History ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/AlexRider'': The paramilitary team who abduct and interrogate Alex. They do some pretty unpleasant things, but soon decide they're not actually okay with hurting a child.

* In the ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' season four premiere "Alex Tells the World", following the harrowing season three finale [[spoiler:in which all the wizards in the world had been supposedly captured by the government, everyone brushed off the experience and intended to go on with the lives as usual, except for Alex, who was appalled that everyone just wanted to carry on like everything was fine in spite of the magical community being in danger, and as such, called a press conference to tell people regardless of the rule not to reveal the existence of wizards. However, the whole thing actually turns out to have been a SecretTestOfCharacter by Professor Crump to see if the Russo siblings could keep from exposing magic, and Alex unfortunately failed. Apparently, the wizarding world's existence had to be kept secret at all costs, even if its own safety was in jeopardy]].

* ''Series/TheAfterparty'': Danner breaks all sorts of protocol solving Willow's crime because she didn't want to condemn a girl guilty of being a package thief but innocent of murder. She is assigned to the records room with no chance for advancement as punishment, but Willow is grateful.

** In the Season 3 finale, this is Davos's justification for going against Stannis's wishes by [[spoiler: freeing Gendry before Melisandre can sacrifice him]].

** Robb's opinion of marrying Talisa.

** The BodyOfTheWeek on one episode was a [[AssholeVictim Serbian war criminal]] who was spotted by two of his former victims, who murdered him. [[spoiler: Benson and Stabler arrange things so that the killers get away with a light prison term. The boss chews them out; Benson explains it as "I think we did the only thing that's going to allow me to sleep tonight."]]
** A later episode has Agent Huang basically kidnap a young drug addict (the villain of the week was his legal guardian and was keeping him drugged up to stop him testifying) to give him a technically illegal treatment to cure his addiction (since the patent on it expired so wasn't profitable for drug companies to get it approved for use in the USA). The villain threatens to report Huang so he'll lose his license [[spoiler: Huang reveals he already reported himself and got off with a slap on the wrist.]]

** Hawkeye is one of the greatest examples of this as he is always a doctor first and an Army Captain second (if ever since he'd rather be a ''lot'' of things between doctor and army). He only ever pulls rank twice: once to get a sergeant to put out a cigarette he's smoking in a room full of flammable/explosive ether and once to order a sergeant to send a "moose" (i.e.: Korean woman whose family literally sold her into slave labor) back home. When the latter doesn't work, he resorts to his usual methods. While that only happens twice, it's easy to lose count of how many times he sees everyone as human and does the right thing despite going against army regulations and people like Frank Burns.

** In the episode "[[Recap/MashS9E5DeathTakesAHoliday Death Takes a Holiday]]" Hawkeye, B.J., and Margaret work on a dying soldier so he won't die on Christmas day. However, despite all their efforts the soldier dies right before midnight. Hawkeye later changes the clock and then tells Margaret to put 12:06am on December 26 as the soldier's time of death. When Margaret says it would be falsifying a medical record, Hawkeye justifies it by saying that Christmas should not be the day the soldier's family thinks of as the day he died.

** In Gibbs's final episode, FBI Agent Parker, the man going after Gibbs for obstruction and carjacking to save an Alaskan wilderness, does this by uncuffing him after [=McGee=] cuffs him so that he won't be charged with harboring a fugitive. This gets him kicked out of the Bureau, but allows for Vance to recruit him into NCIS.
* ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'': Season 3 Finale had G. Callen killing "The Chameleon" for his murders of Agents Roarke and Hunter, as well as several other people, even when he was ordered to surrender him to the Iranian officials in exchange for the American agent that was held hostage. He is promptly arrested by the LAPD afterwards. He also suspected that he had the Iranians transfer the money via American channels specifically to get the SadisticChoice to force him to go free, a suspicion that was revealed to have been well-founded.

** Oma Desala is an [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Ascended being]] who disagrees with the Ascended majority's policies of absolute non-interference with mortal beings. She bends the rules to try to help other people Ascend to join them. While the show usually takes her side in that debate, Oma's actions have also lead to Anubis gaining Ascended knowledge and power, which is definitely a ''bad'' thing for the galaxy as a whole.

*** In "Vortex", Odo is desperately asked by a criminal -- one whose crime he had personally witnessed, and whom he was ordered to escort to his homeworld with a runabout -- called Croden to save his daughter from certain execution at the hands of his homeworld's draconian regime, and take care of her (arguing that Odo and the daughter were both outsiders in an alien culture, and would need each other). This was after Croden [[WhatYouAreInTheDark had an opportunity to leave Odo for dead]] and escape with his daughter on the runabout, but saved Odo instead, knowing the changeling would have to deliver him to his execution, which he didn't mind as long as his daughter was safe. When a Vulcan science vessel shows up, Odo tells them (much to Croden's surprise) that Croden and his daughter are survivors of another ship that crashed, allowing them to disappear into the Federation while Odo reports to Croden's homeworld that Croden is dead.
** ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'': The character of Michael Burnham is characterized by her constant violations of direct orders and getting away with it, the reason she is even part of Star Fleet when she has no respect for authority remains unexplained.

*** "The Wounded" features a KnightTemplar version: Captain Maxwell believes the Cardassians are preparing for war, but Starfleet won't listen, so he goes rogue and starts destroying ostensibly peaceful (and [[CurbStompBattle definitely defenseless]]) Cardassian ships and outposts. Turns out he wasn't completely bonkers, but he was definitely jumping the gun and gets hit hard for it.

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'': "Standoff" has Walker taking on an assassin threatening to kill a Mexican Presidential candidate when the Rangers are dismissed as security during a banquet, where said assassin is holding the attendees hostage, including Alex and C.D. Walker, of course, disobeys orders and sneaks into the banquet hall to free the hostages.