Discussion Main / JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope

Almost none of the example match the actual trope description, and many of them are just the usual trope of descending the Slippery Slope, not some Jumping Off variation. Many of them would fit better in Slowly Slipping Into Evil. Some of the entries here are even on both mutually exclusive pages!

This might be because the actual trope description doesn't make a ton of sense. It seems to be similar to but more convoluted than Moral Event Horizon - someone who was not unquestionably evil becomes unquestionably evil. I don't know much about how to fix a page, but I'm pretty sure this page needs fixing. Any tvtropes heroes around willing to take a shot?

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Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Trope Decay and Misuse, started by Ghilz on Feb 18th 2011 at 6:51:02 PM

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

For the record, I removed the following:

• Kylo Ren from The Force Awakens murders without remorse and tortures Poe and Rey, but he's unstable, a bit psychotic, desperate to live up to the memory of Darth Vader and scared he might have too much of the Light in him. In short, Kylo comes off as a rather pathetic figure who tries too hard to be evil. He solves his problem by crossing the ultimate horizon: he kills his own father, Han Solo.

As I said in the edit comment, the torturing, civilian-murdering, unstable guy isn't suddenly jumping off a slope by killing his own father with a great deal of difficulty. He's certainly not going from just ambiguous to evil.

Edited by VVK

What's going on in the page image? I don't get how it illustrates the trope.

Put your trust in the wild lands.

• In Code Geass, Lelouch Lamperouge wanted to destroy the Empire of Britannia (despite being an ex-Imperial Prince) and started to organize La Résistance. He starts out sane and unquestionably morally right, but increasingly horrible incidents cause him to turn darker and darker. Both seasons, near the end have a point where he takes a massive dive into the darkness.However, by the end going as far as massacring children and unarmed people for possessing Geass powers and being a part of a Britannian-sponsored cult... which trained the children in it to use their Geass to make a guy murder his own allies. Let us not forget Rolo, THE Tyke Bomb of the series, was raised there too.

To jump of the slippery slope one must do something clearly evil. Attack on Geass Research Facility was very dark grey, but grey nevertheless. In hands of Brittania these kids were really f-ing dangerous, and Lelouch didn't have much other options. He knew first hand what happens to someone with Geass if he's without any control when Mao makes puree from Shirley's brain.

• And of course, we have The Emperor and V.V, who after suffering immense loss as children, do the exact same thing fifty years later, even though they said they will eliminate lies. Not to mention V.V. is to blame for ordering the brainwashing and training of Rolo and the kids, and also lying to and betraying Charles himself in addition to instigating some of the worst twists in the series...

Charles and VV were presented as bad guys (more or less) from the very begginning, they did NOT suddenly turn evil

• In general, everyone in Geass flew off slippery slopes.
  • Lelouch and Suzaku are the extreme cases. As well as the others named above. Ironically, Euphemia, who actually goes on a rampage, killing Japanese people, only did so because she was under the power of Geass and had no choice.

Zero-context. The one under the spoiler clearly isn't an example

• If you truly think about it the entire show is about Lelouch going from the fettered to the unfettered. He slowly slips into darkness as the series progresses and using more brutal tactics to achieve his ends. This happens because his situations demanded it and his own personal losses take a toll on him like killing Shirley's dad, to having to geass his best friend, to having to kill his sister, to having Shirley die in his arms, to having his main goals snuffed out because they either died or became lies, to having the army he founded betray him, everything about Lelouch's life sucks. Compare his methods at the beginning villeta being geassed to give up her knightmare instead of killing her and taking it to having legions give up their freedom at the end. Lelouch goes off the deep end but spends the better part of two seasons to get there.

What i see here is rather clear case of Sliding Down The Slippery Slope, rather than anyone jumping off

• There's also Nina. Who has one of these when her idol Euphemia is killed.

Zero-context aside Nina was never ON the slope. Before creating FLEIA warhead she didn't do anything trully questionable, she simply snapped after the thing in the spoiler.

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This trope description does not really help me in understanding what this trope is about. Could someone rewrite it for clarity?

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The examples list needs to be cleaned up. Half of the "examples" are just somebody suddenly turning evil, not someone who may have had a point, suddenly turning evil and burying that point.

Removed this:

• Chronos went from a harmless time-travelling collector careful not to upset the time stream to a gloating, monologuing, time-altering villain after a few days in a old West cell.

It was explained in episode that in actuality, Chronos had been imprisoned for at least 6 months, due to how the time tunnel worked. Add to that that his captor wasn't the nicest guy to begin with, and he had spent quite a while being berated by his wife, and you can see how he started to crack...

On the Supernatural example of Castiel in season6, it's more like Slowly Slipping Into Evil and not Jumping Off the Slippery Slope. Since he seems to be taking small steps rather than a sudden huge leap. Is it okay to change it? Thoughts?