Line #39 Main/EvenEvilHasStandards


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7	[[quoteright:350: [[ComicBook/BatmanAndCaptainAmerica https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/evil_standards_crop_1_2518.jpg]]]]
8	[[caption-width-right:350:Even if you're a [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker psycho clown]], nobody likes a [[Characters/MarvelComicsRedSkull Nazi]]. And even Joker still cares about the American way.]]
9
10	->''"I'll kill a man in a fair fight. Or if I think he's gonna start a fair fight. Or if he bothers me. Or if there's a woman. Or if I'm gettin' paid. Mostly when I'm gettin' paid... but ''eating people alive?'' Where's ''that'' get fun?"''
11	-->-- '''Jayne''', ''Film/Serenity2005''
12
13	One of the easiest ways to highlight just how ''bad'' something or someone evil is: have an otherwise-remorseless villain reject it.
14
15	It's often to show that a new villain is ''really'' [[SlidingScaleOfAntagonistVileness bad]] if even [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Doctor]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Annihilation]] is appalled by them. Another way that it's used is to keep a villain safely on the "still sympathetic" side of the MoralEventHorizon; give him something that he simply ''will not do''. It may be specifically invoked to prove that it's OK for our hero to [[EnemyMine work with]] villains who have standards when the need is great enough. This can be strange if handled badly, with one character objecting to someone's crossing a line even if they have crossed many, many others, leading to confusion and possibly an unintentional edge into BlueAndOrangeMorality. Why, after all, should a criminal think shooting a [[NominalImportance particular single orphan]] be worse than killing every single orphan in the ThrowawayCountry, or a serial killer be upset by petty theft, or...? This might be deliberate, however, in order to show the MoralMyopia of the villains and make the viewers question what is right, what is wrong, and if there even is such a thing as “more wrong”. Also to show how complex human beings can be, what is acceptable for them and what drives them to make different choices in different scenarios. It is particularly ironic when two characters display this and their different understanding of morality by objecting to each other's crossing.
16
17	The most common taboos of this type in contemporary Western works involve [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil sexual violence]] or [[WouldntHurtAChild ill-treatment of children]]. [[PaedoHunt Or both at once]]. Common gangster-story examples are to have the NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters, by contrast with the RuthlessForeignGangsters, refuse to [[DrugsAreBad sell illegal drugs]] or to be disrespectful and abusive in their treatment of the [[UnproblematicProstitution women who they pimp]]. If your story takes place in a MobWar where [[BlackAndGreyMorality one side is slightly better than the other]], it's most likely because the "[[NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters good]]" side has standards. In older works, or historical fiction with authentic moral attitudes, common examples are breaches of SacredHospitality, harming [[KinslayingIsASpecialKindOfEvil one's own family]], [[TreacheryIsASpecialKindOfEvil treachery]] against [[MyMasterRightOrWrong one's leader]], or general [[IGaveMyWord breaches of oaths]].
18
19	The trope title is frequently spouted by the NobleDemon, in order to justify his evil self-identification. The typical format of their declaration is usually along the lines of "I may be Y, but I am/am not an ''X'' Y!" (as seen in the picture)
20
21	The CompleteMonster in particular has a tendency to provoke invocations of this trope on the part of other villains, due to having next to zero moral standards (if that, and even then they're never treated as a mitigating factor for their ilk) and committing atrocities even their fellow villains see as vile. Complete Monsters themselves '''can never''' play this trope unless the example is either {{subverted\|Trope}} later or PlayedForLaughs, as they will stoop to whatever low they can to carry out their goals. In a community of supervillains, expect a Complete Monster to be TheFriendNobodyLikes.
22
23	IGaveMyWord is another common variant, which may let the heroes agree to CombatByChampion. Some villains may maintain their standards through use of a [[HeroicVow Villainous Vow]]. "YouMonster" and "ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules" are used as common vow when this trope is in effect.
24
25	Can lead to an EnemyMine if the evil is another villain. Can also lead to a PetTheDog moment. Can contribute to making an AntiHero or VillainProtagonist ALighterShadeOfGrey than their enemies. Can also make it so that a conflict [[EvilVersusEvil where both major factions are malicious]] [[ALighterShadeOfBlack has someone for the audience to root for]]. In rare cases, a HeelFaceTurn can even develop from the villain taking a RedemptionQuest as a direct result of the conflict (most likely from HeelRealization). This can also be used to show how VillainousEthicsDecay is in effect, if an older generation of villains proclaims that they have standards only for a VilerNewVillain to come along and show that they have no such standards.
26
27	In comedy, it's often used to frame a TakeThat against a real-life action (such as [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil digital piracy]]) or profession (such as [[EvilLawyerJoke lawyer]]) that the villain is "too good" to associate with (or alternatively making fun of those who treat it as a crime); it's sometimes also played for laughs with ArsonMurderAndJaywalking, where the one thing that the villain objects to is something comically minor compared to their usual crimes. Contrast MoralMyopia and EvenEvilHasLovedOnes, where the 'standards' apply only to the villain's allies and ArsonMurderAndAdmiration where the eviler one is the better. This trope is one of the distinguishing differences between most villains and TheUnfettered.
28
29	Compare and contrast PragmaticVillainy, when the villain's refusal to partake in the abhorrent act is far more selfish (or in the case of a group of villains against a single one, group-beneficial); EvilerThanThou, where the villain is dismissive of another villain for not being evil ''enough''; EvenMooksHaveLovedOnes, where minions defect to protect a loved one from their boss; DoWrongRight for cases where it's not what is done but rather ''how'' it's done that the villain has standards for; EvilVersusOblivion, where one villain is trying to defend the world (himself included) against another villain who [[OmnicidalManiac wants to destroy everything]]; and FamilyValuesVillain for where the standards are very... old-fashioned. Often the deal with many LawfulEvil villains, but sometimes not. Can occasionally be the cause of a BreakTheBadass moment, when the badass in question is the bad guy. As said above it may be used by a character who also crossed the MoralEventHorizon and so he may be, in theory (if not wholly) just as evil as the target of this trope. The PoliticallyCorrectVillain always considers themself part of this trope, though whether the writer and audience agree tends to vary. For the exact opposite, see EvenTheLovingHeroHasHatedOnes.
30
31	See also HitmanWithAHeart, where this Trope may apply. (Not all characters who fit the ProfessionalKiller Trope are evil depending on their choice of targets, but most are, and a lot do have ''some'' scruples. They're particularly likely to have the Even Evil Has Standards variant SelectiveSlaughter.)
32
33	Can even involve ConscienceMakesYouGoBack, SuddenPrincipledStand, WontDoYourDirtyWork. See also EvilVirtues and VillainousValour, for good traits and virtues that villains commonly practice. The inversions of this trope are WellIntentionedExtremist and UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans, when it turns out that ''goodness'' is willingly crossing the MoralEventHorizon. This trope is a common trait in AffablyEvil characters. On the other hand, while FauxAffablyEvil villains do not possess much sincerity, even they could conceivably have their limits. A SubTrope of EveryoneHasStandards. Subverted with PragmaticVillainy where standards are based not so much on ethics but a realization of the risks and/or long-term consequences outweighing the short-term gains. Another possible subversion is ItsNotAboutTheRequest, where a character refuses to do something not because it violates a moral standard (and sometimes they may outright say that normally they'd have no problem doing it) but because of something else, such as not liking the person who asked them.
34
35	When Evil doesn't have standards, you may have to HitThemInThePocketbook.
36
37	Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease
38	----
39	!!Example subpages:
40
41	[[index]]
42	* EvenEvilHasStandards/AnimeAndManga
43	* EvenEvilHasStandards/ComicBooks
44	* EvenEvilHasStandards/FanWorks
45	* [[EvenEvilHasStandards/AnimatedFilms Films — Animation]]
46	* [[EvenEvilHasStandards/LiveActionFilms Films — Live-Action]]
47	* EvenEvilHasStandards/{{Literature}}
48	* EvenEvilHasStandards/LiveActionTV
49	* EvenEvilHasStandards/ProWrestling
50	* EvenEvilHasStandards/TabletopGames
51	* EvenEvilHasStandards/VideoGames
52	* EvenEvilHasStandards/WebAnimation
53	* EvenEvilHasStandards/{{Webcomics}}
54	* EvenEvilHasStandards/WebVideos
55	* EvenEvilHasStandards/WesternAnimation
56	[[/index]]
57
58	!!Work subpages:
59	[[index]]
60	* ''EvenEvilHasStandards/GrayStillPlays''
61	* ''EvenEvilHasStandards/SCPFoundation''
62	[[/index]]
63
64	!!Other examples:
65
66	[[foldercontrol]]
67
68	[[folder:Asian Animation]]
69	* Played for HypocriticalHumor in ''Animation/HappyHeroes''. Huo Haha is genuinely interested in killing the president of Planet Xing, but has problems with things being too unethical for his tastes. Killing the president of Planet Xing is clearly not ethical, so most of his problems are insignificant in comparison: he thinks his EvilLaugh is too scary for the Supermen and apologizes for it, and insists on being quiet in a library, for example.
70	[[/folder]]
71
72	[[folder:Audio Plays]]
73	* ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'':
74	** In the audio drama ''The Curse of Davros'', Davros explains the reason he chose to go back to the Napoleonic Wars and team up with Napoleon Bonaparte rather than any other time period when a powerful warlord nearly conquered the continent is because all the others had impure reasons for seeking power, including the one who had an obsession with meaningless genetic differences between humans. Of course, given the Daleks are poster-cyborgs for ANaziByAnyOtherName, there's a bit of [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocrisy]] involved there.
75	** In the audio drama ''The Sontaran Ordeal'', the Sontaran Jask is disgusted by his superior officer, a MilesGloriosus who believes WeHaveReserves. The Doctor and temporary companion Sarana have trouble getting their head round the idea this is any different from normal Sontaran behaviour.
76	--->'''Doctor:''' Sontarans are used to high casualties.\
77	'''Jask:''' Casualties are acceptable ''if'' they have purpose. Those deaths were ... needless and without glory.\
78	[...] \
79	'''Jask:''' He sent landing parties. When they were attacked, he used it as an excuse to counter-attack. For his ''personal'' glory.\
80	'''Sanara:''' ''[scoffs]'' I thought Sontarans ''lived'' for glory!\
81	'''Jask:''' The glory of serving the Sontaran Empire! This campaign does not benefit the Empire! Drakkis has no strategic value. Stenk saw only an... easy win.
82	[[/folder]]
83
84	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
85	* ''ComicStrip/{{BloomCounty}}'': Opus suggests to an out-of-work Steve Dallas that he take up cartooning. He angrily replies, "I have '''some''' scruples, dude!"
86	* In ''ComicStrip/{{Candorville}}'' gangsta ConMan Clyde feels that his friend Susan has been making poor decisions lately.
87	-->'''Clyde''': You're in a graveyard at midnight playing fetch with a wolf!\
88	'''Susan''': It's nice and private!\
89	'''Clyde''': ''You lent money to '''me!'''''\
90	'''Susan''': Aye Dios Mio, ''what's wrong with me?!''
91	* ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'':
92	** One series of strips had Dogbert starting up a business where he sells positive reviews. He's more than happy to praise your horrible book or provide quotes to advertise terrible movies...but even he won't deal with "filthy dot-com owners."
93	** Catbert is called the "Evil Director of Human Resources", but in [[http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2014-01-24/ the 2014-01-24 strip]], he clearly can't side with the clearly incompetent CEO against Alice.
94	* A ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'' story arc had Zonker's "Uncle" Duke drugged by a witch doctor and enslaved. When Zonker tried to buy Duke's freedom, he wanted proof that this was Duke he was purchasing, so he told one of the slavers to describe a certain tattoo Duke had. There was a pause, and then the slaver said, "That's the most '''sick''', disgusting..."
95	* In ''{{ComicStrip/Garfield}}'', Garfield will eat almost anything and has no problem with killing the food himself, and will eat birds alive. He is shocked, though, when he finds out Jon's parents have turned Jon's pet chicken Nadine into "Nadine Noodle Soup" because "she was family!"
96	* ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'':
97	** The character J. Wellington Wimpy is not a good person, technically. He's at best a mooch and at worst a con artist. But when offered a hundred thousand dollars if he'll kill a man (offered because Wimpy looks like he'll do anything for money), Wimpy mournfully tells his would-be employer that while he ''does'' need the money, "But, too, sir, the man I am about to murder needs his life."
98	** In the Plunder Island story arc, Wimpy is horrified when the Sea Witch asks him to prove his love by killing Popeye (ItMakesSenseInContext). He does try to go through with it, but only because the Sea Witch tells him she'll "slit [his] gizzard and throw it overboard for the sharks to nibble at" if he doesn't. He tries to stall by sharpening the knife until the blade is gone, and jumps at Popeye's plan to get out of doing the job.
99	* In ''ComicBook/{{Rocky}}'', the owner of a pornographic magazine fires Rocky because he was offended by a gag strip Rocky drew involving [[DudeNotFunny pedophilic incest]].
100	* In ''ComicStrip/ScaryGary'', Leopold is more than happy to kill and eat children, but when [[CreepyChild Beatrice]] gets a crush on him and shows an interest, he refuses to be in a relationship with a minor, no matter how impressed he is with her ''deeply'' disturbing obsession and the [[TroublingUnchildlikebehaviour lengths she will go to]] to get his attention.
101	* This trope is {{Invoked\|Trope}} in ''ComicStrip/ThisModernWorld''. [[StrawCharacter Tea Party Tim]] and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Plutocrat Pete]] both have disdain for the federal government, but when Tim wants to force the government to default in order to control spending, Pete is horrified.
102	-->'''Pete:''' I thought your uninformed outrage would be [[UnwittingPawn useful]] in my eternal struggle to avoid taxation! I didn't realize you were a nihilistic moron willing to crash the entire economy!
103	* In ''ComicStrip/TheWizardOfId'', the King is a cruel tyrant (and even admits it) but [[http://www.gocomics.com/wizardofid/2014/11/21 shooting at a caged deer left out for hunters for that specific reason?]] He's not THAT cruel.
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:Fairy Tales]]
107	* In "Literature/TheDevilWithTheThreeGoldenHairs", a gang of bandits are not pleased when they go back to their den and find a young boy sleeping on a bench. After hearing he is taking a letter to the queen, the thieves grab and read the letter. Upon learning the king is ordering his wife to execute the letter's bearer immediately, the thieves take pity on the clearly clueless, gullible boy. Thus, they tear up the letter and write another, saying he must be married to the princess immediately.
108	* In "Literature/GraciosaAndPercinet", WickedStepmother Grognon calls upon a fairy nearly as wicked as herself to give impossible tasks to Princess Graciosa. The fairy, who has no idea who she's punishing, is horrified when Graciosa arrives at the fairy palace later and reveals she was the victim. The fairy promptly [[KarmicDeath snaps Grognon's neck]].
109	[[/folder]]
110
111	[[folder:Music]]
112	* In the song "Music/AlicesRestaurant", when the singer describes being sent to the Group W bench (for those who possibly "may not be moral enough to join the Army") full of "mother-rapers, father-stabbers, and [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs father-rapers]]", one of them asks him [[WhatAreYouInFor why he's there]]. When they hear his response "littering", they all move away from him on the bench. But he regains their respect by adding "And creating a nuisance".
113	* In the Music/JonathanCoulton song "Re: Your Brains", the zombie singer informs his prospective victim that he and his colleagues are "not unreasonable" because while they intend to eat his brains "No one's gonna [[EyeScream eat your eyes]]." Then again, they're saying this as a bargaining chip to convince him to let them in.
114	* In Music/TomLehrer's "The Irish Ballad", from ''Music/SongsByTomLehrer'', the little girl protagonist kills her entire family and then willingly admits to it when the police show up, because "lying, she knew, was a sin."
115	* WebAnimation/YourFavoriteMartian's "Club Villain" is a song about a dance club full of [[BigBad Big Bads]], [[PsychoForHire psychos]], and SlasherMovie monsters [[VillainsOutShopping hanging out and having a good time]]. However, when they discover that Music/ChrisBrown is in the club too, they immediately kick him out.
116	-->ComicBook/DoctorOctopus was also getting physical with [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ursula]]/the two were making out and touching tentacles/Then [[Franchise/HarryPotter Voldemort]] greeted [[Franchise/StarWars Vader]] with a fist pound/they were checking out [[ComicBook/XMen Mystique's]] ass next to Chris Brown. [RecordNeedleScratch] ''CHRIS BROWN?!!'' Somebody needs to throw that guy out of the club, seriously!
117	* In Music/NickCave's "The Curse of Millhaven," the protagonist is a self-confessed evil teenager, happily singing to police and townfolk about [[SerialKiller her outrageously long]] list of murders but is '''adamant''' though, she didn't kill the schoolteacher's dog: that was two other school-age psychos she has no respect for. To be fair, Lottie doesn't seem to have a lot of respect for much of anyone or anything. It could be read that she wouldn't have minded killing the dog but never got the chance, or that she'd gone beyond the point where animal cruelty was fun anymore. Mostly though, she just didn't want to be pegged for something she didn't do.
118	* Music/{{TISM}} combined this trope with RefugeInAudacity and [[ClusterFBomb Cluster C Bomb]] to create their song "I Might Be A Cunt, But I'm Not A Fucking Cunt." The lyrics include such protestations of virtue as, "I might have screwed your sister, but I'll never screw your mum" and "[[UsefulNotes/AustralianRulesFootball I might barrack for Port Power, but never for the Crows.]]" The whole pretense is dropped near the end with, "I mightn't tell the truth all the time, but hey, [[CrossesTheLineTwice what's your mum's number?]]"
119	* In the song ''Banned From Argo'', some space pirates (or in the original rendition of the song, Klingons) planned to commence a raid on the titular shore leave planet. However, when they discovered the debauchery that a Starfleet crew (implied to be that of the ''Enterprise'') is doing while on shore leave, they decided against raiding the shore leave planet and wanted to get out of there, implying that even they felt that what the crew on shore leave was doing was terrible.
120	* In Music/TomSmith's song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jrqaRZ1RIU Rocket Ride]]", he describes how sci-fi villains in the old days were like this:
121	-->They used to be angular, sneering and bald,\
122	If someone got killed even they were appalled,\
123	They never tortured, they never lied,\
124	They'd [[IGaveMyWord honor a promise]] [[HonorBeforeReason if it meant they died]].
125	* The Music/BarenakedLadies' song "Bank Job" narrates the aftermath of a failed bank robbery. Midway through, we learn the reason everything went bad: one of the robbers panicked when he realized the bank's lobby was full of nuns.
126	* "We're Crooks" (lyrics by Creator/PGWodehouse) makes variations on this the punchline of each verse (e.g. "we've never been in Congress, for we draw the line at that").
127	* The Irish protest song "The Patriot Game" explicitly condones shooting police officers, but draws the line at killing deserters.
128	* Turns up in the lyrics of the Music/OingoBoingo song ''Little Girls'', which is possibly about pedophilia:
129	--> Uh-oh! (Uhoh!) Take a second! (Take a second!)\
130	Uh-oh! (Uh-oh!) It's a mistake! (It's a mistake!)\
131	Uh-oh! (Uh-oh!) I'm in trouble! (I'm in trouble!)\
132	Uh-oh! (Uh-oh!) The little girl was just too little, too little, too little, too little, too little!
133	* Music/TheJacksons: The opening lines of "Torture."
134	--> It was on a street so evil\
135	So bad that '''even hell disowned it'''\
136	Every single step was trouble\
137	For the fool who stumbled on it
138	* Music/WoodyGuthrie's "[[Music/DustBowlBallads Pretty Boy Floyd]]" ends with the title character pointing out that even his fellow bank robbers don't drive families from their homes, unlike the Depression-era bankers he's crusading against.
139	* Music/{{Pretenders}}: "I hurt you", one of the many DestructiveRomance songs of Chrissie Hynde. To quote: "If you'd been in the S.S. in '43 you would've been kicked out for cruelty!"
140	* Used as TheWorfEffect in D12's debut album ''Devil's Night'', where [[Music/{{Eminem}} Slim Shady]] - at that time, the shock-rap [[TheNewRockAndRoll demon of America]], with picket lines outside his shows of both conservatives and LGBT+ activists - is appalled by Bizarre and aghast that they let him on the radio. In interviews around the time of the release, Eminem and Proof had agreed that Em was the politically correct member of the group, because he kept reaching for [[ConsciousHipHop socially redeeming and political subtext to his foulness]], while the others just wanted to [[RuderAndCruder say the worst things they could think of because it was fun]].
141	[[/folder]]
142
143	[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
144	* In the Literature/BookOfEzekiel from ''Literature/TheBible'', the Philistines, who are presented as constantly evil adversaries of the Israelites throughout Scripture, are mentioned as being shocked by the whorish behavior of the Israelites as God speaks of them as an adulterous wife that He married in Chapter 16.
145	* UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} mentioned that even an evil father would not give his son a stone, when the son asked for bread, or a serpent when the son asked for a fish, when he contrasts them to the Father in Heaven, who is willing to give good gifts to those who ask Him.
146	* [[Literature/TheFourGospels Pontius Pilate]]:
147	** There is a theory that Pontius Pilate's reaction to the charges against Jesus was intended as {{irony}}. Apart from the Bible, most evidence suggests that Pontius Pilate was a cruel bastard (was there any high-status Roman who ''wasn't''?), a reputation that would have been fresh in the mind of much of the Gospels' first audience. Yet according to the Gospel writers, Jesus was so innocent that even ''Pontius Pilate'' didn't think Jesus was guilty, which made Caiaphus and the Jewish leadership look like even bigger scum.
148	** Another depiction claims that Pilate was just as disgusted at Caiaphas and the Jews bringing him and the rest of Rome into what should have been a Jewish internal matter (all for the sake of their being able to execute him as opposed to, say, life imprisonment), though that doesn't seem to detract from his not finding Jesus guilty.
149	** Some depictions of that story even claim Pilate went out of his way to keep Jesus from being crucified, both through the legal system and through political manipulation. The most prominent example was exercising a legal tradition of releasing one Jewish prisoner on Passover, in which he gave the Jewish leadership a choice between Jesus and the mass murderer Barabbas. When that went south, he tried to hold Jesus in captivity, which caused the Jews to threaten to riot, to which Pilate counter-threatened to bring in Roman reinforcements and invoke martial law. It was only when he was told Rome would not be able to provide reinforcements did he "wash his hands".
150	* In Myth/EgyptianMythology, this is how other evil gods view [[DestroyerDeity Apep[=/=]Apophis]]. Even [[SatanicArchetype Set]] is disgusted by him as well.
151	* In Myth/AztecMythology, Tezcatlipoca is often shown as [[JerkassGods a jerk]], stealing others' wives and being unnecessarily violent, judgmental, and downright sadistic. However, he had a [[PetTheDog soft spot for slaves]], and anyone who made [[TooDumbToLive the mistake]] of mistreating them [[PapaWolf would face]] [[RoaringRampageofRevenge his wrath]].
152	* There is an old myth about a man who was given the ability to destroy rats. He lures them all to his sword and kills them all in a gory manner. He is a sailor and his captain happens to see this and walks over to him and asks him why he did something like that. He tells him to get off the ship because he would rather have a sailor who uses his sword on men who have intentionally hurt him, not innocent creatures like rats. Which falls apart completely under scrutiny, given that rats were a pestilence for sailors, ate their food, gave them fleas and sickness, and wasted water when they got into it.
153	* In one of Grimm's fairy tales, a young man is sleeping in the woods when some bandits find him and notice that he's carrying a letter from the king (who's trying to get rid of the man) to the queen that says PleaseShootTheMessenger. The bandit leader says "That's a dirty trick!", changes the letter so that it tells her to reward him instead, and leaves the young man alone.
154	* When Jason dumped Medea, he offended his patron goddess Hera, goddess of marriage and rightly infamous for the sadistic punishments she issued to her husband's lovers. Yet Medea's rampage on her unfaithful husband was so ferocious and sadistic that Hera couldn't add ''anything'' to that aside from taking back her patronage and letting Medea's revenge stand.
155	* ''Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh'': Ishtar is the UrExample of a [[JerkassGods jerkass god]]. She's known for turning all her lovers into animals when she gets tired of them, and when Gilgamesh rejects her, she sends the Bull of Heaven to destroy his entire city, and forces the other gods to go along with it by threatening to start a ZombieApocalypse if they prevent her. However, even she was horrified when Enlil [[OmnicidalManiac tried to destroy all of humanity]] [[DisproportionateRetribution just because their noise was making it hard for him to sleep]].
156	* The Swedish folktale about the woman Kitta Grau (known locally as Sko-Ella) tells the story about how the devil one day meets the titular woman and being frustrated that he can't cause discord with a loving couple. Kitta scoffs and simply tells him that she could do it on her first try with the devil telling her that he would give her some pretty new shoes if she pulls it off. Suffice to say, once she was done the Devil didn't want to go anywhere near her and opted to give her the shoes on a stick from across a river.
157	* Some takes on SuccubiAndIncubi claim they're repulsed by same-sex intercourse (remember, [[ValuesDissonance this is the medieval sphere we're talking about]]). This could have a pragmatic aspect to it, since core lore about these demons is to transfer semen and create cambions, but still.
158	* The infamous Tantalus of Myth/ClassicalMythology, who, in an attempt to prove the gods weren't all-knowing, murdered his own son, Pelops, and served him for the banquet when the Olympians visited. Murdering your own son (and defying SacredHospitality, which [[ValuesDissonance doesn't seem so bad from a modern perspective]]) disgusted even the Olympians, the most infamous JerkassGods in cultural memory. Zeus even went so far as to command the Fates to bring Pelops back to life, albeit with a shoulder missing because Demeter was too grief-stricken by Hades taking Persephone to realize what she was eating. For his crimes, Tantalus was given an especially cruel ([[AssholeVictim and deserved]]) punishment in Tartarus of being cursed to have fruit and water just out of his reach.
159	* There is a Polish legend that once, in Lublin, a court [[KangarooCourt judged unfairly]] in favor of a [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney rich magnate]] against a poor widow. Then, depending on the variant, either the widow stated {{Satan}} would have judged more fairly, or the magnate stated the guy would have been forced to agree with them. In either case, next night, devils show up and force the court to review the case.
160	[[/folder]]
161
162	[[folder:Podcasts]]
163	* The titular organization from ''Podcast/TheAmeliaProject'' may fake the deaths of bad people so they can avoid consequences for their actions, but they only over do consensual fake deaths and are generally reluctant to work with particularly heinous people like serial killers.
164	* Solvin from ''Podcast/TheFallenGods'' will happily steal, maim, murder, and torture, but draws the line at slavery. Or [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking leaving a corpse naked]]. He's very complex!
165	* Despite ''Podcast/KakosIndustries'' priding itself on evil and all things evil, the company rarely stoops low when it comes to evil stemmed from ignorance in which Corin, a CorruptCorporateExecutive himself, finds to be an annoyance and waste in this. This emphasis on PragmaticVillainy tends to be what separates Corin from his would-be usurpers.
166	* ''Podcast/{{Midst}}'': Even Spahr is appalled when Phineas finally breaks down and [[spoiler: nearly beats Guthrie to death]] in his desperation to get him to talk. It's not the violence that bothers him: it's the desperation in Phineas' eyes.
167	* In ''Podcast/OnTheThreshold'' Tiago Cabral's [[MadScientist horrific experiments]] and [[DealWithTheDevil rituals]] that he carried out [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil on his slaves]] were so disturbing that when they finally rose up in revolution, even his neighboring slaveholding plantation owners refused to help him.
168	* ''Podcast/RedPandaAdventures'': This is a recurring problem that Nazi agents operating in Canada have. For all the bad things the criminal underworld will do and put up with, there are many for whom treason is just a step too far and this is highlighted in multiple episodes:
169	** "The Endgame": Nazi commander Varkin is planning a two-pronged attack to unleash a deadly disease onto Toronto, one group releasing it into the water supply, the second attempting an airborne attack. At the water treatment plant, the Red Panda encounters Ace Kirby, a local hood who's helping the Nazis thinking the whole thing is just some caper. Once it's made clear to him just what is going on and what is at stake, and with the Red Panda himself infected and growing steadily weaker, Ace steps up to stop the water strike and defends the Red Panda while he stops the air strike. Once all is done and the Red Panda is cured and recovering, he insists on Ace being inducted into the heroes' army of agents who act as their eyes and ears in the city.
170	** "The Home Team": The Red Panda and Flying Squirrel are alerted to a jailbreak that took one of their Rogues Gallery, Professor Zombie, out of prison with intent to ship her to Germany. The heroes realize Zombie was likely injured in the breakout would need treatment before she could be safely flown out of the country, and that neither a normal doctor nor even a crime doctor would be viable options to treat her; the former for obvious reasons and the latter because they might have an unexpected bout of patriotism. This leads the Germans to fly their own doctor into the country and the heroes are able to trace him to where Zombie is being kept and treated.
171	** "Stop the Presses": Supervillain the Mad Monkey is many things, but a traitor is not one of them. As driven as he is to challenge the Red Panda, he is content to keep himself to the shadows and keep his criminality to a minimum while the Red Panda plays soldier boy and fights the big bad Nazis. He even goes so far as to join the Red Panda in an EnemyMine when the Nazis, led by Archangel, take over a local newspaper as a trap. Though that is mostly because Archangel would get the credit if the Red Panda were to die in this scenario and the Mad Monkey considers himself TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou.
172	** "The King of Crime": the titular King of Crime is a Nazi agent exploiting {{Idiosyncrazy}} by acting like an English lord and treating the criminal underworld as his feudal kingdom. The crooks, thinking he's just a supervillain working the rackets, go along with it since it works out fine for them. As soon as they're told he's a Nazi, however, they're perfectly willing to turn on him and kill him from a combination of this and the fact that HeKnowsTooMuch about their various operations.
173	* In the ''Podcast/SickSadWorld'' episode "Haunted Mansions", it's mentioned that Madam [=LaLaurie's=] treatment of people she had enslaved was considered awful by other people in her social circles. As Jasmine and Dev note, these were people who didn't have moral issues with slavery and still thought [=LaLaurie=] was needed to be stopped.
174	* Colonel Kepler of ''Podcast/Wolf359'' is a very, very bad man, willing to kill many people, including his own loyal followers, for the sake of the Big Picture. However, he refuses to abide wasted potential. If you can overcome trial by fire, you've earned his respect. If you can't, you're nothing to him. This is why he is actively disgusted by the WellIntentionedExtremist Doctor Hilbert- for all Hilbert's posturing and promises that the Decima virus will cure countless diseases and improve human life, the only thing literal decades of work and research on Decima have amounted to is multiple body counts.
175	** Kepler's ruthlessness also has its limits -- he is very much against Cutter's plan to [[spoiler:wipe out the human race using a modified Decima virus. He ends up pulling a HeroicSacrifice by destroying the pulse beacon that would distribute the virus across Earth and mortally wounding Rachel, who manages to [[ThrownOutTheAirlock flush him out of the airlock]] before succumbing to her injuries.]]
176	[[/folder]]
177
178	[[folder:Print Media]]
179	* After the terrorist attack on the school in Beslan, a political cartoon showed Satan having his lawyer-devil send a cease-and-desist order to the terrorists because they were "giving evil a bad name."
180	* More "crazy" than evil, but one cartoon about birthers had Creator/CharlieSheen watching one on FOX News and telling him to get some help
181	* One UsefulNotes/WorldWarII PoliticalCartoon demonstrated the Germans preparing to blow up Rome. Even a ghost of a Vandal (the Vandals sacked Rome during the waning days of the Empire) is appalled by this attempt at destruction.
182	* An example from one Nazi to another: [[https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/sprechstunde-der-NSDAP.htm A Nazi wants to leave his wife over an eye twitch, claiming it proves that she is "genetically inferior"]]. Even the Nazi racial propagandist he is writing to thinks that would be cruel.
183	[[/folder]]
184
185	[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
186	* ''Series/KingdomAdventure'': When Pitts found out firsthand how dangerous the [[DrugsAreBad Wonder Root]] was, he ordered every wonder root removed from his territory. Though it's ambiguous whether this was concern for his citizens' safety or a personal dislike for anything that [[ItsAllAboutMe had ever threatened him]].
187	[[/folder]]
188
189
190	[[folder:Radio]]
191	* ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'': Richard Maxwell is okay with lying, corporate espionage, and sabotage before his HeelFaceTurn. But when [[BigBad Dr. Regis Blackgaard]] forces him to blow one of the machines at Whit's End up and [[WouldHurtAChild injures Lucy]], Maxwell turns against him.
192	* ''Radio/OldHarrysGame'':
193	** Used and then immediately played with a bit, after a baby gets sent to Hell by mistake. The demons protest, stating that they can't torment it because even they have standards. Plus, they'd need much smaller instruments.
194	** In the same series, Thomas is such a disgusting moral vacuum that Judas Iscariot calls him "The Guv'nor" and Saddam Hussein refuses to buy weapons off him because he is too dodgy. Even ''Satan'' is shocked by his rap sheet. (When he tries to sell Satan his ''family'''s souls in exchange for his own, Satan quoted the trope name almost verbatum.) At the start of the second season, Satan has turned him into a dysentery bacterium because he's lowering the tone of the place.
195	** In one episode, Satan decides to let [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero Nero]] be in charge of Hell while he's busy doing something else and all of the demons in Hell (who have so far shown to enjoy constantly torturing people) are disgusted by what he's done.
196	** Satan also claims to have two morals, one of which is never directly murdering people. It used to be three, but then he got cynical.
197	** There is a Pit of Demons Who Are Too Violent Even For Hell.
198	* Fox News Radio reporter Todd Starnes, known for his defense of conservative Christians and his negative coverage of the gay community, [[http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/credit-where-due-todd-starnes-ends-interview-end-times-fanatic-rick-wiles appeared]] on the radio talk show of fringe End Times conspiracy theorist Rick Wiles. After Wiles suggested that the head of a progressive religious freedom group be "met in a dark alley by a couple of special forces commandos and given an attitude adjustment," Starnes promptly chewed him out over his rhetoric and ended the interview.
199	* Subverted in ''Radio/TheMenFromTheMinistry'', when [[BadBoss Sir]] [[DirtyOldMan Gregory]] wants Lamb and Lennox-Brown to somehow get rid of [[TheMistress Ms. Bentwater's]] overbearing mummy. Lamb suggests contacting the Mafia, which Sir Gregory immediately shoots down... since they don't know their address.
200	[[/folder]]
201
202	[[folder:Roleplay]]
203	* ''Roleplay/DawnOfANewAgeOldportBlues'':
204	** Devin is a SmugSnake who doesn't bat an eye when his fellow gang members create a monster that kills people, but even he rankles at his family's overt fringe conservatism and racist history.
205	** Subverted with Daigo: it seems at first that he objects to hurting children when he stops his monster from chomping down on two kids. But then the children start making a scene, and he sics the monster on them to keep them quiet.
206	* Website/NationStates has ''Roleplay/{{Gregoryisgodistan}}'', which in spite of being one of the most evil dictatorships in the Multiverse, despises gender inequality and all who support it.
207	* ''Roleplay/ThisIsWar'' has Sion, who is a seemingly merciless sadomasochistic war demon who kills for no reason, judge five other demons for ganging up on one person.
208	[[/folder]]
209
210	[[folder:Theatre]]
211	* In ''Theatre/ArsenicAndOldLace'', the aunts are greatly offended when their nephew tells them to lie about killing various men. They may be murderers, but they would never "stoop to telling a fib!"
212	* ''Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac'':
213	** The pickpocket is willing to be one of the one hundred thugs that will punish an impertinent poet; later, he tries to steal Christian but is caught by him, and he was willing to betray the thugs and denounce the plan in exchange for his freedom, but when Christian asks for the name of the perpetrator, he doesn’t want to talk and lampshades this trope:
214	-->'''The pickpocket:''' I may not say—''a secret...'' \
215	'''Christian''' ''(shrugging his shoulders):'' Oh! \
216	'''The pickpocket''' ''(with great dignity): ...Of the profession.''
217	** Cyrano maybe is not evil, but he is definitely a JerkAss and he is proud of it, so when the the buffet girl offers him some food he is eager to lampshade this:
218	--> '''Cyrano''' ''(taking off his hat)'': Gentle child, \
219	[[DontYouDarePityMe Although my Gascon pride would else forbid]] \
220	[[DontYouDarePityMe To take the least bestowal from your hands,]] \
221	[[JerkWithAHeartOfGold My fear of wounding you outweighs that pride,]] \
222	[[PetTheDog And bids accept...]]
223	** De Guiche sends a hundred men against a poet and stages a LastStand after one too many humiliations from the Gascons, but then he declares the reason for his HeelFaceTurn:
224	--> De Guiche: I leave no woman in peril.
225	* Even way back in ''Theatre/DoctorFaustus'', the NobleDemon Mephistopheles repeatedly tries to get Faustus to reconsider eternal damnation for temporary power. Faustus is just too egomanical to see reason.
226	* In Creator/{{Moliere}}'s ''Don Juan'', while Juan is is amoral and unempathetic to others, in one scene, he intervenes to save the life of a nobleman who was attacked by bandits and grossly outnumbered. This works to Juan's favor, as the man he rescued turns out to have been the brother of one of Juan's abandoned conquests, which makes him become conflicted about his task of killing Juan. Additionally, Moliere had [[WriterOnBoard strong opinions]] about contemporary medical practice and how it was populated by a bunch of quacks and charlatans, and Juan echoes the author's opinions on this issue.
227	* Differing greatly from his portrayal in the book, Fagin from ''Theatre/{{Oliver}}'' is far more AffablyEvil and is increasingly horrified by Bill Sykes's brutality. It's best summed up in his song ''Reviewing the Situation'':
228	--> '''Fagin''': A man's got a heart, hasn't he? Joking apart, hasn't he? And though I'd be the first one to say that I wasn't a saint, I'm finding it hard to be really as black as they paint.
229	** And then:
230	--> '''Fagin''': I don't want nobody hurt for me, nor made to do the dirt for me. This rotten life is not for me, it's getting far too hot for me...
231	* The Death Angels/Black Angels (particularly in Creator/TakarazukaRevue) from ''Theatre/{{Elisabeth}}'' may look like they're having way too much fun tormenting a young girl on her wedding day (Der letzte Tanz/Saigo no Dansu) or [[DrivenToSuicide driving a young man to suicide]] (the Mayerling Waltz), but it doesn't stop them from looking absolutely disgusted and judgmental at Elisabeth weeping in the Imperial Crypt. It's because [[spoiler:her refusal to help Rudolf was the last straw that led him to kill himself.]]
232	* The British BlackComedy piece ''Theatre/GreatBritain'' is mostly comprised of morally ambiguous characters, but they mostly have ''some'' limits. Almost all of them are due to [[VillainProtagonist Paige Britain]] becoming more vile and ruthless.
233	** Assistant Commissioner Donald Doyle Davison may be something of a DirtyCop, but he's not a racist, and he encourages a racist officer to go to a course on tolerance. More seriously, he's horrified to find out that [[spoiler:his cooperation with Free Press resulted in the arrest and subsequent murder of the innocent Kieron, leading to his cutting off all links with Paige and subsequent resignation]].
234	** The staff of "Free Press" generally have no problem exposing the dirty secrets of celebrities, viewing it as "just business". They draw the line at two things, however- they are outraged by Paige [[spoiler:letting Scarlett starve to death so that they can have exclusive rights to her death story]], and the news that [[spoiler:their sting operation went ''horribly'' wrong]] causes at least one of them to try and resign.
235	** In a tragically misguided case of this trope, [[spoiler:some inmates at Broadmoor murder Kieron Mills, believing him to have sold his kids to a paedophile. In reality, he was ''completely'' innocent and only vindicated posthumously]].
236	* In the ''Hecuba'' of Creator/{{Euripides}}, Agamemnon may be a war criminal, but when he learns that Polymestor, to whose care Priam and Hecuba had entrusted their youngest son, had murdered him when Troy fell, he was appalled at so horrid a breach of SacredHospitality. Despite Polymestor's attempts to frame his crime as a service to the Greek forces, Agamemnon told Polymestor to accept Hecuba's revenge as his just due.
237	* In ''Theatre/InheritTheWind'': Matthew Brady may be an anti-intellectual religious opportunist persecuting a free-thinking teacher, but when a hateful pastor curses the teacher at a prayer meeting and condemns his own daughter for defending him, Brady publicly tells the Pastor to back off from his tirade.
238	* ''Theatre/LesMiserables''. When the Thenardiers ask Valjean if his intentions are "correct", regarding his plan to take Cosette away from them. In all likelihood, they were just haggling for more payoff money, but there's always the chance they were genuinely concerned. For all their mistreatment of Cosette, it's never once implied that they're molesting her or allowing others to.
239	** Though given that after Valjean offers them 1500 francs for Cosette, they never again worry about his "intentions," that somewhat undercuts the argument that they were honestly concerned for her.
240	* Mad Padraic, the titular character from ''Theatre/TheLieutenantOfInishmore'', is a strange subversion. He is first introduced torturing a drug dealer who sells drugs to children. The subversion occurs when it turns out that the drugs he sells are only marijuana, the children are students at the local technical university, and that what Padraic is mad about is not him selling drugs to children, but not restricting his sales to ''Protestant'' children.
241	** A more straight example is Padraic's past as a member of first the IRA, which he then left to join a splinter group (the INLA) of those whose methods were too extreme for the IRA, only to leave THAT group to form his own one-man splinter-of-a-splinter group because he ''was too extreme for the INLA too''.
242	** Brendan, one of the [=INLA=] members, is completely jaded when it comes to drug-dealing, arson, and terrorism, but recoils in horror when he finds out his compatriots have killed a cat.
243	*** The play could be considered a deconstruction of the concept. It is quite clear that the author thinks that being unwilling to hurt a cat when you have repeatedly and without remorse killed and tortured people does not mean you have morals, it just means you're a hypocrite on top of being a psychopath.
244	* The Pirate King in ''Theatre/ThePiratesOfPenzance'' -- who commands a pirate band that refuses to rob orphans or to disobey an order of Queen Victoria -- makes this salient point:
245	-->''But many a king on a first-class throne,\
246	If he wants to call his crown his own,\
247	Must manage somehow to get through\
248	More dirty work than ever I do...''
249	* ''Theatre/RichardIII'': Buckingham is a-okay carrying out Richard's orders until he hints that he'd like the Little Princes offed, rather ironically as he's the most likely suspect for having done the deed in real life.
250	* The main focus of the play and movie ''Short Eyes'', in which a child molester is sent to prison. [[PariahPrisoner It doesn't end well for him.]]
251	* Even the eponymous character of ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'' wouldn't slit a man's throat [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4th4LaJ_7Q&feature=relmfu while his daughter watched.]]
252	* In ''Theatre/TwistedTheUntoldStoryOfARoyalVizier'', Disney villains are singing about their reasonable goals or sympathetic motives that have been [[WrittenByTheWinners distorted in the retelling]]. Except one:
253	--> '''[[CruellaToAnimals Cruella De Vil]]:''' I only wished to to have a coat made out of puppies!\
254	'''Others:''' Ewwwww.\
255	'''Others:''' Just ''leave''!\
256	'''Jafar:''' Why would you do that?\
257	'''Others:''' That's insane!\
258	'''Others:''' Get out!
259	[[/folder]]
260
261	[[folder:Websites]]
262	* In the eponymous city of ''Website/{{Mortasheen}}'', while the inhabitants will willingly do [[AndIMustScream horrible]], [[BodyHorror terrible]] things to each other, even they find the [[DeviousDolphins Dolfury]] horrifying and evil.
263	* Played for laughs on Website/TVTropes:
264	-->And no, [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant we're not saying that]] [[FantasticNuke nukes are fantastic]]. That would be just plain sick, [[SelfDeprecation even for this wiki]].
265	[[/folder]]
266
267	[[folder:Other]]
268	* Vadiir from ''ARG/DarkDreamChronicle'' is a cold blooded killer who loves what he does, and he was horrified by Darkness [[WouldHurtAChild killing children]].
269	[[/folder]]

Context Main / EvenEvilHasStandards