History Main / ActualPacifist

* ''ComicBook/{{Commando}}'': In the story "No-Gun Hero", when the main character, Johnny Peace, receives his call-up papers in 1940, he becomes an orderly in the Royal Army Medical Corps. The only time he actually shoots and kills someone is when his dog, given into his care by a dying German officer, is shot and wounded while attacking the German officer responsible for his former master's death.

** ''Literature/IJedi'': The Caamasi as a species seek to refrain from violence and were renowned as peacemakers in the past, which made them greatly revered across the galaxy. However, it turns out this wasn't solely due to any philosophical reason, but their psychology. Caamasi memories can be very strong, especially of momentous events, which would include killing someone (justified or not). It would be very burdensome for them doing this as a result. Elegos nonetheless uses a blaster in defense of Corran (who had just defended him), thinking the man he shot were dead before he realized he'd only stunned them. He considered a memory of killing them a necessary sacrifice given the circumstances. Later too he willingly uses a blaster once more when rescuing Mirax with Corran, though only stunning enemies. Ylenic, his uncle, also willingly served as a Jedi, including killing armed enemies in self-defense. The devastating Caamasi Genocide was viewed as even more heinous than most due to their general peacefulness.

* ''Series/DadsArmy'': Private Godfrey is unable to even kill a mouse he caught stealing from his pantry, and was a conscientious objector in the previous war (he served as a medic hauling wounded out of no man's land under fire, and was awarded a medal for extreme bravery in doing so). He is made the platoon's medic so he can still serve with them without being asked to kill anyone.

* ''Series/HenryDanger'': In "Opposite Universe", Alternate Piper is a sugary sweet girly girl who does not believe in violence.

* ''Series/FrontierCircus'': In "The Good Fight", the circus comes to the aid of a pacifistic sect who are being harassed by a local CattleBaron who wants their land. The leader refuses to fight back even when armed riders burn down his barn.

* ''Series/AllInTheFamily'': The episode "Mike the Pacifist" sees Mike, who refuses to fight for ''any reason'', hit another man who was harassing Gloria, knocking her tormenter out cold. Mike goes through {{Angst}} as he can't believe what he did.

* As the page quote implies, doctors are ideologically against harming others, but in modern medicine, this is sometimes easier said than done. For example, chemotherapy (used to treat many cancers) is basically the use of poisons, chosen to kill cancer cells ''faster'' than they kill the rest of the patient. This is why cancer patients lose their hair (among other problems). So, doctors are sworn to do no harm, but in an effort to treat their patients' cancer, they must harm them with the chemo drugs. Applies with surgery and other practices as well obviously (the original Hippocratic Oath forbade surgery, probably because of this-in those days it was far more dangerous, before anesthetics and sanitation, with physicians being separate from surgeons). The idea of doctor-assisted suicide for terminal patients is one of the most controversial instances of this. Is helping someone die without pain under the definition of "do no harm?" Or is it still harm, and immoral? By the original oath, it's forbidden, in addition to abortion (also a controversial instance of course).

They're philosophically opposed to using physical violence to any degree, for any reason. To be on this trope, that includes self-defense, and if played right, can be a very moral and ethical person. On television, they are in contrast to the far-more-common TechnicalPacifist, who is fine with punching, stabbing, shooting, or maiming people as long as they survive the experience.

* In the second edition of ''TabletopGame/{{Chronicles of Darkness}}'' book Hurt Locker which introduces supernatural minor templates there are the Plain which represent a sort of supernatural Amish group that act as a non-violent activist group generally organized around blogs with supernatural abilities (not that they necessarily know that) to deal damage done to them and to force others to not harm anyone they're protecting and more. Actual Pacifism is the goal, but not a requirement to maintain the merits.
** ''TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful'': A Mender's Third Oath binds them to do no harm to anyone other than Darkspawn. Even when they need to defend themselves or their patients, their magic should allow them to do it without harming anyone.

* Juggernaut in ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'' is a monk named Cain. When Damask and Dead Man Wade launch an attack on Avalon he refuses to fight. Eventually the internal struggle of whether or not to help people by inflicting physical damage to others causes him to have an aneurysm.

* Doctor Leslie Thompkins in ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' is a notorious example of this. She runs a clinic for the poor and desperate in Gotham and refuses to have anything to do with violence. She is a reluctant ally of Batman, but openly chides and scorns him for his willingness to actually hurt people like the Joker or various mooks in order to stop them from committing crimes.
* Raised and educated by peace-loving hippies, ''ComicBook/BrotherPowerTheGeek'' tries to avoid physical combat at all costs, despite his awesome physical powers.
* Amusingly used in the French comic ''ComicBook/CaptainBiceps'': the hero Pacific Man is incapable of doing any harm to another person/animal/object (including the bad guys, yogurt, and ''his own tooth cavities''), but when he goes into his wimpy SecretIdentity, he is held up by the Terminator, starts giving him the nonviolent speech, then realizes what he's saying and suddenly ''punches out the goddamn Terminator in a single blow'' before running away. Then he says "Whew! I barely escaped being recognized there!"
* ''ComicBook/{{Commando}}'' story "No-Gun Hero": When the main character, Johnny Peace, receives his call-up papers in 1940, he becomes an orderly in the Royal Army Medical Corps. The only time he actually shoots and kills someone is when his dog, given into his care by a dying German officer, is shot and wounded while attacking the German officer responsible for his former master's death.
* Wonder Man from ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' eventually becomes this over time. He is one of the most powerful members, yet he will face down the Hulk without taking a swing. In fact, the Hulk, in his ComicBook/ImmortalHulk incarnation, calls him out on this, suggesting the only reason he's taken up pacifism is because he really can't be hurt or killed.

* Reese from ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable''. In real life, she is an ER nurse and so refuses to take part in any act of violence, even in-game. She plays a cleric of a pacifist god.
* ''ComicBook/OrientMen'', at the beginning of his appearances, was the kind of superhero who attempted to combat crooks by waxing poetic to them about the error of their ways. Later on, when the superhero status became TheArtifact, many of his adventures involved helping people solve their conflicts peacefully.
* ''ComicBook/{{Revival}}'' opens with Randy the morgue technician horrified to discover he's cremating someone still alive. He quits his job and is last seen leading a group seeking nonviolent resolution to a shooting war between the US military and the local militia.

* Yashiro Isana from ''Anime/{{K}}''. In a series known for its gorgeously animated fight scenes, you wouldn't expect to see a character who not only doesn't fight (even though he ''can'' [[spoiler: as a King, since WordOfGod says that any fight between a King and non-King will be a CurbStompBattle in the King's favor]]), but also tends to solve the cast's problems with plans that involve getting ''himself'' blown to bits. [[spoiler: [[FromASingleCell Good thing he's immortal]].]]

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', the royal Riku family in the Dressrosa arc had not brought on a war upon its country for eight hundred years. Even a threat of invasion did not get them to take up arms. They had to [[spoiler: be forcibly removed from the throne]] in order to get them to. [[spoiler: Ricky/King Riku]] strikes with the flat of his blade when forced to fight and [[spoiler: his granddaughter Rebecca]] has a reputation for being undefeated despite never hitting an opponent directly.

--->'''Lifeline''': Hey! You used me for violence!

* In ''FanFic/TheImmortalGame'' Twilight Sparkle becomes one after being freed from the [[ArtifactOfDoom Sliver of Darkness]] [[spoiler: (or to be more accurate, her dominant [[SplitPersonality personality]], Sparkle, does)]], to the point that she can't even fight [[{{Mooks}} Puppets]], even though they're not even sentient or really alive. [[spoiler: This lasts until her personalities [[SplitPersonalityMerge fuse back together]], and she starts kicking ass.]]

* In ''Film/AngelAndTheBadman'' (1947) Quirt Evans (Creator/JohnWayne) falls in love with Quaker Prudence Worth (Gail Russel) and foreswears his violent ways and quest to avenge the murder of his adoptive father. He almost backslides, but in the final confrontation with the man responsible, Laredo Stevens, Prudence convinces Quirt to lay down his gun. [[spoiler: Stevens then attempts to shoot Evans, who would have been killed if not for the timely intervention of the sheriff (Harry Carey, Sr.).]] The pacifist theme of this Western is a bit unexpected given John Wayne's popular image, but he not only played the lead but also produced it.

* In ''Film/HighNoon'' (1952), Marshall Will Kane (Creator/GaryCooper) has just retired and married pacifist Quaker Amy (Creator/GraceKelly) -- which is sort of a problem 'cause a gang of indignant baddies has just come back to town and they want revenge. [[spoiler: This makes for extra drama when Amy, after protesting his heroics and leaving him because of his choice to stay and fight, comes back just in time and kills a man to save her man. She does so by shooting the man in the back from inside a building]].

** As shown in various works, most Ithorians tend towards this, holding to a Law of Life that even applies to plants - if a plant is killed for food, two seeds of its species must be planted. [[Literature/TalesFromTheMosEisleyCantina Momaw Nadon]], when he accidentally gets an evil Imperial officer killed, creates two clones of him and raises them as his sons. In ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' it's found that an Ithorian created [[TheVirus Spore]]. It took a hundred years and some Jedi Knights intervening to contain it, but they put it into a TailorMadePrison instead of killing it.

* Lift's [[BondCreature spren]] Wyndle in ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive''. [[spoiler: He really doesn't like the idea of turning into a Shardblade and being used to stab people. He's okay with turning into a Shardblade and being admired as a work of art. Or with turning into a pole to block somebody else's Shardblade.]]

* [=RainWing=] dragons from ''Literature/WingsOfFire'' are the only dragons to not eat meat or harm other animals. Even one [=RainWing=] named Kinkajou [[spoiler: puts herself into harm's way to prevent a sloth from being poisoned]].

* In the television adaptation of ''{{Series/Bitten}}'' by Kelley Armstrong, Elena Michaels has abandoned the violent ways of the Pack. [[spoiler: She changes after her surrogate brother Pete dies.]]
* For the first two seasons of ''{{Series/Chuck}}'', Chuck Bartowski was an Actual Pacifist, and pretty useless in a fight regardless. After [[spoiler: downloading Intersect 2.0 at the end of Season 2]] he graduates into becoming more of a ReluctantWarrior, but still insists on attempting to defuse problems nonviolently first and prefers carrying tranquilizer guns in the field. The only time he actually fires a real gun at anyone, much less with intent to kill, is [[spoiler: shooting Shaw when he tries to murder Sarah, though it [[NotQuiteDead didn't stick]]]].
** [[spoiler: Devon]] balks at even ''handling'' a firearm, though like Chuck he can and will fight if he has no other choice.

-->'''Simon''': I've never shot anyone before.\\
'''Shepherd Book''': I was there son. I'm fair sure [[ATeamFiring you haven't shot anyone yet]].

* The protagonist of the ''Series/{{Oshin}}'' series is this, after her friendship with the ex-soldier Shusaku [[spoiler: and its tragic end.]] Not only she's increasingly disturbed as UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan becomes more militarized when [[spoiler: her son Yuu is drafted into the military itself, she breaks down in tears.]]

* In the'' Franchise/{{Halo}}'' series, the Huragok - better known to humanity as the Engineers - are a Covenant member species who view the killing of even pests as wrong. Ironically enough, [[spoiler:one of them, called "Lighter Than Some", was the first Covenant member to kill a human; said human was trying to kill its best friend Dadab after the Covenant had assaulted his ship in search of Forerunner artifacts. It was of course horrified of what it had done]]. In fact, Huragok are only part of the Covenant by convenience; they were designed by their original Forerunner creators to enjoy inspecting, repairing, and improving technology (especially Forerunner ones), but are indifferent to nearly everything else and in fact will happily help just about anyone they see who needs their technology repaired, including humans on numerous occasions. One even improves the Master Chief's MJOLNIR armor's shield system.

* Hanabusa, the main character of ''VideoGame/{{Tsukumogami}}'', seems to be this, even though she never says it out loud. She has no problem using her spectacular sword skills to defeat the titular evil spirits but refuses to even raise a hand against a living human being. Anytime she's forced into conflict with humans, she simply runs away and hides. Even in an extreme case, [[spoiler: like when her best friend is dying from an infectious disease, and the [[AristocratsAreEvil nobles have hoarded all the medicine]],]] she refuses to [[spoiler: fight the noble's guards when breaking into his mansion in order to recover a dose of the medicine.]]

* You become this in ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' if you choose to. Instead of fighting enemies, you can talk them out of it. [[spoiler: This is how you complete the [[GoldenEnding True Pacifist run]], though in order to get to that ending you have to at least fall into TechnicalPacifist territory by fighting (but not killing) Asgore and Flowey in the pacifist neutral route. Only when that has been done can you achieve the true pacifist run, in which you never so much as touch the 'fight' button. Or, you could go out of your way to not do this, by doing a [[LeaveNoSurvivors Genocide]] route.]]

* Neilli of ''Webcomic/{{Juathuur}}''. [[spoiler: And them, Meidar decided she was to be a torturer.]]

* The main character in the short interactive fiction "The Life of a Pacifist" is one of these. Unfortunately, they're a video game developer, and they're currently working on a third-person shooter and find the scenes within it horrifying. In the end, [[spoiler: they either quit, continue working despite themselves, or decide that nothing is wrong with it at all.]]

* Folder, of the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse''. He accidentally destroyed the arm of his best friend when his powers first manifested, and he was so traumatized that he still refuses to fight. Even to defend himself from bullies. Even to defend himself from a superpowered bully who keeps putting him in the hospital. Even when he is [[spoiler: [[GenderBender transformed into a girl]] and nearly raped by a delusional mage]]... and when finally [[BreakTheCutie pushed]] ''[[BreakTheCutie too]]'' [[BreakTheCutie far]], we see '''[[BodyHorror why]]''' he refused to use his powers in self-defense.

--> '''Leela''': "Your order may be famous for its marital arts, but I've never met a holy man I couldn't clobber."\\
'''Monk #1''': "Actually, we only practice martial arts as a form of meditation. We are a strictly non-violent sect."\\
'''Leela''': "Oh. Then get in the laundry room or I'll kick your butts!"
* Lifeline from ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'' refused to employ violence. On one occasion, he wouldn't even touch a rifle, even though it was being held out for him to grab and pull him out of a trap. This is based on his counterpart from the comics - see above. He's a member of the Joes solely to be a frontline medic and will not do ''anything'' combat-related if he can help it.

* Dove, the character in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'' (and associated comic books) - the only superhero to take an entirely non-violent standpoint and get through his entire starring episode without throwing a punch. It keeps up in later appearances, and even when he ''does'' fight, it's with things like judo throws and holds rather than punches or kicks.

** This is later [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]] in Season 5, as not only does she have disposition of being a pacifist in a galaxy at war and leading a people who are historically [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy a proud warrior race]], the Death Watch (who've been trying to overthrow her regime and bring Mandalore back to its warrior race roots) [[spoiler: teams up with Darth Maul, stages an invasion of the planet by an army of criminals to reinforce how pacifism has made Mandalore vulnerable to those willing to prey on those who refuse to fight back and then Death Watch comes along to "quell" the criminals.]] In the end, [[spoiler: the people of Mandalore see the Death Watch as heroes, Satine is removed from power, Mandalore goes into another civil war not long after Maul takes the throne and she is coldly murdered by Maul for the sake of emotionally tormenting Obi-Wan.]]

* Christianity was originally innovative because, regardless of the reason violence is committed, it was thought of as an inherently bad thing for which one must atone. This was a radical concept a couple of millennia ago. Some sects of Christianity, typically ascetic ones such as the Quakers (Religious Society of Friends), are absolute pacifists, as an ideology. Prior to the Edict of Milan[[note]]The proclamation of Roman tolerance of Christianity in 313[[/note]] and the subsequent adoption of Christianity by Constantine I, Christians ''per definition'' were this, despite being[[note]]or possibly ''because they were''[[/note]] a highly persecuted splinter movement of Judaism. However, when the religion was adopted by the very militant Roman Empire, its members gradually lost the nonviolent ethos over time. [[FlameWar Whether or not this was an improvement due to the popularization of the religion is a subject of much debate.]]

** Emmeryn, the Exalt of the Halidom of Ylisse from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', is such a pacifist that she doesn't even have a proper army. The closest thing to an army she has are the Shepherds, led by her younger brother [[TheHero Chrom]], which are a group dedicated to ''protecting'' Ylisse from bandits and Plegian barbarians, not invading other lands.
*** [[spoiler:Turns out her [[HeroicSacrifice suicide]] failed, and you can actually recruit her in a post-game Spotpass mission. [[BewareTheNiceOnes She is now a powerful Sage with the ability to actually kill people.]]]]

* An impressive military actual pacifist was WWII veteran Desmond T. Doss, who refused to bear arms or drill on Saturday due to his Seventh-Day Adventist beliefs. Doss was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for single-handedly rescuing 75 of his fellow soldiers from an escarpment under fire from the Japanese on Okinawa. From his medal citation, "As our troops gained the summit, a heavy concentration of artillery, mortar, and machine-gun fire crashed into them, inflicting approximately 75 casualties and driving the others back. Pfc. Doss refused to seek cover and remained in the fire-swept area with the many stricken, carrying them 1 by 1 to the edge of the escarpment and there lowering them on a rope-supported litter down the face of a cliff to friendly hands." Truly a kick-behind pacifist.