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** 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.
*** This is a plot point for how other characters treat [[Ace Pilot|Baron Soontir Fel]] in the [[X Wing Series]], who [[Defector From Decadence|left]] almost a year after the Emperor died, and who had been the Empire's most dangerous pilot in that year. Wedge Antilles [[Easily Forgiven|trusted him instantly]], and a pilot who had survived being shot down by him similarly welcomed him, but almost everyone else either was slow to warm up to him or outright refused to trust him. He killed too many Rebel pilots and didn't see what kind of [[Complete Monster|monster]] he served until far too late.
*** In ''[[Star Wars (Franchise)/Allegiance|Allegiance]]'', we see that while the viewpoint stormtroopers were just as shocked by the reports as anyone else, official Imperial policies were confused, some saying that the Death Star had been hijacked by Rebels, some saying that the entire planet had been populated by Imperial sympathizers, some saying that Tarkin had gone power-mad. Sure, the Rebellion had its own claim, but the Rebellion was a terrorist organization, and while they were starting to think that [[Empire Withwith a Dark Secret|the Empire had some deep flaw]], they didn't see any better alternative. Until their unit was sent to slaughter an entire village, and later one of them was threatened by an officer because [[Never Hurt an Innocent|he aimed to miss unarmed civilians]].
*** Alderaan's destruction is a [[Moral Event Horizon]] for the man who pulled the trigger, too. In ''[[Death Star]]'', we have Tenn Graneet, head gunner on the titular superweapon, who for most of the novel has his character built up. He always thought the Death Star would never really be used on a living planet, just on really big ships and bases and the like. When it comes to it, [[Earthshattering Kaboom|he follows orders]]. He realizes that as word gets around, even people serving with him on the Death Star treat him strangely, and knows that someday everyone will know, and everyone will loathe him as both the biggest mass murderer of his or possibly any time, and as someone who [[Just Following Orders|always, always followed orders]]. Unusually, and unlike Tarkin, who gave the order, ''he'' sees his action as a [[Moral Event Horizon]], thinking that [[Being Evil Sucks|they would be right to hate him and one day kill him]]. The guilt doesn't let him sleep, and he knows he will be commanded to do worse -- if he doesn't he'll just be killed for disobedience and they will get another gunner and ''he'' will do it -- and, when they are in range of Yavin and his hand is at the final button, he desperately stalls while telling everyone to "Stand By," hoping that something would happen to stop him. [[Foregone Conclusion|And it did]]. Poor bastard. If he ever had a chance at redeeming himself, this would be it--his successful attempt to stall the destruction of Yavin long enough to allow Luke Skywalker to blow up the Death Star would be a remarkable example of [[Redemption Equals Death]].
*** In the current series, ''[[FateoftheFate 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 entire [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Yuuzhan Vong race]] in the [[New Jedi Order]] series goes about crossing the MEH wantonly. Aside from the killing off of many major characters, some of their things involve going against their word and destroying an entire planet's ecosystem despite losing a contest for its fate, intentionally attacking/destroying civilian targets in order to burden the New Republic with billions of displaced refugees, spreading a lethal disease among civilians, breeding a toxic animal specially designed to butcher Jedi, and butcher hundreds of Jedi, many young adults and teens, sacrifice millions to their Gods, as well as horribly mutilating and exploiting anyone who joins up with them.
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* [[Complete Monster|High Lord Kalarus]] of the ''[[Codex Alera]]'' charges straight across this and never looks back. He spends most of his first appearance [[Kick the Dog|finding inventive ways to be a sexist pig and belittle slaves]], and his second involves attempting to kill a couple of 17-year-olds because his [[Smug Snake]] son tried to kill them and failed, and he doesn't want to look bad because of it. But we only really get an idea of how disgusting the man is in the book after that, when we learn {{spoiler|what he did and is doing to [[The Woobie|Rook]]}}. If the fact that he was {{spoiler|[[I Have Your Wife|holding her 5-year-old daughter hostage]]}} isn't enough to make you hate him, the fact that he later {{spoiler|keeps Lady Placida under control by setting gargoyles to kill the aforementioned 5-year-old if she tries anything}} should definitely do it. He also had his Legions ''target orphanages'' when he attacked another city, just to draw the defenders out.
** Oh, and that {{spoiler|five year old girl? His illegitimate granddaughter.}}
* In ''[[The Dresden Files (Literature)|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''.
*** His wife Tessa has also crossed the line both before the first appearance and after she
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* In ''[[Rainbow Six]]'', one member of a group of Basque separatists seeking to spring prisoners from jail coldly murders a [[Littlest Cancer Patient]] on live TV. No one really objects, though Ding does give a perfunctory dressing-down, when one of the team's snipers puts a round through the killer's liver so that he bleeds painfully to death rather than taking a [[Instant Death Bullet]] [[Boom! Headshot!]].
** The main villains also definitely count for {{spoiler|trying to kill almost everyone on the planet by means of a modified Ebola virus in order to preserve the environment. Makes it eminently satisfying when Clark organizes a [[Karmic Death]] for them.}}
* ''[[Comrade Death (Literature)|Comrade Death]]'': Hector Sarek starts as merely an [[Punch Clock Villain|unscrupulous businessman]] in an [[Arms Dealer|immoral industry]]. {{spoiler|Until he [[Murder the Hypotenuse|Murders the Hypotenuse]] and lies about his role to the widow. He then attempts to convince her to marry him, if not for love then for his money. After she rejects him, Sarek tells her the truth of her husband’s death and fully embraces the concept of "death merchant".}}
* ''[[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.]]
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* [[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 Withwith 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?
* {{spoiler|Ivo Corbière}} from the ''[[Brother Cadfael (Literature)|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.}}
** This is how Beringar regards {{spoiler|Renaud Borchier, alias Cuthred's betrayal of his liege in her darkest hour}} in ''The Hermit of Eyton Forest''.
* In ''[[Remote Man (Literature)|Remote Man]]'', if you don't think Frank Laana has crossed the line with his wildlife smuggling operations, you will when he beats the crap out of the teenage protagonist in a parking lot. While Ned has been investigating his activities for some time, the most Laana has to go on is that he looks like some kid he talked to for two minutes in an art gallery in the Northern Territory, and that for some reason he was sitting in the Concord Prison reception area. Aside from that, we are told of a particularly brutal smuggling job in which he had drugged a large number of birds to transport in a small suitcase. The drugs wore off too early, and the results were not pretty. It's this story that ultimately keeps Ned from giving up his plan.
* In ''Robots and Empire'', Kelden Amadiro and Levular Mandamus are already skirting pretty close when they {{spoiler|plot the acceleration of the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium in the Earth's crust over a 150-year period}}, but then, at the moment when the plot is ready to be executed, Amadiro insists on literally turning the [[Up to 11|dial to twelve]], which would {{spoiler|kill hundreds of millions, if not billions, within 20 years.}} Mandamus is suitably horrified by Amadiro's attempt to fulfill his quest for revenge by {{spoiler|attempting to commit genocide}}.
* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire (Literature)|A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', Tywin Lannister crosses this before we even properly meet him. We hear in the backstory how he order the sacking of King's Landing which killed hundreds, but it gets worse when Tyrion tells the story of {{spoiler|his first wife. He secretly married whom he thought was a crofter's daughter whom he and his brother Jaime had rescued from being raped. When Tywin found out he told his son that she was a whore hired by Jaime to give Tyrion his first lay. To prove it, he had her gang-raped by an entire barracks full of Lannister guardsmen, even paying her a silver piece for each one, and then forced Tyrion to go last}}. It's made even worse when we later find out {{spoiler|it was a lie. She really was a crofter's daughter who fell in love with Tyrion}}.
** Don't forget the [[Ur Example]] of Literature's [[The Caligula|Caligula]]: Joffrey Baratheon{{spoiler|-Lannister}}, who decided to {{spoiler|execute Ned Stark, the [[Decoy Protagonist]] of [[GameA Song of ThronesIce and (Literature)Fire|Game of Thrones]] and viewpoint character, despite promising his girlfriend and Ned's daughter, Sansa, that he would be merciful and allow Ned to join the Night's Watch}}.
*** It could also be argued that Joffrey's MEH came much earlier, when his lie caused the deaths of {{spoiler|Sansa's dire wolf Lady and Arya's friend Mycah}}.
** Gregor Clegane's MEH came before the start of the series, when he {{spoiler|murdered a baby by dashing its head on a wall, then raped the mother with the boy's brains still on his hands.}}
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*** For many characters in-universe, Jaime crossed this line before the series even started, when he {{spoiler|killed the very king he had sworn to protect. Since said king was mentally unstable and Jaime killed him to stop him from slaughtering an ''entire city'' of innocents (or as innocent as anyone gets in this series, anyway)}}.
* The Libertines in ''120 Days Of Sodom'' are perhaps the most sadistic characters in classical literature. They kidnap several people, including their own daughters, and subject them to 120 days of violent, nightmarish psychological, physical, and sexual torture just [[For the Evulz]]. They go as far as to {{spoiler|disembowel pregnant women and maim their own daughters violently}}, and [[Moral Dissonance|the author treats the characters as heroes with minor quirks!]]
** The author in question is none other than the [[Marquis Dede Sade]], whose very name gave us the very word "sadism." And there's quite a bit more where that came from -- in the Sade novel ''Philosophy in the Bedroom'', Eugenie crosses the Horizon with the horrors that she, Dolmance and the other libertines visit upon her own mother, Madame De Mistival, who came to try to rescue her from her corruption, up to and including {{spoiler|having her raped by a man with syphillis and then ''sewing her genitals shut'' so that the polluted seed will be kept inside, which will most likely lead to her death}}.
* Invoked in-universe in the [[Coldfire Trilogy]]. In his backstory, [[Villain Protagonist]] [[Evil Sorcerer|Gerald Tarrant]] wanted to make a [[Deal Withwith the Devil]] for immortality, but the entity he was bargaining with demanded he commit the worst act he could imagine in order to "sacrifice his humanity"- which he did by cold-bloodedly murdering his wife and children ''whom he genuinely loved''. {{spoiler|In the end, he drags himself back across by sacrificing his previous identity both physically and spiritually, effectively turning himself into a new person}}.
* Alongside being killed and failing to save their planet, crossing this is one of the [[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]] greatest fears.
{{quote| Jake: "He's right. We have to win."<br />
Rachel: (Narrating) "I know how the others think of me. I know that I sometimes... get too involved in the killing. But even I know that the words 'we have to win' are the first four steps down the road to hell." }}
* Whether or not you think [[Chronicles of Thomas Covenant|Thomas Covenant]] crosses this in the first book of the Chronicles when he rapes Lena is down to personal opinion. If you do see it as the MEH, you'll probably stop reading there.
* 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 [[It's All About Me|he isn't even guilty]], [[Dirty Coward|just worried that he'll be caught]].
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* ''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!
* In ''[[The Tomorrow Series]] ,'' {{spoiler|Major Harvey}} looks like nothing but a [[Jerkass]] at first...but rapidly speeds past the [[Moral Event Horizon]] when it's revealed that so far from being a member of [[La Résistance]], he's [[Les Collaborateurs|an enemy collaborator,]] before advancing to full [[The Quisling|Quislinghood]]. {{spoiler|He takes the lead in interrogating Ellie and her friends, doesn't protest at all when they're condemned to death, and it's no fault of his that they escaped.}} Nobody who reads the books feels sorry for [[Taking You Withwith Me|his eventual fate.]]
* Drake from ''[[Gone]]'' probably crossed it offscreen before we saw him, but when he happily goes off to kill an autistic four-year-old, and we get into his head and see how delighted he is with the prospect, there is no going back. {{spoiler|Fortunately, he is unsuccessful.}}
** 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 Aa 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?}}
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