History Main / MoralDissonance

* In ''TabletopGame/MarvelSuperHeroes'' has in place of experience there are what is known as Karma points. which players receive at the end of every adventure chapter if they accomplished mission objective. Heroic characters lose karma by failing objectives or doing heinous things like killing (even villains, even by accident). In fact, characters will lose 'all' their accumulated Karma points if they kill someone, even a villain, even by accident. The game then makes a special exception for Franchise/{{Wolverine}} in the SecretWars adventure who "has no bad feelings about killing in combat. In this adventure, Wolverine suffers no Karma penalty for slaying an "Evil" opponent. Inform the player running Wolverine of this in his first fight. Wolverine will still lose Karma for killing heroes (including Magneto), or for letting innocents die." This exception effectively makes Wolverine a GameBreaker character in this game as he doesn't need to follow the most important rule of it. Compare this with more conscientious heroes like Colossus and Cyclops who in the same adventure automatically lose 10 Karma points a day simply because they miss the people they love back on Earth. By making this exception the authors of the game have unintentionally rewarded Wolverine's [[SociopathicHero Heroic Sociopathy]] and punished other heroes for having empathy!

* The most absurd version of this ([[CanonDiscontinuity that didn't actually happen]])? ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay.'' Franchise/SpiderMan made a ''[[DealWithTheDevil deal with]] ComicBook/{{Mephisto}}''. You know, [[{{Satan}} big demon guy]]? Makes deals with people and then screws them over? The deal in question? He wiped his and his wife's marriage from history, aborting their unborn baby in the process, just so his aunt who, even in terms of [[ComicBookTime comic book aging]] is older than the Bill of Rights, can recover from a gunshot wound to live for a couple more years before finally kicking the bucket. And to add insult to injury, she only got shot in the first place because Spidey revealed his SecretIdentity to the public, making the exact scenario he has been harping about ''for bloody years'' as to why he specifically shouldn't take off his mask. In other words, Aunt May was shot because of Peter's mistake and he was unwilling to take responsibility for his actions. And we were meant to think this act is heroic somehow. The Moral Dissonance? Spider-Man just about giving the Devil the chance to fiddle with RealityWarper powers instead of taking responsibility for her death goes completely against the saying "With Great Power ComesGreatResponsibility." (The most defining part of his entire character).

* In the lead up to ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', The DC Trinity of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman were each given a "sin" to show how far they'd fallen as heroic icons. Superman was revealed to have been aware of certain League members [[ComicBook/IdentityCrisis mindwiping Batman and other individuals]], Batman had created a super spy satellite called Brother Eye to observe and monitor metahumans across the globe and Wonder Woman killed Maxwell Lord to stop him from mind controlling Superman. Of these three, Wonder Woman's "sin" was really not a sin at all, especially when you take into account that Lord was trying to start a war between human and metahumans by making Superman go on a rampage and he wasn't even the first person Wonder Woman had killed. Yet, the DC writers treated this with far more severity and scrutiny than either Superman or Batman's transgressions; Superman's knowledge of the mindwipes was never brought up in ''Infinite Crisis'' and Batman creating Brother Eye was pretty much forgotten about after that story. Yet, Diana killing Max became a NeverLiveItDown moment for her.

* In the Creator/VCAndrews book ''Literature/SeedsOfYesterday'' (the final book in the Dollanganger series) the protagonist Cathy reacts with anger and disgust when she discovers her son and daughter-in-law's [[YourCheatingHeart adulterous affair]] (the woman is married to her other son), and when she realizes the extent of her teenage daughter's [[ReallyGetsAround promiscuity]]. Meanwhile, she's carrying on [[BrotherSisterIncest an incestuous relationship with her brother]] and acts as if this is perfectly acceptable and normal.

** The game has two side quests where you can help people with romantic complications. In Girdershade, Ronald Laren wants you to get him a full case of Nuka-Cola Quantum so he can wow his neighbor Sierra, a die-hard fan of the stuff, and (he hopes) convince her to put out for him. (If you do so, she's grateful but misunderstands his advances and doesn't sleep with him; he doesn't pursue the matter further.) This gives you bad karma. In Rivet City, Angela has the hots for young, celibate acolyte Diego, who has his heart set on becoming a priest. To "help" them, you have to provide Angela with the [[FantasticDrug pheromones of a mutated ant queen]] which will make her literally irresistible for long enough to seduce Diego into a one-night stand... and once it wears off, he's kicked out of the priesthood and married off to Angela. Your "helpful assistance" nets you good karma. Help a man give a woman he likes a gift: evil. Help a woman [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale drug and date rape a man]]: good.

[[folder:Films — Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon''. In the final battle, with Hiccup participating and enabling the [[spoiler: demise of the Red Death]]. While their actions were justified for the sake of all the other dragons and the entire region, the fact that it is still a dragon seems completely ignored by Hiccup by the end. This is particularly noticeable when placed side by side with the scene where descriptions of all known dragons end with "Extremely dangerous, kill on sight". The film goes out of its way to denounce this way of thinking, but Hiccup is never called out on the fact that despite apparently caring about dragon's lives, if one is too big, destructive and dangerous its life no longer matters. Granted, he's the only one who would even be likely to do so, considering the recent history between his people and the dragons.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': In "Arthur's Big Hit", Arthur's parents are appalled when he attacks [[BrattyHalfPint D.W.]], even though she provoked him by damaging his model plane and [[NeverMyFault deflecting the blame to him over it.]] When Arthur gets attacked by Binky for no reason, however, his parents, rather than consider this an act of bullying towards Arthur, ''[[{{Hypocrite}} view this as his punishment.]]''

* Both ComicBook/

** Throughout Season 1, they deal with most threats they come across with the Pipeline, a secret private prison they use for holding the dangerous metahumans. They have no legal authority for this, they give the metahumans no tial, release date, or any basic requirements like socialising, exercise, or counselling, despite many being not entirely well mentally. They even use it against enemies who ''aren't'' metahumans, but just people with advanced tech like Pied Piper, and Barry threatens Captain Cold with this, explicitly because Cold knows his secret identity and Barry doesn't want him outing it, which is the reason behind imprisoning Pied Piper (meaning he was willing to deny people basic human rights to protect his secret identity). These ''gross'' human rights violations could maybe be justified by the team being manipulated by TokenEvilTeammate Harrison Wells, and Joe West claims to have been uncomfortable with it after the fact, but then it's shown that the characters are ''still using it'' many seasons later, whenever they have a threat they're unwilling to send to ''authorised'' prisons (such as those who know their secret identity, come from another universe, or have a personal connection to the heroes and they don't want to ruin their lives by sending them to jail). Despite all of this, Team Flash are repeatedly presented as on [[TheParagon the lighter side of the Arrowverse's hero community]]. [[labelnote:In the comics]]For reference, the Pipeline was taken from the Wally West era of Flash comics, where it was employed by Warden Gregory Wolffe, who cited many of the same excuses used by team in the show (like that a more humane prison would be unable to contain dangerous metas and that they're all beyond redemption); Wolffe was ''explicitly'' treated as a borderline fascist who Wally completely disagreed with, and it was made clear that this was being used as a criticism of private prisons and the American prison system as a whole, so it's not as if the writers weren't aware that such an idea was horrifically amoral.[[/labelnote]]

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': Ollie preaches to the Huntress quite a bit about her blasé attitude toward killing, pointing out that he only kills when it's necessary and only after giving his target a chance to do the right thing. This is true when it comes to his high-profile targets, but [[WhatMeasureIsAMook he extends no such niceties to the mooks in their employ]], dropping a half-dozen hired guards in a typical episode with seemingly little care whether they live or die from the grievous arrow wounds he inflicts.

** In the Season 3 epìsodes with Gorilla Grodd, Barry is lectured by Iris and Harry that he shouldn't kill but be merciful and that he shouldn't ruin his purity. Except he was not so merciful with Atom Smasher and Sand Demon in Season 2.

Compare ValuesDissonance, where the cause is cultural. Compare also FamilyUnfriendlyAesop, where the hero's actions line up with morals that the reader might not agree with. Also compare FelonyMisdemeanor. Contrast NotSoDifferent, where the double standard is noticed; WhatTheHellHero, where they are expressly called out ([[StrawmanHasAPoint though particularly infuriating if the person calling the hero out is treated as being wrong]]) and can even be a driving force of the plot; ItsAllAboutMe, where the villain actively holds this kind of double standard, and it's noticed; TautologicalTemplar, where another character also actively thinks he can do no wrong. Also compare with MoralMyopia if DoubleStandard is portrayed as wrong in-universe. For TheRival holding a grudge, it's DisproportionateRetribution. See also ProtagonistCenteredMorality.

* The Black Knights of ''Anime/CodeGeass'', particularly Ohgi, fall victim to this when they fall for both logical and moral incongruities put forth by Schneizel to turn them against Lelouch. Ohgi, despite believing that people should not be treated as pawns, nevertheless allows himself and the others to be manipulated by Schneizel in order to get rid of Lelouch. He probably thought of it as choosing the lesser of two evils. In the same scenario, Villetta Nu, while acting out of concern for Ohgi, leaves out a number of details (that she may or may not even have been aware of herself, given that it's likely all her information on it came from Emperor Charles and who knows how honest he was with her) that would have cast a favorable light on Lelouch, namely the limitations of said power, thereby needlessly (or maliciously) hurting the latter's case. And Ohgi, who claims that people should never be used as pawns, uses Kallen as one to draw out Lelouch, who he intends to sell out to Schneizel, as yet another, in exchange for Japan. On top of this, for all the complaints of Lelouch going AWOL during the Black Rebellion, Ohgi did the same a few episodes before the current predicament here on account of Villetta. Speaking of which, one of the charges brought against Lelouch is that he's a Britannian Prince, even though no one takes issue with Ohgi's tryst with Villetta, a Britannian agent, one who had been monitoring Lelouch while he was captured no less, and was the one responsible for incapacitating Ohgi in the first place partly due to the latter dropping his guard with her, and that [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter they were taking the advice of not only said agent, but also that of Schneizel]], [[DevilInPlainSight a current royal, and, barring the Emperor himself, the most notorious one at that]], whereas [[NobleFugitive Lelouch had been in exile]] after being tossed away as a disposable pawn and given every reason in the world to loathe the Empire that betrayed him and stood for everything he hated. To top all of this off, such a deal, if it were to go through, would likely result in something tantamount to Lelouch abandoning the Black Rebellion, only magnitudes worse: the Black Knights essentially abandoning their duties as military front of the UFN, and thus their duty of liberating the world from the Britannian Empire.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': In "Arthur's Big Hit", Arthur's parents are appalled when he attacks [[BrattyHalfPint D.W.]], even though she provoked him by damaging his model plane and [[NeverMyFault deflecting blame to him over it.]] When Arthur gets attacked by Binky for no reason, however, his parents, rather than consider this an act of bullying towards Arthur, ''[[{{Hypocrite}} view this as his punishment.]]''

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': In "Arthur's Big Hit", Arthur's parents are appalled when he attacks [[BrattyHalfPint D.W.]], even though she provoked him by damaging his model plane and [[NeverMyFault deflecting blame to him over it.]] When Arthur gets attacked by Binky for no reason, however, his parents, rather than consider this an act of bullying towards Arthur, [[{{Hypocrite}} view this as]] ''[[{{Hypocrite}} his punishment.]]''

* An infamous case in ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', in which the title character’s parents are appalled when he attacks his [[BrattyHalfPint D.W.]], even though she provoked him by damaging his model plane and [[NeverMyFault deflecting blame to him over it.]] When Arthur gets attacked by Binky for no reason, however, his parents, rather than consider this an act of bullying towards Arthur, [[{{Hypocrite}} view this as]] ''[[{{Hypocrite}} his punishment.]]''

* An infamous case in ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', in which the title character’s parents are appalled when he attacks his [[BrattyHalfPint D.W.]], even though she provoked him by damaging his model plane and [[NeverMyFault deflecting blame to him over it.]] When Arthur gets attacked by Binky for no reason, however, his parents, rather than considering this an act of bullying towards Arthur, [[{{Hypocrite}} view this as]] ''[[{{Hypocrite}} his punishment.]]''

** The game has two side quests where you can help people with romantic complications. In Girdershade, Ronald Laren wants you to get him a full case of Nuka-Cola Quantum so he can wow his neighbor Sierra, a die-hard fan of the stuff, and (he hopes) convince her to put out for him. (If you do so, she's grateful but misunderstands his advances and doesn't sleep with him; he doesn't pursue the matter further.) This gives you bad karma. In Rivet City, Angela has the hots for young, celibate acolyte Diego, who has his heart set on becoming a priest. To "help" them, you have to provide Angela with the [[FantasticDrug pheromones of a mutated ant queen]] which will make her literally irresistible for long enough to seduce Diego into a one-night stand... and once it wears off, he's kicked out of the priesthood and married off to Angela. Your "helpful assistance" nets you good karma. Help a man give a woman he likes a gift: evil. Help a woman [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale drug and date rape a man]]: good.[[note]]An alternate interpretation is that Ronald wants to take advantage of his unhinged neighbor by trading a few bottles of cola for sexual favors, while Angela is in love with Diego but is worried his rigid commitment keeps him from acting on his own feelings. Still a dissonance into rape.[[/note]]

** The game has two side quests where you can help people with romantic complications. In Girdershade, Ronald Laren wants you to get him a full case of Nuka-Cola Quantum so he can wow his neighbor Sierra, a die-hard fan of the stuff, and (he hopes) convince her to put out for him. (If you do so, she's grateful but misunderstands his advances and doesn't sleep with him; he doesn't pursue the matter further.) This gives you bad karma. In Rivet City, Angela has the hots for young, celibate acolyte Diego, who has his heart set on becoming a priest. To "help" them, you have to provide Angela with the [[FantasticDrug pheromones of a mutated ant queen]] which will make her literally irresistible for long enough to seduce Diego into a one-night stand... and once it wears off, he's kicked out of the priesthood and married off to Angela. Your "helpful assistance" nets you good karma. Help a man give a woman he likes a gift: evil. Help a woman [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale drug and date rape a man]]: good.

* Marginal example: Most superheroes in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse don't get along with ComicBook/ThePunisher because he kills the bad guys, but are A-okay with Franchise/{{Wolverine}} who does the same thing. Marginal because part of the reason is likely that Wolverine doesn't enjoy killing and usually has a fairly rational reason for doing so (usually either self-defense, in the context of a war, or ItsPersonal) while The Punisher, if he has any feelings towards the matter at hand, enjoys it and seeks out people to murder as his standard way of crime fighting, but still an example due to both being unrepentant killers (if of significantly differing degrees of moral culpability and dangerousness). Also because for the Punisher, lethal force is the first option, for Wolverine it's usually the last. (It was different when Wolverine was ''introduced,'' but CharacterizationMarchesOn, and when he ''was'' more Punisher-y, nobody wanted to work with Wolvie either.)

* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'' cheaters like Bandit Keith, who had cards stashed up his sleeves to be able to draw cards he needs, and Espa Roba, who had partners on rooftops spying on his opponent's deck and reporting to him via earpiece so he could "psychically predict" his opponent's tactics, are always called out as such and often even punished by discrimination or worse. Characters who use the "Heart of the Cards", a mystical force that allows them to influence their draw and magically get the right card at the right time, are never called out as such and this is an accepted tactic even though the only real difference between this and Bandit Keith's tactic is the Heart of the Cards is magic while the other tactic relies on machine-aided sleight-of-hand.

* As ''Webcomic/AwkwardZombie'' [[http://www.awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=092208 pointed out]], the good guys in the ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars'' series (pre-''[[DarkerAndEdgier Days of Ruin]]'', anyway) are quite cheerful and moral and often lambast the bad guys for their lack of respect for life... and then turn around and, with [[MildlyMilitary their usual casual air,]] have "practice battles" with each other [[InferredHolocaust that appear to use live ammo.]]

* In a backstage segment on ''[=SmackDown=]'' in late 2007, Kristal Marshall was planning her wedding to General Manager Theodore Long and telling Wrestling/TorrieWilson and Wrestling/MichelleMcCool that she had chosen them as bridesmaids. Then [[Wrestling/LisaMarieVaron Victoria]] (who was a heel for most of her WWE career, but highly respected by the fans for her wrestling prowess) showed up and expressed joy that she, too, might be maid a bridesmaid. [=McCool=] promptly told Victoria that ''nobody'' would ever let her be a bridesmaid, which seemed excessively cruel. What made this worse were the UnfortunateImplications involved: Victoria could have already been seen as an outsider due to her large size (making her [[HollywoodPudgy "fat"]] and [[HollywoodHomely "ugly"]] in the eyes of more petite Divas) and [[AmbiguouslyBrown dark, vaguely "ethnic" appearance]] (part Turkish, Puerto Rican, and Italian, while Wilson and [=McCool=] are both blondes and even Marshall, who's black, has relatively light skin and almost blonde hair), making [=McCool=]'s bullying arguably not only sadistic but a form of coded hate speech. This is only backed up by the fact that Victoria had been going through a gradual derailment into a JokeCharacter for years which showed no sign of stopping after this segment, and by the Wrestling/LayCool run over two years later in which [=McCool=] and [[Wrestling/{{Layla}} Layla El]] would play the "callous bullying full of UnfortunateImplications" role straight as heels.

* One ''Raw'' found Wrestling/TripleH at the mercy of [[Wrestling/CadeAndMurdoch Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch]], when Brian Kendrick and Paul London (who were feuding with Cade & Murdoch at the time) ran out to rescue Hunter. How'd he repay London and Kendrick for the assistance? [[FinishingMove Pedigree]] [[UngratefulBastard to each of them]], and the commentators just laughed it off and said they had it coming.

* ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon''. In the final battle, with Hiccup participating and enabling the [[spoiler: demise of the Green Death]]. While their actions were justified for the sake of all the other dragons and the entire region, the fact that it is still a dragon seems completely ignored by Hiccup by the end. This is particularly noticeable when placed side by side with the scene where descriptions of all known dragons end with "Extremely dangerous, kill on sight". The film goes out of its way to denounce this way of thinking, but Hiccup is never called out on the fact that despite apparently caring about dragon's lives, if one is too big, destructive and dangerous its life no longer matters. Granted, he's the only one who would even be likely to do so, considering the recent history between his people and the dragons.

* ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon''. In the final battle, with Hiccup participating and enabling the [[spoiler: demise of the Green Death]]. While their actions were justified for the sake of all the other dragons and the entire region, the fact that it is still a dragon seems completely ignored by Hiccup by the end. This is particularly noticeable when placed side by side with the scene where descriptions of all known dragons end with "Extremely dangerous, kill on sight". The film goes out of its way to denounce this way of thinking, but Hiccup is never called out on the fact that despite apparently caring about dragon's lives, if one is too big, destructive and dangerous it's life no longer matters. Granted, he's the only one who would even be likely to do so, considering the recent history between his people and the dragons.