Corrupting Qualities

**Corrupting Qualities** are bad qualities that is presented in a character. These traits shows behavior that is would usually not garner sympathy from the audience or any character in the story. Villains, by default, all have corrupting qualities. Not all heroes have corrupting qualities, some heroes such as those who are Pure Good are devoid of corrupting qualities. The lack of corrupting qualities often highlights the genuinely virtuous qualities within Pure Good heroes that makes them stand out compared to other heroes in a setting.

## What is considered a Corrupting Quality?

List of actions and characteristics that would be considered a corrupting quality.

* Making insensitive and snide comments towards someone.
* Pranking someone with the intentions to annoy or provoke them.
* Being dishonest and lying to get out of trouble than to face responsibility for one’s actions.
* Showing apathy, no reaction, or no care towards someone the person knows who was harmed.
* Committing a crime such as stealing for selfish purposes.
* Being unnecessarily rude and condescending towards others.
* Harming someone, threatening to harm someone, or attempting to harm someone who is innocent.
* Showing a lack of remorse for one’s actions and refusing to give a genuine apology for one’s actions.
* Being motivated to do good action for purely self-centered and self-serving needs.
* Not honoring a deal or purposely going back on one’s deal for selfish purposes.
* Showing irrational form of anger or rage with the intent to cause serious harm to someone.
* Pretending to be a good person in order to deceive someone with the intent to manipulate them or build up one’s self-image.
* Having a delusional mindset where one has convinced themselves that they are a god.
* Showing traits of egotism where one focuses so much more on their own self-image above anything else.
* Being passive-aggressive and showing traits of personal hostility towards someone over petty affairs.
* Convincing others to do bad acts and acting as a corrupting influence.
* Being a bystander and watching someone suffer in pain while doing nothing. In such an instance, the character has the ability to prevent the abuse or mistreatment, but chooses to do nothing about it.
* Showing arrogance and excessive pride in one’s own skills or identity.
* Making bigoted statements against a group of people. This includes supporting bigotry and discrimination against a group of people.
* Tricking someone in order to get them seriously harmed.
* Being an accomplice to a serious crime where innocents were harmed.
* Being neglectful and refusing to take care of someone who needs their support.
* Saving someone’s life for purely pragmatic purposes such as winning someone’s trust or thinking about what they can get out of it. This would mean they saved someone who they did not care about for their own self-interest.
* Showing excessive joy or happiness over seeing someone in pain.
* Defending or being in support of someone or a group that is purposely doing something wrong.
* Purposely ignoring someone or ghosting them with the intentions of psychologically harming them.

## What is not considered a Corrupting Quality?

List of actions and characteristics that would not be considered a corrupting quality.

* Showing and expressing anger and outrage over an atrocious crime or an injustice.
* Having to use lethal force to stop a dangerous villain or an individual who intends to harm others and cannot be reasoned with.
* Having to be mean-spirited with the intention of saving someone out of care.
* Pretending to be a bad person in order to do genuine good for someone.
* Going against or betraying a villain in order to stop them.
* Being truthful to someone one cares about and telling them the truth about a situation without being nice.
* Being motivated to do good actions out of the intent of wanting to either be of service to someone or to support them without looking at what the person can gain.

## Corrupting Qualities and Moral Concepts

The table below is to show the meaning behind the keys on the image above.