Even Evil Has Standards / Transformers

• In many cases, there are Decepticons in Transformers who are despicable even by Decepticon standards and roundly viewed with abhorrence by their comrades.
  • Like the cannibal Skullcruncher, who devours downed enemies solely for symbolism (as he can't get nutrients from eating other Cybertronians and doesn't care for the taste, though he's occasionally been said to be able to regenerate faster doing it).
  • Or the especially cruel and domineering bully Motormaster.
  • Roadblock manages to even spook his superiors with his merciless, exacting leadership style, to the point that it's rumored that any Decepticons under his command that are charging Autobot positions are not so much running towards the enemy as getting the hell away from their terrifying commanding officer.
• There's at least one Autobot who goes above and beyond Decepticon standards. Repugnus is... special like that... Repugnant.
  • Sunstreaker, who was actually diagnosed as a sociopath in one profile. Or Blaze Master who laughs as he burns Decepticons alive. Or Arcee who in the IDW books is a mass murdering torturer who likes to slowly kill her enemies. As the series has evolved Grey-and-Grey Morality has definitely emerged.
  • In the final issue of IDW's The Transformers: All Hail Megatron limited series, Thundercracker spoils Megatron's plan to nuke New York City because he felt that the Curb-Stomp Battle of the Decepticons against the humans was beneath the Decepticons' standards.
  • IDW's Transformers series, at least initially. The Autobots and Decepticons are out to destroy each other. But they both adhere to the Code of Interplanetary Conflict, which lists rules that the war must follow.
  • At another point, North Korea attempts to bribe the Decepticons into destroying South Korea and manage to acquire the services of the Combaticons. The Autobots intervene to save South Korea, and the whole thing nearly ends with Russia nuking the entire Korean peninsula. Thundercracker, while not exactly the most pleasant individual and a fairly dangerous (former) Decepticon himself, proves that he has had just enough of North Korea's hijinks and the Decepticons in general, and responds by blowing up the North Korean energon facility so they wouldn't pull that kind of stunt again, presumably because they would blame the Decepticons for what they perceived as treachery.
  • Megatron could arguably be at his most evil (and most good, for that matter) in the IDW comics, but when Thunderwing showed him his method of creating Pretender shells, which consisted of using living Transformer tissue, it was so horrific that even he rejected it and called Thunderwing mad. (He also fought alongside Optimus Prime against Thunderwing, when the scientist's self-experimentation resulted in him becoming a completely insane engine of destruction.) In addition, Razorclaw was ordered by Megatron to destroy Cybertron to stop Thunderwing; Razorclaw disliked the idea enough to put in a killswitch on the device that would disarm it if they could stop Thunderwing within a certain amount of time.
  • Aside from Swoop and Sludge, the Dinobots are also often portrayed as being Jerkasses (Snarl), bullies (Grimlock), or out-and-out sadists (Slag), and the shy Swoop and amiably dim Sludge cross into these areas at times... but while some treatments have them considering it, they haven't ever actually joined the Decepticons, and Slag even changes his name to Slug because Arcee found it offensive (which it is; slag—leftovers from smelting—is the Transformers' S-word). IDW's comics give Slug A Day in the Limelight and he undergoes major Character Development starting with the appropriately named "Redemption".
  • In The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers, Snare eventually rebels against Overlord's insane reign over Garrus-9 after being forced to recycle a dead Autobot and watch the execution of Rotorstorm. Snare was part of Stalker's torture team only a short while before.
  • The Transformers: Windblade: Nobody likes Starscream, even the Decepticons who served with him. Octane, who once almost nuked New York, feels he's a disloyal Dirty Coward, and Swindle, famous for double-dealing, manipulating, and generally swindling, thinks that Starscream's treachery is too much.
  • There's also Sixshot, a one-robot army and a Phase Sixer—Decepticon shorthand for "world killer". He's The Dreaded to Autobots and Decepticons alike, and is both heavily inclined to violence and extremely intelligent. However, as it turns out, Sixshot doesn't like the idea of turning against his allies, which is rather amusing considering Decepticons tend to experience considerable treachery within the ranks. Notably, he is the only Phase Sixer to never desert the cause or oppose Megatron. (His Transformers: ★Headmasters incarnation was known for a different major moral standard — he Wouldn't Hurt a Child.)
  • Subverted with Tarn of the Decepticon Justice Division. While he closes his eyes behind his mask when his comrades get sadistic and refuses to trade the lives of his handful of teammates for 500 or so former Decepticon soldiers serving under Deathsaurus, his ostensible standards don't actually lead him to modify his behaviour in any way - they just make him come up with justifications, most of which involve the words "Decepticon Cause" in some context, for whatever brutality is next on the agenda. His response to the torture doesn't lead to him actually trying to stop it, nor did it stop him from smelting down still-living Autobots in Grindcore Prison while gloating about it to Skids, and his loyalty to his underlings doesn't prevent him from ripping off Kaon's head for caring too much for the Team Pet - ultimately, whatever standards Tarn tells himself he has, they end up not meaning anything.
  • In Transformers (2019)
    During the Halloween Special, Starscream’s old mentor, Cryak, threatens to steal his body and return to Cybertron to reduce everyone into just their sparks. Starscream fights back against her, not just because he doesn’t want to lose his body, but also because he draws the line at genocide.