History Main / MoralLuck

* In ''Series/TheGoodPlace'', the point system that determines whether you're sent to [[{{Heaven}} The Good Place]] or [[{{Hell}} The Bad Place]] explicitly runs on a lopsided morality where luck can screw you over but can't help you. To wit, you gain points for actions that increase the total amount of happiness in the world, and lose points for actions that decrease the world's total happiness. If you try to do a good deed, but that deed has negative consequences you couldn't have foreseen,[[note]]In the example given, a man in the modern day buys flowers for his mother, but the flower company is a soulless megacorporation that pollutes the Earth and exploits third-world workers, and the CEO is a sexist asshole.[[/note]] then it counts as a bad deed in spite of your intention and lowers your score. But it doesn't work the other way: you only gain points for ''selfless'' actions, so you can't earn any points from an attempted bad deed that unexpectedly has a positive impact on the world. The characters acknowledge that this is an unreasonably harsh standard, [[spoiler:as in, no one has gotten into The Good Place in over 500 years. The protagonists spend the show's last season-and-a-half trying to convince the powers-that-be to overhaul the entire judgement system into something that doesn't involve moral luck]].

** Litchi's quest to her friend Arakune from his [[AndIMustScream condition]] involved risky gambles and doing questionable things: She tried to corrupt herself with the thing Arakune got corrupted with in order to understand his condition. Then (when her former colleague refused to help her), she accepted "help" from a main villain and went to his side, and tried to help the main villain's colleague with his plan to reset the universe, just so there might be a chance of helping her friend. She's repeatedly called out by Rachel and Kokonoe, who are part of the good guys, for this. How does it end up? [[spoiler:It's revealed to her that her friend had chosen to stay like that and asked not to be saved, and instead tells Litchi to go and help other people she cared about and live normal. It's AllForNothing. In the end, she stops and chooses to live happily in a normal world with other characters, but -- being a sympathetic character she's meant to be -- her foolish decisions never came back to haunt her beyond her goal's failure (it helps that the world "resets" for the last time before the end, thanks to the hero's actions), though in the eyes of the fandom, [[BaseBreakingCharacter it's another story]]]]. In short, she's outta luck, but she's still lucky to be happy in the end.

** One episode revolves around the main characters being investigated for the death of a patient who died while under their care. They spent the entire time ignoring him completely in favor of flirting with other patients, buying lottery tickets, [[ItMakesSenseInContext and fighting emus]]. The investigation is looking bad for them, until it's revealed that the radiologist messed up the original report, making the case impossible to solve anyway, and getting the death pinned on the radiologist. In an inversion, Dr. Cox points out that the man is still dead, and it was pure luck that it wasn't their fault. The gang takes this lesson to heart and remembers the lesson afterward.

-->-- ''Film/TheNakedGun 2½''

-->-- ''Film/TheNakedGunTwoAndAHalf''

* In ''VideoGAme/RimWorld'', the player colony's relation with another faction will worsen if they send you a trade caravan and anyone on it ends up dying. This is meant to be a consequence if the player chooses to attack and rob the caravan, but it will still take effect if they die for reasons completely out of the player's control, like an animal attack or a meteorite.

* This is discussed in an ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' story where Mr. Lodge is being accused of taking bribes. Archie is called to the stand and tells how he saw Mr. Lodge accept a "gift", which the prosecution cites as being proof he is taking bribes. Everyone, even Archie's ''friends'', boo and heckle him for this as it's well known Lodge is innocent and is facing a FrivolousLawsuit, which Archie just inadvertently made worse. Then when proof this gift genuinely ''was'' a gift from a third party is revealed and Archie's testimony has now made Mr. Lodge's case stronger, everyone immediately forgives Archie. After the case is settled and Lodge is found innocent, he chastises everyone and stands up for Archie (a rare moment for ''Mr. Lodge'') -- he points out how Archie did the right thing by telling the truth while under oath, no matter how the case had gone, and that it was wrong for everyone to decide whether or not Archie did the right thing based on how things worked out in the end.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'': Invoked and exploited. Simba believes that the roar he made in the canyon was what started the stampede that killed his father. Even though he didn't know the herd was even there (which the audience knows is moot anyway since Scar orchestrated the stampede), Scar uses it to make Simba think he's just as guilty as if he had intentionally committed murder.

* A major event in [[Franchise/SpiderMan Spider-Man's]] character is [[MyGreatestFailure enormous regret]] at not stopping a thief who later [[DeathByOriginStory killed his Uncle Ben]]. Though certainly guilty of apathy and selfishness, Peter Parker had no way of knowing the man would committing a murder, let alone that his victim would be someone Peter knew, but he insists on treating this act as just shy of pulling the trigger himself, and has spent his life since trying to [[TheAtoner make up for this one lapse in judgement]]. This goes on to be the entire driving reason for Spider Man being a hero, and why he is the TropeCodifier for WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility, why he utterly refuses to not do the right thing [[BeingGoodSucks even when it hurts his livelihood or himself]], why he uses his powers for the greater good rather than for profit, and why it's such a big deal when [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness the Symbiote suit gets on him]].

When the writer does it, this trope can easily transform a hero into a DesignatedHero or even a villain once FridgeLogic or FridgeHorror set in (or, conversely, transform a villain into an AntiVillain). It is often closely related to ProtagonistCenteredMorality when the protagonist is forcefully presented as being in the right. Even among sympathetic characters in a work, a DoubleStandard may form: the resident ButtMonkey's actions will always result in failure and they will be blamed for it, while the KarmaHoudini protagonist's actions will always succeed and they will receive praise. TheExtremistWasRight is when a WellIntentionedExtremist has his/her Moral Luck high and working; they did extreme things, but they end up helping/succeeding, and they receive praise for it.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In "A Canterlot Wedding", Twilight's suspicion of Cadance having turned evil lead her to making outrageous accusations with no evidence, which are dismissed and treated as wrong by everyone, [[JerkassRealization even Twilight afterwards]], until it's revealed Cadance had been replaced by an evil shapeshifter. Suddenly, everyone is treated as wrong for dismissing Twilight and Twilight as right for trusting her instincts despite it being for reasons [[OutsideContextProblem completely unforeseeable]] and [[RightForTheWrongReasons different than what Twilight suspected and accused of]], and that Twilight was still guilty of the above rash actions that caused them to dismiss her in the first place.

* [[Franchise/SpiderMan Spider-Man]] has been beating himself up for the inverse of this for years. Though certainly guilty of apathy and selfishness, Peter Parker had no way of knowing that the burglar he didn't stop would end up committing a murder, let alone that his victim would be Peter's own uncle [[DeathByOriginStory Uncle Ben]], but he insists on treating this act as just shy of pulling the trigger himself, and has spent his life since trying to [[TheAtoner make up for this one lapse in judgement]]. This goes on to be the entire driving reason for Spider Man being a hero, and why he is the TropeCodifier for WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility, why he utterly refuses to not do the right thing [[BeingGoodSucks even when it hurts his livelihood or himself]], why he uses his powers for the greater good rather than for profit, and why it's such a big deal when [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness the Symbiote suit gets on him]].

* ''Film/ThePassenger'': Creator/JackNicholson's character decides he wants to leave his old life behind, and takes on the identity of an acquaintance who has just died. As it turns out, the acquaintance was an arms dealer running guns to rebel forces in north Africa, so that's what he starts doing. The overall point of the film seems to be a nihilistic one: it doesn't really matter what one does in life, and one shouldn't be bound by social roles or expectations. However, it's clear that the audience is supposed to sympathize with the rebels whom Nicholson's character is supporting. So while he appears not to care about the social consequences of his actions, he is still doing something good -- or at least something not evil. It would be harder to see this character as heroic if he were running guns to neo-Nazis or the Taliban -- even though he could just as easily have found himself doing just that!

* [[https://notalwaysright.com/he-threw-away-his-shot-and-his-job/132483/ This armed police officer]] on ''Website/NotAlwaysLegal'' was faced with an apparent suicide bomber, who suddenly started claiming he was only an actor and this was only a drill. [[SadisticChoice If the policeman held fire and the attack was real, it would endanger hundreds of lives; if he opened fire and the bomber really was only an actor, he'd be responsible for killing a civilian]]. The officer held his fire, and was reprimanded and terminated for doing so. [[spoiler:The actor's story was eventually verified: he'd been hired by a private security firm to test ''their'' guards at the same site, [[PoorCommunicationKills without informing or being informed of the police]]. [[TooDumbToLlive That company lost their contract]], but the policeman was still out a job.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'':

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The existence of criminal charges like attempted murder and attempted rape [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zags this trope]]. On the one hand, they allow for punishing people who intended to carry out serious crimes but, due to a stroke of luck, didn't succeed. Someone who tries but fails to commit a crime like murder is every bit as dangerous and morally culpable as someone who succeeds at it; however, you can't charge them with murder since no one was actually killed, so the legal system needs a separate charge in order to avert this trope. On the other hand, attempted charges typically carry less severe punishment than successful crimes, playing this trope straight. However, if the charges [[AllCrimesAreEqual carried the same sentence]], that might inspire perpetrators to go through with murdering the victim, so the logic is that a lesser punishment should be levied rather than this. A possible solution would be making a legal distinction between a murder attempt that failed because the shot missed, and one that failed because the would-be killer couldn't go through with it. While this isn't written into the law, that could be taken into account at sentencing. A particular sticky issue is whether a person can be legally punished (and/or is morally culpable) for attempting a crime that turns out to be impossible. In the most commonly used example (which actually has happened) a person shoots another, but they turn out to be dead already. Deciding whether they can be charged or convicted of attempted murder for this can be quite the legal wrangle.
[[/folder]]

* The existence of criminal charges like attempted murder and attempted rape [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-Zags this trope]]. On the one hand, they allow for punishing people who intended to carry out serious crimes but, due to a stroke of luck, didn't succeed. Someone who tries but fails to commit a crime like murder is every bit as dangerous and morally culpable as someone who succeeds at it; however, you can't charge them with murder since no one was actually killed, so the legal system needs a separate charge in order to avert this trope. On the other hand, attempted charges typically carry less severe punishment than successful crimes, playing this trope straight. However, if the charges [[AllCrimesAreEqual carried the same sentence]], that might inspire perpetrators to go through with murdering the victim, so the logic is that a lesser punishment should be levied rather than this. A possible solution would be making a legal distinction between a murder attempt that failed because the shot missed, and one that failed because the would-be killer couldn't go through with it. While this isn't written into the law, that could be taken into account at sentencing. A particular sticky issue is whether a person can be legally punished (and/or is morally culpable) for attempting a crime that turns out to be impossible. In the most commonly used example (which actually has happened) a person shoots another, but they turn out to be dead already. Deciding whether they can be charged or convicted of attempted murder for this can be quite the legal wrangle.

->'''Commissioner Anabell Brumford''': I'd like now to introduce a most distinguished American. This week, he is being honored for his one-thousandth drug-dealer killed. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Lieutenant Frank Drebin of Police Squad.
->'''Lt. Frank Drebin''': ''[to applause]'' In all honesty, the last two I backed over with my car. Luckily they turned out to be drug-dealers.

* This is discussed in an ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' story where Mr. Lodge is being accused of taking bribes. Archie is called to the stand and tells how he saw Mr. Lodge accept a "gift", which the prosecution cites as being proof he is taking bribes. Everyone, even Archie's ''friends'', boo and heckle him for this as it's well known Lodge is innocent and is facing a FrivolousLawsuit, which Archie just inadvertently made worse. Then when proof this gift genuinely ''was'' a gift from a third party is revealed and Archie's testimony has now made Mr. Lodge's case stronger, everyone immediately forgives Archie. After the case is settled and Lodge is found innocent, he chastises everyone and stands up for Archie (a rare moment for ''Mr. Lodge'') -- he points out how Archie did the right thing by telling the truth while under oath, no matter how the case had gone, and that it was wrong for everyone to decide whether or not Archie did the right thing based on how things worked out in the end.

* ''Film/ThePassenger'': Creator/JackNicholson's character decides he wants to leave his old life behind, and takes on the identity of an acquaintance who has just died. As it turns out, the acquaintance was an arms dealer running guns to rebel forces in north Africa, so that's what he starts doing. The overall point of the film seems to be a nihilistic one: it doesn't really matter what one does in life, and one shouldn't be bound by social roles or expectations. However, it's clear that the audience is supposed to sympathise with the rebels whom Nicholson's character is supporting. So while he appears not to care about the social consequences of his actions, he is still doing something good -- or at least something not evil. It would be harder to see this character as heroic if he were running guns to neo-Nazis or the Taliban -- even though he could just as easily have found himself doing just that!

* ''Literature/ThirteenNeverChanges'': {{Defied|Trope}}. Thirteen year old Laura is furious when her nine year old brother borrows her new bike without asking and breaks it. Her older brother tells her that when she was nine, she borrowed his bike without asking.

"Not really. He didn't mean to hurt your bike. He's just not very well co-ordinated. He was born that way. You and I are athletic. Not him."

** The episode "Nobody's Fault" discusses this trope. Chase gets by a patient experience psychological symptoms. The doctor examining House's conduct investigates the generally risky behavior that House allows and encourages, and clearly intends to rule that he's at fault. At the last minute, the patient's wife shows up and explains that while House may not be nice he was right and he had managed to save her husband. When House is exonerated, he immediately calls out the investigator for being a coward, since he doesn't believe that the outcome of a specific case should determine whether his methods are right or wrong. He then apologizes to Chase and takes responsibility for his injury.

** {{Subverted}} in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episodes "Rules of Engagement". Worf is on trial for accidentally destroying a civilian ship in the midst of a battle. It eventually comes out that Klingon military had staged an empty ship in the battle and baited Worf into destroying it to embarrass the Federation. Worf is exonerated, but continues to feel guilty, and Sisko privately tells him that his guilt is well-placed, since he'd fired on the ship before identifying it. He makes clear that it could just as easily have been a real civilian ship, and it was pure luck that no one had actually been killed.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* [[https://notalwaysright.com/he-threw-away-his-shot-and-his-job/132483/ This armed police officer]] on ''Website/NotAlwaysLegal'' was faced with an apparent suicide bomber, who suddenly started claiming he was only an actor and this was only a drill. [[SadisticChoice If the policeman held fire and the attack was real, it would endanger hundreds of lives; if he opened fire and the bomber really was only an actor, he'd be responsible for killing a civilian]]. The officer held his fire, and was reprimanded and terminated for doing so. [[spoiler: The actor's story was eventually verified: he'd been hired by a private security firm to test ''their'' guards at the same site, [[PoorCommunicationKills without informing or being informed of the police]]. [[TooDumbToLlive That company lost their contract]], but the policeman was still out a job.]]

[[folder:Web Video]]
* ''Website/SFDebris'' is guilty of this in his review of ''WesternAnimation/{{Atlantis The Lost Empire}}'' in which he accuses Milo of "burning down the entire campsite". Milo's actions in that scene consist entirely of him stepping out to relieve himself, and his flashlight accidentally disturbs a nest of (previously unknown)fiery insects which descend on the camp. Despite the fact that no person could ever reasonably prepare for or prevent something like this, he treats Milo as being dangerously incompetent throughout the rest of the review. The fact that had it not been Milo, someone else would almost certainly have disturbed the nest when they went to take a dump is not addressed.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': In the episode "Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door", Hooty sees Luz, Eda, and King are being troubled by different concerns and he decides to "help" them solve their issues. His methods of "helping" are extremely intrusive, poorly thought out, and quite painful (both physically and emotionally). In Eda's case, he forces her to go to sleep by effectively drugging her with hallucinogenic plants without her consent. The fact his schemes ''do'' help the three of them in the end is almost entirely coincidental, and the three of them thank Hooty (partly just to calm him down as he was going on a destructive tantrum because he thought he'd failed), although [[DownplayedTrope they warn him to never try "helping" them again]].

* In ''Manga/FruitsBasket'', Hatsuharu forcefully kisses his ex-girlfriend, because he guesses that [[BreakHisHeartToSaveHim she still loves him]]. He's right, but he had little justification for that guess, which prompted [[https://boards.4channel.org/a/thread/205503019 some readers]] to see him as UnintentionallyUnsympathetic. The kiss itself is portrayed as romantic and quickly [[NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization becomes]] consensual.

* [[Franchise/SpiderMan Spider-Man]] has been beating himself up for the inverse of this for years. Though certainly guilty of apathy and selfishness, Peter Parker had no way of knowing that the burglar he didn't stop would end up committing a murder, let alone that his victim would be Peter's own uncle [[DeathByOriginStory Uncle Ben]], but he insists on treating this act as just shy of pulling the trigger himself, and has spent his life since trying to [[TheAtoner make up for this one lapse in judgement]]. This is an example of TropesAreNotBad, though, because this is meant as the thesis for the character.

** The episode "Nobody's Fault" discusses this trope. Chase gets stabbed during the case and it looks like the patient is going to die. The doctor examining House's conduct clearly planned to find House at fault. At the last minute, the patient's wife shows up and explains that while House may not be nice he was right and he had managed to save her husband. Ultimately, House is exonerated. Being House, he then calls his accuser a coward. It is clear the man has intended to find him guilty before the wife showed. House points out that with his methods "Good things usually happen. Bad things sometimes happen." and that whether they worked out in this particular case did not determine whether he did the right thing.
** The episode "Three Stories" has a framing device of House recounting several case studies his team had handled to a lecture hall full of med students. One case is of a man suffering from a severe snake bite, only the team doesn't know what kind of snake it was, and the wrong antivenom could set off a reaction that would kill him. The students are left with two options; wait for the humane society to find and identify the snake so you can apply what you know is the correct antivenom, even though the patient is highly unlikely to survive long enough, or make an educated guess on what type of antivenom to administer and hope you got the right one. When House asks the students which action they should take, half of them vote one route and half for the other, and House is up-front that one of these choices will kill the patient. The students point out that they have no way of possibly knowing which choice could save the patient and which would kill him, only for House to shoot that excuse down. You ultimately ''do'' wind up making the choice either way, and even if that choice is entirely unfair you still have to be the one to make it, and it could still wind up killing regardless of intent.

** One episode revolves around the main characters being investigated for the death of a patient who died while under their care. They spent the entire time ignoring him completely in favor of flirting with other patients, buying lottery tickets, [[ItMakesSenseInContext and fighting emus]]. In the end, they are cleared of all charges because the radiologist screwed up the initial report; even if they had done everything perfectly, they just didn't have the right information to keep the patient alive. In a subversion, Dr. Cox tears into them anyway, pointing out that the only reason they didn't kill a man is because someone else killed him first. They take the lesson to heart, and accept that they need to take their jobs more seriously.
** J.D. is given a patient to monitor who is having unusual problems and no-one else can figure out why. J.D. spent some time trying to figure it out, but gets distracted dealing with some major interpersonal problems between the main characters. He realizes that he ignored his patient for a really long time and ends up running into Dr. Kelso upon returning. He admits he did nothing to help the patient, and Kelso surprises him with praise, as the patient was having problems because of excessive treatments and constantly changing medications -- doing nothing let the patient burn it out and recover naturally. It was mostly AnAesop about sometimes letting problems run their course, but J.D. knows solving the medical mystery was dumb luck and he should have gotten in trouble.

** {{Subverted}} in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episodes "Rules of Engagement". Worf is on trial for destroying a Klingon civilian transport ship that accidentally decloaked in the middle of a battle. It eventually comes out that Worf was set up; the Klingons remotely decloaked an empty civilian ship for Worf to destroy so that they could embarrass the Federation. Worf is exonerated and everyone gets ready for a celebration, when Captain Sisko pulls Worf aside to berate him for opening fire on a vessel before determining whether or not it was a threat and tell him just how incredibly lucky he was that it ''was'' a setup and not actually a ship full of innocent civilians.