Times where someone Kicks the Morality Pet in Literature.
- The whole M.O. of the Ministry of Love in Nineteen Eighty-Four is to force people to do this under threat of torture to break them.
- Nathaniel is much more innocent at the start of The Bartimaeus Trilogy, but a Cynicism Catalyst in a world of Black-and-Gray Morality soon leads him to leave that behind. By the third book he isn't so different from the original villain. It's only when Kitty Jones is injured that he starts to see the implications of his actions.
- In The Count of Monte Cristo Edmond attacks innocent people - the family members of his nemeses - not because they've hurt him in any way, but just to make his true enemies' despair that much more absolute. It's only once one of his closest friends tries to commit suicide (because he, unbeknownst to Edmond, was in love with one of those innocents) that Edmond realizes how cruel he's become. Fortunately, there's still time to save most of his victims.Edmond: Pray God that I have not already done too much.
- In Dragon Bones, an ancestor of the protagonist killed a dragon. (Dragons are sentient in that setting, and it was his duty to protect them). He was called out on this by his slave Oreg, whom he had whipped so severely that it would have killed a mortal. (Oreg is immortal and cannot act against orders, the worst form of slavery. A Wizard Did It.) To make things worse, this ancestor is the same one whom the protagonist admires and tries to imitate, as he only knows about his better sides, such as establishing an anti-slavery law.
- In Gone, Caine's love/obsession for Diana was his one redeeming quality. But, in book four, he lies to her, uses her for sex, and brags about this to the entire town. This upset the fangirls more than when he sicced coyotes on preschoolers.
- This becomes subverted in LIGHT, when he abdicates the throne to rescue her, apologizes to her, saves her from a life in prison and dies defending her.
- Harry Potter:
- This is Albus Dumbledore's backstory in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. He was dangerously close to joining with Grindelwald and his vision for the world when his sister Ariana was accidentally killed during an argument between him Gellert and Aberforth after Gellert tortured Aberforth for standing in the way and Albus ran to his defense. At that point, he came to his senses and instead became the Big Good that he is known as.
- Also the story for Regulus Black. He was a loyal Voldemort supporter, proud to offer the use of his beloved House Elf...until he finds out that Voldemort wanted the elf to test the defenses around his horcrux, which involved the elf being horribly tortured and left to die. After he found out about that, along with deducing Voldemort's use of Horcruxes he gave his life to try to bring Voldemort down.
- And Severus Snape's. When he found out the information he provided would lead directly to Lily Potter's death, he switched sides. It was too late to save her, however, and he had to live with the guilt. This was not the first time this happened — back in his fifth year at Hogwarts, Snape, in a Moment of Weakness, called Lily (his best friend at the time) a Mudblood. Their friendship, already strained from Severus surrounding himself with future Death Eaters like Lucius Malfoy, promptly dissolved after that. To this day he still considers it his absolute worst memory, as it cost him at the very least the friendship of the woman he loved, and the day where the only path he saw left for him was the Death Eaters, all of which eventually led to Lily's death.
- Gale Hawthorne from The Hunger Games helped create bombs to aid the rebellion in the third book, Mockingjay. The bombs eventually killed Primrose Everdeen, his best friend/love interest Katniss' younger sister and Morality Pet, whom she volunteered to enter the series' titular Deadly Game for, rendering Katniss' actions for the entire series moot and their relationship completely fractured.
- In Les Misérables, Jean Valjean steals from a little boy from the force of habit after the bishop pardons him. While the child wasn't someone he knew, how monstrous the act was, especially since it came immediately after the bishop had pardoned him, was what prompted his Heel Realization and finalized his transformation into a Messiah.
