History Main / TechnicalPacifist

* Klone from ''ComicBook/TheOthers'' will fight to protect the Enclave, but never with lethal force, and in truth he hates violence. In fact, his usual contribution to a battle is to serve as a living shield, allowing assailants to demoralize themselves by seeing their attacks harmlessly deflected by his NighInvulnerable hide.

* In fanfic ''Fanfic/HellsisterTrilogy'', ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} and the ComicBook/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}} actually try to imprison [[EvilTwin Satan Girl]]... then she is released, makes clear she won't stop until seeing Kara dead, and Supergirl is forced to fight to the death.

* The ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}''' allies, [[ArtificialHuman The Chee]], are programmed to be 100% pacifistic, but Erek King is pretty technical about it. He managed to override the violence prohibition, but was so sickened by the massive amount carnage he caused ([[CurbStompBattle more deaths in one hour than the Animorphs themselves caused in months]]) that he immediately changed it back and had the item that made it possible thrown away. However, this doesn't stop him from attempting to manipulate the Animorphs into killing the aliens that destroyed his creators. Then there's the final battle, but it's unclear whether or not he was offended because [[spoiler:Jake killed and threatened to kill indiscriminately, or because Jake blackmailed him.]] But it's probably both.

* Gabrielle from ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' had no problems with beating people up, but throughout 1/2 of the series had a taboo about personally killing people, despite travelling with Xena, who was a walking Cuisinart. Then Gabrielle is converted by Eli, priest of the One True God, so she throws away her non-lethal staff because it is too violent and starts killing people with sais [[LogicalFallacies which are not violent at all]] because One True God says so.

** The Nox are ordinarily PerfectPacifistPeople, but in "Pretense" Teal'c, expecting the Goa'uld representatives on Tollana to sabotage the planet's [[AntiAir surface-to-orbit defense grid]], talks the Nox representative Lya into using her powers of invisibility to hide one of the cannons in question. When the inevitable happens and the hidden cannon saves the day, Carter questions her actions:

* ''Series/MacGyver1985'', obviously. Vocally and obviously [[DoesntLikeGuns hates guns]], but isn't averse to hitting people (with fists, or with a variety of heavy things), and for a "pacifist", he's awfully fond of creating explosives... granted, given the show's style, there also wasn't a lot of obviously fatal collateral damage to all the homemade bombs he set off.

* Hawkeye Pierce in ''Series/{{MASH}}'' is supposedly a pacifist (owning to his Hippocratic oath as a doctor) but he is known to punch people who disagree with his moral and ethical views of the world. Hawkeye even removed the (perfectly fine) appendix of a gung-ho colonel to keep him from causing more casualties by continuing to attempt to take an objective even after being ordered to stand down. He felt horrible about it afterward, though -- it was a genuine (and acknowledged) ethical grey area for him. Another episode has Hawkeye and Potter driving a jeep after getting drunk, when they come under enemy fire. They get out of the jeep and take cover, and Potter hands Hawkeye his sidearm and tells him to use it. Hawkeye protests that he will carry books, carry a tune, carry on, carry over, and even [[{{Seppuku}} harikari]] (or possibly [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Carey Harry Carey]]-- so hard to tell with {{pun}}s!) if desperate enough, but he will not carry a gun. Potter tells him to think of it not as a weapon, but as an angry noise-maker, and convinces Hawkeye to fire it in the air to at least give them some covering fire.
* ''Series/MissionImpossible'': The Impossible Missions Force, when taking an assignment to "permanently deal" with some threat, rarely are the actual killers: they typically set up a situation where they con the target into betraying their own side (and get caught), or con the other side into believing the target has/is/will betray them. As an added bonus, when dealing with criminals instead of foreign intelligence agencies, they'll often ensure that the local cops show up just in time to catch the killers red-handed. By contrast, the characters in [[Film/MissionImpossible the films]] do kill, though they try to avoid it whenever possible. Whenever it's ''not'' possible, they are remarkably effective at it.

* In ''Film/FirstBlood'' (but not in the original novel), Franchise/{{Rambo}} largely refrained from using lethal force-even Gault only died when he fell from the helicopter.

* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' is more proactive and more hot-tempered than her cousin, and is willing to try to and reform criminals and villains... even if she has to beat them up first. Nonetheless, she attempted to kill the [[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Anti-Monitor]] because was too dangerous, and [[ComicBook/RedDaughterOfKrypton she threw Worldkiller-1 into the Sun]] reasoning that an artificially-engineered murderous symbiotic parasite doesn't count as "living being".

* Peter Parker is usually depicted as this in ''Franchise/SpiderMan''. Sure, he's willing to beat the ass out of the villains, but he absolutely refuses to kill anyone, even against said villains. Then again, it's also more or less of [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim his fear of himself]] if he drops his ThouShallNotKill moral code. In fact, when [[spoiler:a resurrected]] Kraven the Hunter offer Spider-Man the opportunity to kill him, he was about to pull a killing blow on Kraven, but later refuses to do so after given a vision of a BadFuture where he becomes mass murdering AntiHero vigilante, thus reinforcing his moral code.

* ''Webcomic/AwkwardZombie'' often makes fun of how the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series keeps track of kill counts. To avoid penalizing the player for [[FailureToSaveMurder not rescuing every enemy soldier]], the game only counts direct kills. So in [[https://www.awkwardzombie.com/awkward-zombie/better-off-tread-part2 this strip]], Big Boss exploits this loophole by [[MurderByInaction dropping an unconscious soldier in front of a moving tank]], and in [[https://www.awkwardzombie.com/comic/gravity-is-not-a-pacifist this strip]], wonders if a nonlethal takedown that accidentally kills his victim (tasering someone who then falls down a cliff) still counts as nonlethal.

* ''Film/CharliesAngels2000'' featured this trope in contrast to [[Series/CharliesAngels the original series]], due to producer/star Creator/DrewBarrymore's aversion to glamorizing gun use (as opposed to kung-fu violence). The change is [[LampshadeHanging commented on]] in the [[Film/CharliesAngelsFullThrottle second film]] [[spoiler:by villainous former angel Madison who says "In my day we used guns," before shooting the heroines, hitting their [[{{Stripperiffic}} surprisingly small bulletproof vests]].]]

* Libertarians generally follow the non-aggression principle, meaning that they regard it as a cardinal sin to initiate violence against anyone. This however does not prevent them from forcibly defending themselves and others, which is why they support and often practice the right to bear arms. And many libertarians believe in the right to use lethal force in defence of one's property, and also believe that taxation is theft...

** Averted in ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': Sheppard (hero) fights Michael (villain) on the roof-tops. Michael falls, and before Sheppard can rescue Michael, along comes Teyla. Michael had threatened Teyla's baby. [[MamaBear Teyla stamps on one hand, then the other.]] Michael falls, but because he is a wraith, a creature with fast healing abilities who can survive multiple gunshots to the head and chest, he may have survived the fall. Awesome!

* In Jewish law, there are very specific cases in which capital punishment could be used. When something doesn't fall into these cases, but the court felt that the defendant needed to die, they would use a sort of <p><a href="https://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/103370/4504">immurement</a></p>, which technically wasn't execution, but resulted in the convicted's death.

** The greatest example of this trope would have to be Iroh, who used to be a general to the Fire Nation, is currently the leader of a whole gang of {{Old Master}}s, and is quite likely the second most skilled and powerful bender in the world after the Avatar himself. He is, however, also one of the nicest people in the entire series, preferring to talk his way out of trouble, and has no problem giving advice to even his enemies on how to find peace and balance. All this started because he lost his son to a war he had been leading, and since then has changed his attitude, and in some ways is trying to atone for his past mistakes.

** The greatest example of this trope would have to be Iroh, who used to be a general to the Fire Nation, is currently the leader of a whole gang of {{Old Master}}s, and, after studying the philosophies of the other nations and developing several new techniques of his own, is quite likely the second most skilled and powerful bender in the world after the Avatar himself. He is, however, one of the gentlest and nicest people in the entire series, preferring to talk his way out of trouble, and guiding even his enemies towards a path of peace and balance. All this started because he lost his son to a war he had been leading, and since then has changed his attitude and in some ways is trying to atone for his past mistakes.

** Of course, he does attempt to use Stupefy on Death Eaters while flying hundreds of feet above the ground, while knowing full well a successful hit could result in a fatal fall, as moments later he deliberately avoids using it on Stan Shunpike for that very reason.

* Literature/HarryPotter almost exclusively uses entirely non-lethal spells in combat, like ''[[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands Expelliarmus]]'' and ''[[StunGuns Stupify]]'', even when others are fighting to kill. Not once has he come close to using ''[[InstantDeathBullet Avada Kedavra]]''. The one time he successfully used a potentially-lethal spell (''Sectumsempra''), [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he immediately regretted it]].

* ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'': Mongo [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/17p60 becomes this.]]

* Genies in the ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' universe are forbidden to kill, but [[IronicEcho you'd be surprised what you can live through]]. They also are allowed to, for instance, [[BalefulPolymorph turn someone into a cockroach]] to make it easier for their master to kill them.

* Averted in ''Film/RushHour 2''. One of the fight scenes focuses on everyone in the room trying to get their hand on a gun. A behind-the-scenes DVD featurette shows that the script originally called for Chan's character to have the gun fall in his hand, and then throw it away in disgust. Chan rightly pointed out that, given the fight going on in the room, throwing it away was "stupid."\\