Arya: You're fine with murdering little boys, but thieving is beneath you?
The Hound: A man's got to have a code.
The Hound: A man's got to have a code.
Whether someone is a weirdo, villain, pervert, Jerkass, geek, or just way too nice, deviant from the customs of "normal" society — one often finds that those things can only go so far. These characters find that when they're in a situation where they would cross a certain line, they don't do it. Or they get disgusted at those who do cross that line.
The standard is often moral or ethical, but could also be regarding culture, or True Art, or good taste, or good manners, or what constitutes a good meal, or even the boundaries around a fandom — basically, anything that a person or group is willing to treat as Serious Business. The point of this trope is that no matter how high or low anyone thinks the line is, they all believe that there is a line, and that those who cross it are in the wrong. Even people you wouldn't think of as having standards still tend to believe in something.
Compare Conscience Makes You Go Back, Sudden Principled Stand. See What the Hell, Hero? when someone calls out a person's actions for violating their own standards. If someone judges other people's actions but assumes their own must be good by definition, they have Moral Myopia. If someone's standards are applied inconsistently, it's a Double Standard. Conversely, someone's standards may be consistent but at odds with genuine morality, leading to Curious Qualms of Conscience. Contrast with It's Not About the Request, where someone refuses to do something not because of a moral standard, but because of something about how or who asked or told them to do it. See also Shades of Conflict for the many variations that may occur when people with different levels of standards collide. May overlap with Unexpectedly Prudish.
Someone who doesn't observe any standards may cross the Moral Event Horizon and become a Complete Monster.
This is Truth in Television, of course; just about all people do try to follow some sort of standard, and even outright sociopaths can tell (at least intellectually) the difference between right and wrong. Though standards may differ from time and place and individual, and people may sometimes fail to live up to their own standards, for someone to not have any ethical or moral standards is usually the sign of an extremely dangerous and unpredictable individual. May overlap "May Be X, But Our X" Remark. That said, No Real Life Examples, Please!
Sub-tropes:
- Abandonment-Induced Animosity: Leaving someone, especially your friend, behind to face punishment or even death is considered a low move by pretty much everyone.
- Above the Influence: No matter how desperately someone wants to knock boots with this person, they would never take advantage of their crush if the person was in a vulnerable state (such as being inebriated).
- Actually a Good Idea: Characters, after some initial apprehension, acknowledge that a idea suggested by someone is genuinely a good one.
- Actually Pretty Funny: When something done or said by a character is reluctantly considered hilarious.
- Actually Pretty Impressive: A character's impressive feat is admired by others, even those who dislike the character.
- Affably Evil: This character may be a villain but they're genuinely nice.
- Antagonist in Mourning: When a villain, no matter how evil they are otherwise, genuinely grieves for the death of their arch-nemesis.
- Anti-Hero: A character who's a hero but without the standard qualities heroes are expected to have.
- Anti-Villain: A character who's a villain but without the standard qualities villains are expected to have.
- Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: A violent group sees it as immoral to be violent toward one of their own.
- Apologetic Attacker: When your attacker apologises for hurting you.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: In a world with lots of weird stuff, this is so remarkable that one can't help pointing it out.
- Arson, Murder, and Admiration: When villains, instead of condemning the evilness of other villains, praise other evil-doers for their villainous qualities.
- Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving: A character does list all the things the hero did wrong, but they still praise what the hero did right at the tail end of the lecture.
- At Least I Admit It: They do bad things, but they're at least honest about it and aren't afraid to call out those who do the same thing but refuse to acknowledge that.
- Audacity Earns Approval: When others can't help admiring a character's gall, confidence, and bravery.
- Badass Pacifist: They're going to absolutely defeat their enemies, but they're not going to be even a little bit violent about it.
- Baddie Flattery: A villain sincerely complements the hero.
- Beware the Nice Ones: No matter how nice this character is, there will be some things that they will not take laying down.
- Beyond Redemption: Even a hero who tries to see the good in everyone knows that certain people are too unrepentant to be convinced to change for the better.
- Bigotry Exception: This character's a racist, but they're consistently kind to at least one character who's a part of a race they're prejudiced against.
- "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: A villain is perfectly willing to do evil, but takes offense to someone calling it evil.
- Black-and-White Morality: Sees the world in clear and unambiguous shades of pure good vs. pure evil.
- Black-and-White Insanity: The above, taken to a completely irrational extreme.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: A strict ethical framework, but one that happens to be based on strange or alien moral principles.
- Broken Pedestal: A character who initially hero-worships another character will immediately stop idolizing their role model if they turn out to not be the person they thought they were.
- Bully Hunter: A character who can't stand bullying and won't hesitate to stand up to bullies.
- Caper Rationalization: A group of criminals comes up with a reason this particular crime is justifiable.
- Child Abuse Is a Special Kind of Evil: The abuse of children is seen as a deplorable crime by pretty much everyone.
- Chivalrous Pervert: An individual who has some filthy desires but holds themselves to a standard when going about them.
- Choosy Beggar: Just because they're needy doesn't mean they don't have good taste.
- Churchgoing Villain: A villain may be vile to the core, but still purports to be a person of faith.
- Code of Honour: The standard is formally codified and agreed to, often with a Heroic Vow.
- Combat Compliment: When characters fighting each other take the time to complement the other's fighting skills.
- The Commandments: The standards take the form of a short simple list of rules.
- Complimenting the Oddball: A weird or silly character is praised for doing something good by those around them.
- Con Men Hate Guns: They make their living scamming and cheating people, but they refuse to resort to violence.
- Did You Think I Can't Feel?: This character has put up with a lot, but they will not stand for being perceived as not having feelings.
- Disappointed by the Motive: The hero does not approve of the villain's reason behind their villainy, no matter how understanding or kind-hearted the hero is otherwise.
- Do Wrong, Right: When a character feels that if someone's doing something bad, they should at least do it the right way.
- Dude, Not Funny!: As much as they love a good laugh, they will rebuke anyone who dares to make jokes that are in poor taste.
- Enemy Compassion: When being on opposing sides doesn't stop characters from showing kindness towards each other.
- Ethical Slut: Has a very active sex life, but goes about it in a moral and responsible way.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Villains care about their mothers especially.
- Even Beggars Won't Choose It: The poor may be needy, but they're not desperate enough to accept that handout.
- Even Bullies Have Standards: Even bullies have moral lines they won't cross.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Villains care about people in their own families and would never dream of hurting them.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: Someone decides to see the villain for who he is and not for how evil he is, and thus decide to love him even when other people think it's a bad idea.
- Even Evil Has Standards: An evildoer rejects some bad deed as too evil for them to be involved with.
- Even Mooks Have Loved Ones: Evil henchmen aren't evil to their families.
- Even Nerds Have Standards: Something is considered too nerdy even by other nerds.
- Even the Dog Is Ashamed: An action so bad, it even warrants the disapproval of the Non-Human Sidekick.
- Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Even the All-Loving Hero has people they dislike and consider unworthy of redemption.
- Even the Rats Won't Touch It: The Lethal Chef's food is so awful, it gets turned down by vermin.
- Everything Is Racist: When someone has put his bar of racial sensitivity too high, everybody else's standards are deemed too rude.
- Evil Vegetarian: They may be a bad person but they're a steadfast vegetarian/vegan.
- Evil Virtues: Being effectively evil requires strengths of character.
- Fair-Play Villain: The villain believes in giving the very heroes opposing them a fighting chance.
- Family-Values Villain: A bad guy who believes in good old fashioned family values.
- Fandom Heresy: A fandom may disagree about everything, but they will not disagree about this.
- For the Evulz: A villain who knows the difference between good and evil, and chooses to be on the side of evil.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: No matter what resources or support she lacks, what kind of circumstances she's in, or how she feels otherwise, this pregnant woman will never abort her baby.
- Grammar Nazi: This character will not accept bad grammar or spelling.
- Hates Wasting Food: This character will not stand for food being wasted.
- Hitman with a Heart: A Professional Killer who will Never Hurt an Innocent.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: They may make a living selling their body for sex, but they genuinely care about people and want to make them happy other ways.
- Honor Among Thieves: Scoundrels agree on clearly defined limits to their villainy.
- Honor Before Reason: This standard is followed to the (sometimes bitter) end, even when other people believe that having flexibility is better for moral (and sometimes actual) survival.
- Horror Hates a Rulebreaker: The supernatural's standards might be arbitrary, but they're there.
- Humanizing Moment: A moment when a character, previously thought to be inhuman and/or possibly irredeemable, shows a degree of humanity.
- Hypocrite: Someone who has high standards, but doesn't practice what they preach.
- Hypocrite Has a Point: When a hypocrite still raises a valid point.
- Hypocritical Heartwarming: A bully who frequently enjoys tormenting someone doesn't like their victim being bullied by someone else.
- I Can Live With That: A character can accept their unpleasant circumstances or situations.
- I Gave My Word: This character holds up their end of the deal, no matter what.
- If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: Testing whether someone is truly evil by their willingness to do something obviously cruel.
- Insult Accuracy Acceptance: Depending how accurate the insult directed towards a character is, they'll accept it.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: They love another character but if their love is unrequited, they're willing let their love go to be happy.
- The Jailbait Wait: They know the person they're attracted to is a minor, but they're willing to avoid committing statutory rape by waiting until their object of affection is legally an adult before doing anything serious.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Someone who, even if 99.999% of the time is a colossal Jerkass, still has a moment when he decides it's enough.
- Jerkass Has a Point: This character may be a jerk, but they raise a good point.
- Karmic Overkill: Some things are too much for a character's fate regardless if they deserve it.
- Karmic Thief: Steals only from people who deserve it.
- Kid Has a Point: They may be a child, but they raise a valid point.
- Kidnapper's KFC: A kidnapper buys their captives food, if only to keep them alive.
- Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: Killing one's own family members is considered an In-Universe Moral Event Horizon.
- Knight Templar: Believes that simply holding a standard is enough to justify other evil behavior. (If they even realize that their behavior is evil, that is.)
- Lawful Stupid: Even idiots have standards — they just put Honor Before Reason without any common sense.
- Militant "Shoes Off" Rule: Someone insists on their guests removing their shoes before coming into their home.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: When people decide that their self-worth is more valuable than any allegiance they may be following.
- Moral Sociopathy: Sociopaths may lack the capacity for empathy, but that doesn't mean they can't understand right and wrong.
- Morality Chain: The only reason this character doesn't become completely bad is because of the presence of a character they care about.
- Morality Pet: This character may be a villain or jerk, but they have at least one character they care about and are always nice to.
- Mr. Vice Guy: Having vices does not stop the character from following a heroic calling.
- Must Be Invited: Vampires, zombies, demons, etc. will not enter a human's home (or body) unless they are specifically invited in.
- Never Hurt an Innocent: A villain wouldn't harm an innocent bystander.
- Never Speak Ill of the Dead: It is considered disgraceful to say negative things about the deceased, given that they're no longer around to defend themselves from criticisms or accusations.
- Noble Bigot: Even though prejudiced towards a certain race, this character still values their lives.
- Noble Demon: A villain who pursues evil goals but refuses to be too evil about getting there.
- Noble Shoplifter: A person resorts to stealing what they need from a store, but has the decency to leave behind the money required to pay for it.
- Nobody's That Dumb: A stupid character reveals themselves to be aware of their idiocy and addresses that even they have limits to their stupidity.
- No Guy Wants an Amazon: He's not interested in strong women.
- No Guy Wants to Be Chased: He's not interested in girls who make the first move.
- No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: A villain personally and willingly treats the hero they captured to a luxurious meal.
- Not So Above It All: A character that's seemingly more sensible than the other characters still partakes in the fun sometimes.
- Not So Stoic: When even The Stoic can't hold their emotions inside anymore.
- Not What I Signed on For: Someone is recruited for one cause, but the group's real cause and/or actions make them rethink the deal.
- Not Worth Killing: A character won't kill another character, even if they're capable of doing it, because they think such a act would be worth it.
- No Zombie Cannibals: Zombies will not attack their own kind, no matter how far gone they may be.
- Obstructive Code of Conduct: What you have when the standard gets in the way of your mission.
- Offending the Fool: When something makes an eccentric, cheerful, or silly character angry, they'll make that abundantly clear.
- The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: When a character actually likes something about a character they despise.
- Opponent Instruction: When someone tells their opponent how to defeat them, because they want them to win or be given a fair chance.
- Pedophilia Is a Special Kind of Evil: Pedophiles are viewed as disgusting excuses of human beings.
- Pet the Dog: When a villain or Anti-Hero does something nice or heroic for their adversary for their sake.
- Pity the Kidnapper: When the kidnapper thinks its victim is too much to handle.
- Political Overcorrectness: When someone tries to avoid being rude to the point everybody else thinks it's ridiculous.
- Politically Correct Villain: A villain may perform every evil act under the sun, but they explicitly refuse to be bigoted in any way as they do so.
- Post-Support Regret: When a character does something particularly deplorable, someone turns against them and regrets all prior support they gave them.
- Pragmatic Villainy: A villain occasionally performs good deeds (or doesn't act as evil as they should), because on the long run it is a more beneficial decision.
- Principles Zealot: Follows their standards no matter what, good or bad consequences be damned.
- Profanity Police: This character hates profanity with a passion and will call out others who curse in their presence.
- Rage Breaking Point: A character can only hold so much anger inside them before they inevitably snap.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Murder, robbery, and arson may be one thing, but even many otherwise evil people are aghast at sexual assault.
- Rebuilt Pedestal: When a character decides that someone who's been revealed as a Broken Pedestal is redeemable after all, despite who they are and what they've done.
- Sacred Hospitality: Society believes that being a good host to those who enter your home invited is sacrosanct, and any side taking advantage of this generosity (either to be loathsome or to stab the host/guest in the back) are the lowest of the low.
- Sarcastic Devotee: Snarky quips aside, they're as loyal as can be.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: When a person can't be bribed or otherwise persuaded to bend their standards.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: When a person holds two sets of standards that conflict, they take the higher road.
- Selective Slaughter: A killer refuses to harm certain people or groups, such as children or innocents.
- Serial-Killer Killer: A Serial Killer that only targets people as evil as he is.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She'll only show interest in a guy if he's good, or at least decent.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Slavery and human trafficking are seen as worse than other crimes.
- Sour Supporter: Even if they don't agree with their team, they're still firmly on their side.
- Spared for Humor's Sake: When a character that's normally above murdering spares a potential victim because they think the victim is hilarious.
- Straight Edge Evil: A villain believes in the value of clean and orderly living.
- Sympathy for the Devil: A heroic character finds themselves sympathising with a villain or antagonist.
- Sympathy for the Hero: A villain or antagonist finds themselves sympathising with a hero.
- Tautological Templar: They believe themselves to be always in the right, no matter what they do.
- Technical Pacifist: Someone who has no qualms with using non-lethal violence against other people but won’t kill anyone.
- Thank Your Prey: When it's considered respectful to thank food to honor it being eaten.
- Thicker Than Water: No matter what, characters will tolerate or forgive members of their family for things they wouldn't for others, simply because they're family.
- Think of the Children!: A character thinks something is too objectionable to be shown to kids.
- This Is Unforgivable!: When a character considers something beyond forgiveness.
- To Be Lawful or Good: The moral dilemma that results when someone's standards conflict with their duties.
- Too Kinky to Torture: Torture Always Works for the villains... until the hero comes along, and it turns out that what villains call "inhuman torture" the hero instead calls "foreplay" (sometimes literally).
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: The Eldritch Abomination refuses to eat the hero, or tries but can't keep down their meal.
- Touché: When a character concedes a point someone else makes about a stance they've both been disagreeing over without a fight.
- Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Traitors are considered the scum of the earth.
- Turned Off by Neediness: This character won't get together with another character because they find them too needy.
- Turned Off by the Dumbass: This character won't get together with another character because they find them too stupid.
- Turned Off by the Jerkass: This character won't get together with another character because they find them too nasty.
- Villain Cred: Even villains believe in supporting one another.
- Villain Has a Point: This character may be a villain, but they raise a good point.
- Villain Respect: They may be on opposing sides, but a villain will give the hero credit where it's due.
- Villain Takes an Interest: A villain is so impressed with a hero that they offer to mentor them.
- Villainous Ethics Decay: Evil characters are demonstrated to have standards by pitting them against other villains (usually younger ones) who don't care about breaking them.
- Villainous Medical Care: An injured hero gets medical treatment provided by a villain.
- Villainous Parental Instinct: Even evil people will protect or take care of their children.
- Villains Never Lie: A villain does manipulate a hero but does so by telling them an honest fact.
- Virtue/Vice Codification: Formalized lists of what character qualities are considered good or evil.
- Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: Someone thinks they have high standards, but compared to everyone else's standards, they've only attained the bare minimum.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Does morally problematic things, but only in pursuit of a worthy goal.
- What You Are in the Dark: The moment that reveals whether a person's standards are really a part of their character or whether they're just a Slave to PR.
- Wicked Cultured: Being a villain doesn't stop them from having class.
- Wife-Basher Basher: Someone finds domestic abuse inexcusable to the point that they're willing to beat up or kill anyone who beats or mistreats their spouse.
- Worthy Opponent: When adversaries strongly respect each other.
- Wouldn't Harm the Disabled: A character draws the line at hurting disabled people.
- Wouldn't Hit a Girl: He may be a complete jerk, but he won't hit women.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Whichever is their code of conduct, the iron-clad rule is that children are off limits.
- Would Not Shoot a Civilian: They may be trained to kill, but they only kill enemy soldiers.
- You Got Guts: A typical complement towards someone's bravery or gall.
- You Monster!: Someone being called a "monster" for their acts too atrocious even for the bad guys.
- You Will Be Spared: When the villain chooses to spare someone's life for whatever reason.
- Your Normal Is Our Taboo: A different group's standards consider your standards really weird.
- Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Two conflicting groups each see themselves as upholding a standard and the others as breaking it, for pretty much the exact same reasons.
Example subpages:
- Anime & Manga
- Comic Books
- Fan Works
- Films — Animation
- Films — Live-Action
- Literature
- Live-Action TV
- Video Games
- Web Animation
- Webcomics
- Web Original
- Western Animation
Other examples:
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Audio Plays
- In the Doctor Who spin-off audio "The Running Man", when discussing the Halifax Gibbet, the Ninth Doctor observes that when even Oliver Cromwell thinks something is too far everyone involved should know they’ve gone too far.
Comic Strips
- Lampooned in Bloom County, where it was combined with an Evil Lawyer Joke and a dose of Self-Deprecation on the part of the writer. The strip's resident Amoral Attorney, Steve Dallas, was thinking about changing careers, because he wanted "an easier way to make a living than getting psychopaths and rapists off the hook". (Not that he cared about who they hurt; he just wasn't all-that good at it.) Then Opus suggested that Steve try getting into cartoonist art, to which Steve replied by jabbing him in the butt with a pen and angrily shouting, "I have some scruples, dude!"
- Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes may be quite self-centered, but even he thinks starving people are nothing to joke about. He's also periodically disgusted by people who litter.
- Despite the rather minuscule nature of Calvin's good side, he rarely tries to actually hurt someone beyond thrown snowballs or water balloons, and is always remorseful over any harm resulting.
- When the clones he created for himself keep getting into trouble at school, he's exasperated, noting even he doesn't get sent to the principal's office every day.
- At the end of the story arc where he locked Rosalyn out of the house, Calvin reflects on what happened and comes to the conclusion that he went too far.
- In Dilbert, even a pirate with a diseased parrot refuses to be spokesperson for the unethical company Dilbert works at.
- Garfield:
- In the 2008/02/24 strip, Jon spent all morning writing a love sonnet and then the computer crashed. Actually, it just pretended to, because "Even the Internet has its standards".
- Like many cats, Garfield has no problem with hunting animals for food, but got upset with Jon's family turning his pet chicken Nadine into soup because he considered her family.
- Unlike many cats, however, Garfield would never consider rats "food". As the 2020/12/02 strip indicates, he'd rather stick to his diet — something he hates — than eat a rat.
- Liō: Despite Lio's love of all things creepy and pranks, he seems to draw the line at legitimately hurting people (unless they deserve it, of course). He's often shown keeping his various pets (usually Cybil) from harming innocent people/animals.
- Wimpy from Popeye is a mooch, cowardly, selfish, and has betrayed Popeye on numerous occasions, however, he refuses to kill under any circumstances. He was also once greatly angered when he heard that someone was poaching goons.
Magazines
- In Jonathan M. Richards' "Monster Hunters Society" stories/articles in Dragon, Dreelix, the chairman of the Monster Hunters, is a callous man who has no issue with threatening to destroy a forest in order to harvest nymph tears for a potion, or to gain control of the same nymph's pseudodragon companion, but Buntleby correctly realises he's not nasty enough to actually follow through.
Music
- Kneecap: Plenty of their songs are about doing a ton of drugs, but even they draw the line at "[Stalford
] licking coke off a plate" in "Get Your Brits Out".
- In The Lonely Island's "Like a Boss", Andy Samberg's character (the "boss") says it in the moment, but as the song winds up and the man giving him a performance review double-checks that in an average day, "You chop your own balls off and die," he agrees to those two things, but tries to go back on having said "something about suckin' your own dick". That ain't him.
- Played for Laughs in Jonathan Coulton's song "Re: Your Brains," about a sentient zombie trying to convince some human survivors to give themselves up:
All we wanna do is eat your brains!
We're not unreasonable; I mean, no one's gonna eat your eyes. - Record label Nuclear Blast is no stranger to publishing blatantly antireligious songs, and had already published some spicy ones by Norwegian black metal band Dimmu Borgir. But the company drew the line with their song "Tormentor of Christian Souls", which was apparently so bad the label refused to put the lyrics for the song in the booklet. They still published the song itself, they just refused to tell anyone what it was really saying.
- In the "Once Upon a Time in Space" concept album, Jonny D'Ville— a murderous space pirate who loves violence— refuses to kiss the Sleeping Beauty analogue because kissing a sleeping stranger is creepy.
- In a Songify This of Charlie Sheen's Winning interview, Charlie is giving a list to sort on what is winning or not. Violating the rules of the Geneva Convention is the only thing considered weak.
- Played for Laughs In "Ciakkami" by Tony Tammaro. The protagonist of the song is a hardcore masochist that is willing to be subjected to every form of abuse by his partner, from having plates thrown at him to being bitten by dogs. However listening to Pupo 's songs is too much even for him.
- Victor Borge would parody most of the great works of classical music, from Liszt's Hungarian Dance Suite to the Cara Nome from Rigoletto, but there was one work he would always play straight, "Clair de Lune" by Claude Debussy.
Professional Wrestling
- Really bad storylines tend to get this reaction.
- Case in point: Katie Vick. The brain child of the Executive VP of Television Production, Kevin Dunn, it was a terrible angle involving necrophilia, a doll dressed up as a cheerleader, and Triple H in a Kane mask. Hunter has gone on to say that it was the only time he ever questioned Vince McMahon about a storyline. After negative fan reaction, the feud between Kane and Hunter immediately ended, the entire angle was moved to Canon Discontinuity, and the only time it's ever brought up is usually to reference how terrible it was.
- Vince Russo had a pet gimmick called "Beaver Cleavage", a hyper-sexualized version of Leave It to Beaver. He had fought tooth and nail with the rest of creative to get it on the air — after the (expected) negative fan reaction, Vince McMahon himself pulled the plug, which is what would ultimately cause Russo to jump ship to WCW.
- Though even Russo has standards. Vinny Ru hated the TNA "Immortal" storyline, which basically amounted to nWo: Take 2. As if to indicate how bad the storyline was, it involved Jeff Hardy turning heel and Ric Flair and Hogan ignoring their decades-long feud. He knew the storyline was going to bomb, and the only reason he kept writing it was because Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff kept pressuring him to do so. All it did was prove that Hogan was still a massive Attention Whore.
- TNA was also responsible for Claire Lynch, its answer to Katie Vick, which had wrestling's first ever pregnant crack whore. It was by far and away the nadir of AJ Styles's career, and everyone has gone on to say that the only good thing to come out of it was the formation of Bad Influence. The sad part was that this storyline was after Vince Russo's departure from the company.
- Despite being a neutral party whose only involvement was being in the match, Leah Vaughan prevented her mentor Cherry Bomb from staking Courtney Rush through the heart, presumably because she didn't want to just step back and watch while outright murder was committed in front of her.
- Following that Hell in a Cell match featuring Mick Foley and The Undertaker, Vince McMahon personally spoke to Mick after the match and told him this: "Mick, you have no idea how much I appreciate what you just did, but I never want to see that again."note
- According to Mick's first book, the idea to start on top of the Cell and get thrown off originated as a joke, and when Mick took the idea seriously, Terry Funk thought he was crazy.
- In 2004, WWE writer Dan Madigan (who was one of the people behind Katie Vick) suggested that Jon Heidenreich’s gimmick be an unfrozen Nazi managed by Paul Heyman, who is Jewish...and whose mother survived the Holocaust. When the idea was pitched, Vince McMahon himself walked out of the board room and didn’t come back for the rest of the day. Suffice to say, Madigan’s career didn’t last much longer and he was fired in early 2005.
- Jim Ross has gone on record stating that Brock Lesnar, even with his Real Life abrasive attitude towards other superstars and his mercenary attitude towards WWE, actually didn't want to break The Streak, but was ordered to do so by Vince and had gained the approval of Undertaker himself.
- Eddiesploitation. According to Konnan, no one wanted to do it. Not Triple H, not Stephanie McMahon, not Rey Mysterio Jr., definitely not Chris Benoit and almost certainly not Chavo Guerrero Jr. or the still-grieving Vickie Guerrero. No one — except for the boss himself, Vince McMahon, which means everyone had to go through with it anyway. Match after match, promo after promo, feud after feud, all centered around Eddie and his death. At one point, Randy Orton was forced to say Eddie was "in hell" to Rey's face as part of their feud on the Road to WrestleMania, and yeah, Orton hated doing that, because just like everyone else, he loved Eddie. All of this only ended when Benoit finally put his foot down and called Vince out, after Vince tried to set up a feud between Benoit and Chavo over Eddie's "estate". As a coda to this tragedy, when RD Reynolds wrote out its entry for the WrestleCrap Gooker Award (which it unsurprisingly won), he didn't include any soundbites or images — it was so loathsome he couldn't bring himself to go through it again, article or none.
- During an interview with Wheeler Yuta, Nigel McGuinness asks why he betrayed Bryan Danielson at AEW's WrestleDream. Wheeler would then question why would Nigel even care about what happened to Bryan (after all Nigel wanted to defeat Danielson for 10 years), or maybe he's just pissed that he wasn't the one to end his career. While Nigel openly admits that Danielson is not his favorite person, he points out that he only wanted to beat Danielson just to prove that he was the better wrestler. Nigel wouldn't suffocate him to near death in front of his wife and kids.
Tabletop Games
- Anathema (2011): Players are required to murder as many people as possible, but even the most bloodthirsty shrouds have a group of people that they're strongly adverse to killing - doing so will cost them some of their will to live.
- BattleTech:
- During the opening years of the First Succession War, Jinjiro Kurita ordered the slaughter of the entire population of a planet, Nanking Massacre-style. While the DCMS obeyed (refusal to undertake the orders was an executable offense), they had to, outside of the most fanatically loyal units, be forced and bullied into doing it. The fluff recounts numerous suicides of DCMS troops who could not live with themselves over what they were made to do.
- Since the Succession Wars, any weapons of mass destruction, be they nuclear, biological, or chemical, are considered too horrific to use. Consequently, using one is one of the best ways available to get everyone to stop shooting at each other and start shooting at you. Witness the stomping given to the Word of Blake by most everybody else, including the clans, as an example.
- Vivien Reid in Magic: The Gathering is an ecoterrorist who thinks civilisation is a blight on the multiverse, and during her visit to Ikoria, she has nothing positive to say about the city of Drannith, which has a strongly authoritarian philosophy and kills monsters by the dozen. However, when Lucca — who had been her protege earlier in the story — forms an army of monsters by controlling them with the Ozolith and attempts to conquer Drannith with them, Vivien concludes this is an unnatural and cruel corruption of the eludhanote and leads the army of bonders she's gathered against Lucca in order to save Drannith.
- In the Ravenloft sourcebook series known as the "Ravenloft Gazeteers", it is mentioned in the first volume that the peasantry of Barovia, the most Uberwaldian of the Uberwaldy domains in the Core, a backwards realm of benighted, impoverished peasants whom the in-universe author has been jeering at, look down on the denizens of neighboring Nova Vaasa, which they regard as hopelessly corrupt, squalid and oppressed. This sentiment is reiterated in the opening fiction of the fifth volume, where the narrator notes she asked the owner of a tavern on the Barovian side of the border why he built his establishment here, in the dark and sinister foothills, rather than on Nova Vaasa's sunny plains. The reply she gets is that whilst there is much evil in Barovia, at least Barovia's evil restricts itself to the night.
- Scarred Lands: Shelzar proudly flaunts its moniker of "The City of Sins", being a city-state built on the principles of hedonism and embracing drug-use, slavery, polygamy, homosexuality and prostitution. But, even Shelzar has things that are regarded as legally and/or culturally beyond the pale:
- Rape is the ultimate crime in Shelzar. Rapists will be swiftly castrated if discovered. In the sourcebook for Shelzar for the first edition of the setting, it's said that whilst Shelzari see nothing particularly wrong with Stebec Faun staffing his brothel with prostitutes that include titanspawn and even undead, but if it got out that he was abducting people off the street and selling them to wealthy patrons to do whatever they like to them, they would recoil. It's stated directly that the normally lenient and laughable Shelzari legal system would literally skin him alive for that act. This almost assuredly ties back to the city's disgust with the act of rape.
- Whilst the Flesh Golems called sintaurs are seen as a status symbol, to the point of holding sintaur parades during the annual Night of Masks festival, their counterparts the slavering orificers are seen as perverse even by Shelzarian standards. They're not illegal, but are normally kept hidden away in the homes of nobles or tucked away in particularly extreme brothels.
- Zigzagged with knife pits. Whereas normal gladiatorial combat is a well-respected fact of public life, Shelzari knife-fighting focuses on the use of daggers and related weapons to make for the bloodiest, most spectacular bouts possible, with an emphasis on showmanship, cruelty, and agility. Officially, knife pits are illegal... unofficially, they're enormously popular and it's open knowledge that everybody from commoners to city officials enjoys attending a knife pit match.
- In contrast to knife pits, skin dens are considered too hideously perverse for even Shelzar, and are both illegal and despised by the Shelzari, existing only in the form of secret brothels of horror attended by the most jaded and depraved. Whilst skin dens put on a number of "acts", including people being forced to have sex with animals, monsters and titanspawnnote , often to the point of being literally raped to death, people being Eaten Alive, and people being burned alive, their pre-eminent act consists of people being skinned alive.
- Warhammer 40,000:
- The Imperium is a deeply religious institution, at times verging on theocratic and at others diving right in. The Imperial Faith is a warlike and xenophobic creed, preaching the fiery destruction of the alien, the mutant and the heretic. Entire worlds are devoted to the Emperor's worship; armies are raised in the name of the God-Emperor of Mankind; the head of the Adeptus Ministorum is one of the most powerful people in the Imperium. And even within that context, the apocalyptic fanatics of the Redemptionist creed are widely considered to be sketchy and overzealous at best, outright unhinged at worst, to the point where Imperial authorities often feel the need to either suppress Redemptionists (they're considered a proscribed cult on the planet of Necromunda, for example) or at least find ways to direct them away from burning innocent people for not being fanatical enough.
- The Imperium hates mutants. Space Marines hate mutants. The Black Templars chapter is the most rabidly fanatical of all Space Marines (bear in mind that just becoming a Space Marine requires a near psychotic killing instinct and fanatical devotion to the God Emperor) and despise mutants to such a degree that the barely tolerate their own Navigators and Astropaths (without whom FTL travel and communication are impossible). When they came across the planet of Lastrati, they found that the population had been reduced from 14 billion to 2.5 million due to anti-mutant purges going so far that even minor genetic deviance was met with immediate murder. The Black Templars were so horrified and disgusted that they declared the planet to have been subverted by Chaos, wiped out the entire ruling class and in a very rare act of mercy spared the surviving population.
- The Imperium uses many familiars and other small constructs. Servo-skulls and psyber-eagles are generally unremarkable, but cherubs - vat-grown, baby-like constructs fitted with artificial wings and anti-grav systems - are considered a little disconcerting even among people who consider a cyborged-up human skull a normal part of one's entourage, and the thankfully rare few built from actual human children are even more so.
Theatre
- 1776:
- Benjamin Franklin is a staunch voice for independence, and as such he has very little love for his child William, the governor of New Jersey and a British Loyalist. However, when he learns that William has been captured by revolutionary forces, Franklin immediately asks "Tell me, is he unharmed?" He goes right back to snarking after learning that William's OK ("Why did they arrest the little bastard?"), but his initial instinct shows that he still cares about his son.
- John Adams' biggest rival in his quest for independence is John Dickinson of Pennsylvania's delegation, and the two spar constantly (at one point even coming to blows on the floor of Congress). But after the motion of independence passes and Dickinson refuses to sign (opting to join the Continental Army on the side of the U.S. instead), Adams leads his fellow delegates in a sincere salute to him—opposing views or not, he finds Dickinson a Worthy Opponent.
- Lewis Morris spends most of the musical refusing to vote on anything because he hasn't received specific instructions from his colony: "New York abstains...courteously." But when he learns that the British have burned his properties and forced his family to flee the area (with his sons joining the Continental Army), Morris decides that he can't be neutral any longer and joins in signing the Declaration of Independence—"To hell with New York, I'll sign it anyway!"
- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: When Big Daddy talks about his travels to other countries to Brick, he mentions in Morocco a child prostitute so young she could barely walk tried to open his fly. He was so grossed out that he left the country instantly.
- Les Misérables, the revolutionaries refuse to let Gavroche put himself in the line of fire, because he's the youngest of all of them. He has to sneak past them to get the shells they need, ignoring their protests.
- Miss Saigon: For all the Engineer's unscrupulous greed, he never even considers the idea of running off with little half-American Tam, to lie his way into the visa he so desperately wants, without taking Tam's mother with him. Right from the start of his plan, he says "they must let us in".
- Ruy Blas: Don Cesar is more or less a thief, a drunk, a gambler and a cheater who lives under a false name to escape his creditors, but he refuses to cause harm to a woman.
- In Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Sweeney goes Jumping Off the Slippery Slope at the end of Act One and develops a kill-them-all philosophy, saying that he'll slaughter the upper classes for their exploitation of the poor and the lower classes to put them out of their misery. We see that philosophy in action in "Johanna Quartet", where he kills random patrons of his barber shop without a second thought. However, when a man comes in with his young daughter, Sweeney lets him live — he can't bring himself to kill a father (especially because he desperately misses Johanna, his own child).
Visual Novel
- Class of '09: Despite being less than savory of an individual, Nicole and Jecka attempting to offer Mall Cop sexual favors does nothing to entice him when he learns they're minors.
- Danganronpa:
- Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc:
- In the manga, Sayaka, while trying to decide who to kill in order to escape the school, decides to forgo killing Makoto, due to thinking of him as a friend, although that didn't stop her from attempting to frame him for the murder she tried to commit against Leon.
- Hifumi Yamada is something of a creep, but he finds some things unacceptable. Hearing that Kiyotaka apparently stole Alter Ego after sexually assaulting Celeste and blackmailing her into stealing it for him enrages Hifumi enough to kill Kiyotaka, not realizing that Kiyotaka was innocent and Celeste was using him in her own plan.
- Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair:
- While Mahiru generally finds the boys in her class annoying and gets along better with the girls, she thinks Tenko's desire for all "degenerate males" to die is going too far when the two girls meet in V3's Talent Development Plan.
- Teruteru is a shameless pervert who is likened to pigs, but he draws the line at pretending to be one. At one point in Ultimate Talent Development Plan, Miu Iruma gives Teruteru some of her inventions as a Christmas gift, which he happily accepts. Teruteru tells Miu to find him if she had made another perverted invention, and Miu, who is comparing him to a pig throughout, offers him to become her pet pig if he oinks for her. To her surprise, Teruteru declines, saying that he doesn't need to see her inventions that badly.
- Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony,
- While Tenko herself (see above) Does Not Like Men to a degree that makes Mahiru's complaints about her male classmates' immaturity seem tame, she's horrified at the death of the first murder victim, who is male. While she gets along with the girls for the most part (except Angie, due to being jealous that Himiko spends more time with her, and Miu, whom practically no one else likes), she initially distrusts Maki Harukawa after it turns out that Maki's the Ultimate Assassin.
- Miu Iruma may be a massive pervert, but there are things that even she thinks are way too much for her. For instance, she is disgusted by Korekiyo Shinguji's incestuous relationship with his sister and that he killed Angie and Tenko for her sake. On another note, which overlaps with Hypocritical Humor, Miu finds Toko Fukawa's fantasy about being Byakuya Togami's doormat too disturbing to talk about in public. Hilariously, Toko claims that Miu gets turned on by weirder fantasies than that.
- Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc:
- In Highway Blossoms, Mariah is a rather obnoxious person who gets into a lot of trouble, and her little sister Tess and their long-time friend Joe are used to putting up with her. That said, the other two members of "the Trio" have lines they won't cross. Late in the game, Marina, who'd befriended the Trio, loses her share of the treasure she and Amber found in a poker game, in which Mariah clearly took advantage of Marina's naivete. Joe's convinced the entire thing wasn't serious and tries to convince Mariah not to hold Marina to her end of the bargain. When Amber offers a double-or-nothing game, in which she bets her half in order to win Marina's back, Tess serves as dealer and, despite being Mariah's sister, offers to help Amber cheat in order to win what Marina "stole" back.
- In Katawa Shoujo, Kenji is a misogynistic Conspiracy Theorist who apparently cannot find anyone else to join his cause, but he won't accept people who like futanari porn. It's also indicated that he had a girlfriend once, possibly Yuuko, and that he doesn't have a problem with women in general, but feminists.
- In A Little Lily Princess, Lavinia can be a rather cruel Alpha Bitch to Sara, particularly becoming jealous of her after Sara takes Lavinia's place as their teacher Miss Minchin's star student and treating her with contempt after Sara's father dies penniless, resulting in Miss Minchin making Sara a servant. However, she is disdainful of Miss Minchin, knowing that she's only nice to students whose parents can pay her a lot of money. Sara accuses Lavinia of being just like Miss Minchin, to which Lavinia replies by claiming to be kinder than Miss Minchin should she so desire, but by this point, it's clear that Lavinia isn't wrong about Miss Minchin.
- Shinrai: Broken Beyond Despair
- Kotoba is a notorious pervert, as well as a Stalker with a Crush towards Momoko. Despite this, he despises how Hiro treats his girlfriend Momoko, such as telling a ghost story about a girl who commits a Murder-Suicide with her boyfriend and forces untrusting girlfriends to hang themselves as a way of passive-aggressively chiding Momoko for being a Clingy Jealous Girl. While Kotoba was part of Momoko's "fake murder prank" plot, he was unaware that the argument was staged, and his reaction was thus genuine.
- For most of the game, Kamen intensely dislikes Raiko, and the feeling is mutual on Raiko's part. However, Raiko not only feels bad for Kamen when her best friend Momoko commits suicide, but also is the only one who speaks up in Kamen's defense when Kamen is accused of murdering Momoko, Hiro and Kotoba. Even if Raiko accuses Kamen of being the murderer, she still has enough compassion to insist that Kamen be treated fairly.
- Slay the Princess:
- Even the most assholish of your Voices usually have some barriers: the Contrarian is usually The Gadfly but still views helping the Stranger as a responsibility (as he can tell this is your fault); the Cheated loves to spite expectations but can't feel good about dropping the head of the Cage back into the pit, the Cold's completely fine murdering or being murdered all the time, but gets quite bitter about the fact that the Narrator tries to lock you away in an empty void for eternity and expects you to be grateful.; and even the Opportunist despises the Smitten's toxic and controlling behaviour in the Happily Ever After route.
- Some of the more destructive incarnations of the Princess are also willing to draw some lines: the Den, despite being more animal than person, feels some shame if you end up in an outright cannibalistic brawl; the Apotheosis, if you've served her willingly, will try to help you once her ascension is halted; and the Adversary is a Blood Knight but only wants a reasonably fair fight that you can both walk off - she's horrified by the damage she can do to you if you fight her unarmed or refuse to fight her at all (although unfortunately the resultant shock and trauma will turn her into the Fury, who is much worse).
- In Tavern Talk, the Innkeeper strictly adheres to making quests, no matter how morally questionable their goals are, only when they hear enough rumors for them, and they draw the line when someone tries embarking on one without enough info about what they're facing.
