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Non-Lethal Warfare: Difference between revisions
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We should mention the rules set out above assume that the setting allows for the possibility of death at all, and that it can happen off-screen. If the target audience is too young even for that, the scale of Nerfed violence increases (er, decreases?). No one will use bladed weapons or guns (arrows [[Incredibly Lame Pun|might fly]], though.), traps, tanks, and other large scale weapons will be completely non-lethal, perhaps even designed to humiliate the enemy rather than knock them out. Likely "weapons" for use will be "[[Pure Energy|energy]]" guns that are about as dangerous as laser tag guns... scratch that, ''less'' dangerous. Laser tag guns can at least potentially blind you. Or perhaps blunt weapons that "can't kill" because they don't cause bleeding.
This trope isn't an indicator on the quality of the on-screen fighting though, which doesn't need to be lethal or [[Scars Are Forever|scarring]] to be entertaining. If it were to be considered [[Tropes Are Not Bad|"bad"]] it's only when it fails to carry [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]].
Compare with [[Bloodless Carnage]]. Contrast with how [[Snowball Fight]]s and [[Paintball Episode|Paintball Matches]] are [[Played for Laughs]] with exceedingly 'gory' acting from the participants, especially when those involved act excessively militarily. Compare ''and'' contrast [[Nobody Can Die]], where death is a narrative impossibility even when dealing with explicitly deadly weapons and situations.
See also [[Stun Guns]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] ==
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' had this kind of war at the end of the school festival, with the attendees playing magicians fighting off a Martian invasion. With lots of magical guns and staffs against robots with [[Clothing Damage|clothing destroying lasers]] and telportation bullets. What do you mean real magic, [[Blatant Lies|it's all CGI folks!]] This only worked due to the only actual Martian (we think) {{spoiler|Chao Lingshen}} being a total [[Anti-Villain]]. It still managed to be one of the series' greatest [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Crowning Moments Of Awesome]] so far.
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** They also schedule their battles ahead of time and give the population time to evacuate the combat zone before they start.
* In ''[[Pokémon Special]]'', [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Lance]] blows up a large section of Vermilion City. When [[Friend to All Living Things|Yellow]] protests to the lives lost, Lance points out since a major event was happening at the bay, the city itself was currently empty. In a slight aversion, he admits that there probably ''were'' a few people caught up in the blast, but not that he cares.
* Zigzagged in [[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]. The fluff details horrifically violent conflicts in the distant past featuring—among other things -- [[Night of the Living Mooks|armies of cyborg zombies]], universe-destroying starships, and [[Person of Mass Destruction|human WMDs]] under every freaking rock, all used at one point or another in a series of interdimensional wars which lasted thousands of years and devastated countless universes. It's enough to make a [[Warhammer
* ''[[Toshokan Sensou]]''. All the beligerents wear military-grade body armour. With few exceptions, their guns appear chambered for handgun bullets. Result: People get shot, people fall down with nasty bruises and possibly some cuts and are out of the fight. Few, if anyone, actually dies. This system seems to have been implemented on purpose since the Media Cleansing Comittee and the libraries are, essentially, involved in an institutionalized [[Civil War]] under state supervision.
* The entire premise of ''[[Dog Days]]'': war is literally a sport, complete with commentators, live coverage, betting and quite a lot of fanfare. When someone is slashed by a sword, they don't die, they temporarily turn into a cute ball-shaped kitten/puppy. Justified, in that they wage their wars in a protected space that grants this ability to everyone there (except Shinku, [[Informed Flaw|supposedly]]).
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* In The ''[[Warriors of Virtue]]'' the forces of good an evil have been at war for years.. but never kill anyone. Ever. The leader of the good guys accidentally killed someone before the start of the film and the titular heroes are about to go their separate ways in disgust. When the human POV character asks why everyone is so aghast at the idea a war might result in death he is repeatedly shouted down. "IT WAS A LIFE!"
* In ''[[Mystery Men]]'', the heroes go to see Dr. Heller, who told them that he was a weapons designer. However, he didn't say he designed non-lethal weapons, which leaves them unimpressed and disappointed, until he demonstrates two of his weapons: a tornado-in-a-can and a blamethrower.
==[[Literature]]==
*In [[The Winds of War and War and Remembrance]] Byron Henry visit's the horse racing tournament in Sienna where every neighborhood sponsors a team and while cheating is of course illegal, trying to get away with cheating is ubiquitously accepted and thus [[Fridge Logic|part of the rules.]] The neighborhoods spend weeks before each tournament spying on each other and making deals. The father of Byron's girlfriend thinks it a [[Foreshadowing|satire on European nationalism.]]
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
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* ''[[Spiral Zone]]'' justified this trope in its premise, since the "Zoner" [[Mooks]] are all [[Mind Control]]led innocents; the heroes want to save them, and the villains want as many warm bodies as they can get.
* ''[[Rambo the Force of Freedom]]'' has a very low body count compared to the latter movies.
* In ''[[An American Tail]]: Fievel Goes West'' the final climactic battle is fought with slingshots rather than real guns.
* ''[[WITCH (animation)|WITCH]]'' has armies with swords duking it out impressively... and nobody ever actually depicted being cut. The heroines disposed of villains by evicting them from the area with elemental attacks, or forcing them to retreat by pounding but not permanently damaging them with the same.
* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', the Mechanist's people fight the Fire Nation with smoke, fire, and stink bombs. They also use presumably deadly fire bombs, though any death they might cause is obscured by the smoke and flash of the explosion.
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* Sports is in essence non-lethal warfare. The competition can be real, (Cold War Olympics?) but the body count is significantly reduced.
* Many cultures used to practice non-lethal warfare such as in the Native American custom of 'Counting Coup' (where a combantant would essentially touch a rival with a stick and that counted as a winning blow in a battle) this did not prove to be an effective form of warfare against european colonists.
* Several tribal societies meet at certain times of the year with neighbors and line up to fight until they are stopped by their elders, typically at "first blood" or something similar. This led anthropologists to believe they were far more gentle then they were. In fact the normal form conflict takes among them is more often thievery and exchange of assassination and can generate casualties far more in proportion to the population then a major war among a technological people while these ritual "battles" were more noticeable for raiding parties were off in the bush where the anthropologist was not. This phenomenon by comparison, though real territorial and political stakes can be wagered, is often more a tourney then a battle, for it is a way for young warriors to show off their skills, and they will often have a party afterwards (one people mentioned in Keegan's ''History of Warfare'' had the custom of deliberately fattening pigs in the expectation of feasting after one of these fights). Battle as we think of it by contrast had to wait for special circumstances like riches that must be defended and strongly tempt attack (in other words cities and intense cultivation) as well as the possibility of siege which few tribal peoples have the skills for even though they may have strongpoints. Also battle requires a conqueror with the willingness and firm authority to press a land grab beyond a few bits of fallow ground that the other team is willing to lose if need be. Which in turn requires an authority many tribal patriarchs do not really have.
* Several Italian towns had traditional ritual rumbles between neighborhoods. This went through the spectrum from a gaudy but more or less harmless pageant to something not dissimilar from a gang fight. This phenomenon is in some ways like the seasonal ritual fights among tribal peoples described above.
* Espionage. At least when the powers are friendly enough to not bother assassinating each other or each other's stooges. ▼
* Similarly pranking was once [[Serious Business]] in Italy, where honor was very important and was best gotten by plundering it from someone else. Variations of this included seducing another family's women, to drawing graffiti on someone's house (as ability to protect one's women and dwelling was an important part of honor) to just knocking someone's hat on the ground (as the face was the most honorable part, and knocking his had off defiled his face). Sometimes pranks grew to a level where they evolved from non-lethal feuds to lethal feuds, as some insults were considered ''so'' serious as to require bloodshed.
▲* Espionage. At least when the powers are friendly enough to not bother assassinating each other or each other's stooges.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Combat Tropes]]
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