Moral Event Horizon/Literature: Difference between revisions

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* [[Legacy of the Force|Darth Caedus]], the [[Face Heel Turn|villainous]] [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Jacen Solo]], was apparently intended, to be morally grey at first, sliding down into worse and worse acts of [[Necessary Evil]] until the Evil overwhelmed the Necessary. It didn't really turn out like that, considering what he did, including {{spoiler|fridging his own aunt, bombarding [[Throwaway Country|throwaway planet]] Fondor after they had already surrendered, and lighting decidedly NON-throwaway planet Kashyyyk on fire from orbit.}} Fans lost all sympathy for him long before this was intended to happen.

** Interestingly, what his family considered to be his [[Moral Event Horizon]] was comparatively minor, {{spoiler|using a Nightsister Blood Trail to track Jaina to the Jedi's secret base.}}

** Also from the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], we have an in-universe example with Kyp Durron, a young Jedi who in the [[Jedi Academy Trilogy]] gets influenced by an ancient Sith spirit to steal a superweapon out of the heart of the local gas giant and go on a spree with it, causing supernovas which kill the populations of various planets. He then flies to a training camp planet supporting about twenty-five million people where his brother had gone to train, was told by an [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] that his brother had been killed during this training, and fired a nova-causing missile at the sun. Then it turned out that the bureaucrat had simply lied, and the brother was flown over to try and stop him, but it was too late; the only survivor in the entire system was Kyp, safe in his superweapon. Later the main characters found him and convinced him to stick the superweapon [[Hurl It Into the Sun|into a black hole]], which almost resulted in his death; instead he lived, recovered, and [[Karma Houdini|went back to training at the Jedi Academy]]. Because the worlds he'd killed had been ''[[The Empire|Imperial]]'' worlds, and he felt bad about killing his brother, and he'd supposedly been possessed by a four-thousand-year old Dark Lord who made him do it, all was forgiven. Later books [[What the Hell Hero|called him on it]] and called it ''hard''. He'd been influenced, not possessed, or he would have actually killed Luke Skywalker instead of knocking him out. These had still been people who, as the [[Fix Fic]] type novel ''I, Jedi'' says, had had nothing in any reality to do with him. It became something [[Never Live It Down|he could never live down]], sometimes making him [[The Atoner]], sometimes making him tired of being reminded of something he did as a teenager when he was in his forties, trying to be a respectable member of the Jedi Council. Some characters are never able to forgive him.

** Also from the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], we have an in-universe example with Kyp Durron, a young Jedi who in the [[Jedi Academy Trilogy]] gets influenced by an ancient Sith spirit to steal a superweapon out of the heart of the local gas giant and go on a spree with it, causing supernovas which kill the populations of various planets. He then flies to a training camp planet supporting about twenty-five million people where his brother had gone to train, was told by an [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] that his brother had been killed during this training, and fired a nova-causing missile at the sun. Then it turned out that the bureaucrat had simply lied, and the brother was flown over to try and stop him, but it was too late; the only survivor in the entire system was Kyp, safe in his superweapon. Later the main characters found him and convinced him to stick the superweapon [[Hurl It Into the Sun|into a black hole]], which almost resulted in his death; instead he lived, recovered, and [[Karma Houdini|went back to training at the Jedi Academy]]. Because the worlds he'd killed had been ''[[The Empire|Imperial]]'' worlds, and he felt bad about killing his brother, and he'd supposedly been possessed by a four-thousand-year old Dark Lord who made him do it, all was forgiven. Later books [[What the Hell, Hero?|called him on it]] and called it ''hard''. He'd been influenced, not possessed, or he would have actually killed Luke Skywalker instead of knocking him out. These had still been people who, as the [[Fix Fic]] type novel ''I, Jedi'' says, had had nothing in any reality to do with him. It became something [[Never Live It Down|he could never live down]], sometimes making him [[The Atoner]], sometimes making him tired of being reminded of something he did as a teenager when he was in his forties, trying to be a respectable member of the Jedi Council. Some characters are never able to forgive him.

** Thrackan Sal-Solo crossed the horizon in the eyes of the peoples of the Corellian system, especially the Selonians, by holding his first cousins once removed hostage (as leverage on their mother, the Supreme Chancellor) and then trying to vape them. <ref>The peoples of the Corellian system hold the [[Mama Bear]] and [[Papa Wolf]] in ''very'' high honor.</ref>

** The destruction of Alderaan is an in-universe [[Moral Event Horizon]] for a number of characters. It caused a ''lot'' of Imperials to defect to the Rebellion, which even before then was largely composed of people who had been Imperial citizens or soldiers at some point. They accepted this new influx, even knowing that some of these ex-Imperials had fought against and killed them. After that, though, ex-Imperial recruits were regarded with more suspicion, many Rebels wondering why they hadn't left the Empire earlier, like right after the news about Alderaan got out. Staying in the Empire's service became a subjective Moral Event Horizon; the longer someone had been with the Empire after Alderaan, the less moral they were seen to be.

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* ''[[The God of Small Things]]'': Baby Kochamma {{spoiler|manipulating the twins into lying to the police to completely vindicate her from the blame of Velutha's death}}.

* Percy Wetmore in ''[[The Green Mile]]''. Being an obnoxious prick who hides behind his connections in a Depression-era Georgia prison? There were probably a few of those types back then. Killing a prisoner's pet mouse on the eve of their execution? [[Kick the Dog|Harsh]], but luckily, it got better. Making it so said prisoner would be ''roasted alive'' in the electric chair as payback for laughing at him? ''There'' we go. Good enough for not only the guards to put him in a straitjacket and lock him in a storage room, but for John Coffey to ''risk his life'' using his healing power to punish him. [[Anvilicious|And the anvil that hits him immediately afterward was a nice touch.]]

* The [[Christopher Pike]] teen horror novel ''Chain Letter 2'' is all about invoking this trope. Each of the protagonists is given a task to complete which will push them over the horizon. If the task is not completed, the character in question will be killed, effectively giving each of them the choice between death and damnation. The tasks given ranged from the truly horrific ( {{spoiler|Kip's was to set his younger sister on fire and burn her right arm off}}) to the [[What Do You Mean ~~Its~~ Not Heinous]] ( {{spoiler|Brenda cutting off her own finger and delivering it to one of the other characters was definitely a moment of [[Squick]], but it's hard to see it as something worthy of eternal damnation}}).

* The [[Christopher Pike]] teen horror novel ''Chain Letter 2'' is all about invoking this trope. Each of the protagonists is given a task to complete which will push them over the horizon. If the task is not completed, the character in question will be killed, effectively giving each of them the choice between death and damnation. The tasks given ranged from the truly horrific ( {{spoiler|Kip's was to set his younger sister on fire and burn her right arm off}}) to the [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?]] ( {{spoiler|Brenda cutting off her own finger and delivering it to one of the other characters was definitely a moment of [[Squick]], but it's hard to see it as something worthy of eternal damnation}}).

* Napoleon of ''[[Animal Farm]]'' has crossed the line several times, such as by {{spoiler|purging the farm of so-called traitors}}, but his ''definitive'' crossing of the Moral Event Horizon, the moment when you ''know'' he has become no better than Farmer Jones, the animals' original oppressor, is when he {{spoiler|sells Boxer, the most hardworking and loyal of all the animals on the farm, to the knacker because he is injured and no longer able to work}} in a cruel and heartless [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]] moment. At least in the [[Animated Adaptation]], {{spoiler|Napoleon gets his comeuppance big-time}}.

* [[The Death Lands]]: Many radiers, mutant bands, and others quickly tumble through this

* In the [[Father Brown]] story ''The Sign of the Broken Swords'', we learn that {{spoiler|a brilliant but amoral general had betrayed his country, in wartime, [[Pride|so that he could appear wealthy to his daughter's beau]].}} And as if that weren't bad enough, {{spoiler|he murdered a subordinate [[He Knows Too Much|who knew too much]], and, when he saw he'd broken his sword, he [[The Uriah Gambit|led his men on an intentionally foolish charge]] to make said subordinate look like a casualty of war.}}

* In ''[[Star Trek a Time To|Star Trek: A Time to Kill]]'', Prime Minister Kinchawn crosses it rather early, after he uses his illegally-acquired weapons to shoot down 10 Klingon ships in orbit of Tezwa, killing 6,000 warriors. If this didn't represent his crossing the line, his casual willingness to see millions of Tezwans killed in a Klingon counterstrike, including his own family, certainly does. What makes it worse is his apparent self-image as a [[Well Intentioned Extremist]], when he's really totally [[Drunk With Power]]. He sees his own children's death as merely a means to acquire more sympathy and thus more support and power, and seems to truly believe this is somehow reasonable.

* In ''[[Star Trek a Time To|Star Trek: A Time to Kill]]'', Prime Minister Kinchawn crosses it rather early, after he uses his illegally-acquired weapons to shoot down 10 Klingon ships in orbit of Tezwa, killing 6,000 warriors. If this didn't represent his crossing the line, his casual willingness to see millions of Tezwans killed in a Klingon counterstrike, including his own family, certainly does. What makes it worse is his apparent self-image as a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]], when he's really totally [[Drunk With Power]]. He sees his own children's death as merely a means to acquire more sympathy and thus more support and power, and seems to truly believe this is somehow reasonable.

* For Esteban Garcia in ''[[The House of the Spirits]]'' it probably happens when he molests, and likely rapes, Alba when she is still a little girl. But if that isn't enough he helps to organize The Terror. During that which he find her again. This time we know for certain he that he rapes and tortures her and at least threatens to let his men rape her as well.

* [[Needful Things]]' Leland Gaunt seems like an [[Affably Evil]] [[Magnificent Bastard]] up until {{spoiler|[[Harmful to Minors|Brian kills himself]] due to Gaunt's manipulations.}} Crossing the MEH by long-distance?

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* In ''[[Warrior Cats (Literature)|Warrior Cats]]'', Scourge claims that his was killing a cat for the first time. He says that when he did it, he got a cold feeling in his belly, and it just got colder and colder and never warmed up again... and he ''welcomed'' it, as it made it easier for him to earn respect as a fighter.

* ''[[In Death]]'': Rapists will automatically be considered to have crossed this. Murderers (unless they are in the group of [[Sympathetic Murderer]]) will be considered to have crossed this as well.

* In ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'', Dorian has done some pretty fucked up stuff, most of which we don't know about -- but when he murders his best friend, Basil Hallward who [[Ho Yay|genuinely loved Dorian]] [[Love Martyr|and believed he could be redeemed]], Dorian's well and truly crossed the line. The worst thing is that [[~~Its~~ All About Me|he isn't even guilty]], [[Dirty Coward|just worried that he'll be caught]].

* In ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'', Dorian has done some pretty fucked up stuff, most of which we don't know about -- but when he murders his best friend, Basil Hallward who [[Ho Yay|genuinely loved Dorian]] [[Love Martyr|and believed he could be redeemed]], Dorian's well and truly crossed the line. The worst thing is that [[It's All About Me|he isn't even guilty]], [[Dirty Coward|just worried that he'll be caught]].

** He later {{spoiler|blackmails a former lover of his's, the chemist Alan Campbell, into [[Nightmare Fuel|disposing of Basil's lifeless body.]] Alan does so due to how terrified he is of Dorian, and while we only get hints of how he did it, he is so traumatised that he crosses the [[Despair Event Horizon]] and commits suicide almost immediately afterwards.}} That makes Dorian ''even more'' dispicable, indeed.

** Some people considered Dorian gone well ''before'' that, when he drove Sybil Vane (a [[Teen Genius]] actress and local [[Girl Next Door]]) [[Break the Cutie|into madness]] and [[Spurned Into Suicide|finally into suicide]] with a very cruel [[Hannibal Lecture]] that totally smashed the kid's self-esteem into tiny pieces. And when he tries to feel guilty about it, it's revealed that [[Pride|he's only worried about it due to his own pride.]]

* Jim Taggart, Orren Boyle, Dr. Ferris, Wesley Mouch, and Mr. Thompson from ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'' were just really annoying [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|Obstructive Bureaucrats]] to start with but they cross into [[Complete Monster]] territory with the Orwellian Directive 10289, a bill they pass preventing all originality, innovation and creativity, essentially destroying the common man's chances for success. After that they just keep going with [[Nightmare Fuel|Project X]] and torturing John Galt. Jim Taggart [[Villainous Breakdown|breaks down]] during the torture scene however so [[Even Evil Has Standards]]. Similarly, one of the Directive's drafters, [[Just the First Citizen|Mr. Thompson]], tried to oppose any plan to kill or torture John Galt.

** Jim Taggart starts off as a [[Woobie Destroyer of Worlds]] but takes a flying leap over the [[Moral Event Horizon]] and into [[Complete Monster]] territory when he cheats on his adoring wife, Cheryl with the vile Lillian Rearden because he's jealous of Cheryl's moral and intellectual superiority and when she discovers them, lays a savage [[Reason You Suck Speech]] on her that surpasses Dorian's [[Hannibal Lecture]] to Sybil Vane. This results in Cheryl having a complete nervous breakdown while fleeing through the city in an absolutely [[Nightmare Fuel|gothic sequence]] that culminates in her comitting suicide. At this point, most readers are thinking "Die Jim, die."

** Jim Taggart starts off as a [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]] but takes a flying leap over the [[Moral Event Horizon]] and into [[Complete Monster]] territory when he cheats on his adoring wife, Cheryl with the vile Lillian Rearden because he's jealous of Cheryl's moral and intellectual superiority and when she discovers them, lays a savage [[Reason You Suck Speech]] on her that surpasses Dorian's [[Hannibal Lecture]] to Sybil Vane. This results in Cheryl having a complete nervous breakdown while fleeing through the city in an absolutely [[Nightmare Fuel|gothic sequence]] that culminates in her comitting suicide. At this point, most readers are thinking "Die Jim, die."

* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: A number of villainous characters are considered to have crossed this by the Vigilantes. Senator Webster from the book ''Payback'' is an interesting example. Maybe you don't consider his actions of unknowingly giving his wife Julia Webster AIDS to be crossing this. Maybe you don't consider his actions of cheating on her with ''multiple'' women to be crossing this. However, the minute he, in a drunken rage over the fact that his affairs are being broadcast live, goes wife-beater on Julia is the minute you ''know'' he has finally and truly crossed this!

** A number of readers are convinced that the Vigilantes themselves crossed this in ''Vendetta''. John Chai, son of the Chinese ambassador to the USA, had drunkenly hit-and-run Barbara Rutledge and her unborn child, killing them both. He then pulled a [[Karma Houdini]] with [[Diplomatic Impunity]]. The Vigilantes decide that the best punishment for the guy is to ''skin him alive''! Certainly, he was a creep, and was being used by the author to personify [[Yellow Peril]], but his deeds simply did not warrant that level of [[Disproportionate Retribution]]! Not only that, but the Vigilantes just shrug off what they've done afterwards. The fact that they are basically [[Villain Protagonist|Villain Protagonists]] who become [[Karma Houdini|Karma Houdinis]] themselves, and the author expects readers to see them as heroes fighting injustice wherever they see them just makes it worse!

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** Caine probably crossed it when he was too apathetic to stop a bunch of coyotes from feeding on young children when all it would've taken to stop them was asking them nicely. An alternate one would be his treatment of Diana in ''Plague'', which, although not anywhere near as bad as what he'd done before, was [[Kick the Morality Pet|destroying the one thing that kept him human.]]

** Diana herself sees {{spoiler|cannibalizing Panda}} as her own MEH, but, seeing as it partially prompted her {{spoiler|[[Heel Face Turn]],}} possibly not.

* In Richard Wright's ''Native Son'', [[Villain Protagonist]] Bigger Thomas is from the beginning kind of a sleazeball, what with committing indecent exposure and [[Dude She's Like in A Coma|feeling up an unconscious girl]] {{spoiler|and accidentally smothering that girl to death while trying to keep her from waking up and crying out}}, but he truly vaults over the line when {{spoiler|he rapes and murders his [[Only Sane Man|Only Sane Woman]] girlfriend once she [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|becomes a liability]]}}. Wright's point is that the ''true'' [[Complete Monster]] here is [[The Government|the corrupt system]] that allows people faced with crippling poverty to become this bad.

* In Richard Wright's ''Native Son'', [[Villain Protagonist]] Bigger Thomas is from the beginning kind of a sleazeball, what with committing indecent exposure and [[Dude, She's Like, in A Coma|feeling up an unconscious girl]] {{spoiler|and accidentally smothering that girl to death while trying to keep her from waking up and crying out}}, but he truly vaults over the line when {{spoiler|he rapes and murders his [[Only Sane Man|Only Sane Woman]] girlfriend once she [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|becomes a liability]]}}. Wright's point is that the ''true'' [[Complete Monster]] here is [[The Government|the corrupt system]] that allows people faced with crippling poverty to become this bad.

* Invoked at several points in ''[[Literatuve/The Monk|The Monk]]'', but when Ambrosio makes his Deal with the Devil, it's obvious that according to the rules of the story, he's gone too far.

* In ''Legend'', [[Complete Monster|Commander Jamerson]] was already portrayed as someone suspicious, but it's only near the end of the first half of the story is where her true colors are revealed. Case in point, {{spoiler|She orders her men to murder Day's mother. ''While Day is watching.'' '''''[[I Lied|AFTER saying that no innocent people would be killed.]]''''' Is it any wonder that [[The Hero|June]] decides to save Day after this?}}