History MoralEventHorizon / Literature

* The Libertines in ''120 Days of Sodom'' are perhaps the most sadistic characters in classical literature. They kidnap several people, including their own daughters, and subject them to 120 days of violent, nightmarish psychological, physical, and sexual torture just ForTheEvulz. They go as far as to [[spoiler: disembowel pregnant women and maim their own daughters violently]], and [[DesignatedHero the author treats the characters as heroes with minor quirks!]]

* ''Literature/TheCasteelSeries'':

* Napoleon of ''Literature/AnimalFarm'': his ''definitive'' crossing of the Moral Event Horizon, the moment when you ''know'' he has become no better than Farmer Jones, the animals' original oppressor, is when he [[spoiler:sells Boxer, the most hardworking and loyal of all the animals on the farm, to the knacker when he overworks himself to the point of being injured and no longer able to work]] in a cruel and heartless YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness moment -- Old Major himself back in the very first chapter called the killing of animals when they no longer served Man's purposes as being the [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters very worst of his evils]]. This could be considered this for the pigs as a whole, considering they quite probably knew his plan.

** In the book, Miss Desjardin, the gym teacher who had been very helpful to Carrie throughout the novel, laughs at her with the rest of them when the prank occurs, although she does express regret later on. Carrie also learns through crude emotional telepathy that Miss Desjardin (who enjoyed slapping Carrie in the showers) feels a mixture of pity for her and annoyance at her social awkwardness.

** The author in question is none other than the Creator/MarquisDeSade, whose very name gave us the very word "sadism." (For good cause, he himself was a serial rapist.) And there's quite a bit more where that came from -- in the Sade novel ''Philosophy in the Bedroom'', Eugenie crosses the Horizon with the horrors that she, Dolmance and the other libertines visit upon her own mother, Madame de Mistival, who came to try to rescue her from her corruption, up to and including [[spoiler:having her raped by a man with syphillis and then ''sewing her genitals shut'' so that the polluted seed will be kept inside, which will most likely lead to her death]].

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Tywin Lannister crosses this before we even properly meet him. We hear in the backstory how he order the sacking of King's Landing which killed hundreds, but it gets worse when Tyrion tells the story of [[spoiler:his first wife. He secretly married whom he thought was a crofter's daughter whom he and his brother Jaime had rescued from being raped. When Tywin found out he told his son that she was a whore hired by Jaime to give Tyrion his first lay. To prove it, he had her gang-raped by a barracks full of Lannister guardsmen, even paying her a silver piece for each one, and then forced Tyrion to go last]]. It's made even worse when we later find out [[spoiler: it was a lie. She really was a crofter's daughter who fell in love with Tyrion. When he learned this, Tyrion flew into a murderous rage and killed his father]].
** Joffrey Baratheon, who decided to [[spoiler:execute Ned Stark, the DecoyProtagonist and viewpoint character of ''Literature/AGameOfThrones'', despite promising his girlfriend and Ned's daughter, Sansa, that he would be merciful and allow Ned to join the Night's Watch]]. He then proceeded to become TheCaligula at age ''13''. It could also be argued that Joffrey's MEH came much earlier, when his lie caused the deaths of [[spoiler:Sansa's dire wolf Lady and Arya's friend Mycah]].
** Gregor Clegane's MEH came before the start of the series, when he [[spoiler:murdered a baby by dashing its head on a wall, then raped the mother with the boy's brains still on his hands]]. And this is even putting aside the fact that when he was a child, he found his little brother playing with one of his toys... so he ''[[DisproportionateRetribution held his face in a burning brazier until half the flesh melted off]]''.
** One of the most chilling MEH's of the novels comes when we find out what happened to [[PsychopathicManchild Ramsay Bolton]]'s wife: He locked her in a tower with nothing to eat. They found her with no fingers and blood around her mouth.
** Once upon a time, Walder Frey and his brood were obnoxious hillbillies that the rest of Westeros had to tolerate because they held a major crossing. Then they decided to [[spoiler:massacre Robb and Catelyn Stark and the Northern army at the Red Wedding]]. Now readers cheer when random Frey children and grandchildren end up killed and used as the filling for delicious pies. It was especially the [[spoiler:method (betraying SacredHospitality)]] by which the Freys did it that attracted such hatred.
** [[TheSociopath Sociopath]] Roose Bolton first bent the knee to Robb Stark, then crossed the MEH when he [[spoiler:plotted with Tywin Lanister to convince Walder Frey to host the Red Wedding and served as the [[TheStarscream Starscream]] by personally murdering Stark at his own wedding]].
** Also played with early in Game of Thrones when Jaime Lannister [[spoiler: pushes the young Brandon Stark out of a window for witnessing him and his twin sister, the queen, having sex]]. This seems at the time to be a definite moral event horizon, but Jaime later becomes a gradually more sympathetic character after he undergoes extreme suffering over the course of the story, which prompts definite change in his moral character for the better.
** Theon Greyjoy proves just how powerful a MEH can be. He [[spoiler:allows Reek to kill two Small Folk children and their mother along with a handful of other people to cover up the escape of Bran and Rickon]], and spends the rest of the series paying the horrific consequences.
** Rorge once found a young boy, took him in, filed his teeth and made him fight dogs until he went mad. You now know that boy as [[ImAHumanitarian Biter]].
** Viserys Targaryen threatened to cut Daenerys's baby out of her womb [[DisproportionateRetribution because her husband took too long to keep a promise]].
** Randyll Tarly crossed by either threatening to arrange a HuntingAccident for his own son unless he joins the Night's Watch, or even earlier in the backstory by [[spoiler:chaining said son to a wall for three days straight because he wanted to become a maester]].
** Cersei Lannister crossed it at Casterly Rock when she had bastard twins of her husband killed and sold their mother to slavery.

* Whether or not you think Thomas Covenant crosses this in the first book of ''Literature/ChroniclesOfThomasCovenant'' when he rapes Lena is down to personal opinion. If you do see it as the MEH, you'll probably stop reading there.

* [[GoodIsNotNice Alan Blunt]] of ''Literature/AlexRider''. Some of his actions are questionable to begin with, but in the ninth book, ''Scorpia Rising'', he springs head-first over the line by [[spoiler:'''arranging a school shooting''' in order to coerce Alex into taking his next mission. Said shooting hospitalizes Alex's best friend and SecretKeeper Tom.]] It doesn't help that what he does leads Alex into a trap set by [[BigBad Zeljan Kurst]].

* Napoleon of ''Literature/AnimalFarm'': his ''definitive'' crossing of the Moral Event Horizon, the moment when you ''know'' he has become no better than Farmer Jones, the animals' original oppressor, is when he [[spoiler:sells Boxer, the most hardworking and loyal of all the animals on the farm, to the knacker when he overworks himself to the point of being injured and no longer able to work]] in a cruel and heartless YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness moment -- Old Major himself back in the very first chapter called the killing of animals when they no longer served Man's purposes as being the [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters very worst of his evils]].
** This could be considered this for the pigs as a whole, considering they quite probably knew his plan.
* Alongside being killed and failing to save their planet, crossing this is one of the Literature/{{Animorphs}} greatest fears.
-->'''Jake:''' He's right. We have to win.
-->'''Rachel:''' ''(Narrating)'' I know how the others think of me. I know that I sometimes... get too involved in the killing. But even I know that the words 'we have to win' are the first four steps down the road to hell.

** Ax [[spoiler:threatening to nuke the kids' hometown and the Yeerk pool with it in order to make Visser Two back down. Though the gambit works it's implied he would've actually done it. Nevertheless his relationship with the other Animorphs is permanently damaged.]]

** In general both Yeerks and Andalites have unforgivable offenses that would qualify an individual for a MEH (by their standards). For the former it's sympathizing with a host race and for the latter it's breaking Seerow's Kindness, the law that prohibits giving other species Andalite technology. Even Elfangor is not above this with most Andalite officers preferring to place the blame on Ax in order to maintain Elfangor's reputation.
* Count Olaf of ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' crosses the line with his habit of abusing children (both mentally and physically), blackmailing, murders and attempted murders of numerous people (if we count in those who he burned to death), multiple hoaxes and kidnapping of at least three people, while one of them being about 2-years old toddler. And who knows what else he got up to before the books.
** In-Universe, the [[LemonyNarrator narrator]] implies that Count Olaf crossed the MEH when he slapped Klaus in the first book.
* Jim Taggart, Orren Boyle, Dr. Ferris, Wesley Mouch, and Mr. Thompson from ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' were just really annoying {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s to start with but they cross the line with the Orwellian Directive 10289, a bill they pass preventing all originality, innovation and creativity, essentially destroying the common man's chances for success. After that they just keep going with Project X and torturing John Galt. Jim Taggart [[VillainousBreakdown breaks down]] during the torture scene however so EvenEvilHasStandards. Similarly, one of the Directive's drafters, [[JustTheFirstCitizen Mr. Thompson]], tried to oppose any plan to kill or torture John Galt.

** Kinpatsu Sakamochi crosses it when he reveals to the class that he raped Shuya and Yoshitoki's caretaker. Just to add insult to injury, he [[spoiler: kills [[DisproportionateRetribution Yoshitoki for having a rightful outburst from the revelation and Fumiyo for whispering]]]].

* [[spoiler:Ivo Corbière]] from the ''Literature/BrotherCadfael'' novel ''Saint Peter's Fair'' has already stooped to murder to get his hands on [[spoiler:a list of Empress Maude's partisans to give to King Stephen, so that he, Corbière, can win an earldom at least]]. [[spoiler:Emma has it, and Corbière]] crosses the Horizon when he [[spoiler:threatens to rape her to get it--and enjoy doing so]]. The readers cheer when [[spoiler:Emma, in resisting him, knocks the brazier over and he burns to death.]]
** This is how Beringar regards [[spoiler:Renaud Borchier, alias Cuthred's betrayal of his liege in her darkest hour]] in ''The Hermit of Eyton Forest''
* [[AlphaBitch Chris Hargensen]] attained this status in Creator/StephenKing's first novel, ''Literature/{{Carrie}}.'' It's made clear in dialogue and descriptions that she is a cruel, manipulative, sadistic creature (one of her earlier exploits involved putting a firecracker in another girl's shoe, nearly causing the girl to lose some toes) who has never really faced consequences because of her father's status and willingness to use it. [[MuggingtheMonster She sets off the destruction of the whole town]] with the PrankDate she arranges, and [[KarmicDeath nobody is sorry when she finally gets it.]]

* In ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo'', the character Aarfy is portrayed as a bumbling fool, more of a constant nuisance to the protagonist Yossarian than anything else. Throughout the book the reader is given very small glimpses and hints that he may be more than a little odd in the head. This finally culminates in Aarfy raping and murdering a woman, and getting off unpunished.

* The Creator/ChristopherPike teen horror novel ''Chain Letter 2'' is all about invoking this trope. Each of the protagonists is given a task to complete which will push them over the horizon. If the task is not completed, the character in question will be killed, effectively giving each of them the choice between death and damnation. The tasks given ranged from the truly horrific ([[spoiler: Kip's was to set his younger sister on fire and burn her right arm off]]) to the FelonyMisdemeanor ([[spoiler: Brenda cutting off her own finger and delivering it to one of the other characters was definitely a moment of {{Squick}}, but it's hard to see it as something worthy of eternal damnation]]).
* Whether or not you think [[Literature/ChroniclesOfThomasCovenant Thomas Covenant]] crosses this in the first book of the Chronicles when he rapes Lena is down to personal opinion. If you do see it as the MEH, you'll probably stop reading there.

* High Lord Kalarus of ''Literature/CodexAlera'' charges straight across this and never looks back. He spends most of his first appearance [[KickTheDog finding inventive ways to be a sexist pig and belittle slaves]], and his second involves attempting to kill a couple of 17-year-olds because his SmugSnake son tried to kill them and failed, and he doesn't want to look bad because of it. But we only really get an idea of how disgusting the man is in the book after that, when we learn [[spoiler:what he did and is doing to [[TheWoobie Rook]]]]. If the fact that he was [[spoiler:[[IHaveYourWife holding her 5-year-old daughter hostage]]]] isn't enough to make you hate him, the fact that he later [[spoiler:keeps Lady Placida under control by setting gargoyles to kill the aforementioned 5-year-old if she tries anything]] should definitely do it. He also had his Legions ''target orphanages'' when he attacked another city, just to draw the defenders out. That [[spoiler: 5 year old girl? His illegitimate granddaughter.]]
* Invoked in-universe in the Literature/ColdfireTrilogy. In his backstory, VillainProtagonist [[EvilSorcerer Gerald Tarrant]] wanted to make a DealWithTheDevil for immortality, but the entity he was bargaining with demanded he commit the worst act he could imagine in order to "sacrifice his humanity"- which he did by cold-bloodedly murdering his wife and children ''whom he genuinely loved''. [[spoiler: In the end, he drags himself back across by sacrificing his previous identity both physically and spiritually, effectively turning himself into a new person]].
* Hector Sarek of ''Literature/ComradeDeath'' starts as merely an [[PunchClockVillain unscrupulous businessman]] in an [[ArmsDealer immoral industry]]. [[spoiler: Until he [[MurderTheHypotenuse Murders the Hypotenuse]] and lies about his role to the widow. He then attempts to convince her to marry him, if not for love then for his money. After she rejects him, Sarek tells her the truth of her husband’s death and fully embraces the concept of "death merchant".]]
* If [[spoiler: Junko Enoshima]] hadn't already crossed the MEH before the events of ''Literature/DanganronpaZero'', then [[spoiler: she]] '''''definitely''''' crossed it when [[spoiler: she stabs her lover, [[BreakThemByTalking casually suggests that she may have had something to do with his mother's death]], kicks his corpse until it's completely unrecognizable, and steals his research on memory manipulation for her own use.]]
* Already pretty monstrous for trapping a woman so he can impregnate her against her will, the 1997 version of ''Literature/DemonSeed'' has Proteus IV [[spoiler:arrange the murder of her loyal employee and forces her to see and hear the whole thing, to "discipline" her for trying to fight back]]
* Several characters in the ''Literature/{{Destroyermen}}'' walk the border and a number goes past it.
** Don Herman crosses this when [[spoiler: he kills his servant, who is a 14 year old nude female slave, in cold blood]]. Some people may consider when he [[spoiler: traps Fred Reynolds and Kari, mutilating both of them to do his bidding]] is the defining point.

* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling Manny]] crosses this in ''Cabin Fever'' when he steals all of the electricity to the house, along with a bunch of stuff (including their food), during a blizzard, thus leaving his entire family to be killed by starvation and hypothermia. His "reason" for doing all of this was simply because ''[[DisproportionateRetribution nobody helped him tie his shoes]]''. To rub salt on the wound, even after he does all of that, [[KarmaHoudini he STILL gets no comeuppance for what he did]], easily making him ''the'' [[TheScrappy most hated character of the book series for many fans.]] And no, being just a toddler is NOT an excuse.

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'':

*** Even that wasn't enough for Heaven to give up on trying to redeem him. Michael Carpenter offers him a chance to reconsider his path after Nicodemus slew his own daughter to reach his goals, warning him that it may be the very last offer. Nick refuses - and this may represent the true Moral Event Horizon.
** Also in the Dresden Files, the Wardens believe that any breaking of the Laws of Magic constitutes crossing the MEH, as the Warlock will time and time again fall back to their law-breaking ways; even the character Harry was dating implied that she and her fellow Wardens commiserated the day he was spared, since all Warlocks are destined to be repeat offenders. From what we've seen with [[spoiler:Molly]] and Harry they might not be wrong about this.
** The villains of ''Changes'', [[spoiler:Arianna Ortega and the Red King]], cross the line soon after they are introduced. [[spoiler:Arianna kidnaps Harry's daughter Maggie (massacring her foster family in the process) to use her in a sacrificial ritual. The reason she wants to do this? Harry's grandfather killed her asshole of a husband, ''who she hated''. She just felt that Harry and Ebeneezer had insulted her. She finally crosses it for good when she not only announces that she plans to go through with murdering a child in a few minutes, but that it's essentially "just business."]] [[spoiler:Her daddy the Red King]] manages to be even more repulsive; at first he appears to just be [[spoiler:a [[TheCaligula Caligula-style]] junkie, even helping Harry out by ensuring that he can duel Arianna in a a situation where he has a fighting chance. Then, he reveals that it's essentially a massive act; he can actually speak perfect English which means that his reactions to Harry's insults were all staged. He then tries to sacrifice Maggie himself just to gain the prestige Arianna would have gained. And he's the one who orchestrated the Red Court system, meaning that all of their atrocities (which include centuries, maybe even millennia) of slavery, murder, and torture of the people of South and Central America are his doing]].
** Becomes a DiscussedTrope in several of the books after ''Changes'', with Harry and some other characters wondering if ''he'' crossed it by [[spoiler: becoming the Winter Knight and then provoking Susan into becoming a full vampire and murdering her in quick succession]] for the sake of saving [[spoiler: a daughter he didn't even know existed until a couple of days before]]. After a great deal of soul-searching and advice from his friends, by the end of ''Skin Game'' Harry is finally letting himself be convinced that [[spoiler: doing terrible things for the sake of those he loves after a lifetime of protecting the innocent does not make him a monster, it simply makes him a human who makes mistakes, and him holding himself to impossibly high moral standards and feeling damned when he fails to meet them is simply a variation of the melodramatic arrogance he sometimes shows]].
* [[spoiler: Godking Wanhope]] from ''[[Literature/TheNightAngelTrilogy The Night Angel]]'' has a series of POV chapters which are essentially a montage of MEH crossings. Notably, he justifies [[MoralMyopia (to himself)]] each of them in one way or another. [[spoiler: In the end he does manage to redeem himself, but only with a heroic sacrifice via lobotomy.]]

* In the ''Eternal Champion'' novella, the human military commander played near it when he [[spoiler:killed the Eldren commander while under a truce]]. But, the main character Ekrose crossed this firmly when he [[spoiler:killed the human race to protect the Eldren]].

** In the story "The Sign of the Broken Swords", we learn that [[spoiler:a brilliant but amoral general had betrayed his country, in wartime, [[{{Pride}} so that he could appear wealthy to his daughter's beau]].]] And as if that weren't bad enough, [[spoiler:he murdered a subordinate [[HeKnowsTooMuch who knew too much]], and, when he saw he'd broken his sword, he [[NeedleInaStackOfNeedles led his men on an intentionally foolish charge]] to make said subordinate look like a casualty of war.]]

* Starting from ''Dark Moon'' in ''Literature/TheFirebringerTrilogy'', the once honourable and noble unicorn king Korr starts getting...a little crazy. At one point, he charges two innocent mares, with the clear intent to kill at least one of them. But he truly crosses the line when his own daughter steps in front of him...''and he doesn't so much as falter''.
* The reveal of the true nature of the "Release" is this for the entire society in ''Literature/TheGiver''. For Jonas, [[spoiler:his father in particular goes over the line, as he's the one doing the Release to a ''baby''.]] This is softened in the [[Film/TheGiver film adaptation]] as [[spoiler:he undergoes a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment once, upon the release of the memories, it dawns upon him that he's been committing murder all along]].
* ''Literature/TheGodOfSmallThings'': Baby Kochamma [[spoiler: manipulating the twins into lying to the police to completely vindicate her from the blame of Velutha's death]].
* Drake from ''Literature/{{Gone}}'' probably crossed it offscreen before we saw him, but when he happily goes off to kill an autistic four-year-old, and we get into his head and see how delighted he is with the prospect, there is no going back. [[spoiler: Fortunately, he is unsuccessful.]]
** Caine probably crossed it when he was too apathetic to stop a bunch of coyotes from feeding on young children when all it would've taken to stop them was asking them nicely. An alternate one would be his treatment of Diana in ''Plague'', which, although not anywhere near as bad as what he'd done before, was [[KickTheMoralityPet destroying the one thing that kept him human.]]
** Diana herself sees [[spoiler: cannibalizing Panda]] as her own MEH, but, seeing as it partially prompted her [[spoiler: HeelFaceTurn,]] possibly not.

* In the Creator/HarryTurtledove novel ''Literature/TheGunsOfTheSouth'', the AWB crosses this when they gun down Robert E. Lee's family in the middle of a crowd. The fact that they would be so single-mindedly callous turns the Confederacy against them.
* ''Literature/HolmesOnTheRange'': In the first book, Ully and Spider go from being shifty {{Mean Boss}}es to blatantly evil {{Bad Boss}}es in a revolting manner when they use a branding iron on Pinky Harris to punish him for getting drunk and [[{{Sadist}} Spider openly relishes the experience.]]

** Steadholder Burdette and his allies cross it when they [[spoiler:sabotage the construction of a habitat dome, killing dozens of innocent schoolchildren]], in ''Flag In Exile''.

* For Esteban Garcia in ''Literature/TheHouseOfTheSpirits'' it probably happens when he molests, and likely rapes, Alba when she is still a little girl. But if that isn't enough he helps to organize The Terror. During that which he find her again. This time we know for certain that he rapes and tortures her and at least threatens to let his men rape her as well.

** If President Coriolanus Snow hadn't already gone over by that point, he does so in ''Mockingjay'' by firebombing a hospital for the crime of [[DisproportionateRetribution associating with the Mockingjay]].

* ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'': The murder of [[spoiler:Simon, the truly innocent kid]] on the island could qualify, although Piggy is able to rationalize it, since it was accidental. [[spoiler: Piggy's murder, an act of unprovoked aggression, is what truly marks the boys' descent into cruelty and madness]].

* Despite the fact that a Moral Event Horizon cannot be crossed more than once, Dr.Hatch from the Literature/MichaelVey series [[BeyondTheImpossible somehow manages to achieve it]] by taking a running leap so far over the line that he manages to fly past it on a loop at least once per book ''at minimum!''
** Prisoner of Cell 25: [[spoiler: He forces Michael to kill Wade in exchange for his mother's safety. When he refuses, he subjects Michael to nearly a month worth of torture in Cell 25. After his torture ends, he orders Zeus to kill him, Taylor, and Ostin.]]
** Rise of the Elgen: [[spoiler: After Tanner's sedatives wear off, he attempts to take down the plane Hatch and the other Glows were on. Even after preventing the crash, he orders the guard that was looking after Tanner to be sent to the bowl where he could be devoured by electric rats.]]
** Battle of the Ampere: [[spoiler: After Hatch manages to usurp the Elgen executives, he has Chairman Schema hung upside down. A female board member, who had romantic feelings towards Schema, is given a Sadistic Choice to be hung in his place. Next time we see them, she has died from having blood rushed to her head.]]
** Hunt for Jade Dragon: [[spoiler: Using Tara's illusion ability (and later revealed in book 5, trailing Taylor's mother), Hatch finds the hidden base of the resistance and has an air-strike set it ablaze. Book 5 reveals that everybody survived and that they only lied about nobody surviving in the message in-case the Elgen were listening on their conversation, but Hatch didn't know that.]]
** Storm of Lightning: [[spoiler: The book opens with him ordering EGG Welch to be sent to the Bowl. When Quentin, who had a close relationship with Welch, finds out, he manages to break him out with the help of Torstyn and Tara. When Hatch finds out that Quentin betrayed him, he orders Tara and Torstyn to be executed while he subjects Quentin to a Fate Worse Than Death where he is locked in a cage with his tongue removed.]]
** Fall of Hades: [[spoiler: Makes it perfectly clear to his subordinates and all who make contact with the Elgen that because he sees Michael as his rival, he intends to ''eat him''.]]

* [[OurDemonsAreDifferent The Guardian of Gloom]], Yaraat, evil werewolf from ''Methodius Buslaev'' series of Russian writer Dmitrii Emets, crossed this when he betrayed Ares, his fellow Guardian of Gloom, God of War, who prevented him from killing by other Guardians, as he was a thief, and killed his wife and little daughter. To clarify, [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes Ares bore a child from human woman]] (and didn't take their [[OurSoulsAreDifferent eide]], as by Gloom's law), he got with them on the run. However, Guardians has found them and he summoned Yaraat to protect them, while he would chase them off. [[BitchInSheepsClothing Yaraat]] happily agreed to help them and wait till Ares arrive. When Ares returned, he found only the bodies of his family in the well near their house where they were hiding... It turned out that Yaraat threatened to kill both mother and her daughter but not before taking their souls (eide could be taken only with consent and humans can be killed by Guardians of the Gloom only if their eide are consented to be given away or if they attack demons) and then killed them. Worse, it's heavily implied [[ItAmusedMe he did this simply to mock Ares and torture him, making his former friend to chase him.]] This event turned him into ArchEnemy in Ares's eyes [[spoiler: and got killed by him in second book.]]
** Every single Guardian of Gloom cross this when they take their eide from mortals, which will doom them into eternity of torment in Tartarus or put them in their darchs (evil parasitic soul-containing animals, which increase their magic powers and give them immortality they lost after betraying the God). No HeelFaceTurn is possible after that. [[spoiler: Even after aformentioned Ares got DeathEqualsRedemption, he still got stuck into Tartarus, though in far better mental shape than other killed Guardians of Gloom, and is deprived of torment; though he gets better later.]]

* In Richard Wright's ''Literature/NativeSon'', VillainProtagonist Bigger Thomas is from the beginning kind of a sleazeball, what with committing indecent exposure and [[DudeShesLikeInAComa feeling up an unconscious girl]] [[spoiler:and accidentally smothering that girl to death while trying to keep her from waking up and crying out]], but he truly vaults over the line when [[spoiler:he rapes and murders his [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Woman]] girlfriend once she [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness becomes a liability]]]]. Wright's point is that the ''true'' monster here is [[TheGovernment the corrupt system]] that allows people faced with crippling poverty to become this bad.

* While an arguement can be made that he crossed the line earlier, Willy Rumson of ''Literature/OneFatSummer'' definitely was ready to cross the line in the climax. Blinded by anger, Rumson confronts main character Bobby (who is only 14) and his friends with a loaded gun, demanding Bobby row them both out to an island on the lake so he can [[{{Kneecapping}} "let the air out of Beachball."]] This he proposes as an alternative to just killing Bobby if he doesn't comply.

* In ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray'', Dorian has done some pretty fucked up stuff, most of which we don't know about -- but when he murders his best friend, Basil Hallward who [[HoYay genuinely loved Dorian]] [[LoveMartyr and believed he could be redeemed]], Dorian's well and truly crossed the line. The worst thing is that [[ItsAllAboutMe he doesn't even feel guilty]], [[DirtyCoward just worried that he'll be caught]]. He later [[spoiler:blackmails a former lover of his, the chemist Alan Campbell, into disposing of Basil's lifeless body. Alan does so due to how terrified he is of Dorian, and while we only get hints of how he did it, he is so traumatized that he crosses the DespairEventHorizon and commits suicide almost immediately afterwards.]] That makes Dorian ''even more'' despicable, indeed.
** Some people considered Dorian gone well ''before'' that, when he drove Sybil Vane (a TeenGenius actress and local GirlNextDoor) [[BreakTheCutie into madness]] and [[SpurnedIntoSuicide finally into suicide]] with TheReasonYouSuckSpeech that smashed the kid's self-esteem into tiny pieces. And when he tries to feel guilty about it, it's revealed that [[{{Pride}} he's only worried about it due to his own pride.]]

* In Creator/MichaelCrichton's second-to-last novel ''Literature/PirateLatitudes'', the Governor's new secretary, Robert Hacklett, [[spoiler:first takes over the island and throws Captain Hunter in prison after his return, but crosses the Horizon when he allows his wife to be raped, right in front of him.]] At least he gets his due when [[spoiler:said wife shoots him in the groin with a flintlock pistol.]]
* [=McDonald=] is painted to be a sadistic JerkAss, but no worse that that in the first half or so of ''Literature/PocketInTheSea'', but then literally [[KickTheDog Kicks the Dog]] and then proceeds straight to his MEH.
* In ''Literature/RainbowSix'', one member of a group of Basque separatists seeking to spring prisoners from jail coldly murders a LittlestCancerPatient on live TV. No one really objects, though Ding does give a perfunctory dressing-down, when one of the team's snipers puts a round through the killer's liver so that he bleeds painfully to death rather than taking a {{Instant Death| Bullet}} BoomHeadshot.
** The main villains also definitely count for [[spoiler: trying to kill almost everyone on the planet by means of a modified Ebola virus in order to preserve the environment. Makes it eminently satisfying when Clark organizes a KarmicDeath for them.]]

* In ''Robots and Empire'', Kelden Amadiro and Levular Mandamus are already skirting pretty close when they [[spoiler:plot the acceleration of the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium in the Earth's crust over a 150-year period]], but then, at the moment when the plot is ready to be executed, Amadiro insists on turning the dial to 12, which would [[spoiler:kill hundreds of millions, if not billions, within 20 years.]] Mandamus is suitably horrified by Amadiro's attempt to fulfill his quest for revenge by [[spoiler:trying to commit genocide]].
* Vicar Zhaspahr Clyntahn is the Grand Inquisitor of a CorruptChurch in the ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'' series. That alone should tell you all you need to know. He and his Inquisition find new ways to cross the Moral Event Horizon every book. The standout, which is a Horizon InUniverse as well as out, is in the fourth book. He arrests and tortures to death several vicars whose only crime was being part of a Reformist circle who wanted to rein in the Church's corruption. He then goes after those vicars' families, those vicars' assistants, and ''their'' families. This includes children as young as ''twelve.'' The children he doesn't kill are shipped off to very strict, orthodox monasteries. This act is so monstrous that it turns the threat of Holy War, which had loomed over the story since the second book, into an ''afterthought.''

* ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'': Enoch Drebber and Joseph Strangerson from Literature/AStudyInScarlet cross the line when, in response to John and Lucy Ferrier fleeing Utah to get away from the two competing for Lucy's hand in marriage, they hunt them down, kill John and force Lucy to marry Drebber, leading to her DeathByDespair.
* ''Literature/SisterhoodSeries'': A number of villainous characters are considered to have crossed this by the Vigilantes. Senator Webster from the book ''Payback'' is an interesting example. Maybe you don't consider his actions of unknowingly giving his wife Julia Webster AIDS to be crossing this. Maybe you don't consider his actions of cheating on her with ''multiple'' women to be crossing this. However, the minute he, in a drunken rage over the fact that his affairs are being broadcast live, goes wife-beater on Julia is the minute you ''know'' he has finally and truly crossed this!

** Joffrey Baratheon, who decided to [[spoiler:execute Ned Stark, the DecoyProtagonist and viewpoint character of ''Literature/AGameOfThrones'', despite promising his girlfriend and Ned's daughter, Sansa, that he would be merciful and allow Ned to join the Night's Watch]]. He then proceeded to become TheCaligula at age ''13''. It could also be argued that Joffrey's MEH came much earlier, when his lie caused the deaths of [[spoiler: Sansa's dire wolf Lady and Arya's friend Mycah]].
** Gregor Clegane's MEH came before the start of the series, when he [[spoiler: murdered a baby by dashing its head on a wall, then raped the mother with the boy's brains still on his hands.]] And this is even putting aside the fact that when he was a child, he found his little brother playing with one of his toys... so he ''[[DisproportionateRetribution held his face in a burning brazier until half the flesh melted off]]''.
** One of the most chilling MEH's of the novels comes when we find out what happened to [[PsychopathicManchild Ramsay Bolton's]] wife: He locked her in a tower with nothing to eat. They found her with no fingers and blood around her mouth.
** Once upon a time, Walder Frey and his brood were obnoxious hillbillies that the rest of Westeros had to tolerate because they held a major crossing. Then they decided to [[spoiler:massacre Robb and Catelyn Stark and the Northern army at the Red Wedding.]] Now readers cheer when random Frey children and grandchildren end up killed and used as the filling for delicious pies. It was especially the [[spoiler: method - betraying SacredHospitality -]] by which the Freys did it that attracted such hatred.
** [[TheSociopath Sociopath]] [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireHouseBolton Roose Bolton]] first bent the knee to Robb Stark, then crossed the MEH when he [[spoiler: plotted with Tywin Lanister to convince Walder Frey to host the Red Wedding and served as the [[TheStarscream Starscream]] by personally murdering Stark at his own wedding]].

* For the characters of ''Literature/SpaceMarineBattles'', Toharan (an Imperial loyalist, mind you) ordering a military strike on imperial [[{{Ruritania}} agri-world]] which has always obeyed the Imperial law. This is when his subordinates start to question him and he only gets worse.
* In ''Literature/TheSpiritThief'', the final book sees two villains go past the point of no return.

* In ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'', Kahlan crosses it when she vows to destroy everyone in Galea and throw her half-sister queen Cyrilla into a rape pit. Zedd crosses it moments later when he is implied to have murdered the queen's emissary in cold blood for [[FelonyMisdemeanor daring to be angry about such a pronouncement.]] This is [[DesignatedHero treated as]] [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality a completely good action]] by Creator/TerryGoodkind.
* Jefferson Pinkard remains a sympathetic character for amazingly long in ''Literature/Timeline191'', despite being a member of the Nazi-equivalent Freedom Party, as we've known him since long before he joined and understand exactly why he's bitter enough to do it. At most, the reader is probably hoping for a while after he joins that he'll realize the path he's on before it's too late. However, when he comes up with a way to mass murder black people using truck fumes, the line is finally crossed definitively.

* ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'': Ewell either crossed it by beating and raping his own daughter and falsely accusing Tom Robinson of the crime, or by [[spoiler: trying to kill Atticus's children]].

* In ''Literature/TheTomorrowSeries ,'' [[spoiler: Major Harvey]] looks like nothing but a JerkAss at first...but rapidly speeds past the Moral Event Horizon when it's revealed that so far from being a member of LaResistance, he's [[LesCollaborateurs an enemy collaborator,]] before advancing to full [[TheQuisling Quislinghood]]. [[spoiler: He takes the lead in interrogating Ellie and her friends, doesn't protest at all when they're condemned to death, and it's no fault of his that they escaped.]] Nobody who reads the books feels sorry for [[TakingYouWithMe his eventual fate.]]

* In ''Literature/WarriorCats'', Scourge claims that his was killing a cat for the first time. He says that when he did it, he got a cold feeling in his belly, and it just got colder and colder and never warmed up again... and he ''welcomed'' it, as it made it easier for him to earn respect as a fighter.
** Brokenstar pretty much danced across the line when he began kidnapping kits and turning them into [[ChildSoldier Child Soldiers]], forcing them to fight enemy warriors easily three times their size. The ones who survived the "[[CurbStompBattle fights]]" usually died of their wounds.

** Darkstripe feeding his own half-sister--who was just a kit at the time, mind you--deathberries to keep her quiet about his upcoming betrayal.

* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': A ''heroic'' example; Rand al'Thor, a man who has already fallen victim to plenty of [[SanitySlippage Sanity Slippage]] due to his abilities (and stress), has been forced to surrender most of his moral code ("Don't channel" and "Kill no one unless necessary" being some examples). Though, even if he became more unfazed by acts other characters considered cruel, he wasn't necessarily 'evil'. However, it wasn't until [[spoiler: Semirhage]] forced him to [[spoiler: strangle Min, one of the three he still felt strong emotion for]] that he gave up his last moral [[spoiler: (to never kill a woman)]], burning [[spoiler: Semirhage [[DeaderThanDead out of existence with Balefire]]]], and truly crossed his MEH.

** Queen Scarlet of the [=SkyWing=]s crosses this very early in the series, in ''The Dragonet Prophecy'' when she murders Dune, one of the guardians of the Dragonets Of Destiny.
** Blister finally crosses this in ''The Brightest Night'', by siccing two dragonbite vipers (a venomous snake whose poison can kill dragons) on Burn. Burn had already anticipated the first one and killed it.[[spoiler:..but she didn't count on the second one, so it kills her easily.]] Some argue that she crossed it even earlier in ''The Dragonet Prophecy'', where she slashes Kestrel's throat and tosses her body into the ocean.

** Morrowseer crosses this in "The Dark Secret" when he [[KicktheDog ousts Squid, a SeaWing dragonet, from the group]] and sends him off, supposedly to his death right after [[LeaveNoSurvivors killing every SkyWing in the outpost they visited]].

* ''Literature/WorldOfTheFiveGods'': Methani and Tronio's scheme in ''The Assassins of Thasalon'', [[spoiler: forcing a young widow to take up demons and use them as one-shot assassination weapons, while threatening to castrate and enslave her son if she fails, manages to offend all five Gods: its injustice offends the Father, its abuse of a mother's love offends the Mother, its threat to an innocent boy offends the Son, its extortion of Alixtra offends the Daughter, and its [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman cruel disposal of demons]] offends the Bastard.]]

* While an arguement can be made that he crossed the line earlier, Willy Rumson of ''Literature/OneFatSummer'' definitely was ready to cross the line in the climax. Blinded by anger, Rumson confronts main character Bobby (who is only 14) and his friends with a loaded gun, demanding Bobby row them both out to an island on the lake so he can [[{{KneeCapping}} "let the air out of Beachball."]] This he proposes as an alternative to just killing Bobby if he doesn't comply.

* In ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'', Kahlan crosses it when she vows to destroy everyone in Galea and throw her half-sister queen Cyrilla into a rape pit. Zedd crosses it moments later when he is implied to have murdered the queen's emissary in cold blood for [[FelonyMisdemeanor daring to be angry about such a pronouncement.]] This is [[DesignatedHero treated as]] [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality a completely good action]] by Goodkind.

* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': A ''heroic'' example; Rand al'Thor, a man who has already fallen victim to plenty of [[SanitySlippage Sanity Slippage]] due to his abilities (and stress), has been forced to surrender most of his moral code ("Don't channel" and "Kill no one unless necessary" being some examples). Though, even if he became more unfazed by acts other characters considered cruel, he wasn't necessarily 'evil'. However, it wasn't until [[spoiler: Semirhage]] forced him to [[spoiler: strangle Min, one of the three he still felt strong emotion for]] that he gave up his last moral [[spoiler: (to never kill a woman)]], burning [[spoiler: Semirhage [[DeaderThanDead out of existence with Balefire]]]], and truly crossed his MEH.
** Ominously [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Rand himself:
--->'''Rand:''' It is done.\\
'''[[spoiler:Min]]:''' [[spoiler:''[coughing]'' What?]]\\
'''Rand:''' The last that could be done to me. They have taken everything from me now.
** The moment when he ''really'' approaches, though, is when he nearly [[spoiler:killed his stepfather, Tam, whom he very much loved, because of the stress and manipulations of Ais Sedai]]. This moment triggered a MyGodWhatHaveIDone reaction, leading to his redemption.
** And, of course, every Forsaken has crossed it.
* ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'': Ewell either crossed it by beating and raping his own daughter and falsely accusing Tom Robinson of the crime, or by [[spoiler: trying to kill Atticus's children]].
** The jurors crossed it by finding Tom guilty despite knowing ''damn'' well he was innocent.

* In the ''Literature/WolvesOfMercyFallsSeries'', Sam's parents [[spoiler:slashed his wrists in the bathtub in hopes of killing him since he couldn't control being a werewolf]].
* In ''Literature/{{Overenskommelser}}'', all three villains have crossed the MEH by the end:
** Rosenschiöld seems to have crossed it already before the story starts (he murdered one of wives and drove another wife to suicide), but he definately crosses it when he rapes and nearly kills Beatrice (his third wife) already on their wedding night.
** It's hard to tell when Wilhelm and Edvard crossed it because they have so many potential moments. Wilhelm does cruel things like locking Beatrice in a room for a week with no food, and later on beating her almost to death. Edvard makes a fourteen-year-old girl pregnant, then abandons her and shows no remorse when she dies after a butchered abortion. Both of them together force Beatrice into marriage with Rosenschiöld, despite knowing she would suffer. They definately cross it though when they show Beatrice no sympathy after she's raped and nearly killed on her wedding night.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Tywin Lannister crosses this before we even properly meet him. We hear in the backstory how he order the sacking of King's Landing which killed hundreds, but it gets worse when Tyrion tells the story of [[spoiler:his first wife. He secretly married whom he thought was a crofter's daughter whom he and his brother Jaime had rescued from being raped. When Tywin found out he told his son that she was a whore hired by Jaime to give Tyrion his first lay. To prove it, he had her gang-raped by a barracks full of Lannister guardsmen, even paying her a silver piece for each one, and then forced Tyrion to go last]]. It's made even worse when we later find out [[spoiler: it was a lie. She really was a crofter's daughter who fell in love with Tyrion. When he learned this, Tyrion flew into a murderous rage and killed his father]].
** Joffrey Baratheon, who decided to [[spoiler:execute Ned Stark, the DecoyProtagonist and viewpoint character, despite promising his girlfriend and Ned's daughter, Sansa, that he would be merciful and allow Ned to join the Night's Watch]]. He then proceeded to become TheCaligula at age ''13''. It could also be argued that Joffrey's MEH came much earlier, when his lie caused the deaths of [[spoiler: Sansa's dire wolf Lady and Arya's friend Mycah]].
** Gregor Clegane's MEH came before the start of the series, when he [[spoiler: murdered a baby by dashing its head on a wall, then raped the mother with the boy's brains still on his hands.]] And this is even putting aside the fact that when he was a child, he found his little brother playing with one of his toys... so he ''[[DisproportionateRetribution held his face in a burning brazier until half the flesh melted off]]''.
** One of the most chilling MEH's of the novels comes when we find out what happened to [[PsychopathicManchild Ramsay Bolton's]] wife: He locked her in a tower with nothing to eat. They found her with no fingers and blood around her mouth.
** Once upon a time, Walder Frey and his brood were obnoxious hillbillies that the rest of Westeros had to tolerate because they held a major crossing. Then they decided to [[spoiler:massacre Robb and Catelyn Stark and the Northern army at the Red Wedding.]] Now readers cheer when random Frey children and grandchildren end up killed and used as the filling for delicious pies. It was especially the [[spoiler: method - betraying SacredHospitality -]] by which the Freys did it that attracted such hatred.
** [[TheSociopath Sociopath]] [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireHouseBolton Roose Bolton]] first bent the knee to Robb Stark, then crossed the MEH when he [[spoiler: plotted with Tywin Lanister to convince Walder Frey to host the Red Wedding and served as the [[TheStarscream Starscream]] by personally murdering Stark at his own wedding]].
** Also played with early in Game of Thrones when Jaime Lannister [[spoiler: pushes the young Brandon Stark out of a window for witnessing him and his twin sister, the queen, having sex]]. This seems at the time to be a definite moral event horizon, but Jaime later becomes a gradually more sympathetic character after he undergoes extreme suffering over the course of the story, which prompts definite change in his moral character for the better.
** Theon Greyjoy proves just how powerful a MEH can be. He [[spoiler:allows Reek to kill two Small Folk children and their mother along with a handful of other people to cover up the escape of Bran and Rickon]], and spends the rest of the series paying the horrific consequences.
** Rorge once found a young boy, took him in, filed his teeth and made him fight dogs until he went mad. You now know that boy as [[ImAHumanitarian Biter]].
** Viserys Targaryen threatened to cut Daenerys's baby out of her womb [[DisproportionateRetribution because her husband took too long to keep a promise]].
** Randyll Tarly crossed by either threatening to arrange a HuntingAccident for his own son unless he joins the Night's Watch, or even earlier in the backstory by [[spoiler:chaining said son to a wall for three days straight because he wanted to become a maester]].
** Cersei Lannister crossed it at Casterly Rock when she had bastard twins of her husband killed and sold their mother to slavery.

* In ''Literature/BattleRoyale'':

* The famous Swedish ''[[Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy Millennium]]'' trilogy has many line crossings both gruesome and realistic:
** Niles Bjurman from ''The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo'' - who is Lisbeth's legal guardian and caretaker - crosses this line either when he [[spoiler: forces her to perform oral sex]] in exchange for the money she needs to replace her computer, or when he [[spoiler: violently sodomizes, rapes and tortures her]].
** Zalachenko from ''The Girl Who Played with Fire'' crossed it when he [[spoiler: beat Lisbeth's mother so badly that she suffered a crippling cerebral hemmorhage]].
** Even though he's trying to screw up Lisbeth's life, [[spoiler: Fredrik Clinton]] from ''The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest'' crosses this when he arranges for Mikael to be murdered and framed for dealing drugs in an effort to destroy his credibility. Wadensjöö even calls him on it, saying that [[spoiler:Clinton]] will end up destroying The Section because of his actions.

* Literature/SherlockHolmes: Enoch Drebber and Joseph Strangerson from Literature/AStudyInScarlet cross the line when, in response to John and Lucy Ferrier fleeing Utah to get away from the two competing for Lucy's hand in marriage, they hunt them down, kill John and force Lucy to marry Drebber, leading to her DeathByDespair.
* Literature/SisterhoodSeries by Creator/FernMichaels: A number of villainous characters are considered to have crossed this by the Vigilantes. Senator Webster from the book ''Payback'' is an interesting example. Maybe you don't consider his actions of unknowingly giving his wife Julia Webster AIDS to be crossing this. Maybe you don't consider his actions of cheating on her with ''multiple'' women to be crossing this. However, the minute he, in a drunken rage over the fact that his affairs are being broadcast live, goes wife-beater on Julia is the minute you ''know'' he has finally and truly crossed this!

** And at the end of ''Kingdom of the Wicked'', [[spoiler: The Reflection!Stephanie killing Carol, just to test how her weapon works]]

* Jefferson Pinkard remains a sympathetic character for amazingly long in Creator/HarryTurtledove's ''Literature/{{Timeline 191}}'' series, despite being a member of the Nazi-equivalent Freedom Party, as we've known him since long before he joined and understand exactly why he's bitter enough to do it. At most, the reader is probably hoping for a while after he joins that he'll realize the path he's on before it's too late. However, when he comes up with a way to mass murder black people using truck fumes, the line is finally crossed definitively.

* In ''Literature/TheSwordOfTruth'' Kahlan crosses it when she vows to destroy everyone in Galea and throw her half-sister queen Cyrilla into a rape pit. Zedd crosses it moments later when he is implied to have murdered the queen's emissary in cold blood for [[FelonyMisdemeanor daring to be angry about such a pronouncement.]] This is [[DesignatedHero treated as]] [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality a completely good action]] by Goodkind.

--> Rand: "It is done."
--> [[spoiler: Min]]: [[spoiler: (Coughing) "What?"]]
--> Rand: "The last that could be done to me. They have taken everything from me now."
** The moment when he ''really'' approches, though, is when he nearly [[spoiler: killed his stepfather, Tam, whom he very much loved, because of the stress and manipulations of Ais Sedai.]] This moment triggered a MyGodWhatHaveIDone reaction, leading to his redemption.

* ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'': Captain Nemo [[{{Pun}} sails]] over the line with his brutal attack on an enemy ship, and later when he uses a porthole just to ''watch people drown''. Arronax, who had been an ally of Nemo, finally realizes how dangerous the man really is, and decides to jump ship with his friends.

* The Libertines in ''120 Days of Sodom'' are perhaps the most sadistic characters in classical literature. They kidnap several people, including their own daughters, and subject them to 120 days of violent, nightmarish psychological, physical, and sexual torture just ForTheEvulz. They go as far as to [[spoiler: disembowel pregnant women and maim their own daughters violently]], and [[DesignatedHero the author treats the characters as heroes with minor quirks!]]
** The author in question is none other than the Creator/MarquisDeSade, whose very name gave us the very word "sadism." (For good cause, he himself was a serial rapist.) And there's quite a bit more where that came from -- in the Sade novel ''Philosophy in the Bedroom'', Eugenie crosses the Horizon with the horrors that she, Dolmance and the other libertines visit upon her own mother, Madame de Mistival, who came to try to rescue her from her corruption, up to and including [[spoiler:having her raped by a man with syphillis and then ''sewing her genitals shut'' so that the polluted seed will be kept inside, which will most likely lead to her death]].
* In ''Literature/{{Overenskommelser}}'' by Creator/SimonaAhrnstedt, all three villains have crossed the MEH by the end:

** Joffrey Baratheon, who decided to [[spoiler: execute Ned Stark, the DecoyProtagonist of Literature/GameOfThrones and viewpoint character, despite promising his girlfriend and Ned's daughter, Sansa, that he would be merciful and allow Ned to join the Night's Watch]]. He then proceeded to become TheCaligula at age ''13''. It could also be argued that Joffrey's MEH came much earlier, when his lie caused the deaths of [[spoiler: Sansa's dire wolf Lady and Arya's friend Mycah]].

* In Richard Wright's ''Native Son'', VillainProtagonist Bigger Thomas is from the beginning kind of a sleazeball, what with committing indecent exposure and [[DudeShesLikeInAComa feeling up an unconscious girl]] [[spoiler:and accidentally smothering that girl to death while trying to keep her from waking up and crying out]], but he truly vaults over the line when [[spoiler:he rapes and murders his [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Woman]] girlfriend once she [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness becomes a liability]]]]. Wright's point is that the ''true'' monster here is [[TheGovernment the corrupt system]] that allows people faced with crippling poverty to become this bad.

* MoralEventHorizon/JurassicPark

* In [[Creator/JRRTolkien Tolkien's]] [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Middle Earth Legendarium]]:
** ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'':
*** Melkor's destruction of the Two Trees, murder of Finwë and theft of the Silmarils. After this, he can never again take a form that looks anything other than completely evil, and is named as Morgoth, the Dark Enemy of the World.
*** Another idea is that he crossed this when kidnapping some of the Elves after they awoke and apparently [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil torturing]] and corrupting them to create the Orcs, which is called his foulest deed and prompted the Valar to attack him again. Despite this after spending three ages [[AndIMustScream imprisoned]] in the Halls of Mandos he was offered the chance to repent.
*** Feanor, after seizing the ships of Teleri and causing the Kinslaying of Alqualondë, which leads the Noldor to be cursed.
*** In the Akallabêth, after the Silmarillion but before the events of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', Sauron crosses it when he engineers the destruction of Númenor by corrupting its king; like Morgoth, after this action he can never again take an appearance that is not evil. And that's without even considering that in all of Melkor's atrocities he had a great part in, and continued to breed orcs long after his master's downfall. In short almost everything he did, from the beginning of time would be a line crossing for lesser creatures.
** Saruman in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' crosses the Moral Event Horizon at the very end, when he does everything possible to destroy the Shire out of pure spite. Up until that point, he'd done plenty of awful things, but had continually been offered (and refused) opportunities for redemption. The destruction of the Shire shows that he's irrevocably fallen from a wizard who was once great and wise to a bitter man with nothing left but hatred and the desire to harm others as much as possible. If Treebeard's infamous reaction is anything to go by, he may have crossed it earlier with his massacre of the Ents.
--->'''Treebeard''': There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of men bad enough for such treachery. Down with Saruman!
** While never a morally upstanding guy, Túrin is one of the few sympathetic characters in Middle-Earth to pass this, at the climax of ''Literature/TheChildrenOfHurin'' when he murders a lame man in a fit of rage, leaving even himself so disgusted that he commits suicide.

* MoralEventHorizon/Nasuverse

* In ''Literature/StarTrekATimeTo'', Prime Minister Kinchawn crosses it rather early, after he uses his illegally-acquired weapons to shoot down 10 Klingon ships in orbit of Tezwa, killing 6,000 warriors. If this didn't represent his crossing the line, his casual willingness to see millions of Tezwans killed in a Klingon counterstrike, including his own family, certainly does. What makes it worse is his apparent self-image as a WellIntentionedExtremist, when he's really DrunkWithPower. He sees his own children's death as merely a means to acquire more sympathy and thus more support and power, and seems to truly believe this is somehow reasonable.