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Goodness Zone
| “ | Fire Lord Ozai, you and your forefathers have devastated the balance of this world, and now you shall pay the ultimate price! | „ |
| ~ Aang before stripping Ozai's firebending powers. |
The Goodness Zone refers to a brave, selfless, or heroic deed by a do-gooder that is so wholesome that is neither too big nor too small but leaves the audience caring about and rooting for him or her throughout the entire story, and makes it clear that they are incorruptibly good and will not be fallen, unless if they admit themselves that they are beyond corruption. It is basically the positive, heroic alternative/complete opposite to the Moral Event Horizon.
This comes from the Goldilocks Zone in the Solar System, where Mercury and Venus are close to the sun, which makes them inhabitable due to the heat. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are extremely distant from the sun, making them inhabitable due to the low temperature. Earth is in the middle and "just right," like Goldilocks' porridge.
A hero or heroine who crosses the zone has no turning back except under extremely rare, extraordinary circumstances. All heroes who fall under Pure Good are by definition beyond the Goodness Zone. However, crossing the Goodness Zone does not necessarily make a do-gooder as such, it only means that they are incorruptibly good. Some heroes have or almost crossed the Goodness Zone, or done something noble enough to make the fans believe they did so, only to later corrupt completely or partially.
A strong example of a Purely Good hero would be either a hero who (in addition to having a noble reason for being good) commits multiple especially admirable Goodness Zone-worthy deeds, or if the line in question proves to be admirable enough.
By definition, a character can only cross the Goodness Zone once; however, it is possible for a hero to have more than one event as a potential Goodness Zone, such as the various adaptations of the Spider-Man of Marvel Comics and Chicken Little of Disney franchise. Other heroes have more than a potential and often leave an impact on the public that they do righteous things all the time and commit Goodness Zone acts like a hobby, such as Coraline Jones of the Coraline book series, Po of the Kung Fu Panda franchise, Aang of the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise, Captain America of the Marvel comic franchise, Superman of DC comic franchise and Optimus Prime of the Transformers franchise.
Acts of playing Goodness Zone are mostly foreshadowed from noble choices that the heroes take, usually at the beginning of the story. These characters are almost invariably Pure Good.
If the protagonist does this and it costs him his or her life, this comes off as a Heroic Sacrifice.