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{{trope}}
{{quote|''Thane seems like the [[Tall, Dark and Handsome|strong]], [[Warrior Poet|sensitive]], [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick|murdering]] type. You know those are always great to have around. [[Romance Sidequest|A real cuddler.]]''|'''Joker''', ''[[
So, let's says there is this guy who happens to be [[Professional Killer|a hitman]]. Best in town. He will usually be an urban legend moving swiftly beneath the concrete jungle, leaving no evidence behind and fulfilling his jobs with the utmost care up to the point of perfection. Mossad? CIA? KGB? Doesn't matter, his targets drop like flies. No job is too hard and there is no one he can't kill. Or is there? For perhaps even this cold hearted killer [[Never Hurt an Innocent|can't bring himself to kill an innocent bystander]] (usually a [[Wouldn't Hurt a Child|kid]]). And not only does he not do his job, but he then turns against his employer to save the life of the very same person he was supposed to kill. This guy we're talking about? He's a [[Title Drop|hitman with a heart]].
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A common trope in a number of dark comedy and action movies is to have a sympathetic [[Career Killers|assassin]] as either the protagonist or a secondary character. Although their entire job is to commit murder for money, the audience is encouraged to sympathize with the character. This is rarely a case of [[Evil Is Cool]], since not only is the assassin presented as a sympathetic human being with some positive traits, he is usually also shown to be rather ''uncool'', being neurotic, reclusive or otherwise damaged.
Sometimes the hitman will have a [[Badass Creed|code]] that makes him more easily acceptable by audiences, such as only killing criminals, or [[Never Hurt an Innocent|refusing to kill women and children]], or not going after the family of his targets. He may take pains to make his hits painless, possibly even [[Cradling Their Kill]]. Or he may be saddled with a child or an innocent to protect. Commonly he will have to [[Defector From Decadence|turn on his old employers]] (be they Government types or Mafia dons) after he refuses to perform a certain hit and has to deal with a [[Contract
A blend of [[The Atoner]] and [[Professional Killer]]. Frequently is a [[A Lighter Shade of Grey]]. May result from falling [[In Love
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* The two main ladies of ''[[Noir (
* ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]'' follows a team of four of these.
* Train Heartnet of ''[[Black Cat (
* Arguably Bandou from ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' could be counted for this Trope. Despite his intro as a [[Psycho for Hire]] and the other times where he acts the part after, he's not all bad, specially towards [[Shrinking Violet]] Mayu... but he's still one of the biggest [[Jerkass
* Heero Yuy from ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' is an interesting case; he begins the series as a trained assassin/soldier who resents himself for feeling guilt over killing (and [[Driven to Suicide|repeatedly attempts suicide]]), but [[Character Development|his interactions with the rest of the cast]] lead to him valuing his life and maturing into a confident, compassionate guardian angel.
** According to the manga, {{spoiler|Heero was raised (sorta) by another
{{quote|
* Zabuza Momochi of [[Naruto]] fits this trope, after his [[Morality Pet]] Haku is killed and remains so for approximately five minutes before his [[Redemption Equals Death]].
** Technically every single sympathetic character in Naruto fits this Trope. They're all assassins. Remember Hinata, the cute blushing one; yeah she once buried a guy alive (albeit in the anime). And which rookie was the first one to be shown killing someone onscreen? If you guessed Sasuke, you're wrong. It was ''[[Beware the Nice Ones|Choji.]]''
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* Both Ein and Zwei of [[Phantom of Inferno]] follow this trope, to some degree or other.
* [[Madlax]] is an assassin at the beginning of the series, and is a generally kind and friendly young woman, although she doesn't seem particularly torn up about her massive body count.
* The titular character of ''[[Crying Freeman]]'', Yoh "Crying Freeman" Hinomura may epitomize this trope. A former artist, Hinomura is kidnapped and brainwashed to be a hitman (even eventually taking over his mob), but retains his sense of morality. His codename comes from his reaction to his new
* Ogami Itto from ''[[Lone Wolf and Cub]]'' also partially averts this trope; he becomes an assassin as a consequence of the only way he can satisfy his honor as a devout Buddhist while taking revenge on the clan that framed him for treason. Ogami usually goes after deserving targets, but will kill innocents if asked; one story has him attempting to kill a "living Buddha"
** He also tends to do missions for free if the mood takes him-if the circumstances intrude upon him, thrusting him into the middle, or if the nature of the mission impresses him deeply enough.
* {{spoiler|Wolfwood}} in the Trigun manga turns out to be one of these after it's revealed he's an operative from the Eye of Michael assassination outfit. Probably also in the anime, though it's not clear exactly what he was trained for there it was probably assassination. {{spoiler|He's under [[Big Bad|Knives']] orders for most of the series either way.}}
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* ''[[Hitman (Comic Book)|Hitman]]'' (natch) features a number of assassins of varying degrees of callousness. The star of the book only kills people whom he regards as "deserving it" (ie. Mafia dons, super-criminals etc), although characters do point out the stupidity of this from time to time. He was also sick on Batman's boots once, which is awesome. The hero's best friend only acts the same for the sake of the friendship.
* Kev Hawkins, ex-SAS trooper and current assassin/dirty tricks man for the British Government, is portrayed as a colossally messed up loser who just happens to be rather good at killing people. He first appeared in the [[Comic Book]] ''[[The Authority]]''. A major plot point Kev wondering 'What if they order me to kill someone innocent'?
* King Mob, one of the stars of ''[[The Invisibles]]'', is a trained assassin who slowly becomes more and more disgusted at the murders he's committed and eventually takes a vow of [[Technical Pacifist|Technical Pacifism]].
* Finnigan Sinister and Ramone Dexter from ''Sinister Dexter'' follow this trope to a certain degree. While they adhere to the "Gun Shark Code" which means they won't kill police or innocents, they will happily take on any contract reasoning that the target must be guilty of something at leat since they have a price on their head.
* Subverted in ''The Darkness''. Jackie Estacado is a mob hitman, but only kills other mobsters, not innocent people. A woman wants revenge on him for killing her husband, an innocent person. Turns out he really was
* X-23 from the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' series of books seems to somewhat fit this. Granted she lacks any major moral compass but she still does her best to protect her friends. Wolverine as well, unfortunately he has a code of morals and now that he remembers his past seems racked with guilt.
* [[Deadpool]] is a merc who will gleefully kill his targets while spouting corny one-liners, but he does have standards. In a recent story he plans to draw out his evil clone by publicly threatening to do something he would never do - kill a child.
* In the [[
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* In the short ''[[The Owl House]]'' fanmade comic/animatic [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P17bhFfD8Ak shown here], a {{spoiler|basilisk sent by Kikimora to kill Luz changes its mind and backs off after learning Luz's mother is protecting another basilisk.}}
== [[Films
* In ''[[Grosse Pointe Blank]]'', the
* ''The Matador'' stars Pierce Brosnan as a lonely, damaged hitman who's starting to lose his edge.
* Leddo from ''[[The
* ''[[Ghost Dog]]: The Way of the Samurai''
* In ''Leon'' (AKA ''[[Léon: The Professional]]''), Jean Reno's hitman is almost childlike in his innocence and simplicity. He takes in a young girl after her family is killed by criminals, and has a strict code against killing women or children.
* [[Bruce Willis
* Mr. Goodkat (also played by Bruce Willis) and {{spoiler|Slevin}} from ''[[Lucky Number Slevin]]''
* John Lee (played by Chow Yun-Fat) from ''The Replacement Killers'', who gets into trouble for {{spoiler|refusing to shoot a cop's kid. "That is how Mr. Wei deals with his enemies. Through their families."}}
* [[John Woo]]'s ''[[The Killer]]'', whose title character (also played by Chow Yun-Fat) accidentally blinds a beautiful singer during a hit and sets out to perform one last hit to get the money to have her eyes fixed. His employer, on the other hand, tries to have him killed rather than hand over the money to him, which results in [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|things going right to hell]].
* Il Duce from ''[[The Boondock Saints]]'', who has a very Leon-esque code concerning women and kids, and who turns out to be {{spoiler|1=the long-lost father of the McManus brothers}}.
** The McManus brothers as well, knocking unconscious the wife of one of their victims rather than killing her. They are also not pleased when Rocco wants to kill Smecker, who let them off at the beginning of the
* The deeper incarnations of [[James Bond]]. The [[Bond One-Liner]] version doesn't count, though.
* The film version of [[The Bourne Series|Jason Bourne]] is this trope played completely straight, with the added twist of [[Amnesiac Dissonance|amnesia]] ''caused'' by, among other things, his {{spoiler|unwillingness to kill a father in front of his children, which would force him to [[Leave No Witnesses|kill them all]]}}, despite [[Cursed
* ''You Kill Me'' features Ben Kingsley as a mob hitman with the flaw of alcoholism- in a subversion, he has no moral qualms about killing (he likes it, as it the only thing he's good at) and just wants help with his drinking so he can go back to his job. He does, however, feel guilt because some of his targets died slower and more painfully due to his drinking problem, and tries to make up for it (it was with gift cards, but it's the thought that counts).
* ''[[In Bruges]]'' is about two likeable hitmen dealing with the aftermath of the younger one accidentally {{spoiler|killing a little boy}} during his first hit. The older one is then assigned to off the younger one, but reflexively throws the job when he sees his target about to take his own life in grief. Did I mention it's a dark comedy?
* ''[[The Punisher|Punisher]]: War Zone'' has Frank Castle go through an existential crisis of [[Heroic BSOD]] proportions after killing an undercover FBI agent.
* Robert Rath, the [[Cold War]] veteran killer played by Sylvester Stallone in ''[[Assassins (
* Lok and O, the rival assassins from ''[[Fulltime Killer]]''. The film starts out like a knock-off of ''Assassins'', justified by the fact that the cinephile Lok purposefully apes the film, but eventually both assassins are revealed to be surprisingly nice guys. The main female character ends up dating both of them.
* Averted in ''[[The Mechanic]]'' (1972), in which the sociopathy of the protagonist (played by Charles Bronson), and his young protege (Jan-Michael Vincent) are highlighted in several
* Wesley Gibson in ''[[Wanted]]'' tries to be a good guy. He is reluctant to kill someone just because a machine printing out a piece of cloth says so. He wants to be sure they are really bad people before offing them, but gets sweet talked into it by another assassin.
** Subverted in the original comic: Wesley is a [[Complete Monster]] Supervillain who happily rapes and slaughters because as a Supervillain he has the authority to get away with anything he does.
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* The titular protagonist of ''Elektra'' is an assassin for hire; when she finds out that her targets are a girl and her father, it promptly leads to her [[Heel Face Turn]] {{spoiler|(which is later revealed to be [[Batman Gambit|the whole point]] of the contract)}}.
* ''Road to Perdition''.
* Vincent of ''[[Collateral]]'' is familiar enough with the trope to pose as one of these. It's an out-and-out lie,
* Eponymous character from [[Hitman]] is even more sympathetic than his video game predecessor. Although still a cold professional he appears to possess more empathy and insight than most characters from the movie.
* [[Mark Wahlberg]] plays this type of character in ''[[The Big Hit]]''. He has no problem executing targets but has a soft spot for women, whether he personally knows them or not. He is also slavishly devoted to his love interests and is eager to please his friends. His kindness is frequently abused.
== [[Literature]] ==
* Vlad Taltos of Steven Brust's ''[[Taltos]]'' series. Also, his wife Cawti, whom he met when she killed him (temporarily).
* Rild-Sugata in [[Roger Zelazny]]'s ''[[Lord of Light]]'', who became a follower (or even the follower) of his original target.
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* It might not fit exactly, but the Assassins' Guild in Pratchett's [[Discworld]] series has high moral standards, which essential bans non-contract targets from being killed (the rule is fairly un-policable though, so a few do indulge in this). Interestingly, the Thieves' Guild follows close to the same moral standards for their line of work, reduce collateral damage as much as possible.
** The Assassin's Guild also refuses contracts on any target that they don't consider to have a fair chance at defending themselves (the rich are always fair game, as if they had thought to prepare they could have hired guards).
{{quote|
* Lawrence Block's Keller series focuses on a lonely, whimsical hitman whose favorite pastimes are walking his dog, doing crossword puzzles, and working on his stamp collection. Despite basically being a sympathetic loser prone to introspective fantasies, he doesn't have any scruples about who he
** In one story, Keller discovered that his target was also his client: the man had terminal cancer and [[I Cannot Self-Terminate|couldn't bring himself to commit simple suicide]], so he needed a hitman to off him. Through an odd chain of events, he and Keller became more-or-less friends, and the fellow called Keller's boss to cancel the
* Fitzchivalry Farseer in the [[Robin Hobb|Farseer Trilogy]] works as assassin and diplomat for the Crown, as does his mentor Chade.
* A variant in [[Star Trek: Forged in Fire]]. Klingon servitor Do'Yoj is tasked with killing the infant Qagh, so as to conceal the shame of his albinism from the Klingon Empire. She refuses to go through with it; she just leaves him in the mountains instead. Of course, she expects this will kill him anyway, but at least her knife isn't tainted with a child's blood.
* Shane {{spoiler|Fortunato}} and Carpenter from Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer's novel ''Agnes and the Hitman''. Shane leaves work at a critical time when his uncle Joey, who he hasn't heard from in a while, calls him home to look after grumpy cook Agnes, who has people gunning for her because {{spoiler|she is likely sitting on a five million dollar fortune}}; he then proceeds to fall in love with her over breakfast, pick up fondant for her, and get her a bridge, all in between taking out the odd assassin who shows up in the middle of the night, beating the crap out of dead-beat mobsters, carrying out an official mission, and {{spoiler|solving and avenging his parents murder}}. Likewise, Carpenter is an {{spoiler|ordained priest who takes his girlfriend out to the movies when she's feeling down, and also officiates said girlfriend's daughter's wedding when the original priest turns out to be a putz.}}
* The huntsman from "[[Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (
* Ajutasutra in [[Belisarius Series]] is a variation of this. He has [[Undying Loyalty]] to Narses the Roman traitor who is sort of his [[Parental Substitute]]. When Narses is ordered to assassinate Rana Sanga's family, he instead orders them hidden and Ajutasutra helps to engineer it. He also, on Narses' orders, tracks down the family of Dadadj Holkar, an official on the opposite side in order to help Narses have a good relation with both sides.
**He also seems to have a human feeling of protectiveness for Dadadj's daughters which is more then just professional and has big-brotherly qualities.
***As it happens he also kills, maims and (possibly) tortures pimps for fun to a degree unusual in a series where [[Pay Evil Unto Evil|abusing pimps]] is a running gag. He clearly has a [[Berserk Button|personal grudge]] against them for the way they treat their slaves, and one might wonder if there is something untold in his [[Backstory]] to account for it.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* On ''[[General Hospital]]'' the romantic male lead that all the women think is the bestest father/friend/lover ever is Jason Morgan the brain-damaged hitman. He's an unironic [[Marty Stu]].
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*** Was this before or after she used the dance instructor and then {{spoiler|walked away to let her be killed because Cameron no longer needed her?}}
*** They stole the [[McGuffin|Turk]], they knew who they were. Cameron clearly saw them as a threat or hinderence to the mission.
* After she leaves Moya, Aeryn on ''[[
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'': Edgar is a [[Super Speed]] assassin, but he has said things like "I've only killed when I've absolutely had to" that imply he doesn't really like what he does. Mixed with some [[Pet the Dog]] moments, this makes him something of an [[Iron Woobie]].
* The titular hero of ''Callan'' played by Edward Woodward, better known as [[The Equalizer]].
* Subverted in an early episode of ''[[
* Timon from ''[[Rome]]'', Atia's Jewish servant/bodyguard/hitman, eventually grows a conscience due to the influence of his religious cousin, who moves into town and begins calling him out on his criminal activities and the effect they have on his wife and children. This pays off in causing Atia's sadism to backfire on her; when she kidnaps Servilia and inflicts hours and hours of [[Cold-Blooded Torture]] on her, intending to kill her in the end, she expects Timon to carry it all out without question, but he finally turns on her [[Neck Lift|("I am not an animal! I am not a fucking animal!")]] and lets Servilia go.
* Richard Harrow from ''[[Boardwalk Empire]]'' is a very interesting treatment of this trope. He's a horrifically scarred veteran of [[World War
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Altair of ''[[Assassin's Creed]]''.
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* The two main characters of [[Rail Shooter]] arcade game ''Cooper's Nine''.
* Agent 47 from the ''[[Hitman]]'' series does not kill innocents unless absolutely required, such as when he kills a postman in one mission of Blood Money because the package he was delivering was Code Red, and in the last mission when he {{spoiler|kills a priest and reporter for knowing too much about him}}. Otherwise, 47 fits this trope perfectly, the storyline and game discourage it, and any other bloodshed is left up to the player.
** While most of the mentioned discretion is done out of pragmatism and not out of compassion, he does show shades of morality such as in the novel ''Enemy Within'' where he helped rescue orphans from a child prostitution ring and entrusted them to his friend Father Vittorio, and in ''Hitman: Absolution'', where he hesitated to finish off his handler Diana and agreed to protect a fellow clone named Victoria to keep her from being used as a ruthless killing machine, and expressed disgust over the use of "children as weapons". In the prequel comic book ''Birth of the Hitman'', 47 showed affection towards a lab rabbit and set it free, telling it to go and multiply now that 47 has given said rabbit a chance to live a normal life, which 47 and his clone brother 6 (later known in the ''World of Assassination'' trilogy as Lucas Grey) were deprived of.
* Jaffar from ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' 7, who defrosts thanks to the friendship (and love, if you support them to A level) of his boss's daughter, Nino.
** Also, Volke, From ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' 9 and 10, counts.
* Blue from [[Assassin Blue]] only kills because he thinks doing so will end the war sooner. However, {{spoiler|he turns on his boss when he realizes he's being sent to kill innocent people.}}
* Mona Sax from ''[[Max Payne (
* Depending on how you play, the [[Player Character]] can be one of these in the [[Elder Scrolls|Dark brotherhood quest]] line as several quests allow (or encourage) you to not kill certain people.
* Nathyrra's backstory in [[Neverwinter Nights|Hordes of the Underdark]] paints her as one.
* Tommy Angelo in ''[[Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven]]'', to the point that he
* Thane Krios from ''[[
** It's worth mentioning the sin that seems to be bothering him the most is not having been fast enough in his last contract to prevent [[Innocent Bystander|innocents]] from being killed by his target's [[Mook
* [[Playing
** It's revealed that {{spoiler|Leliana's past as a bard also involved assassinations. While she}} and Zevran both admit they enjoyed the killing or at least the "hunt" (with varying degrees of glee), a conversation between them reveals they also made sure to kill their targets as cleanly and quickly as possible.
* The Sniper from ''[[
* The [[Bounty Hunter]] of [[Star
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The robot X9 from ''[[Samurai Jack]]'', unlike the other robots of the X's series, he has a heart due to a emotion's chip installed in his brain, in fact he was so sympathetic to the audience that his death against Jack was one of the saddest moments of the series.
* [[Heroic Sociopath|Brock Samson]] on ''[[
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[
* ''[[Errant Story]]'': Jon [https://web.archive.org/web/20150907010335/http://www.errantstory.com/2004-04-05/214 has a soft spot][https://web.archive.org/web/20150906200620/http://www.errantstory.com/2004-04-07/215 for anything with ovaries].
== [[Web Original]] ==
* [[Dorf Quest]] features Goldmoon, the head of thieves' guild, who only accepts jobs against evil and corrupt. Thanks to her principles, her guild is more or less divided into two: Those who share her views, and those who'd like to kill and replace her for more lucrative jobs.
* [[
* Desta T'Res of [[Cerberus Daily News]] is a rather open version of this. She only kills people she thinks deserve to die, generally murderers and slavers. Her employers are generally aware of this.
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[[Category:Index With a Heart of Gold]]
[[Category:Criminals]]
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