Everyone Has Standards

Whether someone is a villain, geek, jerk, pervert, etc. -- one often finds those things that can only go so far. These characters find that when they're in a situation where they would cross a certain line, they don't do it. Or they get disgusted at those who do cross that line.

A Super-Trope to Even Evil Has Standards, Even Nerds Have Standards.

Anime and Manga

 * In Magi Labyrinth of Magic, Ka Kyoubun attempt to make King Sinbad married Princess Kyougoku, his superior, by making it look like King Sinbad had violated Princess Kyougoku is failed because of his henchmen, which he promises promotion, can't stand Princess Kyougoku crying.
 * In Naruto, anyone who has ever met and spoken to  pretty much hates his guts, barring . Not even  can stand him, and considering, that says a lot. The people that can stand him? . It gets to the point that even his long-time accomplice Tobi/ reveals he doesn't care for him all that much either.
 * The Seven Deadly Sins: Ban wishes for immortality, but he isn't willing to destroy an entire forest full of sentient life in order to do so. Sure enough, he decides his lover Elaine is more important than being immortal.

Comic Books

 * Despite his wife, Wanda, marrying Terry Fitzgerald and welcoming a daughter, Cyan, Albert Francis "Al" Simmons a.k.a Spawn opts to leave her alone as he notices she had move on.

Live Action TV
"Lionel: You don't have sex for money? Karen: No, I do not! For jewels, for furs, for mixed securities, like a lady! But for money? How dare you!"
 * In Will and Grace, Lionel thinks Karen is a hooker when he first meets her:


 * Charlie from Two and A Half Men is a Casanova, but on one occasion, he almost slept with a woman who may be his half-sister. They didn't know then, and their mothers told them barely on time. Charlie's reaction was to say he draws the line at incest, but his possible half-sister's reaction...she was willing to continue.
 * In Dexter, complete Jerkass Quinn shows up at a party thrown by his ex-girlfriend, Deborah, and he has some anonymous slutty girl with him. He acts drunk and stupid enough to annoy everyone at the party, but the slutty girl doesn't mind, until she finds out that she's only there to make Deborah jealous.
 * The Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew watched but refused to riff on Child Bride as it was worse than Manos and the subject matter disgusted even them.

Music

 * Eminem, despite his reputation for what is perceived by some as violent, sexist and homophobic lyrics, balks at the use of the N-word out of deference to his African-American contemporaries. While he did use the word in a song as a teenager, he has since regretted that phase and says, "It's just a word I don't feel comfortable with. It wouldn't sound right coming out of my mouth. If a white kid came up to me and said it, I probably would look at him funny. And if given the time to sit down with him I'd say, 'Look, just don't say the word. It's not meant to be used by us.'" He did however use the word in certain instances especially when given a pass by a black artist as part of a collaboration.

Newspaper Comics

 * Garfield:
 * As shown in this strip, even the Internet has standards.
 * Like most cats, Garfield likes to hunt birds, but he was upset with Jon's family turning Nadie the chicken into soup. He considers pets as family.
 * Calvin and Hobbes: While Calvin can indeed be self-centered, he and Hobbes draw the line at mocking those who are starving.

Video Games

 * Bully (Video Game): Though Jimmy isn’t averse to drawing graffiti, he is appalled by Gary Smith’s enjoyment of tormenting others, even before he discovers his intentions for the school.

Webcomics

 * Schlock Mercenary: Tagon makes a big deal out of two recruits keeping their children on the ship, initially citing the logistical constraints of it, but mostly because, as amoral and greedy as he is, no paycheck is big enough for him to wilfully endanger children.

Web Original

 * 90s Kid of Atop the Fourth Wall loves extreme things, but killing pregnant women is not extreme to him - in fact, one such scene in a comic leaves him depressed, and it took a Rob Liefeld comic to get him better.
 * SF Debris was offended by a particularly sexist scene in a Star Trek: The Original Series episode, even though (as he subsequently mentions) he thinks porn should be on the food pyramid.
 * One of the tentacle monsters in Ghastlys Ghastly Comic thinks it's wrong to sexually assault human women.
 * When The Nostalgia Critic tried to review Sesame Street: Follow That Bird, but no matter how silly or dumb the movie was, Critic couldn't make himself do it.
 * In Bum Reviews, Chester notes that even a bum wouldn't forget to put on a coat while hiking in the mountains, unlike Bella from Twilight.
 * In The Dolan True Stories episode, OUR WEIRDEST PERSONAL SECRETS, Nixxiom, Lord of Darkness, explains how disturbing fan fictions were normal by his standards. One such fan-fiction involved Decapitation and have 'somethings actions' with the body.
 * The warez scene may be thought of as a loosely-knit band of info-anarchists who mercilessly pillage and rip copyrighted works, but while that may hold true in some ways, they have drafted an elaborate set of standards with which all groups within the scene must adhere to following ratification, or else get their releases rejected and at worst ridiculed for whatever violation they may have committed. Things such as archive formats (ZIP, RAR...) the video codec and container used, bitrates and in the case of software, disk image formats and how the games are cracked are of utmost importance, and rejected releases are followed by a "proper" release which addresses any deficiencies an earlier release might have. The Scene has also expressed contempt for those leaking their warez to the internet-at-large in their NFO readme files, as they are, at least by principle, an underground community of hackers whose releases are mainly for internal consumption, and any Hells Angels-style open flaunting would attract unnecessary attention from law enforcement. (This is why websites who use the names of prominent warez groups such as SKIDROW, CODEX or CPY are nothing more than poseurs cashing in on their notoriety and are generally to be avoided). There were even some groups who do not release any pirated works at all, but would act as "enforcers" to expose and oust any and all of those who leak warez releases to the public, mostly those who do it for profit. And as much as they hate complying with such guidelines, some torrent sites do accept DMCA claims and would comply to them when needed, likely to mitigate any legal repercussions.
 * While arguments over the moral and ethical implications of pornography are a big YMMV, even porn sites and those who are into it agree that there's a line to be drawn with things as abhorrent as child porn or bestiality. Sure, they don't mind hosting the usual smut like hardcore porn and fetishism, but hosting something that even most who are into adult stuff would find repulsive is too much and would inevitably get them into a lot of legal trouble. This led to initiatives within the adult entertainment industry to help stamp out underage pornography, as well as parental advisories on using filters such as Net Nanny to keep their kids from somehow stumbling upon content not meant for them.

Western Animation

 * While Glen Quagmire of Family Guy does a lot of perverted things, there are some lines he won't cross, like sleeping with Meg when she's desperate for affection.
 * Though in a more recent episode, she turned 18 (and thus became legal), at which point Quagmire immediately and shamelessly starts seducing her, and almost sleeps with her, before Peter and Lois stop it in time.
 * In Phineas and Ferb, Perry the Platypus had thwarted many of Dr. Doofenshmirtz's Evil Plans, no matter how silly they would get. But when his scheme was learning whale speak, just so he could insult a whale for stealing his girlfriend, Perry left in disgust.
 * Beavis and Butthead
 * Even the title characters have standards, Butthead can’t stand male nudity, especially if Beavis is naked.
 * David Van Driessen maybe a hippie, but you’re asking for trouble if he finds out about “inappropriate” touching.
 * Buzzcut may dish out abuse on the boys but it's okay if he’s is THE ONE dishing it out, anyone else… GAME OVER.
 * Throughout the series of Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy, the kids of the cul-de-sac often had their issues with the title characters but they lived in fear of Eddy’s brother. At the film,.
 * In the South Park episode "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", a group of Rednecks wanted to kill Randy for using the “N” word on national television.
 * In "Eat, Pray, Queef", the male characters of the town are disgusted by women queefing. Yes, even Cartman is left horrified after Butters gets queefed on and tells off a lady to stop queefing.
 * Granted he's a Depraved Bisexual, but Mr. Garrison won't engage in pedophilia.
 * In King of the Hill, even Conspiracy Theory-minded Dale has his limits. He's known to exhibit Papa Wolf traits Joseph, despite actually being his step-father, when Piggy is allowed to use paddling as a form of discipline. He also thinks Hank was going crazy for losing his faith in George W. Bush. Despite Nancy cheating on him with John Redcorn (resulting in Joseph), Dale won't cheat on her.
 * Despite being emotionally harsh when it comes to his parenting, even Hank doesn't like the idea of spanking kids. Instead, he rather give Bobby extra hard chores, like yard work, as a punishment as he considers it harsh enough. Of course, the exception being mowing the lawn, as he considers it a privilege.
 * In Hey Arnold, a sign of someone really realization they screwed up is when even Arnold loses faith in them.
 *  Arthur has Blinky showing his limits when it comes to bullying. If his victim shows signs of hurt or sadness, that's where Blinky stops. This was shown in "The Last Tough Customer" after Molly makes fun of George for his dyslexia, to the point of tears.
 * The title character of Archer draws the line when it comes to underage women despite being a womanizer.

Real Life

 * If the numerous articles pertaining to them are to be believed, the Mid Night Club in Japan is respected and praised by the import tuner scene for its strict code of honour, and even the Japanese police were said to have expressed their grudging approval of their organisation. Despite being arguably illegal in nature with members driving their cars at almost 200 miles per hour, membership was strict and stringent and any attempts at impersonating the club were met with swift action. And safety was also paramount as any incident involving the club meant that they would be disbanded forever out of respect for the bystanders they hurt, which has said to have happened when an incident with the Bosozoku motorcycle gang culminated to a road accident. Their status as a secret society along with language and cultural barriers meant that there is at least some debate over the club's true nature however, with Wikipedia deleting their article for the Mid Night Club due to lack of reliable sources. Regardless, the club's ethics became something of a legend amongst automotive enthusiasts.
 * When Mac OS 8 was released, it was during the time when Apple was in dire straits. Even the warez scene sympathised with Apple by flat-out refusing to traffic the then-new OS, instead advising fellow pirates to buy it as Apple needed the money.
 * Holocaust denial is seen by many as a vile and bigoted movement at the expense of Jewish people, and as such has been classified as a hate crime in most countries in Europe and especially in Israel (case in point Adolf Eichmann who was hunted down and tried by the Israeli government for his role in the Holocaust). It came to the point that those who deny that such atrocities took place have stooped to a new low when even former Auschwitz SS personnel themselves denounced said conspiracy theories, calling them "malevolent" or "in the wrong". Not that the former concentration camp personnel were by any means saints, but even they knew that such conspiracist mentality is denigrating and deceitful.
 * As mentioned in the book Jacked: The Outlaw Story of GTA, the Houser brothers mulled about cancelling Grand Theft Auto III due to the September 11, 2001 attacks as they felt it was Too Soon to release a game taking place in a locale not unlike New York City which allowed players to freely maim and/or kill random civilians or police officers. Thankfully, Rockstar pushed through with the game, albeit with some cuts and changes made out of sensitivity. Not that the series wouldn't attract controversy for the rest of its existence, though.