History Main / DespairEventHorizon

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}
** This is the Chaos God Nurgle's ''modus operandi'': prey upon those who have succumbed to despair and cynicism, especially if this anguish comes from a [[{{Plaguemaster}} hideously-disfiguring disease]]. His victims wallow in self-pity until they fully embrace decay and entropy, find themselves perversely enjoying the experience, and begin worshiping him. In other words, through Father Nurgle you can fall past the Despair Event Horizon and end up AffablyEvil.
** For another ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' example, this is a significant chunk of the Soul Drinkers' fighting style - you break the enemy's will to fight, and then you can just kill them with ease.
** The whole idea of Night Lords, whose Primarch coined the space marine battlecry "I fear no evil, for I am fear incarnate" - They are a legion of TheDreaded and just their arrival to a planet is usually enough to cause mass suicides. Then they use orbital bombardment to cover the atmosphere with ash, blocking out the sunlight, jam communication with broadcasts of tortured civilians screaming and go on their hunt.
* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'': Investigators (a.k.a. the [=PCs=]) wage a never ending war against the Elder Gods, slowly learning more and more of the Mythos. At one point or another, they get a view of what they're fighting, a clear unobstructed view. Those who don't GoMadFromTheRevelation typically lose all motivation to fight out of finally understanding how small they really are in this fight.
* It's implied in some articles about the Dirigible Engine Daystar in ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' that [[spoiler: the Unconquered Sun]] has crossed it at some point after [[spoiler: his Chosen crossed the MoralEventHorizon]] and the whole world went to the dogs. This is a sign of how bad things have gotten in Creation; the [[spoiler: ''cosmic embodiment of virtue'']] is caught in a spiral of despair and denial.
* Being that they're both settings about personal horror, crossing the horizon is horribly frequent in ''TabletopGame/TheWorldOfDarkness'' games -- so much that many have mechanics for it.
** [[TabletopGame/MageTheAscension Mages]] use their beliefs and sheer willpower to [[RealityWarper shape the reality around them]]. Pushing them over the edge and sending them into utter despair, naturally, has some terrible consequences... If lucky[[note]]for everyone else, that is[[/note]], their mind (and magic) breaks and the mage becomes a Marauder, who enforces their shattered vision of reality upon the world ''by existing''. If unlucky, they might decide that it is better for reality not to exist at all and join the [[OmnicidalManiac Nephandi]]. This process involves ripping their soul inside out.
** [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse Werewolves]] have a word for this: ''Harano''. It's the breaking of spirit that comes from the realization that the [[TheCorruption Wyrm]] has already won, and anything they would do would be utterly pointless. Werewolves who succumb to Harano lose their connection to Gaia, and worse, their connection to what makes them a werewolf, rendering them a normal human from then on. A few rare lucky souls manage to reconnect with their werewolf side, usually just in time to make a HeroicSacrifice.
** In a world full of unwilling monsters, [[PrometheanTheCreated Prometheans]] probably have it the worst. The universe does not want them to exist. The very earth rejects them and the people are supernaturally urged to hate them. Learning to become human is a very difficult and bitter task, but many see it as a worthy goal to fight for... But many still fall to despair and pursue a very different goal: to become monsters. A Centimanus revels in their inhuman nature and uses their alchemical powers to dissolve and disintegrate.
** In ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'', crossing the despair event horizon is [[spoiler:the reproductive cycle of the True Fae.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games]]
* [[spoiler: Oersted]] in ''LiveALive''. [[spoiler:After being tricked, he finds that everyone has now abandoned him and considers him a demon, his only remaining ally is dragged away to be tortured, and is blamed for the death of said ally who expends the last of his power to set Oersted free. Oh, then he finds out that his best friend betrayed him to this fate because he was jealous. Oh, and the 'Aesop' which has been so far in the game? "Don't lose hope as long as somebody believes in you". That went ''[[SarcasmMode well]]''. The last person who he hoped believed in him, the princess? After Oersted duels his traitorous friend and kills him, she asks why he didn't come to rescue her (''ouch''. He ''did''. Straybow only got there first by faking his death and ruining Oersted's life), declares that she loves said traitor, and ''kills herself''. That was the absolute last straw, the severing of his last tenuous tie to sanity. The result? [[CreateYourOwnVillain Demon]] [[ThenLetMeBeEvil King]] [[BigBad Odio]] is ([[AsLongAsThereIsEvil re]])born and is bent on destroying humanity.]]
* After [[spoiler:spending a year in coma and seeing the destruction of the world firsthand, Cid's death]] in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' proves to be [[spoiler:Celes']] final straw, [[spoiler:[[DrivenToSuicide driving her to toss herself off a cliff]]. She survives by a miracle, and seeing Locke's bandanna tied around a pigeon's wing gives her a new reason to live.]] [[GuideDangIt This event can be prevented]] by successfully playing a {{minigame}}, but the path of failure is much better written[[note]]The developers seem to think so too, because the 'right thing' to do is willfully obscure, and the remainder of the plot tacitly assumes the character is dead.[[/note]].
** Several other characters get dangerously close as well. [[spoiler:Strago, believing Relm is dead, allows himself to be brainwashed by the Cult of Kefka, although he snaps out of it once he sees that Relm is alive. Setzer, after losing his beloved airship, is found drinking at the bar in Kohlingen, and it takes a RousingSpeech from Celes to bring him around.]]
* This is Seymour's motive in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX''. After a fairly crappy childhood he hits when his mother (the only person who ever loved him) sacrifices her own life to give him the power to defeat Sin. His despair drives him to plot the destruction of all life in Spira because he sees it as the only way to bring an end to all suffering.
** It also turns out to be the motive for why [[spoiler: Yu Yevon]] originally created Sin a thousand years ago. Seeing that his beloved city of Zanarkand would be destroyed, he killed every living being in it and used their souls to create an eternal Dream Zanarkand, as well as an all-powerful destructive force (Sin) to provide the power needed to keep Dream Zanarkand alive.
** And in the sequel ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'', a Despair Event Horizon is the main motive for its BigBad, Shuyin, who wants to destroy the world which let him and his beloved die a thousand years ago. To put it in perspective, Shuyin's concentrated despair festered in a hole for a millenia after his death until it reached a point where the only way he could think to end his pain would be to end the world itself.
*** Oh and the whole being forced to watch his beloved die on repeat for a thousand years might have also had something to do with it.
* It isn't clearly shown onscreen, but the backstory of ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' makes it apparent that [[spoiler:Mithos, Kratos and Yuan]] all suffered this upon the death of [[spoiler:Martel, Mithos' sister and Yuan's fiancee]], leading the heroes of the ancient world to [[FaceHeelTurn become villains instead]].
** [[spoiler:Kratos arguably claws his way back out of the Despair Event Horizon when he becomes disillusioned and meets his lover, Lloyd's mother, falls back in when he thinks they're both dead, and then claws back out again when he encounters Lloyd later.]]
** [[spoiler:Zelos spends much of the game near this line, [[StepfordSmiler despite hiding it]], as his terrible childhood and lonely life gave him little self worth and no friends. Lloyd's friendship and trust helps him recover...until Flanoir where Lloyd either confirms his trust or questions it. The latter sends Zelos over the Despair Event Horizon, and he later commits suicide by cop.]]
** The [[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld sequel]] has Alice fall into this when [[spoiler: Decus is killed protecting her.]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' has each of the main characters going over the DEH. [[spoiler:Some are more destructive than others.]]
** Lightning, in frustration with [[spoiler:PSICOM's persistence in hunting down the L'Cie and Hope's ineptitude finally goes over the edge]]. After what could be considered a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, [[spoiler:she inadvertently summon's her Eidolon, Odin, who wastes absolutely no time in attacking Hope.]] What gives this example a more literal sense is noting that [[spoiler:as long as Hope has health remaining, Odin will always target him first in battle]].
** Hope has a number of these. The first starts as a mere lack of will to live. Nothing too major. Then, he gets pushed into a state of TranquilFury against Snow after the man saves him, [[spoiler:believing he didn't save his mother, marking Snow as irresponsible. Needless to say, Hope and Lightning [[TheEnemyOfMyEnemy begin to bond due to their mutual dislike of the man]], with the latter unintentionally giving Hope the will to create a premeditated murder plan. Just to add to the blunder, she also give him a Survival Knife.]] This marks the longest in-game grudge, spanning for at least four chapters. Eventually, he comes to a RageBreakingPoint after fighting a boss, which causes him to [[spoiler:explode with anger, blasting Snow off of a roof, leaving him hanging over the edge while Hope attempts to kill him with the same knife given to him. However, this alerts the PSICOM forces looking for them, blast Hope from the roof.]] This, however, is passed once the man [[spoiler:saves his life]]. His final, albeit short, one is experienced on the surface of Gran Pulse; where Hope finds that the powerful forces of Pulse are too much for him. He goes on a HeroicSelfDeprecation rant, [[spoiler:which unlocks his Eidolon, revealing the truth that Eidolons come when you are on your last legs to display your inner strength to you]].
** Sazh spends a good bit of his time with Vanille over the deep end. However, he has one of the more memorable ones in the game. After travelling with the girl, soon becoming rather attached to her; Sazh is confronted by Commander Jihl Nabaat, the woman who was to watch over his Cocoon l'Cie-branded son. The woman then reveals [[spoiler:that Vanille was the reason Dajh was branded in the first place, and thus the reason he ended up as a crystal, which causes the girl to run in sadness of the revelation. And Sazh to go after her in a RoaringRampageOfRevenge]]. Soon, he succumbs to the sadness of his son's fate, opting to let his then summoned Eidolon, Brynhildr, kill him. After her defeat, [[spoiler:he decides to attempt to commit suicide by pointing his own gun to his temple]].
** Snow has a large one after the first battle with the penultimate boss, who revealed to the group that [[spoiler:Serah's Focus was to destroy Cocoon, instead of saving it]]. Snow becomes nearly catatonic, with [[spoiler:both Vanille and Lightning having to help him out of his rut and restore his faith in Serah]]. Afterwards, Snow's brand was the farthest along to turning him into a Cie'th; as emotional distress increases the speed of the process. Both of these are lampshaded by Fang.
** Vanille suffers a few of them. A famous one is her breakdown once Fang "remembered" everything, exposing Vanille's lies [[spoiler:and her Eidolon]]. This is pushed to a climax after the battle, where Fang motions to knock Vanille a new one... only to stop and hug her, allowing the girl to cry into her shoulder.
** Fang suffers two of these in-game. The first is shown [[spoiler:when she summons her Eidolon, Bahamut, accidentally after her tirade against the FantasticRacism Coccon is capable of. Opting to "blast Cocoon out of the sky", she very briefly turns on the group; even drawing her weapon out at them]]. She suffers a much more emotional, but brief, one after her friends [[spoiler:are turned into Cie'th by Orphan's illusion]].
* In ''VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII'', [[spoiler:Snow and Noel have both passed the DEH�Snow from the death of Serah, and Noel from both Serah's death and his role in Etro's death.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'', it is possible to send the Master over the Despair Event Horizon by convincing him that his plan to conquer humanity with his Super Mutants is doomed to failure.
--> "But it cannot be! This would mean that ''all my work'' has been for '''''nothing'''''! Everything that I've tried to...'''a failure!''' It can't ''be!'' '''Be!''' '''''Be!''''' Be...I...don't think that I can '''''continue.''''' ''Continue?'' To have done the things I have done...in the name of progress and healing...It was madness. I can see it now, madness. '''Madness?''' There is no hope. Leave now. Leave...while you still have ''hope...''"
* ''TalesOfTheWorld: Radiant Mythology'' has [[spoiler: Kanonno, after her home world, Pasca, was consumed by war and mana abuse despite her efforts as its Descender. She even committed genocide, which led to Pasca's rapid decline.]]
* ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'''s [[spoiler: Yasuyuki Honda]] crosses this in the [[spoiler: Escape]] ending. [[spoiler: He spends the whole week trying to escape the lockdown so he can see his hospitalized son, only to discover he's too late, and because they broke through the blockade, the whole world's gone to hell. This sends him completely over the edge, and he calls out the 'heroes' responsible in a nightmarishly backwards way, complete with SlasherSmile.]]
** Earlier on, Keisuke, already destabilized by a whole childhood of witnessing and suffering bullying, finally snaps when he sees Midori being nearly lynched to death to the people she was trying to save. He spends the following days going KnightTemplar and killing anyone that commits any kind of injustice.
* Kratos from ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'', when Athena tells him that [[spoiler: though they implied they would do so, they never actually said they'd let him forget killing his family. They only promised to forgive him.]]
* This is the entire premise behind ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic II'', as Revan is revealed to have deliberately subjected his Jedi Knights to brutal, dehumanizing battles until their spirit breaks and they turn to the dark side. Your character is the only person who managed to undergo this treatment and not succumb (you can still be as light or dark as you wish).
* Before ''DigitalDevilSaga'' starts, Angel crossed this when [[spoiler: her boyfriend died in her arms from injuries sustained in a terrorist attack on his hospital, all due to fear of the new, possibly not even infectious disease she'd been working on finding a cure for.]]
* ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV'' has this in spades.
** Ryu's Despair Event Horizon occurs when the summoners of Chek (who all appear to be children) are massacred in front of him by Rasso. Ryu ends up having a HeroicBSOD which releases the Kaiser Dragon--a kaiju-esque dragon that is a PhysicalGod--and results in him going into an UnstoppableRage until receiving a CoolDownHug from Nina.
** Fou-lu's Despair Event Horizon occurs with the third attempt by TheEmpire to kill him (TheEmperor isn't exactly keen on the re-awakening of the local KingInTheMountain)...which involved the [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing to insanity]] and eventual [[KillTheCutie literal use as living ammo]] of a girl named Mami in a FantasticNuke called the Carronade or Hex Cannon. [[PoweredByAForsakenChild Mami got to be human ammo]] because the FantasticNuke works on the principle that LoveHurts--the closer the connection, the deeper the taint goes--and Mami was explicitly in love with Fou-lu. The knowledge that [[ItsAllMyFault Mami died explicitly because of her romantic connection to him]] sends him into full-blown WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds mode.
*** This is also after no less than two previous attempts by TheEmpire to kill Fou-lu. Who is a ''literal'' GodEmperor. Whom the VestigialEmpire predecessors of TheEmpire ''explicitly summoned'' there 600 years previously (botching the summoning and leaving the PhysicalGod they were trying to pull across in two separate bodies separated by 600 years on opposite sides of the world) to unite their people and bring peace. And the main person trying to kill him, [[TheDragon Yohm]], is also explicitly a priest who knows damn well who and ''what'' Fou-lu is but is ''trying to kill him anyways''.
** Cray's Despair Event Horizon occurs when he has to MercyKill his fiance Elina (whom he and Nina have been looking for)--because KarmaHoudini [[MadScientist FUCKING YUNA]] turned Elina into an [[EldritchAbomination artificial Endless]].
** The manga adaptation of ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV'' cranks these up to massively TearJerker levels, including [[spoiler: Ryu breaking down after his [[UnstoppableRage KAISER RAEG]] in tears and asking Nina why HumansAreBastards]]. In addition, in a transition between the Bad Ending and Good Ending of the original game (yes, both of the MultipleEndings were incorporated in a linear storyline) [[spoiler: Fou-lu is shoved across the Despair Event Horizon a second time in a BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind. Ryu points out that not all HumansAreBastards and some HumansAreSpecial--holding [[MementoMacGuffin Mami's bells she wore in her hair]]--which causes Fou-lu to break down weeping and the two to break from the SplitPersonalityMerge.]]
* ''KaneAndLynch'' ''revels'' in this.
* ''Hunter, in Darkness'', an interactive fiction, plays this one and plays it hard. [[spoiler: An early segment has you crawling, cut and bleeding, through a [[{{Claustrophobia}} tight space]] with hundreds of feet of rock above and miles and miles of rock below. The game assures you repeatedly, even as you struggle ever closer to freedom, that this is it--your final resting place. [[DyingAlone This is where you die]]. Your light has flickered out and the invisible narrator insists that ''you will never leave this place'', until finally you tear yourself away from the stone gullet and stumble blindly to freedom.]]
* ''VideoGame/WildArms2'': A certain EldritchAbomination was sealed away "beyond the Event Horizon" in the backstory, and happens to be the source of the protagonist's SuperMode. Said protagonist is pushed to the edge of the Despair Event Horizon midway through, and teeters there for the entire game. After defeating the supposed final boss [[spoiler:which involved his MagnificentBastard commander sacrificing himself to give an EldritchLocation a physical body to kill]], he suffers a HeroicBSOD that almost releases the demon. In other words, his despair formed a bridge across the Event Horizon.
* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' has this as a fundamental aspect of managing your dwarves. They can become unhappy through a variety of reasons from simply not having any alcohol to drink through to the deaths of close friends or family. Getting a dwarf depressed enough will push them over the edge and cause them to lose their sanity. Depending on several factors this can be anything from a minor nuisance to extremely dangerous. If you're lucky, events can contrive to make this game-ending depending on your fortress design and how close other dwarves are to being over the edge themselves. Indeed, events can (or more usually, do) spiral out of control until your entire fortress is over the Despair Event Horizon.
* Hiroki in {{Canvas 2}} in regards to painting. Many of the routes actually deal more with helping ''him'' get over his problems than helping the heroine.
* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII,'' the player can push Fenris over the Despair Event Horizon by agreeing to give him back to the blood mage who had previously enslaved him. He's so gutted by the betrayal that he doesn't even get angry, just bows his head and leaves with the slaver without a fight.
** Implied with [[spoiler: Orsino at the end of the game. Seeing his fellow mages cut down one by one with no hope of surrender, he finally gives in and uses blood magic in a 'taking you with me' type deal. If you're *on* the side massacring the mages, he's downright LaughingMad as he gives in. If you're helping the mages, the casualties are still too much for him. "Why don't they just drown us as infants? Why wait?"]]
* Happens many, MANY times in the FireEmblem franchise:
** [[FireEmblemJugdral Seisen no Keifu]]: [[spoiler: Lord Sigurd]] can [[IronWoobie hold himself up]] as well as possible when [[spoiler: his wife Diadora is kidnapped, his father Byron is falsely accused of threason and dies, ''he'' himself is accused of treason, and bth his sister Ethlin and her husband/Sigurd's {{Lancer}} Cuan are murdered.]] However, the moment he sees that [[spoiler: his kidnapped wife was actually [[HypnotizeThePrincess mindwiped]] into marrying Alvis, who once was his sort-of ally]], he can only scream in utter horror and betrayal [[spoiler: right before Alvis himself burns him to death, and Sigurd's army is decimated shortly afterwards.]]
*** Sigurd's old friend and companion [[spoiler: Tiltyu]] doesn't fare much better. In the second part of the game we learn that [[spoiler: she]] crossed the DEH after not only [[spoiler: being separated of her son Arthur as she and her daughter Teeny are kidnapped back into Freege]], but also after [[spoiler: being subjected to endless abuse from her sister-in-law Hilda, which finally drove her to sickness and death.]]
** [[FireEmblemJugdral Thracia 776]]: [[spoiler: Evayle]] once was close to this horizon. So much that whatever happened to her ([[spoiler: the Basttle of Barhera]]), robbed her not only of [[spoiler: her husband and children]], but of [[spoiler: her memories of having ever been Bridget, the lost princess of Jungby and a member of Sigurd's troops.]] Much to our relief, at the end of the game we learn that [[spoiler: some years after the second war of Grandbell, she recovered her memories and reunited with Patty and Faval.]]
*** Olwen and [[spoiler: Misha]] also were pretty close to it, once they learned about [[spoiler: the horrifying child hunts conducted by the Grandbellian empire.]] They both pulled through it via {{Heel Face Turn}}s.
** [[FireEmblemElibe Fuuin no Tsurugi]]: The biggest example is [[spoiler: King Mordred of Etruria]], who completely lost the will to reign and left the government to his advisors (many of them treacherous) after [[spoiler: his son and heir, Prince Mildain, died in an accident.]] And then [[spoiler: this is subverted in the end: Mildain actually reappears, having survived the ''ambush'' that almost killed him, and is reunited with his father, so we know that Mordred ultimately got better.]]
** [[FireEmblemElibe Rekka no Ken]]: [[spoiler: Eliwood and Nils]] were both pretty close to cross this, once [[spoiler: Eliwood was tricked by Nergal into killing Nils's beloved sister Ninian with Durandal when she was forced into her Dragon form by Nergal himself.]]
*** [[spoiler: Renault]] ''did'' cross it several years ago, when [[spoiler: his partner and best friend was killed in battle.]] He was so utterly shattered that [[spoiler: he threw himself into battle blindly (and killed Lucius's dad in the process) and collaborated with Nergal in hopes to have his friend revived, among other things. He recovered a part of his sanity, however, and became TheAtoner in the end.]]
*** And then we have [[spoiler: Harken]], an [[TheAce Ace]] who was [[BrokenHero throughly]] [[BrokenAce broken]] after being [[spoiler: the SoleSurvivor of Lord Elbert's decimated crew.]] We meet him as a powerful enemy whom the [[spoiler: Pherae]] charas must recruit as soon as possible [[DeathSeeker lest he fights them to death]], and his supports reveal how the horrors he witnessed and the helplessness he felt drove him into becoming an EmptyShell of the man he once was. For worse, some other supports (pecifically, with [[spoiler: Marcus]]) heavily imply that he had severe self-esteem [[spoiler: and abuse/abandonment]] issues ''before'' the whole BreakTheCutie deal.
*** When we meet [[spoiler: Lord Hausen]], the old man has crossed the DEH since [[spoiler: he has learned that his long-lost daughter (Lyn's mother) is dead, his health is failing more and more (and he's being ''poisoned''), ''and'' his brother Lundgren is taunting him endlessly about all of it.]] He's going to succumb to DeathByDespair by that point. [[spoiler: But when Lyn reaches for him, he manages to come back.]]
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones'': [[spoiler: Prince Lyon]] never was the most self-assured person, despite his BadassBookworm status and being [[spoiler: the Imperial Prince of Grado.]] (His [[IllBoy weak health]] didn't help either.) But then his beloved father and idol [[spoiler: Emperor Vigarde]] died of illness, so the poor guy's mental health took a BIG nosedive.
** Then [[spoiler: Lyon]]'s advisor, [[spoiler: Knoll]] actually managed to ''return'' from the DEH, having witnessed [[spoiler: Lyon's fall into despair and then having been slated for execution. Ephraim and Duessel reach for him in the nick of time, and Knoll decides to join them and do what he can to help save Grado]].
** In the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia Archanean Saga]], [[spoiler: Prince Hardin of Aurelis, now Emperor Hardin]] crossed the horizon when [[spoiler:he learned that while Princess Nyna cared for him, she didn't ''romantically'' love him and only accepted to marry him for the sake of Archanea, This led him to locking himself in his personal room alone [[DrowningMySorrows drowning his sorrows on drinks]], until Gharnef disguised as a merchant offered him the Darksphere, and turns him into a megalomaniacal tyrant, setting off the events in ''Book 2'' with Hardin himself as the BigBad. His FamousLastWords are pretty much a FinalSpeech in which he begs Marth for forgiveness and begs him to apologize to Nyna in his stead for having been weak enough to give into the corruption of the Dragonsphere.]]
*** By the end of the saga, [[spoiler: Nyna]] herself has crossed it too. Not just because [[spoiler: she has lost ''both'' Camus and Hardin]] and [[spoiler: was ''this'' close to be a HumanSacrifice (alongside Maria, Lena and Elice)]], but because, well, [[spoiler: [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask her life has been made of suck]] ''because'' of her position as the Princess of Archanea]]. It's next to no wonder that [[spoiler: she pretty much disappears and leaves Archanea to Marth after all is said and done.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}'''s Nyarlathotep actively tries to force ''everyone'' in the game who raises a hand against him over the edge. EldritchAbomination + [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith A Form To Actively Horrify You]] + HannibalLecture + TheReasonYouSuckSpeech = this trope. The heroes' actions might [[DareToBeBadass make all]] [[ShutUpHannibal his]] [[TalkToTheFist effort]] worthless...
* In ''VideoGame/DantesInferno'', Dante's will is steadily broken as he goes deeper in Hell and he is forced to face the many sins he committed in life. When a corrupted Beatrice calls him out on his misdeeds and betrayal of her trust, he falls to his knees and gives up on trying to redeem himself, deciding that he deserves to be trapped in Hell.
* In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow'', Gabriel crosses it right after a moment of utter triumph [[spoiler:when he ''kicks Satan's ass'']] when he sees that [[spoiler:Marie is about to leave for the afterlife forever and that he cannot go with her.]] Realizing that the hope he believed in was hollow, Gabriel collapses and cries silently. [[spoiler:Even centuries later, he has not recovered. As the immortal Dracula, all he does is hide in shadows while longing for a death that may never come.]]
* VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog can fall into this during certain endings of his titular videogame (i.e. discovering he is an android, believing he is an experiment gone wrong). However, other endings he'll completely avert it. Ironically, no matter what happens, he will always end the story by saying "This is who I am."
** Besides the Last Story, which he says [[spoiler: "Goodbye, Shadow the Hedgehog."]]
* ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIII'' explains that King Graham passed this when Rosella (his remaining child) was picked for the annual HumanSacrifice to the dragon plaguing Daventry. This is why it falls to "Gwydion" [[spoiler: (aka the lost Prince Alexander)]] to rescue her and the kingdom.
* ''[[VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend]]'': [[spoiler:During Makoto's bad ending, Relius Clover's [[MoralEventHorizon/VideoGames prolonged and precision-guided]] MindRape slams [[LittleBitBeastly Makoto]] [[MsFanservice Nanaya]] across the despair event horizon at terminal velocity - the earliest symptoms of this are her lack of will to move or even speak, and she eventually [[FateWorseThanDeath fades into oblivion]] [[AndIMustScream as he begins to rewrite her soul for his own use]].]]
-->[[spoiler:(I... need to save... Tsubaki... but... I feel like I... like I don't... have... anything...)]]
** Terumi feeds on others' despair to survive. He happens to be very good at causing this to extraordinary levels in almost everyone, and does exactly that, even if it's just for his own amusement. Every single ending, except his own, ultimately is a HeadsIWinTailsYouLose situation for the character. He uses his abilities to turn [[spoiler:Noel]], the girl who is loyal to him and falsely believes him to be a force of good, into a sobbing wreck of self-loathing and hatred.
** His MotiveRant, which is delivered after said HeadsIWinTailsYouLose situation sums up that he thinks everyone who have crossed the Despair Event Horizon are the only honest people, everything else are lies, those who believe them are liars and he's willing to make his own brand of truth of "Everyone, cross the Despair Event Horizon" to become the accepted truth in the world.
* Gerald Robotnik crosses this ''hard'' in the Last Story of VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 when he finds out about [[spoiler: Maria's death]].
* At the beginning of Act IV in ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'', everyone in Bastion's Keep who isn't dead following [[spoiler:Leah's death and Diablo's resurrection as the Prime Evil at the end of Act III]] comes ''damned'' close to crossing this. Haedrig, the blacksmith who's followed you faithfully throughout the game, comes probably the closest to it:
-->'''Haedrig:''' I thought I could make my wife's death mean something. It doesn't matter now, does it?
-->'''Player:''' It does matter. You are here now, and we might still turn the tide of this battle.
-->'''Haedrig:''' Right. I'm sure that's a comfort for [[spoiler:Leah]] now that [[spoiler:she's gone too]]. I've been a fool. You don't get to make things right. This world isn't made for redemption.
** In addition, the angels of the High Heavens have also fallen to despair as a result of [[spoiler:Rakanoth capturing Auriel, the Archangel of Hope]]. Only by [[spoiler:killing Rakanoth and freeing her]] do you restore hope to both the angels and everyone else.
** New material for the ''Diablo'' franchise reveals that [[spoiler: Prince Aidan aka The Warrior from the first game]] went over this when he discovered that [[spoiler: in killing Diablo, he killed his baby brother Albrecht, and saving Albrecht had been his driving goal. This may have driven him to jam Diablo's Soulstone into his forehead, an action that he probably would not have done otherwise]]!
* ''Videogame/SpecOpsTheLine'' - Walker goes through one at the end of the game when he realizes [[spoiler: that he was hallucinating the villain, [[DeadAllAlong John Konrad]], he slaughtered a U.S. Army regiment, and that he has doomed the ''entire city of Dubai'' to die slowly of dehydration]]. The rest of the squad goes through one much earlier after they unknowingly use [[spoiler: [[KillItWithFire white]] [[BodyHorror phosphorus]] on a refugee camp.]]
* In ''Videogame/IMissTheSunrise'', a lacertian man named Chac seems to have passed this; he was the lone survivor of a ship that was wrecked by the Shine, and [[ItsAllMyFault is wracked with survivor guilt]]. In addition, he lost both his wife and his legs. [[spoiler:Turns out he hasn't quite passed the brink; though it takes a Herculean effort, his sidequest involves bringing him back from the event horizon.]]
* In ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'', when Oswald learns that Gwendolyn handed over the ring Titrel, which he'd given to her as a wedding gift, over to her father Odin, he takes it to mean that she does not love him and is trapped in their marriage. Given that Oswald had latched onto the possibility that Gwendolyn might love him as his last hope in the world, the thought that she has no feelings for him drives him so far into despair that he lays down his sword and lets the Halja drag him off to the Netherworld. [[spoiler:Fortunately for Oswald, he's mistaken about Gwendolyn's feelings, and she promptly dons her battle tutu and storms the Netherworld to get him back.]]
* This is what motivates Wolf to become a robber in ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist''. According to his backstory, Wolf lost his job when the economic slump hit, his last client refused to pay him for his work, and he and his family became homeless. It was enough to send Wolf over the edge to the point where he suffered a mental breakdown and started to act out based on famous heist movies.
* In the fourth expansion of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', [[spoiler:Garrosh Hellscream nuking Theramore]], counts as a {{Despair Event Horizon}} for [[spoiler:[[TheWoobie Jaina Proudmoore]]]], and altough [[OurDragonsareDifferent Kalecgos]] saved her from becoming a {{Woobie Destroyer of Worlds}}, it was nonetheless the beginning of a chain of events which [[spoiler:led her to become a {{Fallen Hero}}.]]
** According to his own words, Archduke Benedictus fell across the line during [[BigBad Deathwing]]'s attack on Stormwind.
** The Sha of Despair is the ElementalEmbodiment of this trope. Anyone who is affected by it loses all hope to live. The effects are shown in the Temple of the Red Crane and Zhu's Watch.
* Happens to just about everybody - except [[VillainProtagonist you]] - in the Demon Path of SoulNomad. But not before they go insane and/or die horribly.
* Perfectio of ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsDestiny'' and consequently ''Second VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'' has a wave that will cause anyone who gets hit with it cross the horizon, due to his sheer power, malevolence and the fact that [[NighInvulnerability he's just plain impossible to kill off permanently]]. It does help that he himself is an EldritchAbomination by nature. And usually when these people were despairing, he would feed on those emotions and make himself ''even more powerful''.
* In ''VideoGame/SuikodenV'', [[HeroicMime the Prince]] will hit this at the end of the game if you recruit less than 60 Stars of Destiny; He wanders off into the frozen mountains, utterly broken by his experiences.
* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', [[spoiler:Tali]] suffers one if you [[spoiler:allow the geth to wipe out the quarians. She throws herself off a cliff, and there is ''absolutely no way to stop her'']].
** Conversely, Legion suffers this if you choose to save the quarians at the expense of the geth, [[spoiler:in fact, Legion decides to try and kill Shepard out of hopeless spite, but Tali shoves a knife in his back and saves Shepard while Legion dies]].
** As implied by the [[NightmareSequence dreams]], Shepard seems to be running out of hope of ever defeating the Reapers. [[spoiler:Played straight in the Extended Cut, Shepard can choose to ''not'' use any of the Catalyst's options. [[TheBadGuyWins That choice concludes with everyone in Shepard's Cycle being killed or harvested by the Reapers]].]]
** Likewise, choosing to [[spoiler:sabotage the genophage cure]] will cause [[spoiler:Wrex to withdraw all krogan support from the fight against the Reapers and confront Shepard, which ends [[SuicideByCop about as well as can be expected]]]].
** The krogan species ''as a whole'' is suffering from this - since their culture has a heavy focus on the idea that MightMakesRight, their defeat in the Krogan Rebellions due to the genophage has led them to view themselves as not even worthy of survival, and as a result they've degenerated into internecine warfare and mercenary work and don't put all that much effort into trying to ''cure'' the species-wide stillbirth plague.
** [[spoiler:Your clone]], when [[spoiler:Brooks]] abandons them in the ''Citadel'' DLC. If you take the Paragon option and try to save them, they flatly refuse to take your hand and simply...let go of the Normandy's ramp. [[DrivenToSuicide Hundreds of feet above the Citadel streets]].
** Gavin Archer, if you took the Paragon choice at the end of the Overlord DLC and then fail to save Grissom Academy.
-->''God be with you, Commander Shepard. He was never with me.'' [[[DrivenToSuicide gunshot]]]
* In the prequel comic to ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'', Superman's MoralEventHorizon was caused by this when [[spoiler:he accidentally murders Lois Lane and his unborn child thanks to some Kryptonite-laced Fear Gas. Oh, and Lois was hooked to a detonator to a nuclear bomb that went off when her heart stopped beating... taking out Metropolis. The ones who did this? TheJoker and Harley Quinn.]]
* In TheKingOfFighters, [[spoiler: Leona Heidern]] has spent years in the border of this after [[spoiler: she killed her parents and townspeople under Goenitz's MoreThanMindControl]], with only a big dose of [[spoiler: TraumaInducedAmnesia]] and her life as a soldier holding the rests sanity. When she actually recovers her memories of this, she's almost fully crosses the line [[spoiler: and then becomes Orochi Leona. Fortunately, her TrueCompanions Ralf and Clark are there for her, so they manage to bring her back.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Ib}}'', [[spoiler: Ib herself]] suffers this in two of the endings. If you do extremely poorly and then [[spoiler: fail the Doll Room event]], you get the "Welcome to the World of Guertena" or "A Painting's Demise" endings, in which [[spoiler: Garry]] has been [[spoiler: driven insane]] and [[spoiler: Ib, though she tries]], is unable to do anything about it. This leads to [[spoiler: her]] collapsing in despair and never getting back up again, despite [[spoiler: Mary's]] attempts to get [[spoiler: her]] to wake up.
* [[spoiler: Dwayne]] crosses it in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' if you decide to kill him in the mission "The Holland Play". It has been established that Niko is the only person he can rely on, and the closest thing he has to a friend. Realizing that Niko has decided to kill him pushes him past the event horizon. While most of the characters that you execute in the course of the game have to be chased down and cornered, [[spoiler:[[TearJerker Dwayne]]]] [[TearJerker just turns his back and waits for Niko to end him.]] Thankfully, there is a much better alternative.
* Elizabeth crosses it in ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'' [[spoiler: in the BadFuture that results from her being recaptured by Songbird. In Comstock's attempts to get her to take up his mantle, she is tortured both physically and mentally, but holds on to hope that Booker will rescue her. However, he doesn't, and Elizabeth is convinced that he abandoned her; in reality he was stopped and probably killed by Songbird. With nothing left to hope for, she goes full on WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds and accepts the role of Comstock's successor, sending Columbia into war-preparations and subjecting any dissenters to a MindRape that transforms them into easily-manipulated lunatics. And when she realizes why Booker didn't save her, all her attempts to try and stop the monsters she's created fail. It's only through the intervention of the Luteces that can she find the will to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong prevent this future from ever occuring]] with the help of another version of Booker, and even when this plan comes to fruition, Elizabeth still can't see any hope for herself.)]]
* If Ethan Mars of ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' fails to save his son Shaun at the end of the game, he will fall into this, ultimately leading to [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]]. It doesn't help things that his other son, Jason, was killed near the beginning of the game.
* In ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'' this ends up happening to [[TheDragon Ramirez]] after [[spoiler: his mentor figure [[BigBad Galacian]] is killed.]] This leads him to [[spoiler: bring down the [[KillSat Rains of Destruction]] and destroy the whole planet instead of conquering it, reasoning that Galacian was the only one who could save the world.]]
** As a bonus [[spoiler: Galacian is killed because one of his subordinates, Belliza, crosses her own DEH after realizing that he will always be a power-hungry tyrant and never reciprocate her feelings towards him.]]
* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Nier}} NieR: Replicant]]'' the eponymous protagonist gets hit with this HARD in the end of the first half of the game when [[spoiler: he completely fails to save his sister from the Shadowlord and is forced to sacrifice one of the only true friends he's ever had for a hollow victory against a Shade.]] This destroys the bubble of hopes and dreams he was trying to create for him and sister and turns him into an embittered and murderous BloodKnight who revels in killing Shades as an outlet for his anger and despair while trying to get his sister back.
* ''Sonic'' hits this in ''VideoGame/SonicLostWorld''. Despite continuing on, he's incredibly affected as everyone seemingly drops like flies thanks to his bull-headed stunt that lead to the Deadly Six breaking free: his world has been sucked dry, Amy and Knuckles been hit with it, Tails captured by the villains and, for extra measure, he's forced to watch Eggman, Orbot and Cubot plunge into lava. He almost seems resigned when he sees Tails [[UnwillingRoboticization turned into a cyborg of sorts]] [[spoiler:until he reveals he's still in control ''and'' not a robot. Eggman even returns, ready to reclaim his victory and, at the end, everyone's revived.]] For such a bright and colorful game, it's probably also one of the ''darkest''.
* Cody Travers from ''VideoGame/FinalFight'' and later the ''VideoGame/StreetFighter'' series. While it is not actually seen in the games, multiple games tell the story of his downfall, which occur after the ending of the original Final Fight. Cody and his friends go out to save his girlfriend from the ''BigBad'' in Final Fight. On the way, [[BeatEmUp he beats up]] a corrupt cop named Edi, who later arrests the hero for assault in battery. Next, his girlfriend dumps him, and [[PutOnABus leaves the country to study abroad]]. Afterwards, he is let out of jail and tries to get revenge by fighting criminals outside. He gets arrested again, and becomes addicted to fighting within prison. He then eventually breaks out, and joins the Street Fighting cast in their tournament(s). After all these events, he usually claims that he will never be the hero again, and often states that all he has left is fighting (which he often exclaims is pointless).
* [[spoiler:Schala Zeal]] of ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' is left so broken in sadness and despair she willingly resigns to her fate of being trapped in the [[spoiler:Dream Devourer]]. Not even her brother's will to save her lifts her spirits, infact his lust for power to that end only makes it worse.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In ''KeychainOfCreation'', an ''{{Exalted}}'' webcomic, this is canonically how Abyssal Exalted get created, as shown in Renegade Deathknight Secret's backstory flashback. Her entire village is killed by a demonic plague, she's deathly ill, and just as she's given up all hope of living, the Neverborn show up and offers her Exaltation in exchange for servitude.
* ''BittersweetCandyBowl'', Lucy when [[spoiler:she thought Mike died]] and shortly after, when [[spoiler:she finally confessed her love for him and he rejected her.]] The first one came with DissonantLaughter.
** Chapter 63 is getting [[TearJerker sadder]] and Lucy looks about at the horizon [[http://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c63/p5.html here.]] [[spoiler:She was okay, then Mike ignored her existence. Now...]]
* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', [[spoiler: Eridan]] crosses both this ''and'' the MoralEventHorizon in the same scene. [[spoiler: He gives up any hope of beating Jack and defects to his side, killing off his unrequited love interest AND his species' only hope for revival in the process. This makes his Sgrub title, Prince of Hope, rather prophetic- it was later explained that "Prince" roughly translates to "Destroyer."]]
* Trudy crosses this in GeneralProtectionFault after seeing Nick, (whom she had loved) propose to Ki, which Ki accepts. She had been starting to regret her actions, but this pushes her even further, and she attempts suicide in the next arc in which she appears.
* In GoblinHollow, [[spoiler: this is what happens to Penny's best friend, who sadly, [[DrivenToSuicide is swallowed by the Horizon.]] ]]
* ''Webcomic/TrueBelievers'' has Franchise/SpiderMan lose his wife, his home, and his job at the Daily Bugle all in ''the first 11 pages''. As a result, he asks Dr. Octopus to kill him. Unfortunately for him, DeathIsCheap in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, so not even murder can end his suffering.
* In ''{{Sinfest}}'',
** {{Satan}} [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2386 thinks it hilarious.]]
** [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3009 Slick declares that losing a computer game again brings this on.]]
* Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick has Vaarsuvius crossing the line after realizing the true extent of his/her earlier MoralEventHorizon.
* In ''Webcomic/NoRestForTheWicked'', Claire's DarkAndTroubledPast has brought her to the state that she does not even care that the villagers, looking for TheScapegoat, will BurnTheWitch because they think she killed her children.
* Very nearly everyone with a speaking part in ''GoneWithTheBlastwave'', though it doesn't manifest in quite the usual way. Rather than some grand gesture like falling into an AngstComa or being DrivenToSuicide[[note]] apart from that one guy from the Blue army who AteHisGun[[/note]], they've all just become desensitized to the constant bloodshed and are operating on some sort of HeroicSafeMode.
* Matt from HodgesPond came pretty close to crossing it in [[http://hodgespond.com/index.php/2011/11/21/trixies-story-9/ this strip.]]
* Anna Enfield's from ''{{Webcomic/Sire}}' lead a fairly troubled life which took a sharp turn when the sister that she shared a body with used it to murder their beloved uncle. Having seen herself kill someone she loved and knowing that her Hyde half could not do that unless she desired it, Anna turns a knife on herself and tries to commit suicide.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]
* An Alternate Universe in ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' showed a demoralized Supes enslaving Metropolis alongside Lex Luthor because he [[MyGreatestFailure couldn't save Lois Lane from a car bomb]].
** Similarly, in ''JusticeLeague'', [[spoiler:Flash's execution by President Luthor]] led to another alternate universe's Justice League becoming the [[KnightTemplar Justice Lords]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', after getting a second chance at living a normal life, [[spoiler: Mr. Freeze is betrayed by [[BigBad Derek Powers]] when his body begins to deteriorate back to requiring sub zero temperatures.]] It's around this point that he's crossed the line and eventually chooses [[spoiler: to stay behind when the building is collapsing on top of him.]] His last words in the episode? "Believe me, Batman, you're the only one who cares..."
* [[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast The Beast]] crossed it years ago when his selfishness caused not only his own curse, but also led to his servants being punished with him. Belle helped him pull himself back across the threshold [[spoiler: only to cross it again when he's forced to release her to save her father.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel''. ''Nature''. Clay [[spoiler:shoots Orel in the leg and leaves him bleeding in the woods for a day]]. It's when the show officially shifts from comedy to a massive character study.
* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' saw his friends and family die right in front of his eyes. What comes as a result? [[spoiler:A [[AxCrazy completely]] [[PsychoForHire psychotic]] ghost who goes on a ''literal'' roaring rampage (not of revenge). He's the only villain on the show to have been seen to commit murder.]]
* Hardy Har Har the hyena from ''LippyTheLionAndHardyHarHar'' was born like this.
* During the TimeSkip in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', [[spoiler:Aqualad]] went through this when [[spoiler:Tulla, the girl he loved, died during a mission with the team as Aquagirl and when he discovered Black Manta was his biological father and that Aquaman knew and hid it from him.]] Feeling betrayed by ''everyone'' in his life, he went to the only place he felt he could belong: [[spoiler:at his father Black Manta's side.]] In "Depths", [[spoiler:this is revealed to be a cover story for his FakeDefector status.]]
** This incident was a big shock for the rest of the team too. Wally Artemis and Garth retired from heroics, causing them to bring in new heroes and change the line up, they brought in Mal to act as a constant mission control, and everyone else became very cautious and serious compared to the first season, their feeling of invincibility seemingly shattered.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', Billy, an aged hero, reaches this after years of fighting evil proved futile, as the bad guys just kept coming back. As a result, he becomes an example of IWillFightNoMoreForever, feeling violence didn't help solve any problems.
** Finn almost crosses this in "Dad's Dungeon," after he's convinced that Joshua, his adoptive father, doesn't love him. He's about to commit suicide by eating a poisoned apple, but Jake saves him at the last minute.
** Baby-Snaps crosses this in "Princess Cookie," after Princess Bubblegum giggles at his childhood dream of being a princess. He tries to commit suicide.
** A more humorous example was used in "Crystals Have Power," when Jake makes a vow of non-violence after accidentally hurting Finn and his brother Jermaine, and becomes a complete ''wuss''.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Korra hits this after [[spoiler: Amon takes her bending away. However, this actually is what she needed to unlock her spiritual side which connects her with Aang allowing him to restore her bending and unlock the Avatar state]].
** Tarrlok also reaches this point after [[spoiler: he has a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment and realizes that him and his long-lost brother, [[WellIntentionedExtremist Amon]] (born Noatak), have become the same evil monsters that their [[AbusiveParents abusive father]] wanted them to be]].
** Korra hits the event horizon again in season 2 [[spoiler: after her uncle, having been transformed into a twisted version of the Avatar himself, rips the light spirit Raava from Korra's body and actually succeeds in bringing the Avatar cycle to an end.]] Tenzin manages to drag her back, but it's a narrow thing.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' this happens to Terra when she reminds Beast Boy that he said that he'd be her friend no matter and he he responds that she doesn't have any friends. By her next appearance she's given up on good and is committed to killing the Titans and taking over the city for Slade.
* In ''TheSpectacularSpiderMan'', the symbiote attempts to push Peter over the Despair Event Horizon so that he'll let it permanently bond with him, by making him relive [[OriginsEpisode how he got his powers]] [[MyGreatestFailure and how he caused Uncle Ben's death]]. Fortunately [[SpiritAdvisor Uncle Ben himself]] shows up to snap Pete out of it.
* Beavis in ''[[WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtheadDoAmerica Beavis and Butt-Head Do America]]'' falls into this near the end. After arriving in Washington and not meeting Dallas Grimes (who had promised to have sex with them when the he and Butthead made it to Washington - a lie so she could get the toxin she put into his shorts), he delves into this, crying out that they'd grow old and gray, but they were never going to score. The bus driver makes Beavis GetAHoldOfYourselfMan by delivering a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown.
* [[spoiler: Ahsoka]], of all people, crosses it in the ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' in the finale of the fifth and final season, [[spoiler: after the Jedi Council throw her out and almost convict her of attacking the Jedi Temple when the real culprit was Barriss Offee, who did it to show the Jedi that they've lost their way. Since the Council didn't trust her she can no longer trust herself, so she declines Anakin's offer of rejoining them and leaves to find her own path.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The Imperial Japanese military became increasingly desperate as the Allies began to draw the noose around the Home Islands. They recommended a LastStand on a national scale, and began training schoolchildren to fight with sticks, but when the Emperor supported the decision to surrender, many military officers chose ''[[DrivenToSuicide seppuku]]'' as an alternative, inclusive of those officers who tried to stop the Emperor's broadcast and continue fighting without his Majesty's approval only to be arrested.
** UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler also had this, when he realized that the Allies in the West and the Soviets in the East are closing in on him, and there was no chance for him to win. He ordered his forces to fight to the last man, and burn Germany to the ground, to deny the Allies of anything. Fortunately many of his officers choose to ignore this, while some weren't so lucky when they ended fighting the Soviets..
* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option Samson option]]. There are grave suspicions this would also double as the MoralEventHorizon.
* UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt, when his son Quentin died in UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne. His health, held together for most of his life solely by [[{{Badass}} sheer]] [[{{Determinator}} unfettered]] ''[[CrazyAwesome willpower]]'', began failing almost immediately, and never recovered. His DeathByDespair followed less than a year later.
** He had already come close to this thirty years earlier when his wife and his mother died '''on the same day''': Valentine's Day 1884.
* Many of "the Projects" in the US from the 1960s fell into this. Now many of the people living in them have no hope of ever improving their lives. The sad part is there are now up to 4 generations who have lived this way.
** The housing agencies in many cities are demolishing the high-rise projects and replacing them with developments of single-family homes. Whether this will make a difference remains to be seen.
* Jason Russell dealt with massive amounts of [[InternetCounterattack criticism from Ugandans and internet goers]] of the viral video "Kony 2012" for his organization's handling of finances and purpose of helping Ugandans. Then personal attacks against his Evangelical Christian background came to light and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjdH2LDH5LM he completely lost it.]]
* Chris Hedges, an influential left-wing columnist and former Pulitzer-winning war correspondent, has [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anis-shivani/pessimism-porn-chris-hedges_b_788504.html been]] [[http://www.opednews.com/articles/Chris-Hedges--Genocide-J-by-Robert-S-Becker-120808-361.html accused]] of using his more recent writings to pull readers into his own Despair Event Horizon, especially with regards to corporate power and environmentalism.
* This is essentially what depression is (the feeling that there is no hope).
** Also why many people commit suicide or want to commit suicide.
** There are also several factors in one's life that can lead to depression, especially if each factor is back to back. For example, someone gets laid off from their job, then they're unable to find a job due to the lousy economy, which is then followed by having items repossessed or even losing the house because they don't have any money to pay the bills, which in turn leads to them being forced to live in a homeless shelter while getting minimal food, which can also lead to the person getting ill and not being able to afford to get treated. All this can cause a person to simply give up on life and stop trying to find a way to better themselves or they may even resort to a life of crime seeing that they have nothing else to lose.
* Ravens usually mate in monogamous pairs for life. If one of the pair dies, it isn't uncommon for the other member to become despondent, sometimes even to the point of deliberately starving themselves to death. "[[EdgarAllanPoe Quoth the raven, 'nevermore.']]"
* The argument that the "you break the enemy's morale, and you can achieve victory even without military success" manifestation of this trope was successfully invoked by the Entente against Hindenburg, Ludendorff and the German High Command in general at the close of UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne was a major contributor to promoting the "stab in the back" legend and Hitler's subsequent rise to power.
* Historians speculate that the Battle of Gettysburg was the horizon for the Union in the UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, though it was ultimately not crossed. They had superior troop strength, economy and manufacturing over the Confederacy, but at that point public opinion was against the war and morale was extremely low. Conversely, the Confederacy had absolute faith in their leadership, as Lee had led them to victory after victory. It is thought that if the Union had lost that battle, it would have been the beginning of the end and the nation would have been forced to sue for peace.
** Some historians have discussed the prospect of the Emancipation Proclamation being this for the Confederacy. One of the major goals of the Confederate Army was earning recognition and aid from European powers. When the Proclamation emerged, it transformed what had up until then looked like a war of reunification into a crusade to end slavery - which absolutely dashed any hope of Europe backing the Confederacy (any nation that did would be tacitly supporting human bondage). That did severe damage to morale, but it got even worse as the common soldiers realized defending slavery would be ''worthless'' to them - slaves cost hundreds of dollars, well beyond the average Southerner's reach (this is where we get the term "A rich man's war, but a poor man's fight"). It's worth noting that desertions ''skyrocketed'' after the Emancipation Proclamation.
* BillSimmons frequently discusses this regarding sports fans, as he has experience being from Boston (before all four teams became victorious in the 2000s, all had droughts made even more unbearable by disheartening defeats - even the post-Larry Bird Celtics). He wrote the "[[http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/071001 Levels of]] [[http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100722/mailbag2 Losing]]" regarding how bad a defeat can be, and also listed "[[http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100129&sportCat=nfl tortured teams]]" making it clear they have to go past the Despair Event Horizon to qualify:
-->You need to be just pessimistic enough to keep your guard up for a sucker punch but [[HopeSpot just optimistic enough]] to keep lowering your guard at the worst possible time."
* The first President of Brazil, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deodoro_da_Fonseca Deodoro da Fonseca]] suffered a biblical one after being impeached ([[EtTuBrute which he took very personally]]). To give some context, Deodoro was known as a BoisterousBruiser jokester and FunPersonified to his friends, described as "lion-hearted". But after his impeachment, Deodoro locked himself in his house,spent his days rotting away in a chair, smoking his already damaged lungs away. He forbid anyone in a military uniform to ever enter his house (keeping in mind he used to be a bona-fide, very patriotic war-hero). [[DeathByDespair He died less than six months later]].
* [[StrawNihilist Some people wrongly believe]] that FriedrichNietzsche preached this trope as a philosophy, but that's not quite true. A much better "religion of despair" can be found in the writings of his inspiration and predecessor, Arthur Schopenhauer.
[[/folder]]

DespairEventHorizon.AnimeAndManga
DespairEventHorizon.ComicBooks
DespairEventHorizon.Fanfiction
DespairEventHorizon.{{Film}}
DespairEventHorizon.{{Literature}}
DespairEventHorizon.LiveActionTV
DespairEventHorizon.{{Music}}
DespairEventHorizon.{{Other}}
DespairEventHorizon.TabletopGames
DespairEventHorizon.VideoGames
DespairEventHorizon.{{Webcomics}}
DespairEventHorizon.WesternAnimation
DespairEventHorizon.RealLife

----

*** Well, that and his completely single-minded obsession with [[spoiler:finding a cure for Casca's insanity]], even though he's warned that it may not be for the best, and she may not even want to be cured.

* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': In "King of the Fleas", Roscoe Martin tells the story how had as a POW during TheVietnamWar been tricked into revealing the names of the pilot inmates at the POWCamp, and was then forced to watch as the Vietcong executed the rest of them, which had plagued him ever since. Subverted in that after he had killed the camp commander in the present-day (1997-98), he regained hope again, as evidently seen in "The Martin Baker Fan Club".

* Sasuke Uchiha from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' lives off this trope. First, his brother [[AloofBigBrother Itachi]] kills ''their clan'', making him the LastOfHisKind. On that same night, said brother proceeds to MindRape Sasuke so that he has to watch Itachi kill their parents over and over again. This turns him into a revenge obsessed JerkAss ''before he was even a teenager.'' After a while, he makes genuine progress in getting better, Itachi comes back, [[CurbstompBattle completely kicks Sasuke's ass while barely trying (okay, likely not trying at all)]], then proceeds to mind rape him again. This makes him abandom his village to go train under [[MadScientist Orochimaru]], who had, rather recently, attacked the village and killed its leader. After 3 years of training, he finally fights Itachi again, [[spoiler:and after Itachi dies from sickness, right in front of Sasuke, [[BigBad Tobi]] arrives. He reveals to Sasuke that Itachi had actually killed their clan because said clan was planning a coup, which would've led to a civil war and likely a world war, but since Itachi couldn't bring himself to kill his little brother, so he became a StealthMentor in the hopes that Sasuke would kill him, which would avenge their clan and make Sasuke a hero to the village.]] Sasuke reacts... poorly to this. Surmise it to say he turns into a lunatic. It's even worse for him when The Second Hokage reveals that all Uchiha have a higher capacity for emotion, so this entire ordeal is even more painful for him.]]

** [[spoiler:Obito crossed it when Rin was killed. Unlike Naruto, however, [[LoveMakesYouEvil he didn't come back]], and [[BigBad took it out on the whole world]].]]
** [[spoiler:Madara crossed it (by his own admission) when he found out the AwfulTruth about the history of the ninja world and [[GoMadFromTheRevelation came to realize how hopeless the idea of achieving true peace really was]]. He subsequently comes up with an AssimilationPlot as he feels that it's the only hope for humanity.]]

** AdolfHitler also had this, when he realized that the Allies in the West and the Soviets in the East are closing in on him, and there was no chance for him to win. He ordered his forces to fight to the last man, and burn Germany to the ground, to deny the Allies of anything. Fortunately many of his officers choose to ignore this, while some weren't so lucky when they ended fighting the Soviets..

* TheodoreRoosevelt, when his son Quentin died in UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne. His health, held together for most of his life solely by [[{{Badass}} sheer]] [[{{Determinator}} unfettered]] ''[[CrazyAwesome willpower]]'', began failing almost immediately, and never recovered. His DeathByDespair followed less than a year later.

* In the [[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic MLP]] fanfic [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/149998/what-have-you-done WhatHaveYouDone]]. Twilight does this after her friends abandon her at the Canterlot Wedding rehearsal [[spoiler: but Chrysalis unlike in canon, [[ForWantofANail just leaves Twilight instead of sending her to the caves]], seeing as how Twilight was already in the depths of despair.]] Twilight leaves the wedding dejected [[spoiler: ''frees Discord'', and the Mane 6 and Twilight's mother find her Element of Magic ''pitch black''.]]

* In the [[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic MLP]] fanfic [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/149998/what-have-you-done WhatHaveYouDone]]. Twilight does this after her friends abandon her at the Canterlot Wedding rehearsal [[spoiler: and Chrysalis decides against locking Twilight in the old caverns like she did in canon.]] Twilight leaves the wedding dejected [[spoiler: ''frees Discord'', and the Mane 6 and Twilight's mother find her Element of Magic ''pitch black''.]]

* In the [[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic MLP]] fanfic [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/149998/what-have-you-done WhatHaveYouDone]]. Twilight does this after her friends abandon her at the Canterlot Wedding rehearsal [[spoiler: and Chrysalis this time avoids locking Twilight in the old caverns]] so Twilight leaves the wedding dejected [[spoiler: ''frees Discord'', and her Element of Magic goes ''pitch black''.]]

* Some people wrongly believe that FriedrichNietzsche preached this trope as a philosophy, but that's not quite true. A much better "religion of despair" can be found in the writings of his inspiration and predecessor, Arthur Schopenhauer.

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' is about [[spoiler: young girls that approach this as they become Magical Girls, fight Witches and see how their lives are torn as a consequence, thus being very likely to become Witches themselves.]] The most straight up example is [[spoiler: Sayaka Miki, who as of episode 8 crossed this due to both her romantic woes ''and'' the side-effects of Witch fighting, and becomes a witch.]]

** As implied by the [[NightmareSequence dreams]], Shepard seems to be running out of hope of ever defeating the Reapers. [[spoiler:Played straight in the EC, Shepard can choose to ''not'' use any of the Catalyst's options. [[TheBadGuyWins That choice concludes with everyone in Shepard's Cycle being killed or harvested by the Reapers]].]]

** Conversely, Legion suffers this if you choose to save the quarians at the expense of the geth, [[spoiler:in fact, Legion decides to try and kill Shepard out of hopeless spite, but Tali shoves a knife in its back and saves Shepard while Legion dies]].

** [[spoiler: The manga itself, as of chapter 662. Naruto is dying, his heartbeat fading away as Sakura is trying to heal him, and Sasuke is impaled by his own sword by the hand of [[BigBad Madara]], tries to [[HeroicSecondWind get back up]], but fails and fails again...]]

** In the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia Archanean Saga]], [[spoiler:Hardin]] crossed the horizon when [[spoiler:he learned that his marriage with Nyna didn't win him her true love, only platonic one to help run Archanea. This led him to locking himself in his personal room alone [[DrowningMySorrows drowning his sorrows on drinks]], until Gharnef disguised as a merchant offered him the Darksphere, and turns him into a megalomaniacal tyrant, setting off the events in ''Book 2'' with Hardin himself as the BigBad.]]

** After being savagely [[DeadSidekick beaten to death]] by The Joker, Jason Todd is resurrected, only to find that not only did Batman not avenge him by killing The Joker, he has also been replaced by Tim Drake as Robin. At this point he [[FaceHeelTurn completely snaps]], and becomes the AntiVillain Red Hood.
** This is [[StrawNihilist Victor Zsasz's]] backstory - after his parents died and he lost the family fortune, he was about to commit suicide only to be interrupted by a homeless man ''trying to mug him.''

* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'': Investigators (a.k.a. the [=PCs=]) wage a never ending war against the Elder Gods, slowly learning more and more of the Mythos. At one point or another, they get a view of what they're fighting, a clear unobstructed view. Those who don't GoMadFromTheRevelation typically loose all motivation to fight out of finally understanding how small they really are in this fight.

* Willow in Season 9 of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' after the magic is gone. Faith after her dad shows up and she does something she regrets, which causes her to go see "Mother Superior" in ''Daddy Issues''.

* [[{{Spider-Man}} Curt Conners]] was dragged kicking and screaming over the edge when his Lizard persona ''ate'' his son, Billy Conners. Curt's reaction went way beyond HeroicBSOD - effectively he's ''dead'', his personality shredded entirely leaving the Lizard in charge all the time. And the Lizard itself is still plagued with guilt over its actions. [[spoiler:Curt's personality was recently restored, but he's still stuck in his HeroicBSOD. He pretends he's still the Lizard because he believes he deserves to be locked up like an animal for the rest of his life.]]