Honor Before Reason/Video Games

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Honor Before Reason in Video Games include:

  • Luke, the protagonist of Tales of the Abyss, starts off as being extremely self-centered and arrogant, but later he becomes near-suicidally selfless in an attempt to make up for his previous behavior, and holds true to the strength and ideals of humanity, opposing the fatalist views of the game's antagonists.
  • If Adell makes you a promise, he will keep it. If he has to go Beyond the Impossible in order to keep it (and at times, beyond even that), then so be it.

Rozalin: Fool! You are going to get yourself killed!
Adell: ... Don't worry. I won't die. I still have other promises to keep.

    • Valvatorez takes this to the logical extreme. Want to know why he refuses to drink blood, at the cost of all of his power and prestige: because he promised someone that he wouldn't drink blood until he showed them true terror, and they died before it happened. Not considering death of the recipient a legitimate reason for breaking off a contract, he just went on not drinking blood for the next four hundred years.
  • Subverted in BioShock (series). Though initially Jack is told that the only way to get large amounts of ADAM is to kill and harvest the Little Sisters, Doctor Tenenbaum makes it a point to give Jack gifts for choosing the harder path of rescuing the Little Sisters, by giving him both large amounts of ADAM and unique plasmids. Considering how much more great loot you get from saving them and how little the difference in ADAM between saving and harvesting all the Sisters is (over the course of the whole game), choosing to harvest the little sisters would be a case of Sadism Before Reason. (Or you might do it just to hear the ending where the good doctor calls you out for being a jerk.)
    • When you think about it, it certainly is strange that Atlas/Fontaine didn't just say "Would you kindly harvest that Little Sister." In effect, the only choice Jack has is the one that matters the most.
      • He rarely uses the phrase, "would you kindly". Given that there is no major practical consequence to Jack not harvesting the girls, I doubt he thought it worthwhile forcing him -- if Jack fought the command, then he'd be a far less effective soldier, and he might just remove his radio.
      • The game both subverts and averts the trope-from a story perspective it's subverted, but from a gameplay perspective it's completely averted, as the gifts Tenenbaum gives you if you rescue the girls constitute a much greater net gain than if you had simply killed the girls for all the ADAM they had (including some plasmids and tonics you can't get from the vendors); meaning that reason dictates honor to be the best path after all.
  • The elites in the Halo series definitely fall under this trope, especially the high-ranking zealots, ESPECIALLY in Halo 2. The Word of God at the time was that these officers had a honour code that prohibited them from using ranged weapons, and entering vehicles is considered cowardice. As a result, they end up being less dangerous than their gun-wielding subordinates, since they just run at you with a sword. When you do get one as an ally, giving him a gun will just result in him running up to enemies and bludgeoning them with it, and he will stubbornly refuse to enter any vehicle.
    • Of course they're still more dangerous than their subordinates because they're ten foot aliens with clocks, energy shields and an one-hit kill weapon.
  • In Samurai Warriors, Naoe Kanetsugu embodies this trope to a tee, Azai Nagamasa less so (who splits this with his love of Oichi). Interestingly, the Jerkass Ishida Mitsunari actually adopts this trope by his decisive battle at Sekigahara by refusing an officer's suggestion of a sneak attack on the enemy, and revealing in his ending that his friends' honor tropes actually rubbed off on him.
  • In Warriors Orochi, Pang De's version of this trope is so cliche that he's called out on this more than once -- hilariously, when one asks him what his "way of the warrior" even means, Pang De's explanation is basically repeating the concept. It's especially off, and call-out-on-worthy, since he's on Orochi's side through Wei, particularly Cao Pi's aligning with Orochi. However, in the Battle of Shizugatake (Shu story) if the player manages to save enough Hojo officers and prevent defections he will recognize the conflict and agree to leave Wei/Orochi.
  • In the canonical ending of Jedi Knight, Kyle Katarn has Jerec disarmed and on his knees. Jerec tries to goad Kyle into killing him. Kyle responds by giving him his weapon back.
  • In the Warcraft book Of Blood and Honor, the human paladin Tirion Fordring is an extremely honourable guy, saving an elderly man from a race which pretty much all of humanity was still recovering from having being nearly crushed by at the time. Doing so saw him exiled for treachery and his wife refusing to take herself and their son into the ruin he made for himself. His magical powers were supposed to have been taken from him, though due to nature of his use of them, it is assumed that they were granted by moral righteousness -- which has since been debated and argued about in true nature, due to World of Warcraft.
  • Lupa from Digital Devil Saga is a very strong believer in this philosophy. Tragically, it leads to his downfall because victims of the Atma Virus need to eat their opponents, or they become permanently berserk and have an insatiable bloodlust. Gale then takes up this philosophy after Lupa's death triggers his emotions.
  • Inverted in the Metal Gear series. Being a Stealth Based Game, Snake isn't averse to using every dirty, underhanded tactic in the book to incapacitate/kill/sneak past his enemies, and Mission Control encourages the player to employ these tactics at every possible occasion, while the villains always announce their presence and proceed to give Snake a (relatively) fair fight instead of just killing him.
    • The Boss from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater: Snake Eater inverts and plays this trope straight. Her Xanatos Roulette ensured that she'd be dishonored and declared "the biggest traitor of this century," her personal honor keeps her from killing, and sometimes even passively helping Snake in his mission. This extends to her Cobra Squad, who were honorable in their fights against Snake despite their abilities, and preserve their honor by killing themselves at the end.
      • The End is a more pure embodiment, as he wanted "one last" honorable sniper battle. even if he gets the drop on you, he only ever knocks Snake out and drags him to an unlocked cell at a previous base instead of killing Snake. In turn, Snake is sad to disappoint The End if the player lets him die of old age, which causes the Major to chew him out over the radio for trying to be dramatic.
      • The Fear averts this trope somewhat, in that while he announces himself like the other Cobras, his fighting style is more that of a Combat Pragmatist. He starts the battle by shooting snake with a poisoned arrow, fights in a battlefield littered with traps, and spends most of the battle hiding in treetops with stealth camo. But he also plays it straight, since he doesn't consider poison a fitting death for a warrior of Snake's caliber, and stays around to fight properly rather than let the poison finish him off.
  • In Army of Two, Tyson Rios makes it a point to try to bring the conspirators within Security and Strategy Corporation to justice, even going to so far as to force Ernest Stockwell, CEO of SSC to turn himself in once they rescued him. His partner, Elliot Salem, who is much more prgamatic and selfish, repeatedly calls him on his honorable nature, pointing out that the two are mercenaries.
  • In Quest for Glory 2, a fighter faces The Dragon in a climactic swordfight, and quickly disarms him. If he chooses to kill his unarmed foe, instead of letting him have his sword back, the game treats it as a dishonorable act... even though The End of the World as We Know It is due to happen in a few minutes, if the hero doesn't get a move on. The VGA fan remake is even more extreme in this regard; giving the sword back leads to a truly Nintendo Hard fight. Apparently, The Dragon waits until after you show him mercy to bust out the really nasty moves.
    • That, presumably, is what makes a paladin a paladin, a near-superhuman Badass who fights honorably even when the situation demands speed, no matter what the stakes.
      • Actually, it ISN'T what Paladins are supposed to be from how they're usually portrayed in the series, which makes this even worse. Paladins are supposed to rely on their own judgment to do what is good for all, even if they have to break laws in the process. However, this is a case of simple Lawful Stupid, as you are deliberately adding more risk to your life when you know that if you die here, or even take too long finishing him off, it's the end of the world. So in essence, you're risking huge amounts of unnecessary destruction just so that a cruel and brutal man dies with a sword in his hand. Yes, that's definitely "good for all"
  • In Romancing SaGa, Lord Theodore is the leader of the Knights of the Dominion, and one of the few who still follows their code to the letter. Unfortunately, he's so convinced that he's the last bastion of justice and honor left in the Dominion that he constantly overcompensates for the failings of his kin, both real and imagined. Rather than leading by example, he becomes Lawful Stupid incarnate.
  • Saber in Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero 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 lives by the same rules.
    • Naturally, in Fate/stay night, she ends up the Servant of another person who is the epitome of this trope, Shirou.
  • In Call of Juarez and especially the new sequel characters will come along and challenge the protagonist to a gunfight, which he accepts. Never mind they have easily pulled a Malcolm Reynolds style move and simply shot them as soon as they showed up instead of doing the whole showdown thing. In the second game they are already outlaws anyway and no one else is around to tell the tale later.
  • Angeal in Crisis Core, honorable as he is he gave us a warning early on.

Angeal: But I never stole from that tree, because the wealthy man's son was my friend.
Zack: If he was a friend, you should've just asked for some.
Angeal: Honor can be quite a burden at times.

  • In Dissidia Final Fantasy, The Onion Knight learns this as An Aesop, as, though it went against his otherwise perfectly rational motto of not taking on any foe he wasn't confident about, he found he had to fight on regardless if it meant rescuing Terra.
    • More precisely, he learns that while his perfectly logical fighting style is effective, it doesn't allow him to exceed the limits he sets on himself. Only by ignoring reason and logic can he find the power to succeed despite overwhelming odds. He stubbornly refuses to believe that it changes his fighting style, though:

Onion Knight: Don't get me wrong, I still won't fight anyone I can't beat. So I guess I'll just have to beat you!

  • Alluded to in Final Fantasy X. According to Auron, Jecht would often try and talk his companions into helping someone out because it was 'the right thing to do.' If he used that phrase, both Auron and Braska knew it would get them into a whole heap of trouble.
  • In Battle Arena Toshinden, the French gentleman-fighter Duke refuses to attack prone and vunerable opponents, because of his insistence on fighting like a gentleman.
  • Gerik and his mercenaries from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. When they and their employer Prince Innes are vastly outnumbered by an enemy army, Innes tries to convince them to surrender and save themselves since the other guys are only after him. Even after he fires them they refuse to (though admittedly he orders them to surrender after firing them.

Innes: Unbelievable... and you people call yourselves mercenaries? I thought you fought for money, not duty.
Gerik: Yeah, that's one of the rules. Guess we're lousy mercenaries, eh?

  • In the Kirby series, Meta Knight will give you a sword in the favor of a fair fight, even when the fate of the universe is on the line. In one game, the two of you are on a damaged airship that is currently falling towards the ocean - and he'll wait a full thirty seconds for you to pick up the sword before deciding to attack you anyways. In another, the fact that his evil doppelganger doesn't throw you a sword is the first clue that it's not really him.
  • In Fallout 3, with the Broken Steel DLC installed, while the player can send a radiation-immune companion character to activate the purifier rather than sacrificing themselves or Sarah Lyons, the game still considers this a cowardly choice rather than Negating Your Own Sacrifice.
  • The Half-Zatoichi in Team Fortress 2 is a katana wielded by the Demoman and the Soldier. It is Honorbound, meaning that once you draw it, you can't switch to another weapon until you get a kill with it, but getting a kill with it gets you back all your health points.
  • Kasumi from Shakkin Shimai takes this to an extreme, refusing help from Okura even if it means she'll be sold into prostitution to pay off her family's debt.
  • A game mechanic in Sengoku. Honor is gained by such things as donating money to the Emperor and granting land to vassals, and lost by hatching plots and declaring wars. If a character loses too much, they commit Seppuku.
  • Both Colonel and General from Mega Man X4 have been duped into sending Repliforce to war with the world by Sigma, forcing X and Zero to stop them. Colonel foolishly becomes a Martyr Without a Cause, which has a horrific repercussion if you're playing as Zero. His sister Iris tries to exact a heartbroken revenge after being emotionally wrecked by the death of her brother, and Zero, her beloved boyfriend, is forced to do her in (Similar to Romeo and Juliet, but Romeo still lives.) Zero has a STRATOSPHERIC Heroic BSOD as a result.
  • EVE Online has this in the form of Amarr Empire battle doctrine, which completely forbids retreat or surrender. During their war with the Jove, the only battle they fought with them cost them most of their fleet because they couldn't retreat or give up.
  • Red from Solatorobo usually acts before he thinks, and, being a generally nice guy, he's usually acing heroically (or stupidly, but sometimes Good Is Dumb). He justification for rushing headlong into a mission that seems hopelessly outmatched is just "I Gave My Word."
  • Mass Effect Subverted in Mass Effect 2, where Samara, a Warrior Monk swears an Oath to the Player Character so she will follow his/her orders, no matter dishonorable they would be normally considered by her Code. However, she does inform the Player Character That if he/she does anything particularly dishonorable in the eyes of the Code, Samara will kill them when she is released from the oath of subsumation.
    • Played straight and potentially subverted in Mass Effect 3, where Samara attempts to kill herself as her Code requires her to kill her only surviving daughter. However, the Player Character can intervene, allowing time for her daughter to provide an alternative
    • Inverted with Javik in Mass Effect 3, he chastises Shepard for believing that that victory is possible with one's honor intact.

"Stand in the ashes of a trillion dead souls, and ask the ghosts if honor matters. The silence is your answer."

  • Possible in the Star Ruler mod Galactic Armory. One Trait you can take is "Code of Honor", which prevents from using a variety of subsystems. No WMDs, fair enough, but when the thing prevents you from using sensible things like Armor-Piercing Attack it goes straight into this.
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