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Anime & Manga
"Megatron seems to change forms like a race-bot changes tires, but with every re-scan he only grows more twisted and evil. There was a time Megatron actually seemed to care about the Decepticons under his command, but now all he cares about is power."
—Optimus Prime, Transformers: Armada
Comic Books
"All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day."
—The Joker, The Killing Joke
Films — Animated
At first I didn't realize
I needed all this stuff
I had a little cottage
And that cottage was enough
A place where I could sit and knit
A place where I could sell my Thneeds
But now I have a little time
To reassess my needs
And I need a bigger office
I need a bigger chair
A bigger desk, a bigger staff
A bigger hat to wear
Because I'm biggering
I'm figuring on biggering
And biggering
Is triggering
More biggering
...
With the customers all buying
And the money multiplying
And the PR people lying
And the lawyers are denying
Who cares if some things are dying
I don't want to hear your crying
This is all so gratifying
I needed all this stuff
I had a little cottage
And that cottage was enough
A place where I could sit and knit
A place where I could sell my Thneeds
But now I have a little time
To reassess my needs
And I need a bigger office
I need a bigger chair
A bigger desk, a bigger staff
A bigger hat to wear
Because I'm biggering
I'm figuring on biggering
And biggering
Is triggering
More biggering
...
With the customers all buying
And the money multiplying
And the PR people lying
And the lawyers are denying
Who cares if some things are dying
I don't want to hear your crying
This is all so gratifying
Films — Live-Action
"'Never get out of the boat.' Absolutely goddamn right. Unless you were goin' all the way. Kurtz got off the boat. He split from the whole fuckin' program.
—Willard, Apocalypse Now
"I just realized something: I never actually killed anyone before. I mean, I dropped bombs on Baghdad, but, uh, never face to face. I don't know what the big deal is, I really don't."
—Deakins, Broken Arrow (1996)
"A Jedi's strength flows from the Force, but beware The Dark Side. Anger, fear, aggression. The Dark Side of the Force are they. Easily they flow. Quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice."
—Yoda, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Live-Action TV
"Slippery slopes" can be fun! — kinda like a water slide.
— Larry, Burn Notice
Robby: The hell are you doing?!
Kenny: Just getting payback on the kid who thinks he can bully me and get away with it.
Robby: Anthony LaRusso was your bully?
Kenny: (glances at Robby) Not anymore. (then grabs Anthony on the chin) You hear that? Get ready for high school next year, 'cause you're gonna be in a world of pain! (cue Slasher Smile, then drops Anthony)
Robby: Hey, this isn't how I trained you!
Kenny: It's Cobra Kai. No mercy.
Kenny: Just getting payback on the kid who thinks he can bully me and get away with it.
Robby: Anthony LaRusso was your bully?
Kenny: (glances at Robby) Not anymore. (then grabs Anthony on the chin) You hear that? Get ready for high school next year, 'cause you're gonna be in a world of pain! (cue Slasher Smile, then drops Anthony)
Robby: Hey, this isn't how I trained you!
Kenny: It's Cobra Kai. No mercy.
"There are laws, laws of time. And once upon a time there were people in charge of those laws, but they died! All of them died! And do you know who that leaves? ME! It's taken all these years to realise it, but the laws of time are MINE! AND THEY WILL OBEY ME!"
— The Tenth Doctor, Doctor Who, "The Waters of Mars"
"I am deeply concerned by what is happening here. It began when we apprehended a spy, a man who admitted his guilt and who will answer for his crime. But the hunt didn't end there. Another man, Mister Simon Tarses, was brought to trial and it was a trial, no matter what others choose to call it. A trial based on insinuation and innuendo. Nothing substantive offered against Mister Tarses, much less proven. Mister Tarses' grandfather is Romulan, and for that reason his career now stands in ruins. Have we become so fearful? Have we become so cowardly that we must extinguish a man because he carries the blood of a current enemy? Admiral, let us not condemn Simon Tarses, or anyone else, because of their bloodlines, or investigate others for their innocent associations. I implore you, do not continue with this proceeding. End it now."
— Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation, "The Drumhead"
Music
Tell me would you kill to save a life?
Tell me would you kill to prove you're right?
Crash, crash, burn, let it all burn
Tell me would you kill to prove you're right?
Crash, crash, burn, let it all burn
"But deep in your heart you know the guilt would drive you mad
And the shame would leave a permanent scar
'Cause you start out stealing songs and then you're robbing liquor stores
And sellin' crack and runnin' over school kids with your car!"
And the shame would leave a permanent scar
'Cause you start out stealing songs and then you're robbing liquor stores
And sellin' crack and runnin' over school kids with your car!"
Web Original
"First, she came for the slavers, and I did not speak out because I was not a slaver. Then she came for the slave masters who crucified a bunch of slave children, and I did not speak out. Then she killed a bunch of innocent women and children, so really, I'm the idiot, I guess! One-two progression, should have seen that coming!"
— Lindsay Ellis mocking Tyrion's Evil Men speech from Game of Thrones
Woolie: There's a character, Danzo, in the story who's like, he's for the Leaf, and he does everything for the Leaf, including being a horrible piece of shit, and he's like the scummiest you can get whilst doing it...
Woolie: Right? You will go through any atrocity... but it's like, you are on the right team, and you are going through whatever means neccesary...
Woolie: Yes, right? And they will always be able to stand and argue that "I'm doing it for the right reasons", kinda thing. And usually, there will be a moment where that character, in order to clarify because the audience can't live in this uncomfortable world of ambiguity, that character will then pick up a baby and stab it, and then go "This was an enemy baby!"
Pat: There's two ways around it. Either they go full crazy, or something happens and they go "Oh my God, it was totally pointless, it was not worth it at all", and they like, mentally self-destruct.
Woolie: But you have to have that moment so that the audience goes, "You were on the fence, and you were clearly leaning this way from the opposite side of the fence, and now you stabbed that baby so there you go, right? Now you can safely be written off as a baby-stabber."
Hero: Okay, pal! You're corned now. Why don't you tell me about your sick, twisted plan?
Villain: I seek to fundamentally alter the violence perpetuated by our greedy system. I want to take the necessary action to end homelessness, poverty, and extreme crime. I believe a better world is possible! We will punish those who allow the poor to go hungry and we will right the wrongs of this cruel society.
Hero: (confused) ...That doesn't sound very bad. That actually sounds pretty good.
Villain: We're also going to punch a baby in the face!
Hero: You sick son of a bitch!
Villain: (Evil Laughter)
Hero: You're going down, bud!
Villain: I seek to fundamentally alter the violence perpetuated by our greedy system. I want to take the necessary action to end homelessness, poverty, and extreme crime. I believe a better world is possible! We will punish those who allow the poor to go hungry and we will right the wrongs of this cruel society.
Hero: (confused) ...That doesn't sound very bad. That actually sounds pretty good.
Villain: We're also going to punch a baby in the face!
Hero: You sick son of a bitch!
Villain: (Evil Laughter)
Hero: You're going down, bud!
— Man Carrying Thing, "why does every villain do this
"
" Other
Mitani: I mean, really, when you think about it logically, what's so wrong with being gay? And as long as you're gay, what's wrong with taking a student lover half your age? And seeing your young lover mutilate himself horribly? And poisoning a priest when he finds out what you've been up to? And then horribly mutilating another young lover when he finds out about the first one?
Tsuzuki: ...I guess this would be that 'slippery slope' argument I keep hearing about.
Tsuzuki: ...I guess this would be that 'slippery slope' argument I keep hearing about.
— Cropped Scan Theater
Real Life
"Fanaticism is redoubling your effort while losing sight of your goal."
— George Santayana
"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you."
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
"For if once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. Once begun upon this downward path, you never know where you are to stop. Many a man has dated his ruin from some murder or other that perhaps he thought little of at the time."
— Thomas de Quincey, Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts
"People like this focus on purity. They view consensus and incremental progress as a sort of betrayal. Purity of cause, ideological purity and the purifying effect of violence crop up whenever the mindset corrupts one cause or another. It is not an illness of any particular ideology. Self-righteous manicheanism is an inbuilt weakness, a mold that grows on lazy minds, whenever a group finds a cause."
— Tim F.
