History Main / HitmanWithAHeart

* Interdimensional assassin Lainya Vantrik in ''Literature/TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids'' has a code of honor from which she is quite vocal that she "will ''not'' swerve". Most notably, it includes [[WouldntHurtAChild not harming or endangering children]] (where "children" is defined generously enough to also include teenagers).

[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'': Richard Harrow is a very interesting treatment of this trope. He's a horrifically scarred veteran of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI who essentially got [[FacialHorror the left side of his face blown off]]. Combined with his crushing shyness and awkwardness, this makes him TheWoobie and we feel our heartstrings tugged when he makes friends with Margaret's children, (who were initially so distraught when seeing him without the mask that covers his empty eye socket that they cry hysterically at the sight) and we see his dream of having his face whole again and being in love. Then when he shoots a 14-year-old boy during a job or suggests wiping out an entire family in order to make the D'Alessio come out of hiding, we get reminded that his job in the war was being a ColdSniper, and he didn't leave it behind on the battlefield. [[spoiler:Throughout the series, this turns into a deconstruction of the trope. As Richard gets more and more humanized and forms the interpersonal connections, he dreams of falling in love with a nice girl and becoming a surrogate father to his [[BloodBrothers blood brother]] Jimmy's son Tommy after Jimmy's death. It is shown that the violence he has participated in has taken a grievous toll on his mental health and psychological well being. He eventually becomes so sick of violence and killing that he is unable to be violent at all, not even to perform a MercyKill on a suffering animal, and even having tried sends him into a HeroicBSOD. As a result, when he's tasked by Nucky with performing OneLastJob, he botches it badly, kills a sympathetic innocent bystander, gets mortally wounded in the process, and dies soon after.]]

A blend of TheAtoner and ProfessionalKiller, and can (sometimes) overlap with TheGunslinger or FriendlySniper. Sometimes is ALighterShadeOfGrey. May result from falling InLoveWithTheMark. If this trope comes in the backstory variety, it's a SympatheticMurderBackstory. If his reluctance to kill the target ''doesn't'' cue a HeelFaceTurn, it might just be a case of [[NobleDemon evil having a lot of standards]]. See also BadassAndChildDuo, which this may result in.

A common trope in a number of dark comedy and action movies is to have a sympathetic [[ProfessionalKillers assassin]] as either the protagonist or a secondary character. Although their job is to commit murder for money, they also have a number of traits that make them sympathetic to the audience. This occasionally overlaps with EvilIsCool, though the Hitman With A Heart is usually more of an [[AntiHero Anti-Hero]]/[[AntiVillain Anti-Villain]] presented as a sympathetic human being, with some positive traits rather than being truly evil. He is also often racked by a number of "[[JerkassWoobie uncool]] traits", such as neuroticism, reclusiveness, some sort of substance addiction, or presented as an otherwise damaged individual.

A blend of TheAtoner and ProfessionalKiller, and can (sometimes) overlap with FriendlySniper. Sometimes is ALighterShadeOfGrey. May result from falling InLoveWithTheMark. If this trope comes in the backstory variety, it's a SympatheticMurderBackstory. If his reluctance to kill the target ''doesn't'' cue a HeelFaceTurn, it might just be a case of [[NobleDemon evil having a lot of standards]]. See also BadassAndChildDuo, which this may result in.

* Kaina Tsutsumi, better known as Lady Nagant was one of the criminals[[spoiler: released by All For One from the Tartarus prison and]] sent after the protagonist with the intent of capturing him and bringing him to the villains so they could steal his power. She was originally a hero who [[KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade killed heroes who shed a bad light on the profession or villains who were planning but hadn't yet committed crimes]]. She eventually turned on the system and was locked away under the pretense of having killed another hero. So when [[spoiler: All For One]] offers her the job of killing the boy standing between them and the collapse of the system that she despises she takes it and goes after him, believing that whatever chaos that comes after will be preferable to the police state she viewed society as. But after she hunted him down, Izuku realized her situation and attempted to reach out to her, countering that [[spoiler: All For One's tyrannical rule]] would be a lot worse and that the current system could change, eventually getting through her. [[spoiler: Which is when All For One revealed that he had intentionally sought her out for this to happen and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness detonated the power he had given her to complete the job]], intending to further emotionally damage Izuku to force him into his hands.]]

* Franchise/SpiderMan has occasionally dealt with a hitman named Chance who will admit to being a murderer for hire, to a point. As he tells the Life Foundation, he does ''not'' work for terrorists. (In fact, many of his hits tend to be other criminals and other {{Asshole Victim}}s.)

** He seems to care for the assassins he has trained and them to him as well. [[spoiler: After he was shown to be alive after apparently being killed by the Reaper, Karasuma asked him to see Irina, who has been worried about him.]]

* Creator/JohnWoo's ''Film/TheKiller'', whose title character played by Chow Yun-Fat accidentally blinds a beautiful singer during a hit and sets out to perform one last hit to get the money to have her eyes fixed. He does have a larger heart than usual examples, though, even going as far as to take a little girl to the hospital after she takes a bullet during an ambush meant to kill him.

* ''ComicBook/{{Hitman}}'' features a number of assassins of varying degrees of callousness. The star of the book only kills people whom he regards as "deserving it" (i.e. Mafia dons, super-criminals, etc), although characters do point out the stupidity of this from time to time. He was also sick on Batman's boots once, which is awesome. The hero's best friend only acts the same for the sake of the friendship.

* Agent 47 from the ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' series does not kill innocents unless absolutely required (eliminating witnesses or messengers), though this is primarily out of [[PragmaticVillainy pragmatism]]. However, he is at times willing to go out of his way to rescue innocent people such as Mei Ling even when it brings no actual benefit to him and in the second game attempted to be TheAtoner before events forced him to become an assassin once again. It's all in-story, though, since actual games don't penalize you too much for murdering civilians (aside from lowering the final rating a bit), and ''Silent Assassin'' actually encourages you to kill people instead of merely sedating them, due to the way anaesthetic works (the incapacitated person eventually wakes up and raises alarm).

* Viktor Vasko of ''Webcomic/{{Lackadaisy}}'' is a remorseless murderer, but is loyal to his employers and particularly kind to Ivy and Mrs. Bapka. His status as a killer appears to be largely a product of his experiences in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, and the effect that had on his mind. His ex-partner Mordecai, in comparison, is an out-and-out psycho with bells on.

* The two main ladies of ''Anime/{{Noir}}'', Kirika and Mireille, pick and choose which assignments they'll take; nevertheless it's shown that this takes a heavy toll on at least one of them spiritually; so the other suggests that they'll "look for the light" in the last episode.

* Heero Yuy from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' is an interesting case; he begins the series as a trained assassin/soldier who resents himself for feeling guilt over killing (and [[DrivenToSuicide repeatedly attempts suicide]]), but [[CharacterDevelopment his interactions with the rest of the cast]] lead to him valuing his life and maturing into a confident, compassionate guardian angel.

** This also applies to the good guys. Remember [[Characters/NarutoHinataHyuga Hinata Hyuga]], the cute blushing girl? Yeah, she once [[BuriedAlive buried a guy alive]] (albeit in the anime). And which rookie was the first one to be shown killing someone onscreen? If you guessed Sasuke, you are wrong. It was ''[[BewareTheNiceOnes Choji.]]''
*** Assuming, of course, that those Genin in the Forest of Death survived the trap that Shino and Hinata laid for them, which was far from obvious.
* Both Ein and Zwei of ''VisualNovel/PhantomOfInferno'' follow this trope, to some degree or other.
* Anime/{{Madlax}} is an assassin at the beginning of the series, and is a generally kind and friendly young woman, although she doesn't seem particularly torn up about her massive body count.
* The titular character of ''Manga/CryingFreeman'', Yoh "Crying Freeman" Hinomura may epitomize this trope. A former artist, Hinomura is kidnapped and brainwashed to be a hitman (even eventually taking over his mob) but retains his sense of morality. His codename comes from his reaction to his new career -- whenever he kills, he silently cries for his victims. His wife Emu Hino (who actually was his target at first, [[InLoveWithTheMark but he preferred to take her in rather than killing her]]) is similar, becoming a [[LadyOfWar master swordswoman]] with a cursed sword. Both grow into their roles but retain their sense of honor.
* The protagonist of ''Manga/CityHunter'' is an unusual case in that he doesn't kill anyone after the first few episodes, but remains a dodgy and fairly unsavory character (played for laughs at that). His heart is clearly shown whenever he gets serious however.
* Ogami Itto from ''Manga/LoneWolfAndCub'' also fits, though in a different way. He becomes an assassin as a consequence of the only way he can satisfy his honor as a devout Buddhist while taking revenge on the clan that framed him for treason. Ogami usually goes after deserving targets, but will kill innocents if asked; one story has him attempting to kill a "living Buddha" -- an extraordinarily enlightened Buddhist monk.
** But he also tends to do missions for free if the mood takes him-if the circumstances intrude upon him, thrusting him into the middle, or if the nature of the mission impresses him deeply enough.
* [[spoiler:Wolfwood]] in the ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'' manga turns out to be one of these after it's revealed he's an operative from the Eye of Michael assassination outfit. In the anime, he's a more heroic figure, though it's not clear exactly what he was trained for (probably assassination).
* Franca and Franco from ''Manga/GunslingerGirl'', the latter more so than the former. They are very discriminating about their targets and Franca refuses to kill children, in part because of the ideal she fights for in the first place, to the point where she'd rather let a mission be jeopardized rather than let Pinocchio kill his neighbor and would've tried to steer away from Rico had not Franco forced their car back and hit Rico.
* The protagonist of ''Manga/Golgo13'' in some ways. Duke Togo(Golgo 13 himself) is willing to take any assignment without any moral qualms or visible emotion. However, the stories present his victims as somewhat deserving of their fate (unless the victim [[LeaveNoWitnesses is a witness, who Duke will kill just for being at the wrong place at the wrong time]]). But he'll sometimes go out of his way to put a job to a more morally tidy end.
* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': On one hand, Guts has hardly ever felt bad about killing tons of enemies as part of being a mercenary, and doesn't hesitate to accept the more murky assassination missions from Griffith during the Golden Age Arc as long as all of his targets are [[AssholeVictim assholes]]. That includes killing [[spoiler:Count Julius]] in his home, slaying [[spoiler:Griffith]]'s attempted poisoner, and then offing the crooks Griffith hired to [[spoiler:kidnap Minister Foss' daughter]] so that they can't try to blackmail Griffith afterwards. On the other hand, he has no wish to harm innocent bystanders and still has a soft spot in his heart for kids because of what he went through. Accidentally killing [[spoiler:Julius' son Adonis]] during that first mission causes him to go MyGodWhatHaveIDone--to the extent of [[spoiler:holding the boy's hand to comfort him as he dies]], and once he's out of danger he experiences a HeroicBSOD.

* ''Manga/SoulEater'' perfectly exemplifies this trope as the legendary samurai warrior, Mifune, has a backstory featuring [[spoiler:him turning his back on his mob boss employers to protect his target, the child witch Angela]].

* 'Madman' Bunji Kugashira from ''VideoGame/{{Gungrave}}'' anime is a ruthless, lonely hitman. However, he is a KindheartedCatLover and explicitly states that he [[WouldntHurtAChild won't hurt a kid]]. When he encounters [[BadassAndChildDuo Grave and Mika]], he asks Mika to leave while he faces Grave. He gains an upper hand in the fight, and when he's about to deal a killing blow to Grave, Mika begs him not to kill Grave. Bunji only tells her to shut up, but Mika keeps begging. Bunji soon loses his cool, but he just snaps at her and fires some misdirected shots to scare her.
* Hit from ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' is [[Really700YearsOld a thousand-year-old assassin]] who is willing to kill just about anyone, but he does have a sense of honor (best shown when he [[spoiler: throws the match against Monaka in the Champa arc because Goku threw the match against him]]), actively avoids any collateral, and a SpiritedCompetitor when someone actually manages to rival him.
* Blanca in ''Manga/BananaFish'', a professional assassin [[spoiler:hired by Golzine and Lee Yut Lung]] who [[spoiler:genuinely cares about his former pupil Ash, despite how hard he tried to keep his emotions at bay. Having to go against Ash upsets him, but he still sticks to his job.]]
* In ''Manga/TokyoShinobiSquad'', the Narumi-kai are effectively {{Professional Killer}}s by trade and are responsible for wiping our entire security details and other shinobi squads. But their refusal to take on lucrative contracts that would have them exploiting the helpless makes them the good guys in a dystopian Tokyo.

* Souichirou Kuzuki in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' at first just seems to be Rin's stoic, bespectacled homeroom and Ethics teacher. He was actually raised from birth to be a living weapon, even if he was only intended for a single assassination. After that, he sunk into the identity prepared for him, knowing he'd done something evil, but hopelessly perplexed as to how to atone due to extremely atrophied interpersonal skills. At the time of the Fifth Holy Grail War, he found an injured woman who begged for his help. He unhesitatingly agreed, becoming the Master of Caster, who he would develop feelings for.
* [[spoiler: Maki]] from ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' is a {{downplayed}} example, despite being the [[ProfessionalKiller Ultimate Assassin]] she's a JerkWithAHeartOfGold who really doesn't mean any harm to anyone and ended up becoming friends with [[TheProtagonist Shuichi]] and [[IdiotHero Kaito]]. Doing her Free Time Events will have her say that she doesn't really like her job, but considers it necessary (both in that it keeps criminal disputes from escalating, and that it's the only way her orphanage gets funded), and she volunteered to save a friend from having to do it.

* [[spoiler: Maki]] from ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' is a {{downplayed}} example, despite being the [[ProfessionalKiller Ultimate Assassin]] she's a JerkWithAHeartOfGold who really doesn't mean any harm to anyone and ended up becoming friends with [[TheProtagonist Shuichi]] and [[IdiotHero Kaito]].

* Mia from ''Series/HitAndMiss'' is a mob assassin who is very good at -- but does not revel in -- her job. She ends up adopting her ex-lover's kids, gaining a new family.

* Interdimensional assassin Lainya Vantrik in ''Literature/TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids'' has a code of honor from which she is quite vocal that she "will ''not'' swerve". Most notably, it includes [[WouldntHurtChildren not harming or endangering children]] (where "children" is defined generously enough to also include teenagers).

* Tim Roth is exactly this in ''The Liability''. He opts out of finishing off Jack O'Connell (the liability). Also refuses to be taken to hospital when badly injured so that he can watch (from a distance) his (presumably estranged) daughter's wedding.

** [[spoiler:Mr. Goodkat (played by Bruce Willis) was the contract killer whom the bosses hired to kill little Slevin. Goodkat couldn't go through with it, and raised the kid in his own trade so that one day he could get his revenge.]]