The prequel plays this straight when Redcloak is horrified by his boss's plan to kill and zombify a woman's physical body, then feed the body to ogres while forcing her soul to watch.
The prequel also subverts this trope when Xykon initially says that as evil as he is, he can't do something as depraved as become a lich (a form of undead created by evil magic), then he suddenly reveals that he was only joking and has no objection to becoming a lich at all.
While he's more of a Punch Clock Villain, The Monster in the Dark is a Big Eater with no apparent problem considering eating humanoids (but only if ordered to). He won't eat babies, though (Including veal), though this is more out of the fact that babies aren't tasty at all and that he much prefers the slop and gruel that he's normally served.
When Vaarsuvius wipes out a quarter of the black dragon race the fiends that gave him or her that power in the first place are genuinely surprised.
Prior to that, he was genuinely enraged when Miko killed Lord Shojo.
Likewise, the Dimension of Pain from Sluggy Freelance is a realm populated with horrible demons that thrive on suffering and pain. However, even THEY have limits...
This trope is spoofed in a much later stick figure filler week.
And again when two demons are talking and one makes an off-color joke.
Chilus: You know humans! They're a bit late for school! Skip: "A bit late for school?" Chilus: A little tardy. (Beat Panel) Skip:Was that a "retarded" joke? Do you know my brother's handicapped? Chilus: Right, I'm sorry! That was very insensitive of me. Let me get my purse and make a contribution to your favorite mental health charity... What's this? My driver's license... Why, it says here I'm a demon! So [blows tongue at Skip] pbbtbbtbtbtbtbt to you and your retarded brother! Skip: Fine. We're demons. We're evil. Can't you have a little class? Chilus: You're a little late for class.
Parodied again not too many strips later when Dagon says that even his kind has higher standards than making unholy offspring half-breeds from Sanrio characters.
Hunter Ravenwood of Suicide for HireWouldn't Hit a Girl, though that doesn't stop him from killing women who pay him to do so. Evidence suggests he doesn't like to think of the clients as people at all. The rules of the titular business also include "Suicides may not result in the death of a third party" and "Children under the age of sixteen will not be allowed to kill themselves". A pregnant client is rejected for this reason, as they consider her foetus to be a third party and object to helping her escape responsibility for it.
Later, when confronted with a severely battered woman, he first wants to help her kill her abusive husband. Only when she can't go through with the act, despite getting clear instructions via two-way radio, does he help her kill herself. Later, the husband comes to SFH...and his death is not at all pretty. Unusually, Arcturus is as enthusiastic about this job as Hunter.
Axel of Ansem Retort is a homicidal evil Buddhist god that can kill you with freaking sweet mind bullets (and in the very first comic torched an orphanage). Yet he yells "WHAT?" at the idea that he'd abuse his wife, Aerith. He's also shown to be disturbed by Larxene carrying around a human skull.
Zexion is a governor that invaded New Jersey, stole tax dollars just to prove he could, and would rather spend the state budget on blowjobs and Doritoes...but he really hates racist pancakes. It Makes Sense in Context.
During her temporary Face Heel Turn, White Mage of 8-Bit Theater said she would not date Black Mage, even though she was evil.
White Mage: I may be coming to terms with the idea that I'm locked into a lifetime of spreading pain and death across the world, but I still have some standards.
Garland also does this in the beginning, when Princess Sara suggests torturing the heroes of light by forcing them to listen to Cher.
It's a little jarring to realize that Black Mage, of all people, is the one out of the heroes who is most commonly freaked out by the stuff his companions, most notably Red Mage, pull off.
That's because the stuff the others, and ''especially' Red Mage, do are crimesagainstlogic.
Black Mage also manages this after he usurps the throne of Hell. Fighter naturally assumes that he went to Heaven instead.
Black Mage: Even though I am the incarnation of all mortal evils, I just don't have the heart.
Towards the end of the series, when they discover that even though they've grown incredibly strong throughout their journeys, Sarda flat out tells them that they'll never be a match for him, and he was still going to render their efforts nil out of spite.
Black Mage: That's messed up, Sarda.
Thief states that Black Mage has hit a new low when he hears his plan to get into White Mage's robes after she temporarily turns "evil" involving what he thinks is alcohol but may be paint thinner. When the other Light Warriors point out that it'll likely kill White Mage, Black Mage simply responds that the corpse will still be warm for a little while.
Thief: That... may be the worst thing you've ever said.
During the Christmas Carol arc of Brawl in the Family, as Mario saves Peach, he asks if she's fine and she says that Bowser never laid a hand on her. Bowser chimes in, "Well, I'm not a monster."
He's proposed roasting a sentient rabbit if she doesn't meet with his expectations. Definitely NOT a case of invertedCarnivore Confusion.
But it's a subversion, as Filaire decides she will "eat rabbit" if it means vengeance on the current fox king, as seen a few strips beyond the link above.
To put this in context, Minmax refers to Kin (the yuan-ti in question) as "it," and had just persuaded Dellyn, a higher-level character and professional goblin-hunter, to join him on his quest to kill goblins.
In the The Beast Legion , The shadow Nexus second in command stampede is Ruthless when it comes to battle but carries a great sense of honor & loyalty unlike his master.
In probably the most literal example of this, Mal was consistently visited by demons trying to take her to hell for being evil, but when she started to attack those who butcher the English language, Satan told his minion to leave her be; this is a justified attack.
Questionable Content does this to a lesser degree. Marigold is willing to guilt-trip her roommate into making out with her. But she is a Horde woman to the end, even in real-life.
Lil' E from Sinfest is the devil's fanboy, admires everything he does, and really, really enjoys murder. However, he will NOT tolerate people spitting in his sandwiches.
Karkat's universe's version of Jack Noir is just as much an Ax CrazyKnife Nut as any other version. But even he thinks that Karkat's angst over his "candy-color blood" is one of the saddest things he's ever seen and becomes Karkat's Blood Brother out of sympathy.
Jack Noir, the one from the kid's universe, is an Omnicidal Maniac who destroyed a whole universejust because. When Lord English destroys a dream bubble, all of the souls inside and possibly some of the very fabric of space and time itself in one shot all Jack can do is stare in shock and fear.
Meenah. Alternate universe teenage version of the Condesce. Fangirls over stories of said monster's deeds. Tries to kill Roxy when she first sees her, for no reason except just 'cause. Draws the line at picking on Mituna.
And her fangasm over the Condesce cracks badly when she finds out what she did to Mituna's counterpart.
El Goonish Shive:Even pitch-black evil guyEven Magus won't help Chaos ruin Verres to just to kill Abraham just to punish Raven for being a disobedient son.
Also, during Painted Black, Hedge did everything in his power not to bring women back to Damien, knowing that he only wanted them for breeding and didn't give a damn about their consent. Once Damien was no longer around to control them, all of Grace's brothers surrendered without a fight.
In Jason Love's cartoons, other bank robbers don't approve of Cherry and Serry◊.
Guy: Dude, I'm not an asshole. I'm just, you know, what do they call it, anti-social. I can't help it.
Mike: You diagnosed or something?
Guy: Diagnosed? Naw, that's gay. I just think I probably have antisocial tendencies or something. I can be pretty mean and irrational sometimes, but whatcha gonna do, really? *Smug smirk*
Similarly, Magus is surprised to find out that Max Force's slaughter of the innocent Mushroom retainers offends him.
Attempted by Triquetra Cats in a filler comic, which had a demonic serial killer suddenly break character and deliver a message about the evils of transphobia. The attempt failed miserably.
Professor Pau: You don't think I'd hang people from the ceiling, bloat them with chemicals, harvest their blistered hides, and then leave them miserable, do you?
He later finds out his associate has been sabotaging his research, preventing him from finding out that the process could have been done without human hosts. He's appropriately mortified.
Kolonel Haken in Irregular Webcomic! may be a card-carrying Nazi, but he will not stand for genocide - he's an archaeologist, not a mass murderer. Eventually, he assassinates Hitler by stuffing a very large frog down his throat. Only in one webcomic could you find a sentence like that, folks.
Skewed to the point of parody in Sonichu - in issue 10, Chris and some of his Sonichu allies attack the 4-cent Garbage building with music. In the process, Jason Kendrick Howell and a demon called Beel pull a Screw This, I'm Outta Here. When Beel leaves, he claims that the two remaining people with them, Clyde Cash and Jack Thaddeus, were unimaginably evil that it paled in comparison to his time working with Hitler. Their crime? Being gay and being a troll.
In Darths & Droids#774, Vader blows up Naboo with the Peace Moon (translation: Alderaan with Death Star). Everyone else stares in stunned silence, but it is R2-D2, the group's Token Selfish Jerk Teammate, who responds with:
In Terra Sovereign Northazul Kalar, the Evil Overlord of the piece, rejects his son Solus' request to launch a biowarfare attack against the United Earth Coalition on grounds that it would be dishonorable.
