Moral Event Horizon/Western Animation: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|'''Abe''': Take the art if you want, just don't hurt the boy!

'''Burns''': [[Would Hurt a Child|I'd rather do both.]]|''[[The Simpsons]]'', "Curse of the Flying Hellfish"}}

**** Long before that, there was his serial murder spree (complete with victim photos) using laughing gas in one of the earlier ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Gotham Knights]]'' episodes.

** ''[[The Batman]]'' has their version of the Joker cross the line {{spoiler|when he tries to fling his newly acquired sidekick into a vat of acid in an attempt to turn him into Joker's mini-me, and admitting that since this acid's properties might be different than the one he fell into, it'll probably just kill him}}.

* In Season 4 of ''[[Winx Club]]'', Ogron, the leader of the Sorcerors of the Black Circle, recently got to this dreaded point of no return. {{spoiler|After the Sorcerers pull their [[I Surrender, Suckers]] plan on the Earth fairies, Ogron tears open a portal to a nightmarish dimension to imprison all the fairies there. Layla's boyfriend Nabu does an [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to close the dimensional gap, but loses his life in the process... and when the Winx try to use the Gift of Life to bring Nabu back, Ogron snatches it and casually casts it away, laughing all the way.}} This single act caused {{spoiler|the distraught Layla to join the Fairies of Revenge and separate herself from the Winx Club}}, and marked the point where the Sorcerors of the Black Circle sunk to a low no other Winx Club villain ever reached.

** The Trix also cross the line several times. Darcy crosses it when she attempts to murder Musa for liking the same guy (who incidentally, Darcy didn't really love but at best viewed him as a boy toy), Icy crosses it when she tries to murder Bloom's parents in a twisted [[Batman Gambit]] designed to weaken her (which works) before cruelly revealing her true origins and joining her sisters in a needless [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]] on Bloom before taking her powers, and Stormy crosses it when she tries to murder Musa's father just because Musa beat her with a raindance.

* While the Shredder has always been the closest thing ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' (2003) has to a [[Complete Monster]], his personal [[Moral Event Horizon]] comes in the episode "Mission of Gravity", when he orders his lieutenants to steal the Triceraton engine holding the city of Beijing aloft miles above the earth, despite the fact that doing so would naturally doom the millions trapped within it. It was possible to remove the engine without killing anyone, but he didn't care.

** In an example of crossing the [[Moral Event Horizon]] without becoming a [[Complete Monster]], when Leonardo saves Karai from falling her to her death, she stabs him from behind with his own katana when he would have let her go in the spaceship anyway. This is one of the things that leads him to tell her she is just as bad as the Shredder. It can be argued that every decent thing she did after that was just self-preservation.

** Doof's [[Alternate Dimension]] counterpart in ''[[Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension|the movie]]'' did this as well. It was bad enough he [[Unwilling Roboticisation|transformed his version of Perry into a cyborg soldier]], but when he took over his version of the tri-state area, he transformed it into a dystopia controlled by robots, then he really got there when he tried to feed Phineas, Ferb, Perry, Candace, and his own dimensional counterpart to a monster called a Goozim. Thankfully, the fact that he was just as quirky and ultimately redeemable as the other Doofensmirtz kept him from entering [[Complete Monster]] territory.

** The [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]] in ''Phineas And Ferb Get Busted'' broke the spirits of the two boys simply because they're being creative. Unlike Doof 2, he would've been a [[Complete Monster]]...if he had really existed.

* In the first season finale of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', Admiral Zhao crosses this when he {{spoiler|kills the moon spirit.}} It hadn't even done anything to him: he wanted to make a name for himself so that he would be remembered by history forever, but as Iroh told him, "History isn't always kind to its subjects."

** It's made worse by the fact that {{spoiler|Zhao hesitates when Iroh tells him to let the spirit go, and then he ''does'' let it go. And THEN he decides to kill it anyway!}}

** [[Evil Overlord|Fire Lord Ozai]] started at this and just kept running. After his son disrespected one of his generals in the war room, he ''burned his face'' and sent him on a [[Snipe Hunt]]. When Zuko [[Calling the Old Man Out|mouthed off]] [[Heel Face Turn|to him]] years later, he tried to kill him with lightning. Still, villains have been redeemed from worse. What truly defines him as a [[Complete Monster]] is his utter ''excitement'' at carrying out his plan in the finale, which is to {{spoiler|quell rebellion in the Earth Kingdom by ''burning the entire continent to nothing''.}}

*** He gets one of these moments earlier in the finale, too. Azula had been completely loyal to him, and even helped him think up his current plan by suggesting burning the Earth Kingdom land to end a revolt (which he {{spoiler|naturally expaned into a [[Kill'Em All]] deal.}}) He then rewards her by [[Kicked Upstairs|promoting her to Fire Lord]]... right before promoting ''himself'' to ''[[God-Emperor|Phoenix King]]'', rendering the position of Fire Lord entirely powerless. It's entirely clear that he intended this to be an as-cruel-as-possible [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]]. She gets the position she's always wanted... and is rendered completely impotent for it.

* Disney's ''The Legend of Tarzan'' has Professor Philander, rival and [[Evil Counterpart]] to Professor Porter who has the same goofiness and is generally a [[Harmless Villain]] most of the time, commit a downright irredeemable act when he cuts a rope where Tarzan's hanging on, sending him to fall to his apparent death, and then rather then letting his rival check on his son-in-law to tend to his wounds, he orders to have him thrown overborad the boat they're on into the sea. Just to spite Porter.

** Lt. Colonel Staquait crossed it by ordering Hugo and Hooft to burn a village full of mostly innocent women and children, an order the two men refused to carry out.

* Dr. Rockso, hitherto one of the most popular characters in ''[[Metalocalypse]]'', crossed this when he stole the Christmas presents Toki got for everyone, hocked them for cocaine money, then received a handjob ''on live television'' while bragging about his drug addiction, ''and'' getting [[Karma Houdini|Karma Houdinied]] because Toki experienced [[Diabolus Ex Machina]] before he could beat up Dr. Rockso.

* The ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'' series, for the last few minutes of it, {{spoiler|Eddy's brother}} crossed this when he began to mercilessly beat the shit out of {{spoiler|his little brother, Eddy}}, and freely admit he's [[Domestic Abuse|always done this to him.]]

* Some - if not all - of the many things that the Justice Lords (counterparts of the [[Justice League]]) did in ''A Better World''. Lord Green Lantern when attacking League Lantern attempted ''to stab in League Lantern's neck'' for his first move. Not trying to disarm him or to knock him out. He chose to go immediately for the kill. From the [[Word of God|DVD commentary]], the writers did that on purpose so that it showed that the Justice Lords while having [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|good intentions]], they ultimately are truly [[Fallen Hero|villains]] who deserve to be defeated.

** Nurse Claiborne trying to kill Numbuhs Three and Five in cold blood during her second appearance.

** Chester trying to feed kids to sharks in ''his'' second appearance. To say nothing of his [[Mind Rape]] of Numbuh One, or giving kids Moosebumps just so he can profit off of treating them.

* As of the second episode of the second season, [[Archer]] has {{spoiler|implanted a faulty Russian Mind Control chip into the head of Len Trexler, head of ODIN.}} Even Archer himself feels bad about it, if it has any permanent damaging side effects.

* [[Gorillaz|Murdoc]] constantly teetered on the line between [[Jerkass]] and [[Complete Monster]], but he finally crossed it when he kidnapped and imprisoned 2D. It wouldn't be quite so bad if not for all the [[Fridge Horror|horrific undertones]] of the drugging, incarceration and physical abuse. Granted, 2D was never the bravest or keenest individual, but he was always pretty harmless. Murdoc's brutality and the constant isolation have all but [[Break the Cutie|broken]] the singer, and it's around that point that Murdoc bridged the [[Moral Event Horizon]].

*** And this after letting an {{spoiler|already-broken and regretful}} Twilight think {{spoiler|[[Hope Spot|all is forgiven]].}}

** Lord Tirek crossed it in "Twilight's Kingdom" by sucking the magic out of everypony in Equestria, banishing the Alicorn princesses to Tartarus, and betraying Discord by sucking out ''his'' magic once he was sure he'd earned his complete trust. Which is after he'd made a false gesture of friendship by giving Discord a pendant that had previously belonged to Tirek's own brother Scorpan, whom he deems as worthless as the pendant and the concept of friendship itself.

* In ''[[Transformers Prime]]'', Megatron {{spoiler|almost kills Raf}} and then gloats about it. He was only attacking Bumblebee at first and may not have known {{spoiler|Raf was there}}, but when he found out what he'd really done, his reaction takes away any fragment of good left in him.

** An earlier episode has Arcee avert this. She ends up having Starscream on the ground begging for mercy after a fight and then prepares to ''murder Starscream as an act of venegence''. However when she sees that Bumblebee is seeing this she realizes her mistake and lets Starscream go.

** Eustace is a Jerkass to begin with, but he crossed it when he gathered up the villains to kill that "Stupid Dog"...in a fatal dodgeball game!

* ''Recess'': In the episode "Biggest Trouble Ever", the Recess Gang accidentally breaks the statue of Thaddeus T. Third III, the namesake of Third Street school. For this, they get in trouble not just with the school, but with the entire town, getting labeled "The Destructive Six" and made to work menial jobs by Ms. Finster as a punishment. This seems like just being made to face consequences for their careless actions, but it goes way too far when Mayor Fitzhugh and the city Council decide to send the gang to six separate schools, despite the fact that their crime was an accident and they were genuinely remorseful for having done it! This shocks everybody: even Prickley and Finster think that this punishment is crossing a line. Luckily, Thaddeus T. Third V (grandson of Thaddeus T. Third III) calls him out on this, even revealing that not only have kids been playing on the statue of his grandfather for ages, but Fitzhugh himself had ''intentionally'' tried to break the statue when he was a child! Most of antagonists in this series are jerks, but Fitzhugh's hypocrisy here was very notable.

** Dr. Slicer, the Nazi replacement principal in "Prickley's Leaving", was already cruel and heartless, but when he demanded the cannon to be functional, he showed his darkest side.

* Gideon Gleeful of ''[[Gravity Falls]]'' started out as a stalker who manipulated Mabel into being in a relationship with him, even though she likes him more as a little sister. Then he tries to cut Dipper in half with lamb shears. In-universe, Mabel decides she wants nothing to do with him after that.

** Preston Northwest was willing to let all his guests (including children and old handicaps) die at the hands of a vengeful ghost his family brought upon him just to uphold his own refined image. Not to mention mentally abusing Pacifica into becoming a jerk through Pavlov conditioning.

** When he first appeared in Season 1, Bill Cipher can be interpreted as a [[Punch Clock Villain]] who enjoys his job a bit too much. But Season 2 arrives and we see Bill for the true [[Complete Monster]] he is. {{spoiler|In his reappearance, he tricked Dipper into a deal to possess him and then proceeds to torture his body to the point of being hospitalized and nearly tricks Mabel into either handing over the journal to be burnt or fall down and ruined her puppet play. As if that weren't enough, he threatened to murder the same children unless Ford gives him the code to breaking the barrier keeping him and his creatures in Gravity Falls.}}

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