User blog comment:Inferno Pendragon/Moral Horizon Project/@comment-1969141-20101123162005

A list of actions that villains do is quite easy at least. In a gemeral way, a villainous act is always seeking to gain something at the expense of others; to steal something, to harm someone, todestroy lives of others. Whatever a villain seeks, its always harmful to someone or something else.

I would say that someone who crossed the moral horizon doesn't value others' lives and doesn't mind what harm they cause, considering them 'unavoidable loss' at best 'trampling mere obstacles' at worst. The distance towards the 'Moral Horizon' can be calculated through the amount of regret or disgust expressed by the character when he performs a villainous act, and the frequency with which he performs said actions.

As an example I would use the sentences 'I have to do it.' and 'This has to be done.' The difference may appear as nonexistent, but to my mind the first sentence somehow implies a dislike, a reluctance like 'If I don't do that we are all screwed/the world is doomed/someone will die.' while the other sounds more like a lame excuse made by a villainous vigilante justifying a crime he doesn't mind to people criticizing it.

The amount off ill-intent is also important. A stupid bully hits weaker people because he merely finds it fun and doesn't fully grasp the harm caused, while a villainous bully is well-aware of his abuse and does it purposely, even reveling in it. Picking a fight out of mere dislike or annoyance as it is common in elemetary school or in cartoons is not villainous if you ask me. But picking a fight because you want to make your victim miserable is villainous.

Quite a blurry boarder indeed. I hope I have been clear enough, it's quite hard to explain.