Jump to content

Actual Pacifist: Difference between revisions

Actual Pacifist (view source)

Revision as of 01:14, 23 February 2015

72 bytes removed ,  9 years ago
m
clean up
VisualWikitext
m (clean up)
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:Blessed_are_the_Peacemakers_5323Blessed are the Peacemakers 5323.gif|frame]]
 
{{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''}}
Line 6:
''"Don't worry; I won't hurt you."''
 
That's an [['''Actual Pacifist]]''', in a nutshell.
 
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.
 
If an [['''Actual Pacifist]]''' is forced to use violence, expect [[Angst]] or even [[Wangst]] to result. Such a situation is usually a [[Matter of Life and Death]]. If this happens too often, they will be forced to become a [[Reluctant Warrior]].
 
Certain [[Good Shepherd|religious figures]] and practitioners of [[White Magic]] are personally bound to be an Actual Pacifist, by reason of their dedication: they may support, bless, and succor those who fight, but they will not take up arms themselves. [[The Medic]] is also prone to be an Actual Pacifist, despite his common association with armies (although this is for a different reason -- areason—a [[Combat Medic]] COULD fight, but if he does, he's not under the protection of the [[The Laws and Customs of War|Geneva Convention]]).
 
[[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.
 
Some [[Actual Pacifist|'''Actual Pacifists]]''' are able to circumvent their restriction via mind games, such as [[Shaming the Mob]]. Every rule has a loophole, after all.
 
See also [[Perfect Pacifist People]], for societies where ''everyone'' is an [['''Actual Pacifist]]'''; and [[Sheathe Your Sword]], where the only way to succeed is to avoid provoking a fight. Taken to its logical extreme, this becomes [[Suicidal Pacifism]]; elevated to awesome -- [[Badass Pacifist]].
 
{{examples}}
Line 25:
 
* ''[[Bleach]]'':
** Chad used to be a real thug when he was younger. It wasn't until his one in his abuelo (grandfather) took a beating for him without flinching or fighting back and told him that his powerful fists were not meant for hurting people that Chad took his [[Actual Pacifist]] stance. As the series progresses, however, he changes ''again'', this time vowing only to ever use his strength to protect others and never himself.
** 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.''
Line 46:
* 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.
* Amusingly used in the French comic ''[[Captain Biceps]]'': the hero [[Actual Pacifist|Pacific Man]] is incapable of doing any harm to another person/animal/object (including the bad guys, yogurt and ''his own tooth cavities''), but when he goes into his wimpy [[Alter Ego]], he is held up by the Terminator, starts giving him the nonviolent speech, then realizes what he's saying and suddenly ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|punches out the goddamn Terminator in a single blow]]'' before running away. Then he says "[[Crowning Moment of Funny|Whew! I barely escaped being recognized there]]!"
* ''[[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.
* Reese from ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]''. In real life she is an ER nurse and so refuses to take part in any act of violence, even in game. She plays a cleric of a pacifist god.
Line 136:
== Video Games ==
 
* In ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'', you can meet a warrior-monk of the Erith-Agge; an order that has foresworn the use of violence until the day of the last battle when they will help decide the fate of the universe. Thus, despite being an extremely accomplished warrior, you need to help him recover a necklace he lost in a mugging -- hemugging—he has no problems with ''you'' mopping the floor with them.
* ''[[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.
* Patinias, the [[The Power of Love|Arcana of Love]] from ''[[Arcana Heart]]'', was this in life, criticizing violence and spreading compassion in the middle ages when Europe was covered in war. [[Burn the Witch|She got burned as a witch for it]]. Now she spreads love in the form of pink [[Energy Ball|Energy Balls]]s and pink [[Kamehame Hadoken|beams of destruction]].
* 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.
* Ciel in ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'' is also an [[Actual Pacifist]], forming a Resistance to house the Reploids scrapped by Neo Arcadia but being intensely unwilling to fight anyone ''and'' slaving herself away day in and day out to find an alternative energy source that eliminates the energy shortage, which is what created the conflict in the first place. This would have ended badly were it not for [[The Hero|Zero]], though, because [[Knight Templar|the Neo Arcadian ruler]] was more than willing to order annihilation strikes on the Resistance himself.
* [[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.
* The Liir from ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'' are nearly an ''entire race'' of actual pacifists. They consider being willing to harm another creature a form of dangerous -- ifdangerous—if sadly sometimes necessary -- insanitynecessary—insanity. The few Liir willing to take the step to hurt and kill to protect other Liir, meanwhile, take things to the opposite end. They've already broken the greatest taboo by harming another, [[The Unfettered|so at that point any question of 'scale' and 'methodology' becomes a purely symbolic distinction]].
* 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.
 
Line 154:
** [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."
* Grace from ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' -- until—until the [[Big Bad]] finally manages to [[Break the Cutie]] and reveal her as a [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]]. Since then, the rest of the cast have tried to teach her some martial arts so she can defend herself from any future villains by doing something other than ripping their organs out, but with no great luck -- sheluck—she has been shown to be unwilling to even hit a punching-bag with a caricature face drawn on it.
* [[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.
Line 180:
* 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.
* The Monks of Teshuva in ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "Godfellas". When challenged they first appear to be [[Martial Pacifist|Martial Pacifists]]s, but quickly back down when their bluff is called.
{{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."
Line 198:
* 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.
* Buddhism has the reputation of being a pacifist religion, because a major theme amongst Buddhist teachings is not harming others in any way -- beway—be it physical (stealing, violence, selling booze or meat) or mental (gossip, insults, etc). As with any large group, however, there have been groups within it who let that ideal slide.
* 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.
Gethbot
Bots
10,856

edits

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/1246036"
Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies.
More information