Moral Event Horizon - Television Tropes & Idioms

Guide to above chart: Red = Ordinary Villainy, Blue = Moral Event Horizon, Core = Complete Monster, and This = Rather Strained Metaphor

If there ever was a time, if there ever was a chance

To undo these things I've done, and wash these bloodstains from my hands

It has passed and been forgotten, these are the paths that we must take

'Cause you and I, Tom, we are men, and we can bend and we can break

-Dr. Wily, The Father of Death

We tried forgiveness, but they crossed the line.

- The Birthday Massacre, Horror Show

The Moral Event Horizon is the point of no return. Once a character crosses it of their own free will, they cease to be cool or admirable. It is a single act which, while not necessarily worse than anything else the villain has previously done, affects the audience and the story on a far deeper level. The writer has managed to reach past the objective mind of the Genre Savvy viewer and touch the reptilian core of the mind and effectively overridden the idea of villain as entertainment with the idea of villain as danger.

Once a character crosses the horizon, they cannot be made admirable or sympathetic without again altering the moral tone of the story. It has to be inherently known and recognized as an evil act, either by the way it is presented or by the characters calling them out on it.

One key point of any example is how the creator makes a shift in the type of evil act they have displayed so far. Each story will have its own standards of evil, but the horizon can't be crossed if the character can reasonably say "It's what I do." An Evil Overlord named "The Conqueror" sends an army off to conquer a city... well duh! A hitman or assassin killing a Red Shirt is to be expected, each kill is just a guard against Informed Ability. A million people died? That's just a statistic. A guy wants to take over the world? But of course! It's a fantasy movie. The truth is, nearly every story has an antagonist with a chance to Kick The Dog. Crossing the moral event horizon puts the threat level outside the normal conventions of the genre.

Having established the realm of evil acts, the author subverts your expectations. They may be giving you a harsh dose of realism, deconstructing the typical evil villain archetype they've been working with. They take that Affably Evil villain whose jokes you've been laughing at, whose evil you found so entertaining and make you feel guilty for enjoying them. So they'll change the nature of the act, they'll escalate rapidly by making their actions hit an onscreen character, someone you've grown to like rather than some Red Shirt. They'll tailor it to the actions of a depraved personality (a rapist, a child killer, a gym teacher, etc.) rather than simplistic evil that could be done out of greed, a search for power or even sympathetic reasons. What the act actually is depends on the evil standard of the genre. A quiet emotional drama exploring the interactions between a Well Done Son Guy and his Noble Bigot father can be shaken by the consequences of a disinheritance, while the captain of a space vessel on fire outside the Tannhauser Gate has a different set of issues.

This dramatically alters a character from how they were once portrayed. A Noble Demon ceases to be noble. The Jerkass becomes a total bastard. The Gentleman Thief loses his gentlemanliness, the Classy Cat Burglar her class, and Woobie Destroyer Of Worlds drops the Woobie part. This is reflected in aesthetic points: the Leitmotif of the character may change; they may be given more threatening or ominous lines; more suspense may be given to their appearances. Almost certainly, creators will try to connect the character to the instinctive fears of the audience.

A good litmus test is that if you still think a villain potentially redeemable, they have not yet crossed the horizon. If you feel that the event is merely more evidence they are an Anti Villain, they have not crossed the horizon. That doesn't mean we still don't enjoy them as a villain, because sometimes Evil Is Cool. But still, beware of Draco In Leather Pants, who has fans that will try and justify every evil action they do.

If it is not acknowledged as evil and the audience feels that it should have been, then that is not a moral event horizon but would fall under Moral Dissonance.