History Main / JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope

*** Yet it must be pointed out that Gundam 00 was heavy on the AllInTheManual aspect and the side documents explained that the Trinities resorting to extreme measures and having sociopathic natures were not of their own intentions, but rather as a result of their development. Because their role was to make Celestial Being look bad, and then die immediately aftewords, their resorting to harsh measures was simply to cause a public relations nightmare with the group, and to ensure that Celestial Being would not bother helping the Trinity siblings in their hour of need (Setsuna did not intentionally save Nena, but rather was attempting to stop Ali al-Saachez from using a Gundam, especially since they used the Trinities' fight for survival as battle strategy for opponents). That's FridgeHorror in a nutshell.

** It must be noted that Celestial Being actively tried to avoid civilian casualties, such as Lock On shooting to disable enemy suits when possible, or Setsuna taking off their limbs but not gutting them or cutting them in half. Celestial Being attacked only areas of active combat, and repeatedly tried to prevent situations that would increase civilian casualties, such as stopping a terrorist attack on a nuclear waste dump. Trinity, by contrast, repeatedly attacked civilians targets (including simple factories) and expressed neither remorse, guilt, or sadness for it, and then in a childish fit attacked a WEDDING. That's why the Trinities are portrayed as much farther down the slope.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' had numerous cases of this. For example, in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' a race of holograms rebel against a race that had been hunting them, and start freeing all other holograms in the area. Even Voyager's holographic doctor joins them. But then they start killing off anyone who ''might'' enslave an intelligent hologram.
** Then they move onto anyone who uses humanoid holograms at all, regardless as to whether those holograms are intelligent.

* Notably averted by Alan Grant's DC Universe character of {{Anarky}}: where originally the character was scripted to be willing to murder in pursuance of his anarchic philosophy, as written he upholds the same moral standards as Franchise/{{Batman}}, which makes for some nice NotSoDifferent interactions.

** In a related example, developments in the fourth expansion may indicate that [[spoiler:Jaina Proudmoore]] may have jumped the slope or be close to jumping it in the future. To elaborate, following [[spoiler:[[DespairEventHorizon Garrosh Hellscream nuking of Theramore, the city which she had founded and was leader of]]]], she has become extremely radical in her treatment of those whom she deem "[[spoiler:[[AlwaysChaoticEvil Garrosh Horde]]]]", in a 180° degrees turn of her [[TheMessiah previous]] [[TheWoobie caracterization]]. The logical conclusion of this comes in the Landfall storyline aptly named "[[spoiler:The Purge of Dalaran]]", in which following some evidence that the Sunreaver faction is involved in the theft of the [[MacGuffin Divine Bell]],enraged for being betrayed again, she confronts their leader(who admitedlly is at the very least negligent for not enforcing the supposed neutrality of his faction) and decides to arrest him and the rest of the Sunreavers, [[spoiler:and killing them if they resist the arrest.]]. The problem with this is that the opposite faction storyline only portrays one individual as being {{the mole}} responsible for aiding the theft, there was no evidence incriminating the remaining Sunreavers [[spoiler:[[InnocentBystanders some of which are running around the city, scared and screaming, before being killed by Jaina as she patrols around Dalaran]], and [[PoorCommunicationKills the rest were arguably only defending themselves or their property from an unjustified attack]]]]. Her arguments to [[spoiler:Varian]] following these events, are rife with [[FallenHero symbolism]], due to [[OOCisSeriousBusiness what she is saying]] and [[ConflictBall whom she is saying it to]]:
-->[[spoiler:'''Jaina Proudmoore''': [[ShoottheDog I've purged the Horde from Dalaran]]. You have what you wanted, your Majesty: [[NeutralNoLonger The Kirin Tor belongs to the Alliance]].]]\\
[[spoiler:'''Varian Wrynn''': I was trying to negotiate with the Sin'dorei. [[DiabolusExMachina I was opening discussions to bring them into the Alliance! By attacking their people, you've driven them back to the Horde]].]]\\
[[spoiler:'''Jaina Proudmoore''': [[AccidentalInnuendo Don't get soft on me, Varian]].]]

* In ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' when Lois is killed along with millions others by the Joker does superman have a reasonable consideration of the death penalty for supers who murder muggles daily and constantly escape prison? Nope, the moment he kills joker he goes complete and total nutjob evil. And because of the millions dead most of the heroes do the same. Raven and Cyborg are the only survivors of the teen titans, so raven starts serving her demon father and both enjoy torturing victims and dressing edgy. Green lantern switches over to yellow. The flash only maybe sorta considers it a problem that superman executed Green Arrow when he tried to convince superman that he is going too far, etc. Any super that even considers killing to be a possibility immediately becomes an unrepentant villain who tortures and murders and suppresses free speech and democracy.

* In ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' when Lois is killed along with millions others by the Joker does superman have a reasonable consideration of the death penalty for supers who murder muggles daily and constantly escape prison? Nope, the moment he kills joker he goes complete and total nutjob evil. And because of the millions dead most of the heroes do the same. Raven and cyclops are the only survivors of the teen titans, so raven starts serving her demon father and both enjoy torturing victims and dressing edgy. Green lantern switches over to yellow. The flash only maybe sorta considers it a problem that superman executed Green Arrow when he tried to convince superman that he is going too far, etc. Any super that even considers killing to be a possibility immediately becomes an unrepentant villain who tortures and murders and suppresses free speech and democracy.

*** Not very well fleshed out in the movies, but [[WordOfGod the]] [[StarWarsExpandedUniverse fluff]] explains Anakin's motives as him being a [[KnightTemplar Knight Templar]]. He's tired of people dieing, the war, sees himself as ''the'' hero (since he's been told he is The One since childhood and thus can do no wrong) and is stupidly loyal to the Republic. All that makes him childlishly easy to manipulate by Palpatine. Combined with the corrosive effects of [[TheDarkSide the dark side]] it makes baffling lapses of judgement come easy to him.

* In Franchise/{{Superman}} Annual 3 in the {{Armageddon 2001}} crossover, Superman declared war on all nuclear weapons. At first, he just took away all nuclear weapons. Then, he started to steal from rich countries to give to the poor countries. Over the course of ten years, he became more intense and actually started sinking submarines that has nuclear weapons on them. When, people started to die (accidentally), everyone started to get worried that Superman has gone too far. So, Batman decided that he had to kill Superman with the kryptonite ring.

*** Not very well fleshed out in the movies, but [[WordOfGod the]] [[StarWarsExpandedUniverse fluff]] explains Anakin's motives as him being a [[KnightTemplar Knight Templar]]. He's tired of people dieing, the war, feels himself a ''the'' hero (since he's been told he is The One since childhood and thus can do no wrong) and is stupidly loyal to the Republic. All that makes him childlishly easy to manipulate by Palpatine. Combined with the corrosive effects of [[TheDarkSide the dark side]] it makes baffling lapses of judgement come easy to him.

** Anakin Skywalker from the prequels. Specifically, note how quickly he goes from [[spoiler:agonizing over his role in Mace Windu's death]] to [[spoiler:killing younglings without a problem]]. Anakin finally slips so far, his own wife, Padme Amidala, loses the will to live and eventually dies, and Obi-Wan Kenobi is forced to duel him, ending gruesomely. In order to keep Anakin alive, Emperor Palpatine, a.k.a. Darth Sidious, subjects him to painful body reconstruction. The final push to the Dark Side comes from Palpatine himself- when Anakin asks if Padme is still alive, the Emperor tells him in his anger, he killed her. In pure disbelief of this, Anakin's true powers of the Force flare up, and he screams out in despair, fully overtaken with pain and hate, completing his transformation into Darth Vader.

* Ho-oh from ''PokeWars'' wants Pokémon-kind to live in a utopia and he limits his targets to humans only and tries to limit the damage he causes. [[spoiler: He soon starts engaging in things like ordering wanton killing of Pokémon contrary to his ideals, utterly ruining the environment and not giving a damn about it, and generally being a filthy hypocrite.]]

* Ho-oh from ''PokeWars'' wants Pokémon-kind to live in a utopia and he limits his targets to humans only and tries limit the damage he causes. [[spoiler: He soon starts engaging in things like ordering wanton killing of Pokémon contrary to his ideals, utterly ruining the environment and not giving a damn about it, and generally being a filthy hypocrite.]]

-->'''SD''': "It just starts with stealing a soda after saving the store...next thing you know, you're hacking up people and putting them in your freezer!"

* ''TheKillingJoke'' is all about SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker trying to break Commissioner Gordon. He fails. Ironically in virtually every adaptation of Joker's origin story this trope is the main reason he..um well..... is the way he is.

* The inspector in ''Chisuji''. First he decided to take justice in his own hands against the criminal who killed his wife and sent his daughter in a coma; then he saw the killer's girlfriend holding said daughter's plush toy, and... [[DiscretionShot snapped]].

** This is what leads to [[spoiler:Zuko's eventual HeelFaceTurn. He'd been hesitating for a while, thinking that his family really were good people, despite all the massive evidence otherwise: its when his Father and sister create a plan to burn an entire country to the ground that he realises they've jumped off.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'':
** Each member of Team Impossible; went from just being a PunchClockHero who wanted Kim to stop saving the world so they could get paid for it, and basically straight to trying to permenantly end her heroics.

** When new-vigilante-in-town The Judge shows up later on, attacking the villains and not caring whether or not he kills them, this is never even brought up. It is taken for granted that his actions are wrong, which (given the long, horrible careers of Batman's rogues gallery) seems like it would be open to debate here. The big jump probably comes moments before Batman intervenes, when he is about to kill a small-time corrupt politician who had helped him, but still. How extreme can he really get, he tried to kill Two-Face in his own escape room, the catch [[spoiler: The Judge is Two-Face, as he is a third persona made by Harvey Dent to fight crime.]]

*** As said by [[spoiler:the fiends]], the best way to get a good person to do horrible things is to convince them they they aren't responsible for their own actions.

** [[spoiler:Vaarsuvius]] just took a jump, too. See comic [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0639.html #639]]. Though debates on whether this counts as PayEvilUntoEvil, and whether that stops it being this trope, rage on the forums endlessly.
*** The best way to get someone to act immorally is tell them they aren't responsible for their own actions.

* In ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance]]'', the country of Crimea is good with bits of gray, Daein is dark gray but with evil leaders, and conservative Begnion was in the middle with its corrupt Senate but well-intentioned leaders. When the sequel rolled around and Begnion would be the main antagonist, well you bet that country started being ruthless.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' - Sephiroth is initially the best SOLDIER in the world, but after finding out a certain fact about himself, he becomes a murderous psychopath, slaughtering the population of a village and then burns said village and sets out to destroy the world.

* In ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius FireEmblem: Path of Radiance]]'', the country of Crimea is good with bits of gray, Daein is dark gray but with evil leaders, and conservative Begnion was in the middle with its corrupt Senate but well-intentioned leaders. When the sequel rolled around and Begnion would be the main antagonist, well you bet that country started being ruthless.

* In ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'', [[spoiler:harvesting more than two of the Little Sisters gives you the bad ending; it is simply implied that you jumped off the slope and became ADAM and power-hungry the moment you first harvested]].

* In the ''DresdenFiles'' novels, the White Council is extremely strict with their 7 Laws of Wizardry. First violation means an instant beheading unless a wizard on the Council bets their life they can reform the wizard, except in rare cases of self-defense. This is because Black Magic is almost always a slippery slope.