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Anime and Manga
"Over the aeons, your proclamations of 'peace' always seemed pointless. You must admit you love the smell of battle."
—Unicron to Optimus Prime, Transformers: Armada
Comic Books
Tesla: Should an intense young man and a wild-eyed gentleman ever approach you and mention the word "Tunguska", I want you to shoot them. Promise me.
Robo: But, Mr. Tesla, you're a pacifist.
Tesla: Yes, Robo. But you are not.
Robo: I've noticed that you have a very flexible view of pacifism.
"He'll live. Not well, but he'll live."
—Clint Barton, Hawkeye
Nick Fury: Sweet mother of God! I thought this guy was supposed to be a pacifist, man.
Thor: [grinning] A pacifist with a big, scary hammer, General.
Fan Works
"The thing is, Sims was not playing. She did understand the situation, just as well as I did. But she still took those oaths, she was still serious about them, deadly serious, and there is nothing so dangerous as an enemy who leaves themselves so few limitations.... They will go right to the limit of their oaths, if the situation calls for it. Sims and Caeghlin didn't kill anyone when they destroyed Willan's Olympus Mons facility, but the crater that used to be a volcano is still visible from Homeworld with an amateur's telescope."
Exhaustion has her swaying on her feet, but she digs deep inside herself finds the willpower to shove pain and fatigue aside even as her body fights on, more under her friends’ control than her own. With cold calculation she slams a rhinoceros into the far windscreen hard enough to shatter a hole clear through the window of the Blade ship, watching as if from a distance as the entire craft tilts out of orbit and half a dozen controllers are sucked into the unforgiving vacuum of space. It is with far more compassion that she steps over injured bodies without finishing them off, goes for disabling blows rather than killing ones—including with the king cobra she leaves coiled unconscious on the floor.
— "What if they were telepahtic throughout the series?", All Assorted Animorphs AUs
Film - Animation
Genie: Don't worry, Abu, [Jafar's] a genie, and genies can't kill anyone.
[Jafar turns his hands into dragon heads, which proceed to breathe fire on Genie and leave him in Ash Face]
Genie: [wheezes] But you'd be surprised what you can live through.
[Jafar turns his hands into dragon heads, which proceed to breathe fire on Genie and leave him in Ash Face]
Genie: [wheezes] But you'd be surprised what you can live through.
Film - Live-Action
"Dobby never meant to kill. Dobby only meant to maim or seriously injure."
—Dobby, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One
"He'll live."
—The Terminator after Knee-capping a guard, Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Abraham Erskine: Do you want to kill Nazis?
Steve Rogers: Is this a test?
Erskine: Yes.
Steve: I don't want to kill anyone. I don't like bullies; I don't care where they're from.
Steve Rogers: Is this a test?
Erskine: Yes.
Steve: I don't want to kill anyone. I don't like bullies; I don't care where they're from.
"I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you."
—Batman to Ra's al-Ghul, Batman Begins
Sal Maroni: From one professional to another, if you're trying to scare somebody, pick a better spot. From this height, the fall wouldn't kill me.
Batman: I'm counting on it.
Batman: I'm counting on it.
Literature
I will not shed the blood of children and women, but if they starve, my hands are clean.
— Eeluk, Wolf of the Plains
Live Action TV
"You know, for a man who abhors violence, I took great satisfaction in doing that."
— The Third Doctor observing the remains of a Dalek, Doctor Who, "Planet of the Daleks"
"Weapons. Always useless in the end."
— The Seventh Doctor, after brutally smashing some Dalek tech with a baseball bat, "Remembrance of the Daleks"
"It's not like I'm an innocent. I've taken lives. And I got worse; I got clever. Manipulated people into taking their own."
— The (very anti-gun) Tenth Doctor, "The End of Time"
The ultimate hypocrisy at the heart of the Doctor, which is fun to poke a stick at, is that he's so nasty about soldiers and about people who carry guns, yet look at him: always in the middle of the fight, usually taking command, and I'm not so impressed at his refusal to pick up a gun when he's inclined, occasionally, to blow up entire planets! I think Danny Pink would say, "Look, I picked up a gun to save that guy's life. You blow up a planet, and you sod off."
— Steven Moffat, talking about the Doctor, Doctor Who Magazine #477
Carter: I thought the Nox were pacificists.
Lya: I only hid the weapon. I did not fire it.
Carter: Ah. Pretty fine line you didn't cross.
Lya: Yes it is.
Lya: I only hid the weapon. I did not fire it.
Carter: Ah. Pretty fine line you didn't cross.
Lya: Yes it is.
—Stargate SG-1, "Pretense"
"I will not fight for Starfleet, but I will defend its ideals. Pacifism is not passivity. It is the active protection of all living things in the natural universe."
— Hemmer, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, "Memento Mori"
Video Games
"...if Batman doesn't kill you, he's not making you any stronger either. Try to fight with broken ribs and you'll see what i'm saying."
—A French review of Batman: Arkham Origins
Skippy: User! I have assisted you in maiming over fifty people. To help me improve your experience, please answer the following survey question: Why do you prefer to maim rather than killing your enemies?
V: Killing's wrong. Plain and simple.
Skippy: But shooting out kneecaps is alright. Understood.
V: Killing's wrong. Plain and simple.
Skippy: But shooting out kneecaps is alright. Understood.
So you won't kill, but you're fine with traumatic brain injuries?
—Damian Wayne to Batman, Injustice 2
It's just too easy to blow somebody up. Non-lethal combat is far more challenging.
— Trestkon, The Nameless Mod
Kamille Bidan: You’re a Negotiator and, yet, you don’t understand how wrong it is to rely on violence?!
Roger Smith: You insult me, youngster! I’ve always denounced violence!
Roger: However, there are times where one has no choice but to exercise strength! That’s a wholly different matter from wanton barbarism, though!
Roger Smith: You insult me, youngster! I’ve always denounced violence!
Roger: However, there are times where one has no choice but to exercise strength! That’s a wholly different matter from wanton barbarism, though!
Web Comics
"Actually, Spirit Father, they don't seem to be killing anyone. They're just beating the crap out of us."
The Sorrow: Now you will know the sorrow of those whose lives you have ended.
(Beat)
The Sorrow: Don't tell me-
Decoy Octopus: Never. Not one single person.
The Sorrow: Really? That is... truly impressive.
Decoy Octopus: I'm a disguise artist. Subtlety and avoiding confrontation are my thing. Of course, just associating with Ocelot and Mantis makes me implicitly guilty of genocide.
The Sorrow: This test clearly does not work anymore.
Web Original
"Here is a man who lives by a very honorable belief system and does not waver from his beliefs. We have many “peaceful warriors” but most of them are hypocrites. A big example would be Billy Jack. Billy Jack is a man who spouts non-stop that pacifism and non-violence is the ONLY answer yet he constantly breaks his own belief system and picks fights with people. He doesn’t practice what he preaches. In this movie, [Chiwetel Ejiofor] follows his ethics, he remains honorable, and that is the REAL victory. I thought the movie would take a cheap way out in the ending and I admired the fact they went another way. Now the ending may not be…how they say…realistic. But it was very satisfying."
"It's OK, Dude. I'm a complete pacifist." {mows down four solders with a rifle till they're a bloody puddle} "Those were peace bullets!"
Western Animation
Aang: But you didn't really kill Chin! Technically, he fell to his own doom because he was too stubborn to get out of the way.
Gandra Dee: Oh, this is quite a predicament. On one hand I don't want to hurt you two, but in my other hand I HOLD A FLASH BOMB!!! (throws flash bomb at Dewie and Webby, blinding them for the rest of the episode)
John Hancock: Mr. Franklin, where do you stand on the war issue?
Benjamin Franklin: I believe that if we are to form a new country, we cannot be a country that appears war-hungry and violent to the rest of the world. However, we also cannot be a country that appears weak and unwilling to fight to the rest of the world. So, what if we form a country that appears to want both?
Thomas Jefferson: Yes. Yes, of course. We go to war, and protest going to war at the same time.
John Dickinson: Right. If the people of our new country are allowed to do whatever they wish, then some will support the war and some will protest it.
Benjamin Franklin: And that means that as a nation, we could go to war with whomever we wished, but at the same time, act like we didn't want to. If we allow the people to protest what the government does, then the country will be forever blameless.
John Adams: (holding a slice of chocolate cake) It's like having your cake, and eating it, too.
Congressman: Think of it: an entire nation founded on saying one thing and doing another.
John Hancock: And we will call that country the United States of America.
Benjamin Franklin: I believe that if we are to form a new country, we cannot be a country that appears war-hungry and violent to the rest of the world. However, we also cannot be a country that appears weak and unwilling to fight to the rest of the world. So, what if we form a country that appears to want both?
Thomas Jefferson: Yes. Yes, of course. We go to war, and protest going to war at the same time.
John Dickinson: Right. If the people of our new country are allowed to do whatever they wish, then some will support the war and some will protest it.
Benjamin Franklin: And that means that as a nation, we could go to war with whomever we wished, but at the same time, act like we didn't want to. If we allow the people to protest what the government does, then the country will be forever blameless.
John Adams: (holding a slice of chocolate cake) It's like having your cake, and eating it, too.
Congressman: Think of it: an entire nation founded on saying one thing and doing another.
John Hancock: And we will call that country the United States of America.
— South Park, "I'm a Little Bit Country"
"I am a pacifist, but even pacifists have to stand their ground once in a while!"
—Fugitoid, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)
Real Life
"I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace."
