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Moral Event Horizon: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
#REDIRECT [[:Category:Moral Event Horizon]]▼
[[File:BlackholeDiagramSilly Laugh2 8331.png|frame|Once he crosses that red line, there's no turning back.]]
{{quote|''"Tarkin, if ever there was a shred of humanity in you or these twisted creatures of yours, it's dead now. ''[[Omnicidal Maniac|You're at war with life itself]]''. You are enemies of the universe...your Empire is doomed."''|'''Princess Leia Organa''', from the ''[[Star Wars]]'' radio drama, after Grand Moff Tarkin [[Earthshattering Kaboom|wipes out her home planet]].}}
[[Category:Trope]]▼
Named for the boundary around a black hole from which there is no escape once crossed, this trope uses the black hole as a metaphor for evil; the '''Moral Event Horizon''' refers to the first evil deed to prove a particular character to be irredeemably evil.
Note the word ''irredeemably''. It is a demonstration of ''permanent'' evil; as in, the first evil deed whose role in the story is to tell us they will always be evil.
While they may not have had a term such as this to define it, many authors clearly recognized it. [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Stranger in A Strange Land]]'' referred to it as being the result of an act that was "so bad, so black" that it was basically unforgivable. Hank Rearden in [[Ayn Rand]]'s ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'' said that "to convict a human being of that practice was a verdict of irrevocable damnation... a verdict of total evil" and that "he would not believe it of anyone, so long as the possibility of a doubt remained." Meanwhile, Multiple religions have the concept of "perdition", where those who have committed a truly unpardonable sin are irrevocably doomed to damnation.
Obviously, it follows from the definition that a character can't cross this boundary more than once. Crossing it implies going from redeemable to irredeemable, and that's it; the other way around contradicts the definition. Note that this does not mean their morality is always decreasing after crossing this; a character can cross this, then become much more horrible than they were when they crossed it, then become just a little better than they were after that, but they will never, ever commit an act that redeems them entirely.
Sometimes all that stands between man and monster is a [[Single Tear]]... or even a [[Tears of Remorse|full-out weep]]. Perhaps a show of respect for the enemy. A [[Heel Realisation]] that you've gone too far is possible just as you're teetering on the edge of becoming a monstrosity - you've committed the act but you ''regret it''. Characters who regret the act that would otherwise make them cross the line effectively become [[The Atoner]]. Just as with a real black hole, the closer you come to a '''Moral Event Horizon''', the harder you must try to escape.
Can lead to a [[Complete Monster]], but crossing the '''Moral Event Horizon''' does ''not'' automatically imply a [[Complete Monster]]. The character can just be a bad person; the Moral Event Horizon is a black mark in their history that cannot be forgiven.
A character whom performs an act that should make them irredeemable but somehow gets away with it is a [[Karma Houdini]].
{{noreallife|Calling [[Real Life]] people evil is an extremely bad idea.}}
== Compare with ==
* [[Slowly Slipping Into Evil]]: The approach to the Moral Event Horizon.
* [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope]]: A character skips over [[Slowly Slipping Into Evil|several progressively darker shades of gray]] and goes straight to the Moral Event Horizon.
* [[This Is Unforgivable!]]: An in-universe acknowledgment that the Moral Event Horizon has been crossed.
== Contrast with ==
* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?]]
* [[Easily Forgiven]]: Sometimes, acts that really should be unforgivable are shrugged off in-universe.
* [[Adopt the Dog]] / [[Pet the Dog]]: An action by a morally neutral or ambiguous character that is meant to elicit audience sympathy for the character.
* [[Poke the Poodle]]: A half-assed attempt at villainy.
* [[Like a God to Me]]: Nearly the opposite of this trope. A character has done something so ''awesome'' that other characters fall over themselves to praise her/him.
{{examples on subpages}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Spoilered Rotten]]
[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]
[[Category:Evil Tropes]]
[[Category:Obviously Evil]]
[[Category:Morality Tropes]]
[[Category:Tear Jerker]]
▲[[Category:YMMV Trope]]
[[Category:Villains]]
[[Category:Depressing Tropes]]
[[Category:Character Derailment Tropes]]
[[Category:Corruption Tropes]]
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