Moral Event Horizon/Literature: Difference between revisions

* [[Alpha Bitch|Chris Hargensen]] attained this status in [[Stephen King]]'s first novel, ''[[Carrie]].'' It's made clear in dialogue and descriptions that she is a cruel, manipulative, sadistic creature (one of her earlier exploits involved putting a firecracker in another girl's shoe, nearly causing the girl to lose some toes) who has never really faced consequences {{spoiler|prior to being excluded from the prom}} because of her father's status and willingness to use it. [[Mugging the Monster|She sets off the destruction of the whole town]] with the [[Prank Date]] she arranges, and [[Karmic Death|nobody is sorry when she finally gets it.]]

** Her boyfriend, Billy Nolan, takes part in the lethal prank too. And we shall not even ''get into'' Margaret White's treatment of her daughter...

** Dumbledore invokes this trope himself in relation to Voldemort, describing the {{spoiler|creation of a Horcrux}} as "moving beyond the realm of what we might describe as 'usual evil.'" Considering the implications of {{spoiler|tearing one's soul apart}}, this is probably justified.

** Also crossed when Bellatrix, Barty Jr., and two other Death Eaters subject Alice and Frank Longbottom (Neville's parents) to a [[Fate Worse Than Death]] - prolonged torture by Cruciatus curse until they became insane, unrecognizable vegetables. It's even worse that they did it after Voldemort was gone.

* Jefferson Pinkard remains a sympathetic character for amazingly long in [[Harry Turtledove]]'s ''[[Timeline-191]]'' series, despite being a member of the Nazi-equivalent Freedom Party, as we've known him since long before he joined and understand exactly why he's bitter enough to do it. At most, the reader is probably hoping for a while after he joins that he'll realize the path he's on before it's too late. However, when he comes up with a way to mass murder black people using truck fumes, the line is finally crossed definitively.

** In my opinion, he'd crossed the line before that, given the way he treats his wife earlier in the series. You could say his actions are somewhat justified, as he walked in on her cheating on him, but he hadn't stayed true to her either, which blows his reaction waaay out of proportion. I personally wasn't at all shocked at his masterminding the Freedom Party death camp policies by that point.

* [[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.}}

*** In the current series, ''[[Fate of the Jedi]]'', Daala initially seems fairly reasonable -wrong, but reasonable- about the Jedi and their role in the Galactic Alliance, especially considering the actions of Jacen Solo. She even shuts down her "Jedi Court" when the parents of one of the Jedi that went berserk revealed that it's head judge was using the imprisoned jedi as wall art. Then, in Allies, she attempts to force the Jedi to bend to her will and surrender all Jedi that have snapped (despite the Jedi Temple being far better equipped to hold a mad force user.) by laying siege to the Temple with a Mandalorian Battle Fleet, with orders to "do what is necessary." The Jedi respond by sending out the Grand Master's personal assistant, a young apprentice (on the grounds that nobody could possibly misconstrue it as an attack, but she has the standing in the order to show good faith), wearing no armor, carrying no weapon, intending only to negotiate. The Mandalorian Commander, after ascertaining that she is neither of the Jedi he was sent to "arrest", calmly informs her that "My orders make no provision for negotiation." and pulls out his sidearm and shoots her down without warning. He then proceeds to announce that if the mad Jedi are not turned over promptly, he will order his fleet to vaporize the entire temple, and that anyone who tries to leave will be slaughtered without warning. Daala's response, on seeing the LIVE BROADCAST TO THE ENTIRE GALAXY, in which troops operating under her direct orders shot a teenaged girl down in cold blood and then threatened to massacre thousands of people? "Good. Now they should take me seriously." These words make her administration look like a terrorist organization.

**** That is a good example of why Daala is an evil ruler, but she crossed the Event Horizon ''long'' before that. She had standing orders from Tarkin himself to watch over a secret weapons facility situated in a black hole cluster, so when he died on the Death Star these orders were never replaced. So decades went by with she and her group of scientists completely unaware of outside events, such as the fall of the Empire, until Han Solo and some others stumble upon the facility. After realizing that her orders no longer matter, she takes her few Star Destroyers and sets about attacking civilian outposts and peaceful planets throughout the galaxy as a show of rebellion against the New Republic. Her targets? One is a completely unarmed and helpless outpost on Dantooine, simply because they had ties to the New Republic, and they are killed to the last citizen. Later on, she sees a Jedi of a particular species (ironically, the ''only'' member of that species that is even connected to the New Republic), decides that the entire planet is in bed with the Republic, and razes some of its major cities to the ground, killing countless civilians. She represents the worst that Imperials had to offer: completely amoral with a preference for killing civilians to make a point.

** [[The Thrawn Trilogy|Joruus C'baoth]] cements his status as an [[Ax Crazy]] [[Complete Monster|monster]] when he [[Mind Rape|Mind Rapes]] General Covell into a mindless extension of his own will, and reveals his plan to do the same to the rest of the Empire.

* In [[Michael Crichton]]'s (may God rest his soul) second-to-last novel ''Pirate Latitudes'', the Governor's new secretary, Robert Hacklett, {{spoiler|first takes over the island and throws Captain Hunter in prison after his return, but crosses the Horizon when he allows his wife to be raped, right in front of him.}} At least he gets his due when {{spoiler|said wife shoots him in the groin with a flintlock pistol.}}

*** Arrested, tortured and ''executed'' by torture or by burning at the stake. Almost three thousand people died in various horrible ways... some of them as young as 14 (Worse, Safehold years are shorter than Earth-standard; chronologically, some of those kids were only 12). Oh, and he shows "mercy" by not executing the babies and toddlers--he just has them sent to extremely strict monasteries.

**** So heinous is this particular Moral Event Horizon that the long-awaited declaration of Holy War against Charis is rendered an ''afterthought'' by comparison.

* In ''[[The Dresden Files]]'', Nicodemus Archleone comes off as [[Affably Evil]] and even portrays himself a [[Noble Demon]]...except {{spoiler|he gleefully tortured Shiro to death for the sole purpose of gaining more power.}} At this point, while he's still ''very'' affable and polite and erudite, there's no doubt that he is ''not'' sympathetic at all.

** A later book in the series reveals that he actually crossed the MEH ''centuries'' ago. By unleashing something terrible on the world. Even if you haven't read the books, you've probably heard of it. It's called the ''Black Plague''.

* 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.

* ''[[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?

* {{spoiler|Ivo Corbière}} from the ''[[Brother Cadfael]]'' novel ''Saint Peter's Fair'' has already stooped to murder to get his hands on {{spoiler|a list of Empress Maude's partisans to give to King Stephen, so that he, Corbière, can win an earldom at least}}. {{spoiler|Emma has it, and Corbière}} crosses the Horizon when he {{spoiler|threatens to rape her to get it--and enjoy doing so}}. The readers cheer when {{spoiler|Emma, in resisting him, knocks the brazier over and he burns to death.}}