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Honor Before Reason / Live-Action TV

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Characters who place Honor Before Reason in Live-Action TV series.


  • The Amazing Race:
    • In Season 2, Tara chose to put her alliance with Chris & Alex over the Race, and even over her own teammate, and it eventually cost them the Race.
    • Erwin & Godwin (a.k.a. the Cho Bros, from Season 10) formed the infamous Six-Pack alliance with David & Mary and Lyn & Karlyn (two teams most perceived as fodder). They then proceeded to sit around at tasks, after they were already done, waiting for the other teams in their alliance. Even their own alliance members thought this was stupid.
    • The formerly engaged team of Dennis & Erika (Season 5) became the first team out when Dennis, who wanted to prove that he wasn't a "scumbag" after another team called him that earlier in the leg, let all the other teams get cabs before him and Erika. He did get a Consolation Prize, however (other than the trip given to them by Colin & Christie after the race), in that this act appeared to re-spark his relationship with Erika.
  • Subverted in The A-Team. Even though the team usually fits the trope to a T, in one episode Hannibal secures the help of General Fullbright by promising to turn himself in if he assists him. Afterwards, Hannibal escapes and says "In war there are no promises; only strategy."
  • Babylon 5:
    • Delenn always at least seems like the sort of person who would put Honor Before Reason. In fact she several times does what she has to do and once or twice what she definitely doesn't have to do. But she always gives the impression of putting Honor Before Reason, preferring that as her default. When told that Neroon is coming to assassinate her, Delenn forbids Lennier to tell Sheridan, believing that the Minbari people should deal with their own internal dirty laundry without foreign interference.
    • Minbari generally think they are putting Honor Before Reason. The real picture is more complex and depends on which Minbari you talk to. Some Minbari traditions that fall into this category include greeting people with their gunports open as a gesture of respect (which leads to some panicking if the other party can't detect that their weapons aren't armed), reacting violently to even the intimation that they're lying (Minbari culturally Cannot Tell a Lie, except to save face for another person), and never retreating from a battle. The movie The Legend of the Rangers shows that last one being challenged somewhat after other races join the previously all-Minbari Anla'Shok (Rangers).
    • When Londo orders Narn evacuated because he gave his word to G'Kar, he says "All I have left is my honor."
    • The Expanded Universe tabletop wargame adds the Rogolon, a Proud Warrior Race fixated with one-on-one duels. This bit them back in the ass hard during the Centauri-Orieni War: when the Centauri invaded them to bypass the Orieni lines, the Rogolon ships advanced one at a time issuing their challenges to the invaders, resulting in the Centauri (the local poster children for Combat Pragmatists) to gang up on their ships until there was nobody else to oppose their passage.
  • In Bangkok Hilton, Hal asks Richard to take his daughter's case, in spite of his inexperience with criminal law and the damage it could do to his firm if a white lawyer defends a white client on a drug trafficking charge.
    Richard: I can't help but ask myself, Hal, where's the profit in this?
    Hal: She's innocent. To some men, proving that would be profit enough.
    Richard: Oh, to some men but not me, is that it? Well, that's where you're wrong, Hal, because I'll tell you what else I've been thinking. Above all, I'm a lawyer, and if I don't use the law now to defend an innocent person, then, it doesn't mean anything, does it? So I think we'd better do it. We'd better defend her and damn the consequences.
  • Helo on Battlestar Galactica, the fact that his wife Sharon is a Cylon makes his journey much tougher.
  • In one episode of Blue Bloods, Jamie (the Reagan family's Knight in Shining Armor) is asked by the FBI to help them investigate possible corruption in the NYPD. Jamie refuses and decides to carry on his own investigation alone — because it could potentially involve his family and it is more honorable for him to look at it first before deciding. In doing this Jamie is putting himself in considerable danger without backup. But that's Jamie.
  • The Boys: In season 3, the team gets their hands on "Temp V", a temporary version of Vought's Compound V to put them on an even playing field with the "heroes" they fight. However, Mother's Milk butts heads with Butcher and Hughie for their use of it (even after they saved his life with it) because he feels No Man Should Have This Power, and argues that they need to draw the line somewhere despite the fact that being a Badass Normal can only take them so far.
  • Breaking Bad may be one of the only times this is portrayed negatively. Walter White, the Anti-Hero, declines money from his very wealthy former friend to pay for his cancer treatment, opting instead to cook meth. He does this out of pride as the money comes from the company that he co-founded but dropped out of at the wrong time. Rather than showing his inner good, it shows that from the beginning that he was a selfish and petty man who lets his pride rule everything he does, deciding to turn down money that could help his family in the long-run because of it. He also gets upset when he learns his son set up a donation website to help pay for his cancer treatment, because he hates the idea of relying on charity from strangers, equating it to begging with a tin can on the street. He even hates the idea of his drug money being anonymously funnelled through the site because, even though he's laundering his own money, he also wants his family to know that he earned the money through his own efforts. It also serves to foreshadow the kind of man he eventually becomes.
    • Walter's brother-in-law and DEA agent, Hank, is a more traditional example. Once he figures out that Walt is Heisenberg, it's made abundantly clear that turning Walt in will mean the end of his career, as his connections to a drug kingpin make him look incompetent at best and corrupt at worst. Also worth noting that Walt's cancer was likely to kill him in a year anyway. Hank's only response to that was to work faster so he could nail Walt before he died, and before Hank's own career was destroyed.
    • Walter's partner Jesse is an Anti-Villain and Minion with an F in Evil who frequently prioritizes doing the right thing over the smart thing. He's the reason that he and Walt lost their cushy jobs with Gus and had to go to war with him, because Jesse took issue with Gus selling to kids and led a suicidal charge against his dealers. Near the end of the series he has a breakdown and tries to become The Atoner, frantically attempting to give away his millions in blood money before resorting to just throwing it out of his car window and getting himself arrested for it.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer tends to follow this trope when it comes to Buffy dealing with a human threat, at least until the Bringers (were they human?). She lets a werewolf hunter leave even though judging by the collection of teeth he's killed dozens of people to get werewolf pelts. She refuses to kill her friend Ford, who betrayed her, until after he becomes a vampire. And in the sixth season, despite the fact that Warren killed her friend Tara in cold blood and nearly killed her as well, she insists that she can't kill him because he's human and being the Slayer doesn't give her a license to kill.
    • Perhaps the most extreme case is the fifth season, when she has to choose between saving her sister or saving the universe. She threatens everyone with death if they go near her sister. Then she takes a third option. It is such an extreme case that one could say she acted as a Principles Zealot, although either way it also fits this trope as it is very unreasonable but according to the strict deontological ethics of a Principles Zealot, one can never kill an innocent human, even to save the whole world. Giles' consequential view, that Dawn should be killed if there is no other option, seems much more reasonable even if one isn't usually strongly consequentialist, but the point of the trope is that reason is being discarded.
    • During the fourth season, all of the Scoobies arguably fall into this, being largely against killing Spike after he got his Restraining Bolt because he's helpless, despite the fact that he was one of their worst enemies, kept saying that he would kill them all at the first opportunity once he got the chip removed, and was still perfectly capable of hurting people indirectly by providing aid to other villains. Of course, that doesn't stop them from regularly taunting him over his "impotence" and beating him up for fun or information.
  • Michael Weston from Burn Notice will stop at nothing to solve the problems of every and any passerby he meets. Even if he should be trying to figure out who burned him. Or if his apartment as just been blown up in an attempt to murder him.
  • Community: When the study group submitted a slightly stylized anus to be the school flag, the Dean didn't notice and so put it up for a vote with all the other candidates. Once it won, Jeff broke down and told him ("He just wasn't getting it!"), but the Dean made it the official flag anyway, because that's what the school voted for.
    Dean: I think you know the reason this group has been chosen for this job to atone for the obscene entry you submitted in the Greendale school-flag contest. That's right, I know that this isn't a symbol for the crossroads of ideas. I now know it's a butt. Yeah, keep snickering. Pack yourselves with peanuts and really be satisfied. But guess what? This won. This is now our school flag forever! Proud of yourselves?
  • Doctor Who:
    • The Doctor could easily, easily wipe out the alien threat of the week, but he insists on giving them a choice, usually involving finding another world for them to settle on, free of intelligent life. It's only when they refuse that he shows them why that might have been a good idea.
    • A perfect alternative example appears in the 1996 TV movie; a police officer is preventing the Doctor and his companion from reaching their destination. Time is running out, the entire planet Earth is at stake, and the Doctor doesn't have time to reason with the police officer. So he swipes the officer's gun. However, he is also not the kind of man who points guns at innocent people, no matter what the situation. So he points the gun at himself and yells "Now stand aside before I shoot myself!"
      • The Eighth Doctor hasn't changed in this respect by "The Night of the Doctor", either. He attempts to save a young woman from a crashing spaceship, but she refuses to go with him so he refuses to save himself.
    • Gets more than a little Anvilicious when the Doctor opposes eliminating the Daleks, even though they're dedicated to wiping out all non-Dalek life in the universe.
      • The Doctor's attitude makes more sense when you consider that he's terrified of losing his morals and becoming something like the Valeyard. If he agreed with genocide or murder, even once, even justifiably, he'd be taking a first step down a disastrous road, and he wants to avoid that at all costs. Remember the Time Lord Victorious? That was but a glimpse of what he could become.
      • Additionally, the Time War could have been so awful that the idea of annihilating the Daleks brings up horrible memories.
      • In the classic series, the Doctor had the opportunity to wipe the Daleks out at the moment of their creation, but wasn't sure he had the right, and concluded that humans and other races opposing the Daleks was what led to galactic harmony.
    • One of his worst moments was in "The Poison Sky", when he met the Sontarans, a race of cloned soldiers, whose one notable weakness is a vent in the back of their necks. It's in the back because Sontarans are not supposed to retreat, so it's a relatively safe place to put it. He has a bomb that can destroy the Sontaran ship and save the Earth. But he decides to beam up to the Sontaran ship WITH THE BOMB in order to give them a chance to surrender. Never mind that anyone with even the smallest knowledge about the Sontaran would know that the Sontarans don't surrender, the idea that the ship in question wouldn't gladly be destroyed to be able to defeat someone as famous and powerful as the Doctor (Not to mention, stop his occasional ruinings of their war effort) is absurd. In the end, another character had to sacrifice himself to save him. Way to go, Doctor.
    • Subverted by the Eleventh Doctor. He tries to talk if the situation allows it and tries to spare manipulated pawns, but against actively hostile forces he will wipe them out as soon as he has the advantage.
    • "World War Three": Played for Laughs with Harriet Jones (MP, Flydale North) and her insistence on, after saying the word "fart", adding "If you'll pardon the word" despite the fact that time is running out to stop the villains' plot.
    • "Tooth and Claw": Sir Robert is determined to redeem himself for committing treason due to being blackmailed by the monks by fighting the werewolf, which quickly kills him — though he knew this going in, and also did it to buy time for the Doctor and the Queen.
  • Bates of Downton Abbey demonstrates this trope. He refuses to tell the Earl of Grantham that Thomas was the real thief when he's framed for theft (twice!), despite Thomas's constant bullying of both him and most everyone else on staff, because he doesn't want to be the cause of Thomas losing his job.
    • Matthew Crawley is even worse. First, he insists that he will still marry Lavinia even though she has seen him kissing Mary and has realised that he doesn't really love her. Later, he stands to inherit a great deal of money from Lavinia's father, which is great news for the family as Lord Grantham badly needs a fortune to hang onto his estate — but Matthew is unwilling to accept it as he is certain that Mr. Swire must have left it to him thinking that Matthew really loved Lavinia.
  • A spoof on this occurs at the beginning of Due South in which Fraser pursues a perp through miles and miles of frozen wasteland. Finally he brings him in, plops him at the Mounties' office and says, "That's the last time he'll fish over the limit."
  • When Captain Gregson in Elementary realises his ex-partner framed a serial killer, he says that if the guy turns out to be innocent, he'll have no option but to report her. When she asks if he realises what that will do to his career, he says it'll end it, but that's not the point.
  • The Enemy at the Door episode "The Polish Affaire" revolves around retired diplomat Sir James Prideux, who has what another character describes as a "fastidious conscience". He is manipulated into a position where the only way to save himself from the German secret police is to hand over another man first. The other man is a former friend who betrayed him, and Sir James would get great pleasure in seeing him taken down — which is precisely why he won't allow himself to do it.
  • Doug Ross on ER was driven to do what was right for children, regardless of the consequences to himself or his career. That's admirable, but he was also very short-sighted when it came to the consequences of his actions to his friends and colleagues, and eventually left the hospital in disgrace due to some very questionable decisions.
    • Meanwhile, when girlfriend Carol Hathaway accidentally killed a patient, (a) she refused to let the incident be covered up, (b) refused to let the other nurses be blamed or punished, even though she quite reasonably could have — they had all called in sick regarding a salary dispute, leaving her overwhelmed and no doubt contributing to her fatal error, and (c) insisted on being reprimanded even though it could have cost her her job (said punishment did in fact include her being suspended for a time) and her nursing license.
  • Extraordinary Attorney Woo: Family Man Gwang-ho thought he was being honorable when he promised Tae Soo-mi that he'd raise their child alone and give up becoming a lawyer so that she could live her own life with her reputation intact. He realizes too late that this decision only caused himself lots of struggle and closed off opportunities for Young-woo, his daughter, in the long run.
  • In Firefly, Captain Malcolm Reynolds chooses to take in and shelter Simon and River Tam, despite the fact that having them on board increases the danger to his crew and actually puts all them in danger multiple times. When asked why he would do something so risky for people he barely knows when he seems like such a rational, cold-hearted bastard, he doesn't respond, tries to avoid answering altogether, or offers some flimsy excuse that everyone can see through quite clearly.
    • Though this trope applies once they've become part of his crew, his reason for offering that protection in the first place probably comes down to a simple Take That! against the Alliance.
    • The Big Damn Movie shows this in one of its more powerful scenes: After River's psychotic rampage, and when Mal is confronted with every rational reason to leave them behind, he still chooses to protect them and fight for them.
    • Mal is still brutally pragmatic, though, especially when dealing with threats to his crew. Case in point: him kicking Crow into the ship's engine after he declared they would meet again in "The Train Job," or when he decided to shoot the Operative as soon as he said he was unarmed in Serenity. That's what we like about Mal: he has honor, but not stupid honor.
    • Or most times he does. On occasion, though, fighting for honor means Mal risking very likely death, which Inara once calls him on and points out how senseless it is. And, of course, much of his fighting against the Alliance (equally risky) probably IS an honor thing for him, including the less honorable criminal stuff (which is the only way he can justify it, and sometimes not even then).
    • Mal does make it a point to help out people who are in dire straits, though; in "The Train Job," the moment he finds out the cargo he stole is medicine for the dying villagers he chooses to return it. When the local lawman remarks that people have a choice to make when they find out the details of a situation like theirs, Mal's only response is that he feels they don't have a choice at all.
    • Even Jayne has a few instances of this. One particular example is in "War Stories," where he outright tells the rest of the crew that going to rescue Mal from Niska's army of thugs is insane and a suicide mission. Later on, as everyone is preparing to go on the rescue mission, Jayne appears, fully loaded with all of his guns and ready to do his part. At the surprised look of the rest of the crew, his only response is a confused "What?"
    • Jayne's sense of honor showed through in its own way; after betraying Simon and River Tam to the feds in "Ariel" and having to bust them back out due to getting pinched right long with them, he pleads with Mal not to let the others know about his dishonorable actions, even while he was faced with his own death by being Thrown Out the Airlock. That's the only reason Mal spared him.
      • It's also worth noting that Jayne could have easily left both of them there to distract the Feds and make a clean getaway, but he still helps them escape.
    • Simon also does this for River, and he strictly follows the Hippocratic Oath even when he might risk capture or when it's someone he doesn't particularly like.
  • On The Flash, Barry is framed and convicted for murder. Even though he can easily escape and return before anyone even knows he's gone (and the city desperately needs the Flash for various threats), Barry refuses to break the law and insists on serving a sentence for a crime he didn't commit.
  • Forever: In the first episode, Henry refuses to compromise his ethics and step aside to allow an African captive to be killed, even though the captain is ready to shoot him if he doesn't, and once he's dead they'll kill the man anyway. In "Dead Men Tell Long Tales" we learn he's also putting in jeopardy his plan to free all three hundred Africans on board the ship.
  • Several of the Friends cast display some shades of this trope. Monica would rather do everything she can to get people to like her and have her be the best hostess (or whatever she wants people to come over for) instead of accepting the fact that she doesn't have to be the best at everything. Joey refuses to accept Chandler's offer of loaning him money due to his pride. Ross refuses to admit he is wrong when he is actually wrong, which is one of the huge plot drives for the infamous break up between him and Rachel.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Eddard Stark is renowned for his honor and doing what is right regardless of the consequences, such as acknowledging his illegitimate child and raising him as his son alongside his lawful children; opposing assassination and punishing atrocities, regardless of the ramifications. He tries to ensure that Stannis becomes King as Robert's rightful heir while trying to spare Cersei and her children — which is naive to say the least. The dark side of this honor is shown when Littlefinger advises Ned to Take a Third Option (blackmail Cersei, make Joffrey a Puppet King, and Ned rules as Regent) which Ned refuses to consider, citing the Lannisters' treatment of his family and Stannis being Robert's heir, and must accept the consequence of war. Jaime Lannister and Jorah Mormont view Ned as highly judgmental and self-righteous, as they feel Ned condemns people who make dubious actions without listening to their sides. Jaime Lannister tells Brienne that when Ned Stark saw him standing over Aerys' body, he didn't try to explain his side because he felt that Ned would never listen to him. Jorah Mormont tells Daenerys that he fled the Seven Kingdoms after he was caught selling poachers into slavery (an illegal practice) because if Ned Stark had it his way, Ned would execute him and, as a result, deny Jorah his opportunity to redeem himself in Dany's service. Tragically, Ned is aware he has tarnished his own honour out of love for his sister Lyanna and nephew Jon, who he openly claims as his own illegitimate son to protect him. Needless to say, this honor does him far more harm than good. Ned's key problem is his assumption that everyone else in the kingdom abides by these same rules of honor and it doesn't occur to him how incredibly self-serving the royal court truly is. It seems to be a Stark family trait as his sons, Robb Stark and Jon Snow, have inherited this from him as well. To their detractors, they can be seen as crossing the line to into Lawful Stupid.
    • As with his father, Robb Stark does the honorable thing even if it would be wiser to do elsewise. However, he finds ways to still twist this to his advantage, or to do the intelligent thing without compromising his honor. When his men capture a Lannister scout that was spying on their army, he sets the boy free to return to Tywin with a warning that he's coming for him, when actually he sends a skeleton army against Tywin and marches the bulk of his forces against Jaime. He tells Roose Bolton's son when he goes to retake Winterfell from Theon that any Ironborn who surrenders will be spared, since this is not only honorable, but it means they're more likely to hand over Theon to them without a fight. When Jaime challenges him to single combat to settle the war personally, Robb is perfectly aware Jaime is a better warrior and pointedly tells him that they both know Jaime would win, so Robb refuses.
    • As noted above and by show runner D.B. Weiss in an HBO featurette, Jon is "his father’s son, he’s a person who’s honorable to a fault." He refuses to kill anyone innocent or who isn't directly attacking him at that very moment in time. This seems to be his Fatal Flaw just as much as it is for the rest of his family, as his refusal to kill an old man who was going to be killed one way or the other blows his cover, turns his lover against him, gets him shot full of arrows and renders Qhorin Halfhand's sacrifice all but meaningless. He wants to save everyone, regardless of who they are or which side of the Wall they’re from, and will do whatever is necessary to save the living from the army of the dead, even if it costs him personally. In addition to this, there is also a sense to his saving the Wildlings by bringing them south of the Wall because any dead men north of the Wall becomes part of Westeros’s greatest threat, but some of the Night’s Watch really don’t approve and it culminates in Jon being betrayed and stabbed by said group of Night’s Watch brothers. Even after coming Back from the Dead, his viewpoint has not changed much.
    Jon: (The Wildlings) were born on the wrong side of the Wall. That doesn't make them monsters.
    • Maester Aemon gives an especially poignant defense of this trope, explaining that it's easy for men to do their sworn duty when there's no personal cost. It's only when that oath is upheld in dire circumstances does it ever mean anything.
    • Despite having the weakest faction, Stannis Baratheon refuses to consider peace or alliance with anyone he considers a usurper, even before he learns the true power of his ally Melisandre.
    • The subjects of Oathbreaking and Sacred Hospitality tend to give otherwise pragmatic characters a fit of this. Jaime Lannister is widely reviled as "the Kingslayer" for killing his king even by rebels who sought to execute that king and Tyrion takes exception to slaughtering thousands at a wedding rather than in battle (or a surprise wildfire explosion). In contrast, Twyin actually backs the latter up as better to kill a few dozen than thousands.
    • When Daenerys is hesitant to buy an army of slave soldiers, Ser Jorah reminds her of her late brother's fate: "Rhaegar fought honorably, Rhaegar fought nobly, and Rhaegar died."
    • Why Ser Barristan Selmy rejects Cersei's retirement offer; as a member of the Kingsguard, he's sworn for life. The Small Council realizes that this was a major mistake; with Tywin calling Cersei on her stupidity in firing a man like that, freeing him up to choose the side of Daenerys Targaryen. Later, Ser Barristan grants a suspected traitor the benefit of a warning before turning him over to his monarch for punishment, setting himself up for Have You Told Anyone Else?, though he shows his caution by keeping his sword at the ready.
    • Indeed, much of the series is dedicated to showing how such ideas of honor have no place against the brutal politics of this kingdom. However, as of Season 5, there seems to be something of a Decon-Recon Switch approaching. Everything the brutally pragmatic Tywin Lannister built begins to deteriorate within days of his death, and the Lannister power-base evaporates pretty much overnight. Meanwhile, several of the Northern houses, including but not limited to the Manderleys and the Mormonts, have unconditionally thrown their lot in with the remaining Starks simply because they're relatives of Ned's.
    • The ironborn commander Ralf Kenning refuses Reek's offer of safe conduct in exchange for surrender, though perhaps he guessed Ramsay's intention to flay them anyway.
    • House Arryn's words are "As High As Honor" and the lords and knights of the Vale often adhere to honorable ideas of trial-by-combat and importance of birth and blood. In fact, Eddard Stark's sense of honor is more Arryn than Stark, having been fostered at the Eyrie by Jon Arryn.
    • In "The Second Sons", when Stannis offers to let Davos out of prison if he swears never to raise a hand to Melisandre again, Davos agrees, but makes it clear that he will not stop speaking against her if he feels she's leading Stannis astray.
      Stannis: [amused] You have little regard for your own life.
      Davos: Quite little, your grace... verging on none.
    • Brienne displays Undying Loyalty to an extreme. She continues to serve Catelyn Stark even after her death. This becomes a fault of hers as she's so committed to protecting the Stark children, she couldn't simply let Arya be with the Hound. She ends up supposedly killing the Hound and losing track of Arya, meaning Arya's all on her own now.
    • Why Jaime Lannister spared Ned Stark, as defeating him after being stabbed from behind "wouldn't have been clean". He also finds Bronn's Combat Pragmatist tactics in poor taste.
    • Daario is an odd example. He did not approve of Mero and Prendahl's plan to kill Daenerys, mainly on account of her beauty, and when they tried to kill him for refusing to carry out the assassination, he killed them. Still, Daario doesn't have what you'd typically call a sense of honor, it's more that he really doesn't like being told to do things he doesn't want to do.
    • Balon Greyjoy is this, of a sort. Balon is so dedicated to his vision of the Iron Price that he spurns Robb Stark's alliance, Theon's allegiance, and trade in general, despite those things potentially granting him his old lands and full title, an heir, and the ability for his kingdom to prosper, respectively.
  • In the third season of The Good Place, the heroes uncover a serious flaw in the system that judges human actions when they find out that no human has gotten into the Good Place in over five centuries. Michael (himself an Ascended Demon) brings the issue to the attention of the Good Place Council, who are legitimately horrified and promise to take immediate action. However, their idea of "decisive action" is to take 400 years to form a blue ribbon committee who will spend the next 1,000 years investigating themselves for any conflicts of interest. Michael points out that during that time, billions of humans will be wrongly sent to the Bad Place to be tortured and asks why they can't do something now. The council respond by pointing out that there are rules and procedures that they have to follow because "We're the good guys. We can't just do stuff."
  • Gordon in Gotham is adamant about solving the Wayne murders due to his promise to Bruce even after the case is officially closed and becoming more involved would put him and his loved ones in danger.
    • Just like in the comics, Bruce Wayne is prone to this when it comes to his rule about not killing anyone while he's fighting crime. Fittingly, he is most prone to this whenever he is fighting Jerome or Jeremiah Valeska, identical twins who are the two most likely candidates on this Batman prequel show to become the future Joker. He can also take this to ridiculous extremes. At one point, after Bruce prevents Selena from killing Jerome, Jerome actually has a rare Pet the Dog moment where he considers saving Bruce from a different criminal in order to repay him for saving his life. When Bruce sees that Jerome is about to shoot the man strangling him, though, he tells him not to, because he believes so strongly in not killing criminals that he is against it even when it could save his life. Jerome, being who he is, decides it would be funnier to watch him get strangled because of his honor than help him, and precedes to laugh at him and watch him struggle rather than intervene.
  • In the second of the Redemption Tournament set of episodes of the cooking game show Guy's Grocery Games, the first round ends with one of the chefs realizing too late that he had cut himself, and specks of his blood where all over his station, meaning that the judges couldn't taste his food. Guy said that if the other three competitors were unanimous about it, they would give this chef a chance to move on to the second round, where afterwards there would be a double elimination, but if the chefs weren't unanimous, he'd be eliminated right then and there. The other three competitors decided to give him a second chance (technically a third chance, as this is the redemption tournament), and as if to drive this trope home, said chef proceeded to beat them all and win the game.
  • Duncan MacLeod in Highlander: The Series is another prototype example for this trope. He would accept any challenge, no matter what the the odds, only to prove his honor. He even explained it to Methos in an episode:
    Duncan: Did you know Mencius?
    Methos: Student of Confucius, yeah.
    Duncan: "I dislike death, but there are things that I dislike more than death—"
    Methos: "—therefore there are occasions when I will not avoid danger." Death before dishonor.
    • Actually justified considering Duncan is a 16th-century Highland Clansman when such ideals were very much the rule.
    • And utterly averted in Methos himself, who only really follows this trope when it comes to his friends. This is illustrated in the episode "Chivalry", right after Duncan MacLeod has disarmed, then released, the episode's female villain, Kristin. As MacLeod starts walking away from Kristin, Methos steps forward.
      Kristin: Who are you?
      Methos: A man born long before the age of chivalry. [waves his swordpoint toward her sword, which is on the ground next to her] Pick it up.
  • JAG: In "The Colonel's Wife", the eponymous wife has involuntarily become a drug courier in order to protect her husband's anti-drug program in Panama from blackmail. When the facts are about to be revealed, she gets herself killed in order to save her husband's honor.
  • One episode of Law & Order features a serial killer's public defender who, acting on a tip from his client, goes to see a warehouse where the killer has stored bodies of his victims, which he admits was stupid but refuses to tell anyone where they are, standing firmly behind privilege. Because he had to lock it when he left, thus helping hide the bodies, McCoy decides to charge him as an accessory, while making it clear that all the lawyer has to do to get the charges dropped is give up the location of the bodies. He never does, and goes to prison still refusing. As he's led away, an exasperated McCoy tells him there's no way the bar would hold him accountable for breaking confidentiality given the circumstances. His response? "Shame on them."
    • Somewhat Truth in Television. This example is extreme, but lawyers are supposed to maintain confidentiality pretty much no matter what (the only exception is to prevent future criminal activity, and even then they have to have concrete knowledge of the future crime; feelings and speculation would be insufficient). The series and its spinoffs cover similar issues with priest/penitent privilege more than once.
  • In one episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a dangerous serial rapist and killer kills himself in front of Olivia and makes it look like she did it. Given that the man in question was holding Olivia and two children prisoner and was actively threatening her, Olivia would have been justified in shooting him, so virtually everybody around her (including Tucker) urges her to just run with the easy explanation and say she shot him in self-defense. Instead, Olivia insists on sticking to the true story, which is bizarre enough that it comes across to some people like she has something to hide. (It's worth noting that Olivia had lied in a previous trial regarding the same individual and it came back to bite her, so her determination to tell the truth might be an overcompensation for that.) It's only thanks to a last-minute save by someone who is willing to lie that Olivia isn't indicted for murder.
  • BBC's Merlin:
    • Prince Arthur demonstrates this trope repeatedly, as far back as his risking his life to save Merlin in 1X04, all the way up to literally putting his neck on the line to keep his word to Morgause in late Season 2.
    • Lancelot. Much to Guinevere's exasperation, it's almost as if he and Arthur are in some kind of competition as to who can be the most stoically self-sacrificing. (Lancelot's winning).
    • A good concrete example with Percival in the Season 4 premiere. Percival stumbles across three frightened children, realizes he can't carry all of them and a torch (the only defense against the Dorocha), so he drops the torch and carries the children. Predictably, the Dorocha close in on him, but Elyan pulls a Big Damn Heroes moment to save them all.
  • Shows up in the Arthurian episode of MythQuest, naturally. Particularly, after things go horribly wrong, Alex opts to accept the beheading he promised to Eliavres a year earlier instead of touch the window and get back to the real world.
  • Nirvana in Fire: This is Jingyan's default setting. Mei Changsu tries his best to make him behave more strategically, but has to give in when Jingyan refuses to leave Wei Zheng in prison to be executed, even though breaking him out is an extremely dangerous move that will potentially waste all of Jingyan's political gains so far.
  • Noah's Arc: This is one of Noah's more frequently seen characteristics, such as in one episode where he turns down a $4000 check from Wade because he feels he should get himself out of his financial mess (despite having to sell his beloved car to do so).
  • In the ninth season of The Office (US), the office workers organize a paper airplane tournament with a $2,000 prize. The final contestants are Angela, who is recently divorced with a young child and struggling financially, and her former boyfriend Dwight. Dwight sabotages himself to let Angela win and she's initially flattered by the gesture. However, after his current girlfriend Esther patronizingly expresses her sympathies to Angela she is so insulted that she throws the competition to keep her pride. Still, later the camera crew catches her taking rolls of toilet paper from the bathroom so she won't have to buy them.
    Angela: I don't need pity, and I don't need charity. I have my dignity, and that's enough. And as long as I have that, I'll be okay.
  • Once Upon a Time: The Evil Queen has called Snow White to a parlay, meaning that Snow cannot bring weapons. Snow agrees, and insists that she has to abide by the rules. Grumpy and Red both in no uncertain terms tell her that this is a bad idea, and Red even says that Snow is "too noble for [her] own good." (What isn't mentioned but is important is the fact that Snow isn't allowed to bring weapons, but the Queen has magic, so she's bringing a weapon just by showing up.) This is how she ends up eating the poisoned apple that puts her to sleep.
    • Later, When Snow finally subverts this and preemptively kills Cora by turning her own magic against her before she and Regina could become the Dark ones and murder her entire family, she spends the next episode moping about and even begs Regina to kill her, and then it is revealed that the powers that be for that universe branded her with a black spot on her heart for the act.
  • In One Piece (2023), while deliberately allowing Mihawk to cut him across the chest rather than his back was a noble act, Zoro would then be put to the brink of death, resulting in his friends freaking out and now having to deal with his severe wounds. It also put Zoro out of commission when Arlong and his men come looking for Luffy.
  • Person of Interest: A former soldier and Afghan War veteran robs banks because he believes he has a debt of honor to repay and needs to support the family of a friend who died in Afghanistan after they switched seats during a mission.
    • A much bigger example, with much worse results: one of the core values Harold instilled in the Machine was the protection of human life, the idea that humans should be safeguarded and not sacrificed for the greater good. The Machine discovers a highly-placed official poised to assist in the creation of an unfettered rival AI, with much darker motives. While the rational thing to do would be to send Root to kill him, the Machine sends his number to Harold and Reese instead. They eventually deduce what the Machine wants them to do: the Machine is essentially asking its creator for permission to kill the man. Harold refuses, and as a result, the rival AI comes online, and things start getting substantially worse for the heroes. At the end of Season 3, they are forced to abandon their vigilante work and go into hiding under protected cover identities. At the end of Season 4, their cover identities are blown and the Machine itself is offline.
  • Koragg in Power Rangers Mystic Force is this trope. About midway through the season, the bad guys manage to strip the Rangers' powers and win. Koragg helps the Rangers get their powers back, because he didn't like the way the victory was achieved. Nick even lampshades this.
    "You want darkness to take over the world, but only if it does it nicely?"
  • Both Decker and Jayden in Power Rangers Samurai. Decker wants to duel Jayden, but only when he's at full strength. Jayden decides to give him his one-on-one, even after they Rangers find out he's a Nighlok, and after Kevin tells him they should fight him as a team, like any other Nighlok.
  • In Princess Returning Pearl, pretty much all "good" characters embody this trope, however there is one scene where it shows itself most clearly. Xiao Yan Zi, Yong Qi, Er Kang and Zi Wei have just committed a major crime and the emperor Qian Long is throwing them in jail. The Empress Dowager and Ling Fei manages to pretty much convince Qian Long to let Yong Qi go free because he is the emperor's son. The idea that if he isn't imprisoned, he could help rescue his friends. But apparently holding the Idiot Ball, Yong Qi declares that he would rather go to jail with his friends than go free without them. You can see both Ling Fei and Er Kang mentally facepalming.
  • Subversion in Rome where Anthony, who is besieged in his palace with the (very) pitiful remains of his guard, counts on this trope and challenges Octavian, his sworn enemy and leader of the Roman forces, to a one-on-one duel, knowing that he is easily the superior warrior and brags that he alone is going to win the war. Octavian's answer is looking at his general-staff and asking: "Is he completely nuts???" Anthony rather stupidly assumed in his drug-addled state that Octavian would give up a supreme tactical advantage just to avoid looking like a coward, when even if Octavian cared about that he could just kill anyone who heard about it.
    • Rome also has a very interesting take on this trope with Lucius Vorenus. He is driven by his morals 100% and can think of nothing worse than dishonor. He stays loyal to Antony even after his death, prompting Octavian to comment: "The man turns loyalty into a vice". What makes Vorenus an interesting example is that he is so completely driven by his sense of honor and moral, but those don't exactly measure up with the ones we have today. He is, for example, prepared to kill the boy Lucius (his dead wife's bastard son) because "honor demands it". Except he doesn't kill him after all, subverting this trope for perhaps the only time in all of his onscreen appearances.
  • Search: Telling the truth about the 1997 DMZ incident would result in the dishonourable discharge of Min-guk and the other survivors. Min-guk plans to tell the truth anyway. It gets him murdered.
  • Gi-hun in Squid Game is surprisingly prone to this despite being a Loser Protagonist. His loyalty to his coworkers resulted in him missing the birth of his daughter and his marriage falling apart because he was participating in a sit-in while his wife was in labor and almost died, and things only get worse for him from there. Once he winds up in the Deadly Game, he ends up developing Chronic Hero Syndrome with limited success. Once Sang-woo starts Jumping Off the Slippery Slope he gives Gi-hun a "The Reason You Suck" Speech calling him "someone who always has to get into trouble but somehow can't tell he's in it". The season ends with Gi-hun turning his back on his family again to try to strike back at the masterminds with no plan and limited resources.
  • In the classic Star Trek: The Original Series episode, "Spectre of the Gun", Kirk becomes increasingly desperate to escape the surreal nightmare Death Trap he and his landing party are thrust in. However, when the sheriff suggests he ambush the Earps to murder them, Kirk becomes nearly hysterical that he cannot stoop that low regardless of how dire the situation is. However, after the party figures a way to beat the trap, Kirk keeps to that same principle to spare the defeated Earps and that act impresses the aliens to not only let Kirk's party go, but also open up relations with the Federation. Thus by keeping to his principles, Kirk pulls a real victory out of the affair instead of mere survival. The same thing happens in "Arena" when he refuses to finish off the Gorn. Although by that point the Gorn wasn't in any shape to take advantage.
    • Ironically, the outcome of "Spectre of the Gun" was due to Executive Meddling. In the original script, Kirk does let pragmatism trump honor, and shoots Wyatt Earp in the back. The aliens release Kirk not because they're impressed by his principles, but because, having read his mind, they know he believes in honor, and conclude that for him to have violated his own principles, he must be insane, and therefore not culpable for his actions.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation:
    • On the whole Klingons live by Honor Before Reason, "Reunion" really shows how deeply they value it. When Worf, who is currently so dishonored by his fellow Klingons that they refer to him as "That" rather then his name, invokes the Rite of Vengeance on Duras nobody interferes. And Duras was on the cusp of becoming the chancellor and leader of his people.
    • In the episode "Half a Life", an alien is about to turn sixty, an age where people on his planet commit ritual suicide as a way of preserving their dignity. When he wants to break tradition in order to continue research on how to save the planet's dying star, they inform him that, even if he finds a way to save it, they would reject it because he broke tradition.
    • In "Ethics", Worf is rendered paraplegic after a piece of improperly secured cargo falls on his spine. It turns out that according to Klingon tradition, being disabled such that one cannot fight is a major dishonor, and as far as Worf is concerned, his only option is ritual suicide, even though that would leave Alexander without a father. For most of the episode, he refuses to let Alexander see him in his condition. Worf is offered cybernetic implants which would partially restore his mobility, but he turns them down — by Klingon standards being even moderately crippled is not a life worth living (he ends up undergoing an extremely risky procedure to outright replace his spine). It was also mentioned that Klingon neuroscience had been severely lagging because of that; the Klingon medical community had essentially no experience with actually treating spinal cord injuries.
    • In "I, Borg", Picard decides not to take a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to destroy the Borg, an entity that had cut through the galaxy like locusts, including assimilating Picard himself, because to use a newly individualized Borg against his race would be wrong. Somehow. Picard was severely reprimanded by his superiors for making that choice and, later, he admits that while what he did was the moral thing to do it may not have been the right thing. The idea was that it would be wrong because the newly individualized and presumably innocent Borg would also be killed. Also, Picard hoped that its individuality would spread through the collective, so that the Borg would no longer be enemies or would at least be a group that could be negotiated with. And it worked, except only a part of the Collective was "infected" with individuality (implying that the other, more lethal option would have only taken out part of the Collective as well). Too bad Data's Evil Twin Lore manipulated them into becoming vicious conquerors.
    • "Pegasus" sees Captain Picard openly admitting to an admiral violating a treaty with the Romulans by conducting cloaking research, causing a diplomatic incident and making his own government look bad to maintain Starfleet's honor.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine gives us the Jem'Hadar. They are programmed to obey the Vorta without question, even when they know better. In one particular instance, a bunch of half-dead Jem'Hadar walk right into a Federation ambush their Vorta sent them into, knowing beforehand he was doing it on purpose so they'd all die and he could defect, simply because they are bred to obey. This serves to make them surprisingly relatable in several episodes.
    Sisko: Do you really want to give up your life for the 'order of things'?
    Remata'Klan: It is not my life to give up, Captain — and it never was.
    • The Vorta are likewise bred to obey the Founders. While they never have so suicidal an opportunity to demonstrate this, their loyalty to the Founders is shown to trump reason on occasion. We also see a few surrender or defect though.
    • Worf is one of the most prominent examples of a character following his personal brand of honor no matter what (though sometimes it puts him in conflict with the all-forgiving sentiments of Picard's brand of honor.) But the archetypal example comes in a Deep Space Nine episode where Worf battles and defeats Jem'Hadar soldiers in order of increasing difficulty not being given time to heal between battles to the point where fellow Klingon General Martok tells him that honor has been satisfied and he still gets up and keeps fighting. Eventually the Jem'Hadar chief surrenders out of respect though he could have easily won the fight and is immediately killed by his pragmatic Vorta superior for his gesture.note 
      • In Way of the Warrior this gets interesting; Worf's code of honor compels him to side against Gowron and the Klingon Empire. Gowron points out that this will lead to his family being officially stripped of their honor (in the reputation/face sense Klingons usually use), only for Worf to reply that he will still have his honor (in the internal code sense humans in the show use). Gowron's expression makes it clear that he doesn't understand what he was just told and thinks Worf has completely lost his marbles.
  • In Star Trek: Voyager, Captain Janeway turns down many opportunities to get the crew home by refusing to violate the Prime Directive. She also suffers from a staggering amount of Depending on the Writer and, as a result, seemed to follow a bizarre version of the Prime Directive unique to her and constantly changing.
    • When she is revealed as a traitor, Seska openly calls out Janeway on her attitude: "If this was a Cardassian ship, we'd be home by now!"
    • Janeway's first officer, Chakotay, at times exhibits this attitude as well; usually in confrontation with Janeway during one of the many instances where she is entirely willing to break the rules. Chakotay is probably one of the most consistent (if not well-known) examples of this trope after Game of Thrones Ned Stark. This is frequently at odds with his original status as a major leader in a guerrilla army/terrorist group and the way he runs it, though considering that he becomes a Maquis due to considering it to be the morally right thing to do, he may be this even as a terrorist. Chakotay was a Starfleet officer before his defection, so he still believes in the ideals of the Federation and Starfleet.
  • This trope was the Fatal Flaw of several Survivor contestants:
    • In the second season, Colby Donaldson had an easy win - his alliance pretty much controlled the entire game post merge, he was nigh untouchable for essentially the last half of the game, and had someone who wasn't very good at the game next to him he could take to the final two. Because he felt Tina deserved to be final two, he took her — which resulted in her winning. However, Colby was quite a good sport about it, and was quite glad that Tina won.
    • In Cagayan, Woo was in a similar spot to Colby — he had pretty much slipped through all of the major threats, and was in the position where he would cast the sole vote on who he would take to the final two. He had two options: He could vote out Tony, who had controlled the game, pulled his weight in challenges, found plenty of idols to keep further ensure his safety, and had the respect of almost everyone in the jury; or Kass, whose betrayal led to most of the jurors sitting there, had failed to perform well in challenges, had several enemies even amongst her new allies in the jury, and was taken along because she was easy to beat. Woo chose to take Tony because he was with him longer — suffice to say, He chose poorly. This led to Spencer giving him a The Reason Kass sucks and you messed up speech, a near unanimous vote for Tony, Woo being called one of the dumbest players to play the game, and get booed at the finale. When Probst asked who would have voted for Woo over Kass... almost everyone rose their hands. OUCH.
    • This also wound up hurting Coach several times — notably in South Pacific, wherein he voted out three potential people he could have beaten (Edna, who the tribe irrationally disliked, Brandon, who was highly dislikable, and Rick, who was seen as not really playing the game.) and took Sophie with him further, which led to her winning over a 6-3 vote. Why did he take Sophie so far? Earlier on he made a final three deal with her and Albert — and he wanted to respect that.
  • In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which tosses out the events of Terminator 3, both John and Sarah try to stop Skynet with no deaths. Cameron and Derek Reese don't share the same sentiment, however. If killing someone will complete the mission and possibly stop Skynet, they'll kill them in a heartbeat. This goes out the window at the start of the second season, when John is forced to witness a man attempting to rape his mother. Thou Shalt Not Kill comes to a crashing end when he breaks free. On the other hand, John refuses to destroy Cameron even after she goes berserk and tries to kill him. Everyone, even Cameron herself thinks that John should have destroyed her, but he refuses to, because he still trusts her.
  • Tour of Duty: In "Gray-Brown Odyssey", Lt. Goldman and a female VC prisoner, whom he holds at gun point after a prior ambush that also leaves him temporarily blind, come across a wounded communist sympathizer and his starving family. After hearing the VC explaining about the plight of the said family of four, Goldman gives them all his rations and is about to move on. The VC, knowing that Goldman does not understand Vietnamese language, not only tells the family that Goldman has just offered them food but also asks the family to mob the blind Goldman and help her escaping. A girl from the family grabs a knife to free the VC...... only to be prevented from going through with it by her wounded father, who thanks Goldman for the food and allows him to leave with the VC still his prisoner.
  • Vikings: After Ragnar's sword breaks, the Earl lets Ragnar smash their shields to bits and then tosses his own sword away so that they can pause to re-arm themselves with axes. This might be due to the duel's ritualistic nature.
    • Despite the ferocity and numbers of the pagan Northmen, Emperor Charles is too proud to call his brothers for aid in defending Paris.
  • Walker, Texas Ranger:
    • In Season 5's "The Brotherhood", Ernesto Lopez, the son of Walker's close friend, Marta Lopez, is wrongly accused of rape after being picked off in a Police Lineup, and while Alex arranges for a DNA test to prove he didn't do it, Ernesto needs an air-tight alibi to avoid prison time, let alone register as a sex offender. Ernesto fell in love a Congressman's daughter who had recently enrolled at Harvard Law School last May while doing service on her BMW, and was afraid of upsetting her father if he told Walker and Alex he was seeing her the night the rape took place, having agreed to keep their relationship a secret until after his honorable discharge from the Marines and she graduates law school. Walker and Alex promise not to tell the Congressman if he told the truth, and Ernesto is eventually cleared of all charges via a DNA Test but Walker is too late to tell him the good news since a group of Dirty Cops who decided to kill off criminals who managed to beat the justice system killed him, because they forgot to check that he was innocent. Walker warned them their malicious and extremist actions would eventually result in an innocent person being killed.

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