Blood on These Hands: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A [[Stock Phrase]] meaning "to lay blame for a death (or several deaths)", with the person on whose hands the blood lies being responsible (though not necessarily ''guilty'', depending on the circumstances) for the loss of life. The phrase is often used in statements of [[Dirty Business|personal regret]] or accusation, and characters who are particularly plagued by remorse often try to [[Shower of Angst|wash away]] [[Out, Damned Spot!|their guilt]], though this usually proves to be a [[Heroic BSOD|pointless endeavor]].

 

{{examples}}

* A major preoccupation of [[Rurouni Kenshin]], who's been [[Walking the Earth]] as [[The Atoner]] for ten years when the series starts. The closest he ever comes to actually saying the trope name is during the prologue to the long Bakumatsu flashback sequence within the Jinchuu arc.

{{quote|'''Kenshin:''' This one's wife. Himura Tomoe, who was killed by these two hands.}}

* Balsa from ''[[Seirei no Moribito]]'' doesn't use the phrase directly, but her entire life so far has been about saving lives because she feels responsible for her foster father having had to kill six men (his own best friends, who were all members of a king's [[Praetorian Guard]], to boot) to keep her alive.

 

 

== Film ==

* ''Oppenheimer''

{{quote|'''J. Robert Oppenheimer''': I feel we have blood on our hands.}}

* Bruce Wayne uses this line (#1) in ''[[The Dark Knight]]'' after Joker kills several civilians because Batman didn't reveal his identity.

* In ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]'', Jake Sully - a former Marine who might know first hand - tries to keep [[Smug Snake]] Selfridge from destroying a Hometree full of Na'vi children by telling him that he doesn't want that kind of blood on his hands. It doesn't work.

 

== Literature ==

* [[The Bible]]. Pilate washes his hands to get the figurative blood of Jesus off of them. History lesson: it doesn't work.

** The blood of the thousands of ''other'' miscellaneous threats to Rome he crucified, of course, are presumed to have come off easily.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[Babylon 5]]'': Knives

{{quote|'''Londo Mollari''': No. The blood is already on my hands. Right or wrong, I must follow the path to its end.

Also, '''Vir''' has an awesome drunken self-accusation scene after he kills Cartagia. }}

{{quote|'''Tom Zarek''': They have a jury, but they don't get lawyers. They don't get to showboat for weeks and months on end. They don't get to blame the system. And the don't get lasting fame as martyrs or innocent people just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They just disappear. Now. In the great twilight between the long night of the occupation and the dawn of a new era, you come into office clean, without their blood on your hands.}}

* ''Dick Turpin'': The Impostor

'''Brennan''': You still have blood on your hands.

([[Beat]] as everyone looks around awkwardly)

 

== Music ==

* The rock opera penned by ''[[The Protomen]]'', Act II, track 4, "The Hounds".

* [[Melodic Death Metal]] band Arch Enemy's ''Blood on Your Hands''. The first track on the album, and considered to be the best.

* [[Iron Maiden]]'s "Blood on the World's Hands".

* The Used's "Blood on My Hands":

* Demons And Wizards, a collab of Blind Guardian's Hansi Kürsch and Iced Earth's Jon Schaffer, brought us ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIluk2fYjV0 Blood On My Hands]''

* The Smashing Pumpkins' "Wound":

* [[Iced Earth]]'s "Blood On My Hands".

** The ending of ''High Water Mark'' (and of the entire Gettysburg trilogy).

 

== Theater ==

* In [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Macbeth]]'' both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth still envisions the blood, and cannot mentally remove it.

{{quote|'''Lady Macbeth:''' Out, damn'd spot!}}

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Call of Duty]] 4'', after Victor Zakhaev kills himself to avoid being captured:

{{quote|'''Imran Zakhaev''': Our blood has been spilled on our soil. My blood on their hands.}}

 

== Web Comics ==

 

== Web Original ==

* Visually done by [[The Nostalgia Critic]] after he's recalled memories of being bullied due to ''[[Doug]]''. He then looks freaked and puts his hands back down.

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Morality Tropes]]

[[Category:Stock Phrases]]