History Main / InevitablyBrokenRule

-->-- Creator/ScreenRant's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuWCo3dbiww Reminiscence In Under 60 Seconds]]"

->''"Nick enters the memory machine and says, 'We never go over 30 volts," which is movie talk for, 'We're definitely gonna go over 30 volts, but not until act 3."''

* ForbiddenZone, in which the characters are forced to go to a place that is off-limits or extremely dangerous.
* ForbiddenChekhovsGun, in which a character is forced to use an item they were specifically warned against using.

Supertrope of FrequentlyBrokenUnbreakableVow, in which a character makes a promise only to be forced to break it later; ForbiddenZone, in which the characters are forced to go to a place that is off-limits or extremely dangerous; ForbiddenChekhovsGun, in which a character is forced to use an item they were specifically warned against using; and HorrorHatesARuleBreaker, which is when a rule must inevitably be broken to allow a horror story to begin. Sister trope of CantYouReadTheSign, a ComedyTrope in which a posted rule or warning is so ridiculously specific that you know it'll be broken at some point in the story.

** There are several rules that the Flawed are forced to comply with, lest they be subject to disciplinary action and even worse restrictions. They are, specifically: "Never hide your brands, unless on the foot or tongue", "Always wear your red arm band in public", "Be home by 11:00", "Don't stand next to two other Flawed, and don't gather without at least one non-Flawed present", and "Don't have kids with another Flawed person". Celestine struggles with most of these rules, and several of them are, or are almost, broken -- [[spoiler:she gets kidnapped one night and almost doesn't make it home for curfew, her [[IdenticalTwinMistake sister is mistaken for her, and lacks the red armband]], and her standing next to two other Flawed people at a store is met with police violence and Celestine being attacked.]]

* Played with in ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', as immediately after the "two victor" rule is revoked, Katniss and Peeta still manage to get around the rule by threatening a TagTeamSuicide. Katniss, as the instigator, spends a majority of the next two books dealing of the consequences of her actions, as President Snow is angry that she broke the rules and showed the Capitol up, and also the fact that [[spoiler:her actions helped to spark the rebellion.]]

* While the titular institution from ''Literature/TheFerrymanInstitute'' has many rules and regulations its employees have to work under, three big ones -- rules that, if broken, can lead to the Ferryman's immediate transition to [[AFateWorseThanDeath Purgatory]] -- are as follows; do not interfere with a death, do not let go of your ferryman key (the thing that makes them [[InvisibleToNormals invisible to the living]]) and keep the Ferryman Institute a secret from mankind. [[spoiler:The presidential mission Charles was given gave him the option to prevent Alice from committing suicide (which he did), he puts down his key to console with a car-crash victim to make her death a peaceful one and he tells Alice a ''lot'' of Institute secrets after they both become fugitives.]]

* ''Videogame/MegaManBattleNetwork:'' The sixth game introduces a new rule for manging the "Navi Customizer" programs: the "squares" of the given enhancer program has to be put inside the available space, or Mega Man will suffer bugs. This is because there's a new feature where you can put the enhancer programs ''partly outside'' of the space, which allows for potentially more programs to be put in, but Mega Man will get bugged if you do so. This is basically asking for the "Bug Stop" program (a rare program you can get from a certain lotto number) so that you can break this rule (and other rules that can make Mega Man bugged) with impunity (as long as you still put the Bug Stop program properly). With Bug Stop, as long as you have at least 1 square of the other programs being put inside the space, the Navi Customizer will recognize them and make them work for Mega Man without any risk of bugging.

* While the titular institution from ''Literature/TheFerrymanInstitute'' has many rules and regulations its employees have to work under, three big ones -- rules that, if broken, can lead to the Ferryman's immediate transition to [[AFateWorseThanDeath Purgatory]] -- are as follows; do not interfere with a death, do not let go of your ferryman key (the thing that makes them [[InvisibleToNormals invisible to the living]]) and keep the Ferryman Institute a secret from mankind. [[spoiler:The presidential mission Charles was given gave him the option to prevent Alice from committing suicide (which he did), he puts down his key to console with a car-crash victim to make her death a peaceful one and he tells Alice a ''lot'' pf Institute secrets after they both become fugitives.]]

* Frank Martin from ''Film/TheTransporter'' has three personal rules in his role as a GetawayDriver: don't change the deal, no names, and never open the package. While he's transporting a package for his latest client, he gets curious and opens the package. It turns out to be a young woman who's the "cargo" in a human trafficking ring.

* While the breaking of divine commands and the ensuing consequences is a recurring theme throughout ''Literature/TheBible'', the most well-known example is the Fall of Man from ''Literature/TheBookOfGenesis''. Adam and Eve break God's one commandment to never eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, thus introducing sin into the world and banishing mankind from Eden forever.

* While the breaking of divine commands and the ensuing consequences is a recurring theme throughout ''Literature/TheBible'', the most well-known example is the Fall of Man. Adam and Eve break God's one commandment to never eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, thus introducing sin into the world and banishing mankind from Eden forever.

The Inevitably Broken Rule is an extremely versatile trope, as it doesn't place very many limits on how it can be presented in the story. The rule itself can be all-important, such as "if the balance is tampered with, thousands may die"; it can be mundane, as in "you'll be expelled if you get caught fighting again"; or it can be downright silly, such as "always dance a jig through the Jiggly Jungle or you'll be sorry!" The rule may be broken by any character: the protagonists, the antagonists, or even an incidental character. It may be broken deliberately or accidentally, with good intent or ill, through action or failure to act. For the purposes of this trope, the specifics of the rule or its breaking aren't terribly important. The important part is that the rule is broken, and its breaking carries consequences that meaningfully affect the plot or the characters in some way.

* In any federation which has {{Heel}}s, ''all'' the rules. In fact, the reason feds ''have'' rules is for heels to inevitably break them. This also goes for {{Tweener}}s with a rebellious streak, or who break the rules in new and creative ways.

** "Literature/FirstLaw": Mike Donovan [[[[UnreliableExpositor tells a pub]] about a robot, [[RobotNames MA-2]], that broke the First Law [[AIIsACrapshoot because it was a mother]], who was [[MamaBear protecting her offspring]].

* Creator/IsaacAsimov (mostly) subverts this in the vast majority of his robot stories by exploring the ramification of his [[ThreeLawsCompliant Laws of Robotics]] in specific circumstances rather than having them broken. The trope is also played straight in a few of his Asimov's robot stories, though usually for comedic rather than dramatic effect. Even ''contemplating'' breaking First Law ("A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm") is nearly always deeply traumatic for positronic brains and can result in them being rendered permanently non-functional. The only cases where a robot is capable of actually ''breaking'' First Law without immediate, catastrophic shutdown occur when a robot becomes sophisticated enough to realize that the logical extension of the three explicit laws yields a "Zeroth Law" ("A robot may not harm humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm") that takes precedence even over First Law the way First overrides Second and Second overrides Third.

** In ''Literature/ReaperMan'', Death knows it's against "the rules" to save a mortal that's about to die, which doesn't endear him to Miss Flitworth when he refuses to help save a girl from a fire. Death eventually realizes, now that he's retired and thus mortal, such rules don't apply to him: "To Bill Door, it was so much horse elbows."

* Creator/IsaacAsimov (mostly) subverts this in the vast majority of his robot stories by exploring the ramification of his [[ThreeLawsCompliant Laws of Robotics]] in specific circumstances rather than having them broken. The trope is also played straight in a few of his Asimov's robot stories, though usually for comedic rather than dramatic effect. Even ''contemplating'' breaking First Law ("A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm") nearly always deeply traumatic for positronic brains and can result in them being rendered permanently non-functional. The only cases where a robot is capable of actually ''breaking'' First Law without immediate, catastrophic shutdown occur when a robot becomes sophisticated enough to realize that the logical extension of the three explicit laws yields a "Zeroth Law" ("A robot may not harm humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm") that takes precedence even over First Law the way First overrides Second and Second overrides Third.

** In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E9ThirtyDays Thirty Days]]" involves Tom Paris breaking the Prime Directive by protecting the huge ocean the aliens live in despite their refusing that protection. He is subsequently jailed for that decision.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov (mostly) subverts this in the vast majority of his robot stories by exploring the ramification of his [[ThreeLawsCompliant Laws of Robotics]] in specific circumstances rather than having them broken. The trope is also played straight in a few of his Asimov's robot stories, though usually for comedic rather than dramatic effect. Even ''contemplating'' breaking First Law ("A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm") nearly always deeply traumatic for positronic brains and can result in them being rendered permanently non-functional. The only cases where a robot is capable of actually ''breaking'' First Law without immediate, catastrophic shutdown occur when a robot becomes sophisticated enough to realize that the logical extension of the three explicit laws yields a "Zeroth Law" ("A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm") that takes precedence even over First Law the way First overrides Second and Second overrides Third.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov (mostly) subverts this in the vast majority of his robot stories by exploring the ramification of his [[ThreeLawsCompliant Laws of Robotics]] in specific circumstances rather than having them broken. The trope is also played straight in a few of his Asimov's robot stories, though usually for comedic rather than dramatic effect. Even ''contemplating'' breaking First Law is nearly always deeply traumatic for positronic brains and can result in them being rendered permanently non-functional. The only cases where a robot is capable of actually ''breaking'' First Law without immediate, catastrophic shutdown occur when a robot becomes sophisticated enough to realize that the logical extension of the three explicit laws yields a "Zeroth Law" that takes precedence even over First Law the way First overrides Second and Second overrides Third.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov (mostly) subverts this in the vast majority of his robot stories by exploring the ramification of his [[ThreeLawsCompliant Laws of Robotics]] in specific circumstances rather than having them broken. The trope is also played straight in a few of his Asimov's robot stories, though usually for comedic rather than dramatic effect.

*** "Don't overexert on Kaioken." He does so during his fight with Vegeta, and nearly incapacitates himself in the process.

* In ''WesternAnimation/HappyFeet'' there is one golden truth above all others, ''never drop your egg''. Memphis, distracted by thoughts of his wife, drops his egg in the arctic snow. He retrieves it fast enough to save his unborn son's life, but Mumble is born completely tone deaf because of it.

** In ''Film/AntMan1'', Hank Pym tells Scott to never mess with the regulator in his suit that prevents him from shrinking under one inch in size, as shrinking beyond that becomes irreversible and/or could cause him to shrink ''forever''. In fact, this is how Hank lost his beloved wife Janet. At the climax, Scott breaks his regulator to save his daughter, and shrinks to sub-atomic size before managing to save himself with another gadget, returning to normal size and provoking Hank's suspicions that Janet could be saved from her fate.

* ''Film/MadMaxBeyondThunderdome'', in the titular death match, ThereAreNoRules except for one: "two men enter, one man leaves". A rule that Max breaks when he refuses to keep fighting Blaster after finding out that Blaster is a man with Down Syndrome. This breaks the deal he had with Auntie, which leads to all of the problems he endures for the rest of the film.
* In ''Film/TheCatInTheHat'', the Cat gives Conrad only one rule -- "no opening the crate". It takes Conrad all of about five minutes to break the rule, and his doing so kicks off the second half of the plot. At the end of the film it's revealed that the Cat actually invoked this trope and gave Conrad the rule because he ''knew'' Conrad would break it. [[BatmanGambit It was all part of his plan for the day]].

* Following their daughter's birth in ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'', Lana tells Archer that she would lay down some ground rules is he wants to be part of the child life. While he does improve somewhat, Archer warns that said ground rules will likely be broken in some fashion.

* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'': In "Partying is Such Sweet Soiree", Madame Foster warns Mr. Herriman not to throw any wild parties while she's away. Bloo then procedes to throw a wild party because Foster's warning put the idea into his head. When Madame Foster returns, she chews out Herriman for throwing a wild party [[spoiler:"...without ME! You know how much I ''love'' wild parties."]]

* In any federation which has {{Heel}}s, ''all'' the rules. In fact, the reason feds ''have'' rules is for heels to inevitably break them.

* Following their daughter's birth in ''WesternAnimation/Archer'', Lana tells Archer that she would lay down some ground rules is he wants to be part of the child life. While he does improve somewhat, Archer warns that said ground rules will likely be broken in some fashion.

* In ''Literature/WyrdSisters'', it is a rule for witches not to meddle with politics. But Duke Felmet presses Granny Weatherwax's BerserkButton, she decides they have to break the rule and stop him. When Magrat gets confused about this, the following dialogue occurs:
-->'''Magrat:''' I said, what about this rule about not meddling?\\