Morality Chains in Western Animation.
- Adventure Time: Finn is the protagonist, but it's strongly implied that he's also the Morality Chain to several different people. It gradually becomes apparent that without him Princess Bubblegum would be much more of a Totalitarian Utilitarian, Marceline would actually be the psychopathic troll that she likes to depict herself as, Jake would be an even worse Kleptomaniac Hero, and Ice King would be doing a lot worse to Princesses than just trying to kidnap them occasionally. At least until their own character development kicks in.
- The Amazing World of Gumball: Darwin fills this role in the dynamic for him and Gumball, as he's often a Straight Man to Gumball's antics. Gumball said it best in the episode "The Sidekick"; he's not his sidekick: he's more of a guardian.
- Arcane: Mel's mother described her as one, claiming she sent Mel away because she couldn't stand to see the judgment in her eyes when she would have to do something necessary for the safety of Medarda family.
- Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker: A scene at the end suggests that The Joker was an Anti-Morality Chain for Harley Quinn. Return of the Joker shows that the Joker was killed and Harley presumed dead; of course she wasn't, and reappears to scold her twin granddaughters for joining the Jokerz gang.
- Beetlejuice: Lydia is both this and the Kid with the Leash for Beetlejuice.
- Captain Planet and the Planeteers: In "The Conqueror", the four older Planeteers get corrupted by the villain's "upgrades" of their rings. While they do become more power-mad as a result, they still have soft spots for Gaia and Ma-Ti. Upon seeing the two standing in front of the missile base they're trying to destroy, they're horrified that they could have killed their mother figure and honorary younger brother before realizing it. Thus, they go to talk to them.
- Castlevania (2017): Dracula falls in love with the human Lisa who aspires to be a doctor. After the Church has her burned at the stake for "witchcraft", Dracula summons an army from Hell to Kill All Humans. More than once, Dracula called his wife the one thing that made him tolerate humanity.
- Ed, Edd n Eddy: To an extent, Edd is this to the other two Eds.
- Harley Quinn (2019): Poison Ivy as a Well-Intentioned Extremist Ecoterrorist keeps the more outright villainous Harley Quinn from going off the deep end. When she and Harley are avoiding each other after their awkward kiss, Psycho talks Harley into pledging herself to Darkseid for a Parademon army. Harley gets cold feet and backs out of it as soon as Ivy shows up and questions whether she really wants to go through with it.
- Jimmy Two-Shoes: The sweet optimistic Jimmy is this to the sadistic girl genius Heloise, who has a crush on him. There's "something about sweet, innocent guys that appeals to the last shred of humanity in her" it seems. However, she's still a terrible person who only barely tolerates Beezy and Cerbee for Jimmy's sake, and while she's more than willing to act nice in his presence, even her beloved isn't safe from her rage and experiments.
- Justice League Unlimited: Lampshaded. When the original seven heroes discuss their worries over sliding down the slippery totalitarian slope like their Bad Future counterparts, Flash cheerfully points out that he's the team's Morality Chain, so all they've got to do is make sure he stays alive and everything's cool. The rest of the team is not impressed. He turns out to be 100% right. A later episode showcases an Alternate Universe in which Flash died at the hands of Lex Luthor, and the main heroes kill him and become the ruthless Justice Lords in response.
- Further, the drastic expansion of the League was partly this; when Green Arrow just about leads a coup against the founding-seven because a large number of the members felt they were starting to abuse their powers (not to mention that they just revealed the Watchtower doubled as a Kill Sat), they're thanked. They're reminded that half the reason that the more Badass Normal and street-level heroes are there is to keep the borderline-Physical God heroes in check; Batman wanted Green Arrow on the League specifically because he was a talented hero who could fulfill this role perfectly.
- In "Fearful Symmetry", The Question concludes that Galatea wants the original Supergirl dead because their Psychic Link works both ways. While Supergirl was beginning to fear she was a killer, Galatea was developing a conscience as a result of her 'dreams' of her counterpart. To test this, Question challenges Galatea to kill him. While Supergirl's intervention prevents us from getting a clear answer, Galatea's moment of hesitation is the one example we get of her having any reluctance to kill.
- King of the Hill: Dale is this for Nancy, most clearly shown in the episode "Nancy Does Dallas". While she's not exactly a good person, Dale's antics usually distract her enough to keep her backstabbing, ruthless nature in check.Peggy: Dale and all his nonsense keeps Nancy so busy, she doesn't have the time or energy to be like she was in Dallas.
Hank: So Nancy needs Dale more than Dale needs Nancy. Huh. Weird. - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Discord has one from Season 3 onwards in the form of Fluttershy, who, after she reformed him by befriending him, threatens to revoke her friendship with him to get him back on course if he seems to be going too far. It extends so far that when everyone save Discord, Starlight Glimmer, Trixie and Thorax is captured by the changelings, the one pony Discord wants to save is Fluttershy.
- The Ren & Stimpy Show: Stimpy to Ren, to an extent — we can't be sure due to cases of Depending on the Writer.
- Rugrats:
- Chuckie is this to Tommy, Phil, and Lil on occasion, particularly when they are being led astray by Angelica. In "Rebel Without a Teddy Bear" Chuckie's vocal intervention is the only thing that keeps Tommy from becoming as much of a mean-spirited hellion as Angelica.
- Other episodes like "The Gold Rush" and "Chuckie's Wonderful Life" strongly hint that Chuckie is this to the other babies as well.
- South Park: Eric Cartman is an Enfante Terrible for the ages — a scheming, racist, sexist sociopath who seemingly makes it his life's work to antagonize and torment everyone in his path because he finds it funny. Among the main four characters (and even in the whole school), he's clearly The Friend Nobody Likes—except in one case: Kenny McCormick, who actually treats Cartman nicely from time to time; in return, Cartman will occasionally muster up whatever tiny amount of kindness he can toward Kenny, such as being the one to gently break the news about his freewheeling girlfriend in "The Ring." It's downplayed in that Eric still mocks and torments Kenny when he gets the chance, but the two have a genuine bond that keeps Cartman from going completely off the rails (notably, his rise to outright villainy coincided with Kenny's role in the show gradually being reduced).
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Ahsoka Tano can be seen as this to Anakin Skywalker in addition to Obi-Wan and Padmé. Having her as his padawan teaches Anakin some responsibility and she helps to reign in Anakin's rashness and bold tendencies when Obi-Wan is not around. At the same time, it's also shown it's during moments when she's in the most danger that Anakin comes the closest to using the Dark Side in his efforts to keep her safe. Her being framed for a crime she didn't commit and eventually leaving the Jedi Order just helps push him faster down the dark path as shown in Revenge of the Sith, and even as Darth Vader he still has more compassion for her than almost anyone else save for Luke himself, given how he offered to spare her life in Star Wars Rebels if she gave him information on any remaining Jedi and even hesitated during their fight. In the final scene of Clone Wars Vader finds one of the corroded lightsabers she left behind at the Star Destroyer crash site and keeps it.
- Steven Universe: Sugilite is a fusion of Garnet and Amethyst, so the end result is incredibly powerful... and completely out of control, as she has Garnet's pride and Amethyst's wild nature. Nevertheless, she is still a fusion of Gems who deeply care about Steven Quartz Universe himself, so she's surprisingly rather chill with him.
- Superman: The Animated Series: In an episode, Lois Lane ends up in a parallel universe, where her double was killed by a car bomb. While in her own reality, Superman got there just in time to save her, this world's Superman failed and has never forgiven himself. Since then, he has become much less forgiving to criminals and abandoned his "no killing" rule, blasting any criminal he sees with his Eye Beams. When Lois encounters this version of Superman, he no longer wears the same uniform
◊ and appears to be working with Lex Luthor. She manages to set him right, though. Of course, she goes back to her own universe at the end of the episode, which means the other Superman is once again without a Morality Chain. - Teen Titans (2003):
- Starfire is thrown into a temporal vortex in the episode "How Long Is Forever?". She lands in a world where she's been lost for several years, and it turns out that the Titans were so dispirited and sad after her disappearance, that they have been disbanded and haven't seen each other for years. BB is a freak show in a circus, Raven went the maddened into misanthropy way, Cyborg has spent years alone in the remains of the Titans Tower, and only Robin (now Nightwing) remains as a crimefighter.
- Also, Starfire was actually very near a Despair Event Horizon of her own prior to bumping into Nightwing. That gives her the courage to keep fighting, which ultimately lets her return home and to her own time and avert this Bad Future.
- Wander over Yonder plays this trope straight with Destructor. His morality chain is a sock puppet. His father threw it away at a young age so he turned evil and imprisoned everyone. Presumably years later, Wander and Sylvia return the sock and he immediately releases everyone and makes them dukes in his kingdom.
- Young Justice (2010):
- The episode "Secrets" puts a dark twist on this: the psychopathic villain Harm realized that his sister Greta was the only person keeping him from being "pure", so he murdered her.
- Invoked in the second season, when Impulse decides to become Blue Beetle's to keep him from destroying the Earth.
