History EveryoneHasStandards / LiveActionTV

* In the ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode "Compassion," the AssholeVictim was a con artist who preyed upon grieving people by claiming to [[ISeeDeadPeople be able to communicate with the dead]] and squeeze them for all they were worth so they could "talk" to whoever they were missing so dearly. The culprit is a saintly SympatheticMurderer -- a soft-spoken, selfless, assiduous pediatric oncologist who found solace in his charade to cope with having to see young children die constantly; she snapped and killed him when she found out he was stringing her along and all his comfort was a lie. District Attorney Jack McCoy, who's known for being a total hardass with little to no sympathy for whoever he's prosecuting, watches her [[TryingNotToCry try to hold in her tears on the stand]] as she describes the agony of watching little kids discuss their own impending deaths and how, despite her unrelenting dedication to her work, she's forced to watch them die over and over, day in and day out. Jack is rendered completely speechless and just silently walks back to his side of the courtroom -- he looks like he's holding back tears himself. During the recess he offers a deal to the doctor's lawyer, and he accepts, before reassuring Jack that he doesn't need to be ashamed of feeling compassion.

* In the ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode "Compassion," the AssholeVictim was a con artist who preyed upon grieving people by claiming to [[ISeeDeadPeople be able to communicate with the dead]] and squeeze them for all they were worth so they could "talk" to whoever they were missing so dearly. The culprit is a saintly SympatheticMurderer -- a soft-spoken, selfless, assiduous pediatric oncologist who found solace in his charade to cope with having to see young children die constantly; she snapped and killed him when she found out he was stringing her along and all his comfort was a lie. District Attorney Jack McCoy, who's known for being a total hardass with little to no sympathy for whoever he's prosecuting, watches her [[TryingNotToCry try to hold in her tears on the stand]] as she describes the agony of watching young children discuss their own impending deaths and how, despite her unrelenting dedication to keeping them alive, she's forced to watch them die over and over, day in and day out. Jack is rendered completely speechless and just silently walks back to his side of the courtroom -- he looks like he's holding back tears himself. During the recess he offers a deal to the doctor's lawyer, and he accepts, before reassuring Jack that he doesn't need to be ashamed of feeling compassion.

* In the ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode "Compassion," the AssholeVictim was a con artist who preyed upon grieving people by claiming to [[ISeeDeadPeople be able to communicate with the dead]] and squeeze them for all they were worth so they could "talk" to whoever they were missing so dearly. The culprit is a saintly SympatheticMurderer -- a soft-spoken, selfless, assiduous pediatric oncologist who found solace in his charade to cope with having to see young children die constantly; she snapped and killed him when she found out he was stringing her along and all his comfort was a lie. District Attorney Jack McCoy, who's known for being a total hardass with little to no sympathy for whoever he's prosecuting, watches her try to hold in tears on the stand as she describes the agony of watching young children discuss their own impending deaths and how, despite her unrelenting dedication to keeping them alive, she's forced to watch them die over and over, day in and day out. Jack is rendered completely speechless and just silently walks back to his side of the courtroom -- he looks like he's holding back tears himself. During the recess he offers a deal to the doctor's lawyer, and he accepts, before reassuring Jack that he doesn't need to be ashamed of feeling compassion.

* In the ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode "Compassion," the AssholeVictim was a con artist who preyed upon grieving people by claiming to [[ISeeDeadPeople be able to communicate with the dead]] and squeeze them for all they were worth so they could "talk" to whoever they were missing so dearly. It turns out that the culprit is a saintly SympatheticMurderer -- a soft-spoken, selfless, devoted pediatric oncologist who found solace in his charade in an effort to cope with having to see young children die constantly; she snapped and killed him when she found out he was stringing her along and all his comfort was a lie. District Attorney Jack McCoy, who's known for being a total hardass with little to no sympathy for whoever he's prosecuting, watches her try to hold in tears on the stand as she describes the agony of watching young children discuss their own impending deaths and how, despite her unrelenting dedication to keeping them alive, she's forced to watch them die over and over, day in and day out. Jack is rendered completely speechless and just silently walks back to his side of the courtroom -- he looks like he's holding back tears himself. During the recess he offers a deal to the doctor's lawyer, and he accepts, before reassuring Jack that he doesn't need to be ashamed of feeling compassion.

* In the ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode "Compassion," the AssholeVictim was a con artist who preyed upon grieving people by claiming to [[ISeeDeadPeople be able to communicate with the dead]] and squeeze them for all they were worth so they could "talk" to whoever they were missing so dearly. It turns out that his murderer is a textbook SympatheticMurderer -- a kindly, selfless, devoted pediatric oncologist who found solace in his charade in an effort to cope with having to see young children die constantly; she snapped and killed him when she found out he was stringing her along. District Attorney Jack McCoy, who's known for being a total hardass with little to no sympathy for whoever he's prosecuting, watches her try to hold in tears on the stand as she describes the agony of watching young children discuss their own impending deaths and how, despite her unrelenting dedication to keeping them alive, she's forced to watch them die over and over, day in and day out. Jack is rendered completely speechless and just silently walks back to his side of the courtroom -- he looks like he's holding back tears himself. During the recess he offers a deal to the doctor's lawyer, and he accepts, before reassuring Jack that he doesn't need to be ashamed of feeling compassion.

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order.

** Stannis is pressured to sacrifice his daughter by Melisandre, a Red Priestess whose God demands human sacrifices in the form of fire. With his army stuck in the snow miles from his enemy and the situation getting desperate, he eventually agrees, [[MoralEventHorizon allowing his own daughter to be burned alive in front of the entire army.]] The snow does thaw, but half his men desert with all the horses, leading him to be defeated in ensuing battle. Even for the jaded people of Westeros, watching their general murder his young, terrified daughter is far beyond their ability to tolerate.

** Zigzagged with the hired killer Bronn, who recognizes Joffrey as a vicious sadist, is horrified by what Tywin did to Tyrion's first wife and openly shares Tyrion's disgust for Meryn Trant's mistreatment of Sansa and calls him out for brutalizing those who are weaker than him, yet also declares that his only quibble with murdering an infant girl would be his payment for doing so.

** Rose is "the nice one" of the four women--a perpetually sunny individual and FriendToAllLivingThings who goes out of her way to do volunteer work and help charitable causes. She's also TheDitz, so she can be easily tricked and is very naive. However, if someone tries to hurt her friends or mess with her children or the memory of her deceased husband, she ''will'' get angry, and becomes [[BewareTheNiceOnes extremely dangerous]]--as demonstrated when someone suggests that her boyfriend might be seeing another woman, and Rose, without even trying, ''shatters an entire coffee cup in her grip.''
* Despite starting out as a DirtyCop, Harvey Bullock in ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' a lot of these, including despising lawyers, being horrified by the Goat's murder spree. However, two stand out are in near the end of season 1 and in season 5:
** At towards the end of season 1, Bullock goes undercover at a sex club near the end of season 1--only to get creeped out by some of the fetishes being fulfilled--and then break cover and whip out his badge the minute [[BestialityIsDepraved a sex act involving a pig and a chainsaw]] appears on the main stage.
** In season 5, he sees Gordon is at the DespairEventHorizon and gives him a WhatTheHellHero after [[spoiler:Gordon nearly incites a shootout with Zsasz.]]

** They do a fake-out that smacks of this trope. In a first-season episode, they trot out the "poodle in the microwave" myth as if they're going to test it, and they even show the poodle they're (supposedly) going to run the test on. Just before they're "slated" to run the test, they reveal that "there are some myths even we, on ''[=MythBusters=]'', can't do", establishing a long-standing rule against certain animal tests (insects are fair game when it comes to experiments just as long they were bred for scientific research, like radiation).

* ''{{Series/Poirot}}'': In "The Christmas Party", [[spoiler:Pilar, really Conchita, is more than happy to pass herself off as her dead friend to ingratiate herself with the family - who never met her - and maybe get an inheritance, but when they start being nice to her and promising her a share of money even Pilar wasn't legally entitled to under the terms of the unchanged will, she can't go through with it]].

** Likewise, in season 2, Bell pushes the hospital to join with Quo Vadis, a company who boast of creating medical devices in Atlanta. Bell brushes aside concerns until a child nearly dies because of a faulty device. This leads him to discover Quo Vadis is just selling second-hand devices from China and the entire company is a fraud. Bell admits to the board that he's driven by the guilt of a child nearly dying because he backed Quo Vadis and can't let it happen again.
** In season three, Barrett Cain, whose attitude makes Bell look humble and selfless, joins the staff. Bell is already annoyed by his arrogance but hits the roof when he finds out Cain is ensuring his record stays clean by having a patient who fell into a coma during a surgery transferred to a special center where they do little more than just lie around until their death. This way, the deaths won't be attributed to anything Cain did. This is combined by how the hospital's new corporate owners are perfectly happy with such moves (and even worse stuff) as Cain brings in money. When Bell tries to have Cain fired, ''he'' ends up being demoted by someone even more ruthless to keep his spot than Bell is.
* ''Series/RoboCopTheSeries'' sees its version of OCP's head, the Chairman, as more moral than the other heads of OCP in the franchise. He's not really an evil man, but more often than not, he does let his greed get the better of him, rushing out products and initiatives without proper testing and willing to engage in insider trading. That said, he can be horrified when he learns about these ideas and initiatives hurting or impairing people, and is willing to call off things or pull products--even if he isn't honest as to ''why'' they're being pulled.[[note]]The official story for why No Gain was recalled in-universe in "Trouble in Delta City" was due to possible product tampering rather than the truth, which was a chemical in it was a deinhibitor that was linked to an upsurge in crime.[[/note]]

* ''Series/TheWilds'': After she drinks to ''every'' sex question asked of her while playing "Never Have I Ever", Fatin stops when it's "had a threesome on your period", dead-panning "I mean... I'm not a ''freak''". It's {{played for laughs}}.

* In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', it's revealed that the Borg, {{Hive Mind}}ed ScaryDogmaticAliens who want to [[TheAssimilator assimilate]] all other sentient life, refused to assimilate the Kazon because they considered them to have no desirable characteristics whatsoever.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer:'' Cordelia is the AlphaBitch, and damn proud of it. However in "When She was Bad", when Buffy sexily dances with Xander (manipulating his feelings for her), in front on both Willow (who's crushing on Xander) and Angel (in love with Buffy), effectively [[KickTheDog kicking three dogs for the price of one]], even she's appalled.

* ''Series/{{Defiance}}'': A key part of the backstory. The alien vs human "Pale Wars" were the worst wars the world had ever seen, and they kept getting worse. Eventually, soldiers were ordered to continue a battle despite an entire city of civilians being caught in the crossfire. Soldiers on both sides refused to follow orders and instead focused on getting the civilians to safety. The actions of the "Defiant Few" spread across the globe, and leaders had to sue for peace because no one would fight for them any more. One of the main characters of the series is one of the Defiant Few, but he is rather dismissive of the event, saying "it was what it was." He implies a few times that he and his men did absolutely terrible things in the war, and he's not sure how to process being treated as some selfless hero for ''one'' good act.

*** He also feels contempt for rapists. So what the fuck was that in "Breaker of Chains"?

* In one episode of ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'', Blanche's niece Lucy comes to visit, only to run off with a different man every night. This causes Blanche to express concern at how she is behaving. When Lucy mocks the idea that [[ReallyGetsAround Blanche]] could criticize her for this, Blanche points out that while she dates a lot of men, [[EthicalSlut she wants to be there]] and everyone is happy, whereas Lucy is [[SexualExtortion letting herself be used]] because she doesn't think anyone will like her otherwise.

* In ''Series/{{The 100}}'', even the strictly controlled dystopia of the Ark is reluctant to execute children, despite PopulationControl being a basic necessity. It'll lock them up until eighteen and then execute them if their trial doesn't go well, and it'll use them as lab rats to determine if Earth is habitable again, but they are at least given something of a chance.

* ''{{Series/Unbelievable}}'': In return for them dropping the kidnapping charges, the rapist enters a guilty plea to the others. Duvall and Rasmussen are baffled as to why he objects at those specifically, but the DA rolls with it.

* ''Series/Poirot'': In "The Christmas Party", [[spoiler:Pilar, really Conchita, is more than happy to pass herself off as her dead friend to ingratiate herself with the family - who never met her - and maybe get an inheritance, but when they start being nice to her and promising her a share of money even Pilar wasn't legally entitled to under the terms of the unchanged will, she can't go through with it]].

** Leonard hates Sheldon but even he's appalled by Howard attempting to run him over in "The Parking Spot Escalation".