Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

Jumping off the slippery slope is when a [[Anti-Hero|morally ambiguous character]] raises an ethical question by doing [[Shoot the Dog|morally ambiguous things]], but instead of answering those questions, the character [[Debate and Switch|closes the debate]] by going on to do something [[Moral Event Horizon|unquestionably and unforgivably evil]].

 

 

{{examples}}

* Masterfully avoided in ''[[Higurashi]]''. {{spoiler|Shion goes insane and embarks on an attempt at revenge after the boy she loves, Satoshi, disappears. A lot of people are captured, killed or both, including her twin sister, her sadistic grandmother, and the village headman, who are all part of the village mafia. Then Shion goes after Satoshi's little sister, Satoko, because she's mad that Satoko's dependence on Satoshi wore him out. Shion captures Satoko and tortures her to death. ''Then she remembers that Satoshi's last request was that she care for Satoko for him.'' Shion was already crazy, but now she loses any pretense of acting for anything besides her own dark pleasure.}}

* ''[[Death Note]]'': Yagami Light begins using the supernatural notebook to rid society of criminals, but soon his black list expands to include anyone who stands in his way for any reason, starting with the FBI. Along the way, he coolly manipulates the feelings of both people and shinigami. Repeatedly stating that he plans to become the god of the new world he is trying to create doesn't help matters, either.

* [[Green Lantern|Hal Jordan]], who got so pissed off that the Guardians forbid him to use his ring to temporary recreate Coast City that he flew to Oa, maiming numerous other Green Lanterns in the way and stealing their rings (how did they survive the vacuum of space is unknown), killed Kilowog, killed Sinestro, absorbed the whole power of the main battery (destroying it in the process), became the villain Parallax and then <s>tried to destroy the universe in order to recreate it "the right way"</s> actually, successfully destroyed the universe, but then the heroes hijacked his attempt to recreate it to make an acceptably similar replacement. Of course, it was later retconned as he being [[Demonic Possession|possessed by the fear entity Parallax]], but still...

* Notably averted by Alan Grant's DC Universe character of Anarky: where originally the character was scripted to be willing to murder in pursuance of his anarchic philosophy, as written he upholds the same moral standards as Batman, which makes for some nice [[Not So Different]] interactions.

* Played with when Scans Daily showed a panel with [[Batman/Characters|Robin and the Spoiler]] foiling a convenience store robbery and Stephanie taking a soda. Tim assumes she's going to pay for it, while she explains that she's earned it as they saved the whole store. She grudgingly puts down some money when Tim explains that once you start like that, you soon bend all the rules.

{{quote|'''SD''': "It just starts with stealing a soda after saving the store...next thing you know, you're hacking up people and putting them in your freezer!" }}

** To be fair to Robin, what he is saying is real-world law enforcement practice; Internal Affairs goes after cops even for accepting the most minor bribes or freebies precisely because taking them psychologically desensitizes police officers towards the idea that they 'deserve' extra-legal recompense for their sacrifices, which is for obvious reasons a train of thought they don't want people to even go near starting.

* Dealt with in a two-issue arc of ''New [[X-Men]]'' involving Prodigy, a student at the Xavier Institute with the ability to absorb the knowledge of anyone in the immediate vicinity, but ''only'' as long as they're in the immediate vicinity. When Emma Frost discovers that he's subconsciously put a block in his mind that prevents him from retaining the knowledge permanently, David asks Emma to remove the block, figuring he'll be able to do so much good for the world that way. The story then fast-forwards a few months, and David is already head of his own [[Mega Corp]] that has developed cures for cancer and AIDS. How did he achieve this breakthrough? {{spoiler|He killed his friend, the healer Elixir, and harvested his organs}}. Okay, that's certainly bad, but we're still at the point where it can be argued to be worth it. The next issue fast-forwards again, to twenty years later, and David is now the President, and has united most of the world's countries into a utopian [[One World Government]]. And he's also {{spoiler|planning the genocide of the Chinese because they refused to join}}. Okay, ''now'' he has to die. Fortunately {{spoiler|the whole thing turns out to be an illusion, courtesy of Dani Moonstar, in an effort to convince him to leave the block in}}.

 

* Ho-oh from ''[[Poke Wars]]'' wants Pokémon-kind to live in a utopia and he limits his targets to humans only and tries limit the damage he causes. {{spoiler|He soon starts engaging in things like ordering wanton killing of Pokémon contrary to his ideals, utterly ruining the environment and not giving a damn about it, and generally being a filthy hypocrite.}}

 

* Loki arguably did this in between ''[[Thor (film)|Thor]]'' and ''[[The Avengers (film)|The Avengers]]''.

** It may even be ''definite'' that Loki did this, seeing as his actions went from more [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulative]] in ''[[Thor (film)|Thor]]'' to straight-up [[Big Bad|evil]] in ''[[The Avengers (film)|The Avengers]]''.

 

== Literature ==

** Johnny Gat qualifies as well.

 

* In ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' paladin Miko Miyazaki starts out as a narrow-minded, [[Holier Than Thou]] [[Knight Templar]] who the titular Order despise and even her own comrades tend to look for excuses to send her off on missions to distant lands that keep her out of town for long periods. Then she {{spoiler|overhears Lord Shojo talking to Roy and Belkar about their plans to do the dirty work behind the paladins' backs, ignores his [[I Did What I Had to Do|perfectly good arguments about why he had to do it,]] declares him guilty of treason and executes him on the spot. She's IMMEDIATELY stripped of her powers by the gods for murdering an unarmed octogenarian and goes into a psychotic breakdown when she refuses to accept that she could have been wrong.}}

** To be fair, The Order contains a known sociopath whose evilness is [[Fantastic Measurement System|measured]] in [[Godwin's Law|kilonazis]], and the rest often bend rules a bit. And there was lots of other evidence which could easily be misinterpreted by a certain type of mind.

** {{spoiler|Eridan was explicitly stated upon his introduction to have genocidal tendencies and slaughters the custodians of young trolls, leaving them defenceless against the many, many hazards of Alternia, on a regular basis. He has been a monster from day 1, but it was treated as a joke up until this point. It was foreshadowed in the sense that somebody beating you with a stick foreshadows you waking up with some lovely bruises tomorrow.}}

* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' has [[Deus Ex Machina|Petey]] using an opportunity to [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2015-07-01 collect first-hand information] on how step-by-step changes work.

 

== Western Animation ==

 

== Real Life ==

** [[Alternative Character Interpretation]] LG refused to join an illegal trust so as to litigate their legal monopoly derived from their patent rights.

* There was a time when Robespierre was an ardent anti-capital punishment activist who was fighting the really obvious injustices of his time. [[Those Who Fight Monsters|His rule]] would later be called [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|The Reign of Terror]].