Moment of Weakness: Difference between revisions

No protagonist is perfect. Every man or woman brings their own unique flaws and difficulties to their role in a story. Often stories will be about a protagonist's struggles to overcome these flaws. However, whether they succeed or fail, many of them will experience at least one '''Moment of Weakness'''. That instant in which their emotions or the stress of a situation goes past critical and causes a thoughtless reaction that they would ''never'' have if they were thinking clearly.

== [[Anime]] &and [[Manga]] ==

* ''[[Saki (Mangamanga)|Saki]]'''s Kunihiro Hajime gave in to the urge to use sleight of hand to win a Mahjong tournament in grade school. Even into high school this act haunts her, undermining her confidence to play without doing so. This is the reason she's [[Chained Byby Fashion]].

* Ling in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' knowingly makes a [[Deal Withwith the Devil]] and allows himself to become the new Greed because of his obsession with gaining immortality. Possibly a subversion, as a factor in Ling's decision was he would have died otherwise and Greed later did a [[Heel Face Turn]], suggesting that it ultimately wasn't a bad decision.

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'': In the Doma arc, Yami does this when he faces off against Raphael for the first time and ends up getting the Orichalcos card after Raphael plays a card that forces them to switch each others hands. As Raphael repeatedly chips away at Yugi's lifepoints and backs him into a corner. Yami, against Yugi's protests, play the Orichalcos card and while it gives him an advantage, he constantly sacrifices his monsters to do so. This leads to falling right into Raphael's tactics and losing both the duel and Yugi's soul who went in his place as the seal only needed one of them. Needless to say Yami has a [[Heroic BSOD]] for awhile after that.

* In ''[[Star Wars]] [[Attack of the Clones (Film)|Episode II: Attack of the Clones]],'' Anakin Skywalker was perfectly content to sneak around the Sand Peoples' camp and not start a fight up until his mother died in his arms. His rage at that moment prompted him to murder every Sand Person there. He felt guilt over it afterward, but it didn't stop his fall to the Dark Side. [[It Got Worse|It only got worse from there]].

* In ''[[End of Days (Film)|End of Days]]'', Jericho's best friend betrays him and makes a [[Deal Withwith the Devil]] because "it's amazing what you'll agree to when you're on fire." Especially galling since the Devil was the one who set him on fire in the first place. Near the end he can't bring himself to betray Jericho a second time, and the Devil revokes their deal by setting him on fire again.

* In ''[[Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Franchisenovel)/|Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows|Harry Potter]]'', it's revealed that it was exactly such a mistake that caused Severus Snape to forever destroy his friendship with the one person he cared for.

** An instance with Harry featured in ''[[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Franchisenovel)/|Harry Potter and Thethe Prisoner of Azkaban|Harry Potter]]'' was the time he inflated his uncle's sister like a balloon. By this point, Harry knew better than to use magic outside of school, but his aunt's insulting of his mother in dog breeder terms ("If there's something wrong with the bitch, there'll be something wrong with the pup!") made Harry too angry to care.

* Before Kayneth's assault on the Einzburns' castle in ''[[Fate /Zero]]'', Irisviel is starting to wonder just how much she really knows Kiritsugu. The past few days has seen him return to his [[Cold Sniper]] persona, in stark contrast to the loving father and doting husband she'd known for the last few years. As she's wondering, {{spoiler|he embraces her and, on the verge of tears, asks her if they can just forfeit the Grail War, rescue Ilya, and live together in peace.}}

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

* The short-lived television series ''[[G Vs E]]'' generally had villains who convinced people to make a [[Deal Withwith the Devil]], and good guys getting them to break those deals at the cost of what they were given. One episode stands out, however, as the bad guy of the episode approached people on the verge of death from accidents and used these deals to save their lives.

* Lennier at the end of [[Babylon Five5]] . In his case he [[The Atoner|pays penance]] for the rest of his life, apparently dying in the Telepath War. Delenn at the Earth-Minbari war. Sheridan while interrogating Mr Morden.

* Even [[Badass|Commander Shepard]] from the ''[[Mass Effect]]'' series isn't immune to this, though his/her single (so far) [[Moment of Weakness]] potentially happens in a very sheltered environment and doesn't have any lasting consequences: in the end of the ''[[DLCDownloadable Content|Lair of the Shadow Broker]]'' storyline, [[Undying Loyalty|Liara]] comes to visit Shepard and asks him/her how s/he is ''truly'' feeling rather than what s/he tells the crew. The Paragon answer to that is the first and only occasion the Commander expresses any doubt about his/her mission in the entire series (depending on whether this takes place before or after the [[Suicide Mission]], Shepard will refer to the latter or to the impending Reaper invasion). Also, this speaks volumes about Shepard and Liara's relationship (regardless of whether [[Romance Sidequest|romance]] was pursued).

* Depending on how you [[Alternate Character Interpretation|interpret]] Varsuuvius of ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'', the decision to make a [[Deal Withwith the Devil]] (and Demon, and Daemon) was a Moment Of Weakness. V knew that dealing with infernals was a bad idea, and they even offered an alternate method, which would, however, require Vaarsuvius to admit to being unable to handle things alone. And so, in a Moment of Weakness, Varsuuvius cannot admit defeat and makes the deal, taking a step towards the Dark Side.

** It is a [[Moment of Weakness]]. The strip is even titled [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0634.html "The Wrong Reasons"].

* In ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', Antimony & Reynardine do this to each other. Annie tells Renard that he'd been used by someone he'd cared for when he kept badmouthing her father. He got back by revealing the real reason behind her mother's death.

* Carl Fredricksen in ''[[Up (Filmanimation)|Up]]'' suffers two of these. The first at the beginning of the film. In a panic over his mailbox being knocked over, he hits a construction worker with his cane, getting him branded a public menace. The second is near the climax when the [[Big Bad]] threatens to set fire to his house. He drops everything else, including protecting the [[MacGuffin]] bird, to put the fire out and snaps at Dug and Russel when Russel [[What the Hell, Hero?|calls him out]].

* ''[[The Legend of Korra (Animation)|The Legend of Korra]]'': Korra has a breakdown at the end of "''The Voice In The Night''". She makes a public challenge to fight [[Big Bad|Amon]] at an appointed time and place, and naively believes he'll play fair. Amon does eventually show up for the fight, [[Combat Pragmatist|except he brings a dozen armed henchmen with him.]] They ambush Korra, tie her up, and drag her off into the darkness where Amon makes it clear to her that the only reason he doesn't {{spoiler|remove her bending forever}} is because [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|that would turn her into a martyr]]. After they [[Stealth Hi Bye|take their leave]], Korra is left sobbing into her mentor Tenzin's chest.

[[Category:Moment Ofof Weakness]]