Heroic Blame

During a Heroic Blame, you see characters blaming themselves for major messes fairly often, especially when they're not the only ones who are suffering as a result. It's a universal phrase used in every genre and medium.

Examples

 * Sonic blames himself for being too slow to save Tails from the Deadly six.
 * Aladdin blames himself for getting both the lamp and Agrabah in Jafar's wrath.
 * Peaches blames herself for getting separated for her father since the last thing she did to him was disown him.
 * King Triton blames himself for getting his daughter Ariel to search for Ursula the Seawitch after he destroyed her grotto, her human collection things and the statue of Prince Eric with his trident.
 * Lenny blames himself for Frankie getting crushed to death by a falling anchor. Later, Oscar blames himself for Angie getting kidnapped by Don Lino, especially since they last thing they did was argue about his Sharkslayer sham.
 * Rapunzel blames herself for getting trapped in a flooding cave along with Flynn Rider.
 * Simba, thanks to Scar's manipulation, blames himself for Mufasa's death until he learns the truth about how his father died and that it was Scar who was really responsible.
 * Steven Universe blames himself for going to Homeworld after letting the Gems get poofed by Yellow Diamond.
 * Cloud Strife blames himself for Aerith's death at the hands of Sephiroth and Zack's death at the hands of Shinra soldiers and exiles himself on Aerith's church.
 * Quasimodo blames himself for inadvertently leading Frollo to the Court of Miracles (due to Frollo's bluff to Quasi earlier that he knows where it is, Quasi and Phoebus warn the gypsies there) and as he watches Esmeralda being put at stake.
 * Kayley blames herself for causing Garrett to miss Ayden's signal and ending up grazed by an arrow fired from Ruber's men, due to her rambling about finding Excalibur.
 * Khumba blames himself for letting Bradley and Mama V right to Phango because Mama V lost her child, Bradley breaks up with him, his mother died, Tombi fall out and his father disowns him, leaving him alone.
 * Woody blames himself for lying to Mr. Potato Head, Hamm, Rex and Slinky (excluding Bo Peep) about pushing Buzz out the window, and even worse while trying to escape Sid's house.
 * Starlight Glimmer blames herself for Silverstream going missing, especially since the last thing she did was close the counselor's office, tell Silverstream to go home for spring break and figure her problem out on her own.
 * Luigi blames himself for the cave people's crops being stolen.
 * Robin blames himself for the Red-X costume and equipment being stolen.
 * Robin (in Teen Titans Go to the movies) blames himself for leaving his friends and making his own movie.
 * Homer Simpson blames himself for getting Ned Flanders in trouble with the Leftorium.
 * In the novelization of Revenge of the Sith, Yoda sees the destruction of the Jedi as his fault, as they stagnated under his watch and became easy pickings for the Sith.
 * Kaladin blames himself entirely for his brother Tien's death, since he had promised his parents he would protect him.
 * C-3PO thinks he's responsible for Luke Skywalker and the others dying in the Death Star's trash compactor.
 * Goku blames himself for Krillin's first death, since the only reason Krillin went back to the stadium was to retrieve Goku's Power Pole and Dragon Ball, which Goku carelessly left behind because he was exhausted from fighting Tien, where Krillin had the misfortune of running into Tambourine.
 * Gohan blames himself for his father's second death, when he could've just instantly slaughtered Cell and instead decided to torture him, which led to Cell snapping and attempting to take Gohan with him, prompting Goku to step up and sacrifice himself to save the Earth.
 * Copper blames himself for Chief's injuries due to him letting Tod escape in the first place.
 * Barret Wallace blames himself for his hometown destroyed by Shinra in the first place.