History Main / CartesianKarma

* In ''Anime/TalesFromEarthsea'', Arren murders his father, the king of Enlad, at the start of the film and steals his MagicSword. Later, it is revealed that [[BigBad Lord Cob]] has been controlling him. Even though he is freed from Cob's influence, Arren decides to go home to answer for the murder.

* ''{{Series/Arrowverse}}'':
** {{Series/Supergirl|2015}} ends up getting this herself for her rampage against National City near the end of season 1. Because the public has no idea that she was infected with red kryptonite at the time as the reason for said rampage, [[HeroWithBadPublicity they started treating her like a pariah]] by the time she's cured, with [[CoolBigSis Alex]], [[MuggleBestFriend Winn, and James]] the only ones who remain supportive of her because they know the truth.

-->-- '''Tom:''' She’s annoyed with me for something that someone else did with my body. Possession is nine-tenths of my identity.

* Throughout the ''Fanfic/{{Eleutherophobia}}'' series, ex-hosts are frequently blamed for actions their [[PuppeteerParasite Yeerks]] did. This is an especially big problem for Tom, whose Yeerk led a revolution shortly after the war went public, and strangers assume he's dangerous as a result.

* Tacitly averted in ''Manga/ZatchBell'' with Koko who was sadistically brainwashed, but is later rescued by Sherry and restored back to her original, kind innocent state. It's a good thing she's not a wanted criminal now or anything and can happily go to college too, especially after (publicly) razing [[DoomedHometown most of her town]] and kidnapping dozens of people. It would have to be inferred that her savior Sherry has some [[HandWave pretty good connections]].
** In the final chapters where the final battle for King is had, it's mentioned that damage to the land and possibly the people is undone (the one communicating would be the book). Considering how the battle for Mamodo King is called the God's Trial, this would explain why a lot of calamities and such were undone.

* ''Manga/FairyTail'': Jellal is back on the side of the angels after his stint trying to resurrect Zeref with the Tower of Heaven (which he was brainwashed into by Ultear pretending to be Zeref), but the Magic Council (as well as several others he wronged during this time) are not buying it. It especially doesn't help that [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he can't forgive himself]] and becomes TheAtoner to the point he has a worrying habit of being willing to try and pull off a HeroicSacrifice or even offer a PleaseKillMeIfItSatisfiesYou to the ones he's especially wronged.

* In ''Anime/TalesFromEarthsea'', Arren murders his father, the king of Enlad, at the start of the film and steals his MagicSword. Later, it is revealed that [[BigBad Lord Cob]] has been controlling him. Even though he is freed from Cob's influence, Arren decides to go home to answer for the murder.

* In ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'', Cyclonus is infamous among the crew of the Lost Light for having fought for Galvatron during the war, and was involved in several atrocities. Most Autobots consider him basically a Decepticon, despite the fact that he is technically unaligned (the [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience purple paint job]] can't help). In fact, Cyclonus was under the influence of The Darkness when this occurred, and thus unable to resist Galvatron's commands. He seems to not make too much of issue of it however, not caring about the Autobots' approval.
* ''ComicBook/{{Thorgal}}'': Thorgal is imprisoned by his wife Aaricia, who refuses to acknowledge him as her husband after he returns from his amnesiac stint as the pirate lord Shaigan the Merciless (which was pushed by Kriss de Valnor, who wants Thorgal all to herself), during which she and her children were branded and exiled. She only forgives him after he singlehandedly takes out a pirate invasion.
* During the ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan'' arc, Doctor Octopus controlled Franchise/SpiderMan's body. After Peter gets his body back, many of his prior relationships are strained, especially that with his former lover, ComicBook/BlackCat, who has made a FaceHeelTurn and doesn't believe or care that it was Octavius in Peter's body when she was attacked.

--> '''Bucky:''' I don't know if I'm worth all this, Steve.
--> '''Steve:''' What you did all those years, it wasn't your fault.
--> '''Bucky:''' I know... but I did it.

* The horror-comedy ''Film/AvasPossessions'' is similar, with its protagonist being a young woman who recently endured a DemonicPossession and now has to answer for all the things that the demon made her do, which cost her her job and her friends and may well get her thrown in jail.
* ''Film/Carrie2002'' subverts this with a change from the original book. Carrie massacres her classmates at the prom after a DeadlyPrank is pulled and she unleashes her telekinetic powers on them. In this version, she instead goes into a trance and loses control of her powers, later having no idea what she's done when she comes out of it. [[spoiler:This is the only version to give an AdaptationalAlternateEnding where Carrie survives, is forgiven by Sue and the two escape to Florida in the hopes the police don't track her down]].

* In ''Literature/TheRedVixenAdventures'', Ali is arrested for the crimes she committed as a slave, [[spoiler: but is acquitted of most, though not all of them.]]

* In the ''Literature/BookOfExodus'', the [[NephariousPharaoh pharaoh]] is punished for refusing to free the Hebrews by having the Ten Plagues continue until the final one kills all the Egyptians' firstborn sons. However, some translations specify God as having ''[[OmniscientMoralityLicense made]]'' the pharaoh refuse. What this says about free will (or how accurate a translation this was) is a frequent topic of religious scholars.

* This sort of thing appears to happen a lot in ''Franchise/StarTrek''. A character is temporarily possessed by a more powerful force or otherwise suborned against their will to perform actions contrary to their own interests or inclinations. But they then carry on in post afterwards with no sanctions once they're free of possession, or can demonstrate that they were not in control of themselves at the time. [[note]]This appears to be a "Get Out of Jail Free" card in the ST continuum.[[/note]] The only time this issue appears to have been addressed is when Captain Picard was assimilated into the Borg Collective and is used to co-ordinate their strategy against the Federation. ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' opens with a freed Picard ferrying Captain Sisko to his new command. Sisko is one of the very few survivors of the Borg attack that used Picard to plot and lead its strategy. Sisko's command, and his wife, were killed in that offensive. Therefore his attitude to Picard is one of very thinly disguised hostility, loathing and hatred. Picard understands this, realizes this is part of his Cartesian Karma, and allows Sisko to express his deep hostility and bitter resentment.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', the sole truly evil things Trixie has ever done were while she was under the influence of the [[ArtifactOfDoom Alicorn Amulet]], which turned her into a megalomaniac. Otherwise, she's just a rather harmless braggart. Nonetheless, the inhabitants of Ponyville (including Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship herself) were still distrustful of her in her next appearance, "No Second Prances", despite the regrets she expressed. Granted, she did go to depths to find the artifact and explicitly use it for revenge, which provides some reason. Starlight calls Twilight out on this when she is unsupportive of her befriending Trixie, though as Twilight points out, forgiving her brainwashed antics doesn't excuse Trixie being a {{Jerkass}} in her own right.

** Kilgrave made a father abandon his son on the side of a road, and turned the man into his personal chauffeur for a week. After Kilgrave let him go, the father was charged with child abandonment and his wife left him.

** An inversion. Many of Voldemort's followers claimed that they were mind-controlled into committing their crimes to avoid prison time. It's actually a very simple bluff to fall back on, since mind control is relatively easy to perform in this universe, and Voldemort's men really ''did'' use it frequently to torment people. The inversion continues after Voldemort's return to power when the Ministry, partly out of fear of this happening again, begins jailing innocent people who just appear vaguely sketchy.
** Ginny is terrified this will happen to her after Voldemort has been possessing her into summoning the Basilisk to attack Muggle born students. Heartwarmingly, Dumbledore instantly assures her she did nothing wrong.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', Superman is captured and brainwashed by Darkseid into believing that he was his son and attacking Earth, in order to destroy his reputation as a hero, causing many of his former allies (like Professor Hamilton) [[HeelFaceTurn to turn his back on him]]. It took the Man of Steel several years to regain people's trust, and even by the time of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeafue'' many ''still'' want to hold him accountable for his actions while under Darkseid's control.

* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and his own spinoff this is Angel's main character conflict. The soulless Angelous is technically a completely different person who just stole his body, but after getting his soul restored he still has the memories and feels the guilt for centuries of atrocities.

** {{Series/Supergirl|2015}} ends up getting this herself for her rampage against National City near the end of season 1. Because the public isn't aware of her being infected with red kryptonite at the time as the reason behind her rampage, [[HeroWithBadPublicity they started treating her like a pariah]] by the time she's cured, with only [[CoolBigSis Alex]], [[MuggleBestFriend Winn, and James]] the only ones who remain supportive of her because they know the truth.

* ''{{Series/Arrowverse}}''

* {{Series/Supergirl|2015}} ends up getting this herself for her rampage against National City near the end of season 1. Because the public isn't aware of her being infected with red kryptonite at the time as the reason behind her rampage, [[HeroWithBadPublicity they started treating her like a pariah]] by the time she's cured, with only [[CoolBigSis Alex]], [[MuggleBestFriend Winn, and James]] the only ones who remained supportive of her because they know the truth.

* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice,'' [[LegionOfDoom the Light]] manages to take control of the Justice League, and sends some of their strongest members through a [[{{Teleportation}} Boom Tube]] to an alien planet called Rimbor to wreak havoc for [[ArcNumber sixteen]] hours. As a result, Earth suddenly stops being an InsignificantLittleBluePlanet and gets a lot of hostile alien attention, especially in light of [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividuals this whole "superpower" thing]]. Furthermore, the League members involved feel obligated to go to Rimbor and try to clear their name, which puts the League at a disadvantage against the Light's new plans.

A subtrope of MoralLuck. Compare AlternatePersonalityPunishment, which is the equivalent with clones/split personalities/etc. Contrast [[KarmaHoudini]], which can be justified if this trope is averted.

A subtrope of MoralLuck. Compare AlternatePersonalityPunishment, which is the equivalent with clones/split personalities/etc.