Kick the Dog/Web Comics
- A hilarious literal example, from the Web Comic Van Von Hunter.
- As soon as the villain, Frans Rayner, of the D.A.R.E To Resist Ninja Drugs and Ninja Violence story arc is introduced, he gets into this trope. It could be seen as his Moral Event Horizon... but they are just mooks who failed him because of Dan McNinja's Incendiary Exponent.
- This is parodied in an 8-bit Theater strip.
- At the end of a Penny and Aggie storyline, Charisma rants to her illegitimate son's face that he exists to ruin her life, after a series of events he had no control over, in front of her boyfriend. Needless to say, he leaves her soon after.
- In Sluggy Freelance Aylee's evil clone gets one of these after she goes through her corporate executive transformation. She attacks the gang's Halloween party and leaves all the guests unconscious outside and taunts Riff with the knowledge that she can kill him and everyone he knows so easily.
- K'Z'K gets one when he takes over Gwynn's body (the second time). Trying to kill Riff, Torg, and Zoe? Well, they did foil his evil plans; there's some legitimate revenge motivation going on there. But trying to kill Kiki, cute Talking Animal who never means anyone any harm? Then you've gotta pay.
- New Knight Templar Xaphrael kicks the dog within his first half dozen strips in Misfile when he nearly chokes resident Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain Cassiel in this strip (for doing her best to get Rumsiel in trouble).
- In Awkward Zombie, the Author Avatar does this literally.
- Kubota from Order of the Stick has kicked several puppies. He not only orders his men to kill a pregnant woman (which doesn't work that well, but still...), he seals the deal by poisoning and killing his assistant Therkla, just so he can make an effective escape. This last act might even put Kubota into even worse territory.
- Vaarsuvius threatening Elan with death when Elan says that he will not cover up for Vaarsuvius killing Kubota. In addition to suggesting that Elan had an affair with Therkla behind Haley's back. Note that Elan is hir team-mate.
- Belkar constantly complains about not getting to kick any dogs. Although, he does eventually cross the line with his teammates when he kills the oracle.
- Yukyuk here. He had no way of knowing that Mr. Scruffy was an enemy - he just decided to shoot a cat for fun.
- Xykon, of course, as you would expect from a Card-Carrying Villain. His favorite is sending the Mooks to their deaths. Redcloak does the same until his My God, What Have I Done? moment during the battle of Azure City.
- Tarquin. We know his political moves are evil, but in case the audience would feel it justified, he quickly shows that he is still evil. Even Elan realizes this. Look.
- Very literal instance in General Protection Fault, in one of Trudy's earliest appearances, complete with giggle. This turns out to be one of her nicer traits as the strip progresses.
- Questionable Content. Sven. Not funny, Jeph. Not funny.
- He could have chosen a much less mean way to put it, but he does have a fair point: he and Fay are fuck buddies with few-or-no strings attached, so expecting exclusivity is pretty strange. And if she wants something more serious, she could always ASK, rather than trying to browbeat him into it.
- Minions At Work. Well, I don't feel really good about who we stole the candy from but you have to admit... it was easy.
- Misty Snow from Shadowgirls. She was racist at the age of 5, and when she grew up, she became a teenage Queen of Jerkass. Her biggest feat in kicking a dog? She made Lin betray her best friend Becka for popularity, and led her in a trap, but instead of embarrassing her in public, like Lin thought it would end, Becka almost gets raped by three guys. And Misty was meanwhile playing with Lin's guilt, and thinking about it made Fate Worse Than Death even worse.
- And if you think Misty's bad, just wait until she becomes Possessed By Mother Hydra, who surpasses her in kicking a dog like hell. And she has this promo art.
- Several times in Slightly Damned:
- First, we have the as-yet unnamed hooded archer, whose first action in the story is to kill Sakido.
- Shortly afterwards, we're introduced to Lazuli and Talos, two demons who got their kicks out of tormenting Kieri.
- And shortly after that, we learn Kieri's bunny form was a curse from a rabbit spirit (go figure), who did it to her for the lulz.
- And then there's Denevol, who despite being an Angel, has done nothing but kick dogs (and bunnies) since he appeared.
- Mr. Bignose from Tragic Deaths does this quite literally.
- For the first part of RPG World Galgarion comes across as a comical somewhat harmless villain. But as Cerebus Syndrome set in, Galgy got several suprisingly evil moments, including his attack on the Mubble village, the slaughter of a turncoat henchman's family and finally murdering Reka. Some or all of these might count as crossing the Moral Event Horizon as well.
- Nemen Yi, the Chosen of Battles in Keychain of Creation. When she first shows up, her moral status is indeterminate: sure, she's trying to sequester the group's precious artifact, but it had just been stolen by the villains for world-ending purposes. Then, after one of the team gets it back, the Chosen of Battles looks like she's ready to throw down on the group -- until Marena points out that that would be illegal. Fortunately, the conundrum of whether we're supposed to sympathize with Nemen Yi or not is solved in the very very next strip, as she immediately chooses to try and steal the artifact and bait the rest of the group into attacking her first (so she can "defend" herself) by attempting to behead Secret, on the legal technicality that even though she is a defector from team evil and working for the protagonists, she's still an Abyssal Exalted. Going straight for the Woobie's neck just to get around a bureaucratic roadblock in your path is what we call "a signal".
- This strip of LICD has a literal example.
- Khrima from Adventurers!, he kicks cute things.
- In Knights of the Old Republic, Darth Bandon attacks a guy as he's walking in to meet Darth Malak, and Darth Malak electrocutes two people for no apparent reason at one point.
- And, of course, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal gives us a literal example.
- The Dreamland Chronicles: They told to keep out of trouble, so the guard abuses children before them.
- More or less literally happens in The Q Man when Talbot remotely performs a command override during the Q Man's first mission.
- Richard the Warlock of Looking for Group does this on a regular basis, usually for comic effect.
- Cyanide & Happiness uses this, taken as literally as possible, as the entire punchline, and stinger, for their latest short.
- But I'm a Cat Person takes this from the dog's point of view. The kicker's identity is still a mystery, but the aftermath inspires the heroes (at least, one of them) to commit to being on the dog's side.
- Seymour, the Knight Templar vampire hunter from Nosfera does this when he kills some monsters after they had ALREADY SURRENDERED.
- Squid Row I must be off to kick puppies!
- Vriska Serket has kicked all the dogs. All of them. And has even shot a couple, though she got shot back for at least one of those dogs.
- Although, the one time she fought an actual dog (the Big Bad Jack Noir) she was being heroic.
- In Captain SNES, Mother Brain (a Harmless Villain in the show the comic is based on) takes it half-literally by smacking Captain N's dog Duke into a pit filled with Omega Energy just to spite the Captain. This upsets not only her enemies, but also her henchman, King Hippo.
- In Endstone, introducing some character laughing about killing. Just before they go Mugging the Monster.
- In Our Little Adventure, Peganone, Eva and Randi were attacked by Angelo. Not only they lost the fight, but Angelo ended up magically forcing the Paladin Eva to slay her own horse. The dramatic effect of this was lessened by her horse easily being able to outrun her, and Angelo getting bored and calling it off. It was still very cruel and unnecessary.
- Back to Kick the Dog