Even Evil Has Standards/Literature: Difference between revisions

{{examples}}

* Tom Walker in Washington Irving's story ''The Devil and Tom Walker'' is pretty much lacking in redeeming qualities, but when he first makes his [[Deal with the Devil]] and the Devil proposes that he serve him through the slave trade, Tom immediately refuses, saying he won't have anything to do with that. He then eagerly accepts the Devil's second proposal, which is that he become a ruthless [[Loan Shark]] who ruins the lives of those around him. It's been suggested that this might have been meant satirically toward the stereotypical Northern businessman, who like Tom, was a greedy, unscrupulous miser, but abhorred slavery.

* The ''[[Belgariad|Mallorean]]'' has a deeply chilling example in the fourth book. Belgarion finds a prophecy written by Torak, the villain of the first series. It reveals exactly what Zandramas, the current [[Big Bad]], is planning (in essence, creating a new god of darkness). At the end, Torak has added a personal message to Belgarion... which says, in part, "If you're reading this, you've already destroyed me. What is foretold in these pages is an abomination. ''Do not let it come to pass.''" As Belgarath notes, Torak was stunned out of his madness long enough to feel revulsion at what he foresaw.

** In ''[[Discworld/Hogfather|Hogfather]]'' the head of the Ankh-Morpork branch is horrified by the excesses of [[Psychopathic Manchild]] Jonathan Teatime and frightened by his unpredictable actions. Teatime later hires a bunch of criminals who are also scared and repelled by him; they did kill people, but unlike Teatime, only when it was neccessary.

*** Fittingly for this trope, the scene that introduces Teatime notes that Lord Downey, leader of the Assassins Guild, does not have actual morals, but he ''does'' have standards. Teatime... doesn't.

*** That is to say that dragons ''did'' burn and torture and rip one another apart, they just [[At Least I Admit It|never called it a "good" thing]] or [[I Did What I Had to Do|try to excuse it.]]

** In ''[[Discworld/Going Postal|Going Postal]]'' this is part of Moist's reason for going against Gilt. Admittedly, Moist is more of a [[Loveable Rogue]] to Gilt's [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]].

* In the original [[Gaston Leroux]] novel ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'', Christine expects the Phantom to rape her during her two abductions, but he actually [[Affably Evil|has the decency]] to [[Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil|respect her privacy and honor]]. This after he has murdered a number of innocent people, especially via his penchant for hanging traps.

* In ''[[Harry Potter]]'', Sirius Black's evil, pureblood-maniac parents, who disowned Sirius (after he ran away) when he was sixteen, didn't join Voldemort because they thought he was going too far. Sirius's own brother, Regulus, did join Voldemort, but then {{spoiler|when Voldemort tortures a loyal house-elf,}} turns against him.

** Apparently, the Malfoys, even though they have established themselves as pure-blood fanatics and were initially supportive of Voldemort's cause, or at least cowed into supporting it, drew the line when Voldemort decided to try and have Draco Malfoy killed as his way of punishing Lucius for his failure in the raid of the Department of Mysteries, and eventually got so fed up, that as soon as Harry told Lucius and Narcissa that Draco is still alive in the seventh book, they deliberately lied to Voldemort about Harry Potter being dead and contributed quite a bit to Voldemort's downfall as a result.

*** This is [[Even Evil Has Loved Ones]] with a dose of [[Moral Myopia]] not [[Even Evil Has Standards]]. We never see anything to indicate that the Malfoys would give a rats ass about Voldemort murdering anyone elses children, in fact we know that they don't.

* Terry Pratchett does this again in ''[[Nation]]'', where even ''cannibals'' revile First Mate Cox.

* Sam from ''[[Villains by Necessity]]'' could be a poster child for this trope. An assassin, who is explicitly stated by the text to be an agent of Evil, Sam still refuses to kill anybody who isn't his target while on an assignment. He also refuses to steal from his targets, and hates rapists so much that they are the one exception to the above no killing rule. Of course, this is in a book where the villains are the good guys, so it all works out rather well.

* In ''[[Tales of the Bounty Hunters]]'', an anthology in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], there's a Boba Fett story. Apparently Jabba gives Leia to the bounty hunter for the night, as a reward. Fett is disgusted by this, but doesn't send her back. He [[The Women Are Safe with Us|gives her the bed]] and stands near the door, and tells her that sex before marriage is immoral and Han Solo is evil for smuggling spice—spice, in Star Wars, being anything from a drug to a rare medicine to an unusual food additive. Leia calls him out on this—one, he's a ''bounty hunter'', essentially assassinating people for the prices on their heads, and two, he's working for Jabba the Hutt, who does a lot worse. Fett says that morality does not enter into that, because what he does is legal. Leia doesn't press it.

** This may be more [[Pragmatic Villainy]]. Think about it—would ''you'' like to get up close and personal with a well-established [[Action Girl]] who watched while you deep-froze their [[Love Interest]] for delivery to a crime lord who then spent a year using them as a wall ornament? Not to mention that Fett puts great stock in [[The Faceless|concealing his identity.]]

** In [[Star Wars/Allegiance|Allegiance]], the heroic Mara Jade does [[Interservice Rivalry|not generally get on well]] with Darth Vader, who always suspects her of trying to replace him. Still, she's got a much rockier relationship with [[Internal Affairs|the Imperial Security Bureau]], saying in the narration that she knows that they are a [[Necessary Evil]], but there's all too much evil and not enough necessary. And they ''do'' go after a stormtrooper for [[Never Hurt an Innocent|refusing to kill unarmed civilians]]; plus, they try to kill her. At the end of the book, while they're trading warnings, Mara sees that ''Vader'' doesn't like the ISB either, though probably for very different reasons.

** [[X Wing Series|Kirtan Loor]] has a couple moments like this. He's petty, puffed up, and vindictive, but when [[Big Bad|Isard]] talks about how the [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|Krytos plague]] will decimate the Sullustans to such an extent that it might be best if they set aside some breeding stock for when the plague has run its course, Loor is taken aback and feels uneasy. The narration says that while he does consider Sullustans to be [[Fantastic Racism|inferior]], talking about them like they're grain to be poisoned for rats, with some pristine kernels held back, is a bit much. He's also sickened in General Derricote's plague lab when he sees the disease working on test subjects, and orders what he assumes to be a stricken mother and child to be taken away and cured, although he does hastily tell the General that this is part of the plan to drain the New Republic's resources. Later he becomes the leader of a terrorism front that detonates speeders filled with explosives in health centers and public places, but when his ''new'' boss orders a [[Wouldn't Hurt a Child|school]] to be bombed, he's horrified. His new boss sardonically mocks him. Here he is, not wanting to kill children, and yet he's performing strikes to keep people away from health centers, meaning that the Krytos Plague, which doesn't spare the young, will be less impeded.

{{quote|I am evil, but I am not cruel to animals. There's a special Hell reserved for those who are.}}

* In the ''[[Alvin Maker]]'' books by [[Orson Scott Card]] there's a quick procession of these with the latest baddies. First is the rather vile riverboat captain, who would not stoop to killing innocent (white) children. He's killed by Mike Fink, who in turn finds that he can't bear to stand and watch while their mutual employer, William Harrison, massacres a village. Finally Harrison, the worst of the three, tells Calvin that while he might be a dirty scumbag, at least ''he'' never sold his own brother out.

* John Ringo's ''[[Paladin of Shadows]]'' series has Mike Harmon, an ex-Navy SEAL who pushes the [[Anti-Hero]] needle ''waaaaay'' into the red. He fantasizes about raping and brutalizing young women, and deals with it by hiring underage prostitutes for BDSM and rough sex (followed by extravagant payment), and then finding the whoremongers behind the prostitutes and murdering them. After he's done with the prostitutes, he sometimes buys them outright. He flat-out admits that the reason he hates rapists and white slavers so much is that they torture women in a truly non-consensual way, which his conscience (barely) prevents him from doing.

* In ''[[Mistborn]]'', there are only two people [[Psycho for Hire|Zane]] won't kill- [[Action Girl|Vin]] and [[Abusive Parents|his father]]. The former is because Vin's the one person the voices in Zane's head don't continually goad him to kill, while the latter is for no other reason than, in Zane's words, "a man shouldn't kill his father".

* [[Sven Hassel]] writes of soldiers in a penal battalion, some of the roughest, cruelest, most degraded men in the forces of [[The Third Reich]]...but sometimes they run across things done by the Nazis, or the Soviets, that repulse even these hardened, callous killers. When they get a chance to express their disapproval of such things in concrete form, it can get...''messy.''

* Vince in ''[[Dean Koontz|Watchers]]'' is a ruthless killer, but he's also a rather considerate guy who has a code of honor and a clear sense of empathy for others. However, he is [[Bat Shit Crazy]] and his code is based on [[Blue and Orange Morality]], so it really doesn't make him any less evil or any less terrifying.

* ''[[Septimus Heap]]'':

** Simon Heap, when he has shoot down Nicko with a ThunderFlash:

* In ''[[The Hunger Games]],'' residents of the Capitol have no problem with watching children as young as twelve murder each other for entertainment. {{spoiler|But when Peeta "reveals" that Katniss is pregnant, they go ballistic.}}

* Whilst it is difficult to codify "evil" in a series with [[Grey and Gray Morality]], a lot characters from [[A Song of Ice and Fire]] fit this trope, though it is frequently not a ''moral'' standard:

** Lord Roose Bolton of Dreadfort is the same - he is a horrific villain, but a [[Pragmatic Villainy|pragmatic one.]]

** The Guild of the Faceless Men will only kill their targets, not bystanders or even bodyguards.

** The Ironborn hate slavery, although they have a very flimsy definition of it. Indentured servitude and forced prostitution: totally okay for them, but ''buying and selling people''? NEVER!

*** He is also disgusted by Gregor Clegane's wanton sadism and the Red Wedding.

** {{spoiler|Ser}} Bronn {{spoiler|of the Blackwater}} ''would'' hurt a child. He'd want a decent price for it, though.

* In [[Vorkosigan Saga]] one of the main industries of Jackson's Hole is making clone-slaves; including clones that allow rich men to achieve immortality by transplanting their brains and throwing away the old one, thus killing it's personality. ''Nearly everyone'' outlaws that. Of course on Jackson's Whole there isn't any law.

* In [[Belisarius Series]] Narses practically lives this trope. He betrayed Empress Theodora who was practically his adopted daughter. But when told to assassinate the family of a Rajput chief, he refuses and almost becomes a hero.

* In [[Gene Stratton Porter]]'s ''Freckles'', Black Jack has agreed that Wessner can kill Freckles, however he likes, once they are gone, but he objects to watches while Wessner torments him, especially since Freckles would beat him in a fair fight. Another man is angry that Wessner didn't just keep Freckles from seeing any of them.

{{quote|''"You see here, Dutchy," he bawled, "mebby you think you'll wash his face with that, but you won't. A contract's a contract. We agreed to take out these trees and leave him for you to dispose of whatever way you please, provided you shut him up eternally on this deal. But I'll not see a tied man tormented by a fellow that he can lick up the ground with, loose, and that's flat. It raises my gorge to think what he'll get when we're gone, but you needn't think you're free to begin before. Don't you lay a hand on him while I'm here! What do you say, boys?"

{{reflist}}