History Main / WouldNotShootACivilian

* The Franchise/{{Predator}}, very much in the ProudWarriorRaceGuy subtrope mentioned in the description. This is perhaps best highlighted in ''Film/AVPAlienVsPredator'', where a Predator (initially) refuses to kill an assailant because he has a bad heart. Also, across all of the films Predators rarely kill anyone who is unarmed (at least in the case of humans; their other staple prey, Xenomorphs, are non-sentient and don't use weapons). In ''Film/{{Predator 2}}'', a Predator refrains from killing an armed female police officer when he sees that she is pregnant, and child when he realizes that the gun the kid is pointing at him is just a toy.

* In the Franchise/StarWarsLegends, there aren't really clear signs of if a civilian is a Rebel or Imperial or sympathizes with either cause--it's not a matter of country or planet or species--so this trope is wrestled with on several occasions.

* A variant of this is enforced in the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' series; while Pokemon-on-Pokemon violence is acceptable and a part of everyday life and human-to-Pokemon violence is considered either BullyingADragon (when the Pokemon is wild) or abuse (when the Pokemon belongs to abusing trainer), commanding an attack on a trainer or other human is either in bad form or outright illegal, unless used as a criminal suppression tactic (e.g. Lance in Mahogany), and if other options remain nonviable. While it ''may'' be implied that villainous teams can do this on a whim, not even [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Team Plasma]] goes that far in the game continuity. On the other hand, [[ElephantInTheLivingRoom the Donphan goes on a rampage]] throughout ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'' due to its DarkerAndEdgier nature, and [[VideoGame/PokemonColosseum Cipher]] will attack or even kill humans who obstruct its operations in any continuity.
** An animated trailer for ''Black 2'' shows Team Plasma ordering a Seviper to use Bite, after which it clearly attacks the protagonist rather than his Pokemon. His Arcanine has to come in from the side and Bite the Seviper. Since this was impossible to show in the games [[spoiler:Save for that one time Ghetsis has Kyurem attack you in the field]], one can assume whenever you're up against villainous teams they're trying to attack you specifically and you're only using your Pokémon in self defense.

TruthInTelevision, at least in theory. Under UsefulNotes/TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar, targeting civilians is a war crime -- a principle that goes back as far as the KnightInShiningArmor and chivalry. On the other, to encourage combatants to comply, civilians must also not attack combatants lest they be labeled as the enemy, and combatants must not dress as civilians; both are war crimes for which the offenders can be shot if caught and convicted. In addition, if civilians are accidentally or incidentally but unavoidably killed in the process of attacking a legitimate military target, it's (usually) not considered an offense. WarCrimeSubvertsHeroism exploits this trope for its punch.

* In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind'', Narancia controls the Stand Aerosmith(aka [[DubNameChange Lil Bomber]]), a miniature airplane equipped with a machine gun and other weapons that locks on sources of carbon dioxide. Despite his violent and impulsive personality, he's careful not to deploy his stand where it might end up shooting noncombatants by mistake. [[spoiler:He does end up shooting Risotto Nero, the head of the Hitman Team, instead of The Boss despite intending to kill the latter, but since Risotto wanted Narancia and the rest of Bucciarati's group dead, it's not a terrible loss.]]

** Averted '''hard''' with Kira Nerys, at least during the Occupation. In "The Darkness And The Light", after she is kidnapped by a civilian laborer who was maimed in a bombing carried out by her Bajoran Resistance cell, she furiously tells her kidnapper that ''every'' Cardassian who was on Bajor during the Occupation was guilty and in her eyes they were ''all'' legitimate targets.

* {{Invoked}} in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}.'' [[CosmicHorror Crayak]] wants to genocide the [[ProudMerchantRace Ishkoort]] but [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien the Ellimist]] won't him. They decide that the species' fate will be decided by having a group of proxies fight to the death on the Ishkoort home world. One of the conditions, however, is that Crayak's Howlers can't hurt any Ishkoort until they win. Naturally, our heroes start hanging out in crowds after figuring that out that rule.