Launch Definition: "When you see a character or culture, especially a Proud Warrior Race Guy and the culture he came from, be known for being "honorable" then you will see an aversion to using ambushes, ranged weapons, attacks on the unaware, etc." == characters and societies that prioritize honor will demonstrate an aversion to underhanded tactics in combat and fighting
Wicks/Examples Checked: 39
- Correct?: 13 (33%)
- Playing Fair Is Important/ Doesn't Like Cheating/Treachery Broadly: 10 (26%)
- Honor broadly/Being honorable generally: 4 (10%)
- Unclear: 12 (31%)
Correct?
- Morality Tropes: Being honorable means giving your opponents a fair fight.
- Bad Luck Fale - Shadow Archetype: Is this to his mentor Yuji Nagata. Both are steadfast in their loyalty, believe in NJPW's core principles, and Fale has adopted the salute in his mannerisms since Nagata's semi-retirement. To no one's surprise, though, Fale does not subscribe to Honor Is Fair Play and is willing to enact foul plans for the sake of his covenant.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation S1 E3 "Code of Honor" - Code of Honor: The Ligonian idea of honor averts Honor Is Fair Play but is still fairly strict. Lutan kidnapping Lt. Yar is directly compared to counting coup; a gutsy and audacious move to increase his reputation but as long as nobody is actually hurt not a violation of Sacred Hospitality. Lutan directly boasts about how his following it means he's protected by it in turn.
- Star Trek Deep Space Nine S 03 E 03 The House Of Quark - Honor Before Reason: It's also made VERY clear that Klingon honor is not like what the modern viewer thinks of as honor. It's very much in the medieval knight/Samurai vein of reputation and Might Makes Right, with no value placed on (Honor Is Fair Play) fairness or good sportsmanship. Thus the fact that another house challenged D'Ghor's honor with its accusations is what mattered, not whether the evidence Quark provided is true.
- Star Trek: The Klingons are all war all the time. They'd tell you their true hat is honor, but not all Klingon puts it in practice, to protagonist Klingon Worf's disillusionment... The problem is that the word "honor" has multiple and very different meanings (even in our world.) They actually are a perfectly reasonable representation of a society that runs on honor
. They care about reputation, face, and glory a great deal, but the modern western concept of honor (Honor Is Fair Play) which is all tied up with ideals of chivalry, sportsmanship, and individual conscience means nothing to them. A prime example comes from "The Way Of The Warrior" where humans consider waiting cloaked near a disabled enemy ship to ambush any would-be rescuers to be cheap and cowardly and thus dishonorable, but to Klingons it's laudable because "in war, nothing is more honorable than victory." Worf tries to use both systems, with limited success; when the two are in conflict he tends to go with what his human adoptive parents taught him. The Orcs from World of Warcraft are also accused of being this, but with the exception of Worf in the Klingons' case, the Orcs are usually slightly more multidimensional. - WWE Tag Teams, Indus Sher - Noble Demon: Between their Indian roots and Sanga's brief babyface stint, their characters are informed by a form of Villain Respect for formidable rivals...which does nothing to stop them from assaulting said rivals unprovoked because Veer and especially Jinder do not subscribe to the notion that Honor Is Fair Play.
- Characters/Sanctuaryverse - Miyamoto: Unlike her canonical version which is ready to use all dirty tricks to win a fight, this version of her has a Code of Honor and does not support trickery.
- Planescape – Factions - Brotherhood of Glory: They don't have much in the way of moral scruples otherwise, but since their whole ethos is about proving themselves in battle, they're averse to unfair fights — they'll rarely gang up on an outnumbered target, nor will they ambush an opponent unawares without giving them the chance to arm themselves and fight back.
- Arjun: The Warrior Prince - Acharya Drona: He gives Arjun a fair chance to display his skills on the battle field to see what he had learned all these years. And whenever Arjun loses a weapon, instead of taking advantage of the opportunity to kill him, he lends him the exact same weapon as the one he wields so the fight would be equal and fair.
- In Captive Prince, this is a point of Culture Clash between the Akielon Proud Warrior Race, who believe in honorable combat, and the Veretians, who don't. Laurent is bewildered when Damen, an Akielon, informs an enemy Akielon general when to expect their attack, but the gesture helps them win Akielon allies later. The Veretians' attitude also trips them up, since their willingness to attack under a flag of truce leads Akielons to assume bad faith in anything they do.
- In Star Trek this is a common plot point when dealing with Klingons. A lot of human characters subscribe to honor of this type, and Klingons follow the traditional sort of honor (particularly through their love of ambush tactics). What throws a lot of characters off is that their main exposure to Klingon culture is Worf, and Worf as a Child of Two Worlds goes considerably out of his way to try and follow both, usually ending up on the side of this trope when there's a conflict. This eventually leads to a scene where Worf is forced to accept being stripped of his "official reputation" honor to preserve his "internal code of conduct" honor; he doesn't bother to clarify that he's using the word differently and it comes of as pure gibberish to the other Klingons.
- Dungeons & Dragons. The 1st Edition cavalier class was based on King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. They would not use missile weapons (e.g. bows or crossbows) and could not use burning oil against opponents in melee combat. In addition they had to follow a chivalrous code of honor, which forbade (among other things) sneaking around in disguise.
- Champions. The super villain Firewing had a code of honor that prohibited attacking by surprise, attacking from behind, or gaining an advantage (beyond his own abilities) that isn't also possessed by his opponent.
Playing Fair Is Important/ Doesn't Like Cheating/Treachery Broadly
- The Amazing Race: China Rush 2 - Mary & Cecilia: Their general outlook on the race given their loyalty to their allies and refusal to use the U-Turn or Yield except for revenge.
- The Amazing Race Canada 6 - Martina and Phil: They ran a clean run throughout the race, without resorting to any schemes to undermine the other racers.
- The Amazing Race Canada 3 - Simi and Ope: They eventually gave up the cab they called to Nick & Matt when the latter team was in the process of stealing it from them. They discussed that they would try to play cleanly and fair, only to be eliminated that leg.
- The Amazing Race Canada 2 - Natalie & Meaghan:
- Why Meaghan was so upset at Sukhi & Jinder for trying to send them the wrong way in leg 10.
- This was also likely the reason why Meaghan allowed Sukhi & Jinder to look at the copy of the Signal Flag Detour instructions.
- The Amazing Race Australia v New Zealand - Daniel & Ryan: They repeatedly said that it was more important for them to have fun and run the race with integrity than it was for them to win.
- The Amazing Race Asia 2 - Marc & Rovilson: They said that when they finished they race, they wanted to be proud of the way they had played, which was not dirty.
- The Amazing Race: All-Stars (2014) - Jet & Cord: They again made comments about leaving with their integrity intact after getting eliminated. Further expanded on in elimination interviews, where they noted that they would not have U-Turned Caroline & Jennifer, even if they had beaten the country singers to the mat.
- The Amazing Race 16 - Jet & Cord: They took it far too personally when Jordan cut in line, and made comments at the Finish Line about how, though they lost, they kept their integrity intact.
- Grand Theft Auto IV - Other Characters - Malc & De Sean: They are pragmatic when it comes to Dirty Business, but race against them, and they expect fair play. When DeSean asks Malc and Johnny to help him take revenge on a rival biker who shot at him during a race, Johnny points out that he was barely hurt. DeSean insists that It's the Principle of the Thing and that the rival should have used a bat as per race rules.
- Warhammer: the War God Ulric hates subterfuge and ranged weapons (except for ambushes).
- In Warhammer 40,000, Space Marines, as a rule, hate camouflage, stealth, or hiding (they prefer shock and awe, which was very effective during the Great Crusade, but less so in the 41st millennium where many enemies can't be shocked or awed), with the exception of the non-canon Reasonable Marines, who are sporting in that they will give diplomacy a fair shot, and cut fair deals, but who, once you leave them no other choice, will kill you, unceremoniously and anticlimactically, and the canonical Raptors chapter.
Honor broadly/Being honorable generally
- Knight in Shining Armor: When EMLL became the more internationally diverse CMLL, few of the new luchadors were better received than Steele, the large, powerful, (Honor Is Fair Play) honorable, fair playing knight in his shiny face plate looking mask.
- ALZI Production Wonder Woman: Giganta tells Wonder Woman that she's not only here for the money but also, for the honor. Defeating Wonder Woman would therefore, by the greatest achievement for her.
- Roman Reigns - Also related to his leukemia is the fact that Roman Reigns took years to turn heel. If someone is powering through a history of cancer to become a multiple-time WrestleMania main eventer, world heavyweight champion, and crowned face of the biggest professional wrestling promotion in the entire world, of course, little things like "half the crowd don't like me" wouldn't cause him to change his ultimately successful ways. However, taking time off to keep himself and his newborn kids safe only to find that same promotion making a halfhearted attempt to forgo acknowledging his existence for the convenience of a locker room he led resolutely, less than a year after his family members outside the company had already made a takeover statement? By Roman's standards, possibly shared by The Wild Samoans, the company had declared him and his bloodline disposable, an insult which could not stand if he was truly its flagbearer. Honor Is Fair Play no more; now it's time to rule through fear.
- DEATH BATTLE! (Season 2, Part 1) - Gundam Epyon: Treize has a sense of honor, and this is reflected in Epyon's fighting style, being a close-ranged Gundam.
Unclear
- In Quest for Glory II, a Fighter player will end up getting into a duel with The Dragon Khaveen during the endgame. At one point you'll knock Khaveen's sword out of his hands; if you want to be able to become a Paladin, you have to let him retrieve his sword rather than just killing him then and there. The situation is reversed earlier in the duel, and Khaveen is shown to be a royal slimeball because he absolutely will kill you while you're defenseless, meaning you have to dodge his attack and retrieve your sword in the same motion.
- Warhammer 40,000: Khorne zigzags this: on the one hand, any blood spilled in battle is his, be it from enemies, allies, yourself, or defenseless civilians. On the other hand, his throne sits upon a mountain of skulls taken from warriors- again, yours or your enemies, but not defenseless enemies. Decapitating an entire orphanage or hospital ward and claiming their skulls as trophies is a surefire way to get his hellhounds after you.
- In Ironclaw the Overconfidence Gift allows you to offer an opponent a bonus d12 to their roll against you, if they accept you take a bonus d12 as well.
- In Discworld, the nobility/officer class have a tendency towards military flashiness and believing that a victory consisted in having less casualties than your opponent; the more total dead, the better. Tacticus, Vimes and Vetinari all avert this, preferring ambush tactics, psychological warfare, camouflage and stealth. Understandable since Tacitus only cared about conquest, Vimes is a policeman and a former street urchin, and Vetinari is an Assassin and political genius; neither of them is interested in fair play.
- The Amazing Race 10 - Erwin & Godwin: They said it was more important for them to be able to look at themselves in the mirror after the race than it was to win it.
- The Amazing Race 32 - Kaylynn and Haley: Their viewpoint of the race.
- Blazing Saddles - Sheriff Bart confronts Hedley Lamarr at the movie theater and tells him to go for his gun. Lamarr claims to be unarmed, so (following the Code of the West) Sheriff Bart throws away his gun and prepares to fight Lamarr with his fists. Lamarr smugly announces that he is armed and pulls out a derringer, whereupon Bart dives to grab his gun back and shoots him. — who is the example here? is it Sherriff Bart following a Code of Honor or Lamarr eschewing that same Code of Honor?
- Ring of Honor's initial code was a mix of fair play and mandatory, unconditional, respect given to all competitors. Later variations of the code are more like
Character Alignment. Christopher Daniels and his Prophecy were the most infamous wrestlers to vocally subscribe to a very different definition of honor, being hostile to the ideals of mandatory respect and level playing fields. Taeler Hendrix would also declare in a Motive Rant that sneak attacks against people you despise were very honorable, even if they disrupted the show and violated the ROH code. — is this not just outlining Code of Honor? - Chewing the Scenery - Ring of Honor: And The House Of Truth didn't forget about the women. In fact, Taeler Hendrix's rant on the Honor Is Fair Play mindset that permeates through the promotion might have drawn as much attention to the rebranded Women Of Honor division as any match.
- Taeler Hendrix - Chewing the Scenery: Her Motive Rant about the Honor Is Fair Play mindset and how good vs. evil is the greatest story ever and how she is staying on the side of evil so her story never ends qualifies.
- Christopher Daniels - Evil Virtues: Daniels has always had a sense of honor. His conflicts with ROH stem from the fact Daniels does not believe Honor Is Fair Play. He'll still complain about things that he feels are unfair to himself or his partners, though.
- Physical Sports
- Laconic.Lets Fight Like Gentlemen: Combatants lay down ground rules before fighting.
- An Index of Ladies and Gentlemen: Before two characters brawl it out, they lay down some fair ground rule
- Harbinger of Asskicking: Combatants lay down ground rules before fighting.
- This Index Is Not an Example: Combatants lay down ground rules before fighting. The Trope Namer is Street Fighter III character Dudley, who offers this line but no actual ground rules, and very much does not fight like a gentleman.
From the Archived Discussion: "It's about following the rules during a fight."
Wick Check:
