Morality Chain: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|''"God only knows what I'd be without you."''

 

The [[Morality Chain]] is a character who is the reason another character is Good. Stereotypically a female love interest or a [[Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas|mother]]; as long as this person is alive; her [[Love Redeems|target of affection]] will at the very least be a [[Noble Demon]].

 

 

The Morality Chain is basically the ''only'' thing preventing someone from happily killing their "[[Token Evil Teammate|friends]]" and [[Cain and Abel|family.]] One wonders whether such a form of "goodness" has much value in it (aside from, well, ''keeping them from killing their [[True Companions|friends]] and [[Thicker Than Water|family]]'').

Sometimes this is inverted however, when the death of the Morality Chain actually motivates the target of affection to become more determined to be good. [[Due to the Dead|To honor her memory]], [[Forgotten Fallen Friend|or something.]] Usually in these cases the cause of death is either natural, or because of a villain (especially if it's a buddy of theirs that the Morality Chain had disapproved of). Now, if the cause of death is ''their loved one'', either through an accident or because they [[Kick the Morality Pet|Kicked The Morality Pet]], then they may very well either [[Heroic BSOD|go comatose]] or just plain crazy.

 

 

{{examples}}

*** {{spoiler|Lelouch wasn't completely out of it until the Black Knights' sudden betrayal pushed him entirely past the [[Despair Event Horizon]]. And the "drag his father to Hell" bit was just a bit of a fancy [[Taking You with Me]] proclamation.}}

* In ''[[Fate/stay night|Fate Stay Night]]'', Ilya is evidently this to Berserker. Note, he's still a massive lump of destructive impulse given terrifying form, he's just better tempered when she's around.

* Nana from ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' has her father. She's the only diclonius with a loving parent, and the only one who hasn't gone on a massive killing spree.

** And Kouta is this for Lucy.

* In ''[[Hell Teacher Nube]]'', the students of class 5-3 become [[Noble Demon|Minki]]'s Morality Chain altogether unwittingly—she believes she's still a nasty evil [[Obake|Oni]] who [[Chaotic Evil|doesn't disregard human life as much as enjoy extinguishing it]]... until she sees Hiroshi, Kyoko, and Miki in danger, leading her to [[Taking the Bullet|shielding them with her own body]]. Similarly, her big brother, Baki, gleefully shifts from [[Laughably Evil]] to [[Neutral Evil]] [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny|depending on his whims]], but will go ''[[Berserk Button|insane with fury]]'' if [[Knight Templar Big Brother|anyone hurts his beloved sister]]. Therefore, when she [[Heel Face Turn|decides to fight him to protect her friends]], and he sees [[Papa Wolf|Nube]] give HIS life to protect Minki, Baki immediately [[Heel Face Turn|allies himself with Nube]] on the condition that he should never hurt Minki.

* In ''[[Deadman Wonderland]]'', apparently, the only thing really holding Genkaku (while he was a child) back from going completely [[Ax Crazy]] was his little kitty. So much for that.

** It's only implied but, there's the general vibe that if Ganta died, very bad things would start happening in Shiro's vicinity.

* [[Emotionless Girl|Yin]] in ''[[Darker than Black]]'' is the [[Anti-Hero]] Hei's [[Morality Pet]] in the main series, but could definitely qualify for this, since he's fairly upbeat at the end of the first season and in the interquel {{spoiler|even though he's lost his other teammates}}. It's when he loses her {{spoiler|to a forced [[Face Heel Turn]]}} that he [[Took a Level in Jerkass]] for the second season.

** Let's not forget that the Lovelace family is this to Roberta. Her [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] in ''El Baile de la Muerte'' started when {{spoiler|Garcia's father, the leader of the Lovelaces, was killed.}}

* It's kind of scary to think of given how unbalanced the cast is already, but several episodes of ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei|Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei]]'' indicate that Itoshiki-sensei fills this role for his class. Without him, their loneliness and mental instability would drive them completely over the edge.

* ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'' has {{spoiler|Hideyoshi Ushiromiya}} fulfilling this role for {{spoiler|his wife Eva}}. Whenever {{spoiler|he}} kicks the bucket (which happens in ''every'' arc), {{spoiler|she}} ''snaps''.

** Also, {{spoiler|Sakutaro is this for Maria. When Rosa rips him apart during a fight, Maria's diary entries [[Cute and Psycho|start to become darker]], [[Calling the Old Man Out|and]] [[Self-Made Orphan|later...]].}}

** Likewise Shiori for Kurama.

* In ''[[One Piece]]'', in some ways, Fisher Tiger was this to {{spoiler|Arlong and some of the other crew.}}

* ''[[Hellsing]]'': Integra to Alucard, being the person he acknowledged to serve.

* ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]'': To some extent, the title character to Ryoko. She's still a [[Jerkass]], but nowhere near as bad as she could be if she didn't have her affections for Tenchi.

 

== Comic Books ==

** In ''[[Castlevania]]'' likewise, {{spoiler|Soma Cruz will [[Multiple Endings|immediately turn evil]] should something happen to his love interest.}}

* Arguably, ''[[Dexter]]'''s foster father, Harry, who at least managed to train Dexter to select his targets according to certain standards of morality and justice.

** Witches as a "community" keep an eye on each other for this very reason. Any group of witches larger than [[The Hecate Sisters|three]] has a tendency to fall apart from bickering, but there's still a silent understanding that some level of contact helps them avoid "going to the bad".

* Subverted and played straight with {{spoiler|Snape}} in ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]:'' though his love for {{spoiler|Lily}} was not enough to keep him from joining the Death Eaters, Voldemort threatening her life switched him to good, and her death (and his responsibility for it) was the main reason he {{spoiler|dedicated his life to protecting Harry}}, even though the two loathed each other.

** Also subverted with Aragog and Hagrid. Aragog's loyalty and devotion to Hagrid were strong enough to suppress Aragog's natural instinct as a dangerous magical creature to eat humans. This only went so far; Aragog didn't try to deny his family the opportunity to eat Harry and Ron when they visited him in the Forbidden Forest, though he would prevent them from trying the same with Hagrid. Of course, whether or not a sapient monster (whose instincts drive it to eat people) actually eating people could be considered "evil" is a tricky matter.

* In ''[[The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor]]'', Philip's daughter Penny is the only thing that keeps him from snapping during the [[Zombie Apocalypse]].

 

* In the ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' episode "Dirty Half Dozen," Xena says that Gabrielle is something of a morality chain.

** Confirmed in seasons 5 and 6, ''Gabrielle'' throws away her staff, ''Xena'' and her minions commit genocide versus gods, centaurs, Amazons, Japanese etc.

* In ''[[I, Claudius]]'', Drusus Germanicus to Tiberius.

** In the book, it's Cocceius Nerva to Tiberius.

* Davis Bloome from ''[[Smallville]]'' transforms into killing machine Doomsday with enough agitation; however, Chloe Sullivan seems to calm him enough to stop the transformations. When he finds out Chloe truly loves Jimmy Olsen instead of him, though, Davis (the human) goes apeshit and murderous.

* Ianto Jones from ''[[Torchwood]]'' fills this role for Captain Jack Harkness. [[Word of God]] has it that if {{spoiler|he hadn't died}}, Jack would not have been able to {{spoiler|kill his grandson}} later on.

 

== New Media ==

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* Whenever something bad happens to Millennia in [[Half Minute Hero]] Beautiful Evil Lord goes absolutely berserk.

* Grand Cleric Elthina of ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' is a morality chain to {{spoiler|Sebastian. Once she's killed, Sebastian swears to raze the ''whole city'' in vengeance if Hawke chooses not to kill Anders, her murderer.}}

 

== Web Comics ==

 

== Real Life ==

** He got the name much earlier. (the original meaning of "Terrible", "Inspiring Terror", because of his [[Badass]]ery.

* According to [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]], his first wife was his Morality Chain. She died in 1907.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Morality Tropes]]

[[Category:Always Female]]