History Main / JustFollowingOrders

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': While traveling theough Birmingham, Alabama on a book signing tour with Penny, Bolt mentions the race riots of the 1960s, ones where police dogs were turned loose to attack peaceful protestors. He's highly critical of the pooches' actions, lampshading this trope when he says their likely defense that they were just following orders isn't justifiable.

* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'': Raynare falls back on this trope to justify killing Issei when he and Rias' peerage have her cornered, insisting she had no choice but to kill him and had to "fulfill her role as a fallen angel." Issei doesn't buy it for a second but just can't bring himself to kill her after the day of love and happiness they shared... so he asks Rias to do it instead.

* ''Anime/{{Monster}}'': Began with this trope. Tenma was ordered to save a man of importance as he was about to perform surgery on an immigrant and did so, and only later found out that the immigrant had died and left a widow who angrily confronted him about it. Tenma is later presented a similar situation and opts instead to save the young boy he was about to operate on over another man of importance. [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished And oh, what a mistake that was.]]

* ''Literature/{{Shimoneta}}'': PlayedForLaughs with Oboro, as it's the sum total of his character. His superiors have conditioned him to be such a YesMan, that he'll readily comply with any order he's given - no matter how ridiculous. And he'll do it [[TheComicallySerious with a perfectly straight face and monotone.]]
* ''Literature/TheUniqueCheatOfTheManDraggedInByTheFourHeroes:'' In the human kingdom, four heroes and one accidental tag-along were summoned to this world from modern-day Japan. Judom Lankaras, retired Guild Master for the entire human kingdom, is disgusted by this concept. Those who walk blindly without questioning are people he cannot trust. [[spoiler:For this reason, he trusts Hiiro, the tag-along, more than the four "Heroes" who jumped at the chance to play hero]].

* This is a plot point in ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'': [[spoiler:Pekoyama claims that she was just "Fuyuhiko's tool", with no will of her own, after she has been already voted as the culprit. Therefore, Monokuma could rule that Fuyuhiko was the real mastermind behind the murder, and thus allow him to "graduate" and get away scot-free while everyone else gets executed. This fails on multiple fronts; one, Fuyuhiko never actually gave her the order (she acted preemptively because she assumed he'd do it otherwise), and two, Fuyuhiko ''hated'' the idea that
Peko was only his tool, because he wanted her to be his friend. He thus refuses to claim responsibility as the mastermind, and Monokuma executes Peko]].

* Creator/JohnOliver never comes out and says the exact words, but this is the heart of his defense of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn_Zln_4pA8 IRS]] on ''Series/LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver'': everyone hates the IntimidatingRevenueService for being {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s who [[TaxmanTakesTheWinnings take everyone's money]], but he sees them as an underfunded, understaffed, overworked group of ''[[BeleagueredBureaucrat Beleaguered]]'' [[BeleagueredBureaucrat Bureaucrats]] who are Just Following Orders -- and not orders from their superiors in the IRS, but [[ShootTheMessenger orders given to them]] by ''Congress''; orders that they are constantly '''[[MovingTheGoalposts changing]].''' It still makes for an interesting examination of the trope; though Oliver decries calling the IRS "Gestapo", one can see the similarity; most of the people who made the Nazi regime work were overworked bureaucrats. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_during_World_War_II IBM even sold them the computers they used.]]

** Some historians who have interviewed ex-Nazis, or supporters or collaborators of the regime, have reported that the subjects are very often ''proud'' of what was done and either don't use this defence or only used it as an excuse if they don't want to attract bad attention. Notably, some of those same historians have also interviewed former Soviet and Japanese soldiers who ''also'' took part in atrocities and generally conclude that this trope suits them better since in the former case you could be sent to the Gulag or shot if you were suspected of being "un-revolutionary", and in the latter case one's superiors savagely beating their subordinates and treating them like dirt was the rule rather than the exception. In contrast, while in some cases not following orders could get you sent to the very dangerous Eastern Front, the majority of [=SS=] and Wehrmacht soldiers were often not severely punished and very usually had no problem with what they were doing; indeed, in many, many cases, they ''exceeded'' their orders and many atrocities were initiated at ground-level by officers. Since conquered Jews, Poles and other victims were forbidden to work (slave labour aside) yet were now part of the Greater German Reich, they became an economic burden, and since deportation was increasingly impractical, mass murder was often seen as cheaper and easier. The majority of Holocaust victims were shot, in thousands of separate instances; roughly half of its millions of victims were dead before Auschwitz opened its gas chambers.

* This is a plot point in ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'': [[spoiler:Pekoyama claims that she was just "Fuyuhiko's tool", with no will of her own, after she has been already voted as the culprit. Therefore, Monokuma could rule that Fuyuhiko was the real mastermind behind the murder, and thus allow him to "graduate" and get away scot-free while everyone else gets executed. Fuyuhiko, however, refuses to accept this, and Peko ends up being executed by herself]].

* A fatal example in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}''. In "With Friends Like These", Ace Ops carry out the orders by Ironwood to arrest Team RWBY, JNR, Oscar and Qrow despite the fact that Ironwood is in the middle of a SanitySlippage and the leader of Ace Ops, Clover, is helping Qrow and Robyn carry the defeated Tyrian to prison. ''No one'' in Ace Ops questions this and even those like Winter thinks that Team RWBY did something wrong. [[spoiler:The episode ends with RWBY wiping the floor with Ace Ops, Robyn badly injured, Tyrian freed, Clover dead and Qrow framed for his death thanks to Tyrian.]] This continues into Volume 8 as Ace Ops focuses on arresting Ren, Yang, and Jaune instead of dealing with the incoming Grimm and accepting what amounts to a SuicideMission despite the hesitation.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', some of the Death Eaters (after Voldemort's "death") used this in the most literal way possible - they claimed to have been under the Imperius curse. [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney Most of them weren't]].

* ''WesternAnimation/RecessSchoolsOut'': [[spoiler:Fenwick attempts to use this excuse when he is being arrested alongside Benedict. The police don't buy it]].

* ''LightNovel/{{Shimoneta}}'': PlayedForLaughs with Oboro, as it's the sum total of his character. His superiors have conditioned him to be such a YesMan, that he'll readily comply with any order he's given - no matter how ridiculous. And he'll do it [[TheComicallySerious with a perfectly straight face and monotone.]]
* ''LightNovel/TheUniqueCheatOfTheManDraggedInByTheFourHeroes:'' In the human kingdom, four heroes and one accidental tag-along were summoned to this world from modern-day Japan. Judom Lankaras, retired Guild Master for the entire human kingdom, is disgusted by this concept. Those who walk blindly without questioning are people he cannot trust. [[spoiler:For this reason, he trusts Hiiro, the tag-along, more than the four "Heroes" who jumped at the chance to play hero]].

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', after Asuna and the Sleeping Knights lose to the Floor 27 boss the first time, they return to just outside the boss room, only to see a large guild waiting there. The guild isn't ready to go in yet, since they're waiting for some more people, but refuse to let the Sleeping Knights try again. The head of the group claims that he's following orders from the higher-ups in his guild, but Yuuki doesn't accept that, forcing her and the others to fight their way to the boss room.

* Dove and Sky of [[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} Team CRDL]] in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12764610/1/Mending-the-Knots Mending the Knots]]'' are actually pretty [[NiceGuy Nice Guys]] who only go along with Cardin's {{Jerkass}} FantasticRacism becuase he's their leader, but they still hold out hope that he can be reasoned with. This all comes to a head in Chapter 18 when Cardin decides to play a DeadlyPrank on the heroes out of petty vengeance. While Dove and Sky are forced to go along with it, they decide to renounce their places on the team after the prank fails and willingly accept the punishment Ozpin gives them.

* In the film version of Film/TheBourneSeries, specifically what he finally learns in [[Film/TheBourneUltimatum the third film of the trilogy]], [[spoiler:Jason Bourne -- Captain David Webb -- turns out to have been lured into the shady Treadstone project under the premise that he'd "save American lives" after giving up his identity. In practice, the critical moment of transforming him into an unquestioning shooter with no qualms about who's targeted turns out to be a badly sleep-deprived, possibly drugged Webb finally (He's not a ''liar,'' is he? Is he too weak to see it through?) shooting an anonymous person to death ''solely because his superior said to.'']]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}''. A variation in the Season One finale when Jasper agrees unanimously to all of Silco's demands regarding independence for Zaun, on the sole condition that his PsychoForHire and surrogate daughter Jinx be handed over for her crimes. Silco protests that Jinx was just following his orders (ironically this isn't strictly true, as the murders the Council want her for were done on her own initiative). Jayce agrees, but as they need Silco alive and free to broker the peace deal, then Jinx has to become TheScapegoat instead.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}''. A variation in the Season One finale when Jasper agrees unanimously to all of Silco's demands regarding independence for Zaun, on the sole condition that his PsychoForHire and surrogate daughter Jinx be handed over for her crimes. Silco protests that Jinx was just following his orders. Jayce agrees, but as they need Silco alive and free to broker the peace deal, then Jinx has to become TheScapegoat instead.

* Jaime Lannister in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' has become a JadedWashout for this reason. His initial naive ideas of being a knight is shattered when he realizes that being part of the Kingsguard, an elite institution of the PraetorianGuard largely involves standing by while the King rapes his wife and summarily executes innocent people by the dozens while the knights stand on and do nothing, even good knights like Ser Arthur Dayne and Ser Barristan Selmy. The fact that [[spoiler: he becomes TheOathbreaker by killing the King when he decides to KillEmAll by unleashing [[GreekFire wildfire]] on a civilian populace and ends up being shamed and misunderstood for a selfless heroic action, only makes it worse. Following his HeelFaceTurn, he seeks to reform this to include protecting the king even from himself.]] On a broader note, this is in fact the theme of the series, to what extent is honor and chivalry a respectable code to follow and to what extent its merely an enabling fantasy for being unthinking thugs who do what they're told.

* After being defeated in a water balloon war, one of Nelson's goons says this in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Bart the General." Bart spares them and pelts Nelson with the extra balloons instead.

*** His son Miles faces a borderline illegal order in ''The Vor Game'' - his Commanding Officer at the time is clearly overreacting, but overreacting is not in an of itself illegal - and decides to disobey it, which results in a whirlwind of activity that ends with him getting shitcanned from the regular Barrayaran service. Plaintively and somewhat fearfully he asks his father if he did the right thing, to which Aral replies, [[spoiler: "Yes. A right thing. Three days from now, you may think of a cleverer tactic, but you were the man on the ground at the time. I try not to second-guess my field commanders."]]

** More recently, Milgram's results have been cast into doubt however, and it's possible that the results were misinterpreted and that some of the subjects only continued because they knew or strongly suspected that the shocks weren't real anyway.[[note]]While the full details are complicated and open to interpretation (and you should check Wiki/TheOtherWiki for more details), the experiment had a number of factors that should be taken into account when considering the results, including the fact that all testers were assured that there would be no permanent physical damage from their actions at all. That, combined with the testing methods and the interpretation of the results by Milgram, as well as multiple repeated experiments with different factors and modes of operation, have thrown the psychology of the original experiment for a loop, such that it's important to remember that it was ''only one experiment''. Milgram himself performed ''nineteen'' variations on the original test, with occasionally drastically different results, and there have been many different replications since then with also very different results.[[/note]]

** A less complex example is Aral's regular lectures to graduates of the Imperial Service on what constitutes an illegal order.

** In "The Enemy Below", one of Orm's followers tried to offer the "just following orders" excuse to Aquaman. He was not impressed.

* ''Anime/Golgo13: Queen Bee'' has Lt. Benning, who claims he was just being a good soldier when he destroyed a village. His commanding officer admits he ordered the villain's destruction, but points out that ''cannibalizing a pregnant woman'' and ''filling a helicopter with human heads'' were rather beyond the scope of said order.

* ''Manga/InuYasha'':

* The culprit of the ''Anime/AceAttorney'' anime adaptation's exclusive "Northward, Turnabout Express" case uses this excuse. [[spoiler:He prosecuted Avery Richman, a foreign multimillionaire, on orders from his superior as part of a conspiracy to discredit Richmond and get him out of the country, specifically by ensuring that a key witness(who happened to be the real culprit) never took the stand. When the witness tried to blackmail Turnbull, Turnbull killed him.]] [[spoiler:The chief prosecutor of the U.S.]] tells him that's no excuse; in fact, [[spoiler:any prosecutor who would follow an illegal order to please his superior doesn't deserve his job.]]

* ''Franchise/XMen'': Mentioning this justification in front of Holocaust survivor Magneto is a '''BAD''' idea. You'd be lucky enough just to have only your metal fillings removed.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* ''[[ComicBook/TheTransformersMegaseries Transformers: Maximum Dinobots]]'': Inverted at the end of the book, when Grimlock gets the desertion charges against the other Dynobots dropped by revealing toe Autobot command that he'd tricked them into believing that they were performing a black ops mission that had been authorized off the books instead of going rogue in their hunt for Shockwave, taking the blame all on himself. Prowl agrees and drops the charges against the other Dynobots.

* An unspoken example in ''Fanfic/MegamiNoHanabira'': [[spoiler: despite the Flock having been all but undone by a combination of Lucifer's manipulation and [[BadBoss Phillips's]] [[PointyHairedBoss stunning incompetence]], the girls still end up battling some of the goons who didn't have the spine to turn on their boss, who are portrayed as terrified, frantic animals too scared of Phillips to disobey his orders. Yuuna shows no sympathy for them whatsoever, condemning them for their cowardice, [[EveryoneHasStandards despite expressing disgust at the state of utter desperation Phillips has cowed them into.]]]]

* Lightning Dust from ''Fanfic/BadFutureCrusaders'' provides a variation to the usual trope: She admits she willingly went after Rainbow Dash and enjoyed the act, but still tries to brush the responsibility off by pointing out that she ''was'' following orders and if she hadn't, someone else would have.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[MemeticMutation "Hans... are we the baddies?"]]]]

* Many of the torturers in S-21 prison were brainwashed teenage boys whose families were being held hostage by Pol Pot. They were told to either follow orders or they and their whole families would have the same fate as the prisoners. In later interviews, this trope is their justification, saying that they too were prisoners. It falls apart when one of the few survivors confronts his captor.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': Ed tries to invoke this when Riza [[WholeEpisodeFlashback tells him]] what happened in Ishval, saying that the [[OurHomunculiAreDifferent Homunculi]] were really the ones behind it. Riza replies that, yes, the Homunculi may have started it, but she and her fellow soldiers were the ones who carried it out, and that is something they will never forget.