History Main / HonorBeforeReason

* LetsPlay/PartyCrashers:

** At one point in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VMniPDc8qg I Made A Game Designed To Be Bad]]", Vernias deliberately endangers everyone in an attempt to make Sophist confess to an angel that he killed her daughter, refusing to heal him even in near-death, even going as far as to ''enrage the angel'' to make her attack Sophist, leading to the angel [[MisplacedRetribution attacking Brent instead]]:

** While fighting the final boss in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csi_6NbcJxk RPG, But Its Extremely Low Budget]]", Vernias refuses to use his forcefield spell (which traps the target in place) so the crew can just [[BoringButPractical skip the final battle and escape with everyone alive]], stating how it would be too boring if they just walked away from the final boss.
** At one point in their third ''Pummel Party'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVg7kle6Lgc video]], Sophist manages to roll an ''8'' when he was ''7'' spaces away from what would've been his 5th chest, giving him the victory and ending the game right there. Despite this, Sophist decides to go the opposite direction for the sake of making the video longer and more interesting, as the game would've ended in a very anticlimatic way otherwise... [[AllForNothing He then runs into another chest the very next turn]]:

** When fighting the final boss in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csi_6NbcJxk RPG, But Its Extremely Low Budget]]", Vernias refuses to use his forcefield spell (which traps the target in place) so the crew can just [[BoringButPractical skip the final battle and escape with everyone alive]], stating how it would be too boring if they just walked away from the final boss.

** While fighting the final boss in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csi_6NbcJxk RPG, But Its Extremely Low Budget]]", Vernias refuses to use his forcefield spell (which traps the target in place) so the crew can just [[BoringButPractical skip the final battle and escape with everyone alive]], stating how it would be too boring if they just walked away from the final boss.
** At one point during their third ''Pummel Party'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVg7kle6Lgc video]], Sophist manages to roll an ''8'' when he was ''7'' spaces away from what would've been his 5th chest, giving him the victory and ending the game right there. Despite this, Sophist decides to go the opposite direction for the sake of making the video longer and more interesting, as the game would've ended in a very anticlimatic way otherwise... [[AllForNothing He then runs into another chest the very next turn]]:

* ''LetsPlay/PartyCrashers'':

''LetsPlay/PartyCrashers'':

* Actually {{Invoked|Trope}} in ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'' as an argument [[spoiler:against Goku in "[[Franchise/DragonBall Goku]] vs Franchise/{{Superman}}". Many Anime/DragonBallZ characters, Goku included, have a habit of demanding a fair fight even against an obviously superior opponent. Hence, even if [[IdiotHero Goku]] managed to figure out Superman's weaknesses to kryptonite and exposure to a red star, he would refuse to exploit them.]]

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* This is basically how TheDevil ends up defeated by mere mortals in many tales, especially in American folklore; he's the source of all evil, a conniving trickster and lies easier than he breathes, but if he makes a deal then he will follow it [[LawfulEvil to the letter]], even if he has the metaphysical power to just yank your soul out on principle and laugh all the way back to hell. So long as the deal (or resultant challenge of it) is [[LiteralGenie not worded too ambiguously]], anyway.

* ''WesternAnimation/HellboyAnimated Sword of Storms'': The daimyo, rather than relieved the demons were vanquished, is angered for the samurai under his employ defeated them after he promised her life in exchange for their mercy. His anger was enough that [[spoiler: he had the warrior cursed into stone and took his own daughter's life.]] At the end of the film, when his ghost continues to resent them, Hellboy steps in and tells him to "use his head" because his continued refusal to go back on his word will make sure none of their spirits will find peace, closing with how he'll "never win". That last part is what causes him to finally let go.

ShootTheDog is this trope's opposite. It can even be named "Reason Before Honor". ''Usually'' not a trait of a CombatPragmatist due to their dirty approach to fighting often being seen as dishonorable.

* Saber in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' and ''LightNovel/FateZero'' has a pretty bad case of this. She ''knows'' her decisions are going to screw her over yet feels bound by her honor and rules of fair play. As an example in FSN, she charges the temple single-handed after everyone agrees it's suicide to do so, is commanded ''not'' to go and is perfectly aware that at best she will be severely wounded. In FZ, she lets Lancer go assuming that he's going to kill her Master Kiritsugu and therefore remove her from the war. Why? One, she doesn't like Kiritsugu and two, Lancer just helped her out. He only lives because Lancer [[WorthyOpponent lives by the same rules]]. Naturally, in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', she ends up the Servant of another person who epitomizes this trope, Shirou.

* Myth/ArthurianLegend:
** Where Myth/KingArthur chooses not to change the law about burning adulterous wives after Guinevere's affair with Lancelot is revealed. He is not (particularly) jealous of them. He loves Guinevere, he loves Lancelot, he is the king and the law is barbarous, but no, he will not change it, he will keep it for some vague noble reason which is never sufficiently explained.
** In all the stories, Arthur is just LawfulStupid. Now there is a good reason why he doesn't just ignore the law, because he is trying to get this new concept of "Rule of Law" to be adopted. But Honor Before Reason is at work here, as he could just pardon Guinevere and Lancelot, as he is the king. And should he actually use some compassion, he could then get the law amended so future cases of adultery don't involve the death penalty.
** It would be also seen as unfair that the law is changed rightly when it comes to the king's wife, while other people supposedly suffered of the sentence.
** The death penalty isn't for adultery -- it's for ''treason'', which both Lancelot and Guinevere have committed by betraying the King's trust. Whatever his personal feelings, he can't afford to change the law, for fear of giving other, more serious traitors a loophole.
** It's also [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation been theorised]] that Arthur actually thought this through, and arranged for Guinevere's public execution ''on the assumption'' that Lancelot would rescue her -- resulting in the two of them alive, together and out of his jurisdiction. It almost worked, as well.
** All of the above are modern interpretations of Arthur's behavior. In the old Romances he is seriously pissed and more than happy that his wife and her lover should die. One can scarcely blame him. Not only have they humiliated him before the entire kingdom but he has consistently defended them from accusations that are now proved true.

* This is the entire point of the plot of ''Theatre/ThePiratesOfPenzance''. In addition to the [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything do-nothing-ness]] and ethics of the pirates, Frederic is serving as a pirate-in-training until his twenty-first birthday, despite hating piracy, because his former nursemaid Ruth brought him to them by accident and he's too honorable to break a contract. Once his indenture is over, he then tells the pirates that even though he loves them, he is honor-bound to kill them all because piracy is wrong. And when the Pirate King and Ruth reveal that due to his until 1940, they don't even try to enforce it on him -- "we leave it to your honor."

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'': Wants to win the Land of the Dead talent show (that will allow him to meet the unreachable Ernesto) on his own to prove that he's a real musician, and thus worthy of a musician's blessing... even though it's his first time performing in front of anyone, the more experienced Héctor would have a far better chance of winning, and both Miguel's and Héctor's lives depend on him reaching Ernesto (or else his more approachable relatives) before sunrise. Héctor calls him out on this.

->''"Shepherd Book always said, 'If you can't do something smart, do something right.'"''
-->-- '''Jayne Cobb''', ''Film/{{Serenity}}''

* This is the entire point of the plot of ''Theatre/ThePiratesOfPenzance''. In addition to the [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything do-nothing-ness]] and ethics of the pirates, Frederic swears himself to killing all of his friends once his indenture is over because piracy is wrong. He interrupts the Major General's daughters stripping on the beach due to uh, honor. And when the Pirate King and Ruth reveal that due to his birthday, he's going to be indentured until 1940, they don't even try to enforce it on him -- "we leave it to your honor."

** Stripping? They intend to paddle in the water. So -- take their shoes and socks off. Probably pull up their skirts a little, too. Then, he is a slave to duty.
*** But--''bare ankles!'' Scandalous!

* HonorBeforeReason/WebComics

* LetsPlay/{{Pwnage}}: Kyle lampshades this in their ''VideoGame/TotallyAccurateBattleSimulator'' Gameplay when the last soldier of the army Kyle is fighting runs to his army alone.
--> '''Damian''': He ran headfirst into death. That makes him a man.
--> '''Kyle''': That makes him a fucking idiot.

* In ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', Sarge refuses to use sniper rifles and other long-distance weapons other than regular guns, as he believes the only way to kill someone is up close and personal. He admits that he has no problem with using a nuke on an enemy because of RuleOfCool.

* In the Disney adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'' having given his word of honor to ''not'' fly in his final duel with Captain Hook, [[DramaPreservingHandicap Peter doggedly refuses to do so even when Hook proves to be the superior swordsman, having forced him to the corner of a mast leading to a fall that can kill him.]]

* Myth/NorseMythology:
** The Aesir not killing Fenrisulfr and Jormungandr when they were small. Then again, the Norse did love their inevitable doom as thematic material...
** In a strange way, also what they actually DID do to them. Just because a prophecy said so, they kidnapped and imprisoned some weird but currently harmless magical animals, causing them to actually have a reason to want to kill the gods when they inevitably escaped.
** Weird variant with Loki, not particularly known for his sense of honor, who in two different myths is caught and coerced by a giant (Thiazi in one, Geirrod in the other) into promising to lure someone into a trap (Idunn and Thor, respectively). Afterward he goes ahead with it even when he's out of actual danger and it's sure to get the other Aesir angry with him. Blog/MythsRetold speculated that Geirrod had compromising pictures.

** Where King Arthur chooses not to change the law about burning adulterous wives after Guinevere's affair with Lancelot is revealed. He is not (particularly) jealous of them. He loves Guinevere, he loves Lancelot, he is the king and the law is barbarous, but no, he will not change it, he will keep it for some vague noble reason which is never sufficiently explained.
** In all the Myth/KingArthur stories, Arthur is just LawfulStupid. Now there is a good reason why he doesn't just ignore the law, because he is trying to get this new concept of "Rule of Law" to be adopted. But Honor Before Reason is at work here, as he could just pardon Guinevere and Lancelot, as he is the king. And should he actually use some compassion, he could then get the law amended so future cases of adultery don't involve the death penalty.

* As arguably Priam should have given Paris and Helen (who after all endangered their people for their personal pleasure) to the Greeks with his thanks, thus saving a whole lot of trouble, one could say that ''Literature/TheIliad'' is an example of this.