History Main / WouldntHurtAChild

** Maxwell's acquired security team has no problem trying to shoot and kill Diana during their confrontation on the roads of Egypt. However, they swerve around her when she falls onto the road holding the two young children she was saving from being run over.

* Kratos in ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' may be called many things but child-slayer definitely isn't one of them. The one time he did (which is his own daughter) is a complete accident due to being set up by Ares. He also ''never'' once physically hits Atreus when reprimanding him and the one time he pushes him too far when trying to keep him away from Baldur, he's briefly shown to be speechless and tries to apologize and later when he has a look of MyGodWhatHaveIDone upon realizing that he nearly killed Atreus in his Bear form. Notably, upon learning that the spectral Ravens are souls sacrificed as children, Kratos is completely horrified at this and shows no mercy to the Raven Keeper upon confronting her.

See Also WouldntHitAGirl for the female-specific version of this trope. See FriendToAllChildren for those adults who not only don't hurt kids but will actively protect them (even [[EvenEvilHasStandards if the adults in question are clearly evil]]). For video games, see HideYourChildren, where children aren't even portrayed so as to avoid the implications that they could be hurt. For a more specific form of Wouldn't Hurt a Child, in which very young children are shielded from danger by the plot due to society's squeamishness about hurting babies, see ImprobableInfantSurvival.

** Ganondorf himself seems to take up this belief in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker.'' In this incarnation, Link is, at the oldest, 12, and even after knocking the boy unconscious and stealing his Triforce of Courage, the sorcerer promises not to kill him. Similarly, Ganondorf spends the first half of the game searching for the newest incarnation of Princess Zelda, and kidnaps at least three small girls to find her; they're locked in a cell, true, but they seem to be well cared for during their imprisonment. When Ganondorf does find Zelda, he kidnaps her, but even though he could easily kill her and permanently obtain the Triforce of Wisdom for himself, he won't do it. A late-game monologue reveals Ganondorf's [[FreudianExcuse motivation for his actions]]: as a boy, he witnessed countless women and children die in his home country, and has spent much of his life looking for a place where simply existing ''won't'' kill people.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Aiho Yomikawa absolutely refuses to fight anybody who is a child or teenager, even if they have superpowers. One of the only times she broke this rule is when she punched her adopted son Accelerator after he came home from WorldWarIII for [[AngerBornOfWorry worrying her]].

** ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' has [[HarmlessVillain Emperor Pillaf]]’s horrified reaction to the suggestion that he drop baby Pan out of his ship: [[EverybodyHasStandards “I am a supervillain, not a]] [[CompleteMonster monster!”]]
* In ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'', Atalanta is utterly horrified when just seconds after shooting Jack the Ripper, she finds out she is a little girl. Then, even though Jack is a psychotic murderer, Atalanta tries to protect her from the other heroes. Finding out Jack is a wraith who is cursed to kill does nothing to dissuade her. When Jeanne finally [[MercyKill exorcises Jack and puts her to rest]], Atalanta goes mad, [[BlackAndWhiteInsanity declaring Jeanne the ultimate evil for killing a child and vowing to destroy her]]. This stems from her own DarkAndTroubledPast and her desire to create a world where every child can be loved.

** ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureJoJolion'': Josuke's hesitation to hurt a zombie baby during the Blue Hawaii arc is what makes him lose the fight and get temporarily controlled by Dolomite.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': In "The Totodile Duel", Ash and Misty battle to see who gets to keep Totodile (as they both threw a ball at it, but it was impossible to determine whose ball actually caught it). Ash uses Pikachu for the first round, and Misty uses Togepi, knowing Pikachu couldn't bring himself to harm the baby pokemon.

* Lina Inverse from ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' really gets angry when kids are endangered. I.e., when Rezo petrified a kid in the first season, she got pissed and went to face him despite knowing it was a trap. [[spoiler:And in NEXT, she has a major FreakOut when she ''thinks'' she's killed a little girl who turned out to be an UndeadChild from Sairaag, and Sylphiel has to give her a CooldownHug.]]

* At the end of the fourth ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'' film, Wolnie and Wilie help a badly injured Wolffy destroy the gate to Goat Village with a cannon, and Weslie and the other goats don't know what to do since they don't want to hurt the child Wilie or [[WouldntHitAGirl the female Wolnie]]. [[spoiler:However, Wolffy was only pretending to be hurt so that he could use Wolnie and Wilie to aid him in catching the goats.]]

* In ''Fanfic/DarkSpectrumPublicEnemy'',Rainbow doesn’t hurt Spike after he turns down her offer to be her sidekick and vows to stop her, instead dropping him off in a bush. Later subverted when she decides to send a huge rainstorm onto Ponyville, she knows Scootaloo might get hurt, but dismisses it as collateral damage.

* In ‘ ‘ Fanfic/DarkSpectrumPublicEnemy',Rainbow doesn’t hurt Spike after he turns down her offer to be her sidekick and vows to stop her, instead dropping him off in a bush. Later subverted when she decides to send a huge rainstorm onto Ponyville, she knows Scootaloo might get hurt, but dismisses it as collateral damage.

* In'Fanfic/DarkSpectrumPublicEnemy',Rainbow doesn’t hurt Spike after he turns down her offer to be her sidekick and vows to stop her, instead dropping him off in a bush. Later subverted when she decides to send a huge rainstorm onto Ponyville, she knows Scootaloo might get hurt, but dismisses it as collateral damage.

* In 'Fanfic/DarkSpectrumPublicEnemy',Rainbow doesn’t hurt Spike after he turns down her offer to be her sidekick and vows to stop her, instead dropping him off in a bush. Later subverted when she decides to send a huge rainstorm onto Ponyville, she knows Scootaloo might get hurt, but dismisses it as collateral damage.

** After seeing the fight between Trunks and Goten, World Champion Hercule knew he stood no chance against Trunks in the next match. Thus, he conspicuously offered Trunks a free shot. When Trunks' blow knocked Hercule out of the ring, the spectators believed that Hercule had offered the free shot because, as the World Champion, he clearly would have easily been Trunks otherwise. Even Trunks was unsure if Hercule was really weak, or if he was actually very strong and threw the fight out of mercy.

** After seeing the fight between Trunks and Goten, World Champion Hercule knew he stood no chance against Trunks in the next match. Thus, he conspicously offered Trunks a free shot. When Trunks' blow knocked Hercule out of the ring, the spectators beleieved that Hercule had thrown the fight. Even Trunks was unsure if Hercule was really weak, or if he was actually very strong and threw the figh out of mercy.

Oddly enough, it's also TruthInTelevision as many gangs, such as the Mexican Mafia, brutally murder their members that hurt children. This even extends to prison, where inmates, or even prison-based gangs, that welcome robbers and murderers into their fold [[PariahPrisoner will not tolerate someone who hurts a kid]]. In fact, killing one of these people often results in being well-liked by the other inmates (people imprisoned for child molestation are often put into solitary confinement, not as punishment, but ''for their own protection'', due to a combination of this trope and RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil). Of course, this can also be seen as a MoralMyopia, as there have been criminal gangs (especially Mexican drug cartels) and terrorist organizations (such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda) that use children for prostitution, [[http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mexico-drug-gangs-using-more-children-as-mules/ drug trafficking]], [[ChildrenForcedToKill assassinations]], and other criminal activities, mainly because children are the ''least'' likely people who would commit criminal acts, thus catching other criminal gangs, military, and police forces [[http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/why-children-are-low-risk-labor-for-latin-americas-drug-gangs off-guard]].

** Hercule deliberately threw his "fight" against Trunks. He didn't know he was going to get punched clear out of the ring by a tiny superhuman, but that doesn't change his intent.

* ''Film/BlazingSaddles'': Jim was forced to kill an insane number of challengers back when he was known as the FastestGunInTheWest, but threw his guns down and walked away the time he was challenged by a 6-year-old. For taking the high road, he wound up ShotInTheAss by the kid. (The way he tells his story is a parody and subversion of Al Denton's backstory ''Series/TheTwilightZone'', where the last challenger Denton shoots [[AccidentalChildKillerBackstory turns out to be a 16-year-old boy]].)

* Madara Uchiha in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' informs an old and enraged Onoki that the only reason he went easy on him when he was younger, was because adults shouldn't fight kids seriously. [[spoiler: It doesn't save Onoki or the other Kage from the beat down they get now.]]

* Lina Inverse from ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' really gets angry when kids are endangered. I.e., when Rezo petrified a kid in the first season, she got pissed and went to face him despite knowing it was a trap. [[spoiler: And in NEXT, she has a major FreakOut when she ''thinks'' she's killed a little girl who turned out to be an UndeadChild from Sairaag, and Sylphiel has to give her a CooldownHug.]]

* [[ManipulativeBastard Sensui]] might have been counting on this trope in the ''Chapter Black'' arc of ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' with Amanuma. [[spoiler: [[ShootTheDog It didn't work.]] And Kurama, the one who killed Amanuma, was ''pissed'' afterwards.]]

* ''Franchise/FantasticFour'' villain [[ClockKing the Mad Thinker]] is perfectly willing to try and kill the Four. During a VillainTeamUp with the Wizard, the latter kidnaps Franklin Richards (Reed and Sue's son) and is getting ready to vivisect him to discover the secret of his amazing powers. The Mad Thinker, enraged, immediately terminates the partnership and leads Franklin's [[PapaWolf Uncle Ben]] to the Wizard's secret base, just in time to save him. Oddly enough, and most likely a case of DependingOnTheWriter, this goes against the grain for the Wizard's character, as during a story in the 1970's when the Wizard and several other supervillains attacked the Fantastic Four's headquarters and took Franklin and Alicia Masters hostage. Reed Richards demanded to know where they were, to which the Wizard responded: "Both are safe, Richards. I do not wage war on blind women and children." Richards took him at his word on this.

* {{Exploited|Trope}} in ''ComicBook/{{Insufferable}}'' by Malvolia, who straps a bunch of infants to himself, noting that Galahad can't do anything to him "without something very fragile and very precious going squish". [[spoiler: Nocturnus incapacitates him by strangling and suspending him from a skylight.]]

* The Superman villain Toyman considers himself a FriendToAllChildren, warped as his perceptions of such a term may be, and would never dream of harming them. His whole motivation is that he wants to protect kids from the injustices inflicted on them by society - however, his schemes often inadvertently place the very children he claims to be protecting in even more danger.

* ''Fanfic/ReBoundRWBY'': At age nine Neo was forced to kill an entire family in their sleep. She refused to kill the little girl but, due to her aura bond, she was forced to anyway.

* ''Film/Cargo2013'': Zigzagged. Vic does put Thoomi in a cage to use as bait, but when [[spoiler: he tracks them down and looks poised to harm Rosie in order to avenge losing Lorraine, he ultimately can't do it and lets them go]].

* ''Film/Extinction2018'': [[spoiler: Miles]] hesitates on seeing Lucy under the table instead of just killing her. This foreshadows that he's unwilling to do this later, and thus also disillusioned with his people's campaign.

* In ''Film/Joker2019'', Arthur Fleck is never shown hurting a child and even seems to enjoy entertaining them (he actually backs off from attacking Thomas Wayne upon seeing [[spoiler: Bruce.]]) Then again, this is before he's gone through complete SanitySlippage.

* ''Film/KillBill'': The Bride plays the trope straight as she really doesn't like it when other children and teens get involved in violent stuff. In Part 1, she's very unhappy when [[spoiler: Nikki witnesses how the Bride kills her mom in their fight]], later attempts to dissuade Gogo from fighting her, spares a teenage Crazy 88 member but gives him a spanking with her sword and tells him to go home to his mother, and at the end of Part 2, [[spoiler: she decides that she'd rather put her revenge aside for a little while than have BB witness her and Bill fight to the death.]]

* In ''Film/LuckyNumberSlevin'', the mob bosses had to call in a hitman from out of town to kill a child, when none of their own men would do it. [[spoiler: Turns out, he couldn't bring himself to do it either.]]

* ''Film/PitchBlack'': Riddick likes children quite a lot, and they in turn seem fascinated by him -- not just Jack, but Imam's younger acolyte as well. In fact, he likes them enough that he refuses to kill Jack [[spoiler: even though she's actually a girl on her period and attracting the monsters. He doesn't have any qualms about leaving them to save himself, though]].

* ''Film/TheRock'': Before taking the tourists and tour guide hostage, General Hummel tells a group of elementary school children to get back on the ferry and leave. [[spoiler: This foreshadows the fact that his threat to launch an attack on major cities, was a bluff. He ends up fighting his own men when they want to launch the attacks anyway.]]

** In "[[Recap/DoctorWho2010CSAChristmasCarol A Christmas Carol]]", the Doctor sees that Kazran Sardick is almost gleefully cruel, but can't bring himself to hit a small boy, and this convinces him the man can be saved. It eventually transpires that [[spoiler: the thought of hitting kids reminds Sardick of his father, [[AbusiveParent who had no problem doing so]].]]

* Ben on ''Series/{{Lost}}'', despite being a MagnificentBastard, doesn't want to kill Rousseau's baby, and instead takes her in as his own. Later when he tracks down Penny in order to kill her, he [[spoiler: hesitates because she has a child]]. This trope is subverted, however, when Sayid [[spoiler: shoots a 12-year-old Ben while in the past]].

** Rumpelstiltskin, for all his evil doings, has never been seen harming, manipulating, or even raising a hand at a child. This can be explained through his backstory; [[spoiler: he became The Dark One to prevent his son from becoming a child soldier, and later used this power to rescue all the other children from the war]].

** He also seemed to have a genuine fondness for Henry [[spoiler: even after it was revealed that Henry would be his downfall]].
* ''Series/TheOrville'': Mercer finds out the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Krill]] are heading to a human colony and plan to nuke it from orbit. They find a way to kill the crew, but then they find out that they brought their kids along...[[spoiler: They do manage to spare the kids, but kill the adults. [[DeconstructedTrope It's pointed out that those kids will now grow up with every reason to want war on the Union, and Mercer's crew in particular.]]]]

** ''Series/UchuSentaiKyuranger'': [[spoiler: [[PoisonousPerson Stinger]] states he doesn't kill children after being ordered to do so by his supposed boss, Eridoron.]]
*** This is briefly overturned in Space 20, when [[spoiler: Stinger goes after Kotaro while under the influence of his brother's poison. Interestingly enough, Kotaro and his younger brother, Jiro, are the children he was ordered to kill in Space 5.]]

* In a flashback in ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'', Xena reluctantly spares a young royal heir in the East, even though she was evil at the time and she knew he would grow up to be a homicidal despot with a grudge against her because she slaughtered his family. She turns out to be right about him when she revisits him fifteen or so years later, yet she faces the same choice when Gabrielle implores her to spare him again despite all he has done since they last met. [[spoiler:The last scene of the episode shows the Emperor sitting on his throne and Xena walking out of the throne room with Gabrielle and telling her she couldn't go through with it... but then the last shot reveals he is in fact dead.]]

* For all their homicidal tendencies towards the night guards, the animatronics of ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' won't harm kids, and instead are fiercely protective of them. [[spoiler: This is due to the main five -- Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie the Bunny, Chica the Chicken, Foxy the Pirate, and Golden Freddy -- being haunted by the souls of murdered children. It's very heavily implied that the Marionette is also inhabited by the soul of a dead child. Their aggressiveness towards adults, especially the guards, is a noble but misguided effort to protect the kids from The Purple Man, the psychopathic serial killer who murdered them in the first place.]]

** Ganondorf himself seems to take up this belief in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker.'' In this incarnation, Link is, at the oldest, twelve, and even after knocking the boy unconscious and stealing his Triforce of Courage, the sorcerer promises not to kill him. Similarly, Ganondorf spends the first half of the game searching for the newest incarnation of Princess Zelda, and kidnaps at least three small girls to find her; they're locked in a cell, true, but they seem to be well cared for during their imprisonment. When Ganondorf does find Zelda, he kidnaps her, but even though he could easily kill her and permanently obtain the Triforce of Wisdom for himself, he won't do it. A late-game monologue reveals Ganondorf's [[FreudianExcuse motivation for his actions]]: as a boy, he witnessed countless women and children die in his home country, and has spent much of his life looking for a place where simply existing ''won't'' kill people.
** Subverted with [[BigBad Yuga]] in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds''. He travels through Hyrule looking for the Seven Sages and [[PhantomZonePicture transforms them into paintings]] for use in an evil ritual; one of those Sages, [[spoiler: Gulley]], is younger than Link (who is again about 12 years old in this game), and another, [[spoiler: Irene]], looks about the same age as the hero.

* Seems to be a formal rule in the Van Der Linde gang from ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2''. The only time you can really find kids outside in the world (Jack Marston can always be found at camp) is some [[StreetUrchin street kids]] in the New Orleans equivalent, Saint Denis. One of them steals your bag in a cutscene and when you chase after him, you can’t shoot him. Nor can you hurt any of the other kids either inside or outside the mission. When [[spoiler: Jack gets kidnapped]], the whole gang goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge and burns someone’s house down over it. Hosea, the NumberTwo in the gang, flat out says “Kids are off limits” during the mission. In a more lighthearted example, you can yell at everyone in camp to wake up while they’re asleep but Jack can’t be woken up.

** Pa and Ma, the late convenience store owners in "The Inconveniencing", wouldn't dare harm anyone under the age of thirteen. Teenagers, however, are fair game.

See Also WouldntHitAGirl for the female-specific version of this trope. See FriendToAllChildren for those adults who not only don't hurt kids, but will actively protect them (even [[EvenEvilHasStandards if the adults in question are clearly evil]]). For video games, see HideYourChildren, where children aren't even portrayed so as to avoid the implications that they could be hurt. For a more specific form of Wouldn't Hurt a Child, in which very young children are shielded from danger by the plot due to society's squeamishness about hurting babies, see ImprobableInfantSurvival.

Oddly enough, it's also TruthInTelevision as many gangs, such as the Mexican Mafia, brutally murder their members that hurt children. This even extends to prison, where inmates, or even prison-based gangs, that welcome robbers and murderers into their fold [[PariahPrisoner will not tolerate someone who hurts a kid]]. In fact, killing one of these people often results in being well liked by the other inmates (people imprisoned for child molestation are often put into solitary confinement, not as punishment, but ''for their own protection'', due to a combination of this trope and RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil). Of course, this can also be seen as a MoralMyopia, as there have been criminal gangs (especially Mexican drug cartels) and terrorist organizations (such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda) that use children for prostitution, [[http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mexico-drug-gangs-using-more-children-as-mules/ drug trafficking]], [[ChildrenForcedToKill assassinations]], and other criminal activities, mainly because children are the ''least'' likely people who would commit criminal acts, thus catching other criminal gangs, military, and police forces [[http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/why-children-are-low-risk-labor-for-latin-americas-drug-gangs off-guard]].

* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'': Jean hates intentionally hurting children, even if they're [[ChildSoldiers enemy combatants]], and several times he's gone out his way to protect them.

** Train Heartnet has been an assassin for many years.....but he really can't brign himself to hurt children. In the manga, he describes how he was about to shoot a man, but he realized the man was holding a young girl. He stopped, and couldn't pull the trigger, so he was shot, instead. He lived, but this is part of the major HeelFaceTurn he underwent prior to the events of the series. The presence of [[GenkiGirl Saya Minatsuki]] only instills that even more.
** Train's EvilMentor, Zagine, was this as well, to the point where he also refused to take on any jobs where the target had young children. One of his clients, knowing this, omitted any information on Train himself (who, at the time, was 10-years-old) when giving Zagine a job to kill his parents. As a result, Zagine ended up taking Train under his wing, perhaps out of guilt for leaving him without his parents.

** Ichigo is hesitant to hurt Ururu during their training match, and even after seeing her SuperStrength in action, decides to only give her a tap on the head to clear the requirements. He somehow ends up grazing her face with his fist and Ururu kicks him away, but manages to pass the test by restoring his spiritual energy.

* ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'': Hei, extreme AntiHero or no, gets ''very'' protective of kids under his care for any reason, particularly girls the same age as his sister. Call it [[BigBrotherInstinct unresolved issues]]. While other contractors harm children, Hei does not.

** The Death Note has no effect on people under 780-days-old (two years and fifty days).
** Shinigami cannot directly give a Death Note to someone under 6-years-old.

* Madara Uchiha in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' informs a an old and enraged Onoki that the only reason he went easy on him when he was younger, was because adults shouldn't fight kids seriously. [[spoiler: It doesn't save Onoki or the other Kage from the beat down they get now.]]

* The ''Anime/SonicX'' dub (like many of Creator/FourKidsEntertainment dub jobs) is famous for the editing out of at least three instances of violence inflicted upon children: The first instance being that of Maria (who not only had an immune disorder in the original, but was shot and killed by a GUN soldier who showed considerable angst about it for ''decades'' afterwards -- while in the dub she was merely "taken away"). This was closely followed by Christopher Thorndyke in a rather infamous scene which was cut apart repeatedly to edit out the fact that Shadow was throwing-and-smashing-him-into-walls (this resulting in the kid apparently passing out for no reason much to the confusion of a 7-year-old audience), and finally with the death of a teenage revolutionary making a suicide run into the Metarex fleet (this time 4kids actually edited out a gravestone in one image).

** [[AntiVillain Mifune]] has a soft spot for children, and has an iron-clad rule never to kill one, or allow one to be killed if he can prevent it. His MoralityPet, Angela, is a CuteWitch he is fostering. He also attempts to avoid killing Black Star (a teenager), deliberately holding back until Mifune found the 'assassin' to be a WorthyOpponent. [[spoiler:In the anime, Mifune tries to kills Black*Star because he is in risk of trying to become a [[HumanoidAbomination Kishin]] while in the manga they both have a silent agreement to not hold back in a DuelToTheDeath.]]
** Black*Star himself also obeys this trope: His walks away from his first battle with Mifune when he realizes Mifune's "witch" was a little girl.

* Vash in ''Manga/TriGun'', being a AllLovingHero TechnicalPacifist, is particularly unwilling to hurt children. It's just not going to happen. [[AntiHero Wolfwood]] the priest ''does'' [[HitmanWithAHeart kill people]], though not in front of Vash, but taking care of children is the most important thing to him ever, so as much as he believes in necessary sacrifices he is definitely this. The first time we see his full armory unleashed in the anime, he's firing GunsAkimbo and shouting over the noise, "I'M NOT GOING TO LET ANY MORE CHILDREN SUFFER!!! NEVER AGAIN!"

** This trope also plays an important part in the Evil Deadpool storyline, where Deadpool is battling a composite version of himself who has absolutely no scruples. Evil Deadpool is out to prove he's infinitely worse than Deadpool, and Deadpool is trying to figure out what Evil Deadpool's next move is going to be so he can head him off. The problem is that he's approaching it from the wrong direction by looking at it from only his perspective. Then one of his head voices quietly tells him to stop trying to think of something he would do, and to instead try to think of something he ''wouldn't'' do. There's a pause, then the horrified expression that comes over Deadpool reveals that he's figured it out: Evil Deadpool is going to ''kill a child.''

** In his 2019 Annual, Deadpool actually goes to the Dream Realm and tries to fight Nightmare, a reality warper and boarderline god of that reality, because a kid wrote him a letter offering him what little money he had ($7) to help stop the constant traumatizing nightmares he kept having. When Nightmare ends up showing Wade the dreams in question, he realizes the true root of these nightmares is the kid's neighbor sexually abusing him whenever he is babysitting him. Needless to say Wade immediately rushes back and beats the man to a bloody pulp, and shoves him down a flight of stairs before the police show up.

* Young ComicBook/{{Loki}} found (for their great surprise) that they're this trope now. They had the perfect plan and would get away with it too, but it involved driving [[ComicBook/YoungAvengers Wiccan]] to suicide and they just didn't have the heart to go through with it. [[ComicBook/LokiAgentOfAsgard Later]] the Angelic army learnt this the hard way, when Loki promptly disposed of them after they refused to take the LastChanceToQuit offer at the end of a speech that pressed at almost tedious lengths that what they intended to do involved ''baby killing''.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': The Sangtee Empire is a brutal intergalactic empire built on a backbone of chattel slavery that has strange morals when it comes to children. There are child slaves but they're basically free roaming urchins the slave drivers won't touch until they become adults. The ruling race the kreel have supplanted natural procreation with artificial but are loathe to abort a fetus that devolves into a female despite female citizens being illegal, instead they have the female child raised in seclusion as a male and only allowed to enter society once they can convincingly pass as male.
* [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] by ComicBook/{{X 23}}. When she was still under the control of the Facility, she very much ''did'' kill children. It wasn't by her choice, and even if she resisted those orders, the Facility had the means of forcing her to do so using the trigger scent. However the entire reason she was finally able to escape was because she ''did'' refuse to kill Henry Sutter during Rice's hostile takeover of the project, and she makes it explicit to [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Valeria Richards]] that whatever her past, she doesn't kill children anymore.

* Silver Spoon of ''Fanfic/BadFutureCrusaders'', despite being a burglar ''and'' an assassin for hire who started out as a BoxedCrook for committing some undisclosed crime, is show to have a ''serious'' soft spot for children. Not only does she express disgust for a fellow BoxedCrook who was in prison for killing his child and point out that she planned to kill him afterward for it, she also seems to be genuinely fond of the young colt Clear Rivers.

* In ''Fanfic/HereComesTheNewBoss'', Nemean was a Case 53 who was savage even before inheriting the Butcher mantle. However she also had a strong maternal instinct, so she never allowed the Teeth to hurt and children and in the present has become very protective of the teenaged Taylor, Spitfire, and Ironclad. In the past, this led her to commit the "lambskin murders", where she hunted down a ring of pedophiles and skinned them alive.

** ZigZagged with the mastermind, who very much does not '''want''' any of the 53rd Class members to die, but believes their hand is being forced by the circumstances. Upon realizing that [[spoiler:Enoshima]] brought Himiko and Korekiyo to [[HaveYouToldAnyoneElse their private meeting]], they [[NeverMyFault blame them]] for putting the kids in harms' way. Later, their guilt over setting them up to be sacrificed spurs them to try and ensure that the rest of the class survives by [[spoiler:handing them a way out of the building]].

* ''Fanfic/SecondGeneration'': For all his hostility towards Batman and associates, Jason is disgusted when people dare to suggest he would harm Dick Grayson's newborn twin daughters. It goes so far that he finds himself reluctant to kill Nightwing, since the babies would be left orphaned.

* At the end of the fourth ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'' film, Wolnie and Wilie help a badly-injured Wolffy destroy the gate to Goat Village with a cannon, and Weslie and the other goats don't know what to do since they don't want to hurt the child Wilie or [[WouldntHitAGirl the female Wolnie]]. [[spoiler:However, Wolffy was only pretending to be hurt so that he could use Wolnie and Wilie to aid him in catching the goats.]]

* This is what separates Miss Hannigan from her brother in ''Film/{{Annie|1982}}'': during the film's climax, Rooster runs off after Annie after she ruins his get rich quick scheme, and Miss Hannigan says in panic "He's really gonna kill her!" and chases after him telling him to leave Annie alone because [[HeelFaceTurn "She's just a baby!"]]

* ''Film/FatalAttraction'': While not above kidnapping a child, Alex Forrest for all her violent mentally unstable flaws notably doesn’t hurt Dan ([[{{Yandere}} her obsession]]) and Beth’s daughter Ellen. She just takes Ellen to a theme park before dropping her home safe. It’s inferred that in her delusions she genuinely believes she’s Dan’s wife and Ellen is her daughter (she asks Ellen for a kiss on the cheek when returning her home). The other possible explanation given Alex’s own implied trauma as a little girl, she genuinely doesn’t want to physically hurt a child. Or it was just mind games to torment Dan and Beth. She definitely has no problem [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals killing small animals though]].
* Of all people, Jason Voorhees. In ''Film/FridayThe13thPartVIJasonLives'', he's shown standing in the midst of a cabin full of sleeping children and ''ignoring them completely'', even the one who wakes up and sees him. He then goes about his usual business of killing their horny teenage guardians. This was by the request of Kane Hodder who played Jason, with the director Tom [=McLoughlin=] agreeing and explaining that Jason sympathizes for the plight of children from his own death as a child and thus won't kill them. It even serves to retroactively {{foreshadow|ing}} the true identity of Jason in ''Film/FridayThe13thPartVANewBeginning'' ([[spoiler:actually the paramedic Roy Burns]]), as he has no qualms trying to murder the young Reggie.

* ''Film/InOrderOfDisappearance'': After kidnapping The Count’s son right off a playground, Nils does everything he can to keep the boy safe. He tucks him in, reads a bedtime story, and even lets the kid [[EstablishingCharacterMoment sit in his lap and drive his snow plow]]. Due to his kind manner, Rune easily comes with him and doesn't resist despite realizing that Nils isn't one of his dad's men. Of course, Nils never planned to hurt him, only lure The Count in.
* The action film ''Film/InvisibleTarget'' have a really intense scene, where the Ronin Gang captures a bus full of schoolchildren and rigs it with a TimeBomb, forcing the heroes, Officer Chan, Officer Wai and Inspector Carson to stay behind in order to stop the bomb from detonating. They failed, but it turns out the bomb was a dud; the Ronin Gang is only using the bomb as a distraction to keep the police off their tails, and while they're perfectly content with killing policemen and security guards, they draw a line when children are involved.

* ''Film/KillBill'': The Bride plays the trope straight as she really doesn't like it when other children and teens get involved in violent stuff. In Part 1, she's very unhappy when [[spoiler: Nikki witnesses how the Bride kills her mom in their fight]], later attempts to dissuade Gogo from fighting her, spares a teenage Crazy 88 member but gives him a spanking with her sword and tells him to go home to his mother, and in the end of Part 2, [[spoiler: she decides that she'd rather put her revenge aside for a little while than have BB witness her and Bill fight to the death.]]

* In the TroubledBackstoryFlashback of ''Film/NoTimeToDie'', Lyutsifer Safin turns up at Madeleine Swann's house while she is a child and tries to kill everyone in retaliation for Mr. White killing his own family. After her mother is killed, Madeleine shoots him and flees, pursued by a wounded Safir, only to [[DangerThinIce fall through the frozen lake]]. Safin can't stand to watch her drown as she scrabbles against the ice, so breaks the ice with his gunfire and hauls her to safety. Rather than inspiring him to change his ways however, Safin just [[YouOweMe gains an unhealthy obsession with Madeleine]] that lasts into her adulthood. [[spoiler:Safin also doesn’t harm a hair on her and Bond’s daughter Mathilde, even after she bites him on the hand and simply lets her run away during his CollapsingLair.]]

* Corvis Rebaine in ''The Conqueror's Shadow'' tells his demonic partner this when the demon suggests that he kill a young girl [[spoiler:who ends up being his future wife]] who is being too chatty. The demon retorts that Rebaine doesn't seem to have a problem with letting his armies slaughter women and children for him. Rebaine is furious, but realizes that he can't deny it.

** In ''[[Literature/XWingSeries The Krytos Trap]]'', Kirtan Loor is the terrorist striking during a [[ThePlague terrible pandemic]] in order to make the New Republic's job that much harder. Flirry Vorru is sent to stop him, but instead decides to use him, telling Loor what targets to hit as part of some plan. Once he directs Loor to a school. Not a training academy, a school. For children.

** Largely averted in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', when just about anyone is willing to directly or indirectly hurt Tash and Zak Arranda, who start the series as 13- and 12-years-old, respectively. But played straight(ish) with Captain Thrawn. When Tash is insultingly rude to him, his bodyguards bristle but he tells them to stand down, and says that since she's a child he won't take offense. He also takes the time to explain himself to them, a little, though he doesn't go out of his way any to help them.

** "Black Market" shows that in the human fleet's criminal underworld children are being sold in a slave market. Apollo, despite having seen proof that the gangsters are very connected, dangerous, and might be able to get away with killing him, nonetheless confronts the head of the black market and says that he understands the need for a black market on certain goods, but that children are off limits. The guy refuses, thinking that [[YouWouldntShootMe Apollo doesn't dare actually kill him]]. Apollo quickly proves him wrong, and gets the new head of the underworld to agree to not mistreat kids.

** For a bit of framing, in one particular episode, the guy sets fire to a picnic, pummels an entire football team while invisible, steals the Rolex of a dead guy at his funeral, But in the scene where he's with kids? He's beyond cool and highly supporting of them. Soon as the kids are out of the room he comes this close to killing his childhood pastor.

** Rumpelstiltskin, for all his evil doings, he has never been seen harming, manipulating, or even raising a hand at a child. This can be explained through his backstory; [[spoiler: he became The Dark One to prevent his son from becoming a child soldier, and later used this power to rescue all the other children from the war]].

* ''Series/TheOutpost'': 313 initially obeys the command to kill Janzo and Wren. After learning Wren's pregnant, however, 313 is shocked and stops, since he can't bring himself to hurt a child. This makes him rebel against his masters, because he's realized his choice to obey them was wrong as a result.

* The first episode of ''Series/{{Vidocq}}'' shows the trial of [[BoxedCrook soon-to-be]] TheBigGuy. As the prosecutor reads the accusations, he hears "assaulting a minor" and flies into murderous rage at the insinuation that he would hurt a child. The prosecutor quickly corrects that he's accused of assaulting a min'''e'''r.

* In ''Series/GoodOmens2019'', The moral conflict involving the fact that the RealityWarper AntiChrist destined to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt is also an innocent 11-years-old boy gets brought up [[AdaptationalAngstUpgrade a lot more then it did in the]] [[Literature/GoodOmens original work]]. Both the NobleDemon Crowley and the unscrupulous [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Angel]] Aziraphale agree that killing said Antichrist might be the only way to save the world, but neither can bring themselves to kill a child, which creates conflict in their millennia-long relationship (Especially as Aziraphale [[BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork keeps claiming that Crowley has to be the one who does that simply because he is a Demon]] and is [[TautologicalTemplar therefore automatically less good then Aziraphale is]]). Crowley is more of an example then Aziraphale since the Angel has a ThouShaltNotKill moral code, while Crowley more specifically [[EvenEvilHasStandards says he's "not personally up for killing kids"]].

* ''Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac'': At Act I Scene IV, a [[SmittenTeenageGirl Buffet –- girl]] offers Cyrano free food. Cyrano lampshades that his {{pride}} [[DontYouDarePityMe is enormous]], but his fear to wound the [[SmittenTeenageGirl Buffet -– girl]] is even more great, so he accepts her offer of free food... [[EvenEvilHasStandards after he lampshades that as a great deed]]. This could be a standard PetTheDog moment until FridgeLogic show us that Cyrano [[FreudianExcuse was wound in his childhood by his mother: because she didn't like him when he was a vulnerable child]], [[LoveMartyr adult Cyrano cannot even consider any woman could love him]]. Hence his fear to wound a little girl by making her feel she's unlovable if Cyrano would refuse [[PetTheDog this offer of food]]... an offer he would have surely refused if it were made by any other person.

* [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Korgan Bloodaxe]] from ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII: Shadows of Amn'' is a psychotic dwarf who has no problem with murder, rape, theft or genocide. He's racist against just about anyone, sexually harasses the female party members and always, always suggests solving problems with his axe. But he won't harm children, and describes a man who beats his daughter as "not worth the spittle on his boots".

** Ironically, killing children was originally a option in ''Skyrim,'' since there are recorded death sounds of children, but Bethesda Softworks just couldn't let it slide. Many players find the children annoying and will even install mods on PC that allow children to be killed by player (unsurprisingly, such a mod was among the very first to be created).
* In ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'', an abusive Highwayman will claim as such as a backhanded insult, increasing stress of his target. That said, it is very much implied by [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/darkestdungeon_gamepedia/images/e/e9/Hwy_final_logo.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20160115212736 his comic]] that his guilt over killing an innocent woman and her child is what drove him to becoming TheAtoner.

'''Blue Beetle:''' Didn't stop you with Shazam.[[note]]The mind of 10 year old Billy Batson in the body of a superpowered adult, whose ''brains were blown out by Superman's heat vision''.[[/note]]

** Subverted with [[BigBad Yuga]] in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds''. He travels through Hyrule looking for the Seven Sages and [[PhantomZonePicture transforms them into paintings]] for use in an evil ritual; one of those Sages, [[spoiler: Gulley]], is younger than Link (who is again about 12-years-old in this game), and another, [[spoiler: Irene]], looks about the same age as the hero.

* Played with in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars R'', the BigBad Duminuss has trio of homunculi as henchmen. The homunculi, despite posing superhuman strength, are all children. This is because Duminuss known most people will hesitate to fight children. It's eventually averted as the homunculi sacrifice their "mind" to heal badly injured Duminuss and player must kill them all afterwards.

** The Pyro, despite (or possibly because of) their complete insanity and childlike outlook on life is extremely protective of children. Though this may sometimes manifest in playing with them (usually by setting things on fire around them in a thankfully harmless capacity for the kids) even implying harm towards them [[MamaBear sets Pyro off]]. A later issue of the comic had the Pyro incinerating two of the original mercenaries right when they cryptically mention opening up an orphanage which would give them a supply of kid. Their full intentions are never realized as the moment they imply having sinister intentions for the children, the Pyro immediately points their flamethrower at the two.

* Adrestia in ''Webcomic/MorphE'' is so against the idea of hurting children that when she is thrust into a InvoluntaryBattleToTheDeath with a teenager she [[http://morphe.thewebcomic.com/comics/1714482/page-45-shard/ offers him a shard of tile and orders him to kill her so that he can live.]]

* An unusual example in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''. In one story arc the {{Space Pirate|s}}, Hondo Ohnaka, attacked a Jedi ship which was carrying six younglings in an attempt to steal their lightsaber crystals, [[WouldHurtAChild and told his men to do whatever was necessary to get them]]. But two episodes later he tells the Padawan chaperoning the younglings, Ahsoka, that he doesn't like taking children into battle. When she mentions the earlier incident, he waves it off as a change of heart. The character's voice actor said in an interview that Hondo really doesn't like hurting kids; he was hoping to retrieve the crystals with minimum fuss and would have let them go home unharmed.

** United States was among the countries that signed the [[http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CRC.aspx Convention on the Rights of the Child]], a human rights treaty that handles rights for those under 18, but failed to have it ratified due to each state having different laws regarding children and political and religious conservatives blocking the measure (U.S. progressives say that is so conservative parents can force their religious ideology upon their children and beat them to force their complience with adult authority). UsefulNotes/BarackObama is aware of this and admits he'll have this reviewed since he considered the failure to ratify as an embarrassment.
** However, many countries, including United States, have made illegal for anyone under 18 to be executed for a crime, including murder. Instead, the harshest allowed is life for those who committed homicidal acts in the first-degree, while amendments for non-homicidal crimes have been considered since they can be viewed as cruel and punishments.
* During the trial for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's infant son, it was argued that the kidnapper must have been foreign, because "no American gangster ever sank to the level of killing babies." Al Capone himself even offered Lindbergh support during the investigation, as did many high profile crime lords. Interestingly, the true kidnapper might have had similar standards, since the baby's death was likely accidental.

* During the 2011 Norway terrorist attacks, Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator, spared a 11-year-old boy whom he judged "too young to die", [[SubvertedTrope despite killing a 14-year-old]].

** Most telling in an episode where the heroes are fighting evil clones of themselves, and the adults are handily thrashed by the clone of Paco, a child. When they pull off Paco-clone's "mask" to reveal [[UncannyValley two eyes on an otherwise blank face]], the tables suddenly turn and [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute they're allowed to punch him with impunity]].

* The giant [[SnakePeople naga]] Katrika of ''Felarya'' loves children, and often goes out of her way to protect any kids she finds lost in the jungle. This behavior is especially noteworthy because Felaryan nagas (including Katrika) are typically man-eaters.

** Eggman also never wanted to hurt Chris, and in fact, when one of his robots went haywire and actually was about to ''kill'' him, Eggman aided Sonic in shutting it down because the thought of having a child's blood on his hand was too horrific even for him.

* ''Film/FatalAttraction'': While not above kidnapping a child, Alex Forrest for all her violent mentally unstable flaws notably doesn’t hurt Ellen Dan ([[{{Yandere}} her obsession]]) and Beth’s daughter Ellen. She just takes Ellen to a theme park before dropping her home safe. It’s inferred that in her delusions she genuinely believes she’s Dan’s wife and Ellen is her daughter (she asks Ellen for a kiss on the cheek when returning her home). The other possible explanation given Alex’s own implied trauma as a little girl, she genuinely doesn’t want to physically hurt a child. Or it was just mind games to torment Dan and Beth. She definitely has no problem [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals killing small animals though]].

* The ComicBook/Superman villain Toyman considers himself a FriendToAllChildren, warped as his perceptions of such a term may be, and would never dream of harming them. His whole motivation is that he wants to protect kids from the injustices inflicted on them by society - however, his schemes often inadvertently place the very children he claims to be protecting in even more danger.

* The main reason why [[ComicBook/RedHood Jason Todd]] can be considered an AntiVillain and not a straight-out villain is that he will [[PayEvilUntoEvil kill anyone hurting a child]], although he himself has tried to kill a child, specifically Damian Wayne, and he's straight up happy to attack teenagers so this varies by the writer.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' storyline ''ComicBook/DayOfTheDollmaker'', ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} and Catherine Grant accuse Toyman of kidnapping children; however, the villain protests he would never hurt children. It is adults who he cannot stand.