| rdfs:comment | - A close cousin to My God, What Have I Done?, this version tends to happen mostly to Villain Protagonists, Anti Villains, Fallen Heroes and sometimes Anti Heroes. Whereas My God, What Have I Done? tends to make a difference in a character's behavior and personality, the Ignored Epiphany has a moment where the Villain or gray character has a moment of clarity or revelation about themselves and their actions, seeing it in perspective for perhaps the first time and realizing exactly how useless and off base their various self-delusions and justifications were. It's often a low moment for these characters, and may provoke sympathy from the audience. The character may acknowledge it various ways, with a sigh, a bitter laugh, muttering "What Have I Become?" or possibly saying to someone or themse
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| abstract | - A close cousin to My God, What Have I Done?, this version tends to happen mostly to Villain Protagonists, Anti Villains, Fallen Heroes and sometimes Anti Heroes. Whereas My God, What Have I Done? tends to make a difference in a character's behavior and personality, the Ignored Epiphany has a moment where the Villain or gray character has a moment of clarity or revelation about themselves and their actions, seeing it in perspective for perhaps the first time and realizing exactly how useless and off base their various self-delusions and justifications were. It's often a low moment for these characters, and may provoke sympathy from the audience. The character may acknowledge it various ways, with a sigh, a bitter laugh, muttering "What Have I Become?" or possibly saying to someone or themselves "I've really messed this one up". A common variant is a character starting to so say "My God, What Have I Done?, stopping halfway through, then blaming the whole thing on some other person or outside force. And then... there's nothing. No Heel Face Turn, no last minute redemption or even an attempt to undo the harm they've wrought. Nor is there any mental trauma equivalent to a Villainous BSOD or mental breakdown. Just... nothing. There's generally little, if any change in the character. The moment itself is fleeting, and whether it be their natural temperament reasserting itself, or their Fatal Flaw preventing them from changing, outside events do something that force them out of this frame of mind and right back into their usual one, or simply the feeling that they've spent this long and put this much effort into whatever it is they're doing, and now they have to go through with it. One interesting version of this involves a character realising they've crossed the Moral Event Horizon... and therefore, there's no turning back. You have no hope of redemption, so there's no point worrying about it any more - may as well embrace the Dark Side, and hope that being Drunk on the Dark Side will help you forget your troubles. Compare Heel Realization which is when a character has an epiphany and realizes for the first time that they're one of the bad guys. Then again, they might be on to something if the Heel Face Door Slam is any indication. This may happen before pulling a Redemption Rejection when offered that Last Second Chance. Overlaps with Jerk with a Heart of Jerk. Examples of Ignored Epiphany include:
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