Even Evil Has Standards / Western Animation

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The following have their own pages:

• American Dad!
• Archer
• DC Animated Universe
• Family Guy
• Futurama
• G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero
• Harley Quinn
• Kim Possible
• Recess
• Rick and Morty
• The Simpsons
• South Park
• Total Drama
• The Venture Bros.

Examples:

A-C

• Aaahh!!! Real Monsters: Despite constantly trying to capture the monsters, Simon means no particular harm to them. In the episode "Showdown" he even rescues Ickis from some more ruthless monster hunters who want to kill Ickis instead of capturing him alive.
• In Adventure Time, twice the Ice King has invoked this trope:
  • The Ice King is perfectly fine with princesses and forcing them into marriage. Despite that, even he knows that abducting a now 13-year old Princess Bubblegum in the episode "Mortal Recoil" would make him a pedophile.
  • Revisited in the episode "Hitman" when the Ice King unwittingly hires a deadly hitman to hit Finn and Jake. Once he discovers his error, he is horrified at the prospect of murdering his own nemeses. (His motives on this one are debatable. Ice King is insane, but a part of him realizes that he is. He starts treating Finn and Jake as friends because the tiny little sane part of his mind realizes that they're stopping him from hurting people.)
• In Aladdin: The Series, Mozenrath's master Destane is described as being so thoroughly evil and vile that even Jafar steered clear of him and wanted nothing to do with him or his machinations.
• All Hail King Julien: Mort is utterly Ax-Crazy, but he always treats women with respect. Children aren't so lucky, though.
  Mort: Go for the males first! The children we can sell! And the women… Oh, the women… (laughs evilly) We will always treat with respect.
• Amphibia: Sasha and Grime have intended to take over Newtopia throughout the second half of season 2, but when they find out that King Andrias was planning to use the music box cause multiversal destruction, they immediately opted to attempt reconciling with Anne and the Planters. Unfortunately, Anne is completely done with Sasha due to the latter's Chronic Backstabbing Disorder and unwilling to listen to her former friend's pleas.
• Animaniacs:
  • Subverted in this clip from the episode "H.M.S. Yakko":
    Captain Mel: Though I be a pirate swine / I still have to draw the line / And so I will not push ye overboard!
    Pirates: What, never?
    Captain Mel: No, never!
    Pirates: What, never?
    Captain Mel: (pushes them overboard) Hardly ever!
  • Played straight (in a rather bizarre way) in the famous "Potty Emergency" episode, which starts with the Warner siblings watching a science fiction movie in a theater called Brain Eaters where an alien is chasing an attractive heroine for rather obvious reasons. Wakko excuses himself to use the men's room, leading to the situation that the episode is the Trope Namer for; at the climax of the episode, he returns to the theater, where the movie has reached a scene where the alien has captured his victim; Wakko leaps inside the movie screen, letting the victim escape, making the alien angry, but managing to find a room and use the toilet. As Wakko leaves the room, the brain-eating alien remarks, "That was disgusting! He didn't even wash his hands!"
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force:
  • Master Shake is usually a childish and selfish bastard who torments Meatwad, even going as far as microwaving his cat alive. Still, even he has to say something when he finds out that Frylock was making chemical filled balloons to use on children at birthday parties.
  • He also appears visibly shocked in one episode when Meatwad offhandedly mentions how a security guard once led him into the bathroom in a mall to show him "how not to touch people."
• Arcane:
  • Silco professes how much he values the concept of loyalty in a shaky meeting with a group of treacherous chembarons, being appalled at the idea they're turning against him after everything he did for them to rise to their positions of luxurious living.
  • During the "dinner party" Jinx tells Vi "I'm not that crazy!" after revealing that what she had on that platter was not Caitlyn's severed head. Although she clearly didn't have a problem with making her sister think that she was that crazy.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Zuko's father maimed him for speaking out against intentionally sending lines of inexperienced troops to die simply to wear down the enemy's defenses for their more experienced forces. In another war meeting, Zuko became uncomfortable when his sister proposed to burn the entire Earth Kingdom continent. Zuko wanted to speak out, but he couldn't, because he remembered what happened the last time he did. It takes Zuko a long time to realize that the Fire Nation's war of aggression is wrong, but this shows he has some standards compared to his father. He also goes through a period as a bandit, but he's not willing to steal from a pregnant woman even when starving, nor does he rat out a small annoying child to a thug soldier who got him in trouble.
    • In one of the comics, Ozai claims that part of the reason he burned Zuko was that Zuko didn't stick to his ideals. Zuko was willing to fight the general he had insulted, but backed down upon seeing that his opponent was his father. Here we see how their standards conflicted with one another: Ozai believes in standing by what you believe in, even if that means fighting against your family, while Zuko will only comes to blows against his family when absolutely necessary.
  • Despite all the animosity between them, Zuko still tried to save Zhao even though Zhao once tried to kill him.
  • Subverted with Azulon, when he responds with extreme disapproval to Ozai's selfish and callous request to make him his successor for Fire Lord instead of Iroh, immediately after — and because — Iroh lost his only son. Azulon then says he wants Ozai to feel the same thing, and expresses his desire for Zuko's death. We also find later that Zuko has a Missing Mom because she accepted exile from the Fire Nation as part of her deal with Ozai, who really did intend to go through with killing Zuko, to save her son's life and help Ozai take the throne from Azulon. Perhaps. Zuko and Ursa only have Ozai and Azula's word for the events, who have vested interest in the former ascending to Fire Lord.
  • Played for Laughs when Zuko tries to join the Avatar's group and, naturally, after everything he's done to them they put the run on him. When Toph points out he actually was telling the truth about having freed Appa for the sake of it, Sokka is less than impressed:
    Sokka: Oh, hoo-ray! In a lifetime of evil at least he didn't add "animal cruelty" to the list!
• The Batman
  • "Team Penguin" reveals that Killer Croc of all "people" has at least some humanity inside of him, in particular that he respects the dead. When circumstances lead the team to believe that Killer Moth died from exposure to toxic fumes, Croc sounds genuinely remorseful that his teammate was killed in such a gruesome manner, and he's disgusted by Penguin's callous disregard for their fallen comrade.
    Killer Croc: Ugh, it's Moth! Was him, anyway. Poor guy.
    Penguin: I feel awful. We'll buy him a wreathe with the profits. Now grab the canister and let's do this!
    Killer Croc: You couldn't lead us out of a paper bag! I'm gone!
  • The Penguin himself gets a more humorous one: even for a career criminal, he's pushy, rude, abrasive, arrogant, and the Trope Codifier for Wicked Pretentious, and yet he considers not interfering in a fellow villain's plan to be a rule of professional courtesy that even he is above breaking.
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold:
  • In the episode "Chill of the Night", Lewis Moxton admitted on his death-bed that, despite acting on orders to kill Thomas Wayne, Joe Chill went too far in shooting Wayne's wife Martha. As he put it:
    "Sure, Wayne had it coming, but I ain't no monster... Left that kid without a Ma. Felt kinda bad about that."
  • Two-Face is honor bound to follow the result of his coin toss. When his goons want to have Batman killed anyway, he helps Batman fight them off.
• Beast Wars
  • The Predacon's Tripredacus Council officially condemns Megatron as a rogue and sends two agents to stop him (one as a spy in his ranks, the other as an assassin). While officially, this is because the Council believes the Predacons need to wait for the opportune moment and build up their resources before striking, and Megatron's actions threaten that, their over-concern about his survival seems to hint they know about his attempts to Make Wrong What Once Went Right, and consider it too drastic and dangerous a plan even for them.
  • Also, Tarantulas' grotesque eating habits — he is frequently shown eating living creatures, and has made at least one serious attempt to eat another Transformer — and general Mad Scientist antics repulse the other Predacons.
  • In sequel series Beast Machines, Megatron is working towards genocide and Thrust is fine with that. What really angers Thrust is Stryka, Obsidian and Jetstorm (though Jetstorm was forcibly reformatted) turning traitor.
• Ben 10: Omniverse: Despite his Undying Loyalty to Zs'Skayr, Dr. Viktor is revolted by his master's plan to resurrect the Vladats (his species' extinct natural predators who used to enslave them as food until the Transylians rebelled against them leading to their demise) for his own selfish desire of ruling the universe. At the end of the episode, he ultimately betrays Zs'Skayr and makes a temporary alliance with Ben in order to prevent their ressurection.
• Bob's Burgers
  • In the episode "Beefsquatch", Bob and Gene both enlist the help of Louise to prank each other on a morning show cooking segment because of a jealous feud. However, the pranks get more dangerous/disgusting as the feud intensifies, to the point where even Louise is disgusted by how low they've sunk and and cuts them both off at the dinner table. She then leaves dinner to "shower and try to get the filth off". Mind you, this is a girl who is overtly aggressive and manipulative when she stands to gain something, takes an almost perverse pleasure in ruining other people's days, and in the episode "Ears-y Rider" threatens to have a violent biker gang cut off a bullying teenager's ears for stealing and allegedly throwing away her signature pink bunny-ear hat.
  • Linda's former fiancé, Hugo the health inspector, is so petty and vindictive that he constantly jumps at any opportunity to punish Bob, even when the infractions are things that he would normally see as not worth his time. But he refuses to frame him. By contrast, his temporary replacement in "Nude Beach" accuses Bob of having a rat infestation and dumps rat feces on the floor, all because Bob wouldn't let him play his terrible rock music in the restaurant.
  • When Linda needs to get Bob out of the restaurant to plan a surprise party, she asks Hugo and Ron to bring Bob along on their daily inspections. Hugo only agrees to this if Linda calls Hugo's parents and tearfully begs them to see if Hugo will take her back. Linda and Ron are both equally disgusted by how pathetic that is, and keep in mind Ron's the only person in the entire show who likes Hugo unironically.
• The Boondocks:
  • Riley Freeman is a rude wannabe gangsta, and never listens to his grandfather nor his older brother. But in "Smokin' With Cigarettes" he was downright disturbed and horrified of what a horrible sociopath Lamilton Taeshawn is, especially when he shoots Betty von Heusen's dog.
  • Also, when Uncle Ruckus asked the sexually depraved inmates if they were going to rape the children. The inmates responded with a disgusted "Hell no! What do we look like, priests?"
  • Ruckus himself considers mocking or abusing the disabled to be inexcusable, as shown in "The New Blacks".
• In Bravestarr, the villain Tex Hex's main sidekick Scuzz smoked a cigar and was a walking Aesop for the evils of smoking, constantly coughing and suffering from his own habit. The other villains frequently expressed disgust at this habit, with lines like "I may be evil, but even I'm not stupid enough to smoke!"
• In the Castlevania season 1 finale "Monument", the demon Blue Fangs spells out exactly why he and his demon compatriots are able to enter the Bishop's church: God has forsaken him for being the provocateur of Dracula's bereaved wrath by his burning Dracula's mortal wife, Lisa, at the stake. Blue Fangs has enough theory-of-mind of God's motives to explain. God hates the Bishop. But Blue Fangs loves the Bishop, for his actions have brought him and his compatriots to the world. He loves the Bishop so much he could... kiss him.
• Codename: Kids Next Door:
  • The Delightful Children are rooted deeply to be obedient to all adults no matter what... but even they are shown to have their limits. In "Operation I.T.", Father's plan to harvest the broccoli-infested treehouses is what moves them to sell him out to the two remaining operatives, only giving them the Code Module before walking away.
    Numbuh One: Why should we trust you?!
    Numbuh 362: Because Father said it himself. Nobody likes broccoli. Not even them.
  • In another episode, Sector V battles against a giant white asparagus in a sea of asparagus. At the end of the episode, Captain Stickybeard fires his bubblegum cannons at it. He then states that while he and the KND are still enemies, he'd rather team up than let children eat vegetables (or be eaten by a vegetable).
  • In Operation: Z.E.R.O., Father calls Grandfather a jerk for disowning him and not letting him take part in ruling the world.
• In the C.O.P.S. (1988) episode "The Case of the Lowest Crime", Big Boss rejects a distribution agreement from Addictum, a drug dealer. He throws him out, and lectures his cronies about how the amount of hell they'd catch if he catches them doing drugs. He goes further than this when he and his gang assists the titular cops into an uneasy truce for the sake of bringing Addictum to justice, after his nephew accidentally becomes poisoned by the drugs in a shipment heist gone wrong.
  Big Boss: Shaddap! In my time, I've committed many crimes. I wanna make money in the worst way. But drugs is where I draw the line, creep! DRUGS KILL! Buttons!
  Buttons: Yes, Sir.
  Big Boss: Take this piece of human scum and throw it out!
  Buttons: Yes, Sir.
  Big Boss: Oh, and Buttons?
  Buttons: Yes, Sir.
  Big Boss: See that he lands in something as filthy as he is!
  Buttons: Yes, Sir.
  Addictum: Hey, take it easy!
  [Buttons leaves, dragging Addictum behind him like a sack of potatoes]
  Big Boss: And just for the record, don't let me catch any of you lamebrains messing with drugs!
  Berzerko: Aw c'mon Uncle! I may be a lamebrain, but I ain't stupid!
  Big Boss: Good. Now, let's get back to getting money the old fashioned way — by stealing it!
• Courage the Cowardly Dog, Eustace actually gets two such moments:
  • He likes to torment Courage, but when an abusive veterinarian plans to send him in a rocket to the moon, he disagrees (only because said vet threatened to send Muriel to space with Courage after she put herself in danger trying to save Courage herself).
  • When he meets a young child (actually a hallucination of a younger version of himself) who complains of a burning head from not having a hat, he quietly muses over how it's "not right for a kid to not have a hat" and actually gives his own hat to the kid. Notably it's his only moment of kindness and generosity, with no ulterior motive attached, in the entire series.
• Cow and Chicken: Surprisingly enough, The Red Guy (you know, Satan) shows this. In the episode "Cow Fly", he generally feels sorry for Cow after she lost her friend (a fly to be exact) and offers a wiener to her as a replacement. Then again, The Red Guy is more Chaotic Neutral than Evil, since he has a completely different motivation in every episode.
• The Critic:
  • When Jay screams at his mother and tells her to "drop dead" in a special mother's day episode of Coming Attractions, he becomes a social pariah. Richard Nixon refuses to sit next to him in a restaurant, claiming his mother was a saint.
  Jay: I'm sure she was uninpeachable!
  • Satan calls Jay just to say that he's not the reason Cher won an Oscar.
• In The Cuphead Show!:
  • The Devil himself actually is capable of one single act of genuine kindness brought on by affection. When he needs to steal a single soul by midnight, and ends up mistaken for a cat and adopted by Elder Ketter, he decides the easiest tactic would be to just steal Elder Kettle's soul. However, after Kettle tells him he loves him, The Devil leaves him unharmed and goes after Telephone's instead.
  • Henchman, though Affably Evil, is feircely loyal to the Devil and lets most of his boss' crueller actions go without so much as a word. That is, until the Devil curses Ms. Chalice to rot and decay while alive and screaming, eventually disintegrating into a skeleton. Even Henchman is put off by this, wincing and deeming it "unnecessarily graphic".

D-F

• Subverted in the Danger Mouse episode "The Ultra Secret Secret". Baron Greenback wants to join forces with DM to stave off an alien attack, but Greenback himself staged this fake attack to lure DM to his destruction.
• While not all of the ghosts in Danny Phantom are evil per se, they still aren't on the best of terms with the protagonist. Even so, they all uphold their traditional Christmas truce and gang up on the one ghost who breaks it by cursing Danny.
  • In The Ultimate Enemy, Vlad Plasmius's alternate future self actually felt extremely bad for Danny (who lost his parents and friends in an accident) and took the kid under his care, with no strings attached or any evil plans in mind. Also, he went into exile over guilt for creating Dark Danny, who turned the world into an apocalyptic wasteland, and is horrified as to what Dark Danny does to his human half.
• In Dan Vs. the title character is a violent Jerkass with a Hair-Trigger Temper who will go to a Roaring Rampage of Revenge for the most minor of inconveniences, but he has numerous virtues and lines he won't cross:
  • Dan has been shown to, on occasion, be against homicide in his plans. In "The Werewolf" he was surprised at Chris when he suggested it as a logical extension to Dan's current scheme (as opposed to simply keying his car, as was done unto Dan).
  • Though Played for Laughs, Dan's also rather shocked when Chris admits that he'd kill for bacon.
  • In "The Bank," while Dan fully intends to rob the bank, when the time comes, he only takes the fifty cents he believes he's owed, plus a gumball in "punitive damages."
  • And refuses to collaborate with Elise's parents in getting back at Chris, because he doesn't trust "people who'd bump off their own son-in-law." That's not what their plan entailed; they've just indicated that they'd be willing to.
  • In "Wild West Town," by the time Dan is offered a refund, he declines, feeling that his experience (committing a stickup, going on a treasure hunt, and having a showdown at high noon, all unscheduled) was worth the price of admission.
  • Dan also seriously draws the line at harming animals. He tries to blow up a noisy animal shelter but once the animals give him the Puppy-Dog Eyes he can't go through with it and frees them first (leaving the employee to be blown up, mind you), while another episode has him put his vengeance against a restaurant on hold long enough to free the lobsters they intended to boil alive.
• Many of the Darkwing Duck villains have their moments:
  • When the first incarnation of Negaduck — Darkwing's evil side split from him and then galvanized into an energy being — tries to destroy all of St. Canard, Megavolt helps the good Darkwing stop him because "there won't be anything left to rob!".
  • Another episode has plant-villain Bushroot help stop an invasion of alien plants because he's an Earth mutant plant-duck.
• DC Super Hero Girls 2019's version of Catwoman has a long history of mischief, theft, manipulation, and a slightly nebulous question of how far she'll go to thwart the heroes. However, although she tries to play it down as not wanting to see anything happen to "where I steal stuff", her shocked reaction to Lex Luthor's master plan — "You're really gonna let all those people die?" — is sincere and summarily leads to going full Screw Destiny to prevent the disaster.
• Dinofroz: Vlad is disgusted when a group of dragons try to burn Tom, Bob, and Eric alive and forces them to stop, stating that they should be treated like worthy foes since the Dinofroz bested them in combat repeatedly.
• Runaan from The Dragon Prince is an assassin who has committed numerous assassinations, including that of King Harrow. When he realizes that Viren is a dark magician, he is visibly frightened.
  • Soren is more of a bully than truly evil, although at the beginning of Season 2 he seems ready to kill a child but then backs off from that endeavor.
  • Ziard is a dark magician whose magic involves draining the life force of magical animals. When he sees that the dragon Sol Regem wants to destroy an entire city and kill thousands of humans, he is visibly scared and does his best to stop him.
  • Claudia may be a dark magic user who has no problem with killing innocent creatures and elves alike, but she is utterly horrified when her father turns Kasef and his army into sunfire monsters.
  • Pharos is the fanatic follower of Karim and former high priest who is willing to painfully force people to look into the light of his staff and threaten to have his queen, Janai, killed. However, even he is horrified by Karim's plans to use the bloodthirsty Bloodmoon Huntress Kim'dael so Karim could obtain the sun seed and heal Sol Regem, calling her evil and questioning Karim for this.
• The Jew Producer from Drawn Together is very rude to the show's cast and often forces them to do demeaning things, but is shown in the direct-to-DVD movie The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie to be very intimidated by his boss the Head of the Network and is horrified by his insistence to erase the Drawn Together cast after their show got canceled. One scene even has him object to his boss ordering him to erase an entire pastiche of your garden variety Disney kingdom on the grounds that it is "the happiest place on Earth".
• In the Evil Twin episode of Duck Dodgers, everything Dodgers lists during the Spot the Imposter scene as evidence he's the real Dodgers is something horrible he's done to the Cadet. At one point, Drake Darkstar breaks character to say "You sold his sister to the sausage factory? Dude, that's cold."
• DuckTales (1987):
  • "The Good Muddahs": When the Beagle Babes think their criminal influence has rubbed off on sweet, innocent Webby, they feel terrible.
• DuckTales (2017):
  • Magica DeSpell spends the penultimate episode of the first season trying to manipulate Scrooge McDuck into giving up his Number-One Dime, and the steps she's taken to get so close to her revenge and keep her hand secret have shown an escalating abuse to the only duck who'd help her. Seeing Scrooge as a wreck, she spends the episode assuming he's just being a wily old adventurer playing at weakness, but when it finally becomes clear her archenemy really has hit a personal rock-bottom, she's genuinely disturbed and complains in an aside about "[making] me pity you", even though her stated reason is it's not how she pictured killing him.
  • Played for Laughs in "Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake!"; regular villains Glomgold, Mark Beaks, and Goldie O'Gilt are just as disturbed by the antics of the titular Creepy Child as everyone else is.
• In the Ed, Edd n Eddy movie, the kids from the cul-de-sac really see how Eddy's older brother has always treated Eddy with verbal and physical abuse (as well as learning that Eddy's swindling attitude was always an attempt to get his brother's respect.) The Kanker Sisters (particularly Lee) are outraged over Eddy's brother's abuse, and all the cul-de-sac kids are absolutely disgusted, including Kevin, the neighborhood bully who always called the Eds "dorks" and disliked Eddy most of all,) and Sarah, Ed's spoiled, bossy, and incredibly short-tempered younger sister, who regularly beats up all the other kids (except for the Kanker Sisters, who even she's terrified of) to the point where she would be willing to kill them out of anger just to get her way as the only way every day. They all team up to take down Eddy's brother, and now that Eddy doesn't need to be a jerk anymore, and the kids have a newfound sense of empathy for them, they all truly become friends (except for Jonny, who was Late to the Realization and ended up becoming the cul-de-sac's new social outcast).
• El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera: Pumo Loco may love causing mayhem and robbing everything (even the police station), but if you mess with his family, you’ll get crushed by a giant robot arm.
• The Fairly OddParents!:
  • Despite his obsession with FAIRY GODPARENTS!, Mr. Crocker finds the idea of keeping a fairy baby (IE: Poof) from their parents to be too cruel. (He actually thought Poof was a normal (albeit floating) human. In the end he thought Cosmo and Wanda turned his "Denzel Junior" into a Fairy. He decided that keeping him away from his kind was cruel, and that he can't mount his kin on the wall either. So he sets "DJ" free.) It also happens when Denzel is reduced to a crossing guard and he saves Timmy. Foop and Dark Laser are also no exception, as Foop would not allow Crocker to steal his powers and was also horrified by Vicky. Dark Laser would not allow Flipsy to be run over.
  • Implied in "Dream Goat!" When Timmy comes clean about letting Chompy go, Vicky looks shocked as she spits the water out her mouth.
  • The episode "Chindred Spirits" indicates that Crimson Chin villain H2Olga draws the line at pedophilia. When she turns out to be the Crimson Chin's blind date, the Chin books it and makes Timmy take his place while wearing his fedora and holding his rose. When H2Olga sees a 10-year-old boy waiting for her, she gently tells him that he's too young for her.
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends:
  • Hilariously subverted in Pilot Movie House of Bloo's. When Duchess offers Terrence the chance to team up with her to kill Bloo, Terrence he gives a speech to Duchess about how he's disgusted that Duchess would ever contemplate taking Bloo out of existence for good... before unpredictably asking how she does it and being very eager to formulate the plan.
  • Parodied in the TV movie, Good Wilt Hunting. When Wilt is in prison there are groups of stereotypical prisoners who rattle off their misdeeds. When the last one says that after he got in an argument with his wife, he took away the dog he gave her, one of the others remarks "That's just evil." In a moment of Fridge Horror, the inmate's story can be interpreted as him killing the dog.
  • It's done again moments later in the same episode when Wilt admits to doing something worse, when the other inmates don't believe him he tells his sad story. He says that he broke his little boy's dream, which makes all the other inmates react like it's the worst thing ever. Though they are a lot more sympathetic when they hear the whole story.

G-K

• Galaxy High: In "The Brain Blaster", Doyle's addiction to the brain-enhancing drug reaches such extremes that even the drug dealer warns him not to overdo it.
• Garfield and Friends:
  • Parodied in an episode where Wade, after ripping the tag off the bottom of a couch and learning that it's against the law, imagines himself in a prison cell with two dangerous-looking criminals:
    First criminal: I've robbed 50 banks and 60 gas stations.
    Second criminal: Well, I robbed 70 banks, see, and 90 gas stations. And I stole the Klopman Diamond. What Are You in For?
    Wade: Uh, I tore a tag off a pillow.
    (the criminals run for the bars and beg to be let out)
• While calling him evil would be going a bit far, Macbeth of Gargoyles does this trope repeatedly. In his first appearance, he was contracted to take out the gargoyle clan but refused to attack them during the day, when they turn to stone and are thus helpless. And it's highly debatable as to whether he even intended on killing them at all; what's more likely is that he just wanted to use them to draw out Demona. Interestingly, he keeps this rule even when brainwashed by the Weird Sisters.
• Gravity Falls:
  • He gets over it quickly, but Gideon is creeped out by Bill Cipher when the demon telekinetically yanks a deer's teeth out as a "gift" for Gideon.
  • Pacifica Northwest belittles everyone, humiliates them, and is best at everything, but in "The Golf War", she expects a fair game, and was angered that the Pines twins tried to cheat. This is tested further in "Northwest Mansion Mystery", where Pacifica discovers her family are a bunch of lying, cheating, sociopathic card-carrying backstabbers. Needless to say, she is horrified by this. Spoiled she may be, but Pacifica is not that cruel.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
  • Mandy is all in favor of revenge and dreams of ruling the world as a dystopian dictator, yet she will not condone cheating. Mandy also harshly punishes anyone who so much as annoys her, but finds Jeff the spider too polite to kill, despite Billy begging Mandy to do it.
  • Skarr shows signs of this in "Company Halt", the Fully Absorbed Finale of the series' sister show Evil Con Carne:
    Skarr: I'd do anything to get rid of that kid...
    Boskov: (Says something unintelligible in bear-language.)
    Skarr: Well, anything but that. I can't believe you even suggested that, you sicko!
• Grossology: Sloppy Joe may be a villain, but he loves Christmas and helps Abby and Ty take down Lance Boil in "Let Them Eat Fruit Cake".
• Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law:
  • The Duplicator (voiced by Lewis Black) getting revenge on Birdman by getting him jury duty. When Birdman has only a $3 food voucher and chimichangas cost $27.90. The Duplicator starts rubbing it in his face until he realizes how crazy that kind of price is, breaking into one of Black's trademark rants. He then makes a bunch of copies of Birdman's voucher.
    Duplicator: There! Now you owe him $8.10!
  • Phil Ken Sebben is a Bad Boss and thinks nothing of terrorizing his law firm, but even he wouldn't shoot a baby dinosaur and looked horrified when a Dick Cheney Expy had no problems doing so.
• Hazbin Hotel:
  • According to Word of God, the Sinners of Hell tend to act along the lines of prisoners in jail. The result is that they tend to have varying different moral standards, and will often disapprove of crimes they see as too heinous. An example comes in the pilot, where the poster for Jeffrey Dahmer's cooking show has a sticky note attached to it reading "Who approved this show?", showing that even some denizens of Hell are appalled by Dahmer's cannibalism.
  • Alastor is the Token Evil Teammate of the hotel, but even he has some standards when it comes to morality.
    • According to Word of God, Alastor will never kill or seriously harm a child, though he's fine with performing Corporal Punishment if he believes the kid deserves it. It's also been stated that Alastor will not attempt to chase any victim that manages to escape him, as he sees it as beneath him.
    • A Day in the Afterlife shows that Alastor seems to find the act of sexual assault (and possibly any instance of the strong preying on the weak) to be distasteful, as seen when he hears a butcher attempt to rape a female customer, causing Alastor to go into his full demon form and slaughter the man.
      Alastor: You know, I do really hate those who can't... show a little more respect to those of fairer means. It's rather distasteful,    LIKE BAD MEAT.   
    • He's also a man of his word, as while he's open about his lack of faith in Charlie's plan for the hotel, he still goes along with the terms of their deal, keeping the place in shape and defending it whenever it gets attacked.
  • Adam, for all of his psychopathic traits, shows genuine concern when Lute shows a disturbing amount of bloodlust before the next extermination.
    Lute: Rip Vaggie's cunt mouth out her ass!
    Adam: Would you just- ju- chill, Lute. Fuck.
  • While she's otherwise a Hate Sink, Katie Killjoy is shown in the pilot to disapprove of her co-anchor Tom Trench's crude remarks against Cherri Bomb, a female demon they're reporting on, calling him a "limpdick jackass" before proceeding to pour boiling-hot coffee on his lap.
  • On the other hand, Tom Trench is shown in the pilot to heavily disapprove of Katie's gloats and insults against Charlie.
  • Velvette is a villainous Overlord of Hell, but even then, she does seem to have some standards, as seen in the season finale with how disgusted she is with Vox's behavior as they watch the extermination at the hotel, turning away from him when he yells that Alastor and Adam's confrontation is making him hard and giving him a concerned look when he proclaims that watching Alastor get hurt is Better than Sex.
  • Sera is the highest authority on the exterminations, but she clearly doesn't get any enjoyment out of authorizing them, seeing it as a case of I Did What I Had to Do. She also shows disapproval of Adam's pettiness, saying that his mocking declaration to Charlie that he'll be targeting her hotel first at the next extermination "wasn't called for".
• Playedfor Laughs in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2021), where Kronis likens stealing the kirbinite to "taking candy from a baby," and then adds as an afterthought: "Not that babies should even have candy in the first place."
• Hey Arnold!:
  • A variation which comes across as this: When Rhonda (forced by circumstance to pretend to be his girlfriend) publicly dumps Curly and humiliates him, Helga is disgusted with her and tells her she has a black heart. To Rhonda, Helga is the biggest Jerkass around (only the audience knows about her hidden heart of gold.)
  • Speaking of Helga, the other children aren't really evil (but can be cruel Jerkasses at times) but even they called Helga out when she framed her nanny for theft.
  • She also apologized sincerely to Arnold when her dad made a insensitive remark about Arnold being an orphan, since it's only thing that truly hurts him.
  • In The Jungle Movie, Curly offers to turn traitor and be the camp snitch for La Sombra, but is rejected due to being too nuts even for him.
    La Sombra: Sorry kid. You are too loco even for us villains.
• On Hoops, Ben Hopkins is utterly foulmouthed and crass, seemingly without morals or ethics. That said, he states that while he would beat up a kid with Hodgkin's, he wouldn't dream of beating up one with advanced Hodgkin's.
• Horrid Henry: Despite Moody Margaret's dislike of Henry, even she looked disgusted when Henry's Mum cheered at the idea of Henry disappearing in "Happy Birthday, Peter."
• Invader Zim: Dib uses this to negotiate with Mortos Der Soulstealer.
  Dib: I just know he's up to something evil!
  Mortos: Mortos like evil...
  Dib: No, this is bad evil.
  Mortos: Oh.
  • Also subverted whenever someone else (like Tak) tries to destroy the world and Zim stops them. It's not that he's opposed to their methods, it's that he doesn't want them stealing his job.
  • Mrs. Bitters is willing to tell her students terrible, horrific facts about the world they live in but refuses to tell the kids why Valentine's Day is celebrated by giving people meat products for this reason.
• Subverted in Jackie Chan Adventures. The Demon Sorcerers initially rejected Shendu's suggestion of Rewriting Reality with the Book of Ages, stating that even they wouldn't risk tampering with the Book for fear of unraveling reality itself. But as Shendu points out, their current reality leaves them desperate enough to enter the Godzilla Threshold.
• Jellystone!: The Banana Splits may put mustard on bow ties, break guitars, paint all the fruit the wrong colors (so no one can tell which fruit is which), put "Wash Me" Graffiti on people's vans (so now they have to wash it), and write one star reviews to extort money, but even they were horrified by El Kabong transforming into a guitar, with Fleegle stating "Oh, that is wrong!"
• Jem:
  • Eric Raymond usually comes up with nefarious schemes that puts Jem and the Holograms' lives in danger. But in The Princess and the Singer, when he finds out about the plot to assassinate Princess Adriana (with Jem and the Holograms being collateral damage) he and the Misfits rush to the scene to try and stop it.
  • In Last Resorts, Jem and the Holograms are doing a concert to raise money to save a resort from foreclosure and Eric Raymond wants to buy it. Eric might have no qualms about scaring people from staying in the resort but his reaction when he learns the banker would go as far as gravely injure the Holograms suggests he doesn't approve of this.
  • In The Stingers Hit Town, Jetta's just as horrified and confused as Stormer and Roxy over how obsessed Pizzazz has gotten over Riot, and seems legitimately disappointed when Pizzazz chooses Riot over them. It could just be dismay over the prospect of losing her meal ticket, but when Rapture screws with Pizzazz's head, Jetta's equally disgusted by the way Pizzazz is making a fool of herself.
• Kaeloo: Mr. Cat may be a sick and twisted pervert, but when he reads the story of Sleeping Beauty, even he is mortified by the idea of kissing someone while they're unconscious.
• Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: Scarlemagne claims this as he says he only uses his pheromones on "lower-class primates" (namely humans) but not on other apes or monkeys but we know this is a lie as in the second season he uses his pheromones to force a peaceful monkey Mega-Mute to do his bidding, and that was before finding out the Mega-Mute Was Once a Man.

L-N

• The Legend of Korra:
  • Zaheer and the Red Lotus may be anarchists, but even they drew the line at Unalaq wanting to bring the world into darkness. Well, his way, at least.
  • Varrick is a Corrupt Corporate Executive of the highest degree, manipulating and backstabbing people to help line his pockets. However, much to his own surprise, he balks at the idea of making spirit-based superweapons in Season 4, because he saw the effect himself via experimentation. His standards are strong enough that he refuses to make a superweapon for the United Republic to counter Kuvira's Fantastic Nuke.
• Looney Tunes: In the cartoon, The Hole Idea, a scientist invents the "portable hole", but his nagging wife is not impressed and criticizes him for his dumb inventions. By the end of the cartoon, she falls through one of his portable holes and apparently, down into Hell, but Satan brings her back and asks, "Isn't it bad enough down there without her?"
• Looney Tunes Cartoons: In "Pest Coaster", Yosemite Sam goes to extremes to keep Bugs off his roller coaster, including laying dynamite on the track. But when he sees a baby on the coaster with Bugs, Sam hastily removes the explosives and tries to get rid of them. The baby was later revealed to actually be a pull-string doll.
  Sam: I despise me some animals, but I would never hurt an innocent little baby. I'll even prove it to you!
• Metalocalypse: Even Dethklok, the darkest, most brutal and metal band on the face of the planet, is absolutely horrified at the sight of malnourished supermodels being stripped of their skin.
  Nathan Explosion: Oh, my god, what a horri- you're fired, by the way!
  • A simple ring of the Dethbell probably would've sufficed.
• Moral Orel: Clay Puppington is one of the most despicable people in the town of Moralton, which is saying a lot. However, in "Orel's Movie Premiere," he's shocked when Dr. Potterswheel suggests that he might be molesting Orel.
  • Coach Stopframe by no means a good person, but even he eventually sees Clay for what he is. Also, he was visibly repulsed by the Satanists and their hedonistic ways to the point where he actually mouths "What the fuck?"
    • Coach Stopframe is told by Clay that his son Orel came between him and the bear when he shot Orel's leg. But when Orel tells him the truth, that Clay shot his leg while drunk and blamed the bear, he was appalled. You can hear the anger and disgust in his voice when he tells Orel that his coming between him and the bear is one of the lies Clay made up.
      Orel: And then he told everyone that I accidentally shot myself or the bear shot me.
      Stopframe: Or that you got between the bear and him.
• Monster High (2022): Toralei constantly antagonizes Clawdeen and her friends and attempts to get them expelled. But in the episode “Power Heist”, she is so upset by her mom's plan that she teams up with Clawdeen and the rest of the Boo Crew to trick her mom and get Selena Wolf's diary. This also kicks off her Heel–Face Turn.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In the Season 5 finale, Starlight Glimmer is visibly upset by the Bad Future scenario ^note A windswept barren wasteland devoid of life Twilight shows her as a result of her meddling with time. Starlight is still driven by anger and revenge, that it still takes a bit more talking to by Twilight, but by that point, the realization left its mark and the change was already beginning to set in on Starlight.
• Neighbors from Hell:
  • Tina is constantly repulsed by the disgusting and politically incorrect demeanor of her new neighbor Marjoe.
  • Mandy breaks up with Wayne because he's cruel to unpopular and disabled kids.
  • Even Satan himself is disconcerted by how amoral and evil Don can be.
• In The New Adventures Of Lucky Luke the Daltons, dastardly bank-robbing crooks they may be, refuse to abandon a three month old baby in the middle of the desert.
  Jack Dalton: Killing Lucky Luke, that'd be just fine. But a baby? That's not nice.

O-Q

• OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes: Big Bad Lord Boxman is a Card-Carrying Villain with a serious case of Black-and-White Insanity, but he still has moral lines he will not cross:
  • In "We're Captured," Boxman has K.O., Rad, and Enid captured in his lair coincidentally on the same night he's having an important dinner with fellow villain Professor Venomous. When K.O. jumps to the conclusion that Boxman plans to cannibalize the three for dinner, Boxman — clearly offended by the insinuation — responds by saying "Please. I'm a villain, not a monster."
  • In "The Power is Yours," a Crossover with Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Boxman questions Dr. Blight's plot to pollute the earth just for the hell of it. He still goes through with it, albeit very reluctantly.
  • In "Dendy's Video Channel," Boxman is horrified by the rampage of wanton destruction orchestrated by Venomous' Split Personality Shadowy Figure, enough that Boxman officially calls off their partnership despite the Villainous Friendship (and implied Unholy Matrimony) he shared with Venomous prior.
• Phineas and Ferb: Despite his melagomania, Dr. Doofenshmirtz despises world domination in general, finding it crazy. "Like left-boot-trap crazy."
  • There's also his reaction to finding out that Perry's boss, Major Monogram, doesn't pay his long-suffering intern Carl.
    Monogram: He gets college credit.
    Doofenshmirtz: Are you sure you're not evil?
• From Pinky and the Brain, the Brain would often have moments like this:
  • Brain, who has been shown to be willing to go to any length to take over the world, develops a plan to take over the world by selling cigarettes to children. He would have succeeded... except he was unwilling to go through with it.
  • Not to mention that he's willing to save the world if Snowball is trying to conquer it, because Snowball is much worse.
  • In another episode involving time travel, one of the Brain's plans end up rewriting history so that the population of the world consists entirely of moronic Pinky clones. The Brain is so horrified that he immediately plans to go back in history to set things right. Pinky asks the Brain why he plans to do that, because with a population like that, it would be easy to rule the world! But even the Brain has standards, and the Brain confirms that Pinky is right... but who would want to?
• Popeye:
  • Seein' Red, White and Blue has Bluto feigning an injury in order to get out of being drafted into the Navy. But when he sees Popeye getting beat up by Japanese saboteurs, then he gets mad ("Dey can't do dat to da Navy!!"). After a can of spinach between them, Popeye and Bluto mop the floor with the enemies and Bluto signs up.
  • In "The Astronut" (1961) Brutus and Popeye are attending a masquerade party at Olive's as a sheik and a spaceman, respectively. When an actual alien being arrives and causes a disturbance and knocks both the guys out, Brutus reaches for Popeye's spinach and administers it to him ("This is a job for Popeye!") so he can right things again.
  • While calling him evil is a bit of a stretch, Wimpy is a con artist but he wouldn't kill his friend Popeye just because the Sea Hag offered him a hamburger. Two initially were enough but Wimpy instead denounced her to Popeye.
  • Another cartoon had Wimpy inheriting a fortune. He is the referee in a prizefight in which Popeye is a participant and he bets his entire estate on Popeye's opponent. To ensure a victory, Wimpy's butler ambushes Popeye with a mallet. Wimpy starts to count Popeye out but he just didn't have the heart to do it. He sobs as he counts, and then gives Popeye a can of spinach. Popeye defeats the opponent and Wimpy says goodbye to his fortune.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
  • Mojo Jojo shows occasions of this:
    • He was fairly and understandably angry when the Girls beat him up when he was simply sleeping. Even more, when he found out that the Gangreen Gang had incriminated not only himself but also HIM and Fuzzy, just for the fun of it, he teamed up with the other two villains to teach them a lesson.
    • He was also disgusted with Buttercup's idea of beating him and other villains up for money, apparently seeing it as too brutish.
    • When Mojo once traveled back in time to stop the existence of the Girls, he got to see just what a brat Professor Utonium was in his younger days. He did not like what he saw.
    • In the movie when his ape army starts to turn on him with their own plans he's pretty weirded out and outright disgusted at some of them, finding their plans crass and lacking class.
    • In "Custody Battle", when HIM tried impressing the Rowdyruff Boys by hypnotizing scientists into sending the Earth into the Sun, Mojo called it stupid because it would reduce them all to nothing. Although HIM still stopped it with his hand.
  • Even HIM has his standards. Other than the aforementioned "Telephonies" episode, he teamed up with the other villains to teach Buttercup a lesson after she beat them up simply for money (or being more specific, she knocked most if not all of their teeth out in a barrage of brutal beatings and then traded the teeth away to the Tooth Fairy for money).
• Primal (2019): Even before he realized Rikka and his youngest son were dead, The Chieftain was clearly disturbed by the massacre of his village.
• The Proud Family: In "Pulp Boot Camp", Penny becomes one of the Gross Sisters and pursuits in stealing kids' money, which the Gross Sisters regularly do, but after Penny escapes from the boot camp she was sent to and goes to the Gross Sisters' house, they turn her away because "they don't associate with real criminals".
• Punky Brewster: The animated episode "Camp Confusion" featured a series of Olympic-style events between the ritzy Camp Towering Pines (where Margaux is) and the not-so-ritzy Camp Tumbleweed (where Punky is staying). When Margaux accuses Punky of using Glomer's magic as leverage, Glomer offers to stay with Margaux. But ensuing events start to take a turn for the worst for Camp Tumbleweed as Camp Towering Pines' leaders decide to cheat and they entice Margaux to do as well. Camp Tumbleweed eventually wins with Towering Pines' penalty to be Tumbleweeds' dishwashers. Once Margaux finds out the Towering Pines' was cheating, she renounces them and joins Punky at Camp Tumbleweeds.
• This comes up in Quack Pack in the episode "Gator Aid". Donald Duck and Daisy Duck pretend to be specialists hired by the villain of the episode, The Colonel. At one point, Daisy incorrectly guesses that she has been instructed to kill Donald. The Colonel's response is to say "Ew! You really are tough!", suggesting that he does not approve of lethally punishing incompetence.

R-T

• The Raccoons: Cyril may have been greedy and conniving, especially in the early episodes, but he wasn't completely unreasonable. When he gives Bentley a job at his company, the Pigs sabotage Bentley's work out of jealousy. When Cyril learns the truth, he gives the Pigs a chewing out, lets Bentley know it wasn't his fault he was fired, and allows him to spend time with his friends. More moments like these eventually culminated in Cyril making a Heel–Face Turn.
• ReBoot, even Megabyte can display this trope on occasions:
  • When a captured Megabyte learns what Bob hopes to do to him (reprogram him so that he's no longer a virus), he replies, "And they call me a monster."
  • Also, when he's going to dissect Frisket to obtain a MacGuffin the dog swallowed, he tells his henchmen to take Enzo away because "The boy doesn't need to see this." He takes sick pleasure in not letting Enzo say good-bye first but he draws the line at making a child watch his beloved pet get dissected.
  • Another episode has him swallow his pride and beg Bob to save his life, which Bob naturally does. Later, Megabyte has Dot held hostage and, when Bob reminds him of the earlier save, Megabyte begrudgingly orders his henchmen to let them go.
    Megabyte: Now we're even, Guardian. Now we are even.
• Roboroach: Mandible Lecter is the world's most wanted bug eater, but he won't eat anyone with an unhealthy diet, which is why he refused to eat Reg.
• The Saturday TV Funhouse parody of The Smurfs (1981) and The Anna Nicole Show has Gargamel expressing disgust at Smurfette's Reality TV show.
  Gargamel: Eugh, what a mess. Why don't they get her some help?!
  Gargamel: What sleazebag greenlit this show?!
• The Secret Saturdays: Greedy, amoral bounty hunter Van Rook admits that even he finds it disgusting that the Himilayan Yeti (actually V.V. Argost) murdered innocent people who hiked on the mountain for kicks and took their personal belongings as souvenirs.
• She-Ra: Princess of Power: Hordak of all people gets a moment in the episode "Into the Dark Dimension". Both Hordak and She-Ra are thrown into the eponymous Dark Dimension and must earn their freedom. She-Ra succeeds while Hordak fails. She-Ra refuses to go back to Etheria alone and even risks her life to save Hordak. The two return to a battle between the Horde and the Rebellion (with each side blaming the other for their leader's disappearance). Hordak immediately calls off the Horde attack and grants the Rebels safe passage back to their home out of gratitude to She-Ra. Everyone's surprised by Hordak's actions, including Hordak himself.
• The Smurfs (1981): Gargamel and Azrael both have lifelong goals to destroy the Smurfs and gain untold wealth, power and respect ... but there is a point where even he has pause in helping people he has formed alliances with to carry out his wishes. Examples:
  • In one episode, he saves the life of a stray cat Azrael has befriended that his godfather Lord Balthazar wanted to kill for her fur ... just because he saw Azrael had found love and companionship.
  • In another episode, Gargamel and Balthazar have kidnapped Puppy and plan to take the magical locket from around his neck, in an effort to gain access to its powers. When initial tricks are unsuccessful, Balthazar proposes placing Puppy in a guillotine and chopping his head off (yes, really) ... to which Gargamel decides this whole scheme to destroy the Smurfs isn't worth it.
  • During the Smurf's 1982 Christmas special, Gargamel — in exchange for a scroll that he uses to burn down the Smurf Village on Christmas Eve — turns over two children (who have become separated from their grandfather after a sleigh accident) to a stranger, who unknown to him plans to take them away (in revenge for their uncle always thwarting his plans to overthrown his kingdom). Later, when The Stranger thinks Gargamel has betrayed him^note (after he tells the children's relatives where they are and who they are with), he forces him and Azrael to join them in accompany them on "The Final Journey." Gargamel, realizing that the children's lives are in danger ^note (it is implied The Stranger plans to have the children suffer A Fate Worse Than Death before they are finally killed) refuses to go along with his plan and, after at least two escape attempts are stopped, is forced to rely on Papa Smurf to save his, Azrael's and the children's lives.
• In Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), Dr. Robotnik sounded surprised that Antoine Depardieu seemingly betrayed his friends in order to give him the Power Ring. He even asks him why he betrayed them. Though he might've just been suspicious.
• Captain Skyhook, arch-nemesis of The Space Kiddettes, will stop at nothing to get their treasure map... but won't actually hurt them, because they're only children. Static, his right-hand man, has no such reservations, but Skyhook is always quick to admonish him for suggesting violence.
• One episode of Spider-Man: The Animated Series has Peter facing off against the Insidious Six because they realized the dude who was always taking Spider-Man's pictures might have a connection to him, and kidnapped Aunt May. As luck would have it though Spidey's been depowered and thus swiftly gets the crap out of him, making Doctor Octopus conclude there's no way Peter Parker could actually be Spider-Man if they beat him so easily. Silvermane then accuses Kingpin of kidnapping an old woman and strong-arming her desperate helpless teenage nephew into dressing up as Spidey to rescue her, and he is pissed.
• SpongeBob SquarePants,
  • Plankton will never give up on stealing the secret formula, but he is shown to be really disgusted on how bad Mr. Krabs' greed is. Another example is when Sandy tries to break the record for having raw chum in her mouth, Plankton is hesitant at first, stating that no one can handle chum raw. Basically, even though he's determined to have people eat his chum, he would never serve it raw. As quoted by him, "And I thought I was evil."
  • Mr. Krabs is very money driven and did some illegal practices with his business, but does have some standards. Even after he Took a Level in Jerkass in later seasons, his belief in Krabby Patties being made with love and care by hand is more important to him than money, and is utterly appalled when after selling the Krusty Krab to a restaurant chain, he finds out that they have taken to simply mass-producing Krabby Patties on a conveyer belt using grey goo that may or may not even be meat. Also, in "Little Yellow Book," Mr. Krabs calls out Squidward after he reads SpongeBob's diary to everyone in the Krusty Krab. Note that Mr. Krabs was not one of the people laughing at SpongeBob's secrets, meaning he's not being a hypocrite.
  • The Flying Dutchman himself was surprised that Mr. Krabs was not only eager to sell his soul and took the whole ordeal lightly, but he also sold his soul several times to other ghosts, monsters, and to SpongeBob (he was five bucks short on payday.)
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil:
  • Ludo and his forces have Surveillance as the Plot Demands, but agree that using it to spy on Star in the bathroom is just wrong.
  • If Toffee is anything, he's a man of his word and spares Marco from being crushed after Star agrees to his demands. Also, it was he along with Buff Frog who pointed out that spying on Star in the bathroom is disturbing.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
  • "Corruption": When the prime minister Almec accuses the terrorist organization Death Watch of poisoning numerous children, Satine, the duchess of Mandalore, quickly points out that all their attacks have been directed at her and her administration. Sure enough, the Death Watch is innocent, the children had been poisoned by a toxic diluting agent in the black market tea they had been fed due the closure of trading routes, and the one who had established the black market ring was Almec himself.
  • "The Box": ruthless Bounty Hunter Cad Bane saves Rako Hardeen's life when criminal mastermind Moralo Eval attempts to kill him in the titular testing facility, saying that if Eval wanted to kill Hardeen, he should fight him like a man.
  • "The Wrong Jedi": Tarkin, who at this point in the Star Wars timeline is already well known for his ruthless methods (including how he cleaned up a whole sector from piracy: he put a pirate gang he captured in a container, threw it in the closest star, and broadcast the screams as they were cooked alive), has spent the last few episodes trying to convict Ahsoka, fully knowing she'd be executed for treason if convicted, but upon being faced with clear evidence of her innocence, including a full confession from the actual culprit Barriss Offee of both committing the crimes and framing Ahsoka he's appalled at having trying, and almost succeeding, to kill an innocent. As anyone who watched the original trilogy or Rebels knows, he's going to lose said standards.

• Star Wars: The Bad Batch:
  • In the season 1 finale, Crosshair tells Hunter that he has no intention of killing him, as much as he would like to. He orders his Elite Squad to drop their weapons so he can strike a truce with the Bad Batch, but they refuse and betray him. In response, he kills them all using his signature blaster-reflecting mirrors, saving his brothers.

• Star Wars Rebels:
  • "Call to Action": Co-Dragons Agent Kallus and Minister Tua are both visibly horrified by the Grand Inquisitor beheading Commandant Aresko and Taskmaster Grint for incompetence on Grand Moff Tarkin's orders.
  • "The Honourable Ones": While stranded with Zeb, Kallus reveals that, contrary to his previous claim, he was lying about ordering the use of disruptors during the massacre of Zeb's homeworld, and implies he wasn't pleased to participate in such a slaughter.
  • "Hera's Heroes": Grand Admiral Thrawn is quite contemptuous of Captain Slavin's xenophobia, as well as his suggestion to destroy something he considers art.
  • "An Inside Man": Kallus, and Lieutenant Lyste to a lesser degree, are both visibly disturbed by Thrawn letting factory worker Morad Sumar be killed by an overheating speeder bike as punishment for sabotaging it.
  • "Through Imperial Eyes": Lyste is completely shocked when Kallus refuses to back him up when he gets arrested for being the traitor in the Imperial ranks, likely realizing at that point that Kallus is the actual traitor.
• Sumo Mouse: Team Terror was fine with working for Claw to take down Sumo Mouse but they object when Claw decides to destroy Catropolis.
• Played for laughs in the Super Best Friends Forever short "Solomon Grundy No Fight Girls", where Solomon Grundy refuses to fight Supergirl, Batgirl, and Wonder Girl due to drawing the line at violence against females. The three young heroines then try to taunt Grundy in order to provoke him into attacking before they realize that they don't have to hold back just because Grundy refuses to fight them. After they end up kicking his butt, Solomon Grundy starts reconsidering his refusal to fight girls.
• SuperMansion: In "The League of Cheesedom", a pizzeria themed after the League of Freedom is created to try and help the superhero team's image. Black Saturn isn't impressed with the actors at the pizzeria who play himself and his enemy the Groaner, so he replaces the Black Saturn actor with himself and summons the real Groaner after his actor is accidentally killed. When the Groaner is given the script he's to read while performing in the show, he is outraged to see that the dialogue Black Saturn wrote for him has him claim to have drugged the pizza so he can molest the children while they're unconsicous.
• TaleSpin:
  • Shere Khan in is more a sleazy corporate executive than anything; still, when he discovers a town he owns is using slave labor to mine a rare ore ("Citizen Khan"), he insists it was done without his consent. "I desire only money and power. Unpresentable employees provide me with neither."
  • Another example, from a different episode ("Louie's Last Stand"), but equally fitting the trope. One of his employees forges his name on an official letter that gives him complete control over Khan's personal military. Why? To get Louie off of his island before his lease expires so he can take control of it for Shere Khan. Needless to say, Khan is not impressed with him (but he is impressed with how Baloo, Louie, and Kit were able to defeat his highly-trained soldiers). Said employee is swiftly fired after Khan arrives on the scene.
  • In "Save the Tiger" Shere Khan shows that he will work to repay somebody who saves his life, though he did have a limit will Baloo constantly made demands of him and led to him making a scheme to get out of it that left Baloo broke, which turned to be a Batman Gambit for Baloo to beg for him to set everything back to normal, which he promptly did and then leaves him alone.
• Thundercats 1985: When Slithe tells Monkian they need a woman's touch in Castle Plun-Darr, Monkian calls him a chauvinist.
• El Tigre
  • Villainy isn't a matter of moral alignment here, but a sub-culture of its own, so this trope comes up now and then. Puma Loco, a Card-Carrying Villain if ever there was one, draws the line at harming a family member.
  • More Played for Laughs but in one episode, all of the supervillains present were horrified when El Tigre gave Dr. Chipotle Sr. a wet willy.
  • Family is a major theme of the series, and when the struggling-with-his-Character Alignment El Tigre goes behind his father's back and it gets ousted in front of villains, even the villains are absolutely horrified.
  • Minor villain Spoon Bender is part of a plot to pretend to be in a villain reform club (kind of like AA meetings) to use Maria's house to tunnel into a neighboring bank to commit a massive heist, but when Maria shows legitimate concern and kindness for them, Spoon Bender can't go through with it and undergoes a Heel–Face Turn, and proves just what control over spoons let you do.
• Transformers: Prime:
  • Starscream is an arrogant Smug Snake looking out only for his own best interests, but even he is disturbed by Megatron leaving Breakdown to get torn to pieces by MECH simply because Megatron saw him as not worth saving after getting captured by humans, and actually goes out on his own to rescue him.
    • Prime's version of Starscream is also notable for exhibiting a strong sense of gratitude: when Arcee saves him, he makes sure to free her from Airachnid, and when Megatron saves his life, he gives up his traditional habits.
  • Megatron of all villains gets some moments of this:
    • In The Human Factor, he's genuinely repulsed by the sight of Silas/CYLAS, now infused and operating inside of Breakdown's corpse, calling it an abomination.
    • Subverted in Operation Bumblebee, Part 1. When Bumblebee has his T-Cog^note A bio-mechanical organ in Transformers that allows them to scan vehicles and transform stolen, Ratchet dismisses Decepticon involvement, saying that Megatron is "no ghoul". Turns out he actually is in Alpha/Omega, where he and Dreadwing break into a Prime's tomb and steal an arm to graft onto the former.
    • In Patch, he's none too pleased to see how Starscream killed Cliffjumper in Darkness Rising, Part 1, implying that he would have at least wanted him to go out fighting rather than be less-than-honorably gutted while moments from death:
      Starscream: I've gone through so much trouble to terminate the Autobot in the first place!
      Megatron: "Trouble" would be facing him as a gladiator!
• T.U.F.F. Puppy:
  • While Verminous Snaptrap is too silly to be considered evil, he draws the line at killing people on their birthdays without having them to celebrate it first. In his defense, he said that "No one is that evil."
  • When Snaptrap asks for suggestions on how to get revenge on the "Meanies" at the monotrail for not letting them ride, Francisco suggests that they eat them, to which Snaptrap claims is just "dark and disturbing."
  • More Played for Laughs but the reason why Snaptrap tells the agents his latest plan is because he thinks it's rude not to.
  • Kitty's evil sister always calls her mother.
  • In "Top Dog", a crime organization called FLOPP is formed and several of the members discuss what their next act of villainy will be.
    Escape Goat: "We can get in a crowded elevator, and push all the buttons!"
    Meerkat (the leader):' "We're criminals, not monsters!"
• In Turtles Forever, 1987 Krang and Shredder, Karai, and Hun turn on 2003 Shredder after it's revealed that he plans THE DESTRUCTION! OF! REALITY! ITSELF!

U-Z

• Ultimate Spider-Man: In "Run Pig Run", Loki, disguised as a hot dog vendor, gives Spider-Man an enchanted hot dog, and reveals himself after Spidey takes a bite. Spidey quickly demands to know if Loki spat in the hot dog, to which Loki admits that, while he did think about doing so, even he isn't that merciless.
• Villainous:
  • While Black Hat himself doesn't seem to have any high standards, he, along with his clones and Flug, were outright disgusted with Earl. Also, despite him considering himself the evilest thing imaginable, he doesn't discriminate against any villains and provides support to them through his company. While he's willing to hold an entire family hostage to make a client pay off their debts, he does sometimes make sure that they got their promised part of a deal, as after the events of Dreadful Dawn, he found out that Demencia ate Sunblast and caused Penumbra to go home empty-handed, so he retrieved him from Demencia's stomach and sent him off to Penumbra.
  • Flug clearly takes great pleasure in torturing his test subjects, so much so that he tells Mojo Jojo before experimenting on him that the way he's about to be treated won't kill him, but he might wish that it did, but he's disgusted to the point of nausea with the way that Demencia beats the hell out of Sunblast.
  • In the crossover episode with Victor and Valentino, Flug loudly and angrily objects to Demencia eating a baby that she sees on the street, and beats her over the head until she spits him out.
• Viva Piñata: Years ago, in "My Sweet Sours", Professor Pester moved to the Broken Arms Evil Startup Lairplex when he was just starting out on evil. Boris Buzzenge, who runs the place as Pester's "lairlord", allows him to conduct any evil scheme, but forbids him to take over Pinata Island and steal all the candy, which leaves Pester shocked. This gets subverted when Boris then says he was just kidding.
• Wacky Races:
  • Played straight with Muttley; he seems to be the least mean of the Mean Machine duo, and it seems to him that Dick's cheating tendancies to win a race even if he pulls out in front are a very bad idea, and tries to warn Dick not to cheat, but he doesn't listen.
  • Zig-zag: Dick Dastardly will call the police to report that the Ant Hill Mob is at large, but only to hamper the Mob's progress in the race.
  • In "Whizzin' To Washington", Dastardly zooms ahead of the other racers and tries to prove he can win a race without cheating. He stops short of the finish line because Muttley wanted his autograph.
  • In "Scout Scatter", the Ant Hill Mob didn't hesitate before risking themselves to save a boy scout from a waterfall even if it meant increasing the chances the Sheriff would catch up with them. (they escaped)
  • In the reboot, Dastardly disables all his booby traps in one race to prove he can win without cheating. When calamities occur on the race route, the other racers assume it's Dastardly's doings but he vehemently denies it. And he is proven right as a horde of ornery penguins stand in their way.
• The titular character of Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?. When Lee Jordan cuts the rope that Ivy and Zack are holding onto while he's escaping with Carmen, sending them into the ocean, to say that Carmen was not pleased would be a bit of an understatement. Also, both Lee and Maelstrom are violent and willing to risk innocent lives while Carmen isn't; in fact, she's saved Ivy and Zack's lives more than once.
• In Wild Kratts, Donita may be perfectly fine with freezing animals in suspended animation to use in her fashions, but she is less than impressed by Zach's theft of the Arctic Pearl.
• It happens in WordGirl from time to time, like when villains got their feelings hurt by the alien villainess Miss Power.
  • When Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy had a peanut butter gun, he made sure WordGirl wasn't allergic to peanuts before using it on her.
• X-Men: The Animated Series has Magneto take this role twice. The first is when he constructs an orbital safe haven for mutants and arms it with enough nuclear missiles to wipe out all life on Earth. However, even he is disgusted when he finds that Fabian Cortez fired off one of the missiles at Earth with the intent of kill normal humans simply because he hates them that much. Later in the end of Season 4, during a Villain Team-Up with Apocalypse, he works with and then turns on him when he finds that Apocalypse' plan involves wiping out the whole of reality so he could recreate it in his own image, berating him a plan that would kill "the innocent along with the guilty." Even Apocalypse' minion Mystique turns on him by that point. Magneto expected Mr. Sinister to also have standard regarding the plan. He didn't. In both cases, Magneto having standards prompts a Heel–Face Turn.
• X-Men: Evolution:
  • Not so much evil as just criminals, but the Brotherhood show that they're not willing to let Apocalypse turn the world into mutants, knowing that most wouldn't survive the change.
  • Avalanche, too, showed that while he may be violent and prone to aggression, he's unwilling to allow a town to be blown up or ignore an old lady's cry for help.
    • Before that, during his brief stay with the X-Men, he was accused of being behind the joyrides of their vehicles. The New Mutants were behind them and he knew it but he chose not to explain just to spite Cyclops (despite also not liking being accused). However, once he realizes they're gonna take the X-Jet as their next joyride, he decides they're taking their fun too far and brings Shadowcat with him to put an end to their antics.
• Young Justice:
  • Mr. Twister openly admit to being disturbed by the Justice League using their teenaged protégées as Child Soldiers.
  • While he quickly realized the "Terror Twins" were really Superboy and Miss Martian, Icicle Jr. was disgusted when the two kissed while he still thought they were siblings.
  • When Despero comes to Earth for the sole purpose of fighting great Earth warriors, and killing any he defeats to mount their heads on his walls, he doesn't kill Captain Marvel when he learns he is really just a teenager. Instead he simply entrances him with his robotic majordomo L-Ron calling the battle with Marvel a foul
    L-Ron: Flagrant foulism! My master has no interest in fighting a child!
  • When Mongul — an alien tyrant knocking down everything that could be a problem in his plans of galactic conquest — plans to destroy the Earth rather than let the aliens known as "the Reach" take it over themselves, he claims that their annihilation would be a better fate than whatever the Reach were going to do if they actually won. Surprise, surprise, the people of earth don't agree with his reasoning.
    Mongul: Your deaths today in the face of the Reach are a mercy. My grand laser emitter would have ended your world in a matter of minutes — another mercy. But it seems the mercies of Mongul are not appreciated, so we will do this the hard way, and the WarWorld will unleash all its weapons on the Earth. You're welcome.
  • Subverted with the Light's decision to not kill the family members of the Justice League because doing so will evoke the full fury of the heroes. When disgraced member Ocean Master targets a playdate of League children, Lady Shiva is sent to kill him and remove any evidence of his intent without the parents or the kids noticing.

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