learns the truth.
- Wakfu:
- Nox, the Big Bad of the first season of the series, shows signs from time to time that he does feel guilt over the devastation he brings to the world by draining many living beings of their wakfu (life energy) in order to feed the Eliacube and comes back in time, in order to save his family from their death, the most telling example being when he gives back his wakfu to Alibert and admits it may be a way for him to say he's sorry for what he'll do to the world. Nevertheless, the rest of the time, he denies feeling regret and justifies his actions by saying that he'll erase his crimes once he goes back in time and saves his family, which will change the future. However when his plan fails and he realizes that he can never go back in time far enough to save his family and undo his atrocities, guilt finally catches up with Nox and he breaks down in tears, which combined with the crushing realization that he will never reunite with his family in life, causes him to go to his family's grave and kill himself or wait for death here.
- Qilby, the Big Bad of Season 2. It's heavily implied that deep down, he does feel remorse all the atrocities he's committed against his people — being shocked to find himself shedding a tear in front of Adamai for their lost homeworld when he reminisces, and briefly flashing back to what his beloved sister Shinonome looked like when alive (before his machinations got her killed by Orgonax) and also all the carnage and screams of his people that the Mechasms inflicted on his homeworld due to his machinations — but he refuses to act on it, instead doubling down on his insistence that everything he's done was worth it to him.
Real Life
- Invoked in military training where recruits must be trained to overcome their reluctance to attack and/or kill other people.
- Three Kingdoms – Shu, Wei, Wu:
- In regard to Cao Cao, the posthumous founding emperor of Wei:
- The historical Cao Cao was known to be a strict enforcer of the law, to the point that he was described as weeping for those about to be executed, but he would not spare them. Even if he acknowledged exenuating circumstances, if the law called for someone to be executed, then he would execute them. This included family members of traitors, even if those family members were people he knew personally. A noted instance of him sparing someone was when Cai Yan (sometimes known as Cai Wenji) rode directly to his stronghold of Ye city to plead for the life of her husband after said husband was found guilty of a crime and scheduled for execution. As Cai Yan was the daughter of a respected official and had also spent years forcibly married to a barbarian king (even forced to give birth to children for him), Cao was moved enough to spare his life. That Cao had been the one to rescue her from that forced marriage was likely also a factor.
- After the death of his oldest son Cao Ang in battle (famously giving Cao his horse and then staying behind), his primary wife Lady Ding never forgave Cao for it. While Ang wasn't her birth son, she had raised him and viewed him as her own flesh-and-blood. Cao hoped to repair their relationship, but when it was clear it wasn't possible, he reluctantly divorced her and made Lady Bian his primary wife. He tried to ensure Lady Ding had a comfortable life, but on his deathbed, he was recorded as fearing to meet Ang in the afterlife, because he did not know how to reply if Ang asked him, "Where is my mother?"
- In regard to Cao Cao, the posthumous founding emperor of Wei: