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Tragic Mistake is a TV-Tropes popularized scenario in which the hero/heroine caused a disastrous event through one (or more) poor decision(s) which costed her, her allies, as well as innocent lives greatly, more than often with tragic consequences.

The literary term for this is "hamartia", an old Greek term from Aristotle's Poetics (and an admittedly vaguely-defined one—it can also be interpreted as a fatal flaw).

Even heroes make mistakes and have one or more part in certain accidents, but certain mistakes best to avoid at all costs. Unfortunately, due to the hero/heroine's own flaws, pressure from the others, or both, he/she winds up make a poor decision that becomes the catalyst of a disastrous event that brings the huge impact on their life that made them more miserable than ever ranging from the hero/heroine's tragic downfall to the chain of cataclysms.

While the damage from one's tragic mistake cannot be fully undone, it is not without positive notes. This scenario serves as the crucial part of a hero/heroine's character development as much as the story he/she featured in, albeit one in which he/she entered the point of no return to live his/her life like how it used to be before making such mistake.

Before listing an example, keep in mind that these kinds of mistakes need to have serious consequences as a result of their actions. Do NOT list any minor mistakes that do not have any real impact on the story or someone's life.

Examples

Literature

  • Harry Potter:
    • Harry Potter: Harry refuses to be taught Occlumency by Severus Snape because of their personal feud which, to his horror, stemmed from his late father James Potter's enmity towards Snape long before his eventual change of heart due to his love for Lily. This makes him open to Voldemort's Legilimency attack in form of a false vision of Sirius held captive so that Harry could run to his rescue. This results in the all-out fight that ends with Sirius' death since in his impulsiveness Harry also neglected a device which would have allowed him to communicate to Sirius immediately and verify that he's fine.
    • Severus Snape: Snape ruined his friendship (and any chance for romance he might have had) with Lily when he chose to become a zealous Death Eater under Voldemort's command. To make matters worse, he later relayed a prophecy to Voldemort about the child that would eventually defeat the Dark Lord. This causes Voldemort to target Lily's son, subsequently resulting in the murder of her and James. Snape deeply regrets this mistake that caused the death of the woman he loved and spends the rest of his life trying to make up for it by protecting Harry.
      • Despite of him willingly take the duty to become Harry's unlikely protector to redeem the aforementioned tragic mistake, Snape's inability to let go of the grudge towards James mainly because Harry and his father not so different in many ways made it rather difficult and only worsen after both failed attempt to teach the Chosen One Occlumency skill and seemingly murdered Dumbledore in cold blood (in reality, the murder was a mercy kill as Dumbledore was already dying from the curse of one of the Horcruxes, and it was also a plan to ensure that Voldemort would trust Snape completely).
    • Professor Albus Dumbledore: Albus Dumbledore's status as the seemingly flawless, benevolent, and revered figure both in Hogwarts and the rest of Wizarding World revealed to be stemmed from the fact that he used to be tempted to participate in Grindelwald's plot against Muggle world and lust of power as much as Grindelwald and later, Voldemort did. This soon resulted to the two's confrontation with his brother Abeforth that culminated to Ariana's tragic demise.
    • Sirius Black: He let Wormtail be the secret keeper to protect Potters, only for Wormtail betrayed them and brutally massacred innocent muggles, framing all the crimes to him, which resulted in Sirius being sent to Azkaban until he uses his Animagus powers to escape.
      • Another mistake is that Sirius mistreated his house-elf Kreacher, resulting in the house-elf betraying him by lying to Harry that Sirius was captured by Voldemort. This made Harry think that the visions the Dark Lord had been showing him of Sirius being tortured are real, which leads Harry to attempt to rescue Sirius, only to fall into a trap. Subsequently, this results in Sirius' death at the at hands of Bellatrix when he goes to rescue his godson from the Death Eaters.
    • Horace Slughorn: Horace shared everything he knows about Horcrux to Tom Riddle (Voldemort) in the past, unaware that he would use such knowledge to become an immortal and immensely powerful Dark Lord. With this information, Voldemort commits killing spree and framings to shatter him soul and create 7 Horcruxes of his own, resulting in the death of his beloved student Lily. He would finally achieve redemption and closure years later, through sharing the repressed memory pertaining his tragic mistake to Harry and Dumbledore and with it, the means to defeat Voldemort once and for all.
    • Percy Weasley: Percy's blind devotion to Ministry of Magic made him disown his family and refusing to believe Harry Potter regarding Voldemort's return, going so far supporting Fudge's smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore and decision to write Cedric's death as mere accident. It took the downfall of the Ministry for him to see his errors but, by the time he reconciled with them, Fred was among the fallen and this motivates him to aid his family in Battle of Hogwarts.

Comic Books

  • Spider-Man: After testing his newfound spider-like capabilities, Peter unwisely decided not to pursue an escaped thief he failed to stop because he thought the police would fare better than him. This later proved to be a grave mistake in his part, as that allowed the same thief to kill Ben, his beloved uncle, and he didn't realize this until they confront one another at a warehouse. While that mistake defined what he is, the lesson was learned in the harshest way possible.
    • Spider-Man (Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy): The mistake made by his iteration in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy doesn't go any better. He arrogantly refused to stop for five seconds to take care of a crook stealing the wrestling manager's money rushing past him, telling the cop chasing the guy it was never his job (along with the fact that the manager had cheated him out of the prize money just before the robber showed up), unwittingly leading to the same crook murder his uncle, Ben Parker. In this case, the mistake was much more tragic for two reasons: First, Peter lied to Ben Parker that he would go to the city's library to keep the latter in the dark about his plan to participate in the wrestling so as to gain some quick cash to impress Mary Jane with his own fancy car. Then, he indirectly responsible for worsening the predicament of the crook's more repentant partner, Flint Marko, leading to his transformation into Sandman later on; the crook startled Marko just as he had a change of heart from Ben's fatherly advice to the point of the latter shot Ben by mistake (he forgot about the gun in his grasp at the time). Through a somewhat uneasy prep talk between them, Peter doesn't deny his part in Ben's death after hearing Flint Marko's side of the story and how much the tragedy traumatized him as much as Spidey does.

Live-Action

  • Star Wars:
    • Anakin Skywalker: He had made many mistakes prior to this point, but what pushed him irrevocably over to the dark side of the Force was his decision to save Darth Sidious instead of letting Mace Windu execute him, leading directly to Mace Windu's murder and leaving him no chance to go back as well as the downfall of the Jedi Order, including Order 66.
      • Another point of no return for Anakin is when he impulsively (and unnecessarily) refuses to see Padmé Amidala and angrily Force-choke his own wife in response of discovering Obi-Wan stowed into her ship before dueling with the latter, ending with him having his three remaining limbs chopped off and getting burned very badly by lava. The old Anakin might have been able to find a way to save his wife from dying in her childbirth, but after waking up in the black suit, he realizes that his own fears end up murdering her.
    • Luke Skywalker: Sensing the darkness within his nephew, Ben Solo, Luke considered for a brief moment to kill him in his sleep out of fear that Ben would destroy everything that he as a Jedi Master ever loved and fought to construct. He regrets almost immediately after activating his lightsaber, but it is too late because Ben wakes up and sees his uncle with his weapon ignited above his head. Luke's mistake is the definitive action that pushes Ben towards the dark side. Ben had his mind corrupted by both Darth Sidious and Snoke since he was a child, was feeling abandoned by his parents (who had sent him to Luke), and after believing that his uncle had betrayed him, he seeks Snoke feeling that he has nowhere else to go. Later, Ben joins the Knights of Ren and assumes the identity of Kylo Ren. This also causes a major setback on Luke's dream to restore Jedi Order, to the point that he went to exile out of utter shame and regret for his mistake. Wishing to die in his exile as he now believes the Jedi legacy to be a failure, Luke remains hidden from the galaxy for years until Rey discovers him and gives him hope again.
    • Tamara Ryvora: Tamara had made a mistake of joining the First Order believing Jarek Yeager lied to her about the Resistance, however when witnessing the First Order destroying the Aeosian Village for harboring the Resistance, she begins mourned for them and decides to defect from the First Order after receiving promotion to Squadron leader and sent a message to Kazuda Xiono. After turning on the First Order, she reunites with Kaz and Yeager who then moment scolds her for joining the First Order and Kaz stops it. After defeating Tierny and Prye, she returns to the Colossus and apologizes to the crew for her betrayal and they, including Captain Doza and Torra, welcome her back again.
  • Carlito Brigante: Carlito's case revolved around his poor judge of character when it comes about those who he supposedly spare or not; he foolishly spared Benny Blanco simply because he was a reformed man in addition also knew never to trust Pachanga and said he had taken care of him, but he never found the time.
  • Claire Dearing: Claire's mistake was her naïve belief of cloned dinosaurs in Jurassic World being nothing more than assets as opposed to living beings and therefore dismissive to Owen's concern regarding her and her peers' poor treatment on the unstable Indominus Rex, which secretly developed as a bioweapon as opposed of attraction unknown to her. It took the hybrid's vengeful rampage and killing spree which scarred Zach and Gray Mitchell along with survivors in addition of subsequent grisly downfall of the park that she realized her errors and decided to set things right, including stopping the hybrid.
  • Chance: Chance has a fear of going to the "bad place". When Chance, Shadow and Sassy are been put into their cage at the San Francisco International Airport by their owners so that they all could get board on the plane, Chance panics thinking that he and the others will be taken to the dog pound despite Shadow's pleads that they will not take to the dog pound due to his actions that made his owner Jamie Seaver mad, he breaks free from his cage and foolishly returns to the airport lobby ultimately leading him and the others to be left behind as a result of mistaken the San Francisco International Airport for a dog pound.
  • Marty McFly: During his trip to the future, Marty foolishly buy a Sport Almanac book leading to the elderly Biff Tannen who watched him steal both the book and De Lorean Time Machine while he was helping his girlfriend Jennifer in a bid to give the former to his younger self. This in turn, allowed past Biff to be financially corrupt, kill George McFly, unfairly married to the widowed Lorraine McFly, and subsequently having Doctor Emmett Brown declared insane and committed as the result. Luckily, unlike many examples in this scenario, Marty managed to undo the changes by disposing the book with Doc Brown's help and returning everything to the way it was.
  • Supernatural:
    • Dean Winchester: Threatened his brother Sam that he would sever their bonds and walked away from his life as means to convinced him not to drink more demon blood and abandoned Ruby, so Lucifer won't free, but backfires with Sam became succumbed with her influence. When Dean decided to rekindle their relationship, he was unable to prevent his brother from freeing Lucifer.
    • Castiel: Castiel believed that he does not need Winchesters' help when attempting to set things right in Heaven as many angels opted to kickstart the apocalypse at that point and resorted to cooperate from demon for the gateway of Purgatory instead, goes so far killing his own brethren who stand in his way, absorbing every single one of souls in Purgatory to put an end of the ensuing civil war, and even attempting to take over God's role in managing the universe only to realize he also absorbed Leviathans who used him as means to enter Earth.

Cartoons

  • Marlin: Out of his own fear over Nemo's safety and trauma over his loss by an aggressive barracuda that massacred his eggs and killed his wife Coral, when he tries to advices Nemo to avoid the diver's boat, his overprotectiveness and fear get his best on him and resulting his son provoked to rebellion and taken away by divers. Nemo managed to prevent him from repeating the same mistake when attempting rescue Dory and other unfortunate fish who were ensnared by fishermen's net.
  • Mr. Potato Head: Despite that Andy Davis already missed Woody, he mistakes Woody for murdering RC who was actually trying to rescue Buzz Lightyear who was been attacked by Scud, Sid Philip's dog, and he orders the others to toss him overboard. While celebrating, Bo Peep then see Woody riding in RC with Buzz, realizes that Woody was telling the truth. He then realizes what he has done and help them board their vehicle, though as retribution of his bad actions, he had to put himself back together due to RC accidentally crashed on him in Buzz and Woody's attempt to put him back into truck possibly as payback for the mutiny against Woody earlier and not realizing that Andy already missed Woody. He is later scolded by Buzz Lightyear for it after he requested for a rest during the rescue mission on Woody, after he was kidnapped by Al McWhiggen and he is still regretting it.
  • Moses: When he attempted to stop a brutal Egyptian guard from excessively whipping the elderly Hebrew slave, Moses accidentally killed the guard instead, leaving him horror-struck while the slave became grateful, thus kickstarting his abrupt departure from his perceived home and subsequent ascend into the prophet God destined him to be.
  • King Triton: Because of his hatred for humans and learns that his daughter Ariel has fall in love to one whom she saved from drowning, King Triton loses his temper and begins destroying her collections and completely ignoring her pleads to stop, but he then realizes what he has done and leaves her in shame, this also led Ariel to search of Ursula the Sea Witch.
  • Ariel: Unfortunately, Ariel repeats her father's mistake. While it slightly differs, it had similar consequences. She shelters her daughter, Melody from her mermaid heritage, the sea world, and the events that happened. Like her father, who previously did not allow her to go beyond the water's surface, she forbids her daughter from going to the ocean and had a wall erected to bar her. Even after, learning that Melody found a locket, she still refused to answer her questions during an argument leading Melody to run away to seek the truth. Due to her lack of knowledge of the sea world, Morgana easily exploits this and got her to steal the Trident for her. Ariel learns the hard way that she lies, and overprotective acts led to the violation of her daughter's trust in her and Morgona's usurping of the Seven Seas and apologizes to Melody for it after the Sea Witch's icy defeat.
  • Megara: Motions of events that led to Megara's heroic sacrifice that caused his current lover Hercules mourns over her dead body can be traced back from when she made a deal with Hades to save her first boyfriend's life (which in TV Series revealed as Adonis). Unfortunately, he later left her for some other woman, abandoning her and leaving her heartbroken and a prisoner of Hades. This traumatized her so much that she became bitter, though when finally met Hercules who became her true love, she finally given chance to redeemed herself by sacrificing herself to save Hercules where the process not only to allow the demigod to reclaim his powers and freed her from her pact with Hades, but also resulting her demise. Fortunately, she later got better after revived by the demigod who reclaimed her soul.
  • Princess Atta: Disappointed to see their new allies, the so-called "warrior bugs" who turned out to be former member of a circus troupe, Princess Atta banished them alongside Flik who invited the group in her fury and naivety that she and her people don't need to be free from the reign of Hopper and his grasshopper swarm. This proved to be her tragic mistake as the princess later learned that Flik was right about Hopper being a ruthless tyrant and that she would've doomed her people into more miserable life as well as ensuring her mother's death had Dot failed to convince Flik and their new allies to return in time.
  • Shrek: Shrek wishes he could be an ogre for a day, so he makes a deal with Rumpelstiltskin. Soon he discovers he handed the day he was born and as a result, he never saved far far away.
  • Simba: Because of his naivety, Simba allowed his treacherous uncle Scar to help ensure his success in usurping the Pride through murdering Mufasa, a mistake that scarred him for years to come even after redeeming himself and liberating his home from Scar's reign.
    • For the same reason, he unwittingly made another by banishing Kovu and told his daughter Kiara to stay away from him from there on upon learning that he's the son of late Scar and that the adolescent lion unknowingly participated in the plot to avenge his father and his abusive mother Zira's husband. This angered Kiara who rightfully pointed out that Kovu was innocent and didn't know he was manipulated to begin with all along, leaving Simba gradually remorseful and will never be his late father Mufasa and that it will likely happen if he still refused to reconsider his actions and breaking the Circle of Life.
  • Tarzan: Tarzan unwisely brings his new human friends, Jane, Mr. Porter, and Clayton, to his adoptive gorilla pack family's lair despite the distrustful Kerchak against him doing so, creating a tension between him and his adoptive parents and worse, allowing Clayton to find and capture all gorillas all while revealing his true colors as ruthless leader of a group of poachers. Though he managed to save the gorillas thanks to Tantor and the escaped Terk's interference, the repentant Kerchak died protecting Tarzan in the struggle.
  • Ruby Gillman: When Ruby becomes friends with the Mermaid Chelsea, she asks the giant kraken to get a trident. Soon after she does, Chelsea reveals herself as Nerissa and causes Ruby to discover she unknowingly cause the mermaid queen to return.
  • Wreck-It Ralph: Ralph was trying to earn himself a medal so that he would win the respect and hearts of other video game characters, especially the Nicelanders. But by doing so, the game jumped to Hero's Duty has caused a lot of damage in his absence, his game was "Out of Order" and think that Mr. Litwack was planning on unplugging it if Ralph did not come back. He also accidentally took one of the game's Cy-Bugs into Sugar Rush, whose candy allowed the bug to multiply itself into an enormous frenzy swarm of giant bugs with the potential to decimate the arcade.
  • Mr. Wolf: After being framed by Professor Marmalade, he and his gang begin to fall apart after he says he does not want to be a bad guy anymore. After escaping, his friends end up deserting him.
  • Fa Zhou: He accepts the conscription notice from Chi-Fu who tells him to teach his daughter Mulan's tongue in a man's presence, after he silenced her and ignoring his injuries. While training his old injuries stopped him from completing it, confirming Mulan's worries. During dinner, he argues with Mulan that she needs to learn her place like what he did, causing her run off in tears, but he ignores her and continues eating, his wife Fa Li and mother Grandmother Fa are saddened at his actions. Before going to bed, he comforts his wife, but she run off in tears, knowing he will not survive the war and realizing that Mulan takes his place and will possibly be killed. After Shan Yu was finally killed and Chi-Fu resigning from his post to avoid facing trial for his crimes against Mulan after her identity has been exposed by Shan Yu by ordering Li Shang to execute her, Fa Zhou was finally reunited with Mulan who presents him the Sword of Shan Yu and the Emperor's crest and he hugs her claiming that she is the greatest gift and honor.
  • Nakoma: Nakoma's of sending Kocoum after Pocahontas, resulted in the warrior getting killed by the settler Thomas, John Smith accused of Kocoum's murder, Pocahontas getting harshly blamed for her foolishness causing his death, and even leading to war between the Native Americans and the English Settlers.
  • Basil of Baker Street: He admitted that he let his ego get in the way after being humiliated by Ratigan and his gang, which showed he had a caring side, unlike Ratigan. Later on as he and Dawson lie on the trap, he sulked over his mistake of falling for Ratigan's trap.
  • Rabbit: He refused to make Easter, after Tigger stole his role as the Easter Bunny. When Spring cleaning has come and he wonders, where Pooh and the others are, thinking they're late and the narrator tells him that they're gone and moved away. When he finally realizes after finding Roo's drawing of himself and Rabbit together, he now realizes that his friends (including Christopher Robin, Owl and Gopher) have moved away because of his selfishness and the next day, he realizes it's only a dream and still has a chance and prepares for the Easter and giving all of their Easter things to them.
  • Scamp: He longs to be a stray dog. After escaping he befriends the Junkyard Dogs led by Buster. After being berated by Angel, he accidentally reveals her wish which gets her kicked out. Later while in the dog catcher's car, he learns he was foolish to desert his family.
  • Darkwing Duck: Blinded by his own pride, arrogance and ego, Darkwing Duck stubbornly and rudely refused any assistance from the Justice Ducks (Steggmutt, Neptunia, Gizmoduck and Morgana) to fight against the Fearsome Five and insisted to take on the villains alone which however does not end well for him, he then realizes his mistake as his mistake as he learns that the Justice Ducks have been captured by the Fearsome Five.
  • Kuzco: Pacha tries to warn Kuzco about Yzma and Kronk trying to kill him, only for Kuzco to blow him off, believing they were there to bring him back to the palace. He then orders Pacha to go away, believing he is the one trying to keep him from getting home. Only when Kuzco overhears Yzma and Kronk talking about killing him does he realize he sent his only friend away for nothing.
  • Miguel Rivera: Due to his hero worship for Ernesto De La Cruz, Miguel foolishly believed that he was his great-great grandfather and hoped that he will receive his blessing in order to return back to the Land of the Living. However, his real great-great grandfather, Héctor, revealed to Miguel that Ernesto is a liar, a murderer and a thief because he poisoned Héctor with a toxic drink due to the fact that he wanted to return to his family. He also reveals that Ernesto stole all of Héctor's songs including the famous song that was meant for his daughter, Coco, Remember Me. And because of that, Miguel realized that everything he knew about his so-called idol was a lie.
  • P.T. Flea: Due to the Flaming act went into a disaster, he fires his troupes, allowing Flik to hire them believing as Warrior bugs due to the confrontation at Bug Bar with the Fly Brothers. Later after learning the Flaming Act was a success, he goes to the Ant Island and blows Flik's cover, making Princess Atta to realizes that Flik lied to her which he wasn't and banishes him along with the Circus Bugs. However, this was a fatal mistake as a result of her actions and without Flik and the Circus Bugs, she puts her entire colony in grave danger and brings the downfall of her mother the Queen, when Hopper takes over the island due to the lack of offering for them. When Flik, Dot and The Blueberries used the Fake Bird to scare Hopper and his gang, P.T. Flea mistakes it for real and sets it on fire and ends up aiding Hopper and his gang. Upon witnessing Flik being beaten by Thumper and Hopper insulting the ant colony and the circus bugs, he realizes his mistake and teams up with them to deal Hopper and his gang with the latter getting killed and eaten by the bird.
  • Raya: When Namaari aims her crossbow at her gang, she pushes the Talon princess out of the way only for it to fire and impale Sisu.
  • Cera: Though it's no surprise her ego prone to cause troubles to everyone, including herself, the instance where she unwittingly caused the death of other dinosaurs and endangering her friends' well-being from taking the wrong path counts as her tragic mistake she eventually regretted. As noted by the narrator, what made it even tragic was she was too headstrong to admit her faults until it's too late.
  • Topps: When the Thundering falls stop running due to the flying rocks blocking the water passage in the Mysterious Beyond, he begins to lose his mind and gets an argument with the other Great Valley inhabitants and need to take turns. When his daughter Cera is been bullied by Hyp and his gang by pushing Nod right into them with Cera getting out of the way and Littlefoot getting hurt by them, he thinks Littlefoot did waste the water calling him a bad influence which angers his grandfather saying to him that his grandson is not a bad influence and leading his long lost son-in-law, Bron Littlefoot's father to dislike and hate him, when he learned this. When he gets an argument with Cera claiming he only want what's best for her, heartbroken, she runs off and again further to lose his mind. He even refuses to let a spike tail drinking from the river and has lose completely his mind. After witnessing Hyp been scolded by his father for putting himself in danger, bullying his daughter and Littlefoot and his friends and leading Littlefoot getting insulted, he begins to understand what really happened and tells him not to yell at him and shows what is right at what he cares. After the Thundering falls finally returns when the block passage is clear, he apologizes for his behavior and earning Bron's trust when he finally meets him.
  • Candace Flynn: She brushes off her brothers and decides to stay on Febla-Oot. However, when she discovers Super Big Doctor is a cruel empress and she imprisoned her own brothers, she lets it slip that everybody on Earth exhales Carbon Dioxide, thus inspiring Super Big Doctor to invade Earth.
  • Jack Skellington: In his boredom over traditions he participated in, Jack developed a newfound obsession with Christmas event which intrigued him. However, his lack of knowledge in it saw him unwittingly ruined the enthusiasm of others regarding the holiday event by dressing as Santa. Not only he got shot, but his Santa also look scared everybody much to his dismay.
  • Kenai: In his anger, Kenai killed Koda's mother for her unintended part in Sitka's death stemmed from their troubles (Kenai's negligence from properly ensuring he and his siblings' captured fishes allowed Koda's mom and her cub to eat them), causing Great Spirits to punish him by turning him into a bear. Though he managed to find redemption upon realizing the bear he killed was the mother of his newfound adoptive brother Koda, Kenai's very ordeal nearly doomed Denahi to make a similar mistake when the latter mistook his bear form as some feral bear that "killed" Kenai until Sitka's spirit showed up to show him the truth.
  • Mr. Incredible: Mr. Incredible's hubris saw him poorly dissuading Buddy Pine from joining him as his sidekick out of concern over his safety, injuring a suicidal man he attempted to save despite the latter against anyone around him to do so, and responsible for a train accident he and Pine unwittingly caused, causing public to turn against Supers and force them into hiding. But the worst of all was indirectly ruining Buddy Pine's innocence and subsequently allowed his eventual rise into Syndrome who slaughtered countless Supers with his experimental Omnidroids so as to make the term "superheroes" redundant to the world.
  • Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III: In How to Train Your Dragon 2, Hiccup's overconfidence in his ability of being a diplomat and bringing peace to dragons & humans saw him making a fatal mistake in form of recklessly reasoned with Drago Bludvist despite his father Stoick and peers' warnings about the psychopathic villain who had since beyond any hope of redemption, allowing Toothless being hypnotized by Drago's Bewilderbeast and indirectly kill Stoick and becoming Drago's slave as with many others, leaving his confidence is shattered and is struck with grief. Though his friendship with Toothless allowed him to free his beloved dragon and subsequently allowed him to defeat Drago and his Bewilderbeast, he learned that individuals who lost to the darkness can only be reasoned if they wished to and retain their sliver of redeeming qualities.
  • Shifu: When Shifu raised Tai Lung as his adoptive son and taught him ways of kung fu, his pride over the latter's abilities caused him to forget to teach the snow leopard humility and subsequently, allowing his inner darkness to grow and surface as soon as Oogway rejected him for the candidate to become a dragon warrior. As the result, Tai Lung lashed out throughout the valley near Jade Palace before brutally turned against both his adoptive father and Oogway in a fight even when the former hesitated, scarring the elderly red panda and resulted him distant toward the rest of his protégés, Furious Five. Though he failed to redeem his son, he nevertheless managed to find redemption and understand the very tragic mistake that started it all through Po.
  • Judy Hopps: When she and Nick Wilde team up to discover why predators are going insane, she reports her findings at a press conference. However, in the process, she ends up causing a panic and ruining her Friendship with Nick.
  • Max Goof: Desperate to keep his father, Goofy, away from him so he won't distract him and his friends from interfering with the X-Games training, Max foolishly lets his father to join his rival team, the Gammas. However, his misguided attempt led to him making so many mistakes:
    • Max let Goofy joined the team because he unknowingly allowed the Gamma fraternity leader, Bradley Uppercrust III, to take advantage of his father's clumsy antics by cheating their way through the semi-finals of the college X-Games.
    • Max did not know that Bradley was gonna deceive and lie to the judges at the semi-finals when he cheated behind everybody's backs.
    • If Max would've known about Bradley's true colors sooner, he never would've let Goofy joined the Gammas nor disowned him as a father in the first place.
  • Due to all of the foolish mistakes he made to be distant from his father, it had nearly torn their relationship apart. But in the end, Max realized the error of his mistakes when he sees that Goofy was telling the truth about the Gammas cheating behind his back so they could eliminate him out of the competition. Max managed to atone for his mistakes by asking his father to fill in for his friend, P.J., who was knocked out of the competition by Bradley. After winning the race together, Max then gives his father the trophy as an apology gift for his disownment, restoring their relationship for the better.
  • Anna: Due to her isolation from her sister Elsa, Anna foolishly falls in love with Prince Hans from the Southern Isles and gets engaged to him, despite her sister’s protest about marrying someone she just met. This turns out to be true, as Anna discovers that Hans never really loved her and is actually a cruel and power hungry usurper who was only trying to marry her so he can kill her and Elsa and take over Arendelle. But luckily with help from her friends Olaf, Sven and her real true love Kristoff, she manages to reconcile with her sister and defeat her evil ex-fiancée.
  • Rowf: After the Tod selfishly gorged down a nest of chicken eggs for himself without Rowf or Snitter's knowledge, Rowf becomes enraged and chases the Tod away. Rowf then declares that they never needed the Tod's help and refused to consider Snitter's advice that he was merely acting on his own instincts. When Snitter tries to reason with Rowf that the Tod warned them not to raid the farm, he disregards his warnings and raids a chicken coop, which results in them nearly getting killed by the farmers. Over time, they later begin to starve and would have been killed by a lab-hired bounty hunter had the Tod not rescued them.

Anime/Manga

  • Digimon:
    • Tai Kamiya: When he was young, Tai Kamiya's younger sister, Kari, almost died due to his own negligence. Tai arrived home to find his sister (who was 4 or 5 at the time), staying home from kindergarten due to an illness. He took her outside to the playground to practice kicking the soccer ball, when she suddenly collapsed onto the ground. She was rushed to the hospital as her illness worsened, and Tai's mother, scolded, slapped and shouted at him much to her husband and their father's shock for recklessly endangering his little sister's life. Kari remained in the hospital for weeks with possibly pneumonia, and almost did not make it. When their parents finally brought her home from the hospital, Kari apologizes to her brother for not being to kick the ball very good, tells him that she will never want to play with him again, causing Tai to break down in tears of guilt.
    • Matt Ishida': When working at Digitamamon's restaurant, he gets an argument with Joe for making accidents which was actually caused by Demidevimon. When Joe was captured by Vegiemon, while Garuromon and Ikakumon are almost defeated by Digitamamon, he finally realizes that he almost broke his friendship and this make Garuromon evolve into Weregaruromon. Digitamamon is not scared at the new Ultimate Digimon, tries to attack him, only to be defeated by it and Matt finally apologizes for his mistakes. When he was tricked by Cherrymon to attack Tai and Agumon, he again apologizes for his mistakes and leaves the group in order not to fight each other.
  • Sayaka Miki: Though it could be said that Sayaka Miki's deal with Kyubey in the first place is the mistake that leads to her downfall, her actual act of Hamartia is when she refuses to cleanse her Soul Gem, because she's full of despair from seeing Kyousuke Kamijou (her childhood friend) accepting Hitomi Shizuki's love confession. Her despair not only turns her into a witch, but also leads to her and Kyouko Sakura's death.
  • Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki: At the conclusion of his sons' trial, he made a mistake in choosing Asura as his one and only successor and casted Indra aside just because the latter blinded by his newfound Sharingan abilities and turned him distant but otherwise still cared towards the others as much as his beloved brother, if not more. As the result, Indra gives in to Black Zetsu's temptations and subsequently locked within eternal rivalry against Asura which lasted for generations; the brothers would reincarnate time and time again through their descendants and the fact of it being part of Black Zetsu's plan to restore Kaguya certainly didn't help either. It took their latest reincarnations, Naruto and Sasuke, made amends with another after sealing both revived Kaguya and Black Zetsu as well as having one last battle against one another Asura and Indra finally reconciled at long last.
  • Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric: The Elric brothers' journey to find the Philosopher's Stone started from a tragic mistake during which they attempted to perform human transmutation to alchemically revive their dead mother which caused Edward to lose his leg while Alphonse lost his body and thus forcing Edward to sacrifice his arm in order to bond Alphonse's soul to a huge suit of armor to keep him alive. Because of it, they are understandably disgusted by those who tamper with the lives of humans such as Shou Tucker, who fused his own daughter with his own family's pet dog in cold blood.
  • Saya Otonashi: Saya was so impressed by her twin sister's beautiful voice that she decides to open the door of Diva's tower prison and asks Diva to sing at Joel's birthday party. However, once she is free from the tower, Diva slaughters Joel and all his guests at the party as an act of revenge for being imprisoned and used as a guinea pig in his experiments since her birth. Saya never forgives her sister for this and neither herself for her own mistake. She swears to take revenge on her sister and promises not to rest until Diva is dead.
  • Chariot du Nord: During her tenure as Shiny Chariot, the pressure from both unlocking all Seven Words of Arcturus and maintaining her career as the famed stage performer at the same time saw Chariot unknowingly overlooked the growing bitterness in Croix's heart over the lack of progress in their aforementioned quest together to the point the latter eventually turned against Chariot by tricking her said best friend to use Dream Fuel Spirit which severely handicapped her audience's magic potential before stepping into the dark path from that point and onwards. To make matter worse, the guilt from the incident and the audience's rising expectations provoked her to scar the moon with an overpowered Shiny Arc during her final show, costing the witch her worth of wielding Shiny Rod/Claiomh Solais, forcing her into hiding under her current alias Ursula Callistis. Though she managed to redeem herself through guiding her loyal fan Akko, it was not without discovering the latter and Diana among those who affected by Dream Fuel Spirit, a fact that Croix momentarily succeeded in exploit to sever the teacher-student bond that made Ursula briefly consider to kill her former best friend before she could do more harm. But in the end, it was Akko who truly redeem them both.

Video Games

  • Princess Zelda: In Ocarina of Time, Zelda planned with Link to get to the Triforce before Ganondorf could so they can defeat him, with Link being tasked to find all three Spiritual Stones while she guards the Ocarina of Time with her life. When Link collects the three stones and pulls the Master Sword from its pedestal after opening the door, it had the opposite effect; Link was sealed for seven years, while Ganondorf invaded the Sacred Realm and became the King of Evil as he spread chaos across the land of Hyrule. Zelda disguised herself as a Sheikah, under the name of Sheik, to hide from him until Link is released. While she did not realize it at the time, she deeply regrets her actions and resolved to help Link return peace to her fallen kingdom.
  • Tifa Lockhart: Tifa's decision in allowing Aerith to set out to rescue Marlene, Barret's adoptive daughter, proved to be a mistake she eventually regretted upon learning it allowed her friend's capture by Shinra.
  • Dante Aligheri: Dante's following actions proved to be his tragic mistake which so heinous that it would be count as Moral Even Horizon had he not proved himself being a repentant soul in his quest to save the soul of his love Beatrice Portinari.
    • Having an affair with the captured later vindictive Kurdish prisoner's unfaithful wife (with herself pretending to be his "sister" in exchange for the 2 prisoners' freedom) despite of him already engaged with Beatrice.
    • Allowing himself to be misguided by the false promise of salvation from the local Italian Catholic bishop who blessed him and his fellow crusaders for their upcoming battles to retake the city of Jerusalem.
    • Angrily and selfishly killed their non-Christian captives in the captured Northern Israeli city of Acre despite the order of them being held for the British King Richard I's upcoming negotiation with the Kurdish sultan Saladin.

Gallery

Images

NOTE: The limit is for 20 pictures only

Videos

Quotes

Darth Sidious: Lord Vader... can you hear me?
Darth Vader: Yes, Master. (
looks at Sidious) Where is Padme? Is she safe? Is she all right?
Darth Sidious: It seems in your anger, you killed her.
Darth Vader: I...? I couldn't have! She was alive... I felt it! (
crushing everything around him with his Force before freeing himself from the metal stretcher and steps off as the Emperor smirks) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
~ Exchange between Vader and Sidious were Vader, formerly Anakin, realized that he ended up killing Padme.
Rey: Did you do it? Did you create Kylo Ren? (angrily attacks Luke, forcing her mentor to fend himself until she corners him with Anakin's lightsaber, causing the Jedi Master to fall on his back on the ground) Tell me the truth!
Luke: (
recalls the moment of him horrified by the darkness in Ben on the night of their fallout) I saw darkness. I sensed it building in him. I'd seen it in moments during his training. But then I looked inside, and it was beyond what I ever imagined. Snoke had already turned his heart. He would bring destruction, pain, death, and the end of everything I love because of what he will become. And for the briefest moment of pure instinct, I thought I could stop it. (past!Luke ignites his lightsaber only to hesitate immediately after) It passed like a fleeting shadow. And I was left with shame and with consequence. And the last thing I saw were the eyes of a frightened boy whose master had failed him. (Ben caught Luke in the act and attacks with his own lightsaber as he cried, "Ben, no!" as flashback ends)
Rey: You failed him by thinking his choice was made. It wasn't. There's still conflict in him.
~ Luke tells Rey that he was tempted to kill his nephew, Ben Solo, in his sleep after sensing darkness in him, which resulted in Ben falling to the dark side after feeling betrayed by his uncle.
Tigress: Shifu found him as a cub and he raised him as his son. And when the boy showed talent in kung fu, Shifu trained him. He believed in him. He told him he was destined for greatness. It was never enough for Tai Lung. He wanted the dragon scroll. But Oogway saw darkness in his heart and refused. Outraged, Tai Lung laid waste to the valley. He tried to take the scroll by force and Shifu had to destroy what he had created. But how could he? Shifu loved Tai Lung like he had never loved anyone before. Or since.
~ Tigress explaining to Po about Shifu's tragic mistake in training Tai Lung was not to taught him humility, which resulted in him in becoming an arrogant and heartless villain.
King Triton: Any sign of them?
Seahorse Herald: No, your majesty. We searched everywhere. We found no trace of your daughter or Sebastian.
King Triton: Well, keep looking. Leave no shell unturned, no coral unexplored, and let no one in this kingdom sleep until she's safe at home!
Seahorse Herald: Yes, sire. (
leaves)
King Triton: (
sits on his throne with his hand on his face sadly and ashamed) Oh, what have I done? What I have done?
~ King Triton regretting his tragic mistake of destroying Ariel's grotto, her human collection and the statue of Prince Eric, leading her to run away with Sebastian and Flounder in search of Ursula the Sea Witch.
Cera was still too proud to admit that she'd gone the wrong way.
~ The Narrator describing Cera's mistake of not listening to her friends, and taking the wrong way to the Great Valley, nearly getting them killed.
Jane: Clayton betrayed us all. I'm so sorry, Tarzan!
TarzanNo! I did this. I betrayed my family. Kerchak was right!
~ Tarzan's tragic mistake of leading the humans to his gorilla family, and betraying his family by disobeying Kerchak's orders.
(Eren, in his titan form, pins the Female Titan to the ground, and roars in anger.) I made the wrong decision when you came after us! I made the choice...to trust my comrades...AND IT GOT THEM ALL KILLED!!!!! (Eren attempts to pulverize the Female Titan's head, but the latter dodges his fist and he punches the ground, breaking his titan arm and hand in the process.) I never should have left it to them! I should have fought her from the very start! I-It's all my fault!! I SHOULD HAVE KILLED HER!!!!!
~ Eren blaming himself for the deaths of the Levi squad, after making the choice to let them handle the Female Titan, instead of choosing to stay and fight with them.

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