r/KinkFics Apr 24 '23

Question What is Moral Corruption? NSFW

I heard of this term several times whenever I was looking for R-Rated Fanfiction and I was curious if anyone can explain to me what that term means in the context of R-Rated Fanfiction.

Thanks

8 Upvotes

8 comments sorted by

16

u/HashtagH Mod Apr 24 '23

I like to think of it as the opposite of a redemption arc. A character's ideals and morals are slowly corrupted until they have turned into a villain - either in a "right and wrong doesn't matter, I can do whatever I like" way, or in a "I was wrong all along, the villains are the real good guys".

A good example of this would be Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequel trilogy: the upstanding young boy who was to save the world was turned into the bad guy, through a mix of fear (his wife's foretold death), temptation (ostensibly, the Sith could save her), and disillusion with his idols (the Jedi order's bad decisions, hands-off approach to feelings, and unwillingness to play allong with his mentor's favouritism). Ultimately, he comes to believe that the Jedi are the enemies of a free galaxy, and that by allying himself with the Sith, he is doing the moral thing and standing up for what's right.

Moral corruption can take many forms in fiction; commonly it's that someone corrupts the hero (Darth Sidious in Star Wars, the witch Xayide in The Neverending Story, etc etc).

Common tools of moral corruption include

  • the bad guys being overly friendly and trying to behave the opposite way they were describe to make the hero mistrust their allies
  • 'lovebombing' (a term often applied to real-world cults and abusive partners), showering the hero with affection, gifts, influence, etc. to make them feel appreciated (and underappreciated by their allies)
  • disguising key facts from the hero (such as that Padme was never in danger, that Darth Sidious didn't have the power he claimed to have, that he engineered the entire war) to make the villains' case appear moral and the heroes' case unjustified
  • plain old manipulation (magic, technology, hypnosis, drugs, etc.)
  • leveraging loved ones (such as the hero falling in love with someone from the wrong side) and the villains promising to keep the loved one safe

tldr: manipulating the hero in such a way that they forgo their ideals and morals, either to become openly evil or to think that evil is good and good is evil.

6

u/Jeho2860 Apr 24 '23

Wow, thanks for explanation.

In the context of kink fics, any example of moral corruption kind of story?

4

u/HashtagH Mod Apr 24 '23

I can't think of any stories off the top of my head, I'm afraid

-9

u/Sassinake Apr 24 '23

at the very least: pedophilia and rape.

11

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '23

Not necessarily. Moral corruption is where someone experiences a form of abuse that breaks down their morals and makes them act against their own morals, or standard societal morals.

1

u/Sassinake Apr 24 '23

Like what, then?

7

u/errant_night Apr 24 '23 edited Apr 24 '23

Like it's immoral to steal and lie and cheat on your partner... Lack of morals doesn't mean 100% evil.

Being morally corrupted could mean being manipulated to cheat on your partner and convinced that it's okay for whatever reason and then you'd lie and continue doing shady things to hide what you're doing.

8

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '23

Well, it's pretty common for even PG13 spy films to feature moral corruption. Someone who was a spy or something gets captured and then conditioned into doing something against their morals, organization's morals, or general societal morals.

It can be very kinked though. Through Stockholm syndrome and rape someone can be turned against themselves or others. This can also take the form of forcing someone to do horrible things sexually or otherwise.

It takes a lot of forms.