Hitman with a Heart: Difference between revisions
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* ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]'' follows a team of four of these.
* Train Heartnet of ''[[Black Cat (manga)|Black Cat]]'' is this Trope.
* 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|{{spoiler|Odin}}: Listen..don't forget what I told you...before we left. It's the last lesson...this old fool can give you. Th-the last few years...we spent together...w-weren't so...bad...}}
* 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]].
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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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* 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.
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== Films -- Live-Action ==
* 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 Alzheimer Case|The Alzheimers Case]]'' refuses to kill a child which gets him into a lot of trouble.
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* [[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 with Awesome|training]] as an assassin and [[Mind Control|conditioning]] for obedience. When he is confronted with that situation, it results in a cognitive dissonance that effectively ''breaks'' his conditioning, resulting in amnesia exacerbated by two almost-lethal gunshot wounds.
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* Robert Rath, the [[Cold War]] veteran killer played by Sylvester Stallone in ''[[Assassins (film)|Assassins]]'', as opposed to his antagonist, young up-and-comer Miguel Bain (Antonio Bandaras).
* 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.
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** 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|To wit: Anyone worth Anhk-Morpork 10,000 or more was considered automatically capable of protecting themselves, or at least hiring people who could. Otherwise what was a person to do but sit with a loaded crossbow pointed at the door? }}
* 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.
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* Tommy in [[Mafia]], to the point that he {{spoiler|lets two marks go because he knows them personally, which comes back to bite him in the ass}}.
* Thane Krios from ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''. [[Warrior Poet]], [[Religious Bruiser]], optional romance for a female Shepard...and an extremely good assassin who viewed his body as a tool for his employers, with no more independent morality than Shepard's gun. Regardless, this guy is [[The Atoner]], and even mentions atoning for his sins several times.
** 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 with a Trope|Played with]] in ''[[Dragon Age]]'' with Zevran. While he professes to enjoy the art of killing and has no moral qualms with the act, he only took the contract on the [[Player Character]] because he thought the Warden would [[Death Seeker|kill him]]. He really feels tremendous guilt for at least one of his kills. If the player gets to know, he'll find out Zevran's [[Tyke Bomb|training began as a child]], and he was really a glorified slave. He kills because he knows nothing else. A romanced Zevran can be persuaded to give up the lifestyle altogether. The overall impression is that of a broken, damaged man who, while not entirely penitent, at least has some regrets.
** 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.
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