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== Anime & Manga ==
* 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 (Manga)|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.
** For that matter, Mikami Teru uses the notebook to eliminate minor and reformed criminals.
** Declaring that he will eventually execute people for being lazy implies that Light has done away with the slippery slope completely and simply jumped off the metaphorical deep end.
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* The last two episodes of the first generation in ''[[Gundam AGE]]'' shows Flit Asuno taking the dark descent to becoming a revenge-obsessed Earth Federation fanatic. {{spoiler|His refusal to accept the UE as human beings and his [[Unstoppable Rage]] from seeing Yurin die only matters worse for him.}}
** The last episode of the second generation shows that [[It Got Worse]], when Flit {{spoiler|leads a task force that purges the Federation government of any and all Vagan sympathizers, accusing them of collaboration and having them executed. When it's pointed out that this action will kill any chance of a peaceful resolution to the conflict, Flit merely says "Yes, I know. That was my intention from the beginning".}} Honestly, the man is getting dangerously close to the [[Moral Event Horizon]] here, if he hasn't crossed it already.
* Narrowly averted in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (Mangamanga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' when {{spoiler|Roy goes [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|batshit]] [[Cold-Blooded Torture|insane]] against Envy, but is talked down from dealing the killing blow by his friends.}}
** Also narrowly averted in the [[Fullmetal Alchemist (Animeanime)|2003 anime version]] when Ed almost uses the prisoners trapped in Lab 5 to create a philosopher's stone he's been searching for.
* ''[[Fushigi BoshiFushigiboshi no Futago HimeFutagohime]]'': Fine and Rein find out that Mirlo is in an [[Arranged Marriage]] with a rather undesirable dimwit, and are out to break it up. Reviewer Al1701 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQQ4wqYiE9Y pointed out] that this action seems short-sighted, since the deal for the marriage is in exchange for dimwit's father repairing the Waterdrop Kingdom's cloudmaker. {{spoiler|That is, until the whole [[Arranged Marriage]] turns out to be a big ruse by the Moon Kingdom chancellor. Doesn't stop this from being one of the best eps of the whole series.}}
* In ''[[Berserk]]'', no one ever really addresses Griffith's actions, since they're so amazed at how far he's willing to go in order to achieve his dream of having his own kingdom. Even if those actions may have included {{spoiler|whoring himself out to an old pedophile to raise funds for his army}}, or {{spoiler|planning assassinations to eliminate opponents}} or {{spoiler|kidnapping kids and using them as leverage against other opponents}}. However, the audience is shown this from a more sympathetic light, especially so after his {{spoiler|one year imprisonment and torture which destroyed any chance of him achieving his dream}} since he speaks of his dream so nobly and pure. And then the Eclipse happened. The audience [[Moral Event Horizon|lost all sympathy]] at that point.
 
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* 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.
* In [[Superman]] Annual 3 in the Armageddon 2001 crossover, Superman declared war on all nuclear weapons. At first, he just took away all nuclear weapons. Then, he started to steal from rich countries to give to the poor countries. Over the course of ten years, he became more intense and actually started sinking submarines that has nuclear weapons on them. When, people started to die (accidentally), everyone started to get worried that Superman has gone too far. So, Batman decided that he had to kill Superman with the kryptonite ring.
* Played with when Scans Daily showed a panel with [[Batman (Franchise)/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!" }}
* A German Film ''Stahlnetz: PSI'' begins with two brothers kidnapping a rich girl {{spoiler|actually she is not...}} for ransom. They reason a girl is a [[Spoiled Brat]] anyway and a few days in captivity won't hurt - and for her family, a million is only a pocket money, so it's not really bad. But then the younger brother decides that it is better to leave the girl to die, and {{spoiler|when the other brother objects, beats him up and locks him together with the girl to die}}.
* In [[Star Wars Legacy]] Emperor Roan Fel is willing to use Sith powers to get his Empire back. {{spoiler|He finally slips to the dark side when he plans to use a bio weapon on Coruscant to wipe out the Sith, unbeknown to him they are immune to it, but it will kill his allies and billions of lives still on the planet.}}
* 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}}.
 
 
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* ''[[Crimson Tide]]'' is often noted as quite admirably morally complex for a Jerry Bruckheimer film, with Gene Hackman's character given quite a bit of sympathy in wanting to launch the missiles. At least until the ending, when he makes a thinly veiled racist comment to [[Denzel Washington]], which Washington promptly reverses on him.
** There's also the fact that Gene Hackman's character gets increasingly loud as the movie continues, yelling and screaming at people, while Denzel remains calm and logical, which serves to show you just who's right.
* ''[[The Dark Knight Saga]]'', {{spoiler|Harvey Dent}} didn't so much "jump off" as much as {{spoiler|get <s>kicked</s> [[Break Them Byby Talking|a little push]] from [[The Joker]]}}.
* ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Filmfilm)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'': Sweeney Todd goes from wanting to just get [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|revenge on two specific people]] to [[Serial Killer|randomly murdering]] people off the streets who won't be missed and having them ''[[I'm a Humanitarian|baked into pies]]'' about halfway through the movie (same thing goes for the stage version as well).
* [[Cold Sniper|Major König]] in ''[[Enemy Atat the Gates]]'' might be a [[Punch Clock Villain]] or a [[Worthy Opponent]] for most of the movie. He even [[Even Evil Has Standards|shows a veiled contempt]] for brutal goons who beat up prisoners. And then he {{spoiler|[[Moral Event Horizon|hangs a little kid]].}}
** Potentially justified, {{spoiler|the kid was setting him up to get shot, and they were at war.}}
* In ''[[Super (Film)|Super]]'' [[Rainn Wilson]]'s character decides to fight crime. This begins with trying to stop drug dealers, but turns into him brutally beating people with a monkey wrench (for cutting in line at the movie theatre).
* Loki arguably did this in between ''[[Thor (Filmfilm)|Thor]]'' and ''[[The Avengers (Filmfilm)|The Avengers]]''.
** It may even be ''definite'' that Loki did this, seeing as his actions went from more [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulative]] in ''[[Thor (Filmfilm)|Thor]]'' to straight-up [[Big Bad|evil]] in ''[[The Avengers (Filmfilm)|The Avengers]]''.
 
 
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* King Erius in [[Nightrunner|Lynn Flewelling's]] ''Tamir'' trilogy starts by taking the throne from his insane mother, who was executing people left and right, in defiance of the divine edict that for no apparent reason essentially promises Bad Things if a man ever rules the country. Bad Things happen. He then proceeds to institute sexist practices and start killing off his female relatives...
* Ho boy, does this ''ever'' happen in the eleventh book of ''[[Everworld]]'' to {{spoiler|Senna Wales}}. K.A. "[[Ambition Is Evil|Ambitious]], intelligent, controlling, [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] [[Visionary Villain]] with a taste for power" into "batshit insane, power-mad, [[Genre Blind]] [[Bad Boss]] [[Evil Overlord]]."
* In ''[[Memory, SorrowandSorrow, and Thorn]]'', this trope in a nutshell is the [[Backstory]] of the [[Big Bad]], the [[The Fair Folk|Sitha prince]] Ineluki. Once a purely heroic figure, his ambition and willpower darkened when the Sithi's lands were invaded by savage humans. Dismayed by his people's despair in the face of their approaching doom, he delved into [[Things Man Was Not Meant to Know]] and constructed a weapon so terrible that his father the king insisted he destroy it. Maddened by this rejection and by his torments, Ineluki [[Self-Made Orphan|murdered his father]] and took the crown, leading a final, futile resistance against the humans that ended in his death via [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique]]. It is deeply unfortunate for the world of Osten Ard that he did not stay dead.
 
 
== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Star Trek]]'' had numerous cases of this. For example, in ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' a race of holograms rebel against a race that had been hunting them, and start freeing all other holograms in the area. Even Voyager's holographic doctor joins them. But then they start killing off anyone who ''might'' enslave an intelligent hologram.
** Then they move onto anyone who uses humanoid holograms at all, regardless as to whether those holograms are intelligent.
* ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' had Najara, a character who either converted or killed criminals. Rather quickly, Najara is revealed to be insane, and can't tell the difference between obvious criminals and lesser offenders.
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* ''[[Supernatural]]'', season 2, "Bloodlust:" The Winchester brothers met rogue vampire hunter Gordon Walker while looking for a nest of vampires. Gordon seems like a decent enough chap and a worthy ally, and Dean likes his "kill all the monsters and enjoy the hunt" philosophy. Dean and Sam end up fighting when Sam reveals that other hunters say Gordon is bad news. Before this can go any further, Gordon takes a swandive off the slope when the local vampires turn out to actually be peaceful, having sworn off killing humans, yet he still attempts to slaughter them. Then he tries to feed Sam to the head vampire to prove she's still a monster, and attacks Dean when they try to protect her. Bad move.
** This is Castiel's entire character arc during Season 6. Desperate to defeat Raphael in the civil war in Heaven, Castiel begins performing many morally questionable acts, not the least of which is {{spoiler|allying with Crowley}}, and rapidly [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes|slides down the Anti-Hero scale]]. This ultimately culminates in the season finale, where he {{spoiler|jumps right into [[Villain Protagonist]] territory when he absorbs all the soul energy of Purgatory and [[A God Am I|declares himself the new God]]}}.
* ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'': During Season 3, Wesley translates a prophecy reading "The Father Will Kill The Son". Not quite sure how to handle the situation, he {{spoiler|takes the baby away - for good - and even strikes Lorne unconscious when he finds out what's going on. To make that even worse, Wesley gets his throat cut and the baby taken away from him. And it was a false prophecy, anyway. Now Holtz has the child and takes him with him into a Hell Dimension, raising him to hate Angel}}.
** Yeah, well, oops ...
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'': in Season 6, Willow goes from {{spoiler|killing Warren}} as revenge for {{spoiler|Tara}} to trying to {{spoiler|kill}} the uninvolved other guys {{spoiler|from the Trio}}. Then to hurting {{spoiler|Buffy, Anya (who initially sympathized with her) and Giles}} and finally to trying to {{spoiler|end the world}}. All within a couple of episodes which together take place within less than one day.
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** In ''The Mind of Evil'', a scientist invents a machine that removes criminal impulses from the human mind, and offers it to the government as a means of dealing with dangerous criminals without resorting to the death penalty. Turns out its inventor is actually the Master and the device brainwashes people to serve him.
** In ''Genesis of the Daleks'', Davros invents the Dalek (or "Mark III Travel Machine", as he initially calls it) ostensibly for the purpose of making life easier for mutated Kaleds. When his superiors start getting cold feet about the research, he has the entire Kaled race wiped out.
*** The audio drama ''Davros'', released much later, showed that Davros was already lying in a heap at the bottom of the slope by this point. Not hard, when you're the leading [[Mad Scientist|scientist]] of a race of [[A Nazi Byby Any Other Name|ersatz Nazis]]...
** In "Rise of the Cybermen", when the British government refuses to fund John Lumic's Cyberman research, he kills the leadership and begins forcibly cyber-converting the British population.
** In "The Unquiet Dead", gaseous beings called [[Our Ghosts Are Different|the Gelth]] need to [[Puppeteer Parasite|animate human corpses]] to house themselves and hence survive — creepy, if not evil. [[Genocide Dilemma|They ask to come]] to Victorian Cardiff, and the Doctor, dismissing the [[Squick]] of his companions, agrees. After the Gelth come through, however, it turns out [[I Lied|they lied]] about their numbers and intentions. They want to take over all of Earth's ''living'' bodies — but even before we learn this, we can tell that they're malevolent, because shortly after getting the Doctor's go-ahead, they [[Beauty Equals Goodness|switch from pale blue to bright red and Satanic]]. Apparently, they were "demonic" all along, see?
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** It's implied in "The Runaway Bride" and more-or-less stated in "Journey's End" that the reason Doctor travels around with a companion is so that he has someone to remind him not to do this, since he can so much power and gets into such intense and painful situations it would be hard for him not to slip, and hard for anyone to stop him once he starts sliding.
* Holly in ''[[Slings and Arrows]]'' wants to streamline the Festival's business end and replace most of its [[Shakespeare]] with musicals. This is only marks her as a villain in the context of a show where Shakespeare is [[Serious Business]], until she starts abusing her boyfriend and deliberately aggravating the heart problem of a board member who disagrees with her.
* Gerak in season 9 of ''[[Stargate SG -1]]''. At least he got a [[Redemption Equals Death|redemptive death]], though.
** The Ori could stray into this. At first it seems that, while their practices are primitive, their ultimate goals are noble enough, helping others to achieve ascension. Then it's revealed that this is all a lie, and the Ori are manipulating people's belief to gain more power.
*** The rogue NID. At first they're stealing alien technology with the purpose of using it to defend earth, making them into [[Knight Templar|Knight Templars]]. Then it turns out they're just in it for the money.
* Similar to the ''[[Magnum Force]]'' example, season two of ''[[Murder One]]'' featured a storyline about Clifford Banks, a serial killer who tracked down and executed criminals who escaped justice, or had an unsuitably short prison sentence. He started out on this path through the murder of his retarded brother, he never kills innocent people, and throughout the arc a few people comment that "sometimes the streets need sweeping." Any moral ambiguity is then done away with by the lawyers finding out that Clifford actually killed his brother himself over his frustration about giving up his whole life to care for him, causing a mental breakdown that directed his guilt outwards onto other criminals.
* In the pilot episode of ''[[The Shield]]'', Vic Mackey partakes in numerous criminal acts including the use of excessive force during arrests, working with a drug dealer and beating a suspect with a phone book in order to make him talk. Then, at the end of the episode, he {{spoiler|shoots another police officer in the face to prevent him from gathering evidence against Vic's team}}.
* An episode of ''[[The Commish]]'' features a [[Vigilante Man]] who initially only humiliates bad guys who deserve it. But when an accused rapist/murderer is found not guilty (for good reason), the vigilante (who believes he got [[Off Onon a Technicality]]) clubs him to death, setting the team on his case.
* The season 8 finale of ''[[Smallville]]'' took an incredible amount of heat for various reasons, and one of them was this trope.
** Season 9 had [[Two Lines, No Waiting|multiple concurrent threads]] of [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Well-Intentioned Extremism]] colliding into one big [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy|Self-Fulfilling prediction of doom]]:
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*** Amanda Waller as the head of Checkmate employed threats, murders, and kidnappings to prepare for a coming [[Apocalypse How|war against the aforementioned Kandorians]]. Then she {{spoiler|casually ordered the execution of a group of [[Brought Down to Normal|non-powered Kandorians]],}} cementing her status as a [[Fantastic Racism|Fantastic Racist]].
*** General Zod's interest in restoring his and his fellow Kandorians' powers (against Clark's objections) made sense in light of the repeated violent threats they faced from Amanda Waller and other humans [[Properly Paranoid]] about aliens among them. {{spoiler|After Zod and the Kandorians get their powers restored, he destroys Checkmate, kills Faora (and their unborn child) for going against him and plans to take over Earth with the Kandorians loyal to him and make it into a New Krypton.}}
* Several characters in the 1998 ''[[Merlin (FilmTV miniseries)|Merlin]]'' series, but most notably [[Murder the Hypotenuse|Uther]] and [[God Save Us From the Queen|Mab]].
* Likewise, in the later ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' BBC series, Morgana was understandably angry and bitter, but nevertheless sympathetic. However, between seasons two and three, she transformed into a smirking villain.
* In one episode of ''[[Monk]]'', when Captain's Stottlemeyer's wife is gravely injured in the fallout of a union assassination, Stottlemeyer proceeds to teeter dangerously close to the edge in his hunt for the sniper. {{spoiler|Near the end, he very nearly launches a raid on the suspected union until Monk manages to crack the case.}}
* [[Fringe]]: Walternate originally just wanted to save his universe, even if it meant destroying a parallel universe and its inhabitants. Then he attempted to {{spoiler|kill his son and the mother of his grandchild.}}
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== Tabletop RPG ==
* ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade (Tabletop Game)|Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' has an actual mechanic for this: acting like an inhuman, unprincipled bastard will make you more of an inhuman, unprincipled bastard.
** This applies to all World of Darkness games and is a large part of the new system.
** The old system was an aversion; the more humanity you lost, the harder it was to lose the next point, the more extreme your behavior would have to be. Only if you're determined to destroy your humanity (or your Gamemaster paves your path with [[Sadistic Choice|Sadistic Choices]],) could you slip past a certain point, but it wouldn't happen by accident.
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== Video Games ==
* In ''[[Bio ShockBioshock]]'', {{spoiler|harvesting more than two of the Little Sisters gives you the bad ending; it is simply implied that you jumped off the slope and became ADAM and power-hungry the moment you first harvested}}.
** This is actually [[Justified Trope|Justified]]--{{spoiler|killing the Little Sisters gives you more ADAM, and why should you be immune to the [[Psycho Serum]] that's turned the rest of the city into twisted freaks?}}
*** By that logic, wouldn't the Psycho Serum force you to harvest the rest of the sisters [[Controllable Helplessness]]-style, if harvesting even the first two sisters is enough to give you the evil ending?
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* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' - Sephiroth is initially the best SOLDIER in the world, but after finding out a certain fact about himself, he becomes a murderous psychopath, slaughtering the population of a village and then burns said village and sets out to destroy the world.
* In ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' {{spoiler|after the woman that he loved was killed and he was left for dead by Ulrich during the Multinational Expedition to the Northlands, Raogrimm kills Ulrich. Then he hunts down and murders the rest of the people in the Multinational Expedition because they knew that Ulrich had done something and didn't say anything about it. Then he gets a giant "Slip 'N Slide" and whisks down the slope gleefully as he declares war on the human nations and nearly destroys the world. Mind you, some of it may have been the Dark Divinity Odin fanning the flames of his rage, but still... Although, Ulrich's actions during the Multinational Expedition could be considered the ultimate slippery slope, since they were the cause of pretty much all of the major, world-threatening troubles that Vana'Diel has faced in the following 30 years were stemmed from his (accidental) murder of Cornelia.}}
** Subverted in the ''Rise of the Zilart'' expansion as {{spoiler|Kam'lanaut and Eald'narche were always [[Complete Monster|complete monsters]] who were trying to [[The End of the World Asas We Know It|"open the Gates to Paradise"]].}}
* So many in ''[[Dragon Age II]]'', a game where [[Grey and Gray Morality|no one is really evil and no one is truly good]]. By the end of the game, both of the leaders of the two warring factions give into their inner demons with {{spoiler|Meredith, the Knight-Commander of the Templars calling for the execution of all mages in the city of Kirkwall for the actions of just one rogue mage who also jumped off the slippery slope and First Enchanter Orsino, leader of the mages, using [[Blood Magic]] in an act of despair.}}
** Both slopes were [[The Dark Side|greased with phlebotinum]] in this case; {{spoiler|Meredith was being corrupted by the lyrium idol in addition to her own paranoia, and the rogue mage was possessed by a demon of Vengeance.}}
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== Webcomics ==
* In ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|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 alignment is 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.
*** Hinjo argues against that justification right there though: he heard all the same things she did but restrained himself from leaping to the same conclusions and abandoning the code of laws he had sworn to uphold.
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** [http://www.erfworld.com/book-2-archive/?px=/2009-12-08.jpg Horrified?] Really? At what point does Stanley appear to be even bothered, let alone horrified, by her request? He mulls the issue over for a bit, then refuses permission because he thinks Wanda's been "out of hand" lately and he doesn't want a decrypted caster anyway.
** Maybe... or maybe she just wanted a chance to put Jack (her friend from the old Faq) on her side specifically, since anyone she rezzes with them has their loyalty aligned to HER not Gobwin Knob.
* Not so much used, but explained in [http://www.viruscomix.com/page519.html this] [[Subnormality (Webcomic)|Subnormality]] comic.
* The inspector in ''Chisuji''. First he decided to take justice in his own hands against the criminal who killed his wife and sent his daughter in a coma; then he saw the killer's girlfriend holding said daughter's plush toy, and... [[Discretion Shot|snapped]].
* Eridan in ''[[Homestuck]]'' was introduced as a [[Butt Monkey]] [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]] [[Jerk Withwith a Heart of Gold]], but some of his later appearances have shown that {{spoiler|he pulled a [[Face Heel Turn]] and plans to ally with the [[Big Bad]], then proceeds to slaughter his teammates and destroys the one thing that could have saved his people, which he was ''trying to protect''.}} This is not foreshadowed whatsoever.
** {{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.}}
 
 
== Western Animation ==
* The ''[[Batman: theThe Animated Series]]'' episode "Lock-Up" introduced Lyle Bolton, ruthless head of security at Arkham Asylum, who eventually goes crazy and becomes the supervillain Lock-Up. He starts off making some good points about his regime bringing Arkham's role as a [[Cardboard Prison]] to a halt. Fortunately - so to speak - he also turns out to be a sadistic monster who steps way past his boundaries, abuses his inmates, and eventually starts locking up politicians and media members, blaming them for allowing crime to run rampant in the first place, allowing Batman to take him down without any worries.
** When new-vigilante-in-town The Judge shows up later on, attacking the villains and not caring whether or not he kills them, this is never even brought up. It is taken for granted that his actions are wrong, which (given the long, horrible careers of Batman's rogues gallery) seems like it would be open to debate here. The big jump probably comes moments before Batman intervenes, when he is about to kill a small-time corrupt politician who had helped him, but still. How extreme can he really get, he tried to kill Two-Face in his own escape room, the catch {{spoiler|The Judge is Two-Face, as he is a third persona made by Harvey Dent to fight crime.}}
* Also, in ''[[Justice League]]'', Cadmus. Their stated goals: Provide America (and her allies, probably) a defense against the super powered types, especially the Justice League. What with Superman nearly taking over the world when being brainwashed by Darkseid, the Justice Lords in a parallel universe taking everything over, and the Justice League having an [[Death From Above|Orbital Superweapon]] pointing down, this seems entirely okay. Up until the cloning, torture, firing nuclear weapons, being allied with Luthor, creating Doomsday...
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** And the Justice Lords from a parallel Earth. Superman abandoning [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]] to stop Luthor from starting a nuclear war: justifiable. The entire team doing away with the concept of [[Joker Immunity]] altogether and resorting to killing and lobotomizing on a semi-frequent basis: arguable. Setting up a totalitarian state in which elections do not happen until the Justice Lords say they do and people can be arrested for complaining too loudly: seems unnecessary.
** And for that matter, Doctor Destiny's origin story in "Just a Dream". At first, he seems to be a fairly decent guy whose big mistake was simply getting hired as a guard by [[Lex Luthor]], and the story starts raising questions about [[What Measure Is a Mook?]] and the hypocrisy of the henchmen going to prison and having their lives ruined while the villains themselves keep getting away scott-free. But once he gains superpowers himself, his [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] throws him right off the slippery slope, and into [[Complete Monster]] territory that even Lex never touched, with lemming-like gusto.
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' gives us Jet, whose goal it is to protect children like himself orphaned by the war mongering Fire Nation and to fight back. However, it's made pretty clear that Jet has jumped off this slope when he attempts to {{spoiler|drown an entire town uninvolved with the war effort, murder innocent elderly people, and put his own life at risk for the purpose of revenge}}. He notably later attempts to jump back ''on'' the slope, but it [[Heel Face Door Slam|doesn't turn out too well]].
** It's implied he had already fallen that far long before they met him- the plan was already in place and he had apparently been attacking travelers indiscriminate to their threat-level for a while now. Not to mention his "enforcers" thought nothing of Jet ordering them to kill Sokka. It's not entirely clear whether he truly regretted his actions for being ''morally wrong''.
*** It seemed like he didn't really regret his actions per se, more that he realized maybe he was going too far and started trying to rely on his team to keep him from sliding. But when he KNOWS there are Fire Benders hiding in plain sight within the city, he still just can't let it go.
** This is what leads to {{spoiler|Zuko's eventual [[Heel Face Turn]]. He'd been hesitating for a while, thinking that his family really were good people, despite all the massive evidence otherwise: its when his Father and sister create a plan to burn an entire country to the ground that he realises they've jumped off.}}
* From the [[Sequel Series]], ''[[The Legend of Korra (Animation)|The Legend of Korra]]'', Tarrlok starts out as a Jerkass and manipulative self-serving politician. Then he goes completely off the deep end {{spoiler|imposing a curfew on all non-benders and arresting anyone who complains or even has connections with Equalists. He arrests Korra's friends to blackmail her to join him and when she refuses, attacks her and reveals himself to be a bloodbender. By the end of the episode, he's got her locked in the back of a Satomobile to take her somewhere she'll never be found.}}
 
 
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