History Main / ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight

* In the secret ending of ''VisualNovel/MysticMessenger,'' when [[spoiler: Seven asks Vanderwood to help the two of you get Saeran to safety away from Mint Eye, he initially vehemently refuses, since the [[NebulousCriminalConspiracy espionage agency he and Seven work]] for has ordered him to capture Seven for slacking off on his duties too much, and if he were to disobey their orders, he would be in just as much danger. But when Seven makes it clear just how serious he is about helping Saeran, and tells Vanderwood that he already has a brand new identity ready for him if he's willing to abandon the agency to come along, he throws caution to the wind and double crosses the agency, electing to stay VitriolicBestBuds with Seven and doing what's right for the first time in a long time.]]
* Always averted in ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'', since whoever tries to stop the killing game always ends up killed. This trope finally gets carried out in ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony,'' when the only way to shut down [[ImmoralRealityShow Danganronpa]] is to have EVERYONE abstain from voting, even though it'll kill everyone, Shuichi says that it's the only way to end Danganronpa forever.

* Pretty much what happens with most of the superheroes except for Superman in DC Comics' ''[[ComicBook/LegendsDC Legends]]'' when the President of the United States has to enforce a ban on superhero activity, seeing that the supervillains would take advantage of this ban to commit crimes without any interference.

* Always adverted in {{Franchise/Danganronpa}}, since whoever tries to stop the killing game always ends up killed. This trope finally gets carried out in ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony,'' when the only way to shut down [[ImmoralRealityShow Danganronpa]] is to have EVERYONE abstain from voting, even though it'll kill everyone, Shuichi says that it's the only way to end Danganronpa forever.

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 3.5, grey guards are paladins who experienced a HeroicBSOD and have decided to take this trope as their creed. They will protect the greater good, no matter what laws might restrict them ordinarily, and [[PayEvilUntoEvil no matter what it might take.]] Some players think this class completely misses the point [[IncorruptiblePurePureness of being a paladin,]] since it advocates an IDidWhatIHadToDo attitude. On the other hand, it gives the player more freedom to use their [[HolyHandGrenade powers of smiting evil and injustice]].

* Always adverted in {{Franchise/Danganronpa}}, since whoever tries to stop the killing game always ends up killed. This trope finally gets carried out in''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony,'' when the only way to shut down [[ImmoralRealityShow Danganronpa]] is to have EVERYONE abstain from voting, even though it'll kill everyone, Shuichi says that it's the only way to end Danganronpa forever.

* Always adverted in {{Franchise/Danganronpa}}, since whoever tries to stop the killing game always ends up killed. This trope finally gets carried out in''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony,'' when the only way to shut down [[Immoralrealityshow Danganronpa]] is to have EVERYONE abstain from voting, even though it'll kill everyone, Shuichi says that it's the only way to end Danganronpa forever.

* This trope is pretty much the reason that ComicBook/NickFury made ComicBook/SecretWar happen.

** One episode has Squidward file a restraining order against [=SpongeBob=], but it causes problems with his job. Then when Squidward has an allergy and Patrick mistakes him for a monster and attacks him, SpongeBob decides to go against the order for the sake of stopping the fight.

* ''Fanfic/AllAssortedAnimorphsAUs'': In "What if there was a zombie apocalypse?", Tobias suggests arming the populace by giving them the morphing power. The other Animorphs say that they'd be breaking several species' laws... but it's the only way.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'':

Applying this trope does ''not'' mean that the [[IDidWhatIHadToDo ends justify the means]], but rather that the person acts compassionate and follows his conscience even when the rules would forbid it (or to put it another way, they ''do'' justify the means, but the means usually aren't very terrible). When a KnightTemplar attempts this, they are likely to go JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope [[IDidWhatIHadToDo Doing What They Had To Do]] instead — see TautologicalTemplar and TotalitarianUtilitarian (formerly named The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions).

--->'''Superman''': I can't let that happen! If worst comes to worst, I'll have to defy Harker — and take the consequences! Because there's a moral law that's above some man-made laws! I've fought tyrants before... thought it meant defying their inhuman decrees!
* Deconstructed in ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' story ''ComicBook/{{Bizarrogirl}}''. ''[[Comicbook/NewKrypton Previously]]'' Supergirl illegally extradited super-villain Reactron. She thought she was doing the right thing when she took him back to New Krypton so he answered for his crimes, but he got a KangarooCourt and got tortured. And then he revealed that he was a human bomb set to blow the planet up. Which he did.
* This is Franchise/{{Batman}}'s thing. The point of him dressing up like a giant bat and haunting the night is because he would never get anything done playing by the rules. Especially when the rules are made by corrupt officials who are connected to criminals. In fact, this was what lead to the creation of ComicBook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders.
* ComicBook/CaptainAmerica:
-->''"Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world -- [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome 'No, YOU move.']]"''
* Most of the anti-registration superheroes in ''ComicBook/CivilWar.''
* The dawn of UsefulNotes/{{the Bronze Age|OfComicBooks}} pretty much happened when [[Comicbook/GreenLantern Hal Jordan]], following a lecture from ComicBook/GreenArrow, disobeyed the Guardians' orders and set out to stop a crooked businessman who was putting poor families out on the streets.
** This is a fairly common theme in Comicbook/GreenLantern, period. The four human lanterns, and often a number of the alien ones, will go against a direct order from the Guardians or their Justice League teammates if they believe it will serve a greater purpose. Kyle Rayner sends a prisoner to Zamaron instead of Oa, John Stewart tells Batman to shove it when Bats disrespects Hal, the aforementioned Hal Jordan example, and Guy Gardner...well, he's freaking Guy Gardner.
* [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Uatu, the Watcher]] is an observer sworn [[PrimeDirective not to interfere]] in the affairs of Earth, but [[HumansAreSpecial there's just something about humans]]... (Note that Uatu has ''frequently'' gotten in trouble for this from the other members of his species, and is apparently currently on some form of probation.)
* This trope is pretty much the reason that ComicBook/NickFury made ComicBook/SecretWar happen.
* In ''ComicBook/TheSmurfs'' comic book story "The Smurf Menace", Papa Smurf orders his little Smurfs not to respond to the Gray Smurfs with violence when the Gray Smurfs ward them away from the dam with weapons during their protest of the Gray Smurfs hoarding all the water. Later on, when the Smurfs see that the Gray Smurfs were harassing them and robbing them of food that they were harvesting from the forest, Hefty decides to pick a fight with the Gray Smurfs and send them back to their village with nothing but bruises. The Smurfs applaud Hefty for his heroic act, but Papa Smurf still scolds Hefty for going against his orders...which immediately afterward [[ChewOutFakeOut he smiles, realizing that Hefty's decision to do so has resulted in his little Smurfs being united together again]].
* Pretty much what happens with most of the superheroes except for Superman in DC Comics' ''[[ComicBook/LegendsDC Legends]]'' when the President of the United States has to enforce a ban on superhero activity, seeing that the supervillains would take advantage of this ban to commit crimes without any interference.
* ''ComicBook/NewAvengers2015'': Hacktivist Rick Jones blew the whistle on SHIELD's increasingly shady operations, which led to him getting detained by them. He sent an SOS out to A.I.M., a villainous organisation that was bought out by ComicBook/{{Sunspot}} and restructured into the Avengers science division. If Sunspot and his New Avengers helped Rick, then they would be branded international terrorists and enemies of SHIELD. Sunspot takes a vote, which is unanimously for saving Rick, and then teleports out the dissenters so they don't get in trouble with the rest of A.I.M.. As he says, 'a call for help is a call for help'.
* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': An early comic has Dredd monitoring a cadet Judge's final exam, and when the cadet has arrested the perps, tells him to get out of the way so Dredd can execute them. After the cadet refuses several times, Dredd tells him he passed, in this case the conflict not being between Lawful or Good but Lawful and Obedient.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'', Harold decides to go back on his promise to the Fairy Godmother after seeing that Fiona will not change her mind about Shrek and will never be with Charming on her own free will. He decides last minute not to give her a cup of tea laced with a LovePotion so as not to violate her free will.

* Judaism has Pikuach nefesh, which means saving a life. If it’s in the interest of saving a human life in danger, then any biblical law may be broken in that interest except for the three unforgivable sins--murder, illicit relations, and worship of other gods.

* In the classic CharacterAlignment system (first featured in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''), this is generally how ChaoticGood is interpreted. When it's ''not'', NeutralGood tends to step into the breach (Chaotic Good has tendencies towards ignoring rules as a matter of course - Neutral Good will ignore the rules when necessary, but make no special effort to flout them when it's not). LawfulGood characters can ''sometimes'' get away with this to avoid falling into StupidGood territory.

* Lord Shojo of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' felt the restrictions on the Oaths that prevented them from seeking out the other Gates were too restrictive, especially since two Gates were destroyed within the last 20 years. However, his plans all involved disregarding his Oaths, going behind the backs of his paladins, and contacting foreign mercenaries. While Shojo is portrayed sympathetically, [[WordOfGod Rich]] points out that Shojo never considered trying to convince the paladins that the Oaths were outdated (plus, one of the locations was heavily booby trapped in case Soon or his followers decided to do this, the trapper believing this trope in the hands of paladins would only be a self-righteous justification).
** Miko actually said the phrase "The laws have no meaning... Only honor and the will of the gods matter now". Granted, it turned out that she was doing the wrong, incredibly stupid thing, but she [[KnightTemplar was convinced]] that [[spoiler:killing Lord Shojo]] was the right and necessary thing to do.

* ''Webcomic/{{Follower}}'': Colonel Harren is a downplayed version of this. He is respectful to his superiors and follows orders given, but he is doing whatever he can to actively subvert the weaponizaion part of Project Cottontail with Dr. Calway.
* ''Webcomic/{{Exiern}}'': Following some epic-level {{Rules Lawyer}}ing and LoopholeAbuse, Coriander (a CorruptChurch official [[PedophilePriest outed as a pedophile]]) is about to walk away scot-free - with promises of retribution to those who exposed his crimes. [[GenderBender Gender-Bent]] hero Tiffany decides enough is enough, publicly resigns her position in the royal court, then [[GroinAttack castrates]] [[http://www.exiern.com/2016/03/03/all-together-now/ Coriander.]] And follows it up with a TheReasonYouSuck speech to the assembled court:
-->'''Tiffany''': "If the Alliance thinks that squabbling over arcane traditions and legal loopholes, while a provable child molester walks away, is '''civilization''' then you have all failed at it. Miserably. [[BarbarianHero My people]], who you call savages, know better. This is not a land of reason, it is institutionalized madness, and I'll have no part in it."
* ''Webcomic/ManlyGuysDoingManlyThings'': The main reason why Commander Badass never became Captain Badass was that he repeatedly went off on [[NoOneGetsLeftBehind unauthorized rescue missions]]. That he often came back from said missions with his body and cybernetics in a shape that necessitated enormous amounts of medical intervention and repairs didn't exactly endear him to his superiors either.
* In ''Webcomic/AnecdoteOfError'', Luntsha [[spoiler:breaks Zeya out of her prison cell awaiting her execution]] because she doesn’t think she’s a bad person, since she spared them during their attack. [[spoiler:She gets expelled for this.]]

* This is what kicks off the major conflict of Volume 8 of ''{{WebAnimation/RWBY}}'', as RWBY refuse to follow Ironwood's orders to abandon Mantle to [[TheElitesJumpShip secure Atlas]] and, eventually, even a few of his own soldiers decide he's not worth following after [[spoiler:he threatens to bomb Mantle]].

* ''WesternAnimation/IronManArmoredAdventures'': In the episode "Fun with Laser", ComicBook/IronMan goes against Nick Fury's order to stop the Living Laser and save the SHIELD space station after Nick's first {{plan}} fails spectacularly.
** Pretty much Pepper's reason for every plan of hers, despite some plans including destroying the enemy's entire company.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' episode, "Cat and Mouse", Anakin decides to engage Admiral Trench after he sends bombers to bomb the command center where Bail Organa is, because Anakin wants to not have Obi-Wan risk his fleet by engaging Trench, because he has less resources, and would be walking into a deathtrap.

* In one episode of ''Popeye And Son'', WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}} and his son are in a father/son contest, and one of the rules forbids the use of spinach. They end up breaking this rule when they have to save Wimpy and his nephew.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Bravestarr}}'' one episode has a prospector stake a claim on Star Peak after he finds the Kerium deposits under the mountain. Tex Hex attempts to steal the claim for himself and evict Shaman who lives on the land. Bravestarr is torn between the law and his friendship to Shaman, and eventually quits as marshal. To help Bravestarr, Shaman reminds him of a time as a child when he got into trouble for swimming in a lake sacred to the tribe. Young Bravestarr states he wasn't swimming for fun, he saw a young bird had been injured and was drowning and swam in to save it, even questioning if a life is more important than the tribes rules. Shaman tells the adult Bravestarr to think again about if the rules are more important than a drowning bird.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'', Captain America suspects something is mind-controlling the Hulk to go berserk, who is currently captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. and General Ross. When nothing can be done to convince them to let the Hulk go, he then proceeds to break into the underwater base and breaks all sorts of rules to rescue Hulk, which is against his otherwise extremely lawful persona.

* ''Franchise/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** Korra from ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has this attitude with a mix of ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers.
** Her mentor Katara from ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' also shows this attitude when she wants to save a village from a Fire Nation troop (whose factory polluting the river is destroyed by her).

* The contest to send an Amazon out into Man's World that's key to most versions of Franchise/WonderWoman's origin was AdaptedOut of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' with Hippolyta instead [[RuleOfDrama deciding to ignore a crisis and telling Diana not to interfere, and Diana deciding to ignore said edict]]. This trope[[note]]Along with many others throughout the show.[[/note]] is eventually deconstructed in a later episode where she is forced for bring her fellow (male) Justice League members to Themyscira in order to save the day, and is banished by Hippolyta--her own mother--from the island.[[note]]The justification being that "as [her] mother", she understands why she did what she did, but that "as [her] queen", she can't ignore the fact that Diana broke the "no men allowed" law regardless. That, and Hyppolyta claims the Gods demand it.[[/note]] This gets reversed in a later ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' episode, where Hippolyta tells her that (paraphrased) "[Themyscira] is [her] home, and nothing will change that", later saying that the Gods will have to "talk with [her; meaning Hippolyta]" about it.
* The titular character from ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', natch, but Detective Harvey Bullock really shines as an example of this. He's a rude, uncouth, disgusting, truly unpleasant individual who frequently breaks the law, employs {{Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique}}s (at least to the extent a kid's show could display), and even goads criminals into opening fire so he can respond with lethal force to save paperwork. He also happens to be one of the few truly uncorrupt cops in Gotham and consistently uses these illegal tactics to get results and bring criminals in, with even so much as being hinted at being on the take enough to [[BerserkButton make him snap]]. The irony is his methods and Batman's are similar, yet the two can't stand each other and would both flip at the thought of being considered similar.
* In ''WesternAnimation/CentralPark'', Season 1 "[[Recap/CentralParkS1E6RivalBusker Rival Busker]]", after seeing Owen and Cole stuck up in a tree with an owl attacking them, Birdie rushes in to help, ignoring [[spoiler: Griffin’s]] warning that he could be forced out of the story altogether if he interferes again. Despite breaking the rules twice, whatever cosmic narrative force the narrators serve approves of Birdie’s selfless act and reinstates him as narrator (much to [[spoiler: Griffin’s]] dismay).

* Watson does this in [[FanFic/DeliverUsFromEvilSeries Mortality]] when Holmes gets captured (and tortured) with an inch of his life. [[TooDumbToLive Way to go, Smith. You've just succeeded in seriously pissing off a mild-mannered doctor. Now you're going to wind up lying in a pool of your own blood.]]

* The titular character from ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', natch, but Detective Harvey Bullock really shines as an example of this. He's a rude, uncouth, disgusting, truly unpleasant individual who frequently breaks the law, employs {{Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique}}s (at least to the extent a kid's show could display), and even goads criminals into opening fire so he can respond with lethal force to save paperwork. He also happens to be one of the few truly uncorrupt cops in Gotham and consistently uses these illegal tactics to get results and bring criminals in, with even so much as being hinted at being on the take enough to [[BerserkButton make him snap]]. The irony is his methods and Batman's are NotSoDifferent, yet the two can't stand each other and would both flip at the thought of being considered similar.

* This is what kicks off the major conflict of Volume 8 of {{WebAnimation/RWBY}}, as RWBY refuse to follow Ironwood's orders to abandon Mantle to [[TheElitesJumpShip secure Atlas]] and, eventually, even a few of his own soldiers decide he's not worth following after [[spoiler:he threatens to bomb Mantle]].

Compare HonorBeforeReason, SuddenPrincipledStand, ScrewThisImOuttaHere, ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules and FrequentlyBrokenUnbreakableVow. Contrast its EvilCounterpart, JustFollowingOrders. Often overlaps with LegalizedEvil. Compare ''and'' contrast ResignInProtest.

Compare HonorBeforeReason, SuddenPrincipledStand, ScrewThisImOuttaHere, ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules and FrequentlyBrokenUnbreakableVow. Contrast its EvilCounterpart, JustFollowingOrders. Compare ''and'' contrast ResignInProtest.

* Judaism has Pikuach nefesh, which means saving a life. If it’s in the interest of saving a human life in danger, then any biblical law may be broken in that interest.

!!Examples:

* [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight/LiveActionFilms Film — Live-Action]]

[[folder:Film — Animated]]