Basic Trope: When a character does morally ambiguous things only to go on to do something unquestionably and unforgivably evil.
- Straight: Bob starts out as a Vigilante Man, and then kills many innocent people for getting in his way of his latest target.
- Exaggerated: Bob doesn't like giving money to charity. One day, he decides to kill everyone involved with one.
- Downplayed: Bob had good reason to believe the innocent he killed was a Serial Killer and felt he had to stop him.
- Justified:
- Bob was always a self-righteous bastard willing to sacrifice the lives of innocents in order to kill someone he perceives as guilty. This is merely the first time we see him cross that line on-screen.
- Bob completely broke down after his Morality Chain Alice was killed, and now that there's no conscience left for him to go too far...
- Inverted: After years of killing criminals, Bob suddenly becomes an advocate for humane treatment of prisoners.
- Subverted:
- It seems like Bob is beyond redemption after his latest crime, but later he successfully pulls a Heel–Face Turn.
- It turns out the Bob was framed for the crime in order to turn the heroes against him.
- Bob is about to kill many innocent people but realizes he is crossing a line and stays his hand.
- Bob killing his entire family would normally count except for the fact that said family is not only utterly evil but would destroy all other life on earth for immortality.
- Double Subverted:
- This leads to Bob believing he is in the right no matter what he does...
- Bob kills the heroes when they come after him, solidifying his Face–Heel Turn.
- ...So he can enslave them all.
- Parodied: Alice is frustrated that all of her rivals go straight from something she disagrees with but realizes people dissent over to genocidal maniacs.
- Zigzagged: ???
- Averted: Bob never kills the innocent.
- Lampshaded:
- "I have no doubt this cost me the last of my sympathizers."
- "You're going to Hell for that."
- "You've gone too far this time!"
- "You're a MONSTER!"
- "This Is Unforgivable!"
- The Corrupter tells Bob, "I honestly didn't think this would work so fast."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied:
- Bob decides he will never do anything in his superhero career that will enable these kind of conversations among his friends (it is just impossible to prevent them from occurring among the common townsfolk, so he won't even try).
- "Yes, I am going to kill the freaking Joker. Right now, you have my full authorization to freaking shoot me if you see me try to hurt anybody else at any point whatsoever during the rest of our lives. And before you start getting upset about how I am putting you in the same spot, remember the Bible is a bit murky about the subject of kneecaps."
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "They grow up so quickly *sniff* first, they're kicking dogs, and next thing you know, they're slaughtering billions of innocents..."
- Deconstructed: That Alice's rivals keep on going from mere morally dodgy to puppy-eating evil is a sign that she is a Reality Warper making things worse unconsciously.
- Reconstructed: Alice doesn't care, as long as it means to fulfill whatever goal she has.
- Played For Laughs:
- Alice got fed up with Bob's incompetence, so she finally told him that she never liked his spinach puffs.
- After trying one slice, Bob admits that he is actually okay with pineapple on pizza, much to Alice's horror.
- Bob always announces that he will Kick the Dog just to prove how much of a Jerkass he is, but Alice and the plot always remind him why he's a Minion with an F in Evil.
- After much deliberation, Bob embraces the dark side when he learns the dark side has a better dental plan.
- Played For Drama: Bob starts out as a well-intentioned Vigilante Man. But when he learns that many of the people he saved were Bitches In Sheep's Clothing, he becomes thoroughly convinced Humans Are Bastards and started slaughtering even the innocent.
Back to Jumping Off the Slippery Slope.