History MoralEventHorizon / WesternAnimation

* ''MoralEventHorizon/TheVentureBrothers''

** In the same episode, Lord Superman had Flash by the neck with Flash trying to appeal to any remaining good in him. Also, [[spoiler:the Flash in their world had been killed and his death]] was one of the main reasons why they all became such cynical {{Knight Templar}}s. However, Lord Superman, referring to moral lines he never thought he'd cross, coolly told him that "one more won't hurt", making it clear that to this Superman, the death of a Flash from another reality was just another means to an end. This contrasts him with the more-redeemable Lord Batman, who is visibly horrified when he thinks Flash's heart has stopped. The true StartOfDarkness is probably when [[spoiler:Superman kills Lex Luthor, who was elected president and was responsible for Flash's death. However, it is ambiguous since Luthor was about to hit the BigRedButton, probably to start a nuclear war. Afterwards, even Batman says that Supes made the right decision.]]

** Project Cadmus practically made a habit of doing this, even as they claimed they only had the good of the world at heart. Abducting metahuman children and youths to rear them as {{super soldier}}s, genetically engineering metahuman {{super soldier}}s and not only not ''caring'' that the process is unstable and so the clones inevitably die after a few weeks but seeing that as an actual bonus, creating Doomsday, cloning Supergirl and then using the clone as a SuperSoldier and assassin to keep their agenda secret, attempting to nuke an island with a kryptonite-based atomic missile in the hopes of killing off Superman and Doomsday in one shot, sending a team of supervillains to steal a magical superweapon from the Justice League's headquarters, working with ''freaking ComicBook/LexLuthor'' to discredit and aggravate Superman... Yeah, VillainHasAPoint that the Justice League could potentially take over the world[[note]]Unaware that they recruited ComicBook/GreenArrow as their political conscience who was able to keep them from overreacting to Cadmus' antics[[/note]]... but, on the other hand, Cadmus does a hell of a lot more actual damage to the world than the Justice League ever does.
* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'': While [[Characters/InvaderZimZim Zim]] has always been destructive and psychopathic, early episodes framed Zim's infiltration of Earth less like a hostile alien invasion and more like a tourist adjusting to the language and customs of the place he's visiting. Many of his most egregious crimes in these early episodes are done in self defense (or at least, things that [[ProperlyParanoid Zim]] thought needed self defense to avoid blowing his cover). This threshold is passed long before Season 1 wraps up, but ''where'' exactly he crosses the line can be interpreted a few different ways:
** In [[Recap/InvaderZimS1E9TheWettening The Wettening]], Zim drops a water balloon the size of a small planet from orbit aimed directly at Dib and ends up flooding the whole city in the process all because of he and Dib's petty rivalry—he even challenges Dib to "settle this like children." This is Zim's first direct act of offense and terrorism on Earth, where he actively goes out of his way to cause destruction out of malice and not to defend himself. However, no one seemed to be seriously injured by the water balloon (Dib was at the center of its impact and got out largely unscathed), and thanks to the show's NegativeContinuity any repercussions from the event are never addressed.
** [[Recap/InvaderZimS1E15BadBadRubberPiggy Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy]] shows Zim use time travel to attack Dib in the past with the ultimate goal of getting rid of him in the present by using rubber piggies to replace objects in the past. Even after critically weakening Dib to the point where he'd realistically never pose a threat to him again, Zim continues to debilitate him more and more, and triumphantly takes a sip of his drink after he thinks he's killed him off for good. This is the first time we see Zim attempt a targeted murder, divorced from his usual wanton destruction which seems to stem more from a love StuffBlowingUp. Of course, by the end of the episode Zim suffers a truly karmic fate [[HoistByHisOwnPetard when one of the pigs he threw replaces his own brain and undoing all of Dib's torment]].
** In [[Recap/InvaderZimS1E16ARoomWithAMoose A Room With A Moose]], Zim sends not just Dib, but his entire class into a wormhole that leads directly to [[TitleDrop a room with a moose]], seemingly with the promise that the moose will eat them all alive. While Dib's AgentMulder tendencies do pose a risk to Zim's mission, the only reason he involves his other classmates is because they [[BullyingADragon bullied him at school]]. So not only is Zim performing attempted murder here (again), but he's doing so on innocent schoolchildren in addition to his WorthyOpponent Dib.

** Night Owl seems like your [[DumbassDJ average Disc]] [[ShockJock Jockey]] at the time, typical boorish and obnoxious behavior. However, he soared to irredeemable when he held the contest with a prize of a vintage muscle car for the last person standing on top of a huge billboard. When he discovered Mordecai, Rigby, Muscle Man, and High-Five Ghost are planning to share if they won, Night Owl not only turned them against each other but while they were fighting, [[HumanPopsicle he froze them in liquid nitrogen]] for at least two millennium. After the gang thawed out, they found out that Night Owl had tricked them, had no intention of giving away the car, and had meant to keep the contest going forever so he'd become eternally famous! In a show where {{Eldritch Abomination}}s are the norm, Night Owl makes it clear that even a '''normal''' human being can be quite monstrous if sufficiently consumed with {{Greed}}.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'': Jinx crosses it when [[spoiler:she kidnaps Vi and Caitlyn, and twistedly asks Vi to pick between killing Caitlyn or losing Powder as a sister. Vi isn't willing to go through with murdering her new friend, and then through mishaps Jinx accidentally kills Silco who tells her that she is perfect the way she is, cementing her as being Jinx for good. She tops off the ending by firing a rocket at the Piltover Council. Despite Vi trying to reach out to her in parts 2 and 3, the way she looks at Jinx at the end of Act 3 shows she concedes that Ekko and Caitlyn were right and Jinx is far too gone.]]
* As of the second episode of the second season, WesternAnimation/{{Archer}} has [[spoiler:implanted a faulty Russian mind control chip into the head of Len Trexler, head of ODIN and possibly his father]]. Even Archer himself feels bad about it, if it has any permanent damaging side effects.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker'' gives the Clown Prince of Crime a rather infamous line-crossing moment: [[spoiler: he kidnapped Robin, [[ColdBloodedTorture tortured]] and {{mind rape}}d him for three weeks, mutilated him, "fixed" him up as Joker Jr., and invited Batman over to see his work in detail (which included home video of the boy's torture labeled as "Our Family Memories"). He then reveals that he's learned Batman's secret identity, ''mocks him'' for it (and for not having the balls to kill him after all this), and knifes him before he tosses "J.J." a spear gun to finish him off with.]] Also worth mentioning that this particular MEH crossing was the former page picture.

** While [[BigBad Hawk Moth]] (a.k.a. Gabriel Agreste) came close to crossing the line before (such as in "Riposte", where he akumatized someone with a direct grudge against his son), his EvenEvilHasLovedOnes status just barely kept him out of irredeemable territory. In "Chat Blanc", however, he loses even that one redeeming quality. [[spoiler:First, his reaction to Adrien and Marinette's relationship is to blackmail Marinette into breaking up with Adrien (with [[SadisticChoice the threat of taking Adrien away from his friends]]) so that he can use the resulting pain to akumatize her, not caring that he's breaking his own son's heart in the process. Then, when Adrien transforms into Chat Noir in front of Marinette to save her, he is informed of this by his assistant [[TheDragon Nathalie]]. Hawk Moth then exposes his identity as Chat's father during their next confrontation and then reveals that Adrien's mother is still alive and that he's trying to steal the Miraculouses to heal her. Gabriel then takes advantage of his son's conflicted emotions to akumatize ''him'', and then tries to force the newly akumatized Chat Blanc to kill Ladybug, causing him to FreakOut and [[ApocalypseHow accidentally kill all of Paris, as well as destroying the Moon]].]] The fact that the resulting BadFuture is later prevented from occurring does not change the fact that Gabriel's pretensions of EvenEvilHasStandards are now worthless.

*** Lila Rossi crossed it in "Chameleon" by becoming the first character on the show to willingly get akumatized by Hawk Moth, demonstrating how far she's willing to go over what amounts to a petty grudge.
*** While [[AlphaBitch Chloé]] teetered the line for a while, she fully crossed it in the season 3 finale by taking Hawk Moth's offer to join him simply because Ladybug refused to indulge in her whims. It even showed in the narrative; prior to this she had a few PetTheDog moments, but afterwards she became far more cruel towards everyone.
*** Félix was, up to the season 4 finale, morally ambiguous at best and a jerk at worst. He crossed the line by stealing Ladybug's yo-yo to cut a deal with Gabriel, trading the [[MacGuffin sixteen Miraculouses]] in her possession to a madman just so he can get his hands on the Peacock Miraculous for his own purposes, cementing his status as a villain.

* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': At the end of season 4, [[spoiler:Horde Prime has conquered huge swaths of the universe, treats his clones like disposable objects, and wants to use the [[FantasticNuke Etherian superweapon]] for war. On-screen, he crosses the moral event horizon when he humiliates Hordak (who had just spent decades of his life conquering Etheria in Horde Prime's name), [[MindRape forcibly invades Hordak's mind]] and probes his most intimate memories, and [[DeathOfPersonality mind-wipes him]], all because he was offended that Hordak had developed free will and a personality of his own.]]

** While Cartman was already a big jerk from the start, his exact moment of crossing the line is his KansasCityShuffle against Scott Tenorman in "[[Recap/SouthParkS5E4ScottTenormanMustDie Scott Tenorman Must Die]]", after the latter discovers a familiar finger in his bowl of chili. He's done lots of evil things since, varying in their badness, but this was where it became clear that he was more than a BrattyHalfPint and his selfishness posed an actual threat to others. Horrified, Kyle and Stan even acknowledge they should never piss him off again.[[note]]They still piss him off afterwards, of course, but it's ''much'' easier to see that their teasing is justified instead of just [[KidsAreCruel being mean for fun]].[[/note]]

** In the ''Pahkitew Island'' finale [[spoiler:Dave of all people crosses it by endangering both Sky and Shawn's well-being in order to win the money he and Jasmine were promised. But unlike Jasmine (who wants to use the money to build a cage-fighting flower shop), all he wanted the money for was to burn it in front of Sky to spite her all because he felt betrayed by her after he found out that she already had a boyfriend]].

* WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck crosses the MEH in the ''[[WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow The Float]]''. He takes every cent of Porky's money, saying he needs it for a kidney operation. After going bankrupt, Porky eventually discovers that Daffy used the money to buy a yacht and attacks him for it.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': The comics give us the BigBad of the Untidaled arc, an unnamed kraken, who is arguably the ''darkest villain in the comics.'' Why? Well, not only is he responsible for the draining of the water that kickstarted the arc in the first place, we later learn '''''[[spoiler:[[ImAHumanitarian HE EATS FISH!]]]]''''' That's right, the darkest villain ''ever'' in the comic series [[spoiler:eats Bikini Bottomites]], and he tries to force Mr. Krabs to [[spoiler:make him a giant Krabby Patty that will attract MANY unfortunate citizens into his jaws.]]

** While Cartman was already a big jerk from the start, his exact moment of crossing the line is his KansasCityShuffle against Scott Tenorman, after the latter discovers a familiar finger in his bowl of chili. He's done lots of evil things since, varying in their badness, but this was where it became clear that he was more than a BrattyHalfPint and his selfishness posed an actual threat to others. Horrified, Kyle and Stan even acknowledge they should never piss him off again.[[note]]They still piss him off afterwards, of course, but it's ''much'' easier to see that their teasing is justified instead of just [[KidsAreCruel being mean for fun]].[[/note]]
--->'''Cartman''': Nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah, I made you eat your ''parents''.

* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'':
** At the end of season 4, [[spoiler:Horde Prime has conquered huge swaths of the universe, treats his clones like disposable objects, and wants to use the [[FantasticNuke Etherian superweapon]] for war. On-screen, he crosses the moral event horizon when he humiliates Hordak (who had just spent decades of his life conquering Etheria in Horde Prime's name), [[MindRape forcibly invades Hordak's mind]] and probes his most intimate memories, and [[DeathOfPersonality mind-wipes him]], all because he was offended that Hordak had developed free will and a personality of his own.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'', Megatron, is revealed to have crossed the line multiple times back on Cybertron. Aside from ''instigating the very war itself'', he developed a cybonic plague and a bioweapon out of toxic Energon, both of which wiped out most of the Autobots (and lord knows how many innocent Cybertronians) gradually turning the '''entire planet''' into the graveyard it is today. However, he arguably crosses the definitive line in "One Shall Fall", when [[spoiler:he shoots Bumblebee with Dark Energon, nearly killing Raf in the process.]] While Megatron was unaware of [[spoiler:Raf's presence at the time]], his reaction later on establishes he has no problem inflicting off-world casualties. For Optimus, this was the last straw, as he saw no alternative than to ''destroy'' Megatron once this happened.
** Airachnid crossed it millennia ago when she tortured Arcee and murdered Tailgate. Beyond that, we learn she's spent who-knows-how-many years hunting species and committing genocide. For fun. Whether this started before or after Tailgate's murder is unclear.
** Silas crosses it when he works with Airachnid to kidnap June Darby and then shows he's willing to let Airachnid kill her and Jack, dismissing them as collateral damage. His most evil act is killing his own soldiers after they successfully merged him with Breakdowns body.
** [[spoiler: In "Evolution", upon discovering Predaking's transformation, Megatron and his command staff plan the eradication of the newborn Predacon clones, before said clones are given the chance to turn on the Decepticons. Starscream suggests they set it up so the Autobots would look entirely responsible and turn Predaking's anger towards them instead of his creators. Even Shockwave, the creator of the clones, is coldly in favor of the idea, though that's in-character for him: he will always take the most logical decision available, be damned to the moral questions.]]

* MoralEventHorizon/JurassicPark

* ''MoralEventHorizon/TheVentureBros''

* ''MoralEventHorizon/TheOwlHouse''

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'', after Rallo almost drowns and blackmails Cleveland for it, Cleveland dunks Rallo's head in the pool twice just so Rallo would stop bossing him around.
** Another candidate for this trope comes in "A Rodent Like This", Cleveland gets heavily attached to a rat and raises it as a pet. The rat winds up biting Donna and when it's confirmed the rat has rabies, Cleveland decides (at first) to not have the rat killed to test it for rabies, which basically meant he would rather let his wife die than kill his beloved "pet". Luckily, Donna strong-arms Cleveland into agreeing with her and the doctor.

* Mr. Cat from ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'' crossed this in the episode "Let's Play Gangster Poker", where he threatened to shoot Kaeloo and Quack Quack, ''[[WithFriendsLikeThese who are supposed to be his best friends]]'', unless they gave him money that he tricked them into thinking they owed him (in other words, ''which they didn't even owe him'').

* Though he isn't nearly as bad as the Devil in Literature/TheBible, [[WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken The Red Guy]] crosses this in '''Part-Time Job''', an episode in which Chicken was looking for employment and worked for him. The only catch was him being stripped of his feathers and [[CruelAndUnusualDeath almost being cooked alive]] in one of The Red Guy's schemes.

** Ian Peek was already a {{Jerkass}} reporter who threatened to expose Terry and Bruce as Batman. But then it turns out he killed a scientist and started a fire to get his hands on an invisibility belt. When Peek comes begging Bruce for help when the belt fails, Bruce is so disgusted, he coldly refuses to help Peek.

** Silas crosses it when he works with Airachnid to kidnap June Darby and then shows he's willing to let Airachnid kill her and Jack, dismissing them as collateral damage.

* In ''WesternAnimation/WordGirl'', Granny May crosses the line of just how far she's willing to go to ruin WordGirl's life in "Bonkers for Bingo". She's an evil bitch who has no qualms about ruining people's lives.
** The [[EnfantTerrible Birthday Girl]] crosses this line when she's willing to frame Wordgirl, and even kidnapped Sally Botsford when her true colors are exposed. She even later threatened to destroy the Earth during Earth Day because of her strong greed. She had to be reasoned with twice in order to do something generous so she can shrink back to her normal size

* Near the end of the ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' series, [[spoiler:[[GreaterScopeVillain Eddy's Brother]]]] crossed this within ''seconds'' of making his first appearance when he began to mercilessly beat up Eddy (as pictured above), and freely admits he's [[DomesticAbuse always done this to him]], [[FreudianExcuse thus making him into what he is today]].

** "Chat Blanc" results in both of the two main antagonists proving they are beyond salvation.
*** While [[BigBad Hawk Moth]] (a.k.a. Gabriel Agreste) came close to crossing the line before (such as in "Riposte", where he akumatized someone with a direct grudge against his son), his EvenEvilHasLovedOnes status just barely kept him out of irredeemable territory. In "Chat Blanc", however, he loses even that one redeeming quality. [[spoiler:First, his reaction to Adrien and Marinette's relationship is to blackmail Marinette into breaking up with Adrien (with [[SadisticChoice the threat of taking Adrien away from his friends]]) so that he can use the resulting pain to akumatize her, not caring that he's breaking his own son's heart in the process. Then, when Adrien transforms into Chat Noir in front of Marinette to save her, he is informed of this by his assistant [[TheDragon Nathalie]]. Hawk Moth then exposes his identity as Chat's father during their next confrontation and then reveals that Adrien's mother is still alive and that he's trying to steal the Miraculouses to heal her. Gabriel then takes advantage of his son's conflicted emotions to akumatize ''him'', and then tries to force the newly akumatized Chat Blanc to kill Ladybug, causing him to FreakOut and [[ApocalypseHow accidentally kill all of Paris, as well as destroying the Moon]].]] The fact that the resulting BadFuture is later prevented from occurring does not change the fact that Gabriel's pretensions of EvenEvilHasStandards are now worthless.
*** Nathalie Sancoeur (aka Mayura) is a bit more ambiguous, as her telling Gabriel about Adrien's identity could be interpreted as her trying to shock her boss into a HeelRealization (supported by the fact that Mayura is not present during the subsequent confrontation). However, if that was not her intention, then ratting out Adrien counts as a MoralEventHorizon for her -- despite her being [[ParentalSubstitute the closest thing Adrien has to a mother]], she has no qualms about [[TreacheryIsASpecialKindOfEvil selling him out to Hawk Moth]].
** [[TeensAreMonsters Lila Rossi]] crosses the line in "Oni-chan", where, despite not being the MonsterOfTheWeek, she cuts a deal with Oni-chan to kill Ladybug, vowing to give up her pursuit of Adrien if Oni-chan does so [[note]]the horn that Oni-chan gave Lila does not grow when she says this, indicating that her crush on Adrien is overshadowed by her hatred of Ladybug, meaning that the former can probably be ruled out as a redeeming quality[[/note]]. After that, she fakes a leg injury, forcing Chat Noir to carry her away from the battle to give Oni-chan a better shot at killing Ladybug. Note that her hatred of Ladybug [[EvilIsPetty is because the latter]] [[LiarRevealed called her a liar in front of Adrien]] -- whom she was [[IResembleThatRemark actively lying to at the time]].

You think CartoonishSupervillainy is nothing to worry about? [[MoralEventHorizon Think again.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'' movie "Wishology" has the [[TheDragon Lead Eliminator]] trying to kill Timmy is bad enough. But when he became the Destructinator, he plans to [[KillEmAll destroy]] the world in an EarthShatteringKaboom.