Morality Chain / Webcomics

Morality Chains in Webcomics.

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• As the story progresses in Cobweb and Stripes, Lydia is growing to be either this or a Morality Pet for Betelgeuse.
• After Mike's death in College Roomies from Hell!!!, Marsha comments on her insanity, saying he was the rope on her catapult. Now he's gone, and she can soar...
• Dan's mother Destania from Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures was a powerful, manipulative, cunning and utterly ruthless Succubus with little to no regard for Beings (the "Normals" of the setting). Then she fell in love with Dan's adventurer father and gave birth to Dan and grew to love life as a loving mother to Dan and his half-sister Alexi; so much so that she renounced her previous life as Destania. Then Dan's father was kidnapped by dragons. While scheming to get him back, and without the presence of her children, Destania is slowly but surely reverting to her past villainous self.
  • Well, maybe. She has left Lost Lake Inn to protect her children, the plot she's involved in, if successful, will eliminate not only the threat to her family, but a major re-occurring threat to her kind. And if the plot seems genocidal, that seems to have been the nature of the conflict already.
• In 8-Bit Theater Black Mage is an inversion. As this page indicates,His murderous, psychopathic presence is what keeps the Light Warriors a scourge upon the land rather than being the heroes they are supposed to be.
• In El Goonish Shive, all known Alternate Universe variants of Tedd got a good friend Elliot and at least once the female counterpart Ellen is his girlfriend; the only exclusion is Lord Tedd's world — and instead of Grace there's a big ill-mannered Blood Knight.
• In Freefall, Sam thinks of himself as an immorality chain to Helix -- Florence's noble example is corrupting him.
• Sarah to to her Stalker with a Crush Jareth in Girls Next Door. Lampshaded on page 203, and also deconstructed: It's demeaning to Jareth and unfair to Sarah... but it's still admittedly the case with them.
  Jareth: I am not a pet. Not even yours. I do not fly to your wrist and you owe no weregild to those I bite. And by dint of that same royal arrogance you denounce in my dealings, I will own my deeds and their consequences.
  Sarah: Ok, the badly-behaved pet image was clumsy and out of line. Sorry. ...but when you state I'm the sole arbiter of consequences you care about, then we've circled back around to this being about what I choose to allow, haven't we?
  Jareth: ...
• This is one aspect of moirallegiance in Homestuck's troll society. Unlike most examples, it is expected to be a reciprocal relationship.
  • Feferi was this to Eridan. While they were together, Eridan was a racist Jerkass with genocidal ambitions. After she breaks up with him he snaps completely, murdering her and Kanaya. He also destroys the Matriorb, ensuring their race's destruction.
    Feferi: I am really sorry, Eridan. It has just been so hard looking after you and keeping you out of trouble! It has taken its toll, and honestly I am really exhausted.
  • Later on, Karkat becomes this for Gamzee, as the creation of their moirallegiance was the only thing stopping his murder spree, but at this point no-one knows whether Gamzee would revert back without his influence.
  • It might not be quite "morality", per se, but the Draconian Dignitary's influence and nagging is pretty much the only thing keeping Jack Noir from killing everyone and obliterating everything, and instead keeping his murder and Earth-Shattering Kabooms reasonably limited to ensure that Derse still has some people to oppress and tax.
• In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, Bob and Molly are this for Galatea.
• Their relationship is no more than that of good friends, but the green-haired girl definitely appears to be this to minus.. When she is around, minus generally uses her powers for beneficial ends. When she isn't around, on the other hand, bad things tend to happen. Mind you, minus isn't actually evil, just clueless about the consequences of her actions.
• Asia Ellis in morphE is the morality chain for the entire seedling group but particularly Billy. In their captivity Asia is unwilling to compromise morals and Billy advocates "anything to survive". Without Asia to keep Billy in check he would go too far before too long.
• The Night Belongs to Us: Because Ada doesn't want Hank to be afraid of her, Hank acts as this for Ada. As illustrated during their confrontation with Sienna.
  Ada (thought bubble): If you weren't here, she would be dead.
• The Order of the Stick
  • Roy to Belkar. Without Roy (and by extension, the rest of the party) to play the role of commanding officer and coax him into coming along on their adventurers under the occasional threat of force, Belkar would be dropping the 'heroic' part of Heroic Comedic Sociopath very quickly. This is given a Lampshade Hanging when Roy goes to the afterlife and a character reveals that Belkar's growth on the 'Evil-O-Meter' began to reverse after he signed on with the Order. Note that Roy isn't making Belkar behave any less evil — he's merely got him pointed in the direction of people who deserve it slightly more. For comparison, without Roy's guidance, his evilness level would have quickly gone to 8 Kilonazi within a year. This surpasses the hypothetical offspring of Sauron and Cruella de Ville by 3 KiloNazis. That would have been pretty freaking evil.
  • In contrast, Durkon, Belkar's cat Mr. Scruffy, and to a lesser extent the rest of the party (including Roy) become Morality Pets for Belkar over time. While Belkar seemed to be faking it at first, he started Becoming the Mask somewhat.
  • While not evil, Vaarsuvius also has a morality chain in the form of Haley, who helps reign them in. Her absence contributes to V's gradual breakdown during Don't Split the Party. When Blackwing and Vaarsuvius patch their relationship up, Blackwing also becomes a link in Vaarsuvius' morality chain, acting as the elf's conscience.
  • Over on Team Evil, Oona has set herself up as one for Redcloak. She intends to stick by him and make sure that he never has to choose between achieving salvation for the goblinoid races and satisfying his own ego, fully realizing that Redcloak will always put his ego first, no matter how many hoops he has to jump through to justify it.
• unOrdinary: Sera functions as this to John. When she is suspended, John gradually becomes more violent and spiteful towards his peers due to the increased bullying. Notably, he snaps out of his dark mood the moment she reappears.
• O'Malley of Widdershins isn't evil, just cynical and antisocial; but his Heterosexual Life Partner and incredibly Nice Guy Heinrich Wolfe is always there to say You Are Better Than You Think You Are, break through his facade, and inspire him to save the day — grudgingly.

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