History Main / FrequentlyBrokenUnbreakableVow

* In TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons, Paladins are holy warriors who are bound to oaths with the divine. In principle. In practice, Paladins are notorious for ending up as this trope, one way or another- players who aren't that interested in roleplaying give lip service to their oath at best while those players who are interested in roleplaying tend to have the GM throw moral no-win situations in their path continuously, forcing them to violate their oaths repeatedly.

* Everyone in ''Franchise/DragonAge'' makes a big show of how joining the Grey Wardens means "your old life is over" and YouCantGoHomeAgain. Major characters, however, appear to leave the Wardens all the time; the player character in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' can do so, as can Alistair [[spoiler:if he becomes king or leaves in protest of Loghain joining]], Anders (''twice''), and Fiona, among others. {{Justified|Trope}} to a certain extent, as the Wardens carry the darkspawn taint in their blood, which ties them irrevocably to the organization, even if they don't "wear the uniform or go to the parties" as Anders puts it. [[spoiler:The only known exception is Fiona, who was cured of the taint somehow.]] They are also a very small force, meaning they don't really have the manpower to go chasing down lone deserters, and their meticulous record-keeping means that even rogue Wardens can be called up in times of need, such as a Blight.

* In the ''MarvelUniverse'', [[TheWatcher Uatu the Watcher]] has repeatedly violated [[PrimeDirective his oath of non-intervention]] (at one point in the 2008 ''ComicBook/TheEternals'' run outright stated as 337 times by then). Sometimes he does so outright (as in his very first appearance), other times he finds ways to "technically" obey the oath while still somehow helping Earth's heroes. For example, he likes to make his presence known to Earth's heroes (not difficult given his [[OurGiantsAreBigger immense size]]) whenever observing a major event, even though he can watch events just fine from light-years away. Therefore, he doesn't even have to utter a word to make it clear that something of great importance is about to happen. ''Comicbook/OriginalSin #0'' reveals that when the rest of his race vowed never to interfere with other species again, he protested the decision and argued that they could learn from their mistakes and do better next time. He has few qualms about bending or even breaking the oath because he never followed the oath in spirit.

** In season 2 of ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'', civil rights attorney Neera notes that the Prime Directive is routinely violated by their captains, who frequently get away with it. Admiral April, during his tenure as Captain of the ''Enterprise'', violated it at least three times, including outright giving one species Federation tech to solve their issue. She uses this as proof that the Federation is willing to enforce laws on a case-by-case basis and gives wide latitude to their captains to act as they please.

* In the ''MarvelUniverse'', [[TheWatcher Uatu the Watcher]] has repeatedly violated [[PrimeDirective his oath of non-intervention]]. Sometimes he does so outright (as in his very first appearance), other times he finds ways to "technically" obey the oath while still somehow helping Earth's heroes. For example, he likes to make his presence known to Earth's heroes (not difficult given his [[OurGiantsAreBigger immense size]]) whenever observing a major event, even though he can watch events just fine from light-years away. Therefore, he doesn't even have to utter a word to make it clear that something of great importance is about to happen. ''Comicbook/OriginalSin #0'' reveals that when the rest of his race vowed never to interfere with other species again, he protested the decision and argued that they could learn from their mistakes and do better next time. He has few qualms about bending or even breaking the oath because he never followed the oath in spirit.

** And then there is the whole Hurog family, whose holy duty is to protect dragons. They have been doing a pretty bad job for a very, very, very long time. Ward, the protagonist, is the first one to actually do some dragon-protecting. (One of his ancestors ''killed'' a dragon, and the ones that came after that liked the title, but never made a real effort to find out what happened to the dragons.

* [[GrimReaper Death]] of the {{Literature/Discworld}} is bound by The Duty to impartially collect souls and has apparently done so offscreen very diligently for thousands of years but in the books themselves, he has a breakdown and [[DeathTakesAHoliday runs off]] more than once, and also spares people's lives repeatedly because of curiosity or pity or personal relations or because Granny Weatherwax asks him to[[note]]Accepting ChessWithDeath and BalancingDeathsBooks appears to be within The Duty; ''letting her win'' probably isn't.[[/note]] (He also killed someone for no reason in the first book, but that was [[CharacterizationMarchesOn before his character was really decided]].)

* In ''Franchise/StarWars'' (both canon and legends), for a long period of time, the one rule of the Sith was the RuleOfTwo. There can only be two Sith, a master and an apprentice. No more, no less. However, given the [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder treacherous and rule-breaking nature]] of the Sith, this rule is often bent, twisted, or otherwise ignored. Some masters and apprentices trained "Dark Side Assassins" or Inquisitors as a way to [[LoopholeAbuse have more dark side users at their dispossal while technically not violating the Rule of Two]]. There has been atleast one instance where a Sith Masters took up new apprentice [[Characters/StarWarsDarthMaul when the old one was not as dead as believed]]. Other Sith apprentices have straight up [[VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed trained secret apprentices]] with the goal to kill their current master. Even the originator of the Rule broke it by training two apprentices, suggesting that the Rule wasn't actually ''meant'' to be adhered to. Generally these violations are quickly "rectified" by [[MurderIsTheBestSolution murder]] to bring the numbers back down to two.

[[folder:Film]]

* [[GrimReaper Death]] of the {{Literature/Discworld}} is bound by The Duty to impartially collect souls and has apparently done so offscreen very diligently for thousands of years but in the books themselves, he has a breakdown and [[DeathTakesAHoliday runs off]] more than once, and also spares people's lives repeatedly because of curiosity or pity or personal relations or because Granny Weatherwax asks him t[[note]]Accepting ChessWithDeath and BalancingDeathsBooks appears to be within The Duty; ''letting her win'' probably isn't.[[/note]] (He also killed someone for no reason in the first book, but that was [[CharacterizationMarchesOn before his character was really decided]].)

* This is the reason Byakuya has become a KnightTemplar by the start of ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''. As a noble, he is expected to embody the rules and traditions of Soul Society, but he broke these rules twice; once to marry a commoner he'd fallen in love with and, when she died, he swore on her deathbed he'd find, adopt, and protect her little sister (Rukia), breaking the law a second time. He swore that this would be the absolute last time and that he'd obey the laws no matter what from here on. So later, when Rukia was branded a criminal to be executed for her crimes, he obeyed the law, captured her, and prevented her friends from rescuing her. After being defeated by Ichigo, however, Ichigo convinces him that there's nothing wrong with breaking an ''unjust'' law, as shown in the page quote of ToBeLawfulOrGood. Byakuya has also since learned to [[LoopholeAbuse abuse loopholes]] when subverting orders that he personally disapproves of but which aren't actually unjust; sometimes it's possible to not personally break any rules but at the same time facilitate someone else breaking them. Especially when his superiors [[ExactWords didn't think to specifically forbid him from doing this]].

* ''Series/{{Warehouse13}}'': "We don't use artifacts! There's always a downside!" ...except that artifacts are frequently used, sometimes to save a fellow agent or bystander, but sometimes for MundaneUtility, and frequently with no negative consequences. For example, Claudia uses a snow globe from the 1893 World's Fair to chill her sodas, and there are no downsides shown.

Subtrope of InevitablyBrokenRule. Expect TheFettered and TheCape with a HeroicVow to be especially prone to suffer this, though the NobleDemon may be an infrequent target. See also OddlyCommonRarity. If the story has {{Magically Binding Contract}}s involved, they'll be as binding as [[LoopholeAbuse warm swiss cheese]]. Unless [[MadeOfIndestructium it isn't]]. If the vow is only broken once or twice, then it's BatmanGrabsAGun.

* The ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' series has one rule enforced by the Elder Gods: You aren't allowed to invade a realm without defeating it in ten consecutive Mortal Kombat tournaments. As early as ''II'', this rule begins to collapse as Shao Kahn plots to either loophole around or just plain ignore the system in favor of a forcible invasion. Though in 9 this eventually comes back to bite Kahn when he attempts to fully annex Earthrealm without going through the tournament or abusing a loophole, finally getting the Elder Gods to act against him.

* Within the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise, Starfleet has the Prime Directive, a rule that states that the Federation should not interfere with the development of pre-warp civilizations. It was not originally an unbreakable vow as much as it was a general guideline, but over the years it has gone back and forth.
** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''. Captain Kirk's willingness to break the [[AlienNonInterferenceClause Prime Directive]] whenever he needed to save the ''Enterprise'' and/or a "stagnant" culture is well known. He was also a hypocrite on the issue, condemning Captain Tracy in "The Omega Glory" for doing something he had done before and would do again. Note that Mr. Spock was also guilty for not arresting Kirk each time he did it (as noted in "The Omega Glory", any Starfleet officer who doesn't take action is as guilty as the person committing the offense). Although Kirk also faces a measure of NeverLiveItDown. Many times his violations of the Prime Directive occur from trying to ''fix'' damage that had already been done by other officers or visitors.

** Oddly enough, TNG asserted that Kirk had violated the Prime Directive in circumstances TOS clearly established was ''not'' a Prime Directive violation by the interpretation held by Starfleet at the time (they would have been in TNG, but Kirk can hardly be faulted for not knowing about regulation changes decades before they happen).

* Within the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise, Starfleet has the Prime Directive, a rule that states that the Federation should not interfere with the development of pre-warp civilizations. It was not originally an unbreakable vow as much as it was a general guideline, but over the years it has gone back and forth..

* Franchise/StarTrek franchise:

* [[GrimReaper Death]] of the {{Literature/Discworld}} is bound by The Duty to impartially collect souls and has apparently done so offscreen very diligently for thousands of years but in the books themselves, he has a breakdown and [[DeathTakesAHoliday runs off]] more than once, and also spares people's lives repeatedly because of curiosity or pity or personal relations or because Granny Weatherwax asks him to[[note]]Accepting ChessWithDeath and BalancingDeathsBooks appears to be within The Duty; ''letting her win'' probably isn't[[/note]]. (He also killed someone for no reason in the first book, but that was [[CharacterizationMarchesOn before his character was really decided]].)

* In ''Franchise/StarWars'' (both canon and legends), the one rule of the Sith is the RuleOfTwo. There can only be two Sith, a master and an apprentice. No more, no less. However, given the [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder treacherous and rule-breaking nature]] of the Sith, this rule is often bent, twisted, or otherwise ignored. Some masters and apprentices trained "Dark Side Assassins" or Inquisitors as a way to [[LoopholeAbuse have more dark side users at their dispossal while technically not violating the Rule of Two]]. There has been atleast one instance where a Sith Masters took up new apprentice [[Characters/StarWarsDarthMaul when the old one was not as dead as believed]]. Other Sith apprentices have straight up [[VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed trained secret apprentices]] with the goal to kill their current master. Even the originator of the Rule broke it by training two apprentices, suggesting that the Rule wasn't actually ''meant'' to be adhered to. Generally these violations are quickly "rectified" by [[MurderIsTheBestSolution murder]] to bring the numbers back down to two.

* In ''Franchise/StarWars'' (both canon and legends), the one rule of the Sith is the RuleOfTwo. There can only be two Sith, a master and an apprentice. No more, no less. However, given the [[AlwaysChaoticEvil treacherous and rule-breaking nature]] of the Sith, this rule is often bent, twisted, or otherwise ignored. Some masters and apprentices trained Dark Side Assassins as a way to [[LoopholeAbuse technically not violate the Rule of Two]]. There has been atleast one instance where Sith Masters who took up new apprentice [[Characters/StarWarsDarthMaul when the old one was not as dead as believed]]. Other Sith apprentices have straight up [[VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed trained secret apprentices]] with the goal to kill their current master. Even the originator of the Rule broke it by training two apprentices, suggesting that the Rule wasn't actually ''meant'' to be adhered to. Generally these violations are quickly "rectified" by [[MurderIsTheBestSolution murder]] to bring the numbers back down to two.