Actual Pacifist: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"With God as my witness, I swear on name and my life, that I shall do no harm, that I shall place the saving life and easing of suffering above self, above family, that my duty is not to my people, or to my nation, but to all of humanity."''|Version of the ''Hippocratic Oath''}}

''"Don't worry; I won't hurt you."''

 

 

He's philosophically opposed to using physical violence to any degree, for any reason. On television, he or she is in contrast to the far-more-common [[Technical Pacifist]], who is fine with punching, stabbing, shooting or maiming people as long as they survive the experience.

 

 

 

[[Turn Out Like His Father|Trying to raise a child as an Actual Pacifist because his father]] was [[Blood Knight|violent]] or loved to be [[In Harm's Way]] usually fails, although the child may at least be less violent than his father and willing to try peaceful means.

 

 

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Bleach]]'':

** Orihime is also this, if only subconsciously. Being gentle-natured to the core, she can't muster up a full commitment to even ''wound'' anybody, no matter what. This causes Tsubaki (the holder of her offensive ability) to keep [[The Worf Effect|getting Worfed]] every time he's used.

* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'s'' Marina Ismail is a pacifist to the core. At one point when she and her friends are escaping from the secret police, ''she refuses to take a gun even to protect the children she's looking after.''

** His [[Split Personality]], on the other hand has little problem with killing people (one early manga story has him blowing up a school bully with nitroglycerin and in another he sets a gang of toughs on fire), though this becomes less prominent as the series goes on.

* The title character from ''[[Kimba the White Lion]]'' started out as this [[Character Development|before becoming a]] [[Martial Pacifist]].

* Gennosuke from ''[[Basilisk]]'' is an interesting example of this. He never starts a fight in the whole show and even orders his own people not to kill the Iga ninjas. On the other hand he eventually decides he has no choice but let the Kouga annihilate the Iga. The few times he does fight (quite brutally in fact) his power means that he never has to engage in any actual violence.

 

* Doctor Leslie Thompkins in ''[[Batman]]''.

* Juggernaut in ''Age of Apocalypse'' is a monk named Cain. When Damask and Dead Man Wade launch an attack on Avalon he refuses to fight. Eventually the internal struggle of whether or not to help people by inflicting physical damage to others causes him to have an aneurysm.

* ''[[Orient Men]]'', in the beginning of his appearances, was the kind of superhero who attempted to combat crooks by waxing poetic to them about the error of their ways. Later on, when the superhero status became [[The Artifact]], many his adventures involved helping epople solve their conflicts peacefully.

 

== Fan Works ==

** Though they do make exceptions to protect one another. And John has more of a temper than the others and does open a can of nonlethal whoop-ass on a few people, always while protecting one or more of the others.

* In ''[[Ponies Make War]]'', Twilight Sparkle becomes one after being freed from the [[Artifact of Doom|Sliver of Darkness]] {{spoiler|(or to be more accurate, her dominant [[Split Personality|personality]], Sparkle, does)}}, to the point that she can't even fight [[Mooks|Puppets]], even thought they're not even sentient or really alive. {{spoiler|This lasts until her personalities [[Split Personality Merge|fuse back together]], and she starts kicking ass.}}

 

== Film ==

* Brother Gilbert of ''[[Dragonheart]]'' displayed this trait early on, but when war with Einon became inevitable he unwilling agreed to use his [[Badass Preacher|previously undiscovered (but historically justified) archery skills]]. Even then, he kept all but one of his shots non-fatal and was reciting biblical lines as he did so.

** (Shoots an enemy in the ass-cheek) [[Crowning Moment of Funny|"Turn the other cheek now, brother."]]

{{quote|'''Gandhi:''' In this cause, I too am prepared to die. There's no cause for which I'm prepared to kill.}}

* The title aliens in the 60s film ''The Monitors'' They are driven from Earth when they realize that the only way to pacify humanity would be to use violence themselves.

 

== Literature ==

* ''[[Animorphs]]'': The Pemalites ''[[Suicidal Pacifism|were]]'' examples of this trope until they met the Howlers, Crayak's shock troopers. Their android creations, the Chee, have pacifism hardwired into them - given how powerful they are, this grates on the main characters from time to time. The one time Erek (the main Chee character) was able to override his pacifism, he effortlessly wiped out a Yeerk force that would have slaughtered the team, but couldn't cope with the idea of doing that all the time and willingly returned to normal. Not even Marco could really blame him.

** The Hork-Bajir originally had no concept of violence. When the Yeerks - parasitic slugs that infest the brain and thereafter control the body - started conquering them, it didn't occur to most of them to fight back. Dak Hamee, the Hork-Bajir equivalent of Einstien, wasted several minutes in his first-ever fight trying to figure out how it had been ''possible'' for the other Hork-Bajir to cut him.

*** Considering this was after his turn to the Dark Side and during the period Luke was still very much "Must use Force for everything, no matter how trivial or invasive!"(like wiping memories from innocents...)? Well, let's face it. She was on to something, as Mara pointed out to him years later.

*** Of course, they apparently have no problem with lying to Luke about his [[Action Girl|mother]].

* Jessamyn West's novel ''Friendly Persuasion'' is about Quakers in Southern Indiana during the American Civil War.

* In [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[Known Space]]'' The goal of Arm was to turn all of humanity into such, as it was the only way we'd survive. It was working pretty well using mandatory drugging and population controls to breed out much of the violent tendencies. Some violent folks are kept inside ARM to react to situations as they come up, but can't leave the building until medicated. Then we meet the Kzini and pacifism is a trait that becomes a luxury...

** Likewise, Moist von Lipwig is a con man and oftentimes [[Magnificent Bastard]] who is nonetheless much more comfortable with being threatened by violence than the other way 'round. He never physically attacks anyone, and becomes extremely nervous when put into the position to freely do so.

* ''[[Phule's Company]]'' had a recruit nicknamed "Mahatma" included in the last batch of unfit recruits dropped into The Omega Company. Why he joined the mercenary corps was never explained, but when their drill sergeant got to "you'll have to shoot back" part, he tried to ask something that obviously bothered him, but was was told to hold it for a while and... never brought up his problem again, the next part being a demonstration of [[Stun Guns|Zenobian stun-ray]] the company got for rent-a-cop job. The sergeant was left to puzzle over why they were given a recruit who acts slightly strange, but physically is in better-than-average shape, shows neither uncooperative attitude nor crippling mental problems and diligently studies the weapon issued to him.

 

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'':

** In the [[Made for TV Movie]], the Eighth Doctor is definitely like this. [[Chaotic Good|However]], he's a [[Kleptomaniac Hero]], and steals whatever the hell he thinks he needs (and stealing [[Gorgeous Period Dress]] from someone's locker probably counts as just stealing whatever he ''wants''). As he needs to get someplace in a hurry, he steals a motorcycle from a cop. It's possibly the most [[The Messiah|endearing]] armed robbery ever:

{{quote|"''Now, would you stand aside before I shoot myself?''"}}

{{quote|'''Simon''': I've never shot anyone before.

'''Shepherd Book''': I was there son. I'm fair sure you haven't shot anyone yet. }}

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* [[GURPS]] has two levels of this: Self Defense Only and Total Nonviolence. With Total Nonviolence you can only even defend yourself against things that aren't sentient.

* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]]'' has the priests (usually priestesses, actually)) of Shallya, whose precepts bar them from wearing armour and using any weapons apart from quarter staffs. They are also banned from killing, even in self defense, and will lose their place in the priesthood if they violated this rule. The only exceptions to this rule are [[Demonic Invaders|Daemons]], [[The Undead]], and followers of [[Plaguemaster|Nurgle]], and even then the two former only in self-defence. In the 2nd edition, Shallyans even had a unique spell designed purely to kill Nurgle-followers and daemons.

* The Brazilian setting called Tormenta has two goddess (one of life and other of peace) that impose just that restriction, the life goddess however does allow you to "heal" the dead.

* Karn, the Silver Golem, from the Weatherlight Saga in ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]''. Karn adopted his pacifism when he tried to help his crewmates and accidentally killed an innocent bystander. He essentially poses as a statue when an altercation occurs. This is later used against him by [[Big Bad|Volrath]] who tortures Karn by placing him in a constantly shifting room with many disposable mooks. The room causes Karn to constantly fall on the mooks crushing and killing them. Later he recanted his vow of pacifism during a war, when he realized that his inaction led to innocent people dying.

** There are also spells that can force creatures to become this, the most obvious being [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=190574 Pacifism]. Although the right creature, such as the [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=191102 Prodigal Pyromancer] can still hurt people, they just don't do so through combat. A more complete method would be [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193869 Faith's Fetters], as it stops creatures from attacking, blocking, or using abilities that do anything except add mana to your mana pool. Even then, there's always a way.

 

== Theatre ==

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Star Wars Galaxies]]'' Pre-NGE featured Crafting, Medical, and Entertainer professions that actually made for a variety of non-combat roles you could mix and match. Post-NGE enforced this on Traders and Entertainers at first, then later gave them combat levels.

* William McCall, the youngest of the McCall brothers in ''[[Call of Juarez]]'' is a pacifistic and religious individual who is generally against his brothers' violent ways, constantly trying to get them to repent. {{spoiler|He ends up [[Taking the Bullet]] for Thomas as he and Ray have a shootout and his death leads Ray to become the [[Badass Preacher]] Reverend Ray of the first game as well as Thomas and Marisa naming their child after him.}}

* Ricky Johnson of ''[[Backyard Sports]]''. He is only violent when committed to the rules of the games (such as tackling in football).

* In the'' [[Halo]]'' series, Huragok - better known to humanity as the Engineers - a Covenant member species that views killing of even pests as wrong. Ironically enough {{spoiler|one of them, called "Lighter Than Some" was the first Covenant species to kill a human; Said human was trying to kill its best friend Dadab, a grunt, after the party had assaulted his ship in search of Forerunner artifacts. It was of course horrified of what it done.}} Huragok are a member species of the Covenant only by circumstances as they enjoy repairing and inspecting Forerunner technology, but are indifferent to nearly everything else and in fact have helped humans on numerous occasions by repairing their technology, including Master Chief's MJOLNIR -armors' shield system.

* ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories]]'' has as its hero Harry Mason, whose most violent action a player can do in the game is a shove or elbow to a monster's head that is grabbing him.

* [[Professor Layton]] fits the description since, although the games show him to be an excellent fencer and in overall remarkably good shape for an academic, he firmly espouses the mindset that "a gentleman does not seek violence." He's only willing to get into a fight if he doesn't have much of a choice, either to defend his own well-being or that of someone else, and on those occasions when he ''does'' fight he does so as non-lethally as possible. {{spoiler|In the swordfight from the second game, he only crosses blades to defend himself, and stops as soon as his opponent shows signs of failing strength. In the third game, his response to being shot at is to [[Crazy Awesome|rig together a machine gun made out of a slot machine]], and use it to shoot his antagonists with coins!}}

* Cream The Rabbit does not physically engage in combat in ''[[Sonic Battle]]''; all of her moves are done via her partner/pet Cheese. This pacifism comes to a particular head in her story mode: ''Neither'' Cream nor Cheese will fight their captors, [[It's Up to You|leaving all of the combat duties]] to Emerl.

* It is possible to play an actual pacifist in both Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 by maxing out all of your social traits. You can even talk the final boss to death.

 

* Celia from ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' is like this.

** [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0537.html "MOST people don't kill, Haley! That's why there are laws against murder. It's really only adventurers who think, 'How can I solve this problem? Oh, right, bloodshed!'"]

*** "That's not true. We run away a lot too."

* [[Ridiculously Human Robot|Blossom of Harmonious Aethers]], in ''[[Keychain of Creation]]''. She ''is'' willing to knock foes out with tranquilizing gas, however.

* Sizemore from ''[[Erfworld]]'' is one by philosophy, but since he is compelled to follow his side's orders, he does quite a lot more killing than he wants to.

* ''[[Precocious (Webcomic)|Precocious]]'': [http://www.precociouscomic.com/archive/comic/2009/04/01 Refusing to enter a girl/boy war.]

* Peganone Silkweed from ''[[Our Little Adventure]]''. She gained all of her character levels in non-combat situations and is a public servant rather than an adventurer.

 

== Web Original ==

* Doc from ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' abhors violence in every way, even having joined the army as a conscientious objector. For this reason, he is a medic... and his extreme pacifism has earned him the undying hatred of ''both'' teams. For maximum hilarity, the [[Omnicidal Maniac|Omnicidal Hyper-Aggressive AI]] O'Malley [[Grand Theft Me|hijacks his body]] and attempts to use him in his ultimate goal of taking over the universe, and "crushing every living soul into ''dust!''"

** This pacifism is so extreme that when the Blues and Reds are in the middle of another fight, Church resorts to ''shooting Caboose in the foot'' to get him to cross to the other side, as even pretending to help the Blues against the Reds seemed too "aggressive" to Doc.

* Raven, from the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' is a mystic martial artist with minor darkness powers. She absolutely refuses to cause harm to another person, even in self-defense. However, she's a master of aikido, fast on her feet, and perfectly willing to let her opponents injure *themselves*. For instance, by punching walls when she ducks out of the way. She has perfected the art of "fighting" defensively.

* The main character in the short interactive fiction "The Life of a Pacifist" is one of these. Unfortunately, they're a video game developer, and they're currently working on a third person shooter and find the scenes within it horrifying. In the end, {{spoiler|they either quit, continue working despite themselves, or decide that nothing is wrong with it at all.}}

 

== Western Animation ==

* In ''[[Transformers Generation 1]],'' Beachcomber took it to the level of allowing Decepticons to take a powerful [[MacGuffin]] in a pretty area of forest rather than mention it to the Autobots and allow a fight to take place. In a later episode, First Aid allowed Swindle to get away with a component necessary for Metroplex to transform rather than shoot back.

* In ''[[The Boondocks]]'' episode "Return of the King", in an [[Alternate History]] universe Martin Luther King wasn't killed by an assassin, but put into a coma for 32 years, waking up significantly aged in a hospital bed on October 27, 2000. After the 9/11 attacks, King appears on TV, stating that his Christian faith teaches him to "turn the other cheek", even with respect to enemies such as Al-Qaeda. His commentary receives severe scorn from the White House Press Secretary, CNN and Time magazine, and causes his popularity to plummet.

* The Duchess Satine of Madalore in ''Star Wars:[[The Clone Wars]]''. In the episode "Voyage of Temptation" she even hesitates to shoot someone threatening to blow up her ship.

* Dove, the character in [[Justice League Unlimited]] (and associated comic books) - the only superhero to take an entirely non-violent standpoint and get through his entire starring episode without throwing a punch. It keeps up in later appearances, and even when he ''does'' fight, it's with things like judo throws and holds rather than punches or kicks.

{{quote|'''Leela''': "Your order may be famous for its marital arts, but I've never met a holy man I couldn't clobber."

'''Monk #1''': "Actually, we only practice martial arts as a form of meditation. We are a strictly non-violent sect."

{{quote|'''Lifeline''': Hey! You used me for violence!}}

* Zeta from ''[[The Zeta Project]]'' would only use force to save human life, and only when it was the only option available. He refused to use guns to any degree and even though it's implied he was strong enough to kill people, he never did much more than knock them out, if that. A common fan theory is that this approach is why the network didn't like him and the show became the black sheep of the DCAU.

 

== Real Life ==

* Many governments, even some of the most warlike in history, allow some people to avoid serving as a member of or contributing to violent military actions. Such people have proven themselves to be conscientious objectors, rather than merely opposed to the war in question. Many Conscientious Objectors will then volunteer for dangerous duties in wartime, such as [[The Medic|combat medics]]. One group of Mormon conscientious objectors in World War II were used as some of the first Smokejumpers. As in "parachuting into forest fires".

* St. Moses the Black, at least at the end of his life. Earlier on he was an undeniable [[Badass]].

* Martin Luther King, Jr, who took inspiration from Gandhi.

* Under the Wiccan Rede, "harm none" is the law placed on all Wiccans. This means both physical harm and psychological harm...and is sometimes interpreted to include self-harm.

* Christianity was originally innovative because, regardless of the reason violence is committed, it's thought of as an inherently bad thing for which one must atone. This was a radical concept a couple of millennia ago.

** Some sects of Christianity, typically ascetic ones such as the Quakers (Religious Society of Friends), are absolute pacifists.

* A impressive military actual pacifist was WWII veteran Desmond T. Doss, who refused to bear arms or drill on Saturday due to his Seventh-Day Adventist beliefs. Doss was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for single-handedly rescuing 75 of his fellow soldiers from an escarpment under fire from the Japanese on Okinawa. From his medal citation, "As our troops gained the summit, a heavy concentration of artillery, mortar and machine gun fire crashed into them, inflicting approximately 75 casualties and driving the others back. Pfc. Doss refused to seek cover and remained in the fire-swept area with the many stricken, carrying them 1 by 1 to the edge of the escarpment and there lowering them on a rope-supported litter down the face of a cliff to friendly hands." Truly a kick-behind pacifist.

* [[wikipedia:Ahimsa in Jainism|Jains]]. Jainism includes the precept of "Ahiṃsā"; the absence of the desire to harm ''any'' life. How strictly this precept is adhered to varies, but all Jains observe it to some degree.

* As the page quote implies, doctors are ideologically against harming others, but in modern medicine this is sometimes easier said than done. For example, chemotherapy (used to treat many cancers) is basically the use of poisons, chosen to kill cancer cells ''faster'' than they kill the rest of the patient. This is why cancer patients lose their hair (among other problems). So, doctors are sworn to do no harm, but in an effort to treat their patients' cancer, they must harm them with the chemo drugs.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Idealism Tropes]]

[[Category:Peace Tropes]]

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Morality Tropes]]