Honor Before Reason/Western Animation

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Examples of Honor Before Reason in Western Animation include:

  • Zeta from The Zeta Project is like this once he's grown a conscience and done a Heel Face Turn against his creators. Ro notes that it would easier for him to escape the NSA's agents tailing him if he'd fight back, but his code of nonviolence is not negotiable for him. And on the odd occasions he will fight, he won't kill. Ever. The weird thing is that all of this actively goes against his programming and nature, unlike many of the examples on this page.
  • Anti-Villain Prince Zuko of Avatar: The Last Airbender desperately wants the "honor" he believes only his father can restore to him, and when the Snipe Hunt he was sent on turns into an actual hunt for The Hero, Zuko becomes something of a Determinator, and does a great many foolish and ill-thought-out things. The second and third seasons feature much internal conflict about what the nature of honor is, culminating in a Heel Face Turn for good, but he arguably never loses his focus on honor itself at any cost.

Actor!Zuko: Honorrrrr!

Fire Lord Zuko: I promised my uncle that I would restore the honor of the Fire Nation, and I will.

    • Aang at the end of the series as he is about to fight the Fire Lord. He's unwilling to kill Ozai despite Ozai fully willing to kill him in return. Everyone, including his past lifes telling him that killing him is the only way to end the conflict for good. He eventually finds a way out of this though
  • Samurai Jack insists on defending others from evil, even when it means passing up a chance to return to the past and undo the original cause of the evil.
  • In the Gargoyles episode "The Gathering", Goliath decides to have himself and his clan help their enemy, David Xanatos, stop the godlike Oberon from abducting his child on pure principle, considering they owe the billionaire absolutely nothing. Although it's obviously a difficult and dangerous task, Goliath is instrumental to making Oberon compromise to allow the child to stay. As a result, Xanatos then feels he owes the clan big time, which leads him to inviting them back to the castle to live safely after they are exposed to the public.
    • Likewise Owen's participation in that battle, since he knew Oberon would not be happy he was missing the Gathering.
    • During his first appearance Macbeth is trying to capture the gargoyles, but he chooses to calmly wait until sundown to fight them rather than just moving their statues in the middle of the day. In a later episode he refuses to let Demona smash them, again citing it as dishonorable.
  • Optimus Prime in Transformers Generation 1 always was an honorable fighter. Particularly in the episode "Heavy Metal War", when Megatron challenged Prime to single combat. Megatron, of course, cheated by transferring all of the special abilities of the Deceptions to himself. Even though Megatron was clearly doing things he could not possibly do (teleport, fire null rays, etc.) Prime accepted defeat. At least, until Teletraan-1 pointed out what a cheating bastard Megatron was.
    • Many of the older comics and some of the new ones use this to mark the difference between Optimus Prime and other Autobot leaders such as Grimlock, who's not as honor bound, more ruthless and willing to do whatever is necessary for a victory. Yet that same honor, similar to Captain Carrot (see Literature, above) is what allows Prime to make things work that others simply wouldn't. Through patience, a few Peter Cullen Speeches, and honorable behavior throughout, Prime manages to convince a Decepticon commander that his surrender to the Earthbound Deceptions is not a sign that the "great Optimus Prime" actually is and always was a coward or a weakling, but rather that he genuinely believes that only by uniting can they stop a greater threat.
  • Hey Arnold! Honorable: Refusing to sign a lucrative advertising contract after overhearing the advertisers insulting you behind your back. Reasonable: Refusing to sign... while exposing their misdeeds so that you won't be branded an idiot for not signing.
    • Actually, many of the "morals" in Hey Arnold! are Honor Before Reason tropes. Willing to have an incident Arnold didn't do go in his permanent record just to perpetuate the "stick up for your friends!" moral? The fact that the show constantly makes these morals very preachy calls into question why, considering how the vast majority of said morals falling into Honor Before Reason territory.
  • Zig Zagged in ReBoot. Enzo has returned home to Mainframe, all grown up, big, strong and gunning for Megabyte, both literally and figuratively. When confronted by Enzo's gun, Megabyte taunts him into fighting like a "real sprite". Enzo puts away his gun...but then proceeds to send Megabyte flying with a punch hard enough to dent his chest, before Megabyte has a chance to prepare. And he then proceeds to do it again while Megabyte is still recovering from the first attack. When Megabyte inevitably cheats, he takes him on with a spear, then at the end of the fight, spares Megabyte... despite Megabyte enslaving the population of Mainframe, torturing his friends, and killing countless binomes.
  • Elisa from Dead Space: Downfall was more so worried about helping the survivors (whom might already be infected) then quarantining the ship. Her captain might have been nuts but he actually made SOME sense. Could also be a case of Compassion Before Reason.
    • You have to be dead in order to be infected, but still there was at most 20 people out of 2000 left alive and going crazy.
  • Played straight and then subverted during an episode of the Iron Man animated series. Tony Stark agrees to get an artifact from a booby-trapped tomb if Madame Masque will release his kidnapped workers. She releases Julia Carpenter (Spiderwoman) who will send the Iron Man armor but keeps the other workers captive. Julia says that she will send down the armor "and a lot more", but Tony stops her because he has given his word. The trope is subverted almost immediately afterward. Once, Iron Man has entered the tomb, Julia convinces Jim Rhodes (War Machine) to attack Madame Masque and her minions anyway, arguing that the only chance the hostages have is if they attack their captors off guard.
  • The Doom Patrol in Teen Titans are made of this trope; so much so that they come across as arrogant when they refuse to let the title characters join them on a potential suicide mission. This trope is also subverted in that the Teen Titans end up undoing all the Heroic Sacrifices the Doom Patrol made offscreen.
  • Omi in Xiaolin Showdown actually pulls a Face Heel Turn because of this trope. I mean, just... what the hell was that? To be fair, though, the good part of his chi had been left behind in the Ying-Yang World because he only had half of the Ying-Yang Yo-Yo.
  • Subverted in a strange way in a The Powerpuff Girls episode. Mojo has Blossom in a bind by having the Professor and her two sisters hostage. He demands Blossom's fealty and tries to use her honesty against her.

Blossom: What do you want?
Mojo Jojo: First, you will bow down before me! Next, you will pledge your allegiance and devotion to serve me!
Blossom: How do you know I won't lie?
Mojo Jojo: Because you're Blossom.
Blossom: Shoot!

    • Another example would be from the episode where she first gets her "ice breath" power. After inadvertently causing the escape of a trio of robbers, she promises never to use her ice powers again. She has the timing to make this promise as a giant meteor is headed straight for Townsville. She's the only one that can stop it, yet she's insistent on maintaining her promise despite the fact that the promise won't matter if she doesn't do something. Buttercup manages to snap her out of it, though.
    • When faced with elderly criminals, Buttercup and Bubbles prepare to foil their crime when Blossom stops them. She points out while they could stop them, they have to respect the elderly. She decides to instead recruit the heroes who fought the villains the last time. The end result has everyone being rushed into intensive care with everyone recognizing Blossom's error.
  • The Simpsons: Lisa turning down a fortune after finding out what Mr Burns had turned the recycling company he and Lisa had started into. What she could've done with twelve million.

Homer, in a hospital bed after 4 simultaneous heart attacks: It's okay, sweetie. But we really could've used that 12,000 dollars.
Lisa: Actually dad, 10% of 120 million dollars isn't 12,000, it's...

  • Smash cut to hospital corridor* PA: Code Blue! Code Blue!
    • This trope often applies to Lisa. Typically, someone will try and convince her to lie, cheat, or at least conceal the truth, because it's to everyone's advantage. In fact, the story will often go out of its way to assure us that everyone is better off with the lie. This usually leads to Lisa having a moral crisis before she decides to tell the truth after all (usually in an overly dramatic fashion). But of course, there's always another twist at this point.
  • Happens to Hercules in the ongoing series in one episode. When he realizes Medusa is at the school he grabs a weapon and goes after her, but stops when he realizes she's hiding in the lady's room. Yeah, that means he has her cornered, but simple decency prevents him from confronting her there. While Hades has no qualms about this and magics himself inside to speak to her, his two henchmen are also embarrassed to be there.
  • Justice League had this during the Justice Lords arc. It's pointed out that the Lords are every bit as smart, strong, fast, and skilled as the League, except that they're willing to KILL. Superman insists that he won't cross that line, to which Batman replies they'll have to cross SOME kind of line. So they end up getting Lex Luthor's help.
    • Wonder Woman is banished by her mother from Themyscira for bringing men to the island and breaking the law. If she hadn't worked with the Hostage for McGuffin scenario, the Amazons would remain in stone. If she hadn't received help from her teammates, Hades could have taken over. The Flash points out this is ridiculous since she risked her life to save everyone. When the Gods have her return in "The Balance", she says she should leave after completing the task. Hippolyta asks her to stay and when she points out her exile, her mother explains that the Gods will have to deal with her if they have a problem with that. One wonders why she didn't say this the first time other than to have a Bittersweet Ending.
    • Because she was too stubborn. In the first episode, she even told Diana they shouldn't be concern about the alien invasion.
  • My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: Applejack. Particularly in the episode Applebuck Season, where she promises to do a few too many things while also harvesting her family's entire apple orchard by herself. It takes most of the episode, severe sleep deprivation and overwork, and accidentally causing several disasters to finally convince her that maybe she should admit she's overextended herself and ask for some help.
  • In Kim Possible, Shego's brother Hego is this when she used to be a hero. For example: He lets the enemy strike first and letting them know their presence became to much, and became one of the many reasons for her Face Heel Turn.

Shego: (Annoyed) Why do you think I left?!

  • Brick from Total Drama Island believed highly in his code as a cadet. So strong was his honor, that he sacrificed winning a challenge for his team to save the lives of Mike, Zoey, and Cameron, who were on the other team. This resulted in his elimination, but those he saved saluted him good-bye.
  • In the 2012 version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, when Donatello finally perfects retro-mutagen (a chemical that can reverse mutations) lack of materials means he can only create two doses. Not a problem initially, it seems, as there are only two intended recipients, Splinter and April's father. Since Splinter is conveniently with them when he finishes it, he naturally offers it. However, Splinter insists Mr. O'Neil be given priority. Naturally, trying to administer it to him results in a fight with Baxter Stockman, where both doses are destroyed. As a result, Splinter is never cured (though let's be honest, he never will be, as Status Quo Is God) though they manage to cure Mr. O'Neil (and many other mutated victims, including Stockman, ironically) in a later episode.
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