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Moral Event Horizon / Western Animation

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You think Cartoonish Supervillainy is nothing to worry about in Western Animation? Think again.


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    A-D 
  • Richard De Longpre from Allen Gregory crosses it when he stalks and blackmails Jeremy into leaving his family so he can become his personal Sex Slave.
  • Walter Wolf, Slappy Squirrel's nemesis in Animaniacs, sinks to the ultimate low in "Rest In Pieces" by faking his own death in order to turn everyone against her, including her nephew.
  • Arcane: Jinx crosses it when 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.
  • Archer: As of the second episode of the second season, has Sterling Archer 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.
    • Barry's Moral Event Horizon was probably murdering Jakov, another candidate for Archer's father.
    • Major Jakov's Moral Event Horizon probably came in "Dial M For Mother", when he brainwashes Archer to turn him against Malory.
    • Malory crosses the Moral Event Horizon in Season 2 and 3 flashbacks to Sterling's childhood: she got him drunk and taught him to gamble so she could steal his Halloween candy, and berates him for being unable to hold his liquor. She bought him a bike for his birthday, then stole it and punished him for losing it, without even telling him what she'd done.
  • Arthur: Supreme Dog crossed it in the only episode he appears in, "To Eat or Not to Eat", by distributing Big Boss Bars, which are explicitly said to contain radioactive ingredients, in Elwood City and marketing them specifically towards children, all so that he can make a profit. Fittingly, at the end of the episode, he gets sent to jail (presumably for life) for his actions.
  • In the Redhill story from Animated Tales of the World , the Adviser crosses this when he orders the guards to kill Nadine and his grandmother, even though he had already successfully convinced the Rajah that he shouldn't take advice from a young boy such as Nadine.
  • Red Skull from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes crosses this in season 2 where we find out that he captured and brainwashed Bucky and turned him into Winter Soldier, an emotionless killing machine and made him commit several atrocities, and did the same to Doc Samson and The Falcon. Skull also infected the entire New York city with his Dust of Death, which might have possible killed many innocent civilians, just to discredit Avengers and kill Captain America, while being under the guise of "Dell Rusk", the secretary of US defense.
  • Bandolero (Animation)
    • Don Rodrigo crosses this at the very beginning of the series, ordering to burn Bandolero's house and killing his father in the fire. He just gets worse by the end of the series, betraying the Governor, abusing Maria, killing Don Candido, Bandolero's Parental Substitute after he tries to defend her and abusing his authority shooting his general Jeremias in the arm after he refuses to kill Bandolero.
  • Batman Beyond:
    • At the beginning of the series, Derek Powers crossed it by exposing one of his own employees to a deadly bioweapon and leaving him to die, and then having Terry's father killed to cover up his actions. And when a disguised Terry confronts him, he reveals this isn't the first time he's done this.
    • Spellbinder crosses it when he creates VR Rooms, which consist of VR machines that Spellbinder lures vulnerable teenagers to, where they get the love and affection they desperately want in real life. The machines are drugged, which makes all the users very addicted, and Spellbinder exploits this to make his customers steal money to be able to use his machines more.
    • 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 starts to make him phase out to the point that he’ll go through the ground he walks, Bruce is so disgusted, he coldly refuses to help Peek.
    • Deanna Clay, Inque's daughter, crossed it when she dissolved her own mother in order to gain full access to her bank accounts. Inque survives, but the series never mentions if she exacts any revenge on her treacherous daughter.
  • Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker gives the Clown Prince of Crime a rather infamous line-crossing moment: he kidnapped Robin, tortured and mind raped 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.
  • The Batman: Joker attempting to fatally gas all of Gotham in "JTV". Or in "Joker Express" where he fills Gotham's tunnels with dynamite and intends to blow it up and cause all of Gotham to fall into a sinkhole. Plus his Mind Rape of Ethan Bennett in "The Rubberface of Comedy". And Tony Zucco crosses it in the first ten minutes of his appearance by killing Dick Grayson's parents (before he became Robin) just because Mr. Grayson called the cops when Zucco got a bit threatening.
  • Conrad from the 2017 Bob the Builder special Mega Machines crossed it when he started a flood so he could ruin Bob's good name.
  • While most of the antagonists in The Boondocks are just irresponsible, greedy, or selfish Jerkasses, there are moments where some had crossed the line
    • Lamilton Taeshawn is not exactly a child you want to babysit, but he crosses the line when he outright threatens to shoot Riley simply because he doesn't want to hang out with him.
      • Others thought he crossed it when he killed a dog that was chained up and couldn't reach him.
    • Ed Wuncler Sr. pretty much kicks dogs left and right, but his most heinous crimes include:
      • Tricking Jasmine into slave labor in her own lemonade stand with false promises of a pony so that when people start protesting, he can make a killing off "cruelty-free lemonade" and stick Jasmine with a $300 bill, as all the money she made was not enough to cover the expenses of professionalizing the stand at Wuncler's request. Wuncler even goes so far as to blame Jasmine for the failure of the stand!
      • Giving Granddad his own soul food restaurant, knowing the food is so unhealthy and addictive, the resulting crime rates would devalue neighboring Meadowlark Park enough for him to purchase and develop it cheap.
      • Having his grandson and his best friend set bombs in a building just to kill ONE man so that can play him up as a national hero and sell loads of merchandise.
      • Most damning of all is that all his evil acts are for the sole purpose of money, despite being rich enough to have connections to the president.
    • Wuncler's son is as bad as his father; when Robert was in his debt, he has Robert sell himself and his family into slavery and has them live and work in a realistic slave-themed theme park, along with the others in his debt.
      • Uncle Ruckus crosses the point of no return by taking part in running said realistic slave-themed theme park, whipping Robert (the closest thing to a friend he has ever had) and taking sadistic delight in their torment. He shows extreme glee when Huey is about to have his foot chopped off.
  • Captain Planet and the Planeteers:
    • Verminous Skumm crosses the line in almost every episode he appears, but the most infamous moments are in episodes "Mind Pollution" and "A Formula For Hate": in the former, Skumm hands out a mind-affecting drug called "Bliss" to teenagers, deliberately causing them to go insane just for the joy of ruining their lives and those of their friends and families. He even temporarily has Linka, one of the Planeteers, turned into a drug-addicted lunatic by her own cousin Boris, who had also become a drug-addicted lunatic and eventually dies from a fatal overdose of the drug, thus making Skumm indirectly responsible for Boris' death. And in the latter, he harassed an HIV-positive teenager by spreading lies about HIV/AIDS because the kid was an easy target for him to use along with the naivety of the townspeople about HIV/AIDS to spread hatred and take over the world. Almost every episode featuring Skumm has him crossing the MEH, but these two episodes are his most infamous Moral Event Horizon moments.
    • Dr. Blight crosses the line in the episode "A Good Bomb is Hard to Find", where she and her future self went back in time to World War II and decided to sell nuclear bombs to Hitler (sure he was Captain Ersatz and was only referred as "The Fuhrer", but it was obvious who he was supposed to be). The Planeteers even say that this is low, even for Blight.
    • Zarm is one nasty work himself for two words: scorched earth.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door:
    • Grandfather was also the one who's responsible for making Father who he is. He somehow traumatized his own son into being scared of broccoli.
    • While most of the villains are willing to hurt or even outright kill children, Nurse Claiborne tries to kill Numbuhs Three and Five in cold blood!
    • Chester trying to feed kids to sharks. Specifically, sharks that can drive cars.
    • Father himself crossed it when he brainwashed Sector Z into The Delightful Children from Down the Lane.
  • Cow and Chicken: Though he isn't nearly as bad as the Devil in The Bible, 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 almost being cooked alive in one of The Red Guy's schemes.
  • Danny Phantom played it oddly straight with Danny's alternate future. The whole "Dark Danny creation" scene was horrific and it horrified even Vlad, which really says something. Also see Dark Danny's first appearance where he apparently kills multiple people on screen. Ax-Crazy, indeed.
  • While the villains of Darkwing Duck are often Laughably Evil, Negaduck crossed this in "Just Us Justice Ducks." When the heroes surrounded him, Negaduck threatens to throw a switch that would kill everyone, including himself. And even after the heroes back down, Negaduck decides to do it anyway out of pure spite.

    E-P 
  • Near the end of the Ed, Edd n Eddy series, Eddy's Brother crossed this within seconds of making his first appearance when he began to mercilessly beat up Eddy, and freely admits he's always done this to him, thus making him into what he is today.
  • The Fairly Oddparents movie "Wishology" has the Lead Eliminator trying to kill Timmy is bad enough. But when he became the Destructinator, he plans to destroy the world in an Earth-Shattering Kaboom.
    • The Pixies crossed this in "School's Out: The Musical" with the revelation they'd kidnapped a child and raised him for his entire life as their own personal Tyke-Bomb to try and take over Fairy World and the Earth.
    • The Anti-Fairies crossed this (and if "School's Out" wasn't theirs, this certainly is for the Pixies) by using Poof as a weapon to destroy Fairy World for revenge, then choosing to destroy the Earth For the Evulz.
    • Vicky crossed this in "Open Wide and Say Aaagh!" when she attempts to perform a "twerp-ectomy" on Timmy, which involves not only ripping out his tonsils but also killing him.
    • The whole gambit Norm pulled in "Fairy Idol". He was already a Jerkass Genie, but the way he ruins Timmy's and Chester's lives is just terrible.
    • Remy Buxaplenty was originally a Villainy-Free Villain who was merely jealous of Timmy's Fairies and happiness, and while he might do an underhanded tactic here and there, like when he tricked Timmy by faking friendship so his life would be too perfect and his fairies would leave him, he never resorted to violence. He went from sympathetic Lonely Rich Kid to full-on Card-Carrying Villain as of "Operation F.U.N." where he, Juandisimo, and Chief Shallow Grave put Timmy and his friends through Training from Hell, running them absolutely ragged and cutting Timmy off from his fairies by having them confiscated in goldfish form. The MOH crossing really comes in when he traps them under a butterfly net, which renders them powerless with a missile ready to obliterate them. He was willing to KILL Cosmo and Wanda!
  • Family Guy:
    • In "The Big Bang Theory", Bertram tries to prevent Stewie's existence by going back in time and killing his ancestor, Leonardo da Vinci. This is bad because Stewie accidentally caused the Big Bang. When Stewie warns him of this, he decides to kill da Vinci anyway. If it wasn't for My Own Grandpa, Bertram would have erased the entire universe and history itself.
      Bertram: "Worth it!"
    • Diane Simmons crossed it in "And Then There Were Fewer", when she kills several people, and then frames Tom Tucker, blaming him for her termination from Quahog 5 News. She takes it even further when she tries to kill Lois after an innocuous comment let Lois figure it out, though luckily, Stewie managed to shoot Diane with a Sniper Rifle before she could, leading to Diane falling off the cliffside into a watery grave.
    • Sheriff Nichols seems to be a jerkass sheriff at first, deciding to frame Peter Griffin and his friends so that they'll have to spend two weeks at a prison... but it quickly becomes apparent just how horrible he is when Peter discovers that he and the warden are never planning to let them go.
  • Final Space: The Lord Commander was already shown to be an immensely unpleasant Bad Boss. Then in Episode 6, it's revealed that he forced all of his generals to kill their firstborn children in cold blood to prove their loyalty to him. And they do, Gory Discretion Shot and everything. After that, it's pretty much established just how much of a pure evil scumbag he is.
    • For that matter, all of his generals (except Avocato) crossed it when they willingly went through with this order, without so much as a shred of hesitation or remorse.
  • In the Forest Friends episode "Bush School", Anthony's father Mark crosses this when he tries to start a forest fire.
  • Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends:
  • G.I. Joe: Renegades has several of its main baddies crossing this:
    • Cobra Commander's exact crossing is hard to pin down, but his general complete disregard for any innocent life lost in the process of any of his schemes makes him a pretty unambiguous monster.
    • Cobra as a whole crosses this in "The Anaconda Strain" where it's revealed that they plan to release a disease they have made into populations and then charge high prices for the cure that Cobra also made.
    • Baroness crosses this in "Going Underground". When the Mook operating Cobra's underground tunneler protests that if they keep going at the speed the drill is going at, they will cause untold damage via seismic activity, what is Baroness' response? To electrocute him and then "thank" him for his "misplaced concern", wearing a Psychotic Smirk the whole time. Then she takes up control of the drill herself.
    • Mindbender crosses this in the episode "The Anomaly" when, after Tunnel Rat points out that, if the Bio-Vipers he rigged to self-destruct do blow up, the explosion they cause from igniting all of the flammable materials in the sewer will blow up all of Brooklyn. This is Mindbender's response:
    • In G.I. Joe: Resolute, Cobra Commander himself crosses it when he blows up Moscow and kills about ten million people, and showing absolutely no remorse upon doing so.
  • In season 3 of Jem, Eric Raymond crossed it when he destroyed the master tapes to the music of Jacqui Benton, Jerrica's mother.note  Instead of meeting either Eric's demands (either one million dollars for the tapes or controlling interest in Starlight Music), Jerrica asked that Eric just return them, hoping that there was still some shred of humanity left in him...
    • The Misfits crossed it in "The Fan", where they cause poor Jerrica to have a serious mental breakdown.
    • The Stingers cross this in "That Old Houdini Magic", either when they try to con an old woman out of her money, or in the next episode when they essentially psychologically torture a girl purely for free clothes.
  • Justice League:
    • Some—if not all—of the many things that the Justice Lords (Knight Templar counterparts of the League) did in "A Better World". Lord Green Lantern attempts to kill JL Green Lantern immediately rather than disarm him or knock him out. Also, when Lord Wonder Woman knocks League Batman down, she picks up a chunk of building rubble to finish him off. From the DVD commentary, the writers did that on purpose so that it showed that the Justice Lords while having good intentions, they ultimately are truly heroes turned villains who deserve to be defeated.
    • In the same episode, Lord Superman had Flash by the neck with Flash trying to appeal to any remaining good in him. Also, the Flash in their world had been killed and his death was one of the main reasons why they all became such cynical Knight Templars. 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.
    • Minor villain John Dee / Doctor Destiny in the episode "Only A Dream", where he "operated" on his wife in her dreams, torturing her until she died of fright, shortly after he had found out that she was planning to leave him for another man.
    • Orm, the estranged brother of Aquaman, tried to kill his brother's infant son Arthur Jr. Arthur Sr. did not take it well... At all. Primarily because aside from trying to have his own brother killed and taking control of his throne, Orm planned to lead a war against the surface-dwellers, using his own nephew as bargaining chip to ensure his sister-in-law Mera's cooperation, and not only did Orm try to ensure that Mera would never see her son again regardless... He put both his brother and said brother's infant son in a Death Trap. And the only hope Aquaman had of saving both their lives was to essentially mutilate himself! Only having time to break his right hand free before he and Arthur Jr. began to slowly plummet towards the lava of the volcano they were shackled to, Aquaman was forced to use his metal belt buckle to sever his left hand, which is later replaced with a prosthetic harpoon.
  • Kim Possible
    • Monkey Fist crossed it in the fourth season. Attempting to murder and/or kidnap a child is bad enough, but he made a Deal with the Devil, or rather, a demonic monkey being in order to command it. Some could say that his Taken for Granite death was well deserved.
    • Warmonga and Warhok in the Grand Finale were about to kill Kim and stuff her as a trophy back to their home.
  • Floyd and Jolene, the villainous gators on Kissyfur, usually resort to trickery and being sneaky in order to catch Kissyfur and his friends for dinner. However, they cross the line BIG time in "The Birds and the Bears" when they steal Gus's paddlecab, which Kissyfur and three of his friends took a ride on with Miss Emmy Lou's niece Donna to prove that they were "cool", and trick Gus into following them so they can lure him into quicksand to drown and die while they use the paddlecab to catch Donna and some of the other critters for dinner. As expected, they get their just desserts after Kissyfur, Beehonie, Toot, and Miss Emmy Lou free Gus from the quicksand and soon free the captured critters and retrieve the stolen paddlecab.
  • Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, despite being Lighter and Softer than in film, has several villains that went too far.
    • Temutai, the king of the Quidahn, enslaves children and they always die in a few years. The only thing redeeming about him is the fact that he's a man of his word.
    • Hundun crosses this by threatening to kill Po's father just to force him to fight him. This also makes things personal for Po.
    • Tong Fo counts too, wanting to destroy the Valley of Peace for no apparent reason.
    • Ke-Pa crosses it when he temporarily killed Po.
  • Disney's The Legend of Tarzan has Professor Philander, rival and Evil Counterpart to Professor Porter has the same goofiness and is generally a Harmless Villain most of the time, until he went from silly to downright irredeemable when he cuts a rope where Tarzan's hanging on, sending him to fall to his apparent death. To make matters worse, rather than letting his rival check on his son-in-law, he then plans to strand him into the sea and throw Tarzan overboard just to spite his rival.
    • Lt. Colonel Staquait crossed it by ordering Hugo and Hooft to burn a village full of mostly innocent women and children.
  • The Looney Tunes Show: Cecil crosses this in "The Shell Game" when he plans to shoot Bugs and Porky in order to keep them from exposing his scam. It's not even played for laughs. Not even Yosemite Sam or Elmer Fudd in this incarnation or any other would go this far.
  • The Loud House: In the movie, Morag crosses it when she almost killed the Louds, Lily included during the climax, all for wanting peace and quiet from them.
  • Metalocalypse,
    • Dr. Rockso, one of the most popular characters on the show, crossed this when he stole the Christmas presents Toki got for everyone, hocked them for cocaine money, then received a handjob on live television while bragging about his drug addiction.
    • Mr. Salacia crosses in the two-part season 4 finale, in which he brutally murders Roy Cornickelson, the elderly head of Dethklok's record label and one of the few completely good characters in the show.
  • Miraculous Ladybug:
    • While 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 Even Evil Has Loved Ones status just barely kept him out of irredeemable territory. In "Chat Blanc", however, he loses even that one redeeming quality. First, his reaction to Adrien and Marinette's relationship is to blackmail Marinette into breaking up with Adrien (with 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 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 Freak Out and accidentally kill all of Paris, as well as destroying the Moon. The fact that the resulting Bad Future is later prevented from occurring does not change the fact that Gabriel's pretensions of Even Evil Has Standards are now worthless.
    • Most characters are considered to have crossed the line by teaming up with Hawk Moth, usually via willing akumatization.
      • 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 Chloé Bourgeois 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 Pet the Dog moments, but afterwards she became far more cruel towards everyone.
      • Félix Fathom 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 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.
  • Moral Orel:
    • Clay Puppington crossed the line in "Nature: Part 2" the moment he shot Orel, his own son, in the leg. Not only does he show no remorse for it, but he later admits he's proud of what he did. Even if there are two episodes showing how did he become the bad father-to-be, there is no sympathy. The shooting is effectively the point where Clay stops abusing Orel through mere neglect and misdirection and becomes actively, maliciously obsessed with destroying the boy's innocence, just so he can prove to himself that his own misery is natural and not because Clay himself is horribly twisted inside.
    • Cecil Creepler is considered to be the show's biggest monster after it's revealed that he raped countless women, which includes Agnes Sculptham who was impregnated by him.
  • The Penguins of Madagascar:
    • Dr. Blowhole letting Skipper fall into the ocean (after erasing his memories, no less), relishing the fact he won't remember how to swim and likely drown.
    • Kuchikukan crossed it by destroying several planets For the Evulz, and trying to destroy Earth as well.
    • Blue Hen started as a manipulative but still mostly harmless Con Man. By her second appearance, she crosses it by separating Skipper from the Penguins, so she can freeze the entire zoo and become the center of attention.
  • The Powerpuff Girls:
    • Dick Hardly crosses the line when he kills a Buttercup clone for its Chemical X.
    • Him crossed the line in "Speed Demon" during a Bad Future where he took over Townsville, turned it into a post-apocalyptic place, and made the Townsville citizens all depressed and zombielike.
    • Mitch Mitchelson torturing and flushing Twiggy the hamster down the toilet in "Getting' Twiggy With It".
    • Princess Morbucks crosses it in "The Fight Before Christmas" when she switches the Naughty and Nice lists. Also qualifies as one in-universe, as this places her on Santa Claus' Perma-Naughty List.
  • Bluto from the Popeye cartoons crosses the line in almost every episode whenever he harms Olive Oyl after she rejects him, which includes kicking Olive off a runaway roller coaster in Abusement Park and trapping Olive in a straight jacket and then approach her menacingly in The Royal Four Flusher.

    R-X 
  • The Raccoons: Milton Midas ultimately crosses the line in "The One That Got Away" by having the pigs dump toxic waste into a beloved fishing hole which is a favorite among some of the Evergreen Forest's residents. And in the end, the lake became irreversibly dirty. Even the usual Big Bad Cyril Sneer is disgusted by what Milton did:
  • At the end of the second season of ReBoot, Megabyte and Hexidecimal team up with Bob to stop the Web Creature invasion. However, near the end of the episode Megabyte launches Bob into the Web and takes over Mainframe.
  • Regular Show:
    • Night Owl, introduced in the [[episode of the same name, seems like your average Disc 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, 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 Abominations are the norm, Night Owl makes it clear that even a normal human being can be quite monstrous if sufficiently consumed with Greed.
    • Klorgbane The Destroyer crossed when he destroyed Skips' high school prom (from way back when he was a mortal known as Walks), knocked out the principal, and got Walks' girlfriend, Mona killed in the crossfire just so he could fight the yeti.
  • Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon": In "Ren Seeks Help", Ren is revealed to have inflicted sadistic Cold-Blooded Torture onto various animals in his youth, including a frog. The moment he proves himself to be irredeemably evil, however, is when upon hearing the frog's pleas to be put out of its misery, he spitefully decides to spare the helpless frog so he can continue being miserable.
  • Rick and Morty:
    • Tammy Gueterman crosses it in "The Wedding Squanchers" when after marrying Birdperson, reveals that her relationship with him was actually a Honey Trap set up by her and the Galactic Federation in hopes of crushing Rick and his band of rebels who were fighting against the federation. Her MEH moment arrives when she murders Birdperson with a laser rifle after previously telling him to sit back down, which he refused simply because he didn't understand what Tammy was actually doing. Her actions in doing that furthermore endangered Rick's family and a bunch of innocent guests who attended the wedding. She even goes as far as to rebuild Birdperson into a cyborg at the beginning of Season 3 for her to use as a weapon.
    • King Flippy Nips crosses it when he has his own son, Scroopy Noopers, sent to Plutanamo Bay prison just because Scroopy Noopers protested against his father's actions of drilling plutonium for riches, which was hurting Pluto itself.
  • Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town: If Burgermeister Meisterburger's harsh rejection of Baby Kris when he shows up at his doorstep weren't despicable enough, then his burning of all the children's toys in Sombertown square right before their eyes certainly makes him eligible to cross the line.
  • The Secret Show saw Doctor Doctor cross the Moral Event Horizon one episode when she tricked Victor and Anita into flying towards the Sun and then attempted to leave them behind and let them burn to death.
  • She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: At the end of season 4, Horde Prime has conquered huge swaths of the universe, treats his clones like disposable objects, and wants to use the 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), forcibly invades Hordak's mind and probes his most intimate memories, and mind-wipes him, all because he was offended that Hordak had developed free will and a personality of his own.
  • Skull Island (2023): It turns out that the Kraken crossed it years ago in the Whole Episode Flashback. It exterminated the village of human castaways on Skull Island's shoreline (and tellingly it didn't eat them); lethally wounding the Island Girl among them, and then when Kong arrived to see what the Kraken had done to his charges, the Kraken revealed itself via raising its tentacles above the sea and making beckoning and challenging gestures at Kong, clearly mocking the distressed ape over what it had done to the people he cared about.
  • South Park:
    • While Eric Cartman was already a big jerk from the start, his exact moment of crossing the line is his Kansas City Shuffle against Scott Tenorman in "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 Bratty Half-Pint and his selfishness posed an actual threat to others. Horrified, Kyle and Stan even acknowledge they should never piss him off again.note 
      Cartman: Nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah, I made you eat your parents.
    • Randy's undeniably far past the line by the end of "Mexican Joker," when he brutally kills many people with explosives (specifically, he kills anyone growing marijuana in their gardens), because he wanted to have a monopoly on the local marijuana business. Unlike the other instances, Randy isn't reacting to a perceived threat nor is he simply acting as the metaphorical devil in the shoulder for someone else. He's directly murdering innocents for no reasons other than greed and spite. From this point on, he's treated like a borderline Villain Protagonist whose family turns against him, and he commits even more violent acts for his business, which eventually lands him in jail.
    • Leslie Meyers crosses it in "Truth And Advertising" when she gives Jimmy Valmer, a handicapped kid, a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown after emotionally manipulating him, thus revealing herself to be a bad guy and by extension the Big Bad of season 19.
    • Skankhunt42 (real identity: Kyle's dad, Gerald) crossed it by cyberbullying every single woman he could find on social media, including a support group for breast cancer victims. This drives all the girls to take it out on the boys—who were just as outraged as they were—by permanently breaking up with them. And why he was being a cyberbully in the first place? He did it for fun! Even the other trolls (who at least have some Freudian Excuse to explain why they're lashing out at society through trolling) find him disgusting and feel he goes too far with his actions. And in "Members Only", any chance he could have had at redeeming himself is automatically destroyed when he frames Ike for all of his trolling.
  • Steven Universe
    • Eyeball (one of the Homeworld Rubies) crosses it in "Bubbled" when she finds out Steven has Rose Quartz's Gem. Unlike Jasper's breakdown, which occurred two episodes earlier, Jasper is loyal to Homeworld and her thirst for vengeance is justice for Pink Diamond's murder; there is a tragic undercurrent to Jasper's downfall. As Eyeball mentally cracks, she draws out her weapon to disembowel Steven and take his gem; not for justice for the Diamond she witnessed the brutal murder of, but for Greed. She starts muttering she'll go down in history despite the fact Homeworld has no knowledge of her plight. She even gleefully wonders if she'll be given a Pearl.
    • Only one episode after her debut in "Are You My Dad?", Aquamarine crossed it big time in "I Am My Mom". In order to try and get Steven to tell her where she can find "My Dad" as part of her mission of retrieving six "Types" of humans, she threatens to murder the ones that she and Topaz have already captured (Connie, Sadie, Jamie, Onion and Lars) because Homeworld never specified whether they wanted the humans they were ordered to retrieve alive or dead!
  • Super Noobs
    • Count Venamus crosses it seconds after his début appearance when he serves poisoned food infected with the virus to several virus warriors attending the new virus warriors convention and sits back to see them turn into rampaging monsters, which was eventually stopped by the Noobs. His status as an MEH crossers is set in stone when he tricks Memnock and Zenblock into opening his prison pod then tries to murder them by shoving them in the pod and then launching it into space before attempting to murder the noobs again this happened after the main cast tried to get him to do a Heel–Face Turn.
  • In ThunderCats (2011), the act that cements Mumm-Ra's evil happened in the backstory when, on the behest of the Ancient Spirits of Evil, he destroyed the Plundaar star system which was inhabited by billions to create the metal needed to forge the Sword of Plundaar. It even acted as one in-universe. This heinous act convinced Leo that Mumm-Ra was not the visionary bringer of order to the universe that Leo thought he was but a monster that needed to be stopped.
  • Total Drama:
    • Blaineley began as the egotistical but largely harmless co-host of Celebrity Manhunt and later the replacement host for Bridgette in the Aftermath special. Then in "Aftermath Aftermayhem," she forces Bridgette to take her place on a tour so Blainley can take her place as co-host permanently, leaving Bridgette stranded in freezing cold Siberia. This horrifies Geoff, who sings a brutal song mocking her. Almost everybody dislikes her (barring Owen, who has a crush on her) and she becomes The Chew Toy when she joins the season as a contestant, being put through serious physical pain to the amusement of everybody else.
  • Hard to imagine that a show with silly villains like T.U.F.F. Puppy would have someone crossing the line, rather it's not any of the regular villains but a former agent of T.U.F.F, Jack Rabbit. At one time, Jack Rabbit was known as the greatest T.U.F.F. agent of all time, so it shouldn't sound bad when he's revealed to have undergone a Face–Heel Turn and lied to Kitty Katswell (who was his partner before he retired as a T.U.F.F. agent) to lure her into a trap, drain her mind of all her T.U.F.F. secrets, and sell those secrets to the usual Big Bad Verminious Snaptrap. However, Jack said that he'd done this to agents in the past, and his reason for betraying Kitty and T.U.F.F.: Money! That's right, no Start of Darkness, no sad backstory, it was all due to his Greed.
  • In Season 4 of Winx Club, Ogron, the leader of the Wizards of the Black Circle, got to this dreaded point of no return. After the Wizards pull their I Surrender, Suckers plan on the Earth fairies, Ogron tears open a portal to a nightmarish dimension to imprison all the fairies there. Aisha's boyfriend Nabu does an Heroic Sacrifice to close the dimensional gap, but loses his life in the process... and when the Winx try to use the Gift of Life to bring Nabu back, Ogron snatches it and casually casts it away, laughing all the way. This single act caused the distraught Aisha to join the Fairies of Revenge and separate herself from the Winx Club, and marked the point where the Wizards of the Black Circle sunk to a low no other Winx Club villain ever reached.
  • In 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 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
    • The villainess Miss Power crosses the line in her debut movie The Return of Miss Power. She severely curb-stomps the villains and severely taunts them. She then teaches WordGirl to say mean words. She mocks the man who couldn't find the police station to the point where he cries, she manipulates the entire town into bullying each other, she gives WordGirl a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown when her plan to rule the Earth was discovered, and then gives her "The Reason You Suck" Speech. She even removes her star insignia. She throws Becky's mother into jail due to a disagreement that they had, and she tries to murder Dr. Two-Brains. Fortunately, WordGirl arrives just in time and causes Miss Power to lose her power by not using mean words. She then has a Villainous Breakdown and leaves Earth.
  • X-Men: Evolution had one for most of the villains:
    • Magneto had it when he had his own daughter Wanda mindraped, just so she'd stay away from him. Said mindrape took place via replacing her memories of him abandoning her in a mental institution, which is what made her become a Dark Magical Girl in the first place, into loving memories that made her forget his abuse.
    • Mystique when she tried to kill the New Recruits, for no reason other than them being unable to fight Magneto. Later on she committed another heinous deed, kidnapping Scott, stealing his Power Limiter aka his ruby quartz glasses, and leaving him stranded in the middle of nowhere.
    • Duncan Matthews and his pals went from Jerk Jocks, to physically assaulting Scott unprovokedly after he was outed as a mutant, to post-graduation attempted mutant murder with mining machinery. That last one got them sentenced to life in prison.
    • There was also the soft-drink manufacturer who unknowingly laced his drink with mutant poison. You can tell he's genuinely surprised... then Mood Whiplash kicks in and he figures he can make a lot of money off the discovery.
    • Apocalypse was planning on using his machine to turn the populace into mutants... But even he notes that this may kill much of the human population, due to their bodies not being able to take it. He still was willing to go through it.

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